Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers in the AI Economy and about the world of work. The sketchnotes are my own.
Book Review: Money Wise by Deepak Shenoy
Money Wise is a book aimed at the people who don’t know how to invest and don’t know how to start.
Book Review: Alchemy
In this book Rory Sutherland builds a case for magic and alchemy. In science, everything has one correct answer. Human behavior and choices are guided by context. Pain killers are more effective when they are effective. Savlon launched an antiseptic liquid that did not “burn” like their competitor Dettol. The consumer complained that Savlon was ineffective because there was no burning sensation. Read my review about Alchemy - a book I really enjoyed.
Types, Fonts, Rifts and Charts
Pro tip: After you make the charts, pause to annotate them. Think of them as a whisper in the ear of the decision maker.
Earners-learners & rejection
Most people underestimate the value of likability in their career. When you make a mistake, people are likely to give you a second chance if they like you. Else they will pull out a rule book and tell you why you have not done what you must.
Employer brands, benchmarking and writing
If you’re a morning person, you should do your analytical work early when you’re at peak alertness; your routine tasks around lunchtime in your trough; and your creative work in the late afternoon or evening when you’re more likely to do nonlinear thinking. The reverse holds true if you are a night owl.
Can culture be benchmarked?
I was once talking to the founder of a startup who wanted to build the culture of Google in his firm. He wanted to benchmark the ‘best practices’ of Google’s culture of innovation and that is how he implemented this policy in his 50-person startup. Every employee in that tiny startup had to work on a personal project. Two months later a few employees came to the founder and asked for permission to work from home so that they could work together undisturbed on a secret project they had come up with.
Talent, mentors & 'No Rules Rules'
Can you find a virtual mentor even as you are locked up at home? That is what elite universities provide - great teachers and great mentors. Does that justify the premium they are paid? If you are NOT from an elite institute, is there any way you can compete? Yes, and it is something you can do today.
Book Review: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Talent Density is all about constantly culling the average performer. Think of it as the dreaded bell-curve on steroids. The Netflix culture site says, "Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals, for which we spend heavily. It is on such a team that you learn the most, perform your best work, improve the fastest, and have the most fun."
Book Review: Saying No To Jugaad
“Saying No to Jugaad” is the story of Bigbasket’s business strategy, culture and its desire to build a culture that puts the customer at the center. There are some interesting questions posed. Is is better to be tech-driven or tech-enabled. Most start-ups fall into one of two categories: a) those that are tech-first, where one of the co-founders is also the CTO. The perspective in these start-ups is often, ‘How can we leverage technology to build new businesses?’; and b) those that are tech-enabled, where the CTO is almost always not a founder. The perspective here is, ‘How can technology enhance the effectiveness of our business?’
Book Review: Looking for Miss Sargam
The settings are varied. What goes on behind the scenes when two star musicians from India and Pakistan share the stage in a concert for peace? A small-town music teacher and a big-city businessman team up. They plan a hunt for India’s best new classical talent—and make a few crores in the process? How does it end? Shubha Mudgal writes about these from the point of view of an insider. That is why each story is so true. The tone is funny but there is a tinge of sadness I felt right through even as I laughed. The stories have a wicked humor that comes from someone who has seen these characters at close quarters.
Book Review: The Secret Life of Organizations
The Secret Life of Organizations written by Shalini Lal and Pradnya Parasher is that map that tells the young Indian professional how to make sense of the chaos in organizations. The authors use their own experience of working across a variety of organizations and their expertise in Organizational Psychology to tell the novice how to decode what they see. They do so with short cases and examples.
Book Review: Great at Work
The way to do this is to redesign your work so as to focus on value, not goals. Looking at your work in terms of the impact you are creating for others helps you discover your passion and purpose. Spending just 15 minutes a day of “deliberate practice”. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance – like Jiro crafting each piece of sushi.
Book Review: Just Start
The authors of the book "Just Start – take action, embrace uncertainty", create the future says just that. That’s what serial entrepreneurs do. They don’t wait for the fog to clear. They start moving as soon as they have an idea. They try to stay within what they would define as an “acceptable loss”. They create a prototype and wait for the reaction of the consumer or potential consumer.
Book Review: Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Success is not the result of one single quality. It is also about having the right skill and being in the right role where that skill (and your weaknesses) can be an advantage. A job that leverages your natural extraversion or introversion plus a network of people ready to help will take you further than going solo. When you have a story that connects you to the world, you are motivated to work hard at your goal.
The H Factor
Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton are convinced that Honesty-Humility is a new personality element that is made up of five attributes: Sincerity, Modesty, Fairness, Truthfulness and Unpretentious behavior. Leaders who are high on "the H -actor" put the spotlight on the team rather than on themselves. While such leaders are high on ambition, they liberally seek help from others and listen to feedback from others. Such leaders handle success without glowing in the I-did-it-all feeling.
Book Review: Stories at Work
When you come across an old photo, you recall a story. Suddenly a date becomes significant. Milestone events get etched in our mind because our brain has created a little PostIt note and created a special place for it. By the way, where were you on 11 September 2001? You may be racking your brains to leaf through the pages of your memory. But as soon as you read the story, everything falls into place. Can you use stories in the workplace?
Your Happiness Was Hacked: Book Review
The deluge of information pouring in constantly causes technostress and blurs the line between work and home. Tech makes it convenient to connect and its ease of use has changed how we work. No one speaks enough about the way tech runs our lives.Not just adults, children are impacted very deeply. Children are spending fifty percent less time playing outdoors than their parents. The children spend less time playing with other children and more time with screens. This book tells you how to take back control of your life from tech.