Planet Earth Has 5 Years

The world has five years to avoid being trapped in a scenario of severe climate changes and extreme weather events.


Below is a Yahoo! link


http://news.yahoo.com/world-five-years-avoid-severe-warming-iea-170519443.html

The Fox Will Kill The Lion

AltaVista was the world’s most popular search engine by 1998.  The site had recorded 80 million hits a day in 1997.  Yahoo! Inc, via Overture, bought over AltaVista.  AltaVista died and Yahoo! lived.  Google came in and as of today Yahoo! is up for sale.

What does all this mean?  AltaVista set up the multi threaded crawler – the ability to search more web pages than were believed to exist at that time.  What happened to AltaVista’s drive and ambition to remain at the top?  Why did Yahoo! take over and why is the same Yahoo! up for sale today?

Leadership of the fox kind is the key.  There is no way that a fox can fight the lion – certainly not in the traditional sense of jaws and paws.  It is only a dumb competitor who would fight the mighty with tools that yield a competitive advantage only to the mighty.  The fox would challenge the “institutional skills” of the lion and instead rely on his “strategic resources”.  This would necessarily include an opportunity where the lion displays a “weakness” and the inability to fight back.

The above allegory summarizes what happens when the young and the fresh challenge and take over those with power over them.   Failure to focus on strategic leadership and its eventual result of strengthening the competition is well documented in business history.

The question then is what prompts one to take advantage and make better use of an opportunity while the mighty sit back and look on?

The motivation to supersede and win, despite the presence of market heavyweights, along with dissatisfaction with the status quo seems to be the basis of this leadership.

This attitude influences creative output as one is suddenly focused into the task at hand.  There seems to be fireworks not just in our ability to concentrate but also in our capacity to take risks. 

Motivated individuals are able to override programmed modes of thought in order to reflect critically and positively on the situation at hand.  I am sure this also has a lot to do with the ability to find meaning in a task.

Google is the world’s number one search engine.  Google became number one as the promoters were interested in a search engine that ranked websites in terms of importance and quantity of pages rather than the number of times the search items appeared on the page.

Google knew why they had to do it before they knew how they would do it.  The entire motivation seems to stem from altering the status quo and creating new ways of handling resources.

To end the allegory –

a)      The fox does not worry about claws and paws

b)      The fox does not feel the need to fight the lion in the traditional sense

c)       The lion is the king of the jungle and is fixed in his methods

Google is the Lion today.  Here’s to Google – Have a foxy day!

Copyright © Nitesh Kotecha

Keep Going and Find Something Better to Do

David Packard, the co founder of Hewlett Packard always said that he was a human being first and CEO second.  He was a very quiet man and avoided publicity and limelight.  He is quoted as saying “You should not gloat about anything you have done; you ought to keep going and find something better to do”.

There are some lessons here.  Keep going means we cannot rest on our laurels.  This is a trap.  There are many celebrities who have ruined their lives only because they were too proud of their achievements.

Nature has shown that every great invention has been refined and improved upon.  There is nothing in this world that is so perfect that we cannot improve it (well maybe not with the Mona Lisa Smile – but you know what I am talking about).  Thus we may savor the moment of our success and glory but it would be prudent to heed the words of David and see if we can improve upon our last achievement – before our competition does!

Finding something better to do symbolizes that there is always a higher value that we can achieve and aspire to.  An author can write a book and enjoy his new found celebrity status.  However, finding something better to do would mean that the author must now go beyond his last work and once again challenge himself.  The same would apply to a sportsman, a student or a businessman.

There are many benefits to what David advised us.  It improves our relationships across all levels, reduces anxiety and stress, encourages an open approach and attitude – and as paradoxically as it may seem, it enhances one’s self-confidence.

Copyright – Nitesh Kotecha

Are You A Gentleman?

"You can see whether a person is a gentleman or not by seeing how he treats those who can be of absolutely no use to him" – as the saying goes.

We all know how we treat those whom we need or have use of.  Why does a person mistreat, ignore or be otherwise indifferent to those who can be of absolutely no use to him or her?  The root of the behaviour can be safely generalized to the absence of humility.

On a detached and spiritual level, humility as a quality allows us to consider our own defects, be modest in how we describe ourselves and be conscious of the higher powers that may be. If I were to define humility, I would say something like this - "Humility is the quality of being courteous and respectful to others."

This working definition of humility does not qualify what “others” means - and this lack of clarity seems to allow us to be selective about our humility and our disposition.

Indians are conditioned to a phrase - "Your Humble Servant". This is ridiculous. This is a hangover from the Princely and the British era where humility was confused with servility.  Humility is about maintaining our pride about who we are, what our accomplishments are, our self worth - but not about how superior we are to others.

I have always maintained that the higher a person rises in terms of knowledge, wealth, status, power, etc - the more humble a person must be.  Humility means that you are aware of your achievements that have given you knowledge, wealth, status, power, etc – but there is no arrogance.  We all admire people with these traits.  Our admiration for these people does not come from acknowleding their achievements but rather from the absence of arrogance.

There are mountains of materials on leadership.  Management text books go about describing leadership in all its managerial aspect.  However, to lead you must have someone to follow - and nobody follows arrogance.

Copyright - Nitesh Kotecha

A Lovely Video About Foodchains

My daughter Samruddhhi was learning about food chains.  We were searching the web for some resource material that would enhance her knowledge.

We were browsing throught the national geographic website and we came upon a lovely video that clearly explains the food chain.  My daughter loved it and I am sure your children will like it too...

Below is the link. Enjoy

magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0309/quickflicks/brainpop/foodchain/mysteries.swf

Copyright  - Nitesh Kotecha

Effective Managers Are Not Necessarily True Leaders

Effective Managers and True Leaders differ in their

a)    Management Style – Good Managers limit their concerns to the day to day complexities of an organization, while true leaders orchestrate important changes in the organization.  For example, true leadership goes beyond management’s responsibility of planning and budgeting routines, structuring the organization, staffing and monitoring activities by creating a vision for the firm and inspiring individuals to reach for that goal.

b)   Management Traits – A good leader posses a drive, that is, a high regard for achievement and are constantly striving for improvement.   Secondly the good leader exerts leadership motivation – they show interest and desire to lead individuals.  In addition, a good leader ins concerned with his or her integrity, shows self esteem and finally has a high level of knowledge about the industry or company he or she is working for.

c)    Management behavior – A good manager’s behavioral approach centers  on task performance (getting the job done) while good leaders also focus on group maintenance and the concern over their follower’s participation in decision making.  A good leader exhibits behavior that demonstrates concern towards a group as a whole and towards individuals on a personal level; they express concern over areas such as trust, open communication, mutual respect and royalty.

In order to succeed in establishing a positive atmosphere and a culture where employees are encouraged to thrive, it is essential that managers go beyond good management and become great leaders

Source: Bateman and Snell (2007)

Your Broker As A Cheat (Part 2)

There are many reasons why your broker would recommend a stock to you.  

However, the reasons may not necessarily conclude that you are making a prudent long term or a short term investment.  In fact the recommendation may come to you only because you have an account with the broker and that you have cash – and that you are financially dense.

Your broker may have invested in the stock for his other clients, or for his family or for herself.  The stock may not be performing well.  The broker is now experiencing stress and cannot decide her current condition.  The stock is not performing and the broker’s reputation is on the line.  Our internal state of harmony is challenged if she is to conclude that it was a bad stock.

It is at this moment that you ask your broker about a good stock and pop!  She just names the stock that she is stuck in.  Your investment in this stock not only induces conformity in your behaviour – the broker also feels good that money is pouring into the stock.  She now does not have to think that she could be a certified dud.

Your broker could be hand in glove with the main broker at the exchange and there could be a mutual understanding between them to encourage retail participation in the stock thus allowing the company and its operators to offload the stock.

Now, depending on the stock, you may book your losses at some 30% to 40% loss.  This is the time the company and its operators pick up the stock again and look around for fresh idiots to fall prey to the game.

Some stocks in this category are Prakash Industries Ltd, Shree Precoated Steel Limited, Sturdy Industries, India Lease Dev, Shree Rayalseema, Anus Lab, Zyden, Arvind Remedies, Karuturi Global, Alok Ind, Assam Co  and similar certified junk.

Please note that such a game plan is first initiated by a good looking “Research” Report or some model portfolio gibberish.  Your broker will produce such a report before you in order to add authenticity to an otherwise junk proposal.  If you are greedy, you are game.

A giver is a person who gives, a donor is a person who donates and a broker is a person who gets you broke!

In dealing with brokers, it may pay to heed to the words of Alexander Pope:

Be wise,

Be discreet,

But mark that point,

Where sense and dullness meet.

Happy Investing !

Copyright – Nitesh Kotecha