Reaching There

राधे राधे  "Look at the bigger picture".  We have heard this phrase quite a few times in our lives from our parents, teacher, managers, peers etc. I have wondered at times what exactly does it mean! Is it looking at things in a holistic manner or does it mean putting myself out of the equation to observe something? I was never clear about it until a few days ago. But when it hit me I could not stop thinking about it. I have finally figured out what it means to me. To understand the roots of my understanding you will have to bear with another understanding of my own. I have believed for some time that we create a bubble of all things we are comfortable with around us. Whether it is our favorite newspaper or our family. This is the bubble which gives us a feeling of protection and warmth. We don't want to venture out of it. The same goes for our thinking. We have practiced thinking in a particular way that familiarity leads to monotonicity. In a movie called "Proof...

Actors talk about their performances as the best when they were in the moment. Meryl Streep in one of her interviews says she likes to research a lot about the role and when going to act she tries to forget all about it. In this way she is letting her instincts guide her through the process. These instincts were developed partly from the research she did and partly from her own previous experiences. Similarly for us learning about ourselves plays an important role in living our life. Unconsciously we gather a lot of information about us during our daily life. We learn about our tastes, likes, dislikes, allergies, passions, weaknesses etc. But when somebody questions us to list our strengths and weaknesses we draw a blank! Why is that? We believed we knew what we are. But we struggle to describe ourself, our passions, our goals etc. Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj in His discourses talks about the real "me". In ancient Hindu scriptures the real "me" is the soul while bo...

The Japanese work " kaizen " means improvement. In more common practice, especially in the world of manufacturing, it is interpreted as "continuous improvement". While going on internet looking for meaning of "kai" and "zen" I came across a myriad of meanings. The following are some of the meanings: Kai: change, effect, use, world, story Zen: good, meditation ( from Sanskrit word  dhyānam,  "meditation") If you search the word "kaizen" on web you'll find hundreds of link related to productivity improvement. But for a moment if I leave my industrial engineer mind and just concentrate on the word itself I get a whole new perspective on "continuous improvement". Let us try and see how can we relate with kaizen. Someone has wisely said "Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely". Everyday we see changes happening around us. The whole universe itself is in a continuous series of motion...

Hi, this is my first post for the year 2010. Happy new year wishes to all of you! As the year end approaches we all make new year resolutions. We decide to get rid of our vices in the new year. We all wish something good will happen to us in the new year. We believe we'll be better off than we currently are. But unfortunately new year is a moment when the date changes to a different year of the millennium. Sounds pretty depressing? For the new year I wish to share something with you. I got a chance to talk with my friend last year. We talked about our college days and how innocent we were about the realities at that time. We shared how our dreams have changed or have taken a backseat. Of course we are more mature than we were years ago. But have we lost the ability to dream? We have become so accustomed to living in the present that we are missing out on whole lot of dreams of the future. Leaders/visionaries always talk about the bigger picture and how we should always look for i...

I have always wondered what makes people successful in their lives. Although most of us relate success with only our professional lives. But our lives are a mixture of personal and professional achievements as well as failures. Both of these aspects are so interrelated that it is impossible to prioritize one over the other. There is always a need to see and continuously evaluate an holistic views of our lives.  All around us are people that we admire for their success. The success is not limited to monetary amounts but includes all possible roles we play during our lifetime. Success is about being a caring parent, an eager student, a loving son, a doting husband, a courteous clerk, a helpful manager, a great dancer, a passionate artist, a hard worker or just about anything we do in our lives. In all of these roles there a few similarities that stand out among other that all these "successful" people share. So what do all of the successful people share among themselves?...

Inside an Actors Studio: Steven Speilberg I recently watched Steven Speilberg's interview on James Lipton's Inside the Actors Studio (on youtube!). One of the biggest piece of adivce was his answer to how he direct child actors in his movies. There are quite a few movies in which his story was told from a point of view of a child (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Empire of the Sun). He answered "I don't treat them like children I treat them like my peers". He further added that the moment he begins treating them like children he would become the overbearing adult. This gave me an indirect lesson on how manager or a team leader should treat his team members. He should treat them like individuals who have their own individuality, personality, aspirations and emotions. He should respect their existence in the team and listen to their opinion with a "porous" mind. The reason I used "porous" mind because such a listener gives the oppor...

Revenue Management (Source: www.wikipedia.org) Please donate to Wikipedia.org. Yield management , also known as revenue management , is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations). It is a method of price discrimination wherein a firm charges different customers different prices for goods or services which are otherwise identical. A typical example is airline tickets. For three different seats in the same row different passengers would have paid different amount depending on conditions like their seat preference, time of booking etc. An interesting article was published in NY Times recently about how airlines are charging more for "that extra leg room". It is another innovative way to understand the consumer behavior and improve revenue for the airlines. Here is the link for that article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/...