Sreeram Srinivasan

"To be with an other woman is French, but to get caught is American.......", prophetic words spoken by French Inspector André in the 1988 comedy flick, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. This wonderful comedy, set in the French Riviera, is about a couple of con-artists aided and abetted by the local Police Inspector André. Here's the irony. What we saw playing out last few weeks is one of biggest names in France, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), getting "caught" by the Americans for being with another woman, of all things. Its almost as if the Americans have been smarting over this comment Inspector André made, half in wit, for over 2 decades and have finally seen a chance to get even!! Media's penchant for conspiracy theories was apparent within the few days of the arrest. From Russian mafias to political vendetta to the French Right were blamed for this "entrapment" of DSK. After all, they said, he was a shoo in for the next President of France and so...

Women's tennis has always been a thing of beauty and elegance as is the game itself. Several names of yore have adorned the Ladies game of lawn tennis from Maureen Connolly in the 50s to Margaret Court, Virginia Wade and Billie Jean King in the 60s. The 70s belonged to a lovely lady by the name of Chris Evert! The 80s were dominated by a very manly and muscular Martina Navratilova, representing the first winds of change in the Women's game of tennis. Power game was in. The soft touch and finesse gave way to power serves and even powerful returns. Ms. Navratilova faded away in the early 90s giving way to a host of successors that seemed to keep up "softness and elegance" tradition of the Women's tennis in the form of Steffi Graf, Gabriella Sabatini, Monica Seles. Ms. Navratilova seemed, therefore, a one-off aberration. Later part of 90s and the first decade of the new millennium saw the likes of Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova and the Williams Sister...

The Economist, while reporting recently on the 100 years of IBM, said businesses founded on an idea last longer than ones based on a specific product(s) or service. It is common knowledge that only <2% of the Companies that were leaders five decades ago are still surviving. And going forward, only that many will be around in 50 years. Studies show that the average life span of a company is about 12.5 years!! Leading businesses of today will slowly fade away over the next few decades. The reasons for such an evolution are what I will refer by the acronym, OUCH! OUCH! Firstly, Obsolescence (of the product or service), second, Unsustainability due to regulatory changes (Government banning the product for any reason or evidence that such a product causes harm to health, safety and environment), third, Competition (coming up with a better value-proposition or a more innovative product or service) and the final one simply is Hubris that sets in within the company owing to its leaders...

Scientists at the Swiss CERN facility have created a few days back, what is known as "anti-matter" and held it stable for over several minutes. For most of us in this world it hardly matters (no pun intended), right? In a way, no! The above finding goes against the grain of conventional wisdom held over many decades that any anti-matter would instantly react with matter (ingredient of everything we perceive in this world) and result in destruction of the matter. Also anti-matter was long believed to be just a concept than reality. This was precisely because Paul Dirac's theories predicted equal amounts of matter and anti-matter in the universe. Such a scenario would ensue that all matter reacts with all anti-matter and annihilate themselves instantly leaving only energy in the form of light and other electromagnetic radiation (alpha, beta, gamma and other rays). Then why do we see the existence of matter all around including ourselves? Based on the successful producti...

In August of 2008, I wrote the i4 of Leadership, viz., Intensity, Intelligence, Intuitive, Introspective with Integrity as a given. While these are essential ingredients someone has to possess if one aspires to be a leader in one's own right, it is an all new ball game if she/he has to be seen and accepted as one. We are several times admonished for "not showing enough leadership" or spurred on to "take the lead" for something that cries for attention. And history is full of examples of people who have shown tremendous leadership and taken it upon themselves to make a difference and many thousands even sacrificed everything including their lives for the sake of a worthy cause. Nevertheless, history recognizes only a few hundred truly as leaders over the many millennia. Why is it so? How does one lead in a way that is seen as true leadership and recognized for times immemorial? Is it style? Is it courage or will or the purposiveness in what they did? Is it the ...