The Architecture of Fear

Why do we buy things we really don't need? Why do we seek control over things and people? Why do we seek predictability in business? Why do we love brands? If wish to answer this 'why' we have to move into the realm of psychology and understand the origins of fear. The more acceptable for fear in the corporate world is 'stress'.

Every Hindu god and goddess raises his or her palm in a gesture which means 'do not be afraid' (a-bhaya), indicating that ancients knew the role of fear in day-to-day life. If there was no fear (bhaya), there would be no hunger or desire (bhook), hence no desire to consume (bhoga). Our desire to consume results in a heavy toll on resources (bali) for which we have to pay a price (karma). Thus fear is the seed of all issues we face in the business world from demand to supply, from transparency to governance. It is fear that shapes our relationship with consumers, auditors, authorities, bosses, processes. Yet, this is not part of business school curriculum. Perhaps because we are over reliant on human reason and forget that humans are essentially not reasonable but rather insecure and frightened. The word fear does not go well with the corporate image of a valorous confident warrior, dressed in a smart black suit, tablet in hand.

Stress or fear can be traced to the first life form (sajiva). Unlike inanimate objects (ajiva) it was determined to survive, fight for its life, avoid death, by seeking nutrition from the earth around. As more life forms emerged, everyone competed for food. Mutation took place and diversity emerged to improve chances of survival. The greatest mutation was the split between life-forms that move (chara) and life-forms that do not move (achara), meaning animals and plants. A plant grows towards food, but it cannot run from predators that feed on it. An animal can run towards food and away from predators. In animals we see the fear inherent in the food chain: the fear of the prey of being hunted and the fear of the predator of starvation. The other fear that is superimposed is that of the pecking order: who will be alpha and hence get access to most food and most mates. The one at the bottom of the pyramid is at a disadvantage, especially the male, who gets least food and probably no mate. Can this be the reason for the aggression seen in men? But humans are the most unique life-form. We have a mind that can imagine (manas) and so we imagine who we are and wonder if others imagine ourselves the same way. This creates anxiety, fear of invalidation. We seek status and justification and most importantly meaning (artha). We seek nourishment for our self-image, and constantly protecting this self-image from rivals and predators. This constitutes our architecture of fear.

It is significant that the word artha-shastra simultaneously means economics (do we generate and distribute enough wealth, income, revenue?), politics (do we get enough power to compete, catch prey, shun predators?), and philosophy (do we know who we really are? do we live meaningful lives?). This was a holistic approach to business and management, restricted not just to making ourselves efficient money-making businesses but locating business in society, and even the cosmos. This is missing in students one finds emerging from the best universities in the world. They are skilled warriors but clueless what are they fighting for. And this cluelessness results in strange, even dangerous behaviour.

Let us take three examples of behaviour found in the corporate world to demonstrate the key role of the fear-seed in business activities:

• Consumers and vendors constantly seek deals and discounts. It makes them feel powerful. Shopping becomes retail therapy, a chance to feel significant in a world that does not care for you. Service providers realise the value of making a customer feeling valuable. Fear is intensified by creating hierarchies amongst customers: you are level 1 customer, level 2 customer or level 3 customer. Depending on the hierarchy you get a different level of service. Your waiting time is less, if you are more loyal.

• A senior manager finds himself, or herself, being continuously judged. The auditors judge the processes he follows. The bosses judge his performance. He is constantly told what he has not achieved and how he is not adequately aligned. He discovers his compensation is never good enough, always lesser than his rivals, and this poor compensation is always rationalised and justified during appraisal time. He is repeatedly told, in quarter after quarter, he has to be better, run faster. He has to stay the ever-hungry predator who is never allowed to rest and play to satisfy the insatiable hunger of the anonymous institutional shareholder.

• A very successful investment banker wonders if people he meets knows how smart. So he buys the best car, the best house, throws the best parties, goes on the finest holidays, brags how he just works for an hour a day, or maybe an hour a week, constantly positioning his brilliance, and even doing charity, because he wants to succeed even in social responsibility. Finally, he starts seeing value in possessing a bathtub made of gold. Or gets a kick in getting freebees like celebrities.

A knowledge of fear is critical in management if one accepts that humans are animals with imagination, who cannot be domesticated using reason. Desire, greed, ambition, control, success, compliance all impact the everyone's architecture of fear. We look at institutions to raise their palm and display the symbol of a-bhaya. Instead their massive size, steel and glass coldness, impersonal business processes, swipe cards and closed circuit TVs only amplify the bhaya.

Source devdutt.com 

Tomorrow is Organ Donation Day! Sign up on ileadindia.com

Let Go of a Part of You

DEVDUTT PATTANAIK brings you two unusual stories from Indic mythology on organ donation — one about a renunciate and the other, the story of a bhakta.

To donate an organ, two critical emotions are needed: Vairagya or renunciation and bhakti or devotion. The former is more intellectual in nature and the latter is more emotional in nature. While vairagya allows one to detach oneself from the organ and say, “That is not me,” bhakti empowers one to be generous towards another, saying,” He needs that more than I do.” These two aspects; these two emotions of giving of oneself are very evident in the stories of Dadhichi and Kannappa in Indic tradition.

Dadhichi’s Story

 The story of Dadhichi comes from the Sanskrit puranas. The devas or celestial beings were busy fighting the asuras who were led by one Vritra who was considered invincible and, therefore, was impossible to defeat. The gods needed a strong weapon and nothing was stronger than the bones of a sage called Dadhichi who had been practicing tapasya for hundreds of years. So Indra, king of the devas, went to Dadhichi and asked him to give up his bones. This would mean Dadhichi had to die so that his bones could be harvested. 

Dadhichi agreed without a moment’s hesitation. He had attained kaivalya, Supreme Knowledge and so was not dependent on or attached to his body. He renounced his body through the yogic practice of samadhi and let the devas claim his bones. From these bones, the celestial artisan, Vishwakarma, created the weapon called Vajra or thunderbolt. Indra wielded the Vajra to defeat Vritra and the asuras. 

Ever since, whenever there is thunder and lightening in the sky, people exclaim: There is Indra, striking the asuras with his Vajra, the weapon created with the bones of Dadhichi!

(FYI - Dadichi's Ashram is Here - http://goo.gl/maps/u99bm :)

The Eye Sage

The story of Kannappa comes from the Peria Purana, a Tamil collection of the works of Nayanars, poet-saints devoted to Shiva. Every day, Thinnan, a hunter of the Boyar or Gaddi community, would visit the shrine of the Shiva Lingam and share with the lingam all that he found during his daily hunt: water from mountain springs — which he would carry in his mouth, flowers from the trees that grew on the slopes that he carried in his hair, and the best portions of the game he hunted. 

One day, Shiva decided to test Thinnan’s devotion. The Shiva lingam grew a pair of eyes; one of them started to bleed. Thinnan tried healing the bleeding eye with herbs but nothing worked. Finally, Thinnan cut out his eye and replaced the bleeding eye with his own eye. Then, to his shock, he found that now the other eye had started to bleed. Thinnan decided to offer his other eye as well, but realised that with both eyes gone, he would not know where to place the second eye.

So he placed his foot on the bleeding eye to help him locate the second eye of Shiva after he had plucked out his own other eye. Shiva was so pleased with this act of unconditional sacrifice that he named Thinnan as Kannappa or the ‘eye sage’. 

While Dadhichi displays renunciation on giving up his bones, Kannappa expresses his utter devotion while giving up his eyes.

Visit - www.ileadindia.com and sign up today!

Understanding GEN Y Millennials

Times have changed, to see how simply turn on the TV. The shows that were watched in 70's and 80's were about "values" they were more focused on family, friendships, hard work and character.

Year 2013, now we tune into Desperate Housewives, Who wants to marry a Millionaire and American Idol. These shows tend to involve lies, deceit and quick, easy routes to fame and fortune.

The same is the case with our workforce:

The unasked questions on the minds of every baby boomer and members of Generation X in the workplace today about Generation Y is:

·         Who are these strange creatures?

·         How do you deal with them?

·         And, how can they possibly become an asset to an organization?

Look around your office. Managers are struggling to keep their high-performing talent within the ranks, especially the up-and-coming young superstars from Generation Y.

You may know them as the Generation Why, the Trophy Generation, Gen Y, or Millennials. They are the generation born between 1978 and 1995. This generation has completely infiltrated your organization. They come with their own unique traits that, when harnessed correctly, can produce incredible results.

But not everyone sees it that way.

By 2020, these young hires will make up 60 percent of the workforce.  They are rapidly climbing the corporate ladder, and much has been made of the supposedly needy mindset they bring to the workplace—and how their predecessors, the Baby Boomers, must change their approach if they want to accommodate these over-coddled upstarts.

They've got the attitude, they've got the ambition, they've got the BlackBerry in one hand and the half-café mocha latte in the other. Welcome to the world of Generation Y.

GEN Y , Also known as the Net Generation, Millennials, iGeneration, Second Baby Boom, Google Generation, and the Cynical Generation, currently are the most influential consumer and employee group in the world.

Although they bring energy and innovation to the workplace, the Generation Y is challenging to manage.

Millennials are creating a change in how work gets done, as they work more in teams and use more technology. Their social mindset, however, is also a significant factor. As Leigh Buchanon writes in Meet the Millennials, "One of the characteristics of Millennials, besides the fact that they are masters of digital communication, is that they are primed to do well by doing good. Almost 70 percent say that giving back and being civically engaged are their highest priorities."

Coupled with the socially minded millennial comes their desire to be creative. Millennials have grown up in a time where information has become available instantly. Through a Google or Wikipedia search, answers to even quite complicated questions can be found. As such, millennials have developed into a group that wants to work on new and tough problems, and ones that require creative solutions.

In a 2009 article by Tamara Erickson, a millennial who had been struggling in her role, admitted to peers that, "I guess I just expected that I would get to act on more of my ideas, and that the higher ups here would have figured out by now that the model's changing." (Gen Y in the Workforce, Tamara Erickson, Harvard Business Review, February 2009)

They appreciate clear direction, demand immediate feedback on performance, expect to be Consulted and included in management decisions, and demand constant intellectual challenge.

In India, they make up the more than half of the population. Despite the large potential workforce, not all are 'employment ready' and so their talents are in short supply.

The Generation Y in India is a remarkable group that is ambitious, optimistic, embraces change and have a clear sense of where they are headed. Most are 'entrepreneurial and business savvy, as well as technologically capable and connected.

With about half of India's one billion people under the age of 25, Generation Y in India is the world's largest. Positioned in a time of exciting and rapid economic growth in the country, they are keen to participate in the country's future and success. The country's recent parliament elections saw a huge turnout of Generation Y population, demonstrating their ambition to take the country forward.

Gen Ys expect challenging work assignments, accelerated career growth, socially responsible workplaces, flexible work environments, freedom, and collaboration and innovation from their jobs and employers.

Highly competitive, Generation Y is more than ever before seeking higher education and landing jobs in multi-national companies in areas such as IT, back office operations, media, strategy and management positions. With opportunities aplenty in the current economy, they are also job-hopping, something not seen in their parents' generation.

There are certainly a lot of negative feelings about this young generation and the impacts they are having on companies. From their use of social media, loyalty to their friends over the organization and their need to be heard (even during meetings on topics they have little experience with), this generation is certainly different.

Trying to change a generation is akin to changing the direction of the mighty Mississippi: It's not going to happen. Instead of trying to force behaviour changes think about how you are managing your Gen Y employees.

The time has come to think differently, act differently and start re-focusing on long-term success. Today's forward-thinking businesses are repositioning themselves….don't be left behind…

With a better understanding of the Gen Y mindset which drives behaviour, business can better attract, manage and engage this generation both as customers and as staff.

Source: email forward

Replacing the Performance Appraisal | LinkedIn

I found this to be useful, so I share it -

My prior post pointed out the deleterious effects of the annual performance appraisal and how they don't actually increase performance. So, what should replace them?

Although I will attempt to provide a superior replacement, I think the premise of the question is flawed. After all, you don't ask the firemen who saved your home what they intend to replace the fire with.
That said, there are three strategic resources to replace the performance appraisal system:

1. Key Predictive Indicators for Knowledge Workers
2. The Manager's Letter
3. After-Action Reviews

Key Predictive Indicators for Knowledge Workers

A critical distinction is being made between a key performance indicator and a key predictive indicator. The former is merely a measurement—such as the number of patents filed, or new clients—but lacks a falsifiable theory.
The latter, by contrast, is a measurement, or judgment, guided by a theory, which can be tested and refined, in order to explain, prescribe, or predict. It is the search for cause and effect.

Knowledge work is not defined by quantity, but quality; not by its costs, but results. The traditional tools of measurement need to be replaced by judgment. And there is a difference between a measurement and a judgment: a measurement requires only a scale; a judgment requires wisdom.

So many leaders worry that if they get rid of objective measures, they will introduce subjective bias into the decision-making process. So what? To get rid of bias we would have to give up emotions and discernment, which is too high a price to pay. Neurologist Antonio Damasio has studied brain-damaged patients, demonstrating that without emotion it is impossible to make decisions.

Admittedly, the following KPIs raise rather than answer questions, but at least they raise the right questions. Better to be approximately relevant rather than precisely irrelevant. Enlightened organizations allow their team members to decide which of the following KPIs are most important to track and develop.

I am not suggesting utilizing all of the following KPIs. These are just some of the more effective ones I have seen.

Customer Feedback
What are the customers saying—good and bad—about the team member? Would you trade some efficiency for a team member who was absolutely loved by your customers?

Effective Listening and Communication Skills
It is easier to teach reading and writing, which are solitary undertakings, than to teach listening and speaking, which always involve human interactions. But how do you measure listening and communication skills?

Risk Taking, Innovation, and Creativity
How often do employees take risks or innovate new ways of doing things for customers or the company?

Knowledge Elicitation
Knowledge elicitation involves educating others so that they are able to generate their own knowledge.

Continuous Learning
What do team members know this year that they did not know last year that makes them more valuable? This is more than simply logging hours in educational courses; it would actually require an attempt to judge what they learned.

One of the objections to investing more in people's education is "they will leave, and possibly become an even stronger competitor." This is no doubt true, although a company faces the risk of their leaving anyway. But what if you do not invest in their education and they stay?

Effective Delegator
Peter Drucker believed that up to one-quarter of the demands on an executive's time could be consigned to the wastebasket without anyone noticing. Does your organization encourage its knowledge workers to become effective delegators?

Pride, Passion, Attitude, and Commitment
If you thought some of these other KPIs were hard to measure, how would you measure pride? Although not a substitute for actual talent, pride in one's work, customers, colleagues, employer, and values are critical to operate with passion and commitment.

High-Satisfaction DayTM

I am indebted to John Heymann, CEO, and his Team at NewLevel Group, a consulting firm located in Napa, California, for this KPI. An HSD is one of those days that convinces you, beyond doubt, why you do what you do.
It could mean landing a new customer, achieving a breakthrough on an existing project, or receiving a heartfelt thank-you from a customer. Sound touchy-feely? John admits that it is. But he also says that the number of HSDs logged into the firm's calendar is a leading indicator—and a barometer—of his firm's morale, culture, and profitability.
We can't measure a doctor's beside manner—it has to be experienced. Efficiency metrics and performance appraisals cannot count all the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment that employees decide not to contribute.

The Manager's Letter

Another practical suggestion to hold people accountable for their future contribution is what Peter Drucker called the manager's letter, as explained in John Flaherty's book, Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind:

[Setting objectives] is so important that some of the most effective managers I know go one step further. They have each of their subordinates write a "manager's letter" twice a year. In this letter to his superior, each manager first defines the objectives of his superior's job and of his own job as he sees them. He then sets down the performance standards that he believes are being applied to him. Next, he lists the things he must do himself to attain these goals––and the things within his own unit he considers the major obstacles. He lists the things his superior and the company do that help him and the things that hamper him. Finally, he outlines what he proposes to do during the next year to reach his goals. If his superior accepts this statement, the "manager's letter" becomes the charter under which the manager operates."

Procter & Gamble utilizes what it calls the Work and Development Plan, in lieu of performance appraisals, which lays out the work to be achieved in the upcoming year, how it links to the business plan, the measures and timing for success, and expected results.

So much for the notion that there's no suitable replacement for the performance appraisal. P&G seems to operate quite effectively without them.

After-Action Reviews (AARs)

Reflection without action is passive, but action without reflection is thoughtlessness. Combine experience with reflection, and learning that lasts is the result. What percent of your firm's time is devoted to improving the work, not just doing the work?

The U.S. Army's use of AARs began in 1973, not as a knowledge-management tool but as a method to restore the values, integrity, and accountability that had diminished during the Vietnam War.
Here are the questions you need to ask in each AAR:

• What was supposed to happen?
• What actually happened (the "ground truth")?
• What were the positive and negative factors here?
• What have we learned and how can we do better next time?

The objective is not just to correct things, but rather to correct thinking, as the Army has learned that flawed assumptions are the largest factor in flawed execution—another way of saying there is no good way to execute a bad idea.

The Army also recommends answering the following summary questions to wrap up the AAR:

• What should the organization learn from this experience of what worked and did not work?
• What should be done differently in the future?
• Who needs to know these lessons and conclusions?
• Who will enter these lessons in the knowledge management system, or write the case up for future use?
• Who will bring these lessons into the leadership process for decision-making and planning?

Perfectionist and mechanistic cultures, however, resist this type of candid reflection, as they tend to be intolerant of errors, and mistakes are associated with career risk, not continuous learning.

Confucius said "being ashamed of our mistakes turns them into crimes." The medical world has an appropriate axiom for mistakes made: forgive and remember.

[For more on After-Action Reviews, I highly recommend you read Hope Is Not a Method: What Business Leaders Can Learn from America's Army, by Gordon R. Sullivan and Michael V. Harper].

Not Final Words

Charles Handy, once again, sums it up eloquently in his autobiography, Myself and Other More Important Matters:

Organisations are not machines that can be neatly designed, mapped, measured and controlled. The fact that some particular operations can be and have to be managed in that way has deceived people into thinking that the whole organization is just one super-project. That is what logicians call a category error. For too long management theorists appropriated the language of engineering to describe the way organizations worked. People were human resources, things that could be costed, allocated, controlled and shunted around as the need arose; they were managed, in short. In everyday language it is things that are managed, not people.

"Above all people know instinctively that there has to be trust if any organization is going to work. …Yet organizations need trust if they are not going to clutter themselves up with rules, checks and checkers. Too much time is spent in organizations making sure that what should have happened is happening. If people know what they have to do and are competent to do it, they should be left alone to get on with it."

Ultimately, the purpose of an organization, the intensity of interactions with other intelligent people, along with great ideas, is what attracts and develops talent—not the efficiency of a firm's administrative processes.

One of the beauties of volunteer organizations is that they take advantage of people's gifts, whereas what we call "systems" and performance appraisals are more concerned with people's limitations.

Why do we continue to let yesterday hold tomorrow hostage with the antiquated annual performance appraisal process that demonstrably doesn't work? Are we not capable of doing better?

Source:
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130303194245-38251380-replacing-the-performance-appraisal

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Aseem Seth

10 ways to boost your PR career

I loved these pointers from Lorra, so I am reporting them in my blog. Here are her insightful suggestions, most of which can be used by a professional working in any field. 

With 2013 well underway, I've been reflecting on ways to be a smarter, happier, and more productive professional. Here are my suggestions for professional resolutions:

Take risks and challenge authority.

The most successful relationships are built on mutual respect. Instead of saying "yes," when given an assignment, carefully consider business implications. Don't be afraid to offer ideas and solutions that may seem against the norm. Your ability to take initiative, generate new ideas, and deliver thoughtful counsel will earn you respect and grow your role beyond that of a tactician and into a true strategist.

Affect change as much as possible.

Focus on clients, projects, and priorities with the highest opportunities for meaningful results. Don't get distracted by process or minutia.

Stop complaining.

It is easy to dwell on reasons our career, lives, and families are challenging, unreasonable, or stressful. In 2013, instead of staying on the complaint hamster wheel, take control and change your situation for the better. And as the cliché goes, "choose your battles"—stop stressing about organizational or personal situations you truly cannot change.

Avoid drama.

You are never going to win an argument with someone who isn't rational. Instead, turn the demand or rant your boss or client spouted into a calm and positive opportunity. Don't get defensive or seek validation; overcome your need to be right or prove a point. Walk away from situations that truly aren't worth your energy. This includes office gossip.

Admit you're human.

Take responsibility for your errors. Admitting you are wrong and working to rectify the situation in a thoughtful manner builds camaraderie and encourages an honest approach to business.

Maintain perspective.

We aren't doing life-saving surgery, fighting a war, or solving the debt crisis. It may feel like that sometimes, but although the work we do may be important and meaningful, maintain perspective and lose the self-importance.

Get over it!

Your boss or client criticizes your work, or worse, you. Not everyone is going to love your work all the time. Your openness to suggestions or criticisms and ability to learn from them, and not dwell on the negative, will serve you well.

Turn off the devices.

Being accessible 24-hours a day not only kills work/life balance, but it also sets unrealistic and unreasonable expectations. Truly shutting down for even a few hours a day will lessen your stress and help you recharge your body and your brain.

Consider your legacy.

We are all too young to think about our long-term legacies, yet take a moment to think about how you wish to be remembered and reflect on how you are living your life. If you honestly consider how you are perceived by colleagues, friends, and family, you may change your behavior, relationships, and perhaps even your professional path.

Be benevolent.

Volunteer, take on a pro-bono client, and consider building your corporate social responsibility offerings or career path. Working to improve society should be an element of everyone's work and lives, regardless of the profession.

Best wishes for a productive, joyful, and healthy 2013.

Lorra M. Brown is an assistant professor of public relations/professional communication at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J. Visit her blog www.lorrabrown.com or follow her on Twitter @LorraBrownPR.

Source: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13523.aspx#

The Times Group ­- Where Ideas Get Wings

I am Proud to be a part of The Times Group

Here’s what I suggested to the CEO -

https://twitter.com/aseems/status/173647012368101376

This is what the CEO of TIL Replied –

https://twitter.com/aseems/status/174046517211041792

This is what Happened (after a couple of months…) –

http://www.indiadigitalreview.com/news/times-internet-launches-augmented-reality-app-alive-ios-devices

 Feels Great to be Heard!!!

Thanks @SatyanGajwani! You Rock Sir!

Great Logos with Hidden Messages

Artists have been hiding subliminal and secret messages in their art for centuries. And this tradition lives on Today in the work of logo designers. Find out what's hidden in the FedEx, Tostitos or Baskin Robbins logo. Some of the messages are more obvious than others, but all of them are clever and revealing.

The FedEx logo has an arrow hidden between the letters E and X. Lindon Leader designed this famous logo in 1994, as Senior Design Director at Landor Associates, San Francisco. It was a result of a work where more than 200 logos were designed before the designer arrived to this solution. It won over forty logo awards worldwide.

At first all you see is modern typography, but there is actually a hidden meaning of Sony's VAIO logo. The first two letters represent an analog signal and the last two are the 1 and 0 of the digital world.

Toblerone chocolate company from Bern, Switzerland, which is known for high mountains. Bern is also called "The City Of Bears". Find the hidden silhouette of a bear in the mountain illustration.

Baskin Robbins offers 31 flavors of ice cream. The number 31 is hidden in the logo within the letters of B and R.

The Northwest Airlines logo has two hidden meanings. For one it has the letters N and W in positive and negative spaces. And there is another less apparent idea in there. The red triangle points to north-west within the circle as if it was a compass.

That yellow arrow is not just a smiley. It also suggests that you can buy everything A to Z on Amazon.

Eighty-20 is a small consulting firm. The squares actually a binary code for the name. Top line: 1010000 and on the bottom: 0010100.

The SUN Microsystems logo is a wonderful example of symmetry and order. It was a brilliant observation that the letters u and n while arranged adjacent to each other look a lot like the letter S in a perpendicular direction.

The Tostitos logo has a not so hidden message. The letters TIT are two actually people enjoying mexican food at a table.

The Formula 1 logo has a hidden number 1 between the letter F and the speed lines.

Elefont is another logo with a hidden meaning in the negative space. Find the trunk in the lowercase letter e.

The feathers of this peacock represent the 6 different divisions of NBC. The head is visible suggesting the peacock is looking toward the viewer.

Carrefour is one of the biggest European retailers, and in French, it means "Crossroads". The logo symbolizes this word via two opposite arrows. They also added the first letter of the name, because if you look closely you’ll see the letter "C" in the negative space between the two arrows.

The C and O letters at the beginning of the word shape a tyre, which Continental produces.

Unilever produces literally thousands of different products, thus the letter U is made up of symbols representing all these products and what they mean to their consumers.

Families is a Readers Digest magazine. The letter "ili" are transformed to show a simplified and stylised family of three.

Goodwill is a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantaged people in North America. The letter G in the logo is a smiling face, conveying the notion that Goodwill provides happiness and relief to those in need.

At first glance, this logo looks like a map of Africa, but if you take a closer look, you will see two people facing each other.

Conceptual logo that shows a golfer taking a swing and the head of a spartan warrior in helmet at the same time.

The Bronx Zoo logo shows the animals within a city with tall building. Smart play with positive and negative spaces.

Snooty Peacock is a jewellery store. Notice the hidden peacock in the face.

The Hartford Whalers logo shows 3 concepts at the same time. A whale's tail, letter “W” in green and the white space forming an “H” for Hartford.

The designer of ED Logo – “Elettro Domestici -Home Appliances” in English, changed the concept of traditional logo designing through this logo. The designer has amazingly used the negative space to demonstrate the letter “E” and “D” making the logo look like an electric plug.

In this Yoga Australia logo you can discover the shape of Australia in the negative space formed between the woman's raised leg and back.

Notice the palm of a hand in this MyFonts logo made out of the letters M and y.

Source

Introducing TimesJobs.com's new Look!

Introducing TimesJobs.com's new Look !

What Better way to start the New Year than with an exciting new design - TimesJobs revamps its website with a neat new homepage that saves time and effort and intuitive navigation offering informed selections and ease of access

This New Year, TimesJobs.com empowers users with a new homepage that intuitively provides them a host of navigation options right from the homepage itself.

Commenting on this new release, Amit Jain, VP, TimesJobs.com said, "A host of features give job-seekers a clutter free home page experience with intuitive navigation and faster downloads. We hope these improvements encourage job-seekers to fine tune their resumes, enhance their job-search and apply to corporates that are in high demand."

Many modifications & tweaks throughout the website, have led to a 50% improvement in the downloading speed of the site. While there are several small changes to the look and feel of the homepage, users will definitely notice The Enhanced Header, The New Floating Nav Bar, the User Login Form and the Profile Snippet Box. Elaborated below –

·         The Enhanced Tabbed Header offers viewing second level navigation by simple mouse over- informing users of further selections. This feature is applicable across site and makes TimesJobs navigation clean and lets users get a preview of what to expect on the next page.

·         The New 'Floating Nav Bar' - that flashes on the bottom of the screen across site. The floating bottom bar comprises of critical navigation options that offer ease of job search to both logged-in and unregistered users.

·         The new 'User Log-in Form' - a prominent box on the top right hand side of the homepage that lets users login to their TimesJobs' account right away.

·         The new 'Profile Snippet  Box'  - Logged-in users can now view their profile information on the Home Page itself - essentially a condensed personalized summary. This box also facilitates them to update their profile details and view customized recommendations without having to visit multiple pages.

 "Our research showed that the above data fields are critical to a jobseeker's success in finding a matching job, and having them put succinctly in a single box makes it very easy to access." Amit Jain summed up.

So visit the New TimesJobs.com today and tell us what you think!

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<ScreenShot of TimesJobs.com Home Page.jpg>

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Happy New Year! Saluting the Minds Behind Great Finds - The TimesJobs.com 2012 Calendar

Saluting the Minds Behind Great Finds

Introducing The TimesJobs.com 2012 Calendar

'Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.'

— Arthur Conan Doyle

December 2012: Sports have known it for long, the talent spotter goes to minor league matches to find the next star athlete. We have seen Simon Cowell and 'The X Factor' relish humiliating those who fell outside their theatric definition of 'talent', but Talent Spotting ought to be searching for stars in a myriad of disciplines. 

This trend has moved into the next generation of politicians, cultural pioneers, business executives and media voices who are starting their first jobs, desperate to escape obscurity, determined to make a name for themselves - All you have to do is have the genius to find them.

Speaking about talent spotting Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director-HR, Citrix Systems explains "The ability to see the future potential in current employees from current level of performance coupled with effective job behavior is extremely important to us. We use structured performance management, annual reviews & succession plans. We have a reward system like a spot bonus in place to support those who file patents or help in innovation."

"Early talent identification has a two pronged advantage - For an employee, its a process through which he sees a long term career for himself in the organisation and appreciates the organisation investing time and effort to help him excel in his career." added Yunus Petiwala, Vice President - Corporate HR, Piramal Healthcare. "The organisation also reaps the benefit of this process. Especially when there is a talent crunch, a talent pipeline provides ready talent that is utilised when the organisation grows."

Added Deepak Deshpande, Vice President – HR, Netmagic Solutions, "while accepting that everyone has some talent, in my view, 'critical talent' are those who create the value an organisation needs to succeed. My personal view is that real talent doesn't need much hand-holding. It only asks for the opportunities to fulfill its potential."

The TimesJobs.com 2012 Calendar serves to highlight Talent Spotters like these, who identify and promote gifted individuals, and ensures that they are able to fulfill their potential

"We want to recognize and pay tribute to those that spend their careers finding, identifying and recognizing talent, as part of their work – The HR Managers. By publishing the TimesJobs.com 2012 calendar with an illustrious pantheon of celebrated talent and highlighting their Talent Spotters, we wish to bring to focus and pay tribute to the HR Management community." remarked Amit Jain, VP, TimesJobs.com.

Have you heard of David Conover, Jay Oliver, Mc Sennett, Francisco Cornejo, Chuck Silvers, Ray Williams, Bill Thompson or Scooter Braun… probably vaguely, if you have at all… but these are the great minds who spotted talent and promoted it to its rightful place in the firmament amongst the stars.

"She was just Jeane Mortenson, inspecting airplane parts and parachutes. It was David Conover's fine art of spotting talent, that the world knew her as Marilyn Monroe."

"If it wasn't for producer Jay Oliver, she would have remained an elementary school music teacher. It was in the producer's basement studio, where Sheryl Crow was first heard in ad jingles, and then Grammy winning songs."

"He was just another guy in a travelling vaudeville show when a man named Mc Sennett discovered him. And thus was born Charlie Chaplin. A man who never spoke a word on screen but became an icon who'd live forever in people's hearts."

The TimesJobs.com 2012 Calendar celebrates these Famous-Talent Spotters as a Tribute to the HR Managers, who identify, hone and promote talent within their organisations as part of their jobs everyday.