Category Archives: Leadership and Management

Ahead of President Obama India visit- India signs IAEA treaty to limit nuclear accident liability to operators

The Indian nuclear power equipment market is estimated (October 2010) at 175 Billion $ and both GE and Westinghouse are very interested in supplying nuclear power equipment. Worrying potential US suppliers, Indian lawmakers in August had passed a law that might have made equipment suppliers liable for 80 years in case there was an accident and faulty equipment was to blame. Obviously the memories of Bhopal don’t fade and a nuclear leak like Chernobyl would be catastrophic in densely populated India.

[Note: This post is from October 27, 2010 and was edited for formatting on May 22, 2021]

Selling loans as a product: US Mortgage market and India Microfinance

If you are not a banker it’s difficult to visualize loans as a product that everyone is pressured to sell on the banking side of the transaction. This insight came up during a discussion with some  friends involved in pioneering  microfinance in India.
[Note: This post from October 25, 2010 was updated on May 31, 2021 for formatting issues.]

Robo-signing foreclosure mess – applying auto assembly Taylor logic to services?

Fredrick Taylor famously did “time and motion” studies to improve productivity in the automobile industry. The American auto worker, pressured to produce more –  did always honestly give a bolt the number of turns required. We seem to not understand how or if  Taylor’s principles apply to the service economy. It now turns out thatContinue reading “Robo-signing foreclosure mess – applying auto assembly Taylor logic to services?”

For jobs we need to innovate and expand the pie says Jack Welch

Jack Welch joined Donald Trump this morning outside the New York NBC studio at the plaza, they talked about Jack Welch’s appearance on The Apprentice. Towards the end of the video Jack Welch was asked about how jobs can be created. Innovation and expanding the pie is the way to get jobs according to Welch.Continue reading “For jobs we need to innovate and expand the pie says Jack Welch”

Chilean miners rescue unifies the world

Where is Chile – exactly? I knew that Chile is a Spanish speaking country in South America known for Chilean wine and well regarded for football (soccer in the US) but the non-stop media coverage of the miners’ rescue on TV in US,Europe and Asia convinced me that we all need to know a little bit more about Chile. The interesting part is that Chile is that long western strip in South America you would recall from Geography class- home of the Andes mountain range.

[ Note: This post from October 13, 2010 is updated on June 4, 2021 for formatting and a flashback video from NBC]

Google to build off-shore wind energy transmission lines

Google’s foray into promoting the building of off-shore transmission lines for wind energy farms off the US East Coast is a great idea. Googe does this with a 37.5% stake (alongwith Good Energies and Marubeni Corporation ) in the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) project of Trans-Elect .Trans-Elect is the implementing organization for AWC.

[ Note this post is from October 12, 2010 and is updated for formatting on May 19, 2021

Electricity markets:where is the growth ?

If you get reliable (99% of the time) electricity, you probably live in the developed world where most places have electricity. A quarter of the world’s population (October 2010) – mostly in Africa and South Asia do not have power and the list of countries by electricity consumption is revealing as is the data across countries by income.

[Note: This post from October 11, 2010 was updated on May 22, 2021 for formatting issues]

Holiday retail sales to increase 2.3% – who will spend first businesses or consumers?

// <![CDATA[ var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-857684-6']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl&#039; : 'http://www&#039;) + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); // ]]> The National Retail Federation predicts a 2.3% increase in sales over theContinue reading “Holiday retail sales to increase 2.3% – who will spend first businesses or consumers?”

Southwest Airlines and AirTran Merger : synergy in routes -just need to align “low-cost” culture

Herb Keller got Southwest Airlines going and was much celebrated as a CEO who knew how to get the mission and vision of the company  “owned” by every employee- a feat that most CEO’s  can only dream of doing. The current  Southwest CEO and Chairman Gary Kelly favors serving larger airports that Southwest earlier avoidedContinue reading “Southwest Airlines and AirTran Merger : synergy in routes -just need to align “low-cost” culture”

Employees First -Customers Second – the enabling CEO and Gen Y

Vineet Nayar ‘s ideas are quite remarkable and yet simple. He says that its really important to be able to motivate employees through transparency ,empowerment and enabling. The employee should truly feel that this is her/his company, cause and customer and s/he is the “owner”. Also Nayar  is one of  the first large company CEO’sContinue reading “Employees First -Customers Second – the enabling CEO and Gen Y”