Big Blue Brainstorm - New innovation at IBM

Businessweek has an artcile about new online-brainstorm, which is open for employees, contractors and families. The opinions of some 100,000 minds will lead to catalytic innovations so powerful they will transform industries, alter human behavior, and lead to new businesses for IBM. This is called the project an Innovation Jam.

CEO Palmisano says the company will put up to $100 million behind the strongest ideas. He told employees it is the first time "a technology company takes its most valued secrets, opens them up to the world and says, O.K., world, you tell us" what to do with them.

To prepare those invited to participate, the company built an interactive Web site that includes sound clips, virtual guided tours, and video snippets with background information. Two moderators were assigned to four topics: transportation, health, the environment, and finance and commerce.

It is great to see big business embracing user-led innovation. Innovation is not only restricted to products, it can very well be applied to processes, this is the example. One need to find newer ways to contribute to business growth.

How to run such brainstorm sessions on social networking sites like MySpace?

I am thinking about how to motivate people and try to retain them using some innovation? Any clues?

What is take on Tech-Mahindra's IPO

What is analyst's take (In general) on Tech-Mahindra's (Formerly known as MBT) IPO? Is it worth subscribing?

Well, I like some thing about Tech-Mahindra, their focus on one sector, telecom. And with Telecom poised for new growth, it's rather no-brainer to guess Tech-Mahindra will do good. But, is it a good time for this.

I personally feel, it might be a good bet.

Any takers? Comments?

Latest on AI-Indian Merger

The following is an interesting article. This is an article explaining the difficulties AI-Indian merger will face in streamlining the business.

On paper, mergers always look good. But, when comes to streamlining two different cultures, people, mindset, it is difficult task. People mindset is completely groomed in to one culture, and all of sudden if you try to change that you will for sure get resistance. This makes the merger more difficult.

I am of the opinion that, mergers should happen between two 'like-minded' companies and before any kind of merger, top management should think about the culture alignment and streamlining problems one might face.

I read a quote about Time Warner and AOL merger in BusinessWeek. I understood it as a 'failure'.

Even in Indian business scenarios, there are plenty of examples where the post-merger failed to yield desired results.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1837620.cms

Purchasing Power

This week’s business week has an article about V.P Purchasing of GM and how it is trying to cut the purchase cost, streamline the purchased products, thus reducing the cost. This triggered me some thoughts.

When I was working in mechanical industry in India, I closely observed the purchasing manager. If you have purchasing power, then you can control your vendors. This is true with any business off course. The bigger companies can get better deals, better quality and better service.

Typically, purchasing managers are helped by vendor development managers; who develop different vendors, who can give better deals. If you have a stronger purchasing power, actually vendors come to you!

Off course, I couldn’t understand how the whole system works then. But, that is just like any other business.

Inside Disney World

I am reading a book, 'Inside Disney' an amazing story. This is about how Disney parks are being managed.

The first two lessons, which I read so far, 1) Know your competition 2) Give attention to details.

According to Disney, the competition is not only coming from players in the same sector. The moment some one; it could be bank, post, pizza delivery, or any thing; delivers a superior customer service, people start comparing you with them. Thus, there is a new competition. Like, 'I ordered pizza last night, their service is not as good/bad as this company' etc.

This is a truly amazing explanation and notion. How many businesses feel and managed in this way?

Is BlogSpot blocked in India?

Is it true?

Need to check with some of my friends in India.

Midlife Crisis for Mid-size companies

Economic times has this article, where it raised a good question by and large.

Does mid-sized companies facing mid-life crisis?

This report says, top tier companies are doing great, posting market-beating results. But, the mid-sized companies are facing the 'mid level talent' problem, where most of the managers are shifting to MNCs or bigger players.

I am a firm beliver of leadership develop programs within the company. Companies need to groom people. Typically, with all its disadvantages, having two separate tracks of technical and non-technical streams help to groom correct people.

Having top leve technical knowledge is not enough, mid level managers with business focus is the need of the this knowledge economy.

Relience and Mukesh Ambani in NewsWeek

I read a cover page story about Relience and its big plan going forward in NewsWeek.

Since last two days I am thinking, how high those kind of thoughts are! I am amazed.

Building and running the business needs, thinking and that too big thinking.

Human Resource Department

In his weekly column in Businessweek this week, Jack Welch, a famous ex-CEO of GE, has pointed out the importance of HR in any company. How it is important and why it should take employee initiatives.

Some weeks back, I wrote in this blog about HR and its importance. People still believe it is a supporting cast and HR should make policies for employees. But, HR has a broder scope, its work starts in hiring a correct candidate, the candidate who can add real value to company and grow along with company. It’s important to develop culture of this sort, which encourages or challenges the employees to perform more.

People are the major part of any business; people are DNA of any business for that matter. So, having good, energetic people around is the first firm step towards having success.

The major role of HR is to keep employees motivated. Being human being, how ever self starter he/she may be, employees need external motivation. This is the big responsibility of HR to build and develop this culture.

Identification of correct talent within the organization becomes immense important. Some are good in sales; some are in people building etc. It is important for company to put correct people in correct places. Promotions just because of number of years of experience, has absolutely no meaning. Experience and/or personal interest should go hand in hand; this is the simple way to increase productivity. We all work harder on the work which we like most.

So, it’s rather sad that most of the companies treat HR as support, perhaps it is the important wing of the organization.

Spyware!!

Business week has very good article about Spyware and how they make money and how it gives trouble to people's computers. It's amging to note, a company specialized in this popup spyware is making millions!

It obviously cought my attention as I mysef got hit by this kind of spyware and I had tough time in getting rid of them. What all I did was,
1. Installed Windows Defender and Adware softwares
2. Cleaned the .exe files from harddrive.
3. Increased security in browser and set the trusted sites.

I have not seen any popups, at least for now!

Reginoal Cinema Vs bollywood Cinema

I was reading an article in the net paper, where author compares Regional movies with Bollywood movies and categorily labels Bollywood movies as just copies of Hollywood.

Agreed, there are few which are remake, but how to justify this statement as general?

-Is there a movie like ‘Bagaban’ which upheld the family and society values?
-Is there a movie which is as pure as ‘Maine pyar kia’?
-Is there a pure comedy movie like ‘Munnabhai MBBS’?

My point is, in glorifying some thing; we should not overlook the obvious facts of other things. Perhaps, we need to watch all, take the essence and throw out which we don’t need. This is how one should/will develop. There is absolutely no point is fighting about my mother language is good or your’s is bad.

Grow up guys! We are the pepole who quenched the term ‘Global Village’, let our mind be not restricted by any thing.

Why Toyota is not a darling of Investors?

I was reading an interesting article, author with data asks question, inspite of good numbers and good return over last few years and solid growth and sales, why Toyota is not a investor darling? Typically, in stock market good performing companies tend to attract more interest, but why not Toyota?

Honestly, I never thought about this from angle. It is true, volume traded in NSE is very less compared to Fort and GM. Author points out, even despite of 'not so good' performance of auto majors, they tend to attract investors.

Pretty interesting article.

Royal Gorge and Pikes Peak

Went for two days trip to 'Garden of Gods' and Pikes Peak in Coorado Springs and Royal Gorge Bridge and Canon in Canon City. It was a good, fun filled trip.

And went for a 5 miles hike on Tuesday on Rocky Mountains in Loveland.

Totally, it was good long weekend.

Selling Solutions

I was reading a story about new approach to sales. Its adding ‘Empathy’ to the sales approach, this is where sales force will think from customer’s shooes. This would help sales guys to understand what language a customer is talking. Its no more just aggressive selling. It involves understanding the entire problem before giving the solution.

This concept seems to be quite new and I was talking to one sales VP, where he mentioned that he believes in ‘solution selling’, I think this is what he mean.

As this sales career really facinates me, I read about this very interestingly. So, sales is not mere making pushy calls!!

Link to the article.

Innovation-Brain storming sessions at Samsung.

Business week has an article in Innovation section, where the brain storming session at Samsung has been explined in detail.

The summary is, the innovation engineers are locked in an office, until they complete the project, they will be out of distraction from the external world. There they will propose new ideas, discuss design and analyse the competation’s design. This will only result in better design and innovative products.

Every step of the way, team members drew what Samsung calls "value curves." These are graphs that rank various attributes such as picture quality and design on a scale of 1 to 5, from outright bad to excellent. The graphs compared the proposed model with those of rival products and Samsung's existing TVs. The VIP Center specialists also guided the team in discussions exploring ideas and concepts from entirely different industries, picking up hints about the importance of the emotional appeal in the offerings of furniture makers and Hollywood.

Great idea!!

Fit to be a leader.

I am a firm believer of the fact that leaders should have a high energy level, which generally reflect how they interact with customers and employees. Its vital to have a very positive body language.

I was reading an article about how keeping fit is important for leaders. This business week article gives some examples and concludes how it would help you to become a better communicator.

Aligning to client’s culture

I was reading a pannel discussion abut BPO and outsourcing. The participants have stressed on the importance of aligning to the vendor and their culture for success of an ooutsourced project.

I have been working in this kind of industry since almost 6 years now. Obviously I prefer and encourage offshoring with my clients, but not many clients have understod the importance of aligning with vendor’s culture. During one of the project, I remember our CEO told us, align to their culture, then you can expect better results.

This is most forgotten part of such projects. The responsibility on both parties, vendor needs to understand the culture of client and client needs to understand vendors. I found some general outtings and discussion about sports or general issues tend to break this barrier. One should not feel, the technical part is one and all. Off course it is important, but alignment helps to cover a long road.

After all, we all would like to be treated well and respected at our work, is that right?

A Failed Merger

As per reports in Indian media, the merger between Air Sahara and Jet Airways is called off. The exact reasons for this may not be known, but it triggered me to think about this from a business perspective.

When a merger is planned, so many changes happen in bought out company. They need to align their operations and executives in to parent company and in an service industry like air lines, where customers measure your business, the impact would be too much.

It reminds me one tihng, I read this piece some where, mostly in eWeek. One needs to understand two cultures before even talking about mergers. Integration is a real big challenge and aligning both the companies and continue providing value to customers should be seen as a backdrop of any mergers. I really don't think just merging the companies keeping revenu in mind will simply not work.

Miami Heats are NBA Champions

Miami Heats beat Dallas Mavs to win the championship. It was a true exibition of team spirit, where everybody supported their start player. And it also an indication how the tempo changes during a series. In game 3, with 6-1/2 minutes left in the game, Wade took over and executed, since then it was just Miami all over.

What I observed was the mental toughness one should have to play or coach at this level. The series was well fought, and the coaching decisions proved very vital.

It should not mean that Mavs didn’t do a good job, their run in to Finals was fantastic. We should not forget that they beat defending champs. I liked the their strategical coach, Avery Johnson.
This is why I now prefer best of finals. When I was young and used to follow cricket in India, I used to wonder why there is only one final? I still believe a series would bring out a true champion.

iPop Nano

I got an iPop nano, its sleek design really fascinated me. Its worth of its cost for the quality of music we get. It’s easy to load and use.

I guess this is truly an example of how innovative the design could be.

Hiking The Rocky Mountain

We went for around four miles hiking in Rocky Mountain national park.(Long’s Peak and Wild Basin). Oxygen filled environment and fresh air really made me more energetic.

We witnessed waterfalls, lakes, mountains, trees, canyon and steep roads.

It was good outing all together.

‘Global Integration – Challenges and Implication’

The globalization is the buzz word now a day, with every other company trying to expand the business beyond one country and this, obviously, requires integrating and interacting with other global players.

To me it looks like a great opportunity, companywide. With expanded operations, the revenue will be increased and on other hand a much wider horizon for employees. I am a firm believer of the fact that working in different countries gives a much wider experience for any body. It could be teachings from social life or be it learning from business interaction. Mental growth is the biggest plus point of working abroad. It’s petty, how some people don’t learn out of such chances.

And with this global market, India is poised to gain. India has a natural advantage of its younger working class, who don’t mind relocating to other countries. With age, this relocating activity looks more painful.

There is more necessity now a day to integrate with a global player. Now days, innovation is the key point and integrating with players who are already in this kind of business in other part of the world. Thus, you need not to build the operations from scratch.

This integration reminds me a well known success story with partnership model. Dassult Systems and IBM. Though IBM doesn’t have its own PLM operations, it works as distribution channel for DS products, there by adding tremendous value to DS as well as PLM industry. This is much successful. And Geometric software, the company where I work, has adopted same ‘partnership business model’ and I think even that is successful. This was clearly an innovative thinking back then by our CEO.

A recent panel discussion about globalization need and challenges in IBM trigged this thought.

Innovation in Services: A Case study from Bank of America.

I was reading a case study in Business Week about how innovation can help companies. Innovation in services is rare. In financial services, the last big breakthrough was online banking, nearly a decade ago. Bank of America came up with a innovative product, which is called ‘Keep the Change’.

The product works like this: Every time you buy something with a BofA Visa debit card, the bank rounds up your purchase to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference from your checking into your savings account. It also matches 100% of transfers for the first three months, and 5% of the annual total, up to $250 a year.

The result? Since the launch, 2.5 million customers have signed up for Keep the Change. Over 700,000 have opened new checking accounts and 1 million have signed on for new savings accounts.

There was a lot of market research and brainstorming was done before they finalized this product. What is really fascinating is the how innovative the companies are becoming.

Cost cutting impact.

Business week has a very good article on what might impact of unnecessary cost cutting initiatives. It sites three examples, Home Depot, Dell and NorthWest Airlines.

The biggest hit of such cost cutting initiative would be on customers, the article says. It gives the example of Home Depot where the cost cutting initiative led in to unsatisfied customer, there by reducing the income. It also says, Dell tried to cut its cost which only impacted the sales, off course the article admires the way in which these two companies tried to bounce back after learning from this episode.
I have some experience to share; I closely observed a cost cutting initiative in one of the Indian company. It only decreased the employee motivation. There were so many necessary things discontinued, which made employee think, actually this company is not doing well, so they started thinking other way.

Off course, CEO of this small firm was right in giving the directions as ‘cut cost as and when ever possible, how ever don’t compromise with basic quality of life in company’. This was transferred to lower brass in much twisted way and every division head jumped in to this initiative to cut more cost. Thus, resulting in decreased motivation among employee.

My gym story

It’s been almost 2 years since I started going to gym regularly, now it has become a kind of addiction. If I don’t go, it’s like missing some thing in life for that day.

The bottom line what I am going to tell is the energy level it has increased. Personally, now a days I never get bored, never felt tensed. It has certainly brought a new emotional level. If I feel low in energy, gym is the best place to regain it, over treadmill and with a baseball/basketball/football game.

I am glad, I started doing this regularly.

Draft Pick System of American Sports

I was thinking about the draft pick system of American sports. In this system, a pool of players aspiring to enter in to major league will be picked by different teams. Typically a bad performer in the last session gets the first chance to pick. I really impressed by how the talent is evenly distributed. Otherwise, only rich clubs will have all the talent.

How a club handles a new player is depends on the league. If it is NFL/NBA, the player is directly inducted in to the team and in MLB they need to go through the support system, minor league A, AA, AAA. This again is a wonderful system where they groom their future players. I guess, an American sport is more of a well managed business.

Off course, there are first draft picks who failed after coming in to Major league and its hard to believe Magic Johnson was not picked in the first place draft when he was entering in to NBA!!
Recent NFL draft pick and current MLB draft pick made me to think about this whole system and grooming the future players.

Staples Way! ‘That Was Easy’

Business 2.0 has an article on Staples new marketing initiative. With tough competition from Office Depot and Office Max, the office supply chain was in declined path in terms of revenue and market share.

There was a new marketing initiative, focusing on building the brand and making the moves which would promise a good shopping experience for the customers. Like moving the office chairs to floors, where customers can sit and experience them.

The biggest part of this initiative was a face list; they came out with one liner ‘That was Easy’. There were commercials in super bowl, and in prime slots. The idea was to give a new dimension to this image building activity. And they also create an Easy button.

The website has a downloadable ‘Easy’ button, which customers can download and keep it on the desktop. This would directly take them to Staples website. More ever, they started selling ‘Easy’ buttons; the millionth button will be shipped this summer. This was viewed as a modern day stress ball, on hitting on this button, it says “That was Easy”.

What really fascinates me is the marketing strategy they adopted in building the new image. That’s really commendable.

I was wrong !!

Miami Heats beat Detroit Pistons in Eastern Conference finals to enter in to NBA finals.

Earlier, I wrote in my blog, Detroit might win NBA. I predicted looking at their performance then, but I think 'some thing' happened during series with Cleveland-Cavs, after that they seemed to me that they lost the confidence.

How ever, I don't want to take out any credit from Heats, they rose to the occasion, played as team in correct time, and managed the ball very well in the court.

Does Pistons missing their old coach? Mr Brown? He is a defensive minded coach and put a lot of emphasis on the defense.

Doing Business In India

Economist has an article about why Indian business need to celebrate now. Author says, 'all the MNCs and international community looking at India as next big thing. No international company can do with out an Indian strategy'. This really talks volume about how important India is becoming in the international arena.

Signs of boom are everywhere, 5 million new cell phone connections are made each month, flights are full, stock market is roaring (Excluding recent free fall). Internationally, India is high as well. All the countries wants to have a pact related to business and technology and english speacking talent is a huge benifit for India right now.

Author says, Indian business can play a bigger role in delivering faster growth, but goverment needs to help. India opened up in 1991, but still further reforms are required.

Many of the bars that caged Indian tiger have been removed, leaving to roam and roar. Exiting days ahead.

The Science of Desire

Business week has very interesting article about ‘The science of Desire’, how more companies refocus squarely on the consumer, ethnography and its proponents have become star players.

This is about getting the idea from consumers as what they would like to see in this product and then decide to build the product with those features. Article has some examples of Sirius Satellite radio, P&G’s unreachable cleaner, Marriot hotel etc.

The beauty of ethnography, say its proponents, is that it provides a richer understanding of consumers than does traditional research. Yes, companies are still using focus groups, surveys, and demographic data to glean insights into the consumer's mind. But closely observing people where they live and work, say executives, allows companies to zero in on their customers' unarticulated desires.

The example of Marriot hotel is very interesting, one group of consultant gave the suggestion of making the hotel lobby suitable for business parties and meetings, thus changing the face of Marriot as businesses friendly.

This is truly amazing way of understanding the market need, rather then doing prototype and then taking chance on it, it makes a lot of sense to understand how could a product will look like. But, I am sure this needs a lot of study and analysis to come to such business decision.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_23/b3987083.htm

Digital Cinema

I was reading an article in business week about the way in which the movies are being screened. It’s called Digital screening and this seems to bring revolution in the way movies will be screens. It is started in Singapore and it’s expected to cover Asia and other countries soon.

Summary of this procedure is,

1) Movie studio digitizes and compresses the film, then puts it in a removable hard drive.
2) The drive is sent to cinemas by courier, although this might change to satellite delivery.
3) Separately, the studio sends a digital key that unlocks the film and limits the number of times it can be played.
4) The driver and key are plugged into a server in the projection room. The movie is ready to show using digital projector.

In my opinion, it makes a huge business sense and I am sure, this will change, forever, the way we screen movies now a days.

Innovation in Marketing

This week’s business week has an article on an innovative marketing technique that P&G has come up with. Its targeting moms, who will be talking to more number of people compared to normal moms. They have targeted call center moms, for example, where they will meet more number of people.

The idea is to word-of-mouth marketing for P&G products and the members of chain will talk to other people about P&G products. As per this article, P&G actually doubled its Dawn Dishwasher sales in participating locations where this connectivity program, Vocalpoint, is currently being tested out.

And what do member gets is free samples of P&G products and more ever a big satisfaction about achieving some thing major.

To me it looks like a great idea of making use of big population for marketing the products. This clearly reflects the fact that marketing is not restricted to company logo, website and email news letter, it includes innovative ideas like this. The good part about this kind of marketing is, you will have an advantage of big workforce, Vocalpoint members in this particular case; as against only marketing people.
In this competitive world, one should come up with such innovative ideas, again innovation should not be restricted to products

Good (Old) times are back!

Business week has a good article, ‘It’s feels like 1998 all over again’. This report says the startups are remerging and people have started investing in their own ventures. And having a company is getting the idea all again, as it was the case in 1998-99.

When the last bubble started, it was a hard time for startups as we didn’t have the infrastructure like broad band connection and easy access to net, but now the condition has changed drastically. The startups will enjoy a good infrastructure, high speed and more stable net connection and more ever ‘net savvy or net educated people’. These starts ups need not to work hareder to bring people to net! This is the huge advantage over the last time, and with matured business model new startups can think about revenue models in a better way.

It says, ‘So if cheap, identical startups are multiplying daily, is the Internet industry necessarily headed for another colossal crash? Hardly; The Great Bubble may have destroyed fortunes and jobs when it burst. But the history of Silicon Valley is replete with many small bubbles that served to motivate entrepreneurs and investors without causing widespread harm’.

What makes an effective executive?

I was reading this article in ‘Harvard Business Review’. Here is the summary of this article.

To become an effective leader, one need not necessarily be a man with charisma. What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight phases.


1) They asked, “What needs to be done”.
This question, almost all the times will have more then one urgent task. Jack Welch came up with answer, every five years, “what are needs to be done, now” and each time he came up with different answer.

2) They asked, “What is right for enterprise”.
Asking this question while making important decisions do not some times guarantee the best results, but not asking this question always leads to bad decisions.

3) They developed action plans.

Executives are doers. Knowledge is of no use for executives unless it is been translated into deeds. But before jumping in to action, executive needs to plan his course of action. How he wants to execute, about desired results, problems, check-in points etc.
In addition to an execution plan, this action plan should contain a system for checking the results. Typically two; one halfway through and other towards the end. Without an action plan executives becomes a prisoner of events.

4) They took responsibility for decisions.
5) They took responsibility for communicating.
6) They were focused on opportunities rather then on problems.
Problems should be taken care of off course, but taking action on problems will not create results, it prevents the damage, where as focusing on opportunities produce results. Executives should put their best people on opportunities then on problems.

7) They ran productive meetings.
Decide before meeting, what kind of meeting this would be and set a fixed agenda. Its equally important to take MOM and distribute the action items to all present in the meeting. Also, it’s important to follow-up on these action items.

8) They thought and said, “we’ rather then “I”.



Effective executives differ widely in their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, values and beliefs. All they have in common is, they will get the things done. Effectiveness is a discipline and like any other discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be learned.

Detroit Pistons are NBA Champions!!

You might wonder, how come so early, we didn’t finish the conference finals yet! But, yes, I am predicting what might happen.

Looking at how they are playing, this team is unbeatable. They are strong at defense and offence. And more ever, they work and play as team, when their high scorer gets doubled up by opponents, some body else will step in and finish of the game.
My prediction is Pistons Vs Heats and Spurs Vs Suns for conference finals, Pistons Vs Spurs in the championship final and Pistons will NBA.

Importance of Strategy- A good story

One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read: "I am blind, please help".

A creative publicist was walking by him and stopped to observe he only had a few coins in his hat, he dropped a few more coins in his hat and without asking for his permission took the sign, turned it around, and wrote another announcement. He placed the sign by his feet and left.

That afternoon the creative publicist returned by the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was him who had re-written his sign and he wanted to know what did he write on it? The publicist responded: "Nothing that was not true, I just rewrote your sign differently".

He smiled and went on his way.

The blind man never knew but his new sign read : "TODAY IS SPRING AND I CANNOT SEE IT".

Change your strategy when something does not go your way and you'll see it will probably be for the best. Have faith that every change is best for our lives.

Cold Stone Creamery

I visited Cold stone Creamery this weekend; I was pretty much impressed with the business plan behind that chin. They have wide variety of selections to make and what fascinated me most is how they sell ice-cream which will be available cheaply in grocery stores.

They have a company statement, ‘Friends don’t let friends to eat ice-cream from grocery stores!’ And also, they sign different songs when a customer tips them, the working mood was jolly and I bet, they attract many customers due to this kind of clean and neat service.

I read about this business plan in Business Week some time back, but now I got a chance to see it. And more ever, it works!!

The Five Messages leaders should manage

I was reading a review in ‘Harvard Business Review’ this weekend, titled ‘The Five Messages leaders should manage’, by John Hamm.

This is all about functioning of CEO and what they need to really focus on. Author says, CEOs need to focus on how to pass the correct message through out the organization, it’s very vital for company’s success. He compares the situation with Emergency Medical System, where all the team members seem to be on the same page, all the times. The doctors, the paramedics, the nurses, all of them share the same thought when comes to saving a life. The same situation should be there in the organization. Otherwise, the vision and dream of a company will remain in the boardrooms only. Author says, CEOs should not assume that all his top management shares the same thought that leads to disaster. CEO should inspire the organization to take up responsibilities for creating better future.

1) Organization Structure and Hierarchy.
Organization restructure should happen to align with market competition and that should always aim to take up the competition. In this competitive market place, aligning the company structure is the need of hour and CEOs needs to do a better job on communicating the organization changes up to the bottom level. Otherwise it just creates confusion amongst employees about what is the future of the company and who is what in new organization. Communication should be so effective that there should be no room for confusion or fear.

Author gives example of HP and its then boss. He says, when reorganization happened, everyone was so confused about their future that the actual work stopped for 12 weeks, which is one full quarter! Instead, he says, with in 48 hours of announcement of restructure, CEO should have a company wide meeting and a web cast as why this is been done. To keep the confusion to a bottom level, CEO should have involved everyone in the structure plan.

2) Financial Results:
Results are another powerful concept that left unmanaged, poses a risk to a company’s long term health. When a CEO tells, focus on our results, senior managers often interpret that as meaning ‘Do whatever it takes to meet investor expectations’. By loosing the sight of the connection between employee behavior and results and failing to take advantage of existing opportunities, thus leaders miss out building a long term value for their firms.

Results should be used as diagnostic tools in the service of improving future execution.

3) The Leader’s sense of his or her job.
Surrounded by people who seek their feedback and approval, some fall in to the trap of thinking that their responsibility is to be the person who has all the answers. The ‘answer man’ falsely believes himself to be the final arbiter of conflicts, decisions and dilemmas. This puts him in to a very lonely and isolated position.

Effective leaders should understand their role is to get answers from others. Everyone has answers, ask questions, especially when some thing goes wrong.

4) Time Management:
Every executive feels that time is in short supply. CEO must communicate to the company that resource of time must not be squeezed for all it is worth but instead must be strategically utilized. Time is fixed to choose wisely within constraints.

5) Corporate Culture:
Culture is not created by declarations; it derives from expectations focused on winning. Culture that encourages performance if you hire right people and implement processes that will allow the company to win. CEOs who fail to communicate the vision and expectations very clearly, produce meaningless culture.

There is absolutely no use of having Friday parties, cultural programs etc, if this is not done properly.

LeBron James-Man is the Magic !!

I follow all the major games, MLB, NBA and NFL. And currently, MLB is heating up and NBA is in to playoffs. I am fan of Cleveland Cavs, and they are playing first round series with Washington Wizards.

In the fifth game of this series today, with series is tied 2-2 so far, Washington came back strongly in regulation, but JeBron beat the defence with 3.6 secs to remaining and made a basket. It was a wonderful play!

What really impressed me is about his temper, even the things are on nerves! He kept his cool head and made a perfect basket, with a normal guy in that situation, it would have been a missed basket. But, James is James!!

Pramod Mahajan Passes Away

Pramod Mahajan is a well known name in Indian politics; he grew from a common man to an important icon in Indian politics.

But I like Promod Mahajan for non-political reason. I admired his strategic mind and its fare to confess, I learnt how important making strategy in life is, it could be your corporate life or personal life, and strategies certainly come handy. And I generally advocate, 'its better to fail with a strategy then not having one'.

This simple man from a remote village had a master mind, that’s why he was termed as 'Man of All the seasons'. Some of his strategies might have failed ('India Shining-2004'), but he was well known from these kinds of plans.
It’s unfair now to pinpoint his failures and I don't intend to discuss what caused his death. But, this is loss of a strategist.

Its 'Son-Time' in Nirma

I was reading a news post about Nirma, where Mr Karsanbhai Patel is moving out of day-t0-day operations of Nirma and giving his sons all the authority. Management has taken a full circle at Nirma.

Nirma is a great success story of a startup. When it started, Mr Patel used to distribute detergent powder all by himself. Nirma was earlier considered as home business, and its growth has been extraordinary. Detergent market in India is attracting more competation, HLL, P&G are well established brands in the world. Getting success agianst all this competation is a great thing.

Nirma story reminds me about one more great start up. Lijjat Papads. Grown from a very modest, home owned business, now lijjat exports best quality papads.

These are truly amazing stories for inspiration.

Global Manager

A very good article about who is a global manager.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1511792.cms

Managers are not just facilitator, or a guy who forwards the emails. Manager is one who thinks beyond current time and makes team member feel valuable.

I had a very good session about leadership and management in my Business schooling.

Innovation at Whirlpool

A very good story about how innovation was achived in Whirlpool.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_19/b3983061.htm

Shipping and Handling FREE

Interesting article about the "Free Shipping and Handling" appeal to customers and how it changes the buying behavior.

It came is "Knowledge @ Wharton".

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1449

Kingfisher Airlines

Mr Vijay Malya is one of the aggressive businessmen in India, his entry in to airline industry, for sure, started some fare war! This man has tremendous business approach, but some times he is misunderstood.

Some times back I happened to visit U.B Engineering at Pune, its really a world class Engineering Consulting company and with his true leadership qualities he has changed the U.B group completely.

He became stronger in breverage market (UBs Core) while expanding in to new areas as airlines, consulting, IT and even politics. I am quite sure, this man thinks ahead of time. Recent deal of $1 bn deal triggered me about this man.

http://www.businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?chklogin=N&autono=223680&lselect=1&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1

Webaroo- A new 'concept' by Rakesh Mathur

This Webaroo has very innovative concept of building the entire internet in a laptop! And with a clear and well defined revenue model from ads.

I happened to attend his one of the address when I was in IIT. If I remember correct, he still operates from IIT Bombay campus, from business incubator. His earlier companies, (Junglee, was a big success, sold to Amazon, Purpal Yogi) did draw significant attention.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1497229.cms

Innovation

I was reading an article about 'Most Innovative Companies' in businessWeek. This is really amazing to note how companies are innovating in their processes or products. Southwest airline's 'Ding', which let customer know about a low fair or Apple's iPod nano or P&G's 'open innovation' are the true examples of this.

Now corporate world is understanding the need for innovation, this is why there are some terms like 'Chief Innovation Officer' have started floating around.

Infosys found a place in this list. Each year, seven top performers of the company from lower ranks will have to make presentations to board members and other senior management about the new processes or idea. This is true example of working beyond barriers.

Think Big !!

Is this a true example of thinking big?? Truly amazing..

http://www.businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu4&leftindx=4&lselect=2&chklogin=N&autono=222470

Importance of HR in an Organization

The recent move of Infosys, where Mr Pai will be moving out from CFO role to head HR, triggered me to think about how important this function is. Unfortunately, some (Most?) of the companies think, HR meaning arranging spoprts and cultural events.

The true role of HR is talent management; in a copetative environment like IT, where getting a right person becoming more difficult, retaining is the key. Companies should retain and grow talent. Some times professionals in the company are so much underloaded with responsibility, that eventually they decide to leave. HR should block such holes by matching skills and responsibilities, just should not wait for 'x' years of experience to promote to next level.

HR need to learn how to build a atmosphere which yields more productivity. Because, if culture is not good, if an employee is not challenged enough, then no matter what you arrange for them, they will leave the company. I strongly advocate the presence of 'fast track' , where those professionals who show more than expected, should be rewarded.

Motivation does not come from having cultural events !!

Anthem Rewards!

Anthem is the major helthcare insurance provider. They have a program, where if you keep active yourself for 30 mins in a day, you will get 10 bonus points and also if you eat healthy, you get 10 points. You can redeem points. Very good program for users like me, who tend to workout almost daily.

But, honestly, I didn't understand the business plan behind this. What is the ROI for them? If I do keep active, does it mean my helthcare expenses will be reduced?

http://www.anthemrewards.com

Importance of Employee Moral

In any kind of business, keeping the employees motivated for the challange is very important and is a primary job of HR. A slight dent in the moral, it may be due to business opportunities or the atomosphere within the company, will cost significantly in terms of talent loos.
Companies can get replacements, but in my opinion, it costs the company. The legacy and energy of old employee is difficult to match. It doesn't mean that there should be no attrition, you can't prevent it happening, but attrition because of moral reasons is very bad. It cleraly indicates where your company is heading to.

In this business week article, author describes how moral is getting hurt in current conditions at Detriot auto majors. A very good article!

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_16/b3980095.htm?chan=autos_autos+index+page_news

Rajkumar is dead !

Kannada's gretest actor, Dr Rajkumar is dead. I grew up watching his movies and he certainly influenced me when I was little.

He has a legacy in acting and I don't think any body can take his position.

My Blog Reference-About EDS Deal

My analysis on EDS-Mphasis deal has taken a space in business standard. Its kind of good to get such analysis in my name. I am thrilled !!

http://www.businessstandard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=lmnu6&leftindx=6&lselect=2&autono=86786

In rediff business as well;

http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/10deal.htm

Air India !

I read an interesting news piece about A-I to raise $ 1.1 bn loan for purchasing new fleet. I don't understand this business move. Its true, most of the A-I's flights are leased and are not in extremely good condition, its required to have new fleet. But, in my opinion, A-I should focus on fixing the service, both in-flight and at airport. This is also important step for A-I along with purchasing new fleet.

India's skyline has changed a lot recently, and service has becoming an important thing. Wide range of services are avialable from Deccan, Kingfisher, Jet-Sahara; locally, and internationally its a different equational all-together. Indian customers are not attracted by low-price any more.

So, its important to focus on service as well in A-I, where a flight-attendent's smile is most costly thing !!

http://www.businessstandard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=BO&autono=86799&chkFlg=

Cultural Shift In Home Depot

Today I read an interesting article in Harvard Business Review about how new CEO of Home Depot, Bob Nardelli has initiated a 'Cultural Change' and all the obstacles he faced. Its very interesting article as it stresses the need for shift in mindset in all the companies to post the profits.

Bob Nardelli says, 'The culture was good enough in Home Depot to make it a $50 Billion company, but this shift was required to make it another 50$ Billion company'. A veteran of GE, this new CEO has brought a new shift in how Home Depot works currently.

EDS-Mphasis Deal

I posted about this deal some time early this week. I predicted this deal might help Mphasis and EDS both, interestingly BusinessWeek came up with the same analysis.

It also says, there are so many mid-market players in India which are for grab. I guess, everyone is understanding the importance of building backoffices.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_16/b3980068.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia_today%27s+top+story

Golf

Golf has been one of my dreams, I have been trying to learn that game since a while now. I really wish, I would have learnt it by now. I want to explore the game, how it is played and why people call it as addition!

Some call it as a business game, where most of the people discuss about business and I have read a lot of stories about meeting clients/business partners during a golf game.

Ongoing masters cup golf tournament made me to think about this game, again!

India As Manufacturing Hub

I have been thinking about the potential from rural India which is untouched so far. We are predominantly an agriculture nation, and if we divert our business focus to agriculture sector it will be a huge potential.
Also, we have a good potential as a manufacturing country, cheap labor and vast engineering talent will really help to rewrite the success story of IT-outsourcing.
In this following link, Mr Narayanmurthy has expressed some great vision about India, beyond IT.

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/06murthy.htm

Staying Fit!!

This article lists out the obvious points. I do work out almost 5 times a week; but I will have to change my routine now! It has been tredmill and cardio burnout for me so far. Now, I need to mix up.

But, I don't do Socializing instead of sweating :-) I pretty much kick stary my routine as soon as I enter gym.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7279844/did/12127275/

Mutual Funds

I recently watched a session on Mutual Funds by Suze Orman. She was mentiong it does not matter who sells you the fund. Its important to concentrate on a guy designated as 'Fund Manager' and we need to listen what he has to say about fund. The guy who is selling is just a sales guy and he has nothing to do about performance of the fund. Where as fund manager is the one who really can tell you about past performance and trend and that is the guy we need to really listen carefull.

This was very useful information.

EDS Makes an Offer to Buy MphasiS

In my view, this is a strategical move. EDS needs a solid presence in offshore to compete with IBM and MphasiS gives a ready-made offshoring capabilities. And EDS is emerging to a model where all the consulting work will be done onsite and development work will be transferred to offshore, exactly what IBM Global Delivery Center and HP Consulting are doing. This is the way going forward.

On the other hand, MphasiS has a solid presence in Financial Services and Logistics industry. I happened to meet some guys from MphasiS working in Logistics industry, with FedEx.

Also, acquisition of Kshema technologies gave MphasiS an entry in to embedded technologies.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1475607,curpg-1.cms

Burger King IPO

This story gives an insight to how investors make money and what does IPO means to investors. When I read this, I was amazed to notice how this whole thing works out.
How ever, this seems to be a perfect time for BK's IPO. With Chipotle's recent IPO success, it is the best time for this food chain to go public.
As this article points out, BK's sales are still less than Mac's. I tend to come to opinion that BK should spend some more on bringing out more products and fixing up the sales.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_15/b3979057.htm

Colorado Spring

Spring is picking up in Fort Collins, its very nice out there. Bright, Sunny, not so hot; very pleasent. It is inviting to go out and sit outside with Arpita.

Every year this cycke of spring and fall makes me think about the wonders of nature. Spring means a new life to everything.

The man who rewrote the supply chain concept-Michael Dell

Its a remarkable story which really made me think a lot. Michael Dell came up with an invovating idea of selling directly to customers and thus redefining the supply chain concept. Its very hard business plan to reproduce and I guess this was Dell's USP when it started its business, in the area where there were established players like IBM, HP, Compaq.
Its truly amazing story as how he broke all the 'normal routes' of selling computers. Also, Dell has started expanding in to other markets like, Laptop, Printer, Audio etc. Dell can be a true case study and inspiring story for those who wants to get in to market which already Exists. Message is simple, have an USP.

This is a good article about Dell.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1471868.cms

Cavs end playoff drought with a flourish

Cleveland Cavaliers are my favorite team in NBA and its good to know that they got playoff spot for 2006 season, that too after such a long time. (Cav's last playoff spot was in 98!). This team has famous LeBron, but he was missing the much required support crew last season.

I think they are expected to play with Washington Wizards in the first round of playoffs, and that would be an interesting game to watch.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt=AupwXSBY5KTYhiECqbyVUBu8vLYF?gid=2006032905

GM Shapiro Rebuilds Indians With a Plan

This is an amaging sports-business story of Cleveland Indians Baseball team. Shapiro is a great guy and he dismantled and buit Indians from scratch. The deals he made, the trades he made, the effort he put in buidling the bullpen; clearly indicates how commited this guy is for Indian's success. Indians are strong contenders for playoffs for this season.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060323/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bba_sports_showcase

Interesting Article about fights of Sunil Mittal

Mr Sunil Mittal narrates the struggle he has made during his initial days of entrepreneur life. Its amazing to know how he fought back against all odds. Certainly a good lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs and a true motivating story.

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/mar/29mittal.htm

Testing

Testing my First blog