May 31, 2007

Requirement Management: Sweet Spot

Just added the Requirement Management Section to the wikipedia Sweet Spot stem


May 25, 2007

CEOs salary cannot be legislated

Sunil Mittal, in a reply to the PM, stated that "CEOs salary cannot be legislated" (read here). I buy his view and argument. I'm a bit surprised why an eminent economist like Manmohan Singh chose to conveniently forget the demand supply theory. More the demand for a resource, more the bucks one has to pay to get it. This becomes more significant if the resource is human. It is money that differentiates between a good resource and a mediocre resource. Normalizing the pay structure will take out that differentiator. If the differentiator is not there, the motivation will be less. After all, most of the people do not work for charity! They work for money! That gets the best out of them. We, as a nation, have to try to get the best out of the people; not the mediocre out of them.

Regarding inflation, yes government has to control it. And it has to do it through policies and not through micro management. Find innovative policies and set it right. To do that, to be innovative, the government has to bring the best out of it. The question is: Does the government have ‘good resources’ that can achieve this? Can the government get the best out of itself?



May 16, 2007

Leadership linked to bad corporate culture

I overheard this conversation of an employee “I have changed. These days, only when someone pings me, I join the bridge…” He was referring to attending a conference call.

I know the pain the chair takes to get all the folks on a conference call. I have been through it. You dial in; activate the bridge; wait for the time to drift away to accommodate all the late participants; and then start making calls to each individual and their manager to see their butt on their seat.

Why do people do this? From the statement of the employee, it is clear that he was not a late-bee till the recent past. He “changed”… for the worse!? What prompted him take this bad turn? I guess the answer lies in the environment and the leadership. If the leadership and the environment are not ready to constantly remind him the importance of punctuality, demonstrate it and stricture bad habits, he is bound to let the habit loose for the bad.

Knock Knock Management… Are you listening?


May 14, 2007

Baby Vs Cobra

Isn't this a terrible thing to do - to the kid and to the Cobra?!




Stepmom: Proposal Scene

Ain't this cute?



"I see people"

You meet them everywhere. They are there walking next to you on the street; working with you in the office; playing with you in the ground. Who are they? They are the people who find it 'funny' to make fun of others; who find it 'entertaining' to mock others; who find it 'amusing' to belittle others. They think that they are way-way ahead of their fellow beings. Hardly they realize that others' too find them 'extremely' funny in many ways. They keep quite out of courtesy. And these maniacs take their silence as a vindication to their “faultless” nature! I used to be one such maniac. But that was long-long back. I dropped that shitty habit. Alas, I cannot say that - dropping bad habits - happen to all folks. I have a theory on these people. They are intellectual paupers, who have nothing to offer. Chances are high that these folks don’t have any serious hobby to occupy their idle mind. So they end up doing nothing but finding faults in others.

What do you do when you meet such people? I try to avoid them lest I would confront them big time. I know my confrontation normally turns ugly and sour. But what if you can't avoid such people and find yourself in a position where you can't give them your piece of mind? Stoop down to their level?... and join them in mocking the crowd around you? Hell... NO!

Reminds me of Atlas Shrugged. At one point of time, Dagny looks at her surroundings and see incompetence everywhere. She thinks of lowering her standard to theirs. She mentions that to her friend Francisco. And he responds with a slap and commands her never to give up… that too for incompetent people! NEVER!

Coming back to my problem, I guess the only way out is to make them know my position well... No point in suffering their bull shit “entertainment”.


May 12, 2007

How to treat people when doing business with them

The flow chart below summarizes it...

Fixing a Broken Heart

They say that "Heart cells in humans stop regenrating after birth. If the heart is damaged by a heart attack, it canot create a new cell to repair the damage and hearts become less efficient in pumping the blood."

I now know why the wise say: "A broken heart cannot be mended" ;-)

Btw, Columbia University Medical Center has come up with a genetic engineering solution to solve this problem. Check this out.






May 09, 2007

The Eagle Story

The eagle has the longest life-span of its’ species. It can live up to 70 years. But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision.

In its’ 40s. Its’ long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food. Its’ long and sharp beak becomes bent. Its’ old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its’ chest and make it difficult to fly.

Then, the eagle is left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days.

The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its’ nest. There the eagle knocks its’ beak against a rock until it plucks it out. After plucking it out, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out its’ talons. When its’ new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its’ old-aged feathers.

And after five months, the eagle takes its’ famous flight of rebirth and lives for... 30 more years

Why is change needed? Many times, in order to survive we have to start a change process. We sometimes need to get rid of old memories, habits and other past traditions. Only freed from past burdens, can we take advantage of the present.

PS: There are flaws in the story. E.g. Eagle doesn't have a life span of 70 years. It cannot live that long in the wild. Nevertheless the story has come out beautifully with one single important message: Change or Perish!

Courtesy Fwded mail

May 07, 2007

Consulting Demons - Quotes

Lewis Pinault's "Conuslting Demons" offer a couple of interesting quotes...

I could relate to this one: "At the back end, implementers are expected to stretch out the work to its limits, reducing chances for learning from new case involvements."

"If you get married, the romance will fade - it always does, it's just biology, psychology."

May 04, 2007

Lazy Dog

The lazy dog - Tommy - of my neighbourhood



May 03, 2007

Another true appreciation...

Recently I got an award from my Dept. I found the responses to the award more interesting than the award itself (which I consider trivial)

A friend of mine responded like this: "After replying to you, I just thought abt the Chanakya quotes. Which said " Straight trees are cut first." But here they gave an award to a straight tree ;-)."

My team members responded when I said I owed them the award: "We couldn't have achieved our objectives if we didn't have your inputs to remove the rough edges in our work and to refine our approach. The true value of a diamond lies in the skills of the cutter and not on the stone. Thank you for all the help and support you have extended to us."

I consider those statements as true recognition...


May 02, 2007

Time Management

A friend forwarded these two links on Time Management. They offer good tips

10 time management tips from a successful CEO: Click here
8 tips to overcome procrastination: Click here