Drinking the Kool-Aid

Drinking the Kool-Aid is not that uncommon in corporations. In the absence of true leadership, grandiose 'statements' and 'strategies' serve as that heady drink. The only difference being that the majority of the followers drink the Kool-Aid with eyes wide open, mostly to further their own career interests, and in the process make the concoction even more toxic, and the corporation even more mediocre.

Examples galore - especially in the last year - and not just on Wall Street.

2 States

It was by complete random chance that I picked up 2 states by Chetan Bhagat, at the Odyssey Checkout line while waiting in a long queue to pay for some business books.

I realize that I am probably the only one in Urban India who has not read Five point someone or the later ones by the author, so I have no understanding of Chetan's progress as a writer. But truth be told - I found '2 States' interesting.

• One, it is short so really not a time-sucker
• Two, the narrative is fast with good masala and the author makes great use of his work experience to go back in time and plug himself as a dude
• Three, it has a 'soon to be a Bollywood flick' feel to it. Somehow I get this feeling that it was written keeping a certain producer (whose name starts with K) in mind. I could also identify the exact places in the book for six songs
• And finally, at Rs. 95 it is critic-proof. I mean why would you diss a book if it costs only 95 bucks and a couple of nights after work to read

Overall good timepass - but I would recommend him not to pitch this as a national unification book. I don't grudge his sale proceeds, so he should not insult my intelligence.

A picture is worth a thousand words !

Chart Source: Bloomberg

Here Viigo !

Viigo claims to be "The one app you'll never want to be without" and it is so true in my case. My BlackBerry is so much more useful and fun with it.

Completely hooked on to it.

Fast, well-designed, brilliant.. and a good business model

And the best thing about it.... free !

IE8 - spreading joy

I needed a good laugh this weekend. Thank You Microsoft.

Everytime I think MS/Steve can't get any more annoying - they prove me wrong.

Electionpalooza!

I am bombarded with ads (both display and search) that promote LK Advani, his blog and his party's site anywhere I go on the dubdubdub... and am surprised to see none from the Indian Congress party. In fact I tried to look really hard covering some obvious keywords that they would have used - but guess what - 'Congress' throws up LK Advani in the paid ads on Google :)

This congress-apathy towards online campaigning is somewhat surprising, considering the plethora of new-gen, tech savvy Congress politicos such as Jindal, Scindia and Deora or even Rahul Gandhi. Either they don't care about the small but influential online population or they simply missed this sitter.

The BJP bombardment technique actually worked for me as I finally succumbed and checked out the site and his blog. To give credit where it's due - it's pretty well designed and covers enough ammunition for a consideration for fence-sitters.

In today's coalition era politics, every vote counts; a lesson that every politician should have learnt from the experiences of a certain Mr. Al Gore

Leadership crash course

"Ph.D. in leadership. Short course: Make a short list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don't do them to others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others. Always." — Dee Hock, founder, Visa International

Recession hits the mind first

Customer service has never been a serious business concept here in Hyderabad - and I have a zillion experiences to back it up. However, I would have expected that in today's tough times, customer visits would be lapped up by businesses struggling to have footfalls. Alas, I am surprised to see the same level of non-service / non-enthusiasm. And it is not limited to this city. Most of the businesses that I know of, had contact with, or have seen in the recent past seem to be concentrating on either cutting costs, cutting margins, or clearing inventory. No one seems to be taking the view that the most important and valuable part of the equation is the existing customer (who is similarly going through a rough patch) - an investment in understanding the existing customer's problems and telling her how you can help will take your business further than the focus on just 'price' negotiations or product push as a retention strategy. There needs to be enthusiasm at the front line and at every other line, and that will probably be a key differentiator between those who will get by and those who will thrive in the downturn.

It's not difficult to see why this investment in customer service is a no-go in most places. Just like Drucker said, "Ninety percent of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done" - any discussion on investing money in 'support' will get shot down on any number of 'rational' grounds (or 'shareholder value' - surely that is tough to argue in a room full of suits :)

Tufte

Tufte calls this graphic, depicting the fate of Napoleon's Army when it invaded Russia, as the best statistical graphic ever. Although I love Tufte's design principles and try to incorporate a lot of his ideas in my work, every time I hear 'best' the cynic in me takes over. You Decide!

Article and High-Res Graphic

Please Stop

I can't stand listening to these 5 words anymore - aaaaarggh - my hair hurts:-

- Scalable

- Innovation

- Proactive

- Interventions

- Collaboration

OMGWTFBBQ