CAT Results 2010 | IIM CAT | CATIIM.in

CAT Results has been announced today.
The IIM CAT is most coveted entrance examination for the B school admission in India in IIM / Indian Institute of Management and other leading B Schools / MBA colleges of India. Many colleges and institutes are offering admission through CAT. The CAT 2009 and 2010 was conducted by the IIMs and Prometric thats why people are also looking fir the Prometric CAT results. The CAT exam as conducted first time Online and more than 2 lakh students appeared for the CAT examination. Candidates qualifying in CAT online exam will be called for the personal interview and GD / Group Discussion in various IIM as they have shortlisted the candidates for PI/ GD. IIM Ranchi is the news member in the league of IIM and people are also looking for the IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong. Though the other IndianInstitute of Management like IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode are also among the favorite of students who appeared in the examination of Online CAT 2010.
IIM CAT results 2010 is available at

Indian Institutes of Management Results: www.catiim.in

Tendulkar's irresistible second coming

The last 34 months have been quite extraordinary for Sachin Tendulkar. In the couple of years preceding them, there had been serious questions asked about his form, his reflexes, and his appetite for the game. There was the acknowledgement, with more than a tinge of sadness, that Tendulkar's mind and body were inevitably giving in to years of constant wear and tear, and that the kind of innings we witnessed during his glory days would only rarely, if ever, be repeated. 

How wrong we were. Quite magically Tendulkar has turned back the clock, displaying the intensity and hunger many thought had been lost forever. The result has been a stunning sequence of scores: 10 centuries in the last 12 months in international cricket, including three of his four highest ODI hundreds, and the first double-century in 2962 one-day internationals. His last eight innings in all international cricket read as follows: 105*, 16, 143, 7, 100, 106, 4, 200*. Among other things, it shows his all-consuming desire to convert his starts - every time he has topped 20, he has gone on to a century.

The table below shows just how incredible his revival has been. In 14 Tests from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2006, he scored one hundred from 22 innings, and the average had dropped to less than 34. His ODI form was equally disappointing during this period: an average similar to his Test number, and a strike rate of less than 80.

Since the 2007 World Cup, though, the numbers present a far more cheerful picture: in 58 ODIs the average has zoomed past 50, with the strike rate touching 90. His Test form has been equally delightful - an average of almost 60, with 12 centuries from 34 matches. 

Tendulkar's revival isn't dissimilar to Brian Lara's stunning run in his last four years in international cricket. (Though this isn't to suggest Tendulkar will quit international cricket anytime soon.) After 2003, Lara averaged 60 in 41 Tests, with 16 centuries, including hundreds in two of his last three Tests. Clive Lloyd's last 32 Tests were equally productive, fetching him 2342 runs at 61.63, well above his career average of 46.67. Steve Waugh and Graham Thorpe went out with a bang too, but these players have been exceptions. If Tendulkar continues in similar vein over the next few years, he'll join that select group as well. More than that, it'll mean we'll be in for several more special innings of the kind that he has conjured up over the last three years.

Source: Cricinfo blog

Google Labs

Google launched Gmail Labs over a year and a half ago as a playground where engineers can come up with new features and let your input help decide which are good ideas and which don't quite work out. Any engineer at Google can come up with a feature, code it, and launch it quickly to tens of millions of users.

Labs started out with 13 features and quickly grew to 60, with even more on the way. We've received countless comments and kept an eye on our stats: some of these experimental features were adopted by millions and others trickled along with little usage. A couple have already graduated from Labs and we've already retired one: Tasks was the first to become a regular part of Gmail, Right-side Labels was retired when we updated the way labels work, and Offline Gmail graduated a couple months back. Today, true to the original intent of Gmail Labs, we're graduating six more features and retiring five.

Graduating:

1. Search Autocomplete
2. Go To Label
3. Forgotten Attachment Detector
4. YouTube Previews
5. Custom Label Colors
6. Vacation Dates

Retiring:

1. Muzzle
2. Fixed Width Font
3. Email Addict
4. Location in Signature
5. Random Signature

These decisions were made based based mainly on usage, taking feature polish and your feedback into account. We've also tweaked some of the graduating features to improve them before making them default Gmail features. For example, we've combined Go To Label with Search Autocomplete, making it easier than ever for you to find what you're looking for.

Search Autocomplete and Go To Label
Start typing in the Gmail search box (English only for now), and Gmail suggests terms that might help you find what you're looking for — from contact names to labels and advanced search operators.


We've integrated Go To Label into this search box as well. If you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, type "g" then "l" and instead of getting the old "Go to label" pop-up, you'll be in the search box with the "label:" operator filled in for you. Start typing the label you want to go to, and autocomplete will take it from there. All you have to do is hit enter. If you want to send your cursor to the blank search field, the keyboard shortcut "/" will do it.
Source : Google blogs by Mark Knichel, Software Engineer

Why are Indian students being targeted in Australia?

I have lived in Melbourne for over seven years and there is no doubt that the situation has changed for Indians here. Denying racism in Australia is like denying casteism and dowry in India. But there is more to this issue then just blaming the Australian government.

I would like to define the term which has been used again and again, “Indian students”. Who are these students and how are so many of them here all of a sudden? When we talk of overseas students, what comes to mind are students of engineering, bio-physics, medicine, MBA, PhD or some research work.

But this is not the case here. Unlike in the US or Britain, the majority of Indian students in Australia are enrolled in vocational courses in hospitality, cookery, hair design etc. I am sure this comes as a surprise to many, as it did to India’s foreign minister on his recent visit.

International students are worth $13 billion to the Australian economy each year. After coal and iron ore, education is the country’s third biggest industry.

But Australia was not a popular destination for Indian students until education here was linked to permanent residency.

Most come here to get residency and the easiest way to do so is by enrolling as a student in some course. There has been a significant increase in the number of vocational colleges and students, especially Indian students whose number grew a whooping 161 percent in 2006 and 94 percent in 2008.

Indians were 31 percent of the new admissions in Australian universities in 2008, according to the umbrella body Australian Education International.

There are people who lure students into this immigration racket via the vocational colleges. These agents promise them permanent residency and provide them admission in the cookery institutions run mostly by Indian or other Asians. They also provide them services of migration agent or lawyers, again mostly Indians.

These institutions are like cattle markets. In a class meant for 100 there are intakes of 500 students. Recently quite a few of these privately run institutes have been shut down by the government. There have been many cases where false documents were provided to get admission and later residency.

As a result, visa applications from India are now scrutinised more rigorously by immigration authorities, who have rejected 33.2 percent of the 21,120 student visa applications from India between July 1 and Oct 31, 2009, a considerable rise from 6.5 percent in the same period in 2008.

Most of the Indian students in these vocational courses come from villages and small towns, having taken large loans for the purpose and hoping to recoup the money by earning in Australia after gaining permanent residence rights.

From day one they start looking for work. They work as taxis drivers, in laundries, as security guards, petrol pump attendants and in call centres. Most of them are night jobs.

The desperate Indian students get the worst shifts and in shady locations. Being new in Australia, they don’t know which suburbs to avoid. While going for the night shifts they catch the last train, bus or tram. And they become easy targets. Muggers know Indians, being new to the country, are less likely to resist.

Also, a lot of Indian students don’t retaliate due to the fear that a police case might hamper their chance to get residency.

Friday and Saturday nights the crowds on the streets are high on alcohol and drugs and not at all friendly crowd. The Indian students have to deal with them in convenience stores, as security guards and taxi drivers.

There are also groups of teenagers of local and different ethnicity roaming the streets with pack mentality. They are always in good numbers and look for easy targets and assault innocent victims for sheer fun and to prove their machismo to their peers.

Even the cops stay away from them. There have been instances of abuse and assault on cops too. Indian students are among their easiest targets. The recent attack in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day Jan 26 was by a group of four-six Asian teenagers.

So we can see the chain reaction: – billion dollar education business – mushroom growth in shady vocational training institutes to make quick bucks – poor loan-burdened Indian students desperate for work picking up risky jobs – easy targets.

The world is no different from a class room. The more you cry, the more you are bullied. Now it has become a fashion to assault Indian students. The more we react the more we become the victim. For the locals, bashing an Indian make them overnight sensations and they enjoy all the publicity and hype in the media. Even if they are arrested and charged the damage is already done.

But I am hopeful things will change, once the immigration slows down.

Chrome: The new colour of OS

There is a new kid in the Operating System (OS) block. The source code of Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS, was released a couple of weeks ago and, according to the official Google blog, netbooks preloaded with the finished OS will be available by late 2010.

It will support both x86 (Intel) as well as ARM chips and, from the looks of the early release, the interface will sport a Spartan aesthetic – similar to Google’s browser.

Google is consulting a variety of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to design machines with “specific reference hardware.” This will skip a lot of the hardware checking steps that standard operating systems run through. In some of the test runs, the OS booted up in under seven seconds. The platform is based on a Linux kernel which will self-check and self-update at every boot.

But what does all the guesswork about the final technical specifications and the anticipated use of emerging technologies such as HTML 5 really mean to you?

ADVANTAGES

The first obvious thing is laptops loaded with an open source OS costs less because the device manufacturer does not have to pay a licensing fee. The second being those who want to stay on the ‘Cloud’ might now have a real option and the third is the broader issue of competition driving innovation.

The OS is the interface which lets you ‘talk’ with your computer. It helps the underlying hardware in the machine to understand what you are saying. Application developers build their software on top of the OS, so that they need not have to handle hardware calls.

Chrome OS is more of an interface to the web than a real operating system with a desktop. Google realises that the Web is no longer filled with static web pages; it is a place where people interact with complex software applications.

The Internet has evolved to a point where you no longer need an operating system to perform the most basic computing tasks. All that you need is an operating environment. That is the approach Google has taken. All the applications run from within a browser and your data is stored in the ‘Cloud’ – which essentially means as Google puts it “completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.”

You also wouldn’t need driver support or application installation and hence lightning fast boot-up. Chrome OS might also change the nature of the software application environment. Right now application developers have to accept Microsoft’s terms to access the information which will let them initiate the hardware calls through the OS. Competition will mean they will have more leverage.

Chrome OS, much like its namesake in the browser arena, will change the game even if it’s a niche product just by adopting newer technologies, thereby forcing others to evolve and provide better solutions.

But can the cloud-driven platform do simple tasks which we take for granted in today’s OS. Can it print? “You will be able to print,” said Chrome’s lead engineer, Idan Avraham, at the launch.

Technology predictions for 2010

With solid product introductions ranging from the iPhone 3GS to Windows 7, 2009 was a good year for technology.

2010 appears poised to build on the strength of trends already in place: greater mobility, a heightened awareness of data security, and web-enabled products and applications that focus on collaboration and interoperability. Here’s a taste of what’s in store.

Smartphones over netbooks

Netbook sales took off over the past few years, and for good reason: these tiny, light computers were tailor-made for the mobile user who increasingly performed most office—related activity online.

Netbooks provide some of the convenience and functionality of a full-fledged notebook while weighing less than half of even the lightest units and boasting battery life that can in some cases take you through an entire day without recharging.

But many netbook users quickly bump up against the limitations built in to this form factor. Screens are cramped, and processors are barely adequate for running Windows. In addition, a notebook computer - even if tiny and lightweight - is still a notebook computer, requiring you to stash it, and the inevitable accessories, in some bag that you have to carry around with you.

As smart phones get smarter and more capable, though, many are finding that they provide a reasonable - and in some cases even preferable - alternative to the netbook. Expect that trend to pick up steam in 2010. Surf the web on a smartphone? No problem. Send and receive e-mail? No problem? Put a smartphone in your pocket? Of course. Smartphones vs. netbook? Unless netbooks start offering much more, expect smartphones to get the nod in 2010.

Apple energises e-books

By now, no one underestimates Apple’s ability to transform markets with innovative products. The iPod, iPhone, and MacBook are all trend-setters that come to represent the cream-of-the-crop in their respective segments and quickly inspire legions of imitators.

Apple’s forthcoming tablet computer, rumoured to be called iTablet, appears destined to follow suit in 2010. Apple is expected to unveil the new device early in the year. Supposedly larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop, the thin iTablet can reportedly be used to read e-books, surf the web, play games, and even watch television - all wirelessly.

Apple has been working for some time with selected publishers to port their publications to the new device. When released, the iTablet could shake up not just the computer industry but the publishing industry as well.

Home servers make it home

It’s not often that anyone accuses staid old Microsoft of being ahead of the technology curve, but in the case of its Windows Home Server (WHS) product, released a couple of years ago, that case could easily be made. Windows Home Server is designed to back up your home computers, stream music and video throughout your home, and provide an online gateway to your home computers so that you can access them - and their data - while you’re on the road.

When WHS was first introduced, few saw the imperative of having such a device. Now though, with households regularly having multiple computers and the prospect of data loss being more critical than ever, a home server of some kind has become a necessity for many. In 2010, expect more people to realise that while the majority of their technology gets smaller and more portable, a data storage and backup box of some kind is a vital component of an increasingly digital lifestyle.

You enter the cloud

Cloud computing - which essentially amounts to saving, storing, and retrieving your documents and files online - is still struggling for widespread adoption, despite the emergence of very capable cloud computing applications such as Google Docs http://docs.google.com.

There are also some compelling benefits of cloud computing: backups become a non-issue, and you’ll have access to your files from any computer, so long as it has an Internet connection.

But cloud computing also means trusting a third-party with your data, and it means that you won’t have access to your files if your Internet connection goes down for any reason, so there’s almost built in resistance to the concept.

Still, adoption of cloud computing is likely to get a boost in 2010, due in part to the introduction of Microsoft’s Office 2010, which offers customers the option of using lightweight browser-based versions of its popular office productivity applications.

You won’t even have to purchase Office 2010 to be able to use the cloud counterparts of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, however. Microsoft has said that anyone who signs up for a free Windows Live account will be able to use the online versions of these products. That should increase the comfort level of millions of currently desktop-bound application users and add momentum to what will undoubtedly be a fixture of computing in the future.

Emergence of Web 3.0

Web 2.0 is all about social networking, community building, and the empowerment of the individual information creator. We’ve seen what that can do through sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

We’ve also seen the limitations of this model, chiefly in the degree to which such megasites create data silos that require users to hop from one to the other in the course of gathering information.

2010 will see the emergence of Web 3.0, the chief goals of which will be to link these vast resources, open up architectures and create hooks so that web developers - and users - can access data from multiple sources using a single interface.

Google is already venturing into this territory by providing real-time search tools that mine information on social networking sites, and a growing number of Web 2.0 sites today are not only acknowledging the existence of other web-based communities and their data but openly providing users with a way to link resources.

Ultimately Web 3.0 applications will allow us to do away with the mountain of user IDs and passwords that we need for today’s web in favour of helping us mine the information we need with a minimum of surfing. And by almost any standard, that represents progress.

‘Google plans launch of online business software store ’

Internet giant Google Inc is planning to launch a store for selling online business software, a media report says.

Attributing to people briefed by the company, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) stated, “Google Inc is preparing to launch a store selling online business software that integrates with its Web services, enlisting software developers in its battle against Microsoft Corp.”

The people in knowledge of the development said the store would sell business software designed by outside developers to integrate and add capabilities to Google Apps, such as enhanced security features or the ability to import contacts.

Google Apps provides web-based e-mail, word-processing and spreadsheet functions.

“Google could announce the new store - a revamped version of its Solutions Marketplace site that features third-party programmes - as soon as March,” the report said.

Google eventually plans to allow customers to purchase its partners’ software through the site, taking a cut for itself and sharing some revenue with developers, WSJ attributed the report as saying.

Moreover, Google would allow users to quickly access their purchased applications through the menu at the top of their screens within Gmail or Google Docs, it added.

According to Google, more than two million businesses are using the paid or free version of Google Apps.

When You Think the Strategy is Wrong

Chances are that at some point in your career you've been asked to implement a strategy that was developed by someone other than yourself. A manager's job is to implement that strategy, and to be sure that her team, unit, or department executes well. But what if you believe the strategy you've been asked to implement is flawed? Perhaps you think the strategy won't achieve the intended result, or worse, that it will put the company at risk. Regardless of the severity of your concern, you have an obligation to speak up. However, immediately pulling the strategy fire alarm isn't always useful, and may brand you as an alarmist. It's important to find ways to express your concerns productively. By acting cautiously and thoughtfully, you can make your concerns heard while perhaps saving your team — or the company — time, energy, and money.

What the Experts Say
Strategy development is a difficult, time-intensive, and often messy process. The end result is never perfect. However, as a good citizen in any organization, you have an obligation to act if you see something wrong with your organization's strategy. Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and author ofBecoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership, says, "Anyone with a deep commitment to the organization owes it to that organization to ask questions and clear up confusions." However, you need to proceed cautiously. Don Sull, Professor of Management Practice in Strategic and International Management, the Faculty Director of Executive Education at the London Business School, and author of The Upside of Turbulence, cautions, "Saying 'this is stupid and wrong' isn't helpful." Before you cry "wrong strategy," follow these three steps to understand what is truly at stake and explore your motivations.

1. Diagnose: Understand the Full Picture
An organization's strategy is often steeped in complex political issues. Before you speak up, try to understand the situation in which the strategy was developed. As Gary Neilson, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company and co-author of Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance points out, "Too many people view themselves as a self appointed strategist for the company." Don't assume you know how or why the strategy was developed. Use your network to find out more about the process and the assumptions used. According to Hill, a good network will return useful information and advice if it includes a diverse set of people who have differing perspectives — what Hill calls, "a personal board of directors." Send out feelers to get more background about what went into the strategy and what its intended purpose is. Try to understand what problem the company's leaders are trying to solve with the current strategy or if there is a shift in priorities that you don't know about. Gaining a perspective on what went into the strategy can help you to reflect on what is underlying your concerns.

2. Reflect: Contextualize Your Concerns
When it comes to strategy, right or wrong is in the eye of the beholder. Sull points out that a "good enough strategy excellently implemented will trump a perfect strategy lukewarmly implemented nine times out of ten." Because no strategy is infallible, it's likely that there are things you feel should be different, but these things don't necessarily require you to cause a mutiny. Neilson urges that concerned employees ask themselves, "Is it that you would have expected a different direction or do you believe that the analysis, facts, or process that the company used [were] flawed?" It's your job to understand what about your unease is critical to raise and what is simply the result of a difference of opinion.

It's also important to ask yourself if you are using your objections as a reason not to do something difficult. Sull says, "Middle managers may use imperfect strategy as an excuse not to take initiative." It may be that your unease is rooted in your resistance to change or resentment about not being included in the strategy development process. It's better to know the true source of your concerns before speaking up. After you've done your research and reflected on your true motivations, if your concerns remain, it's time to verbalize them.

3. Speak Up: Proceed Carefully 
You should start by going to your direct manager to share your apprehensions. Your manager may or may not have been involved in the development of the strategy, but hopefully she will know more about the background. This is a conversation that should happen in private (see Linda Hill's experience in Case Study #2 below). Take an inquiry stance, asking questions and enlisting your manager's help in understanding why this is the strategy the company has chosen. You can use questions such as, "What are the assumptions behind the strategy?," "Could you explain to me why this particular piece is important?," or "What scope do we have to adjust the strategy to the realities of the local market?"

It is important when sharing your concerns that you provide data that supports why you're raising questions in the first place. If you've done your research, you should have this information at the ready. You can make this conversation more successful by proposing alternative solutions that would help mitigate the risks you see. Be sure that you don't accuse your manager or hold her responsible. You should make clear that you are not questioning her authority but trying to better understand the strategy you've been asked to implement.

When to let it go — and when not to
After taking the above steps, if your concerns have been shrugged off or disputed, you may need to choose your battles. "Skepticism is hugely helpful in organizations but bloody-minded obstinacy is not," Sull says. People have very little respect for someone who ruthlessly fights over imperfections. You may have to trust your boss or other superiors especially because there may be issues they are not at liberty to disclose. "In those cases, you may want to say, 'If you truly think this is the right direction, I will do it,'" Hill suggests.

Sull points out that there are rare cases where the strategy is putting the company at such risk that you may want to consider leaving. These are cases where there are ethical concerns or the company may fail if the strategy is pursued in its current form. If faced with a strategy that is severely flawed or that you just can't comfortably support, you may want to consider quitting. "If she believes there were fact-based errors, such as the strategy choice was just a negotiated settlement between two warring executives who feared losing turf, then the manager should ask whether she should really stay at the company for her own benefit and the company's" says Neilson. If you do leave, don't bury your concerns. Write a letter to the CEO, no matter where you are in the organization, explaining your decision and the risks you see in the strategy.

Principles to Remember

Do:

• Understand the root cause of your concerns
• Research the inputs and assumptions underlying the strategy
• Express your concerns to your immediate boss first

Don't:

• Insist that your concerns be heeded
• Assume you know the assumptions or reasoning behind the strategy
• Question the strategy in a public setting

Case Study #1: When the competitive advantage is a disadvantage
In 2005, Laura Casela (some details, including her name, have been changed) joined a strategic communications firm started by two former consulting colleagues of hers. Laura was brought in as the Director of Business Development to help grow the year-old firm. Laura was excited about her new role and about the company's future. The firm was founded on a unique premise. Most communications firms rely on freelance writers to do a lot of their work and clients have little knowledge about who these writers are. Laura's colleagues decided to change that by hiring stay-at-home moms who had left the industry to have more time with their families; they felt this was an untapped and experienced resource and if leveraged appropriately, could be a competitive advantage for the young firm. They built their brand around this hiring approach and had success with it in their first year in the market.

However, soon after taking the job, Laura discovered that the leads she was pursuing were not turning over. She was able to capture referrals but when new leads went to the website, they seemed to lose interest. She asked a few would-be clients what turned them away and they explained they weren't looking for a business of stay-at-home moms. Many said it just didn't feel like "a right fit." Laura realized that "clients wanted the best writers they could get and they were hiring a communications firm to do the hiring for them. They didn't care who did the work, as long as the work was great." Laura was conflicted; she believed in the brand and like the founders, thought it would help them stand out in the crowded New York market. But the evidence showed something different. Laura shared what she learned with her colleagues and explained that despite how much she believed in the principle, this was an angle they should drop. The founders were surprised; but they were open to what Laura had to say, primarily because of the evidence she provided, including client feedback and emails. Laura's speaking up had a huge impact and the firm's founders, together with Laura, are now working with a strategy consultant to rethink their branding.

Turkish India Cooperation Platform

Interactive session with Indian technocrats

To build a more intense economic relationship and establish greater linkages with Indian businesses across sectors


Event Description:
he diplomatic relations between India and Turkey were established 50 years ago, since than, the two have shared common values including commitment to secularism and democratic principles. The bilateral trade between our countries has touched US $ 3.4 billion for the year 2007-08, registering a phenomenal growth of 106.84 % as compared to previous year.
The economy of Turkey is largely dominated by modern industries and services sector. The country is among the world's leading producers of agricultural products, textiles, motor vehicles, ships and other transportation equipment. Consumer electronics and home appliances also contribute considerably to the trade. Though, in recent years, the Turkish private sector has scaled rapidly, the Government still plays a major role in areas such as, banking, transportation, and communications.


Date and Venue:
Start Date:Feb 11, 2010 
Venue: Hotel Trident,, Regal Room-I, Mumbai Maharashtra India


Contacts: 
Pankaj Jain
[Executive Officer ]
Confederation of Indian Industry
Western Region Headquarters
CII Western Regional Headquarters
105, Kakad Chambers1st Floor
132 Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli
Mumbai-400018
Maharashtra
India
Phone : 91-22-24931790, 24930565, 4930287
Fax :91-22-24939463
Email : pankaj.jain@cii.in

Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results

Most companies have massive amounts of data at their disposal, yet fail to utilize it in any meaningful way. But a powerful new business tool - analytics - is enabling many firms to aggressively leverage their data in key business decisions and processes, with impressive results. In their previous book, Competing on Analytics, Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris showed how pioneering firms were building their entire strategies around their analytical capabilities. Rather than "going with the gut" when pricing products, maintaining inventory, or hiring talent, managers in these firms use data, analysis, and systematic reasoning to make decisions that improve efficiency, risk-management, and profits. Now, in Analytics at Work, Davenport, Harris, and coauthor Robert Morison reveal how any manager can effectively deploy analytics in day-to-day operations--one business decision at a time. 

They show how many types of analytical tools, from statistical analysis to qualitative measures like systematic behavior coding, can improve decisions about everything from what new product offering might interest customers to whether marketing dollars are being most effectively deployed. Based on all-new research and illustrated with examples from companies including Humana, Best Buy, Progressive Insurance, and Hotels.com, this implementation-focused guide outlines the five-step DELTA model for deploying and succeeding with analytical initiatives. You'll learn how to: Use data more effectively and glean valuable analytical insights Manage and coordinate data, people, and technology at an enterprise level Understand and support what analytical leaders do Evaluate and choose realistic targets for analytical activity Recruit, hire, and manage analysts Combining the science of quantitative analysis with the art of sound reasoning, Analytics at Work provides a road map and tools for unleashing the potential burie.


Source : Harvard Business Review 

The Decade in Management Ideas : Harvard Business IdeaCast

1. Shareholder Value as a Strategy. The notion of producing attractive returns for investors is as old as investing, but this was a decade when the pursuit of shareholder value eclipsed too much else. Increasingly sophisticated tools and metrics for value-based managementpushed the consideration of stock price effects deep into operational decision-making, and made sure everything pointed toward bonus day. By 2009, even the man most known for focusing on value was saying it was adumb idea. "Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy," Jack Welch proclaimed. "Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products."
2. IT as a Utility. The current mania for cloud computing is the latest step in a long process by which enterprises have dispensed with their proprietary glass houses and begun buying computing capabilities as services. One impetus was the Y2K scare, which forced attention onto those onerous legacy systems as the new millennium dawned.
3. The Customer Chorus. Through a range of technical and social developments, customers' voices grew louder (whether collectively in ratings systems like Amazon's, or individually through viral kvetches like Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars") and companies found ways to listen. It's a true megatrend: the steps along the way have felt gradual and natural, but collectively they change everything.
4. Enterprise Risk Management. Sounds crazy right now to say that the last decade was notable for risk management. But especially after 9/11, companies saw the sense of bringing the many and various pockets of it under the same umbrella. Newly empowered chief risk officers looked for trouble spots on a landscape ranging from financial hedging to pirates on the open sea.
5. The Creative Organization. The decade saw a general revolution in the way many organizations came to view their source of competitive advantage, and a commitment to finding ways to produce creative output more reliably. Even before they embraced "design thinking," managers were encouraging collaboration, drawing on diverse perspectives, and engaging whole workforces in "ideation."
6. Open Source. Purist geeks will be quick to point out that the term open source and some very substantial achievements came in the late 1990s, but here we pay homage to the spread of that model beyond software code. Was it only in 2001 that Wikipedia was born? And how many things have been wiki'ed since?
7. Going Private. Cheap debt reignited the LBO scene just as post-Enron reforms created real disincentives to operate as a public company. As the decade wore on, private equity's playbookfor turning around businesses was increasingly held up as best-practice management. Now, ideas like, ahem, leveraging up don't seem so wise, but private equity's devotion to strategic focus and demanding governance might endure.
8. Behavioral Economics. Okay, by now, you're all shouting "that's definitely older than 10 years" and you're right. But talk about a set of ideas whose time has come. In the prior decade, can you remember when someone with Steven Levitt's profile had a breakout bestseller? Or when someone modifying the word economist with "rogue" (or "rock star") could keep a straight face?
9. High Potentials. Consulting firms and other deeply knowledge-based businesses knew this all along, but in the past decade the rest of the corporate world woke up to the fact that some managers are more equal than others. Formal programs were established to identify, cultivate, and retain "hi-po's". Executive coaching, a perk often provided for the anointed, experienced explosive growth as an industry.
10. Competing on Analytics. Decades of investment in systems capturing transactions and feedback finally yielded a toolkit for turning all that data into intelligence. Operations research types, long consigned to engineering realms like manufacturing scheduling, got involved in marketing decisions. Managers started learning from experiments that were worthy of the name.
11. Reverse Innovation. The bigger story here is the maturation of the concept of globalization, particularly with regard to emerging economies. Most big corporations in 2000 saw them primarily as a source of natural resources and, increasingly, cheap labor. Then, as rising employment fueled the development of middle classes, cities in India and China came to represent valuable markets. Now, these non-US consumers are coming to the foreground. Firms like GE and Microsoft are doing R&D in emerging markets, optimizing on those preferences and constraints, and then bringing the results back home.
12. Sustainability. More than anything, the first ten years of the 21st century will be remembered as the decade that businesses went green — if only in their marketing to a public highly attuned to Al Gore's inconvenient truth. We're not cynical on this point, however. The efforts we see by companies large and small to reduce their carbon footprints and other environmental impacts are sincere and effective, as far as they go. But ten years from now, as we revisit this exercise, forgive us if we declare 2010-2020 to be the decade of sustainability. "The idea was in the air before 2010," we can picture ourselves writing. "But this was the decade when it really took hold."

Source : By Julia Kirby from Harvard Business Review blog. 

Google's Plan For Buzz

Google's new social media platform for information sharing, Google Buzz, is clearly a response to the runaway growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Even more, however, Buzz is about increasing the strength and effectiveness of other Google products, by adding what it gets from observing and organizing this social knowledge.

Buzz, unveiled Tuesday, is a service based in Google's (GOOG - news - people ) Gmail that lets you share status updates and links to other media, like videos, news stories and photos, with friends and colleagues. There are settings to share things with the world or with select groups. There is also a mobile version of the service that seeks to tie activities and updates to the phone user's location.

At first pass, that sounds a bit like sharing links and videos on Facebook, or managing lists of people one follows on Twitter. Google, however, has a very different core business from those other companies'  information organization, particularly on the Web. What Google gets from Buzz is a new means of organization, one that should make Google an even more useful part of life--with the not-incidental effect of improving its ability to sell advertising on its search results and mail.

By watching what people upload or who they follow, for example, Google can move towards a more personalized Web search inside the Gmail application. That would make Gmail a more attractive service to have on all the time, for both communication and Web search.

Likewise, status updates on mobile can add to Google's knowledge about who does what when, which can affect the sorts of buildings and businesses it identifies on Google Maps. If Buzz has broad uptake and collects enough opinions, it could serve as a competitor not just to Facebook and Twitter for status updates, but for review sites like Yelp.

Google plans to make Buzz part of its fast-growing offerings to business as well. In this case, a corporate user might choose to follow the updates from a key manager inside the company, or a corporate division in a related field. Top management can float ideas to generate rapid feedback from highly regarded executives and partners worldwide.

Doubtless, much of the tech punditry will agonize over whether Google is doing anything really new here, or just executing its own version of an existing product. Being a creature of Silicon Valley, it's a big deal to Google to be considered a "thought leader" and not a follower.

World’s Fastest Internet Connections

Asia’s Internet speed is not surprising news, but the details of this recent report on the Internet by Akamai show how much Asia and South Korea dominate the world of high speed Internet. Korea is also increasing the average national Internet speed at the fastest pace of any country in the world.

Korea, Japan and Hong Kong have the world’s fastest connections

Although South Korea continued to hold the top spot  as the country with the highest average measured connection speed at 14.6 Mbps, its fastest city (Masan) was ranked fifth among Asian cities, at approximately 1.2x the country average. South Korea, unsurprisingly, has six of the top 10 fastest cities in Asia, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.

As compared to the second quarter of 2009, South Korea saw a shift in the distribution of connections to higher speed buckets, with the 5-10 Mbps bucket declining from 35% to 29%, while the higher speed buckets all saw increases, with more than 10% of connections once again being made to Akamai at speeds greater than 25 Mbps.
The increased percentages of extremely high speed connections are in line with South Korea’s third quarter growth in both average measured connection speed and high broadband adoption rates.
While having a high broadband adoption rate that approaches just half of South Korea’s, Hong Kong has the second highest levels of extremely high speed connectivity among the top 10 countries, with more than 2.5% of connections to Akamai at speeds between 20-25 Mbps, and more than 5% at speeds in excess of 25 Mbps. The distribution of connection speeds above 5 Mbps remained fairly flat in the United States between the second and third quarters, and the United States remained #12 globally for this metric.

Source : Forbes 

Earth Hour - March/27/2010

Hi All,

Please find below the invitation and details about earth Hour - 2010. Just double click on the below image to view in a larger size. Lets co-operate to create a green world for us and next generation. 

World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland - 2010

Who will participate: 

Participation in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is by invitation only and strictly limited to the criteria and quota of each stakeholder group.

Of the 2500 participants at the Annual Meeting, more than half come from the business sector. With over 900 chief executives from our Strategic, Industry, Regional Partners and Global Growth Company Partners, they represent the world’s foremost global corporations in the following sectors: Basic Industries, Consumer, Financial Institutions, Information Technology, Electronics & Telecommunications, Mobility, Energy, Health, Media, and Professional Services.

The non-business participants include:• Government representatives of the world’s top 25 economies and fast-growing small countries, including heads of state and government, ministers of finance and economy, and ministers of foreign affairs as well as governors and mayors of the world’s top regions and cities.
• Civil Society leaders from international NGOs, trade union leaders, religious and faith community leaders, cultural and sports leaders.
• Thought Leaders related to the foremost challenges on the global agenda, heads of the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils.
• Academia: presidents of the world’s top universities, leaders of the world’s top think tanks, and experts related to particular issues in the programme
• Media: publishers, editors-in-chief, top columnists and economic editors

Other stakeholders include:
• Young Global Leaders from the Forum’s Community of Young Global Leaders, representing the voice of the future.
• CEOs of companies whose technologies are changing business models represented by the Forum’s Community of Technology Pioneers.
• Social Entrepreneurs from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
• Trade Union leaders
• Reporting press

Annual Meeting History Timeline: 

2009
• In association with Qatar, Singapore and Switzerland, the World Economic Forum initiates a global, multistakeholder dialogue on a wider global cooperation system. The aim is to examine ways of improving global governance to meet a changing international reality.
• World leaders at the Annual Meeting 2009 celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN’s Global Compact, which was launched at the Annual Meeting in 1999.
• The Annual Meeting 2009 provides a global platform for four heads of government from the G8 (Germany, Japan, Russia and United Kingdom) as well as from China and from G20 members in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to help the international community explore the origins of the financial crisis and to begin work on solutions based on a common understanding of the situation.

2008 • At the Annual Meeting 2008, the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda unveils a five-year, US$ 10 billion fund to support efforts in developing countries to combat global warming. At the same Meeting, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces a US$ 306 million package of agricultural development grants.

2006
• The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis (2006-2015) is launched by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Bill Gates at the Annual Meeting 2006. The project – a coalition of over 400 organizations – aims to treat 50 million people and prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths worldwide over 10 years.

Corporate Global CitizenshipImproving the state of the world through business’s engagement in partnerships that address key global societal challenges

Corporate Global Citizenship is anchored in the mission of the World Economic Forum.  We believe that corporate global citizenship is fundamentally in the enlightened self-interest of global corporations since their growth, prosperity and sustainability is dependent on the state of the global political, economic, environmental and social landscape.  The license to operate in a global market and to make profits entails a responsibility of being engaged in society.

Source: Pls click here for complete details.