tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847972189254211952024-10-02T02:30:28.615-04:00Why Do Elephants Have Big Ears?Based on Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran's book of the same name, this Self Help blog provides motivational ideas on how you can unlock your full personal and professional potential.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-32826619858648589372012-06-27T14:08:00.008-04:002012-06-27T14:12:59.629-04:00Interviews - Shucking a lot of oysters to find the pearl?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOvi4TxkBy6h58PbPRrKAXdwsyxGNCvAJw4DrZO5GxR5q-3ssbyjieCPEK6hU0Ves1yOdJUIa30LeXAVhm93wM0LmmAKm5GBkOHvscNgM304kmIz5GXsN68L7F7La0OwRpYusXH3hPWxPb/s1600/pearl+in+oyster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOvi4TxkBy6h58PbPRrKAXdwsyxGNCvAJw4DrZO5GxR5q-3ssbyjieCPEK6hU0Ves1yOdJUIa30LeXAVhm93wM0LmmAKm5GBkOHvscNgM304kmIz5GXsN68L7F7La0OwRpYusXH3hPWxPb/s200/pearl+in+oyster.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It was my first start up experience, The fifth person to join. I was working for this company called NetQuest (Now called<a href="http://www.aditi.com/" target="_blank"> Aditi</a>) founded by an ex Micro-softie.. Being part of Senior leadership, I was coached by him extensively that we needed to hire for potential and not for skills. We had an elaborate interview process and at any round in the process, if somebody objects, the person is dropped. No exceptions ! Also, we had a list of the Microsoft questions (for example Why are manholes round ?) to identify the folks with "Out of the box" thinking. My mentor, instilled into me this approach deeply so that it became my default interview process. This helped me immensely in my career as my success is mainly based on finding the right folks to work for me !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Read on to see how this simple technique can help you find and built sustainable productive teams....</span><br />
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<a href="http://clicktotweet.com/eMIX0" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Hire Employees for their potential and consultants for their skills !</span></a></div>
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Hire Consultants for the skills </h3>
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In the technical world that I belong to, I come across lot of smart young consultants who just want to be given a chance to learn the new technology and demonstrate how productive they are. I am guilty of falling for these passionate requests, hiring these smart folks and helping them get trained. Sure as night follows day, they get the skills quickly (after all they are really smart), update their resume and ride off into the sunset for the next project - of course commanding a higher consulting rate considering the experience they now have. Or the project comes to an end and I had to let go of these folks. Quickly I understood that I had to tweak my interview process. So learn from my mistakes - make sure you hire the consultants for their skill set and experience. Not for their communications skills or their personality. The investment of time and effort is not really worth it...</div>
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Have you experienced a similar situation? Drop a comment and share....</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Choose Employees for their potential </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">This is completely different when you are in the process of building teams and hiring employees. The return on investment is over a longer period of time and hence </span>hiring for potential makes sense. The way technology keeps changing, these employees need to able to adapt to new world often. Skills quickly fall by the way side and it is only their potential to learn and the ability to communicate cn help them changes roles and continue adding value. </div>
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So invest the time to find the right employee and look for long term potential rather than short term skill</div>
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Employees with potential can adapt with changing business needs and continue to provide return on the investment made on them </div>
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Does this resonate with you? Do you have your own tips to build incredible teams? Let me know</div>
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<a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</span></a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-54878354922880047312012-06-24T09:57:00.000-04:002012-06-27T07:43:55.914-04:00Slow and steady does win the race in business afterall !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062120999/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062120999" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-VV8nRC0CPeHw7g7j4_70QCcoQtSs4h8ifIS6LeFOeoWRTxlqdfaPX2tLHwfJR9xayB78Uj2sqUoCtVW5fYDfE6PuZs-9_XY7hGvCq1XuiHh9GMsHyeC3YxJ8bgFxp8ySMo0Pmif5dYm/s200/Great-By-Choice.jpg" width="139" /></a></div>
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When I heard the story of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" target="_blank"> The Tortoise and the Hare </a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">for the first time, I was filled with questions. Why did the hare stop to take rest? Tortoise are so slow that even if the Hare slept for hours, it still could not win the race etc. All very logical questions and concerns in my kids mind. My father used to have a tough time trying to explain the concepts and convince my "scientific" mind to see the message behind the story and understand what it truly means.</span></div>
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Growing up and struggling to survive in the business world, I always felt that the hares won all the time. The person who can talk smoother, Dress better and network quicker won. The only thing I could do was to work twice as hard to make up for the lack of proficiencies in these departments ! Wallowing in self pity, I was slow to notice that folks who went up too quickly sometime crashed and burned even more quickly. There seems to be some natural force which balanced the inequality. Not all the time I admit (I have seen too many people in leadership roles with absolutely no skills) but enough to make me believe. Also, I noticed that some of the so called "hares" where really smart tortoise who were slow and steady - But too quick by my standards !! It was my short sighted views that labelled them as flighty hares !!</div>
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That was the state of the affairs, till I started reading the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062120999/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0062120999" target="_blank">Great by Choice" authored by Jim Collins</a>. The authors had analyzed the data behind successful companies and had some fascinating insights on how companies become and remain great. One of the concepts which interested me the most was the <i><b>20 mile march</b>, </i>which proves that tortoises win conclusively </div>
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One of the stories in the book revolves around the achievements of Roald Amundsen in reaching the South Pole and the failure/death of Robert Falcon Scott in trying to achieve the same goal.On December 15, 1911 Roald reached the South Pole and returned back successfully (every member of his team came back alive). On Jan 17, 1912, 34 days later, Scott reached the South pole to be crushed on seeing the Flag planted by Roald and on the way back, Scott and all his team members perished.</div>
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As you can guess by now Roald was the Tortoise and Scott the hare. Let us see how..</div>
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1. Roald (The Tortoise) had a policy of steady progress. He and his team traveled 17 miles a day- Good or bad weather. This allowed his team to rest and sleep regularly. Scott (The Hare) would drive his team to exhaustion on good days and sit in his tent and complain about weather on bad days </div>
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2. Roald prepared for the journey months before. Staying with Eskimos to learn to survive, use dog sleds etc. He did not wait for the problems to hit him before he solved them. Scott took the other approach - He did not prepare. He chose ponies instead of dogs. While Roald<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> brought 4 thermometers, Scott just brought one which broke. </span></div>
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3. Scott blamed luck for all his problems. Roald used his preparation to solve the various problems he faced !</div>
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4. Roald reached back on the precise day he had planned to return. Scott and his companions were found frozen to death, eight months later just 10 miles short of their supply depot </div>
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<b>Slow and steady does win the race after all !!!</b></div>
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<a href="http://rrajendran.com/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-34671876359542460792012-06-17T11:05:00.002-04:002012-06-17T11:12:43.772-04:00Super Nanny Tips for Managing your team<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN4NAvlxExIDgDDpX5LlZMrGDQaP7IkHdYomcKgsngdFZtXviYmsb-gbZjhf5_NBFddy8dfLECY1PXC8vD2aoell0vxytucQxLUBOmT5x6QSdJz4_5LifvWAbeO58j66w-MhFQaG_ZMz9/s1600/Supernanny.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN4NAvlxExIDgDDpX5LlZMrGDQaP7IkHdYomcKgsngdFZtXviYmsb-gbZjhf5_NBFddy8dfLECY1PXC8vD2aoell0vxytucQxLUBOmT5x6QSdJz4_5LifvWAbeO58j66w-MhFQaG_ZMz9/s200/Supernanny.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of
the shows I watch on TV is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernanny" target="_blank">Super Nanny</a> and I cannot compliment it enough for the
information and tips the shows provides. More importantly, it is a two in one –
Tips for managing your children which can also be applied to managing your team
– After all to maximize your team productivity and to minimize the Tylenol you
take for your headaches, treating your team like you children does make logical
sense !<br /><br />So let us
examine some of the key concepts of the show and see how it applies to your team
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><u>Need for
clearly defined boundaries</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Children need to have boundaries on what they can
do and cannot do. So does your team. Setting clear expectations on what you
expect from them gives them confidence to work on their own. Also, it minimizes
the excessive hand holding required. They come to you only when they feel that
the boundaries are being crossed. They are more productive and you can get the
extra time to hit the gym to catch up on you body building (or what ever else
drives you !)<br /><br /><u>Need for
Consequences </u> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of the staple acts in the show is the “Naughty Corner”
where kids are forced to do timeout when they do something naughty. Very quickly
the kids figure that there are consequences to their actions and they clean up
their act.<br />Same goes
with your team. I have see managers threaten the team, give them “drop dead
dates”. The dates slip and the team members go on the merry way. Gray hairs in
the manager head increase (or the number of hair follicles decrease depending on
the manager’s genetic proclivity). Have consequences for missing clearly
defined expectations, and see the difference. The team will be happy and you
will be so convinced that you will DVR the show !<br /><br /><u>Need for
Consistency and follow through</u> <br />Kids require consistency in the behavior
of their parents says the Super Nanny. Once they know what to expect, they will
be more happier to listen to you. Promising to buy them ice cream if they do
their home work and then forgetting to do it is something which confuses the
kids leading to lack of trust and the bad behavior which follows<br />Same goes
with your team members. Consistent behavior proper follow through will create a
stable working environment for the team. Lack of surprise (highs and lows) will
allow them to focus on the work rather than worry about how you are going to
react. it all adds up to more productive team<br /><br />Convinced?
Ready to DVR the show. If you have already seen the show, let me have your
thoughts. Otherwise, stop reading and pick up your DVR remote</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a> </span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-78966231114900407252012-06-09T11:53:00.000-04:002012-06-13T15:11:15.169-04:00Lamplight vs. Spotlight - Can Introverts survive in this business enviornment?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJ80D78Fp9-N0JULeOXN-ppbdC6xBCSXwMMAOrjPFiPkKaA_KMx-NhF8fQnI6rcMf80eiznzg_eJ2JCoRNfWejP_iBw0gvz2zk6V712Z2ZGH2aTwKvGMsZlAGfXxG8oCSro83EITtltWG/s1600/quite-book.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJ80D78Fp9-N0JULeOXN-ppbdC6xBCSXwMMAOrjPFiPkKaA_KMx-NhF8fQnI6rcMf80eiznzg_eJ2JCoRNfWejP_iBw0gvz2zk6V712Z2ZGH2aTwKvGMsZlAGfXxG8oCSro83EITtltWG/s200/quite-book.png" width="132" /></a></div>
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Coming from an Indian culture, my natural Introvert instincts have been further hardened by the culture which expects kids to be seen and not heard. Growing up, the hierarchy of business food chain was reinforced - summarized as Your Superior is always right ! For the last 15 or so years in the US I have been struggling with the society's deference to the Extroverts - Leadership was decided based on the person's "Charisma" and who cares if the content of what he says sucks as long as he is able to say it in style and sound intelligent. I used to spend sleepless nights blaming everybody for the lack of recognition of the value I deliver. To this day I struggle with this facet of life, even though I sort of accepted this fact of life and moved on. So this book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J4WNL2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004J4WNL2" target="_blank">Quiet - The power of Introverts in a world that can's stop talking</a>" by <a href="http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/" target="_blank">Susan Cain </a> caught my I eye and I had to read it ! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In a very fact based (Sometimes a little too verbose for my liking), She walks the reader through all aspects of an Introverts challenges and provides some very interesting insights and tips to handle them. Quoting from Apple's Wozniak she lays the foundation to the fact that one Introvert can be much more inventive than a group of Extroverts(Solitude is important key to creativity)</span><br />
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Another interesting part of the book talks about "Introverts are geared to inspect and extroverts are geared to respond". The great Warren Buffet and other introverted Investors case studies clearly illustrate this advantage which Introverts have in making money on the Stock market</div>
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Overall, the book is a great read and must read for all the Introverts who have started questioning themselves and their ability to succeed.</div>
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One of the other quotes, which I am going to remember for the rest of my life is "The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some It's a Broadway spotlight;for others a lamp lit desk."</div>
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I think I belong to a well lit room rather than a desk. But the fact that I should be where I enjoy myself takes away the burden of feeling that I am a failure for not being in the spotlight. </div>
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What do you think? What is the right lighting for you? </div>
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By <a href="http://rrajendran.com/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-91773829256287004732012-05-28T10:50:00.000-04:002012-06-27T07:52:30.391-04:00The Path of least Resistance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATDeUFjYN3MryG-t9_DyD-1bH0vDpWfD3hDFOUD9Y1TcFsWlRrMPq9051BhPKZW6Jgu70iRgwfu0pTvjk8Hba-38M421ifg6GfuXiG5ZqrreFC9ttFDqeGdjHNGcmMCjidpFsovjZWFQn/s1600/mark+cuban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATDeUFjYN3MryG-t9_DyD-1bH0vDpWfD3hDFOUD9Y1TcFsWlRrMPq9051BhPKZW6Jgu70iRgwfu0pTvjk8Hba-38M421ifg6GfuXiG5ZqrreFC9ttFDqeGdjHNGcmMCjidpFsovjZWFQn/s200/mark+cuban.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When you see him on the basket ball court, he comes across as an arrogant rich billionaire who is extremely competitive and will stop at nothing to win. Then you see him in the show for start ups (<a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank" target="_blank">Share Tank</a>), listen to him and you slowly start realizing that this person has a very sharp business mind and has a practical approach to life and business. This realization led me to buy his book. Which finally got me sitting here over the Memorial day weekend to write up this blog ! Let me explain why...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I just completed reading the book by </span><a href="http://blogmaverick.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Mark Cuban</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006AX6ONI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006AX6ONI" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">How to Win at Sport of Business</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">". He has some great themes in his book (Which is the compilation of some of his popular blog posts). One of them which I found most attractive was this nugget</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"<i><span style="color: red;">There are certain things in life we all have to do. There are certain things in life we choose to do. Then there is everything else. The things we do to kill time. </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: red;">In every case, all things being equal, we choose the path of least resistance</span></i>."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It reminds me of the Issac Newton's third law of motion "The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force" restated for personal and professional lives ! Like the body in motion, people tend to continue down the path they are heading unless distracted by an external event/stimuli. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cuban's words resonated with me and I found it being very true in my life. I hate going to Starbucks only because of the complexity in order a simple cup of coffee (Coffee - 2 Milk - 2 Sweeteners is the extent I can say to order my coffee). I use Amazon for my purchases, only because I have the Prime membership and one click gets me the product at my doorstep in 2 days !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">How can this be applied in your professional life ? We need to make the choice of our customers the path of least resistance. Instead of pros and cons of 15 options, narrow it down to two and let the customer make a choice between the two. Make sure your stakeholders like and trust you so that moving away from you is both professionally and personally more work for them. Make sure all the contract and documentation are done early and quickly- It is easier for the customer to work with vendors who provide the least friction in closing the deal. Work on the foundation of a solution so that when time comes to extend it, we become the de facto choice. Plan for integrating with the overall business vision so that the customers finds it easier to continue with our services. to meet their business objectives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is a profound idea and just accept it. That is the path of least resistance !!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-64431359576875130672012-05-20T11:00:00.000-04:002012-05-20T11:00:29.611-04:00Kitchen Nightmare- Cooking Show or Management Lessons ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LARgtemNs-qhYHJ0hboMgfNk620jwk748VM87hh31xHIoco68hZcpD7EAhXgakfDGWOP3v5PyB7fAPkXFRHnN7yFOF0pnD4ROCt0kSOf34pOJ4duW3XbPV1e10JfaTyErQ7CE1Cl-8Ep/s1600/kitchennightmares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LARgtemNs-qhYHJ0hboMgfNk620jwk748VM87hh31xHIoco68hZcpD7EAhXgakfDGWOP3v5PyB7fAPkXFRHnN7yFOF0pnD4ROCt0kSOf34pOJ4duW3XbPV1e10JfaTyErQ7CE1Cl-8Ep/s200/kitchennightmares.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">People either hate him or love. Even though I am not a cooking fan myself, I watch all of Gordon Ramsey's shows to learn from his management styles. I can see your eyes roll. But walk with me a little longer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Take the <a href="http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/" target="_blank">Kitchen Nightmare </a>show. In this show, Gordon helps restaurants in a very bad financial state to get a chance to become successful. He tackles food, budget, cost and even family issues to provide the owners a chance to succeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The show typically begins with Gordon meeting the family members, then tasting the food. He makes recommendations for change (Including fixing inter personal issues) and then mentors them as they successfully transform the restaurant. Most people call it monotonous and highly exaggerated. But, the shows has a policy of going back after a year or so to see what happened to these restaurants and there are successes and failures shown. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">For me the fascination has been his process and how it applies to our professional lives and projects. So here is my view of the process</span><br />
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<b><i style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Get the Context</i><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> (Get the Background)</span></i></b><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One of the first thing Gordon does is to get a context for the problem. He does this by visiting the neighborhood to check other restaurants or by having chats with the key stakeholders to get their perspectives </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47;">When we go to do similar project reviews, we have meetings with key stakeholders and try to get an understanding of the context before we try to fix the problems with the project </span></div>
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<i><b>Taste the food (Check the Deliverable)</b></i></div>
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Next Gordon orders from the menu and samples the food being served in the restaurant to see if there are any problems. If there are any problems, the feedback is direct and not sugar coated. It is very harsh and get the cooks and owners really riled up.</div>
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<br /><span style="color: #741b47;">When we do project reviews, we review all the deliverable created to date and make sure we provide detailed feedback on our findings. There is a need to create a real baseline of understanding before we can fix any problems</span></div>
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<i><b>Observe the functioning (Monitor the team)</b></i></div>
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Once the feedback is given, Gordon then watches the operation of the restaurant for one meal services. This way he can see first hand where the problem lies and allows him to confirm the feedback he received from the stakeholders. </div>
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We watch the team go about its activities to observe how they interact with each other and the stakeholders. This gives us a first hand look at the actual problems with the project</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Prepare the Owners (Motivate the team)</span></i></b><br />
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Most of the time, the Owners are living in a distorted view of reality - They blame everybody except themselves for the problem. Gordon does a thorough job of demolishing the owner's ego and get them to face reality. He fixes any other personnel or staff issues so that they are ready to receive feedback and be ready to change. Otherwise it is water off a Duck's back !</div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">When we do project reviews, we really work on the people involved to make sure we understand their motivation and be able to fix any issues (Fire people if needed) so that the project has a chance to succeed. Without getting the team ready mentally for a change, any recommendations we make is just a waste of time! </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Ring in the changes (Execute our Recommendations)</span></i></b><br />
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Gordon then rolls out the changes he wants. New menus. New Decor. New processes. Everything which will help them run a smooth restaurant</div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">Once the team is mentally prepared, we walk them through changes in templates, process as well as organization. Making sure the team has a reasonable chance of succeeding </span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Mentor the team (Support Roll Out)</span></b></i><br />
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Gordon then watches and supports as the restaurant goes about trying out the new changes. The success of this try out and the positive feedback from the customers reinforces their minds and give the restaurant a chance to succeed </div>
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We spent some time helping the team execute on our recommendation. Answering questions. Supporting the team and making sure they are ready to internalize the recommendations </div>
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<i><b>Closing (Exit)</b></i></div>
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Gordon, at the end of the successful services, get the team together to summarize and celebrate their success. With some last minute motivation and confirmations, Gordon moves on to his next project</div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">We conduct an Exit session, where the team is able to feel the change and celebrate their success. Reenforcing their positive behaviors, we also provide them with key instructions on other tuneups they may want to pursue</span>.</div>
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What do you think now? Don you think it is a Cooking related show or a management class? Do send me your thoughts !</div>
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<a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</span></a></div>
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-62456209021834095682012-05-19T10:56:00.003-04:002012-05-19T10:56:57.463-04:00Difference between Lifting and Holding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDjO183lKpqFputON2Z-9xbFnOofhob8SF5d1cVmKkHjdjdMa0f3d7lsxMh9kZy2EYD4v6_OwqDvYgO3UiL7YndR0z9VUhtGRVFcoNF9IxOOusR9ez7wiRKuo8Fx-CjR857BF2Rliz431/s1600/ceelo+green+with+cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDjO183lKpqFputON2Z-9xbFnOofhob8SF5d1cVmKkHjdjdMa0f3d7lsxMh9kZy2EYD4v6_OwqDvYgO3UiL7YndR0z9VUhtGRVFcoNF9IxOOusR9ez7wiRKuo8Fx-CjR857BF2Rliz431/s200/ceelo+green+with+cat.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The man sits on a tall chair. A pure white cat on his lap. His jeweled fingers gently strokes the cat and he says " I love you man"... The crowd roars its approval. Once again, <a href="http://www.ceelogreen.com/" target="_blank">Ceelo Green</a> has the "<a href="http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/" target="_blank">The Voice</a>" audience eating out of his hands. Almost a caricature of himself, the "Lady Killer" hides the "Singer-writer-producers-entertainment personality -actor- entrepreneur- mentor" that he really is. I was absolutely fascinated by his persona and the way he chose the right words to create the right impact in all situations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Over the weekend, I was catching up with my reading and was struck by one of the quotes associated to him "T<i>here is a difference between lifting something up and holding something up. There is two different degrees of strength</i>" (Article in Fast Company).</span><br />
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That was profound and something which I experienced very early in my professional life. It was my first start up - A young "hip" company in Bangalore creating a stir among the young employees by introducing free beer during TGIF (Thank god it is Friday). I was the fifth person to join the company (After a very interesting interview process) and when I left it 12 months later there were 162 of us and the <a href="http://www.aditi.com/" target="_blank">company</a> was doing great. As I was leaving my mentor and the CEO of the company told me that there were some people who are good at starting things and some good at maintaining things. He said I belonged to the former group and wished me the very best. (He was and is one of the best mentors I ever had. Absolutely brilliant !)</div>
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Year went by and I slowly realized that he was right. I have this passion to build stuff, solve new problems, do things which people think are "undoable". But as soon as the heavy lifting was over, I started getting restless and wanted a change of pace. So when I was reading Ceelo Green words, I was reminded again of that day. Even though it was hard to take it (Being told that you were not good at something), I now realize he was actually pointing to my strength ! Two more start ups later, his words resonate...</div>
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What kind of person are you? The builder or the sustainer? Let me know...</div>
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<a href="http://rrajendran.com/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-14270287302257799222012-05-15T20:08:00.000-04:002012-05-15T20:08:30.215-04:00The Curse of Knowledge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400064287/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1400064287" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10ur1_eYrCdj90YUuUG6B73W9TlJmQUTjlONaqt8lnD3xBa59vdpHShR28YO_RSt_ZaTFPQRLUW_Rcp68nCGjOPjDIqICdsUE0ujIYOGN8j3UiPmLPFLfN6borpz3MYlJ8QH-PG1ZXOPE/s200/made+to+stick.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Have you been presenting to folks and getting not so good reviews? Do the stories you tell your friends some time falls flat ? Read on to find out the cure for that malady...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here is the secret of how I overcame the same problem. "<a href="http://www.heathbrothers.com/madetostick/" target="_blank">Made to Stick</a>" by Chip & Dan Heath is an excellent book on how to make ideas stick in peoples mind. One of the aspects they talk about is the <i><u>Curse of Knowledge </u></i>where a "Tapper" has to tap out the rhythm of very popular songs on a table so as to get a "Listener" to identify it. The crux of the matter is that the tapper playing the song in his mind, tapped the table with the full confidence that the listener would understand it and identify the song. Meanwhile the listener without that knowledge has no clue what the song is and is unable to identify them !!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">That story stuck to me ! Let me explain why and how it helped me with my issues ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of the problems I face when I make presentation to teams, is that sometimes I get the "glazed eye" look- Sheer boredom or folks fervently praying that I would not ask them questions and embarrass them in front of their peers. Very frustrating right? Here I am putting my heart and soul into the presentation and I get this? In my mind I was explaining some basic concepts which everybody should get. Finally one of my mentors pulled me aside and had "The talk". He asked me pause and understand the audience - Take time to look at my presentation from the audience's level of knowledge. Some of the folks were business users and did not understand the techno speak. Or other did not understand that particular techno speak! So they did not have the context and they did not have the foundation to build on. Not their fault and here I was making a leap of faith that they are at a certain level of knowledge. The song was playing clearly in my mind. But the tapping did not make any sense to the audience ! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Being me, It of course took multiple attempts to overcome my ego and make me get it. But when I did get it, I found that I was being understood better and was able to get a better agreement from the audience. Suddenly I was in demand as a presenter as well as a facilitator ! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Makes sense does it not? So stop playing to the music in the mind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Try it out and let me know if you experience the same empowerment as I did </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-91534284229478928742012-04-29T19:54:00.001-04:002012-04-29T19:54:54.170-04:00Data Mining to Target your habits !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFsJRJ43-GY534h4ZsKdXQLE3AUV9LWDVkPCkDivdd_JOi7j4x8DzzcocAWCMPKGiPImoBxK5mCvgqk0C2Uu4XfGE3MwVmlQLkaMYkk453v3ccvb8gOdVkZVzSYw831_724usWyrJxpoD/s1600/target.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmFsJRJ43-GY534h4ZsKdXQLE3AUV9LWDVkPCkDivdd_JOi7j4x8DzzcocAWCMPKGiPImoBxK5mCvgqk0C2Uu4XfGE3MwVmlQLkaMYkk453v3ccvb8gOdVkZVzSYw831_724usWyrJxpoD/s200/target.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just finished reading the book "The Power of Habit" by </span><a href="http://charlesduhigg.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charles Duhigg</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ( A must read for everybody in my opinion. But more about that in a later post). There is an interesting anecdote in the book about how the giant retail store </span><a href="http://www.target.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Target</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> performs data mining that I wanted to share with you..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It starts with the Marketing team wanting to market to parents before their babies arrived. The data mining teams gets to work and comes up with an algorithm (Habits like buying lot of unscented lotions as well as increased purchase of vitamins etc.) and Coupons started to be sent to families where there was somebody pregnant. Everything is fine till an irate father walked into the local store and complains that Target was sending his high school daughter coupons for baby cloths and cribs ! He was worried that Target was encouraging his daughter to be come pregnant ! The manager apologizes profusely and cools down the man. The manager call the man back a few days to make sure he was okay. The father confesses that his daughter had spoken to him and she was actually pregnant and due in Aug !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just imagine what happened. A person who lives with his daughter 24x7 has no clue that she is pregnant while a machine sitting thousand of miles away could figure that out. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So next time you use your frequent buyer card, remember, you are sharing a lot more information than you think !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, privacy is no longer something you can take for granted !!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</span></a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-92031419241226932532012-04-22T09:28:00.001-04:002012-04-22T09:29:16.050-04:00The power of teaching people to think better<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0060835915&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" /></span><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ragrajwebsit-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060835915" style="border: medium none ! important; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One of my favorite quotes is "<i><u>Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime</u></i>". David Rock, in this excellent book "Quiet Leadership" takes these concepts to the next level and explains the reason for its effectiveness in a scientific and credible manner. He convinces the readers on the effectiveness of the idea and then provides a framework for executing this in our professional lives. This is a must read for all those who want to become more effective leaders and managers </span><br />
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Some of the key concepts he introduces are:</div>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;">It is difficult to "unlearn" old habits. It is much easier to teach people new habits which overrides the old ones</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">People learn new habits better when they learn it themselves </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Once people have new tools and know how to use them, they can teach themselves new effective habits </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The tool of a better thought process is the ultimate tool since it can be used across all aspects of their life to become better and effective</span></li>
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In my first start up, my mentor taught me the concepts of "fire in the belly" - have the passion for what you are doing- as well as "Set the bar high" - stretch goals make for better personal satisfaction/motivation. So the thoughts presented in this book resonated well with me and reinforced the approach I have been adopting to mentor my team mates.</div>
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Read this book and let me know if you agree or disagree with the concepts...</div>
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<a href="http://blog.davidrock.net/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to go to the Author David Rock's personal blog. If you need to visit the official web site of the book, <a href="http://www.quietleadership.com/" target="_blank">Click here</a></div>
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<a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran </a></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-73731897528452039452012-03-26T08:06:00.001-04:002012-03-26T08:06:17.936-04:00Dogs bark but the Caravans move on<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyIKCam7ioiiqci2dYXXdlWi-QAW7-k2aHHZjKf8TYGAlSyK6TSUoDupRV3gZLrTsdGOKOQMv1kuaoFGI1DuHTb-zSKS5aELDr0Z4QWY8Ey7acxDV7cwyxsQv2QL8AWkAYne_RdVHRzYN/s1600/Caravan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyIKCam7ioiiqci2dYXXdlWi-QAW7-k2aHHZjKf8TYGAlSyK6TSUoDupRV3gZLrTsdGOKOQMv1kuaoFGI1DuHTb-zSKS5aELDr0Z4QWY8Ey7acxDV7cwyxsQv2QL8AWkAYne_RdVHRzYN/s200/Caravan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dogs bark but the caravan moves on - Another one of the Arab sayings which I found interesting in my school days. (Not sure if many in the new generation know that Caravans have another meaning - Not just the van which they get taken to soccer practice but a group of Arabs and their camels travelling across desert)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Culturally, I was brought up to believe in fate. There is a superior power who decides what is going to happen in our lives. There is nothing much one can do other than do our best to work with it. Focus on out duties (Karma) without any attachment or expectation of the results. The achievements you get, will be decided by god. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So this proverb strengthened the view that life keeps moving forward whether we or any body </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">else</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">complains</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (Bark!). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of my close friends had a different take on this proverb. He equated to the caravan to life and the barking to the issues we face. So in his view, however difficult the situation is (Loud barking), life moves on and that difficult situation will also pass. A very comforting thought in these days when we face an onslaught of issues from every direction. "This too shall pass" is something which helps us get through those dark nights. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In our professional lives, we sometimes have to fight lonely battles to do what is right. We have a number of our colleagues discouraging or warning us not to proceed. And in my opinion, we need to stick to our beliefs and keep persevering. As we move forward, one step at a time, the barking fades into the distance and we are that much closer to our destination. The caravans are like our beliefs and we need to stick to them while people bark all around us. Our journey is all ours and we need to keep our eyes on the target not get distracted by the nay Sayers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do you think? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran </a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-85259028457824756272012-03-04T07:11:00.000-05:002012-04-22T09:00:58.629-04:00Lessons from the Lotus Eater<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDPfH1hXfXAWqK0kIz5GPMuxRiEnIMceNQWSIseSYqXMZJ55x3DCVleD7affzFLqJoVZY7nlP0d8_pLKz30SP-rO0K-171_JeJRBpq5MaxuRdf3TyUjWPhrIIBTXM4FF6cQybZWhru93t/s1600/lotus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDPfH1hXfXAWqK0kIz5GPMuxRiEnIMceNQWSIseSYqXMZJ55x3DCVleD7affzFLqJoVZY7nlP0d8_pLKz30SP-rO0K-171_JeJRBpq5MaxuRdf3TyUjWPhrIIBTXM4FF6cQybZWhru93t/s200/lotus.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When I was growing up, the story "The Lotus Eater - By W. Somerset Maugham (You can read the story<a href="http://maugham.classicauthors.net/lotuseater/" target="_blank"> here</a>) fascinated me. It was of a person who wanted to lead a perfect happy life and the consequences of this approach to life. At that time, it struck a chord in me and I was not sure why ! Last week, I was talking to my friend about taking an early retirement - do nothing but live and enjoy life- I remember this story. So I went back to read it again and this line stuck in my mind...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Wilson`s plan was all right. There was only one flaw in it and this, I suppos</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">e,
he could not have foreseen. It had never occurred to him that after twenty-five
years of complete happiness, in this quiet backwater, with nothing in the world
to disturb his serenity, his character would gradually lose its strength. The
will needs obstacles in order to exercise its power; when it is never thwarted,
when no effort is needed to achieve one`s desires, because one has placed one`s
desires only in the things that can be obtained by stretching out one`s hand,
the will grows impotent. If you walk on a level all the time the muscles you
need to climb a mountain will atrophy"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That is a powerful message both for people planning to retire as well as people working for decades in a "secure" job. When you retire, you need to make sure that you keep challenging yourself so that the mind and the brain are exercised at all times and prepared to handle any changes. On the other hand, people sticking to one company where they have a "secure" job also need to learn this message. No pressures but No growth. No stretching to get something desirable. Finally where the change happens (Loss of job or other life events), these people find it difficult to get back to living.. Their will has atrophied and the ability to clamber back seems to be lost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When my father was growing up, he took one job and then retired from it. But in this world of Globalization and Out Sourcing, it is not just enough to have a job and "coast" along. One needs to keep sharpening the skills and keep stretching the brain muscles so that you are ready for anything fate might through your way...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Are you a lotus eater? Do you have to change? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-60085288487727307472012-02-11T11:45:00.001-05:002012-03-04T07:19:42.671-05:00Elephant thinking–Unlock your potential<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If you have read my book, “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440470375/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1440470375">Why Do Elephant's Have Big Ears</a>”, you would know that I use two elephant stories to help you understand how we limit ourselves and fail to realize our full potential. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060799129/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060799129" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CBBXTYDgrvjTorCZQnDMGRQXVJsCklGZJyvQS4gpCKwMZ3Uw2V8mdFMaGjfUUfn2PkdQThs1Ma9p4m3kaOuIeH_9fNM8avCxbhjcfB8N4u2QwdbECDdSjWxc-RA9UQaSkaSTwRqnffHU/s200/self+manager.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over the weekend, I had been to the library (In spite of the fact that I had TWO </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ragrajwebsit-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0051VVOB2"><span style="font-size: small;">kindles</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> !! sometimes going to the library and reading a non digital book has its own charm!)</span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;">and picked up a few books to read. I was very surprised to read a similar story in the book “Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here is the extract –“When they begin to train an elephant for the circus, they chain the baby elephants‘s leg to a pole in the ground. The baby elephants wants to get away. He pulls and tugs. but he can’t escape – the chain is too big and the pole too deep in the ground. So he stops trying. As he grows up, he just assumes he can’t get away. Today he’s a six ton elephant.he could sneeze and pull that chain – but he doesn't even try. Circus trainers say that they can put a piece of sting around the six – ton elephants' leg and he won’t break away”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Coming from a traditional Indian background, the Indian society is more interested in telling you what you CANNOT do rather than inspire you to try out new things. I call it the the “society's train track”. They create one for you, lay it and expect you to follow it !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Coming to the USA has been an eye opener. No constraints and the fact that you could work hard in whatever you want to do and make money/be happy or just live. It is very liberating ! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So friend, whether you have Elephant thinking or Large Elephant ears, it is time you unlock your potential !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-23153006865278622012-02-05T09:23:00.001-05:002012-02-25T18:20:48.543-05:00Teaching people to fish around the world !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://priyarajendran.com/"><img align="left" alt="chillie_jpg" border="0" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZBB_55wzzdraQohLU_Y35_fIV1Ja1KE3gN5MVqohlEOJfzdrTnP0Tj1Ao9NNwcih7u4K70GuC3O1_-GsG0xE9BcqHCy0_ZN4sp4eoSWrRTIxFa-B4M0JQ5Os6FJC4F1L9HkIiIaOVVl-/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="chillie_jpg" width="164" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One of my favorite motivational concept is to not give people fish, but teach them to fish (The proverb “"Give a man a fish and he won't starve for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he won't starve for his entire life." has been attributed to everybody from Chinese proverbs to Confucius and Jesus Christ !). So I spent a lot of time teaching my team members the actual understanding of the concepts to get things done rather than give them a list of instructions to follow. This has been very useful for me during my years working with teams of all shapes and sizes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I wanted to have a similar concept for my charity too. It was then I found </span><a href="http://www.kiva.org/"><span style="font-size: small;">Kiva.org</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. They allow individuals to a lend a little as $25 to help people around the world. They difference is that you can choose the projects and these projects are folks trying to better themselves by building a business or doing something for the society. As a trial I decided to help a gentleman Mr. Joseph in Uganda put structures on his farm and to buy fertilizers to support new live stock. It was a pleasure to see that the loan was repaid and his farm prospered. This was followed by supporting the Amistad Group in Guatemala. All with micro loans of less than $50. That too was successfully paid back</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPBnfMF7UmxLLHtb_nN1K3kbp7S1FsghG3dl2XvZaIKtcdH8ONRK-iL7ZK_DkGZ9vV7HF2_CvxIhtxk57v4VGB2_w28RaW01pt3p3fwA_ovewqac0zr8qGdaRYQ9Cvfjq4AGprX1cain9B/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img alt="Amistad Group, Guatemala" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1ZBN58o2qy06jzYfirbvpjuCLqqUE_-gPK3jgrZLvQyUJodWoGtmK2wsWUtf3oygdqsDkCoB3AJ2GLzrg8wTPgqBzG7SSW49lSjiOCsqBlCN3lvDqOO6odVQQ_EmfPC4Qmse6elHoIij/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Amistad Group, Guatemala" width="244" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is a great way to help people not just by donating money to an large trust and hope that they spend it wisely. But actually get involved in the process of selecting how the money gets spent. Also, 100% of the money you lend goes to the person needing help (Kiva is funded by other sources and contributions)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The only limitation I can think of it that some countries like India are not represented here !</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Do check it out today ! Join me in doing good.,.</span></div>
<a href="http://www.kiva.org/" target="_blank"><img alt="Kiva - loans that change lives" src="http://www.kiva.org/images/bannerlong.png" title="Kiva - loans that change lives" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-3340426307896817002012-01-19T18:41:00.000-05:002012-02-25T18:21:06.044-05:00Good is the new average !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://priyarajendran.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtSVCayzhgS1vSzph8HhbZCBf0gb-vrMYB6QJbCHYE1pfuTkFkkRSrg1iH3MHmKVnNlkRgE8hwt_YYX4EPgRAefe-U0vfDw-jJD2exAU7_oVoimi5rmm0nWlhM1aOviUHYQf5KwsQe8xr/s1600/cmay1_jpg.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is an interesting article in<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/" target="_blank"> Business Insider </a> which is based on Seth Godin's view "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/if-youre-an-average-worker-in-this-forever-recession-youre-going-straight-to-the-bottom-2012-1" target="_blank">If You're An Average Worker, You're going straight to the bottom</a>". Interesting read. This one of the lessons I have learnt during my years of working and one I keep preaching to my team members all the time</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right from the school days, I always put in the extra effort to differentiate myself from rest of the students. While working, I spent a lot of time creating my own brand - Hard Work, Good Grasp of the problem, Structured thought process, Innovative solutions and successful delivery. In fact, in my first start up I worked in, I was the Mr. Fix It. If there is problem, they would call me to fix. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>So the two takeaways I try to give my team is </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><b>Good is the new Average</b></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being average is no longer an option. You have to be good. You need to put in the extra effort to make sure you exceed expectations and deliver. Working out the details, Making sure the documents are formatted properly (I hate it when people are too lazy to do a spell check- Takes two minutes !), preparing for the presentations more thoroughly. Small things, which add to separating you from the rest of the team members and helps you leave a very positive impression in the minds of your stakeholders. Try it and see the difference !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Create your own brand</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my view, we sell all the time. Whether it is in our personal life or in the professional work environment. So why not sell ourselves so that our talents are properly understood by the others. If you set you standards higher, you have won half the battle. But if you can "market" your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - create you own personal brand - you have the magic mix to make sure you are recognized and rewarded for what you do. More on this in a later post...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read the article and start your journey to being Great. Average is for losers ! </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-58543653863359046332012-01-01T15:21:00.001-05:002012-02-25T18:21:26.182-05:00Being Indian is now a badge of Honor?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have been fooling around with a Proud To Be Indian web site for quite some years without much traction, In its current incarnation, it can be seen at </span><a href="http://www.p2bi.com/"><span style="font-size: small;">www.P2BI.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So it was with great pleasure I started reading the book by Ramith Sethi (</span><a href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">I Will teach you to be rich</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> Blog fame). </span><span style="font-size: small;">His blogs are fantastic. His writing style is very different. You see his interviews, you can see his passion just burst out ! Overall, his blog is something I would strongly recommend to everybody. Even though he pushes his ware very strongly, his interest in helping others shines through. And who can blame him for charging for the value he delivers. Not me !</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What was interesting was the fact that he was using his “Indianness” as a badge of honor. He talks about his parents (Who migrated from India) who spend 5 days negotiating for a car and then walk out of it because the dealer refused to add a Floor mat to the deal. He also coined the interesting acronym – WWAID (What would an Indian Do?). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When I came to US (about 15 years ago) most of us felt the need to blend in. As the IT boom took over the country and the Outsourcing became the name of the game, we felt guilty for causing disruption in the life's of the locals here</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Finally I think we have moved on to a state where being Indian, and bringing in the values of our culture is considered to be good. People recognize us not just for the nerds who are the “Computer Whisperers “ but actually folks with an idea to present and the presence to make an impression !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Go for it. Love this. In fact, as part of this discovery, I am starting a career focused blog (Take off on my book Why Do Elephants Have Big Ears) to share the lessons learnt over my 25 year career with folks who can use them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The blog should be ready in the next few weeks, But you can <a href="http://www.desicoach.com/" target="_blank">go over and register</a> so that you can be notified when it goes live….</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Your thoughts?</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-58594357140384625202011-12-31T09:41:00.001-05:002012-03-04T07:21:14.248-05:00Spiritual Gravity will bring down Apple in 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ONB3yvQvO9T3AzVm96JAXpJ8AxjxnSg1DvSy-8M25PTEVCS8L1kbkD8SjpiE3o98v4rkhuGHNlmgsIrPmbTel2ohEtqdCbq8jK0JNhy6fyBh8_OlPAT5LjSJ0qSWQQ1nj2ErS4dH-xDi/s1600/apple-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ONB3yvQvO9T3AzVm96JAXpJ8AxjxnSg1DvSy-8M25PTEVCS8L1kbkD8SjpiE3o98v4rkhuGHNlmgsIrPmbTel2ohEtqdCbq8jK0JNhy6fyBh8_OlPAT5LjSJ0qSWQQ1nj2ErS4dH-xDi/s200/apple-logo.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Most of my friends know that I am a die hard Microsoft fan. I have been working with their products for most of my career. I have watched Apple rise from the ashes and head to the stratosphere with envy. So please take my predictions with a pinch of salt !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">My prediction is that Apple will peak out in 2012 and start their descent back to earth. Here is why …</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Apple has to be right all the time. Competition has to be right only once for Apple to fall off its “Number 1 “ pedestal and the competition is getting very much close to being right !</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Apple products are not being designed and built by Aliens.O</span><span style="font-size: small;">ther humans will find way to break it and make something better </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">IT Corporations find it difficult to manage their own much smaller IT application portfolios. Managing over 350K apps will soon break and rogue applications will slip in to destroy customer confidence </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Apple products are on the verge of becoming commodities. They will soon drop in the “Cool” factor bringing them down to earth with other products</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Without Steve Jobs, Apple will fall back into a “Microsoft under Steve Ballmer” paradigm. Still a great company making money. But not <u><strong>THE</strong></u> company !</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What goes up must come down and what goes up faster must come down faster !! The law of Averages will catch up with Apple soon </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mobile virus will become more lucrative considering the exploding population of Apple IOS and we can see a swarm of them hit the ecosystem</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Revisit next year same time. Let us see if I got it right !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What are your thoughts?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-56809451601821285232011-12-29T17:57:00.000-05:002012-03-04T07:15:31.703-05:00When the Idea creator's credibility is challenged, should the ideas credibility be questioned?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpVtD4lu19cgL9pMn3cwwBNGOmafunexStyojcgY2cG_4LfMsbmbEhj1qpOKF6NdTTji-r68-ztQYlcPfUk-HI1Pj8c5MSHcleZrYxfKM1hywuESn3qrigHZrzT-RqtIB9S2FC-ugrvyr/s1600/idea1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpVtD4lu19cgL9pMn3cwwBNGOmafunexStyojcgY2cG_4LfMsbmbEhj1qpOKF6NdTTji-r68-ztQYlcPfUk-HI1Pj8c5MSHcleZrYxfKM1hywuESn3qrigHZrzT-RqtIB9S2FC-ugrvyr/s200/idea1.jpg" width="194" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of my friends know that I am a big fan of <a href="http://www.richdad.com/About/Robert-T-Kiyosaki.aspx" target="_blank">Robert Kiyosaki</a> and his books based on<a href="http://www.richdad.com/" target="_blank"> Rich Dad Poor Dad</a> paradigm. I like his concepts of residual income, the quadrant approach to money making etc. In fact I had recommended his book<a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/2/post/2011/04/cash-flow-quadrant.html" target="_blank"> Cashflow Quadrant </a>to my friends </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So it was a shock when I read about <a href="http://www.johntreed.com/" target="_blank">John T. Read</a>'s <a href="http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html" target="_blank">write up</a> about Kiyosaki. John is a very influential person with strong beliefs and ideas. He is very successful and his ideas on making money are very interesting (More on that in a later post)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He really goes to the town about the Rich Dad Poor Dad's "factual errors" and numerous "Extremely unlikely accounts of the events that supposedly happened" . It was an interesting read and John has spend quite some time to research his target. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether we agree with John or not, the point which I was concerned about was the impact on the ideas and concepts Kiyosaki had put on the table. Since Kiyosaki's book's content has been questioned, does it mean that his ideas were also wrong? Was I just drinking Koolaid and not looking at the facts clearly? Should our impression of the ideas be influenced by the negative information on the author?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my opinion, the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water.. Even after understanding all the accusations, the fact that there might not be a real "Rich Dad", I believe the central themes with Kiyosaki put forward are still valid. The fact that ideas may not be used by all of us talks more to the our limitations rather than the viability of the idea.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still continue to believe in the concepts of Rich Dad Poor Dad. I think ideas should be judged purely based on its merits and the idea creator shenanigans should not impact its credibility .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you think? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1584797218925421195.post-53939732232370382522011-12-29T00:08:00.000-05:002012-03-04T07:23:11.384-05:00Students and LinkedIn- Essential or Waste of time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8a0bmL6P0QwtbQw9QwfsxkOn9LbpJFPP-8FA08An4KTqwAutdR39zfsH2elYKPAHtGkNJ0M0ZKqUwdTyu8N-eASxEnRyX-E-AmdJotQqcB0VbK2Tm7a6IrPkrUUJB4jvuyvIrGi9vWf1u/s1600/LinkedIn_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8a0bmL6P0QwtbQw9QwfsxkOn9LbpJFPP-8FA08An4KTqwAutdR39zfsH2elYKPAHtGkNJ0M0ZKqUwdTyu8N-eASxEnRyX-E-AmdJotQqcB0VbK2Tm7a6IrPkrUUJB4jvuyvIrGi9vWf1u/s200/LinkedIn_logo.png" width="200" /></a> I have been a<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/" target="_blank"> LinkedIn</a> member for quite some time (See my <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/rrajen" target="_blank">profile</a> here). So when my college going son asked me whether he should create his own Linked In Profile, I paused and then thought - What the heck - there is no harm in creating a profile.</div>
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More I thought about it, more I started feeling that all student <b><i><u>SHOULD</u></i></b> have a LinkedIn profile. Here is why:</div>
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<li>As they more towards professional life at the end of the college years, a better understanding of the networking tools will be a value add </li>
<li>It gives him an opportunity to connect with his teacher and mentors. Getting their feedback (which is hopefully positive !) will help him as he starts applying for Internships </li>
<li>It also gives the prospective companies, a place to find more about him and helps him differentiate from the other applicants who might not have a smart Dad like me :-)</li>
<li>Finally, it allows him to show case the voluntary work he has done and other achievements </li>
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Overall, I think it should be become mandatory for students to start creating their LinkedIn Profiles (Everybody seems to have a Facebook Profile). What do you think? </div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rrajendran.com/" target="_blank">Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15071211782746390720noreply@blogger.com1