6 AM Pacific

New Look for the Blog

As you will notice, 6AMP has a new look. The old theme worked well, but I was tiring of it. The new Wordpress theme is called Statement and is from Blogoh!Blog that I was happy to learn is now run by Jai Nischal Verma of Delhi.

The theme is clean and functional but easy on the eye. Migrating to the new theme required some work, but no major challenges. Had to figure out how to edit a psd file without having to buy Photoshop. GIMP did the trick.

I think I have everything working. Let me know if you find anything broken.

Setting Targets or Expectation Setting

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in an interview about India’s slowing GDP growth, to the Wall Street Journal says,

“We must aim at 9%, as I will, and we must be happy if it’s between 8% and 9%.”

This begs the question “Is he setting a goal for GDP growth for the country or is he managing expectations?”

A goal, IMO, is something that is ‘actionable’, i.e. you and your team can take actions which help you achieve that goal. Much like a goal in football, you can’t score one by just being on the field. More »

Water, No Ice Featured in the Mercury News

Fellow blogger and wife Vidya Pradhan’s blog Water, No Ice was featured today in the Mercury News.

Scott Herhold was a judge for an essay contest that WNI ran for school kids. Very interesting reading. The first place winners (Grade 5-8) are here and here.

Haryana and Orissa lead Investment Tables

Ila Patnaik reviews CMIE data on state wise per capita investment in 2007. The states with the leading investment per capital are Haryana and Orissa. It just happens that I am quite familiar with both states since I am Oriya and go back there to visit my folks quite often and because I grew up in Haryana and go back there once in a while as well.

Both states have able forward thinking administrations. And some help of course. Haryana’s proximity to Delhi is something they have taken advantage of. Orissa is blessed with more than its fair share of natural resources. But beyond that there is still a lot of good work going on. In Bhubaneswar, the traffic isn’t anywhere near being a problem yet. But the government is working hard to widen roads. Shows that someone is thinking ahead.

Patnaik attributes the differences and the trends in investment per capita to the quality of the state government administration. If I were to drill down a little more and ask myself the question, what would I look at if I were to set up a new center for my business my criteria would be as follows: More »

The IP imperative for IT Services or How to Beat the Recession

The Indian IT Services industry is going to feel the pain of the US recession which is likely to spread to other major markets as well. This recession is going to be different as I have said before.

What do you do, when you are faced with a near certain slow down? You can try and squeeze whatever juice you can out of your as-is business, but that will take you only so far. Or you can choose to breathe some new life into your value prop and perhaps change the trajectory of your company. More »