Fallen into Disgrace: Lance Armstrong

So much has been speculated and written about the Oprah’s interview with Lance Armstrong (LA) since a week before the interview.  I watched both parts of the interview; first part on YouTube and second part live on Oprah’s website.  Before I go on to describe my feelings about LA’s confession, I would like to put it on record that I always admired LA to the extent that I was in awe of him.  Only other athlete that comes close to him, in my opinion, is Michael Phelps, the great swimmer.  For me LA’s story was one of the most incredible and motivational stories ever.  I found him always in control of the situation in all his interviews and with each title my respect and admiration for him kept increasing.

Here came the interview which lots of people were waiting for.  I was disappointed with the confessions (even though I was expected it) and was angered by the reasons he provided.  During the last so many years he has been vehemently denying and opposing the doping charges and today he accepted the charges saying that he used the drugs to create ‘level playing field’.  I find the excuse very lame.  Can a poor person resort to ransom to create level playing field with rich?  Can a person with no kids kill other’s kids to create a level playing field?  LA cannot justify his wrong doings like this. 

He said that his personal trait of ‘winning at all cost’ made him go for organized doping programme.  My question to him would he, in his pursuit to win at all costs, even kill somebody.  He knew all along that doping was not approved and it was illegal to be used in professional cycling.  Still he went ahead with professional doping programme and went after all the people who dared to speak against him. 

Now that he got cornered due to the USADA investigation, he comes out in open and goes for an interview with Oprah.  What was he thinking!!!  That he will say sorry and people will forgive him.   He was The Armstorng, an inspiration for not only cancer patients but for most of the people, including me.  He made us believe that anything is possible if one has a will to achieve.  What do I do now!  The person I looked up to in awe has turned out to be a big CHEAT.  He mentioned that it was a perfect story for so long. I would like to remind him that there was no story.  It was a perfect con job for so long.

He said nobody could have won seven Tour de France titles without doping and he was the person who, in first place, made people believe that one can actually win seven tours if you have talent.  Every human being, who aspires to reach new heights in life, has an idol in life.  LA was the hero for so many people and he has let each and every one down.  He is a big DISGRACE to the sporting fraternity.  He claimed that doping was prevalent in his generation and he just did it because everybody was doing it.  This makes him a weak person who is unable to recognize the difference between right and wrong.  His comment “it is like checking air in tires and water in bottle” sends a chill down my spine.  So much institutionalization of a wrongdoing makes him, in my opinion, a cold blooded cheat. 

He claimed that his lifetime ban is unfair as others have got lesser punishment.  I feel that he has forgotten that others were not suing people left right and center for doping accusations.  He committed the same crime with more aggression and also told bigger lies every time.   And not to forget that he was rewarded handsomely by sponsors, fans, etc. because of his “achievement” (even if you can call them so).

I can appreciate him only for his determination to come out, just like Hansie Cronje of South Africa, in open (although it was forced).  I hope he co-operates with USADA and WADA to iron out inefficiencies in the system.  Even though he has apologized, I feel it is not enough. 

Yes, he has all the right to live and move on in his life but I don’t want him to be known for his achievement but for the cheat he has been throughout his life. 

As a last thought, I, for the sake of humanity and inspiration, hope that nothing comes out against Michael Phelps and Michael Schumacher.  

Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Image Source:  Amazon

Last week I finished autobiography of Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.  I wanted to write this blog since then but one thing or the other kept me occupied.  In more than one ways, this book was an eye opener for me.  For instance, I realized that to start something on your own you don't need a great new idea but a conviction to start it.  Your belief matters more than the idea/ business model/ offering.  The fact that through Starbucks, Schultz revived the dying commodity of coffee in US sounds fascinating.

Following are the key takeaways (along with the coffee :-) ) for me from this book.

• Vision:  Schultz had a crystal clear vision of opening coffee bars to serve the coffee in its pure form.  He even had to quit Starbuck (confused!!! I will get back to this) to start his chain of coffee bars. 
• Scale:  Schultz started with an initial plan of opening hundreds of stores.  This shows his vision towards scale.  
• Organizational practices:  I respect Schultz for extending health insurance benefits to all his employees, even the part timers and offering ESOPS (Beanstock) to each and every person including their baristas.
• Delegation of power:  In Starbucks, even store manager has the authority and budgets to pilot new ideas within their stores.  Once the idea is proven, it is implemented in all the Starbucks stores.  This promotes the culture of innovation within the organization.

Despite knowing Starbucks since a long time and being aware about the company, I got surprised buy some of the facts Schultz presented in the book.

• Starbucks wasn’t founded by Howard Schultz.  Starbucks existed even before Schultz joined and it used to sell authentic roasted coffee beans, which had its own cult following within Seattle.  Schultz learnt everything about coffee after he joined Starbucks.  It was during his first trip to Italy, he came up with the idea of setting up coffee bars.  Original Starbucks founders weren't too enthusiastic about coffee bars so Schultz quit Starbucks to setup Il Giornale.  Original Starbucks founders, however, supported him by investing into his venture.  Later when Starbucks was up for sale, Schultz purchased it and rebranded Il Giornale as Starbucks.
• Another fact, which amazed me, was that Starbucks owns all its stores.  Franchisee is a forbidden word within Starbucks.  Even though it sell Frappuccino at retail stores but franchisees are strict no-no for Starbucks.
• Starbucks doesn't own the coffee plantations.  They source it from Brazil, Europe and other places.  I always thought that the company of this scale will get involved in backward integration to optimize costs, maintain quality and ensure predictable supply.  Perhaps, they wanted to focus on their key competency.  I still couldn't find the reason of Starbucks not getting involved in coffee plantation.

All in all, this book is a very easy read.  I read it like a story and each story ended up with learning for me.  Through this book, Schultz told the remarkable journey of evolution of a brand, which represents America at the world stage along with Ford or GM.  

Life of Pi

While surfing IMDB couple of weeks back, I saw a trailer of Ang Lee's upcoming movie 'Life of Pi'.  It revived my interest in the book by same name, which I bought around 4-5 years back.  I quickly took it out from my book rack and wanted to go through it before the release of movie.

The book is about a boy, Pi Patel, and his experience on a life boat when their ship gets drowned.  The book is divided in 3 parts:  First part is about the childhood experiences of Pi Patel; Second part is about Pi's journey on life boat; and third part is Pi's narrative of how he survived to Japanese Maritime Investigators.  Even though I didn't like the narrative in second part but the ending of book made up for it.  In the end Pi ends up telling two stories and lets readers decide which one they want to believe in.

All in all a good fantasy story.  Hope they make a good movie out of it!!!

India Unbound by Gurcharan Das

Image Source:  Wiki

Just finished reading India Unbound by much acclaimed writer, Gurcharan Das (former P&G India head).  This is my second book by him.  I have started appreciating his style of writing, which is very simple and is in first person narrative, which makes the reading interesting.  He definitely is one of the storytellers whom I would pay to listen.

In this book, he walks you through the economic analysis and policy evolution in India since independence.  He also analyzes the various factors which impacted the economic policies and their effect on Indian growth.  I appreciate his in-depth research on how various economists analyzed the Indian economy and political situation.  I specifically liked the part where he explained about why India's share in world trade went down from 25% in 1750 to less than 1 percent in 1980s.  However, I felt that most of his solutions lean too much towards capitalistic approach to develop the market and economy.  I found him neutral and sympathetic to Nehru and his policies but very critical to Indira Gandhi's policies.  

Overall a good read if you want an overview of India's economic history.  Das has also posed some questions in the book for which we have to find answers ourselves as a society.

Now onto another book!!!

I rose to The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises was much awaited movie of this year and being a Christopher Nolan fan, I was eagerly waiting for this movie since the last two months.  I booked my tickets as soon as bookings opened on Wednesday.  I reached the multiplex early, picked up popcorn and settled down to feel the thrill.  Let me put a disclaimer.  After watching The Dark Knight, I had very high expectations form the movie and trailers of The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) also paved way to the lots of excitement and high expectations.

Well, movie started with a brilliant sequence of Bane (antagonist) getting escaped through a plane jacking and towing.  This scene was very well executed and eye catchy.  Now that the tone of movie was set, adrenaline started rushing to my body too :)

I must say that Bane has been shown very menacing, both mentally and physically.  He is shown in the movie as a person without any emotions.  He occupied lots of screen space in the movie (either through dialogues or visuals).  The built up with Bane coming over to Gotham and Wayne living a secluded life was good.  However, I didn’t like the feeble end of Bane in the movie considering that he was the meanest character.  I was expecting more faceoff of Bane with Batman.

Even though visuals and special effects were brilliant, somewhere in the middle I felt like I am not watching Nolan’s movie.  I could have watched all these action sequences in any other movie.  But one has to be foolish to doubt the sensibilities and creativity of Christopher Nolan.  He surprised and shook me with the suspense and twist in the plot.  The ending, as usual, has been in a way that leaves scope for sequels :).  Yeah I know that this was the last one by Nolan and even Bale has declared it as his last Batman movie.

No review of the movie can be complete without a mention of Christian Bale.  His character as Bruce Wayne goes through lots of emotions and Bale was able to emote them on screen with finesse.  His portrayal of pain, grief, anger and romance was as smooth as silk.  His gadgets were more or less similar except new Batmobile, which is actually an aircraft (I found it heavily inspired from the one in Spider Man).  I didn’t find it anything out of the world.  I realized in TDKR, Batman was trying a lot to brand himself.  There were number of scenes where Batman is showcasing to people of Gotham city about his arrival.  I found it little odd considering that Batman generally completes his work in background and disappears.  On the contrary, it might have been required in the context of movie.  With people of Gotham losing hope and having branded Batman as criminal in The Dark Knight, he had to return with a bang.

The introduction of Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate was good.  The portrayal of Selina Kyle (Catwoman!) was pleasing and smooth.  Rest of the cast; Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon; was decent.

One of the best scenes in the movie is prison under well.  I liked the way Bane explains why it is the most dreaded prison in world.  You can see the sky and live in a hope of getting escaped but for that you need to climb up the well.  Having the hope and still not able to escape makes this the most dreaded prison in the world. 

For the first time I saw a movie in cinema hall with substitles.  I found it a big letdown as it distracted me from the action sequence.  All in all it is a good one time watch.  I still like the second movie of the series the best.  I will wait for collector edition of this series to buy.

Happy New Year 2012

First post of the year and as everybody expected, I will start it by wishing all of you a very happy new year.  The year gone by was good and I achieved one of the major milestones of my life.  Expected little better outcome of job searching process but can't complain much.
The build up to the new year was not very exciting because I was supposed to be home with parents and family.  I ended up spending the new year at one of my friend's place.  Next day I went out with parents and family for a laid back dinner and it was full of fun.  So far this year is good.
Professionally, I hope to get involved into exciting work which gives me more satisfaction and involves more action.  Want to rock the boat this year.  Amen.

Does Apple have right product in iPad for average Indian consumer?

Most of the people in India feel that Apple has got its pricing strategy wrong in India or Apple doesn’t want to focus on India as a market for its high end products like iPad and iPhone.  I feel that Apple is very smart to keep its pricing high for Indian consumers.  In my opinion, iPad is not the right product for middle class Indian consumer and Apple is aware of it.

Unlike west, most of the Indian middle class households generally have one computing device – either laptop or desktop and whole family uses it.  Personalization, as per the needs of different members in household, is one of the standard features of desktop operating systems.  Moreover, you have the option of logging out of your personal accounts (email, facebook, etc.) from the web browser.  However, Apple devices like iPad and iPhone are more of personal devices rather than family usage devices.  If one member of the family setups his/ her email, facebook, youtube, linkedin accounts on iPad/ iPhone, the information can be easily viewed by all other members of family without any restrictions.  I believe that Apple is very much aware of this cultural different between the India and west.  This is the reason of keeping prices of iPad/ iPhone high to target only upper middle class and upper class, who can afford iPad as their personal device and keep it personal too J

To sum it up, I believe that Apple is aware that they don’t have product in iPad for average Indian family and keeping the pricing high is a way to target the audience who can afford to treat iPad/ iPhone as personal device.