The Scientists at CERN are back at it again. The Hadron Collider has been repaired to resume the experiment. Yes, to know more of the beginning of the universe. To simulate the Big Bang and to understand what all happened post big bang, including beginning of life, to understand matter and antimatter, understanding the unification of waves and particles…. So many intricacies can come to light.
There are many sets of belief about the genesis of the world. Major religions ascribe that the earth is only around 10,000 years old and God created Life in it where as the big bang theory postulates that it happened eons ago (some thirteen billion years at that!). The findings of CERN can question the religious beliefs with much more authenticity and proof. How faith and science can co-exist with minimum level of understanding, will be a question that one seriously asks.
Inspite of so much of explorations and investigations, we are yet to find a planet or a Galaxy where some form of life exists. The more we try to know about the origin of life, the more intriguing it becomes. The dividing line between science and philosophy vanishes at some point. Things become very hazy and confusing on what is right and what is not. Science more or less stops there and philosophy takes over. The CERN experiments will move the cause of science forward. How far? Difficult to predict but one thing is sure, there will be more clarity.
The VEDAs says that before genesis (srushti), there was nothing, No earth, no water, no air, no atmosphere, no nothing…. Then it all starts (the big bang?), Light (agni) comes, then water, single cell life, then multi cellular small beings. Then there is the ‘dashavatara’. First the fish, then the amphibian, then the strong animal, then the man animal, then the small man, thereafter the strong man, then the refined (cultured) man, then the God man so on…
Something similar is said and predicted by Aurobindo Ghosh. He called the new being as supra mental beings, a being which will put all the intelligence and the technologies together into it. A cyborg sort of a being, with very high intelligence that can communicate huge input in relatively small time frame, swiftly. Looking back at the evolution, there is a possibility for all these to happen. And, there is miles to go……. And eons to go.
There is this theory of Adwaita, a situation of no two ness but oneness. All into one. Everything will go into one. The God and his prajas (his creations) unite, man and woman unite, matter and antimatter unite, wave and particle unite, and everything will converge into the oneness. Into the bindu, the dot - he smallest of thing that one can visualize. Everything will go into it. Then it will be Shunyata! Sheer nothingness, simple vacuum……..
Then, it will start all over again, the dot will burst. Another Big bang, another universe, another form of life. Its manifestation in multitudes……
The creation and destruction thus, will continue….. Eternally.
Famous Malayalam poet, Ulloor Parmeshwara Iyer wrote;
“Anantam ajnatam avarnaneeyam, ee lokagolam tiriyunna margam
Atingelangandoridatirunnu nokkunna martyan kathayenthu kandu?”
(Infinite, unknown, indescribable is the way the world moves. To what extent can the man, who is sitting on a far of corner of it, understand the story?)
Is it the truth or Illusion….. Who knows?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
ACTION REACTION
Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Though he meant it the realms of physical science, I am more inclined to think that this is very true in metaphysical terms too.
Many philosophies stress on the theory of Karma. Karma is the basis of all results, that is. One’s own action or attitude manifests in a way the universe reacts to it. I call it action-reaction. In the olden times the reaction used to take time. Things are much swifter these days, going well with the nanosecond times of the present.
I would like to list some cases to bring the point home:
Let me take you all back to times when India produced a Miss Universe and Miss World the same year. It is said that Miss Universe has a better edge than Miss World in the global rating. The candidates to these pageants are selected thru the Femina Miss India contest. In the last round of the same, Sushmita Sen outwitted Aishwarya to win the Miss India Crown; this facilitated her to contest Miss Universe title and relegated Aishwarya Rai to the Miss World pageant. Throughout the Miss Femina contest, which is long drawn process of grooming the girls, everyone associated with it had decided that it would be Aishwarya who would win the title. In the end it turned out to be Sushmita. How come? It was said that throughout the Miss Femina grooming process, Aishwarya held an attitude of disdain on the fellow contestants and showed cocksureness of winning the title. The universes around it did not like the attitude of Aishwarya and lo, she lost the Miss India Crown.
I had already made a post here earlier on Tiger Wood, the legendary Golfer. It is a typical case of action reaction. For quiet some time, he had been cheating his wife and had been having affairs with many girls. He had an attitude of invincibility about whatever he was doing, morally wrong though. The universe didn’t like it and, you all know, he practically lost his family.
I recall an action reaction that had occurred to me, in a positive way. Having scored close to ninety percent marks in CBSE plus two, my daughter earned to study in Stella Maris college at Chennai. We attended their interview call but due to whatever reason, did not make it to the first list. The marks were more than sufficient and she had attended the interview well but alas, she didn’t make the cut. I was with her there and was quiet shocked of the results. I stayed back to see what could be done to get admission for my daughter in this prestigious college. As I was standing on the premises the next day full of disappointment, I got a call from a friend at Kottayam thanking me for the help rendered to his niece to get her an admission to the YWCA hostel in Cochin. Ten minutes later, we were called by the admission office asking us to enrol. What a pleasant action reaction!…..
I have a close friend who had now settled at Cochin after living out side Kerala and India for long. Though they are well meaning people, my friends wife has some unexplainable traits hovering around confusion, non acceptance combined with a persecution complex. That has been bringing quiet a bit of tumultuousness to her life. However, she still has not realized the necessity of changing this attitude and later went into heavy physical distress too that came in the form of skin allergy. She is still fighting it.
A very senior person that I know for a long time, an accomplished one, both in work and professional front, recently landed in a major career mess up that had resulted in him resigning the job and getting lots of negative publicity. While I have high respects for him I have not been very comfortable with his attitude of ego and mistrust of people. The reaction of the universe could be pretty terse too. He may have to do years of mending before he gets back to normal level of living, socially and professionally.
I have been a recipient of many actions reactions that the universe had bestowed on me. It had been both positive and negative. Whenever I had dwelt on it to understand it, the learning had been very solid. With change management properties, one took the message and worked on removing the attitude or undo the actions that were done. I had several times seen positively changed results.
Let us complete this with an exercise which I will leave as a home work for the reader.
The very famous Amitabh Bachchan, who was elected as the actor of twentieth century, legend of his times, revered and liked by people, particularly Indians, all over the world is also a person who had undergone highest levels of tragedies and difficulties in his life. By the simple theory of action reaction, will you be able to decipher as to why he underwent all these tests in his life?
Yes, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and these days the reactions are pretty instant. Cheers!
Many philosophies stress on the theory of Karma. Karma is the basis of all results, that is. One’s own action or attitude manifests in a way the universe reacts to it. I call it action-reaction. In the olden times the reaction used to take time. Things are much swifter these days, going well with the nanosecond times of the present.
I would like to list some cases to bring the point home:
Let me take you all back to times when India produced a Miss Universe and Miss World the same year. It is said that Miss Universe has a better edge than Miss World in the global rating. The candidates to these pageants are selected thru the Femina Miss India contest. In the last round of the same, Sushmita Sen outwitted Aishwarya to win the Miss India Crown; this facilitated her to contest Miss Universe title and relegated Aishwarya Rai to the Miss World pageant. Throughout the Miss Femina contest, which is long drawn process of grooming the girls, everyone associated with it had decided that it would be Aishwarya who would win the title. In the end it turned out to be Sushmita. How come? It was said that throughout the Miss Femina grooming process, Aishwarya held an attitude of disdain on the fellow contestants and showed cocksureness of winning the title. The universes around it did not like the attitude of Aishwarya and lo, she lost the Miss India Crown.
I had already made a post here earlier on Tiger Wood, the legendary Golfer. It is a typical case of action reaction. For quiet some time, he had been cheating his wife and had been having affairs with many girls. He had an attitude of invincibility about whatever he was doing, morally wrong though. The universe didn’t like it and, you all know, he practically lost his family.
I recall an action reaction that had occurred to me, in a positive way. Having scored close to ninety percent marks in CBSE plus two, my daughter earned to study in Stella Maris college at Chennai. We attended their interview call but due to whatever reason, did not make it to the first list. The marks were more than sufficient and she had attended the interview well but alas, she didn’t make the cut. I was with her there and was quiet shocked of the results. I stayed back to see what could be done to get admission for my daughter in this prestigious college. As I was standing on the premises the next day full of disappointment, I got a call from a friend at Kottayam thanking me for the help rendered to his niece to get her an admission to the YWCA hostel in Cochin. Ten minutes later, we were called by the admission office asking us to enrol. What a pleasant action reaction!…..
I have a close friend who had now settled at Cochin after living out side Kerala and India for long. Though they are well meaning people, my friends wife has some unexplainable traits hovering around confusion, non acceptance combined with a persecution complex. That has been bringing quiet a bit of tumultuousness to her life. However, she still has not realized the necessity of changing this attitude and later went into heavy physical distress too that came in the form of skin allergy. She is still fighting it.
A very senior person that I know for a long time, an accomplished one, both in work and professional front, recently landed in a major career mess up that had resulted in him resigning the job and getting lots of negative publicity. While I have high respects for him I have not been very comfortable with his attitude of ego and mistrust of people. The reaction of the universe could be pretty terse too. He may have to do years of mending before he gets back to normal level of living, socially and professionally.
I have been a recipient of many actions reactions that the universe had bestowed on me. It had been both positive and negative. Whenever I had dwelt on it to understand it, the learning had been very solid. With change management properties, one took the message and worked on removing the attitude or undo the actions that were done. I had several times seen positively changed results.
Let us complete this with an exercise which I will leave as a home work for the reader.
The very famous Amitabh Bachchan, who was elected as the actor of twentieth century, legend of his times, revered and liked by people, particularly Indians, all over the world is also a person who had undergone highest levels of tragedies and difficulties in his life. By the simple theory of action reaction, will you be able to decipher as to why he underwent all these tests in his life?
Yes, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and these days the reactions are pretty instant. Cheers!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
THE U.S. HEALTHCARE REFORMS BILL – A HISTORIC LANDMARK
Though he had been facing a plummeting popularity amongst his countrymen and though he had not been able to carry the entire political spectrum of US along with him, President Barack Obama had achieved what he had set out to during his election campaign. He could get the US Health Reforms Bill passed by the houses of American Parliament. This is a great achievement! He had succeeded where many high profile Presidents of the past had failed. The most significant aspect of the bill is that more than 32 million poor Americans, who were not part of the health insurance coverage, either due to their incapability to pay the hefty insurance premiums or not able to comply with the conditions laid out by the American insurance companies; will now come into the coverage, thru subsidy of the state. Additionally, children will get covered for health insurance with their parents until the age of 26 years. There are many more provisions in the bill, but suffice to say that this is a landmark decision.
It had always baffled the world on how American health system came to be this complicated. As the most developed nation of the world, one expected health for all for American, without it is being completely dictated by agenda centric Insurance companies. There are very good examples of better health policy for citizen in United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. The fact is that in the US, money swallowed health. Being a cruel capital economy, money came to control things such as health, social welfare etc. And then, there has not been any escape from the ‘chakravyuh’ created by the money power, despite the best try by well meaning leaders of the past. This is where the efforts of President Obama must get lauded. He knew that things were not going the way he planned. He had so much of opposition from his own party Senators – more than thirty of them!- The entire Republicans stood against the bill. (He thought he could convince many of them but failed). The usual tactics of bringing fear and racialism into the public was adopted by the opposition. Historic events such as “Tea Party’ etc was organised y the opposition to defeat the bill. In spite all strong opposition, President Barack Obama carried the bill through, yes, with some cuts here and some chopping there. A significant achievement indeed!
As one watches the United States of America From a distance, one cannot but feel uncomfortable of the fact on how thoughtless had been the US citizens. It looks like a majority of them had lost the ability to think rationally and had gone under the impact of emotions created purposely by politicians who only stood for commercial establishments with strong money and muscle power. The power of discrimination had left the Americans totally, lest how could the nation not look at the merit of the bill and help passing it in unison than being a deeply divided nation?
One feels that long ago, the Americans had lost the sense of objectivity. As a very self centred nation, subsequent to 9/11, the emotion of fear played a significant part in average American’s life. Emotion indeed takes away objectivity. Lately, even the sense of fairness had deserted them. They had started going into the cocoon than opening up to understand the reality around them. So long as they stay put in the cocoon, there is no escape. In the meantime, nations that have a sense of reality and that try to progress through the challenges of facing reality, will come into the forefront. What we see in China and India is this progress through the sense of reality.
The fact is very simple, if you don’t understand what it is, there is no way you can take up the challenge related to it. It is time the Americans realized this….
It had always baffled the world on how American health system came to be this complicated. As the most developed nation of the world, one expected health for all for American, without it is being completely dictated by agenda centric Insurance companies. There are very good examples of better health policy for citizen in United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. The fact is that in the US, money swallowed health. Being a cruel capital economy, money came to control things such as health, social welfare etc. And then, there has not been any escape from the ‘chakravyuh’ created by the money power, despite the best try by well meaning leaders of the past. This is where the efforts of President Obama must get lauded. He knew that things were not going the way he planned. He had so much of opposition from his own party Senators – more than thirty of them!- The entire Republicans stood against the bill. (He thought he could convince many of them but failed). The usual tactics of bringing fear and racialism into the public was adopted by the opposition. Historic events such as “Tea Party’ etc was organised y the opposition to defeat the bill. In spite all strong opposition, President Barack Obama carried the bill through, yes, with some cuts here and some chopping there. A significant achievement indeed!
As one watches the United States of America From a distance, one cannot but feel uncomfortable of the fact on how thoughtless had been the US citizens. It looks like a majority of them had lost the ability to think rationally and had gone under the impact of emotions created purposely by politicians who only stood for commercial establishments with strong money and muscle power. The power of discrimination had left the Americans totally, lest how could the nation not look at the merit of the bill and help passing it in unison than being a deeply divided nation?
One feels that long ago, the Americans had lost the sense of objectivity. As a very self centred nation, subsequent to 9/11, the emotion of fear played a significant part in average American’s life. Emotion indeed takes away objectivity. Lately, even the sense of fairness had deserted them. They had started going into the cocoon than opening up to understand the reality around them. So long as they stay put in the cocoon, there is no escape. In the meantime, nations that have a sense of reality and that try to progress through the challenges of facing reality, will come into the forefront. What we see in China and India is this progress through the sense of reality.
The fact is very simple, if you don’t understand what it is, there is no way you can take up the challenge related to it. It is time the Americans realized this….
Saturday, March 20, 2010
BUY AN OCEAN AND USE A POND
I have been watching the proliferation of ERP solutions in enterprises in an around the country. ERP solution is something like an idea whose time has come. It is selling well. The companies dealing with the same in India have never had it so good.
After a little wait, in Kerala also it had started happening. Leading PSUs and Corporates are going for this solution in the state.
By the way, what does an ERP solution do? It is an application software solution that integrates all the functions of an enterprise. Functions mean manufacturing, sales & marketing, distribution, maintenance, Production planning, HR, Finance & accounting etc etc. Earlier, enterprises used to go for disparate solutions for each function that never used to talk to each other. ERP integrates all these. All data will be in one single database engine and different users of different functions will have there own front-end screens (for data entry & retrieval). In between the database and the front-end, there lies the rules and the tools. Rules are standards & benchmarks and tools are software technology. Using tools you apply rules between the database and the front end. In addition to being integrated, another advantage of ERP is that you get all global benchmarks along with the solution so that the user can look at applying global standards in his company and that gives companies the possibility of doing business with global practices.
ERP had evolved very well over the last two decades. Initially, there were many global players in the market. SAP, Oracle, BAN, JD Edwards, Navision, Axapta, Peoplesoft, Mfg.Pro were some well known global ERP solutions. These products have consolidated and now there are only 3 / 4 global companies vending it. About 60% world market rests with three companies now and they are SAP, Oracle and Microsoft (Surprising.... Microsoft !…). In every nation, there are some local brands as well.(e.g. Indian ERP solution called Marshal from Ramco Systems)
Now, how does a company progress to become an ERP user? Surely it would have had three to four times of application software changes within a corporate before it starts using an ERP solution. It looks like companies grow up to become ERP user. So, ERP usage is a part of a corporate growth. The more mature a company, the more the chances of it being an ERP user. From simple Financial accounting thru business accounting to integrated enterprise planning, at an average, a company would take 15 to 20 years to become a big time ERP user.
Originally used only by large enterprise such as the Tatas, Reliance, Birlas, Mittals, Dalmias etc in India; ERP usage has now penetrated into the SME segment. Indian SME is big, for it forms 40% of our manufacturing, 30 percent of our exports, in addition to being the second largest employer in the country.
These solutions are expensive. 40 to 50 times higher than the original FA solutions (e.g. Tally). Funnily, ERP solution is an ocean and seldom an enterprise get an opportunity to tap its functions fully. A complex enterprise such as Reliance Corporation must be using its ERP to about 50 to 60 % of its capability, whereas SMEs must be using 20 to 30 percent of the capability of the ERP system that they buy and implement.
Let me now come to the marketing tactics played out buy the most leading ERP brand. It is from Europe. It is the 'crowned king' of all ERPs of the world. All most all leading enterprises of the world are its customers. Having saturated in that segment, it has now moved down to medium enterprises and even smaller ones. The company shows the leadership in its marketing. First of all, it shows its un-assailed (so far!) position by playing the premium nature. Its price is more than double of its nearest competitor (which is the second largest software company in the world). It creates the aspiration and the pride of ownership very well in its buyer (after all, which crickter doesnt want to become Sachin Tendulkar). Playing upon the aspirational emotion of the buyer, it then fixes up specification of the users very systematically around its proprietory functional technologies. Such an RFQ coming from a user can never be matched by any competition and thus it wins the order, thereby leaving the competition far far behind. I am seeing company after company in Public sector falling victim to this strategy. Frankly speaking all the competing companies have all the funcionalities that is there with the leader. May be the leader is about 15 percent more when one compares the functionalities betwen each other. But it uses its leadership and its proprietory functional technologies to win the orders at very high prices. Organzations shell out 15, 20, 30 crores of rupees upfront for buying this software. Later, the maintenance contract per annum would come to almost 25 to 30 percent of the buying cost. Companies have to really work hard to pay back the investment.
Lastly, would such an ERP have brought double or triple level of growth in the corporation? I am not sure. Candidly speaking, I doubt it (that is in spite of being an IT evangelist for close to three decades!).
I have seen many organizations spending lavishly to own this mother of all ERP but not getting the paisa fully vasool. They buy an ocean and use it as a pond! Why should companies go for such an expensive solution?
Why would every man want to marry Aishwarya Rai? The answer is the same!
After a little wait, in Kerala also it had started happening. Leading PSUs and Corporates are going for this solution in the state.
By the way, what does an ERP solution do? It is an application software solution that integrates all the functions of an enterprise. Functions mean manufacturing, sales & marketing, distribution, maintenance, Production planning, HR, Finance & accounting etc etc. Earlier, enterprises used to go for disparate solutions for each function that never used to talk to each other. ERP integrates all these. All data will be in one single database engine and different users of different functions will have there own front-end screens (for data entry & retrieval). In between the database and the front-end, there lies the rules and the tools. Rules are standards & benchmarks and tools are software technology. Using tools you apply rules between the database and the front end. In addition to being integrated, another advantage of ERP is that you get all global benchmarks along with the solution so that the user can look at applying global standards in his company and that gives companies the possibility of doing business with global practices.
ERP had evolved very well over the last two decades. Initially, there were many global players in the market. SAP, Oracle, BAN, JD Edwards, Navision, Axapta, Peoplesoft, Mfg.Pro were some well known global ERP solutions. These products have consolidated and now there are only 3 / 4 global companies vending it. About 60% world market rests with three companies now and they are SAP, Oracle and Microsoft (Surprising.... Microsoft !…). In every nation, there are some local brands as well.(e.g. Indian ERP solution called Marshal from Ramco Systems)
Now, how does a company progress to become an ERP user? Surely it would have had three to four times of application software changes within a corporate before it starts using an ERP solution. It looks like companies grow up to become ERP user. So, ERP usage is a part of a corporate growth. The more mature a company, the more the chances of it being an ERP user. From simple Financial accounting thru business accounting to integrated enterprise planning, at an average, a company would take 15 to 20 years to become a big time ERP user.
Originally used only by large enterprise such as the Tatas, Reliance, Birlas, Mittals, Dalmias etc in India; ERP usage has now penetrated into the SME segment. Indian SME is big, for it forms 40% of our manufacturing, 30 percent of our exports, in addition to being the second largest employer in the country.
These solutions are expensive. 40 to 50 times higher than the original FA solutions (e.g. Tally). Funnily, ERP solution is an ocean and seldom an enterprise get an opportunity to tap its functions fully. A complex enterprise such as Reliance Corporation must be using its ERP to about 50 to 60 % of its capability, whereas SMEs must be using 20 to 30 percent of the capability of the ERP system that they buy and implement.
Let me now come to the marketing tactics played out buy the most leading ERP brand. It is from Europe. It is the 'crowned king' of all ERPs of the world. All most all leading enterprises of the world are its customers. Having saturated in that segment, it has now moved down to medium enterprises and even smaller ones. The company shows the leadership in its marketing. First of all, it shows its un-assailed (so far!) position by playing the premium nature. Its price is more than double of its nearest competitor (which is the second largest software company in the world). It creates the aspiration and the pride of ownership very well in its buyer (after all, which crickter doesnt want to become Sachin Tendulkar). Playing upon the aspirational emotion of the buyer, it then fixes up specification of the users very systematically around its proprietory functional technologies. Such an RFQ coming from a user can never be matched by any competition and thus it wins the order, thereby leaving the competition far far behind. I am seeing company after company in Public sector falling victim to this strategy. Frankly speaking all the competing companies have all the funcionalities that is there with the leader. May be the leader is about 15 percent more when one compares the functionalities betwen each other. But it uses its leadership and its proprietory functional technologies to win the orders at very high prices. Organzations shell out 15, 20, 30 crores of rupees upfront for buying this software. Later, the maintenance contract per annum would come to almost 25 to 30 percent of the buying cost. Companies have to really work hard to pay back the investment.
Lastly, would such an ERP have brought double or triple level of growth in the corporation? I am not sure. Candidly speaking, I doubt it (that is in spite of being an IT evangelist for close to three decades!).
I have seen many organizations spending lavishly to own this mother of all ERP but not getting the paisa fully vasool. They buy an ocean and use it as a pond! Why should companies go for such an expensive solution?
Why would every man want to marry Aishwarya Rai? The answer is the same!
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