"When men criticize women, it's called sexism. When women criticize men, it's called feminism"
"When a guy sleeps with many women, he is a stud, while if a woman does the same she is a slut"
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Dirty politics
Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are corrupting the democracy all for their own benefit. They will pass only those bills that will benefit them get more votes or get more money into their pockets. All those bills that will provide benefit to the people at no benefit to the elected people or those policies that make the government transparent, convict criminals and sieze the corrupted properties are never done. Surprisingly, the same is happening in India and the UK despite years of difference. I wonder how China works...the corrupt people who were caught infamously were hanged till death... Any lessons for the other countries from this? Even terrorists are not hanged till death in India....Are you keeping them for being blackmailed for their release? US even hanged Saddam Hussain in a year or so after capturing him. I just wonder...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The Toto Nana Marketing assignment
Absolutely brilliant! :)
Any MBA guy will absolutely love this one and can relate to it very well...
Big views, any takers?
Even Mukesh Ambani http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Think-of-economic-growth-in-qualitative-terms-Mukesh-Ambani/articleshow/5703503.cms backs my view I had expressed some time back in http://ajitjagan.blogspot.com/2010/01/case-of-perpetual-growth.html where I said "The concept of growth has unfortunately moved from qualitative growth to quantitative growth."
Chili Bombs
Reports indicate that military experts in Assam, India, have developed a grenade made using the world's hottest chilli, which is more than 1,000 times stronger than the average cooking spice.
"The chilli grenade is a non-toxic weapon and when used would force a terrorist to come out of his hideout," said lead scientist R.B. Srivastava from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation.
"The effect is so pungent that it would literally choke them," he added.
The hotness of the bhut jolokia, which is native to Assam, in north-east India, is measured in Scoville heat units and comes in at a massive 1,001,304, which is nearly twice as hot as Mexico's red savina that used to hold the record at 577,000.
The average jalapeno measures at about 10,000.
"The chilli grenade is a non-toxic weapon and when used would force a terrorist to come out of his hideout," said lead scientist R.B. Srivastava from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation.
"The effect is so pungent that it would literally choke them," he added.
The hotness of the bhut jolokia, which is native to Assam, in north-east India, is measured in Scoville heat units and comes in at a massive 1,001,304, which is nearly twice as hot as Mexico's red savina that used to hold the record at 577,000.
The average jalapeno measures at about 10,000.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Dreams, Fantasies and Realities
"Some companies in the Initial Public Offer(IPO) sell their dreams, many their fantasies and only a few the realities".
Be careful what you buy!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Doing the unthinkable
A Swedish newspaper gave $1,250 each to five stock analysts and a chimpanzee named Ola, to test who could make the most money on the market in a one-month period. Ola the chimp, who made his choice of purchases by throwing darts at the names of companies listed on the Stockholm exchange, won the competition.
A fluke? Maybe, maybe not.
-- For years, the Wall Street Journal did this every month, enlisting four Wall Street stock experts to pick one stock apiece, and then having someone throw darts four times at the paper's stock listings. After six months they'd compare the average returns on the four stocks the experts picked versus the four stocks the darts hit. Very often, the "dartboard portfolio" won; almost always it beat at least one or two of the pros' picks.
These kinds of studies are often conducted and reviewed by economists, too. Mishkin's textbook has a section on them, titled, "Should you hire an ape as your investment adviser?" Or maybe you don't need an investment adviser...
In another experiment, a four yeard old girl Tia Laverne beat an experienced analyst and a financial astrologer. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Girl+of+five+beats+the+stockmarket+experts+(again).-a083771523
Now why don't the stock market books teach us this technique of investing? The closest the formal books have come to is passive investment strategies involving buying index funds.
After reading such scientific researches, I am having a thought of choosing stocks the chimp way to beat my fund manager...
Friday, March 12, 2010
My Kissing experiments
The more I read and understand, the more I want to KISS. The wiser, more experienced and successful people tend to KISS more. Following their wise footsteps, I have decided to experiment and go K-I-S-S-ing.
Two professors at AIM whom I respect a lot for their knowledge have many a times demonstrated their successful proprietary KISSing techniques. I have been impressed and influenced by Prof.Perez's eyeball technique and Prof.Miranda's pricing technique of KISSing. The eyeball technique is a method of ascertaining interest rates/profits/price of selling,etc for a financial transaction. It involves looking at comparable numbers and arriving at an answer with no Excel modeling whatsoever.
Prof.Miranda's pricing strategy doesnt even need eyes. He owns a shop selling antiques and his pricing strategy involves adding two zeros at the end of the cost he paid to acquire it in the first place.
I have to admit that these simple yet powerful techniques did make an impression on me. The majority of the marketing people on earth push products without any regard to true customer needs. They forcefully make items with very little or no differences and try to sell it as if it were totally new and most urgently required items by the customers. After a few real needs are addressed, they start fooling themselves and everyone else that anything even slightly new is a different and wanted product(After all, they get paid for their BRILLIANT NEW ideas, isnt it?).
Going to a supermarket, why else do I see atleast 20 or thirty different face washes /shampoos /conditioners /soaps,etc from as little as just 4 or 5 companies?
The financial people are no less. They complicate things to get around taxes, rules, use highly subjective words and try finding loopholes to sell their products. (After all, they get paid for selling stuff.)
Why else do I see hundreds of mutual funds with hardly any changes in their objective or style of investing and there has been no consistent winner ever.
Why do lakhs of people go and see some unbelivably bad movies despite hearing many bad reviews of movies. I clearly remember one Shah Rukh Khan movie(cant remember the name) that people bad moouthed from the start after seeing it and still I knew many people who wanted to see it.
They saw it and they cribbed saying they had wasted their money. Did those morons want to actually pay and see how bad a movie can be?
These things have taken away a lot of my faith in a lot of subjects and even in people and I tend to ask myself "Is this for real or just a hype/forced selling/fashionable today?"
If you have come so far, you would be wondering what a deranged mind I have derailing from KISSing. Well, I have come to the conclusion that I will not get excited and anxious about the various things that will keep happening around me and continue to just keep it simple, stupid!
For some of you, who still haven't figured it out yet: KISS is an abbreviation for "Keep It Simple, Stupid" principle :)
For some of you, who still haven't figured it out yet: KISS is an abbreviation for "Keep It Simple, Stupid" principle :)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Giving generously
I promise today that I will give back much more than I get.
Especially to the people who offer me credit cards on phone.
Working in a bank, I got a call from a rival asking me to go for some of their products. I told them I was not interested and kept the phone down. But not the next time. I will interrupt them and counter offer them my bank's credit card with a lower interest rate and dreamy deals. :P
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