Food for Thought

Women Empowerment! Such well known terminology in today's world. Each one of us may have been a part of discussion on this topic at one point or another. So, what do you think, are the women really empowered? What steps should we take for this empowerment? Is discussing the topic with peers over a cup of coffee enough? Is only government responsible for coming up with the schemes and policies to support this cause? Would that be enough? Can we as an individual do something that can support it? Too many questions, isn't it? And each of the above question can have different set of answers depending on the person's point of view. Government is doing great work for the cause; but, I feel that the Government initiatives aren't enough. And it's not that I doubt the potential of the great minds working behind the scenes to come up with the initiative. They are doing great work. But, we live in a democratic country (fortunately or unfortunately is at times a debatable q

कहते है आज माँ का दिन है, कोई यह बताये वो कौन सा दिन है जो माँ के बिन हैं| The above two lines summarizes the essence of life. There is no day in life that can be celebrated without mother.  Mother, Mom, Maa, Amma, Aai, whatever you choose to call her, she is the most important part of every child's life. But, to her, her children are her world. Then why do we choose only one day to show our love, our respect for her? Today all the social media sites have been flooded with the quotes and messages showing love and affection for mother. All the posts/messages revolve around mom's sacrifices and her importance in our life.  Where does that love and affection for her go for the rest of 364 days of the year? Do we forget her sacrifices and her importance in our life during the rest of the days? Is showing love just for one day enough?  I think we take mothers for granted most of the times. We disrespect her at times, sometimes we even hurt her. This i

The above quote from the author summarizes the idea of this book. The book emphasizes on the importance of thoughts in the development of human being. Thoughts affect all the arenas of one’s life. The  character  is nothing but sum of all the man’s thoughts. In turn, person’s character influences the conditions and circumstances of his life. Every action has its origin in thoughts, even the spontaneous ones. “Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruit.” Man is made or unmade by his own thoughts; they can destroy him or build him up. Man becomes master of his of thoughts, by application, self-analysis and experience. Diamonds are found by mining very deep similarly, man must dig deep inside the soul to find the connected truths. A person must watch, control, and alter his thoughts; also must trace the effect of his thoughts on himself, others, his life and circumstances. When person consciously does this process he can truly be maker of his own c

Shoppers’ Stop was started by C.L. Raheja in 1991 when organized retailing was unheard of in India. The retailer’s main focus was on the customer and to the person who attended the customer- the employee. At Shoppers’ Stop, right from the CEO to the front-end sales person, everyone was called  Customer Care Associate  This helped in boosting the self-esteem of the employees. It had specialized induction programs to groom the recruits, especially the first timers. The program included classroom training on the basics of retail, store design, store space planning, visual merchandising, selling and cashiering. This was followed by two weeks ‘mentoring’ program. Under this program they were attached to a senior in the workplace. Finally, to give the new recruits the sense of belonging, their parents were invited to breakfast to get a feel of environment at Shoppers’ Stop. In 2002, Shoppers’ Stop realised that the customer care associates were not performing up to the mark and wer

In India, the retail industry is broadly divided into the organised and unorganised sectors. Organised retailing in India started picking up in South India in cities like Chennai and Hyderabad, where real estate at prime location was available at cheaper rates than in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. In the early 1990s, leading Indian business houses started taking a keen interest in retailing sector. Several business houses like Tatas, Piramals, RPG Group and Rahejas forayed into this sector.    Organised retailing in India can be classified on the products or services offered. There include (but not limited to)  Apparel retailing  Food retailing  Health and beauty products retailing  Footwear retailing  Music and entertainment retailing  Book retailing  Watches and jewelry retailing  Petrol and diesel retailing  Home furniture  Luggage Let’s have a look at what kind of strategies these pioneers in organised retail industry

Sam Walton along with his brother James Lawrence Walton opened first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, USA in 1962. In Sam Walton’s best-selling autobiography “Made in America: My Story” was published in 1992. He outlined in it the very popular 10 rules of building a successful business which formed the basis for Wal-Mart’s success. The rules are as follows: Rule # 1 Be committed to the business. Have an infectious passion for one’s work. Rule # 2 Sharing profit with employees and treating them as partners brings great performance. Rule # 3 Motivating your partners beyond money and ownership by setting high goals, encouraging competition and keeping track is important. Don’t hesitate in keeping goals shockingly high. Rule # 4 Communication to partners is vital as it develops understanding and makes them caring. Empowering employees with information helps to mitigate risks from competitors. Rule # 5 Realize the importance of appreciating the employees. It works wond

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus , as the name of the book suggests, it asserts the idea that men and women are poles apart as if they belong to two different planets. Author John Gray provides many suggestions for improving relationships between men and women by understanding the style and needs of each other even if individuals don’t necessarily conform to stereotypical behavior. It is extremely important to remember that men and women have very different approaches and nature. Thus for healthy relationships, we need to appreciate these differences, and stop expecting that the other partner should feel or act in the way we would. Men prefer the recognition and appreciation of their abilities whereas women prefer their emotions to be appreciated. They hate it when that gets ignored or belittled. Men prefer working single-handedly and showcase their abilities while women prefer problem solving through co-operation and communication. Men desire that their solutions get apprecia