The Changing Times.....

Take charge of your life

2010-05-05T11:07:00.003+05:30

In day to day hustle and bustle, we tend to forget the basics of life.

Hope the following enlightens you..

Do you know why the earth is shaped like a globe? So you can kick it and it will roll away! the moment you wake up in the morning you are always with people and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart, eyes closed, and kick the world away like a ball. But as soon as you open your eyes, hold onto the ball because you need to kick it again in the next session. During the day be 100 percent attached to the work, don't try to detach yourself. But when you sit for meditation, then totally detach yourself. Only those who can totally detach can take total responsibility. Eventually you will be able to be both attached and detached simultaneously. Kick the ball and be in the goal! This is the art of living, the skill of living. Source: Forward in my email in box.

Happiness et al.

2010-04-06T11:42:00.005+05:30

Its been seven months, since I got married and the same time since I am in God’s own country.

There are so many new reasons of being happy since then

Listing few of them as follows:

- Married life

o Being with your life partner

o Being with in laws.

o Getting along with your life partner’s relatives.

o Being with new neighbors

o Getting to know your life partner’s friends.

- Food

o Having delicious Kerala breakfast.

o Carrying lunch box to office and reading newspaper in that time

o Having snacks with family members in evening and exchanging news.

o Making new dishes for dinner once in a blue moon.

o Trying new restaurants at least once in a fortnight.

o Having noodles at least once in a week.

o Having at least one fruit in a day.

- Work

o Work hours from 9 AM to 5 PM

o Small company. Nice company

o Learning a lot of new things with each passing day

o Freedom of designing work. (Mix of Research Review and Execution)

o Taking up varied responsibilities and stretching.

o Flexibility of commuting by two wheeler or Auto or bus (hehehe)

- Others

o Meeting Mummy on webcam almost everyday.

o Meeting papa and brother on webcam once in a month.

o Staying in touch with other relatives and friends through internet social networking sites and mobile.

o Reading newspapers daily. ( a happiness factor )

o Good Network connectivity at work.

o Updating my HR knowledge.

o Reading books

Moving Ahead

2010-02-21T22:58:00.003+05:30

Here I am, listening to the song "Shoot The Moon" from Norah Jones's album "Come away with me". Its Sunday 11 PM. A relatively small week is ahead, as long weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) is coming. Had a good relaxed Sunday. Watched a Malayalam movie " Puthiya Mukham" with subtitle along with hubby. Had noodles for lunch. Took a sweet nap in afternoon. Had Theplaa for dinner. Everything around looks good good to me.

Its been over 5 months since I got married. Life after marriage has changed a lot. But I am liking this life as well. This is because of the freedom I am getting to live life on my terms. My in-laws (Mother-in-law, Sister- in - law and Father-in-law) are really cool. I am really lucky to have them. I have full support of my Mother-in-law, so I feel as if I am home.

In professional life, I have joined a HR Consultancy company as Consultant HR and Selection.
There as well, I enjoy the freedom of designing my role and work. Every day is a new challenge. And I am excited about it. My Manager is a cool person. My colleagues are also very sweet.

And my sweetheart , my hubby is the sweetest of all because of whom I am enjoying each and every moment of my life.

As of now thats it.. Am moving ahead and am happy . :) :)

Hope

2009-11-25T16:04:00.007+05:30

Hope is the driver of life according to me.

We hope, that we start speaking..
We hope, that we start walking..
We hope, that we start reading..
We hope,that we pass the test..
We hope to be successful...

Hope has so much positivity attached to it... it increases the chances of possibility..
Whenever the clouds of negativity block your head, make sure that the sun in the form of Hope shuns away all those clouds and keeps you bright.
Every morning I get up and tell to my self "Hope is a very powerful thing, let not ever lose it".

In the movie The Shawshank Redemption , there is a dialogue "Hope is good thing, may be the best of things, and good thing ever dies".

Plane delayed by bird on board

2009-10-09T11:32:00.004+05:30

A South Korean passenger jet was grounded just before taking off so that crew members could catch a sparrow that was flying around in the cabin, airline officials said on Wednesday. “The bird got in through an open airplane door and was spotted during boarding,” said Cho Hyung-chul, a spokesman for Korean Air Line. The passengers on the flight were asked to leave the plane as the airline tried to prevent the bird from taking the domestic flight. “The bird was captured and set free,” Cho said. The flight’s 123 passengers were put on board a different plane and sent on their journey, which was delayed for nearly three hours.

Source: The Economic Times
Section: Suddenly Something
Link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

End (Bachelorette life) is a New beginning (Married Life)

2009-07-14T20:40:00.008+05:30

Well, I was browsing through my saved SMSes and one of the SMSes was "Nothing happens by changing your face, but change can happen by facing the change". Though, I don't agree with the first part, but somehow I liked the placement of the words and the thought of facing change.

So, here I am standing at the so called peak of my life.

One very pleasant phase of my life is going to end and in few days and I will be all set to get married. Please don't read this as an unpleasant phase of life is going to start. But there are apprehensions and uncertainities that are attached to it, which I guess everyone who is going to get married has.

Being a person, who decides the path of her life, independtly, this transition will be really difficult one. Life will become a function of two lives, rather than one life.

Ideally, my dream is to make this phase even better than the present phase of my life. So I am trying my level best to become a suitable candidate for my would be. Reading "The 24 x 7 Marriage", book by Vijay Nagaswami. Ya, I know, reading books alone can not help. But if one knows some tips in advance then those will come in handy at the time of need.

At the end, they say, that suspense of marriage is only known after getting married. So, experience it. Enjoy it.

Here I am ready to embrace the change !

Here I am awaiting my wedding! :) :)

White and light

2009-05-01T10:05:00.003+05:30

This is an innocuous food for all times. Different languages refer it as follows:- Assamese -Muri, Gujarati - Mumra, Kannada - Kadle poori , Mandalu and Mandakki, Konkani - Chanburo, Malayalam - Porei, Marathi - Kurmure / Murmure, Tamil - Pori, Telugu - Borugulu or Mora moraalu (similar to "mur mure"), Tulu - Churmuri and Kurlu and Hindi Parmal. Thats, white and light, puffed rice for you. (Courtesy :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice )

Different permutations and combinations will give variety of items to tickle your taste buds.
Be it, the famous Bhel puri or laddoo coated with jaggery syrup, or spicy puffed rice upma and the list goes on.

Enlisting a few benefits which are top of the mind recall
- No Fats
- Rich in carbohydrates
- Easy to digest
- Not sure of expiry date ( I think its 1 year)
For more information on puffed rice nutrition ,check the following link http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-rice-puffed-fortified-i8156
Of course there are cons also, like :- it is more harmful for your teeth than any sweets. But, you can always brush your teeth after that.

For me, puffed rice is my dinner when Tiffin doesn’t come. So next time when you are coming to my place you know what is there for dinner. :D.

I vote against Noise Pollution

2009-04-05T10:45:00.003+05:30

It was 12 am and I was almost ready to hit the bed. I was really sleepy by the time, I Bid adieu to online chat friends. Switched off the light and went inside the mosquito net. I was so damn tired that I was about to sleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. But the rhythm of drums was not letting me fell asleep.

Domlur village festival is going on and the statue of the deity is taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing to the beats of drums. The so called "celebration" started during late afternoon and different drum beats were audible from all the directions.

Under the rule, live performances by bands are now banned after the 11 PM in Bangalore. So is dancing in clubs and discotheques. Karaoke nights at pubs and clubs, where the city's wannabe singers gathered to make some noise, have ended. The police have even ruled that club or bars keep music low.

So here I was ,sitting in my bed, closing my ears by hands and waiting for the procession to pass by. It was passing from the street adjacent to my house. Half an hour passed, still it didn't stop. I was really bugged up by this time. I picked up my phone and called "Just dial Bangalore". I asked them to provide me phone number of the authority whom I can speak to requesting can stoppage of this "Noise". He provided Bangalore police station, Indiranagar's phone number. It was 1:30 AM by now and still drum beats were so loud that none of the people in the locality will be able to sleep. I called up the police station and asked them to stop this nonsense. They told me that they will do this at the earliest. In say about, 5 minutes the noise became lower and then just stopped. I am not sure what happened. There are two possibilities here. Either the procession was over or the police came and stopped them.

Noise is just one example of the many vices that are present in our society. The moral of the story is that the proliferation of the vices is not because of the activity of the nonsensical elements but because of the passivity of the sensible elements. So blow the whistle and execute your right to vote … http://www.jaagore.com/

C'est la vie!

2009-03-27T09:17:00.003+05:30

Here I am..relishing each bite of Maggi Cuppa Mania Chilli Chow Yo !, on a Friday morning. Its a long weekend. Still woke up at 5:50 AM at the ring of alarm...and called and woke up one of the friends, as per my promise. Its Ugadi (New year for the people of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh), Gudi Padva (New Year for people of Maharashtra) and Cheti Chand( New Year for the People of Sindh). So SMSed all my friends "Happy New Year", while reading India Today's 16th March 09 issue. And fell asleep in the mean while.. Woke up again ..Checked mails.. Thinking of going for a half day conducted tour to Bangalore.. (Abhi tak bangalore darshan nahin kiye).. have downloaded movies "American Beauty", "Good Fellas" and "He is just not that into you" through bit torrent..will watch those...on Saturday..may go for "Thermal and A Quarter's " rock concert at St. Joseph 's College of Commerce. Of course, the entry is free...Shall start reading some books that are long pending... (Shall post the book names , once I finish reading them).

Had it not been last minute cancellation of one planned trip , it being a long weekend, could have planned a good outing in and around Bangalore. But who knows , these are "Changing Times" and whether you feel happy or sad it all depends on your viewpoint towards life..( Reiterating the crux of one of my previous posts).. So "C'est la vie", a French phrase meaning "That's life" or "it's the life !

Anything is possible

2009-03-24T21:37:00.002+05:30

It's difficult to even know what many of your limiting beliefs are because they are so well entrenched. Yet day after day, they hold you back and obscure your view of life's best possibilities.

To set yourself free of those limiting beliefs, crowd them out with inspiration. The more inspired you are, the more easily you'll dissolve the beliefs that hold you back.

Focus on a beautiful, wonderful, meaningful possibility. Feel how you must let go of your limiting beliefs in order to fully imagine and comprehend that possibility.

See that ultimately, the only thing that really holds you back is your belief that you cannot move forward. Once you've let that go, you free yourself to soar.

Anything is possible. And underneath all those illusions of limitation, you know it without a doubt.
Trade your limitations for inspirations. And fulfill the best that is within you.

Source: www.sparkpeople.com

Viewpoint (+ve)

2009-03-03T19:33:00.004+05:30

The Recession Twister is going all over the place with each passing day. Not a single business is left unaffected due to its impact. Twisters are generally used to symbolize negative impact. But hey! Lets look at it in a different way. It is destroying the old order and is giving opportunity for new things to come up. This is one of the many perceptions and then the most popular perception is that of fear of unknown, job loss and lost business. The type of perception hat you don totally depends upon your viewpoint in life. Most often this viewpoint is labeled as luck, fate, destiny etc. Some curse their fate when things don’t work according to their expectations and others rejoice and feel lucky when something good happens beyond their expectations. Once in a while having either of the above feelings i.e. of being sad or happy is fine. But constantly cursing ones fate or feeling lucky always, are cases, which are purely based on viewpoint in life.

I know one employee who was asked to leave, as his company was cutting all the fat due to economic slowdown. Upon asking what is his next move, he happily said that he, along with some of his friends is mulling over a business plan of starting something in gaming industry. He had thought about this long back and now he is getting this opportunity to realize his childhood dream. This is a very live and recent example of what a viewpoint can do to you and it’s totally left upon you to choose from.

I am ending this post with a very powerful line from Paulo Coelho’s book, Alchemist, “When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true”. Now here is the quiz question. Which viewpoint is this? a) positive b) negative

Music and me

2009-03-03T19:24:00.004+05:30

These days not a single day passes by when I have not listened to my favourite music tracks. This music sets my mood for the entire day. Generally the day starts with fast beat music at a little louder volume. This gives tremendous energy. Singing along with your favourite songs gives you self-confidence. Music is a heavenly thing, which has no substitute.

When blogging is not on your mind

2009-02-20T21:59:00.005+05:30

After so many months I am blogging. And I am having this feeling of uneasiness. A year ago, when I was pursuing MBA, blogging came naturally to me. May be, I had a lot of time to think, relax and structure my thoughts. But today, I am feeling as if I have to learn riding a bicycle again and keep in mind how to maintain the balance while driving.

It seems, life has become transactional these days. No new thoughts, opinions or ideas are coming. In a way, life is giving so many experiences so fast that before I gather them and put it in a structure, some new thing would happen and it would override the previous thought. Anyway, let me share with you names of my recently read books. In past couple of months, I read a book "Career Dynamics" by Edgar Schien. Its a wonderful book in which the concept of career anchors amazes me. One of the classics, you can say. These days I am reading another book titled "Winning" by Jack Welch. Warren Buffet says "No other management book will be ever needed" and I am finding it true. The book is full of Jack Welch's experiences which he had during his 40 years of corporate life.

So thats it. I shall post more soon.. Keep reading !!

Stress fosters superstition

2008-10-19T21:29:00.003+05:30

There was an article sometime back in The Economic Times with somewhat similar title. That time it may be referring to stress at a person level. But in recent scenario it may refer to stress at global level. This stress is caused by the feeling of insecurity and no one knows when the ending of this dark tunnel. Last Diwali, the BSE sensex was at the 19k mark and the same sensex is today, just before Diwali, below the 10K mark. So we can presume that life is becoming lesser and lesser predictable with each passing day. As i read at one of the blogs the morale and loyality to the company are lat all time low across the globe...

If even in good times some successful people are superstitous with regards to letters, numbers and stars. Then in this turbulent times the reliance on such things is likely to increase. People just want some miracle to happen. Hang on people ... things will stabilize.. but it is for sure that twister in the form of economic slow down is becoming stronger and stronger day by day...so please find a safe place.. befor you consult an astrologer etc. and save yourself befor worrying about other lesser important things. ..

This is the time when survival of the fittest is in the real sense the name of the game and the change management concepts shall be put to acid test.

Baat samjaa karo

2008-10-10T20:48:00.002+05:30

I was listening to this song "Baat samjaa karo" from the movie "Kyon ho gaya na". I have not seen the movie, so I guess the song is picturized on Amitabh Bachhan, as the male singer's voice in the movie suggests. Its a very happy kind of song, with all band baajaa and all.

Few days back I was not feeling good about my interactions with one of my colleague in the company. The thought of his/her bossing over me, even though not being my boss, disturbed me. Then I thought that why such thing was happening. The cause of problem was me and not him/her. I get busy with my daily work so much in the company that I hardly get any time to share the work in progress with him/her. So when its a "do the work" kind of situation then she/he has to tell me promptly as he/she is also busy.

So I told to myself that talk to that person atleast once in a day and exchange updates, which will result in a healthy relationship between both of us and will not cause the situation of "digging the well when the house is on fire". Hence baat samja karo ... c'mon Charlie !! :)

Organization as an organism

2008-10-10T20:11:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I had gone for a general quiz. (Though no quizzer here.. going for such activities to have something new). In that quiz there was this question where we had to connect 3 pictures. One of them is as seen on the right hand side. This picture depicts the Gaia Theory where entire earth is referred to as an organism. This is a wonderful concept.

There were many questions but this one specifically lingered in my mind. Why is that so? This is because it resonates with my idea of organization as an organism. From past week I was thinking of organization as an organism. ( A huge one).

Lets compare an organization with none other than a human being. It goes through all the things that an individual experiences. Birth, growth, maturity and death are life stages of all the living organisms, so how then organizations be compared to an individual? This is where the differentiation comes in picture, in terms of the business of the organization. Well organizations marry (joint ventures) also but then it can be many times. Kindly note, I have mentioned joint ventures and not mergers and acquisition when referring to marriage. To me after marriage two individuals maintain their separate identity and continue to live life in each other's company. Mergers may be compared to a new child as the new entity has characteristics of both the parents. Acquistion I am not able to compare with an individual.. any one out there any creativity?

Goal Posts

2008-09-28T17:55:00.004+05:30

Chetan Bhagat’s well circulated (through emails) and well acknowledged speech (provide hyperlink) at the convocation ceremony of SIBM Pune has a very powerful message mentioning that let there be continuous generation of sparks in you. They drive your life and make you excel at things which you are good at.

There are hundreds and thousands of stimuli in environment. You react to these stimuli according to your characteristics (brought up, education, reading, movies etc). And that in turn determines your personality. It’s a feedback loop here.

Once you reach certain goal post of your life, the spark generation rate decreases for a certain period of time and then you start hunting for next goal. This is not the ideal and healthy way to move ahead. As is with the heart beats for the healthy physical life so is with the spark generations for mental life. Both need to be regular. The number of heart beats is determined by the Supreme power of this Universe. The destination here is death. The number of sparks shall be determined by none other than you. The destination here is goal of life.

The feedback loop will contribute to the quality/type of spark generations and the clear cut path to reach goal posts will determine the number of spark generations. Hence good quality supply at regular intervals shall be responsible for a successful life, if to be successful means to achieve once goal.

Shall post on a regular basis...

2008-09-23T20:43:00.003+05:30

Yes dear readers, the title of the post, as you can see, is my quarterly resolution. Here I go. Did you notice any thing peculiar in the first sentence? Well...Well…I have used the workplace jargon “quarterly" to qualify the word resolution in that sentence. Words used in one’s language inform about the surroundings/environment one is part of. And as, I have transitioned from being a student only to a working professional and a student (which I will try to be throughout my life), hence the use of this jargon. “Quarterly” is most commonly used as quarterly result, quarterly goal etc at workplace.

My intentions to post were to reflect upon some of the things that I have so far experienced as a working professional. Communication is very important at workplace. You are as good as your communication. It is a very broad term which covers written and verbal communication, presentation skills, negotiation skills, conflict management skills, selling skills, interpersonal skills, body language etc. Hence the way you communicate things determines your image in the organization. A professor in one of the training sessions that I recently attended, shared the following nugget of wisdom, “People in this world do not relate to the information with you.(Like education, age, etc) but rather the meaning they draw out of you. (The way you occur to them).” It seems very true to me.

Another thing, is one related to the organization. It is the implementation of the theoretical frameworks. It is very good to conceptualize things and come up with nice looking models. But models should finally concretize in to realities i.e they should be implementable at the end of the day. Implementation becomes easy and fast when they are simple and in sync with various other functions of organization and more importantly with the organizational strategy.

I shall post many more reflections in the future posts. So readers watch out this space.
You all are my customers and I shall try my best to cater to your interests. So may I request to you all to leave comments on my posts (no problem even if it is posted as an anonymous). Until next time, keep thinking !! :)

The Fallen Tomato Cart !! by Subroto Bagchi (Co-founder and CEO of Mindtree Consulting

2008-07-24T12:42:00.004+05:30

Came across this wonderful article ....

I pass through this very intersection every morning with so much ease. Today, the
pace is skewed. There is a sense of disarray as motorists try to push past each other
through the traffic light. The light here always tests their agility because if you miss the green, you have to wait for another three minutes before it lets you go past again. Those three minutes become eternity for an otherwise time-insensitive nation on the move. Today, there is a sense of chaos here. People are honking, skirting each other and rushing past. I look out of my window to seek the reason. It is not difficult to find because it is lying strewn all over the place.
A tomato seller’s cart has overturned. There are tomatoes everywhere and the rushing motorists are making pulp of it. The man is trying to get his cart back on its four rickety wheels and a few passersby are picking up what they can in an attempt to save him total loss. Though symbolic in the larger scheme of things, it is not a substantive gesture. His business for the day is over.
The way this man’s economics works is very simple. There is a money lender who lends him money for just one day, at an interest rate of Rs 10 per day per Rs 100 lent. With the money, he wakes up at 4 am to go to the wholesale market for vegetables. He returns, pushing his cart a good five miles, and by 7 am when the locality wakes up, he is ready to sell his day’s merchandise. By the end of the morning, some of it remains unsold. This his wife sells by the afternoon and takes
home the remainder, which becomes part of his meal. With the day’s proceeds, he returns the interest to the money lender and goes back to the routine the next day. If he does not sell for a day, his chain breaks.
Where does he go from here? He goes back to the money lender, raises capital at an even more penal interest and gets back on his feet. This is not the only time that destiny has upset his tomato cart. This happens to him at least six times every year. Once he returned with a loaded cart of ripe tomatoes and it rained heavily for the next three days. No one came to the market and his stock rotted in front of his own eyes. Another time, instead of the weather, it was a political rally that snowballed into a confrontation between two rival groups and the locality closed down. And he is
not alone in this game of extraneous factors that seize not only his business but also his life. He sees this happen to the “gol-gappa” seller, the peanut seller and the “vada pao” seller all the time. When their product does not sell, it just turns soggy.
Sometimes they eat some of it. But how much of that stuff can you eat by yourself? So, they just give away some and there is always that one time when they have to simply throw it away.

Away from the street-vendor selling perishable commodity with little or no life support system, the corporate world is an altogether different place. Here we have some of the most educated people in the country. We don the best garbs. We do not have to push carts; our carts push us. We have our salary, perquisites, bonuses, stock options, gratuities, pensions and our medical insurance and the group accident benefit schemes. Yet, all the while, we worry about our risks and think about our
professional insecurity. We wonder, what would happen if the company shifted offices to another city? What would happen if the department closed down? What would happen if you were to take maternity leave and the temporary substitute delivered better work than you did? What would happen if the product line you are dealing with simply failed? In any of those eventualities, the worst that could happen would still be a lot less than having to see your cartful of tomatoes getting pulped
under the screeching wheels of absolute strangers who have nothing personal against you.
All too often we exaggerate our risks. We keep justifying our professional concerns till they trap us in their vicious downward spiral. Devoid of education, sophisticated reasoning and any financial safety net, the man with the cart is often able to deal with life much better than many of us. Is it time to look out of the window, into the eyes of that man to ask him, where does he get it from? In his simple stoicism, is probably, our lost resilience.

New Life in Progress

2008-07-14T12:15:00.002+05:30

Two months and 7 days … this is the time I have spent at my Company. It has been a good experience so far. I got the chance of interacting with all the people of my department. This is what I like the most. (Interacting with people and that was part of my induction assignment). I am enjoying my work so far and learning a lot. My boss is a “fundoo” guy. He is the architect of my department. His attempt is to reach for truth and clarity in every thing. All the people in my department are very friendly and cooperative. Addressing each one of them with their first name was a difficult thing for me initially and a “sir” or “madam” inadvertently followed their name. In a week’s time got used to that. Getting used to many other things like that which are part of my organization’s culture. I am fortunate enough to get a nice bunch of people to befriend. This was a pleasant surprise package for me, which I got on joining.

Regarding my stay, I got a place which is 20 mins walking distance from my office. It’s the place, which I don’t want to leave. This is not because I am very attached to it and it’s the most beautiful place on earth, but because I have to give change of address for so many things in a row: my phone bill, credit card bill etc. The rent is quite high but then its okay considering the mental peace I get by being home alone (that’s how I console myself). I have given up now. I tried all the means to get ONE roommate. Many came to see my place and many suggested moving to a new place with them. But then intuitive (BLINK) me didn’t feel like moving out to other place.

On weekends it gets boring and loneliness starts eating you. I joined music classes soon as a part of long pending hobby to pursue. The classes are on weekends and that helps shun away part of the weekend boredom.

I am really excited for my new vehicle. I bought it on the same day I enrolled my self for music class. I commute to office and near by places using it and people get surprised at the first mention of this vehicle. Well expecting a similar reaction from readers as well. This vehicle is none other than a “BICYCLE”. Yes people I bought a Hero Street Racer. It makes me feel happy that I have a unique (different) vehicle and I am the recipient of whole lot of other benefits like no fuel needs, daily health exercise tool etc.

Reading books and newspapers form the rest of the part of my getting rid of boredom in addition to talking on phone with family and friends and surfing net from cyber cafe.
Don’t know till how long this feeling of “NEWNESS” will last: New job, new city, new phase of life as a professional.

"The Next level thing"

2008-04-20T10:25:00.004+05:30

Mr. XYZ you could have won 25 lakh if you had answered this question correctly. This is what Amitabh Bachchan used to say when he was the anchor of the show "Kaun Banega Crorepati". And the person on the "hot seat" would start feeling miserable. Instead of feeling that he will take home some amount, Mr. XYZ will go with a feeling that he missed a chance of having 25 lakh.

It is very natural of human nature that its needs are ever increasing. It wants more and more [not Aditya Birla's Retail store ;) ]. In this process Man's level of happiness is decreasing. Be it his career or salary or any other material possession, he wants the "next level thing". Well this is good when it is in terms of gaining knowledge or progress in career. This is his intellectual or calibre thirst which will make her/his personality more and more refined each time it is quenched. But when it comes to material possessions such thirst will lead to nothing but unhappiness.

Perfection is a very subjective term. According to me, it can never be attained. One can only strive to attain it throughout her/his life. But satisfaction can be attained and enjoyed. And dont confuse satisfaction with complacency. To be complacent is to be satisfied with one's faults. The satisfaction that I am referring to here means contentment you gain when you feel you have done something right. This leads to happy state of mind and that makes mind free to mingle with the world that is very typical of you.

Rampent competition in all the walks of life is giving a feeling of being "incompetent" to a person who dosent achieve the standards set by society. And he/she feels satisfied when he/she attains those. But do they think why are they strieving so hard to attain those or how will he/she meet her/his personal goals by meeting those standards set by society? ( well ..how many of us have personal goals here).

So the bottom line is, satisfaction be it materail or spiritual, can bring true happiness to you and its better if one sets his/her standards to attain it. ( It is assumed that standards here mean something that one considers to be ideal).

Head Hunting

2008-04-11T10:26:00.002+05:30

There is an immediate requirement. This position needs to be filled or else there will be role erosion of other employee. How to go about it? The main selector is so much held up with her own job that she doesn’t have time to hunt for the candidate, conduct interview, set terms and conditions and appoint. A facilitator has come for the time being and wants to help main selector to come out of this crisis situation.

She decides to go for searching the candidate right away. She directly goes into labour market and finds two candidates who were on their way to existing jobs. Facilitator establishes a quick conversation with both of them on one-to-one basis. She assesses the likelihood of both the candidates to perform the job and finally requests both the candidates to come to company and perform job.

Of the two candidates only one turns up and gets the word of appointment.

The candidates in the description above are none other than maid servants for washing clothes. Main selector is none other than my mom and facilitator is myself. This is "Kahaani Ghar Ghar ki " these days.

With mall culture entering India, westernization happening in the retail sector is affecting the supply of all the labour intensive sectors. They are attracting the labour force. All the maids that used to work for you a year back are all joining mega stores and hypermarkets to make quick and big money. So be prepared to be self reliant for all household chores. (Especially working people, this is like ringing of death knell for you).

The Shadow

2008-03-07T00:25:00.002+05:30

I got reminded of this sanskrit sholk today. There was this Sanskrit shlok competition in 7th standard and my mother taught me 3 shloks for it. Of which one is as follows:
"आरंभ गुरवि क्ष्यानी क्रमेण lअघ्वी पुरावृधि मति च पश्चात ।
दिनस्य पूर्वार्ध परार्ध भिन्न छाएव मैत्री खल सज्जनानाम ॥ "
It means the friendship of a true friend is like the shadow during the morining and the evening time. The the friendship of a false friend is like the shadow at noon.

Such shlokas of wisdom spring from some corner of the brain when some relevant things happen around us. What a brain and what a mother ( कोटी कोटी वंदन)

Substitution

2008-03-06T20:24:00.002+05:30

If the thing is not there some other thing will take its place. And world will forget that thing as time passes by. Thats the law of nature!!

But it makes me feel really bad that the substitute coexist with the real product and is waiting for its disapperance. A substitute is a substitute at the end of the day not that thing !!

This is not what we expect out of this exercise!!

2008-03-01T18:03:00.003+05:30

Two days back I read an article about the "labels" that we humans carry. It appeared in the cosmic uplink part of the Chennai edition of The Economic Times dated 28th February 2008. It said that we carry labels like " manager " , "head", "businessman"..etc... These labels interfere with the very human behaviour that is expected out of us. We think that I am a businessman and so I can be rash and rude to others. We forget the material (human soul) which is inside this package (human labels).. as the packet passes from one destination (birth) to other (death)...through the journey (called life). The author PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA at the end of the article asked us to seek the inner being and let go these labels.

After reading this article, all my and other peoples actions are judged on "whether he/she became egoistic about the labels or retained his/her true self."

Today we had a MDP with executives of some well known (upcoming) firm as a part of our course named "strategy". We students were asked to make presentations on the scenario thinking related to a place where the firm plans to launch its products. Our "DEAR" ( I truely mean it :) ) faculty had guided us to be less statistics oriented and have a more creative approach. We followed his instruction and prepared the presentation accordingly. We did a pretty good job. But according to some we just over did with the creativity part ( all because of our wild imaginations :D)...

We started the presentation. Everything was going on smoothly. Camera man was recording the session. I was looking at the audience as one of my team mate was presenting. All were attentive. Those who understood the humour hidden in the content were laughing at those points. Our faculty was also happy ( I want to put a better word here , but cant find it) and satisfied. Suddenly after 10-12 mins, one executive stoop up. He is the Senior Vice President of that firm. He said rudely, "This is not we expect from this exercise." He asked the camera man in Tamil to stop the recording and cut that part of the tape very arrogantly. We all were taken aback. Our faculty asked him to let us finish the presentation. He refused. My team mate who was presenting asked for a "one minute break"..and a glass of water..!! He tried his best and said two three lines related to presentation and then stopped. He lost the flow.

What can be an apt example of labels that we carry..? Anyways "To Err is Human, To Forgive Divine." A mistake done once out of emotional outburst can be forgiven.

Hope we b-schoolers remain as much "unlabelled" as possible.

Naina Hair Cut

2008-02-27T19:25:00.004+05:30

"Anna Stop". I asked the rickshaw driver to stop near the building which had the beauty parlour. I paid the auto fare and entered the parlour. It had a pleasant fragrance. In background song of some hindi movie was going on. (My bad memory :( ). All the staff ladies had features which said that they belong to Eastern India. (Cost arbitrage!!)... Though all seemed young, they had a "mangal sutra" and "sindoor".

Two ladies were waiting for their turn. They were reading some Bollywood magazines. My eyes started searching for more such magazines as I had assumed that I have to wait for some time. Sat in the couch for some 15 seconds and before I made any attempts to grab attention of the owner, she asked me.."How can I help you ? " ...I felt happy. (Lucky day)..I replied," I want a haircut". Then she thought for a while. She asked one of her staff members by calling her name to find whether she was free. As she was busy she herself decided to cut my hair. She asked for my hair style preference. I said," I want Lady Diana hair cut". She said," It will be like a boy cut. Do you want so short hair?". I said," I want that". (A Lady Diana fan said that:)). Then she observed my face and present hair cut for some 2-3 seconds and said," How about a blunt cut." I said, " Ok that would do. Last time I had the same cut and I liked that." Then she again thought for a little while and said, " Come have a seat"...I asked," So finally which hair style?"..She said," I dont know. I dont have a name for it, but I want to try it." ..I said," New things is welcome unless and until they look good on me."...

She started to beautify me with her scissors, hairclips, water sparys and combs. She was making each and every cut meticulously. I was impressed this seemingly seasoned hair dresser...She had a pleasant smile on her face which was also very natural. I was thinking, if I get this kind of hair cut at the same rate as I paid last time for a blunt cut, then its worth it...

A cut here and a cut there...it took her 15 mins to finish her job... She held another mirror at back and asked me," Is it ok?" I said with satisfaction," Yes". I asked her," May I know your name?". She happily said, "Naina". I said, " From now on this hair cut will be known as Naina hair cut". She chuckled. After that looking at myself in the mirror I asked, " So how much do I have to pay?". Naina handed me the bill. I was shocked a little bit. The amount was the double of what I paid earlier. I said that earlier I paid half this amount. Then she explained to me that if you go for a change in hairstyle you will be charged this. There was no space for bargaining. I had to pay the billed amount. So the morale of story is "NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!!" (For those who have read my previous post "Laughing @ my assumptions and hence inferences"....assumed things again )

Dincharya for the last trimester of MBA course

2008-02-19T00:18:00.005+05:30

Wake up...In half asleep state manage to reach the bathroom door. Find that bathroom is already engaged, as my roomie has morning class, unlike lucky me. So go to bed again, keep alram and have that NICE sleep... After some time wake up again as my roomie comes out of the bathroom/alram rings, whichever happens first (well u can assume that both events are equally good to break my sleep. In that matter all roomies will agree with me ;) ).... Brush teeth, wash face and attend nature's call (many times when roomie is in the bathroom, its a real emergency situation). Look at myself in the mirror and admire the reflection. Tell myself that you are "A happy person" and give a BIG smile.

Then while climbing down the staircase, on my way to mess, wish people "Good morning"...See "Dosa" as breakfast. Feel happy. This Trimester I dont have classes in morning. So have the "Luft" (In Urdu this means "Pleasure") of having the breakfast. I also keep track of the late comers of our batch who have morning class. Four of my batch mates are participants of this daily contest of "who is the latecomer of the day?" They ask me whether xyz has already gone or not?.. I enjoy being the nanny there.

After having breakfast with hot class of milk I go and collect newspapers. This is part of my morning duty, assigned by my best friend. The logic is simple. She/he has subsribed to these newspapers and if not collected in morning then someone will take those. And then you will have "tain tain Fish" :) . .... Read newspaper...(mostly headlines ;) )...then take a chhotu nap. .(wah last trimister ke jalse kuchh aur he hain) ...then around 11 am start working for the assignment pending for the class at 2 pm ....

Till now have managened to finish the assignment before lunch..( before 1 pm) ...then take bath..go and have lunch..do timepass/subject discussions with friends..attend class and wait for the coffee break ...again attend class and wait for it to get over...then chat with friends/go to tea shop to accompany them/go for shopping/go to landmark bookshop to accompany best friend/go to sleep if class was really boring or really required lots of mental work/ take bath as in morning didnt get time...

Then my dearest mumma calls..talk with her as if she is sitting in front of me...in her words ..this is "Mumma's daily service" :). Then open mails, orkut, and all such time consumer websites...
Time moves so fast that you never know its dinner time..

After dinner go for a walk to tea shop again to accompany friends...then come back.. do some useful reading, exploring, surfing, blogging, at times group work for next day class...then wicket starts falling ...dozzing off process starts....

Pull my mosquito net..tie all four strings..cover my bed with it properly and protect myself from those sleep disturbers...say my good nite prayers and go to bed ...with the hope of a new , beautiful day ..
Chalo good nite readers..time for me to pull my Mosquito net....

zzzzzzz.....zzzzzz....

Some wonderful quotes by some wonderful people in the History of Human Kind

2008-02-16T21:57:00.008+05:30

Below are some quotes that I had started collecting some 5 years back. I stopped collecting in a months time...stumbled upon them today..and thought of posting it...

Achievement

1.What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Rank, Otto - 1884-1939, Vienna-born Psychoanalyst
2.For what is the best choice, for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve.
Aristotle, - BC 384-322, Greek Philosopher
3. The achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of diminution of personality
Jung, Carl - 1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist
4.High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Kinder, Jack Character
5.We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.
La Fontaine, Jean De - 1621-1695, French Poet
6. Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.
Mann, Golo - 1909-, German Historian
7. The greatest things are accomplished by individual people, not by committees or companies. Montapert, Alfred A. - American Author

Character
1.It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus, - BC 525-456, Greek Dramatist
2.Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.
Frankfurter, Felix - 1882-1965, Austrian-born American Law Teacher
3.Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von - 1749-1832, German Poet
4. Character is the result of two things: Mental attitude and the way we spend our time.
Hubbard, Elbert - 1859-1915, American Author, Publisher
5. By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.
Kleiser, Grenville - 1868-1953, American Author
6. Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered.
Merikare,

Faith
1. Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.
Acquinas, Saint Thomas
2. Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there.
Hightower, Cullen
3. Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Hoffer, Eric - 1902-1983, American Author
4. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes life worth living.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell - 1809-1894, American Author
5. You don't love someone because they're beautiful. They're beautiful because you love them.
6. The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.
Hubbard, Elbert - 1859-1915, American Author

Music
1.Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.
Addison, Joseph - 1672-1719, British Essayist
2. Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Hugo, Victor - 1802-1885, French Poet

Effort
1.What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Johnson, Samuel - 1709-1784, British Author
2.Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
Kennedy, John F. - 1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA
3.Welcome the task that makes you go beyond yourself.
Mcgee, Frank
4. I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.
Rockefeller, John D. - 1839-1937, American Industrialist

Ideas
1. Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up. Holmes, Oliver Wendell - 1809-1894, American Author

Dreams
1.Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
Hughes, Langston - 1902-1967, American Poet

Life
1.Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,but by the moments that take our breath away.
-George Carlin-comedian

Life is short
THey say it takes a minute to find a special person,an hour to appreciate them.a day to love them and entire life to forget them.

Opinions
1. Opinions are neither right nor wrong. I cannot change your opinion of me. I can, however, change what influences your opinion.- David Crow

Its true you don't know what you've got until its gone, but its also true you don't know what you've been missing until it arrives!!!

Thank God I have a blog !!

2008-02-16T00:30:00.003+05:30

Just wanted to capture some "words" that are flashing through my mind at present... you all know its the philosophical side of my personality...

Fake people... Out of confidence interval...Square peg in a round whole...Jack of all master of none...inconsistency....attitude....Believe in urself...strategy.... diplomatic...emotional... Hypocrates...double standards.....lazy....indirect...external validation...will add some more soon..

The people who publicaly say person xyz irritates me, dont know how much irritating they are...

Some people have crab like mentality...if one person is trying to do something good or different from them ...they will pull him/her down to their level and will not let him/her move ahead.

Self awareness

2008-02-13T10:58:00.004+05:30

Oh kya baat hai ..ek din mein do do posts? .. Time he time hai aaj...and mind is also havin some topics to post.. After reading the title of the post you must be thinking that it might have something to do with psychology, emotional intelligence and such stuff. But the topic is something to describe the characteristics of my posts. And hence my style of describing things. My posts are small in size, in relation to the posts found at other blogs. Sometimes they have nothing to say just flowery or crap language (whatever you say). And many times they describe my inner frustration and grief. Taking size of the post into consideration, its the same while having conversation with some one and while giving a presentation in class room. I just make some significant points and then keep mum. I leave much to the understanding of the listeners. This is bad both for the conversation at personal level and at professional level and may lead to misunderstanding. So need to learn the " art of elaboration" and make my point drill deep in the mind of the listeners. Better late than never ..even at the end of MBA programme.... Readers...I need to take a poll here ...what kind of posts do you like?..long ones or short ones...? Please comment. (nice way of gathering comments ... :) :))

A post a day, makes readers to stay (with your blog)

2008-02-13T10:15:00.005+05:30

Lazy me.... at least in the matters of blogging....Blog is my long term investment and I have to check whether its nourished properly. How should I hedge the risk and how should I diversify the portfolio (of posts, so that I cater to the readers of all Geners). Well as was in the previous post this time too I have connected my post(not life this time) to the financial matters. Hey hello, I am specializing in HR. But then there is something called the song effect ..If some-one is singing a song passing near by you, no matter how bakwaas it may be, your mind will receive it and you will subconsciously start singing that song. This is what happens when you read only financial news paper, you are surrounded by students specializing in finance and above all you are in an institute which is know for "Financial Research". So, the whole thing is that ke bhaiya..."company you keep does matters"

Portfolio called life !!

2008-01-13T22:54:00.000+05:30

Well, my friends are all complaining that since long i didnt post at my blog and as usual I promised them to post something. So my dear readers here is the much awaited post..

As mentioned in my post earlier, I get the title before I think about the content. May seem strange. But thats the way it happens to me these days. It happened so, the other day I had FT (Financial Technology) exam. As was the case with few other papers so was the case with this. I was going through the material to study just two days before the exam. Now during night time the philosophical side of my personality becomes active. And so I was reading when , I came across this term called portfolio.I kept on reading it again and again like a record stuck on the player. May be I was dozzing off to glory.Then the half asleep philosophical mind said something. And it was something that amazed me. It said "life too is a portfolio."

Your type and amount of investments will decide your returns... but finally it all depends on your risk appetite..Higher the risk, higher the return and vice versa...

Hence a small post ....just to justify the title. Nothing that profound...May be a cliche one ..but then something...

To know more about portfolio (finance) ..click ---> Portfolio

Laughing @ my assumptions and hence inferences

2007-12-17T23:54:00.000+05:30

It has been more than two months since I posted something. There are n number of reasons for which you can assume why am I not posting and hence you are at freedom to draw your own inferences. But the fact is that I didn’t feel like posting as life was going on at the levels below the self actualization level* (Array...yaar bakwas bandh kar ..aur sidhi baat kar). I didnt want to post now..as I have to prepare a SHRM plan for a company as a part of my course curriculum. I have to submit it by next week. Just before posting here, I figured out that its high time to prepare a plan and a good plan would have commenced a lot earlier. (Array yaaro chhodo...this girl is just venting out whatever she is having in her mind right now..you have many better things to do than to read this post..Some philosophical thoughts come in her mind during night hours). Okay then suddenly something struck me out of introspection. (Hain ..itne dino baad aaj time mila introspection ka…??) What was that ? ...The title of this post...(Hmmm posts zyaadaatar bottom up approach use karke likhe jaate hain ..aur ye top down method use kar rahi hai...aur ek wajah post read nahin karneki…yaar post has no direction also…rail ki patri pakad dost)

Well, the title came out of something that had happened today. It was failure in a test. The test is called "trust". Initially I have failed in this test many times but the examiner is a very magnanimous and pure soul who would each time give me one more chance. He/She has a hidden hope somewhere in her/his heart that someday I will clear this test. Thanks to him/her for his/her leniency and for believing in me.

Failure of the test today made me feel really miserable as last time when I failed the test I had shown high prospects of clearing the test next time. But each time when testing times come I just move to some lower levels and hence fail the test. This level according to me is the level titled "Social Needs". This realization was a result of a little bit of introspection that had automatically started in my mind ..even though my eyes were mechanically reading the Strategic Human Resource Management book's Index. I closed the book thereafter and then got the true reason of failure. I started laughing by myself on myself. This laugh made me feel lighter and in true sense happy. The concrete reason that I managed to put in words is as follows:
"Assumptions you make and Inferences you draw from those are very much related" .

My assumptions when I appear for the test were my own and hence the inferences I drew were also my own. This caused failure. So the bottom line is unless and until mentioned don’t assume things. Be it theory or practical, work or life, move ahead on the basis of facts.

*For those who are unaware of the levels that I have mentioned above, I am referring to Maslow's Hirearchy of Needs.

Apology: People who know this incidence, I sincerely apologize for making the entire incidence a bit fictitious. Modifications are made to convey the essence of the topic to the readers.

Island of Ants

2007-10-02T19:25:00.000+05:30

The other day I opened the lid of the water jug to drink water. I was about to drink water but suddenly I spotted something in the transparency of the water. I saw some ants and thought that by mistake they had fallen in the jug and all are dead. But when I observed them closely I found that they are approximately 40-50 in number and all of them were alive. I wanted to drink water instantly so without taking much interest I slowly poured out water in the wash basin and the ants dispersed as they came out. I rinsed the jug two- three times, scrubbed it with brush, thinking that some eatable parts might be inside the jug. Then I went to water cooler and filled the jug with fresh and chilled water.

Night passed. The next day again I found ants. I was surprised this time and again did the same thing which I did the day before. This time I was keen to know why the ants were coming inside my jug. The third day same thing happened and I got fed up of this thing. Finally I took other jug from the mess and started drinking water from it.

The scientific reason that I can think is that there is still some deposit in the water jug or some essence that is attracting the ants. (Who has time to remove these microscopic things..)

The imaginative reason which first came to my mind was that this is an evolution and ants are forming colonies on water…!! What say? I have still kept water in that jug and those little creatures venture and stay (group swim ..hehe) in it..

I am blessed !!

2007-09-17T23:30:00.000+05:30

Dont take the nice and best things in your life, for granted. They need your attention and care.

Dont test their limits. They may shatter and never be the same again.

Dont take their goodness for a ride. Life gives you one chance. And time and words once gone never come back.

Live your life at best but before that take atmost care of the those that make your life worth living.

Life is teaching me so much each day. I am really grateful to my fate and that supreme being for making me a skillful sailor in this rough sea of life.

When it hurts

2007-08-24T10:37:00.000+05:30

When it hurts you feel like crying and shouting at the whole world. You forget your own self and you lose your mental stability and rational attitude. These moments are your acid tests. If you survive those then there is high probability that you would sustain the future shocks. You train your mind to deal with such situations. But then such shock absorptions are against the law of nature. If pressure gets built up in the pressure cooker then the whistle should blow up or else the cooker will blast. Same is with life. I need to learn to vent out my aggressions and grievances before there is a whistle blowing situation. This would be in the larger interest of majority surrounding me. Many times such pressure is in-built due to my own assumptions and self centeredness. I am learning to look at the situation as an outsider. What would I suggest to my friend when I see him/her in such situation? I am being a self heeler. And one remedy to change your mood or to be that outsider is to blogJ. It helped me now. I was having a pressure cooker situation in my mind. Well I didn’t have the whistle to release the pressure, but I turned off the gas burner (uncontrolled and baseless thoughts running in my mind). I am feeling cool and normal now. Thanks blogger.com for providing me this space.

When I actually want to post

2007-08-22T00:13:00.000+05:30

These days life has really become very busy. And this busy is for good. This term we are having electives. We don’t have lectures throughout the week. Its different thing that most of the time, we have classes on weekend as well. But then these times I have chosen all the subjects except for the two core subjects, which are my conscious choices. Hence I am wholeheartedly involved in the subjects. Is it that way or the project work asks for lots of involvement? (As in summaries, presentations and lots of pre-read material) Above all this, many non-academic activities are happening in this semester. These all keeps me engaged throughout the day. Sleeping at 2 and getting up at 8 is a luxury.

Sometimes I have story, incidence etc. to post here, but due to the engagements mentioned above, I am unable to post anything in this space. We have a subject named 'Soft skills' this time. In that the instructor has asked us to make a 24 hour timetable for oneself and make best efforts to abide by it. So in today's timetable I deliberately allotted a slot to type this post.
Don’t know how life is going to be in future. At present you can say that I am in the bed of roses. Things are going to be much more difficult than what it is now and I have to deal with much more difficult people. (Now friends surround me)

We can predict the working of the machine. What we can not predict is the behavior of the human beings. No matter how ever familiar you are to some people, its just next to impossible to predict their behavior. Be it good or bad you get surprises at various points. I am not sure whether these surprises are because my ignorance and inexperience.

Life is the most able teacher for me and I am learning as things are coming along my way. I would try to post quite often now onwards!!

Aawjo (Bye in Gujarati)

Want to be a happy man?

2007-07-09T01:35:00.000+05:30

I read a book "The conquest of happiness"... by Bertrand Russell

Its a book that one should read at different stages of ones life...I happened to read it at the age of 23. When I am 35 or 50 it will have a different meaning for me.

It is one of the best self-help books I have ever come across.

One thing I would like to mention is that ...great works are there in such life changing books..but all is in vain unless practiced in real life.

All in all a must read book!!

Chennai Stories - 1

2007-07-07T17:42:00.001+05:30

I am really jobless today and hence thought of scribbling some things that amazed me in past few days.

Incidence - 1

One day my friend and I were at Koyembedu private bus stand (Chennai) and we wanted to go to Spencer's plaza (one of the oldest shopping mall of Chennai). We asked the auto rickshaw drivers for the amount they would charge to take us to that place. This is typical of Chennai. Here the auto rickshaws will have the fare meters. But the drivers will never charge fare according to the meter. Instead they will charge some arbitrary amount and extort money from the passengers like anything. If you are aware of the distance and the fares that are generally charged, u know how much is apt and up to what you can bargain. But if you are a novice then be prepared to get “looted” by them.

Taking this into consideration, the auto fellows were asking for somewhere in the range of 80 -100 bucks. This was just too much and therefore we decided to go by the local city bus. We needed the direction to reach to that place and so we asked a few people for the way to the bus stand. One old gentleman, instead of showing us the directions, came all the way with us to the bus stand. This was some 1 -1 ½ Kilometer from the place. My friend and I were just wondering why he came all the way there. What is the motivation for him to come all the way to that place without any selfish motive?

He was the hero of the day in my eyes. I was thinking about this and one day, I chanced upon to read somewhere that some people feel motivated by helping others. There are many live and bigger examples of such people the in past. But this was one live and recent case before my eyes. When such things happen, very naturally you pray to Almighty for the well being of that person.

Incidence-2
I wanted to get my leather handbag stitched. It was torn from sides. I thought of getting it done from a roadside cobbler. The other day I was carrying that bag and was returning from an ATM.

On the roadside, I saw an old lady cobbler having her afternoon “siesta”. She was dark in complexion. A little bit fat. She wore a saree. Though she was a cobbler her nose and ears were pierced with jewellery that looked of gold to me. She wore a thick golden necklace and many bangles. Now ladies with this much jewellery is a common sight in Chennai. She had a hand fan lying besides her. Expression on her face were that of an “angry old lady”. A mat containing her tools and many shoes were lying in front of her. It seemed that she is into this business from quite sometime. This was taking into consideration her age and the way tools were lying on the mat. All required tools were arranged so that they are handy and convenient to use.

I thought of waking her up. But then, thought of not spoiling her nap. But my presence around woke her. I don’t know Tamil so I showed her my bag and the torn part. She took the bag and started stitching the torn part. She really did a good job. I asked for the fees. She showed me with her 3 fingers “3”. I understood that she asked for three rupees. I thought that this wonderful job is at least worth Rs. 10 (Kunjoos me !! ). So, I handed over a 10 rupees note. She gave a perplexed look to me then I asked “what?” Then again with her fingers she showed me 3 and 10. I thought I understood this time what she was asking for. So I wrote on the ground with my fingers “30”. She nodded her head. I started laughing at my intended generosity and I was literary feeling like a fool. Then I explained her that the amount she got was okay. But then she was looking very furious, so I gave some other 6 bucks (this was all I had with me in my money purse, though I had Rs. 2000/- in my pant pocket which I recently withdrew from ATM). I escaped from her showing her my empty money purse indicating that this was all that I have. When I reached my room, I was contemplating over the entire episode. Whether I did a right thing or wrong ?
I thought, we spend 100 bucks and many times 200 hundred bucks for the movies at multiplexes, but when it comes to giving 30 rupees to cobbler you refuse to give. This is because YOU don’t think that it is worth it

One minute please !!

2007-07-01T23:05:00.000+05:30

The other day, I attended the brainstorming session of MMA (Madras Management Association) to decide the theme for the 6th MMA All India Management Students' Convention. At the end of the session we were shown a small video...

It had three parts

One minute Goal setting
One minute Praise
One minute Reprimand

Here are the steps for all the three

One minute Goal setting

Agree on goals
Set a goal and performance
Write down goals
Read and reread the goals

One minute Praising

Be Upfront
Immediate
Approximately right
Specific
Share feelings
Moment of slience
Encourage more
Touch

One Minute Reprimand

Share before hand
Immediate
Specific
Share feeling
Pause for reflection
Reaffirm
Touch

All these points were explained with famous Hollywood movie "Rocky".

Of all the "One minuters"..I have started practicing..One minute goal setting..
For the other two I am waiting for the right time.

U and your organization ( part -1)

2007-06-14T21:49:00.000+05:30

At the start of your new job/work, you have your own pace, your own zest, of doing work in the organization. As time passes, either you have conflicts with the methodology of the organization or you adapt to the methodology of the organization. If the organization’s way of doing work is lead back kind of and moves ahead in a laggard manner then its really bad. It will change you to work slowly. There can be many such non acceptable things present at the organization u work for, like bureaucracy etc. You can not enforce your good ways of tackling the work in a matter of week or month or even sometimes a year or two. The work culture of the organization is there since the time it was incepted. To bring the change you need to be a part of the system and slowly by getting along with the processes you can bring in that change. The duration of such a change depends on the magnitude of the change. The change that is near to the truth or the truth itself, will take the least time to get accepted. So let your changes be the changes for the progress of organization built on the strong foundation of truth so that no earthquake (trend change) will be able to disrupt it.

CeLeBrAtInG 1st BiRtHdAy !!

2007-06-12T17:40:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

It has been one year since this mania called blog-o-maina caught me !! ..Well I would sincerely like to thank my friend Rajneesh ( http://rajionsong.blogspot.com/ ) for encouraging me to start blogging. Blog has always been a space for me to express my ideas, opinions and many times complete article I liked At this point I am wondering, that I have grown one year older in blogging and I personally feel that I have grown mentally too. This is in terms of my thoughts. They are more organized than what they were earlier.

Ya. I do agree that there were a lots of breaks in between and topics were spread across various fields. But, its because of your earnest comments, my dear readers, that encouraged me to blog and especially Anoop's and Ravi's feedback to post original work has given me a new jolt to blog more furiously.

Keep reading and dont forget to leave your invaluable comments.

Well ,..ending this post by a wonderful painting by some unknown artist. This is one of my favourites.

Originality ... made great people !!

2007-06-12T00:27:00.000+05:30

Recently, I read Creating Minds, a book by Howard Gardner. In this book Howard Gardner has described seven personalities in the descending order of his perception of their being creative. The names of the great personalities are as follows

Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T. S Eliot, Martha Graham
and Mahatma Gandhi.

The author's focus here is to search for patterns to find out similarities and differences.
Author quotes, "I believe that if we can better understand the breakthroughs achieved by individuals deliberately drawn from diverse domain, we should be able to tease out principles that govern creative human activity, wherever it arises I shall argue that a creative breakthrough in one realm cannot be collapsed uncritically with breakthroughs in other realms.”

He also says, “Each creative breakthrough entails an intersection of the childlike and the mature; the peculiar genius of the modern in the century has been the incorporation of the sensibility of a very young child.

The book starts with the description of the principle components in the study of creativity, then goes on to describe the seven personalities in the context of these components and ends with drawing the similarities and differences among these creative minds.

Of all the personalities, the people about whom I was interested to know about were Freud, Einstein and Gandhiji.

Well the things that are still there in me after reading about them are:

They all had a good emotional support of their near and dear ones and friends.
They chose to shine in the area where they felt very wholesome. The area, where they could identify themselves the best.
They all isolated themselves from the society when they stood out with their first breakthrough.
After this, they gained supporters’ support and admirers’ love to make their creation widespread.

While reading this, if you were able to identify yourself with any of the characteristics mentioned above, then you may be the next creating mind of this century.

We all are unique creation of the supreme power that rules this universe and we all have creativity within us. The only thing lacking is the right blend of the circumstances, opportunities, determination and of course luck.

Just another post !!

2007-06-06T23:49:00.000+05:30

Not a seasoned writer, but here I am, scribbling something in my blog.
Every moment you live, you judge yourself (right or wrong). This right or wrong is applicable to anything of your life (your career decision, your behavior, and your friends). And we want everything to be right. Well, there are times when you feel that you have made a wrong decision. People say,successful person moves from wrong to the right track . But is it always possible to revert to right track? And is there something called right track of life or is it just a matter of pure luck?

Well according to me, good luck is one of the factors to a successful life and it is not under our control. So give your best to everything you do and leave the rest on your luck!!

Did I do a right thing by posting this?

BE GREENER TO GET THE GREENBACK

2007-05-28T15:25:00.000+05:30

Gaurie Mishra & Neha Kohli

IT ISN’T often small companies beat their big brothers hollow in exploiting a business opportunity. But India Inc’s Liliput brigade are doing just that by trading carbon credits to shore up their toplines as well as bottomlines. The idea is simple: Invest in eco-friendly technology, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trade in the certified emission reduction (CER) units that one obtains in doing so. For smaller companies, it means mega bucks - there are cases where net profits have jumped as much as 300%. Significantly, around three-quarters of the registered clean development mechanism (CDM) projects from India is by smaller companies having a turnover of below Rs 1,000 crore. Big corporates such as Reliance, ONGC and A B Birla group have been late entrants and hold just about 30% of the registered CDM projects. An official of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) says that considering India’s economic boom will be lead by small, emerging companies amid growing recognition that growth has to be environmentally sustainable, “we can only expect more and more small-scale units to add up CERs and make a moolah out of it”.

IMAGE IMPACT

Today, smaller Indian companies are looking for new markets abroad. They need access to technology, brands and a platform to sell their products. Often credibility comes in the way. With international presence being the norm of the day, carbon credits could add to the image of a company, as it is considered being responsible and eco-friendly. Needless to say, such an image helps in bagging export orders and helps get incentives in the host country as well. Says Deepak Asher, executive director of Gujarat Flouro Chemicals: “It is a win-win proposition. Host countries like India stand to gain through sustainable development and it also helps developing countries get more revenues. Companies across sectors and irrespective of their size also stand to gain.”

TOPLINE IMPACT

Of the six greenhouse gases, the largest carbon dioxide equivalent producer is HFC23, which is produced as a by-product in refrigerant gas-making. One tonne of HFC23 is equal to 11,700 tonnes of CO2. Medium-sized companies in India, such as SRF, Gujarat Flourochemicals etc., have registered their projects under the clean development mechanism. The carbon credits produced by these companies are in excess of their respective turnovers. Most recently, Navin Fluorine, another refrigerant-maker, will be able to sell over 2.8 million certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits annually in the international market. At a conservative average price of $14 per credit revenue, the sale of CERs may fetch as much as $40 million or Rs 180 crore each year for the company for a period of 10 years. This is over 82% of the company’s total turnover of Rs 233 crore in fiscal 2005-06. Automotive tyre-maker Apollo Tyres has also managed to ramp up its bottomline by Rs 3 crore in the last one year. In sectors like cement manufacturing, co-generation in sugarcane mills, wind mill projects and recovery of waste heat at standalone units have, so far, been tapped by only smaller companies. Significant among the emerging firms in these sectors include Shree Cement, India Cement, J K Cement and Rajshree Cement. Other smaller CDM projects are by companies like Sai Engineering Foundation and Chambal Power. Other companies that have benefited are Gujarat Alkalies, Gujarat NRE Coke, JSW Holdings, Chemplast Sanmar, National Fertilisers, Torrent Power, MSP Steel and Balrampur Chini. They have either issued or are in the process of issuing CERs. Experts say the expected increase in the bottomline ranges anywhere from 39% to 173% for these companies.

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE

Richard L Sandor, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Climate Exchange, recently told ET that India will “move quickly” in the future to capture a large part of the carbon credit market. “India’s future is significant. India continues to grow its economy at an impressive rate and one expects its CO2 emission to increase rapidly. At the same time, there is a tremendous recognition among Indian corporates on the need for environmentally-sustainable growth. Trading experience on platforms such as CCX and first-mover advantage will be attractive to many Indian corporates,” he said. CCX has tied up with TERI for India. “Significant amount of CDM will be produced in India. Some of the credits can be hedged in European markets and sold when the prices are good. On CCX, Indian corporates can join as liquidity providers and have the option to buy credits in the US, Brazil and China. Companies with subsidiaries in these countries can buy or sell credits on the respective exchanges,” Sandor added.

WHAT’S CARBON TRADING THE IDEA OF TRADE IN CERs

took shape after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It mandates GHG emission caps on industrialised countries, which have ratified it, but also allows them to buy a greener nation's GHG emission levels. Which means, a CER can be earned by reducing emissions through eco-friendly practices, or, in other words, a country with an emission cap can buy a CER from a developing country that doesn't face a cap. And that's where India comes into the picture as a seller of CERs under the (clean development mechanism) CDM of the legal framework of the protocol. CDM allows for company projects in developing countries, with no mandated emission reduction targets, to trade in CERs with countries that have such targets. One CER is equivalent to a reduction of one tonne of carbon.

source: The Economic Times

Government plans workers’ university

2007-05-28T15:17:00.000+05:30

Urmi A Goswami NEW DELHI
THE INDUSTRY will have to contribute financially if it wants workers whose skills match its needs. The government is considering setting up a Workers’ Technical University that will ensure that India’s working population is able to meet the rapidly changing needs of the industry. The university will require a capital expenditure of Rs 500 crore to be set up, and Rs 100 crore annually after that. It has been proposed that trade unions, large, medium, and small industries and government all help fund the university. A four-member committee headed by G Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), submitted a feasibility report to the human resource development ministry in early May. On Friday, Dr Reddy met with HRD minister Arjun Singh, UGC chairman, AICTE chairman and ministry officials to discuss a roadmap for the proposed university. The university will not depend on just the government for its funding. One idea being toyed with is that trade unions commit 2% of wages, while large industrial enterprises will contribute 2% of their profit annually towards the university. Medium enterprises will required to give 1.5% of their profits, while small enterprises will allocate 0.5% of their profits annually to the university coffers. For this to be feasible idea, considerable finetuning would be required in terms of which industrial sectors would benefit and hence, contribute. Collecting a percentage of wages and profits would amount to an increase in tax rates. On the issue of management, the Reddy committee has suggested that the technical university could be managed by trustees comprising worker’s representatives. The committee has proposed that the university be based in Hyderabad with 13 regional centres and the entire network is expected to cater to nearly 3 lakh workers and students a year. Linkages with industrial and technical institutes (ITIs) will also need to be developed.

source: The Economic Times

The support is within you !!

2007-05-12T15:07:00.000+05:30

There are times when you feel very dejected. It seems that every thing is falling against you..You feel depressed and just want to shut every thing and run away somewhere.

There are also times when you feel very happy. On cloud nine. As mentioned in the world famous and best seller book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it seems that the whole world is conspiring to help you achive your goal.

But, is it actually that way? Happiness and sadness are all states of mind. Its our mind that decides whether to be happy or sad in a given situation.

The key is to remain steadfast. What is called "Sthita Pragna" in Sanskrit..

Below are the verses 54-72 of Chapter 2 ( Sankhya Yoga) from Bhagavad Gita. They have helped me many times to restore my cool in very precarious situations of my LIFE. Hope it would help you too .. The crux is to remain "Sthit Pragna".

___________________________________________________________________________

Arjuna said: O Krishna, what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge.

One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them.

One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.

For one thus satisfied [in Krishna consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one's intelligence is soon well established.

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.

Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires — that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still — can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego — he alone can attain real peace.

That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.

___________________________________________________________________

Thanking is a very small word, to express my gratitude towards my parents who instilled such things of atmost importance in me. This will help me, support myself, from within.. !!

Source for translation of verses: - http://www.krishna.com/gitaframeset/gita_frameset.html

Scorching Heat and Road side watermelon

2007-04-28T13:53:00.000+05:30

Aha it’s Saturday!! I woke up at 10 AM. I had some work in bank so had to go during day time. I decided to go walkie-talkie. Well, I took an umbrella and a scarf to protect myself from the Sun, but I think that was not enough. To and fro distance traveled is somewhere equal to 3 km. While returning back I was really thirsty and was sweating very badly. First, I thought to have some cold drink like my favorite maaza mango. But then I saw watermelon pieces nicely arranged in a plate at a road side shade. I decided to have one plate of it. I asked for the price.

I really felt like heaven. While I was relishing each bite, there were five other customers who were having it. At the end I asked the amount I had to pay. The lady replied 5 rupees. Well actually I felt like asking her about her day's income. I dont know tamil and hence due to language barrier I didn't asked her that. Then I started estimating her income myself based on the sample of customers I saw there. Heat starts killing you at around 11 AM and it lasts up to 6 PM. Lets estimate on an average 25 customers/hour ( considering the fact that the shop was on one of the very busy roads' side).Hence simple math answer is Rs. 875/day. Hence considering a 30 days month, monthly turnover is Rs. 26,250 (wow!!).

Now on an average 1 watermelon serves 3 plates. Hence approximately, 58 watermelons consumed per day. Cost price of 1 watermelon is 5 rupees. Hence monthly cost of watermelon is Rs. 8700...So Net income is Rs. 17550 (Look at the figure guys!!)...Any one wants to be a road side watermelon seller!! Well Frankly speaking I don’t want to be considering the scorching heat and the monotony of the work. But will surely ponder on to this as a business plan. What do you say?

Disclaimer: Financial gurus please take into consideration the ideal conditions. Accordingly please calculate +ve and -ve tolerance for the net income/month ;)

Glimpse of Book:- India Unbound

2007-04-22T01:56:00.000+05:30

About Author:-

Gurucharn Das is a columnist for The Times of India and other newspapers. He graduated from Harvard college and attended Harvard Business School. A Former CEO of Proceter and Gamble, he is venture capitalist and a consultant to industry and government.

India Unbound is a book written in a lucid manner. Gurucharanji's typical writing style of bringing everything; History,Economics,Commerce , Business and Description of his life under one roof, makes this book an interesting read. He has described the British Raj, License Raj and Liberalization of Indian Economy very precisely. He says that India is a wise Elephant, unlike China. Although slower, India is more likely to preserve its way of life and its civilization of diversity, tolerance, and spirituality against the onslaught of the global culture.

-His inclination towards philosophy and confusion to pursue Sanskrit course at Harvard or leave it to go for something more, so called "substantial" in those days, is penned down.

-One should not miss the Vicks VapoRub incident of Surat lady ..while he was on his sales visit...

-He has described the leaders of Indian Industry:- G.D Birla, Narayan Murthy, Dhirubhai Ambani...

- How caste system can hinder the growth of a country , is very well explained.

In a Nut shell --its a book about the opening up of India to the outside world and to change for good...

Howzzat! HR masterstrokes for BCCI

2007-04-13T00:42:00.000+05:30

HR Consultants Proffer Suggestions
Malini Goyal NEW DELHI

RELIGION is often beyond reason. And in a country where cricket is religion for many, reasoning and rationale has to take a back seat after a devastating World Cup loss. But let’s for a moment step back and think of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as a corporate body and cricket players as its employees. And look at the players, their compensation structure and restrictions on them through the eyes of HR experts. After all companies have done a great job of balancing conflicting stakeholders’ concerns, achieving difficult tasks while balancing individual vs team rewards in an extremely competitive and global business environment.

Here are some of the issues and suggestions that HR consultants and heads have for the BCCI. Not all of them may be implemented - but if the BCCI can pick up at least some of the ground rules that India inc has learnt over the years to win business and manage employees, cricketing at least would gain. If some of the outpourings below feel emotionladen, just discount for the passion these experts may have for the game.

BCCI as a corporate body If BCCI wants to become a world-class company with a world-class cricketing team it has to have a clear business plan with well-articulated time frame and key milestones like any business proposal. It also needs to identify what it needs to get there – money, infrastructure and of course best team, best coach etc.

For each of them - coach, selectors, players, even board members – their roles, the key deliverables and targets have to be clearly defined with accountability and responsibility fixed. “One has to see where are the failures on the deliverables before talking about sacking the coach or the player or the selector,” says R Sankar, head, Mercer India. Role clarity is very critical at all levels and the measures to vet performance have to be put in place. Performance review has to be regular and in a more structured rather than a reactive manner - the way its been happening.

And last but not the least, the board members have to be accountable for their jobs. “Right now its (the board) being used as a facility for gaining social respect,” says K Ramkumar, HR head of ICICI Bank. Maybe board members should be charged – Rs 1 crore – to get a board seat, and in times when the team isn’t doing well they could be penalized with Rs 2 crore fee,” he says.

GROOMING leaders & team This is a place where guys with far lesser experience can be asked to lead the team of people with far more experience. It happens frequently in the corporate world and they do it all the time. But the cricketing world is far more challenging - There are many prima-donnas here with high public stature. Add to it the fish-bowl experience of being always under media glare and public scrutiny. Amid all this when some of them are pitch-forked in leadership roles at a relatively young age without any formal grooming, it creates enormous leadership challenges. From a holistic HR perspective there should be a formal intense process of grooming prospective leader and this could not just be left to chance, says Hema Ravichandar, a strategic HR consultant and ex-HR head of Infosys Technologies. But once chosen a leader, the captain has to walk the talk and be a leader standing up for his team. “Dravid has acted as a stooge either for the coach or the board. How will he derive any respect from the team,” says Ramkumar.

SALARY bouncer How best to remunerate players? What could help align individual performance with the team? Should there be a graded system? What’s the crticilaity of the variable pay? In most of the above issues, opinions vary, but here’s snapshot of what they have to say.

VARIABLE vs fixed pay Variable pay, which is performance-linked, has to be a critical component. That’s the only way wins can be rewarded and losses can be penalized. Most HR experts recommend in the range of 40-50% of the total compensation to be variable. Variable pay can have two components they suggest – team performance and individual performance. While team performance can be rewarded at the end of every match win, ICICI’s Ramkumar warns that individual performance should be assessed on an annual basis. “Right now they have a warped variable pay which rewards players deal by deal. That’s a very narrow and short-term approach,” he says. Assessing annually will help avoid short-term approach to performance and it will also allow for bounce-back for players who may have short spells of bad form. Also they suggest that, there could be differentiated slabs for rewarding individual variable pay - for example those making 100 runs, those making more than 200 runs annually can fall in two slabs.

SKIPPER vs rest The thumb rule in the corporate world is that the leader gets at least double the remuneration than the person next in line. And ideally, HR experts would want the captain and vice-captain to get far more than his team members simply because he has two roles to play in the game. But the experts differ in how the two should be paid higher. While Ramkumar suggests that the captain’s compensation should be structured such that the variable component is higher than the others. For example, if for the players, 50% of the compensation is variable, for captain it should go a notch higher to 60%, he suggests. But Piyush Mehta, HR head of Genpact, differs. While the percentage rise in variable salary is a given in the corporate sector as you move up the hierarchy, it should not be the case in cricket, he says. This is because the ability of say a CEO to change the flow in an organization is quite high as compared to a cricket match where a skipper’s efforts can play only a marginal role.

Source:- The Economic TImes

HP's perfect enough ....CARLY ...The Change leader

2007-04-06T02:09:00.000+05:30

Born in 1954, (Carleton S. Fiorina) Fiorina was brought up in Austin, Texas (USA). Her father was a lawyer who also taught law at Stanford and other universities while her mother was a painter. Fiorina attended school in different parts of the world including Ghana, England, North Carolina and California.

She graduated in arts (BA in medieval history and philosophy) from Stanford University in 1976. Fiorina displayed her analytical capabilities at Stanford, where she was able to summarize hundreds of pages of religious writings into crisp, two-page abstracts in quick time.
After graduation, she attended the law school at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). However, she opted out of the course after completing one semester. In an interview to Investor's Business Daily, she said that 'lack of interest' had prompted her to drop out since law 'was all about discovering precedent someone else has set.' She then completed a master's degree in science (MS) from MIT's Sloan School.

In the early days of her career, Fiorina taught English in Bologna, Italy and she taught English to many clients, who were eager to know about American businesses using articles of American businesses. She also worked as a receptionist in Marcus & Millichap, then a small real-estate firm in New York. It was in this firm, when writing deals for brokers that she became attracted towards business management. In her autobiography “Tough Choices” Carly has mentioned that her work helped her develop people skills and she discovered that she loves to be part of a team. While continuing to work, Fiorina did a course in marketing management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. After she acquired her MBA degree, she joined the sales department of AT&T Long Lines as an account executive, in 1980.
Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she held a number of senior leadership positions and directed Lucent's initial public offering and subsequent spin-off from AT&T.

Fiorina joined Hewlett-Packard Company on July 19, 1999 as CEO, succeeding Lewis Platt. She reworked the value statement of the company. She built a new management team. She was responsible for the faster and innovative and learning culture of HP. She undertook a major restructure of the organization and set new performance measures. However, many of Fiorina's initiatives at HP had been controversial. A major one was the HP-Compaq merger, which finally made the board of HP to fire her. In her autobiography Carly mentions “HP had consumed me. My entire life was programmed around it- every moment on the calendar, in advance.”
Some powerful ideas that have driven her life are the foundations laid down by her parents. She strongly believes,” Character is everything and character is defined as candor, integrity and authenticity. Authenticity is about knowing what you believed, being who you were, and standing up for both.”

As a leader she is well known in the corporate world as “The Change leader”. She is an inspirational leader, charismatic personality, has strong value system, ready to break established structure; innovative, influential and energetic and a marvelous orator. In 2002, (Fiorina), the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HP was the only woman CEO to head a Fortune 50 company. Fortune magazine also ranked her as the most powerful woman in business for the sixth consecutive year.

She has a personal touch that inspires intense loyalty. She's known for giving balloons and flowers to employees who land big contracts. When Lucent was spun off from AT&T in early 1996, Fiorina stayed up all night with Comptroller Jim Lusk and other employees to make sure the prospectus for the stock offering was perfect. And it's not just business: When the wife of a senior Lucent executive fell ill recently, Fiorina helped make sure he got medical advice, doctors, and emotional support.

Fiorina holds positions on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. She is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School. In early September 2005, Fiorina was named a director at Revolution Health Group, a venture formed by Steve Case. In October 2005, Fiorina joined the board of computer security company Cybertrust. In April 2006, Fiorina joined the board of directors for TSMC (Taiwan). Fiorina is an independent TSMC board member and serves on the audit and compensation committees.

In Carly Fiorina's Keynote Speech at MIT, 2002 she mentions “Trust comes as a basic DNA question” that is if you don’t have trust coded into your own organization then it is difficult to convey it to the larger market. Trust is doing right thing when no one is watching.”
Carly Fiorina remains and stands apart as a powerful and innovative leader.

Home Sweet Home....my oxygen

2007-04-04T11:41:00.000+05:30

Here I am...after 5 months, at my home, for a week. There is no single moment when I am idle. It started by meeting my masi's,mama's and chacha's family....get togather with my cousins....really enjoyed the time with them...we are a big fat Gujarati family. At home there are happier times with lots of sleep and all my favorite dishes made by dearest mother. Then phone rings and aha !! its a call from an old friend...fix up time and place of meeting and hang out with him/her....Just do hi...hello with neighbouring aunty..and she hand overs you 3 fat album of his sons marriage. ...Open some unread e-mails (which you thought you will open when you are relaxed)...you find album of marriage/cute baby of either one of your friend or cousin. You are wonder struck by the sudden additions of new people to your memory...One who were miss are now mrs. and some are even "Mom". (You think that 5 months is a small time for these many things to happen...but they have actually happenend)

This year can be named as "under construction" for my home town. Not a single street was without the sign board "Work in progress".Hope the corporation finishes the work well before monsoon sets in ... Besides...when I enter the lane of my house...I reconfirm whether I am entering the correct lane by looking around. This is beacause two humongous building are standing facing my house...( what a speed man) ....and I also see the palm trees of our garden grown quite taller (1 and 1/2 storey...last when I saw...they were just of my height)...

This is all ...4 more days to go and I'll get more surprises...hope fully all are pleasant.

Morality is a private and costly luxury

2007-03-13T14:45:00.000+05:30

BUSINESS ETHICS
John Maxwell

AN ETHICAL dilemma can be defined as an undesirable or unpleasant choice relating to a moral principle or practice. In such situations, do we do the easy thing or the right thing? Business people in particular desire to win through achievement and success. But many think they have to choose between being ethical and winning. Many people believe that embracing ethics would limit their options, their opportunities, their very ability to succeed in business. They agree with Harvard history professor Henry Adams who stated: “Morality is a private and costly luxury.” Fortunately, there is an increasing desire for ethical dealing in business. One of our problems is that ethics is never a business issue or a social issue or a political issue. It is always a personal issue. People say they want integrity. But at the same time, ironically, studies indicate that the majority of people don’t always act with the kind of integrity they request from others. If you embrace ethical behaviour, will it automatically make you rich and successful? Of course not. Can it pave the way for you to become successful? Absolutely! Ethics + competence is a winning equation. In contrast, people who continually attempt to test the edge of ethics inevitably go over that edge. In the short term, behaving ethically may look like a loss. However, in the long term, people always lose when they live without ethics. Have you ever met anyone who lived a life of shortcuts, deception, and cheating who finished well?

Source: - The Economic Times

Are HR professionals in the people business any longer?

2007-03-12T22:24:00.000+05:30

Ganesh Chella

A sound grounding in the science of human behaviour will help today's HR professionals diagnose people issues better and strike a better balance between business demands and people's needs.

As a human resource consultant, I have had the unenviable task (on more than one occasion) of introducing my clients' HR manager to their own employees! If you find this hard to believe try this test - ask a random sample of employees in any large organisation to list the names of their HR team members. If they do pass this test, ask them if they have seen them at least once, face-to-face. If they pass this test too, they are blessed. The rest may read on ...
The reason for the `invisibility' that I have implied in the example is the fundamental shift in the way today's HR professionals are seeing their roles. They seem to be taking a "hard" and "business like" view of their roles to the exclusion of the "softer" championship, advocacy and connect dimensions. As a result, many of today's HR professionals are not dealing with "people" as "people" and that is worrying.

While the transformation of HR as a serious partner in today's business environment is welcome, leaving behind the "humanness" is not. While HR professionals are busy designing and implementing programmes that are intended to benefit people, their current mode of relating with people seems to be what psychologists would call "agentic" — a cold approach, caring less about their feelings but more about what one wants from them.
This is what has prompted me to ask if HR professionals are in the people business any longer?

The five drivers

I see five factors driving this new "HR attitude towards people".
The preoccupation with becoming a strategic partner
It looks like some HR folks read only parts of Dave Ulrich's landmark book. While he spoke with as much gusto about the employee champion role as he did about the strategic partner role, most seem to consider the latter more attractive. In fact, the preoccupation is so severe that "being in touch with employees" is seen as totally non-strategic.
In my opinion, being champions and advocates is indeed strategic. It is for this reason that HR professionals were traditionally groomed in the "employee relations" role before being moved into "corporate" roles.

The frustration with the lack of reciprocity

In the past, the people-friendly attitude and actions of the HR professional met with a fair amount of reciprocity from the employees. Using the depth of this relationship, HR leaders were able to solve sticky people problems, negotiate with unions and hire and retain employees. In the emerging employment arrangements that we are witnessing, the relationship and persuasive powers of the HR Manager is unable to match the harsh forces of the labour market.
This is obviously leading to a certain level of frustration and anger among the HR folks with employees and their attitudes. The empathy and Theory Y assumptions needed among HR professionals to deal with the situation are not evident. Nor is there reflection about how they seem to have contributed to these changing (read bad) employee attitudes!

Disconnected by design

As organisations scale like never before, HR professionals have to spread themselves thinner than ever before. Spread thin beyond a point, HR presence becomes meaningless and leads to complete disconnect. The need for focus and specialisation is also driving the HR functions into silos. Like the super-specialist medical professional, each vertical within the HR looks only at one aspect of the employee - talent acquisition, talent engagement, talent development and so on. No one seems to be seeing the whole human being!

Feverish HR outsourcing, recourse to self-help technologies, emphasis on managerial responsibility for people and other such actions are also making HR more and more disconnected from people.

The modern HR manager has fewer and fewer touch points with his or her employees and this does not seem to cause any worry. Right from selection interviews to exit interviews, external service providers are taking over.

Mistaking a `Talent mind-set' for a `people mind-set'
HR is now called talent management and HR professionals prefix or suffix these words to their titles. Many believe that this gives the function and the professional a greater sense of purpose.
The only problem is that "Human" is now missing not only in spirit but also in "letter"!
The way the term talent is used also gives me the sense that HR is in the business of materials management and not in the business of people!
While the urgency to compete and establish supremacy in the labour market is high, the orientation seems more mechanistic and less humanistic.

Less science more techniques

Many of today's HR professionals lack knowledge about the basic science of human behaviour which forms the edifice for understanding people and their motives.
On the other hand they are overwhelmed with what today's HR consulting firms dish out - talent assessments methodologies, engagement models, criteria for becoming the "best in the list" and so on.

A sound grounding in the science of human behaviour would have helped today's HR professionals diagnose people issues better and strike a better balance between business demands and people's needs. Without this understanding of people, the empathy and concern are hard to come by.

The HR profession is undoubtedly under a lot of pressure given that most of today's business problems revolve around people. Merely being the warm and fuzzy guy around will not do. Giving up the people agenda altogether will not do either!

So... .
Let's get in touch with our own humanness
Let's understand the people behind the talent
Let's reconnect with these people as people
(The author is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm that designs and implements systems and processes for organisations across diverse industries. He can be reached at

ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

A Triumph of Story telling

2007-03-10T16:07:00.000+05:30

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that blows you away just by how utterly simple and beautiful it is. The Pursuit Of Happyness is one of those movies, a heart-warming story of father and son, human beings, pulling together. Will Smith and eight-year-old Jaden Smith, father and son in real life, bring this to us on screen poignantly, and always with a look-on-the-brightside lightness. Their optimism comes to define, and uplift the movie. And in the process, they rise above the difficult circumstances that are integral to its story.

Chris Gardner's job as a salesman is a false start; with a wife and young son to provide for, he can hardly make ends meet. Tough times are in store. His wife leaves him, and he and his son - who he fiercely refuses to give his wife custody of - are evicted from their home because he can't pay the rent. A touching, often sad story of the two of them up against life's odds unfolds. Each time they survive one(just about), you find yourself hoping that their next episode is an inflection that turns the tide for the better. Often, they only find themselves up against another trying circumstance.

Jaden Smith, both as Christopher Gardner in this movie and as Jaden the actor, is memorable: Because of the events around him rocking his world, Christopher is often unsettled, and sometimes displays it, just as a kid of his age would. But he does not dwell, and often takes comfort in his dad's presence, like any other eightyear-old (Will Smith as his real dad must surely have helped). In turn, Chris Gardner, in spite of the hopeless situation that he sees and the desperation that he feels, looks to Christopher for reassurance. His son is easily distracted by the present moment, and doesn't know enough to comprehend just how badly off they might be. He sometimes even forgets that things are looking gloomy, something that adults are able to do much less effectively. "Are you happy?" Chris asks his son in one scene, "Because if you're happy, then I'm happy, then things are fine," taking comfort from the child-like optimism that his son has.

You sense that Gardner always has a fierce ray of hope that never goes away. Will Smith's performance is moving, and empathetic, you're rooting for him fervently. He brings many unwritten (and ineffable) facets to his character, and a large part of my being drawn into this movie and then loving it is because of what Will Smith brings to his role.

The Pursuit Of Happyness is persuasive proof that a story can be told simply, without adornment or flourish, and still fully engage your senses and leave strong, lasting impressions.

FILM : The Pursuit Of Happyness

DIRECTOR : Gabriele Muccino

CAST : Will Smith, Jaden Smith

Source: Madras plus , The Economic Times

Igniting women entrepreneurship

2007-03-08T17:29:00.000+05:30

If we could get the poor and ill-educated women to earn their own money, we would have more warriors in the fight against poverty, and more champions of the girl child, says Rama Bijapurkar
THE new buzz in the conference circuit is the arithmetic argument that there could be a big GDP boost if more Indian women became economically active (77% of urban housewives, 60% of rural do not work outside the home). To me, a more compelling pay off of women earning is the resultant increase in their self-esteem and negotiating power with family and society and the resultant social and human development benefits. More importantly, if we could get the poor and the ill-educated women to earn their own money, we would have more warriors in the fight against poverty, and more champions of the girl child.

The only problem, as always in India, is how do we make this happen? Conventional job creation will not happen as fast as we need it to, and poor and less educated women will find it increasingly tough to have a shot at those fewer jobs. The only way to fix this is entrepreneurship, enabling them to become economically active at an income level that makes the effort worthwhile.

It is this that is the focus of TIE women’s initiative. TIE is an Indian diaspora originated, global network, committed to fostering entrepreneurship. The TIE model for action is based on awareness creation (to spark desire and spur action) — advocacy (to create systemic enablers and remove systemic road blocks) — assistance (mentoring through a semi-formal process to get high potential entrepreneurs off the ground). As a first step to understanding how best to deploy this model for fostering grassroots entrepreneurship for women, a group from TIE women and UTI Bank collaborated a baseline study (GEM — Grassroots Entrepreneurship Movement for women), to map the structure and conduct of women entrepreneurship as it exists today. The study was conducted by India Consultancy Group, and mentored by two volunteers from McKinsey. I think today would be a good day to share the study findings, for use in any which way, by all who are concerned with women entrepreneurship.

Is there a desire for entrepreneurship among middle class urban Indian women who are currently not working? A survey to measure the NQ or the entrepreneurial quotient was conducted (1,200 middle class urban women excluding the top 20% of households and the bottom 30% in terms of social class) in six diverse cities — Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Indore.

The heartening answer was that about one in every four women wanted to have a business of her own. Half of these potential entrepreneurs already are running some money-making activity from home and are ready to convert it to a formal business. The other half have so far been solely home makers, but have given a fair degree of thought to visioning their business.

What is their profile? Forget images of Kiran Shaw or Vandana Luthra. Of these women, 40% had less than nine years of education, another 40% were standard tenth pass, and only 20% had an education beyond that. The reasons for not studying further were forced on them in 75% of the cases, “family said enough”, “financial constraints”, and “got married off”. The touching statistic was that women with high NQ also had more educated mothers — relatively speaking, of course. Of them, 95% were married, almost all had children, and 67% had nuclear families. Obviously the strategy to stimulate such entrepreneurship has to take these constraints into account.

WHAT stops them? Just about everything — lack of know-how, lack of space, lack of family support, lack of finances. (Interestingly that was not the first and last item on the list. It isn’t just about money. It is about support in many more ways, because they have fewer role models to learn from.) Part 2 of the study was to know more about what motivates and frustrates existing women entrepreneurs, and how they can be taken to the next level.

Four segments of women entrepreneurs exist: Self-help groups: Those who are well served and mentored by microfinance institutions.

Grassroots entrepreneurs: Those who are driven by a need to augment the family’s finances especially to secure their children’s future — tailors, flower sellers, STD booth owners, paanshops. With turnover aspiration of five lakh a year, they are very work focused, as they can see any increase in their earnings as directly impacting their childrens’ lives. They are hungry for formal skills and training and can clearly articulate what they want to learn that will help them earn more. Domestic family support, financial support and better infrastructure and mechanisation is what they ask for.

Mid-rung entrepreneurs: They are driven by a need to build reputation, become known, and improve quality and satisfy creative instincts . Mostly graduate +, they typically have garments shops, poultry farms, export businesses etc., with turnover aspirations from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Fairly well supported by the family, their biggest need is for know-how to take the ‘quality of their business’ to the next level. However, they do not want to scale too much, because to them, there is an optimal level beyond which, they believe their children will get neglected.

Upper Crust: Drawn from the top-most social class, very well educated, with businesses like export houses, travel agencies, traders in pharmaceuticals, often adjuncts to their husband’s businesses, they aspire to turnovers of more than Rs 5 crore. Where are the bankers for the grassroots entrepreneurs? The mid-rung can get bank loans if she makes an effort to, but prefers friends and family funding, while the upper crust leverages her family balance sheet to get loans for her business. However the most potent and hungry segment, the grassroots entrepreneur is stuck in the middle with no access to finance — below the nose of the bank, and beyond the ken of micro finance.

A segmented strategy customised for the mid-rung and grassroots entrepreneurs is being worked on: Awareness to help take the leap with family blessing, advocacy relating to school curricula and new banking offerings, and assistance to hand hold them to the next level.

source:- The Economic Times

Dont try to change others to suit you!!

2007-03-08T12:15:00.000+05:30

People are brought up with different values. Their philosophy of life is different from yours. Due to this there are differences in this world. Thats why the world exists. Dont expect them to change according to your confirmations. Accept them the way they are. Thats the beauty and basis of all the realtionships.

It’s back to school for retail head-hunters

2007-03-03T18:55:00.000+05:30

NO MORE KID BIZ

Samidha Sharma & Deepshikha Monga NEW DELHI

THE retail sector's hunt for manpower is leading players to hitherto uncharted territory. Now, school students (Class X and XII passouts) are being roped in to help the sector satisfy its insatiable appetite for skilled workforce. So, companies such as Reliance Retail, Pantaloon and Godrej Agrovet are going to schools to scout for talent. Reliance Retail, which plans to recruit around 5 lakh employees for its venture over the next five years, expects to hire around 60-70% of its front-end staff from government schools. These Class XII passouts then undergo a sixmonth training programme before getting on to the shop floor. Similarly, Pantaloon Retail hires as many as 300 school passouts from both government and private schools, out of the 600 it recruits every month. The retail major also gives them an option of pursuing a BBA in Retail through distance-learning programmes at Madurai Kamaraj University and pays half the fee on completion of one year of the course. It currently has on its rolls around 3,500 school passouts, picked up from various schools in the country. "The distance-learning BBA programme offers these youngsters a chance to chart out a career path of growth and an opportunity to become more than mere shopfloor attendants," says Pantaloon Retail HR head Sanjay Jog. The retailer has a five-week operations and sales training programme for its recruits and a week-long training on self-development. On the other hand, Godrej Agrovet, the Rs 870-crore rural retail initiative of the Godrej Group, trains Class X passouts under its sixmonth ‘Godrej Aadhaar Krishi Gurukul’ programme. It has so far trained 85 students in the field of agricultural advisory services, apart from personality development, computer skills and sales. It will train another batch of 120 students by May this year and plans to train about 1,000 such students by March 2008. According to CII, the retail sector can absorb 90 lakh people over the next five years. Ma Foi Management Consultants has been recruiting Class XII passouts for retail players and expects this trend to catch up as organised retail goes on an expansion spree. Says the HR consultancy’s chief operating office, E Balaji, "Both employee development and retention are on the agenda of retailers who are hiring in bulk, in anticipation of their massive expansion exercise."

Source : - The Economic Times

Brahmins At The Gate : Indian CEOs are the next big thing on global boards

2007-03-02T20:30:00.000+05:30

T R E N D S
by
Vinod Mahanta & Vikas Kumar

HSBC’S INDIA CEO Naina Lal Kidwai is usually at her confident best, but on that spring afternoon last year she was understandably nervous. The convention hall at the hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, had more than 5,000 shareholders of Nestle attending the company’s Annual General Meeting. They were to elect three new board members for the Swiss FMCG major, and Kidwai was one of the candidates. The other two were European h e a v y w e i g h t s Steven George Hoch, founder and senior partner of Highmount Capital, a highly regarded investment banking firm, and the formidable Jean-René Fourtou, chairman of the supervisory board of Vivendi and member of the boards of CapGemini, Sanofi-Aventis and AXA. After a three-minute video clip on each candidate, the electronic voting began and then the nerve-wrecking wait for the results. Finally when the results were flashed, Kidwai had achieved another of the many firsts that dot her career — she was elected with highest number of votes, becoming the first woman head of an Indian company to grace a global board. “People voted for diversity: they voted for diversity of exposure and the diversity of different markets,” says Kidwai.

The same month, one of India’s biggest corporate leaders was going through a similar experience. On April 18, 2006, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata’s name was proposed for directorship on the board of Fiat Spa by the Agnelli family. Later, on 4th May, Tata was formally inducted into the Fiat board. He wasn’t the first Tata to do so — way back in ‘70s, JRD Tata sat on the global board of directors of Chase Manhattan Bank with an Agnelli family member, the then president of Fiat, Dr Giovanni Agnelli. More recently, Ratan Tata joined another global board, that of New York-headquartered Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminium producer. And soon after came news of Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy accepting an invitation to join the board of Anglo-Dutch foods major Unilever. HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh graces the board of Singapore telecom company Singtel, while ace lawyer Zia Mody is on the board of a HSBC subsidiary in Hong Kong.

And in what could be an indicator of times ahead, headhunters in Spencer Stuart, a leading global search firm, are on the lookout for three eminent Indian business leaders to fill board positions for global companies — a Fortune 100 financial services firm, a luxury company, and a media group. Sources in the search industry disclose that two European corporate giants are also on a lookout for Indian directors for their global boards. In fact such is the demand for Indian CEOs that HSBC’s Kidwai has had to decline invitations by two American companies for their boards. What explains this clamour for Indian board directors? Trust Narayana Murthy to hit the nail bang on the head: “It signifies two things — India matters, and Indians matter. India matters as a country and as a market, and Indians matter as competent people.” Deepak Parekh elaborates: “India is happening. The MNCs have tremendous interest in India and the Indian market. They are looking at the favourable demographics, increasing disposable incomes, our huge population, the 9% GDP growth, the stability in government, Indian companies going out, among a host of other reasons,” he says. And the Indian market is a hard nut to crack as any MNC will tell you, so any expertise from here is welcome. “As people recognise the challenge to penetrate this market, they are going to get many representatives (from here) on board,” says Paul C Reilly, chairman and CEO, Korn/Ferry International, the world’s largest executive search firm. Results from the Spencer Stuart Board Index 2006 give us yet another insight. It’s part of a much larger trend — 52% of the S&P 500 companies want directors with international experience. BUILDING THE BOARD ACCORDING TO THE survey, a small minority (6%) of directors currently at the top 200 of the S&P 500 companies are from outside the US. Companies now want to change this, with a board that reflects the increasingly global nature of business. The survey also notes that corporate boards have begun to think strategically about the backgrounds and expertise they need in their board rooms in order to keep pace with the changing demands of the marketplace. Companies are thinking in terms of “what is the mix of capabilities we need to bring to the board over the next one to three years that will best support our business success,” the survey states. Thomas J Neff, chairman, Spencer Stuart US, and one of world’s leading headhunters, says, “The crunch in high quality independent and diverse director talent also requires companies to look outside their borders. The experience of companies with Indian board members is positive as they get a different view of the world and access to a very high quality pool of Indian executives and entrepreneurs on their Board.” Industry watchers add that it’s just not mere tokenism — global companies are feeling an inherent need for diversity. “There is a push for diversity at board level, in terms of reach, culture and gender,” says Kidwai. And that’s where Indians fit in perfectly. In fact, Indians rank fifth at 6% of the total international directors on global boards, after the UK (28 %), Canada (21%), and Germany (10%). Indian management skills are also well known, and many Indian leaders have proved their worth in the global arena. And it’s one area where they have an edge over their Chinese counterparts. “You see more Indians than Chinese on global boards because it’s a cultural difference people see. In general, Indians are more open, adaptable, and straightforward while the Chinese culture is hierarchial and quieter,” says Reilly. One reason why global companies are more comfortable is that a few NRIs, mainly academics and senior executives, have blended in well with global boards, and have added value in their assignments. Among the academicians are Kellogg dean Dipak Jain (Hartmax Corp, John Deere, Northern Trust Corp, Peoples Energy), Michigan University’s CK Prahalad (NCR Corp and World Resources Institute), Tuck School’s Vijay Govindarajan (Mainstay Partners and Executive Development Associates) and Emory University’s Jagdish Sheth (Cryocell International and Adayana Inc). Indian executives in MNCs are hopping aboard this bandwagon too. The latest is Rajat Gupta, who joined the Goldman Sachs board in November.

Earlier, Vyomesh Joshi, the high-profile head of the printers business in Hewlett-Packard joined the Yahoo board. Indian CEOs admit it’s a great experience. “Unilever is the second largest FMCG company in the world, it’s Anglo-Dutch, and it operates in 100 countries. There are lot of lessons for us because we operate in 38 countries, we are also a multinational. So there will always be lessons in human resources management, innovation, corporate governance, finance and so on. In every area there are opportunities for me to learn,” says Murthy. HSBC’s Kidwai agrees: “The similarities between Nestle and HSBC are mind boggling. Some of the challenges are similar, so there’s a huge amount of learning that I have been able to apply to HSBC. The experience of seeing vision from the top is tremendous.” Observing strategy and governance in new cultural context can be informing and interesting for Indian CEOs. Even board functioning varies across countries. Says HDFC’s Parekh, “Meetings are much longer in Singapore and can go on for 4-5 hours, and they are much more structured. Topics like succession planning are very big on global boards.” There is another trend emerging, of having Indians on advisory boards to the corporate boards of directors. For example, Narayana Murthy is a member of the Asia-Pacific advisory board of British Telecommunications plc. Similarly, Ratan Tata is member, Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee to the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, and the international advisory boards of the Mitsubishi Corporation, the American International Group and JP Morgan Chase. “In this arrangement, the company gets a window into the market, and the leaders don’t have to deal with Sarbanes-Oxley issues, time constraints don’t apply, and yet the work they do is strategic,” says Anjali Bansal, country manager, Spencer Stuart. Experts say it’s going to be a big trend going forward, and with a limited pool of CEOs with relevant exposure and stature, there could be talent crunch here as well. “The pool of Indian directors will be taken up soon,” says Jeffrey M Hauswirth of Spencer Stuart. Right now, Indian CEOs are happy representing their country abroad. “It always feels nice because at the end of the day unless India gets respect, Indians won’t get respect,” says Murthy.

POWERPUFF MOM

2007-02-26T22:28:00.000+05:30

Sapient’s senior VP Amy Shah finds Wall Street, with its gruelling hours, a tough challenge for women
Ishani Duttagupta

THERE arn’t too many women VPs in the consulting world. And for Amy Shah, senior VP of Sapient in North America, this is one of the challenges that she faces professionally. “I have two young children and packed travel schedules around the world - leaving them behind - can be very tough. The consulting companies do not yet have too many women in senior leadership roles and hence are only starting to recognise special needs such as limiting travel for mothers with young children,” she feels. Of course, the fact that her husband too is part of Sapient’s leadership team and helps her to balance her professional and family roles, helps a lot. And as career manager for groups of 10-15 employees across Sapient, Ms Shah finds herself often dealing with similar HR issues which often don’t have much to do with compensation packages. “As mentor and role model, I find people coming to me with problems similar to the ones that I have faced at different stages in my career - of balancing family commitments with the job,” she says. Even at Wall Street - where Ms Shah had her previous stint with Dun & Bradstreet - after an MBA in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business - she finds the trading floor largely maledominated and women having difficulties with gruelling work hours.

“While there are a large number of younger women working at Wall Street as analysts and junior traders, there are far less of them in senior positions. In fact, I find more women doing well on the retail side of financial services such as banks,” she says. Ms Shah, whose parents immigrated to the US in the 60s, was born and bred in the Mid-West America and feels that the second generation of Indian Americans are far more comfortable with their ethnic identity today, than before. “My parents’ generation were coming to terms with their American-ness, while my children will be far more comfortable as global citizens. I feel they would be comfortable living and working anywhere in the world,” she says. She herself chose to relocate to NYC because of its multicultural feel. “Starting up Sapient’s financial services business proved to be a great challenge too,” says Ms Shah who is currently responsible for Sapient’s business in New York and Chicago with a focus on the financial services sector. “Besides NYC, I’ve worked in the West Coast and Toronto. And now as part of Sapient’s strategic leadership team I feel that leadership is more about results rather than gender, race or geography. While we are three women on the top team, 30% of Sapient’s workforce globally are women,” says Ms Shah, who joined the consultancy firm way back in 1996. As for India, while her clients bring her here on work, she would love to travel more often on vacation with her family and teach her kids Gujarati.

Source:- The Economic Times ,Global Indian Takeover ..

Using the space this time to release my frustration

2007-02-26T19:35:00.000+05:30

Some people think that they are free to say anything. True, we are a democratic country and we have freedom of speech. But, then the worst is that these people feel that they can give opinions on any one and anything, that too in public, making fun of others or criticizing others. While doing so they commit violence (“Ahimsa”). This is violence, as they are having fun at the cost of hurting others’ feelings. If the opposite person does not respond back in the same sense, he/she feels that the opposite person is incompetent and is worth contempt. But a sensible opposite may actually does not want to respond to his/her crude comments at times and come down to his/her mean levels. He/she may remain silent and tolerate his/her comments when actually he/she really feeling bad. Well feeling bad and being emotional is not at all a bad thing. But then the silent tolerater should in due course of time learn how to respond to his/her comments in his/her own silent ways. The rule here is don’t keep in your grievances for longer time in your mind and heart. Find a correct time as soon as possible and clarify the matters. “Happy u are “, “Nice is the world around u”.

Positive thinking is part of the brain

2007-02-21T00:39:00.000+05:30

CO S M I C U P LI N K

• MUKUL SHARMA

BEN Shahar, a happiness guru at Harvard whose “positive psychology” classes are being flocked to in the hundreds these days, seems to have an unnecessarily negative take on the media. “Most of the media,” he says in a Times News Network interview earlier this week, “focuses on what goes wrong: it reports extensively on Enron or Martha Stewart, or some fraud. But it doesn’t focus on the billions of honest transactions that take place everyday. And over time we begin to think that the negative is the norm, and that the exception is the good. So our minds get trained to focus on what is going wrong.”

He was replying to the interviewer’s question which said she had read somewhere that evolution had geared the human brain with a tendency towards negative thinking and, if so, could we condition it to think positively?

Firstly, a responsible media does not focus only on what goes wrong, rather it focuses on what is not commonplace, unoriginal or flat. The reason is because that’s what “news” means — new information of any kind; new things — events, occurrences or tidings. Fortunately or unfortunately, such things are not self-judgemental and, therefore, can be either positive or negative in their scope. Before 1991, for instance, the media quite regularly highlighted India’s economic shortcomings, since that was a given reality in those days. Today with the bread and butter business boom taking off like a rocket, the media consistently underscores the optimistic picture. In fact the Sunday Times top story on the day of Mr Shahar’s lament was ‘200 m phones and growing’.

Secondly, and more to the point, the human brain is definitely not geared with a tendency towards negative thinking. If anything, in evolutionary terms it would at most be blindly neutral in its development, favouring perhaps only that which could be beneficial to the body. Even after the rise of societies and civilisation, along with the emergence of the higher mental faculties of emotion, reasoning, judgement and the like, the tendency of the mind has been to move consistently towards the more affirmative and upbeat aspects of its world. And ultimately, with the growth of religiosity and the emergence of a maturing moral dimension, it has differentiated between good and evil and, historically, overwhelmingly chosen the former. The very fact that Shahar’s course for creating more positivity in our lives is breaking so many popularity records, speaks volumes about this.

source:- The Economic Times, CO S M I C U P LI N K
• MUKUL SHARMA

cUT cOPY pASTE

2007-02-15T09:58:00.000+05:30

How further will it go .....in short while u will see a new post...if i am successful in one paper I am working on at present.

Be enthusiastic, always ride the learning curve

2007-02-05T21:52:00.000+05:30

WHAT WOULD a seasoned high-flying executive mom advise her 20-year-old daughter who is about to enter the workforce. Hema Ravichanderis special because she is not just a mom of a 20-year-old. She is also a seasoned HR consultant, with 22 years of experience who, at one point of time handled/shaped careers of thousands of young executives as Infosys HR head. At present, she is a consultant with the HR consultancy firm Mercer and also advises firms and CEOs on managing human capital. How should you handle your career in these heady, uncertain times? What are the golden rules? Here’s what Ravichander would advise her daughter. Read on: My Daughter, This is a special moment. You stand on the threshold of your career ready to set sail on a new and wonderful journey. An apt time for me to share with you some thoughts which I hope will provide you with a strong compass on the high seas of life. Looking back on my life, I believe one of the nicest things said to me is what my college principal once wrote in a book she gifted me — “Thank you, Hema, for your enthusiasm!” Enthusiasm, the first ingredient in the making of worthwhile outcomes, gives purpose and direction to any project. It is the ability to be positive, the desire to examine and assess the worth of the project in hand and once the worthiness has passed muster, to go ahead and get things done with a smile! Cultivate it. Remember, it is not just the situation, but your reaction towards it that will stand you in good stead. Be a student always. Too many of us stop studying the day we take up a job. It is so easy to get frozen on the learning curve. To stay relevant in this competitive world one should be au courant with the latest advances in one’s field. Else you will lose that important trait of career resilience critical to keep you ‘resumeable’ through life. So, when you take up a job, do keep aside time, whatever the pressures of the day, to read, assimilate and deploy new learning. Be performance-oriented . Fortune favours the persistent. Your hallowed educational institution provided you with the knowledge but it is your responsibility to develop the right skills and attitude. Focus on meeting deadlines, ensuring that any work you complete is of the highest quality. Too many careers waste away for lack of focus on execution excellence. A successful career takes nurturing!Instant results happen only in video games. Don’t ever lose heart if your hard work does not reap immediate dividends. Jumping jobs is not a silver bullet to rewards. Focus on the learning valueadd from your job, in these initial years. Get varied experiences, and gain depth where appropriate. Specifically, avoid falling into the easy trap of becoming a generalist without at least an area or two of specialisation in your chosen field. “No man is an island.” The circles of our lives constantly meet the circles of others. The influence we have on them and they on us dictate our lives. Choose your mentors with care and work with them diligently to get a true picture of yourself and to improve yourself as a person and a professional. To treat others the way we would want them to treat us, with fairness and compassion, is easier said than done. In one’s official capacity one would often have to take decisions which people may resent, generating anger. The Affiliation Motive, the need to be popular and be loved, is a universal human trait. Be true to yourself and work towards what is right, mindful that it should stand public scrutiny should the need arise. This is what will earn you trust and respect. Give back to society. Choose an area you are passionate about and give it your time and mindshare. It is our responsibility. And what’s more, it will complete you as an individual. Choose your life partner wisely. One who will support you in your career choices and will look at both your careers as an integrated one. Many a promising career derails without this synergy. Above all, develop a sense of humour. Many a battle is won if you look at things through the lens of laughter. Remember, life is an easel waiting for you to paint on. Go strongly into the sunrise, my child.

Source of this article is The Economic Times dated 05/02/07

Information Inundation

2007-02-05T11:07:00.000+05:30

This is the age of Information Inundation. If you are searching for one particular thing on google then you might get carried away by other information and get diverted from your actual search. Hence try to filter out which is useless. It requires quite a good amount of discretion to disallow yourself, rather reffrain yourself from viewing the junk information. Time is money and you have one life to live. Utilize those in judicious manner and add value to yourself and grow everyday. Try to spend your time qualitatively. Focus yourseld to the objectives and scrap the unrequired.

Why??

2006-11-24T09:35:00.000+05:30

Why somebody has to bear?
Why someone has to tolerate?
Why some one who has allready decided the course of specialization has to study other subjects?
Why why and why?
Why does one has to sit and listen to something which one dosent want to?

Would add more whys in future

Insecurity is the basis of life

2006-11-09T12:53:00.000+05:30

INSECURITY is the very basis of life. When we hear this, we are totally shaken. We are overcome with fear. We do not want to listen further. We like to believe that everything about life is assured and that life is in our hands. In reality, life is nothing but a risk. Death is the only certainty in life. We are not bothered about life, but in the name of security we make many efforts to live a risk-free life. We try to seek security in many ways. We try to look for security in the form of money, power, relationship and so on. We definitely need money to live a good life. Wa n t i n g enough money to live our life is alright. But there are people who live just for amassing more and more money or wealth. Such people do not make money for basic living, they live for making money! Thinking money will give them the much needed security in their lives they begin to run after it. They become possessed by it. They run after money without stopping and lose the capacity to enjoy the money that they make. They end up running into their graveyard itself. We search for security through relationships. If a particular person gives us a secure feeling in terms of comfort, attention, etc., we seek security through them. In our life, most of the time our energy is wasted in thinking of our wife, husband, parents or relative who gives us security. If we truly see, these other persons do not enjoy security in themselves. They also seek security through you or others! What security can they then give you? Still we look to them for security. When they are not able to give us the security, we talk ill of them and say that they have breached our trust in them. Truly, only if we get the clarity of thinking that no one can guarantee security to anyone, can we enjoy the people around us. Try to understand: in truth no one can guarantee anyone security, because the basis of everyone’s life is insecurity. The only security is Existence or God. When we deeply contemplate on this truth, a permanent and real security which is Godawareness happens in us. Then we will not run after the objects of the external world for security. We will enjoy a deep and secure state within where there is permanent peace. Be blissful!

(Cosmic Uplink-- Economic Times)

Philosophies of life

2006-10-28T22:38:00.000+05:30

* You can not make everyone happy
* Set some principles of your life and leave your life based upon it
* Be innovative in your approach

Nirdosh

2006-10-18T12:19:00.000+05:30

The idea of Nirdosh is really innovative one ..Well I came to know about it after we had a case study in Marketing Management subject ..
http://nirdosh.co.nz/index.html

also u can google for "Nirdosh cigaratte India" ...
...

Better late than never ..

Dont Loose contact of ur inner voice

2006-10-07T01:44:00.000+05:30

Hi Everyone,
I want to tell u that be good and friendly with all. But dont loose the contact with ur inner voice, the inner being, the original you. This original being is the one that makes you special amongst others. The Differentiator. You are in harmony with yourself when u are "U". Dont make too much of compromise with this pure soul. Its the Child within u. The good being.

Happiness Index

2006-10-03T08:33:00.000+05:30

Happiness index: Indians fare a lot better than most
Gayatri Nayak MUMBAI
FOR a change, never mind the cold macro numbers. A 9% growth may liven up economists and stock market punters. It may not mean anything to you. But here’s something to further pep up your festive mood. India may be lagging even some of the African countries as far as human development goes, but Indians are far more happy than most in the planet. Certainly, more than the richer lot in G-8. What could be a little disappointing is that compared with her neighbours in the subcontinent, Indians are happier than only Burmese and Pakistanis. In fact, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fare better than India in the happy country scale. If you disagree, blame it on a new report by the New Economic Foundation — a UK-based think-tank that compiles the happy planet index (HPI). According to the report, the archipelago in South Pacific Vanuatu, east of Australia, is the happiest country in the world. And, Zimbabwe in Africa is the saddest. Both are former British colonies. And the US, the world’s largest economy in terms of GDP, is ranked 150th. India is ranked 62 in terms of happiness, second only after China in the list of top 11 of nations ranked in terms of GDP. It’s another fact that India is ranked 125th in terms of human development indicators (HDI). In fact, almost the entire North America, Europe and Australia are less happy than India, with the exception of Austria and Malta, which are slightly happier than India. Others include Grenada, Uruguay and Ecquador. While Brazil, Iceland, Switzerland and Italy are a few notches sadder than India. New Economic Foundation has complied the index for 178 countries. The think-tank essentially looks for countries where people live long and happy lives without damaging the planet. The HPI combines data on life expectancy, surveys on life satisfaction and the consumption of natural resources (energy, land etc) in each country. Analysing a similar theme, a recent study by Deustche Bank Research has explanations to offer for the stagnation in happiness among richer countries. Three main reasons explain the long-run stagnation of happiness and life satisfaction. First, people simply get used to the higher income, consumption or circumstances: driving that new car for the first time may make you really happy — but this effect evaporates over time. Second, humans tend to aim ever higher: once the new house is completed, one may feel that it would be even better to have a house in a better or safer neighbourhood. Third, an individual’s satisfaction tends to be influenced by how well others are doing. Driving a big car may make you happy if you are the only person with such a car — but satisfaction with that same car quickly diminishes if friends and neighbours drive similar cars, says the report. Even worse, if you buy a big car, this may depress the happiness of your neighbours, so aggregate happiness may not rise, it says. On the happy index, the report says that because of its strong focus on the environment, this index favours countries near the equator. The HPI may be a good guide for holiday destinations, according to the German bank’s research arm.

Thats my place !!

2006-09-18T18:12:00.000+05:30

Well our end-term is scheduled to start from this Friday...then what am I doing ...posting at my blog ??????? !!!!! ...well got some really cool pictures(coutesy senior's album) of my college IFMR ... http://ifmr.ac.in ...couldn't resist to place those here... please have a look at these...

MAIN BUILDING

FACULTY BLOCK FACULTY BLOCK FROM BACKSIDE

GREENARY THINKPOT

GRAPHICA

NOTE: Look out for this space in future, for more insights on my college

Two new finds !!

2006-09-11T00:04:00.000+05:30

Hello everybody...For the first time I am blogging about something that life taught me and I think that these 2 things I need to ponder upon for the rest of my life...

1. Doing an MBA 1st lesson I learnt is networking...be in contact with as many people possible and win the good will and love of maximum people around u.

2. U like the people not because of what they are...u like them because u have a special soft corner for them ...a bias u can say...u dont like them in totality...u like them b'coz of one special thing in them that halos all other limitations they have.

Man creates God in his own mould

2006-08-24T22:33:00.000+05:30

EVERY man lives in one of the seven chakras, the energy centres. If you are in the lowest level, that is the Muladhara chakra, you are caught in lust and desire. You worship a God who can grant all your boons. That is why God is understood as a giver of boons and is very popular. People are caught up in fantasy, expectations and desires and whoever fulfils these becomes their God. The moment they miss giving a single boon, their Gods will get dethroned! Next is the person who is caught in the Swadishthana chakra. You worship the God who gives confidence, who you believe will take care of you; you go behind the idols that have many weapons and many hands. You experience God as a protector. The third level person stays in the Manipuraka chakra. You continuously worry and remain confused. You worship the God who gives clarity and peace. Next is the person who lives in the Anahata chakra. Here, you are attracted towards the God who showers love on you. You worship the God who gives emotional fulfilment. Next, if you are raised to the level of the Vishuddhi chakra, the God of creativity or Energy appeals to you. You experience God as the creator. If you are centred in the Ajna chakra, you are locked in ego. Somebody in the egoless state attracts you: rishis, seers, sages, prophets and Masters attract you. The egoless man becomes your idol. That is why I say man creates God in his own mould! You simply relate to God or the Masters from these six levels; a relationship doesn’t happen — you simply reduce them to mere mortals. You have a concept in your mind and you are demanding from them that concept — it is simply a monologue. In the Ajna chakra, the dialogue starts. Only in the Sahasrara chakra, the communion happens! If you understand you are actually relating to your Gods and Masters from these chakras and that you need to go beyond this and catch the transcendental expression of the Divine, all your problems will dissolve! When you are in the Muladhara chakra, the Master drills into you like a crowbar. At a little higher level, he is like a knife penetrating you. At the level of the Sahasrara chakra, he is like a fragrance! If you are alert and aware, the Master can transform you. You just need to be passive for the alchemy to happen. If you are alert and aware, you can catch the smell and experience it!

S P I R ITUAL Q U OTI E NT
Economic Times ..Editorial Page.
• PARAMAHAMSA NITHYANANDA

Scavangers, Bhangis or Cleaner??

2006-07-29T12:39:00.000+05:30

ALOT of my current work is in small towns and villages. One town I work in, and with, closely is a small town in the backwaters of Andhra Pradesh. This little town has a unique and clean little street right next to an otherwise dirty downtown centre; even if the uniqueness is marred somewhat by the unfortunate name of the street — “Scavengers’ street”. Deployment of the term ‘scavangers’ for those who clean our streets and remove human waste is our home-grown terminology; used extensively even in our daily vocabulary. There are any number of government of India reports, press reports and even textbooks that use this unfortunate term freely. Similarly, bhangi is another regrettable term frequently used in the same vein, particularly in the north of the country. The very capital of the country has a ‘Bhangi colony’. Considering we are a country, over half of whose population seems to enjoy nothing more than an open-air defecation, a deprecatory usage of the term (even if it is often unwitting) for those who engage in clearing our surroundings is more than merely ironic. One would think that it is those who soil the milieu that ought to be the object of witting or unwitting derision; and not those who clean up the filth. What is more, in any well-known dictionary, such as Chambers or Oxford, ‘scavenger’ has only one of the two meanings: either those who forage in other people’s rubbish for food or other things, or, animals that feed on dead animals not killed by them. So the term scavenger, its deprecatory undertone or overtone apart, hardly describes the task in question, assuming the term must describe the vocation. What about the other term that we use with equal facility to describe those who help keep our villages, towns and cities clean, namely, Sweepers? Surely the term describes the vocation better? Perhaps; but it is barely any less insensitive. How about ‘janitor’? But a janitor is more truly a building’s caretaker. Mahatma Gandhi meant well and used the term Harijan. But the well meaning usage of the great man today has been reduced to a mere caste equivalent. So then which term describes the vocation best and is yet sensitive and dignified as much to the vocation as to its practitioners? How about cleaners? Those who clean the roads, villages and towns can only be cleaners, right? The term also puts matters in perspective. Those who clean are the cleaners and those who dirty are the ‘dirtiers’. The term is implicitly respectful of those who clean, in contrast to those who ‘dirty’. Will our parliamentarians, when they are not rushing into the ‘well’ of the House next time, pass a Bill banning the usage of terms like scavengers, bhangis and sweepers, at least in government documents? Will all of us, if we consider ourselves enlightened, consider such terms and their regional equivalents, socially, politically and humanly inappropriate? Will we do to these terms what they did successfully in the US to various deprecatory racial terms? We frequently express our concern at the socio-economic development of the underprivileged. But the real development must first happen in our attitudes. It is only when our attitude to cleanliness changes that our attitude to cleaners will change. It is only then will we make our cleaners better paid; only then will we provide full protective gear to those who dive naked into city sewers and manholes for cleaning; only then will we provide gum-boots and gloves and aprons to municipal cleaners who stand knee deep in muck in the undescribably dirty municipal garbage trucks. Also only then will we learn to provide them with ergonomically and sanitationwise superior tools for cleaning in a manner that provides dignity to a labour that this nation needs more than anything else. Yes, more than education, more than health, more than food, our country needs cleanliness. More than our poverty, our illiteracy, and our corruption, it is our filth and squalor that shames us most in the world community. And those who rid of this filth must be treated far better than we do. Yes, we need to learn to celebrate cleaners. So what can we do in concrete terms to give community cleanliness greater dignity? Those of us in suitable positions could begin working with institutions and work places under our care to explore if employees can take turns voluntarily (with points awarded in the performance management system) to clean the work-toilets themselves, once a week, say, on Saturdays. Needless to say, unless those of us who promote such a system are directly involved in such labour, the idea will not pick up. Yes, I am talking about reinventing Gandhi. Can the movement become a part of corporate social responsibility?
(The author is CEO, GMR Varalaskhmi Foundation. Views are personal.)

Snakes in the grass are OK ...Pythons in the mail are not !!

2006-07-29T12:27:00.000+05:30

FOREIGNERS love to write about India as a country where skyscrapers abut jhopdis and where the rural poor squat on either side of railway tracks to do the big job every morning. And yet India never mixes up things. When transported from one place to the other, serpents are carried in proper baskets by snake charmers who cannot be mistaken for conductors. In all this byplay of contrasts, the right distance is always maintained so that no one gets an unnecessary shock of the kind that happened at a German post office at Mechernich the other day. There was panic when a 1.5 metre albino python broke free of its packaging. A 28-year-old woman had sold the snake over the internet and was mailing it to the buyer after labelling the package as glass! BBC News quotes the local police as saying, “the staff put the package in the back of the office. All of a sudden, they noticed it moving around and saw a big snake wriggling out of it. A valiant worker wrestled the snake and put it into a container. It is not illegal to send snakes via mail but the woman will be investigated for mistreating animals.” In India, where everything is perceived as maya, we have through the ages maintained this tradition of not mixing up illusions. The story goes that in the early 8th century AD, Adi Shankaracharya was walking with his disciples and telling them that everything was maya. Just then, a bull ran towards the group and all of them climbed up the nearest tree. “If everything is maya, why are we sitting on this tree to escape the bull?”, a disciple asked. “The tree is also maya,” the Shankaracharya said. Ergo, the maya that was the tree was climbed to let the disciples keep a distance from the illusion that was the bull. Now if only the woman had not mixed up maya by transacting the sale of the python on the internet and mailing it, there would have been no need for panic — real or illusory — in the Mechernich post office!

Embrace The Change ....

2006-06-18T20:06:00.000+05:30

This post has some impactful sentences from the book ONLY THE PARNOID SURVIVE - Andrew S. Grove

Who is Andy Grove?
Dr Andrew S. Grove, participated in the founding of Intel Corporation and was a key driving force in its rapid success.He is a Senior Advisor to Executive Management of Inrel Corp. Ltd. Previously Grove was Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation from May 1997 to May 2005. From 1987 to 1998 he served as the company’s CEO and from 1979 to 1997 he served as President. Prior to participating in the founding of Intel in 1968 with Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, he worked as the Assistant Director of Research and Development for
Fairchild Semiconductor.

In "Only the Paranoid Survive", Grove reveals his strategy of focusing on a new way of measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads - when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside. Grove calls such a moment a Strategic Inflection Point. When a Strategic Inflection Point hits, the ordinary rules of business go out the window.

Impactful sentences

Strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.

In the mid-eighties, the Japanese memory producers brought upon us an inflection point so overwhelming that it forced us out of memory chips and into a relatively new field of microprocessors.

You need to plan the way a fire department plans: It canot anticipate where the next fire will be, so it has to shape an energetic and efficient team that is capable of responding to the unanticipated.

Businesses are about creating change for other businesses. Competition is about creating change: technology is about creating change.

Middle manager- especially those who deal with the outside world, like people in sales – are often the first to realize that what worked before doesn’t quite work anymore; that the rules are changing. They usually don’t have an easy time explaining it to senior management, so the senior management in the company is late to realize that the world is changing on them- and the leader is often the last to know.

Even those who believed in the scientific approach to management will have to rely on the instinct and personal judgment. When you’re caught in the turbulence of strategic inflection point, the sad fact is that instinct and judgment are all you’ve got to guide you through.

First, when the strategic inflection point sweeps through the industry, the more successful a participant was in the old industry structure, the more threatened- it is by change and more reluctant it is to adapt to it.

As an industry becomes more competitive, companies are forced to retreat to their strongholds and specialize, in order to become world class in whatever segment the end up occupying.

Customers drifting away from their former buying habits may provide the subtle and insidious cause of a strategic inflection point – subtle and insidious because it takes place slowly.

I suspect that the people coming in are probably no better managers or leaders than the people they are replacing. They have only one advantage, but it may be crucial: unlike the person who has devoted his entire life to the company and therefore has a history of deep involvement in the sequence of events that led to present mess, the new managers come unencumbered by such emotional involvement and therefore are capable of applying an impersonal logic to the situation. They can see things much more objectively than their predecessors did.

Your genes were right for the original business. But if key aspects of the business shift around you, the very process of genetic selection that got you and your associates where you are might retard your ability to recognize the new trends.

The Cassandras in your organization are consistently helpful element in recognizing strategic inflection points. As you might remember, Cassandra was priestess who foretold the fall of Troy. Likewise, there are people who are quick to recognize impending change and cry out an early warning. Cassandras are usually in middle management.

Classify your time you spend in listening to them as an investment in learning what goes on at the distant periphery of your business, whether you think of distances in geographical or technological terms.

You can’t judge the significance of strategic inflection points by the quality of the first version.

The more complex the issues are, the more levels of management should be involved because people from different levels of management bring completely different points of view and expertise to the table, as well as different genetic makeups.

Contemporary management doctrine suggests that you should approach any debate and argument with data in hand. It’s good advice. Altogether too often, people substitute opinions for facts and emotions for analysis.

In the case of a strategic inflection point, the sequence goes more as follows:
Denial, escape, or diversion and, finally, acceptance and pertinent action.

Escape, or diversion, refers to the personal actions of the senior manager. When companies are facing major changes in their core business, they seem to plunge into what seem to be totally unrelated acquisitions and mergers. In my view, a lot of these activities are motivated by the need of senior management to occupy themselves respectably with something that dearly and legitimately requires their attention day in and day out, something that they can justify spending their time on and make progress in instead of figuring out how to cope with an impending strategically destructive force.

Its not surprising that senior mangers will keep implementing the same strategic and tactical moves that worked for them during the course of their careers – especially during their “championship season”.

You are trying to define what the company will be, yet that can only be done if you also undertake to define what the company will not be.

If you are in a leadership position, how you spend your time has enormous symbolic value. It will communicate what’s important or what isn’t far more powerfully than all speeches you can give.

At times like this, your calendar becomes your most important strategic tool. Resist the tacit temptation to accept invitations or make appointments because you have done so in past. Ask yourself the questions , “ Will going to this meeting teach me about the new technology or the new market that I think is very important now? Will it introduce me to people who can help me in new direction? Will it send a message about the importance of new direction? “ If so, go to it. If not resist it.

Intel operates by following the direction set by three high level corporate strategic objectives: first has to do with our microprocessor business; the second with the communication business; the third with our operations and the execution of our plans. We add a fourth objective, encapsulating all the things that are necessary to mobilize our efforts in connection with Internet.

Coffee ...something to start thinking..

2006-06-18T12:04:00.000+05:30

Read this to enjoy the savor in life.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned in to complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee,the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot ofcoffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal,some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them tohelp themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up,leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for youto want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of yourproblems and stress.What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.Now, if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society arethe cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the qualityof Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

"So, don't let the cups drive you... enjoy the coffee instead."

My colour

2006-06-14T10:25:00.000+05:30

There's nothing saccharine about me — My sweetness is one hundred percent natural! A gentle, thoughtful romantic like me must be paired with a color that's soft and warm — but still has a subtle sophisticated sheen. That's why Pink Chiffon is the perfect color for me!I am probably known for making the most of every situation and trying to see the best in people. But while I may be cheerful and innocent at times, I am nobody's fool. I may see the world through rose-colored glasses, but I can still see, after all.

Baby Steps.....

2006-06-13T22:07:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone out there!!

I too have joined the band wagon of bloggers finally !!

Well I have no idea at present what to post ...!!

Check out my blogspot soon...
Something really interesting would be here !!