Business Quiz Quiz code…2536

Quiz code…2536Sun Microsystems IIT-B Business QuizIIT-Powai28 Jan 2007

He was born Wu Bai-fu in Taiwan but changed his name when he migrated to Japan. Ironically, his product was considered a luxury item when it was introduced since Japanese grocery stores always sold fresh Udon & Soba varieties at one-sixth the cost of his new concept. Who & What did he introduce?

 The Times Group (Bennet, Coleman) has little success in ventures outside its core business. Some examples being Times Guaranty, Times Bank, Timesofmoney.com, Timesmaitri.com etc. A few decades ago they sold tea under a brand name. The ads featured “luminaries” like Behram Contractor (Busy Bee) & Khushwant Singh amongst others. What brand name?

 This slang (word) is almost certainly and logically derived from the slang ‘doss-house’, meaning a very cheap hostel or room. In Elizabethan England ‘doss’ was a straw bed, (derived from ‘dossel’ meaning bundle of straw)Which commonly used slang?

The Prudential Insurance Co of America stopped using its most popular slogan in the mid 1980s, due to jokes which related to the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS. What slogan?

Legend has it that the Maharaja of Mysore travelled by a special train that stopped at _____ station & he had been served _____ with chutney. What popular South Indian food item are we talking about?

This trend was started by Copacabana Restaurants. In India Saravana Bhavan (Chennai) & Café Masala (Delhi) introduced it. What?

It was established in 1958 with assistance from UNESCO and with funds contributed by the Soviet Union. Its temporary home in 1958 was at the Silk and Art Silk Mills Research Association (SASMIRA) building in Worli. Name it.

 In the 1970s, this firm did a research for HLL & the insight they got was that the Indian housewife spent her entire time cooking or managing the house except the 10 mins that she spends taking a bath. They then commissioned what she day dreamed from dawn to dusk. What resulted? 

The company CKX has the following major assets and holdings:Global Rights – Elvis Presley – the rights to the name, image and likeness of Elvis Presley, and the operations of Graceland

 Majority Global Rights – Muhammad Ali – an 80% interest in the name, likeness, trademarks, and licensing agreements of Muhammad Ali including Ali’s “Greatest Of All Time” (or G.O.A.T.) slogan•19 Entertainment – acquired from Simon Fuller in 2005 for $200 million. 19 owns, among other things, a share of the rights to the Idol series, including Pop Idol in Great Britain, American Idol in the United States, and numerous other international versions.

  What does CK stand for?

BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT Quiz code…2535

Quiz code…2535 Sharpshooters 2007QM: Guru Rao

Mansukhbhai Mahadevbhai Kothari was sitting outside a small shop, tired after a hard day of cycling and hawking his home made goods. He noticed that some customers at the shop were getting impatient with the time taken to get their favourite item. This brand was thus born in 1973. Which brand?

 This brand was invented by Alexander Liepa of Montgomery, Ohio for the US Army. It was introduced across the USA in 1973. It is especially known for its packaging (invented by Fred Baur). In 2006, it released a unique product wherein the brand had food-coloring printed on them with either trivia questions or jokes in red or blue ink. Which brand?

This company is owned by John and Robert Kirby and Graham Burke. The company takes its name from a shopping strip called “Croydon ___” in Melbourne. Which company?

This personality is launching incense sticks that have been christened ‘Karyasiddhi Grah Dhoop’. The ‘spiritually powered’ incense sticks are recommended for prosperity through planetary appeasement. Whom are we talking about? 

This company was granted licenses to offer fixed line, cellular and ILD licenses in Mauritius in 2004. With the launch of nationwide mobile services called Mokoze, it has completed a full portfolio of telecoms services in Mauritius, including local and international fixed line voice telephony. Name the company.

 “Meet Or Delete” a social networking site is operated by HP along with which other media major?

With which company would you associate – Trumpasaurus, swoop, cruiter, skeeter, nettie, thwacker, Al-ert, Technopillar ?

On August 15^th 2006, Harley Davidson had its NYSE ticker symbol changed. What did it change to?

Jonty Rhodes joined this company after his retirement from international cricket. He is currently the head of sponsorship there. Which company?

Sky Television plc a four-channel television service (Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky Movies and Sky News.) launched by Rupert Murdoch’s News International on February 5, 1989 is credited with the commercial launch of what? 

The Wall Street Journal has coined a term which means public confession as a form of therapy. What’s the term called?IF LIBOR is London Inter Bank Offer Rate what is SHIBOR ?

 “Nano City” on the outskirts of Chandigarh is an initiative by HSIIDC and which eminent business icon?

Headed by Naguib Sawiris, it operates under various brand names such as Djezzy, IraQna & Sheba in Algeria, Iraq & Bangaldesh markets repsectively. The company’s participation in India is considered to be a threat to national security by defence Mr Pranab Mukherjee due to its involvement in the Pakistan. Name it. 

The Financial Times turned 100 years old on 4^th Jan 1993. How did it celebrate this occasion? 

This personality is a civic activist, especially with respect to municipal administration in Bangalore. An art collector, this person has also authored ‘Ale and Arty,’ a coffee table book about brewing beer illustrated by paintings of some of India’s renowned artists. Famous brewing families and beer firms are the subject of the book. Who?

Which company suspended its sponsorship of the show ‘Big Brother’ as it thought Channel 4 had not taken sufficient action in response to the alleged racism in the show?

ICH LIEBE ES, C’EST TOUT CE QUE J’AIME, ISTE BUNU SEVIYORUM, LOVE KO’TO. How do we know it in English?

This publication was founded by Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri, founder-father of the Akali Movement. The opening ceremony was performed by Mahatma Gandhi on September 15, 1924. It has been edited at times by people like Devdas Gandhi (the son of Mahatma Gandhi) and Khushwant Singh. Other sister publications are Nandan (Monthly children’s magazine) and Kadambani (Monthly literary magazine). What?

He was born in 1962 in a hamlet called Umreth in western India. In 1977 he worked with Shyam Benegal as a spot boy. He was a CA by 1984. Apart from a brief flirtation with journalism and a long-time affair with writing, he also participated in politics. His favorite slogan, “roti, kapada, makan, bijli and bandwidth” epitomized the needs of the emerging 21st century Indian. Who?

Launched on Feb 16, 2006, it is India’s first white label credit card. It does not carry on its face the brand of the issuer, as against a co-branded credit card which bears the logos of both the alliance partners. Name the card.

The original name was Mahindra’s ____ General Purpose Epoxy Compound. What brand?

 I-Ven Realty Ltd, a joint venture company formed by Oberoi Constructions and ICICI Venture Funds has recently bought a plot in Worli (Mumbai)for Rs108 crore from pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and plans to develop the same into India’s tallest residential building of 65 storeys with each floor having its personal swimming pool and gymnasium. What is so unique about this project?

 Toptable is the largest online restaurant booker in Europe. It provides bookings for Time Out, British Airways, The Times Online and Visit London. It is an online platform for restaurant owners to advertise their venues. Diners can read and compare information about restaurants before their table booking online. It was founded by entrepreneur Karen Hanton in 2000 along with another famous name. Who? In November 2006, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to change U.S. banknotes. What was the reason cited for this change?

Tata Crucible Chennai Campus 2007- PrelimsQuiz code…2534

Quiz code…2534

Tata Crucible Chennai Campus 2007- Prelims

Tata Crucible 2007- Campus EditionChennai Round9^th February 2007QM: Giri Pickbrain

1) How do we know ‘The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited’?

2) Which stock exchange in the world is referred to as ASX?

3) Which company did Henrry Brayan. Dr J Budd, Harmon Cable, Will McGonaggle and John Dwan start on the North Shore of Lake Superior at

2 Harbors, Minnesota in 1902?

4) Which famous TV or radio network in the US is referred to as the Alphabet Network?

5) Who acquired Macromedia in Dec 2005?

6) High Performance. Delivered is whose promise?

7) Front Row, Sports Grill, American Bar are all brands owned by which company?Launched in 1958 by Bank of America as the white, blue and gold revolving credit. It was known as Bank Americard. How do we know it today?

9) Whose famous ad slogan was- “ The Milk Chocolate melts in your mouth. Not in your hands “

10) Who is the shirt sponsor of Manchester United?

11) Whose product is Minute Maid- a fruit punch?

12) John Jacob and Henry founded which optics company in 1853?

13) Get Gorgeous, On the Run, Freedom Express aand Launchpad are programmes on which channel?

14) Who produced the movie ‘Guru’?       

BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT QUIZ Quiz code…2533

 Quiz code…2533

1) If its Dacia for Romania, Somaca for Morocco, RDB for Brazil, Avtoframos for Russia, Sofasa for Columbia, Saipa & Iran Khodro for Iran, who (which company) is it for India?

 

2) The company was started way back in 1971 with a paid up capital of Rs 50 lakh. The company then named Maschinefabric Polygraph (India) had a technical collaboration with Veb Polygraph, Germany. However the collaboration came to an end in 1991 post the unification of Germany. The company was re-christened to its present name in 1992. It was named after the founder’s father Manubhai Shah who came to Mumbai from a small village near Baroda in 1918-19 and set up a retail business of stoves, batteries and petromaxes. How do we know this company today?

3) When Vahid Berenjian, a swede of Persian descent met Akbar Khwaja in Bangalore in 1994, a new brand was born. After a successful venture in India, the brand will make its first foreign foray in Kuwait in February 2007 and Bangladesh in June 2007. Which brand?

4) The now Rs 700 crore group was born in the bylanes of Kolkata in 1974 when two young men R.S Agarwal and R.S Goenka chucked their jobs with the Birlas to turn entrepreneurs with an initial capital of Rs 20,000. Which group?

5) In the year 1932, Theodore Baumritter and Nathan Ancell had a dream to create high quality Colonial Style furniture. They named their first line of products after a legendary Revolutionary War hero, which became the brand name. What brand?

SIBM Transcend Quiz code…2532

 Quiz code…2532

Domain Expertise Inquisition

 SIBM Transcend

23 February 2007

QM: Giri ‘Pickbrain’

1) Arvind mills, one of the foremost producers of denim & jeans- the world is the flagship company of which group?

2) Which major tyre maker is also famous for its Red & Green travel guides? 

3) Which company gets its name from portions of the words “communication” and broadcast” ?

4) Fredrich Wilhelm August Frobel creating the first of a type ‘education institution’?

5) Globosports, a sports management company run by whom,has signed leading pace bowler Zaheer Khan?

6) Pramod Mittal is currently the owner of which premier Bulgarian football club?

7) The first foreign exchange transaction in euro was between ABN-AMRO and which other bank?

Which company launched a new range of premium car care products called motomax?

9) Pilani investments & industries corporation ltd., is the investment arm of which Indian corporate house?

10) Which company has been given the show cause notice for “its tough being a west Indian in India”, ad campaign?

11) Which latin term is used to refer to duties that are levied on commodities/products as a certain percentage of their price, these are different

from specific excise duties that are levied on products?

12) Bernard Arnault is the chairman & CEO of which French clothing retailer?

13) Who tells you there is “Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” ?

14) Renault has tied with Mahindra & Mahindra in India to release which car?

15) What was the profession of the seven dwarfs in Snow White?

16) If Apple=iPod, then Microsoft=?

17) If you are in the business of importing & exporting Beverlly Hills,Cats head,English Beauty, Lord Nelson etc. what are you doing business in?

18) Dialpad communications Inc,Kelkoo SA, and Ludicorp Research & Development Ltd. Are all subsidiaries of which company?

19) Magicbricks.com is a property portal launched by which company?

20) Which organization primary ad slogan reads “the future for britain”?

21) Which company owns picasa?

22) Sachin Tendulkar has recently sold his personal rights to the newly formed marketing branch of Saatchi & Saatchi.Name it?

23) Identify this Swedish brand that was founded in 1967 by Jones and Robert af Jochninck?

24) For which event in India between 22 feb & 25 feb would international brands such as Azimuts,Beneteau,Ferretti and Funseeker be seen in action?

25) Sir Joseph Lister gave the world which brand?

 

TATA Crucible Campus 2007 Bangalore Edition.Quiz code…2531

 Quiz code…2531TATA Crucible Campus 2007Bangalore Edition25 February 2007

QM: Giri ‘Pickbrain’

 1) Which brand of shirts gets its name from the fact that the first batch after production was over dyed?

2) Which media group is using the tagline- ‘Just Imagine’ for its new campaign?

3) To honor whom did United India Insurance name one of its policies as Cinemukta Policy?

4) Transelektra Domestic Products created a brand in 1984, which has 62 % market share. Which brand?

5) Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner is the CEO of which software application?

6) Who is the main sponsor of Zimbabwe cricket team?

7) What is the national airline of UAE?

8 Expand ABB

9) Zanusi, Eureka and Frigidair are/were brands from which home-appliance company?

10) Which company would you associate Ingvar Kamprad with?

11) Founded as a drug for athlete’s foot and sore feet, it is now a big brand (especially during summers). Which one?

12) ‘Proudly South African heroes’ is a branding exercise by which organization/company/brand?

13) The first automobile out of their factory on 14 April 1927 was called OV-4. Which company?

14) ‘Protects whats good’ is the way this company positions itself. Which food business related company?

15) With which company would you associate the name Jack Cohen?

Quiz code…2530

Quiz code…2530

1. There are 27 of them in India and Karnataka tops with 12 in the list in which Mysore accounts for 7 of them. Tamil Nadu follows with 5. The registration is for a period of 10 years. Renewal is possible for further periods of 10 years each. The Textile industry dominates the list with 13. What are we talking about?

 2. In the older days, the Arabians believed that the entrance to hell was somewhere in or near which geographical landmark?

3. It is taken from an Aramaic form which roughly means “what I speak is destroyed,” and is influenced by the Latin word for “corpse”. It is also said to be inspired by Aramaic for “I will create as I speak,” which is thought to be in reference to God creating the universe. Which are these two words?

4. He has a great admiration for Joseph Stalin, whom he describes as both “strong” and powerful. A journalist by profession, he attended the Astana University, where he studied English, journalism, and plague research. He also claims to have worked as a computer technician, saying that he was the one who would remove dead birds from the computer’s pipes. In his free time he indulges in activities such as jumping on the trampoline and sitting on comfortable chairs. Who is this colourful person?

5. Direction Software Solutions is a software services firm based in Mumbai and specializes in developing & implementing Internet strategies for businesses & providing high-end software development services for clients such as Sippy Films, Alex Cannon and Otto Versand. Why has the CEO of this company been in the news recently?

6. What’s common to these TWO matches?i. France Vs Italy-9th July 2006ii. Inter Milan Vs Sampdoria-29th January 2007  

7. It is a word used by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical re-shaping of the Middle East.What word?

8. He worked for the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918, and is credited with having worked on a number of W words, including walrus.In 1920, he went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh. When in 1925, aged thirty-three, he applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, he boasted that his students of Germanic philology in Leeds had even formed a “Viking Club”. Who?

9. He remains fiction’s second richest character despite ongoing strife with his labour force.They bemoan low-wages, lack of health care coverage and union-busting tactics. Factory operations also dogged by several documented instances of child-labor.But he says they don’t need health insurance,and says child-workers were being punished for being naughty. He is speculated to be tormented by infinite wealth.Who?

10. It is a Hebrew word meaning “teaching,” “instruction,” or “law”. It refers primarily to the Five Books of Moses, also known as the Law of Moses or the Pentateuch, Greek for “five containers,” which refers to the scroll cases in which books were being kept. What word              

Tata Crucible Corporate 2007 .Quiz code…2529

Quiz code…2529 

Tata Crucible Corporate 2007

ET in the Classroom Quiz 2007- The Bangalore Edition07 March 2007

QM: Giri ‘Pickbrain’

 1) What is Virgin’s low cost airline in Australia and the South Pacific called? 

 2) What ticks on NYSE as DPZ 

 3) Which company is the flagship company of Arvind Mills?

  4) Aqupod, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain andPure Life are all what type of products from Nestle?  

5) Powering a Greener Tomorrow is whose corporate motto?  

6) Gerber is a product from which Swiss pharma company?

  7) Who is the official timekeeper for the Olympics?   

8.)Link, Carrera and Monaco are products from which company?  

9) Triband is an Internet service from which Indian company?  

10) With which Nationalized bank would you associate O.P Bhatt to?  

11) With which company would you associate DIOS refrigerator?  

 12) Who is the main sponsor of the Chelsea football team?  

13) Which company gets its name from Kwanon- the god of mercy? 

 14) Which movie production house was earlier known as CBC Film Sales Corporation? 

 15) ‘Drums’ is a brand of Music instruments from which company? 

FOR ANSWERS POST UR REPLY’S AND I WILL GET BCK TO U                         

Tata Crucible Corporate- Chennai Edition 2007 Quiz code…2528

Quiz code…2528

Tata Crucible Corporate- Chennai Edition 2007 Review

 (Questions from relative memory, need not be verbatim) 1) Which product was Pfizer’s biggest product in 1880 due to the high usage in cola drinks?

 2) Which brand is named after the daughter of Muzaffar Shah, the king of Firdaus in the book ‘Gulzar e- Nasin’?

 3) Which Indian company is the world’s largest R&D services provider?

 4) March 8-1817 called Founding and Subsequent fathers 

 6) Whose stores are called ‘Scoop Shops’? 

7) Which business was started by American Express in 1882 to compete with US Post Office? Which company operates the ISS? 

9) What first is Santosh Kulangar going to achieve?

 10) ‘My Years with GM’ visual- Who? 

11) Insight Pharma- ‘Harri Patti’

 12) Rights to what brand name was purchased by Sterling Drug from the US Govt in 1918? 

13) Roteiro the UEFA ball by Adidas is named after the memoirs of whom? 

14) What did Henkel launch in 1969 after the success of Lipstick applicators? 

16) What does Yuan, Won, Yen all mean? 

17) 1843- De La Rue family.. Today, which business? 

18) Chrysler Building in 1930 beat which structure as the tallest building? 

19) Japanese character for beauty is a range of products… Which company? 

 21) Who owns You Tube?

 22) Long story, basically who was the World Bank chairman who got into trouble? 

23) “Old Monk” from who’s stable? Identify the company. 

24) Which is the secondary Market where Indian companies are heading for finances or something like that…

FOR ANSWERS POST UR REPLY’S AND I WILL GET BCK TO U                         

Tata Crucible Corporate- Chennai Edition 2007 Quiz code…2527

Quiz code…2527

Tata Crucible Corporate- Chennai Edition 2007 

1) Which commonly used word derives its origin from two greek words Oikou and nomos which means the rule or law of the household.

2) Lumaé, a tea based drink, is aimed at “active and image-conscious” women above the age of 25 who embrace the latest in health and beauty products. Which company is manufacturing it in association with L’oreal?

3) In the $1 billion copyright lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Viacom says this website “harnessed technology to willfully infringe copyrights on a huge scale” and had “brazen disregard” of intellectual property laws. Against whom was the lawsuit filed?

 4) After their Hear Music operation, which releases the Artists Choice compilation series that features musicians such as Sheryl Crow or The Rolling Stones selecting songs that influenced them, this company is now to expected sign, record and produce its own artists rather than licensing songs from other labels. Which company’s latest diversification plan involves starting a record company?

 5) First it was “Low prices, always,” a commitment to the least expensive bottle of laundry detergent. Then it was “Look beyond the basics,” an invitation to try more expensive products like 500-thread-count sheets. This company is now finding its raison d’être in the middle of these two extremes: “Saving people money so they live better lives.” Which very well known company?

FOR ANSWERS POST UR COMMENTS.. & I WILL GET BACK TO U SOON…

QUIZ CODE 690….

Q1. Which of the following organisations gives the Kalinga Prize?

(1) UNESCO

(2) CSIR

(3) Ministry of Welfare

(4) Department of Science and Technology

Q2. The movie directed by Mira Nair that bagged the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival is

(1) Mississippi Masala

(2) Kamasutra(

3) Salaam Bombay

(4) Monsoon Wedding 

Q3. Who is associated with Narmada Bachao Andolan?

(1) A. B. Vajpayee (2) Medha Patkar(3) Mamata Banerjee (4) Sunder Lal Bahuguna 

Q4. Name the film directed by Manoj Shyamalan that was nominated for the Oscars in 2000.(

1) Elizabeth (2) The Sixth Sense(3) Bombay Boys (4) The Cell 

Q5. The agricultural scientist to get Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 was

(1) Dr. M. S. Swaminathan (2) Dr. Norman Earnest Borlaug(3) Dr. Kurt Waldheim (4) Dr. James Watson

 Q6. ‘The Album of the Year’ category Grammy Award in the 45th Annual Grammy Awards has been won by

(1) Anushka Shankar Pandit (2) Norah Jones(3) Bruce Springsteen (4) Britney Speares 

Q7. Miss World 2000 title has been won by

(1) Aishwarya Rai (2) Sushmita Sen(3) Priyanka Chopra (4) Diya Mirza 

Q8. Name the renowned Indian space scientist who has been conferred the Officer of the Legion of Honourby the French Government

(1) A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (2) K. Subramaniyam(3) Dr. Seyed E. Hasnain (4) K. Kasturirangan 

Q9. Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2000 was awarded to the former President of South Africa along with

(1) C. Subramanium (2) Grameen Bank of Bangladesh(3) Satish Dhawan (4) World Health Organisation 

Q10. The US actress named as Goodwill Ambassador of the UN High Commission for Refugees is

(1) Julia Robert (2) Gwynith Paltrow(3) Angelina Jolie (4) Demi Moor 

Q11. Who among the following is NOT a recipient of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Award for InternationalUnderstanding?

(1) Boutros-Boutros Ghali (2) Yasser Arafat(3) Nelson Mandela (4) Aung San Suu Kyi

 Q12. World Environment Day is celebrated on

(1) June 5 (2) September 7(3) October 8 (4) February 10 

Q13. September 8 is observed every year as

(1) World Health Day (2) World Peace Day(3) World Literacy Day (4) Friendship Day

 Q14. Which day is celebrated as the International Labour Day?

(1) 1st January (2) 21st July(3) 31st December (4) 1st May 

REPLY UR ANSWER IN 10 DAYS…

Business and Management Quiz …II

1.	What was founded by Herb Kelleher in 1973 in Dallas, Texas, USA?
2.	The former chairman of Proctor & Gamble, Edwin L.Artzt got a nickname for his demanding and harsh treatment of his subordinates. How he nick-named?
3.	Shasi Chimala sold his IT startup Indigo Technologies to Chennai based SSi technologies before eyeing into his new venture which is totally unrelated to his previous field. Name it?
4.	Who endorsed the shaving product ‘Erasmic’, a brand owned by Hindustan Lever Limited, in 1970s?
5.	In business context what is claimed to the fame of Ahus, a town in Sweden?
6.	Which NRI businessman owns the Caparo Group?
7.	Cannaught Plaza Restaurants and Hardcastle Restaurants have had the responsibility for the entry of Which MNC to India ?
8.	N.Thanu got a double first class in BA from Loyola College, Madras. He worked as an illustrator in Ananda Vikatan and later with The Indian Express and Swarajya. Which famous organisation was founded by him?
9.	Which indian industrialist owned Tail Winds limited?
10.	What were bulit under the project 178 ? REPLY ME UR ANSWERS WITHIN 10 DAYS

Business and Management Quiz …

1) This company was called Lutsuko and later changed its name to something that literally means ‘to lose money’. Which one?

L’ Oreal
Sony
Matsushita
Honda

2) Which car in Spanish means ‘Charming’?

Matiz
Santro
Ikon
Corsa

3) Which international brand had an ad campaign – ‘Tomorrow is mine’ and had signed Rahul Dravid for the campaign?

Reebok
Nike
Pepsi
Puma

4) This organisation has 1356 members and has the ad-line “the world put stock on us”. Which organisation?

NASDAQ
LSE
NYSE
BSE

5) Of whom did Shahrukh Khan once say that ‘our figures are similar’?

Pierce Brosnan
Roger Moore
Sean Connery
Cindy Crawford

6) Who designs jewellery for the company called Artex?

Sonia Gandhi 
Priyanka Gandhi 
Menaka Gandhi
Uma Bharthi 

7) What is a coin with a minting error called ? 

FIDO
DIDO
LIDO
NIDO

 8) What is the name of the new FM channel introduced by India Today?

Road
Run
Red
Fun
 

9) What is ‘Agfa’ the trade mark for? 

Cars
Tyres
Photo Goods
Agriculture Goods

10) Which international airline uses the slogan “Smooth As Silk” in its advertisements?

Cathay Pacific
Singapore Airlines
Qantas
Thai Airways

 Mail me your answers within 10 days.

Happy Learning .

 

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Susan Jeffers

This book provides an insightful and engaging look at the destructive effects of fear in all aspects of our lives and guidance on how this fear may be overcome.

Anyone engaged in creating change will face their own fears and those of others and this book provides both an understanding of the roots for people’s fears and an understanding of how people may be helped to understand and better deal with fear.

The book highlights the paradox that whilst we seek the security of a fear free life, this creates an environment in which we are denied the satisfaction of achievement or advancement. The result is the catch-22 of fear of change and fear of staying the same.

The conclusion is that fear is a necessary and essential element of life and pushing through fear is actually less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness, hence ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.

The first part of the book creates a picture of the widespread and damaging effects of fear, in its many forms such as fear of changing jobs, fear of illness, fear of failure, etc. It introduces a progression of truths which serve to illuminate the effects of fear and build the case for the active choice of how fear is addressed. A simple but powerful picture presents the option to address fear through positive power rather than as a victim of passive pain.

As you work through the book the emphasis shifts towards the actions that you can take to change your attitude and approach. A number of simple models and techniques are introduced which are presented in an easily understood form. When strung together these provide a structured programme with which to set about changing your attitude and behaviours.

The book benefits from a liberal scattering of first hand accounts of people at various stages of succumbing to or addressing their fears. These stories do much to help explain the approach and provide an engaging dialogue and encouragement that lightens up the message and creates the feeling that improvement is possible.

The book rightly confesses that though the message and techniques are relatively easy to understand their application presents more of a challenge, not because they are of themselves difficult but they have to be applied and sustained. The challenge therefore for any such book is to leave the reading list and bookshelf and become embedded in the actions of the reader.

Does this book meet the challenge? I have adopted some of the techniques and recognise that others will be of benefit. Having read the book I know that I will return to read it again and I hope will have felt the benefits of conscious active use of the techniques over the next few months. Time will tell as to whether the book helps create change so I hope to return to this review in a few months time.

In the meantime I recommend this book for its insights into a topic that affects us all. My personal perspective is that the effects of fear can become so ingrained in our lives that we fail to recognise the fear and simply feel the numbness of dissatisfaction and a vague inability to focus on doing anything about it. This book will help create focus so you start to question the way things are and why you allow them to remain so. The challenge of addressing them is by definition a life long journey and this book will provide an excellent platform from which that journey can begin.

The Ultimate Book of Business Thinking

The Ultimate Book of Business Thinking
Des Dearlove

For those dealing with change or dealing with people dealing with change this is an invaluable reference book. It’s subtitled ‘Harnessing the Power of the World’s Greatest Business Ideas’ which I think over eggs the pudding a little, but in its around 300 pages it does a pretty good job of introducing most of the improvement initiatives you are likely to come across.

It is structured in alphabetical order by name of initiative and covers around 50 business ideas, tools or techniques from Action Learning to The Virtual Organisation. A quick calculation reveals that there are 5-6 pages for each topic but this is ample space to provide an overview and each is supported by a list of further reading should you wish to find out more.

What I like about the book is that it doesn’t present a purely technical summary but also includes some personal perspectives and reflections on the approach, its application and the way in which it is perceived. For example the section on downsizing identifies the major problems that this approach created in companies who shed jobs and also the failed politically correct attempts to rebadge it as ‘rightsizing’. In addition each entry has a section called ‘Ideas into Action’ which provides a brief example of the approach used in a real business environment. These sections provide some real insights into the application of the approaches.

I like the fact that the book doesn’t set out to advocate any of the approaches, but provides a very useful introduction which can form the basis for further reading. If you find yourself in the sea of acronyms applied to the current fashions of business improvement this will help you unscramble your JIT from your BPR and your Emotional Intelligence from your Strategic Inflection Point.

Here for information is the list of business ideas covered.
Action Learning – Activity-based Costing – Adhocracy – Agility – The Balanced Scorecard – Benchmarking – Boston Matrix – Broadbanding – Channel Management – Core Competencies – Core Values – Crisis Management – Decision Theory (including Kepner-Tregoe and Ringi) – Discounted Cash Flow – Downsizing – E-Commerce (including Customer Relationship Management) – Emotional Intelligence – Employability – Empowerment – Four Ps of Marketing – Game Theory – Intellectual Capital – Interim Management – Just in Time (JIT) (Kanban) – Kaizen (Quality Circles) – Knowledge Management – Leadership – Lean Production – The Learning Organisation – The Managerial Grid (Blake Mouton) – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Matrix Model – Outsourcing – Porter’s Five Competitive Forces – The Psychological Contract – Re-engineering (BPR) – Relationship Marketing – Scenario Planning – Scientific Management – Seven S Framework – The Shamrock Organisation – Shareholder Value – Strategic Inflection Point – Strategic Management – Succession Planning – Supply Chain Management – Theories X and Y (and Z) – Thought Leadership – 360-degree Feedback – Time-based Competition – TQM and the Quality Movement – The Transnational Organisation – Value Innovation – The Virtual Organisation

Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work
Jack Cranfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss

This is one of a growing series of books. It began with Chicken Soup for the Soul which has now appeared in several servings and has led to a range of books which provide Chicken Soup for specific target audiences such as mothers, teenagers, even golfers and in this case for those at work. The Chicken Soup referred to is not literal but the nourishment of your soul and spirit. Each book contains 101 true stories of human experience which in this volume serve to inspire by sharing experience of compassion courage and creativity in the workplace. This sort of book isn’t to everyone’s liking but even with the American bias I find these collections extremely powerful. I always find examples in the stories that stick with me as role models and as examples of what people can achieve that I can then share with others. I’ve read several of the series and was attracted to this one for its focus on the workplace.

The stories, rarely more than a couple of pages long, are grouped within nine sections, each a business theme such as ‘The power of Acknowledgement’ and ‘Overcoming Obstacles’. The book contains no editorial attempt at instructing the reader on what is right or what to do and simply leaves the stories do that. Each story is preceded by a relevant quote typically from a business leader.

For example a story about training Shamu a 19,000lb whale to jump 22 feet out of the water and perform tricks at Sea World is preceded by Tom Peters quote ‘Celebrate what you want to see more of’. The story outlines how the training of Shamu is based on reinforcing the behaviours they want to see. They start  by ensuring the whale can’t fail. The rope it has to jump is actually submerged at first and the whale is congratulated fed and patted each time it swims over it. If it swims under the rope it isn’t punished, no constructive criticism, no development feedback and no warnings in the personnel file; its taught that its negative behaviour will simply not be acknowledged. Using this approach of positive reinforcement the whale achieves its remarkable performance. The story makes the point that most of us get most things right most of the time, yet we often find we focus our attention on those things we don’t want repeated and didn’t want in the first place, rather than what we do well.

Stories such as this provide real practical examples written by ordinary people of what we might do differently. In the space of 300 or so pages we have 101 opportunities for most readers to be inspired to change something for the better. This is no mean achievement for any management book and a delight in a book that is so easy to read.

Another story which stuck in my mind was that of an act of generosity and encouragement without which Scott Adams would never have achieved his aim to be a cartoonist. As a fan of Dilbert I wonder at how easily we could have been denied his creation and am led to think about how better I can encourage others.

One thing you find when reading these books is the desire to want to share some of the stories.

In summary a collection of real life experience stories all relating to work. If you are the sort of person who is inspired by stories of what can be achieved, some of which will tug on your heart then you’ll enjoy this book and probably others in the series. If you want an academic treatise on management approaches this probably isn’t for you.

Who Moved My Cheese?

Who Moved My Cheese?
Dr Spencer Johnson

The subtitle ‘An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and In Your Life’ is a little spurious. This is a simple book that will take less than one hour to read from cover to cover. On the basis of a word count, or if you’re looking for a management book with answers, this will score very poorly. However that’s not what the book sets out to do.

It presents a rather whimsical story of life for two mice and two small people in a maze. The maze represents the environment for change with unknown futures and the accompanying fears. The four characters are used to represent different attitudes to change. The mice Sniff and Scurry represent the fairly straight forward reactive approach to change. As mice they’re not credited with great intelligence but when their source of cheese is moved, react by setting off to find new cheese supplies.

The little people, Hem and Haw, are credited with the intelligence of men which in many ways provides a hindrance to their ability to change. When their cheese is moved their ‘intelligent’ response leads to a wide range of reactions including denial, recrimination and resentment which disables their ability to set off to seek new cheese. Gradually Haw comes to terms with the need for change and the contrast with Hem is used to illustrate how fear of change can be disabling and how this fear might be overcome.

This simple story illuminates a range of responses to change and provides four different characters to illustrate these response types. These types are inevitably presented in simple forms and can’t deal with the complexity of real change. That isn’t the purpose of the book and is indeed its strength. The four characters provide a vocabulary that many will find useful in describing their, and their colleagues, reaction to change. The approach taken to make that vocabulary accessible is to make the story simple so that the book can be quickly read and passed on to spread the word. The book is so easy to read that I can imagine it being passed on to a colleague to be read in the next hour and moving through a team in a day, rather than languishing in an in-tray for three months awaiting spare time that will never arrive.

If you approach this as another pebble to be tossed into the pool of your ideas. It’s a small pebble but for many a very useful one. It is very accessible and might provide new thoughts, images and vocabulary with which to describe and most importantly share ideas on change. It doesn’t have the answers but no book ever can. People have the answers and the aim of this book is to encourage them to set off to look for their answers, their new cheese.

The Tipping Point.

The Tipping Point.
Malcolm Gladwell.

This is a fascinating and thought provoking book that looks at how ideas and behaviours reach and pass through a threshold beyond which they spread like wildfire. Malcolm Gladwell draws on a number of examples of this phenomenon such as the transformation in the crime levels in New York, the adoption of the ‘once unfashionable’ Hush Puppy shoe or the dramatic growth in the athletic shoe producer Airwalk to illustrate the crossing of these thresholds or ‘tipping points’ at which dramatic advances are made.

In exploring the mechanisms which account for these tipping points he identifies some of the people involved in creating these transformations. and their characteristics that contribute to the spread of ideas. Three distinct types are described; Connectors who contribute through their ability to maintain effective networks to connect ideas with people; Mavens who are the collectors of knowledge and its analysis as information brokers; Salesmen who provide the link to convince the population of the merits of the idea.

The book includes other examples of each of these contributions to the spreading of ideas and for example has some fascinating insights into the work done in the development of the TV series Sesame Street to ensure the stickiness of the educational ideas aimed at children.

This is an engaging, fascinating and stimulating read that provides a number of insights of value to everyone who shares the objective of making new ideas stick and lead to transformation.

Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner.

Freakonomics
by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner.

A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.

Steven D Levitt is an interesting man. He is a trained and expert economist, who doesn’t really like economics. Someone highly skilled in the use of a suite of tools, but who chooses not to use them in the context or the way in which they are routinely used. He thus deserves the title of maverick as he takes his toolkit of measurement and data analysis and points it, not towards the same questions as his erstwhile colleagues, to be used in the same way to glean the same answers. Instead he focuses his attention wherever his interest takes him.

Mavericks are interesting people, they do the unexpected, and see the unseen, and through this book he illustrates what can be discovered if you truly explore questions rather than being led by the existing answers.

As a maverick he needed the guiding hand of a writer, Stephen J Dubner, to settle the ideas long enough to create a book. Together they have created a stimulating volume which will have you seeing new things in the topics they have covered, which range from how elections are won, how teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat, how your estate agent works or doesn’t work for you, to how profitable it is to sell illegal drugs.

Steven delights in taking conventional wisdom, and examining it through his measurement trained thinking. He discovers that much conventional wisdom, is strong on conventional, but weak on wisdom. As you read the pages you’ll discover that money doesn’t win elections, that its far more dangerous to have a swimming pool in the garden than a gun in the house and that the biggest contributor to the reduction in serious crime in the United States were changes to the abortion law.

For example in one chapter the book explores the often considered question of nature v nurture. As parents this is a question that sometimes haunts us. How much of what our children become comes from genetics and how much from the way we raise them? Through analysis of a mound of data, including that of children adopted and raised by non genetic parents they concluded an interesting result. Their conclusion is that what we do has little impact on our children, what we are being is what matters.

This has a very strong resonance with my thinking. To paraphrase; taking your child to the museum has no impact on their development, but being the kind of parent who thinks of taking their child to the museum is all important. The subtlety of this difference, I believe divides those that simply ‘do’ change, from those that become change.

More fundamental than describing new insights, their aim is not to change what you think, but how you think. This is nicely captured in their description in the closing paragraphs of the book.

‘You might become more sceptical of common wisdom; you may begin looking for hints as to how things aren’t quite what they seem.; perhaps you will seek out some trove of data and sift through it, balancing your intelligence and your intuition to arrive at a glimmering new idea. Some of these ideas might make you uncomfortable, even unpopular…. You will find yourself asking a lot of questions. Many of them will lead to nothing. But some will produce answers that are interesting, even surprising.’

This is an entertaining read which will help you question much conventional wisdom, and perhaps spur you on to take this questioning with you wherever you go. So inspired, who knows what power for change this may give you.

Screw it. Let’s Do it. (Lessons in Life)

Screw it. Let’s Do it. (Lessons in Life)
Richard Branson

Richard Branson is well known not simply for his success in business as head of Virgin, but for the manner in which he has achieved it. In this short book he sets out the key lessons that he has learned and which guide his approach to life and business. He manages to cram a lot of ideas into the nine short chapters, and reveals insights into his childhood, the development of his business and the personal challenges he as undertaken as driver of record breaking power boats or as a pioneering balloon pilot.

The book is full of insights which weave lessons learned in childhood, with their application to his life. The role of luck, serendipity or synchronicity, as well as hard work and following your instinct are all brought to life. When we look at someone like Richard there’s a temptation to think that he had something special, something denied to the rest of us. That’s not how he sees it. A key message is that we can all achieve, as he says, ‘I’m a believer in people, and what they can become.’

It is clear that Richard’s success has more than an element of good fortune to it, but this is not something handed out only to a few. Opportunities are all around us is we are able to become receptive to them, and willing to take the risk of succeeding. Once you do there’s no knowing where it may lead.

This is a great little book packed with good ideas and advice, as well as some glimpses into Richard’s life, including the fear and danger that have been part of some of his more public adventures.

Once bought the format and fun style of this book will encourage you to read it, and its messages will prove worthwhile.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Pirsig

This is not an easy review for this is not an easy book. One thing I think I’m sure of is that it’s not about Zen or motorcycle maintenance.

On the surface the book is the story of the author and his son with some friends travelling across America. However this provides the environment for the author to share and explore a range of questions and issues including rationality, attitudes to technology, philosophies of life and the meaning of quality. What the book does is create the opportunity and invite the reader to explore these questions and others that they are stimulated to identify themselves. It’s a book that provokes and requires the reader to think. In a sense the book becomes and is what the reader makes of it.

What I made of it, and what makes the book exciting for me, is this approach through the vehicle of a novel of creating an environment in which the reader is teased into thinking through a range of extremely challenging philosophical questions. Many readers unwilling to engage in this process may see little in this book of value viewing it as being over complex and lacking in immediate gratification of a standard novel. Others looking not for questions but answers will be disappointed that the book has not the rigour they are looking for and provides no solutions.

However for those who want their thinking stimulated and their understanding challenged this is a demanding but very rewarding read that will probable warrant being reread several times.

I realise that the above says little about what the book is. I take comfort by quoting a passage from the book that I think releases me from having to describe what it is and invite you to find out what it becomes for you.

“The trouble is that essays always have to sound like God talking for eternity, and that isn’t the way it ever is. People should see that it’s never anything other than just one person talking from one place in time and space and circumstance. It’s never been anything else, ever, but you can’t get that across in an essay.”

All I can say is that whilst this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it’s the kind of book that just might change the way you see yourself, your world and your future. If you decide to read the book I recommend the 25^th anniversary edition as this has some additional explanatory information by the author and also an interesting exchange of correspondence between the author and publisher which gives an insight into the creative process.

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW SILLY YOUR THESIS TOPIC IS; WHAT MATTERS IS WHOM YOU HAVE AS A SUPERVISOR.

It’s a fine sunny day in the forest and a rabbit is sitting outside his burrow, tippy-tapping on his typewriter. Along comes a fox, out for a walk.

Fox: “What are you working on?”
Rabbit: “My thesis.”
Fox: “Hmm… What is it about?”
Rabbit: “Oh, I’m writing about how rabbits eat foxes.”

Fox: “That’s ridiculous ! Any fool knows that rabbits don’t eat foxes!”Rabbit: “Come with me and I’ll show you!”

They both disappear into the rabbit’s burrow. After few minutes, gnawing on a fox bone, the rabbit returns to his typewriter and resumes typing.

Soon a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hardworking rabbit.Wolf: “What’s that you are writing?”
Rabbit: “I’m doing a thesis on how rabbits eat wolves.”

Wolf: “you don’t expect to get such rubbish published, do you?”

Rabbit: “No problem. Do you want to see why?”

The rabbit and the wolf go into the burrow and again the rabbit returns by himself, after a few minutes, and goes back to typing.Finally a bear comes along and asks, “What are you doing?

Rabbit: “I’m doing a thesis on how rabbits eat bears.”

Bear: “Well that’s absurd ! ”

Rabbit: “Come into my home and I’ll show you”

Scene :

As they enter the burrow, the rabbit introduces the bear to the lion. Moral:

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW SILLY YOUR THESIS TOPIC IS; WHAT MATTERS IS WHOM YOU HAVE AS A SUPERVISOR.Management Lesson
In the context of the working world:

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW BAD YOUR PERFORMANCE IS; WHAT MATTERS IS WHETHER YOUR BOSS LIKES YOU OR NOT.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY A MANAGER IS FAMOUS; LOOK AT THE WORK OF HIS SUBORDINATES.

It’s a fine sunny day in the forest and a lion is sitting outside his cave, lying lazily in the sun. Along comes a fox, out on a walk.

Fox: “Do you know the time, because my watch is broken”

Lion: “Oh, I can easily fix the watch for you”

Fox: “Hmm… But it’s a very complicated mechanism, and your big claws will only destroy it even more“ Lion: “Oh no, give it to me, and it will be fixed”

Fox: “That’s ridiculous! Any fool knows that lazy lions with great claws cannot fix complicated watches”

Lion: “Sure they do, give it to me and it will be fixed”The lion disappears into his cave, and after a while he comes back with the watch which is running perfectly. The fox is impressed, and the lion continues to lie lazily in the sun, looking very pleased with himself.Soon a wolf comes along and stops to watch the lazy lion in the sun.

Wolf: “Can I come and watch TV tonight with you, because mine is broken”

Lion: “Oh, I can easily fix your TV for you”
Wolf: “You don’t expect me to believe such rubbish, do you? There is no way that a lazy lion with big claws can fix a complicated TV“

Lion: “No problem. Do you want to try it?”The lion goes into his cave, and after a while comes back with a perfectly fixed TV. The wolf goes away happily and amazed. Scene : Inside the lion’s cave. In one corner are half a dozen small and intelligent looking rabbits who are busily doing very  complicated work with very detailed instruments. In the other corner lies a huge lion looking very pleased with himself.

Moral :IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY A MANAGER IS FAMOUS; LOOK AT THE WORK OF HIS SUBORDINATES. Management Lesson : IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY SOMEONE UNDESERVED IS PROMOTED; LOOK AT THE WORK OF HIS SUBORDINATES.

corporate world

Two guys were hiking through the jungle when they spotted a tiger that
looked both hungry and fast. One of the guys reached into his pack and
pulled out a pair of Nike.

His friend looked at him and asked “Do you really think those shoes are
going to make you run faster than that tiger?”

I don’t have to run faster than that tiger, his friend replied. “I just
have to run faster than you”.

Welcome to the corporate world!!   

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

TEAMWORK

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven
and Hell are like”. The Lord led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, “You have seen Hell.” They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew, which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The
holy man said, “I don’t understand”. “It is simple said the Lord, “it requires only one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other.” It is peoples’ attitudes that make our place of work, a hell or heaven. ‘Help and Seek Help’ – this makes all the difference. Moral :- Success and happiness is all about effective teamwork?bond with your team today.   

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? is an account of IBM’s historic turnaround as told by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., the chairman and CEO of IBM from April 1993 until March 2002. Lou Gerstner led IBM from the brink of bankruptcy and mainframe obscurity back into the forefront of the technology business. After a brief foreword and introduction in which Gerstner provides his pre-IBM background, he jumps right into the story of his IBM experience. The book is divided into five parts: “Grabbing Hold,” “Strategy,” “Culture,” “Lessons Learned,” and “Observations.”

Part I, “Grabbing Hold,” is the story of how Gerstner wrestled with the idea of taking the IBM job (he turned it down at first), followed by highlights from his first year on the job. It provides an interesting insider’s view of the CEO recruiting process for a Fortune 50 company and describes how Gerstner addressed IBM’s severe financial crisis in the early ’90s and managed to keep the company solvent. It also reveals just how precarious IBM’s financial position was during that time, which many readers (including myself) might not have known. Still, although Part I is quite interesting, the real meat of the book is in the subsequent parts.

After stepping back to provide a brief history of IBM, Part II (“Strategy”) dives more deeply into how Gerstner repositioned IBM’s corporate strategy to keep the company together and pull off a successful turnaround. When Gerstner came on board, the conventional wisdom, from both industry pundits as well as many IBM insiders, was that the only way to save IBM from eventual disaster was to break it apart. But Gerstner looked beyond this advice and opted to preserve the real strength he believed IBM brought to customers. His decision to keep the company together and “teach the elephant to dance” was “the first strategic decision, and, I believe, the most important decision I ever made — not just at IBM, but in my entire business career,” Gerstner writes.

Fixing IBM: “All about execution”

What Gerstner realized is that IBM had a unique and unequaled capability to “apply complex technologies to solve business challenges.” It was this unique value proposition that would enable him to bring IBM back from near extinction. But to accomplish this, IBM needed not only a corporate makeover, but also a complete facelift and some liposuction as well! Gerstner likens his arrival at IBM to stepping through a time warp and arriving back in the ’50s. A massive, difficult, and painful reengineering feat was required to get the insular IBM to focus on bringing value to the customer in the marketplace. Ultimately, though, this led to the “new” IBM. It also gave rise to a hilarious statement that the book credits to a senior IBM executive: “Reengineering is like starting a fire on your head and putting it out with a hammer.”

In Gerstner’s own words, “fixing IBM was all about execution” and required “an enormous sense of urgency.” His whole approach was to drive the company from the customer’s view and “turn IBM into a market-driven rather than an internally focused, process-driven enterprise.” And it worked. It was all about execution — and honest ways to measure its effectiveness. Before Gerstner arrived, IBM had a tendency to fool itself with bogus indices and data (e.g., customer satisfaction numbers generated from hand-picked samples; subjective product milestones, etc.), but he changed all that. “People do what you inspect, not what you expect,” he explains.

I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps Gerstner took a peek at Rational’s mission statement and Five Field Measures to craft his IBM strategy, but then I know these things work because they are based on sound general business principles. As a new IBM employee, I was very encouraged by Gerstner’s maniacal attention to customers’ notions of success and his single-minded focus on responding to marketplace needs. If his market-driven approach to doing business really does pervade the “new” IBM culture, then it will be no surprise if IBM ends up dominating the technology landscape in this century, just as it did in most of the last one.

Culture is everything

Part III (Culture) was particularly interesting to me because one of the main reasons I wanted to work for Rational was the company culture, and I was concerned about its compatibility with IBM’s culture. Many Rational tech reps (myself included) say they have enjoyed working at Rational because the company culture empowers individuals to make a difference. Fortunately, company culture was another of Gerstner’s main targets for change:

Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like. I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game; it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

Gerstner’s most important and proudest accomplishment was to institute a culture that brought IBM closer to its customers by inspiring employees to drive toward customer-defined success. Now, the company’s strong customer focus will allow Rational to continue pursuing the same mission that has guided us for more than twenty years.

Wisdom and Insights

There are nuggets of wisdom throughout the last two sections of the book. In “Lessons Learned” and “Observations,” Gerstner points out that some integrator, fundamentally acting in a service role, controls every major industry. This was the basis for building IBM Global Services. Another shrewd Gerstner insight is that every major industry is built around open standards. It was this realization that led IBM Software to enable and build on open standards in a network-centric world, and Gerstner provides a compelling argument for abandoning proprietary development and embracing software standards (e.g., J2EE and Web Services). In fact, Gerstner argues that the most valuable technology companies are OEM suppliers who leverage their technology wherever possible; therefore, IBM must actively license its technology in order to be successful. The book’s three appendices contain, respectively, some interesting e-mail correspondence, Gerstner’s vision of e-business (including the IBM IT On Demand, autonomic, and grid computing initiatives), and a financial overview of IBM from 1992 to 2002.

The latter clearly demonstrates that Gerstner got results. Although many people criticized IBM for selecting a non-technical CEO, based on IBM’s performance during his reign (and the insight he reveals in this book), Gerstner was definitely the right person for the job. His reinvention of IBM was one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds of the twentieth century, and the numbers in Appendix C of this book will certainly shut the mouths of any would-be critics.

Before opening this book, I had assumed it was Gerstner’s autobiography and would highlight not only his IBM career, but also his years at the consulting firm McKinsey and Company and his executive tenure at American Express and RJR Nabisco. I also assumed that, as is typical of many books by high-profile executives, the book was ghostwritten in part. Gerstner dismisses both of these assumptions in the foreword. Not only did he write the book himself, he claims, but also the book deals (as the subtitle “Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround” suggests) almost exclusively with Gerstner’s IBM years.

Under other circumstances I might regard this book as just another well written and interesting memoir from a captain of capitalism; both Rational employees and Rational customers now have a stake in the success of IBM and will gain a better understanding and appreciation of the company by reading this book.

INDIA UNBOUND

In 1997, when India celebrated

the 50^thanniversary of its independence, the world paid homage to its most populous democracy. Other countries had grown richer in those postcolonial years. Many had escaped the political and religious convulsions that had so often shaken the region. But almost alone in the non-Western world — barring a short interruption in 1975, when Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency — India had clung doggedly to its democratic convictions. A slew of books commemorated the achievement. One of the finest, Sunil Khilnani’s “Idea of India,” described India’s polity as “the third moment in the great democratic experiment launched by

the American and French Revolutions.

Like many of these books, Gurcharan Das’s “India Unbound” is a broad summing-up of the last half century. Part memoir, part journalism, part history and part management bible, the book begins shortly before independence and continues until the new millennium. A former C.E.O. of Procter & Gamble in both India and America, and currently a venture capitalist and consultant, Das is less concerned with political than with economic history. And where authors like Khilnani cherish the revolution that began with independence in 1947, Das does not find full cause for jubilation until 1991, when India unleashed a series of economic reforms, the start of an “economic revolution” that he believes “may well be more important than the political revolution.”

Those reforms were forced upon India, adopted less than enthusiastically when the nation found itself with foreign exchange reserves worth only two weeks of imports. Over the course of what Das calls a “golden summer,” a newly installed government surprised everyone by easing foreign exchange restrictions, devaluing the rupee, lowering import tariffs and undoing the byzantine controls that had stifled Indian industry. Many — Das included — feel the reforms should have gone further, but the results nonetheless have been dramatic: after decades of chugging along at the so-called Hindu rate of growth (a dismal 3.5 percent per year), the economy grew by an average of 7.5 percent in the mid-1990’s. The growth in disposable incomes, and the opening up of the country to world markets, has altered the face of Indian society, creating a new consumer middle class. Das argues that these changes are only the beginning of a dramatic reversal of fortunes. “The theme of this book,” he writes, “is how a rich country became poor and will be rich again.”

At the heart of “India Unbound” is a deep ambivalence about Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of Indian independence but also of its disastrous economic policies. Das recognizes the political contributions made by Nehru, and he writes of the admiration he felt as a young man for the handsome leader whose lofty ideals inspired a nation. But, echoing an increasingly common attitude in modern India, he feels that Nehru’s faith in Soviet-style central planning cheated the nation of the prosperity enjoyed by some of its Southeast Asian neighbors. Nehru’s revolution, Das argues, was incomplete, delivering political liberty but failing to unshackle the nation economically. In one of the more eloquent expressions of this sentiment, he tells of a meeting at which the industrialist Rahul Bajaj is threatened with imprisonment for producing more scooters than permitted by his quota. “My grandfather went to jail for my country’s freedom,” replies Bajaj. “I stand ready to do the same for producing on behalf of my motherland.”

Such stories enliven what could easily have been a dull piece of economic history. Das had a ringside seat at the events he describes, and the result is an engaging account that moves easily from the big picture to the telling anecdote. Through Das, we are introduced not just to the standard pantheon of political figures but to a range of lesser-known characters from the corporate world. These include old-fashioned industrialists like Bajaj and also a new brand of businessman — entrepreneurs like Narayana Murthy, the C.E.O. of Infosys, India’s most successful software company, and Subhash Chandra, the founder of a global Hindi satellite television channel, often called “the Murdoch of Asia.”

Das’s sympathies clearly lie with this later generation of managers. He sees the earlier breed as dinosaurs, pampered by a protectionist government and doomed to oblivion. His enthusiasm for the new order becomes most apparent in the book’s final section, where he succumbs to a certain giddiness over India’s prospects in the 21st century. Das is particularly excited about India’s software industry, a sector whose great success has led many to predict — as the head of India’s largest mutual fund recently did — that “what oil is to the Middle East, infotech is to India.”
Such optimism is not entirely misplaced. India’s high-tech industry has been the most visible success of the reforms, generating fabulous wealth and great opportunities. What is less clear is the extent to which this wealth is trickling down to the 300 million Indians who still live in poverty and the 75 percent who live in the countryside, far away from the new economy. Das is undoubtedly right that poverty has tarnished India’s democracy, but he seems less concerned that unequal prosperity may have the same effect. To be fair, he does argue that democracy and capitalism need not be mutually exclusive, and cites from the work of Amartya Sen, who has repeatedly written on the importance of integrating the two. But despite his professed preference for “democratic capitalism,” Das’s faith in free markets can come across as overly zealous, as when he complains that too many Indians “are still listening to the background noise of democracy when we could be listening to the music of entrepreneurship.”

However, one doesn’t need to share Das’s unbridled fervor for markets to appreciate this book. “India Unbound” is like an opinionated but insightful guide to a rapidly changing nation in which old clichés about spirituality and poverty are increasingly irrelevant. Near the end, Das writes about his son, who has decided to leave a job in New York and return to India to start a company. “He’s caught up in the spirit of our times, when every young person is willing to risk the security of a job to pursue his passion,” Das writes. That “spirit” signals a dramatic widening of horizons, a new self-confidence. Something tremendous is happening in India, and Das, with his keen eye and often elegant prose, has his finger firmly on the pulse of the transformation.

The Alchemist

An alchemist traveling in a caravan in an unspecified place and time recounts a fable that he read along the way. The story is a modified version of the myth of Narcissus. The twist in this version is that the lake in which Narcissus drowns weeps for the death of Narcissus not because of his beauty, but because the lake could gaze at its own beauty in the eyes of the young boy. This idea is taken from a short prose-poem by Oscar Wilde called ‘The Disciple’.

Santiago, the protagonist, grows up with poor parents who struggled their whole lives to send him to seminary. But Santiago has a strong desire to travel the world, and so his father allows him to use his inheritance to buy a flock of sheep.

As a shepherd, he spends several years traveling the countryside of Andalusia in southern Spain, enjoying the care-free and adventurous life of a wanderer. As the story begins, we learn that a year ago Santiago met the beautiful daughter of a merchant in a town he is soon to revisit. Even though he spent only a few hours talking with this girl, his strong feelings for her make him question his life as a shepherd and make him consider the merits of a more settled life. He sleeps in a church where a sycamore tree grew where the sacristy once was (refer to end).

When he arrives in the town where the girl lives, he first decides to go to a gypsy fortune-teller to help him decipher a recurring dream that he had been having. Santiago always dreams that a child is playing with his sheep and then takes him by the hand and brings him to the Pyramids of Egypt to show him the location of a hidden treasure. But Santiago always wakes up just before the child is going to reveal to him the exact location of the treasure. The gypsy says that he has to go because if it is a child that tells, it exists.

At first, the boy does not mind what the gypsy says, but when an old man, who calls himself Melchizedeck, the king of Salem, tells him that it is his Personal Legend or his purpose to live, he is interested. Melchizedeck tells him a wonderful story about a man who found true happiness by fulfilling his Personal Legend. The king gives the boy two stones, Urim and Thummim, one black and the other white, the black meaning “yes” and the white “no”. These, he says, are for making decisions, although it is best to make them himself. Santiago decides to travel to Africa. He sells his sheep and goes to Tangier, a port in Africa near Spain. But in Tangier, he is robbed. Losing hope, he decides to walk about the city; up in a hill, and finds a crystal shop. He finds that business declined when the nearby city developed. When the boy enters the shop, he cleans the dusty crystal glasses in exchange for some food to eat. As he is cleaning two customers enter the store and buy some crystal glasses. The Arab merchant says that it is a good omen, and hires the boy. Santiago learns that every person’s fate is written, and that there is a Language of the World (unspoken) learned partly by his dealings with his sheep.

After almost a year, the boy decides to leave the crystal shop since he has enough money to buy a flock of sheep twice the size of the one he had before, and since he has since learned Arabic, can sell to Arabic merchants too. But he never buys a single sheep. He decides to fulfill his personal legend – to find his treasure.

He joins a caravan going to the desert where the Pyramids are found. In the caravan, the boy meets an Englishman who for twenty years has searched for true alchemists. The Englishman has many books on alchemy that are unusual to the boy. In the caravan, he learns the language of the desert and the Soul of the World.

As the caravan rolls on toward the oasis, the two people in the caravan decide to learn from one another. As the Englishman attempts to observe the desert and learn its language, Santiago reads the Englishman’s books and learns about alchemy. The Englishman tells him that the goal of alchemists is to purify metal by heating it for many years until all its individual properties are burned. After a while, Santiago stops reading and returns the books to the Englishman, and each tells the other he is not able to learn anything. Santiago concludes everyone has his or her own way of learning things.

When it arrives in the oasis, the caravan is welcomed and told that it will not be permitted to proceed further because of tribal wars. Santiago helps the Englishman look for the alchemist. He meets a desert woman named Fatima who tells the group where the alchemist lives. The boy is infatuated with Fatima’s beauty at first sight, and tells her that he loves her and wants her to be his wife. At the very same time, the alchemist living at the oasis realizes that he will meet a disciple who would learn from him the secrets of alchemy. Apparently the disciple turns out to be Santiago.

Santiago meets the alchemist after averting a threat of tribal attack on the oasis through a vision he has after reading about the flight of two hawks. The alchemist tells the boy that he will never be happy unless he fulfills his Personal Legend. Reluctant to leave the oasis because of his love for the desert girl Fatima, Santiago tells the alchemist that he wants to stay there, accepting the new role of councilor which was offered to him by the chieftain when Santiago saved the oasis. But the alchemist warns Santiago that in the future he would lose his ability to see omens because he stopped listening to the omens that told him to find his treasure and fulfill his Personal Legend. As a result he would lose his position as the councilor and he would regret not pursuing his destiny of finding his treasure.

Eventually, Santiago decides to leave the oasis with the alchemist in pursuit of his treasure. While traveling through the desert, the boy learns from the alchemist. He learns that each person who fulfills his personal legend enhances the Soul of the World, and that the world is just here to show to show God’s glory. The alchemist also tells the boy to listen to his heart and understand it so it will not betray him and tell him in fear that it is not wise to find his treasure. Santiago and his heart become one, and Santiago’s heart tells him that he has learned the unspoken Language of the World.

Santiago and the alchemist are captured along the way by one of the warring tribes. The alchemist tells the chief that they have brought money to give to him. the money is accepted without question as it can buy many arms; the alchemist then declares that Santiago is a powerful alchemist and can turn himself into the wind and destroy the military encampment if he wants to. The leader demands to see this and tells the boy he has three days to demonstrate his power or the two will die. This is the ultimate test of Santiago’s knowledge of alchemy. On the third day, Santiago leads the group to the top of a cliff and tells them that the action will take a while.

Using his knowledge of the Language of the World that he learned from his heart on his journey, Santiago talks to the desert, and teaches it about love, and eventually the desert allows Santiago to use his sands, saying that he would also need the wind to blow them. Santiago turns to the wind, and tells it that it hasn’t met its full limits. The wind, curious about what it could do, strikes up a conversation about love with the boy. The wind is unsatisfied, and suggests the boy talk to the heavens (the sun). The boy tells the wind that it must blow the sands so he will not be blinded when looking at the sun. The boy proceeds to talk to the sun, and after the sun tells him that although he is wise, he doesn’t know how to turn Santiago into the wind. The wind, overjoyed that he knows that the sun has its limits, blows even harder.

The “Sinum,” the sandstorm that results, almost destroys the camp. Two commanders with the chief are fearful and tell him that they should stop this. The chief replies that he wishes to see the greatness of Allah, the Muslim god, and makes a mental note to remove the two from command as true desert men are not afraid. Santiago is told to talk to the hand that wrote all, that is, the Son of God. The boy and the Son of God have a silent conversation, and the soul of the boy becomes one with the Soul of the World, which is the Soul of God. The Soul of God can perform miracles, and Santiago turns himself into the wind and moves off the cliff to the far side of the camp next to a sand-covered sentinel.

After turning himself to wind, Santiago and the alchemist travel on to the pyramids with an escort party provided by the general-chief. They stop at a monastery, and the alchemist tells the escort party to return to their camp. There he meets a monk and they talk in the Coptic tongue. The monk invites them in. In the kitchen, the alchemist shows Santiago a demonstration of turning a pot of lead into gold. The alchemist divides the gold into four quarters and gives the monk one of the pieces for his generosity and hospitality. He gives a piece to Santiago, and one for him to return to the oasis. He gives the final piece to the monk for Santiago in case he ever needs it. Santiago and the alchemist separate not far from the pyramids. Santiago’s heart tells him that he should dig for his treasure where he weeps after getting to the pyramids of joy.

Robbed once again near the pyramids, Santiago gives up hope, but the robber tells him that he is stupid to have traveled so far. He then tells the boy of a recurring dream in which he had seen a treasure in a church where shepherds and their sheep slept, hidden under a sycamore tree growing where the sacristy once was. The boy, who slept in this church as a shepherd himself at the beginning of his adventures, goes back to the monk to get money for the return trip and finds the treasure, a chest of Spanish gold coins.

The idea for this story is taken from a short prose-poem by Oscar Wilde called ‘The Disciple’.

THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI

The Deepak Chopras and Eknath Easwarans have done a great service in calling attention to ancient scriptural wisdom that is in danger of being forgotten.

And now there is a new kid on the block. Robin Sharma, a popular media personality in the US, who runs an institute that, conducts leadership and life-enrichment programmes and has authored several books on related subjects.

His latest foray ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ unravels the miraculous transformation of successful but overworked lawyer, Julian Mantle who, having reached atop the success ladder suddenly stops to take a long look the life he is leading.

His search for spiritual solace takes him to India, to the Sages of Sivana where he drinks from the fountain of higher knowledge and unlocks the secret of youthful vitality.

‘The Monk…’ imaginatively reiterates the ancient truths of Sivanan philosophy in a very forceful manner. The Monk…. effectively expresses ancient truths in a modern idiom.

Sample a few messages from this book: “There are no mistakes, only lessons”, or “Life pretty much gives you what you ask from it. It is always listening”, or again, “Stop spending so much time chasing life’s big pleasures while you neglect the little ones”, and so on.

This is one book that perhaps the corporate-variety or the workaholics would do well to read, along with their ‘One minute manager’ or ‘Think and grow rich’ handbooks.

Julian Mantle could well be their alter-ego.

The book has interesting fables and innumerable anecdotes, but one attributed to ‘ancient India’ is suspiciously similar to Oscar Wilde’s, “The Selfish Giant’.

Having said it all, I’ll say book is a stimulating read.

Wisdom Revisited
A tale of a modern man’s discovery of the transforming power ancient wisdom

Dilbert..Strikes AGAIN?

63% of all statistics are made up… including this one.

Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.

All of your co-workers are fools. You must learn to pity and tolerate them. An optimist is simply a pessimist with no job experience.

And bring me a hard copy of the Internet so I can do some serious surfing.

Change is good. You go first. Consultants have credibility because they are not dumb enough to work at your company.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.  

Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.

Feedback is a business term which refers to the joy of criticizing other people’s work.

This is one of the few genuine pleasures of the job, and you should milk it for all it’s worth.
 I get mail; therefore I am.

I respectfully decline the invitation to join your hallucination. If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a fool about it.

If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish he will buy an ugly hat. And if you talk about fish to a starving man then you are a consultant. If you spend all of your time arguing with people who are nuts, you’ll be exhausted and the nuts will still be nuts.

I’ll be happy to make these unnecessary changes to this irrelevant document.

I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles. In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It’s called Karoshi. I don’t want that to happen to anybody in my department.

Managers are like cats in a litter box. They instinctively shuffle things around to conceal what they’ve done.

Mondays are not part of the productive work week.
– Dogbert’s Theory of Mondays.

Most problems go away if you just wait long enough. It might look like I’m standing motionless but I’m actively waiting for our problems to go away. I don’t know why this works but it does.Never answer a question unless you know exactly who is asking, why it is being asked, and what will be done with the information.

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level.

 No one believes forecasts, but we all want to hear them.

Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.

 One “oh shit” can erase a thousand attaboys. One way to compensate for a tiny brain is to pretend to be dead.

 People enter the marketing profession after they realize that they have grown up without any particular skills.

People who work in accounting departments often work 12 hour days creating reports that nobody cares about. This gives them a very bad attitude. Do not attempt humor around them. Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness.

 Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

Stupidity is like nuclear power; it can be used for good or evil. Technical people respond to questions in three ways: It is technically impossible (meaning: I don’t feel like doing it); It depends (meaning: abandon all hope of a useful answer); The data bits are flexed through a collectimizer which strips the flow-gate arrays into virtual message elements (meaning: I don’t know).

Technology: No Place for Wimps!

 The best things in life are silly.

The best way to avoid criticism is to establish a reputation for being irrational and belligerent at the slightest excuse. The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.

 The Dogbert method of eliminating guilt is simple. All of your problems are caused by invisible people named Juan and Cindy. All you have to do is find them and kill them.  

The entire economic system depends on the fact that people are willing to do unpleasant things in return for money. The longer you work here, diverse it gets. The universe is mostly empty space, and so is your job.The world is full of attractive people whom you will never meet. Your only hope for romance is to lower your standards until co-workers look good.
– Dogbert, “Dating Co-Workers” There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as “nutty methods.” Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as “a complete waste of time.”

There are two essential rules to management. One, the customer is always right; and two, they must be punished for their arrogance.

There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives.

We must develop knowledge optimization initiatives to leverage our key learnings.
We’re a planet of nearly six billion ninnies living in a civilization that was designed by a few thousand amazingly smart deviants. We’ve gotten some complaints about your hostile behaviour. At a recent meeting you crossed your arms. That is unacceptable body language.

When did ignorance become a point of view?

When you grow up you’ll be put in a container called a cubicle. The bleak oppressiveness will warp your spine and destroy your capacity to feel joy. Luckily you’ll have a boss like me to motivate you with something called fear. Why aren’t you signed up for the 401K? I’d never be able to run that far.

Why is it that the nuttiest people define reality? Women don’t like to be around a man with substandard footwear. Women won’t admit this, but they consider the men around them to be free-range accessories for their own outfits.

If you clash, you’re hash.

Work is for losers. A winner says ‘That’s on my list’ and never commits to a deadline.

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.

Your boss reached his/her position by being politically astute. Don’t turn your back.
Corollary : To be a successful manager, you must learn to be insensitive to the needs of your employees.

Your brain is like your stomach in the sense that if it’s empty, you’re willing to put anything in there to fill it up.

DilbErT :- Word of Wisdom…

1. I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow, isn’t looking good either.
2. I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
3. Am I getting smart with you? How would you know?
4. I’d explain it to you, but your brain would explode.
5. Someday we’ll look back on all this and plow into a parked car.
6. There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives.
7. Tell me what you need, and I’ll tell you how to get along without it.
8. Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
9. Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn’t there the first time you need him, chances are you won’t be needing him again.
10. I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
11. Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, “Where the heck is the ceiling?!”
12. My Reality Check bounced.
13. On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.
14. I don’t suffer from stress. I’m a carrier.
15. You’re slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.
16. Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo.

Apple iPHONE Commercial

APPLE iPhone

“Impossible Is Nothing” – Gilbert Arenas

You make dIffeRENCE

Great Leaders of Our Time

From the Mouths of Great Leaders

An Inspirational Video – The Law Of Attraction

Pay It Forward

Lance Armstrong Strikes BACK

indian commercial

Aamir Khan Cola Commercial

                                                                                     

Shahrukh,kareena,Rani,Kajol,Priyanka,Britney & Michael in different pepsi commercial

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

How to hold useless meetings: a step-by-step guide

So, lousy manager that you are, you’ve decided to waste everybody else’s time, huh? Great! Profits were too high, anyway! Well, if you want to waste everybody’s time, here’s a short list at conducting one of the greatest time-wasters in any organization: useless meetings.Follow these steps, and your meetings will soon become the most mind-numbing, time-wasting, spirit-crushing endeavors you could ever let loose on an organization. Useless meetings could easily be the top tool of most managers — bad managers, especially.

Number one: Start late. It’s clear your staff shouldn’t have any real reason to start a meeting on time. After all, if they had anything worthwhile to do, they wouldn’t be working for you! Start your meetings late…the later the better. After a few weeks, your staff will be just as late to the meetings as you are — and then you can reschedule them to start the meetings later still.Starting meetings late gives your staff a chance to talk amongst themselves while they’re waiting for you to show up — plus, it’s an excellent method to show them who is really in charge.

Number two: Never have a purpose to a meeting. If you want to be a world-class, time-wasting manager, this is your ace in the hole. Meetings held with no purpose in mind waste people’s time like nothing else in a manager’s handbook. In fact, most meetings have no real reason behind them. They’re held because they’ve “always” been held. When you actually have a purpose to a meeting, you risk the chance you might actually get something done. No self-respecting bureaucrat can risk that chance. Why, once you actually get something done, employees might actually feel good about accomplishing something. You can’t risk that!

Number three: Never prepare an agenda. Agendas are useless, since people (especially you) never stick to them anyway. Let the meeting wander however and wherever it will. Eventually, most meetings degrade into three different meetings, held concurrently in the same room, as various group members spend their time talking about sports, intra-office romance, and that nasty mess in the office refrigerator.

Number four: Never set an ending time. Letting meetings drag on forever is a useful tactic to suppress office morale. Start early in the morning, and order in lunch if necessary. Repeat the following day. This wastes so much time and resources, you’ll have to hire additional staff. This brings you a big bonus: additional staff means more employees for you to supervise, which means higher wages for you! The downside is you’ll have to remember to order towels to clean up drool from sleeping workers.

Number five: Keep changing your mind, or refuse to make a decision. Lively discussion is useful in any organization, but pointless discussion is a useful time-waster you can use to your advantage. Keep discussion running by changing your mind every ten minutes. If it appears a consensus is about to break out, detour any movement toward a solution. Agreement is an evil concept that must be stamped out in any organization, since it undermines your managerial control.

Number six: Talk about how the organization needs better meetings, but never do anything about it. Bring the topic up frequently. Hire consultants to spend meeting time teaching how to hold an effective meeting. Use the next meeting to review what the consultant said. After completely discussing the consultant’s advice, ignore the advice — and the discussion.

Number seven: Never form teams to study out and report. Self-governing teams can be a useful mechanism to cut back on bureaucracy — therefore, you must avoid these at all costs. Demand that each decision be brought before the meeting and discussed by all present. After each possible decision has been discussed, table each discussion until a later meeting.

Number eight: When you actually do something, never bring it up. You’re in charge, and it never serves your interests when people actually know what’s going on. Refuse to talk about upcoming projects. If people demand answers, assign status reports to the least-effective person on your staff.

Number nine: Always call another meeting. Meetings serve you well in your movement to the top. When higher staff calls, it’s useful for them to hear “he’s in a meeting.” Your bosses will see the meetings and think you know what you’re doing — and make them think you’re actually doing something. Remember: the longer your meetings, the more they think you’re accomplishing. Of course, the longer the meetings, the less you will actually accomplish.

DILBERT’s VIDEO

Twenty mistakes bosses make

Stupid management mistakes never cease to amaze me. Every day I hear stories from people that leave me wondering why smart managers can be so dumb. And it just keeps happening.

Got a problem? Set up a committee?

Want someone to do something? Throw them in to the deep end with little training, then come down hard on them when they stuff up.

Ask your workforce for feedback, then ignore everything that’s been suggested.

Want to treat your staff like demented idiots who can’t think for themselves? Just micro-manage everything and talk down to them when they come up with ideas.

Susan Heathfield at About.com has come up with her own list of Twenty Dumb Things Organisations Do To Mess Up Their Relationship With People.

Dumb things include failing to tell people what they’re supposed to do and then wondering why they fail, adding layers of paperwork and bureaucracy to stop things getting done and treating people as if they are untrustworthy.

Another one is telling employees to change the way they are doing things without providing a good explanation why, and then sending them off to change management training, or Siberia, when they resist.

Does any of this sound familiar? Any to add?

Learning from business failure

What do Walt Disney, Bill Gates and Abraham Lincoln have in common? They all failed in their first business venture but they didn’t let that stop them.

It’s amazing how we regard failures as bad. When a business or project fails, it’s condemned for being a flop. That’s where we get the word “loser”, one of the most disgusting terms of the modern age! Failure doesn’t make you a loser. But try telling that to people.

Amazing too when you consider the different figures about your chances of succeeding in business. According to some estimates, two out of three small business will fail in the first year although I have seen other figures that have it at around 7.5 per cent. Still, if 8 out of 100 new businesses shut their doors every year over many years, there’s a big cumulative effect.

It not only applies to running a business. There are plenty of failed projects in the workplace too, which makes it relevant for employees too.

That’s what makes this piece from BusinessWeek, Starting Over When Your Business Fails so interesting. It talks about developing the ability in people to sit down and work out exactly what caused the stuff-up and ensure they don’t repeat the same mistake. Check the slide show too.

Also worth checking out is this other piece from BusinessWeek, How Failure Breeds Success. It gives examples of how some companies go about learning from flops.

Like at waterproof fabric maker W.L.Gore & Associates where managers behind flops are thanked, given trophies and then told write up what they learned from the experience.

So how many flops have you had? What have you learned from them? And do we put too much focus on success instead of learning from failure?

Can you mix friends and business?

So business and friendship don’t mix?

Tell that to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two PhD students at Stanford University, California who went on to create Google.

Actually, the Google story tells us that two didn’t get on at all when they first met.

“When Sergey and I met, we both thought the other was really obnoxious,” Page told BusinessWeek back in 2004.

But the two Trekkies shared a dream of building a computer as fast as the one on the USS Enterprise. So they managed to bury their differences and became close associates as they went on to develop the foundations of the world’s most famous search engine.

Still, as a rule, it’s not usually a great idea to go into business with a friend, unless you are prepared to lose a friend.

Partnerships raise a whole lot of questions. Do partners have to like each other in order to work together? How do you work out who does what? Does one partner have to be in charge, or do you split it 50:50?

To my way of thinking, partnerships are like marriage. Take out the sex, and you both still have to sort out issues of power conflicts, money, and resolution where you can hammer out your differences.

And like any marriage, that’s hard work and requires lots of mutual support.

Yes, there are always problems starting a business with a friend but there’s a real advantage when two people have a rapport. And if you want to go places, it’s always better when you don’t have to do it on your own.

That’s what interested me when Forbes decided to provide us with some good tips on How To Mix Business And Friendship.

They are just a matter of common sense: don’t split it 50:50, create an arrangement where one partner can offer to buy the other one out, put in place a lengthy vesting period of say 4 to 7 years so that one of the partners doesn’t slack off or throw it all in when the going gets tough, get someone to value the business, make sure you have the first right of refusal to sell a stake to an outsider if your partner quits, have an involuntary sale arrangement that allows you to buy your partner’s stake if he or she dies, and work out how much control you are prepared to dilute if you want to raise capital.

So does friendship and business mix? Have you had any experiences there and what advice can you give? How much of a rapport do you need for you to work with someone? And how do you know when it’s over?

How to stuff up a job interview

What are the biggest mistakes people make when applying for a job? What do you have to do to guarantee you won’t get past the first interview?

Recruiters and human resource specialists reckon the worst things you can do is producing a CV with lies and/or typos, turning up late, not preparing for the interview and knowing nothing about the company when you turn up, dressing inappropriately (jeans or gear showing way too much cleavage were cited as two of the most common incidents), swearing, giving inappropriate referees, and asking the interviewers not to contact your former employer.

Do anything like that, they say, and it’s a red flag.

BusinessWeek provides adds more with this piece and a slide show that lists more no-nos.

These include sounding too rehearsed, stalking HR (more than three or four calls and/or emails is not a great idea), asking the wrong questions (like “How much do you pay me?”), mucking up the salary negotiation process, failing to show enthusiasm, exaggerating your work experience, being rude and trashing your ex-boss.

Any to add? Any that you’ve experienced that you want to share?