NEWS BY ME

The Taxi Driver Taught Me An MBA Lesson (Must read for any MBA)

2006-08-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

I needed to go from Xujiahui to the airport, so I hurriedly concluded a meeting and I was looking for a taxi in front of the Meiluo building. A taxi driver saw me and very professionally came in a straight line and stopped right in front of me. Thus followed the story that astonished me greatly as if I had attended a lively MBA course. In order to faithfully preserve the intent of the taxi driver, I have tried to reproduce his original words according to my memory.
"Where do you want to go? Good, the airport. At Xujiahui, I loved to get business in front of the Meiluo building. Over here, I only work two places: Meiluo building (美罗) and Junyao building (均瑶). Did you know? Before I picked you up, I circled around Meiluo building twice before I saw you! People who come out of office building are definitely not going to some place nearby ..."
"Oh? You have a method!" I agreed.
"A taxi driver must also have scientific methods," he said. I was surprised and I got curious: "What scientific methods?"
"I have to know statistics. I have made detailed calculations. Let me tell you. I operate the car 17 hours a day, and my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB ..."
"How did you arrive at that?" I asked
"You calculate. I have to pay 380 RMB to the company each day for the car. The gas is about 210 RMB. I work 17 hours per day. On an hourly basis, the fixed cost is the 22 RMB that I give to the taxi company and an average of 12.5 RMB per hour in gasoline expenses. Isn't that 34.5 RMB?" I was a bit surprised. I have taken taxis for ten years, but this is the first time that a taxi driver has calculated the costs this way. Previously, the taxi drivers all tell me that the cost per kilometer was 0.3 RMB in addition to the total company fee.
"Costs should not be calculated on a per-kilometer basis. It should be calculated on an hourly basis. You see, each meter has a 'review' function through which you can see the details of the day. I have done a data analysis. The averarge time gap between customers is seven minutes. If I started counting the costs when someone gets in, it is 10 RMB for about 10 minutes. That means each 10 RMB customer takes 17 minutes of time, which costs 9.8 RMB (=34.5 x 17 / 60). This is not making money! If we say that customers who want to go to Pudong, Hangzhou or Qingpu are like meals, then a 10 RMB customer is not even a bite of food. You can only say that this is just a sprinkle of MSG."
Great! This driver did not sound like a taxi driver. He seemed more like an accountant. "So what you do then?" I was even more interested and I continued my questioning. It looked like I was going to learn something new on the way to the airport.
"You must not let the customer lead you all over the place. You decide what you want to do based upon the location, time and customer." I was very surprised, but this sounded significant. "Someone said that the taxi driving is a profession that depends on luck. I don't think so. You have to stand in the position of the customer and consider things from the customer's perspective." This sounded very professional, and very much like many business management teachers who say "put yourself in others' shoes."
"Let me give you an example. You are at the entrance to a hospital. There is someone holding some medicine and there is someone else holding a wash basin. Which person will you pick up?" I thought about it and I said that I didn't know.
"You take the one with the wash basin. If you have a minor complaint that you want to be examined and to get some medicine, you don't usually go to a faraway hospital. Anyone who is carrying a wash basin has just been discharged from the hospital. When people enter the hospital, some of them die. Today, someone on the second floor dies. Tomorrow, someone on the third floor dies. Those who make it out of the hospital usually have a feeling of having been given a second life and they recognize the meaning of life again -- health is the most important thing. So on that day, that person told me, "Go ... go to Qingpu." He did not even blink. Would you say that he wanted to take a taxi to People's Plaza to transfer to the Qingpu line subway? Absolutely not!"
I began to admire him.
"Let me give you another example. That day at People's Plaza, three people were waving at me. One was a young woman who had just finished shopping and was holding some small bags. Another was a young couple who were out for a stroll. The third one was a man who wore a silk shirt and a down jacket and holding a notebook computer bag. I spent three seconds looking at each person and I stopped in front of the man without hesitation. When the man got in, he said: 'Yannan Elevated Highway. South North Elevated Highway ...' Before even finishing, he could not help but ask, 'Why did you stop in front of me without hesitating? There were two people in front. They wanted to get on as well. I was too embarrassed to fight with them.' I replied, 'It is around noon and just a dozen or so minutes before one o'clock. That young woman must have slipped out at noon to buy something and I guess that her company must be nearby. That couple are tourists because they are not holding anything and they are not going to travel far. You are going out on business. You are holding a notebook computer bag, so I can tell that this is business. If you are going out at this time, I guess that it would not be too close.' The man said, 'You are right. I'm going to Baoshan.'"
"Are those people wearing pajamas in front of supermarkets or subway stations going to travel far? Are they going to the airport? The airport is not going to let them enter."
That makes sense! I was liking this more and more.
"Many drivers complain that business is tough and the price of gas has gone up. They are trying to pin the cause down on other people. If you keep pinning the cause on other people, you will never get any better. You must look at yourself to see where the problem is." This sounds very familiar. It seems like "If you cannot change the world, then you should change yourself" or perhaps a pirated copy of Steven Corey's "Circles of Influence and Concern." "One time, on Nandan Road, someone flagged me down and wanted to go to Tianlin. Later on, someone else flagged me down on Nandan Road and he also wanted to go to Tianlin. So I asked, 'How come all you people who come out on Nandan Road want to go to Tianlin?' He said, 'There is a public bus depot at Nandan Road. We all take the public bus from Pudong to there, and then we take the taxi to Tianlin. So I understood. For example, you look at the road that we just passed. There are no offices, no hotels, nothing. Just a public bus station. Those people who flag down taxis there are mostly people who just got off the public bus, and they look for the shortest road for a taxi. People who flag down taxis here will usually ride not more than 15 RMB."
"Therefore, I say that the attitude determines everything!" I have heard dozens of company CEO's say that, but this was the first time that I heard a taxi driver say that.
"We need to use scientific methods and statistics to conduct business. Those people who wait at the subway exits every day for business will never make money. How are you going to provide for your wife and kids at 500 RMB a month? This is murder? This is slowly murdering your whole family. You must arm yourself with knowledge. You have to learn knowledge to become a smart person. A smart person learns knowledge in order to become a very smart person. A very smart person learns knowledge in order to become a genius."
"One time, a person wanted a taxi in order to get to the train station. I asked him how he wanted to go. He told me how to get there. I said that was slow. I said to get on the elevated highway and go this other way. He said that it was a longer way. I said, 'No problem. You have experience because you go that way frequently. It costs you 50 RMB. If you go my way, I will turn off the meter when it reaches 50 RMB. You can just pay me 50 RMB. Anything more is mine. If you go your way, it will take 50 minutes. If I go my way, it will take 25 minutes.' So in the end, we went my way. We traveled an additional four kilometers but 25 minutes quicker. I accepted only 50 RMB. The customer was very delighted for saving about 10 RMB. This extra four kilometers cost me just over 1 RMB in gas. So I have swapped 1 RMB for 25 extra minutes of my time. As I just said, my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB. It was quite worthwhile for me!"
"In a public taxi company, an ordinary driver takes three to four thousand RMB home per month. The good driver can get around five thousand. The top driver can get seven thousand RMB. Out of the 20,000 drivers, there are about two to three who can make more than 8,000 RMB a month. I am one of those two or three. Furthermore, it is very stable without too much fluctuation."
Great! By this point, I admired this taxi driver more and more.
"I often say that I am a happy driver. Some people say, 'That's because you earn a lot of money. Of course, you must be happy.' I tell them, 'You are wrong. This is because I have a happy and active mind, and that is why I make a lot of money.'"
What a wonderful way to put it!
"You have to appreciate the beauty that your work brings. Stuck in a traffic jam at People's Plaza, many drivers complain, 'Oh, there's a traffic jam again! What rotten luck!' You must not be like that. You should try to experience the beauty of the city. There are many pretty girls passing by. There are many tall modern buildings; although you cannot afford them, you can still enjoy them with an appreciative look. While driving to the airport, you can look at the greenery on both sides. In the winter, it is white. How beautiful! Look at the meter -- it is more than 100 RMB. That is even more beautiful! Each job has its own beauty. We need to learn how to experience that beauty in our work."
"Ten years ago, I was a general instructor at Johnson's. Eight years ago, I had been the department manager for three different departments. I quit because there was no point in making three or five thousand a month. I decided to become a taxi driver. I want to be a happy driver. Ha ha ha ..."
When we arrived at the airport, I gave him my business card and said, "Are you interested in coming this Friday to my office and explain to the Microsoft workers about how you operate your taxi? You can treat it as if your meter is running at 60 kilometers per hour. I will pay you for the time that you talk to us. Give me a call."
Then I began to write down his lively MBA lecture on the airplane.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS ? - Azim Premji, Wipro

2006-07-10T04:06:00.000-07:00

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile. Early this year, Arun, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.

He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined. Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave ?
Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.
The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss.Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. Mostly manager drives people away? HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

Talented men leave. Dead wood does'nt.

" Jack Welch of GE once said. A company's value lies "between the ears of its employees".

HOPE GUYS U GOT D RIGHT BOSS!

MAY BE THE FUTURE IS LIKE THIS:-

2006-06-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sun is rising as usual in the east .Im standing here outside the school,waiting for my 10 yr kid.He studies is class 2.Only this year he could get admission into the school. For the last 5 yrs admissions were closed for the general category students.School bell rings. I can see a lot of happy children coming out of the gate, i waited for half an hour and my kid came at last after other children.Genaral students are not allowed to cross the gate unless other OBC/SC/ST students have crossed the gates.OBC/SC/ST fathers drive away their children in classy cars. But i hv to walk back home with my kid a 5km stretch. I lost my car some years back when Govt. came with a rule that general people have to deposit a tax equal to cost of their cars .Failing which i had to sell the car.As far as buses are concerned, the seats in buses are reserved for OBC/SC/ST .So no place there also.

After walking some 5km in scorching heat i finally reached home. It was wednesday ... shit , no electricity.Every mon,wed,thu,sat is power cut in the houses of General category population .So that SC/ST/OBC can be uplifted by providing them with every opportunity and in that consideration electricity is an important factor. Its 10:00 pm in night no electricity at home.Its very hot inside the four walls of home .So i dare to step out in park with my wife and kid.I seated myself with my family on a secluded bench in garden.It was hardly 5 min .. a guard came to us strolling in the park.He asked me what caste you belong to. I said with some hesitation .. G..General.He asked me to pay a fine of Rs.200 and get out of the park. My Fault...The bench i was sitting on was meant for again the SC/ST/OBC . for their upliftment peace of mind is on essential things. So govt came with this decision to Reserve benches for them.Kudos to them...

Its early in the morning ...the newspaper wala just knocked the door.I took the newspaper and started reading ..,its independence day . i never used to forget this days some 20 yrs back. My kid hardly knows wat 15th august is, because i never told him any stories of greatness of our country or anything realted to country.I don't feel like telling him the failures after freedom. On front page of newspaper, in a corner their is a news about a OBC member getting 6 months impriosonment in "BAL SUDHAR GRAHA" from a juvenile court for murdering and raping a six year old girl .Yes the rules have been amended ,since the last 5 years.The Culprit was a 25 year old OBC so age relaxation was provided for trial of crime.So he was taken to juvenile court, since there is an age relaxation for OBC/SC/ST. About 11 am some one gave me the BAD news about demise of one of my neighbour and friend Mr.Mehta. I went to his house for condolence next day ,his body was lying there still rotting in the heat.I asked his son about the Cremation .His son told me " Many reserved category have died yesterday so we are not getting entry to creamtion ground " . This rule is the latest from Govt.Where the seats in creamtion ground
will be reserved for SC/ST/OBC for their upliftment.

Finally next day Mehta ji was creamted.i could see sun seeting through the Flames burning a libarated Body, liberated from casre n creed.I was surprised sun still sets in the west.? it was about 9 pm , i was about to sleep in my bed my son came to me with innocence in his eyes , inquisitively he asked me the question what is reservation? i asked me where u listened that . he suddenly burst in tears .. i asked him to keep..quiet But i could listen through his sobs "mujhe bhi reservation chahiye(i too want reservation)". How can i convince him its no other toy in the market i can get for him? He kept cryin that night ,claiming many of "his classmates have got reservation". To make him quiet i said ok , ill buy you reservation at your next B'day.

Bye Bye india

Sucking Policies of Mr.Arjun Singh....

2006-05-25T03:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/decision-on-quota-is-final-arjun/11063-4-0.html

2005-12-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

Deserve Before You Desire
Attributed to Dr. R Gopalakrishnan,
Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd

The grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Move from one job to another, but only for the right reasons. It's yet another day at office. As I logged on to the marketing and advertising sites for the latest updates, as usual, I found the headlines dominated by 'who's' moving from one company to another after a short stint', and I wondered, why are so many people leaving one job for another? Is it passé now to work with just one company for a sufficiently long period?

Whenever I ask this question to people who leave a company, the answers I get are: "Oh, I am getting a 200% hike in salary"; "Well I am jumping three levels in my designation"; "Well they are going to send me abroad in six months". Then, I look around at all the people who are considered successful today and who have reached the top - be it a media agency, an advertising agency or a company. I find that most of these people are the ones who stuck to the company, ground their heels and worked their way to the top. And, as I look around for people who change their jobs constantly, I find they have stagnated at some level, in obscurity.

In this absolute ruthless, dynamic and competitive environment, there are still no - short cuts to success or to making money. The only thing that continues to pay, as earlier is loyalty and hard work. Yes, it pays! Sometimes, immediately, sometimes after a lot of time. But, it does pay. Does this mean that one should stick to an organization and wait for the golden moment? Of course not. After, a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organisations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than the superficial ones, like money, designation or oversees trip.

Remember, no company recruits for charity. More often than not, when you are offered an unseemly hike in salary or designation that is disproportionate to what the company offers it current employees, there is always an unseemly bait attached. The result? You will, in the long term have reached the same level or may be lower levels than what you would have in your current company.

A lot of people leave their organisations because they are 'unhappy'. What is this so called unhappiness? I have been working for donkey years and there has never been a day when I am not unhappy about something in my work environment - boss, rude colleagues, fussy clients etc.
Unhappiness in a work place, to a large extent, is transient. If you look hard enough, there is always something to be unhappy about. But, more importantly, do I come to work to be "happy" in the truest sense?

If I think hard, the answer is "No".
Happiness is something you find with family, friends, may be a close circle of colleagues who have become friends.

What you come to work for is to earn, build a reputation, satisfy your ambitions, be appreciated for your work ethics, face challenges and get the job done. So, the next time you are tempered to move on, as yourself why are you moving and what are you moving into? Some questions are:

* Am I ready and capable of handling the new responsibility? If yes, what could be the possible reasons my current company has not offered me the same responsibility?

* Who are the people who currently handle this responsibility in the current and new company? Am I good as the best among them?

* As the new job offer has a different profile, why have I not given the current company the option to offer me this profile?

* Why is the new company offering the new job? Do they want me for my skills, or is that ulterior motive?

An honest answer to these will eventually decide where you go in your career - to the top of the pile in the long term (at the cost of short - term blips) or to become another average employee who gets lost with the time in wilderness?

NEW NEWS...

2005-11-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

HEADLINES More news Events

· TCS and DTCC in partnership to reengineer underwriting and corporate actions
systems(Press Release, 18 Nov 2005)

· TCS Hungary ranks in the top 20 in the Hewitt Best Employers Survey 2005
(TCS Hungary, 15 Nov 2005)

· TCS Academic conclave addresses global sourcing needs (Press Release, 15 Nov
2005)

· TCS leads fund raising initiative for Asia's First Tertiary Care Children's
Hospital (Press Release, 15 Nov 2005)

· TCS and State Bank of India form Joint Venture (Press Release, 14 Nov 2005)

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TCS NEWS...

2005-11-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

2005-10-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Watch out! TCS is on prowl.

Business Standard

October 22, 2005 13:22 IST

Tata Consultancy Services, the largest Indian software company, has announced two major international wins over as many days, thus clearly consolidating its leadership position.

The first deal, valued at $ 840 million, is quite overwhelming in size and leaves far behind TCS's own and till then the Indian IT industry's biggest deal of $250 million with ABN Amro.

Under the latest deal, the UK's Pearl Group is outsourcing work for its "closed book" (business underwritten) to a joint venture between itself and TCS, with the new company taking 950 of Pearl's existing 1,100 employees.

Other than the size, the deal indicates that TCS will be performing a range of services and processes, which will traverse the entire value chain the life and pensions verticals. Thus, TCS, which was till now behind in BPO, has in one go acquired both size and complexity.

TCS bags $848 mn UK deal

The second deal, buying out the Australian firm Financial Network Services, whose core banking solution TCS has been implementing, also enhances its offerings and profile. TCS now owns a significant bit of intellectual property in the banking and financial services space and can hope to land bigger fish in this sphere.

If for TCS winning the Pearl order was a major achievement, making it succeed will be equally challenging. It has to offshore work to India if it is to reap economies. But it has to retain the Pearl employees. So it will have to win new orders for the new company in order to both drive efficiencies and derive an adequate return on its investment.

TCS bags huge Russian deal

This is difficult but doable and another Indian company has already made such an operation work well. In 2001, HCL took over the Apollo Contact Centre of BT in Belfast along with its staff.

Over the years the headcount at that centre has gone up and the venture has provided a good front office for HCL's BPO operations, enabling it to field business as a UK company while having the flexibility to offshore to India.

TCS buys Australian Co for $26 million

TCS's advantage is that it knows Pearl well, having worked with it for over a decade, and also the UK environment, where it has a considerable reputation.

TCS's ability to win the largest orders in an industry which is almost entirely outward-looking indicates that it has taken rapid strides in becoming a truly global company and also that its future lies in its ability to successfully remain so while growing.

TCS is far ahead of its Indian competitors in both foreign centres (it is present in virtually every continent) and the number of foreign employees. It has also turned out to be very aggressive in pursuing inorganic growth and taking on the daunting task of absorbing other firms' employees.

Such acquisitions take long to digest and there is no guarantee that they will go down well. This is why other large Indian software companies have moved very cautiously on this front. TCS has also other challenges before it. It is still very new to being a listed company and so has to go up the learning curve in managing investor expectations. It also has to improve its margins. It is the size leader, not the margin leader. This can also be seen as a legacy problem as it did not have to face earlier the rigours of quarterly reporting and the pressures created by analysts' perceptions.