Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
3 Secrets of Hiring Effectiveness
What makes someone an effective hire then boils down to three characteristics. Do they have the knowledge to do the job? Are they motivated to work hard? Do they have social skills that will make it easy for them to work with others?How can we assess for these during the hiring process?
The Humanities Advantage
Business education seems to leave gaps in skills that demand human interaction and working across geographies and diverse groups. The entrance examination of a B-School is such that it is hard for a non-engineer to compete. Hardly any Humanities graduates can make it past the entrance examination that is tilted in favor of quantitative skills.It is no surprise that many of us struggle in the workplace to influence colleagues who do not report to us. Or to work with the matrix structures where power lines are fuzzy and influence lines matter.This is just what Humanities teach us. How to interact with human beings. To deal with ambiguity and fuzziness.
Flip the Channel - Omnichannel Learning
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution bringing in exponential changes, leaders are missing one important element — rethinking the process of learning. People are learning in multiple ways. Paperbacks exist with e-Books. Analog business models exist with digital. Physical stores exist with online formats. There is another word for it – omnichannel, and that is what learning must be.
Six Qualities Winners Share
Winners are a rare breed. We look up to them. We admire them and their achievements. But in reality, winners are not different from you and me. Each one of us has the same qualities that are needed to win. We do not leverage it often enough.If you think about the times when you have been extremely successful (or failed badly), you would have demonstrated the same six qualities that winners demonstrate. The six qualities are common to every winner.
Humane Layoffs
Layoffs hurt. They hurt even more when companies do it paying scant attention to the financial and emotional trauma that a job loss is bound to cause. They also spark furious backlashes, hurting the corporate brand and resulting in a catastrophic loss of trust. A case in point could be Tech Mahindra, India's leading information technology (IT) company and part of the $19 billion Mahindra Group. Right now, its management is facing allegations of large-scale and illegal retrenchment of its employees in Hyderabad. Earlier, too, the company came under fire when the audio clip of a termination call went viral. In that audio clip, the company's human resource (HR) executive was heard asking an employee to resign by 10 a.m. the next day or face termination. The employee kept pleading for a reasonable notice period or a discussion but was told there could be no room for 'flexibility'.My take for Business Today dated Sep 10, 2017
The Talent Delusion
Have you ever wondered how to define talent? In ancient times the word talent was referred to as a measure of silver that was paid in exchange of someone's work. Better output by the person resulted in more payment - hence more "talent".We get fooled because we believe since we spend a lot of time with human beings we must be good at evaluating their talent and potential. There is a science of human behavior and a science to talent, just like there is science to astrophysics.
Acing a Video Interview
Congratulations! Your resume passed the six-seconds test. Now, you’ve been asked for your availability for a video interview. Unless you are a YouTube star, facing a camera and appearing comfortable answering questions is a stressful situation. If the video interview is a step towards finding your dream job, the stakes are even higher. Here are some tips for avoiding the potential awkwardness of this increasingly common practice and letting your best self has a chance to shine through.
Will Amazon Prime & Netflix be Upholders of Free Speech
For the film makers, writers, lyricists and comedians, the streaming giants may offer a safe haven where opinions that are not palatable to the majority can be expressed. The stand-up comedians can do their routine without fear of a backlash other than the market forces. If viewers do not watch the shows or rate it poorly, the artistes will be taken off the air or at the very least not invited back. Free speech that challenges our worldview may thrive in the fringes while the mainstream cinema continues to dole out what is safe but bland.
Why You Must Write A Gratitude Journal
Start by listing down five things you are grateful for and do that once a week. It could be the people who are or were in your life; the possessions that have meaning for you; the generosity of a stranger or a skill you have picked up and the sight of a sunrise that left you awestruck. Just writing a sentence about each of the five things once a week for two months can make you more optimistic and happier. Gratitude is different from indebtedness. Indebtedness creates a feeling of obligation to pay back. Gratitude makes you realize that you matter much more to the person than you ever imagined.
RIP Father McGrath
As you step into the world of work, you are bringing to it the freshness of ideas and the power to change things. And yet, there is the danger that all too soon you will forget why you came to a place like this.NO, you were not here to understand the corporate sector or the intricate theories of management. You came here to understand yourself and your strengths. To believe how easy it is to make a difference. That is the power of higher education. To instil in you the belief that you can make the world a better place.
The reality of Augmented Reality
While Pokémon Go may have been the best marketing campaign for AR, we are only scratching the surface. The possibilities are endless. So don’t let your enthusiasm die down. The roller coaster has just started its journey.
Why 2 Pizza Teams Work Better
A smaller team helps improve execution. Amazon’s stock has risen more than 36 percent this year. If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon in July 2002 — and had held onto your shares — that money would be worth $83,000 today. In real terms it would be $61,000. Can all this be attributed only to 2 Pizza teams or is there something more.
Will AI Create Jobs for India
India needs to add a million jobs a month every year to feed the youth who are entering the workforce. Every AI agent will need to be trained through millions of iterations. As more AI applications emerge, the need for training AI will grow exponentially. Labor arbitrage will make India an attractive destination for jobs that involve training AI. A study has found six areas where the use of robots will create new jobs: automobiles, electronics, renewable energy, skilled systems, robotics and food and beverage. Jobs like robot psychologist, personal online shopper, robot ethicist did not exist before. This may even be the next outsourcing wave for India. But the jobs we get will have their consequences...
Jagga Jasoos
Jagga Jasoos is an out and out Disney film. It is a comic book that has come to life. There are bright colors and a range of emotions done in bold (a tad oversaturated) color. You travel to exotic places and like any good detective story, the film takes you to exotic and fictitious locations or ask your Bengali friends where is Shundi. The locations create the fantasy Disneyland complete with zebras, giraffes and ostriches. Should you watch it? Read and decide.
Drones
Laws are boundaries that we draw to keep us safe and protected. When people follow traffic rules, people are unharmed by vehicles. The boundaries of knowledge also expand when innovators challenge these rules and laws. Innovation necessarily happens in the fringes. Sometimes when the laws become hindrances, the hub of innovations shifts to other spots. For drones that innovation hub seems to be Africa.
Japan, McDonalds and Goldman Sachs
Wall Street cheered McDonald’s decision to have digital kiosks in 2500 locations to do what cashiers would. The shareholders cheered loudly and McDonalds shares hit an all-time high. The move is part of an initiative ironically named as “Experience of the Future.” These “McJobs” have funded many students and families with living wages. That may not happen for long.