Musings...!

Gimme $2, need to buy BEAR.....the Economics of $1 or $2

2008-03-18T00:45:00.004-04:00

what is the value of $1 or $2 ?
$2 can buy you a BSC stock. (more on this later..)
$2 does not for sure buy you a gallon of gas in US. It is really exciting to monitor how the financial market has been unfolding this year. Google is down to 420 after hitting the roof at around $600. Bear Stearns reduced to 10% of its value in a matter of 4-5 days..and wow!..a stock of BSC for $2 ?? :-)

I paid nearly $30 per year to get a year's of engineering education at Delhi College of Engineering, now ranked the #2 engineering school after IITs in India, which means $2.5 per month for my education!...is that's cheap..

Billions of people earn $1 per day and have to pay for their food, clothing and shelter..

It takes $2 for me to take a T from Central Square to Kendall square..It takes $1 to buy a month's food for a starving child in certain poor countries.
It takes $1.25 to buy coke from a soda machine.

Think global!.. :-)..think the global value of your $...and see how a $ can change someone's life...!

Life is a journey...

2008-02-04T21:10:00.002-05:00

3 years back, i was in new delhi airport, travelling from boston to delhi, and was excited to be pichked up at the airport by my father(papa), my elder brother. papa had rented a car and it zipped zoomed through the city traffic to reach our home in sarita vihar, where my mom was waiting for me. after many years, i had eatten food cooked by my mother, and that too in our home in india.
today, i am here again, same airport, the look and feel of which has not changed much. it is still under construction, and i see plans of the new airport all around the airport waiting area. india is changing.

My brother and sister are arriving shortly by another flight, via amsterdam. Today again, someone might be there to pick us up...but this time, I know my father will not be there to greet us... he died on February 3rd 2008 in Patna, his home city, the place where he lived for years, he went to high school, and the place where he even constructed a house. He is waiting for us to perform the last rituals, and wish him farewell for the heavenly trip..

I have spent 23 years of my life living very closely with my parents. My father was a role model for all of us, a brilliant man, with a degree in engineering, law and management, he worked as a General Manager of a public sector engineering company. Thanks to the engineering interest in the family, my brother and I opted for engineering careers as well. My father always wanted me to go for a masters degree, and it would have been a proud moment for him to see his son graduate.
I begin a new journey in life, but this time the hand that was there to hold me, and not let me fall, is not there...

Innovation and Building an Enterprise

2008-01-16T22:14:00.000-05:00

Building a successful new enterprise requires understanding of innovations, and how to strategize the launch of the new product/service. There are 2 kinds of innovations - "sustainable" and "disruptive" innovations. Sustainable innovations deal with creating products that are targeted towards a profitable market already tapped by a competitor. As mentioned by Christensen, a new company very rarely ventures into a sustainable market. If it does, then it faces fierce competition by the incumbents and is either bought over or is wiped out, because it is not able to sustain the competition. "Disruptive" innovation on the other hand, could be targeted towards "low-end" market or "new-market" where there is scope for new consumption, or in my own words, unchartered territory.

The case to be discussed tomorrow seems to be a simple, yet aligned towards innovation strategy, and should help in formalizing the base, already established as part of Irving's class.

Business at Bottom of the pyramid

2008-01-15T22:05:00.001-05:00

Based on the per capita income, there are 3 layers of consumers in the market. BBOP deals with business strategies, and marketing of products to consumers who earn less than $5 a day. Interestingly the course covers case studies based on success/failure stories of companies in India, China, Mexico, Nigeria...The course is being taught by Kasturi Rangan and Michael Chu. The course started with a brief introduction of the course, and then a case about Elecktra, which dealt with selling consumer electronics to developing countries. A few interesting facts about Elecktra, the consumer credit was made at a 45% p.a. rate, and the Return on Equity(ROE) was about 20%..With an ROE of 20+%, it can be safely stated that the venture is profitable..but wait..how about the social value ?? and yes, the company did created tremendous social value by selling products that paved the path of competition, and improvement of the lives of the natives of the community they targetted. Now, is that a social enterprise..? :-)...keep tuned in , and you will hear more about Business at the Base of Pyramid.

A jalebi day...

2008-01-13T20:28:00.000-05:00

After an early morning train ride from NY Penn Station to South station, Boston, I spent time walking around deserted MIT campus, followed by a refreshing walk around Charles river. I guess today, this was not enough, and I decided to walk up to Harvard Square. Bombay Club's lunch buffet offered great choices for me, and I relished the dosa and sambhar, chicken curry, rice and how can I forget - jalebis. If you do not know what jalebis are, check this out - jalebi. Wow that was lot of food after almost 2 hours of walk, and off I was back to home...! It looks like tonight and tomorrow morning, boston is going to receive about 8-10 inches of snow..that's makes this a really snowy winter..and till now I am still enjoying it..let's see for how long.! Almost want to hit the NH mountains, with someone who can teach me how to ski..or if not, atleast I can do tubing.

24.....36.......48...time is precious

2008-01-09T01:40:00.000-05:00

SDM January session is on, and it is one of the most interesting phases of the program. Design Challenge 1 is on, and teams are busy designing their robots, and programming them to do some dancing, movement and race. Look forward to the January 11th finale. For th entire new SDM cohort, sleep becomes a privilege, as they churn the design challenge and look at it top to bottom, in an attempt to come up with their best response.

Today, I was put to shame by someone who does 36hrs of continuous work without an ounce of sleep :-), and does it once a week !...and yet today when I met him, he was bubbling!...So what's the secret of pressing on the gas, and running full steam ?!..

Reflections on Year 2007 - #1 - Innovation

2008-01-07T06:06:00.000-05:00

It was a year full of events, happenings that I will remember for the rest of my life. There were some moments to cherish, and some forgettable, eventful enough, that it has given me food for thought and experience to deal with similar situations, should they arise in the future. I have listed a few categories worth mentioning here..

Innovation
I was blowing full steam in Fall 2007, with a heavy course load and a bunch of activities outside of my class/assignment/project time. My team URHealth successfully submitted executive summary documents for MIT-1K, and couple of submissions were made for certain other events. MIT, as remarked and known by many, is the hallmark of key innovation in various sectors. As a result of this, and also as a result of misconstrued interpretation of "innovation", when people hear about certain ideas, they expect those ideas to be inventions or new innovations...a usual comment is, hasn't it been done before ? This question truly means, that people harbor the notion, and run their thoughts around creating a market by going for brand new ideas. Ideas/Products with certain twist in the realm of strategy, market, needs or the architecture itself can be form classic cases of successful innovation attempt. My goal for year 2008, is to emphasize more on strategy and driving forces which would result in successful implementations of the innovative ideas/solutions I have with me.

I surely liked Technology Based Business Transformation (taught by Prof. Irving Wladawsky Berger), which was liked by invariably everyone who had opted for the class.

Non-Profit vs profit

2007-11-05T00:19:00.000-05:00

Invariably I run into people who have a wrong notion about non-profit organizations. To better differentiate between the two, I have classified the differences into two realms.

Profit
For-profit organizations/businesses are those whose primary goal is to make profit and use the profits to distribute amongst the shareholders of the company. On the other hand, non-profit organizations can also make profit, but then it has to be solely re-invested for the company's efforts/goals. However, contrary to popular belief, the employees of the company to a large extent work on a salaried basis, and they do get benefits just like any other salaried employee would.

Taxes Non-profit organizations do not pay business taxes on their income. Their income is invested in the mission leading to the welfare of the community.

Mission Non-profit organizations are set-up with a mission to benefit the community. Their goals are aligned for the betterment of the community, and for the above stated reason, the non-profit organizations benefit from tax reliefs.

Funding Non-profit organizations can gather support from
a) Other non-profit organizations
b) Grants

LiquidationWhen a non-profit organization is liquidated, the assets of the company are transferred to another non-profit organization. On the other hand, for businesses, the assets are distributed to the debtors, and then the shareholders.

I hope I have made it clear enough..if I find other differences, I will pen it down here, but I think I have covered the essential attributes of running a business.

Friday fun!..

2007-11-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

After yet another hectic day, the Leadership class ended at 5pm, let to the TGIF celebration. Kamran kindly consented to take a walk to Student Center, after getting some coffee from Au Bon Pain on Main Street, food court area. After holding joint discussions on Emotional Intelligence, we ruminated over the teachings of the class, which turned out to be an interesting memory solidifier.

Although, I had tickets to the Shakespeare Ensemble play at Kreisge auditorium, we decided that it would be worthwhile to take a peek at the Diwali night celebrations in the main theater. It was not a surprise that the Indian songs, dance and entertainment presented by Sangam turned out to be a more pleasant event of the evening. The Shakespearen play - ...... was not to the best of our liking. Having said that I was confident that Othello, Macbeth or any other famous Shakespearen novel I read at high school, may have been a better entertainer.

Turning Point

2007-10-31T01:07:00.000-04:00

We are right in the middle of Fall semester, and this is a great turning point for many. This time of the semester sets the stage for onslaught to get the assignments, mid-term exams, and the term paper/project abstracts. With the course load and the projects I have, I think the only way I can zip through this onslaught, and steer things my way, is if I instill some learning tips and techniques into my curriculum. I kind of shared my thoughts with the class, in our ESD.803 Know Thyself as a Leader (taught by Dr. Shalom Saar) class, where we were split into 2 groups, and had to strategize and devise techniques for helping students ace in their classes.

Many would agree that Maslov's needs is a great way of depicting the needs of a person. And student's needs are no different from Maslov's depiction of the fundamental requirements. When the needs are not evenly realized, it leads to a shift in the student's ability to perform well. This is my theory devised on Friday (Oct 26th 2007), and it was very well received by Dr. Saar. Dr. Saar even asked me to write a paper and send it to the Department Director/Chair. Let's see if I get time to do that :-)

Meanwhile, there are some projects that are in troubled waters, and some have entered the zone where critical attention is required. As stressful and hectic it is, the reward for pulling through is enormous satisfaction and content..So whoever, is reading this article and is stressed out by the hectic life at MIT, take a deep breath, and just prepare for the next launch...Think about this, you are not the only person feeling this...so hang in there :-), the world is not going to fall apart. Take smart steps, decisions and you will rock n roll.

Technology Based Business Transformation!

2007-10-25T19:19:00.000-04:00

I cannot emphasize more that ESD.57 Tech Based Business Transformation has been a very interesting class to date. When people like Irving Wladawsky Berger and Chris McCormick from L.L.Bean, are in the same room with the "highly energetic" SDMers and Sloanies, then you can imagine what is cooking..! Here is what is cooking - Leaders are in the making, and we are about to begin the transformation of the world. :-)

I got a chance to talk to the class about the HealthCare project we have been working on. It was a very interesting discussion, as we got significant tips and tricks from my fellowmates..And that's just one of the reasons for being at MIT..you have great minds and thoughts to share and learn from.

Generally, people liked the idea I pitched and cautioned me on a few fronts, and strategies. I have home work to do, and I am sure another opportunity like this, is going to hone my skills and the presentation material.

There was also an interesting talk on IPTV, which for sure is going to be a hot market in the years to come.

Later in the evening, I ran into Peter Gaston, (an alumni from MIT), who is part of a consulting company. Peter gave me some contact information about people who I can get in touch with, to solicit grants..Peter and I also talked about six sigma, business process consulting, consulting in general. Peter worked for McKinsey for a few years, and highlighted the fact, that it is Tier I company in the consulting world. After my yet another idea pitch of the day, he said - "you do not need McKinsey", so I take that I should not think twice about my call for McKinsey interview. I am going to skip it..and never regret for the rest of my life...! :-)...McKinsey is out of my radar..!

He did ask me to obtain grants and think if I want to launch a profitable company or a non-profit endeavor..Lessons
1) Research grants out there..
2) Not worry about profitable market..
3) Get results working with NGOs and communities..
4) Create special marketable products.

Boston-India Symposium - Poster Session - Westin Copley Place

2007-10-22T21:15:00.002-04:00

Today was another eventful day filled with excitement, tension and "real of uncertainty". Boston-India symposium at Westin Copley Place was the home for delegates from Indian Government, academia who were interested in talking to students, entrepreneurs and professors and researchers from the area (Harvard, MIT, Tufts, BU) about issues surrounding the health of people of India. India has a population of 1.1 billion and there are 33% people who are below the poverty line. These people do not have health insurance or money to get treated for major illnesses.
The symposium had a poster session from 4:30 - 6:00pm, where academic posters were demonstrated by the students. I had a feeling that our poster was very good, and received positive and constructive feedback from the judges. The system has a huge potential, and people were very interested about the sustainable component of the social enterprise. The "grameenhome" - home for destitutes was very attractive concept for many..the home is going to ensure that women who are uncared for, have a place to live, and may be trained to work as para-medic workers in health clinics.

I think extending our system in the "grameenhome" realm, is going to be a win-win situation. Now, I really want to thank Yasmin and Deanelle for accompanying us to Westin Copley hotel. The poster cost of $108 was the unappealing part, and SDM or Sloan should fund students who are going for competitions like the one we attended...else student's creativity would be contained in papers, assignments and their lust for innovation is going to subside.

MIT is the happening place - EPC

2007-10-13T23:05:00.000-04:00

Today was a D-day marked on the calendar of 100K. The much hype about the competition turned into reality, when participants from various universities competed for the various awards of the evening. although we did not make it to the 2nd round, we believe we gathered significant information and network contacts to propel ourselves to the next round of the competition. MIT EPC was the first of its kind event organized by Sloanies and the Entrepreneurship Club. I believe that they did a fantastic job of organizing the event, and I was very pleased by the management and the organization team.

The competition was not just about winning and losing, but it was about getting feedback from the judges, forming teams and networking with potential candidates for the team. I sincerely thank Deanelle and Yasmin for taking the time to work on the EPC preparation. I think we need solid teamwork like this in the next few weeks and months. After all, MIT is about challenges and solutions to challenges out there..so we have a great challenge ahead of us, but I think we have very many passionate people on the team. We just need to do the due diligence to make it to work!

I also feel that we need a few more heads such that we can div up our tasks and workload.. Overall, I am at the right place at the right time..and it goes back to my small article on "realm of uncertainty".. the path to innovation has its own fogginess and rough terrain, but when you see the goal, it is very satisfying.

Realm of Uncertainty and the path to Innovation

2007-10-12T00:20:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while people enter a realm of uncertainty. There are different kinds of realm of uncertainty -

1) When you do not know where you are
2) When you do not know where to go..

My entrance to SDM program, had an element of uncertainty, as I was embarking an academic career after years of work in IT industry, consulting and product development. This last couple of semesters, when I have increased my presence at MIT, has added an element of uncertainty as to what should be my next step after graduation. Having said that, I am almost ready on embarking an interesting (challenging) project. I am sure while there is always going to be an element of uncertainty, it is the ability to maneuver through these uncertain paths in life, that enables you to be successful in your endeavors.

Something to ponder "Paths to innovation are often filled with these realms of uncertainty...."

Leadership - Know Thyself

2007-09-28T17:35:00.000-04:00

It turns out to be one of the most interesting classes I have attended (:-)) as part of SDM. Knowing the leader in you, is essential for success of a manager, a leader, a CEO, a visionary or evening a common person working in an organization.

The class started today, with an introductory class discussion on Sun Tzu's book - "The Art of War"'s summarization. It was amazing how the concise text of 6-7 pages (with half a page devoted to each chapter), portrayed such an intellectual, impactful information...the class was given an exercise to pick quotes of leadership traits, that they liked, and each quote was discussed in the context of today's world...

some of the interesting traits/quotes that i have marked as takeaways are:

1) Morality - A leader has to be moral and apply honesty, integrity...
2) Strategy - When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
3) Continuous Improvement -
4) Team - "He selects his men and they exploit the situation" - Leaders select their teams and ensure that they are empowered to deliver and act. The decision making process is still part of the manager/leader(s) who form the core decision making team.
5) Timing - When the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of timing..

I look forward to the rest of the classes this semester, and would definitely enroll for the Spring course on Know Thy Team

MIT 100K Competition

2007-09-22T00:38:00.000-04:00

MIT 100K is a competition that has been for years now, and has become one of the most talked about events in campus. Students at MIT from undergrad, Grad and all departments of the school, along with their team members from Harvard or other schools are interested in working to sell their ideas to the VC team..and get into the limelight. It is amazing to see that the reach of this competition is as far as Princeton, Canada and not forgetting our neighbors from Harvard. I did some research today, to understand the structure of the competition, and realized that there are 2 streams of the competition - the Non-profit and the Profit Stream. The non profit stream is called the "Development" and the profit stream is called the "Venture" stream.

The lecture by John Calvert from United States Patent and Trademarks Office was an interesting evening lecture on how to protect your work by filing patents. I did get an opportunity to talk to him about trademarks. Participation in the 1/100K competition may require us to file a trademark.

System Engineering Project

2007-08-13T00:36:00.001-04:00

When I started working on this course, I thought there was not much exciting to learn, and it would be another course in the curriculum that I would have to enroll for, and not enhance my learning. But I guess I was wrong, the second part of the project - design of iScooba, a variant of Scooba from iRobot. iRobot is the company behind of what I would say a successful product Roomba, a house cleaning product.

iRobot also has a Tactical Division that design robots for the US military and surveillance missions. They also have a Division for Developers, which I think produces robots that can be programmed. The robots can be used by developers and hobbyists.

Back to the problem at hand, I have worked on many problems from scratch, but the project as part of System Engineering, was a great experience where some ground work was done by another team, and it was our responsibility to perform decision analysis and come up with responses to key decisions to make.

Pugh concept as learned in the class, is an important concept to apply in situations when there are alternative concepts. This technique can be applied prior to design of the product, and after the VOC (Voice of Customer i.e Requriements) have been identified. The takeaway from this exercice is that unless you know everything about the concepts at hand, you cannot take a judicious decision to compare the options to the "Datum" or the base.

We had the chance to apply Prof. Crawley's lessons on concept identification from need and intent..and how can I forget those buzz words from System Architecture class - Solution Neutral Statement, Need, Intent, Downstream Influences etc.. etc.. :-)

We look forward to our presentation this week. !