I was watching the democratic Presidential debate today on CNN. There was one question from Wolf, the host of the show from CNN that said since both the democratic candidates (Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama) do not have experiences in managing business so how they think they will be successful in managing the Presidency of the United States of America.
I was just amazed at the rationale of the question. The President of the United States of America is the most powerful political position in today’s world. It is too presumptuous to think that a business experience is required to be successful in being the President.
The most powerful political position needs a vision, a vision that can unite all the people of this country to a common cause, a vision that can ignite people to give their best in achieving and sharing the vision. The President need not be answerable to the shareholders as it happens in a business but a President need to look after the interest of the common citizen and the entire Nation. A President need not necessarily think of making profit that is the hallmark of any business but a President needs to create the infrastructure that drives the entrepreneurial spirit of the country.
Back in India, President Abdul Kalam was not a businessman. However, his vision of “Developed India” by 2020 reverberated with most of its citizen. This vision created a ripple of positive energy that flowed throughout the country. That’s the hallmark of a leader and that should be the hallmark of the President of the most powerful country of the world.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Coconut
When I see my daughters growing in US I can’t sometime avoid pausing for a moment and think as to what values and customs they are imbibing. As an immigrant we have to sacrifice the whole nine yards in terms of Indian customs and rituals that you are so used to back in your own country.
It’s a valid statement that the new generation is always better than the previous generation. It’s because of this adaptability of mankind that the human race has survived till date. The new generation always finds ways and means to adapt to the ever changing social fabric.
It’s so true in case of Indian kids growing in US. While they want to learn the nuances of their adopted country they are keen to carry the traditions of Indian culture if explained with proper perspective. My elder daughter, Tanya argues that she need to go to school keeping her hair open. Since I have grown in an environment where girls go to school with their hair tie in breads and ponytails, I sometimes wonder if I am carrying the responsibility on my shoulder to keep the traditions alive. Why can’t I allow my daughter to go with her hair open? What’s so wrong in that? Why I am trying to become a policeman if certain custom and tradition does not make sense to my daughter especially in US? She must be allowed to grow and flower by providing her an environemnt that is seucre, logical, psoitive and entrepreneurial.
There are some more examples where I don’t endorse easily the way certain activities get performed by my daughters. What I fail to realize is that the rate of change in modern times are much faster than what we saw when we were small. We should not drag and impose our opinions on our kids rather we must allow them to appreciate the options by listing the pros and cons of each option. We need to make them informed rather than be judgmental.
Indian kids in US especially the ones that might have spend a few years in India are anyway doing great by adopting the change of moving to a new country and a new culture. They work hard to keep getting assimilated in the new culture while carrying some burden of maintaining Indian traditions and customs. We should always encourage them to continue adopting the good values from both India and US. This will make them better citizens and parents later in their life. Instead of being judgmental we must always encourage them to understand the pros and cons of choices in front of them.
If you really think for a moment then Indian kids in US are like coconut, brown from outside and white from inside. Hope our kids will assimilate the best of traditions and values from both the countries and become a global citizen to work towards peace and prosperity of mankind.
It’s a valid statement that the new generation is always better than the previous generation. It’s because of this adaptability of mankind that the human race has survived till date. The new generation always finds ways and means to adapt to the ever changing social fabric.
It’s so true in case of Indian kids growing in US. While they want to learn the nuances of their adopted country they are keen to carry the traditions of Indian culture if explained with proper perspective. My elder daughter, Tanya argues that she need to go to school keeping her hair open. Since I have grown in an environment where girls go to school with their hair tie in breads and ponytails, I sometimes wonder if I am carrying the responsibility on my shoulder to keep the traditions alive. Why can’t I allow my daughter to go with her hair open? What’s so wrong in that? Why I am trying to become a policeman if certain custom and tradition does not make sense to my daughter especially in US? She must be allowed to grow and flower by providing her an environemnt that is seucre, logical, psoitive and entrepreneurial.
There are some more examples where I don’t endorse easily the way certain activities get performed by my daughters. What I fail to realize is that the rate of change in modern times are much faster than what we saw when we were small. We should not drag and impose our opinions on our kids rather we must allow them to appreciate the options by listing the pros and cons of each option. We need to make them informed rather than be judgmental.
Indian kids in US especially the ones that might have spend a few years in India are anyway doing great by adopting the change of moving to a new country and a new culture. They work hard to keep getting assimilated in the new culture while carrying some burden of maintaining Indian traditions and customs. We should always encourage them to continue adopting the good values from both India and US. This will make them better citizens and parents later in their life. Instead of being judgmental we must always encourage them to understand the pros and cons of choices in front of them.
If you really think for a moment then Indian kids in US are like coconut, brown from outside and white from inside. Hope our kids will assimilate the best of traditions and values from both the countries and become a global citizen to work towards peace and prosperity of mankind.
Rat Race
I was sick a couple of weeks back. I was having fever. It was probably the first time in US that I fell sick and was unable to attend to work. It was Thursday. I managed to work from home and take care of a few important things. Somehow, I managed to work on Friday too though from home.
I was quite sick on Saturday but recovered a bit on Sunday. I was feeling weak but may not be running any temperature. I was thinking there is still no way I can go to office. When I retired for the day on Sunday my body was again becoming hot and seems that the fever was returning.
The next day as usual I have to get up to ensure that I can wake up my daughter to go to school. I got her up and then I took my bath and got ready for work by 8:00 AM. Even for a moment I didn’t let my thoughts to instruct me to take rest as I was quite weak with a bout of flu. Moreover, as an immigrant to a foreign country we don’t have an extended family that would be all around you to buck you up and get you some rest. The work ahead also pushed me to get back to office..
I realized that in a foreign country, even if you are sick, the social and work environment pushes you to get back on your feet and keep working. That makes me further realize that I am officially in the rat race.
I was quite sick on Saturday but recovered a bit on Sunday. I was feeling weak but may not be running any temperature. I was thinking there is still no way I can go to office. When I retired for the day on Sunday my body was again becoming hot and seems that the fever was returning.
The next day as usual I have to get up to ensure that I can wake up my daughter to go to school. I got her up and then I took my bath and got ready for work by 8:00 AM. Even for a moment I didn’t let my thoughts to instruct me to take rest as I was quite weak with a bout of flu. Moreover, as an immigrant to a foreign country we don’t have an extended family that would be all around you to buck you up and get you some rest. The work ahead also pushed me to get back to office..
I realized that in a foreign country, even if you are sick, the social and work environment pushes you to get back on your feet and keep working. That makes me further realize that I am officially in the rat race.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Two Steps
I often wonder as to what an aspiring practice within an organization should do first. Create a sales storm or be ready with the delivery confidence. This is especially true when you are trying to consider delivering value over a long haul.
With little experience that I have I must confess that in a service industry, especially in the IT industry, the delivery capabilities must be two steps ahead of the sales pipeline. It’s quite challenging to argue this point in an organization that tends to think of improving top-line and bottom-line quarter over quarter. The long term fiber of the organization is always sacrificed to achieve short term victory. This causes an unending struggle of forming a solid delivery organization to cater to any sales forecast.
While it’s important for the sales engine to crank to create the buzz in the market it’s doubly important to have a robust delivery organization to meet the heightened expectations. Most of the times this means an explicit investment in people and process and demonstrated ability to carry this investment for a certain period of time. My two (steps) cents - May be that’s the difference between a successful organizations and the rest.
With little experience that I have I must confess that in a service industry, especially in the IT industry, the delivery capabilities must be two steps ahead of the sales pipeline. It’s quite challenging to argue this point in an organization that tends to think of improving top-line and bottom-line quarter over quarter. The long term fiber of the organization is always sacrificed to achieve short term victory. This causes an unending struggle of forming a solid delivery organization to cater to any sales forecast.
While it’s important for the sales engine to crank to create the buzz in the market it’s doubly important to have a robust delivery organization to meet the heightened expectations. Most of the times this means an explicit investment in people and process and demonstrated ability to carry this investment for a certain period of time. My two (steps) cents - May be that’s the difference between a successful organizations and the rest.
Cytokinesis
A few days back I was reading with my daughter about human cells. As we all know human cells divide themselves and keeps on increasing their number. However, I was amazed to find the precision and the planning from mother nature that goes into a cell division.
A human liver cell for example, divides itself in around 22 hours.
-The first stage is called interphase that takes around 21 hours. During this phase the cell grows (9 hours), then copies the DNA (10 hours) and finally prepares for the division (2 hours)
-The second stage is the Mitosis that takes 1 hour during which the cell divides.
-The third stage is the Cytokinesis that completes the cell division
I was wondering when nature takes so much time to plan before executing the plan (in this case around 21 hours to plan and 1 hour to execute), why we cannot take a lesson and provide the importance to plan during the typical software project development. Just imagine billions of cells in the human body continuously takes around 96% of the time in planning and 4% time in executing the plan with practically zero error rate.
Most of the time the important stakeholders in a project spends exactly the opposite % of time in planning and executing the project as compared to mother nature. May be that's the answer to more than 96% failed project in terms of meeting their original needs
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