Books

Now Reading

“Einstein on Politics:His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb” by David E. Rowe & Robert Schulmann

"1984" by George Orwell

"The Penguine Book of Classical Urdu Stories"

"The Essential Chomsky"

In Pipeline
"Iqbal and Quranic Wisdom" by Md Munawwar
"The Road to Mecca" by M Asad

"Who Speaks for Islam?" by John Esposito & Dalia Moghed

"Hot Flat & Crowded" by Thomas Friedman

"Middle East Illusion" by Noam Chomsky

"The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

"Its Not About Bike; My Journey back to Life" by Lance Armstrong

'Inside the Gender Jihad" by Amina Wadood

"A Better India; A Better World" by Narayan Murthy

Recently read

"The Alchemy of Desire" by Tarun Tejpal

"Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

"Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell

"The Story of My Assassins" by Tarun Tejpal

"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch

"The Shape of the Beast" by Arundhati Roy

"Islamic Economics" by Sabahuddin Azmi

"The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria

"The Case of Exploding Mangoes" Muhammad Hanif

"Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business" by Muhammad Yunus

"Tell Me No Lies" by John Pilger

"Journey into Islam - Crisis of Globalization" by Akbar Ahmed

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid
"The 3 Mistakes of my Life" by Chetan Bhagat
"Islam the Straight Path" by John L Esposito
"The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs
"Confession of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins
"The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam", Speeches, Writings & Statements" by Allama Iqbal
"Identity and Violence", "The Argumentative India" by Amartya Sen:
"Muhammad", "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong:
Malcom X Autobiography
"Noam Chomsky "Understanding Power":
"Mavericks at Work":
"Banker to the Poor" by Mohammad Yusuf
"Standing Alone in Mecca" by Asra Naomani
"Al-Farooq The life of Umar the Great"
"Made in America"
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseni
"Fish" by Stephen Lundin
"How Starbucks saved my life" by Michael Gill

"Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coehlo
"Scoop" by Kuldip Nayyar
"Art of Seduction"
"How to Get What you want Out of Life"
"In Spite of Gods:Rise of Modern India" Edward Luce
"Winning" Jack Welch

Have Read
Arindam Chaudhuri, Shiv Khera, Robert Kiyosaki, Steven Covey, Mahatma Gandhi, Paulo Coelho, Sun Tzu, Zig Ziglar, M J Akbar, Ayn Rand and loads more apart from novels, which I hardly reads now

Lean Thinking by James Womack & Daniel Jones

Lean thinking is Lean because it provides a way to do more and more with less and less- less human effort, less equipment, less time, and less spaces while coming closer and closer to providing customers with exactly what they want.

Introduction :

Author traveled across North America , then to Japan and Korea, and on through Europe where every where concept of mass production was too deep cemented in the minds of mangers. Till this book had been published Toyota was the company which emulated this concept very well. At that time managers could not think of converting mass production to for lean process.

After meeting many audiences and considerable reflection, it was concluded that lean thinking can be summarized in five principles.

1. Specify value by specify product

2. Identify value stream.

3. Make value flow without interruptions.

4. Let the customers pull value from the products.

5. Pursue perfection.

I. Specify Value

What is value? It can only be defined by the ultimate customer and its only meaningful when expressed in terms of a specific product which meets the customer’s needs at a specific prize at a specific time. All along the way where ever author has traveled the definition of value is skewed every where by the power of pre-existing organization, technologies and underpreciated assets, along with outdated thinking about economies of scale.

Managers around the world tend to say, "This product is what we know how to produce using assets we have already bought, so if customers don’t respect we will adjust the price or add bells and whistles.” What they should be doing instead is fundamentally rethinking value from the perspective of customer.

Lean thinking therefore must start with a conscious attempt to precisely define value in terms of specific products with specific capabilities offered at specific prices through a dialogue with specific customers, specifying value accurately is the critical first step in lean thinking providing the wrong good or service the right way is Muda. Here to define value the author has proposed following steps:

1. Challenge Tradition Definitions of Value:

Here author stressed on formation of teen for each product to stick with that product during his entire production life. This team consisting of a marketer, a product engineer and a tooling process engineer – proceeded to enter into a dialogue with leading customers in which all of the old products and solutions were ignored. Instead customer and producer focused on the value the customer really needed.

2. Define value in terms of whole product:

Another reason firms find it hard to get value right is that which value creation often flows through many firms, each one tends to define value in a different way to suit its own needs when these differing definitions are added up they often don’t add up.

3. Firms to rethink value:

According to this the author propagated the idea that it is vital that producers accept the challenge of redefinition, because this often leads to finding more customers, and the ability to find more customers and sales very quickly is critical to the success of a lean thinking.

4. Target Cost :-

Here the lean enterprises look at the current bundles of pricing and features being offered to customers by conventional firms and then ask how much cost they can take out by full application of lean methods.

II. Value Stream ( Identification)

Here the author defines value stream as the set of all the specific actions required to bring a specific product through three critical management tasks of any business:

(1) Problem solving task

(2) Information Management task

(3) Physical Transformation task

Identifying the entire value stream for each product is the next step in lean thinking, a step which forms have rarely attempted but which almost always exposes enormous, indeed staggering amounts of muda. Here the author stressed at looking at entire set of activities entailed in creating and producing a specific product, from concept through detailed design to actual availability, from the initial sale through order entry and production scheduling to delivery and from raw materials reduced faraway and out of sight right into the hands of customer. The organizational mechanism for doing this is what we call the ‘lean enterprises’. Here to author advise to lean forms today is simple: to hell with your competitors; compete against perfection by identifying all activities that are muda and eliminating them .

III. Flow:

Once the value has been precisely specified, the value stream far a specific product fully mapped by the lean enterprise and obviously wasteful steps eliminated, its time for the next step in lean thinking and which is make the value creating steps flow. Here the author has out rightly rejected the functional and departmentalization concept of the companies. In departmentalization, activities are performed in batches and batches as it turns out, always mean long waits as the product sits patiently awaiting the department’s changeover to the type of activity the product needs next. Here the author believes that things work better when we focus on the product and ifs needs rather than the organization or the equipment, so that all the activities needed to design, order, and provide a product occur in continuous flow. The lean alternative is to redefine the work of functions, departments, and firms so they can make a positive contribution to value creation and to speak to the real needs of employees at every point along the stream so it is actually in their interest to make value flow.

IV. Pull:

Pull in simplest terms means that no one upstream should produce a good service until the customer downstream as per for it, but actually fallowing this rule in practice is a bit more complicated. The best way to understand the logic and challenge of pull thinking is to start with a real customer expressing a demand for a real product and to work backwards through all the steps required to bring the desired product to the customer.

V. Perfection:

As organizations begin to accurately specify value, identify the entire value stream, make the value creating steps for specific products flow continuously, and let customers pull value from the enterprise, something very old begins to happen. It dawns on those involved that there is no end to the process of reducing effort, time, space, cast and mistakes while offering a product which is ever more nearly what the customer actually wants. Suddenly perfection, the fifth and final principle of loan thinking, doesn’t seem like a crazy idea.

ADVANTAGES OF USING THIS SYSTEM:

1. Based on years of benchmarking and observation in organizations around the world, author has developed the following simple rules of thumb: Converting a classic batch - and- queue production system to continuous flow with effective pull by the customer will double labor productivity all the way through the system while at the same time cutting production.
Throughput time by 90% and reducing inventories in the system by 90 percent as well

2 Errors reaching to customer will cut to half

3. Wide variety of products, within the product families, can be offered at very modest
additional cost.

4. Capital investments required will be very modest, even negative, if facilities and equipment can be freed up and sold.

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

Who Moved My Cheese is masterful at helping people deal with a substantial, psychological roadblock-change. The book tells the story of two mice (Sniff and Scurry) and two "little people" (Hem and Haw) trapped in a maze. Cheese is a metaphor for whatever you want in your life. For the mice, it's cheese. For the "little people," it could be success, happiness, or financial security.

One day, the foursome finds cheese in Cheese Station C. It's probably one of those researchers putting it there, but we don't know. Maybe fate or an accident has placed it there. Anyway, they all like it. They return day-after-day to eat cheese.

The mice always explore their surroundings and are looking for change. They weren't completely surprised when one day the cheese disappeared. They noticed the supply had been dwindling.

Or, even if they were surprised, when it was gone, it was gone. Sniff lifted his nose and decided upon a direction. Scurry took off in the same direction. The mice went looking for new cheese in the maze. They didn't try to hold on to a past that no longer existed.

The mice didn't analyze things too much. Change happens. They knew they had to deal with it.

The little people were different. They had come to view Cheese Station C as their home. They bragged about it. They felt it was theirs. They were outraged, shocked, scared, and befuddled when the cheese disappeared. In their comfort, they didn't notice the cheese supply had been dwindling, nor that it had become old and smelly. They had become complacent.

Hem and Haw felt the situation was unfair. It was their cheese, and now it was gone. Hem and Haw remained in Cheese Station C hoping the cheese would return and wondering where it had gone.

One day, Haw decided that waiting for the cheese to return wasn't working. He was getting weaker the longer he remained, and so, he moved into the maze looking for new cheese. He felt too old and tired to seek new cheese, and he was afraid. Afraid of the unknown and afraid he wouldn't find new cheese, but he pressed on.

As fate would have it, Haw did find new . On his cheese-seeking quest, Haw kept writing life lessons on the wall of the maze like:

• "Change Happens. They keep moving the Cheese."
• "Anticipate Change. Get ready for the cheese to move."
• "Enjoy Change. Savor the adventure and enjoy the taste of the new cheese!"

Hem was hemmed in by his old ideas. We don't know if he ever left Cheese Station C. He may have starved, as the longer he stayed in the cheese less station, the weaker he would become.

Anyway, learn to think more like a mouse. Don't depend upon the status quo. Realize change happens and circumstances, which may have favored you, change. Yet, you can't control change and are not entitled to things remaining the same.

Who Moved My Cheese provides inspirational guidance to those suffering job loss, downsizing, divorce, or altered life situations. It's message, to seek out new opportunities, makes the reader, faced with change, want to quit the "It's-not-fair" hand-wringing and seek opportunity.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People begins with the astute observation that people perceive the world differently, and because we view the world with our own unique "lens," it is difficult to separate the observation from the observer.

Covey says that we all have our own paradigm, which is our own map of how we perceive the world and how we think the world should be in our ideal view. Covey writes, "The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act."

Covey goes on to explain: "These paradigms are the source of our attitudes and behaviors. We cannot act with integrity outside of them. We simply cannot maintain wholeness if we talk and walk differently than we see. To try to change outward attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which those attitudes and behaviors flow."

So, part of achieving insight involves making a "paradigm shift" which causes us to perceive things differently. Covey notes that life threatening experiences or a major role change in a person's life can change a person's paradigm. Sometimes, just a little more knowledge might help us examine our paradigms.

Covey says that although many people want to be effective in their lives and achieve certain goals or dreams, they are unwilling to honestly examine their own paradigms. They are unwilling to look at the way they look at things.

Among his many examples, Covey tells the story of a manager who has taken management training classes and seminars and who is friendly to his employees. Yet, he doesn't feel that his employees have any loyalty toward him. He feels they lack independence and responsibility. If he took a day off, he believes his employees would goof off and stand around the water cooler talking all day.

Covey suggests the manager ask himself, “But is it possible that under that apparent disloyal behavior, these employees question whether I really act in their best interest? Do they feel like I'm treating them as mechanical objects?”

Our paradigms will affect how we interact with others, which in turn will affect how they interact with us. So, Covey argues, any effective self-help program must begin with an "inside-out" approach, rather than looking at our problems as "being out there". We must start by examining our own character, paradigms, and motives.

Covey writes that the inside-out approach says "If you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character."

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People points out: "Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. One way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of principles is to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live an effective life based on their opposites. I doubt that anyone would seriously consider unfairness, deceit, baseness, uselessness, mediocrity, or degeneration to be a solid foundation for lasting happiness and success."

After discussing the importance of character, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People jumps into the habits you should work toward creating as a part of your life. The first three habits, Covey says, are habits of independence. They will help you achieve a private victory of being more personally effective and independent.

Stephen Covey's Habits of Independence:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Covey says you must use your resourcefulness and your initiative to work toward your personal goals. In particular, each person has both a circle of influence and a circle of concern. Worrying endlessly about things outside of your circle of influence isn't particularly productive. Working within your circle of influence is productive. Further, the more effective you become, the more your circle of influence will expand.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Covey starts with the extreme example of considering your death. What do you want people to say about you at your funeral? How will you be remembered?

Covey says that many people climb the ladder of success only to find the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. He writes, "We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind."

To succeed, Covey suggests visualization. He points out many peak, athletic performers are visualizers. Covey writes: "You can do it [visualization] in any area of your life. Before a performance, a sales presentation, a difficult confrontation, or the daily challenge of meeting a goal, see it clearly, vividly, relentlessly, and over and over again. Create an internal "comfort zone." Then, when you get into the situation, it isn't foreign. It doesn't scare you."

Habit 3: Put First Things First

The key to putting first things first is to understand that you have many things you can do which will have a significant, positive impact on your life. But, you probably don't do them, because they aren't urgent. They can be delayed. Of course, so will your success.

Covey stresses that you must balance Production (P) with Productive Capability (PC). You must keep the engine producing, but also maintain the engine. You must allocate time to improve your Productive Capability.

Covey says that all time management can be summed up by one short line: "Organize and execute around priorities."

The remaining habits in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are habits of interdependence. Rather than being dependent upon other people, or trying to be totally independent, we learn how to be more effective by effectively working with others.

Covey writes: "Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality."

Stephen Covey's Habits of Interdependence:

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Thinking Win/Win means seeking mutual benefit in your human interactions. Covey points out that many people think Win/Lose. They internally believe, "If I win, you lose." Such people focus upon power and credentials, but have trouble building meaningful relationships. Such people drive other people away and are seldom extremely effective. Such Win/Lose thinking is encouraged and programmed into us by society.

Covey writes: "A powerful programming agent is athletics, particularly for young men in their high school or college years. Often they develop the basic paradigm that life is a big game, a zero sum game where some win and some lose. 'Winning' is 'beating'"

To be successful you should learn to leverage the strengths of others. To do this effectively involves being able to find Win/Win deals. No deal is better than any non-Win/Win deal.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

Covey observes that few people have training in listening. Most people don't listen. They wait to talk. But, how can you discover Win/Win deals, if you aren't even listening to the other party? Covey also suggests that you don't read your own personal autobiography into the lives of other people. Listening shouldn't be selective listening. Nor should we only pretend to listen to others.

Covey writes: "Communication experts estimate, in fact, that only 10 percent of our communication by the words we say. Another 30 percent is represented by our sounds [tone? Or, does he mean "sounds" like chortle, chortle, grunt, grunt?], and 60 percent by our body language. In empathic listening, you listen with your ears, but you also, and more importantly, listen with your eyes and with your heart. You listen for feeling, for meaning. You listen for behavior. You use your right brain as well as your left. You sense, you intuit, you feel."

Habit 6: Synergize

Covey writes: "What is synergy? Simply defined, it means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Covey goes on to discuss synergy in the classroom and synergy in business.

To be effective, Covey emphasizes that we must value the differences between people and how they view the world. That difference can be used as a source of insight.

Covey says: "Valuing the differences is the essence of synergy-the mental, the emotional, and the psychological differences between people. And the key to valuing those differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are."

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

The final habit discussed in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is "Sharpen the Saw," which focuses upon self-renewal. There is an analogy with Habit 3: Put First Things First, where we learned that we must balance Productivity (P) with future Productive Capability (PC). Just as a machine will wear out quickly if not properly maintained, the same is true for your own personal productivity. You must take care of yourself.

Covey breaks personal renewal into four dimensions:

Physical Renewal covers topics such as exercise and stress management.

Mental Renewal discusses the need to read, visualize, and plan.

Social/Emotional Renewal involves interacting with others to build our own sense of well-being.

Spiritual Renewal involves possible religion, study, and meditation.

Direct From Dell - The Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry

In Direct from Dell, founder and CEO Michael Dell tells how he started his company from a dorm room at the University of Texas with less than $1,000 and built it into an industry powerhouse with a market capitalization of well over $100 billion. What makes Dell Computer unique is "Not what it sells, But rather how it sells it". Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the “Direct-Selling Model”, a method that competitors are only now starting to embrace. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with high-speed computers that cost less and that were more adaptable to meet customer needs. Founded on a deceptively simple premise to deliver high-performance computer system directly to the end user-Dell Computer is the envy of its competitors. It has consistently grown at two to three times the industry rate. It’s stock went up more than 200 percent – the largest share-price gain in the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 in the year 1998.

The book is neither a memoir nor a complete history of Dell Computer Corporation. Rather it provides examples and advice for start-up business owners on ways to handle change and the importance of constant communication with employees, customers, and suppliers. He offers some innovative ideas for encouraging employees to think outside the box and for suppliers to work as partners with the company for everyone's benefit. Dell also has provided strategies for using the Web to enhance sales and empower information throughout business.

The efforts put by Dell were astonishing: A 19 year-old with $1000 starts a company, remains at the pinnacle and on top of changes in the industry for 10 years. And watches the stock rise 36,000 percent over another decade as his company becomes the second largest maker of PCs in the world and the largest in the U.S.

CONTENT IN BRIEF

"Direct from Dell" is divided in to two parts, with seven and eight chapters respectively.

The book explores what have come to term Dell’s “competitive strategies” – speed to market; superior customer service; a fierce commitment to produce consistently high quality, custom made computer systems that provide the highest performance and the latest relevant technology to their customer; and an early exploitation of the Internet.

In Part One Dell describes how these strategies took hold, born of good times and bad, as the company grew and changed and grew some more.

In Part Two Dell describes how he had enhanced these strategies, and how, by finding innovative ways to combine technology with the information his company gleaned from their direct relationships with employees, customers, and suppliers.

CONTENT IN DETAIL

The first part discusses Dell's history in chronological order. From its early success and immense growth afterwards over a period of becoming a professional organization and developing the core of the "Direct selling Business Model" until finally expanding systematically on vertical, horizontal and geographical axes based on well-developed principles.

It had always made more sense for Dell to build a business based on what people really wanted, rather than guess at what he thought they might want, this was the official beginning of what is called the “Direct Selling Business Model”. One can really attribute the evolution of Dell and its success story in the computer industry to their “Direct Selling Business Model” .The Direct Model has been evolved from the basic idea of eliminating the middlemen, and is based on direct selling – not using a reseller or the retail channel. The Direct Relationship – first through telephone calls, then through face-to-face interactions, and now through the Internet – has enabled Dell to benefit from real-time input from real customers regarding product and service requirements, products on the market, effective Inventory Management, and future products they would like to see developed.

In the First part Dell discussed the problems that he faced while starting his business and latter developing it globally. He suggested certain strategies that he had learned from his good and bad experiences:

Ø No matter what one’s industry is, one has to identify potential problems early – and fix them.

Ø Involve your customers early in the development process, as they are your most valuable focus group – Listen early and Listen well.

Ø Communicating is one of the most important tools in recovering from mistakes as it enables to diffuse the fear of the unknown and focus on the solution.

Ø Under Promise and Over Deliver.

Ø For any company to succeed its critical for top management to share power successfully, as one has to focus on achieving goals for the organization, but not on accumulating power.

Ø Plan or Die. Planning is one of those areas where experience counts as much as intellect. One needs to insert more discipline into one’s planning process, as it is hard to anticipate the ups and downs of business cycles that one had actually never experienced before. Above all one has to remember that planning is nothing with out execution.

Ø Divide and Conquer – when one has got a huge market opportunity, the only way to handle it is to divide and conquer i.e. Effective Segmentation of the Market.

The second part of the book details Dell's management principles: creating powerful partnerships, building a company of owners, learning directly from the source, developing a customer-focused philosophy, forging strong alliances, bringing your partners inside your business, differentiating for a competitive edge, and thriving on change in the connected economy.

In the Second part Dell discussed how he had enhanced his competitive strategies - which are mentioned as under:

Ø Mobilize your people around a common goal. Help them to feel a part of something genuine, special, and important, and you’ll inspire real passion and loyalty.

Ø Invest in mutual long-term goals by hiring ahead of the game.

Ø Looking at learning as a necessity, not a luxury.

Ø Study the obvious for non-obvious solutions. If you’re trying to solve a customer’s problem, go and ask him how he’d like to see it solved. This kind of problem-solving “empathy” leads to innovative thinking.

Ø Make failure accept as long as it creates learning opportunities.

Ø Communicate the goals of the organization to everyone.

Ø Treat all employees as owners, even if they technically aren’t yet.

Ø Marry high tech and high touch.

Ø Run with suggestions your customers provide.

Ø Always think bottom line – but not just yours. Consider your customer’s bottom line as well. Can you save them money, while enhancing your partnership with them?

Ø Go beyond your products or services, and make yourself valuable to your customers as an advisor. Be a student of your customers as they can provide a much-needed perspective on products and services.

Ø Exploit the talents and investments of the experts.

Ø Keep your friends close and your supplier’s closer.

Ø Communicate directly with the decision-makers and don’t underestimate the value of information.

Ø Flip the equation: Don’t settle for the standard supply/demand relationship – it doesn’t work anymore. Work toward demand/supply. The benefits to both sides in terms of time, market flexibility, cost-savings, and competitive advantage are immeasurable.

Ø Think of the customer and not of the competition.

Ø Turn your competition’s greatest strength into a weakness. Study the “Game of Competition”: Exploit its weakness by exposing its greatest strength.

Ø Expect change and plan for it. Rather than seeing it as a potential threat or problem, welcome it as an opportunity.

Ø Exploit the Internet. The Internet is the most effective and pervasive change agent in this connected economy. Use the Internet to break down traditional boundaries as it enables to connect more directly with people, customers, and suppliers; it can enable to work faster and become more adept at riding the ways of change.

Ø Integrate your business – virtually. Search for ways to partner virtually in an effort to eliminate steps, enhance efficiencies, and provide a better total customer experience.

In the last part of the book Dell has concluded that these are the true roots of strategies that should continue to help us – and you – revolutionize our industries for a long time to come.

Mavericks at Work By William C. Taylor, Polly G. Labarre

Rethink Competition

1. Do you have a distinctive and disruptive sense of purpose that sets you apart from your rivals?
2. Do you have a vocabulary of competition that is unique to your industry and compelling to your employees and customers?
3. Are you prepared to reject opportunities that offer short-term benefits but distract your organization from its long-term mission?
4. Can you be proactive without provoking a backlash?
5. If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why?

Reinventing Innovation

1. Keep the focus narrow and tightly defined.
2. Keep broadening the range of participants.
3. Keep it fun.
4. Don’t keep all the benefits to yourself.
5. Keep challenging yourself to be more open to new ideas and new ways of leading.

Reconnecting with Customers

1. There’s always a demand for something distinctive.
2. Not all customers are created equal.
3. Brand is culture, culture is brand.
4. Advertising to customers is not the same as connecting with customers.
5. When is comes to creating brand value, dollars-and-cents thinking doesn’t always make sense.

Redesigning Work

1. Why should great people join your organization?
2. Do you know a great person when you see one?
3. Can you find great people who aren’t looking for you?
4. Are you great at teaching great people how your organization works and wins?
5. Does your organization work as distinctively as it competes?

"The Art of War" By Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu's The Art of war offers lessons in competition. It explains the strategy of winning without going into wars. These strategies can be used in any form of competition, like business or our day-to day life. The book was penned by Sun Tzu about two thousand years ago. It has the distinction of being the first of military classics and offers a distinct and non-intuitive insight for winning competition while avoiding the most destructive aspects of conflict. It emphasizes that certain key factors influence the outcome of any battle and that victory goes-not to the strongest or most aggressive-but to the person who best understands how to use and leverage the situation and avoid the costs of conflicting desires.

Sun Tzu's text can be divided into thirteen parts which are:-

Laying Plans

The art of war is critical for the nation-a basis of life and death and a philosophy of survival and destruction. It is a matter of enquiry which can never be ignored. The art of war is steered by five factors. These are: The Military Philosophy, The Weather, The Ground, The Commander and The Military Methods.

The Military Philosophy instructs the people to follow the ruler regardless of their lives, without the fear of any danger or dishonesty. Weather signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. Ground signifies distances - near and far(danger and security),open and narrow(life and death).The Commander must have virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness. With the help of these factors the army can plan its structure, ranks, supplies and expenditure. One who takes into account these factors is always victorious. Plans should always be led by circumstances. Warfare should be deceptive so that the enemy does not know about the plans. The military devices, leading to victory, must not be displayed beforehand.

Waging War

For victory, a large army and long wars are not desirable. To maintain a big army, resources too should be huge enough. A large army is the same as invaders as both drain the resources of the nation. If the war continues for long ,the army will get drained, unorganized and demotivated.So, to make good use of war the army should be small but strong, only basic supplies should be carried and the army should feed off the enemy. The main objective of the army should be to capture the enemy’s supplies rather than to kill them. The objective of a war should be victory rather than long campaigns.

Planning An Attack

Everyone depends on the arts of war. Anything united is stronger than anything divided. A united nation is stronger than the divided one. Unity wins every battle fought. The best time to attack is when the enemy is still planning. In this way the army will be caught unawares. The next best is to prevent the grouping of the enemy's forces, the next is to attack the enemy's army in the field, and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide own army into two. Thus the essentials of victory are:

Victory comes from knowing when to attack and when to avoid battle.

Victory comes from correctly using both large and small forces.

Victory comes from everyone sharing the same goals.

Victory comes from having a capable commander and the government leaving him alone.

Positioning

The good fighters first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then wait for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. Defeat of the enemy lies in his hand rather than ours. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but he cannot make sure of the enemy’s defeat.

Security against defeat implies defensive tactics whereas ability to defeat the enemy means taking the offensive. To win with much of fanfare is not a great victory. A clever fighting is actually when one excels in winning with ease. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position, which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy. In respect of military method, we have:

The ground determines the distance.

The distance determines the numbers.

Numbers determine the calculations.

The calculations determine the decision.

The decisions determine the victory.

Energy

The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men, it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers. So the structure matters a lot. To ensure that the army may withstand the brunt of the enemy's attack and remain unshaken--direct and indirect maneuvers occur.

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as ground and weather. There are not more than five primary colors (red, white, blue, yellow, and black), yet when combined they produce more colors than can ever been seen. Similarly there are five primary tastes which combine to form so many new tastes. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals. Hence his ability to pick out the right men and utilize combined energy.

Weakness and Strength

Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight, whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him. An army must capitalize on its own strength and the enemy’s weakness. One can be sure of succeeding in one’s attacks. If he attacks places which are undefended. He can ensure the safety of his defense if he holds positions that cannot be attacked. Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us. Knowing the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses is also a part of the strategies.

Armed Conflict

In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign. Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.

After that, comes tactical maneuvering. The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortuneinto gain. Maneuvering with an army is advantageous, with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous. One cannot enter into alliances until he is well acquainted with the designs of the neighbors. He will be unable to turn natural advantage to account unless he makes use of local guides. Whether to concentrate or to divide the troops must be decided by circumstances. One should ponder and deliberate before making a move.

He will conquer who has learnt the artifice of deviation. To be near the goal while the enemy is still far from it, to wait at ease while the enemy is toiling and struggling, to be well-fed while the enemy is famished:--this is the art of husbanding one's strength.

Adaptability

In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign, collects his army and concentrates his forces. The general who thoroughly understands the advantages that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handlehis troops. The general who does not understand these, may be well acquainted with the configuration of the country, yet he will not be able to turn his knowledge to practical account. Hence in the wise leader's plans, considerations of advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together. If, in the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune. There are five dangerous faults, which may affect a general:

(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;

(2) Cowardice, which leads to capture;

(3) A hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;

(4) A delicacy of honor that is sensitive to shame;

(5) Over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.

Armed March

An army should be aware of where to march and where to camp.

Mountains should be quickly passed over and the army should camp in valleys. The army should always be placed higher than the enemy. Rivers should be avoided. All armies prefer high ground to low and sunny places to dark. In case of heavy rains the army should wait for the rainwaters to subside. We should focus on keeping ourselves away from difficult terrains and the enemy into it. Movement along the trees, movement of birds and animals etc. signals the advancement of the army. Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat. Peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot.

Terrain

There are six kinds of terrain:

(1) Accessible ground; (2) Entangling ground;(3) Temporizing ground;

(4) Narrow passes; (5) Precipitous heights; (6) Positions at a great distance from the enemy.

Ground, which can be freely traversed by both sides, is called accessible.

Ground, which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy, is called entangling. When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporizing ground. With regard to narrow passes, if one can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy. With regard to precipitous heights one should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there wait for the enemy to come up. If one is situated at a great distance from the enemy, and the strength of the two armies is equal, it is not easy to provoke a battle, and fighting will be to one’s disadvantage.

The Nine Situations

The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground:

(1) Dispersive ground; (2) Facile ground; (3) Contentious ground;

(4) Open ground; (5) Ground of intersecting highways;

(6) Serious ground; (7) Difficult ground; (8) Hemmed-in ground;

(9) Desperate ground.

When a chieftain is fighting in his own territory, it is dispersive ground.

When he has penetrated into hostile territory, but to no great distance, it is facile ground. Ground the possession of which imports great advantage to either side, is contentious ground. Ground on which each side has liberty of movement is open ground. Ground which forms the key to three contiguous states, so that he who occupies it first has most of the Empire at his command, is a ground of intersecting highways. When an army has penetrated into the heart of a hostile country, leaving a number of fortified cities in its rear, it is serious ground. Mountain forests, rugged steeps, marshes and fences—all country that is hard to traverse makes for difficult ground. Ground which is reached through narrow gorges, and from which one can only retire by tortuous paths, so that a small number of the enemy would suffice to crush a large body of his men is hemmed in ground. Ground on which one can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay, is desperate ground. The tactics of war should thus be based on the type of ground on which the army is fighting. Therefore one should not fight on dispersive ground, should not halt on facile ground, should not attack on contentious ground, join hands with allies on intersecting grounds, refrain from blocking the enemy on open grounds and so on.

Attack By Fire

There are five ways of attacking with fire. The first is to burn soldiers in their camp. The second is to burn stores. The third is to burn baggage trains. The fourth is to burn arsenals. The fifth is to hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy. In order to carry out an attack, one must have means available. The material for raising fire should always be kept in readiness. There is a proper season for making attacks with fire, and special days for starting a conflagration.

Use of Spies

Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the nation. Thus prior knowledge of the enemy’s objectives must be known. This knowledge cannot be gained from spirits or calculations. Other men can however brief the general on these things. Hence a group of spies can be instituted. Spies can be of five types. These are: local, inward, converted, doomed and surviving. Services of inhabitants of the district are sought as local spies. Officials of the enemy work as inward spies. Enemy’s spies can be captured and used as coverted spies. Doomed spies do some things openly and let the army know of crucial things. Surviving spies are those who bring back news from the enemy’s camp. secrecy should be maintained in case of spies.