Darwin's Theory - connectivity to Business

        I had been hearing about Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” since childhood. I had the eager to know about the “origin of Species” and “survival of the fittest”. I had the question like what are they? What is their significance in real life? I was in Delhi during this summer vacation and I had a day to spend in my Dad’s office where I found one book on “Origin of Species”. Oh,  I don’t remember the author’s name. I went through the book the whole day and completed just the half of it. I found it interesting. But I had to leave for my home next day and the reading of book was left incomplete. It describes how the origin of species was formulated by Darwin. It generated even more interest to know its importance in real life and how does it get connected. Is Darwin’s theory relating to extinct species or organisms or connected with business field as well? If yes, then how?

      When we consider an organization surviving in the market, to survive corporate leaders talk to their peers, copy their competitors, and copy each other, and the theory becomes a managerial fad. Do any of these “canned” theoretical solutions really work? In some instances, managerial theory or fad might work; but for most businesses, the pursuit of theories and fads is a prescription for disaster and decay. If we can’t trust the academics, the consultants and the soothsayers, who can we trust? Who, or what, can we believe in? Is there no hope in a world of economic turmoil, chaos and confusion?
      The central question in my mind is: Why do some companies thrive, while others perish? Why do some companies make extravagant profits, while others scrape by on bare subsistence? What is the secret to success? What is the secret of survival? Businesses and brands also compete with each other in a struggle for survival, and collectively tend to operate in ways analogous to natural eco-systems. Is the survival of a business akin in any way to the survival of an animal, a plant or a bacterium? Is it possible that success and survival in the wild might be analogous to success and survival in the business world?
      And here I found J. W. Thomas’s (a Decision analyst) analysis of, ‘popularizing the phrase “ Survival of the fittest” phrase by Darwin’  interesting.            
     Darwin did not say “survival of the fastest.” He did not say “survival of the biggest,” nor “survival of the smartest.” He said “survival of the fittest.” What a strange word, “fittest.”  One might tend to interpret Darwin’s “fittest” (without thinking about it much) as somehow related to physical fitness, or physical superiority, in other words, to “strength.” But, Darwin did not say “survival of the strongest.” He said “survival of the fittest”. There is the meaning of it.
             By “survival of the fittest” Darwin did not mean that the toughest will survive, the swiftest will win, the smartest will succeed, or the biggest will dominate. What Darwin meant was something far different.  Darwin said that the organism that best “fits” its environment had the best chance of survival; hence, the term “survival of the fittest.” The plant or animal best “fitted” to its natural environment, according to Darwin, would be the most likely to survive and thrive.
           So what does all of this mean for the strategy of a business or a brand? It means that the company and/or brand best “fitted,” or best “adapted,” to its environment (its markets, its customers) is most likely to survive, and most likely to flourish. It means that companies or brands not well “fitted” to their markets will not survive long-term. Product improvements and new products are pathways to the future, the lifeblood of strategic survival.          
          I went through a working paper “Survival of the Fittest or Fattest? Exit and Financing truck Industry”, by  Luily Zingales, which challenges the theory and concludes after going through various observations and calculations that, in industries with high barriers to entry,  relatively inefficient firms are very less likely to get challenged by the new and may stay in the market even after the mistakes. Thus competition will not always lead to survival of the fittest. Not everyone would agree to the above one. But I have few sources claiming it does apply to the alien life..          
             In an article "marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species", one of the Nasa scientists said that Darwinian evolution will be the driving force of life anywhere in the universe, and we should use its predictions to decide where to look..
       And every theory is criticized. But as far as I have gone through the different cases it applies to many of the real life cases..          
But for my eagerness in the topic I do have few questions on it.I have some queries on the survival of dinosaurs, why didn’t they manage to survive, being the strongest animal of times, I believe so. Is that they were not able to fit in the changing climate or what’s the reason?
         And my query about human being - will it be able to survive the change; We have been able to do so till date but the rate of change is so rapid these days. Suppose we manage till ice age, what changes are likely to be occurred in us and how are we going to adapt to all change and threats? Will there be total change in our physical structure? I would like the reader to give me the view on it.
Thanks
Suraj Sharma.

E Night Walk

As it is said that memories make us cry when we remember the moment we laughed, and make us laugh for the moment we cried. I am on my study leave of my first semester, PG.

It was about 10 in the night, I was feeling stressed after going through my course books. So I just went into the streets to get relaxed. It took me to the days when we used to go for evening and night walk, “Enight walk” as I used to call it, when any of us in our circle feel stressed, disappointed, dejected or even happy. We had thousand reasons to go for it. If not, then we used to give our own reason. “Come on guys lets go for a walk”. It was very special to me in personal. It used to give me a lot of relief. The moment was just filled with happiness, laughter. Just laugh in the middle of road like no one is looking at you, jump, sing and dance. Tease, beat anyone in the group and laugh for it. But it had a limit and we new when to stop it, when it’s actually hurting others. We used to shout in the road like anything. It was the moment we used to forget our sorrows, the problems we had and just get into the moment, get into each other, plan for the future something like we will attend everyone’s marriage, and do lots of stuffs, hah! This part looks silly now. It used to give a lot of relief to everyone of us who had been away from family and missed them. I used to feel the best when it was in the month of Nov – Jan, when weather condition used to be cold. Fill the chillness, the dew and get mentally relaxed. Enight walk has been so special and memorable to me. It gives me a chance to smell the fragrance of life that I have spent till days.

God has been so graceful to me for he has been giving me such good friends to me from my school days, my undergraduate degree and now in
my post graduate as well. Sometimes we forget to thank the persons who have been making our life special and realize it later.

As I don’t want to get delayed, this is my dedication to memories of Enight walk, the friends who had been the part of it, the friends who has been the part in my life and accepted me and the friends in Amity. Thanks a lot……..

Posted via web from surajsharma's Heart

Co-Incidents

 
The life is full of incidents. We come across the incidents which we have never thought of..  Something which we call as co-incidents, surprise.
 I, after completing my engineering joined MBA in a place 1500km away from my home, or college.. I had to live in a completely new environment away from my family and all friends...It gave me an opportunity to make new friends who are very good, and friendly.
Thanks to all for taking me as their friend. But the past remains in our blood and I was missing my friends.. and was praying for a look of any one from my family or friends..But it was almost impossible to have anyone here as everyone is busy on their own job and miles away from me.. I had a marriage to attend and I went for the functions.. I had some guest from my hometown and I was really enjoying the wedding. Then I stayed there for a day more than my schedule which wasn’t planned.  It was a new place for me also and I didn’t expect myself to go to the station to send off guest in midnight.
  I was just roaming in the station where I suddenly had a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head and had myself in another world. I was just questioning that was I awake or in sleep? I realize it was not a dream. Then questioned myself is it possible? And I believed that yes it has.  I saw one of my friends in the station and only after believing that what I was going through is true, I went to hug him. I was just wishing to keep on hugging him, which was giving me all my college life memories and all friends love.
I was feeling so happy to have a friend there. I used to look for the friends when I used to be at my home which was just 130 km from my college only for the disappointment. But now being 1500km away, with no expectation, desperate to meet friends,  I got one of them here which I felt  was like something that God arranged, allocating  some time for the incident, to remind me that he loves  and care for me.. I couldn’t go ahead without thanking him for such a wonderful gift.

Posted via web from surajsharma's Heart

We Have Made a Good Friend

.................................. Oooo
Some people .............( .....)
come into our lives..... ) ../
and quickly go.......... (__/

oooO
(..... ) .......Some people
..\.. ( ........become friends
...\__)...... and stay a while...

leaving beautiful .....Oooo
footprints on our .... ( ..... )
hearts..........................).../
..................................(__/

oooO
.(..... )...... and we are
...\... ( .......~ never ~
....\__) ......quite the same

because we have
made a good friend!!

Dedication and self assessment

I present to you a small story on the dedication to his duty and commitment which i liked and want it to reach you.. 

A little boy went to a telephone booth which was at the cash counter of a  store and dialed a number.
The store-owner observed and listened to the  conversation: 

Boy                : "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn? 

Woman         : (at the other end of the phone line) "I  already have someone to cut my lawn." 

Boy                : "Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price  than the person who cuts your lawn now." 

Woman         : I'm very satisfied with the person who is  presently cutting my lawn. 

Boy                : (with more perseverance) "Lady, I'll even sweep the floor  and the stairs of your house for free.

Woman          : No, thank you. 

With a smile on his face, the little  boy replaced the receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all this,  walked over to the boy.

Store Owner         :"Son... I like  your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a  job." 

Boy                       :"No thanks, 

Store Owner         : But you were really pleading for one.

Boy                       : No Sir, I was just  checking my performance at the job I already have. I am the one who is  working for that lady I was talking to!" 

"The light which shines in the eye is really the light of the heart;
  The light which fills the heart is the light of God"

To you by Suraj Sharma 

HELPED IN FINANCING EDUCATION

 

 

Hayes of Rochelle, Illinois, long ago proved he was one of the more clever types. Back in 1987, while a chemistry freshman at the University of Illinois, he came up with a novel idea to solve his tuition and college expenses problem. Figuring that just about anyone could spare a penny, he brazenly asked everyone to do it.

He wrote to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene, asking him to request each of his readers send Hayes a penny. The notion tickled the veteran columnist's fancy enough that he was willing to go along with it. From Bob Greene's column:

 

No one likes being used, but in this case I'm willing. It sounds like fun.

Mike Hayes, 18, is a freshman science major at the University of Illinois in Champaign. He is looking for a way to finance his college education, and he decided that my column is the answer.

"How many people read your column?" he asked me.

I told him I didn't know.

"Millions, right?" he said. "All over the country, right?"

I said I supposed that was true.

"Well, here's my idea," he said, and proceeded to explain.

I'll break it down simply: Mike Hayes wants every person who is reading this column right this minute to send him a penny.

"Just one penny," Hayes said. "A penny doesn't mean anything to anyone. If everyone who is reading your column looks around the room right now, there will be a penny under the couch cushion, or on the corner of the desk, or on the floor. That's all I'm asking. A penny from each of your readers."

 

You wouldn't think a scheme like that would be wildly successful. But it was.

 

In less than a month, the "Many Pennies for Mike" fund was up to the equivalent of pennies. Not everyone was content to send merely a penny (hence the "equivalent" statement above) sent nickels, dimes, quarters and even more. There's something lovable about a kid who asks you for a penny. Ask Debra Sue Maffett, Miss America 1983. Not only did she send a cheque for $25, but her donation was accompanied by a letter saying she admired him. "She even signed the letter 'Love,'" Mike said.

Donations were received from every state in the United States, plus Mexico, Canada, and the Bahamas. Yes, he ended up with the $28,000 he'd set out to get.

 

But 1987 was a long time ago, you say. Whatever happened to this lad?

 He went on to earn his degree in food science from the University of Illinois. As for why this scheme worked: ''I didn't ask for a lot of money,'' Hayes said. ''I just asked for money from a lot of people [of Chicago].''

 Perhaps the last word is best left to the lad's father, Bill Hayes: "When Mike first told me about his idea, I just laughed and said that I thought it was dumb.Which shows you that he's smarter than I am."

Sacrifice

There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing the train to cross it.A switchman sat in a shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed.



One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance.

Then he was to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard.



He left the bridge turned across the river and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river, where there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually.



He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength.



Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.



"Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time..



The man almost left his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that he could not get back to the lever in time if he saved his son.



Either many people on the train or his own son - must die. For him and his wife their son is the  soul..



He took but a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the on rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging to the locking lever long after the train had passed.

They did not see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked; to tell his wife how their son had brutally died.

For him the lives of others mattered than his own soul.. he will never forgive himself as he is responsible for his own son's life.. 

Sacrifice for others.. 

God Said NO

I asked God to take away my habit.
God said, No..

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.


I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No. His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.


I asked God to grant me patience.

God said, No.
Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned.



I asked God to give me happiness.

God said, No.
I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.


I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.




I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.



I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.


God said, No.
I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.



I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.

God said...Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.


May God Bless You,

'To the world you might be one person, But to one person you just might be the world'

'May the Lord Bless you and keep you, May the Lord Make his face shine upon you,
And give you Peace........Forever' 'Good friends are like stars....
You don't always see them, But you know they are always there.

I am Embroiding Your Life

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering.
I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat.
She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."
I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee."
This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.
Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."
Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said,
"Father, what are You doing?"
He has answered, "I am embroidering your life."
 I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?"
The Father seems to tell me, "'My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."

Motivational

 Success and Failure
Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr. said, "If you want to succeed, double
your failure rate."
If you study history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great
failures. But people don't see the failures. They only see one side of the picture and they
say that person got lucky: "He must have been at the right place at the right time."
Let me share someone's life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at
the age of 21 ; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at
age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at
age 27; lost a congressional race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an
effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49; and was
elected president of the United States at age 52.
This man was Abraham Lincoln.













Would you call him a failure? He could have quit. But to Lincoln, defeat was a detour and
not a dead end.
In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triodes tube, was charged by the district attorney
for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks of his company by
claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly
humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be without his invention?
A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903, questioned the wisdom of the Wright
Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. One week
later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight.
Page 35 of 175
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, with a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security,
realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother's recipe and went out
selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is
estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first
order. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say
we tried as hard as we could?
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors, who
said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons.
Disney was working out of a small mouse infested shed near the church. After seeing a
small mouse, he was inspired. That was the start of Mickey Mouse.
Successful people don't do great things, they only do small things in a great way.
One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his
teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read
the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And
that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three
months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.
Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he made.
Do you consider these people failures? They succeeded in spite of problems, not in the
absence of them. But to the outside world, it appears as though they just got lucky.
All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they
failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn
and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep moving.
In 1914, Thomas Edison, at age 67, lost his factory, which was worth a few million
dollars, to fire. It had very little insurance. No longer a young man, Edison watched his
lifetime effort go up in smoke and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes
are burnt up. Thank God we can start anew." In spite of disaster, three weeks later, he
invented the phonograph. What an attitude!

growing indian economy

Indian economy seen growing 6.5%


PMO's outlook for fiscal year slightly more optimistic than central bank's July forecast

(MUMBAI) India's economy will grow 6.5 per cent this fiscal year, with strong industrial output making up for declines in agriculture because of poor rains, the Prime Minister's office said yesterday.

'On the whole we must say that the Indian economy has weathered the international economic crisis very well,' said C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.
The council in its annual report said that capital inflows have revived, and projects them to reach US$57.3 billion this fiscal year from US$9.1 billion last year.

It forecasts industrial output to grow 8.2 per cent, up from 3.9 per cent last year.

The report's outlook for India's growth is slightly more optimistic than the central bank's July prediction of 6 per cent growth, with an upward bias, for the fiscal year ending March 2010.

Last fiscal year, India's growth tumbled to 6.7 per cent, after averaging 8.8 per cent over the prior five years.
Food inflation and a growing government budget deficit, however, remain serious concerns for Asia's third-largest economy.

'The one disturbing element in the Indian economy is the behaviour of inflation,' Mr Rangarajan said.

If inflation becomes very bad by year's end, 'the stance of monetary policy will have to change from its highly accommodating position', he said.

He said that India's 'accommodative policy' is likely to continue till March, but the highly accommodative position needs to be changed based on the country's growth prospects and inflationary pressures.

'The stance of monetary policy will have to change from its highly accommodative position. But that has to wait. It will depend on the growth prospects of the economy and also inflationary pressures.'

The panel sees inflation at around 6 per cent by the end of the current fiscal year to March 2010. The widely watched wholesale price index rose by 0.92 per cent in the 12 months to Oct 3.

The total fiscal deficit will likely hit 10.1 per cent of gross domestic product this fiscal year up from 8.6 per cent last year and far higher than government targets.

The cost of primary food articles has shot up by a third, the report said, and the benchmark inflation rate is expected to reach 6 per cent by March, higher than the central bank's July prediction of 5 per cent.

On oil, another member of the panel, Govinda Rao, said that India would not need to raise fuel prices, if global oil prices remain in the range of US$70-75 a barrel.

'We expect international crude oil prices around US$70 to US$75 per barrel. If prices go beyond that consistently, then the numbers will have to change,' he added.

The 22.7 per cent shortfall in summer monsoon rains will likely drive a 2 per cent contraction in agricultural output, the report said.

Projected food grain production is 223 million tonnes, down from 234 million tonnes last fiscal year.

The report said that economic growth is unlikely to drop below 6.25 per cent but could reach 6.75 per cent. -- AP, Reuters

Current Scenario of Indian Economy

 Indian economy has started rising again though it was not worst affected economy..click to see the pdf

It makes a diiference

As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a youth ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the young boy, he asked him why he was doing this.
The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun.
“But the beach goes on for miles and there are thousands of starfish,” countered the old man.
“How can your effort make any difference.?”
The young boy looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to the safety of the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.
A help that seems small to you is lifeworthy to the person concerned..
Your little effort will make a big difference to another person's life.. feel it..You might be the angel for another person..

Suraj Sharma

Engineering and MBA

Hey people .. As everyone knows the engineering and MBA are of different fields .. But an engineer can be promoted to a manager if he has some managerial capabilities and one persons skill need to certified which is done by MBA degree.. and anyone who wish to join MBA can join at www.managementparadise.com which has many manger and students guiding you.. You can get clear of doubts in engineering through www.crazyengineers.com
Suraj Sharma