Entrepreneurs

Good link for start-up companies and entrepreneurs: http://sprouter.com/

Book: Rich Dad Poor Dad

Author: Robert Kiyosaki with Sharon Lechter

This book is an eye opener. The author rightly states that in schools/colleges, students learn and acquire and study a skill, so that they can work later on and earn money. What is NOT taught is how to utilize that money. Hence many times, we all come across people who get lot of money in a short while, but again end up becoming bankrupt. Whereas some people, in spite of not having a lot of money, go on to become millionaires. Here is where financial knowledge comes into picture. Hence the author tries to emphasize on developing each one's financial intelligence.

Important things that I learnt from this book are -

• Understanding the difference between assets and liability
• Understanding one's cash flow pattern
• Understanding the different income types

The author has invented a game called CashFlow. The game is similar to Monopoly. But tries to teach how to get out of the daily 'rat race'. I found a great animation of the game on the internet http://cashflow.vo.llnwd.net/o16/cashflow3.swf

Exit Interviews

This is another good article from mindtools.com

Exit Interviews

Getting Feedback from Departing Staff

Do you want to know what is really going on in your organization? Then talk to people who are leaving. Departing employees may leave for very good reasons, and learning what these are can help you improve your company's performance. All you need to do is find out what these reasons are!

The information collected in an exit interview can give you a unique perspective on how satisfied your people are, as well as on the performance of your organization. People tend to be brutally honest about their experiences in an exit interview – they no longer have to please their bosses, and they have little to fear by being honest. Because of this, the feedback you get from exit interviews can be very useful for identifying problems with operations, performance and staff retention.

Your exit interviews may reveal a common theme. You can then focus on this and turn it into a catalyst for change. Perhaps your salary and benefits package is not generous enough? Maybe your promotional opportunities are too limited? Or perhaps you might hear consistent complaints about a certain manager, and decide to investigate the issue yourself. If you aren't conducting exit interviews you're missing out on some really great information!

Book: The monk who sold his ferrari

Author: Robin Sharma

I had heard a lot of about this book. Several times I had searched in the library, but it had already been issued by other people. Fortunately I got it this time. My expectations were very high from this book. And this book surpassed all my expectations. Hats off to the author!!!!

This is probably among the best self-management books that I have read so far. Lot of timeless and priceless secrets are shared in this book. Well many self-improvement books have them. So what is special in this book. In addition to the explanation of the secrets, techniques are given how to actually implement them in daily life. This is practical stuff. Many things are new and I had definitely not heard/read them before. And since all of this is written in the form of a fable, it is more interesting.

This is a book worth reading by everyone especially, working people. When I mention this book to anyone, they have heard about it. They know it is a self-management book. But have not found time to read it. My humble suggestion to such people is to take some time from their busy schedule and read this book. It is only 200 pages!

Finally, Robin Sharma has created his own social networking type of website called http://www.successnation.com

Project planning - risk management links

Software Program Managers Network: http://www.spmn.com/

Info of risks on Software Engineering Institue: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/risk/risk.faq.html

Risks Digest: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks

Earned Value Analysis: http://www.acq.osd.mil/pm/

Make the Most of the 'Present' which is Now

Make the Most of the “Present” Which is Now - by Pushpa Sreenivasan

via Oracle Corporation Recruitment Blog by david.talamelli on 2/22/09

When you look around, you notice the usual buzz of high-pressure work has diluted. With it we are gifted with abundance of time. Though it’s a gift that we have received in abundance, a lot of us don’t seem to have realised so. Here are some simple tid-bits about how we can make the most of the present, which is “now”:

1) Increase your Network: While I was attending a conference titled women 2:0, the senior speaker was mentioning how she also networked with various people within her organisation despite her hectic schedule. She would fix lunch sessions with different people everyday. I know, lunchtime is precious for you to relax and don’t want to include business. Why not mix business with pleasure? Its not everyday you go and have lunch with unknown people. Consider doing it once a week. Fix up to have lunch with a colleague from a different team. Think about the gain in return. Firstly, you get to know your colleague better and you never know you may just discover you and him share passion for a same thing. Secondly, you are not going out of your way spending your time to do this but utilising your lunchtime. Thirdly, you build your network. Fourthly, you are taking a first step to come out of your comfort zone and making an attempt to feel comfortable with strangers. Try it and see the results.

2) Develep hobbies: Each one of us is gifted with 24 hours of time every single day. When you look around, you find how some people are multiskilled while some are not. Sometime back, this is what our VP Jan had to say in one of his meetings with the team. He insisted we pick up one hobby every year and excel in that. Just imagine the number of skills we would have picked up after 10 years. It is going to be astonoshing imagine 10 new skills apart from climbing your regular career ladder. For this to happen, you have to devote at least 30 minutes to 1 hr every day religiously from your schedule. Are you saying, “Where is the time”. Save time and invest in these hobbies. This surely will take you a long way.

3) Multitask: Another best way to increase your productivity at work or at home is by multitasking. It’s an art that you can gain expertise with lot of practice. Look for various things around you that can help you multitask. Lets say you have sent a document for a print out and the printer is 20 meters away from your desk. Combine this with a micro break from your work, to network with a colleague on the way and pick up your print out. You have done 3 things at a time than doing 3 things individually.

4) Reskill: “If you want what you never had, do something that you have never done” so goes a saying. In order to reach more heights in your life, make skills development as your religion. Along with your regular work, enroll to a course, which will add another degree to your career but also gives multidimension to your life. This way, your primary goal of climbing your career ladder is taken care of. Also you will achieve your secondary goals of adding more degrees. At the end of it all, you are more skilled than people around.

5) Productivity: If you want to know how productive you were at your work, take a look at your activities on a day-to-day basis. Though your productive hours at your work need to be 9 hours, we all know we are not putting in all 9 hours. There is some wastage time in the process. Considering all that, your productive hours at work will be anywhere between 5-6 hrs only. You need to fill in as many activities as possible in these 5-6 hours. Make the most of 5-6 hours to get all that you want out of 9 hours.

6) Avoid time stealers: They say, “Time is like a coin. Don’t allow somebody else spend your penny”. What I mean by this is, don’t allow somebody else spend your time. These could be unwanted emails, interruptions for calls, invitation for casual conversations or any of these sorts. Find out what is stealing your time and put a full stop to it and save it for yourself. Make your own judgement to say “no” for any stealers.

7) Use calendar: One of the very best ways to save time and make the most of it is, use the calendar. It not only works like your personal organiser, but also helps you plan your day. One of my colleage uses the calendar diligently. At the end of every week, when he looks at his calendar he knows very well what he did best, where he erred and what has to be the scope of improvement for the coming week. On the day he takes off, he strikes the sheet. This I think is the first step to becoming great in your own life.

8) Discipline: Consider this. You want to take a break from work and walk into the cafeteria. It is up to you if you want to spend an hour there or stick to 10 minutes break. Discipline goes a long way in shaping your outlook towards time. That’s why it is said “invest time and not spend. Investment leads to returns”. Discipline your usage of time and invest it in various other streams to see the returns.

9) Read one article per day and use it: Develop this brilliant habit of reading one article per day apart from your regular dose of newspapers and books. Subscribe to articles that are widely available on the net free of cost and read them atleast one per day. The insight that is gained through these is unmatchable to any learning that you get.

The author of this article has been with the Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past three years and can be contacted at pushpalatha.sreenivasan@oracle.com

Academic Earth

http://academicearth.org/

This website provides thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars

Book: It Happened in India

As usual, I went to the NCL library to pick a new book to read. I had looked at this book earlier, but did not pick it. This time I picked it up and wasn't expecting that it would be a great book. But I was completely wrong. This book is just fantastic!!!!!

This book is an autobiography of Kishore Biyani. He is the owner of Pantaloon retail, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and FutureBazaar.com. He is referred as KB or Kishoreji in the book. After reading the book, I have become his fan. 

He writes how he started his business from scratch. Early in his young days, he observed his famly business and told them that it will not make huge profits. Well, to make such a comment is itself quite a daring thing. He explains this very nicely - Every business can be defined in 3 modes - creater, preserver and destroyer. Once the business enters the preserving mode, it is basically simply sustaining itself. Hence the profit margins remain low and then over a period of time, business will not grow. To grow business, creation and destruction is important. This means trying something new and keep on innovating. This takes a lot of learning, unlearning and re-learning. 

There are so many new things that are expressed in the book, which are completely different from the usual conventional methods. This is a must read book for all sales and maketing personnel, MBAs. In fact, I would recommend it for anyone from a junior staff to a senior manager. So many new things I have learnt from this book. I just want to thank Kishoreji for taking time out for writing this great book.