Background
About a year back, I was at Big Creek elementary School for Nithin’s orientation/academic day, where the class teacher would tell what the students would learn and also our responsibilities as a parent. Mrs. Mary Ellen Drone, the teacher, is an amazing person - let me put it this way, I never came across a teacher anywhere close to her.
At the beginning of her presentation, Mary just made a casual reference to her husband (Randy), who happened to be in the same classroom. Mary said “Randy has MS and is …

I just happened to notice that a friend of mine had given glowing LinkedIn recommendation  for his boss. Let’s call the boss as John Doe for now. I knew very well that my friend hated and despised John Doe. My friend used to joke that John Doe is an enormously insecure, self-doubting, pessimistic and sarcastic personality wrapped in Xanax. So obviously I was shocked by the glowing recommendation and prompted for a phone call. Following is how the conversation went:
[after usual pleasantry exchanges, we delved into the issue at hand]
me: …

I stumbled upon an interesting article on NYtimes about Cisco venturing into the server market. Make no mistake, server market is crowded with marginal profits. Here is what Cisco has to say about their new endeavor:
Cisco executives played down the potential for serious conflict [with other server vendors]. “We see this not as a new market, but a market transition,” said Padmasree Warrior, the company’s chief technology officer. “Any time there is a major transition occurring, there will be large companies that have to compete in some areas.” The technology …

You may not agree to some of the suggestions here. In this dwindling economy, it’s imperative that companies take as much measures as possible to conserve cash. Some of them may not appear significant, but look at this way:  you could take one of your employee for lunch with $30, which should help build the morale. In other words, every penny counts!
Before you do anything, take an inventory of the situation and let your employees know about the real deal. Do not try to hide the obvious.

During these tiring conditions, …