Ashvin's life experience

30 things to stop doing to yourself

2011-12-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself/#more-402 :Source of this wisdom
:

Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on. No, it won’t be easy. There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them. We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made. In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall. Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time. This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself. Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Read The Road Less Traveled.
Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.
Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.
Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.
Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.
Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness.
Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.
Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company. There’s no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you. But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”
Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. So smile! Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.” It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.” Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself! And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.
Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done.
Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.
Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.
Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. But making one person smile CAN change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus.
Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

Annual Update

2011-10-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

This is the year i cross the magic 40. so if i was born in the neolithic period, i would be dying the second time if not more. probably be on my deathbed if this were the 1400's instead the 2010's.

A highly packed year with work, athletics, adventure and reading.

Work: Doubled the size of the company, Launched another product and 2 major campaigns on cloud computing. Learnt a lot about planning, building, executing and wrapping up all sorts of projects. confident about more technologies than ever before

Athletics: the running has been downhill since the marathon last year, with sustained efforts to go back up to the peak form in the next year. took up bicycling and proud to say i am now capable of staying with a professional team on an easy ride for about 25 miles or so.

Adventure: This is the spotlight of the year. From buying a bicycle to completing a 200 mile ride with a 9 year old has been an amazing experience. so i end the tour with a tear and totally embarassing the little one at the finish line. Newspaper, radio interviews and be mentioned on TV. great experience for a little kid and me.

Reading: I am proud to say i have doubled the reading speed in the last couple of months thanks to speed reading and constant practice. now gobbling up books is not a weeks effort but hours worth of effort.

Its the time of the year when i should plan for the next decade but opting to do the best of everything coming across my path as opposed to a check list. Let us see how this works for a couple of years.

Post MBA experience

2010-08-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

Its been three years since my MBA that has lead me over

Four Product launches
Four startups
Three Product designs
Number of consulting gigs
Hundreds of teams and peoples
Many reorgs, layoffs, cutbacks and expansions
ran my first 10K, Full Marathon and compleated it
Tried a bunch of "firsts" like sailing, seriously long running, bicycling for recreation and starting tech companies, wrote a childrens book
and more...

The up's follwed by down's and vice versa; sunny day's and grey's; hot and cold; short and loooong.. each working on their own rhythm...me driving some and being carried across others- such is life. Moving forward i have put together the objectives for my life.

Educate Arya
Live a healthy life
Make enough money to go back to school.

Well, there are more but lets stick with these as they will take a long commitment and time to fulfil. Let me post more as events unfold and see where this leads.

so long for now...
A

MBA Bottomline

2008-04-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

The MBA experience is over. I actually graduated June of last year but never really seemed to close out on this blog. I kind of felt "studentsy" and didn't want to give up. Although, i have been slogging and thinking for way too long to now realize the benefits from the rigors of the MBA program.

Let me summarize the program by the numbers

Number of quarters in class : 10
Number of credits : 86
Average Hours in class per week : 8.6
Average Hours spent preparing for class per week: 10
Average hours preparing per quarter : 20
Average hours for exams (prep and completion) : 40
Average work hours from 2004-2007 : 40
Average time with friends and family per week : 8
Average vacation time used for school work per quarter: 32

Average time for socializing per quarter at school : 20
Shelf space covered by the books to read: 24
Bookcases purchased for storing the collected books: 3

Number of books read: Lost count. recorded a few on this blog, others on notes filed carefully in boxes. I could come up with few more numbers based on the calendar logs but the idea is clear.

I wish
I had spent more time networking
I had attended more events
I had gone on the school trip
I had used the career services more
I had attended more day classes
I did not have to return to the real world
I completed the entrepreneurship certificate

The school experience was a blast. I loved every moment of it was sad to see it end and didn't know what to do with all the free time on my hands. But found that i could not continue on the path for long as fatigue set in and found my brain slow, lose energy and momentum and it got harder and harder to jump start it.

I finally managed to get a break in November travel to India for 5 weeks with my son and meet people and see some places together. Refreshed, yes but also tired and stressed out at losing paychecks during the period.

I am still on the exploratory path and hope to start another blog on my career experience journey touching various thoughts, options and decisions leading me to this point and beyond.

Life is huge! we just have to pick what we want to do with it; this implies consciously letting go of a lot of things (possibilities). The hardest part of life for me yet.

So long now

A

Chase, Chance and Creativity.

2008-02-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

Chance I is completely impersonal; you can’t influence it.

Chance II favors those who have a persistent curiosity about many things coupled with an energetic willingness to experiment and explore.

Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.

Chance IV favors those with distinctive, if not eccentric hobbies, personal lifestyles, and motor behaviors.

VALUE CHAIN

2007-08-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a great framework for value analysis. keeping it here for future use

Good to great

2006-08-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Good to great was a fascinating read. I had originally planned to take notes througout th ereading but i couldnt contain myself and just needed to go through. Not only is the content fascinating but also the process described in the research. I had to make a note of how this book came about. No doubt this is goign to be in my collection.

I wanted to capture the tool of Jims trade here for quick reference, a primer to creating somethign really fascinating. " an odyssey of curiosity" as he put sit

1. The search for a research set: Look for patterns in company performance based on some parameters. In this case" 15 years of cumulative stock return at or below general stock market, punctuated by a transition point, then by cumulative eturns at least 3 times the market over the next 15 years.

2. Compared to What? A comparison set to answer the crucial question " What did the good to great companies share in common that distinguished them from comparison companies.

3. Probe inside the blackbox. Depth analysis [collect data, code materials into categories such as strategy, technology, leadership and so on]; interview executives; systematically read and debate [present to the team, draw potential conclusions and ask questions].

4. Develop concept from Chaos: Develop Ideas and test against the data, revise ideas, build frameworks, break the framework under the weight of the evidence and rebuild.

SUMMARY

Disciplined people achieve breakthroughs after a strenious buildup, through disciplined action that is based on disciplined thought.

Ten Faces Of Innovation

2006-04-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

Innovators: people creating value through the implementation of new ideas.

innovation ties the idea to implementation. people make this happen through imagination, will-power, and perseverance in teams or individually. This book uses the personas, the roles innovators play to express, explore and innovate.

Developing an understanding of the roadblosks of these personas ill help you drive for results. Personas can be categorized into

The Learning Personas
Question the "know".
1. The Anthropologist
2. The Experimenter
3. The Cross-Pollinator
The Organizing personas
Savvy abut the counterintuitive processes. Play to win.
1. The Hurdler
2. The Collaborator
3. The Director
and
The Building Personas
Found at the heart of the action.
1. The Experience Architect
2. The Set Designer
3. The Caregiver
4. The Storyteller

Interview questions

2005-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

I just went through a loop and came across a simplified set of questions for employee evaluation

1. Strengths
What was the best day at work in the last 3 months?
What were you doing?
Why did you enjoy it so much?
2. Weaknesses
What was the worst day at work in th elast 3 months?
What were you doing?
Why did you find it so hard?
3. Triggers
Describe the best relationship with your manager?
Describe the best praise or recognition you have recieved for your work?
Describe the worst relationship with your manager or colleague?
4. Style of learning
When did you learn most in the recent weeks/months/years?
Why do you think you got so much out of it?
What is the best way you learn?

Well. I did not figure out the categories used to evaluate this early or in the interview but just figured it out.

So long

Managing customer loyalty

2005-10-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

Foundations for a thriving business

1. Customers will continue to change in needs, demographics, lifestyle and consumption behavior
2. Competitors will change as new technologies emerge and barriers to foreign competition shift.
3. The environment in which businesses operate will continue to change as economic, political, social and technological forces shift.

Successful customer relationship marketing enables businesses with a strong customer focus achieve high levels of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty which directly translates to higher profitability.

A common measure of customer satisfaction is the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). derived from customers rating of the overall satisfaction on a six-point scale that ranges from very dissatisfied to very satisfied. CSI is a forward looking indicator on the performance of an organization, that measures how well customers will respond to the company in the future. other performance measures like market share are backward looking.

Research results indicate the following

	Very Dissat	Dissatisfied	Somewhat dissat	Somewhat Sat	Satisfied	Very Sat
%customers	2%	5%	10%	22%	36%	25%
Profitability	-90%	-75%	-50%	25%	125%	800%
Customer turnover		25%			70%

out of 100 dissatisfied customers 4 complain, 96 do not complain, 95% of non complainers exit, whereas 25% of complainers exit.

Customer life

Customer life {N} = 1/(1-customer retention {cr})

Customer Loyalty index (CLI) is defined as

CLI = Customer satisfaction * Customer retention * Customer recommendation
since the negative recommends have more severe consequences, dissatisfied customers tend to accelerate mass defections especially in the presence of an alternative or substitute.

Strategies for managing customer loyalty and profitability

< Customer profitability

Very high

High

High Potentials

Life time value = 2x

Customer retention =50%

Selectively invest in 1:1 relationships

Top performers

Lifetime value = 5x

Customer retention = 80%

Invest in customized relationships

Average

Breakeven

Negative

Non Profits

Lifetime value =-x

Customer retention 33%

Separate potential opportunities from nomads

Under achievers

Lifetime value = x

Customer retention = 80%

Invest in sustaining loyalty and build opportunities to increase margin

Very weak Weak Average Strong Very strong

Customer Loyalty >

Finance notes

2005-10-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

Fundamentals of financial decisionmaking

The first step to any decisionmaking is identifying costs and benefits.Clearly articulating how the costs and benefits are determined, example using the market, historical data or forecast based on some mathemathical model.

Once this is done converting costs and benefits to a common denominator and then comparing provides a solid basis for decisionmaking. For financial purposes and to begin with we consider time as thedifferenciating factor. TO compare costs and benefits that coudl be spread across time, we have to convert both to a single point for comparison. Interest rates are typically used as the exchange rate across time.

When the costs and benefits of any investment is calculated in terms of cash today we term the value as Present value (PV).

We Define Net Present Value NPV = PV(benefits)-PV(costs).

alternatively NPV = PV(all cash flows)

NPV decision rule states that when comparing projects or investments choose the project withthe highest and positive NPV. ( no exceptions)

Law of one price:

If equivalent goods or services trade simultaneously in different competitive markets, then they will trade for the same price in both markets.

Three rules of time travel

1. Only values at the same point in time can be compared or combined.
2. To move cash forward in time you must compound it FV = C * (1+r)^n
3. To move cash backward in time you must discount it PV = C/(1+r)^n

This pretty much summarizes the basic transformation. using timelines and the above formulae, we can compute, compare and contrast complex real live situations.

THats all for now :-)

Value Proposition

2005-10-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Value Proposition: A concise statement of the compelling promise that a product, brand, or company makes to a defined target audience that outweighs its total perceived cost while being differentiated from available alternatives and supported by reasons to believe.

The customer/target audience weighs in

The promise, the differentiation and the supporting evidence

Against the costs/price and the risks.

Essentially weighing costs against benefits

Components of benefits

Promise is a crisp articulation of the primary benefits—functional, emotional, and economic—that customers get from buying, using, endorsing our brands, products, or initiatives.

Differentiation is the distinctive claim that sets us apart in a meaningful way from the competing alternatives that the target audience may consider, including the status quo alternative.

Supporting arguments are the reasons the prospects should believe the promise and the claims of differentiation we make for our products, brands, or company.

Leading the revolution

2005-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

One week before the stuff hits the fan so to speak. Classes start next wednesday and I am excited. Class lunch, BBQ aside, I got to finish this book before then or it will continue to be hold until the end of the quarter. I started it yesterday and almost a quarter through. SO why did i not mention it earlier? Too busy reading to take notes :-)

Gary hamel is good at motivating, cynical but motivating. i felt breathless goign over the earlier introductions and his case on the importance of business strategy. Then came to the meat of the book so to speak.
"Innovation risk is determined by four things

The size of the irreversable and non recoverable financial commitment that must be made to get the project off the ground.
The degree to which new opportunity departs from the companys existing base of technical and market understanding
The ammount of irreducible uncertainity surrounding critical project assumptions
The timeframe required for rampup.

Gary develops a framework to unpack th ebusiness model comprising of four major components

Core strategy: Business mission,Product/market scope,basis for differentiation.
Strategic resources: Core competencies,strategic assets,core processes.
Customer interface:Fulfillment and support,information and insight,relationship dynamic&pricing structure
Value network:Suppliers, partners and coalitions.

The details to follow in subsequent comments. I didnt want to lose my train of thought and had to get it down appropriately.

:-)

Theory of constraints

2005-09-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

Eli Goldratt in his novel " The Goal " Practically turned me into a bookworm. Chomping away merrily ignoring my wife and son for 2 days until it was over. Now the lovestory did not bother me much, a manager that cannot sort out his life will end up to be a very frustrated man indeed. I would really feel sorry for someone like that. Yet most of the Novels challenge me to predict the end and that controls the anxiety and adrenalin for me.

Anyway, As a lesson in best practices, i expected the Character to get things right and be rewarded for it. He lived up to that promise.

To summarize the lesson.

1. Clearly define the goal and purpose of the organization. Then establish a cause and effect relationship between policies and measurements with respect to the goal.
2. Try to understand and document as many assumptions as you possibly can. This serves as the data to build on further
3. Simplify the model to clearly establish causality.
4. Examine model and assumptions for inconsistencies. This will give you the starting point for problem solving.

Now that i have the framework, Here is how the book documents the lessons learnt

1. Identify the systems constraints
2. Decide how to exploit the systems constraints
3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision ( #2)
4. Elevate the systems constrainits
5. WARNING!! If in a previous steps a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not allow inertia to cause a systems constraint.

I guess, i will be posting more insights as we go along the class.

:-)

Review of " The customer differential" Melinda Nykamp

2005-09-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

ok! this a CRM textbook required reading for my class this fall starts end of november or so. Just getting a headstart on it. Halfway through the book, I believe the essence is neatly captured in chapter 4. The rest of the book essentially hashes out the details. Here is a quick synopsis

The 5 organizational aspects that need to be considered for a customer focussed organization, the essence of an organization thar requires CRM are.

Business focus
Organizational Measures
Business Metrics
Customer interaction
Technology

Customer centric organizations either have it or dont, there probably is no middle ground( i question this). The book details in a step by step approach the roadmap to transforma non customer centric organization( be it product, place, market or service centric) to a customer centric one.

Business focus transformation needs to center around the question" What do our customers need, and how can we meet those needs?"

The Organizational structures needs to align according to the customers. Basically, teams and processes around customers or customer segments.

The Business metrics is a yproduct of business focus and organizational structure. Essentially rewarding behaviors that positively impact the long term desired from the customer that enhances the bottomline.

The customer interaction piece essentially harnesses the benefits of a two way interaction with the customer. This requires appropriate investment of time and resources to keep the interactions healthy.

The technology piece enables meaningful customer interaction at all points of customer contact. Ensuring that the right customer information is available at the customer contact point essentially is the main thrust of technology.

The rest of the book merely details the transformation of the above five pieces in various stages or variations of these pieces.

So long for now
:-)

Weekend thoughts

2005-09-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

This has been a dull weekend. Aria has a cold and I am fighting it off as well. We have some social to attend this evening. Just completed searching the internet for an internet fax service. Its amazing that i could not find a single fax application that can use VOIP phones.

I mean think about it. Many people are switching to VOIP like vonage. There has to be an application( desktop) that can act as a virtual fax machine. Its just a signal that any software can send or recieve irrespective of the provider. This woudl be one time charge and easy use of service as needed. Instead there are internet fax services @ $10 a month. they are pretty good but for someone like me that recieves or sends very few faxes. it does not make sense.

I guess this calls for more research.

Have a full week ahead. so might be slow to update posts on here, though i wil have milions of thoughts.

:-)

The world we live in

2005-09-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

I was not going to blog today but went through a Tom FriedMan talk on " The world is Flat" It was essentially a promo for the book but ended up creating 2 1/2 pages of notes.

I don't want to trash these and forget, Why not blog em and remember em for future reference?

Tom Starts by quoting Nandan Nikekani " The global economic playing field is being leveled and Americans are not ready", And how he interpreted this to mean that the economic field is being flattened and is a great achievement for Human enterprise. I totally agree on this Yay for the free market economy.

What is flattening? How is the flattening taking place?

Mr Freidman cites the examples of Jet Blue reservation systems where working Moms assist customers with their reservations from home. Balagalore BPO operations and the chinese equivalent for the Japanese consumers; And Mc Donalds consolidating orderprocessing in colorado springs.

He goes on to describe 3 Eras of globalization that shrunk the world

1492 -1820 shrinking the world from size L to size M. The primary agent of change begin the nation state citing the examples of colonization, new world discovery and awareness
1820-2000 shrinking from size M to size S. The primary agent being organizations and corporations spreading out in search of markets and resources
2000 onwards shrinking from size S to tiny. The primary agent being the individual.

He argues that this ability of individuals to affect change facilitates and necessitates change

Freidmans proposition attributes the flattening to 3 basic attributes; 6 further additions and a tremendous multiplier

Fall of the berlin wall: changes the perceptions of individuals and organizations breaking down the north south and east west divide giving rise to global. This was further facilitated by the rise of Windows (I believe Microsoft got some publicity here) basically the PC providing the first tool for flattening.

The PC provided a versatile tool for authoring information words; pictures; music and video.

"Enabled digital representation of everything"

Rise of the browser enabled sharing of the authored content. Facilitated cheaply sharing of information and communication. This then triggered a huge investment into the Fibre optic networks and completely connected the world. He cites the difference between the railroads and the fibre optic backbone as " Railroads allowed americans to ride free; New network allowed Indians, Chinese and Russians to ride free"
" Workflow" defined as protocols and pipes that allow work to flow. Connection and the PC enables the creation of a platform for collaboration.
The 3 factors above provided the foundation for th efolowing 6 that acted as enhancers

Outsourcing: Introduced by the Y2K
Offshoring : Prompted by the chinese joining the WTO
Uploading: Advances enablign individuals to promote themselves globally eg: Blogging; open sourcing; pod casting and wikipedia

Supply Chaining efficiencies epitomized by walmart.
Insourcing as epitomized by vertical integration of delivery companies transforming into logistic services companies like Airborne express, UPS etc..
Informing: Empowered search of our own data; drilldown into history. Example TIVO is informing for television programs
"The steriods" Advances and innovations in storage, VOIP, wireless and processing acted as the booster and a multiplier accelerating the flattening process.

He talks about the tripple convergence where the flatteners converged and tipped the economy into a well connected world with a different dynamic.

Convergence of the flatteners. advances in technology, helped outsourcing which in turn boosted offshoring. leading to gains in supply chaining and insourcing.
Organizations and individuals learned to adapt the habits and behaviors to take advantage of the platform. This has lead to horizontalization. Typical example southwest airlines replacing the ticket agent with eticketing which was replaced by self printing at home. Essentially replacing a paid employee with a machine and effectively changing the customers behavior to self serve at home saving equipment costs.
3 Billion people from India, China and eastern bloc arriving at the convergence zone.

RESULTS: Vertical to Horizontal; creating a complex environment that promotes competition allows transparant connection and collaboration.

He concluded that we were blowing away the ceilings, walls anf the floor

No limits on uploading ( no ceiling)

No limits on outsourcing/offshoring (no walls)

No Limits to informing ( no floors) cannot bury anythins

Isint this exciting?

This brings many questions

1. What are the flaws in this model?

2. What do we not know?

3. What can we do about it?

4. How accurate is this theory?

5. If not this why is the world imploding? if it ever is?

So long for now

:-)

Career roadmap

2005-09-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

I think Keith Ferrazzi is a great writer. I cant get enough of this book, well written and many A-Ha moments, expecially the kind that explain failures. I knew biases and filters were heavy roadblocks to self improvement but the magnitude always remained a mystery. Keith ( well i dont know him yet...) manages to atleast provide some examples to help there.

According to the Business connection center ( career services) letter they will help me with

Strengthening my tech heavy resume

Task 1: Convert the UW Business school resume from responsibility oriented to results oriented.
Task 2: Have Karen Fischler review my resume.
Task 3: Review the resume with the career coach and finalize by tuesday

Write a good cover letter

Task 1: Finalize cover letter with the the career coach

Research companies and industries

Task: Come up with an action plan

Network with contacts

Task: Come up with an action plan

Interview persuasively.

Task: Develop Marketing materials

That is going to keep me busy for a while in addition to my commitments to deliver

Balanced scorecard for non profits in general to the treehouse board
Coach Soni in the real estate sales job
Research and deliver an executive briefing to WestPac Bank executives and get a raiting of 8 or higher.

thats all for now
:-)

What do I do for work? So....

2005-08-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

I am a technical lead in a developer support team that helps developers work around problems encountered in web based applications. I have 3 primary responsibilities

1. Provide solutions to customers. Customers run into problems, i fix them or get them fixed by the susteined engineering team,
2. Ensuring my team has the knowledge and resources to resolve customer issues. Manage the business from the technical perspective. Arrange for the know-how for the team to do their job and manage the relationship withthe dev team.
3. Act as a resource to my team and others in the wider organization. Point of contact for the technologies, specialize in a couple and be generally available in others for external and internak consultations

I like to hear "It works" and often.

Why am i leaving this?

It is time to grow big, make bigger things work and make sure that things I help fix dont break in the first place.

Is that reason enough? Am I competent enough? Is that enough to transition?

Hopefully the answer will be in next week.

Plan of action

2005-08-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

10 day vaccation!

Took some time off work and tried to stay away from school thoughts but in vain. I need to figure out my core competency and then define my personal value proposition . i can then go on and market my professional skills. that means, i need to find out the market, zero in on the niche and then find a beachhead to start my career.

Problem: An overall end goal that can be reached in a variety of ways, and personal finances and constraints that provide little flexibility to take drastic actions.

With the constraints in mind, i plan to evaluate my resume for marketibility in my future career which begins 2 years from now.

ACTION PLAN

1. Get an appointment with the business connection center co-ordinators for evaluating my career so far and assesing marketable skills.
2. Figure out the next set of skills and the best means to get them
3. create a plan of action: typically, narrow down jobs to say 20 in maximum 3 categories. research the field and then make individual plans
4. execute with an eye on backups till i succeed. there will be no turning back.

When the going gets tough the tough get going !
I'm finally getting into the Zone

:-)

Arms around MacroEconomics

2005-08-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have been revising my understanding of macroeconomics from the explosion far away to a more manageable issue or set of issues. Heres my first skinny on it

1. The Economy has 2 primary categories of actors consumers and suppliers
2. The economy runs on the basic principle of supply and demand
3. Overall measuring supply and demand is impossible and so statistical means are used therefore we have somethign called aggregate demand and aggregate supply
a. Y=C+S+T (all that you make can be consumed or saved or paid in taxes)
b. Y=C+I+G+(X-M) (all expenses by consumers, investments, governemnts and cros border trade also amount to overall product)
c. Growth in Y is not unlimited and dependent on a variety of factors.
d. All actions result in an opposite reaction(of lower magnitude)
4. Economies chug along on business cycles, i.e. there will be booms and busts.

Then there are details :-)

2005-08-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Schools been keeping me busy. I had to research an industry of my choice and come up with a paper and presentation on Trade bariers in the industry. Being involved in the service industry for more than 10 years, naturally picked up services, instead of narrowing down into specifics, aggregated it to abstract comparisons between Developed and developing countries.

For a quick summary
> 1. Gats provides a framework for analysis of service types( pure services)
> 2. The developed and developing countries comparative advantages
> 3. Developed countries typical errect barriers in modes 2 &4 and
> developing countries typically in Modes 1&3
> 4. Each wants the other to take the barriers off and this is happening to some extent but slowly both ways
> 5. Benefits of taking down the barriers Eg: INDIA maturing and growing steadily
> 6. Example Trends in the trade in services (US): Comparitive advantages at work

I had to make sure this was good, so had the professor review my slides and Ideas, she wants specific practical barrier analaysis.

Been thinking all weekend for something, I can use " FOOD" thats what i am gonna do. Here are some of the raw references

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Ecomm/foodbiz.html
http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/ngo_e/posp47_nftc_looking_behind_e.pdf
http://www.gmabrands.com/publicpolicy/index.cfm
http://www.affi.com
http://www.usitc.gov/ext_relations/news_release/2000/ER1121X1.HTM

Here is my down and dirty plan

1. Trade barriers are of 2 types, tarrifs and non tariffs. In the food industry, the Non tarif barriers seem to be more significant than tariffs
2. Non tariff measures
a. Export certification and registration
b. Labeling
c. Food standards
d. Intellectual property rights
e. Customs procedures
f. Sanitary and phytosanitory restrictions(SPS)
g. Export subsidies
h. Domestic assistance
i. State trading enterprises.

3. Trends and events Beef industry, Chocolate industry esatblishment
4. Opportunities and threats

Now, that seemed difficult as there are too many things in there and a close friend suggested Textiles. Now that rings a bell, and i got started on it and finally presented it to the class. Expect more details on the paper on here soon after the professor evaluation and comments.

BASIC APPROACH:
1 Frame the context and brief the industry
2. Price trends since the dismantling of MFA
3. Barriers in existence today, Quotas, Self imposed tarrifs, infrastructure and other obstacles
4. Expectations of GATT (ATC)

The presentation was short, didnt go into too many details but wanted to make sure, i covered ground and in depth. I need to do more of them to get comfortable and perform with ease.

Ok! now its time to really study the "Memos to the president" the first read did open my iltellect but i need to get finer and sequence my knowledge. I cant be getting the subject backwards.

Backwards seems to be the way to work towards an innovation but not for understanding.

So long for now.

Macroeconomics First pass

2005-06-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

Macroeconomics is really not bad. To get stuff in perspective, imagine a giant star in a glaxy far away exploding and hurling a huge block of super hard matter maybe roughly the diameter equal to the distance getween the sun and Earth towards our solar system. This thing has missed hitting anything in its path and headed straight for us at almost the speed of light.

The event sending the rock has already occured and we have no means to know if we are in its path. What can we do about it? How significant is our existence? What does knowing this mean for us?

I cant even begin to ask the questions to make sense given the scenario, however we can model all our risks using known and measured parameters.

That is exactly what Microeconomics is like. Understanding what can be measured, measuring it, understanding the limits of the measures and trying to guage what happend and what might happen.

whew! that was a wild one was'nt it?

:-)

Weekend experience

2005-06-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

THis was one of the weekends with a lot on my todo list. FInally managed to read some "Keith Ferazzi" and implement a couple of suggestions. I have absolutely no problems being generous, offered to work for a couple of people but the most important task was asked someone really smart to deliver a talk at the business school on IT security.

He agreed, it didnt feel that bad to ask, not I need to make a habit of it and then figure out a way to return the favor in the future. I cannot have a balance of payment deficit.

This is what conservatives are like. Surpluses are ok but no deficits. Now the next step is to ask the BSchool faculty or organization to help setup the event.

I am reading the "Memos to the president" and guess what, unless the presidents are really smart or educated or both, they take a long time to sink in. I liked primers but this primer needs priming. I guess it would be a good " remember this" book but not a good one to learn Economics.

Have a full week ahead, reading, prep and camping, I hope the weather clears up a bit.

Share of my brain

2005-06-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is my upteenth attempt to write a diary of my thoughts. Not a personal diary but just a collection of interesting thoughts and ideas and my understanding of the world at this poitn in time. Someday, I want to look back on these musing and reflect" you know what? with the information at that point? it was a pretty good assessment"

That said, i am struggling with actually organizing my thoughts into coherence. A decision on building my personality from ground up or top down is very hard, leading to a Mosiacal approach. Build bits and pieces as available and juggle them around to fit into the picture. I just need to take care not to change the picture but shuffle the pieces until the right spot is reached.

Broadly speaking, I have Many tasks to accomplish and have the first action plan ever.

1. Review and get into perspective my understanding of Economics, Accounting and management and leadership.
2. Understand the software industy, divided up into verticals, horizontals and players.
3. Network and add one new contact a week in the management arena.

Pretty straightforward and I hope this bite is not more than I can chew.