FLAME OF KNOWLEDGE

Top 8 Key Takeaways from Google Ads & Analytics Innovations Keynote for Marketers

2016-06-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Did yo get a chance to attend 'Google Ads & Analytics Innovations Keynote' that was held on Tuesday, May-24-2016. I did attend and found there were eight key takeaways for marketers from the session of over one hour duration.

Exhibit: Speakers at Google Ads & Analytics Innovations Keynote, May 2016.

From left: Sridhar Ramaswamy (image credit: moneycontrol.com), Jerry Discheler (image credit: linkedin.com), Brad Bender (image credit: linkedin.com), Matt Lawson (image credit: thinkwithgoogle.com) Samantha Lemonnier (image credit: linkedin.com), Babak Pahlavan (image credit: linkedin.com)

The speakers often repeated ‘mobile first world’ during their presentations to emphasize importance of mobile platform to target customers.

If you are a marketer, you need to be aware of these eight key announcements:

For text ads, headlines can have 30 characters (instead of current 25) and description can have one 80-character line (instead of current two 35-character lines) now.
Display ads will be responsive and resize themselves to publisher’s native ad inventory. Google will take care of responsiveness.
Individual bid adjustment at device level is possible now for targeting mobile, desktop, or tablet. This has been a long pending demand.
AdWords will have a completely revamped interface, however, it will be available to all probably in second half of 2017. Only big AdWords accounts will get an early bird invite in a few months’ time for beta testing. The demo of new interface was impressive.
‘Similar Audience’ bidding has been introduced in AdWords to target users with a similar browsing behavior as that of own website visitors in remarketing list.
Cross Exchange Inventory: Google will offer extended Ad inventory now beyond DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM) and Google Display Network (GDN) by partnering with 3rd party exchanges
Google Data Studio will soon have a free version to be released to public. Users can create up to 5 reports in free version of Google Data Studio. As of now Google Data Studio is part of Google Analytics 360 suite ($150000/year) and the speaker said the aim of Google Data Studio is to reduce to and fro email of spreadsheet based reports (what we or any other organizations are used to doing). The live demo was super cool with three users together creating a dashboard in 3 minutes using Google Analytics and AdWords data. The sharing feature was something similar to Google Docs.
Talk to Google Analytics in natural language to get reports, something similar to Google Now in Android phones or Siri in iPhones.

If you think there are any noteworthy points missed in the above list, please feel free to comment below.

How to Check if a Website is Using SiteCatalyst for Tracking and Web Analytics

2015-06-07T07:28:00.002-07:00

Do you know Amazon.com does not use Omniture SiteCatalyst (Now part of Adobe Digital Marketing Suite), but Makemytrip.com does use SiteCatalyst. And once upon a time Jabong.com was using Adobe, but they have dumped it now. Let me make clear at the beginning: I am not part of Amazon nor Makemytrip nor Jabong. So how could I know this? I will teach you 'How to Check if a Website is Using SiteCatalyst for Tracking and Web Analytics' in this post.

Step #01 Create a bookmark

On your browser open any website (say www.google.com) and bookmark it.

Step #02 Copy Script from Adobe Digital Pulse Debugger Page

Search for Adobe DigitalPulse Debugger (also called Adobe Marketing Cloud Debugger) and open the link below:
https://helpx.adobe.com/analytics/using/digitalpulse-debugger.html

Now copy the script below the section, 'Setting up the DigitalPulse Debugger'

The script is something like this:

javascript:void(window.open("","dp_debugger","width=600,height=600,location=0,menubar=0,status=1,toolbar=0,resizable=1,scrollbars=1").document.write("<script language='JavaScript' id=dbg src='https://www.adobetag.com/d1/digitalpulsedebugger/live/DPD.js'></"+"script>"));

Step #03 Rename Bookmark Name and Update URL with the Script Copied in Step #02

Now edit the bookmark created at Step #01 above.

Now use this new bookmarklet on any page to know if the page is sending any data to Adobe server.

Testing:
Now open Makemytrip.com and while you are on Makemytrip page click Digital Pulse Debugger bookmarklet. Data on right side column are all captured in Adobe Server against the parameters mentioned on left. This shows that Makemytrip uses Adobe digital marketing suite of which SiteCatalyst is one tool.

Now open Amazon.com and while you are on Amazon page click Digital Pulse Debugger bookmarklet.

It shows No Requests Found. This shows that Amazon does not use Adobe digital marketing suite. What other eCommerce sites you found that use Adobe SiteCatalyst?

About Author: Satyaranjan Mohanty is a marketing professional who specializes in end to end delivery of digital marketing: strategy creation, execution, mapping, evaluating, analyzing, fixing issues, ROI calculation and provide actionable insights

Three steps to include Creative Common License on your blog hosted in Blogger, Technology

2014-07-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

Are you an active blogger and publish content on internet? Do you own a website? If yes, then it is very likely that you might want to include copyright notice to readers who would be interested in copying your published work for their personal or professional work. This copyright notice is called ' Attribution' for your published work. In Blogger, attribution facility is included in the default template layout. The default attribution property can be set by logging to Blogger, and going to Layout. Many bloggers simply put a personal message for attribution message. Example of such messages are 'Contents are copyrighted', 'All post are subject to copyright' and 'Sharing allowed only under author's name with link to this blog' etc.

Exhibit: To set default attribution in Blogger

However, it is better to use Creative Common License Attribution on your blog if you want to allow your readers to copy contents for their work. Moreover Creative Common License can be customized and is accepted worldwide.

Exhibit: A sample Creative Common Attribution

To include Creative Common License to your blog hosted on Blogger, you need to follow three simple steps as follows.

Step 1
Go to Creative Common website to choose your license. Then copy the code (technically called HTML code) from the window as shown below.

Exhibit: Choose Creative Common License copy the code

Step 2
Now the code copied need to be pasted in a 'HTML or JavaScript Code Gadget' in Blogger. Go to Layout section of Blogger. Click 'Add a Gadget'.

Exhibit: Add a new HTML/JavaScript gadget

Step 3
In the new window search for 'HTML/JavaScript' gadget and click the plus icon against it. Now paste the code copied earlier and click on Save button to save the gadget.

Exhibit: Add a new HTML/JavaScript gadget

Exhibit: Paste the code copied earlier

Now check it on your blog. Creative Common License should appear on your blog now. Ofcourse, you can rearrange the gadget in layout to show at a place you want. There is alternative way to do this, i.e. by changing the HTML code of page, however, I would suggest not to play around the HTML code of your page for this simple task.

Two steps to remove McAfee completely from your Windows, Technology

2014-07-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Have you faced difficulty in removing McAfee that comes as a default antivirus program with your system? Even after uninstalling the program, traces of McAfee keep running in background and block many programs to run including web browsers!

From McAfee's official support website I found that two simple steps need to be followed to remove all traces of this antivirus.

Step 1
First uninstall McAfee using 'Add and Remove Programs' in Control Panel. You could use 'app.wiz' in command window (press window key plus R) to quickly go to 'Add and Remove Programs' of Control Panel.

Step 2
Then download McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR) from McAfee website and run it on your system to remove all remaining traces.

I have been using Avast free antivirus for quite some time and it is working absolutely fine. It is a very light antivirus and never makes system slow.

Selected Time Zones with respect to Indian Time

2013-12-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

During booking appointment with clients based from across globe I used to refer several websites and Chrome extensions for checking time. At last I ended up creating this table. Now this is my point of
reference all the time.

Time difference	Country/Location
+1:30	Indonesia, Asia
+1:30	Malaysia, Thailand, Asia
+2:30	China, Asia
+3:30	Japan, Asia
+3:30	South Korea, Asia
00:00	India, Asia
-1:30	Moscow, Russia, West Europe
-1:30	South Africa, Africa
-4:30	Nigeria, Africa
-4:30	France, Germany, Italy, Spain, West Europe
-5:30	UK, West Europe
-5:30	Morocco, Africa
-7:30	Brazil, Latin America
-8:30	Argentina, Chile, Latin America
-10:30	Canada, USA, North America
-11:30	Mexico, Latin America

Hope, it helps all my dear readers too!

Technology: Move photos between albums in Google Plus

2013-06-05T01:05:00.001-07:00

Those who are familiar with Picasa web album of Google might find it difficult to move photos between albums in Google Plus. Google Plus team have tweaked the functionality of moving photos/videos between albums. In Google+, you have to copy photos and then delete them afterwards from original album. There are two ways to do this. The author personally feels organizing albums is intuitive and better in Google+ compared to other services.

"Quick Info 1: Do you know, Google is upgrading storage limit to 15 GB per user and this will be a unified storage limit across Google products such as Gmail, Google+, Drive. Earlier it was 5 GB for Google Drive."

"Quick Info 2: In Google Plus you can upload unlimited photos and videos of standard size. By standard size, Google says they are best for web sharing, and have a resolution designed to look great on tablets. Please check this Google Plus help link for more information."

Method - I: Move photos/videos from current album to another one

Open any album >> Select photos

Fig: Click on tick mark on top left of photo to select it

Click Copy to album on top. On next popup, select the album to which you want to copy theses photos and then click Copy button. Selected photos will be copied to new album.

Fig: Copy selected photos to another album in Google+

Then come back to original album to delete those photos you have copied to a new album.

Method - II: Move photos/video from another album to current album

Open any album >> Click 'Add Photos' button on top right

Fig: Click 'Add Photos' to copy photos from another album

In the next popup, click 'Albums' and then click on the album from which you would like to copy photos/videos. Next you need to select the photos you would like to copy and click 'Done'.

Fig: Select the photos you would like to copy from the other album

Now go to original album to delete those photos you have copied to current album.

Technology: Talk To Google! Google's Speech Recognition is Superior to that of Windows Speech Recognition of Microsoft

2013-05-28T03:58:00.002-07:00

Google has finally made search more interactive. Currently it is available on Chrome browser only. If you are not a Chrome user, download and install it to experience interactive search. While searching on Google, on right side of search box, a microphone symbol appears; just click that. It will ask for your permission to use microphone; grant access. Now speak anything you want to search. Interestingly if there is content from Wikipedia, Google's speech recognition reads out aloud for you!!

It was there for quite sometime, but the upgraded audio search facility is working great. The old and new search features are shown below.

Fig: Google's old voice search feature

Fig: Google's new voice search feature

Have you tried Windows' in-built Speech Recognition before? Go to start and type 'Speech'. Click and run 'Windows Speech Recognition' >> Click microphone symbol to switch it on >> Open a Notepad >> Start speaking to computer. Windows Speech Recognition will write for you in the Notepad.

Fig: Windows Speech Recognition

If you compare both, Google's speech recognition edges Windows Speech recognition when it comes to non-native speakers of English. Microsoft need to improve its Speech Recognition tool.

Technology: Opera Browser has the best in-built download manager!

2013-04-23T16:06:00.001-07:00

If you are downloading a file from internet and a disconnection happens in between, then you need to start the download from beginning. If there is slow speed and frequent disconnection happens, then it worsen the situation. How about starting download wherever left after internet connection is resumed? There is good news. You need not have to go for Download Accelerator Plus software or Download Them All add-on for Firefox.

Exhibit: Opera browser's download manager

After experimenting with different browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera, I discovered that this feature works perfectly fine in Opera's download manager. Opera downloads the files from where it left. None of the other browsers handle it so well albeit they claim. You can give a try with Opera's download feature.

English: Best Online and Offline Resources To Improve Pronunciation in English

2013-03-27T04:58:00.001-07:00

Note: The author is thankful to all his colleagues, mentors and teachers who have helped him in improving English communication. The links shared here have been collected from various sources since 2007.

How does a child learn mother-tongue? As a child grows up, he/she first listens, then imitates and speaks, and then learns how to write language, but for non-native speakers of language, it is often the opposite. In terms of time spent, it is not the sequence listening-speaking-writing, but the sequence writing-speaking-listening that is followed. A non-native speaker of English is taught how to write letters, connect words to create sentences and then correct usage of grammar so that he / she can talk correct English. This is why speaking English does not become natural and spontaneous. So listening and repeating is the key to improve pronunciation in English for non-native speakers. Here are some simple, yet useful tips for non-native speakers of English language.

Listen to 44 sounds in English and practice related words
Listen to podcasts / talks and and repeat them along with the speaker
Listen to audio books
Read news / books aloud and listen to yourself
If you are fond of music, then listen to English music and sing along with the singer
Watching English news and English movies improves listening skills and hence pronunciation
Practice in front of a mirror, this will boost confidence
Practice tongue twisters

Online Resources:

To practice sounds in English check this YouTube link. British Council has developed a free application called 'Phonemic Chart' with a easy to use interface. It guides you how to pronounce all sounds of English and some related words. Click here to download this application (name: 'TEphonemic_GreyBlue21').

Here are some of the best online resources for improving spoken English.

TED Talks: TED is a forum where eminent personalities are invited to deliver talks on subjects of their expertise. Click here to go to TED website. It is noteworthy to mention that, TED website has transcript for all videos. Here is TED's YouTube page.
American Rhetoric: If you are interested to listen to famous speeches delivered by great leaders, you can visit American Rhetoric.
BBC Learning English: Check BBC Learning English website for hundreds of audio files accompanied with script.
British Council's Professional English archive: Click here to check hundreds of audio files along with scripts from British Council.
BBC Podcasts: BBC periodically uploads documentaries in MP3 format at this location.
Audio Book: There are audio books available for free here. You can download and listen on your mp3 player or mobile phone.
At Google Talks: Famous authors, musicians, innovators, and speakers of all stripes are invited to this forum 'At Google Talks' which is organised by Google at its head office. The videos are uploaded to YouTube here.
The RSA: The RSA is a similar forum like TED Talks. Here is the link to their website. The link to their YouTube channel is here.
Toastmasters: Toastmaster is a forum that nurtures public speaking and leadership quality of a person. To know more check their YouTube page.

Offline Resources:

Apart from online resources we have offline resources which can help our pronunciation skills.

Wordweb Dictionary can help to pronounce a word or a sentence correctly. Just copy and paste English sentences to search box of Wordweb Dictionary and then click speaker icon.
Windows speech recognition tool. Dictate to computer till it writes what you dictate.
Microsoft Word's tool that can read the document for you.
Adobe PDF Reader or Foxit PDF Reader's tool that can read the document for you.

I have explained about Windows Speech Recognition it in second half of the post on Google's voice search. Explanation to other tools will be given in separate posts.

Academia: How to analyse a Business Case

2013-03-17T16:01:00.001-07:00

Case based discussions are integral part of curriculum in any B-School. You may be loaded with case studies as pre-reads for your MBA course. I will discuss briefly how you can approach to analyse a case study deriving heavily from my experience as a student of 1 year PGPM course at Great Lakes Institute of Management. Approach differs from person to person. I will put forward the framework I have developed. Feel free to comment on this post with your perspective.

The 1 year PGPM program at Great Lakes comprises of around 40 subjects with a total credit of nearly 120 with an an average of 5 case studies discussed per subject. Most of the case studies that are discussed are from Harvard Business School and few from Stanford.

A case study based discussion is helpful for future managers because,

Real business scenarios are presented in a case study in a story telling manner, so you would appreciate the MBA learning by applying those concepts in case analysis
You get diverse views from people from different backgrounds, so you will get many innovative ideas / approaches for solving the business problem which you may not be able to think yourself
Learning is enjoyable as there is lively participation and logical arguments
It elicits intellectual thinking which a monologue lecture fails to call forth
Find alternatives, do feasibility study and choose the best one

The beauty of a case study analysis is that, it is analysed differently by different people. Professors from marketing, operations, finance, strategy or HR analyse the same case differently by applying frameworks/conceptual models they teach in their respective fields. The primary aim of in most case analysis revolves around how the company is performing against industry and where it stands compared to its nearest competitors.

A case study may be of around 3 to 30 pages with numerous exhibits and tables. Let us categorize them as short and long cases.

Short Case: Up to 5 pages, you can go through easily in one go.
Long case: Those case studies having discussion / text part (excluding exhibits) more than 5 pages, can be considered as long case studies.

Steps:

Create a spreadsheet for the case study. Start updating it following the points mentioned below. At first go through first and last section of the case study quickly. Have a quick look at all exhibits. This will give sufficient insight to identify the problem statement. This can be done in 5-7 minutes. We need not have to go through the entire 30 odd pages to figure out the problem statement! Identifying the problem statement is crucial in any case analysis.

Case Facts: In the spreadsheet start with a section 'Case Facts'. This section can be updated with further analysis of the case. This section should ideally have following sub-sections.

Company
Core Business

Key strengths
Weaknesses

Characters that the case revolves around (Stakeholders)
Time of case (when the case was written)

Then add the following sections in the spreadsheet.

Problem Statement / Issues to be addressed
Situation that led to the issues
Data collection and analysis (Quantitative frameworks)

Cost benefit analysis (Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis)

Breakeven Point, NPV/IRR, Paybak period etc.

Analysis of financial ratios

ROA, ROCE, DSO, DPO, DIO, CCC, Altman Z-score etc.

Forecasting

Moving average, Exponential smoothening, Market size etc.

Apply different qualitative frameworks

Portor's 5 forces
CK Prahalad's Core competency
4 Ps-4 Cs model
Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat (SWOT) analysis
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix
Pareto (80-20 rule) analysis
Political Economic Social Technological (PEST) environment analysis
Vital Essential Desired (VED) analysis

Recommendations / Conclusion

Once your spreadsheet is completed, you can easily create a flawless presentation out of it. The last three points mentioned above need further explanation.

Data collection and analysis:

Our Operations Management professor Dr. Vaidy Jayaraman often says, 'If you cannot measure, that does not exist!'. It is true in business context because business believes in numbers more than gut feeling and hence tries to measure everything. Even unquantifiable parameters are measured by associating a scale (e.g. use of likert scale of 5, 7 etc in a survey or performance appraisal) to it. Similarly in a case analysis, if you come up with a data analysis to support your points, your justifications will be unanimously accepted.

The challenge is which data is relevant. Usually data are scattered all over in a case with many irrelevant to our analysis. As mentioned above some data analysis techniques frequently applied are: Cost benefit analysis, Analysis of financial ratios, Forecasting etc. Once there is clarity on what data analysis you want, there will be clarity on what data inputs are required. These data inputs can be found from:

Balance Sheets, Profit & Loss statements, Cash Flow statements
Certain assumptions mentioned in the case study
Tables and graphs
Footnotes

Finding data inputs from assumptions and footnotes is little tricky as you might miss them while going through the case. Do use the tools like highlighter while going through the case to highlight sections that has data points that might be useful. Sometimes we go with certain assumptions for some data points not given in the case.

Apply different qualitative frameworks:

Applying different qualitative frameworks provides further insights into the problem, which are not obvious through mere data analysis. Out of several frameworks mentioned above, Portor's 5 forces and SWOT are widely used.

Recommendations / Conclusion:

Now that you have done data analysis and applied different qualitative frameworks to arrive at multiple alternatives. Apply logical reasoning to arrive at the best alternative.

Academia: Financial Statements Part II - Financial Ratio Analysis

2013-01-25T05:48:00.002-08:00

In Financial Statements - Part I, we covered basic concepts and set the context for the topic 'Financial Statement Analysis'. In this post we will cover Financial ratios.

Note:
1 - Link to a sample solved paper on financial ratio analysis (Excel sheet) and offline version of this post (PDF) is shared towards end of this post.
2 - The author is grateful to Prof. Tarun Chaturvedi who taught these concepts and created interest in the subject.

Why do we use Financial ratios?
We use ratios to analyse financial statements because

We can compare a company against the industry average or other similar companies in order to benchmark or measure a company’s performance
We can even compare a small company with a big company without the distortion of different number sizes
We can see the trend over time the without distortion of different number sizes
We can compare Financial statements that are in different currencies easily (ratios or percentages are free from units of currency etc.)
Management can decide where to look closely based on ratios

Note:
1 - Which financial ratio is to be considered for analysis depends on the type of industry and context.
2 - The guidelines cited here are generic and describe ideal scenarios and there are always exceptions. For example, ideally Current Ratio > 1, but for big FMCG companies like Unilever it is much less than 1 as Unilever solely focuses on branding and outsources manufacturing to other companies and hence current assets is significantly low.
3 - No one ratio should be used in isolation during analysis to draw inferences.
4 - There can be many more financial ratios that can be formulated to analyse financial health and/or operational efficiency of an organization. This discussion will limit to commonly used ratios.

Scenarios worth mentioning
Trading in Share Market - How Ratios play important role
Investment in Share market is a careful and informed decision. Knowing some ratios that explain the fundamentals of a company and comparing them with the industry values is vital for a successful trading in share market. Some of the financial ratios that are checked are: P/E, P/BV, EPS, Dividend Yield and Dividend Payout Ratio.

Managers and Investors - How Ratios play important role

Ratios	What they ask
Profitability ratios	Managers: Are we profitable? Investors: Are they profitable? Should we invest?
Liquidity / Short-term solvency ratios	Creditors: Can they pay us back? Managers: Can we pay our bills? Do we have extra cash? Auditors: Can they pay bills?
Capitalization / Leverage / Financial structure ratios	Creditors: Can they pay us back? Managers and Investors: Is there too much or too little debt?
Activity / Efficiency / Asset management ratios	Managers and Investors: Are we efficient in our operations? Investors: Are they efficient? Should we invest?
Shareholder / Market test ratios	Investors: Are they paying well to shareholders? Does the company worth more than Book value?

Typical financial ratios

Profitability ratios

Gross profit margin
Operating profit margin
Net profit margin
Return On Asset
Return On Equity
Return On Capital Employed
Effective Tax rate

Liquidity / Short-term solvency ratios

Current ratio
Quick ratio / Acid test ratio

Capitalization / Leverage / Financial structure ratios

Debt-Equity ratio
Debt ratio
Equity ratio
Equity multiplier
Interest Coverage ratio
Fixed Asset to Net worth ratio

Activity / Efficiency / Asset management ratios

Asset Turnover ratio
Fixed Asset Turnover ratio
Inventory Turnover ratio
Receivable Turnover ratio
Average Collection Period
Operating Cycle

Shareholder / Market test ratios

P/E ratio
P/BV ratio
Earning Per Share
Dividend Per Share
Dividend Yield
Dividend Payout ratio

Altmann Z-Score (A combination of ratios)

Profitability Ratios

The following flow should be kept in mind while calculating some profitability ratios.

Note that almost all the figures mentioned in the above flow are mentioned in P&L statement of the company. Net Profit / PAT, is often referred as Bottom-line in company's earnings and Sales / Revenue is called as Top-line in company's earnings. Usually to check operational efficiency, we restrict to EBIT - we do not think about Interest and Tax as they are finance aspects of the company. Tax is the only component that does not contribute to company's operations, but reduces the Bottom-line. So, Tax planning (not Tax evasion) is a must.

COGS: Cost Of Goods Sold
SGNA: Sales and General Administration expenses
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
PBT: Profit Before Tax
PAT: Profit After Tax

Gross Profit margin:

Operating Profit margin:

(Net) Profit margin:

All the above three ratios indicate management's ability to convert sales dollars into profits and cash flow. More the margin, the better it is.
Return On Asset (ROA):

Return On Equity (ROE):

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE):

where
Capital Employed = Stockholder's Equity + Avg. Long-term capital employed
= Fixed Assets + Working Capital

Total Equity = Shareholder's money = Value of outstanding shares.

Total Assets = Long-term Assets + Current Assets

ROA is a measure of a company's effectiveness in deploying its assets to generate profits. ROE is a measure of a company's ability to generate a return for its owners (shareholders). More the ROA, ROE, and ROCE the better it is. When analysing ROE of two companies, always consider comparing ROA to find out whether the corporate is thinly capitalised because ROE does not take into account Debt part of company. Since ROCE includes long-term finance, therefore it is more comprehensive test of profitability as compared to ROE.

Effective Tax Rate (ETR):

ETR is a measure of percentage of Earnings that is paid as taxes. This is especially helpful to compare two companies who pay Taxes in a progressive, or tiered tax system where there are different tax slabs. Generally, ETR < STR (Statutory corporate Tax Rate). Statutory corporate tax rate is 30% for domestic companies in India while ETR is between 20% and 22%. Between two companies, the company with higher ETR shows that company has higher earnings.

Lower ETR implies, fraction of PBT, that is paid as Tax, is low, which in turn implies that Taxable income might be made low by the company. How Taxable income be made low? Firms can exempt some income from tax as per provision by Income Tax rules, write off the cost of assets faster than their actual decline in value, or claim tax credits for certain business purchases and thereby make Taxable income low.

A relatively stable ETR over 3-4 consecutive years confirms a better operational efficiency of the company. If there is wide variance in ETR over 3-4 years, then the company's operational efficiency is considered to be low.

Liquidity / Short Term solvency ratios

Current ratio

Current Asset and Current Liability can be obtained from BS of the company.

Current assets (straight cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable, and inventory) are the assets of a business expected to be converted to cash in next 12 months. Current liabilities (short-term debts, accounts payable, and other debts and liabilities) are the obligations of a business which are to be settled in next 12 months. Current ratio measures a company's short term liquidity i.e. its ability to pay its short-term liabilities such as debts, bills etc.

CR	Interpretation
> 1	Ideally this is true for all companies.
> 2.5	Company has many un-utilized resources or the company intends to have safety cushion by having higher current assets such as inventory.
< 1	Company has high liabilities than assets. Investing in this company is riskier.

Quick ratio / Acid test ratio

Current assets include straight cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and inventory. Often it is difficult to convert inventory in to cash. Quick ratio / Acid test ratio is a better estimate of short term liquidity of a company since it excludes Inventory. Higher the value, the better it is.

Cash ratio

Cash ratio is a more conservative look at company’s short term liquidity (ability to pay its current liabilities). Higer the value, the better it is.

Capitalization / Leverage / Financial structure ratios
Debt-Equity ratio

D/E ratio measures to what percentage a company that is dependent on debt (or "leveraged"). Lesser the value, lesser will be the debt and the better it is. D/E > 1 not good.

Debt ratio

Debt ratio measures how much of 1 dollar of asset is financed by debt. Lesser the value, lesser will be the debt and the better it is. Debt ratio < 0.5 is not good.

Equity ratio

Equity ratio measures how much of 1 dollar of asset is financed by equity. Higher the value, higher will be the equity and the better it is.

Equity multiplier

Equity multiplier is just the inverse of Equity ratio. It measures for 1 dollar of equity, how much asset we have. Lesser the value, higher will be the equity and the better it is.

Interest Coverage ratio (ICR)

ICR indicates how easily a company can pay interest on outstanding debt. Higher the value of ICR, the better it is.

Fixed Asset to Net worth ratio

Fixed asset to net worth ratio indicates the extent to which cash is frozen in the form of brick, mortar and machinery. Lower the value, the better it is. Usually > .75 is not good.

Activity / Efficiency / Asset management ratios
Asset Turnover ratio

Asset turnover measures a firm's efficiency at using its assets to generate sales or revenue – For 1 dollar of Asset, what is the revenue generated. The higher the value, the better it is. It also indicates pricing strategy - companies with low profit margins tend to have high asset turnover. While Return On Assets (ROA) looks at net income or profit relative to assets, Asset Turnover ratio looks at sales or revenue.

Fixed Asset Turnover ratio

Book Value of an asset = Original cost of Assets - Accumulated Depreciation

Average Book Value = (Beginning Book Value + Ending Book Value) / 2

Fixed Asset turnover measures a firm's efficiency at using its Fixed Assets (property, plant, and equipment (PP&E)) to generate sales or revenue – For 1 dollar of Fixed Asset, what is the revenue generated. The higher the value, the better it is.

Inventory Turnover ratio

Average Inventory = (Beginning Inventory + Ending Inventory) / 2

COGS is obtained from P&L and the Inventory information is obtained from the BS. We should not run out of stock (called stock out) for long period, forgoing sales.

Inventory Turnover measures how many times we ran out of stock and then IMMEDIATELY replenished (refer the exhibit below). In vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) system frequency of replenishment is high and Inventory level is too low. Higher the value of Inventory Turnover, better it is.

Note:

1 - The numerator in Inventory Turnover ratio is supposed to be Sales instead of COGS. However, to arrive at a meaningful figure, financial analysts use the COGS because inventory sitting in a firm's warehouse is valued at its production cost, as opposed to future sales value.
2 - The Inventory Turnover ratio for manufacturing industries is typically between 1 to 2 while that for wholesales industries is more than 6.

Example: Consider Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). If sales per month for HAL is approximately USD 2500000000 per month and cost of holding inventory for three months is USD 4000000000 (i.e. USD 1333333333 per month) than Inventory Turnover Ratio for HAL would be equal to 1.875 (USD 2500000000 / USD 1333333333) which is matching industry standard.

Receivable Turnover ratio

Average Accounts Receivable = (Beginning Accounts Receivable + Ending Accounts Receivable) / 2

The beginning and ending accounts receivable can be found on balance sheet. Net credit sales figure can be found from P&L. Receivable Turnover measures average number of times a business collects its Accounts Receivables during a period. Higher the value, better it is.

Payble Turnover ratio

Average AP = (Beginning AP + Ending AP) / 2

Payable Turnover measures how many times during a period, an amount equal to average accounts payable is paid to suppliers by a business. Higher the value, the better it is.

Operating Cycles

The operation of a firm consists of four stages: Purchase cycle, Manufacturing cycle, Distribution cycle and Collection cycle.

The operational efficiency of a company are measured by:

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)
Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO)
Operating Cycle
Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)

All of them are expressed in days.
Note:
1 - It is assumed that a normal operating cycle is 1 year or 365 days in all calculations.
2 - For ease of calculation we can assume a year to be of 360 days.
3 - If operating cycle is not 1 year, then number of days will be different.

DSO, DPO, DIO
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) = Average Collection Period = Average number of days to collect Account Receivables. DSO is looked at either quarterly or annually. The lesser the value, the better it is.

Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) = Average Credit Period = Average number of days to pay Account Payables / Bills of suppliers. DPO is looked at either quarterly or annually. The higher is the value, the better for the company.

Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) = Average number of days the company has to hold inventory (Finished Goods) before selling. The lesser the value, the better it is.

Operating Cycle and Cash Cycle

Operating Cycle is the average time period between the acquisition of inventory (raw material) and the receipt of cash from the inventory's (Finished Goods) sale. In other words, Operating Cycle is the sum of average number of days the company has to hold inventory (Finished Goods) before selling (DIO) and average number of days to collect Account Receivables (DSO). The lesser the value, the better it is.

Operating Cycle = DIO + DSO

Usually a company acquires inventory on credit, which results in accounts payable. It can also sell products on credit, which results in accounts receivable. Cash, therefore, is not involved until the company pays the accounts payable and collects accounts receivable. So the cash conversion cycle measures the time between outlay of cash and cash recovery. Mathematically it is expressed as the difference between Operating Cycle and Average number of days to pay Account Payables (DPO). The lesser the value, the better it is.

CCC = Operating Cycle - DPO

= (DIO + DSO) - DPO

The exhibit below makes it easier to remember the above mathematical expressions.

Shareholder / Market test ratios

P/E ratio

P/E ratio (also called P/E multiple) is the ratio of current market price of a share divided by Earnings per share or the ratio of Market Value (of Equity) to PAT as shown below.

Market Value / Market Value of Equity can be found in Balance Sheets under equity section.

Market Value / Market Value of Equity = Shareholders' Equity + Retained Earnings

P/E Ratio says for 1 dollar profit of the company, how much the market is paying. Usually higher the P/E ratio, the better it is. The interpretation of P/E ratio in general is summarized below.

P/E	Interpretation
0–10	Either the stock is undervalued or the company's earnings are thought to be in decline. Alternatively, current earnings may be substantially above historic trends or the company may have profited from selling assets.
10–17	For many companies a P/E ratio in this range may be considered fair value.
17–25	Either the stock is overvalued or the company's earnings have increased since the last earnings figure was published. The stock may also be a growth stock with earnings expected to increase substantially in the future.
> 25	A company whose shares have a very high P/E may have high expected future growth in earnings, or this year's earnings may be considered to be exceptionally low, or the stock may be the subject of a speculative bubble.

The limitation of P/E ratio is that the numerator is a current data while the denominator is a historical data.

P/BV ratio

Book Value of a share = Book Value of company / Total number of outstanding shares

Book Value (BV) of a company is the total value of the company's assets that owners (often shareholders) would theoretically receive if a company were liquidated. Higher the BV, the better it is. From industry perspective, for any company

If Market value (of Equity) > Book value (P/BV > 1), then share (or company) is over-valued
If Market value (of Equity) < Book value (P/BV < 1), then share (or company) is under-valued

Ideally P/BV > 1.

The limitation of P/BV ratio is that the numerator is a current data while the denominator is a historical data.

Earning Per Share (EPS)

Earnings Per Share (EPS) is the PAT divided by Total number of outstanding shares as mentioned below.

Considering liquidation of a company, EPS is calculated considering common shares as follows.

EPS is an indicator of company’s profitability. It says for 1 share what is the profit that the company earns. Higher the EPS, better it is. EPS is calculated taking last 12 months into account.

Dividend Per Share (DPS)

Dividends Per Share (DPS) is the ratio of Total Dividends paid to Total number of Outstanding shares.

Dividends Per Share (DPS) is the amount of dividend a shareholder receives for each share he owns.

Paying dividends is at the sole discretion of board of directors. A company should only pay dividends if it is unable to reinvest its cash at a higher rate than the shareholders (owners) of the business would be able to if the money were in their hands. Companies that earn high Returns On Equity (ROE), and have have little or no debt, and large room to expand in their current industry would best serve their shareholders by paying no dividends. They should opt to reinvest all of the company’s available resources into growing the value of the underlying business. The shareholders will be rewarded through appreciation in the stock price.

More DPS implies that the company is highly profitable.

Dividend Payout ratio (DPR)

Dividend Payout Ratio (DPR) is the ratio of Dividend Per Share (DPS) to Earning Per Share (EPS) or Total Dividends Paid to PAT.

DPR is a measure of how earnings support dividend payments. It shows for 1 dollar profit what is the dividend paid. If investors look for higher current income (short-term profit) and limited capital growth they prefer to invest in companies with high Dividend payout ratio. However, if investors seek higher capital growth, they prefer to invest in companies with low DPR because capital gains are taxed at a lower rate (Example of low tax rate: In India, if to you are selling a stock which you have kept for one year, you need not pay any taxes on the capital gain.).

Dividend Yield (DY)

Dividend Yield tells how beneficial a share is. It tells for 1 dollar paid for a share what is dividend paid. Higher the Dividend Yield, better it is.

Altmann Z-Score (A combination of ratios)

In 1967, Edward Altman, a Finance Professor, developed a score by combining 5 financial ratios that can be used to gauge financial strength of a publicly traded manufacturing company. This score is called Altman’s Z-score. It can determine whether the company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

5 Financial Ratios used	8 Variables used to calculate Ratios
A = Working Capital/Total Assets B = Retained Earnings/Total Assets C = EBIT/Total Assets D = Market Value of Equity/Total Liabilities E = Net Sales/Total Assets	From Balance Sheet: Total Assets Market Value of Equity Total Liabilities Current Assets Current Liabilities Retained Earnings From P&L (Income statement): EBIT Net Sales

Formula for calculating Z-Score is

Z-Score = 1.2A + 1.4B + 3.3C + 0.6D + 1.0E

A Z-Score of less than 1.8 means the company is headed towards bankruptcy. Interpretation of different Z-Scores is tabulated below.

Score	Interpretation
< 1.8	On the verge of Bankruptcy
1.8 – 2.7	Chances of bankruptcy in 2 years
2.7 – 2.99	Safe. However, be alert and take calculated risk to avoid any chance of bankruptcy.
> 3.0	Safe

In 2012, Altman came up with two more Z-scores to account for private manufacturing and general firms where he used a different ratio ‘Book Value/Total Liabilities’ as ‘Market Value of Equity/Total Liabilities’ can be computed for listed companies only. Those two models are beyond scope of our discussion.

Some important relationships

Asset, Debt, Equity

A = E + D

Equity Multiplier, Debt, Equity

ROA, Profit margin, Asset Turnover

ROE, Profit margin, Asset Turnover, Equity Multiplier, ROA

DSO, Receivable Turnover

DIO, Inventory Turnover

Link to a sample solved paper on financial ratio analysis:
Here is the Link for offline version of this post and a sample solved paper of Financial ratios.

Academia: Finance concepts in Questionnaire format Part-I

2013-01-07T02:53:00.001-08:00

Q. Briefly describe Fixed cost and Variable cost.

Fixed costs are those that are not dependent on the level of goods or services produced by the business. They tend to be time-related. Example:

Rent
Salary
Utility bills
Insurance
Real estate taxes

Variable costs are those which are volume-related. Variable cost change as volume of business changes. Example:

Unit cost of production
Inventory cost
Raw materials
Direct production labour

An expense may either be fixed or variable, but not both.

Q. What is Breakeven sales?

The sales volume (express as units sold) at which the company’s Total Revenue (TR)/Total Sales and Total Costs (TC) are equal is called Breakeven sales i.e.

Total Sales/Total Revenue = Total Cost = TFC + TVC

Let x = Number of units produced

v = Unit variable cost

p = Unit sales price

For Breakeven condition,

(x) (p) = TFC + (x) (v)

x = TFC / (p – v), where x is the breakeven sales

At Breakeven point, there is neither profit nor loss. Sales Tax is not included while calculating Total Sales.

Q. Briefly explain Fixed Asset/Noncurrent Asset, Current Asset, Noncurrent Liabilities and Current Liabilities

Fixed Assets	Current Assets	Noncurrent Liabilities	Current Liabilities
Fixed assets are fixed (non-moving) in nature, not easy to encash, and are regularly depreciated. They are declared on Balance Sheet. Example: -Land and Building -Furniture and Fittings -Tools and tackles -Plant and Machinery -Computer and peripherals They are often denoted by PP&E, which refers to Property, Plant, and Equipment	Current assets are flexible and change form (e.g. today’s raw material is tomorrow’s product) in nature, easy to encash. They are floating money to company. They are declared on Balance Sheet. Example: -Cash in hand -Raw materials -WIP -FG Inventories -A/R (Debtors) -Prepaid expenses	Noncurrent liabilities / Long-term liabilities are the debts or equivalent a company owes which need not be paid in current accounting year as the term is >= 12 months / 365 days. They are declared on Balance Sheets. Example: -Long-term Bonds payable -Long-term leases -Product warranties which extend >= 12 months	Current liabilities are the debts a company owes which must be paid within one year. Example: -Short term loans -A/P -Dividends payble -Interest payable -Bonds payable -Customer advances

Q. What are Debt and Debtor?

Debt refers to borrowed money such as loans from banks; whereas Debtor is nothing but Account Receivables (A/R).

Q. What does it mean by Accrual accounting? Which one is better – cash based or accrual accounting?

There are two methods of accounting:

Cash based accounting
Accrual accounting

In cash based accounting, an expense or asset is recognized when there is an actual payment (or receipt) happens. In accrual accounting, an expense or asset is recognized when a product or service is offered or received, before actual payment (or receipt) for product or service.

Accruals are recorded as liabilities or assets (depending on the type). Accruals are generally periodic payments; examples include salaries and accounts receivable from customers. They are recorded as "accrued" on a balance sheet on the date the payment begins to be expected (i.e. date of delivery); they remain in this section of the balance sheet until they are actually paid.

If a company has sold product/service on credit, then it is likely, if not certain, that the company will receive the cash at some point in the future. So, accrual method provides a more accurate picture of the company's current condition and hence Accrual accounting is better.

Q. Briefly describe Accounts payable (A/P) and Accounts Receivable (A/R).

When you sell a product on credit, it means the customer will pay you on a later date and not now. This is amount to be received later is called A/R.

Similarly, when you buy a product on credit, it means you will pay your vendor on a later date and not now. This is amount to be paid later is called A/P.

Q. What is Working Capital of a company?

Capital required for day to day operations of a company. Working Capital includes:

Cash in hand
Raw material in hand
Work In Progress (WIP) i.e. semi-finished goods or intermediary products
Finished Goods (FG)
Accounts payable (A/P)
Accounts Receivable (A/R)

Mathematically it is expressed as:

WC = CA - CL

WC: Working Capital
CA: Current Assets
CL: Current Liabilities

Interesting Stats and Facts: Internet usage in India

2012-12-24T01:29:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: The source of stats and facts presented here have been various sources including word of mouth to guest lectures. They may not be verified all the time. You assume total responsibility for your use of these stats and facts.

India stands 3rd in terms of number of internet users in the world. Although number of internet users is high in India, internet penetration is still low. The larger and unexplored internet market in India is the rural population where internet penetration is only 5% although it accounts for 70% of total population.

Internet and mobile users:

India's population: 1.2 Bn
Further division of population: Urban areas: 30%, Rural areas: 70%

The number of Internet subscribers in India: 150 Mn
Further division of Internet subscribers in India: Urban areas: 70%, Rural areas: 30%
By number of internet users, India stands 3rd after US (1st) and China (2nd)

Number of mobile phone users in India: 900 Mn
Number of smartphone users in India: 40 Mn
Number of mobile internet users: 70 Mn

Male : Female Ratio on Internet and social media:

Internet: 80:40
Social media: 55:45

Desktop search vs Mobile search:
Desktop : Mobile: 55:45

Table: Calculation that shows Internet penetration in India

Other interesting stats and facts:

India has a low-car penetration where 15 in every 1,000 Indians own a car today.
By the time we die we would have spent an estimated 1.5 years watching TV
Namkeen consumption (Kurkure, Hippo etc) in India is increasing at a rate of 35% YOY
It takes 8 years to develop a car from concept to end product. TATA Nano was developed in the shortest time of 4 years in India.

Ratan Tata asked a 4-member team to start working in 2003
A design was selected in 2005 out of three to work upon
TATA Nano was launched on January 10, 2008

This year (2012), December has 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays. This only happens once every 824 years.

Technology: Prevent genuine/legitimate emails from being moved to spam in Gmail

2012-12-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

Do you ever check Spam folder in Gmail? Occasionally, you may miss some genuine/legitimate emails which are not delivered to your Inbox; instead are moved to Spam by Gmail’s ‘Spam filter engine’. So, you may need to check your Spam folder periodically.

Note that the ‘Spam filter engine’ of Gmail is machine driven, so, occasionally it misinterprets a genuine/legitimate email as a spam.

Fig: Spam folder in Gmail

There are two simple steps that can prevent such genuine/legitimate emails being moved to Spam folder.

1 - Add contact to your contacts
2 - Mark the email ‘Not spam’

In extreme case of these two steps not able to solve your problem, you may need to create a filter as explained in ‘How to get rid of hundreds of emails in your Gmail’.

In Spam folder select any email from the sender who is trustworthy. Under More button at the top, click ‘Add sender to contacts list’ if it is available.

Fig: More option in Gmail

If ‘Add sender to contacts list’ is not available under ‘More’, than, you can add the email id by going to Contacts >> New contact.

Fig: Add a new email id in Gmail

Come back to Spam folder again, select the genuine/legitimate email.

Now click the button ‘Not spam’ at top. This will move the email from Spam to Inbox.

Fig: Mark an email as ‘Not Spam’

Going forward, all emails from this sender will be delivered to your Inbox. In extreme case of the above two steps not able to solve your problem, you may need to create a filter as explained in ‘How to get rid of hundreds of emails in your Gmail’.

Entrepreneurship: What and Why of Entrepreneurship, an Indian perspective

2012-12-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

The author is thankful to entrepreneurs he has interacted with till date and the entrepreneurs he will be interacting in future. All the posts on Entrepreneurship will be based on memory only. The points mentioned here are straight from horses' mouth.

If you have the desire to be one of those few who have made a difference in others' lives through creating or supporting entrepreneurial ventures, you may like these posts. Do share your valuable feedback in comment section below the post.

After joining Great Lakes Gurgaon, it has been a great advantage to interact with eminent personalities from industry. To list a few, who have been part of start-ups in their professional journey so far, are:

Varun Khurana, Head, India Development Center, Location Labs
Manoj Agarwal, Co-Founder, Giftxoxo
Ankur Agarwal, Co-founder, Acamor
Manu Kumar, Co-founder, Jabong
Praveen Sinha, Co-founder and Managing Director, Jabong
Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India

In this first post of entrepreneurship we will consider some basic facts related to entrepreneurship in a questionnaire format.

Who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it. Entrepreneurship is the characteristic and a trait of an individual.

What are the primary drivers for people to think about leaving a job and become an entrepreneur?
There are primarily three main drivers:

The thinking, 'I will be my own boss'
The satisfaction in making a difference in others' lives
There is no limit to how much money you can make compared to a regular job

How much time does it take a start-up to flourish usually?
It can be 5 months to 5 years. So patience is the key.

Should I start entrepreneurial venture of my own?
It is advisable to have at least one co-founder. Usually, people collaborate with their university classmates to start a venture. Things may not go well all the time. In times of downturn you will get support from your friend as your friend would understand and not the people outside who have no idea of the business.

Mention the downside of Entrepreneurship.

The downside of Entrepreneurship are:

Risk of failure
Lot of hard work
Not deterministic i.e. you do not know how long you should keep trying to see your business starts making profit.

When should you plunge into your Entrepreneurial venture?

THIS POST IS BEING UPDATED REVIEWED. PLEASE DO COME BACK.

Academia: Financial Statements - Part I

2012-12-13T16:15:00.002-08:00

Some abbreviations/terms we will use:

BS: Balance Sheet

P&L: Profit And Loss

CFS: Cash Flow Statements

MD&A: Management Discretion & Analysis

CA: Chartered Accountant

Note:

P&L statement = Income statement

Financial Statement = Annual report of company

Quoted company: A company whose shares are listed on Stock Exchange i.e. whose shares can be bought or sold on the Stock Exchange

Capital market: That part of financial market in which trade of long term debts and securities are done by brokers and it includes share/stock market and bond market.

Long term debt: Debt due in one year or more (365 days or above). Long-term debt appears on a company's balance sheet.

Companies Act (India):

Act of the Parliament of India, enacted in 1956, to enable companies to be formed by registration, and set out the responsibilities of companies, their directors and secretaries.
The Registrar of Companies (ROC) handles incorporation of new companies and the administration of running companies.

Some Regulatory bodies:

IFRS: International Financial Reporting System

Aim of IFRS is to have one single uniform accounting practice across international boundaries.
Important for companies that have dealings in several countries.
IFRS standards is considered to be ideal. There is no global consensus to adhere to IFRS standards; however, each country’s regulatory body defines its standards as close as possible to IFRS.

ICAI: Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Solely responsible for setting the auditing and assurance standards to be followed in the audit of financial statements in India.
ICAI has announced that IFRS will be mandatory in India for financial statements for the periods beginning on or after 1 April 2012. So profit reported according to India’s standard and IFRS will not differ.
The accounting standards formulated by ICAI is called Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) or Indian GAAP

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

These are accounting rules used to prepare, present and report financial statements.
Usually confined to the United States, often called US GAAP
US GAAP provisions differ somewhat from IFRS

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Forum of rich countries, India yet to be part of it
Committed to democracy and the free-market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, and co-ordinate domestic and international policies of its members.

ROC: Registrars of Companies (India)

ROCs have the primary duty of registering companies and ensuring that such companies comply with statutory requirements under the Companies Act.
These offices function as registry of records, relating to the companies registered with them, which are available for inspection by members of public on payment of the prescribed fee.

MCA: Ministry of Company Affairs (India)

MCA is an Indian government ministry.
Administers the Companies Act 1956 and other acts related to Indian private sector.

SEBI: Security Exchange Board of India

SEBI is regulator to control Indian capital market.
Protects the interests of investors
Regulates the the business in stock exchanges and any other securities markets including Venture capital funding
Prohibits fraudulent and unfair trade practices relating to securities markets

Note:

From above discussion it is clear that, financial regulations in India is governed by: Company's Act, MCA, SEBI and ICAI

Financial Statement

Financial Statement = Annual report of company
The Company is primarily responsible for its the Financial Statements
Regulators, business managers and investors review a company's financial statements and data to gauge its health and make financial decisions.
So Financial Statement should follow standards for ease of comparison and reflect true and fair view of the business affairs of the organization.
Highly regulated in terms of preparation and presentation
ICAI in India is the regulatory body

Note: Example of Financial Statements and Reports are shared at links below.

Zimer Holding Financial Statements 2005 (In the PDF, check page 41 to 45 for BS, P&L, CF)
Financial statements of Infosys Ltd. for financial year 2011-12

Different parts of Financial Statement

BS + P&L + CFS + Additional information
BS + P&L + CFS ⇒ Major part of FS
Additional information ⇒ Auditor’s Report, Management Discretion Report, Corporate Governance Report, Notes to FS

Consolidated Financial Statement

Financial Statement	Auditor’s Report	Management Report
-Prepared by Management -Consists of BS, P&L, CFS	-Prepared by Auditors. -Auditors are essentially CAs -Shareholders appoint Auditors -Auditor’s limit is to follow BS, P&L, CFS only to prepare Auditor's report	-Prepared by Management -Consists of MD&A, Corporate Governance Report -Prepared by quoted companies only

Note:
Financial Statement and Auditor’s Report are published at the same time. Afterwards Management Reports are published.

Notes To The Financial Statements

These are additional information provided in a company's financial statements.
Notes are prepared mainly for the sake of clarity.

Where to get Financial Statements of a company?

Filing with the Stock Excnge
Filing with MCA. To get a report we have to pay certain amount to MCA.
Company’s website
Other third party tools like Ace Analyser

Types of Auditor’s Report

Unqualified
Qualified
Adverse opinion
Disclaimer of opinion

Technology: Iron browser takes care of your privacy and is better than Chrome Canary

2012-12-12T16:02:00.002-08:00

In one of my earlier posts, '7 Unbeatable features of Google Chrome', I have mentioned about using two Chrome browsers (Chrome Stable and Chrome Canary) simultaneously in the same system. Chrome Canary is targeted towards developers who can use at an early stage test it and report if there is any issue. However, over a period of time I have noticed that the Chrome Canary often crashes and makes system too slow.

Fig: Two Chrome Browsers are running side-by-side

In addition both in Chrome Stable and Chrome Canary, you are tracked by Google without your notice. Is there a better alternative to address frequent crashing of Chrome Canary and tracking by Google? The answer is Yes, the Iron browser.

Iron browser is nothing but Chrome browser having majority of its tracking features disabled. It is an open source browser developed by SRWare of Germany.

Fig: Chrome and Iron are running side-by-side

There are around 7 tracking features of Chrome which are disabled in Iron browser. They are:

Installation-ID Tracker
Suggest Tracker
Alternate Error Pages Tracker
Error Reporting Tracker
RLZ-Tracking Tracker
Google Updater Tracker
URL-Tracker

If you are concerned about your privacy while using Chrome, but do not want to leave because of Chrome's wonderful features, please try Iron browser. Download it from SRWare's official site. It is stable and has all salient features (e.g. theme, extension, sync bookmarks) of Chrome.

Maths: Lakh, Crore, Million, Billion

2012-12-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

Remember this simple table below for interconversion of lakh, crore, million and billion.

1 lakh, 1 crore	1 million, 1 billion
1 lakh ⇒ 5 zeros 1 cr ⇒ 7 zeros	1 mn ⇒ 6 zeros 1 bn ⇒ 9 zeros

So, we can conclude:

1 cr = 100 lakh
1 bn = 1000 million

1 mn = 10 lakh
1 bn = 100 cr

Guest Speaker: Cross Tabulation and Conversion Pyramid for a Market Researcher

2012-11-15T02:01:00.000-08:00

This post is an excerpt from the the guest lecturer session conducted on Friday, Oct-26-2012 at Great Lakes, Gurgaon. The guest speaker was Rohit Kumar, Head of India Research , DTZ. DTZ is into Real estate business.

Let us understand what Cross Tabulation and Conversion Pyramid is and how helpful it is for market research in making strategic decisions.

Today’s market is flooded with numerous products of similar flavors to choose from. It is even more challenging to to know what a consumer really wants and why (s)he chooses to switch brands. To study consumer behaviour for strategic decisions in marketing a product, developing a new product, a market researcher uses a tool called ‘Cross Tabulation and Conversion Pyramid’. It consists of two parts:

Cross Tabulation: Here a set of questions are asked to customers sequentially

Conversion Pyramid: Based on responses from customers in Cross Tabulation step we build Conversion Pyramid

We will illustrate it with an example. Let us consider consumer preference to buy a mobile phone (or brand recall for mobile phone). Consider the scenario as follows: Nokia's market share in India has been shrinking for past several months and being eaten up by local Indian players like Micromax and international players like Samsung. Now Nokia wants to conduct this survey to know consumer preference as the first step of its research.

Fig: Mr. Rohit Kumar, dignified guest at Great Lakes

Cross Tabulation:

Customers are asked to answer the following set of questions sequentially. They are not given much time to think in order to get unbiased responses. A question is asked only if the customer has answered the preceding question.

Top Of Mind: When you think about cell phones, which brand comes to your mind instantly? Please mention without much thought.

Spontaneous: What are the other brands apart from the one mentioned in point 1 that come to your mind? Please list them out without much thought.

Aided: A comprehensive list of cell phone brands will be shown to you. Please pick the brands, that are not mentioned in point 2, you might consider to add to your list. Please mention them out without much thought.

Ever Used: Please list the brands you have used till today.

Currently Using: Please list the brand(s) you are using at present.

Considered: Please list the brand(s) you had considered before your last cell phone purchase.

Consider Next: Please list the brand(s) you will consider next time you purchase a cell phone.

Buy Next: Which brand will you end up buying in your next purchase of a cell phone? Please mention without much thought.

Conversion Pyramid:

Based on the inputs received from customers we can construct Conversion Pyramid. We assign weights according to importance of any parameter.

Fig: Conversion Pyramid for

consumer preference to buy a mobile phone

日本語: Basic Japanese scripts Hiragana and Katakana with pronunciation help using Hindi script

2012-10-26T13:45:00.002-07:00

All the posts related to Japanese language (日本語 - निहोंगो, Nihongo) or Japan (日本 - निहोन, Nihon) are dedicated to my teacher, Smt. Arathi Gopalakrishna, who taught me Japanese back in 2008 and people, who have interest in Japan. I took interest in world's second most difficult language because of my teacher. Although I am not an expert in Japanese language, I would like to share my knowledge through a comparative study with Hindi language wherever possible. The similarity between Japanese language and Indian vernaculars is remarkable, which is not seen with English language.

This article is about basic Japanese scripts: Hiragana and Katakana. Pronunciation help using Hindi script has been provided. Hope, it will be useful for beginners in Indian subcontinent.

	HIRAGANA					KATAKANA
	A	I	U	E	O	A	I	U	E	O
	あ आ	い इ	う उ	え ए	お ओ	ア आ	イ इ	ウ उ	エ ए	オ ओ
K	か का	き की	く कु	け के	こ को	ヵ का	キ की	ク कु	ヶ के	コ को
S	さ सा	し शि	す सु	せ से	そ सो	サ सा	シ शि	ス सु	セ से	ソ सो
T	た ता	ち चि	つ त्सु	て ते	と तो	タ ता	チ चि	ツ त्सु	テ ते	ト तो
N	な ना	に नि	ぬ नु	ね ने	の नो	ナ ना	二 नि	ヌ नु	ネ ने	ノ नो
H	は हा	ひ हि	ふ फु	へ हे	ほ हो	ハ हा	ヒ हि	フ फु	ヘ हे	ホ हो
M	ま मा	み मि	む मु	め मे	も मो	マ मा	ミ मि	ム मु	メ मे	モ मो
Y	や या		ゆ यु		よ यो	ヤ या		ユ यु		ヨ यो
R	ら रा	り रि	る रु	れ रे	ろ रो	ラ रा	リ रि	ル रु	レ रे	ロ रो
W	わ वा				を वो	ワ वा				ヲ वो
N					ん					ン
G	が गा	ぎ गी	ぐ गु	げ गे	ご गो	ガ गा	ギ गी	グ गु	ゲ गे	ゴ गो
Z	ざ ज्जा	じ ज्जि	ず ज्जु	ぜ ज्जे	ぞ ज्जो	ザ ज्जा	ジ ज्जि	ズ ज्जु	ゼ ज्जे	ゾ ज्जो
D	だ दा	ぢ ज्जि	づ ज्जु	で दे	ど दो	ダ दा	ヂ ज्जि	ヅ ज्जु	デ दे	ド दो
B	ば बा	び बि	ぶ बु	べ बे	ぼ बो	バ बा	ビ बि	ブ बु	ベ बे	ボ बो
P	ぱ पा	ぴ पि	ぷ पु	ぺ पे	ぽ पो	パ पा	ピ पि	プ पु	ペ पे	ポ पो

Academia: Life at Great Lakes - Term I overview

2012-08-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Life at Great Lakes is once in lifetime! I realized it after joining 1 year PGPM 2012-13 program at Great Lakes, Gurgaon. I was sceptic about joining Gurgaon campus of Great Lakes because I thought, being a new campus I would not be able to closely interact with faculties and have access to learning materials as good as it has been at its well established Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) campus at Chennai. Great Lakes proved me wrong and it has provided the best learning experience so far, exceeding my expectations. I feel privileged to be taught by some of the best faculties from India and abroad. By now Term-I is over and Term-II is about to complete.

The flagship, 1Year PGPM program of Great Lakes in a nutshell:

1 year PGPM course is divided into 7 terms with hardly any gap in between terms
Each Term has a duration of 5-6 weeks
6 to 7 subjects are covered in each term
An empirical research has to be done in tandem while pursuing 1 Year PGPM course
In each subject, we usually have 5 to 6 case studies (mostly from Harvard Business Review), 2 Assignments, 2 midterm exams and 1 end term exam
A total of 100 marks is divided across all course items mentioned above. So end term exam is usually of 30-40 marks
Grading is done on a 4 point scale

All the posts are written right from the campus. If you have been looking for authentic information on Great Lakes, then this is the right place to refer.

Subjects in Term-I:

Financial Accounting: Kimmel, Weygandt and Kieso	Marketing Management: Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha
Microeconomics: Pindyck, Rubinfeld, Mehta	Business Communication: Lesikar, Flatley, Rentz, Pande
Organizational Behavior: Fred Luthans	Statistics for Business and Economics: Anderson, Sweeney, Williams

---Following sections are to be updated in future if needed---

Beyond Academics - Guest lectures etc:

Energy Efficiency – Mr. Bhaskar Natrajan
Entrepreneurship – Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju
Inside Job – Prof Sriram S

Common Management Jargons:

Tools for self evaluation:
The Big 5 indicator

Movies/Documentaries:

I am the beholder
Inside job
Soft power - Sashi Tharoor
Barefoot college - Bunker Roy

Books came across:

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish - Rashmi Bansal
Are you smart enough to work at Google - William Poundstone
Undercover Economist - Tim Harford
Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Fooled by randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Poor Economics - Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo
The alchemy of desire - Tarun J. Tejpal

Technology: Top 10 selected add-ons or extensions for Google Chrome that make life on web easier

2012-04-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of top 10 selected add-ons or extensions for Google Chrome that make life on web easier. The list is ordered alphabetically and not on order of preference.

Fig: Top add-ons or extensions for Google chrome that make us more productive

Try yourself with these add-ons by searching them on Chrome web store.

1 - AdBlock : Blocks unwanted popups / advertisements including Google text advertising

2 - ChromeAccess : One stop to go to frequently used settings of Chrome including Plugins, extensions

3 - Google Dictionary (by Google) : Double click a word on a page, this add-on will show you the meaning in a popped up bubble. Double click a word, you could not understand within the bubble, it will show the meaning for that word!!

4 - IE Tab Multi (Enhance) : Do not leave Chrome to open poor web pages that open only on Internet Explorer. Just click the icon of IE Tab Multi when the page shows that it supports Internet Explorer only. The hot key Ctrl+N helps you to have multiple tabs inside IE Tab Multi. One such example of such a webpage (as on Apr-26-2012) is IDBI Bank's net banking portal.

5 - India Rail Info : The best place to search Indian Railway Train schedules. It is far superior in fetching you train information compared to IRCTC portal. You can search trains for whole week and check availability of berths for all trains on the same page unlike IRCTC portal where you need to select a train to check seat availability for that train only. Also searching a station is much faster compared to IRCTC portal. Note that while IRCTC service is govt. owned, Indial Rail Info services is privately managed.

6 - Quickrr World Clock : Customize to add any number of world time zones. The daylight saving is also taken care by this addon.

7 - Reload All Tabs : As the name suggests, you can reload all open tabs in one click.

8 - Sticky Notes : Have all your notes inside your browser. This add-on resides as an app

9 - Stock Watch : One stop to check stock information of different exchanges.

10 - YouTube Downloader : Download YouTube video in any format, even the audio part only as MP3, in the easiest way, it adds a Download button on YouTube page just below the video you are watching. For YouTube downloder, visit www.oxytube.com to download and run the add-on exe. Similar to 'Sticky Notes' it will create an app on new tab page.

Technology: How to get rid of hundreds of emails in your Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Rediffmail Inbox

2012-04-07T22:06:00.001-07:00

Are you tired of cleansing hundreds of emails that you are receiving at your Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Rediffmail inboxes? Here, we will learn how to maintain a cleaner Inbox with detailed focus on Gmail. The methods we learn will be applied for Yahoo Mail and Rediffmail in a similar way. Wherever 'label' is mentioned for Gmail, the counterpart would be 'folder' in Yahoo Mail and others. After following this article I assure you that you will be able to automate cleaning emails in your personal emails effectively in the simplest possible way.

Gmail is taken as reference as it is preferred over other emails by majority of users. If you do not own a Gmail account, grab one as soon as possible; you never know, someone else may grab an id of your choice!! Click here to register for Gmail.

A word of caution here – please read through this article completely before playing around with your inbox.

1 - Create Filters to delete emails at organization level, use OR criteria to include more than one organization in the same filter, include ‘@’

If you receive unwanted emails from certain organizations regularly which are certainly NOT beneficial for you, then you need to create filter rules to delete such emails when they reach your inbox by Mail server. Scan through your emails and make a list of such organizations in a separate Notepad. Do include “@” at the beginning. (Note that, usually, emails from Gmail / Yahoo Mail / Rediffmail / Hotmail ids should be skipped while skimming through emails. )

Select any one of such emails by clicking the checkbox. Go to more >> Filter messages like these

In next step, delete the email id from ‘From’ field. In ‘Has the words’ field put your list from your Notepad, saved previously. Do separate them with ‘OR’ keyword. Click ‘Continue.’

In next step, select the checkboxes

Skip the Inbox
Mark as read
Delete it
Also apply filter to XX matching conversations

Then click ‘Create filter‘ button

This way, you can create as many filters as you need.

Refer second screenshot now. Look at ‘From’ field. You could filter emails from particular email ids by separating them with ‘OR’ keyword, but it is never recommended. Do not create filters to delete emails based on certain personal email ids (abc@gmail.com, xyz@yahoo.com) unless you receive malign emails purposefully sent from such email ids.

To check and edit your filters, click the settings (wheel icon) on top right. Then click ‘Settings.’

Under ‘Settings’ page, click ‘Filters.’

2 - For email alerts from Job sites, matrimony sites, Google calendar, Facebook, Goole+ etc, if you would like to check them later, create labels and then create filters to tag such emails to those labels

We will consider Job alerts from Monster or Naukri following which you can create rules for other type of alerts.

Let us create a label named 'Naukri Monster Alerts' by clicking More >> Create new label

Now follow point-1 to create filter. In ‘Has the words’ field (follow second screenshot), you can put ‘Jobs matching your Profile OR info@naukri.com OR jobmessenger@monster.co.in OR FastForward services from Naukri.com’ and click 'Continue.' In next step you can apply the label 'Naukri Monster Alerts' and archive it as shown below.

Now click the label on left to see all the alert emails from Monster or Naukri.

3 - Newsletters

You need not create a filter to delete newsletters. Also, the less the number of filters we have, the faster the processing would be by Mail server. First check, whether you can unsubscribe from the newsletter, you are no more interested in. Usually unsubscribe option is available towards end of the newsletter. In case, you cannot unsubscribe, follow point-1 to create a filter to delete them.

If you want to read later and would NOT like to see them in Inbox, follow point - 2 to archive them to a label.

4 - Just click spam for fraudulent emails

You may receive fraudulent emails saying you won prizes, update your bank account details etc with a link. Have you seen such emails? Check this: Technology: Screenshot of a hacker's email...!!

Never ever respond to such emails. Just click spam option to move it to spam folder.

5 - At last empty Trash and Spam folders

Spce is a limited resource. Do not waste server space with unwanted emails. On a monthly / weekly interval, you should empty your Trash / Spam folders.

English: Similar Pronunciation - 02

2012-03-29T19:27:00.001-07:00

Words with similar pronunciation are listed here. Note that comparison of pronunciation is quite important here. Two words with the same pronunciation are called Homonyms.

burrow /ˈbəroʊ/ [bur-oh, buhr-oh] borrow /ˈbɑroʊ; ˈbɔroʊ/ [bor-oh, bawr-oh]

heard /hərd/ [hurd] herd /hərd/ [hurd] hard /hɑrd/ [hahrd]

were /wər/ [wur; unstressed wer] where /wɛr/ [hwair, wair]
case /keɪs/ [keys] cash /kæʃ/ [kash]
chord /kɔrd/ [kawrd] cord /kɔrd/ [kawrd] curd /kərd/ [kurd]
bear /bɛr/ [bair] beer /bɪr/ [beer]
weird /wɪrd/ [weerd] wired /ˈwaɪərd/ [wahy-uh-rd]

confirm /kənˈfərm/ [kuhn-furm] conform /kənˈfɔrm/ [kuhn-fawrm]

grin /ɡrɪn/ [grin] green /ɡrin/ [green]
ex parte /ˌɛks ˈpɑrtiː/ [eks pahr-tee] expert /ˈɛkspərt/ [ek-spurt, ik-spurt]

Burrow: A tunnel dug by a small animal

Borrow: Take and use something that belongs to someone else with the intention of returning it

Herd: A large group of animals

Chord: (music) two or more notes played together, (mathematics) a straight line that joins two points on a curve

Cord: Wire that is covered with plastic, used for carrying electricity

Weird: Very strange or unusual

Confirm: State that something is definitely true or correct

Conform: To behave and think in the same way as most other people in a group

Grin: To smile widely

Ex parte: Decision by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present

日本語: Let us write Japanese using JWPce editor

2012-03-25T05:04:00.002-07:00

All the posts related to Japanese language (日本語 - निहोंगो, Nihongo) or Japan (日本 - निहोन, Nihon) are dedicated to my teacher, Smt. Arathi Gopalakrishna, who taught me Japanese back in 2008 and people, who have interest in Japan. I took interest in world's second most difficult language because of my teacher. Although I am not an expert in Japanese language, I would like to share my knowledge through a comparative study with Hindi language wherever possible. The similarity between Japanese language and Indian vernaculars is remarkable, which is not seen with English language.

This article shows how we can type Japanese with English keyboard using JWPce easily. JWPce is a free, but excellent Japanese text editor and dictionary.

Fig: JWPce editor

The official site of JWPce has four links to download and extract JWPce files separately. However, I have put all files together in a single folder to make it convenient. Download the zip file for JWPce version 1.50 - the latest one.

Then extract the zip file and put anywhere on your disk. Double click and run jwpce.exe from extracted location. You are ready to go.

Fig: Running JWPce

In Windows 7, 64 bit, the JWPce help tutorial does not open. Nothing to worry, we can take help of JWPce online documentation.

The Hotkeys used most frequently are shown in first screenshot.

Ctrl+K - To write in Kanji mode
Ctrl+A - To go to ASCII mode
Highlight Hiragana letters and hit F2 - To convert Hiragana to Kanji
Ctrl+D - To open dictionary
CAPSLOCK on - To write in Katatana