My company believes in continuous learning!! So as a step toward ensuring that, they have decided that we go ahead and get some internal certifications!! Now who would voluntarily take these tests? So they go ahead and attach a biscuit along with it. If we want a share of the company profit pie we need to get one Domain and one Technical certification a year! So I went ahead and took my Domain Certification today. And as I, found myself uttering the same silent prayer that has become a routine every time I’m about to press that ‘Submit’ button – “So help me god!” there was a teeny bit of desperation coz the guy 2 seats next to me got a 60 followed by the guy next to me who got a 64 (need 65+ to pass). Anyways the anxiety didn’t last long as to my relief I got a 73!! (yay! :D ). Anyhoo, the most fun part of this whole exercise was I got a little more information about my domain – Automotive n Aerospace (Don’t go woa!! … I do the same shit all u guys do ..The fancy name doesn’t make me a F1 driver or an astronaut! ).

 

As any person who has testosterone in him I fancy cars and bikes!! These fancy pieces of metal and machine do make my head turn and mouth drool!! Can appreciate a pair of hot rods and desperately wanna own a Merc and a chopper someday!! So when I was going through the material for my test I came across some startling info:

 

The sheer size of the Auto industry in terms of revenue alone can be summarized as:

  • Box office collections of the top 10 Hollywood grossers – $4,268,752,087. Total revenue just by selling the Ford F Series in the US in 2004 – $28,185,330,000.
  • Total Revenue generated by selling cars in the US in 2004 – $270,000,000,000 would put it at 30 in the top 30 GDP of countries list!

More interesting trivia –

  • GM was the largest company in the world until recently overtaken by WalMart, soon to be displaced as the Largest Automotive Company by Toyota.
  • Did any one know that the Maybach and the Merc came from the same stable – DaimlerChrysler (They were 2 separate companies till ‘98)
  • All of these Auto Giants are just OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and only assemble cars from Tier 1-n suppliers and do not manufacture cars from scratch!

 

Still in such an industry which is reaching stagnation a profit margin of 2-3 % is considered huge!! The industry is just surviving on aggressive consolidations in the 90’s with all fighting just to increase their market share!

Anyways, enough of domain talk. As we are around the subject I cannot understand the fuss over Formula One Racing!! I mean as much as I love cars and bikes I cannot appreciate this sport, if we may call it so! I mean so much is dependant on technology that sometimes the skill of the driver becomes non-issue! Who knows what Narain Karthikeyan would have done on a Ferrari or the fate of Schumacher if he would have been stuck with a Jordan!

Other than that I’ve been kinda indisposed fa the past few days .. got the flu I guess .. been scaring mum that’s its prolly chikungunya! For my sake, I surely hope not!!!! :P