One of my favorite authors, Robert A. Heinlein, said – Natural laws have no pity. His quote is a perfect addition to the assertion by Vedic texts that the universe is governed by ‘rta’ (laws). The recent outbreak of Coronavirus (a.k.a. COVID-19, in politically correct term) seem to prove both the above statements correct. While… Read More »
Few years ago, when I had purchased the car that came with built-in SiriusXM, I got a call from their salesperson. As she concluded the corporate sales pitch script very diligently, I asked, ‘… but why so serious?’ It dawned on her that I was playing with words when I chuckled and said, ‘Batman… Joker…… Read More »
Decades ago, when I wrote an article with the same title for a (now defunct) e-zine, my focus was the immaturity and gullibility of Indian society; especially the youth. Growing up, I would see mobs of youth going on rampage at slightest provocation by religion, politics, social causes they believed in or to protest against… Read More »
During my career at Intel, one of the misunderstanding most managers had was that employees in the same role were easily transferrable; especially in roles that did not require deep business or technical knowledge; like project and program manager, first line manger, UI/UX designer and others. This assumption would make restructuring or reorganizations of the… Read More »
I was lucky enough to learn very early in my career that it’s all about positioning! I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now; but you cannot live in denial and still expect stellar results. As I grew in my career I realized the truth behind this advice I got and why it… Read More »
Even though no one will admit it, just like in the story of the emperor with no clothes, the age-discrimination bias does exist in the industry; more so in the hi-tech industry. That does not mean that if you are in your 40s or 50s or 60s and are thinking of re-entering the work place you… Read More »
The discussion started around one of the important traits of a good and effective leader – the say-do ratio. I have used this as an important parameter to evaluate others and my own leadership, whenever I was in such a role. Soon the discussion diverted to old friends and acquaintances, but a thought lingered in… Read More »
Work-life balance and working remote (working from home) is a topic that usually instigates a debate like a discussion on God. Both sides vehemently posit their point of view by citing examples and data from various sources rarely coming to a conclusion or a common ground. In traditional and large companies, ‘working from home’ is… Read More »
A while ago I mentioned in one of my blogs how AI can replace the HR department and bring more objectivity to the staffing, hiring and other HR processes. But what if, the AI itself introduces a bias? After all, the algorithms are developed by ‘natural intelligence’ and the training and validation data sets are… Read More »
My most recent book provides a primer on essential soft-skills for managing your career. During my own career of 30+ years, I focused on sharpening my soft-skills along with the hard-skills required to do my job. A lot of times I was told that it’s only the hard-skills that create a differentiator and learning about… Read More »