Enigma Solution

Alexander of Macedonia conquered a large part of the known world during his life..  After one battle, Alexander ordered his soldiers to stop fighting hold their positions and do nothing to provoke the enemy. Yet a couple of courageous soldiers under cover of nightfall crept to the enemy side and killed several solders as they slept. The stunning news was conveyed to Alexander. He called the two soldiers in front of all his troops and praised them for their courage and then ordered that they to be beheaded immediately. He proclaimed to his troops, "They were praised for their bravery and killed for their indiscipline. Indiscipline can endanger lives of my forces and cost us a battle. This I cannot permit" ________________________ Discipline, a much used and rarely understood word, which means complying with realistic guidelines and laid down systems. A high profile example is road traffic discipline rather indiscipline in India where we have the highe...

It was the first ever lecture by our teacher Professor HVK Rao in 1976.  Professor Rao had barely begun his lecture and his back was turned to the class as he wrote something on the blackboard. Suddenly a piece of chalk flew from the back of the classroom and almost hit the professor's hand. The missile was launched to unnerve Mr. Rao and more importantly determine the balance of power in the class room. Cool Professor Rao remained unfazed and responded; "Gentlemen, I can do two things, I can either teach or be a policeman. I am paid to teach, not police. Most of you have come from afar to get an education. Those of you who are not really interested in these classes but are here because of the pressure of attendance targets, you are free to leave. I  relieve you of the college's demand for attending 80% of the classes and will treat  all of you as having attended my classes irrespective of your actual attendance." About half a dozen trouble makers left the...

A few weeks ago there was a tragic fire at a very famous hospital in Kolkata in which 87 people lost their lives. I was obsessed with trying to find out what lessons could be learnt so that we protect others and ourselves. The root cause for any failure can always be traced back to a handful of reasons, the usual culprits are incompetent leadership, poor management,  inappropriate technology, shoddy design, incompetent staff and negligent people. It is difficult for most people to appreciate that the seeds of a tragedy are sown long before the bitter fruit arrives.  In the case of the Kolkata hospital fire,  this is the inside story as narrated by someone who knows.  About two weeks prior to the killer blaze erupting, a similar fire had taken place at the very same hospital in the basement where inflammable supplies were stored till the ceiling.  The staff of the outsourced security firm promptly responded with confidence and took the initiative. The secur...

How to recruit the right person for the job? Put about 100 bricks in some particular   order in a closed room with an open window. Then send in 2 or 3 candidates at a time into  the room and close the door. Leave them alone and come back  after 6 hours and then analyze  the situation. If they are counting the  bricks,  Put them in the accounts  department.    If they are recounting them..  put them in auditing  . If they have messed up the  whole place with the bricks, put them in engineering. If they are arranging the b ricks in some strange order..  Put them in planning.    If they are throwing the  bricks at each other,   Put them in operations  . If they are sleeping,  put them in security.   If they have broken the bricks  into pieces.  Put them in information  Technology.  If they are sitting idle. Put them in human res...

O ur time can be divided by our focus on ourselves, our family, work, socialising and recreation.  There is however a factor which cannibalises our peace of mind and our time, called 'nonsense'. 'Nonsense work' is time and effort spent on having to cope with problems which make no sense whatsoever, they  should never have occurred in the fist place. These are headaches and problems created sometimes by we ourselves but usually caused by others.  Unfortunately we are dependant on others to meet our requirements and solve problems we face, because we now live in a society of organisations filled with specialists.  The larger and more complex the organisation that we have to deal with, the more bureaucracy there is, and to justify their existence, create enormous amounts of nonsensical work for people. The frustration with bureaucracies is the solution provider is completely disconnected from the person/s who face problems that need to be resolved. The disconne...

Image by Ben Heine I was nearly lynched while driving in Texas where I blew my car horn freely as I did in my native Pune (India).  It took me a very short while to realise that that this behaviour upset people so much that it could get me killed.  It is generally believed particularly in the west and Japan that blowing the horn is considered rude and reserved as an insult to others.  There is a another deeper reason why people hate these loud noises, because it has become a killer. Yes noise destroys sanity before it takes your life.  Census reports in USA and UK   cite noise – more than any other problem even more than crime, litter, traffic, or inefficient government – as the biggest problem citizens face particularly in urban neighborhoods.  40% of people are regularly exposed to noise levels labeled as excessive by the Environmental Protection Agency."  The noise pollution is causing brain damage and heightened stress across communities...

Intel as everyone knows has been and continues to be a world leader in manufacture of computer chips. It has been the largest chip manufacturer in the world since 1992. In May 2009, Craig Barrett stepped down as Intel's  Chairman after serving the organization for 35 years. He also served as Intel's CEO from 1998 to 2005. The charismatic Mr. Barrett almost always couched his hard hitting messages with humour. At his farewell meeting with employees he cautioned them that it is easy to become complacent when you are a leader. He said if you go to the universities in the USA, three fourths of the graduates in engineering were foreign nationals. A vast majority of them were now returning to their home countries because they were increasingly finding better better opportunities there. This meant that talented students were strengthening their home economies and not the USA as was the tradition till recently. Mr. Barrett was particularly concerned about ...