Reflections: the stoic way!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwBOW5MTJapWWEd6UkVWNlBHZDA/edit https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwBOW5MTJapWVFJtNHNJXzYwV0k/edit I admire Adobe a lot. This is my dream company. I just viewed Adobe India career page, as you see the link below. Wondered who is managing/maintaining this page. Is this a team or someone from the Recruitment team, maybe a VP level person?. No idea. I have some suggestions though and you can check those below. I just copy-pasted the webpage and inserted my comments/suggestions in gentleman fashion. Hope this helps! http://www.adobe.com/careers/benefits/india.html Careers / Benefits and compensation / India : Benefits Overview Why Adobe? How to apply University recruiting At Adobe, we provide flexible, comprehensive benefits and competitive compensation so employees can afford to take good care of themselves and their families. Read below for an overview of our benefit and compensation programs for employees ...

Our biggest challenge is building a sense of fairness and moderation. Given the immediacy of all issues, expediency takes the centre stage in all our actions and thoughts. Providing the balance between humanitarianism and resource optimisation has to be the corner stone of all leadership endeavours. Even though organisations have codified values and behaviours, we see a total lack of collective will to make members feel engaged, fulfilled and productive. Economic progress is possible without inclusiveness or vice a versa, but the ultimate dual purpose of organisation is profitability and people realising their individual and collective dreams. If an individual's ultimate goal is to become a better human being, organisations too need to become better to enable that. But this can happen only if boundaries are strong, understanding is collective and interdependence is enjoyed. Are we not talking about governance, when we say boundaries? In Responsibilities at Work and The F...

19 FEB 2012 , Times of India Business dull, 65 B-schools across India to shut down Writes: (today/Feb 2012 there are 3,900 management schools with close to 3.5 lakh seats) that supply overshot demand by a long straw. And now comes the fallout. Comes Oct 2012- TOI, Mumbai reports--225 B-schools, 52 engineering colleges close in 2 years. IBN live reports: in Andhra, 40 MCA, MBA colleges get AICTE nod for closure Desimba.in reports: 14 Andhra Pradesh MBA colleges will be closing their MBA programs this year ...Liked the word Desi MBA. What I understand about business of the business schools in India is like this...(If we leave the premier B schools)... With due regards... Generic skill body shoppers for industry, factory, shops, online business, any industry. Job types offered? data entry, cashier, attendance management, recruitment company's cold calling, insurance, credit card, SIM card, flat-plot sales, donation collection for NGOs, etc. S...

Interviewing is a great experince and that too when you are luckily getting interviewed by very Senior Executives... I have latest fun from the 2 such encounters that I had.. ACT#1. Global Head was interviewing me over phone and please note, there was no JD shared for the position. Call started with no idea given to me about the structure and duration of the call and no mention of if I will get opportunity to ask any questions. Normally senior Interviewers set the motion with structure, expectations and plan. Interestingly, nothing seemed planned or structured. Call starts with the typical personal question, "Tell me about your family".  No stopping there and n ext comes the tagged question. Yes, 2 questions merged in one, "Tell me about your pre-MBA experinece and why did you choose HR as M BA specialisation?". Not sure, if asking two mutually exclusive questions merged in one sentence saves time or anything else. But for sure, interviewer had no plan or struct...

I especially liked what I italicised. I liked the most about "Integrity" KELLY PERDEW—winner of The Apprentice 2—has it. His secret weapon: the principles he learned at West Point, as a U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, and as an Airborne Ranger—principles that he’s applied to business with the same firepower determination that makes our military the best on the battlefield. In Take Command: 10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and Put to Work for Donald Trump, Kelly shows how you can be an effective leader—like Donald Trump, who himself attended a military school. He gives you an insider look at The Apprentice, at the Trump Organization, and at how other current business leaders with military training, like Ross Perot (Founder, EDS), Marty Evans (CEO, Red Cross), Bill Coleman (Founder, BEA Systems), and Roger Staubach (CEO, Staubach Company) have relied on the ten principles to achieve success.  • Duty. Do what you’re supposed to do, when you’re su...

Amazon Leadership Principles These are leadership principles and every Amazonian is guided by these principles. Customer Obsession Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers. Ownership Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job”. Invent and Simplify Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here”. As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time. Are Right, A Lot Leaders are right a lot. They have strong business judgment and good instincts. Hire and Develop the Best Leaders raise the performa...

"Sun never sets on British empire" but emperors set out to exit, depart, dropped or expire. Amitabh has revived as cinema has broader scope for roles even when you stick to active and not try being producer, director, distributor or critic. Cricket does not have that. If you are not batting or bowling as sharp as you did earlier, bring you down the order will not help. I was very confused to see Monty Paneshar so elated after dismissing Sachin at Wankhede yesterday. He was bowled over again, yes, again as it is easier to bowl him over than get him caught. Looks like being on the grounds and still playing is compared to still on celluloid and cast for lead roles. If one is on the ground, one is on the battle-field. Will need to fight and close combat. You cannot strategise on the field. That is an exercise done before landing on turf. Sachin must learn from Amitabh and check where he can diversify, keeping intact and leverage his brand image and capitalise. Plenty of ...

What is In Praise of Slow about? It’s about how the world got stuck in fast-forward and how more and more people everywhere are slowing down. In other words, it’s about the rise of the Slow Movement. In Praise of Slow is published in 30 languages and has been a bestseller in many countries. In October 2009, it was the inaugural selection for the new Huffington Post book club. What is the Slow Movement? It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting. When was this Slow idea born? People have been defending the value of slowness for at least 200 years - think of the Romantics, or the Transcendentalists or even the...

Whatever the size or shape of your business and whatever your talent issues, there are four fundamentals to talent management: 1. Align your business plan and talent strategy – make sure every aspect of your talent strategy directly contributes to your overall business plan and to creating value. Change anything that doesn’t. 2. Face the future – look at where your business is heading not where you’ve been. Keep questioning whether your talent management pipeline will give you what you need when you need it. 3. Pay attention to pivotal roles – get the right talent into the roles which have a disproportionate ability to create (or destroy) business value. 4. Focus on the financials – make measurement, benchmarking and analytics part of your plan. Look to your people ROI. Do you need a talent management rethink? Is your current talent management plan fit for purpose? Ask yourself these challenging questions: • Do I have the talent to quickly and successfully execute my org...

My conceptual paradise is a 2 x 2 box where two dichotomies are juxtaposed. Are you in this box or that one? Then the game of trying to figure out which box you belong, “Are you in box A or box B?”, “What type of leader are you?” “Are you transformational or transactional?” “Are you inwardly directed or outwardly directed?” “Are you left or right wing?” Consultants have made a fortune helping people and organizations figure out which box they belong in. The problem with these dichotomies is that they simplify the world. They give too much credence to clean, conceptual thinking. It depends on the situation. You may be a transactional leader one day and a transformative leader the next. You may be internally directed one day and externally directed a week from Tuesday. And then there is what I consider to be the ultimate knee-jerk dichotomy? This dichotomy between leading and managing is an indulgence in simplicity that we can no longer afford. Especially when a...

Jim Clifton | Only 8% Indians are positive about their jobs America is good compared with India or China or Russia. These are really lousy workplaces: Clifton US research and consultancy services firm Gallup has rated India poorly on it's global well-being index, which includes parameters such as career, social, financial, physical and community well-being. Income, education and employment have emerged as the key concerns among Indians evaluating their lives. 31% Indians classify their lives as 'suffering', 56% 'struggling' and 13% 'thriving'. Global index of suffering, struggling and thriving are 13, 63 and 24 percentages. Denmark tops the list with 74% thriving and only 2% suffering. Cambodia with only 2% thriving and 26% suffering. In an interview with Mint on Monday, Apr 30, 2012, Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup Inc. said, "Only 8% of Indian employed are engaged, which means that only 8% of Indian work-force are engaged, positive and thrilled abo...

We have a facebook profile, a linked in profile, a blog, perhaps a web page and much more to hold on to in the virtual world..All this and loosing touch with the real world, so far explored by being at a mall or a movie.. How about having your yearly calendar and filling it with things like, 2 trip to the heritage site, 80 miles away, walking through the lovely mountain range across the state, having picnic there; build a small documentary on your small v-cam over the best street food in your city, participating in 2 walkathon , 2 cyclothon supporting healthy heart and sponsor a school campaign; attending 2 seminars on non-conventional career opportunities; going for a paint-ball game, an org walk through the village across borders, going for a blood donation campaign, attending crafts exhibition by NGOs; listening to 4 lecture sessions by experts from "education , media, law and science and tech"; learning salad making,  mock tails martini from city's best chefs; att...

'A leader is someone who just not asks, WHY?  instead, more often, he asks, WHY NOT?". Very impressive line I got to hear from Air Asia X CEO Azran Rani, an ex- McKinsey Consultant. As Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X, the world's first truly low-cost long-haul airline. He led the start-up team that developed the business plan, raised capital, secured relevant licenses and approvals, acquired aircraft and launched AirAsia X's first inaugural flight to the Gold Coast, Australia in November 2007. Navigated company to success, through Tsunami, Aviation fuel price rocketed to $150, H1N1, Credit Crunch, Licensing issues and several other unforeseen challenges. When I listen to such impressive people from the Global corporate arena, it consoles, we have people, who  create charisma and success by holding on to very high level of accountability and character. Does success come easy to them? Not really, they face multi-dimensional and multi-layer pressure that is torme...

Must read article, by  SAMUEL A. CULBERT  at the Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2010 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB127093422486175363.html

Amazing test that is so far the best I have got to see and tested. It brings your insight to you, the way, you never knew it...truly endoscopic, I say. It is not a trait test, it is not personality test, it is not leadership style test. It is a tool to discover, someone, called , YOU. Take this..and get to know who you are? Great things come for free! One best example is this tool. Link below- Want to discover your Top 5 Leadership Characteristics and more? Korn/Ferry's ProSpective Assessment identifies your strengths and weaknesses and can help you get what you want from your career. This 3 step assessment takes just 10 minutes. You’ll receive a personalized report which contains your Top 5 Leadership Characteristics and highlights your hidden strengths and blind spots. https://linkedin.kornferry.com/InSight/MyResults/910E31793FF845E2BE742086CBF2E7E7?utm_source=linkedinshare&CV=113

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen. All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others. I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. Winston Churchill...