Sutton's Law

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

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

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

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





Make life easy with Shortcuts

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

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

DIY : Sales Tracker - Simple and Effective

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

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


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

Deja vu.. Black Berry


It was a couple of years ago, myself and my colleagues on our way to the office were discussing ‘Blackberry Boys' and we all felt that BB will die soon. 
We could peep into the future with ease...easily but wonder how BB missed it and messed it! It is Hot on the web to discuss reasons for BB’s debacle...
However, My take is…
  • Respect the Customer.
  • Listen.
  • Unlearn to Re-learn.
Starting from the day your confidence gets appended with ‘over’, your days are numbered. 
Take a look at the videos. they thought that it's market-shaping! 
Well, the market shaped the RIM.
Two years later, RIM is dead and BB10 is a new avatar.
If BB is to rise like a Phoenix, It will have to patiently wait for iPhone or Samsung to do the same mistake!
Not surprisingly, I get a sense of deja vu after iPhone 5 launch and iphone 6 previews.
This is the ' Market Shaping' BlackBerry Indian ad..



Here is an article closely related to this article from Strategy+Business

Publicis CEO's 2013 message .Great Interactive video

Do not miss using YouTube controls generously..
Use...
~ Sound
~ Picture Quality
~ Stop
~ Play
~ Full Screen
to enjoy a Brilliant Interactive Video. 
Happy Weekend!
Here are the Stats if you are interested.

The Problem itself as a Solution : Six examples

Problems are everywhere. Problems are opportunities. The more, the merrier.
Because , we all make money on problems. Every single business in the world thrives by offering a solution to a problem. However, we are yet to recognize that many times, the problem itself is the solution.
Here I furnish six Innovative solutions by experts using the problem itself as a solution.

Vaccines:  Use the Pathogen itself  as a Medicine
A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins.

Traffic Jams: Avert bigger traffic jams by creating Smaller Traffic jams.
Yes. Indeed. Haven’t you thought that systematically small traffic jams are created at every Red light to ensure you avoid bigger traffic jams? We all know the chaos when traffic signals fail. Mumbaikers, the citizens of Mumbai Know its Value. That’s why you find they rarely jump the signals.  Want to know more science behind this, read the brilliant book titled “Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities” by Kaiser Fung.

Population Control: Control Population by increasing the life expectancy at Birth (reducing child mortality)
Research shows when child death rates are high, families tend to have more children in anticipation of child mortality. we may not agree Immediately due to a lack of understanding of numbers. Take a look at the Video by Prof Hans Rosling.  He says …Child survival will help in stopping population growth, will help the family also having fewer pregnancies. 

Homoeopathy :  Similia Similibus Curanter (Latin)
or in plain English,  “that which can cause can cure”. In a layman’s language, a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. This is the fundamental principle of Homeopathy.

Mosquitoes: Control Population of Mosquitoes by breeding more mosquitoes
Yes. Oxytec, a company of Mr Haden Parry has a solution to control the mosquito menace. The solution is to breed a special male mosquito that can regulate female mosquito fertility. All you need to do is breed them and leave them to the environment. The concept lies in using two biological features. One is that male mosquitoes do not bite and so, it can not cause disease and the other one is a law of nature! The male will always find females to mate with! 

Cybersecurity: “Hacktivists” as cybersecurity professionals or Anti Hacker hackers!
Today the world uses hackers to combat cybercrime. We now have Ethical Hacking as a respectable profession!

We were never taught to look for the solution in the problem itself. So, we need to unlearn and relearn. 
This unlearning and relearning can creatively change our approach to the problem and possibly bring in innovative solutions.

Though it is a cliché, I dare to quote “Even Impossible and I ‘ m possible”.
Does it ring a bell?