Vinit Garg's Dossier

Obama's Anti-Offshoring Stand: Boon for India !!!

2010-01-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

There has been a huge hue and cry about Obama's recent move to discourage outsourcing to India. Media has created a sensational buzz of fall of Indian IT industry and my mom is super happy, I moved out of IT world at the right time. However, I think that such a move could actually prove to be the much required impetus for Indian IT industry to leapfrog in the value chain !!

First, its not gonna happen that overnight whole outsourcing Industry is wiped off. There may be re-consideration when board room decision on outsourcing will happen. The cost benefit achieved may be reduced to certain extent. However, for a moment let us assume that US companies will have not strategic cost advantage to outsource low quality work to India.

The impact of such development will be that the deal flow from US will be trimmed to a large extent. This move will hurt both Indian and US based IT comapnies such as IBM, Accenture similarly. Second, this move will be help Indian IT companies to leapfrog from a service provider to a strategic partner level who will fill in the space for companies rather than just sustain on cost arbitrage. Lastly, this will also help Indian IT companies become aggresive on domestic / non-US markets.

All these moves in my opinion will be beneficial for Indian companies. Given the current experience curve, it isn't wrong to conclude that Indian IT companies growth story will continue. It's just the means that will change and perhaps, it will be for good. Further, if such change occurs with Indian IT companies, we will be in much better position to command higher billing rates and better contracts when the curtains of protectionism are pulled down with the inevitable economic surge in world economy. Hence, my 2 cents on Obama. Go for it Barack !!

Cyclicity of Life as seen through SurveysPro !!

2009-11-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

Among several things that I have learnt during my Marketing class, one thing stands out. Understanding of Product SPT, Product / Service bundle, Logit, and market research etc. is all fine. Those are transaction aspects. What I have learnt in larger context via my marketing services course is that life is a full circle and it all comes back.

While conducting project work on what shapes a customer to buy a car in India, we ventured to conduct a primary research that included a survey. SURVEY – I used to hate those mails for survey request and trashed them right away. But I realized the pain behind the same while preparing a survey myself. A lot of thought and analysis goes behind the same. Let me help you allay that pain, you are likely to face at some point of time in your career.

For a survey, you need access to a reliable survey making resource. During our search, we zeroed onto SurveyPro as a mode to prepare our survey based on its reliability and efficiency to provide skip logics within the survey.

You can access survey pro here. Now using this survey is very simple. You need to first create your user name and ID that will eventually lead you to the following page:

You can those go on to create a new survey for yourself. While building the survey, the website offers you option to include Skip Logic. Now Skip logic is one of key things you need to include in your survey since you don’t want your user, who already are doing a favor to open your stupid survey at first place, to go through random questions. Survey Pro provides the same to you quite efficiently.
Once your survey is prepared, you can open the survey for your friends to fill it up. This would require no registration from them and works out smoothly. You can edit / access your survey on time to time basis. In order to maintain data integrity, survey pro would not let you change the questions / options in the survey unless you delete the data collected for that particular question. We found this feature very helpful since you can’t, in thick of action, change the questions while some data has already been filled. It will simply lead to wrong conclusions later on. You can view total response to your survey in the main page as shown below:

Survey Pro offers a rich amount features and you view the same here . For those you just starting on your journey to start preparing surveys, Survey Pro also offer a wide variety of templates as well as tips & tricks of the game. We found information in most of the tips as well as best practices pretty helpful. You can access the same here.

Lastly Survey Pro offers you well complied bar charts and graphs to decode what has been running through your target segment’s mind. Overall, we were glad to use Survey Pro for our project that we hope to accomplish soon.

I shall certainly share the final report here but remember, Never ever delete a survey when someone asks you out. It all comes back :) !!

Go - Kiss the World - Subroto Bagchi !!!!

2009-11-09T15:30:00.001-08:00

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.

My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.

He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”.

That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.

In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.

My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.

Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,

“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world

So much for Organizational Structures :)

2009-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Quotes on Sachin Tendulkar

2009-11-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Have been away from my blog for a shamelessly long period. But this brought me back and hope I continue.

I guess even the non-cricket fans will like to read this because there can be a non-cricket fan in India but not a non-Sachin fan.

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"Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."
- Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.

"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
- Yaseer Hameed in pakistani newspaper.

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
- Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives."
- BBC on Sachin

"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
- Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch in 2003 WC.

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.
- Brian Charles Lara

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin."
- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
- M. L. Jaisimha

"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility - all make for a one-in-a-billion individual,"
- Glen McGrath

"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"
- Anjali Tendulkar

Question: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?
Shah Rukh Khan: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
- Shah Rukh Khan in an interview.

“India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte.. “
- Navjot Singh Sidhu on TV

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.
- Waqar Younis

'I Will See God When I Die But Till Then I Will See Sachin'
- A banner in Sharjah

Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world. I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.
- Allan Donald

On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!
- Peter Rebouck - Aussie journalist

"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination. "
- NKP Salve, former Union Minister when Sachin was accused of ball tempering

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.
- Andy Flower

"I have seen god, he bats at no.4 for India"
- Mathew Hayden

"Commit all your sins when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed coz even the GOD is watching"
- A hoarding in England

NOW THIS ONE IS PROBABLY THE BEST AND MOST CUTEST OF THE LOT

"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."
- Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her father's name after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.

Typical Day at ISB !!

2009-09-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

This post has been long overdue and something or the other kept me away from this. I finally get a chance to write about a typical day at ISB and here goes the same:-

7:15 A:M – The alarm goes off and I immediately put it back to snooze. It’s just 4 hours and this cruel mechanical alarm wouldn’t understand the benefits of a sound sleep. I and my snooze played for 3 more rounds till it told me that this is last time it will snooze. The battle is over. Snooze wins and I wake up. Get ready speedily with a fundamental objective – to get one cup of coffee before the 8:15 class and as usual, I missed.

8:15 A:M – First class – Organization Behavior and Prof. Pinto discusses the HR practices and people focus of GE leaders. Eye opener case in many aspects and learned some very practical insights in managing teams as well as organizations at large.

10:15 A: M – It’s 30 minute break between two classes and the time flies that included a small clarifying conversation with the Prof. and my breakfast.

10:45 A: M – Second class – Government, Society, and Business. Diverse topics such as Women Empowerment, Human Security, and Human Development Index were discussed by the prof. followed by Group Presentations by three groups. I wasn’t particularly attentive during the presentations part and have some fun with Saikat and Pranjal in the class

12:45 P:M – Hungry and Lunch time. Wrap up by 1:30 P:M and had some light hearted discussions with my classmates at lunch

1:30 P:M – I head to LRC to accomplish two things a) I wanted to revisit the GE case and compile the learnings from the case. I was pretty impressed with the class b) I have to glance through my CV for my Resume review session with Moi Foi consultants ISB has hired

2:30 P:M – I conduct 45 minutes discussion with Mr. Mandeep from Moi Foi about my career objectives, past experiences, way to represent my CV, and picked up couple of things to improve in my CV.

3:30 P: M – I reach back to my quad. My quad-mates were leaving for a session on Placement portal but I wasn’t particularly interested in the same. I spend next hour or so surfing on net, answering several pending emails, and calling couple of friends outside ISB. Also, worked on my CV and sent it across to few friends for review.

4:30 P: M - I opened McKinsey quarterly’s report on “Offshore and Captive Units” and gather few old articles. This is to prepare for my discussion with CTO of a large organization at pre-scheduled 6:30 P: M who agreed to speak to me previous day.

5:30 P: M – I am done with my readings and preparation. With one hour for the call, I decide to take a quick 45 min nap. It has been a long day already and I am running on 4 hours of sleep. I deserve more, I thought.

5:40 P:M – I get a call from the CTO to prepone the call as he would be engaged later. Thank God I prepared earlier. One part of me was happy, as now I will get free early and will be able to attend my dance class. Second part, awww… what about that 45 minutes nap.

5:45 P:M – Since call got pre-poned no-one else from my group could join me and I navigated through the call on my own. Extremely insightful & practical perspectives that will help in the project I am pursuing on Back Office and Captive units for my client.

6:15 P:M – The call gets over and I quickly rush to Recreation Center – elated that after missing two classes I will be finally able to catch up my Salsa. Spend next 1 hour – away from all sorts of distractions. No CP. No Management. No Best Practices. No Beta. No CAPM. No Experience Curve. No Bull-shit. Just one hour of pure fun.

7:30 P: M – I reach back to my quad and quickly compile the notes from my discussion with CTO and send it across to my group. Also, I set up agenda for meeting with client the next day.

8:15 P: M – Hungry and time for Dinner but the food hasn’t been delivered. I hang out a bit with people in lawn until food arrives at 8:40 P: M

9:00 P: M – After quickly having my dinner, I rush to Atrium to attend a session by Parthenon Consulting on Case Analysis. The speakers talked about the projects they were involved in, culture of Parthenon, and general aspects of Consulting. Ended the Session with a Hi-Tea with the Alumni from Parthenon!

10:20 P: M – I get in call with a junior from my undergrad college, who has been trying to contact me to seek suggestions and guidance on his ISB and MBA applications in general. Talked to him for 30 min and he seemed satisfied with some of my inputs. Hope it helps him. Always great to get in touch with people from your undergrad 

11:00 P:M – I head to LRC to finish off the Investment Analysis assignment only to realize I am not carrying notes required for the same. Kicked myself and headed back to my quad to wrap it up.

11:25 P:M – After some TP, four of us – Vinay, Sohel, I, and Rachit get together to discuss the assignment (Thank God Prof. allowed discussion for the assignment) and solved the questions. I wasn’t willing but Sohel pushed that we write the assignment in fair as well and finish it once and for all. The deadline is Friday 7:00 P:M but I am done by 2:00 A:M. Some rare moments that I have assignments done with such a huge time lead.

2:00 A:M – Time for a tea break and discuss several aspects of the Case Competitions and other ideas that are important to set agenda for the weekend.

2:45 A:M – All done and I face a dichotomy – whether to go for sleep and glance through the readings for tomorrow’s IT class. I choose the former only to be pulled out of quad by Niyaz for another(his) break. We sit out in the lawn and discuss how the day went. It is there it struck me that this discussion has been long overdue for my blog.

Thanks to Niyaz for showing up that I am writing this post. BTW, tomorrow class starts at 8:45 and it’s already 4:15. The same story awaits – wake up in morning, fight with snooze, loose, miss out coffee before the class, and ………………………

Subroto Bagchi's Commmencement Speech @ IIMB - 2004 - Go Kiss the World !!

2009-09-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

Cam across this wonderful and inspiring blog post about Mr. Subroto Bagchi's speech at IIM- B. I have developed a deep interest in these speeches by great leader. Goes on a long way to put real things, especially for B-school grads, in right perspective. How can I not cover it on my blog. Here goes Mr. Bagchi....

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government – he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant – you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.
My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create. My father died the next day.

He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.
Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world."

Source - Original post at http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2004/11/subroto-bagchis-speech-iimb.html

The No: 2 Phenomena !!

2009-08-29T15:35:00.001-07:00

A close friend gave an amazing perspective and followed up with the amazing and insightful piece of adds by AVIS rental car. I generally speak about Law of Average and perhaps these adds help put the same thought in perspective.

A connected thought shared by one of the professor "Your Biggest strength is your last failure and your biggest weakness is your last success" !! The No: 2 phenomena helps tie up this argument as well into a coherent story. So the moral is that continue to chase the No. 1 and if you are No. 1 - continue to set higher standards for yourself. The moment you rest, there is always someone trying hard to catch you up !!!!

Richard Bach's - The Bridge Across Forever

2009-08-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

I finished up reading this amazing book by Richard Bach. As much I am awed by the story, I am ever further impressed by his unique writing style and insights. Some of the things I noted are:

1. The observer funda – Richard explains something and then prints what an observer, sitting on his shoulder and taking notes would have said at that time – Rates himself and notes the reactions of the situation. An insightful way to write the conflicting parts of yours.
2. He frequently talks of things that could have happened as Alternate Future.
3. Richard writes a letter to himself – when he was 20 years younger. Wow !!
4. Touches the gate and speaks to her love lady – someday you will be touching this gate along with me.
5. Says close your eyes and think that when I open my eyes, the world that I see, the moment I live is the world that I have created. How did it happen and what led me here? Then write about it. Beautiful.
6. The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise.
7. Keep notes that capture thoughts. Turn them into stories n anecdotes. Remember n re-quote.
8. Can be a listener as well as a talker
9. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.
10. Dream lady – should complement in every manner, should have stories that you can listen forever, should listen to your stories as if it excites her to hell, you can talk to her long after the food is gone, you can listen her the whole night, may be next day. It should be mystic, mutual, and very natural. Nothing fabricated.
11. Have u ever been so happy that you could not stand it and want it to end?
12. You have money, fine. But never try to use it to buy women.

37.5% MBA

2009-08-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

They say, by this time, the worse is over. Dean’s projected happiness curve is set to rise and as Prof. Nerkar put across, with more than 33% done, you guys are good enough to run a business now. All sounds so glamorous and scary at the same time.

Term 3 started with a buzz in the student body - with more assignments submissions than total number of days in the term, with three out of four subjects heavily quant oriented, with advice from Alumni that Term 3 is the peak of your MBA life. If I were to follow the suit, I am glad that Term 3 is behind me now.

As I normally do after each term, this post is also going to be about my comments on each of the subject we studied in this term and other major events.

• Corporate Finance: - A very interesting course and important course to understand the nuisance of capital structures followed by various companies, the divided payouts, IPO’s etc. More than anything else, as Prof. Bhubna put up – the number of terms this course provides can help shut off any normal person easily -terms such as WACC, Beta, EBIT, EBITDA, Agency Problems, Levered firms, Un-levered firms etc. I personally liked the course as it helped understand the basic concepts one should be aware off for any managerial positions.

• Operations Management: - Pretty quantitative, interesting, and practical course. I have no intentions to further my skills in Operations Management but the concepts covered here will certainly be applicable in any B2C business. On top of everything, I have developed an incessant love for all simulation games and deeply enjoyed “The LittleField Game” in this course

• Managerial Accounting and Decision Making:- One of my fav course from the term, given that this course helped understand deep hidden nuisance in cost structure that will help refine decision making process forever. This course illustrates the concepts of Sunk Costs vs Variable cost and inspires several new thoughts.

• Entrepreneurship: - Well, my top pick from the last term. I have no intentions to start my business right after MBA but as Prof. Nerkar put up, the learning will fade but the cases will stay with you for life. A very inspiring professor who certainly motivated quite a few people to pursue entrepreneurial journey. The CP style in the class – a more of debate – rocked!! This class was really the one I used to look forward to do during the term!!

Other than these, I have been engaged with my ELP work for my Pharma client. It is quite an interesting project and I like the way the project scope is shaping up. Another major event of the Term was Bandhan. I was part of the core committee for organizing Bandhan and it was one of the best days I ever spend at ISB. ISB hosted a bunch of 300 kids on Independence Day. We had spend around 2 weeks to prepare and plan everything perfectly. Student Volunteers turned out in large number. The kids from various NGO stunned ISB with their speeches (in English), with their skits, songs, dance performance, and most importantly by beating ISB Class of 2010 in tug of war competition.

As we head into shortest Term at ISB (~32 days), ISB Class of 2010 is gearing up for new set of activities that are about to start – Resume Preparations, companies visiting for placement pitch, and more students discovering their interests and hence, commencing their placement preparation. Yet, as I mentioned earlier, the happiness curve is about to go up now and hopefully their will be more time to spend on extra-curricular & parties.

ISB Founding Dean Pramath Sinha: 'Over the Years, I Have Become a Student of Leadership' !!

2009-08-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

According to Pramath Sinha, founding dean of the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), the single biggest challenge in starting a business school in India was "building a great reputation in a short period of time." So far, the gamble has paid off: In 2008, ISB became the first Indian institution to be included by the Financial Times in its global ranking of the top 20 business schools -- only seven years after the school was launched. Sinha, who served as dean of ISB from 2001 to 2002 and continues to serve on the school's executive board, went on to become managing director and CEO of media conglomerate ABP Pvt. Ltd., and last year founded a new media company, 9.9 Media. In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton, Sinha answers questions about the genesis of ISB, what it takes to lead different kinds of organizations, and -- in keeping with his latest venture -- where he thinks the media industry in India is headed.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows:

India Knowledge@Wharton: As the founder and also part of several successful businesses in India and overseas, which is your favorite and why? And is there one that you wish you had not entered?

Dr. Pramath Sinha: Actually, I have not founded too many businesses. [9.9 Media] is the first real business, and then I was involved with the founding of the business school. So those are two of my entrepreneurial ventures. It is hard to choose between them. I guess till this thing becomes successful the ISB would have to count as the greatest journey, and it has been a fantastic story. When we started out we never imagined that we would have so much success so quickly.

It is like everything we thought of doing has worked, and you can get carried away in the success and say it was easy, but now that I am building this business, I realized that that was also not easy.

And sometimes, when I am getting disappointed in the second stint, I have to go back and remember that there were lots of setbacks even when we were trying to do the ISB, and there still are. I mean, this year's recruiting has been very tough.

Now Wharton or a Kellogg can afford to say, "Listen, we are a 50-year-old institution and one bad year is fine." But for us, as a 6-year-old institution, if you hit a bad year where a third of a class is not placed, you have to worry.

So I'd have to say I am very fortunate to have had the chance to do both, and I have really enjoyed doing both. This one is also at a different point in my life. So I am much more interested in issues other than just making the business successful. I have become over the years a big student of leadership, and so one of the things I am spending a lot of time on is how I get the best out of our people and help them grow at the same time. And so the flavor of what I am trying to do now is very different.

India Knowledge@Wharton: How did your role at ISB come about? What is the genesis behind this idea?

Sinha: It all started when I was an associate at McKinsey. I was drafted by Rajat Gupta to put together a plan for an international-quality business school that was supposed to come up on the campus of the IIT [Indian Institute of Technology] in Delhi. And Rajat being alum, the director of IIT Delhi had asked him to help out. So as a gofer in the office I got caught to do some grunt work. And that is how it all started, and then became an ongoing project, and I kept helping out. And then as I grew more senior at McKinsey, my responsibility on the project kept growing. As I became a McKinsey partner, I became the CEO of the project.

And then quite by providence, I think, both Sumantra Ghoshal and Dipak Jain, who were supposed to be the founding dean and the executive dean, respectively, for various reasons, as we got closer to the opening of the school, decided that they could not do it. And so in June of 2001, just before the school was to start, we were left high and dry without a dean, with 128 students, faculty, everything lined up, but no leader for the institution. And given where I had started I was so focused on this thing as a project that actually finding a dean was part of the project. I never realized that I could be the dean.

I was one of the founders and I was setting it up. The dean was always going to be an academic like Sumantra or Dipak.

Suddenly the board turned out and said, "Listen, we have no time, and you know the natural choice is Pramath, because he has actually built the school over these years." And it was true, I was very involved, and so I knew each of the students inside out, because I had led the whole admissions process, and interviewed all of them, and so on. And the students were happy that somebody familiar was coming into that role, because they were very concerned about what would happen to them after a year.

So that is how I became the founding dean, and that cemented my involvement in a way that continues even today. I cannot not be involved.

India Knowledge@Wharton: What was involved in recruiting Wharton and Kellogg to become partners at ISB?

Sinha: That is an illuminating story and really a great lesson in leadership, what Don Jacobs, the dean of Kellogg [at Northwestern University], always stood for. We were always very keen that we were a bunch of business guys trying to form an academic institution.

Of course, most people who started institutions would start it with their own name or their company name or their parents' name. So the Birlas and the Tatas were perhaps an exception, but businesspeople did not have a great record of starting institutions. So we knew that one of the ways we could bridge that perceived gap was to get great academic partners. And we also knew that that level of partnership would not be helpful to get from India. You really needed something that was not available, and that was truly aspirational.

So the idea of having a partner was first mooted keeping in mind that, one, we do not have the skills, and, two, if you are starting something new and you have somebody who has a great name, then that helps. So Rajat took on the burden of approaching some of the business schools because he was in the U.S., and as managing director of McKinsey he had direct access to most of these schools.

He started with Harvard and Stanford. He was on the board at Harvard and he very quickly realized that they would never do it and that even today they are much more conservative about lending their name, forget about even a second campus.

So he then went to Kellogg, where he had a relationship, having been based in Chicago for a lot of his life. And Don Jacobs, who was always a very different kind of dean and quite a visionary, who took Kellogg really from nothing to a top school, immediately jumped on the idea. His point was that, yes, we need to have presence in India, but I have all these Indian faculty who really want to go and teach. He saw it as a retention strategy for his faculty.

But then Don gave us an amazing piece of advice, and we always will be grateful to him. He said that if you just partner with Kellogg, you will become Kellogg in India.

We never wanted to be seen as a dependent. We wanted to be an independent institution that stood on its own legs and did not depend on a partnership. So he said, "You should get a second partner." If you have two partners then people will see you as an independent institution with multiple links rather than just this one umbilical cord.

So he picked up the phone and suggested that … I think he spoke to Tom Gerrity, who was the dean at Wharton at that time, and Rajat of course knew him, and then very quickly Gerrity agreed. Gerrity also came from a corporate background. So he saw this as a positive thing of having an alliance or a partnership and having the partnership with Kellogg, because at that time they were the number one, number two schools. So it was quite exciting for the top two schools in the U.S. to be doing something together in India. That is how it started, and it stood the test of time and continues to thrive.

India Knowledge@Wharton: I also remember there were some issues about the location, where initially there was some thinking about it being based in Bombay?

Sinha: Yes.

India Knowledge@Wharton: And then you ran afoul of the Shiv Sena. Can you tell us that story?

Sinha: Clearly, if you looked at the board, it was the "Who's Who of Indian Business." Most of them were from Bombay. So the bias was "Bombay does not have an IIM [Indian Institute of Management]. It is the commercial capital. A business school should logically be in Bombay." And so we never questioned that. We sort of assumed that it was going to be in Bombay. And sure enough we went through looking for land and so on, and, you know, the Godrejs and the Ambanis and the Bajajs, Mahindras on our board had access to … they knew exactly where land was available or not available. So in Navi Mumbai we identified a site. We got the site. CIDCO was the authority that was making the site available and we were almost ready to sign the contract.

In the final form of the contract they applied water and electricity and some other infrastructure development charges that were exorbitant. So in effect you were getting land for a song, but for services you were paying a huge amount of money. So we said, "Listen, this is unacceptable, and these CIDCO guys are just being unreasonable." At that time there was the Shiv Sena and BJP combined government, with the Shiv Sena being the power behind the scenes. And so our board member said, "Hey we all know Balasaheb [Shiv Sena, founder Balasaheb Thackeray]. We'll just go and talk to him and sort this out."

Unfortunately, they went to see him at a time when he was having a big gathering at his place. So there was an occasion to grandstand, and the press was there. So in front of all of these people he made a big deal about how the best business school in the world was going to get built in Bombay, and that they were involved in it and there would be 10% reservations for Maharashtrians by the way, and 50% for employees. And this came off the cuff, from the blue, and it was the next day published in Mid-Day, and it was all over.

This was clearly unacceptable to us. We had always said very clearly that this was going to be completely merit of credit. Can you then support the needy candidates? We will never allow any sort of reservation. So that is how it began and even at that point we were in touch with his sons or nephews or … I do not remember now, and they said, "Listen, we will find a way around it, do not yet give up." And we also felt if we put a little bit of competitive pressure, this thing will sort itself out.

So it was to put competitive pressure on Bombay, but never really to leave Bombay that we wrote a note to all chief ministers and chief secretaries around the country. Well, not all, but Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Haryana, and we said, "Listen, we are these guys, we have the partnership, we have the school, this is our vision, these are the people on our board," from Ratan Tata to Ambanis, to Bajajs, to Mahindras, to Parekhs and Kamath, and Lakshmi Mittal. By then the whole board was there. "And please see if you can give us appropriate land. We are looking for 100 acres of land."

And so one monsoon morning we flew from Bombay to Hyderabad, to Bangalore, to Chennai. But the first place we landed was in Hyderabad, and we were completely floored by the hospitality of Naidu [Andhra Pradesh's chief minister at the time, Chandrababu Naidu].

Now it is much more built up than then, and amazingly open, and he said, "Two hundred fifty acres is yours," and, "I will give you plus one of whatever anybody else offers. And we just knew that this was the right place and the right thing to do. And we came back from that trip. I remember we did a teleconference, and the board approved within a few months. We had possession of 250 acres of land which is prime land today for a business school.

India Knowledge@Wharton: Thinking back on the ISB experience, what was the biggest challenge? How did you overcome it and what did you learn from it?

Sinha: The biggest challenge was, "How do you build a great reputation in a short period of time?" I had studied a lot of the history of how our institutions got built. The one that I followed very closely was INSEAD [in France]. INSEAD was actually started in the early 1900s. The germ of INSEAD started then. And it took all the way up to the '80s and the '90s until it truly started getting counted among the top business schools in the world.

We looked at the London Business School similarly. We looked at IMD [the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland]. We looked at Kellogg. There were just no examples of institutions that in a period of two, three, four, five years would really catapult themselves into the world scene. We were very clear that we did not have a generation or a lifetime to realize the fruits of what we were trying to build.

So that was the single most significant aspiration and challenge that we had to overcome. Everything that went into the concept and the execution was really about fast-tracking and leapfrogging the generational time it would take to build a great institution. I am not sure we are there yet, but what we have been able to do we have done in very short order.

So I can talk about all the little things that went in, but the board, the partnerships, the one-year program, the focus on bringing in visiting faculty, everybody shot us down. Building the infrastructure? Big debate. "Why do we need such infrastructure? Let us just take a building and start." All those were huge trade-offs. One of the most prominent board members left the board because he fundamentally did not agree with the concept that we were going to put in our infrastructure first.

So, there were huge debates and trade-offs. The one-year program [idea] -- I facilitated that [discussion] with Kellogg and Wharton. What massive resistance. This is not [what's] done in U.S. academic circles...

Then, OK, if we agree on the one year, what is the core? Which courses will be taught in the core? Trying to bring about all kinds of other innovations started to become a challenge. How are we going to be different?

Somewhere I feel that on some of those we did not win the battles and we are not as different as I would have liked us to be. You fight those battles as you go along. But I think the fact that we went from zero to, or from nothing to 15th on the [Financial Times' ranking of business schools] is the challenge we had.

India Knowledge@Wharton: What is the way forward for ISB? Is it going to be one school that has gone from 128 to 400? Is it going to expand in terms of student numbers? Are other campuses being planned across the country?

Sinha: We are going ahead with a campus in Mohali.

Now, given where you are, if you know you are sort of theory-of-theory of constraints, then faculty is the big limiting factor. Students are not. Today we have 560 students, which is the capacity of the current infrastructure. We get almost 4,000 applications and the average GMAT of the applicant pool is about 710. So you could technically argue that there are 3,000 more students out there who we can admit if GMAT were the narrow measure, and I am not suggesting that. So you could really go bananas on the numbers.

If you look at some of the other schools, you look at an ICFAI [Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India] business school, they take 5,000 students a year. You look at an Amity or an IIBM [International Institute of Business Management]. They do similar thousands. Of course, we are talking a different quality, but I have no doubt that we can find very high-quality students in those kinds of numbers.

The other way we look at it is that if you look at the top 20 U.S. MBA programs and you say that there is probably an average of 700 to 800 students, then you are talking about 15,000 students. So if there are 15,000 students, even in the U.S., who are good enough to go to the top 20 schools, there must be at least that many in India who are not, and clearly we do not have that many seats at the highest level if you add the IIMs, ISB, Narsee Monjee, XLRI, Jamnalal Bajaj. You would not add up because those kinds are a couple of hundred each.

So the students are not an issue. Jobs, you can argue, may or may not be an issue, but I am hiring people from IIPM [Indian Institute of Planning and Management]. I never imagined that I would hire people from IIPM, but I can tell you I am, and they are very good. And I would hire such people from any such institution. I am sure people will be willing to … There are enough jobs out there. Maybe not of the price that the ISB today commands, but the real issue is at some point if you are going to be serious about giving good management education, where is the faculty?

So we are really limited by that, and I think as long as we can overcome that constraint we will be building more campuses.

India Knowledge@Wharton: How will you overcome that constraint?

Sinha: We are looking at various ways. We now have a pipeline of permanent faculty who want to move back to India. Initially it was tough, but today ISB has some 34 permanent faculty. It is a little bit of an exponential graph if you see at what rate people have come. In the last few years we have recruited five to 10 people a year. So for a 500-odd-student's class, a faculty group of 40 to 50 is fine, and these are all people from top schools -- Stanford, Michigan, Duke. Obviously, they are all Indians. Hopefully the pipeline of people wanting to do Ph. Ds and wanting to relocate in India will continue to grow, so that is one stream.

The other is trying to find gifted students from other disciplines, give them a bridge course at the ISB and then get them shipped off to Wharton or a Kellogg, help facilitate their entry into the DBA or Ph. D. in business program. So we are growing our own timber if you will, and I do not know if that is going to reach some scale soon, but clearly we are able to.

The third thing is that our visiting faculty model has really matured. When we started out, we just got such flak. Everybody criticized us and said, "How can you build an institution like this?" But it has become our biggest strength. Students do not want to let go of these wonderful guys who come from all over the world. Suddenly, what also has happened is, with that model and the interest levels in India, we are getting people from all over. You have people from China coming to teach here, from Australia and Japan. So you are no longer dependent on that NRI- Indian-U.S.-business-school guy who wants to move here.

The final thing is that there are existing Indian faculty who are getting to that age, either because their kids have gone to college or because their kids are getting to that age, who are now starting to say there is a creditable alternative there.

When we did the research in 1998-99, the top 20 schools had a hundred-plus faculty of Indian origin in just the top 20 schools. If you go today I would say that number would be more like 200. You will probably have 10 per school.

If you look below the top 20, and there are some pretty good schools below that, I am sure there are a few hundred -- I do not know how many exactly -- who are there, who one can tap in to. So in a way that one is a bit of a zero sum in the U.S., but what the hell? The students are here and the jobs are here. The research topics are here. So I think that will willingly attract. If you look at it from a sources standpoint, one is the new graduates, one is the existing faculty, and the third is trying to boost our own. One big challenge is that we cannot do Ph. Ds in our institution.

India Knowledge@Wharton: Why is that?

Sinha: Because of our regulatory. We are sort of under the radar. We are not approved in the true sense. But then that does not really help us because you do not want to inbreed either. You do not want to just create your own Ph. Ds, and that is what the IITs and the others have done.

Part of achieving greatness for us was not just being a great teaching institution, but really to be thought-driven.

Getting research going is a big challenge. So it is that twin challenge of getting faculty and getting research going that I worry about today. I think we are tracking it. I think the people we have are churning out some good research. They are getting some recognition. They are being funded, which is always a good sign. They are publishing in international journals, the top-five-type journals. So they are rightly incentivized. But we have not really successfully brought in senior faculty who can mentor these guys. You really need that whole ecosystem of the gray hair and young minds to make research happen.

India Knowledge@Wharton: In some ways, the challenge in the research front seems to be a little different from the challenge of recruiting faculty in the following sense. You take an institution like Harvard. Thanks to the connections of Mr. Mahindra, they have actually opened an office in India and they do a lot of research right there…. And Harvard would probably not be alone in this as you correctly said. India is now on the global map as an emerging business case to be studied and researched. What would be your competitive strategy in differentiating ISB research from what Harvard or Stanford or MIT or Wharton would do?

Sinha: This is a personal view, not an institutional view, because I have not discussed it with the academics or with the dean. But first, we always felt that the distinctiveness would come from our focus on India and the emerging markets. But as you said, others are also starting to do that. I think the difference is that because of our on-the-ground presence and our network, our access to people and companies is that much better. I think it is borne out by some of the stuff I have seen coming out of some of these research projects. The fact that we have faculty on the ground who are based here rather than people flying in is where the distinctiveness comes from.

I will give you the example of Shamika Ravi, who does microfinance. The way she has gotten plugged into the microfinance companies and NGOs, the way she has done impact assessment of their programs through her primary and empirical research and the way she has plugged into the public policy side in terms of the planning commission on the Ministry of Finance and the RBI and the policy and the planners and the government is the great example of how you can come up with something quite distinctive, which can only happen if you have people down here.

And not just presence here, because I am sure the center has research fellows or assistants, but really in that model the intellectual talent is there. The brains are there and they are using this as a base. That is where the difference will come. The visibility, the networks, the connections, the access to and the ability to influence I think ultimately will be different. And that is another big thing that business research or academic research in business is grappling with, is it not? Particularly in light of what just happened, are we researching real practical issues and what the hell where we doing, creating all these models and bringing the whole world down?

That aspect of it, which is the switch from pure, basic academic research for the sake of research and publishing to somewhat more applied -- and I say this carefully because it is still looked down upon.

But I think the stuff that she is doing is brilliant, and I am only singling her out because I am familiar with her work, but you look at a [Dishan] Kamdar or a bunch of other folks. They are doing fantastic work. That is what really makes me feel proud about the school, that we can point to people who now understand India and understand issues and can speak intelligently about it and engage, and it is not purely academic. She has done some work for example on how this National Rural Guarantee Scheme has in fact helped uplift the lives of the people in the villages.

I do not think even the government has evaluated their own program. So when I got it I just said, "Wow, this is great stuff." I did not know whether this was right or wrong. I am assuming given her intellectual caliber that it is. I just immediately sent it out to everybody I knew in government and said here is something. In fact, I had sent it to the Congress guys and said here is a campaign thing for you.

And you know, on the face of it, it is a little bit applied, but this is stuff that the world needs to know.

India Knowledge@Wharton: You said earlier that you are very interested in leadership. How is it different leading an academic institution compared to an entrepreneurial media company?

Sinha: It is not that different. If you had said something other than media then I would have said it is different. If you had said steel or pharma, I would have said it is different. I will tell you first where the similarities are. The biggest challenge is dealing with a situation where as a non-academic you are the leader, yet you have to be a servant to the faculty. If you do not understand that you are screwed in that model.

I keep repeating this to the so-called business side of the ISB folks. I tell them, "Listen, I sympathize with you, and in fact I was the dean and I came from the other side. But please understand that without these guys you will not be."

The analogy I often give, when I speak generally on management, is that academic institutions, hospitals, media companies are very similar because the hospitals cannot do without the doctors. Yet you do not want to make the doctor the head of the institute, right? ...

Similarly, in a media company, you are there because of the journalists and the content creators and the creative talent. It is too narrow to say journalists, but in what I do today, it is the creative talent and the people who can conceptualize and design and come up with those themes. Managing that creative side is what I enjoy and which is why I am doing media. I think that is why I was able to pull off whatever I did at ISB, because you really need to be a servant to that side of the business, because without them you do not exist.

I think the start-up phase was very similar in many ways. You had to get customers. You had to come up with a product. You had to sell it at the right price point. You had to make sure that the product got sold despite 9/11. The only big difference was that in the ISB case there was a start date and there was a finish date -- like you are on this train and once the train left the station … The train left the station the day you admitted 130 students.

In this case, if the train did not get started and you said, "Okay, I will start 15 days later," or if it did not pick up speed and you said, "Okay, I will sort of, kind of pick up." You could not do that. You could not say, "We will wait for the faculty to come." Right, the students will wait, or 9/11 happened so we will delay the start of the semester.… I remember I was in the U.S. when 9/11 happened and two of our faculty said they were not going to come…. And so early in the course, two of your star faculty say, "Sorry, cannot come," and that is when the visiting model [raises questions]. Who teaches? Do I go teach now? … So that was the big difference. It felt different because of that. You cannot get off that train or slow it down. But otherwise it is very similar, the risks that you have to take, the trade-offs you have to make, the fact that you try 10 things and only eight work, or two work, and the next time you have to again try to do 10 more things to make up for the eight things that did not work, and then again two work and then again you try 10 things. That is how it felt. At every stage there were problems, deadlines, missing people, not turning out to be what they were, under-delivering.

There was a day in October of 2001 when we did not have cash to pay our bills and salaries in the ISB. So that felt … I think I got my training in entrepreneurship there.

India Knowledge@Wharton: The media business today is in such turmoil.If you look at the developed markets, traditional media including well-known publications, companies, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journals, things are in shambles, online publishing is coming up but does not seem to be generating enough revenue to be able to make up for the loss from print. How do you view the media landscape and how have you been trying to find ways of creating and delivering value?

Sinha: This is an industry that is completely getting transformed by technology in ways that people anticipate but not quite imagine. The current downturn is accelerating that transformation while everybody knew that print was going to die, I think. At least abroad it has died, and it is hard to accept. It is really, truly hard to accept that would be the reality, but it is.

This combination of what the Internet has done and technology of handheld devices and accessibility 24/7, plus now I think this whole green movement has killed print forever, I think in the West. I should not say forever; it is too strong. It will become a niche thing and it will survive in small forms for people who can afford it, but those large mega-plays of media companies driving newspapers, the McClatchys and Gannett and the Tribunes and the New York Times, I think we are going to see the end of that.

Quite frankly it is a little bit like the horse carriage. It sounds dramatic to say that, and I am sure it did when people then said it, but I feel that it is going to be tough to recover from this blow. So what? I do think that we will move to very different economies of the business in the near term, where the value will really come from content packaging, content delivering, content in a way that you and I really like to see. So you will see a lot more innovation around that, in just the packaging and the delivery of content. This is a good example of what you are trying to do.

Look at what I am trying to do in a way. I think somewhere in my mind I have already adjusted for that dependence or lack of independence on print even in India. So I actually do not operate in the mass media space. I operate in the niche media space. And the way we look at our business is not in terms of our magazine, but in terms of the communities we serve. And for each of those communities we are totally agnostic about the medium through which we are serving them.

We have a print product and I do look at that profitability and the cost of that print product, but I really measure the overall profitability of my community, not of that print product. And therefore that creates a very different economic mind-set when you are looking at the business. Because now when I think of media for that community I am thinking events online and print, and in fact to enter that community the erstwhile media owner in my space would have said, "Take magazine, that is what we need." I will say let us go online, let us build the database, let us get online and then we will see about the magazine.

So I think that trying to replace the print with new media is just not going to work out. Unfortunately there is therefore going to be a lot of pain for people who are overcommitted to the print space, and I can see that I have talked to some of my friends over there and they are really struggling with this issue.

I cannot say that I have an answer for them, but I think that we are going to see a fundamental shift where I call it customized content on demand. That is the world that we are moving to. I do not miss a newspaper today because on my Blackberry I have this Mint button, and I can click it first thing in the morning when I am sitting on the loo and quickly scan through the news, and then if I do not see the newspaper, it is Okay. I mean, I have quickly got the gist of what is happening in the world.

That is scary in a sense because it really disintermediates the whole infrastructure of printing, paper. The editorial content is still there. So I go to Mint and not to ET. The question is how will they get paid? That is an open question.

*Disclaimer - Source from KnowledgeIndia@Wharton.com

Entrepreneurs and Risks !!

2009-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

“You have to be risk averse to be a good entrepreneur” told my amazing professor of entrepreneurship. Sounds counter-intuitive but the real funda is that an entrepreneur thinks through everything, tried to cover himself for every aspect, and then implement his plan like hell. Same concept was reinforced in this amazing story of Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO of Naukri.com. Check his amazing story here. Waiting for hear directly from Mr. Bikhchandani in ISB’s Media Conclave….More to follow on this.

Demystifying the Dragon - ISB's Emerging Market Club !!!

2009-07-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

Emerging Market Club at ISB kicked off today with an interesting speaker series from Professor Ram. Prof Ram has an interest in entrepreneurship in emerging markets and he engaged the whole audience with his vivid description of anecdotes of his experiences in China and statistical data about China / India.

He opened up the conversation by stating that he continues to consider himself a student of China since its nearly impossible to understand a complex country like China in couple of years that he has spent there. Before China, Prof. Ram spent 21 years in India, 20 years in Europe, and 4 year in US. He worked as faculty at IESE Business School in Spain (One of my fav schools). He quoted some of the comments that his colleagues made – pun intended – that he is not qualified enough to teach management if he hasn’t been to China. Prof. Ram added humor to the discussion further when he mentioned that most Chinese, especially older generations, sing Indian songs from the movie “Awara” but they invariably make it sound ‘Chinese’. Further he mentioned that China especially Shanghai offers you infrastructure of developed countries of luxuries of developing countries i.e. Housel hold help!! He reflected that he has noticed three categories of Indians – in large numbers – in China a) Indian Business People b) Indians working in Indian MNC c) Indians working in top positions for US / European MNC. He was intrigued by the third category given that you don’t find similar proportions in India. That is reflective of demand supply and comparative language advantage of Indian Managers to integrate with Global economy.

The discussion became analytical from here on and Prof. Ram showed us several key data elements for India and China, providing his analysis and inference of each. Some of the figures that I noted down include:

* Chinese market is several times bigger than India since income level is higher in China
* Technology Diffusion: China has 10 times fixed landlines, 1.5 times mobiles. 4 times internet users
* Almost all women in China are working, huge labor force. Literacy, Healthcare, and gender equality drove the Chinese economy & were not a result of the growth.

India’s Advantages

1.Democracy – Slow but sustainable
2.Free Press
3.Younger Population – Advantage if employment gets up
4.Economy is dependent on Private Initiative
5.Lower Dependence on Foreign trade (37% vs 62%)
6.Stronger in Pharma & IT ( IT China – 8 Billion vs. 40 Billion)

India’s Disadvantages
1.Literacy
2.Healthcare for masses – Innovate at top but not for masses
3.Gender Equality
4.Fiscal Position – P & L statement
5.Infrastructure – Airports in 2/3 tier better than Delhi. Huge investment in Railways
6.Speed of political decision making
7.Manufacturing Costs – Gap is narrowed, if India moves quickly, we can expand a lot. Labor cost of china is going up as impact of single child is coming up. Labor environmental legislation that increases Chinese cost n leadership things cost based strategy is not sustainable.

Challenges to open business
1.Language
2.Unstructured business environment – Negotiation and Indian people are equipped. American/European are not.
3.Communication in queues – Seating arrangement in Dinner, Chinese will never say no, as they don’t want you to loose face.
4.Networking – Difficult for Chinese do business with stranger. They want to know you first.

Key Trends
1.Composition of Entrepreneurship is changing – More first generation, self motivated, young people opening start-ups on their own choice rather than opportunity driver model earlier.
2.In China, imitation with brief innovation leads to be good enough product to keep international MNC’s at bay. This is primarily due to the language factor e.g. Baidu, Tudou (Chinese Youtube), Dangdand. These companies although providing similar features to MNC, hold around 80% of Chinese market share.
3.In both the countries, growth in knowledge industry that requires less capital is also leading to more first generation entrepreneurs.
4.Growth of PE/ VC Investments in happening India and China. Early stage VC invests more in China than in India because it has higher diffusion of technology (Mobiles, Telephones, and Internet).

In all it was quite an informative and learning experience. I enjoyed the Dragon ride and hope to visit the country in near future. Hearing someone sing Chinese “Awara Hoon” would be pretty cool :P !!

PACIS Conference at ISB !!!

2009-07-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

'PACIS conference was conducted for first time at ISB during July. Interesting set of events where Panel discussions were conducted among industry leaders from IT sector. I prepared a brief scribe of a panel discussion conducted by Mr. Bipin Paracha & Mr. Narsimha N'

On the third and the final day of PACIS conference, Professor Nishtha opened up the panel discussion introducing Mr. Bipin Paracha from Wipro & Mr. Narsimha N from Infosys. Professor Nishtha laid down the background of linear growth of employee count and revenues for Indian IT firms, an unsustainable business. Hence, the topic of the discussion was – Indian IT: Moving up the value chain.

Mr. Bipin Paracha (Wipro)

Mr. Bipin provided his insights into how the role of Indian IT is changing over time. He mentioned that IT has transformed from providing the ‘Mainframe’ oriented solutions to ‘helping businesses perform’ better. Prof. Nishtha then enquired about Wipro Consultancy and the acceptance of the same among the corporate. Mr. Bipin provided an excellent framework for Wipro Consulting position:-

Value Chain Progress path: - Provider > Contributor > Facilitator > Advisor > Change Agent

Further, Mr. Bipin emphasized the Wipro Brand has played a significant role in getting acceptance for Wipro Consultancy among clients. Along with Indian clients, Wipro Consulting is getting increased traction in Australia where bigger markets in US & UK still relate Wipro with only IT. However, Mr. Bipin was optimistic about a gradual diffusion process in these markets.

Mr. Narsimha N (Infosys)

To start with, Mr. Narsimha provided an account of gradual progression of Infosys. Initially, the company started as a cost arbitrage, with quality and quantity as its distinctions. However, the organization later realized the pivotal important to add more value to businesses and hence, moved from technology focus to Business solution provider. They focused o capturing the space before the execution stage that includes the elements of problem identification, problem solutions, and solution design.

Mr. Narsimha also mentioned that due to past success stories of solution implementation, Infosys holds an advantage over companies such as Accenture, as end-to-end solution implementers. He also suggested that within next 5-7 years, different Indian IT providers will differentiate in different capabilities and will offer a wide array of services.

Later, Mr. Narsimha also provided his insights about the growing trends in Industry due to emerging use of Profit revenue sharing model, where IT companies hold a stake in the game. For instance, TCS is conducting the Indian Passport project where TCS gets Rs.200 for every passport issued. These types of projects will bring more accountability and increased role of IT companies in various businesses.

Finally, before closing of the discussion, Mr. Narsimha reflected upon the opportunities provided by global recession. As industries change fundamentally and seek opportunities for cost reduction, it’s up to IT companies to up the ante and provide avenues for businesses to do so.

ISB Essay Analysis & Tips

2009-07-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Just thinking for a rare moment about the world outside ISB, especially about the aspirants who are eager to transition from the world outside to the universe inside ISB, I reflected on the Essays posted by ISB this time. I have taken a shot at analysis of these essays and hopefully will help some of the potential candidates.

Here you go:

Essay 1

Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data. (300 words max)

This essay is direct challenge to candidates to state three to-the-point and specific things why ISB should worry about your candidacy and read your application any further. The fact that ISB has specifically asks for data to back up your claims demonstrates that you need to be direct in your approach and provide examples of your claims.

Explore your finest accomplishments and fit the best three here. It is important to maintain a fine balance among the points you choose. A good balance will consist of Professional demonstrating your uniqueness, Extra-Curricular manifesting your leadership potential, and Academic / Personal stories that personify you. You also need to consider that peer learning is a crucial aspect at ISB. While words will be scare, you also need to succinctly cover the ground about how each of your accomplishment will add value to your peers at ISB. Such corroboration and direct connection to ISB’s resources will provide a much more coherent view to your stories. Also, remember to take care of the overall structure of the essay through a short and crisp opening statement and a coherent & impressive ending statement.

Being the first essay, you need to create an impact on the reader and give her an “Aha” moment that makes her interested in you at the onset.

Essay 2

Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them. What were the personal learnings you derived from this assignment. (300 words max)

It is recommended to pick up a professional story either if you belong to non-traditional background (chance to score points on diversity) or if you handled a really challenging situation. If you have compelling story from your extracurricular, it will click as well. Many a times, in extracurricular setting you deal with people who have no formal obligation to respond to your initiatives. Such stories speak volume about your ability to influence people. The objective of this essay is to demonstrate your ability to take ownership, handle ambiguity to bring focus on the problem at hand, and take corrective measures to achieve your objective. Try to reflect to stories where you lead / contributed out of turn to a team rather than a stand alone accomplishment. Also, remember that a key challenge in this essay will also be to avoid repletion from the already stated stories in the first essay.

As for the structure of your response, read the question carefully as the structure is already inculcated in it. Follow the START framework (S – Situation, T – Tasks, A – Actions, R- Results, T- Takeaway) to craft your response. Don’t forget to devote a good chunk of space to the personal learning because the chances are that most of the candidates will come up with solid stories, it’s your learning and self-reflection that will give Adcom a peek into your personality.

Essay 3

Briefly assess your career progression till date along with your assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year program. (300 words max)

Aha! Finally, ISB has also come with a standard goal essay in sync with most global business schools. Ideally this essay is asked in 750-1000 words by most schools and ISB once again compels you to draft story of your lifetime in 300 words. Fun, isn't it.

While the structure is implied in the response, remember to address adequately each of the following five components:

Career Progression: Detail your career progression while keeping an eye on your goals and keep your theme limited to the same.

Goals (Short Term & Long Term): Be as specific as possible. Your short term goal shall be tangible and direct. Explore school's website or your contacts within ISB to find out exact positions offered at ISB and stick to the same. Further, avoid putting a blanket statement in your long term goal. If you came up with "I want to be CEO of XYZ Company" you need to think deeper.

Why MBA: If you have done good job in the above two section, you must have created a void by now that only a MBA education can fill in. Bring out the specific things you need from MBA that will bring you closer to your goals and this piece shall further your candidacy.

Why Now: It is extremely important to bring a crisp argument about why you think now is the right time for you. Don't make the mistake to leave a gap for Adcom to think that you need another year or two before coming to ISB.

Why ISB: Goes without saying, this aspect is extremely important and will speak volumes about your passion for ISB. An ideal strategy is to connect ISB's resources - Academic programs, Clubs, and Special programs to your specific needs. Attempt to write a paragraph with each sentence containing something unique about ISB.

Again, remember to take care of the overall structure of the essay through a short and crisp opening statement and a coherent ending exclamation statement.

Wish you Gud Luck! Interesting times await....

*Note - My analysis for ISB as well as for other international schools can be found at General Education's website as well. Click here to view the same.

From an INFOSCION to a POLITICION - Nandan's Chronicles!!

2009-07-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

"An absolutely brilliant write up. I love the subtle message in the note :)"

Continuing my tryst with capturing the life and times of Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament. The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let’s see what happened thereafter….

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.

Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”.

Since there was no doubt about the “Fixational” capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project’s turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECT”S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.

I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!! The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days’ milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.

“You won’t believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!”

Golden Words !!

2009-07-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

This came across in one of the speaker series at ISB and I can't let my blog be deviod of this Punch Line.

"Your biggest weakness is your last success and your biggest strength is your last failure"

Go soul search, and see what this means for you - In your present and for times to come.....

10 Things MBA school's don't teach you about Start-Ups

2009-07-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

In midst of Term3 and while studying fascinating course in Eunterpreneurship, I came across this article.

I guess it would be an overstatement that B-schools don't teach you these aspects. Infact, if you are truely eunterpreneurial, you can't be taught the aspects that define an eunterpreneur - the zeal to execute & ability to manage the uncertainity. Atleast, ISB does a fair job in order to make cognizant of these facts and rest, I trust is up to you !!

25% MBAed - ISB way !!

2009-07-17T02:49:00.000-07:00

We are 25% MBA’s now. It time to celebrate!! While the whole campus has gone crazy with parties, I choose to travel back home to take some off. I am celebrating in my own way, through an intense 16 hour sleep schedule at my home. Parents are little concerned with my sleep timings and worry whether this is what I do at as well ISB. 20 Lakh for sleeping is little too much:P. Really, time flies at ISB. I heard that so many times, but its one thing to hear and another to experience the same. Many of us have been caught by surprise that Term 2 has already ended. Most of the people still remember the flow of Term 1 and connect back to things that happened there. But how exactly did Term 2 progress? Everyone thinks they hardly ever interacted with people sitting next to them in Term 2. There was hardly any gap between Mid Terms and End Terms. It’s like just yesterday when we spend 16 hours locked in a room understanding that Mark Start !! How come we ended so soon? Here is the brief snapshot of what all happened in Term 2 – as much as I vaguely remember!

In terms of Academics, Term 2 will always be remembered as Mark Strat and DMOP term. Two subject where opportunities to learn were immense yet the workload ensured that we succumb to just keeping pace with latest assignment submissions of these subjects. Personally, I really enjoyed the MarkStrat game. I think it helped me conceptualize everything taught in the class and it helped that we did well overall in the game. Given the addictive nature of the game, I am looking forward to participate in E-Strat – the global competition in the game. DMOP was a tough for me as for any non-engineers. Many engineers on campus were actually hiding their identity as engineers – such was the impact of the subject. Understandably the concepts taught in the subject have significant applications once we move to real world but most of us, looking towards marketing or strategy as career options, think we would not be directly involved in Operation related activities. Now coming to the subject that I and perhaps the whole campus loved and learnt most – Competitive Strategy!! Our section was unfortunate to miss out as we didn’t get Mr. Prashant Kale as our prof during first half but we were compensated with even better option – Mr. Harbir Singh. Each of 10 classes of CompStrat covered a case and opened up new dimensions for each of us. Whether it was about Potler’s five forces, or Cost based advantage of Southwest or Sustaining C.A. case for Wal-Mart – everything was so fascinating. The best part of each case was that we used to put over selves on a layer higher that CEO and analyze each and every move the CEO. No wonder Strategy Consulting is most sought after profession among MBA’s. My final comments on the fourth subject – Macro Economics! Excellent subject with huge implication of decoding the complex terminologies of Capital Markets, Labor Productivity, Debt-to-Equity Ratio, Free Trade etc. Economic Times has started way more sense now and I realize how superficial was my reading of ET earlier and what depth I used to miss. Also, I believe Macro Economics may not be of immediate use in short term for our careers but going forward, understanding Macro Economics concepts will be required to take decisions about operating any firm.

Along with these aspects, the number other activities took place at Campus in Term 2. I wish I could write on details of each. GSB Core and extended Core has been formulated, all CLUBs are functional now, already couple of conferences have been held at ISB, the bidding for Exchange Programs is over and many of CMs have got their first choice of exchange programs, ELP projects have already been declared and we have submitted our EOI for the same, ICON – Internal Consulting Initiative of ISB has also been kick started, LDP – Leadership Development Programs are also in progress, B-Plan competition preparations have started among several groups, Section Wise competitions for Relay Race, Swimming, Football took place and my section did well overall, number of Alumni have been pouring on campus to guide us further, and etc etc. It’s amazing how we manage to pull off all these activities along with on-going pressure of studies. I think this will be the biggest take away from ISB. Nothing will seem impossible or even difficult after this. You just need to jump into the waters and you are sure to find your way out.

All said n done, I think there is a huge conspiracy going in time theory. I think someone is manipulating against me and my holidays back home are getting expired quickly. I have mixed feeling while heading back to ISB to face the toughest term at ISB – Term 3. Nevertheless, I will be just matter of few hours (at least that’s what it appears) that Term 3 will be over and I will be writing a similar write up for 37.5% MBAed !!

ISB Application for Class of 2011

2009-07-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

ISB Application for next class and it reminds of the applicant days. You will read essays, chew them multiple times, and digest them thinking you got it. Then again, some butterflies in stomach, and you are back to chewing part. Again! Again! It happened to me all the time. Before coming to ISB, writing essays was the best experience I went through. You get to traverse through so much, learn about yourself, about the school, and everything else in life. At the best, the essay you end up after numerous reviews is very different than what you chewed it for. All the best to all applicants for this year! It’s not going to be an easy job but trust me you don’t want an easy task as well. That’s why you choose this track. Good luck!

Luck vs. Logic!!!

2009-06-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting experience today in my Marketing Strategy class that reminded me of the movie Ajnabee in which Akshay Kumar makes well calculated moves, and bases everything on perfect logic but still losses out to Bobby Deol who bases his moves on sheer “Itefaq” in win-loose game. We were asked by our professor to play a game. The rules of the game were that each person has to write a number on the paper between 0-100. Anyone who writes a number equivalent to 0.7 of the class average will win the game.

Did you catch the caveat! You know that everyone else is trying to win and hence try to put across a number that is 0.7 time of what other will think will the winning number. The concept the Prof was trying to push across was to think the rationality of the competition and understand the level to which we should try to go before killing each other. Imagine this number was your profit margin and with this win-loose situation whole industry is going to crash. Anyways, back to the game. I applied my rationality that most people will think till three steps – 0.7 * 0.7 * 0.7 * 100 ~35 (we were to write in whole numbers). I decided to go one step deeper to win and came up with 25. I wasn’t still convinced as I thought i can’t win at 25. First because many people will write 25 and second, some people will be just 2 steps deeper and some will be 4. I trusted my class to be more rational than me and decided to push my no: from 25 to 27 to accommodate the increase in average the 2-level-deep rational people will cause. I applied my logic and was eagerly waiting for results. Results were announced & class average was 26. I missed by a whisker.

A quite shy guy, Manoj, sitting next to me emerged as the winner. He was the only one to write 26 in the whole class. Wow, I thought my logic was pretty close but he did better. I was fairly satisfied though until I happened to talk to Manoj how exactly he came up with 26 and here’s what he said that left me dumb-folded. “My b’day is on 13th and its extremely lucky for me. I submitted my ISB application on 13th, interviewed on 13th as well. Numerous times, it has paid off to me. So, I was sure that I will be putting any number as a multiple of 13. 13, 26 & 39 were the only options since I know people here will go for a kill. I choose the middle one and it worked. That’s it”. As simple as that and he defeated me!

I may sound too committed to win above. The story is just a little anecdote but think of other issues we face. We put across our best foot forward to learn & win something but things work out in favor of someone who’s thought process was completely radical. Logic vs. Luck - isn’t it. I realize that we may complicate ourselves as much as we can but the true beauty of life lies in simplicity. Many times things are not in our control beyond a limit, and it’s best to leave those elements at the fence and move forward. Accepting and consciously living this fact that luck has a role to play in our lives makes life lot easy to understand, live, and love.

Term 2 --- What a fun!!

2009-06-28T12:06:00.002-07:00

Term 2 started with interesting set of subjects and lot of twists to the cliché of assignment, quiz, and exam followed across all subjects. We are breaking heads with Marketing Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Macro Economics, and DMOP this time.

Unarguably, the sheer amount of coursework and difficult level of courses such as DMOP has truly tested the mettle of the student. Mark Strategy is an addictive, time sucking, and most interesting game ever made in this world, Comp Strategy never stops surprising you with tougher and tougher cases, Macro Economics every time makes me think how much information I used to miss while reading all those Economic Times articles, and last perhaps most importantly, DMOP – a subject that has made all non-engineers give up and all engineers, increasingly hide their identity as “so-called-comfortable-with-number” fellows. A quant oriented subject, DMOP has continued to give night mares to everyone at campus.

I will be writing more about the current terms, especially on MarkStrat in the posts to follow!

ISB Updates - Term 1

2009-06-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Terrible. That’s the word. That’s simply the perfect word that truly resonates with my bloging, about my performance in terms of my ISB life updated. It’s not the case that I didn’t want to write. I am tempted to think that I couldn’t write because of time crunch although I am not totally convinced. One thing ISB has clearly taught me is that there is always time for what you want to do. The bigger challenge is to identify the same, and devote your time to “important” and not “urgent” things. I think I have failed to do so, atleast as far as bloging is concerned.

There is so much to write and say about my life at ISB. I see my last post around a month back and world has literally turned around in these 30 days. As I believe that fun of writing is to cover it while fresh and virgin, I wouldn’t be able to delve much in past.

Some quick updates:

Term 1 ended: I was a proud 12.5% MBA as Term1 ended with a bang. Term 1 was pretty relaxed (Relatively) and we touched upon the Micro Economics, Finance, Marketing, and Statistical subjects. Each subject at that time seemed to be independent of each other but with wider subjects such as Competitive Strategy picking up in this term, it is beginning to make sense.

Term Break: Hell broke loose at campus as soon as Term 1 got over. Parties, Music, booze, food, and energy flew across the campus. There were back to back night long parties, numerous club events, etc. A perfect time to catch up on sleep, to just hang around, and have a good time!!

So much other things have passed by. GSB core team was formed and all Club core teams have been formed. I have picked up a position in General Management Club to handle Alumni Affairs. More importantly, I am going to join Dance classes by “Shiamak Davars Dance Academy”. Really excited about it!! I am getting good at Squash, and also hope to learn something about Spanish and French culture from International Club at ISB. Over past 1 month, our section has put in a lot of effort to stick together and we have had some wonderful parties at Class of ’08 lounge, Pot lock parties etc. The informal small group of HKP@ISB that composes of 12-15 most notorious people around the campus is getting tightly bonded and with the pace we are going, there will be a hell lot to write about the same in future.

That’s all for now!! I know time is going conspire against me to take me away from my bloging. But I am determined to conquer the devil this time. I have used technology as a tool, my calendar to remind me of bloging twice a week. I am definite to make this change this time and live these wonderful moments at ISB forever via my posts.

Minto's Principle !!!

2009-05-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Its amazing, the pace with which everything is happening here !! Last weekend for Term 1 and I face daunting task of surviving another Exams - this time end term. The pleasant side to look at it is the 5 day break after Term 1 and Ahahaa !! Life will be back on track, at least for some time. Lot more to ramble about yet a ever lasting time crunch constraints me to go on.

This blog is supposed to be Concise, Inductive, and Deductive well reasoned. I know its not and can't be so. Ideally, I should be introducing you to a structured writing technique that happens to be my key learning for the day. You think in a pyramid that starts with a theme at top, a set of inductive questions in the second layer, and finally well reasoned and thoughtful elements based on deductive reasoning based on facts at the third layer. I learned about this - Minto's Pyramid - in my today's interactive session with Deloitte Alums and Speakers. So much to take away from this place !!!

I am gonna close here. I know I haven't done justice to the subject through this brief write up. I will definitely come back to revisit this link. If interested, you can check out Minto's Principle here

General Management Club – Interactions with Alumni from Microsoft!!

2009-05-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

We conducted our first Alum Interaction session last week with two alums, Surya Shastri (Co2003) and Rao Korupolu (Co2008), both from Microsoft who shared their insights about the role and work of Program Management at Microsoft. First, Surya and Rao detailed their profile and typical work day. Later, they took time to patiently address queries from students. Around 80-100 students attended the informative meet and provided real good feedback about the same.

Some of the key excerpts from the Q & A session including Alumni response are:

• Microsoft has four divisions in India that include sales and marketing, consulting, program management, and product planning. At Microsoft in the Program Management roles, you will get opportunity to work across multiple functions such as legal, marketing, finance, corporate planning, sales, etc

• Not everything in each business is done from India. Hence the overall picture of the business will not be pretty clear from India.

• When it comes to placements is what you have done before and not what you have done here at ISB. They look for what’s transferable from past, can you solve real world problems.

• An important question was asked on Work life balance and the Alums provided real good picture of life at Microsoft. Of course they agreed there may be difficult times but that’s not the order of the day.

• Surprisingly, the Program Management role does not entail P & L responsibility.

• Microsoft conducts 4-5 back to back interviews and goes at length to hire candidate.

• During interview short list, they look for clear stand out things in CV, brand names from school help, leadership stuff in CV, and it can be little harder for people not from technology backgrounds.

• Differentiation at ISB vs. IIM: - Several ladder levels within Program Management. The SVP of Windows and a Software Development Engineer joined the same time in 1985. IIM guy with 1 year experience would need lot more years to reach the level experienced guys will be hired. Interviewers will put everyone in the right place.

• What applies from ISB – You get very good at asking good question via MBA. You may not have answers though.

• Negotiating during interview – Do your job, ace your interview, 5-6 round of interviews, don’t worry about things such as salary n all. Microsoft takes care!! Don’t worry about that.

Overall it was an interesting start to learning experience from ISB via General Management Club and will continue to. I hope I will do a better job at reporting the same next time  !!

6.25% MBA Completed!!

2009-05-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Geeky stuff to list, 6.25% MBA complete but I couldn’t find a better subject to enlist the roller coaster ride till now. ISB loves to take exams – once every 3 weeks and that means we are going to take exams 16 times over a period of ~11 months. After completing the first 6.25%, it’s such a nice feeling. We passed through the intense times of handling the quizzes, assignments, and those tricky questions in term exams. Once done, we celebrated. Big time!! On a single day, 4 parties were going on in parallel. We partied till dawn and then, for the first time, the exams look well worth

Looking forward it appears that every moment this ride is picking up speed. Sometime the speed is imposed by assignments, exams, and quizzes. Other times the speed is self imposed via parties, outbound activities, and sports/fun activities. I strongly feel that if ISB is going to inculcate something common among all the 579 students, it’s sure going to be the spirit to “Work Hard & Party Harder”…and I am looking forward towards to eventual intensity with gleaming eyes!!

B'day Dunking@ISB !!!

2009-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

11th May - Midnight and it was officially my turn to get dunked. After dunking around 50 people within my first month at ISB and facing arbit dunking several times, it was a nice little change when I was getting dunked purposefully.

For my friends outside ISB, dunking is the coolest and most popular tradition at ISB. It’s unique to ISB too, totally ours. If you know a little bit about life at ISB, you must have heard about this tradition. It all started back in first class of ISB – 2001, when few students caught hold of the B’day boy, waved him three times at the pool, and threw him in. Since then, dunking has become a common thread, an element that creates lot more bonding within the batch than what case studies and lectures can just hope to. I don’t know where those Alums are but they definitely deserve to be felicitated with their names engraved by the pool side.

As for my B’day, few of my class mates - Premjit, Sushant, Apu, and Vikram - had decided to up the ante by those chain mails around bumps, taking the B’day celebrations beyond normal traditions. I tried to kill the enthusiasm by roping in Saikat to pitch in on the group but that didn’t work either. I went to RC with a fair idea that escape route from bumps does not exist but was hoping for more professional treatment. After all, we are doing MBA and will soon be minted into managers, true professional, et all. As I reached, Premjit and Apu were talking of getting warmed up for the bumps. WTF!!! My hopes faded little bit as I sensed the enthusiasm brimming around and definitely got wiped off with the first kick from Sushant. Next was Apu’s turn and from there on, Doom Ddaddakkkk DHAMMM…I stopped counting, just existed, and left my arse’s sanctity on God’s will. Just in time, Surajit and Rahul came to my respite “No more Bumps” – Thanks to diversity at ISB that not all people think alike.

Next it was the turn for the famous swing on pool’s side – ONEEE, TWOOO, THREEEE and….and…I was air borne. Mid-air,I programmed myself to move in slow motion.I have special powers to be able to move in slow motion and bring a small tiny observer who piggybacks on my shoulder to note things around...…In those few millisecond, the observer recorded zillions of thoughts that crossed my mind. The world around me, it said, is what I have created for myself. Weren’t these pics of airborne people what I used to see and dream as an applicant.The dream has just turned true and the observer reacted pretty puzzled that why am I am dreaming about my dream while facing the same beautiful reality. As this point, the slow motion was over and there was a SPLASHhhhhhh…..Alright, Alright! With the shape I am in, it must have been little more that that perhaps….sssSPPPPPPLAAAAAASHHHHHHHHH!!! Click Click....That was “My Kodak Moment”

I stood in the pool witnessing dunking for my study group, quady, arbit dunking for 10’s of other people. We had lot more fun, people jumping over each other, doing all sort of things. What wonderful people I thought. Soon, we were all set for Section E’s patented self dunking – Holding our hands and falling back wards in the pool. That move generally signals the end of dunking ceremony towards the cake cutting where another surprise was waiting. As if bumps were not enough, I had cake polished all over. I completely gave up as Mayank massaged a huge chunk and Rohit made some funny strawberry on my nose poses. Rest people had to satiate themselves with whatever little Cake was leftover and a round of handshakes, flurry of B’day wishes followed before everyone headed back to heaps of books, assignments, and other cruel stuff.

That’s all about my B’day experience@ ISB. As Prayank put it up, it was such a fun at pool today that I feel 10 years younger on my B’day. If I were to think of my 10 best moments at ISB, I am sure this moment will be right at the top and will continue to stay. Thank you once again to all those who made it possible. I shall be equally and perhaps even more a sport for rest of dunking around the year!!!

Campus Updates - It's picking up !!!

2009-04-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

With acads picking up, corridor conversations have shifted dramatically over past few days. From "Which Section you are in" to "Have you completed pre-reads". Increasingly people are forming their own comfort zones and hanging out there. However, you will still find many people whom you haven't met but most of the times there are now common friend to lead the introduction. Still there are times when the big bad octopus of Network encircles you and you bump into a complete stranger. Both parties introduce each other with a mutual understanding that both will soon forget the names but remember the face, and greet each other next time you bump in. Those are the updates on ISB Networking.

As for the classes, here goes some of my observations.. "Your CP is your legacy. Years down the line, your class mates will remember you by the quality of CP you make" was the first thing told to us by our marketing professor. So much for the peer pressure at ISB. But I take it as more of fun. Understandably there will be people who will do CP that will sound as ACP or DCP to many. But I think challenge for all of us is to learn to not get turned off by those comments. Rather gain the patience to embrace them or better do some CCP (Constructive CP) to bring the topic back to potent discussion. Somewhere everyone is right in his/her own world. It's takes courage to stand against the crowd and speak what you stand for. I trust that soon we will settle down and things will make lot more sense to all of us. Incessant positivist!!

Digging further into my experiences of the first day and the pre-reads / post-reads associated with the class, I have enjoyed my marketing class. While most of us submerged ourselves in the pre-read, the prof rocked the topic with numerous example that helped make sense of the all the circuitous concepts in the book. I like this example the most - Coca Cola was about to launch a vending machine that determined price of the bottle based on two different sensors - One that counts the no: of bottles left and the other that gauges the temp outside. So much for innovation and marketing!

Currently, I am on to my Stats pre-read. (Honestly I don't know why I am here - Writing. I still have 2 chapters to complete)...As much analytical people may think it to be, I guess the pre-read rocks with the practical applications of the subject. Everything written is just general concepts that we all apply in our daily lives. It's great to learn the structure around the same. Given my incessant liking for example, I will quote one from my pre-read - Walmart maintains database of all the transaction that has happened in its stores and the size of the database is three times the size of all material on Internet {:O}. Given this huge repository, Walmart was able to calculate what exactly people need while stocking stuff for Hurricane - Strawberry Pop-Sticks - and stuffed the same. Cool!! I increasingly feel that all the concepts we will learn are all common sense a.k.a Management. It's the practical applications and example from past will underscore our understanding of the concepts.

Finished with the random rambling and hence rejuvenated. Back to my stats pre-reads!! Ciao!!

The first post – Right from Campus!

2009-04-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

Finally a chance to sit at my lappy and blog. Nice nostalgic feeling. A little difference is that this time I am writing from a class rather than my workplace. Some habits never change :P. ~10 days at campus and we all have realized that there is storm that’s awaiting for us. The current week is perhaps the lightest in the foreseeable future. Few posts have been written by fellow classmates on different activities till now and I just intend to capture a brief snapshot of what all went by till now. Given the sheer amount of information shared and activities that happened, I would not be surprised if I just end up writing less than less than 10% of the whole story

Registration Day
It all started on 11th April. Around 600 people burst into ISB Campus. Numerous dreams turned true. I checked into my room & awww welll, Awesome was the word I said. Then, the Recreation center and we all got out first taste of ISB life – A huge long circled LINE!! What the heck, do I have stand here for 2 hours. But then it was enticing to stand in that line and talk to all new people around. Networking, you know! Registration day went by with further hiccups and was soon over. Late in the evening, Dean addressed the Class of 2010 and gave an inspiring speech. The day concluded there.

Orientation Week – The Week that went by…..

It’s cruel to categorize this thing into a week. Tell me, how the heck can you fit in the following in one week:

25+ different presentations
Treasure Hunt Competitions
Club Meetings and Informal Sessions
4 parties that last whole night long
Beer Guzzling competitions
Talent Night Competitions
Team Building Activities
Case Studies and our first introduction to Class Participation (CP), Arbit CP & Desperate CP :P
Alumni Gyan Sessions
Speaker Series
Section Gyan
100s of Section chants – ROCK – EEEEEEEEE!!
That Damm “Networking” with 600+ people

Something is chronologically wrong with it. The activities in the whole week along with introducing yourself 50+ times a day, sometimes to the same person with whom you shared your contact info sometime back, was one of the finest experiences of my life till now. Of course this also led to a consensus that “Networking” is most abused word on campus. Refer to SAI’s post below. (If any of your friend just joined ISB Class of 2010, call him/her up and mention Networking somewhere. You will feel it from his/her response :P). On a serious note, I have learnt that ISB you are in constant mode of sacrifice. You like something, you do it. Don’t just hope to be everywhere. As a part of talent night competition we have prepared a pictorial prezo on this week and I shall soon be uploading the same on youtube.

Pre – Term - Here we are now!

Acads are picking up in the current week. Most of us are in hangover of the O’ Week and we soon realize our Accounting prof. is already done with Balance Sheet concepts and we have an assignment at hand. That’s the pace we got to get used to now. I have taken Business Stats and Accounting. Here is my take on

Accounting: - The class and the professor are pretty cool. Pretty good subject to learn and I am pretty happy with my decision to take this course.

Business Stats:- There are few things to pick up from this class that can be used in future. Further, this class gives me opportunities to “Network :P“

Today, I am looking forward for the first CEO speech on campus – something I was looking forward to at ISB – Mr. Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs. I will update soon on the same. That’s all for now. The best I could succinctly capture. It’s impossible to pen down the spirit, the euphoria, the budding aspirations, and the insights floating around. You got to be at ISB to catch that. That’s why ISB… ROCKS!!!!!

Why I choose ISB over Duke - Finally, got it !!!

2009-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

I know this post that has been long pending. My detailed analysis of the merry situation I was in back in Nov 2008 - ISB or Duke - was lying hidden somewhere in my cluttered lappy. While cleaning up my system today for formatting at ISB, I found the personalized reasons why I choose ISB over Duke. I think capturing the whole thought in this post makes sense for a) My own future reference b) Future aspirants who may land in similar confusion c) More journalists who may be seeking to follow Business Week & HT to cover the big ISB vs US schools story.

Little obvious disclaimer - The analysis, the rationale, and pros & cons attached to each school are entirely mine. I was emotionally independent and avoided being influenced by a single person during the whole analysis. Understandably, each point is debatable. Each point needs to be taken with pinch of salt. However, I believe I made the right choice, the right fit for me.

Sometime back in Nov 2008, in order to arrive at an informed decision I decided to apply Grid Analysis over ISB vs Duke, my favorite decision making technique for complex decisions. One of the factors that contribute towards a good Grid Analysis is that you thought through the situation and various factor involved. If you don’t know the technicalities of Grid Analysis, refer my previous post here . Therefore, I discussed with number of Alumni and current students from both sides of the world – US schools & ISB. Further, I conducted the following SWOT analysis of ISB and Duke.

SWOT Analysis of Duke:

Strengths:
 Excellent network, education, professors
 Post-MBA prospects with better leadership roles, on radar of management in MNC
 Diversity and Global recognition forever

Weaknesses:
 Extremely high on initial cost
 Have to stay in US for more than decade – an option that may disturb the family balance

Opportunities:
 Global and Diversified program
 Break Indian mindset forever

Threats:
 Cost
 Impact on personal life

SWOT Analysis of ISB:

Strengths:
 Help maintain balance between personal and professional life
 Better placed to position me in General Management track with Indian group or companies
 Very convenient program with no additional hassles of loan, visa, international opportunities, less ambiguous, huge brand, food, laundry. Hence, all focus on skill development & fun.
 Cost incurred and time involved is less.

Weakness:
 Lack of International Diversity and global exposure
 Networking opportunities and peer student’s exposure will not match Duke
 Lesser time to immerse in the program and understand the concepts in depth

Opportunities
 Less initial expense means option to explore for starting own business or some other risks
 Will have option to explore interests in emerging market, writing, and join friends – Back to life.
 Explore international positions after ISB n hence, benefit overall
 Uncertainty on Market situation means ISB is better placed for the same.
 Already have strong connections within ISB and Indian MBA position. Will complement.
 6 times cost-benefit advantage – 1/3 cost and ½ times.
 Better chances that in future I will leverage Indian connections rather than big network from Duke

Threats
 Too much placement focus in the school
 Alumni still not in higher position

Finally, here’s the Grid Analysis of ISB vs Duke that led to my answer.

In my own little world, ISB took a significant lead from Duke here. I am happy with the choice I made. They say, every decision is right in perspective and I am confident that my perspective is representative of my inherent desires.

Damn Good !!!!

2009-04-07T06:05:00.001-07:00

A popular motivational speaker was entertaining his audience. He Said : "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife!" The audience was in silence and shock. The speaker added: "And that woman was my mother!"

Laughter and applause.

A week later, a top manager trained by the motivational speaker tried to crack this very effective joke at home. He was a bit foggy after a drink. He said loudly to his wife who was preparing dinner, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!"

The wife went; "ah!" with shock and rage. Standing there for 20 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the manager finally blurted out "....and I can't remember who she was!"

By the time the manager regained his consciousness, he was on a hospital bed nursing burns from boiling water

Moral of the story: Don't copy if you can't paste!

Tame the Beast – Getting through a B-school!!

2009-04-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

The euphoria of ‘getting in’ a top B-school has settled down long back. The excitement and uncertainly around ‘getting through’ has been catching up. How life would be ISB? What changes will it bring in and what I should never allow to be changed – if at all I do have few such things in me? What would be my immediate or persistent pressures? What is it that I can be aware of now rather than 6 months down the line and think “Darn, I missed it”. What I should not know at all? Will I really turn into someone who thinks “To sleep is to waste time”. I am scared. Are there things that I can chuck out and make my life much easier at ISB? Easier life. In a B-school. School - my thoughts were interrupted for a moment by that word and I was taken 3 months back. “School”, exclaimed an innocent friend and asked a novice question “It must be MBA College. Why do you keep on calling it a School”.. Millimeters of this light thought and Killjoy was back. Easier Life. HAA. It’s a 1 Year MBA. 600+ prowling around. Huh, easier life You got be kidding me. Too much was running across a jobless geek’s mind, fresh from a 12 hour long sleep, to surround itself in myriad controversies.

To kill the nagging feeling, I logged on to start over again, to look for other people’s blog, articles, and advise – this time about getting through a Business school. Amazing source of information – this World Wide Web. As Richard Bach said in “Bridge across Forever” - if you don’t know anything about something, pick a book about it. In today’s context, perhaps the best way is to Google it. Only thing one has to know is what one does not know and the rest has already been taken care by someone somewhere. Just connect the dots.

This intuit led me to this extremely useful relevant comprehensive post at a fellow admit’s blog – Nitin Pulayi – the Khabri. A good start to what each new admit should be thinking and cognizant about. I am not going to repeat or recompile what has already been so beautifully described. I hope I can produce a similar, personalized, version of ‘getting through’ B-school by the end of my coursework at ISB in one sitting – of course without looking back at this post. Darn, you believers in cut & copy! As for now the above post will be my guide to unravel the imminent uncertainties about life @ ISB!

Upgrading My version 1.0 to version 1.1!!

2009-04-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

“How does it feel when you wake up and realize that you will not be paid for that day?” I asked Ankit, a close friend as I woke up today – 2nd April, 2009. His lame and lazy looks responded – Dude, I am too used to your morning wit – 9 years now - and I would not consider answering this. Especially at this hour of day, when I use my head least n you perhaps most. For whatever you answer will be pretty unobvious. So please go ahead, answer and please yourself, and I will laugh – involuntary like most of the times. I caught all this in a flash and didn’t, as never before, mind the involuntary piece in the information and proceeded unilaterally with my response “Heavenly. I feel totally blank and blessed. I never knew getting out of job can be so fulfilling”. He had a good laugh and I - a good start to my day.

A lot has gone behind the build up to this day. Simply put a hell lot. But this post is not to dwell into those esoteric times. This post is more about the mystic smell of today, the sweet pleasant present, and the recent activities around the same. It has been a season of farewells and parties ever since I returned from US to spend my last few days with TCS. As they say good or bad, things usually happens in packages. As much pleased I was to return to my old routine – GGN, Offshore team, and all the fun - I was equally happy that most people I’d wished to meet from my current version visited Delhi in March. Awesome! Lucky I. I had a huge list of to do – that included visiting numerous places / restaurants I long cherished in Delhi. I have able to meet all such objectives. I have also been able to reinforce the relationship I shared with most and I earnestly hope I carry on. Unwise what’s the best way to state, but as much as I enjoyed the compassion from most of people and enjoyed building of new bridges, I am also experiencing cracks at some unexpected places that are beyond my comprehension. Perhaps it’s a normal course of transition for human nature. Unlike old me, I will let it happen. Perhaps it’s right time for some weeding to happen. With these mixed - mostly elated - feeling I have concluded my journey with TCS and everything around it. I have had the fortune of gaining support from wonderful set of people and that’s more than sufficient. Everything else around Vinit Garg 1.0 version stands closed now.

What’s next? Terrific lot! As for now, I am looking for my travel towards the nucleus of this universe, to my native place Dhuri, to conclude. I can already touch & feel the distinctive smell in this part of the world. Familiar people, feels like my own - speaking in blunt, powerful, and crisp - Punjabi. The train, almost a time machine since it has transported me successfully several times in and out of worlds that are several light years away, is already taking that its 90 degree curve and I will soon at my home town’s station and mom & dad will be there. Remind me of SRK’s homecoming in KKKG. One week at the center of the universe and I shall be out again, reconditioned, rejuvenated, towards a next objective – Vinit Garg’s version 1.1! A lot more to come on that!

Goa Trip - Capturing those incredible moments !!!

2009-03-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

One of my best trips! Awesome place, awesome occasion, awesome peer group, and above all, the unique combination of 4 B’s – Goa's USP - that made the trip deeply embedded in our memories forever. Perhaps this post will assist in some way to remember the nitty gritties of the tour!!!

Day 1 – The Lost Castle

We arrived at Goa 8:00 P:M and targeted 9:30 P:M to hit the beach. Most of us were envisioning shacks, beer, and beach everywhere during our flight from Delhi. The guest house guy was surprised at the pace with which we arrived, changed, and left. Soon we were at Calangunte Beach – most of us struggling n fighting over the correct pronunciation – and the shack closest to sea was chosen for the grand opening of an innings to meet our target of 100 Beers during the Goa Trip!!

Ankit and I did a “Bottoms Up” with the first beer, and decided that this will be our eeeeeestyle to start every booze party. Ankit later backed out though. 5 of us were preparing our Beer Castle, where each person will arrange his empty bottles in his castle and as the end we will all compare the count. Ashu, couldn’t help repeat 100 times – This is a great idea!! By early morning, all the tourists except 5 of us had disappeared and our beer castle had grown significantly high. Two B’s were already working here – Beach and Beer. However the castles we prepared were lost forever. The digital camera we clicked ourselves with got lost at either of three places – Dropped in sea or lost in beach sand or stolen by the waiter. We could not locate / remember where and who saw it last – The Castles were big you know. The camera loss also meant that we lost our pics of our castles forever. Also, sacrificed were two cell phones – something made two guys dive n jump in water with cell phones in pocket – the castles were huge you know. Moving on, we hired an Auto this time, a unique one. Guess what – The auto had a gate, yes I mean a physical gate that would open just as a car’s do. I repeatedly asked the auto guy the secret behind the gate 8-10 times before my friends helped me realize we could be dropped, rather throw, in middle of the road- The castles were huge you know. I still think that the auto was pretty cool. So impressed was I that I have brought a Memento, a magnet, of the Goa Auto. That brought us to end of very short yet very expensive day at Goa.

Day 2 – The Banana Ride and the other 2 B’s

The next day started with an incessant search for our ride – A bike or car. Good fortune prevailed and we ended up picking Bajaj Avenger over a car or jeep. From there on, the bike rides contributed most significantly to our overall experience.

Water Sports at Calangunte was primary agenda of the day. We didn’t click ourselves much there – the consciousness from loss of digital camera was enough to teach me not to risk my Nikon D40. The two firsts that I personally experimented were Para-gliding and Banana ride. During Paragliding we learnt how cool Goa actually is. The instructor was absolutely fine if we were to bring beer and take it with us in the air. What a missed opportunity!! We contemplated to go to shore n bring our bottles but then, sensibility suggested that we park this thought – let it be our driver to return back to Goa. Next, was the acme of the Goa trip, the Banana Ride. The excitement of being throw open in the sea, Nitin’s frantic search for land and repeated requests to the vendor “Bhaiya, mughe mat girnana”, “Bhaiya, aab please dobara mat girnana”, “Bhaiya, please boat mein hi le jayo” , Ankit’s confidence that I and Varun caught as fake when he said “Main theek huin yaar but mughe lagta hai ki tum aur boat mugh se doorrr ja rahe ho”, “Aur koi khass baat nahin, lekin bohat pani chala gaya hai anndar” - All of us thought at one point or the other that we will never be able to get back to the shore. We fell 5 times while trying to get on the Banana, scaring off the “boat” guy also. At last, we all survived – we grew bit heavier n saline due to amount of water and salt we consumed but we survived – One of my most exciting experience ever.

During all this, we were also steadily progressing towards our objective – 100 Beers. Of course by this time, the 4th B – Babes also contributed in our enriching experience. Nikon D40 SLR with excellent zoom (Am I marketing for Nikon – So be it) helped us capture and appreciate beauty God so carefully created. There were numerous foreigners from across the word but I think nothing beats the Indian beauties. After a quick lunch, we next hit the road again towards Fort Aguada – the DCH way. During our journey, one guy sat backwards on Bike in turns, clicking close n careful photographs of other two driving. We caught attention of locals as well as several foreigners – some thought we were nerds and cracks, others thought we were cool, and some thought we were professional photographers. The trip to Fort was good n helped us take some very good shots and we drove back to Vacautor Beach – the rock beach – to view the Sunset.

Fresh from my experience of Sunset in San Diego, I must say that Goa’s sunset was a disappointment; I was expecting wonderful display of colors n hoping to take some great shots – both went incomplete since the Sunset was nothing spectacular. Nevertheless, it was pretty refreshing and we moved to “The Saturday Nite” market in Arpora. We explored n rode through numerous roads in the interiors of Goa and loved it. The market was pretty good, most of stalls n shops were owned by foreigners. We tasted good wine and food there and moved on to our favorite place, the Beach Shacks at Baga Beach that was lot more happening than Calangunte as far as nightlife is concerned. We tasted Cashew Feni and danced quite a lot at the open disc. Nitin wanted to sleep at the Beach itself but was informed and scared by the waiter about potential raids by police or stray dogs wandering around. He rejected the idea. While returning back, Ankit turned down plan to go to Café Coffee day and earned several curses from us. It worked. Police tried to stop Ankit’s bike, he ran instead, police followed, and finally caught him. Ankit still maintains that he just paid 300 Rs but we continue to be skeptical – must have been something more, either money or …………

That brought end to Day 2@ Goa!! Thrilling, exciting, awesome, fantastic, fabulous, fantabulos– What not!

Day 3 – Beer Game and Pressure censors!!

Day 3 was always about Beer Game. Nothing else was planned. We took a call to skip driving 80 Km to South Goa and focus on North Goa. We picked up the happening Calangunte again. Before I get into specifics, first I will briefly explain what exactly Beer Game is.

I last played and learnt the same while at Backwaters at Allepy, Kerala. In beer game, you have people sitting in a circle with all the cards turned downwards. In turn, each person will pick up a card and each card carries a rule. If it’s anything 2-9 of Black, the person drinks Beer for those many seconds. Anything 2-9 Red, the person can nominate other person (Think who cracked the last nasty joke on you and target). 10 is Waterfall and that means Bottoms Up for everyone. “A” makes you the ruler. You can define any rule and people have to follow. For instance, I made an Alien rule. Every time you drink, you have to take an Alien out, drink, and put the Alien back. Simple as it sounds, Nitin repeated his drink three times (9 second Red nomination) because he forgot to either take out or put back the alien. Similarly, you can define other rules for Jack, Queen, and King. We went on to play the Beer game for 3-4 hours and ended up with a huge collection of empty bottles close to our shack. The people passing by were amazed at the same and wanted to click our pic with our empty bottles. The whole day went like this, chilling out in our Shack, clicking numerous pictures of each other, running, jumping in water.

As the evening approached, we were looking for a nice decent place to eat and searched “The Stone” restaurant close to Calangunte. Done with the food, Casino was the next. We learnt about “The Mint” casino in Arpora and ventured to explore the same. Nitin was at his skeptical best. According to him, everything at the Casino - the Roulette tables, people, free drinks, free food – were a conspiracy against us. He was on mission to uncover the dark secrets. While Ankit, I, and Ashu played Roulette, Nitin quietly observed everyone closely. Meanwhile, Ankit made the Roulette a perfect strategic decision making game and he would carefully articulate the exact number to bet upon – based on a paper on which he noted the previous results. However, as everyone else does, he too lost and finally concurred to appreciate that the game is all about gamblingJ. No pun intended. Later, I tried my luck and secured several big wins. Meanwhile, Nitin would touch the whole table multiple times while the game was on. The Casino guy finally asked him to stop at which he bended over and asked me “Are you sure these guys don’t have Pressure Censors to know what we bet upon and fabricate the result of the roulette? “. Sherlock Holmes was at work!! We returned from the Casino, proud of spending more than 2 hours and losing just 1500 bucks. Overall Casino experience was pretty good and I shall recommend the same to everyone visiting Goa. Finally we returned for another peaceful trip to Beach before hitting back to our place- some 4:30 in the morning.

Day 4 – Sign Off Beer and Memento Negotiation

We didn’t have much to do on the final day. Since there was some time, we went to Baga beach to click some more shots. We counted where we stand for our Beer Count and learnt we are just 1 short of 100. That was just perfect and we 5 took our final beer that we called – Sign off Beer. Done with this, we departed from three B’s – Beaches, Beer, and Babes. The 4th n last – Bike was next.

In our way, we stopped for Momento shopping. I would always remember that lady in the shop. At Goa, I learnt that everything gets negotiated. You like it or not but you have to. The Coconut Water guy would start from 25 and end at 10. Don’t even ask about the clothes. 350 to 100 is common. I was so accustomed to this by end of our tour unless I met this lady. She didn’t even negotiate for 1 rupee from initial quote. She shouted at an uncle and aunty from “Nagpur” who asked her to take out merchandise worth 1000 but bought nothing. She concluded that this is a general problem with Indians. We were shocked initially but glad later. Some shopkeeper makes sense in Goa. But in general, be prepared for some serious price negotiation to an extent that you negotiate beer prices at standard restaurants and shacks – We did this at Calangunte. Finally each of us departed from our beloved 4th B – The Bajaj Avenger Bike - and took our long drive to Airport to Delhi.

That’s all about GOA. I am in serious GOA Hangover since I am back. I can’t get over the 4 B’s. I wish we were to think of breaking Brian Lara’s record of 400 rather than focusing on just a 100. I find my healthy Unicorn nothing more than a bi-cycle now. I think Nitin should continue to probe into Casino’s pressure sensor enabled tables. May be, we should have persisted a bit to ask to lady to drop Momento prices by 1 Rs, at least live the spirit of Goa. Perhaps, we should have gone for Para-Gliding taking beer along again. One more Banana Ride. May be, this time Nitin will be find some land in middle of sea this time to position his feet. I will always remember this trip for the place, for the “bachelors type” activities, for the timing – I am closing my current version to commence a new life at ISB, and lastly, perhaps most importantly, the people I went with – I am sure never again I will have a chance to go anywhere with the same peer group. Life is fine blend of holding on and letting go. I am just collecting the maximum I can hold on and the memories of this trip will always be right up there.

Bill Gates' 11 Rules of Life...

2009-03-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one

My Global Blog!!

2009-02-20T01:25:00.001-08:00

Just had a chance look at the Cluster Map widget I put long back on my blog. It kind of caught me off-guard with the compiled information about visitors to my blog and respective countries. Here is the list of all countries and respective hits:

I can understand India, US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada, UAE etc where I know few people. However, hits from countries that I haven’t even heard off, kind of surprise me. So much for the power of Internet and Globalization!!!

“Eat that Frog” – Book Review !!!

2009-02-20T01:06:00.000-08:00

Just finished skimming an insightful e-book “Eat that Frog” on time management. Although I am pretty comfortable with my time management techniques and have been able to handle divergent priorities till now, I took a chance with this book to learn something new – In hope to prepare for upcoming eventuality of a time crunch year ahead.

There were not exactly new things or mantra’s that this book presented. However, the book simply reinforced things that were buried down, several stacks, in my personal conscience. As the saying goes “You can’t teach an adult something new, you can just help him realize what he already knows”. Overall, I left the book with a positive experience and here is a snapshot of few things I liked.

The author emphasized that his success mantra over the years have been that he continuously learned what other successful people in his role did and he applied the same. Interesting thought but I would like to add a twist – “Think that you can do absolutely anything in life and commit to anything you want to do. Once done, find a role model whom you can follow, learn his approach, and applying the same. There is so much in this world to learn. If you can’t find a role model that means you are doing something that has never been done yet. Pat yourself and celebrate first – to find such task. Later, continue to believe you are made to do it, create your own path, and let others follow”. Quite an interesting theory!!!

Other than the above thought, the author presented 21 ideas – most of them pretty obvious but important like hell - to better your time management. I picked up few on them:

1. Think on Paper - Make written goals. It helps in thinking clearly. Write 10 goals for yourself, now
2. Plan your day in advance and live the future.
3. Follow 20/80 rule and pick the important activities first.
4. Long Term thinking improves short term decisions. Think bigger picture always.
5. Take small but regular steps to huge targets. Discipline yourself to take one step at a time. Your job is to go as far as you can see. Once you reach there, you will see the next destination.
6. Only about 2% people can work without supervision. These people are called 'Leaders' – Put voluntary pressure rather than waiting for someone.
7. Do the most difficult task first and create large chunks of time for important work.

The book implores one to be action oriented and the author concluded that an average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans but who gets very little done.

Quite an interesting read that plunged me into action – at least for now!!!!

Signing off from America !!

2009-02-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

An international post - I wrote this at Frankfurt, Germany Airport yet talked about US and India. So much for Globalization !!!

It’s been three years since I first landed in US – back in June 2006. Since then, I have made three round trips to India – earning the tag of frequent flyer among my friends. Today, it’s feels great to sign off from US on such a positive note. The toughest assignment I ever worked upon – Acquisition Project – was a great success. It gives me immense satisfaction and a huge confidence while going into my MBA that my leadership and management were well recognized and appreciated for this project. I personally feel I was simply lucky – to be in the right place at the right moment that led me to be chosen for this role. And more so lucky by having right people working on this project and some really good ideas that just struck my head during planning and execution of this project. The role I played has been extremely helpful to take a practical look at things rather than just theoretical perspective – what it means to energize your team, what people management is all about, how you pass information down and provide information up, how you keep stakeholders aligned, how you take responsibility, and when, if required, you play dirty. The last one, when you play dirty, has been my favorite. I myself can’t believe that in a short span of 4 months, I have got through all this. No wonder, I would rate this short and intense stint among my finest learning experiences. And, to leave while getting acknowledgments and appreciations from every stakeholders in the project, especially from some who initially doubted my capabilities and created scene to an extent that I too for few moments thought “I can’t do it” , makes the journey back lot more satisfying. My US visa has also expired and I am ending my term with TCS on 31st March. Everything seems to be a perfect logical end to a great journey and commencement of a new endeavor.

Before I eventually start discovering myself again at ISB, I have about 6-8 weeks to ramp up things in my current version of life. My stay at GGN is going to extremely hectic and fast paced. Partying with family, friends, and colleagues, and preparing for grueling 1 year are two compelling priorities. Countdown has already begun and I got to make maximum of each and every day left now. Looking forward to spend an engaging 2 months at GGN– Just, just if TCS were to give me a better itinerary I could have started few hours sooner !!!

A change and a hope - Can he deliver ?

2009-01-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Obama, the 44th President of United States, took the oath today. Given the importance of United States economy that drives the world economy makes this event a historic one for millions facing the dual challenges of worsening economy and ever-rising terrorism inside as well as outside America. That also explains to my curious mind why I saw lot of Indians watching closely the oath ceremony at office today. Obama choose his moto of “Change” and “We Can” at a time when these themes connected with hearts and minds of people deeply. His popularity is rising exponentially across the world – that explains that more than 2 million people have there status with something mentioned about Obama today and that I am writing this post – Amazing for guy with such humble beginning.

One of the anecdotes that I continue to fall back when I think of Obama is when I hired a Taxi with an African-American driver for my Duke Interview. A night before Obama was elected as the President and I drew my own inspiration from this man, thinking nothing is impossible and that he has outlived his critics and defied history. Yet, the first hand comments from the Taxi driver brought me closer to what Obama’s selection means to African-American population in US as well as other minorities across the world. The taxi driver said “You seem to be from India. I am sure one day will come when an Indian will become President of US also”. When I asked why he thinks so, he replied, “Mannnn, this country is free and open now. Anyone can do anything now. I didn’t get lot of opportunities but I am sure my kids will do well now”. For a moment, I was taken aback because being used to Indian democracy, which I think is great, I am not used to think that a citizen of India can’t become a president or PM. We have Sikh PM and had a Muslim President, who collectively led a Hindu dominated country. Indian system is great and way ahead of other democracies and I think US is going in the same direction. The election of Obama as president has dawned a new era that will defy age old fundamentals of fascism and racism in Western world.

Coming to Obama’s speech today, if I were to baseline some of his previous speeches I think this was an average one. Although the content and every word made a lot of sense yet I think too many things were discussed – perhaps that’s need to hour but left me with numerous messages with nothing that stuck my head. I continue to rate his “Don’t tell me words don’t matter” speech the best ever I heard. A great orator and I am already a fan of his Public Speaking skills, I think a quality that most of our Indian politicians lack. As much as I have heard and read about Obama, I have found him as a person who talks and connects to the real problems faced at the grassroots level – talking of using sun to harness energy, reducing energy consumption, rebuilding roads, creating jobs, healthcare, and reducing excessive focus on punishing terrorist. Everything a common man today hopes for and would want to hear. Some of the text that I liked was “We choose hope over fear today”, “For everywhere we look, there is work to be done”. Lot of ambitious plans that encompass almost every aspect we can think of. I think with this tall promises and high hopes Obama will also with scrutinized and monitored more closely than ever, especially with millions of people hoping a miracle now with this change. He will need to move at a rapid pace something that his predecessors haven’t given him in legacy. The task is cut out for him, the ground is set, and world waits what changes he can bring. The first one I came to know was that he led a African-American taxi driver believe in himself and envision his children’s bright future. Can he bring same hope to rest of the world? He is change and a hope - can he deliver !!!

Slumdog Millionaire – What a media hype!!

2009-01-19T22:33:00.001-08:00

There has been too much of media hype and blogging from numerous people, as esteemed as AB, on Slumdog Millionaire stuff. I don’t consider my post can help settle or fuel further already created masala controversy. Yet the increasing number of articles and headlines about the movie’s theme and subject irked me to this post.

First thing first, SDM is great movie and I must say it was a pleasant surprised since I didn’t expect this much from the movie. The screen play, the riveting story line, the solid acting especially by the kids, and last but not the least the award winning music composition by A.R. I was excited when this movie won accolades at the Golden Globe. As much as this movie has enjoyed success in hearts of its audience, as much it has been denigrated by several seemingly pro-Indian patrons mainly for two things. First that this movie shows poor side of India and second that westerns made a movie on Indian poverty, got appreciated but if an Indian were to do the same, he wouldn’t get the same. Let me take a shot at these two points.

Before getting into details, I guess I need to make an obvious point that has been overlooked. SDM is a movie and not a representation of our beloved India’s overall state of existence. Yes, SDM represents the poor and shabby side of Mumbai. But what’s wrong in that? Isn’t the whole story a reality check? Deep inside, we all know that such places, children, and social elements exist within our society. Why we need to run and hide from some of the compelling inequalities. And what’s wrong if someone focused on this subject just like movies focus on the corruption in Bihar, glamorized fashion world etc. I read some of the comments that dissected the movie extremely narrowly. For instance, a fellow blogger mentioned that she didn’t like the filthy things shown in the movie since she thought that no one can be such a huge fan of a film star to jump in his own shit to get an autograph. Well, honestly speaking, I rate that scene in the movie among the best one. The points I thought director wants to make there was not the intellectual capital of the child but the raw passion about AB and also, plain innocence of the child - both of these were depicted meticulously, making the whole scene a memorable one. Don’t get me wrong here. I take pride in belong to India and understandably there is lot more positive happening around. I also conjure to project positive image of India because it is, in fact, positive. And I feel we are getting these accolades in world media for our progress and rightly so. However, at the same time, we should not disown some inequalities that resoundingly exist today and will continue to, unless we, the positive side of India, make some difference. If someone were to argue that West will form a deplorable image of India based on this one movie, I guess then those elements better stay away from us and neither should we be interested in those elements.

Second, there are number of voices in media today that associate the success of the movie to its western origin. Further, there are issues with the subject that NRI movies on India focus on the poor side of India because poverty sells. If I may question, isn’t it natural for a western NRI movie makers to focus on the poor side of India since that is something missing in western society today. I am surprised that no other western producer focused on this subject earlier. How much would movies focused on Indian highways, cars, airports, multiplexes, and urban places sell in American where these things are just way of life. I would have slammed SDM’s directors if he showed some unrealistic things in the story. However, I think SDM story is just few meters away from almost every Indian – Just get out of your home, hit a road, and you are likely to see a ‘Jamaal’. Further, NRI movie makers have also been focusing on other stories such as Bend It Like Becham, Namesake etc. What’s wrong if they pick up this subject? Let’s accept it – There aren’t much Indian directors who could have handled this subject so well. And if there are such directors who can, they didn’t try because they are busy making I-Feel-Good-About-India movies rather than rare movies that are packed with entertainment and social message – Like TZP or SDM.

To conclude, I think SDM is a great movie – a piece of art, that also won accolades and prizes for our Indian artists in Golden Globe and I wish best of luck now for Oscars. Let’s remember this movie for the same.

Dreams Dreams Dreams... All Over !!!

2009-01-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Exactly 3 months away from the roller coster ride, I think my next 3 months are going to be laziest ever in my life. These days, I have to motivate myself a lot to do almost anything, even for writing this blog.

The good part is that I think now-a-days there is absolutely nothing left that I wish but can't accomplish. All it takes it to close your eyes and here you go.......I have travlled to all Wonders of world, dated with Priyanka Chopra, owned a BMW, met all my childhood friends, took revenge from all those bowlers against whom I didn't score well during my gully cricket days, single handedly brought Satyam out of its current crisis, rallied the whole nation to give befitting reply to Mumbai attackers, beat Aamir Khan's Ghajini 8 packs, took my parents in flight to Singapore, toured with friends at beaches of Goa,..Hmmmm what next.....

Few things that I wish that really happen when I wake up next time are:
1. I get a call from my manager that he agreed to send me back to India sooner than Feburary.
2. I get a mailfrom my manager that he agreed to send me back to India sooner than Feburary.
3. My managers takes me out to coffee and agrees to send me back to India sooner than Feburary.
Ahem !!!!!

Operation Valkyrie !!!

2009-01-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

I was excited by the trailers for this Tom Cruise flick “Valkyrie” and finally got a chance to see it today. Decent movie and Tom Cruise Rocks.

I also ventured to explore more on the operation and reached
here. This proves that movie is actually based on true story.

One time Watch and help you enhance your General Knowledge a bit!!!

Themes -- 2009

2009-01-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

If the first day of the year is symbiotic of days to follow in New Year, I am glad I am in 2009. I am more relaxed than ever today, curious than before, and away from daily arguments that conspire against me. I simply like my current state of mind and hope coming times are equally soothing.

I look forward at 2009 and hope to measure my success at the end of year through different and varied parameters as compared to 2008. Last year, I was more focused on securing good career and financial security for myself, my sister, and my family. Glad that I achieved all my seemingly ambitious goals, I envision year 2009 will be focused in re-inventing the elements that I lost somewhere and setting up certain crucial new elements. Some of the themes for this year are:

Healthier 2009 – This one is the most important– to inculcate habits that promote healthier self. My past activities didn’t warrant enough time and many times it was just procrastination to not hit Gym / Yoga etc. I used the excuses of not having enough time, other high priorities etc. Now onwards, this one is right at the top and forever. I will continue to be involved in at least one among the many identified activities such as Gym / Yoga / Running / Dancing / Sports (Cricket, Long Tennis Squash). Further, I will live this adage forever “Never Ever a puff again”. I am sure all these activities will continue to add new colors to my life.

Poorer 2009 – This year is certainly going to be pretty poor year. If you are quitting your job the very first day of a New Year, what else can you expect. Yeah, I will be putting down my papers on the first working day of the Year 2009 to join ISB in April. Certainly, I wouldn’t be earning close to what I have been able to do in past years. Therefore, it calls for taking steps of better management of resources and financials. The game is getting bigger now and it calls for caution in some areas and aggression in other. Would be fun!!!!

Happier 2009 –I have realized the importance of maintaining balance between professional and personal lives. Of course professional achievements are the cornerstone of a happier life as well as high on agenda for this year as always. Yet, I am not making a whole separate theme since objective is to look at professional aspects as one among many aspects of a happier life. The imbalance in past has cost me dear. This year, I am definitely going to cover up by doing things that I always put on hold in past – be it taking my parents on a flight, increasingly hitting the list of places I have made to visit, or by simply re-inventing the stupid little things I always enjoyed.

Generous 2009 – With the theme Poorer in place, how do I justify this? The answer is that my generosity to social causes will continue to be my skills and time rather than financial resources. I strongly believe each human wants to help others. The only thing missing is a platform to utilize that human tendency through initiative, innovation, and leadership. I wish to progress and build over the tiny little steps I have taken so far. I am deeply inspired by Bill Gates’s speech at Harvard Class Commencement that gave me a whole new direction. He emphasized each Harvard graduate to identify one inequality in the society, find out the real problem, implement solutions, and oversee the results – a professional approach. His words “I hope by end of your life, you will not simply evaluate yourself based on your professional success” -- ROCK!!!
Heads up: The social inequality that I have already identified is “Education” (Will go into ‘Why’s later). 2009 will be my platform for my commitment to improve something in Education.

Of course there are number of very specific milestones that I hope to accomplish this year but all those fit into one or the other theme. Looking back at what I have come up, I am pretty satisfied with the direction I am going to take. Amen!!! Lastly and most importantly, I look forward to have you, my reader, as a part of my story. 

Missing my target big time !!

2008-12-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

I started off the year 2008 with a resolution to write 100 posts on this blog. With the current count at 37, I sure am going to miss my target big time. In my opinion, it does not help to state that I have been busy in pursuing more important targets. The goals for me are never going to smaller than what were in this year.

However, I have now crossed a critical threshold in my life and my posts need to take a better direction and frequency now. I will cover whatever I can in this year and definately hit my target of 100 posts next year !! God..give me some ideas ....

My Journey to ISB !!!

2008-12-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks to ISB Class of 2010 to kick off an interesting contest, Blog War. The first topic couldn’t have been better - “My Journey to ISB”. I believe this topic is going to serve two purposes. First, it will make all participants re-live the passionate, nervous, and joyful moments of their ISB pursuit. Second, these posts will serve as a data points for future ISB aspirants. We are going to create database of personal stories of ~10 ISB admitted students –their aspirations, fears, thoughts, and interests. ISB Class of 2010 is already on a song. So, with intentions to live my ISB journey again and to help ISB aspirants, I proceed to my first autobiographical post.

Sachin Tendulkar during his interview after breaking Brian Lara’s world record to become highest Test run scorer said something that touched my heart “It’s the journey of success where stones are thrown at you and you turn them into milestones”. Not to compare my accomplishment with my God’s, yet I can absolutely relate my ISB story with this phrase. I have had a fair share of disappointments before eventually reaching the acme of my journey.

Pre-ISB Mania – How I fell in love

I first heard about ISB in March 2006 when a colleague made it to ISB. She and I took CAT in 2005 but scored way below what was expected of us. She, however, was way more informed that I was. She applied to ISB based on her CAT score, cracked the interviews, and secured an admission after clearing GMAT cut-off set by ISB. I then realized the difference it makes to have educated and well-versed individuals to guide you. I belonged to a small town, with quite ignorant parents and didn’t have the luxury to be guided and coached. I decided then to develop such assets (Buzz work Networking) to gain wider perspective and guidance. As I will explain later, this habit to question, learn, and just talk with even a complete stranger has been my strongest ally during my ISB journey. In mid 2006, I got an opportunity to come to Orlando, US on a project from TCS and that’s when my ISB pursuit formally started.

A Raw and Passionate Attempt – First propose

Since I was all alone during initial stay in US, GMAT books became my ally. I started GMAT prep, unclear of where I am heading. MBA was a black box during those days. It seemed like a magic pill that will heal all my wounds, make me successful forever, and end all my worries. It was a magnet to me – I didn’t know why then, nor had the maturity to explore. I simply had raw passion to crack GMAT and go to ISB. I prepared for around 10 weeks for GMAT and scored an average 690. That was the first stone throw in my journey. Wise from my CAT experience, I choose to just apply to gain exposure. I was always appreciated by my friends for my writing skills. However, ISB essays seemed different ball-game. It wasn’t that simple. I did my best and choose to review essays with an acquaintance in Orlando (Networking was already working here). He completely blasted my essays that shocked and surprised me. All my friends praised but a stranger found them rubbish. What’s wrong? I realized I was comparing myself with wrong peer group. I decided that my college, school, and town friends will continue to be extremely important for me but will no longer be my comparison group. That was an extremely important realization since it helped me shift focus and get out of my comfort zone. Coming back to application, my efforts were not sufficient and ISB send me a rejection without inviting me for interview in Jan 2007. That was an abrupt end to a raw and passionate journey. I didn’t address “What” and “Why” questions then, nor did knew I should address those. However, my response to rejection was quite mature. I accepted that I haven’t done enough to feel disappointed. For the first time, I appreciated the learning irrespective of the results. That realization and reaction in itself is my first milestone.

An Informed Attempt – Second Propose

Before this attempt, I improved my profile by taking additional responsibilities in work and outside. Further, since I found so many gaps in my first attempt that I ruled out all other B-school and thought that if I can address the identified gaps, I can make to ISB itself. I paved my way for an extremely risky path. But that’s how you behave when you are mad in love. By the time ISB applications commenced, I improved my GMAT to a confident 730. I dived deep into essay writing and earned an interview call. It was the second happiest moment of my ISB journey. I knew that there is another mountain to climb- ISB Interview. During preparation, I realized my weakness to answer deep “Why” questions but somehow made up for the gaps. I did well during interview. One of the craziest questions that I cracked was “How many schools should be opened in India so that every child who is not able to go to school today can go to school”. I was confident of a “YES” from ISB. I was in flight to Hyderabad in my dreams. One fine morning, an abrupt “Rejection” email de-boarded me forever. That was the biggest and hardest stone throw I ever faced in my life that later turned into the most significant milestones of my journey.

My ISB rejection was followed by the toughest period of my life. My confidence took a hit, my professional career derailed, and I began to doubt myself. I returned to India without any gifts and chocolates for friends and family. SRK’s dialogue in OSO “Apni filmoin ki tarah, apni zindagi mein bhi end mein sab theek ho hi jata hai” seemed superficial. I became unusually quite that concerned my friends and family. I was at verge of giving it up but some thing kept the hope alive – something kept on telling me “Ek bar aur too banta hai”. The brief dull period followed with a period of intense introspection where I grew and learned most – about MBA, about life, and about myself. I evaluated almost all phases of my personal and professional aspirations, associated “Why”, “When”, “What if not” to everything. Looking outwards, I networked with people from virtually every B-school in the globe. I would simply talk to someone I find on Orkut, Facebook, Blog, B-school websites and learn something. In retrospect, I am thankful to ISB to reject me since I may have never learned so much and become the person I am now, If I were not humbled by ISB rejection despite my best possible attempt.

A Mature Attempt – Third Propose and she said "YES"

By this time, I developed number of unique stories to compliment my profile, excelled professionally, gained deep understanding of MBA applications through my networking, and improved my written and verbal skills significantly. I put my heart, blood, and sweat in my essays and was satisfied with the representation of my professional, personal, background, aspirations, and achievements. Since I had already opened up for International B-schools, I also applied to Duke in Early Action round. A list of back-ups for R-2 was also prepared.

ISB Interview call was more or less expected. The actual interview was, however, not as smooth as I expected. Huge pressure and high expectations brought an element of nervousness. The short 15 minutes interview also concerned me. There is no fun in disclosing it now that I got in this time, since you already know. But let me share that along with ISB I also got admitted to Duke in EA round. Duke news broke earlier and like your first kiss, you enjoy your the first admit more. However, my ISB admit was greeted with amazing responses from my friends – some actually shouted, jumped, and what not!! Maannnnnn for a moment I thought that they made it to ISB. A close friend who didn’t booze, self organized a party and took 6 vodka shots, that too when I was in US and he in India. Can you beat that?

That day, my Gtalk status message read “It was never a question of “if” it was always a question of “when”. That day SRK’s OSO complete dialogue made sense “Apni filmoin ki tarah, apni zindagi mein bhi end mein sab theek ho hi jata hai. Aur agar sab theek na ho, to who the end nahin, picture abhi baki hai mere dost”. That day, the confident Vinit I knew was back.

What it means for what lies ahead

ISB Admission will continue to be important to me because this is a testimony to my persistence and actuation of a dream. I will continue to be motivated by my own efforts (Looking back, I am also surprised by my efforts, by what made me come this far). I will continue to look at positive side of any failures I may face in my life – the learning from experiences, the next opportunities. I completely understand that the journey ahead will perhaps be tougher, harder, and stakes would be higher. MBA and ISB are just bridges, a connection that will complement what I have and supplement what I want. However, I approach what lies ahead after actually living the golden words from my hero: “It’s the journey of success where stones are thrown at you and you turn them into milestones”. This realization is my biggest takeaway from my ISB journey thus far.

P:S: For my ISB Class of 2010, I have already rejected Duke and decided to join ISB since it creates a lot of balance in all aspects of my life(more to come on that). Look forward to meet you all.

Quotes !!

2008-12-16T21:09:00.000-08:00

While reorganizing some stuff on my lappy, I came across some good quotes that I noted down sometime back. Thought to share some words of wisdom here:

Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them. -Lou Holtz

Never explain yourself. Your friends dont need it and your enemies wont believe it.

Forgive your enemies, but never, never forget their names. -John F. Kennedy

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. -Ann Landers

Being sad with the right people is better than being happy with the wrong ones. -Philippos

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too. -Will Smith

If your problem has a solution then...why worry about it? If your problem doesnt have solution then...why worry about it? -Chinese Proverb

Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can't change. Kiss slowly, play hard, forgive quickly, take chances, give everything and have no regrets. Life's too short

The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger. -Philippos

You have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you've got, remember what you had, learn from your mistakes, but never regret, people change, things go wrong, but remember life goes on!

Sometimes the people who hurt us the most are people who were hurt more than us. -Philippos

I like to pretend that everything's alright. Because when everybody else thinks you're fine, sometimes you forget for a while that you're not.

"Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us." -Thomas Paine

The things that made me stronger are the ones that didn't let me sleep at first.

Strategy's strategist: An interview with Richard Rumelt

2008-12-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

One of the most informative interviews I have ever read. Not sure whether that's because of my incessant interest in what is getting discussed or because the thought process of Mr. Richard is simply awesome.

Check the article here

Accepted ISB and Declined Duke !!!

2008-12-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have been longing since forever to post this on my blog that Yeah - I have secured an Admit to a top business school. I have always kept my blog aloof from my B-school journey since I always wanted to writing MBA stuff once I secure an admit. However, I never knew that the day when I will declare the news on my personal blog, I will post in the title a rejection message for another kick-ass school. It was, perhaps, the toughest decision of my life to pick between ISB and Duke. Why did I pick ISB? I will cover that later. I am in mood today to write random and therefore, don't wanna touch ISB vs Duke decision since that pretty important and needs to be addressed properly. Okay, going little retrospective today.

It may sound bit presumptuous that I started writing this blog to create an asset and identity for myself on the web that will assist me in my MBA Application. But I actually did. I was of the opinion that writing blog will help me in two ways. First, If I write and maintain this blog well I can use this as a handle to showcase my wide range of interests in my MBA application. So this would serve as an additional data point for Adcom. Second, I choose to write here to capture my activities, interests, etc to better my writing skills that will assist in my essays. And it really worked for me since last 2 years. However, what I never planned or even dreamed was that this blog will serve as discussion point even during my ISB Interview.

During my ISB Interview, the interviewer opened my blog (I mentioned in hobbies section) and he questioned me on Decision Making Post about Grid Analysis. Maannnn- I took me sometime to realize when he threw question "So tell us more about Grid Analysis" and I was thinking "Where did that come from". The good part was that I somehow related myself during the brief silence to my post and was able to explain Grid Analysis. I started off by "Oh, so you are at my blog. Well, Grid Analysis is.....". Trust me, such moments will continue to stay golden for me forever. And even if they try to fade, I have my blog to help bring them back.

I am having hundreds of thoughts in my mind now that I have started writing about ISB and MBA journey. How many times I attempted, what made me stay persistent, why MBA, how to write good essays, why not to follow advise of your friends always, what happens when you are rejected, How can you be different...Numerous things.

And it's all gonna come in a mega-post I am planning on - "My Journey to ISB and what it means to me" - Thanks to Zorawar for the first topic for ISB Class of 2010's newly introduced "Blog War". I am ON !!!!

Check out details of Blog war at : http://isb-mmx.blogspot.com/2008/12/bloggers-war-kickoff.html

Struggling to Write

2008-12-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe I am writing this post with the aforementioned title. There used to be time when writing a blog was a piece of cake. I would enjoy the simplicity involved in the same. While writing blog, you can afford to be free. You don’t need to worry about the word limit. You don’t need to polish the write again n again so that someone sitting in Admission Committee of a business school “Likes you” !! Yeah, I am referring to numerous essays I have written in my ordeal for B-School Admission.

Now finally when I am done with my B-School journey, it seems I have suddenly lost touch with writing. Hope this blog acts as a refresher because writing sure has to be an integral part of me forever. Perhaps, part of reason that I am not able to begin full montyyy on bloging because of some outstanding questions that I still have to get answered – It was huge decision to pick ISB finally over Duke (More to come on that)

Whatever said and done, I almost forgot what it means to sit on your lappy and do something other than writing an essay or browing some websites… Life seems to be back on track atleast for sometime unless I hit April 2009 

Time to be back !!

2008-11-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

It's time to be back on web. The forced sabbatical that I took from my writing paid of well and I am here to talk about number of different things that I brought up never before.

In the days to come, I am sure to convert my blog into a real representation of myself !! Hope to have your continued and perhaps increased interest in my posts....

Not much on web these days !!

2008-10-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

I haven't been able to take out time to write something on my blog for many days now. When you are short of time to breathe, perhaps blogging takes a lower priority. Over the last month, life has been hectic - much more than I have ever experienced. The divergent priorities - Professional and Personal - each at peak in its own terms have taught me numerous things in one month.

First, I have learnt and applied more time-management techniques these days. I attempt to visualize my day and plan for the same during shower / during travel to work. This has helped me to recollect my priorities of the day often.

Second, I have also learnt to stay composed under pressure situation. I have learnt it hard way when I reacted impulsively to a situation at work that had rippling effect on my work. I escalated about an person whereas I could have handled the situation more calmly and talked personally first to the person. However, I learnt the importance of carrying everyone along in tough situation. You never know in delicate situations how things sway in various directions quickly.

Third, I have also realized the importance to disconnet yourself from work / personal things. It is important to stay in present. When at work, focus on work. When at home, focus on your stuff. Trust me, this ain't easy. Yet I feel I have succeeded in many ways to achieve this and till now, I am satisafied with my performance.

To conclude, I value this intense period of time in my life and I have the courage to think that this will pay rich dividends in time to come. At the same time, not everything is exactly on track and I have much more to accomplish in coming month. I am on !!!

An amazing story !!

2008-10-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading some of speeches from emminent business leaders and came across this wonderful story from Azim Premji about the power of education and cascading effects of educating one child.

The story is about a poor Scottish farmer named Fleming. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you, " said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment the farmer's own son came to the door of the hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If he's anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of." And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him?
Penicillin.
This is not the end. The nobleman's son also made a great contribution to society. For the nobleman was none other than Lord Randolph Churchill. And his son's name was Winston Churchill.

I think this is the only way for accelerating economic growth and development for the entire world economy. Those who know, share there information. You never know when you end up making a farm kid into Alexander Fleming.

All set to Fly - Once again !!

2008-09-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Folks, it the time again in the year for the third consecutive time that I am all set to fly.

Again going through the troubles of packing your bags in hope to dispose old stuff and get new things at new place, leaving a cozy environment of friends and acquitance around hoping to find even better arrangements, breaking some commitments and promise I made to myself and others in aspiration to scale new heights. Each time I have take this leap - each time I have unsettled myself to break out of comfortable zone, I have gained something. I am hoping this experience turns out to be the deal closer for me in many ways !!

Rest updates from a new IP address :)))

A refreshing realization at Toast Master !!!

2008-09-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

It isn’t easy for me to come to my blog these days. Still wanted to write a quick update on the first prize I won at Toast Master in yesterday’s meeting for I don’t want my dear blog to be devoid of the good news.

I was rated as the ‘Best Table Topic Speaker’ though I thought I could have added a lot to the content. The topic given was ‘Knowledge is Best when put into Practice’. It was even better when the evaluator showered praise on my voice, style, and flow. The best compliment perhaps was ‘It was an impromptu speech and you are our Guest. Still I would say it seemed like a prepared speech”. In my own small world, it’s a huge boost and a significant step towards my public speaking un-official career that I launched couple of months back.

This post definately deserves 'The First in my life' tag. I shall be updating about my public speaking developments as I go. For the time being, time to get back from where I came from.

Ciao
~Vinit

Public Speaking – A marathon with David Brooks!!

2008-09-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

For long, I wanted to write a post in Q & A format. Please pardon me if you find this structure imposed.

Q. Who is David Brooks?
A. David is World Champion in Public Speaking contest in 1990, have been associated with Toast Masters club for more than 20 years, author of the book “The Seven Strategies of Master Presenter”. To discover more please visit www.DavidBrooksTexas.com

Q. How do you know David?
A. Ahh…he is a childhood friend. In fact when he was writing his speech for his contest in 1990 I helped him with some fundamental corrections without which he admits he may have never won!!! (Wasn’t that outrageously audacious: P). On factual note, I heard him today at New-Delhi present with his Magic Moments collection and I am highly impressed the way he digressed the moves and gestures of speakers, suggesting that it’s no less than an ART to speak well.

Q. Why are you writing this post?
A. First because research suggests we loose 50% of content from our memory within 24 hours, next 50% in 48 hours and continue to loose at similar pace. I don’t want to loose insightful things I learnt from David today. Second, if you go right to my first post on this blog I made a promise to my blog that it will be my companion in my journey. I am man of my words my friend.

Q. Why should I read this post?
A. If you have reached this far, perhaps you are interested in either of three: - Public Speaking or David Brooks or me!! Read on, I assure you will be interested in at least one more thing that what you currently are.

You can’t have better start to your newly developed passion as I did. I have often read and tried to understood styles, presentations, speeches, and insights of numerous well known personalities. However, this is the first time I met someone accomplished personally. David left me with number of things to think, actions to take, and ways to improve my public speaking capabilities. I will note here some of the highly concise yet elaborate pieces one should take care to make credible speeches:

Body Language begins with Face:-
Speeches not backed with credible gestures will merely be imposition. You have to act as a guide to the audience with your gestures making it as simple as possible for them to interpret what you are saying. The body gestures start right from your face. Learn to let your face clearly express what you say and more importantly, what you don’t. Audience will love it.

Don’t tell the audience, take them to the scene:-
Again, the gestures -The speech should include gestures that take the audience right into the scene. If you are verbally fighting with someone in the speech, the person should appear to be at a distance with your gestures. If you are caring for someone, the person should appear right close to you.

Repetition and Restatement leads to Remember able speeches
The theme needs to be restated so that the audience stay hooked to the message.

Good writing backed with rigorous practice is pivotal for good speeches:-
Now I can relate and decode Steve Jobs. When Steve was giving his presentation on launch of i-Phone, he had his presentation behind him. Without even looking at the presentation, Steve most of time spoke exactly when the next slide was shown. This shows rigorous amount of practice that took him close to perfection.

Structure your speech like a Necklace: -
Each bead is unique story / anecdote. The thread that binds bead is your theme.

Make a point & tell a story because Facts Tell. Stories Sell.
I can’t illustrate this better. People don’t remember points, they remember the stories. So if you are writing your self-evaluation or personal statements, any adjective you use for yourself should be backed with an example. Similarly, if you are making a presentation and preaching some message back it up with a story.

Silence can be a message
Perhaps the toughest thing to do. To be silent and to keep the audience silent at the same time. For this, you need to have riveting control over the audience. Use silence at appropriate time and your presentations will fly.

Keep your own personal story file:-
Start noting small stories from your life and connect them to six emotions all human share (Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Surprise, and Fear). I am fortunate that I have been collecting and introspecting on my story for some time now. I got a new handle today to organize my thoughts – connect your stories with six emotions we all share.
Learn to use the power of misdirection.
Sometimes you have to misdirect the audience simply to gain more control. For instance, you may start an anecdote and give a pause where you feel audience will state something obvious. Once the audience does, say something different and more insightful. To surprise the audience and to re-state that “I am here. I am taking control here”.

Quite a lot of words of wisdom: - Writing them is one thing and practicing is another. This new journey in Public Speaking should be fun. I am on!!!

I am sick ! I am Imagning !!

2008-08-09T01:40:00.001-07:00

I hate to be sick. Perhaps, everyone does. But there are people who are too good at getting well after falling sick and then, there are few like I, who are absolute nerd at getting well. The first category and the major ones would take appropriate medicine, avoid things they should in sickness, and even take extended caution once they are well. The second category and the crazier ones, try to behave and become normal just at slight signs of recovery. Take for instance the fact that I went to office on Friday just because I felt little okay and didn’t wanted to be get boar alone at home – an action good enough to turn me further sick.

Interestingly, I found a doctor who kind of approved of my acts – the second category, An extremely practical guy, he didn’t asked me to avoid working on computer, avoiding various things to eat, or even watching movie. He said, it’s a viral and you will get well in 4 days - not before. I took it Not later also :P.

Lying in my bed, I have come to an interesting conclusion. I think sickness is direct challenge to your imagination potential. The more imaginative you can get, the easier it is to traverse through dull sick period. You like it or not, you have to stay in your bed most of the time. And there is a limit to your sleeping hours. Rest of the time, you got to get imaginative. If not, you bound to find it difficult to get well. So next time you call ill – god forbid though – imagine incessantly and cruise through your sickness.

The First in your life !!

2008-07-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

In a recent experience, I realized that there is a usual charm associated with doing things for the first time. The first time, you begin to speak – Of course you may not reflect how you felt then but your family does, the first time you begin to ride a bi-cycle, first time you say ‘I love you’ to someone, and numerous other first. Some we remember till date such as first time I saw a Beach, some we forget in race of our lives. But to my regret, many times we simply keep on doing new things without realizing we are doing it for the first time. In such instances, we generally miss a chance to enjoy the thrill of the first.

I experience another first in my life yesterday. Nothing significant if look retrospectively, yet I felt charged up to the journey. Without over-dramatizing, I reveal that the recent first was a travel in Swarn Shatabadi from Ludhiana to New Delhi. Did I disappoint you with this fact? I would love if your answer is ‘Yes – What’s so significant about it’ because that would help me make my point more assertively.

The opportunities to celebrate the first in life are numerous. It’s we who have to associate that importance to things and look at the whole routine life from an entirely new dimension. Sitting inside the Shatabadi, I didn’t find much difference other than some trivial ones such as you could feel that the train is really guzzling fuel fast, the courteous food services, and lot of foreigners in Indian trains. However, it is the connection that I made to my past that rendered me excitement to write this post. I remembered those days of traveling in Passenger trains and watching Shatabadi zooming past. Then came the time when I used to travel in Express / Super Fast trains n the speed and AC coached of the train fantasized me. Then, I began to travel in AC yet never did it in Shatabadi.

I wish to emphasis here that although the train experience sounds trivial yet the connection I could establish with this FIRST helped me make this memorable experience. I am convinced that if one continues to note and consciously add the ‘Firsts’ in his/her experiences, life would become way better and colorful. So much so that it am prompted to write this post. So much so that I am going to add new tag to my blog – The Firsts in my life and conclude that if I don’t find a post to write in this category for more 2 consecutive weeks, I am going to die without trying a lot of things even once. Steve jobs said ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’. Be so – Always !!

This is not a Post !!

2008-07-23T09:51:00.001-07:00

I just didn't get a chance to write for some time - Really busy at work. As I opened my blog today, I simply could not think of anything to write - Something unusual. Suddenly, it struck - why do I always have to write something? From where did I get this idea to write on a consistent basis?

I recollected I hired this idea from Robin Sharma. He said that if you do 'something' with consistency, everyday or perhaps couple of times a week, and pursue that activity regularly, within 3-5 years you will be deemed expert in that 'something'. I began to introspect on what I could do. I took out my diary and began to scribble something. I realized I could not organize my thoughts properly, as Robin often does in his blog and books. I decided that my 'something' will be writing. I started writing in blog, took my email communication very seriously, noted words used by eminent people and inducted those words in my write ups, wrote number of articles for citizen journalists websites, and participated in Essay writing competitions ( Never won any -- YET). Today I feel so good about writing - Many times, I open up my old emails just to check whether it was well crafted – What could I have done better there. In retrospect, I think Robin was quite insightful - It's not that just by doing something regularly you will become an expert, the idea with which it all started for me. It's the fact that when you pursue something regularly, you grow passionate about it and your threshold keeps on growing. You continue to upgrade yourself. You continue to be Hungry – for more.

I am far from an expert today to pen down my thoughts, I doubt I ever will be. I am million miles away from my dream to write a book. I even don't have an idea to write a book. For someone who is currently struggling to find a decent topic to write a blog, writing a book seems to be far fetched idea. Yet, in many ways I am proud of my writing skills today. It’s heartening when some friends want me to review their important e-mails. It’s even more satisfying when people, in attempts to pull my leg, comment on my writing skills. If this could be an inspiration for you, to start doing something on a regular basis – I shall feel a part of Robin Sharma’s journey to enlighten people.

Lastly, as I re-read this post, I thought to change the heading for I have ended up writing a decent post. In second thought, I choose to keep it that way - Thanks to Robin that I am able to write well on the fly.

De-Stress the Rain Way !!!

2008-07-13T01:56:00.001-07:00

Last few weeks have been taxing with number of threads in my life going on. On Saturday evening as I was contemplating my course of action through tides that have disrupting my boat, I suddenly heard thunders of rain outside.

It was the first rain of the monsoon season. Delhi has been receiving significant and unusual rains this year. However, Saturdays rain was very different – First because it was heavy & perhaps first actual monsoon rain. Second because the rain sprung me in action.

I decided to get wet in rain. Not sure whether I decided so because of the frustrating events but I did. I went outside in the community where I noticed most people getting out their cars were rushing to get back to the apartments and I was doing exactly the opposite. I believe I am quite good a judging people from there gestures and comments. I could make out that while some were thinking 'Who the hell is this guy' but a majority simply wanted to join me.

Initially, I just walked in the rain. I recollected that as a kid we used to jump in the water. I thought I should do that now. At the onset, deep down my heart I felt little reserved to do this action because number of people standing in their balcony would have a clear view of me doing these childlike activities. At second thought, exactly for the same reason I decided to jump. I had just started when bunch of kids came running from a direction. We became a group of 5 and I was sure that if I add ages of rest 4 members of my group, I will still win !! We jumped in water and it reminded me of Dia Mirza’s entry in the movie ‘Rehna hai Tere Dil Mein’. Not sure if some girl noticed me this time :P..Will find out soon  !!

Later, the kids proposed me to play ‘Pakan Pakdai’ (A game in which one person runs and other chase him to catch him). What a fun it was. And trust me, these kids have some stamina. They tired the hell out of me. I loved those kids for everything but one. They called me ‘Uncle’ and I educated them that you should call Uncle to only those who are married. I am still happy and therefore call me ‘Bhaiya’. They obeyed and most importantly, agreed.

To conclude, it was a huge stress buster. I made some wonderful decisions lying in the rain. I completed many pending activities with enthusiasm and rejuvenated passion. Most importantly, I feel happy since I can’t recollect when last time I pursued such activities and let free the child that resides deep down inside of each one of us. Try it out sometime !!! Rains aren’t scare in Delhi anymore, just the attitude and approach to life needs to be !!

Proud to be Teacher - Teach India - Teach !!!

2008-07-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

Here is my cool badge from TOI’s Teach India Initiative !!

Proud to be a Teacher!!!

This is exactly what I was looking for. TOI is doing great work - Perfect utilization of the scale. TOI should be complimented for the two significant drives: Lead India and Teach India. The first produced awareness and brought to limelight some people doing exceptional work. The second is the need of the hour for India.

It was hearting to note that 10,000+ educated corporate associates, doctors, lawyers, and most significantly, college students have volunteered for the program. The fact that these people have committed for 2 hours of Sunday to the noble cause over spending the leisure time sitting in lounge / shopping in mall / watching a movie speaks of the sensitivity towards the problem of illiteracy among the Indians.

The program is currently launched in 4 metro cities of India. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that soon the waves of the program would reach to Tier-2 cities and ultimately to most disadvantaged rural areas. My father, an avid social work, has been doing the same activity for last 10 years in my town. An educator by profession, he renders free-after school tutoring to poor schools kids. I have often mooted upon spreading his initiative on a larger scale. My efforts to popularize the program with help of top businessmen in my town and senior social workers of the town have to opening up of three news chapters in the surrounding areas. Yet scope of the contributions has always been limited. TOI comes in and launches a similar program on a National scale.

I am eager to commence work and play my small part in educating few kids. It is so gratifying when some of my father's old students who have managed to get decent jobs come home and thank whole-heartedly to my father. My dad is a proud teacher. I too have started on his journey.

On the Dot Mr. AB

2008-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

It's a well said old adage that 'You don't know importance of something unless you loose it'. Something similar happened to me today. Sometimes we are so accustomed to something that we donot realize how that thing uncounciously becomes an integral part of our life. I am referring to my habit to sit for many hours on my laptop and surf various websites, informational articles, blogs, business journals. Suddenly today, as I sat with my lappy, I realized I am not able to open GMAIL. I am not able to open my Blog. I am not able to open www.economictimes.com. Gtalk is also not working. What's wrong ? After diligent analysis, I found that my internet is not working. I checked my router & modem. Everything looked fine. Perhaps Airtel has discontinued the services since we did not pay bills for past 2 months. What a way to remind your customers !!

I was clueless for few minutes. What do I do with this laptop in front of me ? Counciousness struck that Internet and Laptop are two different things. Now that I have Laptop but not Internet I have to think how to best utilize this opportunity that's different and little boaring to start with. At the onset the best options seemed to give my lappy some rest and turn to some book or TV. But, I was hell bent on spending time on my laptop without internet. So here is the list of activities that I did in next couple of hours:

> Organized all the random data, articles, and softwares that I have collected over a time.
> Listened music - Perhaps the only activity on this list that I do even when I have internet
> Prepared a Video Song from the pics of the wonderful time spent at ILP, Trivandrum
> Add / Remov unused programs, disk formatting, and cleared cache to enhance the performance of the system.
> Played some creative games I downloaded sometime back but never touched.
> Uploaded my I-POD with new songs and podcasts.
> Wrote this Blog.

Seriously, it was fun. It was different and interesting. Try it out sometime. For Old times sake !!! Just sit on your computer and decide not to connect to internet. You will break monotony, find loads of untouched files, and feel fresh to get online the next day :) and most importantly, remember days few years back when getting online was such a privelege. We are changing as fast as things around us are. Perhaps that's why it took me couple of minutes to realize that without internet I can't open websites as I do everyday.

Lastly, I close this blog recollecting Amitabh Bachan's dialouge from Sarkar Raj when his wife tries to convince him that 'badtale waqt ke sath badalna chahiye' and he replies 'Badlte Waqt ke se sath agar hum badal gaye to kaise pata chalega ki Waqt badal gaya'. On the Dot Mr. AB !!

Is there something like 'SongMania' ?

2008-07-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

I searched Oxford dictionary to see if the word 'SongMania' exists but it does not. So I choose to put it as 'Song Mania' although convinced after my experience that such word should exist. This happened with the sensational song 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi' from movie Jaane Tu.....

As I was traveling from Jaipur to Gurgaon after dropping my sister at her new college, IIHRM Jaipur, I simply got hooked to this song. I could not let my Ipod play the next song. I could not sleep. I could not even think anything. I simply listened to this song again n again. And again.

Here I write the lyrics of the song that I have learnt after listening the song for hours ..Yeah literally ..For hours !!!

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Woh Bichad Jaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai
Aise Me Koi Kaise Apne Aansuon Ko Bahene Se Roke
Aur Kaise Koi Sochle Everything Gonna Be Okay
Kabhi Kabhi Toh Lage Zindagi Me Rahi Na Khushi Aur Na Maza
Kabhi Kabhi Toh Lage Har Din Mushkil Aur Har Pal Ek Saza
Aise Me Koi Kaise Muskuraaye ,Kaise Has De Khush Hoke
Aur Kaise Koi Sochle Everything Gonna Be Okay

Soch Zara Jaane Ja Tujuko Hume Kitna Chahte Hain
Rote Hum Bhi Agar Tere Aankhon Me Aansun Aate Hain
Gaan Toh Aata Nahi Hai Magar Fir Bhi Gaate Hain
Hey Aditi Maan Kabhi Kabhi Saare Jahan Me Andhera Hota Hai
Lekin Raat Ke Baad Hi Toh Savera Hota Hai

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Woh Bichad Jaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai
Hey Aditi Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Tu Zara
Nahi Toh Bas Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Muskura

Tu Khush Hai Toh Lage Ke Jahan Chaiyi Hai Khushi
Sooraj Nikle Baadalon Se Aur Baaten Zindagi
Sun Toh Zara Madhosh Hawa Tujhse Kehne Lagi
Ki Aditi Woh Jo Bichadte Hain Ik Na Ik Din Fir Mil Jate
Yeh Aditi Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Phool Fir Khil Jate Hain

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Who Bichad Jaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai

Hey Aditi Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Tu Zara
Nahi Toh Bas Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Muskura - 5

Happy listening to the song. I am sure I need not give you a video / audio link !!

Enterprise IT and the competitive advantage mantra!!

2008-07-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting article at HBR that so closely relates to the work that I have been doing. The article details the competitive advantage several organizations have gained by investing in technology especially in Enterprise Software. It was insightful to read the compelling observation in article since I have been working as a consultant in ERP.

I always believed that client get a significant advantage by implementing ERP. Otherwise what is the point in making such huge investments. However, most of the line managers that I used to question about the software's impact on the business would delve into the day to day issues and challenges in the product rather than thinking from a holistic purpose. For example, I asked a manager who looks after Learning Management of his Organization that what he feels about PeopleSoft’s impact on his business. Rather than thinking that he is getting a system that provides a single platform for the whole organization he was keener on discussing smaller issues and granular functionalities of the system. Reading the article and impact of Enterprise IT today I realized that it is the senior management who value ERP more since it provides single platform to manage the organizational data, any change in business processes, and help business surge in new directions.

Further, I was quite intrigued by the example of CVS. The company changed its client handling process by bringing the background check to front end. Through this change, in a single shot CVS made the changes across the organization primarily because it has an ERP Software. Further dependence on technology also meant that CVS reap organization wise change benefits rather than localized benefits that are generally people dependent. While this example was impressive, my experience with field managers has been little different unless I have started my interaction with Directors and VP's. As I worked in the national roll-out of a Enterprise Software, I realized that most of the line and localized managers are concerned about how the system will impact the functionality at their own location. Also, they were keen to get the product changed according to their whims and fancies. On the other hand, the Directors and VPs I have interacted are more concerned about keeping the software uniform & holistic. Classic example of difference between the Corporate and Individual Functions.

Coming back to the article, some of the advantages of the enterprise software are: covering a wide span, immediate results, precise rather than general guidelines, consistent, and enforces change. The article has helped me put my area of work in right perspective. Further I have learnt how technology can impact the business through the CVS example. Perhaps someday as an associate on business side, I will be able to gel with technology department in better manner.

A much needed Refreshment !!

2008-06-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

This post should have been made on 28th June - Pardon my crankling bones that I can hear the grunts and oomphs even today!!

I went to a Outbound Camp organized by TCS with motive to foster team spirit, collaboration, and leadership among the associates. I have attended many such outings before. However, the timing of this event couldn't be better. I needed such a dose to refresh and rejuvenate myself from the cliche of work and personal pursuits that have turned into obsessions now. And what a dose it was !!!! I still carry the after effects of the dose with a sweet pain across my arms n legs :).

On Saturday, the weather was perfect - With clouds in a natural setting. A light breeze could have been an icing on the cake. Anyways. The event started with a bus journey to a resort near Damdama Lake, around 50 KM from Gurgaon. Many of us could not believe that so close to GGN, such a natural ambience exists. The bus journey made me feel nostalgic of the numerous trips made during TCS ILP at Trivandrum. Of course nothing beats those travels in heart of Kerela but this one was quite refreshing as well. Some standard games followed n soon we were at the resort.

There were number of activities such as Rappelling (Not so exciting for me but loved to see nervous first timers), Burma Bridge (TCS ILP one was way better), and Team games such as crossing the obstacles etc. The activities in themselves did not stand out from my past experiences yet the timing of the events and the different people around did. Some of the experiences that stand out in my observations are a ride of Tractor - made me feel nostalgic of childhood days when I used to drive a bi-cycle & catch hold of such tractors, and competition to throw stones - again things I used to do as a child.

To conclude, I really enjoyed the whole day out. I just to wish get normal now and I am longing now to go back to my obsessions as soon as possible. Only if my bones stop making noises :). Will post some of the pics of the event here soon.

Can you get this one ?

2008-06-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today, I was surfing across just to find something crazy, something stimulating. My search ended with the following illusion pic - one of the best I have ever seen.

Now the concept is: Both the A and B blocks are same shades of Grey. Period !!! Spend sometime here to really have a look before I lead to resolve the mystery. I know you will need my help :)

Done ? Perhaps you can read the explanation here. Could you make it ?

Perhaps try desi estyle. Copy this image in your mspaint, cut a piece from each block and compare. The explanation above will start make sense :). One of craziest things I have seen. How about you ?

Ciao
~Vinit

Leadership Jack Welch eestyle !!

2008-06-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: As I was re-organizing some old content on my lappy, I came across some old write and blog collections. The one that follows is from an unknown source. I simply found the write compelling since I have turned a big fan of 'Jack Welch' after reading his 'Winning'

A couple of years ago, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch visited the Stanford Graduate School of Business to talk about leadership and his book, Winning. With about 800 people, we had a public conversation about managing. The best comment he made, I thought, was the simplest. It's something I believe and try to practice every day. Leadership is not about you. It's about the people who work for you. "The day you become a leader, it becomes about them," Welch said. "Your job is to walk around with a can of water in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other. Think of your team as seeds and try to build a garden. It's about building these people," he insisted. "Only you will know the team." That's right. The minute you move from being a task-oriented professional to being a manager of people, it stops being about your individual talents, your successes, and starts being all about coaching, motivating , teaching, supporting, removing roadblocks, and finding resources for your employees.

Leadership is about celebrating their victories and rewarding them; helping them analyze when things don't go according to the plan. Their successes become your successes. Their failures are yours too. Too many people today think leading is exclusively about their own performance. Even some of those who become CEOs, usually highly intelligent people who worked hard to get where they are, turn into self-aggrandizing individuals once they hit the executive suite. Too many people, perhaps encouraged by the media, have developed an obsession with leaders. In his book on hierarchies, Top Down, Hal Leavitt covers a broad range of issues. Leavitt, who is the Kilpatrick professor of organizational behavior emeritus at the B-school , surmises that part of today's infatuation with the leadership discussion springs from the fact that we perceive organizations have become flatter, when they are still hierarchical , though changed to being "participative" and "groupy." They have become harder to navigate with chains of command that are less clear. As a result, leadership qualities are more important for managers at every level, not just for those at the top of an authority pyramid.

Although it is difficult to find common characteristics among acknowledged leaders (What would Winston Churchill have in common with Mother Teresa?) , Leavitt identifies three recurring themes of leadership : transformation, persuasion, and competence. Leaders are able to transform or change a situation. They can influence others and motivate them to follow. They exude confidence and competence about what they are doing that inspires others. At the B-school , we have created a leadership development program that gives students experiences and coaching to help recognize and reinforce some of these qualities. Of prime importance, in my view, is the notion that leadership is about change and a leader must leverage those who work for him or her, empower and support them with regular feedback, rewards, and exchange of ideas.

Of course, sometimes leaders have to 'weed the garden' in Welch's pithy vocabulary. The tough job of firing and hiring is part of creating an effective team. One person, no matter how talented, cannot accomplish much in a managed organization of today's complexity and global reach. Transforming through others is the job of the leader at any level. Said Welch when he was here: "The day you become a leader, your job is to take people who are already great and make them unbelievable."

Enterprise of the Future - IBM Global CEO Study.

2008-06-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

Today I happened to read IBM's Global CEO Study - a study that I downloaded from my maiden visit to HBR Online website. I have been a regular reader of printed version of HBR as I like on reading on paper rather than online. I visited the online version just in hope to get some good case study to read over the weekend and I got one - The Enterprise of Future.

I took print out of the 79 page study from my office. Before diving deep in the study I observed with my room mate and old college friend that the print out- 79 page thick almost resemble with the complete study material we used to have for one subject during our engineering.

The study is basically a collection of responses of survey & Interviews of more than 1000 CEO's worldwide. I also learnt that this was the third such study conducted by IBM and it’s primarily focused on how the organizations should respond to the rising challenges and how the Enterprise of future would look like. The striking revelations of the study focused on the following five traits of success for the organizations:

1. Organizations should manage change in a thoughtful and well planned manner rather than in reactive manner. Organizations that promote change as an integral part of there culture and day to day work are more likely to succeed.

2. Organizations that foresee the ever increasing customer awareness as opportunity to collaborate with customers to design breakthrough products and services are more likely to capture customer attentions. Innovation needs to be a way of life.

3. Global integration - not just riding on the growth in developing economies such as India and China but to position the business in such a manner that you source where its most cost-effective, produce where its best quality, and sell where its most profitable. Further, rapid reconfiguration when new opportunities appear should be on high agenda.

4. Since it is becoming highly unlikely to differentiate in terms of products and services, organizations are trying to differentiate and change the business models. The Enterprise Model Innovation is most commonly followed.

5. CSR is rising on CEO's agenda - With the increasing awareness among consumers and potential employees about the social aspects of business, enterprises are embarking on a path towards genuine CSR activities to win trust and loyalty.

Each of the above point is explained in depth and supported by the survey data in the study. I found the compelling insights invaluable to develop a macro-view of where companies are moving / should move in the next 2-3 years. If interested, you may read the complete study Here

Ciao
~Vinit

HR after MBA - A refreshing rejuvenation!!

2008-06-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok. I am not expert at career advice and I have nothing planned for myself in the HR or MBA for the time being. You might ask then why this topic? I’ll come back to that. First, some novice & touch funny incidents from life on the subject.

During late college days and early days in professional life, I wanted to do my MBA and go into HR. As I retrospect diligently, I recollect that my inspiration to be a HR MBA was primarily because of TCS HR professional whom I met during our campus recruitment drive. I was awed by there presentation & communication skills and I simply wanted to be like them, confident, humorous, and well-groomed. Further, the kind of royal treatment they were getting from my college as compared to brutal one we used to receive as students, made me think that HR MBA & then recruitment drive at GNDU will be a nice way to square off things. Also, I always have had a knack to organize activities, convince & handle people to come to party or some gathering, and simply talk a lot. I thought that is exactly what a HR do & I will just take-off as HR Professional. When couple of people argued that “HR is an area for girls”, I simply responded “Isn’t that a good enough reason to go for it?” Well, those were novice days and things have changed a lot now. However, the seeds of the journey I have been on were sowed there & it is refreshing to remember those days.

Now, coming to why suddenly this topic. Today, I was approached by a bright, confident, and able associate in my team. He wanted to know about the future prospects of HR Professional and what kind of opportunities he may expect. I was both amused a little & felt bit nostalgic when he explained his reasoning similar to I used to have – A knack for organizing events, people management etc. However, he was more clear, interested, and passionate about HR than I used to be. While advising him, although I do not have any latest research, I expressed him that HR will be bright area in future because of two reasons.

First, as Indian industry is maturing and facing severe skills shortages, HR professionals are moving up the ranks of importance in CEO’s agenda. Second, I have read somewhere that there is a severe shortage of HR professionals itself in India. Many companies have been on rampage to hire engineers (in range of 10k to 35k per year), but they have not matched this trend in HR and at some point of time; companies will have to do so. With this bit of advise, I also observed that HR as a function is not only about organizing events and people management – as we see everyday our project HR doing. At a middle/ senior level, it is about policy design to better the employee satisfaction, help organizations hire & retain talent, and build competitive advantage.

Because of my limited knowledge on the subject, I provided him threads to explore – The best one I could. First, I told him about an independent HR Management Consultant – Gautam Ghosh, whose excellent blog I followed for some time. - http://gauteg.blogspot.com/. Second, I provided him contact of HR head for Tata Group – TAS. Third, I helped him with a lethal weapon – A combination of Google, Linkedin, and Orkut through which he can track the lives of successful HR professional and foresee whether & how he can reach there. I believe that if one network & research smartely, no information can stay hidden in today's world.

To conclude, I think HR after MBA makes a lot of sense with knack for people management, curious intellect, and pleasing personality. However, it is important that you have valid reasons to choose HR / any area of specialization and not crazy & weird ones such as working with lot of girls, squaring of things with your college :).

Ciao
~Vinit.

15 Minute Journalism

2008-06-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today I read of a powerful concept somewhere (I really need to structure my reading habits to remember where I read what.).

If you hope to inculcate writing habits in yourself, improve your writing skills, and simply want to become more aware of what is happening around you then take a plunge to write everyday / at least on weekend for 15 minutes. You may choose any time of the day you are comfortable, early morning with a sip of coffee or late night before sleeping.

The idea is to not just write about some facts or traverse back through your day or some string of events. The idea is to write about absolutely anything but reach some conclusions, what you liked or disliked, why something became important to you. This will lead you to become a better write with clear opinion about the world and about yourself. I found the concept a powerful one. Some good habits if adopted well can change you a lot.

I have friend who has developed a beautiful habit. He reads a book before sleeping. In fact he has been so consistent that of-late he has started saying that he can’t fall asleep unless he reads some book. Sometimes after a party (apne eeestyle ki party ) he expresses interest to read a book. Subconsciously, he has programmed himself that way. It’s another fact that he an absolute bastard: P, a complete waste for all his talents, and too lazy: P (I know you are dying to hear his name and some of you may have guessed, yet I will refrain from naming him :) ). As far as books are concerned, he always has a book to read, next one planned, and previous one to speak about. It’s tough to admit but yes, I am inspired by him.

I need to do something similar with this beautiful blog. (Beautiful – Ahh some self congratulations after all the good comments from blessed souls). It is here that I have decided to voice my opinions, guts, and learning as a part of 15 minute journalism initiative (I realize that if by some magical pill I can inculcate this habit I will well overshoot my target for 100 blogs this year).

A rocking meeting for an Environmentalist

2008-06-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

I had won the Just A Minute (JAM) competition, an extempore competition, for generating ideas to make TCS Gurgaon center better cater to environment perseverance. Thereafter I got an opportunity to spend time with chief auditors who came to test TCS GGN center for ISO 14001 certification. I must admit I heard some rocking examples from the auditors and I hereby attempt to recollect some of those examples. Essentially these examples establish the huge environmental degradation caused due to the day to day activities we conducted.

First, we discussed around the Kyoto Protocol. I asked him how much concerned business leaders and CEO are towards environment protection. How much does environmental implication effect the business decisions they make? He explained how European Nations are quite strict on this. Further he said there are positive developments since 22 US states have signed for the Protocol and US is now showing positive signs. Then he began to provide examples from day to day life. Some of them are as follows:

1. Where have all the house sparrows gone? Did you ever notice? Did you ever miss the chirping of this small bird that was so usual 8-10 years ago? Well, this development has gone largely unnoticed but the cause of this development has not. The success story of Indian Telecom Industry, increase in tele-density, and rise of Bharti Airtel are quite celebrated subjects in media. However, it is the same usage of the cell phones and their radiations that have led to elimination of House Sparrows from the vicinity.

2. Oil Import from Australia to India caused a rare coastal bird to disappear from Australian Beaches: - How is that possible? We are importing oil from Aus. to India. How can it lead to extinction of a bird from Aussie beaches? Well the story goes on that when ships unloaded the oil at Indian ports, they used to put some water from Indian coasts in the tanks so the ship has some weight on it while traveling the back. The same water, collected from Indian ports, was offloaded at on reaching the coast at Australian side. This water was not suitable for development of Algae on the beach. When Algae became a rare, an particular insect that used to live on algae got eradicated. This lead to reduction in number of a particular fish that was quite abundant in the area. The fish was eventually preferred food for the rare bird that got extinct. Did you notice the chain there? Further, did you notice that man can to know of the situation only when the impact reaches 3 levels higher - Algae, Insect, and Fish went unnoticed.

3. Drink Milk causes Impotency. Period!!! Surprised. I was amazed. For a moment I though the Auditor has got this one wrong. But he got it right. The story goes behind this is that these days cows are given injections to deliver more milk. These injections basically have female hormones. When these hormones are increased in cow's body, they naturally flow in the milk as well. So when female hormones reach male bodies in form of milk, it causes certain damage to male hormones. Next time your mom pushes you to drink milk, don't listen to them :) !!

There were several more examples. So much of information flew around; I wasn't able to gather all. For once it felt as if everything we are doing is wrong. Understanding our situation, the auditor explained his stand using one more example.

TCS is coming up with a new center in Chennai that will host around 23000 people. An average of 500 - 800 buses will be needed for transportation of the associates. The same buses will heat up the environment and causes excessive damages. Now the question is who is responsible?

Are the employees who work there responsible? But they simply work there, they didn't make this center. IS TCS responsible or is the Industry - a bank, a financial service, Retail Company who created the demand for the software with TCS responsible? Or is the end user who created such demand with the industry that they need software responsible? Can you answer?

He concluded that ultimately all of us are responsible for everything going on. It is collective responsibility of each of us, to spread the awareness, to stay conscious and contribute in whatever manners we can!!

I am going to contribute my bit and through this post, if I have inspired you also then I have already started !!!

An enthusiastic build up for eventually a failed attempt - TAS !!

2008-06-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

As I progressed in professional career, I kept on searching for my ultimate destination. I started my search with the cliché comment "I can't do coding whole my life" to today's well thought career development plan that will render immense professional and personal satisfaction. In additional, I have developed porous boundaries of principles and values I have come to appreciate and will always follow for my life.

Either it was my family's influence or my association with Tata Group's jewel TCS, I have become well defined in my principles. During my career, I have 'missed' several excellent professional opportunities just because I knew it may not be in best interest of the organization. I had decided that I will transparent about my plans and aspirations with my seniors, as I would expect from my sub-ordinates. A case in point is my recent denial to join World Bank project in Washington because I communicated to Senior Managers that since I have applied for TAS, I will be available only after TAS selection process is over. My deliberations have been met with mild criticism and often, subject of leg-pulling by my acquaintance. However, one person who has always congratulated my act and provided inspiration to stay integral is my grandfather.

An old person with weary eyes and shaky voice, he is a man of principles. Since childhood, I have heard about his heroics during his young days from my relatives. I recall the day when I jubilantly jumped at home to announce my campus selection in TCS. The fact that TCS was first company to show at my college and only two people, including me, were selected in 2 rounds of interview had furthered my elation. My grandfather, however, knew little about TCS and showed signs of worry of the kind of company I will work for. I told him "Grand Paa, It's a TATA company". Almost instantly, he stood with his trembling legs and pulled out a 100 rupee note that I should donate in the temple. He further advised me that Tata's are good people and I should work for best of my abilities. Little did I understand his point during those days After all, I will be working with TCS - an software company. What is to do with Tata Group?

Today, as I retrospect, I understand my Grandfather's point. Tata Group is deeply rooted with core values of integrity and social responsibility. I have inculcated these traits in me today, reinforced by the professional setup in TCS and my family's persistent social involvement. In addition, the clouds over my Ultimate Destination have cleared.

As a professional, I have always enjoyed strong equity within my sphere of influence. In addition, I have valued professional excellence and always seeked opportunities to extend my contributions beyond the assigned roles. With just 7 months of experience, I associated myself with two development projects. In less than 2 years, I was with a new strategic client "Siemens" with responsibility to make first good impression of TCS and initiate the project. In past, I have also worked in capacity of Team Lead and in Pre-sales activities. I have mentored around 20 people and interviewed numerous candidates. I have always valued rotation and seeked such opportunities in my career. Now, my focus has shifted beyond IT and professional rise in uni-directional manner. I am after my ultimate destination now.

Tata Administrative Services, TAS, provides the perfect breeding ground to my experiences and aspirations. I deeply value and imbibe the core principles of TATA group. I feel connected with Tata and the day Corus, JLR deals were announced it was not less than festival for me. The professional journey that TAS provides is a perfect setting to achieve Generic Management skills where after dedicated training, I will be able to respond to organization's dynamic requirements such as "We have a company in Singapore that is shaping itself to take on new directions and challenges. We want you to lead the same" and I shall be off. TAS is the destination where I can build sustained equity, rotate in various roles and industries have freedom to express, shape socio-economic policies, and contribute to nation-building - A.K.A my Ultimate Destination. TAS selection process is about to commence. Now it's time for execution. After all, things are done first in my mind and then in action.

Leadership - Risk taking is imperative.

2008-06-10T06:20:00.003-07:00

I can't agree more with the subject. Each of us has immense potential and everyone wants to achieve a lot. However, the only thing that stops individuals is the risk associated with the short term decisions.

Many times for long term benefits, short term losses have to suffered. But one gets courage to take those risks and handle those losses in short term only and only if one is clear of his/her long term goals. If you can clearly see the direction in which you are moving, you will become a better leader overnight.

You will synergize efforts towards a particular direction. You will overcome obstacles in your way. You will either build upon your small successes or learn from your failures but towards your ultimate goals. The same sense of direction needs to be complemented by the most important attribute of leadership- Perseverance.

History testifies that there are many great personalities such as Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and Walt Disney failed in early ventures. However, they were persistent and passionate towards their ultimate goal. It’s the perseverance that separates the best from the mediocre. Understandably you will fail in your ventures and attempts. But that's not failure. That in fact is a wonderful learning opportunity. The real failure is when you give up and decide not to give it a try at all.
So, it settled. Quitting a not an option.

To conclude, Leadership requires clear long term vision, risks in short term, and perseverance to sustain on self development road.

Decision Making

2008-05-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I generally proof read my posts. After proof reading this one, I found this little boar. Please bear it full or quit right away ;)

Of late I have been caught in myriad of choices. People who know me would not find this an unusual development. However, there is quite a difference in the options this time. As I have grown in professional and personal aspirations, and simply in my age my risks taking and diversity in various force pulling me have grown at similar if not faster pace.I don’t see much substance in discussing each of my current options here. Some even should not be made public. What I see important here is to discuss the cognitive thought process, the decision making process one goes through and in process, I hoping to find some solutions for myself.

When all the air around the subject is removed, decision making is a simple process of problem solving that you do based upon your prioritized interests, inculcated core values, and future benefits. Understandably when you are engaged in a thoughtful process to make a decision there will be several divergent yet enticing options.

I think it is paramount to first consider what interests are most important to you. For instance, you may have option to use your Friday evening in either of the two ways: Read a latest book on your favorite subject or spend the night out in theatre to watch a newly released movie. Now both the options are equally luring. Here you will make a decision based on your prioritized interests. If you are more outgoing types and have company of few friends, perhaps you will pick the movie. At the same time if you are introvert types or don’t have friends to accompany, you are likely to pick the book. In our subconscious mind we do such analysis very quickly and arrive at the decision based on our prior experiences, our personality, and indexing of events that we do in our mind.

The second factor, the inculcated core values, is quite direct. If you follow your core values you are likely to turn the gray looking things quickly into black or white. For instance, if since your childhood you have believed in honesty you are likely to return someone’s fallen 100 Rs note immediately. However, if your value system is not that strong then you may prefer savoring your favorite food or drink with that money. I think it is really very important for people to identify there core value system. A busy professional if decides that he will value work / profile over money then he is not likely to be confused when provided with several professional opportunities. Similarly if a businessman makes excellence his core value then he is not likely to compromise on the quality of product/ business he produces even though it may result in short term profits.

The third factor- future benefits is really what brings you to the decision making process at the first place. I have deliberately placed this as third factor since if placed on top it may turn you hazy over the first two factors. While the analysis of the benefits of pursuing some activity is very important, I think it more important to put the benefits in right perspective. The prospective benefits should really compliment your analysis of first two factors – Your Interests and your core values.

As we have discussed in general about decision making, its time to mention some technical and methodical ways. I read about several of the decision making techniques such as Six Thinking Hats, Grid Analysis, Pareto Analysis, Paired Comparison Analysis, Cost / Benefits Analysis. You may find these wonderful techniques here

Each of these seemed a great fun to employ and quite effective. I liked the Grid Analysis the most simply because of its comprehensive coverage, simplicity, and fun. I am going to use this option tonight to arrive at some wonderful results.

Happy Decision Making !!!

100 in a Year ?????

2008-04-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hearing feedback on my blog from a dear friend suddenly brought me back to this unforgotten world wide Web URL - www.vinitgarg.blogspot.com.

At the start of the year 2008, as jubilant I was about hitting a 50 of blog articles I wrote in 2007 as aspirational I was to resolve that I will write 100 articles in year 2008. With the current pace, it seems for sure the resolution is bound to fail.

Seems like a urgent need to focus back on the blog and externalize myself again is the doctor's order at this moment..Hmmm !! Game On !!

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

2008-03-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

The hottest asset today that any organization seeks to have is IPR - Intellectual Property Rights. It's this drive that led me to compose this post !!

In today's context, where globalization and technology is re-defining the way the business is done and where ideas spread faster than speed of light, it is imperative for organization to protect the ingenious contributions of its employees in form of IPR.

IPR cover a wide range of intellectual outputs such as publicity material, work of art, a product design, a logo, chemical formulations, computer softwares etc. When a company have IPR over a particular assest, the other companies that use the same have to pay fees to the beholder of IPR. It is in this way that an organization can differentiate itself from the pack and also, continue to earn from its innovations.

An IP consists of various elements:

1. Trade Secrets : Trade secrets, as the name suggests, conform the unique knowledge that an organization or a person has developed using skills,people,and resources. This knowledge is supposed to provide competitive advantage to the organization in the marketplace by virtue of the fact that no one else knows the secrets. The strategies to maintain trade secrets involve cautionary steps such as restricting the availability of the knowledge, getting everyone who knows the secret to sign Non-disclosure agreement, mark any written material as Proprietary and Confidential.

2. Patents : Research and development is an expensive enterprise. The grant of patents to an organization ensure legal rights to company that ensure that the company is able to redeem the expenses incurred. An invention, usually a process or product, that ensures a novel approach and a significant improvement over the existing knowledge is patentable. A patent is provided by the Patent office and isvalid for 20 years.During this period no one can use, manipulate, and market the patented product or process without paying royality to the beholder. After 20 years, either the patent has to be re-inforced that inculcates some fees or a company has to for go the patent.
Patents are important becuase they allow space to organization to deploy there break-through products and services openly in market rather than holding on to it. Patents generally protect functional technology whereas copy rights protect artistic and written material.

3. TradeMark : The main purpose of a trademark is to serve as a differentiator from the products and services of other people in the marketplace. A consumer will begin to associate a particular registered trademark. Therefore a trademark should be carefully selected so that consumers can directly connect with the Trademark in this competitive marketplace. For instance the trademark of Tata group, the T in blue and white color directly associate every product or service offered by the group. The thought process behind selected trademark is significant and should be conducted by the top executives.

4. Copyrights: Basically a copyright protects expression of an thoughts and not the idea itself. Copyrights protect literary work such as softwares and advertisements, novels, poems and the like, and artistic work such as painting, photographs, sculptors etc.

5. Domain Names: A domain name is unique IP address on the internet. Domain names provide an easy way for the consumer to reach you in the over-crowded internet space.

Seems like lot of Gyan !! :)

The HCL Way

2008-03-13T08:35:00.001-07:00

In today’s knowledge arena, employees are most important. In past it was the process that was important. Today it is the people. Nobody understands this better than Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies.

He has brought some very interesting changes and speaks of an innovative approach to manage employees. Some of his innovations are:

1. The managers at HCL are rated both by Seniors and their subordinates

2. The rating is available at the intranet and anyone can see it, even the juniors

3. There is an online help desk approach and every employee, be it a fresher or senior executive opens a ticket there for absolutely any issue they may have. Furthermore, it is the employees who close the ticket and no on else.

4. His philosophy is Employees first, customer second even in front of the customers.

5. Mr. Nayar replies to each and every question or query that is posted on a common forum personally everyday week.- He does this on Sunday morning

Amazing Leadership !!

A new dimension to my beloved blog

2008-03-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

I am commencing this new label to capture my reading and my understandings of various article I read, situation I face, and people I observe. I hope this helps me track my progress, improve my understanding, and help me excel in this key subject!!

According to the Tata Leadership Practice, the three buckets a Leader should focus are:

> Leadership of Result
> Leadership of Business
> Leadership of People.

Amazing categorization I must admit. Of course, it is not tough to moot upon 10 more such buckets. However, I think above categorization follows the MECE [Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive] principle. Today I will venture to write on the first bucket - Leadership of Result

Results, a conception that has followed each one of us from the Kinder garden days. How much did you score in the exam? What position did you secure in your class? A lot would depend upon the results. A report card would decide whether I get chocolates, new cricket bat, a new red Bicycle or I get scolding, no vacation trips to relatives, and reduced cricket hours in the evening. We all have experienced similar instances in our lives and we have been nurtured to get results. So, what does result mean to leaders?

To me, the Results mean two things to leaders- first, to maintain the fire within themselves to achieve stellar results and second, to act as a spark plug to fire the zeal within their people to achieve even better results. I also believe that these increasingly simple looking two lines of "gyan" is among the most difficult things to achieve. A leader has to show and, more importantly, maintain exceptional energy level, establish high standards, and perceive things before its too late.

In addition, a successful leader has to provide breakthrough means to his team to achieve results. In doing so, leader needs to nurture innovation, maintain customer focus, and consistently educate his followers about the importance of results. I personally feel from my experiences that when people are informed about the importance of the work delegated to them and hence, recognized for their contribution, they are generally much more responsive, motivated, and energetic.

Ahhh..Beautiful composition I guess to kick-start my rejuvenation to give this blog a new avtaar.

A voice that echo currently in my mind is from a dear friend who would criticize such articles that reading and writing such articles is one thing but showing this attitude is another and "impossible" in bureaucratic, political set-ups in corporate world. I concur partially with him. Of course implementing this knowledge is paramount. However, I am also of the opinion that we work in two ways - First when we take risks, fail / pass, and learn from practical mistakes and second, when we learn things first and strive to implement them and continue to learn.

Isn't the second point the reason we all went to Kinder Garden. If only, I were to know these attributes earlier, perhaps I would have received more chocolates, more cricket kits, and more red Bicycles.

Horror Story with KLM Airlines Baggage delivery

2008-02-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

This post is to reflect my bitter experience with KLM Airlines when I returned from US after 1.5 years for just 2 week vacation. I have been following CNN-IBN Citizen Journalist news for long from US and I wished to join CNN-IBN as soon as I get back to India. However, I didn’t know my story will start right from the time I land in India.

It started on 29th Dec 2007 when I landed on Indra Gandhi International Airport. Delhi. I has a connecting flight with KLM from Amsterdam and I landed at around 11:30 P:M. The unwanted did happen. One of my bags was missing. As I returned to customer care desk, the lady candidly told me that she has a message for me. My bad could not be loaded into the flight and would come next day. I calmly responded that “I understand you cannot change what has already happened. However, I would hope that you make an expedited and safe delivery of the bag to my address in Punjab”. The lady greeted me well and nodded. There were number of other people shouting on missing their bags. I, however, choose to hope that delivery would be made, only to find it far from truth.

Next day I got a call from KLM that my bag has reached India i.e 30th Dec and would be delivered to my address the next day. I was happy since I had a lot of New Year gifts in the bag and hoped to wear good clothes I bought in night’s party. However, all dreams were about to be crushed. By the evening I called them again only to be told that bag is on it’s way and would be delivered soon. Next day, again I was given the status that bag would reach me by evening. Leave aside the rudeness of the customer care, they did not know the correct location of the bag. Then, in next call they tend to shave off from the whole issue and gave me the number of supervisor for the driver. The number was 09813849651. The supervisor on repetitive calls picked once and would always say that he is not able to contact the driver. He could not contact his subordinate for 2 full days and never was able to tell me where my bag is.

In agony, Dec 31st and Jan 1st slipped away and I was still without my cherished clothes, my gifts n chocolates I brought from heart for my family. I woke up on Jan 2nd wondering that a bag reaching New Delhi on 30th December and thereafter, it could not travel 300 Km in 3 days. I called at the required number 011-25652420. A lady named Jyoti picked. I immediately asked to talk to the manager and she said she is the manager. After hearing my story, she said she will call back in 10 minutes. The 10 minutes that never came. I called after an hour and a guy called Karandeep picked the phone. Ironically, on my request to speak to some manager, he said they do not have any managers. And the bag, he said they have dispatched. When I insisted that I care about the delivery, he confidently said that I will get my bag in 2 hours. After 6 hours, I called back again. This time again, Mr Karandeep picked. Rather than having any clues about his claim to send me bag in 2 hours, he proposed that my bag will reach me in evening. Now, since I was hearing this since last 3 days, I insisted to find out where exactly the bag and the cab driver are. To my surprise, Karandeep had no clues and he gave me the driver’s number to find out myself. As I called the driver, he responded that he has no baggage from KLM and he no baggage for my address. I was tired, frustrated, and felt really weak.

With no clues to where to talk, I called back again to Karandeep. Again on request to talk to someone for escalations, there was noone. My Karandeep could not even tell me who else can I talk, how will he find the coordinates of my bag, when will I get my back so that I can plan my vacation to Shimla. After 1.5 years, I came for a vacation back home just to spoil everything due to the lousy services of an internationally renowned Airlines.

It is only in now that I have got a call from the driver who is some 100 Km Away from my location and he hopes to make it to my place today night or tomorrow morning. On my emphasis of the difficulties I am facing, he reflected that he hears the same from everyone. I have no issues or complaints against the driver. I have no issues or complaints against the missing baggage on the flight, it happens. But my issues is against the lousy customer service that has been provided. I wonder what image will be project with such service to the tourists to our country. I also wonder what actually is the service agreements of these Airlines with the courier companies. And I also wonder about those co-passengers whose both bags were missing from the flight !!!

I have proposed this story to CNN-IBN CJ Initiative and look forward for co-operation of CNN IBN to bring to surface such service issue. I would be happy to assist in manner as may be required.

Wings of Changes @ Dhuri - Citizen Journalist Ideas

2008-02-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

I returned to my home town Dhuri after a gap of 8 months. After having underdone a mental surgery in US :P , I began to see things from a different perspective here. I realized while nothing has changed on surface in my home town, wings of several changes are prevalent among the people here. I intend to note my observations here, to keep track and in hope to find more ideas.

Yesterday, I heard a conversation among several small shop owners. Everyone was cognizanance reflected the changes in customer mentality these days. Someone said “ Earlier there were 100 customers and 10 shops” and today “ There are 10 customers and 100 shops. Where will we all go”. Then someone else reflected that earlier the villagers used to come to town and used to feel that since they are in a city* , they should at least eat some sweets or buy some clothes. Today the same stuff is available in villages, so where will small towns like ours go. The people who belong here, tend to buy from larger cities. I was quite intrigued by the depth of thought and the valid concerns among these people. I couldn’t resist and joined their talk. I introduced the concept of Organized Retail and the impact of the same on these stores. The store owners in unity were aware of the threat. They also reflected that although it will take some time for Organized retail to reach small towns like Dhuri, but in awake of this threat they do not want their children to open a new shop / sit in their own shop. Wings of Change I thought. In the days, I used to study in school, the children of shop owners used to be the cool guys with lots of money to spend and with a secured future. Whereas, children of servicing parents such as I used to feel the heat to study hard or else prepared to be doomed.

Second, I also noticed the Euphoria here for the Fly-Over under construction in Dhuri. I could not resist smiling to my barber’s comments that “Dhuri will become a Heaven, an advanced city as compared to neighboring towns once the fly over opens this June”. I could not resist the temptation to visit the fly over venue and click some pics of this heavenly structure :) !! Wings of Change !! [ I did click pics, unfortunately lost the same in my old cell phone ]

Third, a long standing work that I had on my mind is getting started. The Social Activity that Dad has been doing is in shackles these days. I learnt various aspects, not so comforting, from my Dad. I hope to step up my involvement to make my father’s initiatives of free-after school tutoring a larger concept. It was, however, comforting to note that the earlier suggestions have helped Dad to open 3 more chapters of the institute in region. I believe the order of the day today, considering the unorganized functioning of the organization, is to consolidate the activities. Identify a revenue stream, form a steering committee meeting, develop a code of conduct and process to evaluate the teachers at entry point. Lot of things to be done here !! Wings of Change !!

Forth, long handicapped of not being able to drive a Car, I have taken a decision to utilize this time off back home in a constructive way. Dad has found someone who will teach me Car Driving over next 2 weeks and I hope to buy my own very soon. Wings of Changes, yet to hit the road !!

Fifth, lot of marriages. What’s going on ? As I landed here, in next 2 months I am scheduled to attend three marriages and one first lohri celebrations for my nephew. Wow !! This is what I love about India. I am pretty sure I will not know when these 2 months will pass away. And I also sure that a 2 months progress there will be lot more news from different friends. Seems like everybody is getting married. Ahhh no, I am interested yet :P !! This one is not a change I know !!

Redefining Lives!!

2008-02-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a unusally large break from blogging world. Number of factors have been the culprit.. I hope to revive this year's blog with this post....ciao

I had an experience this weekend while traveling back home from a person who embodies Mr. Ratan Tata’s thought process. Ironical it may sound; the comment came from an Auto driver.

As I boarded the auto, that my US client was so found of that he bought a toy Auto and kept on his desk, I could not resist my inquisitive self to engage the driver in conversation and seek insights of his thought process and aspiration. I began my conversation by asking him about his experiences as Auto Driver. He shed first experience details on the red tap auto drivers have to accommodate to get a contract to drive auto. Finally, the conversation drew towards Mr. Ratan Tata’s brainchild, Nano. I questioned him whether he intends to buy Nano and how he plan to use the car?

Promptly, he replied that “Sahab, hamare zaise log roz auto chalate hain, signal pe baddi baddi AC wali gadi dekh ke hamara bhi maan karta hai ki hum apne bachoon ko kabhi gaddi mein ghumyane. Tata Nano hamare sare sapne pure kar degi. Hum yeh gaddi zaroor lenge” [Sir, people like us drive auto the whole day. We see people in big AC cars everyday and we strive to provide such facilities to our children. Tata Nano is a dream car and I will certainly buy it]. I was amazed by his sensitivity and desire to have good resources. Additionally, I also could not help amaze at Mr. Ratan Tata’s vision and thought that connected so dearly with people at bottom of the pyramid.

The driver went ahead to question whether I, being Tata employee, could help him get car this year itself. He feared the production would be too low this year for ordinary people like him to get the car. Surprised at his such strong intent on the car, I expressed my helplessness in this matter but promised him that Mr. Tata has vision big enough to help him achieve his dreams.

I have always rated Cell phones as one gadget that during my lifetime have redefined India. Tata Nano definitely ranks in same the grade and perhaps even bigger, given the international impact the car has made. Perhaps, I will take a toy Nano for my US client next I go there. As I left the Auto that day, I could foresee the driver happily driving Tata Nano with his children playing at back seat, shielded of the scorching heat outside.

Commencement Speech by Steve Jobs at Standford

2007-12-25T17:56:00.001-08:00

Can't have a better Golden Jubliee Post for my blog. Thanks Anish to enable me copy it :).Here it goes

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.

Unlucky Tendulkar in Down Under !!

2007-12-21T14:27:00.001-08:00

A series widely anticipated as a close contest between two world champions, India and Australia, is right on cards. Australians have given a thrashing to India in One-Day series and India did return the favours in 20-20 during the recent Australian tour. Essentially, both sides maintained its supermacy in it's own niche domain. Going by that logic, Australia is a huge favorite for Test Series [ Do I need to say this. Ofcourse it would be great achievement if India could draw a couple or Win one of test match]

Sachin Tendulkar continues to be my cynosure during this tour. His return to form in One-Day cricket and increased voraciousness continues to excite me. An another exciting thing to watch for is how Australian tours continue to inflect a bad luck charm on Sachin. In past he has been given shoulder before wicket, LBW out that surprised the bowlers itself. The same string has already started in the practice match - Bowled on a No - Ball !!!

Awaiting to see what next, perhaps something like

Sachin Tendulkar Caught Tendulkar bowled Tendulkar 199 (247) !! :))

ToastMaster Speech - A new Begning

2007-12-20T14:31:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years, I have developed a habbit to write. This lovely blog has been my partner in a decision that I took last year to better the Writer in me. It feels great today to be complimented for the blogs and other writes I do. Ofcourse, this is an ongoing journey to improve everyday. However, looking at an email about ToastMaster Club in my office, I thought this is an opportunity to externalize the writer in me to be a good public speaker as well. I have no idea of how good or bad speaker I am and this was an opportunity to discover.

I ventured to attend my first toastmaster session today. It was a wonderful experience. The people there were absolutely fantastic. The moment I entered the room, there was a huge cheer. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Here we have our first and the only Guest for today !!" It was wonderful to see a group 30 people, completely unknown to me, cheering for me. On the back of mind, I thought "Who said Indians are best hosts. I have never received such reception before".

I sat comfortably along with a jovial and fun-loving old lady, only to discover later of her naughty instincts. There was a person speaking on a black pen. He was absolutely fantastic in his speech and incorporated the typical American original sense of humor. I like American's humor a lot now a days. The moment he finished, another person referred as "Table Master" stood up. I noticed from the corner of my eye the old lady making gestures to the "Table Master" pointing towards me. I was confused at first.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,now we welcome our Guest to come and give us all a speech. Would you like to come and speak Mr. Guest" said the Table Master. I froze. Everybody started to look at me and I was the center of everybody's focus. "Now ? Today ?" were the only two words that I uttered. I came to this meeting just to see how it goes and had no idea what would happen inside. Everybody had a fountain laughter and clapped. "Yes, we would love to listen from you" said someone from the audience. What a crowd I thought. I decided to give it a shot. I was nervours but I was equally thrilled.

I went up to the table. The Table Master explained me that I have put my hand inside the Magic Bag and speak on the item that I grab for less than 2 minutes. Hmm less than 2 minutes ..Infront of 30 complete strangers. Anyways, I gathered my breath and begin to believe that my throat has not gone dry and I can make it. Before I put my hand into the bag, I said something like this:

"Before I begin this wonderful practice, I had like to share with you how I feel right now. Ofcourse all of you must have had the same feeling at some point of time when you gave your first speech. I read it somewhere that the number one fear of all human beings is "public speaking" and the number two is "Death". The article intrigued me and I decided I cannot become immortal or may be I already am but I can conciously become a good public speaker. So here I am and I thank you all for giving me this opportunity" -- Cheers and loud clapping and suddenly I thought I belong to the people there.

The item that came out from the bag was a packet of "Mint Choclates". I looked at it for a moment, gathered my thoughts. Suddenly there was nothing there in my head, instead my heart spoke. I spoke for 1 minute and 30 seconds on the piece I had in my hand. I don't think I did well during the whole speech. I could hit some light chords such as "As I generous person, I would love to distribute these choclates to all of you. But since the number of choclates is lesser than audience and I can't see some of you not having even a single piece, I will rather keep all of these for myself :)". The audience laughed and cheered and I was myself. There were numerous things I could have done better. There were numerous thoughts that come to me now but not then. However, I am happy that I took my first step and ofcourse this is an another ongoing journey.

It was very encouraging when the Table Master at the end said that not a single guest till today has come forward and spoke on his first day here. It was a great speech ViniD "Yeah, still have issues in my accent and Americans pick D instead of T in my name Vinit". The "ah" "Ummm" "So" "You know" calculator told me that I had very few such words in my articulation, amazingly high for the first timer. Encouraging again !!

They say "It is always hard to take the first step, the rest just follow". I took my first step in public speaking on a myraid topic today. It is one thing to speak in a meeting or in a presentation or in a town hall to the audience you know on cognitive and creative level and It is completely different to speak in ToastMaster Club. I don't know how directly or indirectly public speaking is conneted to me but I believe in Steve Jobs who said that "Ofcourse it is impossible to see how the dots will connect looking forward. But trust me, they do. Follow your heart. And the confidence and belief that the dots will connect will make all the required difference in your deeds and actions. Believe in something and follow it.". Amazing words of wisdom !!

Thank you ToastMaster for the opportunity to add a new Dot to myself and I definately look forward to associate with this club in Gurgaon. Ah yesss... The Mint Choclates were absolutely fantastic !!!

Ciao

A New Direction — Citizen Journalism

2007-12-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

I have followed closely the CNN-IBN impact stories, stories of dairy workers getting their jobs back, stories of people exposing the scams in several universities such as Rai University, and stories of Mumbai guys imploring the nation to shut down lights for one hour in wake of Global warming. How many such initiatives have been taken and gone unnoticed, how many times people’s voices have been ignored in past.

The next big thing, Citizen Journalism makes me think the uses, abuses, and implications of this awakening. Among several things, I think the most important aspect of Citizen journalism is that we get first hand information that many organization and individuals may not reveal via individuals who act as citizen journalist. Also, the news are on the spot and authentic for example a person in Lucknow recorded in his cell phone a burning car left unattended on road for several hours. Essentially, I think this is a new platform for people to connect with people via media such as CNN-IBN, via website such MeriNews.com. Amazing and perhaps, revolutionary. A perfect setting for a democratic and egalitarian society.

However, as every change will find face there are divergent views on the subject. I have read media and individuals questioning the authenticity and the intention of the news. The ability to make an impact on such large scale, close to a billion people, can sometimes lead to vested interests. Granted such accusations cannot be neglected, consider for example large scale sedition in Singapore on blogs. While a journalists are professionals and know how to prepare and present an incident in a sensitive society, citizen journalists and bloggers are amateurs. However, I believe this is where the Media and Website have to be integral and clear for the purpose they represent.

Another argument against this movement is that the quality is getting diluted and people represent individual opinions, I ask can we trust each and every journalist to the core for the reports that they present. Is it always true and can we take each news a writing on the wall ? There were reports of a news channel making superficial scams on a school teacher of late !! Given that the big guns, the successful media professionals who have made an impact in this industry such as Mr. Karan Thapar, Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai are here to stay but the future truly belongs to us, citizen journalists. The new breed of citizen journalists has brought many more ideas, area that may be overlooked by press and reporters are brought on surface. People are becoming more aware and ready to contribute to their surroundings.

I think it is important to capitalize on this enthusiasm and a proper channeling of the growing awareness has to be done and keep the spirit going. I plan to join soon and conrtibute my 2 cents errrr 2 Ruppes !!

American Red Cross Measles Initiative !! Updates !!

2007-12-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

I just recieved updates from a American Red Cross co-ordinator on the major measles related initiative the organization has been pursuing. Some fantastic achievements, I found are a drop of 68% in children dying due to improper vacination from year 2000 to 2006.As for numbers, a reductions from 757,000 deaths per year in 2000 to 242,000 in 2006. Furthermore, there has been a reduction of 91% in deaths of children under age of 5 in Africa alone owing to great contributions by American Red Cross. I reflect back, how an idea by a swiss national influeced an American nurse to lead into formulation of such huge organization !! Amazing !!

Way to go though !! Still, 600 Children die every day and a million more at risk. I am glad I did my bit and will continue. I implore you to join, have you ever thought that 1$ can be equal to 1 life?

Click here for video clipings and further information.

Actions Vs Reaction in a journey

2007-12-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted. Life has been a roller-coaster in past few weeks, mixture of nervousness and hope, of eluding dreams and pleasant realities !! I have always strongly believed in my conviction and faith in my journey. Whether I have been able to achieve what I wanted or not is completely different. The fact of the matter is that I have pursued journey with passion beyond my own imaginations. And in pursuit, the learning and maturity has always been gigantic, to say the least.

Also, another matter of fact in life I have realized is how important it is for one to choose the parameters through which we measure success. Often we glean activities in life through lense of success vs failure. I feel there is always something else that happens, in middle of these two things. You know, they say “Almost always we do not have control over the actions that happen in life, It is the reaction that determines the character of a person”. I have been fortunate to be surrounded by some excellent people from whom I have learnt this virtue.

My conviction has always been to put my best forward for a cause and then, leaving things for GOD to make happen. If it does not, it simply is not the right time. There are better things in store or perhaps, the same thing in store in far better manner. !! Okay too much of heavy words, some more please :P !! Another important influence has been the song "Kal Ho na Ho" : A true and revolutionary way to look at life. How often we chase something badly only to realize what we missed in the journey !!

So today I start a new journey towards that eluding “better” thing, while taking a renewed look at what I already have. To reflect this newer phase, I have decided to make some major restructuring to this blog reflecting on my owned and inherited passion in life.

ohh..Will be right back, the door bell is ringing !!! Ah my Dream Girl there !!

A New Color and A New Dimension

2007-11-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

I have seen myself changing gears in last week. Of numerous nostalgic activities that I have done in past week, the stand outs in my memory, as enunciated by the subject, are adding a new Color and a new Dimension to me. Ironically, both the things happened on the same day.

On the Thanks Giving holiday, as I woke up I found something unusual. My conscience kept on telling me that I have satiated my sleep and I am awake yet I continued to feel as if I am dreaming. The tree that I see every morning out of my window was looking rejuvenated, the background was extra bright, and the ambience in the room was something unique. What's going on? Overcoming my irresistible procrastination to get out of bed, I glanced out of the window. Awesome it was. Looked as if heavens have descended to earth or I have been given a free ride till there. The grasses and the ground outside were covered with soft snow, as if blessings have been showered on them. Everything looked so bright and fascinating. The houses, with tops complemented by this heavenly blessing, looked glorified. I was ecstatic. I went out to savor my long cherished dream, to play and touch snow. It was softer than anything else I have ever touched. I added another color, Snow White, to my life.

On the same day, the adventurous and inquisitive me woke up. While it was chilling outside, I planned a movie "Beowulf" with my roommate. The adventurous part was a mile long walk in the snow to the theater. I was convinced that I want to watch the movie in 3D theatre, to add another dimension to my movie experiences. Of Course the movie in 3D costs more, around 5 bucks extra. My friend was dichotomous on whether to spend extra 5 bucks on 3D movie, what if it's not worth it. I, however, had a simple logic. I asked him whether he knew exact amount of dollars in his account. He, knew a round figure and not exact, as many of us do not. I then said "If you do not know the exact money, how will you know if you take out 5 bucks extra".A fountain laughter followed and he joined me. We were on our way, in the new color, Snow White, to add a new dimension to ourselves, 3D.

I read it somewhere that one should retrospect once a week to ink learnings and new experiences in that time. In due course, I hope I bring them all here.

You are Special !!!

2007-11-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it has been a while since I wrote here. I start the new innings, perhaps a persistent one, with this interesting read.

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked. "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you - but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked. "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by ...WHO WE ARE.

You are special - don't ever forget it."

A war is about to begin !!!!

2007-11-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Indo-Pak series. After a period of high voltage clashes of the Indian team, here comes the big one, India Vs Pakistan > They say "Forget about cricket, its a war".

Pakistan, rejuvenated by return of the 'Candid' Akhtar and at the same time, devoid of Glenn's successor Mohd Asif, would be looking for revenge, a revenge for 2 more nails in the coffin launched during the World Cup. India, on the other hand, has a point to prove. Can they life up their intensity to levels of World Cup games in normal games.. we saw they could not against Australia [ Who said, these ones are normal by the way ] !!!

Another hope, a personal one, that I nurture is watching Sachin go beyind the 80's n 90's. Just one century in this whole year, where has the magic of 8-10 centuries per calender year gone. Having said that, I am hopeful [ Yes I am optimistic] for him to reach 16,000 this year !!! Best Wishes and would be even better if he hit something big in the 5th ODI and I will follow :) !!!

Eargely awaiting for the roller coster to commence !!!

Long time no see....

2007-10-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. quite a time since I have posted here and I am not going to do so now either. Neverthless, collecting lots n lots of info to post and will do it soon !!!!

Multi-Sourcing in Out-Sourcing

2007-10-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

I find my current engagement quite unique. My past experiences have been centric on my employer being the sole solution provider with no dependencies other than the client. But here, TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, IBM..... U name it..its there...., work for various functions. All sit on the same floors, attend the same meetings with similar agenda, participate in similar town halls. Often, I hear a Indian name from the other side of the phone and wonder which company is he from. Furthermore, I find Type 1 Outsourcing a fun. To act as decision makers for the client rather than just doing what they want is encouraging. I recollect, the client often asking us “From your previous experiences in other accounts, how can we handle this”, “In other peoplesoft accounts that TCS handles, what implementation process is used”. The window of opportunity is wide yet narrow. As pro-client, we are expected to provide best recommendations. As pro-TCS, we are expected to keep ourselves better than the competition and provide revenue generating recommendations. The line in between is thin and difficult to adopt.

What this process has resulted in is a two fold sword. We have to keep on engaging with the cross functional teams. This has propelled increased efficiency and communication on one hand and blame game on the other. There have been instances where each party plays pass the buck game. Now is it healthy for the clients and for the vendors?

Evaluating the client side, I would take a personal example. As a customer, the more choices I have the better decision and better deals I will get. For instance, if there are 4-5 different telecom operators, I can expect each one offering a wide range of services and I can conveniently find more than one operator offering a genuine deal. Furthermore, it is quite likely that I can negotiate with one operator since he runs a risk of losing me to his competitor. Extending the same philosophy to clients, they have employed the similar strategy at Corporate Level. If we have multiple vendors serving various part of our applications and infrastructure, we stand a better chance of getting improved services at lesser costs.

On the vendor side, If I have more competitors, I stand a better chance of re-inventing myself. In short term, I might run at a risk of losing a part of my clientele or business but in longer term I will have better processes and efficiency from the constrained margins. As a TCSer, I observe an extra sense of commitment and effort from the senior leadership for a particular project that involves cross functional teams of different vendors than when the other team is from TCS. Even at team member level, there is an hint increased efficiency conforming to preserve the image of the company. Certainly there is an extra effort to synergies the best practices to achieve greater efficiency. In all, the impact is positive though sometimes it feels like dealing with unnecessary roadblocks , multiple status reports, and multiple entries in vendor applications at operational level.

In retrospect, I guess this is going to be the way large corporate house will engage the vendors let alone the software services. Hmm, I thought I should have used the title as -- Competition at the cube level -- :) !!

Measles Initiative [ Humanity binds humans - part 2]

2007-10-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

It is disheartening to note the number of children dying just because they did not get proper vaccination, which can be obtained at cost of less than a dollar for a child.I got a chance to Volunteer in the Measles Initiative of American Red Cross's Twin Cities Chapter. I am glad to have made a contribution to save atleast 10 children.

I hail Red Cross’s participation in this resounding initiative that has saved 360 million children globally in 5 years. I feel a part of this process today. I implore you to be a part as well. For more information about the intiative please visit this page:
Measles Initiative Information

Go online, call 800 number or send a check, if nothing at least forward this message to your friends. Check this page for the same:
Measles Promotion

Furthermore, I also recently read about Arun Sarin’s candid gesture to establish $10 million Charity Establishment in India out of which 1 Million pounds is directed towards Measles Initiative in India, a largest corporate initiative in the region. You may want to read the full article here:
Vodafone Charity Establishment

Never before did this thought crossed my mind that $1 = 1 Life !!!

When is the last time you just did something?

2007-10-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting realization this morning. How often do we stop for a moment and think what we are crossing by, what moments we are living? How often is it that we realize the importance of present, an anonymous to Gift? Today, traveling to my workplace in a misty and rainy weather, I heard my friends complain about the weather. “It is so difficult to drive in such weather”. “Arey, this is nothing. Come in December and see, it will get worse”. Somehow my ears were passing these comments perfectly through the hollow channel in my mind. [ I know you just wondered whether I have any non-hollow channel !! Please concentrate]. I was feeling heavenly, divine for something was happening to me, giving me sheer bliss. I was living that moment. I was letting my thoughts wander, farther than the realms of logic and analytics, nursed by emotions and imagination proprietary of a 3 year old kid.

Observing the tiny droplets silently force the mighty cars and buses labor to put the wind-shield wipers on, I thought how the tiny droplets would be feeling: proud or miserable? They were operating in tandem, one after the other, persistently and passionately. But I wondered whether there objective is to hit the cars, the buildings, and numerous other structures or to touch life, a unique prospect, on this unique planet. Furthermore, I wondered whether all the blessed living creatures ever realize this. I know Peacocks for one do. But does the most intelligent creatures do? I wanted to go out and help at least droplets touch me, touch life. I wanted to feel the tiny drops, to get wet in rain, by getting out of the car. Just as I was about to design a strategy to do so in such a way that no one sitting in car notices me, the car took a sharp turn and I returned to mortality.

Suddenly, hundreds of ropes tied me. How can I go out and get wet, I have to attend a meeting within next 20 minutes? What will happen to the cell phone in my pocket? The laptop bag is also not water-proof and TCS will owe 3000$ in an event the laptop breaks down. And dude, you cannot just stop and step out on a highway. I was tied, left, right and center. I was tied from top to bottom. I struggled to return to my fantasy world, to my world. I wanted to defy all the logical crap and live my dreams. But, I had a meeting in next 20 minutes.

Is Urbanization good for Villagers / Rural Economy?

2007-09-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

One should avoid following the straight jacketed approach followed by our smartest of all political leaders to comment on such issues. A 'Neta' [ Perhaps we need to change the meaning of this word in Hindi dictionaries now] vouching for rural votes will say 'No' and someone vouching for urban votes will say 'Yes'. An interesting and intriguing incident has been the down fall of BJP government, a government riding high on 'India Shinning' campaign. The down fall has been associated with observations that BJP was concentrated on Urban India only. Such was the depth of the analysis that the fact that the campaign was in worded in English was pointed towards BJP's urban India approach. Ahem!!!!

The Congress therefore followed their slogan as 'Aam-Aadmi ki sarkar', worded in Hindi and worded for rural people. They made their huge plans {I have deliberately used the word 'Plans'} to associate with the rural people. Such developments may lead to conclude that "Yes- urbanization has hindered the growth of rural people". Infact, I have also been to an extent convinced with this philosophy though I have thought that why concentrate on one side, why cannot both sides develop in parallel. However, an interesting point that I noticed in my recent read at India Knowledge@Wharton leads to a series of interesting facts based on pure data:

1. A study of consumption in last 26 years reveals that an increase in Urban Household consumption of Rs100 leads to an increase of Rs39 in the rural household income. The driver of such increase is non-farm sector of rural economy such as manufacturing, construction and trade, hotels and restaurants.

2. During the last decade, the rural economy is estimated to have grown by 7.3% as compared to 5.4% of urban economy.

3. The rural economy is nearly as big as the urban. In 2000, the rural economy accounted for 49% of the India's GDP.

4. Share of agriculture in Rural economy has dropped from 72% in 1970s to 64% in 1980s to 51% in 2000

5. The rural-urban migration has fallen from 6.5% in 1981 to 2.8% in 2001.

I love data. The indications pointed by each point noted above leads to refute a number of myths such as rural people are suffering due to urbanization; there is an India – C waiting to shine and many more- an encouraging realization !!!

The major reason for this change, as noted by eminent researcher and economists is the growing and strengthening integration of the rural economy with the urban economy. Granted that logistics and supply chain for the route is no less than a shame for the progress we hope to achieve, yet the hope does exist. Perhaps an integration of the rural supply chains with the urban ones, steered by the boom in organized retail would provide the impetus to pass on the benefits lower down the pyramid. Just one problem though – Who will help Mayawati understand on the recent Reliance Fresh issues? Someone ready to bell the cat? CAT????? !!!

A good "Sher" - A powerful thought

2007-09-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Samet lo haseein ke en nazuk paloin ko
Kya pata yeh lamhain shayad kal ho na hoin - 2
Aur hoin bhi
To kya pata, en lamhoin mein shamil hum hoin na hoin !!!

Brilliant - Just live life to it's fullest !!!

An Event Full 15th September !!!

2007-09-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

It was a day that started rattling the heck out of my nerves, scaring me like hell ,a goof up that I had done leaving me blind, deaf, and speechless all at the same time. Yet the recovery was handsome. An activity that has taken center stage in my life since last 2 months was on verge of getting screwed. As always though, I managed to get things done and on time :).Thanks to my colleagues invitation for Ganesha Puja.

A South India, he invited 6 other south Indian families. It was natural for all of them to communicate in Telugu or Tamil [ What’s the difference anyway ] ? I realize how at times I and other Delhi guys naturally communicate in Punjabi / Hindi in our office lunch breaks and we over look that a southi is sitting with us and then ask him “Right Jaggi”. He always says “Ya”. I also said “Ya” today, though taking cues from the persons gestures to make out the conversations. After the Pooja, came time to eat. I thought I will not need to communicate and listen now. I am hungry and I need food. Period.

Serving started with around 15 people sitting on the floor and 2 people serving one dish after other. I saw many food items for the first time but I was hungry. I was second to Vivek to keep the dishes finished for the half of the time. Gradually I realized that the number of dishes are numerous. As I was nearing my fill, I heard someone say [ This time in English ] that the main course of rice dishes is coming. OMG, I had landed in trouble. The mandate was anyone saying no will get twice the food. As rice starting pouring, I swear I ate today more than I would normally do in 6 months !!! A riceey day, I must admit !!

As if, the drama wasn’t enough, I found I have overused my minutes last month and T-Mobile sent me a due amount of 105$ :((, thanks to a 3 hour conference call with 5 friends on a weekday evening. In retrospect, I ,however, felt the conference was worth having !!!

One of the most happening days in my life after a period of hibernation !!!

Excerpts from "The Greatness Guide - Robin Sharma"

2007-09-22T15:11:00.001-07:00

Some inspiring quotes from one of the best books I have read

1.You do not need to have the biggest title to do the best Job. Be a rock star at your work. Make sure people ask u for your autograph on day.

2.The real risk lies in riskless living. Do dare and stretch yourself.

3. Be an eternal optimist. Always look for positives. Value people and your friends. Be original and do not follow the crowd. Follow your dreams.

4. Laugh and have fun. There is no point in having success and being sad. Reach for mountains while enjoying the climb. Life is not meant to be an ordeal. It is meant for a celebration. So have big time fun while you chase and catch your most cherished dreams.

5. Focus on any area or skill with relentless devotion to daily improvement and a passion for excellence and within 3 to 5 years you will be operating at a level of competence that people will call you genius. Focus plus daily improvement plus time is equal to genius.

6. Since you have 2 ears and 1 mouth, listen twice as much you speak. Listening intently to someone is one best way to honor that person and forge a deep human connection.

7. Challenges serve beautifully to introduce yourself to your best and brilliant self. So “Burn Your Boats”.

8. Make a list of 101 things that you want to do before u die. Strive to achieve it.

9. Reward yourself with the best things available –Best clothes, best car. It sends a message that you are worth it.

10. Do good and leave behind a virtue that storm of time can never destroy.

11. Give out the most what you want to come back.

12. Identify clearly most important values and dreams of urs on a paper and review if continuously. Make a strategic plan to achieve everything.

13. Invest a lot in learning.

14. Do not take life serious. Chill out. In the end a sweeper and a billionaire are buried next to each other.

15. I just read about a little girl born without a face. Just 2 eyes and a mouth. And we worry about traffic being heavy on way to work. Count your blessings.

16. Be the most positive person around. Be candid and speak truth. Say please and thank you. Under Promise and over deliver. Leave people better than you found. Be a world class listener. Smile a lot. Be passionately interested in People.

17. Delete what needs to be eliminated from your life- feel lighter, happier, peaceful.

"The Book that inspired me most" - An old write !!!

2007-09-22T14:54:00.002-07:00

While organizing my lappy over-used D: drive, I found some old writes. Interesting stuff. It's as refreshing to read your old writes when you expressed differently as refreshing it is to see your old pics when you were younger and looked different. I thought to put this "Memo" on my blog. It's an essay on "The Book that insipred me most" for a competition in TCS Essay writing competition in 2005.I notice a significant errors in this essay but I choose to put it here in the original form only. No wonder I did not win. After all experience matters :)

"The Book that inspired me most"

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy association with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their soul into ours. The books nurture novice minds and satiate the learning needs of many.

The book that has left a lasting impression on me is ‘The Great Indian Dream’ by Malay & Arindham Chaudhary. The book meticulously presents the decrepit condition of India in various fields like Food security, Infrastructure, Per capita Income, Human development. It also states the situations at present are more because of mismanagement of resources and fundamental mistakes in our approach for problem solving than being inherited by us.

The book presented lots of cold facts logically like Indian Forex Reserves as high as $82 billion (in 2000, $142 today) as a wastage of precious money at minuscule interest rate even though India would need a maximum of $15 billion in case of emergency. It states it would be better to use the same money for Infrastructure development or better be distributed to poor’s. The list of observations was unending. "India is a sleepy cow" being another one. The book introduced me to the huge pitfalls in strategic approach of India like although 26% of people live below poverty line and cannot afford a full meal everyday; India has enough food stock which if put sack by sack on one another a path till moon can be formed. The food has been left at the mercy of notorious rats and insects while thousands of Indians suffer.

The book also presented the principle ideas to be implemented which can transform India from a developing to a developed country. It put emphasis on raising the living standards of poor people (which would help India to increase its customer base and hence the whole economy) as being the top most priority. It also stated to eradicate unnecessary hierarchy in the system which provides hindrance to proper allocation of Subsidies / Benefits to poor and needy.

After going through the book I was bedazzled at the enormous potential of India. As a teenager I had attributed the poor state of India largely to resource deficiency and British Raj. However the book led me to leverage enough belief in potential of India to be a developed country.

As Thomas Carlyle has said “The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader for self activity”. The book led me to be emphatic for the poor people. I feel it my responsibility to contribute to their well being. I realize the importance of Higher and Middle class to contribute to uplift the poor class and try to be as honest as possible in my contribution for the endeavor.

If through this epitome of the book I am able to inspire any single soul to go through the book and engross the ideas and try to implement the fundamental principles of improvement presented in the book, I will feel being a part of journey for Great India started by Mr. Arindham Chaudhary.

An open letter to Freddie Flintoff

2007-09-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

I have never come across a write so eloquent and humorous. Check this one :

http://www.whatay.com/2007/09/20/an-open-letter-to-freddie-flintoff/

njoy !!!!

CHAK DEEEEE !!!!!!

2007-09-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

It has been 2 consecutive days of wonderful cricket. Competitive, motivated, spirited, rejuvenated Indian Team did it to make to the semi's. Wonderful display of raw talent, young indian team without the 3 familiar faces. Young guys firing all cylinders.. Awesome !!!

Way 2 go India!! Tame the Aussies. A revenge for 2003 world cup final, in style... Just like Yuvi did to England.. Chak De !!!!