Trekking uphill from a Downturn.

In his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Al Gore pointed out that in Chinese and Japanese, the word “crisis” is written with two symbols. The first symbol stands for “danger,” and the second stands for “opportunity".

Politicians, business practitioners and investors wake up. Wake the sleeping bankers and the high paid business head honchos as well. For if you are wide-awake you will make sense of the lines below. They are not inspired from the notes of Wal Street pundits or Management gurus from Harvard, Stanford or Oxford. I am not even referring to any economic messiah foretelling the future of the world reading from past data. Only flattering to deceive every 99 times a 100 predictions!.

In the wide world of economy for every downturn there is a boom time in the anvil. If we stop for a while and consider neither is a downturn or a boom time hitting business from extra terrestrial sources. They are an out come of the business leaders and investors unable to manage risks or some times qualify them or forsee.

The reason for every downturn and boom time is than an entrepreneur who takes on a bunch of assets and a source of qualified and a bit of unqualified risks along with opportunities. A great leader is one who binds the business with ample guts and viable vision not to mention loads of prestine integrity . More importantly understand the assets as wel as the risks and set about the balancing act diligently.

Todays chieftains of the corporate world have found it convenient to run to the government like cry babies seeking bail out packages to make good of their errand judgment in understanding the risk element or ignoring the risk element or plain and simply not having skill to manage the risk as they show up.

Its a fact that there aint any business with out risk and no business worth its while if it is not taking on an element of risk. Else every thing will be non profit organisations.

In my view it is the best time for the uncut diamonds, leaders with substance, conviction and character to stand up and be counted. Vitally important is to remain positive while understanding the risks as much as you understand the opportunities and deploy assets to business play with a lions heart. Speak out truth about business and its operations all the time. These are the men and women who will bail the global businesses out of the trenches and pave a path trekking the uphill uncertian journey ahead ...not the government ...cause at that rate the governments are blowing up taxpayers money..very soon all of us will be bankrupt polically as well as financially .

In boom time every one can attempt to be a Henry Ford , Alfred Sloan , Bill Gates , Recardo Semler, Narayana Murthy , Ambanis or Tatas. Its is now who attempts and wins in a downturn stands tall as a turn around atrist who will be revered for a lasting time . For now there are mega business and mighty leaders turning turle by each day belly up :-( Lets turn it on , turn it around ..Yes We Can !! If we want to.

Get a Wire from Burning Sun and Plug it on to Earth !

Seems like a paradox when some one says the above when the earth is getting hotter by the day and snow peaks are melting away eating into the Sun kissed golden beaches on Rio, Goa and Gold Coast ?

Think Again ? How on earth can we use the Sun to help us stay cool !!! Think solar panels atop automobiles plying in the tropical countries like Brazil , India , China , Australia and all over the world during summer. About 70 % of our time on the road is when broad daylight is bright and sunny !!!

If only we channelize our present R&D dollar spend more toward converting solar energy to create products and power services for common men then we would do a great deal of favor and leave a valuable legacy to the children who will live in the years to come.

On a basic level "Darwinism" should come to play and why not today. The flora and fauna today get their energy from Sun . Why cant we use this powerful source of abundant energy to meet our energy requirements.

Why have we abandoned the famed Sails powering the marine lines . How much oil can we save if 40 % of cargo carriers around the world go back to use wind to power the cargo carriers ? May be we have to sacrifice a day or a week before the produce from one country reaches another , but it can go a long way in depletion of shorelines and help ships reach destinations sooner. I am referring to the miles of shores we can protect by slowing down the heating of earth process. (Inserted above is a picture of a prototype with computer controlled wind sails)

Think, Looking forward to your thought exchanges.

cheers !

Hybrids fostering a better place to change blue earth to a green planet

Barack Obama seems to be the flavor of the seasons to come. One of the policy spring boards has been that of Energy Self Sufficiency of the USA and the desperate urge to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

A sneak peak into the policy looks like this :
• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
o Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
o Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.

Toyota has already usurped the market leadership with the hybrid model Toyota Prius and already developing a beta model of plug in hybrid.


Most significant is the founding of www.betterplace.com by Shai Agassi , the erstwhile raising star at SAP. It is very interesting to take a look at their audacious business model. Much of the innovations those spring up in the Information Technology are sprung from paradoxical situations and importantly by companies who question the status quo of established industry giants pedaling legacy systems.

I just can’t help by admire the temerity of Shai and his team to take on the most inspiring charter to free the earth of the banes of Ozone depletion and show a path of freedom from the reliance of fossil fuels.And that too in an sector infested by oil mafia from ME and legacy of the auto empires like GM and Ford and their chieftains running to Capitol Hill for a bailout package!!!!! Read on :-

Biz Model !!!

It’s simple. The car has evolved. Gas guzzlers have gone the way of the dinosaur - there’s a reason they call it “fossil fuel.” In their place we have electric versions of our favorite makes and models being developed by established car companies.
And the evolution of the car means the evolution of the entire transportation model. When we eliminate the dependence on oil, we eliminate the environmental and economic damage that came with it.
The good news is we’re evolving into something very familiar. The Better Place business model is one most of us already experience every day - with our mobile phones.

Think of it like this: we pay mobile providers for minute-by-minute access to cell towers connected together in cellular networks. Truth is, we pay comparatively little - or next to nothing - for the phones themselves. After all, what you’re really buying is air time, not a box with buttons.

The same model works for transportation. Just replace the phone with an electric car, replace the cell towers with battery recharge stations, and replace the cellular networks with an electric recharge grid. Now you’re buying miles, not minutes.

Imagine the impact of the success of the above plan with the support of the already successful hybrid car business which is so successfully launched by Toyota. Imagine the importance of the vision of the man leading world largest super power and the patronage young entrepreneurs like Shai Agassi will get ? – Hope , Dream On ..A better world is in taking shape NOW.

Cheers !

Ara