Time to look at future

One of the major news this week was the internal matter of Bharatiya Janata Party. At some stage in what has become a sorry mess, the leaders of BJP must sit together and ask themselves as how things got in to this stage. For, all the summary action taken against party leaders who have suddenly become dissident stands exposed as illogical and without basis.

I think of two points out of whole scenario.

Number one, if I were to compare this with any corporate functioning, this seems to be sheer failure of leadership. A leader should always think through a performance system where able and achiever stands to gain. It has not happened in BJP after recent elections. It is a scapegoat politics. This kind of leadership attracts failure for sure. Also, leader should be in a position to own up the responsibility of the failure and take every one in to the confidence and come up with an action plan. Leader needs to have that courage and honesty to accept what has happened and think through strategic steps as how entire operation can be improved. Perhaps, crisis is the time when we need leaders who can guide entire system out of danger. If leader appears to be helpless and leader starts the blame game, then there is nothing much can be done and this is what exactly has happened with BJP.

Second point, as a citizen of India, do I care much about what was history? Agreed, we need to have history and need to learn from that, but my point is, if a particular person is nationalist or secular is not going to solve my current problem. Let history be as what it has been. If someone wants to change the history let them..

As a political party, BJP should start understanding the current problem we are facing as a country. Plan for future as how you will provide education, how you will improve the transparency in the system; how one can create more jobs, how one can revive the industry/agriculture sectors, how you can build competitive infrastructure, how one can build a better healthcare system. More importantly, how entire dirt from the system can be removed.

Being Indian, I do care for this rather than some small piece of history. And this will attract more voters then doing commentary on history. Even media appears to have given importance to this where debates after debates has gone air and loads of paper has been used to write about views/counterviews. We don’t dam care about this.

Time to look for building the future!

Business of Digital Book

Kindle, a handheld book reader is new innovation which might help usher books into the digital age. On Nov. 19 last year, Amazon unveiled the long-awaited device. Kindle, available on Amazon for $399, holds about 200 books in a paperback-sized package and displays pages on a screen that appears more akin to paper than a backlit LCD screen.

Part portable library, part bookstore, Kindle is wirelessly hooked up to the Internet via high-speed cellular network; letting users download books at a moment's notice. Users can purchase books—some 90,000 titles are currently available—for about $10 apiece, and there are no connection-subscription fees.

Starting August, Sony Corp started selling its version of digital reader to compete with Amazon priced at $199. This news is the latest salvo in a battle between digital readers where Sony, Amazon and other companies are vying to establish themselves in a market that they expect to become a profit driver.

Whether the Kindle can finally ignite the digital book market remains to be seen. No doubt it is a true innovation and is convenient for avid book readers on the go and those who travel frequently, their high price might be an initial barrier.

Fed says, economy is leveling out!

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that the US economy was showing signs of leveling out two years after the onset of the deepest financial crisis in decades. In an important decision, US central bank also kept its benchmark interest rate to near zero; there by showing interest to support and guide the way to recovery. It seems, Fed made clearest statement to date that it seems the recession nearing an end and shattering financial markets are healing.

I still feel, companies would continue watching the way they spend money, but for sure it seems that worst is behind us. And even the domestic market results show the trend of improvement. Recent IIP data shows that there is improvement in the sentiments, which is also supported by worldwide rally of share market.

There is some good news from other part of the world as well. Germany’s GDP grew 0.3% in second quarter, bringing an end of continuous negative growth since many quarters. French GDP also grew by 0.3%. But in the 16 nation euro zone, GDP slid by 0.1% in second quarter, which is very good if you compare this with 2.5% drop in first quarter.

So, in summary, it seems spring is returning back and hopefully recession will be over soon. However, it has taught few lessons to every country and I strongly feel it has prepared companies in a better way to face any issues in the future. I am sure companies have updated their business risk management plans and might have drawn better strategies to prepare themselves for anything in future.

The World View

Heading Off a Resume Tsunami

Companies around the world are beginning to focus on retention measures to contain voluntary turnover of employees, as they expect a “resume tsunami” to hit them when the recovery begins, a survey by global consultancy Deloitte says.

According to the survey, after struggling with downsizing decisions amid the downturn, human resource executives globally have new concerns about building up of a resume tsunami, which may hit once the economy turns and employees begin to consider new opportunities.

This survey talks about few small steps which could help in reducing the retention problems.
• Take care of top performers and critical workforce segments.
• Hold managers accountable for retention
• Don’t kill survivors by drowning them with extra work
• Be careful about cutting compensation
• Tell the truth

The link to this survey is below; this is pretty good read.
http://www.deloitte.com/us/Debates/Retention