Wish you a very Happy New Year 2006!!
For those you intested in freedom of information in the middle east and UAE in particular, 2005 was ...quite interesting!!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Still Here!!!
I have been busy lately, with a lot of stuff going on at the same time. Since what i am doing right now involves with "Sales and Marketing" and I do not have enough time to write a new blog, so i decided to recycle one of the older ones. Moreover, I wanted to mention a blog written by ex-googles on their company, both at startup level and beyond.
As per my weekend schedule, and also keeping the mind school starts next week, I visited the Borders bookstore today for a couple of hours. I had been to the bookstore a couple of days ago in downtown, which is much bigger, and re-discovered the book, “The tipping point”. I had seen the book before in the bookshelf but never came around to reading it.
Anyways, I started reading it that day and I continued the book today. It starts out a little boring but picks up very quickly. The book flap reads, “The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social Behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” The book tries to look into the similarities and try to come up with generalizations based under the umbrella topic, “Behavioral sciences”. I have just read the first part of the book, where the author describes three fundamental type of people responsible for tipping point.
The first type of person is the connectors. These are people like our grandmothers; they know each and everybody in the neighborhood and won’t think twice before starting a conversation with the person sitting next to you on a bus journey. These people are socially very active and are the gurus of networking. Each and every one of us knows somebody who is a connector. The author asks the readers to name all their friends and think through whom or how did they meet. The author believes most of his friends become his friends since they were already known to his former roommate, who thus was the connector. I have found the same here also. Most of the friends I know came from one or two persons. I know at least two people, whom everybody seems to know and they know everybody. They are the connectors for the rest of the social circle. As the author says, networking is not like a circle but more like a pyramid.
The second type of person is the Marvels. The best description for these kinds of persons is the data banks. These people know the best deals in town know more facts than regular people and don’t hesitate to give you their opinion on different aspects. They are the ones who e-mail you about a discount sale at the nearby Ben and Jerry’s and also give out discount coupons. Mind you they don’t force their recommendations; they give out information voluntarily and kind of expect you to add some to their data bank.
The last job is the salesmen. These people are tactful in their ability to persuade the general public to act on their recommendations. Almost everybody knows who a salesperson is and what he or she does, so I need not expand on that.
The book goes on to site research on various interpersonal communication patterns and behaviors. I have only read the first part of the book and look forward to read the rest tomorrow or as soon as I can. Surely a must for any one doing market research at any level.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
What level is your Organizational Equity?
I found this while going through some old posts i had written a few years ago.
I should re-cycle some of the old blogs, just incase i lose some of the old blogs... :-)
What level is your Organizational Equity?
According to “Build your Organizational Equity” published in “Strategy + Business”, a Booz Allen Hamilton Inc magazine, issue of summer 2003, “organizational equity” is one of the most neglected aspects of career building.
The writer, Art Kleiner, classifies the employees of any organization into two groups. One group, called the “Core group”, consists of the top layer of employees such as CEO, CFO, important personnel such as union leaders. This group is generally the policy making group of any organization and accounts for less than 5 % of the total number of employees working in the organization. The second and less prominent group, accounting for the rest of the organization, is the “transactional group”. The members of this group have no or little-input in the policy matters and basically only transact the policy into implementation. Organizations view such groups are replaceable and largely unimportant to decision making.
So, no one wants to be stuck in the second group. Following orders is boring and does not allow your creativity to emerge. According to the author, the best method of moving from transactional group to core group is to strength your organizational equity, defined as “any share of accumulated wealth, including such intangible forms of social capital as relationships and reputation.”
Now the author gives some good examples, which I have found lead not only to organizational success, but also success in life because the world in which we live in is, after all, a huge organization.
•Fungible Financial Equity: This is the financial part of the equity and is most tangible. Having enough financial assets gives you the choice of starting your own company or not working for sometime. Experts recommend saving enough money, either in saving account or some other method, to sustain yourself and your dependents for at least 9 months without a job. Getting to a threshold is critical since once you achieve that goal, savings become capital and pay large enough dividends for a comfortable lifestyle.
•Rainmaking Equity: This is the ability to be the rainmaker of the organization. Can you achieve something no other person in the organization can such as closing that large contract or building a strong department? Rainmaking qualities are hard to attain but it is not impossible.
•Credential Equity: This is the most visible form of your organizational equity. Degrees and certifications help build this equity. The most evident obstacle is the high-expense and time required to maintain this equity.
•Reputation Equity: The writer explains, “You build your reputation less through the accomplishments you stack up (what you do) than through the way you operate in life (who you are).” Consultants, lawyers, doctors make their careers on this equity.
•Relationship Equity: The most commonly understood quality in organizations, it all depends on ‘who you know and how well do you know vs. what you know’.
•Capability Equity: This is the ability to learn more skills and capabilities to add into your already existing equities. Having capability to learn is widely searched for in interviews.
I should re-cycle some of the old blogs, just incase i lose some of the old blogs... :-)
According to “Build your Organizational Equity” published in “Strategy + Business”, a Booz Allen Hamilton Inc magazine, issue of summer 2003, “organizational equity” is one of the most neglected aspects of career building.
The writer, Art Kleiner, classifies the employees of any organization into two groups. One group, called the “Core group”, consists of the top layer of employees such as CEO, CFO, important personnel such as union leaders. This group is generally the policy making group of any organization and accounts for less than 5 % of the total number of employees working in the organization. The second and less prominent group, accounting for the rest of the organization, is the “transactional group”. The members of this group have no or little-input in the policy matters and basically only transact the policy into implementation. Organizations view such groups are replaceable and largely unimportant to decision making.
So, no one wants to be stuck in the second group. Following orders is boring and does not allow your creativity to emerge. According to the author, the best method of moving from transactional group to core group is to strength your organizational equity, defined as “any share of accumulated wealth, including such intangible forms of social capital as relationships and reputation.”
Now the author gives some good examples, which I have found lead not only to organizational success, but also success in life because the world in which we live in is, after all, a huge organization.
•Fungible Financial Equity: This is the financial part of the equity and is most tangible. Having enough financial assets gives you the choice of starting your own company or not working for sometime. Experts recommend saving enough money, either in saving account or some other method, to sustain yourself and your dependents for at least 9 months without a job. Getting to a threshold is critical since once you achieve that goal, savings become capital and pay large enough dividends for a comfortable lifestyle.
•Rainmaking Equity: This is the ability to be the rainmaker of the organization. Can you achieve something no other person in the organization can such as closing that large contract or building a strong department? Rainmaking qualities are hard to attain but it is not impossible.
•Credential Equity: This is the most visible form of your organizational equity. Degrees and certifications help build this equity. The most evident obstacle is the high-expense and time required to maintain this equity.
•Reputation Equity: The writer explains, “You build your reputation less through the accomplishments you stack up (what you do) than through the way you operate in life (who you are).” Consultants, lawyers, doctors make their careers on this equity.
•Relationship Equity: The most commonly understood quality in organizations, it all depends on ‘who you know and how well do you know vs. what you know’.
•Capability Equity: This is the ability to learn more skills and capabilities to add into your already existing equities. Having capability to learn is widely searched for in interviews.
Categorizing Cultures
I did not know this, but according to the book, "When Cultures Collide, Leading across Cultures", there are three different cultures based on the time management employed. The first two are the Linear Active and Multi-active cultures.
The Linear active do one task at a time, and plan accordingly. In a very linear methodology of working. Examples of such cultures are the germans and Dutch. They do one thing a time, concentrate hard on that thing, and do it within a scheduled time period.
Multi-active are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They are more interested in reality of the situation and they think they get more done this way, than focus on one task. They are more task -concentric, i.e., they would jump around the tasks regardless of the time implications. Examples of such cultures are latin americans, Arabs, and Aficans.
The third type of culture is the Reactive culture. Japanese belong to such division. They change their habit depending on the other person's culture. They prefer to listening to and establish the other's position first, then react to it. These guys are more fexible than the other two cultures.
Ofcourse, needless to say, every individual falls somewhere inbetween the spectrum and these are not rules set on stone. It depends on which position is more comfortable to the individual person.
The Linear active do one task at a time, and plan accordingly. In a very linear methodology of working. Examples of such cultures are the germans and Dutch. They do one thing a time, concentrate hard on that thing, and do it within a scheduled time period.
Multi-active are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They are more interested in reality of the situation and they think they get more done this way, than focus on one task. They are more task -concentric, i.e., they would jump around the tasks regardless of the time implications. Examples of such cultures are latin americans, Arabs, and Aficans.
The third type of culture is the Reactive culture. Japanese belong to such division. They change their habit depending on the other person's culture. They prefer to listening to and establish the other's position first, then react to it. These guys are more fexible than the other two cultures.
Ofcourse, needless to say, every individual falls somewhere inbetween the spectrum and these are not rules set on stone. It depends on which position is more comfortable to the individual person.
Monday, December 19, 2005
India | The next wave ????
I am a regular reader of the "Free-Market" magazine, the Economist. This week, the magazine reported the emerging trends of Indian companies towards more high-valued services such as legal document preparations and statergy consulting. Although India has one of the highest graduation numbers in the world, i.e, educated, english-speaking workforce; it lacks some of the very basics in terms of skills needed to work in the global scale.
I have found many a boss complaining about the lack of vision, to think beyond the realm of the task given to the employee. Most Indians would not like me saying it, however the truth is that most of the young programmers have been taught to be "Yes Men" and "Code Monkeys". This is specially true at the graduates rolled out by the lower level universities in India. As somebody I know said it, the advantage in India is simply blunt force. You employee 10 people towards solving a problem that a western educated person could solve in 10 days. You will find that the problem will get solved in 8 days. And you will save money. However, in the high skilled consulting market, it will be hard to establish dominance due to the self imposed constiants of the educational/cultural background. Simple numbers will not do the trick.
I have found many a boss complaining about the lack of vision, to think beyond the realm of the task given to the employee. Most Indians would not like me saying it, however the truth is that most of the young programmers have been taught to be "Yes Men" and "Code Monkeys". This is specially true at the graduates rolled out by the lower level universities in India. As somebody I know said it, the advantage in India is simply blunt force. You employee 10 people towards solving a problem that a western educated person could solve in 10 days. You will find that the problem will get solved in 8 days. And you will save money. However, in the high skilled consulting market, it will be hard to establish dominance due to the self imposed constiants of the educational/cultural background. Simple numbers will not do the trick.
Read more at http://www.businessweek.com/ and www.economist.com/busin...
Sunday, December 18, 2005
HDTV in Dubai?
I have been looking around to recommend a new television for my parents. Television Technology has rapidly evolved over the last 3 years, to include a number of (confusing) options, not all of which make the best of sense. I am no expert in television technology nor content programming. However, I believe a few features are essential for every new generation, long term television purchase.
One is the size of the television. Needless to say, the bigger the better is almost always correct. The size is always measured in inches for some reason. Larger models have certain dis-advantages including image quality. Which is the second feature to look for. Image Quality. It is measured in various ways, some are pixals that the television can display. The more image has to be enlongated, the worst the quality of the television. These two always play the balancing act in regards to your television purchase. The rest of the factors involved are sound quality, life of the television itself among many others.
Ofcourse, two main types of the televisions are those which are flat screened, i.e, can be put on a wall and those which have a bulky back to them. Like the regular CRTs we all have at home. The other two popular differentiating features are LCD vs Plasma. Plasma being the older technology is more prominent world-over however, it has a shorter lifespan than LCD. LCD used to be very expensive until huge factories started chucking out the glass displays in korea.
Ofcourse, over the last few years HDTV is the feature to upgrade for.
HDTV is High Definetion Television. Nobody would have cared to upgrade to this technology and the manufacturs would have bothered to market it so high in normal circumstances. However, United States of America decided that all terrestial transmissions would have to be in HD technology by the end of 2007 or 2008 I believe. Most cable operators in united states have already started providing content in both HD and normal trasmissions. DVDs are becoming HD-DVDs which can store more content at better quality than DVDs (HD DVD players are coming out early next year, including new Playstation 3 and rumor has it that mircosoft is releasing HD DVD in XBox 360 next year.) For anyone who is interested in technology format wars, you will already know the battle between Blu-Ray and Tosiba HD.
Now, every technology shop i visit in Dubai, Flat screen LCDs and Plasmas with HDTV technology compatable are the norm of the day. However, there is no current HDTV broadcasting available in dubai. The only research i could dig out what this news article which says E-vision has plans to rollout HDTV channels soon. How soon? and will i be better off waiting a couple of years before paying huge amounts of money for some features i will not be able to use?
One is the size of the television. Needless to say, the bigger the better is almost always correct. The size is always measured in inches for some reason. Larger models have certain dis-advantages including image quality. Which is the second feature to look for. Image Quality. It is measured in various ways, some are pixals that the television can display. The more image has to be enlongated, the worst the quality of the television. These two always play the balancing act in regards to your television purchase. The rest of the factors involved are sound quality, life of the television itself among many others.
Ofcourse, two main types of the televisions are those which are flat screened, i.e, can be put on a wall and those which have a bulky back to them. Like the regular CRTs we all have at home. The other two popular differentiating features are LCD vs Plasma. Plasma being the older technology is more prominent world-over however, it has a shorter lifespan than LCD. LCD used to be very expensive until huge factories started chucking out the glass displays in korea.
Ofcourse, over the last few years HDTV is the feature to upgrade for.
HDTV is High Definetion Television. Nobody would have cared to upgrade to this technology and the manufacturs would have bothered to market it so high in normal circumstances. However, United States of America decided that all terrestial transmissions would have to be in HD technology by the end of 2007 or 2008 I believe. Most cable operators in united states have already started providing content in both HD and normal trasmissions. DVDs are becoming HD-DVDs which can store more content at better quality than DVDs (HD DVD players are coming out early next year, including new Playstation 3 and rumor has it that mircosoft is releasing HD DVD in XBox 360 next year.) For anyone who is interested in technology format wars, you will already know the battle between Blu-Ray and Tosiba HD.
Now, every technology shop i visit in Dubai, Flat screen LCDs and Plasmas with HDTV technology compatable are the norm of the day. However, there is no current HDTV broadcasting available in dubai. The only research i could dig out what this news article which says E-vision has plans to rollout HDTV channels soon. How soon? and will i be better off waiting a couple of years before paying huge amounts of money for some features i will not be able to use?
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Most famous Toys in various decades
Reported on slashdot, the toys are mostly of american/europeon origin. Although i dont think the rest of the world does not play with toys, western toy makers and their distributor retailers come into Black during the xmas sales. Thus, the popularity is based on the holiday rush.
However, xmas holidays sometimes have nothing to do with the popularity of a "Toy". ViewMaster 3-D was released in 1938 was one of the most popular toys of 1930's and the most popular scenic reel was of Mecca. I vagly remember seeing something similar to a view master, showing regilious sites in festival fairs in india during the early 1980's. I am sure such "toys" sell far removed from the demographics they targeted.
Coming back to the current year, this year the biggest fav. is supposed to be the Xbox Live. However, i will be waiting for Playstation 3 to come out in next spring before deciding which one is better. The Xbox is yet to be released in dubai, however global releases have been going on for quite sometime.
Read more at www.forbes.com/2005/12/...
Secret Dubai diary
Came across this Blog while surfing the net. Looks like somebody who is working at the media city is writing it. It is very interesting and should be a good starting point to anyone interested in life in dubai. I would have recommended my site, however, you already know my blog since you are reading it right now!
Read more at secretdubai.blogspot.co...
New Entry in the Book List on your left side
I have recently purchased this book at Virgin Magastore (at mall of the emirates) in Dubai. You might have noticed the lack of updates in the list. This is primarly due to the fact that i myself did not come across any book worth mentioning during recent times.
Unlike the time i was in san francisco, good book stores are very hard to find in dubai. Although marketed as the future knowledge/services city in the middle-east region, books and avid readers are noticeably absent in this city. The new store at MOE has been opened only a fortnight ago, and is good. Or shall i say, atleast comparable to the bookstores in the western nations. I am a big fan of Borders Bookstore, primarly due to the fact that they have one of the biggest selection of books you would hope for. The Virgin store is very spacious and marketed for the western crowd in dubai.
The books are also priced at international levels, which is very cheap considering that other bookstores in dubai charge atleast 20% extra than the dollar amounts on the books. The only cheap books in dubai are indian editions of some books, which is also a ripoff considering that you are paying in Dhs for something in rupees. Ofcourse books of indian edition are very cheap in india compared to the rest of the world.
The second change in made to the list is not linking the image to amazon bookstore. I decided to post a link to Google Print which allows you to search through the book atleast, incase you are looking for something particular. You can always search for the title in your favoriate bookstore. (You need a google account for searching. If you dont have one, contact me)
Unlike the time i was in san francisco, good book stores are very hard to find in dubai. Although marketed as the future knowledge/services city in the middle-east region, books and avid readers are noticeably absent in this city. The new store at MOE has been opened only a fortnight ago, and is good. Or shall i say, atleast comparable to the bookstores in the western nations. I am a big fan of Borders Bookstore, primarly due to the fact that they have one of the biggest selection of books you would hope for. The Virgin store is very spacious and marketed for the western crowd in dubai.
The books are also priced at international levels, which is very cheap considering that other bookstores in dubai charge atleast 20% extra than the dollar amounts on the books. The only cheap books in dubai are indian editions of some books, which is also a ripoff considering that you are paying in Dhs for something in rupees. Ofcourse books of indian edition are very cheap in india compared to the rest of the world.
The second change in made to the list is not linking the image to amazon bookstore. I decided to post a link to Google Print which allows you to search through the book atleast, incase you are looking for something particular. You can always search for the title in your favoriate bookstore. (You need a google account for searching. If you dont have one, contact me)
Friday, December 16, 2005
Mozilla Firefox Start Page
I am trying the new Google/Firefox plugin that allows me to comment on webpages directly from a popup-style box. In addition, it allows me to look at other blogs referring to the page i am viewing at present. (Notice the link below)
This feature is suprising very similar with one service that was started during the dotcom era. That download allowed you to chat with people of the messenging network (ICQ I think) who were viewing the same page at the same time. The idea was people would read similar stuff have common interests, or least had one commonality which was the webpage. The most fun part was that the software recogized my mail box as a page nobody else was interested in. (I sure hope not!!)
Read more at www.google.com/firefox?...
Monday, December 12, 2005
What Thomas Friedman Says
Continuing with the question of specializations and job security, Thomas Friedman says it best in page 238 of his book, "The World is Flat". He defines "Untouchables" as people whose jobs cannot be outsourced. (And any job that can be outsourced basically means you are competing headon with the rest of the world, not that you will lose your job tommorow!!)
Thomas Fiedman might be writing the book about outsourcing,, but it is more fundamentally about globalization of human resources. Not natural resources, that is already over. Human resources are the "body shops" of the day. Indian sucess depends on human resources needed to be good IT personnel. American success depends on a large part on the human resouces of innovation and resource planning. You could guess what the chinese and the south east asians depend on. Now what Europe and Africa needs to decide is where does their human potential lie??
So who are the untouchables, and how do you or your kids get to be one? Untouchables come in four broad categories: workers who are "special", workers who are "specialized", workers who are "anchored", and workers who are "really adaptable".Special workers are people like Mr.Gates and Michael Jordon. They work in global scale and are top of the pyramid. They need no fear job security because they create their own jobs. Specialized workers are phd or equalivant candidates who will always have demand for their niche skills. Workers who are "anchored" are usually people serving a community and need to be "one-site" year round. These are nurses, doctors, gardeners, firemen, security personnel..you get the idea. Last but not least, Comes the "Adaptable". These are the multi-taskers, the ones who can adapt to any situation and quickly learn to specialize it in. They need to be good in learning and changing their tool sets every so often. Entrepreneurs comes across as likely candidates for this sector. Known to take risks and adapt to circumstances, they will be able to survive in any society.
Thomas Fiedman might be writing the book about outsourcing,, but it is more fundamentally about globalization of human resources. Not natural resources, that is already over. Human resources are the "body shops" of the day. Indian sucess depends on human resources needed to be good IT personnel. American success depends on a large part on the human resouces of innovation and resource planning. You could guess what the chinese and the south east asians depend on. Now what Europe and Africa needs to decide is where does their human potential lie??
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