Christmas Cake

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Christmas Cake

1 kg chopped dried fruits ( raisins, currants, sultanas, deseeded dates etc)
125 ml rum
Juice and rind of 2 oranges.

Mix the above and refrigerate for a day.

250 gm butter at room temp
1.5 cups brown sugar
5 eggs at room temp
125 gm almonds, soaked overnight, skinned, chopped. Reserve a handful to decorate top with halves.
2 1/2 cups flour (normal flour is okay)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder.

Preheat oven to 150C.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
Beat the butter. Add sugar gradually. Blend until light and fluffy. Add the eggs beating well after each addition

Mix in the almonds. Then fold in the flour mix about half a cup at a time. Then fold in the dry fruit mix.

Spoon batter into an 8″ cake tin lined with greaseproof paper. Make a slight depression in the centre (the cake will bulge up in the centre). Arrange the reserved almond halves on top. Place a sheet of aluminium foil on top to prevent it from browning too much.

Bake for 2 hrs. Reduce oven temperature to 140C. Bake for another hour. Remove the foil on top and bake a further 30 mins or until a skewer or knife inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool for about an hour. Remove from tin and let cool completely. Wrap in aluminium foil and refrigerate. The older it gets the better it tastes.

20 questions to ask a recruiter (or friends in the target company)

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Pay and reward

  1. How will my performance be measured?
  2. How will my targets be set? And how much say will I have in setting them?
  3. Who are the key decision-makers that I will need to get along with? And how would you describe each of them?
  4. How regularly will my pay be reviewed? And when will be my first review?
  5. How much of my bonus is guaranteed? And how much of it is dependent on performance?

Doing the job

  1. Be honest with me, what do you really think of the members of the team that I would be running or working with?
  2. What do you see as the immediate challenges for me if I were to be given the job?
  3. When was the last company restructuring? And how did it affect this department?
  4. How is the organization performing? What do staff and shareholders think of the company’s performance?
  5. Are there any big changes or restructuring planned for the near future?
  6. So what exactly happened to the previous job holder?

Culture

  1. How would you describe the culture of the organization?
  2. What is the best thing about working for this organization?
  3. I promise that I won’t mention it to anyone, but just between you and me, what frustrates you most about working here?
  4. Would you describe this as a political organization? And if so, why?
  5. How much inter-departmental rivalry is there in the company?
  6. How much do people socialize together outside of work? What was the last social event that you went to?

The future

  1. What training and development is given to employees?
  2. What opportunities are there for promotion?
  3. Could you tell me about the sorts of people who have failed here? What was it they did or didn’t do that made them unsuccessful?
The above has been extracted from “The Ultimate Career Success Workbook” by Rob Yeung

Triage and the process of prioritisation

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In medical emergencies, such as a large scale disaster, where need is more than the supply of resources, “triage” is a way of determining priorities. At the most primitive level it is:

  • Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;
  • Those who are likely to die, regardless of what care they receive;
  • Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome
Looking at the above, those who are likely to die should not be given treatment. This seems inhuman, unless you take into account that focusing on “first come first served” basis or any such method will create more deaths because patients who could be saved did not get timely treatment.
The concept of triage indicates that prioritisation should not be based just on “important” versus “urgent” as emotionally perceived by the decision maker but based on the common good or good of the majority. This means that sometimes we have to do things that are not palatable, but are for the benefit of the majority of the stakeholders.
Time is a resource most of us do not have in plenty. Given the conflicts between work and home, between various projects at work, and at home, how do we choose?
Maybe, by focusing on what gives the maximum benefits to most people.
As an MBA, who are our stakeholders? What should we be doing, given the paucity of time, to maximize the benefits? Which patients do we leave to die, even though it is not emotionally acceptable?
Does this define professionalism?

Reacting to uncertainty – fear, anger and depression

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We join the MBA program with visions of “leading a team of dedicated professionals towards a pre-defined objective.” We hope to meet like-minded folks and pit our wits with them. We hope to meet professors who will reveal the arcane workings of the stock market, of marketing and of corporate strategy. We hope to discover our self-identity, our purpose in life and define our future.

Within one trimester, all these dreams come crashing down. We are not sure of our grades. The seniors abuse us and disabuse us of wishful thinking. We do not understand the subjects. Parents put pressure on our academics and the return on their investment. Everyone, professors, colleagues and seniors tell us we are nothing, we are idiots and we do not deserve to be MBAs.  Even in personal life, long distance relationships with girl/boy-friends become high maintenance. New relationships are created and broken in a jiffy. We wonder what is wrong with us.

All this creates low self esteem. We are unsure of ourselves and our ability to cope. We are afraid of failing in our eyes, and in our stakeholders’ eyes. We are depressed by the peer comparison and the feeling that there is no path to redemption. We also get angry – at ourselves, at parents, at relationships, at the lack of sensitivity in people, at professors, at seniors, at auto drivers, at bus drivers. We take refuge in alcohol, drugs, movies…anything that will make us forget the reality for a moment.

But reality creeps back in, smiling insanely, slipping the knife in and cruelly turning it, reopening old wounds. Life becomes a roller coaster ride of extreme mood-swings.

We learn to adjust sometime in  the middle of the year and sort of accept and reconcile to the various pressures. Life looks predictable again.

Then comes the summer internship and now the external world joins the litany. “What do they teach you in the MBA course?”, “You are worthless, even a non MBA does better than this!” and the greatest responsibility-avoidance statement, “Why should we help you? You are an MBA, you should know, figure it out!!”

Our self esteem comes crashing down. We are unable to deliver. Life is uncertain once more. Depression, fear and anger return.

Then comes the second year. New professors, deeper levels of knowledge and professors who are doyens in the industry joining in the litany, “What did you learn in first year…were you sleeping in class?” “What, I have to teach you first year stuff and the second year stuff, all in one trimester?” “You are good for nothing, you will never get a job…!”

Self esteem takes another blow. Depression, fear anger….only solution is distraction – movies, drugs, alcohol, opposite gender.

In the meantime, old friends and relationships are broken, new ones are created. Parental pressure starts building up. Placement looms near and there is a sinking feeling that we are not ready for placement. We desperately try to study hard, brushing up first trimester courses, reading magazines and newspapers, having group discussions in corridors,  creating our black books (contacts who can get us jobs). In the meantime, there are assignments, presentations, long classes and there is a pressure of time and more uncertainty about grades and the future.

We feel incapable of handling all this. Our self confidence is low.

Placements. People who we never expected to get a job, get placed in good salaries. People who have got jobs outside are still competing within the college, depriving others of jobs. People who we thought were Gods are found to have feet of clay. The recruiters too join in the litany, “Rs 7 lakhs worth of job…you must be joking! you do not even know the fundamentals!” “You don’t even know how to talk…you have no emotional intelligence, you have a bad attitude…”

There is depression, fear and anger once again.

One of the ways of raising self esteem is to compare ourselves with others and bring the others down so that we feel better than others. That is the reason why we belittle others, do backbiting and laugh at others’ misfortunes. We lash out at our juniors and our teachers. We rebel, because rebellion is one way of stating that we have control. It is a natural defense mechanism of people who have low self esteem. With the stress bottling up, the natural way is to get angry and verbally and physically abuse or bully anyone who can be bullied.

(Bear in mind that we have low self esteem because all our life our parents, teachers and other well-meaning influencers have compared us to others as a well-meaning method of making us do better!)

Another way is to disregard other people’s opinions, if they are contrary to ours. This is done so that we do not have to change our opinions and thoughts, which would imply that all that we have done in the past was useless and we had been wrong in the past. It is also a form of rebellion.

Putting it all together, if anyone hurts our self esteem, we will lash out and blame them for our problems. We need to keep ourselves blameless, so that we retain a high opinion of ourselves.

How to select the right MBA college: please pass to aspirants

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OK, let us get real. It depends on what you want from an MBA education.

  1. If it is to avoid looking for a job, because the economy is down, then any MBA will do. This article is not for you.
  2. If you want to extend your educational life, then this article is not for you.
  3. If you want to run away from parental controls, then this article is not for you.
  4. If you want a better job, do a correspondence MBA and hire a placement consultant, it is cheaper.

An MBA education is not theoretical – where you attend some classes, give a few exams and get a certificate. If you want to do that, see point 4 above.

The purpose of an MBA is the following:

  1. You want to boost your existing career, and you are leaving a job to do an MBA
  2. You want to be an entrepreneur. I am sure we can argue this.
  3. You want a good salary
  4. You want better growth prospects
  5. You want to interact with other future CEOs. Most of my classmates are in senior management and helping to change the world in their own way.

For all the above, you need to select the right college. Such a college should have the following characteristics (and I know that I am in a minority here):

  1. Does the college teach other subjects than the standard ones, like Emotional Intelligence, Critical Thinking, Relationship Management, Change Management, Business Process Management etc. This augments transferable skills in a student, which is looked at during a job interview.
  2. Do the faculty members have industry experience and can they relate the theory to practice of management?
  3. Are the type of exams mug-and-vomit or are the questions thought-provoking and challenging?
  4. How many practical exercises and projects are done in the fields of team management, selling, negotiation, project management etc.?
  5. How much encouragement and facilitation for doing outside projects during the MBA tenure?
  6. What was the mode salary (what salary did most of the students get)?
  7. Is the academic curriculum tough? I know that this is counter-intuitive, but the tougher the curriculum, the more your ability to handle stress – am important aspect in the job?
  8. Does the alumni return to campus on occasions to mentor and give feedback?
  9. What is the student culture – is it mediocre and not MBA oriented or is it supportive and MBA-focused?
  10. Do the same companies come regularly to the campus for placement? This indicates that companies are satisfied by the quality of the students.
  11. What type of jobs are offered by these companies. This indicates the quality of the specialization.

All the above have to be weighed against the cost of doing an MBA. If a typical 2-year MBA costs INR 7 lakhs and you get a pocket money of INR 3000 per month, and the number of study hours is say 10 per day (class and self study) and the number of study days is say 200 per day, your cost per hour is around INR 250.

You better be damned sure you are getting an education.

Why do an MBA

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Most students join an MBA program for the following reasons:

  1. A simple graduation does not fetch a decent job
  2. Having done Bachelors in Business Administration, there is little choice but to do an MBA
  3. Extending their academic life by two more years
  4. Go far away from their parents and relatives to a place where no one knows them
  5. After doing an MBA, the salary levels would increase dramatically.

Reasons 1 to 4 are legitimately related to the reality of your past.

Reason 5 is a prediction of the future.

But do we know the future and do we know what determines salaries of an MBA?

The salaries are determined by the ability of the placement cell or your own contacts to approach the right companies.

The salaries are also based on the demand and the supply of MBAs. More the demand, higher the salary. More the supply, lower the salary!!

What determines demand?

  1. The college ranking determines the demand not because the students learn better stuff in those colleges, but your ranking in the various exams show that you are hard working or smart or both. Your ranking determines the college you get.
  2. Your own intelligence, attitude and transferable skills determine demand
  3. The business climate determines demand. If the markets are not looking good, there is no growth and there is less demand. But markets go in cycles, and if today the market is bad, by the time you pass out, the markets may look up.
  4. The state of the recruiting company determines demand. A growing company needs more MBAs than a mature company.
  5. The alumni of the B-school determines demand, based on how they are doing in the market.
  6. Your specialization in the B-school may determine demand, but this is debatable.

What determines supply?

Let us qualify supply in terms of quality and quantity. Fly-by-night operators may offer a cheap MBA, but they also take short cuts in education and placement. Quality is determined not just by the courses offered and the course content, but the quality of the classroom interaction and more importantly, how serious is the faculty member in imparting an education. There are more than 4500 MBA/PGDM programs in the country.

How do we select the right one?

  1. Is the top salary offered to a graduate the right criteria?
  2. Are you similar to that top graduate who got a great salary, or are you assuming that you will be?
  3. Is the same company coming with the same job offer?
  4. Are the market conditions the same?
  5. Are you doing the same specialization and are you qualified for that specialization?
  6. Should you not ask what is the mode (which salary band and what type of job profile did most students get ?).

Books for Entrepreneurs listed by Damir Perge

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The following list books are mentioned in Entrepreneur Myths by Damir Perge :

  1. Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, & the Economic World by Kevin Kelly. This book will change your way of looking at the world. And yes, you are not in control no matter what you think.
  2. Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem by Michael Rothschild. Every entrepreneur needs to read this book. It’s genius. You’ll be humbled by its brilliance. It will change you forever.
  3.  Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution byPaul Hawken.  This is the Bible for Green Business. A revolutionary book even today.
  4.  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell.  This is the bible when it comes to understanding anything viral.
  5.  The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems by Fritjof Capra
  6.  Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop.  Running a company is chaotic. You can learn much about management from this book.
  7.  Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production byTaiichi Ohno.  Forget Henry Ford. The real genius behind manufacturing and operations is Taiichi Ohno. Must read for operations of any business.
  8.  A Study of the Toyota Production System: From an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint (Produce What is Needed, When it’s Needed) by Shigeo Shingo.  Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno are absolutely brilliant. They have changed business forever.
  9.  Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono.  Re-wire your brain and use your six thinking hats to become a better entrepreneur. Most seminal book on how to use your brain.
  10.  Developing Products in Half the Time: New Rules, New Tools byPreston G. Smith and Donald Reinertsen.  Must read for any entrepreneur. If you haven’t read it, you’re losing money and market share.
  11.  The Entrepreneur’s Master Planning Guide : How to Launch a Successful Business by John A. Welsh and Jerry White.  The book that started me on becoming a member of Entrepreneurholics Anonymous. I took their class when I was a newbie entrepreneur.
  12.  Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth by Lester R. Brown.  This book will inspire you, depress you and make you want to change the world by becoming green.
  13.  Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore.  If you don’t read this book, you’re not an entrepreneur. This is a classic.
  14.  The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production by James P. Womack.  One of the most exciting books to read if you’re a serious entrepreneur.
  15.  Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity by John Holland.  Must read for entrepreneurs who manage people. You can learn much from nature.
  16.  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart.  Revolutionary book on changing the way everyone does business. You’ll go green afterward.
  17.  Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries.  I read it in college. Still one of the best marketing books ever written. Must read.
  18.  Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius by Marc Seifer.  One of the three greatest scientists and inventors of all time.
  19.  Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus.  Business can learn much from nature. This book is a classic.
  20.  Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition by B. Joseph Pine.  One of my favorite books of all time. I’ve read it three times.
  21.  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Your mind is the most powerful asset you have. Never forget it.
  22.  Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer or Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson.  You have to know the art of term sheets if you’re going to get money from a VC.
  23.  The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler.  Everyone needs to learn to tell a story. Write one too. This is the book that teaches you fundamental principles of storytelling.
  24.  The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth by W. Randall Jones.  You want to know how the rich got to be rich. This book provides the secrets of how some of the richest men in town got there. Entertaining and inspirational.
  25.  Unleashing the IdeaVirus by Seth Godin.  Anything Seth writes, you must read it. Although this is one of his earlier books, it’s a classic. Buy all his books – you’ll thank me later.
  26.  Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticpiate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business by Adrian J. Slywotzky, David J. Morrison, Ted Moser, Kevin A. Mundt and James A. Quella.  Enabling entrepreneurs to detail some of the possible patterns and scenarios in any business sector.  At the end of the day, a venture —whether a startup or not, has to figure out how to make money.
  27.  Competitive Strategy by Professor Michael Porter.  The best strategy business book; a classic that should be read every year. This book is painful and wonderful at the same time. It is painful because it forces you, whether you want to or not, to think about competitive strategy for your business, and wonderful because you can get ideas on how to compete in the market.
  28.  Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition is Reshaping Global Markets by George Stalk, Jr. and Thomas H. Hout.  You’ve only got so much time to launch your venture, launch your product or service, raise that money and make it big. Sure, you may think you’re competing against other competitors in the marketplace but you’re also competing against time — time of the market.
  29.  Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams by Mitchel Resnick.  The best way to learn the distributed way of thinking is by studying turtles, termites and traffic jams.
  30.  Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones.  This book stands the test of time. It is highly inspiring and educational because it teaches entrepreneurs how to become lean and efficient using the principles of the great Taiichi Ohno.
  31.  Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi.  In Finding Flow, one of the key points that you learn is that life is not about happiness but actually achieving flow in your personal and business life. Don’t worry — this is not a self-help book based on hype. It is more of a guide to achieving optimal flow.
  32.  Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.  No matter how great of an idea you have, at the end of the day, you have to be able to execute.
  33.  Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actionsby Guy Kawasaki.  I’ve met Guy a few times. He’s a likeable guy and this is a cool book. And that’s the point of this book but let me not ruin it. Buy and find out yourself.
  34.  Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy by Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer.  This book will keep you thinking. The authors look at how three factors in the wired world —speed, connectivity, and intangibles —are driving the increasing rate of change in the business marketplace.
  35.  Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins. This is a book about visionary companies. Much can be learned from studying it.

What do recruiters look for?

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A recruiter needs three types of skills

1. Subject matter expertise

This is the main thrust of most MBA programs. The professors are aggregators on knowledge and they cram it into the students. Most B-schools teach the same subjects. Different students retain this knowledge at different levels based on their capability and interest and sometimes the ability of the professors. Given that there are 4500 B-Schools in the country, the quality of the teachers cannot be uniform.

2. Attitude

If a new recruit has the right attitude, to work and to learn, he can be moulded. If he thinks that he should determine the type of work he should do, then the company has a problem. Recruiters look for a ‘can-do’ attitude, the ability to remain focussed and in balance and ability to learn.

3. Interpersonal, team-building and presentation skills.

If the new recruit does not blend with the culture of the organisation, cannot work in teams and cannot present his ideas, he is more of a liability than an asset.

You should look for an MBA college that teaches you all the above in equal proportions. Any college with a heavy weight on academics but not enough weight on other things cannot create an ideal candidate for recruitment.

Book Launch Video of “MBA Blues – What Recruiters Want” at IBA, Bangalore

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Making it to the top 20 in Management Skills Category

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I am pleased to announce that my website has made it into the top 20 websites in the Management Skills category.

www.top20sites.com/Top-Management-Skills-Sites

Thank you readers.

Chandu