"Feather"dale Visit

Hello,

2 weeks ago I got a call from a friend from Phoenix whom I had not spoken since 2007. It was a pleasant surprise and came to know that she was visiting Sydney for a week to tour around. She arrived over the weekend and had shown interest to visit a zoo which was quite close to our house. It is a 10 minute drive from here and we had not taken a chance to see in the last 2.5 years!! Guess it took a visitor from the Wild Wild West for us to look at some next door wilderness!! So we went to the Featherdale Wildlife Park which was tucked inside a quiet suburb nearby-http://www.featherdale.com.au/ .

It was a small zoo which could be covered in a few hours. A very nice idea for a picnic (they allow food to be brought in from outside) on a good weather day. The weather was bearable though it turned out to be a bit nippy towards the later part of the afternoon.

Their primary attraction is the Koala bear. There were "heaps" of them mostly resting in their own cozy spots. It was interesting to see one Koala jump right into a zoo keeper's arms and she was carrying it around like a baby on the hip. There were few other native favourites such as Wombats, Wallabies, Dingos, Tasmanian Red Devil and of course the Roo (Kangaroo). We couldn't see a full grown roo though.

The surprising fact for me was the bird collection they had. Quite a variety for a zoo of that size. Some of the birds were quite "vocal" in showcasing their skills. Should've taken some video to record the melodies. Maybe next time. They had a collection of local and tropical birds. Very colourful indeed. It was a pity for the camera that the birds were in their fenced areas. Still managed to click a few virtually bypassing the fences. It was interesting to see the Peahen and the Peacock. Probably my first time seeing a Peahen? If the male (peacock) is supposed to be the prettier version....why do we correlate that with females in Tamil? It is quite ironical to call a girl "Mayil" - which basically means "not so pretty bird".

One another interesting feature was their "passport ticket". The entry pass had a small map and page with their local species. Next to each exhibit was a stamp pad and seal of that animal. Nandhitha found it "cool" to be stamping each animal. At the end we realized we missed out the Emu and went all the way to the other end of the park to get the stamp. Only to realize that one can stamp everything at one go just near the exit!!! 

Signing off for now...

Have a great week!!

C

Shanghai Connection

Hi,

This last week has been one of the most hectic days with a trip to Shanghai, Melbourne, Nandhitha's singing concert and a dinner party thrown in within a span of 7 days. It felt nice to get back to a routine Monday. :-)

Shanghai - what can I say, truly an experience. I had been there for 2 days for attending a conference where my organization had a booth. It was a first of a kind on several counts from going to China to hosting a booth in a conference. I survived. :-)

The fun began right from Sydney airport where I was the only non-mongolian or non-caucasian looking guy in the aircraft. Usually there is at least one of our brothers or sisters on their way back home. Probably not many prefer a stop over in Shanghai. ;-) Thanks to China Eastern airline's website I did not have any option to select a meal so braced myself for a culinary adventure in the flight. The moment the food came out the plan smelt exactly like a Chinese restaurant.

Have to write a few words about our Chino bhais. They have a tendency to travel in groups (which was a fact that was actually confirmed by an expert in the conference.) Almost everybody in the flight seemed to know each other. The moment the seat belt lights were turned off they got up and started chatting with their mates. I guess they don't trust their own country's airline for food...many had brought dried noodle packs to snack in between. I must admit that I did not have any major problem with the food (had a good fix for my chinese craving for the next couple of days). I guess one doesn't really give a damn for any announcement or sign board. Even if the toilet sign says occupied they try their luck by knocking at the door and even a light bang to see if someone is really inside. It was also funny to see people getting up from the seats the moment the wheels touched the ground on landing. The flight attendants had to rush behind them to sit down.

It was a 10 hour direct flight from Sydney to Shanghai. China Eastern was like 20 years behind on in flight entertainment (IFE as our industry folks call it). There was no personal entertainment screens (leave alone On Demand entertainment). Managed to watch Chinese, Japanese and Korean movies. Of course there was no use of the headset since all I needed was the sub title. One interesting movie (Korean) was "Architecture 101". It is about some high school / university romance and the concepts / drama seemed quite similar to an Indian movie. I guess sentiments are universal. :)

My culinary adventures were quite interesting not because of the cuisine but more due to the language. What can I say...I was not as prepared as some of my colleagues. They prepared printed cue cards of some of the common words they will be using to communicate. My colleague took me to a hawker where he was selling different types of barbeque sticks. There were different kinds of meats and veggies. I tried something that "looked" like chicken meat and also tasted like one. However not sure of what it was actually. :-)

It was a 2 day conference and I had to rush back immediately after the conference. Did not have much time for sight seeing except for a visit to the Bund. Which had the Shanghai sky line with the Pearl tower etc. The weather in Shanghai was just like in Chennai (or Mumbai as some would want to compare). The chinese males had an interesting way to escape the humidity. They all roll up their shirts up to their chest to get some "air". ;-) Anyways... thus ended my Shanghai connection. Not sure if I would want to go back again on my own except for a guided tour or something. One definitely needs a translator around (in whichever form).

Weekend was quite hectic with Nandhitha's first on stage performance for carnatic singing. It was a grand event - Raaga Sangamam 2012. Lots of efforts put in by the teacher, kids and of course the parents. :) It was worth the effort though...

So long folks....

Have A Great Week!!

C

Blue Ocean Strategy - A Book Review

Blue Ocean Strategy - A book I've been wanting to read for years and  finally got my hands on it during my last trip to India. If I were to summarize it in a sentence - A pragmatic guide for organizations to differentiate themselves in the market. No - I did not lift this from the back cover. ;-) It very candidly discusses reality as it is without covering it up. For eg., "Organizational politics is an inescapable reality of corporate and public life." Books of this nature are mostly biographical or heavy research material which describes what someone did. This book gives an almost step by step procedure on what someone should do to build what they call as an "uncontested market place". The flow of the book cannot be any better. It begins with explaining what a "Blue Ocean" means, moves on to guidelines on formulating, executing and finally sustainability and renewal of the strategy. This last bit about sustainability and renewal is something not many people think about. Mr. Kim and Ms Mauborgne have really laid it out all the way through the end....and beyond. Of course I do not and cannot talk about every little tip the book offers, but wanted to paraphrase a few concepts that simply stands out. 

Beating Competition - The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition. (Sounds like Karate - the art of fighting without fighting). :-)

Value Innovation - Innovation without value tends to be technology-driven, market pioneering, or futuristic, often shooting beyond what buyers are ready to accept and pay for. Value innovation occurs (only) when companies align innovation with utility, price and cost positions. Value Innovation aims at decreasing costs and increasing customer value. Do not deliver the most sophisticated technology without delivering exceptional value.

Strategy Canvas - A tool for mapping your strategy against peers based on factors that affect competition among industry players, current and potential competitors. To fundamentally shift the strategy canvas of an industry, you must begin to reorient your strategic focus from competitors to alternatives, and from customers to non-customers of the industry.

Four Actions Framework

• Eliminate factors that companies in your industry have long competed on...factors taken for granted even though they no longer have value or may even detract 
from value.

• Determine factors to reduce cost where companies tend to over serve customers (for no gain)

• Raise the value to customers by eliminating compromises your industry forces customers to make.

• Discover entirely new sources of value for buyers and create new demand

Characteristics of a good strategy - Focus, Divergence and a Compelling Tagline. If not, strategy is quite likely to be muddled, undifferentiated and hard to communicate. It is quite likely to be costly to execute.

Understand your Buyer Groups - There will be different Buyer groups in any organization. The Purchasers who pay for the product or service may differ from the actual users, and in some cases there are important influencers as well. Although these groups may overlap, they often differ. When they do, they frequently hold different definitions of value. Look across your buyer groups and redesign the value curves to focus on a previously overlooked set of buyers.

Hidden Blue Ocean - Untapped value is often hidden in complementary products and services.The key is to define the total solution buyers seek when the choose a product or service. A simple way to do so is to think about what happens before, during and after your product is used. Can you identify and eliminate the pain points through complementary product / service offering across each stage?

Blue Ocean is not Fuzzy - The process of discovering and creating blue oceans is not about predicting or preempting industry trends. Nor is it a trial-and-error process of implementing wild new business ideas that happen to come across managers' minds or intuition. It is about reconstructing existing market elements across industry and market boundaries.

Four steps of Visualizing Strategy - Awakening, Exploration, Strategy Fair, Communication

Sequence of Blue Ocean Strategy - Determine Buyer Utility, Define (acceptable) Price, Derive Target Cost & Define ;">Adoption;"> strategy. 

Typical Hurdles - Cognitive, Political, Resource, Motivational

Voluntary Cooperation - People's minds and hearts must align with the new strategy so that at the level of the individual, people embrace it of their own accord and willingly go beyond compulsory execution to voluntary cooperation in carrying it out. Voluntary cooperation is more than mechanical execution where people do only what it takes to get by. It involves going beyond the call of dury where individuals exert energy and initiative to the best of their abilities, even subordinating personal self-interest to execute resulting strategies.

3 Es of Fair Process  - Engagement, Explanation & Expectations

In summary, a great book to read and have in your collection rather than renting from a library. As they say - It's a keeper!!

Happy Swimming in the Blue Ocean!!

C

Back again...

SO....am back after a "short" break. I did feel a pinch when I saw it was 6 months since I wrote my previous post. So much has happened and changed over the last 6 months. It's going to be hard to catch up on all the  incidents that mused me during this time. Several reasons why I couldn't write earlier ...excuses...excuses will rather not  give any. It's little over 3 years now since we landed in this country and the journey has been amazing.

The biggest change recently has been on my professional side where I have moved from a "delivery guy" to a "sales guy". Wonder why I am thinking of a furniture shop...but it's pretty much the same deal. I guess everybody likes the person who actually gives the product rather than the person who takes the money from you. :-) So anyways, I am now responsible (along with a fancy title too -  "Account Director") for managing all existing customers and finding new customers in Australia and New Zealand for both IT and BPO services. 

With the new role there has been a huge learning across many fronts - business, people, relationships, perceptions, perspectives.... It's interesting. The best part of this job is it's all about travel and hospitality where my company specializes in, so it's all about what one would do for fun. The last 6 months have been the period I have stayed both IN and AWAY from home the most during my professional career. Having a home office and a job that requires frequent travelling makes that possible.

Kids are growing up big time. Nandhitha is quite occupied with a plethora of classes as any other kid of her age. As a collateral learning I am picking up a few tips carnatic singing while I accompany her to the singing class. Nah...don't worry you will not be bothered with my "sweet voice". Nandha is as always a terror at home where nothing is "safe".  He continues to amuse us with his non-verbal communication skills. Especially his way of pacifying us when he knows we are not particularly happy with something that he did (or about to do). 

One thing that would surprise many of you...is I've started playing cricket...almost every week. Thanks to Nandhitha's Tamil class. I tried to stay away...but 2 hours of waiting time can make you do things beyond your imagination. ;-)

Am now on to a book called "Blue Ocean Strategy" which talks about creating your own market instead of competing in an already crowded one. It has been in the market for years, finally could lay hands on it just now. More about that once I am done.

So long folks.... hope to keep this coming more regularly.

Have a great weekend!!

C

Switch - A Book Review

Sanku - Thanks for recommending this one. A must read book for anybody who wishes to "Change" anything in life especially (as the title  says) when "Change is Hard". Seems like a good complement to "Speed of Trust" focusing more on the dynamics of change and how to make it happen. This is also a slightly different version of "Tipping Point" where it talks about how certain small changes  make a big impact.

The authors (Chip and Dan Heath) have a very light style of narrating their "concepts" making it an easy read with full of interesting and practical perspective. It is a fairly simple "framework" comprising of only 3 components - Elephant, Rider and the Path. The Rider is the Logical / Rational aspect, the Elephant -  the Emotional side and the Path is the environment in which Change needs to happen. The process is "simple" too - Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant and Shape the Path. Quite easy eh!! Have taken a few excerpts from the book which I found to be most appealing.

Direct The Rider

"Find and Follow the Bright Spots" - In any challenging  situation, they claim that there will be a few bright spots which stand apart from the crowd. Those bright spots need not be earth shattering. It could be as simple as tossing in tiny shrimp and crabs in the rice (to avoid malnutrition in kids in Vietnam). Once you find the bright spots follow them to identify the trends and clone them over and over and over.  "Don't obsess about failures. Instead investigate and clone the successes."

Quite often we get into a challenge where the solution doesn't seem to be anywhere near the horizon. A simple question to ask - "What was different the last time it worked?" (where we know it worked).

A very strong (and true) statement made - "We're all loop-hole exploiting lawyers when it comes to our own self-control." How many times have we "justified" ourselves on actions that we do. 

Here's another "eye-opener" - "One reason we're able to believe that we are better than average leaders and drivers and spouses and team players is that we are defining those terms in ways that flatter us." 

Motivate the Elephant

By "motivating" the elephant they mean reaching out to the emotional aspect of the stakeholders involved in that Change. One interesting concept is to create a "burning platform". "To create a burning platform is to paint such a gloomy picture of the current state of things that employees can't help but jump into the fiery sea." And hence be "forced" to Change.

One of the main detrimental factors to change is the fear of the magnitude (sometimes unknown) of the change. Their idea is to "Shrink the Change" to make it more palatable to the Elephant. Few years ago one of my client bosses constantly said "Do not try to eat the whole elephant. Eat it in chunks." Now I totally understand what he meant. ;-)  Another technique is to create an "impression" that you are not starting from scratch. "People find it more motivating to be partly finished with a long journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one." The key is to identify a quick win and win it. "You need quick wins to get fired up. And getting fired up is super important."

Shape the Path

Read about an interesting psychological concept "Fundamental Attribution Error" which states "The error lies in our inclination to attribute the behaviour to the way they are rather than the situation they are in." They claim "What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. And no matter what your role is you've got (some) control over the situation." So the important question they ask is "How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people." Easier said than done eh!!

Talking about the Path, we often worry too much and try to get every piece of the puzzle in order along the path. "When you are at the beginning, don't obsess about the middle because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and GET MOVING".

This review by no means does any justice to the book. This is more of a reminder for myself for future reference.

More information on this is available at http://www.heathbrothers.com/switch/

Happy Switching!!

C

Holidays 2011

HOLIDAYS 2011 - It was a huge one for us. Can't remember the last time I had a few days with absolutely no plan. It started from the eve of christmas eve when the office closed earlier than usual. We had a lunch hosted at our place and had to prepare for it. Saturday was a bit hectic with guests coming over for lunch, but it ended at about 3 PM. From that point it has been a very relaxing holiday (so far!!). We had prepared enough food that lasted us for 2 days. 

After a long time we were able to take the kids to the park nearby. On 26th  we had lunch at my uncle's place in Sydney. A nice spread with a mix of south and north indian delicacies. For a change we were actually on time for lunch and we didn't even have to rush. Thus began our holiday...

Post lunch we left Sydney at around 3 PM and headed out to Coffs Harbour where we had planned our stopover enroute to Brisbane. The drive was quite smooth all along. We were warned about a lot of hold ups due to road work and traffic. Luckily we did not face any hurdles. We did pretty good time and reached Coffs Harbour by 9.45 PM inspite of 2-3 breaks inbetween. Highways in NSW had some unique features compared to a freeway in US. 

1) There were more rest areas to stop and "Revive". The motto being "Stop, Revive & Survive". 

2) The speed limits were variable based on weather conditions. A zone where you could drive at 110 km/hr changes to 80 km/hr when it rains.

3) They had slots to actually turn around in the highway without having to take an exit.

There were quite a few cops around busy earning bonus revenue for the state during the "silly season". 

The motel in Coffs Harbour was just right for a night's stop over. After a long time I slept under a ceiling fan. Coffs Harbour apparently is considered in one of the best ambience in terms of temperature across the world. No complaints there. 

Left early next morning and reached Brisbane at around 2 pm. Thanks to the early start there wasn't much traffic either. They have made some newer roads that our GPS was not updated with. It took us on a "scenic" deviation at some point and rejoined us back on the highway. After a while the GPS tried to do it again, but my 3rd sense told me not to follow it. As we continued on the highway I could see the GPS thoroughly confused with the new roads. Clearly time to update the maps. 

Time in Brisbane was very relaxed. We jumped into the pool right after lunch. The swimming pool was the key "enticing factor" to make Nandhitha leave her "comfort zone" and go a on a long drive. The next day we had a Brioche french toast for breakfast. Brioche is a French bread variety which tastes exactly like a Croissant but not flaky. Later in the evening took my neices out for bowling. Had a decent start with 100 points in the first game, but droped to 80 by the third round. Luckily called it quits by then. Nandhitha had a blast by having her own turn in the lane compared to having a turn here and there when the the adults bowled. 

Did a day trip to a water park nearby called Wet and Wild. Reached there around noon and got our tummys filled up first before we headed to the waters. All of us had a good time. Nandha increased my "adventure" factor even in the most adventureless rides. Holding a revolting toddler on a tube float is not a fun thing to do. Please attempt at your own risk. :-) To my surprise Nandhitha actually made it on the tall water slide. Luckily she was just a tad over the minimum height limit. The best part of this water park was what they called as "Splash Cash". I was given a water proof wrist band which had a bar code. I was able to load with money and the entire day I used it as an "e-wallet" whenever we had to buy something to eat / drink. It was very convenient not to carry around the wallet or risk missing it in some place. Am pretty sure this feature must be available in most water park these days. Just that it has been a while since I had been to one. 

Brisbane has a nice "CBD". We did a few "mistakes" going around thanks to driving without a clear address. Eventually reached the spot where we wanted to be. They had a nice park. The kids play area was a quite unique and modern. We "stumbled" across the artificial beach created in the park. Had to convince Nandhitha that I will "think about it" if she finishes her lunch properly. Had a good chinese lunch and went back to the "beach". Reached back home just in time for a dinner at a desi restaurant. Apparently it had a nice water front view, but we couldn't enjoy at night.

Started back from Brisbane at around 8 AM Sydney time (Brisbane is an hour behind during summer) on our 14 hour drive home. Enroute we took a short deviation to Gold Coast to have a quick peek. The weather was not very supportive and hence we didn't bother to get out of the car. Had a leisurely lunch at Coffs Harbour. None of the restaurants were open except for a small cafe and it turned out to be an excellent choice. Reached home at around 11 PM, just in time to catch the famous fireworks on the Sydney Harbour Bridge - on TV.

New Year was quite hectic with a temple visit followed by a party. Nandhitha did an ex-tempo dance number for "Daddy Mummy veetil illa..". She had originally "practiced" for a Punnagai Mannan song (Kaalam kaalamaaga....) but the request did not reach the DJ on time. Hence switched to something that was readily available. She did a good job actually without fussing about the song that she knew. She had a blast!!

2011 was wonderful. It had quite a few ups and downs. The year ended on a good note with me being awarded with the best project manager for last quarter. 2012 seems quite interesting in many many ways. Let's see how it goes...

Have A Good Year Ahead!!

C

Sydney Stories - Week 98

Hello,

It is a rather odd time for me to write the Sydney Story at 8 AM on Sunday morning - but if I don't do it now I will never get a chance again. So here it comes...

The past few weeks post PR has been quite interesting. Amongst other things I was able to buy a cell phone on post paid connection. Got a Samsung Galaxy - SII,  supposedly the latest in Androids. The first week of of SII was quite intimidating. On the positive side, of course there are many many cool features. I am finally now into the "app" scene and don't feel left out at work when people discuss - Oh I have THAT app to do THIS. The best feature that is unique to Samsung compared to many other phones including the Iphone is the SWYPE technology. SWYPE is where you don't have to punch the letters on the phone, you just slide your finger around the letters you need to type. It has "intelligence" built to figure out the right word even if you made some rather vague swipes. The best part is when I swipe my last name it suggests both "Natarajan" and "Natarajhan". Wonder where it picked it up from!! Nandhitha and I are now officially fans of the "Angry Bird". In fact Nandhitha taught me a few tricks (which she has learnt playing on my friend's phones in the past). It is sooo addictive that it has made a serious impact to my reading habit in the train. On the negative side, one most annoying thing is not being able to close an application easily. Until I learnt a few tricks I had so many applications running which obviously drains out the battery pretty quickly. 

Last week we had a visitor from Salem. An exporter who started life from a pretty low point and kept growing up. He doesn't speak English - can read slowly adding one alphabet after the other. He is out here down under all alone doing "market study" of what sells in this country. Apparently he can export pretty much anything from India and he does a lot of business in Malaysia so far. With a few contacts here and there he managed to spend a few weeks here in Melbourne and Sydney going around Indian shops. In Sydney I took him around a few suburbs which has a decent Indian population. He immediately "made friends" with one of the store owners where he spent a lot of time understanding the business here. Truly enterprising!!!

Here's the grand finale for this week. We had a bowling championship as part of the sports club we are part of. Uma and I were on the same team and I was the "captain" of the team as well. My first memory of bowling goes back to Genting Highlands - back in '89. Still remember rolling a ball that I could not even lift. After that I've had a lot of opportunities in Bangalore and in US. Haven't had many chances after we came to Australia. Am pretty sure the committee wanted to encourage "new comers" and hence made me a captain because nobody has ever seen me bowl. In the past I remember averaging about 80 points. Yesterday I averaged at 110 in 3 games. By my standards - not bad at all. :-)  Guess what - our team came runners up against 12 other teams. We were in fact leading the pack in every round by a good margin. In the final round some of our key strikers got exhausted. Nevertheless it was good team work where everybody pitched in to keep the scores at a steady rate. It was quite a close competition in the finals across 3 teams with score differences in single digits. Had dinner at 1 AM at a Pakistani/Indian restaurant in Granville. Apparently they are open till 2 AM every day. Very unique by Sydney standards.

Oki doki. Have a good rest of the weekend and have a great week ahead.

C