Change and Dhiraagu!!!

What is all this about change?? here are some thoughts!!!

Change is constant!
- > Constant because people will be constantly switching to Wataniya?

Change is Permanent!
- > Coz once people switch to Wataniya they won't come back?

Change is all around us!
- > Coz wataniya is coming? and dhiraagu is feeling the fear?

Change is for a reason!
- > at the risk of repeating myself! COZ WATANIYA IS COMING?

posted by Daadi @ 12:52 PM 0 comments

CHAETODON what?

This was a picture taken recently by my friend Shafraz Naeem a.k.a "doc", on a night dive to a dive spot in Male' atoll( spot cannot be identified due to political reasons :p ).. anyway! i showed him this fish but since it looks like just another ordinary butterflyfish, he did not take more snaps of it.. (so listen to me more next time doc)...

The reason for putting this pic here is coz i cant seem to identify this fish. i have tried lookign at numerous fish books, websites and have asked a number of fish experts in Maldives and none of them was able to say this IS something, so after all the discussions most experts are telling me that this COULD BE a hybrid or an alien species of the CHAETODONTIDAE family(butterflyfishes). now thats interesting!!

the significant difference with all the other butterflyfishes in the yellow brush line on the side of the fish. Most of them in the other species in the family which looks liek this have a black brush line. But it maybe the coloration change is maybe because it is night , and there are slight color variations for butterflyfishes during night. so it might be or might not be a color change as well..

Yes it does look very much like a couple of common butterflyfishes in maldives and before anyof you say that this fish looks like a certain other fish, i would liek to state the differences i have come across.

• chaetodon oxycyphephalus( Pig face butterflyfish) :: This has a broken black bar while in the X species the black bar is not broken.
• chaetodon lineolatus( lined butterflyfish) :: this has a black back ad the lines althought they run parallel, looks more like root lines! white in X species the lines are straight and no black back..

So those are the 2 which looks mostly like the X species. so if anyone have any idear of what this might be please dont resitate to contact or leave a comment here

posted by Squid @ 11:53 PM 1 comments

Oodles of Money!!!

so there i was.. sitting bored... thinkin "where does dhiraagu get the money for a such a huge campaign to change it's logo ( a crappy logo at that )?" well so i decided to find out.... now here i am half an hour later going... "wow.... my question has been answered...!!! "

there are a few facts that i would like to run through...

Fact 1:
Source: Cable and Wireless 2004-2005 Annual Report
http://www.investis.com/reports/cw_ar_2005_en/report.php?page=76&type=0&zoom=1
Page: 74/75

ok lets run through this: this is part of the page mentioned above, not the text circled in red. ( well could be maroon, dhiraagu insists that dhiraagu is red and wataniya is maroon which makes all the difference... yeah right!!! --dark red bright red-- looks similar to me)

anyways...points to note here: ( year ended 31 March 2005)

Total Turnover: 167 Million pounds ( of which 60 Percent is from Maldives and Guernsey...according to the report.)
Total Profit : 93 Million pounds

There are 2 ASSUMPTIONS i make here.
1- the 60% trends holds true for expenses and therefore the profits as well.
2- Guernsey and Maldives will have an equal split of the 60%.

Note to self abt Guernsey:
This 2nd assumption is a bit far fetched as Guernsey has a population of 65000+ (2005 estimate according to CIA world factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gk.html) and as any maldivian would know maldives has 300000+ population.( the 2000 census says its 270000+ http://www.planning.gov.mv/yrb2004/yrb04/Yearbook/3.Population/3.1.htm ) so accounting for the 5 year gap.

i for one think the revenues would be based on the potential market ie: the population. but thats just me.. so i definelty think its a fair assumption that maldives at least accounts for half the turnover.

Calculations

If total profit for the rest of the world is 93 million pounds, then based on the 1st assumption. 60% of the profit would be attributable to Maldives and Guernsey.

= 93,000,000 x 0.6 = 55,800,000 Pounds profit from Maldives and Guernsey.

now 2nd Assumption that equal split between the two areas.

55,800,000 / 2 = 27,900,000 pounds for each ( so Maldives )

hmmmm 27.9 Million profit from Maldives? how much does that translate into?

exchange rate as of today : ruffiya 23.4771 to the pound (http://www.mma.gov.mv/er.php)

27,900,000 x 23.4771 = MRF 665,011,090.00 ( did i get that right?)

Wow.. lemme put that into words: Six hundred and Sixy five Million, Eleven thousand and nintey rifiyaa....PROFIT???

WOAH.. thats a lot? how much does that mean in a day?

665,011,090.00 / 365 = MRF 1,794,550.931 per DAY!!

NOW THATS SOMETHING!! 1.7 million PROFIT.. per day.. not sales, not turnover, not revenue.. jus PROFIT?

Okey.. by those calculations and assumption i figure dhiraagu makes a SHITLOAD of money..hmmm lets try another figure...

Fact 2:

Source: Ministry of Planning, Yearbook 2004
( web address: http://www.planning.gov.mv/yrb2004/yrb04/Yearbook/13.Public%20Finance/13.3.htm )

Above you can see an extract from the website address which lists the government revenues the circled one is dhiraagus Budget Est. contribution for 2004 as per the website. figure in millions of Rf.

The Govt. Holds a 55% share in dhiraagu while CW owns remaing 45% - *

now assuming govt gets that 161.9 Mil as dividend.. the total declared dividend should be as follows:

161.9 / 55 x 100 = 294.36 Million Rf.

now mind you this is only the decalred dividend. this does not account for retained earnings of the company which like any reasonable company would not declare the whole profit. and would retain a resonable level.

the question of the amount retained is a mystery. but lets assume.. a modest 20% retention before dividend is declared.

so.. on that assumption profit before retained earnings is deduted should be,

294.36 x 100 /80 = 367.95 Million Ruffiya.... PROFIT

how much does that translate to in a day?

367,950,000.00 / 365 = 1,008,082.19 Million

so.. dhiraagu makes 1 million+ profit per day... reasonable estimate!


Conclusion
sooo according to my calculation.. dhiraagu makes from anywhere around 1 - 1.7 million rufiya profit per day... no wonder they can afford to do anythin they want to... heck.. if they wanted to they prolly could change to pink tomorrow and wouldnt flinch... jus hope they pass down some of that profit to us the customers.


Disclaimers
This article and opinions included in it are highly judgmental and not intended to be believed as seen. My conclusions are mine and mine alone and in all probablilty could be the furthest from the truth. The references i have made are genuine and verifiable, and publicly available! any assumption i have made as i feel fit and could be taken differently. Calculations may have errors, I encourage anyone reading this to come to their own conclusions. Do your own thinking draw you own conclusions.. thats why u have a brain :)

p.s -> i know there are spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in this article... too lazy to correct them, been writing this an i need a break ..

* - Previously i have written that the govt owns 51% of Dhiraagu while CW owns 49%... thanks to a comment posted this has been corrected show that govt owns 55% while CW owns 45%.
my apologies for this error.

posted by Daadi @ 11:51 PM 11 comments

DHIRAAGU Says: Talk to the Hand

posted by Daadi @ 9:36 PM 1 comments

DHIRAAGU .. an act of desperation!

Yes! i did wonder what the question mark was all abt all over male' ... and i did think it was Wataniyyaa... but infact it turned out to be the total opposite... which was pretty amazing and pretty silly as well.. in fact the silliest part for me was the stupid new logo which they are craving so much abt!

Its amazing when the best graphics designers from Maldives and Sri Lanka have been working on this logo for 2 yrs and come up with this.... it looks pathetic and as far as i know, no one whome i know say anything good abt the logo either..

And i wonder why suddenly change the color to red and white? could it be that maybe the new telecom company Wataniyyaa is gonna be starting pretty soon and their colors are red and white as well.. so maybe Dhiragu is just playing some silly game.. who knows! they have been playing this silly game for a long time...

Seriously!! what does this logo mean... ive been tryign to figure it out for the past 2 days and let me try to tell you what i feel..

ok for a start the palm.... its supposed to be a D which stands for Dhiraagu...
the fingers.. hmmm!! just showing an open hand i guess!!
ok so togethere there seems to be some kind of a meaning of opening their arms towards the customers... but with the awkward asymmetrical graphic it does look like some kind of logo infront of a store at a theme park or at a childrens festival.

Also with the text written in a hand written font, it does loose the professional look as i see it.
dont you think? the precious logo with the "sangu" and "globe" realy suited well, but this... crazy!

honestly !i dont mind this logo or any logo which they have, but i want the services to be more cost effective.. As Mr.Waheed, Dhiraagu CEO said on the logo launching ceremony with regard to what customers were saying.....“We have been listening to our customers and they are telling us a number of things, ‘We like Dhiraagu, you are familiar to us and generally provide good service and value, however, your image doesn’t fit well with some of the new products and services coming to market’”

thats great! thank dhiragu for listening to their customers,, but i believe the customers would want to get services at more affordable rates rather than wanting dhiraagu to have a new logo... so lets get the preferences right first....

posted by Squid @ 2:23 PM 2 comments