I suppress my real self from my blog, just for being non-controversial, not so judgemental and not being ignorantly opinionated. There is a latent fear or discomfort for being disliked in person instead for the words, hated personally in place of expressions or just to keep some part of persona an enigma! Often, the disagreement with opinion ends up with disagreement for the person's self in general!
The cost of independence to India are many lives of those extremist freedom fighters and the awareness and spirits of moderate freedom movement participants (I can't call them fighters as they never did it for independence!).
But their efforts gave an independent state with huge amount of money and military to a set of people (You know..who). This is a biggest loss on negotiation however honest the efforts and struggle for freedom! The heart rendering loss of lives of a set of people ended up in providing an independent state to another who never shared the same frequency in terms of values, spirits and unity.
The slogans of unity in diversity are brain wash to broad minded ones, the so called 'secular' statements may never convince an insecure, but win elections, at the end of the day be realistic and don't die for a country with diversity! You and your life is lost in the history of 1 day's airtime of 24/7 news channels and some pre-scripted condolence message by a local/national politician, which doesn't replenish the happiness of your family not set a martyr's due to be settled by coming generations! It just goes a worthless life!
Being patriotic should also mean being realistic in terms of our thoughts and actions. We need to keep our values alive, up keep the right against wrong, the merit against evil and solidarity against hypocrisy and let the generations move on! After all revolutions repeat, history repeats.. some times bringing good in place of evil..
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The 'fundamentals' of decision making
I am part of the team of maintenance and support of a the data warehouse of a wholesale -MNC.
My role as a PM-O from IT back office companies earlier had little scope with data warehousing as the FTE and HC equations with 'billable' and 'non-billable' calculations however ended up with revenue based on them! The normative contract documents like Project Brief Documents, Project Proposal Agreements and SLAs had their terms dictating the interim revenue in flows of the company. The standard project tracking tools and WBS analysis, time tracking, resource assignment and utilization rate play the crucial part in efficient planning of service - revenue trade off!!
A dashboard for top-management depends upon various sources of data/tools and external industry statistics or benchmarks provided by the consulting companies. In IT companies, the MIS customers are normally top management and rarely the middle level managers.
It works differently in the retail industry. The Business Intelligence customers range from executives in merchandising departments to operators in stores, customer development field executives and up to the top decision makers!!! The data analyst's role is limited to retrieving the data that is asked for, in the form of either ad-hoc or periodical, in the range of estimation of data sample size, method of retrieving data, application used for processing (basically excel/access), presentation (excel, ppt dashboard, pdf) and accuracy verification & traffic light indications. This is normally top-down approach where the managers' request for data is provided for. The value addition for data analyst's role lies in terms of providing decision KPIs on observation of vast, unprocessed data and mining the data and discovering a pattern or a trend.!!
The processed data is called 'information'. The ouput provided by data analyst becomes valuable information for decision making. The data analysis in retail industry is more dynamic, with often unpredicted patterns, seasonal steady behaviours, consumer behaviours and it is sensitive to external environments and surprises. This is a highly skilled job that requires good knowledge of business processes and decision impacts.!! Some of the steady patterns are susceptible to the methodologies of advanced statistical models. However, restricting the analysis to either micro data set or macro data set; single KPIs or KPIs from single source of data could have risk of resulting into 'blind folded' business strategies/decisions.
The scope for data mining is provided by large Data Warehouses, known for robustness and scalability!! They are normally combination of DWH with a Business Intelligence platform for access by data analysts. The data analysis is predicted as the next big outsourcing opportunity to be transferred to India and other developing countries ( Despite the risk of data security!). The ERP major SAP has already indicated their focus on Business Intelligence solutions as next big thing. After all our tomorrows are the results of what we have done today based on the directions derived by what happened yesterday!!! Makes sense..eh?
My role as a PM-O from IT back office companies earlier had little scope with data warehousing as the FTE and HC equations with 'billable' and 'non-billable' calculations however ended up with revenue based on them! The normative contract documents like Project Brief Documents, Project Proposal Agreements and SLAs had their terms dictating the interim revenue in flows of the company. The standard project tracking tools and WBS analysis, time tracking, resource assignment and utilization rate play the crucial part in efficient planning of service - revenue trade off!!
A dashboard for top-management depends upon various sources of data/tools and external industry statistics or benchmarks provided by the consulting companies. In IT companies, the MIS customers are normally top management and rarely the middle level managers.
It works differently in the retail industry. The Business Intelligence customers range from executives in merchandising departments to operators in stores, customer development field executives and up to the top decision makers!!! The data analyst's role is limited to retrieving the data that is asked for, in the form of either ad-hoc or periodical, in the range of estimation of data sample size, method of retrieving data, application used for processing (basically excel/access), presentation (excel, ppt dashboard, pdf) and accuracy verification & traffic light indications. This is normally top-down approach where the managers' request for data is provided for. The value addition for data analyst's role lies in terms of providing decision KPIs on observation of vast, unprocessed data and mining the data and discovering a pattern or a trend.!!
The processed data is called 'information'. The ouput provided by data analyst becomes valuable information for decision making. The data analysis in retail industry is more dynamic, with often unpredicted patterns, seasonal steady behaviours, consumer behaviours and it is sensitive to external environments and surprises. This is a highly skilled job that requires good knowledge of business processes and decision impacts.!! Some of the steady patterns are susceptible to the methodologies of advanced statistical models. However, restricting the analysis to either micro data set or macro data set; single KPIs or KPIs from single source of data could have risk of resulting into 'blind folded' business strategies/decisions.
The scope for data mining is provided by large Data Warehouses, known for robustness and scalability!! They are normally combination of DWH with a Business Intelligence platform for access by data analysts. The data analysis is predicted as the next big outsourcing opportunity to be transferred to India and other developing countries ( Despite the risk of data security!). The ERP major SAP has already indicated their focus on Business Intelligence solutions as next big thing. After all our tomorrows are the results of what we have done today based on the directions derived by what happened yesterday!!! Makes sense..eh?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Powers of visual thinking
The title goes with little meaning for me than just as 'day dreaming'..!! So don't go by the heading..!!
Thinking with visualization is more powerful and effective due to the sense of vision in it. It is similar to foreseeing ours' and opponents' various possible moves in the game of Chess! We are experiencing the game already once in the mind before actually playing it. Good isn't it?
In my opinion, any activity that involves unknown change should be preceded by simulation of that with a visual thinking. It is a laboratory for idea generation. I shall soon come up with examples..
Thinking with visualization is more powerful and effective due to the sense of vision in it. It is similar to foreseeing ours' and opponents' various possible moves in the game of Chess! We are experiencing the game already once in the mind before actually playing it. Good isn't it?
In my opinion, any activity that involves unknown change should be preceded by simulation of that with a visual thinking. It is a laboratory for idea generation. I shall soon come up with examples..
An idea can change your life (in Bangalore!!)
What could be one big changed experience, that a Bangalorean wish for?
More gardens ? Cauvery water to every house? Pollution and dust free air?
More than these, it is traffic.
The roads in Bangalore are mostly 80Feet and some are 100 feet. The flat landscape makes the drive a good experience in Bangalore if the roads are empty. Most of the busy roads have congested because of the vehicles parked on the sides of the road and bus commuters waiting for the BMTC on the road and each road having one such bus stop for every half a kilometer.
Within the city we have highest number of intersections and traffic signals. Sometimes, it is one intersection or a cross road for every 100 meters within the city..!!! Most of the times a drivers' (riders') challenge is to wait at every such signals for 3 minutes for the green signals and it takes a limping pain and a saint's perseverance to cross a short distance of 3 kilometers.
An idea of synchronising the traffic signals of entire city could result in a changed experience which I mentioned above, for every Bangalorean..!!
More gardens ? Cauvery water to every house? Pollution and dust free air?
More than these, it is traffic.
The roads in Bangalore are mostly 80Feet and some are 100 feet. The flat landscape makes the drive a good experience in Bangalore if the roads are empty. Most of the busy roads have congested because of the vehicles parked on the sides of the road and bus commuters waiting for the BMTC on the road and each road having one such bus stop for every half a kilometer.
Within the city we have highest number of intersections and traffic signals. Sometimes, it is one intersection or a cross road for every 100 meters within the city..!!! Most of the times a drivers' (riders') challenge is to wait at every such signals for 3 minutes for the green signals and it takes a limping pain and a saint's perseverance to cross a short distance of 3 kilometers.
An idea of synchronising the traffic signals of entire city could result in a changed experience which I mentioned above, for every Bangalorean..!!
- Identification of every traffic signals
- number of intersections on the busy roads
- number of vehicles per minute on the road,
- direction mapping to joints to major roads, sector basis
- Synchronisation of traffic signals to the assigned directions based on the above aspects!! (All green lights at all signals to one direction in the entire stretch of the road at the same time and vice versa based on the directions and major connections)
This might require the pedestrians to be little cautious than now, but will ease the travel time, travel experience for drivers and riders substantially. We can't teach ourselves a road discipline, but can we learn that from digitally controlled, changed traffic lights ???.. A food for thought for our elected representatives..& IT companies and all of us??
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Law of diminishing marginal utility & anuual increments
There was an era in a typical city like Bangalore where a job in a nationalised bank or a handful of PSUs (BEML, BHEL, HAL, NAL) were attractive for a fresh graduate or a post graduate with a MSC or MCOM (IT, BT, ITES and MBAs were not existing..!). A predefined scale and a career graph of an increment in 3 years and promotion in 5 years was just more like a biological calender for an employee where learning or performence where terms in least use as much as years of service..!! An employee's life used to go on in between with the joy of family and friends, celebrating festivals with colleagues, attending the naming ceremonies and so on..!
Today, we have bunch of job sites and every street in Bangalore having a head hunters office, with twice a year appraisal and pay review (only upward) and promotions in six months of experience offered by the companies, learning curves, performence reviews, number games and strategy games..with a 100% hike for a skip into another company..! The virtual meeting place of social network sites and cafeterias to discuss the share market and real estate and foreign holidays and wife/husband on line with click of a button on the mobile..are general routine for a new age worker.!
It is an apt diminishing utility in terms of employees monetory/job satisfaction while analysing the latest work conditions and job markets. Every payment of blanket increments, bonus variables, mid term compensation reviews, cash rewards on shorter instances witness a diminishing utility on the level of commitment and/or fulfilment.
Call it greed or short-lived wave of outsourcing job works..the law perfectly holds good.!
Today, we have bunch of job sites and every street in Bangalore having a head hunters office, with twice a year appraisal and pay review (only upward) and promotions in six months of experience offered by the companies, learning curves, performence reviews, number games and strategy games..with a 100% hike for a skip into another company..! The virtual meeting place of social network sites and cafeterias to discuss the share market and real estate and foreign holidays and wife/husband on line with click of a button on the mobile..are general routine for a new age worker.!
It is an apt diminishing utility in terms of employees monetory/job satisfaction while analysing the latest work conditions and job markets. Every payment of blanket increments, bonus variables, mid term compensation reviews, cash rewards on shorter instances witness a diminishing utility on the level of commitment and/or fulfilment.
Call it greed or short-lived wave of outsourcing job works..the law perfectly holds good.!
The probability theory, cause & effect & existence
If we say that universe is infinite..and in such a universe an average sized star called sun has few planets under its gravity...what we call solar system..has an ideal distance with one of the planet called Earth to constitute the evolution of life in it, then..is it not a high probability, a random event? Ever since the pure science has developed as a stream of subject, a body of knowledge, scientists have assumed the probability of other planets with similar stage of life in them. Considering the infinite size of universe and infinite number of stars it can not be ruled out. But only one assurance it is not known yet..! The evolution of life on earth is a perfect phenomena! At least I call so. What if the distance between Sun & Earth is few hundred thousand kilometers more or less than 92 million miles..? But it..just is not..! ..It is a perfect distance..! If a random event like this, is a perfect condition for another event like development of life..then, why we call this world as imperfect..? So perfection, naturally can also be a random event and need not a rational one..! The change of seasons, rain, sunshine, breeze, oceans, snowpeaks, mountains, rivers are the results of a perfect phenomena, each caused by one another.
If life has began with unicellular organisms and developed into various stages of evolution, mankind is now known last stage in the chain! ..So what is next..? (We do not yet have a completely convincing theory on evolution of the first unicellular being..!)
So development as an effect has the cause of a perfect condition preceding it.!. If mankind has to develop to any thing called a next stage..is it a perfect condition? I say it is not. A perfect condition is made imperfect with rationality of mankind. The environmental effect. Then imperfection can not cause a development, instead a development in the negative side..!? ..
..Now tell me ..has this arguement seen a logical sequence..!? If yes.. then ..existence is due to the perfection..extinction is due to the imperfection.. ! Perfection and imperfection can both be natural or rational..But the impacts are different..isn't it..?
If life has began with unicellular organisms and developed into various stages of evolution, mankind is now known last stage in the chain! ..So what is next..? (We do not yet have a completely convincing theory on evolution of the first unicellular being..!)
So development as an effect has the cause of a perfect condition preceding it.!. If mankind has to develop to any thing called a next stage..is it a perfect condition? I say it is not. A perfect condition is made imperfect with rationality of mankind. The environmental effect. Then imperfection can not cause a development, instead a development in the negative side..!? ..
..Now tell me ..has this arguement seen a logical sequence..!? If yes.. then ..existence is due to the perfection..extinction is due to the imperfection.. ! Perfection and imperfection can both be natural or rational..But the impacts are different..isn't it..?
Biddu music
I was in 1st standard when I first listened to the famous composition by Biddu for the film Qurbani (Aap jaisa koi mere zindgi me aaye..!) It made me freeze and I was longing to listen more of that! Music or art, since they touch our senses their fanfare go beyond cultures or nationality..or age!
His compositions have been my favourits, be it disco diwane, made in India or boom.! Biddu's journey into success of being a composer is as fascinating as his retro disco numbers.
I often hit the youtube to get the glimpse of my favourit numbers (more often I feel its piracy..!) and without fail the ever green ones..!
I just didn't stop at those Nazia Hassan melodies composed by Biddu, I happened to watch his interview in local news channel TV9. His candid, spontaneous and open answers to the interviewer's questions were as interesting as his music. It felt no superficial while he expressed his fondess for being Indian ... surprisingly for a legend who left the country in search of realising his dreams at early age!!! His straight talks about money, bollywood, carefully not being 'inspired' by other composers' music, being unfazed by madness created by his music, being dead by few years down the line.. just made me wonder if ..only we call carefully chosen words that are exchanged, are called interviews or this kind of real ones..!? Only a multi-talented artist like Biddu ..dare express the real self..!
Re-inventing one self is what we can learn from his life..! A Columbus for his own dreams.. left the country to chase his dreams..achieved fame as international music composer.. created ever-lasting music numbers...starts afresh as a writer of a novel..!
I look forward to read his autobiography..Made in India..! sooner or later.
His compositions have been my favourits, be it disco diwane, made in India or boom.! Biddu's journey into success of being a composer is as fascinating as his retro disco numbers.
I often hit the youtube to get the glimpse of my favourit numbers (more often I feel its piracy..!) and without fail the ever green ones..!
I just didn't stop at those Nazia Hassan melodies composed by Biddu, I happened to watch his interview in local news channel TV9. His candid, spontaneous and open answers to the interviewer's questions were as interesting as his music. It felt no superficial while he expressed his fondess for being Indian ... surprisingly for a legend who left the country in search of realising his dreams at early age!!! His straight talks about money, bollywood, carefully not being 'inspired' by other composers' music, being unfazed by madness created by his music, being dead by few years down the line.. just made me wonder if ..only we call carefully chosen words that are exchanged, are called interviews or this kind of real ones..!? Only a multi-talented artist like Biddu ..dare express the real self..!
Re-inventing one self is what we can learn from his life..! A Columbus for his own dreams.. left the country to chase his dreams..achieved fame as international music composer.. created ever-lasting music numbers...starts afresh as a writer of a novel..!
I look forward to read his autobiography..Made in India..! sooner or later.
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