Improving your Personal IT productivity

1. Customise and refine your gmail account:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/8094947.cms

2. Install wordweb software for offline instant access for dictionary meanings and alternative words while writing documents

3. Install Adobe Flash plugin, Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight plugins for non-prohibitive access to all webpages.

4. Preset webpages to be loaded when you open a new browser using the settings in the browser.

5. Block pop-ups from the browser settings with exceptions to certain sites.

6. Have a handy searchbox (google/bing/yahoo) in the browser.

Aligning the interest of govt. and its people

There is a serious lack of alignment in the interests of the government and the collective of the people ruled. How else can anyone explain the future government's intention to liquidate the state/country in the name of helping the poor people.

Take the example of Tamilnadu. The DMK government came to power promising a television for each household (along with )if they win the election. They won the elections and this time upped the ante. Now, they want to give grinder or mixie to all the women. Plus, a laptop to all the students studying in govt. and govt aided colleges. The opposition party, AIADMK, is desperate to win and is playing the DMK's card even better. If they win the election, they promise to give grinder, mixie & a fan to all the women. Students of govt, govt aided and private colleges will get a laptop each and even class 11 and 12 students.

One question that begs to be asked here is: at whose cost? Is it at the  leader's personal cost? Of course not. It is with OPM. Other People's Money. In this case, the very people they will rule.

This problem is occuring and re-occuring due to two different reasons. One, the politicians and the government say that the ultimate test is people's vote and thats all that counts. Easy for them to say. After all, they have no stake or interest in the common people and it is the people who are going to suffer in the medium to long term.

They are no KPI (Key performance Indicators) that their bosses(the common people) or an independent arm of the government have setup or are monitoring. And there is no reward/punishment for the government and its officials based on these KPIs. The KPIs are usually used as a passive parameter to compare the policy initiatives with the effect on the ground by statistical organisations and is used more for academics and deciding policy directives. They are not currently being used as a strict performance measure of the government based on which its rewards are based.

Two, the government is able to exploit the differences between the poor and the others (working middle class and rich). The non-poor have televisions, fan, can afford spending on gold in marriage, etc. The poor on the other hand cant think of months or years ahead when they are focussed on earning their next meal to survive another day. This difference in interests gives the government ample leverage to play the pro-poor populists game while ignoring the long term impact of the decisions. This is equivalent to selling the family silver to get some income to dispose off immediately. I am not against poor, but providing televisions to all of them doesnt serve the purpose of taking them out of poverty. Where will they keep the television? Whats the use of the TV if the government doesnt have enough money to setup power plants and hence doesnt provide electricity to run the TV.

This problem of differed interests in similar that of secured and unsecured lenders in case of a distressed company. While the secured lenders would like a restructuring to happen and turn around the company, the unsecured lenders would like to see the company liquidated. The secured lenders have nothing much to lose as they have security cover over what whatever amounts have been lent. On the other hand, the unsecured lenders have some amount of money to get out of liquidation and if the restructuring doesnt turn the company around, they lose everything. One of the solutions used to align the interests of the secured and unsecured creditors is the concept of strips. Here, all the debt(secured and unsecured) is pooled up and stripped into equivalent pieces. So now, each creditor has both secured and unsecured portions in his 'strip'. Once, these strips are there, all the lenders can come to the best effective way to solve the problem (restructuring or liquidation) based on the business risks involved. 

A similar approach needs to be planned and used to align the interests of the poor and the non-poor so that the government doesn't play the divide and rule game with its people. I am yet to figure out how to make the 'strips'.

Value

"Value lies in the mind of the Beholder"

Congizant India: another Enron/Satyam?

Congizant Technology Solutions has come a long way from being a mid size player to a heel behind the third largest IT company (Wipro) and will soon overtake it. The growth it has seen in the last three years has not been even matched by one of the peers and is far ahead of the peers(TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech,etc). I have a few friends in this company who have been lucky to get 200% bonuses (never ever heard of in IT companies). I asked a few of them, what is the reason for this tremendous growth in topline and profits? All of them say "I really dont know." Nobody I talked to clearly is able to tell me what magic they have done in getting new businesses and maintaining margins.

This answer sounds similar to a few earlier cases. The magic of Enron seemed to be accounting. Satyam was not far behind, though they used magic to just show the industry growth level.

The lack of clear insight and understanding of what CTS did to get the outperformance even from their rivals is whats startling.

I just hope it is not one of the Enrons' or Satyams'.

Procrastination

An excellent article on Procrastination (long but worth it)
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/

Chocolate Bonds

Financial innovation and returns have never been sweeter and more delicious (literally, really) :D

The company has issued bonds for which the coupons are not paid out in cash, but in chocolates :)

http://www.springwise.com/retail/chocolatebond/

mmm....mmmm....

Funny business quotes

• Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. John Ciardi
• The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. Lilly Tomlin
• Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining. Old West quote
• When you assume, you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me.”
• The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. Roy L. Smith
• Eagles soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
• Every employee rises to the level of his own incompetence. The Peter Principle
• Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Cyril Northcote Parkinson/Parkinson’s Law.
• The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.
• A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. David Brinkley
• A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
• She should go far. The sooner she starts, the better.
• The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of its behind. Joseph Stilwell
• Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. Sloan Wilson
• The wheels are turning, but the hamsters are all dead.
• Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.
• I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw
• If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you’ll get change.
• There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it? Kin Hubbard
• If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?
• There’s an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. Peter Drucker
• By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. Robert Frost
• Accomplishing the impossible means only the boss will add it to your regular duties. Doug Larson
• Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill
• A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it. William Feather
• The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you. Bette Midler
• Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. TS Eliot
• If you would like to know the value of money, try to borrow some. Benjamin Franklin
• Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. George Burns
• If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges.
• If you don’t know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route. Malcolm S. Forbes quotes
• It is better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money. PJ O’Rourke
• Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairing. Billy Rose
• It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. Adlai Stevenson
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. WC Fields
• Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
• If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style. Quentin Crisp
• Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
• A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.
• All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. Mark Twain
• If at first you don’t succeed, try management.
• Indecision is the key to flexibility.
• If at first you don’t succeed, take the tax loss. Kirk Kirkpatrick
• Aim low, reach your goals, and avoid disappointment. Scott Adams/Dilbert
• Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes. Lewis Grizzard
• The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. Oscar Wilde
• In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there’s no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities. Les Claypool
• Do not underestimate your abilities. That is your boss’s job.
• Right now, this is a job. If I advance any higher, this would be my career. And if this were my career, I’d have to throw myself in front of a train. Jim Halpert/The Office
• Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure. Earl Wilson
• Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte
• There’s nothing so improves the mood of the Party as the imminent execution of a senior colleague. Alan Clark
• A consultant is someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time.
• An expert is someone called in at the last minute to share the blame.
• Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.
• For maximum attention, nothing beats a good mistake.
• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell
• http://www.businesspundit.com/100-funny-business-quotes/

What motivates people?

In diagrams

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