Going Ukrainian!

My 1st visit to USA was in 1998 to San Antonio, Texas. As small entrepreneur based on founding non-profit organization Uzhgorod Computer Club and attempt to provide free Dial-Up access to club members I got approved for internship program sponsored by US AID - United States Agency for International Development. Program coordinator LaVelle Franklin from College of the Alamo organized for me 3 companies: ISP TexasNet, Pitney Bowes, and San Antonio Express News.

Our 1st lesson at SA College was about cultural differences between Ukraine and United States, and we can experience culture shock. 15 years ago i had Roman attitude as like in Julius Caesar's saying "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (in English equivalent:  i came, i saw, i conquered). So statements about disorientation, language barrier, technology gap, etc. was not taken seriously. As usually one who ignores teaching got to learn in painful way.

After week or so I was invited to Birthday Party to friends of my host family - Wayne and Rhonda Levy from Devine, Texas. Book with scenery pictures of Ukraine was my gift. We went to Texas Steakhouse and, with consideration that my gift is decent, i made more than decent order - steak, few shots of tequila, then margarita with beer for dessert.

Comments from Americans about rich Ukrainian didn't ring the warning bell. When at the end of Birthday Party i was ready to leave one of guests said that we have to wait for few moments to pay the bill. On my genuine question "What bill?" i heard for 1st time phrase that still occasionally can give me goosebumps - "We are Going Dutch". Term means that everybody pays for himself. In Ukraine when you go to Birthday Party guests are responsible only for gifts, but birthday person is responsible for food and drinks. So i naturally assumed that it is global rule and was ordering without expectations to pay. Experienced real culture shock when i had to pay for my meal more than was my monthly income back in Ukraine. Even worst thing was to learn that Cultural Differences lecture at San Antonio College covered restaurant traditions in USA and expectations for each guest to pay for himself.

After my American colleagues and host family learned about my culture shock from what immigrants from Netherlands brought to USA, rest of my stay in San Antonio, Texas i didn't pay a dime for dining out and new term was born "We Going Ukrainian!" - which implied whoever invites to restaurant pays the bill.

Today my project manager for implementation of Oracle e-Business Suite - Alexey Ivasyuk - celebrated birthday. Facebook greetings brought nostalgia to how we used to celebrate birthdays as Oracle Consultants

Oracle team at Sarmat, Donetsk, Ukraine

  And in one of comment i mentioned that would be nice to have mobile app that allows birthday person to buy bottle of vodka and let his friends all over the world go to local bar, make birthday wishes and have a free shot from "same" bottle. Sergey Galagan liked the idea and suggested to make app social network friendly. In few more rounds of brainstorming the concept of mobile app "Going Ukrainian!" is:

• initiator of celebration (Birthday, Graduation Anniversary, Family Reunion, or any other occasion where participants are geographically spread) opens a tab at mobile app
• invites are sent via emails, text,or social and participation is recorded
• confirmed tab is pre-paid in bundle of alcohol, appetizers, or food 
• every participant goes to local pre-approved by mobile app restaurant
• makes check-in to mobile app, post a toast (or best wishes, comments, etc.) and then can claim free drink with optional food
• posting picture is optional, but highly appreciated.

That is mobile version of "Going Ukrainian!"

Comments, improvements of original idea are welcome, or critique is welcome.

Happy Birthday, Alexey!

 p.s. You did good job by hiring me as Accounts Receivables consultant back in March 2003.

 p.p.s. btw, Alexey managed development of amazing cloud based product RoC (Retail-on-Cloud) at De Novo. Let him know if you are small or medium business with need to run whole store software in the cloud. You going to love it, or your drink is on me.

copyright and disclaimer: all rights reserved and all free drinks promised above are subject of "Going Ukrainian!" mobile app development and successful funding.

Roman Havrylyak
12/28/2013

Just-In-Time Marketing: LinkedIn versus Salesforce

Recently I had very long negotiations with Paul Palathingal - Java Architect from India about consulting engagement for next 2014 year. It's been a while since I had such strong opponent in negotiations. Historically for me reaching agreement in US were easy, but accountability to deliver negotiated results almost none. It almost became a rule, that if negotiations were easy then other party will forfeit deliverable. This time i have hunch that if we reach agreement then i do not have to worry about results.

Sidetrack of negotiations was discussion about Salesforce and their recent conference in San Francisco - Dreamforce. I made point that Mark Benioff is merging 2 very strong corporate success stories of Apple and Amazon. Apple because AppExchange will do to corporate software what AppStore did to personal apps. And Amazon because opening technology stack (Heroku, Force.com, etc.), that was used to build Sales Automation, to build any corporate software in Marketing, Collaboration, Support, and, eventually, Financials and Logistics will revolutionize ERP, CRM, HCM, and VCP markets. (ERP - Enteprise Resource Planning; CRM - Customer Relationship Management; HCM - Human Capital Management; VCP - Value Chain Planning).

Today, as I was listening to webinar from VoltDB about choosing right NoSQL database, I added presenters into LinkedIn Contacts - new functionality released early this year to keep personal records on people, who not necessary ready to confirm reciprocal relationship. This feature became fundamental to stay in touch with well established connections as well as maintaining notes on "weak" or unilateral contacts.And it made me think about LinkedIn features and possibilities.

If you consider built-in integration with CardMunch - LinkedIn mobile app to capture contacts from old-fashioned business cards, and then ContactsIn - mobile app to remind you about anniversaries, job changes, or relocation of your connections - then you can understand why LinkedIn is "winner, winner, chicken dinner" in personal CRM domain.

Which naturally brought me to thinking what if LinkedIn is considered for corporate CRM as well, because adding Contacts to LinkedIn introduces very lucrative platform to leverage LinkedIn for Marketing and Sales automation purpose.

In the middle of October in Atlanta at Cobb Galleria Centre I attended Salesforce event with introduction of Marketing Cloud - re-branded acquisition of ExactTarget. One of most memorable story was about Trunk Club that used LinkedIn job changes as opportunity to congratulate and offer discount for renewal of formal wardrobe - "dress for the Job you want, not the one you have" kind of marketing pitch. Growth of sales was astonishing and this precedent made me think of era of Just-In-Time (JIT) Marketing. Just-in-Time concept originated from Toyota Lean Manufacturing where the storage of unused inventory is considered a waste of resources. In similar way, creating marketing message with broadcast to masses can also be considered waste of resources, especially considering damage to brand when email is perceived by recipient as spam. In contrast, 1:1 marketing message, like one introduced by Trunk Club, hardly be perceived as spam even if recipient will not convert to customer.

And natural question that comes to mind is why not use LinkedIn natively for such Just-In-Time marketing, by displaying relevant message at the moment when profile is updated right there at LinkedIn.

Next features that needed to upgrade LinkedIn Contacts into CRM platform are:

• ability to send email to LinkedIn gateway that convert automatically into Note associated to contact; optionally adding contact on the fly if new
•  add support for custom forms that would allow entry of custom attributes, including even order entry
• which effectively bring e-commerce support and need for payment processing using credit card on file for premium LinkedIn accounts
• and last, but as personal favorite and not business driven, - support to operate with LinkedIn data via old-fashioned SQL

And maybe even LinkedIn can introduce paid sales pitch with profit sharing, where if somebody wants to make sales presentation to contact he would pay $X for pitch and Y% of that will be allocated/accrued to recipient. Accrued amount to be usud for only paid LinkedIn services or for Charity Vouchers - making it lucrative for VIP to signup for LinkedIn and make, even small, but still effective difference in making world a better place.

With above possibilities and native access to Social Graph it maybe that Linked, and not SalesForce, can be winning battle for Just-In-Time Marketing - the next big thing in driving B2C and B2B sales.

best regards,

Roman Havrylyak

12/11/2013

Paid Password Reset and 3rd Party Authenticator

 In modern age average person has to keep in memory dozens of passwords. And i noticed that some of rarely used websites i even don't bother to remember password and go straight to password reset. Which brought me to thought that others probably are experiencing same nuisances with passwords on rarely used web sites.

So one way to solve the problem is to install Password Manager on your computer and let it intercept all your password entry and store them securely. But downside of this approach is privacy concern - web  plug-in, installed by software vendor, can easily violate privacy and gather TMI (too much information) about consumer.

So idea came up to outsource password management to 3rd party if you cannot remember your password when accessing website. There 2 options:

1. one is that 3rd party can reset password for fee, that is shared with website owner. This way website owner can make small cash as reward to introduce 3rd party password reset.
2. second option is that 3rd party takes responsibility of authentication and then pass authorization token to website to grant access

 Obviously there were plenty of attempts to build outsourced authentication and authorization- oldest, i believe, was Microsoft Passport introduced in 1999. But downside of those attempts is that website may loos control over customer data. Mixed mode, where web site ultimately controls consumer identity, but outsource password reset to 3rd party with option to upgrade to 3rd party authentication and authorization, provides best of both worlds.

If 3rd party password management can add functionality similar to Google Authenticator to add 2nd factor authentication, then value of service is increased even more by offering NFC-authentication. For example, with presence of cell phone with installed Authenticator all i need to access web site is enter unlock sequence for mobile app. As oppose to Google Authenticator that is showing numeric sequence that i need to manually enter on website.

There must be option to combine convenience of entering login and password directly to website; as well as option to simplify password reset or even need for password without privacy concern with password managers.

best regards,

Roman Havrylyak

12/9/2013

Next Gold Rush = JOBS Act driven by Army Veterans with GenerationY Geeks

After EuroMaidan, ongoing protest against President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, failed to convince majority of Verkhovna Rada to dismiss current government of Mykola Azarov the major question became what next. By dismissing violent confrontation the only choice seemed to dismiss protesters, following the fate of Occupy Wall Street rally in 2011. Well, there is still hope that Yanukovych resigns (like Yeltsin did in 1999) and Ukraine would have chance for new Verkhovna Rada and President.

But over weekend i read articles that Afghanistan War Veterans joined EuroMaidan and are effectively acting like shield between police and protesters. Also Iraq War veteran, as part of multi-national force in Iraq, built effective strategy "Warm Ocean" to peacefully confront current corrupt regime in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Army Veterans at EuroMaidan brought to memory personal story with US Army Veterans.

At summer 2008 i was at risk to loose health insurance with 8 month pregnant wife, former employer requested to leave US or face deportation, family friend turned his back, plus i got served for court dispute over contract terms violation. In midst of all these problems i got call from Ukraine. It was my Mom who with joy in her voice said that she found solution. Somewhere in local newspaper she read that USA grants greencard (permanent residency) to those who join US Army. I was skeptical, but did look around for US Army Veteran for consultation. The only person that we knew was US Army Veteran and agreed to help was Ramona Carpenter. My problems slowly got resolved after i got new consulting engagement, so we didn't even tried to join US Army. But I did get out of it new family friends.

Years later i got opportunity to return favor to US Army Veteran. Colleague voiced to me complaint on coworker, who happened to be US Veteran. Matter of complaint was not a big deal, just emotionally triggered incorrect words. So i asked colleague to let it go. It just didn't feel right to escalate. But what i learned from complaint was that US Veteran was in somewhat similar position that i was in 2005 when first arrived to USA with H1B visa. So in addition to letting go of complaint i decided to help US Veteran with job "upgrade". Long story short - goosefraba (see "Anger Management" movie for word definition).

Last month on Veteran's Day i read interesting article in Washington Post called "To Honor Veterans, Hire Them!", where there was estimate that close to 800 Veterans will be transitioning from military to civilian life style and quote "valuable skills and experience, such as leadership, teamwork, self-discipline, problem solving, quick thinking and experience working in a mission-focused environment". 

Interestingly enough recently after joining Rotary Club of Knoxville i was assigned to Mainstream Committee, where one of possible Service Project can be to help US Veterans after active duty to adopt to civilian lifestyle, find job, etc.

But this time I want to try different approach. This year, in late January, as part of Tech2020 i had privilege to listen presentation from Lisa Skinner from Ackerman PR about their trip to learn StartUp climate in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Biggest takeaways from that presentation were:

• Bomb shelter - as “special” room to work out disagreements before anybody leaves shelter.
• Next was lack of established authority or entitlement. The fact that all have to prove over and over their expertise means significantly reduced lifespan of technical skills.
• Next was staff redundancy forced by 20-30% of staff being on temporary military service. It must force knowledge transfer to level almost impossible to achieve today at US companies.
• And last one - not surprising at all - that innovation in military warfare drives innovation in public sector.

So if Mainstream Committee service project will happen to be with US Veterans than i would most definitely will try to spin something similar what Israeli are doing - merge US Veterans and young geeks into StartUp brainstorming domain. Because if my experience of direct help to US veteran thought me a lesson, that would be - empower Army Veterans to solve their own problems. And that empowerment could be just what is needed for JOBS Act, signed in Congress in 2012 with effective date January 1st, 2013. Nature of Equity based Crowd-Funding is so powerful and disruptive to old-fashion Wall Street, that SEC (Stock Exchange Commission) cannot release rules to public. Well US Veterans could be just right compromise - to let only US Veterans to be allowed for general solicitation without limitations; and keep current solicitation limitation to only accredited investors.

If employers care about Army Veterans they should hire them, but if Politicians care about Army Veterans they should empower them with permission to solicit or hustle, as it is defined in StartUp world - ability to persuade for investment or sale. StartUp team in software world has been sometimes defined as Hacker, Hustler, and Designer.

And once SEC, under pressure of politician, removes general solicitation ban for US Veterans completely and therefore allow full functionality of JOBS Act then alloy of US Veterans & Young Geeks may start what can be known in future as next Gold Rush - Equity based Crowd-Funding of StartUps!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/8/2013

Ukrainian to be or not to be dilemma: Tsar or Yeltsin?

Last week, after police used force against peaceful rally in favor of Eurointegration, Ukraine woke up and started multimillion people protest - EuroMaidan - against President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

East of Ukraine believed it is all orchestrated by NATO, West of Ukraine believed it is all sanctioned from Russia. Only Yanukovych was relatively quiet, show no reaction that anything wrong is going on in country. Took a business trip to China, then, according to rumors, to Sochi, Russia to sign Customs Union and received financial support from President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

Actions of Victor Yanukovych are either genius master plan or total ignorance of Ukrainian people.

In 1st case we can expect resignation speech at New Year eve, like President of Russia Boris Yeltsin did in 1999. Silence, failed attempt to resign government of Azarov, signing union agreement with Russia, and, hopefully, making resignation would make Victor Yanukovych a national hero. Think about it:

• Ukraine got better deal out of Russia (I'm pretty sure that with EuroMaidan protests Vladimir Putin had to sweeten the deal)
• after Yanukovych resignation Mykola Azarov, as temporary executive power, has no chance to win in coming presidential elections (so makes sense why voting his resignation failed)
• Ukraine would vote for pro-European Verkhovna Rada (parliament) and President
• Lifted spirit of Ukrainian people with lowered economic pressure from Russia would boost productivity and significantly improve life today - which means Victor Yanukovych slogan he came to power with is effectively executed
• Donbass Keeps Promises (Донецк порожняк не гонит - could not find accurate English translation) is not just marketing slogan, but mission backed by deliverable
• And in future Ukrainian history singing deal with Vladimir Putin would be known same as Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Sultan of Turkey

 In 2nd case, where all actions about giving order to beat students, ignoring EuroMaidan, and signing deal with Russia reflect true and deep ignorance of people of Ukraine and establish lifetime ruling of Yanukovych family - effectively making him Tsar of Ukraine.

But in both cases, it is best at this time, to start active negotiations with ruling party. Statements a-la "my way or no way" that frequently coming from EuroMaidan, are just not productive anyway. One of most hard-to-accept lesson during my employment in USA was one manager's quote - "You make what you negotiate, not what you deserve!"

Another valuable American quote is "Dress for the job you want, not the one you have!", which in context of EuroMaidan means that people need to make plans like Ukraine is already member of European Union:

• start making pledges (personal commitments) to change their lives to better European standards like reduce alcohol consumption, quit smoking, start learning foreign languages, etc.
• empower politicians from opposition to negotiate rules of transparent re-election
• ideal would be to offer economic and tax amnesty to ensure that new people in power would not start "witch hunting"
• etc.

And maybe even, Ukraine has to start negotiating with European Union rules of entry to EU for the whole Russian Customs Union.

I sincerely look forward for 1st case!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/6/2013

Eurointegration and Moscow Olympic Games

Recently university classmate Vlad Sergeyev made reference to quote often referred to as Chinese Curse - May You Live in Interesting Times.

With what is going on in Ukraine now around Eurointegration i tend to agree - interesting times indeed. But as i perceive history, the process of EuroIntegration was started by Moscow long time ago.

In 1978 Western Europe and USSR started discussion about building natural gas pipeline from Siberia to Uzhgorod known as Urengoy - Pomary -Uzhgorod. Project brought political controversy to such level that event is referred to as Transatlantic Crisis during Cold War. Nowadays, especially after its cost to modern Ukraine and impact on my life, I call that project "damned pipeline" - compliments to famous quote of Ronald Reagan "Well, they can have their damned pipeline. But not with American equipment and not with American technology". It is probably destiny that i live now in neighborhood off the road named after one of best modern age US Presidents - Ronald Reagan.

But back to "damned pipeline". Because of shortage in equipment my hometown Uzhgorod got brand new factory TurboGaz - one of leading manufacturer of equipment for gas and oil pipelines. I'm not the person to tell about TurboGaz much, but it impacted me personally: 1st, it gave me my first blue collar paycheck as locksmith of 3rd grade (слесарь 3-го разряда) in 1988, and 2nd, it brought to Uzhgorod in early 90s first private venture - cooperative "Spoiler" (manufacturer of garages for personal cars) - enterprise that gave Uzhgorod garage-like kiosks and was, supposedly, ran by Valeriy Birman. His son, Felix, recruited me in 1994 to support 2(!) computers for political campaign of Uzhgorod most controversial mayor - Serhiy Ratushniak. Later at Felix wedding with room filled with people dancing to Jewish tune Hava Nagila if somebody would have told me what people are telling about ex-mayor now, i would call them insane and dial ambulance. Really sad...

But going back to 70s. Year later, in 1979, Soviet Union started war in Afghanistan, and later, because of it, countries led by USA declared boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. I sometimes think that "damned pipeline" was real reason for boycott, not war in Afghanistan. But regardless of reason, the Soviet leaders did not take boycott well and started massive propaganda of coming Olympic Games. Bear with Olympic rings on his belt , official mascot of games, was seen everywhere. Some overly enthusiastic communist decided to put mascot even at Chess Olympiad.

My parents were first generation of college graduates working as math teacher (Mom) and mainframe software engineer (Dad). Pursue of Education was more important for my parents than pursue of Happiness. So when it was time to choose school the choice went immediately to #1 rated school in Uzhgorod. But I was only 6 years old and in School #1 parents were told to wait another year. They didn't want to loose the whole year and mom found way to enroll me in School #5. Later, to make sure I'm busy, dad signed me to study chess at Palace of Pioneers. Chess coach was World War II veteran (i believe  his name was Tokarev) and all i remember now that he was amazing teller of stories about WWII...

Couple years later official Chess Club of Uzhgorod hosted Chess Olympiad for high school students. I came just to watch, but to one of city team was missing player for desk #2 and I was asked if i can play. I agreed. Big mistake. Team of 4 players were ranked by their skills and had to play at appropriate table: best player at 1st table, next best at 2nd, and so on. My table was #4 as least skilled. But then one of player suggested to put me at table #2 where missing supposed to play. Reasoning was clear: with shifting up chess tables our #3 and #4 would had to play stronger opponents with ranking #2 and #3. By violation of rules we were better if i went to table #2 to play 2nd best opponent and leaving weaker opponents and chances to win to my teammates. Agreed again and even bigger mistake. 

 

My opponent seeing me as opponent got condescending and rushed to beat me in chess match. Made mistake and lost one pawn. Got serious, then worried, then pulled it together. Game was going extremely slow as i kept capitalizing pawn advantage. Rook ending with pawn advantage is one of most complicated to calculate in chess. And I was "drowning" in calculation, had to start over and spent too much time. Chess clock started to lift my red flag

Now it was my time to start worrying, opponent smiled watching my peaks at the clock. After couple of minutes the only option left was to offer truce. Our team already lost at 3 other tables, so outcome didn't really mattered. Opponent accepted truce. I received congratulations for well played game, but it didn't matter. I cried because i didn't win. 

 

Few weeks later i got diploma with printed Moscow Olympic Bear and recognition in junior sport achievement. Whoever came up with idea to reward chess players sport titles did not understand what is definition of sport in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. Football was and is as big as gladiator fights were in Ancient Rome. Now if you add to this that my school class had nephew of famous player from Dynamo Kiev then you can picture how well i was accepted  by classmates. I decided to drop chess and switch to hockey.

 

Few weeks later older by couple years neighbor from same apartment block - Aleksandr Mateyko - approached me with unusual request for help. It was start to what i now call adventures of Ukrainian "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". We became friends for years, but in 1989 we had fight, caused by my family legacy that i was not allowed to know until almost the end of USSR. We barely spoke again. I thought he owes me an apology, but it didn't happened. After his tragic death in mid-90s i didn't even say final goodbye as I couldn't hold tears and was embarrassed to enter night club. I left flowers at his grave only after funeral ceremony was over...

 

Olympic Games since 80s are so dear to my heart, that I actually dreamed to host Eastern European Olympic Games in Uzhgorod (together with 4 other neighboring countries) when President of Ukraine Kuchma announced course for Eurointegration dozen years ago.

 

It is meant to be for Ukraine to join European Union. That direction was set 30+ years ago by that "damned pipeline".

 

 

Roman Havrylyak

12/5/2013

Mentoring Capstone Project

After Occupy Wall Street protest movement and their explicit statement about lack of jobs for fresh graduates i was curious to understand why USA so heavily depend on foreign graduate workers - H1B visa holders. Casual conversations led slowly to some understanding of Education Reform in USA, and most interesting specific field - STEM - stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Locally at Knoxville, TN i got minimal exposure to 2 programs: STEMspark and STEM/NOVA Award at Boy Scouts of America. Both programs focused on middle and high school students.

So naturally interesting was participation as mentor at TNAchives to learn about how things are with school graduates willing to earn college degree. Learned interesting statistics that in USA college graduate versus non-college graduate makes $1 million dollar more in employment lifetime.
  
Next opportunity to understand the education to employment gap presented this year when co-worker, graduate of Pellissippi State Community College, asked if our company has idea and will to mentor Capstone Project for under-graduate students. We agreed with idea to build intrapreneurship web portal - Idea Management System. Capstone experience was so good that company later invited one team member for summer internship. By end of internship our intern had series of interviews lined up... 

But most eye revealing was presentation of Capstone projects last spring, there were only half-dozens companies willing to devote time to mentor Capstone project.


Finally i found the bottleneck in supply chain of skilled workers in STEM field - shortage of volunteers willing to share their practical knowledge with under-graduates and mentoring them through the Capstone process.

If this shortage is common, and considering that i live in Volunteer State i do believe it is, then introducing tax benefit for companies willing to participate in Capstone - Internship - Employment pathway for new graduates from US colleges may be just that incentive that improves employment rate in USA. And also contributes to chain effect of building Culture of Giving Back - one of key component of economic sustainability of any country.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/4/2013

Crowdfunding Good Cause plus Rating of Politicians

Recent events in Ukraine caused a lot of brainstorming in social networks about how Ukraine should move forward. With 9 years old quote "Money beat Evil" in mind the always sensitive topic is how to fund good cause idea, not to mention political takeover.

Crowd-funding of political campaign, as it works in Tier1 countries (a.k.a. G7) - USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan - will not work as efficient in 3rd world countries. For simple reason of mistrust that funds will be used appropriately.

So thinking brought me back to idea of Volunteer Branded Money, but with new pivot in terms of how money go to charity.

Original idea was that volunteer helping with crowd-selling would have direct decision to where 10% of charitable amount goes. But with shift to fund political movements the new idea is to offset decision to politician - bringing effectively another layer into chain of "consumer - volunteer - politician - charity".

Once consumer records passive demand in certain goods or services then volunteers would suggest best option. Once sales is completed then volunteer would nominate trustee - political leader of personal choice - to act upon allocating sales commission to good cause.

This way society can quickly identify ratings of most trusted political figures and empower them with cash flow to make difference - one little good cause per each facilitated sale.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/1/2013

Snail e-Commerce Checkout - inspired by Google Internship

In movie "The Internship", rented last weekend, I liked idea of mobile app that prevents phone owner from sending messages under influence by asking complex equations to validate sane and sober mind.

Similar approach can be used in preventing impulse purchases by delaying checkout - Snail Checkout - for validation of "ROI" (return on investment). In this context phone would intercept entry of credit card and request for validation of purchase. To make good cause spin on this app if the owner decides to cancel checkout then 10% of amount would be accrued for charity of owner's choice.

On the other hand if during checkout alternative product is found, offered, and purchased then merchant would owe 10% to charity of choice by app owner.

The idea of preventing or intercepting impulse purchases with "strings attached" to charity may be one of game changers (or shaping) in e-commerce world by reducing buyer remorse. This way damage to brand by bitter customers can be significantly reduced if merchant adopts integration with snail checkout. In this case 10% from not happened transaction will go to charity of merchant choice.

Without experience in mobile development would be curious to hear how complicated (or feasible) development of such app could be.

Is business model to offer snail checkout viable?

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/1/2013

Orange Revolution and bodyguards of Ukrainian future

Tonight history of Ukraine took new and unpredicted turn after fatal mistake of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych - sanction to use police forces against peaceful Euro-integration rally at Maidan (Independence Square)

and one more

Ukraine, since fall of USSR in 1991, remained the only, i believe, former Soviet Republic that did NOT use police force against peaceful political rally of citizens. That non-violent moratorium ended tonight. As of yesterday I was very skeptical about success of students rally in favor of integration with European Union, but today all changed... Why? The answer is 9 years old - Orange Revolution.

Back in year 2004 i was working on implementation of Oracle e-Business Suite at JSC "Khartsyzsk Tube Works" and rented apartment in downtown of Donetsk, Ukraine - stronghold of Party of Regions and hometown for presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. My personal choice was with his opponent Viktor Youshchenko. Our implementation team was split between pro-Russian Yanukovych and pro-Western Yushchenko. But with colleagues with Mensa IQ (above 98th percentile of Ukraine population) all discussions were extremely intelligent and charged, but without even sign of rudeness or violence. Especially challenging were discussion with one of strongest IT leaders in modern Ukraine - back then strong and very logical advocate of Viktor Yanukovych. True nature of discussions were only about Yanukovych, with very little reference to Yushchenko, or in other words voting for Yanukovych or against him. Major economical power and probability of prosperity were on "blue" side (blue is official color of Party of Regions). The only things against Yanukovych was his personality - best described by his supposedly criminal nickname "Ham" (eng. Cad) - person of unprincipled and dishonored behavior. Mathematically we were arguing about probabilities in simple formula of expectation:

Future of Ukraine with Yanukovych = X*Economy - Y*Personality

where X was probability of driving economic prosperity to Ukraine, and Y is probability of destroying nation's morale and integrity.

But things changed after November 21st, when 1st round of presidential election were considered rigged in favor Yanukovich. Thousands of people rallied at Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) to protest. Official symbol of protest became orange ribbon worn on shoulder.  I was not bold enough to wear orange ribbon in Donetsk, so opted for orange shirt, quietly. After few days later my manager noted that I'm in same shirt few days in a row and made comment about personal appearance. As Oracle consultants were we suppose to always look sharp and be always right. Words "I don't know" were simply not acceptable. So comments about untidiness i countered with reasoning that it is political statement. This started discussion whether wearing orange shirt in Donetsk is courage or cowardice.

Later that week i found the answer with taxi cub driver nicknamed Sotiy (100th in Russian) originally from Georgia. We met early in 2004 when train Kiev-Donetsk was late and it caused argument with driver of taxi cub #100 when I refused to pay for train delay. Later in cab on my way to Sarmat - one of leading beer manufacturer in Ukraine and back in early 2004 also client for Oracle e-Business Suite implementation, i overheard comment from CB radio that cab driver was 1st in queue for another client. So i asked him whether it was his Birthday. Driver was very intrigued and asked how i know. So i told him that back in 1998 when i moved from Uzhgorod to Kiev i had trouble finding a job and worked unofficially as taxi cab driver myself. Usually taxi drivers queue works in FIFO mode - First In, First Out. But when driver has birthday just for him queue is changed to LIFO - Last In, First Out. This simple change allows 10-15 times higher revenue on birthday day. Tone of conversation changed to friendly and, as birthday gift,  i made arrangement to use cab #100 as preferred on daily commute to work.

So back to November 2004 proffered taxi cub Sotiy was driving me to work in my orange shirt when traffic jam stopped us. With all the Georgian attitude, honking and verbal comments, he started to maneuver to get us through slow traffic. But suddenly on my side of car a driver from parallel car pulled out the handgun and started to yell to let him go first. Sotiy, when noticed pointed at us handgun, lost patience completely. In censored and politically correct way he sounded like "When man pulls the gun he pulls the trigger!". After these words i got really scared. Looking at handgun i was only thinking "please do not pull the trigger", but was not able to say a word. How long arguments between Sotiy and driver with gun continued i don't know, but gunman did not pull the trigger and we drove first...

Back in school days i read story about ancient Roman commander who personally selected bodyguards by walking with them into dark room with chained tiger (or lion). General would then observe first instinct of candidate - grab the sword to fight or frighten and stood still.

That road incident gave me my answer about courage. There was no courage at all in wearing orange shirt to work...

At work I asked for transfer to Kiev. With context of discussion about orange shirt my manager approved it immediately. Next week i started project at TDC - post-warranty truck and agricultural gears repair company. Presence in Kiev allowed active participation in Orange Revolution.
 Now, 9 years ago, the answer about risk to Ukraine, imposed by personality of Viktor Yanukovych, is answered loud and clear.

But beside the above formula, the most memorable quote from orange Revolution was "Money beat Evil" (in original "Бабло побеждает Зло"), which simply implied that any good cause movement will eventually loose without sustaining financial support. 

All people in power needed to stop recent EU rally of students is wait. There was no financial support efficient to keep "fire" going. Majority of people i talked to were very skeptical about students success. But young Ukrainian students showed true courage and passed the ancient test for bodyguards - bodyguards of Ukrainian future.

Only miracle can now keep President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in power.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

November 30th, 2013

Large Hadron Collider and US Immigration Reform

Last week i had a followup meeting with CloudAnt and RackSpace after visiting their office at San Antonio, Texas back in September during SAS JMP conference. And as usual in this blog it triggered lots of dormant memories...

It is very interesting how little sometimes needed to spot "winner, winner, chicken dinner" - catchy phrase from movie "21" that was based on famous MIT Blackjack team. Back in summer, intrigued by the hype around BigData, i went to NoSQL Now conference in San Jose, California. One of session with introduction of exhibitors had every sale pitch clocked by running down timer that would turn off microphone at the end. Presentations were average until one presenter stood out by making joke about teleportation of information. I have no clue why joke was funny, especially considering physics terminology. But next participant, after mentioning his MIT background, continued and countered the joke by bringing even more complex terminology from physics. By reaction of original author of the teleportation joke i understood immediately who is "winner, winner, chicken dinner" - it was MIT graduate Mike Miller from CloudAnt.

But this story is not about CloudAnt, but about how CERN and Large Hadron Collider - one that triggered End-of-World fears back in 2008 - changed my vision of US immigration reform. 

Few years ago during Oracle OpenWorld I met Anton Topurov - database administrator/manager from CERN with Russian-Bulgarian roots. During quick chat our discussion pivoted into immigration process in Switzerland - one of the most conservative country in terms of allowing immigrants in. Interestingly enough, based on input from Anton, immigration law is not that restrictive. It is nature of the law that makes it restrictive - every immigration case is voted by citizens of Canton where applicant lives. This process of making case to residents of community drives true perception of conservatism of immigration to Switzerland.

Later that night i got thinking - what if USA would have same immigration rule where County residents would have vote on each immigrant. That thought led to realization that i was doing nothing for local community. I lived in USA as H1B temporary worker on purely "What Is In It for Me" basis.

Few weeks later, after return back to Knoxville, TN, i received corporate email asking for volunteers to become mentors at TNachives - last dollar college scholarship with mentoring support. Thanks to Switzerland I volunteered and started 1st year as mentor for TNachives, effectively starting chain reaction from "What is in it for Me" to "What is in it for We", and recently, with participation in Boy Scouts of America, to "What is in it for my Kids"... But that is another story.

Couple days ago i read article on Mashable about "Hackathon for Immigration" and could not think of better way to reform US Immigration Law as to let residents of US counties vote for each immigration applicant. It will drive enormous support from wanna-be US residents into good cause projects at local communities and build solid foundation of sustainable economy and country - culture of giving back. 

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

11/24/2013


p.s. TNachives is still looking for volunteers to be mentors; due date is extended till November 27th. There is no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving as to volunteer in good cause that will allow you to harvest lots of "thank you" later. Pay forward by Thank you forward!

Volunteer Branded Money

Last week post about ShopSnapShot idea got more views in one week than rest of posts in couple of years. But most interesting discussion around idea happened on Facebook with ex-colleagues from Ukraine - Alexander Smirnoff and Vyacheslav Chukin. Started with solid arguments why ShopSnapShot will NOT work the discussion slowly pivoted into what my colleagues had cooking in their heads.

Most interesting was Trillint - Store Credit Marketplace for Business Communitites where loyalty to business community is rewarded with store credit that can be used in any store that belongs to community. Simple idea to grow strong communities can be now backed up with financial relationships. As discussion kept evolving around store credit I remembered quote about definition of strong community (I believe originated from Israel): "every dollar brought into community has to cycle at least 6 times within community members before may leave to community alien". Now, with Trillint this rule can be technologically supported.

But most interesting is pushing this concept even further - beyond store credit or rebate programs.
What if:

• any demand of community member can be recorded as lead 
• (via email, ShopSnapShot, ShopVoiceMemo, SMS, or even Like on Social Network) 
• then nurtured by Community Volunteers into actual sales with local business, 
• then, after sales completed, business commits 10% (Tithe rule by Old Testament) or more to community cause
• Good cause is determined by volunteers that nurtured the lead.

Now once proof-of-the-concept for Community Volunteers CrowdSelling is vital the next phase would be to organize local non-profit organization, that accumulates tithe donations for funding bigger community projects. And finally last step would be to create Community Volunteers Credit Union to provide interest free loans for local volunteers as recognition for good will they created.

Overall hours of volunteering effectively may be considered as Volunteer Branded Money. This final idea is very close derivative from TNachives program where "Students are required to complete at least eight hours of community service each semester of college.  This creates a culture of giving back and allows the students to explore potential career opportunities within their communities. "

And what better place than Knoxville, Tennessee - can be true origin for Volunteer Branded Money!

Go Vols!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

11/23/2013

ShopVoiceMemo - another CrowdSelling idea, but originated from uploaded voice memo

Tonight downtown club "Standard" in Knoxville, Tennessee hosted StartUp Day 2013 - celebrating entrepreneurship. Out of over a dozen sales pitches the memorable, that have chance for national or even global recognition, were only two: FiveWorx by Patrick Hunt and musical entertainment from Jonathan Sexton.

In fact performance from Jonathan kind of reminded movie Ice Princess when newcomer dancer turned on the crowd. By watching how people reacted by clapping in tone to his music I thought "he is going places" and tried to shazam his song to purchase it. Shazam did not recognize the song nor the singer. During break I had quick chat with "going places" musician and told him about bad experience to purchase his song. Conversation quickly switched to indie and StartUp Day 2013. I started to pitch Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and how SEC (Stock Exchange Commission) is delaying definition of rules of the new game - Equity CrowdFunding.

Later at home, after googling musician, i found that he also is entrepreneur and even won MTV Music App Award according to interview from local TV station - WBIR.

Interestingly that impulse decision to purchase his song via shazam led back to idea described in blog post last week - ShopSnapShot - about how convenience to capture lead and slow-nurture it to sales may create new trend - CrowdSelling. In context of music it maybe something like ShopVoiceMemo, where person records song memo (or simply voice memo), then uploads to CrowdSelling site for quotes and suggestions from Internet users.

Next level of CrowdSelling would be Equity CrowdSelling, but only after SEC officially published rules for JOBS Act.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

11/21/2013

FidoNet and CISCO

On November 2010 I happened to be at Middlothian office, state Virginia, where i learn American Thanksgiving tradition

and met Sharon Madere - host of our corporate retreat. One of most memorable discussion was about how she grew her business via VIPs. And not as Very Important Persons, but Very Influential Persons. Once you have favorable feedback from Influential People in your industry your business is strategically a success, rest is tactics.

That discussion brought back memory over IT talent war in Uzhgorod, Ukraine back in 90s. After 1st successful sale of computers brought from Budapest, Hungary I started to look closer into PC sales. Personal Computers were a luxury, not a commodity back then, and each individual sale was thoroughly prepared. Just for comparison of efforts, i would assume it was same as today sales of houses. Key influencers for purchase happened to be computer geeks, back than closely affiliated to FidoNet - global computer network of BBS (bulletin board system). Internet was not yet easily available in Eastern Europe, and where was it was simply cost prohibitive. So FidoNet ruled the ball. In order to be successful in computer sales you had to have VIP from regional FidoNet.

I managed to recruit 2nd best FidoNet geeks in Uzhgorod, Ukraine:

Discrete Manufacturing of Personal Computers in hotel "Uzhgorod"

But the #1 was out of my reach - he worked for at regional branch of Utel.
When I inquired what it may take to recruit him the answer was simply - no chances because Utel provided superior access to Internet backbone.

Intrigued by answer I asked my computer vendors in Kiev - capitol of Ukraine - what it takes to bring dedicated internet channel to Uzhgorod. Few months later in year 1997 I got phone call with question if I'm still interested in leased internet line. When I said yes, the colleague told me that president of biggest ISP of Ukraine will be in Uzhgorod next week and I can meet him for detailed discussion. Biggest ISP back then was LuckyNet and CEO was Sergey Gulchuk (Сергей Гульчук).

Meeting was scheduled at outdoor cafeteria of hotel "Uzhgorod". Sergey drove American car - luxury in mid 90s, which, as he told me later, was purchased from very famous Ukrainian entrepreneur - Semion Yufa.

Conversation very quickly revealed that level of investment to bring quality leased Internet channel from Kiev to Uzhgorod i do not have. And most important that I won't have user base to cover operational cost even if i find investment. So just to kill time before his wife returned from pedestrian walk in old part of city - Korzo, Synagogue, Medieval Castle, and etc. - we started speculating about future of IT. Sergey Gulchuk was very categorical - future is with CISCO. While all my networking experience back then was based on Windows 3.11 and Novell, i was naturally curious about unknown next big thing - CISCO. Sergey went for very long discussion about OS (operating system) that powers CISCO routers and finished his dialogue with very memorable quote. Something like, you learn CISCO OS and you are set for life with employment anywhere in the world!

Next year i got internship, sponsored by US AID, TexasNet - biggest ISP in Texas.

  server room ISP TexasNet

Then in 1999 was hired by Schwarzman Isajas(Evsej) as billing and accounting developer at ISP UkrNet and finally get to work with CISCO NAS series 26xx and 53xx. Later in year 2001 as delegate from UkrNet participated in founding of UA-IX (Ukrainian Internet Exchange) and InAU (Internet Association of Ukraine).

UA-IX - founding fathers and mother

But that is another interesting story...

Overall hunting for best geeky talents from FidoNet back in Uzhgorod, even though not as successful as i hoped, and dreaming big opened a lot of opportunities and amazing career in IT. I still am occasionally called crazy when i voice some ideas or dreams. But dreaming big, and i don't mean big money, is something that nowadays young millennial generation have explicit deficit of. 

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

Lala

Несколько назад недель получил в LinkedIn приглашение от Lala B. - консультанта с компании Facebook. С подходом к сетевым контактам LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) приглашение принял, но сразу же потом получил спам о сервисе торговли валютой на бирже Forex. К вечеру LinkedIn уже удалил акаунт спамера полностью. История исчерпана, но она напомнила другую историю связанную с Лала.

Работаю в США по временной рабочей визе H1B с 2005-го года, но все еще никак не могу избавиться от акцента. Иногда вопрос "Oh, you have accent. Where are you from?" возникает сразу после банального "Хай". Ну хоть "привет" можно было бы научиться без акцента говорить. Но, увы...

Но однажды вначале 2012-го года в магазине "Город Еды" (Food City) ко мне подошла женщина и спросила "Вы с Украины?"

Говорю "Да, но как Вы узнали?", я же с ней, ни с кем либо другим, даже не разговаривал.

Ответ "Вы носовым платком ботинок протирали" 

В США стиль жизни очень "чистый": гараж - машина - парковка - офис/магазин/ресторан/и т.д., таким образом ботинки всегда довольно чистые. Но, как говорится на Родине, свинья везде болото найдет. И каким-то образом ботинок подобрал немного грязи. Настоящий украинский джентельмен для протирки ботинок использует носовой платок, ну а для носа есть всегда мизинец (ну или другой палец подходящий размеру ноздрей). Вот за этим занятием американка и распознала мои украинские корни...

В последовашем диалоге она расказала о своей недавней поездке в Украину за ребенком из детдома. Дорога от Киева была довольно грязной и посредник после каждой остановки, перед тем как залезть в свой автомобиль, протирал свои ботинки носовым платком. Позже когда американская пара выбрала себе дочку и сблизилась с ребенком, посредник поднял цену вдвое и ни на какие устапки не шел. Таких денег у пары не было и они, уже смирившись с ситуацией, хотели возвращаться домой. Но их церковь, узнав о ситуации, собрала недостающую сумму с прихожан и перевели им деньги чтобы закончить процесс удочерения.  

Стало стыдно, что во мне узнали украинца по поведению схожему как у торговца детьми. Это, надеюсь, был последний раз чтобы я пользовался платком не по назначению... ну или мизинцем "по назначению"...

Уже в конце разговора американка спросила знаю ли я слово "Лала", которое их дочка иногда говорит - единственное украинское слово их дочери, как посчитала американская пара. Я ответил что не знаю в украинском языке слова "Лала". "Может это имя?" спросил я. Но американка ответила что дочка говорит это слово когда идет спать. Не имея никаких больше вариантов я уже было хотел распрошаться и уйти с недочищенным ботинком...

Но потом решил переспросить, может слово не "Лала", а "Ляля"? Американка взволновалась и сразу согласилась что я говорю это слово с таким же акцентом как ее дочь.

Пришлось задержаться подольше, чтобы обьяснить что слово "Ляля" это кукла. Мягкое "Л" научить выговарвать было довольно сложно, но американка старалсь и в конце разговора пообещала что будет пользоваться этим словом постоянно вместо "долл" (кукла на английском). Так всего лишь одно слово останется маленькой ниточкой связавающей американского ребенка с Украиной.

Несколько недель позже в Украинской Греко-Католической Церкви имени Св. Томаса мне предложили научить прихожан молитвам на украинском языке. Вспомнив историю о Лала сразу ж согласился. Кстати в 1988-м году из-за 4-ки по украинскому языку и литературе я закончил школу только с серебряной медалью и побоялся ехать поступать в МФИ (Московский Финансовый Институт). По иронии судьбы (ну и правилами совка) - что сам недоучил тому других стал учить.

Маленткая церковь, где нет ни одного американского прихожанина знающего украинский язык, стала на несколько недель мостом который позволил украинским иммигрантам в 3-4 поколении сблизиться немного с языком своих предков.

Так получалось что мизинец стал не у дел, но...

После фильма "Despicable Me"  мне несколько раз говорили что мой акцент напоминает главного героя - Гру. И благодаря второй серии сериала, где Гру подтверждает обещание с помощью мизинца - Pinkie Promise,  я наконец нашел чем занять "скучаюший" мизинец. Теперь большинство договоренностей с первоклассницей-дочкой подтверждается Pinkie Promise.

best regards,
Роман Гавриляк

ShopSnapShot - e-commerce platform via CrowdSelling

Recently during presentation of ShopReply - Australian start-up in e-commerce trying to bridge offline media with convenience of 1-click online shopping - i got curious to what level consumer convenience in shopping can be pushed.

One of idea came to check if service exists where consumer makes picture of something he likes (or wants) and get vendors bidding on his passive demand. Did not find one yet... but remembered couple of examples of services with uploading snapshots.

CardMunch from LinkedIn completely disrupted business card exchange protocol. Previously you would take business card and then manually send invite via LinkedIn or just type into contact database. Now i take card, make snapshot with CardMunch, then return it back to owner. Usual question "Is something wrong with my business card?" starts few minutes discussion and demonstration of CardMunch - it breaks "ice" and provide immediate favor, even though very small, to person you just met. Great networking tool...

Convenience of snapshot is backed up by Russian proverb "It's better to see once than hear a hundred times". Then it's been capitalized with success of SnapChat, especially after they turned down $3B acquisition offer from Facebook.

So seems odd that i could not find service that allows shopping by sending quick snapshot of desired goods and allowing businesses to offer prices.

Platform can even evolve into ecosystem, where anybody can view uploaded picture and tag it with URL to retailer's e-commerce site. This way if snapshot author clicks and complete the purchase then person who facilitated sales with tagging will accrue store credit or earn hard cash.

This concept without even any programming can be tested via Twitter by using hashtag #ShopSnapShot, for example, (or #SnapShop #ShopBySnap etc.) and see if anybody is monitoring hashtag, views picture and replies with URL to where pictured product can be purchased.

If proof-of-the-concept via Twitter is viable, like MVP (minimal viable product) then actual portal can be built to facilitate commission or accrue points, or earn loyalty feedback and corresponding badges...

with best regards and all rights reserved,
Roman Havrylyak

P.S. CrowdSelling - think of the service like Salesforce.com for B2C where leads are captured via uploaded snapshot; and then pushed through sales funnel by volunteers who suggest where to buy. 

P.P.S. Alexander Smirnoff with his project trillint.com actually inspired synergy why volunteers would do vendor suggestions to uploaded snapshots - community support. Vendors participating in trillint.com would commit X% of sales to be spent on community projects. 

Win-Win-Win-Win:

1) Win for consumers as all price research is done by volunteers

2) Win for volunteers as their job is rewarded by funding for community projects

3) Win for vendors as their business get sales without marketing overspending

4) Win for communities as members are more connected and community ties get stronger

Prime Consulting

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - famous quote from novel "Anna Karenina" by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy - i believe is applicable to consulting practices as well in form of "Prime consulting are all alike; but every subprime consulting is subpriming in its own way".

While it is easy to criticize subprime consulting practices the real value, inspired by positive reinforcement, is coming from promoting and establishing best consulting practices: Win-Win-Win

Win for Client, Win for Partner, and Win for Vendor.

Since over 20 years in IT and over 10 years in IT consulting i know of 4 people in USA that shaped my understanding of Prime Consulting - 3 that i know name, but never met, and 1 that i met, but didn't understand/remembered her name.

Russian immigrant Boris, Hungarian immigrant Laszlo, and Jewish Deborah - they all are founders of consulting companies for Oracle e-Business Suite - companies i took the most from in terms of personal professional growth.

But most interesting is story how i met 4th inspiration...

I was assigned to project where all consultants, except me, were from India. Project room, also known as war room - term borrowed from military and political campaigns, was big enough to accommodate all 10-12 of us. Everybody was busy with own tasks and learned to tune out constant flow of business users, project managers, and senior staff. Room had constant noise and reminded human bee hive...

One time with side vision i noticed that all consultants started to raise from chairs and unusual silence filled the war room. Confused and intrigued i looked around and behind me was standing small women in Indian clothes saris (thank to Google for picture and derived name). I stood up as well with single thought "Who Are You?"

I guess my face was revealing my thought as women smiled and asked me first "Who are you?"
My answer was not clear, i guess, as she replied "Nice to meet you Roman Fromukraine" ("from Ukraine" sounded more like one word last name).

She walked whole room and personally greeted every consultant and during this ceremony everybody kept standing quietly.

After she left I asked colleagues who that was, but answer was not definitive. Finally at lunch one colleague told that women is mastermind of consulting practice from India that grew from zero to $1 billion in yearly sales.

Financial results were impressive, but most amazing was to see respect from colleagues. Consultants are known to be one of the most egoistic and not caring professions, so seeing them give standing silence to lady from India was very memorable moment. The only component i would add to make scene perfect is Pen Ceremony as it was seen in Academy Award winning movie Beautiful Mind.

In process of reverse engineering best consulting practices the stories from colleagues from India were always very valuable.

But over last couple of years i had privilege to engage in discussions with colleague from rising consulting practice in Ukraine. And slowly I'm getting to believe that what they doing is analogy to Fifth Element that in connection to Russian, Hungarian, Jewish, and Indian know-hows will shape my understanding of future Supreme Consulting and can completely disrupt Subprime Consulting.

LinkedIn group Prudent Consulting Act is place to keep discussions about shaping future consulting practices.

Join and share your stories about best consulting practices... and learn more about Supreme Consulting.

best regards,
Roman "Fromukraine"

United Way

Couple of years ago, September 2011, i planned to attend lunch where Jim Haslam was promoting United Way - non-for-profit organization to support communities with main focus on education, income and health. I missed it, but did sign pledge for year 2012. It was my first charitable contribution that was substantial and re-occuring deduction from each paycheck.

Interestingly enough reason to sign up the pledge has its trace to back in USSR, year 1989...

At last year in high school I planned to study at Moscow together with 2 friends from Uzhgorod school #15 - Dmitro Popovich (Дмитро Попович) and Yaroslav Gricko (Ярослав Грицько). But "B" grade in Ukrainian literature led to only silver medal, and unfortunately, there was nothing to do in Moscow at one of  "Ivy League" University - "Moscow Finance Institute" - without school gold medal (full name, Gold Medal for Remarkable Success in Study and Work and for Exemplary Behavior).

So as plan B i applied to local community college - Uzhgorod National University. My freshman years were very boring, until Dr. József Holovács (Головач Йосип Гнатович), back then Dean of faculty of Mathematics, approached me and Alexandr Smirnoff with offer to spend summer as interns at joint Soviet-American venture "United Way".

In 1987 Soviet Union legalized founding and operations of joint ventures between USSR and foreign countries. One of first joint venture between USA and USSR was named "United Way" and later had branch opened in Uzhgorod, Transcarpathia- gateway between USSR and 4 countries: Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

Offer was accepted on the spot and in couple of weeks we met our mentor from United Way - Jacob Timoshenko (Яша Тимошенко). It was very interesting assignment to write on Turbo Pascal piano simulator. My first software project had almost 1000 lines of code and ...

Usually back then student were required to write code on paper and then signup for computer hour to type, compile, and test. Personal computers were managed in same way as mainframes. If error happened then there rarely enough time to fix it right there in front of PC; so person would leave home, re-read his code, find and fix mistake and then come back only next day. Cost of mistake was whole day of lost productivity.

So having dedicated PC for whole work day and ability to write directly to Borland IDE was biggest value from United Way interhsip.

So when Jim Haslam 2 years ago gave speech for pledges i was thinking that United Way of America was parent company of same venture i had internship with more than 20 years ago back in USSR. Turns out that it most probably just coincidence ... but if you happened to know more about joint venture please do share with me!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

Inrideo Quod Non Intelligunt

Recently on social network coworker posted picture of tattoo with word "Intelligunt" with assumption it is grammatical error of the word "Intelligence". I offered to start hashtag #intelligunt to post similar oxymoron stories.

Turns out the word is from Latin phrase "Damnant Quod Non Intelligunt", which translates to "They Condemn What They Do Not Understand". Though person wasn't condemned, but rather ridiculed, the story did bring comment "you got trolled" :-)

And new phrase was born - "Inrideo Quod Non Intelligunt" -  "They Ridicule What They Do Not Understand" as Latin short alternative to famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi:

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

SalesForce2.0 - Rental Economy

Last week during discussion of the value in investment into SalesForce.com I recalled Marc Benioff quoting advice from Steve Jobs:
“Steve once told me there are three things you have to do,” he said. “Number one, you have to be 10 times larger in 24 months or its over. Number two, you need to get a huge client on your service like Avon. Number three, you need to build an application economy. I said, ‘What’s an app economy?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, but you better go figure it out.’” (see more).

As Marc Benioff mentioned in interview to Forbes his way to figure "application economy" out was AppExchange - platform that allowed purchase of add-on to SalesForce developed by third-parties.

But last month there were few of announcements that may dramatically change Application Economy:
- Salesforce Identity announced last year at DreamForce became generally available on October 15th, 2013 and allows customer to purchase without license of Sales automation;
- then on October 31st next announcement - Salesforce Private AppExchange which allows company to centralize enterprise applications and their provisioning.
  
Together these 2 things brings interesting speculation - Salesforce is building Private Application Economy - platform where developers can build B2B apps for all business users, even those beyond direct licensing of Salesforce.com.

Enterprise software (B2B) development can get disrupted as much as Apple AppStore disrupted B2C software development. But with big difference - Apple AppStore focused on single payment/purchase, while Salesforce AppExchange is focused on subscriptions (re-occurring monthly payments) - much more favorable business model for software developers.

ERP2.0 group at LinkedIn can get brand new focus now, as it won't be long when all ERP functions can be purchased a-la-carte from AppExchange without need to become customer of sales automation. Effectively giving Salesforce chance to repeat what Amazon did - built technology platform to support core business of selling books so good that, after selling technology as service, platform is now bigger business than books!

But if Marc Benioff has his sight beyond Steve Jobs "Application Economy" advice he might as well considering building Rental Economy - where not only apps can be purchased on AppExchange, but any products with e-capabilties (internet of things). And soon not only customer leads will be funneled on Salesforce, but leads for e-things as well...

And this New Economy is so big that even old enemies are uniting to not choke on it.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

11/8/2013

P.S. 11/17/2013 - one day before DreamForce conference in San Francisco interesting update to support idea that Salesforce.com is following merged path of Amazon (techstack for sale) and Apple (B2B apps store) http://gigaom.com/2013/11/17/salesforce-com-wants-to-sell-your-mobile-apps-to-its-customers/

Subprime Consulting - inception of Prudent Consulting Act

In 2012 at OAUG Collaborate conference in Las Vegas at dinner table with executives from one of leading US consulting company i brought term "Subprime Consulting" as analogy to subprime mortgages that led to financial crisis in year 2008.

Concept was that same as subprime mortgages, subprime consulting ruins market and may lead to consulting industry crisis.


With books like The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business or House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time the subject of value coming from consulting companies is getting hot.


Statement from Harvard Business Review blog "why we love to hate consultants" about consulting business model being "at risk of going away with the rise of big data and increasing ability of companies to sort of crunch their own numbers with the right databases and the right software" does not help to clear the future.

Idea to discuss in more details what Prime Consulting is and how to formalize consulting industry led to creation of LinkedIn group Prudent Consulting Act


As subprime mortgages became banned/ highly regulated it seems appropriate to introduce consulting standards and ethical norms for Prime Consulting.

Join our group to continue this discussion started 2 years ago at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

Monetization feature for Social Networks that both Facebook and Google+ are missing

Couple years ago at Enterprise2.0 conference at Silicon Valley i met Oliver Marks from back then Sovos Group. In discussion around collaboration within enterprise i shared quote we used at RSC for E2.0 initiative - "Collaborate by Sentences, not Chapters!", that was later twitted and picked up some traction within hashtag #e2conf. Later i followed Oliver on Twitter and one of his quote became favorite in social networks discussions - "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."

Later i changed the quote to end with "you are Finished Good with unfinished BOM", where BOM (Bill of Materials) implies personal information of "customer" that is not yet collected. Well, and Finished Good obviously implies "product being sold".

So as result all discussions about privacy invasion on free web services is just simple BOM exploration by manufacturer :-)

On serious note I'm promoting concept where access to social networks is paid service, but with opportunity to gain money back in partial, full, or even with extra. Simple idea is that paying consumer would have completely ad-free environment, which is not big deal. But enhancement of this is that each "like" of paying customer is allocating fraction of his monthly fee to content owner. Fraction is determined as 80% of monthly fee divided by number of likes per month. 20% of monthly fee goes to Social Network revenue. Accrued cash to content owner can be redeemed only when becoming paying customer as well.

For example, if i pay $10 per month to access Facebook without ads, better privacy protection, and with SQL-like access to data (always been a dreamed feature) and during month i liked 10 posts from 10 different "social friends" then each post owner would get accrued 80 cents ($10 x 80% / 10 likes). In order to be eligible to redeem accrued amounts 10 owners would have to sign up for premium service themselves. Accrued cash never expires and keeps growing to lure customer to paid service. And Merry goes round and round and round...    

This simple process may encourage to post better quality content as there is incentive now to generate "likes", and encourage to become true customer by signing up for paid service of ad-free experience with option to earn cash.

And maybe i can see time when Facebook or Google become Database-as-a-Service with granted SQL access to data and only optional skin to present data in adhoc website mode.

September 15th, 2013
Knoxville, TN

Texas Marketing and Ukrainian Football

Last week i visited San Antonio, Texas for JMP Discovery Summit - conference for statisticians interested in exchanging best practices, learning proven statistical techniques and spreading the power of analytic excellence across their organizations.

Decision to visit came from BigData buzz going on for awhile in IT industry. While BigData is mostly approached today from perspective of computational parallelism for terabytes of mostly unstructured content the alternative is to approach it with complex statistical techniques. And desktop software JMP is best market response for in-depth statistical analysis of data.

But this post is about pivot that happened last week. Few weeks ago I signed up for trial version of distributed database as a service - CloudAnt. After few email exchanges with account manager I was offered to visit CloudAnt office at San Antonio, conveniently co-located at Rackspace - one of the biggest hosting and cloud provided in USA (and most probably in the world). With JMP Summit ending around noon on Thursday i had few spare hours and agreed. It turns out to be most exciting event of the whole trip.

Rackspace office is former shopping mall, that was purchased and transformed into technology mecca. Read more from NY Times article.

While million plus square feet office is amazing by itself the true wow moment came when Rackspace employee told me that he got confused that my record as prospect in SalesForce is like years old.
 
It reminded of small engagement i had with football club Arsenal Kiev back in 2002. Team was purchased by then Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko as city municipal club and he invited as head coach Vyacheslav Hroznyi from famous Moscow club Spartak. With new head coach club set very aggressive goals and to support the excitement management create PR plan to grow number of raving fans. Part of the plan was also redesign of club's website that was struggling with less than 100 visitors per day. I already had agreement to support FC Arsenal Kyiv IT infrastructure - compliment to old friend from Uzhgorod. So naturally offered my service to run website redesign project.

First major decision was whether to go with established design studio or individual web designer. As our goal was to create public buzz about FC Arsenal I offered to run public competition. Idea was accepted and Vyacheslav Hroznyi became head of jury (plus 2 representatives from club administration). While over dozens of web developers competed in building new web design for FC Arsenal i went on search for quality  hosting. After internship at ISP TexasNet i had very fond feelings for San Antonio, Texas so young hosting company from same city - Rackspace - became immediate favorite. That is when i contacted them and asked for quote for dedicated hosting.

At the end of competition i got better offer from ISP in Ukraine and didn't purchase hosting from Rackspace.

11 years later they still had record of that old inquiry, the record successfully migrated from old marketing system to new cloud based one - SalesForce, and was updated last week with new business opportunity in BigData.
 
Huh, the fact that company keeps prospects for so many years was "jaw dropping" experience - Texas style marketing.

To Be Continued...

September 14th, 2013