Try answering

Every day we come across many questions, some are funny, some are left unanswered, a few keeps us pondering and a few others are so simple and yet become one of the most difficult ones to crack. Here is an interesting question for you all :)

There is a very logical answer to this question and it is definitely worth your try.

Question : In a town there are two hospitals, one is large and the other is small. On a day 60% of those born in one particular hospital are boys. Which hospital is it likely to be?

Courtesy - The Black swan


Answer: The basis of statistics is that large samples are more stable and should deviate less from average ie 50%. Deviation and sample size are inversely proportional. Hence the answer is small sample :)

SIMPLE ECONOMICS IN BUSINESS LINE - My cup of tea!

The first time when I heard the name ‘Simple economics’, I probably thought that economics and my interests don’t much match and my mind had already decided to keep it at bay. The name suggested that these articles will be very long and definitely not be able to hold my attention. My head swayed like a pendulum and I said to myself ‘Simple eco-NO-mix’. A few days later I again heard that these articles are small, rich, and edifying and that made me Google and read about simple economics column in the business line. Trust me, I was lost in it and was sure that these column has got all the ingredients in the right proportions to captivate any individual.

I started the day by glancing through some of the articles in collector’s edition of Frozen Thoughts. Some of them were green with life and a few others seemed to voice for a difference. These articles were pearls of wisdom and reminded me of the Simple economics behind it.
Like all, I too started to wait for Sundays, not just because it’s weekend or time to rejuvenate but because it’s time for simple economics and time to comprehend yet another way of life.

Let me pen on a few of them and leave the rest for you to explore:

- Broken window theory
This theory explains how a small unfixed broken window can lead to a burglary! ie how one one small thing can lay the path for something big.
For instance, there are two children ‘A’ and ‘B’. You ask both of them not to enter into a room. When ‘A’ enters that prohibited room the probability of ‘B’ also entering that particular room is higher. Why? This is substantiated by a fence experiment which describes how one offence can lead to another.

- Blame it on NAcc
After reading this article, whenever I got lure to buy something that was not really a necessity, I dint wince at pain that came after seeing the price tag. The decision to buy was not mine and I blamed it on NAcc lol. In most of my shopping NAcc dumped the insulia.

- Psychology of greatest ever
I remember how many Facebook titles changed when A.R.Rahman won the Oscars. How many tweets come when Sachin hits a century! And how many SRK fans altered their heading in Orkut when his new flick released! I too go by the feel good factor after watching Hrithik on screen :)

- Why thinking too hard is bad
I witnessed this in Grammar section when I gave the CAT exams. Initially, I thought option ‘b’ would be apt, a second look got me closer to option ‘a’. While I was juggling between ‘b’ and ‘a’, option ‘c’ seemed to fit in the best. I chose some option to later discover that I hit the bull’s eye in the first attempt but later changed my option as I kept thinking harder. Sometimes ‘to blink’ yields better than the results that are got from ‘to think’.

- Tipping model
Find out why do you have To Insure Prompt Service when you visit any restaurant despite the fact that you are not likely to visit that restaurant in near future?

- The Pike syndrome
Consider that you have invested ‘X’ in share market. That portfolio rose in just a few months and you dint sell it then because you anticipated it to rise higher. Unfortunately, the markets declined and you are not ready to invest in that share again. Why?

- Delayed Gratification
Here is a reason why life insurance is important. It explains how a little sacrifice today can help you brighten your tomorrow.

- Power of social networks
I was earlier a little apprehensive to use social network sites. Sometimes I felt they were time wasters but hey they aren’t. The tweets show me how I spent my every day, the Linkedin made me stay professionally connected and Orkut titles reflected my mood and developed my acquaintance circle.

- Tune your expectations
There is a simple economics attached to our expectations as well. A lower expectation is a key to success and I vouch for it that one can expect high from self and low from others.

- Obsessive compulsive internet disorder
This is one of the disorders that many of us face. Here there is a correlation that goes behind our likes and our wants. Check out about the dopamine effect too.

As I started reading the articles in simple economics in Business line, I realized that in life, anything and everything has a simple rational behind it. These articles in Simple economics not just give you a horizontal coverage of a plethora of topics but also give you an in depth vertical expertise. To sum it up, I learnt how simple things can contribute in making vital and valid decisions. It is the dot to the ‘i’ and the cross to the‘t’ that makes the difference. Likewise it is the simple economics attached to our deeds that makes our learning from life more meaningful.

Kudos to B. Venkatesh, the author of such a wonderful column! I must admit that simple economics has got an indelible spell on me.

Principles of life!

These are some laws of life that we follow and we dont know that we follow. Here are some interesting principles that you can relate to your every day actvities:

-Murphy’s law
‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong & at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way’
You lie to your friend ‘X’ that you are not well and avoid going for a movie with her. The actual reason being you wanted to go to a beach with your other friend ‘Y’. You carry on with your plan and go to beach with ‘Y’ just to find that since you were not well and couldn’t make it to movie, your friend ‘X’ also altered her plans and came to beach with her other friends. Oh ho, bad time for you and that’s Murphy law for you!

-Parrondo’s paradox
‘A losing strategy that wins’
Sometimes we have a dilemma of whom to choose between your friends ‘A’ and ‘B’ who dislike one another completely. Fortunately, you like them both and don’t want to leave either. If you take side of ‘A’ then you run the risk of losing ‘B’ and vice versa. You lose if you choose ‘A’ and you lose if you choose ‘B’.These are your two losing strategies which nullify the effect of each other to make you win. What do you do then? You try to strike a balance between ‘A’ and ‘B’.

-Parkinson’s law
‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion’
This is my favorite because I have witnessed so many instances of this law in my life.
Wardrobe- My almirah was getting packed with clothes and I shifted to a bigger one just to find that this too got packed!
Assignments- Day 1, I decide the chart of how to split the work and complete the work which has to be submitted after 20days. Obviously, the work gets its finishing touch on day 19 or sometimes even on the day of submission! In other words, Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. What to do lol. A simpler and common instance could be that of expenditure which rise to meet income’

-Peter principle
‘In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetency’
This law asserts that people are competent only up to a certain stage beyond which they become incompetent. Initially I didn’t quite much agree to this principle but one of the examples here will make you comprehend better.

-Dilbert principle
‘Leadership is a nature’s way of removing morons from the productive flow’
This principle states that it is good to have not so competent people at the middle management because they will not be clever enough to cheat their counterparts or other employees. In other words such people are promoted in order to limit the amount of damage they are capable of doing. Who knows, the management may also promote such people so that they won’t be able to decipher the amount of lootings that the people at top might do lol.

-Pareto principle
‘80% of the results are produced by 20% of our investment’
The famous 80- 20 rule and one of the well suited examples for this is the exam preparation. Most of the students give their exams by utilizing the most during their study holidays. Study holidays constitute approximately 20% of their semester schedule, preparing in which they are able to deliver 80% of their results.

DAKSHA 2009- Management Fest

Oct 30, 2009 is going to be THE BIG day for SSN and hey you got to be there!
Its time for the future managers of SSN School of Management to employ their skills and give other college students an opportunity to unleash their talent.
Are you ready to launch a new Business Proposal?
Consider yourself updated? let us check- Business Quiz
Ready to compete among Best Managers?
Be prepared for a Stock war!
Listen to the experts' talk- Panel Discussion
Support both the sides of a coin - Debate
For more details visit DAKSHA-09

Students reflecting the face of SSN Institutions

November 4, 2009 is going to be a big day for SSN Institutions. The sponsorship event would capture top personalities in the globe and the student volunteers will be taking them across the campus. Volunteers’ will have an opportunity to spend twenty minutes with top personalities and cherish them for a life time. In a nutshell, the top personalities will be seeing SSN institutions through the eyes of the students. More than 100 personalities are expected from the industry.

A tribute to our “THOUGHT CATALYST”

It all started with a democratic class, we planned the agenda and we set its direction. In the very first class we said this, ‘Wow! It was a pataka!, we now have a very enthusiastic and inspiring faculty who is all set to prepare us to stay comfortable in our own state of discomfort’. How true our words proved to be!

You provoked our interests in compound interest, you gave us CLUES to understand concepts better, you made us conscious of our subconscious learning styles, you threw light on the various dimensions within us and above all you have always left us awed by your executive presence.

“Executable professionals, value proposition, Kolb’s model, communication palette, ice berg”, these words remind us of you and of the joy of learning with you!.

You have taken us through a transformational learning path and the wisdom that we gained will act as one of our signature strengths which will earn us a sure success amidst intense competition. In a nutshell, you taught us the syllabus of life. Kudos to you!

Unknown we met, well known we connect, a few words for you, forget us not!

Happy Teacher's day!

The sparking passion, the powerful words, , the zeal, the ignited mind, the speed, the accuracy, the motivation, the comprehension, the honesty, the reach amidst students, the tejas in your eyes , the knowledge and wisdom rendered, the admiration, the reverential personality, the success mantra for many, the inspiration, my biggest blessing- to my guru -the guru of life! Wishing you a happy teacher’s day!

You have turned many complex situations simple, you have made me understand differences in the irrational and the rational, the vicious circles, the directing lines, the exponential growth, integrating people, the solution to every problem, with all these you have clearly explained me the value of numbers and the geometry of life! As I write this 50th post, I wish I get back to the square; to be in your classes and yet again learn the art of life.

Leadership camp by Nani Palkhiwala foundation

Mr. Rajiv Kumar Luv, Mr.Vijayanand Joshi and Mr. Vivek Patki, the thrimoorthi’s who facilitated us to learn the art of Leadership by handling interesting sessions on: Self esteem, Goal setting, Team work, Time management, Communication and Managing ourselves. These are the six magic mantras which were dealt with a three sixty degree perspective in the Leadership training camp sponsored by NANI PALKHIWALA foundation in association with Forum of free enterprise at MOP Vaishnav College for Women Chennai.

The session started with a beautiful message:” If you want normal results, your performance should be good; if you want good results your performance should be excellent but if you expect excellent results your performance should be outstanding”. The bottom line is that the race to perfection has no finish line!

The sessions were packed with information, fun, activities, lots of interaction and above all their passion which was evident from every word which they shared! Not just these, they also asked us to keep a track of ourselves and write to them about our progress.

In this information era, we have time for everything else and not much for ourselves and these sessions rightly tapped the point and took us through a palette of activities and started with self introspection, creative thinking, networking skills and articulate communication.

Initially all the members sat with our known group but then we got divided into different groups and by this they explained us that a leader has to come out of his comfort zone. A leader is the one who feels comfortable in his state of discomfort. Each hall was now packed with strangers and we now had an icebreaker wherein each of us were given ten minutes to go around the hall and to befriend as many as possible and that initiated networking and soon the hall was teeming with familiar faces.

Here are some of the interesting activities for you – “In one minute how many dots can you make?” (I learnt a way to make 600 plus!!! And by dots I really mean dots! and now tell me how many dots can you make?”

There was also an exercise to write 25 good things about YOU and that gave us an opportunity to explore ourselves.

Here comes the next exercise wherein we were asked to write about our short, mid and long term goals and not just that, we drew them as well! That reminds me that I felt extremely motivated and charged when I was to sketch three people who inspired me the most! The prime focus of these thought provoking sessions were to make us realize the following:

Remember, a goal is a dream with a deadline; and the clock is ticking…

Ultimately the purpose of life is to LIVE, LEARN, LAUGH and leave a LEGACY!

Be a leader and leave a legacy!

Which is the best show piece?

One of the best show pieces has taken a piece of my heart and if you are not sure which then take a second look at the photo, for that piece can take away one of your heart beats too :-)
My darling cat Achomi and you can locate it doing the right thing at the right side lol
Don’t know if it has got inspired by me or I have got inspired by it, we both are sure to outwit kumbhakarna’s and pose a threat to the other kumbhakarni’s if any lol.

Whenever dad got things for home, we all encircled him like bees and probably over the days this has got achomi deprived of the attention that it had been enjoying earlier and hence one day achomi explored areas in and around our colony and found that it can also bring in a new thing to home (guess achomi thought getting new things was the cause of attention and it turned true too!). It has caught a rat alive and came running into the home, it seemed as if a child had won the first prize and flaunting it to dad. As it expected we were all shouting ‘achomi’ and guess it got happy as it ultimately got the privilege it demanded lol. We had a tough time with the tom and jerry though!

Time for an AD-ed change!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”- Charles Darwin

Whenever I see an ad on television I wonder why people are constantly marketing the same product with different commercials. I had a notion that if the product is good then people would automatically purchase and use it and for this a couple of ads should suffice. Still why are they spending so much focusing in the marketing section? This question made me perplexed until recently.

Every product has its own life cycle and it generally consists of creation stage, growth stage, maturity stage and decline stage. The graph goes like a normal bell shaped curve.
Thus every product has to face all the four phases. All the companies obviously want their products to be in growth stage forever. How is it possible to keep a product in its growth stage eternally or rather how to prevent the product not entering into the decline stage?

The graph here (will be updated soon) explains that a product can avert stepping into its decline stage by providing it with a new life! And that’s why you see that there are so many modifications done with the same product (Be it in its packaging, flavors, quantity, free gifts and the like)

For instance, lays chips has come out in multiple flavors to relentlessly have its space in the market, chocolates which has come in all possible sizes to fit the purse and similar is the case with shampoo industry which is packed in different volume to cater to the space need of the people.

In the service sector, let’s consider Airtel and Vodafone, each come out with different offers and packages to attract customers and to gain a competitive advantage of the other. Ultimately customer is the king and every product has to be deigned according to his needs! As the adage goes, change is the only thing constant!