What We’re Reading: June 3 Edition
Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! This June 3 post is our seventh installment of our weekly roundup of the must read articles on business, consulting, recruiting and jobs that we at Raines Intel are reading. Read our previous installment.
1. The Wall Street Journal’s Newley Purnell reports that Southeast Asia may be a good home for startups. “Between Southeast Asia and India there are about two billion people,” Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin said at the Converge conference in Hong Kong. “It’s arguably the fastest-growing internet market in the world.”
Why is Southeast Asia a hot spot? “U.S. investors eyeing Asia once thought only of China or India, but are now increasingly turning to Southeast Asia, [Golden Gate Ventures’s Vinnie] Lauria said,” the Journal reported. “That is mostly due to its collective population of about 600 million people, many of whom are under the age of 40 and entering the internet economy for the first time via low-cost smartphones.”
Read “Southeast Asia Startup Scene is Sunny, Investors Say”
2. How big should sales teams be? Harvard Business Review examined what it called a Goldilocks quandary of sales teams either being bloated or too thin, making them ineffective. “By looking at detailed sales data from 40 companies in technology-related industries, we have identified guidelines for the optimal amount and type of sales support and management,” Harvard Business Review reported. “This includes all non-quota-carrying roles in the organization: customer-facing support, sales operations and administration, and sales management.”
Learn what size they recommend for your best return on investment. Read: “In the Best Sales Teams, About Half of the People are in Support Roles.”
3. YourStory.com highlighted Aakash Borse, Vishal Kulkarni and Jalay Pandya’s start-up consulting firm, Faber Infinite, and how they grew across India, Africa and Middle East.
“While countries are focusing on competitiveness, with campaigns like Make in India in the country, and Vision 2030 in Kenya – there is a severe need for coaching, catalyst and change agents to support the growing enterprises, which are the engine for growth for any country,” YourStory reported. Read “How this trio built a consulting firm with a presence in six countries, from Ahmedabad.”
4. The Boston Globe profiled Boston Consulting Group principal Amy Hsuan and explained what her role entails. “Consultants here, she said, have a lot of ownership over what projects they work on and whether they travel much or not at all,” the Globe reported. “As for the hours, Hsuan said it totally depends what kind of project you’re working on. For the past few weeks, Hsuan said she’s maintained a fairly typical 9-5 schedule.”