Category Archives: People

Business Strategy, Internet, Market News, People, Sales & Marketing

EBay Sellers Strike Looks Serious

If you are not actively into online business, you may not have heard about it yet.

A large number of small sellers at EBay are on a strike this week to protest at the treatment they are receiving from the company. Given that EBay generates revenues from the sellers (and not the buyers directly), the sellers are protesting against two things:

(a) The recent increases in fee which is making it very difficult for smaller sellers – who are not ‘power sellers’ (there are various fees that a seller has to pay: listing fee, final value fee, and then PayPal fee).

(b) The fact that EBay has removed the ability of sellers to give negative feedback on troublesome buyers. If you visit the forums, many sellers are especially annoyed this change, because it creates an uneven playing field where the buyer can get away with hurting a seller.

Different reports are quoting different numbers – but the fact is the Ebay listings and sales have gone down as a result of this. The management is sticking to its stand, while the small sellers want to raise us their voice as much as they can in the one week’s time, because many of them can’t afford to not sell for long.

The fee increase mentioned above actually reflects the fact that EBay is struggling with the ongoing damage caused by refunds/returns done by fake sellers and fake buyers – both of them are increasing – and unless EBay uses some new steps to police this aspect (which should involve trusted EBayers in some way to share market intelligence) – this trend will continue to hurt EBay and the majority of genuine EBayers who have been selling / buying on EBay for almost a decade now.

In fact, many trusted smaller sellers have closed down their EBay stores in the last 6-12 months due o the reducing profit margins available to a smaller seller. No doubt, new sellers will take their place because it is a large eco-system.

But this whole episode makes one thing very clear: If we can create a similar system as EBay and get some interested traffic to it, there is a demand for it, and it can take-off.

Here are some news reports on this topic:

CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/07/smbusiness/ebay_boycott.fsb/

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i16/s01

And some of the best discussion is happening these blog posts:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/sellers-give-negative-feedback-on-ebay-changes

http://webpronews.com/topnews/2008/02/20/ebay-boycott-having-minimal-effect

MyOrbit Blogs, People, Training

Can You Do the Unthinkable? Meet Scott “Ironman” Rigsby

When Scott was 18 years old the pickup truck he was riding in was suddenly hit by a passing 3-ton attached trailer truck, which subsequently dragged him 300 feet. His back suffered third degree burns, his right leg was severed off and his left leg hung barely intact. His life was seemingly over.

Over a decade of countless doctor visits and hospitals, 26 surgeries, additional amputation, depression, fear, and uncertainty, Rigsby had become a professional patient. At one point, things got so desperate that Rigsby sold what little furniture he had just to pay rent. There was no steady income and no dreams for a stable or successful future.

In 2005 he decided to change his life and became determined to “Do the Unthinkable”

How many “miles” can you run like that?

Read Scott Rigsby’s interview with Mark Hayward here.

Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, People

Artificial Intelligence Evolution & Trends

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If you are interested in the concept of Artificial Intelligence, this post if for you. Here’s an interesting video on the topic of technological singularity.

The technological singularity takes place when the human race succeeds in creating an A.I being more intelligent than any human could ever be. Let us call it Alpha. Since the act of creating Artificial Intelligence is a task that benefits directly from the intelligence level of the creator, this more-intelligent-than-men being would surely be faster and more efficient at creating his own A.I being, let us call him Beta. This second generation being would too be better than its predecessor, and could in turn create a third one, Gamma, who is even more powerful, and so on. As capacity increases, the median generation time decreases, resulting in an exponential rate of evolution that quickly becomes asymptotic, at which point it becomes difficult to speculate further. No one knows what Omega will bring…

Many people think of Artificial Intelligence (or AI) as the stuff of movies, but it is not. AI is slowly but surely moving forward in multiple fronts. Every time, we develop a software (or a combination of software and hardware) that can make a decision on its based on dynamic events, it is AI.

We can be sure about the potential and very realistic possibility of AI playing greater role in more common works, like helping companies in analyzing data and trends to make business decisions. It may not be something that will be launched like a shining brand new car, but fair amount of groundwork continues to happen – for example, how Google analyzes the activities of millions of web surfers – developing a system that can do more than what any group of peoples can achieve. Some other companies are actively using Neural Networks in a variety of market data analysis and prediction. There are endless possibilities.

Do let us know if you are involved or interested in such projects. Some of our team members keenly follow such projects.

Advertising, Business Development, Contracts & Legal, Finance, Industrial, Innovation, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, People, Project Management, Sales & Marketing, Training

Harvard Newsletter: Tools of Persuasion: Pitch Your Offer and Close the Deal

If you are in any form of business or profession, then this podcast from Harvard Law School is a must-listen item because its packed with valuable insights on how to share good and bad news, how to sell your ideas to a reluctant or untrusting client or business partners using powerful tools of persuasion. This podcast is based on an article by Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman of Harvard Business School – from August 2007 issue of PON newsletter.
Click here to play.





The original post and podcast are available here.