http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/ en Copyright 2009 Tue, 05 May 2009 20:01:01 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss By Ayesha Khanna and Parag Khanna Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrives in Washington this week at a tough time for his country. Gen. David Petraeus has stated that the next two weeks are crucial to Pakistan's survival, while counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen has claimed that the country could collapse within six months. Indeed, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan's Army chief of staff, could declare martial law imminently if his military's counteroffensives in the Swat region prove ineffective against the Taliban. But irrespective of whether the Army takes over yet again from civilian authority, Pakistan has been a failure for over a decade, and the essential prescriptions to restore the state apply to both the elected government and the military -- and preferably a coordinated effort between the two. http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/05/how_pakistan_can_fix_itself.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/05/how_pakistan_can_fix_itself.html Articles Tue, 05 May 2009 20:01:01 -0500 Switch on the TV, open a magazine, eavesdrop on a cocktail party conversation, and sooner or later you'll hear a self-professed expert tout either networking or résumé buffing as the key to success in the economic slump. But tweeting on Twitter or taking a tutorial on how to connect with people by talking sports will only get you so far. If we're serious about preparing for tomorrow, the financial crisis reminds us of the importance of acquiring adaptive skills today in order to thrive in the industries that will come. http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/02/be_indispensable_skills_to_bea.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/02/be_indispensable_skills_to_bea.html Articles Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:50:39 -0500 The incoming President has a prosaic wish list for his IT czar. Obama needs to adopt practices that work overseas and for business. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to appoint the world's first governmental Chief Technology Officer (CTO). On its transition Web site, www.change.gov, the incoming Administration has published a list of goals for the soon-to-be anointed CTO: broadband expansion, boosting science/tech education, health-care computerization, patent reform, and e-government. The goals are well-intentioned. What is missing is an effective and efficient strategy. So-called "czars" have been appointed for drugs, the war in Iraq, the financial industry, and the auto sector—none of them have worked very well. The Obama team needs to be careful not to reinvent the wheel, focusing instead on technology lessons from the countries that have overtaken the U.S. already, the practices of companies that have top CTOs, and a flexible strategy for implementing policy across the sprawling federal government. ]]> http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/01/a_strategy_for_obamas_cto.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2009/01/a_strategy_for_obamas_cto.html Articles Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:05:02 -0500 In a hedge fund, a prop trading desk or any high geek power trading environment, there is a chaos that is by now familiar. It is hard to imagine a world in which PhDs in physics, mathematics and statistics are not translating mathematical strategies into scripts and code libraries; where IT developers are not integrating them with the rest of the backoffice environment; where IT is not exerting time and energy to connect to and clean real time data; and where quants are then not testing and tweaking the model on simulated data sets. http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/09/codeless_quant_strategies.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/09/codeless_quant_strategies.html Commentary Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:30:36 -0500 The investment community is beginning to question its habitual praise and compliments, not to mention the astronomical fees, showered upon hedge funds for providing alpha – returns generated not through systematic exposure to the market but through exploiting market inefficiencies and skillful stock picking. http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/09/the_rising_star_of_alternative.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/09/the_rising_star_of_alternative.html Commentary Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:29:04 -0500 A New Framework for Technology Strategy and Governance By Ayesha Khanna INTRODUCTION Most organizations today continue to regard technology as merely a back-office cost center, a viewpoint that diminishes the breadth of IT’s impact on a firm’s competitive profile. In fact, increasing innovation in global markets requires that IT take a far greater role in helping the enterprise differentiate itself from competitors. To address this deficiency in the linkage between IT and enterprise strategy, this paper revisits the seminal paper by Michael Porter, “What is Strategy?” and proposes a framework called Meta-IT that would leverage IT as a partner in attaining competitive advantage. ]]> http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/07/metait.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/07/metait.html Articles Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:26:34 -0500 Straight Through Processing (STP) is the name given to the automation of all processes related to the trade lifecycle of financial securities, including equities, fixed income, and derivatives. In the current market environment, business success is increasingly difficult without the benefits of IT systems which ensure accuracy, speed, and secure connectivity at all stages. This is as relevant to broker-dealers who are providing trade execution services, to marketplaces that are creating electronic interfaces for clients, to buy-side institutions that are searching ways to improve returns on their portfolios: all players are affected one way or another by the drive towards increased automation and scalability in a global 24*7 trading environment. http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/02/straight_through_processing_fo.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2008/02/straight_through_processing_fo.html Books Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:50:42 -0500 Complete Technology Guides for Financial Services is a series published by Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific and technical books. With finance becoming increasingly dependent on technology, this series is the first of its kind published to bring the two together in a clear meaningful way for business and technology managers to understand the issues and solutions that are facing them today. Elsevier is world leading, multiple-media publisher of scientific, technical and health information products and services, with 7,000 employees in 73 locations around the globe. Publisher of more than 20,000 products and services, including journals, books, electronic products, services, databases and portals serving the global scientific, technical and medical (STM) communities. Elsevier is part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc, a leading international publisher and information provider. ]]> http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2007/07/fintech_series.html http://www.ayeshakhanna.com/2007/07/fintech_series.html Books Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:30:00 -0500