Meeting, Openletter, Kungfu, Calendar

I had an interesting experience yesterday. As indicated in my earlier posts, we have decided to buy a flat and signed an agreement in August 07 with the promise that the house would be completed by May 08. Renaissance builders, who are building park III(The apartment built by Renaissance Holdings) are less than open about the changes in overall plan of the apartments as well as Inordinate delay. So all of us met yesterday (Saturday) in their office and had a meeting. Needless to say, the 50 of us, (Out of 100 potential owners) had a tough time controlling our emotions in check ofcourse we have a great spokesperson in Mr Suparna. This was kind of first time experience for me as meeting I usually attend at work or never about life or survival as it was for some of the people who had been asked to vacate their present dwelling and move out. What saddens us was the kind of hide and seek played by the Renaissance management with no formal communications over the last 15 months to us on reasons for delay, or when they would complete or would there be a kind of compensation. The senior management also sometimes seem to disappear letting junior staff manage the gauntlet. I was kind of fortunate that the time overrun for my flat is less than 5 months where as I did meet people who had booked 3 years back and had been promised possession in 2007. Such are the shape of things. So an experience!! While we appreciate, understand that the present recession conditions have made situation of builders funds, resources to make things happen slow and delay ( I just read delay of 2 years in Boeing, airbus!!), what is expected from them is honesty, transparency, and commitment to deadlines or timely communication when things tend to go off track. So much for professionalism I suppose. We hope that things move for good from hereon, and hope that construction completes in say next 4 months and that we should move to park III by May09.

I was moved by the open letter to our Prime minister by an IAS Officer. He had expressed his disappointment over his performance as well as him tolerating mediocre bureaucrats over the last straw on the camel back- the Mumbai carnage. Would some change happen!! I wonder like other incidents we will forget and move on after a victory in a cricket match.

My Son over the weekend persuaded me to sit with him and watch the movie Kungfu Panda. Comedy / cartoon movie it was, I could correlate many leadership aspects in the movie. The ability to be ready for challenges in unforeseen situation, determination to learn and win, strive for excellence as well as success is all due to positive mental attitude were some of the great take away. Worth the 90 Minutes on a Friday night!!.

As the year is coming to an end I was looking for 2009 calendars in excel format and came across this magic calendar. Lot of useful information on almanac, distances to cities etc to work through.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

DISGRACE, Top 10 management guru, 7S

I had a first hand experience this morning of the inept and incompetent way as well woeful lack of infrastructure at BIAL airport. I had gone to receive my brother who was returning from his stint in Oman(for the past 2 years). Due to the usual problem in Winter (Today was the first of many for the next 2 months) of high FOG early morning at Bangalore the flight was diverted to Madras. I had to wait for 4 Hrs from 6am there as the airport is so far away from city centre(30 Miles) that it is impossible to return home and go back. I saw the pathetic state in which I always call BIAL as match box airport, (Some of the people referred as Dignified bus stand) being exposed, there was no drinking water fountain, no toilets, no telephone booth, no place to sit for people waiting for passengers, no announcements, no help desk and to cap it all the access to common visitor area was closed due to so called security reasons which is not a surprise as in any public sector institutions the withdrawals are always faster. What shame, disgrace to inherit such a public infrastructure. And to add insult to injury, the arrival section is such a mess that visitor can go out from any gate without knowing there is no coordinated channel. My brother did come out after 5 Hrs delay( NO instrument landing system here!!) and the parking lot was chaos with more than 30 minutes waiting to get in to the car. It is an insult to the people of Bangalore and how they could be taken for a ride. Can we do something!! Nothing you bet!!!!!.

I will leave with the top 10 management gurus who has taken shape.
Came across this 7 S principles for strategy. Good one.
Sorry to leave it short time to catch up with brother after 2 years as he is just spending a day here.

Till next week, take it easy and take live consciously.
Karthik.

Waiting for Rumsfeld, Gauntanomo, Homeland security

I am still to recover from the shock and awe that was meted out to the city which I love most and spent 20 years of my life. While we in India are philosophical and leave things to fate and destiny and are witnessing with a sense of helplessness over the last 16 years, the events over the last 4 days as come as the last straw on the camel's back. I am as angry as anyone else could be. Innocent lives lost, women, children not spared!!. Deaths runs in to 100s. I just wonder where the solution to all this lies?. I agree that terrorism has become part and parcel of life and you need to be professional to face it and hope that you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time. But at the same time, the civic infrastructure, the governance process has to be an enabler so that the sense of confidence exists in individual. As usual, Indian media did the screw up!!. I was wondering whose side they were on!!!. Yes, I did a see a great placard on the TV.
Terrorists have no face but a great agenda that you can see.
Our politician have a face but only have Hidden Agenda, which you cant see!!!.

I am all for human rights, liberties, right to information etc. But some amount of law that goes to make a proactive approach is required. Yes, it all begins with leadership, which is a big vacuum. I think to set right, even if we need Rumsfeld or a Gauntanamo to work a better system, so be it!!!. If safety and security of homeland has to come at a price of little less freedom, expression and human rights to some extent, I think I am willing to let go a bit less as a prisoner with restrictions. So be it!!!.

Yes, Bangalore, did have its loss in the form of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the NSG commando who lost his life. I salute all the officers and the Mumbai policemen who gave up their life, so that many Mumbikar can live to see another day. May their soul rest in peace!!.

JAI HIND.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live conciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Drucker, Damp Squib, Gomad thinking 11/22/63

Celebrations are on from this week to mark the 100th Birth anniversary of Peter Drucker, looking for updates here.

I rarely write about negative things, keeping those feelings to myself. But the exception this week as I cant just hold on to myself and here I go. The Leadership summit which I tracked over the web. (Yes,that was a good initiative) The event was a damp squib, barring a couple of sessions. The questions asked were mediocre with no aspect of innovation or probing (9 out of 10) The presenters, moderators were forgetting that they were going out live to the world. The interactions were closed ended with leading/loaded questions. If this the quality of leadership, god help us!!!. Our presenters try to ape Larry King or Wolf Blitzer or Tim Sebastian and fail miserably. My American Indian friends who come to India and see our TV shows always complained to me about the lack focus, quality and trying to put close ended questions in a predetermined way. I never realized it till I spent 7 Hours over 2 days in front of the webcast to realize, how right they were. Yes, for me idiot box is never more than 20 min a day, so never looked at the goof ups and pathetic situations that happen. Thank god.!!!!. So watch out for the summits before you commit yourself to the time and energy to spend!!!.

I came across the website gomadthinking, a good site for the podcasts on personal development.

I listened to the excerpts on Principle centered leadership by Dr Stephen Covey. (about 90 Min). A great must listen. Dr Covey covers personal, interpersonal, Managerial and organisational mastery. The more you build trust, the better you grow and trust forms the basis for the growth. Dr Covey also talks about Paradigm shift.
Usually, you never look back and history and wonder as to how different things would have been if things have been as you take it in your stride and move on. 22/11/1963 is an exception. Wonder how different the world would have been!!. I was fortunate to visit the Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston in 2001, to go back to the moments of the past.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

CHANDRAYAAN, 4000, TIPS, Drucker.

First of all My hearty congratulations to the team of scientists at ISRO for successfully launching and completing the CHANDRAYAAN Mission thus planting the tricolor on the surface of the moon. (The idea was that of our former president Dr Kalam). Great acheivement, We, all Indians Feel proud!!.

I am delighted to see that visitors to my web page has crossed 4000. When I put the counter in my web page as a widget, I expected around 500 visitors a year. So that is almost 8 times over. So I guess the search engine is doing its best to pull the visitors to my page!!!. I also should mention that over the past fortnight, my linkedin connection reached 500. That also was unimaginable aspect as most of them is people I know or with whom I have interacted for some reason over the past 17 months. Lets see how things shape up from here. There have been a steady growth of network portals and blogs. Some next generation aspect would emerge soon.

I plan to keep more about IT and Web in this post.

I was delighted to find that Google calendar has the option of sending reminder to your mobile/ cellphone when the appointment occurs and you are not near a computer. You may set this option on settings----> Mobile setup in Google calendar. Cool. The provision to acces google calendar in SMS is yet to be available here in India. Look forward to that soon. Google email has also enabled forward all which can help you to forward all the conversations to a person. Open message and select forward all in the message on the right side bar. For ages, this feature was missing!!. Google has also allowed CONTACTS to export and import in to Excel files and work around for backup. Use the older version tab as an option to do to the task smoothly.!!.


I was desparely looking for printing contents of windows explorer this week to reconcile my printouts and there was no provision in XP or vista for this in MS. I found a help that allows you to do that and helps you print the content of file data. Great stuff from this site Watching the net on tips and tricks. Also as you build up favourites the duplicates can add up and there is a tool in firefox addons to delete the duplicate links in favourites to declutter.

I will end with couple of blog / web info. My good friend and ex collegue Anand Padmanaban has started a blog (Reality bites) on management thoughts. Anand is the CEO of a startup talent assessment company called SurgeForth technologies.

I also found Zig Ziglar podcast very thougth provoking and practical to listen to.

On a personal note my daughter Radha had sent an article to the the National newspaper Hindu on the dilema facing school children on college admission. It was published this week. Way to go for Radha, she wants to be a journalist!!!.

I am also delighted to find that Manager tools has won the best podcast award in business category. (Oscar!!). We all made that happen thro our vote as a gratitude to the great work done by Mike and Mark.

This week was the 3rd death Anniversary of Peter Drucker. I would leave you with the article Managing oneself. A masterpeice, the truth is every time you re- read Drucker, you find a hidden gem to follow and practice. Such was the versatality of that man!!.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; Live conciously.
Regards
Karthik
Bangalore, India.

The Man, Despair, Hot Flat Crowded, TED Briggs.

So the Elections are over and yes it is a personal disappointment for me to have seen John McCain lost the race. I think he did an admirable job in making an effort to turn the tide and it is all the anti incumbency factor. But What our Indian politician should learn from McCain was the concession speech putting national interest first and working for an unified America. Good luck to the new president elect, but it is going to tough times and I think even with the sweeping back up of congress and senate, the damage is much deeper to work miracles.(Some how I am reminded of Jimmy Carter days, lets see!!).
Incidentally, Obama becoming the president has made fiction come true. Back in 1982, I read the novel The Man by Irving Wallace. It is a story of back becoming a president of the united states and faces the consequences. While it was a fiction and strange as they say truth is stranger than fiction, I guess still America is too much divided to still reconcile!! Let's see.!! I always felt sure, that I would for sure see a black president of USA in my life time, A Woman President! I am not so sure!!.( I hope I am proved wrong!!) UK, India and Israel are far more matured to select woman leaders!! that too half a century ago.

Saw an interesting website called despair.com. Interesting stuff to see the views from other perspective. Some times, big issues can be made small by creating a biggest issues!!.HMMMMM. Interesting thoughts.

I have just began reading Thomas Friedman's "Hot flat and Crowded" Interesting approach to global issues.(Energy, Oil alternative, Green issues, Crowding due to expanding middle class). Enegrgy food scarcity, Petro dictatorship, biodiversity loss, climate change, energy poverty are the 5 Key issues when flat meets crowded and leads to a tipping point which should be addressed as per Friedman. I look forward to a great reading.

I agree with Indian are more individualistic in fighting issues. The right to information act (RTI) is not understood and worked out. An interesting discussion here with Shalesh Gandhi the RTI Commissioner.

I read an interesting obituary in Economist of Ted Briggs one of 3 out of 1421 to survive the Hood sinking by Bismark in 1941. It is said that he had resigned himself to death and was thrown up like a champaigne cork in to an air pocket to survive for next 67 years. Still need more proof for GOD????!!!!.
Ok, Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live conciously.
Karthik.

Nickname, Alan Iverson, Get Abstract, Top 10 Airlines

So I guess every one had a good festive time and it is back to business. I had a good time celebrating and went little overboard on sweets which I got to burn out.

I was amazed how the childhood nicknames/ pet name come handy. I had a chance to catch up over phone my junior from my school (Alagappa Model High School) from Karaikudi and we talked about our school days. Still he couldn't place me. So when I told my nick name (I was called Fletcher after England Cricket player/captain at that time Keith Fletcher) he could immediately connect. Such are the power of nickname I guess!!!!.

I was amazed to see the video which my son cherishes as one of his favourtite. Here, Alan Iverson missed a practice basket ball session and justifies. Wonder this in a interview situation. Enjoy. Wonder of Inteview here is a one from Miss. South Carolina when she asked a question. Just to ponder!!.

Came across an intersting Fortune Magazine article, Why talent is overrated?. I agree sometimes, it is an instinct, as well as Being at the right place at the right time to be a considered succesful. Yes, the hard work and perseveration plays it's part too.

Came across the concept of Business book extracts which supplies you the key Summary of the excecutive books which you can read and then decide to buy the book. This is also helpful when you are hard pressed for time to go thro all the books that are out there. I have seen BBR, Soundview before. I came across Getabstract this week. This looks more consolidated with take away from each book. I plan to explore this further, let me see.

Came across an interesting podcast on Wharton/ HBR podcast with author Hal Sarkin on Globality. How competing of 3E (everyone for everything from everwhere). It appears that globalisation is the thing of the past and globality will soon be here. Interesting thoughts!!.Hm.


I was amazed to read that google is thinking of putting up floating server station in seas that would use wind power and sea water cooling to keep stations for storing 1000s of petabyte, Exabyte of data. Wonder where this would all reach as culmination. Remember my early days of computer when 1Mb was a big deal to go crazy.

I finish the week with the results of World's ten best airlines in terms of Service etc. No surprises. There is not a single European or American Airliner in the list. Having traveled everywhere I am not surprised!!. Yes, Lufthansa could have come close, I guess. Singapore Airlines, Quantas, Thai, Qatar, Emirates, Cathy Pacific, Ethihad,Air NewZealand, Malaysian Airlines, Asiana Airlines makes the list.

Ok, Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live Conciously.

Karthik.