Jeff Bezos’ take on stress
Jeff Bezos, of Amazon.com, has a fascinating interview hosted at the Academy of Achievement, where he talks about growing up, influences in his life and of course, the challenge of setting up Amazon.com. But, this particular snippet about dealing with stress stood out for its simplicity and usefulness: Stress primarily comes from not taking action … Read more
Communal harmony and history
Viewsday Tiewsday goes off the beaten track this week, to present an excerpt from Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian”. This paragraph highlights an endearing snippet from the history of our country which goes against the grain of extremism often encountered. The very successful Bengali translations of these epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) owed much … Read more
“Good” beats “innovative” nearly every time
Management speak about innovation can probably run into hundreds of pages with fancy management terms sometimes entering another stratosphere of complexity in implementation. But here’s Scott Berkun providing a breath of fresh air and common sense. He debunks the prevailing obsession with innovation. Instead he advocates a simpler and more effective solution: Just be good. … Read more
The surprisingly cool history of ice
The name of Frederic Tudor is probably not familiar, but it was his enterprise that envisioned the opportunity for an industry that no one else saw. He was the man who, over 200 years ago, created a market for ice. That might seem misleadingly small, but would the refrigerator have been invented at all if … Read more
Oman’s ingenious water management solution
Environmental issues have started to seep into public consciousness and systemic changes are certainly due in resource usage. This snippet about a looming water crisis drives home the point: In 2003, Frank Rijsberman, then the head of the International Water Management Institute, had expressed his concern: “If present trends continue, the livelihoods of one-third of … Read more
Business advice from Van Halen
Staying alert to and picking out warning signs of a disaster about to occur can be an almost impossible task. But is it possible to slip an alarm system into your operational procedures so that warning signs automatically show up? This week, Viewsday Tiewsday explores operational wisdom from an unusual source: heavy metal/hard rock band, … Read more
Laziness as a path to success!
Laziness has the best ROI in the business.
Unusual places to look for solutions
Aha” moments in problem‐solving are always a fascinating read. It might be an uninitiated flash of inspiration or an idea to borrow something from a very unlikely source to apply to your poser. An article from “Fast Company”, called “A Problem‐solver’s guide to Copycatting”, gives some interesting examples where unusual sources inspired the big solution.
The recession,adversity and shaking things up
Recessions and slowdowns have been seen in the past. A look at those periods reveals a surprising number of great things & companies that came out of them. An article from The Economist talks about the same, with a view on the current situation as well. Here are the excerpts: Although they are often called “slowdowns”, recessions shake … Read more
India as a land of opportunity
Here are two different stories presented, which are seemingly different, but celebrate the idea that our country is a land of opportunity.
