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How to Handle Multiple Urgent Tasks Effectively
In my first job (in the Civil Services), virtually every task marked for my personal attention was 'urgent.' And then, the next task would also be, unsurprisingly, urgent. Some days, I got so fed up that having a law and order problem almost came...
Recent Posts
Why Action Is the Only Way Forward
This may be unpopular but let me say it. If you have to climb a mountain, at some point, you need to start climbing. Yes, you can watch all the...
The Silent Shift Already Reshaping the Workforce
I am not hearing good things. From New York to Singapore, whoever you talk to, is talking about job losses. And the driving force is not economic...
Prestige, Power, and the Hidden Costs
Yesterday, more than half a million people in India wrote the Civil Services exam, to compete for a few hundred jobs. From my firsthand experience,...
How the “Urgent” Culture Is Killing Productivity
In my consulting days, we saved a client a few million dollars with a simple recommendation. This company was spending $10 million plus on postal...
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Can Generalists Thrive in a Specialized World?
Can generalists thrive in this new world order? To answer this, let me go back to the McKinsey I saw a decade and a half ago, which was full of generalists. Even specialists were hired as generalist consultants. For example, it was common to see...
Measuring Knowledge Work in Hours
Since the who's who of the corporate world is singing praises about hard work, I want to put on record that I agree with them 100%. But the problem is that we immediately translate 'hard work' into 84 hours, 96 hours, or 120 hours a week. So before...
Why Intelligence Without Accountability Is Dangerous
One of my IIT professors had a stellar academic reputation. But after he quit/retired, he abandoned academic rigour and started making random claims. He would inflate mediocre work using jargon and began behaving like a quack. And the reason was...
Why Comparing Career Choices Is a Dead End
During my MBA, a college friend visited us in Philadelphia. And during our conversation, I asked him about his career plans. But he had no 'plans' -- he was happy with his life, and I couldn't understand how that was possible! After an IIT degree...