Exploreamaze's Blog

Quick Note – ‘Equal Treatment’ and ‘Equal Opportunity’

exploreamaze — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:36:10 +0000

‎’Equal Treatment’ is a lot more than ‘Equal Opportunity’ – It is an acceptance of the fact that social conditioning and prolonged periods of discrimination tend to make communities incapable of aspiration and productive behaviors and It means a willingness on part of the custodians of society( government etc) to invest in reasonable effort to support unlearning of learned behaviors .. If i punch someone and threaten them for centuries and then suddenly give them ‘equal opportunity’, that’s not going to benefit the society because equal opportunity to access food that is on a table 1 mile away means very little to a previously chained man who has never been fed. Liberty is useless without justice..

Emperor’s New Clothes…Your money is my money and my money is someone else’s…

exploreamaze — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:57:12 +0000

Read this on NYT.. Great view of how the interconnected monetary games are coming to hit home!!

If Euro gets devalued,imports from EU zone will become cheaper for America and any imports from US will become more expensive.. America needs other currencies to move up or its exports may not be sustainably competitive and it will not be able to generate significant export volumes for its own recovery..The other option is for Americans to keep spending like crazy and keep importing until trade imbalances and high value of debt force exporters( China Included) to recalibrate their monetary systems into a higher valuation, but that will require a lot of government spending in the US just to push up sentiment – Republicans wont allow that( not at least until they’ve rattled Obama and got back into the White house) . Now if Americans allow all of America’s natural resources to be exploited at discounted price( much like the oil reserves elsewhere that they’ve exploited until now), keep currency artificially low by state-control of banks and convert those resources into mass-produced cheaper products for the rest of the world using cheap labor( from Mexico etc) ,well that’s another ‘China-Redux’ story with American endings ; Why does this sound like a miserable end-game to me ???? It is time to reconstitute Monetary and Financial economics and Fiscal policy within the framework of systemic social impact – When money goes from being a transacting measure of value to being a game that is played solely for what it’s worth, societies and people who generate wealth will become meaningless pawn in a destructive course.

Namma Metro.. The Seeds for a surviving megapolis???

exploreamaze — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:21:11 +0000

The Bangalore Metro may not make profits from day one and it may be years before the typical bangalorean used to two wheelers will start liking the communal feeling of commuter trains.But I don’t care, not everything in life is viewed from economic perspective and the government’s role is broader than profit and loss.. I am saddened by how the ‘non-rich’ and ‘non-middle class’ are completely invisible to the nouveau and the new age Bangaloreans.I am hoping that the metro starts acting as that interface..When the guy travelling next to you at the end of the day is a sweat stained laborer whose daily earning is less than a 10th of what you probably make in an hour.We humans measure a product of convenience and time.A quick 10 minute ride in cramped spaces is often better than a 30 minute luxurious ride in a personal car. That comparative benefit will over a period of time lead to more people traveling on the Metro.. The Mumbai local trains are a rite of passage for every self-respecting Mumbai teenager, an introduction to cosmopolitan and economic diversity.. I am hoping that the Metro in 2025 will become such an experience for teenagers of that generation. Look at any megalopolis that has survived multiple economic booms and bust, you’ll find some form of public transit and speedy transportation that has always existed in that city, a river or a canal in the past and a railway system in the industrial age.

Note to the Netflix Team…

exploreamaze — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:48:28 +0000

Netflix Team( including Mr.Hastings)

A big reason why I chose Netflix, was the ability to get movies in whichever format I wanted -DVD or Streaming- from a single website and account. I think you are designing your organization based on accounting rules and intrinsic view of how it should run,Not on the basis of what truly works for customers. You are taking a drastic step to resolve an incremental problem. The Netflix site has a miserable search capability and very poorly designed user-interface..But that can be fixed without shifting DVDs to a separate site. The shoddy website design often made it tougher to make a ’1-Click’ choice between streaming or getting a DVD subscription. Then there were issues with not being able to enjoy those ‘ DVD special features’ on the streaming version. Irritants, but never something that could not have been fixed in the old structure. With this new structure, i’ll have to maintain multiple accounts, track payments, keep logging-in and out to shift from wanting to watch something in streaming mode and getting a DVD shipped. And i wont be able to track ratings or maintain a unified view of my likes and dislikes…

When you hiked the fee, i didnt budge; The price change was steep in terms of percentage change but i think the deal retained value for money..However, with this new change,I think I’ll kill my subscription entirely – i dont like the idea of any organisation trying to dictate my usage habits to simply meet its accounting needs and organisational hierarchy’s career interests. The entire series of events over the past three months makes me believe that Netflix leadership makes hasty decisions with little or no ‘Outside-In’ thinking or atleast some sampling of potential diverse customer feedback. I am wondering if this is an indication of a fundamental weakness in your business model..Is there something in the fine-print on your P&L account and Balance sheet that needs more attention ?

I Work Therefore I Am? (via Cedricj’s Blog)

exploreamaze — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:34:54 +0000

Good concise view with some valuable suggestions!

The other day one of the authors had a long conversation with a highly educated Mexican tour guide. We were on a seven-mile hike through a national forest near our home in Mexico. We were discussing the meaning of work in our respective cultures, and he remarked, “People in the USA live to work. Here in Mexico we work to live. Sometimes I think people north of the border have gone crazy about their work. Everyone seems so stressed out.” It made u … Read More

via Cedricj's Blog

My Wordle..

exploreamaze — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:04:47 +0000

!! Wordle.net!!

Everybody Nobody Somebody Anybody.. & Projects..

exploreamaze — Sun, 15 May 2011 23:33:17 +0000

This is a story of four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

That is the story of projects – All and any of the types below

1. Projects without a vision
2. Projects with a vision that has not been developed into goals and outcomes
3. Projects with a vision but no resource/time commitments from stakeholders
4. Projects within a program where there are multiple projects laying stake over similar outcomes
5. Projects in large corporations run by leaders high on vision and low on execution skills
6. Projects in Matrix organizations that have a performance management system that creates divergent strategies
7. Projects that try to merge ‘High Maturity’ process implementations with ‘Low Maturity/Early Stage ‘ innovative changes.
8. Programs attempted under the banner of a ‘Project’( and thus limited in their visibility and resource capacity)
9. Programs initiated to ‘let’s us just put-together’ pet projects across departments that started at varied points of time in the past to fulfill each groups desire to ‘innovate’.

Add on to this… The comments space is all yours!!

What should I do with my life ?

exploreamaze — Mon, 02 May 2011 02:55:49 +0000

It had been years since I read a non-fiction book from cover page to the end – Part of it has been the the story of my life and part of it is the fact that nothing ever touched my thought process so deeply as to demand undivided attention for 24 long hours. Reading ,to me, is both catharsis and endogenous; it makes the process of learning and unlearning , a journey where every ending spawns new beginnings. Po Bronson’s ” What Should I Do With My Life? ” , is a book that does this with journalistic finesse. The book never falls into the prescriptive trap of self-help books. The journey of what you want to be in your life, is a lot like a voyage into the unknown that has to planned ad infinitum. Bronson’s story tellers are not those screaming out or intending to be the next big self-help author and their stories are intimate enough for us to learn from them,yet never enough to achieve closure. Every story almost ends like an incomplete thread.

” What Should I Do With My Life? ” – That is a question that reverberates in my mind. It is a question that leads to more questions than it answers.. It leads you to question your values, morals, means and methods. It forces you to wonder if the occurrence of such a question is an indication of some arrogant seed of narcissism or a beacon to indicate that your life’s gotten derailed from the purpose you sought. I know some of the big picture and some of the changes have been triggered, It would be interesting to see what I end up doing with my life, three, five and ten years from now…

Looking for ideas on approaches to changing career path…

exploreamaze — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:22:31 +0000

What does one do when their personal aspiration no longer fits the map of strategies in the organisation they have been with? How do people deal with the the process of weaning away the cultural attributes and perspectives that get built in when you spend a long period of time within an organisation ? What is the best way to make the career path change – Quick and Swift Shift OR a Gentle Migration away ?…

These are tough days.. Tough because I am asking myself ‘ What is my purpose in life? ‘…I know there are some who’d say that it is arrogant to believe that there is such a thing as ‘purpose to life’..But that’s some arrogance I’d rather have!

Mass Market of professional education

exploreamaze — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:59:34 +0000

We had an elderly gentleman come over yesterday to till and sow in the garden outside our home. I wanted to ensure that we paid him as per the norms and started reviewing the Karnataka government gazettes for minimum wages. What surprised me is that the systematic grading of work has not led to a varied wage level. Though the gazette has classified work into ‘Dry’, ‘Wet’ and ‘Garden’ land , it has not actually differentiated the prescribed minimum wage. What’s the point in classifying work if you wont modify the pay as per the complexity of work? Another funny thing I noted was that the wage classification includes regions within the state but the actual prescribed wage does not vary at all! Instead the institution has taken an academic approach to determining the payable wage by providing a Cost of Living index and deciding that the final calculations be made by the employer. Most of the unskilled workers cannot even read/write..so what’s the point in asking for such complex procedures to be followed! Anyways, we finally paid the gentleman 200 rupees for the work he had done ; as per the rules we’d have to pay him 130 rupees and some 20 rupees as allowance.

These events set me to think about the mass market of professional education in India – The market for what often gets classified as ‘professional’ labor. Acquiring a professional education is rarely the same as acquiring the capability to use corresponding professional skills. Historically professional education required people to ‘pay the dues’ and entrance to the professional community was a slow and structured process. Mass Market approach to professional education in India has simply meant a sprawl of professional education institutes that have nothing professional about their approach and their capabilities.

Higher levels of education should limit access to those who have atleast the aptitude or the passion essential for furthering the profession. Unfortunately, what we have today is a system that simply elevates people to their highest level of incompetence. Professional education does not translate into professional aptitude, so what happens when someone gets an M.Tech in Semiconductor technology but lacks the aptitude and intellect required to function efficiently in a related role ?? He pursues an MBA from a ‘free-laptop’ institute!! This is the story of mass-market higher education.

As a kid, I remember people making the assumption that anyone who pursued a Masters in India or abroad was probably more intelligent or capable in that profession. Going to the US for an MS was often considered a sign of higher levels of interest and capability in the profession. Nowadays , if anyone tells me he’s got an MS from US or a Post Graduate degree from UK, I do not even care to consider that as any sign of capability. I know enough about most of these institutions and their approaches to ‘selecting’ their students.

What is the point in having numerous M.Tech holders or for that matter even MBAs in a country where we dont have enough people with professional skills in the vocational areas ? In the past 10 years of my professional life,I have met many MBAs and MTech holders in India who fail the basic test of professional aptitude in their professions. As a nation, I’d rather have 5000 gardeners who know their profession thoroughly well and can execute to perfection , than have 5000 MBAs who are out on the street selling soap, frothing meaningless jargon and fundamentally lacking the attitude and aptitude essential to define and deliver creative cleaning solutions for the nation. The critical chain of professional skills is getting buried under the dynamics of mass market professional education.

There is a saying in India amongst those in their 50s today.. ‘Matriculation of yesteryears was worth more than the Bachelor’s degree today “.. I think that’s quite true because we, as a nation, are addressing the concept of ‘education’ .. But a nation is not built on ‘education ‘ , it is built on capabilities. This is the economics of education – When you flood the market with diluted versions of professional education and sell the professional tags at a discount, sooner or later a higher version of the professional tag will arrive at a premium and provide the same capabilities at a higher price. The eventual result is that we’ll have a nation full of degree holders and ‘true capability building higher education’ that is completely out of bounds for the masses!