Raj Shankar's Blog, page 64
December 29, 2012
Interesting Links This Week: 30-Dec-2012
I came across many interesting links as i spent time soaking up information and knowledge online. Hope you will enjoy them as you spend your New Year Holidays! Seasons Greetings! Here are three of them:
What did the world search this year? As we become more of a ‘search for when needed’ world, the people who try to service the search requests need to keep a close tab on what people actually search for! Trends in search, especially from Google are important while we attempt to get ‘attention’ in our attention deficit world.
Link: http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world
I have always been interested in what McKinsey & Company publishes, simply because i have been a fan of Marvin Bower. So, when they publish their list of top 10 articles of the year – i thought it would be something that all of us in institutions will love to read. All of us may have missed many interesting thoughts, but here is a chance to know what the world (readers) thinks is the best from their stable for the year.
Link: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/newsletters/topten/2012_Q4.html
Everybody aims to learn something in the coming year. Living in the knowledge era, no one can ignore learning. But when we meet knowledge workers, the bigger problem for them is – what to learn? How to set priorities for learning? Here is a short article for an interesting thinker. It contains some tips for learning.
Link: http://www.marksanborn.com/blog/4-learning-priorities-for-the-new-year/
December 28, 2012
Books and Me: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales!
Title: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales! 
Author: Marshall Goldsmith, Don Brown and Bill Hawkins
Borrowing a large part of the title from his own earlier work, Marshall Goldsmith has teamed up with two more interesting people for this book. As the book was related to sales, it was natural for me to pick it up. Very early in the book, right in the introduction they won me over as a reader by stating ‘Peter Drucker is a hero of ours’. I include myself in that ‘ours’ as I too am an ardent fan of his.
The book builds a lovely case for bringing the human element back into selling. With so much advancement in technology, the authors raise pertinent challenges that have risen around sales and service. Sales and Marketing have become very technology driven, to the extent that the sales person and consequently, the emotional relationship between the buyer and the seller have become redundant. Being social animals we can never be happy talking only to machines. But even we to a large extent today live like machines.
The book describes how this situation arises due to reduced understanding about ourselves and reduced interest in the other. Bringing the humaneness back into the sales interaction, by enhancing the behaviour element of the sales personnel has been beautifully elucidated in this book.
For a change, instead of telling us how to develop the right values and behaviours, the book makes a contrarian advice on what to stop doing. I personally enjoyed ‘the sixteen habits that hold us back’ presented in the book. Every one of them is so subtle yet beautifully captured. A little reflection as we read helps us relate to most of them. Once you have read this particular portion, you begin to feel these are not applicable only to sales! That’s the biggest realization.
It is useful for every one of us. We all have relationships that we need to nurture, develop and sustain. Most of the habits fall in the interpersonal domain. Since habits are difficult to develop and change, the authors have provided ample suggestions, tips and techniques to handle the change. Not many books of this genre provide these many thoughts on the subtler realm. The triggers made me move far away into the world of personnel development and individual change.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and my take is so would you!
December 27, 2012
Two more reading lists from 2012
Many times when you go through your normal day, you realize that much of the conversations are actually not getting you too excited or even useful. The reason being, most people are too optimistic or too pessimistic. In those rare situations where you meet the realist / pragmatist, things only get worse. They leave you confused.
Most often i have resorted to reading to keep my not so useful conversations down. I write a weekly review of the books i read (Check for Books and Me for recent reviews). These have helped readers identify books that have enhanced their work and their lives. So when i come across book lists, i generally tend to dig into them to find a few gems that i can pick for my next read. And once in a while i share the lists i read as well – so that people who love to find their gems can do so as well. So today while i was reading online, i came across two interesting lists of books. Please see if you will like the many books mentioned in each of them.
Greg’s 2012 Digital Tonto Reading List is a interesting list of books across subjects. Whatever be your interest, you are bound to find some useful and enlightening picks.
Link: http://www.digitaltonto.com/2012/the-2012-digital-tonto-reading-list/
Maria Popova’s article on 10 favorites and the messages from them is an interesting and different list.
Link: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/26/best-books-2012-reader-favorites/
Happy Reading!
December 25, 2012
Vedantic Wednesday : Who Will Cry When You Die?
No! This is not a review of the popular title written by Robin Sharma. I have not read it still. This is around the thought that most of us have running in the background,
We had a visitor from our native village last week. As always this brought out lots of old time connects, recollection of interesting, good and not so good happenings of the past, discussions around the temple etc. The visitor described vividly the last rites of a rather well known personality around our native. A person who we all have heard of but not seen. He went on to tell us how people in large numbers from all neighbouring villages had assembled for the last rites and he ended it with a clichéd sentence that one often hears ‘ I don’t know whether anyone will even cry at my funeral’
I am sure many people who had come for the man’s funeral also had the same thought. Of the many measures to know how one has lived their life I realised, the number of people who come for one’s funeral is highly respected. Just that you will never know how you performed on this one. All others will.
Wouldn’t it be better had all the people assembled for the funeral spent fraction of the time on a different question? Could they have thought and examined what had made people flock to the man when he was alive? What was it that the man did in his lifetime that benefitted his community? Can these actions be emulated? Instead of wondering about who will grieve over your death– can you think about who are the people who rejoice because you live?
There is no greater fear than death. It is said that this fear accounts for the acquisition acts of human beings. Fear of death drives us without our own knowledge to seek protection in wealth, people – we go about collecting both with the hope that they would be there at the time of our death and beyond; like a wall. Even at the point of our death, we are inwardly focused. The irony is palpable.
Let’s not be bothered about who will cry when we die – lets be more bothered about who will smile when we live! For this alone will make living worthwhile – for us and others.
December 24, 2012
Why does Christmas come before New Year Every Year?
Every time we approach New Year, we celebrate Christmas before starting another new calendar. Christmas means many things to many people. For those who follow the faith, it means prayers, for some its celebration, for others it is a holiday, christmas tree, plum cakes, santa claus, rudolf and much more. For me, who has passed out of a convent school it conjures up the image of service and in particular ‘giving’.
I believe that every time we go through 25th December to reach 1st January – the message is loud and clear – giving should precede receiving. 1st January is a time when we decide on what we want to do through the year, the resolutions we want to keep (or break), the goals we want to set and achieve, the relationships we want to create, sustain and grow, and all the other things that we want for ourselves. But 25th December I believe tells me a very different story. It reminds me of what I can give, who I can serve, and think of who I can make happy. Bringing joy to others is what ‘Christmas’ reminds me of. Though I grew up as an orthodox Hindu, I studied in a Roman Catholic institution and spend equal amount of time in both the Temple and the Chapel. The silence (though rare nowadays) in the temples and chapels mean the same to me. Jesus is considered by many of us as messiah with a clear message to mankind. He is a Yogi; who realized godliness as he lived on as a simple man amongst all of us. His life and messages have a deep impact on me. I take his messages pretty much seriously and investigate them for my personal development.
My humble attempt is to live just one of his principles namely: “Judge not others”. Every time I read about this; I feel touched and inspired from deep within. If only we can live life without judgement and treat everybody as they are and only think how we can enable them live happily – the journey on Earth will be more enjoyable than usual.
I thought I would share these thoughts that came to me early this morning with you. If you have the time, do share what Christmas brings up to the top of your mind. we would love to listen and learn.
Merry Christmas!
Entrepreneurs are not cow-boys!
“Entrepreneurs” – please acknowledge that you are not in the game to show your macho-ness! The journey of an entrepreneur is one of excitement, energy, and enthusiasm, but not plain heroism! Why do I think so? Because we don’t want to lose our most talented people; to unwarranted risky ideas and flights of fantasies
In management there is a lot of discussion on what happens when a manager starts imagining themselves as a super-hero. While it will be easy to extend that to entrepreneurs, it does not make direct sense. What works for one does not work for the other. Simply because, the nature of the two roles have a huge variation in the level of certainty in their projects.
Entrepreneurs need to understand and spend time on the external forces that are outside their realm of influence. Many times young and aggressive entrepreneurial minds fail to recognize them early – and hence fall prey. The loss is not just to the tangible resources of the Startup, but also to the intangible entrepreneurial spirit. Sometimes the hit at the intangible steals us of the entrepreneur himself. They give up and return to routine.
Majority of the literature and speakers sideline this under the guise that failure is a stepping stone to success. They profess failing provides immense learning. Yes it is right, but more applicable within the arena of experimentation. When extended to enterprise creation; wild experiments leave a bad taste for all involved, including the customers (markets). It also spoils the environment making it difficult for the next generation of people to take the idea / opportunity ahead.
I am not telling entrepreneurs should shy from failing. I am not suggesting if one fails in their entrepreneurial venture; all is lost or they are not capable of enterprise building. I am advocating here an approach that we need to take towards enterprise building.
Entrepreneurs are not cow-boys / cow-girls, but they are intelligent risk-takers, balanced decision makers and resource optimizers at large. They lead us to the next stage of evolution through their experiments and courage. We need more of them for the sake of the whole of mankind. Since such resources are rare, we don’t want to lose them to something as silly as machoness…
We need entrepreneurs who are everyday heroes rather than a super-natural one!
December 22, 2012
Interesting Links This Week: 23-Dec-2012
If you are wondering what to read on strategy, entrepreneurship and other interesting trends – here is a short list to get you started. One is specially curated list for women from Huffington Post, one that could make your be surprised about engineering colleges, and one from Steve Blank on possible trends in entrepreneurship as 2013 approaches. Happy Reading!
Here is an interesting collection of articles from Huffington Post. “Best of articles of 2012 for Women”
I have heard of many asset classes. But this is one even you will be surprised! “BE Colleges for Sale”
This is the season for predictions. But here is one from a leading thinker on entrepreneurship for entrepreneurs. “Don’t follow the trends, create them”
Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2012/12/18/create-trends-dont-follow-them/
December 21, 2012
Books and Me: The Strategist
Title: The Strategist – Be the leader your business needs
Author: Cynthia A. Montgomery
“Are you a strategist?” – Oh! What a question to be thrown at CEOs in the opening class of a course? If it is followed by other questions such as: “If you closed its (your company) doors today, would your customers suffer any real loss?” or “Does your company matter?” it is bound to make any seasoned participant uncomfortable. These are definitely not comfortable questions for a young leader who goes to a general management program seeking tips for personal and organizational growth. But these are the questions that Professor Cynthia Montgomery begins her sessions on strategy with, in the famous Harvard course titled “Entrepreneur, Owner, President Program”. Her initiative to convert her sought after sessions into a book is a boon to the many who may not be lucky to sit through them. It is especially a great opportunity for the many of us who may not be able to sit through her class at Boston, to gain a peek into her teaching, message and lessons.
Being an ardent enthusiast of the subject called ‘strategy’, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of her book. Apart from providing a review of most of the concepts of strategy, her insights into ‘value creation and capture’ was very interesting and extremely useful, because I work so closely now with entrepreneurs / emerging enterprises. Her choice of cases used in the book to highlight concepts drive home the point thoroughly. Though the strategy wheel may seem an old concept, it is not commonly taught at many B-Schools in this part of the world, and I am sure readers will find it interesting.
Prof Cynthia Montgomery’s intention to bring the focus of the subject to the protagonist – the strategist is a brilliant thought. Though it may seem obvious to some, it is so only in hindsight. The importance of the strategist to the business, understanding the role and them honing their skills to ensure they bring the much-needed strategic thinking to their business is beautifully weaved. The book is written in a casual style and it almost feels like the author is speaking to you in a classroom setting. The choice of cases especially that of Apple and Ikea, the storytelling skill while presenting them reflects the prowess that has made her classes so legendary in the course. While teaching a case in class can keep the audience engaged, the author’s skill in keeping the reader as attentive and involved is admirable.
Totally enjoyed the book and loved the last few pages where the author provides a beautiful list of suggested reading. Though I have read some of them, there are few interesting suggestions that I take away especially as a strategy scholar. Any reader will gain a few new references for sure, whatever be the level of involvement and adeptness in the subject.
December 20, 2012
Will The World End Today?
Today is 21st December 2012. The day on which Mayan Calendar and many other people have predicted apocalypse; the end of the world!
Doomsday predictions are at the most – news worthy! As a society we always seek negative news and love searching about it. The positive wrapper for this love of the negative, especially death / doom is being practical / realistic. Observing people today, brings out our ambivalent nature. We do things with utmost earnestness but with total lack of belief.
Today our servant maid came in for work and was going on and on to my mother about how she has come after visiting temples as today the world could end. I was taken aback at all the reference she was pulling out to make my mother get atleast slightly curious. I am very surprised that if she really believed that it is true – why would she come to work? Why would she want to make money even on the last day? Would she not want to be with her family? As behavioural economics researcher and professor Dan Ariely wrote in his bestseller “Predictably Irrational”, we are not what we do!
Only thing that I am sure about tomorrow is someone is going to declare the next date for apocalypse. This will become the next sensational news. There would be debate and discussions. Why would one keep re-setting the date for the end of the world? Funny! But we are funny! Human beings create and destroy out of nothing. It is sad that we recognize power in destruction not in construction; in war not in peace; in taking not giving; in supervision than serving.
The world is not going to end. As our puranas keep reiterating, there are many thousands of years left before which, there needs to be an overall cleansing. So instead of spending time wondering what will happen if the world would end, it would make sense to think how not to kill the earth faster! The speed and cost at which we are seeking personal fulfilment, we don’t need doomsday predictions, we will create it. I wish to use this mythical prediction to remind myself and others who are reading this, to make an effort to live a conscious life. No – I am not talking about conscience.
If you are hoping that you can escape the challenges of life (atleast for today) by using the Mayan prediction as an excuse – forget the hope and get started. Else you could have your customer / manager / wife / father / mother / teacher / others waiting for your attention and your competitor / opportunity just race past you.
I found a rather interesting message this morning from Sadhguru on the same news. Here it is for the welfare of all: http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/lifestyle/its-the-end-of-the-world?track=1&uid=66214&date=20121221
Startups – Taking risk but how much?
Every time an entrepreneur decides to startup, he/she has to take risks. Without risk, where is the opportunity for rewards? All entrepreneurs know that! It’s also a fact that startups (most of them) have limited resources and loads of enthusiasm. While entrepreneurs work hard to get-off the ground, they always face the risk of running out of resources before reaching the threshold. This is one problem that keeps most entrepreneurs awake at night. The chances that a startup runs huge risks that can sink it does not mean it will not take risks. If they don’t they lose the slim chances of huge upside too! Hence with the possibility of limited margin of error – what must entrepreneurs do to ensure they are balancing on the thin line of optimum risk taking?
One of the things entrepreneurs must learn to do is break down their major startup assumptions into smaller experiments – which will ensure that errors are caught when they are smaller and earlier. This reduces the chances of learning too late in the startup experiment that the game was over a while ago. Many entrepreneurs live their assumptions even after they have been proven false. At times they don’t even realize that the assumption is not valid at all. This can be because of numerous reasons – the most prominent one being customer acceptance. Many times this could have been avoided through simple and small experiments with potential customers.
Entrepreneurs must be great risk managers. They must develop the skill of testing potential points of failure early and in small proportions. This helps validate their beliefs and assumptions before its too late or the bet is too big. This is one of the traits of a successful startup!
Happy experimentation with calculated risk taking!
