Towards a Greener planet...

"Global warming, also known as the green house effect is a topic that has
received much attention in recent years; yet our climate change is not a recent
problem. It has been morphing over many years. What is increasing is the rate
of change; it is accelerating due to the growth of the human population. The
growth of our population has increased our use of fuel, land, and
manufacturing. All of these are increasing emissions into our atmosphere that
increases global warming."
My thoughts are on controlling consumption & thus reducing wastages of all kind in our daily lives.
We continue talking about global warming, environmental degradation, making a difference in the lives of poor; unknowingly, our actions contribute to the very cause we oppose. These wastages are in different spheres of our life such as use of Paper, Plastic bags, Vehicle use, Food & eating habits,Clothing and so on.
• When we visit mall/food retail chains, we are not allowed to carry handbag and at the end of
our purchase have to carry multiple plastic bags.
• All of us buy vegetables at roadside vendors or from malls and hardly carry any bags. The
result is we carry vegetables in plastic bags which are not biodegradable....the thin ones.
How paper impacts our day to day life? How many times a day we touch paper?
-- newspapers, toilet paper, labels, money, tissues, books, shopping bags, receipts, ATM receipts,
Cash memos, statements, printer and copier paper at home and work, magazines, food packaging.
Now let’s consider following facts w.r.t. world consumption pattern.
1. The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year, -- that's the world's
highest per capita figure.
2. China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing per-capita users of paper, but they
still rank far behind Eastern Europe and Latin America (about 100 pounds per person per
year), Australia (about 300 pounds per person per year) and Western Europe (more than
400 pounds per person per year).
3. But don’t get mislaid by these per capita figures, always remember that China, India and
other Asian countries are densely populated than rest of the world. Hence our total
contribution to forest degradation would be equal to rest of the world.
4. A few years back, my official usage of paper was higher than 500 A4 sheets per month for
sharing of information on products, costing, internal memos, proposals, customer letters
plus computer stationary used for MIS.
Paper today constitute a most important and primary reason for tree felling and reducing forest
area across the globe.
5. Forests store 50% of the world's terrestrial carbon. (In other words, they are important
"carbon sinks" that hold onto pollution that would otherwise lead to global warming.)
6. Two third of the world's forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what's left
has been seriously degraded.
7. 42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.
8. The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste (and one third of municipal landfill waste)
10. Municipal landfills account for one third of human-related methane emissions (and methane
is 23-times more potent a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide).
11. Printing and writing papers use the least amount of recycled content -- just 6%.
12. While the paper industry invests in new recycled newsprint and paper packaging plants in
the developing world, almost none of the new printing and writing paper mills use recycled
content.
Now after understanding how paper impacts global warming and reduced forest cover, which are
the areas where we can make a difference. Please consider some of the examples in our day to day
use and how associated wastages are the resultant.

Increase of consumption across Banks : Few years ago, we had bank provided pass books of
A5 size with 10-12 pages that used to last us for minimum of six months depending on our
transaction. Now with the onset of core banking/ATM, our consumption has increased by
three ways. We use ATM receipts, Statement of accounts on periodical basis and passbooks.
a. How ATM receipts are used – These are thermal printed and used for short term
proof.
b. Statements: These are used for tracking account activity movement over a period,
difficult to retain over longer duration.
c. Passbooks: they are sleek & can be retained for close to 10 years or more.
Why ATM receipts create more waste?
I. ATM receipts are of non - standard size and vary from bank to bank. Following instances
can help in understanding the problem.
i. Kotak Bank uses slip which is of 8 inches in length and matter is mostly written on
first few inches and almost 5 inches of space is blank and unused.
ii. IDBI uses a slip of almost 4 inches in length and with almost 1 inch of space which is
blank.
iii. Dena bank uses 4 in*3 in slip and there is ample space to save.
iv. Now if banks were to use ATM receipts of size of credit card receipts, will it make
any difference to users....I hope not, looking at the impact this activity would bring in
to saving of few kms of forest cover.
Statements – the need for stopping waste : why would anyone prefer statement to
passbook when they occupy large space and are available at the end of
month/quarter? They occupy large space in our files and are definitely not ready
reckoners like our passbooks are. I would request all of you to closely scrutinize
statements each of us receive from time to time and you will find that without
touching the whole lot of information, the statements can be made more sleek and
handy.
2. Cash Memo’s generated at retail chains such as reliance fresh, big bazaar, malls: Another
addition in our paper use output is obviously the long cash memos each of these retail chains,
malls bring to our life. These stores generate a lengthy cash memo whether we buy one item or
100 items. Compare that with the slick cash memo of earlier times or cash memo generated on
used paper (on another side of used paper) by most of the daily needs/kirana stores nearly five
year ago.
Please consider a case below.
Reliance fresh stores generate 1000 cash memo in my area on daily basis. Each of these receipts
is almost 9 to 12 inches long with fixed matter occupying 6 inch, blank space almost 2 inch and
variable space varying from 1 inch to 9 inch long. Now just think if one can make decrease in
fixed matter space usage by almost 10% that would result in savings of 1500 mtr. of paper at
one store per month.
Now assume that there are atleast 150 such stores opened by reliance on a nationwide basis,
that would be savings of 225 kms of paper. Further consider atleast 4 such chains working across
India that would be close to 1000 kms of paper saved each month. Imagine how this one single
action would result in savings for these retail stores whether Reliance fresh or Big Bazaar etc.
while taking us nearer to our main goal of minimizing wastage and stopping forest degradation.
How do we do this: The activity will not require too much field working, at the same time we
will be able to capitalize on our strength areas of nearness to internet. We will require a big
contribution of efforts by some of our members in arranging the audience with these corporate
houses.
We will create a website, do an campaign across corporate houses, tweet, create blogs, and
meet in person to CSR leaders across banks & retail chains to create an awareness and then let
the internal forces to these organizations help us get the job done.
What is in it for us:
• A better future for our next generation? Fresh air, Fresh water, Green earth.
• If done right, national level accolades from Ministry of Environment & Forests.
• Who knows, it might lead to global recognition by UN and other bodies tomorrow 
Thing to Ponder:
Could we have saved the ballot papers we used during our first meeting to vote?
If the United States cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6
million tons of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road. I hope
same hold true for India as well.
Compared to using forest wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less
energy, produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50%
less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and -- of course -- 100% less wood.

Courtesy to Anil, as he mentioned all these points to discuss in the ILN Mumbay meet.

Are You an Inventor or an Entrepreneur?

PS: This one I came across in the HBR. A nice read.

Being an entrepreneur has more to do with a state of mind than a state of employment. And when you think of being an entrepreneur, it doesn't just mean starting a company — I've started over half a dozen successful companies but have also brought my experience to established companies. Right now, I am the President of a public company I did not start — so I may in fact be an "entrepreneur gone bad."
One of the most consistent things I hear entrepreneurs say is, "I have this great idea." And the advice they often get is to write a business plan and make it their bible. Most entrepreneurs firmly believe there is nothing better than a solid plan couples with a great idea. But don't confuse being an entrepreneur with being an inventor. Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Action is what differentiates an entrepreneur from an inventor. If you want to focus on ideas, become an inventor — not an entrepreneur.
And as for plans, entrepreneurs probably spend more time on our business plans than just about anything else we do. But business plans are often useless, even counterproductive; the old adage that "planning is everything; plans are nothing" (credited to Eisenhower) couldn't be more true in entrepreneurship.
The important thing is the process of planning — but you also have to be willing to throw out that plan. The single biggest advantage you have as a start-up versus an established business is your ability to be nimble, to act, to change. If you're beholden to your ideas or to your business plan, you will fail.
Thomas Edison is a great example of someone who most people think of as an inventor because of the thousands of ideas he came up with. But when someone asked Edison about his ideas he replied that he didn't care about his ideas. The only ideas that were interesting to him were the ones that he could commercialize. "I am quite correctly described as more of a sponge than an inventor," he said. Yet most people in fact don't realize that the light bulb was not Edison's idea; he just commercialized it. Edison thought of himself as an entrepreneur.
History is littered with great ideas — they're irrelevant to entrepreneurs. You need to be nimble and you need to act. Sony is a classic example. Few people know that Sony was founded on the idea of offering rice cookers to the masses. They failed at that idea, but Sony is what it is today because the founders were willing to give up on their original ideas and plans.
Gillette is another classic example of a company that constantly reinvents itself. Every year they come up with new products that transform their own industry. We may end up with razors that take two hands to hold, but Gillette proves that innovation is about change and progress, not great ideas.
So don't be afraid to throw out your business plan, adapt and give up on your original idea...and let your company succeed.

Courtesy : Harward Business publishing:
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=47118093&gid=40431&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Eharvardbusiness%2Eorg%2Fcs%2F2009%2F06%2Fare_you_an_inventor_or_an_entrepreneur%2Ehtml&urlhash=EJVz&trk=news_discuss

Are we a develop(ing / ed) or an underdeveloped one?

I had no plan to write anything this morning and the topic was not even in mind until I sat down for the breakfast with my Idli-Wada and The Newspaper in the canteen.

There were two photographs which drew my attention in the front page- of a newly born baby girl with her mother ( from West Bengal) and of the newly inaugurated Bandra-Worli Sea Link which has been dedicated to the nation yesterday.

News1:
The baby girl’s name is Asha and her mother gave birth to her in the veranda of an elementary school in Lalgarh, WestBegal Bengal- the Maoist bastion which the State is trying to bring under its control.

News2:
All the state and central political bigwigs are praising each other for the completion of the prestigious sea link- of course this is an engineering marvel which every Indian can be proud of - which may the land mark of Mumbai now onwards replacing the Gateway of India.

While the bridge was being inaugurated by cutting the red ribbon in western Mumbai, Asha was waiting there in the veranda of the school waiting for a midwife to come hand cut her umbilical cord.
Man, I ‘m not able to explain what I felt exactly after reading that two news snippets.

Where are we? Are we completely on the right track? Or what are we lacking as a State?
Why the State has to use armed force against its own people?
What can be done to see babies like Asha are getting a better welcome scene to this World?

one exam and me

The preparation of Project Management Professional exam conducted by PMI gave me a lot of insights than the credential itself as a PMI certified project manager.
Even though I attended the formal training required to sit for the exam before quite some time ago I decided to give the exam recently- precisely in the last weeks of June -2009.

I planned for the 23 of the month ,June-09 but due to some urgency in the office it had to be shifted to 25 of the month.

Learning and Preparation for an exam like PMP which grills you to the core of your understanding are Poles apart. This is my first learning.
I tried to apply the trick which all of us used in our college days .Have a general understanding of the subjects and solve as many previous exam papers and simulated tests available in the market to make you pass. The very second day of practice I realized that this is not going to go anywhere. The guys who are setting the question papers as really brilliant and knows how to differentiate between original and dup.

So I chalked out a new plan.

Specifically go to each knowledge area (of 9) and then step in to each process in that which together makes the 5 process groups of the PMBoK guide.

Even though I read PMBoK earlier now its entirely different game altogether.

Studied all the processes, the 44 of them and I was confident I can reproduce any of them in any order.
Then comes the real challenge; learn the Inputs for each process and the tool and techniques which are used upon each and the out put they are producing out of them. Just by-hearting them will not help rather it was almost impossible to do. For that my approach was logical linking of each of them in a process to recollect them whenever required. This was not completely successful, but you may say near about 85 % of the input, tools& technique and the outputs I was able to recollect. The rest 15 % I took a risk- for which I didn’t have a mitigation plan but decided to respond to it when it occurs.

Once I was comfortable with the learning I wanted to go for a test again- the instinct to be comfortable with yourself once you get a passing score. I went for one and score 63% and I passed. That was a good moral boost even though it was not at all a commendable score in a practice exam. Some of my colleague said that one has to score 90% + and then only go for a real test. Still, that passing score gave me a good pat on the back.

Then I’ve checked al the questions to which I answered wrong and understand the gap in my knowledge with the PMI standards. Again brushed up the points and took some more tests. In all the tests my scores were improving, not remarkably but gradually. Okay, so far so good.
Then I started listening to a pod cast in which the host was PMP and detailing out the each processes and its tools and techniques and the outputs and the “Gyan” around that. It was so good, that it allowed me to do a total review of al the points I learned. Since I find it easy to remember things which I listen this thing was a quite advantage.
In doing all these things my time ran out and tomorrow is the exam.
The evening before exam I went for a jog and tried not to think about the exam and the ‘things’ I‘ve to remember. Came back home had some food watched the Hollywood movie “Bourne Identity” – I don’t know how many times I‘ve seen that movie; Guys Bourne is remarkable …. Then I went through the formulae and some finance problems just to refresh them. Wanted to go early to bed, but I hit the bed by 12: 45 am.

Had a good sleep and got up on the exam day.
My exam was scheduled for the afternoon session and just sat to recollect some points which I noted in the pad to refer. Alas, nothing was coming clearly in the mind. I started doubting what should be the result, rather was sure it will not be good.

Then what I did was just took a nap for 15- 20 minutes to calm me down. That was good decision and after waking up I was not much worried about the formulae or the exam questions. Had brunch and kept all the documents to carry to the exam. By the time mother called from home just wish me good luck. With that I was ready.

It was about rain here so I decided not to take my bike and took a rickshaw to the prometric center which is 15 minutes away. Usually the roads are clear during that hour of the day but I was stuck up in traffic, which made me thinking about the Risk Management of the PMBoK J

So I reached the exam center 20 minutes before the exam where the situation was quite different. There were almost 7-9 people there to give various online test, most of them for PMP. The atmosphere at the waiting area was filled with tension. I had to wait for 15 minutes before starting the verification and body scanning to ensure that you are going inside only with things of primary importance; not even a hanky was allowed. Thank God, I was not having a running nose.

I went in and did my signing of the doc and was taken to the lat seat, all other seats were occupied.


I decided in my mind that I will take 3 breaks and planned accordingly. I sat down @ the cubicle number 8.
The instructor asked me to verify the details shown in the screen; done. Then he asked me go through the steps how to take the exam and all other details. It’s a 15 minutes exercise which I completed in 5 minutes and used the remaining time to make my brain dump- all the processes , formulae etc for future reference and it turned out to a fantastic thing during the exam. I dint have to remember, just to look into it and answer some of the direct questions.
I completed first 50 questions in 1 hour 10 minutes, next in 50 minutes, next in 50 minutes and last 50 in 50 minutes. Got 20 minutes for reviewing .I marked 30 questions for review and just reviewed 10. Couldn’t do a proper review of the remaining 20 ones. So decided not make mistakes in a hurry review and call it as the end of the exam. Sat back and see what happened around and no body was there I was alone in the room. Clicked to end the exam and then a screen cam to evaluate the test center I was not feeling anything good or bad about the center at that point of time, so simply selected the best answer.
I waited for 10 – 20 seconds waiting to see the results of my entire effort of couple of man months. The there came the Congratulation message which literally took me to a zero gravity situation.
That feeling was awesome which I experienced quite some time back.
Came out of the room and got my result sheet along with a congrats from the lady sitting there. She signed and put a seal on the certificate and hand it over to me.
Now I realized that I couldn’t implement the plan of the breaks which I made, even for a biological one.

Took my belongings from the locker and submitted the key back and came out.
I felt quite comfortable and called mother just to share the good news.
I shared the news with my good friends in the office and send Congratss and demanded a party , I did not disagree.
That’s it and I took a ric and went home and saw the Bourne Supremacy.

Water: a rare commodity

While I was going back home from office yesterday by 3 30 am (yes you read correct, 3 am) I witnessed a long queue of people to collect water along the way.

There can be two reason’s for this, either the water distributions system is not good (in a way it’s not unto certain standards, but considering the mass it serves, its serving the bare minimum purpose) or there is not enough good quality water available to distribute among the citizens.
I think later is the serious and current problem. Even though India is having a vast geography available across which good amount of rain available, as a people or a system we have not explored all the various possibilities (natural and scientific) to harvest it and use it for the demanding situations.
Read somewhere sometime back that most of the future wars will be fought for water- the rare commodity. This is certainly avoidable and it’s high time to have a vision and mission towards it.
And as a responsible citizen of the Nation every one of should see to it that we are using only that much water which is required.

The importance of clarity in communication in time...

The heading look like something very trivial but it holds the key to success of any endeavor be it career, relationship anything..
During any communication we - the presenter / sender think that the listener / receiver understood completely what we said in the same context. I can tell you that in 9 out of 10 cases this may not be the situation.
Main problem is that sender and receiver are two different person /entity and completely at two different frames of mind.
Some times you may be very good at identifying the signal / clues which will make you think that the other person also will be good at it and understand what you meant.
Recently I experienced this where the receiver not understood what I meant, but I assumed the other way. And later all the hell broken and receiver consider the sender as a liar or something of less esteem.

So the bottom line, “state the bloody obvious” and ensure that it is understood by the receiver properly by asking for feedback or play it back.
Remember this should be done exactly in time. NO procrastination… that makes the combination of the 3 parameters (clarity, communication and time of communication) deadly.


This will help you to avoid unnecessary mental chaos in your life and you can spend time in something positive.

It’s not about the bike --- my journey back to life

It’s not about the bike --- my journey back to life:

Even though last couple of weeks I had a quite hectic work schedule got a chance to read one nice book named as the heading of this chapter.
One of my good friends Malcolm suggested and was kind enough to borrow me his copy of the book. Thanks Malcolm.

The book describes the professional and personal life of Lance Armstrong - I think the most famous cyclist alive- and its ups and downs.
Even though he was a reasonably successful cyclist before the cancer trauma strikes his life, it came out in such a way that he eventually become an Icon cyclist rather icon of will power.

Story goes like this. Lance, son of a single mother and since they were not financially strong, he had to put additional effort to be in par with his friends.
H e used cycle to go to school for a pretty good distance on a daily basis and there comes a cycle race, participated and realized that he is good at it.
Nothing dramatic or unusual.

Years passed and he grew biologically and as cyclist.

One fine day fate knocks at his door and tells him that the first half of the movie is over the rather nail biting second half is about to starts...
At first he didn’t understand indication even though he had a pain at his groin region..

suddenly he starts coughing blood, and he tried to wash it away ,to make him believe that its not serious... .But as we all know that, you just cannot wash the bad times away like that.

Eventually doctor-friend came, identified the gravity of the situation, moved to the hospital for further diagnosis and it turned out to be the testicular
Cancer at its worst- stage III affected the lungs and the brain.

Chemo started and all other medicines came together.

Bike was kept at the garage, unsure about its future as well as its rider's.

Chemo was able to kill the cancer growth, only with the help of Lance's powerful will to live.
One of his testicles had to go since it was so badly affected by the cancer.

He had a recovery period of 1 year where he tried to ride the bike and initially the body was not allowing but give up.

But his will was not ready to give up. so the body had to perform and eventually it started regaining the status of the good old days...

Lance started preparing for some races and where he could not just keep up with the competitors and he broke and decides to quit the cycling.
started golfing as new passion as we all does to duck down from the real failure and made a courageous statement that 'I'm retired from cycling'

but his friend knew actually it is not the truth... so they manipulated him in such a way that realize the world that the cancer survivor can win major race
and retire. so he started practicing and in a fine day there comes again Mr.: Fate and said , now see the other twist in the story, as usual he didn’t
understand and he just made a record breaking climb of a hilly region during the practice which ignited his confidence tremendously and he starts
enjoying the cycling again.
there onwards it was a real hard practice where his mind , body and then the bike started practicing together as a single entity and history starts
following.

He won the 1999 Tour de France ... and for next 5 consecutive years...

Lesson learned:
Will power and tenacious effort will make great things , irrespective of the number of balls you have.

It was such a wonderful read …..

The Art of Woo-ing

“The Art of Woo”
Wooing is one of the most important skills in a manager's repertoire. Research would seem to support this claim as people with strong social skills have been shown to command higher fees and salaries than equally talented but less socially adept colleagues. And they are no doubt more pleasant to be around. Winning others over is an art. It is the ability to sell “your ideas to people within the context of ongoing, important relationships.” They maintain, “If you want to be a player in your organization, a successful partner with your customers or suppliers, a leader in your community, or even a good parent, you need to woo people to your point of view by putting your ideas across in convincing, relationship-friendly ways.” To that end, they remind us that the idea in persuasion is not to defeat the other person but to win them over. The place to begin is in understanding your own persuasion style. They have identified five types—The Driver, The Promoter, The commander, The Chess Player and The Advocate—and have included a Persuasion Style Assessment to get you started. Whatever your preferred style tends to be, the idea is to strike a balance between what the authors identify as the "self-oriented" perspective-where focus is on the persuader's credibility and point of view-and the "other-oriented" perspective, which focuses on the audience's needs, perceptions and feelings. They have created a systematic strategy or Woo Process, to aid you in skillfully getting your point across. In brief they are:

Step 1: Survey Your Situation, that is Forge and polish your idea, Map the decision process you face by understanding the social networks within the organization, Assess your persuasion styles, and Confirm your own level of passion for the proposal.

Step 2: Confront the Five Barriers, including Negative relationships, Poor credibility, Communication mismatches, Contrary belief systems, and Conflicting Interests. Then transform these five barriers into assets.

Step 3: Make Your Pitch by Presenting solid evidence and arguments and Using devices to give your idea a personal touch.

Step 4: Secure Your Commitments by dealing with politics at both The individual level and Within the organization. They note that authority plays a background role in most interactions and while it can be useful in some situations, it should not be relied upon especially where there are multiple stakeholders. They say, “The formal roles people occupy are the starting positions for a complex dance of organizational influence.” They also note that actually, the higher up you go in an organization, the less authority comes into play and the more important relationship and persuasion skills become.

So , Happy wooing guys!!!!! :)


-tail piece:
If there is any secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as your own.
—Henry Ford