Meet WhatsApp's first business person, Neeraj Arora

 Neeraj Arora, 35, is vice-president at WhatsApp, the company that Facebook acquired for $19 billion. But " Business Guy" is what he calls himself on his LinkedIn profile. He was the first business person in WhatsApp, joining the company in 2011 to help the founders, who were primarily engineers, set up the business.

Arora did engineering from IIT, Delhi, and MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He worked in Times Internet and joined Google in India in 2007. Two years later, Google moved him to the US. TOI had an interview with the Delhi-bred Arora on what else, but WhatsApp.

How do you feel about the deal with Facebook?

Everyone at WhatsApp is excited and focused on the mission on hand.

Do you stay on with WhatsApp?

Everything stays as it is.

Did you own shares in the company?

Yes, I own shares. Most of the employees at WhatsApp do.

Many want to know how much money you made in the deal?

Personally, I care more about making sure that we stay focused on our mission and keep delighting our users.

Are there other Indians in WhatsApp?

Yeah, there are three more, two engineers and one office manager.

What made you leave Google and join WhatsApp?

Google is a great company and I really enjoyed my four years there. But I was looking for a place where I could have a real impact on the company and stay very close to the end users. Knowing about WhatsApp's mission, culture and the team convinced me that this was the right opportunity for me. I joined as their first business person to help the founders run the non-engineering parts of the Company - business development, finance, marketing, operations.

What do you see as the highlights of your stint with WhatsApp?

I would say the partnerships with carriers. My team closed more than 50 partnerships with carriers in different parts of the world. These partnerships make mobile data very affordable for the end users and further our mission to connect everyone in the world.

How has India been for WhatsApp?

India is one of the top countries for us. We are humbled and excited by our growth there and will continue to make sure that every Indian who has a data enabled smartphone continues to enjoy using WhatsApp. We have more than 40 million monthly active users in India now.

Why is WhatsApp so much more successful than other messaging services?

We always focused on building a product that is simple, reliable and real time. A lot of small things went into making us the best product out there.

How will Facebook help?

We will stay autonomous and continue to execute on our mission. Nothing will change in the product. Facebook brings a lot of expertise to the table that we can use to help further our mission.

How was your stint with Times Internet?

I learnt a lot about the Indian mobile and internet industry. TIL is like a breeding ground for future leaders.

Satya Nadella just became CEO of Microsoft. What do you feel about Indians in US techdom?

Very proud of all the work that all of us are doing here.

iPhones, iPads vulnerable to hacking: Apple

A major flaw in Apple's iOS mobile operating system could allow hackers to intercept email and other communications that are meant to be encrypted, the company said.

If attackers have access to a user's network, such as by sharing the same unsecured wireless service offered by a restaurant, they could see or alter exchanges between the user and protected sites such as Gmail and Facebook, experts said.

"It's as bad as you could imagine, that's all I can say," said Johns Hopkins University cryptography professor Matthew Green.

Apple did not say when or how it learned about the flaw in the way iOS handles sessions in what are known as secure sockets layer or transport layer security, nor did it say whether the flaw was being exploited.

But a statement on its support website was blunt: The software "failed to validate the authenticity of the connection."

Apple released software patches and an update for the current version of iOS for iPhone 4 and later, 5th generation iPod touches, and iPad 2 and later.

Without the fix, a hacker could impersonate a protected site and sit in the middle as email or financial data goes between the user and the real site, Green said.

Apple did not reply to requests for comment. The flaw appears to be in the way that well-understood protocols were implemented, an embarrassing lapse for a company of Apple's stature and technical prowess.

The company was recently stung by leaked intelligence documents claiming that authorities had 100% success rate in breaking into iPhones.

Friday's announcement suggests that enterprising hackers could have had great success as well if they knew of the flaw.

Capgemini India to expand capacity, increase hiring

Capgemini, the largest IT services and consulting company in Europe, will expand capacity in India in a plan to have halve its staff in offshore locations, the biggest of which is India.

Capgemini had about 47,000 employees in India at the end of 2013, a growth of about 15% for the year. Though the company does not disclose its future hiring numbers, it does plan to expand its headcount in India over the next three years.

"We have a three-year strategic plan to boost our offshore employees to 50% of our total headcount," said Salil Parekh, chief executive of the company's UK, North America and Asia application services unit. He added: "Since most of our offshore employees are in India, that would mean growth over here."

Capgemini has about 58,000 offshore employees currently, or about 44% of its total employee base. The shift to more work offshore will help Capgemini boost its margins.

The company, which just reported revenues of over 10 billion euros for the year ended 2013, had an operating margin of 8.5%, far lower than its Indian competition. The company expects that margin to grow to between 8.8% and 9% this year, on an organic revenue growth of between 2% and 4%.

"A lot of our workforce is onshore , so our margin will be lower than some other companies. But it's also a benefit, for example, in the United States which accounts for about 20% of our revenue because we do work onshore we aren't as affected by the visa issues," Parekh said.

Within India, Capgemini expects to post industry-beating growth in 2014. Though the domestic Indian IT services market will be worth $11.2 billion this year, according to research firm Gartner, Indian providers have struggled in the market and traditionally have looked to America and Britain as their biggest markets.

Capgemini, however, sees large opportunities in India and is concentrating on key sales areas to benefit. "In 2013, our Asia-Pacific and Latin America combined growth rate was 12%, but the Indian market grew faster than that rate and it would likely grow faster than that level in 2014 as well," Parekh said.

Though the reporting periods are different, which makes a direct comparison hard, Capgemini's India business has been growing above the general industry growth rate. For the fiscal year through March 2014, the National Association for Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) expects the Indian domestic market to grow 10% and 9-12 % in FY2015. Capgemini follows a calendar year reporting cycle.

Parekh credits Capgemini's combination of consulting, technology and outsourcing and its focus on the market in helping it do well in India. Its ability to keep individuals on local projects, rather than shifting them to service international clients, has also helped it win business.

"We work with about 45 clients in India and one of the things they mention is our ability to deliver on projects and not shift staff... I think is the difference," Parekh said.

Its ability to deliver within the local markets is also a reason Capgemini is doing well in China, Parekh added, another market where Indian providers have struggled.

"This year we will see good growth in China. In some ways, the shift of Chinese companies to digital technologies is even more rapid than some of our other more developed markets." The company is now focused on improving project management in China to increase the margin in that region.

Yahoo Introduces Native Advertising Marketplace 'Gemini'

Yahoo has rolled out Gemini, new platform that combines mobile search and native advertising into a single marketplace. Gemini will enable advertisers buy, manage and optimize their mobile search and native ad spend on a single platform. The marketplace will be available as part of Yahoo Ad Manager, the company’s existing self-service ad buying platform. Prior to this its mobile search ads were available via the Bing Ads platform.

“With Yahoo Gemini, advertisers get the performance and ease of search, combined with the scale and creativity of native advertising. By bringing the two together, advertisers can now buy, manage and optimize their mobile search and native ad spend in one place — driving greater performance and higher impact for their businesses and brands”, Yahoo said in a Tumblr post.

Yahoo has been focused on native advertising lately, and also on simplifying the ad buying process. CEO Marissa Mayer made both of those segments a priority at her CES keynote last month when Yahoo re-organized its ad products under the “Yahoo Advertising” name.

Yahoo is facing a tough competition from Facebook and Google in terms of grabbing mobile advertising market share. The company which has already started the year with more than five acquisitions is going up the ante in regards to enhance its mobile offerings. Global mobile ad spend is set to touch $18 billion by the end of this year.

New MyBroadband website tracks the state of your internet

The Australian government has launched a new website that can be used to track broadband quality and availability in your area.
MyBroadband can provide you with information on download and upload speeds that are available in your area, as well as what broadband is available in their area - ADSL, hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) or fibre - and if there is 3G or 4G connectivity.
Using the website is pretty straightforward. You simply put in your address and it gives you ratings based on what type of broadband and speeds are available in that area.
From reports, it looks like it isn't always accurate, though it pulls its information from data collected from Aussie telcos and works similar to NBN Co's former national broadband network (NBN) tracker.

A report on our internet

Along with the new website, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull also released the full results of the Broadband Availability and Quality Report by the Department of Communications.
Commissioned by Turnbull, the report was undertaken late last year with the aim to help better prepare for the NBN roll out.
NBN Co has been asked by the government to use both the MyBroadband website and the availability and quality report to help "prioritise construction work in underserved areas of the country".

Computer Economics Report: Cloud Computing Saves 15% in IT Budgets

After analyzing the costs and benefits associated with the massive use of the cloud for seven companies, a study by Computer Economics concludes that it is better to migrate to cloud to save 15 percent of IT budget.
Buying software licenses for employees is really cheaper than subscribe to cloud services? The SaaS allows real saving for CIOs? These are the questions that Computer Economics sought to answer by analyzing the cases of seven big companies that have largely migrated their IT systems to the cloud. The study came to the conclusion that these companies were on average able to save over 15 percent IT spending per user.
The analysis notes that the savings made ​​not only come from spending cuts in the data center, but also those related to IT staff. With these gains, companies using the cloud are able to devote a higher percentage of their IT spending on new projects, and less to support. These savings in costs associated with strategic benefits such as agility, speed, scalability and argue in favor of organizations moving aggressively to the cloud.
The seven cloud user organizations that participated in this study include two manufacturing companies, a life sciences organization, a wholesale distributor, a systems integrator, and an online content provider. The survey respondents use a variety of cloud providers, including Amazon, Autodesk, Box.com, Coupa, Docusign, Insperity (ExpensAble), FinancialForce, Google, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Okta, Paylocity, Plex, Rootstock, Salesforce.com, Saleslogix, Ultimate Software, Virtustream, Workday, and yieldEx.
Majority of respondents have already moved or are in process of moving their services to the cloud. Nearly 61 percent CIOs surveyed reported that cloud increases innovation and the business commercial agility. The innovation includes simplification of business process both in terms of commercial agreements and functionality; and flexibility in commercial contracts with cloud providers in terms of prices and services offered.
Computer Economics looked at six key metrics including personnel, applications, data center, network, user devices and other while assessing the saving associated with the cloud. After evaluating, Computer Economics found that cloud technology is making the process easier, allowing companies to increase productivity by offering trusted applications on the go and on their choice of device. The report further found that detailed analysis of respondents’ IT spending mix shows that the savings come not only from a reduction in data center spending but also in IT personnel costs.
NTT Com Security recently published a report in which it found that North American businesses are cloud enthusiasts, while Asian companies come second followed by Europe, Japan and the Nordics. Another report by the market research firm MarketsandMarkets found that government agencies will invest $18.48 billion dollars in cloud computing by 2018 in sectors such as server and storage, collaboration, business operations, disaster recovery/data backup, health and safety, security and compliance, mobility, analytics, cloud gaming and content management.

Take hours to commute to work? Tips to make good use of office travel time

Spend time on self-improvement while you travel to your work; increase productivity.

One can crib about it or feel frustrated or tired, but long travel time to office has become a reality especially in metros. Is there a way to make this travel a little less tiring and perhaps a bit more productive or enjoyable?

While it's fun to listen to your favorite music as you travel to work, the commute could be well utilised on things for self-improvement and upgrade. Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak Advisors shares few quick tips.

Unfortunately, for those who self-drive a two-wheeler there are no concrete solutions as full attention is needed all the time just to stay safe in the crazy traffic. Those driving a four wheeler do have a few options, beyond merely tuning in to one of the radio channels.

One of the easiest activity that can be done safely while driving is to practice simple breathing exercises with some adaptation of pranayama. Listening to audio books, be it for leisure or for self-improvement, is another feasible activity for self-drivers of four wheelers.

If being driven, options are many:

- Biz-call: The most effective utilisation of time is to first catch up with business or personal phone calls that can otherwise take productive time away if conducted from workplace or from home. Everyone has a smartphone today, you can use that for checking and replying to mails and even surf the internet.

- To-do list: Next thing could be planning for the day with preparation of a fresh mental checklist of key things to do during the day. Working on "to-do" lists (both professional and personal) is a productive usage of time. It helps you in being organised and future ready.

- Read-n-learn: The remaining time could be used to catch up with professional (or recreational) reading. People have been reading the newspaper while travelling for decades, now e-papers are also available for the tech savvy generation. Investing in a good e-book reader is also a great idea.

- Chit-chat: For those taking public transport, it's a good idea to strike a conversation with a fellow rider. People who are friendly and outgoing make more friends and business contacts than their introvert counterparts.

In the evening hours, while returning from work, it would also be productive to shut the eyes and reflect on the day that has gone by. Breathing exercises towards the end of the day can also be practiced which can not only provide relaxation, but also perk up enough to have a nicer evening at home.

Indeed, long travel time can often be tiring and sometimes relaxing is the best thing to do, but on most days, utilising this time more effectively can enhance the overall productivity.

Branding crucial for successful career

Branding is important for all professionals at all levels; this establishes an individual's true potential. 

Personal branding in the workplace is now recognised as a powerful approach for guiding employees towards higher levels of engagement and performance, by providing them a holistic, measurable and sustainable way to manage their professional and personal life and create a learning environment. 

Why personal branding?

Employees are motivated to deliver their best when they are fulfilled, confident and respected for the unique value they contribute; and when they see their employer making efforts to help them live a balanced life.

Amidst heightened competition in the market and within the organisation, increasing trend ofentrepreneurship, professionals are looking for means to stand out in their profession and differentiate themselves. Social media is blurring the lines between professional, personal and social life of an individual.

With social platforms providing easy access and visibility to businesses, jobs and opportunity, the need for an individual to create a personal brand has become an imperative for all leaders, corporate employees, professionals and entrepreneurs. Madhu Ganguly, founder, Live Empowered and the only 'Master Certified Authentic Personal Brand Coach' in India shares five important do's and don'ts for building a strong personal brand:

Do's

Base your personal brand on authenticity: Your personal brand must be based on your true personality. It should be the true reflection of your strengths, vision, goals, values and behaviour defined through an inside-out process.

Make your brand distinctive: Your personal brand should be expressed in a unique way that differentiates you from competition, highlights your core competence and the relevant value that you add to your target audience (employers, colleagues, managers, customers, friends and family). Focus on your specialisation.

Make your brand visible: Your personal brand must be made visible consistently and repeatedly to embed itself in the minds of your audience. Leverage networking opportunities and social media.

Persist to promote: Be persistent in your efforts to promote your brand as needs time to propagate and grow, keep fine-tuning it and enhancing it.

Deliver your brand's promise: Performance is the most important element once your brand is known. Continuously improve yourself to be the best you can be in your chosen field and build your credibility.

Don'ts

Do not define your brand before understanding your personal ambition as it will become superficial, inauthentic and not sustainable.

Do not confuse your audience by trying to be a generalist or everything for everyone.

Do not be shy to promote your personal brand as you can influence others to help you achieve success only by sharing what your brand stands for.

Do not settle for short cuts or sub-optimal performance as your brand will lose its sheen in no time if you don't deliver the promise. Remember bad news travels faster than good news.

Finally, do not give up! Believe in yourself.