mind × the + gap ™

Cheers to Life!

2011-05-07T00:20:00.004+05:30

7th May, 2011 David Hume’s Tercentenary had been in good attendance. New York Times writes: Saturday [May 7th] is the 300th birthday of David Hume, the most important philosopher ever to write in English according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Hume's philosophy has inspired a significant branch of cognitive and analytics philosophers and thinkers over the last three centuries. His

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SKR, Education, Three videos, and "3 idiots"

2011-01-21T13:01:00.103+05:30

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE THERE COMES AN IDEA THAT has at least three beautiful things together: holistic relevance, sincerity towards applicability, and honest and bold presentation. Such ideas carry an element for illumination and invokes belief in the audience. Let's listen to Sir Ken Robinson (SKR). The Professor of Education has thus far given two of the best and most popular TED talks (see

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HBR: Most Popular Articles of 2010

2010-12-26T22:00:00.029+05:30

AN EXCITING YEAR IS DRAWING TO A CLOSE. Coming full circle of seasons it is winter again while the haven freezes over and a friend messaged from Leh in north-western Himalayas, "Its -15.4° C (4.2° F) here. Expect snow typing." I am almost sure it was meant to read "slow typing". HBR on their part collectively published some 1000+ articles over the last 365 days. Recently, one of the editors

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Book: "Inside Steve's [Jobs] Brain"

2010-12-24T19:15:00.008+05:30

WHILE READING "Inside Steve’s Brain" (sic) by Leander Kahney I got reminded of the following anecdote: This diplomat from the East was deputed to their embassy in Washington DC, in the United States. Having come to live in a Western country for the first time, the little man decided to pick up the holy book and began studying it in hopes of getting acquainted to the new culture more thoroughly.

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TED 2011 Prize Goes to "Anonymous" J R

2010-11-07T22:00:00.046+05:30

TED PRIZE IS AN ANNUAL AWARD INVOLVING USD 100,000 AND SUPPORT TO AN IDEA TO CHANGE THE WORLD. The 2011 prize has been awarded to someone only known as JR. It is believed to be a French photographer and artist, who anonymously painted and created installations on the walls of the world – mainly the urban slums. Known as "pervasive art", JR took help from urban volunteers to create black & white

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HBR: What Is The Work Of The CEO?

2010-10-15T21:15:00.110+05:30

"The CEO is the link between the Inside that is 'the organization,' and the Outside of society, economy, technology, markets, and customers. Inside there are only costs. Results are only on the outside." -- Peter Drucker, "The American CEO"Alan ("A.G.") Lafley TOOK OVER AS CEO of Procter & Gamble in June 2000 when the FMCG behemoth was battling turbulent times. At 6pm on his first day at the

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Sachin Tendulkar’s Stock Market Run

2010-10-09T22:00:00.070+05:30

AUSTRALIA, THE DOMINANT SPORTING powerhouse among the 71 the Commonwealth countries, have invested into researching India’s cricket performance and how it relates to equity trading at Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of Dalal Street in Mumbai, India. The market cap of BSE stands close to USD 1.4 trillion, and NSE, with market cap of nearly USD 1.5 trillion, is the third largest

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Oct 2 - Mahatama Gandhi at 141

2010-10-02T08:40:00.005+05:30

[Photo courtesy: Amitabh Bachchan]"If blood to be shed, let it be our own. Let us cultivate the calm courage to die without killing." ~ Mahatma Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) [Above] A video clipping of Gandhi's speech challenging Jan Smuts' racist law of segregation. From Attenborough's epic - Gandhi: The World Event. Richard Attenborough writes in his compilation book:"[Gandhi's]

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A Thousand-days Challenge

2010-09-04T22:00:00.025+05:30

"It is not the mountains we conquer but ourselves." ~ Sir Edmund HillaryHOW WOULD IT FEEL to be up close and personal with Mt. Everest? Or to humbly come to face with the Chomolangma ("Saint Mother") as they say in Tibet? Well, we shall find out in next thousand days or less. Because that's the pledge: To camp underneath the summit of Mt. Everest within next 30 odd months or so. A thousand

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Gartner: 10 Changes in the Nature of Work in Next 10 Years

2010-08-29T21:50:00.004+05:30

"ORGANIZATIONS WILL NEED TO PLAN for increasingly chaotic environments that are out of their direct control, and adaptation must involve adjusting to all 10 of the trends (listed below)", observers Gartner fellow and VP, Tom Austin.In a report published earlier this year titled "Watchlist: Continuing Changes in the Nature of Work, 2010-2020", Gartner says that organizations will need to determine

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HBR: Paths to Power by Jeff Pfeffer

2010-07-31T22:00:00.013+05:30

"Power is the organization’s last dirty secret." ~ Rosabeth Moss KanterPOWER IS REQUIRED IF ONE WANTS TO GET ANYTHING DONE in any large organization. Unfortunately, Power doesn’t just fall into one’s lap: one will have to go after it and learn how to use it. Stanford University professor for Organizational Development, Prof. Jeffery Pfeffer, argues that being uncomfortable with Power Dynamics has

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Steve Jobs' Presentation Skills Reflects Why Apple is Apple

2010-07-24T00:25:00.169+05:30

"This changes everything. Again" AFTER THE WORLD'S LARGEST PRODUCT LAUNCH EVENT YET, on July 16 Steve Jobs did the press conference following the recent keynote for the world's largest IT organization that Jobs staged for the eleventh year running after his return in '99 to the (then struggling) company he originally co-founded in '76 as Apple Computers Inc. Over the last two and an half years

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Nassim Taleb on Euro

2010-06-20T12:05:00.010+05:30

"EURO IS DOOMED AS A CONCEPT", declares the author of "The Black Swan", Nassim Taleb, at a recent interview with CNBC. Adding that "We had less debt cumulatively [two years ago], and more people employed. Today, we have more risk in the system, and a smaller tax base. [...] Banks balance sheets are just as bad as they were" two years ago when the crisis began and "the quality of the risks hasn't

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Infographic: Labour Cost Disparities

2010-06-12T23:20:00.032+05:30

DISPARITIES OF LABOR COSTS: Interesting Infographic showing how long does it take other countries to make the equivalent of US minimum wage of USD 15,080. Click the image to enlarge Source: FixR With respect to India, the calculation considers the Government recommended minimum daily wage which is about USD 2.5. In practice, a common worker shall make double to three times of this amount,

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Cheers! to Life

2010-05-07T19:45:00.001+05:30

Cheers to Life!

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Goldman Sachs Under Siege (For Doing Good?)

2010-04-30T23:25:00.027+05:30

FT point out: - clueless senators falling over one another to score cheap political points but the sense that outrage against bankers in general, and Goldman in particular, has reached unhealthy levels. - for millions of home owners and investors psychologically unable to admit at least partial fault for succumbing to the madness of crowds and lure of easy money. - [an older client on the

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Fitts’s Law and Usability of Gmail

2010-03-29T23:15:00.007+05:30

Fitt’s law (Simplified): "Put commonly accessed UI elements on the edges of the screen. Because the cursor automatically stops at the edges, they will be easier to click on. [And then] Make clickable areas as large as you can. Larger targets are easier to click on." The law is rather simple (or, one might argue, too simple to follow all the time). This is basic common sense. Human Interfaces of

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"The Right Thing To Do" - Harvard Lectures on Moral Philosophy

2010-03-14T16:15:00.003+05:30

PROF. MICHAEL SANDEL OPENED HIS FAMOUS CLASS ON "JUSTICE" and Moral and Political Philosophy at Harvard University, USA, with the following (cautionary) address: If you look at the syllabus, you would notice that we read a number of great and famous books. Books by Aristotle, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and others. [...] We will read these books, and we will debate these [

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The Purpose of Business

2010-03-07T11:30:00.000+05:30

"EVERYONE LIVES BY SELLING SOMETHING." Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish traveller and writer, once concluded. In the knowledge industry of the modern era, the selling could be of — an idea, a change, an example (PoC), an influence, a model. The logical outcome of which is value creation. Which further translates into profit or benefits of various kinds at different levels of its hierarchy.

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Sach Is Life!

2010-02-24T22:50:00.003+05:30

SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR of India scores the first ever double-ton in an One-Day International Cricket match against South Africa on Feb 24, 2010. He remained unbeaten. "Sach Is Life" Here are the statistics of the legendary 20 year career of the Master Blaster; here is a short biography; rest of it is Supremacy.

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"Jugaad" - More Than A Fad?

2010-01-23T15:40:00.001+05:30

BusinessWeek RAN A STORY LAST MONTH that focused on "Jugadh" and termed it as the new mantra for innovation. Colleagues and clients not too familiar with the Indian culture tried seeking second opinions on the word. Observers commented on the topic from the world over. Some compared the term with Quality techniques such as Lean and Keizen - doing more, with less. Others saw it as the new Agile.

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HBR: Managing Oneself - by Peter Drucker

2010-01-16T11:50:00.001+05:30

HISTORY'S GREAT ACHIEVERS - A NAPOLEON, A DA VINCI, A MOZART - have always managed themselves. That, in large measures, is what makes them great achievers. Addressing the knowledge workers in the new economy, Peter Drucker goes on to emphasize the needs for personal development, stating that they must, effectively, be their own chief executive officers in taking the responsibilities of developing

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Welcome 2k10

2010-01-01T22:00:00.013+05:30

Happy New Year! And Welcome 2k10 PS: And, by the way, 2010 = 1+2-(3-4-5)*6*7*8-9 Now that the hype is done and soberness returns, here is an interesting one on new year resolutions at The Economist. Here are some of the most anticipated Hollywood films in 2010. Here is a nice graphic at NYT capturing the past decade, and here is a text version of 200X’s at Foreign Policy blog (apparently, both

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"What would Peter do?" – A Tribute at Drucker Century

2009-12-26T23:25:00.001+05:30

PETER F. DRUCKER WAS BORN IN AUSTRIA IN 1910, and would have completed a century this past Nov '09. It was celebrated all over by "Duckerites", among which one IIM professor said - if you have some time that you want to spend in a gainly manner then simply flip open any of Peter Drucker’s books and start reading. “Classic Drucker” was at an arm's length at that time and was worth giving a try.

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Best Performing CEO's and Why MBA's Are Paid Higher

2009-12-20T20:30:00.001+05:30

A HARVARD TEAM OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT consultants did a sampling of nearly 14 years covering 2000 Chief Executives of global companies listed by S&P. The sampling and tests were fairly exhaustive and unique, and presented a vivid picture of the Executive boardrooms that saw many major global economic events including the Y2K IT burst, Oil-price surge and dive, and 2007 economic down-turn,

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