Entries Tagged 'books' ↓

J’étais enthousiasmé de lire le livre de Jacques Attali : « une brevet histoire de l’avenir ». Un  ouvrage de prospective, ou il appréhende le futur de la societe « hyper ».

Ce pavé de 420 pages se lit très facilement. Il n’a tenu en haleine et je l’ai dévore en quelques jours. Merci à Elizabeth Markevitch qui m’a passé son livre.

 

Jacques Attali, au dernier chapitre, prescrit quelques actions réformatrices à la France pour se  positionner par rapport aux changements de la ‘9eme forme de  l’ordre marchand’ surtout dans le sillage des  présidentielles.

 

 

L’auteur m’a permis de vivre et suivre les différentes formes de l’ordre marchand depuis que l’homme est homme. Le parcours de l’Homo sapiens vers notre siècle est vu sous un regard evolutif, sous des  filtres,temps en temps, humain, historique ou social ou geopolitique ou encore politique  et ceci contraste  avec le regard paleo-anthropologique que m’avait donne Pascal Picq il y a quelques années.

Sans conteste, le savoir partagé et l’étendu du travail fourni m’ont  bien enrichi. Je vous recommande de lire l’ouvrage vous les nouveaux nomades.

Et Maurice,notre patrie cherie dans tout cela?

 

I have for quite a number of years( may be 10 years) signed off my emails by the words BE HAPPY.You may be wondering whether you are yourself  Happy? If you are, then good for you. If you were not then,How do you become Happy? Just BE HAPPY! I would like to share with you an article from the mystic Anthony de Mello  which might enlighten you early in this year and get you to be on the road to your happiness as from now.

 

I was again blessed to receive the visit of Fr. Micheal who brought to me yesterday, communion, our Lord’s gift to mankind.  Thereafter,we had an interesting talk when we shared our thoughts and life paths.Then he presented to me the book of Anthony de Mello S.J. : The Song of the Bird which was first published in 1982 in India. Looking at the condition of the book tendered to me I could imagine to the number of hands this copy  has been through and imagine the benefits the contents would have been drawn by the readers.Do I become some what mystical if I dare say ” I could feel the vibrations oozing to and from this apparently inert lump of stacked paper and dried printed ink each time it was read?” Yes, to see beyond the physical  present state!De Mello is in eternity now, in the timeless,he passed away in 1987 and yet he is still communicating to us through his gospel, his writings….
In first inside cover page reads:

I imagine that today is the last day of my life.I ask for writing materials and compose for my friends and loved ones a sort of testament,a gospel of my life. The points that follow are possible titles to the chapters of that Gospel:

These things I have loved in life… Things I tasted….and looked at…and smelt…and heard…and touched…

The experiences I have cherished…

These ideas have liberated me…

These beliefs that I have outgrown…

These convictions I have lived by…

These things I have lived for…

These insights I have arrived at in the course of my life: insights into God,Christ,the world,human nature,love, prayer,religion…

The risks I have taken…

These sufferings have seasoned me….

These lessons have taught me…

These influences(persons,events,occupations,books,…)have shaped my life….

These scripture passages have lit my path…

These things I regret about my life…

These are my life’s achievement….

These persons are enshrined in my heart…

These are my unfulfilled desires….

The song of the bird is a book of  short and numerous stories to be read and reread, to be reflected on,and perhaps discussed in small group to share the insights with each other….

The author Anthony de Mello wishes to create a silence within the reader and to let the story reveal its inner depth and meaning. A meaning beyond words and reflections,gradually giving a feel for the mystical.

So well and poetically said by the author:’allow the fragrance or its melody to haunt you”.

“Why does the bird sing?” said the Master.

A bird does not sing because he has a statement. He sings because he has a song.

The word of the scholar are to be understood. The words of the master are not to be understood.They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird.They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond knowledge.

My very good friend Andre would have loved to read more of  Anthony de Mello!

Before he leaves to San Diego Dr.Talavane Krishna the man who is the creator and engine driving the IVAC’s realization gave a short lecture on yet another Vedic subject which is of great interest to him. His studies in Vaastu was aroused out of necessity. When he started the project of setting up a home in Mysore and an Ayurvedic centre he had so much difficulties.He described:How by getting the positioning and erection of buildings in conformity with the energies changed the course of his life events? He has, by way of this experience learned and studied Vaastu and has now become a Vaastu consultant. Through his studies and his previous Ayurvedic studies, it was relatively easy for him to draw parallels between Vedic Astrology(Jyotish), Avyurveda( the science of well being)and Vaastu( the science of structures) as they all are founded in the same principles and may be sourced in the common Vedic literatures.

During the Q&A session,Dr. Krishna discussed briefly on the similarities & differences between Feng Shiu as there were members of the assembly who were of Chinese origin.Both are art of placement and have their roots in the knowledge of planetary energies and basic elements that govern them.Vaastu considers space, air,fire water and earth whilst Feng shiu Wind,water,fire & air. Height/weight distribution,exalted/debilitated positions and extensions & cuts are additional elements proposed in a more mathematically inclined Vaastu.

He responded to my interrogation on the effects of energies direction when one is situated in the southern hemisphere.According to him the climatic forces orientations being different, in fact opposite,he reckoned that Vaastu reading could be different. The Vedas were observations and writings made for the Northern hemisphere.As to the interplanetary system there would be no changes.

He then presented his book: The Vaastu Workbook, a simple to read book with numerous drawings and practical examples.

Thank you Dr. Krishna for entertaining us and sharing your wide knowledge and experiences.

Marlyse Grossenbacher, who I mentioned in my blog of the 12th is now spending more time at the centre to deepen her knowledge in Ayurveda massage and treatments. She is a very well versed lady in the subject and has studies years  to tune her up to run a reputable centre in Switzerland, not so many of its kind!Her web site is well worth a visit. I found  that the Vedic chanting  provided thereon  to be exceptionally soothing for relaxation and meditation. Bravo Marlyse!Marie Anne got to know her a little better. “Marlyse degage un air de serenite!”
Her set up in Switzerland is in association with the well known French institution dispensing Ayurvedic treatment in Normandie and Paris directed by Kiran Vyas who has published several books in french on Yoga and related subject.

One of the most important task of any entrepreneur in this stern age is Team Building. The complexitity of any venture today demands so many special skills and competences that you have to be supported by a team which you have to nurture and motivate constantly.
In a recent article written by Peter Grazier, I retained the essentials of Team building. The bonding of individuals in a team are achieved through 6 elements:Common purpose, shared challenge,great camaraderie,collective responsability,desire for growth of the team and a motivating leadership.

I quote After having spent years in the construction industry as a civil engineer, Peter Grazier began using employee involvement concepts in 1981 to improve productivity on construction work sites. Having been significantly affected by the results of involving employees directly in work improvement, he formed Teambuilding, Inc. in 1985. Since that time, he has worked with over one hundred organizations in all industries throughout the United States and Canada, and his work had been noted in more than seventy-five publications including The Wall Street Journal.

He is the author and publisher of two books on employee involvement and teamwork and formerly a 12-year-old newsletter on employee involvement. Mr. Grazier was honored with the prestigious President’s Award from the Association for Quality and Participation for his contributions to the field.

He wrote

A team whose members are aligned with its purpose, feel a challenge in their task, have a strong sense of camaraderie, feel responsibility for the outcome, and experience growth as a team and in their personal lives, will tend to sustain motivation over the long haul.

This is not to say that they will not have difficulties at times, or that members’ wants and needs won’t change over time. In these cases, sometimes changes will have to be made. A member who no longer feels the team is meeting his or her needs may have to leave the team to continue on their own path.

But, in as much as it is possible to sustain motivation indefinitely, the factors above will tend to create the best possible environment for it.

Copyright © Teambuilding, Inc

Yesterday after lunch at the Indus Valley Ayurvedic Centre, I lingered awhile at the common lobby to digest my great vegetarian lunch and to have a social chit chat with the reception staff. Past by the lunch room to get back to my chalet, I found two European looking guys who were still eating well after the normal lunch opening hour.

My interrogative face immediate got an answer from Sunil, the luncheon Captain without having had to utter a single word from my part. This only demonstrated the power of people to read the visual expression of others. The phenomenon is particularly true and widely used by persons in service industries where they are trained and continuously anticipating the needs of their clients. Bravo to Sunil! Who read my mind promptly? By the way I am reading EMOTIONS REVEALED by Paul Ekman. The reading has probably prompted this present diversion to my present story!

“Sir, these gentlemen came in for a late treatment and we are giving them lunch now” Sunil said.

To my greatest surprise, I heard them speaking French with a Quebecois accent. Needless to say, I had to greet them and was burning to know more about them. They told me that they are on a business trip to Mysore and just concluded a deal with a local partner to establish a joint venture company in the field of computers. On being asked where I came from? I played the game which I pull out from my bag of tricks. “I shall pay you 50 Dollars if you give my country and you will be allowed 5 answers and for each wrong answer I shall reduce 10 dollars from the prize. The first answer was Japan. No, you are left with 40 dollars. Thereafter Vietnam! Laos! They were searching for Asian country where French was spoken. Canada! Australia! “Now that you have consumed your 5 chances it would be you to pay me 10 Dollars for each new reply” I retorted. With this joke we broke the ice.

Ile Maurice bien sur! They were in development of online computer games and have been in this line for a number of years. One of their customers is in Reunion Island. Philippe Nadeau explained to me very briefly the niche market they were exploiting within the Computer Games market. Guess who their customers in Reunion were? Frederic Caille & Alfred Chane Pane! My APM Reunion island pals! Olala! Que le monde est petit!

Soon Alchemic Dream India will be born to give service to the world and cover the world time zone. According to them their business is growing exponentially. The market for online computer games is only budding and the potential is enormous.

This is the tale of Ayurveda and world wide online Computer games. What alchemy?

Last Saturday, I had the great pleasure and the highest privilege, I felt, to listen to a talk by Bro. Timothy Radcliffe on leadership. During his talk, to describe the present environment of today s world where fear, an acceleration of change and unprecedented uncertainty prevails, Bro. Timothy hinted us to read the works of Zygmunt Bauman to understand the phenomenon.

When I came back home, and as soon as I could afford the time, I went to my desktop to look for Prof. Bauman’s great insights. I struck my gold pot of luck. I found a lecture given to by Prof. Zygmunt Bauman to an EU organization: Lecture on the ANSE-conference 2004 “Value dilemmas as a challenge in the practice and concepts of supervision and coaching”.

Do you want to understand to which destination our society is moving to? What is From Solid Modernity to liquid Modernity? Do you want to understand what has become of loyalty of employees in a work environment? What are the new meanings of responsibility, working in project teams and emancipation in the liquid Modernity? Should you be interested in human behavior, I highly recommend you to read the lecture notes. I found it most enlightening.

Indeed, man management in today’s context is a subject I am very interested in and I think, is the greatest challenge & most vital to entrepreneurs. By the way,on the past Friday, I had a full day lecture on the subject “Comment Manager votre equipe, Confiance, delegation et sens du client” by Sylvain Lecoq.

Funnily enough I had the impression after studying the few articles from Prof. Bauman today as if on the Friday I had lessons on the practical aspect of management and now the understanding of the changing trends of managing in the near future.

Should you be interested in the philosophical aspect of Bauman works I would recommend you to read Dolan Cummings comment “the trouble with being human these days: Identity”.

Bauman has written a series of books on his “Liquid” vision.

“People are brand” says William Arruda, also called the Personal Branding Guru. Last week, with a group of Company Directors, we derived great pleasure and more importantly gained much insight for our work when we attended a seminar conducted by Helene LACROIX-SABLAYROLLES the dean of marketing of the prestigious French Business school: HEC.

Author of several business books of which the latest “Etes vous vraiment orienté client?” Helene enthused the participants of the seminar. She was given an evaluation score of almost 5/5 by the participants. She replaced the perspective of clients back in haze of Marketing buzz words, techniques and models particularly in today’s fast changing, finicky, volatile environment of zapping. She gave a new meaning to “Segmentation” of products as well as of customers. I found that the practical tools she proposed to extract from, express to and exude our customers in its entity to be most useful.

Bearing in mind that all enterprises should possess a distinctive Brand, she insisted that the enterprises has the duty to deliver on the promises of the Brand values.

We may take the question at a personal level. What Brand are you? Just like in your enterprises you would ask: who are we? What are our values, beliefs goals? How to our customers view us? Are we delivering our brand promises? I invite you to visit a web site which will name the brand you are, once you give your values and goals. Try it out.

This latter part seems very much akin to the exercises of knowing who we want to be and making it happen; I used to conduct in the 7 habits seminars.Looking back to those days. I still feel great joy and thankful to the yonder days and to participants who taught me so much on humans and their interactions.A special note of appreciation to a lady, now living in Australia Perth who assisted & accompanied me through a vast number of such corporate seminars.

Last night, after publishing my recent blog on Branding, I had a skype call from Toronto and my caller discussed on the theme. I recalled an article that I had stored and which sold the importance of branding.

“The circle of innovation” and was written by Tom Peters way back in 1997. The points raised then are still very pertinent today and perhaps more so in Mauritius which lags behind in market innovation. You will find for quick reading a one page summary of the book. I am a great fan of Tom and have been watching videos of him and reading his numerous books. Wow! A very energetic speaker he is and very convincing in both content as well as style.

By the way, Tom Peters maintains a blog which I read regularly. He is very generous and offers for free his latest speeches and lectures. I enjoy reading them.

Tom Peters preview of Innovation

I became obsessed with innovation because my clients, in effect, begged me to.

With global competition heating up, company after company–banks, insurers, Big Six accountancies, brokerages, office-furniture makers, packaged-goods firms, software and pharmaceutical houses, engineering services firms–tell me: “My service or product is becoming commoditized.”

If the other guy’s getting better, you’d better be getting better faster–or you’re getting worse.

Translation: It’s innovation, stupid.

And “It” applies to my career, your career, the six-person training department, and the 60,000-body behemoth.

My new book, Innovation, is about one BIG idea: innovation–a “top-line” obsession. And it’s about 15 discrete, biggish ideas. The Circle of Innovation is the overarching idea. Here’s a quick preview.

1. Distance is dead. We’re all next-door neighbors. Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy. Mid- to long-term: Business is about augmenting the top line, not cost minimization.

2. Destruction is cool! CDO: Chief Destruction Officer. Easier to kill an organization–and repot it–than change it substantially. Learn to swallow it: destruction is job 1 (before the competition does it to you).

3. You can’t live without an eraser. Forgetting–not learning–is the highest art. Think: organized forgetting, strategic forgetfulness. How? Cherish waste, silliness, failure. Ready. FIRE! Aim.

4. We are all Michelangelos. Convert every “jobholder” into a business person. Convert every job into a business. “Business” is a very different–and more encompassing–word than “empowerment.” Keys: trust and respect; Michelangelos of Housekeeping; Michelangelos of Telemarketing. Boss as relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.

5. Welcome to the white collar revolution. If you can’t say (specifically) why you make your company a better place, you’re out! As of Now: Me, Inc.! Take me immediate responsibility for change! You (me) are a brand. (Perform a personal brand equity evaluation now!) There are no guarantees, and that can be liberating. Stomp out indentured servitude to BigCorp.

6. All value comes from the professional services. Make staff units the vital centers of intellectual capital accumulation, rather than the prime sources of bureaucratic drag. Tool: Turn purchasing (HR, IS, Finance) into Purchasing, Inc.–a full-fledged professional service firm–devoted to transformational projects and awesome client service!

7. The intermediary is doomed. (Big) organizations without employees. Every task your organization performs is performed better (higher quality, faster, more imaginatively) by some hyper-fast specialist (somewhere) who lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes the narrow task. Flat is too modest a term. (By far.) We are gutting the “center” of vertical enterprises. The intermediary is dying or dead! Hail the disintermediated network “organization”–transparent to its customers (and all members of the value-creation chain).

8. The system is the solution. Systems are the glue in ephemeral, network “orgs.” Great systems are not about “nuts and bolts.” They can be beautiful. Systems Engineering Dept.? No! Dept. of Beauty? Yes! It’s way beyond reengineering.

9. Create waves of lust. (Almost) everything works. Quality per se is not the advantage it once (recently) was. So: Just shout “No!” to commoditization (of anything) /me-too/look-alikes. Embrace: WOW!!!! lusted-after products and services. Ultimate sin: When we do it “Right,” It’s still pretty ordinary.

10. Tommy Hilfiger knows. In a (very) crowded marketplace . . . branding is (far) more important than ever before. It is . . . the age of the brand! Anything can be branded (e.g., chicken, milk). Branding is as much for very wee outfits as for Levis or Nike or starbucks or Intel (Inside).

11. Become a connoisseur of talent. Recruit diversity! Hire crazies! Make revolutionary renewal everyone’s (literal) Job 1. We are all RDAs: Rapidly Depreciating Assets. Therefore: (Continuing) Vitality=(Continuing) Commitment to (Bold/Formal) Renewal Programs by everyone.

12. It’s a woman’s world. Women purchase. They are purchasing agents for well over half the U.S. GDP (commercial and consumer goods). Almost no Big Co.–financial services, healthcare, autos, business services–“gets” catering-to-women-as-premier-purchasers. Why? It takes total transformation–not a “women’s initiative”–to take advantage of this bizarrely neglected commercial opportunity No. 1.

13. Little things are the only things. As markets get more and more crowded, design is often the best “tool” in services and manufacturing for sustainable differentiation. Sad fact: Most companies do anything but OBSESS (e.g., Braun-like, Sony-like) on design. Personal design sensitization is Set No. 1: Home in on (open your eyes to) the pervasive role that design plays in damn near everything–signage, forms, typeface, color (a big deal), etc.

14. Love all, Serve all. Even today a ridiculously small number of sizable firms seek a sustainable edge through incredible service–Disney–or caterpillar–style. To get from (tawdry) here to (Olympian) there takes a wholesale commitment to nothing less than reconceiving the way business is done in your market or niche.

15. We’re here to live life out loud. Transformational leaders will eschew “hands off.” They will be bizarrely focused, tell the truth, and live life on the LUNATIC FRINGE. Revolutionary times call for revolutionary zeal and leaders. Those 15 ideas equal one big idea: Innovation should be your top-line obsession