Website Launch date: December 16, 1998 Last Revised and Updated on August 28, 2008 Important Announcements Madgopes.com is pleased to announce the reduction in paying membership fees to USD 12.80 per annum from USD 24.99 with effect from August 28, 2008. You can't get a better deal from anyone leave alone from the world's best management portal. Become a paying member. Click here. We are happy to release of our findings on top 10 global brands. Simultaneously, we have also listed the top 10 Indian, privately held brands. We have just added our rankings of top 10 global media brands. We are unique, think and do things differently. We have no inbuilt bias, phobias, prejudices and favorites. We are honest, fair and just. We believe in values, integrity, ethics and in the principles of natural justice. We are not infallible but try to learn from our and others mistakes. A brand may be a local or global giant, big, medium or small. It doesn't matter. What matters is that how it contributes to the society and to improving the quality of life. In that process, if it creates wealth for itself and its stakeholders, it is great. As far as we are concerned that is the bottom line in search of excellence.  This is to inform that we have made some major policy changes. Free membership will only be necessary to access the restricted articles in the 'members' folder, except those published in the 'public_html', 'free', 'general' and 'other articles' folders with effect from June 16, 2008. However, free members will not be able to access articles reserved for paying members. The article or editorial or newsletter of the week that is available for free global public access is also available as the default page of the respective folders till the new ones are published. If interested in free membership, please click on the link to peruse the terms and conditions of offer and send in your acceptance. Please see the important notification at the bottom of this page. Free members can opt for free Gmail from MMG Communications in association with Google. Storage offered is nearly 7Gb from the world's best and most intuitive e-mail service provider.  Free members, please click here to access the list of articles. For the complete list of important announcements, policies and milestones from inception, please click here. Please always read the announcement/s page as it is the third most important page after the home page and site map in this site. MMG Communications for and on behalf of Madgopes.com and other MMG units Letter from the Webmaster Dear Reader, Greetings. Six sigma is a set of methodologies used by businesses to achieve extremely low failure rates in any process. The term six sigma derives from the mathematical use of sigma in statistics as a standard deviation. Six sigma is therefore six standard deviations. The article for global public access can be accessed by clicking on any of the links below. Thank you for your time and have a nice day and week, Madhavan Gopalachary What is six sigma ? ----In theory, a six sigma would be approximately two failures per billion attempts. In practice, due to a drift of plus or minus 1.5, six sigma status means less than 3.4 failures per million ---- Recent Management Articles, Editorials & Newsletters for global public access Marketing to Women - Logically, women should constitute 50% of the population all over the world. Agreed that in some countries the population ratio of men to women is slightly skewed either in favor of men or women. In Asian countries, women are less, whereas in African countries, the women are more. I do not know the latest position in European countries and USA to comment on this aspect but it can easily be gleaned from the internet by those interested. Group think and the resultant team failure - Group Think' is one of the various reasons for team failure and a phenomenon that happens in teams which have good, capable and talented members and are also highly cohesive as units. It is exactly opposite to the phenomenon of 'Apollo Syndrome'. Top 10 terrible behaviors at workplace - These findings are by the on-line researchers at John Hopkins University at Baltimore, USA. This lists the top ten terrible behaviors at workplace, though it may not be expressed openly. Action or Experiential Learning - The concept of 'Action Learning' (AL) was rediscovered by Professor Reg Revans. Pioneered by him and developed worldwide over the last 40 years, it provides a well-tried method of accelerating learning which enables people to handle difficult situations more effectively. This theory is not new. It has been in existence from the days of the great Chinese philosopher and thinker Confucius. Workplace Bullying 2 - After I published the article on 'Workplace Bullying' based on the dispatch of Ms. Cari Tuna of WSJ, I remembered that a British lady had written to me on the subject in the year 2000. The readers will understand what bullying at workplace is after reading what she had to say.  Workplace Bullying - Bullying at workplace is defined as a subtle, persistent and often non discriminatory harassment of co-workers leading to mental distress. It need not be always a superior bullying other people. It can be peers, subordinates and fellow workers too. Till recently, bullying was not considered illegal like sexual harassment and racial discrimination cases. How to make a success of an acquisition - Hyundai-Kia Style - In late 1998, Hyundai took over Kia Motors, which was thought to be unrecoverable. Most felt it was a stupid mistake. Skeptics were proved wrong. Within two years the sales went up by 400%. What was the secret of the success ? Recent Management Article/s - free registered member version/s. Marketing to women - understanding their psychology Fallacies in Marketing II Fallacies in Marketing I What is a balance sheet ? Profit and Loss account statement Blue Ocean Strategy is an old wine in a new bottle What is expenditure ? What is foreign exchange ? Various methods of Costing Biggest may not be the best-it may be the worst For the list of most popular management articles, editorials and newsletters for global public access click here What makes us different and unique ? - Grit, Focus, Determination and Tenacity ! Our management site is amongst the first of its kind in the world and was started on December 16, 1998. We are from a developing country with no big banner supporting or sponsoring us. We had to face doubting Thomas's, skepticism, bias, prejudices in the initial stages. We had no prior experience in a highly competitive global environment, coming from a country with a socialistic past and a restrictive license based economy, where knowing people in the right places, having tons of money and how to grease the palms were the only qualifications required for success in business. We had to build our credentials at the global level. We had no money but had belief in ourselves, our abilities, attitudes, knowledge, talents and skills. There are three kinds of writers in the management arena. The first kind are the highly qualified academics who are theoretical and write from their lofty ivory towers, which very few can understand. The second kind are the functional experts who focus on 'quick fix' solutions, without a holistic view on the subject. For people in business, both kinds do not fully meet the needs. We realized the need for suitable blend of theory and practice and written by people who have actually captained ships and are the third kind. Not all captains are necessarily good at communications. The captains must possess unimpeachable integrity, honesty, ethics, involvement and commitment. It was essential to keep the complicated and difficult concepts simple to understand. Our unbiased, impartial analysis, views and opinions count in the corridors of power. We influence individuals, organizations and governments and shape policy and strategy with no formal power or position of authority. That is what true leadership is all about. We didn't go in for any search engine optimization, banner exchanges or links or fancy designs to attract people. If the content is good, people will come to your site and the quote of the great Ralph Waldo Emerson is given at the bottom of the page. We received global recognition within three years of presence on the web. We are approached and invited for contributions of articles and deliver keynote addresses on management from all over the world. We are driven by our strong beliefs, culture, integrity and value system and are extremely proud about it. Grit, Focus, Determination and Tenacity sums it up all. Size has never been an obsession with us but being ranked along with the best in the world, is. This is where our difference and uniqueness lies because the biggest is not necessarily the best. Important and must read notification for all. We would like to reiterate that all our pages are covered by US Federal, State and Indian Copyright Laws and governed by the Berne Convention on Copyrights in countries that are signatories to it. All our DNS, web and mail servers are located in USA and we will enforce US Laws in case of breach of copyright and the jurisdiction of San Jose county courts in the state of California, USA will apply, though our virtual private server is located in Atlanta, Georgia and the server provider is based in Houston, Texas. 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