Muni Driver defining customer service

The 8:37 am Muni N train driver delays his departure by 2-4 minutes everyday to accommodate two groups of customers as they cross the street from the SF Caltrain station. Rather than have them wait on the station on cold wet morning this thoughtfulness really strikes a chord. In the past several drivers have driven off complaining of late arrival of Caltrain and that they are running 5 minutes late eating into their 10 minutes of break time. He also pre-warns riders to hold on when starting up after a stop.

In this fast paced world where many organizations pay lip service to customer service this attention to detail is exemplary. This driver clearly understands the customer service mission - deliver a pleasant end to end experience to as many customers as possible at the cost of personal loss and delays. He also displays a rare trait of taking initiative and independent decision making to deliver this superior customer experience.

This Muni driver could be a fine addition to any customer service team!!!

Neuroplasticity and need for cognitive exercises

How do you get out of the daily routine and rekindle the creativity that many of us left behind in childhood.

Preserve the childlike mind, which continually learns and grows through play and discovery.
Orchestrate lives to provide regular mental pursuits capable of combating the decline as we age.

The common wisdom is that after childhood we have a fixed number of neurons, which gradually die off during our lives, and that these neurons are organized in a fixed architecture. Not true: New neurons are born throughout life, and synaptic connections are being formed and erased all the time in a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Cognitive exercise – or the lack of it – can (de)accelerate the process.

Learn to seek out unaccustomed inputs. Keep challenging the mind by mastering new skills.

Engage in some pursuit – story writing, lego modeling, sketching, surfing– that challenges the brain. Cognitive exercise will keep you agile, adaptive and fit for life.

Solutions to Increase Agricultural Productivity

Following prioritized list of recommendations will improve agricultural productivity:

1. Make catastrophe insurance including drought insurance available to all farmers thereby setting a floor in case of disasters.
2. Make price hedging mechanism available to all farmers to prevent losses due to volatile commodity markets
3. Improve price realization to the farmer by eliminating the 10 fold profit availed by the middle men. Reliance Retail and Bharti Walmart have established direct linkages with farmers.
4. Shift focus to high yield ‘cash’ crops where the soil and weather will support such higher profit products.
5. Improve logistics and build out cold storages to prevent spoilage. Container Corporation has established a cold storage subsidiary to further capitalize on its’ extensive container rail network. Blue Star is the leader in cold storage solutions.
6. Improve seed quality including introducing genetically modified seeds if necessary on a case by case basis. Monsanto, Syngenta and Advanta are major listed companies.
7. Increase adoption of micro-irrigation. Jain Irrigation is the leader in micro-irrigation technology.
8. Increase adoption of modern farming implements like tractors etc. Mahindra and Mahindra is the leader in tractors having purchased Punjab Tractors.
9. Foster farm cooperatives as an alternative to contract farming to capitalize on economics of scale