10 Ways to Grow Talent in Your Company

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You must've seen many people leave companies and institutions sighting the reasons "I don't see myself growing here!" or "It's been 10 years and I'm still doing the same thing I did when I joined the company. So, I'm quitting!" This isn't new to you or me, but many a time, such comments are treated as a trivial one. In continuation of my earlier two articles on Acquiring Talented Individuals and Retaining Talented People, I will like to touch upon the Growth aspect of people in this one.

Our Secret Ingredient is Our People - Part II

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In my last article, I tried to bring out the importance of hiring the right people for your company. We did look at some of the areas to focus on and some of the best practices in acquiring the right set of talented and passionate people, and also some good practices that companies follow today. This article is going to be the second one of the three part series where we will look at another critical piece of the puzzle - Retaining People.

Our Secret Ingredient is Our People - Part I

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Yes, you read the title right! How many of you have this as the core mantra of your company or business? In a world where everything is viewed as a commodity whose value essentially keeps fluctuating, the people factor is the only thing that can reap constant (often increased) returns. What the heck am I talking about, you may wonder. But I think the picture from a Wendy's wayside billboard advertisement says it all!

Today, with advancement in technology and with just enough cash in hand, acquiring
a set of technology tools and a bunch of people to work is no big deal. For this discussion I'd like to focus on just  the people factor. How many of you believe that the single most important and influencing factor of your business is your people? Of anything that goes into making of a company or a

The Common Sense Approach To Process Improvement

This is an outcome of a discussion I was in yesterday; a discussion that I would classify as one of the most interesting discussions in my recent past. It all started with just one statement one of the people made in the room –

I’ve been wanting to do a certification in LEAN and Six Sigma as I feel that will help me bring about a lot of improvements in the way my team and my organization works.

Soon enough the room witnessed some decent knowledge sharing; LEAN, Kaizen, Six Sigma and someone also brought in Agile. Quiet keen on listening to what each one had to say, I kept my views for the end. Then came my chance, when one of them asked if I had used any of these at work or elsewhere. I thought for a moment and said –

5 Things You Will Like To Try

Finally, I have decided to re-start my blogging! Like I did mention in my New Year Resolutions post in December 2009, this has been one thing I’ve wanted to get going regularly, but has always been limping. To begin with, I thought of telling you what I’ve been up to these days. Hmm…no..I’m not going to tell you about a magic potion concoction I’ve been working on….but on some things that I’ve discovered, seen, done and enjoyed. Here are five of them -

1. Flipkart.com – I’ve enjoyed this website the most. Bought more than about 5 books so far, and I’ve enjoyed the experience of buying a book the most with Flipkart. Here is what I’ve observed about their service – Neat packing, Prompt delivery, Zero Disappointments (they have almost every title!) and of course Nice Discounts! Kudos to the folks behind Flipkart – Keep up the good work!

Creativity, Innovation and Organizations

Here is a very interesting video that gets you thinking on some of the fundamental understandings on incentives, organizations, innovation powered by mind boggling animation by RSA....Check out. For readers of my blog, do visit my blog to view the video.

Snake Robots

Yes, you read it right - It's about Snake Robots.



Howie Choset is an associate professor and the director of the BioRobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. For more such interesting news and videos on Robots, go here.

For my readers who are viewing this by email, do visit my blog link as this is a video

3D Models from WebCams

Here is something really interesting - A software that builds a 3D model of an object as you rotate that object in front of a webcam!



Check out ProFORMA from University of Cambridge's Engineering Department.

For my readers who are viewing this by email, do visit my blog link as this is a video.

1234567890 Day - It's Once and Forever

In a world that's changing so fast, it takes more than sheer alertness to notice smaller wonders. But this time around, it's something to do with the time itself. Yes, in less than two days from when I write this article, the world is going to be getting a chance to celebrate the 1234567890 Day! Woah...what's this curiously sounding day all about? Read on...

As I write this article, my clock shows 9:06AM on Thursday the 12th February Indian Standard Time. In just about a day, 19 hours and 54 minutes from now, the UNIX time will equal '1234567890'!

When most of the people in this part of the world will be celebrating Valentines Day on the 14th Feb, the world will have another reason to celebrate by wishing "Happy 1234567890 Day!!!" So, if you are wanting to know the exact time of this unique event, here are the details -

Folks in India can celebrate it on Saturday, Feb 14 at 5:01:30 AM (IST)
Folks in the Pacific Time zone can celebrate it on Friday, Feb 13 at exactly 3:31:30 PM (PST)

So, what are you waiting for? Folks in India should plan to extend your Friday night party to the early morning hours and have your UNIX screen displayed on a large 75mm screen and see the time tick 1234567890!! Probably a toast to in the name of 1234567890 would get the promoters of this unique day (Colin and Andy) a greater reason to celebrate!

Advanced wishes for a Happy 1234567890 Day!! (Aint this sound 'cooler' than the much beaten Valentines Day!?!) Have Fun!!

Stay Different! Stay Inspired!

PS: For those of you who are celebrating Valentines Day with your loved ones - PLEASE DON'T SHOW THEM THE UNIX SCREEN...YOU ARE IN FOR A BIG TROUBLE!! LOL

Let's Start LIVING, Start THINKING

We are born in this earth not to exist, but to live. That said, many of us just continue to exist. We have been taught to eat, taught to walk, taught to ride a bike, taught to read, taught to write...the list can go on endless. But, one question can make a difference - Have we every questioned these teachings? If so, how many times have we done this? Read on to know more...

How many times in our life do we really question ourselves "Why should/did I do this?". We continue to sit in a room with the lights on, even when the sun is up and shining to illuminate our reading desk. We continue to switch on the television as we read the newspaper because we are used to hearing the news in the mornings. We continue to keep the water tap open while brushing the teeth. We continue to drive down the same route to office (when there may be many shorter/better routes) because we are used to it. Each one of us would have some mundane ways of doing many things. We continue to do what we do because we are used to doing it that way.

Have you observed top sports stars? Have you seen a top runner's training programme? All top runners spend a considerable amount of time observing themselves when they run. Have you ever wondered why gyms have a lot of mirrors? Have you seen body-builders train with mirrors around? These mirrors are not (only) to see how good they look, but to help them observe their training! Observation is the core of all these sports and fitness activities. This is what helps sportsmen and women understand their pitfalls and identify points of improvement. A training programme without observing can prove useless!

Improvement comes when we start observing whats existing today. Observing is the fundamental need for innovation and continuous improvement. For instance, the way governments, industries, transportation systems and others have been operating is precisely the same. They continue to exist.

For a country to grow, the government should stop existing and start working. For the economy to grow, companies should stop existing and start working. For a greener world, industries and the energy sector units should stop existing and start working. Observing today's approaches, processes, systems and analyzing the pitfalls is the key to innovation.

Here is what I would suggest, to infuse innovation in your personal life and professional lives. Spend atleast 10 minutes a day for yourself. Think about how you spent the day, and how you did the things you did. Think of ways that could have made things better. Think of things you could have avoided doing. Think about what you saw on your walk down your company's aisles or your factory's floors. Ask yourself one question - "Why did I do it?" or "Why is this done that way?". Keep answering your question until you get a satisfactory answer. Finally, you have lived your day!

Here is nice video that you might enjoy. Keep Thinking! Stay Creative! Stay Inspired!

Why do I Run?

Every passionate long distance runner on earth would, some(many)time in his/her life, be asked this question-

Why do you have to run such long distances? What is in it for you?

I've been a victim of this kind of a question many a time till date. The most interesting came after my Singapore marathon...and it was-

Why did you have to go all the way to Singapore spending thousands of rupees to just run 42 and odd kilometers? You could have done it in the very place you reside, right?

I could not resist a chuckle when people asked this question. Nevertheless, this question has always managed to set my thoughts reeling. Hence I thought of putting these recurring thoughts in black and white.
In today's fast moving world, one hardly gets time to think about day to day routines. More than often, we end up doing something because we are used to doing it that way. The reason for us doing this is predominantly the fact that the conscious mind concentrates on the main task while giving the subconscious mind the responsibility of doing these mundane tasks.
And because of various reasons, the conscious mind gets loaded with a whole slew of new tasks, that the older tasks get moved into the subconscious mind. This cycle of the mind's working has taken off the comfortable cushion space to think differently and be innovative.
This is the reason the mind starts to get dull and loses the enthusiasm to do anything. I had experienced such a state many a time in the past (before I took up running). That's when I was thinking and realized that -

We work so hard for name, fame and money to eventually be happy. But over a period in time we realize that we've done everything but being happy

Why does this happen? It's simply because the mind has become duller and has lost that glow. A mind that has continuously engaged itself in chasing goals, tends to miss out recognizing achievements. This tendency results in the lack of happiness (as, you always keep feeling "I've not accomplished anything").
Running is something that came by just in time for me. Though it sounds like just a physical activity, Running is a gift in different ways. Running is one single activity, doing which can give you the following benefits - all in one shot! -

• An excellent physical exercise - Shorter your Waistline, Longer your Lifeline!
• Rejuvenates the mind - More oxygen to the brain, more active it gets!
• Cleaner and Fresher skin - Sweat gets the darn dirt out of the skin pores! An increase in metabolism will result in fresh skin faster!
• Stronger legs and back - This greatly helps us stay fit (if your work is in front on a computer, you would appreciate the value of a strong back!)
• Staying closer to nature - What can be better than an early morning run? Hearing the birds chirp and smelling the fresh air...it's Bliss!
• Run your errands - I sometimes shop during my run...Yes! I'm not joking! Ain't it a healthy way to shop?
• Travel and see places - What better excuse can one get to travel to different places to run half or full marathons? It's fun!
  
• Meet people and network - Running on the roads around your place, you are sure to bump into many of your neighbors and exchange a casual HI! Joining running clubs can give you the best experience of networking!
• A feeling of achievement - Running past people with large waistlines, seeing your waistline reduce after some consistent running, finishing longer distances and marathons, etc can give you a sense of accomplishment. Doing two kilometers more or doing a distance faster than before, can fill you with great pride! You don't have to wait for a job promotion or a salary hike!
• Tunes the mind to fight longer battles - Running long distances can impact the mind to persevere and fight the long drawn battles at work and personal life. It fills you with grit and determination!

What more could I ask for? Would you say NO to a cartload of gifts packed in one neat package? Ain't this a good reason to run? So, to you, here is my advise - Step out and start running! Fuel your creativity and innovation....and you are sure to be a winner for life!

Happy Running! Stay Inspired!

Geni, the Genius Genie

Oops...I'm not going to be writing about Genie in a Bottle or a Genie from Alladin's magic lamp. This is the Genie I discovered on the internet some long time ago. This Genie has phenomenally helped me connect to different people in my own family. This Genie has helped me know many unknown people in my own family ...wait...unknown?? Yes, that's correct - unknown. Read on to know more...

In late 2007, during some loose internet searching on a topic related to genealogy, I bumped into this wonder-full website called Geni. As expected from any inquisitive internet searcher, I went ahead and got myself registered with this service. That was it....I never even cared to get back to this website from the next day on (as my objective was different at that point in time - to search for some information related to genealogy).

It was in early December of 2008 (just a few weeks ago!) that my dad suddenly came up to me, asking me if I could help him document our family tree that he had written down long time ago. Ah, that triggered a thought in me - Why don't I see what Geni had in store? Does Geni still exist? As I was in front on my laptop (which I am most of the time!), I quickly went on and revisited Geni....and to my surprise, I did remember the password and username I had registered with!

What has happened from then on is something really spectacular. Today, I am connected to more than 2733 people in my own family!! I've been able to send birthday and anniversary wishes to so many people in my own family, that I was simply amazed by the sheer Human Network this helped me create from within my own family.

From my experience I can say one thing for sure - There is nothing in this world that's more powerful than a good human network! Networking and Collaboration is the key that enables communities, businesses, cultures and policies. Geni precisely does this - enables an ever-growing and self-participating human network within families across the world. Once you add a relative and his/her email address, Geni gives them the power to add people in their family (your extended family!).

Behind the scenes, Geni uses the GEDCOM specification. GEDCOM is a standard file format used to save, transfer, and transport genealogical information. To know more about GEDCOM, here is the Wikipedia page link.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take the plunge! Create your family network on Geni, and I'm sure the rest will fall into place automatically. Begin the new year with everyone in your family!! Good Luck and Best Wishes!

Customer focussed Innovation

In a competitive world, companies have been focusing on the innovation or the 'I' factor in every stage of their value chain - product inception, development, marketing, sales and support. In the technology space, organizations and companies have been focusing a lot to infuse innovative thinking into the minds of their employees. But still, we do see a lot of these technology initiatives failing to see the bright daylight!

The key point that some fail to understand and many fail to stick to, is the fact that innovation should be driven by your customer's needs. The "need to innovate" is a stimuli that has to come from the market or your customers. For best results, the process of innovation has to start from the market and end in the market. The terms market and customers can be used interchangeably.

Here is what I use to explain this factor to everyone (including my customers) -

A 'Customer' to me, is like a Holy Cow. Just because I've invented a new shoe that uses the latest of technologies, does not mean that it would make the Holy Cow happy. I need to spend time and understand what this Holy Cow really needs. Technology is always secondary. It's the customer's need that actually drives my innovation

Stay focused and listen to your customers. That is where your future lies!

Think Beyond Cost Cutting - Managing IT during an economic downturn

Many Indian companies which are into the services outsourcing business, have been going though a rough patch with the rampant recession in the United States. Many Indian services companies have a larger share of customers in the United States. Due to the growing recession, many companies in the United States have been looking to reduce their IT (Information Technology) expenditure. As a result, these companies have started to pull out projects that were earlier queued up for outsourcing.

Over the past decade, many companies (whatever their main business has been), have increasingly got dependent on IT. This has resulted in a greater portion of the investment capital being assigned to IT. It seems like many of the companies have had a stereotyped way of thinking. While they've been thinking of reducing IT costs, they seem to have missed the bigger picture. In many cases, a little bit of extra investment in the right IT initiatives, can help optimize their business and hence save overall costs.

To better understand, let us take a little deeper view into the increased spending by companies in the SAP related initiatives. Many companies have increasingly invested a lot of money into ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) over the past many years. Specifically, many companies have implemented a lot of their ERP processes using SAP. Over time, due to an increased need to have a single IT platform (and other needs like costs, etc), companies have gone ahead customizing SAP to implement a lot of other business processes.

Today, many of these companies have been spending a lot of money to customize SAP to implement some business processes that help them differentiate from their competitors (strategic initiatives). These costs are primarily to manage this customization and the resulting problems/complexity. The truth of the matter is that SAP was designed to manage resource management initiatives/processes and not to strategic initatives/processes. Trying to implement strategic business processes in SAP has resulted in unnecessary expenditure and a resultant growth in complexity.

The above is just one example of how companies catch the tiger by its tail and lose controlove rtheir IT infrastructure. The solution is NOT in cutting these costs, but in investing in the right IT initiatives. Information is the key to any business. By effectively utilizing this information, companies can get deeper and better insights that can add value to their businesses. On the other hand, designing the right and optimal strategic business processes can help businesses reduce costs.

This month's McKinsey Quarterly article titled Managing IT in a downturn: Beyond cost cutting suggests some interesting ways for companies to look beyond cost cutting. It also presents some interesting facts and figures to support the same.

Winners of Slideshare Presentation Contest

Here are the top three winners of Slideshare's World's Best Presentation Contest. I'm simply amazed by the way each of the presenters have taken time and effort to create each of those beautiful pictures. As we see, the key of a good presentation is to hit the right-brain and trigger thoughts from color and creativity.

First Prize:

THIRST

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design crisis)

Second Prize:

Foot Notes

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design inspirational)

Third Prize:

Zimbabwe in Crisis

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: refugee hyperinflation)

For the rest of the winners go here.

Wanted - Writers, Creative minds and Management Trainees

I'm looking for people to build a brand value around something. People with good writing skills, creative thinking and good networking skills can contact me. Even management school trainees looking for real branding experience can write to me.

Will keep the world posted as this unfolds...

The Inventor and the Hunter

An Inventor's life is like that of a Hunter in many ways. The one that stands out is the fact that the Inventor lives in a world of wild ideas and the Hunter lives in a world of wild animals.

• You never know when a wild idea (animal) is going to come by
  
• The more alert you are, the better is your chance of capturing (shooting) the idea (animal)
• The slightest of carelessness can make the Inventor (Hunter) to miss a passing idea (animal)
• There are always plenty of ideas (animals)
• The Inventor takes pride in the list of inventions under his name, and the Hunter takes pride in walking his visitors through his "Hunters Hall of Fame"
• The more experienced the Inventor (Hunter) is, the easier he is able to capture (shoot) an idea (animal)

The only difference is that the Inventor's bowl of ideas has no boundaries - The universe (or more?) is the limit; whereas the Hunter is restricted by hunting zones and boundaries and the man made governances. Thats why Inventors take the pride!

Rocky . Pasta . Running

That might sound very intriguing. Who is Rocky and what does Rocky have to do with Pasta and Running? That reminds me that there is something really common that the three share...Rocky the "Italian" Stallion, Pasta the "Italian" food and running!....well..the "Italian" marathons in Turin (April) and Pisa (May).

Let me first put things right...Rocky was the movie I saw last Saturday, Pasta was the dinner I had last Sunday and Running was what I did the next morning (6th ECR Run with the Chennai Runners). Argh! What am I trying to say? Read on...

I've always been wanting to do a run with a good mind frame. And, last week has turned out to be the most satisfying of all. I've been a fan of Sylvestor Stallone all my life, and have always enjoyed watching his action movies. On Saturday, the 22nd March, HBO showcased four (of five) parts of Rocky, the famous 'cult' movie of the 1980's. The whole day was devoted to Sylvestor Stallone, with the four parts of Rocky followed by Night Hawks and Cliff Hanger.

So whats great about that? Well, the more interesting observation is yet to follow...

The character of Rocky Balboa has been a great inspiration for me for a very long time. The grit with which he trains for his bouts and championships, overcoming all challenges in personal life is something one should learn from. The theme of Rocky ("Gonna Fly Now") originally created by Bill Conti is the best ever music I've heard that totally brings to life, the emotions in a passionate and determined sportsman.

Having heard this music for close to 12 hours (almost) continuously that day, I started to breathe the Rocky way. That night (Saturday night) I hit the bed (forcefully!..to forgo watching Night Hawks and Cliff Hanger) by about 2300Hrs. I had to get up at 0245Hrs the following day to get ready for my 18 mile run. I had my pasta dinner at about 2000Hrs and my mind was totally prepared, and I was bubbling with energy. I could have run all night!

My run turned out to be one of the best ones I've had ever so far. It started to drizzle when I started the run at 0530Hrs, and it kept varying between a drizzle and a constant rain till about 0800Hrs. My shoes were heavy soaked in water and I had to eventually run a bit slower. But nevertheless, my bodymind was completely determined to finish the run and surprisingly, I never felt the tiredness.

This is yet another example of what tiredness is all about. Its the tiredness is in the mind that paves the road to failure rather than the physical body tiredness.

The mind is all-powerful, and its the supreme controller that takes charge of the human. Just spend some little time for yourself to take back control of yourself. The power of creativity, innovation and winning is all inside you...you just need to discover it the right way!
- Yours truely

Like how Nike's mantra goes - "Just do it!"

What is better - Patenting or being a little more Patient?

Here is the story of Mike and Spike. Both were extremely hardworking and creative. They worked together in a big company that was listed in the Fortune 100. Mike has been with the company for more than 10 years and has more than 25 patents to his credit. Spike has been with the company for just about 5 years and has zero patents to his credit.

The company has a policy that states that the patents filed by its employees become an intellectual property of the company, and the name of the employee filing the same will be the inventor. The company also has some rewarding scheme for every patent filed by an employee. Assuming that the patent reward is $1000 (just a rough estimate), Mike should've made about $25000 in the 10 years by just the patent filing process. Hmm...so what did Spike make in his 5 years? Read on...

Spike, on the other hand, was extremely patient. He used to jot down all his brilliant ideas in a piece of paper and work on them in his spare time and weekends. He had a personal computer back home that he used to build prototypes of his ideas and also had many of them working at beta and alpha levels. One fine day, Spike decides to quit the company and start off on his own!

In a span of less than 2 years, Spike's new company "Spikey!.com" starts to make big profits and makes it to the news. The revenues and profits of his startup has now crossed well over $500 million. Apparently, the work that Spike's new company does is in the lines of what his previous Fortune 100 employer did. One fine day, his previous employer approaches Spikey.com offering to buy his company for a very good sum (say...$2billion...Just a ballpark figure). After consulting with his board of directors and shareholders, Spike decides to sell his company for the agreed sum, and joins his old Fortune 100 company as a Vice President of the new business unit formed due to this acquisition!

At this point, we see that Mike is still working hard and patenting all his new ideas, while Spike has shot from the level of a programmer/software engineer (with zero patents!) to a Vice President (of the same company) in the matter of a half a dozen years!

How does this sound? Familiar? Oh yes! This has been going on for many years now. We've seen many millionaires growing this way. So, the moral of the story is that patience and perseverence, coupled together with hardwork and determination, always pays off rich dividends!

So, when are you submitting your next patent? Ahemm....never mind....have a great weekend!

38 Days of 0% Blogging and 100% Learning

To all Subscribers, Readers and Regulars of my blog,

Wish you a very Happy 2008! I know its already February...but its always better late than never :-)

I'm sure many of you have been wondering what this "Blog Break" status on my Twitter means. I've got a decent number of people asking me this question too (Thanks for mailing me!). Well, I had no specific reason for taking this short break from the world of blogging. Having said that, it doesn't mean that the 38 days did not matter much....IT DID! I used these 38 days to take care of myself.

Most of us have been busy doing great stuff around in both our personal and professional lives, that we less do give time to ourselves. We do make it a point to take the car for a service, but never thought that one of the most complex systems - our body - needs some attention!

No, don't move your mouse to the top right side of the window!.....I'm not trying to talk about something philosophical here. Here is the message I would like to convey in this first 2008-post of mine -

"To Change the World around you, Change the World Inside You. Change has to happen from inside"

Have a great year ahead!