Search - new dimensions on the web

Computational search, semantic search, clustered search etc. - new paradigms to create hypothetical scenarios to find everything from lost keys to mathematically arrive at patterns between 2 words. Its a brave new world out there with veterans such as Google and Yahoo, as well as relatively new kids on the block such as Clusty and Wolfram Alpha.

Getting a "different way to look at the web" is what Google and other companies are trying to push as an agenda. Innovation leading to thought-computing is where a lot of companies are trying to push the envelope. Which, directly leads us to the marketing reality of uncontested or poorly contested segment spaces - blue sky effect. Workable strategy, a la Google, seems to be - design an elegant solution, that creates a want or addresses a need - undeniable value proposition.

"2008 is the year that search got competitive," said Bill Gates according to the news.bbc.co.uk website. 2009 could be the year that search, gets to mean much more than a query on google or yahoo. Companies that will contribute to this advancement would be companies that perpetually are seen to move forward with advances in technology, deployment and usability. The WOW factor can only help. Gimmicks may on the other hand recoil to hurt not just the initiative but also the organization responsible for them. Cashback search from Microsoft - hmmm, wait and watch boys and girls.

Mainframe humour post-ante

Did you think that Mainframes were a dry, humourless topic? Think again...at least in death the mainframe has given us a chance to laugh out ... LOUD, than ks to this video from Youtube - source, UoM. The video outlines an entire burial ritual, complete with tomb, priest, hymns and eulogy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEFPPeUJPEA&feature=player_embedded

Indian Building Industry - Lack of Automation

Ask anyone who has occupied a new flat in Mumbai, about the level of satisfaction with quality of fittings and monitoring of quality of delivery and probably the response would be uniform - NOT SATISFIED. Right from taps exploding in faces once they are turned on, to incorrect installation of equipment - the woes would complete the veritable dictionary.

A lack of comprehensive focus on quality at the top management level percolates through to operational levels and results in air-brushing of the entire issue. An over reliance on manual labour in the industry, drags into the equation cases of individual interpretation over-riding corporate standards for various.

Lack of widespread usage of power tools and electronic aids leads to gaps in estimation and communication leading to inaccurate dissemination of information and loss of client satisfaction. The devil is in the details and the devil could very well be holidaying in Vegas if the builders' attention to detail is anything to base a premise upon.

I have recently moved into a new flat finished by an established name in the industry - and I am scared of actually opening a tap or closing too roughly a door too hard - for fear of the item losing its relevance and ending up in my hand in a non-servicable state.

Educating operational level staff about the importance of quality and how a delta improvement in quality leads to a butterfly effect realization of benefits at the customer end, is an important improvement area for the industry. This coupled with transparency and a slight flexibility at the builders' end as well as a focus on exploiting technology for creating open channels of communication can help the industry meet the expectations of a generation that is otherwise slowly getting used to being pampered by half hour turn-around times for requirements in various aspects of life.

Open Source Possibilities

Frankly, its been a revelation to me. Long have I been an advocate of enterprise systems and have been pretty slow in appreciating the capability and penetration of systems that built on open source. These systems, shorn of blinkered enterprise development requirements, has me and I am now a fan. In areas such as IT security, web-conferencing solutions, document management, collaboration, social networking, operating systems and CRM, customers are now willing to actually evaluate the possibility of deploying open source tools and technologies, even though they may have already invested in formal enterprise systems of a similar nature. The business driver for such implementation being unrealized business benefits or complex and incomplete installation of enterprise applications.

Open Source is here to stay. Consultants will ignore open source at their peril, especially because of the lean economic scenario that we are enmeshed in now. As the tribe of open source proponents increases, so is the breadth of their imagination. I am waiting for the day, when a client actually asks me to scout for an ERP - built on the principles of open software, because they want to avoid license costs as well as the real killer - AMC.

Implementation costs on open source framework as well as support capabilities of vendors are the two concerns that consultants who prospect such solutions will have to factor in, during their due diligence. Currently, there is no metric to judge cost of development or maintenance for deployment on open architecture. Assurance of performance is another area that needs addressal as is a framework for risk assessment of projects that are using open frameworks. Once a rationale for this is crystallized, development and maintenance of complex enterprise systems will emerge into a new paradigm.

Tech Terror

The incidents of November 26 have left Mumbai shaken, more due to the impunity with which the attacks were orchestrated out and to a lesser extent due to our failure to link theresources at our disposal in a manner that might have prevented this series of unfortunate incidents at the onset. What came across strongly through the fervent news broadcasts were images of satcom phones, news of mobile intercepts linking multiple geographical locations and GPS locators - technology being put to nefarious use by the perpetrators of the crime. Then on the night of the attack, the anxious public was informed that those trapped inside various target locations were not veritable hostagtes - there were messages being relayed through Blackberry messenger, email, SMS, and web 2.0 devices such as Twitter.com - trying to provide the loved ones at home some solace from the gruesome video feeds being displayed on national TV.

This entire Mumbai terror that was played out as a prime-time tragedy across millions of Indian households has made clear, that the perpetrators of terror have kept pace with advances in technology. Using this as a foundation, if we are to scour other international hotspots - we see similar misuse of technology. Websites are used to spread disinformation and to serve as the mouthpieces of terrorist organizations, broadcasting their ideologies to the world. Subverting common digital interfaces to further terrorist agenda, has the world's security agencies constantly playing catch-up. To cite one method commonly, not actually sending email communication but saving them in draft mode - prevents the digital signature from leaving its mark across closely monitored global routers and gateways.

"Know your technology" - secure it and ensure that digital security is a by-word amongst all the people you know. Secure your email, your web-cam, your mobile phone and personal computing devices - lest they be subverted and put to ill-use by people who have nothing more at heart than the next morning's gory news headlines. Embrace web2.0 but also remember that the smallest slip-up can manifest with ramification of butterfly effect proportions in some other part of the world.

Vendor Interfacing

During my stint as a Project Delivery Manager, I have noticed the following points that require increased levels of consideration from Delivery Managers who are acting on behalf of clients:
Vendor Negotiation stage:

* Ensure that all aspects of Proof of Concept are signed off by both client as well as vendor, before commencement of the POC exercise - expectations management and delivery management issues may crop up otherwise

*Measure performance against these aspects during the POCEnsure that the vendor signs an NDA before the POC - especially when client data transmission is concerned

* These aspects tested for the POC, must surely be made part of the super-set of requirements that become part of the actual project, once it is initiated

*Never fail to inform a vendor(at least informally) whenther he has been accepted or rejected at a client - your relationship with the vendor has to endure beyond the client engagement

*Ensure that the requirements are correctly mapped out by the vendor during RFP stage

*Insist on a walk-through with the short-listed vendors of the requirements capability on their system - avoid nasty surprises later on when it comes to implementationInsist on meeting all projected team members, scrutinising their CVS, getting background checks done (in a formal manner) - avoid competency mismatch, especially with Large and small implementation partners

*Insist on interviewing the Team Leader - assess previous experience and map to current requirements. If found not suitable, especially for multi-tasking, then reject the candidate out-right and insist on replacement

Project Delivery - Implementation stage

*Ensure that a timeline is drawn up as part of a project plan with the implementation partner's(IP) team leader - get this verified and signed off by the client as well as the IPSet up a Steering Committee (to meet every month) and Project Committee (to meet every week) to monitor project progress

*Ensure that all issues are deliberated with the Project Committee and that appropriate escalation occurs

*Before escalation takes place, inform the IP and follow due processNever become personally or emotionally involved with the project stakeholders - impairs the delivery manager's ability to remain neutral especially during take-the-rap time(do not promote the IP etc.)

*Ensure that the IP team works harmoniously with the client team. Also be quick to point out internal friction points instantly to higher authorities both at client as well as IP end

*When in doubt, over-react - or else you run the risk of being deemed unprofessional.

*The ultimate aim of the project - i.e. completion within scope, budget rests upon the Project Delivery Manager - i.e. You and Nice Guys sometimes don't finish first

Project Management - reality bites

The success of a battle is determined by the way it is conducted. Projects usually imply the coming together of human resources, process and technology in a manner so as to achieve an end objective. Having managed a couple of technology projects, I am outlining a couple of simple principles that any project manager would do well to heed.
1) Never compromise on the quality of the human resources who are going to deliver the project. Insist on independent verifiable references and a personal interview of the members of the project team. Always insist on demonstrated capabilities from vendors. Always include reference calls with vendor's clients as part of the decision matric
2) Insist on a product liability insurance from the vendor/implementation partner - lots of companies in the US insist on this before implementing an IT project
3) Insist on a steering committee and project committee with appropriate representation from business and business sponsor. Insist that they meet up every fortnight and week respectively. Insist on free and fair feedback. Insist on reconciliation of observations with time-lines
4) Insist on sign-offs from business team before implementation commences
5) Ensure that the development is as per the PDCA cycle, include prototypes as a compulsory part of the development life-cycle
6) Hold the development team responsible for all quality related aspects
7) Perform QA check of stage-wise deliverables at every milestone. Ensure the QA check is verified by client personnel
8) Never let over-zealous business stake-holders influence project scope at any stage
9) Before start of a technology project out-line dependencies on departments, difficult to reach/manage people, technologies and agree a buffer time with the client
10) Insist on penalties/bonus structure between client and implementation partner - to incentivise/punish early/late delivery of project
11) Insist on an internal PM from the Implementation Partner, to handle intra team , deadlines, status calls. This technical PM should act as SPOC between the Project Delivery Manager and the development team. This avoids confusion and the very prevalent "chinese whispers" issue

Baseball Tech

Baseball has managed to keep technology out of its sanctum sactorum - the dugout. Unlike cricket, where the manager has access to computers and video real-time for predictive analysis, all that is allowed into the dug-out are printouts. These printouts may cover everything from ball-play strategies, mannerism analysis to hitter profiles (including hot zones, chase zones and power zones). Baseball it seems is still played as it used to be 50 years ago, or is it? Read on.
Umpires benefit from technology during the post-game briefing. The Ques Tec system uses 2 cameras sitting atop the stadium and 2 cameras at field level to analyse each pitch. The umpires can compare their calls at the end of the day with the calls made by the Ques Tec system.
Improving hand-eye co-ordination and identifying injury-inviting motions during ball-play is another area that is being tackled using technology. Pitchers benefit from technical analysis related to leg drive motion, hip rotation, shoulder and trunk rotation to arm motion.
Batters also benefit from technical innovations such as the Abner Batter training system (name after Abner Doubleday - the purported inventor of the game of baseball). This system is used to fire regulation baseballs at upto 90 mph. A screen in front of the machine shows a 3D animated image of a pitcher including grip on the ball, delivery and follow-through to provide a true and fair impression of reality.
Scouts have also been enjoying the largesse that technology has to offer, in terms of automation to capture pitch and hit profiles of potential big league players that they are tracking. They use a small stylus and digital screen based system to create motion traces of action as it happens.
Imagine, adding all of this to the list of gizmos already present in cricket. Brain-freeze!!!
Find out more about innovations in baseball at:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/1283276.html

Surface Computing

This is just so cool. Possibilities are endless. Take a look folks - Microsoft Surface. The product of course needs refinement but then this is a step into the unimaginable.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

"Leisure is more the rule than the exception, Surface lives where people gather"

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).

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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'.

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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'