Challenger
2. Key Thought Sources
People
Swami Vivekananda
Peter Drucker
Jared Diamond
Amartya Sen
Richard Dawkins
Edward W Deming
Eliyahu Goldratt
Dhirubhai Ambani
Richard Branson
People Around me - Wife, Friends
Entrepreneurs - Biographies, Actual people etc
Disciplines
Management
Politics and Power
Economics - Developmental/Micro/Macro
Biology - Mainly, Evolution
Physics
Strategy
Philosophy
Biographies
Marketing
Spirituality
Technology
3. My weaknesses
Tough to compromise
Procrastinate
Muiltiple focus
4. What I don't like
Routine and Repetitive Tasks (includes my present job)
Hypocrites
Law breakers (like, people who break traffic signals)
Supersitious and double standard people
5. My background
A Bachelors of Commerce (Hons) graduate - which basically means a Business degree with a bit of everything from Commerce, Management, Accountancy - including P&L, balance sheets, Cost, management acct etc.Statistics, Economics and host of other general business subjects including HR. A sales & marketing degree and experience in marketing.
A Passionate go-getter who is marketing orientended, high abstract thinker with a lot of Ideation capabilities. A good communicator with very good presentation skills - can say a bit of charisma also when I talk.
Reads a lot of books - management, society, autobiographies, company bios, physics, biology - mainly evolution, philosophy and spirituality,self-help,marketing, manufacturing,quality-deming,six sigma,cmm etc.
What am I doing now?
Senior Analyst. ADP Wilco. Financial Serivices for Investment Banks in the Business process Outsourcing domain.
Role: Current - Team Leader
Skills - Real time, transaction processing, team management, quality process implementation, migration of services to India.
Where does he want to go?
An Entrepreneur, Business and Social. I beleive that this is the role in which I can add the most value to myself and society.
6. Some Notable Achivements
Successful in counselling 150 people of various age groups from deciding course, jobs to career choices.
Managing a highly critical process, migrating the project and providing vast process improvements.
Getting married to my love.
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c) why you want to take on the role of a Communication Agent d) which one is the Area for Change that you are most interested in working in
What do I really care about?
A questionnaire by Natalie d'Arbeloff.
1) What do I really want to do and to be in the short term and the long term?
The long term goal is to *make a difference*. I plan to do this by being an Entrepreneur - this is the best way I feel I can achieve my goal and make a difference to society.
The *now* Goal:
Developing the "Ambulance Friendly City" for a Better City-Life
A personal experience in my city (Hyderabad,India) in navigating an ambulance is the source of this article. I believe that increasing 'sensitivity' to an Ambulance is a tough job and hence I propose a 'system' solution. The goal is to create information sharing between the participants through networking and deveoping new traffic rules including an 'Ambulance signal'.
You can find more on this on this bloki site : afc
Short term Goals:
*India lives in the villages* - Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda
To develop India by developing "Rural India". ( I will be joining shortly a new project which if successful will achieve this)
Long term goals:
a) To find the inner talent, develop, add skills and knowledge to every child.
"Every Child is an Artist, the challege is to remain so after he grows up" - Picasso
b) To be a Social Entrepreneur in as many ways possible.
2) What do I really care about?
Equality
Freedom
Peace
Love
Development (in the sense of Amartya Sen, decreasing the nfreedoms of people)
People
Value Addition
More....
3) What choices will I make? What things will I let go, and what things will I take up?
Start anything through which I can achieve my goals. Keeping in mind that moving out of the comfort zone and taking risks is important. Be part of projects through which I can contribute. I will let go of working for money, apart from the minimum required.I am ready to work for free on some projects.
4) What are the practical steps I must take to start moving in my chosen direction?
What's involved in terms of earning money, and in terms of time, place, and people?
The practical steps which I need to take are:
A) Find Like-minded people
B) Learn as much as I can about my areas of interest
C) Think about my areas and develop "new thoughts" and communicate them to the world
D) Entice/partner/complement and work with these like-minded people
5) What is one aspect of what I really want to do that I can focus my thinking on and put it into some kind of form?
Implementation.
6) What can I do so that all along the way I respond to whatever life presents me with, in the best way I can?
A journey of a thousand miles should start with a single step! - Lao Tsu
Become the Buddha! - I have taken a small step, but that is the ultimate goal.
July 18, 2003 in New Applicants | Permalink
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Two More On Board: Heidi Hanson and Joe Samsen
Two more uniquely talented communicators have said yes to my invitation to become Communication Agents. They are Heidi Hanson and Joe Samsen of United Communities of Planet Earth, which nonetheless the name is a great book publisher.
This is what Heidi had to say upon forst contact with me and the Initiative:
One thing I realize is that the name we chose for our small publishing company - United Communities of Planet Earth - is similar in concept to creating Communication Agents. The name was chosen simply to open up the idea of small groups of people sharing, one-on-one, linking and creating communities.
Indeed, Joe has a theory that "the day the internet came on-line, that is the day all governments of the world became obsolete. Cities and towns can now talk to all other cities and towns all over the Earth without first having to ask permission from Chairman Mao, President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, Queen Noor or Papa Doc Duvalier down in Haiti".
I also can say that I have already personally benefited a lot from reading Chris Gupta's Share The Wealth information - so I know it is valuable.
What Joe is is a walking treasure chest of ideas - he has so many things to write every day about the news it's amazing. If he could be a Communication Agent, we would make it a high priority to keep putting up articles. We already have it as a high priority, but it would push us, channel the energy more, to try to reach more people and expand over time.
I see under the Communication Agents Learning Steps, "step Two" Sync-up and Extend the Reach - I may be the one involved here at first (as Joe's writing things) - I'll need to learn to use
the News Aggregators you reference (I also bought NewsGod), and find some way to "synch-up" with others - I can then teach Joe how these tools work.
Joe's gift is giving this whole other point of view on issues, so he can write really great articles on what he's been accumulating - but we both want to be more well-read and informed even than we are now.
Joe is already a "caller-of-actions" - we have a whole bunch of stuff up our sleeves for people to do - especially liberal groups. Much of it has to do with honoring ethics in a really big way, and taking particular actions that are effective to stand up for these ethics without backing down. (e.g.: Absolutely refusing to vote for a politician who supports the death penalty, for example, rather than tolerate this "lesser of two evils" nonsense that is now rampant in American politics.)
The idea is to design the new instead of bashing the old, and thus eliminate the old in the process without anyone getting hurt. I am writing and article called "10 steps for Peace Activists" that explains this.
We feel like you have a lot of respect for people investing their energy/lives into changing the world for the better, and we completely respect how you are willing to use your technical intelligence to help - we
do not understand all that much about technology besides the fact that I can use a WYSIWYG program to build a site and Google to search - We will both invest in learning how to use the Internet more effectively!
It's time to be a more fully functioning member of this age, and technology is a crucial element of being a citizen of this time. High quality ideas need a way to reach the people who will benefit from them.
We would have no problem identifying our taglines, images, etc. - that would be fun - and creating a profile would be some work but fun as well.
One thing Joe and I want to do is reach Europeans, Canadians and Australians/New Zealanders, not just Americans. For one thing, they might understand what we're doing better! That's a great thing about the
Internet!
We look forward to hearing from you,
Heidi Hanson
Joe Samsen
July 18, 2003 in New Applicants | Permalink
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July 17, 2003
First Official Application!
Here is an example of a real application as sent in by the first formal applicant (Paul Swider - USA):
Robin,
I'm pretty sure I'm already one of these, albeit not with your imprimatur. Still, I'd like to find like-minded people so here is what I can contribute by way of application:
I don't know your trusted partners so they cannot present me. A Google search of my name, however, will show that I have a pretty lengthy track record of exactly these sorts of communications. You can also learn more about me from my URL below, which has clips, and from work I do for an innovative media group at
http://greenstar.org/pswider.htm
one sample from there is http://www.greenstar.org/ butterflies/index.htm
More about me here:
My communications experience covers writing and presentations to a wide array of high-level audiences.
I have experience with international multilateral organizations as well as private-sector (venture capital) investors. I have made compelling cases of business development to federal agencies, the White House and to foreign governments.
I can relate highly technical details in an accessible format to any audience.
I also have experience in retail marketing communications.
I have made presentations internationally, from the consumer to the board room.
I have developed online marketing campaigns as well as off-line communications for community building and client affiliation. I have created and deployed an affiliate marketing program. I have developed
viral marketing campaigns and incorporated these into overall market strategy. I also have experience in business-to-business strategic marketing communications.
I have considerable experience as a writer and editor, including layout and design for both print and the Web. I have also taught journalism at the university level and done international freelance writing and editing.
I have worked with cutting-edge technology and its marketing applications in a variety of unusual environments. These applications relate directly to market expansion and business/community development.
I'm a true believer in the power of communications.
I think a clear, honest message will win out over manipulation. I also believe that clear, honest messages, cleverly packaged, will soon become de rigeur as consumers of media are rapidly becoming savvy enough to smell through a ruse.
I want to be a Typhoid Mary of constructive, open messages and the means to get them out.
Though there are lots of media and lots of technologies, refreshing the field of communications is the area of change in which I have the greatest interest. I think the time is ripe to take critical thinking retail.
I'm not sure if this is the kind of manifesto your seeking but it's the one I have to offer. I'm not applying for a job, I'm reaching a hand out to someone I perceive to be a fellow traveler. I'll go on as my own agent if that's all there is.
Best,
Paul
sent in on uly 17th 2003
July 17, 2003 in New Applicants | Permalink
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Powered by Robin Good
Suhit is really a great guy with a lot of talent, vision, open ears and a desire to make this world a better one. Suhit is working on two fronts. Local indigenous people farming the lands of his own country, and children of the world in need of growing and learning as much as the potential they have been gifted with allows.
I have known Suhit for a little time before, as we met, thanks to the visionary mind of Bala Pillai, on the Ryze network. I have felt Suhit to be a young open mind and him to be a great, fast learner.
I was not wrong, given his reaction and timing in submitting his application for a Communication Agents seat on this very launch. Suhit, has understood better than anyone else interested in this, what is true value in becoming part of this. He has expressed this very clearly also in his application by writing:
4) What are the practical steps I must take to start moving in my chosen direction?
What's involved in terms of earning money, and in terms of time, place, and people?
The practical steps which I need to take are:
A) Find Like-minded people
B) Learn as much as I can about my areas of interest
C) Think about my areas and develop "new thoughts" and communicate them to the world
D) Entice/partner/complement and work with these like-minded people
