Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Inspiration: The Catalyst for Action

First, thank you to those of you who have pushed me back into the blogosphere. I have been horribly delinquent but nothing like a little peer encouragement to get inspired again! I'm glad my little stories get you thinking. What's also inspired me to come back has been Lotusphere, IBM Lotus Software's worldwide annual roadshow, which is where I currently am. I just came out of the main tent where we had so many exciting announcements on social software of our own that I will my beloved blog over to our Lotus Connections platform soon. I hope you will follow me there!
In the spirit of inspiration, I wanted to share that we launched the local chapter of the IBM Super Women's Group in January for our women employees, clients and partners alike. This Group has been around for 3+ years but it took a while for it to get going here. We had Ms. Shukla Bose, Founder and CEO of Parikrma Humanity Foundation, speak to our group of super ladies. Shukla is a truly remarkable marketing profressional and social entrepreuner who has won many national and international awards including the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1995, the Bharat Gaurav Award in 1996 and the Woman of the Year award in 2000. Parikrma has 1100 children, of which around 550 are girls. They have managed to got 225 children sponsored and need to get many more taken care of. If you believe in children's education, you should consider sponsoring a child or if you are group, you can sponsor a few children. It costs Rs 20,000 per annum to sponsor a child for all three meals, healthcare, family care and total education.
Ms Bose was fortunate to work with Mother Teresa for several years and highlighted to us that she considered Mother Teresa one of the best CEOs because she was able to inspire volunteers from around the world to join the Missionaries of Charity, which has over 1 million coworkers in over 40 countries. Feeling inspired is the best motivator to really do anything. Even getting back to blogging. So who inspired you lately and what did you do?

2 comments:

  1. Hi Virginia, Happy to read your blog after a long period of silence. I'm writing this comment sitting in one of the sessions of lotusphere in Hyatt, Mumbai. I do not have a speicific story that inspired me dramatically. I get my inspiration by observing the Nature day after day. Simple, insignificant creatures like the Bees and the Ants have a lesson or two to teach about the power of collaboration. Do we make use of the kinds of communication tools that we have today to collaborate effectively? Probably, enterprises should consider systems such as Lotus to collaborate and win in the 'flat world'.

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  2. Quite true, everything that has a beginning must have an end. That’s what happened to the weather in Mumbai, (‘cause I’m still sweating early in the morning with my Ac on here).

    Saw you at the Develothon 2010. You kinda rocked the stage today. It has been a while since I have heard some one other than Shashi Tharoor focusing on the common sector.
    And this is where the example of Dharavi and the JSB comes into the picture.

    Cricket has its own excitement, though they call it a funny game. I haven’t seen a match yet but I know the fever that catches us as Indians.
    “IPL means Smarter Cricket” – yes indeed it is but sometimes smarter isn’t faster. You need to keep the pace. Honestly cricket doesn’t do it. A faster game like football does it.
    By the time the bowler takes a run up after every single delivery, every smarter competitor uses the time to move ahead selling products or advertising them earning much more than what the total cost get incurred at the end of the match.

    What I believe is that we are bound by a plague. A plague that breeds us humans into chaos. A smarter solution will surely help us move out of it.

    The Indian government says Save water,
    Abhishek Bacchan says Save Paper. ( with a fake applause what an idea sirji)
    Either ways the common man cannot clean his ass if he saves both. (chaotic situation isn’t it ?)
    Solution ? -> Smarter Infrastructure.
    We are heading into a smarter and a greener planet (Ironically).
    Was Pondering What is Smarter Infrastructure ?
    I found the anagram within this word.

    smARTer IN FrAST CtURE.

    ART IN FAST CURE .
    Now that’s why I was referring to the game of football.

    If you cogitate on the anagram above I reckon you will surely come across a smarter solution won’t you?
    (To to end in a Spido-Virginian way)
    “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility”. …

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