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