Thursday, November 09, 2006

Take your Pick – Prophetic or Pathetic? - Week 11

We are rounding the home stretch… Apologies for the 2-week hiatus!

  • 21-OREGON @ 17-USC Pick: USC
  • 13-TENNESSEE @ 11-ARKANSAS Pick: ARKANSAS
  • 18-WAKE FOREST @ FLORIDA STATE Pick: WAKE FOREST
  • NEBRASKA @ 24-TEXAS A & M Pick: TEXAS A & M
  • TEXAS TECH @ 17-OKLAHOMA Pick: OKLAHOMA

Category

Dinesh

Kaushik

Satya

Raj

Last Week

4 – 1

3 – 2

5 – 0

DNP

Season

21 – 9

26 – 9

5 - 0

7 – 3

Season Winning %

70%

74%

TBD

70%

Monday, November 06, 2006

Indian Expats - How Indian Are Their Achievements?

Kalpana Chawla, M Night Shyamalan, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Amar Bose, Amartya Sen, Zubin Mehta, et al. What do these luminaries have in common? They all have or had a connection with India in one form or another. They are or were also all part of the colorful Indian diaspora. Each one has commanded respect in his/her own way.

I am positive that you would recall Indian dailies screaming at least some of these headlines in bold font on their front pages…

“Kalpana Chawla – First Indian woman to fly in space”

“Indian director gets critical acclaim for Hollywood blockbuster”

“Indian physicist Chandrasekhar claims coveted Nobel prize in Physics”

“Amar Bose – Indian entrepreneur starts company excelling in acoustics”

“Indian economist awarded Nobel prize for his yeoman work in Economics”

“Zubin Mehta continues to receive international accolades for his music prowess”

Of course, this is merely an infinitesimal cross-section of the Indian presence in the world. Observing closely though, I am tempted to think how much credit can India claim for the achievements of these people. Is it because of India that they were able to do the things that they did or is it in spite of India?

Dr. Kalpana Chawla was an American Citizen when she flew in space. Her master’s degree, doctoral degree and astronaut training were all in the US and India did not have a significant role to play. So, then, what right do we have to chest-thump that she is Indian? Making a 180-degree turn and looking at things from an Indian perspective, may be, I want to claim that opportunities were present in India but that people fly the coop in search of greater heights (pun intended) much too soon. Should I not celebrate local achievements more before showering praises on expatriates who seldom grace India with their attention? This does not diminish or belittle Dr. Chawla’s achievements and sacrifices in the quest for space exploration. They are permanently recorded in the golden pages of space history and rightly so.

Some of them do leave a sour taste in our mouths too. Think Kaavya Viswanathan. All of us crowned her as a teenage prodigy, who can beat the best in the cut-throat world of fiction writing. A plagiarism exposé by The Harvard Crimson and withdrawal of future book offers later, we are left holding the bag for being on her bandwagon. This is not meant to be a scathing attack on Kaavya (although I don’t condone her actions in any way, shape or form). Rather, it is intended to show that NOT everything done by our community abroad is noble and great.

Finally, I would recommend moderation and restrained enthusiasm in proclaiming these expat achievements as India’s own. Yes, India could have had a part in their success, but let us spend more time celebrating the beauty within before crowning someone else the champion…

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Take Your Pick - Prophetic or Pathetic? - Week 8

Florida had to lose one sometime and last week at Auburn was it! Texas A & M looked good in a win over a 6 – 0 Missouri team. Michigan controlled the game and Penn State was never really in it at white-out Happy Valley. California lived up to expectations against Wash. State. Texas looked ugly at times on both offense and defense on the same day Colt threw for a school record 6 TDs, against Baylor.

A mixed week in the offing…

  • 5-TEXAS @ 17-NEBRASKA Pick: TEXAS
  • 13-GEORGIA TECH @ 12-CLEMSON Pick: GEORGIA TECH
  • IOWA @ 2-MICHIGAN Pick: MICHIGAN
  • ALABAMA @ 7-TENNESSEE Pick: TENNESSEE
  • 19-RUTGERS @ PITTSBURGH Pick: PITTSBURGH

Category

Dinesh

Kaushik

Raj

Last Week

3 – 2

4 – 1

3 - 2

Season

17 – 8

23 – 7

7 – 3

Season Winning %

68%

77%

70%

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Take Your Pick - Prophetic or Pathetic? - Week 7

Boy, the Gators used a lot of trickeration to upstage LSU. The Tebow dude looks like the real deal. The Horns literally pounded the Sooners into submission. Tennessee and Georgia looked more like Pac-10 teams with the Vols winning handily. California offense and defense impressed against Oregon. Missouri is 6 – 0 and they went into Lubbock to get that win vs. Texas Tech. Impressive!

This week looks pretty ordinary.

  • 2-Florida @ 11-Auburn Pick: AUBURN
  • 19-Missouri @ Texas A & M Pick: MISSOURI
  • 4-Michigan @ Penn State Pick: MICHIGAN
  • 10-California @ Washington State Pick: CALIFORNIA
  • Baylor @ 6-Texas Pick: TEXAS

Category

Dinesh

Kaushik

Raj

Last Week

3 – 2

4 – 1

4 - 1

Season

14 – 6 (70%)

19 – 6 (76%)

4 – 1 (TBD)

Friday, October 06, 2006

Bring it On, Sooners!




Hook ‘Em Horns! When the dust settles, it will be 24 – 21 to the Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Take Your Pick - Prophetic or Pathetic? - Week 6

Texas Tech orchestrated a brilliant final drive to beat A & M. Ohio State showed why they are No. 1 against Iowa. Florida took care of Alabama at The Swamp. Ga. Tech beat Va. Tech comprehensively at Lane Stadium. Nebraska only managed to scrape past a mediocre Jayhawk team in OT.

This week looks very interesting on paper! Here are the match-ups.

  • 9-LSU @ 5-Florida Pick: FLORIDA
  • 7-Texas vs. 14-Oklahoma Pick: TEXAS
  • 13-Tennessee @ 10-Georgia Pick: TENNESSEE
  • 11-Oregon @ 16-California Pick: CALIFORNIA
  • 23-Missouri @ Texas Tech Pick: TEXAS TECH

Pick Accuracy

Kaushik

Last Week: -4 – 1

Season:---- 15 – 5 (75%)

Dinesh

Last Week: 4 – 1

Season:--- 11 – 4 (73%)

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Checkmate Your Opponents!

Chess is a vicious, mercilessly brutal sport sans the bloodshed. Not unlike the cut-throat corporate world. The resemblances between the two are plenty and thought-provoking. Sixty four squares, thirty two pieces and two minds at battle open up a combination of thousands of moves (literally). Extending this to the hundreds of corporations (players) doing business, one will be able to appreciate the millions of endless choices, and hence, decisions (moves) that have to be made in the business world day after day.

Business success is determined, to a large extent, by a company’s ability to play to its competitor’s strength and survive long enough to make them to play to their own strength. For instance, Company A may be a great innovator. However, we all understand that new product life cycles are highly unpredictable and risky. Company A cannot just look at innovation for its daily existence. They have to have a “stable” product established in the market, revenues from which will fund the daily operations and the cost of innovation. If this “stable” product does not meet the quality and/or price point of a similar product from Company B, then, it is doomsday! In other words, Company A has to have some skill in staying in the ring with Company B till the “innovative” product kicks in and catches Company B off-balance. At this point, Company A has successfully transformed the playing field to match its strength.

According to Garry Kasparov, this is true in Chess too. There are two major types of chess players. Player A, who concerns himself with the next few moves and maximizes the advantage or Player B who looks at the big picture and tries to attain the goal through risks and exploration. If you see, Player A characterizes a great “Manager” in business and Player B, a great “CEO”! Undoubtedly, both are indispensable for the success of the company. What’s more, if Player A and Player B are engaged in a game of chess, they have to be able to play the other’s game, at least until they can get their opponent to play the way they do! Not too dissimilar to the business situation described in the paragraph above.

According to Kasparov, Chess is not just a game of logic. In fact, logic doesn’t play as big a role as one would imagine. After all, even Vishy Anand could only think 10 moves ahead. Intuition is the key. This is definitely true in business too. If logic were the panacea for all business challenges, then the best scientist or mathematician would be the CEO (obviously, that is not the case). A decisive individual who is willing to take risks and explore uncharted waters (with a logical bent of mind, of course) will make a good CEO.

I thought these were very interesting parallels between two seemingly unrelated worlds. So, the next time you are at work yawning in your cube, just imagine that you are in front of checkered board and you will feel better! I know, to some, that’s not sweetening the deal!! But, it is what it is!

Courtesy: Some ideas were borrowed from an interview that Garry Kasparov gave to Harvard Business Review in 2004