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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Road to Taj Mahal

There are so many things I want to blog before writing this post but my friend (who will remain unnamed) told me that she would write her post before she loses the zest of writing about it. I realized that I should do the same. So here it goes............

Last weekend in India, me and my colleagues decided to go to one of the seven wonders of the world - Taj Mahal. We had everything setup by a wonderful Indian lady (who will remain unnamed again) and came Friday morning we are with our bags on our way to New Delhi. To go to Taj Mahal from Calcutta, you have to fly to New Delhi then ride a train or bus to Agra. Or you can ride a train from Calcutta to Agra. We do not have time to ride a train so we took a plane and flew to New Delhi. In Delhi, a man met us in the arport and drove us for 6 hours to Agra. We reached Agra around 10PM. We stayed in a hotel called Howard Park Hotel and slept the whole night.

Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb
Early morning, we had an Indian breakfast and off we went to tourist spots in Agra. A man by the initials of T. D. guided us in the tour. We started with Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb also known as Baby Taj. They call it baby Taj because some of the designs were taken from the building.
Below is a photo of me and my colleagues.

This is me trying to get a photo of myself.
Below are two of the many tombs inside baby Taj.

After taking hundreds of photographs we started our way out of Baby Taj. On our way ouut, a reported came by and asked T.D. if they can have a picture of us for Valentines' Day. I told them I don't really mind so they gave me a rose and I went kneeling down in front of my female colleague. They said they will publish the photo after 2PM. We checked it after 2PM and we are on page 3. (http://www.dlamedia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=2%2f14%2f2009)
Let me explain what the Hindi text written below. The blue text says, "Will you be my Valentine?" The remaining black texts said something like,"a guy proposes her love to the lady in Itmad-ud-Daula's Tomb" hahahaha.. The funny part is, the other photo is a group in Agra against Valentines so if they see us roaming around the city they might confront us. hahahah.. 5Pm that day, we dropped by a store and the a guy with a DLA newspaper asked me, "Is this you?" I smiled and answered, "yeah". Wow I feel like a celebrity.nyahahahaha.. [go to go so more to come later]
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Ads

In my stay in Kolkata I noticed these two catchy ads:
1. Buladi against AIDS. At first I laugh at it (probably because of immaturity) but later on when I asked my Indian friends about it, they are very passionate about this ad that I felt so immature in my initial thoughts. My friends told me how this ad informs men and women to take charge against spreading AIDS.

2. Bell Bajao which means Ring the bell. This is a campaign against domestic violence. I only saw the ad in Hindi but I certainly got the message of this ad. Visit www.bellbajao.com
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company


Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company

One of the mangers in our company handed me this orange book maybe as a “reward” for asking questions with the program that the company is giving to the employees. I never thought it could happen.J I always believed that there is no such thing as a free lunch but now I know there is such a thing as a free book. This is my very first book that talks about design. Initially, I thought this book is about design behavior but later on in my conversation with my boss, I found that this is about design per se. So it created a bit of excitement in my part to read such kind of book. As I was perusing the book, I am amazed with it’s content, the author gave compelling argument as to why Company A succeeded and how great design contributed to their success as a business. It’s in this book that I read (once again) the words “total customer experience”. I realized that this is the goal of many companies today – to be design-driven, because this is the only way that the company will matter to the people. Companies today want to matter to the people because this will ensure success in the business. What does it mean to matter? It simply means as answering a YES to this question, “If your company will be out of business tomorrow will your customers miss you or they will just easily move on to your competitors?” The author gave an example that goes like this, “If Apple will go out of business tomorrow, people will go looking for Apple. Why? Because Apple already matter to the customers and the customer will feel that without Apple life will never be the same” Having a “total customer experience” plays a vital role in becoming a design-driven organization. What is total customer experience? I am positive that if I pick randomly 10 employees in our organization today and ask what “total customer experience” means that I will get more than one answer. I realized that there is a need for everyone in the organization to have one mind as to what this term means. If everyone understands what this means and what role each play in the big picture called – being design-driven, then I think this will make any organization’s transition from technology-driven to design-driven easier.

Design is not just about aesthetics its also about the conversation of the our products and services to the customer. I believe the authors calls this “Design Language” Design Language is very important in developing to be a design-driven company. To simply put it, it’s the emotional connection that your product and services has with the customer. We buy because of the promise that a particular product can give us. And this promise is very much emotional. Take for example, iPod, this gadget promises more than just music and/or video player it carries itself a positive stigma of being in the “elite” if you own one. The iPhone is also another success story of a design-driven organization. There are many examples that was given by the authors and you can read all that in the book.

What hit me the most are the words, “design is not just the design team’s job; it’s everyone’s job”. As a software developer, I never thought of design because I thought it’s not my job but then I realize that I have to make an effort to find out where I am and what role should I play in this move to be a design-driven organization.

As a CEO of my personal service corporation, I realized that I have to keep evolving and I have to continuously deliver new services to my biggest client – LXK. So that if I will be out of business tomorrow my client will miss me. It’s only then that I can say, I matter.
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Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

What is the central theme of this book? I am tempted to answer this question but I will defer answering that later in the post. I will however talk about some aspect in the book that truly impressed me. Like the authors answer to, what caused the decline of crime-rate in the US? Or why do drug dealers still live with their parents? Or how the rules of incentives can either be going for you or against you?

First, what caused the decline of crime-rate in the US? Author's answer - The legalization of abortion in year, I-forgot-the-date. If this answer shocks you then let me tell you that make two of us. The rationale behind is that most mothers who want to abort the babies either do not have the (financial and/or mental) capacity to raise kids or who know in their heart they could not do it. These kids if left to live have bigger chance to become criminals in the future. The author presented his argument basing on the statistics but I think the biggest proof is when he presented the date of the first few states in the US who legalize abortion. It showed that the first states that legalize abortion are also the states where the crime-rates are declining in faster rate than the other states that adopted this law decades later. I am presenting this because I find it interesting. I know it's hard to verify this but that’s what the values implied according to Steve Levitt (one of the book's authors).


As a side note, I read a novel (actually just part of) by Frank Peretti called The Prophet and it showed a side of abortion that's so hideous that if you think about it there is just more damage that abortion can cause than what meets the eye or in this case, what meets the figures.

Second, why do drug dealers still live with their parents? According to “conventional knowledge” the drug dealers are making big money and they are riding the best cars and wearing the best suits. But the reality is, most of the drug dealers are still living with their parents. Why? Because like any organization the drug industry follows a system that will make those in the top of the pyramid prosper and will leave the rest in the mercy of the boss. Also, drug dealers do not know how to keep money so if they get more money they also tend to spend more. The pay is low and it’s one of the riskiest jobs on earth – the chance of being killed is high. So why do drug dealers stick in the drug industry?

#1 because of the benefit of the succession, if the drug dealer climbs up the ladder of success then he will be very wealthy.

#2 Perks. I forgot what they are but being in this industry has some perks so that keep them up.

Lastly, how the rules of incentives can either be going for you or against you? I learned so much about incentives in this book and I would like to share it. Sometimes, incentives will work for you or against you. The cardinal rule (I think) in giving incentives is that it should matter to the receiver. On other words, if you are rewarding somebody and your reward does not matter to that person then it’s better to not give it. Or if you are punishing somebody for an offense then the punishment should be heavy enough for the punishment to be appreciated. So as leaders, we need to be careful in giving incentives.

So what is the central them for this book? Answer – nothing.



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Sunday, February 08, 2009
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I was perusing over a popular networking site and my mind wandered and begun to muse over the friendships that I had in the past. The people that I've considered "friends" 4 or 5 years ago are no longer my friends today. Now they have their own lives as if the friendship that we shared did not matter anymore. A spasmodic sense of grief filled my heart and then I can't help but ask - why? This seem to be a farcical exercise of the mind but for the sake of discussion I would like to explore this.

[I don't feel writing anymore... maybe next time.]
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Thursday, February 05, 2009
Welcome to the land of Mohinder Suresh

Coming out of Calcutta Airport, I saw a band of people gathering around departure area, some of them are carrying cardboard with names of passengers on it. Some are written in English alphabet and some are in what I think are written in Indian texts. I looked around to find the person who is going to pick us up from the airport to the hotel. I tried reading some of the names in the cardboard (to find my name or names of my colleagues) and found the name Joseph Libreros (with and extra letter S) . So I went to the cardboard and told the nearest man, “This is me. That’s my name” The guy held-up a clipboard and asked us to come with them. We went out to the airport to the parking lot. On our way to the parking lot, I looked up and saw what looked like a yellow fog covering the night sky. In my mind I thought, “Oh my this is pollution.” We found the car that will take us to the airport. I made my way to the front right seat so my colleagues can take the back seats. When I opened the right front seat, the chauffer said something in Indian that I did not understand so I ignored him and opened the right door. When I looked at the seat I found the steering wheel on it was then when I realized Indian cars are right-hand driven. :) The vehicles in the Philippines are all left-hand driven so this is my first time to ride a right-hand driven car. (Note: I took the pictures below the day after we arrived so that's why it does not look like night time)


On our way to the hotel I found many Indian motorist are fond in using their car horns. Every time there is a little delay in the traffic, I hear them blowing their horns. I also noticed that some of the motorists are not following traffic rules. This is not new to me since in Cebu we have the same problem, jeepney stops and parks wherever they like so it did not bother me much. I asked the driver if the traffic is this bad and he answered with a smile, “It’s over 10 o’clock… rough-driving time.” It gave me the impression that the morning traffic will be much more in order. I noticed that the streets are still very crowded in that time of the night. I asked the chauffeur why and he said something like, “people are going to bars to have fun”. Now that I thought about it, I appreciate the chauffeur so much. He answers my question really kindly. He always ends his statements with the word “Sir”. Like “It’s past 10 o’clock sir and it’s rough-driving time.. sir”. I don’t know why but this makes me feel so special in a way. :)


The trip to the hotel was a bit long and so I looked around and try to see much of the city as I could. I saw the public train tracks, I also noticed that taxi’s are colored yellow but the thing that I really noticed about them is that they are not air-conditioned and the model looks very old. I have to say, this gave me some concerns since #1, I saw the yellow sky and #2 We are planning to take a cab to and fro the malls in the city.

We arrived in the hotel – ITC Sonar. It’s a beautiful place. The rooms are very spacious and the attendants are very accommodating. I went to the room and took a night rest. I was able to take a warm bath and took a very good nap.

I woke up around 6 o’clock in the morning. This sounded very early but in Cebu this is about 8.30AM which is for me not really early. It seems that my body clock is still in sync with Cebu. I called my colleagues (which I will remain un-named) for breakfast. As expected for a five star hotel, the breakfast is very great.

After breakfast, we decided to take a trip to a mall near by using a cab. When went inside a cab, the driver barely understands us but I understand that he told us, “his taxi meter is not working and he charges us 120 Rupees for the trip to the mall.” In our ignorance we agreed him to charge us that much later on we discovered that the cost is around 70-80 Ruppes.:) The taxi driver in the picture below charged us that much.:)


We went to the mall and found it to be a bit different from the mall that we had. I could not find McDonalds or KFC anywhere. I could not recognize a single food in the menu.

It’s then that I feel that I am really in another place far, far away from home –so different from where I came from. I realized that here I need to let go of all comforts and try to adjust as soon as I can. I have to admit this made me a little bit worried. But I have to survive; I have to live; I have to stay here for the next 3 weeks… in the land of Mohinder Suresh.


Note: Next post, I will talk about the cultural differences and cultural the sameness that I've observed in my brief time here in India. I will also talk about why the Philippines needs an Indian senator or adviser.
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
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  • 12:40 PM
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The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down. - Ravi Zacharias

How many of us can relate to this? How many of us thought that such and such a thing will give us satisfaction and after getting it we ask ourselves, "is this all there is?" The thing that we thought will give us more happiness, more joy, more life.. failed us.

Many times I find myself asking for this question and it's always in time when I tried to find my happiness outside of God. I am not saying this because I want to sound religious, I'm saying this because it's the truth. And it does not take a genius to figure that out. All we have to do is to stop and ponder and ask, "what are those times that I was let down by what I though can make me happy?" If we find our being outside of God, may it be money, beauty, lust, love, religion, spirituality, health, career, relationships, or any other, we will never be filled; We will never be satisfied because all these things will not fill out the void that only God, the Creator of this universe and the Creator and Designer of man, can fill. Only God can fill the void.
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