A spider web and it's me in the middle, So I twist and turn, Here I am in love in a bubble! |
12 December 2010
Remembering Coldplay's Trouble
14 September 2010
Slip Out the Back
You know me, I used to get caught up in everyday life
Tried to make it through my day so I could sleep at night
Tried to figure out my way through the maze
Of rights and wrongs, but like you used to say
Nothing feels like it's really worth it
Forget perfect, I'm trying not to be worthless
Since I last saw you I been looking for a purpose
Well I met this kid who thought like I did
He had a weird way of looking at it
This is what he said
Slip out the back before they know you were there
And at the worst you'll see nobody cares
Cos you don't wanna be around when it all goes down
Even heroes know when to be scared
Slip out the back before they know you were there
And at the worst you'll see nobody cares
Cos you don't wanna be around when it all goes down
Even heroes know when to be scared
I don't remember where I met him or remember his name
But he walked funny like he was just too big for his frame
Just over five foot but he weighed a buck fifty
And what he said just seemed so right it stuck with me
Listen its like poker you can play your best
But you got to know when to fold your cards and take a rest
And know when to hold your cards and hold your breath
And hope that nobody else is stacking the deck because
I don't need to tell you that life isn't fair, it doesn't care
It arbitrarily cuts off your air, and like you I want someone to say its OKAY
But in the truest parts of our hearts everybody's afraid
But just underappreciated and overwhelmed
Fighting so hard to hide our fear that were scaring ourselves
You understand when I'm saying that you always did
But its different in the words of a cowardly kid
Slip out the back before they know you were there
And at the worst you'll see nobody cares
Cos you don't wanna be around when it all goes down
Even heroes know when to be scared
Slip out the back before they know you were there
And at the worst you'll see nobody cares
Cos you don't wanna be around when it all goes down
Even heroes know when to be scared
I'm no hero, you remember how I was, you know
All I ever did was worry, feeling out of control
To the point where everything was going end over end
I'm spinning around in circles again
This is where you come in
All of this to explain to you why
I had to separate myself away from yesterday's life
Please remember this isn't how I hoped it would be
But I had to protect you from me
Thats why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there
I know you felt unprepared
But every single time I was around I just bring you down
And I could tell that it was time to be scared
Thats why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there
And I know the way I left wasn't fair
I didn't want to be around just to bring you down
I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care
***
13 September 2010
Four Years Later
When I wrote it only God and I had some idea about why I wrote this and what it meant.....but I believe now only God knows why I wrote this and what it means!
Here we go:
Swami Vivekananda once said......."Stomach comes before head"
Why should I disagree, I am the observer of this universal reality
cutting across every thinkable form of living being.
Why bother?
I don't.
For your every conscious action there is an underlying INCENTIVE, perceived,
real, imaginary, or otherwise. So I don't bother.
Wait I bother.........yes I do?
But in a special case only...
Its nothing but pure economics at its play.
OUTCOME:- You will go where you see BETTER rewards in the form of incentives
very well measurable in economic terms.
I am sorry, but I hate it.
You're welcome if you can help me!
12 September 2010
Inception: Love Story or Science Fiction?
It turned out to be a good decision.
Although this is not a movie review kind of stuff, just want to share few thoughts about this movie. It is loaded with concepts and its convoluted story line keep you on your toes, you gotta keep thinking to stay connected.
There are a few things about this movie which place it to higher orbit of intellectual plane yet not loosing the grip on the most fundamental of the human emotions i.e. Love.
This is about Love as well. There are instances when you iare under the spell of its captivating power. It grips you soul and you empathize with the protagonist. Revisit the scene where Mal tries to remind Cobb that her world is the real world and how she is waiting for him.
Its not hard to see the desperation and yearning in Cobb's eyes as he watches Mal with kids, knowing fully well that she is dead, its just his own mental projection of Mal and kids in the dream world.
He tries and overcomes his overriding desire to reunite with Mal but instead chooses to step back and get to work. Why? Because he has two beautiful kids waiting for him back at home. They are his world.
Here is what Cobb says when he meets her in the limbo state of dream world:
''I miss you more than I can bear, but we had our time together. I have to let you go''
20 March 2008
Cap. C. R. Gopinath: A Story of High-Performance Entrepreneurship
“My story and Air Deccan’s story … is the story of the new India, the India of possibilities”
Capt. C.R. Gopinath was happy and contented serving his country and guarding the borders for fellow citizens. But, he always knew that he had more to offer to the nation. Capt. Gopinath wanted to do something different yet simple. One can say that Capt. Gopinath’s tryst with destiny happened sometime 1995, when the Govt. of India announced and began implementing the reforms process in a large scale by encouraging entrepreneurship. That was precisely the spark that he needed! From being an Army Officer Capt. Gopinath made a decision to practice Silk Farming on 40 acres of land that he borrowed from his uncle. This indirectly inspired the entrepreneur in him to identify the tremendous potential Helicopter Charter had in India. This is an incredibly diverse and unbelievably real journey from a village school to the Indian Army to Silk Farming to Helicopter and finally to a leading airlines!
Unfolding the Story
How on Earth!
Flying was generally associated with the life style of ‘the rich and the famous’ and Air Deccan simply pulled down those notions and took the common man up in the air. Yes, Simply fly! Air Deccan is India’s first airline to follow a no frills, low cost scheduled passenger airline business model. Counterintuitive to a general LCC strategy, which has only one aircraft type, Air Deccan follows a two aircraft type fleet strategy with the aim of effectively serving both the highly traveled routes between major Indian urban centers and the routes to and from regional locations. Air Deccan uses the ATR turboprop aircraft, in both a 48 seat size and a 72 seat size, for its regional routes which have lower passenger volumes per sector and involve short flights. On its trunk routes, Air Deccan uses the 180 seat Airbus A320 jet aircraft.
Air Deccan created history on August 25, 2004 by flying passengers to Delhi from Bangalore for a fare of only Rs. 700, virtually half the price of a railway ticket in many destinations. That was a revolution in the flying history of India! The company offered 75% of the seats at rates ranging between Rs. 500 and Rs. 5,000 and the remaining 25% at around Rs. 7,500, which was still 25% less than the normal fare of Rs. 10,500 on any other airline. Skeptics cited the reason as hidden costs, but regardless, this provided a means for air travel to be accessible to the average middle income bracket customer, something which was previously unheard of. An estimated 40% of Air Deccan’s passengers are first time flyers.
Vision
Challenges
- A new venture does not possess all the resources and capabilities that are needed. Bridging the gap of what is required and what it possesses with little or no loss of time is the challenge. This further facilitate on congregating competent people and technology, and facilitating learning within the resource constraints of the enterprise. Along with congregation, it is required to cultivate its distinctive competence to defend itself against competitive forces and sustain itself.
- There are challenges in the supply side. Supply comes from the money market. The money market source is decided by the comparative evaluation of the enterprise against other enterprises that also tap the money market. The cash from operations is dependent on both revenue and expense management.
- A start up normally begins with an innovation in service or product or process. The innovation creates a competence gap in the environment and constrains the environment from absorbing the innovation appropriately.
- Low cost does not signify low quality so, what is essential is to see whether you are getting a particular service at a cost that is conservative to the service.
- A large number of new entrants like Kingfisher Airlines and Spice Jet launched their airlines in 2005. Go Airlines was next in line among others. Price wars among the above companies always a determining factor for the market share of Air Deccan.
- Skilled labor has not kept pace with the industry growth. So getting the desired skilled personnel or improvised the existing personnel is required.
- The increasing players in the aviation sector with the required suitable and adequate infrastructure.
Strategies
Low Cost Structure and Operations : -
Air Deccan’s business model is inspired by the low cost business models adopted by successful no frills, low cost airlines in other parts of the world. Air Deccan’s target customer base includes those who travel by train or other ground transportation as well as those who already travel by air. It aims to turn non fliers into fliers, and occasional fliers into more frequent fliers. Overall, Air Deccan’s flight fares are as much as 50% lower than those of other leading airlines in the country. To sustain these low fares, Air Deccan uses innovative techniques to keep overall costs of the company low.
- For example, in flight food and drinks are served for a price. An estimated 5% of the revenue comes from these in flight services.
- The company has also removed the business class section and reduced overall leg space on their aircrafts. This helped increase the seating capacity by another 22%.
- Distribution costs are kept low by selling tickets through web sites and call centers.
- Additionally, Air Deccan increased its aircraft utilization by investing in technology to reduce airport turn around time between flights significantly. On average, an Air Deccan aircraft flies for about 12 hours a day compared to 8 – 9 hours by its competitors.
A significant portion of the company’s expenses such as fuel, aircraft and engine maintenance services, and interest and principal obligations under the terms of foreign debt and aircraft lease payments are denominated in or linked to U.S. dollars. In Fiscal 2005, 35.96% of Air Deccan’s expenses were incurred in currencies other than Indian rupees.
Financial Model : -
Due to the strong growth in the domestic market driven by affordability, a booming economy and an increase in capacity, it is forecasted that the aviation sector in India will flourish in the years ahead. Analysts projections are that airline passenger growth will slow down to 12% per annum by 2012 and 10% per annum by 2013. Air Deccan gained market share from 6.5% in FY 2005 ending on March 31st to 11% in October 2005. Even though it is unlikely that Air Deccan will continue to gain market share at the same rate, management expects that the firm will further strengthen its position and gain market share of about 19% in the domestic market by 2013.
Fuel expenses are the most significant part of operating expenses. Fuel costs for Air Deccan were 38.7% of sales in 2005 due to the increase in international crude oil prices. Thus, Air Deccan’s fuel cost is expected to be around 35% of sales in 2006 and come down (in line with most oil analysts’ forecast) to 30% by 2013 with government initiative to bring airline fuel costs in line with what they are for international carriers.
Air Deccan incurred more costs on operating expenses and on repairs and maintenance partly due to the age of its fleet and partly due to the start up costs of establishing maintenance facilities. Together, these costs accounted for 39.8% of revenue in the six months ended September 2005. However, as Air Deccan acquires new fleet, these costs are likely to be aligned with its comparables at around 24%.
Administrative and general expenses for Air Deccan have been lower than its competitors and are likely to remain at low to moderate levels due to its low cost operational model. In addition, the employee remuneration costs for Air Deccan are higher (at 12% of sales) than the 7 to 8% for its peers. These costs are significantly higher internationally and are likely to go up in India as the Indian economy opens up more. However, due to its emphasis on cost reductions, Air Deccan is likely to keep these costs at around 8.5% of sales in the long run.
Focus on tier II & tier III cities : -
Capt. Gopinath was fast in realizing that they should move beyond metros like Delhi and Mumbai. As a result they started focusing on small towns with huge potential like Hubli and Nasik. Capt. Gopinath wanted to cater to the people who have not been attended to yet. And he also believed that there is market as people from small towns are also willing as well as capable of air travel.
Capacity Utilization : -
They introduced differential air fares within the same airlines but utilizing the vacant seats. They did it by utilizing the seats vacant and selling the tickets for them at cheaper rates, leading to full capacity utilization. This strategy was successful primarily due to two reasons, the first being they were able to sell additional no. of tickets for the given fixed cost they incur on running a flight, the second being their expenditure on the variable cost was minimized as they offered no frills services to those customers. So, from business strategy point of view this was a typical example win-win example both from customers and entrepreneur’s point of view.
Reservation & Ticketing : -
Deccan is the first airline in India to have an independent and internet-based Computer Reservation System. Deccan tickets can be booked at the following points of sale: -
- Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata & Mumbai City Office Counters
- Deccan Website (http://www.airdeccan.net/)
- All India 24 / 7 call centre at 39008888
- Airport Counters
- Travel Agents across India
- Reliance Web Worlds in 228 cities in India
- Club HP Outlets in 7 states in India
- India Post - Karnataka Post Offices
- Home Delivery by calling our 24/7 All India Call centre
To Lead is to Inspire
He did not compromise on his values and dreams even when things were going wrong. When, on the verge of bankruptcy, he decided to offer a strategic stake in his airline to Kingfisher airlines, Gopinath wanted to ensure three things: one, the survival of the company and protection of jobs of all his staff; two, the low-cost nature of the business in letter and spirit (the brand and Air Deccan’s identity); and three, close, if not day-to-day, running of what he had created with passion and tenderness. He was proud of his airline’s reach, its brand, its identification with the masses and even its colours; and he had every right to be proud. Thus, Captain Gopinath is an entrepreneur who leads by inspiring who is committed to his belief and above all commitment to his people.
The Blend of Vision, Perseverance and Excellence
Some say entrepreneurs see the future in pictures and visuals, when everyone else fails to even notice the picture. On one of those early days after launching the helicopter service, once Capt. Gopinath’s helicopter was flying over huts and he was rather amused to find cable-television antennae on top of these huts! He suddenly thought, “Oh my God, here is opportunity. It’s not a country of a billion people waiting to be fed. But here is a country where a billion people could fly”. And, amazing, he did make them ‘Simplify’!
What we can learn from this story
Ø Conviction in your dreams backed by persistent effort to achieve it will help you to achieve your dreams.
Ø Ignore the bottom of the pyramid or lower middle class at your own peril. Now, they are no more liabilities but a sizeable chunk of market with high potential that need to be tapped.
Ø The success of an organization should be measured on how much it addresses the problems on holistic basis.