Here is my thought for the school NSM theme. Since the focus of the meeting is 2010, I would call it 10 for 10 and ask everyone to come to the meeting with their top 10 priorities and a plan for their top 10 customers.
I'm writing this on my way to Colombo, and I can't wait to board the plane and get some sleep. I kept wondering whether making this post would spur some participation or whether it stifle it. Usually it's not wise to make such heavy decisions when you're tired, but I decided to go for it.
Gitesh, are you offering us any bribes for our ideas?
Vivek Govil
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
NSM Themes and fatigue
NSM THEME/LOGO CONTEST
Dear School Team,
This is again the time of year when we are gearing up for our annual National Sales Meet 2009. As it has now been a regular tradition to assign a logo or theme for our meet every year. Last year it was ‘Aspire, Achieve, Inspire’. Similarly this year also we would like to invite interesting and inspiring theme/logo from all you. I hope you will come up with some very unique and exciting ideas. The selected entry will be part of all our NSM 2009 stationery and memorabilia. Apart from all this you will also win prize.
So bring out your best creative ideas.
Thanks,
Gitesh Sinha
School Manager's Annual Strategy Meet 2009
Last year we had our Manager’s Meeting at our 482 F.I.E., Patparganj o
ffice and discussed a lot of things, This time round Marketing was assigned the responsibility to handle the event and as always we were different …, After a lot of discussions and going through research and analysis of about 6 to 7 properties including Kaziranaga and Wildflower Shimla throughout India we choose Baikunth Resort, Kasauli. The place proved to be beautiful beyond expectation, the evening we landed the cold breeze greeted us and I was wondering how it can we get such a wonderful weather at just 2000 feet altitude.
The evening began wit
h a cricket match between Longman and Heinemann, although the conditions were not suitable as we had to play the match on a practice pitch but the enthusiasm and interest was full and after a lot of bowling, batting, manipulation of score card and boundaries Longman won the match.
h a cricket match between Longman and Heinemann, although the conditions were not suitable as we had to play the match on a practice pitch but the enthusiasm and interest was full and after a lot of bowling, batting, manipulation of score card and boundaries Longman won the match.In the evenings we had live music playing in the lush green lawns of Baik
unth resorts, beyond the lawns their was huge green valley and beyond that scattered lighting on the hill just across the resort. It was a wonderful experience all across the evenings also not to mention the unusual games we played in the evening like blindfolding one of our buddies and asking them to locate their glass full of …do not need to mention …..What???
unth resorts, beyond the lawns their was huge green valley and beyond that scattered lighting on the hill just across the resort. It was a wonderful experience all across the evenings also not to mention the unusual games we played in the evening like blindfolding one of our buddies and asking them to locate their glass full of …do not need to mention …..What???Day 2
We started o
ur presentations and discussions on predetermined schedules and everybody presented their achievements and plans to further the cause of business. We wrapped up the day well within the schedule and moved on to the lawns for the evening.
ur presentations and discussions on predetermined schedules and everybody presented their achievements and plans to further the cause of business. We wrapped up the day well within the schedule and moved on to the lawns for the evening.Day 3
Was the day probably everybody was most excited about, we had arranged f
or team building activities and games at potter’s Hill Shimla. We drove down and up the hill to reach this place and suddenly we were in the middle of forest with a bunch of trainers and their equipments The place had few cottages too where few of us stretched their legs before starting the ‘commando’ like training and team building.
or team building activities and games at potter’s Hill Shimla. We drove down and up the hill to reach this place and suddenly we were in the middle of forest with a bunch of trainers and their equipments The place had few cottages too where few of us stretched their legs before starting the ‘commando’ like training and team building.First of all we wer
e divided in to groups of two according to our months of birth and we went on with our teams to do different activities, First of them was valley crossing, beneath the rope their was only hard rock and spines,,, anyways we checked out the equipments listened to the trainer, I also heard few of them shouting the slogan “Jai Mata Di” while crossing the valley.
e divided in to groups of two according to our months of birth and we went on with our teams to do different activities, First of them was valley crossing, beneath the rope their was only hard rock and spines,,, anyways we checked out the equipments listened to the trainer, I also heard few of them shouting the slogan “Jai Mata Di” while crossing the valley.We encouraged our buddies to go on and do it
, helped each other being packed in to safety equipments and unpacking as well….I was really surprised at times that the average age of our group was 35 but still we were enthusiastic about each activity like school kids…Then our g
roup moved on to something called “Mougli Walk” where we were supposed to go up and down a rope , walk on a rope by hold
ing another,and some of us also tried to get in to the rubber tyre, Its another matter that few of them were pulled out of that with help of five other team members …hmmm.. “Anything for the team”….as somebody had said,Well going ahead we enco
uraged other team members to take up the activities……The next activity was Burma Bridge (I do not know whether I got the spelling correct) , It was very thin rope bridge
to be crossed very carefully
there are chances if you slip you might end up in real adventure, and Naveen as usual didn’t slip but wanted to have real adventure, slipped out hanged for a moment and then was brought back with the help of trainer …
The most difficult of all these was rappling in which we had to lie perpendicular to the hill and go down the hill , very few could gather the courage to do this activity but it was real fun an real adventure . In the end our groups merged and we did a few more team games and learned that a lot of things can be done if we think in similar direction to achieve same goal.
uraged other team members to take up the activities……The next activity was Burma Bridge (I do not know whether I got the spelling correct) , It was very thin rope bridge
to be crossed very carefullythere are chances if you slip you might end up in real adventure, and Naveen as usual didn’t slip but wanted to have real adventure, slipped out hanged for a moment and then was brought back with the help of trainer …
The most difficult of all these was rappling in which we had to lie perpendicular to the hill and go down the hill , very few could gather the courage to do this activity but it was real fun an real adventure . In the end our groups merged and we did a few more team games and learned that a lot of things can be done if we think in similar direction to achieve same goal. Day4
We had our Leadership training, we did a lot of calculations and introspections and a lot of thoughts which we can bring back at our respective base and start applying in our routine work . All in all we had spent some really good time doing a lot of activities and came back as One Goal… One Team….
Prashant Rathore
Ave, Duci Novo, Similis Duci Seneci
They say the more things change, the more they remain the same. We’ve crossed the border, if not the Rubicon, but some things are exactly the same as before. Some of us still roam around wearing shawls and windcheaters (and threaten to bring parkas); and some of us keep asking why the air-conditioning is turned off. The amount of time it takes people to reach office has apparently gone up by anything between half an hour to forty minutes, but the moment of arrival or departure for most people has barely changed by four minutes here and there. And despite having everyone on the same floor, some people are never to be found at those ‘Stop Press’ moments!
But there are some things that we did leave behind, when we left the old (dis)Functional Industrial Area. There are those who have called 482/483 fie a quirky office; but quirky doesn’t begin to describe it really.
When an office occupies two buildings, getting lost is almost inevitable. An ex-colleague wandered into a Very Important Person’s office on her first day at work because she forgot which floor her department was on. She was most courteously redirected of course, but was thereafter so embarrassed that she soon moved to a different continent.
Another colleague would regularly climb down to the basement, and instead of turning right to enter the hr domain, would walk straight on and only stop when she realised that she had reached the absolute nether regions of the office (read, Finance).
From the reception on the ground floor, it was perfectly possible to spot someone on the first floor, but since the first floor connected to both buildings, it was equally possible that said person would have utterly vanished by the time one toiled up that inordinately steep flight of stairs.
Oh yes, avoiding someone you didn’t want to meet was only too easy in that labyrinth. Finding conference rooms, however, could be more exciting than the quest for the Holy Grail; especially as people who had been there for ages often gave absolute new-comers directions like, ‘Oh X hall is in the basement’, and conveniently forgot to mention that they meant the basement of the other building.
As I said, quirky doesn’t cover everything that office was. For example, the thing I miss the most about the old place is the (wash)room on the roof. On our floor, there was just one washroom. And to get to it, one had to step out onto the terrace and take a dozen steps or so. I know this may not sound eccentric, or exciting, but consider this. If it was a summer afternoon, the terrace would be a cosy 40°C; if it was a winter evening, then there was a nip in the air which was not quite pleasant; and if it happened to be raining, well, the choices ranged from being patient to making a dash for it. There is this to be said for the new office—with all its well-planned amenities, it does seem unlikely that I’ll ever need an umbrella to visit the loo.
But this office has its own share of…umm…interesting features. For one thing, one mustn’t forget that this is a green building, which the old one wasn’t. Which is a surprising claim in a way because the old office had veritable hanging gardens whereas the only significant greenery on these premises is the grass. And yes, the power generators are painted a deep green. But if they say it’s a green building, who am I to argue?
And of course there’s the daily excitement in the parking lot. In the old office, we had a solitary, rather benign looking parking attendant. He took the keys from one in the morning, with a look of calm assurance, and when he returned the keys in the evening, you knew your car had been in safe hands. Here there’s a whole fleet of parking attendants whose single-minded devotion to their duty would have been most touching, were it not for the fact that their duty consists of telling people to move their cars one foot to the right, or three inches to the left. The idea of course is that if one maneouvers one’s car three-quarters of an inch to the left, they will be able to provide parking space for the people in the other offices in the building. Did you ask, what people? Never mind.
These days there’s the added pleasure of being told, after one has wooshed into an empty parking space that one will jolly well have to woosh out and park the car in reverse. Apparently the building will lose its coveted green status unless every car in the parking lot faces the same direction. And if you try pointing at another car which is also parked illegally, as it were, you will, in all likelihood, be told that the driver is a novice who doesn’t know how to reverse his car. Oh, how glibly they perjure their souls for the sake of beautifying a parking lot!
But of course the latest happy news is that in a short while the little antics of our parking lot attendants will cease to matter to many people in the office because they won’t be parking their cars on the premises at all.
There are a couple of things about this new office which are really quite amusing, if you have the right perspective, of course. For one thing, the work stations are perfectly designed for a bpo, with enough space for a desktop (with the keyboard) and a phone. Never mind the editors; they just imagine that they need a lot of space for half a dozen reference books and four page proofs. Who needs proofs and reference books anyway? And now of course there’s this. So first we have the office in a place where the only reasonable means of transport is a car, and then we don’t have a place to park said car. Nice planning.
Delirium, once Delight
Post script: I can never resist the chance to tell a story; no matter how indirectly related it may be. When I was in college, I spent two years in the same classroom. No, I didn’t skip a year; my class refused to move out of the room. The third year, we were forcibly shunted out. And a professor philosophically (and not a little irritably) told us, ‘A classroom isn’t made up of four walls and benches, it’s about the people d****t!’ This post wasn’t about the new office at all; it was a long-overdue elegy to a place I was before.
World Environment Day which is a world-famous event was founded by the UN General Assembly in 1972. Nearly, 100 nations around the globe celebrate this event. This event commemorates every year on June 5th.
The World Environment Day Celebrations will be held on Friday, June 5, 2009.
Hosted in
Everyone must fight with weather change to protect flora and fauna.
The main theme of celebrating the World Environment Day is “Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect flora and fauna, and save the Earth”.
All the People, government and non-government authorities, societies and young groups, commerce and
Pearson TERI environment Day Events
Pearson Longman in collaboration with TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), a non profit organization for environment awareness in India are celebrating this day by organize Environment day event for School kids like Green Quiz and Painting competition at Oxford Bookstore Statesman House Connaught Place 148 Barakhamba Road New Delhi and Odyssey, Shipra Mall, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad on Friday 5 th June 2009. We will also display and promote the Environment related TERI Green Books which deals with various environment issues like climate change, greenhouse, pollution, waste recycle and natural disasters like floods and Volcanoes.
The new office
I was hoping to get more reactions to our contest on the new office, but right now there are only two entries, so it looks like I will have to toss a coin to see whether it's Gargi or Gitesh..unless some of you want to try your hand over the next couple of weeks.
Here are my thoughts about the new office:
1. I hate the commute. I knew it would be longer than Patparganj, but its added more time than I thought. But I am hoping that within a year or so, with the widening of NH24 and with a Metro station planned 400m from the office, it will be a different story.
2. I love having everyone on one floor. I can walk around and see everyone, and figure out what's going on in all parts of the company. Since practically everything I do is with other people, just a quick walk around the central block reminds me of things I may have forgotten to do, simply since I see the people I have to do it with.
3. I think having everyone together has to be good for internal communication. Anindo was complaining the other day (only half in jest) that the workload on his team has gone up. Since they are in plain sight, they get more queries and more issues that need resolution than before. If that is true, and it happens across our departments, this will be fantastic.
4. I think we can do a bit more for having fun, and improving communication. Ranjani is organising a notice board in the Bunker, where apart from official stuff you can post individual notices (if you need a house mate or are selling a car) and Dipankar is trying to arrange a table tennis table in our unused expansion area.
The one area which still seems very under utilised is the informal breakaway in the midst of all the editors (the purple chair place). Any thoughts on what we should do with it? Being patient is always an option!
Vivek Govil
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
trickled into new office awed and overwhelmed by new found agoraphobia (fear of open space) felt also the pangs of nostalgia for good old familiar 482 building. At first sight at 7 th floor, the endless rows of abstemious creamy cubicles and bluish glass meeting rooms spread out till far end, echoing with mechanical whirl robotic printers reminded me of some starship enterprise.
Hina our chirpy girl from School Sales gave everyone run for their money by doing each of these tasks with breathless gusto. No guessing she won most of the prizes, so much so that the anchor girl suggested her to take up her job as career.
The final showdown was of musical chairs and what a rush it was!!
It was then I realized that this not so familiar yet slightly enchanting urbane “Knowledge Boulevard” is going to be my office for days to come in Pearson and with all its faces new and old...sights and sounds…its manic mornings and mesmerizing dusk and With the moments of unanticipated joy and frustrations… ideas and introspection… I too have become the part of this new, exiting and bigger universe.
The Move
I thought I’d put up some cartoons and poems about moving to our new office. The poems are mostly taken from http://officehumourblog.com/. The cartoons are mine though. So here goes...
About being “closely knit” in a new environment :
Some of us were already concerned about the lack of privacy in the new office even before the move. Now even Big Brother was watching....
'The art of pretending is tricky indeed.
It takes planning, luck, and lots of speed.
Your boss comes by so you pick up the phone,
You talk to yourself in a professional tone.
A quick click required to change the screen,
So games and emails remain unseen'
About life being governed by the shuttle service:
For the ones who were used to the luxury of waking up at 9 in the morning and still making it to office in time( and that includes me), the new schedule was rather taxing...
'Ode to the Clock
That’s why I love and hate
The way she does decieve.
She always makes me wait
For when it’s time to leave.'
About teething problems :
Even after having spent sleepless nights trying to ensure a smooth transition, there was no respite for the IT team. The printers did not cooperate, the UPS refused to get charged, the phone lines revolted...
'A loop unending won’t release its hold
And ctrl alt delete won’t do as it’s told.
With data dying a death undeserved,
The power button’s power is held in reserve.
But what ill effects would come of that act?
Would the hemorrhaging host remain intact?
The risk is great, but the current crisis is greater.
Action must be taken and it mustn’t come later.
The boot begins and words fill the screen
And the checker checks to see if it’s clean.
The file was fine or so it was thought,
But if it was, would you have what you got?
Then it happens, the moment you feared.
The program restarts and the screen is cleared.
No options are left except for the one;
Format it all for the virus has won'
About new workstations and storage space :
Unpacking proved to be an interesting excercise. Also, there was the stuff about bonding with the furniture...
'I may have never met you,
But that’s okay with me.
I do know that my love is true
Even though you disagree'
**********************************************************
-Gargi
Thanks
In my earlier blog post, I forgot to thank a lot of people who made the trip memorable. So here goes:
Thank you Navneet for teaching us how to play bluff and being patient enough to play with beginners like me. Thanks Babita for managing to capture a coupe for us where we didn’t have a single seat. Thank you Nikhil for keeping us well supplied with potato wafers, soft drinks and kachoris on our way to
Anindita