A highly satisfying 2009 for BridgeCo India

I can look back at 2009 with great satisfaction w.r.t things we achieved at BridgeCo (India), now about 15months old. The year was full of excitement, we ran as fast as we could and then some more and caught most of the things that were thrown at us. I'm happy to note that BridgeCo (India) has now become the operational headquarters with S/w engg, H/w engg, QA, PMO, Supply chain mgmt, IT, Finace, Accounting and Sales backend functions, fully operational.

The year started with us taking over complete project for a globally very well known brand in Consumer Electronics space. We had hurdles in setting-up of the office and were trying to support this customer with two USB internet sticks, as the office didn't had internet and telephone connections. We started taking more and more work as the infrastructure kept improving and the team kept on ramping-up. Today, we support our top-3 customers fully (all three are BIG names in the consumer electronics space).

Our technical team, led by our chief architect, came-up with a brilliant idea on our future software platform. This platform (3rd generation), gets the best of our earlier platforms and expected to serve our needs for the next couple of years. The idea was completely conceived and delivered (phase-1) out of our Bangalore office. The ASIC and H/w teams worked continuously to reduce the BoM costs of our modules. The non-engg teams (finance, admin, IT, SCM) ramped up fast and now supports all our customers and partners. The year ended with a last minute sprint to complete our demos for the upcoming CES at Las Vegas and completing the micro-level schedules for our #2 customer for their 2010 projects.

In the middle of all these we got ISO certified, recruited a bunch of talented folks and had a lot of fun. 2010 promises to be even more exciting as the global recession recedes and as we increase our customer base.

It was sometime, perhaps since 2005, that I had such a busy time at office!!

Wish you a great 2010.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

What Matters Now

Seth Godin presents a (free) e-book titled "What Matters Now". It is a collection of brilliant short (1-page) essays by seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O'Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

I took a quick look. Usual suspects Tom Peters talks about 19 Es of Excellence, Guy Kawasaki (who else) talks about Evangelism, Micha sifry has a brilliant piece of "Nobody", Chip and Dan Heath (authors of the beautiful book "Made to Stick"), urges us to focus on "what IS working", Gina Trapani talks about "getting things done vs making things happen" and I can go on.

Please download and circulate around.

Thank you Seth!

RamP!

Will Google prevail against traditional news industry?

A fascinating fight is brewing between the emperor of the internet world, Google, and the mughals of (slowly dying, per some experts) traditional news industry.

It all started a few days ago, when Ruport Murdoch in an interview, told that they might decide to disallow search engines to index their news sites. He even went on to accuse Google, MSNs of the world that they were "stealing our stories". He is hinting towards pay-to-read kind of a model, though many people find that this business model may never take off.

Taking the cue, at the world news paper congress in Hyderabad, early this month, attacked Google and called it the digital vampire and kleptomaniac. The sudden bullishness seem to be coming in from change in the way the information is consumed - twitter for breaking news and facebook for reading content and watching video. There is some merit in the new found aggression from the traditional news industry. There are 350mn facebook users and 55mn users for Twitter and these two can be used as a counter against Google.

Google obviously is watching. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google striked back in a hard hitting article in Wall Street Journal (incidentally owned by Murdoch). He puts the ball back and said that with dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame. He argued that Google is a great source of promotion, in that it sends 100,000 opportunities a minute to the news industry.

Where does it leave me and you? Time will tell and as of now I'm willing to bet that except for niche content (like Harward Business  Review for example), pure news continue to be "free". What do you think?

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading list for Dec-09

December!! Christmas holidays at work, more importantly our customers and bosses are also having holidays, so it appears there'd be "real" holidays. This is also the time to formally review the progress since my mid year retreat, do some introspection, read some thought provoking stuff and set goals for 2010, by religiously following a process that is working well for me for several years now.

I have lined-up a set of very interesting books and a couple of re-reads, taking confidence from the fact that I'm back to my habit of reading almost one book every week, thus completing the list of books I had for Nov'09.

Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life

Any manager/leader of some substance would have had heard/read Peter Drucker's wisdom. I'm no exception. I was intimidated at first when I read Drucker - he is so precise and prescriptive, and utterly relevant. You can't argue against much of what he has written. This book is a little different though. The author, Bruce Rosenstein, has synthesized all the works of Drucker and has come out with a guide that has Druker's profound core teachings related to personal and professional transformation. This work shows readers how to apply Drucker's recommendations to lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives. The book has lot of exercises for reflection and contemplation.

Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide For Leading Change

A mentor of mine introduced me to Robert Quinn and his much celebrated book "Deep Change", which influenced me a great deal. Quinn's fundamental contribution is telling leaders how they can lead themselves. In this new book, Quinn shows how anyone can enter the fundamental state of leadership by engaging in the eight practices that center on the theme of ever-increasing integrity--reflective action, authentic engagement, appreciative inquiry, grounded vision, adaptive confidence, detached interdependence, responsible freedom, and tough love. After each chapter, Quinn challenges you to assess yourself with respect to each practice and to formulate a strategy for personal growth.

Both this book and the first one (Living in More Than one world) were hand carried by my friend from the US. Thanks M.P Srivathsa.

Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within

This is a re-read. I read this book about 8yrs ago and continue to get back to it every now and then. Quinn's new book "Building Bridges ..." that I just described above, is rooted and has lot of references to "Deep Change". I just thought of reading this book again this month.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Cialdini - the name itself invites an appreciative nod from people that are well versed in his works. This particular book, is arguably the best ever book written on the science of persuasion. I always thought influencing mostly an "art", Cialdini thinks its science and introduces you to six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, scarcity, liking, authority, social proof, and commitment/consistency.  Each principle is backed by social scientific testing. The book is also filled with interesting examples that help you to apply these six principles.

Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization

Another re-read. I'm a big fan of Peter Senge and his concept of Learning Organization, so much that I'm a founder member of a not-for-profit "SoL South Foundation", which is affiliated to Senge's global SoL (Society for Organizational Learning). In this book, Senge presents an integrated corporate framework, which is structured around "personal mastery," "mental models," "shared vision," and "team learning." Using ideas that originate in fields from science to spirituality, Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides a summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it's like to operate under this system. The book's concepts remain stimulating and relevant as ever.

What RamP's Reading (Dec'09)

December!! Christmas holidays at work, more importantly our customers and bosses are also having holidays. This is also the time to formally review the progress since my mid year retreat, do some introspection, read some thought provoking stuff and set goals for 2010, by religiously following a process that is working well for me for several years now.

I have lined-up a set of very interesting books and a couple of re-reads, taking confidence from the fact that I'm back to my habit of reading almost one book every week, thus completing the list of books I had for Nov'09.

Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life




Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide For Leading Change



Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within



Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

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Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

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