September 2007

Moving On Finally

September 29, 2007 General

This was coming for many months now but today, I finally checked-in to TCS House — the corporate HQ of Tata Consultancy Services Limited, as expected. A heritage building built in 1922, it was formerly known as Rallis House (another Tata-owned company), until the place was bought over by TCS in 2004 [read more]. The interiors of this four storey building have been completely refurbished while leaving the exterior walls untouched due to its historical value. The idea of encompassing modern interiors within an archaic structure, to flawlessly create a contemporary ambience is truly an architectural marvel to see and experience. The place holds significance for its medieval construction and is truly a landmark building in the Fort area of South Mumbai. The renovated structure was formally inaugurated by the honorable chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh on 14th August 2007.

It’s exciting to be here and I hope this transition into a new home re-energises my creativity and design skills.

Indians Bask in Glory after 24 years!

September 25, 2007 Happenings

After the celebrations are over, this young Indian team will realize that they have etched their names in the annals of history forever. When the tournament started, nobody — the selectors included, ever thought they could win the inaugural edition of the T20 world cup. It’s a sign of good things to come for the Indian cricket — this young nextgen cricketers have no fear of reputation and just want to consistently perform for their country. We last won a world cup in 1983 in England and today we have done it again after 24 long years. Chak De India!

At one point in time of the match, India seemed to be losing the plot. In the last over though, the pakis needed just 5 runs of the last 3 balls and I had already given up hope. Just then I stared in complete disbelief at my TV screen when Misbah-ul-Haq hit that uneventful shot right into the waiting hands of Sreesanth, when he could have just played a straight bat shot. The commentators went ga-ga over his ” sound cricketing mind” but the Indians held their nerves to pulloff an incredible win. Everytime I went inside my room in complete disbelief, a wicket would fall for the Pakis. Considering this odd coincidence, I have decided to NOT watch cricket when India’s playing, to ensure that they win everytime. Here’s a summary of India’s road to the final victory.

Marketing Minds: The Innovation Seminar

September 23, 2007 General Photos

I am back after attending the ‘Tata Marketing Minds 2007’ seminar which explored the subject of Innovation quite deeply. The 2 day seminar was held on the outskirts of Bangalore city, at a place called the Angsana Resort and Spa — a scenic and serene piece of land suited for knowledge building.

The event which was organized by Titan Industries, was kicked-off with a wonderful session by R Gopalakrishnan (ED – TataSons) who spoke about innovation and the history of the Tatas, quoting generously from the book ‘The Creation of Wealth’ by R M Lala. Eminent personalities from various industry domains spoke from branding and marketing to consumer goods and cyberspace innovations, and tried to touch upon the art of innovating ideas. Some of the speakers included Santosh Desai (Futurebrands), Richa Arora (Head of Marketing, Britannia), Alok Kejriwal (CEO, Contests2Win.com), R. Balki (Adman and director of the film Cheeni Mum), Vikram Kaushik (MD, TataSky Ltd.), C Venkataraman (COO, Titan Jewellery Division – Tanishq), Sashi Sinha (Lodestar), Bhaskar Bhatt (MD, Titan Industries) and more. For me personally it was scintillating to see Piyush Pandey (Chairman, O&M India) from close quarters; sort of a dream come true for me. I have idolised him since my art school days when his work for Fevicol was quite well-known and had won many awards.

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India 'Bowl Out' Pak

September 15, 2007 Happenings

ICC World Twenty20 LogoIndia and Pakistan never fail to entertain when they play each other. Be it Hockey or Cricket, their performances are keenly watched and scrutinized on both sides of the border. Yesterday’s match at the World Twenty 20 in Kingsmead, Durban (South Africa) proved to be a nail-biting event unlike all their previous encounters.

First, it looked like India would be bowled out within 15 overs as they were tottering at 36/4 after Mohammed Asif picked up four Indian wickets. However, the Indians managed 141 in their 20 overs thanks to some hard hitting by Robin Uthappa who scored 50. Then defending their modest score, the Indians were gaining some ground early before Agarkar gave away 17 runs in his penultimate over and the match went down to the wire with 1 run required of just 1 ball. Sreesanth then bowled the last over of the match superbly to end the Pakistan innings at 141/7 in their 20 overs and the match was tied — a first for any Twenty20 International. A ‘Bowl out’ method — much similar to the penalty shootouts in Hockey and Soccer — was applied for an outcome despite both teams already qualifying for the Super8s from Group D.

The rules were simple — each team nominates 5 bowlers to bowl at the stumps. The team with the majority hits wins. Sehwag, Bhajji and Uthappa made no mistake to help India win 3-0 and keep its winning record against in world playoffs against Pakistan intact. The young Indian side maintained a characteristically cool head till the last ball which helped them snatch victory from the Pakistanis. The sad reality of going into a big tournament without a regular coach hasn’t come to hassle the Indians and the way they performed yesterday it seems there’s no requirement for one at the moment if they keep winning consistently. Great performance surely and I hope they bring back the world cup and with it the glorious days of Indian cricket.

Ideas on a UXD Framework

September 13, 2007 Design

Writing for an internal global initiative on Innovation, I spoke about imbibing a user-experience design framework (UXD) in the software development life-cycle (SDLC) that can consistently deliver better products. I am publishing the article here.

Designing a UX framework for Internal Applications
User-experience (UX) design deals with harnessing the feelings of a user — How people feel before, during and after they have used a product. It pertains to creating an interaction model that impacts a user’s perception of a system or a product which makes it more desirable for use again. Being a subset of UCD (user-centered design), the first step towards evolving an internal UX methodology is to understand the requirements and user-needs through research.

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