One of the confounding terms in the business world is value. Outside the business world the term poses difficult questions to philosophers, economists, religious thinkers in the sense it matters to them. One of the main challenges is to define whether the value of an object/service is absolute or relative. For example, neoclassical economists perceive value as relative while classical folks try to measure it as innate worth, and an objectivist acknowledges the worth, but play it down with reason.

In a world, where value seems to be driven by perceptions of individuals, it is difficult to assess the true...

What prompts a person to learn? I have been trying to find an answer, especially in the context of work. For many, once out of educational system, learning becomes almost a matter of choice. The biggest hurdle in making this choice is the refusal to accept ignorance. We have built a culture around us where ignorance is considered a shame.

Look around! Many of us are trying to convince ourselves that we know, especially in the areas of our specialty or work. Seldom we realise that those confidence-boosters become obstacles in our learning process. The first step in learning is...

A few years back, when the book Who Moved My Cheese? was in the list of top-sellers, everyone talked about change frequently and daringly. Change is inevitable in the universe and life, that we all must be prepared to deal with. But all changes need not bring desirable results. Success of a change depends on the current situation, our knowledge on it, and the acceptation of it’s results.

Along with change comes the restraint to change – which is good. In life, the restraint to change is often a mental block, or a fear that the change may not work,...

Since I joined the Orkut community, I have been noticing a lot of hits coming to this site from Orkut. I couldn’t help, but thinking and searching about Orkut.

Orkut is a social networking site designed by Orkut Büyükkökten – a turkish software engineer – as a personal project in Google. It has grown into a phenomenon with the help of netizens, dedicating their time and “relationships”. But I was particularly intrigued by one of the most important aspect of any social network. Privacy!

Reading through the fine-print, I understand the privacy of our personal information (date of birth, address,...

Sometime back, I was searching in the Wide Web World for an easy-to-understand solution for Rubik’s cube. I found many, but none worked out for me. Finally my friends helped me out to solve it. As I got help from many, I started jotting down the moves and thought I will write those down for the benefit of others. That was the first version of this article.

Later, I discovered that people are still having problems with notations, and I introduced a new notation as well.

Read this completely once, before attempting to solve.

Most of us see Rubik’s cube...

Cryptography was a subject of interest among the Government agencies, military, banks and multinational corporations, until recently. The research and development in this area was mainly aimed at delivering the vital messages without being understood by the interceptors. As we move into an information society, now cryptography relates to everyones life. It has become one of the main tools of privacy, trust, access control, electronic payments, corporate security and countless other fields.

The history of Cryptography is 4000 years old and can be traced to the hieroglyphs of early Egyptian civilisation. It played a crucial role in both the World...

Evolution in any form is to bring in complexity to the system. It is universal and inevitable. Now we are talking about banking industry, its language and the messaging systems that form the backbone of the industry.

Back in 1970s when computers were introduced in banking, the messages and files were mostly proprietary. Soon the industry realised the power of networking and common standards and numerous attempts were made to make the messages interoperable. In those days the resources were limited and most of the messages and standards that were devised aimed at transferring data efficiently between the end-points. The...

I saw the movie “Coach Carter” and am pretty impressed. The coach kept asking the tough rookie – “Cruz, what’s your deepest fear?”. At one point Cruz finds the answer:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it...

In a recent newsletter, Jim Womack from Lean.Org has mentioned the hunters/farmers concept in sales, and encouraged the farmers in a lean organisation. For the people who have not heard about hunters & farmers, hunters are the aggressive sales people whose interest is in getting sales higher and faster for the moment. While farmers can be quite future-minded, nurturing the customers, slowly building them up to a long term relationship.

These days organisations prefer hunters (we call head-hunters, not head-farmers; isn’t it?) and that helps them meet the short-term targets very well. When the hunters get worn out, they get...

I was preparing some notes on “stewardship of time” and came across this poem.

Just a tiny little minute, Only sixty seconds in it, Forced upon me, can’t refuse it, Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, But it’s up to me to use it, Give account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, But eternity is in it. – Author Unknown

I sat there for a moment and wondered how much meaning it conveyed to me. May be the entire message on “stewardship of time” is in it.