Nothing is free - everything has a cost - whether we pay directly or indirectly is a differnt matter. At the same time, I am sure many of us has also come across the tag line "Doing More for Less". So in the paradime of "Nothing is Free", the thought that troubles me how can one get more out of less when we know nothing is really free. My thoughts took me to google and today morning I found an interesting book on the same subject "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" by Chris Anderson where the auther is talking about the Economics of Abundance & why zero pricing is changing the face of business. In real economics term the idea looks absurd to me but I would defer my judgment till I read the book (hopefully!). However, any common sense will tell you that if you not paying through your wallet you are paying it in a differnt way.
I know today's changing business worls these seemingly absurd ideas are creating values for the shareholder and customers. A typical example is internet music where you get to listen an advertisement before you get your song but I don't know how many people will like that approach. I know ragaa.com was doing that some time back was playing citibank's advertisement but I heard they have stopped doing that instead put asvertisement in thier website. One of my senior has also talked about similar concept on video - show people new movie free of cost but show them advertisement in between. And there are probably many more such inovative thoughts and products. But the question is are they really free?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Invest in Yourself
How many of us really invest in ourselves - for our tomorrow, for day after and day day after...? I have been asking this question for quite sometime to my colleagues - most of them are highly educated and talented people. Some of them are from most premier institutes of the country -India. Some of them have good experience in Information Technology Industry. Few of them are rated highly within the organization.
No surprise, answer to my question is a big silence! And this is a typical scenario in every other organization. Though we are in knowledge economy but bulk of the knowledge workers don't invest in enhancing their knowledge for tomorrow. Organizations today spent a good amount of money in learning and people development programs but 100% (correct me if I am wrong) of these programs are for enhancing employees tool specific skills. Essentially, addressing the urgent needs of the organization and NOT the important needs - talent development for tomorrow. And I don't think this situation will change primarily due to the fact that Organization wants ROI quickly and particularly in IT industry the life span of employees are not long. So what is the solution? Most of you would agree that we need to invest in ourselves for our future but question is how and probably the bigger question is where? I believe "how" part is relatively simple to handle, problem is where.
Where to Invest : To address where to invest we need to understand what a knowledge worker does on day to day basis. The answer is quick and simple - Solve Business Problems. And, fundamentally our education systems focus is also on this subject - develop individual talents in problem solving.
No surprise, answer to my question is a big silence! And this is a typical scenario in every other organization. Though we are in knowledge economy but bulk of the knowledge workers don't invest in enhancing their knowledge for tomorrow. Organizations today spent a good amount of money in learning and people development programs but 100% (correct me if I am wrong) of these programs are for enhancing employees tool specific skills. Essentially, addressing the urgent needs of the organization and NOT the important needs - talent development for tomorrow. And I don't think this situation will change primarily due to the fact that Organization wants ROI quickly and particularly in IT industry the life span of employees are not long. So what is the solution? Most of you would agree that we need to invest in ourselves for our future but question is how and probably the bigger question is where? I believe "how" part is relatively simple to handle, problem is where.
Where to Invest : To address where to invest we need to understand what a knowledge worker does on day to day basis. The answer is quick and simple - Solve Business Problems. And, fundamentally our education systems focus is also on this subject - develop individual talents in problem solving.
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