Let’s cut our noses. Yes Prime Minister! October 31, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Copenhagen, Global Warming, Nature, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation, climate change, environment.Tags: Carbon emissions, climate change, Economic development, environment, Globalization, Greenhouse gas, India, Indian economy, Indian environment, International Energy Agency, Jairam Ramesh, Monsoon, United States
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Two of my favourite subjects here – the fascinating global warming debate and India’s bollywood style negotiation script. Hopenhagen is around the corner and will make Kyoto passe. We love being underdogs because like our movies, the hero comes from behind in a good-over-evil victory lap while the crowd applauds his heroic antics.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and I fully intend the pun.
US spews Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere when India sleeps. [Pat on back .. I'm getting good at puns]Now India wants America to pay for their long and sinful polluting behaviour. And guess what, if they don’t, we’ll have an equal right to kill the planet first so we’re even. That’s the craziest example of serving our self interests I’ve come across. It’s almost like saying that since I just found out that my neighbour has been raping my mother for 20 years, the way to punish him is by killing my own mother. (more…)
Counterpoint – Is Fiat Money better than the Gold Standard? February 21, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Global Economy, Innovation, Leadership Innovation, Politics, Sustainable Innovation.Tags: deflation, Federal Reserve, Fiat currency, Fiat money, Globalization, gold standard, Inflation, Monetary, outsourcing, Supply and demand, value of money
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So here’s the rebuttal from the other camp. A comment I received on my previous post Printed Money, Gloom to Doom was from a friend who urged me to look at the opposite view. He said – “Sunil, I’m afraid you’re completely off the mark on money”.
There is no intrinsic virtue to the gold standard. The true basis of any currency is the productive capacity of the economy where it is printed. This has nothing to do with the quantity of gold held by the country. Your credit card issuing bank creates money when it gives you credit. The real issue is when the money supply goes out of kilter with the supply of goods and services in the economy. Right now, inflation is not a problem. Deflation is the threat facing the developed world. The US is tackling that by loosening money supply.
Here, let me help you get on the other side of the debate - “Fiat money is better than the Gold Standard”. The question is why. (more…)
Innovation 101: Throw money at the financial crisis? February 12, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Corporate terrorism, Corruption, Global Economy, Illusions, Innovation 101, Leadership, Wisdom of the leaders.Tags: bailout packages, Benjamin Franklin, global meltdown, Globalization, Innovation 101, Mark Twain, ostrich syndrome, Slumdog Millionaire, Society and Culture, Thought leadership, Western Thought
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Get your heads out of the sand
I’m pushing 50 and I always thought my general knowledge was passable. Until I watched Slumdog Millionaire and found out that it wasn’t George Washington’s mug on a $100 bill but Benjamin Franklin’s. Strange coincidence and somewhat evangelistic that he was the one who said
He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. - Benjamin Franklin
So what’s America trying to do to quell the current storm that doesn’t want to go away. Allegation or not, the only course that seemed to come to you was to throw money at the crisis. How smart is that? Doesn’t surprise anyone outside the US but you are taken by surprise when the bailout money gets generously distributed against ‘bonuses payable’ among the very people that caused the crisis to happen. (more…)
Innovation 101: People first December 22, 2008
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Culture, Globalisation, Innovation, Innovation 101.Tags: Capitalism, Collaboration, Culture, Culture of India, Globalization, India, Innovation 101, Thought leadership
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I’ve tried and cried but have not been able to find any machine that’s innovative. Neither have I found a machine that cries, or is frightened or is creative or has an ego or is greedy. Strangely enough, I don’t have to look too hard for these ‘abilities’ when it comes to people, regardless of their religion, race, cultural moorings or, for that matter, even age.
If you’ve ever driven in India you’ll often find that the ‘victim is the violator’ which means the same thing even if you read it the other way around. But when it comes to business and society, this mindset is almost universal – it’s not just an India thing – and the preachers are rarely, if at all, practitioners. Innovation (are the so-called experts listening?) is a field of endeavour that is deeply rooted in local-contexts and unless you learn the ’cultural’ behaviors you don’t have a chance of providing any value. (more…)
Cost-cutting: Is Alfred Nobel sleeping? July 8, 2008
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Globalisation, International.Tags: Alfred Nobel, Business, Cost cutting, Culture, Globalization, India
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Image via WikipediaWe can keep cribbing about jobs being outsourced to India, dealing with foreign accents, etc. but the real problem lies elsewhere. Who decided that costs are the only drivers of business? Who created the call centers? Who decided that technology is a good alternative to human beings? These are some of the questions we need to answer.
When I was a kid, my Dad told me what selling was all about. “In one sentence,” he mused, “it is about selling a hair brush to a bald man and getting him to be obliged for the favour!” My take-away was that selling is the art of having your customer see value beyond the price he’s paying. There’s hardly any sales competency required if all I have to do is to lower the price. Business competencies yes, but sales competency NO. If my strategy for the future is based on the principle that my competitors will become worse and worse, then that’s the weakest basis for survival. Forget growth.
My other contention is that the cost model might still work for ‘material’ goods that are possible to benchmark by adding from raw materials upwards. How do I even figure out the BoM for consulting? That’s easy! Just take salaries of people and put it in the ‘Raw Material’ column??
So when we talk of cost-cutting, the first thing that comes to mind is to cut the salary bill. Hey that’s a pointer. Where can I get a person at one-tenth the salary so I can hire 10 people for every one person I have today. Next step, fire all the people I have today and I end up running a company 10 times the size. WoW! The mathematics are perfect and infallible.
10 janitors = 1 software professional. All we need to do now is to teach the janitors Java. Even if it took me a year and I spent another fraction on training, I would still make a higher profit. Is Alfred Nobel dead or sleeping!
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