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Studying in US gave me opportunity to see the other side of world. The place from where all technology and concepts are exported to all over the world. As I come from India, I can see many things back home which are direct replica of systems in US. This created many questions in my mind.  The systems which look very practical and obvious in US are not at all practical in India. But still companies refer best practices from abroad and implement in India without any modification.

Online retail. One of the biggest thing in US. Online retailers are selling billions of dollars worth of goods. Selling every possible things that can be sold. Many people want to replicate the model in India. They are banking on the calculations that if 400 Millions US citizens can buy Billions of dollars worth goods online, 1 Billion Indian citizens few years down the line will buy goods worth hundreds of billions. But the situation is different as I see. Here buying online very helpful and convenient. The stores are miles away and you need to drive down to store to buy the goods. Most of the stores store standard furniture, standard designs. So online retail is all about convenience and comfort for customer. When Indian online retailers are selling online they have to keep in mind that customer will always check online and buy local. Customer want’s to touch and use the product before he buys it. So people will buy online only if its having large price difference some reward point deals, some bonus point redemption deals. Many will disagree and say online site revenues are growing rapidly but you have to look at what is sold. Rail tickets, air tickets, hotel reservations, car bookings, music CDs, Standard Electronics and list almost ends here. These products need not be handled or checked before you get them. Will you ever buy shoes online. Or will you ever buy a clothing online I guess not.

For India model should be hybrid, I think online retailers should appoint franchisees in local markets, stores that will be used only to display products as car showrooms. One piece of everything that is to be offered. Once customer visits, reviews and decides to buy the product then it gets transferred to online model. Showroom owners gets some commission and online retailer sales the actual product. This will not only help the transition in mindset but will also give customer confidence in website and products that it sells. Current model is targeting only gen next. People who are comfortable buying online but hybrid model will allow all customers to participate in online buying. Also Biggest worry in India is quality and whom to contact if there is any problem. Customers are afraid to order from unheard websites as they suspect frauds this makes entry very difficult. Hybrid model will help in solving this problem.

There are many things similar in the retail industry which I observed. I will post about them at later date.

Signing off

Corporate Social Responsibility (Part 2)–Not for Profit Organizations

 

Yes its time for part 2. After very good comments from you all and discussion with fellow students I decided to post this to explain my views about this subject in more depth. I thank all of them who shared their views and contributed.

What has changed? As I spoke to some NGO’s and people working in non profit industry I sense there is a major shift in Non profit sector. Now people and businesses are no longer giving donations and expecting nothing in return. Now donors want to know how Non profit organization is going to use it with emphasis on how they will be self sustainable in years to come. People are now realizing that you can not indefinitely bail out poor or under privilege,its not practical and World economy going through tough times and corporate donations drying up this is way forward for self sustained Not for Profit movement.

So now there is demand from donors that Non Profit organization makes enough profit to survive without external help. So this is a major shift in thinking. Shift from “Giving people food” to “Teach them how to fish”.

I like the way it is shaping up as I totally agree that Organization should be self sustainable to make an impact in society.  Now I see NGO’s creating innovative revenue models to make profit to survive. Some people argue that such mentality will only take organization towards profit making and will distract them from their main purpose, but my argument is organization will continue to work on its purpose if it survives. If World economy do not recover quickly then we will see half of the NGO’s shutting their operations or holding back on expansion plans which will be great setback to those who need help.

The shift will also cause major effect in management of Not for profit organizations. Today Organization’s Management was wholly focused on philanthropy but now they have to tackle revenue, deficit, forecasting, planning tasks. I don’t know how things will go but my sense is you will have Not for Profit companies fighting with for profit companies for talent. So It’s a major challenge for businesses as they fight with attrition. Not for Profit sector will give tremendous satisfaction factor to work force which for profit companies hardly give and Once Not for profit companies start using community services and local businesses to generate revenue they can surely offer more compensation to people working for them.

It will be really interesting to monitor this development. I have decided to keep a watch on this and I will update once I find some real life example.

Disclaimer: The ideas mentioned are not unique and have been used in real life. Many NGOs are already working on this model. Also the opinion is not based on any actual data to prove it.

Signing Off

Nikhil parchure

Identity

India is growing fast. Consumer demand is growing and businesses are doing good. But I  see a problem. We are not finding our identity. We are not finding something that only we can have.

I will like to take example of cars. We are driving Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Fiat, Tata, Mahindra but all these cars are having designs which are European or Japanese. Where is the Indian design. You may get confused by the statement above. Let me explain.

When you say Japanese car Toyota Corolla or Honda City comes to mind. When you say European car Volkswagen comes to mind.

What comes to mind when we say Indian Car.

Yes Old Ambassador. I think though it was not originally designed in India this car truly symbolizes India in Car industry. I am very disappointed that no car after ambassador was having such Indian stamp on it. All cars were inspired by European or Japanese models and reconfigured to Indian conditions. 

Now take case of US. When you say vehicle for US market what comes to mind.

Yes true a big truck.

I want India to find its Identity. I took example of Auto industry as I saw example readily available. Unless you find your identity you will not be a leader in world. You can not be unique and important.

I think Indian businesses should start creating their own identity otherwise it will be difficult to grow and survive. I am thinking about how we can be different and yet successful. I will post my views about that shortly.

Disclaimer : The car pictures are taken from manufacturer or related websites and brands visible are owned by manufacturers. The pictures are not intended to promote or comment about quality of the product and are only used to help reader visualize the idea.

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure

Find Your Navratnas (Nine Jewels)

Reference : The Concept is not directly derived from any reading. But I think it is influenced by two writers. One is the father of management Peter F Drucker and other is Chief Belief officer at future group Mr Devdutt Pattanaik. Any other writer who touched on this subject before I wish to give credit to him.

Entrepreneurs, businesses, institutions, organizations are all humans. When you are working in any company you are practically helping someone achieve his dream, joining efforts to extend the passion of some pioneer. You may not realize it if you are stuck in day to day working but when you can pause for a minute and see the global picture then you will find some link.

So it is very important for leader to understand that people are working for him, people are working to achieve his dream, people spending their valuable lives to help him reach new highs.

So I thought of dream as a basis of institution and hierarchy as follows.

So Master dream is a dream of creator or Pioneer who is visionary and want’s to change the things around him or her. Step 2 Dreams are dreams which are related to any one of several aspects of bigger picture and small tasks are the wheels on which all the system works. The interaction between them is bi directional and not unidirectional. Proper feedback is important for success and revise the expectations or even increase the level where we want to reach.

Ok why I introduced this concept here is the fact that I want to emphasis on the fact that Step 2 dreams are most important. These are the pillars on which building can be built. So you should have people who can do this. You need people who will support your dream but also Create their own dream to motivate the tasks.

The concept of Navratnas come up here. Raja Shivaji was one of the greatest warrior in the history. he saw a big dream. But he had people who could see step 2 dreams. People who were aligned with big picture but also having their own path. So these people were motivated and were pursuing individual dreams. Take another example of Pandavas, Krishna was having bigger dream of defeating evil forces but pandavas wanted revenge and their land back. These step 2 dreams were powerful it propelled bigger dream.

So if you have dream, start looking for people who can see step2 dream for you. Start looking for partners who can align with your thinking and will create their own path to reach their dreams. so I gave the title as “Find Your Navratnas”. Find people who will fit into and your chances of reaching the goals suddenly increase many folds.

Motivation comes from meaning and dream and not from money and material things. Leader who understands this will be successful and his partners will be satisfied.

Disclaimer: The views above are independent and not pointing towards any organization or person. examples from history were used as I tried to relate the subject. If someone thinks they are not suitable please feel free to comment on the same. 

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure.

Inside Out

From the name you can not make out what this post is about so to save your time and energy I will like to mention that the post contains my opinion about assumptions and realities in companies. Assumption when we are inside company and realities when we are outside.

Always people asking questions are seen as trouble makers, they are people who will never follow..these people are untouchable and should be kept at arms length. This is the approach of managers.

Managers will hire consultants and get the work done, consultant will ask the same question as the employee asked but as consultant an outside party asks the question it suddenly becomes important. It gets the due attention that was needed. And perhaps if company paid attention to what employees was saying it could have saved thousand of dollars. It amazes me that you can start your career as consultant straight from college. Big consulting firms hire graduates from B School and put them directly in consulting role. So it shows that it is not different things that need to be done but rather do the same things differently. The outside view will allow you to do that. So in organization someone should always be doing this. looking at organization from outside, looking at it as if you don’t know anything about the organization and then evaluate from whatever data is available to outsiders.

Shareholder are one of the most important stakeholder of company and their opinion is important. But companies fail to take the advantage of that. Some companies have millions of shareholders so that is they have millions of outside eyes watching them. each eye will bring different perspective and each one has some different expectation. What companies do is that they will send postal ballot form (As it is required) and ask whether you approve the deal to buy the company, whether you approve appointment of X person as CEO. So most of the decisions are already taken and shareholder approval is just a process.

I want companies to ask what product you want us to bring in next five years, what field you think company should invest etc. You can get good feedback from them, it may not be something top class which you can work on but it will certainly give you outside view of the company which will help evaluate plans for the future. Asking your top shareholders only will be big mistake as you will play into hands of some individuals who want to make extra money all the time.

When you are inside company everything is rosy, all plans are good and every plan has guaranteed future success. But actually reality is different and when company comes out with the plan it fails. Then it hires consultants to fix the thing and pays through the roof to them, using expertise which consultants have from prior experience. So what you are doing is replicating the process that your competitor or someone in the industry already tried. And now you want to make it a success and so you make it happen rather than it happening.

I am not suggesting consultants do not bring value to company they surely do, they give valuable insights that you are missing. The point I am making is that they are able to do it because they look at organization from outside, they look at you as client. They are not afraid to say things which employees may not dare to say.

So as manager you have to respect employees who object your policies and raise questions. The simple questions asked today can answer the complex problems of tomorrow.

Note: The intension of the article is not to point fingers at consultants, I used the example only to establish the fact that looking at company from outside solves most of the problem. In case anyone has different opinion, then I respect the same.

Signing Off

Nikhil Parchure

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

 

CSR…what a great topic. Very hot to handle. Shareholders, markets, people, businesses going crazy over this word. Every business wants to prove that they have very good CSR, some have formed dedicated departments for this. Businesses are made to believe that CSR is a way to give back to society. Is it really what companies should do? Many Pandits are of opinion that it is most important thing in today’s world. I beg to differ. I am not objecting the idea of CSR, I don’t like the way it is done.

Some examples. XYZ company starts program for poor children in villages, Another company gives donation to school, ABC company gives donation to hospital in rural area.

We feel great when we hear such stories. People think these companies are really doing wonderful job. I beg to differ. I don’t believe in such donations and gifts. Companies claim tax benefits for these CSR so they are not actually donating they are just giving money to Non profit organization instead of Government. So can you label it as “donation” or you should label it as “Account Transfer”.  Companies using resources earned from their core operation to help poor and needy and at the same time laying off many people, cutting salaries on the excuse of cost pressure is a harsh reality of today’s world. 

I believe that companies are not formed for doing charity and they should not try to do.(Humble Request: Don’t form an opinion unless you read completely). Let people contribute as per their wish. I don’t think giving grant and donation is actually helping society. Because company is giving it from the profit it earned from society itself and just paying back less than 1%. Today’s corporations and businesses just add these costs to overheads and recover from products and services they offer. So actually customers are paying for that.

According to me the responsible company is the company which do not only look at profit but develop products and services that help solve problem people face. companies role should be create products that help growth, create products that needy can use and grow. Utilize resources it has earned to develop new concepts, new business models which can be implemented for growth. Only Growth can solve the problems and not the donations.

I may be wrong about this, may be my understanding is not that clear about role of companies in current society. But to me I will like big software company to create a center that will give small businesses easy access to software that they can use to grow rather than feeding poor in village. I will like big cement maker to build training center where people can learn construction at affordable cost rather than running hospital, Big power company can invest in renewable energy which can solve the power crisis and give people chance to grow rather than donating. Such acts will not only create growth but also create resource pool which can be tapped by needy and underprivileged. Current success in microfinance is a role model for this. These companies are earning profit but creating resources which can be tapped by needy. 

I don’t deny school, hospital are not important but there are 1000 such things which are not correct and need to be fixed. Water, malnutrition, aids, TB, unemployment, illiteracy, and so on. So which problems company will tackle, how will it decide which problem to be solved and which problem is bigger than other. After thinking about it I can say company should concentrate on field it wants to excel in, create wonderful products and services that will be not only affordable but will help growth.

My belief is companies who are interested in CSR should create environment where needy people can grow, but companies should not give everything on the platter.

References: Some of thoughts above may be influenced by readings from  Peter F Drucker’s work and other related readings. I have not used any specific material to get the facts but in case anyone has already presented these ideas I wish to credit the person for the same. 

Note: Please note the content above is my own understanding and opinion, I respect the counter views and opinions. Also please note that the content is not intended to be directing to any particular company, country, region.

Signing Off

Nikhil Parchure

System Thinking

 

The content Posted here is directly influenced by class discussion and prior reading. Readings are from Works of Peter F Drucker, Prof Joseph Maciariello (Drucker Scholar, faculty at Peter F Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate school of Management) and Prof Karen Higgins (Faculty at Drucker School). Many Fellow Students also contributed and purpose of posting this blog is to summarize what I learnt and thank all the contributors.

I was really amazed to see the structured way of thinking by which we can look at problem and things going around us. From reading it was very clear that great work is done in this subject which allows such to think not only about short term goals and problems but also take care of unidentified consequences that may arise because of our decisions. The concept of looking at big picture before we take decision is vitally important. So middle level managers should be taking into consideration not only the immediate cause and effect but also take a look at whole picture.

Few steps that I learned in order to do system thinking are

Awareness : You should be aware of condition and environment around which is constantly changing and dynamic. second is that you have to look the reasons behind the situation before making any assumptions. Third is to identify resistance to change, which is evident in day to day life, i.e to identify loops which seek stability. and Forth is identify areas which are growing unbound.   One more thing that is very important is that when you think more than your scope and you assume you have covered all the aspects of the decision, you can hurt some one unknowingly so you should be very careful.

The loops and cycles that explains things going around us are very important. There are positive loops, the negative loops and loops that balance. If you are facing some problems and difficulty the best way to tackle is to identify the loop. What is causing this, what is accelerating it and what is end result and how this end result is supporting start. If you can identify this then you have solved half the puzzle. Then you can devise a way a opposite loop which can reverse the whole process. Start to think about actions that can change the result, think which things will oppose the bad thing and then you can try to get out of problem.

This looks very idealistic and not always possible as there are so many factors affecting the situations, but its always better to try working towards this rather than not doing anything.

Nikhil Parchure

One Month in US

Yes (Ya) this post is nothing to do with my series of posts about business. I agree I am losing some track and should return to my business posts, but this is a big event so registering it.
Few days back completed my first month on US soil. Wow time runs so fast. People say transition is difficult and home sickness comes in after 15 days. But to be frank I have not yet felt it and considering amount of work to be done in future months I don’s think I will get it.
Preparing for coming here was a big task, I planned so much that everything happened as planned. Thank you god for this as things would have gone wrong but nothing happened. University also supported so much that I really enjoyed it. First Few days I stayed with a lovely American Family, They are really wonderful, the experience removed most of the misconceptions I had about America and American people. It was a really special experience. I don’t think many get such chance and I was lucky.
Then college and orientation started, It was so much of fun and the best part is I made friends from all across world. Now I have friends from USA, Canada, china, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Switzerland, Germany, England, France, Ghana, Ivory coast, Uganda,Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti……wow really amazing.
Professors here are very good, they give personal attention to each and every student and emphasis is on learning rather than tests and scores. I really like that. I must admit exams here are simpler than back home. But that is not the point. Due to this you get time to learn for knowledge. Experiment something, start new projects and work on it.
Events and seminars are also very good, I already attended one seminar and plan to attend many in coming future. Also Went to Baseball game, it was so much fun, never saw baseball from so close, University reserved special space for us so we were able to grab baseballs coming towards us and get autographs of player..it was fun.
Food is a big problem!!!! Who says so, I managed Vegetarian food quite easily and there was no problem what so ever.
So to sum this up I was really thrilled for last one month. It is amazing that so much happened in last 30 days. Looking forward to great future…And yes posting some pictures of beautiful landscapes.
 


Next posts will be with common theme of my views about Management and Business, these topics are close to my heart.
Signing off
Nikhil

MBA in USA

 

I started my MBA in USA from Sep 1. While I was looking back about various activities I did to get in here, I was really amazed to see amount of work and procedures done to get admit and visa. It is really baffling. Then I decided that I should document all the things that I did and put them in sequence so that will help Indian students applying for MS or MBA in US.

So after lot of thought and planning I have started my work on the Ebook. I will try to finish it as fast as possible but content is very large so it will take time.

I will upload the file and post the link on this blog so keep visiting and download the file once it is uploaded.

Signing Off.

India the two parallels

Everyone knows there are two economies in India one that is on paper and other that is on trust.

I was travelling through busy streets of South Mumbai and then I quickly realised this is very true

The market that surrounds the old building is all cash market, you will not see a single bill given or single document taken. You will probably find all the things you need to survive from clothes to furniture, home decor, bags, Electricals, food items almost everything but most amazing thing is it is all cash business. The estimates of trade done at the market will baffle anybody. When I calculated few figures it was really amazing. Most probably as an assumption 90% of those traders and buyers do not pay tax of any kind so they are really untracked. Such market is existing in every city in India and hence you can calculate the size of this big market. Upcoming malls and stores hardly affect business at these markets. So if you consider the amount of business done by these unorganized businesses and calculate that in GDP then our GDP can increase substantially and also this will reflect in GDP growth numbers.

Tracking these trades is not simple. but government have to do this. one way may be just register them and keep them tax free. This will help to get GDP data which is crucial. We are fighting with competition from other BRIC countries for outside money. Foreign investor look at country’s GDP and health of economy before investing. This will help India and market will be unaffected. May be there are many complications in doing so but we should be giving one thought to it. 

Profit or Passion Part 2

I never thought I will write part two so fast but once event has forced me to do so. The event was Apple take over Microsoft was world’s most valuable tech company having market capitalisation of more than USD 222 billion. The reply from Microsoft chief to this news was not different or surprising. He said it is a long game and we are still most profitable company.

The view of Microsoft chief shows how much important is for them to make profit. No matter what happens profit will remain top priority. In today’s dynamic world profit is important but should not be your aim. If you do so you will not be able to make profit after few years.

In the past companies required to be in business for many years to start making profit and it took many years to go bust. But today situation has changed dramatically. Today company is in profit from the first year and companies go bust in few months. So strategy of the company for long term growth is more important than profitability. Share holders have also now learnt that EPS is important but should not be the only factor to gauge company’s value and hence you see Apple shares having higher valuation than Microsoft.

People believe future belongs to Apple. People are optimistic that Apple will change landscape of computing but people do not have anything to see in Microsoft. What people see is Office 2010 which is priced even more, having similar features and more of a revamp rather than new thing.

Microsoft lost its crown of being World’s most valuable tech company, it is not a small crown to lost, it may sound as end of era so Microsoft has to be careful and not to take this as some event, it has to start creating great products, products which people need, products that will affect Masses and not think of affecting bank balance.

 

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure

Profit OR Passion

I started writing few days back about my views about corporate life and companies. This is in the same series

Profit or Passion, what you will choose, this is biggest question in front of companies. Many choose profit but some choose passion. What makes some companies exciting and some companies boring, I tried to do some research in this. I started looking at fortune 500 companies. Which companies create excitement, which create profit and what is long term value that these companies have given.

Of course classic example in front of me is Google and Microsoft. When Microsoft was in starting stage it was a passionate company which was committed to bring PC to common man, created software that was extremely user friendly but now the focus is shifted to profits and they are coming up with different price versions of same product, no new path breaking innovation. Many will not accept but after Windows nothing significantly new has come from Microsoft which has touch life of millions. Now take case of Google, it is relatively new company and passionate about internet reaching to common man, It brought out many innovative products and given great power to common man. But Google is not looking for profit only, this was evident when they decided to leave China. Let us hope this management thinking keeps on for years.

The case study of Microsoft and Google is as follows with some numbers to back it.

Now just see the share price chart of Microsoft (Courtesy Yahoo Finance)

Starting Decade was very great for Microsoft share price was growing each year and also the profits, but in the last decade the share price is trapped in one range. Microsoft which successfully survived the Dot Com bust is now not able to maintain the share price growth. Now let us see different events that took place in those years and try to establish some relationship between passion and profit. The word passion here do not indicate any specific product or service but shows the overall mindset of company.

Launch of windows 95 was a great product launch, many features were totally new and it made PC more accessible to home users that started the whole revolution of PC industry. This followed by launches of great value added versions such as windows 98, 2000 and server addition.After Dot Com bust Microsoft survived the trouble because of these wonderful products.

Then came era of profit making from monopoly they established in the market, Microsoft started exploiting market and due to which it was slapped with fines by EU and other countries. The passion was lost and company was thinking of every new product as a new source of revenue rather than exciting offering for customer. According to me that is wrong and Microsoft paid the price. Many dissatisfied customers and anti Microsoft lobby started to build up. This encouraged many competitors and whole process of Open source movement got support

I am gathering more evidences to support my observation. I want to look into aspects other than profit, revenue. Work force motivation, work culture etc also linked to this. I will post part two of this after some time.

Disclaimer/ copy write note: I should mention this that thoughts mentioned above are not influenced by any company, policy or person. The content above is original and not copied from any reference book or website. Copying, posting the content without permission is prohibited.

Signing Off

Nikhil Parchure

Management Thought

I am writing this because I promised one of my colleague that I will really write about this subject. Business is very close to my heart and I am critically looking at one aspect of business in this blog post.

Now a days everywhere we have incentives, incentives is major portion of our take home salaries, some companies call it performance pays, some call rewards, some call target achieving bonus but it simply means company is interested to pay you if you give what company wants. It is fair on companies part to give such scheme as there are lot of cost pressures on companies now a days and wage bill can not be same when company performs poorly or when company is in full swing. Many people do not understand the fact that such schemes actually avoids layoffs. Imagine you are a shareholder of company, you want profit to grow every year but market is not growing at this pace, of course company will not be able to perform to the expectation of the shareholders, profits will fall, share price will fall and then so called “rating agencies” will downgrade the company making it harder to do business. Company will analyze and benchmark itself with leader in the industry will find out that employee cost is very high and end result will be lay off. Many will loose jobs in situation like this. But if you have a pay scheme that varies as companies performance then company and employee is safeguarded against such situation.

By reading above many will think I am really working for HR, and I am an under cover person appointed by company but what I wrote till now is of ideal system, but we all know the world is not so Ideal.

The biggest problem is how you will measure the performance. Only profits, Orders, Sales, Turnover are the performance criterion then it is really a short sighted scheme. Everything linked to money, I think one day you coming to office on 7AM or 8AM will also decide your Bonus. Foolish.

Of course company is there to make money and to increase shareholder value but as many thinker and speakers have mentioned that it should not be only target for company. You can make profit of more than 100% by trading in stocks, commodities so should each company start a division to trade, this is not correct so one should really take a look and think what my company is all about. In today’s world when MNCs are becoming more and more big, more complex and having more product than  one can remember, it is important to convey company target to each and every employee. If not then we have a classic department battles and insider fights.

Bonus and incentives play a major encouragement for employees to strive hard to achieve but it is a big problem when things are not going good. This is human mentality that when we achieve everyone things they deserved it but when they fail they think it is unfair to them. So when people fail to get the bonuses they start blaming company, start thinking negative and again under achieve. This cycle is dangerous and for many end of the road is quitting for “better prospects”.

According to me the solution lies in the scheme itself. Targets should be such that when employee over achieves it gives lot of praise and money but also keeps something for future down cycles. Each business is cyclical and hence company really has to plan for downturn. When downturn comes previously accumulated credits of employee can be passed on and company can give some non business soft targets which add value to society and to company. For example research on device which will help blind, or planting trees on deforested areas, adult education, some hobby training courses and many more. This will not only bring positive attitude towards company but also full fill social responsibility “OBLIGATIONS”. I am specially writing in Capital as many companies take this as a cost and not profit.( I wish to write about this in detail some other day) This will help employee to get relieved from stress and day to day struggles and try to get some achievements he can be proud of. This will boost his morale and he will be at his creative best.

So by removing uncertainty of bad times from employees mind, company can expect more creativity and more loyalty from employees. Of course this is again a Ideal proposal, may work or may not work but when I see companies trying crazy things to retain talent this is worth a go.

 

Disclaimer: I should mention this that thoughts mentioned above are not influenced by any company, policy or person. I am not saying current systems are bad and if anyone draws such conclusions then that is his/her though……….

Signing Off

 

Champions league- History made great individuals, failed teams

I generally do not write blog about matches played between teams other than Chelsea, but I have to admit that recent developments are making me write and admire select individuals.

Messi, Riberry, Roben, wesley great players and great performances for teams have helped their respective teams to reach semis of UEFA Champions league. I will not like to go in details of each match as analysis will not be possible as such. You can not say who went wrong and who done correctly it was classy performance which we should just admire.

Messi, We all know he is footballer of the year and without any doubts he proved why he is called so. Scoring 4 in Quarter final second leg is huge and he is the man who does all these things and makes world bow to his skills

Riberry, his free kick started it all, may be not the best in the world but it is said god helps them who help themselves and Bayern has really helped themselves to reach semis, after 3 quick goals coming from behind and scoring 2 away goals at Old Trafford is an achievement, Alex Ferguson may criticise the opponents but he should look at his own team which gave away lead of 2 goals.

Roben, what a way to silence the home fans, fantastic volley from edge of the box that even world’s so called No1 can not save. Former Chelsea winger just proved his class and you can imagine why Chelsea has not won last few years as he is really missed at Chelsea.

Wesley, Dumped by Real Madrid and replaced by Alonso but he proved why he deserved a place at Real, defeating Chelsea single handily and scoring away at Moscow you can not ask for more from a Midfielder.

This year it is individual performances that caused wins and losses which is not a very good sign for football a team game but when you have such talented footballers what you can do. After 2003 it is for the first time that no English club has made to semis which is really sums up the season for big 4 in England, Muscular and physical English sides outsmarted by tactical and stylish European teams. Despite a huge fan of EPL and Chelsea I must admit we were poor. Many point finger at number of injuries English sides have faced this year and I also agree to it. Loosing key players always creates holes in teams which are difficult to fill. Exit of all 4 from UEFA makes EPL more tough and nail biting a treat in the waiting.

Signing Off

Nikhil

Chelsea 2 -MANU 1 But title race is Still Wide Open

As a Chelsea fan you can not ask for more.. can you a premier league double over last year champions.

I was really very happy to see team play well under pressure. It is not easy to go to Old Trafford at this time of season. But after champions league exit, Chelsea has really done well. Part of the success is due to its formation. Playing two holding midfielders has really allowed full backs to attack and that has helped Chelsea a lot. Yesterday’s game was also dominated by Chelsea due to the fact that full backs were able to make surging runs in opponent six yard box. This was lacking against Inter which caused two losses against them. I think if Ashley Cole was there instead of Ferreira then it was 2-0 lot earlier.  But in all it was a wonderful result. Joe was playing well and I think after his recent performances he will get a good long term deal at Chelsea. A big club letting go one of the good player for free is very odd and I don’t think this will happen. Next five games if Chelsea continue to play well like this then title will come back to Stamford Bridge. We will love to see that but it is still difficult. Many times it happens that after winning a major game you become overconfident and loose to weaker teams. Chelsea has away fixtures at White Hart Lane and Anfield. These two games hold key. I think Chelsea with current formation and form can overpower these two teams but there are many good players to watch out.

After Yesterday’s late winner by Arsenal they have shown they have temperament and patience needed by top team. Hats off to them creating chances after chances without success, but they tried and fought till last and won the reward. This really makes the difference and this is the reason why Liverpool is struggling. The team drops shoulders immediately they trail or not able to score. Arsenal are still in the title race but considering their injury problems I think they will drop some points, atleast 2 points from remaining 5 matches.

Man City is on a roll and yesterday’s bashing of Burnley are enough to give MANU some jitters. If MAN City play again the same way then MANU will surely loose. MANU is really lacking the pace of attack, MANU is certainly vulnerable against team which plays very well in wings. We saw it against Bayern and now against Chelsea. When full backs are kept quiet then MANU really loose its teeth. They are also missing their prolific striker Rooney.

In all Season is far more interesting now, Earlier seasons there was two fights one for top spot and other to avoid relegation but this season there are total 3 fights going on. One for silverware, other to avoid relegation, third for Champions League spot. This really make EPL most competitive and famous league in the world.

Thumping Victory Well Deserved.

Chelsea 7 – Aston Villa 1

I never thought we can score seven against Aston villa. Great to see Carlos sticks to its successful combination of single striker at the top. This is working great and had worked great in Jan as well. We can analyse the game and understand that Chelsea again successfully involved full backs. Everytime Chelsea full back make a bursting run in opposition half they create chances, This is a sign of very strong squad. Even after first choice full backs are not present Chelsea can still pass the crosses with quality.

Biggest improvement for me is by Zhirkov, may be he has recovered completely for his injury and making runs as he used to do in Russia. If Ashley Cole comes back in April then we will have explosive combination of pace on both sides of pitch. Zhirkov not only one two penalties actually he won penalty which led to vital second goal before half time. This really helped Chelsea a lot. If it was 1-1 in half time then mentality of players would have been different. From start Chelsea was playing very fast, fluent football, gone are days when Chelsea used to long passes to Drogba and boring midfield battles. Chelsea attacked with such pace that even any other team would have faced the same faith.

I hope Carlos will stick to this formation even against united. This formation will help avoid quality balls to Rooney which is in red hot form and tough to handle. The match is perfect show down a match that will decide the title. Chelsea it is a big task as they are travelling to OT. Hunting ground of MANU. If MANU takes 3 points then it is over for Chelsea and it will be big mistake by MANU to loose it.

But looking at squad, current form I think Chelsea will pull out a win and go two points clear. Arsenal unexpectedly drew at Birmingham which has daunted their chances for title. Mid week fixture against Bayern Munich is also a test for MANU. I don’t think they can pull out a win against Bayern mostly it will be a draw. This will help Chelsea; players will be fresh from no mid week match thanks to their old manager. May be this will give some edge to Chelsea. But it will be all out midfield battle. Giggs, scholes, Fletcher will all be up for it. Mikel will be tested, I have no doubt about it.

Terry will be at his best to restrict united. But best way is to go and get 2 goals, we cannot have 0 goals from united at OT so Chelsea should score not once but more than twice to win the match.

Next week will be great for EPL and UEFA Champions league. Keep reading the articles as we will analyse the MANU vs Chelsea Game here.

Chelsea 5- Portsmouth 0

 

Blue is the Colour……

After disappointment of weekend where Chelsea dropped two points to Blackburn, Chelsea needed to bounce back. They had perfect opposition to do so bottom of the table club Pompy. But twist in the tale was bottom of the table team was managed by none other than Mr Grant who almost gave Chelsea its first UEFA Champions league title.

Chelsea was expected to be nervous, not confident and edgy and they were that until a gift from David James was converted to goal by Drogba. Then it was a one way traffic. Chelsea just showed the class and finished Portsmouth to 5-0 score line. Drogba scored again to make to 30 Goals this season and Malouda’s double was also special. It was nice to see Lampard score this will surely give boost to confidence.

Major talking point was selection of Daniel Sturridge over Anelka. Anelka has not scored in last 10 games and this was a reminder for him that if he fails to perform his place can be easily taken by anyone else. This was symbolic move rather than just a squad rotation as informed by Ancellotti. As expected and predicted in my earlier post Ancellotti made two holding players where surprisingly Lamprad took the holding place. Drogba alone at front gave him clear diktat that he is the one who should score and that helped overall play. Malouda was impressive over past few months and he again scored to give Chelsea comfort of second goal that was lacking in Blackburn game. This really opened them up. Injection of pace in form of Joe was also welcomed and results were immediate.

Third goal from Malouda was very good reaction and it finished the game but this side is hungry for goals. This season Chelsea are not only trying to win matches but are also scoring lot of goals. I am not a great admirer of Mikel as he lacks vision and strength shown by Essien. But the pass he gave to Drogba was worth applauding, shown great vision and precisely found the target man. Fifth goal was a comical one according to me as Goalkeeper was watching the game instead of jumping and catching the football. It gave Lampard his 17^th of the season and he is again on course to get 20.

For Chelsea this was a great result, result that was must for a team low in confidence. But this was certainly not the test of Chelsea. Portsmouth bottom of the table and in all sorts of mess was never expected to put up a fight. This game only ended bad few days for Chelsea. Players and Manager must be relieved but Challenges are ahead and they are tough one. Aston villa approaching at Stamford Bridge will be real test. I feel Ancellotti will stick to his formation on Portsmouth game and replacing Sturridge with Anelka. Two Holding midfielders are must against fast and furious Aston Villa.

For me formation will be little bit shuffled and I will like to see squad playing as below. This will be good success against Villa. I am 100% sure that Ferreira and Zhirkov will need cover in this game and Drogba require great service if Chelsea wants to Score.

Anelka and Malouda will be very fast on counter and magic of Deco can be there for long passes. Drogba again a single striker will hit the net for sure.

Unlike 4-2-3-1 it is required that Deco remains little behind to help defend as it will take a lot to avoid Villa goal. You as a manager cannot take chance with a vital game which will decide whether Chelsea remains in race for title.

--------------------------cech--------------------

Ferreira-----------Alex------------Terry-----------Zhirkov

----------Mikel-------------------------Lampard---------

------------------------Deco---------------------------

Anelka------------------------------------------Malouda

--------------------------Drogba----------------------

Chelsea 1 Blackburn 1

Disappointed, No other word can describe what fans are feeling right now. After bright start to season, after not loosing a single game when African cup of nations was on but now dropping important points which will see Chelsea Title Hopes damaged.

Even Carlo Ancellotti will not be able to tell what exactly went wrong in the game, have we created enough chances? Have we scored early? Have we defended well? Have we taken game to opposition? and answers to most of the questions is YES. if you leave incidence where ferreira was caught napping rest defence was ok considering early exit of Ivanovic.

Injuries are taking toll on Chelsea, despite of having very strong squad more than 6 injuries can hamper performance of any team. Influential players like Ashley Cole, Essien, Cech, Ballack, Carvahlo, Bosingwa are missing then your team will always be vulnerable. It is like you take out Roonie, ferdenand, vidic, giggs, and Nani or take out torres, gerrad from Liverpool or take out fabregas and arshavin from Arsenal. Loss of big players always makes an impact and that is what is happening with Chelsea. Media as usual blaming players, manager and owner for loss but they are ignoring all odds

One big reason is that, Chelsea again failed to use its full backs, this is one reason coming into picture again and again, after fantastic performance week in week out from Ivanovic, now he is not able to create quality balls in the six yard box. Chelsea scored many goals this season from such crosses and explosive runs of Ashley Cole. In game against Inter as well Chelsea failed to use full backs and this point is now exploited by all teams. Carlos Ancellotti has to device a way to involve full backs, current 4-3-3 is not allowing RB and LB to go full throttle ahead as there is one player less to cover in case of counter attack. Carlos with current players (Many key players injured) should use 4-2-3-1 with Anelka on top. This may feel crazy but this will work as drogba can create moments of brilliance, use his physic to win long balls from Centre backs and Anelka can zip past opposition CBs. With Lampard and Malouda on both Sides and Mikel and Ballack back. This will give lot of confidence to IVA and Zhirkov to go ahead and try to create scoring opportunities.

----------------------Cech/ Turnbull--------------------

IVA--------------Alex---------------Terry--------Zirkov

-------------Ballack/deco-------------Mikel-------------

Lampard------------------Drogba--------------Malouda

--------------------------Anelka-----------------------

 

We all know what Anelka did when Drogba was not there, How Malouda has suited well in winger position and lampard will have lot of room to put long hits to goals. And ballack/deco can provide the magical pass needed to set anelka free.

Chelsea needs to be calm and look at what they can achieve this season rather than what they can not achieve. They have to concentrate on next few games, get good results and suddenly they will be in again for sure. Big matches like Chelsea Vs Manu will be classic match of the year as this will decide who is going to lift the cup this year. In case of Draw arsenal will be hot favourite.

I know this is not right time to draw conclusions as Football is the game that is full of surprises.

Chelsea 4 West Ham 1- Match Report from My Eyes

It was a classic fixture in English Premier League. Title hopeful Chelsea Vs relegation fighter West Ham.

West Ham has nothing to loose and Chelsea has plenty to worry. First goal after 15 Min by a defender tells you that everything was not going as expected for Chelsea but the lead is a lead and Chelsea players must be relieved to see Alex put one In. It was a good header but a poor marking from West Ham. If you were a Chelsea Fan then you were happy till Parker formal Chelsea man hit a stunner. I always think why footballer hit those stunners, amazing goals against Chelsea only and not any other club, I think opponents love to celebrate at Stamford Bridge. So 31 Minutes and you are on the edge of the seat already. Anxious about progress of Chelsea to top of the league. Wary about ManU’s Match against Fulham and already started hoping Fulham can do it again. This is problem actually fans start to think about others loosing then Chelsea winning.

Second Half started OK but JT … Leader… Captain… Legend inspired run helped by Malouda’s cross and Drogba header put Chelsea in Driving seat again. Hope of title reignited. Then there was no looking back. Malouda was inspiring creative and was looking dangerous. 11 Minutes were sufficient to prove that at 76 minutes he sealed points for Chelsea, I am not sure why he celebrated like that but he has whole right after a wonderful performance.

Chelsea was a different team this season, i knew it as they pushed for 4th goal, the hunger to score more was very good. This was not the case few seasons back where Chelsea was comfortable with 1-0,2-1 score lines.

Lampard stuck but Green saved but could not hold on to it and Drogba did what he does best latching onto opportunity. And finished West Ham of. I think 4th goal was little harsh on hammers but this is EPL and no mercy for teams as Goal difference is very important in 3 Horse title race this season.

When everybody is taking about Malouda’s contribution and Drogba’s desire for goals. I think it is Ferreira who helped in this, he played well and allowed Malouda to play in his favourite position in Midfield, that also gave balance to Chelsea side and allowed Alex, Terry to go forward and avoid any situation like we had in MAN City game.

Biggest problem for the game was Anelka, of course he gave 100% to the team and was doing his duty very well but somehow this team formation is taking toll on him for all 4 Goals he was a silent spectator. This is a problem, your lead striker can not do that at least he should have 1 assist to his name in 4 goals, I think Ancelotti has take a hard look at this game and decide whether to make Anelka as target man. He loves that position scores many. Drogba have a physical presence and can easily provide many assists, i think he has ability to be play maker and great finisher, but anelka is not a play maker for me, he is fast and accurate and will be delightful as a target man.

Let us see what happens when Inter comes to Chelsea, I don’t think they can score but problem is that Mourihnio side will defend well and I predict Chelsea 1- Inter 0 for this.

 

Come back and read Inter vs Chelsea Review on the same page. Till then Happy Footballing.

Website for My School

Today I am very happy, Today I completed first step towards paying tribute to my school, the place where I learnt so many things, a place where I became who am I.

Website www.utkarshmandir.org and Alumni Forum www.utkarshmandir.org/forum is live now. Also facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Utkarsh-Mandir-Shikshan-Prasarak-Mandal-Malad/10150120389665244?ref=nf is also live

I think this is a great way to say thank you. I was working on this for quiet some time and will continue to work on to finish the remaining work.

I expect all my school alumni will be delighted as they will be able to share information, reconnect with old friends on our school website. They will also be able to see what is happening in the school which they were part one day. They can even go ahead and contribute to school. Contributions from alumni will be very important to grow the school, financial support, help in management of school, help in arranging events and seminars will make our school a landmark. I request my fellow alumni friends to contribute to best of their ability to make this a success.

You can see the website and give your comments and suggestions to me via email nikhil_parchure@rediffmail.com

Cheers

Woman Reservation Bill Cleared In Rajya Sabha

Today one day after World women day Indian Rajya sabha (upper house) cleared a historic bill to give 33% reservation, this is really path breaking because this will empower women to stand against dominating men population, this will really change how we work, impact our culture and will bring prosperity surely.

I am not saying this a magic stick that will change the situation in one go but this is a big step forward, and one big step in right direction. If bill was passed without fiasco of yesterday then it would have been great but all is well that ends well. Now only hurdle of Loksabha is in line and considering huge majority by which It was passed i think loksabha will pass it easily, I really like to know who is member only one who voted against, great courage to stand against tide, LOL

So one day to remember in not so remarkable indian politics. Congratulations to all women who received this gift one day late.

Signing OFF

Nikhil

Microsoft Live writer – Writing blogs from desk.

Today I am trying Windows Live writer, A tool by Microsoft 7 to write blog posts directly from desk.

I will be reviewing complete live software shortly. As windows 7 comes bundled with these software. I think this is strategy to take attention away from Openoffice.org and keeping office users to stay on microsoft platform

Great Software

I downloaded and tried this software, this is gem of freeware, I really liked the simplicity of this software also it is so fast and easy, I resized more than 200 of my pics in just 5 min this is really good. I will surely recommend this to all.

in reference to: FastStone Photo Resizer - Powerful Image Converter/Resizer (view on Google Sidewiki)