Contact me at bala@balaramadurai.net.

My Books

I have written a few books on various topics.

My Podcasts

I have recorded a few podcasts on topics that I am very happy to talk about.

Design Thinking

The learners get under the skin of the user/customer and solve problems for them. The approach is based on an age old theory (more than 2000 years old) postulated by Lord Buddha. The learners learn thinking tools from the design world, the TRIZ/ARIZ world, Indian arts, metaphors and the patent database. Finally, they utilize some tools from six thinking hats and Mr. David Snowden. They learn the course interactively through silence, videos, stories, inane jokes and interesting assignments.

Creativity and Innovation

This workshop module uses the ARIZ/TRIZ thinking methodology (You could say that this course is an offspring of the design thinking course). The learners bring in problems that they have been working on and I guide them to use ARIZ/TRIZ in detail. The learner brings in problems that they have already understood and are fairly certain about the problem to solve using the concepts in the course.

Executive Coaching

“How does one execute a large innovation project within my company? Do I get personally involved or delegate? Am I listening or telling? I am doing my best, what more can I do?” If these are questions that keep coming to your head (and you happen to be the head of a company or department), you have reached the right place. One on one coaching can work wonders in clearing out the fog around some of the issues you may be facing in your workplace.

Technology Forecasting

If design thinking is for the NOW, technology forecasting is design thinking for the future. The learner uses a methodology called FORMAT - http://handbook.format-project.eu, a result of a European Union funded (~$3 million) project. The learner hones their skill to think of a future timeframe of more than 10 years. They will consider the potential of the current technology, but also the alternatives and how strong or weak is their technology of interest in comparison to the alternatives. Imagination, intuition, analytics and data crunching go hand in hand in this course. The predictions from the forecasting exercise are not as important as the questions of forecast posed (first stage of the FORMAT methodology).

Intrapreneurship - A workout

Intrapreneurship is a conundrum of sorts, since it is making an entrepreneur out of an employee taking the risks of an entrepreneur with the friendly resources of a company. How did Mindtree achieve this in 2008-9? I introduce the participants to the company profile. I excite them with the remarkable history of a very different kind of company. How and why did they launch 550? Why is 550 a very different sort of program? How did the program bring out innovation and the creative entrepreneurial spirit of the company? The learners assume the role of innovation managers of companies of their choice to design and present an intrapreneurship program.

Client Speak

I have worked with many clients and I always like to hear that they come out from the collaboration happy and satisfied. Have a look at what the clients said about my work.

Updates (News and Blog)

I write occasionally about a few things that are dear to me - writing about life, teaching tools and techniques, and learning about technology. I plan to write more about health and writing in general as well. Stay tuned. Please do subscribe to my blog if you like what you read.

Books n Stuff Podcast: S2 Episode 06 - Dune Part One with Parvathi Ramkumar

on 2024-03-07

Welcome to the Books n Stuff Podcast.

Diving into the Dunes: A Spirited Book-to-Movie Discussion with Bala and Parvathi

In this episode of the ‘Books and Stuff’ podcast, hosts Bala Ramadurai and Parvathi Ramkumar dive deep into the vast universe of ‘Dune’. From comparing notes on the film and the iconic book series, to unravelling the complex world of interstellar politics and economics, no stone is left unturned. They offer intriguing insights into the key characters, dissect pivotal scenes, and dive into the labyrinthine plot intricacies. The detailed discussion serves up a unique blend of humor, passion, and animated debates. Tune in as Bala and Parvathi embark on this exciting journey across the mystifying dunes, all set to continue in a follow-up episode. Got book recommendations or Dune theories of your own? They want to hear them all, so don’t forget to share!

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E08 I, Mudd

on 2024-03-06

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

  1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
  2. Story structure
  3. Character analysis
  4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode starts, something is wrong because there’s a new crew member aboard the ship, Enterprise. Dr. McCoy does not like Norman. Norman is very odd. Spock, of course, does not notice because Norman is cold and emotionless and Spock likes that.But Dr. McCoy knows that there’s something wrong with Norman.

Dr. McCoy’s suspicions are not entirely unfounded, because Norman goes into the engineering section, he tampers with the controls, he takes over the ship’s controls, puts them on some sort of an automatic drive, so that it goes straight towards a particular planet.Nothing that Sulu on the bridge does can alter the course of the Enterprise, and now Captain Kirk is very worried because they are supposed to be somewhere else and they’re going into another direction. And Norman seems to be a lot stronger than the average human. He makes his way to the bridge, he talks to Captain Kirk, and he says that they’re going to a particular planet.Captain Kirk has no business stopping the ship from going to that planet. And any attempt to change course, or to override the controls that Norman has programmed into the ship, will result in the ship’s destruction, and Spock confirms that this will happen. Therefore Kirk cannot do anything but wait for those four solar days that it takes to reach this planet that Norman is talking about.And Norman also reveals that he is an android during this time.

He’s not human. And that’s why he’s been behaving odd all this time. Now when they get to this peculiar planet, Norman, who has deactivated himself, reactivates himself and says that Kirk, Chekov, Uhura, McCoy and Spock must beam down to the planet.Everybody else must stay aboard the Enterprise. And if they don’t do what he says, again, he threatens them with engine destruction and various other forms of destruction. So Kirk decides to beam down.

Once they are there on that planet, they find themselves in a network of tunnels which are habitable for humans.And they meet up with an old nemesis of his called Harry Mudd. Now, this character actually appeared in a previous episode. He’s back. He’s a smuggler. He’s a criminal. He’s a thief. And he’s also extremely entertaining. What we learn now is that Mudd has captured this planet. He has kept all of these androids as servants.There is some technology here that allows him to create more androids. He creates more and more androids, mostly females, so that he can have some fun with them.

But, this scheme of his has backfired because the androids have decided that he’s a very interesting human specimen, and they want to study him, and they want to use him to lure more humans to this planet, so that they can study them also.And to Mudd’s amusement, he manages to capture Captain Kirk and the Enterprise, and not just some random ship. There were a lot of coincidences there. The androids start revealing themselves more and more.

They are completely logical, placid, they cannot be swayed this way or that and as Dr. McCoy says, they are physically and mentally perfect. Nothing can reach them. They are created by some sort of an alien civilization apparently from the galaxy of Andromeda. They study the humans and then they decide that the humans are too violent and impulsive and therefore they will serve the humans and bring them under control.Eventually that turns into, they will serve the humans and bring the galaxy under control, much to Kirk’s alarm.

This also affects Mudd because he becomes a prisoner of the androids as well. They find him as illogical as the rest of the humans, and Kirk, to escape this prison that they find themselves in, must come up with something creative so that he can literally short circuit those androids and work their logic against them.And to do this, towards the end of this episode, what we see is that Kirk employs certain illogical ways of dealing with the androids. He talks about being in captivity and then being happy while he’s in captivity. He tells the androids that humans must work themselves to death to be happy and all sorts of nonsensical dialogue follows after that.And Norman is something of a conduit for all of these androids.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E07 Catspaw

on 2024-02-22

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

  1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
  2. Story structure
  3. Character analysis
  4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Captain Kirk is worried. The USS Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Pyris 7 and there’s something wrong because a landing party has gone missing on that planet.The landing party has Sulu, Scott, and Crewman Jackson. They’re not able to communicate with them, and there’s some sort of subspace interference, so Uhura has not been able to contact them.

They get a message from Jackson, who’s promptly beamed back onto the Enterprise.There’s a voice coming from his throat, but he’s dead. Kirk realizes that there’s a problem down there on that planet, and he must have himself, McCoy, and Spock transported down there and try and figure out what’s going on. He leaves de Salle in charge of the Enterprise. And these three, they decide to go down and investigate what has happened. So now while they’re down there, they find that this planet is totally wrong. First off, there is mist where there shouldn’t be mist.

And there’s a lot of fog where there shouldn’t be fog.There are echoes of voices, and then they find three heads floating and screaming at them and talking about curses. Jackson, even though he was dead, warned them about being cursed. And now, down there on the planet, they see these three floating heads of witches, who speak very melodramatically.They also warn the Enterprise of a curse of dying and they should keep away from that planet. But Kirk and the landing party decide to investigate They navigate the fog. They find a big, huge medieval type castle.

They enter the castle. They find a cat, a black cat. Very witchy looking cat. They follow the cat, the cat leads them here and there, and then ultimately, without them really realizing what is happening, they find themselves in a big huge hall, facing an individual called Korob.He’s dressed like a wizard, he has a wand in his hand, he’s able to talk to that cat. Korob is some sort of alien entity, who thinks that he has understood humanity or he wants to understand humanity.

He thinks that showing them castles, wizards and cats and some sort of witchery will entice them.He also calls them honorable for some reason. He talks about loyalty and being very forthright. He attempts to tempt the landing crew with some food, which they do not eat. Then he loses his cool a little bit and tries to tempt them with gemstones. Again, they’re not impressed with that. The cat goes out of the room.It comes back as a woman who calls herself Sylvia. She is apparently the collaborator of Korob. And she has some sort of an evil streak to her. She has these three men imprisoned. This is the second time they’re being in prison, they find that both McCoy and Sulu have been hypnotized and they’re no longer on their side.

They’re on the side of those two aliens. The aliens have some sort of telekinetic power and they also have the ability to override your free will and make you do what they want you to do.Kirk and the landing crew must find a way out of here. McCoy is also captured and brainwashed and turned against them. Korob is very disturbed by Sylvia’s evil nature. She tells Kirk that she is experiencing sensation for the first time. She’s also infatuated with Kirk.Then she realizes that Kirk is returning her affection by trying to get her wand for some reason, because that is a transmuter that changes the environment. And both of these aliens are dependent on those transmuters. They have to use those transmuters and create an environment that is suitable for them.

They also are here apparently to study humanity. Kirk manages to fool Sylvia by pretending to be affectionate with her.She realizes it a little too late, and Kirk and Spock are returned to the dungeons. They manage to get out of there with Korob’s help. And then the cat, Sylvia is apparently able to change form. She’s able to take on the form of that cat. She tries to threaten them. Kirk and the crew somehow through some sort of mind trickery, they manage to evade her.

He gets that transmuter wand that she’s been using. That is the device that has created the castle, and that is the device that allows Sylvia and Korob to change shape. It is the device that has created some sort of a hospitable area within that planet.

He destroys the transmuter, and then what happens is the castle disappears, the torture room disappears, the dungeon disappears, everything disappears, including the forms that Sylvia and Korob have taken. Now, because they have lost their forms and the transmuter has been destroyed, both of those aliens who resemble tiny puppets, they fall over and die, and Kirk and the crew are able to go back to the Enterprise.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E06 The Doomsday Machine

on 2024-02-07

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

  1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
  2. Story structure
  3. Character analysis
  4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, you have the Enterprise with Lieutenant Palmer at the communications console, receiving some sort of a distress signal from across space. And it seems to be from a distress beacon of a starship. But they can’t make anything out of that distress signal because of heavy subspace interference. But she does figure out the word Constellation. And so the Enterprise must find the source of this distress signal, and then they enter a star system called L370. When they enter L370, they find that the sun is intact, but all seven planets have been destroyed.

And they cannot figure out why those planets have been destroyed, because only a supernova or a star explosion can cause such a destruction. There seems to be nothing of the sort there. So they cross L370 and they go over to L374, which is the next star system. And there they find except for the two planets closest to the sun, all the other planets have been destroyed. They also find the source of the distress signal and that is the USS Constellation, which is basically a sister ship to the USS Enterprise. Kirk gathers a small landing party and along with Scotty and Dr. McCoy, transport over to the USS Constellation and try and figure out what happened here.

He leaves Spock in command of the Enterprise. Now when Kirk transports himself to the USS Constellation, they find that the ship has been almost completely abandoned. There’s nobody there. It seems that everybody left of their own volition or they were kidnapped, something of that sort. They also find that the captain of the USS Constellation is still on board. This is Commodore Decker. He’s in a state of shock. Which means that Dr. McCoy has to somehow revive him using a hypospray. And when he does that, Commodore Decker is in a state of absolute trauma. He’s not able to talk properly, but eventually, Kirk figures out that there is some sort of a planet killer running around destroying planets and solar systems. It leaves the suns intact, but it destroys all the planets that it comes across. And then it uses the debris of those planets for fuel. As to what happened to the crew of the USS Constellation, Commodore Decker had them transported down onto the third planet of the system of L374, and the third planet was subsequently destroyed by the planet killer, which is why Commodore Decker is in a state of absolute shock and trauma.

To have him treated, Kirk sends Dr. McCoy and Commodore Decker back into the Enterprise. Now this is where things get a little interesting because Commodore Decker wants to have this planet killer destroyed, and the Enterprise, much to its shock finds that the planet killer has returned to L374. Apparently it is because they are there and this machine, the planet killer is a machine and some sort of robot. It’s a doomsday machine designed to destroy everything in its wake. It has detected the Enterprise and it has come back into L374. And here Commodore Decker, he uses his power and his slightly deranged mentality to assume command of the Enterprise.

He wants to destroy this thing called the planet killer. He can’t do it because the Enterprise does not have the technology to pierce the pure neutronium hull of this machine. Kirk, meanwhile, is trapped on the Constellation. He gets Scotty to somehow rig the engines and get them working. Commodore Decker wants to take the Enterprise and ram it into the Planet Killer’s throat. He wants the Enterprise to destroy by going into the thing’s maw. This is where… Spock has to use his powers and relieve him of duty by exciting suicide because you’re not supposed to use a starship to commit suicide. He uses that clause in the federation regulations and relieves Commodore Decker of his post and re assumes command of the Enterprise once more.

Commodore Decker is still unhinged. He goes down to the shuttlecraft hangar. He picks up a shuttlecraft, takes it to the planet killer without authorization, and he literally rams the shuttlecraft into the maw of the planet killer. He doesn’t do much damage, but there is some slight energy drop in whatever emanations the planet killer has been giving out. Kirk uses that information to turn the Constellation into some sort of a bomb. He has to time it perfectly. He has to take this Constellation, ram it into the planet killer’s throat and detonate it. And he also has to get out of there within a 30 second margin, which is all very dicey, but he pulls it off, gets back to the Enterprise and the planet killer’s destroyed completely because of that detonation.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading