CHOW #66- Being motivated in tough times

Ram, is running a fixed price project with a team of 24. He has built this team over the last 6 months. They have completed two early releases, and 4 releases are due over the next 12 months. Ram has built a good rapport with all his team members, and is well regarded by his […]

Being Mindful or being concerned- Part II

In Part I of this blog – I had looked at a possible way of construing the tango of being mindful and being concerned about risk. So, it seems like that the cocktail of being mindful and also being concerned about risk, appears explosive. So, is there a possibly different approach to being mindful and still […]

Being Mindful or being concerned about Risk

When we notice the literature and trends in management, there’s a huge shift towards mindful leadership. When you reach out to the millennial workforce, they more than the earlier generation, are looking for the leadership to be mindful. So what impact could it have on some areas like risk management? Is it going to be […]

Design Thinking – A practical application

Design Thinking Design Thinking is a solution-focused approach to problem solving. The methodology emphasizes starting with a goal and then apply solution-focused thinking converging on a future result.  Alternative solutions are explored simultaneously. This is different from the analytical approach where all the parameters of the problem are analysed upfront to create a solution. Design […]

Achieving as a team

 One of the key enablers for organizational excellence is management of collective knowledge. An Excellent organization would not only have defined its Mission, Vision and supporting values that act as guidance in how it wants to go about its business, but also identified the critical competencies that will accelerate the journey. In this context, the […]

The 2% Masala: When I had to negotiate with a real-estate pro

Do you think some of us love to negotiate and others completely loathe the thought of it? Well, I don’t think it’s true totally. Most of us love to negotiate in some circumstances, and not so in other conditions. Some of us like to do it a lot more than others do. I belong to […]

The 2% Masala: What I learnt shutting down a start-up

When a newly commissioned ship sails from a port, laden with valuable goods, every captain hopes the ship will navigate the tumble of the seas well and be the ship of choice, in the years to come. No one expects the Titanic journey. Every sailor that you get on board, signs up after confirming at […]

Insourcing – Is it a real threat to the Indian IT service industry now?

After all right from the very beginning, both the models have existed – insourcing in India (popularly referred to as captive organizations), and outsourcing to Indian outsourcing service providers (over the years include the offshore operations of the global IT majors as well). It was probably evenly spread in the late 80’s and the beginning […]

The 2% Masala: When my manager worked for me

Most of us, in our lives we work under the guidance and direction of our manager. There’s of course a lot of talk of servant leadership and how managers become servants to the team. Sometimes it sounds like a good fairy tale story. At other times it’s demonstrated with some apparently visible (albeit trivial) stuff. […]