Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Monkeys and the Market

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and told the villagers, who were farmers, that he needs monkeys. The villagers laughed at him and never minded about what the man told. Later the man announced to the villagers that he would pay Rs.10 each monkey that the villagers catch for him. The villagers have seen a lot of monkeys in the nearby forest that used to raid their villages too, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought every monkey at Rs.10 and the villagers made a good deal. Soon the supply
started to diminish, the villagers thought that it was not worth the effort, so they stopped catching monkeys.

The man further announced that he would now buy each monkey at Rs.50. This villagers thought that it seemed to be a good deal, started catching monkeys again. And again, the supply diminished even further and people stopped the monkey business and started going back to their farms. Now the offer rate increased to Rs 75 and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catching it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs.200 per monkey! However, since he had to go to the city on some urgent business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant placed a deal with the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at Rs. 125 per monkey and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for Rs 200". The villagers found it to be promising squeezed up funds from all their savings to buy the monkeys at Rs. 125 per monkey. After that they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!!

Welcome to the Global Market!!!

So long until the next post...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Cat

Once upon a time, there was a Guru, who was the head of a Gurukulam. He had many student disciples who learnt spiritual lessons from him. The Guru also had a pet cat, which wandered around in the gurukulam.

One day the Guru was teaching something very important in the lessons of spiritual enlightenment. By then, the Guru's pet cat strolled nearby. This caught the attention of one of the students. He started to gaze at the cat rather than listening to what his Guru said. The Guru noticed that and warned the student, in addition, he asked one of the other students to tie to cat to the mast outside and also instructed that cat should be tied to the mast to avoid his students gazing at the cat when it strolls inside.

From then on, when the class started, one of the students would tie the Guru's pet cat to the pole outside the class. A few years passed, the Guru died and the next senior person became the Guru of the Gurukulam. But the practice of tying the cat to the pole when the class started continued.

A few years passed, the cat also died. And in the next day, when the class was about to start, the new Guru shouted. "Where is the cat, don't you guys know that a cat should be tied to the pole outside before the classes start?"

The other students got afraid because the new Guru got angry, found another cat, tied it to the pole and then the classes started for the day.

These days, organizations getting the ISO/CMM certifications do such acts without meaning or purpose. Maybe, the processes recommended in those certifications are to streamline the functioning of the organization in a smoother way. But, many organisations start preparing the laborious and monotonous documentation only at the end of the project/cycle, rather than having them prepared during the course. Reason for preparing at the end - Come on, everybody is busy at the other times :)

So long until the next post...

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Fox

Once upon a time, in a forest, a hunter was in search of some animal to hunt for a meal. He found an elephant, so he threw his spear at the elephant that killed it. While throwing the spear, he inadvertently stepped on a venomous snake. The snake struck the hunter with is pangs and the venom instantly killed the hunter. When he fell dead, he fell on the snake killing it.

A fox went strolling by, scouring through the forest for a meal. On seeing the three things deal, the fox was happy that it has hit with a treasure trove of meals. It thought it could save and eat the elephant for one month, the man for 3 days and the snake as a meal for that day. But it also found a peculiar thing that was near the hunter, it was a bow. It thought that it was some new meal it did not have before, and hence should have it immediately.

So, the fox went to the bow and bit its string, the string snapped and reflexively the stick in the bow stretched out, striking the fox killing it instantaneously.

The foxes in every organisation are curious about something, and they have some fancied opinion about it that they don't even have an ounce of knowledge about what it is. Be it technology, be it software etc, they don't try to understand it completely before they try it out, but jumpstart into it putting everybody including themselves in an unpleasant situation.

Curiosity about new things and venturing into that space after proper understanding is not a problem, but "curiosity" alone, kills.

So long until the next post :)