Too Much TV

Just about the time when LCDs were moving into the drawing room, and the CRT owners were trying to hide their unwieldy contraptions in some unseen corner of the house, we decided to dispose of ours. That was three years ago, and believe me when I say that Life has never been the same again. Do we miss anything? Well not at all. In fact there is so much time available now that 24 hrs seem enough to do whatever you want to. Let me list a few of the many advantages that we have experienced , of not having a TV in the house.

• My children have become very fond of reading, which I consider to be  a life-long gift.
• Both of us do not have to bear the nonsense of TRP rating hungry stupid news channels .Instead we have so much more time to read not only the news, but views as well.
• We do not rue the arrival of guests in our house at the soap opera time.Dinner is always ready at Nine.
• Each of us has different taste of music/movies/documentaries. We watch what we want to, at our convenience, on the internet, or offline downloaded content.
• No time at all is wasted watching advertisements that take up so much of our quality time these days.
• Phone calls can be easily attended without missing a crucial scene/dialogue by just pressing the pause button.
• It is now possible to control the content that children watch. There is a lesser risk of their eyesight going bad
• We can choose to watch movies/programme that are rated higher by the viewers,thereby ensuring the quality of content.
• Gone are the days when I was an avid sports lover, and watching sports action live was a passion. Therefore none of us miss any of it on that count as well.BTW even this is now available on youtube.

Do we spend more money on the internet than we would possibly do on TV. No, not at all since our time, and the ability to choose, has more value than money. By not investing in a TV, we have also saved on its acquisition cost, recurring higher power bill, dish charges, and risk of technology obsolescence. In any case paying for a HD TV does not make any sense, as affordable HD content in India is still a long way to go. For the content to be HD, it has to be shot using HD equipment, processed using HD technology, and transmitted over a HD channel that takes much more bandwidth. As of now all this is costly, and is not in the reach of the mass market.

Those of you who have already invested in an LCD may consider connecting it to their computers, and those who have not, may like to experience the freedom of choice, that not having a TV offers. 

Performance

We often judge a person’s capability at work by his exhibited performance in some previous assignment. We need to remember that the performance of a person is dependent on three factors that play an important role on the results that he achieves. So what are these three factors?

• Motivation
• Knowledge, Skills, Attitude(KSAs)
• Environment

No matter how much of KSAs your subordinates possess, their performance will be sub-optimal if they are not motivated to perform the work. Motivation itself depends on a lot of factors, the primary one being-“What is in it for me or what need of mine does it fulfil?”

Sometimes the environment sends wrong signals .It either does not support the activity or it blocks the same. Before designing a training curriculum for the subordinates who exhibit bad performance, it is necessary to find out the real reason for the same. Many of the capable individuals whom I know do not write a particular exam as the organisational environment has been sending wrong signals for a long time. It is important to go deep to the root of the problem, rather than addressing just the symptoms.  

Hedgehog Concept

These three questions are very important for any individual, business or organisation to figure out the area in which it should operate. You have to have a key understanding of what you can be best at, and more importantly what is beyond you. It needs a deep sense of self awareness to figure out your strength and weaknesses, and requires courage to come to terms with them. You may be good at something, but not having a passion for it, will in the long term hamper your goals. Thirdly whatever you do must drive your economic engine. Organisations and individuals who operate in the area where all three circle overlap, are the ones who are truly successful. If you are in a profession or in a business where you find yourself to be out of the common area, it is time to look outwardly for other opportunities.

Lest I forget

List of Books

1.     “The Mind of the Strategist” by Kennichi Ohmae.

2.     “The Borderless World” by Kennichi Ohmae.

3.     “Brand Warriors” by Fiona Gilmore.

4.     “Odyssey” by John Sculley.

5.     “Business @ The Speed of Thought” by Bill Gates & C Hemingway.

6.     “Every Business is a Growth Business” by Tichy & Ram Charan

7.     “The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard.

8.     “Powershift” by Alvin Toffler.

9.     “Megatrends 2000” by John Naisbitt and P Aburdene.

10.  “Amazon.com - Get Big Fast” by Richard Spector.

11.  “Want Makers” by Eric Clarke.

12.  “Image Makers” by W Myers.

13.  “Positioning – the Battle For Your Mind” by Al Ries & Jack Trout

14.  “Marketing Warfare” by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

15.  “The Adaptive Corporation” by Alvin Toffler

16.  “Fortune @ the Bottom of the Pyramid” by CK Prahalad.

17.  “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage” by M Porter

18.  “Competitive Advantage of Nations” by M Porter

19.  “Management: Tasks,  Responsibilities and Practices” by P Drucker

20.  “Snapshots from Hell” by P Robinson.

21.  “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco” by B Burrough and J Helyar

22.  “Liar’s Poker” by M Lewis

23.  “Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle” by J Rolfe

24.  “Den of Thieves” by James B Stewart

25.  “The Predator’s Ball – the Inside Story of Drexel Burnham..” by C Bruck

26.  “The Essential Drucker: The Best of 60 years of Drucker’s Essential…” by P Drucker

27.  “Made in Japan” by Akio Morita.

28.  “Jack: Straight from the Gut” by J Welch

29.  “Winning: The Answers Confronting 74 of the … in Business Today” by J Welch

30.  “Lee Iacocca: An Autobiography” by Lee Iacocca

31.  “The Warren Buffet Way: Investment Strategies..Worlds’ Best Investor” by R Hagstrom

32.  “The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America” by W Buffet.

33.  “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.

34.  “The 8^th Habit” by Stephen Covey.

35.  “The One Minute Manager” by K Blanchard.

36.  “Who moved my cheese, an amazing…..your life” by Spencer Johnson.

37.  “First Things First. To Love….a Legacy” by Stephen Covey.

38.  “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward De Bono

39.  “Teach  your child how to think” by Edward De Bono.

40.  “Dr. Deming: The American who taught the Japanese about quality” by R Aquayo

41.  “Juran on Quality by Design… Goods and Services” by JM Juran.

42.  “The 22 immutable laws of Branding” by Al Ries.

43.  “Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm…People” by M Gobe and S Zyman.

44.  “HBR Review on Brand Management” by E Joachimsthaler et al.

45.  “Building Strong Brands” by D Aaker

46.  “Fooled by Randomness” by N Taleb

47.  “Freakonomics” by S.Levitt and S.Dubner

                                               

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Fiscal Deficit

A high fiscal deficit results in competition for funds, as borrowing by the government increases.More competition for funds means the following

• The interest rates rise
• Since the cost of funds increases , investment slows down
• Economic activity drops, leading to a depression
• Foreign inflows increase in the form of FII, resulting in appreciation of currency.Appreciation of currency is not good for exports.
• Foreign exchange volatility increses,  making the economic environment unstable
• Inflation increases hurting the poor the most.
• Since the govt borrows more than it earns, the credibility of the nation goes down.

All these are not good for the economy and that is why the FRBM act lays down the limits on fiscal deficit. A low fiscal deficit is healthy as credit is the lifeline of an economy, but too much of leverage is what is worrisome.The govt has , to my mind, now and in the past, concentrated on reducing fiscal deficit by increasing revenue, rather than by controlling expenditure.The largest govt expenditure is on account of subsidies, which in any case are misdirected. As a child , I was often told by my father, that the income can be perceived to be doubled by controlling the expenditure. As a govt servant, I know that there is a lot of scope for controlling wasteful expenditure.I urge the political leadership to take note of this, and force  the govt machinery to tighten its belt. They of course need to lead by example before doing that.