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… the meaning of true love is revealed when you have a child. You do everything possible for your child, wake up at ungodly hours, spend lots of money, clean the shit, take vacations to go for checkups, so on and so forth. But they give you immense joy when around. You feel their happiness, their sorrow, and you shower all the love on the child. It just happens, spontaneously. No expectations whatsoever!

Many a times we have heard that love is selfless. But in the grown up world, does this saying have meaning? Have you ever experienced it yourself or from someone else? I have.

Picture of my dear daughter – Meera

Was wondering if these book stores can start a Netflix like scheme ala. Book rentals. The consumers need to sign up for a plan, pay a monthly fee and rent a certain number of books in a month. Sounds like a simple and effective plan. The only draw side could be that the books may not be maintained properly by the members thereby the retailers not recouping the whole cost. But I am sure that some scheme to offset the loss can be put in place.

A few weeks back, while watching the World Cup Soccer semi-finals between Uruguay and Netherlands, I happened to chance upon the rerun on Superman II on another channel. I caught up on the movie for a few minutes during the half time. One man saving the world from the clutches of Zod and Lex Luther. A man who is all powerful, almost invincible, and someone who requires ‘no team’ to reach his goals.

Do you think it is relevant anymore? Or for that matter, was it ever relevant? If you have been watching the World Cup this season you must have seen that the likes of Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo and other great players fail in the absence of teamwork. On the other hand, Germany, a relatively novice team has produced absolutely stellar results. It was all because of team work and not for a single superman.

Teamwork was an overarching theme at my graduate school. It was emphasized time and again to believe in the power of team, the collective intelligence. I did observe it in some of my classes and a few groups I was involved in. It dawned as a realization, not just a knowledge, that teamwork indeed trumps individual contribution. But there is an interesting twist in the tale!

To produce great results, a team needs to be active, vocal, and committed to the result. A complacent team produces nothing. The four things that are absolutely important for any team to succeed are:

1. Open Communication: Team members need to communicate openly and be transparent about their thoughts and ideas. If people do not share their thoughts there is a risk of important elements getting missed and team not performing to its best capabilities. Lack of communication may also lead to friction that can be deterimental to team’s performance.

2. Clear Leadership: Every team needs a good and active leader. Many a times teams face a situation wherein they are lost in the quagmire of data, actions, and issues that it becomes important for someone to bring the team back on its track and provide necessary directions. The leader has to be an active team member and everyone should respect his leadership and decisions.

3. Single Focus: There is a problem and the team is there to solve it. Each member should understand the problem in the same way as everyone else. If it is necessary, spend time in formulating the problem statement so that it can be communicated clearly and the progress can be measured against it. At no time should the team members have a different interpretation of the problem thus leading to wasted effort.

4. Honest Accountability: Every team member should be extremely dedicated and honest. They need to ensure that accountability is an important requisite for success. This attitude should ideally stem from within but can be driven by the leader as need be. It may become necessary to take stringent actions when faced with a uninvolved team member.

These four elements, if present in any team, will work wonders and the team will be able to perform and deliver a “more than expected” result. The mechanics of the team will ensure that everyone is giving their best, sharing their ideas, and working towards the same goal – the sum total of which will produce results that are far better than what can be achieved by one smart individual. Magic!

What is "Commitment"? Of all the various definitions you can find the one that I am talking about is "The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons". Let’s say for instance, you can be committed to a relationship (person), you can be committed to your health – going to the gym everyday (person and action), or you can be committed towards your house – paying off the loans (object). In its most basic form, you can describe commitment as ‘resolving to do or follow certain thing, no matter what’. But is it a burden? If so, why and how?

Commitment is Paradoxical in its nature. It can either grant you freedom or it can take away your freedom. In most instances it actually takes away your freedom and choices. Now this can be interpreted differently by different people. What is bondage to one, can be liberation to another. Let me give some examples to explain better. You buy a house. And you take a 15-year mortgage. Some may say that getting tied to your income so that installments can be paid every month is a burden. Some others may say that there is freedom to decide what you want and how you want in the house. So there is both restriction and flexibility. You get married. Your freedom to date is gone. But the love and affection you get at home is a luxury. You decide to exercise everyday in the morning. You will be free from aches and pains for a long time but you will lose out on precious moments, time, and money. I hope you understand the different facets of commitment that I am trying to portray here.

So, why is it a burden? Commitment in any form ties you down to certain things. There is a portion of your brain (mind) that gets stuck with the notion and loses any freedom, flexibility and creativity. To put it in better words, life becomes routine, monotonous, and a checklist. Really? Look at the world and the number of different experiences it has to offer. From traveling around the world, to trying different foods, to working in different professions, to living in different places, to undertaking several ventures, so on and so on. If you are committed to be a vegetarian, there is no way you can experience the great sensation of eating the different cuisines they show on the food network (case in point, yours truly). If you are bound by your mortgage forget about spending some relaxing time and enjoyable break working as a Barista. If you have children, forget about traveling to certain destinations as and when you want. Sure you get a house, a well paid job, and cute children, but hey! How long do these things last? A house can become too big or too small or even boring after a while. The well paid job is going to suck the energy out of you and will keep you tied up until you retire. And children, well the jury is open on this one also (just like in the other arguments). If you are unhappy about something today look back and see what decisions you took in the past. You will often see that you committed to something, consciously or unconsciously, that you should not have to.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that commitment is for losers or that commitment should not be made. It is commitment that gives us purpose, a direction, and a chance to make this life more meaningful. Aah, the paradoxical nature of commitment. The answer lies in the very nature of commitment we make. Commitment to all that is mentioned above is fine when made at the right time and in the right spirit. Explaining this aspect provides a challenge. Every human being is a collection of his/her own experiences. What seems evident to one may not be as clear to another. Hence, any argument made towards the aforementioned statements stands to meet a lot of resistance. I will try and then provide my advice to resistors. You are a young man and ready to move into the real world. Explore your mindset. Understand clearly what is it that you want to do. Be honest, be brutally honest. Say you decide to travel the world, work in different countries, learn various languages, and experience different cultures. Please don’t take up a job with a company that does not involve any travel, gives you 2 weeks of vacation, and has a 60 hour work week. Please don’t get married (at least for now).Think! Think! Think! Continue as long as you can go on without feeling any guilt or whatever feeling that shrinks your consciousness. You want to buy a house. Do you have enough savings that can be used to pay off the mortgage when you want to. What if you lose your job? What if you have a divorce? Please don’t buy a house and let the house be your owner.

I would ask my resistors to go over my arguments a few time and then take some time to observe their own life and evaluating their decisions. It is very easy to fall into the trap of "Confirmation Bias". Observe such tendencies. In order to avoid that, challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to listen and read various points of views. Avoid getting frustrated. This line of thinking may not make you feel good but at the same time realize that you now have the knowledge to take further actions judiciously. Read good books such as – Value-Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decisionmaking and Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. If you are open to reading scriptures, get a copy of ‘Vasistha’s Yoga’.

I can go on and on about this topic and give numerous examples in order to explain myself further. But unfortunately it is a blog post and I have already exceeded the ideal size limit. So will rest the matter for now.

Many a times I have visited some personal blogs after a long time and observed that the blogger himself had taken some hiatus from writing. He/She then had a customary ‘Yes, I was busy’, ‘I am sorry for being away for so long’, and other such post that announces his/her arrival back on the scene. Yes, this is my ‘getting back’ from a busy busy time back to writing this blog.

But apart from returning, I feel I need to say that the essence of this blog will also change. Earlier, this blog had NO essence whatsoever. I wrote about anything and everything that I found interesting or sharing. But going ahead I will be start focusing on certain things that will provide this blog a certain direction, in the hopes that it will attract certain types of visitors. I may not blog about almost everything – from finance to marketing to operations to god knows what. Now that I have graduated from b-school, I will deal with topics that I am currently involved in. It would center mostly around ‘Analytics’ and related fields.

Hope any returning readers or even new readers will behind the information helpful and join me in exploring this exciting area.

I had always known of the rivalry between Burger King and McDonalds and its portrayal in various advertisements. But this new advertisement by Burger King really took me by surprise. This ad shows the Burger “King” breaking into McDonald’s headquarters to steal an idea. Yes, steal an idea. I am not sure how to interpret the ad. What was the creative thinking when making it? Confessing that they steal/copy may not be such a good idea.

This is the only copy I could find on the internet showing that ad. The ad starts at 0:12.

I recently came across Campusfood.com and found it quite convenient to order food from. It has a list of all major restaurants that deliver near the place you stay and helps to coordinate order processing for delivery. From most restaurants that I ordered from, they also had a $1.00 off coupon for next order (can be used within 7 days of prior order). For a student, a penny saved is a penny earned. Moreover the convenience was good enough. That was until I saw that they charged me a 75 cent service fee on my order. C’mon! Shouldn’t businesses such as these charge restaurant owners for a placed order. Maybe they do, but it is not transparent to me. Well, doesn’t the $1.00 coupon offset the 75 cent payment. No. Because the next time I order, I pay 75 cents again. Thus I am essentially 50 cents out of pocket. You may say the sum is small and the convenience makes up for it. No. I just picked up the phone, called the restaurant, ordered my food without the unnecessary service charge. Convenient enough!

The bigger picture here is this. Restaurants are getting visibility on the site, they are gaining business and thus they should the only ones who are charged. The consumers on the other hand, have another option of get the same food at the same price without a fee. So there is no reason why they should be charged. Yes, there may be some benefits to the consumer, but the business model can be better than charging the consumer.

Note that there are a few promotions for the restaurants mentioned on the site. One argument could be that you will not get the savings if you called the restaurants directly. My question to you is – have you tried?

And BTW, have you ever come across a promotion which says free laptop/iPod/etc. and then they make you sign up and pay for services from other companies. Yes, Campusfood.com wants you to do that if you want free cash. Free?

I watched Okuribito (Departures) yesterday, a movie that follows the life of a mortician, an encoffiner. An encoffiner is a person whose profession is to prepare the body of a deceased person and place it in a coffin, especially in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. Leonor Magtolis Briones, a movie critic, notes, “the encoffiners’ real task is to bring dignity to death, respect to the deceased and solace to those who grieve, and it is not hard to be moved . . . .”

Okuribito is a 2008 Japanese film by Y?jir? Takita. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars.

It is a beautiful movie, but a very difficult watch initially. You feel confident of your capability to withstand difficult scenes, but in here, something inside you gives away. At first you start despising the profession and feel the same kind of emotions as felt by the wife of the protagonist. But slowly, you are awestruck with the beauty of the process, the incredible art, and the relevance of the ritual. It touches you deep within.

I don’t know what motivated me to watch this movie. Perhaps it was the fact that I had nothing else to do at that time. But I am now incredibly thankful for the impulsive decision. Though the movie is about a man’s journey, it has many underlying tones to it. There are quite a few aspects that are so very relevant to our own lives. There was once a debate at my house on how once people take care of their need for food and shelter, they move on to think about supposedly higher level things. The argument surrounded the relative progress made by different civilizations around the world. But in the face of this movie, all those arguments fall apart. Through this movie you realize that a profession can be cherished for what good does it do to the people around us. You may not be making millions (or even thousands) but can live a very simple, satisfying, and beautiful life. The taste of food does not change with how secure you are financially. Those things take care of themselves once you are connected with yourself. And the fact that death is inevitable. In one line of the movie, the main character says (not verbatim) – “My father left this world leaving behind just a carton full of items”. You see what I mean. The movie also showed one of the best husband-wife relationship I have seen ever. It was just beautiful.

The movie is very well made. I am not too keen to speak about the technicalities of the movie because, at one point, it does not matter. But I would like to highlight its music. Its refreshing. Anyone who is motivated to watch this movie must first read the story (at least the gist). Only if you feel comfortable with the subject, should you venture. And even if you do not subscribe to my enthusiasm or assessment, its not a big deal.

I am currently reading The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Nobel Prize winning Economist Dr. Amartya Sen. In there, a chapter is dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore, one of India’s foremost thinkers.  I have always wanted to know more about Tagore – I grew up in Kolkata in the West Bengal state of India where Tagore, his writings, songs, and music is strongly entrenched in the place’s culture. Not coming from a traditional Bengali family, I never had a chance to read or listen to Tagore’s literature much. I was able to lay hands, though, on some of his translated works. But being a teenager and not much fascinated by poetic compositions, I ignored the stalwart. But Dr. Sen has definitely rekindled my curiosity to explore Tagore’s work. Here is a piece from his Nobel prize winning book, Gitanjali:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

When taking THE ‘Market Intelligence’ course here at Goizueta, we came across a data set that contained lots of missing values. Yes, I know that most of the data sets you see out there have some missing data or the other. But when I started looking for material on how to deal with these data points (other than simply discarding them) I was frustrated not to find anything for a manager-type audience. Most of the discussion was for statisticians. So, based on what I heard in class, here is a flow diagram that should help. Note that there are some acronyms used, but you can look them up and find out what they mean. They are not difficult.

1. Various Statistical packages have automated functionality to achieve this.
2. Various options available to impute data. Use business judgement.

Optional

• Run analysis with imputed data and dropped cases
• Check for any significant difference in the models
• Provide necessary details of imputation when presenting analysis