A beautiful past cannot be revisited – jotted on the vishu eve.

“A beautiful past cannot be revisited.  We can only live it in bits and pieces of nostalgia collected along the breath taking journey called life. “

I was reading the ROBB Report-travel edition, and i found these interesting words.  These sentence has got lot of prominence in this festival season of VISHU. 

Vishu – is always a nostalgic feeling for us.It reminds us the good old childhood days, which is not going to return to us in any way.

We wait for these long summer holiday after a routine school days..
We wait for those days, when all our cousins join together
They may come from far way or near by places...
the wait will never be in vein, when we enjoy playing together..
in fields, backyards , in the shelter, in toy house....
that good old times is not going to return..

We conquer all the big trees in our back yard..
to get the best fruit or to show our skills..the taste of fresh sweet mango –which we pluck it from top of the trees..that sweetness in life is never going to return...

Then comes the real day...Vishu day is some of the really special day...
when great grandma wakes us up in the very early morning..one by  one as per the order of age...we sit before the Vishu kani...
with a wonder in our eyes seeing all the rich glittering golden colors..suddenly a wet hand wipe our eyes to really awake from the sleep...the smell of “Vibhuthi”.. which our grandma place is it in our forehead....the one rupee--- kaineettm, we collect from all the elders.....that good old times is not going to return..

now comes the time to depart...
the sad time, when we realise that all the fun we had..
is going to end with those parting... 
the silent sadness spread across all the cousins...which shows how deeply we were knitted...
only with a relief that,,, Vishu days will come in the next year too.....
that good old times is not going to return..

we know,....
that good old times is not going to return..but atleast, we will try to re-create the same happiness in our children............................

(image courtesy : http://www.peterrobinsonsblog.com/category/family/)

 

 

 

New Ministers in kerala - 2011

1. Oommen Chandy:     Chief Minister Home,Fisheries,Enviornment, Fire service, Civil and criminal justice, All India services, Planning and finance,science,Technology,.Personal administrative reforms,Airports,Inter state River waters,Norka, and other portfolios not given to others.


2. P.K. Kunhalikutty :  Industries, Commerce, Mining and Geology, Handloom and textiles, IT, Municipalities and Corporations, Urban development, Minority welfare and development,


3. K.M Mani :  Finance, Lottery, local fund audit, Stamp and stamp duty, law and house building and development.


4. K.P Mohan:   Agriculture. Soil, Animal


5. T.M Jacob:   Food, Civil Supplies ,  Consumer redressal


6. K.B Ganesh Kumar :    Forest, Sports, Cinema.KSFDC


7. Shibu Baby John :      Labour, Factories and boilers


8. Aryadan Muhammed :   Electricity.


9.Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan Revenue : Land reforms ,survey


10. K. Babu :  Excise. Port


11. K.C Joseph Registration : Rural development. P &D


12. Adoor Prakash:  Health.


13. C.N Balakrishnan :  Co-Operation


14. A.P Anil Kumar Tourism:  cultural affairs. welfare of SC


15. P.K Jayalakshmi:   Welfare of Backward Communities. and youth.


16. V.S sivakumar:   Transport, Devaswom.,water transport


17. P.K Abdurab :  Education.


18. M.K Muneer Social Welfare and Panchayats.


19. V.K Ebrahimkunju Public Works.


20. P.J Joseph Water Resources.

Finding Captains to steer the MEGA ship.

Its always hard to steer an entity  which is almost the size of a small country, and even if we got one good captain, he is not here to stay for more than couple of years.  Yes, i am mentioning about having a good captain for a company which has around 4 lac people in its payroll and the volume of business it handles is around USD 70 billion.   TATA group with its current chairman is about to exit the position in 2012, is finding it hard to find a replacement.  The deadlines for finding the right person is being reset many times.

Its been known to everybody that, in the year 1991, when Mr.Ratan Tata was appointed the chairman, with his title in the name TATA, nobody was sure, on what kind of chairman he will be.  But its now evident that the Name RATAN TATA will be written in Golden letters in the books of India Inc, only because of his sheer talent in bringing up the TATA Group Revenue from USD 5.8bn to USD 70 billion in the year 2009-10, and profit has risen from USD 310 million to USD 2.17 billion in his period.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed on the TATA's decision.

Now its turn for another company (INFOSYS) to find its real ring master.  When the founders who has been the captains of this organisation till this time is getting to Extinct, its a tough challenge for the Board to find the right person for Chairmanship in the coming years.   When the company is planning to become a real multinational company, it will be hard for the new ones to take it to the next step.  Now its turn of Mr.Kamath,  who is  stalwart in india INC.  His talent in troubleshooting the hardest of times is well known throughout the world.  His influence in bringing together Ambani brothers was an excellent example of his strategic thinking.

Lets wish Mr.Kamath ( Elected Chairman ) and Mr.Shibu,( Elected CEO), a wonderful years ahead, and wish them all the success and hope that they will take Infosys to level in the Global map, which no other Indian company has made before. 

But few questions remain open.

• But does our Indian companies have a clear cut successor policy ?
• Does our captains are ready to give the baton to others in the right time ? ( we have to salute Mr.Narayana Murthy, on his decisions on passing on the baton to others in the right time)
• Does our Captains are ready to come out of Family tree structure ?

In the coming decade, india will have to face such situations regularly, and Lets wish for the best to happen in the INDIA Inc.

Future of payment method !

How you choose a method for payment is changing drastically over the last 5 to 10 years.    Demand Draft was the secured and most preferred method of payment for quite few decades.  And also Cheque Deposit - Bank transfer - Credit Cart - NEFT - has played a great role, and now just "Wave and pay" with your mobile.

Recently, i happened to read an article on how the next generation of people will use money transaction.

You know, online payment Stalwarts like Visa and biggies like At&T, T-Mobile,and Verizon announced a joint venture called “Isis”, which will use a technology called Near-field communication to allow consumers to pay at checkout by "waving their phone near a terminal".

What it does ? when you go to shopping, while paying, you just take your mobile or such device to a proximity less than 10 centimeters of the terminal and wave it. It will grab the data, and process it.

Really interesting, isn’t ?

And to make the point more louder, Google's chef Executive , Eric, E, Schmidt, has also demonstrated how phones with a new version of Google’s android system would do this.

Its been believed that, next generation of people will never know what will be a "Cheque", because this conventional system of paper instrument called Cheque might have dead by then.

Few doubts arise in our mind, on these new technologies.

Will it really bring a transformational change in the way people do payment ?
Will this make people to spend more securely ?
Will the Retail segment will see the major shift to this technology ?
Will there be a new generation of websites, which can be embedded with this technology ?
Will the Plastic money will be wiped out from the scene ?

What we call it ? "X" Money ?

Lets hope all these changes will bring good the MAN KIND.

Indian Middle Middle Class, who exactly is this ?

This title contains two "middle" , not written out of accident, but i am mentioning about the real center portion of the Gravity point in india.
Read an article on the myth called Indian middle class, and after reading that, lot of questions passed through my mind.


Why the middle class segment in india is ever growing in the last few decades ?
How do you classify if a person is Middle class ?
What is the criteria for sub sections in middle class called, Lower middle class , Middle middle class and upper middle class.
Which class i belongs to ?


The ADB report defines the middle class as those earning between $2 and $20 per person per day, measured in international dollars, ie adjusted for purchasing power parity. The ADB does add further nuance by splitting the middle class into three sub-sections:


lower middle class ($2 - $4), ( approx INR 88 - INR 180)
middle middle ($4 - $10) (Approx INR180 - INR 450 )
and upper middle ($10 - $20). ( Approx INR 450 - INR 900)


The current population of the world is 6.8 billion, while India has a staggering graph of 1.2 billion, a place behind China with 1.3 billion. World's population is expected to reach 9.3 billion mark by 2030 and the ADB's "Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2010" report also mentioned that, in india, by the year 2030, there will be a Billion ( 1 billion) people in this so called middle class. Which means, Indian middle class will be more than 10% of the entire population in the world.


Do you belong to this ever growing Indian middle class ?

Branding strategy - TAJ

Branding: one of the hot words in the corporate board rooms. I was reading through the article about the strategies of Indian hotels company in today's newspaper and thought of sharing some points which you might have missed reading. In that, Indian Hotels co.’s MD & CEO, Mr.Raymond Bickson was explaining the strategy of TATA on its hospitality business.

One of the main things which i was so impressed with is, their long term strategy. They are foreseeing the market for another 30 to 40 years and describes how its been sealed from competition in the coming decades.

In the next five years the group is planning to have 200 hotels and 24000 to 25000 rooms. that is a short term plan ( for five years )

Their branding strategy is nicely balanced with different brands in the basket.

1. Two star Economy - GINGER
2. Upscale segment - The Gateway,
3. Four Star segment - Vivenda by Taj
4. Five star segment - Taj Hotles.
5. Resort - Taj Exotica ( you have to pay $1000 a night )

This is how Indian Hotels co. cover all segments of Hotel business area.

Another strategy is to have presence in different geographical locations that it doesn’t affect from any geographical vulnerabilities like, Tsunami or chikungunya. Mr. Raymond bickson is of the opinion that, by keeping geographically scattered, they have protected at least 1/3 of their revenue.

They already have 16 properties overseas and planning to add up more to in the coming years.

Mr.Bickson states that, They have 25% market share in india, and they are the largest player in india, in all the segments they operate.

Teamwork - a story from nature

I was on a nice journey through the NUTS - ( one of the most famous book on Southwest Airline's success story) spotted one interesting story about teamwork, which we all can inculcate in our life. lets dash through the story without wasting much time.

This is the actual story from nature, by naturalist Milton Olsen's work on the behaviour of geese.

This spring when you see geese heading back north for the summer flying along in "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what scientists have discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following.
By Flying in "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Basic truth #1. People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.
Basic Truth #2. There is strength and power ( safety, too) in number when travelling in the same direction as others with whom we share a common goal.


When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.
Basic truth # 3. It pays to take turns doing hard jobs-with people or with geese flying north.

These geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Basic trough #4. Those who are exercising leadership needs to be remembered with our active support and praise.

Finally when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshots and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.
Basic truth #5. We must stand by those among us in their times of need.

Lets learn from these real time stories and implement at least points from them.