"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”
- H. Jackson Brown
Get the message….plan your time and use it as productively you can…Identify the Non value adds and stay focussed (Target driven meetings with end times…) & see the amount of time that you seem to be creating…You will be Amazed!!!
Hi Friends, So here comes a Special Edition # 31 of Good to Great… Special credits and thanks for this week are to Sridhar, Srinath, Kamakshi, Sai (Extra special thanks), Kala, Ashwin & Ramya.
Read in Leisure and please continue to share your articles, jokes, puzzles, feedback to balajineela@gmail.com
Contents
1. Its all about YOU.. Life's Balance Sheet..B/f Kala
2. Thought for this week…B/f Ram
3. Health..Staying young..B/f Narayana
4. Jokes corner....B/f the Crest
5. Management thoughts…B/f Murthy
6. Cartoonz..
7. Useful and useless trivia…B/f Assif
8. Green Tip of the Day -- By Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam....B/f Rajan & Dev
9. Closing thoughts
10. Financial Scenario…
1. Its all about YOU… Life's Balance Sheet
Our Birth is our Opening Balance!
Our Death is our Closing Balance!
Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabilities.
Our Creative Ideas are our Assets.
Heart is our Current Asset.
Soul is our Fixed Asset.
Brain is our Fixed Deposit.
Thinking is our Current Account.
Achievements are our Capital.
- H. Jackson Brown
Get the message….plan your time and use it as productively you can…Identify the Non value adds and stay focussed (Target driven meetings with end times…) & see the amount of time that you seem to be creating…You will be Amazed!!!
Hi Friends, So here comes a Special Edition # 31 of Good to Great… Special credits and thanks for this week are to Sridhar, Srinath, Kamakshi, Sai (Extra special thanks), Kala, Ashwin & Ramya.
Read in Leisure and please continue to share your articles, jokes, puzzles, feedback to balajineela@gmail.com
Contents
1. Its all about YOU.. Life's Balance Sheet..B/f Kala
2. Thought for this week…B/f Ram
3. Health..Staying young..B/f Narayana
4. Jokes corner....B/f the Crest
5. Management thoughts…B/f Murthy
6. Cartoonz..
7. Useful and useless trivia…B/f Assif
8. Green Tip of the Day -- By Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam....B/f Rajan & Dev
9. Closing thoughts
10. Financial Scenario…
1. Its all about YOU… Life's Balance Sheet
Our Birth is our Opening Balance!
Our Death is our Closing Balance!
Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabilities.
Our Creative Ideas are our Assets.
Heart is our Current Asset.
Soul is our Fixed Asset.
Brain is our Fixed Deposit.
Thinking is our Current Account.
Achievements are our Capital.
Character & Morals, our Stock-in-Trade.
Friends are our General Reserves.
Values & Behaviour are our Goodwill.
Love is our Dividend.
Children are our Bonus Issues..
Education is Brands / Patents.
Knowledge is our Investment.
Experience is our Premium Account.
The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet Accurately.
The Goal is to get the Best Presented Accounts Award
Chinese Proverb: (IN English)
'When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it,
you have a moral obligation to share it with others'..
2. Thought for this week
If your temper is aroused and you tell others a thing or two,
Friends are our General Reserves.
Values & Behaviour are our Goodwill.
Love is our Dividend.
Children are our Bonus Issues..
Education is Brands / Patents.
Knowledge is our Investment.
Experience is our Premium Account.
The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet Accurately.
The Goal is to get the Best Presented Accounts Award
Chinese Proverb: (IN English)
'When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it,
you have a moral obligation to share it with others'..
2. Thought for this week
If your temper is aroused and you tell others a thing or two,
you will have a fine time in unloading your feelings.
But just think about the feelings of other person.
During time of great stress and adversity, it is always best to keep busy,
plough all your anger and your energy into something positive.
That’s what Mr M K Gandhi did, after he was thrown out of the train by a railway official. Later on, he became Mahatma Gandhi.
3. Health HOW TO STAY YOUNG
a) Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.
b) The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
LIVE while you are alive.
c) Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.
d) Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
e) Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
f). Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity
4. Jokes corner..
Planning your time…..a very good forward, I have enjoyed reading this each time it was forwarded…a small joke, but tons of lessons to be learnt…
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car I forgot to put in the garage last night, and decide the car really needs washing. As I pull the hose around the house to the driveway, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only 1 check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the cup of coffee that I had been drinking.
I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I realize I left my computer running, answering emails on gardening, when I take a sip of the coffee, it's cold, so I decide I should put it in the microwave to warm it up again.
As I head toward the kitchen with the cup of coffee, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the coffee down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses laying on the counter, I've been searching for them all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll add some fresh water to the vase of flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
----the garden didn't get any water,
----the car isn't washed,
----the bills aren't paid,
----the garden emails havn't been answered,
----there is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the counter,
----the flowers in the vase still don't have enough water,
----there is only 1 check left in my check book,
----I can't find the remote,
----now I can't find my glasses again,
----and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mails.
Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!
5. Management thoughts…Be careful of what you plant!!
The story goes that some time ago a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.
He spoke to her in a harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package?"
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full."
plough all your anger and your energy into something positive.
That’s what Mr M K Gandhi did, after he was thrown out of the train by a railway official. Later on, he became Mahatma Gandhi.
3. Health HOW TO STAY YOUNG
a) Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.
b) The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
LIVE while you are alive.
c) Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.
d) Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
e) Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
f). Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity
4. Jokes corner..
Planning your time…..a very good forward, I have enjoyed reading this each time it was forwarded…a small joke, but tons of lessons to be learnt…
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car I forgot to put in the garage last night, and decide the car really needs washing. As I pull the hose around the house to the driveway, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only 1 check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the cup of coffee that I had been drinking.
I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I realize I left my computer running, answering emails on gardening, when I take a sip of the coffee, it's cold, so I decide I should put it in the microwave to warm it up again.
As I head toward the kitchen with the cup of coffee, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the coffee down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses laying on the counter, I've been searching for them all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll add some fresh water to the vase of flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
----the garden didn't get any water,
----the car isn't washed,
----the bills aren't paid,
----the garden emails havn't been answered,
----there is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the counter,
----the flowers in the vase still don't have enough water,
----there is only 1 check left in my check book,
----I can't find the remote,
----now I can't find my glasses again,
----and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mails.
Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!
5. Management thoughts…Be careful of what you plant!!
The story goes that some time ago a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.
He spoke to her in a harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package?"
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full."
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger. An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life.
And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a Golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
6. Cartoons..
7. Useful and useless trivia
a) People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you Sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.#
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to Suppress a sneeze; you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
b) Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from History.
"Spades" - King David; "Clubs" - Alexander the Great; " Hearts" - Charlemagne; "Diamonds" - Julius Caesar.
c) Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
8. Tip for this week…. Ctrl+ Alt+ Del - By Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
To all those who do not TURN OFF their PC’s & Lights before Leaving OFFICE
Most of us in the IT field, used to do one thing before leaving for the day from office, Press Ctrl+Alt+ Del and leave to home happily. That means your PC is still on..
One normal PC in the sleeping mode (Hibernation) will consume 35 watts/hr.
Based on this we will do a small calculation.
For one week 24 * 7 = 168 Hrs, Of this if we consider that we are working for 68 hours, then the PC is in sleeping mode for 100 Hrs a week.
For one month 4 * 100 = 400 Hrs, In a normal IT office, if we assume approximately 250 PCs are there, 250 * 400 = 1,00,000 Hrs (Sleeping Mode), So power wasted / month is 100000 * 35 = 3500 KWH or units. If the charge per unit is Rs. 6, then wastage value is Rs. 21,000. (Approx.)
Here the sad thing is not the money loss to the company but the power loss to the country.
Apart from the loss to the country we need to think of the efforts people are putting for producing the power in the Mines, Thermal Stations, Hydro electric Stations, etc. If this is to continue, the cost of unit power will go up & at one stage we will not get power even if we are ready to pay any cost.
a) People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you Sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.#
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to Suppress a sneeze; you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
b) Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from History.
"Spades" - King David; "Clubs" - Alexander the Great; " Hearts" - Charlemagne; "Diamonds" - Julius Caesar.
c) Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
8. Tip for this week…. Ctrl+ Alt+ Del - By Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
To all those who do not TURN OFF their PC’s & Lights before Leaving OFFICE
Most of us in the IT field, used to do one thing before leaving for the day from office, Press Ctrl+Alt+ Del and leave to home happily. That means your PC is still on..
One normal PC in the sleeping mode (Hibernation) will consume 35 watts/hr.
Based on this we will do a small calculation.
For one week 24 * 7 = 168 Hrs, Of this if we consider that we are working for 68 hours, then the PC is in sleeping mode for 100 Hrs a week.
For one month 4 * 100 = 400 Hrs, In a normal IT office, if we assume approximately 250 PCs are there, 250 * 400 = 1,00,000 Hrs (Sleeping Mode), So power wasted / month is 100000 * 35 = 3500 KWH or units. If the charge per unit is Rs. 6, then wastage value is Rs. 21,000. (Approx.)
Here the sad thing is not the money loss to the company but the power loss to the country.
Apart from the loss to the country we need to think of the efforts people are putting for producing the power in the Mines, Thermal Stations, Hydro electric Stations, etc. If this is to continue, the cost of unit power will go up & at one stage we will not get power even if we are ready to pay any cost.
So before leaving to home take some time to shut down the PC and do some favour to the country and the organisation.
9. Closing thoughts…
Indian Cricket did an amazing comeback to win the 1st test match – after being on the back foot
for close to 3.5 days, the Indian team turned the match around…through some aggressive batting,(Viru, Yuvaraj) extraordinary commitment ( Tendulkar)…& of course the brilliant captaincy of Dhoni
Clearly Kevin Peterson was found wanting on ideas and the negative line that he asked his bowlers to bowl backfired and finally India
Won the match comfortably…..
So what sort of a captain are you while you Marshall your resources?
10. Financial Scenario…Getting lean to survive the downturn - Bernie Thompson
A fantastic article…please take time to read this as it has many practical ideas..
Promising start-ups are exciting. But during a downturn, they can also feel a little too exciting.
Funded start-ups are always on the clock: Time till the next funding round. Time till cash flow positive. Time till a public offering.
In a severe downturn the clock keeps ticking, but it becomes harder to bet on closing that next big sale or funding round. Financial visibility declines. Management must aggressively take action to steer the corporate ship to account for the increased external risk and uncertainty:
1. Re-prioritize to focus on the highest probability, nearest term revenue opportunities
2. Cut spending to preserve cash
3. Look carefully for unique opportunities in the surrounding turmoil
The more severe the downturn, the more aggressively these actions should be taken. Yet traditional organizations are poorly equipped to handle this change:
§ Forward-looking plans and budgets that were carefully set in stone, now break rather than bend.
§ Severe bottlenecks appear throughout the organization as the ratios between dependent teams and specialists get thrown off by hiring freezes or layoffs (“We were counting on that team to deliver their part of the project, but they’re all laid off!” or “How can we hit the same schedule with half the test team?”)
§ An organization that isn’t practiced at delivering value on short cycles and dynamically re-prioritizing, will find their plans churned and capacity to deliver shredded.
The reason why lean thinking is so powerful is it embraces change. When the market is in turmoil, change is legion and organizations that apply lean thinking stand the best chance of surviving, or even thriving. To best satisfy the 3 goals above, take steps in the lean direction to:
1. Get closer to the customer. Listen to their priorities. Tighten the feedback loop.
2. Break projects into smaller pieces and deliver them on shorter cycles.
3. Drive the organization with clear but dynamic priorities, rather than long-term dates, deliverables, and deadlines.
4. Break dependencies between projects and between specialists. Give small teams everything they need to deliver on their own faster schedule.
5. As change churns the organization, regularly ask “where is our bottleneck now?” and do what it takes to resolve it.
6. Break the “union mindset” of specialization. Ask everyone to attack the bottleneck wherever it is. Retain generalists who can thrive in an environment of change.
7. Don’t let people and organizations be spread thin. Focus on the highest value deliverables. Do less, but get those priorities done faster.
These are all great practices for any company, especially a creative start-up. Lean thinking gives an organization the tools to think about opportunities and capacity in a highly dynamic, scalable way. In a downturn, nothing could be more critical or valuable. The urgency of a downturn may, in fact, be the best opportunity to adopt changes that will pay off even more when things turn up again.
In a nasty downturn, do not ask for whom the bell tolls. Embrace change, get lean, and make darn sure the bell does not toll for thee.
9. Closing thoughts…
Indian Cricket did an amazing comeback to win the 1st test match – after being on the back foot
for close to 3.5 days, the Indian team turned the match around…through some aggressive batting,(Viru, Yuvaraj) extraordinary commitment ( Tendulkar)…& of course the brilliant captaincy of DhoniClearly Kevin Peterson was found wanting on ideas and the negative line that he asked his bowlers to bowl backfired and finally India
Won the match comfortably…..
So what sort of a captain are you while you Marshall your resources?
10. Financial Scenario…Getting lean to survive the downturn - Bernie Thompson
A fantastic article…please take time to read this as it has many practical ideas..
Promising start-ups are exciting. But during a downturn, they can also feel a little too exciting.
Funded start-ups are always on the clock: Time till the next funding round. Time till cash flow positive. Time till a public offering.
In a severe downturn the clock keeps ticking, but it becomes harder to bet on closing that next big sale or funding round. Financial visibility declines. Management must aggressively take action to steer the corporate ship to account for the increased external risk and uncertainty:
1. Re-prioritize to focus on the highest probability, nearest term revenue opportunities
2. Cut spending to preserve cash
3. Look carefully for unique opportunities in the surrounding turmoil
The more severe the downturn, the more aggressively these actions should be taken. Yet traditional organizations are poorly equipped to handle this change:
§ Forward-looking plans and budgets that were carefully set in stone, now break rather than bend.
§ Severe bottlenecks appear throughout the organization as the ratios between dependent teams and specialists get thrown off by hiring freezes or layoffs (“We were counting on that team to deliver their part of the project, but they’re all laid off!” or “How can we hit the same schedule with half the test team?”)
§ An organization that isn’t practiced at delivering value on short cycles and dynamically re-prioritizing, will find their plans churned and capacity to deliver shredded.
The reason why lean thinking is so powerful is it embraces change. When the market is in turmoil, change is legion and organizations that apply lean thinking stand the best chance of surviving, or even thriving. To best satisfy the 3 goals above, take steps in the lean direction to:
1. Get closer to the customer. Listen to their priorities. Tighten the feedback loop.
2. Break projects into smaller pieces and deliver them on shorter cycles.
3. Drive the organization with clear but dynamic priorities, rather than long-term dates, deliverables, and deadlines.
4. Break dependencies between projects and between specialists. Give small teams everything they need to deliver on their own faster schedule.
5. As change churns the organization, regularly ask “where is our bottleneck now?” and do what it takes to resolve it.
6. Break the “union mindset” of specialization. Ask everyone to attack the bottleneck wherever it is. Retain generalists who can thrive in an environment of change.
7. Don’t let people and organizations be spread thin. Focus on the highest value deliverables. Do less, but get those priorities done faster.
These are all great practices for any company, especially a creative start-up. Lean thinking gives an organization the tools to think about opportunities and capacity in a highly dynamic, scalable way. In a downturn, nothing could be more critical or valuable. The urgency of a downturn may, in fact, be the best opportunity to adopt changes that will pay off even more when things turn up again.
In a nasty downturn, do not ask for whom the bell tolls. Embrace change, get lean, and make darn sure the bell does not toll for thee.
