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The Advantage of Constraints

Scarcity. Limitations. Restrictions. Consider all of these constraints against overwhelming demand for business and technology solutions. Who would have thought that these conditions would propel this team towards freedom, amplified creativity and to deliver beyond expectations? I am an experienced hand in prioritizing business initiatives across the Enterprise, so I wrote about my approach in […]

n x Failure = Success (Fail Fast, Recover Quickly, Learn Well)

A long, long time ago, I thought I was invincible. A typical teenager! Do you know someone like this? I was eighteen years old and on my third year as a chemical engineering student in a selective university. My grades were always better than most so I was relaxed about passing my exams. After all […]

Delighted by @LinkedInHelp (Why Waiting for LinkedIn To Restore My Account Was Worth It)

June 30 5:30 pm Update: I am a delighted LinkedIn customer again. In just over a day from when I flagged the problem, @LinkedInHelp (Fred / Kat) restored my access and explained why they took the precautionary action that they did. I am thankful for their security process that kicked in when they noticed far too […]

At The Speed Of Business: Strategy To Execution Through Business Architecture

New processes and systems are in place. But it is still difficult to get a key business report! The Chief Customer Officer is waiting for one and is becoming impatient. It looks like the whole business operations department has been marshalled to deliver it. He heard they needed to validate and reconcile masses of data! A new strategic […]

Papa, Can You Hear Me? (Loss and Hope)

It was a dreary day. And the sun disappeared too quickly. I was running late. So I half-ran to the small auditorium. “I hope I’m not too late to hear her sing.” I reached the door. Stop. Pause. “I hope the door will not creak when I open it. I don’t want to disturb the audience.” Applause. […]

Always Learning

Have you ever tried to consciously stop your breathing? Well, even if you did, you would have found out that you can’t. Something kicks in the brain central command site that sends alarm bells to your muscles to start the breathing mechanism. And if you’re a normal healthy person experiencing hunger pangs, you can’t help your […]

50 Rejection Letters (My First Winter In Australia)

Brrrr. I looked outside the ground floor window of my bedroom. It is c o l d. Bitingly c o l d. I have three layers on! And I am inside the house. In winter, there is no snow in this part of the country. The snow is on the mountains, just beyond where my eyes […]

Fatal Flaws 2

I learned this lesson a long time ago. And I am learning more about it as I build and lead new teams. When forming a team, apart from hiring for talent, competencies and organisation fit, I bring people in who do not display the symptoms of these fatal flaws. But the work does not end […]

The Cactus Blooms!

“The cactus has flowers!” With delight, I rushed inside the house and declared my news to the children. I had just arrived from work, parked the car, then absent-mindedly made my way to the front door. Then my eye saw it. The cactus plant that I had in a pot, left behind (abandoned!) by our home’s […]

3 weeks old and 1,000 visits. Thank You!

Three weeks ago I released my blog to the big, wide world. I was nervous. I had only blogged before in the protected world of a company intranet. Yet, I chose to thread personal stories in my posts to illustrate the power of the idea — that it is not limited to work; it can […]

Learning from Bad Leaders

We delight in great leaders. But it is in the crucible of extreme challenge under bad leaders that we can learn the once-in-a-lifetime lessons. Learning is usually more effective under great leaders. I don’t need a bad one to learn. Especially if I have already learned a particular lesson in the past. But in work, as in life, adversity […]

Fatal Flaws

There were twelve of us. We came from various parts of the world (Italy, Australia, China, UK, France, India, USA, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia) to learn about how to lead well, members of the inaugural fast-track executive course in the global company we worked in. We met in different cities every quarter, and then returned to our respective business areas […]