Thought Leadership

The Aim  The aim of concepts are far more wider than what we think of. Somehow the concept of Thought Leadership wrongly became the field of winning & success only But it is way above & beyond this temporary destination Thought Leadership adds value The sole purpose of Thought Leadership is to provide "Value Addition" to the domain. It is a more philosophical framework of understanding There are many Thought Leaderships that seemingly failed to become famous J. C. Bose work on material radio signal made Marconi famous but is hardly acknowledged Ibn al-Haytham, the 10 th century Arab Mathematician no one knows. But his works on optics made Roger Bacon famous centuries later Jerome Cardano the unsung Italian genius who invented practically the Quantum Physics & Probality Theory but is hardly credited by any Can we deny.... Can we deny the value additions of such great minds though they are not famous & successful? The collectivity of failings in Thought Leadersh...

The Moon & the Water  Some news does catch your eyes. Just yesterday it was announced by the scientific community that they have discovered water molecules on the moon  Though it is a great piece of discovery but not very surprising after all. This fact was waiting to be discovered for we have been trying to find traces of water on the moon for decades. It was just a matter of when  Light is Civilization  Water is actually the synonym of life for humanity. Where there is water there is life & there evolves civilization.  But to me the most surprising aspect of the discovery was something else. It was the particular region on the moon on which the water traces were discovered that fascinated me The water traces were discovered on the sunlit portion of the moon. This has a huge metaphorical significance if we can think beyond the obvious  Thought Leadership is showing Light in Darkness  Anything that is lit has life just like the sunlit porti...

Name is not Everything  The greek word from which their identity emerged means Wise, Wisdom etc. They were people who excelled in knowledge of philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, Administration etc just like any renowned scholars of their day.  They even wrote books, taught students and excelled in discussions, debates, lectures etc. They were also famous & liked by the public just like any other scholars of those days  Yet they are never considered Philosophers or Intellectuals even till date. Many even do not consider them as Scholars, Teachers, Wise men etc The mainstream Philosophy has more contempt & disregard for them than any schools of thought Add caption What was Wrong with the Sophists ? The Central Question is what went wrong with the Sophists & Why the word itself came to mean a Pejorative term ?  Similarly it is even important to know why Sophism came to signify a derogatory ideology ?  The answer lies in their non-conviction & non-...

Past is a treasure of learning  Much has been written about the Greco-Persian wars of the ancient times. Much still needs to be learnt from it  The 2nd Greco-Persian War occured around 480 BC. Xerxes, the Persian king marched with such a huge force that the Greeks never anticipated it. If we believe Herodotus, then Greeks were in for a big defeat  Future is not always linear But most of the time events do not unfold in a simple linear way as expected & that too wars. The Greek sides consisting of the Athenians & the Spartans, though numerically less, did not allow Xerxes to make any inroads. Xerxes was getting frustrated though having the largest & the best forces of that time  Xerxes left his forces in the battle to his commanders & returned to his capital. The Greeks defeated Xerxes forces at Plataea & Mycale & he lost the 2nd Greco-Persian war  The Resourceful leadership  leadership is not always about the availability of Resourc...

The Much Debated Concepts  There are two diametrically opposite concepts in philosophy that have dominated the minds for ages  The “ Priori ” concept believes that the mind already has certain knowledge embedded in it much before it experiences the sensation of it  The “ Posteriori ” philosophy believes that the mind is like the blank slate on which knowledge is written only after it interacts with the sensation outside Ibn e Sina's influence on the western thought  Plato was to a certain extent a “Priori“ believer while Aristotle was for “Posteriori”  The West was influenced in favour of “Posteriori” by the work of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the father of modern medicine. His Magnum Opus “ The canons of medicine ” is the most celebrated book on medicine ever written. Ibn Sina’s philosophical outlook in favour of Posteriori settled the debate forever in Europe  Where does leadership belong to?  Now the question arises whether leadership belongs to the prior...

The Epic of Gilgamesh "If you want a new idea, read an old book" said a wise man onceThe earliest recorded epic is from the Sumerian Civilization called the "Epic of Gilgamesh"(3000 BC ). It is in the form of five surviving poems Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk. He wanted to go to war with the kingdom of Kish Gilgamesh knew that Ego has no place in leadership matters First he consulted the council of elders who always opposed him. As expected they opposed his ideas & plans Next he deliberated with another council of elders who supported his course of actions Now it was Gilgamesh turn to take decisions based on the different advices What Gilgamesh did afterward is another matter of debate Hear all the Sides  Leadership means hearing all the sides of the arguements including the one opposed to your vision, strategy & tactics Those who are convinced & have faith in their own vision have the confidence to hear all shades of the arguements Those who desist fr...

The Rip Van Winkle Saga  Rip Van winkle was a farmer. One day in the forest he saw some mysterious men playing the game of nine pins The mysterious men called him & asked him to join the game. RVW joined the game & enjoyed the drink offered to him Slowly he felt drowsy and fell asleep RVW woke up and remembered those mysterious men. There was none to be found Life has changed He found his beard has grown very long. His musket has rusted. His dog was gone. His clothes has worn out. He found himself to have aged a lot He walked down to his town. He did not recognize anybody. Nobody recognized him too. The whole town has changed Luckily his daughter identified him & brought him home. RVW was missing for 20 years He came to know that all his friends have died. His wife too had died. He felt very sad RVW was at the crossroads of life. Whether to give up by cursing the past or rise up & reinvent himself again Humanity at the Crossroad  Humanity is also at the Rip Van...

But Why ?  Some of the Boeing 747 planes still use the 3.5 inch floppy disc to upload the softwares related to navigation, way routes, airport details etc. Every month the SW is loaded via the floppy disc by engineers otherwise the flight won't be in operations  But Why ?  The Comfort Zone  The possible reasons for not transitioning from the floppy disc era to the latest methods are not far to seek. The hardware mechanics of the plane are so rigidly built that it does not allow the upgrade. The other reason could be that since it is serving its intended purpose there is no need to upgrade it  The later reason seems quite possible as it is nearer to our human thinking behaviour  Is necessity necessary for change ?  Most of the time we also do not update, upgrade & change ourselves simply because we feel that there is no necessity for it. Everything is going fine & we feel blessed to be cocooned maintaining the status quo in our own comfort zones...

The Huge Debate  There was a huge debate regarding Quantum Physcis (QP) in the 1920's. The scientific world was split into two camp One favoured Neil Bohr's Idea on QP. The other was with Einstein refuting Bohr's idea Every confrence, meeting, journals etc ultimately became a showdown between the two camps Einsten, Podolsky & Rosen (EPR) wrote the most scatching critique of Bohr's idea of QP & challenged him to respond to it The Response  Bohr responded to the EPR paper. The whole Physics world read both the EPR & its response. It was the most widely read literature of that time But something went wrong in both the papers Einstein lamented that the Physics world did not understand what he asked in the EPR He wanted to raise certain questions but the world did not understand the queries he raised in their paper  Bohr admitted that he could not communicate fully in writing what he wanted to say. Bohr said he understood what he wanted to say but could not fully...

The characteristics of a leaders having a production oriented leadership style The definition of leadership itself gives certain hints about the basic characteristics of any type of leadership . The basic aim of any leadership is to achieve a predetermined goal by way of methods and procedures unique to that leadership style. The path of leadership may vary according to styles but generally the end result somewhat remains the same  The Task Oriented Leadership The Production Oriented Leadership Style (POLS) is basically the task oriented leadership which accords more value to end results. This type of leadership style is rule based, formal, structured and heavily oriented towards the bureaucratic method. If we look closely inside the philosophy of the Production Oriented Leadership Style (POLS), then we find ample traces of the scientific school of management of the famous thinker Taylor.  The Production Oriented Leadership Style (POLS) believes in close supervision of the em...

The Thought Leadership & the Quantum Jump  Human civilization progresses by their abilities to think forward & backward & to correlate it with their present. But there is a limit to which these backward & forward extensions in thinking can be conceived There is always a veil of ignorance beyond which everything seems dark If humans have to jump from one stage to another stage of civilization progress then our ability to think both backward & forward has to also take a quantum jump This simply means that we have to create Thought Leadership(TL) . Such civilization jumps occur only when TL creates Quantum Jumps in ideas & actions We jumped from Wheel stage to Engine stage by creating leadership of the minds The Leadership of the Minds & the Great Jump  The challenge is to create such minds & leaderships. Though Scientific & Technological (S&T) minds will be in abundance but the Social & Cultural (S&C) minds would lag in the “GREAT ...

The Genius who could have taken over leadership in science  He was a Mathematician during the Renaissance. Some credits him with invention of Probability Theory. Many cite his works on imaginary numbers. He is the first few to lay the foundations of Quantum Physics.  He was also a certified Doctor.  He could have provided effective leadership in science  He wrote a book “Consolation” lamenting the death of his son. Some even say that Shakespeare copied from his book for his Hamlet “To be or not to be” speech He was a genius whom the world has forgotten You may be wondering who he is ? The weakness of leadership  He is Jerome Cardano, the Italian Genius who displeased the authorities of his time by his free contrarian views & rebellious character He was a great gambler who discovered probability theory to win card games. His medical license was revoked due to his maverick actions He had all the intellectual capacity to become the household name. Some part du...