How to recruit the right person for the job?
"Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window."
Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door.
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Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyze the situation.
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.
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If they are counting the bricks. Put them in the Accounts Department.
If they are recounting them.Put them in auditing.
If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks. Put them in engineering.
If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order. Put them in planning.
If they are throwing the bricks at each other. Put them in operations.
If they are sleeping. Put them in security.
If they have broken the bricks into pieces. Put them in information technology.
If they are sitting idle. Put them in human resources.
If they say they have tried different combination's, yet not a brick has been moved. Put them in sales.
If they have already left for the day. Put them in marketing.
If they are staring out of the window. Put them on strategic planning.
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And then last but not least. If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved. Congratulate them and put them in top management.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Leading Indian Companies
I was pleasantly shocked to see these numbers on Wikipedia today. Look at the net assets of SBI, the market value of RIL, the revenue of IOC, etc. Wow!
All the numbers are in billions of dollars.
All the numbers are in billions of dollars.
| Company | Revenue | Profits | Assets | Market Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliance Industries | 26.07 | 2.79 | 30.67 | 89.29 | ||
| ONGC | 18.90 | 4.11 | 33.79 | 54.11 | ||
| State Bank of India | 15.77 | 1.47 | 188.56 | 33.29 | ||
| Indian Oil Corporation | 42.68 | 1.82 | 25.39 | 16.36 | ||
| ICICI Bank | 9.84 | 0.64 | 91.07 | 29.85 | ||
| NTPC | 7.84 | 1.60 | 20.34 | 41.57 | ||
| Steel Authority of India Limited | 7.88 | 1.45 | 8.05 | 26.37 | ||
| Tata Steel | 5.83 | 0.97 | 11.48 | 14.63 | ||
| Bharti Airtel | 4.26 | 0.94 | 6.61 | 39.16 | ||
| Reliance Communications | 3.13 | 0.65 | 13.08 | 29.63 |
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Innovate
Recently came across 'Innocentive' covered in NYTimes.
InnoCentive is an online open innovation marketplace - a "problem solving" web site - that rewards smart people for good ideas. Companies and organizations (seekers) post problems (challenges) that they are unable to solve within their organization to people all over the world (solvers) who win cash prizes for resolving them. It is free to join and if your solution is chosen - you win. Awards range from $5,000 to $1,000,000.
You can use your knowledge and expertise to make a real difference and get paid for solving these problems too. Considering the vast pool of brilliant and creative people with varied expertise available to passionately solve real life problems in the world the success rate is bound to be good. I heard in the Business Week podcast that 40% of the problems are solved which is an exceptional number for the cost and resources.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for president, has proposed that the government offer $300 million to whoever invents a battery compact enough, powerful enough and cheap enough to replace fossil fuels. (something similar to Innocentive)
To see the details of available Challenges and register with InnoCentive click here:
Join Innocentive
If you have the world's brightest minds solving your problem what more do you want?
Concepts like these will definitely help the world become a better place for all of us to live.
InnoCentive is an online open innovation marketplace - a "problem solving" web site - that rewards smart people for good ideas. Companies and organizations (seekers) post problems (challenges) that they are unable to solve within their organization to people all over the world (solvers) who win cash prizes for resolving them. It is free to join and if your solution is chosen - you win. Awards range from $5,000 to $1,000,000.
You can use your knowledge and expertise to make a real difference and get paid for solving these problems too. Considering the vast pool of brilliant and creative people with varied expertise available to passionately solve real life problems in the world the success rate is bound to be good. I heard in the Business Week podcast that 40% of the problems are solved which is an exceptional number for the cost and resources.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for president, has proposed that the government offer $300 million to whoever invents a battery compact enough, powerful enough and cheap enough to replace fossil fuels. (something similar to Innocentive)
To see the details of available Challenges and register with InnoCentive click here:
Join Innocentive
If you have the world's brightest minds solving your problem what more do you want?
Concepts like these will definitely help the world become a better place for all of us to live.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Two-part Rule for Naming Your Startup
Use a compound name, with 2 components: one word that relates to the product and a second word that represents a metaphorical adjective that evokes the characteristic of the company's product. Some examples, PayPal, IronPort or Brightmail.
Read more about it here.
Read more about it here.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cash is King
What do you do if you have several billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket? Read the wonderful article on Cnn Money.
Click here to read the entire article.
Click here to read the entire article.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Market Update
Oil has been flirting with $120/barrel and in fact has surpassed that as of today. Based on the Goldman Sachs' report which says that by 2009 it could be upwards of $150/barrel I think it is better to use public transport and go biking! It is definitely going to be in the forefront since a lot depends on the price of oil.
The Microsoft (MSFT) - Yahoo (YHOO) deal did raise many eyebrows but eventually it did not go through and Yahoo(YHOO) is facing the consequences. It fell by 15% yest.
Boeing (the 787 Dreamliner delays continue though), ExxonMobil (the profits has attracted attention from all the politicians while the gas rebate has become an issue), American Express (reassuring the state of consumer credit), AT&T (the Cingular acquisition and the Iphone were two crucial turning points for the company), Merck, Eli Lily, Google (slumping economy didn't make any difference for the internet ad revenue) all posted impressive results which helped the Dow increasing on those respective days.
Mars the chocolate maker successfully bid for Wrigley with some financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet. The Fed policy makers cut the rates again by a quarter point to boost the economy.
More later...
Lookout for Deutsche Telecom's bid for Sprint which if goes through I think becomes the largest telecom company in the country.
The Microsoft (MSFT) - Yahoo (YHOO) deal did raise many eyebrows but eventually it did not go through and Yahoo(YHOO) is facing the consequences. It fell by 15% yest.
Boeing (the 787 Dreamliner delays continue though), ExxonMobil (the profits has attracted attention from all the politicians while the gas rebate has become an issue), American Express (reassuring the state of consumer credit), AT&T (the Cingular acquisition and the Iphone were two crucial turning points for the company), Merck, Eli Lily, Google (slumping economy didn't make any difference for the internet ad revenue) all posted impressive results which helped the Dow increasing on those respective days.
Mars the chocolate maker successfully bid for Wrigley with some financial backing from Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet. The Fed policy makers cut the rates again by a quarter point to boost the economy.
More later...
Lookout for Deutsche Telecom's bid for Sprint which if goes through I think becomes the largest telecom company in the country.
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