Financial Crisis: How to Act?

In a financial crisis such as the current economic recession, the worst enemy that i can think of is PANIC. As i recall reading earlier, we are unlucky for the current situation, because people knew of the recession even before it came, and since people are accustomed to act upon the media reports, they called upon the crisis even before the economically inviable circumstance striked.
How should people react to such a situation. That remedy is called “common sense and prevention”. No one would dispute that a trained driver can better withstand a skid on an icy road. This analogy also works for the behavior of managers who face the crisis in the economy and in their company. Many people confuse the crisis prevention with hastily cut costs. They think that laying off employees, canceling or minimizing planned investments and ordered external services, and introducing strict cost cuts will do. The good feeling about the immediate cuts might be soon replaced by consternation when the intended higher resistance does not come. With laid-off people, the company loses know-how that it did not even know about. While cutting external costs, the company loses strategic partnerships with contractors that have been built for many years. Cutting all possible costs might result in uncontrollable local optimizations that could have a tragic effect on the company’s effectiveness and its inner processes. What they fail to understand is that in the process, they are exaggerating the crisis.
Correct prevention is about identifying the risks that might be brought by the crisis and about defining alternative steps and solutions. It is also necessary to control how the steps are interconnected with each other. Most importantly, companies should not be attracted by cheap measures.
What a company needs to realize is the fact that crisis is only temporary. A smart chap will positively analyze the situation as an opportunity to rise. Since many firms will fallout during the crisis, if a company acts aggressively during the crisis and overcomes the economic downturn period, they will come on top and would have taken over a huge share in the market.
While most people will see the situation as "Survival of the fittest", i see the situation as "Surivial of the Smartest". I may not be sure of this fact, but what i am sure of is that if all people act smart, there would be no panic, and hence no crisis.

https://www.google.com:443/analytics/web/siteopt/signed/minisite?experimentId=uTQRgNsKRfKLP3ASroKxWw&webProperty=UA-4295058-1&signature=AFB3siaRoG4-jiS8TsGZfjXTDORZR9LkdNIO_9gpaj9_fGNv2DFChgsQI4JFqDupXUvg4C_z9aBpJxNrUtvl5FJD_PDp1Uvuyt2wpyP6H37Yamb91W1ng3mjge1wI3PHiNBTwANWaIvb&hl=en_US

Federer the Master is Back

I know its been a while since i made a post.... When i look back and think..... Federer's form went down just about the same time i stopeed blogging :-)...... so now that he is back winning the US open....time to start blogging again.

We all expected the US open final to be yet another Nadal vs Federer final, but not to be..... Murray was in fine form..... and defeated NADAL in the semis. What i liked about him is that he came up with big serves whenever he needed them. Some help from the net, and with gr8 agility and speed Murray showed the world why he is number 4 in the world.

Well but i am a big fan of Federer. So in case u see me talk about him more than anything else, its only because i am a fan of his masterplay. Federer was down , lost his Number-1 spot in the world to Nadal, couldn't even get a medal at the singles event in olympics and had not won a single hard court event coming into US open. But none-the-less, he showed why he is a champion. Down under, he came up with one of his best performances so far in his career.

Federer was far from his best. His aggression has dropped to a level that is so unlike federer, but i can without doubt say that his defences are now the best on court. The other thing that makes me wonder the greatness of this player is that he has won the US open even when he was far from his best (unforced errors are far more than what he would do normally).

I would still have loved to see a federer-nadal showdown, Tennis's greatest rivalary would have seen another chapter. But things as they are, Federer would cherish his 13th grand-slam victory, one short of Sampras.

Whether he gets the recognition of the "Best Player all time or not" but for me he is definitely the most complete player that i have seen ever since i've started following tennis. https://www.google.com:443/analytics/web/siteopt/signed/minisite?experimentId=uTQRgNsKRfKLP3ASroKxWw&webProperty=UA-4295058-1&signature=AFB3siaRoG4-jiS8TsGZfjXTDORZR9LkdNIO_9gpaj9_fGNv2DFChgsQI4JFqDupXUvg4C_z9aBpJxNrUtvl5FJD_PDp1Uvuyt2wpyP6H37Yamb91W1ng3mjge1wI3PHiNBTwANWaIvb&hl=en_US

Working for what??

There is an interesting advertisement that i get reminded of every now and then which was based on the theme "WORKING FOR PEANUTS???". Well now that i have started working, i look for rewards as i work.
Not that everyday is rewarding, but i have analyzed an interesting phenomenon. One is never satisfied with what he gets working for someone else. What do the best of the companies have to offer to their employees? The answer to the question can be "A share of the company" or "Interesting Work".
* Well if it's the first one, then why work for only a share and not have the whole share. I have seen people working really hard to rise up in a company. My guess is had they worked for themselves putting in the same effort they would have achieved more for themselves. After all success follow hard work.
* And if it is the second one then.... i guess u are a silly fellow. Interesting work will come if u know what u want to do. You needn't work for others for that.

An interesting thought hits me ..... "If there is work that is worth working on, it is even more worth hiring somebody to it". Couldn't agree more right?

Captain Kumble

After winning the 20-20 world cup and showing promises in the one dayers and test series throughout the year, India now faces a fresh challenge. Its not going to be a home series, and these are the conditions where the indians tumble under pressure. But it is not just victory that indians are chasing.
Kumble perhaps deserves the captaincy. Take it as reward to his services for the game, or take it as "luck" , but for me he is perhaps the best replacement for Mr.Dravid. As the press conferences begins, we all see the reason why i say the same.
Captaincy involves more than just leading the players in the field, more than just be able to manage the bowlers and placing the fielders. A captain needs to set up the morale and spirit of the game, both on and off the field. On the field as a honest player, a player who does not play for individual records, and Off the field as a player who sets the fan following by showing up the class at the press conferences.
My favourite Mr. Dravid did exactly the above, but failed at something else, his individual performace went down. Though i believe its only a series of bad luck that has struck him and he will be back with a bigger bang, Mr.Kumble needs to lookout for the same. I sincerely hope he does not follow Tendulkar, Sourav and Dravid on the list, especially because he is at the end of his carrer( no hard feelings, i would love to c see him play forever).
But all in all, i believe kumble has in him to be a gr8 captain. Though time is not with him, to show a long stint at captaincy but if i know kumble .....its another challenge for him, and he'll show the world what can be done by him.

Life as it is

Sometimes life can be really painful. There is a time when you have the feeling that you are the luckiest person on earth. Contented, we look for nothing more. And there comes a snatch......from somewhere, from someone taking away what u like the most. Thats it......everything that u had was gone.
Well i am not here to tell you what happened, but just following the saying "Learn from others mistakes". I am sharing a piece of advice. Do not get satisfied with just few things in life, because when u dont get those few things, it HURTS. And it hurts real hard.
The motto of life has to be diversify. Perhaps this is what most successful businessmen do, diversify their businesses. Once a business kicks off, they are always trying to do something new. Even if what clicked today, fails tomorrow they still have more things to bank on. Perhaps this is how one needs to take life as well, have backups of everything. Perhaps it doesn't sound practical for many things, but better be safe than sorry.

Who's the greatest all time tennis player.....Federer or Sampras? Is the Question now answerable?

hello....a late entry but an entry indeed.....Sampras beats Federer, and the remark if he is the all time best, is back up again!!! nearly 4 years since he played professional tennis, and Sampras comes back and beats the current World No. 1, someone the whole tennis world fears of. Is that a statement of superiority.

Federer will always be my favorite player. His class is unmatched. Even though, Sampras has beaten him, Federer has the class that is possessed by none other than him. He has the will and power, which adds to his talent and his temperament seals it through. Sampras on the other hand has a game that is surely can't be perfected any way else. Sampras relies on his strengths to beat opponents, Federer on the other hand, well if you can't think of a weakness, u can't even think of a strength. Federer's game is so balanced that none of the department can be declared as better than others. Well said that, Sampras has beaten Federer, hasn't he?

Nicely, putting it, i think for Sampras coming back after 4 years and beating Federer in one of the 3 matches surely backs Sampras for being the "ALL TIME BEST". But Federer is only getting better, thats what he says. Rightly said by someone, that was the nicest gift Federer could gift his idol, a victory over himself.

India Beat Pakistan 3-2

"Hip-Hip hurray for India".......24 years and India has finally beaten pakistan in India. Strange huh......the king of subcontinent found it hard to beat pakistan on its home soil?
Anyways Pakistan can at least relax that it is a 3-2 loss.......so it was pretty close......but the Indian team need to take back quite a bit of learning out of the series...
For India:
+ve's:
1) Sachin back on top. His brilliance was visible in his knocks of 90's/
2) Reliable Yuvraj. Going against my previous post his knocks of near 50 in all of his five innings is really a very big plus.
3) Fielding. Surely the Indians provided a better show in the field. Looks like Robin singh is doing a good job
4) Inspired Leadership: Hats off to Dhoni for being Mr.Cool at all times. Also he had raised his own game to lead from the front both on the field 'keeping' and with the BAT as well.
-ve's:
1) Bowling: Though decent but it wasn't anywhere near brilliant. No single bowler was reliable throughout the series except perhaps Harbhajan.
2) Sehwag: His 39 in the fourth match was his only knock that looked decent. Looks like his one-day innings is going to end.
3) Lacked the finishing touch: In the second match after the brilliance of Sachin, Indians failed to reach a total they deserved. Also the bowlers failed to restrict the PAKs even with a 320+ score. Even in the final match the batsmen were unable to capitalize on starts they got.
4) And last but not the least.....our running between the wickets need to improve.

As for Pakistan their team was no where looking complete and shoaib malik lacked the punch that dhoni possessed. But all in all an interesting series ended, and we will all be looking forward for the test series.