Leh-Pak: Making a difference one person at a time August 23, 2010
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Disaster management, Innovation, Nature.Tags: Collective action, Corporate social responsibility, Disaster management, Flood relief, India, Leh, natural calamities, nature's fury, Pakistan
1 comment so far
It is always heartening to see Internet communities swing into action for a cause and make such a huge difference in connecting views, people and issues.
In keeping with the spirit of giving, here’s my open letter on behalf of the flood affected people of Leh and Pakistan.
“Dear CEO, President, PM, CM, etc.
Get involved personally. Tell your people the magnitude of the recent fury of nature in Leh and Pakistan. Tell everybody in your network to help in any way possible. They will listen to “YOU”. They are used to listening to you and following your directions. Please, please don’t just give a donation to some fund and feel that your good deed for the day is done.
You have skills. You have an organisation. You have the means to mobilise every enabler needed to rehabilitate the homeless. Put part of your business acumen to reconstructing and rehabilitating the ravaged region. Nature has her way of reminding you of your duties to the world beyond yourself. Please see it as an opportunity to make a continued commitment to our future.”
Thanks and all that, (more…)
Innovation – SMS voting for Nature’s Reality Shows August 20, 2010
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Disaster management, Innovation, Social Innovation, Thought leadership.Tags: Aid, CNN-IBN, Corporate social responsibility, CSR, Disaster management, Flood relief, funding, funds, Leh, natural calamities, News Channels, Pakistan, Reality television
8 comments
Reality Shows: Attractive NEW business opportunity for Television News channels.
According to a survey on early 2009, Reality Shows attracted 45 million sms votes. (April 21, 2009 — See Graphic)
The PM’s Relief Fund has promised Rs. 125 crores for Leh. The floods in Pakistan are begging for aid fuzzily estimated to be of the order of USD 1 billion. I, like many others, would like to do my bit.
Nature’s reality shows are far more ruthless than “The moment of truth” on TV. As a matter of fact, her reality shows are the moment of truth for those in the line of fire. So much for philosophy — let me get straight to the point.
My idea is simple – ‘SMS your vote for Aid’ - and I’m not even asking for any credit; just let’s do it!
This is how it works – (more…)
Innovation 101 – The Jugaad phenomenon May 11, 2010
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Culture, Design Thinking, Industrial Design, Industrial Design, Innovation, Innovation 101, Jugaad, Management, predictions 2010, Thought leadership.Tags: Brand India, Business Week, Car ke side effects, cheap, Corporate social responsibility, Culture of India, Ethical issues, frugal innovation, India, Innovation 101, Innovation and Idea Management, Jugaad, Jugaad innovation, Kachra Innovation, Keith Sawyer, Nano, Next Practices, Tata, wisdom
25 comments
This post is meant for those of you who have set up automated alerts for the new magic word ‘Jugaad’, the most fashionable innovation thread about India these days. Several innovation ‘gurus’, management experts, authors have latched on. The common thread – they’re mostly based in the US and are of Indian origin. The more equal of us. Keith Sawyer calls it a ‘fad from India’ and that’s exactly what it is.
Business Week* reports on a management fad from India, that goes by a Hindi slang word, jugaad (say joo-gaardh). It means “an improvisational style of innovation”. It’s “inexpensive invention on the fly”. It sometimes has negative connotations, like cutting corners. The idea is that it doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy; it’s just good enough to satisfy immediate needs.
>>*See the comments at the end of the article.
Don’t be fooled – Jugaad is jugaad and innovation is innovation. Jugaad is a dangerous mindset – you heard right, a mindset. You ‘fix’ things by simply putting together bits and pieces, never mind that they don’t fit or that the final product is unreliable, unsafe, whatever. When something goes wrong, you can always use the excuse of not having time, resources, skills, etc. After all you did achieve ‘cheap’, didn’t you.
A Matter Of Trust March 13, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Companies of the future, Global Economy, Innovation, Innovation 101, Leadership Innovation, Sustainable Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.Tags: Arun Maira, Bhagavad Gita, Brand India, Corporate Governance, Corporate karma, Corporate social responsibility, Ethics, morality, recession, Return to values
2 comments
Arun Maira’s dissection of the current economic world state and a clear message to focus on sustainable strategies based on ethical values.
Like Arjun on the battlefield at Kurukshetra who asked Krishna a moral question, not advice on how to fight the battle, business leaders fighting the recession must also ask what they must change in their approach to business to regain society’s trust if they want more freedom in future. Therefore, corporate boards should introspect from time to time about the values that guide their decisions.
via TOP ARTICLE | A Matter Of Trust-Editorial-Opinion-The Times of India.
Creating Heart Capital – KnowledgeBoard January 28, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Companies of the future, Culture, Entrepreneurship, Heart Capital©, Innovation, Leadership, Sustainable Innovation, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.Tags: Corporate social responsibility, Culture, heart capital, Human resources, Ideafarms, Innovation, KM, Knowledge Management, Passion, Society and Culture, wisdom
3 comments
When I coined the phrase “Heart Capital” a few years ago, I didn’t recognise it’s prophetic undertones. Here’s a link to the stimulating discussion we had half a decade ago. And for those who might want to read my article, here’s the pdf.
The ideas and views regain relevance with today’s ‘communities’ on the collaborative web. (2.0)
Here’s John Moore’s comment on the article I wrote in 2003.
“I love these lines in particular :
To humanise is to recognise that technology cannot replace the charm of personal contact. To humanise is to disrupt current business thinking and methods. To humanise is to add emotion. To humanise is to add fun to work and work systems.
I think the discussion about emotional environment is important; a lot of money goes into trying to create great physical spaces for work (and that’s no bad thing) but the manners and subleties of human contact deserve equal attention.
I would add that as well as being fun, the creation of real “heart capital” requires taking risks and being vulnerable. Acknowledging our true feelings feels risky in many enviroments; yet in my experience it is often a touchstone for deeper and more satisfying human engagement.”
via Creating Heart Capital – KnowledgeBoard.
Thanks John!
Here’s another excerpt from the article. :-
It is time now, to create heart capital. An exchange of feelings, emotions and culture to foster knowledge creation and sharing.
- An asset for individual growth and organizational excellence.
- A tool for sharpening the competitive edge.
- A culture for human enrichment.
- A plan to protect and propagate our common heritage.Let’s ask ourselves some questions.
Is it [not] necessary [for us] to create a new lexicon of corporate nomenclature if we want to change
traditional thinking?For example, HR is traditionally responsible for all people issues in an organization. Does this mean that other departments do not need to care about people? Is there something about the nomenclature “HR” that needs repairing? When dealing with materials, the word “resource” is probably appropriate. But Human Resource?? I thought resources were for people to use, so how appropriate is it to think of human beings as resources?
The entire business terminology needs a revamp. Human Resources should become Corporate Citizenship, Research & Development should become Knowledge Innovation, and so on. The focus is clearly shifting from efficiency to effectiveness, from sentiment to passion, from profit to value and from performance to the emotional well being of the user.
Comments and critiques welcome.
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