(CAT) DATA INTERPRETATION (DI) AND LOGICAL REASONING

THE DATA INTERPRETATION (DI) AND LOGICAL REASONING SECTIONS REPRESENT A BACKDOOR ENTRY TO THE IIMS. WHY THIS SECTION REQUIRES THE LEAST EFFORT WHEN COMPARED TO THE OTHER THREE :-

 

 

IN our previous article in this series we had started discussing an outline for Data Interpretation (DI) preparations --- wherein we defined four lines of preparation for DI and Logical Reasoning (LR):
    1) Traditional Data Interpretation
   2) Advanced Reasoning Based Data Interpretation
   3) CAT Type Reasoning
   4) Non CAT Reasoning
   In today's article we continue our focus on DI and LR preparations. Let us tackle this point by point:
   The DI and LR section represents a shortcut into the IIMs - This is perhaps a backdoor entry into the IIMs and we have our reasons for saying so. Basically, if you were to look at the preparation processes for the three parallel sections that the CAT tests you for; namely Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning; and compare these processes, you would realise that this section requires the minimum effort as it also affords the possibility of minimum turnaround time.
   So, if you were aiming at moving from a range of say 50 percentile to 90+ percentile in any of the three sections of CAT, the DI section would be the fastest as well as the one involving the least effort. Hence, ignore this section at your own peril. A moot point one realises while saying this is that unfortunately, for the vast majority of CAT takers, DI remains the least prepared of the three areas for CAT exam preparation.
   In our last article, we had raised this issue and also reasoned that this occurs mainly due to the lack of a clear preparation outline for DI prep. So, obviously the question that arises in your mind as you read this is: "What should I do that would help me improve my DI percentiles and solving abilities?" And more importantly: "What can one do in a 90 day time-frame to improve DI?"
   We realise that a lot of you out there preparing for the CAT 2008 exam might be having serious doubts about your ability to improve your DI score at all- especially in the context of the fact that every year there are a lot of students whose score gets stuck in DI. So, we would like to make the following points for your benefit:
Adopt a two-pronged approach:
    Skills Development
   Exposure creation
   Perhaps, the first thing you need to realise as you try to create a strategy is that since you cannot adopt a portion coverage approach, you should create a skillsdevelopment approach plus an exposure to problems approach while trying to improve your DI scores.
   You need to distinguish clearly between these two:
    a) By skills development we mean that there are certain specific skills that are essentially tested in DI. As a CAT and management aspirant you first need to identify these skills, and then create a regimen for the development of the same. To further expand this point, suppose one has a simple set of DI containing four questions that are based on percentage changes and ratio calculations — If such a set of questions is given to three lakh CAT aspirants to solve under test conditions, the results would show that even in these four questions there will be a great variance in the scores across the nation. Not only that, even amongst the people who get everything correct.
   Our question to every CAT aspirant reading this - Why should you allow your competition to have an advantage over you? Either score wise or time wise, in simple percentage change and ratio calculation questions. And, if this gap does exist, ie even if you can solve all these four questions correctly but would take three minutes more than the 99 percentilers, should you not do whatever it takes to overcome the gap.
   b) By exposure to problems we mean that your preparation objective should be to get to a point where you have solved so many question sets of DI that belief wise you should be able to tell yourself: "What else can they throw at me?" or the even stronger belief: "Give me anything to solve and if it is DI, I can take any bet that I will solve it."
   The idea of DI preparation has to be to take yourself to the comfort zone (confidence wise). In other words, when you pick the next set your mind should expect to crack it rather than be cracked by it.
   The obvious question which arises in your mind as you read this is: "How many question sets in DI do I need to solve to get to this point?"
   The answer, from our experience, is that you should reach this point if you solve around 750-1000 question sets (not questions) and are able to learn from the solving experience you gain through every set. One word of caution though — while doing this you will need to ensure that you solve the correct sets of questions which will expose you to all kinds of logics. Thus, for instance, you should expose yourself to questions based on tournaments, questions based on progressions, questions based on maximising and minimising constraints and questions based on Venn diagrams, to name a few.
   So, obviously the task set for the exposure to problems approach is pretty easy to determine. You can do the math yourself — If you need to do 1,000 question sets in 90 days time it would leave you with around 11 sets per day.
   For those of you who have already begun to think that there is no preparation time left, take heart. Turnaround times in DI can be as short as 30 days. Just work in a task oriented fashion, set tasks for yourself and complete them.
   In our next article in this series, we will deal with the skills development approach in more detail.

No man is an island

MOST STUDENTS GOING ABROAD CHOOSE A UNIVERSITY BY ITS RANKINGS,OFTEN NEGLECTING ITS LOCATION,WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT PROVIDE THE RIGHT EXPOSURE. THE SHORTCOMINGS OF SUCH AN APPROACH

 

 

   Adecade back higher education abroad for Indians quintessentially meant studying in Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. But the dynamics of education have undergone a paradigm shift today. Firstly countries across the world are investing in education, particularly higher education, with the objective of attracting international students. This is being done with the dual objective of promoting international ties and attracting foreign investment. Universities are also offering innovative schemes in terms of financial aid.
   Secondly, earlier most students who went abroad to pursue their higher education degrees did so for the love of learning and receiving a degree. Hence, earlier it was mostly the exceptionally bright and academically oriented students who went abroad. Today,
education is becoming more application-oriented and viewed as an investment in terms of securing a job. Hence, there is a proliferation of students of varying academic calibre who are going abroad to pursue their education. For these students it is not just about getting a good academic degree but getting it in the right environment that makes all the difference, in terms of opening up vistas for personal and professional development.
   Most Indian students feel that studying in a university abroad will give them a multicultural exposure, and this is one of the key reasons they attribute towards their decision to pursue higher education abroad. Ironically though, this objective gets sidelined when they start the application process. "I, like many of my friends, thought that by pursuing my postgraduation in the UK I would have better prospects in terms of industry interface and networking with professionals. Factors which would eventually help me secure a good job in a multinational company," says Rohit Gupta, who pursued his MBA from Nottingham University Business School.
   He adds: "I chose Nottingham University because it is ranked among the 10 best universities in the UK. However, once there, I realised that Nottingham was more of a university town and there was hardly any multinational firms based there. The business landscape in Nottingham is characterised largely by traditional enterprises like dairy and textile weaving. As a result, although I got a good education, I suffered in terms of networking. On the other hand, a friend of mine who attended King's College London got the best of both, e d u c at i o n and exposure. This u l t i m at e ly helped him secure a good job profile at Barclays Bank." Sahil Rajvansh, who is studying at the Notre Dame University in US, echoes similar views.

UNIVERSITY TOWNS


“Notre Dame is a university town and everything is university-centric. There are hardly any big firms and enterprises. In choosing Notre Dame I was focussing only on its rankings and now I regret my decision. Winters are particularly boring and depressing, as everything shuts down early because of the snow,” shares Rajvansh.
   According to Rajvansh, universities that are not located in upmarket towns and cities should necessarily focus on building a strong placement cell. He elaborates: “There was a time when I was contemplating transfer to another university. However, the fact that Notre Dame University has a good reputation in terms of facilitating placements made me reconcile to my situation and I stayed on.”

LOCATION WISE


Reiterating the importance of location, Neha Jain, who pursued her Bachelor's in Finance from San Francisco State University, says her education abroad went beyond the course content owing to the advantage the university enjoys in terms of location. She opines: “A university should be located in a place that has a professional environment.”
   According to Jain, a university’s location can be beneficial in two ways: “Being in the vicinity of corporate firms facilitates easy reckoning for an institute. It then becomes easier for firms to approach the institute in terms of placements and internships. Secondly, if a university is located in a professional hub there is a strong likelihood for students to meet professionals in informal settings.” Jain, for example, managed to secure an internship in CNET Networks, a Fortune 500 company, when she met a senior executive from the company while travelling in a bus in San Francisco.

EMERGING TRENDS


“Earlier most students who went to Canada for higher education preferred to study in the universities of British Columbia and York. But there has been a noticeable shift in the recent years with more and more students opting to study in the universities of Nova Scotia and New Finland,” says Hazel Siromani, vice president, CECN Global Schools.
   “Moreover, students are not limiting their options to the MTV (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) cities as they are realising that the cost of living is far more economical in smaller towns,” she adds. According to her, it is in fact easier for Indian students to acclimatise themselves in smaller towns, as these towns are more welcoming towards Indian and South East Asian students. Speaking on the criterion of rankings she says that rankings can be a cursory consideration at best. Students can refer to universities, which are highly ranked, but they should necessarily do a thorough background research on the university’s faculty and course content before applying to it. “Canadian universities on their part are not very conscientious about rankings and there are only a few ranking agencies,” she adds.

SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS

According to Luna Das, educational advisor for north and northwest India, USEFI, the ranking and brand value of a particular university is a fairly subjective concept. This holds true especially because rankings are done by private agencies. She says that before taking a university’s rankings into account, there are other things students need to consider. “While the location of a university is definitely important, it is equally important to consider the accreditation of the institute and the kind of opportunities it can offer in terms of financial aid,” informs Das.
She further adds that while most students stress on rankings, they tend to overlook the weightage accorded by the university to the course they are going to pursue. Rashi Mahajan, for example, who pursued her Bachelor's in Political Science at Pisa University-Italy, is a case in point. Rashi admits that while she chose the university on account of its international recognition, she did not bother to learn more about the political science department in particular.
“Pisa University is known for its computer science courses both, at the Bachelor's and Master's level. And I soon realised that a large part of the university's funds are directed towards research, faculty development and infrastructure building of the computer science department. Although the political science department is one of the relatively older departments at the university, the course is somewhat restrictive and outdated,” says Rashi.
According to Shikha Mohanty, education and trade manager, Embassy of Ireland, universities in Ireland do not endorse the concept of rankings. Despite this, Ireland is recognised for its technical institutes, which are located across 14 counties. “It is accreditation, location and quality of the course offered in comparison to other universities which should guide students in terms of their selection of a university,” she says.

KEEP IN MIND


So, Das stresses that students should talk to current and former students of a particular university/course before enrolling. “In addition, students should also consider the quality of the faculty, level of research fundings and the overall acceptance rate of the university in terms of international students. It is also advisable to check the total enrolment capacity of a university. Some undergraduate universities have huge numbers in one class and thus, students often suffer in terms of individual attention,” advises Das.
   The climatic condition and social environment of the place where the university is situated are also important. Das adds: “Students from southern and western India should be particularly cautious about choosing universities in very cold places in the US like Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago.”

 

10 Steps for Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

Every workplace is different, and accordingly, each has unique challenges. Simple solutions do not apply to every business, especially if managers and employees are constrained by rigid labor agreements or ill-conceived business models. Nevertheless, the following time-tested principles should serve as a checklist designed to assist leader/managers in the never-ending challenge of maintaining a positive overall attitude in the workplace.
 
1. The leader/manager should, first and foremost, demonstrate a commitment to the organization through hard work and responsible behavior.

"Nothing is so infectious as example."La Rochefoucauld
"Example is the school of humankind, and they will learn at no other."Edmund Burke
"Any team can be a miracle team, but you have to go out and work for your miracles."Pat Riley

2. The leader must be competent and worthy of leadership.

"Leadership comes from competence. Leadership is by example, not talk."Bill Walsh

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, better to bruise than to polish."Anne Bradstreet

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."Machiavell i
 
3. The leader should have a clear vision of the goals of the organization; the leader should clearly communicate those goals to the appropriate parties.

"Nobody wants to follow somebody who doesn't know where he's going."Joe Namath

"If you don't know where you're going, be careful. You might get there."yogi Berra

"The true leader inspires in others self-trust, guiding their eyes to the spirit of the goal."Bronson Alcott

4. The leader should translate the organization' s goals into clearly definable work.

"One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is the ability to direct one's whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task."Erwin Rommel

"The best plan is only a plan, that is, good intentions, unless it degenerates into work."Peter F. Drucker

"Inspiration comes from working every day."Charles Baudelaire

5. The leader should establish clear expectations and provide frequent feedback so that employees will know when they have been successful in their work and when they have failed.
 
"Drive thy business or thy business will drive thee."Ben Franklin

"Issuing order is worth about 10 percent. The remaining 90 percent consists in assuring proper and vigorous execution of the order."General George S. Patton

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."
Andrew Carnegie

6. The leader should create an atmosphere of success, one in which employees confidently believe that they can be successful if they apply themselves.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."Benjamin Disraeli

"Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor."John Milton

"Act as if it were impossible to fail."Dorthea Brand
 
7. The leader should reward success and praise behavior that meets or exceeds expectations while dealing forthrightly with behavior that fails to meet expectations.

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. "William James

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish." Sam Walton

"Praise loudly. Criticize softly.."Lou Holtz
 
8. The leader should demonstrate appropriate respect for his or her employees.

"We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them."Elbert Hubbard

"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life."
Edwin Markham
"When you respect the other person, you respect yourself."Clint Eastwood

9. The manager should understand that attitudes are contagious and that a manager's outlook, either positive or negative, will play a major role in the overall attitude of the workplace.

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm. Yes, more than enthusiasm, I would say excitement. When people get excited, they make a success of their lives."Walter Chrysler

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.."Audrey Hepburn

"Passion persuades."Anita Roddick
 
10.. The leader must understand that chronically negative individuals will, inevitably, have a profound negative impact on the morale of the workplace.

 

HOW TO PREPARE FOR CAT (COMMON ADMISSION TEST)~~

The Common Admission Test (CAT) for admission to IIMs and other management institutes has been announced. In this section we cover some frequently answered questions as to how students should prepare for the exam. This section will be helpful to students who wish to appear in CAT and other management entrance exams.

 

a) Pattern of the tests

 

Management entrance tests traditionally have three sections:

 

Maths, English, and Reasoning.

 

There are 75 questions with 25 questions in each section. The test is of two and a half hours duration. As nobody can do all the questions in this time, the candidate must have the ability to pick and choose the questions that must be done. You get 4 marks for every correct answer and –1 for every wrong answer, so avoid guesses.

 

b) When to start?

 

Start preparation as early as possible. Use your summer vacations to cover up your basics. A high level of logic and reasoning skills must be developed as the questions are not straightforward, at least in CAT. Each question requires some thought, and what may appear to be answer initially, may usually be wrong.

 

An important thing to keep in mind is the fact that the student must exhibit proficiency in all sections of the paper. This means that all sections must be attempted. Usually students make the mistake of attempting only those areas in which they are good. For example, engineering students would like to attempt all the questions in maths section and will not touch verbal, while an arts student may like to attempt only English and avoid maths. This is not the road to success.

 

c) Changes in test pattern

 

IIMs are at liberty to change or modify the test. This is done perhaps to separate the student who rely on mugging up from those who approach the test with an open mind. Hence, no fixed pattern works. In the ultimate analysis, the student who is able to adjust himself to changed time, or number of questions, or any other difference in pattern, will survive. If you have been depending on "magic formulae" as many coaching institutes provide, or are good at mugging up things, chances are that you will be baffled if you see any change in the pattern of the test.

 

Approach the paper with an open mind and do not get confused with any new element. After all, a manager has to deal with different situations and this test simply puts forth real life situations in a microcosm.

 

 

HOW TO PREPARE FIRST STEP:

 

Do your basics in Maths, English Grammar and Vocabulary, and understand how reasoning sums are to be done. This can be done from class 10 books or from study material or correspondence course of a coaching institute. Do not worry about speed at this stage.

 

Maths—Must do topics

 

—Number Systems, Factors,

 

HCF, LCM, Change of base

 

—Percentages, Profit and Loss,

Time and Speed, Ratios

 

—Geometry, Areas and Volumes,

Trigonometry

 

—Algebra, Quadratic Equations,

Logs, Functions, Graphs,

Series, Inequalities, Venn diagrams

 

—Less frequently asked or

fewer questions

 

—Probability, Permutations

and Combinations, Binomial expansion

 

 

—Calendars, Clocks, Races,

Stocks, Simple and Compound

Interest

 

Learn tables by heart. Things like fractions and percentages must also be learnt by heart. For instance, if you are to find 37.5% of 88,000 do not do 88000 × 375/1000, which will undoubtedly take a long time. Instead remember that 37.5% is equivalent to 3/8 so the sum boils down to multiplying 88,000 by 3/8, which is mental, and the answer should be 33,000.

 

Also look for shorter cuts in doing sums. If the sum is a lengthy like: where a person comes and takes 1/3rd sweets from a bowl and another takes 1/4th of the remainder and still another takes ½ of the rest, then how many sweets did we start out with? The shorter way to arrive at answer in such question would be to see the choices and find which of the choices is divided by 3 and 4; the answer will be a multiple of 12. By doing sums like this, a student can arrive at the answers faster than by doing them in the conventional way. In above case it will become a complicated equation if we take x and subtract the sweets taken at each stage.

 

 

MANAGEMENT

DI Section

 

Data Interpretation requires an understanding of graphs and charts. Puzzles are also frequently asked in this section as also a good amount of reasoning. To prepare for this section, one must be competent in the following areas:

 

1. Graphs and charts

2. Analytical Reasoning

3. Different reasoning questions,

coding-decoding, series, sets,

and so on.

4. Data Sufficiency

5. Puzzles

 

English Section

 

Verbal Ability has always been an integral part of MBA exams. For many people Verbal Ability is a bugbear because long lists of words have to be learnt and then long aragraphs have to be unjumbled. Moreover, the choices are often quite close and one is never sure of the answer. Coaching centres typically do not teach English properly, so one must work on one's own. Attempts must be made to understand each kind of question that is asked. The broad categories of different questions asked are: (a) Vocabulary, (b) Jumbled Paragraphs,

 

(c) Fill in the blanks, (d) Sentence Improvement, (e) Syllogisms, (f) Paragraph Completion (g) Critical Reasoning and (h) English Usage. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, because the examiner is free to include different questions every year. In the first step, get familiar with the different types of questions.

 

 

SECOND STEP:

 

The second step involves developing speed and familiarity. You must do a large number of section tests now.

 

A section test consists of 25-30 questions on Maths, English or Reasoning. Each test must be done in 50 minutes exactly, so time yourself. Do at least three section tests every day, one of each. After the test, look up the answers and explanations and learn where you made the mistake. The test and the analysis should take you two hours each. Note down the points in a diary. New words you come across should also be written down. A minimum of 10 section tests in each area must be attempted. The more you do, the more speed and understanding you will develop.

 

THIRD STEP:

 

In the third step, you must do a number of Mock-Tests. Such tests should have all the three sections with varying number of questions. Do the tests in the requisite time of 2 ½ hours, making sure that all the sections are attempted. Look for tests that change the pattern, so that you are not taken by surprise in the final exam. After each test, analyze it by going over the answers and explanations. Make notes of where you get stuck. Also keep a record of your scores as you appear in various tests.

 

Start by doing one Mock-Test every week, increasing it to two tests every week. In November, do one test everyday till November 16th and supplement it with section tests in areas where you are lagging.

 

Which coaching institute?

 

Students are often confused as to which institute they should join. High powered advertising and all kinds of claims of coaching institutes tend to confuse the youngster.  Do not believe all that you see in newspapers or on television. Coaching institutes make tall claims and many students are disappointed after paying the fees. For example, choose an institute if you are comfortable with the teachers, not on the basis of claims. Also, take sure that the institute is near your home, otherwise you will waste a lot of time commuting. It is not necessary to join one, if you can study on your own. You can buy the study material and practice on your own.

 

Safe Instant Messaging - Ten tips to protect yourself while chatting online

Safe Instant Messaging

Ten tips to protect yourself while chatting online

 

Just like e-mail, instant messaging (IM) also poses security threats. In some ways, the threats are more severe in this case, because to use instant messaging, you have to bypass any firewall that you've installed on your machine. This means that potential threats, such as viruses, worms or Trojans already have a door that opens to your computer through the firewall. What's more, they also have a readymade list of your friends which they can use for further infection and propagation.

 

For instance, you could receive a message with a URL from a trusted source, while the URL may lead you to a Web page that contains malicious code, such as a Trojan. Within minutes, the URL will be sent from your instant message ID to your buddy list, with all your friends assuming that you've sent the link. If you or any of them click the URL, an infection is guaranteed. The same thing can also happen through file transfers, where the attachment may contain a Trojan, virus, or worm, or a combination of these.

 

Such malicious code can make a lot of mischief on your machine, such as stealing passwords and other personal information, using your machine in denial of service attacks, configuring your hard disk to share all your files, and so on.

 

It's essential, therefore, to be very careful while using instant messaging. Here are some things you can do for your protection.

 

• Speak only to known people
  Instant messaging should ideally be used only to speak to people who are on your Contacts list. Making contact with a stranger over chat is fraught with risks, as you don't know the other person's intentions or why he or she wants to chat with you. Chatting in public rooms also pose a similar risk. When you receive chat invitations, you should be careful of who you add to your contacts or friends or buddy list. Add only those people whom you know well and trust; and accept invitations to be added to the contacts' or friends' lists of only such people.
   
• Be wary of links and downloads
  If you receive an image, link or other files over IM, first confirm that they are from someone you trust. You should never download anything or click a link sent by strangers. The second step is to confirm with the senders if they have sent anything—if it's a malicious file or link that used the sender's ID to propagate itself, your friend won't know anything about it.
   
• Be secretive of personal information
  You should not give your name or email ID in areas such as public chat rooms. It's also advisable not to disclose personal information such as telephone numbers, passwords, bank account or credit card numbers in IM conversations, even if you're talking to someone you know. Most IM service providers don't ask you for personal information. So, if you get a message professing to be from the service provider and asking you to 'verify' your ID or password, you can be sure that it's fake and a security threat. Ignore such messages.
   
• Create good screen names
  Ideally, your screen name for IM should not give out personal information like your name or email ID. Using a nickname is much safer.
   
• Be careful on public computers
  If you use IM at a cyber café, don't use the option of logging on automatically. Otherwise, your information will be visible to people who use the computer after you.
   
• Never respond to unsolicited messages
  If someone is sending you unsolicited chat invitations or messages, you should not respond to them. Most IM applications give you the option to block senders—use that.
   
• Advise your children about IM security
  Ensure that your children are safe while using IM. Advise them against responding to unsolicited messages, giving out personal information, and downloading files over IM. Speak to them about the threats of using IM and how they can use it safely.
   
• Download and install updates
  Be sure to download and install any security updates provided by your IM service provider. These will help to plug any security loopholes in the application.
   
• Avoid using IM at work
  Using IM applications at work puts not only you, but the entire corporate network at risk for infection. That's because most IM applications open a way through firewalls, which is risky. Therefore, try not to use IM at work, unless your employer has a corporate IM solution, policy and security measures in place.
   
• Use encryption on corporate networks
  If a corporate wants to use IM, an instant-messaging application that enables encryption should be used. Several providers have such applications for corporate use. In addition, users should be aware of the security risks, and the corporate security policy should involve keeping IM logs to detect suspicious activity.

Keep the Spark Alive!!!

Keep the Spark Alive!!!

 

Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program 2008

(c) Chetan Bhagat

 

 

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak
to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college,
leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to
become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few
days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college
is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling
in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the
teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be
curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes
you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the
spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not
all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year
old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make
them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A
story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for
birthday party - several months in advance - just for the day they will
cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see
older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the
spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected,
aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs
the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how
to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing -
to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard
against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve
and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is
possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to
company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material
landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money
constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big
achievement.

But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would
not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance
anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he
sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What
makes them come to work everyday?

They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them
feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you
study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to
interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice,
your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become
Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that
next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we
were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of
nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give
you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before
successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental
peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.
There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not
enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a
marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of
those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a
spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming
first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble.
Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else,
you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being
excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously.
One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One
student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga
practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote
has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my
relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my
writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism.
If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I
live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary
here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are
lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500
weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few
classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not
programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking
it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four
storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These
must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration,
unfairness and loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the
expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure.
Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out
stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need
to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to
when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill
themselves over low grades - how silly is that? But that is how much
failure can hurt you.

But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease
to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that
means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to
be.

Disappointment' s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you
ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is
especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you
deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose
the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as
I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took
me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into
something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it?
A realistic assessment of the time involved - movies take a long time to
make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment
in the process rather than the end result - at least I was learning how
to write scripts , having a side plan - I had my third book to write
and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life -
friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to
be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too
seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is
how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful
faces, pedigree find it easier to make it - not just in Bollywood, but
everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few
opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make
it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in
the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately
things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than
you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this
speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards.
Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what
we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot
even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't
look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more
beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you
grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all
kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you
still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize
you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel,
may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create
conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop
some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing
basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up
something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But
in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love
yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment,
frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like
the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just
need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If
someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose
college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will
shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive,
not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I
hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as
we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is
something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

 

Outsourcing Management

To understand why outsourcing – specifically, the outsourcing of
services – is completely overhauling management styles, we need to
take a step back to see how we got here in the first place.
As the large corporation blossomed in the late 1800s, it was first
modeled as a stiff hierarchy, not much different than a sole
proprietorship writ large. The only examples it could draw from were
the religious, governmental and military institutions that had been in
place for centuries. Then in the 1920s, Alfred Sloan at General
Motors, along with a handful of other innovative companies, crafted
what we now know as a multi-divisional form. This new organizational
design left finance and strategy functions at headquarters, but pushed
operations and other tactical functions into the hands of field
personnel. Large companies were able to grow even larger and manage
ever greater scope because they were more nimble than their
comparatively hierarchical counterparts.
Although the structure of the large organization changed, it was only
a first step. Even into the late 20th century the old hierarchical,
manufacturing-oriented management styles endured. A lot of those old-
school boys are still with us. Such antiquated management styles may
have been okay during the manufacturing era, but the emphasis on
services changes everything. When services used to be classified as
merely overhead, they made up a small percentage of overall costs
relative to raw materials and direct labor. They were safely ensconced
within the walls of the old-style organization.

Now services are the products, and they contain a huge people
component. The ability to readily outsource services, which now
comprise over 80% of the economy in terms of employment, will strip
down the old corporation to its core. All of the attendant functions
and non-related processes will be turned over to specialists, and as a
result more and more work will get done outside corporate boundaries.
This speaks to functions that were formerly housed in the SG&A (sales,
general and administrative) line entry on a company's profit and loss
statement: human resources, for example. Many finance and accounting
functions. Routine transaction processing. None of these functions are
core competencies for most organizations, so they will be farmed out
to companies where they are core. Executives and professionals will
manage services across a growing global network of other organizations
resembling nothing that has been seen before.

This change in governance may seem unremarkable, but it will have a
huge impact on management practice. Management behavior will be forced
to change at long last – not because of goodwill or altruistic
intentions on the part of management – but rather through the
discipline of the market, the nature of the new rules of competition
and the pervasiveness of services outsourcing. And make no mistake –
the lessons will be harsh.

Because the old governance mechanisms won't work anymore as
outsourcing and cross-organizational relationships become far more
important, new management competencies will be required. Working with
other organizations requires skills that many traditional managers
just don't have. Internal departments, for example, can be managed by
whim or fiat. External suppliers can't and won't operate in such a
fashion. The upshot will be that old authoritarian management styles
will prove ineffective - even laughable. Strong working relationships
will win the day; idiosyncratic, ego-driven personalities will be an
expensive luxury that few can afford.

While in the 20th century it was hard to communicate across
organizational boundaries, nowadays we can easily trade or obtain
information, skills, or services across the globe by tapping expertise
in hundreds of thousands of organizations. Managers still relying too
much on in-house resources will find themselves at a distinct
competitive disadvantage. So clearly, organizations – even smaller
ones – will become dispersed and porous as more transactions occur
across organizational boundaries. The extended organization is posing
new challenges for managers and will require new skills to be
successful.

Many of these new skill sets will be outside our traditional comfort
zones. Learning Mandarin, Cantonese or other Eastern dialects/
languages, for example, will present significant challenges to most
people in the West. Diligence in the more quantitatively oriented
disciplines is also lagging for developed countries, particularly the
U.S.
If in fact many skills have become obsolete or commoditized, it's fair
to ask what skills will be in demand ten years from now. Below is a
list of some possibilities:

< Soft Skills >
- Cultural Awareness
- Global Diversity
- Foreign Languages
- Willingness to Travel
- Humanities
- Change Management
- People Management
- Strong Ability to Communicate
- Continual Collaboration

< Technical Skills >
- Software as a Service
- Technical Certification (e.g., ITIL, COBIT)
- Financial Analytics
- Spend Management in Procurement
- Project Management
- Life Sciences: Impact of Nanotechnology
- Commercial Terms and Contracts
- Industrial Engineering/Operations Management

Both soft and hard skills will be required. Computer savvy alone won't
cut it. Being a great engineer without the ability to work effectively
with people from different cultures will not be enough. The workers of
the 21st century will have to have specialist skills as the price of
admission, but they will also have to have people skills. That's what
it will take to be successful in the next phase of economic evolution:
new specialist skills, new people-oriented management styles, new
flexible organizational structures. These are the new realities. The
grim alternative is to face obsolescence or marginalization, both as
organizations and as individuals.

Greater collaboration will become a must because it improves
coordination. Management will be more systematic by being focused on
outputs, process interfaces, and clear rules of engagement – all of
which go part and parcel with outsourcing. Strong working
relationships combined with a portfolio of skills decidedly different
from those of the last century will spell success in the new economy.

In the years ahead, watch the old-school managers and executives
retire early or be forced to bring new mindsets to the game. Many old-
school boys have become casualties already. Will you be next?