Integrating multiple excel sheets
Refer to the files on skydrive link
Behave with true urgency
some quick notes from one of the books from howard press:
purge and delegate
Stop and over-crowded appointment diary from making it impossible to behave with urgency
purge low-priority items
cancel distracting projects
delegate, delegate, delegate.
do not allow subordinates to delegate upto you.
move with speed
Use freed-up time to respond immediately to calls, requests for meetings, e-mails on priority issues
Never end meetings without clarity about who will quickly do what and when
speak with passion
Relentlessly talk about the need to behave urgently: move, adapt, and stay ahead of the competition.
Talk with feeling
Make the feeling infective
match words and deeds
Don’t just talk about the external world, look at it constantly.
Don’t just talk about exploiting new opportunities, do it always.
let them all see it
Do all of the above and more as visibly as possible to as many people as is possible. Let them see your sense of urgency.
Content Reviews in Software Industry
We know that this has been most painful area in software industry, almost everyone assumes that what he has done is perfect and problem is further aggravated by other person thinking why should i help author to improve..
there are other reasons too…under the false impression of doing review, people while away their time….many times if review is being measured, people start putting down comments more on aesthetics rather than contesting content to add more value..leading to more wastage of time in meetings and document rework
other areas of concern have been, a document may have been updated and released based on comments received, but some of them might be left out as they were not critical to be rolled out immediately and were deferred..but whenever the next update was taken up, no body thought about the last review and that pending comment..
any startup who has to establish the market reputation not only for lower prices but also for the richness in quality and content has major need for this…at lowest cost. So what could be possible solutions that can enable people do this as best as possible (not perfect though)
a) Some similar tool close to bugzilla that keeps track of comments
b) tool that supports integration to word and adobe
c) tool that gives some calculation driven conclusion if review has been good
d) bookmarking in the document for the location of comment
e) grouping of the comments on basis of location to facilitate quicker meetings
f) online disposition and offline forum based discussion on comments (not same as chat which would require immediate attention of author, rather something like scrap)
g) something that enables to rate reviewers by author at the end of exercise
h) generate statistics on comments per reviewer versus effort spent in reviews
Mr Khattar – Life Lessons at 66
some principles from Mr Khattar’s life that make him work at the age of retirement (66). At that time or even before that fail to work or pass away…And that’s where life does a balance. If there has been discipline and principles based past, you have no regrets on what you did, you would continue to have more energy to work irrespective of age..Shreedharan (Metro Man) and Mr Khattar (I came across today) are live examples ..(pg1)
Note the quote from one of his japanese colleagues, so strong positive thinking pattern..think of two reasons to win and not 100 possible reasons to fail..
btw those who don’t know, he is the champion of carnation, the much awaited concept of brand independent car service station !!
Reading Online – are there tools in free domain ?
To make online reading more useful, not sure why these SW biggies don’t provide such features as
a) Allowing underline a particular text
b) Allowing to highlight
c) Allowing free handwritten notes there
d) Putting a book mark
Searching for some such software if it already exists ?
I guess, these online reading tools like eKindle etc probably would provide such tools
This request is specifically for documents in PDF and Word..
HCL Turnaround – Role played by Vineet Nayyar
These extracts from forbes magzine (pg1, pg2)are worth coming back for an organization that want to see turnaround..Reading this, I feel it is not only Vineet Nayyar who did the turnaround, but the trust and confidence that Shiv Nadar had put in him and gave the opportunity, inspite being poles apart in behaviour..
Few things that are worth noting
a) He put employees first before the customer
b) He put systems (automation) in place to add convenience in trivial jobs
c) He probably is getting stuck with heavy top layer and reporting structure
d) Always friendly approach and majorly deviates from imperial rule
Another that was highlighted by Nadir that HCL has been there in right business all the time, but never caught the bus of milking the cash cow.. He quoted that they had their operating system when Microsoft also just launched i.e. in 1977 !! then they had hardware capability and end to end solution capability when IBM was picking up..and now they probably first time reaping best on their Managed services business..
Whatever was going wrong time and again with HCL tech was probably rightly approached by Vineet with different thinking..sometime that’s what is needed..trust honesty and let others run !
Three commonly heard statements are worth noting:
a) Employee Firs, Customer Second
b) Destroying the CEO’s office
c) One does not need to go to the boss for every little thing.
Nokia Cash back offer !! Taking customer for a ride :)
Watch out the nokia advertisements and the scratch card i recently got from Nokia outlet for E63 purchase…
they say so proudly that you have got this gift..and guess what..
freely downloadable(for anybody), after using premium SMS charges, a wall paper worth not even a signle paise…forget about Rs 3 for the SMS..
so next time you consider such offers as one of the decision parameters for purchasing nokia product, remove it from the list..
you may like to consider ruggedness and good battery life as parameters to compare but not the price part !!…they are clear cheats on that front..
recently i saw the comparison and studied it myself…recommend you also to do that..
N97 versus iPhone versus KM900 and G1 of Android..
N97 costing Rs 30,000 + stands nowhere.
On the other hand E63 was an excellent offer — value for money..
anyways, it’s my opinion based on my personal preferences..
i was looking for a touch phone with keyboard…it was matching pretty well..but then..more features and sleeky, stable phones are there in market…
S. Bagchi – The Professoinal
First impression after i have read first 30-40 pgs, is not that exciting as it was from “Go kiss the world..” There are real life stories, setting up principles in professional life. Somehow, in environment full of corruption, favouritism and moulding law for use of higher authorities, exercising ethics looks impractical. However, it is good guide to cleanse our minds and an organizations way of working..
example quotes on ethical behaviour for professional world
why indians don’t display that frequently ethical behviour as western countries do ?
I agree with S. Bagchi on this and wish if we open our sacred texts and learn how to behave. Gita was probably got to be told to people of this land, as by ages, we don’t have respect for work..rather we respect only position and power. We don’t respect what is right..we respect what benefits oneself. His comment on experiencing what work means, what earning money means, what customer service means gets part of chidren’s curriculum in western world and that instills the values that help them differentiate as they grow between personal and paid up time.
It’s a good buy and a book which you can start reading from any section, probably..
Deperate minds
A real life example: An SMS notification was sent using free SMS site to communicate about festival preparations. One out of 40+ families responded with foul language. He reverted back in similar way everytime message was sent. It was initially assumed to be fake SMS, but later traced it to one of the participants. Apparently, he thought it to be fake SMS and showed his frustration with absurd response. Even if it turned out to be fake, would that be behaviour of sane mind ? and how should that be reacted to ? Is it worth taking head on with such people ? Will it make any difference talking anyway to these “mature” guys.. Just wondering, how they react to marketing SMS..
At one time, I also used to react to marketing calls with angry voice…but now i changed….think of it … what am i gaining out of ?
Will anything change ? Yes !!..your own state of mind, getting more disturbed..as you allowed yourself to enter into that state of mind..
However, your society bring up, does not allow you to stay without any reaction and executing such control sometimes may depress, that one has accepted the insult…but is that true..? how is that important ..
difficult subject to practice than to debate on …!
Some good picks from – Why Elephants can’t dance
First speech before joining IBM
Note sentences –
==> i look for people who work to solve problems and help colleagues. I sack politicians.
==> I am a big believer of quality (first place taken in this sentence), strong competitive strategies(highly focussed from his own responsibility perspective) and plans…
==> Trust on employees to do it fast, affordability to do mistakes
==> Critically evaluates meetings
==> Leaders at all leverl must know business link in their work
Interface with Messed up European team
Customer focus to get more orders
