NOR Flash: Current Trends and Possible Future Roadmap. Why did Spansion and Cypress Merge?

Non Volatile Memory, NVM, NOR Flash, Cypress Spansion Merger, Ravichander Rao

I was studying the NOR flash market during early December, 2014 with an intention of understanding its current trends and future roadmap. As I finished gathering the data and understanding the underlying reasons, Spansion and Cypress merged. So the timing is right to present an analysis why these companies merged.

Cypress Semiconductor was making loss for the past two calendar years 2012 and 2013 because of the decline in the SRAM market, which is shrinking at CAGR of 13% since 2001 (~$500 million is the market share at 2014E).

On the other hand, Spansion, the market leader in the NOR Flash technology, was unable to keep up with the competition from NAND Flash. Consequently, its market share was shrinking and made loss in 2013, 2011 and 2010.

What made the two loss making companies merge together? Why do they believe that their losses will not compound after the merger?

Integrated Chip (IC) market share is expected to grow at a 25% CAGR between 2012 to 2017 in the mobile segment, which has been the driver for the semiconductor technology. The standard PC demand is expected to grow at 20%, but the growth driver for it is mainly the storage capacity, which is served by Hard Disk Drives or SSD (Solid State Devices / NAND memory). The rest are low growth and low revenue markets for the Flash memories.

As a percentage of the revenue, cellphone represents 52%. The rest are much lower in share.

The NOR flash was earlier used in the cellphone for memory applications. In there are a few emerging technologies available including NAND.

But with the advancement in the NAND technology (cost per GB dropping) and changes in the smart phone requirements - the increase the memory requirements, the cellphone market the landscape for the NOR flash changed dramatically. NAND could offer similar level of data transfer speed at a lower cost. This enabled the programmers / cellphone makers to switch to NAND. As the NOR flash lost to NAND Flash in the cellphone market, it deeply affected all the NOR flash manufacturers.

The SRAM was always a costlier solution, and was used for a booting application in the cellphone in conjunction with the NOR. The cost for operating a booting program was lowered down by SDRAM which mimics SRAM along with SDRAM and NAND combination.

In this segment, both Cypress (loss to touch screen and declining SRAM market share) and Spansion (loss to parallel NOR and NAND) were losing out the to competition. These products are the core markets for these two companies. So, it was an existential threat. NOR though is manufactured by Micron, another leading Memory device manufacturer, does not impact Micron because of their diversified memory portfolio - NOR, NAND, PCM, etc.

Further, NAND expects to take over NOR flash applications by offering eMMC solution in all of the growth segments of the IC market.

The final nail in the coffin for the NOR flash was cannibalization of Serial NOR flash, which is a costlier but reliable solution by Parallel NOR flash, which is comparatively less costlier solution, and pricing pressure from the Parallel NOR manufacturers in China (GigaDevice and XMC) and Taiwan (Winbond and Macronix).

Where does NOR Flash go from here?

Given the market condition and weakness of the NOR Flash, there are a few options left:

a) Collaborate with MLC NAND for Enterprise solution
b) Phase out SPI NOR
c) Penetrate markets and increase adoption in automotive, medical, IOT, big data, etc.

d) Partner with the programmers to switch to NOR from NAND
e) Increase differentiation / embark on campaigning to highlight the differentiation

Of the options a) to e), option c) is promising. However, this does not allow either NOR or SRAM to come back and compete with SDRAM and NAND in cellphone market. Hence, NOR and SRAM leaders needed to merge.

What to expect of this merger?

a) SPI NOR getting phased out.
b) New solutions such that SRAM & Parallel NOR are on a single chip. May be costlier but easier to handle as 3rd interface is eliminated.
c) More campaign during Flash Memory summits
d) More investments from Cypress in Big Data, Speech Recognition technology, Autonomous Vehicles, etc.

Intuition, Flash of Insights...

Intuition, Insights, Visions, Make it better, Wisdom, Thoughts from Subconscious Mind, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao







This post is going to be in somewhat incomplete and unorganized form. This is because, I want to document the intuition and flashes of insights I have been getting recently. Some of these insights may have been gotten from observation, some from reading books and blogs, some from contemplation, ... but all of them coming out of my subconscious at random times.

Creating a masterpiece:
If you want to create a masterpiece, look at the nature. The best that the world has seen was inspired by the nature. They were revealed to the deserving person.

Tetrahedron:
Tetrahedron is the simplest 3D structure in the world. Diamond is one such material which has tetrahedron crystalline structure. Pyramid is another such structure of intrigue. The brilliance and the purpose of the Pyramid can be found over the Youtube.

http://youtu.be/DHrSulXPYu4

Like a tetrahedron, simplest success model has to have at least 3 components. All these components are internal - knowledge (one anchor), effort (stretch for area), and sacrifice for a higher cause (other anchor). The height of the tetrahedron depends on again the internal factors - values and ambition. Values and ambition are conscious fields which guide and encourage. Listen to them.

Marketing:
Key to customer satisfaction is - deliver me what I want, where I want, when I want and how I want. I may not know what you can do for me, but I am sure of what I need you to do for me. The more you meet my needs, the higher the satisfaction you deliver.
You should be able to identify what is causation factor, what is bi-product and what is a non-impact factor harped on by the customer to drive improvement.

Communication:
Communication is story telling to keep the audience engaged and drive a point across. It is as simple as informing someone about marriage. Every communication has two main elements and an exchange between these two elements. In the shallowest level, the two elements and the exchange is shared. At the deepest level, the details on two elements and exchange is shared. How much you need to communicate, is dependent on the time, forum and purpose.


Career:
People always see the image you project. What you project is the way people remember and associate you. Image is created from appearance, delivery, content, values, .... everything one can imagine. Consciously build an image using your internal systems and not using the external circumstances. The external circumstances are only leverages. If the internal is zero, the leverage does not help.

Job will not fall in your lap. You need to find it. Create openings...

Networking does not mean sweet talk at concerts, conferences or taking a drink and chatting around. That is show off, not your true self. Networking means - seeking and taking help, acknowledging and valuing their support, giving it forward, and thanking those who helped when you are at a the next level.

Learning:
Only when you listen (quieten the mind), only then information download happens. The more you listen, the more you learn about the unknowns. The lesser the unknowns, lesser the assumptions. Lesser the assumptions, closer you will be to the target.

Anger Management:
Few ways to avoid anger are - a) spot the assumptions that are arising in the mind and influencing your response. The moment the assumption has been identified and removed, the discussion can be normal b) Focus on only one activity at a time. Focusing less than 100% on that creates confusion, frustration and anger. c) Be open to other views while in discussion, and always remind yourself of the agenda and why you are there for. d) If you are going to attend an earlier fixed meeting, plan out the outcome you desire and steer the discussion towards that. Otherwise it will be directionless and outcome will be the usual, predictable and not meeting your expectations.

Roles the Profit Centers Need to Play in the Organization
Head/CEO/President needs to direct to the Sales which direction they need to look towards, as he is the person closest to predicting which way the industry is headed. Sales should spot opportunities in the trends, news and information coming from that direction and direct the Marketing to provide product / services that can provide a solution, as they know the customer's roadmap, customer's value chain and CAPEX. Marketing should look into the product portfolio and offer the product that provides the best solution, and direct Services to provide use-cases that strengthens the product position, as they are the ones who have access to worldwide product position and product roadmap. Services should direct their attention towards the customer and customer use-cases and identify those areas where there will be the maximum ROI, as they understand how the customer deploys your product and services after purchase.
General Management:
Stay ahead of the curve, if you want to lead. This requires generating ideas and setting up the plans before someone does. In a project involving multi parties, stakeholder analysis should be done to understand why each group is participating in the project. This helps to negotiate and create or set  mutually agreeable commitments and objectives.

Universe:
Universe and everything that you see is a hologram. A hologram appears real, if you frequency is lower than the frequency of the hologram. A train running at x speed will appear stationary, if you run 2x the speed.

When your frequency is closer to infinite, you will appear to disappear to the observer. At this state, the observer may feel your presence but may not be able to see you. This because of blinding light (Energy is directly proportional to the frequency) will be generated that cannot be seen with the normal eyes (either it will be out of the human's visibility range or it will damage the eyes).

Purpose:
Disconnected, yet connected is the reality. The goal is to figure out the connections between the two. Explore your limits by doing the best you can. Remaining all will be revealed to you after you are finished.

Energy and Consciousness:
Any creation requires both energy and consciousness. Consciousness is inherent intelligence in any matter such as a Crystal. Different crystals exhibit different properties because the level of consciousness each crystal differs. This difference gets expressed as different physical and chemical properties. Anything that moves has a life energy in it. Plants have it in abundance. That's the reason why a patient is given herbs to increase the life energy. Crystals and Plants used in  tandem will amplify both. Why did Maharishis go to Himalayas? 

Airtel Scams

Airtel Scams, Stop Now, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao
Airtel scams, Airtel missed calls, Airtel Ads, SIM card activation, Airtel roaming services, Airtel Fraud

Airtel is one of the leading service providers in India. Because of the intense competition, Airtel (may be other service providers also) has (have) resorted to cheap and unethical ways to generate revenue streams. If you have encountered any of these in the past, please share in this forum, so that awareness can be created and get such unethical actions punished. The I have seen are - 

a) Calls from switched off numbers: 8105204433, 40668980000. The call center agents call you at the afternoon time. The moment you pick up the call, the currency is deducted from the account. 

b) Calls using other service providers numbers: 9008020617, 959180248, 8970123629. The call agents call you up at midnight or sometimes at 1:00 am. These numbers are registered with Spice and Aircell in Karnataka region. 

c) Roaming service: They call you with some random mobile numbers, the moment you pick up the call, the roaming chargers are applied and you end up losing Rs. 105/- per minute at the present incoming rate. Ten such calls from the service providers and you lose Rs. 1000/- which is equivalent to losing 666 minutes of talk time in India in 10 x 10 seconds of wrong calls. 

d) Airtel Ads: Even if you have unsubscribed them, they still send you this. One mistake of clicking something on the SMS, and you have the services activated. I have seen my relative lose Rs. 40/- in 4 mins of accidentally activating this service. 

e) SIM card activation: This is the big boss of all. They sell SIM cards on street side, ask for proof of ID and address, get the forms filled, and top up the SIM card at the instant you buy. It works for a few days. One of the days they call you (without prior notice) to get a verbal confirmation of the address proof. If you miss the call, they deactivate the SIM card immediately. Can someone from their side explain, why only one call and that too without prior appointment? Why do they believe the verbal confirmation is essential, though all the information has been verified by their street side agent? Why not refund all of the money back if they disabled the SIM?

Getting your grievance redressed through Airtel is a nightmare. If you want do not believe, you can search for "Airtel Complaints", "Airtel Grievance", etc. and the first page that you will come across in Google will be of a consumer court. This is because Airtel either does not want to redress the customers' grievances or they have not setup a mechanism such that customer can quickly get their issues resolved (remember issue resolved means lower revenues for Airtel ;) ).

In one occassion, I have been able to get some refund for an issue through the Nodal Officer. The Nodal officers are of some help in case you are able to reach them.Their address is   http://www.airtel.com/applications/xm/MobileNodalOfficer.jsp

I am also copying their contact addresses below, in case they remove this from the web-space for their own benefit. You can also complain at http://www.icomplaints.in/, but I am not sure how effective they are.

Circle Officer Name E-Mail Address Phone No. Fax No. Office Address Delhi NCR NA nodalofficer.del@in.airtel.com + 91 9818334865 + 91 9810498104 Bharti Airtel Limited, Mobile Services, Plot No.-16, Udyog Vihar, Phase - IV, Gurgaon - 122015 Punjab NA nodalofficer.pb@in.airtel.com + 91 9878434865 + 91 9815298152 Bharti Airtel Ltd., Plot No. 21, Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, Chandigarh - 160 101 UP(West) and Uttarakhand NA nodalofficer.upw@in.airtel.com +91 9897534865 +0522 4139111 Bharti Airtel Limited B-38/C1, Sector Noida-201301, Uttar Pradesh UP East NA nodalofficer.upe@in.airtel.com + 91 9935334865 +0522 4139111 Bharti Airtel Limited, TCG 7/7, Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow - 226010 Haryana NA nodalofficer.har@in.airtel.com + 91 9996034865 +91 9896298962 Bharti Airtel Limited, 85, Durand Road, Ambala Cantt.,133001, Haryana Himachal Pradesh NA nodalofficer.hp@in.airtel.com + 91 9805034865 +0177 2620312 Bharti Airtel Ltd.,Block No. 11 A, SDA Complex, Kasumpti, Shimla 171 009, Himachal Pradesh Jammu and Kashmir NA nodalofficer.jk@in.airtel.com + 91 9797334865 0191 2473337 Bharti Airtel Limited, Ansari Complex, Sonwar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 190 001 Mumbai NA nodalofficer.mumbai@in.airtel.com +91 9987234865 +022 40031404 Bharti Airtel Limited,7th Floor,Interface Bldg No -7, Mindspace, Link Road, Malad (W),Mumbai - 400064, Maharashtra Maharashtra and Goa NA nodalofficer.mumbai@in.airtel.com +91 9987234865 +022 40031404 Bharti Airtel Limited, Vega Centre, A-Building, Shankarseth Road, Next to Income Tax Office, Swargate, Pune - 411 037 Gujarat NA nodalofficer.guj@in.airtel.com +91 9724534865 +079 40090330 Bharti Airtel Limited, Zodiac Square, 2nd Floor, SG Road, Opp gurudwara, Ahmedabad 380 054 MP and Chattisgarh NA nodalofficer.mpcg@in.airtel.com +91 9893134865 +0731 4031101 Bharti Airtel Limited, 3rd Floor, Metro Towers, AB Road, Near Vijay Nagar, Indore, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan NA nodalofficer.raj@in.airtel.com +91 9928034865 +0141 4044204 Bharti Airtel Limited, K-21, Sunny House, Malviya Marg, C-Scheme, Jaipur, Rajasthan Karnataka NA nodalofficer.kk@in.airtel.com +91 9972534865 +080 41218070 Bharti Airtel Limited, 55, Divyasree Towers, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 029 Karnataka Andhra Pradesh NA Nodalofficer.andhra@in.airtel.com + 91 9959334865 + 9140 40009900 Bharti Airtel Limited, Splendid Towers, Opp.Begumpet Police Station, Begumpet, Hyderabad - 500 016, Andhra Pradesh Chennai NA nodalofficer.tn@in.airtel.com + 91 9952434865 + 91 9840198600 Bharti Airtel Limited, Oceanic Towers, 8th Floor, 101 Santhome High Road, Chennai 600 028, Tamil Nadu Kerala NA nodalofficer.ker@in.airtel.com + 91 9995834865 +91 9895338715 N H Bypass, Kundanoor Jn,Maradu P O Kochi 682034. Kerala Kolkata NA nodalofficer.wb@in.airtel.com +91 9831234865 +033 40060071 Infinity Building,7th Floor,Salt Lake Electronics Complex,Kolkata-700091 , West Bengal Bihar and Jharkhand NA nodalofficer.bih@in.airtel.com +91 9934334865 +061 22273646 Bharti Airtel Limited,Anand Vihar, 7th Floor, Guinea Motors, West Boring Canal Rd., Patna - 800001 Assam NA Nodalofficer.NESA@in.airtel.com +91 9957134865 +0361 2363143 Bharti House, 6 mile Khanapara, Guwahati - 781022 North East NA nodalofficer.nesa@in.airtel.com +91 9612034865 +0361 2363143 Bharti Airtel Limited Modrina Mansion, Shillong-793003 Orissa NA nodalofficer.orissa@in.airtel.com + 91 9937449253 +0674 2743569 Bharti Airtel Limited,Infocity Campus,6th Floor,E-13/1,Chandak Industrial Estate,Chandrasekharpur,Bhubaneshwar-751024,Orissa West Bengal NA nodalofficer.wb@in.airtel.com +91 9831234865 +033 40060071 Bharti Airtel Limited,Infinity Building,7th Floor,Salt Lake Electronics Complex,Kolkata-700091 , West Bengal Tamil Nadu NA nodalofficer.tn@in.airtel.com + 91 9952434865 + 91 9840198600 Bharti Airtel Limited, Oceanic Towers, 8th Floor, 101 Santhome High Road, Chennai 600 028, Tamil Nadu

At the apogee of corruption... Where to look for signs of change?

Extent of Corruption in India, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

The potholes on road, over crowded public buses and trains, politicians looting the national assets, lack of service in the government office and  ridiculous policies changes such as limiting LPG cylinders, hiking petrol price every quarter, defining the below poverty line as person whose earning is less than Rs. 32 per day etc. we have suffered in India. If one person understands another's suffering because of these, then one expects at least the private bodies to be not corrupt? But, that is not so.

My concern is of the hospitals which are looting people and yet not delivering proper care. During my recent interaction at a major A hospital in Bangalore, I saw the indifference the first hand. Some of those I am sharing with you to spread awareness:

a) The hospital took a diabetic and post-major surgery patient into emergency and made the patient wait for two to three hours without even checking whether why the patient is there (apparently the visit was to verify the dosage was right or needs change) and without giving any food to maintain the glucose level. The doctor had to be requested to come and visit the patient in the emergency ward where the patient was kept!

b) At the billing counter of the same hospital, the staff ensures the all the charges that can be claimed from insurance whether the services are provided or not, are billed.

c) At the time of discharge, there is no doctor to assist the patient and guide what post operative medications are and what type of care is needed. But the ambulance assistance keeps pestering that they are waiting for you to start. How can a patient leave without getting any instruction after a major surgery was performed?

d) All operated patients stay in the same hall called ICU where the bed are separated by a plastic screen. The patients have to listen to agony of fellow patients after a big and painful operation.

e) At the pharmacy, the pharmacist is busy taking personal calls while the people attending the patients wait in line for him to resume drugs dispensing.

f) The doctors do not give the correct advice based on the patient's condition, but based on statistics and revenue stream for the hospital.

g) The nurses leave the dispensing units for hours together by the patient's bed and sometimes forget to take it back all together also!

h) The pharmacist's snide - what is free in this hospital, when you give them back unused drugs so that a needy a can get it for free.

i) The nutritionist at the hospital gives oily and spicy food to the patient when the doctor has strictly advised against it.

j) The attended and janitors do not respect the doctors, instead they tell the doctors to report to the management that they did not do what the doctor told.

As I see, one of the scared institution has also become very corrupt. The purpose of highlighting this to ensure you do not suffer what I have seen and fight for your rights. Perhaps the corruption is at its apogee, but we all need to fight when we can and not stay a mute spectator to it.

Is MBA necessary? Post MBA thoughts.

Feedback on MBA program, Is MBA valueable, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Management is about making decisions so that a right course could be set to accomplish something. The decisions making and directions setting are fairly straight forward, if one is familiar with the situation. For instance, if you are planning to take a daily route to the office on a regular day, your decisions regarding the mode of transport and timings are straight forward decisions. If the day happens to be one  when your regular routes are blocked for some unforeseen reason, how will you manage to get to the office in time? For someone who is new to a locality, making decision at this time requires some learning about - newer routes, other modes of available transportation, times taken to reach the destination, etc. But, for a taxi driver, this information may be already known and the decision becomes commonsensical. Likewise for some people decision making is commonsensical and MBA is not necessary.

Within an organization there are different functions - Marketing & Sales, Finance, HR, Logistics, and so on. Each of these functional organizations manage one specific aspect of the company. What these organizations manage and how they manage is non-commonsensical to most of us. If one wants to bridge this gap, an MBA will help. This can also knowledge gap can also be acquired through work rotation and reading relevant books. But the time period of learning between these two approaches differ. For most of us, the non-MBA approach takes longer because of the commitment level.

For those who have decided to pursue an MBA program, there is a dilemma whether to invest the money or not in a full-time program. In my opinion, any investment in your education is never a waste, but the pay-off periods may differ. If you can manage your educational funds without being a burden to you and your family, go for a full-time program. A part-time may not be as intensive in training as a full-time course, but the interactions among candidates (from Sr. VP to front liners) exposes you to practical aspects of decision making better. 

Before I started on this journey, a question to myself was - does that lead to CEO, if not what is the use?  Perhaps I have found the answer to this - having MBA is not enough. The preparation for this role is a self-learning journey the way of Jonathan Livingston in Richard Bach's book. An MBA provides a starting point for the take-off, the rest of the journey is on the individual...

Employees First Customers Second

Employees First Customer Second - Short Notes, Review, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

The innovation and transformation happening in India is getting of attention of the world. Some of the innovations are already a case study in the Harvard Business School. The latest addition to this is transformation of HCL Technologies. The book by Vineet Nayar, Employees First Customers Second, takes us through how this transformation was achieved using the power of organization lies at the bottom of the pyramid or in the value zone. This blog is for capturing the essense of the concepts, and tickle you to read his book to learn the "hows".

Around 2005, when Vineet took over as the President and CEO of HCLT, it was making profits at a respectable rate, but was being overtaken by the new entrants in the Indian IT industry. He starts off his journey by recognizing this fact and realizing that if HCLT does not act soon, it may lose its position or worse - completely collapse. In the book, Vineet takes us through various anecdotes and concepts that helped him to achieve the transformation. Below are some of the concepts that he discussed:

Defining point A to point B:The transformation started with first recognizing the point A and defining the point B. Without everyone understanding what the present was, the organization was disconnected about the realities, and without a grand vision it lacked the direction for the future. For the change to happen, he had to define both and get the employees on board with it as well.

He broadly classified the employees as transformers, fence-sitters and lost souls. Of all the people, the transformers are the people who challenge the status-quo of the organization. These employees are the catalyst agents. The fence-sitters are realists, who sometimes come across as pessimists. Their views are also valuable to have a broader perspective. When he formed the core group which would lay the blueprint for the new vision, he involved many transformers and some fence-sitters from the management.

Employees first:The focus on the employees first came from Vineet’s observations from a few customer meetings where he noticed that the CXO praised the team or the employees for the success of a project, and blamed the management for failure to provide the support to the employees to make the project successful. So, it was apparent that customer valued the employees for what they bring in. Hence, the value zone lied where the employees and customer interaction happened and was certainly not in the technology (since alternatives are available). So, by putting the focus on the employees first and addressing their concerns, he created value for the employee. This in effect enabled employees to focus more on the projects or the value zones. Another example of how focus towards the employees was created was - opening up the flow of information to the employees. The employees wanted to know how their contributions made a difference and how certain decisions related to their projects were being made by the management. This lack of information created power center at the top, which was far removed from the value zone. Hence, created public forums where employees could ask questions to and get answers from the management. With the greater information, the power was shifted more towards the value zone.

The need for transparency:The transfer of powers required sharing of information throughout the organization not just among a few to prevent information hoarding. Though this opened the risk of strategies getting leaked, HCLT still went ahead and implemented it for greater benefits. Additionally, around that time, the customers were also seeking greater transparency and higher collaboration from their service providers. So, the greater transparency with the employee became imperative. Though there were a few cases where the information leak caused embarrassment, there were many more cases where the benefits accrued. So he concludes, it was far more rewarding to open up…

More engagement in the span of influence:The process of review within HCLT was not helping the employees grow and develop. The 360 degrees review from the immediate peers was not resulting in any change in the behavior of the organization. So he extended the 360 model such that any person who was within the span of influence of that person (...,VP, Director, Manager,...) could provide the feedback. This enabled more and more employees to provide a realistic feedback. In addition they placed the feedback in the open forum on a voluntary basis. With this approach everyone could see how someone was performing, and if someone held back, it meant probably the person is hiding something. So it provided additional motivation for the employees to improve themselves, engage more with the employees in their span of influence and help them achieve their goals as well, to get better reviews. Along the lines of this, they also started posting the balanced scorecards of the different organizations in the open forum, which helped in creating a competitive spirit amongst the organizations to be the leaders.

Empowerment of the employees:By creating an environment of transparency across the organizations, information started to flow much faster and people started to learn from each other. Vineet points out a case that highlights how a culture of transparency helped them. A technical-lead, who had no training as a business analyst, was able to put a business process improvement proposal to the CIO of a customer and win over him. What enabled this was, the pilot concept was getting implemented in one of the groups, and because of the transparency, the information spread to another group, who in turn worked in a team to learn the process and created a plan that showed how process improvement measures taken by HCLT could save the customer significant money.

Furthermore, to unleash the passion of the employees and help them enjoy the work, he created employee engagement programs. The employees with common passion interacted among themselves, elected leaders for the group and planned various activities. This not only helped the employees to follow their passions at work, but also helped in developing leadership qualities.

Vineet in his book suggests that, by focusing on the employees first in this way, they were able to transform the company, provide superior value to the customers and complete with the global players. This book is probably one of the few books that focuses on the employees and provides a real world use-case of how their transformation is integral to transformation of the company.

PS: I do not work for HCL.

Lower rate of innovation

Innovation Slump, Low Innovation Rate, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Why is the level of innovation low though the potential of human mind is immense? Innovation has been mantra for a while and more so in this recession. The company that innovates would survive and gain leadership, and the ones that do not will sink. Paraphrasing the legendary Peter Drucker, innovation should lead to either improvement in the customer experience or should give product a competitive edge (enhancements) or drive the cost of ownership down. Clearly, innovation allows a company to add significant value to their product line. Yet, the rate of innovation is low, despite the fact that company would promote all efforts to drive innovation!

There are at least two reasons for this - creativity challenged and problem of like mindedness. Creativity is an innate ability. Some amount of training can make you an artist, but training cannot make you creative. Creativity develops through a lot of observation and deliberation. The problem of an artist (which most of us are) is that he gets shackled by paradigms which enabled him to be an artist. The sequential thought process of analysing problems creates paradigm traps, which he is unable to break. Whereas a creative person does not fall in to paradigm traps. He challenges the existing paradigms and is able to search for the alternatives or may be he is able to jump from one paradigm to another to search for alternatives. But the people with this ability are very few. The second problem of like mindedness is that the organizations today are homogeneous. A technology company will be full of engineers, an ad agency will be full of artists and so on. Within each organization of a company the degree of homogeneity is even higher. A part of the reason is, within an organization the educational background and training of the employees is uniform. If all employees are alike, there is no diversity of ideas. If you ask 10 employees on how to solve the problem, you won't get 10 different answers, but 1 answer or at the maximum 2 different answers. In such situation, even though there is an intent to innovate, there is no great scope for innovation.

Any other reasons?

Pairing bluetooth handsfree with a laptop

Bluetooth Pairing, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Finally, I can use the bluetooth handsfree with my laptop! Oh, what an amazing feeling this is (the feeling of carrying one less device and set of wires is an amazing feeling for a road warrior)! This sense of victory is making me really happy. I pored over the internet for the past 3 days and spent about 4 hrs to read articles that explained how to do this. But none of them were clear cut, so I was pretty much left alone. So, having discovered how to do this, I want to share with the rest of the people so they can also feel liberated.

First of all double click on the bluetooth device icon to setup the new connection. Once a window pops-up, set the new connection through the wizard or any other options that is available. When the bluetooth in your laptop is starting to search for the available bluetooth devices, boot or start your handsfree device and hold the button ON-OFF button till the laptop detects the presence. If your handsfree was already ON, the laptop sometimes does not detect the handsfree. None of the articles that I looked at, talked about this aspect. Once the bluetooth device shows up on the laptop as an available connection, select it. Choose the headset or handsfree option to pair your laptop to handsfree. Now you can use your handsfree device for voice chats or listening to the music.

What makes the difference?

Attitude, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

I am still struggling to come up with an apt title for what I am going to write now. Perhaps I am trying to combine two different themes into one, that's why? So far I have already come up with three - 1) It is "I" who makes the difference 2) Sometimes "it" is just near you 3) What makes the difference? and none of them seem to convey what I want to write about. Each of them conveys some of what I want to write but not everything. Nonetheless, I will settle for the 3rd one and keep on going without worrying about what the title should be.

I have been doing a lot of traveling for a little over four years now for various business related projects. During the first couple of years, traveling was exciting because I could see different countries, meet different people, see different cultures, appreciate similarities and differences between the cultures, sample good local food and many such things. But within two years, it was no longer exciting to me! The new places started looking similar and the attraction was lost. The Seattle downtown looks similar to Mumbai or Shanghai city center - tall buildings near a beach or a river on a bright afternoon.

(Downtown Seattle, WA)

The Pike place market looks like any other crowded market in India.

(Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA)

So why lug 30 pound bags, take a 20 hour cramped flight to another country, miss my cup of dal, curd and rice, and take all the pains just to see another similar place? Ahh, what a miserable position to be in, if your job involves a lot of travel!

Luckily for me, my perception changed for good this summer. I drove about 3 hours reach to Seattle from Portland to see Pike place, which is famous for its energetic people. On reaching the Pike place, I felt nothing exciting about the place, till I saw this grandmother and her grand-daughter.

(I do not have your permission to post this photo, but you guys are simply great! I want others to share your attitude too. I did not want to post your picture, but this article is incomplete without this picture! )

Everyone other than the grandmother and grand-daughter seem to be indifferent at one of the most active areas of Seattle. The grandmother is enjoying the moment (In fact, she asked me to take her picture and even posed like a model before bursting into laughter!) and her infectious laughter spread to the kid, who has plaster on her arm and is yet not grumpy. What makes the travel exciting is - taking such pictures, singing songs on the way, eating on the roadside, two families sharing one bedroom space in a remote corner of a forest, playing games in the park ... It is the things in-between that we cherish. The excitement does not lie in reaching the final destination but enjoying the in-between which will be always different.

Last weekend while I was at home and took pictures of a sparrow and a rose from my apartment. I did not have to go far beyond to a capture a moment that would make my day. Sometimes things are just around us, and yet we do not appreciate them. We just go searching for them on a trip hundreds of miles away...

(A sparrow in my apartment complex)

(A home grown rose in a pot)

What is next in the semiconductor industry?

Semiconductor Industry Insights, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Amid the industry downturn, economic recession and job losses, like everyone else I am also asking what is next? Is this the worst yet or there is more to come? This crisis seems like a long dark tunnel with no end to it. But history has shown that every crisis has been overcome no matter how big the crisis was. If so is the case, can one predict what will the next boom be?

On Friday I was reading an article related to my industry, where I found the chart shown below. It shows which technology was released (or was at its peak?) during which year and where was the semiconductor technology at that point of time.

From a cursory look, it is easy to say - one technology lead to the other. Integrated circuits brought PC, PC brought Windows, Windows brought Internet, Internet brought Broadband...As it happens with any new technology, each of these technologies would have had been received with skepticism before they were adopted and became successful. No one would have accepted when the PC and Windows were released that they would be a common household thing in the future. No one would have agreed that a common man wants broadband speed or later wireless connection. But that is how the progression works. The other observation is, while the technology innovation is additive, the semiconductor is shrinking (or subtractive) the design rule.
Now the big question is, how did these innovations become big enough to become a boom? The answer lies in how these got adopted. Windows, Internet and Broadband have a common pattern. They emerged because there was a need at first in the big companies, then its development lead to its adoption in the universities, where it developed even further, then it got adopted by small companies and eventually they achieved boom when the common man adopted the technology. However, the LCD, Netbooks and Smart Phones, they haven't reached the potential yet. They also skipped some of the adoption steps that the other three technologies followed. Perhaps these steps are essential part of the process so that product gets refined before it gets adopted by the next market. Besides, I wonder if there is a real need or application for LCD, Netbooks or the Smart Phones at the university or small companies? If they do not find applications in these two places, why would there be a need for these in the household? Probably this is one of the reasons why there is no boom in the 2000s after the broadband boom. In my opinion, LCD and netbooks have already reached their maturity in terms the number of applications where they are useful. So the only hope now lies on the Smart Phones.
If Smart Phones are to become the next boom, how is that going to be possible? First thing is that it should find applications for the common man. This in effect will give him reasons to buy. Unless the common man buys the Smart Phone it won't be boom but a fizz. Some ways to make a Smart Phone work for a common man is to build in more intelligence into it, such that it identifies a person by feel of touch, softness of grip, fingerprints, etc. The intelligence gives confidence to end user that even it is lost, it cannot be misused. Once this has been achieved, it could be used as a single solution for many operations such as - a key for opening the garage door, car door or office door, as an ID for managing bank accounts, and for all other facilities that a Smart Phone offers today. This is boom could provide some impetus to the economy and will sow the seeds for the next boom.
What could be the innovation beyond Smart Phone? There is a limitation to additive and subtractive innovations. Beyond a point they hit a wall, and cost of innovation become no longer sustainable. Addition of more feature to Smart Phone would make it highly complex. Additionally, the semiconductor manufacturers are finding technology barriers with the subtractive innovation. So definitely the next boom will not be along lines of Windows or Broadband innovation. There will be a focus shift, and perhaps it could be reversing the innovation approaches - substantive innovation for the technology to make the products simpler yet more powerful and additive innovation for the semiconductor manufacturing so that gate size reduction no longer holds the key to the processor performance.

Management Lessons From A Roadside in India

Management through common sense, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Management at a very high level is, providing a guiding path using ones common sense. The common sense, so to speak is not a generally known to everyone, though it is freely available. Only a few people discover or become aware that common sense is freely available, and it is for us to obtain it. There are various ways to acquire common sense - reading books, going to the school, experience in lifetime, and by observation. Of all the four, observation is the least exploited method, though it is the most powerful. The power of observation lets a person to bring learnings from superficially totally disconnected things. For instance, the Shinkansen's (Japanese bullet train) cockpit was designed based on the kingfisher's beak to improve the aerodynamics. There are many more such examples. If you are more interested, then watch this video on Biomimicry by Janine Benyus <<http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Janine+Benyus&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#>>

Most of the common sense can be learnt by observing people on a roadside in India or watching traditional home. Most of the presentation skills can be learnt by observing how a grandmother tells a story without any slides. Inotations, rhythm of the voice, hand gestures, conviction...all are used to make the story so compelling that kids and adults both want to listen to the same story again and again. Ram Charan the management guru mentions in his book - "What a CEO wants you to know" that he learnt balance of volume and velocity for making profit by observing the vegetable vendors of India. There are other interesting examples along these lines which I would like to share with you.

The balloonwala or the person selling balloons offers one of the best lessons in running a business that no other book can teach. His customers are young kids whom he can sell only by attracting their attention and offering their parents a bargain. His tools are balloons of various colors and shapes, his imagination and a few side skills - such ability to play flute and casual conversation. He creates various colorful forms utilizing the fully inflated balloons. Some are shaped as a flowers and some are shaped as swords, using some round ones, a few long ones, a heart shaped, etc. Then he walks on the streets, stands in park and in a crowded area, and plays nice music on his flute to catch the attention of the children.

The balloonwala is a CEO of an organization. Metaphorically, the balloons of various shapes and sizes are his resources, flute and color of balloon are his marketing tools, how many forms and how many numbers he makes is the manufacturing, locations where he stands are places/market, various forms he creates are the products, the children are the direct customers and parents the sales department. The balloons come in different shapes and sizes are the people with different skills and attitudes, they need to be managed and valued for the unique strengths that they bring to organization. If he employs all round ones or all long ones, or if wishes to convert all the round ones to all long ones or vice-versa, he cannot create the forms/products he desires to. This will lead to business collapse. Without the skills in flute playing or without multiple bright colored balloons, his ability to attract children will be limited. If stands in a remote corner he cannot make any sell. Even if he does all of this correctly, he still cannot sell a balloon, if he cannot negotiate a bargain price with their parents. Most important of the all, he needs to ensure that he makes right amount of products so that he can suistain the product to its full potential (keep them fully inflated) and also make profit to take away to his home. Now think about it, who taught the balloonwala all these things? For him this is a common sense, but in the business school - it is management lesson on product, place, pricing and inventory management.

There is one more mataphor - driving a vehicle, which provides me a great insight. While driving a car, one has to follow the rules of the road one is driving on. The roads in India can be crowded and chaotic for someone who is driving there for the first time. But for the daily commuters, it is a normal traffic, and they know how to wade through it. The drivers in India are so successful at it because they understand the human behavior or response to the other persons' action. This helps them in avoiding accidents. While traffic in the US is so fast paced that one would think there would always be accidents. In both the cases, the systems have evolved so much so that, there are not accidents every minute, which one would not expect in such systems! The drivers in the US follow the strict driving rules to avoid the accidents. These two different driving conditions are the two different business environments or cultures. One must learn how to wade through by understanding the differences.

Let us go to arboretum and see some trees...

Receding Tree Cover, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

This thought prompted in my mind just out of the blue. I was sitting in front of my laptop reading something on the subprime loan crisis. A picture of a row full of houses with little patch of green, popped-up this thought - the rate at which the houses are getting built and the cities are spreading, will we be seeing trees only in the arboretum in the future?

Looking at Bangalore, which used to be haven for greenery, is now in state of white mess (concrete walls) all over the place. The white space is more dominant than the green patches. If you want to believe it by seeing, check on the google earth. It is hard to find even the mud patches (not the pot-holes), where one could grow something. Furthermore, with the city still growing steadily, the situation seems to be getting out of control.

Trees moving away from the city. The dark green region is the tree and the gray is the white mess. Nagoya, Japan from Plane.

With no land to spare for the trees, aren't the tree metaphorically relocating away from the city? Isn't this similar to what happened to the forests and hence to animals living in it? The animals and some of the domestic birds they are being spotted so rarely these days, that one has to go to a zoo to see them. Probably soon we have to go an arboretum to see the once ubiquitous Asopalav, Gulmohar or tree of such likes...

Crazy Driving Habits in India

Show off on the Road, Dew Drop, Ravichander Rao

Road and traffic conditions in India are horrible. Pot-holes are every few meters, roads are narrower and congested, lanes markers do not mean much, auto driver thinks he is the best driver and manouvers his vehicle through every inch of the available space to get a head of others, motor cyclist wants to impress people with his antics, etc.

Over the internet, I found some of the craziest videos whose links are below:







What should be fixed first - the authority of the traffic police or the casual attitude towards errants or road behavior of oneself? There is need for fixing one thing at a time to get a better traffic condition.

Is MBA necessary?

Is MBA Worth It? Should I do MBA? Who Should Do MBA? Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

Is it necessary to get an MBA degree to get to the position of CEO? I believe this question summarizes what I have been trying to answer to figure out. Every time I consider the MBA option, I search for answers to very fundamental questions - what specialization, can't it be learnt or acquired, is management about a degree, what traits are required, and what do I expect my life to be after MBA? Additionally, considering the expenses, motivation and time that will be required to get the degree, the task is daunting, and I am convinced that the timing has to be right.

First things first - why I need MBA and what do I want it to do for me. I have tried to answer these for myself by talking to a few trusted people, reading books, searching Internet, and some by pondering over the daily experiences, but haven't been able to convince myself to commit to MBA.

First of all the cost associated with the degree is humongous. The first 5 years will be spent on breaking-even and the next 5 years will be spent on making up for the lost savings. Does this mean more work and more stress, and less time for oneself till one break-evens? This is the most draining thought.

To figure out if this knowledge can be acquired by reading, I have tried to search the available literature and landed on something called as a personal MBA. This is school of thought suggests skills and knowledge acquired in MBA programs can also be acquired by reading books from certain categories. More details could be found here http://personalmba.com/manifesto/

But the best advices and thoughts as usual come from people who are there where you aspire to be and they have done it themselves without that degree. I have been lucky to encounter such people. Their advice is very practical - MBA is probably the last resort, there is nothing to do after MBA, so do it when it is absolutely must. And, before MBA should happen one must understand that getting into management requires personality overhauling. One must learn to lead, articulate thoughts, face and work with the conflicts, find opportunities that enhances business prospects, etc.

The more I ponder over this, the more I feel - it has to wait for a while...If I am able to do all of these without going to the MBA program, then why need an MBA degree?

My after thoughts having an MBA degree are here:  http://ravijrao.blogspot.sg/2012/07/is-mba-necessary-post-mba-thoughts.html

US Primaries: An Outsider's Perspective

US Primaries, Dew Drops, Ravichander Rao

This is the second US election that I am watching on the TV. Compared to the last one, this is one is turning out to be more interesting. What interests me is this election as an outsider is, to observe the different approaches the candidates are using.


On the Republican side, which is also the incumbent party, the candidates are using the traditional and corporate approaches to woo the voters. Senator McCain seems to be following the traditional approach, where the candidates talks about the military experience, projects done as a senate member, and the usual stuff. Whereas Senators Romney and Huckabee show a great deal of inclination towards Corporate style - dealing with numbers and demonstrating how they arrived at their decision.


On the Democrats side, the candidates are adopting: "urging", "emotional" and "repeatition" styles. Senator Obama uses a great deal of mix of "urging and repeatition" styles. In every caucus he urges the votes to stand for change and his speeches are full of exhortation. At times, it feels as if he is preparing a set of warriors who are ready to march on his orders. Senator Edwards' style is a mix of "emotion and repetition." His main issue seems to be "change" and "health care", which we keep on hearing and at times the same examples over and over again. Senator Hillary who started with a "traditional" approach has now started adopting "emotional"style. Her final day campaign at New Hampshire added a human touch to her campaign which was perhaps clearing missing in Iowa. What I like about her campaign is the fact that it uses a blend of management style and very less of "emotional and repetition". Presenting facts from the past, showing the numbers, and bringing out the issues, and presenting all these in a powered speech without "urging" makes her speech very interesting.


As they move on towards the next caucus, let us see what new styles emerge and how they improvise.