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September 27 Knack-Knacks in my BookcaseA Gift from the Holy Land and an "Oscar", but not the recent Golden Globe I Won at Cisco
My book case at home contains more than books. Among its embellishments are little mementoes I had picked up from some of the places I visited, a few photoframes (including one with one of my wedding snaps), some trophies, a carving of The Last Supper I bought in Monterrey (Mexico) a decade ago and various other knick-knacks that make it a mockery of a bookcase -- all shoddily arranged in a shabby room that doubles up as my office when I work from home.
It even has a lovely gift from Jerusalem, given to me by one of my former managers who bought it in Bethlehen. It contains a small Cross and four tiny bottles with water from River Jordan, oil from the Holy Sepulchre Church as well as earth and frankincense from the Holy Land. And how can I forget the little "Oscar statuette" that I was presented with in 2007 at Cisco during a group offsite in San Diego. But that was a joke of an award as it only has my name engraved and not that of Cisco or what it was for. There are a million shops in Los Angeles, particularly those along the Walk of Fame, selling them. But an award is an award, a good gesture and some form of recognition from the company, so let me not belittle that.
This month, however, I won a Golden Globe at Cisco for my involvement (along with a few others in multiple countries) with a transformational Proposal Central pilot. This is a prestigious award -- given to us for "the best impact by a team". No trophy to go with it, so my bookcase will be spared of another adjunct. There are some rewards with it, the best part being the right to call myself a "Golden Globe winner" in the Cisco staff directory.
Let me not harp on it any further and trivialize the achievements of those who have won a real Oscar and a real Golden Globe!
-- G Joslin Vethakumar
September 18 Cisco's 3G MasterpieceGrand, Green and Groundbreaking Wow, What a Wonderful show it was! Three days of mind-blowing action with the network as the platform for the Global Sales Experience (GSX) virtual event this week at Cisco. Move over Global Sales Meeting (GSM), we do not need mere meetings, we need experiences that will linger in our minds for long. GSX is here to stay and can only get better and better, making Cisco practice what it preaches even while saving it truckloads of money. Not only did it lend a new dimension to our green story (no travels meant more environment-friendliness), it was also a demonstration of how super-powerful the network can be as a platform for all of life’s new-generation experiences. It is no mean feat keeping 20,000 people engaged on a virtual platform. Proved Me Wrong: I was a little sceptical in the beginning, even believing that Cisco was merely using the economic slump as an excuse to do away with the money-guzzling annual Global Sales Meeting held in the U.S.. But the moment I casually clicked myself into the opening session, and began exploring all the virtual booths, I was simply bowled over. I did not miss the real GSM a wee bit, I was able to savour virtually all the joys I had experienced in past GSMs by being physically present at the venues. Without the food and the live entertainment shows, though! If that was a disappointment, GSE more than made up for it by giving us the ability to easily hop from one session to another, have interesting chats with people I hardly knew and arm myself with new information without too much of a hassle. Well done, Cisco, GSX will for sure be an experience to remember! n G Joslin Vethakumar September 11 Indra Nooyi Again Tops List of 50 Most Powerful Women in BusinessShe keeps India often in the news, and she is not Sonia Gandhi. Who else can this honour go to but Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO of Pepsico, who has yet again made it to the top of the Fortune list of the top 50 women in business.
An alumni of the Madras Christian College (and of the Indian Institute of Management), Indra is the only Indian in the list. In fact, the list features only two Asian-origin women, the other being Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products and Canada-born daughter of Chinese immigrants.
Interestingly, Indra is not the highest paid woman, she comes in at number 10. But personal monetary rewards are no measure of a person's success, what matters is how much money she is helping Pepsi add to its kitty.
I was hoping Cisco CTO Padmashree Warrior will make it to the list. But it is just about two years since she moved to Cisco from Motorola. It may take time for her to make a difference to the organization.
Who else can keep India in the news? If power-crazy Mayawati is not kept under check, whe may do it for all the wrong reasons.
The full list can be viewed at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen/2009/full_list/
-- G Joslin Vethakumar September 05 Dr Singh admits Corruption is Scuttling India's GrowthBut Why Isn't He doing Anything to Root it Out?
Every Indian knows it is corruption that is scuttling the nation's growth, not just tarnishing its image in the eyes of the world. But isn't it too defeatist to merely talk about it and do nothing else? Now, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined this brigade of idle talkers resigned to living with it as a way of life. He has gone on record as saying that "graft meant infrastructure projects were late, over-budget, and often poor quality."
Check out a report in The Telegraph of Britain for more on Dr Singh's perception of corruption -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/6133572/Corruption-retarding-Indias-growth-says-Indian-PM.html. If neither the establishment nor the judiciary is above board what recourse can people have for justice to prevail? A tinktank official, who is quoted in the piece, puts a part of the blame on India's British legacy. His reasoning was that the British created so many bureaucratic rules that people eventually ended up paying bribes to circumvent them for a faster turnaround.
It has some very interesting reader comments as well, with one of them asking "why isn't he doing anything about it if he is aware of the problem." Very valid question.
Why?
--G Joslin Vethakumar |
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