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.

Bullies @ Work

I think most of us would have faced bullies at work (like we did in school days). An article in the recent edition of Business Today on the topic "Managing Bullies at Work" was an interesting read. Bullies at work make serious damage to you psychologically. Bullies are nasty individuals making your life miserable. I myself have faced (still facing) such bullies at my work life.

Question to the readers: What is your practical suggestion to handle such jerks?

(I was really wondering was I ever a bully to any of my colleagues? I think only my colleagues could give me correct answer to this question.)

Scope Management

"Most of the projects fail due to improper scope management" - this is a universal truth. I have experienced this myself as well. ‘Scope Management’ is so easy said than practiced.

Scope management in a nut shell is:

If requirements are not completely defined and described and if there is no effective change control in a project, scope creep may ensue and that may result in the failure of the project completion on time & within the budget. Hence managing the scope is critical.

I learnt from two people about scope management which even my PMP could not teach well. One is my servant maid and the other is my builder (contractor who builds my house).

My servant maid does not stay more than a minute than she initially agreed for. She does not take up any work more than what she initially agreed for. Even to run errands occasionally she would expect a tip. That’s pretty cool. (Quality of the work is out of scope of this conversation).

My builder charges me for even to change the size of a nail. He documents it properly and yeah he gets my signature on it. That’s pretty cool scope management.

There is a lot to learn from the street, eh?

Fast but not so Furious

Have you ever felt car music influencing your driving speed? Whenever I have a song playing in my car stereo with heavy metals or with fast pace or with very enthusiastic or with high pitch there goes my speadometer needle touching & going beyond the red zone and my sweet jenny (my car) shaking the body (with fear not because of the music, eh).

Latest one such a song that makes my jenny go nervous is 'adhiradi' in Sivaji.

Merlin's Beard! Potter at Infy!

Another post on Potter. Got it as a forward mail. Not sure about the real source. I will leave it to readers to comment on what they think. (Click on the image to enlarge).

(For those who don't know - 'Merlin's Beard!' is exclamation of surprise. Read Harry Potter Lexicon for more such Potter slangs)

Pottermania

I visited Odyssey last weekend just to check on the Pottermaniacs. By calling maniacs I don't mean any disgrace. Just that it sounds good. All pottermaniacs please take this as a compliment. We owe a lot to J.K.Rowling for making many of the kids these days to get the habit of reading. I could see lot of teen-agers and even smaller ones in the book shop buying the book or turning the pages curiously at the bookstore itself.

I have not read any of the Harry Potter books. I am planning to read along with my kid when he is ready to read that series. I read in some articles that there are people who locked themselves in a room with no water and food (of course strictly no cell phone) to complete reading the last version at a stretch. There was a huge hype around this release as it was the final one and Rowling had announced that an important character is murdered at the end. By the way who is that one?

Somehow the Potter movies did not interest me.

Version 4.0

I am a die hard fan of Die Hard.

John McClane is back. Haven't watched it yet. Targeted to watch this weekend.

John McClane is one of the 100 greatest movie characters all the time (ranked at 46) listed by Premiere magazine. Want to know who is ranked at #1? None other than Vito Corleone. He must have made an offer they(Premiere) could not refuse to rank him at #1.

Into the Third

I am so happy that I have stepped into the third year of blogging.