Biggest Networking Mistakes that Salespeople Make

Biggest Networking Mistakes that Salespeople Make

   May 29, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Sales people often are natural networkers – after all, we tend to be “people persons” who love to meet new people, build relationships, and create conversations, both in “real life” and on social media. But many sales people, without realizing it, are making some big mistakes with their business networking. 

Business networking is one of the sales person’s oldest tools. We use our network of relationships and contacts to get in touch with decision makers, get advice, and get connected with new opportunities. But if you’re making some of these networking mistakes, you might not be reaching your full potential as a sales professional. 

Here are a few of the most common networking mistakes – and how to avoid them: 

Mistake #1: Networking without a strategy. Building relationships is a long-term activity. You can’t just expect to run out and immediately find the contacts or opportunities you’re looking for without investing some time and effort. Just as you would develop a marketing plan or a sales strategy to land a big client, spend some time mapping out some short-term and long-term goals for your sales networking. 

How to avoid: Spend some time asking (and answering) some “big questions” that can guide your networking activity. For example, who are you trying to meet? Which types of companies would you love to get connected with? Who do you already know who works at these companies or knows some of these higher-level people, and how can you strengthen your relationships with your existing circle of influence?

Mistake #2: Networking only to “get,” never to “give.” Too many sales people only look at networking as a way to get what they want. Too many sales people only network in order to get closer to a decision maker, or get their foot in the door at a company where they’re trying to make a sale, or to get in front of someone who might offer them a new job. This is the biggest networking mistake of all. If people feel that you are in it only for yourself, they will be reluctant to trust you or help you. Networking is a two-way street – and some of the most successful sales people are also the most generous with their time and with their contacts. 

How to avoid: When networking, always look for opportunities to “give” more than you “get.” Examples of “giving” might be as simple as sharing a timely article about a prospect’s business or industry, or connecting a contact with an opportunity that is valuable to them (even if it is unrelated to your business). Your generosity might not always be rewarded immediately, but in the long run you will build a reputation as someone who can be trusted, and someone who is willing to help others and connect others with opportunities. 

Mistake #3: Networking only with the “usual suspects.” Especially if you sell a complex B2B solution, it can be understandably tempting to spend most of your time focused on networking with people in your niche market. But if you spend all of your time connecting only with a small circle of people, you might miss out on opportunities that could come from connecting with people from other facets of your life.

 How to avoid: Remember that everyone you know, and everyone they know, can potentially be a valuable contact for you. Take a look at all of your social circles – work, family, community activities, social organizations – and see how you can become more of a connector. Someone you know from church or from your kids’ school might have a friend or relative who works in a business that needs your help. 

Networking is the constant, never-ending work of the sales professional. Sometimes networking feels like trying to navigate a maze – lots of blind corners and uncertainty and wrong turns. But at its best, networking is not a maze, it’s a safety net. 

One of the comforting truths about networking is that we are all supported by our own “safety nets” of contacts and all of their combined expertise, experience and relationships. If sales people can learn to network with planning and purpose (instead of just impulsively grasping around with no sense of direction), if sales people can learn to broaden their networks and connect other people within their networks (instead of only talking to the “usual suspects”), and if sales people can use networking as a way to deepen their relationships and build trust (rather than only trying to get what they need), networking will become a more purposeful and helpful tool – and a better way to operate as a sales professional.

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Follow the flying car 'proof of process' business model to $1 billion - Linda Tucci

Follow the flying car 'proof of process' business model to $1 billion - Linda Tucci

   May 29, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Our new Future State column focuses on emerging technology and its potential impact on CIOs and their organizations. In this month's installment, SearchCIO's Executive Editor Linda Tucci writes about the latest of many attempts to mass produce a semi-autonomous flying car. Sophisticated algorithms help, but two government rule changes and a super-conservative business plan might be the real ignition that propels this month's Future State startup into the annals of automotive history.

Carl Dietrich, 36, started saving for his pilot's license when he was eight, working at the local airport cleaning airplanes. The pilot's license was obtained in high school. Then he was off for 12 years to earn a bachelor's, master's and PhD from MIT's department of aeronautics and astronautics. He picked up $30,000 as winner of the 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Innovation. Another $10,000 was collected that year when his team's business plan was a runner-up in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The money was enough for Dietrich and a small band of MIT grads to start a company, Terrafugia Corp., move into a garage in Woburn, Mass., and start making flying cars.

Let me clarify. Dietrich's ambition is not just to build a flying car. That's been done, after all, in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. The first patent for a flying car was issued in 1918. According to Dietrich, the 1950's version came closest to shaking up the skies. Built by Moulton "Molt" Taylor, an aeronautical engineer, the Aerocar was certified by the CAA (precursor to the FAA), and Ford Motor Co. considered putting the vehicle into production with plans to sell 25,000 a year -- small on an automotive scale, but mass production nonetheless. However, federal motor vehicle standards were just coming into being and Taylor's vehicle couldn't meet them, Dietrich said. Another manufacturer offered to tool up production for 1,000 vehicles, provided Taylor could muster deposits for 500, but alas only 278 buyers materialized.

"And that was that. Had the business been scaled more conservatively, we might have a lot of them around today," Dietrich said, at Disrupting Life!, a recent conference put on by the MIT Sloan School of Management.

"Over the next four to five years, I want Terrafugia to become the first company in the world that has made money selling a flying car," he said.

Where we're going we don't need roads

Terrafugia -- Latin for earth (terra) and escape (fugia) -- has already built one flying car, the Transition, and is testing a second-generation prototype, the TF-X. The proof-of-concept Transition took its maiden voyage in 2009. A boxy bug of a vehicle with 27-foot folding wings (the hardest part to build), the two-seater reaches cruising speeds of  about 100 knots, or 116 miles per hour, boasts a range of 410 nautical miles, gets 35 miles per gallon on the road using ordinary premium unleaded gas and at seven feet tall fits into a single car garage. Oh yes, and comes with a base purchase price of $279,000 ($10,000 refundable deposit to reserve a place in production.)

   " It's technology, timing and regulation. It's that whole puzzle that had to come together in order for this to work, because the flying car is such a big thing".    Carl Dietrich, CEO, Terrafugia

The sleeker, next-gen hybrid TF-X has the advantage of vertical takeoff, requiring smaller landing zones (for example, a corner of the local shopping mall). Except for landings, when the human eye is still better than machines at detecting sudden changes on the ground, the driver of the TF-X, a four-seater, won't have to do much of anything while airborne except enjoy the scenery, thanks to sophisticated technology under the hood known in general terms as human directed local autonomy (HuDL).

"The operator of the vehicle doesn't need traditional piloting skill or traditional piloting knowledge," Dietrich told me after his talk. Making a flight plan? Adjusting for weather? All that can be done automatically. "The safety limits can be hard-programmed in, which means that the pilot is not going to be able to remove the safety limits if they are feeling anxious. It becomes less subjective."

Plus, the new global surveillance technology (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast or ADS-B) now being rolled out in the U.S. and elsewhere enables aircraft to transmit their position and velocity themselves. "If you have perfect information about where all the other things to hit are, collision-avoidance becomes trivial," Dietrich said, dismissing a question about flying car congestion. "It's hard for people who aren't pilots to understand how much space there is when you have that third dimension."

Government rule changes clear the runway

Combined, the technology of the flying car breaks down some of the traditional barriers to personal aviation, claims Dietrich -- from the inadvisability of flying in bad weather to the costs of hangar storage and aviation gas to the lack of ground mobility after landing. There's no Hertz counter at most of the 5,000 small public use airports across the country. And, as the world has learned from the events of the past two weeks, the adoption of ADS-B technology and other hard-programmed safety limits can't come soon enough.

But it was two regulatory changes, one on the product side and one on the customer side, which convinced the MIT team the time was right to push forward on personal aviation. In 2004 the FAA improved the certification process for new products and approved the Sport Pilot certificate for flying lightweight vehicles, a new class of license that costs less and requires less time to obtain than a private pilot's license.

"It's technology, timing and regulation. It's that whole puzzle that had to come together in order for this to work, because the flying car is such a big thing. You're talking about disrupting the whole automotive business, a $2 trillion industry," Dietrich said.

The history of transportation, however, shows that the sort of fundamental change Terrafugia envisions happens over a generation, not in a five-year window. "It isn't going to happen over a venture capital time scale."

'Proof of process' seen as the open sesame to $1 billion

And, indeed, Terrafugia has relied mainly on angel investors and funding from DARPA so far. It will require $20 million more to put Transition into production. The company claims to have $30 million in backlog orders or more than 100,000 people who have written checks, 25% of whom have never been pilots. Aside from the money, the Transition has its detractors, with at least one rather harsh critique concluding the flying car will be very lucky to become the Segway of the light sports aircraft world. You'll hear no such qualms from Dietrich.

"We think of Transition as a proof-of-process product -- a product that proves that our company has the capabilities of designing, certifying and building a profitable flying car even if it is at low volume. Nobody has done that," he said. "And if we can become the first company that has done that, then all of a sudden investing $1 billion to bring the TF-X to marketing is not ridiculous."

Let us know what you think about the story; email Linda Tucci, executive editor, or on Twitter at @ltucci.

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Dr Dre Joins Apple In $3bn Beats Acquisition - celebrity

Dr Dre Joins Apple In $3bn Beats Acquisition - celebrity

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Dr Dre and recording impresario Jimmy Iovine have joined Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) after the completed $3bn acquistion of Beats Electronics.

The announcement comes nearly three weeks after deal negotiations were leaked to the media.

At $3bn (£1.8bn), the deal for the headphone and streaming music company is the most expensive acquisition in Apple's 38-year history.

It includes $2.6bn in cash and $400m in Apple stock that will vest over an unspecified time period.

Apple broke into the music streaming business last year with the launch of iTunes Radio, but with $1.1bn in revenue last year, Beats should boost the tech giant's earnings once the new fiscal year begins in October.

"Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a media release.

"That's why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world."

Iovine, a co-founder of Interscope Records, said: "I've always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple.

"The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special."

The growing popularity of music streaming services such as Pandora (Other OTC: PNDZF - news) and Spotify has been reducing sales of songs and albums, a business that iTunes has dominated for the past decade.

US sales of downloaded songs slipped 1% last year to $2.8bn while streaming music revenue surged 39% to $1.4bn, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Mr Cook says Beats Music has more than 250,000 subscribers.

Beats also commands 62% of the $1bn US market for headphones priced above $100, according to market research firm NPD Group.

The acquisition will see both Dre, 49, and Iovine, 61, become executives in Apple's music divisions, though Mr Cook said their roles have not yet been determined.

Dr Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, started his career in influential rap group NWA before co-founding Death Row Records and going on to produce some of the biggest names in hip hop.

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Smart People Sabotage Their Success with this Stupid Ways

Smart People Sabotage Their Success with this Stupid Ways

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Sometimes the smartest people do things that seem to make no sense at all.

A group of Quora users drew from their experiences to address the question, "What are some stupid things that smart people do?" The answers provide ways to overcome some of the common ways intelligent people unknowingly undermine themselves.

We've highlighted a few below.

They spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing.

"Because thinking comes so easily to smart people, doing becomes relatively harder. Research and planning are great in moderation, but can offer the dangerous illusion of progress," says Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chris Yeh. Smart people who are perfectionists can get caught up in this kind of seemingly productive procrastination and often nitpick over minute details rather than finishing projects.

They follow the pack.

Venture for America's Andrew Yang has written extensively about the trend of top college graduates going into the same few industries equated with "making it," like finance and consulting, rather than following their passions. New York entrepreneur Lee Semel agrees: "Many smart people often seem to be followers, probably because they grow up spending so much time pleasing others via academic and extracurricular achievement that they never figure out what they really like to work on or try anything unique."

They stop trying.

People whose intelligence has helped them achieve a level of success can often get lazy. "These smart people fail to further develop their natural talents and eventually fall behind others who, while less initially talented, weren't as invested in being smart and instead spent more time practicing," Semel says.

They undervalue social skills.

Some intelligent people don't realize that intellect is only one element of achieving success and that personal connections are everything in the professional world. "They never try to improve their social skills, learn to network, or self promote, and often denigrate people who excel in these areas," Semel says.

They place being right above all else.

Many smart people indulge a dangerous combination of ego and logic and behave as though being right all the time is somehow endearing (it's the opposite), Semel says. It's bad when they argue a point they're misinformed about, but it can be even more embarrassing for them when they insist on arguing facts against someone's long-held beliefs.

They equate education with intelligence.

A high academic pedigree can make some people think that where someone got their college degree reflects how smart they are, says Liz Pullen, a sociologist. In many cases, a degree from an elite university represents a great achievement, but there are countless instances where those who didn't graduate college are more qualified for a job because of their real-world experience.

They are too independent.

Smart people can fail to develop healthy support systems that everyone needs to succeed . 

" Without a good support system, anyone can begin to slide down a slippery slope when they encounter hardship, miscalculate something major, or fall victim to the misdeeds of others,"  says Quora user  Andrea Martin .

How do you develop a good support system? "Methodically place yourself in the company of the most mature, benevolent, competent people you can identify. 

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Samsung brings new phone to compete Moto E

Samsung brings new phone to compete Moto E

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Samsung is quietly working on a budget smartphone for India to compete against the popular Motorola Moto E which is being sold for Rs 6,999. The new Samsung smartphone is currently being tested. Samsung smartphone with SM-G350E model number runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is expected to be priced around Rs 6,500. Samsung's own website listed the User Agent Profile of the Samsung SM-G350E smartphone.

Motorola Moto E was released earlier this month and was an instant hit thanks to its decent combination of price and features. Micromax quickly announced the Unite 2, followed by Lava which released the Iris X1 for Rs 7,999.

Now Samsung is working to bring SM-G350E which said to have a 4.3-inch touchscreen display with 480x800 pixel resolution. It will be powered an ARM Cortex-A7 based mobile processor clocked at 1.2 Ghz and will feature 1 GB RAM. This Samsung handset is said to have 8 GB on-board storage and there will be a memory card slot. This phone will support dual-SIM configuration.

The smartphone will feature 5 megapixel camera at the back and VGA camera in the front. Samsung has loaded the new TouchWiz user interface on top of the Android 4.4.2 KitKat for this smartphone. We may expect the company to introduce the SM-G350E smartphone in a month or two from now.

More from The Mobile Indian

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Work For Apple, Microsoft, Or Google - Join this School

Work For Apple, Microsoft, Or Google - Join this School

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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For all the talk of "cognitive ability" and "behavioral interviewing," tech firms like Microsoft and Google have a similar hiring pattern to just about any other business: proximity. 

That's according to Wired, which found that  recruitment is typically tied to how close a college campus is to the corporate campus, with a few notable exceptions. 

To find this out, Wired did a little poking around LinkedIn to find the top five "donating" schools for seven tech firms. The magazine's mission was "to see if non-Stanford grads have a chance at Silicon Valley firms (they do) and whether Ivy Leagues dominate (they don’t)." 

Take Microsoft, for instance. Bill Gates's empire is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Correspondingly, lots of recruits come from that state. Judging by Wired's infographic, Microsoft employs approximately: 

• 5,000 University of Washington grads
• 1,000 Washington State grads
• 800 Western Washington University grads
• Then there's Apple. The house that Steve Jobs built has this employee breakdown: 
• 900 University of California, Berkeley, grads
• 800 San Jose State grads
• 300 University of Texas, Austin, grads
• Lastly, let's look at Google. The prestigious search giant has loads of California connections, with some East Coast schools thrown in. The approximate numbers are: 
• 2,500 Stanford grads
• 2,000 University of California, Berkeley, grads
• 800 Carnegie Mellon grads
• 800 University of California, Los Angeles, grads

Why would big, global companies hire from their nearby colleges? While we don't have anyone in HR at Microsoft, we do know hiring trends. Namely, people hire people they know, and it's easiest to know the folks who are nearby. 

And if you didn't go to Stanford, fret not; you can still end up at Google. Just spend a stint at Microsoft: Wired reports it's the top feeder company to Google. 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Need to Know US Market Before open - What Thinking Person

Need to Know US Market Before open - What Thinking Person

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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US markets are expected to open up today, with what’s a quiet day for economic data and a record close yesterday. Futures suggest this will be built on. - 28 may 2014

Weekly mortgage application numbers showed a 1.2 per cent fall last week, following three weeks of gains.

The economics calendar is busier tomorrow, with pending home sales and another GDP estimate out.

Corporate news

Goldman Sachs has slashed its number of fixed-income trading staff by 10 per cent since 2010, its president and chief operating officer, Gary Cohn, said today.

He added, speaking to a conference, that the most significant thing impacting the bank’s trading is the economic climate, not new regulation and capital requirements.

Meanwhile, Bob Steel, ex-deputy mayor of New York and vice-chairman of Goldman it to become chief executive of boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg.

Medical device company Stryker is working on a takeover bid for UK firm Smith & Nephew.

And Veleant’s improved its takeover proposition for Allergan, which says it’ll consider the proposal.

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Valeant raises bid for Allergan values Botox-maker at $49.44 billion - UK source

Valeant raises bid for Allergan values Botox-maker at $49.44 billion - UK source

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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(Reuters) - Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.TO) (VRX.N) raised the cash component of its offer for Botox-maker Allergan Inc (AGN.N), valuing the U.S. firm at $49.44 billion (29.51 billion pounds).

Valeant on Wednesday offered to pay $58.30 per Allergan share in cash, about $10 higher than its previous offer of $48.30. The stock component of the offer remains the same at 0.83 of a Valeant share for each Allergan share.

The new offer values Allergan at $166.16 per share as of Tuesday's closing price, and is about 8.6 percent higher than the previous bid of $153 as on April 22 when Valeant first made its offer.

That offer, by Valeant and activist investor Bill Ackman, was worth $47 billion and was spurned by Allergan, which said the Canadian company had overstated the possible savings from the deal.

Valeant's offer on Wednesday is also lower than the price of $180-$200 per share that investors were looking for, according to an investor survey taken last week.

The new offer also includes a contingent value right of up to $25 per share related to the sales of Darpin, Allergan's experimental eye drug that is seen as a potential competitor to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc's (REGN.O) highly successful medicine Eylea.

Allergan on Tuesday built its case with investors for rejecting Valeant's offer, one day before Valeant's scheduled webcast to explain its case.

Separately, Valeant said on Wednesday that it would sell some of its skincare treatments business, including facial fillers for treating wrinkles, to Nestle SA (NESN.VX) for $1.4 billion in cash.

Allergan shares have risen 16 percent since Valeant's initial offer to close at $165.02 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Valeant's U.S.-listed shares have risen a little over 3 percent in that same period to close at $129.95 on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza) - 28 May 2014

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Women do more research for be a Better Investor - why

Women do more research for be a Better Investor - why

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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According to The Economist, a recent study has apparently found that hedge funds managed by women performed better than those managed by men. The women, it turned out, delivered a gain of 9.8% in 2013, against an average of 6.1% for both sexes.

       Such claims aren’t new. And in the hedge fund market, it seems that the same result has been seen in earlier years. But is there anything in it?

      LouAnn Lofton — author of Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl: And Why You Should, Too — clearly thinks so. According to Lofton — a contributor to the American arm of The Motley Fool — women spend more time on research, trade less and take fewer risks.

Over-trading saps wealth

But do such traits make a difference? Here, we’re on firmer ground.

American researchers Brad Barber and Terry Odean analysed the trading records of 10,000 brokerage accounts of individual investors spanning a seven‑year period.

And their findings — pithily entitled Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth — make fascinating reading. Those investors who traded the most, it transpired, earned an annual return of 11.4%, in a period in which the market returned 17.9%. A shocking degree of underperformance, in short.

“It is difficult to reconcile the volume of trading observed in equity markets with the trading needs of rational investors,” sardonically observe Barber and Odean. “Rational (Xetra: RAA.DE - news) investors make periodic contributions and withdrawals from their investment portfolios, rebalance their portfolios, and trade to minimize their taxes.”

Irrational investors, on the other hand, pursue the latest investment fads, splurge on a share tip picked up at the golf club, and speculatively buy and sell in the hope of making a quick profit.

Buy high, sell low

And even here, in buying and selling to make a quick gain, they get it wrong.

Just ask Nobel prizewinner Daniel Kahneman, who with his colleague Amos Tversky laid the bedrock on which a lot of behavioural economics is based.

In his recent best-seller Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman has this to say of Barber and Odean’s analysis of how the shares that investors sold performed versus the shares that they subsequently bought with the proceeds.

“On average, the shares that individual traders sold did better than those they bought, by a very substantial margin: 3.2 percentage points per year, above and beyond the significant costs of executing the trades… It is clear that for the large majority of individual investors, taking a shower and doing nothing would have been a better policy than implementing the ideas that came to their minds.”

Misplaced confidence

So all those over-trading, speculative types tend to get inferior returns. But are those over-trading, speculative types necessarily male?

Apparently so, suggest researchers. Because such behaviour is associated with overconfidence — and misplaced confidence — and these are male traits.

Women, goes the argument, are less confident, and so not only do more research to begin with, but aren’t subsequently tempted to chop and change.

Which helpfully has a ‘double whammy’ positive impact, of course: not only are they backing well-researched winners, they aren’t incurring the wealth-sapping costs of trading commissions and stamp duty.

Whew! Put away the dress

It all sounds plausible to me. The trouble is, as a man, I’m not attracted to the prospect of a gender-change operation. And I suspect I’m not alone.

Thankfully, LouAnn Lofton doesn’t say that we have to be girls — just invest like girls.

So as a start, if you'd like to replace share tips picked up in the Sunday newspapers and on the golf course with more solidly researched recommendations, then you could do worse than read the Motley Fool's very latest free wealth report -- which, as I write these words, has been out for less than 24 hours.

I think you'll be shocked at how poorly some of 2014's most popular investor picks have performed -- and intrigued to read about the alternatives that the Fool's top analysts have uncovered. - published on finance.yahoo Malcolm Wheatley

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Rupee snaps three-day fall on good dollar inflows

Rupee snaps three-day fall on good dollar inflows

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee snapped a three-day losing streak on Wednesday as dollar inflows related to foreign funds and companies helped offset heavy month-end demand for the greenback from oil and other importers.

Traders also cited occasional dollar buying by the Reserve Bank of India, although the intervention was not believed to be as aggressive as in recent weeks.

Traders will continue to focus on the measures new Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government will take to bring down the fiscal deficit and fight inflation.

"There was good dollar selling seen today, likely some corporate flows as well. Foreign banks were mostly on the sell side while there were importers and state-run firms seen bidding," said A. AjithKumar, a foreign exchange dealer with Federal Bank.

"There is a good technical support for the pair at 58.35 levels which the central bank defended last time. If that level is broken we could see the pair fall more, if not, we could head back towards 59.50 again," he added.

The partially convertible rupee closed at 58.93/94 per dollar compared to 59.04/05 on Tuesday.

Foreign investors have bought a net $1.46 billion in debt over the past four sessions, bringing their total buying so far this month to $3 billion. In shares, despite some modest selling over the past few sessions, net inflows in May are $2.4 billion.

In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 59.21 while the three-month was at 59.76.

By Swati Bhat

(Editing by Sunil Nair) - 28 May 2014

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Sensex ends flat; metal stocks fall - BSE Sensex

Sensex ends flat; metal stocks fall - BSE Sensex

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Mumbai, May 28 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Wednesday closed flat -- only 6.58 points or 0.03 percent up -- on the back of profit booking as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned sellers and caution prevailed ahead of May derivatives expiry.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in metal, automobile, oil and gas and consumer durables. However, healthy buying took place in information technology (IT), bank, technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and capital goods. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 24,591.61 points, ended the day's trade at 24,556.09 points (provisional), up 6.58 points or 0.03 percent from the previous day's close at 24,549.51 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 24,643.33 points and a low of 24,488.81 points in trade.

The S&P BSE metal index plunged by 203.41 points, automobile index went down by 109.48 points, oil and gas index fell by 98.31 points, and consumer durables index slipped by 79.60 points.

However, IT index was up 130.65 points, bank index was 97.27 points higher, TECK gained 69.23 points and capital goods rose 66.40 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too closed flat. It ended trade 11.65 points or 0.16 percent up at 7,329.65 points.

The prominent Sensex gainers included Tata Power, up 3.70 percent at Rs.102.30; HDFC Bank, up 2.30 percent at Rs.823.40; Hero MotoCorp, up 2.08 percent at Rs.2,350.30; Bharti Airtel, up 1.80 percent at Rs.341.75; and DrReddys Lab, up 1.53 percent at Rs.2,346.65.

Of the 30 Sensex scrips, 14 closed in the red. Among the major Sensex losers were Coal India, down 3.23 percent at Rs.380.35; ONGC, down 2.73 percent at Rs.384.85; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 2.70 percent at Rs.1,162.35; Gail India, down 1.95 percent at Rs.371.65; and NTPC, down 1.88 percent at Rs.151.45.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.24 percent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 0.59 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.77 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.09 percent up and the French CAC 40 Index was higher by 0.01 percent. Germany's DAX Index had gained 0.05 percent at the closing bell here. - on 28 May 2014

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Tata Power Solar ups production capacity to 200 MW - Source

Tata Power Solar ups production capacity to 200 MW - Source

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Bangalore, May 28 (IANS) Tata Power Solar Systems increased its manufacturing capacity to 200 MW from 125 MW to offer solar modules to domestic and overseas markets, a top official said Wednesday.

"The 60 percent capacity expansion will enable us to provide solar modules for increasing the share of renewable energy in the power sector and meet the increase in demand, thanks to pro-active policy steps such as domestic content requirement and anti-dumping duties," Tata Power Solar chief executive Ajay Goel told reporters here.

As part of the 2010 Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission to generate 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022, the union government made it mandatory in October 2013 for private producers to source solar modules from domestic manufacturers up to 50 percent (372 MW) of the 750 MW grid-connected solar power projects, with a viability gap funding from the national clean energy fund.

The solar power generated through the scheme will be purchased by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at a fixed tariff of Rs.5.45 unit for 25 years and sold to distribution firms at Rs.5.50 per unit for 25 years.

The decision to impose anti-dumping duties ranging from 11-81 cents per watt on import of cheaper solar panels from countries like China, Taiwan, Malaysia and the US will ensure a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers like Tata Power Solar in selling their solar modules at competitive prices.

"In an energy-starved country like India, there is a tremendous potential for increasing the share of solar energy, as the cost of solar panels has dropped by a whopping 60-70 percent during the last couple of years worldwide, even as their efficiency has increased by 10-15 percent," Goel observed.

The 25-year-old company made a cumulative investment of Rs.500 crore till date in its three production plants across the city, which includes facility to make photo-voltaic cells and solar water heaters.

"We have completed 160 MW of ground-mounted utility scale and 40 MW of rooftop and distributed generation projects across the country till fiscal 2014," company's vice-president for manufacturing and business development Rahul Budhwar said on the occasion.

Set up in 1989 as a joint venture with British Petroleum (BP), the company offers a diverse line of solar products for both urban and rural markets, spanning water heaters, home lighting, street lighting, power packs and water pumps.

Published On 28 May 2014

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Chennai scupper Mumbai's title defence - Sports

Chennai scupper Mumbai's title defence - Sports

   May 28, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Chennai Super Kings rode on Suresh Raina's half-century to dump defending champions Mumbai Indians from IPL-7.

MUMBAI: Trust Chennai Super Kings to turn it on when they have to. Faced with elimination in the, well, ‘Eliminator’, MS Dhoni’s team cruised past defending champions Mumbai Indians without so much as a rivulet of sweat staining their yellow jerseys. Well not quite, as is to be expected in humid Mumbai, but Chennai drew on their reputation of a big-match team on Wednesday night to romp into 'Qualifier 2', in which they will play Kings XI Punjab for the right to meet Kolkata Knight Riders in the June 1 final of IPL-7.

After restricting Mumbai to a below-par 173 at Brabourne Stadium, Chennai looked to the one who has played in every single match for the franchise to mastermind the chase. Suresh Raina, named captain of India for the ODI tour of Bangladesh, celebrated the new role by hammering yet another IPL fifty, a 33-ball 54. It was a knock that minded a tricky chase that could have gone wrong at any point in the first ten overs, especially during a critical phase during which spinners Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha threatened to rip through on a pitch offering assistance. 

Dhoni’s choice to field did not seem to be a wise one after Mumbai openers Michael Hussey and Lendl Simmons had put on 54 in the Powerplay. Not that Chennai batting first would have ensured victory – far from it – but still the value of runs on the board in a knock out game cannot be overstated. Mumbai’s total (173) was a reasonable one - KKR had comfortably defended ten fewer at Eden Gardens against a marauding Kings XI in the afternoon – and although Chennai bore the reputation of being supreme finishers, it was not going to be an easy chase.

MISSED CHANCES

Faf du Plessis (35) and Dwayne Smith (24) made the most of their chances to lay a foundation and took Super Kings to 60 without loss in 6 overs. An umpiring howler denied Praveen Kumar’s gorgeous in-swinger the wicket of Smith. Harbhajan and Ambati Rayudu then made an absolute mess of a du Plessis top-edge over square leg. But if the off-spinner was half responsible for the gaffe he can claim full responsibility for redeeming the situation. Immediately after the Powerplay, Bhajji removed both the openers. 

Brendon McCullum, just returned from paternal duties in New Zealand, was dropped at long-on only to be stumped off Ojha's next delivery. David Hussey struggled to counter the spinners. He scratched around for five off ten balls, but when medium pace was reintroduced in the form of Bumrah, Hussey cut authoritatively for his first boundary. A spate of sixes in Ojha's last over followed and Hussey finished with a 29-ball 40, having featured in a game-changing partnership of 89 in 9.1 overs with Raina. The end came when Raina, fittingly, flicked the fourth ball of the 18th over to the fence for the winning runs.

REINED IN AT THE DEATH

Mumbai were 143/2 in the 17th over with Simmons (67) having hit top-gear soon after reaching a half-century, but gathered just 30 from the remaining 20 balls amid a torrent of wickets. Their chain of heavy hitters - Corey Anderson, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu and Aditya Tare - were all out forcing the pace. But none of them wasted time as they contributed a total of 56 in 38 balls. The final push however never arrived and the innings rode almost entirely on the momentum of the 76-run opening stand between Michael Hussey and Simmons.

Sent in by MSD, the vengeful Michael took on his former franchise, which now included his brother David, by wading into seamer Mohit Sharma and slapping offie R Ashwin for six. An equally belligerent Simmons was not to be outdone. The West Indian punished Ishwar Pandey’s frequent errors and omissions in length and stunned Mohit with a searing six over square-leg.  On a day on which both medium pacers made the India squads to England and Bangladesh, Mohit and Pandey had little else to celebrate. 

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Rupee sees worst fall in over two months; eyes set on new finance minister

Rupee sees worst fall in over two months; eyes set on new finance minister

   May 27, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee posted its biggest single-day fall in more than two months on Tuesday, dropping for a third straight session, weighed down by continued profit-taking in domestic shares and month-end dollar demand from importers.

After Narendra Modi was sworn in as India's prime minister late on Monday, investors are now focusing on his policies, which will help determine whether a recent rally in the rupee and in shares is justified.

New finance minister Arun Jaitley will be especially important as investors await a new budget, expected by early July, that will need to reassure markets that India can contain its fiscal deficit.

The new government will also need to decide on steps taken by the previous government to curb imports, which helped narrow the current account deficit to $1.2 billion in the March quarter, according to data late on Monday.

India has been able to narrow its current account deficit thanks to hefty foreign inflows, including net purchases of $5 billion worth of stocks and debt in the month so far, taking total inflows this year to more than $14 billion.

"Foreign fund flows have been strong and the continuation of those will be key for the rupee," said Uday Bhatt, a foreign exchange dealer with UCO Bank.

The partially convertible rupee closed at 59.04/05 per dollar compared to 58.71/72 on Monday. It moved in a wide 58.79 to 59.11 band during the session. The unit fell 0.56 percent on the day, its biggest single-day fall since March 20, when the unit had dropped 0.6 percent.

The rupee fell as the Nifty fell for a second consecutive session as investors continued to book profits in recent outperformers such as State Bank of India.

Investors will also focus on gross domestic product data for the March quarter, due to be announced on Friday, while the Reserve Bank of India is set to review policy on June 3.

In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 59.23 while the three-month was at 59.82.

By Swati Bhat

(Editing by Sunil Nair), Published on 27 APril 2014

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Nifty falters; investors wait for Modi to deliver

Nifty falters; investors wait for Modi to deliver

   May 27, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Nifty fell for a second consecutive session as investors continued to book profits in recent outperformers such as State Bank of India while they wait for actual policies from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his new cabinet.

Arun Jaitley, who was named as India's new finance minister, committed himself on Tuesday to repairing public finances and restoring investor confidence. The close party colleague of Modi will also share the defence and corporate affairs portfolios, although only temporarily.

The new government will need to meet high investor expectations, as prospects of a victory by the Bharatiya Janata Party had sent the Nifty up by 25.8 percent to record highs since Modi was named as the prime ministerial candidate for the opposition party in mid-September.

Overseas investors have been especially strong buyers of the rally, but sold a net $14.3 million on Monday, their second session of sales in three, according to provisional exchange data.

"Market is getting into some sort of correction mode now after the election rally. Now the optimism needs to be matched with the fundamentals. I think market will start counting for the next events such as (macro) policy announcements and RBI policy," said Deven Choksey, managing director, KR Choksey Securities.

The broader Nifty closed 0.56 percent lower at 7,318 points, marking only its third daily fall this month.

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 0.68 percent at 24,549.51 points.

Shares in State Bank of India fell 2.7 percent, adding to their 1.9 percent fall on Monday.

Lenders, especially public sector ones, have been big beneficiaries of the recent rally given expectations they are primed to benefit from a recovering domestic economy. SBI has gained 48.85 percent so far this year.

Other outperformers also fell. Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) closed 1.25 percent lower and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL.NS) ended down 5.2 percent.

Mid-caps, which recently posted strong gains, also slumped. Unitech Ltd (UNTE.NS), which gained 77 percent in May, fell 6.6 percent.

Shares in Gail India Ltd (GAIL.NS) fell 7.5 percent after its earnings missed some analysts' expectations. GAIL's January-March net profit rose by 57 percent to 9.72 billion rupees ($165.36 million), and Jefferies said factors including a weak demand environment and subsidy burdens impacted GAIL's earnings, according to a note to clients on Tuesday.

Shares of sugar refiners slumped as sugar futures fell to their lowest in 10 weeks on sluggish demand from bulk consumers ahead of the monsoon season.

However, investors also picked up shares that under-performed the rally, such as exporters that were seen as vulnerable to a stronger rupee.

Shares in Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) gained 1.27 percent, but were still down 1.5 percent this month, while Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (REDY.NS) gained 0.5 percent, but was down 14.6 percent so far this month.

By Indulal PM

(Editing by Sunil Nair) - publish on 27 May 2014

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Get Pinterest insights Of Business with Steve Cohen

Get Pinterest insights Of Business with Steve Cohen

   May 27, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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 Many businesses use Pinterest to learn about their customers. You might want to learn which of your products are popular, what types of images work best or which Pins are driving the most engagement and sales. All of these insights can help your business use Pinterest better, which in turn means a better experience for Pinners. 

We know some businesses use third-party marketing tools to help them figure out how they’re doing on different platforms. That’s why we’re proud to announce a new initiative that lets businesses analyze their Pinterest activity using popular marketing technology software, including Salesforce (Exact Target Marketing Cloud), Hootsuite, Spredfast, Percolate, Piqora, Curalate and Tailwind.   

How do these Marketing Technology relationships work?  

We’re working with a small, carefully selected group of marketing technology (“MarTech”) developers to offer Pinterest business insights. Insights help businesses engage better with Pinners. This could be which boards and Pins are getting the most engagement, which downstream actions Pins are driving or what products are most popular with Pinners.     

MarTech developers are independent companies who work with Pinterest to help businesses manage their digital marketing. Our initial set of developers has already put a lot of thought into interpreting activity on Pinterest.   

The MarTech developers we’re working with get automated access to some public data through a digital pipeline (also known as the Business Insights API, or Application Programming Interface). We allow developers to access public activity through this API so that they can help businesses improve the Pinner experience.   

Do these tools replace Pinterest Analytics? 

No way. Pinterest will continue to build value into Pinterest Analytics as an important free tool, while Marketing Technology developers are encouraged to add additional insights and features such as conversion tracking capabilities that Pinterest doesn’t currently offer.    

How do I get involved? 

If you’re a business who uses marketing technology built by a developer we’re working with, you might start seeing additional Pinterest insights soon.  If you’re interested in checking out Pinterest Business Insights using one of these developer tools, please contact them directly through the developer links above. If you’re a developer and would like to stay in touch and get updates on this and all of our business initiatives, sign up for our weekly business newsletter. We’re not opening up this opportunity to additional developers at this time.   

Marketing Technologies built on the Pinterest Business Insights API make it a little easier to manage all of your digital marketing so you can put your best Pins forward. It’s what we call a win-win-win—for Pinners, MarTech developers, and you, our valued business partners.  

— Steve Cohen and Thomas Sha, API Engineers , P

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Diiference Between Good Or Bad Internet Marketing - Prabhakar

Diiference Between Good Or Bad Internet Marketing - Prabhakar

   May 27, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Good, Bad, & Ugly of Internet Marketing

The Ugly: Yellow Page Advertising

It's hard to believe this still exists - 99% of homes throw this book out as soon as it arrives on their doorstep. It's a high cost marketing method that will yield a much lower ROI than any SEO marketing, as your advertisement will be buried in hundreds of slim yellow pages filled with thousands of ads just like yours. 1980 called, it wants its advertising methods back!

The Purpose: Phase-out ineffective & outdated marketing.

Hint: Yelp can be more effective marketing tool.

The Bad: Cheap SEO

Sure you can find SEO agencies that charge under $100 for all of your marketing needs, but treat them with caution. Cheap SEO is like cheap cars - just not worth it!

Quality work costs money, and the low-cost SEO companies could end up doing harm to your business' online presence in the long run. You'll get almost no value for your investment, and their Black Hat SEO tactics will only get your site to rank for a short time before it's slapped down by Google.

The Purpose: Preventing you from buying a lemon.

Hint: Content is King!

The Bad: Big SEO

The biggest SEO agencies are kind of like the federal government - they just take too long to deliver results. You won't get the proper ROI from these big agencies, and chances are you'll end up dealing with an employee that was just hired yesterday and who is answering all of your questions by reading off a flow chart.

The Purpose: Steering clear away from big company headaches: internal politics, bureaucratic red tape & ego’s

Hint: Smaller is better. Smaller is more innovating. Smaller means it is easy to get a hold of key people quickly in a time of need.

The Good: Testimonials

Every SEO agency website should have a testimonial page, but you should use Google to search for complaints as well as praise. A complaint or two is no problem, but too many complaints means that there's likely something wrong with the way the agency handles their clients' SEO.

The Purpose: Finding skeletons in your SEO agency’s closet.

Hint: Type in that SEO agency domain name in Google and glance the first 3 pages for any complaints.

The Good: Webpage Optimization

• A/B testing shows you valuable insight about improving your conversion rate.
• Every SEO company worth their salt will invest a good deal of time into optimizing webpage, but that time will cost you money. Good webpage optimization means two things:
• Making your site user-friendly and easy to read
• Designing the site and content according to Google's complex algorithms
• The purpose: making sure your website ranks well.
• Hint: Research your competitors' websites to see what they're doing wrong - and improve on it!
• The Good: Keyword Research

Try to find out what are people typing in Google to find your type of business?

This - like webpage optimization - takes a lot of time and money, but it's well worth it. Good keyword research will in the long run help your SEO consultant rank your website and get laser targeted traffic to your website.

The Purpose: Getting your phone ringing and your door swigging with customers.

Hint: Find long tail keywords that are related to your business — as they are much faster to rank.

The Good: Web Design

Responsive web design is viewable through smartphones, tablets and e-readers.

A professional design for your website will increase the user-friendliness of it, making the job of your SEO agency just a bit easier. Always go with a customized template for your website, as you want a design that is unique to your company. Stay away from template mills (designers that deliver a standard template with minor alterations made). Consider hiring your SEO consultant to design your website - they'll do so with SEO in mind. Pretty graphics aren't the only thing that matter!

The Purpose: Funnel wasted clicks into sales!

Hint: Heat maps is a graphical representation of how your visitors engage with your website. It can show you why your visitor’s are not converting!

The Good: Link Building

Good links are from High Domain Authority (DA) & High Page Authority (PA) websites

Cheap SEO agencies will get you low value links, which will do little for your website's SEO. You want high value links, but they are the hardest to get. A good SEO agency will know how to get those links, but cheap SEO will just get you crappy backlinks that will end up getting you banned by Google. Stay away from cheap link building - prepare to invest.

The Purpose: The internet is no longer a get-rich-quick scheme, and that it takes time and investment to build a profitable business.

Hint: Buy quality! Stay immune to Google’s algorithm updates: Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird.

It's Important to Remember:

If impatient? Do Yoga!

The Good: Be Patient. It takes time to achieve a good ranking - between 6 and 12 months, depending on your keyword. Your SEO consultant will need time to build good links, so don't pressure for instant links built overnight. They'll hurt your site in the long run.

The Purpose: A proper link building strategy will make your website immune to Google’s Panda & Penguin algorithm updates.

Hint: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) can be a quick short-term solution to get business flowing.

Spend time & money wisely! Don’t burn it!

The Bad: Your Time is Money. If you're trying to learn SEO, you'll spend far more time than you should - time you could spend growing your company elsewhere. Let your SEO agency do its job, you focus on being successful and efficient in your business.

The Purpose: Use your time effectively managing good people for the job instead of wasting many frustrated hours trying to do redundant mediocre tasks yourself.

Hint: There are a ton of other creative ways to advertise your business through networking groups, trade shows and/or conventions.

“It takes money to make money!”

The Good: Create a Good Business Model. Rich Fong, owner of BlissDrive.com - a top Los Angeles SEO agency - offers this piece of advice: "Make sure you have a good business model as well as an ample marketing budget." Remember that good SEO consultants don't take on every client - only those who are willing to go for the long haul with proper SEO. The more attention you get directly from the owner of a company, the easier it will be to stay focused on the mission of your SEO.

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