As a ritual which every B-school aspirant has to perform, I also wrote B-school essays before joining my MBA program. I remember one of the phrases of one essay the most – “…making mistakes that will cost nothing in a classroom environment…”. I knew I will learn from the mistakes as well. I feel, a failure teaches long lasting lesson then a success. I have learnt a lot from the mistakes during last couple of Read more…
I was reading a newspaper, the question came in mind – next is what? For a moment Samsung mobile advertisement came in my mind. So keep guessing, next is what for Samsung (off late for Nokia too)? Jokes apart, the question is serious, forward looking and for soul searching. The question is very natural, after completing graduation person asks him/herself – what next further education or a job? The question is still there and will Read more…
I heard a story – a farmer owned a very good horse, he loved the horse as his son and it reciprocated. Even the king of that kingdom was envious of the horse. He sent his messengers to the farmer stating that farmer can exchange the horse for as much as half of his state. Farmer responded – ‘I will not, does anyone sell his son/daughter?’ People told him that he did a mistake, he Read more…
In an interview with FT a renowned entrepreneur and hotelier Ian Schrager said that ‘…prison gave me time to think’. He was imprisoned for evading taxes. While reading this I started asking myself – Are not we so busy with our work that the best place to sit and think could be a place where we do not want to be. Is not it an irony? The biggest difference between animals and humans is the Read more…
It is an old saying – power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I was wondering on the saying and the recent news. I thought to understand how ‘power’ has morphed in different forms, starting from the prehistoric muscle power to money, economy and authority. For a long time power was defined as muscle power of individual. When humans created concept of ‘money’ slowly economy took precedence over muscle power. European countries colonized more than Read more…
I was inspired by the book “Old Path White Clouds” and learnt a lot about Buddhism and the Buddha from the same. The concept of the blog also came from that understanding. So, here in this blog I am posting what I felt while I was reading the last chapters of the book – When I was reading the last 3-4 chapters of the book, I stopped and was not willing to continue because I Read more…
Contradictions! We live in a world of choices, conflicts and trade-offs. The following idiom says it all – “you can’t have your cake and eat it too!” In this regard, there is an approach to solving such problems wherein you are faced with contradictions. The theory is named TRIZ – the theory of inventive problem solving. By way of example, let me introduce a contradiction in simple terms. Let’s say you want to increase pressure Read more…
Long back, I was thinking about the common wealth games (CWG), the news around that and what can I learn from that. I generally don’t want to comment on politics; nevertheless I learnt from these events and therefore I am trying to put my opinion on the same. When the news of corruption in CWG preparation started surfacing the Prime minister’s office (PMO) took control of the situation. The following events taught me few lessons Read more…
Recently, I wrote about the ‘balancing act’ based on the story of the Buddha. I started observing the concept of balance to a greater detail when I received the story from Prof Mankad, and here are few pointers in this continued blog. What I have realized in my studies lately is, the “engineerish thinking” (numbers all the time all the way) is not the end in itself. Marketing has long been a function requiring creative Read more…
This is one of the stories shared by Prof Mankad with me. Once on his tour, the Buddha was resting in the shade of a large pipal tree. Under a nearby tree a group of dancing girls was also resting. One of the apprentice musician girls asked the leader of the group, “How do I tune this string instrument?” The head of the group, a ravishing beauty of a dancing girl, obviously with limited virtue Read more…