McDonalds and War

"No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" -

Golden Arches Theory by Thomas L.Friedman in his book 'The Lexus and The Olive Tree'

P.S: This has been proved wrong later. One example is India-Pakistan. Still I felt this theory interesting.

Size Does Matter...!!!

Siva & I along with few of my other friends had a long discussion a year ago on Best Companies to Work for in India - Business Today Survey. It is that time of the year again. Business Today's recent edition carried the same survey for this year.

Last 6 years of this survey Infosys topped 4 times (in years 2001, 2002, 2005 & 2006) and secured 2nd position in year 2004. In this year's survey Infosys fell down to 5th position.

Survey has analyzed a little bit on why Infosys fell as well. Few reasons are given as growing scale (in total employee count), inadequate communication, slow promotions etc.

I could infer from the people who have spent long time at Infosys on how the company has transformed so much from the old days to what it is now in terms of employee friendliness. Company took hardly three years to grow from 30000 plus employees to 80000 plus employees. Survey results show that company has not coped up well with the size. Had it been a slow and steady growth, guess it would have been easier to manage the employee expectations.

Microsoft India has come as the #1 in the survey. Total employee count is 5000 plus.

Other positions and the total employees strength in the bracket.

2nd MindTree Consulting (5500)

3rd Johnson & Johnson (404)

4th Sapient (3500)

Size does matter...!!!

 

(Re)search for an Answer

A. Beautiful girls have good sense of dressing
B. Girls with good sense of dressing are usually beautiful
C. Not so beautiful girls don't have much of good sense of dressing
D. Not so beautiful girls are not so beautiful because they don't have much of good sense of dressing

Choose the best option:
1. All the above are true
2. All the above are not true
3. Only D is true
4. Only A & D are true
5. I have a different answer (then state that in the comment)

Frog in a Car

If there is one species that I would want to be extinct from this earth it's frog. Ewwwww...they are not just ugly they are torturous too.

My wife & I were returning by our car after visiting my friend at his new home. I suddenly observed that there was a frog behind the steering-wheel, close to the wind shield. I felt all creepy and pulled over the car. I told my wife to get down immediately and I also got down. It was so dark in the night and it was a deserted street. I cursed God 'why me?’. I kept the car doors wide open and started choo chooing him. That son of a b... didn't move. I started shaking my car front & back manually. Nope, he didn't move at all. He must have felt cozy like an old man sitting on the rocking chair. I badly needed a stick. But it was so dark outside & I was afraid that I might grab some snake instead of a stick. Man that was really a horrible time. I couldn't control myself feeling philosophically that even a small frog can make you feel so small and helpless at times. I managed to find a stick with the help of my car's headlights. With one end of the stick in my shivering (honestly) hand I poked that ugly species. He must have eaten something so soft just before saying 'hi' to me, I could feel that smoothness in his stomach while poking. At last he started moving. I finally started smelling the success in my breath. what the hell, he jumped as if he was participating in the olympics for long jump contest. He went to the backseats' footrest area. Another poking in his butt, he jumped again madly. He was gone. Didn't know where did he go. Checked the car thoroughly. Nope he was no where. I assured my wife that the area was safe and asked her to sit in the backseat & she kept her legs on the seats so safely. I took the driver's seat, you wouldn't believe me, I saw that little devil once again at the same place where I saw him at first. Situation was back to square one. Again poking...jumping...poking...jumping. I don't know how did he manage to jump so long but within the car limits. Every time he jumped I took a few mins to figure out his new location. At the end came that one sweet little jump which made me the happiest man on earth at that moment, he jumped outside the car. He was gone for real.

Later, my wife & I did a detailed analysis of how the frog would have come into the car when all the doors and windows were closed. We found that from the ground frog could easily jump into the engine area thru the gap available. And from the engine area there are openings to come inside the car. When we had parked the car near my friend's home frog would have decided to pay us a visit. I can not forget that freaky night.

If there is one species that I would want to be extinct from this earth it's frog. Ewwwww...they are not just ugly they are torturous too.

(just click on the picture to enlarge if you disagree with me that frogs are ugly)

That one skill...!!!

If there is one skill that I badly want to learn & excel it is the questioning skill.

In my entire school & college life I hardly remember asking any questions in my classes. Most of the times I never had any questions or I was afraid of opening up. I always give a nasty look at the people who raise a lot of questions. Guess I was so jealous of them. It is when I started my career & during my initial training of my job I pushed myself so hard and set goals myself of 'opening up' to ask questions. I started asking at least one question in almost all of my training sessions. Honestly, I felt so good with a sense of great achievement. (By the way, quality of the questions that I raised is out of scope of this discussion).

Even now I am so jealous of people who ask really good questions. I don't know how they learnt that skill. Is there a way to learn the skill of asking good & right questions at right time? Please help me.

Contrariety

Two scenes that I observed today morning; I am not able to express my feelings properly in words.

Scene 1:
All the windows are almost closed to create enough darkness in the day & to reduce the noise from outside. Fan is running in an optimum speed to keep the room temperature neither too high nor too low. Room is tidy & clean with regular cleaning up and proper maintenance. TV is running on mute. People in the house are speaking in husky voice. A 4 months old kid is sleeping in that room, possibly peacefully.

Scene 2:

National highway. 4 lanes road. Constant traffic of roaring heavy vehicles speeding anywhere from 80 kmph to 120 kmph. Regular honking noise from the vehicles overtaking eachother. Series of trees grown in the middle of the road are acting as road separator. On the branch of one of those trees a hanging cradle. A few months old kid is sleeping in that cradle. Mom is out there among those road workers.

What If...?

What if out of the blue you get Rs.1 lakh into your account with no knowledge of who credited it?

What if no one claimed that money for more than a month?

What would you do in this situation?

What if you transferred your friend's Rs.1 Lakh to some stranger inadvertently instead of transferring to that friend's mom and you didn't realize that for about one and a half months? What if that stranger has only Rs.50 left in his account by the time you realized your mistake and checked his account to get the money back?

What would you do in this situation?

Quite a situation, eh?

At times without realizing the cost of failure we make silly mistakes which could have been avoided by a few seconds of double checking. That's what I made when I missed to double check my friend's mom's ICICI account number before transferring Rs.1 Lakh. Incorrect one digit cost me stress, restlesness, agony and my sleep for two weeks.

Unfortunately my friend took more than a month to confirm that money did not reach his mom. With the help of a known branch manager when I checked that stranger's account, I was shocked to learn that he had only Rs.50 in his account. To add more fuel into the fire, I also learnt that that account is a salary account and that person's salary is just Rs.4000. BOOM.....!!!

With the help(?!) of police I have got Rs.75,000 back and a written statement from that stranger that I would get the remaining amount back by 30-Nov-07. But the pain that my friend, his mom and I have been through was tremendous.

That stranger is a 21 years old lower middle class person who is otherwise a good person, took his chance with this money. Bad luck though. This situation has cost him his job, his reputation and his credibility. I felt miserable about his situation.

Money is cruel and sadistic.

The Goal

I read the book 'The Goal' by Eliyahu M.Goldratt. This is one of the greatest books that I have read. I recommend this book strongly to all the managers who are worried about productivity improvement. This is a management book written in fiction style. The story is set up in manufacturing industry and it talks about productivity improvement in a manufacturing plant. With a little bit of thinking the concepts explained in this book can be applied to service industries as well.

Surprisingly this book was written 23 years ago. When it comes to management books I would always go for the books published in the recent years for very obvious reasons. But this one seems to be applicable even these days.

I bought the part 2 of this book 'The Goal - It's Not Luck' as well. Waiting eagerly to read the second one as well.

That Book Shop...!!!

To that book shop I have gone by train, gone by borrowed bike from friends, gone along with my friends in their bikes and gone by my own bike. Half of the books in my shelf were bought at that book shop. On my every visit I would easily spend Rs.300 to grab 5 or 6 good books after a bit of bargain.

Yesterday I went to that same old book shop after more than two years by my car. Still the guy who sells (owns) in that small road side bookshop in the central railway station near car parking lot has not changed. He could recognize me even after a long time. He would always go something like this to sell his stuffs. "Sir 'Direct from Dell' a good one sir; 'Winning' is very hot you can't find in other shops; 'Argumentative Indian' is noble prize winner's book sir, a must read one". Yesterday I didn't bargain much. I offered almost what he quoted. May be I was influenced by the observation that his life has not changed a lot over time.

After all, economic growth & stability is not just a function of time.

Note: When you are around central station visit this guy's bookshop to buy some. Quote my name for special discounts. His name is Sadhique.

I Quit

What my mom, my friends and my wife couldn't make me to quit, my cable wala has made. Because of unpaid cable bills for last two months he has disconnected the cable provision. I have been made to quit watching TV. With lot of time for me to think or to read or to do something constructively, I feel good now.