Peter Drucker on Time Management & Leadership

Peter drucker is so good that often feel that I ought to staple his quotes to my computer screen. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."

"One cannot buy, rent or hire more time. The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it. Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever, and will never come back. Time is always in short supply. There is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. All work takes place in, and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource.”"

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Lots to say, but little time.

In the meantime, a quick tidbit from the Associated Press

Full Article here

In their New Year's poll, among other unremarkable facts (e.g., 80% of people believe the minimum wage will be raised in 2007), this tidbit is buried:

25% of people expect the Second Coming of Jesus Christ...in 2007.

This is a higher percentage than I expected.

Now, in the same poll, 35% predict cancer will be cured in 2007 and 70% predict a major national disaster in the US in 2007, so I think we are looking at the tendency of people to overestimate the likelihood of rare events (and risks in particular) and underestimate the risk of more common events. One of these polls should ask the following two questions:

1. How likely is it that I will die in a natural disaster this year

2. How likely is it that I will die in a car accident this year

I am sure the former will be viewed as more likely though it is at least 2 if not 3 orders of magnitude less likely...

but there is no need to be morbid in the beginning of the new year!

Best wishes to everyone, may our minimum wages all be raised, cancer be cured and if your personal savior comes this year, so much the better!

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

Romania

I was in Romania last week as some of you know. What I learned in a nutshell:

1. Romania is still less developed than I expected. 20 minutes outside of downtown Bucarest, horse and buggies are still common. I have not seen that in Europe before in a meaningful way. Ahead of India, but still 15-20 years of development to get to mid-European norms is my guess, at least in the countryside.
2. Change is coming fast according to my friends who have been there for several years. It is far more developed than it was 3-5 years ago. They are more optimistic than me about the growth path in #1. They would guess 10 years.
3. Romanians (basically) consider Moldova to be part of their country that was split off by outside forces. Moldova is where Romania was 10 years ago in terms of development. I did not go there.
4. Like all offshore locations, software talent is now more difficult to find. This is a change that has occured in the last 3 years due to the BPO boom and it is consistent with my experience in India. It is a big, meaty topic worthy of further discussion
5. As cliche as it sounds, Romania really is a great place to film a Dracula movie. When the fog rolled in as we went to see where the Danube split Romania and Bulgaria on rural roads with burned out factories, it was spooky. I can only imagine what the Carpathian mountains look like in the fog!
6. Like Cyprus has stray cats, Bucharest has stray dogs. What sends one city to the cats and the other to the dogs, I have no idea!
7. Food is expensive which is bizarre given low land costs, low unskilled labor costs (150-200 euro / month + 60% social taxes), plentiful water. Likely culprit is the breakup of Communist era agriculture into highly fragmented and inefficient producers. Bet on consolidation and outside investment here.
8. CeauÅŸescu liked his buildings big. The presidential palace is the 2nd largest building in the world after the Pentagon and giganticism is probably the best word to describe the governmental architecture.
9. I will be back - 3 days was not long enough

Thank you Nicolas K for hosting me and Alex L & Simona L for putting up with me during the day!

I will post some pix in a subsequent email when I have them off my camera.

World's tallest man saves plastic-eating dolphins

Sorry to be back with such a frivolous post, but I can't get this out of mind. From cnn.com

BEIJING, China (AP) -- The long arms of the world's tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs, state media and an aquarium official said Thursday.

...

Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins' stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-feet-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said.

I just can't get my head around how this all worked. You are working on saving a dolphin, your surgical instruments aren't perfect, so you think: "I know, let's call the tallest man in the world to help out"? It sounds straight out of a comic strip...