Working from home

Most of teh week....I work at least 2 days of a week from home ( Monday and Friday).  Below article clearly defines some of benefits of working from home.....i love the fact this also helps keep environment green....
 

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Stay Home and Work

10:01 PM Tuesday April 21, 2009

 

President Obama, here is a deceptively simple action item to put on your agenda for business growth, working families, and a green future: Make it the norm for everyone to work at home at least one day a week. That single step could raise productivity, save energy, decrease pollution, reduce traffic congestion, cut household expenses, increase quality of family life, and keep educated women in the work force.
Workers of the world, go remote!
During this time of economic crisis and reinvention of global capitalism, one of the things crying out for reinvention is the rigid workplace of the last century. It is amazing in the digital age that most work is still associated with industrial age work rhythms and the symbolic chains that tie workers, knowledge and otherwise, to fixed locations. Flexible workplaces with flexible hours and days are long in coming....
 
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/kanter/2009/04/stay-home-and-work.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-MANAGEMENT_TIP-_-JUL_2009-_-MTOD0730 

Why Generation X Has the Leaders We Need Now

Tammy Erickson has well narrated the Gen X.......which is from my generation who born in 70's & 80's..... I love the way he has narrated the traits & perspective of this generation.

valuable contemporary traits and perspectives.

• Your accelerated contact with the real world, for many through a "latch-key" childhood, has made you resourceful and hardworking. You meet your commitments and take employability seriously.

• Your distrust of institutions grew as you witnessed the lay-offs of the '80s and has prompted you to value self-reliance. You have developed strong survival skills and the ability to handle whatever comes your way with resilience. X'ers instinctively maintain a well-nurtured portfolio of options and networks.

• A sense of alienation from your immediate surroundings as teens, coupled with rapidly expanding technology, has allowed you to look outward in ways no generation before could or did. You operate comfortably in a global and digital world. Many of you are avid adopters of the collaborative technology that promises to re-shape how we work and live.

• Your awareness of global issues was shaped in your youth, and you are richly multicultural. You bring a more unconscious acceptance of diversity than any preceding generation. Your formative years followed the civil rights advances of the 1960s. High divorce rates during your youth meant you are the first generation to grow up with women in independent authority roles. You welcome the contributions of diverse individuals.

• Your preference for "alternative" and early experience in making your own way left you inclined to innovate. You tend to look for a different way forward. Your strongest arena of financial success as a generation has been your entrepreneurial achievements.

• Your skepticism and ability to isolate practical truths have resulted in rich humor and incisive perspective. You help us all redefine issues and question reality.

• Your childhood made you fiercely dedicated to being good parents, prompting you to raise important questions about the way we all balance work with commitments beyond the corporation.

• Your pragmatism has given you practical and value-oriented sensibilities that, I believe, will help you serve as effective stewards of both today's organizations and tomorrow's world.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/erickson/2009/07/why_generation_x_has_the_leade.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-TOPICEMAIL-_-JUL_2009-_-LEADERSHIP2

Food flavor Which I hate

I hate MSG in my food . I avoid going to Chinese resturants which doesnt confirm not using MSG. I 100% avoid takeing my family to Pizza & Burger or to any resturant which taste unnesarily taste. My Body just tells me the food has MSG......may be I am alergic.......but more than that I hate that. Food must taste by its naturalty added with bit of good servicing plus ambience. Tricking your nervous system to taste it good.........is sinfull and cheating .

I Found below article which discribes teh same very very well thought of sharing it with you all..

July 29, 2009,

First Food and Fifth Flavor

"New" taste sensation stirs appetite for protein. In setting out to blog about food, the psychology of it, and its impact on our brains and bodies, I wanted to begin with what should be, in the best of circumstances, our first food. I'll get there in a minute, by way of a new study about the elusive fifth flavor, umami. Until recently, the concept of a fifth flavor was not widely accepted in the United States. Outside of Japan, the word umami was virtually unheard of beyond the kitchens and tables of chefs and food fanatics. Add umami to the quartet of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is widely known to enhance all other flavors..........

Full article: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thinking-food/200907/first-food-and-fifth-flavor

are you in Green or in Red

If you are in the area which is Green......than you are the lucky one...http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14119302&fsrc=nwl

Readings for now!

Microsoft and Yahoo! strike a long-awaited deal : http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14119291&fsrc=nwl

If you Visit Japan you cant miss the the technology and sophistication of Lavatory : http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14082288&Fsrc=mgttkgnwl

Do you believe ..Organic 'has no health benefits' : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8174482.stm

 

 

1.37 kg/m2 v/s 1.57 kg/m2

Now I know why I gain less weight than my wife ......when we face same amount of tension......but this still doesn't tell me why she get more tensed for same issue where I don't see anything to worry about...

 

How Stress Causes Weight Gain

Both men and women put on the pounds in response to work-related stress and difficulty paying bills, according to a longitudinal study published this month in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Men also gained weight because they felt they lacked decision authority or skill discretion (the ability to learn new skills and to choose to do new or different tasks) at work. For women, weight gain was also likely to be associated with a feeling of constraint in their lives in general and having difficulty with family relationships. During the 9.2 years of the study, men added an average of 1.37 kg/m2 to their body mass indices, while women added an average of 1.57 kg/m2.

Source: The American Journal of Epidemiology

Very Valid and relevant management law which is applicable even today. Originally published in 1955.

 

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/management/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14116121&Fsrc=mgttkgnwl

From the archive

Parkinson's Law

Nov 19th 1955
From The Economist print edition

The report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service was published on Thursday afternoon. Time has not permitted any comment in this week's issue of The Economist on the contents of the Report. But the startling discovery enunciated by a correspondent in the following article is certainly relevant to what should have been in it.

IT is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and despatching a postcard to her niece at Bognor Regis. An hour will be spent in finding the postcard, another in hunting for spectacles, half-an-hour in a search for the address, an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty minutes in deciding whether or not to take an umbrella when going to the pillar-box in the next street. The total effort which would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety and toil.

They were on TV!

My mother & wife were on TV today .

you cant be sucessfull in everything

Very beautiful narration of success and failure...career....need of god in success......current tough time .Alain de Botton talking at TED Global about career success and failure.

Saw this while having lunch and could stop myself from sharing instantaneously.

Rebalancing the economy

If you are interested to understand US economy in summary. This will be helpful to understand journey of US economy. Watch the Video "Rebalancing the economy" in http://audiovideo.economist.com/

Are you happy at work?

Last week when disussing with one of my friend on his experince in current satuation on work satisafaction.... learnt few things:
 
·         Some level Unhappiness , at work, is very much required.
·         Total Happiness , at work, is very unproductive in a business environment both to employee and employer
·         Creative tension ( difference b/w career aspiration and reality) is what drives employee towards new opportunities
·         This unhappiness is a fertile ground of innovation and CI opportunity.
·         In tough time like this company will no more push employees to their level of incompitency. Which is very vital for High potential resources satisfaction boosting. The companies will play safe by asking their employees, including hi performers , to play 100% with the safe limits of their compitency .
·         In these time of systemic issue of market condition we must not try to out play beyond companies performance level, in support function like HR & finance .
  
 

Old friends !!!

Last week was bit overwhelming ....
1. Ashoka ...my college days friend ....who is touch via email ....visited my house after almost 19 years
2. Girish....my very very very close friend during school & college days .... Lost connection after moving to US.... I was able to talk to him. He is in bangalore & we plan to meet next week.

WOW!!!!

Cat butterfly!!??

Cat+butterfly=Cat butterfly......new imaginary creation of my second son......Amay!!!

Naga panchami

Today is '' Nagapanchami''. Festival of lord Subramanya....festival when snake god is offered prayers .

Got up @ 5am .. Not ate or drink nothing ....had bath...went to prayer room in wet single cloth . Made all flower decoration & offered 'prasadam'.performed pooja.

Feeling good!!!

Ps: expecting zee tv crew today @ 3pm.

Kashmiri pallao!!!

Saturday night dinner .....we planned @ Tandoor on MG road...great place ....costs arround rs.250 per head....amazing taste . Today we ordered Kashmiri pallao . It been long time since I had such a great Kashmiri pallao .

Thank you chef for reminding my old days taste.

Sixth Sence

You can not expect interactive technology to get any better than this ( but technologies always do!!!) ..........just amazing...unbelievable.....truly jaw dropping type demo on technology.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

sucess

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_success_is_a_continuous_journey.html

They have made it!!!!!

DIL & MIL team has made it......they are now best DIL & MIL of malleswaram!!!!!

I am very happy & proud of them.

They are now getting ready for tomorrow shooting for winners !!!!

And.....I am helping them for garnishing work....:-)

Power of performance metrics

When I read this news few things were clear :
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3114156
1.being metrics driven helps to remove emotions.
2.metrics help in handing averse a challenging satuation
3.nothing better than benchmarking to clear the air.

They did well!!!!!

1.all 4 recipes came out very well!!!!!
2.my wife had opportunity to sing in front of great singer.
3.answered 80% of questions.
4.most important ....both came back with biggest smile I have ever seen.....after grueling 8 hours inside studio .

Great job DIL & MIL!!!!!!

I am very proud of you!!!!!

Best of luck MIL & DIL team...!!!!!

They are just now getting into studio . I called & wished them best of luck.... Keeping fingers crossed ....

garnishing!!!

It was a tiering evening ..... Helping wife & mother with preparation for garnishing in tomorrow's cooking competition shooting .

Very interesting & different experience on team work.

Thanks to Prathima for helping hand.

They will be on TV

My wife & mother are selected for ....... Cooking reality show..... Both as team need to prepare 5 dishes...preparations on full flow ....they are tenced...recoding is on tuesday 21st..

Best of luck....to..... DIL & MIL team...!!!!!

Teach India induction

...went for teach india induction today morning . It ended up being 2.5 induction compared to 1 hr as planned. Not very well organised.but gave insight into some very good NGO's. I found 2 of them interesting .....sent email to hyppocampus .let us how much further I will go.

But....this has really given me understanding on how NGO's works .

Innovation .... :-)

It feel so good when you accomplish those small things .....

30 min back I sat in front of my desktop ....wanting to add music to my website ...so when people transition within my web page ...they listen to the music.

Hurrrraaaaa!!!!!

I got it done .....myself!!!

Can you hear that relaxing music....is it good!!!?

:-)

Saw a very boring movie :-(

Made surprise plan to Harry Potter new movie for today evening .....half blood prince.
Very boring moving .....waited till last scene for actual story to start .felt like movie story was made from first 2 pages of 1000 page story book .

Never imagined 125 year old elderly Krishna.

Today I saw ad about a stage play.....i was really surprised by the story line. I never imagined 125 year old elderly krishna. Never imagined his end was so painful .

"Leelantha", as the name suggests is a story about the happenings in the final hour of Lord Krishna's life.
It's been 36 years since the great war of Kurukshetra; the people in Dwaraka are on riots killing their fellow countrymen.
Krishna is old; his eyesight is failing and has no strength even to walk a few steps. Unable to bear this animalistic behavior of his people Krishna escapes from the palace and takes refuge in a forest nearby. He is accompanied by his servant Dharuka. He orders his servant to go and get Arjuna, after much reluctance his servant leaves him and goes. At this point a hunter enters the same area of the forest in search of his prey. He accidentally shoots at Krishna thinking that it's an animal, he is shooting at. But Krishna does not die immediately.
The conversation between Krishna and the Hunter, and what happened after Arjuna came to meet Krishna forms the rest of the story.
Friend told me this is narrated in bhagavath purna. I want to read this.

"If not excellence, what?"

http://vimeo.com/1150313
 
Some nice videos from Tom Peter. I like the one on Office politics.

what a weather!!!

It is 24 degree @ 1.30pm in afternoon . Nothing can beat Bangalore weather !!!!

Thanks a Lot!!

I saw these numbers few minutes back on my dashboard and wanted to share with you all.

Thanks lot for evry one who utilised the site and my blog . It has been a great start and journey till date. I learnt a lot.

http://harish-optimizepayroll.blogspot.com/

235 visits came from 23 countries (India, Singapore, United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, China, Japan , United Arab Emirates, Netherlands & Germany) with 121 visitors from the day it started on 23rd February 2009.

http://harishimemyselfandmine.blogspot.com/

101 visits came from 23 countries (India, Singapore, China, United States, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Malaysia & Philippines) with 46 visitors from the day it started on 16th March 2009.

http://harishbk.com/

87 visits with 29 visitors from the day it started on 1st July 2009.

Glass ball & rubber ball

I was playing with amay & akul today evening .

Remembered what one of my elderly friend said long ago......''professional life is a rubber ball...personal life is a glass ball....if you drop your professional career it will bounce back....if you drop glass ball...it will not bounce back''

Nice story I read today.....about value add by expert

Charles Steinmetz was once called out of retirement by General Electric to help it locate a problem in an intricate system of complex machines. Having spent some time tinkering with and testing various parts of the system, he finally placed a chalk-marked 'X' on a small component in one machine. GE's engineers promptly examined the component, and were amazed to find the defect in the precise location of Steinmetz's mark.

Some time later, GE received an invoice from the wily engineer - for $10,000. Incredulous, they protested the bill and challenged him to itemize it. Steinmetz did so: "Making one chalk mark: $1," he wrote. "Knowing where to place it: $9,999."

Source: IT and Business Alignment: Finding the Mark by Ruby Gates BetterManagement.com, July 23, 2004

to be fair!

In professional life....it is still acceptable to like or dislike a fellow colegue/team member / partner / vendor at personal level but at professional level you have to be fair. This is non negotiable rules for a manager &/or leader .

got a ganesha!!

It was a very nice surprise. People who know me realise how overwhelming this would have been for me.......i recived this Ganesh idol made out of beatle nut.
I have asked for few more of it......to be used for decoration during upcoming ganesh festival .

Wow!!!! It's feel great !!!!

Perfect profession

I believe there are only 2 perfect professions . Teacher & doctor .
Teacher corrects imperfection created by god in mind .....doctor corrects imperfection created by god in body.
All other professions are about correcting imperfection created by man.

20 min

I believe ......any effective meeting ''crystalizes'' in first 20 minutes of the meeting . Though I don't have any scientific basis ....but with my experience with meeting....i have this working . I will do some more research & post latter on main blog.

Bit of festival shopping

We started off bit of festive shopping today .went to shop in Cikkpete circle .owner mentioned it to be 90 year old, he is 3rd generation and the building is of Tippu Sulthan era constructed by tippu for security guards .

Sunday morning studies

My 2nd son was doing his sunday morning lessons ....:-).....he 4 years ....left hand...

Sad start !

Got up early and getting ready for my 'Veda class '.......got the call....one of elderly distant relative passed away....we paid our last visit ....

Life will go on...afternoon panned for some shopping...evening dinner with kumar.

my friends for 36 years

We 3 are friends for almost 36 years. We sat together on our first day in nursery. Till date we meet regularly.

Pai and myself sat together next to each other till last day of graduation ( from our 1st day in school).Now Pai is in Mumbai and Kumar is in Bangalore.

Today I was talking to Kumar on phone while at the same time chatting with Pai on google talk.

 

Still making all attempt to stay close...!!!!

 

Kumar and family coming home for dinner tomorrow.
--
Regards,
Harish
91 9845438231
http://harishbk.com

My name is amay

My son amay ......
(testing voice trf posting)

Determination

Though my plan was to study chinese today....but I got lazy after having break fast.....started watching 'india got talent '....a 10 year boy did amazing dance by end of and he didn't eat anything from morning until he performed (it was late evening ).....that made me to get up & start practice....

Festival season fast approach ing

Indian festival season is not very far. Series of festivals will start from 21st this month. My mother preparing cotton threads for offering to god during festival is best signal for this.she was doing this today morning ..

Money blackhole

i liked this picture ....Money blackhole...says lot about the current satuation

Testing if imge loading

Hmmmm....!!

I am investing myself into something new.praposal looks very interesting .....let me see how it goes .....hmmmm....!!

sorry matew loishir!

When I touched lesson 15....i was unable to recognise any word.... Got scared .....than reality....i never practiced those words....planning to do it today & weekend ......pushed today's chinese class to monday .......sorry matew loishir!

kowtow

What is the english transalation for 'kowtow'.....my niece enquired .....it is a chinese word meaning bow to someone by touching your head on ground . But she wanted exact english word....i told....grovel or knock head as literal transalation.....but she wasn't sure I was correct ....she will chk today & let me know.

Thanks

13 visitors .... Some feedbacks..... Thank you...

Feedback

Trying to get feedback from 'few known people ' on my website .

Spoke to my previous boss

Not sure why I do this.....after I left the organization I never spoke to him.....i had all respect for him when worked with him..... & suddenly fully cut off.

I called him..... To say 'good morning '.... It was nice feel .....nostalgic ..... We promised each others to meet for lunch or dinner .

Reviced one more

Reviced one more chinese lesson today early morning ....6 more to go...not bad!

Teach india

Just done registration with teach india initiative as voluntary contribution of 2 hr teaching per week in my location . It was lOng wish to teach kids & recent urge for charity . 2 hr teaching per week is not too much.....but will I make it.....

Induction is on 19th sunday ....venue ...college 2 roads away from house .

Hmmmm....!!

Today's reading

Finished reading few more pages 'key management models '. Very interesting learnings on EVA & Greiner's growth model ....how to evaluate process improvement benefits & why some process improvement works for one business unit while not for others.

Chinese lesson 14

I was able to finish revision of Chinese lesson 14.2 more days for next chinese class....i am sure I will be more confident .
Planning to take my level 1 exam by august end.

Next week I need to focus on six sigma black belt study .....oh god so much to do.

Though it is not tough to learn new things @ this age (39) but focus is tough......with....2 sons, 1 wife & work.

Keep doing ......!!!!

Hi

Just now created ......my own twitter !!!!!