e Magus

Management's history is steeped in the rigid discipline of military order. I remember my MBA professor’s mnemonic— Manage/Men/Tactfully —a sly nod to management’s early roots in hierarchy and precision. F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management , designed a system built on oversight and efficiency, where managers commanded from their thrones of polished mahogany. When I joined the workforce in the mid-90’s, the control structure was very much visible. The manager’s workspace spoke volumes: a cavernous office with a desk that could seat a small nation, side tables, a fridge laden with benevolence, and a sofa set that whispered exclusivity. In India, most meetings called by the manager, was called a durbar : audience in the royal court.   Control was about proximity. Managers were gatekeepers of information, issuing directives and reinforcing order with the close watch of an army general. In some companies, at the time of joining, they even required a conduct certificate, prov...

Lately, everyone seems to be talking about personal branding and what it means in today's digital and marketing age. I cringe whenever I get to see any headlines or articles promoting 'Personal Branding' through social media. Every 3rd or 4th article on branding topic in my Flipboard dashboard is about personal branding - how important it is, how to capitalize, listicles on personal branding etc. Over the last 5 years google trends on personal branding shows an interesting pattern. While there is slight increase in terms of the interest over time, it has a jagged growth. The December months sees a huge dip & so also a mid-year dip around June-July. One main reason could be that year ends and mid-year periods are usually lean period for job changes, perhaps? As much as I don't like the whole idea of 'personal branding', this is a new reality and professionals needs to successfully engage with their audience with the available digital tools. While t...

W ith great power comes great responsibility, said Voltaire. Well you can also attribute its popularity to Spiderman's uncle too :) When Technology gave us, the general public, the great power of Social Media, we didn't become more responsible, only more frivolous The aftermath of the Hyderabad bomb blasts which took place on Feb 21st saw a slew of Facebook updates and Tweets in my network ranging from benign to malicious. More dangerous were the purportedly expert opinions without proper basis. The same could be seen on popular blogs/websites too which treads on conspiracy theories. This lead me to think, why do people create such conspiracy theories and why it is popular among social media The crux of conspiracy theories lies in the 2 primal human traits - Fear and Greed. Fear helped us survive and greed helped us to evolve as human beings. Most conspiracy theories are based on Greed - Money or Power, and the culprits are usually, Corpo...

A curiosity to know how many ‘active’ bloggers are there in India and a quick Google search gave me stats that are pretty old and seemingly unauthentic. A WATBlog article has a report dated 2007 mentioning that 14% of Netizens from India are into ‘active’ blogging. Here I’m assuming that by ‘active’ they would mean someone who updates his/her blog at-least once a month. On a safe assumption that we have now about 60 Million Internet users in India and the blogger universe average dropping to 10% - still it talks about 6 Million bloggers in India. In the same article reference to another and a much more older (2006) Government of India report says that there are about 40K active bloggers and with another 400K ‘not regular’ bloggers. A safe assumption that the number of bloggers being directly proportional to the increase in the net users would mean we would be having a universe of close to 1 Million active bloggers from India. The most interesting part of this article was the survey co...

Hmmm.. how do I start.. Let us consider the fact that every day is a battle. We battle the morning rush hours to reach office, battle with colleagues, and clients to seek victory either in form of pushing through your ideas/thoughts or selling to a client…. Along with in this battle is a battle of communication… how do we get our views and thoughts effectively and efficiently to others… Consider Internet as the battlefield, then micro-blogging is small arms; while classic blogging would be all about artillery. Small arms is all about ease to carry, close quarters, and limited ammunition. Very similar to your micro blogging… ease to carry – can be accessed from mobile and computers; close quarters – reaching to your friends in the network, fast and effectively; and limited ammunition – 140 characters?  Artillery is all about heavy equipment, ability of reaching further, planning, targeting, etc… Most of blog dashboards are heavy and best accessed through computers… blogs have a tenden...

It has been quite a while since I have blogged here. Well the reason is not that I was so busy that I did not find that couple of hours every week to write.. it was not that I was exiled into the Gautamano bay, and had no access to internet… it is not even the fact that I was not active on Internet… in fact, I was never so active on the Net, ever since I first started browsing around 15 years back, as I was last 2 months.. then what stopped me from blogging?? Blame it on the new sexy babes in the online space – Facebook and Twitter. Since the time I got active on Facebook and Twitter, I hardly find time for any other thing online, especially writing at one go and blogging about 500 words of my thoughts. I am all over drooling over these babes and I have access to them from my mobile phone too. Though the core feature offering of Facebook or Twitter is ‘Status Update’ it has transcended the update feature. People update their status, remark on others update, follow, write on walls, poke...

A crystal gazer said to me few months back that a change would do me good... and change I did. Last week, i left the pleasant plateaus of Bangalore, and landed in the plains of Delhi. It was a more than a 'warm, reception I had (in terms of the weather) :)... I will be living out of my suitcase for a week more, before my household articles gets shipped and delivered here... Until such a time i will be holed in the hotel room... I start my days in Delhi with great expectations.... Hope here I find time to blog more frequently.... and learn more, and grow faster.. Cheers Santosh

In my earlier blog, I had mentioned that after few years of regular Internet Usage, you tend to have particular online habit. These are a few of my daily online habits: Check email: gmail.com , www.com , hotmail.com Personal: igoogle.com (use this for search also) News: Rediff.com , Indiatimes.com , Industry News: Agencyfaqs.com , E4m.com , contentsutra.com Instant Messaging: Gtalk, MSN Messengar Networking: LinkedIn / Orkut Blog: blogger.com I try and not miss out of any of the above activities. Also, there are days when I would visit some other sites - work related.. or maybe a Picasa to upload photos... or google adwords for some site analytics.. otherwise, it is the above points, as usual Cheers Santosh

I loved this stuff... Hope you like it too

Awesome stuff... Elvis rocking to punjabi music.. Santosh

Take time to think – thoughts are the source of power. Take time to play – it is the secret of perpetual youth. Take time to read – it is the fountain of wisdom. Take time to pray – it can be a rock of strength in time of need. Take time to love – it makes living worthwhile. Take time to be friendly – it gives life a delicious flavor. Take time to laugh—it is the music of the soul. Take time to give – it brings joy to the heart. Take time to work – it is the price of success. Take time to dream – it shows you what is possible. Cheers Santosh

Here is an article of interest to most bloggers. I had got the same through the Feedblitz newsletter. There are a lot of data points that can be meaningful for tracking blog effectiveness. That is, tracking what happens when visitors arrive at and engage with your blog content. It really comes down to the purpose of your blog. Metrics for a blog that’s focused on making a web site more search engine friendly by adding crawlable content and attracting links is quite different than a blog that’s meant to build thought leadership or brand credibility. Many of the metrics tools used for blogs are also used for basic web site analytics. That makes sense because many blog initiatives do not have the same kind of budget as web site marketing programs do. Therefore, the analytics employed tend to be low(er) or no cost. Regardless of the purpose, I’ve assembled a list below of the various tools we use, or have tested to report onsite blog metrics. Pick the service or tool you like the most from...

My Highlights in 2007 I bought a car I left a job which i loved.. I joined a job which i love.. I bought an Ipod atlast...(not happy with it, yet) Got an Digital camera - (though I still believe Films are far better) What I intend for 2008 ? Do more in the Job i Do... Get into an Hobby (Creative pursuit) Buy a PDA - ASUS P750 Buy a good computer system for home OR a Mobile work station Buy a house Visit at least one place of interest Cheers Santosh

Blogging is all about writing. Writing is all about grammar, language, presentation, etc. Given below are the golden rules for good riting: The 19 Rules for good Riting: Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent. Just between you and I, case is important. Verbs has to agree with their subject. Watch out for irregular verbs which has cropped up into our language. Don't use no double negatives. A writer mustn't shift your point of view. When dangling, don't use participles. Join clauses good like a conjunction should. And don't use conjunctions to start sentences. Don't use a run-on sentence you got to punctuate it. About sentence fragments. In letters themes reports articles and stuff like that we use commas to keep strings apart. Don't use commas, which aren't necessary. Its important to use apostrophe's right. Don't abbrev. Check to see if you any words out. In my opinion I think that the author when he is writing should not get into the habit of ma...

Visakhapatnam (aka Vizag) - is a place i grew up. Some of my best moments in life has been in this town. I just love this place. They say pics speaks a thousand words. See. and you too will fall in love with Vizag. Santosh The entry to Vizag port Vizag Steel Plant at sunset The tourism cottages at Rushikonda Kailashgiri Kailashgiri Sea Vizag Another view of the sea View of the sea and beach from Kailashgiri The fishing boats The Borra caves Borra Caves - Close to Araku Valley Araku Valley - 110 Kms from Vizag The Botanical Gardens - Araku Valley Araku Valley - Pitcure for a Postcard.

Who has been spared so far by them? Not me. I get these calls almost everyday. Sometimes 2 to 3 calls from the same organization. They are the most impersonal and impolite people to call you. They are becoming parasites, who thrive on technology. The telemarketers call you - when you are at home - unwinding from a hard day's work, when you are driving, when you are in a meeting (most irritating), when you are at work... just about any time of the day or week. The Do Not Call Registry by DoT is not effective. So what is the best you can do. The old adage - " If you can't beat them, Join them." Amy S. Quinn had sent me this wonderful link. Check it out " Flip the Script: 34 Scripts and Ideas for Getting Back at Telemarketers " Cheers

All I wanted was 1 week of pure laziness. Do nothing and just while the time. But that was not to be :( My trip to kerala was all about One Wedding and One Funeral. I started from Bangalore to Palakkad on Nov 8. Left Bangalore around 4.30 AM. Took the inner ring road (Koramangala) and hit Hosur Road at Madivala. The road was busy even at that time. There was a huge traffic of trucks and lorries. It took about 45 mins to reach Hosur... Then the roads cleared :). The road from Hosur to Krishnagiri is excellent. From Krishnagiri, the road to Dharmapuri was bad in patches... but heck, you can still maintain 80-100 KMPH. The hell started once we crossed Dharmapuri... till Toppur the roads are baad... (there is construction work on the National Highway)... and to make the matter worse... a looong line of traffic... i could see vehicles lined up upto 2 kms... it was crawling at snail pace... Once off Toppur.. taking the right towards Mettur... it a beautiful drive, considering that you had be...

I am going to Kerala and the net connection would be intermittent... hence an advance Diwali wishes to all of you - Santosh PS: Shall try and upload some photos from my visit to kerala soon

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who had recently created a community called ‘Direct a Movie’ on BigAdda.com to encourage the aspiring movie directors and script writers to share their videos and scripts on the social networking site, has selected Siddharth Sengupta as the next-gen director who will get an opportunity to work with Bhandarkar. According to BigAdda, the ‘Direct a Movie’ adda attracted 290 videos and scripts which were uploaded on the site from across the country. More of this article read here

I loved this piece. Hope you like it too. Subject: A wonderful Message by George Carlin: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much , and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the stree...