That big Green House

When Joey, Allen and me first saw Imrie house I thought it was a dump. Three years later realize it was a place of haven where a bond will build between close friends. We all know the value of true friendship. It builds and grows over the years and we start understanding each other by not even verbally communicating. Using words such as "yesh", "VG", "not el much" as friends it was very common for each other acknowledge that we are doing allright or things are going good. How is that when we all have our own lives that at some point when you join the Imrie boys together time is endless?

Allen Carrescia (aka Italian Stalian) : Allen was the Godfather. He was the Marquis of Imrie. He brought the group pretty much together. The first time I met Allen his famous quote "school pants" came into effect. He was the straight forward conservative liberal. Believed in the church and his outlook and his upbringing brought him out as a strong leader. If Allen never was in the music business he could be a great entrepenuer. Allen became the authority were he assigned everyone to duties in terms of bills and house maintaince. He always believed in doing the right thing and he would stand for it. He was the so-called elder brother in the whole group.

Eric Espiritu (aka Mogli): Eric and I went back to the days of Berklee dorms where we watched basketball from the internet. He became the side kick of Allen in the house and eventually will become the co-founder with his friend Majid and myself to create nonsense Imrish language. Talented with his guitar, Eric can pull out any tune if he just listens to it once or twice. The best quality for Eric is he believes in best of everyone. He believes everyone can progress higher because he believes that they can do it.

Christian Lehman (aka Boomer) : The youngest of the group, Lehman became one of my best friends and like a little big brother. Young by age but wiser than his age group Christian and me met on the green grass of Imrie. Guitarist by birth Christian is the young god father since the depature of allen. Christian and me can hang out and enjoy our company by not even saying a word for 6 hours. An integral part of the Imrish lifestyle Christian is still moving up in this world and living his life out.

Ethan Mentzer (aka MOM): Ethan was the slow spoken Pennsylvanian dutch boy. His room was the old grandma's bedroom. With his counterpart Romansky, he is one of a kind. that's all you can say

Ben Romans (aka Romansky): Ben was the eccentric genius who became the social chair of the group. what can you say about Ben well: Slip and slide, printer drop out, emersen wild fair, and his famous duck words "Oh My God!!"

Nate Campany (aka Bruce): Nate is one my long time friends from dorms. The outgoing beard man bruce, Nate was the big mouth of the Imrie house. Arguing over anything he would bring excitment even in a video game. Nate's artistic talents are enourmous. One of my favorite song writers Nate seems to show his talents slowly to the rest of the world and soon Nathanial Campany of Cleveland Heights will be known.

Joe Guesse (aka the doctor): Joe was the MAN. Take Hemingway and take Jefferson and put them together. An outstanding political talker Joe and me I feel can rock down the senate and go against any senator. A genius who did not need education to prove himself and a true friend who believed in the goodness of people, this catholic boy sure knows what he is talking about.

Joey Zehr (aka white chocolate): Joey was the integral part of the social life in Imrie. He dazzled the group by introducing hot girls and his outgoing personality. A talented drummer and muscian he truly brought out Imrie. Without Joey my life in boston would have been so different. He is truly a brother. After knowing him from the first day of moving to dorms Joey and me go a long way. Expressing everything open he always brought the humor and the practicality of enjoying life.

Jamie Alter (aka 10th roomate): Jamie is my blood brother. After knowing him for 10 years there is not much you can say expect BACARDI AND COLA. Jamie's lifestlye came into Imrie after he moved from Ohio and lived in my room for a brief time. He was the unofficial roomate who hanged out!! James and me have lived through it all!!!

Ashwin Raj (aka shwin): The only Indian apart from Jamie (the indian ferang) I came to Boston thinking that it is an another place just like the others I have lived in. Yet I found my experiences here the most awarding. Joining the Network department in Berklee as an administrator and learning the culture of US I learned and taught and lived with the Imrie boys.

To take all of us and mix into the melting pot we truly have enriched our lives. Joey, Joe, ethan and Ben went on to become the Click five. Eric is one the verge of breaking out with his band as the Teenage Symphonies. Nate's solo work has been a blessing and he is moving up in the music business world. Christian still young and is moving up in the Paradice Rock club. Jamie found his dream job by joining Wisden cricket and is starting to enjoy his work. And Allen nows owns a record label company along with his band.

But at the end of the day you bring all these characteristics together you will only hear these word "AAH YESH...WARY GEWD"

the next stalin

Every time you see in this corporate world of business you see leaders step out of their ordinary lives and produce mass amounts of money that makes their business really profitable. These are the people that will venture into the work place and climb up the ladder in the ranks and will show the overall characteristics to step up as a leader. These are the people I would most respect in life. But how do they actually do it?

In an exercise which was done in a class a key characteristic of business ethics: responsibility. “Doing what should be done” and taking care things and getting it done to the deadline. Organization I believe is the key to success in business. If all things are organized properly then in general all business will run successful. Organization does not mean necessarily paper work but rather the ability to transition with your work force efficiently.

Part of the manager’s key focus should be the fact of the global workforce of diversity. This does not mean just international workers in the office. This means managing even the local employees who could be from such diverse communities. I think a manager has to assess and learn from different work thought or approaches that he or she may be able to adapt of the style their co-workers see their working style. I know from a personal experience about this where working back home is totally a different environment than working in the U.S. The hierarchy of scale is apparent back home more and communication is done in a ladder basis whereas U.S. business is run that everyone is equal to voice their opinion. Now it does not mean that the ideal manager will define himself or herself as necessarily approachable person; that is where the behavior concept comes into place.

Part of a good manager’s technique should be the willing to understand and comprehend his fellow employees. This goes to the fact a strong leader may not be a risk-taker or the risk adverse person, but rather could he see the long run or the short run of the decisions that he/she is making. The biggest characteristic of an individual is willing to accept failure. Through failure you realize the mistakes and will try to make yourself a better person to lead. This also has to do with motivation.

Motivation is one of the key characteristics that drive a company and its workforce. Motivation brings the success and the failures. But without motivation a company could crumble. Part of this has to do with needs of the individual. Are you in this workforce due to financial needs or proving to something you think that needs change for the betterment of the company. Both of these approaches will motivate the person to work different ways in the business. But determination of whether he/she is inclined to his/her financial needs or a power struggle could be understood more to do with the position the person upholds.

Job designs and structures determine the person’s ability and approach of what he/she is expecting. So therefore it is simple to see that a person who is a janitor is only there because he either only qualified to do hard labor or the fact that money is involved. It supports the person so therefore it is easy for him/her to say that at the end of the month there will be a paycheck. Whereas a person who is the VP of operations would have more needs than a financial pride to himself/herself. It would be a power struggle. They would like to be the one to motivate someone. This has to do with goal settings and performances.

Without goals a person would loose interest in the workplace. Constantly if there is a drive and a goal that has been presented to them they would approach their position with more responsibility. But managers are the one that would set the goals or try to reach the goals the better way. Because of a reward system in most companies’ goals can be a great way to make the motivation work faster and the whole teamwork comes into place.

Communication and group dynamics would be the important aspects in creating group awareness in the company. Most successful companies create a great dynamic group structure that they are proud of working for such a company in general. Communication is the key to the manager’s biggest internal success. If the manager is willing to listen and understand his employees, he would be able to get work done much faster than a person who believes that his approach is the right way and the rest really do not matter.

Finally what makes a good leader? Looking into all these characteristics and concept expressed by Moorhead I believe as an individual getting ready to meet the marketplace it gives us an awareness of how we approach business. I believe I am a person who takes responsibility in the workplace seriously. I do like things organized so that things would make more sense when transition is needed. But the biggest defect for me I believe is the fact that I expect perfection. This has made me sometimes miss assignments and get the work done. Most effectively if I was to be a manager, I would like to be the person that could be approachable and confident that I would be able to get the work done.

Economics of Cricket

If India is considered as the big beast of cricket, then the ICC should be considered as the poorest organizations in world sport organizations. For Atherton to say “acting as superpowers” could be potentially true. But to which perspective are you going to look at this morally or economically?

Over the years we have the seen the new emergence of cricket where a young talent appears and takes over the media and the news. Gone are the days of the so called “Gentleman days” and now replaced with the “Sahara”, “Reebok”, “Gray Nichols”. We see more cricketers taking spotlight in advertisements than making any runs on the cricket field. Media and advertising has become the integral part of selling games. In one of the games I saw an ad after every over and that is in average about over 100 ads over a period of a game. Is this a bad thing? Not really but just a transition of business tactics. We see other organizations such as FIBA and American sport organizations such as MLB, NBA and so forth have become conglomerate tycoons in this. They have progressed to become rich organizations and ICC looks like a spec of hair compared to these organizations.

Gone are the Victorian days of the cricket and descended into the Sheik’s pet project land. ICC decision to move from the Mecca of cricket to a place where they play in the kinder garden league of the ICC might become the pinnacle of perhaps the organization’s downfall. This is where the moral issue comes in. In every sport there is a dominant presence in specific areas that attracts the rest of the world. For instance, football=Europe, baseball=Americas. This was how it placed out due to the fact that sport was bona fide in those areas. Even though globalization is taking effect these areas are still the dominant places to play for a professional and for the viewers to watch the sport. Would you rather watch the MLS or the English premiere? But over the years we have seen the ups and downs of English cricket.

It has transitioned from the crown of the jewel to its prince and princess. The sub continent and beyond have taken over the entire market. There are more viewers of cricket around the world than in the Mecca of cricket. But it is not only England. USA lost its hands to get into the market of cricket after they were banned. ICC decision for that is a good one because if you see the West Indies they are in the turmoil and they are limping on a stick to survive. Africa’s political problems allow itself to be very fragile whether progress could occur. What is the best bet for the media and cricket to move on to: Sub Continent and beyond to Australia and NZ.

The sub-continent is starting to flourish as the next economic hub. Ind-Aus rivalry brought more fans than the blunder of the ICC’s Aus-ROW. Therefore if you see from these countries point of view establishing a new league makes a perfect economic portfolio. India and Australia would not only establish more cricket, but also will build other economic transitions. This will include media, trade and more economic integration. Let’s put this into a theoretical experiment.

The combination of Australia and India could bring a lot of prospective for ventures from both sides. In cricket perspective, the Ranji and the Pura could combine and the pay out could be huge. We already have seen players such as Bret Lee who flourished from the MRF academy, imagine on a large scale. This will encourage overseas education. Mostly the fact that the younger population is getting involved in this sport education will be a key form of growth of the person. IT will prosper more and trade could be better. It will be all a spider web of ideas that could work for both countries. This would also enable other countries to join the league. Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also thrive from this where they leagues could flourish as well. Countries such as USA will be keen to enter the market if it involves a larger scale of revenue. Look at football how it has become a growing sport in America. This could also help the growing countries such as Bangladesh and Africa because it could become unified integral cricket dominance where profits would rise. This could as bring the reemergence of countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong back into the cricket world.

Atherton should have not expressed ICC as the UN but rather the League of Nations. We cannot look at this as a moral issue of a cat and mouse deal. It is pure economics. If ICC decided to move from England to Dubai due the tax relief and economic progress, then it should accept this idea and try it. Otherwise I feel ICC will decline and a new organization will be born. We have seen this in smaller effects such as in the American leagues like the NBA. The old ABA and CBA combined to become the NBA but CBA was the dominant before ABA came into the picture. Then CBA went on the downfall.

Cricket will be always cricket. There will be the next Tendulkar, Botham, Richards, Bradman. But the economics of cricket will transition and question will remain whether ICC will be able to integrate itself or dissolve?