Sparsh

Life begins at the end of our comfort zone. Enjoy 2013. I will say goodbye to 2012 with an appeal of common honesty and decency. " Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it. " Jim Rohn had captured essence of reading long ago with this lucid statement. We choose for ourselves the sort of literature we want. Yet, this year was spent in going through easy books. Absence of books related to concept of business strategy and marketing may be counter of prevailing norms of reading list of an MBA student. I still want to read the forgotten matters of culture and society. Reading Economic Times has already made my vision one dimensional in nature. The reading list is getting skewed in favor of English language is not an healthy sign. Is the gradual exit of mother tongue from our reading materials a rational choice? It will be immense loss of mine command over both languages and misunderstood social acceptance that discourages...

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley. The reality of India depends on where you stand, what you seek and how you choose to live. I went to Kolkata for two days with Gaurish in Durga Puja festival. This travel tour was a way forward to learn about diverse cultures as I know very little about my own country. And, yes this was welcome break from avalanche of bullshit mountain of patriotism on the virtual word of facebook. This travel tour was a chance to enjoy a festive season with Bengali people. With arrival in Kolkata, I was caught in the race of hundred of people looking for exit at railway station. Watching the city for the first time was like reading through the pages of history with one's own eyes. The city was dipped in colors of Puja festival and I was trying to figure out the spirit of the Kolkata as few call this as city of joy. And yes, everything was either appearing either holy or historical. While traveling around ...

1)Watch the changes in the list of top billionaires, learn how they made their billions, and note how many billions they made. This information provides a quick bellwether for balance of growth, across income class and industries. A country that produces too many billionaires, relative to its size, is in all likelihood off-balance. 2) Strong companies and stock markets should - but should not necessarily - make for strong economies, so don't confuse the two. The clearest examples are countries dominated by oligopolies, like Mexico, SA and to some extent Philippines. 3) Watch for steady momentum behind economic and political reform, particularly in good times. Nations typically implement reforms when their backs are against the wall. 4) Check the size and growth of the second city, compared to the first city. In any big country the second largest city usually has a population that is to 1/3rd to 1/2 of the biggest city. 5) Watch the locals , they are always first to know; ...

All Thanks to Ruchir Sharma for his splendid book : Breakout Nations. 1) The old rule of forecasting was to make as many forecasts as possible and publicize the ones you got right. The new rule is to forecast so far into the future that no one will know that you got it wrong. 2) Goodhart's Law (Coined by former Bank of England, adviser Charles Goodhart) : Once an economic indicator get too popular, it loses its predictive value. 3) It is said that it takes money to make money, but for nations to grow rapidly it is much easier to be poor - the poorer, the better. 4) Typically it is difficult for any nation to expand the manufacturing share of its labor force much beyond 20 % , and China is already at around 23%. 5) "Low context", in contrast describes societies like United States and Germany in which people are individual oriented, care about privacy and more likely to stick to timelines and their word. Both India and Brazil are "high-context" societie...

An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there? ” There must a greater emphasis on individuality and questioning the status quo in very academic program. Continuing from the 3rd part of the Development series in RM , I will move towards the 4th part of the learning in the field of Rural Management. Here in 10 points what I learnt in last 3 months: 1 - RM student could barely handle the stress when the pile of assignments came to them. They devolve from sensible students to the frenzy morons looking for their grades. 2 - The exposure to the American just do-it culture can produce entrepreneurs rather than a MBA degree. MBA is only as mandatory prestige tag for sure success in industry. 3 - Everything that we do, revolves around the singular concept of landing up with a great job. And the fact is no matter what we do, we will end up with a decent enough job in a corporate environment. 4 - Marketing is...