HYD-BOM-RUH

Last year on the same day I reached Riyadh. I never thought at that time that I would be here one year from then. I still remember I was 75kgs then and the most important goal was to cut down my weight :). That was my second innings in Saudi. I was much more relaxed than my first innings. Unlike the first visit I was not that keen to stay there so was bindaas and enjoyed every moment.

Riyadh Airport, taken on 30-Nov-2007

illogical stuff!

I got this message from a friend of mine when I was in a very bad mood. I was so frustrated with a lot of things that this is how i responded then. now it seems  too funny :)

vinod: 26 DEC-TSUNAMI,

26 JAN KUTCHH EARTHQUAKE,

26 FEB GODHRA ISSUE,

26 JUNE FLOOD IN GUJARAT,

26 JULY MUMBAI TRAIN BLAST,

26 JULY BLAST IN AHMEDABAD,

26 NOV TERRORIST ATTACK IN MUMBAI

unknown: so

vinod: ne yabba so enti

26 is bad for india ani cheptunna

unknown: MAR,APR,MAY,AUG,SEP,OCT are still not affected kadha...so half the year 26 is not unlucky

vinod: hmm letseee

unknown: illa theesukunte...everyday ekkado akkada edhokkati jaruguthundhi

illogical stuff

vinod: sarelevoi

unknown: no

vinod: ippudu dani post mortem cheyalsina avasram ledu

unknown: cant accept silly stuff like this

inka cheppalante..anni calamities ni theesukoni okka mathematical series form chesi.. ee sequence lo problems vasthayi ani cheppali

vinod: babu nannu dengaku

unknown: okka pani cheyi regression analysis cheyi... weighted exponential smoothing cheyi

vinod: cheyi nuvve :)

unknown: tarvaatha jaragaboye calamity ni predict cheyi.. inka extra info kosam nostradamus predictions theesuko...prathi page number theesukoni dhaanitho inko series form cheyi

vinod: ok

unknown: inka terrorists la date of birth theesuko.. nee date of birth ki add chesi sequence form cheyi.. dhaanini regression analysis chesi...adhi time reversible Markovian chain form avuthundho ledho check cheyi

ardam ayindha?

vinod: ya

unknown: emi ardam ayindhi?

vinod: mooyi be

unknown: thidthav entra

vinod: ant e appu salu chestha ani

unknown: sare chesi result circulate cheyi

vinod: vakay

Life at IIM Cal - part I

It's not even 4 months and I feel as if it's been ages here.

My room, dirty as always.

Sleep is one thing, I miss a lot here.

I flicked this mickey from someone's Bday cake (thinking it was made of cream :)

Coca Cola story!

Interesting stuff

Anything can happen in an year. Dow made a lifetime high exactly an year back and now it's still not settled down, yet to find its base.
It fell almost by 40% in this one year.

Today Dow fell by '678.9' pts, isn't it interesting :)

An interesting comment by Marc Faber, investment analyst.
" The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China.
If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs.
If we buy a computer it will go to India.
If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany.
If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part."

Aliens!!!! Please save us

Inspite of all the rate cuts, bailouts etc...
markets just follow the 'true south' policy

Hope some alien investors come down to earth and invest in our markets॥

Winter Sale – Rates slashed hurry limited period offer closes soon

Ø The Fed reduced its benchmark rate to 1.5 percent

Ø The ECB's main rate is now 3.75 percent

Ø Canada's fell to 2.5 percent

Ø U.K.'s rate dropped to 4.5 percent

Ø Sweden's rate declined to 4.25 percent

Ø China cut interest rates for the second time in three weeks, reducing the main rate to 6.93 percent

The Great Recession

Two major recruiters vanished on one fine day.

No one ever thought this could happen.

One is a 158 yr old and the other 94yr old, both of them went through the 2 major world wars,the great depression,9/11 etc, finally gave up in this recession period.

Who knows history may label this period as the Great Recession period.

A lot of people had dreams to get into these companies till yesterday.Now people are scared about their future.

I see risks for me in both short term and long term. In short term as a trader and long term as a prospective Ibanker.

Last night, dow crash was worse than 9/11 :O

Tips for effective presentation

Content

• Understanding the concept of analysing, it involves a lot of questioning and giving reasons and not just labelling things
  
• Questions to be kept in mind are Why? Where? What if? This applies to case study analysis.
  
• Keep in mind the structure of the presentation and accordingly prepare the ppt and also have minimum number of slides. Slides have to be prepared depending on the time. For a 15min ppt the number of slides should not be more than 12
  
• Don’t load the slides with data, keep it simple and sexy :)

• 
  

While speaking

• Expression is very important. Smile at the crowd and don’t look at them as if they are your enemies. Many times the words you speak and your body language don’t match. Keeping hands in pockets, folding hands,keeping hands behind, rubbing palms are signs of being scared/not confident
  
• Use hand gestures and show some passion in the topic.
  
• Even the best of the best speakers will have some kind of inconvenience before starting a speech.
  
• To get rid of this situation the first thing you need is sometime to settle before you get into the crux of your presentation, also you need to know the seriousness of the crowd and their energy levels so that you can act appropriately.
  
• Prepare some questions for the crowd and ask them to get their opinion on that. This has 2 advantages teh first thing is you can involve audience in your speech and the second thing is you can get some time to settle and also judge about the audience knowledge.
  
• Speech should not be monotonous.
  
• Usage of connotations should be kept in mind
  
• Stand and face the crowd and don’t stand sideways. If a presentation is ppt based the normal tendency is to stand sideways looking back at the slide and talk, this should be avoided
  
• Say something different from the slide, just reading slide would actually offend the audience cos they are expected to be literate enough to read the slide by themselves.
  
• Know your voice and accordingly use mike if need. Don’t shout to be heard.
  
• To avoid dry throat drink some water while speaking
  

Questions & Answers

• First of all appreciate the person who asked the question cos he listened to the presentation. 'Thank you', 'Good question', 'Interesting observation' these phrases can be used to make the person feel better.
  
• Have some slides for Q&As also if needed and you may show that later, this shows your level of preparedness.
  
• Many times you run out of time and have to rush and finish off the presentation in time and in this process you may skip some slides. You can use the Q&A session to talk on those, obviously if the question is related to it.
  

Group presentations
The people who start off the presentation are never under pressure to finish off it in time so they tend to take more time than intended, to avoid this appointing a time keeper is best practice.

Medium of communication affects the message being communicated

Communication is very important for life and it has played important role for all living beings from time immemorial. Communication is far more important in an organizational setup. There are cases when a message poorly communicated resulted in unfavourable consequences whereas good communication leads to positive benefits as all of stakeholders understand the message in its entirety.
Communication is as process of conveying information from one person to other through a medium which is understood by both the parties. The key parts of this process are sender, message, channel, receiver, noise and feedback. The message is initiated by sender by encoding his thought. The channel is medium, which is our topic of interest, through which the message travels and reaches the receiver. This message is decoded into a form the receiver can understand. The noise represents the communication barrier that distorts the message clarity. The feedback is acknowledgement by the receiver confirming his understanding of the message. The sender, receiver and message being same can have different channels of communications. And each of the channels chosen will have different impact on the receiver. Oral, Written and Computer aided communications are three broadly classified types of communications.
Oral Communications includes speeches, one to one conversation and group discussions. Under this type of communication there are three types of mediums which are live, audio and audio-video. This is effective in communicating the idea and receiving the feedback on the same. In case of live it also gives scope for the sender to use body gestures in communicating the idea more effectively. The disadvantage with this medium is it can lead to multiple perceptions of the same idea by different receivers if the number of receivers is huge. Since each one has his own retention power and listening skills the idea would be perceived differently by different people. It is also dependent on the amount of time spent for the discussion. A good example for this could be a class of 80 people listen to the same Professor’s class but when it comes to performance in the exam each one has a different result. In case of audio the receiver will not be able to perceive exactly the idea what the sender intends to because the sender is not present physically. Telephone, audio cassettes are some examples for this medium of communication. Audio-Video unlike audio will be able to communicate better because of the body gestures but this medium doesn’t provide scope for feedback which is also a key part of communication process.
Written Communications includes all written form of messages like letters, faxes, and emails. Under this type of communication there are two types of mediums which are print and electronic media. Companies prefer to get recommendations letters in written forms because it is tangible and verifiable unlike oral communication. Since every individual has his own listening and understanding skills a written communication provides enough time for him to understand the topic. Also a lot of information when discussed orally may lose the essence and hence written communication is used as supplement to convey the message. This form of communication is used when the information to be shared is very complex and lengthy as it forces the receiver to think more thoroughly. Typical examples of print media are pamphlets, notices, text books, certificates and circulars. The disadvantages with this form of communication are it is bit time consuming and is not spontaneous unlike the oral communication. There is absolutely no scope for an immediate feedback for this kind of communication hence doesn’t guarantees that the receiver has perceived it as it was intended. Another disadvantage with written communication is it never conveys what exactly the sender feels emotionally but this purpose is achieved to some extent by the technology in electronic media where one can include a smiley which displays the expression of emotion which was lacking earlier in the traditional paper format of written communication.
Electronic Media includes instant messaging, intranet links and video conferencing. This can be considered as an extension of print media the only difference being this is real time. Increasingly many organisations are opting instant messaging as means of communication for performing the daily chores of job. The following are advantages for using this channel. It is very quick in sharing information. It provides scope to discuss. With technology even multiple people can chat together. Even this one has smiley to convey emotional expression. People can share files real time over internet and it is very quick. It is most economical way to communicate between people who are spread across the world at different places. Ex:- I was working for TCS Saudi Arabia and we had another team located at Mumbai, initially we were using telephone to communicate. After a certain period of time it was observed that the telephone expenditure increased a lot because of the long durations of speech and also some fraud calls which were inevitable. That is when we decided to opt for instant messaging as it costs are negligible compared to the traditional form of communication. Intranet links are the discussion boards which are present in every organisation. This is again quick and provides scope for feedback.
Videoconferencing is a combination of oral and written communication. In this global village, where we have companies doing businesses with people spread across the world it becomes difficult to have a face to face conversation with every individual. This problem is solved by the advent of videoconferencing technology. With this companies can have meetings with people live. This reduces the need of a person to travel different places to communicate, which is a very expensive and hence is an economical way to communicate information. Many Universities in USA which get applications from students all over the world use this technology to interview the students.
Depending on the importance of the information one has to consider the specific medium for communication. Very important information like a change in policy in company which is likely to be raised issues by different parties is ideal to be discussed in a forum. According to Stephen Robbins & Timothy Judge “The choice of one channel over other depends on whether message is routine or non routine. Ex: Mr Patterson CEO of Cerner Corp, who was upset with the staff, sends out an email intimating them about the imminent layoff. Within hours of this email the information was circulated outside the organization and the result was the stock prices plummeted by huge percent” This real incident mentioned in the book by Stephen Robbins & Timothy Judge clearly suggests how important it is to select the correct medium for communication. Had Mr Patterson selected a discussion forum or face to face meeting with individuals it wouldn’t have lead this unfavourable consequence.
Another important aspect to be checked before deciding the medium of communication is the usage of resources. If information can be communicated economically and creating same effectiveness by one medium when compared to others then that medium to should be selected. Again this decision is contextual. Managers should consider trade offs while making their decisions.
The first thing which comes to most of our mind when a person speaks about ‘Da Vinci Code’ is the book but we are aware of the fact that there exists a movie by the same name. That shows how effective was the medium of communication. Having seen from the above that there are many channels and mediums of communicating an idea it is evident that a real challenge to a manager is to select the right channel and medium for the appropriate message.