Me, My friend and some rapid fire questions to the President !!

Every week I attend network gatherings, and when I mention I am from Mumbai, India - there's a sorry reaction. People at times ask me about the situation - tourist per se as well as from political perspective. And I more than welcome then in explaining them of do's and don'ts of travelling.

India has a long history of extreme weather patterns. Any adverse affect of the climate change would indirectly impact the Indian economy. The current political situations at the national level revolve more around terrorism and development of the nation. I am sure there would be 'n' number of blogs on this topic already, and being a idealist and sort of capitalist, I would like to view the leaders of my country being more pro-active and sensible in their approach towards policy making.

More recently my entrepreneur friend at IE Business School questioned me about global warming, setting up a firm in India and how I would address the issue to the President/ Prime Minister of the country if I had a chance to meet them for only 5 mins. Well that was a test and a teaser sort from my friend. Also, this made me wonder that the development versus environment debate makes it much more difficult for the environmental issues to come to the centre stage of any political agenda. Global warming is very essential, environmentally, politically and economically. I firmly believe that the political leaders should come forward to stabilize greenhouse gases using stringent national policies and effective market mechanisms, like moving away from consumption or focus on sharing resources, thus looking forward to remodel our world.

If I had the opportunity to meet the president or the prime minister, I would like to ask her/him about the environmental policy - asking her/him about Global warming and what will it take to implement a cure that is actually more costly than the original affliction? Why that global warming is not discussed with an open attitude, so that the budding entrepreneurs can carefully view their investments to avoid making big and costly mistakes or any repetitive mistakes? It is just not a matter of choosing the optimal economic path, but rather decide what kind of society we would like to live in.

With this meeting I would listen, question and offer my opinions. Finally I would like to take a photograph of the two of us, with an autograph on it, to make me realize that yes it all happened!! My friend was more or less convinced with my 5 min approach, but couldn't stop laughing on the photography statement. Well, not daily you get to meet big personalities - right?

I failed, I learnt. (PoV)

My most memorable and enduring learning experiences have stemmed from suffering the consequences of my own mistakes, and those lessons have shaped me into the person I am today.

In any project, process adherence will take a beating if you do not have adequate duration available. I experienced a similar situation during the middle of my first project in 2004, where I went through a significant failure that stretched the process of analysis and unnecessarily delayed the schedule of the code delivery. In laying down the conceptual framework towards defining the coding and analytical process, I was at times tempted to teach my team shortcuts to reach the deadlines.

I have learnt that we are all susceptible to failures; success is a result of persistence and discipline. Years later, the self confidence I gained through these results helped me to overcome a very different type of challenge, and thus any problematic behavioral aspect has gradually given way to the acceptable working style. I learnt to lead the hard way.

I am passionate about things that count, and let go of things that doesn't. It just makes it easier for me. This way I accept the good and eliminate the bad. I have had many a role models who have simply shown me the way to react to each failing and succeeding situations. Be it hot shots like Mr Narayana Murthy (Infosys), Sachin Tendulkar (God of Cricket), Michael Jordan (NBA), Armstrong(Cycling) or be it my family, friends, mentors, colleagues.

We all do fail at some point in our lives - at work, in sports, in things we love passionately, but true success stems in embracing failure with a pinch of salt and learning from it. Ask yourselves, do you feel that you have it in you to stand tall to the obstacles in life? If no, then take help from family and friends. If yes, then best luck for everything ahead! Remember, it is your passion to achieve something and your positive attitude that will shape your character.

Mera Desh Mahan !!

Dear readers, as I already mentioned I happened to enroll to a MBA program with one of Europe’s prestigious school which is known for Diversity, Networking and various fields of specialization. More recently I had sessions on Culture involving India during my Launch program. I had the ambassadors of India in Spain as the guest faculty giving speech to the class over the Indian culture. Being in a business school, probably my expectations were more towards having a session on doing business in India, but I was wrong, the session was more to do with what India had to offer in terms of Culture and Heritage. I must appreciate the guest speakers to have summed up Indian culture in an hour and half, because personally speaking, it’s not easy to describe any culture for that matter in a gist. The topic varied from mythological epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata (two of the oldest, longest and most read Epic in India) to dance and modern art. For me it was a re-cap of what was learnt during my primary schooling. It just reminded me of those exciting days of History class where I graze through books and through encylopedia (I was a big fan). Also during my stay in Brussels, many of my colleagues as well my client managers used to ask me regularly about India. It was really amusing to hear stories from colleagues and friends who visited India and how they perceive the culture, people and country. For those who have not visited India, let me tell you, it would be best to read stories and articles over the place and the state you intend to visit. Because each part of India has completely different culture, transportation system, work culture, food options etc. For me, it’s a pleasure as an Indian, to introduce my home country to newcomers! And I must say that in the event, India is certainly one of the richest countries, in terms of how diverse the regions are and what contrasts it offers. A walk through the “Golden Temple” in Amritsar, to the “Taj Mahal” in Agra; the “Red Fort” in Delhi to the beautiful “Beaches” in Goa; history has peppered India with magnificent ruins.

Incredible India

Picture Courtesy: http://promote-my-site.com/images/india_map.jpg

All the states are well-served by public transport and enjoy a rich, diversified commercial activity, not to mention the numerous eateries ranging from “Vada Pav” in Maharashtra to “Dosa” in Tamil Nadu, which welcome gourmets and gluttons alike. The quality of housing and the diversity of various neighborhoods are another asset to the country. The presence of plentiful sports infrastructures and multi-cultural facilities contributes to the quality of life of everyone who finds that this environment offers all the services they need for their own personal fulfillment. India is a country with many faces, from rags to riches and one which is filled with even more treasures, with great unifying events such as the cultural festivals, the trendy restaurants or the remarkable monuments. Poverty has always been the downside, but its upto the people and society to eradicate them. I was able to play my part via Infosys foundation activities, perhaps which was just a water drop in the ocean, and might not be enough. But each one of us contributing, it will definitely be a great step towards mankind.

I have always been a globe trotter and bag packer. I like travelling places, understand different culture, meet new people. I have travelled to a little more than 20 cities within India. One of the most exciting places that I enjoyed was with my parents and relatives visiting the enchanting Backwaters in God’s own country – Kerala in the 90’s. Land and water share an extraordinary kinship here in the “Venice of the East”, throbbing with its own unique culture. The site continues to bask in the tender life giving care of the waters that lap gently on its coast, cascade down its hills and valleys and rests calmly in exotic backwaters and lagoons. Think about the gorgeous greens, the canopies of coconuts and the soothing sound of water rippling alongside the houseboat–all these elements help to forge the identity of a place which is open to the world and, in my view, perfectly encapsulate the delights of the life in this part of the world.

I need not mention in detail on doing business in India, as already the rest of the blogs might cover the contents and the various business models I came across with the firms I was associated with. So, come to India and experience an unforgettable journey, along the tranquil backwaters of Kerala, to the ruins of Ajanta and Ellora in Mumbai, to Fatehpur Sikhri and to view one of the Seven Wonders of the World – The Taj Mahal.

Backwaters Picture Courtesy: rarepicsaroundtheworld.blogspot.com

Organizing and Team Work - All in the Game of Cricket !!

All work and no play make Andy a dull boy. Yes, and that’s the reason why I was away from the blog for a while. I recently quit my organization to further my skills with a leading Business School in Europe (IE Business School, Madrid, Spain). I will come to that in the later sections of my blog. However, coming back to Team Work, I must say I have had some roller-coaster ride both professionally and personally. Let me start with a description of this beautiful game of Cricket played in Belgium, a country which has been recently promoting Cricket in the region.

The Event: 8 corporate teams, 2 spots in the finals, 1 Crown - all battling it out over the weekends after rigorous working hours for the sweet spot. The league started at the end of June 2008 and lasted for a month with all matches being played during weekends, involving 15 matches. The prize money for the league and the Trophy for the winners were up for grabs.

Participating Teams:
Group A: Belga X (Belgacom Team A), Royal Super Kings (Proximus Team A), TCS, Girish’s 9 (Proximus Team C)
Group B: MindIT (Belgacom Team B), Ramki’s 9 (Proximus Team B), The Invincibles (LG), Telenet
Each team had around 12 participants (as 11 is usually the number of people on the field). This way more than 80 people participated in the event.

Management Lessons Learnt: Organizing an event on a big scale, managing the resources, co-ordination, team work, authority, team disputes, time management, decision making, dedication, passion, focus etc. I think I was able to cover almost all aspect of a management lesson outside of the work place. And hence I decided to share something which is not based on work but on co-curricular where you see regular team activities and are able to apply the management concepts.

Planning: I think one of the key aspects of the event was planning. The objective of the event was to bring as many people under a single forum as possible. This way networking is on a high, people are able to demonstrate skills outside of their work environment, and most importantly a way to remain fit. With this me, along with 3 other colleagues of mine started planning, and it was within 3 days, despite our tight schedules, that we finalized the plan, materialized over the resources, prize money, and registration and so on. It was no less than organizing a session and getting a speaker to visit the company or school. The time and energy put up by each one of us can be complicated with the passion each one had for the game as well as for networking.

Resources: After planning stage, this stage was very painful for the organizing team. Taking into account that the organizers had no $$$ cash for big spending, having the right finances was of utmost importance. With this the organizers had numerous brainstorming sessions, and ultimately came with a budget with which both the organizers and players were content. Getting the sports materials, hiring the internal resources for umpiring and organizing various things, prize money and post event party – everything was well planned. It was just a matter of execution.

Time-management: I believe this area was one of the poorly hit, in the sense that getting the organizers and players on time to the playing ground, and also considering the tight schedule at work place. As an organizer one hates to wait long hours for participants, in this case we gave some considerations based on the project releases that the team had, but at the same time we also ensured that the teams were penalized for any mis-conduct.

Team Work: As I mentioned already, the team work and co-ordination between players, between the organizers and both between the players and organizers were the key drivers of the event. Without this it was hard to ensure a very successful event. During the event, I also happened to be a part of team–disputes, but despite that the smoothness in the team co-ordination was ensured, and event was successful. The dispute arose due to the time-management process, and later the organizers learnt the lesson and quickly learnt and reacted over the same in other matches.

Decision Making: As a part of the resource planning, the departments were set. Each person was given an authority in the respective departments. Key people were identified. After a point, the organizers never had to rely on any SPOC’s, since everyone in the organizing board ensured the event was a grand success.
I believe the focus, dedication and passion towards the game drove the complete event. Even the losing participating teams enjoyed the game of cricket and supported the event until the finals. Many a lesson learnt, many a friends made, many a network developed. The objective was achieved!!

Gist of the event and Match Summary:
Belga X romped to a victory over TCS by 6 wickets to clinch the inaugural Belgian Premier League. An electrifying contest between two well-balanced sides was in the writings when table toppers Belga X took on the confident TCS in the Finals of the first Belgian Premier League at Schuman Park, Merode, Brussels on Sunday.

TCS, who were made to bat first by Belga X, made the lowest score of their tournament 61/8 before seeing the end of 16 overs. TCS started off positively with runs coming from all ends until Belga X took the much needed wicket of one of their key batsmen. TCS kept losing wickets at regular intervals after their opening batsmen failed to give them a good start with Belga X bowlers capitalizing on the crucial wicket. TCS set a target of 61 in 16 overs for Belga X, which the champions managed to convincingly reach with the loss of 2 wickets. TCS did not bowl that badly; nor were they slow in the field and this was evident from some quality fielding and fine bowling by TCS. Belga X were simply irresistible. For the most part Belga X looked on in admiration during an opening partnership between Anand and Yatin. TCS managed to bounce back within few minutes by grabbing two wickets of the openers, but it was too late in the day to stop Belga X from winning the tournament. TCS should have put the game way beyond the reach of any good side after Belga X had won the toss and put TCS to bat. But the team that held its nerves better and grabbed chances was the team that saw through the tournament.Belga X continued it's winning streak this season by grabbing the 1st edition of the Belgian Premier League 2008 Corporate Challenge trophy in style by beating TCS convincingly on the Schuman Park ( SCG ) in what was a completely one sided-affair.
The Champions lifted the trophy in style while also grabbed the cash prize , while TCS lifted the runners up trophy as well as the case prize. The tournament got the farcical final it deserved, and all praises to the participating teams, the supporters and the organizers who owed more than this. It proved to be a showpiece to say a more dignified victory.

Cheers...

Comments from writers:
Rajarshi Guin, Senior Software Consultant and Writer of Infosys Newsletter - guin.rajarshi@gmail.com

"Arre yaar chalo ek cricket tournament karte hain", said a cricket enthusiast in Hindi (National language of India). But this was not just some casual coffee break comment. What followed was a herculean effort from the Belgacom team members, who got together, brainstormed for many hours and in less than 2 weeks managed to organise for the first time in Brussels the Belgium Premier League Cricket Tournament. And no, this was not just any cricket tournament, with 8 teams from all over Belgium, their supporters and guests, this event brought together close to a 100 people from Infosys, TCS and LG. Bright sunny days and curious Belgian spectators at the Schuman Cricket Ground made for a picture perfect start. Fourteen fiercely fought battles and four weekends later TCS took on Belga X (Infosys Belgacom) for a shot at glory. Dubbed the "Clash of the Titans", Belga X, however, had other plans. They wasted no time as they romped home to a 6 wicket victory, leaving them and their supporters with sufficient time to celebrate that Sunday evening. Both the winners and runners-up were pleasantly surprised to receive cash prizes and a trophy each to crown their achievements. Let's get together to applaud the fantastic effort of the organisers, the teams, the ever patient match officials and the many enthusiastic supporters - their spirit ensured that at the end of the day there was really one winner - CRICKET.

Together Everyone Achieves More after all Team Work is Dream Work !!

Team - Spelled Pronunciation [teem] –noun

1. A number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest: a football team.2. A number of persons associated in some joint action: a team of advisers.

Courtesy - http://www.mgcpuzzles.com
Remember the saying – There is no I in a team. Something I always believed when I was allocated to assignments in a large group or a small one. I have worked for various modules and teams. More recently, in 2006, I was in Brussels, working for a leading telecommunication firm, and had my own set of responsibilities and challenges. Working at client-site locations is a treat in itself. My organization composed of all kinds of people: men, women, people who speak a different language, who have different origins or beliefs, people with different levels of education or work experience, people with similar or completely contrasting personalities, as well as people with physical or mental disabilities, etc. In other words, it was very mixed, heterogeneous and diverse.

I worked in a team which comprised of executives, managers, engineers, business analysts and test analysts coming from different parts of the world. I have always believed that, the strength of the team is each individual member, and the strength of each individual is the team. So with this notion, I tried working, interacting and building a team, where I could extract not only the skill but also an openness in one’s thinking. I was always inspired by my senior client manager – he is known as Godfather in Dutch. His soft skills, ability to perform under toughest conditions, stress free attitude were some of the qualities I would always like to emulate. Apart from these, speaking a common language was of utmost importance. Although I struggled initially, I slowly devised strategies to manage diversity including - clarity of communications, holding meetings, leqrning client languages and supervising effectively. The participation of different types of people in a project ensured colorful, innovative and surprising ideas. In dealing with the diverse team, I was required to be flexible in changing priorities of work and life balance depending on deadlines for projects where as my French, Dutch and British counterparts gave equal priority to both at all times. As a result, strong emphasis was placed on quality processes and achievable deadlines. I adapted to different demands of diverse managers while accommodating varying needs of other team members. In this process I have worked with around 12 client-side managers within a span of 31 months while in Brussels.

My workplace helped me greatly in modifying my attitudes as for the first time I was with peers from countries which I had only read about. My exposure to the various different nationalities in Brussels built on my foundation of cultural awareness. I was in the midst of a swarm of expatriates who had formed a community so tight that I could live with all the luxuries of a technologically modern lifestyle. I cherished this experience which was actually a tremendous confident builder. All of these experiences have taught me to work as a team member apart from instilling in me a great sense of confidence along with a better understanding of people around me.

One video which has motivated me time and again, be it on the football or the cricket ground, at workplace or any place under the roof with set of people, is the one from 'Any Given Sunday'. I am a great fan of Al Pacino ever since I first laid my hands on the Godfather and the Scareface videotapes. Gosh when helluva of an actor. What this speech teaches you is that, no matter how strong an opponent or work situation be, no matter how much people bring you down to your knees, you have to believe and fight. And fight back well with your team. So stand up and keeping moving forward. Every inch of a football or cricket field, or every release in the project is driven only by one factor, the team. It’s like a bead, one break and all scatters. So stand up to fight as a team as die as individuals. Remember - Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM).

Well too short a word, but too huge a meaning. That's a small portion I wanted to emphasize on. Until then a la prochaine !!

Conclusion de la Flat World...

Accessing free information and being able to interact with anyone else on the planet was a big flattener in my world as it is in yours. Each individual has at least a handful of experiences to recount how his or her world flattened. Acquired knowledge will definitely help us become more effective and efficient in life’s task, or perhaps completely change our views, opinions or beliefs. So in that regard, most of us are just beginners and have a journey of life to cover, just like a new born baby does. The Flat concepts will allow each one of us to better function in the business world of tomorrow. In addition, it would defineltly have a great influence on our interpersonal skills and sense of humor, which will allow us to connect with others in a beneficial manner. I believe these strengths will give us the basic set of skills that we need to overcome our weakness and provide us with the foundation for building a successful career. Stretching beyond this and looking at the big picture and seeing things in context must be the goals that one needs to set.

In Darwin’s words: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”. So what do you think? I see my world flattening. I feel it everyday. And I guess it will become inevitable part of my everyday life. It’s a new game out there. Don’t complain about it – join and enjoy it. If you are not good enough to play in this different kind of game, you’ll simply be sitting on the sidelines watching others play.

The flat world doesn't end there...you will hear more of it in the coming blogs. Do drop in your appreciations and/ or shower your brickbats. A la prochaine !!

Courtesy: http://stratstars.pbwiki.com/

Old times sake - Communication and Information access

In the early 90s, communication and internet connectivity were dampeners too. My father waited for several years, to hear his first dial tone on a phone that he owned. Not long ago, say in the early 90's, I reminisce the times our family huddled around a telephone, we waited for a trunk call to speak to family members barely 1000 miles away. Even worse, before the arrival of the phone, the wait was as long as an hour from a public telephone booth. Kudos to the tehcie geniuses and teh DOT COM burst, today, it takes roughly an hour for me to get a permanent communication line, few minutes to get a mobile phone, and barely few seconds to get connected to my friends in Toronto or parents in Mumbai. As long as I have the money to pay, I could make my dial tone follow me wherever I am on the planet.

There were a few things that struck me as important as education. I remember my time as a School kiddo, when I spent several days showing my parents and sister how to access information on the internet. Now they can find more information than they’d ever need and can easily communicate with me in a few seconds on the Web. This “level playing field” for everyone was a distant dream twenty years ago. Pictures of needing a channel to watch Hollywood movies, tri-band transistors, video player that my father brought from overseas in 1987 are still fresh.

I was a vivid admirer of the world encyclopedia book and subscribing to such books in those days wasn’t easy. I had to pay hefty amounts to get to the local library to lay my hands on such books. It was certainly not a level playing field then.

Flatness is not about outsourcing and off shoring to India, China or any place under the sun; it is about access, crumbling of boundaries, ensuring that anyone in the world can build products and services from any part of the world and sell it in any part of the world where he/she can get maximum value. (a common definition that you will come across in the web)

My next chapter will include the conclusion to this Flat world concept, however the underlying fact about the Flat World as whole in the blog with different contents would remain the same - The World is Flat.

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to any characted, fiction, or blogs is purely co-incidential.

Images: Connector --> courtesy: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/ and Books --> courtesy: http://psychservices.ucsd.edu/

Trippin' in this Flat World...

Recently I had the privilege of observing how flat the world was in the European countries visiting six of them in a span of three months. So many of the things I saw and did every day were similar to the activities in Mumbai, India and particularly with young people. The girls all wore low cut jeans or mini-skirts and the boys wore trendy trousers to teeshirts. I can’t recall seeing any ethnic dressing (that was the objective of visiting these places). Another thing, which made the world seem flat, is that practically everyone spoke English. Yes even when I was in France :) Though my trip to Brussels was business focused, I was able to visit several historic sites in Rome, including Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Vatican Museum, the fast paced life in Milan, learning the history and collecting the remains of the Berlin Wall, and not to forget the center of the earth Greenwich Meridian Time and the Queens Palace in London. Years ago, while in school, I had just read about all these and many more in school and used to enjoy the scenic beauties only in movies.I feel that this Flat World experience has changed everything. I visited most of these places that I could have never dreamt of visiting 10 years ago. Wikipedia and Google, basically enlightened me about every place I went, and all the things I saw. What a marvelous invention for travelers! I know I’ll never have the time to really learn in-depth and discover these things, but a little exposure to them is extremely interesting none-the-less. Kudos technology and Web 2.0 ;)

Outsourcing my Job !!

First and foremost, sincere apologies for the delayed write-up. The recent recessions of 2008 took some toll on me, with changes in net access, job function, and yes to some extent the food crunch. In this survival of the fittest, I happened to grab some action-packed Euro 2008 (well Azzuri’s didn’t play their heart out), and some Wimbledon. I decided to take some break from the routine and went onto join Business forums in Brussels. Now that my audience is convinced (or not so convinced) with my excuse, I would start with where we left…outsourcing in the flat world.

The World is Flat provided mixed insights over the concept in context. On one hand, I found the history of the digital revolution very fascinating and one that would keep the target readers glued (the book had a forward-looking nature - I’ve always been a science fiction fan). At other times, I got a little tired of the repetitive nature of Friedman’s examples – here comes yet another story of how someone makes a lot of money; followed by another example of how the Chinese and the Indians are preparing to conquer the world. After analyzing at some of the criticisms leveled against it, I can see that there is some merit in them. The central point of Friedman’s book is that globalization is removing barriers to competition, and reducing everything to the lowest common denominator: cost.

So why outsource? The following points can be considered as factors that drive outsourcing (points in order of importance)
1. Reduce Costs
2. Gaining access to skilled IT resources that are not available within the company that decides to outsource.
3. Free up internal resources, so that they can focus on product marketing and strategy
4. Accelerate company transformation
5. Accelerate the project
6. Reduce time to market, so that the organization is always in the race to satisfy the customer. After all customer is the King.

Reference: http://shipsoftware.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/distributedteam.jpg

Like every coin, that has two sides, the concept of Outsourcing has its advantages and disadvantages too.

I have been in Europe for a few years now with a leading Telecom firm in Belgium, presenting regular sessions to clients and resolving issues with/of my users and my team. While working for a team in the Product Readiness department, I identified a fairly critical issue/ bug with one of our vendor’s application system and called it to their technical support team, and this experience reminded me of one of the chapters in the book (as well as of O’reilly’s experience, similar to the one I will be presenting). In the process of resolving the bug, I contacted the developer from Czech/Israel, and explained the problem. After some investigation from the offshore development team, I obtained typical responses like – Please analyze the scenario introduced, Can you shut down all the instances of your server, and restart the scenario again? None of these things worked, not did I expect them to work, and the developer on the other side of the world was left scratching his head with a typical answer – I will get back to you after I investigate and identify the problem, if any!

I have faith in my thinking, analytical and cognitive abilities more than anyone else. I question basic assumptions and its validity when and where required. With this notion, I decided to go ahead and give them a hand by resolving the issue which was delegated to a member of my team. I started debugging the problem area and pointed out actual line numbers in their source file so they could take a look. My colleague noted down everything I’d said for his reference, and pushed an urgent patch of the bug fix later that evening.

I believe what I described is a good illustration of interaction that’s probably becoming more and more typical in the Flat World. I recognized a similarity between the above experience and the software industry. The off shoring of software development and testing is real, but does that mean I am afraid that someday my job maybe outsourced by a third world nation, like Somalia or Afghanistan as well? Perhaps it will be. But by that time it may not be a bad thing because I would have ‘retooled’ my skills and acquired the knowledge necessary to compete and continue to add value to my professional pursuits.

Brad Silverberg, Microsoft’s Hero, once said, “The role of every Microsoft employee is to work them out of job.” What he meant was that we should find ways to eliminate fire drills and provide solutions so our jobs “just happened.” The world is in constant change, and with it we must constantly change. We must never rest on our laurels because the moment we do, the world will surely pass by us.

P.s: The experiences described in this chapter are more or less similar to the experiences shared in the web by some of the bloggers. Though the examples set and the words used might be different, the underlying concept remains the same.

The Flat World Concept: The road to Innovation is a bumpy ride, but it's worth every mile...

The World is Flat is not a myth. It's all around us. When I first read the book, I was swept with this grandiose idea of the developing nations spreading their wealth that the developed and industrialized nations have to offer, in the form of jobs. The World is Flat is about the various business practices, such as the change management, the e-commerce and portal management, the internet, the blogs, online social networks and about multitude of other technological advances that the developing countries has seen in the past 15 years or so, and how it has globally flattened the level playing field of a company's and a country's economy. It surely has drastically altered the know-how of business and life in general these days. Even more exciting are the opportunities that lie ahead.

Image courtesy: http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/

Personally I feel that the concept of The World is Flat is not limited to the competition amongst nations or companies, but it's a competition between me and my imagination. A strange analogy, but yes I feel that it's more about my creativity and innovation, and how I can contribute to the society. Coming from a leading technological firm, whose motto firmly believed with the Flat World concept, I had the privilege of listening to the notions of my childhood hero, Mr. Narayana Murthy. As a honorary chief guest for one of the award ceremonies, he made the mark with the following - Innovation is a journey and not a destination. What it meant was that the moment you feel you have achieved innovation, means that you are no longer innovating.

In this fast changing world, the a new business model is always in the making, and new operating model is always setup to support it. How quickly the transformation of this entire model takes place will determine the success of the new business model. Sometimes, it is enthralling to see new players coming from nowhere and making their mark as new leaders driving their business in all verticals. From my personal experience, I have had the privilege of observing these changes from a different perspective, and at times I respectfully disagree to some points mentioned in the book.

More about Flat World concepts in the next session - Off Offshoring and Flat World...

Day Zero - The New Beginning...

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my first "Experience Speaks" blog. A nice saturday morning in Brussels, with birds chirping around, it's summer around the corner. A hot coffee and some croissant to help with my thought process. Finally after two months of wait since my first registeration of this blog, I have finally decided to start penning down my experiences. I was looking for a perfect start, but later realized that perfection is just a matter of discipline.

I am an Indian, and the things I have experienced staying in Brussels for a little more than two years are more or less the same that I have experienced staying in Mumbai and Pune (India). It's a strange feeling to know that the world has changed a lot in the past decade around me. What was a distant dream of visiting far-off places, that I had read about only in books, is a reality now. The world has indeed gone Flat. Yes, that's the subject I would touch upon for this blog session.

Given my engineering background and my professional interests, I find this idea of a fast moving world, high-end cutting edge technology and changing strategy quiet interesting. Global practice is changing the basic assumptions that each organization has put forth and the policies that the government makes every few years. With all these changes happening quiet frequently, and with the markets tumbling around, marking the black period of U.S economy, 2008, it's right time to be in business. It's the right time to make most of the opportunities and most of the skills one possess. And that is why I anchored to start my blog on Thomas L. Friedman's - The World is Flat.

I personally consider it to be one of the top 10 books I have ever read, and given that I am a science fiction fan, I highly recommend you take a look at it. The readings have really changed my thought process and the perceptions about the life in general that revolves around me.

More to feature in my next blog...

Regards,
Anand