I first came across his name when I was at Symbiosis and his books were listed as recommended reading during our course. I managed to read some of them, mostly concerning Organization Development and also on Training, like

Training for Organizational Transformation: Part 1: For Policy-Makers and Change Managers

Training for Organizational Transformation: Part 2: Trainers, Consultants and Principals

Training Instruments In Hrd & Od

Understanding Organizational behaviour

Some of his books were truly the definitive word on that subject, and a few of them were even out of stock when we got this reading list. The college library wasn’t much help either, because these books were issued to someone and there was a long waiting list.

Eventually, I did manage to find these books, and it was the good old bookshop / raddi depot by the roadside that came to the rescue, especially those on Tilak Road and FC Road.

R.I.P Dr.Pareek, and may you rest in peace. You will be missed by the HR community.

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The report also said, “It’s often noted that he’s a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It’s totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.”

Jobs co-founded Apple and then faced the ignominy of being ousted from his own company in 1985 after disagreements with then CEO John Sculley and the Apple board.

He bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 and churned out movies like Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E, the latter four winning Oscars for Best Animated Feature Film. Twenty years later, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.5 billion, making him Disney’s largest shareholder.

Meanwhile, after returning to the helm at Apple in 1997, he blazed a trail that few can match, steering Apple to the top position in three separate industries: music, movies, and mobile phones, bringing us products like iTunes, iPod, Apple TV and the iPhone, besides redefining the iMac and MacBook. It took him several years to get the company back in shape, including a brush with bankruptcy. Apple now has close to 34,000 employees and is valued at over $170 billion.

It all seems a day’s work for a man who has survived pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant !!

The report suggests that Apple’s inevitable future after Jobs will be strong, because he has recruited people who have been “trained to think like Steve.” Incidentally, I happened to read a PC World article (Could Steve Jobs, “CEO of the Decade,” Run Your Company? ) that shed a slightly different perspective on this issue. Do check it out.

Here’s also a pretty nice graphic that shows an interactive timeline highlighting some of Jobs’ hits and misses over the past decade. Click on it and then move the Apple to scroll.

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After dishing out some extremely insightful articles on the entire Web 2.0 phenomenon and beyond, (free registration needed to read them) they have gone that way themselves.

I recently got a mail in my inbox mentioning more ways to stay connected to the Quarterly. I’m already a fan of their Facebook Page and am following them on Twitter too. They also have widgets that can be tailored to your needs.

The best part is that for stuff posted on the Facebook page, which includes some premium articles, they offer free access with registration.

So what are you waiting for, join ‘em right now and get their fundas delivered in real time !!

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Owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence, Rhode Island are planning to hold a job fair, hoping to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to DJs and bartenders.

Rhode Island’s economy is among the worst in the US with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January, so the owners expect there could be a few people willing to shed their inhibitions in the hope of a steady job.

 So, what do you think? Wanna apply and give it a shot?

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UK based job search engine Workhound has come up with an idea of using Twitter to look up jobs. The service was launched at SXSW Texas. This tool will be handy even for recruitment firms, who are now increasingly making use of  use of social networking sites to look up talent.

For now the service is free, though they’ll probably go the paid route at some point in time. According to them, this is what they do, and how they do it…

Until now, search engines for social media sites merely looked for words.
We’re looking at context.

We use semantic tools to look at what was said.
We then look at what they’ve said before.
We then look at who was saying it.

If we do this right, we can figure out why they’re saying anything at all.

As of now, there are about 25,000 jobs listed on Twitter with several thousands being added every hour. Check out Twitter JobSearch now !

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Well, not any more, as Amar Chitra Katha is planning a comic on Murthy’s life story. This is a first for ACK too, in the sense that till now, all their comics either portrayed mythological / religious characters or real life personalities who were no longer alive. Murthy will become the first living personality to be so profiled.

Sachin Tendulkar and APJ Abdul Kalam are likely to be next in line.

Nice way to revive the declining enthusiasm for reading comics among kids, though am not sure if it will work. With the omnipresent Internet, I’ve come across some parents proudly say their kid can switch on the computer and surf the net, but can’t read yet !!

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The speakers include head honchos of global agencies Bob Scarpelli (DDB), Sir John Hegarty (BBH) and Jean-Marie Dru (TBWA). In a bid to encourage participation, the fees have also been reduced. Those under 30 yrs need to pay Rs.4,500 and for those over 30 yrs old, the fees are Rs.9,000. The total attendees is limited to 1,000. Agencies will have to shell out Rs.2,000 for each entry and the cost of lodging and boarding, certainly not cheap by any standards.

Several ad agencies were skeptical about participating in this event given the tremendous financial pressure they’re all under, and some have decided to send in entries but not representatives, or limited to a single person, like Piyush Pandey from Ogilvy India for example. Some like McCann were not a part of this last year and haven’t decide about this year either. 

Some admen have been wondering about agencies cribbing about attending Goafest when they can afford to send creative personnel to the Cannes Festival.

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Taking inspiration from Purple People Collective in the US, a site originally meant for laid off “Yahoos”, and now others who’ve been laid off, AskSaurabh.com is an initiative that seeks to help laid off techie folks in India find a job.

This venture is the brainchild of a couple of techies Anthony Hsiao and Shardul Mohite, and was conceptualised when they saw the plight of their friend Saurabh, who landed a job at Yahoo and was then laid off within a year.

Check out the site or recommend it to someone you know has been laid off.

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In countries where the phone does not work as yet, like the BRIC countries, Google will give employees $400 (which is the cash value of the phone).

Incidentally, as reported by several bloggers, the company has also decided not to send out the christmas gifts they were in the habit of sending to top publishers in it’s Adsense program.

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A six year veteran who built and managed Google’s mobile business worldwide besides being Sr. Director of Product Management with responsibility for product development in the APAC region, Nishar is joining LinkedIn as Vice President-Products, and expected to begin in his new role from January ’09.  His colleagues at Google called him an “unsung hero”.

The 40 year old Nishar is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Illinois.

Here is the official blurb from LinkedIn regarding his new appointment.

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