Learn and Lead

List of HR and Training Conferences in India

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:40:00 +0000

Sharing with you a list of HR, Training, Learning conferences in India. Most of these are annual conferences.

Drop me a note in comments section in case I missed out a conference that you feel should be added to the list.

What's Your Tag Line?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 11:06:00 +0000

Many years ago a recruiter connected with me. During our conversation he asked me what's my tag line. My tag line, what's that? I asked. He said, you know, like someone is a "Problem Solver", or "Deal Closer" etc. You need to have a tag line that describes you, he said to me.

The conversation got me thinking. Before that time I had never thought what was my tag line. After some thought, I chose "Enabling People" as my tag line. I like to enable people deliver better, by creating an environment that enables them to succeed, by sharing knowledge, by learning from them, by encouraging free ideas and thoughts, This could be my team, my clients, or my friends and family.

What's your tag line?

India as a Skill-based Society

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 18:09:00 +0000

My interview published in Times Jobs site on 12 May 2016. You can read the original article here.

‘India still gives more importance to degrees than skills’

Comments

By TimesJobs.com on May 12, 2016

The country still has a long way to go before becoming a skill-based society, says Manish Mohan of Wadhwani Foundation

Neha Singh Verma, TimesJobs.com

The government should review minimum wages for different skills and set up policies to recognise skilled workers, says Manish Mohan, executive vice president-Skills Development Network at Wadhwani Foundation.

“In the quest to meet numbers, we should not forget to train youth in higher skills and not stop at basic entry-level service skills,” he said in an interview to TimesJobs.com.

He also said corporations need contribute towards training needs of their industry, even if the individuals are not expected to join the company.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How can the government help individuals with vocational training/ skill development? How are companies providing a helping hand to make India a skill-based hub?

The government is running many schemes to help individuals take up vocational training. Most of these schemes are free for the student and include not just training but also other incentives like travel and paid internships. What the government should do is to stop this free training. It is important for the youth to realise the importance of training. Free training should only be provided in rare situations, like BPL youth.

The corporate sector in my view is not doing enough for making India a skill-based hub. Most corporates do a lot of training, but it is mainly hiring related. Corporates need to contribute towards the training needs of their industry overall, even if the individuals are not expected to join the company. Additionally, corporates must actively participate in curriculum design, providing support for imparting skills through adjunct faculty and commit to internship and apprenticeship programs. The corporates should also help in opening their factories and lab equipment for students undergoing skill development in neighboring areas.

How is India moving towards a skill-based society and what are the hurdles?

India still has a long way to becoming a skill-based society. The biggest hurdle is the social stature of skills and skilled people. As a society, we still give more importance to degrees rather than actual skills. This is reflected in the wages we pay to people with hard skills like carpenters and plumbers. One of the ways in which the government can help is to review minimum wages for different skills and set up policies to recognise the skilled workers. In the quest to meet numbers, we should not forget to train youth in higher skills and not stop at basic entry-level service skills.

How can technology help vocational training and education of the youth?

Technology enables us to overcome the severe shortage of trainers and provides a mechanism of delivering consistent training adhering to quality standards. Technology can also be used to teach complex concepts easily, enabling a wider reach for students and teachers. Many more expert trainers can reach out to a much larger audience through technology which can also connect employers to skilled workforce enhancing their employment opportunities.

To creating a cohesive ecosystem for men and women entrepreneurs, how can roadblocks for women entrepreneurs be removed?

Women play a key role in the country’s growth, both economically and socially. It is imperative that women are not left behind and be encouraged to take on a greater role in our economic growth. Providing incentives for women entrepreneurs will provide a much-needed boost to our growth.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that the annual growth of the Indian economy could improve 2.4 per cent if the country implements pro-growth and pro-gender policies.

Creating women focused funding, building women-centric mentor networks, providing easier access to education and training, and simplify women oriented support systems like child care and family support can go a long way in harnessing the natural strengths that women bring to entrepreneurship. To remove roadblocks, a National Grievances’ Forum should set up where the problems that women entrepreneurs face in day-to-day work environments are quickly addressed.

Retail – The sunrise sector for employment opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 04:00:00 +0000

I recently wrote an article on the Retail sector in India and the employment opportunities it provides. Here's the link to the original article on ET Retail.

Few months ago, a small paanstall mysteriously appeared on the footpath near our office. I saw a young man at the helm, selling paan, cigarettes, chewing gum and some toffees. As I walked by his stall in the evenings, I occasionally bought a packet of chewing gum to encourage his endeavour. In a short time, I found that he didn't need much encouragement from me. I saw the number of people visiting his stall grow and now he has packets of popular namkeen and chips, cold drinks and mineral water. In just a few months, I saw his stall growing significantly to cater to the office crowd in the area. He still smiles at me and offers me free chewing gum to show his gratitude for encouraging him in his early days.

This young man's journey is also the story of Indian Retail Sector which over the last decade or so has gone through a major transformation. Shedding the initial fears of large corporations displacing small shops, there is now a noticeable shift towards organized retailing. Suddenly you notice malls in every nook and corner, displaying large billboards and proudly lit up at night. Indian brands compete unabashedly with their multi-national counterparts. The un-organized retail has also stepped up, with even the small time kirana stores modernizing themselves in terms of display and operations to keep pace with the growing demands of the customers.

Today, the retail sector accounts for about 22% of India's GDP. According to a recent KPMG report on Indian retail, the overall size of the industry is estimated to be $534 billion in 2013-14 with a CAGR of 15% over last five years. Going forward, the overall retail sector growth is likely to witness a CAGR of 12-13 %, which would be worth $948 billion in 2018-19.

A number of factors have influenced this dramatic growth. Growing youth population, nuclear families in urban areas, a growing middle class with rising incomes and the resulting purchasing power, and higher brand consciousness have driven the demand for retailing. Opening up of FDI has created conducive regulatory environment for the sector. This coupled with rapid real estate infrastructure development, better efficiency in supply-chain, R&D, innovation and new product development has fueled the supply side.

All this translates to the many opportunities for the youth in the country. As per a report by NSDC, India will need around 56 million strong work-force for the booming retail sector. The sector will have one of the highest incremental human resource requirement of 17.35 million by 2022, offering opportunities in sales, merchandising, store management, central management and procurement.

For the youth to avail the upcoming opportunities and pursue a promising career in retail industry, it is important they equip themselves with the right training as different lines of retail business require distinct skill-sets. Some skills and interests that one must have before joining the retail industry are:

Enjoy working with people
Enjoy constant customer interaction
An enthusiastic, flexible and positive attitude
Ability to step in another person's shoes
Empathy and understanding towards a distressed customer

Formal education is not as essential in the retail industry as it is in other areas of marketing. Many senior executives in this industry are people who were hired as retail staff. Their sincerity, hard work, enthusiasm, speed and experience,and an unwavering customer-centric focus resulted in their growth. So with the right attitude, one can easily hope to make it big in the retail industry. Typically, one can enter the retail industry as a class Xth or X11th pass out and with the right attitude and training, over a period of time,can advance to specialized jobs or management positions that offer higher remuneration.

Major proportion of the employment in the retail sector is in front-end/retail assistant profiles in stores. Store operations account for 75%-80% of the total manpower employed in the organized retail sector. Although the skill requirements may seem similar across segments, the type of product retailed, format of the store and customer involvement impacts the intensity of skill requirement across various functions. Soft skills such as communication and interpersonal skills are the key criterion for employability for both the entry-level and middle-level jobs at the retail store.

Retail industry in India has the potential to provide employment to a large number of youth. The latest announcement by the government to allow 100% FDI in retail (e-commerce, wholesale and in the marketing of food products) has already indicated a surge in employment opportunities in this sector. A direct result of FDI would be increase in the number as well as the formats of retail, which would result in the generation of jobs in multiple categories. This development brings with it an unprecedented need for nation-wide availability of skilled labour and an increased demand for comprehensive skills training.

Skilling India: Mine the Young Workforce

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 04:50:00 +0000

My article originally published in Deccan Herald on 21 Jan 2016.

Prosperous countries with high GDP and per capita income tend to have high skill capital. This also translates to better quality of life and growth in the Human Development Index. As economies evolve from being commodity centric to knowledge centric, growth is increasingly dependent on availability of skills.

Our country has a great opportunity in terms of its demographic dividend. While we are growing to be the most populous country, expected to overtake China between 2022 and 2028, the opportunity lies in the fact that we will also be the youngest country with the median age of population at 32. Almost 64 per cent of our population will be in the working age group by 2021.

India is expected to have a workforce surplus of 47 million people against the workforce deficit in most large economies. In addition to being the youngest country, India is also expected to be the fastest growing economy. This year, we expect our economic growth rate to overtake that of China. India, therefore, is sitting on a huge opportunity of a large and young workforce surplus complemented by a fast growing economy. It is critical that India focuses on skill development both for economic growth as well as social development.

A sure way to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth is to provide a mechanism to acquire skills, empowering the disadvantaged sections with skill development opportunities and developing a skill growth programme for continuous education and productivity enhancements. A skilled workforce aligned to industry needs will maintain the growth trajectory and competitiveness of various sectors of the Indian economy.

However, the challenge ahead of us is equally huge. The enrolment in educational institutes drops by almost half at each stage of critical development of children and youth between age groups of 5-14 years and 15-19 years. Most of these drop-outs join the workforce, which results in its illiterate to semi-literate profile. Almost 64 per cent of our workforce is primary level educated or illiterate, leaving only 36 per cent with middle or higher level education.

Even as our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is rising over the years, the current GER suggests that almost 80 per cent of our youth never go to college. While the number of universities and educational institutes are rising, our teacher-student ratio is one of the lowest in the world. Additionally, in the working population of 15 to 29 years, only about 2 per cent receive any formal vocational training and 8 per cent receive non-formal vocational training. This is dismal when compared to other countries like Korea (96 per cent), Germany (75), Japan (80) and United Kingdom (68 per cent) where a large part of the working population receive formal vocational training.

Lack of skills

The big challenge is that even if we push and create workforce that has formal education, will they be employable? A recent survey found that almost half our youth were not sure if their post-secondary education has improved their chances of finding a job. On the flip-side, in another survey of the industry, almost 40 per cent of employers say lack of skills is the main reason for entry-level vacancies. Employability of graduates of our current education system is a major concern.

To overcome these challenges, it is imperative that skill training be mainstreamed into school and higher education system. As the government aims to impart skill training to 500 million people by 2022, it has launched many schemes that are focused towards building a strong base of skill training with mainstream education. The vocationalisation of school education, community college and B Voc schemes, Kaushal Kendras to encourage skill courses in colleges are some steps in the right direction. In addition, NSDC funded vocational training providers have been set up in the last few years to support this endeavour.

For effective implementation of policies, on-ground programme management support is crucial to enable linkages between the stakeholders and ensure that the big picture is kept in mind. The use of technology should be used to enable scale, quality and consistency of training for high-demand entry and middle-level jobs.

This training should primarily be developed with industry inputs since they are the main recipients of the workforce. Industry driven, technology enabled solution that is integrated into mainstream education will go a long way in preparing us to leverage the skilling-led opportunity ahead of us.

Can Acrimony Lead to Higher Performance?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:48:00 +0000

If you have been following the Delhi state's political situation, you would know that the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party are constantly at logger heads with the political powers at the Center. Given the nature of how the capital state is governed, not everything is under the Chief Minister's hierarchical control. It's a bit like matrix structures in large organization. There have been many public spats between the Delhi Chief Minister and the Police Department (which is under Central rule). There is a widespread acrimony between the two. There is a constant one-upmanship going on between the two, with each trying to do better than the other. Even though each is trying to show other as inferior (and corrupt, and inefficient), they are doing this by improving their game better than the other. In the process, both are providing better service to the public at large. This is different from the situation where opposition party trying to pull down the ruling party in parliament, wherein the strategy is primarily to point out negative things without any accountability of the opposition to deliver (whilst they are not in power).

What happens when we see similar acrimony at workplace? I observed that each person tries to prove themselves in their role. There is constant push to do better than the other person. Email responses are faster and there is a clamouring to provide better customer service.

Is it possible that acrimony in team can lead to higher performance?

Of course the side effects of acrimony is low trust amongst team, fewer ideas generated in open discussions, fewer open discussions, and in general, not a fun environment to work in. Unless the people are stuck in the jobs (like the Chief Minister and the Police Dept), there is a good chance that people in the team will just give it up and leave the organization.

Diverging Convergence

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 18:10:00 +0000

There is a divergence of devices. We are no longer limited to the desktop or a laptop. Mobile devices have overtaken the desktop and laptops. These mobile devices may be tablets or phones. Wearable devices is no longer a thing of the future. We have devices that control refrigerators, air conditioners and a host of other appliances. We have devices controlling our television and even our automobiles. The devices are everywhere. The Internet of Things is here.

And yet, we want the same information on all devices. Whether we are using laptop, or tablet or phone, we want the same information available in each device, be it email or bookmarks. We install apps on our mobile using our laptops. We want continuity in what we watch on a laptop or mobile and what we watch on the television. We want to control our appliances using our phones. We want to alerts about our automobiles on our tablets and laptops. We want the same information irrespective of the device we are using.

The devices are diverging. The information is converging.

My Top 10 Photo Editing Mobile Apps for 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:00:00 +0000

I have been trying my hand at photography for a few years now. I started with a point and shoot camera before moving to a DSLR. The most interesting advice I read about photography was that the best camera is the one you have when you need it. Now I use the mobile phone more than any other camera. DSLR is too bulky to carry around all the time and gets used only on special occasions. I bought my phone based on the camera it has. The camera was one of the most critical criteria in my selecting the phone.

The mobile phones these days come with features that make the phone camera so powerful. You can easily focus on the area you want, set ISO, exposure and in some cases even set aperture and shutter speeds. Combine this with powerful and yet simple to use mobile apps, you can get some pretty amazing pictures using your mobile phone.

So here are my Top 10 Camera and Photo Editing Mobile Apps:

1. Pixlr : In my view the most comprehensive photo editing app on the mobile. It’s got the most editing features and add-ons like filters, borders, stickers etc.

2. HTC Gallery : The default HTC Gallery app comes with a basic photo editor that I end up using most often. It does the job well for basic cropping and image adjustments. It has limited set of borders and filters but is very handy for quick edits.

3. Photo Grid : This is the best collage app that I have found. Really easy to use. It has a large number of templates for grid collages, and it also allows you to create free form collages. You can edit each picture individually. It also has a decent set of other collage templates with stickers.

4. Color Splash : If you are looking at editing and replacing colors of your photographs, this is the app for you. You can convert your photo into a black and white image and then paint using the original color or ‘paint’ the image black and white. Creating black and white images with color splash is a breeze in this one.

5. Giant Square : If you are on Instagram, you have to try this at least once. Giant Square creates big pictures for your Instagram thumbnail view. You can take one picture and create different sizes of thumbnails, from 3x3 to horizontal or vertical aligned thumbnails that make up a big picture.

6. Instagram : While this is primarily an image sharing app, it comes with an inbuilt editor and a host of filters. I have used Instagram for editing and applying certain filters.

7. Aviary : A nifty app that does the basic editing as well as provides a host of stickers to pep up your photographs. Unfortunately only the basic stickers are free and you need to buy other cool stickers and add-ons.

8. Frontback : I discovered this app by chance. You can take one photo with the front camera and another with the back camera, and combine both of them into one picture. It’s a great way to click a selfie and show what you are seeing in one picture.

9. Lapse It : Here’s a great app for capturing amazing time-lapse and stop motion videos with your Android camera. With the paid premium version, you can add sound track to your timelapse videos and use many other features.

10. Snapseed : I have started using this app recently and am beginning to like it. While it has the basic editing features and filters, the app allows you to adjust settings even in different filter applications.

I have tried these apps on Android. It is most likely that the iPhone and Windows versions of these apps also exist. Please check the respective OS app store for the version you are looking for.

I must say that despite using these apps I haven’t been able to create images like the ones these apps show on their site. Photography is not always about the app or the camera, it is about having an eye for the picture.

All photos/videos are mine and clicked using a mobile camera. You can view more pics here.

My Top 10 Productivity Mobile Apps for 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:51:00 +0000

Continuing my post of My Top 10 Mobile Apps for 2014, I share my top 10 productivity enhancing mobile apps. In the last year, I found myself using the smartphone mobile more and more, not requiring me to use my laptop many a times. These apps allowed me to access my data anywhere and allowed me to be ubiquitous online.

My Top 10 Productivity Mobile Apps:

Calendar: While there are many Calendar apps available, I settled for native HTC Calendar app as my preferred app. The native app allow me to sync multiple accounts. I synced Microsoft Exchange for my office calendar. You can additionally sync Google, Outlook.com and Yahoo for your personal calendars. I found useful the ability to search for location on Google Maps directly from the calendar invites if the location was entered in the meeting invites. It is also extremely easy to dial conference call numbers by simply clicking on the numbers within the invite text. The HTC native app shows me the invite text while making the call so I don’t have to remember the call dial-in codes while making the call.
Email (Mail, Gmail, Outlook): When on the move, you need access to email. Technically you could use one email client for all your work and personal email accounts. However I prefer to use different email clients for different email accounts. For my office Exchange account I use native Mail app. There is an email client for most services so you can use the ones you prefer. Interestingly as I write this post, I notice that there is a pre-release version of OWA for Android, which I believe will allow for better integration with Exchange and Office 365. Currently the ratings and reviews aren’t flattering but the app looks like a promising one to improve productivity.
OneNote: I use OneNote for taking notes. I can create different notebooks and within that organize my notes in sections, sub-sections and pages. If you aren't already using a software to organize your notes, I would highly recommend OneNote. You can sync your notebooks with your Outlook.com account and then access them on your phone using the OneNote app. You could also try Evernote which is also a popular app, though I haven't used it much since we use OneNote at work.
Google Keep: While OneNote is a full featured notes organizer, I just love Google Keep for its simplicity. Keep is a much lighter note taking app. This too can be synced on multiple devices so you have your data available on all devices whenever you need it. A very handy app for quick note taking.
Task: I tried a few To Do apps but finally settled for native HTC Tasks app. I can sync multiple accounts and have my tasks with me all the time. the app has the usual end dates, reminders etc. If you sync to your office Exchange server, just remember to save your tasks on the server and not in the local PST while using your laptop.
Online drives (Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox): I am a late user of online drives that have been around for a while now. If you need to access your files wherever you go and on whichever device you use, you gotta use one of the online drives to store your files. Based on your preference, you can use Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox. All three have their laptop interfaces and mobile apps that allow you to sync and access files from any device. I use OneDrive since it works better with Office365.
Editing files (Microsoft Office Mobile, Polaris Office): While I don’t edit or create documents too often on my phone, but on the few occasion that I needed to, I was really thankful that I could actually edit document, spreadsheets and presentations on my phone. I started using Polaris Office for editing documents since this came pre-installed with my phone. It is a simple to use app and does the work just fine. I have since also discovered Microsoft Office Mobile that I prefer to use because of its better integration with OneDrive and Dropbox. If I need to edit documents on my online drives, it is easier to use Microsoft Office Mobile. If you are using Google Drive, you can always use Google Docs.
Gesture typing / Trace keyboard: Not really an app but a feature on Android phones is Gesture typing (on most Android phones), or Trace Keyboard (on HTC). This allows you to type by simply tracing your fingers over the keyboard letters without lifting your finger. This is a great feature to start typing faster and I would recommend you get used to this feature. It is easier to use this feature if you are comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard layout. I am not sure if the iPhone has this built in feature, but I discovered Swype app on iTunes that allows you to type without lifting your finger.
Conference Caller: If you are on conference call bridges a lot, then you need to give Conference Caller a try. Conference Caller works like a general phone book for your conference call meeting details. Each phone book item consists of name, conference code and (optional) pin. I stored details of my various conference call bridge numbers in the app. It makes dialing in to a conference call bridge a one touch affair since the app dials your conference ID and pin numbers after dialing your conference call bridge number. You may need to experiment with settings for your conference call service but once you manage to do that, this makes getting on to a conference call so much easier.
Pocket: Online bookmarking has been around for a while now, even though it no longer seems to be very popular now. However I found Pocket really handy. While browsing online either on the laptop or the phone, I can send/share any link to Pocket. The app has a neat interface to access my saved links. You can tag your saved links for better retrieval.

My Top 10 Mobile Apps for 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 22:22:00 +0000

The year 2014 was the year when I feel I actually started using my smartphone smartly. I could get much of my work done on my mobile, many a times not requiring me to switch on my laptop. In the new few posts I will share with you my top apps for networking, productivity, music, photography, chats, reading/news and games. Since I use an Android phone, the links below are Google Play links. I am sure you can get most of these apps for iPhone and perhaps Windows Phone.

My Top 10 Mobile Apps that I used and liked most in 2014 are:

CamCard Business Card Reader: I collect a lot of business cards as part of my job. It is hard to manage these physical cards even though I have a nice card file. After trying out a few card scanning apps, I have narrowed down to CamCard Business Card Reader. I can just take a photograph of the business card and the app will scan and store the info in different fields. I can save the contact details in my Google account and they will then automatically appear in my phone book. The free version allows you to scan only 5 cards in a day and up to 200 cards.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary: What use is a smart phone if it doesn’t have a dictionary? I use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app to quickly browse words and even hear their pronunciation. This app has been really handy for me and my savior when my kids ask me the meaning of any word.
Google Maps has become my most favorite companion on my drives every day. Almost every time I get into the car, I switch on the GPS on my phone and feed in the destination in to Google Maps. I use this primarily to check the traffic and it gives a fairly accurate time to destination. I have found the ETA is very accurate for shorter distances and reasonably accurate for longer distances, given then unpredictability of Delhi traffic. The Greens, Yellows and Reds representing the traffic are quite accurate. At times I have used it to follow the shortest route to my destination but I wouldn’t recommend it for the weak hearted. It has taken me through the smallest of the lanes in Delhi that I didn’t even know existed.
Waze Social GPS Maps & Traffic is another cool navigation app that I used during the year. This is an interactive and social navigation app. You can see other drivers online, you can see other drivers sharing hazards on the road (like an accident, or construction on the road). You can connect with friends, share your destination, and see each other’s ETA. The few drawbacks I felt it has is that the traffic situation is not as accurate as Google Maps, the connection to the server seems to keep breaking and there aren’t enough other people using this app in India to really get the benefit of social driving.
Delhi Traffic Police app is really useful to get alerts about Delhi traffic. You could get the same alerts on Twitter or Facebook, but it is useful having an app just for these alerts. I found these updates quite current and extremely useful.
HTC Sense TV app is really useful if you always have trouble finding your TV or Satellite set top box remote. Since I use HTC phone, I use the HTC Sense TV app, but you should check out other similar TV remote apps. I can set up the phone as the remote for TV, Set Top Box, and the Home Theatre system. It configures well with Indian DTH providers and once configured, it provides complete program guide too.
Truecaller Called ID & Block: The DND directory hasn’t been very helpful in stopping unwanted calls and SMSs. I have been relying on app to help me get rid of unwanted spam calls and SMSs. The app not just identifies the called, it even tells how many other people have blocked that number. It also helps identify the caller even if you don’t have the number stored. Don’t expect it to work on ALL numbers, it is not an official telephone directory. It works on the basis of reading and uploading your address book (with due permission from you, thankfully).
Sync.ME also propagates itself as a Caller ID and Block app. However I have found this app most useful to link contacts to Facebook or LinkedIn accounts. You can sync your accounts with Facebook and/or LinkedIn and it will show you the latest picture and other info about your contact.
Unit Converter: This is fantastic app to convert almost any unit of measure, even currency conversion. The app gives you a long list of units that you can convert. You can add to favorites the most used ones to access these quickly.
Flightradar24 is a cool app just to play around with, and a really useful app if you are going to pick up someone at the airport. You can see planes around the world move in real-time on a detailed map. In the paid version of this app, you get detailed info about each flight, including ETA. The cockpit view is a simulated view and it quite cool initially. After the initially euphoria, you don’t find it much useful. You can even point the phone above the horizon to see planes around you, but this is also just a pizazz feature rather than anything really useful.

Also see:
• My Top 10 Productivity Mobile Apps for 2014

Look out for my other soon-to-be-published lists:
• My Top 5 Social Networking Mobile Apps
• My Top 5 Reading and News Mobile Apps
• My Top 5 Music Mobile Apps
• My Top 5 Chat Mobile Apps
• My Top 10 Camera and Photos Mobile Apps
• My Top 5 Mobile Game Apps

Image courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangkuhnle/4163909778/

What Kind of a CLO Are You?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 06:28:00 +0000

Inspired by a recent post by Anand (who btw has just turned to become an independent Learning Consultant, give him a shout out in case you are looking for someone) where he categorizes variety of stakeholders who want to get on the LMS bandwagon as Yell, Yum and Yes.

In my view there are three kinds a CLOs implementing or having implemented a Learning Management System (LMS). They are the Learning CLO, Management CLO and the Systems CLO.

The Learning CLOs are all about learning and not so much about training. In fact they might not even care about LMS or other systems as long as learning is taking place. They look for social features in the LMS, they look for extending the LMS beyond managing and measuring training days. They also might have a hard time explaining to the CEO how they are measuring all the learning taking place in the organization.

The Management CLOs are all about trying to be in control of learning and training in the organization. They want roles competencies with defined learning plans for each individual. All training must be ‘approved’ and costs down to the last penny/cent/paisa must be booked to the right department.

Finally the Systems CLOs want to track everything, right from the training request to smiley sheets. They want everything automated, they want alerts for training launches, approvals, reminders, etc. They want reports that are automated and LMS with linkages with other enterprise systems.

No points for guessing which CLO might be the best. You need a good blend of all, Learning, Management and Systems.

Is Social Media Overrated for Brands?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 13:30:00 +0000

A lot has been written about how social media is impacting brands. Eventually that would mean that what gets written on social media should start to impact the company’s financial performance. However I wonder if there is a critical size that once companies achieve, they will have less to worry about social media? For these brands, social media, or rather bad publicity in social media is perhaps overrated. Now it doesn’t mean that they should stop ignoring what’s written but it is unlikely to impact them significantly.

I came across these tweets by Vir Sanhvi. Now Vir Sanhvi is a renowned journalist, writer and reviewer. He has 771K followers on Twitter. So he tweeting bad about a large telecom brand should mean something. Quite a few people joined him in lambasting the brand.

Dear Vodafone :just gave up trying to get a post paid I phone connection from you because you have the worst helpline in India .Shameful!
— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) October 28, 2014

Yes Vodafone was kind enough to tweet and offer to help.This is my response . pic.twitter.com/6uCJf7iW4G
— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) October 28, 2014

So what impact will Vir’s tweets and other related tweets really have on this brand’s performance? In my view, absolutely none!!!

Not just this, there have been numerous other brands that have been bashed in the social media. They call these social media disasters. And don’t forget the recent Flipkart 1 Billion Day disaster. However, it doesn’t look like these disasters had any significant impact on the companies’ performance.

I think social media is a great vehicle to get a brand started. It’s great for a new and small enterprises. I feel social media can make a brand, not necessarily break one, at least not a really big brand.

I think at the end of the day, we all know that everyone has a bad day. Shit happens, as they say. Social media has just become an avenue for us to bitch about something or the other, and perhaps it is overrated in its power to alter businesses. The brands should focus on their products/services. The social media will take care of itself.

Hiring Introverts and Extroverts

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 18:35:00 +0000

I recently became a little active on Quora. I came across a question there that caught my attention.

"As a decision-maker, when did you hire an introvert over an extrovert? Did you find them more productive or less?"

I think it depends on the role you are hiring for. I have seen that when hiring for an individual contributor role, I might be okay to select introverts. I might even consider introverts for roles like testing, editing, proof reading etc.

I am more likely to select an extrovert for leadership roles, sales roles and roles that require a huge amount of teamwork.

Top 10 Technology Trends 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 12:45:00 +0000

I was recently researching top technology trends and compiled the top 10 technology trends for 2014 from different sources.

While Internet of Things, Wearable Technology and Big Data are of course common trends that most people are predicting, I was surprised to find 3D Printing as a key technology trend to watch out for.

Here’s the compiled document with links to the original sources:

Top 10 technology trends for 2014 from Manish Mohan

How to Decide Whether to Insource or Outsource Elearning Development?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:13:00 +0000

I recently got a query on LinkedIn about needing help with decision between insourcing and outsourcing elearning content development.

I have a small request - is there a way to get a ball-park figure to develop one hour of e-learning content in India using rapid development software such as Articulate Studio/Storyline?

We have been doing e-learning development in house and our new VP of HR wants to consider the possibility of outsourcing it. I am in the process of doing a cost-benefit analysis and so, need this information.

I did go through the Chapman Alliance presentation and Karl Kapp's articles - however, I felt that it is better to hear from a practitioner & expert from India.

I wish the decision of insource and outsource was as simple as cost comparison. First of all, it is really hard to get a ball-park figure to develop one hour or elearning. It really depends on many many things, including the partner you chose. The range of price for one hour of elearning in the market is very wide and could even vary 10 times. Cost could even be significantly more if you include video, game based learning and high end simulations. So you can imagine taking this decision itself will be hard.

While comparing cost of insource and outsource efforts is important, another big factor is that whether all the skills required to develop elearning content are available within the organization. How you are currently structured and what the current utilization of the L&D staff is within the organization will also play a big role in insource vs outsource decision. If the utilization is sporadic, it would make sense to outsource instead of carrying the cost of unutilized time.

You should also consider what you want to achieve in the long run. Are there tasks that are not being accomplished because the internal team is busy with content development? Are there key strategies that are being left unattended that might get the much needed attention if you outsource?

And finally, what’s the really the volume of development the organization wants to create in what timeframe will also play a role in determining insource or outsource decision. Is it a one-time initiative to develop a critical mass of content for the organization? Are there enough volumes to justify outsourcing content?

Hope the above provides you with some pointers to taking the decision.

6 Tips to Motivate Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:48:00 +0000

I am such a sucker for questions. So how could I resist when Mahindra Experience (@MahindraExp) tweeted to my handle, “@manishmo Can you share some tips that will motivate one to work harder and help them reach their goals?”

Here are 6 tips to motivate yourself to work towards your goals:

Write your goals and make them visible to you all the time (e.g. pin them on your soft board).
Break down your goals into smaller goals with timelines.
Celebrate small successes in your journey to reach your goals.
Share your goals with someone you trust. Enroll them to work with you on your goals.
Assign time in your daily routine to work on your goals.
Keep some time aside to reflect on your journey to your goals. Evaluate your progress and plan as required.

What are your tips to stay self-motivated?

Cool Augmented Reality Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:16:00 +0000

Came across this video blog by Matt Gonzalez in which he talks about augmented reality apps. I tried three of these apps and found two of them quite cool.

Word Lens Translator app is a translation app that is really useful while traveling. You can just point to the words and viola, you get the translated version. Here's a sample of what I tried.

Augment is a little harder to master but once you do, it seems quite cool. You can select objects and place them on real time camera pictures to see how they might look at the place. Quite useful say when selecting some furniture or appliance and seeing how it will look at your home. How do you think this table lamp would look on my bedside table?

Layar is the third app I tried. Point the camera to a Layar-enabled magazine and it bring alive the magazine. You could potentially point to products in the magazine and buy them instantly online. I didn't find this very useful since I couldn't really find any Layar enabled magazine around me. The newspapers these days are beginning to come print QR Codes that you could point to and go directly to a website that might show you the video. Boring, in my view. If I wanted to watch a video, I wouldn't be reading the newspaper or the magazine. I think the really cool futuristic gadget would be the newspapers shown in Harry Potter movies, the ones where the video is viewed on the newspaper itself. Now that would be really cool gadget to have.

Watch the full video here:

Seven Survival Skills in Today’s World

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 11:17:00 +0000

I recently came across International Finance Corporation’s (IFC). It’s “6th International Private Education Conference, Rethinking Education, Shaping the Future, brought together thought leaders and investors in education from around the globe. On April 1-2, 2014 in San Francisco, USA, the delegates discussed how innovation and technology in education delivery and results measurement are giving us new tools for broadening access to quality education for millions of students around the world.”

Their YouTube channel provides you with access to videos of their conference.

The keynote address to the conference was by Tony Wagner. Tony Wagner “currently serves as an Expert In Residence at Harvard University’s new Innovation Lab. Prior to this appointment, Tony was the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.”

In this video, Tony makes some very pertinent points. Knowledge today has become commodity, available on every Internet connected device. It is no longer a scarce commodity available only with teachers. Because it was a scarce commodity in the past, it was considered that the more knowledge one had, the more value one had in the market place. Today one doesn’t need a teacher to acquire knowledge. And so how can one add value to the market place?

Knowledge is one leg of the stool, which is easy to acquire. The other two legs are Skill and Will. Skill is about asking the questions, how to acquire new knowledge, how to solve new problems. Will is the motivation to use the knowledge and skill.

In his research with companies on what are they looking for in new hires, Tony discovered that the set of core competencies required are very similar, not just to get a job, but to be a continuous learner and be an active and informed citizen. The seven survival skills in today’s world are:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Critical Thinking is all about knowing how to ask really good questions, how to ask the right questions, not necessarily get the right answers.
Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence: Teams are no longer led by supervisors. They are led by peers through influence.
Agility and Adaptability: Schools are in complete contrast with this requirement of the world today with their unchanging environment and syllabus.
Initiative and Entrepreneurial-ship: Companies are not looking for employees who set 4-5 goals and meet all of them. They are looking at employees who set 10 stretch goals and succeeds 7-8 out of them.
Effective Oral and Written Communication: The kids can’t write today because they don’t know how to think. They are also not writing with voice, which is putting their passion and perspective in the conversation to be more persuasive.
Accessing and Analyzing Information: We need to teach the students to be able to search the Internet for information.
Curiosity and Imagination

5 Types of People You Should NEVER Negotiate With

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Thu, 15 May 2014 08:08:00 +0000

I am starting to follow a lot of sales blogs lately. One interesting blog I am now following is The Sales Hunter by Mark Hunter. In one of his posts he talks about 5 types of people you should never negotiate with. Useful categorization if you are in sales.

According to Mark, the 5 types of people you shouldn't negotiate with are:

1. The person who will take your offer to the decision maker.
2. The overly emotional person.
3. The committee.
4. The low-price champion.
5. The “we can’t give a decision as to when we will buy” person.

I have come across four of the five types of people listed above. I wasn't sure who an overly emotional person is. I haven't come across this type of person.

Read his full post here: 5 Types of People You Should NEVER Negotiate With

Dump the Bullets

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Tue, 06 May 2014 03:59:00 +0000

Seth Godin shares some useful insights on why bullets don't work in presentation in his post Most presentations aren't bullet proof. He says bullets don't save time and don't make easier to remember things.

Don't miss navigating to the link to his bulletless solution in his earlier post.

I find it so hard to resist using bullets in my presentations, though I must admit the most remembered presentation I made didn't have bullets. There must be some truth to what he says. Interestingly when I blogged about that presentation, I was inspired by Seth at that time too.

Web And Mobility Trends Oct 2008 from Manish Mohan

How Do You React To Customer Feedback?

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sun, 04 May 2014 07:45:00 +0000

Are you measuring customer satisfaction? Do you ask your customers (external or internal customers) to rate you on a satisfaction survey index? If you do, then how you react to customer interactions before the survey could define feedback your customers give you, or not give you for that matter.

If you rely only on customer satisfaction survey scores, you might be missing out valuable feedback that customers never give you in the surveys. You get feedback at all times from customers, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect. How you react to it defines how customers perceive your service as. If you don't listen to your customers during regular interactions, they are less likely to give you any feedback in customer surveys. They are more likely to stop giving you feedback. Worst, they will tell others about the bad service instead of telling you about it.

I am sure we work very hard to exceed customer expectations. But let's face is, as service providers (internal or external), sometimes we do get irritated at customers. We believe so much in our own service levels that we forget to see if these are still relevant for the customers. How we react to the inputs when a customer does give us some feedback changes the way we will receive feedback in the future. Sometimes inadvertently while responding to a customer feedback, we may put them off by disbelieving their feedback by telling them the unlikeliness of a service failure because of robust processes and systems. Instead of lauding internal processes, all that is really needed is to acknowledge the experience customer might have had.

So when you receive any feedback from your customers, first respond with a simple acknowledgement and apology of the experience. This is usually enough to turn the customer around. Later when you review the situation and identify the cause of customer experience, you can get back the customer with more details. This could even include things where the customer may have been at fault and things that you want the customer to change.

Problems with Facebook Views

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 01:19:00 +0000

Just came across two very interesting videos that show how Facebook makes money twice over, once for getting likes and once for people to actually see your posts. Very much in line with what I have been observing. And it's not just for Facebook Pages. I see posts only from a very limited set of "friends" on Facebook.

Stay Young, Keep Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 04:49:00 +0000

Tim Sanders recommends expanding your resume every year to avoid getting lapped up in the sport of business by those who do.

He writes in his post:

Youth is a state of mind, not a counting of years. In my experience, the secret to eternal youth is lifelong learning...the constant expansion of one's resume of experiences and insights. Henry Ford once quipped, "Anyone who stops learning becomes old, whether at twenty or at eighty. Anyone that keeps learning stays young."

He goes on to say:

If you aren't expanding your resume every year, you are likely being getting lapped in the sport of business by those that do. You can improve a resume without changing jobs. You can add areas of expertise or new areas of project work. You can add volunteer work, hobbies or interests. You can add professional associations you've joined and contributed to. All of these additions give your career a sense of momentum, which gives you the confidence to embrace change.

Read his full post here: If You Don't Expand This Annually, You Are Getting Lapped

About Tim Sanders:
Tim Sanders is a rare hybrid of business expert and keynote speaker. Coupled with his passion, insight and research ability, Tim is able to move audiences to action when he speaks, give clients innovative solutions when he consults, and share knowledge when he writes. Through Tim's significant business expertise and people skills, his work is frequently featured in the media where he has earned the reputation as a people-centric business expert.

The Learning & Development Change Grid, by Don Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Donald H Taylor, chairman of LPI, LSG & the Learning Technologies conference explains how Learning and Development Departments need to change their attitude to risk in order to keep pace with the rest of the business in today's modern world. He describes 4 quadrants in which L&D departments fit: Learning Leadership, Unacknowledged Prophet, Comfortable Extinction and The Training Ghetto and explains how and why all L&D departments should join the quadrant of Learning Leadership.

False Positives by David Small

noreply@blogger.com (Manish Mohan) — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 09:14:00 +0000

A great post by David Small on Dan McCarthy's blog Great Leadership about serving your team with honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable.

"How often do we have members of our team that we say “good job” too, even though we know they could be doing better? Did you know you could be doing more harm then good by not pointing out their shortcomings? Here are four tips to build up your team without giving them false positives."

Read the full post False Positives.

Author bio:

David Small is the author of the bestselling book The Wandering Leader. In this book David explains how leaders don’t need to be perfect, but they should get things done. He focuses on seven areas of leadership that everyone can grow in; career, financial, social, physical, spiritual, intellectual, and family. David has been a professional ice hockey coach for over a decade and is an officer in the army reserves. David has guest lectured and been a keynote speaker at leadership events around the globe.