Mail sent by Narayana Murthy to all Infosys staff........nice one(please do read this..................)

Mail sent by Narayana Murthy to all Infosys staff:

It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on...
PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing...
And who's at work? Most of them ??? Take a closer look...
All or most specimens are ??
Something male species of the human race...
Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...
And why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let's ask one of them...
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home...Here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee that is why I am working late...Importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!"
This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices.Bachelors "Time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...
Now what r the consequences... "Working" (for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback, (oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).
They aren't helping things too...
To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!
Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.
So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is... and that's when the problem starts... b'coz u start having commitments at home too. For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regular time... after doing the same amount of work.
People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers...
Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they wuld have to regret at one point of time.
*So what's the moral of the story?? *
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time " *unless really needed *"
* Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.
There are hundred other things to do in the evening..
Learn music...
Learn a foreign language...
Try a sport... TT, cricket.........
Importantly Get a girl friend or boy friend, take him/her around town...
* And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.
Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"*
Please pass on this message to all those colleagues And please do it before leaving time, don't stay back till midnight to forward this!!!

IT'S A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC.
PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DONT KNOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME. SIMPLE !

Self appraisal... nice one

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits. The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation: The boy asked, "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn? The woman replied, "I already have someone to cut my lawn." "Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now." replied boy. The woman esponded that she was very satisfied with the person who was presently cutting her lawn. The little boy found more perseverance and offered, "Lady, I'll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach, Florida." Again the woman answered in the negative.With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all, walked over to the boy and said: " Son... I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job." The little boy replied, "No thanks, I was just checking my performance with the job I already have. I am the one who is working for that lady, I was talking to!"

A Lession .... to be leart

A turtle family went on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outings. Finally the Turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found it. For about six months they cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements.

Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell.

He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left. Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years â Six years... Then in the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and began to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, "SEE I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt."


Lesson Learned:
Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.

Management pot - pourri --- nice one to read

Why Employees Leave Organizations ?....views by WIPRO CEO

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS ? - Azim Premji,CEO- Wipro

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.
Early this year, Mark, 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 Mark 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, Mark 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 humiliationthe 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 doesn't.

How do you Negotiate your salary

Recent graduates are often so happy about being hired they don't think about negotiating their salary and benefits. Not only can they negotiate, they should. Here are some tips:

Study Up
Negotiating salaries is a skill that's learned, so read everything you can get your hands on about the topic. Go to the library and check out books on salary negotiations, read Web sites devoted to it and ask friends and colleagues about their own success stories.
Know Thyself
Don't simply ask for money. Before entering into a negotiation, you should calculate both the salary you'd like and the bare minimum amount you're willing to accept. The range between that high and low number will provide you with what experienced negotiators call a "zone of possible agreement."
Turn The Tables
If a potential employer asks you what kind of salary to expect, ask what has been budgeted for the position and go from there. The idea is to always to have the employer make the first offer. If you absolutely must answer, be as vague as possible. Answer with something like "I'm currently making in the low six figures."
Honesty Is The Best Policy
No matter what, never, ever lie about your salary. All you will manage to gain is a reputation for dishonesty.
Bidding War
Searching for a new job isn't fun. But when employees talk to multiple companies, that works to their advantage. If you're lucky enough to have multiple offers, feel free to pit one offer against another.
Survey Other Salaries
Employees should research what their colleagues are making so they know if their offer fits into that range.
Keep An Eye On Outside Opportunities
Staying in a job too long keeps employees from increasing their salary, since companies typically don't give raises more than a few percentage points. Larger raises tend to come when switching jobs and companies. Employees should try to keep one foot in the job market to keep tabs on what other opportunities are available.
Role-Play
Employees should ask a colleague to play out how negotiations might go. Make sure you come up with as many scenarios as possible so you don't hit any unexpected situations.
Negotiate Collaboratively
If you get a job offer with a higher salary and would like to see your current boss match the salary, you shouldn't say, "Unless you match the offer, I'm leaving." Instead, try taking this approach: "I have another job offer, but I'd like to stay here because I like working for this organization. Can you match the offer?"

To know more, hit the links below:

1) http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/03/work-pay-boss-lead-careers-cx_tw_1003raise.html?partner=leadership_newsletter
2) http://www.negotiationlawblog.com/
3) >http://www.latpro.com/USER/articles/resourcesforhumans/content.php?rfh=Latpro_NegotiatingIncrease.htm%20
4) >http://www.acetheinterview.com/

Lessons from ChakDe - Thoughts and dialog by Narayanamurthy

Narayana Murthy's experience with ChakDe - India movie:

The other day, my wife and I were perhaps among the very few over 50-year-olds in the mostlytwentyish crowd watching the film Chak De in Bangalore.
You had to be there to believe the shouts of joy that accompanied every goal India scored in the imaginary tournament in the movie. The mood at the end was
as if India had actually won the women’s world cup in hockey.

I can appreciate this mood since I too felt similar joy and pride when hundreds of cameras clicked at me holding our national flag, on India and my being declared the winners of the prestigious world entrepreneur award among the forty-odd competing nations at Monaco in 2003.

As I exited the theatre after watching Chak De that day, several youngsters asked me for my reaction to the movie. My answer was simple. I said I wanted to see the movie become a reality not just in hockey but in every sphere.
The recipe for such a success was most wonderfully conveyed by Shah Rukh Khan and those wonderful women hockey players in the movie. Let me recount them here.


We have to identify as Indians first and rise above our affiliations with our states, religions and castes.

We must accept meritocracy and
enthusiastically play the role we are best
suited to.

We must embrace discipline to strictly follow
every step required for success.

We have to put the interest of our nation ahead of our personal interests, subordinating our egos and biases.


Finally, we have to put in tremendous hard work
and make short-term sacrifices for long-term glory.

I have immense faith and optimism in the youth of this country.But, will we get our leaders to set examples for hundreds of millions of Indian youth? I wish more and more of our leaders see Chak De and learn these precious lessons.

At 17, she has built a million-dollar web site

At 17 going on 37 (at least), Ashley is very much an Internet professional. In the less than two years since Whateverlife took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company. Although Ashley was flattered to be offered $1.5 million and a car of her choice--as long as the price tag wasn't more than $100,000--she responded, in effect, Whatever. :) "I don't even have my license yet," she says.


To read her complete success story, hit the link below:

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/29bspec.htm

At 28, a paraplegic, she makes her living from the stock markets

Sujata Burla's life took an ugly turn on June 9, 2001.she met with an accident.

Four months later, the doctors and physiotherapists treating her told her she could not walk for the rest of her life. The accident had turned her into a paraplegic. It meant Sujata was immobile below the shoulders. She was just 21.

Now, she trades like a pro and earns anywhere between Rs 200,000 and Rs 250,000 every month. On a day like Wednesday, September 19, 2007, when the Nifty was up 186 points, Sujata made a cool Rs 600,000 in a single day. She has still not sold her position.

For the complete story, hit the link below:

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/sep/20pras.htm

Do you wanna start your own business? Looking for fund?

If you think, you have a very good idea,which can make a great business, but don't have enough funds to implement that,

Submit your business plan to the following business plan competitions,which will turns the heads of investors to pour the funds for your idea.

Here are the list of the business plan competitions:


1) Wharton Business Plan Competition to Test India’s Entrepreneurship Prowess

2)Business Ideas contest from ISB[Indian School of Business]

3)Microfinance Business Plan Competetion

4)IIM Kozhikode Business Plan Contest

5)IIT business plan competetion


What are you waiting for?....
Hurry up....

10 steps to open for business

Do you wanna start your business?
And wanna make it a very big successful business?

Before that, read 10 steps to start, which are proven step by step process to help you achieve startup success from the below link:

http://startupnation.com/steps/55/10-steps-open-start-business.htm

Stronger Rupee = Stronger India = Gold India

Stronger Rupee = Stronger India

Let me ask a question first.

What type of economic strength is preferable to India?
A) A strong Indian economy fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights, whole nights and what not… only doing low profile jobs which foreign companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high end works and become even better. For instance in IT field, providing BPO services, support and maintenance work for products…
OR
B) A strong Indian economy fueled by its strong innovations and products, no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against dollar.. where Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both inside and outside India. For instance in IT field, imagine operating systems, compilers, databases etc all coming out of India..

I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar.. We have had our share because of this advantage in the past 2 decades..

But at the same time doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar?

What a pity! Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming stronger against dollar! Reason, their profits will go down when the value of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account now means lesser rupee than earlier..(if for instance earlier they used to get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40!)

But isn't this a matter of celebration? Our rupee is gaining importance internationally and is becoming stronger again .. How many of us know that in 1947 when India got independence 1 Rupee was 1.2 US dollars?

These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical solutions. What have these companies done in the arena of core system products? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database systems, development platforms etc coming out of India? Why don't we develop tools like photoshop or flash? We have talent, but they all are working in American companies on these products.. Cannot our Indian IT companies setup at least small teams to develop such products?

Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too ! So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put in.. As if India doesnt have any other option other than cheap labour, workaholic labor!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers and burning their product DVDs?

If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would Indian economy survive in a world where all currencies have equal value? Survival of the fittest.. Only greater innovation can help us in that case..

We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage! Let the Chinese do it..

I hope that rupee becomes more and more stronger so that Indians are forced to use their brains and come up with innovative products and next generation technologies, than to provide low end services…

We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods, to buy our Boeing, to buy our Mercedes…

A stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips! This is what I wrote in one of my earlier blogs.

"A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par with developed economies! We dont have to spend crores of rupees then to buy a Boeing! We don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for international air travels! A stronger rupee means greater international exposure! There wont be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a Mercedes! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one goes to Ladakh or Nepal ! How do you think american citizens are able to tour all over the world? Because they earn more? No. But because their currency USD is stronger.. and this is where a strong rupee will lead us to!… "

I am not saying providing low end services is wrong .. It gave us a very good start in the 90s. But that should definitely not be the bread and butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future.. For the simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer.. other low cost destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world… Let us move ahead… become more innovative.. the journey has just started… This is just the beginning of all the beginnings…


So friends mail or share your concepts, ideas and any new project to following email ids, we will work as a Gold India Team…

We will create Golden INDIA once again….

Getting What (You Think) You're Worth

Once you take the offer from a company, you have to consider so many things like competitive salary,share benfits, etc...

Wanna know all those details, hit or copy and paste the link below in your browser:


http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/09/graduates-salary-negotiation-lead-careers-cx_tw_0508bizbasics.html?partner=leadership_newsletter

Celebrity First Jobs

First jobs don’t often portend future careers.

Most of the celebrities did small jobs which are nowhere related to their current status or job profile.

Hit the link below or copy and paste it in your browser to know about some of the big shots first job. Michael Dell, Donald Trump...etc...


http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/04/celebrity-careers-jobs-lead-career_cx_0507celebjobs.html?partner=leadership_newsletter

TCS business case contest

The TCS SMART Manager Case Contest provides you an opportunity to showcase your abilities and stand out from the crowd. Read the case, submit your smart insight and remember to keep a b&w pix ready just in case you are the chosen one!

You can win Rs. 25,o00/-


For details : http://www.thesmartmanager.com/tcs/tcscasestudy.asp?