The Sudarshan Kriya

Recently, I was fortunate enough to participate in the basic course conducted by the Art of Living foundation here at Electronic City. And I feel that the experience that I had is something I must share with all my friends, fellows, family and also the visitors to my blog.

All those who feel that this is related deeply to spirituality and that only those very keen on it should go for such a course are wrong. After my tryst with it, I can say firmly that if you have not yet experienced what this very powerful technique of Sudarshan Kriya can do to your body and mind, you are really missing something in life. And when I talk about the greatness of the course, it’s not just the calmness and relaxation that one gets after doing the Kriya but also the wisdom that comes from the five sutras given by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the universally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader.

For more on my views about the course you can either call or mail me at siddharth.anand@ymail.com. Please click on the tab below to join the Art of Living group for people residing in Electronic City, Bangalore.

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Efficiency & The Human Factor

My days at SIBM Bangalore have been bringing with them insights of all kinds. The period of my summer internship has been a really great experience and has brought with it something new every other day.

Today during a discussion with my project guide who is the Head of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and Manufacturing Excellence at SKF, the issue of the factors responsible for lost efficiency came up. To this my guide said that the role of the human factor is by far the most important for productivity and efficiency.He said that if an industry has an efficiency of 70%, its the human factor that can take it from there to 90% and beyond that the other factors come in. Technology comes the last when its effect on lost efficiency is considered.

Although his views have been so framed as a result of his 18+ years of experience in companies like TVS, Arcelor-Mittal etc., I still find it difficult to comprehend the extent of the human factor's importance. Of course if this very factor wishes to bring the efficiency down, it can be achieved in no time. But taking it up from there would definitely need a deep resolve, a connection with the larger goal and loads of motivation for achievement.

The initiatives taken at SKF under TPM with a great deal of involvement from its employees are in some way trying to change the mindset of this human factor. The SKF India unit which now has nearly $325mn of revenues is in a transition phase and it aspires to become a billion $ firm soon. The company is thus taking its most important resources quite seriously.

In my last post, I talked about how employees come first so as to put customers first, and here we have this live example supporting the view.Though the extent to which SKF will go in this direction is something to be watched for.

The Customer Comes Second

Shocked?

Then who comes first??

"It's employees" says Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of Rosenbluth International in his book titled "The Customer Comes Second".

"If you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first" says Tom Peters.

Quite insightful, isn't it!

How important is Design?

Dear Readers, lately I've been reading 'The pursuit of WOW!" by Tom Peters and I want to share some of the interesting insights from the book in few of my next posts.

The one about Design goes this way:

"Vital.For products, sure. But, paradoxically, design is more important for services."

And then Tom goes about quoting Harvard marketing guru Ted Levitt: "If your product is tangible(plane,boat,car,penknife), distinguish yourself from the herd by emphasizing intangibles(e.g.,service). If your product is intangible (banking services, travel services), distinguish yourself from the masses by emphasizing the tangible- to wit, design. "

The example of FedEx comes next.

"Fedex which offers timely delivery service also stands out on the tangibles.

Tangibles, such as spiffy-and clean-trucks.(why, for God's sake, don't companies realize that trucks are a fabulous/awful form of advertising?) And easy-to-use forms.

(Why, once again, don't most businesses understand that forms are part of their signature and therefore great/awful advertisements for their businesses?)

So if you're in a service business, worry a lot if you're not working on the tangibles." says Peters.

I found this to be interesting and I am not sure whether our marketing fellows already learn about it, its definitely worth sharing.

Please post your valuable comments to make this blog post worth.

The SWEET side of Vowels

Ever wondered the reason for having nicknames for all your good friends? What makes you decide the nickname (if it’s derived from the true one)? Or even the nicknames we are called at home by?

Well if we observe the many nicknames that surround us, there definitely lies an answer to all these Qs.

I feel that it’s the “sweet” factor that makes a nickname likable.
Think of some of your dear friends’ names and the nicknames you have given them. Do you observe that each of the resultants have a common factor towards the end of them? The nicknames of your sweet friends will definitely be having the “sweet vowels” as I call them, towards their end. The phonetics being aa, i, y, ee, u and oo.

For instance, consider a Siddhu, an Ashu, a Puttu, a Ribu, a Gomzy, a Guddu, a Jeny and the like.

Not convinced ? Noticed that those of your friends whose names already end with these sweet vowels, have not got a derived nickname?

Probably because the name is already “sweet”! Most such names end with aa, i and y.

You might choose to differ and I would love to get your views on this very banal interest of mine.