Transformers - Shock and Awe

"If it looks cool, that's where we start."

Transformers is a movie that takes you back 'T - 20' years. It takes the cautious, conditioned Sapien out of you, and rockets the best of fiery armageddon into the forefront of your captive imagination. This movie is perhaps the most believable special effects achievement in movie history. And to whom do we owe all the pleasure to? Industrial Light and Magic (IL&M) of course.

Michael Bay's $150 million adaptation of the legendary 1980s cartoon and toy series includes nearly 50 so-called transformations. Hand-rendered metallic uncorkings of real-life cars, trucks and helicopters represented uncharted territory for the gooey-alien experts at ILM, each transformation taking six months to imagine and each re-engineering the way digital Hollywood does computer graphics imagery (CGI).

For a pivotal fight scene between Bonecrusher and Optimus Prime (two proponents of the cast), the layout team at IL&M used custom software to track a CGI version of the film camera, to continue with real-time, on-the-fly transformations, animators worked with lower-resolution renderers and coordinated with the creature development (bot) team to match up machinery and slot the digital wizardry back into the final cut.

The animation needs of the film were met, by moving the CGI production out of the hands of creature development and onto the desktops of animators. By allowing animators to get the first crack at rigging control — the way a computer-generated character is built, the way it walks and rotates — IL&M's IT team could develop software for custom transformations designed on the fly that might satisfy Bay's notorious flying camera angles. Click a button here, and a flatbed's brake light can pivot into an Optimus Prime punch. Set a control function there, and an alien jetfighter wing can cock into a Megatron claw for any of a half-dozen different scenes.

This is one sweet movie, with several great moments to hearken back to. Two of my favourties being - the desert-action scene where one robotic scorpion shaped character takes out the US Delta force. The second being the Indian call centre, where a bored call-centre attendant tries to talk form to a harried sergeant.

Credits: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4218826.html?page=2

Technology - Managing the Inflexion Point

With the help of business-enabling technology, banks across the globe are adopting innovative methods to discover new opportunities, convert perceived gains and seal deals. These novel methods result in a triad of benefits – cost reduction, transaction efficiency, and automation.

Over the past five years, the Core Banking Solution and electronic channels have replaced traditional banking processes and given new meaning to transaction processing in banks. In developing countries such as the BRIC economies, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China, IT expenditure in the banking sector has been steadily increasing. Nonetheless, the technology adoption rate is bound to plateau, due to the presumption that a saturation point due to a large quantum of automation technology being introduced into a semi-automated environment. This plateau is similar to an inflexion point. The inflexion point is a function of variables such as capital spends, operating expenditure, human capital, effort expended and complexity. At present, banks are trying to regulate investment in ventures which may be seen as capable of deriving benefits in the long term – a hallmark of technologies such as CRM, Web 2.0, and Service Oriented Architecture, etc.

In order to remain competitive, banks must concentrate on three core aspects:
· Differentiation on the outside through innovative products and technology enabled service channels
· Simplification on the inside through technology convergence
· Execution mastery through strategic thinking and day-to-day excellence in operations

Technology Wave in Banking

Some incredible stuff is happening on the technology front in banking across the world. The infusion of IT and the high acceptance rate is akin to manna from heaven for the IT vendor and solution provider community. This offtake for capital heavy IT solutions, is primarily happening from the standpoint of differentiation and yes, long term strategic cost reduction initiatives.

Initiatives that are hogging the IT limelight in the banking sector - CRM, ERP, BPM, Assurance solutions, Payments channel integration, Networking, Lean Data centre management, Web 2.0, Outsourcing 2.0, Mobile banking, rural banking.

However, what must be remembered at all times is that the most important aspect around all this is revolving is the bank's customer - and this translates to customer data and the ways and means of slicing,dicing and above all - protecting the data. IT Security is of paramount concern. IT Security is no longer an option but a compulsory requirement for banks to remain a centre of trustworth computing.

CTOs have a very large role to play ensuring that kid-hacks and code-junkies do not get lucky one fair day and exploit a vulnerability that may have been picked up through a simple port scan on a public ip belonging to the bank's web-servers. Initiatives such as regular penetration tests on the backs of comprehensive vulnerability assessment exercises and follow-ups along with up-to-speed IT infrastructure are a must for keeping the institution's business strategy running.

Managing Knowledge

A booming economy, disparate sources of information, rising salaries, attrition, push to create a 'knowledge economy' - all of this justifies the effort that many leading companies are putting into managing knowledge. With IT spends increasing, especially in the booming financial services industry, apportionment towards seemingly niche areas is increasing.

Business is slowly moving away from a 'seat of the pants' sort of approach. Infusion of fresh MBAs, management techniques, strategy driven approaches, focus on long-term RoI - all this smacks of a new wave of business acumen. And during such times, business houses are also learning to negotiate the common problem of knowledge centricity or person-dependency.

The other driver for knowledge management is - 'how soon can I access the data that I want?'. How soon can business access mission-critical information? The information may already be there, but relational linking might not have been considered. This scenario may have arisen due to price sensitivity of technology upto five years ago. But with cost of database and access technology on a downward spiral, these worries no longer impact technology-upgrade decisions as seriously as they used to in the past.

Technologies assist in managing knowledge from various stand-points - portal based access management to data repositories, RSS feeds management, drill-down, access to external or proprietary database via connectors, segregation of duties, version control, auto-refresh etc.

Various software vendors have their own knowledge management solutions aimed specifically at fulfilling the knowledge needs of verticals such as finance, manufacturing etc. IBM, Microsoft, Interwoven and Documentum span the breadth of Knowledge Management right from collaboration to document management. Inter-operability of technologies and open standards engineering make access across various flavours of environments seamless. Niche vendors such as Kalzoom and CMIE (the economy monitoring behemoth) are also making a play in this space.

RoI is a big question especially before SMEs make an investment in a sophisticated solution. Judgement of RoI should not be wrongly taken on a short-term basis. Instead RoI should be calculated on an annual to 3 year basis. Metrics such as quantum of 'access effort' saved etc. should be clearly measured to arrive at RoI.

Efficient Internet Search

According to a recent Microsoft study, people on an average spend 11 minutes on a typical Internet search. It could be due to a variety of reasons -

· Not knowing exactly what it is that they are searching for,
· Trawling through giga-bytes of irrelevant data that is generated as the result of a key-word search,

being just two of many reasons.

It makes sense to create a search strategy for optimizing Internet search results and to decrease the amount of time spent in looking for what you want. Optimization can be done in two ways -
· Using several search engines to synergistically arrive at your results
· Utilizing one search engine efficiently

I have outlined three websites, that could help you to meet your search needs in an efficient manner. Most of this information is freely available on the Internet, and detailed understanding is just a click away.

http://www.blogger.com/www.vivisimo.com - This is an Internet clustering search engine, wherein your searches are aggregated based on content groups. This tool works best, when a person is unsure of what sort of information or key-word search would lead him or her to the desired results. Ideally vivisimo.com would throw up results that can then be fine-tuned using focussed key-word search via http://www.blogger.com/www.google.com or http://www.blogger.com/www.yahoo.com

http://www.blogger.com/www.Answers.com - This is an interesting website that trawls through around 100 reference databases to arrive at a set of results that will usually give a relevant set of search results to any questions or keywords that you may choose to enter. In addition, the predictive technology feature can help you choose from a variety of options as you type out your query.

http://www.blogger.com/www.google.com - This is used across industry due to several path-breaking innovations in search. I have attached a set of Google tips that may come in handy during a search. Use http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en as the URL for utilizing the interesting Google Suggest feature, an excellent predictive text search facilitator within Google within the Google.com website.

For more Google secrets, visit http://www.google.com/help/operators.html.

Media Tech!

The Indian electronic and print media are gradually making the transition to tech-have-nots to the tech-haves. From Hindustan Times which gets its design re-done by leading designers from abroad, using the latest technologies to companies such as Adlabs which are implementing an ERP solution for accounting and other activities, we find that the 'Tech' buzz word has been enmeshed into the thought-fabric.

Financial Accounting, Sales Force Management, Campaign Management etc. were previously thought to be human capital intensive jobs. Exit the old rational school, enter the seemingly irrational new school - where each and every activity can be traced via a project management Work Breakdown Structure chart and collated to an item in the company's Chart of Accounts.

Companies such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft etc. have come up with solutions that address issues in CRM, HR, Knowledge Management etc. that can be tweaked for the Media industry. Especially industry specific solutions from the SAP and Oracle stables take away a great deal of the pain that normal CFOs,CTOs and CEOs in the media space undergo on a daily basis while transacting their business.

Of course, this comfort comes at a price. While ERP as a buzz-word has become popular due to plain vanilla implementations, the true value is often found only at the end of the rainbow when the client either implements a lot of the value-added features, which he must of course pay a premium for, or indulge in a great deal of customization. The latter is because of the peculiar nature of our indusry, which is still ad-hoc and not process driven. Best practices from abroad cannot be implemented in a home-grown company as easily as it can be in an MNC subsidiary in India. As a result, ERP implementations normally take recourse to customization to mimic to-be processes that have some delta from the existing process.

Explore the open blue ocean

Presenting one aspect of Competitive Strategy - avoid the clutter, cut through the noise, perception of the core value etc., calls for a lot of effort in wading through a pool already crowded with numerous strategies and peripheral analysis. A company tends to expend resources and intellectual bandwidth in trying to squeeze every last drop of merit in an already depleted reource or industry - akin to flogging a dying horse.

Blue Ocean strategy is remarkably refreshing in that it just asks the consultant or the XIO to think outside the box - and cultivate an understanding of the opportunities that lie un-harnessed in as yet un-discovered areas falling within the organization's core competence spectrum. An example would be that of an automobile ancillary manufacturing company ELECON diversifying into heavy engineering gear-box manufacturing, because its initial business of manufacturing gear-boxes for the automobile industry was being threated by decreasing profit margins due to imports and increasing cost of playing the economics-of-scale game. Heavy engineering gear box manufacturing would have been the niche playing field of foreign players, that is now being targeted by the smaller, nimble-footed and hungry Indian firm.

This strategy of exploring the unexplored, can work equally well in the Service industry. Creating a retail opportunity out of Vada Pav - the ubiquitous Marathi snack-on-the-go has led to enviable operating margins for the Jumbo King chain. Ten years ago, it would have been considered infra-dig to commercialze the common man's food. But exploring possibilities and converting them into realizable value propositions never hurt anyone. All it takes is a bit of courage, the wherewithal to stick it though thick-and-thin and valuable strategic far-sightedness.

Saturday

Its a Saturday in this part of the world - a day perfectly sandwiched between one that was full of apprehensions regarding the week gone-by, and one that will be the harbinger of yet more apprehensions that will fuel speculation about my longevity in the Consulting main-stream.

http://www.krishna.com/ is a great site for people who are caught in a bind just like me. The download-able murals, the music and chants all help to lend a different perspective to my life.

A visit to the ISKCON temple in Mumbai also alleviates much of the skepticism with which we tend to view our lives after going through a rough patch.

It has often been averred by the pundits of mind-bend that a couple of minutes each day spent in meditation puts you in touch with your core. As a child, I used to religiously undergo this communion with the Higher Spirit and feel good about it. As I grew older, worldly influences came in my way of continuing my interlude - though I used to make shy amends. But as I with time, transition into a more responsible mortal role, I realize how important it is to regain the lost innocence that used to fuel my essence.

I see all around me people who are adept in the art of "High Thinking and Low Living", people who preach compassion to the world without cleaning up their own backyard, people who spout 'morality' but who turn a blind eye to the goings-on in their own families. As I strive to grapple with these issues, I thrash around haplessly in the waters of mental unrest.

It is during such time that Krishna steps in and shows me the way towards a solution. For all Your Sanguine graces, I am grateful to You my Lord.

Nuclear Deterrent

With all the talk about India's nuclear deterrence capability and how it would play a huge role in determining national security in the face of over-riding pressure from across the Atlantic, I thought - why not update myself a bit on the issue.

I came across terms such as The Hyde Act and the puerile sounding '123 Agreement' and was amazed at the implications that Indian government's decisions may have on the Indian public. A book by a key author of the Indo-American nuclear deal - Ashley Tellis, "India's Emerging Nuclear Posture: Between Recessed Deterrent and Ready Arsenal" also caught my fancy.

An insightful piece of information which I thought captures the core of the discussion is a must read for all you fission-fusion afficionados out there:

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/16guest.htm

This article penned by S Ragotham has an interview with Ashley Tellis which captures some fantastic insights into the machinations that are so often not transparent to the common man. The basic question - "Should India eschew its right to conduct further nuclear tests?" is one that should be left open for considered debate not just amongst bureaucrats but also intelligentsia and technologists. And the time for debate is Now!

Revelations in the Divine Story

CNN has published a story outlined in TIME, which gives some startling details on the life of Christ. In continuation with some thoughts that I had shared in this blog, thought that this might be relevant.

Please follow this link for updates on the story:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1593893,00.html?cnn=yes

Lets await more developments on this front.

Advise? Get Outa Here

Ho Hum! Its two years now, and time for a long retrospective look of the roads I have travelled and the time I have spent, in this much vaunted, but sub-optimally efficient profession called - the Big C - C.O.N.S.U.L.T.I.N.G. Time was, around 2001, when the word 'Consulting' meant having doors closed on your face, hushed whispers behind your back. And that was before, the era of benevolence ranging between the mid-eighties till the late nineties when 'Consulting' was used as an excuse to engage a beleagured business prospect (read - client), on a long-winded assignment, with PowerPoint slides invidiously being used to prophesy to them, should first of all, we not be engaged, or horrors of horrors, our recommendations be not taken on board at the end of the engagement (I use the word 'we' to loosely describe the entire flock of well-minded consultants).

.

Personally speaking, the two years have taught me a lot - about LIFE. Some golden phrases that come to mind are - 'Look before you leap', 'Keep your mouth cleverly shut' ( i.e. when your seniors fall over themselves to aggrandize themselves with the client), ' Do not snicker at a report during review' (howsoever hilarious the recommendations might be), 'As soon as you enter a new job, get your CV ready for the next switch', ' value-addition is for the long haul' (everyone knows that the client is only looking for the brand). And the word that has acquired an altogether different meaning is 'Chargeability'.

.

I have been away from the country on two different occassions, both turned out okay ( I managed to come back). I also managed to salvage my marriage despite a 9 month long telephonic relationship. Had occassion to do the whole chip butty, beer thingy. Take-aways from these trips have been to the most degree ... well...immense (Chinese food in an authentic environment, sadly does not end in Chow-mein , you never 'intimate a client' about a meeting, since taking a relatoinship to that level would be going beyond the call of duty, 'when four out of five people look towards you in your group at the pub, it means that it is your turn to buy the drink').

Quality of advice - if we had a trip meter to measure this metric, we would rap it twice every time at the end of the assignment - wondering if there was a problem with the thingummy especially since it was still lying at zero. You have also wondered why sometimes the needle is trying its best to go the other way (below zero) - surely something wrong with the car (you furtively check up the company's website to check how long your company has been consulting for the client).

Gap analysis - usually is a very rewarding assignment (for the consultant) - its like going back to college, only this time you get paid per hour for learning everything about the industry, making small talk while continuing your education with the reverent top-shots of the organization, and generally feeling very good about your calling in life (call it almost gloating) whenever you see your charge-out rate.

All in all time was, when I used to consider the industry with a certain amount of trepidation. I guess, the time has now come, to allow the clients to do all the worrying.

Suggested reading -

'Rip-Off'

'How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You The Time'

A Tight Squeeze - Through Time

Winnie the pooh and Tigahh!! - they represent an age gone by, innocence so reminiscent of one's childhood. Sometimes during the frenzy of a monotonous series of events - that is called the humdrum of life, I long for a slice of the past - a gentle squeeze through the barriers of time, allowing me once more to view the green fields of my youthful imagination.

As I hearken back to the past, glimpses of my childhood flash by. School, bus-rides, self-invented games of skill, fiercely debated topics ranging from Knight-rider to the superiority of one cola over the other(what made these topics so 'hot', I now wonder, especially when all I now have to debate is 'which is the next company to move to' and 'why oh why am I paying so much tax' !!! ).

As I give up the ghost of the past, a sigh redolent of frustration and longing, escapes my lips and wafts into the shrouded mists of mysterious time. Colours once vibrant lose their lure and imagination once fertile, appears unsure.

I called up someone special yesterday and asked - 'So what did you have for dinner'? Prompt comes the reply - ' a bit of carrot, some cabbage and a bit of potato'. Nopes I was not dreaming about Wonderland nor was I having delusions of having become a living embodiment of Alice. Were rabbits to have a greater role in deciding what I ate, I would have grown long ears and two shiny teeth to nibble away at the greens and a bob-tail to hide the alluring fanny. Live life, love life - but not pint-sized rabbit style, nor yet cute sized-bunny size. If you choose to continue nibbling away - then lemme know, and I shall add ur snap to the crowd above.