The IT opportunity in Kerala

Frontline article by a fromer CEO of Technopark. 'The coming boom.'

Interview with Toonz CEO, Mr. P. Jayakumar

A background to Toonz.

IBM and Innovation

Thinking the future, with IBM. (from BW)

IBM the leader in eSCM (eScouring Capability Model). (from CIOL)

Fortune on Yahoo! and IBM

Don't stare so hard at Google you miss Yahoo! (from CNN Money)

IBM's new chip and a reorganized corporate structure aimed at making IBM exciting again. (from CNN Money)

Secret of Success

[via Emergic] from Working Smart:

I'm not sure I could boil it down to one thing. Life isn’t usually that simple. But if I really, really had to boil it down to one thing, I would say this: responsiveness.

The truth is, you are building your reputation—your brand—one response at a time. People are shaping their view of you by how you respond to them. If you are slow, they assume you are incompetent and over your head. If you respond quickly, they assume you are competent and on top of your work. Their perception, whether you realize it or not, will determine how fast your career advances and how high you go. You can’t afford to be unresponsive. It is a career-killer.

My basic rule is this: respond immediately unless there is a good reason to wait. Obviously, this isn’t always possible, especially since I spend so much time in meetings. Nevertheless, I rarely let messages sit longer than a day. Twenty-four hours is the outside edge. If you can’t respond now, then at least acknowledge that you have received the message: “I received your message. I don’t have time to give it the attention it deserves right now, but you can expect to hear from me before the end of the day tomorrow.”

The great thing about being responsive is that it will quickly differentiate you from your peers. People love doing business with responsive people. Nothing will advance your career faster than this.

Making your work day sane

Five rules. Practical and useful pointers. (Fortune, through CNN Money)

1) Give yourself a time-out. Devote an hour to uninterrupted thinking and planning every day. First thing in the morning is safest, but anytime that works for you is good. No calls, no e-mail, no chitchat, just quality time. "If there's an emergency, someone will come get you," says organization expert Julie Morgenstern. "Use this time to think strategically about your work."

2) Show your technology who's boss. Constant e-mails and phone calls bring a sense of urgency and importance that's tough to resist, not to mention the thrill of instant accomplishment. But keep your eye on the prize. "Anyone who has his e-mail client notify him anytime an e-mail comes in has already lost," says Shirky.

Most of today's devices and software actually can be set to be less intrusive. You just need to learn how: Switch off the ping that heralds the arrival of an e-mail, create folders into which incoming messages are automatically shunted. When busy, let outgoing message capabilities alert others to when they might reasonably expect to hear back from you.

3) Keep your meetings rare. Surveys show that most people find meetings a major time waster. Use them sparingly, keep to an agenda, start and end on time. And unless someone is expecting a baby (or using technology is part of the meeting) turn off all cellphones and BlackBerries. Intra-meeting texting is rude and counterproductive.

4) Say no. "Sorry" isn't the hardest word -- "no" is. But not saying it to desperate colleagues or harried bosses is the quickest way to overload your schedule and muck up more important goals. Focus first on meeting your stated objectives. Also, consider family and personal time when filling your calendar: Work-centric employees are more likely to report feeling overloaded than those who plan for their personal lives.

5) Delete. Surveys show we waste 20 percent of our day on nonproductive activities. Cut out or delegate anything on your to-do list that doesn't have long-term consequences for your work. Be ruthless. And while you're at it, don't let a stuffed e-mail in-box sap your will to live. When reviewing each e-mail, make an on-the-spot call to delete, file, or reply to each one -- even if the response is, "I'll get back to you on this later."

He says, she says

I've always had the feeling that I never understood girls. (Now isn't that what all guys say?!) Blame it on the 14 years spent in a boys-only school, or on whatever else. Maybe a crash course from this blog would help a bit!