The economic world order - for dummys !

There is an age old joke - let me repeat that here !

"What do you call a person who knows 3 languages ?" - Ans: Trilingual
"What do you call a person who knows 2 languages ?" - Ans: Bilingual
"What do you call a person who knows just 1 language ?" - Ans: American

That used to be indicative of world power. No need to know others languages. As others would need the super power and not the vice versa. There was no compulsion to know and go through the uncomfortable learning phase.

Today I was talking to a long time friend who has settled in US of A. His son going to high school wanted to choose a second language and his first preference was "Mandarin". Yes ! You heard it right. That used to be Spanish / French earlier !!! But he did not get Mandarin because that class was already FULL !!!!!

Did not 90% of world intellectuals keep saying, China's Achilles heel is lack of English speaking population as opposed to India ?

Well.. world is trying to learn their language now !

"Amavasa of Asadha" vs. "Friday the 13th"

People of Karnataka / Bangalore treat "Amavas of Asadha" as the most inauspicious day.
This was last Tuesday for this year.

And that's the day one of my govt transactions registering a land was scheduled.  Something that is a candidate and driver for finding an auspicious day.

I was excited by the thought that the office would be really empty. I and the seller of the land, wont have to wait too long. We will get in, do the registration and get out.

Did not happen that way ... ! The govt. officer himself said, nothing can be done today and please plan on postponing.

Alas .. the queue, one day of waiting of Govt office I thought. I started looking for another inauspicious day near by. Viola - "Friday the 13th" today. There it was not so far away ! I would think, at least good portion of urban population wont show up on this day.

Went in being 1/3rd as excited as last Tuesday. Hoping the queue is smaller.

And it was  crowded like a festival. Wondered why ?

Then a priest comes out of the govt registrar's office with "Alathi" and "Prasadam" - asked whats up ? He said its "Shravana" something. The most auspicious day of the year :)

Guess, it all had to be done at the right auspicious moment, no matter how much one plans !!!

Video Blogging - Over rated ???

A new fad in today's corporate executive communication. Most of the communication comes in form of video blogging.

Let us not kid ourselves - Executive communication is important. No matter how high level it is, just knowing what your chain of command till the pinnacle of the organization think, adds value to day to day operations most of us burjuas do !

Earlier, it used to be a simple e-mail message. Text. One can read. Then it became rich e-mail message with pictures. Pictures are worth thousands of words ! Good .. Now it is Video Blogging..

A text mail comes with 2 lines and a link to video - "You can see what is on top of my mind at this below link".

I ve not personally seen any one of them. Well ! I ve not gotten any exec communication since this trend started. Totally wrong use of video ?

What's is the right price ?

Limiting this "observation" to sporting goods for now.

I love playing the sports that deal with a raquet and a ball or a shuttle type. I think, it comes naturally to me. As a result thoroughly enjoy  tennis, squash, table tennis and badminton.

Over the weekend, I was trying to change my gear for all these games. Buying new raquets and getting rid of the 5-6 yr old ones. They get a good amount of trashing :)

One thing surprised me is - price of a great TT paddle that players who think they are better than most (may not be professional, but in school, corporate circuits may be near the top layer) choose, is in the range of 5-6K INR.

Badminton Raquest.. good ones for the same demography, Tennis raquets, as well as Squash all in the same range.

This is certainly not coincidence ! They are made up of different material, different quantities, endorsed by variably paid athletes. Still, priced around the same range.

I ve a strong feeling, a good amount of research is done on what "players" of certain seriousness, want to spend for these equipments. And hence the price set that way !!! May be the marketing MBAs can qualify this for me ?????

"Collaboration Works"

..only if there is "Command and Control" to enforce it !!

Major corporations are moving to collaborative platforms like WiKi, and coaching their managers to pitch in two cents on each initiative, that helps move the tasks in a better manner and shares the risks.

As my own experience goes in past one year, all collaborative initiatives start out with a lot of excitement, and then slowly dies down with no single person taking ownership, until some one in exec ladders notices this and whacks everyone.

Need to find a sweet spot - that can get best of both worlds !!!

Sick Child Syndrome ?????

Got annual customer satisfaction results for two hot selling products in the entire industry.
Both of them are out there for more than 10 years. Make a Billion USD each, every year ! Pretty useful products.

One has been in constant news for wrong reasons, last year. Issues, Quality - customers needed a lot of hand holding with this one.

The other one has been pretty quite ! As as of the comments in customer satisfaction report says, "It just sits there in the corner and works !!". And each hour it stays up and works, make money for the owner !!!

Now, one would expect good customer satisfaction score for product 2, right ? NAH ...... The score is exactly opposite.

While trying to understand this "limite" mass-user psychology, I did remember one incident / story !

When in school, you ask a healthy child to describe his  mom,  he says good things.

If you ask the exact same question to a child who falls sick often, his response would be much more "elaborate" and much more kind to mom, as the child has gotten continuous care, being sick often. 

Lost in Metrics ..

Metrics all around us !
Measurements, stack rankings, trends, analysis, charts.... !
We would like to think the "message" in the "metrics" gets across.

However, most of the times, the audience is not ready !

My KG child, who gets back from school, plays teacher and student at home and draws the following ....

We know how he does his dictations at school from here :) But not sure he knows what the marks and the sad face mean to him, apart from being something he remembers and automatically does at the end of the dictation.

NOTE: In his mock paper, he has written apparently the same thing all over. Marked one of them as TICK and others CROSS !! Obviously the message is lost !