Nobel peace prize 2018 to Nadia Murad

Nadia Murad Basee Taha is a *Yazidi Kurdish* human rights activist from Iraq. She was kidnapped and held by the Islamic State for three months. In 2018 she and Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

Bravery in spite of personal insult and shame .. Nadia Murad ..

Listen to Nadia Murad narrate her painful experiences of repeated mass rape and torture - sexual jihad by the Daesh militants in Mosul, Iraq and her subsequent escape wearing a black abaya on BBC's Hardtalk when she was just 23 years of age in 2016 ..  Six of her brothers were murdered by the Daesh militants ..

Click here for the BBC Hardtalk video ..

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has rightfully selected this 25 year old victim of inhuman war crimes - it has exposed the cruel, brutal, sadistic and vicious sexual crime of continuous, mass rapes in confinement by this group of criminals of Iraqi ISIS from the group Daesh who by their devilish and monstrous acts on a young girl and thousands like her have no explanation to offer to the world for their demonic behaviour .. 

They do not belong to any religion and may never be brought to justice to face the law, if only it existed in that part of the world .. They are walking free now .. 

It is but a sad reflection of the vacuousness, moral degradation and deprivation of a once rich civilisation now completely disintegrated and disoriented.. No religion practices such extreme forms of violence on anybody else . 

This award from the Nobel committee may not help identify and punish the criminals in society but should shame their leaders and the community behind them. Mankind acting in unison should take positive steps to prevent it's recurrence in future .. Spoils of War or Prisoners of War, let us not forget that first of all they are women and part of the weaker sex  ..

George ..

Importance of Communications ..

The Operations stream at Alliance School of Business is very much obsessed about Continuous Improvement (Kaizen). The continuous improvement is of students knowledge, student skills, syllabus, teaching pedagogies, classroom cases, interactions, classroom discussions, faculty skills, faculty commitment, faculty interactions, physical infrastructure, intellectual infrastructure and so on ..

As the first step we are having an area meeting to discuss about the strengths and disadvantages of strong and weak communication. It is an activity based session .. 

click here ..

george ..

Alice Vaidyan enters Fortune Top 50 Most Powerful Women of the world list

Alice Vaidyan,, pic courtesy Bennet Coleman.

It was great to hear of my sister Alice Vaidyan breaking into the Fortune Top 50 Most Powerful Women of the World list for the year 2018 at rank #47.

She is the only Indian woman in the top 50 ..  The former Chairman of Board of Governors of IIM Bangalore and founder of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar is not even in the top 100 International list ..

Click here for the Fortune magazine link ..

The year 2018 saw the exit of Indira Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi (Indian origin but US citizen, a product of IIM Calcutta and Yale University, US) and the former CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochar and Shikha Sharma of Standard Chartered Bank.

Alice Vaidyan, a veteran of the global insurance industry brings with her 30 years of international insurance experience. She is the Chairman and Managing Director of  $6.8 billion General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) spread over 160 countries of the world ..

Under her leadership, GIC rose from rank 14 globally to rank 10 and expanded operations to 160 countries across the world. GIC is the Government of India's second largest dividend payer at approx. INR 1200 crores ($200 million) for the year 2018.

Alice Vaidyan graduated in Chemistry from St. Josephs College Irinjalakuda, Kerala, completed her Post Graduation in English from SB College Changanassery, Kerala in 1983 and later got extensive training at the Harvard Business School, Boston in Strategy and Leadership.

Alice has three kids, all grownup and is a doting grandmother to a 8 month old boy. Her husband, Dr. M G Vaidyan, was the former Deputy Managing Director of India's largest state run bank, State Bank of India in Mumbai. Her parents Easaw Mathai (from SBI) and mother Thankamma Easaw, stay in Kochi, Kerala.

George ..

What’s happening to General Electric ?

Is General Electric on it's way out ? The change of leadership at GE has created some disturbance in the global technology market when a global technology leader fumbles..

I bring such interesting points of discussion to the class. It gives students an international exposure and makes them think like entrepreneurs and CEO managers to change companies and their operational style..

In spite of Flannery being the darling of the Board till 14 months back, suddenly lost grace and was replaced. At high levels such events do happen and it is real. It reflects on the immediate compulsions of the organisations.

GE market cap in the year 2000 at $600 billions is now worth just $107 billions, on revenues of $122 billions in 2017, (just 9% of Apple's $1100 billions market cap) a clean wipeout of $500 billions !

No corporation can forever remain immortal .. 

The company founded by Thomas Alva Edison in the 1880s is now floundering like never before.. It is the only one of its generation still surviving the 120 years of history ..Will the new CEO, Culp, a Harvard Bschool alumnus be able change its fortune at all ? 

There are many questions the world (or my students) are looking for an answer..

1. Is the 120 year old GE a company from the older generation waiting to be replaced by a younger entity ? 

2. Can the new leadership give a new purpose to GE and take it to the top ? 

3. Why have shareholders been losing their faith in this company which was the darling of the masses till a few years back ? 

4. Is this the path that all corporations will one day have to take of initiation, growth, sustenance and decline ..? 

5. Will the new CEO, Culp, a Harvard Bschool alumnus be able change its fortune ? 

6. Will market cap decline be a forewarning to decline of the corporation ? 

7. What will be Culp's strategy to help GE re-emerge in the hi-tech market of the world and remain a dominant force ?

 

Ge

Understanding the Google work culture ..

What is special about Google work culture ? 13 experts from the Forbes Technology Council speak out in 2018 .. 

Just like manufacturing companies around the world try to ape the Toyota Production System and are still at it, companies try to follow the Tatas as do lot of community service, can service organisations around the world look at their work environments and excel ? A Forbes Technology Council set of points and recommendations.. 

Consider employees first, keep them happy, creative and innovative by good pay, perks and a simple, natural work environment looking at continuous improvement.. Is that a long list ? Let's simplify .. 

Treat people well, innovate on processes and finally ensure continuous improvement ..

Click here for the Forbes doc ..

George ..

India’s first and world’s second autonomous store in Kochi ..

Bangalore, the garden city of India is the pensioner's paradise of yesteryears.

Watasale store in Kochi, Kerala, India. World's third, pic courtesy Better Indian.

Bangalore, though has some practical difficulties of traffic, commutation, timing, it is a great place to be in for many reasons. The climate, the people from across the country, the sincerity and hardworking nature of the people and the openness in society to experiment and study from others.

Having moved to this place in '07 from Kerala, yours fathfully  wanted to be near to the technology hub and in the technology capital of the country, to experience new trends in technology first hand !! But, no more !!

I was really taken aback, to read about the country's top technology in retail application, the fully autonomous store in the world, which had opened in Kochi in July 2018. It was not opened in Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi, it was opened in the south of India, in the state of Kerala, in the port city of Kochi.

Watasale brilliant guys, ready to take on the world !! source twitter ..

Step aside IIT, IIM, IISc, Harvard and MIT guys, you are good only at theory .. Here comes the brilliant practical Kochi guys blending perfectly Artificial Intelligence, Deep learning and sensor technology into a retail application.

What makes Kochi so unique to implement a very forward looking technology ?? Is it a better level of public awareness of technology and development, a better level of intelligence, a constant  desire to live better and more comfortably, warm and better acceptance of achievements, a constant challenge to out-perform and do better than others .. ??

The Amazon Go autonomous store concept store in US has been only partially successful. Here in Kochi, the concept is being brought in a different flavour, made fully operational and implementable as a 24-hour store with their own AI- Deep learning-RFID sensor based hardware/software combo linked to the customer QR code and credit card.

Click here for the video of Watasale ..

Its a great challenge, Already running successfully for the past one month in Kochi, they have to show the world that Autonomous stores can be implemented and can be successful across the world ..

Click here for the Hindu newsreport ..

Wishing these ambitious, smart, techie Kochi youngsters all good wishes when they take on the likes of Amazon and Walmart !! It is very much possible and within their reach ..

Good Luck and Good Wishes to Watasale team !!  Keep Shopping, Keep walking ..

Mail me for a case study on WATASALE that I prepared after my visit and interacting with the key partners .. 

George..

What went wrong at Kochi International Airport on Aug 15, 2018 ?

Aerial view of the airport during the floods, pic courtesy- Newsminute

A partly Oxfam funded study (click here for the report) on what made water levels in Kochi International airport reach a whopping 8.8 metres (that of a 2 floor building) in the new International terminal on August 15, 2018 ? 

Was it

1. a technical flaw in acquisition of low lying farm land on the Periyar river banks with poor drainage thru the Chengal creek    OR 

2. incompetent and short-sighted economic interests in acquiring the 1253 acre land at Nedumbassery, North of Kochi city in 1992 at cheap rates   OR 

3. the heavy inflow of water during the floods from the reservoirs at Idukki, Mullaperiyar and Idamalayar at times exceeding 2500 cumecs (cu. metres per sec) which was responsible for the airport flooding.

There are there are still disagreements among the key stakeholders in understanding the exact reason for the airport flooding.

Click here for the video of the airport flooding ..

One thing is clear, the world's first and only 100% solar energy powered  international airport's global reputation took a nosedive and it will take some time and solid explanation from the airport staff with the traveling public on why they should continue to patronise Kochi International Airport into the future ..

George