tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87676101400631885212024-02-08T04:47:10.036-07:00Abhisek BhowmikReImagine, ReWork, ReDiscoverAbhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-53232937776703284652015-01-29T20:28:00.000-07:002015-01-29T20:28:05.154-07:00Digital India - Digital ID proof verification system<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was visiting Vizag last weekend and there were increased security checks everywhere(due to Republic Day and Obama visit). The police even checked hotel rooms at odd times. I got a doorbell at around midnight and was asked to show ID proofs. Although I was not very happy at first but I felt safer.<br />
<br />
The idea came to my mind that Saturday night - the way we verify identity proofs(Passport, Voter ID, Aadhar, PAN, DL etc.) today are very crude. In a country like India where fake Ids are easier to arrange than finding a urinal in a public place, these checks are simply not enough. The ID attestation process(someone having stamping authority can stamp and attest a photocopy) is also a stupid way to confirming someone's identity.<br />
<br />
We need much better ID verification process and the way to do is through digital tokenization. We need to create ID verification machines which can scan the ID(ID Type, number, name, address, photo, finger scan etc.) and call the Central Database systems Real-time to validate if these IDs are real. These machines should be easily available to everyone(government officials, businesses, hotels etc.) to validate the KYC requirements. As we are concerned about privacy the response should not disclose anything except a 'Valid/Not Valid with a confidence level %' response(e.g. Valid with 80% confidence level - confidence level is required as all Ids do not have all the data required to be 100% correct and sometimes Finger scan/photo scan may have some ambiguity).<br />
<br />
If implemented properly this can make criminals life a little bit difficult and improve the efficiency of running business/government. Just imagine as a hotel receptionist you are very comfortable giving room keys to your customers and as a customer I don't need to visit someone to attest my ID). Of course there can be exploitation in this process as well - police may try to extract money from you threatening action with a fake ID verification machine where all checks will always fail but we can have process in place to address those issues - such as any ID verification process failure need to give a receipt with justification, time-stamp and checker details which can be used in future for legal needs.<br />
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What do you think? I am interested to hear your views.</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-71778612705897514622014-09-15T19:37:00.002-07:002014-09-15T20:00:33.670-07:00Default scenarios change everything - part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note to reader – Please read this thought experiment with an
open mind.I am not suggesting we try to follow this alternate world and have
sex with multiple partners; I am just trying to decode the impact of default
physiological process of sex towards our society, economy, politics and psychology. So take some time and think before calling me a sexual pervert or interpreting on my personal sex life :) <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why sex is so complex in our society? Society is always
trying to stop sexuality – we have problems when boys and girls meet. Parents
try to have direct/indirect influence on choosing your partner-there is so many
fights around marriage (divorce etc.) etc. We have a skewed sex ratio, huge
sexual perversion problem (rape, sexual abuse etc.), huge industries catering
to alternate sex options (prostitution, pornography etc.) and of course a huge
medical industry catering to procreation avoidance (condom, contraceptives,
abortion etc.).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do you think sex is so special in human interaction? Why
we don’t bother if I (as a male) smile or talk to multiple girls (some society
has problems with that as well) but society does not accept me having sex with
multiple girls? It is special because by default sex can give birth to a
newborn baby and it costs (and takes huge amount of time & responsibility)
to raise a child. In a society where everyone is having sex with everyone we
will have too many newborn babies and very few will take ownership of these
newborns. To avoid that problem society created the concept of marriage and
single partner and hence extramarital affairs are seen as crimes. But I think
it is an artificial solution – as human beings we generally love variety (would
you prefer to have same food every day for rest of your life?)but are asked to
have sex with only one partner for rest of our life. This sometimes turns into prostitution,
rape, cheating etc. Most women will criticize this conclusion stating these are
men power-plays/dominations and you are a pervert preferring blind dates (no
emotion). But I would request them to think if they will also prefer to have
romantic & sexual relationship with multiple partners if that was not a
taboo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider a society where the default was different. By
default you won’t conceive and you can have any number of sexual encounters
with any number of partners without any fear of being pregnant. If you really
want to conceive with your chosen partner (who has wilfully agreed to take
responsibility to raise the child) you take some medicine for some time and now
your lovemaking will make you pregnant.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are thinking it is a perfect recipe for AIDS epidemic
think again. Nobody is stopping you using your condom but the main problem of
not having multiple sex partners is the fear of procreation and associated
social cost. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately our defaults were different and I am not sure
with evolution if our defaults will change one day. There may be a grand plan
behind this which I am missing out completely – happy to hear your views...<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-84393750733291304532014-07-03T21:19:00.000-07:002014-09-15T19:39:29.295-07:00Impact of changing the default<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Changing the default can have epoch-making effects. Removing TV - Instead of viewing mindless TV shows in the evening your default can be more social, healthy alternatives like walking with your partner. Instead of a big plate change it a small plate - you will eat lot less and remain fit. Examples galore!</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-86971695847098652152013-09-28T03:05:00.001-07:002013-09-28T03:19:38.149-07:00Commodatization of personalization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Personalization is the holy grail of marketing for avoiding commodatization. Maybach followed a personalized direct marketing and '<a href="http://auto.howstuffworks.com/maybach4.htm">Maybach studio</a>' based approach for selling their ultra-premium cars. They made only a thousand or so cars per year - all of them customized(or so called personalized) as directed by the Maybach customers. A very high premium is charged for their exclusivity.<br />
<br />
Personalization has become mainstream nowadays. Predictive Analytics(and Big Data) has transformed Art of Personalization into commodatized algorithms- which can make everyone of us feeling special. When I search for a city tour I get hotel recommendations, when I plan to see a show I get discount offers in my mobile etc. It is very helpful for both buyers and sellers - buyers can get good deals when they really need something and sellers can reduce the waste in their marketing budget and improve effectiveness of their customer acquisition cost. We can call this commodatization of personalization.<br />
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Opulence still gets a better treatment - an ordinary person probably gets a personalized offer but cannot ask for a fully customized car as a super-rich. But with the improvement of 3D Printing and Internet-of-Things we may see everything personalized for everyone someday. That may be a frustrating day for super-rich. That will be the ultimate win of commodatization over personalization - or it is vice verse?</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-53423208659657397402013-04-24T12:06:00.002-07:002013-04-24T12:12:58.528-07:00 Some thoughts on future of work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<li>Most of the work will be automated and that is
good for us. Most of us are terrible workers – machines are always preferred
for routine jobs.</li>
</ul>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>We will see huge unemployment and that will be
good. The goal of technology is to make things easier – then why we want
everyone to work 60 hours a week? Better we just work as and when required and
if and only if our talents are really required. There will not be any resource
problem and no need to work for money. Everyone will be able to enjoy extended
vacations in Mexican Riviera enjoying guacamole facials and pristine beaches as
long as they want. Everyone will have access to best foods. People will work
only if they love their work – they won’t get any other privilege in the
society except job-satisfaction. Remember today most of the people don’t love
their work – they work for money.</li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>There will be a lot of interesting work for
people who really want to solve the big problems facing humanity today (energy,
pollution etc.). As people need not work for money talented people will be
able to get out of high paying mundane jobs and work on truly interesting(and
satisfying) problems. And for these selected few working hours will increase - they won't mind as they will truly love their work. As there will be no monetary benefit from those
inventions there will be free exchange of ideas accelerating the invention
cycle. </li>
</ul>
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Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-75206663505582641882013-04-24T11:09:00.001-07:002013-04-24T11:16:07.492-07:00Why Top Leadership makes all the difference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Short answer - Clout factor - a CEO can influence all the employees but a line manager can influence only a few.<br />
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The CEO enjoys a tremendous leverage - it's upto him to use it effectively. CEO needs to inspire, CEO needs to lead.<br />
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A line manager cannot change the fate of the company but a CEO can - for better or worse. And if laws of thermodynamics or history of corporate failures(most of the companies ultimately fail) are taken to be true - most of the times it is for worse!<br />
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Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-32632072020233925112013-04-24T10:14:00.001-07:002015-01-29T20:36:48.281-07:00How differences are built up over time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I sometimes wonder why there are so many differences in
capability, power and wealth between us. We all are human being having almost
similar physical and intellectual power and capacity when we are born. But
forty years down the line, some become super wealthy or win noble prize whereas
some continue to struggle doing some mundane work. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-22/how-did-the-worlds-rich-get-that-way-luck">Where and when</a> we are born help. Per Warren Buffett he was
very lucky to be born as a white american male. It gives tremendous competitive advantage if
your parents are educated, rich and well connected. And it is extremely difficult to be successful if you are born poor and need to struggle for even the basic life needs. But every rich kid cannot
make it even though he is at advantage. What are the other factors? I believe
there are two other critical factors to success – mentoring and continuous
improvement. It takes time to become really good at something (ten thousand
hour rule). You learn things by practicing over time through trial and error.
But proper guidance and coaching can make a big difference as well. A good
coach can teach critical skills which takes years to learn by trial and error.
Also a good coach gives confidence, helps to keep the focus and to dream big.
You need to believe in yourself to become successful.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me give an example. Two friends start at the kindergarten
– both having almost same potential. One kid gets better attention and
guidance from his parents and makes it to a better high school and then to a
better college. Better college ensures better classmates – better connections
make better opportunities and the peer exchange of ideas increase productive
capacities. Over the years the magic of compound interest makes a huge difference and the two childhood friends cannot believe their gaps.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Success is rare as it needs time and multiplicative impact
of so many positive factors. Remember it is not addition – it is multiplication. So you have always the fear - one low score and you are
out of the game. Are you feeling hopeless? Let's not be so pessimistic. Yes, it is difficult to fight if you had a bad childhood or had a bad year in college. But remember multiplication has its own advantage as well. Continue the good work and you can find something big positive which can help you overcome all your shortcomings. Yes, miracles do happen - so continue to fight till your last breath.<o:p></o:p><br />
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How can you become successful at your career - I believe there are two ways. Either go conventional crowded path of corporate career and do smart+hard work for years. Or find some path where nobody is going(yet) - being an early adopter of some future profession has extreme competitive advantage. So keep your minds open, take risks and work hard+smart at the same time.</div>
</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-3960384233102542092013-04-20T01:37:00.001-07:002013-04-20T01:37:39.129-07:00Can we capture the successes of so many failures?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There can be only one US President. Only one F1 Champion or only one Best Actor in Academy Awards. Only one city can be chosen for a specific Olympic or only one winner in a National Talent Show.<br />
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So may people try for these highly coveted wins..are they all failures. No one remembers the second, forget the third, forth or others who could not make it till end. But are they all failures?<br />
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There are so many beautiful songs considered for Song of the Year (sometimes I cannot make a selection - they are all so good!) and so many young genius students who could not make it to Harvard(or IIT whatever!). There are so many 'failed' projects in corporations and so many 'failed' scientific experiments. Are they all failures? No they should not be.<br />
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We should celebrate failure and learn from them. There can be specific viewpoints for which lost an election or a specific style which was not preferred by the jury (neither mass judgement nor selective judgement guarantee absolute best selection). Everyone is obsessed with the winner(those on the top gets all the press). So much thought process, innovation and creative energy is wasted - only because we collectively fail to appreciate the people who could not make it to the top. If we can change that we will learn so much. Also the world will be much more enjoyable as everyone will not focus only on winning.</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-74906458405997994482013-04-13T05:16:00.001-07:002013-04-13T05:16:44.399-07:00Agency Problem and HR Profession<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Think of a perfect company where almost every employee is happy,engaged and has high performance work ethics. The reason - they were chosen perfectly for the right job and their incentives match their expectations. There is minimum attrition and hence the only recruitment need is for organization growth. Every employee respects each other, believes in company's compensation structure and even everyone knows each other's salaries. This perfect company is very generous with employees making great contributions but also is very fast in firing people with negative work ethics. Hire slow and fire fast keeps the sanity of the workplace.<br />
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But things are never quite perfect. Ineffective recruitment is very common - large scale recruitment without proper job-skill match or work ethics alignment creates a lot of very ineffective employees. Each ineffective employee multiply the inefficiency of the company - increasing cost and resource wastage and lowering profitability, customer satisfaction and market competitiveness. Once you have a pool of bad recruits, it is very difficult to attract great people. Two reasons - great people don't want to work in a mediocre company and also bad selectors(who were the initial bunch of bad recruits) cannot or do not want to select great new recruits. The culture of bureaucracy over meritocracy prevails. Good people leave the company. To fill those positions the company needs to attract new recruits at a much higher cost. To compensate the higher cost of new recruits(who are not great quality recruits and are highly overvalued) the company cannot keep a competitive compensation for the existing employees. The result - higher attrition of existing employees(some of them were really good, wanted to stay with the company long term and make a difference) and highly demotivated workforce.<br />
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Now the question is which case is attractive for an HR employee or for that matter the HR organization. Theoretically HR success metrics from a shareholder's perspective should be keeping the Highly effective and motivated employees for the highest term possible and thus increase company revenue, profit and market value. But practically - in a perfect world there is nothing much to do for a HR organization and that calls for a small HR organization(HR is a cost center in traditional accounting). Because everyone is happily engaged with their work - you don't need a big team to arrange Team building activities or daily social events(or send Team Engagement emails). Because of low attrition you don't need a big team to handle employee separation or new recruitment activities. Only a small group of HR Generalists can support the essential payroll and clerical tasks. As a HR professional do you really like to work in such a world? Of course no.<br />
<br />
That's why we need complex compensation structure, annual performance reviews(where fixed percentage of employees has to be grouped into best, medium,worst categories),high attrition and costly replacement. Oh yes- These poor employees are not engaged - lets' send an invite for virtual cricket match....everybody loves cricket..na! </div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-80653195312028683922013-02-01T19:17:00.002-07:002013-04-24T10:45:45.627-07:00facebook - the real business benefit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;">Everything that can be </span><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;">counted</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"> does not necessarily </span><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;">count</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;">; everything that counts cannot necessarily be </span><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;">counted<span style="color: #222222;"> - said Einstein.</span></em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is so true for facebook.</span></em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/advertising" style="line-height: 16px;">Facebook advertising</a><span style="line-height: 16px;"> - impact is measurable and hence can be sold to businesses in exchange of revenue. Creating a Facebook page and offering promotions for customer engagement can be <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Carnival">successful </a>as well. But</span></span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"> I believe very few people care to see a promoted post or banner adds and hence have much limited value than the real benefit Facebook offers in the actual sales process.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Demand Generation through show-off, word of mouth and peer pressure is the real value offered by Facebook to businesses. You see your friends cruising in Carnival and you get inspired to try Cruising. Your wife purchases a Diamond Ring and shows off to her friends. She feels excited when her colleagues like(or for that matter dislike!) or comment on that post. This show-off starts a chain reaction of peer pressure driven impulse buys - now her colleagues want a Platinum-Diamond set for a bigger show-off. And this chain reaction continues...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">But can this effect be measured? Not perfectly. Models can be created and Big Data Scientists can try to measure it through shares, likes and actual purchases linked to it but I think it will be very difficult for Facebook to monetize this real benefit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">The real benefit of social networks can only be felt if Social Networks cease to exist.</span></span></div>
</div>
Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-88321943861962244452012-09-04T21:04:00.001-07:002012-09-04T21:07:22.635-07:00Looking for Insider Information - Try LinkedIn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">LinkedIn can be a great source for Corporate Insider Information (ofcourse a challenge for Company Management - policing past and present employee profiles). <br />
<br />
Look for the Experience page of related profiles in LinkedIn and you may get to know the details around IT Systems(Products and even their versions in use), their functions(including partner and interface information), Marketing Strategy for various Products/Promotions and many other Operational Stuff(even some Trade secrets).<br />
<br />
The information may not be the latest or greatest - but still not a bad deal.<br />
<br />
<br />
I am leaving aside the Headhunters advantage of using LinkedIn - every recruitment guy knows there is no better place to search for a Talent with specialized skills. Better - once you find one - you find many others from the connections. </div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-10817409670362500342012-05-16T15:52:00.003-07:002012-05-16T15:56:30.892-07:00My Experience in HBS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This April I visited Boston and was lucky to experience a Harvard Business School Class. They have a program where visitors can come and seat within the class to experience the famous 'Case Study method' live in action. I visited a Macroeconomics class and the case study was on India - Indian history, how Indian policy making and demographic profile have worked so far, how Indian growth is different/similar to that of China and finally should someone invest in India. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;">Prof <a href="http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=ovr&facId=100370">Dante Roscini</a> drove the discussion and made sure all students shared their insights. He is a great teacher and facilitated the discussion very effectively. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were many interesting observations from diverse background of students - how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient">Gini</a> changed over time and whether Interest Rate spreads inherently mean Indian investors getting comfortable with Government Debt; whether China's growth in Manufacturing is mainly due to currency manipulation or competitiveness; whether number of engineers produced in India truly indicates the quality of Indian education system etc. The most influencing thought for me was whether democracy is good for India even if that compromises growth. There was no final answer - Indian students supported Indian democracy(even though they accepted it is not True democracy, illiterate voters have no idea on main issues and they vote based on caste or specific preference to a political dynasty) whereas Chinese students supported Growth(everybody loves their country!).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came back with that burning question in mind - Democracy or autocracy, Chinese speed of execution or slowness of argumentative Indians? Over time I realized that there is no correct answer. Let me provide some business perspectives before I go back to the actual example of governance. </span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Autocracy is a high-risk high-return game. If we have great leadership autocracy is fantastic - we could not have so artistically brilliant Apple Products if there were multiple decision makers deciding on Product features instead of Steve Jobs leading the end-to-end process of keeping the minimalist user-</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">friendliness</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. At the same time it will be too risky - if there is no one to challenge the leader and the leader makes a bad decision(or become evil). Do you want to build a great product and then launch it in market(keep it neat - don't listen to users - they have no idea what they want) or you want to prototype and test the product incrementally by incorporating the customer feedback(some may be good, some may be very bad - overall a messy process). The Great Apple iPod would not be possible if Jobs listened to his customers for product features. But think about it - thousands of start-ups fail because they don't listen to the market needs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In politics and governance same rule applies and history says we can have success/failure in both. We can have great autocratic governance if we have truly visionary leaders(with good intention</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">- rare combination</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> although!</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">). But generally speaking we have seen democracy ruling the game most of the time. Collaboration is messy & slow but it helps to avoid the big mistakes.</span></div>
</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-31379129682076359622012-05-16T14:01:00.000-07:002012-05-16T14:03:15.771-07:00Culture Change?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Americans are great communicators. It is always an advantage when the universal language of communication is your First Language and comes naturally to you. But I think there is something more to this skill. Even if we allow people to speak in their First Language(for me Bengali), per my experience, many Indians won't be able to communicate as effectively as Americans. I think it is more around training and social culture. You may not effectively learn to count or make logical decisions in an US school but you must learn how to speak dramatically or 'sell' something. US culture rewards 'extrovert salespersons' rather than 'introvert builders'.<br />
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Don't take me wrong - effective communication is a great skill. It is so much easy when your co-worker can articulate exactly what he is looking for. But sometimes this culture of speaking more and doing more hurts us. US workers possibly send more emails and attend more meetings than any country in the world. We always prefer to keep everything 'in writing' and inform as many people as possible as 'FYI' even if the receiver has nothing to do with the development. Possibly because we don't trust each other - we always hope that in case of a crisis I will be saved if I can show my boss that I wrote an email(remember your Boss may get terminated during the crisis and you too). Or for that matter I won't be sued if I keep a 200 page disclaimer which nobody(except the one who will find a flaw and sue you) will read.<br />
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US work ethic is legendary-US has one of the most hard-working, innovative and entrepreneurial labor class in the world. US workers have best skill sets with the capability of generating highest level of productivity(my mistake - they have one of the best level of productivity in the world!). But I have a feel that something is wrong and we can do better. It needs culture change, it needs right focus, it needs right reward system. We need to do less and focus more on most important problems, we need to reward the introvert imagineers - the builders and architects of the society. We need to create a work environment of trust and empathy and kill the easy path of flattery and PowerPoint to progress in corporate ladder.</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-73785946792243406212012-04-10T08:18:00.000-07:002012-04-10T08:18:15.611-07:00Crowd funding - SEC change the rules for goodPlease make sure everyone can invest small funds to new ventures and have stock ownership.<br />
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This is less risky for everyone and good for overall economy.<br />
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Please make it easy.Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-49872407061742409242012-04-09T00:52:00.002-07:002012-04-09T00:52:48.682-07:00Joseph Herscher - The Kinetic Artist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GOMIBdM6N7Q" width="560"></iframe></div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-69581411938915395062012-02-26T18:48:00.003-07:002012-02-26T19:06:06.054-07:00Random thought<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Rich & powerful will continue to dominate & exploit the world as it did from the very beginning. Ethics & equality are always the looser.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>No revolution can change this - because even the so-called 'successful' revolutions only changes the profiles of rich & powerful and not this rule.</div></div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-24524851801166516952012-02-19T14:26:00.001-07:002012-02-19T14:31:15.800-07:00Unknown Knowns & Unknown Unknowns to solve Known Unknowns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">There is a 4X4 matrix -</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Known Knowns - Solutions exist as of today and we know the solution. Example - we know the Television or Internet works</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Unknown Knowns - Solutions exist as of today but many people do not know due to lack of interdisciplinary application oriented collaboration - example we may know how to treat cancer using super-foods but many cancer patient do not know it due to lack of knowledge sharing(may be intentional push by pharma lobby)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Known Unknowns - We know the problem & we know we do not have a solution yet. Example - <a href="http://rayofgoodhope.blogspot.com/2011/08/solving-big-problems.html">Game theory Problems</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Unknown Unknowns - We even don't know what we don't know. Example - </span></span><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/nick_bostrom_on_our_biggest_problems.html" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nick Bostrom on new dimensions of human experience</span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think we need to concentrate on </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unknown Knowns & Unknown Unknowns to solve Known Unknowns. Let's explore.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Importance of Unknown Knowns - </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are under-utilizing human potential and not attacking big problems in a systematic way. We are wasting many human minds in pushing them to <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-07/opinion/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete_1_toll-collectors-robots-jobs?_s=PM:OPINION">do things which can be avoided</a>. Lack of collaboration & information exchange is a huge problem. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Multiple people working on same issues - synergy, information sharing & collaboration between all these people can create magic. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Huge amount of human knowledge has been created over time - we till now we have not managed that knowledge properly. There are so many Journals, IPs, Patents created - but we still don't have an effective way to explore these. I am aware of Patent Search and other Internet Searches - but many of the times the access is limited available to Subject SMEs or they are so technical people from other backgrounds can not appreciate the wisdom. We need a platform for easy to understand knowledge sharing so that people from cross-functional background can appreciate and apply those thoughts. I am not suggesting we will not allow monetization of patents but rather we need to push for better utilization of those IPs(Knowledge available in Patents & Research Journals).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have gut feel if we can just improve on the area of Knowledge exchange and application of that knowledge across different domains we will be able to solve many Known Unkowns - probably there are many solutions already existing but we don't know that they exist.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am yet to find such a platform at a large global scale but there are some model platforms(such as <a href="http://www.ted.com/">TED</a> and <a href="http://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation">Edge</a>) which can be scaled up to provide the needed support.</span></span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Importance of Unknown Unknowns - </b> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Probably there are many things we don't even know exists and finding those can help in solving problems we don't have a solution yet. I am suggesting the application of disruptive new findings in a completely different(cross functional) domain.<br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222;">As this </span><a href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_02_10/caredit.a1200018" style="color: #222222;">article</a><span style="color: #222222;"> suggests many of our problems can not be solved by just improving the existing technologies - we need a generation of disruptive scientists. We need to fund those big, promising but not necessarily money making research activities. This is challenging when funding is scarce, judging a new scientist's capability is tough and there is no guarantee that the research project will really have any meaningful benefit. One solution to that problem can be allocating resources(funding and best quality people) to experimental projects in an International collaboration model to solve the big problems challenging our society. This is high-risk-high-reward effort and hence it needs </span></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">appropriate</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">scale and risk-reward sharing. I strongly feel <a href="http://rayofgoodhope.blogspot.com/2011/08/beautiful-design-and-elevator-pitch-but.html">start-ups & market based innovation</a> is not appropriate for this kind of projects and need backup and collaboration from governments. Many people can consider this crazy(considering the poor knowledge, decision-making & goodwill of our national leaders and government bureaucratic processes) but remember Manhattan Project would not be possible by a single company. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">That's why I suggested <a href="http://rayofgoodhope.blogspot.com/2011/04/pmail-more-control-less-resource-and.html">Pmail</a> - a vision to change the way we make email communication. Today I am suggesting something more easy to implement but still having huge impact - 'Block Reply All' button and 'View the Conversation' button. Here is how it should work.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i style="font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;">You receive an email which was sent to multiple people. You find that the subject does not interest you. You click 'Block Reply All' button for that email and no further Reply All will be sent to you - but the same time sender will not receive any failure message(to to keep things straight from legal perspective in the sent emails the </i><span style="line-height: 16px;">recipient</span><i style="font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;"> list will be updated only to the people to whom it was sent). </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i style="font-style: normal; line-height: 16px;">There may be a need in the future that you want to reference that email or you want to see what was the latest decision made on that conversation. You can then click on the </i></span></span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">'View the Conversation' button in the original email and voila - you see all the history!</em><br />
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<br />
It is difficult to reach the top...but it is more difficult to stay there for long. It is so painful and lonely! Most of the world will envy you; try to bring down you. You will be encouraged to show-off. The noise of popularity will be enough to derail your focus. You will live in world of fear - a single mistake and you are out!<br />
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So hat's off to legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Bill Gates...they not only reached to the top but kept their cool & focus. The excelled in their profession but more importantly they were able to manage their focus, their own personality, their own life. It is tough...really really tough!</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-18932267785348124792012-01-07T11:44:00.003-07:002012-01-07T11:50:13.956-07:00Patents help Law Professionals - and not Innovators<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Huge waste of human energy...What do you think?<br />
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<a href="http://frugaldad.com/patents/"><img border="0" alt="patents infographic" src="http://frugaldad.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Patents.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Source: <a href="http://frugaldad.com/">http://frugaldad.com</a><br />
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</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-12711653391022753352011-12-26T21:29:00.001-07:002011-12-26T21:31:18.603-07:00commoditized<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All Products and Services can be categorized into two types - Premium and <span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;">commoditized.</span><br />
</span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a buyer try to convince the seller that his/her Product/Solution is <span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;">commoditized.</span><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a seller try to convince the buyer that he is getting a premium service and he need to pay appropriate price for it. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keep in mind, convincing is not easy if the claim is grossly wrong. So you need to position your play appropriately.</span></div></div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-66249844510814811722011-10-31T00:00:00.001-07:002011-10-31T00:03:57.502-07:00What HR heads can learn from Cruise and Airlines industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Short answer...Loyalty Programs to reduce Total Cost of Ownership. Continue reading for the long answer.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Let me be very clear..this advice will not help all the HR Professionals. Many HR Professionals (Headhunters/Job Portal companies etc.) will actually hate the plan because if implemented properly most of them have to close down. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who will love the plan..I think everyone except those HR Professionals. Customers, Co-workers and Managers - nobody loves to work with a person who is new in that role and who do not have complete information. Nobody wants to train a person from </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">scratch and then loose that talent one day and start the process again. Attrition is costly - and the cost is generally underrated. Depending on the industry and the role that cost varies - but I think most don't appreciate all the cost implications of attrition. We generally consider the substitution cost (extra salary/compensation (which sometimes are as high as 100% or more) which needs to be paid to attract similar talent to fill that position) but don't account for the loss in customer confidence, extra hours lost by co-workers in knowledge transfer process and loss in intellectual insight when a person leaves the organization. From an employee perspective as well it may be beneficial - considering the pain of relocation, adjusting to the new office work-culture and extra work needed to create a good brand image. So it is a win-win.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Problems understood, what's the solution? My view: Organizations need to implement the best practices from the Best-run Loyalty Programs in the industry - airlines and cruise industry. Airlines have one of the most liberal rewards (loyalty) program in the world which actually creates a lot of stickiness. Cruise lines offer something unique - they provide repeat guests VIP treatment by inviting them to special parties, bon-voyage gifts or </span><em style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Champagne</span></em><em><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal;">, priority embarkation, great rates for the next cruise etc. Result - </span></em><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">cruise industry enjoys a very high-level of repeat clientele.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Organizations need to understand there are two pieces for employee loyalty - monetary (tangible) and emotional (intangible). Monetary parameters are important - nobody likes to stick to the same company if he sees that even the best performance for next 10 years cannot match the salary he can gain by a single switch. Companies need to understand the market forces and go for more personalized, more real-time approach towards compensation(why not increase someone's salary 15% when you need to pay at least 30% more for a substitute talent) .</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the same time companies need to understand a very important piece of the puzzle which is seldom appreciated. How you treat people, how you give them more opportunities, how you empower them, how you respect them (here is great<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Sticks-Dont-Work-Engagement/dp/0071714014">book on this</a>), how you make their life more easy is as important as how much you pay them. Learn from cruise industry - create special benefits for the people who have shown loyalty - it may be extra leaves, special bonus rates, invitation-only parties - there are no limits on innovation in this space.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Caveat: Loyalty programs are not for everyone. Companies do not like loss-making customers or</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bad-performing employees and do everything needed to get rid of them - and that is perfectly acceptable (I love Jack Welch theory of eliminating bottom 10% every year). What is not acceptable is treating good talent without special recognition.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-11047184126726880572011-10-21T17:15:00.000-07:002011-10-21T17:15:35.324-07:00Rent a Toy!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Kids have interest for new toys only for few days if not for few hours.<br />
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Don't you think Toy renting is a wonderful business case?<br />
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But probably just want the parents to buy a new one for them..they probably don't care about economics.</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-90011491197995954302011-10-19T10:51:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:51:04.070-07:00Yearly Driving Training can create Huge impact<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Practical Tips - choose the class as you need. You can't do Parallel Parking - take a session. You do not know how to change lanes - take a class. If you want to take all the training - you can do it all.<br />
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I think this will drastically improve the driving skills of americans and drastically reduce the number of accidents. Other benefits include lower insurance premium, less carbon footprint and more importantly lot of saved lives!<br />
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Insurance companies/governments should sponsor such training programs as that will lower much of their cost.</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8767610140063188521.post-19577892105344084452011-10-12T21:54:00.000-07:002011-10-12T21:54:45.617-07:00All you can eat - Is it a good deal?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It's a bad deal for both Consumer and Solution Provider...<br />
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Consumer pays more because generally the Package is charged at a higher rate by the Solution Provider(who wants to minimize the risk of cost overrun).<br />
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Consumer wastes resources, instead of mindful quality consumption consumer focuses more on quantity of consumption - only because he has already paid the price.<br />
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Why it is generally a bad deal for Service Provider?<br />
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(S)he needs to take the risk of cost overrun and estimation errors. There is also a risk of bad press due to bad quality - if you have tried a-la-carte and buffet in the same restaurant, you know the difference in quality. The restaurant owner cannot just afford to provide the best quality food in a buffet.</div>Abhisekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02834307852346124521noreply@blogger.com0