Loud Thinking

Archive for May, 2014

Government is religiously siding with DALIL against GHULAIL…..any doubts???

“You have made some mistakes, and you may not be where you want to be, but that has nothing to do with your future.”

— Zig Ziglar

Three Rules for Better Brainstorming

Most people have had their share of painful brainstorming sessions. Next time you bring a group together to come up with new ideas, make the meeting run smoothly and the outcome more effective by adopting these rules:
No judgment. Every idea should be welcome. Write down anything that’s offered by a group member. Keep in mind that judgment is the single fastest way to shut down creativity. Kill one idea early on, and many more will be left unsaid.
Encourage the group to build on ideas. One thought can lead to an even better one down the road. Ask people to actively listen to what others are saying, instead of just waiting for their turn to talk.
Move quickly. Don’t get caught up in the details of any one idea. Capture the essence and move on. You can always delve into the specifics later.

Adapted by HBR from the Playing to Win Strategy Toolkit.

A Winning Business Model Starts with One Primary Customer

Many executives are reluctant to choose one primary customer group, but this strategic choice defines a business. You must identify your most important customers – those who can unlock the most value in your business. They may be consumers of a product or service; or they may be resellers or brokers. Choose the best one by assessing each customer group along three dimensions:
Perspective: The primary customer must reflect a company’s culture and mission, so the energy and creativity of its people can be leveraged to serve the customer.
Capabilities: The embedded resources that a firm builds up over time (and which are difficult to copy) position a business to serve the needs of certain customers better than others.
Profit potential: A customer’s ability to deliver profits counts, but it’s not always about who can pay more; becoming a destination for a specific group can deliver profits through volume.

Adapted from “ Choosing the Right Customer” by Robert Simons.

“Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A ‘you can do it’ when things are tough.”

— Richard M. DeVos

An amazing statistical story of recent Indian elections which has punctured the myth of BJP’s popularity wave.

BJP’s 31% lowest vote share of any party to win majority

A Times of India report of 19 May, 2014.

The fact that the BJP has won a majority on its own in the 16th Lok Sabha has, inevitably, drawn comparisons with previous elections in which parties have won a majority of seats on their own. What has not quite figured in most of these comparisons is the fact that no party has ever before won more than half the seats with a vote share of just 31%. Indeed, the previous lowest vote share for a single-party majority was in 1967, when the Congress won 283 out of 520 seats with 40.8% of the total valid votes polled.

This statistical fact points to an important aspect of the latest ‘wave’. Far from spelling the end of a fractured polity, the 2014 results show just how fragmented the vote is. It is precisely because the vote is so fragmented that the BJP was able to win 282 seats with just 31% of the votes.

Simply put, less than four out of every 10 votes opted for NDA candidates and not even one in three chose somebody from the BJP to represent them. Those who picked the Congress or its allies were even fewer, less than one in five for the Congress with a 19.3% vote share (which incidentally is higher than the BJP’s 18.5% in 2009) and less than one in every four for the UPA. Unfortunately for the Congress, its 19.3% votes only translated into 44 seats while BJP’s 18.5% had fetched it 116 seats.

With the combined vote share of the BJP and Congress – the two major national parties – adding up to just over 50%, almost half of all those who voted in these elections voted for some other party. Even if we add up the vote tallies of the allies of these two parties, it still leaves a very large chunk out. The NDA’s combined vote share was 38.5% and the UPA’s was just under 23%. That leaves out nearly 39% — or a chunk roughly equal to the NDA’s — for all others.

Is the 38.5% vote share for the NDA the lowest any ruling coalition has ever obtained? Not quite. The parties that constituted UPA-1 had just 35.9% of votes polled and the Congress won just 38.2% of the votes in 1991, when it ran a minority government under P V Narasimha Rao. But, except in 1991, they had to depend on outside support to keep the government afloat, which meant that the total vote share of those in the government or supporting it was higher.

In 1989, the National Front, consisting of the Janata Dal, DMK, TDP and Congress (S) won 146 seats and a vote share of 23.8%. To this was added the 85 seats and 11.4% of the BJP and the 52 seats and 10.2% of the Left, taking the total including those supporting from outside to 283 seats and 45.3% of the votes.

In 2004, parties in the pre-poll alliance stitched up by the Congress had 220 seats and just under 36% of the votes. But the UPA then got outside support from the Left, SP and PDP, which between them had 100 seats and about 11.2% vote share. Thus, UPA-1 was formed with the support of 320 MPs and about 47% of votes.

The NDA does not need any outside support to form the government. Indeed, the BJP can form it even on its own. But unless it ropes in others, it will become the government with the lowest popular support in terms of vote share after the Rao government.

“When adversity strikes, that’s when you have to be the most calm. Take a step back, stay strong, stay grounded and press on.”

— LL Cool J

It has been reported over media that BJP got only 12% more votes than the Congress party.

However, BJP won 500% seats more than the Congress party..!

Can someone answer this question that how come a difference of just 12% votes make such a huge impact over winning and losing..?

“I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts — that’s when I get in trouble.”

— Angelina Jolie

My tweet retweeted by the IMF Pakistan:

IMF Pakistan (@imf_pakistan) retweeted one of your Tweets!

Syed Nayyar Uddin
@nayyarahmad
@KhawajaMAsif @imf_pakistan @WorldBank why the fed govt don’t deduct outstanding power bills of the provinces from the share of its payment?
03:36 PM – 16 May 14
Retweeted by
IMF Pakistan @imf_pakistan
To 928 followers.