A Complaint

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division (Pontiac is a division of General Motors Inc, that manufactures vehicle types including the sports car, sports coupe etc.) of General Motors:

'This is the second time I have written to you and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem.....

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds "What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?" The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway.

The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the Engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: "vapor lock”. It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with cool thinking.

World's 10 most women-friendly companies

US-based Working Mother magazine has recently evaluated the presence and prominence of coloured women in the US corporate world and has drawn up a list of the best companies. The list has been made primarily on the basis of diversity programmes for such employees. The companies were chosen mainly on factors like representation, recruitment and retention of women of colour.

The magazine said it noticed a dramatic increase in the number of women of colour, who are senior managers. The list includes two big American conglomerates -- PepsiCo and Citigroup. According to the magazine, PepsiCo has about 10 per cent employees who are 'women of colour', with seven per cent of them being executives/managers.

Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup has a higher representation of women of colour in its ranks, making up 22 per cent of the total employees. However, when it comes to executives or managers, there are only about four per cent of such people. Other prominent names in the '2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women' list include Colgate-Palmolive (13 per cent), Credit Suisse (14 per cent), Deloitte (16 per cent), Ernst & Young (17 per cent), IBM (8 per cent), MetLife (14 per cent), PricewaterhouseCoopers (16 per cent) and Wal-Mart (20 per cent).

To know more about these companies, read on. . . .

Pepsico (10% employees are women with colour)
PepsiCo is a conglomerate that manufactures markets and sells a wide variety of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and snacks. The company is headquartered in Purchase, New York while its research and development headquarters are at Valhalla, New York. The Pepsi Cola Company began in 1898, but it only became known as PepsiCo when it merged with Frito Lay in 1965.Indra Nooyi is the conglomerate's chief executive officer since 2006.PepsiCo owns five different billion-dollar brands. These are Pepsi, Tropicana, Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Gatorade. The company owns many other brands as well. The company's net revenue as on March 22, 2008, stood at $8,333 million as against $7,350 million in March 24, 2007.

Citigroup (28% employees are women of 'colour')
Citigroup Inc. operating as Citi, is a major American financial services company based in New York City.Citigroup was formed on October 8, 1998 following the $140 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. The company employs 358,000 staff around the world, and holds over 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries.
On December 11, 2007, Vikram Pandit was named Citigroup's CEO, while Sir Win Bischoff was named chairman. On April 18, 2008, Citi reported first quarter net loss of $5.1 billion, loss per share of $1.02.

Colgate-Palmolive (13%)
The $9.9-billion FMCG major operates in more than 200 countries and handles production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes). In 1806, William Colgate, himself a soap and candle maker, opened up a starch, soap, and candle factory in New York City under the name of William Colgate & Company. In 1857, William Colgate died and the company was reorganized as Colgate & Company under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son. In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 the company was rechristened Colgate-Palmolive Company. The Indian arm of the company announced a net profit of Rs 55.62 crore (Rs 556.2 million) for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, a 10 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago. Its total revenue rose to Rs 412.73 crore (Rs 4.12 billion) for the latest quarter from Rs 360.6 crore (Rs 3.6 billion) in the same period a year-ago.

Credit Suisse (14%)
The Credit Suisse Group is a financial services company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the second-largest Swiss bank after UBS AG.The Credit Suisse Group is structured in three divisions -- investment banking, private banking and asset management. Credit Suisse was founded by Alfred Escher in 1856 under the name Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA, Swiss Credit Institution). Credit Suisse was recognized as the Global Investment Bank of the Year in The Banker magazine's annual Global Investment Banking Awards published in the October 2007 issue.

Deloitte (16%)
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, often referred to as Deloitte & Touche, is one of the largest professional services firms in the world. Branded as Deloitte, the company is one of the big four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG. As of 2007, Deloitte has approximately 150,000 employees in 142 countries, delivering audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services. While the full name of the firm is Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu, in 1989 it initially branded itself Deloitte & Touché and then simply Deloitte.The company's revenues for fiscal year 2007 was $23.1 billion, up 15.5 per cent from the previous year

Ernst & Young (17%)
Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and one of the big four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) and KPMG. According to Forbes magazine, as of year 2007 it emerged as the 7th largest private company in the US. Ernst & Young is based in London, UK and the US firm is headquartered at Times Square, New York. The company (partnership) is the result of a series of mergers of ancestor organizations. The oldest originating partnership was founded in 1849 in England as Harding & Pullein. The company's revenue in 2007 stood at $21.1 billion.

IBM (8%)
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services. With over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. The company is nicknamed 'Big Blue’. The company was originally known as Tabulating Machine Company. It was founded by Heman Hollerith in Broome County, New York.
The company's first quarter revenue for 2008 stood at $24.5 billion, up 11 per cent and its diluted earnings stood at $1.65 per share, up 36 per cent.

MetLife (14%)
MetLife is the short name for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The firm was founded on March 24, 1868. The company, which was a mutual organization, went public in 2000.MetLife is the largest life insurer in the US, with more than $2 trillion of life insurance in force. MetLife serves 88 of the largest Fortune 100 companies. It has a market in more than 12 countries. The company reported first quarter 2008 net income of $615 million, or $0.84 per diluted common share, compared with $983 million, or $1.28 per diluted common share, for the first quarter of 2007. Operating earnings for the first quarter of 2008 were $1,111 million, or $1.52 per diluted common share, compared with $1,082 million, or $1.41 per diluted common share, for the prior period.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (16%)
PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the world's largest professional services firms. It is one of the big four auditors, alongside KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu.
The company originated in 1998 after merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, both formed in London. PricewaterhouseCoopers earned aggregated worldwide revenues of $25 billion for fiscal 2007, and employed over 146,000 people in 150 countries.

Wal-Mart (20%)
Wal-Mart Stores, an US public corporation, runs a chain of large, discount department stores. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States. It also owns and operates the North American company of Sam's Club.

It is the largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the British National Health Service, and the Indian Railways. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962.

Wal-Mart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the UK. Wal-Mart has been criticized by some community groups, women's rights groups, grassroots organizations, and labour unions, specifically for its extensive foreign product sourcing, low rates of employee health insurance enrollment, resistance to union representation, and alleged sexism. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. Wal-Mart's net sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 were approximately $94.1 billion, an increase of 10.2 per cent over the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. Net income for the quarter was $3.0 billion, which is 6.9 per cent above the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. - (Source - Rediff)

Nice thought

The Power of Realizing - "I"

We are never alone. Neither in the womb, nor after birth. The true Self is boundary-less, it is all-pervasive. In terms of existence there isn't any boundary, but at mind, body and speech levels we divide the existence into me, you and them.I have a relationship with body, senses, mind, intellect-these are so close, yet so far from the real-self. Entwined with one another and still separate. We cannot draw a line as to where the body ends and where the mind begins or mind ends and the Self begins.

The mind is a subtle form of matter and the body is the gross form of mind. Mind and matter are not different from one another. A quantum physicist would say that matter and energy are not two different entities. The source of matter is energy alone and matter keeps moving between matter and energy.The mind is invisible but the body is visible. Hence our identification and association with the body is so deep that we tend to see ourselves as body alone.

The 'I' we are associated with, is the illusionary 'I'.The 'I' we know has more to do with mind or body but our real 'I' remains obscure. What an irony that the I doesn't know the 'I'! Knowing oneself is the first step towards making good rapport not only with one's own mind and body but also with the other। This other can be husband, wife, mother, father, brother or anyone. Once we have understood how our mind functions and as we witness the rise and fall of emotions in mind, we are better equipped not to get carried away with these waves of mind.

Explore your inner core, your untapped energy source and rejoice in it.Love and respect your Self and everything will become an echo of the same vibes. Thank this body, this breath and life. Give thanks for every little joy which life brings to you and smile. And smile like you have never smiled before and delve deep within.

Soak your Self in goodness of this moment and let every day begin with it and end with it.Soon you will love this new way of living.When you are strong, vibrant and energetic then you will begin to function as a magnet and you will attract all good people towards you. People enjoy the company of those who enjoy their own company.- Anandmurti Gurumaa