Reflection

4 months at AIM has taught me already that irrespective of the amount of work given, things have a knack of getting done and that most of the stress that gets generated is primarily anticipatory stress or self created stress... Once I realize this, it becomes easier to de-stress which in turn allows my head to get de-cluttered which in turn allows for opportunities of fruitful action...

so far so good... but today, during class, I had a scary thought... what if repeatedly going through the motions of getting stressed and de-stressed makes you complacent in that... you know you're gonna get stressed but still work will get done... allowing lethargy to sink in... that's scary...

which in turn brings me to the point that maybe the mind will take this direction but at that point of time, motivation needs to kick in... and that motivation could be just about anything... you don't necessarily need to subscribe to 'managerial' characteristics... you could just as well be unstructered but realize that, make the motivation kick in CONSCIOUSLY and get there...

and my ramblings continue ;)

Cheers to the Business of Sports

Alot of people are waking up to the fact that sports is a fantastic avenue to promote tourism and to add to the GDP.

I've always lived in India, except for my current studenting here at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) (Manila), and I still dint know that there was this mountain biking rally in Himachal which has been happening for the past three years! It felt so good to see this event in the news and to realize that it is a focussed, thought out event to boost tourism...big roads are crossed step by step....

Why should Sports be used?

Coz global sports is set to be a $141 billion industry by 2012 and the best part is I see it as an industry with a phenomenal 'multiplier' effect along with a crazy number of employment opportunities. And Asia has an important role to play... it's going to be a hotbed for sports with $19.4 billion expected to be its contribution. (source SportBusiness.com)

The main elements in the Sports BUSINESS are: teams or rightsholders, broadcasters, sponsors, infrastructure providers (facilities / venues), promoters, athletes, organizers. Across the board corporates are getting into becoming rightsholders, sponsors, promoters, infra providers and organizers. There's even been talk about having a sportsperson index listed on the bourses, which I think is very interesting and worth a try.

Bye-Bye Firm

We had a class on Asian Business Systems (ABS) today as part of our MBA program at Asian Institute of Management (AIM). We were discussing firms and their existence which actually was very interesting coz there are so many different perspectives on what actually constitutes a firm... even an individual can be a firm for that matter... customers themselves are called firms who buy products based on differentials in their income to obtain utility. The definition I found most interesting was by Nightingale who says very simply... firms exist because people don't necessarily know what they want, people don't necessarily know how to make something and people don't necessarily know whether want they want will be made properly or not... so the most obvious thing to do is to get together, collaborate if you may, and get the work done....thus in effect creating a firm.

However, there are people who believe that the MNC-like structure of the firm is gonna disappear to make way for more entrepreneurial structures.. personally I don't see that happening coz I feel products are sold through directive strategies... companies induce buying through suggestive ads and marketing... consumers don't buy based on utility only... these company guys (maybe I shouldn't say that coz very soon I'm gonna be one) create demand perceptions which consumers buy into... even information to an extent (I'm not specifying what extent) is controlled....

unless unbiased, untampered information is made available to consumers I personally don't see MNC's making way for entrepreneurial ventures....

Our prof. said he'd give us an article written by an IBM manager on the age of MNC's being over... as soon as I get it, I'll post either the link or the excerpt... until then keep your views pouring in!

Whatever will they think of next?

Web 2.0 allows you to jump from topic to topic, site to site, oftentimes totally unconnected. While trying to stay updated about the Big-Bang recreation experiment by CERN I chanced upon this article which initially I found pretty funny...

It's about how in Japan you can employ a professional agency to set your love life right no matter what the issue is... infidelity, getting back with someone and get this... even if you want to be with somebody you've only seen, don't yet know!!!

It's crazy to think that something which is natural and of course emotional is now outsourced to an agency which brings it straight to you... no life lessons learnt in the process for you... hence no value addition to your life... just pure money power... I'm guessing their 'happiness', with the use of such agencies to ''source" life's ingredients, is short-lived... probably making relationships have pre-decided shelf lives!

I'm posting the link below for those of you (and I'm pretty sure you would want to read the article) who want to read the article by Times Online:

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article4619389.ece

Big-Bang... LHC style

I've been hearing about CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC for all ya'll quantum-theory homies) for a while now and finally they've switched it on.

Methinks instead of being all philosophical I could try being informative in this blog and so I'd like to tell all those who may not yet be aware of this great scientific moment in history that we're in the middle of... check this youtube link out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

There are tons of anti-LHC theorists who think this experiment will herald (altho this world connotes a positive tone I choose to use it here) the end of the world. Maybe with the state of affairs the world over - materialism, income disparity, greed, connivance, corruption, psychosis - it's not such a bad thing (the wannabe philosopher in me couldn't resist). And I don't mean that as a fatalistic thing but just so that created structres are razed to allow new ones to be formed....

But rest assured Stephen Hawking and co. have said that the CERN project's completely safe... even if anti-matter does get created, the energy release due to the annihilation will be short lived and be absorbed by the LHC... so doomsday naysayers rejoice... there ain't no armageddon coming our way yet!

All in all, its very interesting... "this experiment" is set to re-create the big bang by getting two super slowed down protons to collide, release energy which creates matter! I'm definitely looking forward to knowing what happens next!

Ruminations at Sea

I went to Subic during my two week break from the MBA course... We went kayaking and snorkelling and swimming in the ocean... I've always loved the water until that day when I swam in the open seas... I'm swimming and I suddenly look up to find a vast expanse of ocean gaping at me.. almost ready to swallow a miniscule human being like me as if I were a tiny amoeboid for it..

It was so scary to realize that all you have above sea level is your damn head... and that same head is of no use if something comes to get you under water.... !!!

We, as an intelligent species, have hardly discovered all the life forms there are to find out about under water... it sure is beautiful... I can say that after having snorkelled but it sure is scary...

Even while snorkelling, with my head under water I'd actually forget I was in the middle of the ocean until such a time I put my head up to check my poistion viz-a-viz the shore and get the fright of my life to see myself so far out at sea....

I think it has something to do with being able to see myself standing on firm ground or just see myself whole....

What's better?

I have a question for anybody who reads this blog...

which is better... forming opinions super quick.. but also being open to change or taking time to form them but once you've formed them, they stay for life...?

I ask this simpy coz I honestly think things are too ephemeral to have a constant opinion.. where does standing your ground come in the face of this?

This obviously doesn't hold true for things that have a moralistic background...

How long does it normally take to form an opinion and how many times have you been right?

Realization

Well... a day into my vacation I realized that it's not a planned out, well defined vacation week that I need... rather... its a good mixture of work and fun that I require...
Having said that... it's not that inspite of having one of those, I can't make use of it... time is THE MOST transient thing ever...
You always have these to-do lists... which get you through the hard times like exam times... deadlines...
I just wonder where these to-do lists disappear once vacations start?