Points of View

Going with the wind...

I have always been fascinated with the way businesses are held these days and the impact they create in the society. Business people all over the world are discovering extraordinary opportunities generated by protecting the nature and more so trying to meet the triple bottom line. Remember the world-wide concern about climate change that resulted in the agreements of Rio de Janeiro (1992), Kyoto (1997), Marrakech (2001), and more recently the Copenhagen deal (2009) aiming to decrease the global greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy is at the forefront of most countries and considered as a long-term alternative to fossil fuel resources, contributing to the security of energy supply. Since the last decades, the interest and political support for electricity generation from renewable sources has much increased.

Source: Vestas.com

Wind power is, together with biomass, the fastest growing renewable energy technology today. Wind is competitive, and companies have reduced the cost of wind power significantly, making it financially sound to increase their modern energy’s share of the world’s energy mix. Wind has jumped ahead of other green energy sources because of innovations in turbine technology. Another reason wind surged to the forefront is because many states passed standards that require that a percentage of the state’s electricity to be made from renewable energy sources. Most countries have defined a goal of putting wind power at the top of the global energy agenda. Electricity from modern energy by 2020 is becoming a reality, and the UN 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen will further consolidate strong growth outlook. 

Wind energy technology is developing fast; turbines are becoming cheaper and more powerful, bringing the cost of renewably-generated electricity down. Improvements in wind energy technology mean that the trends which have led to the dramatic fall in the cost of wind energy are set to continue. My vision is that everyone will have a small turbine on the roof of their house the way we had TV antennas in the past. Meeting the triple bottom line in these businesses is both an opportunity and a way of living in a green world. What matters in this industry today is the way production is carried out in a cost-efficient manner and with the use of the modern technology.

You can also follow the post in http://consultingnetwork.co.in/going-with-the-wind/1799/

350 !!

I hope things are great at the other end of the screen. Recently, I had been dirtying my hands with all the numbers and operations of our business venture, which I hope to blog in the coming days. Going back in time, earlier in August, I opted to apply for this Net Impact project for 350.org, fostering the climate crisis control movement. Nine of IE Business School MBA candidates, together with nine of Kaos-Pilot process design school, defined effective and creative strategy to run the 350 campaign for Madrid on 24^th Oct ‘09, so that the voice of Madrid could be heard in Copenhagen 2009. To start with, 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to build a movement  to unite the world solutions to the climate crisis. The focus is on the number 350--as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number--it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

What is 350 ? - CLICK HERE

In this economic downturn, when every action of the crisis affects every individual and their businesses, people start looking for a great economy and are willing to pay any price to get closer to it. What matters in such situations are the right strategy, success and moreover the right attitude to excel for the betterment of the business and the society at large. It is this thought provoking fact that motivated me to apply for this socially impacting project. This 3-day workshop not only provided me the basic set of skills and tools to overcome my concerns and opinions over the current situation and gain meaningful insights over the way decisions are considered while making business, but also provided me opportunities to share knowledge, and organize presentations on topics related to Marketing and Entrepreneurship to the students. The 3-day friendship, marked with creative and innovative process tools by the Kaos-Pilot team, made me realize the importance of knowledge sharing and networks one can gain. Finally, the day came when a huge group marched towards the Retiro park, and as campaign leaders, organized and mapped the plan to put the image of 350 in the lake nearby. Hop, everyone went, and after 40 minutes of struggle finally managed to form a 3, a 5 and a 0. What was more important in the process was that people within and outside the university, enjoyed thoroughly the activity. Overall, I felt great sense of satisfaction and gave my best to convey the message by putting forth my point of view, giving lectures to students, and learning from them. We played our part from Madrid. Is Copenhagen Listening ??

350 Finally - CLICK HERE

Industry understands of customer requirements in the emerging cloud computing market

As the underlying concept of Cloud Computing technology relies mainly on user collaboration, it has become even more important for organizations to understand the needs of their clients and the medium to reach their customers and consumers. Below are some comments quoted by industry experts...

"It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers.

“2008 will be remembered as the coming-out year for cloud-computing services. I’m beginning to think that 2009 will be best remembered for cloud-computing understanding. I encourage you to get involved.” - James Urquhart

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19413_3-10152106-240.html?tag=mncol

"Cloud computing is emerging as a fundamental change in how IT is managed and delivered," said Dr. Willy Chiu, vice president of IBM High Performance on Demand Solutions. "It is a powerful tool for efficient operations, especially in growth economies."

Source: IBM.com

"Businesses requiring hyper-scale computing environments – where infrastructure deployments are measured by up to millions of servers, storage and networking equipment – are changing the way they approach IT to drive revenue growth and decrease operational expenses,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Product Group.

Source: Dell.com

The following videos in youtube, will give a notion of what cloud computing is, and the general trends by some of the industry experts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg&feature=related

http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=163365

The world of Internet is exploding tremendously. For example ―daily (Google users have created 20 Petabytes of data) or using eBay services (1 Terabyte of logs is created by embay users in 2000 application servers per day.

Source: http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/volume_9/v9i31_delic.html?searchterm=cloud+computing

Cloud Computing has a major role to play in tying up this complicated layout and manage the explosion of data and users. These videos eventually shows how Cloud Computing has evolved from the traditional Application Service provision and support since the last decade.

Time to go cloud...

As I wander through the streets of Spain, I am ensuring that I am making use of my blackberry to the fullest extent - Chatting with people, Google mapping, Skype calls at the cheapest rate possible, booking tickets, booking my restaurants, storing information etc. – Amazing what it can do for me to move from one city to the other. Innovation is the key driver in Science and Technology, and it never stops at a particular point. Things which were not accessible ten years ago are just few minutes away from access. The Encyclopedia has given way to the Wikipedia. Yes, we are in the Flat World. Flat World is a concept coined by Thomas Friedman, who mentions about access to free information from anywhere in the world and at anytime. This concept has eventually given way to the next big wave in the IT sector - Cloud Computing.

A Cloud is nothing but a reference to the Internet. And the definition of Cloud Computing origins from the fact that technology is used to the fullest extent to manage the business and resources for computing purposes. The cloud is where that data and information are stored and the desktops and notebooks can gain access to these data and information, at any point in time and from any place in this world.

Global competition and business strategies have seen innovative models in this flat world. To be globally connected with your consumers or assume the target segments for your business, it becomes equally important for companies to maintain a transparent business and with huge data centre. Cloud Computing perfectly utilizes the Technology, People and Strategy model, and helps the consumers and customers access the data and information readily and at ease. From an organizational point of view, Cloud Computing will help the customers to control the costs, by improving the performance of the organizations business.

Large corporations and companies use Cloud Computing technologies to communicate with customers and business partners and to encourage collaboration within the company. A number of companies and businesses are looking to understand the working of Cloud Computing and the effects in their business. The costs or the ROI are much higher than the costs of purchasing, developing and maintaining traditional client-server application. According to IBM, cloud computing, or network-delivered services and software, can save customers up to 80% on floor space and 60% on power and cooling costs, and deliver triple asset utilization. Currently, all the big companies are pushing to introduce the concepts of Cloud Computing into the market. Gartner.com and McKinsey Quarterly reports have already stated that Cloud Computing would be the key driver of the business within next five to ten years.

One can find various lists of pros and cons of the concept, but the fact is Cloud Computing is shaping the way users work and interact with information on the Web by shifting focus to the information users. The rising popularity of online ―user-driven services like MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube has brought the Cloud Computing technology into picture. The underlying concept of this technology relies mainly on user collaboration – web services, p2p networking, blogging, podcast, online social networking sites etc. In the long-term, Cloud Computing will be the strategic delivery model for most of the firms and the one’s to benefit the most are the big corporations. Is your business ready for one?

p.s: This article can also be read at http://consultingnetwork.co.in/time-for-businesses-to-go-cloud/1166/

Building your mind map - the first step to your career inroads

Having lived in Europe for a little over three years, it has been fascinating while at the same time appalling to see the rise of the financial meltdown and more recently the road to its damage control. Fascinating because of the way the entire meltdown proceeded and partly because of the role that bankers from the top schools and firms played in this crisis situation, and appalling because of the effect it had on the various industries, banks and firms – read the pink slips.

While consulting companies in most countries recently were trying to settle down, projects had dried up and people either put on bench, if the firm were able to sustain on their resource investments, or worse shown the pink slip. Despite this, the number of MBA hires is growing strongly, with all size and types of consultancy targeting MBA graduates.

According to the European association of management consultancy in Europe (FEACO.org) there are over 65000 Management Consultancy firms in Europe employing over 350,000 consultants. Despite the downturn, many sectors are still recruiting even though the internships for graduates for this summer were hard to get by. Cost reduction and innovation has made IT Consulting, Operations Management, Marketing and Communications even more challenging and demanding profession. At this juncture it is necessary that the consultants or the MBA graduates understand the different inroads one can make while thinking of a dream career move.

In the first place, is consulting your game? Well it may be if you like long work hours with frequent time-critical decisions, highly competitive environment, moving from one deadline to the other and more importantly traveling. For the few lucky one’s bluffing through the interview to get that high salaried job will only end up lowering your performance and confidence if you are not sure of what you are expecting or anticipating next. Early exposure as an analyst and/or consulting only helps you develop and enhance your functional, technical and soft skills for your long term professional growth. Having involved with clients from a rookie level IT consultant to Project & Team Management roles, I did manage to polish my skills and find the right fit for the projects before embarking on the assignments. After having worked on few start-up business plans, and played my part in few consulting projects, I did realize the importance of understanding the business or the company in advance before picking up any project or assignments. If you already been doing that the you are ready for the next move – research the company that you would like to work with, understand the different sector options and functional roles they have to offer and lastly what you can offer from your experience. While the best experiences are gained through small boutique firms, the best clients to work with come from the Big 4 consulting firms.

You might need to understand what fits you well. Every stage of the company’s application process becomes as equally important as every minute on the football game between Real Madrid and Barcelona. CV’s, CL, Case Studies, Initial interviews, Fit interviews, HR interviews, Partner interviews – all start looking like those challenges you always wanted to jump on just as the athletes would do in the hurdle trainings. CV is the first thing that will land you an interview and one of the biggest challenges that most candidates face – writing the resume. Every CV needs to be tailored to the needs of the company and role and the best bet is to explore the sample CV options that these companies provide, else we always have the option of ‘Google’ing in this flat world. I personally am a huge fan of case studies. While there are no definite solutions to it but it just tickles your brain to define the most suitable solution in a short span of time backed with numbers and analysis. Listening skills, body language, question asking abilities, character – gives you a pint of the gallon of projects that are in store. The basic golden rule like for any game or challenge is to PRACTICE and to PREPARE in advance.

Nostalgia: Navy Nagar & Sea Cadet Corps

Mumbai during the 1990's, ah! it was Bombay back then. The period when our teachers blessed us with endless list of homework; the time when we would course around the lanes playing Cricket, Football, Kabaddi and whatever kept us on our feet; when every Sunday I would go trekking with my friends accompanied by our parents - those were the times when the days' were filled with such excitement and adventure. Nostalgia crept in, when after a little more than a decade, I got re-connected with a friend from the school days (Must thank the social media boom here)

As we sipped the afternoon coffee, in some 30 degree Celsius Madrid heat, reminiscing of the times spent in the sailing school, in the 35 degree Celsius Bombay weather, flashed through. Both of us were associated with the Sea Cadet Corps (also referred to as the "SCC"). Yes, the Sea Cadet Corps - the wonder years of sea adventures. For the newbie’s and for the new born digital nerds, Sea Cadet Corps is a non-government voluntary youth organisation with honorary officers imparting nautical and allied training to the boys and girls in the age group of 10 to 18 years. In conjunction with the Naval Sailing Club, adjacent to Training Ship Jawahar at Navy Nagar in Colaba, Mumbai, the Sea Cadet Corps was actively involved in conducting the 1982 Asian Games Sailing Event, 1987 Commonwealth Regatta, the International Enterprise World Championship in 1991 and the Asian Sailing Regatta in 2004. To experience these adventures, one had to undergo the rigors of disciplinary courses and training's. In a nut shell, it was all about "D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E", the fitting 10-letter word I could think of from my worthwhile experiences with the Sea Cadet Corps. The thoughts of a 5th grader dreaming of the big submarines flashed by when the life of Navy Officers lured me to those dreadful waters and sea monsters. Time dedicated to the likes of watching discovery channel and grazing through the encyclopedias from the nearest library trying to grasp what this adventure all meant was all worthily invested (let me remind you, back then the Internet had not boomed to the scale it has today). Submarines and sea creatures were my next research. My family has some kind of history associated with serving the country, and perhaps that influenced my decision to join this adventurous training camp. Top Gun, Men of Honor, Under-siege, and Down Periscope were some of the “must watch" movies that would pump in the adrenaline to venture out in the sea. I still remember (though loosely) my very first interview back in 1993, with Commodore Rabi Ahuja on the Training Ship Jawahar. The Commodore almost got me, a little shy Cadet back then, weeping for not talking out loud while addressing to one of the reporting Officers. Since then the training acquired through this institution has helped me with not only instilling confidence but has also brought discipline into my life. Officers and Cadets had to scream their lungs out - AYE AYE SIR! Or let me put it this way, they were known to be super active and vocal, when in action and particularly in marching parades. Waking up at 0400hrs every Sunday morning, travelling an hour through Bombay’s lifeline i.e. the local trains and the B.E.S.T bus services to reach the ship's quarterdeck for an early breakfast before the Cadet parade at 0730hrs. Phew!!! Catching the B.E.S.T from Mumbai's Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus Station (we called it Victoria Terminus aka V.T. Station back then), moving through the silent streets of Fort and bakery lane on a Sunday morning with several other fellow Cadets, who as well looked more than half-sleepy, was not an easy task as I had first thought it to be. The initial weeks were tough to adjust to this routine, as I had never experienced this before, but as time flew by I got bonded with the wonders of the early morning alarms, tying the 8's Knot, the Sailing and Rowing lessons, the alpha-beta-delta of flag signals, the swimming in the ocean – yes, would you believe, I did dive into the Arabian Sea as part of the weekend course between the Training Ship Jawahar and the Lighthouse :) (well, not that Mumbai boasts of good sea water, but I did befriend with the crabs, and developed a good palate for sea salt), the blue Cadet uniform and the white Cadet cap, and the dream of making a four year run for that Officers white uniform and the peak cap.

The coffee mug is now almost empty and we were taking our last sip. The unforgettable experiences of swimming in the sea water and those of rowing near the Training Ship Jawahar always reminds of some good crazy times I experienced. I think the foundation of my personality was established with the Sea Cadet Corps - no doubt about that. After all, it was for the love of anchoring in the sea and in the manmade mean machines. Since then the wonders of the never-ending digital world and that of some heavy metal has kept me attached to my present-day passion. Until next time - Aye Aye Captain!!