First of all sorry that i was absent for many days from my blog…But i have been busy…busy with our new venture…TaaraGo
TaaraGo Logo
This is exciting concept and we have been receiving tremendous response. In just 3 weeks of launch we are 1914 ‘Seekers’ strong community with 98 active ‘Providers’. Seekers are the participants like you who wish to ‘ Do Something New’ with your free time (from Salsa to Bungee Jumping, from Pottery to Yoga, from Painting to playing the flute, whatever your passion we make it easy for you to find and get involved in activities in your city. ) and providers are individuals/groups who organize /conduct all such activities…
Come n have a look at TaaraGo…I am sure you will love it……any suggestions/ feedback/queries write on archana[at]taarago[dot]com
heyy n let me know about the logo as well…i just loved this logo…I know i know this is self praise but i couldn’t control… n people wonder about name ‘TaaraGo’ …but its secret n i am not telling you!!!
I have now moved into consultant’s role…
will update you all shortly…
PA’s Journey so far…
PlanetAikon’s story
Small baby steps days are over…now they have started walking!
Let’s be with them on the exciting path of Innovation…making ideas successful is dream for them.
Money has no memory. Experience has. You will never know what the total cost of your education was, but for a lifetime you will recall and relive the memories of schools and colleges. Few years from now, you will forget the amount you paid to settle the hospitalization bill, but will ever cherish having saved your mother’s life or the life you get to live with the just born. You won’t remember the cost of your honeymoon, but to the last breath remember the experiences of the bliss of togetherness. Money has no memory. Experience has.
Good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of poverty, times when the future looked so secure and times when you didn’t know from where the tomorrow will come… life has been in one way or the other a roller-coaster ride for everyone. Beyond all that abundance and beyond all that deprivation, what remains is the memory of experiences. Sometimes the wallet was full…. sometimes even the pocket was empty. There was enough and you still had reasons to frown. There wasn’t enough and you still had reasons to smile. Today, you can look back with tears of gratitude for all the times you had laughed together, and also look back with a smile at all the times you cried alone. All in all, life filled you with experiences to create a history of your own self, and you alone can remember them all.
The first time you balanced yourself on your cycle without support… The first time s/he said ‘yes’ and it was two years since you proposed… The first cry… the first steps… the first word…. the first kiss… all of your child…. The first gift you bought for your parents and the first gift your daughter/son gave you… The first award… the first public appreciation… the first stage performance… And the list is endless… Experiences, with timeless memory… No denying that anything that’s material cost money, but the fact remains the cost of the experience will be forgotten, but the experience never.
So, what if it’s economic recession? Let it be, but let there not be a recession to the quality of your life. You can still take your parents, if not on a pilgrimage, at least to the local temple. You can still play with your children, if not on an international holiday, at least in the local park. Nice time to train the employees, create leadership availability and be ready for the wonderful times when they arrive. Hey! Aspects like your health, knowledge development and spiritual growth are not economy dependent.
Time will pass… economy will revive… currency will soon be in current… and in all this; I don’t want you to look back and realize you did nothing but stayed in gloom.. Recession can make you lose out on money. Let it not make you lose out on experiences… If you are not happy with what you have, no matter how much more you have, you will still not be happy.
Make a statement with the way you live your life: How I feel has nothing to do with how much I have.
This thought come to me by an email form a dear friend…thought you will love it…
10 articles from HBR’s most influential authors:
1) “Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change,” by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf, explains why so few established companies innovate successfully.
2) “Competing on Analytics,” by Thomas H. Davenport, explains how to use data-collection technology and analysis to discern what your customers want, how much they’re willing to pay, and what keeps them loyal.
3) “Managing Oneself,” by Peter F. Drucker, encourages us to carve our own paths by asking questions such as, “What are my strengths?” and “Where do I belong?”
4) “What Makes a Leader?” Not IQ or technical skills, says Daniel Goleman, but emotional intelligence.
5) “Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work,” by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, includes practical steps and examples from companies that use the balanced scorecard to measure performance and set strategy.
6) “Innovation: The Classic Traps,” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, advocates applying lessons from past failures to your innovation efforts. She explores four problems and offers remedies for each.
7) “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” by John P. Kotter, argues that transformation is a process, not an event. It takes years, not weeks, and you can’t skip any steps.
8.) “Marketing Myopia,” by Theodore Levitt, introduces the quintessential strategy question, “What business are you really in?”
9) “What Is Strategy?” by Michael E. Porter, argues that rivals can easily copy your operational effectiveness, but they can’t copy your strategic positioning-what distinguishes you from all the rest.
10) “The Core Competence of the Corporation,” by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, argues that a diversified company is like a tree: the trunk and major limbs its core products, branches its business units, leaves and fruit its end products. Nourishing and stabilizing everything is the root system: its core competencies.
Eye opener for everyone who is in business…
Sustained growth depends on how broadly you define your business—and how carefully you gauge your customers’ needs.
Marketing Myopia -by Theodore Levitt
From: Harvard Business Review Classics.
Open Innovation is the key to stay ahead in such tough times. These are some good articles on Open Innovation.
http://stefanlindegaard.com/2009/06/25/oiapproach/
Open to innovative Ideas
http://www.rockwellcollins.com/horizons/volume12-issue2/features-extras/open-to-innovative-ideas.asp
A great story from one of America’s greatest story-tellers, Abraham Lincoln, was related by the president during those anxious days of the American Civil War. A delegation of well-meaning patriots tried to impress upon the president the gravity of the war. They implied that his administration was neither as wise nor good as it ought to be. He listened carefully, then responded with a memorable anecdote.
He told them that he once had a neighbour who found himself in a tight situation. He was travelling home one dark and rainy night. There were few bridges in the country and he came to a stream that he would have to ford. But because of the darkness and the rain, he couldn’t see well enough to know just where to cross.
Lightning flashed and he saw his way for the briefest moment. But the man was perplexed because there seemed to be more thunder than lightning. He was convinced that every lightning flash was followed by several loud peals of thunder. The poor man just stood at the edge of the stream in his confusion about how to proceed. He finally prayed, “O Lord, if it is just the same to you, give me more light and less noise.” The delegation clearly got the point that the president needed more solutions and less complaining – more light and less noise.
*****
Some people are more like light and others are more like noise.
Some people shed light on solutions. Others only make a din about the way things are.
Some people help us to see the situation more clearly. Others just sound off about who’s to blame.
Some people show a better way. Others clamour about the present course of action.
Some people offer to help. Others wail about the problem.
*****
The sun rises every morning and sheds light, vanquishing the night’s darkness. The rooster also rises every morning and makes noise, which does nothing about the darkness.How could things be different if you were more like the sun than the rooster? What if you decided today to contribute to the light?
Sc: Heartspeak
Interesting story… one of my friends sent it to me today…I would like to share it with you all.
There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and prizes.
One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors’.
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir, “said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.
If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”
The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves. So it is in the other dimensions! Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace… Those who choose to live well
Must help others to live well. The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
Success does not happen in isolation. it is very often a participative and collective process.
So share the good practices, ideas, new learning’s with your family, team members, neighbors. All the Successes is a Team Work of a family, group, enterprise, corporation…
We are walking the talk…this is what we are doing on PlanetAikon. bright minds are sharing ideas, using collective wisdom of community to create solutions that have capability to become next big wave….
Today is celebration mood at our office as first of many ‘Ideas’ from PlanetAikon released its 1.1 version. It is something for which we were waiting since last few months, this proves that ‘Community Powered Innovation’ is the ‘IN’ thing and going to stay for long…!
Before I go into details let me tell you first about Tzen and PlanetAikon
TZen – a Test Management System, is a web-based product that allows you to effectively manage the testing of application(s) by providing a flexible and consistent platform for gathering test requirements for traceability, planning, designing and executing tests. It stores test results, manages defects and issues and provides basic reports. It also includes the features for test project management such as User management for access control, Multiple test projects – for organized testing by projects. For defect tracking it uses an OpenSource product “Mantis”.
TZen is a Test Management solution designed for mid-size/small businesses in order to equip them with an ability to perform ‘quality & agile testing’.
PlanetAikon is an unique Innovation ecosystem bringing together a Community of Ideators, Contributors and sponsors. A community of professionals, small businesses, corporates, academic and research organizations, mentors,legal advisors, investors and more. Powered by an unique Ideation and Execution platform, that supports both individual and enterprise led innovation initiatives by enabling its members to connect, collaborate and co-create. There are also other exciting Ideas and Projects that you can participate in. You can also bring your own ideas to the platform and execute them by leveraging the skills and capabilities of the community.
TZen(team) is now 66 members strong Idea-team on PlanetAikon. This team has really made us proud. Members have been truly professional in their approach to the development. The Success Story of Tzen is our first milestone…this project is sponsored by NASSCOM and Zensar. Members are from various NASSCOM registered companies and( registered members) from PlanetAikon.
TZen is intended to make available as an OpenSource product. The vision of the team is to develop TZen into the most successful Test Management product. TZen tool has features like Requirement management, Test plan management, Test Case management, Test Execution management,- Defect management (Integrated with Mantis), Reports and Exports at various levels.
Now the team is working on following features
- Extensive Graph and Chart Support
- Flexible Imports
- Custom Fields
- Server Pull Services and many more
TZen has got lot of business , technical and innovation opportunities…
At this stage team requires fresh minds to take it to next level and Specific requirement is PHP developers, Testing Domain Experts, Usability Domain Professionals and Testers.Whoever will contribute In developing TZen would become a part in the future success of the product.
Build it and Own it!!!
So if you are keen please request to ‘Join Team’ here:
Registered members of PlanetAikon could join Secure workspaces of Ideas. Membership and usage of the platform is currently free. You could join the league here.
T & L
Archana
P.S Explore other ideas here: ‘Featured Ideas’
