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Do you have a plan?

There are two types of people emphasized by Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam in his book "Wings of Fire" and in the movie "Signs" -M.Night Shyamalan.

Simply put, the first type of people take things as it comes and the second type believe that things could be better and strive to change it. According to Dr.Kalam, it is because of the second type of people that the world moves forward. However if you look detached from the issue at hand, either type of people experience the pain. The first type take the status quo as it is and suffer rather than change it for a better life. Whereas the second type don't agree with the current state of affairs and suffer in changing the status quo for a better life.

What is good / right for you? to be of type I or II? Life is a balancing act. But in order to know whether it is worth the effort, one needs to attempt. Without an attempt you would never know. So here comes the question when would one attempt, in what scenarios? There is a worldly order and everyone should grasp their role in that. Everthing on this earth has a meaning. One should identify oneself in the worldly order and how he/she fits in it. This is very subtle but this is the basis of when one should be type I or II. So the answer is not what but when? Once a person understands and gets the big picture and his / her role in the worldly order then the person would know and go with the flow of the order.

Based on your understanding of the big picture and your role in the worldly order you should make a plan for your life. In an interview in NPR by a woman who received a honorary award for community development in brooklyn, NY she mentioned "When you don't have a plan for your community; Believe me, There are others waiting with a plan for your community. So better you decide how you want your community to be."

This applies to every individual as well. So, do you have a plan?

Metrics & Accountability

On a lazy october evening, I was watching the "Cramer mad money" a show in CNBC here in America. I do not like the mannerisms of Cramer and normally do not watch this show. This time, he talked about a topic that first caught my attention four years back- the Metrics. Proper metrics are the basis point of Accountability. Without accountability, there cannot be order in any system or one cannot enforce order in any system. I mention this because I adore how accountability is built into the governing system and soceity here in US.
The very first metric that caught my attention here is the "retail sales per sq.ft" for measuring how good a business a particular retailer is doing?
Every industrial sector has few important metrics. The companies with the best metric would be the best performing company in that sector. Some of the metrics mentioned by Cramer in this show are as follows

Cable C0mpanies (Comcast, optimum etc.)
enterprise value / no. of subscribers . enterprise value is basically the market value.
Hotel
avg revenue/ room
Airline companies (advised by him as something not to buy)
avg revenue/seat
Retailers / restaurants
samestore sales
Tech stock
gross margin/product sold - best gross margin stock. Eg. Microsoft, Intel has the highest gross margins.

Bandh New Process

The concept of Bandh has lost its value and meaning. Like every other thing this also has become a ritualistic effort. The proponents of the recent bandh, the Leftists are so backward as their ideals. Only those who adapt with the changing times could lead and prosper. Even though the communist principles have died all over the world the Leftists in our country keep repeating the same "against privatisation". So why do they lure private investors & industrialists in communists ruled states?

Here is an idea for Communists. Like Deepawali, we should have a day for Bandh. Whoever wants to conduct a bandh should assign their reasons to that day. In the management jargon, this methodlogy is called the "Product Train" principle. The software product companies follow this technique for product releases. Here is what they do. The company defines release dates, say first day of every quarter and assigns features that should be released on that day. Whether all those features are ready or not, the release will happen with whatever features that are ready. Irrespective of whether a particular feature is ready or not the Product train would leave the company as scheduled. The features that are left will join the next train(release). This is the new way of managing releases. In this fast paced world one expects change on an ongoing basis. In order to satisfy the urge and necessity to satisfy customers, companies have devised this methodology and running it pretty much successfull. One of the companies that I personally know that follows this is Juniper Networks. I'm trying to implement this in my company.

The predecessor to this methodology is called "The Stage Gate Process". This is mainly followed in new product development with five phases or gates. First being the identification and the last being release. Folks interested to know more about this could contact me for further reading or information.

Happy Bandhing for Communists. Happy working for the rest.