Extremeties

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The most beautiful day: Today
The easiest thing: Equivocate
The biggest obstacle: Fear
The gravest error: give up, to despair
The root of all evils: Egoism
The most beautiful occupation: Work
The worst route to follow: Faintheartedness
The best teachers: Children
The first necessity: TO communicate
The greatest happiness: To be useful to others
The greatest mystery: Death
The worst defect: Bad temper
The most dangerous being: The liar'
The most wretched feeling: The grudge
The most beautiful gift: Forgiveness
The most indispensable: home
The quickest way: The correct one
The most comfortable feeling: Interior peace
The most powerful weapon: The smile
The best remedy: Optimism
The greatest satisfaction: The duty done
The most powerful force: Faith
The most needed beings: The parents
The most beautiful of all: Love

– Mother Theresa

Sun Tzu on Competitve Strategy

When strong, avoid them.
If of high morale, depress them.
Seem humble to fill them with conceit.
If at ease, exhaust them.
If united, separate them.
Attack their weaknesses.
Emerge to their surprise.

Quote: Human Interactions

“To respond is positive, to react is negative”. – Zig Ziglar

Our Choices

“There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.”

~ Stephen R. Covey

Bill & Dave by Michael S. Malone - Book Review

This is probably the best business log that i have read till date. It made me laugh, cry and inspire all in one go. I could not put the book down before completing it. And in the end, I was enlightened in what could be the famous and cherished HP Way.

I learnt, 

1. Bill overcame Dyslexia by memorising whatever he heard in class. That made a great entrepreneur - one who listens to his customers and employees.

2. Dave Packard developed the management style "Managing By Walking Around". MBWA.

3. The first product was not named product code number 1 but was 200A. The famous calculate HP-35 was named so since it had 35 keys. And interestingly the HP01 as a product was not successful at all - a Digital Watch. And the first product pricing at $54.40 was as a result of the fact that it reminded amusingly of te historic phrase "54'40" or Fight!" that was used in the 1844 camapign to set the US-Canadian border in the Northwest.

4. Friday Dressing, Beer after work on Fridays, Flex timing, telecommuting, Open Door Policy were all pioneered in HP.

5. Strong Financials of HP owe their fundamentals to "Internal Financing of Growth".

6. Trust was the biggest fundamental of HP Way. And Dave Packard learnt it through his apprenticeship at GE in Schenectady. The perceived security crisis of tools and instruments disappearing from workshop at GE was treated with clampdown on security. This criminalised employee dedication to greater productivity by stopping employees from taking the tools and instruments home to keep working on unfinished projects from their jobs.

7. Treatment for Employees - being fair: Employee Evaluations and Termination

The guiding principles were:

• The indivdual affected had had advance warning through written evaluation and has been advised constructively on how he/she should improve.
• Wherever practical assure the employee is given an opportunity for other placement where he/she might make a greater contribution. Employee placement is a functino of supervisors and personnel and not a function of the emplyee to be turned loose to find a his own job someplace in HP.
• If termination is the only alternative, personnel must be fully advised and believe the fase is satisfactorily documented and the decision has the approval of the general manager concerned.
• Before any adverse action is taken, it should be well thought out. We must recongise that each of our people represents an individual with problems, families etc.

8. The Nine Day Fortnight - It is only fair that, during hard times everyone in the company share in the pain and make comparable sacrifices.

9. G Time: Take advantage of slow periods to give back to employees time that wouldnt be used anyways - and let them use their imagination to fill it productively.

and finally ... 

The HP Way - Corporate Objectives:
1. Profit: profit is the best single measure of our contribution to society and te ultimate source of our corporate strength. aimt to achieve maximum possible profit consistent with our other objectives.
2. Customers: to strive for continuous improvement in the quality, usefulness, and value fo the products, and services we offer our customers.
3. Field of Interest: to concentrate our efforts continually seeking new opportunities for growth but limiting our involvement to fields in which we have capability and can make contributions
4. Growth: To emphasize graoth as a measure of strength and a requirement for survival.
5. Employees: To provide employment opportunities for HP people that include the opportunity to share in the company's success which they help make possible. To provide for them job security based in perforamnce and to provide the opportunity for personal satisfaction that comes from a sense of accomplishment in their work.
6. Organisation: To maintain an organisational environment that fosters individual motivation, intiative, creativity, and wide latitude of freedom in working towards established objectives and goals.
7. Citizenship: To meet obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society whcih generate the environment in which we operate.

Dont Fail to Plan

"An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive." ~ Basil S. Walsh

A job well planned is 70% done. Balance is execution, environment dipsticks, course correction, and performance evaluation.

Business Excellence Quote

Today I read a hilarious one that I want to share with all.

"These days cream seldom rises in the business community - but crap still floated!"

What do you think?? 

Work Life Balance

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”

-Quote Anonymous

Jack Trout Gems

I was just browsing through the new book of Jack Trout "In Search of the Obvious:The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess". And came across a good summary of his points, worth a read.

1. Common sense is your guide.

2. Marketing's big problem - Wall Street

3. Research can obscure the Obvious.

4. Advertising people can be an Obvious Problem.

5. Advertising is a science ... you should never let art get in the way of selling a message.

6. What works in marketing is the same as what works in the military, the unexpected.

7. In the long run, every market becomes a two horse race.

8. The future is never obvious, A search for the obvious is about today, not tomorrow.

Have fun reading the book.

Our Parents

Nothing new, nothing sensational to reveal.

Today as I usually do, while travelling to office in public transport that takes up to 45 minutes of my time to commute, i was reading this interesting book by Mitch Albom, the five people you meet in Heaven - an extremely unique way of story telling, I came across these verses, which brought tears to my eyes - not something that we dont know of, but seeing it so beautifully expressed in words woke me up.

So here i am quoting, page 133 from the book.

"Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered bymoments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

Famous People on Communication

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now. 
Woodrow Wilson 

People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were. 
Edward R. Murrow 

Never mistake legibility for communication. 
David Carson 

Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible. 
Frank Moore Colby 

Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood. 
Freeman Teague Jr. 

The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. 
George Bernard Shaw 

From listening comes wisdom and from speaking, repentance. 
Proverb 

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation. 
Mark Twain 

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. 
Samuel Johnson 

I like to talk with people who express my thoughts clearly. 
Unknown 

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. 
Rudyard Kipling 

Uncooked truth, like uncooked vegetables, is healthier. 
Vadim Kotelnikov 

If you can't answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names. 
Elbert Hubbard 

A bore is a person who talks when you wish him to listen. 
Ambrose Bierce 

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything. 
Oscar Wilde 

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. 
Harry S. Truman 

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. 
Robert Frost 

The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively, but says nothing. 
Henry S. Haskins

Wise quote from a Friend

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits they become character;

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

During times of Need, Indeed

God gives us problems. He also gives us brains to solve them.

Some see these as problems, others as issues to be resolved. 

The difference lies in how people approach life - the attitudes. Thats what makes them react differently give the same impetus, the same resources at disposal.

Yeah I believe "Regret is getting insight a day too late!"

Age Old

A man is just as old as he's feeling,
A woman just as old as she looks. 

:-)

Agility is an Ability

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.

- Robert Schuller

In Commercial world, as one grows in years of experience and expertise, successful people move away from "the search for being perfect all the time". This does not mean they grow worser in their skills, but it means that practical sense of other worldly achievement metrics becomes equally important.

Coincidence

“A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.”
Fr. Jerome Cummings

I heard this great story, which I am reproducing.
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His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.

At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

Writing your CV

"Market your Potential, Not your Past"

For many years now, I have been recruiting guys into my company and one of the things that I really want to emphasise is the value that you can show in your CV / Resume / Bio Data.

Consider this, that CV/ Resume is your advertisement of you as a product. And, more often than not like every bad advertisement that you remember for it being so run of the mill, here is what is very common to those. They all talk a lot of the product features. Contrast this with the advertisements that you do remember and you do coz, they were the ones that created a picture in your mind, an association to something that you aspire, or cherish.

Ditto for your CV!

Show them a story board, where you draw a picture for them. The best employees that I have seen performing have been those who have created a picture of the potential that have, want to explore or have an attitude to deliver.

Thats what successes are made of.

9 Secret Summaries for 2009

Today I heard the most awesome quote about the ongoing financial crisis. Warren Buffett in his Berkshire Hathaway 2001 Chairman's Letter says - "You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." 
 
ONE: The law of attraction says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like-thoughts to you. 
TWO: What you think about the most or focus on will appear as your life. Your thoughts become things. 
THREE: Emotion instantly tells you what you are thinking. It is impossible to feel bad and have good thoughts at the same time. 
FOUR: Gratitude is a powerful process of shifting your emotion. Be grateful for what you already have and you will attract more good things. 
FIVE: To lose weight, don’t focus on “losing weight”. Instead focus on your perfect weight. Visualize, feel the feelings of your perfect weight and it will come to you. 
SIX: Create your day in advance by thinking the way you want it to go, and you will create your life intentionally. 
SEVEN: You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As you focus on the world’s negative events, you not only add to them, but you also bring more negative things into your own life. 
EIGHT: Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attention and energy to trust, love, abundance, education and peace. 
NINE: We will never run out of good things because there’s more than enough to go around for everyone. Life is meant to be abundant.

Adapted from the #1 New York Times bestseller ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne

Dont be Serious!!

"Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint."~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

How true are those words. They are the words of wisdom. In our day to day practice, when we look at things from some one else' perspective, it can really change our own point of view.

And then, they say, “Don’t be serious be sincere!”
You can do your bidding with a smile on your face.

Chetan Bhagat in his address to Symbiosis Pune said about four pillars / storms in life that can put your spark to sleep.

Disappointments
Frustration
Un Fairness
Loneliness of Purpose