For a business meeting tomorrow I had to come to Bangalore.  It so happened in the last 5 to 6 years that I almost always did morning-evening same day return flights from Chennai to Bangalore due to my schedules and my dislike for Railway stations. Considering the growing hassles of the hour-long queues in Airport securities and the praises I was hearing from my colleagues/media about the improved service in Indian Railways I decided this time to give Train a try.

Just now I reached Bangalore after travelling by Shatabdi Express that reached Bangalore Cantonment at 10.20PM (STA 10.05PM)  which started from Chennai at 5:30PM sharp. The overall experience was very good, I am certainly pleased and I want to do this more often than the flights - I guess this is more greener as well.  Comparing to Indian Railway's historic (lack of) standards everything was clean including the coaches, seats, toilets and above all the stations at both end.  I travelled in the Executive coach and the service was certainly good, they kept giving you something to eat through out the journey - Samosas, Cool Drink, Biscuits, Cashews, Wafers, Coffee/Tea, Soup, Dinner and Ice-Cream. I was surprised to hear that they had PA systems in the coaches in which they kept announcing things like crews names, delays, approaching station, time of arrival, etc.

Above all I liked the idea you can be connected through a data card through out the journey and keep working on your laptop catching up on your work. For instance, in the first one hour, I finished most of my pending emails and in the next few hours 3/4th of a book.

Keep up the good work Indian Railways, Thanks Mr.Lalu & Team for giving us a good experience.

MVP Award for the year 2008

MVP Award for the year 2007

I have been a Microsoft Regional Director (RD) from 1999 and I am happy to write here that Microsoft has renewed me as an RD for another two years. The RD program is a honorary title conferred to select professionals around the world who are passionate on Microsoft technologies. Over 140 software architects, developers, trainers and other professionals are selected by Microsoft as Regional Directors. The first thing to know is that, while we’re officially recognized by Microsoft and often receive inside information about forthcoming technologies, we are completely independent. We are not Microsoft employees.

Apart from being a RD, last year (2007) I was named as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) as well. I was given MVP in the category of Visual Developer - Solutions Architect. Recently, I was renewed as a MVP for this year as well. This entitles apart from other benefits, membership to a very lively exclusive email alias participated by all MVPs.  You can check out my MVP Profile here.

As of last week (Pongal week) this blog completed its four years and into its fifth year - unbelievable to see me having patience to do the posts. What is even more surprising for me is the number of pageviews I am getting for the blog. Though the time spent and bounce rates are below average, I am glad that for a personal log getting 6800 pageviews per month.

The last programme of TiECon yesterday was Pitch to VCs, several budding entrepreneurs presented their case for seed capital. I was surprised when I was invited next on stage to present on Vishwak's story (my good friend and our GM - Manigandan Gopalakrishnan had listed my name without my consent ).

Doing an elevator pitch in 5 minutes for Vishwak which has 10 years of experience and achievements is difficult. Hence I decided to be precise, to the point and highlighted them in 6 buckets (headings).

1. About Vishwak: When was it founded, what we do, number of people and locations
2. Solutions: That we offer and the need they fulfill in the market
3. Current Customers
4. Current Structure and ownership
5. Future plans of expansion
6. Why we are bound to succeed?

I was happy on the way I pitched and the fact my message was received well by audience. Of course, it will be fool-hardy to expect a deal from any investor with just a 5 minute pitch

Yesterday was TiECon 2008, an event organized by TiE Chennai to celebrate and recognize Entrepreneurship in the City. The event had lot of stardom with the inauguration by Dr. M. Karunanidhi,Chief Minister, Tamilnadu & Smt. M K Kanimozhi, Member of Parliament, Tamilnadu. Initially I didn't get the connection between Hon'ble CM and an Entrepreneurship event, then it got clear when the awards recognizing Entrepreneurship were given to eminent personalities like Mrs Y. G. Parthasarathy, Director and Dean, PSBB schools (Social entrepreneur of the year), and Dr Pratap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Group of hospitals (Lifetime achievement). Ms.Kanimozhi (MP) in her speech talked about the similarities between Chennai Sangamam and TiECon but many in the audience including myself didn't get the connection.

Other awardees were:

• R. Subramanian, Founder and Managing Director, Subhiksha (Extreme Entrepreneur of the year)
• R. Sarabeshwar, S. Sivaramakrishnan and V.G. Janarthanam, Founding Members, Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd (Entrepreneur of the year)
• Hemu Ramaiah, CEO, Landmark (Woman entrepreneur of the year)
• S. Abhay kumar, Founder and vice-chairman, Lifecell (large start-up entrepreneur of the year)
• Vivek Anand, CEO, FitnessOne (small start-up entrepreneur of the year)
• Raju Venkataraman, President and Chief-Operating Officer &
• Firstsource (Serial entrepreneur of the year)

You can view short videos of the event including the CM Address and Award distribution from ChennaiOnline.

PANELS

There were 3 panel discussions during the day, I have just managed to cover below the first panel on Emerging Trends in the Retail Industry.

Vivek Anand of FitnessOne talked about their emphasis on excellent equipments, world class training to trainers, hygiene, etc. He talked new opportunities that are available for Aesthetic & thrill seeking industry. And with the competition from organized retail how existing stores are upgrading to new consumer experience and the big opportunity here. He quoted that Top 10% of income group in India consume 30% of retail. A company can compete on price, compete on service, compete on innovation - but you cannot compete on all three.

G.V.RaviShankar, VP of Sequoia Capital talked about speciality stores like Coffee Day, Printo (Digital On demand printing)

Hemu Ramaiah, CEO of Landmark Books talked about how when she started 30 years back no one heard about Outsourcing. She talked about a list of emerging outsource opportunities that budding Entrepreneurs can think of starting: 

1. Infrastructure (Property, Real Estate Broking, Project Management, Visual Merchandising)
2. HR (Outsourcing Recruitment, Outsource People)
3. Training (Even basic speaking is bad in India today, language, Skill Gaps)
4. Store services (Housekeeping, Security, Software, Retail Auditing)
5. Backoffice Operations / Logistics, Imports/Clearance, Buying (Sourcing Agents)
6. Marketing (Analytics, Data Mining, Shopping trends and shopping habits, CRM, PR, Media Design, Event Management, Web Design Outsourcing)
7. Quality (ISO Certified, Balanced Score Card, Customer Satisfaction Survey)
8. Banking & Finance (VC Funds, Business Plans)
9. Travel/Tickets.

I enjoyed the last panel discussion moderated by K.Pandia Rajan, Ma Foi and he did a wonderful job in that. I liked his quote of "Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam" while saying talking about Serial Entrepreneurship. Other panelists in that session were:

• Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India R & D
• Srinivas Balasubramanian, Chairman & CEO, Photon Infotech
• Rajesh Jain, CEO Netcore
• Mahesh Murthy, Partner, SeedFund
• Satya Prabhakar, CEO, Sulekha

KEYNOTES

Captain Gopinath in his Keynote spoke about "Dare to Dream and Do It. Most important for an entrepreneurship is to live it more than anything else. To be Uncompromising & to listen to your inner voice. To Pursue that vision to the exclusion of everything else". He spoke about how he grow from being Army Officer to a Farmer of 40 Acres borrowed from his uncles in which he did Silk Farming, starting an Helicopter company with an ex-army colleague when India had only 20 Helicopters in civil sector and finally to his successful venture Air Deccan. He stressed on the need to Dream big and act fast. Air Deccan collects more than USD 1 to 2 Million every day. Talked about how Accenture was slow to respond when Air Deccan initially wanted them to build their e-ticketing software and then how they went with a small software company for developing in the early days.

There were other keynotes as well made by the following eminent personalities during the day.

It was educative to hear each Entrepreneurship's struggle to success story.  Mr.Thiagarajan's speech in Tamil (who was the exception to speak in Tamil, even CM spoke in English) was disappointing as it was nothing more than an inaugural address and was consumed in praising Tamilnadu CM.

Last month I attended a SPIN Chennai program on Balanced Scored by Mr.Sudipto Marjit. Offline when I was speaking with Mr.Marjit he noticed the book I was reading (while waiting for the talk to start) - Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business by Mr.Ram Charan. Immediately he recommended that I also read Ram Charan's What the CEO wants you to know?. I did exactly that this week and here is the review.

The first thing that strikes about the book (USD 20, INR 428) is its attractive title and the second is its thin size (about 140 pages). Before I say anything about the book I must say that this is a must read for anyone in any Business and it doesn't matter whether you are working, managing or leading a business. Having said that the book can be a let down if you had focused too much on its lofty title. The book should have been titled "What everyone in business should know" or better "Quick start manual for businesses" . Let me give you a brief review of the book's coverage:

• If you were wondering for a better term for saying "Business is in her blood" or "His gutfeel on business" Ram Charan has coined a beautiful phrase "Business Acumen" and he introduces the term and what it means very well.
• Introduction and simple english explanation to business speak like P/E Ratio, Return on Assets, Sales Turnovers.
• He introduces an simple formulae of R = M x V, where R is return on assets, M is After-Tax Margin and V is Velocity or Inventor turn. I found the way he talked about Velocity as a very useful idea.
• Need to have Right People in Right Job, the importance of Coaching
• Ram Charan introduces one more term "Social Operating Mechanism" which basically is how to motivate people at all levels and have them connected seamlessly as a team all the time

Overall a must read for every business person. Thanks Mr.Marjit for recommending this book.

தமிழ் மையம் என்று ஒரு தன்னார்வ நிறுவனமும் (அந்த நிறுவனத்தின் ஆதி மூலம் நமக்கு இங்கே தேவையில்லாததால் அதை விட்டுவிடுவோம்) தமிழக அரசின் சுற்றுலா மற்றும் கலை வளர்ச்சித் (ஆம் இந்த துறைகள் கூட தமிழக அரசிலுள்ளது என்று நாம் இந்த நிகழ்ச்சிகள் மூலம் தான் தெரிந்துக்கொள்ளலாம்) துறையும் போன வருடம் முதல் ஆண்டுத்தொரும் நடத்தும் திருவிழா சென்னை சங்கமம். அதற்கு அழகான தலைப்புக் கொடுத்துள்ளார்கள் - திருவிழா உங்கள் தெருவிழா.

சென்னை சங்கமம் சென்னையிலுள்ள பல்வேறுப் பூங்காக்களில் பொங்கல் நாட்களையொட்டி நடைப்பெறுகிறது. அழிந்து வரும்  கிராமிய கலைகளான - நடனம், தெருக்கூத்து, நாடகம், களரி, இசை, பாட்டு இவைக்களுடன்  இந்த ஆண்டு  கிராமிய/மாவாட்ட உணவு வகைக்களையும் நகரமக்களுக்குக் கொண்டுவரும் நல்ல முயர்சியாக இது எனக்குத் தொன்றியது. அதலால் நெரில்காண  இன்று மைலாப்பூரிலுள்ள நாகஸ்வராவ் பூங்காவில் நடந்த நிகழ்ச்சிகளைப் பார்க்கப் போனேன். அரசு நிகழ்ச்சியென்பதால் அமைப்பு சுமாராக இருக்கும், கூட்டமே இருக்காது என்று எதிர்ப்பார்த்த எனக்கு இரண்டிலும் மகிழ்ச்சியான ஏமாற்றம். நிகழ்ச்சி மேடை மற்றும் பூங்கா சுற்றிடம் (மக்கள் அமர வசதியாக ஜமாக்களாங்கள் கூட போட்டு வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது) அழகாக அமைக்கப்பட்டு நல்ல முறையிலிருந்தது. முட்டி மொதும் கூட்டமில்லையென்றாலும் ஒரு நூறு பேர் மேல் வந்திருப்பார்கள், நிகழ்ச்சிகளுக்கு அவர்களிடம் நல்ல வரவேற்பு.  ஒரு பூங்காவிலிருந்து இன்னொரு பூங்காவில் நடக்கும் நிகழ்ச்சிகளைப் பார்க்கப் போக பஸ் வசதி கூடச் செய்யப்பட்டது மகிழ்ச்சி. பாராட்டுக்கள்.

கி.மு. கி.பி., இது மதன்  அவர்கள் எழுதி குமுதத்தில் வெளியான ஜாலியான சரித்திரத் தொடர்.  எனது நண்பர் பத்ரி ஸேஷாத்ரி அவர்களின் கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம் இதைப் புத்தகமாக வெளியிட்டுள்ளது.  நான் இந்தப் புத்தகத்தைக் காசுப் போட்டு வாங்கவில்லை, போன வருடம் கேஸவன் கம்புயூட்டர் நிறுவன விழாவில் ஓசியாகக் கிடைத்தது . அதனால் தான் என்னவோ இதைப் படிக்க இவ்வளவு நாட்கள் ஆயிற்று.    

சரித்திரத்தைக்கூடச் சுவையாகக் கொடுத்துள்ளார் மதன். அதற்கு அவரை நாம் பாராட்ட வேண்டும்.   ஆனால் தலைப்பை கி.மு. கி.பி. என்று வைத்துவிட்டு கிமுவில் நடந்ததை மட்டுமே எழுதியுள்ளார் மதன்.  அடுத்த பாகம் வருமோ என்னவோ யார் கண்டார்?

நியாண்டர்தால் மற்றும் ஹோமோஸேபியன் என்று மனிதன் தோன்றியக் கதையில் ஆரம்பித்து, பாபிலோனியா, எகிப்து, கிரேக்க நாகரிகங்களை விலாவாரியாகச் சொல்லி இந்தியாவின் மௌரியர்களின் வீழ்ச்சுயில் புத்தகத்தை முடித்துள்ளார் மதன்.

I just finished listening to this Audio book. The book is by former CEO of IBM Louis Gerstner - the outsider who was responsible for IBM's spectacular turnaround in 1990's.

The first time when I read the paper edition of this book was soon after its release in 2002. Those were early years in Vishwak, when I wanted to be more of hands-on in technology and I was reluctant to take up management responsibilities that were being thrown my way everyday as CEO of a company. This book along with Jack Welch's (Jack: Straight from the Gut) definitely stirred up my interest in management, growing and winning. When I graduated as an engineer just like every other fresh engineer I thought all managers are like Dilbert's Pointy Haired boss. This book and several others I read during the time, certainly demystified and clarified to me that management is also a science that can be learned by reading & practice.

If you are a manager of a division or a CEO this book is a must read and I am sure it will inspire and motivate its readers, just like it did for me.