Different Perspective

There is lot of difference between role and designation, but v few people in IT industry actually understand it. Many a times role and designation are aligned, but many times it is not. Whenever it is not aligned it leads to lot of frustrations, and confusion for the person on what he should be doing. To make the matters worse, in your annual appraisal cycle you are judged on basis of the designation, and as you were in an unaligned role, you fare badly. The only way i see around is to press management and HR functions to constantly review this and correct this. However as this is a long run exercise it gets overshadowed by many other things. Many people blame attrition on salary, however one can have happy employees even at slightly lower salaries if you can provide them a challenging work environment and role. Also there is big lack of planning future for your employees. Most organizations do not have a growth plan for their people. few who have do not stick to the plan, or make a pl

There can be 2 ways to grow a team, one can be a transplant, where you just hire all the cogs you need and build up the bigger machine, and other is organic growth, where you let the current pieces in the system move up and hire new people to fill the void created. Transplant is easier to achieve, but is slightly costlier as new outside experienced resources always come at a premium. But this is easier to explain to management and also comparatively less risk prone. At a loss is the current team which does not see the avenues for the growth. Organic growth is more natural but needs more planning. This is something which i believe in, but it is much harder to explain to the management which sometimes in its narrow sightedness is not able to align to your vision.

Battle of Nuranang Originally uploaded by ankur186 Lest we forget the sacrifice the soldiers make for our future. Please read and salute the heroes

Fish Aquarium Originally uploaded by ankur186 Bought this small and lovely fish aquarium yesterday, Its real fun watching fishes swimming. I hope they survive and i am able to take care of them. Would feel really sad if they wud die..

I watch big boss season 3 on and off. It is interesting because it shows the real people that is inside most of the celebrities. As, there is no escape, it is entertaining to see how the differences are worked on. Predicting who is going to go and who is going to stay, makes for interesting chai time discussion. This season i am thinking that Raju srivastava, might go till very end. He does not picks fight with anybody and is generally seen having fun. I would like to see Kamal R Khan go at earliest, he is a nuisance, not even remotely interesting. With sherlyn, i am hoping that people start using the pool soon :-) Onscreen husband and wife makes for a cool watch. U cant get together and u cant go away. I am impressed with the way tanaaz handles herself in argument, v crisp, sharp and expressive.

The name was very catchy and different for a movie, and it got me interested. With director as Quentin tarantino and actor as bradd pitt, it caught my attention even more. Finally yesterday decided to give it a shot. There is an amazing background score, which is typical for tarantino i guess, and that was one thing which held me to the movie. The move starts as v gripping and interesting, but somehow looses the steam in the middle. There is an amazing discussion between German SS Hans and a farmer, and it was just a masterpiece. The acting, direction and the plot. So, movie may be watched once for all its sparks of brilliance and the music.

Case Study: The Buck Has No Takers This is a nice piece and something which i have been thinking since some time now. Customers want a holistic experience. If you want business, you need to present the whole range. There may be some low profit/high headache part also, but you need to absorb that. My company was never a leader in the market place, but yes if it wants to be there we need to pour in collective thoughts and provide a complete experience to the clients. We need to think different and work towards it. IF we do not remove the blinders soon, we would be left out....

Discussed a peculiar situation with a friend where he said, that his boss was against the growth of their unit because he feared that if it became big then he might get replaced by someone else. IN such a situation the individual was simply not able to do well, because his good initiatives were bent down, to satisfy the boss’s goal. And to top it all, the person is blamed for average mediocre performance. Obviously the boss will not obviously say that mediocre performance is my goal/aim, he lays that down to his people. Such a situation is not very unique, increasingly i have seen this happening in many of its variants. Every person working for individual goals and they not collectively aligning to the company’s goal. This is always a big loss to the company. Who is to blame? Senior management, when it starts relying on people more than the data, when it cocoons itself from grass root workers, this is the situation most prevalent. When the managers cannot share their concerns with

EPFO We all have to make a compulsory contribution to the provident fund, but keeping track of it with changing jobs really become a pain. Rules also change with time, earlier there you need to have a new account with every company, and then it was that you can have the same account when you move across organizations. What makes it more complex that big organizations have their own provident fund collection and management, i.e. TCS and Bennett and Coleman. I need to solve this mess for me, and probably then i might have my answers..

Justice in India is late and denied. It was nice to hear about it from our prime minister himself. But what came thereafter is disappointing, the CJI and PM differ in the reasons, both have pointed the problem in each others area but do not want to make the change that lies in their hands. So i don't think anything will change. This situation is not very different from our corporate. This is sadly the state when management is indecisive and does not want to put in the effort required to solve such difficult problems. Such problems need lot of perseverance and determination. There is no easy solution.  But to create a plan around this is not really very hard. Figure out the rate at which the courts are being approached, and what manpower is needed for them. This is important to ensure that there is no more pile up. Next is to plan an additional capacity that works for cleaning out the current piled up cases. This overcapacity shall be neutralized in longer run with retirements h

I am experiencing how frustrating it is to work with hands tied. When just installing a simple thing on your laptop is pain, thanks to stupid antivirus which can only be disabled by the IT team.. When people don't bother to respond to your emails, and when people all around you can give 100 excuses, and just cant admit they did wrong, or atleast they can improve!!! Or can't admit they don't know. Very few people infact have the guts to say I don't know, but i am willing to work on it.. And even fewer actually work on it and get back... Now what can be done, when you are surrounded by inefficiency and feel hands are tied - Try finding like minded people and see if something can be done about it.. Try doing whatever you can, atleast do good, whatever is in your hands. Try pushing management to take some corrective action. - RISKY option :-) Find another job - well this can be an option, but every job has its own challenges, the new job may have its own even worse problem

Tiger Hill Originally uploaded by ankur186 This is a remembrance of our heroes and to salute them on the 10th anniversary of the Kargil war. It is only when you see this terrain you understand what they were up against. The hill slopes are barren, even a rock thrown from above can kill you. Nothing to hide or take shelter when climbing the hill. Nothing in the world like the Indian army which climbed these slopes without proper gear and in the hail of bullets to finally capture it.

Ev joins in Originally uploaded by @Twitter So mallika doing jiggy at twitter HQ....wow

No stay on installation of Mayawati, other Dalit leaders' statues at Noida: SC - India - The Times of India It does not matter if UP has roads, electricity or food for its people. But it should have mega monuments for its great leaders. Its great leaders that made this state even greater.

Mitsubishi is organising the great driving challenge where they will choose a couple to drive 3k km in 10 days starting and finishing in mumbai. Person needs to blog and upload pics for 10 days. Winner gets 10 lacs. I have created a profile for fun and just simply want to be part of this. I like the effective use of social media. I want to look forward to more such events where the car companies come forward to support car entusiasts. Atleast its much better than burning 10's of lacks in advertisements, that dont really get you much. Now the company is getting connected with the people that are interested in the cars and influence the market. Mitsubishi no doubt makes good sports car, but its just that after sales and high costs of spares that scares people. I hope they would also work on this front in the coming days. However people do vote for me . Feels good. I know the chances of coming in top 3 is almost impossible, still i want to have the fun of trying.

Just saw the traffic mess pic in rinf road in delhi in the Todays TOI and could easily see why we have the mess - 1. Rickshaw on main road. 2. Buses not sticking to lanes. 3. Car drivers jumping lanes.

I am changing my internet connection from Airtel to MTNL. Few reasons are - 1. I wanted to upgrade to 512 KBPS connection and airtel was expensive. unlimited connection was for 1500 with airtel. MTNL offer that for 1300 and also gives me 500 free calls per month. the toll free numbers are available only on MTNL. Airtel has been slashing rates for sometime now, but does not pass the benefit to existing customers, this made me slightly upset, and i wanted to do my bit of small damage. I know MTNL has slightly sloppy service, but i have heard from people that they have improved and i want to give them a chance.

An interesting presentation that tell you some facts and probably you start to think on another line ...

I have seen most of the people getting defensive or repulsive when you tell them some improvement area or ask them for some details of their work. People perceive it offending and often as interfering. These are the people whom i see going as nowhere and stuck where they are, King frog of their own wells and oblivious of the world outside. Now if the frog is right or wrong in assuming the world as the well is another point of discussion. I have however seen some people who take criticism very positively and try to understand the point other person is making. I have seen such people learn, grow and reach new heights. They love to talk about their work and get your opinion. They are always trying to grasp and learn from the world around them, they understand that learning is an unending process. The more you learn,  more you have an understanding of the things you do not know. I also have a strong belief that people cannot improve till they understand and accept the thing that has w

Jannat Originally uploaded by ankur186 Went for white water rafting at rishikesh during the weekend, Chose to drove to rishikesh and back..went sat and back on Sunday. A tiring drive but it was fun. Laying down in the river makes you forget all the pains and troubles. Neitya enjoyed a lot playing in the sand and water. She could get all dirty and nobody was bothered. This was also first time rafting for Nidhi, so she also came to know what amazing fun it is... The world is round, and so i met my good office friend at grand cheetal in Midway while going. Also at the camp there was an another group of 3 guys, of which one was friend of Nidhi and other was a current employee of globallogic.. More pics are on camera of friends and I am waiting for them..

I have long been a fan of flexi hours and telecommuting, thanks to be working with Globallogic for 5+ yrs, which was one of the first few companies that started that in India. I have found people/managers who do not like this idea, as they feel that it hampers work and reduces productivity. I wonder in service industry, are we measuring the output wiz time? If someone delivers me on time and as promised should i be bothered if he works from home/office or works what hours. Now in the age of internet and mobile as long as the person is reachale it should be good enough. Some benfits which i see- People become more responsible, they understand with freedom comes resposibility. People save on fuel cost and travel times, increasing productivity and job satisfaction. Companies save on infra/operations cost. - Space is one of the biggest cost that company takes, so if you can optimise on that, great. People are not in tension about thier personal work when in office,,,,they can adjust, prior

I read in the newspaper about the manifesto of the samajwadi party and speech by thier leader to oppose computers and farm machinary as it came in way of rural employment. This is very much like taliban which opposes education, entertainment and all other host of things. Taliban has already dragged afghanistan back by ages, and it seems now SP wants to do that. I hope people rout out SP in these elections, so that nobody dares to even think on these lines in India

Almost everybody in India has his viewpoint on where we are lacking and what we need to do about it. A bad economy and upcoming elections makes you think even more. Many think, our huge population is our biggest problem. I read an article many year ago which said, that why cant the numbers we have become our strength instead of our weakness? This question has stuck with me since then. India upcoming as the IT/outsourcing hub has proved that to certain extent. The Chinese might in manufacturing industry has also shown us how the huge manpower can be used to our advantage. Illiteracy is the biggest hurdle in achieving this aim. The people do not realize their potential, they do not understand the power of their votes and their rights, and they are then exploited or under utilized. This also makes me think, why is it not crime when people who have access to schools, send their children to work instead of study? Another major problem India faces is of law and order. Justice delayed is just

The tough economy makes you remember and forget many things. One thing i forgot was-- Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani Its said that essence of Gita is in the above shloka, and whenever you would read it, you will interpret it differently. When in tough times and you have been cornered, the above shloka helps give you strength and move ahead. Wishing myself and everybody greater strength and wisdom.

MP who submits himself for examination every year - Yahoo! India News Finally a politician who makes me believe that change is possible..

happy holi Originally uploaded by ankur186 Happy holi to everybody, hoping everyone had a great time..

100_4363 Originally uploaded by ankur186 I went to manali from 25-28 Feb. A very long drive, but safari was fun to drive. Bad road did not feel that bad. The weather there was amazing. Experienced a little snow fall and played in ice...Made a little snowman for my daughter :-)

Today got my child admitted to Gyan Bharati school . The requirements with the form were pretty weird- Good health certificate for child. Draft of Rs 7K And we were just given 3 days to do the needful, else the chance is gone. Now why is a certificate required?? just take an undertaking from the parents, so incase you are found lying your admission is annulled. And what's the need for DD when most parents are from closeby and from Delhi, and even if they give the cheque it will be cleared in a day-2... The session starts from April 1 and not tomorrow...But seems people just don't seem to think practically now a days. Good part is that unlike most schools which are charging around 25-50k for nursery admission, Gyan Bharati just charges 7k. I am an alumni of the school and it was started with the principle of keeping it economical, glad they have not lost the way completely. Admission seems a big victory, as today in newspaper read that 1.75 lacks children are still

All now know that Satyam has crashed, a case of inflated books, sounds like ENRON to me, i am wondering how was it pulled off. Is it that easy? What did the auditor do? For those who dont know auditors are the famous PWC-  pricewaterhousecoopers. Now more questions - Are the software outsourcing industry margins that low? Satyam was operating in a market, they could not be possible charging too low. Now we have more than 50,000 employees of Satyam joining in the job market. What will happen to Indian IT industry now? And what will happen of all those people? Probably as the projects with Satyam move to other companies, so those people also might be able to move to other companies. The Indian stock market was rising since last 2-3 days, and i thought MAYBE some turn around is happening, satyam news came and market crashed more in a single day than it had risen in the last 2-3 days. So now more gloom for the Indian software industry and economy. I have also posted some