Real good Quotes

Some Nice quotes from the book "On track to the top" that I talked about in my previous post;

The chief function of body is to carry the brain around - Thomas Edison

The most important thing about having goals is having one. - Geoffrey Albert

If I want to be the world champion I've got to ask myself each day; "Did you train harder than anyone else in the world today?" - Marion Jones

But, my favourite is this -

Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don't know how to quit.

- Robert Schuller

Book review plus quiz

I am currently reading ‘On Track to the Top’ by Jacques Van Schalkwyk (wonder how to pronounce!) and wanted to share my amazement here. I am amazed by the amount of similarity between sports and business that this book brings out. Amazed how adversity brings the best out of many people.

Let me share these snippets in the form of a quiz. Please leave your answers via comments so that I know that you know ;)

A) …………….
Was born in Jewish family in 1936 in Hungary
Decided to leave the country as a 20 year old. Crossed borders by foot to reach Austria
Reached America and changed his name. Coped with troubles of immigration and prostrate cancer
completed his PhD (Fluid dynamics) in University of California
in 1968 joined a few colleagues from Fairchild semiconductor to start Integrated Electronics

B) …………….
started playing tennis at the age of 3
Played professional tennis from 16 and was ranked fourth in the world by 1988.
But, he did not win a grand slam for the next 5 years
in 1992 he bet Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Goran Evanisevic to win the Wimbledon title and was ranked number one in 1995 but went down to 141 in 1997
in 2003 he came back to become the oldest player to be ranked number one

C) …………….
Started his career as an apprentice coal minder earning 10 shillings a week
in the 1970s learned about a new type of glue that could be used to bind coal dust which can be used for fireplaces
this is today known as ‘charcoal’
one of the world’s largest independents in coal mining, he has diversified into retail chains, wine estates and luxury boat building
a person known for his humility, shares half his first name with a telecom ‘seed sower’

Scoring:

Give yourselves 50 points for getting it on the first clue and 10 points on the last clue, progressively. If you get over a 100 without googling, give yourself a pat on your back.

Please attempt to answer. contact me for more clues ;)

Sify - a case study

How can Business Rules affect your business?

Yes - they can. All businesses have some rules because they got to have a few to protect their own interest. While business rules being a necessity, there is nothing wrong in having them at all. But, like any other rule in this world, specifically, world of business, there are exceptions. Because, there have to be.

If you are someone not very familiar with business rules, here are some examples;

• Banking - you cannot draw from your account more than your savings. Exception: Over draft facility
• Telecom - you cannot use other service providers network while you have subscribed for one. Exception: Roaming

There could be many many more in business world. But, like every other thing in the world, there are exceptions: Sify

Sify is a beautiful company that became popular with its browsing centers called 'iway' that offered memberships to customers and engaging them into a long relationship with sify instead of offering access to Internet on an hourly charge basis. That is how I became interested initially with this company years back and the relationship which continues till today has turned soar.

How?

Funny Business Rules from sify broadband;

1. If you choose to renew your (broadband) account using your credit card, even God cannot help you change the product type!
2. You shall call sify's customer care only when their 'LAN' and software systems are up and running!
   
3. If you choose a wrong package by mistake (read as misinformation), you cannot go back an fix it even you pick up majority stake in the sify!
4. If you choose to be their customer and wish to call their customer care, you must know 'Hinglish' (Hindi + English)
   
5. If you have a problem with your Internet connection you have to fight it out with the local MSO for a week's time failing which 'thou shall stop using internet'
6. You shall NOT dream that you will not experience connection problems this month

and more which only God knows.

Moral of the story:

If you are an access provider, you shall have a customer care that is 'educated' and 'well informed' about your products, services and more importantly the 'flaws in your services/ systems'.

If you have reps who are afraid of breaking business rules to help out customers and lazy and useless back-end teams who are not flexible to support your business, your business will soon be doomed to die.

Advantage of working (slightly) odd hours

Hi all,

Had been away from the world of blogosphere for sometime now - partly due to trouble with my ISP sify (again) and partly due to work.

Last week’s local papers (chennai) talked about how the ‘monday morning special’ traffic jams affected commuters and I happened to read later as I missed my usual combo that kick starts the day - the other one being coffee. The reason: I had meetings starting at 8 am and decided to hop in early instead of taking them from home. So, what a big deal?

• I avoided my bus that would usually drop me at office at 9:15 - 9:45 am - not to mention the traffic snarl and smoke
• Was able to start the day in a much more relaxed fashion and felt I was able to accomplish (slightly) more
• My ‘flow time‘ had improved to a decent 20-30 mins
• Managed to leave home earlier (again avoiding the traffic chaos!)
• Pay my long-pending visit to my dentist which, I am sure, I wouldn’t have done otherwise

I have discovered this in the past as well that working in a (slightly) skewed working hours has number of advantages. I never miss out on a chance to work on a 7 to 4 or 11 to 8 instead of the usual 9 to 6. Given the fact that most people thesedays are lucky enough to be in a flexible work culture, I would suggest helping yourselves from time to time.

Have you ever tried it? or do you prefer to work from home in such circumstances? Share your thoughts and experiences with me here!