DOES IT MATTER

Do people make situations more complex and decision making more painstaking by investing too much time and thoughts into them? Gathering information and using them as pointers in decision making is fine …but isn’t it that too much information normally acts as deterrent towards decision making and execution? What is the optimum research one should do before commencing something?

Imagine….someone keeps himself immersed in a sea of information, spends immense time analyzing all possibilities, potential problems, likely scenarios, risk analysis etc….based on assumptions (wild ones) and finally becomes overburdened with data, exhausted by (mis)/information….takes every step too cautiously (based on some illusion that some problem might happen)….and finally turns out defensive….and lacking the guts to embark....justifies lack of action to all the problems (none of which might actually happen) which he foresees….

Now consider….someone well versed with the basics….shifts gear to the action mode…faces hurdles on the way….devises ways and modes to resolve the hurdles….either he succeeds in clearing the hurdles or learns the hard way at some cost…either way his course is dynamic…sometimes success, sometimes failure….with the success rate getting better with time.

Now extending this logic to companies, should companies invest so much resources and time in gathering data and analyzing them? Does it really matter in the end? How many MBA jobs will be crucified if companies put a brake on too much data analysis.

A SMART CREDIT CARD CALLER

(Caller knows only the phone number from God knows where)

Caller (with relentless ease): Congratulations, Sir!!! You are the winner of a silver coin from our bank xxx
Receiver (wondering, what he did to deserve a silver coin): Ohhh…k
Caller (even sweeter): And along with it, we are glad to select you as a proud recipient of 8L limit credit card of our bank xxx
Receiver (now realizing that its one of those credit card callers.. throws): I don’t need credit cards. Don’t call me again!!!
Caller: Sir, Do you have a credit card with credit limit of 8 L. No other bank will give credit limit of 8 L
Receiver (realizing that the maximum credit card limit he has from existing card is only 1 L): ok, tell me the details..

(Long conversation follows. Receiver dreams that he is going to be a proud owner of a 8 L credit card)

Caller: OK sir, my executive will visit you to receive the relevant documents
Receiver: No problem. I will be ready with all the documents
Caller : Sir, just to confirm, where do you work?
Receiver (thinks…how can some bank offer credit card without knowing where he works, anyways): xxx company
Caller: Sir, if I may ask, whats your monthly salary?
Receiver (now thinks hard…how can bank offer 8L credit card without having prior salary information, anyways): xxxx/ per month
Caller: One, last question, sir, Whats your name?
Receiver (thinks even harder…silver coin, 8 L credit card etc without knowing name, salary and work, anyways): My name is xxxxx
Caller: Thank you very much Mr xxxx. My executive will meet you tomorrow evening and collect all the relevant documents

Next day: Executive collects all relevant documents
After one month: Caller receives credit card from xxxx bank

Some of the contractual points mentioned in credit card
1. Credit limit: less than 1 L ( That’s like 1/10 of 8 L)
2. Reward if you secure xxx points a month : 1 silver coin (which is possible if someone utilizes the whole credit card limit during the month)

A NOT SO SMART CREDIT CARD CALLER

(Caller does all kind of background check, gets to know the name, designation, salary, and even the take home salary…God knows from where. Also calculates the maximum credit limit that she can offer to her potential client. Then she decides to give a call)

Caller (as courteous as anyone can be): Am I speaking with Mr.xxxxx?
Receiver (almost getting a hint... responds impatiently): Yes!!!
Caller (even more courteous than before): Sir, This is xxx and I am very glad to say that my bank yyy is offering credit cards of maximum credit card limit. I have gathered something….(suddenly hears a sharp noise and realizes that the phone has been disconnected from the other end.

Story ends

PLAY SCHOOL

Over the years, so much has changed. Present day toddlers are so different from those of the past, thanks to their parents and society.

My neighbor’s daughter is not even two years old. But the search for play school has already started. Why so early? Because, the kid has to be groomed for the pre KG interviews. If a kid does not clear her/his interviews, s/he will not get admission into a good school. And the best route to be an eligible candidate is by joining playschool.

The cost of such play school starts at Rs 70,000 per year…no upward limits.

Isn’t this an example of exploitation and commercialization in the name of education? More than that, its forcing a tiny kid to forego his/her early freedom and get into the “processes” and “systems” of education provided in our country…the education which is so successful in transforming human beings into some vague creature, which knows only to run a race and move ahead of others, without knowing why s/he is running.

AM I RIGHT??

Amongst other things, smart people are often good at the following –

1. They don’t take life too seriously
2. They know whom/what to ignore and at what time
3. They know when not to follow what they generally preach

1ST DAY

Highlights of New Years Day:

My Name is Red
Three Idiots
10 km walk
A late night drive
Phone calls and emails
Lost and found a gold bracelet
(Overall a very happening day)

2010: RESOLUTIONS

1. Study Law…preferably join a part time/correspondence course in Business Law. Understanding business law is crucial in understanding business (especially in the industry I am in)

2. Visit a new place and also one of my past…with EM.

3. Get back to shape. It doesn’t feel good to carry anything unnecessary.

4. Continue reading books of all genres.

5. Post at least 100 posts in this blog during 2010.

6. Write at least one personal mail each day to someone I know. I don’t remember when I wrote a personal email for the last time. It’s disheartening to lose touch with the friends with time.

A SIMPLE DREAM

Riding bumpily on the muddy stretch of land which they call roads, we were busy confirming appointments with representatives of various oil companies who have a strong presence in this part of the world (Port Gentil in Gabon). I was accompanied by a Gabonese guy who was entrusted with the joint responsibility of driving me to the respective offices and be the French-English translator wherever required.

The meetings went well…enlightening to be precise. It’s a great experience to understand how culturally diverse people can be. But I don’t intend to go in-depth into how people work here. I will rather like to look back into the dreams of a simple African…or shall I say the dreams of a simple man!!!

This guy should be in his late thirties…its difficult to estimate the ages of people. A native of Togo, he had moved into Gabon in the pursuit of a better life. These days, he has been granted Gabonese citizenship and has well adopted to the nuances of the new culture. So have his wife and daughter.

He studied basic English in Togo and has transformed that little knowledge into his profession now. It really amazed me when I tried to map his fluency in English to his educational qualifications. Hardly a couple of years of English training and when I had asked this guy if he will guide me during the next three days he had responded “you are our customer and I will ensure that there will be no problems…”. What was striking is not the usage of words but the way they were pronounced….the kind of pronunciation which adds humility into the tone…which, according to me, is the most sophisticated form of delivering any language.

During our drives, we talked…I learned that his was a love marriage and that he had first met his wife in his Togo school as a kid. It’s always interesting when people open up and start speaking out…He spoke about his life in Gabon…the difficulties he had faced when he moved to Gabon for the first time….the kind of differential treatment which the outsiders are almost always exposed to. It took him years to reach a position of relative stability. The word stability is very dilute in its strength when used in Africa…yet he was quite happy with his stability in life.

This man…Francois…is now a proud possessor of a small land and he dreams to have his own home on this land someday. That day, he says, he will have his dream fulfilled….his dream of a family with a home.

(Sometimes, when I see people struggling so hard in life, I realize how privileged I am…just by being lucky enough)

EXPLORATION OF FAITH

The last few books I have read bear something in common. Though been authored from different parts of the globe, the central themes of these books tend to converge towards exploring the answers of the age old cryptic questions.

1. Many Lives Many Master by Dr. Brian Weiss
2. Illusions by Richard Bach
3. Life after Death by Deepak Chopra
4. The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler
5. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

All these books have something in common. Each one of them is written by someone who has a scientific background. For example Dr. Brian Weiss and Howard Cutler are professional psychiatrists, while Deepak Chopra is a doctor. Richard Bach is an airforce pilot while Dan Brown settled down as a professional author after exploring careers in music and teaching.

Nevertheless, the idea is to stress the fact that all the authors are extremely well versed in science and they have tried to explore faith with a scientific background. The books are completely different in their context and approach. The Lost Symbol is one of the most exciting books I ever read, which so scintillatingly combines spirituality with entertainment. The Art of happiness is amongst the most practical books with a balanced approach. Life after Death is more textual in nature where Deepak Chopra provides his views on what happens after death with evidence from science and life. Illusions talk about the illusions that carve out reality. Many Lives Many Masters is about past life regression, which Dr. Weiss claims to be true.

I don’t know if the basic underlying theme of these books is true. But what if it’s close to truth….even a bit. The slightest belief in these things can bring about a paradigm shift in the way an individual perceives life.

ONE

"...each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one"

(The last line of "The five people you meet in Heaven")

IF

If market friendliness and market size bore positive correlation…..

(Lately, I have been involved in exploring country specific market opportunities for the services we provide. Stronger the exploration, higher the realisation that the above wish will remain only a wish)

CORPORATE VS. NONCORPORATE

CORPORATE ROLE

Beyond the management lingo, beyond the complicated corporate models and beyond all the glamour of a corporate role, sit five very basic tenets. Every possible corporate profile seems to fit into one of these broad divisions.
1. Generate business opportunities
2. Finance the creation/availability of products/services
3. Sell the products/services to earn revenues and profits
4. Maintain records of everything
5. Partner with relevant people/entities
The words highlighted have strong significance. While the processes may be different from one organization to other, but the end indicators used to measure the organizational success are often the same across organizations.

NON CORPORATE ROLE

I feel the non corporate role sits in point number 2 minus finance i.e. “creation/availability of products and services”. It can be in the form of technology/engineering or R&D or something similar.

FEELING HAPPY

Life is a travel (the philosophical cut)…..travel is life (that’s how life is these days for me). After a relatively long trip in South Africa and West Africa, I am back in Mumbai….So much things I feel I should type down in this blog…but it seems time is the culprit.

Books covered during this period….my experience in Africa….Mumbai….and most importantly feel like writing a long letter of gratitude and thankfulness to the unseen power that seems to control all the things happening in my little world. After staying away for almost two years from the sweetest person in my life, its so nice to feel the period of separation in its final phase…Three more months and life will change again…Remaining away from each other after marriage is not easy….not at all if you know that the period is for almost two years.

She handled her new life so well…Marriage and MBA…successfully managing even one of the two is never easy... Really admire the way she did it….
Never had I felt so happy in my life….not even with whatever little I have achieved till date…when she called me and said “I made it….thank you so much”. A job in Mumbai…her dream job…in finance…in investment banking/private equity…in a stable and reliable company…in the fragile economy...no joke….there has to be someone sitting right there….above us…and making all the decisions for us…

INDUSTRIES IN PICTURE

Before I try to answer the first question let me put down three snaps - each one of which pictures the industries I have worked in.

My first job (Pre-MBA): This snap is from a leading Korean Shipyard where I had spent some time supervising the construction of ocean going vessels. It was a typical field job where I had to be physically present at the construction site. (Source: dsme photos)

2nd Job (1st post-MBA role): The snap summarises the power T&D sector where I spent some time working on corporate strategy and planning for a power T&D company. Head-office role with occassional visit to local offices and sites. (Source: wktv.com)

3rd Job: This is the current industry I am working in...for an offshore (oceanic) oil exploration and production service provider specialing in offshore rigs and vessels. This is a business development role where I spend reasonable time meeting clients. (Source oil-energy.com)

Now it will be much easier to try my bit on answering the first question. Will be back through the next post.

LOOKING BACK...

After almost six and a half years of professional career, after being exposed to varied kind of roles, I feel tempted to explore the evolution that has been continually changing me through this journey. Having spent almost four years in shipbuilding before MBA followed by two and a half years in corporate strategy and business development post MBA, it is worth introspecting and dissecting the experience of professional work beyond the daily rigmaroles.

The fabric of formal education, which I was exposed to, has defined my approach to understand any situation, event or issue by asking questions to myself, reasonable answers to which shall help me to capture my experiences and learning.

Through the next few posts, I shall try to delve into the following topics.
1. How is a corporate role different from a non-corporate one?
2. How has my professional work experience helped me to understand the corporate set-up?
3. How relevant is formal education in the professional set-up?
4. What are the most relevant learnings from each of my previous roles?

(Note: The answers to the above will be highly influenced/skewed by the fact that I have worked /been working in the old economy sectors like shipbuilding, power transmission/distribution and oceanic oil exploration and production)

WHITE TIGER

This book is packaged in the form of a series of letters written from an Indian entrepreneur to a Chinese Premiere during the latter’s visit to India, the intention being to “enlighten” him about the real India. The book is about the journey of this man’s (white tiger) life in India – one part of it in “darkness” and the other basking in “light”. The darkness which prevails in the villages and the light which makes the modern cities glow…

The protagonist who started his life in the darkness and moved into the light, provides an account of the path he took to carve out of himself a successful entrepreneur. The character himself is clear on the morality issues, but has no repentance of what he did in his journey towards entrepreneurship. Very fluently, he continues providing his confessions of the crimes he keeps on committing, but at the same time, he has no repentance of what he did in his journey towards entrepreneurial success. He sites numerous evidence of the injustice and corruption prevailing in India driven by an extremely servitude attitude of those who are at the receiving end.

Aravind Adiga is successful in building empathy for the character, while keeping the style of narration extremely simple and entertaining.

However, he draws a very gloomy picture of India. Even the “light” of the cities is tainted with all the “darkness” of humanity. Of course, this is an individual and independent story line, but this book which has already won Bookers is likely to lend a distorted touch to the success stories prevalent in India.

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Semi autobiographical in nature, this book depicts the fall of a Syrian Christian family pictured against the contemporary social happenings in the state of Kerela. Lyrical in style and innovative in approach, the author has built the narration through a series of flashbacks and flashforwards.

Through the lives of a pair of fraternal twins names Estha and Rahel, the author articulately weaves the rest of characters and relates them with something, which could probably have influenced her in her real life. Unhappiness is one common chord that can be identified with most of the characters…a kind of unhappiness which finds its source within the family setup. The weakness of the family system is the basis of the story. However, external factors like untouchability, communism, politics and other social prejudices have influenced the family set up to a large extent. She uses Malayalam terms like Mammachi, Kochamma, Sophie Mol to integrate the characters to the local setting.

Narration is as beautiful as ever. In one section, the author describes Kathakali dance. Very rarely have I read a description as beautiful as this.

The theme is probably supposed to be tragic but I guess it’s slightly difficult to empathize with the author. No emotional link is likely to develop with the characters. It’s once again the beauty of the words that creates the magic

THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE

This book, which is an amalgamation of fables and history, brings together the stories from three different lands (India, Persia and Italy) with a remarkable sense of imagery and floral fantasy. The theme links the Mughal Indian culture with that of the creativity of the Florentine renaissance through the beautiful princess Qara Koz. The linkage in itself is a marvelous thread of Rushdie’s imaginations...adding to the existing richness of the medieval history…which moulds together the complexity of power, politics, valor, betrayal and lust. The span of characters ranges from Akbar to Machiavelli, from an Uzkek Khan to a Persian prince, from Birbal to Abul Fazl…it’s just too extensive and unending.

A complicated Indian emperor, a mysterious stranger from Florence and the parallel subscripts of reality intertwined with imaginations and fanciful magical effects.….this book is an example why Salman Rushdie is one of the most complicated authors of this age. This book probably also acts as the voice of Salman Rushdie into his views on religion and on the existence of God. Feminine beauty is synonymous with eroticism in most of its contexts.

But, more than anything else, the book is about dazzling, ornamental lines with a fairy tale approach. If you can allow yourself to sink into this Rushdie’s creation and keep a distance from reality, you will definitely feel the extension of your imaginative horizon. Where can one find a book, where each line carries the floral effect of imagination with such glitter...that you have to stop for a while to imagine the rich dreamlike setting.

“From the black bowl of the skies, came the answering fires of the stars”

This is not an easy book to read…and not at all an easy book to understand….nevertheless an excellent book to enjoy the beauty and magic that words of classic Rushdie can create.

FOR ONE MORE DAY

Like the earlier works of Mitch Albom, this book is brushed with the theme of life and death. But, it’s not about life and death. Like his earlier works, Albom has employed the medium of life and death to explore something else, something so evident and yet so evasive. In this book, it’s about relationship.

It’s about taking relationships for granted and realizing its value only after it is too late. While the mother-son relationship is pictured in this book, but the underlying sensitivity can be applicable to every other relationship. With respect to the story in particular, I will rather leave it untouched in this post.

The novelty factor is missing as this book bears certain similarities of approach as in “Five People….”. So, probably for someone who is used to Albom’s mode of expression, the excitement factor might take a hit, nevertheless I recommend this book strongly. Especially, in the kind of nuclear life we are getting used to….with personal ambitions shading the sweetness of relationships….this book will indeed give you something to think about.

SOME OLD HABITS WELL PRESERVED

Some hold habits getting lost…some new habits getting developed….and in this process I feel I have left my blog untouched for quite some time. Not that I am short of topics to write, but the new habits seem to overpower me into adding more novelty into life.
My experience with books continues…Mumbai has forced me to continue my readings during commuting….and since commuting never ends, reading has remained one of those habits which is still well preserved. It’s more than two years since my entry into this enigmatic city and I am still to understand how this city turns home for so many millions. Life cannot be more difficult and yet the influx continues. Anyway…we will reserve this discussion on Mumbai for some different post. My intention of this post is to mention the last few books, which I read….each of which I will be discussing in different posts.
1. The Last Lecture
2. The God of Small Things
3. For One More Day
4. The Enchantress of Florence
5. The White Tiger
Five completely different genre of books in different settings….one about how to live life, one on society, one on relationship, one about fables of medieval world and one about India.

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

In his early twenties…yet enriched with multitude of experience. Half American and half Kenyan, early childhood in Hawaii, parents getting divorced, moving to Indonesia to stay with Indonesian step-father, staying with grandparents in Hawaii….this is indeed a childhood that possesses the sensitivity to carve out a successful story for others to read. As if the family aspect were not enough, this childhood was exposed to racism in the developed world and poverty in the developing world. The first book by US President Barack Obama “Dreams from my Father” is a narration of experiences, about society and life…in US, Indonesia and Kenya. It’s about youthful confusions about identity and race. Last but not the least, it’s a biographical account of the first twenty odd years of a phenomenon called Obama. Who knew then, that this guy will beat all the odds…against origin….against experience…against life…to become the most powerful person in the globe.

More than a decade after his first experience as an author, Obama wrote his second book. This book is about the answers. Though it’s more of a political address, resembling a political ideology, but something within it seem to provide an answer to the questions that were raised in the first book….about race, religion, family and work and about politics....as it should be. This book titled “Audacity of Hope” stresses the importance of reality vis-à-vis blind optimism, a pragmatic approach towards politics…and the way it should serve people…creating value based opportunities, unstained by racism and religion. Politics is not sensation…its something moderate.

“What’s there in a name?” – They say. But here is a name for a political address of twenty minutes which made a presidential candidate out of a relatively junior senator and a name of an international best seller……The audacity of hope!!!...

Excerpt-
“In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!!!”

BUDGETING AND BLACK SWAN

I have been involved in the corporate budgeting exercise for the last two years (though in two different organizations). Numerous events have filled in this gap of one year between the period of the two budgets. One of them is the experience of acquainting myself with two books of Nissim Taleb – “Fooled by Randomness” & “The Black Swan”. You know you are influenced by a book when you feel the essence of book getting reflected in any other activity of your daily life and these books are so ornately designed to do that.

In these books, Taleb stresses the role of high impact, highly improbable events (which he calls black swans), which most people ignore (to make predictions and forecasts). He is against derivation of general rules from observations and stresses the incomputability of the probability of the consequential rare events from empirical observations. Taleb is known for his severe distrust of models. He is not against experiments and fact collecting but warns against generalizing into theories.

“We respect what has happened ignoring what could have happened. In other words we are naturally shallow and superficial and we don’t know it. We see the world as structured and comprehensible.”

We make our budgets, based on forecasts and backed up with sensitivity analysis models. Our sensitivity analysis is a model which rarely accommodates the possibility of a black swan. We trust the past. We seem to understand the present. In the absence of any black swan type of events, we tread the normal path….But in the event of a black swan…”who knows”.

My first budget experience never considered these events (I have started calling them black swans) which became visible only after they happened – the financial crash and the drastic fall of oil prices being two major ones. As I am in the process of preparing next year’s budget, I keep on wondering the black swans which will make their presence felt during the course of the year.

BEAUTY, SPIRITUALITY, CONFUSION AND PC

Penning down thoughts is a healthy habit….at least I feel so…of course it’s highly personal in which way one might prefer recording his/her thoughts. For some reason, which I am still unable to explore, I like to record my thoughts on books in this blog. One reason might be that when I revisit some earlier post I can link myself with some aspect of my past, which has, in some subtle manner, become a part of me…
It’s not only about reading a book. It’s also about when are you reading a book…and under what circumstances you are reading this particular book. Reading a Paulo Coelho book, while commuting in a morning Mumbai train can be different from reading the same book after a day’s work. It’s not about the lag in connectivity of your internal assimilation of the author’s message...it’s rather about how the day’s process keeps on adding layers of periodic reflexes which by the end of the day influences your views on your earlier interpretation of the book.
Let’s restrict to Paulo Coelho at the moment. His works are a mix of beauty and spirituality….about the discovery of an individual’s desires, fear, courage etc….Many individuals feel that this mix of beauty and spirituality creates an intensely inspirational self search within. They feel that most of Paulo Coelho books (Alchemist, Fifth Mountain, Pilgrimage, Eleven minutes, Zahir, Maktub, Valkyries…) are extremely rich in their content of the level of inspiration.
I enjoy the works of Paulo Coelho…..more so while making my early morning commute to the office….when a day is just about to start… The morning train presents you with the first glow of the morning sun, the thinning fog, the hills, the sea….creating the perfect ambience to delve deeper into what Paulo wants to say. Interestingly in most of books, Paulo uses different elements of nature (the deserts of Egypt, the Steppes of Kazakhstan, the deserts of California, the mountains of the ancient Israel and Lebanon etc.)…and this is a great way of integrating the exterior beauty with interior spirituality.
As long as you are in the morning train, you seem to relish his thoughts, the way he writes, the ambience he builds, and to some extent you can indeed enjoy a refreshing feeling, which can probably be classified as an indigenous version of spirituality.
But then, the day moves ahead….you are in the office….you take a quick look at your diary….you systematically read the mails…you start filling in your plan sheet for the day. You get back to the reality…stepping down from the elevated level you had reached during your morning train journey. Your records remind you that there is a presentation to be made to the senior management, elucidating your plans for the year…your mails bring you the news that one of your clients has gone bankrupt…its painful to realize this and more so especially when there were receivables to be realized from them. You visit the news channels to get the feel of the daily oil prices….your business is so closely linked with the oil prices…and sadly, the oil prices are hovering only in the USD 40 per barrel mark….
Which is the latest tender to be filled? How do we obtain prequalification to work in some new location? The list of questions that demand an answer keeps ever elongating. There are quite a number of new ships to be delivered the course of the year and they have to be committed…with “reliable” clients. By reliability, I mean they should not go bankrupt without paying us our receivables. But then, how to know who is reliable under this market situation.
Finally amidst all the confusion, speculations, and optimism….the day ends. You get back home….you make phone calls to those who matter most to you, you realize that for your dearest ones, the day is not much different…though mapped in a different setting.
Its almost midnight. In another 6 hours, the next day is going to start. You ensure that your laptop and important files are well arranged in the bag. And there you see, the Paulo Coelho classic is lying within. You take it out…read some of its lines….and ask yourself “Is this the same book which I was reading today morning?”
The next day begins….and you start commuting….and open your book where you had put the marker the previous day….and start reading it….just as you did it the previous morning...reaching the elevated levels of indigenous spirituality.

INTERESTING

"It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self." - Francis Bacon

SO FAR....

SO FAR…
Six years of professional life…or was it just a blink….
Three different companies…..three different industries…..three different roles…..
Shipbuilding….Power Transmission and Distribution….Oceanic Oil and Energy Exploration and Production…
Technology….Finance….Business Development....
Once again its about the ships....this time not building them...but learning how to use them to create wealth......

ATTITUDE

"If you are trying to build a ship, do not tell your workers to go to the forest, chop wood, and build a ship. Instead, instill in them the desire for the sea. They will do the rest." - Deepak Jain

QUOTES FROM SHANTARAM

"Shantaram" is such a classic that every line of this 1000-pager can prove a memorable line to think about. My favorites.....

(1) It's forgiveness that makes us what we are.
Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.

(2) Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that's all there is - love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that's all we have - to hold on tight until the dawn

(3) One of the ironies of courage and why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone

(4) The tendency towards complexity has carried the universe from almost perfect simplicity to the kind of complexity that we see around us, everywhere we look. The universe is always doing this. It is always moving from the simple to the complex.

(5) And I looked at the men, the brave and beautiful men beside me, running into the guns and God help me for thinking it, and God forgive me for saying it, but it was glorious, it was glorious, if glory is a magnificent and ruptured exaltation. It was what love would be like, if love were a sin. It was what music would be, if music could kill you. And I climbed a prison wall with every running step.

(6) The only time he ever stopped hating himself was when the risk he faced became so great that he acted without thinking or feeling anything at all

(7) At first, when we truly love someone, our greatest fear is that the loved one will stop loving us. What we should fear and dread instead is that we won’t stop loving them, even after they are dead and gone.

(8) Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow. And in the tiny precious wisdom they give to us, even those dreaded and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be.

(9) I don’t know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it

(10) A dream is a place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare.

(11) Guilt is the hilt of the knife that we use on ourselves, and love is often the blade; but it’s worry that keeps the knife sharp; and worry that gets most of us, in the end.

(12) Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting.

(13) Sometimes you love only with hope, sometimes, you cry without tears. Sometimes, that’s all that is left, to cling together till the dawn.

(14) The past reflects eternally between two mirrors -the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say.

(15) Men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, it’s the other way around.

(16) Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy new things.

(17) It's such a huge arrogance, to love someone, and there's too much of it around. There's too much love in the world. Sometimes I think that’s what heaven is - a place where everybody's happy because nobody loves anybody else, ever.

(18) You can never tell what people have inside them, until you start taking it away

(19) Silence is the tortured mans revenge

(20) News is about what people do. Gossip is about how they enjoyed doing it.

(21) Every virtuous act has some dark secret in its heart; every risk we take contains a mystery that can’t be solved.

(22)...The wrong thing for the right reason…

COMFORT ZONE

One year and three months….this is the time I spent during the tenure of my first post-MBA job. Another week, and after that I will be moving out to try the next assignment of professional life.

These fifteen months were certainly not without learnings….This is the place where I got a chance to work closely with the top management….this is the place where I feel I have developed a sense of professional maturity (in other words, patience). It was also the place where I got the first hand glimpse of what we had learnt in the first half of ISB – mostly Corp Fin and Accounting.

However, in spite of all the learnings, I could feel myself drifting into a comfort zone. Corporate life in a big company is slow (at least at my level). The easy money associated with it promises a safe, yet predictable and unexciting life. After a certain stage, every day is a replica of another, months and quarters are cyclical, and the initial excitement level keeps dropping.

And after a certain period, you wonder …. “Lets get out of this comfort zone, lets try something which has the potential to pump in more professional excitement into life”

LAST SIX BOOKS

Sometimes we read books to kill time…Namesake, Above Average, The Sub Altern Saheb
Sometimes we read to experience the adrenaline rush…Airport, The Final Diagnosis
Sometimes we read to lie down and keep recollecting the experience of reading the book ...Shantaram

THANKS

With the frequency of posts at its lowest, I had the impression that this blog is in a state of wilderness…with no visitors. However I was wrong…

Many thanks to all those who have posted those lovely comments….

TRUST

Isn't this what "trust" is about....

GOOD TO GREAT

Jim Collins authored this book after his earlier work “Built to Last”, but he advises readers to consider this work as a prequel to his earlier book. While Built to last was about visionary, lasting organizations, “Good to Great” is about mediocre organizations which leaped to greatness.

A typical Jim Collins book…..extremely well researched over years, this book elucidates certain concepts using 11 companies which satisfied a typical pattern – “fifteen-year cumulative stock returns at or below the general stock market, punctuated by a transition point, then cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next fifteen years". As in his earlier book, Jim Collins has also maintained a list of comparative companies.

Jim Collins has beautifully written this book with the information of a business book and the sensitivity of an artistic creation. In this process, he has explored appealing concepts, which he discovered to be the key constituents of each of the Good to Great companies. Some of the findings are –

Leaders and the way they think - (early build up to greatness)
(1) Level five leaders (who build enduring greatness through a mix of personal humility and professional will)
(2) Hedgehog concept (ask - what you are passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine – and then do those things which answer all the three questions)
(3) Stockdale Paradox – (retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties and at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be)
(4) First Who, then What (first find the right people, then think what to do)

Breakthrough and leap to greatness
(5) Flywheel building momentum (incremental and cumulative efforts, which help the system to get momentum)
(6) Culture of discipline (culture of discipline as different from tyranny)
(7) Technology accelerators (aligning technology with the strategy of the organization as streamlined by the hedgehog concept)

Jim Collins has consummately merged the concepts of this book with that of his earlier “Built to Last”.

In this book, Jim Collins doesn’t restrict his thoughts to the corporate world but links the concept of greatness with a subtle sensitiveness….greatness is not about being huge…its about discovering excellence and meaningfulness in work….Nor is greatness limited to the corporate…it can be discovered in every aspect of life.

Felt tempted to quote the last paragraph of the book -

“When all these pieces come together, not only your work move towards greatness, but so does your life. For in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you have had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent and that it mattered.”

TWO MONTHS BACK...

Spring time….lovely weather….wide roads penetrating the deserts…..a three hour long drive from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and finally, I was in the Dubai airport to get back home….

The car stopped not far from the airport entrance and the sixty-something year old, kurta clad wrinkle faced, bearded person, who has been driving this vehicle got down to pick my luggage. Somehow I managed to dissuade him not to pick my luggage. He walked to the trolley section and got one trolley where I loaded my baggage. Then shook hands with him and waved him goodbye…

I still had three hours in the airport….did some minor shopping and then relaxed in the airport….one of my shortest trips…just three days….kept on reminiscing the last three days….

A unique mix….both Indians and Pakistanis form an integral chunk of population of this part of the Arab world…the deserts…the classiest buildings and towers…the Dubai FM…and the even the Karachi Durbar (the popular Pakistani restaurant in Dubai)….and the drives…especially the last one…from Abu Dhabi to Dubai....and the chitchat I had with the driver…

I was tired and would have rather preferred to take a nap during the drive…but then the driver asked me something “Aap Bombay se hain?”….I gave a reflexive nod and asked him if he was a native of one of the Emirates…There was a change in the expression of his face…he looked down…and stammered…nahin, hum Pakistan se hain, 20 saal se yahin pe hain…Do saal mein ek baar Pakistan jaate hain.

Somehow the conversation proceeded and I enjoyed talking with this person…Ahmed was his name and I addressed him as “Ahmad Bhai”. Perhaps I am too young to address him this way, but then I couldn’t think of a better way to address him. He kept on talking and I kept on listening….He talked about India….the British…he talked about India and Pakistan…..the Indo-Pak wars…the politicians of the two countries….the people of the two countries…..his experience in Dubai…languages like Arabic and Urdu….

Hum to ek hi kaum ke log hain…Janat se bhi khoobsurat hai Hindustan aur Pakistan….lekin kya karein….that was how he started his conversation….his hatred for the British and the politicians was evident….

Once he was out of the Indo-Pak issue, he talked about the beautiful Arabic language…the rich Arab world…. about his life in Dubai…his family in Pakistan.
Finally, we entered the Dubai downtown and he concentrated on his driving.

Almost one and half month after, as I sit down to pen down this experience, the wrinkled face of that old Pakistani driver is clearly visible. The three hour long drive from Abu Dhabi to Dubai would have been lost in the memory lane as just another drive but for this Pakistani driver.

MAVERICK

Maverick (by Ricardo Semler) - Was it about doing business in the unreal world of Brazil….or was it about a “quirky laboratory” (read the company Semco) run by a few impudent and iconoclastic managers. Its about both, each intertwined within the other.

It is about a distinct way of running a company, Its neither socialist, nor is it purely capitalist, it’s the third way – “ a more humane, trusting, productive, exhilarating and in every sense rewarding way. As Ricardo closes the book – “ To forget socialism, capitalism, just in time deliveries, salary surveys, and the rest of it, and to concentrate on building organizations that accomplish the most difficult of all challenges: to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning.”

The author claims that this is not a business book, nevertheless, I feel this book should be among the must read lists of all business students. It’s to understand the iconoclastic methods of Ricardo Semler, wherein he creates a system within Semco, where the employees choose their bosses as well as their own salaries. The system was strong enough to successfully survive the volatile Brazilian economy and inflation (which often went as high as 400%).

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY

"Blue Ocean Strategy" is an exceptional book by W.C.Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

“Giving the people what they want is fundamentally and disastrously wrong. The people don’t know what they want …Give them something better”

Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space as understood today. Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today.

Blue Ocean strategy is nothing new. It has been existent over the ages. Many successful organizations and individuals have followed this strategy in the past. “Creating something new” is the simplest way in which I can sum up the philosophy of this book. In this book, the authors have just formalized the concept in a great way.

According to the authors, there is hardly any attractive or unattractive industry per se.
Blue Ocean can be created by reinventing, thinking out of box, creating new markets, and converting non customers into customers. The authors also stress the importance of consecutive rounds of blue ocean creation. Blue Ocean strategy is not a static achievement but a dynamic process, which can be created both by industry incumbents and new entrants.

“Value addition” is perhaps one of the most powerful phrases used during the business school lectures. This book speaks of something called “Value innovation”. Value innovators achieve a leap in value by creating new wealth rather than at the expense of competitors in the traditional sense. The concept is based on a non-zero sum game.

The authors have elucidated the concept using lot of examples and have suggested frameworks and models. Both conventional cases (like Model T of Ford and NYPD’s legendary chief Bratton) and numerous big and small organizations are explained in detail

The authors have created jargons (like “Placing kingpins in the fish bowl” and “Angels and devils”), which I am sure are quite popular already.

The basic theme of the book can be summed up as follows -

(1) Reconstruct the market boundaries (Look across alternative industries, strategic groups within industries, chain of buyers , complementary products, emotional appeal of buyers and finally time)
(2) Reach beyond the existing demand
(3) Get the strategic sequence right (exceptional utility, strategic pricing and target costing and adoption)

The authors have used the concept of strategy canvas where they study an organization with respect to its competitors. What differentiates a successful organization is its focus and divergence from the competitors well defined by a compelling tagline.

DIGRESSION

Before I move ahead to write on the topics which I had mentioned in my last post, let me take a digression and write something about the latest books I read during the last one month.

Making the Cisco Connection: This book, I felt, is a plain description of the origin of the behemoth named Cisco. David Bunnell has described well the nature of the three eras of the Cisco Management –
The entrepreneurial stint of Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack (the birth of Cisco)
The Morgridge years (the period of consolidation)
The era of Chambers (the age of expansion)
David has well described the major strategies and the culture of the organization. This book is indeed informative but something was lacking – something that was so striking in Richard Branson’s “Losing my virginity” or Sam Walton’s “Made in America”. Perhaps if some day, Chambers writes the story himself, the missing excitement can creep in.
I found something different in this book regarding JVs when David writes about Chambers -
“In JVs – no single transaction he’s had, he says has been 50-50. Sometimes CISCO’s partner will get 70% of the benefit, and the next time CISCO might get 80% of the benefit. All in all it adds up to 50-50.

The Age of Discontinuity: This book by Peter Drucker was first published in 1968.
Through this book, Drucker looked into the future and predicted stuff which we have taken for granted today. He mentioned about four sources of discontinuity, which he felt, marked the end of the then existing continuity. These sources are
Origin of new industries, new entrepreneurs and new economic policies
Globalization
Changing society tending towards pluralism and privatization
Knowledge economy
The term “knowledge economy” and “knowledge worker” became almost a sociological jargon after this book.
Drucker foresaw the last decade of the last millennium well in advance. He was indeed two decades ahead of his time. No wonder he is considered the greatest management mind of this era.

Games Indians Play: This is an interesting book by V. Raghunathan. In this book, the author has tried to explain why we (Indians) are the way we are by using Prisoners dilemma. While the author has maintained a simple environment in spite of using complex behavioral economics terms like rationality, systematic chaos etc., I feel he could also have used Prisoner’s Dilemma and other game theory principles to the context of Indian-ness as well. I mean he has used game theory as a tool to explain why Indians are the way they are. Perhaps he could have done a better job had he used the game theory to answer the question “what makes Indians behave the manner they do” in the context of the socio-economic status of India. However, this book is a good read…especially for its simplicity in dealing with complex things.

ABHINAYA LIVE

If you are one of those, whose heart appreciates the mystical dance forms and enigmatic tunes of ancient India, then Abhinaya is indeed the right place for you. This site consists of high quality videos of some of the oldest and rarest of Indian dance forms, apart from the audios of tunes, music and poetry. The catalogue is likely to pick up exponentially within the next few days. If the above videos enchant you, don’t forget to login to http://www.abhinaya.in

http://blip.tv/play/oWkBAA

BACK TO GOOD OLD LIFE

Back to good old life mode after the submission of the longest report of my life….a hundred page report on a power transmission line running across the Arabian Desert. It was a tremendous experience to drive through the deserts….to visit six out of the seven Emirates of U.A.E......Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Umm ul Quain, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, Ajman…

With the submission of the report, I am now back to blogging after a long time.

Will write about the following topics in my next series of posts

(1) Abhinaya
(2) Chit-chat with a Pakistani in a different land
(3) Snapshots from the deserts

IMPACT

With ISB in the venerable list of the top Global schools (FT Ranking), things look quite rosy for other schools also. So...how is it going to affect the local scenario. Some possible outcomes according to me –

The Indian schools will reinvent themselves to fulfill the criteria and the requirements of the most prestigious international rankings. The three most respected rankings are WSJ (Wall Street Journal), FT (Financial Times) and BW (Business Week). Unless a business school finds a place in one of these lists, it better try to reinvent itself.

IIM-A shall the next Indian school to appear in the FT rankings, but not before 2009. According to FT criteria, a program/b school must have been operational for a minimum of 5 years and 3 batches must have passed out. They have to bank on their one year MBA to suit the FT criteria – GMAT, Work ex etc. But once they enter, they will be pretty high in the List. But interestingly, they will be in the ranks (Global MBA) due to the new One Year MBA.

The International rankings will see a host of Indian schools circulating, quite high in the list. Indian schools always had the abilities, but may be due to complacency, they never took serious interest in prestigious international rankings. As a result they never reinvented themselves. They were happy with local Indian rankings. Now with ISB starting the trend of global rankings, things look extremely good for the Indian top schools.

Organizations like AICTE hopefully will get out of the bureaucratic outlook and pay attention to the real issues of education.

The age of international sophisticated accreditations for Indian B-Schools is around the corner – Once again, by all probabilities, ISB will be the 1st Indian school to get the most prestigious international accreditation – AACSB.
International accreditations are a must to maintain international standards.

The narrow minded parochial mindset of the top Indian B-Schools will be replaced by a more competitive global outlook. They will stop reacting to changes. ISB always has a lot of critics, primarily because this six year old school keeps on achieving one laurel after another. But then, I believe that there are two types of critics – a critic, who criticizes to earn money...basically that, his profession; and the other who is jealous. And there is no point in remaining jealous. In fact I have always believed that our schools can benefit a lot by cooperating with each other….the same way as the likes of Harvard, Wharton, MIT and Kellogs cooperate with each other.

The number of international applicants will rise in Indian schools

And last but not the least, the research culture will pick up. And by research, I mean the quality research

India, I believe, is the only country apart from US, which has the potential to have at least 5 colleges in top 20. Let’s hope for the best. And by 2010, it should be possible.

ABHINAYA UNFOLDS

Just 3 more days remain for Abhinaya to unfold...

http://www.abhinaya.in/

THREE BOOKS AND ISB

Read “Made in America” by Sam Walton…the saga of the creation of the Worlds biggest organization….from the voice of Sam Walton himself.

This book is amazing….depicts the heart of Wal-Mart…..its technology, sophisticated distribution system, associates culture…..

Also Sam Walton has depicted himself through this book…as he broke all frontiers of success…His famous Hula dance in the Wall Street…his Saturday mornings with his associates…his fleet of little airplanes which he piloted himself….and all such stories which were instrumental in building the Wal-Mart culture.

The ideas of Sam are as entertaining as it can be…and I will like to include two lines from the book…

This one is about the basic marketing trick, which Sam asks his associates to practice

“From this day forward, I solemnly promise and declare that every time a customer comes within 10 ft of me , I will smile look him in the eye, and greet him”

This one is about having the right person at the right time

“All along the history of Wal-Mart has been marked by having the right people in the right job when we needed them the most. We had Whitaker, straight out of the get-after-it-and stay-after-it old school, to help get us started, Ferold , a methodical hardworking German, to get us organized, Ron Mayer a whiz at computers to get our systems going, Jack Shewmaker, a brilliant shoot-from-the-hip executive with a store managers mentality and David Glass who could step up in a crisis, keep his cool, and eventually get control of a company that became so big that it was hard to comprehend".

Also read “Wise and Otherwise” by Sudha Murthy….a book depicting individual instances….extremely simple book….with powerful messages in the Indian context

The third book was “Teaching the Elephant to Dance” by James Belasco….a book about Change Management….This book is informative…well researched …but somehow I felt it was too textual in nature (may be because I was reading “Made in America” also during the same time...

So that’s about the books….

Ah yes…..now something about ISB….Its official now…..ISB is ranked 20, in the world, by the influential Financial Times (FT)…..once again, my Alma mater has broken all records…..and this time the records are not just in the Indian context….its global….the youngest B-School to make it to these rankings (In fact, TOP 20)…ISB has indeed redefined the concept of Indian B School education….

A SWEET POST

300 posts already posted in this blog…So want my 301st post to have something special…

Let me post something, which I really liked.... This was written by EM six months back.

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About twenty yrs back from today a three yrs old kid was sitting along with her grandfather in his lap in an arm chair in the porch of the verandah….JJ (Grandfather in Oriya) chair that is what we used to refer that chair as.It was his favourite chair.

Kid : JJ what does puuo mean??

JJ : It means son

Kid : Why do u call Appa as puuo??Is he ur son??

JJ : Yes, he is my puuo

Kid : Who is my puuo??

JJ : Ha ha, who do u want ur puuo to be??

Kid : Can I choose my Puuo JJ??

JJ : Yes, u can…so whom do u choose then as ur puuo??

Kid : U….u be my puuo from today JJ…will u be??

JJ : Ha ha sure my dear…but then who ll be ur JJ if I be ur puuo!!

Kid : (After some serious thot) we will shorten JJma’s name as JJ….if I need a JJ

JJ : Ha ha ha ok

And so he became my puuo from being my JJ :).He used to feed me when I used to throw tantrums and find excuses for not eating making my mother give up on me in frustration.He wud bribe me with chocolates and toys and make me drink milk and then take all the credit for accomplishing the great task.My puuo and I wud together have bitter gourd curry together…..I eating on his behalf and he on my behalf….. and the bitterness of the curry would get drowned in our laughter and togetherness. He taught me alphabets before joining school.He taught me the difference between multiplication and divison…when I could never differentiate between them.He taught me multiplication tables till 12th table and I could never learn higher than 12th table till date.And today he’s taught me cooking even :)!I wud coax him to tell me the story of his childhood and he wud willingly accept to narrate the incidents of his childhood to me umpteen number of times without getting tired of it.He wud listen to my endless ranting and answer each and every single question that I ask.He wud blackmail me saying that if I had my bath early in the morning he wud allow me to enter the puja room and have Prasad and I wud always manage to sneak in and have the Prasad without bath.And he wud behave as if he could never make out tht I had sneaked in and finished the Prasad.I wud ask him “what do u do with the Prasad when I am not around Puuo”…and he wud reply “feed it to the sparrows so that they take it to u in their beaks”!!And I wud keep searching for sparrows at my place for the Prasad.He wud say “Grow up soon dear I am getting old”…and I wud reply “Don’t worry Puuo I ll grow up soon and we will both get old together”.

Days passed and distances grew.I got tied up with studies and cud manage to meet him only once in a yr.He wud complain “U call me puuo and don’t care for ur puuo.U simply disappear”….I wud reply “No JJ!!Me really tied up.I need to secure a seat JJ.After that I promise I ll always be with u”…..he replied “Fine!!I will get it for u…will u be happy then and not worry”….It sounded like those days in my childhood when I used to cry for toys and he wud say “Fine now don’t cry I will get u toys from my secret trunk…ll u be happy then”……and I wud forget all abt the toys and secretly sit down to ransack the secret trunk when my grandfather was not around. My puuo couldn’t see me worried ever.Whenever I wud get worried abt my results my puuo wud motivate me by narrating his experience and the way he had pursued his dreams by making it to Stanford University and completed his Phd .He had taught me pursuing ur dreams is all that matters ….don’t worry abt the results…just never give up. Tears filled his eyes when I had gifted him a dhoti and kurta with my first salary.He put away the dhoti and kurta in his secret trunk as usual :)!!I wud say “Puuo come and stay with me.Then we can have lot of fun” and his reply wud always be “No my dear just like that is ur house this is my house…ur Puuo is happy in his house…Next I ll go to God’s house from here”….And I wud retort “JJ!!Don’t talk nonsense.You had promised that we ll get old together”….”Yes my dear I remember my promise. We will get old together.U and I togther.That is why I made the prev. statement”.I never understood then what he meant.But today I understand the true meaning of his statement that he had made then.He had meant he wud always be there with me in my memories and we wud together get old.Isn’t that what u meant Puuo?? :)!

Life is so strange really….we are forced to accept the rules of nature.Much as we wud love to hold on to our dear ones we know that if we do so it will only get worse.Although its painful to depart from your loved ones u will have to console urself telling that its better if they are taken care of by God in his house than they withering away infront of ur eyes.U can’t pause time…u can’t stop age.And its also strange that when ur loved ones depart its only then that all the memories of the days that u spent together surfaces and u try clinging on to them like u never did before.U get so tied up with other responsibilities in ur life that although u know u love them dearly and they are there waiting impatiently to just catch a glimpse of u ….u just don’t have the time to be with them…and the memories just lie at the back of ur mind undisturbed….u don’t have the time to re-live them.So, that is what he had meant then that he can always stay in my memories and I will realise and relive the long lost childhood days with him all over again while he watches me do so from God’s abode…..and that’s how he will watch me getting old , sitting in the JJ chair , along with him :) !Hope you are keeping a secret trunk there too in God’s house Puuo.And I am sure this time God will make sure that ur secret trunk is not ransacked by any naughty kid around. And here I will take care of your favourite chair :)!

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BUILT TO LAST

The latest addition to my small collection of business books is “Built to Last” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras...a relatively old management classic.

This book , though full of jargons, proved to be a good read. Even its content-list is a collection of jargons….Clock building not time telling….No “tyranny of the Or” …more than profits…preserve the core…BHAGs….cult-like cultures….try a lot of stuff and keep what works…home grown management….good enough never is….the end of the beginning…building the vision…core ideologies….core competencies…etc.

The amount of research backing this book is stupendous and evident. The methodology followed is simple… “How are visionary companies different from comparison companies” …the definition of visionary and comparison are defined in the first chapter itself. Lots and lots of companies well-described…from the day one of their birth.

Jim Collins has beautifully described a visionary company as follows...just loved it...

Visionary company…A visionary company is like a great work of Art…Think of Michelangelo’s scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or his statue of David. Think of a great and enduring novel, like Huckleberry Finn or Crime and Punishment. Think of Beethovan’s Ninth Symphony or Shakespeare’s Henry V. Think of a beautifully designed building like the masterpieces of Frank Lloyd Wright or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. You cannot point to any one single item that makes the whole thing work; it’s the entire work – all the pieces working together to create an overall effect – that leads to enduring greatness. And it’s not just the big pieces, but also the itty-bitty details – the turn of phrase, the change of pace at just the right moment, the perfect offcenter placement of a window, a subtle expression sculpted into the eyes.

TO END THE YEAR

Three books to conclude this year…. thin books but sweet ones…

“Our iceberg is melting” by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber…a fable, with penguins as characters, that took me back to the lectures I had attended on “Change Management”, reflecting the golden rules that lead to a successful change and a new culture -

Creating sense of urgency
Pull together the team
Develop change vision
Communicate
Empower others to act
Produce short term wins
Don’t let up
Create a new culture

“Is New York Burning” by Dominique Lappiere and Larry Collins…. one of the fastest books (if such a phrase exists) I have ever read…a novel that involves the contemporary political situation and real life characters…. One thing that was particularly striking in this book is the depiction of Condoleeza Rice as a master negotiator.

“Screw it…. Lets do it” …a quick- read of “Losing my Virginity” by Richard Branson… a collection of Richard Branson’s favorite quotes with brief description of the events associated with the respective quotes.

TWO MORE

Read one more book on magical realism – “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel.

A perusal of this book might give the impression that Yann Martel has described the adventures of a cast-way, who successfully spent 227 days in the Pacific with a Bengal tiger as companion. But this book is not just about survival instinct. It’s about pragmatism, yet it is about philosophy.

A closer look at the book takes the reader through a religious and spiritual journey, which is quite unique and novel. Pi Patel, the teenage protagonist of this novel practices all the three religions – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. The reaction of the individual self-acclaimed protectors of religion towards Pi is interesting.

Pi, his family and all the animals (Pi’s dad was a zoo keeper) were migrating to Canada when the Tsim-Tsum (the ship which they had boarded) sank…. Pi was the lone human survivor…. he lost his world but he gained another…this book is about his new world.

Its about seeking harmony with the universe…spiritual illumination…. wild adventure…religion and faith…. restless energy and peace… all at the same time

But like any other book on magical realism, this book deserves a slow read.

The other book which I completed is “Losing my Virginity” by Richard Branson. Its about the real life adventures of Richard, while building the Virgin brand. A perfect management book…without all the drab jargons…and with the excitement of a roller coaster ride. An exhilarating experience it was…to get an idea of Richard’s definition of the perfect life…and perfect work.

SNOW

"Every life is like a snowflake: individual existences might look identical from afar, but to understand one’s own eternally mysterious uniqueness one had only to plot the mysteries of one’s own snowflake".

Orhan Pamuk's "Snow" is a complicated book. It’s about a journalist who arrives in the city of Kars in Turkish border. Kars was going through tough times politically, with deep rooted religious impact. Confusing times, religious turmoil, the city of Kars….and within this setting….the life of characters like Ka (the westernized Turkish journalist), Blue (the Islamic fundamental), Ipek (childhood crush of Ka, and …..let me not kill the suspense), Kadife (Ipek’s sister and Blue’s lover) and a myriad of other characters.

Since Orhan Pamuk has deeply portrayed the inner turmoil of each of the characters, I did not find the pace of this book fast enough…a style of writing where the protagonist is not an inspiring hero, but an ordinary human being... with all the sub-conscious happenings.

The distinct element that is pervasive throughout this book is the regular usage of snowflakes to describe any situation or emotion. Its winter time in Kars….with heavy snowfall... and the whole context is submerged within the nature of snowflakes.

IN ANOTHER WORLD

Its as if I am living in a different world….where life is nothing but revenue, profit, Q3 results, Q4 estimations…last one odd week has kept me busy…even more than what ISB managed to make me slog…

But yeah…at the end of the day…after 18 restless hours, when I get to bed, it is a sweet feeling…a mix of tiredness and a realization of a day well spent.

Not been able to read much over the last week...handling three books at a time since the last one month…Mein Kampf, Snow and Losing my virginity….and maybe it will take another month to complete these books.

Somehow could not resist writing about the first half of Mein Kampf…It is about Hitler’s complex thoughts and justifications.

From indifference to interest…. from interest to obsession…. from obsession to hatred…. Hitler’s anti-Semitic tendencies and his hatred for democracy and the then incumbent society traced this path…. Hatred is such a complicated emotion…. it grows within in a strange manner…. it stems from the way one aligns ones thoughts and understanding. This is exactly what this book is all about…unmitigated hatred… that originated from one of the most complicated genius the world has ever seen…

It’s strange to learn that little Hitler always dreamt of pursuing an artistic career – in painting and architecture. But he groomed himself to walk a different path…. and the dreaded complication of his thoughts that he allowed himself to drift into, proved too costly for the entire world.

He hated almost everything, which he thought was weakening the discipline of the German culture. He hated the education system, the attitude of the bourgeoisie, the politicians, their way of doing things…. and the interesting thing is that he got himself convincing reasons for doing so. He has clearly explained why he hated the then German democracy (of the early 20th century), the education system, the selfish politicians…. with cogent facts and convincing reasons. Intense nationalism was all that he could think about those days. He developed his thoughts into defining the ideal education, print media and method of governance and a whole lot of such issues…. and … thus took shape the most dreaded word in the History of mankind – Nazism.

This was my third attempt at this book…. and finally I completed the first half of Mein Kampf

DECEMBER

The sweeping breeze from the hills proving its presence….the red morning sun making its way through the fog…the crackling sound of the fire providing warmth to the people around….the wide, lonely roads guiding its daily commuters….

December is back once again...a month, whose responsibility is to close the year.

A THOUSAND SUNS

The impact of having been through the experience of “City of Joy” tempted me to pick up one more Dominique Lappiere classic, and this book turned out to be one of the most amazing books, I have ever read. “A Thousand Suns” is one of those books, which I will love to preserve in my personal collection forever. It’s a collection of separate documentaries, which Dominique has collected as a result of his experience as a journalist. But Dominique is no ordinary journalist and he captures no ordinary situation and no ordinary people. The real life characters that adorn this magnificent book are as varied as the intense socio-economic and political situations that they live in.

This book is distinct from other journalistic representations. This can be attributed to Dominique’s articulate and soulful exploration of the individual, silhouetted against the complicacy of the situation.

A pirate who dared to topple the dictatorial regime in Portugal by hijacking a cruise liner…. a matador whose reputation rose to elevate him to the status of the most popular Spaniard ever…. a Japanese assassin who used to think about butterflies in his free time…the architects of Israel who crafted immeasurable achievements…a passionate elephant lover who later sacrificed his life for the cause of elephants against poachers in Africa…. the accomplices of Nathuram Godse…a criminal sentenced to capital punishment…and many other heartrending accounts ornate the intensity of this book.

Dominique has also pictured some personal accounts including his love for cars and long excursions all over the globe and his experience when he was suspected of cancer…. the first depicted one of his passions while the second aroused his worst trepidations. Also, his association with Larry Collins is presented time and again, with systematic accounts of the phenomenal books they have written together.

Will try to get hold of some more of such phenomenal DL books…. about History cum Journalism cum inspiration.

READINGS WHILE COMMUTING

Four hours reserved for traveling to and fro everyday seems to be pretty interesting these days. Weekend readings are thus easily transferred to weekday readings… in the trains of Mumbai.

Read a book, which I have always wanted to read earlier… "The City of Joy” by Dominique Lapierre…a book depicting the slums of Calcutta… about people like Stephan Kovalski and Max Loeb…about lives of characters like Hasari Pal and Aloka…about diseases…about the human horses…about floods and droughts…
This book is a tragedy its entire course, yet the element of hope and selflessness is very strong. But I guess Lapierre likes to move in one dimension…I mean when he elevates characters, he elevates them completely to sainthood…. maybe its true as this book is based on real life picture…. but I cannot imagine that someone can be as selfless as Kovalski or Max.
However this book has left an impression…I read this 500-pager in the local trains of Mumbai…and every time I look outside the window of a train…when I see the slums, this storyline of this book gets so easily reflected.

Also read Zig…the autobiography of Zig Ziglar, the successful marketer and public speaker…its always a different feeling to read an autobiography…its as if the person is sitting close to you and speaking his glorious life out. In this book, Zig describes his childhood, each of his family members and their impact on his career and life, about the Redhead, about the early financial constraints, failures and finally super success. But the distinguishing feature is his transformation into a devoted Christian during the journey of his life. At times, the later half of his book sounds slightly Biblical, but his approach to life is different and this book is definitely worth a read.

Autobiographies are like case studies…. they keep on reminding one philosophy and that is
“Isn’t hindsight marvelous for honing wisdom?”

ELEMENTS OF CONFUSION

Options are often associated with confusion. After MBA, this has been a regular feature in life. The scope of my expectations of my career is getting redefined.
May be a more diplomatically correct way of putting it is “widening of scope”.

I started my career in shipbuilding, in various yards, working with steel and machines. I loved it. But somehow I thought that if I continue doing the same thing, I might not get the real flavor of the corporate…. the very word “corporate” was almost synonymous with seduction (even today, it is…)

Decided to pursue MBA with the idea of entering the strategic and financial aspects of shipping…MBA followed…. During MBA also, confusion was rampant …I considered it more sensible to look beyond shipping (expanding the scope), but then decided to fix a limit based on my past experience and aspirations…. My ambitions expanded from shipping sector to the energy sector…mostly into construction business…thought that way it will much more diverse…. Earlier had a decent idea of how ships were constructed…. wanted to explore the nuances of construction in power lines, oil pipelines, oceanic offshore structures. However decided to restrict myself only to the planning and strategic roles…. idea was to work for a few years, witness business closely and then plan for a doctorate….

But, more I stay in the industry, more is this element of confusion…. learning in job is decent…but what I have realized is that learning in one job or in one designation is slow and at times monotonous. Of course one can learn a lot of things…. but working for a huge organization has its own disadvantages. There are lot of advantages as well, but somehow I feel that the disadvantages are getting more pronounced now. A huge organization is very different culturally (especially in India)…. hierarchy levels…. power bases…complicated methods of promotions…. etc. One way to deal with this is to restrict to one huge organization and keep growing within…slowly and steadily…. may be an SBU head by early 40s…. There is more security in life this way…. but then the excitement level gets diminished…the excitement level that is easily available in a small and flat organization…

Somehow feel that the security of being in a huge organization is detrimental to my aspirations…. need more excitement and more challenges in life…

What is the optimum period I should stay in my present organization? What should be the nature of the next organization? Will I be happier in industry or consultancy? When do I apply for univs? Is it a great idea to pursue doctorate after a couple of years, or later in life once I get saturated with the seduction of the corporate? What do I compromise if I choose one option over another? Time to get myself answers to so many questions…need to plan out the next stage of career….