Archive for October, 2006
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 31 Oct 2006, 9:22 PM - 1 Comment
What has a Haiku got to do with the need for us to have great teachers throughout our life?
Consider the following Haiku:
When I look carefully,
I see the nazumia bloomingby the hedge!
- Basho, Zen mystic and master
Nazunia is a common flower – grows by itself by the side of the road.
What did you understand from the above? If you were like me, it wouldn’t be much. It is so simple that we may read it once and move on.
I was reading Osho’s book “Intuition” where he disects a bit deeper into this poem of three lines. Here is what I got from that analysis:
The last syllable – kana in Japanese – is translated by an exclamation mark as there is no easy translation for kana. Kana really means “I am amazed!”
So, what is the Haiku hinting? That when you look at something attentively or with caring even a nazunia can transform itself into a lotus. Remember the old saying – “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The point is that if someone can see something fascinating in a nazunia, the whole world can look better for him or her.
Now, isn’t it clear without a doubt that we need great teachers throughout our life? Anybody can identify the extraordinary. Great teachers discover extraordinaty from within the ordinary.
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 30 Oct 2006, 10:06 AM - Leave Comment
I met with Liz Strauss (virtually) through Phil Gerbyshak – both are amazing individuals. A few weeks ago Liz asked me whether I would like to be interviewed and I said Yes. At that time, I didn’t know that Liz would ask only five questions out of which three of them would make me THINK for more than a day to answer 
So, I finally completed answering her interview questions a week ago. The interview is being published in five parts and the first part is published today. Here is the schedule:
Sunday Oct 29, 2006 — OverviewMonday, October 30, 2006 — From a child author to IT consultant
Wedneday November 1, 2006 — The Need to Participate and Differentiate
Thursday, November 2, 2006 — The Inner Game
Monday, November 6, 2006 — The Outer Game
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 — About the Book — How It Happened
Thanks Liz for this wonderful opportunity. I am honored.
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 30 Oct 2006, 9:39 AM - Leave Comment
My column on CIOUpdate was published today. Part1 of the article was published last month. This is the concluding part of the article. Here are the links to both of them
Have a great week ahead!
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 29 Oct 2006, 7:50 AM - Leave Comment
In simple terms, Murthy explains that it’s ultimately boils down to the “value” you add to the organization.
“You become a star not because of your title; you become a star because you are adding star value to the company”
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 27 Oct 2006, 12:58 AM - 1 Comment
This is a story about getting your priorities right. This story has been told in many books and in many conferences. Here it is..
Start with a bucket, some big rocks enough to fill it, some small stones, some sand and water.
Put the big rocks in the bucket – is it full?
Put the small stones in around the big rocks – is it full?
Put the sand in and give it a shake – is it full?
Put the water in. Now it’s full.
The point is: unless you put the big rocks in first, you won’t get them in at all.
In other words: Plan time-slots for your big issues before anything else, or the inevitable sand and water issues will fill up your days and you won’t fit the big issues in (a big issue doesn’t necessarily have to be a work task – it could be your child’s sports-day, or a holiday).
While I thought that the above story was fascinating, every time I heard this story I felt that something was missing. Last week during my 1-1 with one of my mentors, it suddently hit me and it was clear what was missing. Here are my $.02 on this topic.
If we want to look at the analogy – bucket would be the time available and all the other things rocks, sand, water would mean all the tasks that we need to get done within the available time. What was missing I think was step zero. This is where the person has to carefully think what are all the tasks that he needs to do and what are all the tasks he is NOT the right person to do. Sometimes they are best to be handed off to someone (delegate or outsource) and what would remain is those absolute MUST tasks that he has to do.
This way, he gains higher leverage than before.
Most often, when we see a set of tasks in front of us, the first tendency is to go right into our “To Do” lists and start updating the list with the tasks. I think we need to step back and decide whether some tasks should be in our “To Do” list or someone else’s “To Do” list.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 25 Oct 2006, 3:06 PM - 2 Comments
Google announced their latest initative a few days ago – Custom Search Engine. With this you can specify the sites that you want to include in your search. You can customize the look and feel and place it on your website. Users can search using this custom search engine and when they click relevant ads, you make a piece of the revenue.
Dave Pell’s Rollyo has had the core feature of the custom search engine called SearchRolls for a long time – probably for more than a year now.
But the buzz generated by Google CSE was huge as compared to the buzz that Rollyo generated.
Why? I think there are two reasons:
1. Brand power – obviously everyone is watching whatever Google announces
2. Incentive power – Google lets you make money however small it is – it is still an incentive.
There may be more reasons but that’s what I can think of now.
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 25 Oct 2006, 2:50 PM - 1 Comment
There are lot of VERY rich people in this world. Most of these people have the power to make a difference to the world in general. Very few have the desire to do so. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is a shining star in this respect setting an example on “what could be” possible.
An example of how the foundation works can be seen below:
As an example, our Global Development Program
works with an organization called Opportunity International on a
relatively simple technology that is helping women in Malawi save their
children from destitution. In Malawi, life expectancy is about 37
years. When a man dies, his parents and siblings often seize his
possessions and his money, leaving his wife and children with nothing.
Opportunity International helps by distributing “smart cards.” These
cards are similar to our ATM cards, and they let women keep money in
super-secure savings accounts that are protected by a thumbprint
scanner. Only the cardholder herself can access the account, using her
unique thumbprint. Smart cards have become so popular in Malawi that
they’re now regularly given as gifts at wedding showers.
Please read and be inspired by this letter over there on their site
Our Values: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
It almost feels like GOD’s work!
Posted under Leadership, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 25 Oct 2006, 12:01 PM - Leave Comment
We all do that.
Companies do that too – sometimes overtly and sometimes in a very subtle fashion. One of my friend told me that the movie “The Italian Job
” was sponsored by BMW as part of a marketing campaign for Mini Cooper. I also heard that it will cost a fortune to get some product featured as part of the TV show “The Apprentice.” I can see why. In the world of Tivo, companies have to find other ways of getting people’s attention. And, they are willing to pay a big price for that.
I saw two simple examples recently.
Here is a key to a room in Econo Lodge – sorry to be more precise here is the image of a key card for a room in Econo Lodge. As you can see, it features an advertisement for Pizza Hut with a local number (Anaheim) that will make it easy for the guests to order Pizza. A person can either look up something in the yellow pages or he or she can quickly dial the number on the card to get food. Leveraging the space on the key card to play on the convenience factor.
Second one is a card that they were handing out when people came out of Lego Land. It says clearly that someone
might instantly win $25,000 and the way to check is to swipe the cards on a computer terminal closeby. There were many terminals actually and people were in a queue to check this out. It was also very clear on the card that it was sponsored by some resort company and they were actually conducting a survey right then and there and getting all the information from you to see whether you were “qualified” for them to make you an offer.
On one hand, the consumer is overwhelmed (actually bombarded) with information and on the other hand, the companies are relentless in their pursuit to get the consumers attention!
Posted under Compelling Offers, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 25 Oct 2006, 10:42 AM - Leave Comment
I am sure you will find this interesting and fascinating..
BTW, brilliant marketing – rarely talks about Dove but still gets all the necessary buzz..
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 24 Oct 2006, 5:17 PM - Leave Comment
This is exciting for me. For the last nineteen months, I have had the same design for “Life Beyond Code.”
Finally, the time has come to re-design the blog and re-launch this. I have never had any advertisers on this blog since the start in Feb 2005. Now, I will have six sponsors on the blog (three confirmed, three slots are open)
If any of your companies are interested in discussing this in detail, please send me a note at
“explore at foresightplus dot com”
Thanks a bunch.
============
PS: Every sponsor has to offer something meaningful to my audience – See ROII
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
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