Recession – A short analysis

Off late, most of the talks in cafes and restaurants are centered around this particular topic – Recession. A lot of my friends, who are in academia, have asked me to explain the recession as we face it today. Mere mortals, as we all are, there are definite gaps in our knowledge and I wish to present key facts to explain things in a way that won’t bore your down. That this topic comes up often in the conversations, I’ve decided to blog about it. I’ve discussed this issue from a 10, 000 feet perspective and I have ignored several aspects that have led to the current meltdown. However, these individual elements themselves mandate deeper insight and technical know-how, which could distort the purpose of this blog – its simplicity and ease of understanding. So, I’ve had to trade much of the technical accuracy to retain simplicity. I hope that you’re still able to appreciate this post without grimacing at the lack of precision.

Layoffs and employee morale

Layoffs, reduction in force (RIF), downsizing – these are pretty euphemistic terms that denote the phase when the corporations reduce their work force or human resources. These phases bring unease to any corporation, both from the managerial as well as the remaining work force. Not to forget, these phases have ripple effects, both within and outside the corporation exercising this effort. This activity is associated with the reduction in the employee morale, which in turn affects the productivity of those who’re about to be laid off and those who survive these phases. This blog post discusses the employee morale and shortly walks you through the effects and after effects of this undertaking.

Virtualization

In this blog post, I shall be dealing with some technology that I hope would interest you too. Its about the Virtualization techniques thats been around for a while, of which, not many people have the correct idea as to what it actually is.

Change management – a perspective

Change management is an art and most often than not, all corporations face the challenge of undertaking changes. The change could be at any level of the hierarchy – it could be a change within a small department or an organization wide change. I’ve witnessed several of these changes and from my personal experiences, I could confidently assert that tracking changes is the biggest challenge any corporation could face and this article touches on this particular topic.

IT Governance and corporate strategy

Almost all companies have Information technology (IT) as one of the vital functioning organization within their corporation, though the significance of IT varies among the corporations in the kind of service or value they provide to the corporation as a whole. Some corporations bank on their IT infrastructure more than the others. In any case, the kind of governance model has a definitive say in the way the corporations function. In this blog post, I shall deal with this organizational dynamics.

Bayesian networks and influence diagrams

In this blog post, I shall be dealing with the Bayesian networks and their application in project management. I shall be dealing with the “Influence diagram”, which is a kind of Bayesian network, that aids in decision making.

Project management tips

The success of any project depends to a great extent on the kind of leadership and management depicted by the project manager. Any project, big or small, could emerge to be a successful venture based on the stewardship the project cherishes in its project manager. The project manager is, therefore, vested with several other responsibilities in addition to the primary goal of driving the project to its success. Several other items such as motivating the project team, setting clear goals, understanding the corporate strategy, etc. are mandatory for the project success, which directly or indirectly enhance the project success. There are, however, a few mandatory steps that one should adopt. I shall be elucidating a few of them here in this post.

Improbable probability

Today, I went out for a coffee after lunch with my colleagues and during our usual conversation, the topic of probability came up. My colleague, Joachim (fondly, Joe), was addressing the inconsistency of applied probability in real world situations. He quoted an example of rolling a die.

Burning bridges (on time management)

Ever heard the proverb, “Don’t burn the bridges”? Well, this blog post addresses this topic particularly. There are times when this proverb holds true, but there are times when you need to make a well educated choice between the two – burning the bridges or leaving it untouched! Why is this important? I was musing about this proverb today and made certain observations that I’d like to share here.

Anatomy of "free"

I went on a shopping spree a few weeks back to buy a couple of coats at Galeria Kaufhof, quite an expensive retail outlet in Heidelberg. As I went there, I saw lots of iterms on sale, with tags “Free”, “Reduced”, etc. I was really proud that I was smart enough to go out to shop on this particular day, when things were dirt cheap. I decided to go for a kill and opted to buy some classy Italian suits. Result, I spent over 600 € on the suits, excluding the other accessories that I had to purchase along with to use these suits. I did not think about my purchase then and went home feeling very satisfied. A few weeks later, as I mulled over my purchase, I gave this entire “Free” logic some thought and here I am, blogging about my views and analysis.