"When I am with you and my thoughts are at rest and there is nothing to say, then I will know that my search has ended." Links Anand Musicophile IIMcatwalk Satish The guy who bores you here is Sreekanth, Indian, ex-Software Engineer, management student(IIM Ahmedabad) Enthusiastic at worst, ecstatic at best. View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook Archives 03/01/2002 - 04/01/2002 04/01/2002 - 05/01/2002 05/01/2002 - 06/01/2002 06/01/2002 - 07/01/2002 07/01/2002 - 08/01/2002 08/01/2002 - 09/01/2002 09/01/2002 - 10/01/2002 01/01/2003 - 02/01/2003 02/01/2003 - 03/01/2003 04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 << current

Life 'n' Love                                                         Indian Social Bookmarking  Music  IIMs and CAT       A case for the need for Consultants from Donal Rumsfeld's famous quote Here is the quote: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." I am trying to apply this to companies: There are 3 combinations: known knowns: Since we know these things, we do not need outside help known unknowns: Since we know that we do not know these things, we take training or recruit people or acquire companies to solve this unknowns unknowns: These could hit you hard and this is where I hypothesise that we need Consultants - the McKinseys of the world! Interesting isn't it? Tailpiece: BTW if this framework where to come from McKinsey or BCG it would have 2 axes and 4 combinations. That made me curious what the fourth otion is: It is and here I am extending Rumsfeld, unknown knowns. Prey, what are these? These are things we know, but do not know we know. For an individual this could be what is in the sub-conscious mind. For a company, this could be the knowledge residing in the company which others do not know exists. This is the problem that is solved by Knowledge Management Systems within a company! Effect of caffeine waning. Time to go back to work... Friday, November 17, 2006 (1) comments   Copyrighting my quote about the Internet "Knowing and not knowing are 60 seconds apart!" Friday, November 17, 2006 (0) comments   Food sector Product/Service Idea for India The idea is simple. A healthy balanced diet food combo meal that is packaged and delivered fresh to your house/office mainly during lunch. Genesis of the idea: I have been eating in hotels for 10 years now. Just celebrated the 10th anniversary and I am sick of it. Not because of taste issues or because I am bored. These can be corrected by changing restaurants. What however cannot be corrected anywhere is non-availability of healthy, balanced-diet food. Restaurants are designed for once-in-a-while eaters. They do not recognise the changing social demographics and see that some of the guys n gals are coming everyday. They cannot customise food for you due to various constraints. And they are so uneducated about nutrition and health that the more-than-needed oily food that they serve, lacks proteins and vegetable content. This is a huge problem for bachelors and couples who do not cook. (solutions like keeping a cook at home solve the problem for the older couples and certain segments, still it doesn't solve the problem for everyone) More about the food meal: This is a meal that has the right combination of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins etc and is avaialable in Veg n Non-Veg. It could be a modification of the existing Thali to remove the junk like pooris, oily curries etc. Basically remove anything that is fried and/or oily. Add to this more vegetables and protein-rich components. The food needs to be tasty and you do not get the same thing everyday but maybe same thing with once in a fortnight or something (just so that you can keep eating it and not get bored) Delivery: Made fresh, packaged and delivered to your home or office similar to Dabbawalas. You can order in any city in India through phone or internet. Reliability and freshness is of supreme importance. I want it packaged, preferably in bio-degradable material. Pricing: Can be slightly different city-wise. Let's say around Rs. 70-80 per meal. Promotion: Put some Sani Mirza or Abi Bachchan etc just to make me feel good that I am eating something trendy. (just kidding :-) ) Can someone deliver this product/service combination? I think there will be a huge consumer segment for this. Comments? Sunday, November 12, 2006 (1) comments   India and China are VERY different I had always thought of writing my opinion on this but never got to. But yesterday was the last straw. I happened to read or hear India and China being referred to in the same breath 4 times within one hour over TV and Newspapers. I do agree that there are some similarities like we are both branded as "developing", are fast growing compared to the so-called "developed" countries, are big in terms of size and population. But that's about it. We have: - Different culture: (from my experience)When most Indians meet Chinese they almost have nothing in common. Infact get along better with Westerners than Chinese. - Different political setup: India is a Democracy and is perceived by the world to continue as a Democracy. China never was and no one even expects it to become anytime in the near future. - Different economic setup: India is slowly but surely moving away from a Govt run country to a private enterprise run country. Whatever the goverment runs happens slowly (infrastructure), whatever the private companies run grow fast (telecom). China is largely still a govt run country! But the govt being more dictatorial is much more effective and fast - Different strengths: While both have loads of manpower, China's strength is in manufacturing and India's in services and IT. (Here I am not referring to differences like religion, Architecture, looks or language because these have lesser imapct on economics than the above.) This is not to say that either India is better off or China is. Nobody can predict that. Future is unpredictable. But given these differences, though there are some similarities between the two, the differences are STARK! Their futures are going to be VERY VERY different. Dear Economists, Western businessman, Professors, Book-writers, bloggers and citizens of the world: DO NOT refer to India and China as if they are synonyms! :-) (Smiley is to tone down the whole thing :-) ) Imagine in the 60s when US and USSR where growing together and into similar things like defence and space, there might have been many who talked about them in the same breath! I hope you see the stupidity now. Please do not take this to mean that I am saying that India is like US and China like USSR. The point is that, two countries looking superficially similar, but having deep-rooted differences in culture, politics, economics and strengths can never have the same future. Thursday, October 05, 2006 (1) comments   Due to Adnan Hajj, who photoshop-ped history, now people will say: "Where there is smoke, there is Adobe Photoshop" Tuesday, August 08, 2006 (0) comments   Awestruck by Mumbai I am writing this at a very sad moment for Mumbai. 7-8 blasts have happened in the local trains here. The trains have stopped running for now and there's chaos on the roads. I was just walking around to see what's happening and found some crowding on the road. I approached it to find out more. Suddenly a man from among the crowd turns and asks me "Saab aapko kidar jaane ka hey. (Sir, where do you want to go?)" I found a Lancer stopped on the road and this man and others are busy ensuring everyone get's home in the absence of the local trains! Amazing how in an otherwise crowded and tough city, human values shine through. I am new to Mumbai and had expected it to be a tough experience. I thought I would come here and spent an year or two just because life in India can never be complete without the Mumbai experience. But my short stint here has shown me a totally and unexpected facet of Mumbai. Just the other day I bought some peanuts from a kid who was frying it besides some road. I gave him Rs. 2/- and walked away. This lad calls me loudly and in a "Sir you need to be more careful" way tells me that he gave me just Rs. 1/- worth of peanuts and hands me back a one-rupee coin. Some days back, I felt the taxi-wallah who took me from the airport back home had taken me on a longer path and mentioned it to him. He explained to me in detail why this was not the case and I was convinced. I reach home and then pay him and leave. He calls to me loudly and asks "Saab aap naaraz to nahi hena? (Sir, I hope you are not angry at me.) " Many such small and to a lot people unnoticeable incidents... It is not that I didn't have any bad experiences at all. But by and large I am awestruck by Mumbai. This could be the beginning of a new life altogether! Tuesday, July 11, 2006 (2) comments   The Emperor is naked I just finished reading this very interesting article by Pankaj Mishra in New York Times. This according to me summarises a lot of the confusion surrounding India on whether we have become a developed nation/superpower or not. There’s this economic theory called Lewis’s Dual Sector growth model which is supposed to take countries from Developing to Developed. This model was the foundation stone of Developmental economics. Put simply it states that the marginal productivity of labour in a slow growing sector is near zero while in another one is significantly high. This leads to labour mobility and without any reduction in the slow sector, growth in the other sector. The surplus is reinvested leading to capital stock formation. This process leads to GDP growth. We can crudely put agri as the slow sector and mfgr/IT as the second sector. Long back economists realized that labour mobility is tricky. There is an endowment failure. A farmer cannot become an IT professional that easily. The model doesn’t work at all. India is facing this issue in a big way. The solution, atleast partly, is to solve the endowment failure problem of the poor through better education and access to cheaper credit. These are problems that can be solved. It is an interesting challenge too. Frankly, it is my life’s ambition to make some reasonable savings and then exit corporate world and work on some such projects. God permit :-) Monday, July 10, 2006 (0) comments   Back to Blogging after a two year sabbatical I am impressed by the sheer passion of Ravi in writing and in participating in this whole new expression revolution that blogging has now become. It has sufficiently inspired me to return to blogging after 2 years :-) Monday, July 10, 2006 (0) comments