Bits and Bytes from my Life

Growing up I never thought I will even have a car. We never owned one in our family. My dad has motorcycle. I bought one when I started working, I had Hero Honda.:) It was fun driving it.

Then I moved to US in 2001 and I wanted to buy the best car I could, the one I dreamed when I was a kid. A Beamer.:) So I bought BMW 325i. I wanted a GPS system in the car and there were not many so I had to choose the one with steel blue metalic color. I did not like the color that much but the car was great. Just loved it..

Then in 2003 I needed some money and had to sell my Beamer and buy another car. This time I choose Ford Mustang..:) I liked Mustang’s. I had driven them before. It was coupe. Really uncomfortable for 4 people to sit but good for me and Swati. We went on long drives in our Mustang.

In 2004 Swati started working so we bought another one. We wanted to buy a car/suv with lot of space… So we bought Toyota highlander. It is a great utility vehicle, Has lot of space. Very comfortable. Again we used it for lot of long drives.

This weekend we traded our Mustang for Toyota carola. I don’t like Carola that much. But we wanted to buy something that gave us good fuel economy. Carola is good for that. So here it is…

But after 4 cars in 5 years I am still not satisfied. I want to buy a convertible. Maybe next time.. Till then Enjoy.

I got this today in email.:)

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Father : I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son : “I will choose my own bride!”
*Father: “But the girl is Bill Gates’s daughter.”
*Son : “Well, in that case…ok”

*Next Father approaches Bill Gates.
*Father: “I have a husband for your daughter.”
*Bill Gates: “But my daughter is too young to marry!”
*Father: “But this young man is a vice-president of theWorld Bank.”
*Bill Gates: “Ah, in that case…ok”

*Finally Father goes to see the president of the WorldBank.
*Father: “I have a young man to be recommended as avice-president.”
*President: “But I already have more vice- presidentsthan I need!”
*Father: “But this young man is Bill Gates’sson-in-law.”
*President: “Ah, in that case…ok”

*This is how business is done!! *

In last 3-4 weeks I have heard/read a lot about importance of effective communication in crisis situation. Leadership is crisis is a different ball game all together. So here is what should be done.
1. Show your commitment as management
2. Show your resolve to handle the crisis
3. Show Efficacy
4. Maintain credibility
5. Show your responsibility towared the community.

One crisis situation that happened is with company called AWID. News broke that AWID RFID readers were not FCC compliant. This is a big thing. You are breaking law here by not following FCC requirements. I think the management at AWID has really managed the situation well.
1. They immediately replaced the CEO
2. Management acknowledged the problem and stopped all sales
3. Within 2 weeks they came back and lifted self imposed ban on few products which did not have issues
4. They gave commitment that they will look into other issues.

I think they have done a good job. Lets see how market reacts to all this.

Last week Mom dad came to US. So last 2 weeks have been pretty busy. Other than that I have tons of homework and studies to do..:( Time is just flying by. Enjoy u all.

I started my professional career at Baan Info Systems. Baan was bought by Invensys and later Invensys was bought by SSA Global and guess what today SSA Global was bought by Infor where does it end..:):) Life goes on.:)

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=SSA+Global

May 15 – Finance

Read Ch 13: 13.1-13.9; Ch 15: 15.1-15.4 until page 419

May 17 – Presentation Skills assignment

Assignment: Business Speaking Basics presentation – upload by 6 PM

May 18 – Presentation Skills

May 22 – Finance

Read Ch 15: 15.5-15.6 until page 427; Ch 16: 16.1-16.5, 16.10-16.11

Assignment: American Home Products Case

Turn in Mid-Term

May 25 – Finance

Read Ch 17: 17.1-17.5, 17.7

Assignment: Nike Inc: Cost of Capital

Turn in Portfolio Analysis assignment

Turn in Strategy Assignment

May 29 – No Class

May 31 – Presentation Skills assignment

Upload revised presentation by 6 PM

June 1 – Presentation Skills

June 5 – Finance

Read Ch 19: 19.1-19.5, 19.8-19.9

Assignment: Interco Case

June 8 – Presentation Skills

June 12 – Presentation Skills

June 15 – Finance

Read Ch 18: 18.1-18.9

Assignment: Colt Industries

June 19 – Finance

Read Ch 22: 22.1-22.7, subsection on “The Black-Scholes Model” pp 634-638

Assignment: Sally Jameson: Valuing stock options in a compensation package

June 22 – Finance Final Exam Due

SUMMER BREAK!

Pramod Mahajan is dead. It is really sad to see a good leader die at such a early age. I noticed Pramod Mahajan when he was speaking at no confidence motion on Vajpayee government. The government lasted only 13 days. But his speach moved me. I was so impressed that I became his fan. From that time on wards I always followed his speaches. He was a great speaker. U can learn so much from him. Amazing person.

I can still remember in one of his speaches in no confidence motion for IK Gujral or someone else he said “The other day I had few visitors from China. And our brothers from China wanted to know what is democracy. So I explained to them, When a party with largest count sits in opposition(BJP), part with second largest count supports the government from outside(Congress) and the prime miniter belongs to a party which has hardly 30 seats in parliament that is democracy in India.” That was something and this may not sound good but the way Pramod explained it that was amazing.:) I was impressed.

But finally it is over. Pramod Mahajan is dead. I was expecting him to become PM one day but that will not happen. I wish Pramodjee’s soul rests in peace.