Sunday, November 18, 2007

Pathological Online Dependence (POD)

It is now accepted in medical circles that cyberspace addiction is a real (as opposed to virtual)condition that needs to be treated ("warrants intervention" in medjarg). Cyber-somatic disorders are encountered to the maximum extent in S.Korea which has the distinction of being the "most connected country".De-addiction and rehab centres for the internet-obsessed are fast coming up in Korea and to a lesser extent in Taiwan and China. The disorder is predominantly masculine and if diagnosed in early stages eminently curable. About 30% of Korean students are deemed susceptible. Surprisingly, though Finland is almost as cyber-intense as Korea, very few cases have been spotted there. Would this malaise result in these POD-prone countries losing their academic edge over others?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Why are Americans so naive?

There was a common enabling factor for both 9-11 crisis and CDO mess. Both were the result of typical American naivete. Prior to 9-11, security checks in US airports were cursory and trusting of passenger genuineness. An open door tempts a saint and 9-11 was waiting to happen.

Similarly, due diligence of mortgage customers was almost absent before the subprime crisis surfaced. Such an irrational naivete is difficult to explain.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Tips from the untipped

"You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s betterthings in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.” These wise words were uttered by an apparently uneducated waitress who was tipped or not tipped depending on which news-source you rely on.--Srivarahan

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The Citi fiasco

49.
November 6th,200711:34 am
The Citi fiasco teaches us two clear lessons:1) Never trust an outgoing CEO to choose his/her successor in the interest of the company;2) No company can afford to have a CEO who does not understand its business however bright he or she otherwise might be.
Posted by K.R.Srivarahan
— Posted by K.R.Srivarahan

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Career Shift: Nachiket Mor's brilliant move

Nachiket Mor who was expected to follow K.V.Kamath's journey to the top of ICICI bank has sprung a surprise by opting out of corporate rat race and has decided to lead the ICICI Foundation, a social upliftment agency, instead. This is a shrewd choice in the light of increasing burdens of CEOs. Or is it really so? Would not ICICI Foundation also not be run as any corporate with its own budgets, performance targets, performance-linked bonus etc.? Only time will tell.