TOP 10 BUSINESS MAN 2008

1. Carlos Ghosn
Nissan CEO

They said a foreign CEO could never survive the insular culture of Japanese business. Then this quintessential global leader—born in Brazil of Lebanese parents and educated in France—was dispatched by Renault to rescue its stake in Nissan. Ghosn, 47, briskly closed plants, shed workers, hired stylish new auto designers—and took the company from a $5.6 billion loss in 2000 to this year’s $2.5 billion profit. Ghosn’s methods are openly copied, the story of Nissan’s revival is a best seller in Japan, and Ghosn was named that country’s “Father of the Year.”

2. Bill Gates
Microsoft CEO

Bill Gates is worth more than $30 billion, thanks to his 12.3% stake in a resurgent Microsoft, whose Windows operating system dominates the desktop on 90% of the world’s PCs. Gates’ empire extends to Internet access (MSN), television (MSNBC and a stake in cable giant Comcast), computer games (Xbox) and even philanthropy (the $24 billion Gates Foundation). Gates, 46, was slow to recognize the importance of the Internet. But with his ambitious .NET initiative—and diminished pressure from antitrust regulators—the world’s richest man may end up dominating a whole new realm: cyberspace.

STUART RAMSON/AP

3. Steve Case & Jerry Levin
AOL Chairman & AOL CEO

Given the big egos of CEOs, it’s no surprise that when companies merge, one boss usually departs. But since the creation of AOL Time Warner in January 2000, chairman Steve Case, 43, and CEO Jerry Levin, 62, have shown a unity of purpose at odds with the B-school case studies. It helps that they share a vision: subscriptions. Add up AOL, cable TV and magazines, and they have 137 million people mailing in payments. This year the duo clung for too long to profit promises they couldn’t keep. But as they direct Warner Bros., CNN and the Time Inc. magazines, Case and Levin wield unrivaled influence on global culture.

4. Sir John Browne
BP Chairman

Energy executives and environmentalists were like oil and water until Browne, 53, changed the rules of engagement in a 1997 speech announcing a greener direction for British Petroleum. BP now limits its greenhouse-gas emissions and has invested $1 billion in solar-energy technology, becoming the world’s largest photovoltaic manufacturer. At the same time, he has taken BP from near obscurity to the world’s No. 3 oil company, buying competitors like Amoco and inspiring other execs to copy his formula for blending environmentalism and strong earnings.

5. Bob Rubin
Citigroup top executive

His nameplate is gone from the office of the Treasury Secretary, but in some respects, Rubin, 63, never really left. Now a top executive at Citigroup, the man who steered President Clinton through financial crises to the nation’s longest boom gets invited to private meetings of top congressional leaders from which the current Treasury Secretary is excluded. Since Sept. 11, Rubin has helped Congress shape a stimulus package. He even testified alongside Alan Greenspan when the Fed chief delivered his damage assessment to a closed session of the Finance Committee.

6. Sandy Weill
Citigroup CEO

Sandy Weill has a middle initial but no middle name—one of the few things in life that he has to do without. The consummate dealmaker shook the financial world in 1998, when his Travelers Corp.. agreed to buy banking giant Citicorp for $72 billion. In one bold stroke, his financial-services empire, renamed Citigroup, went global, with about 100 million customers in 100 countries. To get the deal done, Weill, 68, persuaded Washington lawmakers to end restrictions that prevented U.S. firms from offering both insurance and commercial banking. That paved the way for U.S.-based global financial conglomerates, which as they evolve have Weill to thank—and Weill to chase.

7. Michael Dell
Dell CEO

In 1984 he declared his intention to unseat IBM as the world’s leading computer maker. It sounded outlandish at the time, but in pursuit of that goal Dell Computer has revolutionized its industry. It bypasses retailers by selling made-to-order computers directly to consumers at low prices, and profits from hyperefficient, just-in-time inventory management. Those innovations helped make Dell the No. 1 computer seller in the world this year. Michael Dell, 36, is raising his sights from PCs to the powerful servers and storage devices that serve businesses. In Dell’s cross hairs: IBM.

8. Meg Whitman
eBay CEO

When a headhunter begged her to interview at a fledgling dotcom, Whitman, then an executive at Hasbro’s preschool division, at first declined. But she reconsidered and within a couple of years turned eBay into the most successful pure Internet company while making herself the first woman Internet billionaire. Whitman, 44, has made eBay—with more merchandise than ever, including $1 billion a year in auto sales and 37 million users worldwide—a truly global marketplace.

9. Li-Ka Shing
Cheung Kong Holdings Chairman

Li Ka-Shing, it’s said, takes a cut from every dollar spent in Hong Kong—and that’s not much of an exaggeration. The ubiquitous entrepreneur started in the plastic-toy business in 1950 and propelled himself into real estate, shipping and telecommunications. His secret? Keep dealing. Even before China took over Hong Kong, Li, 73, was investing on the mainland. Hutchison Whampoa has pushed into the Internet, low-income housing and commercial projects across China. Not surprisingly, Li has the ear of President Jiang Zemin.

10. Rupert Murdoch
News. Corp Chairman

Rupert Murdoch runs News Corp., a $43 billion conglomerate that includes the Fox movie studio and TV network; satellite-TV services in Asia, Europe and Latin America; sports teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers; and newspapers in Australia, Britain and the U.S. Born in Australia, Murdoch, 70, is equally at home in London and New York City and makes sure his conservative political views are reflected in his media properties. His latest bid for influence: expanding his satellite-TV service in China. Murdoch is also busy positioning his sons to succeed him at the helm of the family business

View From A High Altitude Balloon

Flight 2 is a project that takes photos from a high altitude balloon using GPs, camera, sensors and communications. The risk factor for this is that the precious electronics could be lost if anything malfunctions. 

The FAQ answered one of my questions though - the danger that it pose to manned aircrafts. There is an aluminium foil inside the capsule for radar reflection so control towers would have been able to track it. In terms of legality, it is permitted for that weight without requirements to notify any authority. Hit the link to check out the launch videos and various photos at Natrium 42.

USB 3.0

As we all know the USB2.0 was introduced in the year 2000. The new USB3.0 is expected to come into the market by the year 2010. The current USB2.0 runs at a maximum speed of 480Mbps and it is half duplex. The New USB3.0 runs at a maximum speed of 5Gbps, it means 10 times faster than the USB2.0, and it is also Full duplex, means that it can also upload and download simultaneously. This new USB3.0 is faster than the eSATA and FireWire800.

Rajnikanth to star in Shankar's 'Robot'

Chennai, Jan 7 (IANS) Following the huge box-office success of 'Sivaji-The Boss', director Shankar has again roped in Rajnikanth for his next film, the Rs.1 billion-sci-fi film 'Robot'.

The Britain-based Ayngran International, which has distributed more than 1,500 Indian films, and Eros Multimedia, distributors of films like 'Munnabhai MBBS',will produce the film. It will see the sure-fire combination of Rajnikanth and A.R. Rahman with Shankar.


The film will be in three languages, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Speculation was that Shah Rukh Khan would play the lead role but now producers have confirmed it will be Rajnikanth, south India's darling.


The cast and crew is being finalised, a release from the producers said here Monday.


Director Shankar has been dreaming of making 'Robot' for a long time, with a big budget.


'Robot will be the grandest and most entertaining film ever made in Indian cinema and be produced in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and be a high-tech film with the use of the state-of-the-art technology,' the release said.

World’s richest cricket body, BCCI, launches their website

Can you believe the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did not have a website till now? In Nov 2007 BCCI invited bids for building their website,

Under this ITT (invitation to tender), the wining bidder will be required to perform the functions of designing, developing, hosting and operating the bets of breed web portal,’ Secretary Niranjan Shah said in the tender notice being published in newspapers.

The bid document can be acquired at a non-refundable and non-adjustable amount of Rs.500,000 from the BCCI headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium here from Thursday.

‘The project scope includes (but is not limited to):

1. Exploiting existing content to create packages for driving subscription revenues,
2. Creating new content,
3. Hosting, production and ongoing operations of the portal,
4. Generating traffic, users and revenues to the site,
5. Maintaining the books of accounts and providing detailed information regarding all the revenues whenever requested by the BCCI management,’ says the tender notice.

The bidding price was approximately $50m for 3 years. “Experts” had estimated a revenue potential of $15m a year from the portal. One of the articles stated “None of the big boys - Reliance, Tata..were interested”. Finally Global Cricket Ventures (I could not find their URL, at least not easily) won the tender to build the website.

Looks like they have great plans and know what needs to go on website. But what about the domainname? bcci.tv !! What were they thinking? BCCI is the richest sports body in India and possibly one of the richest in the world. Could they not afford to buy bcci.com or bcci.in - both are parked domains.

I subscribed to their mailing list. It is smooth mainly because the mailing list part has been outsourced (to mailchimp.com). But were you aware BCCI is “D”ubai based ? Well that is what you see on the confirmation pages of mailing list,

The look and feel of the site is simple and clean. I think it will please the readers. The mobile part seems to be completely missing. Reports say that the site has many errors (wrong links etc). I think that was very much avoidable but you can get away in the online world by saying it is “Beta” version

Kudos to Govt

Recently British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [Video] suggested that Sachin Tendulkar might soon be honoured with knighthood, making him the first Indian player to receive the title. That very night all TV channels went gungho about calling India’s favorite cricketer “Sir Sachin Tendulkar”. One of the topics of discussion was “Should India award its civilian awards to foreigners?” It was interesting to see what a British journalist had to say. He doubted if any of our Padmashree awards would have any value in UK. At the same time he said very few Britishers cared about the “Sir” title. Most Indians were not in favor of the govt waiving the import duty on his Ferrari car, he could easily afford to pay the tax.

I guess the Indian government was caught off guard, to avoid any embarrassment they quickly awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan to Sachin. Good to see other deserving people from sports being recognized by the Govt (Vishwanathan Anand).

Karnataka’s favorite icon, Mr. Narayana Murthy, too was included in the list. Hmm..he should check out the Rashtrapati Bhavan when he goes to receive the award. After all, isn’t that awesome building his next home

What is 3G? Does India need it?

Current WAP speed in India is nothing great but it has improved. I understand from my friends who are experts in telecom that you cannot improve the speed performance of WAP any further on a GSM network (which is 2G). I am told only 3G can improve things. So what is 3G?

Ex-Telecom Minister Dayanadi Maran was in the verge of releasing the 3G guidelines in India but he was shown the door. After the new Telecom Minister took over there was some talk about India going with 2.5G, which enables high-speed data transfer over upgraded existing 2G networks.

The GSM and CDMA networks are classed as second generation while the defunct analogue network was the first of the mobile network generations.

3G, or third generation, is the generic term used for the next generation of mobile communications systems. The new systems will enhance the services available today and offer multimedia and internet access and the ability to view video footage.

With a 3G phone and access to the 3G network you can send and receive video calls, watch live TV, access the internet, receive emails and download music tracks, as well as the usual voice call and messaging services found on a mobile phone.

Technically, the main difference between 3G and 2G networks is how quickly data can be sent and received. 3G networks can send data up to 40 times the rates of earlier digital networks, which means that in addition to audio, graphics and text, 3G customers can also send and receive video content, in 3G coverage areas. They provide service at 5-10 Mb per second.

3G was introduced in the United States early in 2002. By late 2004, it was finally providing transmission speeds sufficient to handle full-motion video, albeit over short periods of time (15 seconds to three minutes, in most cases). The third generation technology used in the UK is called UMTS. These services operate at 2100 MHz. (2.1GHz).

Upgrading to 3G will be an expensive affair for all telcos. All telco hardware vendors would have another reason to drool in India!

While we are still not sure when India will get 3G, the technology has already moved on to “beyond 3G” or “4G”. A 4G system will be able to provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an “Anytime, Anywhere” basis, and at higher data rates than previous generations.

For any telco to offer 3G the government has to allocate the spectrum. Allocation of spectrum is becoming a mess but ultimately it will be solved (after all it cannot be more complex than pleasing the Left in the govt!!).

I personally believe mobile users in India will have a far better experience after 3G becomes a reality.