The amazing Moser Baer story – How Deepak Puri Won

All of us, at some point in our life, have read the story of King Bruce and the spider -- the disappointed king who took heart from the spider, which fell many times to finally complete the Web.
Deepak Puri, chairman and managing director of Moser Baer, is one such Bruce of the modern times.
He never complained or looked for excuses; he tried to find solutions. If he had problems at the Indian ports, he set up his own supply chain. If he had problems with power shortage, he did not crib. He just went on to set up a captive unit.
He faced a series of setbacks in the 40 years of his business life, but he never quit.
A masters in mechanical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, Deepak started his business career from Kolkata.
His first factory -- Metal Industries Pvt. Ltd -- manufactured aluminum wires and pipes and AC conductors. But, labour militancy -- this was when the trade unions in Bengal ruled the roost -- forced him to shut down his factory.
This did not deter him. He started a second business -- this one was about manufacturing time recording devices for the banking industry. But, before Deepak could even settle down, the militant labour union members stormed into his unit and poured acid on some of his machines. Both his attempts to do business had come to a naught.
His wife and wholetime director and promoter of Moser Baer, Nita Puri recalls the tough times. She says, "In spite of all this, he fought all the way. He did not buckle.
He was gheraoed at his plant but it didn't bother him. Only when they actually gheraoed our home that we decided to move out."
Deepak was down but not out and he was ready for the third attempt. "It was pure chance. I knew nothing about floppies, those days" confides the chairman and managing director of Moser Baer, adding, "Actually, I went to Mumbai to a friend's office. Those were the days of power shortage in Mumbai and people used to practice self-regulated power shedding. They switched off their electrical power voluntarily in their offices and houses."
"When I entered his office, he was fanning himself with a newspaper. So, I picked up the first object I came across to fan myself with -- an 8-inch square black object. But before I could begin fanning myself with it, my friend grabbed it back! It was a floppy disc. Believe me, I knew nothing about it or its data storage capacity."
Deepak had just spotted a business opportunity.
Wasting no time, he flew to California to talk to Xidex, then the largest manufacturer of data storage media in the world. India was not a known country at least on the technology front, those days. But the enthusiasm and conviction that Deepak brought to the table impressed Xidex to partner with him.
Thus Moser Baer came into being in 1983.
The company, which started with 8-inch and 5.5-inch disks today, ranks among the top three optical and magnetic storage (which includes CDs, DVDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs and Lightscribe CD-Rs in the world.) Moser Baer stands for technology that matches the best in the world.
In R&D, it has set many industry benchmarks. It is the lowest cost optical media manufacturer in the world and has a human resource pool that is proud of every disk that leaves its facilities, with the 'Made in India' stamp, flashing proudly on it.
What makes him tick?
So, what keeps them at the head of the line and prevents them from stagnating? Listen to what Raghavendra Rao, an analyst from Frost & Sullivan, a leading business consulting firm that offers market research and analysis, says: "They keep on attempting to improve themselves.
When their products start maturing or declining, they are ready with the next one.
When the floppies went out, they moved onto CDs, and when CDs were in the mature phase, they moved onto DVDs, which are now in the growth phase.
When the DVDs go into the nest phase of maturity, they will be ready with the next product."
And Deepak Puri knows that the fun has only just begun. To this day, Deepak keeps on trying -- this time to make Moser Baer an all-encompassing technology company, which will last 100 years from today.
His grit and business sense should make this a easy goal to achieve! Truly, he's King Bruce for the modern age

ideas money , easy crafts , easy indian food , earn a crore

Keep believing yourself

Letter from a CEO

Over 60,000 Wiproites have received some powerful advice from their big boss, Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro Ltd. In an e-mail sent on April 9, the software czar shared his successes, setbacks and the lessons he learnt during his corporate journey. Some excerpts from that as we believe Premji’s message can cut across multiple business domains to benefit millions of employees and employers, and not just Wiproites


Azim Premji



Dear Wiproite,

My own successes and setbacks along the way have taught me some lessons. I wish to share them with you and hope you will find them useful.

Lesson #1: Be careful to ask what you want. You may get it.

What this means is that do not ask too little either of yourself or the others around you. What you ask is what you get. When I look back at the time when I joined Wipro, I was 21. If you ask me whether I thought that Wipro would grow so by someday, the honest answer is that I did not. But neither did I think it would not. We constantly stretched ourselves to higher and higher targets. Sometimes, it seemed possible, sometimes fanciful and sometimes plain insane. But we never stopped raising limits. And we got a lot more than what we bargained for.

Lesson # 2: Respond, don’t react

Always be aware of your emotions and learn to manage them. There is a huge difference between people who react impulsively and those who can disengage themselves and then respond at will. By choosing to respond differently, we can prevent another person from controlling our behaviour. I remember a small story that illustrates this well. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, Thank you, Sir. One day, the vendor’s assistant asked him, Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don’t you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow? The vendor smiled and replied, “He can’t help being rude and I can’t help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate mine?’’

Lesson # 3: Intuitions are important for making decisions

It is important to realise that our intuition is a very important part of decision making. Many things are recorded by our subconscious. Use both sides of the brain. Even that is not enough. Some decisions need the use of the heart as well. When you use your mind and heart together, you may get a completely new and creative answer.

Lesson # 4: Learn to work in teams

The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. While most of our education is focused in individual strength, teaming with others is equally important. You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations. Globalisation has brought people of different origins, different upbringing and different cultures together. Ability to become an integral part of a cross-cultural team will be a must for your success.

Lesson #5: Never lose your zest and curiosity

All the available knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate. The whole world’s codified knowledge base (all documented information in library books and electronic files) doubled every 30 years in the early 20th century. By the 1970s, the world’s knowledge base doubled every seven years. Information researchers predict that by the year 2010, the world’s codified knowledge will double every 11 hours. Remaining on top of what you need to know will become one of the greatest challenges for you.
The natural zest and curiosity for learning is one of the greatest drivers for keeping updated on knowledge. A child’s curiosity is insatiable because every new object is a thing of wonder and mystery. The same zest is needed to keep learning new things. I personally spend at least 10 hours every week on reading. If I do not do that, I will find myself quickly outdated.

Lesson # 6: Put yourself first

This does not mean being selfish. Nor does it mean that you must become so full of yourself that that you become vain or arrogant.
It means developing your self-confidence. It means, developing an inner faith in yourself that is not shaken by external events. It requires perseverance. It shows up in the ability to rebound from a setback with double enthusiasm and energy. I came across a recent Harvard Business Review which describes this very effectively: No one can truly define success and failure for us. Only we can define that for ourselves. No one can take away our dignity unless we surrender it. No one can take away our hope and pride unless we relinquish them. No one can steal our creativity, imagination and skills unless we stop thinking. No one can stop us from rebounding unless we give up. And there is no way we can take care of others, unless we take care of ourselves.

Lesson # 7: Have a broader social vision

While there is every reason to be excited about the future, we must not forget that we will face many challenges as well. By 2015, we will have 829 million strong workforce. That will make India home to 18% of global working-age population. The key challenge is to transform that into a globally competitive work-force.
This will not be an easy task. Despite all the rapid economic expansion seen in recent years, job growth in India still trails the rise in workingage population. It is important that gains are spread across this spectrum, so that the divide between the employed and the under-employed, is minimised. Education is a crucial enabler that can make this growth as equitable as possible.

Lesson # 8: Play to win

Playing to win is not the same as playing dirty. It is not about winning all the time or winning at any cost. Playing to win is having the intensity to stretch to the maximum and bringing our best foot forward. Winning means focusing on the game. The score board tells you where you are going, but don’t concentrate too much on it. If you can focus on the ball, the scores will move by themselves. I recently came across this story that I thought I would share with you.


"A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen. He returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal-some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite and asked them to help themselves to coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, you were more concerned about comparing your cups but what you really wanted was coffee. Yet you spent all your time eying each other’s cups.
Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to contain life, but cannot really change the quality of life. Sometimes, by over concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.”

I wish you all every success in your career and your life.


Source :- TOI dt 12/Apr

Easy Vs Difficult

Easy is to get a place is some one's phone book /address book.. . .
Difficult is to get a place in some one's heart.

Easy is to judge the mistakes of others
Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes

Easy is to talk without thinking
Difficult is to refrain the tongue

Easy is to hurt someone who loves us.
Difficult is to heal the wound..

Easy is to forgive others
Difficult is to ask for forgiveness

Easy is to set rules.
Difficult is to follow them..

Easy is to dream every night.
Difficult is to fight for a dream..

Easy is to show victory.
Difficult is to assume defeat with dignity..

Easy is to admire a full moon.
Difficult to see the other side..

Easy is to stumble with a stone.
Difficult is to get up..

Easy is to enjoy life every day.
Difficult to give its real value..

Easy is to pray every night.
Difficult is to find god in small things..

Easy is to promise something to someone.
Difficult is to fulfill that promise..

Easy is to say we love.
Difficult is to show it every day..

Easy is to criticize others.
Difficult is to improve oneself..

Easy is to make mistakes.
Difficult is to learn from them..

Easy is to weep for a lost love.
Difficult is to take care of it so not to lose it.

Easy is to think about improving.
Difficult is to stop thinking it and put it into action..

Easy is to think bad of others
Difficult is to give them the benefit of the doubt..

Easy is to receive
Difficult is to give

Easy to read this
Difficult to follow

Easy is keep the friendship with words
Difficult is to keep it with meanings . . .

Decision's have a long lasting impact

Here is a look into the corporate mind that is very interesting, educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical all at the same time:
The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question.
Now the twist to the story . . .

There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a Horse's Ass