About

Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever
- Mahatma Gandhi

There are many quotes to live life by and this one describes my attitude to life quite well. To me, it is about doing the best we can in the present and not being afraid to take risks that expand our horizons. There may be failures, but the lessons learned enrich our lives forever.

Why Blog?

I've enjoyed reading the occasional blog and I've always had a point of view, but sharing them in a public forum, seemed a bit like self-marketing. Most likely that was rationalization on my part because come to think of it, reading is passive, whereas writing requires more thought and action. What changed my attitude was a recent opportunity to write a monthly blog for a Newsletter at work. I discovered that I did like sharing my point of view and it wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated.

Then came another vote of confidence from no less a publication than the Harvard Business Review. The editors liked the comment I made on their cover story on Data Scientists and asked my permission to include it in the December 2012 print issue. Well, that was enough encouragement to get started. Now it is time to explore how easy or difficult the rest of the journey is going to be.

About Me

I remember early in my career that I had the toughest time answering the interview question: "Tell me about yourself". I would give way too much detail, starting with a history going back to my high school days. I remember one cringe-worthy instance when I took up nearly 20 minutes of a 30 minute phone screen with my answer. There were no follow-ups of course, but I learned from that experience

Well, this is my forum and not an interview, but let me get to it:

Always curious and eager to learn, growing up I was sure I would follow in the footsteps of my hero Einstein and work on a grand theory to explain the mysteries of our Universe. In grad school came the difficult realization that I preferred solving real world problems where the benefits were more tangible. Operations Research and Management Science seemed like a great fit and that background allowed me to approach the business world with the same passion for analysis and scientific rigor. 

My journey in the business world has taken me from working on systems and databases all the way up to helping define a pragmatic strategy for the Enterprise. Along the way, my knowledge of business processes, ability to manipulate data, build models to test hypotheses, analyze and visually tell a compelling story has gotten better. In the business context, I'm a generalist with broad exposure to various lines of business (Sales, Finance and IT Operations) and Analytics remains my specialty. I've heard the term T-shaped individual also being used and it has served me well in my current role as a Management Consultant.

My writings reflect interests in Strategy, Psychology, Photography, Analytics and the effective use of Information to further our understanding of the world we live in. Why Psychology? My real world experience has taught me that even scientists are human beings and suffer from cognitive biases when it comes to data interpretation and decision making. For me, knowledge of how the brain works is essential for success, but it is no substitute for creative problem solving and strong leadership.