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Category: Career

  • 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!

  • The Road Not Taken

    Life has been an exciting journey so far with great surprises and shocks. There have been occassions where I have not chosen the obvious road. Creating my own road or traveling a less traveled path has inspired me.

    Robert Frost’s classic poem has always been my inspiration. The last paragraph is just awesome and sums up the journey of all success stories.

    The Road Not Taken

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

  • Life Survival Kit

    1. Failure is an event, it is not a person.

    2. Be a lifetime student.

    3. Read something inspirational, informational everyday.

    4. Listen.

    5. Start and end the day with positive input in your mind.

    6. Learn to embrace complexity.

    7. Emphasize achievements, not money.

    8. Family is a critical base.

    9. Do not limit yourself.

    10. Live below your means.

  • Watch Your Eating Habits!

    Watch what you eat – it might reveal more than you think it does!

    There’s an old story that Edison always believed in taking the people he was thinking of hiring, out to lunch. When the soup arrived, he would sit back and watch. Those that tasted the soup before salting it, he wouldn’t immediately cross them off his list. Instead, he would ask them questions and keep an open mind about their possibilities. However, anyone who salted his soup before tasting it wasn’t worth his salt. Why wouldn’t he hire these people? Because Edison believed these individuals had blinders on when it came to looking at life – they had too many assumptions about what was possible and what wasn’t. After all, they assumed the soup needed salt before they tasted it. So perhaps Edison was right-that you can tell a lot about a man by when he salts his soup. It’s interesting to think about.

    Moral of the story – Next time you’re invited to lunch by management or a prospective new boss, hold the salt until after you taste the soup!

  • The Art of Problem Solving

    The Art of Problem Solving: 5 Steps to Success

    Problem Solving Skills are one of the key pre-requisites for success in today’s competitive corporate world. If you can analyze a situation, create different scenarios, visualize implications of different alternatives, choose the optimum alternative and execute if flawlessly, you will have people eating out of your hands. Even at Magnet, we look for people who are part of solution, rather than stuck in problem maze.

    Problem Solving Skills can be groomed over a period of time. What is needed is the attitude and discipline and above all, the love to combat the problem and derive a solution.

    I found a good article by Lyndsay Swinton of ‘Management for the rest of us‘ on Problem Solving Skills. Here it is:

    Legendary problem solver Albert Einstein was onto something hot when he said “No problem is solved from the same consciousness that created it”. He knew about the art of problem solving and if he’d written about it, he may have broken it down into these 5 easy to follow problem solving steps.

    1. Flexible mind, flexible solutions
    “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have”. Now I’d like to claim that for myself, but a good lady called Emile Chartier said it before me. Beware when you only have one solution to a problem. It either means you don’t understand the problem or you’ve not taken the time to figure out more creative, more likely to succeed, solutions.

    2. It’s all in the mind
    Your mental state is inextricably linked to your physical state, so if you’ve reached mental gridlock, take a physical break to get the thought traffic moving again. Go for a walk, listen to music, tidy up your desk or do whatever it takes to free your mind and open up your mind to creating new, innovative solutions to your problem.

    3. Why oh why oh why?
    Ask yourself, why is this a problem? And ask again. And again. Like a stuck record, repeatedly asking why, allows you to pin point with much more precision and accuracy why the problem is a problem. And it busts myths and assumptions until all you’re left with are a few lonely, useful facts.

    4. Rose coloured glasses
    Describe your problem to your mum. Then describe it to your 6 year old nephew. And do another version for your boss. Bet the problem was different each time you talked about it. Taking a different perspective on a problem can lead you to a solution (particularly 6 year olds, as they are some of the most straight-talking magical thinkers around!). If you want to get fancy, you can call this problem solving step “re-framing”.

    5. Dream a little dream
    You probably wrote fantastical stories as a child that ended “and then I woke up!” You crossed rivers, fought dangerous fights and saved the day. In dream-land there are no limits, no boundaries or limits on resources. If there were a magic wand that would solve your problem, what would that be like? Describe in great detail what you see, hear and feel about this problem free state. It’s an engaging and powerful mental game to play, and increases your chance of solving the problem many times over.

  • Time Management Tips for Developers

    1. Break projects into steps with specific deadlines for completion of each step.

    2. Generate manageable due dates for the achievement of these steps and schedule specific times to complete the steps to meet these due dates.

    3. Use due dates to monitor progress towards the completion of steps in your plan.

    4. Write down daily tasks and cross them off as they are accomplished.

    5. Use calendar books to record appointments and intended dates for completion of tasks.

    6. Have daily objectives to move them toward the completion of multiple tasks.

    7. Continually review long-term goals so the sight of long range objectives is not lost.

    8. Begin projects early to give yourself time and freedom to brainstorm about the best ways to accomplish your tasks.  Begin early on assignments to create the opportunities to gather information, think over the matter, and collaborate with others for assistance and suggestions.

    9. Be honest about how plans are going.  Don’t hesitate to modify plans to achieve better results.

    10. Seek advice from others.  Accept and even seek input from anyone in a position to assist you or offer helpful information.  Review other’s materials, converse and correspond with expert sources, and consider other’s ideas as you plan a course of action.

    11. Use available resources and don’t try to go it alone unless it is unavoidable.

    12. Inform people involved as much in advance as possible about any role these people may have in any activity.  This allows time for others to plan ahead as well.

    13. Remain flexible and prepare for the unexpected.  Successful people have plans B and C.

    14. Try to anticipate obstacles but be ready to adapt plans in cases of the unexpected.

    15. Remain persistent in the face of adversity by considering other avenues of approach when encountering barriers.  Effective time managers don’t give up easily.

    16. Realize that a polite “No” is sometimes a proper response.  An effective time manager has the ability to say, “I will get back to you on that.  I want to think about it overnight” or “No, I cannot do that now” if the request is disruptive to task completion and progress toward goals.

    Credit : Dennis H Congos