Below are some notes on Java which help us to decipher how it has evolved over time since 1995. This is part 1 of the series. This acts as a mini caselet to understand how a successful ecosystem related to an application programming language has evolved over decades.
Origins: Bytecode, compile once, run anywhere concept via Java Virtual Machine – 1995
Object oriented origins, largely focussed on application programming
Steadily in one of the top choices for programming since origin
Liberal license & forks under TCK/JCK & OpenJava along with paid, enterprise options of Oracle / IBM and more as of 2022
Large open standards, open collaboration & open source influence since the beginning
Automatic memory management
Top languages built on top of JVM: Java, Kotlin, Groovy, Scala, Clojure as of 2022
Associated top products, frameworks, libraries and platforms built on top of Java: Spring, Activiti, jBPM, Drools, Log4j, Kafka, Tomcat, Spark, ElasticSearch and more as of 2022
Multi-threaded
Platform independent & Just in time
Influenced by C/C++
Over time, both Java Spring & Jakarta EE have evolved for enterprise Java
Has developed coding standards
Has a well defined specification ecosystem
Spring ecosystem has support for microservices, reactive programming, cloud, webapps, serverless, events, batch, security and more
JNI is an option to run native code
Thousands of tutorials, blogs, websites, news, videos & technology articles cover Java on routine basis
What could be the outcomes for various departments in an organization in terms of using analytics? Here is part 1 for the same.
Background and context: Most organizations struggle at some point of time in their lifecycle for management outcomes and as per the latest trends try to use analytics to assist in better decision making. With more than 30-50 areas for algorithms / frameworks and knowledge in the quantitative and mathematics fields, where should the focus be? Based on my observations and learnings, focus could be on below areas in terms of outcomes:
Human Resources:
Employee satisfaction
Career advancement
Skills & Knowledge analysis
Compensation & benefits analysis
Leadership pipeline analysis
Scalability analysis
Cost analysis
Finance:
Sustainability in terms of profitability & continued revenue
Local community engagement
Investments for sustainability
Product & services evolution & sustainability
Product team:
Customer satisfaction scores
Revenue trends
Features analysis in terms of usability & adoption
Product support & customer success scores
Marketing:
Customer retention
Net new customer addition
Brand awareness & recall
Cost analysis for digital marketing & customer acquisition
This caselet tries to summarize the evolution of eCommerce in India in the last two decades and lists the phases as observed.
Summary from Wikipedia article here:
Internet user base of 600+ Million in India
Rapid growth in eCommerce but eCommerce penetration as a percentage of internet users is low compared to US, China, France and so on
Cash on delivery is the preferred mode for more than 70% of users
Demand for international products is high
Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, JioOnline, Multiple grocery vendors and specialized sellers in electronics, gifts, travel and more are the leading eCommerce entities
Open Network for Digital Commerce is under pilot phase in India
Online travel booking, apparel, retail, grocery, electronics, mobile, DTH, warehousing, logistics, food delivery, ride hailing, furniture, luxury, home maintenance & services, gifts, fashion are a large component of eCommerce in India
COVID-19 created lot of upheaval in the models and sales in eCommerce
Evolution into 10-30 minutes delivery, next day delivery and innovative models have seen an uptick in last 3-5 years
Large number of investors have put in money into various entities over the last 10-15 years
Niche players in automobile, apparel, grocery and similar areas have been coming up
String of acquisitions / mergers have happened over the last 10 years especially from large players
B2B eCommerce is growing quickly. Players like Bizongo, Udaan, Medikabazaar, Moglix, Ofbusiness and Inframarket are present.
Major regulation rules include foreign players not allowed to hold inventory
Phases as observed in the last two decades:
Standalone focussed players – early entrants – with less regulation
High growth in number of eCommerce players
Entry of investors
Regulations evolving over time
Shift of smaller sellers (many of them) to marketplaces
Friction between online & offline sellers
Hyper competitive growth with losses to capture market
Enablement of financial ecosystem like UPI, RuPAY, QR, JanDhan, Cash on delivery models and so on
Evolution of 4G and broadband
Specialized and niche sellers
IPOs for many specialized players
Newer models of sales around delivery, bundling of additional facilities and so on
Evolution of local logistics players
Consolidation, closures & M&A across the industry
Brand building, focus shift to a mature mindset and ecosystem
Newer initiatives to standardize eCommerce like ONDC and preparation for 5G
I am starting with mini caselets newsletter (once every month) which is a series of anonymous (real / hypothetical / reality inspired) mini case studies each of maximum 2 pages from my observations of industry happenings – direct / indirect / via news articles / network / friends / problems that people face and such. Intention of each mini caselet is to highlight a set of challenges that are faced both by managers & employees or hypothetically created leading to better leadership and management styles which in turn give better environment for employees or solutions or solution direction.
Think of a situation of an ITES company office in Tier-1 city which is recruiting lot of fresh talent and working on onboarding them to become productive in 2-3 months to deliver good projects.
What can go wrong?
Disagreements between two set of managers who manage the same account / customer in the same shared office space of an extended development center each having competing teams
Uneven knowledge transition to fresh candidates
Silos & lack of functional knowledge for team
Managers deciding how the behaviors of employees should be in terms of which interactions they should have and which to avoid based in older management & leadership principles from 80s/90s command and control structures
Cultural differences in terms of recruitment geographies of candidates leading to differing work styles – For example, somebody studied and lived in a Tier 2 city in India vs. somebody who studied and lived in Tier 1 city in non India region – both will have differing goals and perspectives
Culture of less knowledge sharing and long working hours
Struggle for accommodation, food, entertainment, social circle and more with a very limited salary in year 1 in Tier-1 city
Disengagement of support functions in terms of how work is done on the ground and them differing to managers for every decision
Add to the mix competitive landscape to go onsite, climb the corporate ladder & increase salary quickly
All this in the influence of 1.5/2 year retention contracts for fresh candidates when they can’t leave the firm easily
Now to solve this situation simply flip the scenario and fix each point one by one by interventions / trainings / guidance / discussions / role plays / similar techniques and you have a recipe for a better culture, it’s as simple as that.
Being direct, frank, authentic and natural self is ok but below is not. We should not be normalizing this:
Achieve targets literally at any cost
Repeated bad behaviour in hierarchy
Messing up people’s personal lives
Using words like professionalism & seasoned to avoid doing what needs to be done
Playing mind games with people fresh out of college
Delegate and then take credit for other’s work
Judge people without knowing context
Promote silos, avoid team work and mess up collaboration and creativity
Pay someone less than market rate if we can afford the real salary
Treat people like trash and take advantage of them
Not fix the fixable
Not doing the right thing
Bring personal biases into the organization
Have different set of rules for the same input and output for different groups of people
We are not at war, we are in information technology / services industry
Most people lose their cool or misbehave once in a while or have a bad day once in a while but if that is a habit ingrained in the culture of the organization affecting large parts of the organization then there is a problem that needs a relook
I have travelled to many places in India plus multiple states in US and to Ghana, Africa in the past on short trips. Here are some of my observations and learnings from these trips. This is part – 1 of what I have observed. Hope to follow up with more observations & learnings in future.
Ghana:
Visited capital city Accra – Some day would want to go back there
Calm and spiritual people overall
People are friendly and helpful
Traffic rules are followed mostly
All interactions with customers in offices / places of work were friendly, calm and cordial
Many study in western countries and then come back to work in their country
You need a car to travel around due to distances
Cost of living in hotels is high compared to similar hotels in India
USA:
I have visited New Jersey, New York, California, Dallas – Texas, Chicago – hope to visit more states & cities in future
They follow queues at the airport
Most things are kept organized
Weather was good at the times when I went there
Many people work with a strong ethic of office hours & off hours which means start at 8/9 AM and leave by 5 or so PM
People from many cultures come together and work
Upkeep of public and private spaces is organized and well managed
Multiple types of options to stay are available
Healthy options in food were available in office eateries
People work from home regularly
Having a car or a network with whom you can go around in private vehicles is an advantage
Depending on the city – public transport may or may not be available
Offices generally have open and free spaces
After 8 to 9 PM traffic and rush on the roads goes down
You will find people from varied backgrounds and citizenships / geographies in office
Most questions that employees raise are around culture, benefits and salary (CTC) in firms. There is a large space of compliances and other work that business owners, investors & stakeholders need to manage.
To start with – various types of firms exist, will not be explaining those in detail here but listing them for reference: Proprietorship, OPC, Private Limited, Partnerships, LLP, Public Limited and so on.
Intention of this blog is to provide a list of compliances that a private limited firm needs. This will be a helpful guide for those intending to setup their own firm.
Annual filings with Ministry of Corporate Affairs
MCA registration for firm
Income Tax
GST
Professional tax
Medical Insurance
Group Life Insurance
EPF & EPS
Udyam
Board meetings
Balance sheet, income statements & accounting
Appointment of CA & CS
Director registration with MCA
AOA & MOA
Shops & Establishments Act
Trademarks
Patents
Digital Certificates
Bank accounts
Salaries
ESIC
Shram Suvidha
Each of the topics above is a discussion in itself which we will explore in other parts of this blog sometime in future.
