Experience of LEM workshop by Prof Sunil Handa

LEM workshop by Prof Sunil Handa held at IIMK Campus from Oct 3rd to Oct 5th, 2008 was one of the best experiences I had at the campus.The experience is as fresh as if it just happened yesterday.

I was interacting with him on mails from July,08 when he finally accepted to come on campus. Sambha and I went to receive Prof Handa and Devashish Chakravarty (Quetzal) at Kozhikode International Airport.

As we sat in Car around 1:30 PM, Prof started asking things about Kozhikode. What is special in Kozhikode, where do u get those things, Can we go there now :) What do we do when we get to Campus. The whole plan for Prof was planned as to when he'll be taking LEM workshop in audi and when individual counseling. His first session was supposed to happen in the evening at 7 PM. That means he was free till evening. We thought he would like to take rest after the days journey
(Ahmedabad->Mumbai->Kozhikode->Campus). But energetic Prof asked me to keep individual sessions from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM and it was already 2:00 PM.

We had informed students Saturday, the next day for individual counseling. So now I told Sambha to stay with Prof and start his B-Plan session at 2:30 PM. That means I have time till 3:00 PM to arrange things. Managed another person for 3:00 PM slot and then I had to go myself as there was no person available for 3:30 PM slot.

The session was very interesting with Prof. I told Prof about B-Idea 1, it was about having an online portal for making students read book through pocket money. Prof said Students should have Role Model rather having money as incentive so said think for some other idea.Before he could ask for next student, I started with B-Idea 2 which was related to Medical Profession,
having a single platform for doctors and practioners. He said go for some another B-Idea. Then I came up with third B-Idea :) and it was related to Pellet Plant in Steel Sector.That idea he agreed upon and said huge opportunities are there in the sector. Finally I left the session
taking a smile with me. The session went for around one and a half hours. Some how managed to get people and kept Prof busy with students till 6:00 PM in evening. After the session Prof said to Devashsih “1-2 entrepreneurial material hein " And I got a good feel because some how I knew that even if there's 1 person he'z talking about I am in the list. And I also knew how the sessions for other went.

Then started Prof's first LEM session at 7 PM in evening. The Audi was jam packed. One of the guys asked Prof 'What it requires to be Entrepreneur'. And Prof had interesting answers with him. I remember Prof Saying "Junta ki pahtti hein". Also then his remarks like "Ladkiyaan bethi hein is liye bol nahi sakti baaki tum samazh jao" and the full audience laughs. He shared his journey of life, told different instances. How he shifted from distribution to his own
brand. Value of having your own brand, How marketing without distribution is failure. Never open a Company on your Father/Mother/Sons name. Everything was told with interesting examples.The session ended around 10 PM in night. And finally I had some time with me to manage next day's plan.

In the second workshop on Saturday Prof asked Devashish to take LEM workshop. He talks only logic and convinced people on their arguments. It was a good session but then Benchmark had been created by Prof Handa in the minds of students. And Prof has amazing skills when it comes to oration.

Next session was in evening and was too good session. He discussed different Sectors. He asked students to venture into Power Sector, Solar Energy future of India, Tourism. He asked students to be peoples Manager rather having useless attitude. He said be like Bill Clinton, Indira Gandhi. He told how he met Bill Clinton and Richard Branson. He said how important it is for you to care your parents and biggest day in life of parents is when a person tells them u have a great Son. The session ended again late night. There were many Start-Up Companies who had come for Start Up Fair and were also listening to him. The session was mind-boggling.

And how can I forget to mention the comment Sir gave "I asked one of u r ECell Coordinators Aaditya for Pen and he searched his pocket twice, how can it be there once he has not found it initially". And audience laughs. Mene kha Sir ko Not Fair :)Sir is so sharp that he'll observe everything to minutest of details you can't even imagine.

And then the final session was on Sunday Morning 9 AM. U can well imagine B-School-IIM-K-Sunday, how difficult it is to make people attend without compulsory attendance. But Prof would pull crowd by himself. He asked audience to tell things which we remembered from LEM. I told him three things 'People’s Manager', 'Biggest day for Parent' and 'tum logoin ki phatti hein'.

After that he also gave me 'Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry' which I have with me as his blessings. I do read it but have made a point not to complete it in one go :)

Overall the best thing foe me was managing the whole LEM for Prof Handa. It’s an experience which makes you learn like anything. Stay with a person of such a high esteem even for a day and you would learn the difference in yourself.

Blogs that inspire me

Found a blog today that inspired me.
http://woodentrunk.blogspot.com/
May be it made me realize that how much I am missing on things. And I really need to act fast on things I want to do in life.

Other sites worth mentioning are
http://www.mkhoj.com/site/our_team.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anurag_Dikshit
Mkhoj team is amazing and who would not bet on such a team. And then u realize only one thing 'Work hard, Work Smart n Act fast'
Although Anurag Dikhsit's idea might not be inspiring as it might not be good for society. But what is inspiring is to what level he has gone.

And as of now I know one thing that I'll have my Time coming.

Random Thoughts

Destruction leads to road of Creation but then Destruction is not good.

'At any point of time richest traders are worst traders. The best traders r those who r fit to the latest cycles. Solomon Story.'

'We do not understand probabilty but rather react to frequency.'

'Non Linear effect from Linear effect. Sand pile effect.'

'A journalist is trained in methods to express heimself rather than to plumb the depth of things - the selection proccess favours the most communicative, not the most knowledgable.'

Uranium - The new Coal

I was just pondering over the Nuclear Deal, so thought of studying it.
Some facts and figures:
Grand Total Installed Capacity of India is 150,000 MW (aaprox)
Break Up
Thermal 65% (Coal Based 55%, Gas Based 10%, Oil Based 1%)
Hydro 25%, Nuclear 3%, Renewable Power 7%

Per Capita Consumption, India = 612 KWH/Year
World Average = 2500 KWH/Year
Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Uttranchal, West Bengal etc are some of the states where significant number (more than 10%) of villages are yet to be electrified.
Villages Electrified (30 May 2006) - 488,173
Village level Electrification % - 82.2%

The Government of India has an ambitious mission of POWER FOR ALL BY 2012. This mission would require that our installed generation capacity should be at least 200,000 MW by 2012 from the present level of 150,000 MW.
And incase we go by World Average we would be requiring atleast 4 times the capacity i.e. 600,000 MW. In nutshell there’s huge demand of Energy in future.
Do we need Nuclear Power Plants ?
We have 55% Thermal Power Plants. Consumption of Coal in India is

We have coal reserves of
Coal Reserve(1/1/2007 data), www.coalindia.gov.in/coalreserve.htm
Proved Reserve 115 Billion tonn
Indicated 132 Billion tonn
Total Reserves 287 Billion tonn
Considering 300,000 MW production and all new units being Coal based Thermal Power Plant. We have enough fuel for 220 Years.
So there’s no emergency if seen in terms of scarcity and expansion program.

If seen on a scale of cost/unit and time scale. The third generation power plants have reduced both enormously. Eg: The General Electric ABWR was the first third generation power plant approved. The first two ABWR's were commissioned in Japan in 1996 and 1997. These took just over 3 years to construct and were completed on budget. Their construction costs were around $2000 per KW. Or $2 Billion per 1000 MW. Westinghouse claims its Advanced PWR reactor, the AP1000, will cost USD $1400 per KW for the first reactor and fall to USD $1000 per KW for subsequent reactors. In US the cost has reduced from 3.63 cents per KWHr to 1.68 cents per KWHr in 2004.

Taking conservative estimate of $2 Billion, we get cost/unit in cents at rates as shown in table below:

Assuming a financing cost of 8%, it would cost Rs 2.96/Unit. And incase cost comes down to $1000 per KW, it would be Rs 1.48/Unit which is quite economical. Assuming we also go for long term contracts for Uranium.
So cost/unit might give you an advantage in long run. But it would be huge. I am not including Uranium reserves but would add them soon in the blog and then come to some conclusion.

Small things can do wonders!!!

3M developed its new sticky tape business in 1920s when a young scientist discovered a particular quality of a weak adhesive.

Would keep adding things on this.

CK Prahlad Morality

I have still his so called 'Morality' thing on mind.

We are taught in MA, have the smallest cash conversion cycle. Pay as late as possible receivables should be as fast as possible. Double standards.

Then thinking on different acquiring strategies. Hostile takeover, proxy fight, Shareholder Rights plans. Are all these things ethical.

And if not why was he giving Gyaan on those things. Not Acceptable.

Man too smart for himself :)

Some Stats initially:

1) Human neurons operate by sending electrochemical signals that propagate at a top speed of 150 meters per second along the fastest neurons. By comparison, the speed of light is 300,000,000 meters per second, two million times greater.

2) Similarly, most human neurons can spike a maximum of 200 times per second;By comparison, speeds in modern computer chips are currently at around 2GHz – a ten millionfold difference.

3) Machines follow Moore's law, whereas modern humans from primates involved a threefold increase in brain capacity.

i.e we are already at a stage where we have Machines faster and larger than human beings. Now its the third dimesion, being smarter.
Once we attain it, we are surely going to have machines dominating us. Survial of the fittest.

I believe the concept of aliens. And if aliens exists Moore's law would exist there too. Incase they would have build machine faster than themselves, machines would have conquered the planet and would have forwarded towards us. But nothing like that has happened or they have already marched forward, making us a reason for ourselves. May be they know ........... :)