Disqus - Latest Comments for Shogun1947

Re: http://shogun1947.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-is-petrol-price-high-in-india.html

Nandu Muralidharan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:24:09 -0000

Thank you! This is a big revenue generator for Govt. In a normal scenario they give back a small portion of it as subsidy. End of the day they are creating optical illusion and making money in the bargain.

Re: Crystal Ball - Global power transfer from West to East

Nandu Muralidharan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:20:32 -0000

Good point. There is too much at stake for most global powers to let US fail. Thats one of the key reasons why i feel this process will be gradual. Besides it will take atleast 2-3 decades for China/India to build their domestic market and reduce reliance on Exports.So as you rightly stated US will still be the default power for next couple of decades while China/India fill that void.

Re: Whom Should you Hire at a Startup?

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:32:07 -0000

Great post and its very informative. I fully agree with you that getting someone who can punch above his weight is critical. I generally look for A players who are flexible, have lots of energy and brimming with optimism.

Based on my experience some of the A players have attitude issues, are not very flexible and are high maintenance. We need to watch for for these type of people. Last thing you want is to spend time managing them as opposed to managing your business.

Re: Morgan Stanley Economy & Internet Trends

Nandu Muralidharan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:06:06 -0000

Infact that problem is already here. While ATT's subscriber count has gone up drastically after Iphone, it is losing money on the network due to high bandwidth usage of Iphone users. No one had expected the mobile bandwidth usage to explode the way it did. I wouldn't be surprised if ATT/Carriers implement some kind of throttling mechanism to restrict usage. I wouldnt also be surprised it they come out with data download plans (Eg: 10Gb download/month etc..).. Anyways in another 5-7yrs i don't expect any voice plans, It will all be data plans and voice will be an app that runs on data network on phones.

Both mobile data usage and video streaming is going to drive bandwidth requirement by several multiples. Within the next decade or so we will be looking at 1.5 or 3mb lines and exclaim how on the earth we survived with that, Similar to the way we look at dial-ups and 64k circuits of the 90's..

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:47:05 -0000

Thank you for the cross-posting vidya!

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:46:11 -0000

Rao, Thank you for the cross posting! We should do this more often!

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:36:24 -0000

Thank you for the comments Pavan. Nick Carr is absolutely right,Online world is a world of clutter, distractions and interruptions.

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:42:41 -0000

:) Wish i could do that!!

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:12:16 -0000

Thank you for the comments Hari. Yep I agree with your view on context. I guess its a combination of multiple things setting right priorities, time management, meditation, taking downtime to recuperate and biggest of all being able to realize your plate is full and scale back on peripheral stuff & focus on what matters. As you rightly said its easier said than done!

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:04:20 -0000

Thanks for your comments Ganesh. Technology hasn't caught up in rural areas yet that's the reason life seems better there. Already Cell phones & TV's are very prevalent. Give it another decade and computers and internet will become commonplace and they will also have the issues as urban.

Good to know that you are successful in managing time being an entrepreneur. Interestingly most of the entrepreneurs in my circle are consumed with work and are almost 24x7 running their businesses. In fact couple of them couldn't handle the pressure and moved back to full time jobs.

Meditation & Yoga is something am trying to do with little success :( Anyways will keep trying to get that going!

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:53:27 -0000

Wait till you have a kid. Managing time will be even more of a challenge :)

I dont think staying away from tools or taking up different profession is a solution. I think we need to get better at managing information overload, Time management & setting clear priorities in life. Its easier said than done.

Re: Pace of Life!!

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:49:57 -0000

Thanks for your comments Javeed!

Re: Circle of Life

Nandu Muralidharan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:19:30 -0000

If you notice most of the people that excel in one walk of life invariably fall back in other walks of life. Success is not just about being successful in one walk of life. Its about having a right balance in life so that no one aspect dominates your life and end of the day being happy and enjoying your life. If you notice most of the folks you have stated above they didn't do as well in their personal life as they did in their public/professional life. Buddha renounced his family and became a monk and attained enlightenment(not that its bad. but he didn't have a personal life), Einstein had a divorce in his personal life etc. For that matter most celebrities in life are generally not happy. Of course there definitely are some exceptions however they are a handful. These are the folks that have mastered the art of balancing their life at the same time excelling in at least 1 aspect of it.

Again this is not the only model out there to balance your life. This is just one way of looking at life. Am sure there are more and better models out there. This model is more aimed at helping you to prioritize your time between different aspects of life. Hope it clarifies your query..

Re: Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond

Nandu Muralidharan — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:21:01 -0000

I half read this book more than a year back but didn't get a chance to finish it fully. I finally reread the whole book again now!

Re: Rapid growth in technology & innovation - What about sustainability?

Nandu Muralidharan — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:11:28 -0000

Thanks Vidya. You are right. It has to be a combination of measures. Rules are for containing the mess we have created. Innovation/R&D will be for reversing them/fixing them.

Re: 90% Tax on bonus: Are we being fair?

Nandu Muralidharan — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:03:07 -0000

Thanks for your comments John. Here are couple of things to consider. In AIG's case the bonus payouts were retention bonuses and multiple commitments were made even after it was acquired by Govt. The very reason for putting out these bonuses is so that the best and brightest will have incentive to stay and help clean up this mess. The folks responsible for the failure have either been sacked or have left the company.

A big part of compensation structure in banks is in bonus. There again there is a committed portion and a variable portion based on individual/corporate performance. In this case am sure the variable portion was not paid out and only the committed part was paid. This is more like part of your committed salary is deferred and paid out at end of year. Having said this, it is a good opportunity for Banks to relook at their contracts and amend them so that they are not obligated to payout any bonuses if they end up in loss.

Btw, I have no connection whatsoever to banking industry both personal as well as professionally.

Re: Believe in yourself!

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:44:30 -0000

Thanks for your comments Jayashree! Yep, talent exists everywhere and we get to see a small fraction of it only. Its a nice show and i saw few more clips like this and they were real good!

Re: Rapid growth in technology & innovation - What about sustainability?

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:06:50 -0000

Thanks for the comments. Our ancestors had adopted sustainable lifestyle for thousands of years and am sure they did have a good quality of life. The biggest change between then and now is that our definition of quality of life is more based on material comforts, whereas in olden days its more around being happy and peaceful. Technology has made our lives more stressful and the pace of life has increased drastically.

Atlast US is waking up to the fact that its consumption driven model is unsustainable (both in environmental & economic sense). Obama has definitely taken some good steps in the right direction in making energy independence/Alt energy one of the key focus areas. However given that US is sinking in trillions of dollars to fix the financial crisis, I doubt if it will be able to invest heavily in alter energy in the near term. But the good thing is they are starting to look and move in the right direction. The pace at which they move is going to be critical and will determine if US will still be at the top at the end of this century.

Re: Rapid growth in technology & innovation - What about sustainability?

Nandu Muralidharan — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:50:38 -0000

Thanks for the comments Sukumar! Yep. Currently India and China are trying to follow the western model for development and this can be a disaster for the world. Though our per capita emissions are much lower than western countries our absolute emissions are very high due to our population. I recently read an article in National Geographic about environmental problems in China and how it is impacting the quality of life. Am sure India is not far behind. Western countries will have to step in and share the know-how and technology to foster sustainable growth. In addition our governments will have to make 'environment protection' a priority and have to invest and subsidize these technologies(Solar/wind power, low energy appliances, low emission vehicles etc). They have to bring in stringent rules on emission, dumping, deforestation etc.

Re: Believe in yourself!

Nandu Muralidharan — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:38:01 -0000

Thats a good one!

Re: Perhaps, it's time for Atlas to Shrug? (evil smile) :D

Nandu Muralidharan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:19:13 -0000

Interesting to see a surge in Ayn Rand book sales. I saw couple of more blogs/articles on Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged in the last couple of weeks. Especially in the context of 90% tax on bonus & nationalization of banks.

Re: Perhaps, it's time for Atlas to Shrug? (evil smile) :D

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:52:31 -0000

Nice post. I guess with the socialist wave going around in US, people would benefit by reading some of Ayn Rand's books. The concept of top talent leaving the society and starting their own society will not happen today. Rather in this era of globalization talent will migrate to places that encourage encourage talent/innovation and help them thrive.

One of the reasons US as been as successful as it has been is due to fact that it was the key proponent of open markets/capitalism and encouraged people to take risks and innovate. If we start diluting capitalism and start adopting socialistic measures it will be the start of decline of US as a leading economic powerhouse/super power. It will be replaced at the top of pyramid by societies/countries that encourage talent, innovation and risk taking.

Re: 90% Tax on bonus: Are we being fair?

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:32:26 -0000

Thanks for your comments Venkat. Media normally blows up the issue, sensationalizes it to gain some mileage. They are one of the key reasons for influencing public opinion.

Re: 90% Tax on bonus: Are we being fair?

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:03:25 -0000

Yep. You've been pretty vocal abt it. I can understand the knee jerk reaction from media. However in this case politicians as well are succumbing to emotions in trying to pass this discriminatory rule!

Re: Auto Meltdown - End of an era (Part III - Final Part)

Nandu Muralidharan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:42:35 -0000

http://www.addthis.com