Taarof

In order to really understand what Taarof means one need to visit Persepolis in south of Iran, an ancient capital of Persian Empire that was burned down after being conquered by Alexander the Great. Among the carvings there are soldiers, but they are not fighting, there are weapons, but they’re not drawn. Mainly you see emblems suggesting that something humane went on here. People of different nations gathering peacefully, bringing gifts, draping their hands amiably on one another’s shoulders. In an era for its barbarity, Perspolis was a cosmopolitan place and today a reminder of who our Persian ancestors were and what they did.



One thing that has not changed since then is Taarof. Taarof is part of a complex system of ritual politeness. Hospitality, courting, family affairs, political negotiations, Taarf is the unwritten code for how people should treat each other. If you have ever been drinking and making cheers with Iranians, you may have notice that they are fighting for the lower hand, which is in an elegant way in a hierarchical society like Iran for people to paradoxically deal with each other as equals. Wherever you go in Iran, people fussed over you and make sure that all your needs were meet. There is a lot of mind reading and light-hearted dialogue while the two parties go back and forth until the truth reveals itself. Being smooth and seeming sincere while hiding your true feeling is considered the height of Taarof and an enormous social asset.

You never show your intention or your real identity, because you are making sure you are not exposing yourself to danger, as throughout Persian history there has been a lot of danger in the region

The dress is important

So I have notice that many of my feminine blog readers are not really in to the business issues that I have highlighted, but are more interested of the topics around male and female relationships and marriages and for sure I have lot to share on this topic.

I recently spent some quality time with one of my best friends talking about weddings and rezones for getting married. He mentioned that what he thinks could be the case for many girls, especially for the ones that have not been married before it’s the dress. Girls want a wedding, they don’t want a marriage. If only you could have weddings without marriages would you do it? So the question to you is if wedding is a ceremony which can be colorful, exciting and flamboyant but marriage is life time commitment would you still like to get married?

Another female friend of min told me the other day that ofcurce girls are smart. They know life is no storybook. But she admits it: Somewhere deep in girls subconscious lurk romantic visions of Cinderella. The images may be sketchy and a little outdated, but they can still make out the silhouette of the bride and Prince Charming riding off into the sunset. In real life, sometimes girls Disney fairy tale ends up feeling more like Quinn Tarantino dusk to dawn movie. Lets face it, marriage is not for the faint of heart. You want to believe your pure love for each other will pull you through. And it does. But it ain't always pretty.

But here's a secret: Sometimes it's the least romantic parts of marriage that have the most to teach you about yourself, your partner, and the nature of love. So let me know if you agree or disagree with my friends?

New Kids On The Block

You maybe remember the “New Kids on the Block” is an award-winning American pop group that enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a boy band. The boy bands in late1980s literally changed the music landscape as the new kids on the block in the cloud computing would. These new kids on the bloack are Google, Skype, YouTube, and Facebook.



Makers of telecom white-label carrier grade systems or software component that is extremely reliable, well tested and proven in its capabilities are also on the defensive. Traditionally they have made billions by selling their programs, often demanding hefty sums to install them and then charging an annual maintenance fee for upgrades and technical support. But this highly lucrative business model has come under increasing pressure, says Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For one, he says, software vendors will have to find new ways to charge for their wares: in the cloud, tying licensing fees to the number of users, for instance, will be difficult, since services will mostly be consumed by other machines. More importantly, the corporate world has become less and less willing to buy software for large sums of money, so software firms listed on America’s stockmarkets now make most of their profits from maintenance and other services.



Unfortunately still some of telecom software companies with experience from the good old days are not up to date about what is happing in the new era of cloud computing and still emphasizing on managing their company product development and sales in the same old fashion. This will not work as the new kids on the block are offering branded services that can connect and work together and help customers move their computing and service offering to the consumers around. This is music to the ears of big operators and their CTOs.

“Modern Business Life”

Globalization with mobility and connectivity as utilities has changed the legacy of the business life. In the Modern Business Life productivity can be reached by availabilities of efficient resources 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, thanks to outsourcing and offshore development opportunities. Also the way people can travel and be connected has influenced the Modern Business Life. Today more then ever mangers can be innovative in every day business life. They can define, share and explore new and innovative ideas over internet instantly.

Modern Business Life, it’s a lifestyle.
A lifestyle can be described once a community has a sub culture and way of thinking. For the last two years I have been working as a lead subject matter expert for one of the Europe’s biggest directory companies. The objective of the holding company was to put together team of subject matter experts to transfer the business from print to online. What I saw been remarkable was the share of interest and way of thinking with in the online group of subject matter experts. Despite the fact that these manager are from different countries with differ back grounds and ages. One could easily see the commitment and focus of the managers are beyond the normal business life. For them modern business life is like a lifestyle, like a musician or athlete you are enjoying what you do and it’s the best thing you know.
I think if we look at the most successful people in the world they all share the same principles. They love what they do and they do it in the best way possible. For them what they do every day is not another day at the office. They have a rezone to succeed and they mange to motivate people around them on every day basis. It’s not only about getting the right resources for the job but it’s also about how one manages to motivates its coworkers to reach the same goal.
Bill Gates has been one of the worlds most suceefulel CEOs for more then two decades and in my view clearly represents the successful modern business life leader. He has shown how resourcefulness and innovation demand can bee managed. He specifically created the Microsoft headquarter in way that it looks like a university campus to make sure that he can attract the best university talents to Microsoft. He showed interest and commitment in way Microsoft recruited resources. He was personally involved in every single job interview until Microsoft started to expand beyond headquarter in US.

Modern Business Life is a movement.
Globalization has influenced the modern business life today to become a movement. As it’s described in the book “World is flat” impact of outsourcing, offshore development and Internet has removed lots of boundaries in the business world and partly initiated globalization.
Today business managers can use technical and operational resources in India and China. These resources can be on the companies’ disposal almost in unlimited numbers and 24 hours a day 7 days a week. As a manager you are no longer limited in terms of resources but more in terms of scope and budget.
Today companies like Sony Ericsson has development centers and manufacturing facilities in countries like USA and China. The most advances telecommunication technologies can be innovated and designed by engineers in Lund and these blueprints can be emailed over internet to China for device manufacturing.
These engineers and managers are becoming part of a device manufacturing movement where they not only meet with their colleges in other countries like USA and China but they are also part of a bigger community of other handset manufactures and mobile operators. They meet in big events like World 3GSM congress to explore new ideas and share expertise and knowhow.
This movement has helped them to be innovative about their way of thinking and the way they shape the new product offering. To be part of this network of people has help them to come closer to their customers and bind close relationships which will result in successful sales and marketing which will benefit the company, add value to the lifestyle and shapes the movement.

South Beach

Just coming back after ten days of vacation in Miami South Beach, I think South Beach had lot to offer every ting from good nightclubs such as Mansion, neat afternoon beach party at Nikki’s beach club, cool bars with live music such as Love & Hate and nice places to see and do scuba diving such as Key West and Key Largo. Yeah, it was pretty exciting to experience Miami and I’m sure some day I will go back. What I would also like to recommend if you are ever planning to stay at a hotel in south beach is Bluemoon hotel, perfect location with excellent staff and very competitive price.


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Mobile 2.0

The race for the next generation of mobile devices is on. Ones again history is repeating it self, I'm sure you all remember when Apple had the most innovative personal computes MAC but Microsoft took that to main stream with Windows. Now ones aging Apple introduced the most innovative mobile phone, iPhone, but Microsoft will bring it to main stream with Windows Mobile 7.


Here's a very long and detailed (and somewhat technical) post about Microsoft's intriguing plans for Windows Mobile 7. From our point of view, and according to the post, many of the design and functionality upgrades are responses to the sensation caused by the iPhone and the fact that the latter has quickly overtaken Windows Mobile in terms of market share. The improved user experience reflected in the post is good for users, as desktop titans, carriers and OEMs such as Nokia engage in an intensifying battle for mobile consumers.

The cocktail question

When I’m with family and friends I have a hard time answering the most fundamental question, when they ask, “So, what is it that you do again?”

As I work as Mobile Subject Matter Expert it may be easy to explain the mobile part of my work but what about Subject Matter Expert, how should I explain that? I did as most of people would do, I searched for the word “expert” in Wikipedia and found that “an expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study. An expert can be, by virtue of training, education, profession, publication or experience, believed to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual's opinion.” Now I don’t think this would help.

Instead I will in future quote Niels Bother’s the Danish physicist and Noble Prize winner, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field”.

Survivor mentality

The power of positive thinking and the immigrant "survivor mentality" can change ones life. I think it can not be better described then Omid Kordestani speech addressed to San Jose State University graduated students of 2007.



Omid Kordestani was born in Iran and moved to San Jose, California at the age of 14 after the death of his father. Omid Kordestani is the senior vice president of global sales and business development at Google. He is directly responsible for Google's worldwide revenue generation efforts as well as the day-to-day operations of the company’s sales organization. As Google's "business founder," Omid led the development and implementation of the company's initial business model. Since joining in May of 1999, he has brought Google to profitability in record time, generating more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006.

"Work hard, Play hard"

When I heard the motto first time I didn't know what it meant. Since then I've come to realize that it's much more than just a saying. It's a way of life; it's a mentality; it's an obsession. To truly understand the seemingly ideal balance, you must live and observe it and I think nobody is doing it better then Sir Richard Branson. I have just finished reading one of his books "SCREW IT, LETS DO IT" and he really inspires people to make a difference in their life.

Mobile killer application 2008

I think we all agree that evolution of mobile killer applications started with SMS to mobile digital cameras such as SE CyberShot to music phones such as SE Walkman phones and this year it would be all about Location Based Services (LBS) and Navigation. Major acquisition in the SatNav landscape like TomTom intended to acquire TeleAtlas in what would be a $2.5 billion dollar transaction and Nokia intent to buy Navteq for $8.1 billion indicates how important its to control and manage the valuechine in Map/LBS/Navigation and offering the next mobile killer application .

Now Finally On the Air

I think its about time for me to get this blog up and running. My own website http://www.malekzadgan.com/ has been online for more the two years now, but lacking an easy to use Content Management System like the one in Blogger have preventing me from publishing information to the website. So now there are no excuses any more I will make sure that information about me will be published and updated frequently.