Think local, act local
Monday, October 15, 2007

A sunny day and not to mention a weekend means celebration here in Munich. The city of Munich located 50 km north of the northern edge of Alps and the capital of the state of Bavaria, is also otherwise called the "city of singles". The most important place to visit, especially on a very sunny day is undoubtedly the "Englischer Garten". The park stretching itself to the length and breadth of the city has loads to offer. Old couples walking, young couples romancing , aspirants playing football and nude people just greeting the sun, all this and much more. One can't afford to miss the whole invigorating atmosphere on a sunny weekend.

I mentioned everything and myself, an Indian. Can cricket be far behind? Part of the Englischer garten landscape was some cricket too, played by some regulars and some irregulars (which includes me) as Germans wondered and hissed with comments like

"ist das Baseball?" (Is it baseball) ---
"nee, das heisst Cricket" (no, its called cricket), responds another....

We guys enjoyed our cricket with the usual informal accusations and behind the back strokes and some wonderful shots and beautiful bowling, later only to be amused by the wealth of on-lookers. Cricket played by more than 10 nations of the world and a hugely polarizing game in the sub-continent, just makes no-meaning in an another continent, except a passing curiousity. This made me to immediately recall the business philosophy "Think local, act local", if it should interest the local market.

Posted byPraveen J at 2:21 PM 0 comments  

Global warming and India
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Global warming is a topic that attracts my instant attention and the oft repeated fact that India would be one of the worst affected countries due to this global climate change sends shivers down my spines. A billion Indian living under poor and inhumane conditions, going through the suffering, as if they aren't already, mainly spurred by the industrialized nations and increasingly contributed by India and China, again aided by industrialized nations is a pity. An article in NY times says the following about India's fast melting glaciers, which are the main source of water for a billion people.

India’s public response so far has been to blame the industrialized world for rising emissions and resist any mandatory caps of its own. India’s per capita share of emissions is one-twentieth that of industrialized countries, the government points out, going on to argue that any restrictions on emissions would stunt its economic growth.

And yet, as critics say, India’s rapid economic advance, combined with a population of more than a billion people, will soon make it a far bigger contributor to greenhouse gases. More to the point, India stands to bear some of the most devastating consequences of human-induced climate change.

Here is the complete article-->Glaciers in Retreat

Posted byPraveen J at 7:55 AM 0 comments  

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An account on Helsinki/Finland
Friday, September 22, 2006

Very recently, I had the opportunity to visit Helsinki, thanks to Nokia. Best way to understand a country is by talking to the people on the streets and this belief was overwhelmingly justified in this small country of 6 mn inhabitants. It's a country that is waking up to the globalization that is ushered in by NOKIA. This little scandinavian country has always been a nice relaxed place. The elderly people who had always made their money with the fishes and passed time with the adventorous sea sports have to suddenly wake up to the new arrival of foreigners mainly for Nokia.

Nokia has experimented with many businesses before settling on Mobile phones and networks. They manufactured rubber boots, winter tyres, Televisions and Computer monitors before realizing the potential in mobiles. Its a relatively new company in telecommunications when compared to it's peers and many inhabitants still have the vivid memory of Nokia rubber boots and many still own one. Nokia Winter tyres are still manufactured in Finland, although with the same brand name but now owned by a different company. Around late 80's or early 90's Nokia started to get into mobiles and now the world leaders in many markets including India. The beauty of this history is, this all started in a very small real village!!! So, this goes on to prove that there is no reason that a successful technological company has to come from the bases of Silicon valley!

Today, the new economy leader Nokia although still has its biggest base in Finland, is bringing in lots of foreigners for business reasons. And this is a new phenomenon for the relaxed going elderly people. The new arrival of others do makes them feel uneasy but the younger sophisticated lot who are in their, as one elder expressed, "americanization" phase watching "Desperate Housewives" are very much at ease with the different cultured like me. There are around 40 schools in Helsinki and I learnt that they get real good quality education. Some young people I got to meet possess extensive knowledge about India at the age of 15 including the holy Ganges and the plethora of languages and religions that co-exist in our country. When a 15 yr old can know so much of a country on the other side of the world, Globalization is at its helm!

The city as such sports pretty much a Russian look and lots of Russians mainly from St.Petersberg had descended on Helsinki for various reasons. Other mainly visiting foreign nationals are Swedish and Germans. English is widely spoken and shoulnd't be a big problem to strike a conversation with the normal junta and last but not least, religion doesn't count much in reality and the younger lot are happy with it.

Posted byPraveen J at 9:43 PM 3 comments  

choose our choice!
Friday, September 08, 2006

A single situation looks completely different depending on the way of approach.The good news is, the way of approach can be controlled by the thinking process. Hence, its within our control to choose our choice.

Posted byPraveen J at 4:58 PM 2 comments  

Work Expands!
Sunday, September 03, 2006

Parkinson's law: "Programs expand to fill the memory available to hold them"

Someone's law: "Work expands to fill the time available for it"

Posted byPraveen J at 12:37 AM 0 comments  

formal and casual!
Thursday, August 31, 2006

What makes one amazingly arcticulate in formal occassions, while the same man is out of words in a casual discussion? or vice versa?

Posted byPraveen J at 7:57 AM 1 comments  

directly proportional to financial success?

Why does social stigma prevents one being oneself? Why does one has to be extra-ordinarily brave to face the "real" world?

Invariable Life's traditional success (read financial success) is achieved by breaking the stigma and treading the long feared path. So, can we conclude that breaking social stigma is directly proportional to one's financial success?

Strange it may sound, but ultimately its again the acceptance of the world that makes it a Success :))

Posted byPraveen J at 7:54 AM 0 comments  

Strong belief
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A strong belief is a precursor to the reality that follows!

Posted byPraveen J at 9:20 PM 1 comments  

some are won, some are lost !
Saturday, August 12, 2006

the more I learn, the more humbleness it brings along. Learning is an everyday battle, some are won and some are lost. Still..Life moves on!

Posted byPraveen J at 10:16 AM 2 comments  

"one pays for the time"
Saturday, July 22, 2006

One doesn't pay for the work, but for the time. Time is of value. The premium thats paid for the time depends on how valuable the time spent was.

Posted byPraveen J at 7:20 PM 4 comments  

neu schwanstein
Sunday, July 16, 2006



rem the castle in "Disney Cartoons" ? - This castle in Füßen, Germany called "neu schwanstein" is the inspiration.

Posted byPraveen J at 8:25 AM 1 comments  

Maintain Law & Order ? - Ridiculous!!!
Thursday, July 13, 2006

After the bloody terror attack that stroke Mumbai, I was appalled by the response from the Indian government and its machinery. Watching the statements from the PM - Manmohan singh and Home minister - Shivraj Patil, I did not feel a pinch of resolve in their statements to tackle this menace. Rather, the official statements by two of these most mattered people in the govt. appealing for calm, hoping the people of Mumbai have the spirit to get over this and the govt. will do anythiing and everything to maintain law & order. Excuse me!!! are we talking about a strike by bus drivers here???? what makes the PM talk about Law & Order. Ridiculous!!!!

The statements absolutely sound nothing more than formalities. Compare this with the resolve of the Israelis, for one abducted soldier. Yea, afterall India is no Israel, our neighbour is no Palestine and the Indian lives, mainly Hindus, are not Britons in London or Spaniards in Spain. I actually heard more stronger words from Pakistan, than from our own Political junta.

What will Indians do now? - Of course, wait till the next attack to sound many more formality bytes.

Posted byPraveen J at 7:20 AM 2 comments  

Cheering for d semis
Tuesday, July 04, 2006



German masters cheering "Wir fahren nach Berlin !!! " in Munich....(It meanz, we are going to Berlin, implying that they would be there for the finals and they expect Germany to be playing )

Posted byPraveen J at 10:41 PM 2 comments  

i luvvv dis pic
Sunday, July 02, 2006

I live somewhere nearby....i luvvv dis pic, do u?

Posted byPraveen J at 7:21 AM 4 comments  

Mittals takeover
Friday, June 30, 2006

I was one of the happiest person to hear the news that Arcelor board has accepted the more sweetened offer from Mittal, one of our own. I always have a soft corner for him that he still holds an Indian passport, given the benefits he could have accrued just by acquiring an European one, which in his case should not be a big deal. I think, this single decision of him has prompted the Indian government to stand as a pillar behind him and most of all, the people of India to see this as a success by an Indian.

As the dust settles and specs of the deal emerges, it actually looks that Arcelor has taken over Mittal, rather than the other way round. Arcelor will have more board of directors in the combined company and the headquarters of the combined Arcelor-Mittal would be Luxembourg, rather than Amsterdam where Mittal steel was based. Further Lakshmi N.Mittal will will be the President and Joseph kinsch, current chairman of Arcelor would be the acting Chairman of the combined company thereby overshadowing Mittal. Further, Mittal would have less than 45 percent of the combined company. These points raises one important question in any thinking mind. Why did Mittal gave up so much to make this deal?

The answers are fairly clear as pointed out overtly by Business-week report and others. Arcelor bringing in Severstal as the white knight would definitely make things tougher for this Indian born billionaire's Mittal steel to maintain its influence and be competitive in the long run. Moreover, Mittal's meteoric rise in a short span of time could have made him a quick billionaire, but the world's largest steel maker does not have the strong foundation and the empire has the risk of tumbling as quick as it rose. But, by sealing this deal, Mittal could have got out of both these problems. He effectively ousted Severstal out of the game and made his company more stronger and "safer" by combining it with a company that has a long history and often sighted as the jewel of European industry. He also got out of a mess the fast rise of Mittal steel could have brought in the short or long run.

Even though he is relegated to the back seat of the combined company, I see this as a momentary setup. I believe he is going to rise like a phoenix very soon after the deal is 100 percent fixed. So, even though the particulars of the deal and the numbers show it as something that Lakshmi overpaid, but in the long run, Lakshmi has actually fixed up a much bigger problem that was in the anvil. This again stands testimony to this Indian's foresight and perseverance despite all odds. This is the stuff successful people are made of.

My wishes for more success to this man.

Posted byPraveen J at 12:21 PM 7 comments  

roses in ma garden
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Posted byPraveen J at 1:30 PM 1 comments  

Into Hibernation mode !!!
Sunday, May 28, 2006

I am into a short Hibernation mode, won't last long, keep visiting!




 Posted by Picasa

Posted byPraveen J at 8:44 AM 2 comments  

Is reverse brain drain to India for real?
Monday, May 01, 2006

I was just going through the article "B-School grads returning home..." in Economic Times, which says that many B-School grads in the US of Indian origin are considering returning back to India. This prompted me to wonder, what is it with the Indian students here in Germany. Most of the Indian students in Germany take two main routes after studies. Find a job in Germany or fly to the US for greener pastures. The number of Indian students who genuinely consider returning to India is still miniscule and the main reason in my opinion is sudden cutback in the "quality of life" that one should be content with. Having lived in Germany where professionalism is the norm and a minimum quality of life with things like 24x7 Internet access, 24 x 7 hot and cold water are taken for granted, it's not an easy decision for any one to return back after having lived the aspirations of many in India.

Though news about India and the success stories various companies are scripting makes Indians happy and proud of India, it's still a distant dream for many individuals who earn comfortably in India to match the minimum quality of life that these developed countries provide. Having said all these, I asked myself, what could be the genuine reasons today that could encourage an Indian student to return back India?

1. Family and relationships / Family commitments
2. High compensation

would be the main reasons, even today, why an Indian would want to return back to India. It's still not the recent achievements and higher growth India is clocking and the above said reasons are age old reasons why any Indian would return back. So, in my opinion the reverse brain drain is still not real.

So, for a genuine reverse brain drain to happen, India still has to do a lot by mainly eliminating corruption and introducing professionalism, to attract back the educated lot to further the growth of India. But recent developments in reservations in institutions of excellence like IITs and IIMs and the proposal to introduce reservation in private companies are retrograde steps that unfortunately don’t bring much hope!

Posted byPraveen J at 10:25 PM 5 comments  

Indian PM's Germany Visit, what does India lack to leverage the relationship?
Friday, April 28, 2006

The Indian PM Dr.Manmohan Singh was on a three day official (April 23- 25) visit to Germany recently. There weren’t any hi-fi co-operation agreements signed between the two countries during the visit. The visit also did not have any outstanding media coverage and any visibility given to the visit was because of the Hannover Trade Fair where India was a partner country. The Indian PM held talks with the first woman chancellor from the erstwhile East Germany Angela Merkel, and met the German President, previous Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other personalities mostly as a courtesy call. India had some good visibility when Germany and India was famously working together when India and Germany together with Brazil and Japan were pitching for a permanent seat in the proposed expansion of UN Security Council. Apart from that, the doubling of the bilateral trade between Germany and India well before 2010, as agreed by the then Chancellor Schroeder’s last visit to India was a highlight. As the visit had come to an end without much usefulness, what can we learn from this visit for our common good?

India an emerging knowledge based economy and Germany too, mostly a knowledge based economy with very strong sectors like Automation, Automobiles, Bioinformatics and even IT and telecommunications gives one the impression that these countries could be an ideal knowledge based partner countries. India with its growing automobile market and growing base of auto parts manufacturing, and Germany with its very famous companies like Daimler Chrysler (Mercedes), BMW, Volkswagen to name a few can realize huge value working together. Germany could very well leverage India’s growing strength in IT and take advantage of the low cost high talented human resource available in India. Despite this high potential between the two countries its easy to wonder, why aren’t they working together as they should be. There are sporadically some Indo-German business development meetings organized by Indians without any active support from the Indian government and hence lack the leverage.

The media too is largely reflecting the mood of the common men here in Germany. Most Germans doesn’t know anything about India and some who do, believe India is just another poor country. Though this is changing by many Indian students taking up work after studies in Germany, it’s still fair to say not enough is being done. The blame for this largely lies on the Indians, who should take the initial steps to reach out to Europe’s biggest economy and world’s largest exporter. Germans are very famous travellers and India is doing a poor job in even attracting the tourists who have mostly visited Srilanka and Thailand. When Srilanka, which the world knows mainly because of its in-country fighting can attract tourists, why not India, a largely peaceful country with so rich a history and culture. Even the Indian consulate in Frankfurt sports portraits of past presidents and Indians in the villages without highlighting any of India’s recent achievements and attractions. Also, the growing presence of Indian student community in Germany largely doesn’t speak very good German and take admission in English taught courses. Although this opens up a cost-effective opportunity for Indian students, it doesn’t help much in, they being India’s real ambassadors to Germany as it’s with the US, where most students later march on to achieve higher goals thereby serving as the true ambassadors of India. The lack of local language knowledge tends most Indians to be reserved within their community and hence gives a very little understanding about Germany and the German ways. This is in quite contrary to the fact that most Chinese students who are comfortably a notch above the Indian student community in terms of numbers, largely takes up German taught courses and 99 out of 100 have a communicable German knowledge. This obviously has its effects with more Chinese restaurants and more knowledge about China among Germans.

Although no one disagrees on the fact that German is not an easy language to learn, the Indian state could still play a huge role by actively encouraging Indians to learn other foreign languages like German, French and Spanish, which would open up huge opportunities for India and reduce our dependency on the American market. Learning a language is like learning another culture and the mere learning of these languages gives an unique understanding of their respective markets, which otherwise isn’t possible. Indian state should encourage institutions starting at nursery school level to introduce foreign languages in addition to English.

India also could do a lot better by running their own advertisement campaigns in local German television channels and newspapers. A cent well spent would have very well returns in Euros, in a long term. So, the two main immediate steps that the Indian state should take are, one, Encourage Indians to learn at least one European language in addition to English and two, increase India’s visibility in non-English speaking bigger markets like Germany, France et al.

Posted byPraveen J at 11:22 AM 2 comments  

Making an important decision !
Monday, April 17, 2006

The importance of a decision is directly proportional to the difference it makes in the context concerned. A right decision makes the right difference and results in desired results. But, how can one be sure if the decision is right at the moment one makes it? Because, you always have the unknown factor and the bigger it is, the higher the risk of your decision. Most times in life, the value of the unknown factor cannot be correctly quantified and hence the exact risk cannot be quantified when the decision is made. So, only when the difference of the decision is felt, one understands if the made decision was right.

But, how does one make an important decision given that there is always going to be an unknown factor (read risk) !

One way is, consider three possible effects because of the particular decision. Best, Realistically achievable and the worst effect the decision could make. Compare the realistically possible effects of a particular decision with that of the realistically possible effects the available alternative decisions could make. Pick up the decision that has more desired realistic effect. Motivate the team to achieve the best possible effect of that decision. This would ensure atleast the realistic effect is achieved, which makes it obviously better than the alternative decision possible. Anything better than the realistically expected effect the decision could make is going to be an added bonus and the worst effect could be obviated. This approach doesn't consider the fact that in most of the cases the best, realistic or worst possible scenarios cannot be exactly defined, thereby making the comparison of the decisions harder. But, still this is one approach that could give a clarity of thought on making an important decision and help us reduce the alternatives available.

What could be a better approach for making an important decision ? Keep sharing !!!

Posted byPraveen J at 8:24 PM 0 comments  

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