Faster than one can manage?

I give up trying to keep pace!!

In the last 4 weeks since my last post, so many events have happened-that even before I got around to trying to understand, assimilate and articulate my thoughts about the 'important historic event', something else equally exciting happened to make my observations outdated..within days ;(!!

Let me explain. Let us just take the IT industry in India in isolation-it almost seems like some folks have taken their new year resolutions very seriously, considering the changes in the leadership scene alone. Wipro replaced two at one stroke. Infosys has apparently announced a change of guard. Microsoft has lost two of their most visible leaders in India. iGATE and Patni are integrating their act together. It is interesting to keep track of all these, as even as these happen, Cognizant led by the youngest of them all...shared that they had indeed grown at 40% last year-much more than their own expectations!!

And this-almost coming on the heels of the worldwide announcements in leadership changes in Apple, Microsoft and Google!!

Well, I am not even trying to speculate on the latest hot news (as of yesterday, I must admit!) the Microsoft pact with Nokia-and its possible impact. As a close pal of mine-an industry veteran put it, it is perhaps a little too late for either of them to have come together to match their wits with Apple & Google in the smart phone domain.

Is it that our lives today depends on what is happening globally-more than ever before? No news is any longer regional, right? For instance-surely Nokia's dumping the symbian platform to get on the Windows bandwagon-will affect a lot of start ups worldwide, not just in India, who have been sweating over developing applications for the mobile world! I would not even like to wager the effect it could possibly have on careers...as scores of programmers who would feel vulnerable...as they chose to hone their niche skills.

In such a dynamic environment how does one plan one's activities? Here is what I have attempted to change my tack:

1.I have begun to depend on twitter-as my window to the world. And almost a ploy to buy time before the next blog post, I have begun to curate some of the information of interest to me-and possibly for some of my contacts in the ecosystem. So, here is a link to my new widget "The Achyut Menon Daily" that keeps a tab!

2. Most of the jobs that we, at Options are working on-are listed here

3. Things that keep me occupied on a weekly basis appear on my linked in status message!

( I shall be glad if you could share with me your suggestions-and solutions- as to what helps you keep yourself abreast-so that I can adopt the best practice too!!)

Meanwhile, here are a bunch of positions/mandates that keeps me awake these days. I shall be glad to provide more information if it helps you give me pointers to professionals who would be interested, willing and excited to be moving on....

-Managing Director of Overseas Sales for Software solutions. Someone with a strong exposure to telecom solutions. Role based in Korea. Person needs to extensively travel to US & Europe.

- A Leadership role in Client /Creative Servicing for the Singapore office of an international design firm. The emphasis is FMCG and packaging.

- A Sr Vice President for an International firm in the business of research, insight & consultancy. Based in Kolkota, the role would required a person with a proven track record in management consulting/strategy and brands.

- A Country Manager and a couple of Director Sales positions for MNC firms in the telecom space-that need professionals to spearhead their entry/expansion into the fast growing Indian telecom space. Someone with a proven track record in handling relationships with the operators and the major SI players in India-will fit the bill. Roles based in Delhi/Mumbai.

- A Sales Director to handle a MNC in the homeland security business in India. We are on the look out for senior professionals with exposure to handling solutions for the intelligence agencies (eg RAW, CBI, NSG), the Police, etc. Role based in Delhi.

- A host of openings across the US for SAP consultants across different domains/ modules- with at least 4 lifecycle implementations. Role involves extensive travelling to customer sites across the 2/3rd of the country.

- Senior roles in technical customer engineering services based in Bhopal. The client, a leading graphite electrode manufacturer is looking for Electrical Engineers with experience in maintenance/operations of Electric Arc Furnace-who can travel extensively to the customer sites and live up to customer expectations.

- A Corporate Planning/Strategy consultant in the Infrastructure space-to be based in Hyderabad for a leading business group that wishes to leverage on the utilisation of the land banks.

-A bunch of management consultants with experience in one of the global firms- to help a UK MNCs captive BPO drive business transformation /migration across their global divisions. Mumbai based.

-And should you be still reading, Renault Nissan is looking for engineers for their shift operations as the car manufacturing picks up. Logitech is expanding its strength at their Centre of Excellence for mobile applications. All roles based in Chennai. Novartis is looking to entice SAS programmers from US to hire for their Hyderabad centre.

Time is flying by. Why don't you mail me at [email protected] and let me know when I can alert you? Or better still, follow me real time on twitter @achyutmenon

If we can't stay abreast-let's at least stay in touch...