Democracies in flux : Shutdown, Anna Hazare the new “Mahatma” against corruption and the Middle East

Around the same time as the US Government was reaching Shutdown at Washington DC on Friday, Anna Hazare was being declared the new "Mahatma" Gandhi against corruption  in New Delhi as the different Middle East movements continued their unchartered progress to democracy. Over the weekend democracies were in a state of flux of different orders,Continue reading “Democracies in flux : Shutdown, Anna Hazare the new “Mahatma” against corruption and the Middle East”

Cherry Blossom Festival and Government Shutdown

Last weekend we were  at Washington DC and thoroughly enjoyed the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. We parked  at the Haines Point Parking  place and I was pleasantly surprised at the free shuttle which took us along the Potomac  river to Jefferson Memorial offering a great view of the cherry blossom trees along the way.Continue reading “Cherry Blossom Festival and Government Shutdown”

India-Pakistan Cricket Match seen by 1 Billion TV audience

Today’s India-Pakistan cricket match (March 30, 2011) was seen by an estimated TV audience of 1 Billion people. Life came to a standstill in both countries where “cricket” is almost a religion. For my part, I decided to postpone calling friends in India about research I am doing being pretty sure that no calls would be taken!

[Note: This post from March 30, 2011 is updated for formatting issues on May 22, 2021]

Moving intellectual property including patents, computer code and trade secrets overseas for lower taxes

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MetLife Chief Investment Officer Steven Kandarian becomes CEO for prudent investments

Steven A. Kandarian the Chief Investment Officer of MetLife has been named CEO in part for his foresight in not investing in subprime mortgages. “We like what we have on our books” Kandarian says towards the end  at a Bloomberg interview – June 10, 2009 – almost two years ago  -see the video: As theContinue reading “MetLife Chief Investment Officer Steven Kandarian becomes CEO for prudent investments”

Learning fortitude from the Japanese and the iodized salt rush

The world truly bows to the Japanese for their fortitude in crisis. Have you seen [ Note: This post from March 22, 2011 was updated for formatting issues on May 31, 2021] of:

AT&T and T-Mobile need to fix customer service and help US economic growth

The  prospects of a merged AT&T and T-Mobile into one massive organization raise some real challenges. Customers feel worried (March 2011) that with such market dominance , it is likely that prices will not come down and service might actually worsen. The technical part of  merging the  transmission towers at the back end of theContinue reading “AT&T and T-Mobile need to fix customer service and help US economic growth”

Supply chain bottleneck for world auto as every car uses some Japanese electronics

The world auto supply chain has become so integrated (March 18, 2011) that you are likely to find the same parts suppliers supplying to all auto plants. There was a time when Ford would frown at suppliers supplying to GM let alone Toyota. Today the world is a far different place , with suppliers supplying to everyone in their industry. In fact , you can be sure that suppliers who recently started supplying to the rejuvenated GM had to provide good references from other customers like Ford and Toyota.

[Note: This post from March 18,2011 was updated for formatting issues on May 22, 2021]

Innovation needs a “challenge vs. threat” organization culture

Today (March 16, 2011) Karim Kassam (then of Carnegie Mellon University and in 2021 at Jacksonville Jaguars) talked  about challenge vs threat  and measuring stress in the lab through blood pressure , heart rate etc. at  the Yale SOM -Behavioral Marketing -Eli Seminar Series.  This got me thinking about the organizational culture you need to allow innovation. But first let’s differentiate between what we see as a challenge vs. threat.
[Note: This post from March 16, 2011 was updated and reformatted on May 31, 2021]

Future of nuclear energy and the heroes of Fukushima

The world waits anxiously watching the nuclear leak (March 2011) play out in Japan. As earlier mentioned, when it comes to implementing any technology the Japanese do a great job. So if the Japanese are having problems with this- it must be fundamentally problematic goes the logic not only in the US but also countriesContinue reading “Future of nuclear energy and the heroes of Fukushima”