Manhuntz Idiosyncracy

Recycle, Reuse – Cobbler way

2009-05-15T13:01:00.000+05:30

Principles of recycle & reuse are coming back in vogue, since they enhance productivity, reduce waste & saves cost. These were some of benefits widely communicated in organization by our COO to promote green earth initiative

I was thoroughly impressed which prompted me to apply fundamentals in my own life. This refers to my decision of purchasing new shoes which meant big ticket purchase as per my lavish taste & spendthrift attitude. My penchant for woodland has grown due to quality, after sales support throughout country to service shoes. So, I decided to visit showroom but unfortunately didn’t found any sale offer. I thus have to wait for sale to come. But shoes are mandatory piece of office ensemble which one can’t do without it.

So, I had to apply principle of recycle & reuse. I visited cobbler with my current pair of woodland shoes which is not in good shape. Cobbler “Mochi” existed from centuries in Indian society as a key constituent promoting recycle & reuse. I got my pair of shoes repaired, retouched & polished. It looked as compared to new ones. So, I averted purchase of INR 1200 in just INR 40. It resulted in:-

a) Cost savings

b) Didn’t add waste to environment,reduce carbon emission & global warming

Thus, we can apply such principles anywhere in our atmosphere such as using solar energy, human dung in societies to produce Bio-gas, rain water harvesting to increase water table level, principle of composting to reduce piles of waste & to create organic compost. Thus we can reduce carbon emissions & make earth a save place to live for centuries.

Image Courtesy :- http://www.imagesofasia.com/

Great Customer Experience – Haryana Roadways

2009-05-15T12:43:00.000+05:30

This refers to story narrated to me by my uncle who is great critic of government departments & their lackluster attitude. My uncle & I myself hail from Haryana which is known for blunt language usage though people are warm hearted & known for their hospitality.

We are regular users of Haryana Roadways bus service, which is believed to best state bus fleet in entire nation. It has immensely contributed towards economic development of state since it provides good connectivity & coverage across state. Department focuses on excellent delivery mechanism & responds to changing demands & environment. It recently upgraded its fleet with Volvos et al.

But despite of modernization many of bus conductors are believed to blunt in their language usage & attitude. Where in things have changed drastically however majority of them don’t provide a good customer experience-CE. My uncle thus holds view & quite cynical about change in attitude & keeps telling me stories like conductor bluntly asking him several times bluntly in Haryanvi “are tau tikat le le nai”.

However, he surprisingly was slated to have a great CE this time around.

This refers to his journey from Rohtak to Delhi where he boarded bus & expected same brusque attitude of conductor. However, to his surprise he found conductor to be polite who asked him “Prabhuji tikat le lijiye”. That’s not it for good CE, after distribution of tickets he took a glass & earthen pot to distribute water for free. It was hot july summer & water for free is like a Holy drink which infuses life into dead. He was politely asking every one “ Jis bhagat ji ko pani pina ho to pijiye”

My uncle was thus surprised & hence it changed his outlook towards bus conductors.

So, lesson here is excellence in service delivery amalgamated with customer oriented attitude translates to great customer experience.

State should thus focus on excellent service delivery which is happening. Thus you’re front end customer handling staff i.e. in case of bus transport, bus conductor; in case of bpo customer care executives should be best in terms of attitude. Since they represents organization in field. You may have great systems, processes & infrastructure but nothing will be of any use if your customer interfacing staff is average.Haryana government does have online presence as well http://hartrans.gov.in/roadways/time_tablesrch.asp for timetable & fares.

Private Banks like ICICI, HDFC is great example of great front end staff who delivers great customer experience. Young & vibrant they provide a calming influence

Back after a long pause

2008-12-29T11:46:00.000+05:30

Dear All,

After a long hiatus I am back on my blog. I promise you this time it will be intense & insightful. Profession sucks a lot out of you & as it has been clearly reflected people might have to shun their hobbies to meet challenging demands. Probably some falter on time management where in some take profession as an excuse. However, I take an oath that I will keep you abreast with activities of my nerve cells.

Stay glued.

Regards,
Maniac

Mutual funds - a brief info

2008-01-07T00:11:00.000+05:30

Equity market is piping hot these days as Indian economy is booming. India is growing on back of English speaking educated working Indian middle class.Equity market is a place where shares of a public listed company are traded. Mutual fund invest in assets like equity,debt funds etc. Depending on quantum of their exposure in equity market they are classified as Debt or growth fund. Mutual funds are safe instruments for naive investors who don't have full time to devote to market & yet possess desire of significant returns.Mutual funds scheme start with a NFO or new fund offer. some of schemes are open ended & some are close ended. There's entry load charge of 2.25 % on mutual fund.

Two very good websites for mutual fund research online are as follows:-

http://www.mutualfundsindia.com/
http://www.valueresearchonline.com/

list of few good mutual funds:-
Principal personal tax saver
SBI magnum taxsaver
HDFC tax saver

Reliance growth
Reliance vision
Reliance power fund
Sundram bnp CAPEX fund
SBI magnum contra-open
JM contra
JM emerging leader
ICICI infrastructure
DSMPL tiger inst
kotak 30
kotak opportunities

Karol Bagh market - enigmatic market place

2007-12-28T02:01:00.000+05:30

Recently I visited karol bagh market in Delhi. It is one of the biggest market of Delhi & India in particular. Market place houses different trade items encompassing every sell able good existing in market.

A market place called Naiwala which particularly houses automobile spare part is the most biggest of its kind in India. It's a central hub where you can get your motor bike & car customized into your own dream machine. It is also one of the biggest market in delhi for second hand car sale-purchase.

I visited my brother's shop who deals in spare parts a noticed a very peculiar trend. Business is highly unorganized yet there existed an underlying systematic process. I was astonished to see the system of PARCHI- small chit of paper through which different whole sale dealer use to exchange goods with each other. The worth of goods exchanged varied between Rs 500 INR to Rs 10 lakh INR. PARCHI acts as a liaison; loss of small chit of paper can mean loss of lakhs of ruppees.

After this mind boggling observation , I decided to visit nook & corner of Karol bagh. My first stop was a tiki & samosa wala, an excellent product innovation.He added simple toppings like peas, paneer-cheese & some green sause & to my surprise ,al this in only Rs 5 INR with Bread samosa cut into four slices. Then after the spicy food I stopped at street hawker or reri wala who specialized in making fresh cookies. I remember it costed us only Rs 7 INR for 100 gm.

Wandering in streets of Karol Bagh , I could observe plenty of small business units at work equipped with people possessing brilliant innovative skills. My next stop was a famous veg pakoda shop. On the way to pakoda shop I stopped at a bakery where we ate cream roll offered at throw away price of Rs 6 INR. This particular bakery had displayed variety of sumptuous cakes & had a peculiar item named JAM ROLL - 10 INR. After consuming lots of calories we deliberately stopped at a sports shop. An Indian made bicycle caught my eyes which was priced at 3900 INR. Then we finally reached famous veg pakoda shop which had all variety of pakodas. I gave a second thought of eating pakodas as they were too oily.

Hey hang on ....eating spree didn't end here. I felt like I am food enthusiast & hosting a show like JAYKA INDIA KA..tasting not eating the variety of food articles.
A DAL MOTH hawker caught my eye, so I decided to let my taste buds be tangled by dal moth which costed 10 INR.

Karol bagh market was jam packed in evening ,scene was cacophonous.It reminded me of Macchi market though smell was not identical. We came back to my cousin's shop who offered piping hot coffee -which is slowly becoming an Indian tradition after you consume food.

With that I ended an informative trip to Karol Bagh market.

Tourism info -Travel websites

2007-12-11T21:38:00.000+05:30

To avoid claims of plagiarism I declare source of article & links involved

www.realtravel.com

http://realtravel.com/haryana-journals-j6062613.html

Details of place

TikTikli Bottom - Haryana
Location: Haryana, India
Link of map :- http://www.tiklibottom.com/index.html

Farm tourism in punjab-Hoshiarpur

http://www.adventurehills.com/farm-tourism-punjab.html

Site which gives details regarding exotic locations of chhatisgarsh etc

This link gives information regarding adventure sport in india

http://www.adventurehills.com/adventure-sports-in-india.html
http://www.greengondwana.com/destinations.php

Village tourism destinations in details

http://www.indiatourism.com/village-tourism/index.html

Experience of visiting India by foreigners

http://realtravel.com/india-trips-i5988742.html

I'll come up with more information on tourism which is flourishing in India

Regards
Manish Sehgal

RISK BASICS

2007-12-06T01:22:00.000+05:30

How much risk can you take?

Risk and returns are inversely correlated, barring rare occasions. Hence, knowing your appetite for risk is essential as your returns profile emerges from your risk profile. Your investments should be guided by the risk profile. A totally risk averse person is very conservative, does not want to losea penny regardless of how little his or her money earns. The compulsive risk taker is at the other end of the spectrum, willing to risk a huge amount of money on a risky bet, hoping to reap a windfall in the process.

Risk tolerance can also be measured by volatility. How much of volatility in an individual’s portfolio is acceptable. Apart from an individual's psychological makeup, various other factors also play a crucial role in determining one's comfort level with risk. Evaluate yourself against the following parameters :

Current income or net worth
If a significant portion of your current and future financial needs can be met by income from non-portfolio sources –like a job or maybe even an inheritance- you can take more risk with your investments. Likewise, higher your current net worth greater is the investing flexibility. In such cases, a portfolio may be geared to achieve capital appreciation through greater risk. When current income is insufficient, investors would want the portfolio to be focused towards generating income and preserving capital, rather than generate capital gains.

Age group
Age is a key factor in influencing comfort with risk, given a current income level or net worth. An investor's risk tolerance is expected to increase with income and wealth, but after a point, diminish with age. Check the life cycle investment approach, which uses age as a starting point for determining risk tolerance.

Time horizon
If your investing time frame is longer, you can choose a potentially more rewarding, even if riskier and less liquid investment. That can give you better capital appreciation. If you have a shorter time frame, you are better off with less risk investments, since losses are difficult to recover in a short period of time. For instance, a 30-year old investor has more time to recover from initial portfolio losses than an investor who is 58-years old and is nearing retirement. Hence, as the time horizon shrinks, more importance is attached to how the investments yield returns in the short term than in the longer run.

Occupation profile
Your occupation can also shape your risk appetite. A person who is more in his or her occupation, will be emboldened to take more risks without fearing for the future. The converse will be true for someone who is not very secure about his or her future. The nature of the profession too may have a role to play. A businessman for example may feel more comfortable with a higher degree of risk, since his main profession itself involves risk. A salaried employee may on the other hand be accustomed to a smaller degree of risk. There may be a contradiction visible here, that a businessman whose future is not very secure may be willing to take more risk too. This is a fact of life, whatever the occupation profile may be each individual’s psyche will determine his world view of things and in turn, his ability to manage risk.

Customer Delight 30 Nov,2007

2007-12-01T11:22:00.000+05:30

It’s about small yet significant stories of customer delight which I experienced today.

Ist story

My bike pulsar 150 DTSi broke down on Monday 24th Nov, 2007. I contacted Mr Sudhir Kumar service advisor of Bike point- a service center of Castrol India. Two mechanics came to my office premises where bike was parked & told me the exact fault. I then ordered a new genuine chain set & a helmet lock through my brother. Today I again contacted Bike point; they immediately sent a service man to my premises who took bike.
Within two hours my bike got delivered to me & to my surprise I found it shining & upright like a new bride.
It added to my delight. Keeping customer at center of attention & refining your processes for his/her delight is a simple mantra to success. Thanks to bike point

IInd story

I have to attend my marriage of my cousin sister tomorrow on 1st December,2007. I have been running from pillar to post to get my favorite coat drycleaned. I googled for drycleaners located nearby my locality. I contacted city drycleaner based in Naya khand, Indirapuram who assured me that my coat will be dry-cleaned within a day. I held back idea of getting my coat drycleaned by guy as it was not situated in my immediate locality. Thus, I approached a nearby drycleaner who in spite of my cajoling didn’t agree. Then as wedding day approached, I again approached the city dry cleaner guy who attended me cordially. He assured me that my coat will be picked up & dry-cleaned but I will have to take delivery myself. But somehow, I got stuck in some urgent piece of work. I again approached guy & told my problem. Person very courteously assured me that he will deliver coat which he did before time.

I struck lucky second time as well. Thus,my day ended on a happy note.

Motto: Keep customer at center of attention & refine your processes accordingly for longer term success

Area of Immediate Interests

2007-11-30T02:47:00.000+05:30

It's a great honor to overtly declare my recent area of Interests. I am keen on discovering business ideas, research that is required to start a new business venture & aspire to learn new technologies,architectures & platforms. My interests are as follows:-

1) Michael Porter 5 force model- detailed analytical tool of research. http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml

2)To invent Market research strategies,theories & tools especially to launch a new business venture

3) Web analytics : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics

4) To get acquainted with know-how of website development of small yet significant localities,communities & groups like www.indirapuram.com : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_development

5)Google Analytics: https://www.google.cojavascript:void(0)
Publish Postm/analytics/

6) SOA : Service Oriented Arhitecture : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture

7) Google Adsense program

8) Research on Fortune 100 companies

9) To augment skills of testing

Learning is a continuous process of life.

Rohtak - a brief History

2007-11-30T01:22:00.000+05:30

http://rohtaksubdivision.nic.in/PHONED.htm
Rohtak- the district derives its name from its headquarters' town Rohtak which is said to be a correction of Rohtashgarh,a name still applied to the ruined sites also called khokhrakot) of two older sites, one lying immediately north of the present town and other about 5 Kms.towards the east. Traditionally, it is named after Raja Rohtash in whose days city is said to have been built. It is also claimed that the town derives its name from the Roherra (Tacoma undulate) tree called Rohitaka in Sanskrit. It is said that before the town came into existance,it was the site of a forest of Rohitaka trees and hence ita name became Rohtak.Another version connects Rohtak with Rohitaka, which is mentioned in Mahabharata in connection with campaign of Nakula, the Pandva warrior. History of the district as an Administrative unit.

The areas of Rohtak district under went many changes, extending over hundreds of years before the administrative unit emerged in its present from. Under the Mughal Emperor Akbar, when his Minister Todar Mal divided North India into administrative circles, the areas of Rohtak(as a part of Suba of Delhi) fell within the Sarkars of Delhi and Hisar firuqa. Lying close to the imperial city of Delhi, the tract which now comprises the Rohtak district,was often granted in military Jagir by the Sultan and Mughal emperors to the Nobles of the court. For this reason Rajput, Brahman, Afgan,& Baluch chiefs have at different times enjoyed its revenues. On the death of Bahadur-Shah-I(1707-12),the successor of Aurangzeb, the Mugal empire began to decline rapidly. The areas of Rohtak frequently experienced a change of masters. The claims of Imperials were contested sometimes by the Rajputs,Jats & Sikhs and often by the Marathas. George Thomas, the protage of a Maratha leader, Appa Kandirao, established his authority at Hansi and extended it to Meham and Rohtak for a number of years, until Sindhia and various other regional forces combined to derive him away. Sindhia was, however, not destined to hold for long his conquests to the west of the Yamuna. By the treaty of Surjit Arjungaon, signed on Dec. 30,1803, the Rohtak area alongwith the other possessions of Sindhia situtated to the west of Yamuna passed to the British and came under the administration of the North-west provinces.

The British had no intention at that time to hold large territories beyound the Yamuna. Accordingly, a number of Chiefs and leaders who had done good military service against the Marathas or had at least remained neuthural, were settled in this tract to form a barrier of independent outposts between the British border and the Cis-Sutlej Sikh estates as well as the trans-sutlej rising kingdom of Ranjit Singh. Accordingly, the Jhajjar territory was given to Nawab Nijabat Ali Khan and the Baluch possessions at B.Garh to his brother, Nawab Ismail Khan. Gohana & Kharkhoda-Mandothi tehsils were given to Raja Bagh Singh of Jind & Bhai Lal Singh of Kaithal as life jagirs. The villages Lohari, Patudha and Kheri Sultan in the south east corner of Jhajjar tehsil were given as a seprate Jagir to Mohmad Khan son & Nawab Nijabat Ali Khan. The estates of Hassngarh, Kirhauli, Pyladgarh(Pehladpur) and Khurampur in Sampla area were also granted to him for life. Rohtak,Beri and Meham tehsils of the present distt. were given to the Nawab of Dujana who resigned the major portion of the gift in A.D.1809 because it was beyond his power to manage it

The formation of present Rohtak district began when the gift was abandoned by the Dujana Chief. The Gohana and Kharkhoda-Mandothi estates lapsed to the British Govt. after of the death of Bhai Lal Singh in A.D.1818 and Bhagh Singh in 1820. When the Hissar district was created in the latter year, the Beri and Meham-Bhiwani tehsils were included in Hisar and the other portions of the present northern tehsils in Panipat. In 1824 the Rohtak distt. was formed as a separate unit consisting of Gohana, Kharkhoda-Mandothi, Rohtak, Beri and Meham -Bhiwani tehsils. The Bahadurgarh territory formed its estern and Jhajjar its southern boundary. Until A.D.1832, the whole area, including Rohtak, was under the resident of Delhi, but when in that year it was brought under the same regulations as the rest of North indian, the resident became commissioner. The Distt. Was abolished in A.D. 1841 Gohana going to Panipat and rest of tehsil to Delhi but in the very next year it was created again. Two Distt. of Rohtak and Jhajjar together with rest of Delhi and Hisar divisions were detached from North-western provinces after 1857 and passed to the Punjab by the Govt. of India on 13th April ,1858. The Rohtak distt. remained a part of the Hisar division until 1884.

After its transfer to the Punjab , the Rohtak Distt. Experienced several changes before assuming its present form. Bahadurgarh estate was added to the Sampla tehsil, five detached village to the east, going to Delhi. Jhajjar including some areas of Narnaul, Kanaudh and Dahari was at first created as a new distt. but was abolished shorthly afterwards in 1860, when large parts of it were assigned to the phulkian chief as a rewards for their loyal services. While the Jhajjar tehsil itself was added to Rohtak several Badali villages were transferred either to Delhi or Gurgoan and two detached Jhajjar estates were given to the Raja of Jind. In the following year , The Meham tehsil was abolished and after making necessary territorial adjustments in favor of Hisar and Delhi, the rest of the area was added to Rohtak tehsil. All these changer were completed by 1st July, 1861.

On the abolition of Hisar Division in 1884, the Rohtak Distt. Was transferred to Delhi division. It consisted of four tehsils-Rohtak, Gohana, Jhajjar & Sampla, But in April, 1910, Sampla tehsil was abolised for reasons of administrative economy and its area was divided between the Rohtak and Jhajjar tehsils which had reminded attached to the Delhi distt. since the year 1861 and was added to the Rohtak distt. in sept,1912,on the seperation of Delhi Territory from the Punjab. The distt. Was then attached to Ambala division .In 1948,Dujana state was merged in Jhajjar tehsil and a new sub-tehsil of Nahar was created.

Thus, Rohtak distt. was given a shape with four Tehsils i.e. Rohtak, Sonipat, Jhajjar & Gohana with Nahar & Meham as sub-tehsil of Jhajjar and Gohana tehsils respectively. Tehsil of B.Garh was created in 1973 from Jhajjar tehsil. In 1973 Meham sub-tehsil was upgraded as tehsil .Sonipat tehsil was created by bifurcating Rohtak distt, and Gohana and Sonipat tehsils were allotted to Sonipat district. One more tehsil ,Kosli was created out of Jhajjar tehsil and Nahar sub-tehsil was abolised and the bifurcated Rohtak distt., compresed of five tehsils, namely Rohtak, B.garh ,Jhajjar, Meham and kosli and one sub-tehsil M.hail was also created. In Nov.,1989 reorganization of distt. took place and Gohana tehsil was again attached with Rohtak distt. Of Rewari. Three sub-tehsils of Badli ,M.hail and Beri were created again in July ,92,Gohana tehsil was again transferred to Sonipat distt. and Badli sub-tehsil was abolished later on.

In July ,97,Jhajjar district was created after bifurcating Rohtak district into Rohtak and Jhajjar districts and the present Rohtak District consists of Rohtak and Meham Tehsils, while Jhajjar & B.garh tehsils are in Jhajjar Distt. The present set up of Rohtak dirstrict is as under:-

Distt.	Sub Divn.	Sub Tehsil	Tehsil
Rohtak	(1) Rohtak	Sampla	1. Rohtak
	(2) Meham		2. Meham

Block	Panchayats	Villages
Rohtak	55	57
Lakhan Majra	13	13
Meham	34	24
Kalanaur	24	28
Sampla	25	24

Total	151	146

Faith & Crisis-a frontline piece

2007-08-03T15:02:00.000+05:30

A recent article in Frontline extensively dealt with ground realities of Punjab’s regional sects or deras. There are many dera’s which have been in sync with Punjab’s history.

Reporter succinctly pointed out primary difference between mainstream Sikhism & sub-sects in form of “living god” concept.Deras have one leader & Sikhs have only one accepted guru i.e Granth Sahib

Tenth Guru conveyed that after him there’ll be no living guru. It was after 1870s, after the Singh Sabha movement gathered steam, Granth sahib is followed as sole Guru, whereas different Deras like Namdhari,Nirankari,Radhasaomi have a head called baba or guru, usually they have a huge following.

Reporter made a point that people go to deras mainly for the sense of community and belonging they provide; there is very little discrimination on bases of caste or creed. These deras are socially very active. They have large no of schools, hospitals & many more institutions which focus on community service.

Deras can be classified as orthodox or heterodox. Orthodox deras pose real threat to Sikh sentiments. There have been many incidents whereas one dera was found to be preaching granth sahib with it’s leafs unattached which was perceived as derogatory by Sikhs. Recent event of Dera Sacha Sauda’s Guru Ram Rahim donning in clothes of Guru Gobind Singh sent tremors amongst Sikhs which caused unrest in region.

These sects continue to flourish because they help people eradicate social evils like poverty, getting rid of bad habits like smoking, drinking etc whereas they don’t discriminate on bases of caste which is a rampant problem in region.

Deras should be extra cautious while respecting Sikh sentiments & yet continue to serving the society.

2007-08-02T19:11:00.000+05:30

How RBI contols Money Supply?

People would be wondering what exactly is role of RBI.

RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is central bank of India which was setup with following objectives:
-To formulate, implement and monitor the monetary policy.
-To maintain price stability and ensuring adequate flow of credit to productive sectors.
For more information on RBI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Bank_of_India

Ques--What are main instruments to control money supply?

Ans--Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate, Bank Rate & the Cash Reserve Ratio( CRR)

The Repo Rate: This is the rate at which RBI releases funds into system. It was 6 percent in 2004 but is now at 7.75 per cent

Reverse Repo Rate: This is the rate at which RBI sucks out excess liquidity from the system.

Bank Rate: This is the rate at which RBI lends money to banks. It is currently at 6 per cent.

CRR: This represents the percentage of deposits that every bank has to keep with the RBI. The RBI pays interest on CRR balances and the increases or decreases CRR when it wants to drain or ease liquidity in the economy. The CRR is now at 6.5 percent.

SLR: Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the percentage of deposits that banks have to deploy in government securities and works in the same way as CRR. It is now at 25 percent and has not been changed for a decade.

My Tech Mahindra Interview

2006-12-14T02:08:00.000+05:30

Saturday 4^th Nov,2006

It was a pleasant day. I woke up at 6.30 am at my seniors place Saurabh Ahuja in Noida. I was staying with my friends & Naukri strugglers Gaurav Bajaj & Sunil Kumar. After preparation for a month I was ready for my Accenture interview but quite unexpectedly I got call for recruitment procedure of Tech Mahindra. So, I was taking it easy .I reached Tech Mahindra Ltd B-26, Sec-57 on a rickshaw well on time. There I met few of my college mates like Parvesh balhara, Sachin Chandran , Sunil Maggo.

Test was conducted in lucid & well managed manner. Candidates were allotted different slots & there were 10 slots on that given day with an average of 210 odd candidates in a slot.. We followed routine procedures & then made to appear for an online test which was quite stringent with no scope of complacency at all. Mine was first slot.70 odd were through online procedure & asked to appear for interviews. Everybody was frenzied as they called us in for interviews within 15 min of result. I kept my cool. After taking 14 odd interviews & written test I was composed & stoical. I still have the memories of those tension ridden faces cramming at last moment as If they are appearing for MDU’s examination. With few pranks here & there I waited for my turn.

Finally I was called for what was going to be one of my successful interviews. Interviewer was a nice guy with. Judging by his countenance one could have easily made an impression of a Project manager of sort. He began by asking me about my Introduction. I knew that with kind of skills I possess I can lay a trap for him. I made it close ended with leaving Wi-Fi my training in spotlight. At that moment I had already impressed gentleman. He then tried to quiz me with the quintessential swapping question without using 3^rd variable. I reacted normally concealing the elation. I answered it with aplomb. Then he made several efforts to drive me out of my comfort zone & started quizzing me on Electronics basics. Few of them were to realize different logic gates like XOR using NAND, questions like difference between flip-flops & latch.

In the end he unleashed his last weapon by telling me that positions are based in either Pune or Chennai. Nature of job is on lines of a BPO job which involves consulting with clients. He gave me an opportunity to unleash my lethal-est of armor from arsenal” TECH-SHASTRA”. There had been only one occasion where I was allowed to unveil Tech-Shastra (magazine I launched with team COGENTS) during course of interview which was Infotech Noida. Coincidentally both Infotech & Tech Mahindra turn out to be success. Gentleman said “I am impressed with your achievements & confidence. One more thing, don’t get confused & don’t make others confused.

I was asked to wait in lounge for my result. While I was waiting with other candidates I still remember, my interviewer passed by me & gave me a thumbs up & that was it. Lady Coordinator announced the results starting with me as a successful candidate. I then went for my HR round. Lady was constantly looking at my CV and asked me are you a potent team leader or a team player? I impressed her with tailor made answers. That was it.

I first called my place to give them the good news then some one close to me & then Sagar while I was sitting in canteen. I told him that history’s repeating itself. My exact words were that I won’t make it to Accenture tomorrow & now it’s all in front of you.

I am now gearing up for new phase of my life & one peace of advise to all those who haven’t got a job yet. For Job seekers:- Don’t loose hope people as IT industry is churning jobs at an alarming pace. Every Dog will have his day. I had mine, you wait for yours.

Seventh IIM to be setup in Shillong

2006-11-28T23:30:00.000+05:30

According to The Hindu’s report country’s seventh IIM will be set up in shillong.

The HRD minister, Arjun Singh, had in mid June last year announced that a new IIM would be set up in North-East in a city chosen by Chief Ministers of region in consultation with Union Department of North-Eastern Region (DONER).Its a healthy step in direction of engaging ties with engaging ties with North-east which has hitherto been neglected in drafting policy.

Trip To Mcleod Ganj:- Dalai Lama’s Abode

2006-11-11T01:21:00.000+05:30

Mcleod Ganj a Tibetan exile situated amidst lap of nature was an apt place to hang out & mark end of our college days. After days of planning we zeroed down on this serene place where we decided to find solace from hectic life.

Rising 4000m above floor of valley Dhauladhars will follow you where ever you go , their sides covered with fields of mustard flowers & daisies, red roofed houses, garlands

of colorful Tibetan prayer flags wave to heaven & sometimes unfortunately tangle of electric cable line.

We started first leg of our journey by train fro

m Rohtak to Ludhiana with group size of 4 to my chachu’s place. Second leg of our journey in plains as well as mountains was covered by Maruti ZEN motored by a convivial aged man. Our companion a white beard 50 yr old man who was native of Hamirpur (H.P) kept us occupied with his anecdotes & riveting knowledge of land. He was a skilled driver assured us & allayed all our fears regarding treacherous journey in mountains. Mastering excruciating curves with aplomb he went on lengths about his experiences & kept us showing scenic expanse of majestic Dhauladars.

We checked in our Hotel (Him Queen) at

9 pm. There are other better alternatives present in terms of a Government Hotel as well if you hap

pen to visit the place. We took our dinner at a compact hill side dhabha( a rare site to be seen).A funny incidence happened, a lady(foreign tourist ) had a stomached attributed to spicy Indian food which her petite & fragile stomach couldn’t digest .She had a small tiff with manager & later on manager was able to cajole her to pay despite her stomached. After witnessing this fiasco we took a stroll in a street called Diabora road (where Natives of Tibet with Mongolian countenance were settled).They can be seen displaying there checkered attire & drooling in contemporary fuddy-duddy dude ishtyle clothes. We woke up in morning at 9:30 am & schedulized

our itinerary. We then headed towards our first destination Dalai Lama’s temple. We took a stroll down treacherous stony path from our Hotel. Temple was a serene place constructed in traditional Tibetan architecture displaying rich folklore Tibet has. We found sanctity & very intrigued by enigmatic history of Tibet that the temple flaunted with. Temple was esoterically built up with two chambers. It was a yellow building with huge red roof. Temple was built on a principle of “KALCHAKRA” where Kalchakra & many other deities were painted on northern & eastern wall depicting different state of mind, body & soul. Three walls were resplendent with huge paintings where each bore significant. On centre wall was a huge portrait at whose centre

was Lord Budha encircled by eight charkas (Hindu rashiphal).Other two walls bore different stages of Dalai Lama. It also displayed every state of mind like anger, happiness, love, hatred etc. Buddhist monk can be easily found chanting “OM MANI PADME HUM” around the temple & offering prayers to deity by making postures like Hindu SuryaNamaskar asana. We also rolled golden cylinders inscripted with “OM MANI PADME HUM” a ritual which is believed to bring peace on earth & good for humanity. These temples are believed to maintain forces of evil & good balanced.

Next on list was Tibetan Museum where a sweet Tibetan lady greeted us at ticket counter. Museum was a pristine place with brilliantly planned ambience. It was replete with history of struggle between Republic of China & Natives of Tibet. Pictures & Paintings goes to show how LHA (native town of Tibet) was vandalized. It also showcased struggle in terms of ravaging of their monasteries oppression of religious leaders & rebels. We also came to know through an advertisement outside museum that youngest Dalai Lama who turned 16 was apprehended& kept under custody of china

We then moved to BhagsuNath temple ( Shiv Temple) on our Zen after taking light breakfast on a roof top restaurant cum tailor shop. From there we headed for a treacherous uphill track which leads to the most coveted tourist attraction of Mcleod Ganj. Waterfall a visual treat was 1 Km uphill from lap of BhagsuNath Temple. Track was stony, excruciating yet provided us a splendid view of valley. Panting on the way we some how managed to reach at bottom of spectacular waterfall. We witnessed awesome site of multiple streams of spine chilling cold water coming down with a splashing sound in a reservoir abundant with pebbles. We then audaciously decided to take a dip in cold water posing for pics. We then headed downward but this time through a different & difficult path. Posing all the way for pictures we managed to find ourselves many an exquisite location. Sitting on a make shift wooden “Puliya” with water thudding in background I was feeling Divine intervention. After our macho stint of trekking we relaxed by taking a dip in chilling water of swimming pool in front of temple. Outside temple was a Punjabi Dhabha where eat to our fill like hungry lions. Getting a glass full of sweet lassi with Tandoor ki roti & makhani dal was cherry on cake. We then moved on to last destination to witness a spectacular sunset. We witnessed Sun going down behind snow peaked mountains which were said to be on Chinese side. Make sure to reach there on time so as to see Chinese side with binoculars which we missed. There were some destinations that we missed were: - Norbulinka Institute 4 Km from Dharmshala is dedicated to preserving Tibetan literature and visual crafts. Walk down shady paths, wooden bridges, and small streams and through waterfalls the preserved included thangka painting, appliqué, woodcarving and metal craft. Kanga Art Museum & the War Memorial were two other attractive destinations. A stroll away from main town and hidden away in cluster of pines is the church of St John in the wilderness, a Gothicbuilding whose cobble-stonned floors, stained glass windows and cool dimness will hush you into prayer.

We then started our downward journey & according to itinerary visit the Holy shrine of several of avatars of Mata. We paid homage to holy shrines & experienced a spiritual solace. Every avatar had a story to tell. At shrine of Jawali ji we witnessed Ma in her Sakshath roop in form of fire. At ChamundaDevi mata shrine was a cremation ground where it is said that Ma asks for a bali everyday. Villagers from adjoining village offer one dead person to Ma. Then there was shrine of Ma Naina devi where eyes of Ma fell. Last of all shrine was Ma Chintapurni’s shrine who believed to take all your anxieties & sin away. All your wishes come true if you tie a thread around holy tree.

We had a memorable ending to our college days where we enjoyed to hilt. We all will cherish these days & keep these memories for all our life. Let’s see the pledge we took to visit this place will be met or not.

What is Private Equity?

2006-09-02T02:13:00.000+05:30

Private equity
first emerged in the early 1980s, with Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR) opening the first, and still among the largest LBO (Leveraged Buy Out) firms. The logic for LBO firms, at least initially, was this: Publicly traded companies are forced to focus on extremely short-term (often quarterly or monthly) results, thus making decisions which may not be in line with their long-term goals. Going 'private' or delisting from the exchanges allows them to focus on these goals. Leveraging, that is, taking debt to buyback these shares as well as spending on longer-term expansion, etc allowed managers to run their companies the way they wanted to. Moreover, the LBO firms were often run by investment bankers and consultants who contributed significant financial and industry expertise. Over time, however, the deals also began to be 'hostile', that is, the LBO managers perceived value in firms which they felt were mismanaged, so they would buy them out, restructure them, and then sell them off once more.

The other side of private equity investment comes from the world of venture capital, where small companies that need to grow but are cash-strapped and too small to list on exchanges approach (or are approached by) VC firms to take a stake in the company, as well as hand-hold them onto a growth path.

The Indian Case

In India, private equity is reasonably young, dating back to the mid-1990s. The environment heated up in the end of the ‘90s with the IT boom, with companies investing (and getting their fingers burnt) with their investments. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of these firms, with India’s stock markets booming and sectors like the life sciences, infrastructure and most recently, real estate being growth stories for the future. Global firms such as Warburg Pincus, Blackstone and the Carlyle Group have a presence in India while Indian players like ICICI Venture and ChrysCapital also have a large presence.

What does the work entail and how do these firms make money?

Essentially, PE funds raise money from high net worth individuals, financial institutions, etc. for a period of seven-ten years and then invest in opportunities as and when they arise, either in early-stage, maturing or even public companies. The work involves of course, valuing the companies that approach you and deciding how much of the company your stake is actually worth, what the company’s growth prospects are, etc. Structuring the transactions for tax-efficiency and industry-specific reasons is also part of the job. Post-stake taking, day-to-day monitoring and growth plans are monitored by the fund, with a senior director taking a seat on the company’s board. Since the target is also to exit the investment in a few years and return money to investors, the deal teams also constantly monitor the capital markets for suitable times to do an Initial Public Offering or find a strategic investor to sell to.

So what’s in it for you?

Outside of entrepreneurship, private equity arguably offers the best shot you’ll get at ‘being the boss’ yourself, and not just being just an employee. Since the money is, in some sense, your own, the attachment you would have with your investments is much greater than in most jobs. Additionally, the nature of work offers an unparalleled opportunity to understand a variety of industries and also get to know many of the movers and shakers in the corporate world, investment banking, etc.

Monetarily, private equity is possibly the most highly-paid post-MBA job you can hope to get. The biggest incentive in this industry is the concept of carried interest, which means that the firm keeps a portion (typically 20 pc) of the profits made for its investor, which is then distributed to employees. Over a period of 7 years, that amount can be huge. As an example, consider a $ 1 billion fund (par for the course these days). Over 7 years, the target profits from this would be in the range of $ 1-1.5 billion; 20 pc of this is $200 million. Assuming 50 pc of this is distributed to employees, each member of a 7-person PE fund (again roughly the standard size for a $ 1 billion fund) would be rich beyond their wildest dreams.

What do they look for?

Entry barriers to the industry are notoriously high. An MBA is a must, preferably from an Ivy League school; even a top 3 IIM degree is often not enough to get you a job. At higher levels, extensive senior level experience in an industry is a major plus.

The skill set necessary for a PE job includes significant financial expertise, an intuitive understanding of capital markets, but most importantly, an eye to capture the right businesses and entrepreneurs at the right time.

Case study: Famous failures of complex engineering systems

2006-09-02T01:15:00.000+05:30

Case studies of famous failures of engineering systems:

Titanic, Tacoma narrows bridge collapse, Subsynchronous resonance in power systems, Telephone and power system outages, Estonia Ferry sinking, Denver airport baggage handling system, and Ariane 5. While each of these failures were due partly or primarily to factors beyond engineering or technical considerations, we will concentrate on the technical issues. We haven’t included some of the most dramatic failures, such as Chernobyl, Challenger, or Bhopal, because these involve much more complicated interactions of engineering and human judgment and they’ve received such extensive coverage.

We will argue later that there are unifying themes connecting these different disasters that are relevant to VE: Dynamics, interconnection, and uncertainty management. We have suggested that complexity arises from need to provide reliable predictability in the presence of uncertainty, and that failures occur when uncertainties and interactions are not properly accounted for. These case studies will illustrate these issues and provide examples for a more extensive discussion in the next section.

In retrospect, for all of these failures, we can always identify a component that failed and do simple “back of the envelope” calculations with very simple models to explain the failure. It is essentially always possible to ignore, if we choose, the system design issues that contributed to the failure. A deeper view also always reveals that there were system design flaws and that the apparent component failure was merely a symptom. Of course, the VE challenge is to create an environment where we are better at doing that before the failure occurs.

Titanic

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic, the largest, most complex ship afloat, struck an iceberg and sank. The Titanic had a double-bottomed hull that was divided into 16 watertight compartments. Because at least four of these could be flooded without endangering the liner's buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable. Unfortunately, these compartments weren’t sealed off at the top, so water could have just filled each compartment, tilting the ship, and then spilled over the top into the next one. Following recent expeditions to examine the Titanic wreckage and a review of survivor accounts, it is now generally agreed that the iceberg scraped along the starboard side of the ship causing the plates to buckle and burst at the seams and producing several small ruptures in up to six of the first compartments. This is perhaps one of the all-time great failures to correctly modeling the interaction of uncertainty in the environment and the way it can couple with the dynamics of a system. A purely static view of the ship, one that ignored the dynamics of the interaction with the iceberg and the water flow between the compartments, would not have predicted the actual disaster.

Estonia Ferry

It would seem unlikely that a mistake of the type that occurred in the Titanic would be repeated. However, a weak door lock was one of the main reasons for the 1994 Estonia ferry disaster that caused the deaths of more than 800 people. The ferry’s bow visor, a huge top-hinged door at the front of the ferry that swung up to allow vehicles to be driven into and out of the ferry’s car deck was secured by several locks. The lower lock, known as the Atlantic lock, was too weak to withstand extremely heavy pounding by rough seas. Stormy seas in the Baltic Sea on Sept. 28 broke the lock between 30 minutes and one hour before the 157-meter (515-foot) ferry sank shortly after midnight. The noise of the loose bow visor slamming at the hull was heard by several survivors. The slamming set off a chain of events including the breaking of other locks that ended in the tragedy. Only 137 of the more than 900 people on board survived. The commission that investigated the incident said the shipbuilder did not have proper blueprints for the lock when constructing the ferry in 1980. As a result, the commission says the shipbuilder apparently made its own calculations and underestimated how strong the lock should be. This particular failure would seem the one most likely to be caught with an integrated CAD system.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the first suspension bridge across the Narrows of Puget Sound, connecting the Olympic Peninsula with the mainland of Washington, and a landmark failure in engineering history. Four months after its opening, on the morning of Nov. 7, 1940, in a wind of about 42 miles (68 km) per hour, the 2,800-foot (853-meter) main span went into a series of torsional oscillations the amplitude of which steadily increased until the convolutions tore several suspenders loose, and the span broke up. The bridge was designed to have acceptable horizontal displacement under the static pressure of a much larger wind, but was not designed to handle the dynamic instability caused by an interaction of the winds and the high degree of flexibility of the light, narrow, two-lane bridge. Modeling this type of fluid/structure interaction, a particularly simple type of flutter, was within the technical capability of engineers at the time, but was evidently not considered. A modern analysis would likely view the fluid/structure flutter as a bifurcation problem, and analyze the nature of the bifurcation as the wind speed increased. Immediately after the accident, numerous investigators were able to create both simple mathematical and scale physical models that exhibited the same failure as the actual bridge, and very simple models were able to predict the wind speed that would cause the collapse.

Subsynchronous resonance in power systems

Series capacitors are often used in AC transmission systems to provide impedance compensation, particularly for long lines with high inductance, at the 60 Hz synchronous transmission frequency. Series capacitors are economical ways to increase load carrying capacity and enhance transient stability, but the capacitors can combine with the line inductance to create oscillators with natural frequencies below 60 Hz. These electrical oscillators can interact with mechanical torsional vibrational modes of the generator turbine shaft, and in some circumstances can cause instabilities that snap the shaft. This happened dramatically at the Mohave Generating Station in Southern Nevada in 1971 when the turbine shaft broke twice before the condition was properly diagnosed. This is a classic example of uncertainty management gone awry. The capacitors were introduced to improve the stability on the electrical side, and reduce the potential vulnerability to electrical side disturbances, but they had the unanticipated effect of destabilizing the mechanical side. The phenomena is now reasonably well understood and is taken very seriously in design of power systems.

Telephone and power system outages

In recent years, there have been an increasing rash of large scale breakdowns of both the telephone and power systems, typically triggered by small events that lead to a cascade of failures that eventually bring down large portions of the network. The high complexity and interconnectedness of these networks is designed to improve their performance and robustness, but can lead to extreme and unexpected sensitivity to small disturbances. In both cases, highly interconnected nationwide networks allow load balancing to be achieved more economically, and the resulting system is, in principle and usually in practice, much more robust to large disturbances or variations in demand. The high degree of connectivity also makes it possible for small failures to propagate and lead to massive outages. The solution to these sensitivities is to add additional complexity in the form of more sophisticated control strategies. Without careful design, this trend to increasing complexity will not improve robustness.

Denver airport baggage handling system

The automated system was supposed to improve baggage handling by using a computer tracking system to direct baggage contained in unmanned carts that run on a track. Originally scheduled for completion in March 1994, the unfinished $234 million project helped postpone opening of the airport until February 1995. The delay reportedly cost the city roughly $1 million per day in operations costs and interest on bond issues, more than the direct cost of the project. Significant mechanical and software problems plagued the automated baggage handling system. In tests of the system, bags were misloaded, were misrouted, or fell out of telecarts, causing the system to jam. The baggage system continued to unload bags even though they were jammed on the conveyor belt, because the photo eye at this location could not detect the pile of bags on the belt and hence could not signal the system to stop. The baggage system also loaded bags into telecarts that were already full. Hence, some bags fell onto the tracks, again causing the telecarts to jam. This problem occurred because the system had lost track of which telecarts were loaded or unloaded during a previous jam. When the system came back on-line, it failed to show that the telecarts were loaded. The timing between the conveyor belts and the moving telecarts was not properly synchronized, causing bags to fall between the conveyor belt and the telecarts. The bags became wedged under the telecarts, which were bumping into each other near the load point.

Ariane 5

The Ariane 5 was not flight tested because there was so much confidence in M&S. The first flight carried $500M of satellites and was destroyed about 40 seconds after lift off. The error which ultimately led to the destruction of the Ariane 5 launcher was clearly identified in the report of the investigating committee: a program segment for converting a floating point number, representing a measurement, to a signed 16 bit integer was executed with an input data value outside the range representable by a signed 16 bit integer. This run time error (out of range, overflow), which arose in both the active and the backup computers at about the same time, was detected and both computers shut themselves down. This resulted in the total loss of attitude control. The Ariane 5 turned uncontrollably and aerodynamic forces broke the vehicle apart. This breakup was detected by an on-board monitor which ignited the explosive charges to destroy the vehicle in the air. The code in question was reused from an earlier vehicle where the measurement would not have become large enough to cause this failure.

It is tempting to simply dismiss this as a software bug that would be eliminated by better software engineering. It is obvious that the programmer should have checked that the measurement was small enough that the conversion could take place, and if it could not, have the control system take some appropriate action rather than simply shut down. In this case the appropriate action would have been to do nothing, because this measurement, ironically, wasn’t even needed after liftoff. This may seem to make it a trivial issue, but the same code did work fine on the Ariane 4, although a control engineer would presumably have preferred it be done differently.

While the “software bug” view has some truth, it is misleading, because the failure was due to dynamics of the Ariane 5 that were different than the Ariane 4. It is the interaction of the software with the uncertainty in the environment and the dynamics of the vehicle that caused the failure. This is not a software issue, but a design flaw at a much deeper level. It is likely the programmers responsible had no idea how to determine if the Ariane 5 had dynamics such that under suitable environmental conditions the measurement would be too large. Presumably, they could have consulted appropriate experts in control and aerodynamics and anticipated the problem, but it wouldn’t have been a computer science issue at all.

Personal Time Management for Busy Managers

2006-08-31T02:24:00.000+05:30

Time passes, quickly. This article looks at the basics of Personal Time Management and describes how the Manager can assume control of this basic resource.

The "Eff" words

The three "Eff" words are [concise OED]:

Effective - having a definite or desired effect
Efficient - productive with minimum waste or effort
Effortless -

seemingly without effort; natural, easy

Personal Time Management is about winning the "Eff" words: making them apply to you and your daily routines.

What is Personal Time Management?

Personal Time Management is about controlling the use of your most valuable (and undervalued) resource. Consider these two questions: what would happen if you spent company money with as few safeguards as you spend company time, when was the last time you scheduled a review of your time allocation?

The absence of Personal Time Management is characterized by last minute rushes to meet dead-lines, meetings which are either double booked or achieve nothing, days which seem somehow to slip unproductively by, crises which loom unexpected from nowhere. This sort of environment leads to inordinate stress and degradation of performance: it must be stopped.

Poor time management is often a symptom of over confidence: techniques which used to work with small projects and workloads are simply reused with large ones. But inefficiencies which were insignificant in the small role are ludicrous in the large. You can not drive a motor bike like a bicycle, nor can you manage a supermarket-chain like a market stall. The demands, the problems and the payoffs for increased efficiency are all larger as your responsibility grows; you must learn to apply proper techniques or be bettered by those who do. Possibly, the reason Time Management is poorly practised is that it so seldom forms a measured part of appraisal and performance review; what many fail to foresee, however, is how intimately it is connected to aspects which do.

Personal Time Management has many facets. Most managers recognize a few, but few recognize them all. There is the simple concept of keeping a well ordered diary and the related idea of planned activity. But beyond these, it is a tool for the systematic ordering of your influence on events, it underpins many other managerial skills such as Effective Delegation and Project Planning.

Personal Time Management is a set of tools which allow you to:

eliminate wastage

be prepared for meetings

refuse excessive workloads

monitor project progress

allocate resource (time) appropriate to a task's importance

ensure that long term projects are not neglected

plan each day efficiently

plan each week effectively

and to do so simply with a little self-discipline.

Since Personal Time Management is a management process just like any other, it must be planned, monitored and regularly reviewed. In the following sections, we will examine the basic methods and functions of Personal Time Management. Since true understanding depends upons experience, you will be asked to take part by looking at aspects of your own work. If you do not have time to this right now - ask yourself: why not?

Current Practice

What this article is advocating is the adoption of certain practices which will give you greater control over the use and allocation of your primary resource: time. Before we start on the future, it is worth considering the present. This involves the simplistic task of keeping a note of how you spend your time for a suitably long period of time (say a week). I say simplistic since all you have to do is create a simple table, photocopy half-a-dozen copies and carry it around with you filling in a row every time you change activity. After one week, allocate time (start as you mean to go on) to reviewing this log.

Waste Disposal

We are not looking here to create new categories of work to enhance efficiency (that comes later) but simply to eliminate wastage in your current practice. The average IEE Chartered Engineer earns about 27,000 pounds per annum: about 12.50 pounds per hour, say 1 pound every 5 minutes; for how many 5 minute sections of your activity would you have paid a pound? The first step is a critical appraisal of how you spend your time and to question some of your habits. In your time log, identify periods of time which might have been better used.

There are various sources of waste. The most common are social: telephone calls, friends dropping by, conversations around the coffee machine. It would be foolish to eliminate all non-work related activity (we all need a break) but if it's a choice between chatting to Harry in the afternoon and meeting the next pay-related deadline ... Your time log will show you if this is a problem and you might like to do something about it before your boss does.

In your time log, look at each work activity and decide objectively how much time each was worth to you, and compare that with the time you actually spent on it. An afternoon spent polishing an internal memo into a Pulitzer prize winning piece of provocative prose is waste; an hour spent debating the leaving present of a colleague is waste; a minute spent sorting out the paper-clips is waste (unless relaxation). This type of activity will be reduced naturally by managing your own time since you will not allocate time to the trivial. Specifically, if you have a task to do, decide before hand how long it should take and work to that deadline - then move on to the next task.

Another common source of waste stems from delaying work which is unpleasant by finding distractions which are less important or unproductive. Check your log to see if any tasks are being delayed simply because they are dull or difficult.

Time is often wasted in changing between activities. For this reason it is useful to group similar tasks together thus avoiding the start-up delay of each. The time log will show you where these savings can be made. You may want then to initiate a routine which deals with these on a fixed but regular basis.

Doing Subordinate's Work

Having considered what is complete waste, we now turn to what is merely inappropriate. Often it is simpler to do the job yourself. Using the stamp machine to frank your own letters ensures they leave by the next post; writing the missing summary in the latest progress report from your junior is more pleasant than sending it back (and it lets you choose the emphasis). Rubbish!

Large gains can be made by assigning secretarial duties to secretaries: they regularly catch the next post, they type a lot faster than you. Your subordinate should be told about the missing section and told how (and why) to slant it. If you have a task which could be done by a subordinate, use the next occasion to start training him/her to do it instead of doing it yourself - you will need to spend some time monitoring the task thereafter, but far less that in doing it yourself.

Doing the work of Others

A major impact upon your work can be the tendency to help others with their's. Now, in the spirit of an open and harmonious work environment it is obviously desirable that you should be willing to help out - but check your work log and decide how much time you spend on your own work and how much you spend on others'. For instance, if you spend a morning checking the grammar and spelling in the training material related to you last project, then that is waste. Publications should do the proof-reading, that is their job, they are better at it than you; you should deal at the technical level.

The remaining problem is your manager. Consider what periods in your work log were used to perform tasks that your manager either repeated or simply negated by ignoring it or redefining the task, too late. Making your manager efficient is a very difficult task, but where it impinges upon your work and performance you must take the bull by the horns (or whatever) and confront the issue.

Managing your manager may seem a long way from Time Management but no one impacts upon your use of time more than your immediate superior. If a task is ill defined - seek clarification (is that a one page summary or a ten page report?). If seemingly random alterations are asked in your deliverables, ask for the reasons and next time clarify these and similar points at the beginning. If the manager is difficult, try writing a small specification for each task before beginning it and have it agreed. While you can not tactfully hold your manager to this contract if he/she has a change of mind, it will at least cause him/her to consider the issues early on, before you waste your time on false assumptions.

External Appointments

The next stage of Personal Time Management is to start taking control of your time. The first problem is appointments. Start with a simple appointments diary. In this book you will have (or at least should have) a complete list of all your known appointments for the forseeable future. If you have omitted your regular ones (since you remember them anyway) add them now.

Your appointments constitute your interaction with other people; they are the agreed interface between your activities and those of others; they are determined by external obligation. They often fill the diary. Now, be ruthless and eliminate the unnecessary. There may be committees where you can not productively contribute or where a subordinate might be (better) able to participate. There may be long lunches which could be better run as short conference calls. There may be interviews which last three times as long as necessary because they are scheduled for a whole hour. Eliminate the wastage starting today.

The next stage is to add to your diary lists of other, personal activity which will enhance your use of the available time. Consider: what is the most important type of activity to add to your diary? No:- stop reading for a moment and really, consider.

The single most important type of activity is those which will save you time: allocate time to save time, a stitch in time saves days. And most importantly of all, always allocate time to time management: at least five minutes each and every day.

For each appointment left in the diary, consider what actions you might take to ensure that no time is wasted: plan to avoid work by being prepared. Thus, if you are going to a meeting where you will be asked to comment on some report, allocate time to read it so avoiding delays in the meeting and increasing your chances of making the right decision the first time. Consider what actions need to be done before AND what actions must be done to follow-up. Even if the latter is unclear before the event, you must still allocate time to review the outcome and to plan the resulting action. Simply mark in your diary the block of time necessary to do this and, when the time comes, do it.

Scheduling Projects

The most daunting external appointments are deadlines: often, the handover of deliverables. Do you leave the work too late? Is there commonly a final panic towards the end? Are the last few hectic hours often marred by errors? If so, use Personal Time Management.

The basic idea is that your management of personal deadlines should be achieved with exactly the same techniques you would use in a large project:

check the specification - are you sure that you agree on what is to be delivered

break the task down into small sections so that you can estimate the time needed for each, and monitor progress

schedule reviews of your progress (e.g. after each sub-task) so that you can respond quickly to difficulties

Like most management ideas, this is common sense. Some people, however, refute it because in practise they find that it merely shows the lack of time for a project which must be done anyway. This is simply daft! If simple project planning and time management show that the task can not be done, then it will not be done - but by knowing at the start, you have a chance to do something about it.

An impossible deadline affects not only your success but also that of others. Suppose a product is scheduled for release too soon because you agree to deliver too early. Marketing and Sales will prepare customers to expect the product showing why they really need it - but it will not arrive. The customers will be dissatisfied or even lost, the competition will have advanced warning, and all because you agreed to do the impossible.

You can avoid this type of problem. By practising time management, you will always have a clear understanding of how you spend your time and what time is unallocated. If a new task is thrust upon you, you can estimate whether it is practical. The project planning tells you how much time is needed and the time management tells you how much time is available.

There are four ways to deal with impossible deadlines:

Get the deadline extended

Scream for more resources

Get the Deliverable redefined to something practical

State the position clearly so that your boss (and his/her boss) have fair warning

If this simple approach seems unrealistic, consider the alternative. If you have an imposed, but unobtainable, deadline and you accept it; then the outcome is your assured failure. Of course, there is a fifth option: move to a company with realistic schedules.

One defence tactic is to present your superior with a current list of your obligations indicating what impact the new task will have on these, and ask him/her to assign the priorities: "I can't do them all, which should I slip?". Another tactic is to keep a data base of your time estimates and the actual time taken by each task. This will quickly develop into a source of valuable data and increase the accuracy of your planning predictions.

There is no reason why you should respond only to externally imposed deadlines. The slightly shoddy product which you hand-over after the last minute rush (and normally have returned for correction the following week) could easily have been polished if only an extra day had been available - so move your personal deadline forward and allow yourself the luxury of leisured review before the product is shipped.

Taking this a step further, the same sort of review might be applied to the product at each stage of its development so that errors and rework time are reduced. Thus by allocating time to quality review, you save time in rework; and this is all part of project planning supported and monitored by your time management.

Finally, for each activity you should estimate how much time it is worth and allocate only that amount. This critical appraisal may even suggest a different approach or method so that the time matches the task's importance. Beware of perfection, it takes too long - allocate time for "fitness for purpose", then stop.

Monitoring Staff

Your Personal Time Management also effects other people, particularly your subordinates. Planning projects means not only allocating your time but also the distribution of tasks; and this should be done in the same planned, monitored and reviewed manner as your own scheduling.

Any delegated task should be specified with an (agreed) end date. As a Manager, you are responsible for ensuring that the tasks allocated to your subordinates are completed successfully. Thus you should ensure that each task is concluded with a deliverable (for instance, a memo to confirm completion) - you make an entry in your diary to check that this has arrived. Thus, if you agree the task for Tuesday, Wednesday should have an entry in your diary to check the deliverable. This simple device allows you to monitor progress and to initiate action as necessary.

Long term Objectives

There are many long term objectives which the good Manager must achieve, particularly with regard to the development, support and motivation of his/her work-team. Long term objectives have the problem of being important but not urgent; they do not have deadlines, they are distant and remote. For this reason, it is all too easy to ignore them in favour of the urgent and immediate. Clearly a balance must be struck.

The beauty of Time Management is that the balance can be decided objectively (without influence from immediate deadlines) and self-imposed through the use of the diary. Simply, a manager might decide that one hour a week should be devoted to personnel issues and would then allocate a regular block of time to that activity. Of course if the factory is on fire, or World War III is declared, the manager may have to re-allocate this time in a particular week - but barring such crises, this time should then become sacrosanct and always applied to the same, designated purpose.

Similarly, time may be allocated to staff development and training. So if one afternoon a month is deemed to be a suitable allocation, then simply designate the second Thursday (say) of each month and delegate the choice of speakers. The actual time spent in managing this sort of long term objective is small, but without that deliberate planning it will not be achieved.

Once you have implemented Personal Time Management, it is worth using some of that control to augment your own career. Some quiet weekend, you should sketch out your own long term objectives and plan a route to them. As you would any long term objective, allocate time to the necessary sub-tasks and monitor your progress. If you do not plan where you want to go, you are unlikely to get there.

Concluding Remarks.

Personal Time Management is a systematic application of common sense strategies. It requires little effort, yet it promotes efficient work practices by highlighting wastage and it leads to effective use of time by focusing it on your chosen activities. Personal Time Management does not solve your problems; it reveals them, and provides a structure to implement and monitor solutions. It enables you to take control of your own time - how you use it is then up to you.

Presentation Skills for Emergent Managers

2006-08-31T02:23:00.000+05:30

Presentations are one of the first managerial skills which a junior engineer must acquire. This article looks at the basics of Presentation Skills as they might apply to an emergent manager.

Introduction

Management is the art of getting things done. A Presentation is a fast and potentially effective method of getting things done through other people. In managing any project, presentations are used as a formal method for bringing people together to plan, monitor and review its progress.

But let us look at this another way: what can a presentation do for you?

Firstly; it puts you on display. Your staff need to see evidence of decisive planning and leadership so that they are confident in your position as their manager. They need to be motivated and inspired to undertaking the tasks which you are presenting. Project leaders from other sections need to be persuaded of the merits of your project and to provide any necessary support. Senior management should be impressed by your skill and ability so that they provide the resources so that you and your team can get the job done.

Secondly; it allows you to ask questions and to initiate discussion. It may not be suitable within the presentation formats of your company to hold a discussion during the presentation itself but it does allow you to raise the issues, present the problems and at least to establish who amongst the audience could provide valuable input to your decision making.

Finally; presentations can be fun. They are your chance to speak your mind, to strut your stuff and to tell the people what the world is really like. While you hold the stage, the audience is bound by good manners to sit still and watch the performance.

The Objectives of Communication

The single most important observation is that the objective of communication is not the transimission but the reception. The whole preparation, presentation and content of a speech must therefore be geared not to the speaker but to the audience. The presentation of a perfect project plan is a failure if the audience do not understand or are not persuaded of its merits. A customers' tour is a waste of time if they leave without realising the full worth of your product. The objective of communication is to make your message understood and remembered.

The main problem with this objective is, of course, the people to whom you are talking. The average human being has a very short attention span and a million other things to think about. Your job in the presentation is to reach through this mental fog and to hold the attention long enough to make your point.

The Plan

It is difficult to over estimate the importance of careful preparation. Five minutes on the floor in front of senior management could decide the acceptance of a proposal of several months duration for the manager and the whole team. With so much potentially at stake, the presenter must concentrate not only upon the facts being presented but upon the style, pace, tone and ultimately tactics which should be used. As a rule of thumb for an average presentation, no less than 1 hour should be spent in preparation for 5 minutes of talking.

Suppose you have a talk to give, where do you start?

Formulate your Objectives

The starting point in planning any speech is to formulate a precise objective. This should take the form of a simple, concise statement of intent. For example, the purpose of your speech may be to obtain funds, to evaluate a proposal, or to motivate your team. No two objectives will be served equally well by the same presentation; and if you are not sure at the onset what you are trying to do, it is unlikely that your plan will achieve it.

One question is: how many different objectives can you achieve, in say, 30 minutes - and the answer: not many. In the end it is far more productive to achieve one goal than to blunder over several. The best approach is to isolate the essential objective and to list at most two others which can be addressed providing they do not distract from the main one. Focus is key. If you do not focus upon your objective, it is unlikely that the audience will.

Identify the Audience

The next task is to consider the audience to determine how best to achieve your objectives in the context of these people. Essentially this is done by identifying their aims and objectives while attending your presentation. If you can somehow convince them they are achieving those aims while at the same time achieving your own, you will find a helpful and receptive audience. For instance, if you are seeking approval for a new product plan from senior management it is useful to know and understand their main objectives. If they are currently worried that their product range is out of date and old fashioned, you would emphasise the innovative aspects of your new product; if they are fearful about product diversification you would then emphasise how well your new product fits within the existing catalogue.

This principal of matching the audience aims, however, goes beyond the simple salesmanship of an idea - it is the simplest and most effective manner of obtaining their attention at the beginning. If your opening remarks imply that you understand their problem and that you have a solution, then they will be flattered at your attention and attentive to your every word.

Structure

All speeches should have a definite structure or format; a talk without a structure is a woolly mess. If you do not order your thoughts into a structured manner, the audience will not be able to follow them. Having established the aim of your presentation you should choose the most appropriate structure to achieve it.

However, the structure must not get in the way of the main message. If it is too complex, too convoluted or simply too noticeable the audience will be distracted. If a section is unnecessary to the achievement of your fundamental objectives, pluck it out.

Sequential Argument

One of the simplest structures is that of sequential argument which consists of a series of linked statements ultimately leading to a conclusion. However, this simplicity can only be achieved by careful and deliberate delineation between each section. One technique is the use of frequent reminders to the audience of the main point which have proceeded and explicit explanation of how the next topic will lead on from this.

Hierarchical Decomposition

In hierarchical decomposition the main topic is broken down into sub-topics and each sub-topics into smaller topics until eventually everything is broken down into very small basic units. In written communication this is a very powerful technique because it allows the reader to re-order the presentation at will, and to return to omitted topics at a later date. In verbal communication the audience is restricted to the order of the presenter and the hierarchy should be kept simple reinforced. As with sequential argument it is useful to summarise each section at its conclusion and to introduce each major new section with a statement of how it lies in the hierarchical order.

Question Orientated

The aim of many presentations given by managers is to either explain a previous decision or to seek approval for a plan of action. In these cases, the format can be question orientated. The format is to introduce the problem and any relevant background, and then to outline the various solutions to that problem listing the advantages and disadvantages of each solution in turn. Finally, all possible options are summarised in terms of their pro's and con's, and either the preferred solution is presented for endorsement by the audience or a discussion is initiated leading to the decision. One trick for obtaining the desired outcome is to establish during the presentation the criteria by which the various options are to be judged; this alone should allow you to obtain your desired outcome.

Pyramid

In a newspaper, the story is introduced in its entirety in a catchy first paragraph. The next few paragraphs repeat the same information only giving further details to each point. The next section repeats the entire story again, but developing certain themes within each of the sub-points and again adding more information. This is repeated until the reporter runs out of story. The editor then simply decides upon the newsworthiness of the report and cuts from the bottom to the appropriate number of column inches.

There are two main advantages to this style for presentations. Firstly, it can increase the audiences receptiveness to the main ideas. Since at every stage of the pyramid they have all ready become familiar with the ideas and indeed know what to expect next. This sense of deja vu can falsely give the impression that what they are hearing are their own ideas. The second advantage is that the duration of the talk can be easily altered by cutting the talk in exactly the same way as the newspaper editor might have done to the news story. This degree of flexibility may be useful if the same presentation is to be used several times in different situations.

The Meaty Sandwich

The simplest and most direct format remains the meaty sandwich. This is the simple beginning-middle-end format in which the main meat of the exposition is contained in the middle and is proceeded by an introduction and followed by a summary and conclusion. This is really the appropriate format for all small sub-sections in all the previous structures. If the talk is short enough, or the topic simple enough, it can indeed form the entirity of the presentation.

The Beginning

It is imperative to plan your beginning carefully; there are five main elements:

Get their attention

Too often in a speech, the first few minutes of the presentation are lost while people adjust their coats, drift in with coffee and finish the conversation they were having with the person next to them. You only have a limited time and every minute is precious to you so, from the beginning, make sure they pay attention.

Establish a theme

Basically, you need to start the audience thinking about the subject matter of your presentation. This can be done by a statement of your main objective, unless for some reason you wish to keep it hidden. They will each have some experience or opinions on this and at the beginning you must make them bring that experience into their own minds.

Present a structure

If you explain briefly at the beginning of a talk how it is to proceed, then the audience will know what to expect. This can help to establish the theme and also provide something concrete to hold their attention. Ultimately, it provides a sense of security in the promise that this speech too will end.

Create a rapport

If you can win the audience over in the first minute, you will keep them for the remainder. You should plan exactly how you wish to appear to them and use the beginning to establish that relationship. You may be presenting yourself as their friend, as an expert, perhaps even as a judge, but whatever role you choose you must establish it at the very beginning.

Administration

When planning your speech you should make a note to find out if there are any administrative details which need to be announced at the beginning of your speech. This is not simply to make yourself popular with the people organising the session but also because if these details are over looked the audience may become distracted as they wonder what is going to happen next.

The Ending

The final impression you make on the audience is the one they will remember. Thus it is worth planning your last few sentences with extreme care.

As with the beginning, it is necessary first to get their attention, which will have wandered. This requires a change of pace, a new visual aid or perhaps the introduction of one final culminating idea. In some formats the ending will be a summary of the main points of the talk. One of the greatest mistakes is to tell the audience that this is going to be a summary because at that moment they simply switch off. Indeed it is best that the ending comes unexpectedly with that final vital phrase left hanging in the air and ringing round their memories. Alternatively the ending can be a flourish, with the pace and voice leading the audience through the final crescendo to the inevitable conclusion.

Visual Aids

Most people expect visual reinforcement for any verbal message being delivered. While it would be unfair to blame television entirely for this, it is useful to understand what the audience is accustomed to, for two reasons: firstly, you can meet their expectations using the overhead projector, a slide show, or even a video presentation; secondly, if you depart from the framework of a square picture flashed before their eyes, and use a different format, then that novelty will be most arresting. For instance, if you are describing the four functions of a project manager then display the four "hats" he/she must wear; if you are introducing the techniques of brainstorming then brandish a fishing rod to "fish for" ideas.

With traditional visual aids however, there are a few rules which should be followed to ensure they are used effectively. Most are common sense, and most are commonly ignored. As with all elements of a speech, each different viewfoil should have a distinct purpose - and if it has no purpose it should be removed. With that purpose firmly in mind you should design the viewfoil for that purpose. Some viewfoils are there to reinforce the verbal message and so to assist in recall; others are used to explain information which can be more easily displayed than discussed: and some viewfoils are designed simply for entertainment and thus to pace the presentation.

If your viewfoil is scruffy then your audience will notice that, and not what is written upon it. Do not clutter a viewfoil or it will confuse rather than assist. Do not simply photocopy information if there is more data on the page than you wish to present; in these cases, the data should be extracted before being displayed. Make sure that your writing can be read from the back of the room. Talk to the audience, not the visual aid.

The Delivery

"The human body is truly fascinating - there are some I could watch all day" - Anon

Whatever you say and whatever you show; it is you, yourself which will remain the focus of the audience's attention. If you but strut and fret your hour upon the stage and then are gone, no-one will remember what you said. The presenter has the power both to kill the message and to enhance it a hundred times beyond its worth. Your job as a manager is to use the potential of the presentation to ensure that the audience is motivated and inspired rather than disconcerted or distracted. There are five key facets of the human body which deserve attention in presentation skills: the eyes, the voice, the expression, the appearance, and how you stand.

The Eyes

The eyes are said to be the key to the soul and are therefore the first and most effective weapon in convincing the audience of your honesty, openness and confidence in the objectives of your presentation. This impression may of course be totally false, but here is how to convey it.

Even when in casual conversation, your feelings of friendship and intimacy can be evaluated by the intensity and duration of eye contact. During the presentation you should use this to enhance your rapport with the audience by establishing eye contact with each and every member of the audience as often as possible. For small groups this is clearly possible but it can also be achieved in large auditoriums since the further the audience is away from the presenter the harder it is to tell precisely where he or she is looking. Thus by simply staring at a group of people at the back of a lecture theatre it is possible to convince each of them individually that he or she is the object of your attention. During presentations, try to hold your gaze fixed in specific directions for five or six seconds at a time. Shortly after each change in position, a slight smile will convince each person in that direction that you have seen and acknowledged them.

The Voice

After the eyes comes the voice, and the two most important aspects of the voice for the public speaker are projection and variation. It is important to realise from the onset that few people can take their ordinary conversation voice and put it on stage. If you can, then perhaps you should move to Hollywood. The main difference comes in the degree of feedback which you can expect from the person to whom you are talking. In ordinary conversation you can see from the expression, perhaps a subtle movement of the eye, when a word or phrase has been missed or misunderstood. In front of an audience you have to make sure that this never happens. The simple advice is to slow down and to take your time. Remember the audience is constrained by good manners not to interrupt you so there is no need to maintain a constant flow of sound. A safe style is to be slightly louder and slightly slower than a fire-side chat with slightly deaf aunt. As you get used to the sound, you can adjust it by watching the audience.

A monotone speech is both boring and soporific, so it is important to try to vary the pitch and speed of your presentation. At the very least, each new sub-section should be proceeded by a pause and a change in tone to emphasise the delineation. If tonal variation does not come to you naturally try making use of rhetorical questions throughout your speech, since most British accents rise naturally at the end of a question.

Expression

The audience watch your face. If you are looking listless or distracted then they will be listless and distracted; if you are smiling, they will be wondering why and listen to find out. In normal conversation your meaning is enhanced by facial reinforcement. Thus in a speech you must compensate both for stage nerves and for the distance between yourself and the audience. The message is quite simply: make sure that your facial expressions are natural, only more so.

Appearance

There are many guides to management and presentation styles which lay heavy emphasis upon the way you dress and in the last analysis this is a matter of personal choice. That choice should however be deliberately made. When you are giving a presentation you must dress for the audience, not for yourself; if they think you look out of place, then you are.

As an aside, it is my personal opinion that there exists a code of conduct among engineers which emphasizes the scruffy look, and that in many organisations this tends to set the engineer apart, especially from management. It conveys the subliminal message that the engineer and the manager are not part of the same group and so hinders communication.

Stance

When an actor initially learns a new character part, he or she will instinctively adopt a distinct posture or stance to convey that character. It follows therefore that while you are on stage, your stance and posture will convey a great deal about you. The least you must do is make sure your stance does not convey boredom; at best, you can use your whole body as a dynamic tool to reinforce your rapport with the audience.

The perennial problem is what to do with your hands. These must not wave aimlessly through the air, or fiddle constantly with a pen, or (worst of all visually) juggle change in your trouser pockets. The key is to keep your hands still, except when used in unison with your speech. To train them initially, find a safe resting place which is comfortable for you, and aim to return them there when any gesture is completed.

The Techniques of Speech

Every speaker has a set of "tricks of the trade" which he or she holds dear - the following are a short selection of such advice taken from various sources.

Make an impression

The average audience is very busy: they have husbands and wives, schedules and slippages, cars and mortgages; and although they will be trying very hard to concentrate on your speech, their minds will inevitably stray. Your job is to do something, anything, which captures their attention and makes a lasting impression upon them. Once you have planned your speech and honed it down to its few salient points, isolate the most important and devise some method to make it stick.

Repeat, Repeat

The average audience is very busy: they have husbands or wives etc, etc - but repetition makes them hear. The average audience is easily distracted, and their attention will slip during the most important message of your speech - so repeat it. You don't necessarily have to use the resonant tonal sounds of the repeated phrase, but simply make the point again and again and again with different explanations and in different ways. The classic advice of the Sergeant Major is: "First you tell 'em what you are going to tell 'em, then you tell 'em, then you tell 'em what you told 'em!"

Draw a Sign

Research into teaching has yielded the following observation: "We found that students who failed to get the point did so because they were not looking for it". If the audience knows when to listen, they will. So tell them: the important point is ... .

Draw a Picture

The human brain is used to dealing with images, and this ability can be used to make the message more memorable. This means using metaphors or analogies to express your message. Thus a phrase like "we need to increase the market penetration before there will be sufficient profits for a pay related bonus" becomes "we need a bigger slice of the cake before the feast".

Jokes

The set piece joke can work very well, but it can also lead to disaster. You must choose a joke which is apt, and one which will not offend any member of the audience. This advice tends to rule out all racist, sexist or generally rude jokes. If this seems to rule out all the jokes you can think of, then you should avoid jokes in a speech.

Amusing asides are also useful in maintaining the attention of the audience, and for relieving the tension of the speech. If this comes naturally to you, then it is a useful tool for pacing your delivery to allow periods of relaxation in between your sign-posted major points.

Plain Speech

Yes!

Short and Sweet

One way to polish the presentation of the main point of your speech is to consider it thus. The day before your presentation, you are called to to the office of the divisional vice-president; there you are introduced to the managing director and a representative of the company's major share holder; "O.K." says the vice president "we hear you have got something to say, we'll give you 30 seconds, GO". Can you do it?

If you can crystallise your thoughts and combine your main message with some memorable phrase or imagery, and present them both in 30 seconds then you have either the perfect ending or the basis for a fine presentation.

The Narrative

Everyone loves a story and stories can both instruct and convey a message: Zen Philosophy is recorded in its stories, and Christianity was originally taught in parables. If you can weave your message into a story or a personal annocdote, then you can have them wanting to hear your every word - even if you have to make it up.

Rehearsal

There is no substitute for rehearsal. You can do it in front of a mirror, or to an empty theatre. In both cases, you should accentuate your gestures and vocal projection so that you get used to the sound and sight of yourself. Do not be put off by the mirror - remember: you see a lot less of yourself than your friends do.

Relaxation

If you get nervous just before the show, either concentrate on controlling your breathing or welcome the extra adrenaline. The good news is that the audience will never notice your nerves nearly as much as you think. Similarly, if you dry-up in the middle - smile, look at your notes, and take your time. The silence will seem long to you, but less so to the audience.

Conclusion

Once the speech is over and you have calmed down, you should try to honestly evaluate your performance. Either alone, or with the help of a friend in the audience, decide what was the least successful aspect of your presentation and resolve to concentrate on that point in the next talk you give. If it is a problem associated with the preparation, then deal with it there; if it is a problem with your delivery, write yourself a reminder note and put it in front of you at the next talk.

Practice is only productive when you make a positive effort to improve - try it.

Basic Management Skills

2006-08-31T02:21:00.000+05:30

Groups that Work

by Gerard M Blair

Groups form a basic unit of work activity throughout engineering and yet the underlying process is poorly managed. This article looks at the basics of group work and suggests ways to accelerate development.

In the beginning, God made an individual - and then he made a pair. The pair formed a group, together they begat others and thus the group grew. Unfortunately, working in a group led to friction, the group disintegrated in conflict and Caian settled in the land of Nod - there has been trouble with groups ever since.

When people work in groups, there are two quite separate issues involved. The first is the task and the problems involved in getting the job done. Frequently this is the only issue which the group considers. The second is the process of the group work itself: the mechanisms by which the group acts as a unit and not as a loose rabble. However, without due attention to this process the value of the group can be diminished or even destroyed; yet with a little explicit management of the process, it can enhance the worth of the group to be many times the sum of the worth of its individuals. It is this synergy which makes group work attractive in corporate organization despite the possible problems (and time spent) in group formation.

This article examines the group process and how it can best be utilized. The key is that the group should be viewed as an important resource whose maintenance must be managed just like any other resource and that this management should be undertaken by the group itself so that it forms a normal part of the group's activities.

What is a Group?

A group of people working in the same room, or even on a common project, does not necessarily invoke the group process. If the group is managed in a totally autocratic manner, there may be little opportunity for interaction relating to the work; if there is factioning within the group, the process may never evolve. On the other hand, the group process may be utilized by normally distant individuals working on different projects; for instance, at IEE colloquia.

In simple terms, the group process leads to a spirit of cooperation, coordination and commonly understood procedures and mores. If this is present within a group of people, then their performance will be enhanced by their mutual support (both practical and moral). If you think this is a nebulous concept when applied to the world of industry, consider the opposite effect that a self-opinionated, cantankerous loud-mouth would have on your performance and then contrast that to working with a friendly, open, helpful associate.

Why a Group?

Groups are particularly good at combining talents and providing innovative solutions to possible unfamiliar problems; in cases where there is no well established approach/procedure, the wider skill and knowledge set of the group has a distinct advantage over that of the individual.

In general, however, there is an overriding advantage in a group-based work force which makes it attractive to Management: that it engenders a fuller utilization of the work force.

A group can be seen as a self managing unit. The range of skills provided by its members and the self monitoring which each group performs makes it a reasonably safe recipient for delegated responsibility. Even if a problem could be decided by a single person, there are two main benefits in involving the people who will carry out the decision. Firstly, the motivational aspect of participating in the decision will clearly enhance its implementation. Secondly, there may well be factors which the implementer understands better than the single person who could supposedly have decided alone.

More indirectly, if the lowest echelons of the workforce each become trained, through participation in group decision making, in an understanding of the companies objectives and work practices, then each will be better able to solve work-related problems in general. Further, they will also individually become a safe recipient for delegated authority which is exemplified in the celebrated right of Japanese car workers to halt the production line.

From the individual's point of view, there is the added incentive that through belonging to a group each can participate in achievements well beyond his/her own individual potential. Less idealistically, the group provides an environment where the individual's self-perceived level of responsibility and authority is enhanced, in an environment where accountability is shared: thus providing a perfect motivator through enhanced self-esteem coupled with low stress.

Finally, a word about the much vaunted "recognition of the worth of the individual" which is often given as the reason for delegating responsibility to groups of subordinates. While I agree with the sentiment, I am dubious that this is a prime motivator - the bottom line is that the individual's talents are better utilized in a group, not that they are wonderful human beings.

Group Development

It is common to view the development of a group as having four stages:

Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing

Forming is the stage when the group first comes together. Everybody is very polite and very dull. Conflict is seldom voiced directly, mainly personal and definitely destructive. Since the grouping is new, the individuals will be guarded in their own opinions and generally reserved. This is particularly so in terms of the more nervous and/or subordinate members who may never recover. The group tends to defer to a large extent to those who emerge as leaders (poor fools!).

Storming is the next stage, when all Hell breaks loose and the leaders are lynched. Factions form, personalities clash, no-one concedes a single point without first fighting tooth and nail. Most importantly, very little communication occurs since no one is listening and some are still unwilling to talk openly. True, this battle ground may seem a little extreme for the groups to which you belong - but if you look beneath the veil of civility at the seething sarcasm, invective and innuendo, perhaps the picture come more into focus.

Then comes the Norming. At this stage the sub-groups begin to recognize the merits of working together and the in-fighting subsides. Since a new spirit of co-operation is evident, every member begins to feel secure in expressing their own view points and these are discussed openly with the whole group. The most significant improvement is that people start to listen to each other. Work methods become established and recognized by the group as a whole.

And finally: Performing. This is the culmination, when the group has settled on a system which allows free and frank exchange of views and a high degree of support by the group for each other and its own decisions.

In terms of performance, the group starts at a level slightly below the sum of the individuals' levels and then drops abruptly to its nadir until it climbs during Norming to a new level of Performing which is (hopefully) well above the start. It is this elevated level of performance which is the main justification for using the group process rather than a simple group of staff.

Group Skills

The group process is a series of changes which occur as a group of individuals form into a cohesive and effective operating unit. If the process is understood, it can be accelerated.

There are two main sets of skills which a group must acquire:

Managerial Skills
Interpersonal Skills

and the acceleration of the group process is simply the accelerated acquisition of these.

As a self-managing unit, a group has to undertake most of the functions of a Group Leader - collectively. For instance, meetings must be organized, budgets decided, strategic planning undertaken, goals set, performance monitored, reviews scheduled, etc. It is increasingly recognized that it is a fallacy to expect an individual to suddenly assume managerial responsibility without assistance; in the group it is even more so. Even if there are practiced managers in the group, they must first agree on a method, and then convince and train the remainder of the group.

As a collection of people, a group needs to relearn some basic manners and people-management skills. Again, think of that self-opinionated, cantankerous loud-mouth; he/she should learn good manners, and the group must learn to enforce these manners without destructive confrontation.

Accelerating Development

It is common practice in accelerating group development to appoint, and if necessary train, a "group facilitator". The role of this person is to continually draw the groups' attention to the group process and to suggest structures and practices to support and enhance the group skills. This must be only a short-term training strategy, however, since the existence of a single facilitator may prevent the group from assuming collective responsibility for the group process. The aim of any group should be that facilitation is performed by every member equally and constantly. If this responsibility is recognised and undertaken from the beginning by all, then the Storming phase may be avoided and the group development passed straight into Norming.

The following is a set of suggestions which may help in group formation. They are offered as suggestions, no more; a group will work towards its own practices and norms.

Focus

The two basic foci should be the group and the task.

If something is to be decided, it is the group that decides it. If there is a problem, the group solves it. If a member is performing badly, it is the group who asks for change.

If individual conflicts arise, review them in terms of the task. If there is initially a lack of structure and purpose in the deliberations, impose both in terms of the task. If there are disputes between alternative courses of action, negotiate in terms of the task.

Clarification

In any project management, the clarity of the specification is of paramount importance - in group work it is exponentially so. Suppose that there is a 0.8 chance of an individual understanding the task correctly (which is very high). If there are 8 members in the group then the chance of the group all working towards that same task is 0.17. And the same reasoning hold for every decision and action taken throughout the life of the group.

It is the first responsibility of the group to clarify its own task, and to record this understanding so that it can be constantly seen. This mission statement may be revised or replaced, but it should always act as a focus for the groups deliberations and actions.

The mouse

In any group, there is always the quiet one in the corner who doesn't say much. That individual is the most under utilized resource in the whole group, and so represents the best return for minimal effort by the group as a whole. It is the responsibility of that individual to speak out and to contribute. It is the responsibility of the group to encourage and develop that person, to include him/her in the discussion and actions, and to provide positive reinforcement each time that happens.

The loud-mouth

In any group, there is always a dominant member whose opinions form a disproportionate share of the discussion. It is the responsibility of each individual to consider whether they are that person. It is the responsibility of the group to ask whether the loud-mouth might like to summarize briefly, and then ask for other views.

The written record

Often a decision which is not recorded will become clouded and have to be rediscused. This can be avoided simply by recording on a large display (where the group can clearly see) each decision as it is made. This has the further advantage that each decision must be expressed in a clear and concise form which ensures that it is clarified.

Feedback (negative)

All criticism must be neutral: focused on the task and not the personality. So rather than calling Johnie an innumerate moron, point out the error and offer him a calculator. It is wise to adopt the policy of giving feedback frequently, especially for small things - this can be couched as mutual coaching, and it reduces the destructive impact of criticism when things go badly wrong.

Every criticism must be accompanied by a positive suggestion for improvement.

Feedback (positive)

If anyone does something well, praise it. Not only does this reenforce commendable actions, but it also mollifies the negative feedback which may come later. Progress in the task should be emphasised.

Handling failure

The long term success of a group depends upon how it deals with failure. It is a very British tendency to brush off failure and to get on with the next stage with no more than a mention - it is a very foolish tendency. Any failure should be explored by the group. This is not to attribute blame (for that is shared by the whole group as an individual only acts with delegated responsibility), but rather to examine the causes and to devise a mechanism which either monitors against or prevents repetition. A mistake should only happen once if it is treated correctly.

One practise which is particularly useful is to delegate the agreed solution to the individual or sub-group who made the original error. This allows the group to demonstrate its continuing trust and the penitent to make amends.

Handling deadlock

If two opposing points of view are held in the group then some action must be taken. Several possibly strategies exist. Each sub-group could debate from the other sub-group's view-point in order to better understand it. Common ground could be emphasised, and the differences viewed for a possible middle or alternative strategy. Each could be debated in the light of the original task. But firstly the group should decide how much time the debate actually merits and then guillotine it after that time - then, if the issue is not critical, toss a coin.

Sign posting

As each small point is discussed, the larger picture can be obscured. Thus it is useful frequently to remind the group: this is where we came from, this is where we got to, this is where we should be going.

Avoid single solutions

First ideas are not always best. For any given problem, the group should generate alternatives, evaluate these in terms of the task, pick one and implement it. But most importantly, they must also monitor the outcome, schedule a review and be prepared to change the plan.

Active communication

Communication is the responsibility of both the speaker and the listener. The speaker must actively seek to express the ideas in a clear and concise manner - the listener must actively seek to understand what has been said and to ask for clarification if unsure. Finally, both parties must be sure that the ideas have been correctly communicated perhaps by the listener summarizing what was said in a different way.

Conclusion

Groups are like relationships - you have to work at them. In the work place, they constitute an important unit of activity but one whose support needs are only recently becoming understood. By making the group itself responsible for its own support, the responsibility becomes an accelerator for the group process. What is vital, is that these needs are recognized and explicitly dealt with by the group. Time and resources must be allocated to this by the group and by Management, and the group process must be planned, monitored and reviewed just like any other managed process.

Gerard M Blair is a Senior Lecturer in VLSI Design at the Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Edinburgh. His book Starting to Manage: the essential skills is published by Chartwell-Bratt (UK) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (USA). He welcomes feedback either by email (gerard@ee.ed.ac.uk) or by any other method found

History of rail transport in India

2006-08-31T01:48:00.000+05:30

A rail system in India was first put forward in 1832 in Madras but it never materialised. In the 1840s, other proposals were forwarded to the British East India Company who governed India. The Governor-General of India at that time, Lord Hardinge deliberated on the proposal from the commercial, military and political viewpoints. He came to the conclusion that the East India Company should assist private capitalists who sought to setup a rail system in India, regardless of the commercial viability of their project.

In 1844, British civil engineer Robert Stephenson's published work titled: Report upon the Practicability and Advantages of the Introduction of Railways into British India led to widespread investor interest in the UK. By 1845, two companies, the East Indian Railway Company operating from Calcutta, and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) operating from Bombay, were formed. The first train in India was operational on 1851-12-22, used for the hauling of construction material in Roorkee. A few years later, on 1853-04-16, the first passenger train between Bori Bunder, Bombay and Thana covering a distance of 34 km (21 miles) was inaugurated, formally heralding the birth of railways in India.

The British government encouraged the setting up of railways by private investors under a scheme that would guarantee an annual return of 5% during the initial years of operation. Once completed, the company would be passed under government ownership, but would be operated by the company that built them. Robert Maitland Brereton, a British engineer was responsible for the expansion of the railway from 1857 onwards. In March 1870, he was responsible for the linking of both the rail systems, which by then had a network of 6,400 km (4,000 miles).

By 1880 the network had a route mileage of about 14,500 km (9,000 miles), mostly radiating inward from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. By 1895, India had started building its own locomotives, and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the Ugandan Railways.

In 1900, the GIPR became a government owned company. The network spread to modern day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and soon various independent kingdoms began to have their own rail systems. In 1901, an early Railway Board was constituted, but the powers were formally invested under Lord Curzon. It served under the Department of Commerce and Industry and had a government railway official serving as chairman, and a railway manager from England and an agent of one of the company railways as the other two members. For the first time in its history, the Railways began to make a profit.

In 1907 almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government. The following year, the first electric locomotive makes its appearance. With the arrival of World War I, the railways were used to meet the needs of the British outside India. With the end of the war, the state of the railways was in disrepair and collapse.

In 1920, with the network having expanded to 61,220 km, a need for central management was mooted by Sir William Acworth. Based on the East India Railway Committee chaired by Acworth, the government takes over the management of the Railways and detaches the finances of the Railways from other governmental revenues.

The period between 1920 to 1929 was a period of economic boom. Following the Great Depression, the company suffered economically for the next eight years. The Second World War severely crippled the railways. Trains were diverted to the Middle East and the railways workshops were converted to munitions workshops. By 1946 all rail systems were taken over by the government.

[edit]

Start of Indian Railways

Following independence in 1947, India inherited a decrepit rail network. A large chunk of the railways now passed through the newly formed Pakistan. A large number of lines had to be rerouted through Indian territory had to be undertaken. A total of forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states existed at the time of independence spanning a total of 55,000 km. These were amalgamated into the Indian Railways.

In 1951, the rail networks were abandoned in favour of zones. A total of six zones came into being in 1952. As India developed it economy, almost all railway production units started to be built indigenously. Broad Gauge became the standard, and the Railways began to electrify most lines to AC.

In 1985, steam locomotives were phased out. Under Rajiv Gandhi, reforms in the railways were carried out. In 1987, computerisation of reservation first was carried out in Bombay and in 1989 the train numbers were standardised to four digits. In 1995 the entire railway reservation was computerised through the railways intranet. In 1998, the Konkan Railway was opened, spanning difficult terrain through the Western Ghats.

9 Basic Human Needs

2006-08-31T01:34:00.000+05:30

This article has very succinlty pointed out realms of life & I hope this will acquaint you & help you lead life in a better way.So needs are as follows

1. The need to give and receive attention.

"No Man Is An Island"
Without regular quality contact with other people, mental condition, emotional state and behaviour can suffer quite drastically. This is often particularly obvious in elderly people who have become isolated. After days alone, their first contact may be their GP, who sees them for 10 minutes.

They are highly likely during this short period to appear 'strange' as their thwarted need for attention asserts itself in an outpouring of communication. If the GP takes this as representative of the patient's general mental condition, they may prescribe drugs, where really a few hours of being listened to would suffice.

You may also have noticed this in evening-class attendees who command the teacher's attention all the time, asking seemingly daft questions and not really listening to the answers!

2. Taking heed of the mind body connection.

This is so important, and so often neglected. Without correct and regular nutrition, sleep and exercise, your psychological state can suffer considerably. It is often seen that young people, on leaving home and the structure that provides, succumb to one mental illness or another. Their mealtimes, sleep patterns and other regular habits become disrupted, with predictable consequences.

It seems that people are increasingly treating themselves as machines!

3. The need for purpose, goals and meaning.

"The devil will make work for idle hands to do."

Perhaps the overriding element that sets human beings apart from other animals is the ability to identify, analyse and solve problems. This is what enabled us to develop to where we have.

If this ability is under-used, the imagination can start to create problems of its own - perhaps in an attempt to give you something to do because it is not occupied doing anything else.

Regardless, if a person is deprived of the outward focus and satisfaction created by achieving goals, mental illness is often close behind.

The need for meaning is perhaps even more profound. Viktor Frankl's book 'Man's Search for Meaning' documents the impact of lack of meaning on concentration camp prisoners, of which he was one. He says in it that "What is the meaning of life?" is a question that is asked of you, not one that you yourself ask. It is a hugely powerful and important read when considering mental health.

4. A sense of community and making a contribution.

Tying in with the need for meaning, this basic need provides a context for a person. It gives them a reason for being, over and above their own personal needs, that has been shown to benefit the immune system, mental health and happiness.

One obvious fulfiller of this need is religion, but can also be an idea shared with others, a club, charity or community work. In fact, anything that takes the focus off the self.

5. The need for challenge and creativity .

Learning something new, expanding horizons, improving on existing skills all provide a sensation of progress and achievement. Without this, a person can feel worthless, or that there is no real reason for their being.

6. The need for intimacy .

Tying in with the need for attention, it seems that people have a need to share their ideas, hopes and dreams with others close to them. For some, this can be as simple a talking to a loved pet, but for most of us, it requires that we have at least one individual with whom we can converse 'on the same level'.

7. The need to feel a sense of control.

"All your eggs in one basket."

The results of total loss of control over your surroundings, relationships or body are not hard to imagine, and have been well documented.

From survivors of torture, to someone losing their job, those who are able to maintain a sense of control somewhere in their life fare the best. This is why having a variety of interests and activities is so important.

8. The need for a sense of status.

It’s important to feel important. And we all know some people for whom this need is too important! However, if someone feels recognised for being a grandmother or parent or good son or daughter, this may be enough. Young people finding their feet can have improved self-esteem if they feel they have attained a position of trust and recognition.

Young boys in Birmingham, UK who were at risk of exclusion because of behavioural problems were trained as mentors and paid for helping younger kids who were also at risk of exclusion. Not only did the mentors’ own behaviour improve, they also reported greater levels of happiness, contentment and self-esteem. Much disruptive, problematic behaviour may be a misapplied attempt to meet this need for recognition.

9. The need for a sense safety and security.

We need to feel our environment is basically secure and reasonably predictable. Financial security, physical safety and health, and the fulfilment of other basic needs all contribute to the completion of this need. As with all of the following needs we can take it too far and become obsessive about it – you will see this sometimes if the need for creativity is not met.

Many Needs, One Life

It may seem that a life that meets all of these needs would be intolerably busy. But of course, one activity can meet many needs. Charity work for example, could be said to fulfil 1, 3, 4 and 5, and could contribute to 6 and 7.

Walking with a friend as a pastime might go towards 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.

Generally, what this suggests, and what has been borne out by recent research, is that a more complex life is a more healthy one.

Then if one area of life fails or is taken away from you, your basic needs are maintained, at least in part, by those that survive.

So the message is...

If your progress through life has gone a bit awry for you or a friend, check if there is petrol in the car, and that the battery is charged before going to a mechanic to have the engine taken apart!

RC-READ FOR SPEED

2006-06-10T12:30:00.000+05:30

Be an active reader

Most of us read any book as if we are watching news. We just wait for things to happen. If you compare that with the way in which you watch a movie, you will see the difference. While watching a movie quite a few of us try to predict the next dialogue. That does not happen when we are reading. Typically well written passages give us a chance to understand the argument and reach the conclusion along with the author. So the next time you are reading remember that this is not a TV soap but a book.

Understanding vs Speed

Separate the wheat from the chaff.

This is basically the ability to distinguish sentences which are important from sentences, which are too general. If a passage is talking about angiography and then there is an example provided on it then you don’t need to spend a lot of time with that sentence to understand the example. Hence while reading, keep an eye open for redundant sentences. Recognizing them and zipping through them will definitely save time.

Lend Structure, Don’t understand

There are a lot of schools of thoughts on how you should read a passage and answer questions. Some think you should read the questions first and then look for the answers; others feel you should read the passage thoroughly and then answer all the questions without looking back. We all know that there are two types of questions, direct and indirect. If you have read through the passage completely with in-depth understanding, then you may be able to answer all questions correctly. If you read through the passage once with cursory understanding then you should be able to answer all main idea questions. You will mostly need to refer to the passage again for detail / direct questions. I personally prefer the latter; there is no point in spending huge amounts of time in understanding passages completely.

You should read with the aim of structuring passages neatly in your head.

An appendix of topics tested with websites:

Science

http://www.firstscience.com/site/archive.asp
http://www.sciam.com/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Religion/Mythology

http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-238.asp
http://www.religion-online.org/

Philosophy

http://www.essortment.com/in/Philosophy.General/index.htm
http://www.prs-ltsn.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/articles/index.html

Psychology

http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/psychology.html
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/psychology.html

Sociology

http://soc.sagepub.com/reports/mfr1.dtl
http://www.aboutsociology.com/sociology/List_of_sociology_topics

Literature

http://www.essortment.com/in/Literature.General/index.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-251.asp

History

http://www.historynet.com/
http://www.essortment.com/in/History.Events/index.htm

Politics

http://www.magportal.com/c/soc/intl/

http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-234.asp

Geography

http://geography.about.com/cs/a.htm
http://www.ezgeography.com/

Economics

http://economics.about.com/cs/a.htm
http://www.europe-economics.com/pubs/articles.htm

Management

http://www.magportal.com/c/bus/strat/
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/

DTH Vs Cable-an Analysis

2006-06-06T13:49:00.000+05:30

The successful launch of the India's first fourth-generation satellite , Insat-4A will stir up competeion to provide Direct-to-Home(DTH)television.In 1990 , thousands of local operators aal over country set up satellites TV channels to their neighbourhood through cable strung along on electric poles etc.For the first time Indian viewers were able to watch forign TV channels.Cable Tv created revolution thus ended Goverment's monopoly on what people watched on TV(thus it also gave liberty to Electronic media).
Today there are 70,000 cable operatorsin India.They serve half or more of the 100 million.But now there's a growing friction between private channels that charges cable operators for content.TV channels are unhappy because cable operators often under report the number of subscribers they serve & therefore pay less than they ought to pay.
"With DTH, the TV channels can cut out the cable operators and gain control of entire value chain from providing content to reaching roadcaststo individual homes." points S. Chandrashekhar formely with ISRO and now on faculty of IIM,Banglore.For DTH a small dish mounted on the roof picks up TV signals broadcast from a satellite.A set -top box(costing few thousand bucks) then deciphers these signals and feeds them to a conventional television.
DTH has one major loophole that it can serve only certain minimum number of channels provided by a particular service provider and they cannot use the same device to recieve channels from different service provider.
So this battle will stir up & perhaps consumer will be at benefiting end

ROADMAP FOR MBA ASPIRANTS

2006-06-06T13:13:00.000+05:30

Many of you must be at crossroads, absolutely flummoxed lameting over your plight attributed to time you wasted in commuting by train for your MBA coahing classes.I also went through same phase when my 6th sem exams were over.It must have been roughly five months since you would have joined classes.
Considering my your case study approximately as same I am sharing my views by which most of you can eradicate the flaws & prepare further with vigour.The reason behind my plight was unplanned,unscheduled approach.Well, Our Honorary President Mr. Avir Pakul Jainullabdin Abdul kalam very succintly quotes that when you don't have a mission then you won;t succeed.So Its high time you guys get into "MISSION MODE" & this "MISSION IS NOT IMMPOSSIBLE" if you envisage yourself in IIM's & other top B-schools(read my forthcoming blog"LIFE BEYOND IIM'S). Whatever happened is past , learn from your mistakes & try to weed out the flaws by doing SWOT analysis of yourself.Find out what areas you are strong in & what areas are you weak in & work on the weak areas.Taking mock test is like lithmus test for knowing your strong & weak areas.
Those were some qualitative analysis now some DO's n DONT's.
DO's
1)Inculcate habbit of doing an RC excercise 5 times a week & analysis too
2)DI exercise daily(a must as there are hell of different DI questions) so no escaping
-DI
-DS
-sometimes analytical reasoning comes in forms of graphs also you must know basic formulas of SI,CI etc
As name suggests this is DI i.e interpretation of data.So key point is to interpret,going by my experience once you interpret data correctly than it makes life easier n u get answers in a jiffy
3)Practise quants n sectionalize it.Choose wat sections are you going to attempt.Let me just mention some of major sections
-Number System(Imp)
-Ratio & proportion
-Mixtures & Allegation
-S.T, C.I, PLD(Profit Loss Disount)
-Geometry etc
4)VA
-english usage
-Summary type Passage
-Parajumbles(imp if u practise u'll score more)
-Fill in blanks
5)RC
You have to choose 3 RC atmost concentrate on accuracy rather than quantity.Post you comments if u wish to know more.I'll post blogs regarding good B schools besides IIM's.Best of luck for your preprations.
6)most imp ATTEMPT FIX NO OF MOCKS(say 20 from now till 1st nov) n ANLAYSING THEM IS MUST
7) take a break after 1st as ur prep wuld be over.

DONT's
1)Donot overattempt mocks,generally ppl tend to attempt far too many mocks leaving analysis for future which is a strict no no
2)Don't be pressurised by ur peers.Remember u have a specified time in which u have to maximise ur score basically u have to find a planned jugad n that wats management is all about.

Those who joined MBA classes recently shouldn't loose heart as in my opinion they have an edge as guys who joined in Jan or Feb must be loosing steam which is a danger sign.
One piece of advise never say die till last few days

THINGS I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT ON NET

2006-05-26T13:54:00.000+05:30

Stock Watch,Orkuting,checking mails & now blogging top the list when I surf the net.
I sometimes do online trading keeping a strict vigil on price movements of shock.Indian Stock market is like an ongoing one day match where some teams loose some one.It pops out suprises n even someday teams like kenya can take home world cup.But at the end of day teams like Australia(professional) can survive crashes like BLACK MONDAY.As India story is growing at a rate of 8% and is expected to do so for next 5 years on back of consumption,Foreign inflows in form of FDI,FII etc we can be assured of investing in Indian Stock market as people have been doin till now.
Orkuting is in my list of mundane chores.I can't simply do without it also some of my mates are also addicted to it. is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends.Its an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests.
Checking mails not much to comment on it a mundane activity.
Blogging, though this passion of mine is still in its nascency so we have to see how things fair up.Actually Its an excellent medium of expressing yourself.It gives you freedom of expression,freedom of thought & invokes your thought process.It also helps oneself in honing his/her literary skills.So All Bloggers keep Blogging

CHANGING FACE OF LEFT

2006-05-26T13:24:00.000+05:30

CEO of Marxism Inc -

CREDENTIALS

NAME: BUDDHADEB BHATTACHARJEE
DESIGNATION: Chief Minister
STATE:West Bengal

Few of the first congratulatory message that he received after leading his party to overwhelming victory was from TATA GROUP chairaman Ratan Tata followed by calls from Bene Santosa, head of Indonesian conglomerate, Salim Group.Buddahadeb a theatre and literature buff, a left hardliner has embraced policies of liberalisation with ease.He succeded Jyoti Basu as Chief Minister of West Bengal in November, 2000 & he has emerged as a poster boy of economic reform in West Bengal.He publicly opposed his party's agitation against privatisation of Delhi & Mumbai airports and also supported pension reforms.Corporates say that he's very sincere,transparent,honest action-oriented & very approachable. He's also woking on lines of THE OPEN DOOR POLICIES of Den Xiaoping. As When Deng Xiaoping came to power in the early 1980s, China was attempting to deal with the expanded capitalism that had been suggested as a result of the state visit of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. By adopting a modified version of capitalism, known generally as "socialistic capitalism" Deng Xiaoping instituted wide-sweeping social and economic reforms in the attempt to turn a Communist society into one where personal income was not only accepted but seen as a logical goal (Nathan & Shi, 1996, 534). China, whose very name means "The Middle Kingdom" (as in the center of the world), having some 7,000 years worth of "adapting" quickly assumed some of the aspects of ..."
'Why should we oppose foreign companies if they create jobs? Whey should we oppose setting up of malls by MNCs and call centres if they provide employement to our jobless youth?" he asked.So question is can he be India's Deng Xiaoping? We'll still have to wait n watch.But one thing is sure he truely represents changing face of Left.

DEFINITON OF GOD

2006-05-26T12:51:00.000+05:30

GOD is intangible which can only be experienced by belief. He's omnipresent,not bound by harness of real world i.e parameters like time,space etc. He's not he/she i.e not gender biased.He's not bound by emotions,he doesn't hate,neither does he eat nor does he sleep.He never experiences lust,thirst,hunger,smell still he's not cold blooded.HE has intertwined this complex cobweb which in hindu tradition we called "shristi" or universe.Universe has zillions of heavenly bodies,trillions of different creatures with millions of different species.From times immemorial humans have tried but no one has succeded in their endeavours of scaling up this universe.Scientists have carried out their research work but no one has been able to find the answer to mystique presence of GOD who’s all around us & within us.Some of us mortals believe in his presence n some don't belive in him.He's embodied in form of RAMA,KRISHNA,ALLAH,GURUNANAK,JESUS CHRIST,BUDDHA etc & bearing thousands of many more names and for some of us he reside in places like TEMPLE,CHURCH,GURUDWARA,MOSQUE etc.But again reiterating he's not bound by material word rather he's present as a belief.He's within us its just that we have to explore him deeper & deeper and thats what is preached by many of relegions of world through various methods like enchanting of shalokas,meditation,offering prayers.GOD is an unquestionable reality which is above this intangible world.

“
GOD is eternal beloved

We are his lover”

MANISH SEHGAL

2006-05-17T11:32:00.000+05:30

NOTTING HILL

2005-11-23T23:07:00.000+05:30

TUESDAY, 22 NOV 2005

NOTTING HILL

Today while I was talking to a good friend of mine I was also doing channel surfing & suddenly my eyeballs fixated on Star movies.I had the pleasure to watch NOTTING HILL which is my favourite movie.Notting Hill a fairy tail story of a blue eyed travel book shop dealer William Thacker who accidently meets a gorgeous hollywood actress ANA SCOTT & falls in love.William Thacker extremely attractive,suave,single,blue-eyed,middle aged man with a coveted british acccent who runs a Travel Book store with his frined-cum assistant who supposedly has a homosexual disposition..It has motley of intriguing characters;Thacker's moron flat mate who is constantly doing his acts of asininity vis-a-vis posing for britsh tabloids in his briefs;his meterosexual sister who eventualy falls in love with imbecile flate-mate.William's close buddies;Husband & wife with husband bieng a notoriously bad cook & wife being rendered handicapped by an accident made to sit in a wheel chair for restr of her life.The couple is going through a trauma as they cannot have a baby.William's another friend who happens to be a stock borcker who is Ana Scott was on Britian trip to promote her latest movie which is supposedly set in space;one fine day she decides to have a stroll on streets of london.Enjoying her anonymity she enters a travel book store on notting hill where first encounter of protagonist with the actress is portrayed in a light hearted & romantic manner.While on her trip she goes through experience different shades of life yearning for idyll of life & in pursuit of true love which is hitherto not found.She walked the tight rope with aplomb & adjusted well to sitution managing her celebrity status as well as her anonymus identity.Film is replete with anectdotes & light hearted momentsAll in all an excellent movie & a treat for all movie bugs.

STATUS QUO

2005-11-22T08:24:00.000+05:30

TUESDAY,22 NOV 2005

I am going through loads of emotional & mental turmoil.Road seems to be very tough ahead as my exams are hovering overhead & then I have my MBA entrance in b/w.
In general,life is tough for an average middle class indian teenager as our govt doesn't provide us social security.Because of the Globalisation,cultures are getting intertwined and aftermaths are clearly visible as western influence on contemporary youth who are gettin paranoid as they are not able to cope up with this dual lifestyle where they chose to dwell in a liberal way in a conservative society n hence face trauma.In the end biddin adiue's will catch u later to apprise u about more of contemporay INDIAN YOUTH n their TROUBLES.