Mystical mind

The Travel experience

2012-02-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

More than an year back, my urge to travel beyond India increased and to my luck, was able to put myslef into a job in the UK which meant an entry into another culturally diverse continent - Europe!! After a good 7 trips old, here I am summarizing the diverty of thoughts I went through during my 6 odd months of travel alone (not a continuos one though...)

The first step towards a travel is the urge to travel. Even though the inquisitiveness of a homo sapien is natural when it comes to travel, for a few it may not be so very obvious. I discovered myself to be somewhere in between these categories of people. Though it was an immense urge to explore while travelling around the UK, I went through a phase of draught where I just wanted to stay back at home; do nothing; stare at immobile objects and stay blank... Sounds a little depressing but yeah! There you are - facts are facts! This lead me to take a break in between my travels to UK and the Schengen nations... A good break of a couple of months in between and I was on the roads again. A draught followed a series of trips again... That is when I realised the importance of chilling out while travelling. It helps you not only to take a break but also to appreciate the rich cultural diversity around! The more time you have to wonder, the more will you discover! - Yes, it is true while travelling!!

'Every travel needs to have a plan in place'! Nah...! The best travels I have had are the ones which are not planned! All I knew is the place I was travelling to and at times the place where I was staying. Having spent many nights at the airports and railway stations made me realise the fun of doing so. The endless conversations you get into with strangers while at airports, hostels and railway stations are always cherishing. A few end up being real good friends and a few remain strangers... Dealing with these uncertain situations makes you realise the importance of randomness in life and the amount of happiness it provides. Of course, no doubt that the planned trips also are filled with people whom you will cherish for a long time as long as you will cherish the place itself. But there is un imaginable fun in the way randomness can fill your happiness. The way you get lost in an unknown city, unknown language with strange people around; not knowing whether to trust them or not is fun by itself for sure!

Food and drinks can never be disassociated with you as an individual if you are travelling or not! But with a travel, the miscellany of the same increases. There is an interesting observation which I went through during my travels. The flavours in the food and drinks of a region has a direct correlation with the mood of the people in that particular region! The paelladors of spain does reflect the loudness amongst the Spaniards; the kick you get in a small sip of an authentic french wine does reflect rh passion of the French; the rawness of a mixture of Brandy and Caffiene reflects the aura of love prevailing in Praha; The coffee on the marbles reflects the exuberance of the Austrians! It is a similar trend across the globe. Having lived in India for over 25 years, this definitely reflects the trend out there.

Regional diversity and change in culture will definitely not affect the basic thought process of a human being. Having lived with strangers, moved along with them for quite a while, one fact is very clear in my mind. Be good to people and they will be good to you! No matter who they are... Where they come from...

The missing link

2011-11-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

My mind has been going through a lot of unrelated thoughts since a week or two now. And today was the day when music helped me figure out the missing link between those thoughts... Thanks to this new fusion music series of Dewarists!

A week back, I read an article on the three traits of an individual which will 'qualify' him to be fired from an innovative setup which led to a very healthy discussion with an old friend. The same day, other duties were calling me - I then moved on to discuss some marketing strategies with a friend being a pessimistic devil's advocate! ... Thoughts around concepts continued over the week and carried over to the next. Came across this really wonderful series of Dewaristis in the morning today. Strings of music were just humming in my ears all day long. Once at home, followed the entire series and experienced the whole process of creation of fusion music... Was amazing!

'Why am I saying all this and why are you reading all this and what does it all have to do with the title of this article? FO man...!' should have been your natural reaction at this moment of time...! :) But hey! Hang on! I have just started off... Am sure you are gonna enjoy the rest of the writeup!

Well... there was one thing in common what I observed across all these activities over the last 2 weeks. PASSION. Yes! That is the magical word connecting all of it. If you happened to click on the hyperlink for the article above, it reflects how impassionate people can create an immatured environment and thus impaire innovation! If the team is driven by the passion of the end result, money, time and any other parameter in life doesn't really matter!

I literally am bugged of the kind of work I am doing right now; there isn't anything which can drive me crazy out there at work. But when I started discussing things with another old friend of mine around the marketing strategies required, customer perceptions blah blah; I felt like I have got my life back on track! I ended up my day with goose bumps all over... thoughts in my mind which could prevail for the next few days... ideas, creativity and what not!

Then came the game changer... Yes! The dewarists ... An amazing series with an astounding display of passion about music. The journey towards achievement, the love for passion, the struggle to get to where they are today... All they knew is that they liked music and they wanted to play music. They were bloody good at it for sure. Else they wouldn't have come this far.

I am glad that I am starting my weekend on a high... High on thoughts, high on energy and hope its gonna be a fun ride for the next two days...!

Managing a change

2011-08-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

When the whole country is behind a 74 year old man having an honest intension of eradicating corruption from an emerging economy, I was busy scheduling my trips around EU. The next time I spoke to my parents back in India, they were mentioning about the anti-corruption fire burning in India. Well, this blog is definitely not about the same issue and ‘my perspectives’ to it!

I thought it will be better for me to write about something which I have experienced over the past year at workplace and leave it to the reader’s imagination to link it up with the situations around rather than writing an entire booklet about the hottest topic around the world! I have been a Change Analyst since the last December where I am responsible to change the perceptions of people to adapt to a process oriented set up. Sounds easy? Yeah… but difficult on the ground! It is about changing the way of working for people who have seen things working without processes. It is about changing the thought process and turn around the way in which things have been working!

It was an exciting start early this year. The whole community of IT users came back to work after their Christmas of 2010 and what they see back at work? No more the same control, process, people to work with, etc. So, on a whole, a cultural shock to the way of working from what they saw before going home for Christmas! Not that they did not know about the change; but as a universal fact, things start affecting only when you start realizing it and relating yourself to it. As expected, there were agitations, unhappiness and an overall negative environment around.

As a department, IT came up with shit loads of documents and bombarded them on the business community. Acceptable? NO! Not at all! It was termed ‘being bureaucratic’ by the community! All they needed was people to hand hold them through the change. Having realised that, we went into a mode of conversation with them. All the agreements which were initially made during the time of design of this migration phase started to look void. There was a phase where the business community was literally shouting at the top of their voices against our actions!

Having seen the (over) reactions, we changed our approach of managing the change. We started speaking their language. Treated them as a child who understands the same thing said in a way he would expect. There we saw a connect! But, in the due course of this change, there were a lot of people who were very much against the process and decided to move on. Was it bad? Well, all I would say is that, I would have been a lot more happy if they had stayed for a few more months! The joy would have been their’s.

The movement of these old guys came as a blessing in disguise for we at IT. There came a fresh set of individuals with whom we could establish a better thought process and a better frequency resonance! In between all this, there was a Change catalyst among the business community who always took the pain under the wrong part of his body but stuck on to the new way of doing things. Having noticed all this over a couple of months, we opened up. Wide open to ideas; shifted from a mode of ‘We want this to happen in this way’ to ‘let us discuss and decide what is the best workable solution amongst the both of us and create a win-win platform’. There was the turn-around which we waited for a good 3-4 months! What I see today after a good 8 months spent on doing things at the ground level is a healthy environment which has so much agility and fun!

Having said that, I questioned myself - should we have been an open book from Day 1? I don’t think so! The situation has to be tackled exactly like moulding a child. The situation wouldn’t have been smooth after say 6 months if we had been an open book since Day 1. If your question is why, here goes the explanation. What will a child do when you don’t give him a boundary? Unknowingly he will get into a lot of troubles. There has to be a care taker initially telling the dos and don’ts. After that phase, give them a little bit of freedom and let them mould, learn on the ground, experience etc. A similar situation here…

Now, do you want to compare this with the situation around the nation? I shall leave it to you :)

A practicle scenario...

2011-03-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here I am in the train on my way to visit an old friend and thought it to be the best time to pen down my thoughts. It has been a long while now since I have done this. Just been crazily hanging around a few crappy decisions to be taken in life!

In the due course of firefighting situations back at office, I happened to have a wonderful talk with one of my managers about handling clients and serving them in the way they want keeping in view the goals of the company you are working for. From the management quotient - 'How do I create a Win-Win situation?' Not so complex yeah? Get to the ground and get your hands dirty, you will understand the complexity of it :). Nevertheless, it was more in terms of letting the clients to be open enough to express their TRUE concerns for issues so that we can handle the ground level realities rather than the top level politics. So here goes my thoughts about the same...

First let me start with my perception of a W-W platform. To pull out another terminology, it maps to 'Collaborative growth saying you grow, I will help you grow, thus both of us grow!' Phew! Too much yeah? ;) … In the process of encouraging growth for both enterprises, the situation becomes highly political if you include the parameter of 'Multiple Vendor Management'. From a client mangers' perspective, 'Why do I have to be open for you to grow?' might be the biggest question. Also considering the fact that they have their own goals in managing the vendors (generally associated with 'how much money you save'), it becomes a norm for them to go in for an optimal solution from any of the vendors. Does a contractual obligation limit this thought process of a client manager? - May be of may be not (depends on the exit clause of the contract).

Given all the situations above, being open becomes highly complex at the management level. What will an account manager do in such situations? Specially if the project teams are going through a bad time, what will be the sales pitch of the account manager? On what ground can he / she ask for an account expansion? … Capabilities? What have we done in the past? What we can do? If these points are brought forward, all that can be got back is a tight slap! Let me take you all back to a few centuries ago - a war scenario (the birth of strategy); a similar situation with different roles and responsibilities. The only answer which worked successfully - be aggressive and step on a few dead bodies! Do you actually have to do that? Well... in situations like this, I feel that it will definitely work. Kill your competitors either by performing better than them or by putting them into situations where they under perform on a comparative scale.

But the biggest question here - Where on earth will you get the data to do all this? (This made me grin - literally...). You will have to rely on people at the ground level to go ahead with such scenarios. Get the information in terms of who is doing what - from both technical and management perspective. This becomes a hell of task to analyse all the data by one person. That is when the organizational hierarchy comes into picture. The way ahead - come up with templates for data collection, distribute it among the mid-level management people. Excel is a very powerful tool! Automate the initial phase of data analytics; add the other psychological parameters; Come up with a penetration strategy. Sounds all familiar and simple once you read it right? Get to the ground and experience the nuances...

Signing off for now, been a very effective journey to Slough in terms of bringing a thought process across

UID - Is it really possible?

2010-12-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

My recent interest and thought process about the data warehouse, BI & related domains led me to a very interesting discussion with one of my long time friends today evening. Must say that it was a productive evening spent after ages!

We were actually discussing the nuances of the data storage and auto-scalability of the database designed for the highly ambitious Unique IDentification (UID) project of Indian government. With more than 1.2 billion people spread across a geographical area of 3,287,263 square kilometers, data collection would be a huge problem no matter how many parallel processes you run. By the time you collect the data of an area, there would already be a new person on-board! Hence you need to get into the depth of analyzing the frequency of birth of a given region (assuming that there would be region wise managers appointed for monitoring and that they would do they job J). A simple query run over a few days (however optimized the query might be) will give them this result; no hi-fi statistical tools are required.

Luckily for them (or may be planned - not sure though), the 2011 census is just on its way. Hence getting the basic information about majority of population should cover up in the cost allocated for census (or have they considered this streamlining - well, not sure again!). But, the major task is to collect the iris details, finger prints and other details which the census would not cover. Now, there is an interesting scenario - Say the above mentioned query is run; even then, they have to re-do this analysis of who is the new born? In a country like India, getting a birth certificate is not a mandate for a lot of communities! Over that, there are a lot of mishaps which happen in the due course of issuance of the birth certificate (due to government job issues etc). So, this leads to a lot of data inconsistency w.r.t a real time physical data. This is where government policies come in handy. One very straight forward solution which strikes me is the mandate of UID at various critical point of contacts (banks, Income Tax, Ration Cards, Voters ID cards etc) in which case atleast some sort of inconsistency is covered. But again, there is still a work around for this. No prices for guessing - CORRUPTION of course!

This is when the equation in my mind got really complex and I asked myself - 'UID - Is it really possible to an extent what it is dreamt about? Are they really going to make it large?’ - Well I really hope they do so; time will anyway answer the question!

PS: I haven’t read any facts about UID as such. Just penned down my thought process for today. Would love to know more - technically, politically and managerially.

Inquisitive Innocence

2010-12-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

Wanted to break the silos of writing only management thoughts and thus doing injustice to the title of my blog! I had reduced the frequency with which I travel and meet new / old people. Just getting back…

It was a colleagues’ marriage in north Karnataka and a few of us at office decided to board a train for the travel. A last minute entry into the train saw us running towards our seats before settling down. Next to our seat was a 6-7 year old kid (or should I call him a BOY :D) of one of our other colleagues who was trying to unwind into his own world. A quick talk and play with him and we were already friends since ages (thanks to the innocence in him…)!

Sitting near the doors of the train next to him proved to be a killer step in befriending him as he hadn’t experienced it ever in the past. But to my surprise, this made him become inquisitive about whatever he saw outside. How is the mud formed? Why is the coconut tree having a body which looks like a stick? Why is the Sun moving behind the clouds? How is water formed? What is a train made of? Given the shape of the railway line, how are the wheels? Why are there stones in between the tracks? Etc etc etc! These questions seemed to never end for the rest of the day.

Though the trip ended last Sunday, I still had these questions running in my mind and the thought of schools shutting down this inquisitiveness cluttered those thoughts! Though there are a lot of schools coming up these days which cater to fill the gap mentioned above, I feel that it surely isn’t enough. Any kid should be given opportunities to explor(d)e, learn from their own mistakes (in which case it should be put into situations where mistakes are bound to happen), question, vent out into areas unknown, etc. The inquisitiveness should not be crumpled because of the shear need of a foolish society! Hope to see a new thought process to arise…

Motivating the support function

2010-11-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

I always used to wonder about solving the mystery of motivating a support function (HR, Finance, administration, security etc) of an organization. Though these categories of people are paid a lesser amount of salary when you compare it with the ‘Billable’ resources, they form the most integral part of completing an organization and often act as engines to drive the company forward. But unfortunately not all organizations give importance to them and seldom take pains to motivate them; they are expected to be a set of self-motivated individuals being the reason!

In the due course of demystifying the motivational parameters for the backbone of an organization, I bumped into the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For the ones who are new to it, just refer to the diagram below:

But you cannot have a direct mapping with the hierarchy as it is. Hence, I tried changing it to map it with the dimensions which would probably motivate the support function.

The Impact

2010-11-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

McKinsey Quarterly early in the morning has become a norm for me now. In one of its latest reports on the public sector - 'The Market State', they have tried to describe the state of the society existing in the market. In the due course of doing the same, a few analysis on the unemployment issues existing across the globe (esp post recession) stuck my thought process.

"While Japan and most European countries don’t share Spain’s punishing 20 percent unemployment rate, they have sacrificed GDP growth to support a robust social-safety net." Well... there are as always two perspectives to this statement.

Looking at the brighter side of the coin, the social welfare is still protected even though the markets have created havoc. The interest of the society is maintained to an extent where people can lead their day-day life without having to bother much about their daily bread. They will have to eventually find a job in the given time span for financial coverage. But with recession hit countries, the span has been stretched after the government has realized the fact of jobs not being available for the locals. Obama tried bringing in a few laws for local employment at US. This did prove to be a success to some extent though there were certain communities apposing it! Even during my days at the UK, I figured out the fact that the government did offer a financial cover to its citizens for a certain period of time so that their daily bread is protected.

But an economists’ counter argument would be ‘Look at it with the magnifying glass of the world! People in the globe are working.’ He is definitely right in his perspective of a boundary less operation. But, with the political scenario existing, it might not be a near possibility. Coming back… With the world getting flatter by the day, it is becoming a very challenging task for countries to create and maintain jobs locally. Hence these measures are proving to be a boon to the society. But by doing this, can the countries sustain for long? Won’t the debt of the countries increase to an extent where it is not returnable? Taking a pessimistic view, to answer these questions, I tried drawing the ‘MR=MC’ curve.

Consider MR (Marginal Return) as a parameter for the income from taxes and other governmental cash inflows and MC (Marginal Cost) as the cash outflows in terms of infrastructure development, Social welfare, R n D etc. Now, if a percentage tolerance to the point MR=MC is provided (point ‘Z’ in the above graph), the countries can probably control the amount of debt which might impair the growth. When the countries have decided to sacrifice the GDP growth due to social issues, the tolerance level just increases and hence the uncertainty of growth.

But whatever be the decision to go ahead with, the complexity in terms of the number of diversified parameters involved in this is huge! Hope that the political heads won’t screw up things by taking undesirable decisions…

Managing without the power of execution

2010-11-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Can you do that?? Do you have enough patience to be sandwiched? Can you deal with the top as well as the bottom layers? Can you be a football for the rest of the players on the field to play? etc etc...

In the quest for beating the rest in the rat race and 'Growing' in the industry, one has to deal with the mid-management layer. As my idle days at office continued, I pondered over the career progression offered by the industry. Well, it makes a lot of sense. Though Elliott Jaques considers this as one of the factors for the occurrence of Midlife crisis, it definitely is something which one has to go through.
Usually in this stage of the career, a person gets into a lot of gray areas which tests his patience. The interactions with BOP seem to be obvious; the interactions with the TOP seem to be ridiculous. Though he might know what has to be done to get things done in the right way, he might not be given powers to implement it (strictly coz of the fact that the data available to the guys at the top is very much different). This raises the frustration level and thus might affect his contribution to the company.

The best way to deal with this problem - 'Think in their shoes. Wear a different shoe when you enter into a different discussion...' and Voila! It works! While the concept of 'Six thinking Hats' deals with the different angles of decision making; it is highly applicable for the day-day situations that a person at the mid-management level undergoes. By doing this, unknowingly, he will be grooming himself up for the growth. Having been at the lower levels more recently than his managers, one should be in a better position to strike a connect with them in order to understand them and sync with their thought process. In the quest of growing up, one should be in a position to strike a chord with the top layer.

The question that people at this level often go through is - 'Do I have to really go through all this in order to earn a few bucks?' Well... yes my dear friend; you have to! That is when you will be broadening your reach, getting to understand the different angles of the human psychology, understanding the bigger picture, polishing yourself etc. These are just a few essential traits to deal with the issues faced by the top management. Either you startup someday or grow in the industry to reach the top; immaterial of the path taken, these traits are highly essential for an individual.

The Finance function...

2010-11-08T22:24:00.000-08:00

Another day of idleness at office and I started thinking about the working of a Finance function in an organization. Since I have the liberty of walking down to the highly co-operative Finance team and getting the details from them in a generic perspective it made it a lot easier.

After having seen the Q2 results of various industries over the last month, I was in particular wondering about the amount of impact forex rate fluctuations can have on the balance sheets of an organization which is locally registered (and hence the balance sheet should reflect the local currency). It is a no-brainer to guess the fact that the magnitude of the impact is in direct proportion to the size of the deal. A 10 paisa (INR) can make a difference of 100 million in a $1bn deal! Now, though the amount looks to be huge, an organization should concentrate on the factor - 'Percentage contribution of the revenue'; Saying, what % of the total revenue is this 100M contributing to. For a SME, yes it is a huge %; likewise for a larger enterprise, it might not make a huge difference! The enterprises usually get into a contract with the bank where they agree on a future rate in dealing with the currency conversion. This way the risk of currency fluctuation is mitigated to some extent.

During the conversation, I also was informed about the way bank accounts are created in order to avoid the conversion rates (forex transfer rates). Since the % deduction in the forex transfer depends on the bank, it becomes fairly important to avoid this. A forex account specific to the currency of operation is the answer for this. By making this forex account local to the client site, it only avoids the transfer rate. However, the macro-economic parameters (service tax etc.) are country specific and viewed with a bigger picture. Here, it depends on the kind of work being done. If it is a bodyshopping (the service provider just provides resources and are not responsible for what work is done by him), services taxes are most likely to be applicable depending on the country's corporate laws. If a complete development work is done, there might not be a service tax. But all this highly depends on the country with which the engagement happens.

I also worked out a high level Team structure for an IT industry which has to be in place for smooth operation. The team size and intermediate hierarchies depend on the size of the organization.

It's never too late...

2010-09-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

After almost an year of experimenting stuff on the field... just when I took sometime to relax and realize a few things, I saw a huge wave of guys bumping on having LOADS of dreams in their eyes... The realization of 'Your boss isn't always right' seemed to be at its peak... Hopes its just not one of the trends of the Hype curve thou :D. Was just pondering over this concept of people getting into enterprenuership offlate... A lot of them have realized the fact that what ever they work for; rather whtevr they are paid for is just a percentage of the bulky stuff! Not that, the situation was something very different before... but people have been bold enough to take a step forward and experiment in the market. This has created a whole lot of enthusiasm waves!

Any organization to sustain over a long period of time with the same amount of motivation in the people has to grow horizontally! Should get into unknown areas of operations... It might take a few bucks and a few more scars on the face but that really is the only way out! If it doesn't succeed to do so, the whole drama of the top notch creaming off starts! When an enterprise doesn't start getting its work done by guys risen from the Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP), it just cannot deliver new stuff! It always goes by the saying - 'You cannot expect things to change if you don't change the way of dealing with it!'

Having said all this, the whole thought process which was running through my mind since a week was the appropriate time for starting up! Well... the only answer which came out all the time was 'There is no std ans for this!' It seriously is never too late! I have come across people starting up at their 50s. At the same time, have come across people starting up rt after college... So, it precisely is an output of an individual's risk appetite. It all depends on how much can a person bear in order to get into what he is passionate about. Kalyan Verma for example - He just knew that he wanted to be the 'Mogli' of the jungle and entered the Western Ghats and learnt the tricks of the trade on the field for sometime... Then came the boom of photography (thanks to IT...) and boom he clicked his way out for existance!

Many more such examples are there... Hence it is never too late... Just start off with the intial set of ideas and things may fall in place at some point of time. Having worked in unorganized sectors for quite sometime now, I have realized the importance of getting your hands dirty when it comes to on the field jobs! It is always easy to play a blame game and works very well in organized sectors. But, to get things rolling whichever may be the sector one has to roll on the floor and get dirty ... aakhir - 'daag acche hai' :D ...

So guys who want to get out and get going, just do that if you feel you can sustain for sometime financially!!

Cheers,
Shreyas

Groom to grow...

2010-08-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

After pretending to be busy for more than a month, here I am back to the basics! Must say, it has just been a good turn around in the past one month or so in terms of relationship management, learning and health! Kick boxing has really helped me to scale up my fitness level before I plunge into the D-day to submit myself to nature's lap and say 'Miles to go before I sleep ... (credits to the Canadian artist for this ever encouraging statement!)'

Nevertheless getting back to the thought process which provoked me to write today; it has been months since I have been thinking about this concept of grooming in a corporate world. I off late end up in discussions which tend to end up in this wonderful concept of grooming the kids! I was in fact amazed with one such conversation in particular where the plan was to plan for a grooming session for organizational promotions. Having groomed a good and co-operative team in the past, these are a few pointers which I feel are essential for an organization to adapt for them to build the next-gen professionals:

>> Psychographic analysis - Not all individuals need hand holding. As a person at the top, one needs to realize 'how to deal with whom.' I like to quote this snippet from a Sanskrit poem which says '... praptetu shoDashe varshe, putram mitramvadaachareth'; meaning once the son (kid) reaches an age group of 16, he has to be treated like a friend by his parents. So, you should know when to guide and when not to. Too much of hand-holding might put the person being groomed in a situation where he wouldn't commit a mistake and wouldn't have dirtied his hands to deal with things later! So, a lot of psychographic analysis needs to go in before you decide how to groom an individual.
>> Conflict Management - I see conflict as an inbuilt boon in any team. Though it makes the situation a bit inconvenient for a few in the team, parking the egos help! This is a very hard lesson to learn as it demands a change in the way an individual works. It takes years for a few and just a few days for a few; majorly dependant on the maturity level of the individual involved in the transformation process. Having seen it myself, I would strongly recommend a good talk around ego and anger management to resolve conflicting situation. This will give a perspective of thought process for the person being groomed himself as he can experience it first hand!
>> Birds' eye view - It is necessary for people moving to more responsible positions to have an organizational perspective of their day-day work. This not only helps in aligning their thought to that of the organization, but also in adding to the maturity level of the individual. He / She will surely come out of the cocoon being an adorable butterfly!
>> Being politically transparent - Transparency of operations is one thing which I have seen working in an organization; be it a small team or a huge corporate. At the same time, people at all walks of the hierarchy should keep in mind about the consequences of being transparent. Hence a balance should be drawn in terms of what has to be transparent in what ways etc. It necessarily doesn’t mean that one has to lie always; but has to be matured enough to realize and accept the fact that not everyone views the information in the way you meant. Even a small coin has atleast two faces! So, political correctness has to be imbibed!

These are a few essentials which I feel has to be imbibed in a grooming session and one cannot expect to be done with grooming overnight! To sum it up ‘Professional maturity’ is the key word and an organization should realize the importance of such a session and view it as a strategic way forward instead of a time & material calculation...

Quandary of a Police Department

2010-07-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

Riding my bike on a cloudy evening always gives me immense pleasure. With the cool breeze hitting my face, I will always be racing against time trying my best to sneak into gallis and space between vehicles to ensure that I reach the destination as soon as possible without getting wet. Having spent most of my life in Bangalore, a cloudy evening has always been an all time gift. It was one such evening where I was racing home after office at around 8PM. I just happened to encounter a red signal at the Lalbagh west gate. Very unusual of me, I jumped the signal (had done this after months though) and to my bad luck, there was this Head Constable (HC) Sidayya waiting for me with his boss!

I was stopped right away and I promptly paid him Rs.100 upon acknowledgement of a receipt. One more individual followed me and he too was stopped; but to my surprise, he was allowed to pass through. Then was my time to protest the act of not filing against the other person. I put the stand of my bike and set out to quarrel with the HC. After a hot initial talk, the conversation turned into a discussion and the funniest part was it turning into a grievance session where the HC ended up letting out his frustrations on the traffic police operational inefficiency!

The traffic police are set daily targets of around Rs.3000 - Rs.4000 depending on the inflow of traffic in the area of operation. The night duty policemen detecting the drunken driving case have a target of Rs.5000 per night! That day, there was a high profile meeting of the politicians near the Vasavi School and hence our Siddayya and his boss were asked to do the traffic control duty on this day till 11 PM in the night though his house was 35Kms away. It was his boss’s wedding anniversary that day and he was there on the streets controlling the traffic flow since 9 in the morning! He had to literally beg his higher authorities to leave for the day as he had still not met his daily target.

Now, isn’t this frustrating! To add more to it is the fact that they are not given even a single leave in a month and they have to work for 6 days in a week after being paid peanuts! Now, where will anybody get motivation to work under such an environment? Seeing all this, our Sidayya rejected a promotion to the post of a Sub Inspector few years back. This is the current motivational level of the traffic police! This is not just the case of Siddayya or his boss here. It is the question of the entire police department. Even the area police departments have the same issue. Their targets are in terms of crimes though.

It is a basic HRM related issue which may be a bigger bomb if not addressed as soon as possible. Considering the criticality of the department, it is very important for the government officials to consider this as a high priority issue. If the issue is kept apart and one goes to think about the approach of tackling crime, it Is very shameful to see the targets set on the amount of crime done! It seems as though the basics of prevention being better than cure have been forgotten. Hope the new age policemen are allowed to have a say in things and a more intelligent system in terms of planning emerges. But I definitely praise the act of innovation of the police where they have adopted Bluetooth and other advanced technicalities for operations!

PS: Names changed for security purposes

Amedikallu - An early monsoon trek…

2010-07-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

It was the first week of July’10 and I was held up with a little extra work on hands. But as always, ‘The woods were calling…’ I happened to have a random check on the BMC website and found an unseen name – Amedikallu. I was not sure of a 2 day trek initially and had almost decided for a night trek on a Saturday. But eventually I could not avoid the desire to be amidst the Western Ghats. Amedikallu through BMC on the 3^rd and 4^th of July it was!

Amedikallu is a part of the thick shola forest range offered by the Charmadi Ghat section of the Western Ghats. Amedikallu has a huge monolith at the top which appears like a giant turtle and 3 huge stones which give an appearance of a stove. This peak is surrounded by many other important peaks of Western Ghats. It is considered to be one of the toughest in Karnataka and is a two day trek if one wants to make it to the peak comfortably.

All set to go, I got a call at 10:15PM on the 2^nd of July. Kiran, our super enthusiastic trek coordinator from BMC had a quick check with me on the people waiting to board the Swaraj Mazda. After a small round of introduction, we took off from the city life that night and after a super bumpy drive, we arrived at the home stay at Arasinamakki near Dharmasthala (http://streamofjoy.com). It is very simple to reach there. You can catch local buses also to reach this place. The route is (from Bangalore - 260 KM): Hassan- Sakleshpur- Gundya- Enjira (take right diversion here)- Arasiamakki. You can always contact Mr.Kashinath ( 09343206307, 08251-268225 or 09845088088) for any details of it. I can fill this blog by describing the home stay alone, but the best part which I found to be really worth is sitting on the banks of the Kapila river flowing next to the huts where we were staying.

It took us only 30 minutes to freshen up as most of us decided not to take bath that day (provided that it will rain anyway during the trek; else you will anyway sweat). This is the best part of a trek for me where you don’t give a damn about anything else! Nevertheless after a little round of loitering around and an early morning photography, it was time for nice hot ‘taTTe Idlis’ (Plate Idlis - A South Indian dish usually consumed during breakfast or as an evening snack) and amazing ‘Coconut Chutney’. We then packed our lunch and set out for the trek. The 10 of us, Saikat (the guy who can eat anything for existence), Abhijit (he looked like a nerd initially ;)), Sudhansu (the odIya babu), Pradeep (the to be IITK grad), Kiran (the tiger), Sekhar (the Chennai musketeer), Guru (the silent killer), Animesh (Animation though :D), Deepika (the joyous lon(v)ely lady) and myself were accompanied by the trek coordinator Kiran and a local guide.

It was a pretty decent start at 8:30 in the morning. One usually needs to go through the shola forest range to reach the peaks at the Western Ghats. Though we knew that leeches will be there, we were not much bothered about it until we saw them climbing our shoes. Then came the series of ‘S**ts’ and ‘F**ks’ from all of us. The forests were so damp that there were leeches falling from the wet trees, every few steps we took, we were assured of shaking legs with one leech atleast… But after a while, we got used to it and we had mastered the art of plucking them away without salt or fire.

After we crossed the forest range, the contact with the leeches came down and we were amidst the elephant leaf filled grasslands. Since it was early monsoons, the height of the grass was not much. But if a five footer visits the place post monsoons, the group will surely have a tough time locating him! The grass was sharp enough to cut your skin upon application of a little pressure. Around 12 noon we halted to have a quick lunch. After the lunch, 8 of us decided to move ahead and the remaining 4 stayed back. After climbing some distance, myself and Guru decided to stay back as the rocks were really slippery and we took a call to halt there for a while and join the group of 4 in sometime. I would love to visit the place one day to complete it though!

The wait for the 6 of them who had gone ahead almost to the summit was looking like never ending. The weather became tough. Rains, mist and breeze looked to be a deadly combo offer by the Mother Nature. A little bit of internal heat generation via ‘Pranayam’ helped me to stay without a jacket here. I realized the importance of keeping your body metabolism intact. Later we decided to descend before the others returned. As we were returning, we heard the voices of the rest of the people. So, the group of 12 again started to climb down. Except for a few places of only grass, we were able to figure out the way. A few of us decided to literally run through the forest range as we were not ready to treat the leeches after the rains. This was another amazing event where I found myself running alone amidst the thick forest range. We had the pre-historic communicators (via quick shouts) to ensure that all of us are heading the same way.

Finally, at 4 PM, we were back to the place where we started from just to discover that a few leeches are there inside our shoes! After a quick cleanup, we left to the home stay where hot ‘Mangalore bajjis’ (A Mangalore special evening savory) was waiting for us! A good round of talk and dinner saw us through the time before we slept peacefully.

‘Get us guys!’ was the call at sharp 6:30AM in the morning. It was Deepika waking us all up in the morning to ensure that the next day’s itenary is not affected. ‘is badmaash ko flush out karo!’ was the next set of phrase I remember where Abhijit and Animesh were on a mission to kill the leeches inside the room! Before we set out for the day’s activities we had a very good breakfast of Dosas where Mr.Kashinath informed me that the previous night a snake just went behind me while I was having dinner. I was like damn, I missed it again. Till date I have not seen a snake in its natural habitat…

A quick visit to the Shishileshwara temple (Fish temple) and the lovely stream of the kapila river leading to Dharmasthala made our morning on the day 2. We left for the day heading out to the city thinking that the activities are done for two days. But the TT driver proved us to be wrong when a Tata Sumo banged the bumper in the heavy traffic of Bangalore. A 20 minute negotiation and we were done with it. It was time for me to take leave from this amazing set of people with whom I had another memorable weekend!

Cheers,

Shreyas

koDri aNNa Road Tax!

2010-05-10T03:43:00.001-07:00

It was a Friday and I was on my way back home from college. It was the end of another hot week at Bangalore as there was absolutely no rain during the week. Unfortunately, I encountered a red signal at the signal near the old Family mart (Junction connecting Kanakpura road with the ring road). It was for me to sight a few eunuchs on the other side of the road. It in fact is a very normal sight for Bangaloreans off late to find them at signals across the city. So, I was not surprised to see one. The fact which took me by awe was the person mentioning the word “Road Tax”! The person near the vehicle and uttered “koDri aNNa Road Tax!” (Give me the Road Tax brother…). Now this was something new!

I was easily able to relate the person’s words with the way we deal with the market. Since I have been involved with the marketing world since more than an year now, it made a lot of sense to me. The way authentic words are abused in the management world is exactly what I was referring to. ‘Strategy’, ‘Synergy’, ‘Depends’, ‘Let’s see’ and many more are used just in the same way. Well, at the end of the day the person was trying to market an intangible value through which a perceived value from the prospective customers could be bought.

Putting myself in a marketer’s shoe let me see the other side of the coin. Well it is really important as a marketer for one to use well knitted gloves in this heavy weight competition! When there are thousand people around exploiting the economic situation to get some bucks in their pocket, it makes sense to get atleast the left out; in which case a company will be forced to knit its offerings very well by exploiting the words which are there at the offerings to get used up!

Looking at the incident from the perspective of a social being, I was sad and at the same time angry with the situation. Frankly speaking, the community of eunuchs started agitations long back when there was not much equality displayed in the society. They were treated as untouchables and were dying to find a decent life (the case is not much different these days either)! This is where this collection of ‘chanda’ started by the eunuch community in order to exists with the ever increasing costs of the economy. But another community of opportunists took advantage of the situation. Most of the so called eunuchs today are from the community of opportunists and it’s very sad to see the state of people utilizing their gender to earn bucks for a living! Hope the people who are responsible for the steady arousal of the community realize the importance to work on the turn-around! Hope to see a day when I don’t have to encounter anybody requesting “koDri ANNa Road Tax!”

DSS for Human Neural Network

2010-05-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Neither have I worked on the Neural Networks domain nor do I know the way a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed. I am still taking the liberty of linking these two concepts together to make some sense out of utilizing the concept of neural networks for developing a DSS for the human species. This concept has already been researched upon quite a bit and there are experts who have worked on developing such applications. The existence of robotics as a domain is a proof for improvements done at the end of putting intelligence into entities so that they act as humans responding to the various situations and with the emergence of Emotional Intelligence, the concept of feel also has been put into the entities; thus bringing life into the otherwise dead silicon dioxide.

The concept talked about in this particular excerpt is more in lines of enabling the human species to enact in a pre-programmed way. The whole concept of the movie Matrix was based on the concept of introducing smart chips into the human body; thus making the body to react in a pre-defined way. This is the whole concept of embedding a DSS into a human body. Though this concept wasn’t new, I had never given it a serious thought in the technical terms.

It was a cold night that day when I was having a well directed discussion with one of my close friends about decision making for life ahead. After a fun filled but serious discussion, it was time for me to get back home. This whole thought of DSS for HNN was running through my mind on the way back home. If there is a decision system imbibed in the human body which would be linked with a psychological parameter of the individual (which makes it individualistic and hence customized to the degree N), then the requirement for defining the word confusion in a dictionary will be out of question. This helps us to get rid of the whole set of requirement for a business vertical of counseling.

This system can be integrated with external factors indicating the market imperatives, past experience processing, best practices etc. The whole integration mechanism would make the decision to be smarter in terms of considering all the parameters before taking a final decision. It would also lead to developing a predictive model based on the feedback mechanism. The whole control system thus developed would work with a proper feedback mechanism thus increasing the scope for a continuous improvement. This would help in taking the best decision. Though this is not a new concept, just thought of sharing the thought process…

While discussing this concept with one of my friends, a thought of human touch was shared. Yes, I agree to that point that whatever automation we do, how many ever process we may skip to save money, one can never replace the human touch...

Top class!

2010-04-13T02:46:00.001-07:00

No! It is not about Sachin Tendulkar! :). Neither is it about the other N number of achievers the world has seen till now.

It was an odd day at office and I was just browsing through one of my friends’ blogs. He had a very interesting write on the perception of the bottom of the pyramid on the top (specifically about their Project Managers). This triggered my senses and I came across the principle Dr. Laurence J. Peter has put in front of the world (For details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle). Just to brief it up – “It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions.”

A thought was running at the back of my mind. To my surprise, I was actually was able to relate to whatever I was seeing in my professional life! Especially in a country like India, the professionals expect a faster growth when compared to other nations. People thrive to get into a mode of “not working” early in their careers. The perception of the ground level jobs turns ugly! This is to some extent true to the other western countries as well. But the advantage there is the work culture which doesn’t restrict a person to always stick on to the stream he/she initially chooses to be with. Hence, one can find a person on the top having a good number of years of experience before reaching there. This is not the case with India though.

Especially in SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises), the growth potential is very high as the employees count in the organization is limited. It is a very valid argument that if one is capable; he/she will definitely get opportunities to grow. But, the parameter of industry standards doesn’t play a factor here. This puts the person who grows fast in a very uncomfortable situation. He/she will neither find a suitable place to switch nor will they be able to continue their jobs (thanks to the limited hierarchy in the SMEs). So, the only option left is to grow horizontally after they reach a certain level (provided there is scope for that).

Coming back to the Peters principle, these guys who grow big initially are forced to stick-on due to situational factors. Though they are incompetent (a few of them), the insecurity factors forces them to stay at the position they are in. This has adverse effect on both the organization as well as the individual. It is growth imperative for both of them. This is when the term “politics” plays a very important role in the organization. The people at the top who do not deserve to be there will have to stay back. Hence they find reasons in others who impair their stay. Though they sweetly term it as loyalty, in many cases the reason behind it is the fact that they are not competent enough to be accepted by the market. They would have become the big daddies of the organization and hence will have their own say.

There is also a ripple effect seen in the SMEs. In the name of exposure, the people at the top pass the work to the people below them. At times it will be more of a “delivery act” unlike a mutual agreement. The people at the bottom are again made to go through the same where they are not fit to face the market.

This was definitely not written out of frustration, but just a thought process as an output of my own experience in the professional world. After getting a hang of the problem, let me just throw some light on the solution to this as well. Again this is another thought which went by and not a proven methodology.

The concept of grooming individuals is definitely good! But, as a responsible top management, one has to identify the person who has to be groomed. For this, the first step is to identify the top notch who should be involved in this process of grooming. This has to be a top down approach coupled with a few external factors like HR interfacing and feedback from the bottom. The top need not be restricted to the PMO. It is definitely an advantage if the grooming individual is the person whom one is immediately reporting. This will not be the case always. Hence a process has to be designed for the implementation of the entire concept.

Upon the formation of the top notch, the bottom has to be hand-picked with consideration of various parameters. There has to be enough space created for the hand-picked individuals to perform. This stage should provide a controlled freedom and an environment of mentor-ship has to be created. This has to be coupled with a proper growth path for the individual who is being groomed (this is why interfacing with the HR team makes sense). This will ensure that proper leaders are built within the organization and helps in reduction of ego once they reach the top.

A very valid comment here is – “What if this individual being groomed quits the organization one day?” Well, this case will depend on the person who has been picked. A matured, growth oriented professional will never do that :).

The Intricacies of a Lead

2010-03-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

It was late November 2008 and confused soul was walking around the Sona Towers building wondering what should be his next step. Yes, it was me who was just then given a choice of heading a team in Technical Line 2 Support. Prior to this I had taken up a few responsibilities and probably lived up to the expectations of whoever was observing me. Finally I decided to plung into the offer and accepted the role to lead a team of 5 members. I agree I was a little lucky to have been offered such a role at the begining of my career. My then manager probably liked to take calculated risks and tough decisions.

Initially it was a 5 member team of all guys. It is equally easy and difficult to manage an all guys team! There was a lot of learning which had to take place as I had not formally lead a team before. Also, there was a requirement of a sixth member in the team as five people managing the show was pretty difficult at the initial stages. Hence I decided to be a part of one of the small teams. So it was now a dual role for me where I had to perform and also see the bigger picture of things and also be responsible enough so that the team can look up to me as a lead.

It was always a belief for me to develop a team informally. Things had to be professional wherever required; but at the same time, it had to be working in a mode where the team members do not have any barriers while operating. To take out this barrier, the environment created in the team is very important. I was lucky enough to have 5 good folks with me who knew each other from before. This informality had to be brought between me and the team as well since the environment was dependant on me also. Since I had worked with a few of them and knew the others, it did not take too much of a time for me to bring this in the team. Also the fact that I had decided to operate in a mode where I was working along with them did make a difference here as they felt me as one among them. The next hurdle was the knowledge in the team. Though we had worked on one of the systems under us, we as a team did not have so much of an in-depth knowledge for operating as a full fludge Level 2 support team. We had to build this knowledge with the help of the relevant people and ofcourse through self-analysis. This lead us to a very long journey where every single ticket was a new discovery. I should thank my team and the onshore co-ordinators for having patience to really learn through the job. It was a very good team effort displayed!

There were many more challenges ahead for us. The hierarchial structure of support operations changed at this point of time and we had to report to a new manager. The entire setup had to be changed. For me as a lead, it was important to make sure that the work is not affected and things went on as they were. At this point of time, I decided to be the face of the team to the manager so that atleast micro-management need not be done. It worked out this way and the new manager was encouraging enough to let us operate in the way we wanted. After this re-structuring, I took a whole new role. Though I continued with whatever I was doing before, I started to operate as a contributor to the entire support operational team apart from my own team. Here again I need to thank my team as my involvement within the team had reduced to some extent as I was concentrating more on setting up processes, operations and other essentials of a bigger team. I along with a few others really went off the way to setup things in the new team. It was more like setting up operations for a mini-organization where we had to consider all the parameters involved in operating as an organization.

I, at this point of time had moved into a role of an on the job learner and I sincerely thank my manager for having given me oppurtunities where I was able to implement the ideas which I had in mind. It was a point of time where we were working in a India and UK shift. So it was almost 5 extra hours put in work every single day. We did not mind doing it as the work was so exciting that we were self-driven. Then came the challenge of attrition in the team. It was a big challenge for we as a team to handle it as we did not want the routine to be affected due to this. To minimize the risk I had to negotiate for a new resource in the team who had already had the system knowledge. I felt it was more proper that way as itsaved us a lot of time and we can get into a BAU mode very quickly. Luckily for me, there were people available with the pre-requisites I had. Also, the other team members responded positively. So, the business went on as usual again!

At this point of time, the hierarchial structure changed again and I wanted to operate in the same way (again it was my concern that the team should not be affected by whoever there manager is). It was for a simple reason that if they feel the difference, the deliverables may be affected. Also due to this change in hierarchy, I had to take a larger role to manage 13 people now. It was a call which I had to make as I had to again enter into areas where I do not have a clue about. I finally decided to take it up. Afterall 'Spiderman bhi toh risk leta hai!' :) ...

A new journey of learning started for me. By this time, the processes were almost in place for the entire operations. So, I did not have to bother so much about it. Hence I started concentrating more on the team. With the bigger team on hand, I realised the importance of a few behavioral factors to be present in the team. With a support kind of a setup, Trust plays a very important role in the team. Since, the interaction to some extent happens directly to the customers, one needs to just trust the team members. This is not so important when one leads a technical team. Team dynamics play a very important role here. I did fail at places where technical solutions had to be given, but I felt there were people who can do that in a better way. But yes, it would have been better if I had the technical competancy to a good level as well! I don't really have to concentrate on that. Hence I started concentrating on grooming the people in the team where they can grow to a level where they can handle issues and people by themselves. My belief had now shifted to a team of high performers. Also, I had my own selfishness of my career path in it as I had to move out of the team for realising my dreams else where. (I am being frank with you all today, so please don't take it the other way :) ... ). So, if the team is self-reliant, it does not make much of a difference if the lead is present or not. My belief at this point of time had shifted to a mode which said "A team is performing at its best when a lead is not required!"

To my luck again, I had to move onshore for a short assignment. I did not want a replacement for me now as I had decided to groom the team. I spread my responsibilities to the team members and again, I thank my manager for letting me take this risk and ofcourse my team who accepted it as a challenge and took it up very positively. I also had another challenge at onshore. Apart from my normal work, I had quite a few tasks. So, I was not able to concentrate much on the team. Kudos to each of them in the team for having displayed a great show at this point of time! After my return from onshore, things were as usual and I returned to my role. But at this point of time, I had decided to move out of my role. It was more of a personal aspiration which I had decided to run behind. After a good round of KT to the new lead, I moved out of the team. There were few more things which were pending from my end as well. There were a few on-going issues in the team which had to be dealt. But, I decided to move-on as issues will always be there and one needs to just tackle it as and how they come :).

It was a very good journey of learning for 16 months for me. Thanks to all the people who were a part of my journey and gave me confidence, encouragement and space to explore.

Cheers,
Shreyas

The Transition…

2010-02-18T11:48:00.001-08:00

The Transition…

It 2:30PM on the 5^th of February 2010; I was busy restructuring the team at office for a new cost-effective way of working. Anand Sawkar was waiting for me patiently. We had a flight to catch at 6PM to the national capital, Delhi. I wrapped up the presentation and we were off to Mekhri circle to catch a bus to BIAL. We reached a little early and checked in before time. The plane tickets were booked by Anand around 2 months back. Hence it worked out cheap for us. Upon reaching the Delhi airport, we took a cab from there to reach the Nizhamuddin train station. Anand had booked a train from there to Dehradun. We had a not so quick dinner as we had ample time with us before the arrival of the train. At 12AM we were finally on our way to Dehradun to attend a Punjabi wedding of our colleague. With a lot of noise from the group which were traveling with us to Dehradun, we were able catch a good sleep of around 4-5 hrs. We arrived at Gundeep’s place at around 6:30AM on 6^th Feb. Then began our journey of attending a Punjabi wedding!!

Dehradun is a pretty old hill station of India residing in the Madhya Himalaya (Himachal) Range of the Himalayas. It exists from the time of the East India Company. Education is the main industry in this wonderful city of hills. Hence it can be considered as a recession proof market of India! In and around Dehradun, one can find many schools and colleges even today.

The functions had started 2 days back. We had missed the ‘Mehndi’ where the girls in the marriage beautify their hands with designs. Gundeep patiently explained both of us the various functions and the rituals of a Punjabi wedding. Things went above our head though! This was a day prior to the marriage. There is a ritual called “Maili” among the Punjabis where the bride is not expected to take bath and to be in old clothes. This is basically to make her look more beautiful on the day of wedding.

The rest of the morning of 6^th went in me and Anand loafing around Dehradun and passing some time and preparing ourselves for the long night and the really tiring days coming ahead. It was a very good view of Massourie from the terrace of the house. We then discovered the tiny Tibetian settlement in Dehradun. Then a little time pass here and there made it lunch time. It was time for more timepass and this time Ramandeep (Gundeep’s cousin) joined us too. We then understood the essence of the Punjabis. The talk with him was very valuable to us as it told a lot about the way of living of the Punjabis. A little insight on the opportunities created in the world was also discussed as general topics.

The Punjabis don’t have a specific time for marriage functions as such. As and how things go well, they decide to get married. Only the day of the marriage is fixed. The time is at their stake and it is their responsibility to complete the functions before the day ends. They are also very “Dildaar”. They are passionate about life and very helpful from within. They also have this great character of making sure that the guests are given utmost importance. It is come with their culture and their way of living.

A few of them to share – Gundeep’s bro (Ashu) was passionate about capturing moments and posing in front of the camera. Ramandeep’s friend was passionate about riding a bullet with an empty number plate on it. His comment was “The max I have to pay is a 100 buck; which makes it 3000 per month. But I am atleast satisfied by doing it!” Phew!! It looks weird though, but I felt that people of this kind of passion will only make a difference at the end of the day.

It was then the time for a few rituals before the cocktail party. Not sure about the name of them though. People from the groom’s family came to the brides’ place and gift exchange happens. After they leave, the bride is made to wear a sacred thread around her hand. The bridge’s mother then has to cross over the wooden slab on which the bride sat during the ceremony. ‘Prasad’ is later distributed among the women. All these rituals are an integral part of a Punjabi wedding where a great display of relationship bonding is made.

The next ritual was to get sacred water from the Gurudwara. Since the bride wouldn’t have taken bath on the previous day, the next day, she is expected to take bath in the sacred water brought from the Gurudwara by her sister-in-law.

The 3Ds – Dance, Dhol and Daaru are the essentials of any Punjabi wedding. Every small function has to have dance associated with it. The people don’t mind doing it as it is the way they are brought up.

Then was the ceremony where all the people in the Bride’s family made the Bride wear a pair of ‘Chudian’ (bangles – one red and the other green). ‘Sangeet’ (Punjabi folk songs) followed this ceremony. Here again the energy of the Punjabis is much appreciable. All of them were completely involved in all the celebrations with utmost display of enthusiasm. Post Sangeet was the cocktail party and dance floor was open. It was fun dancing with people who were filled with energy even at 11 in the night! There of course was a dual course of dinner in between to entertain our stomach! The first day of the marriage came to end finally at around 12AM. I and Anand went to a good soundless sleep knowing that many such tiring days are awaiting us!

I woke up early in the morning on the next day. Anand was still fast asleep and I guess was still digesting the heavy dinner! I heard noises outside as soon as I woke up. There was one more ceremony going on. I couldn’t attend it though. It was a ceremony where the bride is made to wear the auspicious bangle which she has to wear it for the rest of her life. But I later discovered that due to changing trends and modernization, a new rule has been put in place where the bride is expected to wear the bangle for a minimum of 41 days. After a quick round of breakfast, it was time for us to leave to the marriage hall where another ritual – “Milni” was organized.

There was a huge noise of a band approaching the marriage hall. I and Anand went near the band to discover that they were from the groom’s side. The Bride’s relatives waited patiently for around 30 mins to receive the groom’s relatives. This act of the groom’s side meeting the bride’s side is called Milni. Here, the equals in the family tree of each side exchange garland and gifts. The groom’s side then approached the entrance of the marriage hall. All the people of the Bride’s side try and stop the people entering by demanding money in exchange of them entering the hall. After a good round of negotiation, the groom’s relatives were let inside the marriage hall. This is when the breakfast was arranged for all. Food is one thing which you don’t have to worry about in a Punjabi wedding. You will be fed and made to drink enough for your life!

There was a round of photo session in the marriage hall. Balli, the groom had a royal entry with his ‘kirpaan.’ Kirpaan is the sword which a Sardar is very proud to own. It is a symbol of victory and pride. The bride was completely decked up. The entry of a bride to the stage wass no less than a ‘Maharani’s walk’ to the throne! The guy received his to be maid with utmost respect. The photo session continues…

The entire concentration then shifted to the Gurudwara. This is where the marriage took place. The marriage began with welcoming both the sides. The guy’s side settled down first; Then the bride’s side. A ritual of ‘kanya dhaan’ in which the bride’s father officially hands the responsibility of the bride into the hands of the groom was carried on. There are four ‘pheras’ around the sacred place in the Gurudwara. The guru reads the granth in the due course of the four pheras. Then they are officially declared as married. This whole act of the marriage was sentimental. I could see the real emotions in the bride’s eyes where she burst out with a thought of leaving her parents officially.

The scene then shifted back to the marriage hall where a round of lunch was awaiting our ever hungry stomach. After a good round of food, it was time for ‘vidai.’ The bride then officially is out of the family and enters a new home to light it up! This again is a highly emotional scene where the bride throws ‘chaval’ (rice) backwards from her hands over her head without turning back and walks out of the house. She is then driven away to the groom’s house and will be received with due respect.

By the time all these rituals got over it was 6 in the evening. We were asked to take 2 hours of rest and gear up for the reception given from the guys’ side. It was in a different hall. That night there were drizzles and we were waiting inside the car waiting for Gundeep’s relatives from Saharanpur to show them the route to the hall. We went into a conversation with Vinod, the servant at Gundeep’s place about Garhwal, Vinod’s home town. Garhwal is a beautiful place even today as it has not been very much explored by the Indians apart from a few foreigners (thanks to ‘Lonely Planet’) and the locals.

We finally entered the marriage hall at 10:30 in the night. The music in the party hall goes on till only 10 in the night due to the government rule. There was a last round of meet with all the wonderful people and we went back home for sleeping pretty early. After a fun packed 2 day wedding at Dehradun, the eyes closed with a good memory of the wedding and a new hope of meeting new people with new adventures the next day…

We woke up early in the morning on the 8^th of February. Gundeep’s dad drove us to a bus stop where we get buses to Rishikesh. Yes, we were heading to Rishikesh for a fun filled rafting experience. Anand had again booked the package online at Garhwal Himalayan White water rafting. They are into rafting and other adventure sports for more than 15 years now! We reached Rishikesh at around 9 in the morning. We had to reach Rashi’s place (another colleague of ours). Puneet Agarwal had also joined us at the bus stop in Dehradun. The three of us were seated at different places I the local bus to Rishikesh. An hours’ drive and we were at Rashi’s place near IDPL. We spoke to her parents, placed our baggages at her place and rushed to Muni ki Reti in Rishikesh. This is where the rafting office was located. To our bad luck, none of the ATMs were working there on that day. But we had paid 70% of the amount online. So, a little bargaining and we had enough cash with us to carry-on till the end of rafting.

The jeep took us through the roads that were made by cutting down the mountains. It was almost a 30 min drive from Muni ki Reti. I saw the sacred Ganges for the first time in my life. What a sight it was. Greenish water amidst the mountain range, terrace farming on the mountains, the small settlements on the banks of the river and on the hill tops. The whole sight of this new world made me numb. I had no words to describe it. All I was doing was to stare outside the window to catch even the slightest sight of Ganges. Then came the place where we had to stay for more than 24 hours. We had taken a 1.5 day package inclusive of food. The welcome was with a small climb down the mountain to reach the base camp. It was on the banks of the Ganges. Covered with white sand and the flowing river water!

There were no appointments, no to-do lists, nothing to do apart from photography and a bit of talking. More important than all, there was no mobile signal! The moment I saw that, the whole expression on my face turned to that of a complete rejoice. As though, I had gone to an ideal place. I just lost myself in the lap of Mother Nature. The two days of marriage rush had made us very tired. But, the moment we entered this awesome place, all our tiredness went in the air; as though someone has done a magical spell to drive it away!

After a quick round of photography session, we went for breakfast and were asked to assemble near the entrance once we get ready for the first days’ rafting. I had done kayaking before, hence had a basic idea of how to row and float in case of anything. We had to start our rafting from Marine drive which is around 27kms from Rishikesh and around 20kms from our base camp. On the way to Marine drive, we had to collect our rafting equipments from Snow Leopard Pvt. Ltd. All the equipments were imported from US. Each raft was worth more than 3-4 lakh INR!

We came to the starting point of the rafting session. Rana was our guide for the day. Apart from him, there were two more of them Dharmesh and Ashok. After a quick round of introduction and a 15 min practice, we were all set for the raft! We were covering only 10kms on the first day as there was a trek planned for us as well. We went through the rapids hitting them as though they were our enemies. Well, they actually were our enemies at that point of time; simply because, if we didn’t hit them they would have hit us to death! After a series of level 2 rapids, we were now pretty confident about rafting. Next were the level 3 rapids. The waves were very calm until we went near them. The moment we entered, we were sucked inside as though we have touched a picture plant! There was one thing our guide told us – “Stronger the waves, stronger you hit them.” Hence before entering any rapid, we were increasing the speed of our raft. We were also given instructions to hit the rapid with the front of the raft towards the rapid. All these instructions were actually helpful to me and Anand as we were sitting in the front facing the waves. After crossing the 10-15 feet high waves at the level 3 rapid, there was a sense of achievement that I could feel within. The real Shreyas started to roar I guess!!

After a good 10km rafting session, we had a home made authentic north Indian lunch. From there we went for a trek to Neer Water Fall. It was also nearby. It was a 10 min drive to the base of the trek from our camp. It was ages since I had trekked. Hence I was all excited for the trek. There is a village towards the top of this hill by name Neer. Hence the waterfall is also named after the village. The government of India has made proper places to rest in the due course of the trek. There are seats all the way to the top. There are picnic spots done as well!

We were not able to reach the top as it was getting dark and the weather was also getting bad. We reached an area where the Indian government had built a bridge for the villagers to cross daily. Must say, it was one of the most amazing spots I have ever seen! Even though I have seen many hidden waterfalls, there was a difference in this waterfall. It was made of the same glacier as the Ganges. It shared the source with the Ganges and ultimately joined the Ganges. We were thrilled to see the natural beauty. I along with the guide Theku went a little further as Anand and Puneet were a little slow in climbing. I needed perfect spots for my shots. But I seriously missed my tripod this time around.

After a good photography session I continued my walk with Theku. He was from Nepal which was a 2 day drive by bus. He had learnt rafting while young and had come to Rishikesh in search of a job. Since his core competencies matched, he joined this adventure club. We were then discussing about the beauty of Nepal and the unexplored places in Nepal. Since my interest is also traveling and trekking, our talks just went by till we reached down where our jeep was waiting for us.

By this time, the weather had become bad with drizzles starting. By the time we reached the camp, it started to rain. We just sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had a real good dinner at the kitchen of the adventure camp. We had the dinner along with our guides, cook and driver. The rains did not take the name of stopping. Anand slept early that day. I and Puneet spoke for sometime and slept. But it was so cold that I woke up at 2 in the morning to check the weather outside. It was still raining heavily and the water level in the Ganges had risen by around 5-7 feet. We finally woke up by 8 in the morning just to discover that it was still raining. Ashok came to us and said that we can freshen up, have breakfast and leave for rafting. We were all excited again for a second day of rafting where we had to cover level 4 rafting!

Rafting started after breakfast. We drove till Shivpuri and started rafting. Today Theku was our guide. The Ganges was furious than the previous day and the level 4 rafting which we were supposed to do had automatically become level 4+. We were all determined to complete the rafting session of 17kms without a single fall! We became more aggressive than the previous day and easily covered the level 3 rafting. Then came the big guy. Theku just told us one thing before we entered “Remember guys, the water in this rapid has so much force that it can rip you apart and throw the raft to wherever it feels like.” Yes, it could have done it. The waves were as high as 20 feet! We were all the more aggressive with this rapid and faced it with a furious round of rafting. We were hit badly by the waves and we enjoyed it! It was an out of the world feeling to just be out of a level 4+ rafting session without being pulled into the water! “Well done team! GANGA!” was the cheer. The rest of the raft went on well without any hasles. Finally by 12 noon the entire 17km rafting session came to an end. We were blessed by hailstones for our achievement!

We then headed towards Madras Café for a good round of lunch. We were initially thinking of Chotiwala but we had cross the river and the boating guy was charging us 200 bucks. Hence we decided against it. We returned to Rashi’s place as Puneet had to leave to Dehradun. Once Puneet went back, me and Anad went around Rishikesh and saw the different temples, Ram jhula, Laxman jhula and many other ashrams. We then arrived at the Paramarth for witnessing the world famous Ganga aarti.

This is a daily routine for all the local Sanskrit students to assemble during sunset and worship Ganges. Since Ganges in India is treated as god, she is worshipped with bhajans and a lot of devotees assemble to witness this 30 minute event. At the same time, government has taken proper measures to keep the Ganges clean. In fact Rishikesh is the cleanest part of Ganges once can see which is not polluted even after so much population and popularity. People are not allowed to put any sort of ‘arpans’ inside the Ganges.

After this short visit to Rishikesh, I and Anand went back to Rashi’s place to finally meet her parents with some time in our hands. It was an amazing experience how different the thought of people in North and South of India is. Relationships and values of a relationship are the closest as far as I have seen in the northern part of the nation, Though it is a matter of fact that it depends on how you take it; but on a larger scale, I feel north India beats the southern part when it comes to valuing relationships. Must tell you, Rashi’s mom is an amazing cook!

After a good round of dinner it was time for me to leave to Delhi. I had a flight booked on Wednesday at 5PM from Delhi. So, I had decided to visit Surajkund in Haryana (near the Del-Har border). It was 4:30AM on 10^th when I reached ISBT. I put the luggage in the cloak room in ISBT, took bath in the public toilet and set my journey towards Surajkund. But, the journey was taking me too much of money as the border had to be crossed. Hence I decided against it and decided to see Delhi instead. I took am auto at 5:30AM and went to Redfort. I had to wait for 2 more hours for it to open. Hence I visited all the temples (Gurudwara, Jain templae, Ram temple and Masjid) on the Chandni chowk – Delhi 6. I then went into the metro station of Chandni Chowk just to check out how metro works in Delhi. Then it was 8 by the time I came back to Red fort. I had a quick glance on the Red fort and by 9:30 I was out and tired. Completely burnt out due to tiredness. I had developed fever as well. Hence I decided to return to the airport and take rest before I board my flight. After a lazy breakfast at CCD, I headed towards the airport. After a nice 4hr nap, I boarded the flight to Bangalore.

After all this, you might be wondering about the significance of the title. Well, these 5 days made me stretch beyond my limits. From a busy life to a slow moving city life to a immobile serene life to a ultra fast city life. I saw it all…

Hoping to have many more lovely trips like this. Cheers to all the lovely people I met in the due course of this trip and three cheers to my fellow travelers – Anand Sawkar and Puneet Agarwal!

The Beauty of a blank mind

2010-01-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

This compilation is an output of a few days of mine where I have been blank from the top without letting my brain work the normal way. Wanted to just experience it. Also, given the fact that it has been made to stretch for quite sometime now, wanted to give it a little break as well ;) (Just hope it is not too long though). So, here goes the experiences and a few observations in this one month where my brain has literally not thought in its usual way.

Discovery of the defaults:

There are a few default activities which the neurons will be pre-programmed for. These activities are the ones essential for you in life. For a normal social living with a commonly agreed behavior. They are the ones without which you might not be identified as a normal human being by the external society. On a normal day, this whole process of facts would have lead me to a lot of queries from within questioning the existence of such external influences. But since I had switched my mind off, it was at peace; just accepting the facts and moving on to the next.

These pre-programmed activities actually allow you to re-discover yourself and it lets you at times to discover what you actually have been doing since quite sometime now. The derivation out of this is something which took me by surprise. (It was more of a logical derivation which stuck me while writing this up :P). The point is, if this act of yours which you would have done sometime back and hence registered in your 100+TB of memory allows you to feel happy and satisfied, you have actually discovered your passion! It might not be true always though.

A few built-ins:

In the due course of you playing various roles in your life in order to take it forward, there are a few more characteristics which you would be embedded with. These also to a great extent qualify for being default. But the reason why I have not categorized them as defaults is the fact that these characteristics gets associated with you by choice and not by force. Though you might be pushed into doing a few things by force, at the end of it, they will eventually turn-out to be a choice (because if you had a better choice, you would have gone ahead and done that instead). Even these gets executed without any hassles without much input signals reaching the brain which demands it to work.

A few forced actions:

This was the most difficult part to deal with in the due course of the transition. These are the actions which you would have to perform since you have committed your presence else where. It may work or any other personal commitments which you might not have intense interest in. But, due to the fact that you have committed your contribution, you will be forced to stretch your brain there. Now, this is the case if the brain is not left blank as well. But, there will be a difference in execution of the act when it comes the brain being left blank. This was one observation I had when I introspected and thought back as to if there was a better way of handling things. Well, there actually was a difference. Most of the acts performed were based on the built-in capabilities which I had and the outcome of a solution for a problem was something which I would have obviously done (logically going by the historic record etc). This lead me to a thought process which said "It might be the case where the history speaks and the experiences of history provides a solution". Well, I couldn't arrive at any conclusion though.

Creative actions:

It did not come to my surprise that there were not many creative actions performed in this period of time. There were no actions which spoke of me being different from what I would have done with a 1-2 months of lesser experience in life (It might not have been humongous different though...). Even the interest levels for me towards the acts performed were at a lower end. I was not the same old enthusiastic person and to my surprise it was very evident!

I am not planning to bug you guys any more now! At the end of it, the only moral which I could practically prove out of this exercise is "Thinking is the source of Innovation. Historic events provide solutions to any problem in an expected manner which the world might accept as it is supposed to be proven; but this will not be the ultimate solution to the problem which would have been better dealt if there was some innovation attached. Be foolish; be hungry!"

Shreyas

The Urge Within...

2009-12-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

There is always a trigger for me in life to go ahead with something! This time it was this movie “3 Idiots”. Don’t worry, I am not going to describe the story here and reveal it to the world even before they watch it!

I always believed in this concept of “Listening to the heart” (though I did not do it). The urge within you to achieve something makes you really love it!! I should admit the fact that the last one and a half years have been really a paradigm shift for me in life where I have gone running behind my dreams. Though I have stopped temporarily, the urge within me still exists. The fire still burns. I still get goose bums!!

Let me get into the market realities. How many entrepreneurs had we seen when we were children? You could count them on your fingers (I am considering entrepreneurs to be as people who start companies here though I am wrong in assuming this note). And how many do we see today? Any thoughts of why this transition has happened? Any idea where were all these bloody brilliant ideals and bloody nerve before? They were all inside you! Inside your own mind and inside your own self!! Here are my few thoughts on this… They are pretty straight forward infact!

India has always been a land of opportunities. This is the case with most of the developing nations (not that developed nations are not!). Due to the onshore-offshore model which was introduced by the software industry, people in this developing nation started to become financially independent. Since it has been quite an amount of time since the advent of this industry and considering the fact that the competition is building, the growth at the top started to stagnate. So, the only choice left was to quit and start! This is the case with a selected few though!

Then came a set of highly motivated young professionals who wanted to prove to the world that they are different (please not to mistake this as their ego quotient). They were young, did not bloody care for money! Had confidence of winning this world! Had the motivation to slog their ass out in the market. Had the perseverance to sustain in the market even after getting royally raped in it! They also had the ideas with them and the courage to innovate! Now, does this sound like a perfect combination to you all? Well… if you ask me its not! Out of all these bunch of guys, only those went ahead who actually had the urge in them! Who had the passion for whatever they were trying to do! For doing what ever they found was good and not the world! This is what is required guys… Even if you don’t have the best of the degrees, even if you are not having the best of the ideas, even if you are not out of a tier 1 college, it doesn’t bloody matter!! Only thing that matters is the nerve that drives you crazy about one small thing! Go for it guys!! Just go for it!! (Yes, you would need patience for people to accept it as at the end of it, they are going to pay for it!)

Thanks to Aamir for this one more breath taking movie!!

Importance of transportation for an economy

2009-12-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

Was on my way to visit the economic model which India copied from (initially ofcourse...). Yes, you guessed it right; in UK for a short assignment. Had heard a lot about it having one of the best plans with respect to the city transport and one of the very well marketed tourism department. Got an oppurtunity to see it first hand now. So, here going my thought process on it...

My flight to London was boring initially. But later discovered that the person next to me was the owner of a company. So talks began about discussions on a few business models. Since I was involved in a few startups since more than an year, I was more curious about things; the "do's and dont's" etc... Our discussions entered into one of my areas on interest; "The tourism department". Well... its a known fact that the Indian tourism department is not basically well marketed. Also, there is not enough support from the transport department to fill the gaps of the tourism department. Though this is majorly controlled politically, there is still a lot of scope where there can be a lot of improvement which can brought in by the private players. "Guys like you should plunge into it and not just talk about it." Those were the exact words the other guy said in the due course of the discussion. The discussions carried on with a few other things... But this thought of tourism stayed back with me and I wanted to observe a bit more closely while in UK (also considering travel is more close to my heart...)

Then came the day when I landed in London. Right after I landed, I knew where to go (well managed directions...). Went right into the counter of National Express to get tickets to Bristol (This is where I am staying now... till Jan'10). I could see boards all through the travel. Every small town; every small station had directions well before we actually reached there. I am not saying that this isn't there in India. This is very well there especially if you travel via NHs or SHs. Even in Bristol station, I exactly knew where to get down. This is one thing which is backed up very well by technology. There are automated announcements (not sure if its completely automated and linked to the navigator in the bus or it is driver controlled though...) which makes the life easy even for a person who has not travelled before.

Days went by and I was travelling down to Slough... I had to take a train (rather 2 trains) to reach Slough. This was again a first time experience for me as I did not know where to go in a station. Again, there were no hastles. Everything was well directed. Just that you as a traveller needed to have a little bit of common sense :). While at the parway station at Bristol (where I reached an hour early), I again did not have any problems. The customers are informed almost 45 mins prior to the travel with ample amount of information with enough time-time updates. Even if there is a last minute rescheduling, it is very well taken care and every system is interconnected so that there isn't any wrong information and the customers are not taken by any surprise. Even the train collision etc is managed well through proper information sharing... This took me back to MIS classes though. This is where the discussion with the CEO in the flight became more practical. Things were more clear... But this will require a lot of financial backing as well.

Going back to the parkway station... unlike the Indian booking system, UK has a concept of a lesser pay in the booking if the booking is early. Now this is pure ECONOMICS and an intelligent way to implement it as well. Not really sure if the money which is paid earlier is used for getting returns out of it... but its a really amazing concept and a win-win situation as well... Also, there was a lot of marketing in the train stations as well... all the offers for the new year with a guide book... travel book... reach etc etc... We (Indians) should seriously learn from their marketing methodologies now. Now that we have copied their Law, a bit of tourism and administration... its not a bad idea to copy this as well if it results in earning a few bucks :)...

Well... though it might not have been something different if I had written it if I hadn't come here; just that it is more authentic now as I am having the first hand information... Signinging off as of now... Until next time... Keep inventing... discovering... innovating... digging!!

Distribution Management – Decline of an Industry

2009-11-10T07:14:00.001-08:00

Background:

XML Pvt. Ltd (name changed as the company still exists in a different sector) entered the market with a vision of being the market leaders in home appliances. They entered the market with Television as their only product in the market. When they entered the market, there were not many major players in that segment in India. Soon they became very famous and every household had its name associated with the company. The company had a wide network of local dealers and supplies. XML had very powerful sales forces who were locals from the various states in India and the market penetration was easy for XML. Slowly, XML expanded its product line from beyond TV and started manufacturing Washing machines, refrigerators and other electronic home appliances.

XML was an innovative organization with the R&D department consisting of engineers from the top engineering colleges of India who were working with the future technologies. Hence it always took its customers by surprise and quality was never a problem for XML as its products usually persisted for more than 10 years without a single complaint.

Supplier problem:

The main supplies XML had was of ICs, the manufacturing parts and cartons. It had tied up with various local vendors for supply of manufacturing parts and cartons. For sophisticated parts like high-end LCD and other ICs, it had tie-ups with international vendors.

The initial problems with the suppliers started when after monopolizing the television market, XML started demanding from the suppliers. The suppliers were given a credit period as high as 6 months. The suppliers also did not have much of a choice because XML being the major market player, if they are associated with XML, their value proposition increased at that point of time. Hence, XML exploited this situation even more. Even if the credit period was 6 months, the suppliers were being paid after a year or two. This lead to the descend of many local suppliers since they were not able to sustain the pressure of money.

On the other hand, the international suppliers were paid on-time. This increased the grudge in the local suppliers. They started meeting among each other without the knowledge of the company and started forming unions. Since the employees were also local people, the suppliers started encouraging for the employee unions. Finally after a lot of strikes, XML had to move its production unit to its headquarters.

In the new headquarters, XML decided to tie-up with more suppliers and spread its suppliers from over the entire country. This led them to take command over the few local suppliers they had. But this also put them into a lot of problems as the other suppliers were a lot more demanding with respect to the credit period. But XML did not change its strategy for the credit period. The suppliers now wanted to teach XML a lesson. Hence they now started to push all the rejected pieces into the manufacturing units by bribing the employees. This affected the quality of the products to a larger extent and the customer complaints started to increase. Since XML had never faced such a situation, it was not quick enough in responding to the customer queries and the service earned a very bad name.

Due to this, the international suppliers also did not see XML as the vendor they wanted to be associated with. Hence they also started to disassociate themselves with XML. This was a major hit-back for XML as it lost most of its suppliers. At the same time, competition had become fiercer in the market. Smoothening of the government norms had led to international brands enter the market. Hence the suppliers started to concentrate on tie-ups with the international brands. This lead XML to loose most of its quality suppliers.

Dealer problem:

Even though the government norms were eased and the foreign brands were allowed to enter India, these new brands had a very tough time initially. They had the main challenge of replacing the existing local players, setting up a distribution network and many other challenges.

With all the proceedings as depicted in the ‘Supplier problem’ section, the competitor took advantage of the situation. They paid a higher dealership price than what XML was paying. This made the dealers to concentrate more on the products of the competitors. The shelf space for XML kept reducing month-month. Many dealers discontinued their relationship with XML. The competitors need not have to think about penetration either. It was already present readymade in the market. This gave the competitors a cost advantage as the market was already open. Hence the competitors could manage a higher compensation to its dealers and suppliers.

Apart from the competition, dealer and the supplier problems, XML was also attacked by a family issue since it was a family run business. All this finally contributed to the collapse of the electronic home appliances section of XML.

Learning:

For you to operate in a value chain created by your company, all the stakeholders in the supply chain have to be treated at par.
Do not neglect competitors and update yourself on a regular basis. Though XML had a full fledged R&D team, they were not in par with the technology offered in the market by the competitors.
Monopoly does not exist for long in an open market environment. Hence try to build brand values as long as you have the monopoly. These values will come handy during the time of immense competition. This will also help in arresting the competition from penetrating the market easily.
Consider the business model of having exclusive dealers.
Innovate the marketing strategies to be in sync with the changing business needs.

Sales ... A case study

2009-11-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Note: The discussions below are a true case study of a private company. Hence the name of the company, its clients and competitors are kept confidential for ethical purposes. Regret the inconvenience caused.

It was May 2008 and the top management of the entire organization was involved in a proposal to one of its most prospective clients. It was one of the highest revenue generating projects in the recent past for the organization. The company, XYZ Pvt. Ltd, is a niche telecom service provider in the market space of Europe. XYZ has been in a good relationship with its client organization CLT since more than half a decade providing constant innovative solutions to CLT and thus collaboratively helping them to growth in the highly competitive market. Due to the ever increasing demand of its customers, CLT decided to capture a place in the cloud to enable its systems to provide a cheap solution to its ever increasing client base. Hence CLT decided to change all the systems involved in providing the service so that the technical disability is avoided across the entire set of services.

XYZ was the most preferred vendor of CLT due to its constant innovative solutions provided. Hence they were asked to draft a proposal for this initiative. Over the period of more than seven years, many competitors had developed in the European market. Hence, along with XYZ, CLT also asked Comp A, Comp B and Comp C to bid for the proposal. Since the other three organizations were involved in supporting the other systems of CLT, this move of CLT did not surprise XYZ.

After a month’s long hard work, the final proposal was ready and a few top executives of XYZ headed to Europe for selling the services offered by XYZ. The major parameters considered for measurement of the proposal by CLT were as below:
• Quality of service provided (QOS)
• Cost incurred by CLT (ROI)
• Overall service package offered

For the ease of maintenance, CLT had divided the systems into eight logical domains ranging from customer registration to billing.

Among the above four expected parameters, XYZ had an edge in the quality of the service provided since it had a very good track record over a period of seven years and also due to the fact that XYZ was the most preferred vendor of CLT. The other vendors were also very reputed for their deliverables in the industry. But the fact that XYZ was in a long running relationship with CLT gave it a clear cut advantage.

Considering the second parameter under consideration, the variation in the bidding amount proposed by all the four vendors is depicted by the graph below:

From the above graph it can be incurred that the amount proposed by XYZ was comparatively the highest. It was around 50 million € greater than the lowest bidder. This is when CLT started to bend towards the other clients and the interest of CLT towards XYZ started reducing. Hence the chances of XYZ winning the bid were really less after the cost related statistics was portrayed.

Now XYZ had only one opportunity left to showcase that they are different from the other vendors in the room. They had to do a proper service mix to make sure that the contract is not lost. Instead of concentrating on what went wrong, the top management at XYZ decided to take advantage of the fact that they were the most preferred vendors of CLT. They concentrated on the quality of service they provide. Instead of just offering the solutions to the existing problem at CLT, XYZ also offered value additions to the systems at CLT. This meant that, along with the normal expected services, XYZ offered a free value addition to the domain under operation. They also went a step ahead to align themselves with the customer to identify their existing problems and providing a permanent solution for the same (thus removing the recurrence of the issue). This was a perfect mix of services which XYZ offered and CLT (who trusted the quality of deliverables of XYZ) had no other choice but to choose XYZ for the contract. At the end of the meeting, XYZ had won 50% stake of the entire bid and the remaining 50% was split among the other three vendors.

It was a win-win situation created by XYZ which led to it bagging 50% of the stake. Due to the non-reduction in the cost factor, XYZ was even more thrilled to provide a better QOS. CLT was happy that XYZ was closely working towards their business goals and were ready to improve their customer experience free of cost in the form of value addition to the domains under consideration.

A few points derived out of the above case study are as below:
• Cost or ROI is not the only factor on which businesses work in this highly competitive environment. You should always have a competitive edge so that you can make a difference.
• Proper pricing strategy has to be considered while selling. In the above case even if XYZ had lowered down the price by 50 million €, they might not have won 100% of the bid. Purely because of the fact that the perception of client to spread the domains was not because of the cost factor. It was because he had to increase the pressure of QOS due to cut throat competition.
• At times, a perfect product/service mix appeals to the clients. It might create a win-win situation.
• A sales force has to be flexible enough to cater to the customer demands. If the customer requires technical solutions or projections, the sales force should deploy technical people. If high level decisions have to be taken, the proper DMU (Decision Making Unit) has to be deployed.
• Customer perceptions play a very important role.

A business called Education...

2009-11-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

It was a gloomy evening at the Gandhibazar CCD in Bangalore. I was hanging out with my friends as one of them was travelling to Germany for his higher studies. Pissed off with his job at one of the software majors, my friend decided to go behind his dreams; joined IISc for a project in Electrical engineering. After an year and a half, he got an admit in one of the technical Universities in Germany. Over the small talk we had, I got to know that the fee he paid for the education which was spanned for a period of 2.5 years was just 16,000 INR! It took all of us with a shock! He later revealed the fact about the universities in Europe being completely funded, do not take much money from the students who come to study at the universities... This lead me to a completely different thought process altogether.

If you imagine a similar quality of education in India, it would have not cost you lesser than a few lakh INRs. Even for that matter, the US universities also take a hell lot of money for their MS programs. In the due of learning, the people who cannot afford the education will loose the inclination towards the main intent of their visit and try to work out a deal in their lives where the main motive shifts from education to earning money to get over the heavy loans that was made in the due coarse of getting quality education. Even in India if you see, institutions like IIMs and IITs have a respectable amount of funding a real good Alumni who can work out to get more funding into the institutions. I do agree that there is a lot of government interventions in these institutes; but the whole point here is about quality and cheaper education. If you see the industry I am associated with (the service industry), I can atleast comment that the world is moving towards a mode where quality products are expected to be delivered with a highly reduced costs.

Coming back to the institutions in India, no doubt that they have a real good set of individuals who contribute to the technical innovations of the world. They have to be backed with a good funding from either private organizations or the government should work towards it so that atleast the quality is not lost. They are not here to make money by venturing into education considering it as a business and an evergreen market. (Of course, I do agree that money has to be associated but not to an extent at a which it is now) This is when even the poorest kid in the society can afford to get an access into the education offered in these institutes. This is when bright ideas won't die due to lack of money. This is when there will be an economic balance created between the poor and the rich. This is when India can grow as a super power!

Signing off as of now ... Good luck to my friend!

The new age entrepreneur

2009-10-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

I was just collecting all my thoughts today which used to ponder around my head for more than an year now! It was more than an year back that I had set out with loads of dreams in my eyes! I joined MBA with an intension of meeting like minded people there with whom I can hopefully end up being an entrepreneur. Not because it was in the air, but I had a dream and my parents supported it. So I decided to give up my personal time to discover my dream. Went in search of people... the right idea... the right moment... In the due course, many new ideas came in... this made me shift my thought process of just a software engineer to that of a person who can actually make a difference in the top management! I became more and more creative... everyday was a new discovery for me... every night was tiring... We used to slog our nights out for just one small hope of making the real difference! We used to meet a lot of young / old guys who were there making a difference. A lot of marketing ideas came out of our brains. We began to observe each and every small thing around us like never before. Hope was at its highest level. We had gathered all courage to go ahead and take the ultimate step. Then came the great American recession! It just shattered our business plans, all the courage was washed out in just a very short span of time :'( ... The markets were hit!! The forecasts were bad!! Hence we had to do the thing we were never prepared for... We dropped the whole idea for the time being...

I didn't want my creativity to die ... I had started photography in the meanwhile and had picked up quite well in a short span of time. Hence decided to play in the market with it being a tool... setup a supply chain of my own with tie ups with 2 local vendors and a retail store. It was a real learning for me! I learnt to make business there... Though I came into the limelight, the recession had hit the art market also. I learnt a lot from the retail store manager (a Punjabi). This gave me the real essence of running a local retail business. It was an amazing experience nevertheless. Later on the ideas kept on coming in making some online business, thus making money etc... finally I tied up with an art market startup to sell my photographs. But it again failed!

Then came a dry period where I just had my normal job and MBA had become screwing now demanding a lot of my time and attention. But my dream was still ON! Then came a time where I got an opportunity to actually join an already running startup to build the sales and plan for the future marketing prospects. Looked like a deal for me! But somewhere inside I did not have a great feeling towards it (probably because it was not my original idea). Nevertheless I agreed for a few things with them. Went ahead and put in a lot of ideas and the real work of a sales and marketing fellow was done. This is when I met a few clients as well trying to convince them about the offerings and stuff. But this feeling which had initially developed in me made me feel more and more tired. I used to go back home everyday in the night with an amazing amount of headache! This is when I realized a few other things and decided to concentrate more on my health.

This was an amazing breathtaking, mind boggling journey for me. Though there was absolutely no monetary benefits for me, it changed me as a person and made me thick skinned! Today I have no fear to failure! I have got over all that. In the due course I discovered quite a few real good people who will be associated with me for lifetime! Even if not physically in contact, at least I would never forget the difference they made in my life!

There was a lot of learning that I take back from this experience of mine! Here it goes...

Never compensate for your health! You just will loose the interest and the potential if you loose your health!
Identify who is what and exploit the goodness in them rather than cribbing that they should have had this etc.
You should have a core team of people with REAL stuff. The idea cannot be implemented otherwise.
Go behind your dreams and not compensate for anything at least in this. If you are in a mode of compensation, get out of it. It is better to have a job and work for someone else.
There is a lot of difference between what happens in the real world and what is being portrayed.
Always have a parallel source of income which serves your bread n butter. This is required if you are not filthy rich or have a family who is dependent on you.
Have a vision beyond 10-15 yrs. Things will not work out overnight. You cannot expect a sale to be done in 3-4 months, esp if you are a startup!
Create a buzz in the market, even if your product is virtual!
Customer is really the emperor!
Learn from your mistakes; but don't repeat them. You will burn your fingers otherwise!
Do not neglect even the smallest of the market triggers. The bull whip effect actually exists in the normal business scenarios as well!

These were the few learnings which I would always want to have in mind! This has not been a phase of failure but a learning phase for me! As of now, taking a good break and concentrating more on my health... But will definitely return to it one day with a new idea; a new initiative! The energy is still ON! Also looking at how to change the way India is working now... Any bright sparks out there ...??

Photography & Nudity

2009-10-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Before I start, let me make you guys aware of the fact that this is a pretty matured write and I would expect a professional thought process running through your mind while reading this. Thanks for your co-operation.

It was just a lazy afternoon for me at Reliance timeout near office. I was trying to get some inspiration for photography which has kind of dried up off late :'( ... I was just flipping the pages of this book called "The Photo Book". There were a lot of Nude photographs in the book which took my thoughts to a conversation I had with my marketing professor almost an year back. He had one of his friends who was into Nude photography esp black n white. I feel a nude photograph taken in black n white is a great combination! You will have a LOT of scope of expressing the feelings through a perfect mixture of lighting and facial expression.

Even today nudity is usually considered as a taboo in the Indian society especially with so many narrow minded a**holes around. But even according to the religion, nudity is the purest form of a human being. It is his/her own self. It outrightly displays the amount of confidence portrayed by the person. The day Indians get this into their nerves, we can expect a lot more matured approach towards issues related to it.

Just found this excerpt from the wiki ...

"Nude photography is a style of art photography which depicts the nude human body as a study. Nude photography should be distinguished from erotic photography, which has a sexually suggestive component. Nude photography should also be distinguished from glamour photography, which places more emphasis on the model and her/his sexuality, and treats the model as the primary subject.

Many photographers consider an art nude photograph to be a one that studies the human body, rather than the person. A photograph of a person that is meant to be recognized is called a portrait, and nude photographs often do not show a face at all. Nude photography is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. As an art form, nude photography is a stylized depiction of the nude body with the line and form of the human figure as the primary objective. Photographers sometimes use extremes of light and shadow, oiled skin, and shadows falling across the body to show texture and structure of the body."

I feel Nude photography is a very matured way of expressing your thoughts. It not only involves a lot of photography skills, but also is a lot dependent on the expressions of the model! Even with a lot of good work towards lighting, if the model doesn't have good expressions, the pic will be filled with vulgarity. It is a thin line of demarcation which a photographer has to be careful about! Even with a proper lighting set, the photo has to have a good exposure of colors. This will help to differentiate in the depth of the different shades of gray.

Even as an observer, one has to understand photography to actually make out the inner meaning of the photograph so that it can be appreciated and not blamed for vulgarity reasons.

Just took this topic to write about today... Hope you guys liked it... Happy blogging!!

The selling experience...

2009-09-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

It feels really good start writing again!! Had gone out of it to gain an experience! Had the real life experience of selling... It was fun! Though I haven't got into it full time; this made my idea of MBA even more clear ;) ... For the ones who are following my blog it isn't new, but for the benefit of the ones who are not, here it goes.... "MBA is always just a facilitator! Its there to just give you a platform from where its upto u to launch forward or collapse..."

Yeah... Just thought of briefing about my experience in sales... It is a profession which is usually seen as a low profile thing in the society. When I say sales, all people will imagine is the sales person who either calls up and disturbs (or wakens u up ;)..) every now and then or the person who rings your doorbell!! These push marketing tactics have actually brought down the value of sales. The whole perception of sales in India has been hit due to these things. But just imagine a world without Sales 'n marketing. There would have been a huge barrier built between the demand and the suppply and would have led to an economic imbalance and created a lot of monopoly in the market. Only since marketing is existing is there a sense of utmost competition and thus an urge to succeed in the business world.

Getting into my experience, I got this small oppurtunity to sell an IT product to an age old sector in India which has a very strong background and covers the largest mass in the nation. The whole sales cycle inclusive of a sales call, meeting the higher officials, convincing them, making a concept selling, convince them about the product etc is so very well defined and it really works! You simply don't have to think twice before going ahead and executing this. BUT ... (that was huge but by the way :)... ), here comes the trickiest part. if it was so simple and st fwd, you might ask me the question as to y doesnt everyone click in this case? There is a lot of drama which needs to happen before and after selling. Lot of negotiations, hard talks, disagreements, rejections, retries and many more adjectives are involved.

Initially at the stage of conceptualization of any product or service, you should and must understand who is your target customers and the target market, thier psychology, the way they react to situations, the current, future and the historic trends, their future plans, the government involvement, the internation position etc etc. In short you should just know who you are talking to . Try doing an extensive research about the person and the organization you are planning to visit. Unless this is done, there is no point if you blindly go and meet. In case you happen to meet them just on the fly, be street smart to strike a deal. They will try to suck your blood and get the maximum in which case know what ur objectives are in the market and how will it affect if the deal is struck at a wong place and under wrong terms and this has to happen in a fraction of a second only because its a split second decision which you will have to take when you are in front of the client (prospective). You should know who is the decision making authority in the client organization. By hook or crook, get an entry to his chanber and sell with utmost passion as though you have nothing else from this and this is your life! These are just a few things which you need to know before hand (Guess now u know y everybody doesn't click :D)

I haven't got an oppurtunity to click a deal till now. Shall update the blog once I get the oppurtunity.

India is now going towards the after sales service part of it. Though it has been existing since years, the major chunk of the population is still isn't bother about the service quality and the after sales service. But if your end customers are organizations, then it is very important that you have an after sales service. Since the time of globalization, the organizations have realized the importance of after sales service. The individuals have now started realizing the importance of after sales service. The culture is fast growing in India now!

That was the experience as of now... Thanks for dropping in! Happy blogging!!

Moving from Constructive destruction to Destructive construction??

2009-07-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

2nd of July 2009 was marked as the first Railway budget from the newly formed UPA government in India. I was not aware of it until I went and sat in front of the idiot box during my lunch time at office. There stood Madam Mamata with her list of offerings for the railway department of the nation for the new financial year. The first statement she made too the whole enthusiasm out of my mind! "Railways is not only for economic benefits. It should also appeal for the society." With this being plain English words, this is an ideal scenario. But if one can look deep into the thought process that would have gone while conveying this, it is devastating...

During the time of our Laloo Prasad Yadav, Indian railways recorded the highest profits in its lifetime! Thousands of crores of profit was recorded! More than 40% of it went into the develpment processes of the nation. All Laloo did were simple things. Nothing great, no technological advancements happened overnights. Implementation of simple ideas here and there was what led to the amazing turn over. This took Laloo to places like IIMs to deliver lecures on management! Though people might argue that he is very currupt and a few hundreds of crores has gone into his pocket, I still support Laloo. Why?? Here it goes... All of you will agree to the fact that the Indian goverment and all government related activities are surrounded by corruption. This is the way things work in India. I agree that it has to change so that the common man is not affected very much. But, this cannot happen overnight. It is very simple. Say you are following a ritual since your birth. Suddenly after 50 years somebody comes and asks you to go against it, the natural tendency is for you to resist the change even though there might be enormous amount of benefits by you not following the ritual. This has a lot to do with psychology and mind games people play. Okay... coming back to Laloo's kaarnama... He might have taken bribe, but dont forget, this has yielded for 1000s of crores being invested in the development of India.

This is what I term as Constructive destruction. You destroy an existing way of doing things to come out with amazing (though small) ideas to make things better. If you feel Laloo was destroying the money of the public, then he was doing so to get a return of an amount which no Indian could think of! This is the display of constructive destruction!

Coming back to where I started from; the budget is good to the public. But I don't see returns in the way it had in the previous term. All Mamata wanted to prove is that she has the capability to win hearts and not pockets (which she did eventually! Hats off to her for that...) and thus to disprove Laloo and show him that she is better than him (egoism plays a very major role in politics. Infact it is the base for politics to occur.) But, considering the economic downturn which happened very recently, it makes sense to concentrate more on the pockets. The hearts will be there for many more generations to come... She tried to constructively destroy what ever was done. Hopefully a few of her ideas will work out (I doubt though).

This is where I began thinking, will the railway budget be in a position to provide India with the same ROI which it did the last time? Was the roughness between Laloo and the UPA affect the growth of our nation? Where is India heading towards; Constructive destruction or Destructive construction??? Looking forward for the Budget today...

PS: Please note the big picture here without spending much energy on the intricacies of politics of India (If you feel anything is wrong, it is your thought process and I respect it completely...)

Board Room Delusions

2009-06-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

It was 30th of June 2009, after two years and ten months into my professional life, it was the day when I was supposed to deliver a high profile presentation to a client who was completely unaware of the existence of we as a company. Prior to it, I had spent three days thinking about what to put and what not. I basically didn't want us to to lose business due to some small mistakes which might be politically wrong. I read, read, read and again read through the presentation as though it was the only thing I had in life. I forgot the weekend. I forgot my usual work. Used to have head aches almost daily in this period... Well... it was not because of the pressure... but just that I wanted to make it RIGHT and be opportunistic.

It was supposed to be a high level presentation and a forum for discussions about what is good and what is BAD. Well well... the later part actually scared the shit out of me. It was my first presentation in front of a CEO who is expecting to click a business deal (probably) from the client. The morning of Jun 30th went very well. The CEO reviewed the presentation and had a mock session where the CEO made clear on his thought process about the presentation and the importance of it etc. With some minor changes in our approach, we were done with the mock! To my surprise, there were not many changes. So I spent the the rest 2 hours modifying it a bit and preparing for it...

It was 1:40 and I was in the board room checking the presentation if everything was in place. Suddenly one of senior fellows calls me and informs that the client will be there in 5 mins. Well, that is what I call punctuality! ;) (15 mins early to the meeting...). I had left my blazer at the third floor and I rushed to get that. Eventually I arrived 5 mins late to the meeting. I enter the board room to see the client, my CEO and a few more fellows sitting there. I was like "SHIT! WHY TODAY??" Nevertheless, the discussions started with the CEO trying to sell the organizational values to the client. This was the point of time when I remembered my B2B professor! His famous statement of "Bahut drama hota hai sir ek room ke andar" was running in my mind ;). The selling continued with one of the senior folks continuing the talks after the CEO. It was then the turn for me to pitch in. By that time, all the really good values and a few existing problems were identified.

I started the presentation... the second slide and it was high level for the client! She was also new to the client organization and thus didn't have much of an idea of the operations. The CEO had to pitch in at this time and give a high level picture wrt the client organization. After a 15 minute session, I knew that I had to change the way I was presenting and had to thus skip a few slides which were probably irrelevant to the client. Then came the opportunity for me to sell. I sold with great passion by highlighting all the really nice parts of the business that we had done to bring down the operational expenses of the client. The client was happy and so was the CEO. Then started the real DRAMA! We had a few issues with the client organization and I was not really sure as to how to put it across since I hardly knew the client and she hardly knew us. But with the initial interactions, I was at least clear that she was pretty straight forward and meant business. I went around in a really diplomatic way in saying "U can be better so that the business will be better and we can offer more reliable and formidable solutions" (well not so bluntly though...). The hour long session finally ended with a lot of discussions and disagreements (at times) etc. Thanks to my CEO, he covered it up soooo very well! And at the end of it the client gave me a title of a "POLITICIAN" and the CEO and the senior folks said that I was good! Well... frankly speaking I didn't know how I made the difference but if they say I was good, then they should have had some points in the mind. I accepted it and moved on...

It was a really different world which I saw inside the board room. No cinema, no theater can beat it! ;) LOL... But then, that is how it is. That is how businesses work! That is how clients are got! It was a first direct experience for me. That is when I realized that an MBA will not make a difference. All it can do is just give a few guides here and there (esp to create high profile PPTs overnight ;)...). This is where I remembered my MBA mates who had told this to me on the Day 1 of my PG :)... But yes, probably if it was not for my MBA, I wouldn't have been in the meeting at all. So, there are pros and cons of everything... Makes sense to take only the pros :)

Hope to have more of such experiences in the near future...

Of Baristas n Scrabbles

2009-05-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am one of this this weird persons who don't mind having lunch at Barista! Yes you read it right, Barista :D... It was one such (ab)normal afternoon for me. Went in there with two of my not so normal friends... LOL... As usual, ordered some stuffs to drink and eat. But today wasn't normal. One of my friends got a scrabble from nowhere. As a kid, I had always wanted to play it. Never got a chance though. Nevertheless was playing it now for the first time in 24 years! I was explained all the rules and regulations and made aware of a few strategies as and when i was playing. It was a combined effort that made me win the first ever game of scrabble I played! :D...

After that day, the visit to Barista became very frequent. Playing scrabble became very addictive. It became so addictive that I got one for myself as well! ;) ... Letters started floating in front of my eyes... words started dancing... mom involved, then dad, then sis... hmm... It has got a very high influencing power! ;)...

Nowadays it has become so that we visit Barista to play scrabble. Eating and drinking has become secondary! Was just thinking how many more might be there like us. What an amazing idea did they come up with! Hats off to them!! n hats off to ppl like us who make it worth the thought ;) LOL...

INDIA Votes…

2009-04-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

The elections are fast approaching and here I am sitting at the corner of my house and penning down my recent experiences about the biggest democracy of the world! India has one of the most complicated structures when it comes to conducting elections majorly due to the wide variety of culture and people residing here. It is a very gigantic task to make sure that things happen in a proper way. Especially when it comes to the elections, it is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission (EC) to make sure of fair elections to happen.

In the last few days I had an opportunity to meet a few people who help out the EC with its job of smooth execution of the polls. I met people ranging from the ‘chaprasi’ to the PResiding Officer (PRO) (the one responsible for end-end transactions in a polling booth). I here realized the actual way things are executed at the ground level. Initially the people are selected on a random basis and are given the responsibility of handling different activities held at the polling booth. There are a lot of procedures to be completed before the actual voting day (clearing the voting machine, writing a few reports and some memos etc) to make sure of a smooth processing of elections. During the process of voting the PRO has the responsibility of handling people, avoid malpractices, handle challenge votes, convince people about voting etc. Once the voting is done, it is again the responsibility of the PRO to make sure of the proper and safe delivery of the voting machines and all the other documents into the right hands.

After giving you guys a brief about what exactly happens during the poll day, let me directly come to the point of me writing all this. The responsibilities defined above are absolutely fool proof if they are executed in the right way and by the right people. But as a matter of fact, I am afraid to say that this is not the case with most of the polling booths. Many of the polling booths have immatured inexperienced workers on job. They neither have the experience required to handle people nor do they have the expertise to do so. I do not know how exactly the work is allocated. But due to my technical background, I was able to guess to some extent that it’s a random series generation. To put it in layman language, a few people out of a lot are picked for this highly responsible job of a PRO. To substantiate by findings, please answer one question. Does it make sense to make a person who was a PRO/APRO at the previous elections to be asked to take up a task like putting the ink on the voter’s hand? To look at the other end of it, a person who has never taking responsibility in his/her life is made the PRO. A person who is a pune somewhere; a graduate who has just passed out with less than an year’s experience as a government employee and many more such people are made the PROs. I do not understand from what angle the EC gets an idea like this. (Though PROs are Gazetted officers in many cases, there also exist people who belong to the above mentioned category. Also please note that they are trained for 2 days...)

I perfectly understand the amount of pressure the EC will be during the time of elections. But with such high level of technological advancements, I don’t think it will hardly take more than a month’s time to develop a software which can do all this. All they need is a database of people who were previously involved and who can be added on this year, where are the resources available etc. If you counter attack on this asking for the money spent on development and maintenance of this software, then I am sure that all of you will agree to the fact that this will not even be a penny when compared to the amount spent on campaigning by the various political parties.

Let me now take your attention to another issue which caught my eyes – Involvement of women in the whole program. There is no consideration given to the gender of the people involved in this process. Even women are given equal amount of rights and authority. But the gray part of it is the fact that they are ruthlessly treated! This incident happened to a lady during the previous elections. She was asked to stay back till late night after which a transport was promised. As the famous saying goes, “Promises are meant to be broken”, she was asked to get down in a deserted area 5 KM away from her place at the mid night…

The arrangements this year are no good. No transport facility is provided. There is no guarantee of food and even water. The polling booths don’t have proper sanitation. There is no fixed plan of action and time frame for working. Due to the inexperienced PRO, they are not sure of the time at which polling process ends. Above all of these infrastructural problems, the ladies are being put into remote areas for taking the responsibility of polling. To add to it, there are incidents of pregnant ladies being put for polling duty. It’s a mere display of callousness and a taken for granted attitude by the EC. A proper involvement and brainstorming of the staff responsible for planning the activities could have solved all these problems and ensured a free and fair election in all senses.

Apart from these logistics problem, there is a bigger problem due to which the percentage of voting in India is at a very disappointing rate. This is driven by the IT culture which came into existence a few years back. Due to the IT boom in many major cities, a large part of the population started to migrate to the cities which promised a very good growth and career. Due to this, the concept of locals voting for choosing their leaders does not exist any more. When you are no more attached with the locality, there is no point of voting for the locality. Just look at the bigger picture. The whole country is there at your stake. You are ultimately voting for the nation. The locals are just representatives. This idea stuck me during a conversation with a friend. Can we have a centralized system which allows us to vote from anywhere in India (extensible to world as well) having proper security arrangements. Ofcourse through initiatives like www.jagoree.com, it’s no more a dream to achieve such a setup. But still I see a lot of people not making use of this facility. It’s high time that we and the government realize the importance of all the issues mentioned above. Hope to see the vital decision making day planned and handled in a better manner going forward. Guys we are speaking about INDIA and not any other minuscule culture or nation!

Through this small write-up I seek the help of fellow individuals to make people aware of the responsibilities they have which can make a difference to more than 1bn people!

Bullied away!!

2009-02-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

It was a routine for me to browse through the sites for some news here and there. Just came across this headline which demanded my attention towards it! “16 students beaten by teacher in Dera Bassi” Well… this has been a regular news off late. The display of brutality from the teachers to impose some silly things which they feel is the most important thing in a students’ life!

Many people whom I have come across have this long running issue in their minds about the Indian education system which is in a way is bullied away by the teachers' view points. It’s not all though. We also encounter teachers who are gems! There are a few who really encourage to go beyond the boundaries to think about what, why and how do things happen in the way they happen and not make one restricted to textbook thinking. On a contrary, there are a LOT more of them who think they are GODS (imaginary supreme person) and according to who textbooks and the predefined methodologies are the ultimate way for knowledge acquisition! This article is dedicated to such wonderful creatures!

As children, we always have a quest for learning and a quest to acquire as much knowledge^# as we can. Even biologically, that’s the period when an individual’s grasping power is at the highest. Kids will be more experimental and will want a reason for anything and everything they do. “Why?” appears to be their favorite word! In the due course of answering their questions, few of them tend to go beyond boundaries and will think out of the box. When they do it the response they get is, "YOU ARE WRONG!" and why this response... because the syllabus doesn't allow u to do it! It’s not there in that thing called TEXTBOOK! You can't choose what you want to do... You can’t be in the way you are... You are not allowed to be creative... Most of all, you are not supposed to go against what your so called leading lights (in the form of teachers) guide you to! And why is this? Because they wouldn’t have done it in that way and it is out of scope of their thought process! They can't think in that way and hence you can't! And what is the result of it… the student gets demotivated and thinks that his thought process is wrong and hence he will never dare to do it again! Why... because he is not supposed to think on his own!

They say that teachers are the ones who lead people to what they'll become in the future! It's very true! But if we get such great individuals as teachers, then I am sorry... but it’s better to be illiterate! You will atleast preserve the values embedded by your own families! Please do not get me wrong here by assuming that I am self-centered. It’s just a humble attempt to express the dishonesty currently happening in the country. The whole point is that, there will definitely be a lot of learning involved when you come across people… when you meet wonderful teachers… even among the peer group for that matter; but as teachers they should realize the responsibility on their shoulders! You go wrong at times... that’s when teachers come into picture! Not that they can think better than you, but they would have had the right experience to guide you in a better way. This is the real teacher! You, at any stage should feel confident about doing anything and everything coz you always have a backup in the form of your teacher! The one who encourages the student to reach higher than where he/she really stands is the real teacher! That’s the spirit required for the New age India! They should realize the entire nation’s future is in their hands!

Instead, if the same situation continues... then I am sorry to say… but, India is going to remain in docks forever! When the world has reached a stage where countries like China are committed for a R&D spending growth of 21% per annum, if things like these happen on a regular basis, then the day is not far when the other third world countries will easily push us back! Only a few people sitting at the top and stressing on innovation will not help in any way! Each and every individual should have this embedded as a moral responsibility! That is the way where the whole nation can work towards one particular vision! That’s when the dream of our own ex-President, Abdul Khalam, will come true! This is the kind of bigger picture that one should be providing to the kids! That’s when they will grow to become individuals who can drive the entire nation to success!

^#Knowledge is not restricted to science, math or any subject related. It’s referred here in a generic manner.

The power of value perception!

2009-02-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

"The value of water is more than diamond in a desert!" This one small statement changed the whole way I looked at things. I was exposed to this concept of "Value perception" when I for the first time in my life came across this wonderful subject called ECONOMICS!

This concept of value perception has influenced me in a very huge way! The whole building block for any business in this world, Rate of Return or more popularly known as ROI, is based on this factor. The ROI of your business is basically the value perceptions you feel is there for your products or services in your consumer's or client's eyes! Whatever you pay for the goods you purchase is basically because you value the good so much. You see the ROI in it. Here again I feel the words "Value perception" and "ROI" are interchangeable. Each of them are conceptually derived from each other! Few years back, had anyone imagined paying 100 bucks for a single cup of a coffee! (I am basically referring to the CCDs n Baristas we have today...) This is the paradigm shift in the perception of the customer which has created wonders!

This whole concept of value perception leads us to a new era of costing and accounting! At the end of the day, while pricing a particular product or a service, the first and foremost factor is to meet the break even! All extra you get is technically termed as profit. Now your profit depends on the way the customers/consumers value your product/service...

Since I have explored a bit on the Psychology also, let me not constraint myself to just business and accounting. If you see a relationship, the whole point of having or not having a relationship with a person is based on the way you see the value out of it! The amount of importance you give to a relationship is in direct correlation with the way you perceive it and hence the amount of value you derive out of it. You might want to term it as love, hatred, anger etc etc... But all these again are an output of human values! :)

If I correlate all of these factors, I will end-up with a summary to explain what I call it as "The power of value perception!" It just is an amazing matter of fact that all our lives, work, relationships, anything and everything you can relate yourself to, is definitely someway or the other related to the three evergreen letters "ROI"...

A random thought process...

2009-02-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Well well... my quest for knowledge continued and I started asking more and more questions to myself and to the people associated with me. I have offlate been into a mode of finding a relationship between vedanta/upanishad etc and physics. The basic reason being I believe that anything and everything that we have spiritually today (which is supposed to have been proposed by our ansestors) must have a logic behind it without which there is no point in which it can be quantified and presented in a way the world accepts it.

Okay... I had a very abrupt start in it though. I was reading a book called "Modern Physics and Vedanta" authored by Swami Jitatmananda of the Ramakrishna Math. I there was refreshed upon by the concept of the existance of the cosmic planes in particle physics. To give a brief; whenever an electron or a proton rotates around a nucleus, it does so in an orbit in the cosmic plane. Now I wanted to relate it to the cosmic plan talked about in meditation. The basic concept of meditation revolves around the 7 chakras present in the human body. If one can relate it to physics, this actually is how deep you go in identifying what is the finest particle with which your body is made of. When you reach to a level where you identify the existance of an atom in your body, this will basically pull you towards the same plane as the sub-atomic particles are in. Hence you will be in this cosmic plane!

Okay... this was just a hypothesis which I could derive out of my thinking. I need to find out the actuality of the situation through some more research on the proven theories in physics and some more in-depth knowledge about meditation which I shall be doing in the due course of time.

There is lot more actually. This whole concept of "Brahman" is related to the unified theory which the physicists all over the world today are trying to prove. :) ... Sounds exciting right!! :)

There was one more observation which I could make related to the massless paticles... When meditation reaches its highest level, I have heard that one reaches a level where he doesnt have a control over his body and his body for that period of time becomes immaterial to him. He starts acting with his 'manas'. Can this be the massless situation talked about in physics?

According to physics, a sub-atomic particle will reach a massless situation hypothetically when it travels at the speed of light. Say for example, photon, when it travels at the speed of light can be considered massless. Here Heisenberg's uncertainity principle also comes into picture! But in reality there is no concept of massless!

Coming back to meditation; when a stage is reached where you are in a different plane and when the claims of you virtually travelling around the world is made, is it actually this stage of a sub-atomic particle? Because through meditation the ultimatum could be you identifying your inner self which is made of these sub-atomic particles... So I am jsut wondering if this is the stage where you move a step ahead to the sub-atomic plane from the atomic plane and hence you have the capability of moving with a speed equivalent to that of light :O... While young I had heard SubrahmaNya (the elder son on Lord Shiva) going around the world 3 times on his vahana (a peacock) by the time Ganesha made three rounds of his parents... Now.. w.r.t the above hypothesis, was this vahana just a hypothecation to signify the plane in which he was? I am not really sure about the existance of the entity called God first of all... thats a different entity to research about altogether. But if I go by the assumption that they do exist and the stories surrounding them are true, do all the vahanas of the Hindu God indicate the same?

My questioning continues... and hence the research... :)

I was able to arive at one more concept related to music and physics... medine and physics. This was an output out of a discussion with my mom who has done some research on music. We would have heard about the existance of music leading to the extensive growth of plants... or curing of ailments in animals etc... A thought came into my mind that it might be because of the concept of resonance. Even though the other living organisms cannot communicate as a human does, the basic concept of frequency generated out of the pharynx and the ear drums responding to the vibrations outside (in case of fauna) still exists. Hence I personally feel that all these might be because of this concept of "RESONANCE" explained in physics. Even this different ragas in music to be sung at different time frames is in some way related to the electromagnetic waves generated by the natural environment. Thats probably why Tansen was able to light that diya in the court. This again is another hypothesis I am making. I am just wrting down my thought process which I underwent today.

I shall definitely get back with statistical, scientific and mythological proofs for this either to validate these thoughts or to negate these thoughts in sometime :)

Hogenakkal under threat!

2009-02-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

South India is a land of wonderful places. It's a paradise of greenery with an innumerable number of tourist attractions. Down south, in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, is situated a waterfall “Hogenakkal falls” on the river Kaveri. It is sometimes referred to as the “Niagara of India”. With its bewitching beauty and fame for medicinal baths and hide boat rides, it is a major site of tourist attraction. The carbonite rocks present are considered to be the oldest available in South Asia.

According to the etymology, when the water falls on the rocks, it appears as if Hoge (smoke in Kannada) is emanating from the top of the kal (rock in Kannada) due to the forcing waters. Hence it got its name Hogenakkal. It is also called as Marikottayam by the people of Tamil Nadu.

At Hogenakkal, the mighty Kaveri river spreads out over a wide area of sandy beaches, then flows through a straight but narrow ravine near Salem. Before reaching the falls area, the river flows through a forest range which contains herbs which are traditionally believed to enhance health.

Hence, Hogenakkal is considered both a sacred bathing place and a spa-like health resort. Here the area is spread across through a very wide area which gives a panoramic view. It also is a very good destination for many upcoming photographers.

Having all this advantages and an astounding scenic beauty, Hogenakkal is heading towards a threat from the tourists who come there and enjoy. On a recent visit, a few unfriendly sights stuck my eyes. All the plastic wastes and other non-biodegradable products are being left unattended. They are left for the nature to take care of it. Though it is very minimal, it is an alarm for all of us. We have been playing a very integral role in spoiling the rich heritage of our nation on a very regular basis. It's high time that we realize the importance of the rich cultural heritage India has and contribute towards the enrichment of the same.

Looking at it at a serious note, tourism in India is a very important and emerging segment where it act as the second largest net foreign exchange earner for the country and generated about 32.57 million employment, both direct and indirect. Tourism in India, both domestic and international has been growing consistently over the years with a growth rate above the world average! With such a large sector involved, as a citizen of the nation, it's very important for us to play a vital role in maintaining (if not improving atleast).

We don't have to invest lacs together to contribute towards the improvement of the situation. All we need is a quick action with individualistic responsibility. Being a tourist, its our responsibility to maintain cleanliness in and around the places where we visit. Hogenakkal was just given as an example. There are many more places across the state and nation where the situation is even more worse. Through this media, it's just our sincere appeal to all of you to maintain the purity offered by nature as it is. Play with the nature but in a way where none of us are harmed!

Retailing ahead…

2009-02-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

Big bazaar, Shopping malls, Hypermarkets and Mega mart. These are just a few names which almost spontaneously strike to an individual’s mind when the word retailing comes into picture. It reaches every single home in every single corner of the nation! The market is huge and is untapped in various ways. India has still not experienced the ultimatum! But if one goes to see the history of the retail market in India, it took a little more than eleven years for it to evolve to the level it is today as compared to more than fifty year taken by the west.

Today, in the present economic position the world is, the word “credit crunch” seems to be highly fashionable. Let us try to analyze the hiccups and opportunities of this buzz word on the Indian retail industry. I will try and put forward my analysis on the same which has resulted from a bit of market study and interaction with big thinkers. I shall basically be concentrating on the opportunities that one can look at in the current market scenario.

The thought process moving across the investors today is “None of the customers are willing to invest their money in everything apart from the basic needs today.” How should one as a retailer take this? If one can sensitively look at the retail market, a huge amount of an investment is involved before a retailer actually pitches himself into the market. For him to reach the break-even and start making profits, it takes a lot of time and patience. Hence, in a highly skeptical and volatile market condition, it’s very important for one to sense the importance of the slightest of the opportunity that is created.

Having understood the seriousness of the situation let me just elaborate on the problem itself. Since retail industry runs on a low margin business model, the time required for the industry to recover is more. One can see a sluggish and a weaker period for a much longer time when compared to the other sectors. “The basic problem is profit and not consumers!” quoted Mr.Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan. This simple sentence says it all. The customers are still very much there in the picture. The only problem is that they are not yielding the kind of profit the companies were getting. This was just a briefing about the problem that is prevailing today. One has to also consider the impact of other sectors and the interdependency factors as well before coming to any conclusion. Just to sum it up, the magnitude of the problem is huge!

One choice for an individual is to sit and analyze the problem that prevails. The other option of course is to tweak the situation a little bit and make the best out of it. Just to take an optimistic approach, let me put forward a few good things about this situation as well. One can be aggressive in his approach and expand his establishments to reach out more and more people and make them realize that there are other ways of dealing things as well! The current situation also has seen the sustainability of various sectors like food and farming. So, the bottom of the pyramid is still alive and kicking. If India is considered, 73% of the population comes from this bottom of the pyramid. Hence there a considerably big gate asking to be opened. One has to just find the right key!

We can also look at the revenue shared model. This is the model followed in the malls now-a-days. One established individual/organization helping the other smaller ones by providing a good platform for establishment. This is a perfect WIN-WIN model. This also involves a good amount of economy distribution among the individuals involved in the business. Since more and more number of people are skeptical about spending, it provides space for a new era of innovation. One can concentrate on low-price high-quality products, thus providing a room for a lot of technological improvement.

We can also look into the service industry as a money making industry. If an individual decides not to buy a new vehicle for a few more years, this automatically calls for a good and reliable service provider who can help the individual to maintain his vehicle so that he doesn’t have to invest in a new one. Apart from these, the basic service providers like doctors, lawyers etc., will be in demand no matter what is the economic situation. To give this article a philanthropic twist, we can also ask them to reduce their prices or do more of social services if they are not serious about business!

Above mentioned were just a few bright sparks which are existing even in the current market which is told to chaotic by many analysts. At this juncture I would appreciate if you would think on these lines which says, “When the world is observing recession, India is expecting a 6-7% growth in the GDP.” This speaks about the market in India and its opportunities!

Just to take you all forward, let me just share with you all a few key points which I came across. These were a few takeaways from the established players in the industry.

Get the cost structures rightly in place. Re-examine the pricing that has been conventionally been done.
Do not reduce the prices of the products. Instead work on a pricing model which will basically reduce the overall pricing of the products thus preserving the MRP of the product. This is basically because, once the market comes back, you must make up for the loses. Also, you should exist in a competent way even when the market is doing very good. More importantly, you should maintain the expectancy level the customers have in the brand.
Please consider the fact that the mothers, kids and other market pullers do not watch and analyze the market analysis telecasted on the television sets.
Geographically position yourself properly in the market.
Have the bigger picture of India growing along with you.

These were again just a few observations made in the market. This is the best time to invest, to gain good market share, to leave an impression on the customers, to exist and also to make a long term impact on the society. All that is required is a little bit of optimism and a foresighted thought process which can lead you to success. So retailers, nothing to worry, have patience, enjoy the competition and make the best out of the market! Happy retailing!!

NOTE: Few of the analysis and ideas were shared as part of the TiE Entrepreneurial summit ’08.

Bengaluru, misaligned!

2009-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

It was a very usual day for Manohar(an arbitrary name used and no other purpose intended). Early in the morning, he set out to his usual morning walk on the Kanakapura road. When he reached Yelchenahalli, to his utmost surprise, he was unable to continue his morning walk. He stood there stand still just wondering for a few minutes. All he could see in front of him was a huge pit! To accompany the pit, there lay a huger element of this earth! There was a huge, numb and helpless tree which was uprooted the previous night!

Unlike our own Manohar there are hundreds of others who off-late come across incidents like this in our once upon a time called “Garden city of India!”

The main reason for this kind of developments in Bangalore is told to be the coming up of the metro! Namma Metro! Even if one considers the amount of infrastructural development that is planned as part of Metro, we cannot neglect the impact it is having on the beauty and the environment of Bangalore.

Just to give you an example, consider the Large-leaved Mahogany’s tree trunk on the St.Mark’s road. It releases Rs.150000 worth of oxygen annually! The branches and the leaves would add more, as would the carbon fixed roots.

Here are the calculations for just the trunk of the tree. Height of the tree trunk is 7.5m. Girth at breast height is 4.25m. The average growth is 4 rings per inch. Hence the trunk would add 1.23m³of wood every year. Since the density of Mahogany wood is 450kg/m³, this would amount to 552kg.*

A safe estimate as assumed in the Kyoto protocol is half the wood weight is contributed by Carbon. So the net Carbon fixed would be 276kg. The carbon to oxygen ration in Carbon-di-oxide (CO₂) is 12:32. Hence the oxygen released per year would be 736kg!*

The above provided data and calculations were just for one tree which is present in Bangalore. If we look at the statistics of the number of trees felt as part of the project Metro, the number reaches as high as 6000! Out of the total 1800kms present in Bangalore, 400kms are being covered as part of the Metro project. Hence one can imagine the amount of impact our city will be having after this act!*

To look at the big picture, in this present world which doesn’t have an economic plan which has considered environment as a factor, it’s very important for each and every individual to be aware of the implications and complications of the situations created by ourselves! In the name of industrialization, a major part of the environment has already vanished within a blink of an eye. Further to it, globalization has brought in a revolution which along with its good part has a very long lagging tail of a bad facet.

We can make a difference to the beautiful world around us! On this auspicious day which marks the last edition of this magazine for the year 2008, this is our humble appeal to you all to contribute your part to the Mother Nature! As the saying goes, “No science is rocket science apart from rocket science itself”, it’s not difficult to contribute to the environment we are living in. Even a very small step taken by us may lead to a huge change with a tremendous impact! (I actually wrote it for a journal for its december edition... Thats why you can see the mentioning of the year end :)...)

*All the statistical data and the calculations involved were provided by well known ornithologist and environmentalist, Prof.M.B.Krishna and are subject to slight variations due to the time factor.