akweb

Author: ashokkarania

  • Business Investments in Web 2.0 To Increase!

    McKinsey recently conducted a global survey on How Businesses Are Using Web 2.0?

    Excerpts from McKinsey Survey:

    1. More than 75% of executives indicated their plan to increase investments in Internet Technologies that encourage user collaboration
    2. Web 2.0 Elements in demands are : peer-to-peer networking, social networks and Web services
    3. India as a region invites more attention and optimism

    Businesses are united in their view of benefits of Web 2.0. The investments decisions in Web 2.0 seem to be strategic in nature. Not like the irrational exuberance of Dot Com boom period. This indicates the maturing of internet as an important tool for businesses.

  • Teamwork & Ego!

    Teamwork & Ego!

    One more good anecdote on teamwork from Idea-Bank

    The sin (and danger) of excessive pride (or an excessive ego) is admirably demonstrated in this simple fable:

    A frog asked two geese to take him south with them. At first they resisted; they didn’t see how it could be done. Finally, the frog suggested that the two geese hold a stick in their beaks and that he would hold on to it with his mouth.

    So off the unlikely threesome went, flying southward over the countryside. It was really quite a sight. People looked up and expressed great admiration at this demonstration of creative teamwork.

    Someone said, “It’s wonderful! Who was so clever to discover such a fine way to travel?”

    Whereupon the frog opened his mouth and said, “It was I,” as it plummeted to the earth.

  • Teamwork!

    Teamwork!

    Teamwork is one of the key differentiator for success in today’s corporate environment. People work in teams and need interpendence to deliver results. The group dyanmics, ego, comparison etc come into play.

    The best example of Teamwork and Results is Australian Cricket Team. They have made a habit of winning. And they win by outclassing the competition by miles. They aside their huge egos and differences while on the field. The only purpose, the only mission, the only attitude is Winning. The team work in the Australian Cricket is indeed worth emulating.

    I came across a few quotations on Teamwork from a commercial site called Idea-Bank.

    Michael Jordan on Teamwork

    There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren’t willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

    Michael Jordan (1963- )
    American professional basketball player with the Chicago Bulls in “I Can’t Accept Not Trying”
    Harper San Francisco, 1994

    Geese & Teamwork
    Have you ever watched a flock of geese flying in their traditional “V” formation, heading for Canada?

    Two engineers learned that each bird, by flapping its wings, creates an uplift for the bird that follows. Together, the whole flock gains something like 70 percent greater flying range than if they were journeying alone.

  • Indian Organizations in US

    Keshav Kaka emailed me the link to an website which contains information on the various Indian organizations like temples, restaurants etc. in USA. All information is classified state-wise, organization nature-wise.

    The look and the feel of the site would need improvement to make it more contemporary.

    http://www.usamela.com/

  • Life Lessons from Narayan Murthy

    Life Lessons from Narayan Murthy

    Narayan Murthy is one person I immensely admire. He has played a key role in putting India on world map and inspired millions of Indians. And he created several millionaires in the way. A living example of living a value-driven life. We have heard several anecdotes of his greatness.

    Today Infy is the flag-bearer of Indian IT Industry and has perfected the art of consistently exceeding investor targets. It has always believed in the adage : under-promise, over-deliver. One of the many examples of Narayan Murthy’s imprint on the company.

    Yesterday’s The Economic Times and Rediff carried an extract of Narayan Murthy’s speech at New York University. The last paragraph is a real gem. True essence of spiritualism.

    I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.

  • Hot Investment Destinations

    Investment Bankers regularly come up with their new themes, ideas and destinations to justify their salaries.

    BRIC (Brazil – Russia – India – China) is now the popular flavor. Though I admire the BRIC Report Author for walking the talk. She has joined Future Group, Kishore Biyani’s flagship venture.

    The new exotic and hot Flavors are :

    1. VISTA – Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina

    2. Chindia – China & India

    3. N11 – Next 11 – Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Phillipines, Turkey, Vietnam

    How many of these HOT sectors / geographies actually perform as expected over the long run? God knows!





  • Top 50 Cities

    Mercer HR Consulting, a global leader in HR domain, conducts a ranking of Top Cities of the World based on Quality of Living Index every year.

    According to Quality of Living Index 2007, Top 5 Cities of World are:
    1. Zurich
    2. Geneva
    3. Vienna
    4. Vancouver
    5. Auckland

    The interesting thing to note is that Top 5 Cities in 2007 are same as in 2006. All the cities are in developed world. No Indian city is here! 🙁

    But I was happy to see this disclaimer:

    The Quality of Living index is based on several criteria used to judge whether an expatriate is entitled to a hardship allowance. A city with a high Quality of Living index is a safe and stable one, but it may be lacking the dynamic je ne sais quoi that makes people want to live in world-renowned cities such as Paris, Tokyo, London or New York. Sometimes you need a little spice to make a city exciting. But that “spice” may also give a city a lower ranking.

    Aha! Bombay has maximum spice. Bombay has high-rises and slums. Bombay can learn from Genevas and Viennas and still retain its spice. Bombay is currently down, but definitely not out. It will rise like a Phoenix. Politicians may talk of it becoming a Shanghai or the next international financial centre, but Bombay will create its own unique space. Amen!

    You can download the entire list here. Check the official press release too.

  • Innovative Ideas @ Wharton Business Plan Competition

    Wharton Business Plan Competition 2006 – 2007 saw various innovative and interesting ideas. Some of them included:- Building a web-based software system that collects and integrates data from multiple software platforms into one intuitive and customizable data base

    – Providing proper-fitting business attire to female executives in UK

    – Flash-Memory integrated circuits that can operate at lower power and with much higher density

    – Predicting likelihood of a heart attack

    The winner was Neil Malhotra’s NP Solutions. His idea is to relieve patients of lower back pain with a tiny injection of a hydrogel treament into the affected disc. Back pain is one of the most common pains and is responsible for nearly 15 million physician visits a year.

    Hope to see these ideas into successful business models soon!

  • India & US : Democracy @ Work

    My dear friend and a great artist, Harnish Jani has a unique take on the Shilpa Shetty – Richard Gere Kissing Controversy.

    Having been to India several times, Richard Gere should have known the following by now:
    Democratic differences between USA & India –
    In USA, you can kiss in public places but cannot shit

    In India, you can shit in public places but cannot kiss!

  • Wow ! Syncing N73 with Mac OS X

    I had bought Nokia N73 recently and wanted to Sync my address book, photos and music with my Mac OS X. Nokia has Software Tools to enable all of the above but Apple Users are ignored by Nokia. Call it iPod Effect or Arrogance!

    I read Manual of N73. No help!

    So I Googled my problem. Voila! A wonderful blog named Urban Puddle is there to resolve all my queries.

    There is a link to iSync Plugin developed by a German developer named Tom. iSync allows me to Sync my Address Book. It allows Syncs my calendar and associated events too. Great. The plugin is currently at version 2.6. How do you about it?

    1. First download it.

    2. Open the Folder Contents of iSync and drop the folder in Contents/Plugins/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/Plugin.

    3. Then Open iSync and let the Magic Happen!

    The next wonderful application is called iTuneMyWalkman. This will syncs playlists in iTunes to your phone. It can also sync pdocasts and it is smart enought to take into account memory card space etc. It has a few limitations though. But whatever it provided me was totally amazing. I am happy and not greedy for more!

    I had some problem installing iTuneMyWalkman. Read Me file was not very helpful to me. So I again Googled for help. And now I found PopGandhi to help me out. A comment help me there. It said:

    When you connect your phone with the USB cable it will prompt you for which mode you want to take it into.

    There’s Media Player, Lifeblog, etc, and “Mass Storage”.

    Choose Mass Storage.

    You will then see you phone mounted on your desktop.

    When you start up itunemywalkman, to make it point to the actual path, click ‘change’ (as you mentioned) and WHILE your phone is mounted, simply navigate to where your phone is. Then go to Sounds -> Digital. That will change your path.
    Urban Puddle also has instructions for connecting to Internet with Mac OS X using N73 Bluetooth.

    Google is the answer to all our tech issues. Just search for it, apply your mind and enjoy!