Too Young to Rap’nRoll Too Old to Try

My kids have known this always. My wife always sides with them. So she does too. I denied it for a long time and pretended to love it. But today I am announcing it. I do not understand rap.

“Rap is a way of life bro’. Wanna rap? You gotcha live like us - the ghetto clothes. You gotta dress right … like a gangsta. Give attitoood and you’ll get it.”, the guy offered me the first AHA experience about Rap. He should know. He was the young 20 something who was being interviewed as he stepped off his stretch limo. I had gone to drop off a hysterical gang of teenagers at this Rap Concert. (Is that an oxymoron?) Read more

Alumni as Brand Ambassadors

He walks in to your office and in a move that has clearly been learnt from hours of watching soap operas. He whips out his resignation letter and hands it over to you. Your heart skips a beat. You want to show your emotions - but there is a voice inside you that says, “Down boy!! “. You want to jump with joy. You pray that he joins your competitor, because that is the only way the average IQ of both organizations will go up. Read more

Interview: Gautam Ghosh

 During my last visit to Hyderabad, I caught up with Gautam Ghosh (popularly called GG) - the blogger. His blog has been featured in Business Blogs: A practical Guide written by William Ives and Amanda Watlington. His blog on HR and OD at http://gauteg.blogspot.com has been listed as the fourth among the top 25 blogs in the world by HRworld.com. You get the drift.

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Rich Get Rich and the Poor Get Children

Letter from Atlanta

It is my first visit to the state of Georgia in US. Am in Atlanta.  In between meetings and meetings I have been soaking in the sights and flavors of the city of Atlanta. I check out the impressive Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Started by the state govt in 1976 the facility features 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space. It gets in a million guests annually. Check out their fun facts page.

Georgia also boasts of the world’s largest aquarium. If you are a Civil War history buff, this is a good place to visit. Of course for me Georgia is always associated with the Margaret Mitchell, the author of the classic Gone With The Wind. Her house at 990 Peachtree Street in Atlanta is a tourist attraction. The locals point out at this also where she was killed in a motor accident in 1949 while on her way to watch a film. The CNN Headquarters have a Hummer as an exhibit. This battered Hummer was used by the reporters during the Gulf War to file the reports.

While on the media, here were the headlines from USA Today newspaper : Wednesday 16, July 2008: Signs of a growing crisis: Blue-chip stocks are down 21.2% in past year. Wholesale prices have risen 9.2% since June 2007; US Dollar is down 13.2% vs the Euro during the past year. Foreclosures are up 53% since this time last year. General Motors suspends its dividends to stockholders. The last time that happened was in 1922. Headlines from US Today on Thursday July 17, 2008 announces the rise in birthrates to 4.32 in 2007 and wonders if it signals the next baby boom? An interesting timeline illustrates the different generational chunks in the population. Starting with the 2.71 million births from the early 1900s to the mid 1920s created what was called the “Greatest Generation” . The birthrate dropped during the mid 20’s to mid ’40s to create the “Lucky Few” Generation. The Baby Boomers happened from 1946-64. Then followed Gen X for those born between 1965 to early 80s. Thereafter the Millenials appeared between early 1980s and beyond. The factors attributed to the boom are more immigrants having more children. As more women enter the workforce, many are delaying their decision to have children and of course more women in age group of 20-30 years. Unemployment is rising and companies are laying off workers. The rich get rich and the poor get laid off.

What you have here is a classic situation described in that song from the twenties called Ain’t We Got Fun

The times are bum and getting bummer

Still we have fun

There is nothing surer

The rich get rich and the poor get children

The Development Dilemma

Organizations have to make a choice. Should they just buy out managerial talent or grow their own. The short term solution is a no brainer - buy the talent. That usually means fishing around in organizations which have faced similar business challenges as you are. In hiring talent from another organization it works well if besides the work experience fit, there is a match between the values of the two organizations. Read more

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