World Aids Day

Its not about wearing the ribbon for today. Its about changing the way you think. The things that you say about it. The way you behave.

They need just your hand to hold onto in their loneliness. Please, if you know of anyone around you who is suffering alone, please do not treat them like they can kill you with their presence.

Most of all, get wise about HIV and AIDS. Know the facts and don't ever spread false information. What you know can never hurt you..

To all the beautiful people out there for whom we wear this ribbon, we are right here, you are never alone.

You can learn more about HIV and AIDS at The HIV Information Site

Long time no see???

Well well, its been some time since I last blogged..... blame it all on the huge merger that my organisation is going through .....

With all the things said about mergers and acquisitions, it is interesting to watch one happen so close. Maybe a book about the same is in the offing......

"Merger, he wrote"????? Maybe maybe.......

Nevertheless, in the words of the most famous Austrian alive ....... I'LL BE BACK

Mumbai - Always going on and on and on and ...........

Exactly a month from Terror Tuesday, I posted in this blog about how hardened the Mumbaikar is when it comes to the rains. Today it is eight days from that fateful day and Mumbai is up and running, tottering on its feet but with the will not to let anything bring it down.

Though everyone finds a scapegoat to blame for the mishaps, it is the unrelenting spirit of the city to never say die, the spirit of the city to reach out with a helping hand to total strangers, the spirit of the city to smile in adversity, the spirit of the city to find and share HOPE, a hope that keeps everyone in this metropolis alive.....

It is the courage of individuals that holds this city together, the true power of ONE that works..... My salutations to all those individuals who helped to restore the faith in the "Mumbaikar".

Salaam Mumbai

The better CEO - Marketing or Finance?

Well, being a student of Marketing myself, the opinion is bound to be colored, but then considering the comparisons, it seems the grass is always green on the other side. Marketing guys will always wonder about the complexity of numbers and Finance wizards would always struggle to sugarcoat bad figures effectively.

But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the student's ambition. No course relatively would give anyone an edge. All students are taught the basics of all streams and eventually every Marketing guy should know the numbers and every Finance brain should be able to sell them. Its just that in the line of duty, you lose track of your training and the inclination to actually sharpen your "standby axe" is in most cases, prohibitive.

I was asked once in an interview about where I'd like to be 10 years hence [Don't people get tired of listening to this one??], and I said I would be the CEO of a global organisation. I was told that most trends revealed that top CEOs were Finance people and I still stand by my reply to that..... "TRENDS ARE MEANT TO BE CHALLENGED" ......... and well, if fairy tales interest you, I never got that job. Maybe they loved their CEO .............

Mumbaikar!! One tough cookie in the rains!!!!

Got into a discussion with a colleague about the age-old debate of whether
Indians need to have compulsory army training. Here are the usual arguments:

Against:

• There are just too many of us!!!!


• Too costly!!

For:

• Good for the patriotic spirit!!


• Keep us disciplined!!

Nevertheless, putting the debate in perspective with the Mumbai Monsoon Experience, a "Mumbaikar" doesn't need the training!! Ever seen the comparisons??

• Obstacle Course: Unconcreted roads, Work-in-progress concreted roads, Finished(!!) concreted roads.


• Endurance testing: Ever stood in the downpour at a bus stop??


• Psychological Endurance: And the bus passes you by??? EMPTY with a RESERVED board??


• 10 km walk: What you do when your boss screams on your mobile and your bus is stuck in standstill traffic!!

Our Armed Forces Personnel are the GREATEST and there is no doubt about that. We'll always be grateful to them for granting us the privilege to sleep peacefully at night.

But when it comes to being one tough Indian, the Mumbaikar is the closest you can get to the Army.

Quality??? What's that [in reality]???

Ever picked up a book on Quality Management?? Where the little guy exists, its seldom about "must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million 0pportunities." (isixsigma.com)

At the bottom of the hierarchical pyramid, Quality, in effect, is what is told to you it is, which usually translates to one of the two following cases:

• No defects no matter what the target [Yeah right!!]
• Hey, we got a great Replacement Policy

At the end of the day, the essence of quality rarely runs down to the "men in blue" on the production floor. Unless the guy who runs the lathe machine actually believes in the 0.5 micron finish he has to put on that chair leg, it really doesn't matter you're ISO 9833452340322 qualified [Trust me, one day that number will come].

That brings me to my bit about the various certifications about Quality that organizations strive to achieve and maintain so "diligently". Each of these certifications had been essentially designed and developed to organize the best practices about Quality in an organization's way of existence, but in 9 cases out of 10, Quality certifications have been about as effective in bringing about a commitment to quality across the organization as has Marx's Communism delivered on its "golden-era" promises. Like communism, it works...but only in places where it gets ingrained into the system. In that case, having a certificate pronouncing so doesn't really make sense, does it??

So then, the solution?? How do we get whole organizations eat, drink, sleep, breathe quality? Practically speaking [the little guy's view], there are two ways of doing it:

1. Drill it into the boys till they repeat it in their sleep
2. Visible, genuine commitment to the processes by the top management

The first method is effective to the extent that it gives a chance to the boys to consciously and ultimately subconsciously shut off the programming, the same way targets drive the salesforce performance at the end of the quarter [Get it done somehow, anyhow, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW!!!!].

The second method however is usually easier said than done. Top management need to get out of their ivory towers and Harvard Business Review hangovers [Its a great magazine, but seldom easy to put into practice]and visit the floor. Know what you produce or offer as services. Its amazing how many IT organizations have executives who do not know what services they offer or who do not understand the business markets they are in.

Once you're familiar with "what's inside the box", start thinking "what's supposed to be in there in the first place"!!!! An analysis of Quality is not just producing the best, but analyzing whether
you're the best to produce it or are you just an "also-running"?? Is your product or service the best thing to produce with your capabilities??

Allow me to be more direct ------ Are you best qualified to produce what you produce??

Once you answer that question in the affirmative, and I do mean a BIG RESOUNDING 'HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!' , that's when you start the process of IMPROVEMENT and everything else in that book you picked up in the start.

In Sanskrit, there is a saying "Jatha raaja, thatha prajaa" which means "As is the king, so are the subjects". John C. Maxwell in his book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" states that there can be no leader without followers. The boys on the floor look upto the Top Management for direction. Here it becomes imperative that the Top Management demonstrate a concern for quality in the product coupled with the knowledge of the product.

Imagine for a moment, the tremendous effect that is made when a Sr. Executive in an organization walks upto a guy on the floor, picks up a finished chair leg and asks him whether in his opinion, a tapering leg would be more stable without sacrificing on aesthetics?? That feedback eventually plays a role in the improvement of the design, yielding a better
chair. Voila, Quality improvement!!!!!

Whoa..it doesn't stop there!! The Sr. Executive makes another round of the floor, congratulates this guy in front of all his colleagues and honestly tells them all, in simple but quantifiable terms [$$$], how much the changed design helped boost sales. At this moment, the guy is going "WOW!! I just got recognized for the effort and the guys at the top know it!! There is a lot that can be improved out here, I'm glad they're asking now!!!!"

At the same time, each of his floor mates go, "Man, there are a lot of ways that my output can be improved. Let me try and come up with some improvement. Now that they're listening, the big boss will be shaking my hand next!!!"

BOOM!! Quality Consciousness IN THE SYSTEM!!

Driven by the boys themselves, this consciousness becomes very infectious. Much like word-of-mouth marketing.

Easier said than done, you say?? Well, its upto you to try it!! After all, I'm just the little guy at the bottom, looking up!!!! ;-)

In the battle of blog software, I'd say Abilon from ActiveRefresh software wins the battle for me.

I finally got it working with my proxy and it beat all the commercial and
freeware software hands down where that's concerned.

Six stars out of five!!!! Its got a place on my links section as well :))

Another MBA???

After completing 1/3rd of an MBA, I'm really wondering about it. What's the big deal anyway?

Well its the application of the MBA that hurts. No one listens to the "new Masters in Business Administration" 'cos he can't really beat the "rich and varied experience" that all the bigwigs in the corporation have.

God, if I was that incompetent, I'd have loved to get fired by Mr. Welch. I would have accepted my "incompetence" only in those circumstances.

aah well, looking up................