(South Block houses the Ministry of External Affairs)

When I look back and see if India should really have been like what it is today after 62 years of our freedom, I feel that we could certainly have done much better. We have shown progress on several fronts, both domestic and international, but a lot more needs to be done and a question that needs to be addressed is ‘Are India’s foreign policy makers holding India back?’ continue

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Around 80% of startups close down within their first year of operation. While some of these go down simply because of part time involvement of the founders, lack of persistence and fizzling out of passion, a large percentage go down during their transition from a Startup(Micro) phase to a Small Business phase. A business can aim for the long term only when the owners have vision and concentrate on building a value system based on THRILL – Trust, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Loyalty and Love. Since most of these are subjective, many businesses don’t believe in writing them down or have policies to define the role of THRILL in their company. But a closer look at each of these factors tells us how important it is for each one of these to be a part of your day to day business activities if you are seriously looking at building a company that grows consistently. continue

International Business Machines is an organization that has seen the troughs and the crests of the computing industry right from its inception. The firm itself has undergone revival and has painfully learnt its lessons. One of those lessons has imbibed in it the spirit of always being ahead of the industry curve. In pursuit of such endeavors, it has come to define the next curve itself. continue

Abhishek woke up around 9 this morning. He was rather tensed about his impending CREST quiz. I wished him best of luck for it. At 6pm I came to know that it didn’t go too well. Even though we are classmates at IIM Calcutta, I have not seen or spoken to him once in the last 2 weeks. So how do I know every detail of what he has been up to? The answer in one word is – Twitter. continue

Having reached the USA, one of the most visible things i saw in the first month here, was how much everyone relied on Amazon.
Professors buy books every week from Amazon.
Students buy books from Amazon.
Students buy used books from Amazon.

People shop on Amazon. For virtually all of their needs. continue

(We at Strat.in welcome our newest contributor, Arun KS. Arun is an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta, is a huge sports fan, specializing in EPL, UEFA and F1. His stay at IIM-C was marked by his attempts at Genocide during his stint as the Mess Representative of the Old Hostel, and winning several Marketing contests) continue

(Note: This is the third part in my series on Game and Metagame. For some references, I highly recommend you read the first part of this series to get a feel of what I am talking about. There is a rather decent article on Wikipedia about the whole thing, and my article differs from that on several counts, as my attempt is to talk about it from the perspective of everyday games and metagames. Also, I suspect you would have seen the movie 300, and if you haven’t check up on the Battle of Thermopylae here.) continue

The history books of India will always remember this phrase, the British policy of ‘divide & rule’ led to their colonization of India and ruling it for over 200 years. So everyone who has got his education in India should actually remember this strategy and understand its importance. In simple words the ‘Divide & Rule’ strategy means breaking up a combined entity into smaller units so that it is easier to conquer them. For a more concrete definition you can visit this article on Wikipedia. continue

Ding Ding Ding:

Round 1:
Microsoft and Google enter the ring. Microsoft has been the reigning heavyweight champ for years. But Google has grown in size and strength rapidly and has become one of the top rivals to Microsoft.
Microsoft needs to make a move. It tries to beat Google by taking over Yahoo’s search engine, but fails badly. Now it jabs at Google with its own search engine: Bing. Microsoft scores some points with that one, but the young and strong Google parries the blow and seems unaffected. Instead some competitors in the search engine business to both MS and Google are affected. Microsoft manages to gain some respect in this round but things largely remain unchanged. continue

“A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.”

“A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people fall into hot waters first.” continue