Our world is witnessing a major change in communication patterns, with expanding social spheres, openness in communication and professionals working in multicultural environments. It is crucial, therefore, that India's workforce remains world-class, through re-training and continuous improvement, to remain competent, competitive and successful. To create and nurture successful professionals, the acquisition, cultivation and fine-tuning of soft skills are highly essential in the given business paradigm. The ACE of Soft Skills is a part of this educational process that produces top-notch professionals. Divided into three parts-Attitude, Communication and Etiquette-this unique book provides a broad-based coverage of what constitute soft skills. The foundations of soft skills lie in a strong attitude this attitude gets manifested as communication, which gets further refined as etiquette. This book covers a wide range of topics-a gamut of nearly 40 essential soft skills-including personal accountability, listening skills, business proposals and the role of small talk and humour at work. The numerous case studies, cartoons, figures, tables and quotations not only offer an insightful, practical and well-rounded perspective into soft skills, but also make reading a joyful experience.
About the AuthorProfessor Gopalaswamy Ramesh has 30 years of international experience and is an independent consultant and Adjunct Professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), SSN School of Management and Computer Applications, Chennai, and Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore. He has also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore; Anna University, Chennai; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, and XLRI Jamshedpur. His vast industry experience covers both India and abroad. He played a key role in the establishment of Oracle India Development Center and was its former Senior Director. He is the author of the National Award¿winning book Managing Global Software Projects, and has also authored Software Testing Principles and Practices and Software Maintenance. Two of these books have also been translated into Chinese. His most recent book is The ACE of Soft Skills: Attitude, Communication and Etiquette for Success. He currently offers consultancy services in the areas of project management and soft skills to several companies in India and abroad. He holds an MS in engineering management from Stanford University, California; MS in computer science from IIT Madras and BE from IISc Bangalore.
Mahadevan Ramesh graduated from IIT Kanpur (five-year integrated MSc degree in Physics) and earned a PhD (Physics) from the Ohio State University, USA. Following a research stint in the electrical and computer engineering department in Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, he worked for Storage Technology Corporation (now a part of Sun Microsystems/Oracle), and for Maxtor Corporation (now a part of Seagate Technologies) at Colorado, USA. He held leadership positions in global product teams and spent considerable time on the factory floor in Singapore, working with stakeholders from many different cultures, and learnt first hand the importance of soft skills. He is currently an adjunct professor in the SN School of Management and Computer Applications, and he also consults on management and engineering, specializing in production and operations management.
