Access to Internet; a human right?

The United Nations has declared access to Internet as a human right in a recent report. “Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states,” said the report from Frank La Rue, a special rapporteur to the United Nations. You can find more info on this report here on the LA Times. The declaration of access to Internet as a human right is to be viewed against the backdrop of a clamor from governments across the world to enact better regulation of the Internet. Obviously, governments don’t like leaks of any kind, more so if it is a wiki kind. The most recent call came from the French President Mr.Sarkozy for tougher regulation at the e-G8 forum that took place in May at Paris. Industry leaders like Google, Facebook and Twitter who shared the platform at e-G8, however differ that the Internet should be left to regulate itself. The lines are clearly divided. Here is an interesting alternative take on cyber-utopianism from author and journalist, Evgeny Morozov. (as always, beautifully animated by the RSA!). This talk was given in 2009 and he obviously didn’t see Tunisia and Egypt coming at that time, though he is right in saying that many regimes across the world curb or try to control access to the Internet. He also tends to over-simplify things while applying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, to how people use the Internet. With or without the Internet, pornography has existed since mankind. It is wrong to assume that people who are operating at the bottom of the needs hierarchy may / will not move to a higher aspiration level if a need arises. Such needs arise when there is oppression, persecution and curtailing of basic human rights. And the Internet along with the mobile helps to propagate activism much faster, much wider than any previous medium of expression available to mankind (radio, telephone, fax, print). The Arab spring uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and other countries has clearly demonstrated the important role that the Internet plays in freedom of expression and any move from an autocratic to a democratic society. The benefits of a relatively less regulated Internet, far outweigh the negatives. And even if repressive governments bring in regulations or clamp down, the Internet is a lot more complexly connected for it to be completely curbed. Unlike other media that can easily be clamped down on, this is far more difficult if not impossible. Like the US govt. with all its state machinery at hand, found that it could do little to stop Wikileaks from continuing to leak information. Yes, there is no refuting the dire need for better regulation to control cyber terrorism, cyber crimes, abuse, exploitation of children by pedophiles, identity theft and piracy. But regulation should not curb freedom of expression or the interactivity that has made the Internet what it is. I will try to showcase how the Internet is leading to economic development and human progress in this part of the world (developing nations / emerging economies) in my next post. Sunder P CEO

Access to Internet; a human right? Read More »

The United Nations has declared access to Internet as a human right in a recent report. “Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states,” said the report from Frank La Rue, a special rapporteur to the United Nations. You can find more info on this report here on the LA Times. The declaration of access to Internet as a human right is to be viewed against the backdrop of a clamor from governments across the world to enact better regulation of the Internet. Obviously, governments don’t like leaks of any kind, more so if it is a wiki kind. The most recent call came from the French President Mr.Sarkozy for tougher regulation at the e-G8 forum that took place in May at Paris. Industry leaders like Google, Facebook and Twitter who shared the platform at e-G8, however differ that the Internet should be left to regulate itself. The lines are clearly divided. Here is an interesting alternative take on cyber-utopianism from author and journalist, Evgeny Morozov. (as always, beautifully animated by the RSA!). This talk was given in 2009 and he obviously didn’t see Tunisia and Egypt coming at that time, though he is right in saying that many regimes across the world curb or try to control access to the Internet. He also tends to over-simplify things while applying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, to how people use the Internet. With or without the Internet, pornography has existed since mankind. It is wrong to assume that people who are operating at the bottom of the needs hierarchy may / will not move to a higher aspiration level if a need arises. Such needs arise when there is oppression, persecution and curtailing of basic human rights. And the Internet along with the mobile helps to propagate activism much faster, much wider than any previous medium of expression available to mankind (radio, telephone, fax, print). The Arab spring uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and other countries has clearly demonstrated the important role that the Internet plays in freedom of expression and any move from an autocratic to a democratic society. The benefits of a relatively less regulated Internet, far outweigh the negatives. And even if repressive governments bring in regulations or clamp down, the Internet is a lot more complexly connected for it to be completely curbed. Unlike other media that can easily be clamped down on, this is far more difficult if not impossible. Like the US govt. with all its state machinery at hand, found that it could do little to stop Wikileaks from continuing to leak information. Yes, there is no refuting the dire need for better regulation to control cyber terrorism, cyber crimes, abuse, exploitation of children by pedophiles, identity theft and piracy. But regulation should not curb freedom of expression or the interactivity that has made the Internet what it is. I will try to showcase how the Internet is leading to economic development and human progress in this part of the world (developing nations / emerging economies) in my next post. Sunder P CEO

More is Less; The Paradox of Choice

We live in an age where we are continuously bombarded with a plethora of choices. We constantly push for more and more choices as well, thinking that it will give us more freedom and will truly liberate us. More choice is equated to more happiness. And it is almost considered a pseudo-fundamental right in most developed and fast developing nations. But does more choice really mean liberation, more happiness? The answer is NO. Looking back on my own life as a kid in a place like India in the 1980s, the choices were way too limited. You just had the state run television with one channel. The telephone line and the device (with the rotary dial) too was supplied by a state run agency and had a black only option. There was only one type of car, the Ambassador (based on the Morris Oxford III model) in a predominantly white model. Reminds you of Henry Ford and his famous statement “Any color….so long as it is black”. Service with the very few options available was pathetic. Almost always was a Hobson’s choice. But strangely enough it still held a lot of joy for the consumer. You eagerly waited for your favorite programs on TV (that probably aired once a week). The stuttering long distance call made on trunk dialing (the telephone operator actually switches you and connects) after an inordinately long wait, gave an immense sense of satisfaction about connecting to people far away in those days. The one and only car was truly a status symbol in those days. It was loved dearly by its owners. Sounds strange! Come the era of satellite television, mobile telephony and the internet, the choices have multiplied exponentially and have gone past the stratosphere, but you still don’t see people truly happy about the choices in front of them. The satisfaction levels as well as the interest levels have gone down. From flicking through channels on your TV incessantly to getting bored with a iphone video game in no time, the new age consumer is highly distracted. The attention span has dwindled to micro seconds and we find it difficult to focus on anything beyond a few minutes. Sprawling malls everywhere provide all your favorite products under a single roof, but yet there are so many choices, so many brands and so many subtle differences that you are completely confused. Online buying provides a wide variety of choices but you are again dependent on a price comparison website or a consumer review website or a consumer blog to tell you what is under the chassis and how to kick the tires before buying anything. Again no definitive answers there. And you are in no mood to trust any single person’s opinion either. All because choice is supposed to empower us. We want to be in control and we are afraid of letting go, lest we make an inferior choice in the bargain. We are spoilt for choices but we find it extremely hard to make those choices. We almost go into a state of paralysis, mulling over the choices and continuously weighing the pros and cons, over and over again. This paradox is sometimes referred to as ‘Buridan’s Ass‘ (after 14th century French philosopher, Jean Buridan). Psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of the book ‘The Paradox of Choice‘ illustrates this concept very convincingly and makes a compelling case that ‘more is less’ in this TED talk. It is indeed true that when we move from a state of limited or no choice to increased choices, consumers experience a surge in happiness or satisfaction. But above a certain threshold limit, it becomes crippling and leads to a huge drop in the satisfaction levels. In fact, the depression that most people experience at this high level of saturation is much more than when compared to a state of limited choice. Does this paradox have any effect on a VA service like ours? It does and in fact, much more than I first imagined. Sifting through the kind of tasks we normally receive from individual clients (personal assistance, not business), I realized that a significant amount of time was spent on a size-able number of similar tasks. All of them pertaining to reviewing several dozens of choices, if not hundreds and then dwindling them down to a select few from which a client could choose. Options on which cell phone to buy, which one worked better in a particular area, which data plan worked better, which vacation destination was better, which flights were cheaper, which hotels were more convenient, which parking spaces could be pre-booked on a sweet deal, which software app was better to even which movies to watch. It was easy to figure out that the plethora of choices was driving clients mad, almost into paralysis and perhaps eating away into their precious time. And they probably decided to use some extra help to bring down the choices to a more meaningful and manageable number. I can’t be complaining because this paradox was leading to more business for us. Barry incidentally mentions about Pareto Improvement or optimization of choices being a mutually beneficial option where people with infinite choices shift the onus of making that choice to people who don’t have that many. I think that is what is happening between GetFriday and its clients. Thankfully, that means more business for a VA service like ours and less paralysis for consumers. Also watch this very interesting TED talk by psycho-economist and author of the book ‘The Art of Choosing‘, Sheena Iyengar. Barry and Sheena, both echo similar thoughts on the subject of choice. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

More is Less; The Paradox of Choice Read More »

We live in an age where we are continuously bombarded with a plethora of choices. We constantly push for more and more choices as well, thinking that it will give us more freedom and will truly liberate us. More choice is equated to more happiness. And it is almost considered a pseudo-fundamental right in most developed and fast developing nations. But does more choice really mean liberation, more happiness? The answer is NO. Looking back on my own life as a kid in a place like India in the 1980s, the choices were way too limited. You just had the state run television with one channel. The telephone line and the device (with the rotary dial) too was supplied by a state run agency and had a black only option. There was only one type of car, the Ambassador (based on the Morris Oxford III model) in a predominantly white model. Reminds you of Henry Ford and his famous statement “Any color….so long as it is black”. Service with the very few options available was pathetic. Almost always was a Hobson’s choice. But strangely enough it still held a lot of joy for the consumer. You eagerly waited for your favorite programs on TV (that probably aired once a week). The stuttering long distance call made on trunk dialing (the telephone operator actually switches you and connects) after an inordinately long wait, gave an immense sense of satisfaction about connecting to people far away in those days. The one and only car was truly a status symbol in those days. It was loved dearly by its owners. Sounds strange! Come the era of satellite television, mobile telephony and the internet, the choices have multiplied exponentially and have gone past the stratosphere, but you still don’t see people truly happy about the choices in front of them. The satisfaction levels as well as the interest levels have gone down. From flicking through channels on your TV incessantly to getting bored with a iphone video game in no time, the new age consumer is highly distracted. The attention span has dwindled to micro seconds and we find it difficult to focus on anything beyond a few minutes. Sprawling malls everywhere provide all your favorite products under a single roof, but yet there are so many choices, so many brands and so many subtle differences that you are completely confused. Online buying provides a wide variety of choices but you are again dependent on a price comparison website or a consumer review website or a consumer blog to tell you what is under the chassis and how to kick the tires before buying anything. Again no definitive answers there. And you are in no mood to trust any single person’s opinion either. All because choice is supposed to empower us. We want to be in control and we are afraid of letting go, lest we make an inferior choice in the bargain. We are spoilt for choices but we find it extremely hard to make those choices. We almost go into a state of paralysis, mulling over the choices and continuously weighing the pros and cons, over and over again. This paradox is sometimes referred to as ‘Buridan’s Ass‘ (after 14th century French philosopher, Jean Buridan). Psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of the book ‘The Paradox of Choice‘ illustrates this concept very convincingly and makes a compelling case that ‘more is less’ in this TED talk. It is indeed true that when we move from a state of limited or no choice to increased choices, consumers experience a surge in happiness or satisfaction. But above a certain threshold limit, it becomes crippling and leads to a huge drop in the satisfaction levels. In fact, the depression that most people experience at this high level of saturation is much more than when compared to a state of limited choice. Does this paradox have any effect on a VA service like ours? It does and in fact, much more than I first imagined. Sifting through the kind of tasks we normally receive from individual clients (personal assistance, not business), I realized that a significant amount of time was spent on a size-able number of similar tasks. All of them pertaining to reviewing several dozens of choices, if not hundreds and then dwindling them down to a select few from which a client could choose. Options on which cell phone to buy, which one worked better in a particular area, which data plan worked better, which vacation destination was better, which flights were cheaper, which hotels were more convenient, which parking spaces could be pre-booked on a sweet deal, which software app was better to even which movies to watch. It was easy to figure out that the plethora of choices was driving clients mad, almost into paralysis and perhaps eating away into their precious time. And they probably decided to use some extra help to bring down the choices to a more meaningful and manageable number. I can’t be complaining because this paradox was leading to more business for us. Barry incidentally mentions about Pareto Improvement or optimization of choices being a mutually beneficial option where people with infinite choices shift the onus of making that choice to people who don’t have that many. I think that is what is happening between GetFriday and its clients. Thankfully, that means more business for a VA service like ours and less paralysis for consumers. Also watch this very interesting TED talk by psycho-economist and author of the book ‘The Art of Choosing‘, Sheena Iyengar. Barry and Sheena, both echo similar thoughts on the subject of choice. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

Making sense of the Indian headshake

In a global workplace, managing people from different cultures is a big challenge in itself. But managing and getting the assistance of workers from a different culture, in a different country, remotely without ever (possibly) getting to see them face-to-face is a whole different ball game. In my opinion, understanding each others context and cultures is critical for any business relationship to succeed. We are acutely aware of this given that we serve busy individuals and small businesses (not corporations) from 50 odd countries. Each client comes from a different culture and context, much different from us. And we do have to contend with problems arising due to these differences, every single day. Not a easy task by any stretch of imagination. For my fellow Indian workers who may be displeased with this post (please read the disclaimer at the bottom to understand the context). Now let me point to some examples that highlight the key differences in the thought processes between a Western client and his or her Indian assistant or worker (cultural context), which may appear rather funny, but could have a very serious bearing on the long term success of the business relationship. 1) The inability of Indian workers to say ‘NO’ is probably the biggest culprit to misunderstanding when working with western counterparts or clients. Being hospitable, being friendly and being helpful is ingrained in the Indian culture and hence people generally find it difficult to say ‘NO’.  Even when it comes to things they can’t do or things they are not comfortable with. So when they say ‘we will try’ or ‘we will give our best shot’ it means that they are taking on work they don’t understand or can’t handle. It merely means that they will be attempting it, (of course) with the best of efforts. While the Westerner wants you to tell him that you can’t when you really can’t, the Indian just finds it difficult to say anything other than a ‘YES’. Results in a big let-down. The client, because he actually thought the worker would be able to help; the worker, because he feels that his attempts to be helpful were useless. 2) Deadlines are sacrosanct for the Western and many other cultures (Japanese). But the typical Indian is more worried about the goods and less about the deadline. In fact, a particular delivery may have some serious issues or may have run into unforeseen problems and the Indian may have taken great pains to solve the issue or somehow make it work. But he fails to understand the importance of communicating back on the timeline delay, well in advance for the client to make alternate arrangements.  And this results in dissatisfaction for both parties. The client because his deadline is simply not respected; the worker because his efforts on the face of the difficulties he had to surmount in getting the job done, have gone unappreciated. 3) Westerners expect people to ask questions if they do not understand. Most Indian workers presume that asking questions will be perceived as a sign of weakness or ignorance and hence fail to ask them when it is most required. This leads to a lot of assumptions that could easily go wrong. The problem lies in the upbringing from childhood that places greater emphasis on being taught, than in learning. Asking questions was rarely encouraged in those days. Of course, the current generation of children in India are a lot more confident about themselves and wouldn’t hesitate to ask, if in doubt. And hopefully, that will change things over a few generations. 4) Failure was taboo in post-British era Indian society. And hence fear of failure can stop people from pushing the limits or taking decisions on their own, especially when it comes to client’s work. It is a good thing if clear instructions have been given, to stick in within the fence. But even otherwise, Indian workers are generally fearful about making decisions that may backfire. This again has to do with the fact that failure is not well accepted. Failure is not seen as a stepping stone to success or as part of learning process. Filing for bankruptcy in a business means your are doomed to never do business again. On the contrary, in the western world this means you are better equipped to get it right the next time and make a success. Hence in India, you will find people more willing to merely comply than raise their levels to create new benchmarks. However, the newer generation of Indian youth is quite different and is moving in a positive direction. These are just some of the numerous aspects of cultural differences that may result in an imperfect fit, if not properly understood. And it happens primarily due to a lack of awareness from both sides of the sensitivities involved. Of course, there are numerous positives to the Indian culture which is highly contextual and flexible. To better explain this, I would like to point to this TED talk from Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik which illustrates the difference beautifully. So while every person’s culture is deeply ingrained in their psyche, it is inevitable in a global workplace that no one shall be left untouched by the culture of people living thousands of miles away on a different continent. Cultures are exchanged day in and day out, at the global workplace and it may result in a fusion; a kind of melting pot, which hopefully will take the best from every world. The success of the Indian IT-ITES industry globally is a clear indicator that cultural adaptation is happening faster than ever. Disclaimer: Indian workers are generally seen as hard working, congenial and smart and are respected globally. The problems if any, crop up due to the cultural disconnect with their western counterparts. This post is meant to address that issue and appeal for a better understanding from both sides, in order to do business successfully. Sunder P CEO   GetFriday (earlier YMII

Making sense of the Indian headshake Read More »

In a global workplace, managing people from different cultures is a big challenge in itself. But managing and getting the assistance of workers from a different culture, in a different country, remotely without ever (possibly) getting to see them face-to-face is a whole different ball game. In my opinion, understanding each others context and cultures is critical for any business relationship to succeed. We are acutely aware of this given that we serve busy individuals and small businesses (not corporations) from 50 odd countries. Each client comes from a different culture and context, much different from us. And we do have to contend with problems arising due to these differences, every single day. Not a easy task by any stretch of imagination. For my fellow Indian workers who may be displeased with this post (please read the disclaimer at the bottom to understand the context). Now let me point to some examples that highlight the key differences in the thought processes between a Western client and his or her Indian assistant or worker (cultural context), which may appear rather funny, but could have a very serious bearing on the long term success of the business relationship. 1) The inability of Indian workers to say ‘NO’ is probably the biggest culprit to misunderstanding when working with western counterparts or clients. Being hospitable, being friendly and being helpful is ingrained in the Indian culture and hence people generally find it difficult to say ‘NO’.  Even when it comes to things they can’t do or things they are not comfortable with. So when they say ‘we will try’ or ‘we will give our best shot’ it means that they are taking on work they don’t understand or can’t handle. It merely means that they will be attempting it, (of course) with the best of efforts. While the Westerner wants you to tell him that you can’t when you really can’t, the Indian just finds it difficult to say anything other than a ‘YES’. Results in a big let-down. The client, because he actually thought the worker would be able to help; the worker, because he feels that his attempts to be helpful were useless. 2) Deadlines are sacrosanct for the Western and many other cultures (Japanese). But the typical Indian is more worried about the goods and less about the deadline. In fact, a particular delivery may have some serious issues or may have run into unforeseen problems and the Indian may have taken great pains to solve the issue or somehow make it work. But he fails to understand the importance of communicating back on the timeline delay, well in advance for the client to make alternate arrangements.  And this results in dissatisfaction for both parties. The client because his deadline is simply not respected; the worker because his efforts on the face of the difficulties he had to surmount in getting the job done, have gone unappreciated. 3) Westerners expect people to ask questions if they do not understand. Most Indian workers presume that asking questions will be perceived as a sign of weakness or ignorance and hence fail to ask them when it is most required. This leads to a lot of assumptions that could easily go wrong. The problem lies in the upbringing from childhood that places greater emphasis on being taught, than in learning. Asking questions was rarely encouraged in those days. Of course, the current generation of children in India are a lot more confident about themselves and wouldn’t hesitate to ask, if in doubt. And hopefully, that will change things over a few generations. 4) Failure was taboo in post-British era Indian society. And hence fear of failure can stop people from pushing the limits or taking decisions on their own, especially when it comes to client’s work. It is a good thing if clear instructions have been given, to stick in within the fence. But even otherwise, Indian workers are generally fearful about making decisions that may backfire. This again has to do with the fact that failure is not well accepted. Failure is not seen as a stepping stone to success or as part of learning process. Filing for bankruptcy in a business means your are doomed to never do business again. On the contrary, in the western world this means you are better equipped to get it right the next time and make a success. Hence in India, you will find people more willing to merely comply than raise their levels to create new benchmarks. However, the newer generation of Indian youth is quite different and is moving in a positive direction. These are just some of the numerous aspects of cultural differences that may result in an imperfect fit, if not properly understood. And it happens primarily due to a lack of awareness from both sides of the sensitivities involved. Of course, there are numerous positives to the Indian culture which is highly contextual and flexible. To better explain this, I would like to point to this TED talk from Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik which illustrates the difference beautifully. So while every person’s culture is deeply ingrained in their psyche, it is inevitable in a global workplace that no one shall be left untouched by the culture of people living thousands of miles away on a different continent. Cultures are exchanged day in and day out, at the global workplace and it may result in a fusion; a kind of melting pot, which hopefully will take the best from every world. The success of the Indian IT-ITES industry globally is a clear indicator that cultural adaptation is happening faster than ever. Disclaimer: Indian workers are generally seen as hard working, congenial and smart and are respected globally. The problems if any, crop up due to the cultural disconnect with their western counterparts. This post is meant to address that issue and appeal for a better understanding from both sides, in order to do business successfully. Sunder P CEO   GetFriday (earlier YMII

Get Friday - Home page snapshot

People don’t buy ‘what’ you do, they buy ‘why’ you do it.

After seeing this talk by Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with Why‘, I couldn’t agree with him more. The synopsis of his theory or idea is that most businesses and their leaders fail to inspire because they focus too much on communicating two things to their clients. Two things which they think are important, ie., 1) what they do and 2) how they do it. Both of these are important, but not quite as important as the other thing i.e.,‘why do you do what you do’. The Why is nothing but the purpose of the organization or the reason why you do business. He showcases this simple idea through what he refers to as the ‘Golden Circle‘ pictured below. He cites examples from Apple, Martin Luther King Jr., The Wright Brothers and Tivo to drive home his point. Communication he argues happens effortlessly and trust comes naturally, when you feel, think and act with the ‘why‘ firmly in your mind. In my opinion, it is a fact that most businesses don’t know why they do, what they do. And still seem supremely confident that if they merely create / have a good product and communicate its benefits / advantages (the how you do it), it should basically do its job. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. We need to remember that people essentially buy whatever you have, because they believe what you believe in. You actually managed to create an aspiration that people share in. That’s how loyal customer base is built. The corollary is also true. People may not buy your product / service despite it being very good at what it claims to do because something just doesn’t feel right. It is that unexplainable feeling that can’t be communicated in any better fashion, due to lack of better words. Watch this wonderful talk by Simon on TED. Let me give you an example of this by taking a leaf out of our own book, the GetFriday story. While I do that, let me also admit that we are plainly glad (not immodest) that we just happened to get it right without being aware of Simon’s golden circle or doing it any conscious manner. It was a mere hunch that this was the way to go, at that point of time. And we were lucky the hunch turned right. GetFriday was a pioneering and innovative concept in 2005 and there is absolutely no doubt about that. But to consistently sustain the interest of people all around the world and grow, it needed something more than just being a cool idea for its time. And for the idea to further spread to people in more than 50 countries, it definitely required something extra. That something extra that differentiates you from the rest is the ‘why‘. Get Friday – Snapshot If you carefully look at our communication (the site hasn’t changed that much since inception), we didn’t talk about what we did or tom-tom our coverage in the international press on our home page. The ‘what‘ we do is pretty straight forward. We are a Virtual Assistant Service. Does the ‘how‘ we do things matter? Yes, it does. Though technically anyone with a home computer, a VoIP phone and email connectivity could become a VA. The how we do things is what differentiates us from the rest and helped us scale up. But that still doesn’t qualify to make it the single most important thing in business. Why do I say this? Around the period 2005 – 2008 (till the recession), we had at least one new competitor or clone arriving on the scene every week with a ‘me too‘ service. Some went to the extent of even using closely resembling, confusingly similar brand names to leverage on the popularity of the GetFriday service. Some tried to copy our processes and many may even have succeeded to some extent. But none or very few really survived through the economic crises. Probably the biggest reason you can attribute apart from bad luck would be that they were in business because it seemed cool, it seemed easy to copy, it seemed to be the ‘in thing‘ and yes, it seemed like you can make money easily. So that leaves us with the ‘why‘. Why were we in this business? Each time we asked ourselves this question. The answer was this – We wanted to help people gain time for the things they really wanted to do in life, which they couldn’t till that point for lack of support. That was the whole purpose of this business. And the communication comes through clear in our tagline ‘Life gets better‘. The tagline didn’t read; the World’s Leading Virtual Assistance Service or something on those lines. The imagery of a father and son / child spending some quality time together went along with the central idea that our goal was to create more time for the things you love, family for instance. The communication was consistent with the why we thought we were in business. The orange man icons were meant to provide a friendly, but helpful feel to customers. Conveying the expression of being there to help people cope with things. And thankfully all this combined to possibly convey the magical idea of what we believed in and what we aspired to create. Leading is all about inspiring people to share in your aspirations. We believed that we can make a difference to people’s lives. Help them not to be overwhelmed with things that they are unable to manage or can’t find time to. Help them lead better lives. Sunder P CEO

People don’t buy ‘what’ you do, they buy ‘why’ you do it. Read More »

After seeing this talk by Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with Why‘, I couldn’t agree with him more. The synopsis of his theory or idea is that most businesses and their leaders fail to inspire because they focus too much on communicating two things to their clients. Two things which they think are important, ie., 1) what they do and 2) how they do it. Both of these are important, but not quite as important as the other thing i.e.,‘why do you do what you do’. The Why is nothing but the purpose of the organization or the reason why you do business. He showcases this simple idea through what he refers to as the ‘Golden Circle‘ pictured below. He cites examples from Apple, Martin Luther King Jr., The Wright Brothers and Tivo to drive home his point. Communication he argues happens effortlessly and trust comes naturally, when you feel, think and act with the ‘why‘ firmly in your mind. In my opinion, it is a fact that most businesses don’t know why they do, what they do. And still seem supremely confident that if they merely create / have a good product and communicate its benefits / advantages (the how you do it), it should basically do its job. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. We need to remember that people essentially buy whatever you have, because they believe what you believe in. You actually managed to create an aspiration that people share in. That’s how loyal customer base is built. The corollary is also true. People may not buy your product / service despite it being very good at what it claims to do because something just doesn’t feel right. It is that unexplainable feeling that can’t be communicated in any better fashion, due to lack of better words. Watch this wonderful talk by Simon on TED. Let me give you an example of this by taking a leaf out of our own book, the GetFriday story. While I do that, let me also admit that we are plainly glad (not immodest) that we just happened to get it right without being aware of Simon’s golden circle or doing it any conscious manner. It was a mere hunch that this was the way to go, at that point of time. And we were lucky the hunch turned right. GetFriday was a pioneering and innovative concept in 2005 and there is absolutely no doubt about that. But to consistently sustain the interest of people all around the world and grow, it needed something more than just being a cool idea for its time. And for the idea to further spread to people in more than 50 countries, it definitely required something extra. That something extra that differentiates you from the rest is the ‘why‘. Get Friday – Snapshot If you carefully look at our communication (the site hasn’t changed that much since inception), we didn’t talk about what we did or tom-tom our coverage in the international press on our home page. The ‘what‘ we do is pretty straight forward. We are a Virtual Assistant Service. Does the ‘how‘ we do things matter? Yes, it does. Though technically anyone with a home computer, a VoIP phone and email connectivity could become a VA. The how we do things is what differentiates us from the rest and helped us scale up. But that still doesn’t qualify to make it the single most important thing in business. Why do I say this? Around the period 2005 – 2008 (till the recession), we had at least one new competitor or clone arriving on the scene every week with a ‘me too‘ service. Some went to the extent of even using closely resembling, confusingly similar brand names to leverage on the popularity of the GetFriday service. Some tried to copy our processes and many may even have succeeded to some extent. But none or very few really survived through the economic crises. Probably the biggest reason you can attribute apart from bad luck would be that they were in business because it seemed cool, it seemed easy to copy, it seemed to be the ‘in thing‘ and yes, it seemed like you can make money easily. So that leaves us with the ‘why‘. Why were we in this business? Each time we asked ourselves this question. The answer was this – We wanted to help people gain time for the things they really wanted to do in life, which they couldn’t till that point for lack of support. That was the whole purpose of this business. And the communication comes through clear in our tagline ‘Life gets better‘. The tagline didn’t read; the World’s Leading Virtual Assistance Service or something on those lines. The imagery of a father and son / child spending some quality time together went along with the central idea that our goal was to create more time for the things you love, family for instance. The communication was consistent with the why we thought we were in business. The orange man icons were meant to provide a friendly, but helpful feel to customers. Conveying the expression of being there to help people cope with things. And thankfully all this combined to possibly convey the magical idea of what we believed in and what we aspired to create. Leading is all about inspiring people to share in your aspirations. We believed that we can make a difference to people’s lives. Help them not to be overwhelmed with things that they are unable to manage or can’t find time to. Help them lead better lives. Sunder P CEO

Dhinesh Kumar - Get Friday

Our Stars of Last Quarter

““Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” – Voltaire (French philosopher). And what good is appreciation that is not delivered openly. Now that we are back to being active on the blog, we decided to showcase the Star Employees of the last quarter on this wonderful platform. They put in their best efforts towards their work, exceeded their targets while also delivering near impeccable service to their external and internal clients. The deserving winners of this award were: 1) Dhinesh Kumar (Virtual Assistant – Team EST) 2) Karthik K (Virtual Assistant – Team PAYG) 3) Adarsh Paul (Research Assistant – Team EST) 4) Saladi Sriram (Executive – Team MIS) I wanted to profile them and sent out a bunch of questions and received some prompt and honest replies. One common thread I could see in all of them was their matter-of-fact humility and pride in their work. Here we go, let’s find out more about them. ——— Dhinesh Kumar (A very enthusiastic person with a zest for hard work) Hails from Pollachi a small town in Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu. He has a B.Sc in Maths from Texcity College. Has a lot of passion towards travel, music and food. Started his career working as an online tutor for math with an online tutoring company Planetutor based at Coimbatore, then joined GetFriday in the month of April 2010. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am feeling great after getting such a good recognition from the CEO of my company. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? I like the support that I receive from my fellow colleagues at work in getting things done, as and when I need help. 3) What is the most diffiult part of your job? Why? I find it difficult when my clients turn inactive. My worries do increase. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? The greatest moment is when our RAs (Research Assistants) understand my instructions on a task (the way I understood it) and give a 100% correct result. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I would like to thank all my clients for their support, guidance and their clear cut instructions. Am also glad to share this happiest moment with them. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? “Hard work will be recognized” A Hearty Thanks to all my colleagues, TL’s and my manager for their support. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Motivated, Enthusiastic, Hardworking ———– Karthik K (Always ready to make a conversation and very diligent at his work) Hails from Madurai (city with a 2500 year old cultural heritage) in the state of Tamilnadu, India. A graduate in science. Was working in BPOs for the past 4 years in technical and customer support position. Likes to speak a lot and is keen on learning technical things. Loves to play shuttle badminton and carrom. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am very happy about the recognition I got for my hard work. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? Different tasks and different clients everyday, give me a better understanding about life in general, and also the nature of my work. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding some tasks where I don’t have any idea or prior experience. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) First appreciation email given by my client Oliver Wolf for an ongoing task. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I always used to send my clients some inspirational quotes which I liked. I believe those quotes are my messages to my clients. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Don’t care much about recognition. If we do our work with love and understanding, it will follow us. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Understand the nature, Love the need, and Observe the position. ———- Adarsh Paul (Cryptic and to the point, this soft spoken guy is very hard working) A computer science graduate (B.Tech) from Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, Kannur in Kerala state, India. His hometown is Kannur (port city, host to the world’s third largest naval academy). Driving is his passion. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Surprised, because I never expected that I will achieve this. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? My approach to work. I try to make my work as simple as possible. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding tasks. Because each person will have a different way of looking at things. So it is very important to make sure that you have understood the task the way the client wanted you to. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) My first appreciation… 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? Thanks for being with me. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Enjoy your work. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Simple and soft spoken ——– Saladi Sriram (A silent toiler who is ever willing to handle work with a smile) Hail from an agricultural family in Amalapuram(a scenic little town on the east coast) in Andhra Pradesh state, India. He completed his B. Tech in (Electronics & Communications) from Pondicherry University in 2008. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Ans:) I am happy partially. I still feel

Our Stars of Last Quarter Read More »

““Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” – Voltaire (French philosopher). And what good is appreciation that is not delivered openly. Now that we are back to being active on the blog, we decided to showcase the Star Employees of the last quarter on this wonderful platform. They put in their best efforts towards their work, exceeded their targets while also delivering near impeccable service to their external and internal clients. The deserving winners of this award were: 1) Dhinesh Kumar (Virtual Assistant – Team EST) 2) Karthik K (Virtual Assistant – Team PAYG) 3) Adarsh Paul (Research Assistant – Team EST) 4) Saladi Sriram (Executive – Team MIS) I wanted to profile them and sent out a bunch of questions and received some prompt and honest replies. One common thread I could see in all of them was their matter-of-fact humility and pride in their work. Here we go, let’s find out more about them. ——— Dhinesh Kumar (A very enthusiastic person with a zest for hard work) Hails from Pollachi a small town in Coimbatore District, Tamilnadu. He has a B.Sc in Maths from Texcity College. Has a lot of passion towards travel, music and food. Started his career working as an online tutor for math with an online tutoring company Planetutor based at Coimbatore, then joined GetFriday in the month of April 2010. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am feeling great after getting such a good recognition from the CEO of my company. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? I like the support that I receive from my fellow colleagues at work in getting things done, as and when I need help. 3) What is the most diffiult part of your job? Why? I find it difficult when my clients turn inactive. My worries do increase. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? The greatest moment is when our RAs (Research Assistants) understand my instructions on a task (the way I understood it) and give a 100% correct result. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I would like to thank all my clients for their support, guidance and their clear cut instructions. Am also glad to share this happiest moment with them. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? “Hard work will be recognized” A Hearty Thanks to all my colleagues, TL’s and my manager for their support. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Motivated, Enthusiastic, Hardworking ———– Karthik K (Always ready to make a conversation and very diligent at his work) Hails from Madurai (city with a 2500 year old cultural heritage) in the state of Tamilnadu, India. A graduate in science. Was working in BPOs for the past 4 years in technical and customer support position. Likes to speak a lot and is keen on learning technical things. Loves to play shuttle badminton and carrom. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? I am very happy about the recognition I got for my hard work. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? Different tasks and different clients everyday, give me a better understanding about life in general, and also the nature of my work. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding some tasks where I don’t have any idea or prior experience. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) First appreciation email given by my client Oliver Wolf for an ongoing task. 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? I always used to send my clients some inspirational quotes which I liked. I believe those quotes are my messages to my clients. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Don’t care much about recognition. If we do our work with love and understanding, it will follow us. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Understand the nature, Love the need, and Observe the position. ———- Adarsh Paul (Cryptic and to the point, this soft spoken guy is very hard working) A computer science graduate (B.Tech) from Vimal Jyothi Engineering College, Kannur in Kerala state, India. His hometown is Kannur (port city, host to the world’s third largest naval academy). Driving is his passion. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Surprised, because I never expected that I will achieve this. 2) What is the thing you like most about your work and why? My approach to work. I try to make my work as simple as possible. 3) What is the most difficult part of your job? Why? Understanding tasks. Because each person will have a different way of looking at things. So it is very important to make sure that you have understood the task the way the client wanted you to. 4) Which was your greatest moment at work? (this recognition apart) My first appreciation… 5) If there was a message that you would love to send to all your clients, what would it be? Thanks for being with me. 6) If there is something you want to share with your co-workers today, what would it be? Enjoy your work. 7) How would you describe yourself in 3 simple words. Simple and soft spoken ——– Saladi Sriram (A silent toiler who is ever willing to handle work with a smile) Hail from an agricultural family in Amalapuram(a scenic little town on the east coast) in Andhra Pradesh state, India. He completed his B. Tech in (Electronics & Communications) from Pondicherry University in 2008. 1) How do you feel getting this recognition? Ans:) I am happy partially. I still feel

AJ Jacobs

Serendipity; Chance favors the prepared mind

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” That was a quote from the French microbiologist, chemist and inventor, Louis Pasteur. Incidentally, he was a master of experimental research. Being not so interested in theory, he made many fundamental discoveries just by careful observation. Serendipity; A word coined by Sir Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford in the 1700s to denote ‘accidental discoveries‘. Walpole was a prolific letter writer. In one of his letters to a friend, Walpole wrote about a silly fairy tale called ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’; “… as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of” (Serendip, old name for Ceylon, Sri Lanka) that had made a profound impression on his life. The tale described the fate of three princes who left their home to travel through the world. Rarely they found the treasures they were looking for but ran into other ones equally great or even greater which they were not seeking. Interesting, ‘yes’ but you may wonder what is the context here? The point am trying to make is that Get Friday(Sister Concern of YMII) was also a stroke of serendipity, something that happened by chance. But did happen because we had cultivated a mind that was prepared. A mind that was open to ideas that had never been tried before. Let me tell you the story so that you can understand what I mean: Before 2005, this company was only in the business of providing concierge services in India to Indian expats living overseas. Basically running errands for them and helping them manage their responsibilities and matters back home. That service went by the name ‘Your Man In India(YMII)’. Was a one of a kind pioneering service in those times and hence received a lot of media attention. (free publicity!!! chance was definitely helping us big time) On 17 May, 2005 quite fortuitously I must add, we (Prabhu, my colleague and me) received a mail from a gentleman in NY. His name was AJ Jacobs. Luckily I was able to retrieve the exact mail we received. Here it goes: Dear Mr. Prabhu and Mr. Sunder I heard about your company from a friend of mine who is an Indian businessman living in California. I’m a writer for an American magazine called ESQUIRE. It’s an upscale magazine targeted at businessmen, and reaches 2 million readers. It’s been around for 70 years. (If you want to know more, it’s at esquire.com). I’m writing an article for Esquire for which I’d love to hire Your Man in India(YMII). The idea is this: To hire a talented person or talented people in India to take care of as many of my life tasks as possible. Almost like a remote executive assistant. For instance, I’d love someone to help make airline reservations over the Internet. Or make restaurant reservations. Or pay my bills online. I’d even be interested in having someone answer my emails for me. Of course, I would give your company credit in the article. The publicity would, I imagine, be excellent for your business. And naturally, Esquire would pay the going rate for your services. I understand that the core of your business is doing such tasks for residents of India (e.g. buying movie tickets for Indian movie theaters). But since so much can be accomplished via the Internet, I thought that you might be able to help me with US-based tasks as well. I hope you like the idea. I think it will make an educational and entertaining article. Please let me know your thoughts. I can be reached via email here, or by cell phone. Thanks in advance, A.J. Jacobs ———— We were kind of zapped by the request and were trying to figure out if this was some kind of a practical joke. More so because we realized later that Jacobs wanted to outsource a lot more than the quite innocuous sounding things, he mentioned in his first mail. He wanted to outsource his personal life to a company in India. That was a whole lot tricky. Back in 2005, it could have been an idea that naturally gets shot down because no one had attempted it before. So why should we even try! Thankfully, we decided to pursue it. It all started with just one employee to boot and this person helped Jacobs over the next couple of months. Despite the odd slip ups here and there, largely due to cultural differences the experiment was a huge success. AJ’s Esquire article came out in September 2005. It went to capture the imagination of the American press and we were on Good Morning America, the next day. You can access this article here. http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0905OUTSOURCING_214. That is when we decided that we just couldn’t let this opportunity go. There was a potential and we were in the right place, at the right time. So we created a separate division and went out with a new brand called ‘Get Friday‘. (inspired by Man Friday from the Robinson Crusoe novel). There, of course would be a question in everyone’s mind. If the character, Man Friday inspired this name then why was it not called by the same name. Why Get Friday?. We weighed the pros and cons of gender bias in a brand name that was to go international. Especially, since we envisioned many girl fridays helping clients across the world. These things weighed in to settle the matter in favor of a gender-neutral ‘Get Friday‘. That led me to believe that a lot of things do happen by chance, but provided it encounters a prepared mind. And that pretty much has been the cornerstone of our innovation philosophy, to this day. I hope you like this little story of how it all began. Sunder P CEO

Serendipity; Chance favors the prepared mind Read More »

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” That was a quote from the French microbiologist, chemist and inventor, Louis Pasteur. Incidentally, he was a master of experimental research. Being not so interested in theory, he made many fundamental discoveries just by careful observation. Serendipity; A word coined by Sir Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford in the 1700s to denote ‘accidental discoveries‘. Walpole was a prolific letter writer. In one of his letters to a friend, Walpole wrote about a silly fairy tale called ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’; “… as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of” (Serendip, old name for Ceylon, Sri Lanka) that had made a profound impression on his life. The tale described the fate of three princes who left their home to travel through the world. Rarely they found the treasures they were looking for but ran into other ones equally great or even greater which they were not seeking. Interesting, ‘yes’ but you may wonder what is the context here? The point am trying to make is that Get Friday(Sister Concern of YMII) was also a stroke of serendipity, something that happened by chance. But did happen because we had cultivated a mind that was prepared. A mind that was open to ideas that had never been tried before. Let me tell you the story so that you can understand what I mean: Before 2005, this company was only in the business of providing concierge services in India to Indian expats living overseas. Basically running errands for them and helping them manage their responsibilities and matters back home. That service went by the name ‘Your Man In India(YMII)’. Was a one of a kind pioneering service in those times and hence received a lot of media attention. (free publicity!!! chance was definitely helping us big time) On 17 May, 2005 quite fortuitously I must add, we (Prabhu, my colleague and me) received a mail from a gentleman in NY. His name was AJ Jacobs. Luckily I was able to retrieve the exact mail we received. Here it goes: Dear Mr. Prabhu and Mr. Sunder I heard about your company from a friend of mine who is an Indian businessman living in California. I’m a writer for an American magazine called ESQUIRE. It’s an upscale magazine targeted at businessmen, and reaches 2 million readers. It’s been around for 70 years. (If you want to know more, it’s at esquire.com). I’m writing an article for Esquire for which I’d love to hire Your Man in India(YMII). The idea is this: To hire a talented person or talented people in India to take care of as many of my life tasks as possible. Almost like a remote executive assistant. For instance, I’d love someone to help make airline reservations over the Internet. Or make restaurant reservations. Or pay my bills online. I’d even be interested in having someone answer my emails for me. Of course, I would give your company credit in the article. The publicity would, I imagine, be excellent for your business. And naturally, Esquire would pay the going rate for your services. I understand that the core of your business is doing such tasks for residents of India (e.g. buying movie tickets for Indian movie theaters). But since so much can be accomplished via the Internet, I thought that you might be able to help me with US-based tasks as well. I hope you like the idea. I think it will make an educational and entertaining article. Please let me know your thoughts. I can be reached via email here, or by cell phone. Thanks in advance, A.J. Jacobs ———— We were kind of zapped by the request and were trying to figure out if this was some kind of a practical joke. More so because we realized later that Jacobs wanted to outsource a lot more than the quite innocuous sounding things, he mentioned in his first mail. He wanted to outsource his personal life to a company in India. That was a whole lot tricky. Back in 2005, it could have been an idea that naturally gets shot down because no one had attempted it before. So why should we even try! Thankfully, we decided to pursue it. It all started with just one employee to boot and this person helped Jacobs over the next couple of months. Despite the odd slip ups here and there, largely due to cultural differences the experiment was a huge success. AJ’s Esquire article came out in September 2005. It went to capture the imagination of the American press and we were on Good Morning America, the next day. You can access this article here. http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0905OUTSOURCING_214. That is when we decided that we just couldn’t let this opportunity go. There was a potential and we were in the right place, at the right time. So we created a separate division and went out with a new brand called ‘Get Friday‘. (inspired by Man Friday from the Robinson Crusoe novel). There, of course would be a question in everyone’s mind. If the character, Man Friday inspired this name then why was it not called by the same name. Why Get Friday?. We weighed the pros and cons of gender bias in a brand name that was to go international. Especially, since we envisioned many girl fridays helping clients across the world. These things weighed in to settle the matter in favor of a gender-neutral ‘Get Friday‘. That led me to believe that a lot of things do happen by chance, but provided it encounters a prepared mind. And that pretty much has been the cornerstone of our innovation philosophy, to this day. I hope you like this little story of how it all began. Sunder P CEO

Midhya, our VA with Jerry Hobby

Where Good Ideas come from?

Borrowing from the title of the popular book by Steven Johnson, here is an example of how ideas connect and how people benefit from it. We had posted Andrew Wilson’s virtual assistance social experiment in our previous blog posts. This is a reply from another client, Ryan Leon after reading his post. Re: The Virtual Assistance project New post by Ryan Leon » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:23 pm I would like to begin by commending Andrew Norman Wilson on the Virtual Assistance Project. I was, for lack of a better term, mind-blown after reading his posts and watching the videos on his blog. I have to admit, that I started an account at Get Friday to make my life a little easier. After seeing Andrew’s approach, I’m a bit embarrassed by my lack of effort in getting to know my assistant, Midhya. Up to this point, my tasks have been purely business related, with some “easy” personal tasks such as ordering books on Amazon.com. Ever the positive spirit, Midhya is always eager to help and delivers great results. My eyes are now open to the fact that I have been missing out on a key value that Get Friday offers: Midhya’s input. My entire outlook has changed, and I owe it all to a creative student in Chicago. I would like to close my comment with a message to Mr. Wilson: Andrew, Thank you for sharing the Virtual Assistance Project with the world. As a 25-year old, I am constantly finding out that I have MUCH more to learn about life and my place in the global environment. You really have something here. I know that you will do great things, because you already have shifted the paradigm in my own mind. I am amazed at how the internet continues to evolve and connect people with ideas that would be lost on them otherwise. Keep up the good work. Your fan, Ryan Leon Thank you, Ryan for your unreserved appreciation of Andrew’s work. And my apologies for not asking you before making this post. Am presuming you would be happy to have it go public. And I thought his assistant should know about it as well. Midhya, keep the good work going! Pic of Midhya with Jerry Hobby, the CEO of Anything Internet and a regular guest on the CNN 650 Morning Show. We constantly learn from others ideas and experiments and that is how innovation happens. And it is more likely to happen much faster in a better-connected world. Watch this engrossing talk by Steven Johnson, spiced by some exquisite illustrative video animation. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

Where Good Ideas come from? Read More »

Borrowing from the title of the popular book by Steven Johnson, here is an example of how ideas connect and how people benefit from it. We had posted Andrew Wilson’s virtual assistance social experiment in our previous blog posts. This is a reply from another client, Ryan Leon after reading his post. Re: The Virtual Assistance project New post by Ryan Leon » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:23 pm I would like to begin by commending Andrew Norman Wilson on the Virtual Assistance Project. I was, for lack of a better term, mind-blown after reading his posts and watching the videos on his blog. I have to admit, that I started an account at Get Friday to make my life a little easier. After seeing Andrew’s approach, I’m a bit embarrassed by my lack of effort in getting to know my assistant, Midhya. Up to this point, my tasks have been purely business related, with some “easy” personal tasks such as ordering books on Amazon.com. Ever the positive spirit, Midhya is always eager to help and delivers great results. My eyes are now open to the fact that I have been missing out on a key value that Get Friday offers: Midhya’s input. My entire outlook has changed, and I owe it all to a creative student in Chicago. I would like to close my comment with a message to Mr. Wilson: Andrew, Thank you for sharing the Virtual Assistance Project with the world. As a 25-year old, I am constantly finding out that I have MUCH more to learn about life and my place in the global environment. You really have something here. I know that you will do great things, because you already have shifted the paradigm in my own mind. I am amazed at how the internet continues to evolve and connect people with ideas that would be lost on them otherwise. Keep up the good work. Your fan, Ryan Leon Thank you, Ryan for your unreserved appreciation of Andrew’s work. And my apologies for not asking you before making this post. Am presuming you would be happy to have it go public. And I thought his assistant should know about it as well. Midhya, keep the good work going! Pic of Midhya with Jerry Hobby, the CEO of Anything Internet and a regular guest on the CNN 650 Morning Show. We constantly learn from others ideas and experiments and that is how innovation happens. And it is more likely to happen much faster in a better-connected world. Watch this engrossing talk by Steven Johnson, spiced by some exquisite illustrative video animation. Happy viewing! Sunder P CEO

An Unusual Request

This unusual request came in from a client on the Euro Zone, some time back (Dec-2010). Bouquets and brickbats from clients are part of everyday life in the services business. But appreciation that is thoughtful would go a long way to positively motivate employees or just about anyone. Pradeep, the team lead on the Euro shift at that point of time received this request from a client, Kevin. Rini is her assistant. Read on… Hello Pradeep, As my usage has changed I will move to a pay as you go plan shortly. Before this happens I expect to have some un used time on my current plan. I believe there will be 2-3 hours left on the 14 of December. Given the exceptional help that Rini has provided I wonder would it be possible to use my unused time to allow Rini to leave for home early one day as a thank you to her for all her help ? Given I will have paid for her time I am hoping this unusual request is possible please ? Thanks and regards Kevin So simple a request, but so very thoughtful. The client thought it would be so nice to let Rini go early for a day, while having already paid for those hours. Did we have a choice with such a request? Nope, we just happily obliged. Incidentally, Rini has a young child at home and she was mighty happy with this wonderful gesture. Thank you, Kevin. You made her day! It is simple things that can make a huge difference in people’s lives and the way they perceive it. On a different note but on the same topic. Here is a RSA video I love, adapted from Dan Pink’s talk titled ‘The surprising truth about motivates people’. Happy viewing!! Sunder P CEO

An Unusual Request Read More »

This unusual request came in from a client on the Euro Zone, some time back (Dec-2010). Bouquets and brickbats from clients are part of everyday life in the services business. But appreciation that is thoughtful would go a long way to positively motivate employees or just about anyone. Pradeep, the team lead on the Euro shift at that point of time received this request from a client, Kevin. Rini is her assistant. Read on… Hello Pradeep, As my usage has changed I will move to a pay as you go plan shortly. Before this happens I expect to have some un used time on my current plan. I believe there will be 2-3 hours left on the 14 of December. Given the exceptional help that Rini has provided I wonder would it be possible to use my unused time to allow Rini to leave for home early one day as a thank you to her for all her help ? Given I will have paid for her time I am hoping this unusual request is possible please ? Thanks and regards Kevin So simple a request, but so very thoughtful. The client thought it would be so nice to let Rini go early for a day, while having already paid for those hours. Did we have a choice with such a request? Nope, we just happily obliged. Incidentally, Rini has a young child at home and she was mighty happy with this wonderful gesture. Thank you, Kevin. You made her day! It is simple things that can make a huge difference in people’s lives and the way they perceive it. On a different note but on the same topic. Here is a RSA video I love, adapted from Dan Pink’s talk titled ‘The surprising truth about motivates people’. Happy viewing!! Sunder P CEO

The Virtual Assistance Project – Social Experiment

On our invitation Andrew is posting his thoughts about the social experiment here on our blog. For more in-depth information on this project please read “Virtual Assistance: An Interview with Andrew Norman Wilson” in Media Fields Journal. Andrew talks about his project: I want to start this post by stating my belief that the critical dimensions of my project, which include this post, are articulated with the utmost respect for all the actors involved – Akhil, the other virtual assistants at GetFriday, and the Get Friday management. I want to be sure that this project is not understood as a way to blame or point fingers at individuals or the company as a whole. Setting the personal dimensions aside, this project is about an economy of informational labor that has inherited certain power relations from prior (though still simultaneous) forms of capitalism. In doing what I do I am not attempting to destroy or overthrow, but rather to question the relationships we take for granted or accept as inevitable every day by attempting to actually live the changes I would like to see. The people at GetFriday have been extremely open and helpful in allowing this to happen to a certain extent, and I doubt I would have found such openness at another virtual assistance service. As my artist statement for the project reads: The Virtual Assistance project began with research geared towards unpacking the relational system of GetFriday, a virtual personal assistant service based in Bangalore, India. Get Friday typically provides remote executive support, where a largely American client base is assigned a “virtual” personal assistant. I am a part of that client base, paying monthly fees for a primary assistant who works out of the Get Friday office in India. My “assistant” is a 25-year-old male Bangalore resident named Akhil. In paying for our relationship I am not trying to lighten my workload, but rather to attempt collaborative projects and even reversals of the normative outsourcing flow under a corporate contract arranged for one-way command. Using the service has been a method of engaging with, understanding, and reacting to an economy in order to learn, with the help of Akhil, how to peel back the corporate veneer, revealing limitations, histories, biographies, networks, power, desire, and more. Personal outsourcing initially came to my attention through the writings of proponents Thomas Friedman and Timothy Ferris as a method to shorten the typical American work week – to slough off excess labor onto globally integrated residents of developing countries. Global outsourcing tends to produce telematic relationships – telematic in the sense of a remote control over another’s labor. These conditions led to a number of questions about power relations that have been guiding me through the project. If power is defined as the ability to manipulate resources across space and time, to what extent can power in my relationship with Akhil and GetFriday be re-distributed amongst a service where the normative use is one-way command? How can this be reversed towards mutual assistance and collaboration? How can this relationship exceed the commodified forms intimacy and creativity privileged by service-based economies? The Get Friday service initially struck me as an opportunity for direct engagement with one of the dominant symbols of globalism—outsourced labor in India. GetFriday’s goal of “enhancing value to its clients” is consistent with the dominant use of outsourcing and its accompanying definition of value – profitability. Most people sign up for this service not to learn about their Indian assistants or to engage in a dynamic version of a pen pal relationship, but rather to outsource low-end tasks for a low price. However, profitability is not the fundamental horizon in which my project is formed. Profitability is a term of economic efficiency, and this is not an economically efficient relationship. In terms of social profitability, a much more efficient relationship would be to find the most “relevant” Indian gallery or artist willing to work with me, and try to make work about outsourcing. This project, while partially about outsourcing, more importantly uses outsourcing. The relationship-project is inherently problematic in a number of ways for me, and so the stakes are higher and the baggage is heavier. A crucial reorientation of my goals for the project came with my understandings of my contract with GetFriday. The power dynamics of the relationship are largely determined by the limitations put into play by the corporate contract and the accompanying forms of social engagement that are deemed acceptable by GetFriday management. I can’t have contact with Akhil outside of the official GetFriday communication channels, and all communication can be monitored by Akhil’s superiors. Akhil cannot organize or join a labor union. Akhil’s superiors insist that he represent himself as my “virtual assistant” in the project. In a way, these restrictions are the juice of the project. Not because I’m seeking to call Get Friday out for bad labor practices (it actually seems like a great place to work for many), but because I’m calling to question the dynamics of this whole economy, which Get Friday and I are just a small part of. Consistent with the sociological categorization of immaterial labor, Akhil performs labor in which he has to speak, communicate, and cooperate within an organization that has been normalized for economic efficiency. Though the work Akhil has done for this project (which is far less than the work I have done for it) benefits me in certain ways (I have been invited to present the work internationally), the project has become an attempt to allow for that forced speech, communication, and cooperation to become a will to speak, communicate, and cooperate. By asking Akhil to relax and write down his thoughts in front of his favorite view of Bangalore, or asking him to assign me a task, or asking him what he wants to be working on at work, we have achieved this to varying degrees. Akhil told me he wanted the opportunity to work on design and engineering projects in

The Virtual Assistance Project – Social Experiment Read More »

On our invitation Andrew is posting his thoughts about the social experiment here on our blog. For more in-depth information on this project please read “Virtual Assistance: An Interview with Andrew Norman Wilson” in Media Fields Journal. Andrew talks about his project: I want to start this post by stating my belief that the critical dimensions of my project, which include this post, are articulated with the utmost respect for all the actors involved – Akhil, the other virtual assistants at GetFriday, and the Get Friday management. I want to be sure that this project is not understood as a way to blame or point fingers at individuals or the company as a whole. Setting the personal dimensions aside, this project is about an economy of informational labor that has inherited certain power relations from prior (though still simultaneous) forms of capitalism. In doing what I do I am not attempting to destroy or overthrow, but rather to question the relationships we take for granted or accept as inevitable every day by attempting to actually live the changes I would like to see. The people at GetFriday have been extremely open and helpful in allowing this to happen to a certain extent, and I doubt I would have found such openness at another virtual assistance service. As my artist statement for the project reads: The Virtual Assistance project began with research geared towards unpacking the relational system of GetFriday, a virtual personal assistant service based in Bangalore, India. Get Friday typically provides remote executive support, where a largely American client base is assigned a “virtual” personal assistant. I am a part of that client base, paying monthly fees for a primary assistant who works out of the Get Friday office in India. My “assistant” is a 25-year-old male Bangalore resident named Akhil. In paying for our relationship I am not trying to lighten my workload, but rather to attempt collaborative projects and even reversals of the normative outsourcing flow under a corporate contract arranged for one-way command. Using the service has been a method of engaging with, understanding, and reacting to an economy in order to learn, with the help of Akhil, how to peel back the corporate veneer, revealing limitations, histories, biographies, networks, power, desire, and more. Personal outsourcing initially came to my attention through the writings of proponents Thomas Friedman and Timothy Ferris as a method to shorten the typical American work week – to slough off excess labor onto globally integrated residents of developing countries. Global outsourcing tends to produce telematic relationships – telematic in the sense of a remote control over another’s labor. These conditions led to a number of questions about power relations that have been guiding me through the project. If power is defined as the ability to manipulate resources across space and time, to what extent can power in my relationship with Akhil and GetFriday be re-distributed amongst a service where the normative use is one-way command? How can this be reversed towards mutual assistance and collaboration? How can this relationship exceed the commodified forms intimacy and creativity privileged by service-based economies? The Get Friday service initially struck me as an opportunity for direct engagement with one of the dominant symbols of globalism—outsourced labor in India. GetFriday’s goal of “enhancing value to its clients” is consistent with the dominant use of outsourcing and its accompanying definition of value – profitability. Most people sign up for this service not to learn about their Indian assistants or to engage in a dynamic version of a pen pal relationship, but rather to outsource low-end tasks for a low price. However, profitability is not the fundamental horizon in which my project is formed. Profitability is a term of economic efficiency, and this is not an economically efficient relationship. In terms of social profitability, a much more efficient relationship would be to find the most “relevant” Indian gallery or artist willing to work with me, and try to make work about outsourcing. This project, while partially about outsourcing, more importantly uses outsourcing. The relationship-project is inherently problematic in a number of ways for me, and so the stakes are higher and the baggage is heavier. A crucial reorientation of my goals for the project came with my understandings of my contract with GetFriday. The power dynamics of the relationship are largely determined by the limitations put into play by the corporate contract and the accompanying forms of social engagement that are deemed acceptable by GetFriday management. I can’t have contact with Akhil outside of the official GetFriday communication channels, and all communication can be monitored by Akhil’s superiors. Akhil cannot organize or join a labor union. Akhil’s superiors insist that he represent himself as my “virtual assistant” in the project. In a way, these restrictions are the juice of the project. Not because I’m seeking to call Get Friday out for bad labor practices (it actually seems like a great place to work for many), but because I’m calling to question the dynamics of this whole economy, which Get Friday and I are just a small part of. Consistent with the sociological categorization of immaterial labor, Akhil performs labor in which he has to speak, communicate, and cooperate within an organization that has been normalized for economic efficiency. Though the work Akhil has done for this project (which is far less than the work I have done for it) benefits me in certain ways (I have been invited to present the work internationally), the project has become an attempt to allow for that forced speech, communication, and cooperation to become a will to speak, communicate, and cooperate. By asking Akhil to relax and write down his thoughts in front of his favorite view of Bangalore, or asking him to assign me a task, or asking him what he wants to be working on at work, we have achieved this to varying degrees. Akhil told me he wanted the opportunity to work on design and engineering projects in