Chetan's web scribblings! » Management

Interesting predictions for out sourcing

Chetan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:40:50 +0000

It is highly likely that India will be challanged even more for cost efficiency and higher valued services. Here are some observations and predictions from Gartner, Bernstein Research and Forrester Research; with my interpretation for implications.

Evolving From	Evolving To	Implications
Offshore labor primarily in India	Labor in multiple geographies	India will have competition; also as market size increases, India will have opportunity to rise in value chain
Off shoring provides cheap labor	Off shoring provides efficient access to large talent pool and great technologies	All offshore work will have to be higher in value
Many tactical out-sourcing vendors	Few strategic out-sourcing vendors	Customers will weave out-sourcing as part of business strategy instead of just focusing on cost efficiency
More focus on maintenance	More focus on design, test and maintenance	Out sourcing vendors will have to do both creative and labor oriented work
More focus on code	More focus on consulting, SOA, infrastructure and code	Simply put, out sourcing vendor will be key to success of customers’ IT success both in cost and value terms
Out sourcing is special	Out sourcing is standard	Out sourcing business will still keep growing

Programmers need these!

Chetan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:58:56 +0000

Large monitor, or if possible – two of them!

Reasonably fast PC
(compiler, IDE, browser and db server etc to go fast)

As much RAM as possible
(PC should not slow down due to lack of RAM when RAM could be expanded)

Reasonably fast internet connection
(Not to watch movies, but to view self-learning videos etc)

Good keyboard and mouse
(Keys must not be stuck, standard KB design, working mouse clicking etc)

Great chair and table

Peaceful environment

Latest Development support tools
(IDEs, DBs, ORMs, Components, Libraries, etc)

Freedom to wear casuals

Freedom to have tea/coffee etc at table

Key Factors for Effective Dev Teams, according to me!

Chetan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:21:48 +0000

* Good communication
* Good sharing of tangible and intangible resources
* Learning from own and other team member’s mistake
* Good leader
* Enough resources to work with
* Good Commitment level
* Openness in environment

Ten rules of lean production

Chetan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:26:45 +0000

1. Eliminate waste
2. Minimize inventory
3. Maximize flow
4. Pull production from customer demand
5. Meet customer requirements
6. Do it right the first time
7. Empower workers
8. Design for rapid changeover
9. Partner with suppliers
10. Create a culture of continuous improvement

Golden rule of decision making…

Chetan — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:51:06 +0000

If you have to decide on something important enough, do you get in a dilemma?

You want to buy a car. At the same time, you do not want to spend too much money. Your old car is still good enough, though just reaching a point where you should sell it off. No new car is good enough is your budget and you are scared that you may end up buying accident-damaged second hand car. You end up in a situation where all options have some negatives for your context and you think too much over it which keeps you away from making decision.

To get you out of this dilemma, think if following statements are true.

* All non-trivial decisions have +ve and -ve possibilities.
* All non-trivial decisions have impact (good, bad, etc) when actually taken. Impact may not have been seen as possibility before.
* You can learn from impact.
* Only you are responsible for impact of decision supposed to be taken by you, even if you take ‘advice(s) or guarantee(s)’ from no-matter-whom.
* Nobody can guarantee success, though somebody can help/influence/guide/opine etc. Note that anybody can guide you towards good or bad decision based on their own incentive.
* Anybody can do only this : Make sure to try hard enough, in reasonable time frame, that decision is ‘good’ in a context, in any case.

All in all, here is golden rule.

Take a conscious decision and take responsibility for impact.

Note that keeping decision pending is also a decision!

Stress Management

Chetan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:30:40 +0000

Right click and open link in another Tab to get tips on Stress Management

Public Speaking

Chetan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:33:08 +0000

Click to see image

Egyptian sales techniques!

Chetan — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:27:00 +0000

Egyptians are smart salesmen:
Here are techniques used by them.
Please note that dialogs are just summaries. Real dialogs are quite long and time consuming.

“2 Pounds”
He lures you by offering to sell items 2 EGP each.
You, greedy, stop and select an item.
You decide to buy and take item in your hand.
You get amazed that only that selected item is 35 EGP, rest is still 2 EGP!

“Currency Conversion”
He lures you by offering to sell item at 2 Pounds.
You, greedy, stop as you think that item is worth 5 EGP.
You decide to buy and take item in your hand.
You get amazed that selected item is 2 British Pounds!

“Negotiating”
You stop and want to buy two pieces of same item. You estimate that both pieces are worth 30 EGP total.
You: “How much?”
Him: “Hmm, this one?” (pointing at an item)
You: “Yeah”
Him: “Very cheap price, for you, 30 British Pounds per one piece”
You: Put down the item, thinking that it is out of budget
Him: “Very good item, my friend, blah blah…”
You: “Very expensive”
Him: “How about 30 British Pounds for both pieces?”
You: “I do not want to buy, it is very costly”
Him: “No, my friend, it is cheap. In tourist market, it is 60-70 British Pounds”
You: “Ok, shukran” Start walking
Him: “Wait, wait. I give you at 30 US Dollars for both. Very cheap.”
You: “It is too costly for me; Thank you”
Him: “How much?”
You: “30 EGP for both”
Him: “Egyptian Pounds?”
You: “Yeah”
Him: “Friend, give me good reasonable price”
You: “No, only 30 EGP”
Him: “Ok, take it at 50 EGP”
You: “No”
Him: “Last, very good price 45 EGP”
You: Already tired, brain dead and you want to buy and finish off. You buy.
You get amazed that you paid 15 EGP more.

“No Change”
He will never have enough change. So, you will end up losing little more than what you agreed with him.

“Money is no problem”
You: “How much?”
Him: “Money – no problem. Select. No money for selection”
You: Spend time in selecting and talking blah blah blah
You: “How much for this one?”
Him: “Friend, money is no problem. This item is very very good, blah blah blah”
You: you even get involved in this blah blah blah
Him: “Pack this for you?”
You: “yeah, but how much?”
Him: “My Friend, money no problem” Packs item and hands over to you
You: “How much?”
Him: “75 EGP”
You: “Errr, hmmm, aha, this, err, little costly”
Him: “ohh, my friend, for you, 70 EGP”
You: Hand over 100 EGP note as if he obliged by telling you lots of blah-blah-blah about that item.
Later, you get amazed that you paid double.

“Show Respect”
You: “How much?”
Him: blah blah
You: blah blah
Him: blah blah
…
You: “Ok, this is costly. I do not want to buy. Thank you.”
Him: “Hey, show some respect. You spend too much time, I gave you drink. Do not walk away. This is not good. BLAH BLAH BLAH”
You: Feel guilty, and stop to negotiate further!

“Let Customer Speak”
You: “How much?” Thinking that item would be around 10 EGP
Him: “200 EGP”
You: Jaws dropped. “What?”
Him: “Ok, my friend, you tell me – how much?”
You: “25 EGP” Thinking that your estimation was too wrong.
Him: “Hmm, ok, give me good price. No 200 EGP. No 25 EGP”
You: …
Later, you get amazed that you paid too much!

Everyday Story…

Chetan — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 08:49:00 +0000

This is story about four people

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody & Nobody.

There was important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. But Everybody thought that Somebody will do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody was sure that Anybody could do it but Nobody resented that Everybody could not do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody.

Once upon a time…

Chetan — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 02:29:00 +0000

Once upon a time, in the land of Metaphor, there lived a monkey and an elephant. They both lived on one side of a wide, swiftly flowing river. On both sides of the river there were many fruit trees. The monkey was very agile. He could climb to the top of the fruit trees and eat as much fruit as he needed. The elephant was very tall. He could reach up with his trunk and eat as much fruit as he needed.
But the trees grew taller. Soon the elephant could not reach enough fruit to eat. But he was strong and self-sufficient. He found that when he was hungry, he could just pull down a tree and have fruit to eat.
The monkey watched the elephant pull down most of the fruit trees. He was not happy. He said to the elephant, “Don’t do that! I will climb up the trees and get fruit for you.”
The elephant said, “I am hungry. I am strong. I can do things for myself.”
The monkey said, “You dumb elephant. Soon there will be no trees or fruit for you either.”
The elephant said, “I only work on one problem at a time. Things may change. Maybe more fruit trees will come. Or maybe the trees will get shorter. If they don’t, I’ll work out a solution then.”
The monkey had to agree. He only worked on one problem at a time too. Soon there were no more fruit trees left on their side of the river. The elephant said, “I have a solution. I will go across the river and pull down trees over there.”
The monkey said, “You dumb elephant. That didn’t work on this side of the river, and it won’t work on the other side of the river. You will starve us both. Let’s fight it out. I am agile and will run rings around you.”
The elephant said, “That is fine with me. I am big and strong and I will kill you.”
So they began to fight it out. The monkey ran rings around the elephant. But he was not able to stop the elephant from trying to kill him. The elephant thrashed around with his strong trunk and legs, trying to kill the monkey. But the monkey was too agile, and the elephant missed every time.
It was a hot day. Soon the monkey and the elephant got tired. They sat down and tried to figure out what to do next.
The monkey said, “I am agile. I will just scamper across the river and bring back some fruit.” He got a running start toward the river and went scamper, scamper, scamper … splott! The river started to carry him away.
“That dumb monkey!” said the elephant. He waded into the river, picked up the monkey, put him on his back, and waded back to shore. They sat and thought for a long time while the monkey dried out. Finally the monkey said, “Maybe this is a solution. You can carry me across the river on your back. When we get across, I can climb the trees and get enough food for us both.”
The elephant thought for a moment and then answered, “That sounds like it is worth a try.” So they tried it, and it worked.
And they lived happily ever after, until the end of their days.

Some morals to the story:
• Monkeys can do things elephants can’t do.
• Elephants can do things monkeys can’t do.
• Working on one problem at a time may not be a good idea.
• Fighting it out may not be a good idea.
• Finding a collaborative win-win solution may be a good idea.