Buying tickets online

A lot of us have been using online sites to buy airline tickets. I remember reading recently that more than 40% of airline tickets in India are now being bought online avoiding the need for a travel agent.

While airline ticketing has taken off in a big way and railway ticketing to some extent, what about other kinds of tickets?

Tickets for shows like say for example: David Copperfield Tickets for a Magic/Illusionist show.

Music Shows like a Beyonce show or A Steady Rain Tickets

Or even something offbeat like Radio City Christmas Spectacular tickets

Tickets for Cricket matches being sold online. Wouldn't it completely beat having to stand in line, braving inclement weather and worse, wasting hours of precious time that could be better utilised elsewhere?

The internet can make life a lot easier and help save a valuable resource of time. This is why sites that offer services like online ticket booking will always be a great alternative.

Displacing farmers: India Will Have 400 million Agricultural Refugees

http://www.stwr.net/content/view/1999/37

22nd June 07 - Devinder Sharma ~ STWR Contributing Writer

It was on the cards. With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a new rehabilitation policy for farmers displaced from land acquisitions, it is now official -- farmers have to quit agriculture.

Ever since the Congress-led UPA Coalition assumed power after an angry rural protest vote threw out the erstwhile BJP-led NDA combination in May 2004, the Prime Minister had initiated a plethora of new policies for the spread of industrialization. After having laid the policy framework that allows private control over community resources – water, biodiversity, forests, seeds, agriculture markets, and mineral resources -- the UPA government finally looked at the possibility of divesting the poor people of their only economic security – a meagre piece of land holding.

“Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is an idea whose time has come,” the Prime Minister had said at an award ceremony in Mumbai sometimes back. Supported by all political parties, including the Left Front, he has actually officiated a nationwide campaign to displace farmers. Almost 500 special economic zones are being carved out (see The New Maharajas of India). What is however less known is that successive government’s are actually following a policy prescription that had been laid out by the World Bank as early as in 1995.

A former vice-president of the World Bank and a former chairman of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a body that governs the 16 international agricultural research centers, Dr Ismail Serageldin, had forewarned a number of years ago. At a conference organised by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai a few years back, he quoted the World Bank to say that the number of people estimated to migrate from rural to urban India by the year 2015 is expected to be equal to twice the combined population of UK, France and Germany.

The combined population of UK, France and Germany is 200 million. The World Bank had therefore estimated that some 400 million people would be willingly or unwillingly moving from the rural to urban centres by 2015. Subsequent studies have shown that massive distress migration will result in the years to come. For instance, 70 per cent of Tamil Nadu, 65 per cent of Punjab, and nearly 55 per cent of Uttar Pradesh is expected to migrate to urban centres by the year 2020.

These 400 million displaced will constitute the new class of migrants – agricultural refugees.

Acerbating the crisis are the policy initiatives that promotes privatization of natural resources, take over of farm land, integrating Indian agriculture with the global economy, and moving farmers out of agriculture – in essence the hallmark of the neo-liberal economic growth model.

Agricultural reforms that are being introduced in the name of increasing food production and minimising the price risks that the farmers continue to be faced with, are actually aimed at destroying the production capacity of the farm lands and would lead to further marginalisation of the farming communities. Encouraging contract farming, future trading in agriculture commodities, land leasing, forming land-sharing companies, direct procurement of farm commodities by amending the APMC Act will only drive out a majority of farmers out of subsistence agriculture.

Although the land holding size is diminishing, the answer does not lie in allowing the private companies to replace farmers. Somehow the entire effort of the policy makers is to establish that Indian agriculture has become a burden on the nation and the sooner the country offloads the farming class the better it will be for economic growth.

Contract farming therefore has become the new agricultural mantra. Not realising that private companies enter agriculture with the specific objective of garnering more profits from the same piece of land. These companies, if the global experience is any indication, bank upon still more intensive farming practices, drain the soil of nutrients and suck ground water in a couple of years, and render the fertile lands almost barren after four to five years. It has been estimated that the crops that are contracted by the private companies require on an average 20 times more chemical inputs and water than the staple foods.

Sugarcane farmers, for instance, who follow a system of cane bonding with the mills, actually were drawing 240 cm of water every year, which is three times more than what wheat and rice requires on an average. Rose cultivation, introduced a few years back, requires 212 inches of groundwater consumption in every acre. Contract farming will therefore further exploit whatever remains of the ground water resources. These companies would then hand over the barren and unproductive land to the farmers who leased them, and would move to another fertile piece of land. This has been the global experience so far.

Allowing direct procurement of farm commodities, setting up special markets for the private companies to mop up the produce, and to set up land share companies, are all directed at the uncontrolled entry of the multinational corporations in the farm sector. Coupled with the introduction of the genetically modified crops, and the unlimited credit support for the agribusiness companies, the focus is to strengthen the ability of the companies to take over the food chain.

I have always warned that agribusiness companies in reality hate farmers. Nowhere in the world have they worked in tandem with farmers. Even in North America and Europe, agribusiness companies have pushed farmers out of agriculture. As a result, only 7,00,000 farming families are left on the farm in the United States. Despite massive subsidies in European Union, one farmer quits agriculture every minute. Knowing well that the markets will displace farmers, the same agriculture prescription is being applied in India.

A Planning Commission study has shown that 73 per cent of the cultivable land in the country is owned by 23.6 per cent of the population. With more and more farmers being displaced through land acquisitions, either for SEZ or for food processing and technology parks or for real estate purposes, land is further getting accumulated in the hands of the elite and resourceful. With chief ministers acting as property dealers, farmers are being lured to divest control over cultivable land. Food security and food self-sufficiency is no longer the country’s political priority.

The government has very conveniently taken refuge behind an NSSO study that says some 40 per cent of the farmers have expressed the desire to quit farming. After all, what the government is facilitating is to make it easier for the farmers to abandon their land. It believes that a rehabilitation policy for the farmers therefore is the need of the hour. What is however not being seen through is that an agrarian economy like India cannot afford large-scale displacement of farmers. It will lead to social unrest the kind of which has not been witnessed. What India needs desperately is a policy paradigm that restores pride in agriculture, stops take-over of agricultural lands, and ensures sustainable livelihoods for 600 million farmers.

Devinder Sharma is a food and agriculture policy analyst. He can be contacted at or visit www.dsharma.net.

M T R Foods Sold for $100 Million

MTR Foods has taken a Scandinavian turn. It's not US spice king McCormick that will buy MTR Foods as speculated earlier, but the Norwegian foods-to-metals group Orkla.

Shock/dismay/sadness/happiness.... a series of feelings ran through me when I read these headlines in Finance Asia & the Times of India.

Shock since I did not have any idea that MTR was up for sale, being in this faraway land. Dismay & sadness that a Scandinavian Company has taken over at the helm of MTR. What do Scandinavians know about Kannadiga cuisine? Happiness that MTR as a brand was worth 450crore, three times its current turnover. But mostly I feel sad. What Orkla will do with the brand & the product compositions remains to be seen. But things can never be the same.

Why am I writing on business news which I normally just read & never write about ? Because I have a deep personal connection with MTR. To me, MTR is like the khansama from an ancestral kitchen who keeps giving me treats, tips and tricks to turn out better food in my own kitchen.

My love affair with MTR began when I moved to Bangalore in 1999 & was introduced to the Mavalli Tiffin Rooms in Lalbagh. The institution is over 80 years old and produces some of the best, most authentic South Indian Vegetarian cuisine ever. There is always a long line of people waiting to get in. Right from 6:30 in the morning when it opens. Fluffly idlis, crisp dosas, the rava idlis that they popularized. Words cannot do justice to their piping hot sambhars and other yummy food.

Three floors were not enough to house their customers, and they later branched out into a fast food principle based "Namma MTR" in Bangalore & Dubai to keep up with the demand.

MTR pickles found pride of place in my kitchen right next to the pickles that my mother and grandmother sent me. MTR spice powders and masala mixes were the number 1 choice if I did not have the time to make my own.

When I left for the US, half my luggage was MTR instant Bisibele Baath mix on request from several colleagues who were missing the "taste of home".

By the time I returned they had vastly increased their range and had also introduced the "Ready to Eat" line. Heat and eat, even simpler than the "Instant Mix" and much less oily than a lot of other brands prevalent in the Indian market.

When we moved to Cairo, a large part of our shipment consisted of MTR instant mixes - rava idli, dosa, upma, gulab jamun among others. From Soups to Ready mixes, to Papads to Chips to Ice Cream mixes to Pickles to Ready to eat and Frozen Foods - MTR prepares and sells them all to their hungry customer base.

Their forays into North Indian food and Malayali food can be forgiven since they seemed to manage a pretty admirable job with those items too.

The restaurant and the packaged food business were separate entities. As of now there isn't much clarity on whether the restaurants will also belong to Orkla.

I hope Orkla does not tamper with the product compositions because they have been perfected with a lot of care. I pray they do not destroy the brand completely like other MNC's have tried to do with Indian Acquisitions. And I wish they will start exporting to Egypt.

Also published at Desicritics.org

What is your Salary per Minute?

Shah Rukh Khan
What: Actor
How much: Rs 247 per minute
The King Khan, who started off modestly as a 'Fauji', made about Rs 13 crore last year. This included his endorsement deals for Pepsi, Hyundai Santro - and of course, wetting himself in a bathtub, surrounded by women for HLL's Lux. How much per minute?

Brij Mohan Lall Munjal
What: Chief of Hero Group
How much: Rs 255 per minute
The patriarch of the Hero Group received the Life-time achievement award for 'Excellence in Corporate Governance' by the Institute of Company Secretary of India this year. Brij Mohan Lall Munjal earned about Rs 13.4 crore last year. He continues to be the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer and fuels his bank balance with Rs 255 per minute.

Sachin Tendulkar
What: Cricketer
How much: Rs 1,163 per minute
India's most loved sportsman makes a lot more than most CEOs of Indian companies; going by his annual remuneration for 2004-2005. Breaking it down, his three-year contract for endorsements is worth Rs 180 crores. He is also paid Rs 2,35,000 for a five-day test match and Rs 2,50,000 for one dayers.
A little bit of elementary math: This highest paid cricketer in the world makes around Rs 61.15 crore a year, or Rs 1,163 per minute

Dr A P J ABDUL Kalam
What: President of India
How much: Rs 1.14 per minute
Before taking on the reins of this country, Dr A P J Kalam played a leading role in the development of India's missile and nuclear weapons programmes - so much so - that he's fondly referred to as the 'Missile Man'. In the early 1990s, he served as scientific adviser to the government, and his prominent role in India 's 1998 nuclear weapons tests established Kalam as a national hero. For all his work in his present capacity as President of the world's largest democracy, Kalam draws an annual remuneration of Rs 6,00,000 or Rs 1.14 per minute.

Mukesh Ambani
What: CMD of Reliance Industries Ltd
How much: Rs 413 per minute
Head honcho of the $16.5 billion Reliance Industries Limited, Mukesh Ambani was ranked the world's 56th richest man in Forbe's list. But since this is only about salaries (and the like), we'll completely ignore his other earnings. Last year, Mr Ambani earned Rs 21.72 crore; a neat growth of 87 per cent over his previous year's earnings. He makes not less than Rs 413
per minute.

Amitabh Bachchan
What: Actor
How much: Rs 361 per minute
Kaun Banega Crorepati? Apparently, Mr Bachchan! With more endorsements and film releases per year than successful actors half his age, Bachchan's take-home last year was around Rs 19 crore - that's Rs 361 per minute.

Dr Manmohan Singh
What: Prime Minister of India
How much: Rs 0.57 per m inute
An economist by profession, Dr Singh has formerly served in the International Monetary Fund. His economics education included an undergraduate and a master's degree from Punjab University ; an undergraduate degree from Cambridge ; and a doctorate from Oxford University . One of the most educated Indian prime ministers in history, Singh also served as the finance minister under prime minister Narasimha Rao. In his present capacity, Singh is paid Rs 3,60,000 annually, i.e. Rs 0.57 per minute.

Indra Nooyi
What: New Pepsi Chief
How much: Rs 2,911 per minute (from October 11)
Chennai-born 50-year-old Indra Nooyi was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of PepsiCo, the US-based soft drink major. In that capacity, her remuneration stood at $5 million (over Rs 23 crore). With her promotion this year, Nooyi becomes one of the highest paid CEOs in the world, with an announced remuneration of $33 million (approximately Rs 153 crores). This means Nooyi makes a whopping Rs 2,911 per minute.

*All figures based on media reports

DON'T start calculating your salary. Such currency (fraction of paise) is yet to be invented.

Made to Break: Are We Sinking under the Weight of Our Disposable Society?

Made to Break: Are We Sinking under the Weight of Our Disposable Society?

Published: August 09, 2006 in Knowledge@Wharton

Canadian writer Giles Slade was checking out a touring exhibit called "Eternal Egypt" with his 10-year-old son a few years ago when he had an epiphany. The Egyptians, he realized, designed great monuments to endure for countless generations, while here in North America, nearly everything produced is made to break.

And that's no accident. Slade's Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America (Harvard University Press), is a painstakingly researched story of 20^th century technology through the lens of disposability, a concept born, bred and nurtured in America. Made to Break is the history of an industrial strategy that has come to define this country -- a strategy that has taught us to buy, throw away and buy again, and that now must change because we have run out of room to safely dump all our unwanted, used-up or obsolete possessions.

Long before factories across the globe began churning out disposable razors, diapers, and soda cans, American businessmen worried about overstocked warehouses and strategized ways to keep people buying. America's "throwaway ethic" began in the mid-19^th century, Slade says, when a host of cheap materials became widely available to industry. Men were initially targeted, with innovations such as the legendary Gillette disposable razor and throwaway paper shirt fronts, collars and cuffs -- instant hits since laundry services were largely unavailable in those days.

But as early as 1907, businessmen began to see women as controlling the family purse strings, and by the beginning of World War I, female copywriters had joined the ranks of advertising agencies, creating targeted pitches for early disposable products such as Kimberly-Clark's Kotex sanitary napkins and Johnson & Johnson's Band-Aids. Buoyed by their early successes with disposables, paper manufacturers soon developed toilet paper, paper cups, paper towels and paper straws. And Americans, Slade writes, began to generalize their throwaway habits to other goods.

"This was a significant development in the history of product obsolescence," he writes. "As a throwaway culture emerged, the ethic of durability, of thrift, of what the consumer historian Susan Strasser calls 'the stewardship of objects,' was slowly modified. At first, people just threw their paper products into the fire. But as the disposable trend continued, it became culturally permissible to throw away objects that could not simply and conveniently be consumed by flames." People started filling landfills with things like old vacuum cleaners so that, as time went on, "disposable" came to mean nearly everything, not just old paper collars.

American business actively resisted the Treasury Department's national frugality campaign during World War I, with stores across the nation displaying signs that read, "Business as Usual. Beware of Thrift and Unwise Economy." Local newspapers, eager to coddle their largest advertisers, wrote editorials in support of shopping, while in 1921, New York retailers launched the National Prosperity Committee to combat thrift. Articles written about thriftiness from this time period, Slade found, were combative in their language: "Miserliness is despicable, hoarding is vulgar; both are selfish, fatal to character and a danger to the community and the nation," wrote C.W. Taber, author of The Business of the Household.

Shiny and New

Made to Break outlines the ideas and innovations behind obsolescence throughout the 20^th century, describing, for example, the early battle for market domination between GM and Ford and the Depression-era automobile marketing campaigns that encouraged buying the "new model" each year. The result was products designed not to last, a concept called "death dating." The book also explores major product innovations that fed American's growing appetite for short-lived products, such as DuPont's revolutionary development of nylon stockings for women in 1939, a far less expensive alternative to stockings made from Japanese silk.

For consumers, having the latest shiny, new gadget became a way to "either feed one's pride or reduce one's shame," creating a self consciousness about being out of fashion and a tendency to evaluate others based on their possessions that has continued to this day.

The book's final chapter, "Cell Phones and E-Waste," is perhaps its most disturbing. Among its revelations: By 2002, more than 130 million still-working cell phones had been "retired" in the U.S. Today, about 250,000 tons of discarded but still usable cell phones sit in stockpiles in America, awaiting disposal. Cell phones, Slade suggests, "have become the avant-garde of a fast-growing trend toward throwaway electronic products." And their lifespan is still declining. In Japan, where cell phone penetration is especially high, cell phones are discarded within a year in favor of newer models.

The increasingly short lifespan of digital devices -- from computers to televisions and cell phones -- is creating an avalanche of electronic consumer waste that threatens to overwhelm the world's landfills with a toxic soup of permanent biological toxins such as arsenic, lead, nickel and zinc. "When e-waste is burned anywhere in the world, dioxins, furans and other pollutants are released into the air, with potentially disastrous health consequences around the globe. When e-waste is buried in landfills, PBTs eventually seep into the groundwater, poisoning it," Slade writes.

And while the U.S. has most recently exported much of its discarded electronic waste to developing countries for disposal, stricter enforcement of the United Nation's Basel Convention -- created to set up a framework for controlling the "transboundary" movement of hazardous wastes -- will soon eliminate that practice.

Slade also examines the ways consumers use consumer electronics to shape their identities. For adolescents, cell phones are a way young people create communities outside of their family, Slade writes, citing research by sociologist Rich Ling. Ling's eye-opening study of adolescents describes in vivid detail teens' comparisons of cell phones to clothing -- that certain brands of cell phones imply "coolness" while others are considered dated and conformist.

"Ling sees the development and proliferation of the cell phone as an extension of a series of inventions that includes railways, standard time, the telephone, the automobile, and the personal timepiece," writes Slade. "What these innovations have in common is their ability to coordinate human social interactions."

But it is cell phones' small size that makes them a toxic hazard to be reckoned with, Slade continues in Made to Break's too-brief ending about what can be done to resolve the problem of discarded consumer electronics. Taking apart tiny components to recover their parts isn't worth the effort, and so most cell phones are simply thrown away, ultimately finding their way into incinerators and landfills.

Is there a solution? Slade touches on design alternatives outlined in another book, The Green Imperative, which suggests that manufacturers simply charge a bit more for durable goods that are more easily taken apart and reused. He adds that such green design measures are beginning to fill the agendas of electronics institute meetings -- a hopeful sign of a sea change. But in spite of this, Slade says in one interview about Made to Break, "A lot of really sophisticated people devoted a lot of time and thought to developing this system" of constant consumption. "We need to look at the problem creatively and rethink it. Our whole economy is based on buying, trashing and buying again. We need to rethink industrial design."

It's tough to disagree with Slade, but this reader couldn't help wishing for more solutions. Made to Break, though a very interesting read, seems to end suddenly and somewhat hopelessly, with no solutions proposed for everyday Americans to deal with a huge problem that has taken a century to create and that shows no signs of abating. But Slade also strikes a note of optimism. Soon enough, he says, the sheer volume of waste of all kinds will compel a change. "This is the industrial challenge of the new century. We must welcome it."

A special offer from Wharton School Publishing
http://www.whartonsp.com/summerreading

Big Five Value Proposition

Big Five Value Proposition Explained

People often ask about the "value proposition" which a Big Five consulting firm brings to a client's project. Well, let's examine a regular engagement where we have a Big Five team implementing an ERP package called Orasap, all of it involving new technology. Let's take a look at a TYPICAL team member from each job level. This is what they might be doing and thinking.


Randy Johnson
Consultant ($200/hour):

Takes minutes of meetings, gathers time and expense reports from team and prepares monthly invoice, listens and learns.

("Hey, I just love the hotel. I can drink all I want for free, this is great. I really lucked out with my first job. But, why does my head hurt so much every morning?")


Jenny Lee
Senior Consultant ($250/hour):

Reads Orasap manuals and practices on the client's demo system. Downloads deliverables from other projects, does a search and replace on client name, presents to client team. Listens as the client staff explain their business and helps them draw diagrams about it.

("I wish I knew more about this Orasap package. Good thing the client doesn't know anything about it. It's such a struggle to stay one step ahead. I should update my résumé now, in case I don't make Manager this summer. I hear the market's really hot for people with Orasap experience.")

Kevin Flint
Manager ($300/hour):

Downloads project plan from another project. Does a search and replace on client name. If he's good, remembers to update the plan with dates and resource names applicable to THIS project. At every opportunity with the client, goes to whiteboard with marker pen and explains something about Orasap, which he's making-up as he goes along, but it's okay, the client is completely clueless. Looks for every opportunity to back stab his colleagues to get that big promotion. Spends most of the day busily occupied at the workstation which the client has provided. No-one else can see his screen.

("I must be really smart. I know so much about Orasap, and I've never even logged into the application. If I don't make Senior Manager here this summer, I can just go to that other Big Five firm. With my experience of managing Orasap projects, they'll snap me up and I'll get a big pay raise.")

Jim Reid
Senior Manager ($400/hour):

Has no experience of Orasap, coming from an IBM mainframe background. Assumes no-one in the Firm knows anything about it, either. Helped to sell this engagement, and not really sure what he sold. He wants to make Partner, his wife wants a divorce, his waist size has gone up 6 inches since he started consulting and he doesn't get any exercise. He's going to do whatever it takes to make Partner, as long as it doesn't involve having to actually learn anything about Orasap. That would be beneath his dignity.

("I just hope that I can hold this thing together and get it to 'go-live' without anyone realizing that I don't know anything about Orasap. I'll take Becky to the Orasap user conference in Honolulu, that'll keep her sweet. It's all worth it to make Partner. Imagine that! Me, a Partner. Why am I so short of breath all the time?")

Glen Wellman
Partner ($500/hour):

Doesn't know anything about ERP packages, let alone Orasap. Is on his third wife and his waist size has gone up 12 inches since he started consulting. Does not get involved in the project deliverables, since he does not know what a deliverable is anyway. Mostly plays golf with his old friends who are CEO's and CIO's. They occasionally offer each other jobs as VP's or direct-entry Partners. Helps the CEO's and CIO's figure out imaginative ways to spend the stockholders' money.

("I must tell the team to bill more hours. I want utilization to go up, up, up. That Senior Manager is such an ass-hole. I won't ever let him make Partner. What's for lunch?")

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla
Subcontractor ($classified):

Not considered suitable to be employed directly by the Firm, since he occasionally wears white socks. Knows everything technically and functionally about Orasap. Learns very quickly and gets deeply into the package. Establishes the business requirements, maps to Orasap functionality, identifies the gaps, designs the solutions, configures the system, builds the interfaces to legacy systems, codes the customizations, performs the data conversion, writes the documentation, performs system testing, trains the end-users and is on 24 hour call for post 'go-live' support.

("I am so blessed to be working with such fine people. Nobody back home will believe that I have an apartment with a separate bedroom, a brand new Corolla and TWO televisions. I love this country. I hope that my green card comes before my work visa expires.")

Random Thoughts During the Day

Jenny Lee

I've been up half the night studying how interfaces work....I hope I've learned enough to lead that workshop today....I didn't have time to do my makeup properly this morning....I must look such a mess.

Randy Johnson

Groan....my head hurts....that was a great session last night....gotta do the monthly invoice today....my head hurts....hope I get it right....there's Jenny....Man, she's so HOT.

Jim Reid

Becky was really angry on the phone last night....why doesn't she understand?...I'm doing this for us....at least I spend all day Saturday at home....usually....I'd better book the Honolulu trip for both of us....there's Jenny....oh God....she's so beautiful....If only I was twenty years younger....

Kevin Flint

(Sitting at PC)
So, for an extra $2,200, I get a V6, and the performance is so much better....I would look really hot in one of those....talking of hot...here comes Jenny....just act cool....she wants me so bad....

Jenny Lee

There's that Kevin Flint surfing the Net already....I wish I didn't have to report to him....the guy is such a jerk....I've got to concentrate....I've got four hours until the Interface workshop AND I've got to discuss data conversion with Raj....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

Best is to use FTP protocol for the interfaces and run nightly back-up....end-users should not be worrying about this....should be part of system administration procedure....I will read letter from parents later....must write this specification first....

Jenny Lee

Come to think of it, why shouldn't I go to the Orasap conference?...I would learn so much....shouldn't be afraid to ask just because it's in Honolulu....there's no harm in asking....I'll fill out a Training Request....

Kevin Flint

Man....I'd look even more cool in a convertible....I'll search on dealer stock....what specs do I want?....

Jim Reid

I need to chase Randy for the monthly invoice....the bigger the number, the sooner I make Partner....an e-mail from Jenny....Training Request....she wants to go to the Orasap conference....well she deserves it....she's been working very hard....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

The data format should be 10 characters alphanumeric on the Reference field....maybe 10 is not enough....perhaps 15 to be sure....

Randy Johnson

Man....it's hard work adding up these numbers....my head hurts....

Jim Reid

Would Becky REALLY enjoy the Orasap conference?....I mean, it's all work....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

According to letter, I must return to India during Xmas vacations in order for marriage....this will be most joyful occasion....I wonder what she looks like?....I will write back to my parents confirming my trip....after I get my permission for time off....

Jim Reid

Since I'm running this thing, I must remember to ask Kevin how it's going....

Kevin Flint

So, looks like I can get a good finance deal for the V6, 3.8 convertible and have it in two weeks....

Jim Reid

E-mail from the Indian fella....Leave of Absence Request....he wants two weeks off at year-end....no way....this is a serious project we're running, not a walk in the park....he can take a couple of days either side of Christmas....as long as he has his pager....

Randy Johnson

Whoa....that's a big number....average of 64.5 hours per week AND we've hit a new record high on expenses....way to go....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

I am not understanding....since my design is so good and will save so much effort and make much more efficiency....why are end-users so much resisting....

Kevin Flint

Since I'm running this thing, I must remember to ask Jenny how it's going....

Jenny Lee

I must go and discuss data conversion with Raj....he's so honest and charming in his own way....makes a change from these jerks....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

E-mail from Mister Jim....I can take two days before and two days after Xmas....five days in total....so that is one day for travel to India, three days for wedding ceremonies and one day for return to US....honeymooning can be here in Omaha....that fits ok....

Kevin Flint

Where shall I fly this weekend, since I don't have to go home and the client pays....let's see....Las Vegas looks good....if I win a lotta money I won't have to work anymore....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

Oh....but I am not sure if pager will work in Bangalore....I will leave my parents' home telephone number....

Kevin Flint

E-mail from Jenny....Schedule Update....she'll be out the week of October 25....because she'll be attending the Orasap conference....hey....that's in Honolulu....she can't do that....she's only a Senior Consultant and I'm a damn Manager....well if she's going....I'm going....

Jim Reid

Hey....just a doggoned minute....the Indian fella doesn't even believe in Christmas....it doesn't make sense for him to take time off then, when all the normal folk are away....he should take his vacation another time....after 'go-live'....as long as he has his pager....

Glen Wellman

(In own office, at local Big 5 HQ)
The monthly numbers are coming in....damn, we're hot....I always say that hard work and professionalism bring their own rewards....and our quality methodology....Structured Consulting & Reengineering Enablement Workflow Engagement Methodology....that sets us head and shoulders above the other Big Four, ....time for a long lunch....which client should I charge it to?....

Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla

Here comes Miss Jenny to discuss data conversion....she is so nice lady....I must control my mind....I must NOT think impure thoughts....om-mani-pad-me-oom....om-mani-pad-me-oom....om-mani-pad-me-oom....

Some more characters....

BIG Five-Part II

Jean-Pierre L'Amant
Senior Consultant - Paris

A Partner in the Paris office received an urgent call from Glen Wellman, and as a result Jean-Pierre was in Business Class on the next flight to the US. He is a Senior Consultant from amongst the Firm's 90,000 global professionals. His experience is in Java programming, which is unfortunate, because everyone on the project team thinks that he is an expert in Orasap and European statutory accounting requirements, but he IS French, which is the important thing.

("Zat flight was inhuman. Zee wine was so bad - every single bottle. Zey expect me to fly for eight hours without a Gauloise? I don't know why zee lavatory smoke detector went off like zat - I covered it with plenty of paper towels. Why did zat American immigration officer keep asking me if I am working? I told him zat I am on business. I have 90 days of business meetings zat involve absolutely no work whatsoever. I don't need a work visa - I am French, not Indian.")

Bruce Slick
CIO - AmeriStuff Manufacturing

Was at business school with Glen Wellman twenty years ago. Has been at AmeriStuff for five months, after things did not work out at his dot.com start-up company. Was responsible for conceiving this ERP project and bringing this consulting firm in to run it.

("Oh God....Phase 1 Americas....Phase 2 Europe....Phase 3 Asia Pacific....this feels like it's gonna take forever....Glen says that they can't offer me a position until the project's done....it would jeopardize the Audit relationship....okay, so we'll finish the project....I will take the credit for a job well done....I'll cash my options....then I'm outta here....I'll be a Direct Entry Partner and I'll be on the golf course.")

Susan Lovely
Big 5 HR Director

Age: Unknown.
Marital Status: Unknown.
Parental Status: Unknown.
Affectional Orientation: Unknown.
Physical Appearance: Absolutely gorgeous.
Any Activity Planned For Tonight: Unknown, and don't even think of asking.

This is one person that no-one in the Firm can date, although many want to. As HR Director, her main focus areas are harassment, harassment and harassment. Recently commissioned a harassment awareness video which depicted a male Senior Consultant in his hotel room being pressured by an older, attractive female Senior Manager to have dinner with her, either in a restaurant or through room service. This has not been well received by males in the Firm, who fear that it will discourage attractive females from attempting to seduce them.

("It's a big responsibility making everyone feel warm, secure and friendly. I really enjoy visiting each city with my video, making the entire local office staff watch it as a mandatory requirement, leading a touchy-feely discussion about it, and then making them all hug each other. Everyone has to hug except me - I'm from out of town. I love doing this. I love the Frequent Flyer miles. I really lucked out in my twelfth job.")

Brad Christiansen
Client Project Manager (formerly Plant IT Manager)

Has worked at AmeriStuff Manufacturing for 25 years, beginning on the shop floor and working his way up to Plant IT Manager. He was nominated to be the project manager on the AmeriStuff side for this Orasap project, working closely with the consulting team, because he really understands the business and processes. Married for 20 years, he has four children and lives near the plant. He's had his car for 14 years and he's thinking about changing it, but there's no hurry - it's running great.

("I know it was a privilege to be made project manager of this prestigious project, but sometimes I wonder....the CIO said, "Don't worry, the consultants are there to help you"....I just don't get it....they never answer a question directly....except the Indian fella....they always have these closed door meetings in the conference room....when the Partner comes they always go for a long lunch....they don't make me feel like I belong to the team....except the Indian fella....

Random Thoughts During the Day

....the Monday after the Orasap conference....

Jenny Lee

(In rental car, driving from hotel to AmeriStuff office)
I'm glad that Kevin finally listened to me about needing to plan for Phase 2 and getting someone here who understands Orasap functionality and how it addresses European statutory reporting requirements, especially regarding France, our biggest European challenge....I can't believe Jean-Pierre arrived the very next afternoon....just in time for me to brief him before we left for the Orasap conference....I'm sure that he must have made good progress with the client project team last week....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

(In rental car, driving from hotel to AmeriStuff office)
I hate zis country....zee food is so bad....

Susan Lovely

(In own office)
HR is the place to be. No-one can fire HR. We can't conduct exit interviews on ourselves. We can't escort ourselves off the premises. HR is invincible.

Kevin Flint

(In rental car, driving from hotel to AmeriStuff office)
I'm glad that Jim listened to me about needing a French functional IT consultant....he reacted pretty fast....Jean-Pierre got here the next day....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

Zee coffee is so bad....

Susan Lovely

That new Orasap HR system that's being implemented across the Firm is going to make HR even more powerful. It will give us complete control over all the personnel. The Firm is about people....we control the people....we control the Firm....

Jim Reid

(In rental car, driving from hotel to AmeriStuff office)
Glen must have been very impressed when I explained the need for a French consultant and how it would really help the project succeed....he reacted so quickly....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

Zee wine is so bad....

Susan Lovely

I disapprove of Firm employees dating other staff from the Firm or staff from the clients. They should only date people that they meet in their spare time.....

Glen Wellman

(In own office)
I'm glad I was able to get Bernard Escargot's home number from the global Partner directory....why was he so pissed?....it was only just 6 PM when I called him...I was still in the office....anyway I'm glad he was so responsive when I explained the need for a Frenchman on the project....got the fella here the next afternoon....he seems well qualified too...I checked his résumé....he's definitely French....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

(formerly known as Rajagopolan Ramakandramdhobiwalla)

I cannot understand why they are making me shorten my name for new HR system....I am sure that field 'HR_employee_lastname' in table 'HR_employees' is user configurable up to 99 characters during set-up process....default only is 15 characters....but I am not expert in Orasap HR module....internal Firm Orasap HR implementation project team must know what they are doing....not for me to question when I am not expert....

Randy Johnson

(In rental car, driving from hotel to AmeriStuff office)
It was great here last week....everyone away at the Orasap conference....just me, Raj, JP from Paris, and the other sub-contractors....I was in charge....I was managing the team....that's gonna look great on my résumé....boy....did my head hurt....every single morning....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

But....zee American women are beautiful....so many beautiful women....so little time....perhaps I should focus on just zee married ones....zey are much quicker to seduce....although zee unmarried ones are also fast....it's strange....as soon as I start speaking, zey seem to swoon....it doesn't matter what I say....

Jim Reid

I can't understand why Becky was so angry yesterday....the Orasap conference was work....that's why I couldn't take her....it wasn't for fun....it began on Sunday evening, so I had to fly to Honolulu on Saturday....I couldn't miss the opening session....not a person of my significance in the Orasap world....I've had people work for me who've submitted papers to the Orasap conferences....the conference ran until Thursday....then we had our internal Firm Orasap Practice meeting all day on Friday, since we were all there in Honolulu in the same place at the same time....that made sense....then there was dinner on Friday....I couldn't miss that if I'm going to make Partner....I have to be well-known, liked and respected....flights out of Honolulu are at night, so I had to stay through Saturday....not my fault....I got home on Sunday morning....and then I had to leave on Sunday evening to be back here for our Monday morning project review meeting....it's not like I had any choice in any of this and it was all work....

Randy Johnson

It was great going out with Raj and JP every single night....boy....JP can really drink me under the table....and he's got a real eye for the ladies....I never met a Texan before....I wonder if they're all like him....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

Database applications table space should be increased by a factor of.... a factor of....(blank)....soon I will be married....

Brad Christiansen

Phase Two in Europe....this rumor about me being the project manager for that too....I don't know about that....I might not get home from Europe every day in time to put the kids to bed....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

Why does everyone keep asking me about 'Le Plan Comptable' reporting?....what zee hell is zat....?

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

Report run time parameters should be....should be.... (blank)....soon I will have wife....

Brad Christiansen

I might become a Frequent Flyer....imagine that....me a Frequent Flyer!....I would get to queue in the other line.....

Jean-Pierre L'Amant

How should I know about corporate tax requirements....I don't even do my own tax return....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

Back-up routine will be defined....defined....(blank)....soon I will have sex....

Jim Reid

There's Jenny....oh God...she's so beautiful....I must have looked so ridiculous to her in my swim trunks....

Glen Wellman

(In own office)
Although they were at the Orasap conference, the team were still working on AmeriStuff project-related work most of the time....virtually all of the time....and should remember to record their hours appropriately....

Jenny Lee

There's Jim....I still can't believe it....in Honolulu he was in the gym every day....and I only saw him eat salad....I wonder what's up....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

I don't feel well....

Brad Christiansen

We should invite the Indian fella to lunch on Sunday....he's all by himself over here....he doesn't get to fly anywhere on Fridays....we have to try and bring him out of the Darkness, into the Light....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

Every night last week Randy and Jean-Pierre were explaining how good they are with women in bed....what if I'm no good.....

Glen Wellman

(In own office, using calculator)
Let's see....I was able to haggle the Frenchie for fifteen hundred bucks a DAY....payable in French dollars....he's a Senior Consultant....we'll bill him as a Manager....for 300 bucks an HOUR....and make sure he does at least ten hours a day....hey....it's minting money....it shouldn't be allowed....if I carry on like this, I could run the whole place with foreign subcontractors and carry no overheads....send 'em home when there's no work....never have to worry about career development and all that HR crap....

Brad Christiansen

Why do I have to keep explaining to Bruce Slick about the costs going up?....like it's my fault....the consultants call it "Scope Creep"....they say it's our fault....that we keep asking for more stuff....I don't understand....I thought the consultants clearly defined the requirements in the scoping phase....they never push back on the users when they ask for the same old reports and stuff....I thought Orasap was going to fundamentally change the way we work....whose supposed to push back?....

Glen Wellman

That Jim Reid....he's such an ass-hole....we'd better have a talk about his future...AFTER he's finished Phase 3 Asia Pacific....

Kevin Flint

Oh no....here comes Jenny....I can't believe what I said to her in Honolulu....in the hotel bar....I told her how attractive she is....I shouldn't have mentioned that we need to do her engagement review....in the same conversation....she might have got the wrong idea....

Bruce Slick

At least they've started planning Phase 2....and they've made a head start on the European requirements with that Jean Paul fella....nice of him to offer to help Barbara with her French lessons....

Jenny Lee

There's that Kevin Flint. He fell right into it....I'm sure I can get him to be generous with my engagement review, and I won't even have to....yuk....the thought of it....

Rajagopolan Ramakandram

Here comes Miss Jenny....tan from Hawaii looks good on her....makes her look less unhealthy pale...she always smiles at me....she always leaves her hair uncovered....it smells like finest Indian herbs....her skirt is always so short that I can see her ankles....I saw HR video....I think I'm being harassed....

Overcontrolling Bosses Aren't Just Annoying; They're Also Inefficient

Cubicle Culture by Jared Sandberg

Overcontrolling Bosses Aren't Just Annoying; They're Also Inefficient March 30, 2005 by Jared Sandberg The Wall Street Journal

One of Ken Marcus's former bosses was so reviled by underlings that when he dropped dead, a colleague went up to Mr. Marcus and shook his hand. Unlike some others, Mr. Marcus never danced on his old boss's grave. But the soft-spoken reference librarian still smarts from the travails of working under a tormenting control freak.

The former boss wouldn't let his employees order personalized stationery or even use up the stationery they had left. "A lot of paper went to waste," Mr. Marcus says. The man also spent days trying to get in touch with employees on vacation and then had nothing much to say to them -- except "keep me posted" -- once he got them on the phone. And in a gesture that Mr. Marcus found impossible to believe when he first heard about it, his boss assigned middle initials to employees who didn't have middle names. "I guess it offended his sense of order," he speculates.

Mr. Marcus still struggles with the illogic of it all: "You get up to that level," he says, and "you don't need to worry about these little things."

But the problem is that a control freak most certainly does worry about the little stuff. Deeply untrusting and puffed up with some devil-in-the-details justification, control freaks wrest tasks from colleagues, along with the colleagues' sense of self worth. It's as if they were burned by someone or something long ago, and everyone they come into contact with is a walking evocation of the past demon. The irony is that in the name of efficiency and cost savings, these managers are often the most guilty of operating far below their pay scales.

Overcontrolling "can cost more money in a whole bunch of ways," says Richard Kilburg, senior director of the office of human services at Johns Hopkins University. They create, for example, a culture driven by the assumption that everyone can't perform. "If everybody's covering their tail ends," says Dr. Kilburg, "you have all kinds of processing losses. You also have a tendency to lose your most creative people. They're able to say, 'Screw this. I'm not staying here.' "

Just ask Rich Dowd, the founder of executive search firm Dowd Associates, who learned that lesson the hard way. He says he used to hover over employees and interrupt them because they weren't working "in the way I saw fit," even though their work product at the end of the day was "outstanding." He recalls that one employee told him that if he wanted to do her job, fine, she'd quit.

Asked by Mr. Dowd to describe some of his annoying behavior, colleague Stephanie Bates cites his yellow-legal-pad rule, which dictates that anything other than a yellow legal pad "doesn't work." Mr. Dowd questions whether he ever imposed this rule on anyone else, so Ms. Bates reminds him of the time she had the temerity to use a blue binder. "Yup," Mr. Dowd says sheepishly.

And another colleague, Lauren Hendrick, recounts how Mr. Dowd once sent her home from the office for being three minutes late.

So what taught Mr. Dowd to let go? "It's got to cost you money," he says. "I've lost people that way."

Most control freaks, though, can't laugh at themselves. Don Shobrys used to work for a boss who argued that the office should remain open during a blizzard even though the governor had declared a state of emergency. That boss also spent valuable time trying to scrub a stain out of the office carpet. And he even threatened to fire someone for leaving computer boxes stacked in the hallway in advance of the company's relocation to a new office.

The worst thing about his behavior was the corporate paralysis that resulted. The company had planned to paint the men's room in the new office, including the wall behind the urinals. The painters recommended using tile on that wall, but midlevel managers were afraid to approve the $1,000 expenditure. They eventually went with the tile, but "the whole organization was intimidated," Mr. Shobrys says.

What explains the penchant of many control freaks for performing menial tasks? "At some level of consciousness they don't believe they know how to handle the demands of the job they're in," says Arthur Freedman, director of organizational development and change at American University. "So they revert or regress down one or two levels to the level where they felt comfortable."

Marilyn Helms, a professor at Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga., says she has seen too many managers waste valuable time taking attendance. There was her boss at the Rotary Club in Memphis who always dreamed up an excuse to call the office at 4:59 p.m. to make sure no one had slipped out early. At a university, she had a department chair who would "come by with some stupid excuse just to do a bed check," she says. And still other managers have required her colleagues to produce business cards as proof they were soliciting new clients or to staple their name badge to travel receipts to prove they were at a conference.

"Don't they need to focus on the big picture?" asks Prof. Helms. "It seems like they don't know how to do their upper-management jobs."