Anand Nataraj

Archive for February, 2009

Courtesy : Bala Murugan

Yesterday I got latest issue of business gyan… What was special with this issue is it carries bala’s successful post on PF… Bala got an email from Business Gyan asking if they can publish the blog as an article… We felt it as an honored and we immediately accepted the offer… I take this opportunity to wish Mr.Bala Murugan for taking expra effort giving us such a great post and take Cogzidel’s glory to great heights…

You call visit this blog to read the original post… Also you can visit this link to see how it appeared in the magazine…

Also here is the scanned version of the post…

This is what my dietician advised me to follow for next two months… Let me let you know if I followed it…

Sample meal plan

Breakfast

Idli -2 + sambar (avoid coconut chutney)
+ Fruit -1 (apple / pear / guava / 1 cup papaya / orange)
Or
Wheat flakes -1/2 cup + skim milk -150ml + apple -1
Or
Bread (whole wheat) -2 slices + egg white omelette (2 whites) -1
Orange -1
Cornflakes (150 ml skim milk) – 2 cup + Pomegranate – 1 cup

Mid morning               

Buttermilk or fresh lime (sugarless) -1 glass

Lunch 1.00pm

Chapathi – 2 + Mixed vegetable curry – ½ cup 
Levy vegetable – ½ cup
Raw salad -1 cup
Buttermilk (avoid thick curds)
AVOID PICKLE, PAPAD, SWEETS, MIXED RICE

Snacks 5.00pm                                   

Tea -1 cup (½ tsp sugar only)
Marie biscuits -2 nos

Dinner 8.00pm ( EAT EARLY DINNER)

Chapati (without oil) -2 /Iddly-3 / ragi dosa- 2 +
Kootu or dhal or vegetable curry -1cup +
Sprout salad – ½ cup

Measurements/Quantity

1cup = 200ml              1glass = 250ml                                    
1tsp = 5gm                   1tbsp = 15gm

Guidelines

Cereals: Choose a variety   like whole wheat, wheat bread, multigrain bread, ragi, bajra, and jowar

Pulses: Include a wide variety like green gram, rajma,horse gram, soy beans, black eyed beans

Fruits: Eat 2-4 whole fruits everyday. Choose any seasonal fruit.

Vegetables: Include one cup each with lunch and dinner. Restrict using roots and tubers regularly

Green leafy vegetables: Eat thrice a week

Milk and milk products: Choose skim milk for preparing tea, coffee, curds .Include 300-400ml everyday

Oil: Change your cooking oil every month or use a combination from gingelly oil, sunflower, safflower, rice bran, groundnut or corn oil
Oil and sugar: 2-3 tsp per day

Water – drink 2-3 litres per day

Healthy beverage options:
Fresh lime juice                                   Black tea with lime                  Clear soups
Vegetable juices                                  Green tea                                Buttermilk

Avoid
Deep fried foods, Sweets, fruit juices, soft drinks
Pizza, burger, cheese sandwich, Chocolates,Indian sweets, ice creams
Excess salt – pickles, salty snacks – chips, mixture etc
Maida based foods – rumali roti, parota, kulcha,naan, cakes , biscuits

Include

1. Egg white, chicken (without skin). Fish only. Avoid fried dishes
2. 1 cup of subgi and 1 cup of raw salad each with lunch and dinner in day
3. Use green leafy vegetable 4-5 times a week.

General Guidelines

1. Change your cooking oil every month, chose from gingelly, rice bran, and safflower, sunflower, corn and groundnut oils.  Do not reuse cooling oil.
2. Chose high fiber fruits like pear, apple, pomegranate, papaya, pineapple sweet lime, orange and guava
3. Mix soy flour to atta in the ratio 1:5.  You may add ragi flour or jowar flour (kambu) instead of soy flour.
4. Use barley once a week instead of rice.
5. Use 1 tsp of ground flaxseed everyday. Add to chutneys, chapatti dough, salads or mix with fennel and eat it.  It is rich vegetarian source of Omega 3 fatty acid.
6. Garlic -5 flakes, 1 tsp fenugreek seeds everyday
7. Include a  Vit. C rich food in a day for anti oxidant properties
8. Gooseberry, fresh coriander leaves chutney, citrus fruits, papaya, pomegranate, fresh tomato salad, sprouts, broccoli, plum, cherries, strawberries, lemon are excellent sources of Vit. C.

Last weekend I was in Bangalore for attending “Startup Saturday” and “Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet”… I made a small post about Startup Saturday and didn’t do justice for Blogger meet… I thought I must write one because I’ve never seen such an energizing meet where getting along was soo informal and easy…

Before sharing the experience I want to tell you about IndiBlogger.in a social networking site for bloggers and the site is gaining momentum… I really like the concept behind the site and thrilled to know if is run by someone from Chennai…

Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet happened at Stone Pub in Indra Nagar 100 feet road, venue is stone throwing distance from my old office (I had short stint as employee might be less than 3 months)… The meet was sponsored by Kingfisher and beer’s were offered for free; am happy recession didn’t affect beverages industry… My Special thanks to Vijay Mallya & Kingfisher….

Networking in pub is not a new affair to me… Infact I’ve a lot of beer mates in my life… But this time it was different because everyone is a blogger and synergies are equal… Met couple of interesting folks… I remember couple of names Sourav, Amit, Swaminathan, Revin, Karthik, Naveen, Anwin(Organiser), Narayanan (We knew each other before)… We shared our experience and then there was some quiz conducted…

Then I sat along with Amit and were discussing about entrepreneurship… Yep I’m a Startup evangelist and when I see someone interested never give them room to leave …

Here are some on the snaps taken and you can fee how it would have been;

Thatz the Banner for the Meet…

Free beers and you can see what the consumption would have been… People took more than their limit and it then you can imagine… it was FUN FUN FUN everywhere…

Even there was glamour attached… And these were the people who organized the meet…

Itz me(Orange T-Shirt) & Sourav…

Quiz Time

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, "You’re wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

A leader’s job often includes changing your people’s attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

I wanted to share with you all a real case where in I got help from many brains in the world… Yesterday (02/17/2008) I was loaded with lots of work… In the back of my mind I wanted to create a FUN environment in my office… I was unable to think anything beyond Chess, Carom & Table Tennis… So I decided to get more ideas/thoughts from people and posted a tweet

“folks can you suggest some indoor office games which you loved to have it in office”

To my surprise there were tremendous response and still I keep getting suggestions… Here are some on the replies I got in twitter…

Also there are many cases where I used twitter and other social networks for my benefit… Since this is in parse of Twitter let me tell what all I gained from twitter till now… I won two business deals thru twitter… I wanted alpha testers to test a product developed by Cogzidel and when I posted tweet requesting help, there were lots of people who showed interest to help…

 Let me list some of the benefits I got from twitter…

• Sharing of knowledge
• Sharing of information
• Sharing of ideas
• Getting business
• Collaborating & Co-creating
• etc

Just understood the power of social media and community participation and wanted to share it with you…

Thanks a lot Twitter…

Though accounting is a support function it demands high importance in an organization… I remember this famous quote said by Rich Dad to Robert Kiyosaki

“You accounts statement shows there is cancer in it”

In the book Kiyosaki states “when he met Rich Dad to get his advice on the position his business, what Rich Dad asked was for Accounts Statement and reviewing the accounts statement he said Kiyosaki that there was Cancer in his company”. What Kiyosaki means is a company’s position can be read from its accounts.

Likewise a promoter needs proper accounting systems and practices to reap the benefits of all the hard work he has put into his entity… Companies like Worldcom, Enron, Satyam and many more unheard stories have fell down because of accounting irregularities…

Accounting reports are very important and an entrepreneur needs it to take strategic decision… Without an Account’s Report most of the decisions taken can’t be accurate and can prove a costly mistake…

Also we need to Account’s reports and projections when we apply for a loan or approach PE’s or VC’s for funding… But this support function has mostly been sidelined by many promoters and by the time they realize their mistake, it would have been too costly…

So, I recommend entrepreneurs to give high importance to Accounting function’s and hire a experienced Accountant and gain control from the beginning… If you are unable to afford an experienced accountant you can outsource the support services where in you get the same advantage and still have control…

Let me consolidate some points and make a brief…

• Accounting reports helps in strategic decision making…
• Analyzing and reviewing performance of company’s growth…
• Need these reports to apply for loans and for approaching VC’s & PE’s for funding

Last week I was in Ndot office… I was immediately carried away by the way a his office was, it took me 9 years back how I got started… It is always fun to be associated with startups… Their energy, enthusiasm, speed at which they work is all worth a watch from far…

I don’t know if Nanda founder of Ndot took time in recoding the environment he has today… I missed doing that and can only cherish them all alone by telling how it looked… I didn’t want Nanda to feel the same when he becomes big…

Here are some of the snaps I shot last week in his office…

On entering Ndot office we reach this very energetic team…

That is Nanda, founder Ndot…

Another enthusiastic folks…

Today has been a hectic day and I didn’t find time or unable to think something unique. So, I thought what I didn’t for the day must be enough… Here is the synopsis for the day…

• Reached Bangalore at 5.45 AM and landed in Dairy Circle…
• From there I boarded a local bus to reach home…
  • Ticket was eight bucks, but the conductor didn’t give back balance change… So, my travel cost me ten bucks…
  • I was happy because my New Year resolution was not to travel by autos and flights and for last 45 days I’ve been successfully following it…
• Reached home by 6.30 AM made some post in twitter, checked mail and took a small nap for 2 hours…
• Got a wakeup call from Dad, telling what all he has arranged for me. Dad has always been a responsible person and a loving father… He brought my favorite water melon and filled water in the buckets before he left the previous day to Chennai…
• Then took bath and rushed to Startup Saturday and en route had breakfast and picked cash from ATM and was late as usual…
  • But there was introduction about Startup Saturday and their services…
  • Then there was a presentation by Sumeet Anand, who explained about his product Kreeo and about Collective Intellegence…
  • Then it was followed by Jyotsna who gave a presentation about Moovieshoovie.com…
  • Then there was a tea break and time for networking… Time for networking was too short… But managed to be my best within allotted time…
  • Then there was a demo from Tringme.com on VoicePHP… But the topic migrated from demo to VoicePHP vs VoiceXML…
• Then had lunch Gopal, Narasimhan & Senthil…
• Then proceeded to StonePub in Indra Nagar for Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet organized by Indibloggers.in.
  • Event was sponsored by Kingfisher which was generous enough to offer free unlimited beer…
  • Then met with lots of interesting folks…
  • Then met Dhempe, Narayanan & Swaminathan who were already known to me…
  • Then had a long interaction with Amit and I’m expecting an email from him…
• From their proceeded to Forum Mall along with Senthil and I must thank him for giving company… We went to an English movie “He is just not that into you” and just returned and the day has come to an end…

Good Night…

One of trending topics these days is how to generate ideas. Ideas for innovations, ideas to create business model, ideas to improvise systems, ideas to spend weekends. Over a point we become saturated in terms of generating creative/innovative ideas.

First forgive me for using business as example; I can’t avoid it because I’m an entrepreneur and I can relate things with business easily.

Let me start with this famous quote

“You have one dollar and I’ve one dollar, when we exchange the dollar we go home with one dollar each. Where as when you have one idea and I’ve one idea and when we exchange those ideas we get back with two ideas each”…

Likewise life is full of sharing and helping. What is the use in keeping ideas within ourselves and make it die. If we are unable to make use of our ideas, we can share it with someone who can make use of it, at least we have the contention that our idea is alive somewhere…

Let us take some cases for example and analyze them:

Facebook: Is facebook.com unique or innovating concept? Definitely not, then how come Facebook is able to win the race amongst other Social Networking Websites… The answers is simple, Facebook opened itz doors to community (users and developers) to develop their own application by giving API’s. This created revolution; people started these API and developed business model’s, created application for their hobbies etc. We can attribute the success of Facebook to co-creation and colloboration…

Open Source Movement: This is one movement which revolutionized the entire technology space. The concept is simple, share everything and allow others to collaborate and co-create. This has created huge opportunities and lots of entrepreneurs were born with the platform this movement has created.

Twitter: It all started by Jack Dorsey who wanted to know what his friends were doing… They created a proto type and collected feedback from friends and other interested contributors and incorporated new features from others into the system… Finally twitter.com was launched… Click here to know more on how twitter originated…

Other important aspect is even twitter allows community participation my sharing their API’s, which allows people to play around with the system… Twitter has quickly emerged as one of the happening sites in the cyber space…

Google Calendar:  Even Google calendar evolved in the same lines of twitter… It was first developed by a Google developer to map his appointments, seeing this his peers also showed interest and he shared it with his peers… Google innovation lab immediately took note of it and allowed him to work on the project… Click here to read the “Road map to Google Calendar”…

To get more ideas or evolve ideas we must share, collaborate and co-create… Remember

“Every new idea is a joke… Until one man achieves it..!”

Likewise start contributing to others idea and help co-create or form a team which is open is sharing ideas and help you to groom and nourish your ideas… But please don’t keep your ideas within yourself and allow it die… Who knows world would have missed great innovation if you did so…

So please Share! Collaborate! Co-create…