Monday, December 28, 2009

Corruption in India: Was it really Dhiru Bhai

Hi,

I watched movie Guru at least 10 times to get inspiration on the journey of a petrol pump worker to build a company whose owners combined wealth is top in the world, all done in 30 years in total.

Now, sometime last week, I was in discussion with a friend on how you can't get any work done in India without offering bribes. Even, my book ' Be THE CEO of LIFE' highlights this mad chase of money in recent times which has led people to take any decisions how unethical, immoral it might be. Everybody needs that extra money to afford a foreign holiday which 30 years back was a prerogative of elite class, now I think rightly so. As these things like Fancy Cars, Big Houses and Foreign holidays have come to few people belonging to masses, entire middle class is vying for it. It you can't get it from fair means, corruption, bribes, cheating and fraud are a way forward.


So, coming back in a scene in movie, the journalist describes Dhiru Bhai as someone who should be locked in a room and key thrown away. He categorically mentions how Guru is spreading corruption in India.

I wonder is that is where corruption started in India. Police, Judiciary, legislature everyone was bought over by Guru for business gains. laws were drafted keeping Guru's interest in mind and all.

This is what I have heard but last generation people can throw more light into this issue.

Help me !!!!11

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Gender Equality--Beyond a Point

Hi,

Since my childhood, I was made to believe that men are superior to women. This was essentially because of family background coupled with the schooling, both very ordinary

Then, by god bless, I studies in top colleges, Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Bangalore for my BTech and MBA which gave me a different learning. This education was supported by working in US based Fortune 20 companies like Coca Cola and American Express and I completely changed a man who would preach gender equality at any given moment.

I an happily doing that for about 8 years but recently, I have started to figure out that some Gender specific qualities do exist and it is better for humanity in general if we do not try to override them.

On one side, the work of child bearing is given to woman ( and it takes full 9 months, no scientific developments have succeeded in improving efficiencies here :) so they are also given far more patience and emotions than man. They are blessed to wear thousand kind of shades in Sarees, Salwars, Jeans, Long Skirts, Short skirts, Trousers etc etc making shopping necessary for them. To go with those thousand dresses, they need jewelery, shoes, nail polishes and lip sticks. To buy all those stuff, they need time so woman take time to dress up..Totally fair

Men on other hand have 8-10 or at max 20 options. In office, they can wear only trousers with very few shade and pattern options. They do not need to buy jewellary, costmetics etc also

So essentially by nature, I observed Men are asked to earn while Woman are destines to spend that money..Right

So, woman are generally mis fit in working/ corporate environment till men continue to be away from Child Birth, Shopping, Dressing and monthly cycles.

So it is not about glass ceiling for woman. I think the point is they have been destines to involve themselves in more fun so why to bother for late night meetings, 3 hrs travel one way to office or economic class travel 15 days/month.

Like Men help in Kitchen some times or do dishes, wash or press clothes, woman are also best till they provide support to Men at work.

Why do they need to be Vice oresidents???

Someone, please give me some answers






Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Telengana--What is the issue

Telengana creation has created a huge national debate?? is it ??

After reading and hearing in all channels, I decided to look into this matter also a little deeply to understand the perspective of various stakeholders

First of all, I should congratulate central Congress leadership to take this step..Why..Because after analyzing from every corner, I was not able to find any advantage to them but only lot of disadvantages. So I , though not at all Congress supporter looks at this as a pure ' Fulfillment of promise' in the best interest of people of Telengana,.

Why disadvantage is proven by why Mayawati is suddenly in favour of Harit pradesh. She got about 55% majority in UP. She has least clout in that area so taking her out from UP increases her majority in rest of UP. This makes her CM of UP for next many years very comfortably.

But for Congress, They are equally powerful in both areas. They do not have any particular clout in that area. So doing this split doesn't give them an extra state to rule in bigger scheme of things.

So, now why local leaders across parties are against this move.

Many people have brought the issue of investment in Hyderabad and those points. Somehow, I think this is true but there is one more angle toward this. Hyderabad is surely the key element but with a different perspective.

During my analysis, I figured out that though Andhra is prosperous in general vis a vis many other states In India, they do not have second city other than Hyderabad. With over 10% of current state population, it is the only metropolitan/ cosmopolitan city in Andhra.

I last went saw Vijaywada/ Guntur 7 years back and just the thought of them being capital city of just a big and prosperous state makes me laugh

For that matter, even UP have Kanpur, Noida which are actually bigger than Luchnow. Gujarat has Baroda, Maharashtra have Pune, Nagpur, Punjab have got Mohali, Haryana have got Punchkula, Gurgaon but Andhra without Hyderabad would be like Assam at best with capital city developed like Guwahati.

Now without world class Airports, Malls, Hotels like Ramada, Taj and Grand kakatiya, Residential places like Banjara and Jubilee hill, where these politicians go. Where would they live?? The local businessman like Raju :) can continue to live in Hyderabad. But politicians and superstars haev to shift where their state is. So be it Chiru or a MLA from a small town, he is living in Jubilee hills now. I do not know a single place outside Hyderabad who is even 10% developed like Jubilee hills so there would be a big change in life style of these people


Even Jharkhand had Ranchi, Uttrakhand had Dehradoon which are far more cosmopiltans than Vijaywada and Guntur for sure.

And why we all make money, to live in style, eat food in exotic locations, travel to places etc etc.

Just few thoughts from me.

Friday, December 4, 2009

I am Busy--How true is the statement

Hi All,

This is one more issue which drives me to think beyond what is said. Many times, this would have happened with you also that you call up a friend/ relative and he is not able to talk to you properly because he is busy.

This is fine as you can be busy at that particular moment. But what I am not able to comprehend is that the person is not able to call you back or meet you for a week/ month etc etc.

I hear someone saying that I didn't called you back because I am busy for last 15 days. I wonder how busy can you be in 24 hrs x 15 days that you didn't get time to give a 5 minute cal back to a person who supposedly holds a very special place in your life.

Let me clarify further. During my 8 years of work and 6 years of professional studies ( DCE and IIMB), I was busy for 8 months when I was with Studyplaces.com. I used to live in Dwarka and office was in Gurgaon. Because of pressure on start up and my position and sense of accountability, I needed to work 9 AM to 8 PM everyday including some Sundays.

Now, many of others do have these office timing as normal so what so special. The special thigj was 50% of those days, I never had Lunch and rest 50% , I ate with left hand and right hand typing.

So from 9 AM to 8 PM, if there are 11 hours, I was involved in hands on work for at elast 10.45 hrs. I never loggod on to any messenger, the stock market crashed from 21000 to 8000 but I was not able to open my demat account as it might have taken 15 minutes. I guess this is enough to prove my point.

Now, when I talk to few of these people who claim that they are busy for last 15 days, they were having one hour Lunch break as usual, though there is lot of fire fighting in office but you were leaving at 6 everyday, you went for Movie with your spouse last weekend and did tons of shopping but still were very busy.

I am just not able to understand the criteria of someone to be busy !!

Please help me


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Bearish Market- How can it exist

Though I have been out of touch for the last 5 years, my feeble interest in stock markets keeps me not to forget finance and capital markets completely. Whenever I listen to CNBC or NDTV or look at nay recommendation from any of my able friends, One question always bamboozle me.

How can you have a bearish outlook towards any stock or market in particular.

Let me start with an example:

Analysts say buy stock x at price 120 with target of 170. As soon as you reach 170, sell it and get out of that stock.

Why should I?? If I sell at 170, there has to be someone buying at 170..Right. So who is buying at 170 when everyone believes that now stock is expected to go down.


Similarly sometime back during so called recession, the market was at 11000 points. people say that we are still in bearish market but then why do not Sensex falls immediately to 0. Because there are people buying at 11000 points.

Now from a logical perspective. people are long on Stocks or any other asset always. We have more people owning a house right now than who are short and have sold houses. Same for any other asset you can think of.

So expectation from a large segment of people is that prices would always increase of assets. That is why they continue buying/ holding them to sell in future for their financial need. Then second person buys it and holds it as per his financial planning

So, Now can anyone answer

The purpose of stop loss and Profit booking concept if you are not a day trader.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

What basket ball did to west indies cricket, T-20 is going to do to world cricket...God Save my favourite game

Is 20-20 would kill test cricket and one day cricket.

Why let us understand the demise of West Indies Cricket because of basketball.


The game was short, had a lot more money, fame, instant success, attractive, people loved it more...more kids took up basketball.... cricket was left for left overs.... And all the malcolm marshalls and curtly ambroses of the Carribean today are sweating it out on the basket ball courts leaving the cricket fields for B-rung players.

Now, Similarly we haev started seeing players fringing injuries to avoid longer version games. No one is desperate to play for national side, they are more bothered to be for for IPL and recently launched champions league.

So what this would lead to

The face of cricket would totally change just like the face of west indies cricket has changed.....test cricket and 50 overs cricket will lose their importance.....Afridis would be bigger stars than Dravids.... Lot more money would come in... Entertainment top class, Yuvraj hitting six sixes in an over.... but we would no longer see laxman ... and dravid fighting out the aussies the whole day, Kumble taking all ten wickets..... and just like the carribeans may come up with a gayle or a sarwan... but not a richards, ambrose or marshall..... A Deccan Chargers could be a more popular team than Indian Cricket team.... like LA Lakers is more popular than USA basket ball team or Manchester United is more popular than England football team.... etc etc.... not debating on whether its good or bad.... but this is how i see the future of cricket...

Now, this would make sure there are no cover drives on the carpet, you are encouraged to play lofted shots. Bowlers need not work a batsman out as a bowler only have 4 overs and a batsman scoring 25 of 15 balls is a class batsman.


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Recession: A Time to hold on to your job or explore your inner self

Before starting this piece of thought, we would like to mention that this space as the book is applicable to people who are not living on month to month and have enough savings/wealth to last a few months comfortably. Secondly, this should be read by people who think that they are in their job because of their qualification, experience, intelligence and hardwork. If someone knows that he is there because of sheer luck, timing or a favor from a relative, better stay away from this.

We keep on hearing this these days all around us. Hold on to your job !!

Be it your office colleagues, HR managers, Mass Media or even Radio Jockeys advising people on this burning issue or at least it have been made to sound one. It is so funny actually when these RJ’s who themselves are 23-25 year old kids advising people in general about what they should be doing in life but that is case with anyone who have got that authority.

Anyways, let us come back to the topic. Before writing this, we actually spoke to few CEO’s and asked a simple question.

Who is on a beneficial side during Recession: Employer or Employee and all of them were kind and honest enough to say Employer. They are getting the best talent, making them work 12-14 hrs a day and paying peanuts because the people are scared and they have been advised to “ Hold on to Your Job” by the world guru’s including RJ’s.

And we the employees do just what the capitalists want us to do. See, we are not against the capitalism but the inhumane face of it. Inspite of such a strong recession, we haven’t heard about mass suicides in USA. People who have lost their jobs still seem to go along nicely in their lives, many in India these days on vacation. Because they have a very strong social security in place and that is why we had to give the top warning. If India had same social security like USA, we shall have proposed the same with much louder voice and reaching far wider audience LEAVE THE JOB

May be this is time when you should plan for that long 1 year India trip which is your childhood dream. May be that Restaurant which you always wanted to open can be started right now or spending 6 months to renovate your house as per your likings. And anyways, your opportunity cost is lesser. Your salary has recently been cut by 30% and your working hours have increased so much that your monthly medical bills ( present and future in anticipation) are taking another 15% of your salary. So you are working at 50% of your worth. Why not use this time to pursue your dreams and once, things are normal again, we can join some Employer again if we ever need to.

So guys, here is the final word. This is the time to enjoy yourself ..Start your dream venture and do not hold on to a job which makes you miserable.

Note: We again repeat that this should be read by people who think that they are in their job because of their qualification, experience, intelligence and hardwork. If someone knows that he is there because of sheer luck, timing or a favor from a relative, better stay away from this.

( Taken from www.beceooflife.com)

Why Taking Online Tests is necessary in preparation for CAT

The preparation for CAT is incomplete before taking a lot of practice tests. Full length practice tests/Mock Tests helps a student in multiple ways:

1. Practice to work in real test conditions, so real stress, real anxiety and real tiredness

After CAT’08, one of the student brought the paper back to show to its faculty. The faculty started looking at questions and found them very easy. His first reaction was ‘ such a easy paper”. It was for sure if you also see the questions in the situation of the faculty sitting in his cabin with no stress in his mind. But when the same paper was with Student in CAT examination hall with his future in stake, the same questions looks very different. When the entrance to one the premier institutes depend upon this once performance which can take your life to new summits, things are totally different.



2.Solving 90 ( or more) questions simultaneously is a different art than solving one at a time in home

When you start studying or even working in the morning, the first 30 minutes are perfect. After that, most of us take a coffee break which keeps on happening after every 30 minutes subsequently. During CAT or any other exams like XAT, SNAP, GMAT or SNAP, you do not take coffee breaks. You need to prepare yourself for long extended hours of concentration without coffee.

3.Developing the art of leaving questions and using options


Remember CAT and almost all the entrance exams of this world are relative and objective. You need to score better than others and you need to mark one out of 5 options. There are no marks for most scientific solution so why bother to find one. If you can eliminate 4 options in a question, the last option has to be correct though you do not know why. Secondly, though you need to get over 99 percentile in CAT, the actual marks needed to get this is hardly 50%. So you are supposed to get only 50% questions correct. Unlike your school and college exams where you are habitual to score 90% thus attempting all the questions for sure, here you are supposed to get 50% marks only. So if you leave 3-4 tough questions, no harm is done to you so do that. Do not fall in love with any question.

4. Benchmarking yourself with others, as the success criteria is relative and not absolute(Percentile system).

As mentioned briefly in point 3, CAT and other MBA entrance exams follow relative grading. So you are not trying to get 50 or 90 marks out of 100, you need to get more marks than 99% of students taking that test be it 50 marks or 90 marks. In CATsinglequote06, when the quant paper was dirt easy, many of students being trained by coaching institutes were happy after attempting 10 questions correctly and movign to other section. But incedently, the CAT paper that year had a very easy Quant section adn cut off was higher than last 10 years. So you were supposed to attempt 15 questions out of 25 minimum. Hence there is no startegy regarding the expected cut off marks in a section. The expected cut off would be decide by you and other CAT takers only. So you need to know your percentile scores vis a vis the entire bunch of CAT takers. It would be real helpo if know for the past 5 months so that you can strategise your preparation accordingly.

And most importantly, you can CAT only once a year, why to take the chance in that. Practice as many tests as possible so that CAT is just an another day in office for you.

( This article is taken from www.topCATcoaching.com)

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Success Mantra--C2B Portals/Media Platforms

The Success Mantras of Internet Portals—Introducing C2B portals or Media platforms

Since joining the Internet/Media bandwagon about 2 years back, everyday seems to throw a new thing to me.

We all agree on one thing that it is always easier to make money from people who make money by giving you some money rather than those who have to shell out money and buying stuff to consume. In Simple language, it is B vis a vis C. So any transaction which involves B at both ends is most likely to succeed. On the other hand, a transaction which involves C at both ends find very hard to complete.
So, we have B2B businesses, transactions or in Internet, portals making lot of money. On the other hand C2C portals are facing the toughest times. The B2C portals which are in majority falls in between (All major sites Yahoo/Rediff or even Google) falls into this bracket.
Now, all this is very common and known worldwide. So what is new that I am trying to share? Here I Go.

Within B2C portals, have you ever wondered why Job portals are generally very succesfull, loan generation portals (apnloan.com) are next, whereas some others are not ( Matrimonial, Real Estate etc).

I observed a very interesting thing. In the B2C portals also, we have two segments. In one segment, Business asks Consumer to buy/respond to something for which he/she needs to shall out money but in other segment, they pay consumer in the end. So it is a reverse model, should I call it C2B. Let me explain

In job Portals, it is the business side which pays the media house to get C and C gets the most coveted thing in life ‘Job’ free of cost. Yes, as a consumer, you never pay in the entire transaction , you are paid eventually when you get a job.
Similarly, the bank loan lead generation is a similar example. The consumer is getting loan ( money) from the banks especially the personal loans. I now most of you which are reading this blog do not want to receive unsolicited calls but there is huge chunk of Indian population who would like to get as much as loan as possible and then personal loan for which you need not give any guarantee. So, they would be jumping to get these loans.
This is the model where B chases C , pays media company also to do so but eventually pays to C also when he gets them. So, media models where Business’s pay Media to get Consumers but eventually also pay consumers in the end ensures maximum success to Business and eventually to Media.