I always felt the difference while I sat in an interesting class that prompted me to do the assignments to a boring class, which was like taking sleeping pills and fighting the enemy on border. Anyways Peter principle elaborated it.

Just going through the first chapter of "Why Things Go Wrong" gave me a sense of why mostly people crib about their jobs, work place and then go for a higher degree ( like an MBA,M-Tech,Msc etc. or diploma) to get into a job that would probably satisfy them (finally). But does it satisfy them? That's another debatable topic.

Coming to mediocrity, chapter one of "Why Things go wrong" made me bump into a quote by William Arthur Ward and I am splitting and spilling it below.

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.

Inspiration to perform and outdo is what drives out the pending sleep and lethargy to make us perform. The same goes for work.

But whatif a mediocre guy comes our way ?
Bad luck!

It is a test that has to be passed with greatness. Being Mediocre with a mediocre guy means you sleep, get caught and are penalized. Serious bad luck!

So what is being great with mediocrity ?
Its the first principle of the seven habits of Stephen Covey. Being proactive.
Take interest in the subject and ask any damn thing that pops in your mind and move your mundu consistently to give a feel that you're awake and understanding the concept.

We all have our phases. If we reach our level of incompetence, we might not achieve greatness and be stuck in the vicious circle of mediocrity. It is important we climb the ladder to greatness and not incompetence.

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I attended a seminar by Ashish (of Minnesota State University) who showed his findings on Email overload and how we could curb it. The astonishing part was the figures that had come out of his research. $588 bn annually were being lost in the form of unproductive man hours because of continuous email checking by managers/corporates.

On an average his findings showed that a person who continuously checks emails for the whole days wastes 28 minutes of productive work.

Slotting your email send/receive time slots actually saves productive time since the switch between emailing and work is less frequent. Continuous check means a lot of switches, which adds up to unproductive man hours. This further increases if the work we are doing is long and complex. Severity of the switch decreases with decrease in complexity and longevity.

Hence an organizational email etiquette and schedule can seriously improve productivity.

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When in doubt...
Our mind usually works with intuition. It signals us to laugh when a joke (and yes not the sad type) is cracked, since it has been programmed that way.
But sometimes a situation that comes up is new and we are out of our comfort territory. Now what ?

This is what my first management class taught me. A simple matrix can be drawn after analyzing the constraints and criteria first and then applying the set of criteria to our options. Thinking about various options is still upto how far we can think, but in a complex situation with close set of options available,the matrix is often useful. Using it few times (or maybe more) will definitely tune the mind to work accordingly to make quick complex decisions.

Options	O1	O2	O3
My Constraints
C1 (Highest priority)	5	3	2
C2	2	4	1
C3 (lowest priority)	1.5	3	5

01 - 8.5
02 - 10
03 - 8

Looking at the solutions, the first option (o1) might have been an obvious choice since it meets the requirements of the highest priority task. But adding the weightage of all three options we get 02 as the best suited choice.

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The easiest (and the evilest) way to defame a guy who is your enemy or competitor is to have an anonymous id and start writing negative about him/her. A similar case happened with Ashish Mehta, a cardiologist in Mumbai who was the victim of defamatory posts on a blog hosted on blogger.com.

The challenges for Google giving this service are many fold.It is practically not possible to discredit or credit an opinion. As a blogger, I may have my reservations on certain issues and may write about it, but it could be 'defamatory' for the guy in the line of fire.

The big question that arises out of this debate is "Can Google be held responsible ?"

I'd say no.
But,certainly yes if the company looking at the case did not take action swiftly and do damage control, which I'm sure Google would have done.

In future looking at the preventive actions, it would be advisable to periodiclly Google your name/business or name/business + review to keep a tap on unwarranted harmful activity popping on search. That could also be called as "Prevent harmful SEO -II". Still controlling content would mean lots of resources. Early detection seems to be the only practical choice in self interest.

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I am curious about a particular event. I go and ask somebody who has already experienced it. The reply I get is positive. - First perception.
Similarly somebody else gives me a not so positive feedback about the same event.- Second perception.
The third thought about the same event by another guy is totally negative. - Third perception.
Now the mother of all perceptions is the weightage you give to these three people. That is your perception, which will finally decide what call you take.

Now crunch this entire process into a small time limit. It gets confusing. Logic says, go ask people about what they think before proceeding, but it makes situation complex and decision making even more. All three could be correct, but the end result in a tight situation with deadlines could leave you no where.

To sort out the dilemma we often check out the status with quite a few people (time consuming). Finally majority sets in on one decision. Again we are left with two options - Either to follow logic or go against the rule (rebel).By doing so we are again setting our perception on others.

Hence, this creates a vicious circle of perceptions.
Follow what your heart says, keeping priorities in mind, because positive results will yield positive perceptions and negative otherwise.It is important to stay away from the perception syndrome.

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Tech M will be re branding Satyam and the good company, tainted because its founder cooked books, will once again climb the heights under a new leadership. Wow! what a fairy tale beginning. So was dumping the name Satyam important. I'd say yes, to a certain extent.

In this world dominated by brands, Satyam(the name) would not have survived. But Satyam for its uniqueness as a business would have surely survived and also outperformed. Its like pressing refresh (F5). You are not rebuilding, just refreshing.

******
I hope Steve Jobs gets fit and fine after his liver transplant.
If you haven't read the Commencement address by Steve Jobs at Stanford, read it here.(A must read)

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We hardly think of quality these days. This fact is reiterated by the increasing of seats in educational institutes to accommodate the growing population. Quantity gives many hopes a chance to realize and quality (or the lack of it) extinguishes them. When we talk about admission and toughness, the competitive level is still increasing as the seats in colleges are not increasing in proportion with the number of aspirants. Well, quality still suffers. Seeds will help understand this concept better.

In this article Amritanada Ma, she talks about the essence of utilizing the seed.She says,

The seed contains the tree within it, but if it is content to lie in a storeroom somewhere, rats may eat it. Only by going under the soil will its true form emerge. It is to become the King of kings later on that the disciple takes on the role of a servant now.

That explains the point of good soil and storeroom. We not only need more, we need better soil. The success of the seeds hoping to serve and be the kings depends on what soil we provide and not how much we provide.

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Exams have had a long relationship with time and its management. My packed schedule is preventing me from writing long posts but as my exams are approaching, the phenomena often associated with Exams prompts me to write this entry.

Two things that often make many nervous are Exams and Mathematics. I remember a discussion with my friend who after giving his last maths exam of engineering said, "Finally, no maths". Today he his doing his post graduation in Signals and Systems, which involves a lot of mathematics. It is sometimes ironic and amazing how a set of numbers govern every aspect of our life. Behavioural sciences requires maths. Marketing is yet another example. Now every exam, whether of our favourite subject or our feared subject needs time, which is again playing with numbers.

Time management vibrates the air waves as we begin our schooling. It goes till we take the last breath. It might sound too heavy but thats how important maths is.

My preparatory course in mathematics for research in management is dealing with both practically applicable and pure mathematics. The importance of this although is much deeper in management and even more in engineering, it teaches the basics of maths.

However far you may be from maths or exams(either of curriculum or of life), strangely our lives still remain governed by maths and time. Its better if we master the art and take on the challenge.

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Rajeev Motwani, the mentor of the students who founded Google passed away. The professor at Stanford completed his B-tech in computer science from IIT Kanpur in 1983 and went on to do his doctorate from U.C. Berkley.

I first read about Rajeev in the Google Story by David A Wise. Today was the second time I encountered his name while checking out Google trends.
Finding more about him on the search magic he helped build made my eyes moist.

Shivanand Kanavi, a theoritical physicist from IIT Kanpur wrote on his blog, just before the Google IPO was launched - "Motwani’s father was in the Indian Army, which meant growing up all over India. Young Motwani wanted to be a mathematician..."

OM Malik, a friend of Rajeev Motwani writes: "My day is ending with a broken heart and tears in my eyes. It is the day which reminds you of the unpredictability of life."

Although I don't have a direct connection with Rajeev, he has become a source of inspiration for me as I embark on my research. The news of his demise is sad but his contribution to the society is something that should encourage others to make path breaking discoveries in future.

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Satyam Layoff is round the corner as there are reports that it may layoff 5000 people anytime.
The company and government both are in a catch22 situation. The revival of the company requires cutting the cost that would mean chopping off the bench strength or the unnecessary accumulated employees by its founder. By doing so Satyam could trigger a domino effect that would cause others to do so in an economic recession by citing its example.

The winter of 2008 was almost tragic to the fate of the company. There are reports that contracts to the company are reducing. The CEO of Satyam, Vineet Nayyar says that the IT giant has nearly 10,000 surplus staff. The past record of the Mahindra's suggest that they mean business and looking at the way things are proceeding there is a layoff looming round the corner.

In a chat with an MBA graduate now in his mid 30's and working with a well known multi national company, his attitude suggested me that he was more of a burden on the organization. Although I am closely related to him, his saying that "you have one peon to lift your glass and one to bring you tea..." made me believe laying him off wouldn't be a bad idea for the company. The perception that as you climb the corporate ladder work becomes less has probably graduated from such people getting easy money without labour.

The fate of employees of Satyam staring directly into the barrel of layoff can't still be ascertained as the government is trying to intervene. The corporate affairs minister Salman Khusheed has made a statement that the government will not turn a blind eye to this.

This case is first of its kind. Satyam as a company needs revival and needs to pay back the obligations and loans. But being a huge company it has a social responsibility. The trade off between the two would determine the extent of gain or loss for Satyam in future.

Previously : Satyam Layoff part 1

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I saw the speech of Barack Obama in cairo last evening and looking at him closely you realize how he built up and narrated the normally boring political speeches.
The art of narration gives him the unique capability to build a whirlpool that sucks you into what he is saying.

The success of a speech lies in the fact that people get over it and start thinking about what is next. Had the speech been unsuccessful a significant debate would have begun over the semantics and policies spoken about in the speech.

The fact that suggests the speech struck the right chord was when public reactions asked for action. That means the talk was a success. People started looking beyond the speech. After all action does not rest in Obama's hand alone but he has initiated the process.The articulate story teller finally ends up with a blunt message. No half talk, no two facets, only one coherent message.

PS: Read the entire transcript here.

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Small Car, Big Idea: Tata Motors have announced that within two years Nano will travel to U.S. By 2011 it is all set to reach European market. The price of the car would be approximately $2,300, according to a reuters report.

The Tata Nano got an overwhelming response despite all the criticism on environment, traffic and load on natural resources. Now let us imagine that all of us who own big cars send our car to an exchange chamber, pay its one time rent($2,300), and get a nano. Now I'm saying an exchange chamber because all of us can drive one car at a time. The big car that we are driving today will shine in our parking lot and Nano will power us through. The beauty of Nanomics is that we are paying less for the fuel, maintenance and also saving our time.

Nanomics has some drawbacks too. The exchange chamber does not melt the existing resources, such as the body of your car. The pressure on natural resources will be there and considerable fuel will be spent on making the car.
Parking in big cities is a serious problem too. I've never seen a day pass in my colony without two people bickering for the parking space. Sundays are worse since all of them pile up the fuel sucking monsters for the whole day.

Coming to the business aspect of Nanomics, Tata Nano's presence in U.S. and Europe will help Tata Motors as they'll be tapping into an unexplored market.
U.S. and Europe are both known for their expensive gas guzzlers.

Right now Nano has a large order book due to its rocketing influence over the public with the help of media. Nano's boom, like the one seen in India will depend on the media & celebrity push in U.S. and Europe. For now its fingers crossed.

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Barack Hussein Obama's hand of friendship to the Muslim world marks a beginning of a phase were talks holds priority and "bloody messages" take back seat. Recent articles on Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia and its reactions by al Qaida's leadership is an indicator of how the pill of peace can uproot terror. The change Obama talked about is now for all to see.

The economic recession and the need for security and safety will prompt the world of today to go for peace and not violence. The discontent because of unemployment and the great economic depression of the 1930's lead to a few leaders misguiding their countries to war. The world stands on similar crossroads today.

The ray of hope rests with the world's most powerful country and it is the duty of others to stand as pillars of support and support the endeavor to bring peace by methods of peace and non-violence to stop the ongoing fire that threatens to engulf the world.

Religion has divided us and now is the time we can use it to unite us. After all neither Osama, Obama or I will live for a thousand years. we'll live and gift another generation a hope to live and explore further. As a 22 year old boy, I want to see this hope move further.

The deep interest in which hope is tackling 'deep hatred' is being watched over by the whole world.

As he(Obama) arrived in Egypt, the supreme leader of Washington's arch foe in the region, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a televised address that America was "deeply hated" in the Middle East and only action, not "slogans," could change that. - Reuters

I partially agree with this statement since it will take time to heal decades of hatred. But, a dialogue can initiate a change that could firstly remove the "deeply" part and then transform the "hated" part into "love".The technology boom that we are enjoying today is a result of a dialogue between scholars that lead to innovation.

My hope is further strengthened by the Google search trend that suggests the interest among people across the world in the visit of Barack Obama.

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The dark man riding the lime buggy, his life, his ambitions and the traveller. It does not take much for him to make people frown and it takes even less for him to give a reason for them to smile. His meter, which is much like an antiquity in the buggy, with the red lines make strange numbers that will never transform into reality.

A lemon coloured canopy and green metal frame form a community, unique to its existence that run through the arteries of India’s capital, Delhi. The auto driver of Delhi is a person who is known for charging abnormally high fares, rash driving and CNG. For a distance that is a stone’s throw away, they would charge you for hiring their Auto for the whole day. They leave no stone unturned in frustrating, harassing and causing delay to the commuter.

This is the story of Raman Chatterjee who came from Kolkatta for getting a room on rent as he had taken admission in a B-school in Delhi. Staying at his brother’s house in Laxmi Nagar, a trans Yamuna area, the struggle began from morning, when he needed to take an Auto to come to South Delhi, where his B-school was located. It took only two days for him to get frustrated with the life here that he told me that he wasn’t anymore interested in staying here. Now imagine a happy Raman was dissuaded to take admission by none other than a couple of Auto Drivers.

In terms of the spirit of the city and commuting, I often envy a Mumbaikar. I’ve stayed in Mumbai during my job training and I found the local train system the most amazing thing, even better than Delhi’s metro. Delhi’s Metro is like a palace where you’re tired by the time you take the token and sit in the train.

Coming back to Autos and Drivers, the lemon mascot gives surprise packages too. It is equivalent to the monsoons in India. On a hot summer afternoon when you’ve made up your mind and quickly done the Yoga-asana for increasing patience levels, you’ll suddenly find an Auto who’s willing to charge you by meter without a moment of argument. The best of the Auto driver comes, when he agrees to go places where most refuse, like Laxmi Nagar.

The trick to successful commuting in Delhi may lie with a dark man in the lime chariot; it also lies in patience, acting and decision-making. It is not always wise to show patience, sometimes an acting of angry commuter may melt the lime rider into taking you. The more aggressive riders acting smart can be told to simply “Get lost!!!” More importantly giving a few bucks more like a bonus, the way you get is also ok. In the end, the experience with the Auto-Wala makes you a good person manger.

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