Random Musings

A nice interview with Jeff Bezos launching his new Kindle on the Charlie Rose show. Here is a device that is trying to get you into a flow state . Enclosed are interesting comments from the show. “I would say something though like we’re trying to get out of the way. We’re not trying to create an experience. We want the author to create the experience. You know, if you’re going to read Nabokov or Hemmingway or we want us creating the experience for. That’s not our job. Our job is to provide the convenience. That you can get books in 60 seconds, that you can carry your whole library with you so that you don’t get hand strain, so the device doesn’t get hot in your hands, so that it doesn’t cause eye strain, so that the battery life lasts a month, so you never get battery anxiety.. … Now people say why don’t you add a touch screen? Well, the reason we don’t want a touch screen is if we’re going down that decision path, we say, okay, a touch screen and the current technology for ...

Tony Hayward from BP is the poster child of how not to lead during the Deep Horizon oil spill crisis for 2010. Rosabeth Moss Kanter ( HBS ) has summed all the things he should't have done Deny and minimize problems . Drop any mention of the high-minded principles you announced at the beginning of your term, such as safety and a culture that puts people first. Sweep them under the rug as you play down the significance of the crisis. Or better yet, find someone else to blame — a supplier, a business partner, a lowly employee or two. Emphasize your own power and importance . Keep yourself front and center all the time. Rarely bring forward the rest of the team, nor even indicate that it's a team effort. Make the story all about you . Talk about your heavy burdens and the costs to your life. When forced to acknowledge the true victims, pay lip service. Never apologize, and don't even pretend to learn from your mistakes . Brush off public disapproval, and persist in the same mi...

With the explosion of information and umpteen number of places that vie for your "head space" comes Attention Deficit Disorder . Paul Graham in a nice post has a good advice on how to manage this one.. " You can't directly control where your thoughts drift. If you're controlling them, they're not drifting. But you can control them indirectly, by controlling what situations you let yourself get into. That has been the lesson for me: be careful what you let become critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want think about. You don't have complete control, of course. An emergency could push other thoughts out of your head. But barring emergencies you have a good deal of indirect control over what becomes the top idea in your mind." http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html

"Everyone has a Boss excepting God" - Unknown Don't know who said this but very very true in an organisation setting. Had read "Managing your Boss" a classic long long time back. Came across something this week and reminded myself that should blog this one. No matter how smart one is if we are within an organization setting managing ones boss is critical. And don't get me wrong this is not sucking up. Do that ( suck up ) and a smart boss would recognize and get rid of you soon... :-)

"lliterate of the future won't be those who can't read & write, but those who can't learn, unlearn & relearn" - Unknown

"Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger."--Arnold Palmer

Good advice from one of my favourite Harvard Business School professors Clayton Christensen to the class of 2010 On Thinking... " When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have." On Happiness "How to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements." On Management "Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be...

Presenting worlds youngest "country". The simple reason for this phenomenon is network effect . Now the question is how long will this one last ? I would think very very long. The stickiness factor is large for residents to consider to move out yet ... The Facebook Republic

Why intelligent people fail... can't agree more to these points 1. Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance. 2. Lack of impulse control. Habitual impulsiveness gets in the way of optimal performance. Some people do not bring their full intellectual resources to bear on a problem but go with the first solution that pops into their heads. 3. Lack of perserverance and perseveration. Some people give up too easily, while others are unable to stop even when the quest will clearly be fruitless. 4. Using the wrong abilities. People may not be using the right abilities for the tasks in which they are engaged. 5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely...

Other than the daily grind of operational activities and managing them a manager's job is to strategize. Well should say its everyone job to strategize to upset the competition. But what exactly is Strategy???. Was drawn to question a long long time back and the Harvard Business Review classic from Micheal Porter resolved this one What is Strategy ?? A highly recommended read for everyone