Business 2010

This happens to be the first read after joining British Council Library in Chennai. Quite far from house sad part. As per the latest read the future belongs to machines for most of the tasks and humans would mainly deal with tasks which require handling other people. Writers call this as "Care Economy", accountants, adminsitration role would be all taken over by machines. Power shifting from those having capital assets to those having intellectual assets.Though while reading it seems a little far fetched probably wrt the time frame writers talk of in the next decade...the book was published in 2003 so ard 2013 time zone.

The book has been subdivided into 3 parts, no interconnection between any 2 , so one can read as per ones wish.1st part mainly covers the latest technological innovations and how it is impacting socially and economically. 2nd part deals with the implications of the new technology on business, politics and people.3rd part is relatively short and deals with how business can adapt to this upcoming transformation of how companies are run.

Authors point that current internet is still in its infancy and pretty soon cyberspace would have a big impact on all of us. It will become a big part of our lifes. there wont be needs for governments in future and there would be big societies formed in the virtual world which would be country size type.Cheap broadband fuelling the growth of cyberspace. No need for hard cash in future.

Why the information available on net is mostly free? Economic theory predicts that in a competitive market the price of any good will fall to its marginal cost of production.i.e the cost of producing one extra unit. In the case of information this cost is virtually zero.It is not surprizing then that much of the info available on net is free-that simply reflects its marginal cost.

One thing while I really found interesting is the emerging new field in engineering "Biomimetics" - which basically deals with taking good ideas from nature and translating them into our world.The writers have taken a good example of how ants search for food. Its on the very first page in Part1.

*Note- Writers have taken the approach with respect to the developed world countries.

Other reviews of the book can be found here.

How Women Work?

While browsing through the Google News found link to an interesting article on how women work.
Some facts from article:
-From conception until the 8th week of gestation, men and women are almost exactly the same.
Women wrt Men:
- On average are shorter than men
- Low blood pressure and higher heart beat rate
- Loose less brain tissue as they age
- Pysiologically prone to taking more stress because of Amygdala and one average their body produces more stress hormones
- Emotional infedility is more upsetting than physical infedelity
-Got 10 times more white matter but lack on gray matter(men 6.5 times higher) -Brains respond a little differently to pain . Limbic center(responsible for emotions) more active.

Interesting-
After World War II, pharmaceutical companies feared that drug tests could harm pregnant women and that women's hormones could affect test results. So, they tested drugs primarily on men. But in the last several years, the medical community has discovered that women and men often have different responses to drugs. For this reason, human trials of new drugs include both men and women.

One can also check this out.More on the women's body aspect.

Spot !!

New : Working, Thinking, Reading,Net Surfing, Music listening, Smsing, Calling, Yawning, Chatting with colleagues spot
Location: Ambattur 4, Chennai, TamilNadu

Cooking skills upgraded....

Well Well... have slowly upgraded myself to more value adding skills then just washing dishes :), thanks to the tips of ex-roomies Prajit and Balu in Singapore.

tossing the paratha in Pan

Kaushik happens to be a good cook, the other two roomies form the support services. Though Srivastav makes excellent Tea...( never tasted though...only heard from other roomies ;) ). Had a good home cooked dinner today.

(from left Potato and Egg masala dish, Sambar(made from Lentils), Parathas (made from wheat), fried Potato chips and rice at extreme right)

New beginning!

Good :) ! wrt Job, Boss, House & New roomies. That’s how I would like to summarize the experience so far after landing in Chennai. One archrival group I got is the autorickshaw drivers here most of whom think they are doing favor to the customer by providing their service, and charging exorbitant prices. On one instance one autodriver asked me for 200 bucks for a distance of hardly 2 km….which normally would cost around 30 bucks…see the margin they try to make on new comers in the city, not leaving the native Indians ….cant imagine what they would be charging to foreigners. All have fare meters just as a showcase item…they are just for display…with some random numbers going around…(similar to Delhi in this respect)., Thankfully there are shared autos as well which run on fixed price basis ...New Job is in Quality division at HCL Technologies ….not focusing on operation aspects but on the areas of improvement. New boss is very good , enjoying working with him and lot of knowledge to be gained when working with a +20 years experience industry veteran.

(HCL Technologies office Ambattur-4, Chennai)

Stayed at guest house for 2 weeks before moving to a new location…thanks to one of the roomies (Kaushik) for asking to stay along with them…else would have been staying as a paying guest now....

(Company's guest house at Anna Nagar, Chennai)

the New House is brand new …with full furnishing…beds ,washing machine, utensils, air conditioners, fans, lights , sofa set, television with cable connection ….over and above that…a maid who cleans the house daily, washes utensils and gets the clothes ironed…or anything we need from nearby place ….part of contract .. no extra charge. The house is at a decent place….and terrace is big enough to play cricket with roomies ;). Nearby there are many eating places and got a hard drink outlet …. the interstate bus stand is also close by.
(Current Residence -Koyembedu,Chennai, India) ( room , sharing with Kaushik) (....terrace)

New roomies are from IIM Kozhikode, all joined along with me in HCL Technologies…around same age group with 2-3 yrs work experience.
(from left Kaushik, Aditya and Srivatsav)

Ah with respect to food, I always liked south Indian food, dosa and vada especially ….Now all around only that stuff….got a little tired eating daily …the north Indian food is too expensive to have outside…so along with roomies decided to cook food at home….if the new maid is fixed than just need to buy the material…and order as per what we want to eat……the owner of the house also looks to be a decent chap….no foul play so far.
( ... the best one in the house)

New Landmark at 5th Avenue in NY,USA

Apple’s new store at 5th Avenue in New York , I first came across this reference while being in induction of HCLT . But while going through the march edition of Fortune, I came across article on the same, this time along with the picture. One might wonder what’s so special about this new store. Just check out the images and you would know. Steve Jobs had designed the store himself in collaboration with some retail specialists whom he had hired before venturing into Apple stores. He holds the patent for the design of the staircase as well. Seeing just the picture of this Apple store is so majestic, I will surely make a trip to the store if I ever visit New York.

Some stats from the article:
1. Annual sales per square foot in 2006
Apple- $4032
Tiffancy and Co.- $2666
Best Buy- $930
2. Traffic at 5th Avenue store: 50000+ per week
At other stores average: 13800 (stats misuse ;) )

--the 5th avenue also reminds me of the effort put in while looking for best shopping streets in the world. It was about an year back while participating in a HBR China competition for suggestions to make Nanjing road in Shanghai, China of similar status.