iCon:Steve Jobs, the greatest second act in the history of business

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According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are no second acts in American life. Apparently he forgot to tell Steve Jobs. Jobs rose from an outcast high school electronics nerd to become the driving force behind Apple and avatar of the computer revolution, only to be driven from the company in failure and disgrace. Then, having endured repeated personal and professional disasters, he went on to make an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, reclaim the throne at Apple, and, with the extraordinary success of the iPod, regain his reputation as arguably the greatest innovator of the digital age.

Remember Incredibles , Monster Inc and all the toy story sequels which amassed a hug money world wide

Not to mention Ipod , Ipad and Mac series of computers

Apple had it all and he had already made the dent in the universe atleast thats what it look for some more years before another stefan Jobs come's in and take over this world

Nothing could deter this school dropout. He was there somewhere positioning his belief , moving with all the convictions he had in his heart and true evangelist.

He was a pirate in its true sense and what world once thought could end Job's era was just a beginning to this great man. His greatness was not in his characters but in his leadership to move a small team to conquer the world and make an History by itself

Thrice he got into a bankruptcy but then he is now the most charismatic figure you would see...that's steve job for you


He joined Apple , messed it up to an extent where he was thrown out of it and then he went on to believe Hardware is where his heart lies and design is what everyone thinks will stand out But then it was too late

IBM pc on one end and Microsoft on the other ripped apple apart and so does his next company which he founded when he was shown the doors from The apple..He called this company 'Next' and dreamt it to be the best seller in the PC market...But he misjudged everything from the starting. He misjudged customers and he even went to an extent where he thought he could sell those dumb computers by a spectacular design

Everything flopped. He had not learnt his lessons at least that's what world thought he could have ...But then , universe was just waiting to explode to his sheer enthusiasm and belief that he held for so long years

20 years of making is not a joke and holding on to his own convictions of proving his point is no way a sane act ..It was insane...Steve Jobs was bleeding with his loss making company , Next and he was looking out for a hope

He was looking out for another venture for a turn around and it was a sheer accident to Buy Pixer for few millions and turned that company to a billion dollar or may be more than that

Disney wanted it .So does every other great companies like Sony and others wanted Pixer. But it was Steve's remarkable power to turn around what seems impossible to possible which made apple ,Pixer and Next such great companies.

He gave un realistic demands , schedule to his world class engineers and everyone were working 18 hours a day and in the process broke all the history and here he was the king of Animation - Toy story which hit the market and he never turned back again..

He sold Next to Apple and went to sell iMac series to different market or rather he created a market for everyone to come and conquer...perhaps...but none could !!!

And not to forget Ipod which went head to head with Pixer sales and Now we are waiting , what next from Steve Jobs

The blue ocean strategy had just bugged him in the late 80's and he could never be failed ..
He had conquered everything from Hardware to Animation to Music to Technology but sadly couldn't be in a good health. the last I heard , he wanted to stay close to his family...Well that's the truth but he had made a dent already in the universe which no one could ever imagine .....

What set him apart could be seen in his sayings...read on and I am sure you will be excited !!!

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations."

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me . Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful. that's what matters to me."
"We've gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time."
"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
"I want to put a ding in the universe."
"I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn't that important because I never did it for the money."
"The Japanese have hit the shores like dead fish. They're just like dead fish washing up on the shores."
"Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don't know any better."
"Bill Gates'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products."

"My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better."
"We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them."
"Click. Boom. Amazing!"
"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"
"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
"Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack. You can't know enough in a one-hour interview.
So, in the end, it's ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they're challenged? I ask everybody that: 'Why are you here?' The answers themselves are not what you're looking for. It's the meta-data."
"We've had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place - the last thing we were going to do is lay them off."
"I mean, some people say, 'Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.' And, you know, I think it wouldn't be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple.
My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that's what I try to do."
"It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That's what we get paid to do.
We just want to make great products. (I think he means "insanely great products!")"
"So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know - just explore things."
"When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.
They'll want to do what's best for Apple, not what's best for them, what's best for Steve, or anybody else. (this actually reiterates my oft-repeated mantra of "ubiquitous evangelism" in companies)"

What Ever You Think , think the Opposite by Paul Arden

20 minutes of reading but a game changer in your life - this is how I felt when I read this book

My review might look timid but the book is far more exciting.

I am bugged of pushing my ideas through book review's and thats my way and I believe I did the right thing after reading this book :)

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I am pretty sure and I can guarantee this to all you - You are dead bored.where ever you are , at some point in life , you would have felt that life is Just this or is it something I have been forcedto go through.

Hold your breath and just sit back and deep breath. You are now connected to your soul and you are now in a journey of your own thought. You will have ideas...some are wild , some are foolish and some are just eccentric

Take it , apply it...fail because thats the best way to learn than getting the right answer after a 3 long hours of thinking...This is what we call Intellectual drain. Because the more you reason out and

more you are knowledgeable , you will not enjoy the journey of the goal . So we see great companies are built by young than the old :)..

Pragmatic decisions everyone of us take is just a Blunder we are making in our lives.The idea is to remain foolish and remain childish

Steve jobs would not have made Apple if he was an intellect and taken right decisions...He failed and he failed to an extent where he could have lost is life..

Thats the beauty.He won , he conquered and the rest is history

Dear patrons, its better to fail than winning and the amount of lesson it teaches is just beyond everything...

So take those decisions , right or wrong , you will have tremendous scope ...Think you can , think you can't either way you are right

Don't go with the crowd...pull them to you .Don't do what other people do , Don't listen to every one and get manipulated...ACT on your self and then you will see the richness

its YOU and YOU alone can decide the destiny ..Good or Bad , Just Do it !

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Roots and Wings By Raksha Bharadia

Ok , with this book I agree to disagree on most of the aspects because we are blessed with "Information" which we know is right and which is endorsed by most of the books written on children. However, I give her (Raksha Bharadia) a thumbs up for doing so much research on this topic and yet cutting down the number of pages to 300+. This is an achievement by itself because there is no 'one' short answer as to "How we need bring up our kids?"

There is always a room for improvement and there is always space for a blunder; we do it occasionally. So read this book with a pinch of salt.

On one hand, Raksha wants to let loose the strings and let kids do what ever they feel like doing and on the other, she explains on how we need to undo the "DO" and that's a little funny aspect of this book. Take for example, she asks parents not to be 'Entertainment Directors' and let them through trial and error figure out the best way of coming out of a problem. No doubt they will figure out some way, but what's the guarantee that its the "Right" way. :)

That's where she falters and according to me, it is "Unacceptable" since she has put so much of effort on the topic. Believe it or not , she has given reference to 100+ books in 300 odd pages and yet the irony is - A contradiction.

One of the most striking errors in the book is "- the Interviews". She has spoken to so many celebrities on how we need to bring up kids and the obvious answer, all of them gave is 'Space' - Give kids the space they want; give them their choice and complement their mistakes by asking them to reason out what went wrong!

This reminds me a quote on the American children -"In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults." ~Thomas Szasz

So all in all, pretty disappointing to me personally. But I thank her for giving some references and books which I always love to have it in my library! Thumbs down but before we wind off , remember this Shloka -

Laalayeth panchavarshani, dashavarshaani taadayeeth |

Praapthethu shodashe varshe, putram mitravad aachareeth ||

Tend to kids with love for first 5 years, mend them for next 10 years and be a friend - A soul for ever from then on!!!

why I want to Join Rotary Club !

Recently I cam across a foundation called CRY and they wanted some help from the professionals like us. Though I did help my bit but was not satisfied and had lot of open questions like - How do I become a part of the larger cause
How can I make difference to the human kind
How can I impart values to my daughter (Her name is Saanvis and she is 2 years old) - I would want her to be associated with noble causes and I believe Rotary would provide a platform.
How can I help myself to be a better person
How do I know my effort yield the results I would love to see.. ( I donated some money to CRY but I could never see as to how it helped a kid )...

Above all this , I want to be part of a social networking who is reputed , who can bring a massive changes ( And I believe thats very important) , who can be TRUSTED !

I read lot of books and would like to mention one of them . You can read the review here which I had written : http://be-a-ware.blogspot.com/2009/09/leaving-microsoft-to-change-world-by.html

So am pretty much clear that , you need a bigger platform , you need a larger community and you need leaders to move this world out of the crisis and I believe I can bring tremendous changes to the community as well....So rotary I believe can help me set this direction

looking forward to hear from you soon !

thanks
kiran

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

This Book with 300 odd pages has taken me exactly 21 days to complete. Not that it's boring but it's practical!

Unless we have something to gather out of the read, we will never be able to appreciate anything. If you solve the problem of relativity, you thank Albert Einstein for letting us know; and that's exactly the same experience with this life changing book. Life skills and so does the attitude, is hard to come by. Especially in a world of disgrace, hatred, confusions and irritations, it becomes more difficult and catastrophic to be "what you ought to be" - A human with peace and tranquility in your heart.

Spot this - We always complain, we always have qualms and we always have fears of many things and beyond that we do not think. If we did, we still continue to carry those baggage until we are clear - the storm has passed by and again a new beginning of new fears accost us in our lives.

All these are actually stemming from our own thoughts and misdeeds and edging that as an the art of the behavior into the "Sub Conscious" Mind. It is this secondary mind which is controlling everyone and it has been trained to do so by our thoughts, attitude and feelings. "MIND" is like a start button and "Sub Conscious" is like the engine. It can never run until someone triggers it do so. This secondary mind has tremendous and absolute energy to do anything and alas by the time we realize, it will be too late in our life.

So this book is a real game changer (But I agree it becomes boring too); and it indeed takes a lot of your time to go through and implement.

I would not want to comment on what I gained from this book because everyone's mind and hence sub conscious mind is relative and the benefits will be different.

For a change, I found a "Life Skill" book which is more practical and makes logical sense to everything we do in our lives. It takes a lot to be a good human being beyond and within our world and this book can be a starting point. As Joseph Murphy told "The Power is within you" and we all ought to live in a Better world than we are in today!

The Choice by Og Mandino

There isn't a time when we have to decide which side we need to part with. There are many strings attached to the decision we make in our lives. To that extent, the choice has become a dilution of many buttons we often take into consideration. But then you know for sure that these decisions in our lives are oblivious and have virtually zero impact in our day to day activities. I personally know a world wide support manager who quit his software job and chose to be a pilot. There is, this author who quit a 3 million buck salaried job to write a book!

How can we ever justify their decisions? How can we ever find a rational thought process for this tangential jump? How can we ever imagine we could be one of them?

You can and you alone can be the one who could buy in all these crazy natto stuff. (By the by, natto is a stinky fermented Japanese food :) ) You know why! As most of the successful creatures on this earth are the ones who have taken the die hard turns in their lives. There is no logic but rather a plain truth and that is 'they believe in their true self'. They know they are born to do just that!!!

Otherwise how can we ever justify Steve Job at one point of time leaving Apple to discover Pfizer. Can you believe that? I would never have done that but then he did, for he found is own path to succeed and that's the key.

Nobody but just YOU ALONE can tread the path, you think leads to success.

"The Choice" isn't a good motivational book but rather a good and overly perforated one which will highlight a subtle thing - A successful man isn't good till his family and friends thinks he is!

Good to have one in your cup board!

There is never an End and thats life !!

Joe E. Lewis
You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough.

Samuel Butler
All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it.


Life should always work like a binary. it should and it cannot be a bubble on the water...You never know when it explodes....We are the decision points and more specifically , you ALONE can be the decider of this game of LIFE....every step , every thought will lead to a point where you need to take either right or left but most never decides and walk the life as it comes and thats where we fumble....LIFE unfolds itself for those who want to listen , for those who want to feel and for those who want to move ahead in their own path.Nothing can stop them , not even their own self can make them sit at one side and crunch them...thats the beauty of being a binary in our own lives...when you are in that mode , you are very clear about your thoughts ....the decision you take may be wrong or right but you still hold your pride because you CHOSE THAT PATH...well! every bad decision will invaribaly lead to the BEST DECISION in your life....So be a binary , make the choice of wisdom because you know you will always have a second chance because destiny is always a choice you made the previous night !!!!

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

Do you know Facebook is by and large the single largest Human network dreaded even by Google. Google re-invented itself into many forms and it's all because we helped them to grow. That's the power of Human network. Take any company and you will see traces of this pattern every where. Google did an extra ordinary move to give the control to US and we made a difference to this company.

But Google has many ethical questions it needs to ask itself. The Company still does not share its Ads revenue and we do not know what it does with our personal data. Some say, they make money by bumping the priority of the page rank. But yet in someway we have lot to learn from this company. In fact when Google decided to launch Google news, it did not know whether to sort by date or sort by relevance. It didn't do anything and let customers decide what they wanted. It released a beta (in fact most of the Google products remained in beta for more than 3 years :) ) and there it comes - many customers wanted them to sort by date and they flooded the company white boards with this request. You see! customers will eventually push you to their way and Google respects that feeling. It did sort the Google News by date.

We need to be a platform for our customers to resolve their issues. They will use us as a tool to achieve what they want to achieve in their business model.

Remember Dell with all its awkward customer centric services, lost market in its desktop and notebooks till Michael Dell called it a shot one day and told the employees to listen to the customers. They just did nothing more than listening to blogs, feedback and giving control to the customer to prepare their own desktops. Now Dell forms a major threat to any company who would want to enter into this market.

It's funny but true that we hold something very close to our heart (like our source code :) ) and it does nothing more than bringing our customer more pain.

"What would Google Do By Jeff" has thrown open lot of patterns which every company is going through, be it open source companies like Red Hat, mixed source like Novell and closed door like Microsoft.

The question is can we open up, give control, collaborate, provide a platform for the customer, listen to them through Google, blogs and wikies and give them what they want rather than make them to come to our home page and search for a miniscule out of an horrendous data, flashes and options in our home page.

To that extent, you can differentiate the home page of Google vs Yahoo. Open google.com, you see an editable field. Google says nothing about its company, brags nothing about its search, but it follows the customer where ever he goes. It embeds its videos, blogs, wikis, flashes, ads to to customer's home page. It makes the google map mobile; that's the power it gives to the customer.

And go to Yahoo.com, you will be lost with abundant data thrown open to already confused & frustrated customers.

While reading this book, you will be pleasantly surprised about what your Company could be. You'll be posed with questions like does it have a human side, does its existence make sense and many more intriguing yet interesting dwells.

Happy reading!

What's love got to do here !!!!

every relationship in this world has its own set of rules....to think of , if you don't love someone and if he still continues to love , then thats called LOVE .if not it becomes pure attraction .....relationships blossom if you don't expect anything out of it and just pour your heart out...Love does not have ends or means. its just as plain as water ...if you see , you will find nothing but when you drink it draws your thirst.....its so very true for every bond we share with others.....

So fall in love , again and again and again..but yes with the same person :)

Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

Enlightenment is within , at least that's what people say..but then Hermann has a different opinion...Enlightenment is with"out" you !!! Its as if the body and soul are just made to experience both good and bad...Bad is not bad to be experienced...It just happens and when it does it just means that you are bound to go through it and there is no escapism....looks very very naive but life has its own set of hidden agenda for each of us and hence bad is just not bad either to you or to the people around you

Young Siddharata learn to fast , to think and to wait and this is what he has adopted from Samanas but yet he is not quite sure he is "self" and hence lands up in "Samsara" experience which he devours later..but soon he recalls its not the fate but a necessity to go through all these experience to be self and to be grounded.

For him setting goals is limiting your thoughts and manipulating the nature of your mind...A soul with no goal and no objective and deathly attached is better than a soul with a purpose....

Some of these does not really fit into our world but this is one off the track book which really make your thoughts flow to an era of enlightenment and nirvana

I enjoyed the book but will I adopt it ? ...perhaps not but then I really relished reading through Hermann Hesse's thoughtful writing .....

A different book of its genre(1960's) which is worth a try.

"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch

Jai Hugs Randy over the podium and tells him "Not to Die"...But can he? He is in his last leg of his life and he has to succumb to pancreatic cancer. He has no choice. Am I telling you a story straight from a Hollywood blockbuster! No I'm not and it is happening in reality (my guess is, it has already happened and Randy would have died!). It's heartfelt to read "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.

Randy - the flamboyant charismatic professor of Carnegie Mellon University gave the "Last Lecture" as a tribute to his own life. I could not believe this guy can actually search for logic when he is dying. Hats off and my full bow to him. If at all life was too short, I would rather live his life; his thoughts are a life line to so many lifeless soul!

He had so much wisdom all through to tell and it just continued in his death. He showed us "How to dream" more than that "How to fulfill your childhood dreams" even if you are short lived. But your presence is "Long felt" and that's where we want to be "Someday" when we all are in death bed. This book is thought provoking not just to me but to so many people around the globe. He had so much wisdom to share and he did in a way which makes it even more tearful to accept the fact that he Died !

I am a dreamer but not anymore to match Randy's skill of making it happen. We just do not realize the worth of our "childhood" dreams and to the fact I have decided to live up to my dreams. I felt "We die thousand times before we actually Die" but not anymore after you read this book.

He has not gone too far in his death...and these links will justify it !

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Peace or pace...choice is yours

The process of birth is no less than a miracle and death is an ultimate truth!
Off the late one single question that haunts me very often is " Whatz life all about?" .Vital signs of getting old,uh??!! (Yeahhhhhh, I need those epics which talk about the essence of life :-p!).
Life is exciting, all about making money, thrilling, fun, superb, fantastic, boring...blah blah blah and finally "what"??!! I don't believe in reincarnation, to me, Life is something that happens just once. With this one chance that we all have, We are in a rat race to gain something or the other. True to its sense, life is about achieving something that we all dream off. But wait if that achievement is all about power and money, then think again, how long can you hold on to it?? My quest for the answer as to "whatz life all about" hit a dead end again ....
Suddenly, a simple thing that crosses my mind is the phrase "Peace of mind ". To all my questions I finally arrive at one answer.... "Peace of mind".... and yeah it's "Powerful" ( in the literal sense till the last letter D!). Ultimately if our dreams or achievements or whatever that we are struggling and juggling for in life doesn't give us peace of mind, then I don't think anything that we tried doing was worth the shot!!! Its THE thing that matters at the end ,no matter what!!!
And for me now, a silent wish awaits its fulfillment ..a wish for peace of mind !! As always,its easy said than done .Creating the inner peace needs a lot of sustained effort as one needs to get away with any kind of apprehension.
" God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change ,courage to change the things I can , and wisdom to know the difference" is all that I pray for now !!!!

Thanks
Radhika

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World By John Wood

There are words which reflect just what we need to speak to our soul. John has notoriously involved with such a wonderful journey of life...I envy him...certainly there are more than just his experience. He has a point to prove to the human kind which is more human than any other facts that exists to date. I might be exaggerating but that's the way I feel after I read this fabulous experience of love for the job, lust for the wacky dreams he had and the longing to do something simple to the human kind; and that's "Leaving Microsoft to change the world", ladies and gentlemen

If I request you do something little great, I would urge you guys to buy this book. Guess why? Every coin you give to purchase this book will go to fund a girl child somewhere in the northeast region of our country, Nepal or may be it will help to buy a book or 2 for a Cambodian child who craves to learn and live.

Every rupee you donate to buy this will help to chase the dream of a girl to educate herself than being a slave or a prostitute. No that's a fact, let's accept it! As the saying goes "if you educate a boy you educate him alone but if you educate a girl you educate her whole family. Her kids will know to dream, her family will know how to respect and she will know that she has a life and not tears"

It's a fateful moment I felt when I read this book though John has written every positive things in life. It made me think about just one question "What is the purpose of this life?" Is it just buying a yacht and sail far away from the beach or help in some bigger change than that. Certainly there is more to it than what I just told.

Please grab one copy and I assure you, you will not regret !!!!

The book is all about John, the entrepreneur of a special kind who leaves Microsoft and decides not to sell MS Excel anymore to any other country, rather bring smiles to millions of kids across the globe. He has sent a magnificent message to the mass - "Think Big and that's the only way to save this world. Like it or Not "!!!

http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/

THE SAINT , THE SURFER AND THE CEO by Robin Sharma

I am not fit to write a review for this book because its not just a book but a bible...Its different for different people when they follow...So I hold no pre-judice but try to carve out what I felt after I read this book.....

Time and again , I am attracted to the literatures that touches human heart...Its not just love between two people which makes our life happy
Its also a bonding that sets the pace of the life to do something good and something more meaningful than getting bogged down by the life's mutinies


My thanks to Robin Sharma who has brought out this book and the moment I read , I had a feeling that I went to my past , to my present and to my future

that's the power of the narration you will come across here...

Its Sensible and Simple and every time you read something about life skills , you will wonder its not that easy to follow

But not after reading "The Saint , Surfer And the CEO"....You will feel happy and you
will definitely be more prepared to embrace life with lot of love
Your perspective towards the people , persons whom you love , pets you like , perceptions you hold for relationship, will eventually change

We have too many emotions floating in this world and all seem to take us no where and that's the biggest tragedy...Be it a corporate office or a common man's house , there is a pattern of emotions followed and not everything makes us feel great

But there is a chance to change this world , there is a chance to keep the vibrance and there is a chance for self- discovery and come back home because we are lost in the materialistic world....We are lost piling up money for our future and spending it back to recover our life ! That's an irony but there is one last chance before we give away and this book is just the right step in that direction


We need Humans not brains to feed this world !!!!!

To be Or NOT to be

I read an interesting article "The Dilemma facing software professionals in this economic climate : To specialize or genearlize"

The author basically took a middle approach to take advantage of both these skills...but I have a different feel for this altogther

Here is why ....


In this era of globalization , we certainly need to be "Slow" and "Master" the art of one skill.Its a kind of reverse engineering which we have to apply to beat the competition .Say for ex: Many software engineers tend to work on many projects , many skills , many people.....Note the word "Many"

What has happened is ,over a period of time we have developed an army of Software engineers who possess "Many" attributes with less capabilities.But if you really want to stand out of this crowd , you need to have that "Few" attributes which these guys lack . And if you observe closely , what they do lack is " Specialization " and "Slowness" to think through the problem

So who ever gets this gets to the top :)

So in effect " We should always try and go upstream than downstream"

Only challenge would be to identify that path of upstream . but once you know , you rule !!!



make sense ?



let me know

A sense of urgency by John P Kotter

I being an avid follower of Kotter's principle will appreciate this book even if it leaves the reader High and Dry. Kotter tends to reiterate the point about how the company's operational strategy makes it big or bad.

If you take the example of any company; its strategy to win is Volatile in the fast changing technologies and Competition. But how much volatility a company can sustain, is a question. If you can survive, it's because there is a sense of urgency to achieve big and Achieve faster. Though at times , a sense of urgency can go wrong. It might create a panic situation in the teams. There are confusions and anger and frustrations. And then the whole system collapses. You might not notice, because the fall is very slow. It might be a day like GM or a year or so like Yahoo. But surely, people at the bottom never appreciated as to why company was rushing through and what was that strategy or the reason for blood rush.

In any case it's not only important to have a strategy, but also create good will at the bottom of the ladder. Because, if they are not happy working on it, you will have a free fall. And that fall will be very dangerous in volatile situations like IT businesses. Remember, neither will you notice that nor will anybody else. It's gradual. And you are busy executing a strategy with a false sense of urgency .

And keep an eye on your company! Is it happening? Is there frustration and anger mixed with Urgency? Then I guess it's time we re-look at why the strategy is causing this.

Kotter also mentions, a true sense of urgency is something which is a feel good factor for most of the people inside the company . No doubt we may not understand everything that has been said by the CEO but there is a sense of belonging to that strategy though it makes little sense. He terms such a kind of act as "Heart - Mind" strategy.

Frankly I did not enjoy this book as much as his other book "Our IceBerg Is Melting". But Kotter has a point to prove and it's common sense that we all agree. "Unless our heart does not sense it, we will not "accomplish" the strategy but "Complete" it '...

Overall, a good read if you can relate the points to the cases that have happened in the industry.

Friends !

Friends are important. I personally believe there is one special relationship people have to maintain outside thier marriage. That relation will last long if it is sincere and honest . They will cherish this for ever ! . Not that people tend to lose interest in a marriage but its rather a different dimension we should set in life. That helps us to see the problem ,if any from outside in. In marriage we tend to seee the problem from Inside out and end up doing things which are stupid and crazy. Take for ex : ria and rian are happily married for 8 years and personally I felt they do not have any issues . I feel they are on the top of the world
Both have a flyin carrier and they are contented ...but they tend to fight for many reasons but they do patch up early. But this gets into a bigger problem of fightin for everyhting. It is in this situation that "One special" person in your life can bring in a fresh perspective in life. He / she will see and feel for your problem and understand what best suit for you to move ahead. If you have found that "Special person"...you are lucky and you can rest assured ,there is always an angel watching you and making you happy :).....but pls dnt spoil that relation. Because , in marriage there is always a buyin and bonding and you can always come back. But if you miss that special person , he/ she will never come back. SO next time you think you found him / her , you know you are very lucky.......if you call that love so it be :)

"When a Man Loves a Woman"

"When a Man Loves a Woman" is a serious Drama and a thought provoking
movie written and released in 1994.

Andy and Meg Ryan are undoubtedly the stars who have put in their heart
to make this movie come out so natural and yet so dramatic.
Andy's way to Propose Ryan and Ryan's way to reciprocate are "the Jewels
in the Crown"!
Andy is a pilot and Ryan is a Budding House Wife (Budding because, its
no easy to be a housewife :) ) . Her alcoholism has ruined her
Childhood, her College days and now it threatens to ruin her Marriage
too...
Andy makes every bit of an effort on the earth to save her, give her the
support and lead her through the toughest times of her life. Yet he will
not come to know what is causing his marriage to sink deeper... Then
there are these 2 lovely and charming kids who do not know the reason as
to why their parents fall apart again and again...
Everything seems to get messy and then Ryan will be sent for a detox
.This is the time she knows will be her last chance to save herself and
her marriage.....
I will stop at this, because if I tell you "The END", you will feel it
as "Yet another Movie" and the subtle message which is brilliantly
narrated will be lost.

And when you come out of the movie, you will know that message -
"Through the good times, through the bad times ... When a Man Loves a
Woman it's for all times."!

What a Movie sirji !!!!

Two movies I watched recently completely re-assured me about what I think about Love....


50 First dates - Starred by Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore
6 days 7 nights - Harrison Ford, Anne Heche

Its a complete Complete delight to watch this movie.....50 first dates is all about 'Endurance" in love....its about passion that was poured to build a relationship which blossoms every day and every night....its about falling in love again and again first time and every time....The famous dialog I felt really touched is "My first LaST kiss", when they were departing from each other....The movie is a classic to watch....the girl is sensational and so is sensitive to the relationship she holds with her boy friend and on the other hand , Adam makes every attempt to make her fall in love every day and for ever because girl suffers with a short term memory loss...its true...Love is not blind but its a bond between 2 people.


6 days and 7 nights on the other hand is a completely humorous and off the track story where a girl falls in love again !! But with a different guy...well its not so funny as you thought . Because at the end of the movie , you would feel bad if she had not fallen in love again!...So its true , time and again relations are tested and tried and lot of turbulence to wave for...but it will survive and you will find your way if you are honest and truthful not for others but for yourself !

Endurance , sensitive and truthful...thats all wins the battle . Even if you lost , you will still win !

Mavericks at Work by William C.Taylor & Polly LaBarre

You have to pick this book only after reading 'Blue Ocean Strategy', because only then would you know what strategy really means to a corporation, what it means to the customer and finally to YOU as an employee, who is proud to be associated with the company. Every company has its own way to lure the customers and they do every possible thing to clinch the deal and get the bottom-line shining. Well, you would remember Kelloggs. It made waves when it hit the US market and for a while the company thought they could repeat the same success in India. But it was all together a different ball game with the Indian Consumers. They can buy 'anything', yes anything that's neatly packed in a Re 1 and Rs 2 sachet. :) Kelloggs could not understand this fact. They priced their breakfast cereal pack @ Rs 100 per pack which hardly got sold. As every other company, they imitated the strategy and pulled the priced to Rs 10 per pack of breakfast. Well did it work? May be it did increase the sales and booked the profit but turnaround? Not sure. It never really picked up! So what went wrong? Strategy was good, so did the marketing and other operational processes. It is this gap which you will really understand after reading the 'Mavericks'. It's truly truly magnificent.

It's a story of those very few companies who never ever compete with giants yet create a MARK in the minds of the customers. It's a story of those crazy guys who advocated what they told to the people. They gave customers a sense of pride and a sense of belonging to the company because they did what we call 'Advocacy of Strategy'. Put it simply, you mean what you said when you laid out the vision for Customer...yes you read it right....Mavericks lay“vision for the Customer” and NOT for the company. This makes customers special and they will never leave you, even if it means a higher Cost. So a company can never ever compete on Cost & Price. What they can really compete is on the 'Value'.

Personally I have few favorites in the book. One amongst them is Arkadi Kuhlmann, who's innovation through agitation gave a new dimension on how people see the banking system in US, when giants like Goldman Sachs , Citi Group were harping on loans, derivatives, stock markets to enhance the profit for their organization. This man was advocating his customers to just save. His bank ING Direct never encouraged it's customers to go for the loans but gave lot of stress on Piggy Banking! He even fired customers who don't pay by the Bank rules. It's simply because they don't fit the model what Kuhlmann and his team has advocated. There were many more incidents which is explained and worth your reading.

My other favorite in the book - “It's not TV, it's HBO” - redefined how TV is veiwed in US. Albrecht, the executve of HBO says, “TV is a finite Idea...It's not TV is an infinite idea".

Remember Netscape? It was bought out for 10$ billion by AOL. For a company with a 5 year history it was an amazing price to pay! And then Netscape got a deep cut from Microsoft. Why and what went wrong? Competition killed them and instead of building something great for the customers, they woke up every day thinking how to beat Microsoft in the market. The rest became history for Andreessen and his team. They lost focus from the customer and this incident was wonderfully explained. I sat back and started thinking "Competition is irrelevant in the eyes of the customer".

There are many more stories to get motivated and get charged. Reading this book is worth your time.