Manage Energy, Obama, Kalli.

Hi,

So the cricket controversy raged and it almost brought a diplomatic row similar to bodyline. I am glad that the issue is resolved and that Cricket would continue. Many of my Aussie friends have expressed regret over the team behavior. But many also feel Symonds would not have reacted to something which is nothing(whether it is from that test or past is a debate).

Came across an interesting article, Manage your energy,not time in HBR. Very clearly focuses on Body, Mind, Spirit and Emotional aspect of management of a person thus manage performance. Found it very practical.

Came across 2 fabulous videos yesterday at Leading@google. Marshall Goldsmith and muti faceted personality from Chile Rodrigo Jordan. Each is 1 Hr long. I assure you it is worth watching and learn. Jordan's video talks about Leadership dilemmas.

I also heard this morning during my walk, a thought provoking, podcast by CEO, Greg Ballard who talks in heartout in Leadership speech at Stanford University.

I am still neutral on US presidential election, watching for things to develop, ( I tend to be more democrat in the past, but that is more on candidates, I was happy when Carter won, When Regan won, Bush, Not so when Kerry lost last time). So let us see where things head, I watched with interest yesterday 1 Hr interaction of Barack Obama. I am impressed with his approach and his response to questions at Google. Lets see. I plan to watch a bit more of other candidates before I form an opinion. How much technology has your aid to come to judge things.!!!.

This week is the Tamil festival of Pongal (The harvest festival on Tuesday) and Boghi Monday. I plan to enjoy the holiday. I would miss the Madras cricket test match during Pongal holidays. The famous Al Kallicharan, quote of Anna Statue, as Umpire Satyajit Rao, as a respect for Umpire. (Kalli was given dubious runout when he was going great guns!!!, Vishys great innings too!!!)

I am now a proud subscriber to Fortune, Economist, HBR Print editions. Also to Mint, the wall street journal Indian edition.

Till next week, take it easy and Take care and Live consciously.
Karthik.

Kid in the candy Shop, Expesnes, Diary, Wayne, No shedding tears

All,
My wife promised me that she would sponsor some books for me to read. We did that last Saturday(29th Dec) After ages, I went to the book shop in Bangalore. Its like a Kid in the candy shop feeling. You see too many good books, the Budget also pinches. Anyway She was kind enough to allow me to pick what all I wanted. Still I could have picked up more, we were also short of time to finish other rituals planned for Saturday.

I did pick the following books to go through during the year. Ofcourse, was disappointed many of the books I wanted to buy were not out there. (Erica Andersen, Bill George etc). Let me work out next time.

1. Who would cry when you Die -Robin Sharma
2. Effective Executive - Peter Drucker.
3. Managing for results - Peter Drucker.
4. Good to Great Jim Collins
5. Build to Last Jim Collins.
6. Go put your strengths to work - Marcus Buckingham.
7. Strength finder II - Tom Roth.
   
8. Toyota Talent
9. Toyota Way.
10. How to stop worrying and stop Living -Dale Carnage.
11. Know How -Ram Charan.
12. How to enjoy your life -Dale Carnage.
13. Playing for Pizza -John Grisham. (Fiction book, I purchased after ages !!!!!)

I have began the new year that this year I would write Diary every day on all the work/ personal aspects as well as learning. I found digital diary very easy to use. It is very compact. Let me see how far I go using this. I have done so far for 6 days. So if it hit the 21 day barrier, I think I would sustain I guess.

Found the IEMS Expense report tracker to track and post my sundry expenses during travel, this is one area I need to improve. I am too lazy to work out cash expenses. I feel that The time spend on it to prepare laborious/ elaborate protocol is some times not worth it and it accumulate a lot. Let me see how much prompt I become in settling this year. Never bothered about Money for the last 22 years of work and further spoiled by wife who manages all the funds. So I need to work on this. Will report progress in 52 weeks.

I came across, John Baldoni's podcast through Patricia Wheeler's tele forum archives. Baldoni relates to personal development to Supply chain/ manufacturing which works well to me. Give his podcasts and his Website a try. I got hold of Summary of his Book" How great Leaders get great results.

I was delighted to participate in the Wayne Turmel's new venture on Greatwebmeetings.com launch. The session was on managing teams in remote environment. I was one of the 9 participants from 5 countries in this web meeting. DIMDIM did work ok. Great initiative by Wayne. I wish it all success.This will take managing remote meetings to the next level.You dont need telephone to call. Yes, decent web connection is the need.

So Aussies, Made it 2-0, but the victory is spoiled I guess by poor umpiring. India did make a good fight, one feels bad. But as long the best talented players who are available are not selected for various reasons to the squad, which are non cricket one,(the Badrinaths, the Pujaras, the Majumadar, the Bose etc) you can be rest assured that I am not going to shed tears for their loss. Yes, I did feel sorry for Kumble, a nice guy. (Not that he is from Bangalore!!). (My Head is still safe for 4-0 prediction) Yes, I wouldn't rate this Aussie side anywhere near the Windies of the 80s as said by David Gower. They played the game in spirit and it was fun as seen here with Big Curtly. Winning and loosing were no big deals to them and there were no controversies or bitter after tastes.

Till next week, take it easy and take care, live consciously.

Karthik.

Customer satisfactions.

The last post for 2007. The time files.
I had lot of customer experience to share this week. Let me see how fast I can do this in the next 45 Minutes I set out for blog.

1) I posted my comments on the cranky middle manager Show Forum, on the Poor audio quality of the 800 CEO podcasts. I was pleasantly surprised to receive email from 800 CEO READ about the improvements and asking me to try out. Yes, there is a bit of improvement, looks like they have done their best. Thanks for their response. This goes to show customer every where matters. You may Listen to the moving story of how star bucks saved his life. Very touching. I plan to get the book if it comes to this part of the world. I have given them the feedback on not able to Sync their podcasts on ITUNES. Lets see.

2)I was delighted to see that Harvard Business review South Asian edition is now out for the Indian subscribers with Rupee Payment. This is the first venture, I guess outside USA. The same is true of Fortune magazine. While I could subscribe to fortune easily online through the Hong kong website, the same didn't happen for HBR which is done through phone call etc as there are some credit card issues which needs to be sorted out at the NEW DELHI office of the publishers.3 days have passed since expressing my interest and still no active response. Here is a customer who wants to avail a service and making follow up to the agency for subscription and there is no active response. So much for the customer satisfaction at the other end. Or is it local cultural issue!!! I wonder.
3) The third experience was Airtel broad band was abruptly disconnected from my home for non payment of Monthly dues.(US$ 110) I was surprised that within less than 24 Hrs of deadline expiry, they decided to switch off. I remember times at my hectic travels, I had missed even 2 months payment with other service providers(SPICE telecom) and they never did that. The payment amount would exceed US 600$. In fact even now they call over the phone to collect payments. They know that customer is right and has reasons. It took persuasive skills of my wife to work through customer service( We have 4 telephones, (2 mobiles and 2 landlines phones which she manages payments, issues) to restore service within couple of hours, at 7am. That much they were kind enough to do that before the payment was made at 3pm that day.
4) The last customer satisfaction was more a public interest, the US Visa interview visits were nightmare as people would know. There were lot of feedback when Steve Hamm explained his Indian visa experience. I too posted my piece of mind.(oct 22) I was delighted when the email from VFS came yesterday about a waiting lounge (Stars and Stripes Lounge) etc which will make other people experience much refreshing. (Not for me till 2015 as my US visa is valid till then!!!).

So my prediction for 4-0 whitewash holds good. Lets see. So the neck is safe. The next week weather in Sydney may save India. I guess as Rains are predicted.
Ok, Time is up got to get up to enjoy the Sunday evening walk with Lalitha.

All the best for 2008.

I look forward to receive the MERCK Ganesha Desk calendar from my good friend Ananthasivan.(It reaches me every year since 1998!!).

I have targetted 60-75 Blog posts for 08. Lets see.!!!

Till next week take it easy and take care. Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.
PS: Next week; Kid on Candy Shop!!!.

ALL THE BEST FOR 2008

2007 would pass in to history in less than 36 Hours. It was a great year for the family. We would easily give a rating of 7.5 on a scale of 10. Of course, 1994 and 2006 were much better years. Here is to wish you all the very best for 2008. Hope it is a great year filled with Joy, Peace, Prosperity and goodwill.

Came across this interesting Video. Thought of sharing this with you.

ALL THE VERY BEST FOR "2008". STAY SAFE.

Karthik

Catchup, TED, DIMDIM, Head on block.

Lalitha, Mrs.Rajan, Radha, Dr Rajan,Shravan.(20/12).
As indicated in my last week column, we could catch up with Dr Rajan, my EX-boss at BASF Managalore. Mrs & Dr Rajan took time from (their Indian trip) busy schedule to catch up with us over lunch at our home. It was a time well spent to do retrospection over the last 8 years. Children also learned some valuble tips from him for being successful in life during the interaction.

As indicated in my other podcasts, I listen to the Cranky middle manager show of Wayne Turmel. I never miss the show over the last 8 months. This week, I listened to Wayne's podcast with DD Ganguly of DIMDIM who is based in Hyderabad. Dimdim according to DD will make WEBEX, HISTORY!!. This is an online, web meeting tool. You just need a PC, Internet connection and Phone line. You may send a request email in the dimdim website. This is similar to gotomeeting.com.
Great to see the online tools which kind of help you avoid all the hassles of downloading and installing software. Wayne has planned a live web meeting on 3rd Jan. Cant wait to participate, Awaiting further instructions from him.

I came across interesting website of video presentations which inspires you a lot. TED(Technology, Entertainment, Design) is the website. Worth the time spent. You can also register your profile to join and exchange info in this community. The community concept is hitting speed on on on on.

Here is the list of the best of the Business books of 2007, (800 CEO READ). Glad to see some Indian flavor in to it as well as some Indian authors.

I just finished reading Tim Sanders, Likability factor. Great concepts, how some one is perceived to be likable survives in all the odd situation and goes up the career ladder. Sanders points out Friendliness, Relevance, Empathy and Realness as the factors which make it happen. Worth spending time in the days of uncertainty and unpredictability in all walks of life. His other book, "Love is a killer App, Mark Mentions in the favourite books to read podcast.

I am not sure If I had mentioned, Douglas Welch, Career opportunities, Podcast. Douglas Welch produces great podcasts. He also does podcasts on career Podcasting, Gardening, tech stuff etc. It is worth spending time. I take time to listen in the PC medium. The audio for some of the podcasts gets drowned in the local background noise.

I have just started reading Robin Sharma's- Mega living.

Incidentally, further to my Post on DiSC. This is now available in Manager tools site. The cost is 26$. You may try it out.

So this week the cricket Expectation starts. Let us see, I agree with Stuart Clark, for a 4-0. Looks like great weather in Melbourne. I am putting my Head on the block. My guess its going to be curtains for many of the cricketers.

So till next week, take it easy and take care. Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Merry Christmas.

All,

I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Have a great time with your friends and family. I am sure it will be time to rejoice, retrospect, Revere, remember the happenings over the last 50 weeks. Enjoy the time. It also helps us to realize that how lucky we are to enjoy life as much as we do.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Take care.
Regards
Karthik.

Nagesh, DISC, Jim Collins,

I am delighted to see that My Linkedin connection has reached 300. I can assure you that of that 280 are those are with whom I have conversation by phone or email. About 20 or so are the requests that came in which was accepted. Yes, some of the common members of community have accepted my request seeing my Blog and Profile. Thank you. I know 300 is a not even a drop in an ocean of 6Billion out there. As Mark says, Build volume indiscriminately, thats a good beginning. Thank you all.

I am also surprised !!!,(Pleasantly) that site hits to my Blog has reached 412 till today from October 22nd. That is almost 8 hits a day from various part of the world. Amazing, I was thinking that I would hit 100 by end of the year. This is also delightful. The average time spent was 2 min, which is OK. Let me see what I can do to improve.

Ok, I was delighted to Host Nagesh Belludi, whose websites (Rightattitudes.com and Inspirational quotes) I had mentioned in my previosus posts, Saturday. He visited my home. We spent almost 90 Minutes on exchanging thoughts on how best we can do value adds to the community of readers.I guess I spoke a lot,!!. I am glad Nagesh took time from his busy schedule during his short 3 weeks visit to India (Nagesh is with Cummins in Indianopolis). If you wish to host Nagesh for any motivational lectures in Bangalore, Pl contact Nagesh on his website. He will be in India till the 29th of Dec. I have worked some plans for taking my personal blogging to some interactive level. More will follow in 2 to 3 months. I have posted the photo above.

I am sure many of you may know about the DiSC profile on the personality of people. Mike and Mark have worked out exclusive podcast on each of the profile. This is for registered members of Manager tools. Registration is free. The DiSC is D Dominant, I Influence, S Steadiness, C Conscientious. They have also worked podcasts on How to give feedback to this guys so that it makes sense to them. Just to let you know my profile is High S. Pattern: Achiever.
It is worth taking a test to know your profile. Ofcourse, there are other equivalent profile to try out for free.

I watched last evening with Awe, Jim Collins video in Utube on Leadership in this interview with Charlie Rose. What an interviewer he is!!!. I got to get hold of his book Good to great soon.( I remember my wife calling me up a year back,then when I was traveling that she would buy the book in the book shop and I told we will see later!!!). Crystal clear clarity of thoughts and expressing it. Worth watching. I am also amazed at the levels of leadership at Level 5 which extends to putting purpose beyond individual like Gandhi, Sardar did for India. Jim talks about Abe as an example.

I will end this week with news, that the family is excited to catch up with Dr VBV Rajan,my boss at BASF Mangalore, who in now in India. It was Dr Rajan, who molded me as a mature person by sharpening the people and task side of managerial skills in me to enrich the technical skills I picked up at Sandoz. Dr Rajan retired during 1999 and moved to USA later. I moved out soon. Some people say I have some misgivings about bosses. It is not so, I was very lucky to work with great bosses. You may read this article by Liz Ryan to see my other side view of bosses.

As we come practically the last working week of the year, I guess it is time to look back. The year just flew by I guess, so all the performance reviews etc etc should happen.

Until next week, take it easy and take care. Live consciously.
Karthik
Karaikudy@gmail.com.