Prakash Goswami's personal blog

Back on the road

2007-10-19T08:41:00.001-04:00

Hello everybody!

I am sure all of you are doing well. I know...i know...no excuse!! I was out of touch for a while. Yes, you are right....so much has changed since my last posting.

Well, it will take some time to update this blog with all the contents of last 10 months. So, till it happens enjoy the following articles, I promise you will like them:

Your success is my celebration :-)
http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Create-Outrageous-Success-With-These-10-Secret-Leadership-Skills/106345

Swim With The Sharks Or Sleep With The Fishes: The Marketing Wisdom OfThe Godfather:
http://thebylinegroup.com/article4.html

Stay tuned!

Back from my India trip

2006-09-15T06:49:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well.

Well, I am getting back to my rochester life....it was hectic but trip to India was very nice - enjoyed good food (without adding any extra weight), visited few new places - I am sure it will make few very jealous :)

I also read couple of good books - one of them was Amartya Sen's "Identity and Violence". It's well written and presented a good economic thinking framework. In my words if we want "basic human values" to sustain in our social value system then only way to achieve is we all should have only one identity i.e. we all should be known as human being nothing else. We are not muslims, hindus or christians - we should not be known as white, black or brown - our identity should not be Asian, African or Americans - we all are human being and all of us bear the responsibility to nuture the basic human values - should encompass all the other identities underneath this very human identity. It's really sad that we, as people work so hard to divide while we claim the rhetoric of equality.

From Washinton Post:
"Over this discursive little book lies the shadow of Sen's formidable Harvard colleague, the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, with his celebrated theory of the "clash of civilizations." Sen has assigned himself the role of the anti-Huntington: Sen sees Huntington's thesis of cultural conflict yielding a one-dimensional approach to human identity -- and leading to the "civilizational and religious partitioning of the world," which can only occasion greater global disorder.

Here, in contrast, is Sen celebrating the complexity of human identity: "The same person can be, without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a schoolteacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theater lover, an environmental activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician," etc. One's civilizational identity is not one's destiny, Sen observes, and civilizational "partitioning" -- seeing the planet culture by culture -- does not capture the messiness of the world. This Earth of ours, he says, is made more "flammable" by warring definitions of human identity, rather than an embrace of the many different facets that make us human."

As a different note, here is another article that some of you might find interesting:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/14bspec.htm

Enjoy the reading and have a wonderful weekend :)

Cheers!

Some thoughts

2006-08-01T08:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since my last posting....I hope everyone is doing well.

Well, the good news is I finally purchased the air ticket for my upcoming India trip - I am looking forward for this trip. Everytime I visit India, it's a different feeling - I don't think if I was in India I would have got the opportunity to feel my homecoming in the same way. Anyways, I think enough of my personal stories....

I found this article interesting - From Mr. Murthy of Infosys:
How one has to be engaged with the system before one attempted to reform it, how idealism needed to be channelled into action rather than be allowed to succumb to defeatist hand-wringing, and how every small act had to be governed by an overarching commitment to integrity.
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/01mguest.htm

The following article for the marketing professionals (5 lessons from Philip Kotler):
Lesson 1: R&D must be market-ready
Lesson 2: Number-crunching is more than just calculating market shares
Lesson 3: The co-creation mantra
Lesson 4: Expand market size
Lesson 5: Strategic trajectory for Indian brands
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/01kotler.htm

Enjoy the rest of the week....
Stay tuned!

Day's highlights

2006-07-20T07:50:00.000-04:00

It's strange to see that the world is going through a series of destructions.... in last few years the amount of destruction took place in this world definitely outnumbered the amount of constructive activities throughout the world. In this context I want to share with you some of the quotations of Gandhiji and Einstein - one representing the power of tolerance and humanity and other the power of science:

"The greater scientist than any of the modern scientists is the man who discovered for us the law of love."
- Gandhi
"The way of religion often caused enmity and conflict, instead of binding mankind together with the universal moral idea. Without tolerance in this widest sense there can be no question of true morality." - Einstein

"The political and economic conflicts of the last few decades have brought before our eyes dangers which even the darkest pessimists of the last century did not dream of." - Einstein

I am absolutely convinced that today this world needs both of them in flesh and blood.

While thinking on this I came accross this article and I hope some of us will be inspired by the work they have done and the attitude they posses:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jul/21infy.htm

Have a good weekend everyone....

Crisis that today's civilized society is facing

2006-07-13T21:36:00.000-04:00

Like all of you I am also very sad and helpless for what happened in Mumbai. It's not only in India, through out the world civilized society is threatened by this menace called terrorism. I sincerely hope and pray that these people start realizing the value for their own life soon. It's my urge to every citizen of the civilized society - please be vigilant always about your surroundings and report to the appropriate authorities about any suspecious activities. This will atleast reduce some of the chances.....

Being a citizen of this FLAT world, it hurts and it's always painful to read this kind of news. I am sure most of you has already read this article which resembles most of our feelings:
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/12nri.htm

After this negative feeling there is this article might shade some light - What Raghuram Rajan of IMF says about India's economic future:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jul/18forbes.htm

More to come in the next entry....Stay tuned :)

Today's highlight

2006-07-09T11:10:00.000-04:00

I know most of you might be thinking that I have been lazy lately.... to an extent I do agree with you =) Trust me I was busy with few things which I really needed to complete - enough excuses! Well, today I will keep it short and crisp - will have to catch up with two big games i.e. world cup final and Wimbledon final. You wanna bet with me....=) well I hope Italy wins the final and Nadal wins the Wimbledon. Sorry friends who supports France and Federer - trust me I like the play of Zidane and adore few signature shorts of Federer. It will be challenge for Nadal to beat Federer on grass - so, it will be a pleasure to see how Federer plays Nadal.

Here is one article on Tata Coffee. Tata is a household brand name in India - starting from Tata Salt to big trucks and now Tata is going global. Globalization really made it possible for any domestic brand with a big dream to go global - World is truly a Flat marketplace.
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/30tata1.htm

Innovative Organizations - Part 2

2006-07-03T07:05:00.000-04:00

The success of running an Innovative organization is a balanced blend of culture, methodologies, infrastructure, and work practices.

Start with The Leadership

As the leader, your job is to shape the future of the company and guide it successfully through all stages of growth to achieve its maximum potential. This is achieved by creating a powerful sense of purpose and direction; aligning everyone with the company's mission, and values; developing yourself and others; motivating and communicating effectively, and developing an environment that motivates and empowers people to achieve extraordinary results. Think about the corporate future in disciplined ways and communicate your visions to your managers and employees.

Top Management Team

Each team member has responsibilities in functional areas but cross-functional systemic innovation must also be supported. Together the top team must share the leadership of the company with the team(s). They must understand and embrace corporate vision andstrategic intent, understand how their roles and functions are integrated, and coordinate their activities to support growth and opportunities-driven business development. Together, they must develop the company's growth goals and plans, develop and strengthen the corporate values and culture, attract and retain awesome people in each of their functional areas. To achieve that, you should build a sense of informality, trust, and a shared understanding of the future among the top management team members. The top team must be a model for all other teams and help each other succeed.

Cross-Functional Teams Leading Innovation

In the new era of systemic innovation, it is more important for an organization to be cross-functionally excellent than functionally excellent. To lead these expertise development efforts, cross-functional teams, either formal or informal, need to be formed. These teams can also find new businesses in white spaces between existing business units.

In strategic innovation road-mapping, the starting point for knowledge building and learning about the innovation concept is to establish a shared view of trends, disruptive technologies and other discontinuities, and related events that could shape the future. Organize regular meetings of multi-disciplinary teams to discuss explicitly - and if required, redefine - innovation objectives, priorities, and specific projects.

Culture and Climate

Culture is the environment that attracts great people and enables them to thrive and perform at their best.
Establishing the culture of innovation requires a broad and sustained effort. Though changing a company's culture is never easy, with the right leadership, cultures can be reshaped and amazing results can accrue. Establishing an attitude of relentless growth is what enables an organization and its people to achieve their goals. The spirit of relentless growth keeps fresh ideas flowing and reinvigorates the company.

The great innovators behave illogically. They base their work on uncertainty and ambiguity, experiment, use small teams, and draw their aspiration from forward-looking customers. Management's task is to generate the right climate that encourages experimentation, creativity, rule-breaking, and individualism. Avoid rigid management that rules out experiment and trial and error. Build learning and coaching organization - tear down cultures of bureaucracy, interference, and lack of autonomy.

Use various organizational mechanisms to get idea generators out of standard routines and connect them to both internal and external sources of knowledgebase. These mechanisms may include think-tanks, technology forecasting, strategic road-mapping, cross-functional strategic planning teams, corporate wide requests for new project proposals, periodic transfer of employees from one unit to another, and forums geared to cross-pollination of innovative ideas

Innovative Systems

The Innovation System model synthesizes and defines the core elements of innovation, their behavior and interaction. The power of this good model makes it easier to understand complex issues and dynamics of innovation, separate its six core elements - leadership & management, strategic alignment, innovation process, organization & people, metrics, and corporate culture - and examine them is greater depth.

Innovative Organizations - Look and feel

2006-06-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

Innovation – the Key to Success and Survival
Leaders of successful, high-growth companies understand that innovation is what drives growth, and innovation is achieved by awesome people with a shared relentless growth attitude and shared passion for problem solving and for turning ideas into realities. Companies that continuously innovate will create and re-invent new markets, products, services, and business models – which lead to more growth. Innovation is founded based on organization's ability to recognize market opportunities, its internal capabilities to respond innovatively, and the internal knowledge base.

So, the best thing to do to guarantee growth is to build a sustainable innovation organization around the following components:
1. Vision and strategy for innovation
2. Culture supporting innovation
3. Processes, practices and systems supporting innovation
4. Top management team leading innovation
5. Cross-functional teams mapping innovation road
6. Empowered employees driving innovation

So, how does typical Innovative companies look like?

The most common characteristics of Innovative companies/teams are:

Respect for each other - respect for its people (individualism)
Permission to take risk and freedom to fail
Customer-focused and oriented (both internal and external)
Willing to invest in R&D projects and innovation
Committed to making their people the best
High energy level (Optimism but not arrogance)
Positive, buoyant, pro-active "can-do" attitude
A confident and respectful attitude that enables innovation to grow

Once Microsoft chairman Bill Gates mentioned on “Innovation Management policies for Large Corporations”:

Eliminate politics, by giving everybody the same message - Communication is key
Keep a flat organization in which all issues are discussed openly - Transparency
Insist on clear and direct communication - Integrity
Prevent competing missions or objectives - shoot for common goals
Eliminate rivalry between different parts of the organization - Collaborate instead of competing
Empower teams to do their own things - Trust people and develop them

The story of TerraCycle

2006-06-23T07:24:00.000-04:00

The amazing story of the coolest little start-up in the US:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/23inc.htm

Next few days I will collect some articles and links on the "look and feel" of an innovative organization - how it looks, what it does and what process/structure it consists of. So, if you are curious on that domain stay tuned....BTW, you are welcome to share your thoughts too. You can email me at goswamip1@simon.rochester.edu

Today's highlight

2006-06-21T23:35:00.000-04:00

According to INFY chief, there are five elements of success. They are:

I found this Harvard article interesting: http://www.fireleadership.gov/documents/Learning_AAR.pdf

I am back

2006-06-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

I know some of you might be dying to read the new updates on this blog....I apologize to keep you waiting :o) What can I do - could not resist the temptation of going out on a camping trip over the weekend. Well, had so much fun that some of you might be little jealous =) I promise you that I will post the pictures very soon!! Till that time I want to share some nice articles with you....have fun!!

Bombay Buzz in Time:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1205390,00.html

Wharton guru on why bosses don't change:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/19guru.htm

Here you go....photos of my recent camping trip:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/prakash_goswami/album?.dir=/da15

Today's highlights

2006-06-17T05:58:00.000-04:00

By now most of you might have already heard the Microsoft story - 2 years from now Mr. Bill Gates will leave his Microsoft job. Definitely this will be a huge loss for Microsoft and its shareholders but it will be a great gain for the humanity. Two great leaders that adore most are Bapu Gandhi and Mr. Gates - both influenced mass. Bapuji moved all Indians against British and Mr. Gates created a mass movement on the PC world (the very vision PC for every household definitely created all the difference in today's world). Anyways, I hope the world humanity is benifited from Mr. Gates service.

On the alterative energy area - more Powerful Fuel Cells Get Closer To Market
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16965&ch=biztech

I will be on a camping trip this weekends....so stay tuned for the updates.

Today's highlights

2006-06-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

Continuing on the awareness of environment issues, here is a nice article by Bittu Sahgal:
http://in.rediff.com/millenni/bittu.htm

On a seperate note here is an interesting article on how the "Demand and Reforms pump up Asian Energy trading market":
http://www.fenews.com/fen49/fe-in-asia/fe-in-asia.html

In the sports: little disappointing for all Indian cricket lovers, rain God and WI captain Lara spoiled India's hope to break the jinx (to win a test match against WI) - We definitely need our Sourav Gangul(dada). On the other hand in soccer world, Germany won the match against Poland - was a very tight game - definitely Oliver made all the differenece.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update...

Articles of the day

2006-06-13T07:22:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's Multiple Challenges: Is Its Size a Benefit or Burden?
http://www2.cio.com//higher/report4137.html?source=cioinsider

A dummies guide to P/E ratio:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/13mc.htm

The global green index
Zero solid waste: A company that achieves this is either able to utilise its entire waste as raw material for some other industry, or recycle it for use again in the factory.

Water positive: This implies that an organisation generates more fresh water through various water harvesting methods than it consumes in its factories.

Carbon positive: Implies a company, through afforestation programmes and efficient use of energy, eliminates more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the sum of the carbon emitted by the company through areas like the generation of electricity, running AC plants and so on.

Article on environmental protection initiatives:
http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/11spec.htm

Nice article on Innovative Organizations

2006-06-12T20:39:00.000-04:00

Business Week article - thought you will be interested: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_17/b3981401.htm

Today, innovation is about much more than new products. It is about reinventing business processes and building entirely new markets that meet untapped customer needs. Most important, as the Internet and globalization widen the pool of new ideas, it's about selecting and executing the right ideas and bringing them to market in record time.

My Graduation

2006-06-12T20:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, June 11th of 2006 was one of the most important dates in my life. I got my MBA degree from one of the most renouned business schools in the US. It was also my birthday. Few of my close friends came to celebrate with me.

2006-05-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

Hello,

This is the start of my blog. I will update as I grow older :-)

Stay tuned.
- Prakash