Chanakya Niti


Here is a collection of Chanakya's preachings and few important links to the original work by
Shri R Shama Sastry and other links to sites giving the essence of his work.
My contribution: copy-pasting of a few of the quotes and wisdom referred to as Chanakya Niti into a PowerPoint.

Here are few words about Shri R Shama Sastry who Translated "Arthasastra ":

Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868–1944) was a Sanskrit scholar and librarian at the Oriental Research Institute Mysore who is known for discovering and publishing theArthasastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecrafteconomic policy and military strategy.
The Oriental Research Institute was set up in 1891, as the Government Oriental Library, Mysore. It housed thousands of Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts. Shamasastry, the librarian, examined these fragile manuscripts daily, to determine their contents and catalogue them.
In 1905 he discovered the Arthasastra among a heap of Palm leaf manuscripts. He transcribed, edited and published the Sanskrit edition in 1909. He proceeded to translate it into English, publishing it in 1915.[2]
The manuscript was in the Grantha script. Other copies of the Arthasastra were discovered later in other parts of India.
It was one of the manuscripts in the library that had been handed over by 'a pandit of the Tanjore district' to the Oriental Library.
Until this discovery, the Arthasastra was known only through references to it in works by Dandin, Bana, Vishnusarma, Mallinathasuri, Megasthenes, etc. This discovery was "an epoch-making event in the history of the study of ancient Indian polity". It altered the perception of ancient India and changed the course of history studies, notably the false belief of European scholars at the time that Indians learnt the art of administration from the Greeks. The book was translated into French, German and many other languages.

All his works received great attention from many great Scholars around the world, particularly European Indianists. Several titles were also conferred on him, including Arthasastra Visharada by the Maharaja of Mysore, Mahamahopadhyaya by the Government of India, and Vidyalankara and Panditaraja by the Varanasi Sanskrit Mandali.
Text Copied from Wikipedia

The Art of War

Sun Tzu is also known as Sun Wu is an ancient Chinese Military General, Strategist and a Philosopher.
He is known to have authored a masterpiece that stood the test of time.
2000 years back the strategies he conceived still hold an important place in today’s world. 
The corporate world has enough and more to learn from his work.

Here is the summary just in seven points.


Want to read more? Here are few links....Search Google for a million links...

The Art of War -Translated Version
Review Article in Oxford Leadership Journal


Concentration Curves : Tool for Resource Optimization

Every organization in these times is working against odds. One of the major actions of organizations during tough times is Ephemeralization or  "Do more with less"
During these tough times, organizations need to constantly evaluate their resource utilization and undertake  Optimization of the process so that you can really "Do more with less".
To me, resource Optimization is not cutting resources. It’s putting resources to good use.

This principle holds good not only for organizations but also individuals who are attempting to optimize resources available to them. All you need to do is identify is the resources!

There are many tools to undertake work towards Resource optimization. 
One of the easiest and fastest is creating "Concentration curves".
Once you understand the basic concept, you can use it with Resources and Outcomes like Sales Vs. People deployed,  Sales Vs. Expenses Sales Vs. Time invested etc.
Concentration curves are simply a Graphical representation of Cumulated Outcomes Vs Cumulated Resources. In the graph,
     ~ The Vertical axis(Y-Axis)holds Cumulated Outcomes and
     ~ Horizontal Axis (X-Axis) holds Cumulated Resources.
So at a given point on the graph, you know exactly how much is the Outcome Vs. Resources were used to generate the Outcome. Take a look at this example on concentration curves of GDP of  181 countries and their contribution to World GDP. You can observe that 35 Countries Contribute to 90% of the World GDP and the Rest of the 146 countries contribute to a mere 10% of the World GDP.


So the information you get will be something like this.
~ 20% of the field force give us about 80% of the sales
~ 40% of the money spent  on the brand gave us 95% of the sales
~ 25% of Territories are responsible for 70% of the Sales generated
~ 20 Members out of 125 salesforces produce 75% of the Sales.

Does that ring a bell?  Yes.. 
It's akin to Pareto Chart,  Lorenz Curves  for Gini Calculations.
You may refer to my earlier post: What is GINI ? for more information

Coming back to concentration curves, Here is an example. 
This demonstrates World GDP with GDP of countries on Y-Axis  Vs  No. of Countries on X-Axis.
I have created a Template for you. You can create concentration curves using your own data.
Here are 3 simple steps
  1.Paste data in coloured cells. The rest of the computations are automatic.(In fact computations are simple)
  2.Tweak the slider to match your data (Shown in downloadable excel file)
  3.Read values at each data point by using the slider. 

Download the Concentration Curves Tool  Here
This is a DOCOMO stuff! (Download,Copy and Modify at your will...You can find them @Downloads




Bidding for the Patient : Empowerment to patient

Sometime back,I was asked about 'Indian Pharma / Healthcare  Crystal Ball' and I made some notes....Here is a small portion of the same.....
"Medical tourism both from foreign countries and within India will grow. Hospitals may bid for a patient on price and quality for a given surgery. Patients can shop online for comprehensive care and cost."
Here we go.. Today I received a message about the announcement of a new website ... Take a look...
Let's wait and watch How the market grows. Congrats to www.Medeel.com




Sutton's Law

Willie Sutton
Taken from Wikipedia
Willie Sutton was Top 10 most wanted figurative of FBI with charges of Bank robbery. Wikipedia says  During his forty-year criminal career he stole an estimated $2 million and eventually spent more than half his adult life in prison.
He is famous for his answer to a reporter who asked him why he does Bank robberies.
he simply answered:  "because that's where the money is." 
This quote is the very basis of Sutton's law. 

This means you should search for the "Obvious" while analysing or diagnosing things.
So, when you are in search of the obvious, you are expected to do those tests in a sequence that would result in the most effective diagnosis or analysis.

An extension of the same in medical parlance is....
When you hear hoofbeats behind you, think horses, not Zebras..

By the way...next time when you take up the task of analyzing a business problem, remember Sutton's law!
Such approaches in a business environment can minimize analysis paralysis





Make life easy with Shortcuts

The Excel & The PowerPoint.
Like them or hate them! You have no choice. 
You may say to yourself that this need not be your core skill. But deep in your heart, you know, you must be fairly conversant with these Two 'God's Gifts' to corporate mankind for your survival. 
Here are PowerPoint and excel shortcuts that can make your life easy. These were chosen after careful consideration of the everyday work of an executive.

The Primordial necessities: Both Excel and PowerPoint
~ CTRL+A : Select
~ CTRL+C : Copy
~ CTRL+V : Paste
~ CTRL+Z : Undo the mistake
~ CTRL+S  : Save
~ F7 :Spell Checker
PowerPoint S.Cuts.,
~ CTRL+ M : Insert New Slide
~ CTRL+SHIFT + > or < : Increase or Decrease font Size
~ CTRL+ K : Create a Hyperlink
~ F5 : Go to Presentation Mode
~ Shift + F5 - View the slide show from the current slide forward
~ B or . (Period) : In the presentation mode to make the screen go Blank/Black and back to Presentation.
~ Home: Go to the First slide. 
~ End : Go to the Last Slide
Excel  S.Cuts.,
CTRL +Arrow keys : Go to the end of a Range ( Use Up/Down/Right/Left arrow keys)
~ CTRL+ Pageup or Page Down : Switch between worksheets
~ SHIFT+ Arrow Keys : Select a Cell Range
~ CTRL+SHIFT+Page up/Page down : Select a cell Range to the last cell with Data
~ ALT+ENTER  : Insert a new line within a cell
~ F2 : Check the formula references
~ F4 : Add $ sign for a Reference
~ F11 : Select a cell range and show an instant graph.
Use them regularly. They can save your time! 
Lots of Your Time. Trust me!

DIY : Sales Tracker - Simple and Effective

Everyone in sales knows the importance of Sales Data.
Tracking Sales vs. Quotas at periodic intervals helps you manage performance and earn incentives.
Usually,Incentives on Sales are at various periods like Month, Bi Month, Quarter, 4 Monthly, Half-Yearly and Yearly intervals. 
Paying attention to Balance-To-Go for various brands at various time intervals helps you achieve overall sales goals, sales mix and earn 'hand'some incentives.
Here is a Sales Tracker for you...
It needs one-time “time” investment to plug in the data of last year sales and Quotas (Targets) for this year. Sales data for current year needs to be keyed in as months progress.

The Sales Tracker...
   ~ Can be used by Sales Representative as well as Team leader.
   ~ Can Track up to 15 territories and 15 Brands in each territory.
   ~ Month,YTD, Bi-Month, Quarter, 4 Month , Half year & Year intervals.
   ~ Sales at team level
   ~ Graphs showing sales progress and achievement of Quotas (Targets)


Sounds useful ? Go and Download the Sales Tracker from @Downloads or from BOX.You can also download Sales Tracker Demo with Dummy Data to get a feel of it.
It’s a DO.. CO .. MO stuff… Download, Copy and Modify as you please…
Please let me know your views...or leave a comment..
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