Multiple Personalities in Order (MPiO)

 

every rose has its thorn – poison

pour some sugar on me –

rock you like a hurricane – scorpion

you shook me all night long – acdc

trooper – iron maiden

start me up – rolling stones

final countdown – europe

money for nothing – dire straits

with or without you – u2

don’t stop believing – journey

bon jovi – living on a prayer

bon jovi – always

master of puppets – metallica

every breath you take – police

eye of the tiger – survivor

back in black – acdc

beat it – MJ feat. van halen

jump – van halen

sweet child o mine – GNR

bon jovi – bed of roses

extreme – more than words

craneberries – zombie

green day – time of your life

oasis – wonderwall

blur – song 2

gnr – november rain

r.e.m. – losong my religion

nirvana – smells like teen spirit

black sabbath – paranoid

smoke on water

highway to hell

queen – we are the champions

pink floyd – wall

eagles – hotel cali

led zepplin – stairway to heaven

queen – bohemian rhapsody

chop suey – system of a down

wake up – arcade fire

viva la vida – coldplay

nights of cydonia

one last breath – creed

best of you – foo fighters

kyptonite – 3 doors down

in the end – linkin park

how you remind me – nickelback

beautiful day – u2

green day – boulevard of broken dreams

gnarles barkley – crazy

bon jovi – one wild night

bon jovi – we weren’t born to follow

use somebody – kings leon

dani california – red hot chilli peppers

clocks – coldplay

An important strategic decision for CIOs is to contribute to the overall long term sustainability of the organization and building the capacity and capability to preempt the IT roadmap of the industry and come up with an IT roadmap for the organization to keep it in front of the competition. With the current industry trend, IT organizations need to make environmental sustainability (or Green) a part of their strategy. This would mean that an extension of the industry frameworks to suggest the best green practices is also imperative. Our work in this paper is just one set of suggestions among many to come in the future. It addresses proposed extensions to the ITIL framework to address green IT in the full ITIL lifecycle.

Saurabh Dubey: dubeysaurabh: The TechInfraOpsCloud Daily is out! http://bit.ly/dOrZjK  Original Google Buzz Post: http://www.google.com/buzz/103438187185948855832/6Gy6tJFC8i1  Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

Here’s two interesting and seemingly unrelated facts:

1. There is a global industrial consolidation in progress – bigger companies are acquiring smaller companies and are creating a state of global one-ness.

2. Geographically, countries and states are trying to become independent and are trying to break away from each other.

 

So what does this tell you??

Soon, we will have a very interesting state of the world. 10 big companies in 5000 countries. Do you think that is possible?

Sometimes I wonder where we are really headed. When I was 21, I used to find the news of a company buying another surprising. It used to be a big deal. When Microsoft bought Hotmail, it was huge news, and for a long time. But today, every day there is a takeover – companies get bought and sold as if we were in a retail market. Earlier, when entrepreneurs started a company, it was to get on their feet and have something of their own – don’t get me wrong – they still do it for all those reasons, but today, we have a new reason added to the list – to get bought over by a multi-million dollar company and making a quick few millions.

Another trend that is seemingly becoming more interesting, is that of distributed global consolidation. Companies buy local companies that fit their business model the most and then declare them as subsidiary company. When Deloitte did this ages ago, it was a first of its kind practice, however, it is now a norm. eBAY bought Bazzee in India and made it eBAY.in; Consulting firms do it everyday; even big IT firms have started to follow this trend.

Now try and think of this development with the 2nd piece of the news above – Geographic independence. Think about what will happen if we had 5000 countries, because countries broke and new ones formed – and 5-10 companies with everything else as a subsidiary. It is an interesting thought, and do realize that I am not planning what to write – I am thinking about it as I write about it. Do you think this can ever happen?

I doubt it, despite the trend suggesting otherwise. I recently heard about the concept of Entrepreneurial Talent as a national economic resource, and that made me wonder – can you really run out of this resource? Is it a limited resource? And connecting that back to this discussion, can you ever have just 5-10 companies in the world?

I leave that up to you to comment about…

I have always prided myself on being the expert in the Enterprise Tools section in various fields. My most native field is Network Management Systems, however I have also excelled through research in identifying applications in the field of SCM, ERP, CRM, etc.

During the class, there was a slide that our professor Dan brought up on the screen – it was a slide that spoke about Product Development Management among other managements like Customer relationship and Supply chain. So, my mind (that always looks to work towards the systems side of the setting first), started wondering if there were enterprise tools available that could be used for facilitating the Product Development.

So I searched  lot, and didn’t fine anything directly through researching/searching the word Product Development Management. I finally decided to ask my friend who is from an industry that actually creates a product and manages it. He mentioned that I need to search for a PLM or a Product Lifecycle Management Software.

So I did, and with my background in Enterprise Tools and Vendor evaluation, I knew that the place to go to – was Gartner and Forrester websites for this information.

I found this document from Forrester Wave for Product LifeCycle Management Applications done in Q2, 2008.

http://www.oracle.com/corporate/analyst/reports/ent_apps/plm/forrester-2008-plm-wave.pdf

Now you might notice that the link is ORACLE.com based. That should tell you that ORACLE is definitely in this list.

“Forrester evaluated leading product life-cycle management (PLM) applications across approximately 70 criteria from the perspectives of both discrete-based and process-based manufacturers. In the established discrete-manufacturing market, we found that Dassault Systèmes, Siemens PLM, and PTC demonstrate frontrunner leadership due to their strong combination of current offerings and strategy.
A pack of ERP players are close at their heels as Strong Performers: Oracle’s gained advanced discrete based and process-based functionality through last year’s acquisition of Agile PLM; SAP is pursuing its vision to support end-to-end PLM processes across both industry segments; and IFS is differentiating through specialized processes for engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing environments. Infor retains a Strong Performer position in the nascent process industries market, but it has a way to go to compete with the Leaders in the prevailing discrete market.”

This is the criteria they used:

Well, I guess I have a good idea about the product lifecycle management solutions. I think I am going to find a box and implement it with some dummy data to see how it works…

Technology is really fun… 

We discussed this situation that says that interviews aren’t fair… So, I was wondering about the various strategies that people usually use or apply when they need to make the decision about how to go in… for an interview.

For this analysis (and a very weird one in my mind), we need to understand that there are 2 kinds of people – those who know that they are better candidates in the pool (Type A), and those who know that they are good, but there are better qualified people than them (Type B).

All these people use their own strategies. And I break down the ones that I have seen in the following categories:

1. Early Morning candidates – As the name states, these people are early morning people. They prefer the early morning slot. They have their own interesting reasons why they would do this.

a) Type A people who try to be in this spot, mostly think that they would want to set the bar high right in the morning, so that when the lower quality candidates that show up later jut don’t make the cut. Their strong belief is usually that the first impression is the strongest one.

b) Type B people who try to be in this spot are the ones who would want to make an impression as the first or second person in the morning. It is a proven fact that the most easy to remember slots for interviewers are ‘bracket spots’. So the attempt for this group is to overpower the Type A based on memory retention of the process.

2. Pre or Post Lunch Candidates – This is the group which prefers to be in the spot that (as the name states) is jut before or after lunch.

This is more generic – those that want to be a part of this group, are the people who tend to want to be remembered during the lunch conversation.

Type A candidates in this position tend to get spoken about a lot during the discussion and may get a stronger impression than other possible spots.

Type B candidates in this position can strengthen their candidature and come to par with the Type A candidates, if they can perform better.

On the contrary, if a Type A candidate just before lunch can be excellent compared to an average Type B candidate before lunch – this has different repercussions.

The post lunch spot has the benefit of being the fresh candidate after a round of discussion about the various candidates from different pools. For a Type A candidates, this can be a good opportunity to excel, however, for a Type B candidate, this may be detrimental as they will have a tough time living up to the best candidates discussed during the lunch.

3. Last candidate – Obviously, the last candidate of the day spot is a precious one. This is where the candidate is most remembered, or the most under pressure of performance.

For Type A candidates, this may be a spot where they may be able to excel. However, being at the end of the process, this may also mean that one mistake can cost them the opportunity.

For Type B candidates, this can be the most dangerous spot. And I wonder what benefit might one have by being in that spot??

BUT, here’s the real discussion topic. If the interviewers know that this situation exists, can they really adjust their parameters for evaluation based on the knowledge of this situation.

And to what extent, if yes…

Opinions welcome…

Our discussion in class started with the website that we were introduced to for a class assignment, but the site caught my attention and I realized that I really want to find out more about these guys.

So here’s the basic overview:

“Huthwaite is the only company in the sales performance industry with proprietary behavior-based research. Not only can they define what excellence looks like but—more importantly—they can teach and measure it. And having worked with the world’s leading sales organizations for the past 35 years, they’ve developed a process for ensuring that the skills they teach turn into habits that drive business results.”

But what happened?? How did they come into existence?

“Huthwaite’s story begins with our founder, Neil Rackham, a behavioral psychologist whose seminal 12-year sales research study remains to this day the only research effort of its kind (please see Research and Intellectual Property). Observing and analyzing more than 35,000 sales calls, Neil and his research team were able to isolate and identify distinct behavioral traits of successful sales people.

What made this research groundbreaking was that the results pointed to specific behaviors—not sophisticated or slick closing techniques—as the key to successful selling.”

Huthwaite created the concept of Spin Selling. Actually, it was Neil Rackham who came up with the concept. And the best way to explain this is the short article/video I found here:

“Neil Rackham has probably done more to change the nature of B2B selling than any other person in the business world.  The following video gives the gist of his teaching in almost exactly 10 minutes.  It’s 10 minutes worth spending, in my view, even if you’re already familiar with the SPIN selling methodology.  Warning: the video was filmed during a conference, rather than in a studio, so the quality of the lighting is poor.  The brightness of Neil’s ideas, though, more than makes up for it.”

So TATA bought Jaguar Lad Rover in 2008. And we had this great discussion within the class about what is the real plan behind TATA buying Jaguar.

So I got some info to find out about the merger.

Here’s the news from BBC about the purchase:

Car giant Ford has sold its luxury UK-based car brands Jaguar and Land Rover to Indian company Tata.

Tata, India’s biggest vehicle maker, is paying $2.3bn (£1.15bn) for the British brands after months of negotiations over price and supply relationships.

The negotiations started last June when Ford announced its intention to sell the companies as a package.

Jaguar and Land Rover employ about 16,000 staff at UK plants in the West Midlands and Merseyside.

Although Land Rover remains profitable, Ford has never managed to make money from its investment in Jaguar.

Ford has been forced to sell the two companies, based at Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands and Halewood on Merseyside, in order to concentrate on its loss-making core US car business, which it hopes to turn around in the next two years.

The $2.3bn price tag is about half the amount Ford originally paid for the marques, leading some analysts to argue that the purchase was a mistake.

"How can you call it anything else?" said Erich Merkle, an auto expert for US consulting company IRN.

"You have to cut your losses at some point. It’s been draining them of cash and resources."

Ford sold its iconic Aston Martin marque to a UK-led investment consortium in a deal worth $955.2m last year.

No significant changes

The companies said there would not be any "significant changes" to Jaguar or Land Rover employees’ terms of employment on completion of the sale.

They said that staff, trade unions and the UK government had been kept informed of developments and supported the move.

Tata said the deal should be completed by the end of the summer, subject to applicable regulatory approvals.

The purchase will give Tata the opportunity to expand its presence in the passenger car market beyond India and gives it the clout necessary to compete with international players.

TATA’S NANO

3.1m long, 1.5m wide, 1.6m high

Can seat four to five people

Meets European emission standards

Costs 1 lakh, or 100,000 rupees

Tata hopes to eventually export the car

Source: AFP

In January, Tata launched the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, priced at $2,500 (£1,250).

By contrast, the starting price for Jaguar’s latest sports car, the XF is more than £32,000 ($64,000).

"We are very pleased at the prospect of Jaguar and Land Rover being a significant part of our automotive business," Tata said.

"We have enormous respect for the two brands and will endeavour to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact.

"We aim to support their growth, while holding true to our principles of allowing the management and employees to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the growth of the business."

Alan Mulally, the president and chief executive of Ford, said he was "confident" that the brands would continue to thrive under Tata’s stewardship.

"Now, it is time for Ford to concentrate on integrating the Ford brand globally, as we implement our plan to create a strong Ford Motor Company that delivers profitable growth for all," he added.

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So what does this piece of news tell us? I see some interesting points in there:

There are no plans to change anything about the two companies. So Jaguar remains the luxury masterpiece makers that they have been.

This leads me to wonder whether this is an attempt to jut expand into another segment or is it a way to increase the market for your smaller cars into places where the you don’t have the market already.

 

So, I have another course where this is an important part. From here on, this course is the primary content choice for me. But don’t worry, the site will still talk about other cool things that I find.

So keep watching this space for more interesting stuff?