min-myinnersoul

If you behave like this, you deserve to be cursed, reviled, and generally hated. Unfortunately many business leaders are exactly like this, which is why a business tycoon is considered by society as a figure to be loathed. The "this" I refer to is Stephen Elop, Chairman of Nokia being entitled to a $25m payout for the the sale of Nokia's handset business to Microsoft. Nokia, as everybody knows, has been in dire straits for quite some time. In 2010, the Board fired its existing Finnish leaders and brought Stephen Elop, from Microsoft, as the CEO to "rescue" Nokia. Elop abandoned Nokia's operating system Symbian and tied its fortunes to Microsoft by adopting the Windows platform. It did not work and Nokia has continued to slide. During Mr Elop's tenure, Nokia's market capitalisation fell  by $ 14 bn - that's the amount Nokia's shareholders have lost. Finally Nokia has decided to sell its handest business to Microsoft for under $ 10 bn. Elop'

I thought I would change things up a bit and take a trip down memory lane. For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, you will remember this post.  I made these little pumpkin loaves 3 years ago. My how time flies! They have been a huge hit across the web. Even Hershey's saw it and posted it on their Facebook page....I felt pretty awesome after seeing that! Anyway, you can click here to read more. Happy Thursday!

The principle of jurisdiction is a basic tenet in law. Jurisdiction refers to the  law, the court, the authority that is applicable to you . You are then required to follow that law and be subject to  oversight by that authority and that court. In the good old days, jurisdiction was simple - where you were decided who had jurisdiction over you.  I live in India and so the laws of India apply to me. The government of India is the authority that has jurisdiction over me and the courts in India  are the forum I can go to. Simple. As the world started to globalise, the issue of jurisdiction started to become more complicated. If I did a commercial transaction with say an Australian company - who would have jurisdiction ?  Australia ? India ? That is why in contracts involving multiple countries it is always stated which law would apply and which courts would have jurisdiction. But physical presence or assets always enables that country to have jurisdiction . Although I am an Indian citizen

Our coffee table serves many purposes. It's the place where the kids do homework, make crafts, sometimes eat their dinners. It's also a foot rest, and occasionally used in pillow/blanket forts. It's used A LOT, and had been showing lots of wear here lately. This coffee table has gone through a couple of transformations. To see the actual before, you can go here . I had not been planning on re-doing the coffee table. It sort of just struck me last Friday that I needed to strip all of the nasty paint off of it.  This was part two...the center is chalkboard paint. I had found some inspiration on Mrs. Mustard Seed's blog with some chalkboard tables she had created. At the time of the second re-do, my children had a nasty habit of writing on furniture. I came up with what I thought was an ingenious idea to paint chalkboard paint on the top of the coffee table; that way they could have at least one piece of furniture in the house to write on with out mommy fussing. Well, it&#

I have been working the day away trying to get several things done. Laundry, cleaning the house, hanging things on the wall, stripping paint off of furniture(as seen below), sanding, etc. This is the first time since my surgery that I have felt well enough to tackle multiple projects at once. I actually have 3 in the process of being completed. And I'm just a little jazzed at how they are turning out:o) The weather couldn't be anymore perfect for this sort of thing either. So grateful for Fall-esque weather. We have a big weekend ahead of us. We have 2 kids' birthday parties to attend, a soccer game, and the hubs is having a birthday on Sunday.  Busy, busy, busy. Today I just wanted to fill you in on what's going on behind the scenes with my blog.  As you have probably noticed, the appearance has changed over the past few weeks. I have been working really hard trying to spruce things up and make it seem more appealing. I have scoured the internet for different tutorials

Mergers & Acquisitions are often the glamorous side of business. CEOs love  them - you go through the excitement of doing a deal, get on to the papers and TV, become famous etc etc. Most of the haggling on the deal is on the price - how much the buyer is willing to pay the seller. But how about a M&A transaction where the seller has to pay the buyer in order for the buyer to buy the business !! Fanciful ? Well, that's exactly what has happened with the sale of Fresh & Easy by Tesco to Ron Burkle . Tesco is an UK based grocery retail giant; it is the third largest retailer in the world. From the UK, where it is a household name, it has expanded in Europe and Asia. But in the US, the largest retail market in the world, Tesco was non existent. In 2006, it decided to foray in to the US with the branding  of Fresh & Easy - in small store grocery format, primarily in the Western states. It never took off and Tesco faced mounting losses despite opening some 200 stores. Its

It seems like ages ago I told you that I would have a fun little art project for S.R.'s room . Well, I finally got around to making one. I just needed the right inspiration! I wanted to do something with a bike, but just wasn't sure what. I came across this really cute vinyl cruiser on Etsy  , and knew it was exactly what I needed. Source And this is what I came up with. FrogTape makes a chevron painter's tape. Crazy! I know!  It's super easy to use!  I found some at Lowes the other day, but you can also purchase it from Amazon.  Click the link below and it will take you directly to Amazon.                                 The tape isn't recommended for use on textured surfaces...says so right on the box. As you can see below, my canvas is a textured surface. I went with it anyway because sometimes you can bend the rules a bit in the crafting world.  I used a scrap piece of tape to keep my lines even. Once all of the tape was down on my canvas board, I smoothed out

This blogger is not a beer drinker.. He is therefore completely ignorant of the niceties of beer and therefore eminently qualified to comment on developments in the beer industry. In many countries in the world, people, especially men, gulp down enormous quantities of beer. Most of it is mass produced by the beer giants of the world - Diageo, Anheuser Busch, SAB Miller, Heineken and the like, including our own home grown United Breweries. Bottled or canned beer is by far the largest selling channel for beer - the one that keeps afloat the likes of Diageo, et al. But nuanced beer drinkers consider this somewhat of a travesty in beer drinking - apparently they have no taste. Hence the onset of draught beer which is served out of cask or a keg. Go to a pub  and barmaid will pour out a pint of draught, topped with a nice head. This blogger has a partiality to buying rounds for whoever he is with - not to taste the subtleties of the draught but to ogle at the barmaid - who is invariably pre

I have so many projects I want to get started on, but I am still having to wait on the doctor's approval to start lifting heavy items. I am reminded several times a day that where once was a gallbladder, now resides a slight tinge of pain when I try to over-do it.. I am not a patient person. If the mind is willing, so should be the body, is my thought;o)  So I have been piddling around the house, trying to clean things out and make things a little more organized. I love to organize.  I cleaned out a closet this morning that had tons of junk in it...it was the hubs' junk closet...shhhhh! Don't tell him I threw away a ton of boxes that had absolutely no purpose what-so-ever;o) He's never been one to throw away boxes that electronics come in. Some of the boxes have been hanging out in that closet since before we moved here...mind blowing, right?;o)  That last statement is absolutely impossible since we are the only owners of this house;o) A slight exaggeration.  So anyway,

The regular school routine has set in, and things seem to be moving along just fine. It has taken this mommy a little more adjusting than these two kiddos.  They were both pumped and ready to go. Me, not so much. I miss them. The first day back broke my heart and I might have sobbed like a baby...in front of my baby...who is now a kindergartner. My kindergartner might have shed a few tears because her mother lost it in front of her, but waited for her to leave. Such a strong little girl. My first grader was a brave and happy little soldier. He's an old pro at this sort of thing now; in his mind's eye. It does my heart good to see how happy they are with their teachers and their classmates. My favorite part of the day is when they get in the car at the end of the school day, smiles beaming, ready to tell me every detail of their day...competing to see who can tell the most. Yes, I know these days are very short lived, and there will come a time when they won't say two words

Soooo....I had my gallbladder taken out last Friday. How did your Labor Day weekend go? It couldn't have been as interesting as mine;o) I mean, how could it get any better than laying in bed with 5,000 pillows tucked under each and every bend of your body, and flipping back and forth between HGTV and the My Fair Wedding marathon? I had all of these grand plans to host a college football kick-off party and to find somewhere fun to take the family, and just relax...didn't happen. Pain pills and David Tutera...that's what happened.  But I will happily report that this is the best I have felt in a month. I will take the soreness over the nausea any day! Good riddance you evil non-working gallbladder! Enough about that.  I guess you may or may not have noticed, but it's September, and there hasn't been one mention of a certain child's birthday coming up in 2.5 weeks.  We're going stress free this time. We're having the party at a local party space where they

On hindsight, the surprise is that it hasn't happened more often. Last week Pierre Wauthier, the Chief Financial Officer of Zurich Insurance, tragically committed suicide . This starkly illustrates the unbelievable pressures top business executives function under. Zurich Insurance is one of the top insurance companies in the world. Recently, it has been going through a bad patch, although by no means disastrous. The CFO is often the one required to stand up before investors to explain results and is invariably the target of criticism and calls to be sacked. The circumstances behind Mr Wauthier's unfortunate demise are not fully clear, but it is inconceivable that work pressures did not play a part. His widow has certainly hinted that Josef Ackermann, the Chairman of Zurich bore some responsibility. Ackermann denied any such thing but promptly resigned as Chairman. Only a certain breed of individuals reach the top of the business world. A masochist streak, politely termed as &qu