Wow! Its been a long time. I guess I will just have to live with the fact that I am not very disciplined when it comes to blogging.
Anyways, this time its about a Movie -

LIFE OF PI 

I don't want this to be another review of the movie so I will keep it brief.
I liked the ending where same stories with two different set of characters is told. Also, when I read the book, almost 8 years ago, I was fascinated by it, but I don't remember reading much of the religious discussion that was shown in the movie. I have always believed in the idea of one god, and this movie portrayed that concept in a beautiful way. How impressionable a kid's mind is.This movie may go on to win an Oscar, but I still think this movie can not substitute the excitement that comes from reading the book.

2 hours well spent.

Negotiations - Corporate

I am back! Armed with a book this time and hopefully for the next few posts.

Book: Negotiation and Conflict Resolution - Harvard Business Review

Negotiate as a corporate while keeping good customer relationships.

An interesting and counter-intuitive thought floated by the writer is that discounts that are offered to customers during negotiations solely for the purpose of retaining the customer is a move that most often backfires. Customers tend to devalue the company and its product. The worst of all it actually ruins the chances of a good long term relationship. A cycle of constant discounts and suspicion build up over time. The best strategy is to adopt a method where a deal and a relationship with a customer are not intertwined.

"BATNA" - Best Alternative to Negotiated Argument.

This is a useful concept whereby every negotiator before heading into the negotiation phase researches and finds alternatives. Thus giving them more leverage in a negotiation.

Author encourages the Managers to take an active role in this process and thereby increase their salesforce's confidence that saying "NO" to a customer is alright as long as they have evaluated some BATNAs.

In my view it makes better business sense to build confidence and trust in your customers and maintain a strong position by having alternatives to the current deal.

In the past two days, I have watched a couple of interesting documentaries. "Food Inc.", and "Maxed Out", are both old, one released in 2008 and the other in 2005. I am glad i finally caught up with these award winning documentaries.

Food Inc.

After all the heartbreaks and the disappointments that were shown in the movie, it was very inspiring to watch the last little bit. It said that the power still lies with the consumer. Instead of being driven by the corporates, we can still lead the way and make them follow. Buying local, instead of stuff that's traveled 1500 miles, buying organic instead of the chemical, pesticide and gene altered food, and buying seasonal we can push back these over powering corporates that are trying to sell us stuff that unhealthy for us and the planet.

I think this movie has nudged me a little closer to vegetarianism. The more I observe the cruelty towards animals/fish, the more I begin to wonder if my taste buds are worth the pain and suffering of another species.

Maxed Out.

This movie is definitely an eye opener for any Credit Card owner. The pitfalls of credit cards are aplenty, and the benefits not so much. This made me think if I should really reassess my saving budget, and my spending habits. I constantly use credit cards just to help built a credit limit, but is it worth the trouble? It was also nice to see that Obama has introduced some laws to curb the evil ways of the Credit Card companies. But once again doesnt the onus fall on us. Laws can only help so much, in the end its our ways and behavior that will serve us.

So after months of contemplation, I figured I would like to pen my thoughts, or rather e-pen my thoughts , hence this blog.
I like reading non-fiction stuff ranging from business mags to self help books, and I keep finding interesting stuff in these books. But the implementation or even retention of most of the new stuff is next to negligible. So this blog could serve a dual purpose of reminding me of those ideas and sharing it with you (assuming it will be interesting enough that someone will read this blog!)

Also, I titled it 250 because I would like to keep all my posts under 250 words. Going over 250 could mean one of the following;
* I have too much free time on my hands.
* Anyone reading it has too much free time.
* If i cant say it in 250 words then I probably don't fully understand it myself.

Lets see how long this one lasts...