The Fastest Men at the Olympics

IT TAKES YEARS TO SHED SECONDS OFF RECORD TIMINGS, and that has been the order of all major sports event, especially the Olympics Games. "Faster, Higher, Stronger" (Latin: Citius, Altius, Fortius) is the motto of the Olympics events, and whilst it absolutely lives up to that expectations, the bar thus raised however poses faster, higher and stronger challenges to the human capacities; every single time. (Mr. Ketan J. Patel, founder and head of the Strategic Group at Goldman Sachs, in this very interesting book "The Master Strategist" published earlier this year provides a very interesting analysis and analogy on the topic of such a human endeavour where Patel observes that we indeed live in the age of extremes.)

Usain "Lightening" Bolt of Jamaica is clearly my hero of the 2008 Summer Olympics games at Beijing, as with many others. Here is an athlete in what is called a championship form - with spirit exuberant that "no one can beat me today" - and to borrow the simile from Abraham Maslow - "Peak experience" in motion...

Three times, in three days, shattering three world records - Human spirit at its foremost, for, unlike a machine-like race for the next milestone, one did pause to marvel the moment and live in its spirit.


[Usain "Lightening" Bolt of Jamaica betters his own word record by 0.03 seconds at Men's 100m sprint race - the event that virtually decides the "fastest" man on earth. Bolt not only took a convincing lead among the pack, but maintained it all along and started celebrations even before the finish line was ten meters away; all this within sub-10 seconds time-frame. Above: Take a look at this footage from the stadium.]
And then there is Michael Phelps of the USA, the most decorated athlete of all times at the Olympics, winning eight Gold medals in eight aquatics events - getting a Gold in all events in which he participated at 2008 Summer Olympics games, and setting a record for doing so also. Phelps is special in more ways than one.

[Steve Parry finished on the podium beside Phelps at Athens 2004. While Phelps captured Gold and set a new WR, Parry at the same time set a new Commonwealth record for the same event in aquatics. Above: Parry analyses how Phelps is 'special' in the pool.]

[Go here for the Amazon book reviews of "The Master Strategists" by Ketan Patel.]
[Go here to watch Bolt during his M 100m final on the official YouTube broadcasting channel of Beijing Olympics. These clips have very little chance of being removed.]
[Go here for the detailed analysis by Steve Parry for BBC.]

Read More

Five Lessons from Sub-prime Crisis

PHILIP J. PURCELL, FORMER CEO AND CHAIRMAN OF MORGAN STANLEY, proposed the big five lessons for bankers coming out of the current Sub-prime crisis of the US.

For the record, during Mr. Purcell's tenure as CEO at Morgan Stanley for eight years the firm attained following milestones at the close of 2004:

#1 in global equity trading
#1 in global equity underwriting in 2004 for first time since 1982
#1 global IPO market share in 2004
#2 in global debt underwriting in 2004, with steady gains since late '90s
#2 in completed global M&A in 2004

Mr. Purcell resigned from Morgan Stanley in 2005, and has since founded a private equity firm called Continental Investors LLC.

Following are the 'lessons' that he recently discussed through an article in FT:

i) profits matter more than revenues (sales)

ii) compensation should be based on profits, margins and return on equity over time, not current year revenues

iii) leverage works not just on the upside but on the downside as well

iv) diversified and recurring revenue streams not based on trading or principal investing have immense value in a down cycle

v) risk management should become a board-level responsibility, with appropriate committees meeting regularly with management

[Related post: Sub-prime Crisis for Dummies]
[Go here for the Financial Times article where Mr. Purcell explains each in more details.]

Read More

Golden Gift for India at 2008 Summer Olympics

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA as well as modern Olympics, the Indian National Anthem was sounded for the podium Gold position in an individual event. A moment of pride for any Indian national/origin anywhere. The German media person standing nearby the Indian supporters' stand at Beijing Shooting Range Hall was as perplexed as the Indians themselves. The German was stumped for his lack of knowledge of India never making it to the Gold in the history of the nation or the games; the Indians were stumped and elated of course because their shooter finally made it!

It is perhaps the best gift that India ever received from a peaceful sports event thus far. Abhinav Bindra, the 26 year old businessman from Chandigarh, an MBA from USA and CEO of his own video-game company, at his third Olympics appearance aimed a near perfect bullseye in 10m Air Rifle event and brought India home with its first Gold in an individual event at the Olympics - classic or modern. And when asked by a TV channel during an interview, the medal barer didn't mince his words while saying, "I wonder why it took [India] so long..."

[Left: Abhinav Bindra’s Swiss coach Gabriele Buhlmann congratulates him at the Beijing University Gymnasium. Source: in.news.yahoo.com]

It is a gift to the nation because this self-financed, self-trained, self-sponsored effort by an individual from an affluent background comes from trainings in South Africa and Germany with the help from a Swiss coach. "Gaby" Bühlmann, the personal coach of Bindra, participated in 10 shooting events at five previous Olympics for Switzerland; the last one being at Athens 2004. Bindra has his personal Olympics-standard shooting range facilities built by his father in their own backyard, and he has been training far away from the official, government provided, and Indian Olympics Association sponsored facility at Tughlakabad outside New Delhi that has not received any upgrade to the equipments since 1980's.

And while most predictably as Bindra becomes the new darling of the news desks across India, interestingly two Chinese national daily also featured him on full-size front page coverage - albeit, the headline read, a rather tongue in cheek, "At Last!"

This may be Indian sports coming of an age. The public-private partnership is evident yet again, with reports of the steel tycoon and the richest man in the UK, Laxmi Niwas Mittal funding at least 14 Olympian hopes for India, including Bindra. Mr. Mittal runs his Mittal Champions Trust from London, and reportedly employed a physical trainer, a psychologist, and supplied ammunition for practice for Bindra when India ran out of bullets for the Olympics team.

There were no bidders for the 2008 Olympics telecast for India, and the rights for the entire event were finally picked up, with a bare minimum chance of breaking even, by the I&B ministry for national career DD Sports for USD 3mn (which was the price for just a couple of icon player at the Indian Premier League Cricket auction. The broadcast rights for India for the IPL event as a whole were sold at slightly over USD 1bn).

Formula One was a no-show in India only five years ago until Karthikeyan came on the scene as the first Indian driver for the Grand Prix race, and F1 has picked up since then in the country - with India sporting its first ever full fledge racing team - Force India - starting this year. Moreover, an F1 race circuit at Noida (near New Delhi) is under construction for inclusion in the F1 calendar by 2010 season.

Could Bindra's feat do something similar for the Olympics in India?
Perhaps.
How about Indians' call for Cricket's inclusion in the Olympics?
A Twenty20 Olympics... Why not?

[Related post: 08.08.08 - World Watches as China Arrives with the Olympics]
[Go here for an eyewitness account also mentioning Gagan Narang, Bindra's team mate at the same event.]
[Go here for the official athlete profile of Abhinav Bindra at the Olympics.]
[Go here for the China Daily front-page coverage on Bindra's gold.]

Edit: new links have been added for "Gaby" Bühlmann , Laxmi Mittal's funding for Bindra, and others.

Read More

08.08.08 - World Watches as China Arrives with the Olympics

ONE OF THE MOST MESMERIZING EXPERIENCES OF RECENT TIMES, the live performance of the opening ceremony of the 29th modern Olympics at Beijing surpassed all expectations. Even the foreign correspondence who have been in Beijing since a few months, measuring the air-quality, spying, and commenting on the build-up, and covering the unveiling of the Olympics, in spite of having stolen away a video footage from the rehearsals a week ago, were neither aware of nor prepared for the enthralling experience of the pinnacle event - lighting of the Olympics torch...


[Above: Li Ning "walks" on the walls, with the backdrop of video panels on the edge of the roof of Bird's Nest, on his way to light the 29th Modern Olympics torch at Beijing on August 8th, 2008 at 08.08pm CST. Here is this footage on YouTube.]

Unquestionably, China has arrived. Hello World!

As they say, well began is half done... And going by the analyst reposts, I suppose the icing on the cake for them would be the closing ceremony with China bagging most Gold medals!

[Related post: The Dalai Lama meets with the Mahatma]
[Go here for the official games schedule, and here for the medals standings.]
[Go here for a guide on How to watch the Olympics online.]
[Go here for the BBC coverage of the opening ceremony.]
[Go here for the list of "the ten Chinese people you should know about" - including Li Ning who is the biggest sports brand in China.]

Read More