What is common between LensCrafters and Progressive Insurance Comnpany – relentless focus on customer service. I saw their recent offers and was blown away 1. LensCrafters provides a hassle free option to try out their glasses for 30 days and return or replace them if they don’t like it. 2. Progressive offers a hassle free… Continue reading →

One of my friends was complaining to me about the fact that his boss was not understanding him. He vividly described what exactly happened in a particular incident and ultimately his point was that “his boss was wrong” and “he was right”. We talked about it for a while and both of us agreed that… Continue reading →

The era of job security is over. There are very few organizations that can actually guarantee your job over a long period of time. Most people know this but very few people really do something about this. I would like to say that this is not a trend or a fad. The circumstances in the… Continue reading →

Today I was meeting an old friend over a cup of coffee. My friend asked about my upcoming book “Beyond Code” and I was more than happy to talk about it. Something caught his attention and he said, I have to make a note of it. He opened a notebook and scribbled something. This happened… Continue reading →

This happened in 1997. Kavitha (my wife) and I had just landed in Silicon Valley. Before this, we were living in Singapore and things were very different there. We had to make a lot of changes in our lives to adapt to the valley. First, we had to get our driving license and buy a… Continue reading →

They say that failure is the stepping stone for success. What happens once you succeed? Success is not a destination and it should lay the foundation for your next quest. Interestingly, success can be a problem sometimes. A classic situation is when one thinks that he or she is now successful and it’s time to… Continue reading →

I have mentioned this in one of my previous posts and I want to repeat it here – one thing in life has not changed – “sometimes we succeed and sometimes we learn” Many times we put a lot of effort on some things but the results are not there. Sometimes we put in a… Continue reading →

The general temptation for many of us is to receive things that are “free” Think about that for a second and see if it is really worth receiving those things that are free. Here are some of my thoughts: 1. I think there is nothing that is “free.” Everything has a price and it has… Continue reading →

This post may seem like it is targeted at sales professionals but my guess is that it is equally applicable to professionals at all levels. Whenever we are making a point, getting our ideas across, we tend to focus only on the decision makers. This may work but many times, the better approach is to… Continue reading →

If everyone in a company learns the basics of “systems thinking” life would be very simple. Here is a definition of a system from the late Austrian Biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy A system is an entity which maintains its existence through the mutual interaction of its parts. Systems thinking, in essence, is an understanding of… Continue reading →