recession survival skills or business best practices?

A popular magazine came out with an article such as "5 recession survival skills". I condemn this approach of journalists to fill up pages for selling their magazines. 

The points mentioned in this article are good business practices to use even in good times - not just bad times. I fail to understand why would anyone spend more than necessary amount even in good times. In business, thrift has to be a way of  life and a mindset. However, such organizations cease to exist due to their excesses in costs. 

Of course, there are organizations where inefficiencies are in-built and a part of the culture. The case in point is Citi. I had blogged about them way back here. 

limit on executive pays in the banks?

I read this news and I was taken aback: Obama limits pays to top executives of bailed out banks to $500k. Taken aback because I thought Obama was more pragmatic than this. This is a popular move and not the "right" move. 

If you give peanuts, only monkeys will come. If Obama brings in such limits, he will not attract talent. Talent is required to carryout this job with certain dexterity; and such talent is scarce. He can definitely attract some academics such as Vikram Pandit. However, he won't be able to get the go-getters or the true mercinaries required to resolve this large mess. 

Wall St is used to pay for performance. Talent is hard to get. This talent is globally mobile. They will go to other nations and take up occupations there. Jim Rogers has moved to Singapore. Halliburton has moved its headquarters to Dubai. There is a reason why Reuben retired from Citi. He knew that the efforts put into Citi going ahead won't generate adequate returns. 

interesting debate about Google Earth

Gulliver's travels section in The Economist presented this interesting debate regarding Google Earth here. 

Mumbai killing rampage was planned by the terrorists using Google Earth. However, that planning can happen by their personal visits as well. That's how earlier terrorists had planned their attacks in 1992. An Indian court's plea to ban Google Earth from capturing Mumbai pictures is a knee-jerk reaction by folks who lack capacity to do good policy engineering. 

IMHO, anything under the sun can be misused. For instance, the  planes were used in case of 9/11 for bringing about destruction. This does not mean that planes must be banned. 

I still support Google Earth.

regulatory reporting and technology jobs

As economy slips into depression, there is a destruction in the number of jobs. However, a new set of jobs always emerges. This time, the new set of technology jobs are in the fields of "regulatory reporting"

Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Bank of America(NYSE:BAC) have been nationalized. New York is no longer the US financial capital anymore. For now, it is Washington, D.C. They call the shots w.r.t. dividends paid, executive staffing, etc.  Jobs will be created at two locations:

a. Points of operations - for collecting raw data

b. Points of customer-contact - in Washington DC. "You gotta please your sponsors !" was what a leading Director at Citigroup told me once while I worked for him on an assessment project. 

These opportunities are similar to Sarbanes Oxley Act related requirements. They are short-term in nature. I had expressed this point of view in April last year in the form of a post: paulson creates business opportunities for consulting firms. Diamond Management and Technology Consultants agree with this and came out with a point of view (Jan 2009) much after mine (March 2008). 

How can one prepare for these regulatory requirements related positions? Think about it - it's very obvious from the words: regulatory reporting. 

is itsm relevant in the current economy?

David Cannon's name alone drew a good crowd for the monthly meet of ITSMF USA's - New York LIG. The weather was aweful.

The topic for tonight's discussion was "Is ITSM relevant in the current economy?" An effective presentation indicating why is ITSM not only relevant but also effective. Some practical tips and suggestions helped the presentation worth while. He did bring up Majid's slide on Service Strategy. He also brought up a slide on a topic that I was a Teaching Assistant on - "Enterprise Architecture as a Business Strategy" by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David Robertson.

IMHO, ITSM is relevant for parties interested in realizing the complete potential of IT. I have seen environment where businesses abdicate from their responsibility of making IT as a service successful. Such environments are relatively hopeless. This is where the pitch for a Service Manager comes in. Think about it.

It felt good to be back to these LIG meetings. I used to attend those until Nov 07 and thereafter started my travel projects. Now, I will be attending these on a regular basis as I am working locally and can control my timelines.

After the presentation meeting, the organizers, myself, and David decided to go out for socializing. We had a few drinks at Connolly's in midtown Manhattan after the presentation was done. This took me back to the CMU days. The last I met David Cannon was at Walnut Grill in Shadyside, (Pittsburgh, PA) in early '07 while he was guiding us for the CMU SMO Student Interest group.

I regularly keep updated via various sources. One of the most under-rated and relatively unknown source in the developed world is the Infosys blog on ITSM - ITSM Service Matters!