Yes.. now we are seeing the go green awareness every where including landscaping. Arizona Utilities Department has decided to use goats to clear out 30 acres of weeds and brush.
Cost cutting has been on top of the priority list for all the companies in this tough economic times. Every one watching out for new ways of cutting expences. Here are some trivial approaches that most of the companies follow that confirms a company is in the first level of cost cutting -
- Cutting on office supplies and making it minimum.
- Cutting on corporate lunch / outings
- Minimizing the corporate travel costs
- Creating new (documented) process for support activities (like upgrading a laptop?)
But two aggressive steps that can immediately decrease the operational costs are:
- Outsourcing the new wave that caught as number one option for cost cutting.
- Trimming the work force and bringing down the scope of work
All these are done and seen. In recent days I have seen companies being more innovative in cutting cost. Here are some examples -
- Cognizant gives the concept of WFH a new dimension by introducing 20:20:20 programme.
- Infosys is asking each employee to show a one time cost saving of $10
These are some very simple examples of how hard times can drive innovation.
Last week was the most unique in terms of the weather changes. As we expected a heavy snow fall ahead of Christmas eve, I googled for some tips on shoveling my driveway. I got lucky and found a interesting blog (unable to find it now..) well it had few tips on how to efficiently and quickly push the snow to the sides of the drive way. I followed it and was really helpful. But I couldn’t beat the wet snow that was heavier and the overnight subzero temperature that froze the snow. I was determined to see a clean driveway. so the next day I chizzled away the icy snow mountain sitting on my driveway. I was sure relived to see the mess cleaned up… but ouch.. I didn’t realize that I had sprained my upper back/shoulders. Towards end of the week the rain and unusual 50*F temp melted away most of my hard work sitting on sides of my driveway.
I was explaining this to my brother who is a doctor (and also has special interest in alternative medicine like acupuncture). He mentioned about a self practiced healing technique called Alexander Technique I am impressed by this art and was interesting to see how many people had practiced it.
With this (and some hot patches!!!) now I am getting ready for the next snow storm 
wow… I just noticed that I haven’t blogged for more than 2 months now.. Here are my top 5 reasons -
- Economy – Its sure the biggest worry on every ones mind. Its quite disturbing to check news or even log on to internet.
- Canceled Vacation – I had my plans to visit Bangalore this month but I had to cancel my trip for safety concerns. Its hard to come out of the vacation mode. I had planned to do nothing for 2-3 weeks
- Child care – As an offshoot of the above change we had to spend some time searching for quick and affordable alternates.
- Weather - Not to blame our Chicago weather, it had always been a lousy winter weather in last 4 year. But still every year I feel this is the worst weather I have ever seen. So while staying indoor, I’m trying to get off computer and spend more time with family.
- Changes at Work – Had been some shift in project/team I am currently working on. So that needs some extra attention.
Ok.. I know.. I too lazy to even realize that I was not blogging. But good news.. now I’m back on.
About an year ago I remember looking into a online tutorial using Screencast. After that I didn’t pay much attention until recently I saw this article on Mashable. Out of these I have tried CamStudio and Wink. Both are quick and easy to use.
Although the primary use of Screencasting is for creating tutorials but I feel this can be used by every one who communicates with some one remotely. This would surely give a new dimension to our communication channel.
Curious to know if LHC has destroyed the earth? Check this website for details – http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth
wow look at the first line -
HOLD FOR RELEASE – DO NOT USE – HOLD FOR RELEASE – DO NOT USE
http://gawker.com/5042795/bloomberg-runs-steve-jobs-obituary
Few weeks back I came across an article in sun time about how well some of them are using the coupons. Until that time I had never realized the impact of using coupons. I used to keep few coupons for LNT, BBB, Costco aside so that I can use them, but could never remembered to have them handy at the time of purchase. So I had never used any. Recently I got PDF format of LNT coupon so started printing them before I go there. So today I printed them out and on my way out I saw a BBB coupon on my desk. I know LNT would accept their competitors coupons. So grabbed it with me. I presented both the coupons during the checked out and found that I could not use both in a single purchase. Its common practice and we find this disclaimer on all the coupons. I just wanted to argue logically and asked the checkout agent that if she can accept both the coupons if I made my purchase in 2 transaction? Guess what… she said YES :-/ and applied both the coupons!
I still don’t get how it was different from having all the coupons in one transaction and how the disclaimer of using one per transaction is being validated!
For starters WorldWatch website provides some simple steps to go green. But if you are really interested then Treehugger has more details. I like the 3 step menu bar that gives more clarity.
In past few months the one new thats been daunting every one is the subprime crisis. Some financial gurus started predicting the next target of this crisis and few started pointing towards “Credit Card”. An average American household carries $8000 debt. In this economy there is high chances that some of them will turn out to be bad debt. Going a step ahead now we can see this crisis started bleeding in to student loans. Lenders has started evaluating the students credit reports. If this continues the students will have tough time ahead.
We can also see its effect on the US stock market since Jan 2008. Even though we see lot of things has changed negatively, the federal reserve is trying hard not to declare recession. Every one is worried that it will even worsen things. But I feel if we declare recession and accept things as it is today and move on then things may change. As long as we deny the fact the going will get tougher.