The inventor, The scholar and The biter!

I love reading fantasies and some times watching family fantasy movies. There are always so insightful and imaginative, they often give me a reason to think laterally and get my juices flowing.

I watched a movie one last weekend and was so impressed. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, oh what a movie! It was not just at the picturization, the actors but the whole package, beautifully executed by director Brad Silberling. Hope I am not beginning to sound like Sisckel & Ebert with two, three, four and may be even more thumbs up… way up.

What I really loved about the movie was the fantasy itself with the combinations of the kids skills, their interests and the events that lead them to uncover the ominous plot. The perfect balance between inventor as the practitioner, the scholar as the theorist and the little baby bitter for witty comments and wholesome entertainment.

The started to compare the organization to that or a corporation. The visionary executive the practitioner, balanced with a slightly conservative theorist.

Daniel Handler must surely the be a organizational guru!

It’s not voodoo?

Pick a classical text book on organization and management and you will find at least a couple chapters dedicated to dynamics of leading groups and projects. It is still quite funny how roles are designed for to fail and people miss some of these finer points. Projects don’t fail on account of the leadership or lack of knowledge but because the miss the essential ingredients of authority and responsibility.

I believe our understanding has lot to do with hierarchies we are familiar with starting with family, the church, our social and political leaders and finally what we hear from our parents and elders during our impressionable years. Although all organizations are different their structures are based on the culture of the specific organization. Some flatter than others while others deeper than others. Hierarchies result in titles, however unique the organizations structure the titles communicates a certain level of authority.

Accountability is very essential to leverage this authority. As the chief if one is not accountable for the organizations direction, there is little incentive in leveraging this authority. The entire organization can sit relax and enjoy drinks in a pub all day until end of time or end of money which ever comes first. On the flip side if an individual is responsible for the direction of the organization, goals and objectives but does not have access to the right resources and lacks the ability to promise a carrot or a stick in exchange for the services, the individual may be incapable of delivering.

I have come across multiple articles on leadership and often times they sound like voodoo to me. But come to think of it what really is leadership? Recently I received an email from HBR talking about leadership as “Action that inspires action”, I beg to differ because I could work emotions, carrots and sticks to inspire action.

To me it is truly the right mix of authority and responsibility.

First principle

The Nobel laureate Physicist and faculty member at Cal Tech late Richard Feynman, said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool”.

It is unfortunate that very few people start analyzing issues from first principle. I had some one ask me the question “What is first principle?” I started to think of the most intuitive and simple explanation. Where do I start?

When I bought my first car, I was anxious and excited. I started by looking at all the modes to transport that were available to me. Was a car the most viable option based on my criteria? Then confirmed the fact that I could afford one as a student? The kind I really desired? Define the market, other students, university staff, dealers, etc. What kinds of cars were on the market? Of the ones on the market which ones were within my budget? And the process went on…

Unlike the typical process of working backward when managing a project (although the objective was the car buying decision) and making assumptions at each step, this was forward oriented with a fundamental base and avoiding any unnecessary assumptions. The starting point was what modes of transport were available? even before starting to look for a car. Capacity and capability force us to make assumptions.

Without sounding like the Visine Commercial… ‘first principle’ is clarity of vision!

Assumptions

Some time ago I wrote a short essay on the most important word in our vocabulary “NO”, the second most important has to be “Assume”, “Assumption”, a scary word! Another one of those sweet yet devious words. But what it really means is “I politely apologize for my lack of understanding of the implications of this issue/aspect/variable on the outcome/recommendation”.

I have tried to count the number of times people use the word in regular conversation. It is alarming. What makes it worse is the fact that people don’t even understand the assumptions that make and what they mean? The thought of making an argument without knowing the assumption is only analogous to drifting on the ocean on a raft without any idea where destination is. Not very comfortable now is it?

If we think multiple times before we use “a” or “an”, say “the” or “the” before words starting with vowels why don’t we think of the depth and breath of an argument and the basis and assumptions? We will always be limited but out capacity and capability forcing us to make assumptions as we think deeper and harder but what it will be our understanding and knowledge of our assumptions that will lead us to NIRVANA!

Hell…….o!

If I get a “morning” instead of a “Good morning”, “afternoon” for a “Good afternoon”, “night” for a “Good night” why can’t we just say “Hell” instead of a “Hello”?

These days I speak more with my fingers… instant messenger, same time, SMS, cellular text messaging, and the list goes on and on. What is funny is it seems like these models are based on two fundamental beliefs, one is we are either in a hurry or we have weak fingers and hence need to communicate through TLA oh sorry Three Letter Acronyms or maybe the second argument is we have a poor memory to store the stream of thoughts we have as they translate into messages in these devices.

Communication has taken a whole new meaning, from ‘l8r’ for later and ‘g8tr’ gator to emoticons the emergence of emotional icons. The most interesting to me is the ‘Nudge’, how personal are we getting? Should we consider our generation a internet age, data savvy and swift or linguistic with its own short hand.

I guess time will tell. For now I will leave with a TTYL (talk to you later).

Worst enemy + Best friend

Time! No I am not talking about Pink Floyd, not even the magazine, or the scene from “back to the future” when Doc enters the scene for the first time. I am talking about the dimension, TIME!

Time is a very interesting dimension. I could talk about time in the physics domain for a long time, but I am interested in talking about Time in a business domain today. Think about it what can you do when some one says “You are too young.”, you can’t go get a couple years, you can’t buy it, its not training that you read some and put on those years, or eat some to bulk up, likewise what if some one says “You are too old.”? Obviously it can’t be shed off, its not weight or hair.

So what do people really intend to say when they comment on time, either the lack of it or the excess? In my guess the true implication is on experience, that hard teacher that gives you the test first and then the lesson. The flip side is when they doubt your energy, capacity and may even capability. In my opinion it is obviously a flawed concept, especially since the oldest person is not the wisest and the youngest one is not the most energetic, but again there is little value in arguing, I believe we need to pick our battles.

It’s a tough argument, unlike training, weight, space, time is not physical. Although HG Wells in his timeless classic introduced us to the time machine and so did Verne Jules, established scenarios where the dimension and principles challenged. To date any travels in this dimension of time has been science fiction, you never know considering the fact that Mr. Wells articulated the science of genetics and transplants very elegantly in to Dr. Moreau’s Island.

Who is to say in the future we will not be able to go ahead in time gain experience and get back to deliver on the energy promise? Given our obsession with perpetual youth and anti-aging.

Patterns * Patterns * Patterns

Heavy stuff falls when you drop from a height, the sun rises every morning, the sun sets every evening, the moon rises every evening and sets every morning, the seasons they repeat every 12 months, the El-niño, La-niña, the “J” curve … Aren’t these all patterns? So what is the big deal about pattern recognition? We recognize patterns all the time, then we endevour to explain those patterns. Hypotheses are established to explain the patterns.

Often these hypotheses hold for a long time until we invent tools and devices to measure them carefully that confirms or refutes these hypothesis into principles and facts! The dropping of heavy stuff is gravity, the rising and setting to the sun and the moon is the orbital motion of the earth and the moon, that then causes the seasons, the over heating and over cooling of the Pacific ocean leads to the El-niño and La-niña. The resurgence in value of the currency after devaluation, that looks like the “J” curve.

So why are businesses are obsessed with patterns? I have wondered why has pattern recognition failed to gain a strong foot hold. It works well in some situation and does not in others? Couple years ago I started dating my girl friend when we waited for dinner at restaurants she drew me a couple doodles, my task was to recognize them. It dawned on me we have always been looking at a part of it not the whole.

I obviously did not recognize any of those doodles but in the absence of context, lack of theory, knowledge of the right measures, and limited understanding of the non-linear multiplier effects between all the different things (variables) that were visible, some of which I knew and tracked and other I didn’t? I could have spent a couple days thought over, gotten some guidance, built some models, to figure it out.

So when people say “there is a pattern”, but what that really means is “within the unknown boundary conditions that I don’t know anything about there exists a behavior that repeats itself and I am going to try and chase it down”. Isn’t that what the deer in the desert runs after? The Mirage?

Demigod!

I was in an interesting discussion this afternoon with a colleague. She was venting.

I felt sorry for her. Our discussion revolved around capabilities of people or lack of it. I started to think of some people I had worked with. The word that came to mind was “Demigod”. I thought it must be the GRE word list kicking in.

Immediately when I had a spare moment I looked the work on Google. Wikipedia had a description. A "demigod", a "half-god," is a modern distinction, often misapplied in Greek mythology. A "demigod" is meant to identify a person whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human, such as the heroes of Greek mythology.

I began to wonder why did I think of demigods? One thought lead to another and I perched on a quasi static one ‘the frame of reference’. The datum, the base line, the frame of reference can be a very important concept. Gods and Monsters are a figment of this frame of reference. So where does a demigod fit in? I guess towards the god end of the spectrum.

In the absence of eugenics, some of these human exceptions have to be demigod how else can we explain them?

The curtains!

We were at a local store buying some curtains for the home when the variety there got me thinking.

The curtain is a fascinating concept when you think of it. The window is open, but one may not be able to see through it? In the classical sense blinds on the window are curtains too… The tinted plastic sheet often stuck on the car window is not much different in that sense then is it?

Anyway, as I sat in a meeting a couple weeks ago I started to think about the mind and psyche of some of the participants in that meeting. The curtain now took on a whole new dimension. The participants all brought to the table their own points of VIEW, perceptions and opinions. The brain and the mind inside these individuals viewing at the presentation through a window with curtains. Throughout the presentation they all asked different questions based on the hue and tint on the glass that represented their experiences and background.

Often through the presentations their expressions changed, some from intrigue to fascination, others to skepticism, yet others to rumination and couple to acceptance. Each of these seemed to be viewing area of the window with the curtains opened or closed.

Blind… spot/s

Like every other part of the human body the human eye is a design of a genius!

Yet there exists a point where things are very clear and another where there is nothing to be seen. “The Blind spot”. Often time’s people seem to have more than just one blind spot when it comes to business/es.

It is an interesting exercise to present a strategy, an analysis to make an argument or refute a hypothesis. It is not always that the entire audience embraces the results with open arms. The team is often scattered along the entire spectrum. The non believers on one end, the believers on the other and the rest some where in between.

I have often wondered how much of this has to do with their experience, their openness to a philosophy, acceptance of an ideology, culture, experience, age and above all their blind spots? So what is a blind spot after all?

Is it something we take for granted? Is it something we believe we know better than the rest? Is it something we leave to fate? Is it some thing we lack knowledge of? Is it something we are too lazy to explore? I am not sure exactly, but I think it is a combination of it all. If nature intended for us to have these blind spots there may be a good reason? I don’t think that is a good enough argument though.

How does it sound if a CEO of a corporation presents the state of business and blames any failures to the blind spot? No investor would ever buy into it. The awareness of its existence is the first step to addressing the outage. Could the answer be DIVERSITY!

Puzzler

Women have made a lot of progress, from politics to religion to business. Just in the past five years women have broken the glass ceiling.

* Jill Barad Matell (exCEO)

* Meg Whitman Ebay (CEO)

* Carly Fiorina HP (exCEO)

* Patricia Russo Lucent Technologies (CEO)

* Andrea Jung Avon (CEO)

* Linda Wachner Warnaco (exCEO)

* Indira Nooyi Pepsico (President & CFO)

These just some I remember. The number is still in a 1%-2% range but that’s a start.

Interestingly though I get the feeling these the deal is not really what its cut out to be. It just seems like when things go really wrong… corporations bring a turnaround CEO. Some how this turn around CEO is a woman.

Is this a case of a scapegoat?

Microscope + Fisheye lens

I love photography. I have learnt some of the finer points through reading literature. Not to long ago I was flipping through the pages of a popular magazine on photography and lenses when a came across a couple adds. On a single page were two separate small ads. One was about lenses for a microscope and the there for a fish eye lens for a camera. My mind had begun to wander as I started to think about the two.

Truly antipodal I thought, although the principles and concepts of optics and physics the very same. The same material, silica and everything else I guess, but yet so different. The ad left me thinking about an incident from years ago. My dad is a Mechanical engineer by training. He still takes active interest in machines and mechanisms. Years ago I remember an important piece of equipment in his factory was down, couple of his engineer friends had spent a day or more trying to figure the problem. A foreman who had learnt the trade on his job and lacked any formal training came along and offered to fix the machine. My dad stepped away and let the old man take a shot. The machine was up and running in no time. As a young boy when I heard the story I was confused.

Like any little kid began to wonder if education and training meant much? Here there were a couple smart engineers trying to figure a problem that a foreman fixes up in a flash. I asked my parents what that mean? My parents simplified the episode into simple things my mind could assimilate. They explained at length, until I understood.

When I read the ad that explanation resonated in my mind once again. It is the difference between an EXPERT and a STRATEGIST, none less important than the other, but yet uniquely different.

Nature – Kaizen – Reengineering

Couple days ago I was reading an article on Reengineering and the corporate obsession for it. The article sprung a thought in my mind about human evolution. It is believed that we have taken us over 5000 years to get to where we are today.

Although it feels like we have accelerated the process in the past couple years, is it just a relative. Ever realized how slow an airplane seems to move in the sky? Anyway the point being we have a sudden obsession with speed and change?

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy on continuous improvement, through process improvement. The belief is many small process improvements will deliver breakthrough overall results eventually. After the Second World War, Japanese corporations focused efforts on productivity improvements on a war footing. Kaizen has been responsible for increase in productivity in many Japanese corporations. Unlike other Japanese philosophies, Kaizen failed to again a strong acceptance in the US management style.

Kaizen failed where Reengineering succeeded. Kaizen’s focus on process where bottom line is never the motivation. Kaizen thus delays dramatic breakthrough that may come about from new technology, on the exact other end Reengineering focuses on disruptive and radical change.

Often Japanese corporations are family run and managed conglomerates and legacy is a big deal. US corporations are vey myopic in that regard. It is about the tenure and not legacy! It is so fascinating to hear us managers to talk about legacy especially when you think of CEOs who receive huge severance even when the company is falling in a debt trap or underperforming compared to its peers.

I am reminded of a quote from an old scripture the Gita where Lord Krishna preaches his brother in-law Arjun at the time of war. Arjun is hesitant to fight evil that has taken the form of his own cousin brother. “Don’t think of the end, do your duty, put in your best and you will succeed”.

Image’ination & Articulation

I often remember the face but don’t remember the name of the person. This morning during while walking to the bus stop I started to wonder… what is it about search that we can search by name of the person, make it more specific with their location, date of birth, social security number, mother’s maiden name, DNA finger printing (depending on the importance level), retinal scan, and so on… but not by their face and features, etc.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could logon to a search engine like Google and describe, black hair, big brown eyes, low cheek bones, average lips, scar on left cheek and left fore head? My guess is that would generate no less than a couple hundred people if not million? So how does our brain register and remember all these many people? What is more interesting is our ability to recognize people after a make over-Hair cut, Age, etc. The same applies to the blind and people with sub-par vision as they recognize acquaintances, friends and family? Are these all the things we see, hear, feel and all the other sensory perceptions.

How many attributes does it take to uniquely identify a person? The question is becoming more and more relevant in today’s day and age with break-ins into secure data at people like Choice point, Citi Group, etc.. How does our brain store the data, how many attributes does it record, an above all how is it all indexed in order to be retrieved in a flash?

The nature still has a learning curve when it comes to articulation of all those things we see, feel and are able to imagine.

The glue!

I arrived in the conference room early waiting for a meeting. I sat staring at the furniture, the table and the chairs and momentarily I went into a state of daze.

How is this furniture held together? Most of them looked like the classic Mortice-Tenon joint with the male, female joints fit into each other. But the Mortice-Tenon is not like the Dovetail that holds together with friction. The Mortice-Tenon is help together by GLUE.

How often do we think of the importance of glue? It is one of those things you just take for granted. But if the furniture falls apart, the glue would be the first to be blamed. So what is the deal with the glue?

Some one walked in the room and I lost my chain of thought, but what I realized was there are organizations in corporations like the glue. I think we know them as staff organizations.

Journey

Just when I had a critical decision in life and was real happy my dad gave me some invaluable advice. He said “life is a train ride, it keeps moving in a certain direction. Your job is to board the right train, get off at the right stations and board new trains in order to reach your destination”. Very profound! I am not sure I understood the depth of what he said until a few years ago.

Rose by another name would smell much better!

Some thing just sounds better with a different name. For example ‘Moisturizer’ certainly sounds better than ‘Lotion’, how about ‘Wellness’ against ‘Fitness’ and ‘Ensemble’ versus ‘Set’.

Changing name does not change the utility or the value but sophistication often times adds a dimension of class and finesse. This could be the difference between success and failure. Bureaucracy and Red tape are two such works that have a negative connotation to them. Lets see if there are replacements out there today that may make the problem disappear?

Clayton Christensen in his book the innovators dilemma refers to success of breakthrough ideas tied to the corporation’s culture and leadership. Organizations today establish a sponsor for such projects this creates the necessary executive advocacy needed for project success.

Much like project success, career path’ing can be a similar exercise. Career transitions and growth often need support and advocacy from rank and file in the executive cadre. The sponsorship and advocacy often helps grease the track to help establish networks where none exist.

Sponsorship and Advocacy certainly sounds a whole lot better now don’t they?

HR-People performance and IRS-Taxation

As we get better with our language skills, this is not just semantics but also articulation and communication we also get better at equivocating. Not too long ago there was a debate in congress about simplifying the tax code. How did it end up getting so convoluted? What is a tax? I tried to look it up in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Tax:
· A charge usually of money imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes
· A sum levied on members of an organization to defray expenses

Simply put, it is a sum of money an individual or institutions pay for being associated with an organization, like a membership fee. When and how did it end up getting so complicated? Did someone tweak the system to foster personal interests? Or was it because we don’t understand how to measure performance and thus charge appropriately? Or may be it is simply a strategy to confuse what taxes really mean?

Back in the days when I studied Artificial Intelligence, one of the first things I learnt was Ockham’s Razor. The principle is attributed to the 14th century English logician William of Ockham. The principle forms the basis of methodological reductionism, also called the principle of parsimony or law of economy. Ockham’s Razor states that one should make no more assumptions than needed. When multiple explanations are available for a phenomenon, the simplest version is preferred. This directly leads me to a quote by Chesterton, “If you can’t convince them confuse them”.

I have seen the exact same thing with staff functions in organizations. People and performance measurement by human resources is much the same, marketing and IT suffers the same destiny in most organizations.

People performance measurement is not much different from the IRS tax problem as defined by human resource development organizations are across more dimensions than they ever were in the past. The process takes months to accomplish, at the end of it more people are dissatisfied than content.

Is the next role that of an internal performance consultant, like a tax attorney?

May be it is a mentor with knowledge of the loop holes in the system.

How important is Branding and Marketing?

I was wondering, what marketing really does? They don’t build a product. They don’t sell the product. They don’t invest the product. What is it that they really do and why are they necessity?

It is important to follow the chain of thought on this one!

I started a random search for branding and marketing and found a bunch of information at TOP B-SCHOOLS (Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Dartmouth, Stanford, etc.). Then there were the TOP MANAGEMENT CONSULTING COMPANIES. A bunch of REPUTED COMPANIES with strong established brands showed up. A list of TOP BRANDS I use and buy.

So what attracted me to the B-Schools, Consultancies and Corporations? The fact that these institutions had set themselves apart from the pack! That leads to two questions, how did they do that? How and when did this pack come to exist?

Obviously these institutions did not build tall buildings or just stick posters all over the place claiming they were the best or give away gifts to all the people on the planet to admit to their supremacy or hold the planet hostage to acknowledge they were the best? So what did they do? BRANDING!

How did this pack come about? The more fundamental question is what are these institutions? To me these are a bunch of very smart individuals current and past associated with a movement. With every movement there are renegades that strive to establish their own style, thus resulting in multiple nucleuses for such movements; thus resulting in a pack of organizations and institutions.

The last question is why a BRAND? With multiple products in the market place and millions of dimensions to measure performance and quality the common man needs a basis. Some time that dimension is just the loudest voice and at other times it needs to be a lot more strategic.

SO THE ANSWER IS BRANDING IS ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT

Leadership

With the war in Iraq looming over and state of affairs with our political leadership. I am reminded of the quote by Henry Miller “One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea whether a good one or a bad one.”. So what’s the deal in the corporate world? What makes a leader and how are they different?

We have had a bunch to think about lately; The Carly issue at HP; The Phil Condit issue at Boeing; The David Kearns issue at Xerox not too long ago.

A month or so ago I read the a clip the “The urge to merge”, “Boardroom Barons”, “Viacom's Troika”, “Leaving Loaded at HP” (April 23^rd, 2005) in the column “The CEO hall of shame”, published by The LA Times. The editor spoke about how some of these leaders have not delivered on the promise.

Try searching for a book on leadership at the world’s largest bookstore and you will find thousands over thousands of books and articles. I spent time reading a couple, some I really liked, some I really enjoyed and some they just occupy space on my bookshelf. They all seem to have some things in common:

• Develop strategies that capitalize on strengths and capabilities
• Anticipates competitive trends
• Deliver short term objectives and develop capabilities to meet long term targets

If leadership can be summarized into a couple bullet points why is it so difficult to spot the likes of ‘Neutron Jack’? Why do we associate Chain saw Al with Neutron Jack with Jac the Knife and Harold Sydney together?

Do we really know why some of these turn around kids performed so poorly? If these succeeded to get to the top why weren’t they able to stay atop? Can we measure and spot true leadership or it is a something very nebulous? Is strong and successful leadership a matter of luck? Or is it just a misstep by an individual in to the limelight that catapults him or her to the top spot?

Bias-O-Meter

We are all biased. That does not sound right, does it? But yes, WE ARE ALL BIASED!

We refer to BIAS in various ways: style, personality, approach, etc. Over time I established an evaluation criterion for bias.

When bias has a positive influence we refer to it as CULTURE and negatively influenced bias is referred to PREJUDICE. But guess what a given action may be biased positive in a certain situations and negative in others. Worse yet inaction could also mean a bias! Wow now this gets confusing.

Here is a list of questions I started to think:
- What kinds of biases do we harbor?
- Are our actions biased, positive or negative?
- Is there a gadget to check our bias?
- How about advice to adjust the bias?
- Can/May I test?
- Is there a trend in our behavior to it or is it random noise?
- How often should we test?

No this not from the Frequently Asked Questions of an Omron Equipment site.

So where do I find this Bias-O-Meter?

Globalization & Divorces!

Every day we read and hear of outsourcing, imports from china, call centers in India, large corporate mergers, foreign acquisitions, international joint ventures, etc.

Last weekend as I sat in front of the idiot box surfing channels I heard we have become a ‘nation of divorces’. Approximately 50% of adult Americans who have ever been married are divorced. This makes little sense!

If our corporations invest millions of dollars in acquiring other companies, setting up businesses in a new market in a far off country, enter into a joint venture to market a new brand developed and managed by an unknown partner. We are willing to commit to a relationship with a partner who looks different (racially), speak a different language (dialect and script) and hold cultural beliefs that may be different from ours.

Why do we struggle with our life partner who most likely was someone we were able to meld minds with not too long ago. Today we can instantly converse with our business partners on the other end of the world, we can hear them, read them, write to them and even see them multiple times a day over the internet, video conference calls but we cannot communicate with our life partner who is very much local? We have scaled physical distances but there exist chasms in the mental connection with our very own life partner.

What does it take to hold a family together that is so different from corporate GLOBALIZATION? I tried to brainstorm:
* Objectivity
* Understanding of trade offs
* Agreement on compromises
* Common goals
* Uninhibited communication

I guess I could go on and on….

What is the most difficult word in your vocabulary?

NO!

Believe me! It is tough to say no. As a teenager my mom gave me a book Don’t say yes when you want to say no by Herbert Fensterheim and Jean Baer. Good book!

I started to think what do people do when they genuinely wanted to say NO?

• They make an excuse as against a real NO
• They try to be polite (and fail)
• They never really say NO
• They differ the NO for some one else
• They hope the person forgets to ask
• They change topics

The list goes on and on…

NO is really like the Zero in the number system. The zero means nothing when it comes before a whole number, but can change the value significantly after one.

Saying NO can be a sign of confidence, conviction and may be even EGO.

How short lived is our memory?

Years ago I read a quote that said “To get into the history books, you need to read a history book”. I did not gather the depth of the quote until years later.

As a kid the school system forced me to study a bunch of subjects from English literature, Grammar and Composition, History & Geography, Math, Science, Moral Science & Religion and a long list of extracurricular topics. During my college years I wondered why? I could not make the connection between a course in History & Geography to a career in Engineering.

After I started working I realized how little we remember and how little we apply from our coursework. How about the Russian and French revolutions and corporate organizations; Regional and natural resources to global sourcing; Asian economic systems as related to regional instability and risk; Shakespeare’s plays and interpersonal relationships.

A couple years Black and Scholes’ received a Noble prize in Finance for the Black and Scholes Option pricing model based on Brownian motion. Who could have though of comparing stock price movement to Brownian motions and using the ideology to predict financial derivatives.

I know a good friend who built a corporate organizational model based on heat and mass transfer principles to predict career movement.

An article in the New Yorker by Stephen Dubner on Steven Levitt’s research is another great example. Their new book Freakonomics might make interesting reading.

Common Sense!

So how common is it really? What is the keyword “Common” or “Sense”? Or is the word overly abused?

It is funny to hear people talk about every thing in context of ‘Common Sense’. I wish to disagree! Common sense isn’t really as so common. The individual’s intellect, social professional circle and lastly background, culture, experiences, training combined heavily influences this ‘Not so common sense’.

Most challenges in life can be easily resolved; all it takes is structured breakdown of the problem, logical reasoning, an understanding of the compromises and trade offs and a the little Uncommon Sense.

~ E * T * H * I * C * S ~

With a so many scams and scandals in the news today one begs to know, what do ETHICS really mean?

These just some scandals from the past couple years that I remember…

* KPMG
* Martha Stuart
* Enron
* Lucent
* WorldCom
* AOL
* Quest
* Xerox
* Ahold
* Fannie Mae
* Bristol Meyer Squibb
* Tyco
* Vivendi Universal
* Global Crossing
* Quest
* Baan
* Barrings Bank
* Andersen

Obviously it is unethical when one tries to steal from some one else? What about lying? I am guessing that is unethical too, considering Martha Stewart and couple other corporate Executives have received jail term for lying.

I took some time to research corporate slogans and found a very large percentage of fortune 500 companies claimed their “improving consumer life” as their motto. Is this really true? ABSOLUTELY! But is it the complete truth? No way. The key part missing in these mottos is with commitment to our shareholders.

Many of these same corporations will abandon projects they will improve consumer lives but may be unprofitable to the shareholders. Is this ETHICAL?

It is believed tobacco companies make a harmful product. Society believes it is unethical to make a poisonous product and then get the consumer hooked on it, but how about shopping chains that cause bankruptcies? The list could go on for ever and ever.

A recent spate of B-School admission system hackings exposed our future business leaders that failed their first test in integrity. During a conversation with a close friend the discussion lead to exploring these hacking in light of competitive intelligence. If corporations spend hundreds of thousands on gathering competitive intelligence why is it unethical to tap an opportunity window to gather similar competitive intelligence in the admissions process?

If it is ethical to tap loop holes in the tax system legally why is it unethical to take bonuses and compensation that the likes of Dennis Kozlowski have been convicted for? Is the fault with the individual or a broken system? Even Adam Smith said an individual is driven by societal needs and an invisible hand.

So what is the final word on Ethics?

What is Strategy?

Some one recently asked me ‘what is strategy?’ I take pleasure in answering fundamental questions like this because they help me think clear and simple.

As I drove home that evening in the dark, with snow on the road and poor visibility the question was the last thing on my mind. The next day I ran into the same person again and he asked me ‘so what is the answer?’. We walked to the cafeteria and along the way I started to articulate my answer.

I though of my ride home and all the CHOICES I had to make:
* Which route to take?
* Whether to ride home in my car or taking public transport?
* The amount of gas in the car?
* Which roads were open and which blocked?
* News of cleaning crew and emergency arteries that had been cleaned up?
* My cars capabilities (front wheel drive)?
* The phone numbers I needed to carry in case I had to call some one for help (AAA, friends)?

The list went on… I though this would be the best answer I could formulate to help explain what is strategy? I started with “Strategy is ESTABLISHMENT of GOALS and CHOICES to meet those goals bound by capabilities and the environment around”. The next question was “so what is planning?”, interesting! I thought over the same problem again, but this time my response was immediate, “Planning it is the selection of an OPTION/ALTERNATIVE that BEST MEETS the goal and the ensuing steps to deliver the objectives in the simplest and most efficient manner”.

The answers for the most part had done their job, but then came another follow through, so is strategy all about data? A common misconception people have is to often confuse strategy and analysis to business intelligence. Strategy takes data for input, trends, market dynamics, regulatory constraints, short term objectives but the transformation of this Business Intelligence/Business data into knowledge to establish alternatives is strategy.

Brewing this data simply in a coffee pot of even a cauldron is not going to do much, it takes leaders and visionary business gurus and analysts to understand, interpret and evaluate the information to extract knowledge. This brewing together together of my options with those of others likely to be on the road, and my needs and wants and finally the alternatives available to me.

No system can ever replace the beautiful and so complicated human mind!

What is the most important thing in life?

Loaded question! The immediate thought that came to my mind was “The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything” in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? The answer given by Deep Thought leads the protagonists on a quest to discover the question which provides the answer. Is 42 the right answer? If so what is the right question?

In any case… what do I believe is the most important thing in life?

C O N T E X T

Why context? Try and decipher the following tell me what this is all about?
* A seven-day big bang
* Gardens and floods herald the Promised Land
* Laws, wars, and royal decrees
* Songs of praise and crystal gazing
* Jerusalem gets it
* Enter the boss’s son
* Wilderness wanderings
* Signs and wonders, and a donkey ride to the tomb
* Resurgam
What if I told you this was a religious scripture? Surely some got it right?
It’s the Bible (Thanks to DJ Taylor!).

How about the following?
Objective
* Ride out storm
* Outlive tyranny
Core Statement
* No flagging
* No failing
Achieving Objectives
* Requires much fighting
+ seas
+ air
+ beaches
+ landing grounds
+ fields
+ streets
+ hills
Conclusion
* No surrendering!

Now what if I said this was an Inspirational War Speech from 1940? Yes you are right Sir Winston Churchill’s speech to The House of Commons, June 4, 1940.

Tarzan English from LOST IN (POWERPOINT) SPACE, Dr. Kirk A. Yost (INFORMS Practitioners Conf 2005, Palm Springs, CA)

Same is true with everything in life. Be it personal relations, conversations, decisions, strategies, etc.

Did you watch “30 Days” by Morgan Spurlock on the FX network? http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/main.html

The guy is a genius! Imagining a simple idea worth a Million Dollars!

He transformed the way most people think of fast food in the United States today last year. And last night he started a movement.

I took some time this morning to read through the message boards. There were posting criticizing him on his lack of knowledge of the system (Medicaid) and then there were others who spoke of the travesty in their own state.

To me it wasn’t as much about the problem as it was about the show itself.

We know we have a problem but we overlook. We are caught up in our own affairs. Mr. Spurlock has helped us open our mind. More than anything else he has acted different. In today’s world of reality how ‘fanaticism’ he has created a reality series with a cause.

A little too liberal but all for a good reason.

Do we think more (sometimes flawed) than we should?

I was at an event recently hosted by our public library, there were all kinds of books on sale. One caught my attention “Executive Etiquettes”, I started scanning through it and started to ruminate over the content.

When did handshakes transform their meaning from what they were really meant to be?
· Strong hand shake
· Second hand to express confidence
· Holding the hosts elbow during the hand shake to mean I am powerful and ready to support you
the list does not end! Newer dimensions of measurements are great! They open up an opportunity for imagination. BUT shouldn’t we also establish a scale to measure diminishing marginal utility for each measurement that is introduced? The system places the burden of proof on the individual who introduces it, do people know this?

I had the opportunity to start my career in microelectronics, this may sound uncanny but microprocessors are the simplest devices on earth. Anything that has no brain to think on its very own is a simple device/system! Any way when one part of the device communicates with another part, the receiving part sends a handshake signal back.
So the handshake is no more than an acknowledgement! It is an acceptance of your signal and a response to say ‘I hear you and accept your existence’. I will now interpret your message and act on it.

How do we train ourselves to be more imaginative?

B-SCHOOL! You think? If you read Ask Annie in Fortune or the Vault’s News Groups the common theme is… need a career “Make Over”, go to a Business School.

Then why do B-Schools admit only a select few? How about they admit a cat, dog, horse, cow and make it more imaginative to prepare for a career make over? I guess they need some one who is already imaginative and creative to hone those skills. That does not sound like the place then does it?

Are we going for an endorsed brand here? If I attended a Wharton, Harvard or Stanford would I be more imaginative than some one who went to ABC College? Certainly seems like considering BAIN, BCG, McKinsey would not hire at ABC.

Am I beginning to sound like a Business School hater? Oh no! I am not, trust me I am not! Is that guilt kicking in? Whoa… I don’t wish to ruin my chances with my current bosses or future ones. Change of topic!

Growing up my dad who is an Engineer by trade told me math helps one to develop her/his skills to imagine. I did not take that seriously, but I believe that now. What is a number, it is truly an abstract concept. Can you see it or do we just have to count a collection? Same with shapes and objects like squares, triangles, trapeziums and so on. But not all math majors, engineers or scientists are imaginative either. So what is the elixir for imagination?

An unbiased lucid mind, with reality and market checkpoints.

Is being imaginative a permanent state of mind of a transient state?

I believe it is permanent. Some one who is imaginative is imaginative in everything they do. Although the mind needs to be trained in order to channel the thoughts in the new area they dabble. Let’s take the example of Leonardo DaVinci, he was a painter, mathematician, scientist, engineering. Some of our modern day scientists played musical instruments Albert Einstein played violin, I recently saw a performance by Elaine Chew who has studied computational music cognition, Scott Adams an engineer by training draws satirical cartoons on the office theme, Maurits Cornelis Escher connected engineering structures and physics into his paintings, Dali related physics with religion in his art work. Our very own secretary of state Condi Rice is an accomplished Cello player, she has played along side Yo Yo Ma in New York at Carnegie Hall.

Some people are just cut out to be in a perpetual state of creative flow!

What does this mean in the business world? Can one change fields, functions, companies, etc. and pack their creativity inside their cranium just to be reapplied else where? Then why are organizations and companies looking for the people with experience in their field? McKinsey hires disparate individuals only because they believe the diversity helps uniqueness of thought, but for how long? Will this unique individual eventually be transformed into the ways of the team of be reticent enough in her or his own ways to treasure and maintain the uniqueness? If she or he maintains the uniqueness will they never adjust to the culture of the firm? Is this good or bad? Lou Gerstner the ex-CEO of IBM has always been interesting to me. He changed industries and was able to apply his visions in creative new ways from Consulting to CPG to Financial Services to IT. He was able to get an “Elephant to Dance”.

Are some people more imaginative than others?

CPG companies have a strong marketing prowess. I guess the maturity of market and the business model makes it essential to throw in a curve ball "Brand Management". Through a touchy, feely, discipline of Marketing.

So are marketers more imaginative than others? One would argue YES! They ought to be! They need to understand the pulse of the marketplace. They need to strategize.

Personally I have tough time knowing where my girl friend wants to go for dinner on Friday night, that’s after have been with her for over five years. But I guess if I had about 50 girl friends at any time and took them all to an expensive Italian place for dinner with lovie, dovie message from an advertising agency through out the week about “how it would make them look thin from eating Italian food” I would be able to convince at least 25 of them to join in? And guess what if I threw in a free pair of shoes with the dinner, I guarantee to please at least 10-15 more. I might do better than Heffner with his 6-7 bunnies.

I had to have learnt this some where? Understanding my Equity, relevance of the products to my consumer base I am targeting, leveraging the appeal of one product with the other (my appeal through the shoes and dinner deal), message clarity to connect with my consumer base and lastly creating energy and excitement through timely messages so they never forget the event and plan on attending. May be a B-School?

Yeah Right! Just open your mind and read Aaker, Kotler, etc.

The Blue

.... so what do you think is holding back people, organizations, companies, countries from performing? Here is my list:

- Imagination

- Articulation

- Dedication

People lack imagination, which reflects their restrain in envisioning the next greatest thing. This limitation inhibits them for embracing the idea when some one presents it. Their silo’ed imagination limits their risk taking ability, human limitations in modeling and computing only fuels this imagination gap

Imagination needs to be articulated in the style and language of the stake holder. The articulation translates it into physical yet invisible gain to the stake holder. This invisible gain could be professional or personal like – career progression for taking action against the idea, monetary gain and gains to the company (where he may be a share holder), etc.

Dedication to pursue the imagined idea and follow through the delivery. This dedication is reflected in the effort to layout the execution plans, engaging the sponsors and negotiating to create executive advocacy, energizing the team through a carrot or a stick. Helping the ancillary and support staff prepare as they deliver the goods.

Neil