Vivek’s Review: The Habit of Winning

I have recently purchased the book "The Habit of Winning" written by Mr Prakash Iyer, the book was a real eye opener for me, the book introduces us to many people who fought their way in life evethough all the odds were stacked against them – stories of determination to make it big in life come what may. I knew this author by reading many of his motivational articles in magazines like Careers 360.

In the book I was most captivated by the story about india's miracle batsman Sachin Tendulkar who was badly injured during match against Pakistan in Sialkot in December 1989 and was bleeding profusely when the cricket ball thrown by Waqar Younis hit  his nose, eventhough everyone was expecting him to retire he said 'Main Khelega" meaning I will continue to play and went on to make 57 runs, he was just 16 years old at that time. The author wanted to explain through all this that it is attitude and determination to reach one's goals in life that makes the difference between winners and also rans in the long run.

Also there is the story of the 2 frogs that fell in a pot of milk and the one which escaped churned the milk continuosly with it's legs that made butter from the milk and was eventually able to escape by jumping off from the top of butter and to freedom whereas the other frog that perished and drowned after it lost hope and stopped churning the milk soon before the butter surfaced. It is a reminder to us all that in life it is not the able bodied that wins life's races, but the man who thinks he can and strives with appropriate means to reach his goals whether spiritual or material.

What impressed me most about this book was the way in which the articles were categorized under various pillars that make up for success like Vision and goals, Self Belief, Perseverance etc..

What is more unique about this book that I have observed unlike other motivational literatures which I have read so far is the absence of any cooked up methods that assure success, this is a very practical book which will definitely make you think on your feet by way of examples and cogent presentation of ideas and view the stories and apply them in relation with one's own life situations. I feel this book is one of the most genuine and interesting piece of motivational literature that I have read till now in my life, all the very best to the author.

Business Process Modelling

I was fortunate enough to have been chosen by our top management to attend the training programme conducted by our italian colleagues from group head quarters for business process mapping using a specialized high end software application called MEGA. This tool enabled us to map the Maintenance process in our indian subsidiary. Our team went on to develop the context diagram and all descriptive word documents for explaining the work flow of the indian maintenance process and all the subprocesses that are involved in it, we have identified the following subprocesses under the maintenance activity:

1. Maintenance Planning
2. Maintenance Scheduling
3. Maintenance Execution
4. Subcontractor Management
5. Performance evaluation

These subprocesses hold good for maintenance activities done in all our indian subsidiary's cement plants as well as grinding units. The ultimate aim of making this work is to let our top management compare and do the GAP analysis between the various subsidiaries maintenance processes and subprocesses, if during the GAP analysis the company's subsidiary in one country is found to follow a better, effiecient and cost effective strategy, then we can propose to subsidiaries in other countries to follow the same.

Business process modelling is a niche field and comes under the broader spectrum of corporate governance. It helps companies to build a corpus of knowledge of their existing business processes(Production, Maintenance, Sales, Procurement, HR etc..) and helps to optimize the way in which the whole company itself is operated, From the context diagram we can identify clearly the interaction between different elements that make up the business process. More than just documentation work it helps companies to stream line their operations in a much better way and to have an upper hand over their competitors. This is strictly an intellectual property belonging to the company alone and is issued only after endorsement by top management.