Innovation: An Article That Inspired Me

Don’t Look Back by ZDNet's Andrew Keen -- How to innovate? That was both the spoken and unspoken question on everyone's minds at the Wall Street Journal's memorable D Conference this week in Carlsbad. How can we radically improve the experience and value of interacting with one's digital device? What is the next chapter in the evolution of information and entertainment technology?

Knowledge Unlimited 2007! Performance uncovered.

We're winners again! Second best doesn't matter, performers are always performers. Kult 2007 was the last organization-wide event I got to represent my group. I'm moving to new vistas from early May.

Transitions: Why?

When is the right time to move on? Rather, what is the optimum time for a stay, or tenure? Some say, it should be somewhere near the industry average: you’ve to keep pace with the industry to feel “happening”. Another popular notion simply states, there’s no such concept as the “optimum tenure”. They feel one can stay as much as one feels comfortable with his/her work and/or working conditions: simply stay put till you find a serious situation contradictory to your norms of a comfortable working atmosphere.

Of late, I’ve been reading some articles published by management consultants of note. There were quite some comments for chief executives and incumbents for the top position. The motto of a corporate chieftain should be to instill change. This comment was parallel to something one of my mentors told me sometime in 2002: “You have to make an impact wherever you go.” After a second serious thought on the matter, I feel that infusing change is the basis of existence of every executive, no matter whatever his position is.

It becomes inevitable for a leader to bring change owing to some reasons. First, it is necessary for every leader to show the impact of his presence in the position, after a short period of his joining. It therefore, reinstates the spirit of new-ness: new leader, new style. Second, since every new executive brings in his/her own set of thoughts and beliefs (the essence of individuality), and the most visible of these individualities would, undoubtedly, be that of the leader himself. It therefore, becomes necessary for the leader to project his individuality. In addition, independent thinking and vision is something that differentiates a leader from others.

Changing tracks, parting ways

Managing change is a painful process, especially so when you are part of it and have a major role in developing it in a constructive way.

Recently I handed over one of my most-favored projects to a close friend, with whom I love to retain a love-hate professional relation. Thus what I wrote in the paragraph above proved to be true in my case the hard way. Like every honest individual, I also do admit that my first reaction was to resist the initial pangs of transition...losing a project that I developed and managed myself walking through all the hard ways sitting through late nights and pre-dawns, the team that I grew up (I still treat them like my kids) from a couple of nerds to masters of their art, an appreciating client who constructively acknowledges all amendments I make and provide me ample room to exercise my creativity...it was painful to let go everything in a couple of hours.

It is equally true that I’ve to develop other pilot projects also (yes from the roots…that’s where I like to exercise creativity and employ my management prowess) and take care of higher challenges yet to come in the New Year. It, therefore, is natural for my boss who does not hesitate to call me an asset of the division to ask me to concentrate on higher challenges. But letting go of the sweet old things in such a short span was more painful than I expected.

Equally painful is the case when I still keep receiving mails from the same old client who accidentally or not, updates me with changes at her end. Gradually I began imbibing the ease with which one handles a newly gained client: promptness and commitment. With increasing level of confidence inspired in the new client, I began reinventing the wheel developing another project that is all set to change the face of my department, add a new meaning to our activity…we’re now knowledge engineers.

I’m delighted to be the flag-bearer of change and a trendsetter for business processes and practices in the division. Change is the law of nature, and had it not be, I’d be stuck in a traffic-jam caused by a stray dinosaur.

Knowledge Unlimited! We're among Winners 2006

Team Development...that presentation

The other day, I gave a brief presentation on Team Development as part of the People Growth Plan initiatives taken by my department. I presented a management model of team life cycle. I've came across quite some team life cycle models myself, but none of them seemed to have a significant mention of the life cycle of the project in which the team operates. My effort was to present the metamorphosis of the project team with respect to that of the project itself. I also mentioned the possible measures that a leader could undertake to ensure the smooth funtioning of the project.