CEOs, Power dressing and meaning of Time

Finally it has started to dawn that Im in the Indian school of Business. Last week was damn hectic and getting back to books was a whole new experience.
The whole concept of class is turned upside down in that here, u r supposed to come prepared with the readings and the prof will just help clarify doubts and facilitate discussion among classmates. There are 4 papers this term:

1. Financial Accounting in Decision Making

2. Managerial Economics

3. Marketing Management

4. Statistical Methods for Management Decisions

Each papers require about 4 chapters of pre reads before each class (unless there's a case study). We have classes from Monday to Thursday - 2 a day. There are group assignments and individual quizzes over the weekends and a host of other activities including club meetings workshops, talks by eminent personalities, etc.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs delivered a speech on the importance of Entrepreneurilism last week. COO of CA also spoke on restructuring and growth of CA over the last few years. Watching these mighty personalities from a hand's distance feels great. Last week I took a session on IT strategy and spoke about my experience as a consultant. The clubs are yet to be formalized but there are lots of initiatives by enthusiasts. So we have 2/3 meetings planned for each club every day. There are a whole lot of new clubs coming up as well to the tune of politics Club, Beverage club, Running Club and so on.Hats of to the energy level of the batch. The meaning of Time has changed a lot. Some people including yours truly have even forgotten its definition. I sometimes wonder how I manage to pack in so many activities in just 24 hours

Some people asked me about Toastmasters so I emailed the student body asking how many would be interested. I got over 100 responses! So I held a Tm session at our auditorium which was attended by well over 100 participants!

We also had an informal BCG alum session in which 2 alums working in BCG flew down from Mumbai just to have a chat with us. The session was very informative in that they clearly outlined the requirements for wannabe consultants. The room was jam packed as expected but it was fun as well. Sometimes the inquisitiveness of the batch overflows and there were questions such as what do partners at BCG have to look forward to?..Are the careers stagnated after one becomes a partner? Some people feel getting in is a mighty task while others are thinking way ahead.

We had a Photoshoot today for a marketing handbook to be distributed to the potential recruiters. So we finally got to power dress. God it feels good to be back in school.

With each passing day, my decision to earn my MBA and at ISB seems more justified. More on the subjects and profs on a later post.
Till then, over and out.

The call

Yes…hello…who’s this? Hello hello…

Katrina Kaif! U what? U wanna go out on a date with me?
Only if I SMS at this number…at Rs 10 a minute! Hmm but u see I’m in the middle of a meeting! Well hello hello…

Could you believe it! It was a call from Katrina Kaif! Wonder how she got my number!
It's been just a week since I returned from US yet I have been getting calls from Rahul Dravid, Kareena Kapur, Aishwariya and now Katrina. I wonder why?? Maybe I have suddenly become rich and famous! Well not rich…but famous ? No not even that…then?
Though I am not rich, many Indians are. Recession or no recession, India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. Suddenly the great Indian middle class: you and me are in great demand. Because we, as consumers have great power in our hands: and pockets and purses. The octopus of advertising industry has spread it’s tentacles across various channels: television, mobile, internet or radio. Some ads are truly fascinating and compelling

Picture this: A young boy is having lunch in a small hut, with the door open. Suddenly a football bounces off the floor and strikes him. He looks around, and finds another boy of his age standing afar. He comes out of his house. The area is desolate, deserted. The other boy is standing at the other side of a ubiquitous double fence with a no-man’s land in between. The other boy coaxes him to kick the ball. This boy looks around shyly. There’s noone anywhere. With all his strength he kicks the ball to the other side of the fence. The 2 boys smile at each other. They want to play together…and they both join each other in the no man’s land. And start playing. Then the tagline follows: There would be no boundaries in this world, if we could only talk to each other! Wao! What an ad for a Cellular Service Provider.

With such creative ads these companies compel us to buy their products. You know, sometimes I feel like a young princess! Yeah you heard it right: a young naïve princess being courted by the Prince Charmings of this world. Or like Miss Little Red Riding Hood. Riding out into the world without any apprehensions?
But is the sweet old lady at the doorstep really the Grandmother or the evil wolf who is just waiting for a chance to eat you up?
We have to be very careful what to believe.
All that glitters is not gold.
The tomb gilded in gold may just be worm infested inside.

In fact some critics say that Advertising is the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Fact: Research has shown that some of the worst quality products spend most money on advertising.
Fact: The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) in USA reports that in 2008, more than the number complaints about environmental claims grew more than four times compared to last year.
Fact: Suzuki, Shell, Toyota and many other renowned companies have been fined for misleading consumers on their environmental practices.
So how do we find our way in this big bad world of advertising and separate the wheat from the chaff? Let me tell you some ways in which you can counter the terror of the advertisers. Step 1, research the product before you buy something. Your best sources are your friends and colleagues. Find out whether any of them have used the product before and what they recommend.
2. Read blogs in the internet.
3. Find out the relative prices offered by different shops stocking the same product.
So research, talk to others and be “informed” before making a decision.
Don’t go by appearance alone.

And the next time you receive a phone call from Katrina Kaif, take a deep breath.
Relax. Enjoy your day in the sun. Look around. If your boss looks at you with questioning eyes, just say casually, Oh that? That was Katrina Kaif. She was calling about our date. An SMS for a date with Katrina: Rs 10. The look on your boss’s face: priceless!

I dream of Genie

Here goes my 10th and final speech in Toastmasters Competent Communicator manual.
More details in my next post.

==================================================================================
The other day, I was watching a re-run of "I dream of Jeannie". It's a fantasy sitcom from the 1960s about an astronaut finding a beautiful genie in a bottle in Florida's own Cocoa beach. In one scene, Jeannie complained to her friend that people are so unpleasant nowadays. The friend replied that others don't have a Genie working for them! Well surely we'd all be more pleasant if we had a Genie

Ah to have a genie! The pleasures of the world at your fingertips. I was reading somewhere that it's no coincidence that kids are a big fan of fantasies and as we grow old, we become more rooted to reality. We stop wishing for powers as we gain independence ourselves. Our real powers of intellect and authority slowly replace our craving for extraordinary power. But ever so often in our daily lives, we face roadblocks and we face opposition. And in those times we wish to have genie or a Deus-ex-Machina solve all our problems

In old times in Greek plays, when there used to be an impasse, the protagonists just couldn't find a way out - a Greek god used to be lowered down from above the stage by a machine from above the stage - and solve all the problems for the characters. This was called Deus-exmachina. Well, life ain't a Greek play. And I haven't heard too many genies being found nowadays. But I will tell you today that we do have a Deus ex Machina - a Genie- and that genie is our own dream. Someone once said that to achieve an impossible dream, try going to sleep. I'm not talking about a sleep induced dream. Im talking about the dreams we dream while awake.

Before coming to US, I heard a lot of the American dream. After coming to US, I heard a lot about the American dream. God Americans dream a lot! Jokes apart, what is an American dream anyway? Isn't it just the belief that with hard work and dedication, our dreams can come true? I'm sure, the American dream is no so different from the dream say an Indian has. The Indian speaking before you today had a little dream when he was a kid. To take my parents on a foreign trip. Finally that dream came true last week when my parents joined me here in Tampa. Fulfilling the dream does taste sweet. Especially sweetened by the taste of mom's home-made cookies.

Now having a dream is one thing and fulfilling it is another. I think a very good way of turning our dreams to reality is to believe, to believe in ourselves and in our success.
That belief can come in two ways.

1. Watching others succeed and
2. Visualizing success.

First, watching others succeed: To give an example. As we know, Mount Everest is the tallest peak in the world. However, climbing 29000 feet of the dangerous mountain is no mean feat. Climbing it without any supplemental oxygen is nigh impossible. But on May 8, 1978, two mountaineers, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, achieved the impossible. From 1953, when Everest was captured the first time, to 1978 no man climbed Everest without carrying a bottle of oxygen. Yet withing next 18 years, more than 60 men and women had reached the top relying on their own gasping lungs. So what changed? The belief that it could be done.

So we come to the second point: Visualization. I always dreamt of being able to speak confidently in front of the public. But when I was a kid, whenever my teacher asked me a question in class, I used to hear a background music - dab-dab, dab-dab, .... That was the sound of my heart beat! So I joined up for toastmasters. Before my ice breaker, I started hearing the background music again. But then something amazing happened. I visualized myself walking to the podium with a confident gait, not forgetting any lines and getting a warm round of applause when I walk back to my seat. And voila - it went exactly as I had visualized. Thereafter, I have always tried to visualize any difficult situations I face - say a negotiation with a broker, an interview, a sports match, etc. I visualized it going well and that always soothes my nerves and things fall into place after that.

To give another example, AP Gianini wss a fruit seller when he founded the Bank of Italy in 1908. But he visualized that he would one day turn it into the biggest bank in America. The fruit seller's dream was eventually fulfilled when is bank became not just the biggest bank in USA but the bigggest bank in the world. You would identify it with its newer name -Bank of America.

Watching others succeed make us believe that it can be done. Similarly visualization makes us believe that it can be done. So either we, if we believe, our dreams can come true. I believe that if we have confidence in our abilities, we have that genie that can make our dreams come true.
As Olivia Newton John sang, I will ask you:
Dare to dream
Dare to fly
Dare to be the ever chosen one to touch the sky

So no matter what people say, dream on - and don't forget to make my dream of hearing a great applause come true when I return to my seat now.

Playing a broken record in a fog

I remember that my granddad had a record player. Growing up, I had a fetish for a particular vinyl record - My fair Lady - a very famous broadway play and later a film - the beautiful heart warming story of Miss Eliza Dolittle's journey from rags to riches. One fine day, in my urgency to listen to the song, "Wouldn't it be loverly", I somehow dropped the record on the floor and it broke. When I payed it thereafter, it sounded like this: "Wouldn't it be loverly" - be loverly be loverly.....etc. My grand dad came out of the other room and with burning eyes and a booming voice said "You're stupid. You're always making mistakes". That scarred my emotions. I lost confidence. I wasnt allowed to listen to the vinyl player for a long time. I felt in a daze as if a thick fog had descended and left me unsure of which way to turn. I felt frustrated and angry, but there'd be nothing I could do to the fog to relieve the frustration. Punching the fog, throwing missiles at it or cursing it would leave it unaffected.

Broken record and fogs are not what I wish to talk about. At least not yet anyway. But as we'll see, they form very good metaphors for techniques that can be used to overcome mental states such as such as the one I had after the admonishment. Till recently I could never handle criticism properly. I never used to be able to say "No" decidedly. That was till I read a book called- "when I say no, I feel guilty". Clinical-experimental psychologist and a therapist in private practice, Dr. Manuel J. Smith is the author of the book. The book's an international best seller, having sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Today, I would like to talk about few ideas expressed in that book and how they helped me become a better person overall and how they can help us become more assertive.

Before we go into the details of the book, let's consider the various types of communication as listed by many psychologists

1. Aggressive Communication

Aggression is a defensive reaction where we tend to shout, demean the other person or somehow try to lower anohter person's self belief. The benefit is a temporary sense of power or control, but the downside is that aggressive behaviour fractures relationships and embitters us.

2. Passive Communication

The flip side of aggression is passive communication. Like aggressive communication it stems from similar feelings of insecurity and low self esteem, but when we behave passively we put ourselves down, rather than the other. We avoid expressing our feelings and needs, we ignore our own rights and allow others to infringe on our rights, perhaps by choosing for us. We don't usually get what we want and we can end up feeling even worse about ourselves.


Say we go to a shop - a pestering salesman is so persistent - you give up and passively end up buying that item and in turn feeling frustrated.

Or when we are already swamped with work but a colleague asks us to contribute to another project - we passively end up saying Yes - and end up performing miserably in both our primary task as well as his, not to talk about our personal frustration.

3. Passive aggressive or Manipulative Communication

Many times we try to emotionally blackmail the other person into doing something they dont really like: say you want your friend to help you out on your project despite his preoccupation: "Can't you do this for me? What kind of a friend are you?" The other person ends up hating us hating us in the long run.
4. And then, there's Assertive Communication
If we are assertive, we can defend our personal rights -especially to be happy and learn to cope with manipulative behaviour of such people.

Let me mention some of the techniques the book outlines:


1. Fogging

Fogging involves using words that acknowledge the other person's point of view, and accepting that it might be true under circumstances, but without necessarily accepting it is true of you. Fogging is particularly powerful if you are able to restate the other person's opinion in a way that could be true of anyone or everyone:

You're stupid
-That could be true. We all have a stupid side to ourselves.

You're always making mistakes
-To err is human.

Just as you can't fight a fog so your critic can't fight fogging because it robs your critic's words of their destructive power. By refusing to become upset or angry in the face of criticism, you're denying your critic the satisfaction of seeing you being intimidated and disempowered. Phrases typically used when fogging include: 'That could be true', 'You're probably right'. 'Sometimes I think so myself', 'I agree', 'That's true', 'You're right' and 'You have a point there.' A phrase that is never used when fogging, but is constantly implied, is: 'So what?'


Of course if the police charge you with murder, you can't say "You have a point there, we all commit murder sometimes". That wouldn't work!


2. Negative Assertion

For all the positives of assertion, there is a technique called Negetive assertion. How can you avoid guilt in cases you know you are wrong?

Negative assertion involves accepting the truthful part of a criticism made against you, and stating it in positive terms. Eg:


You're stupid !
-Well, Im not the most intelligent person who has ever walked on the planet. (I am unintelligent compared to say Albert Einstein).

You're always making mistakes
-I have to admit, I'm not perfect


3. Negative Enquiry

This technique requires a lot of self-confidence. When someone is attacking or criticizing you, you ask them for constructive criticism ie: what they think you are doing wrong, and what you could do differently to be better.

You're stupid
-Oh, what specifically am I not understanding?

Your application doesn't work
-Well which specific functionality doesn't work?


4. Broken Record

This technique is usually only appropriate in situations where you do not have a long term relationship with the other person, and your rights are being contravened (eg: when a shop assistant refuses to accept the return of a faulty item). It can sometimes be used, however, where you are short of time.

In this technique, you simple keep asserting your rights. It is sometimes important that you understand your rights, and are able to quote reliable sources.
Eg:Recently I bought a mouse (electronic, not biological!) but after using it for a day, I noticed that it had a scratch! Here's how the conversation with the shop floor assistant went when I went for a refund:

This item is faulty. As per the policy printed in the receipt, I am entitled to a refund and I want my money back.

-I've got to go to a meeting. I don't have time to talk about this now.

I understand that you are in a hurry. But I want it refunded.

-OK let me look at it. Hey this is a minor scratch you can use this I'm sure.

I realize that it's a minor scratch but I don't like it and I want my money refunded.

-Well OK, let me see...

The technique works wonders since you reinforce your demand through persistence.
However, be careful who you use this with.
If you are going through an empty alley and a gang of men surround you and one of them points a gun to your head asking for cash, you can't just say: "I understand you want to kill me but I wont give you my cash".
-"Give it to me - last chance - else I'll kill you"
"I understand your requirements but I'm not in a position to give you my cash"
Bam - you're dead.

So do perform due diligence on your assertiveness skills.

These techniques give us the power to boost our self esteem. In the process we strengthen our relationships with those around us by being upfront and less manipulative.
"Wouln't it be loverly..." if I could've learnt about the wonderful facets of Assertiveness earlier? Well it's not too late. The "fog" is lifting. I see sunlight.

Connected-Thinking

"Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke" - so said Lynda Barry. Love, the all consuming feeling that goes awry several times. But that doesn't stop us from searching for love, searching for friends and searching for that connection - to the world around us. But how do we connect to each other in today's hectic lives? People say that our lives are like an island. But if you look closely even in that analogy, you will find, that an island has trees and the roots of the trees grow deep beneath the surface, till the time they touch - they connect. So even in an island, life is connected.

The very computers and laptops that seem to isolate us form the rest of the world also help us stay in touch via the Social Networking sites.
Take Facebook for example. A social community website, it allows us to create a personal profile and list information about ourselves: our likes and dislikes, our interests, hobbies, pictures and even the name of our dog. God, that's a lot of information.

Social networks harness and channel this information. People can search for us or ask for our hand (in friendship or otherwise) based on shared interests - say a song we like or our favourite holiday destination or our pet.
I have lost count of how many long lost friends these sites helped me connect to. Recently an old school friend "scrapped" in Orkut: "Hey, good to get back in touch with you after all these years; I hope you have forgiven me for that episode in school!" Talk about forgiving, I had even forgotten about the whole incident! I still can't recall. I replied - "I believe in forgive and forget". But the point is, these sites are a fabulous way to you create a closer, more intimate network of friends and to make new friends


Linked In serves primarily as a professional networking site. It is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries - according to their site.
When we join, we can create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Our profile helps us to find and be found by former colleagues, clients and business contacts.
Our network consists of our connections, our connections’ connections, and the people they know, thus forming a huge professional network. In today's world, much more work gets done anyway through the informal horizontal networks than the formal rigid and hierarchical organizational networks.

Businesses realize the power of information dissemination through such informal networks and harness these networks to find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended. They recruit people having specific skill sets through these professional networks as well. Here and here are a couple of links to great McKinsey Quarterly articles on social networks. So Linked-In and other such sites give us a great chance to further our professional interests.

While life doesn't always give us a second chance, the internet does give us a Second Life® - a 3-D virtual world created by its residents. Quoting from the site itself:
"
• From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
• You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain intellectual property rights in their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.
• The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the inworld unit of trade, the Linden™ dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden dollar exchanges. "

Many big businesses have a presence in Second life. They use it to host virtual job fairs, to sell actual goods through virtual shops (people can come in and browse the virtual items - they may choose to buy real items matching the virtual ones as well. Ex. Nike, Reebok, etc) and also for branding purposes. In my company, we are trying to use it as a substitute for teleconferences - being "face-to-face" with our colleagues from around the world (that too dressed in funky clothes) is a great feeling.

Another popular site, Twitter allows users to post answers to the question: "What are you doing at this moment?". The "followers" can keep themselves updated about these updates through various channels such as RSS feeds, SMS, emails and so on. Here's Obama's twitter link.

Skype, Myspace, bebo Hi5 are also similar sites that offer different value propositions.

While these sites promise to put us on the path to social bliss, they also bring with them the inherent risk of social embarrassment. Cyber-crime is increasingly on the rise and there is a very high risk of identity theft. Anybody can get access to our pictures and open a fake profile and post dubious messages. There is also the risk of someone getting access to our personal or professional confidential information. Moreover, these sites are so addictive, you can get glued to them and forget the real world. However, judicious use of these sites can certainly open a lot of doors for us. So the next time we have to face the music in real life we can choose instead, to open Facebook in 2nd life and be Linked-In to the world at large

Books: an endangered species?

The following is my 2nd Toastmasters speech: Organize Your Speech

Some people say we have only one life. They have never read a book.
For books give us the opportunity to step into the shoes of a sharp detective and solve the mystery of Hound of Baskervilles, to fall in love with Juliet, to fall in love with the departmental head’s daughter despite being a five point someone at an IIT, to make a journey to the centre of the earth, to travel to far away galaxies, to play chess with death himself, and to do much more.

This printed object woven between two covers did not even exist five and a half centuries ago. Gutenberg, the German businessman invented print and voila, all this hoopla about books. But didn’t people learn and share knowledge before the time of Gutenberg? Wasn’t there Papyrus scrolls? Who said books cannot evolve as well? After all, the shiny little gadget which graces your pockets, is that the same monstrous instrument called telephone that Mr. Alexander Graham Bell invented? So even if people read e-books, let’s encourage that. Of course, bookworms would have to find something else for a profession but that’s another story.

Speaking of profession, we are all professionals. We are busy with fulfilling our official duties and running personal errands. Do we really get time to read? In fact, research has shown that reading, especially in the developed countries, is on the wane. In American universities, scholars have termed this generation: a Post-Literate society. A society where people know how to read, they have that capacity but they won’t read. They’d much rather go to the discos, surf the internet, play video games or watch television. Well I personally find television very educating. Whenever someone turns on the set, I go to the other room and read a book. But, that’s just me. The million dollar question is, if internet and other avenues of entertainment are so appealing, why would people read books?
In order to answer that, let’s find out what would have happened if books never existed. What if no one ever told us: “The world’s a stage where everyone must play a part”? What if Hamlet never procrastinated: “To be or not to be”? What if Harry Potter never weaved any magic? What if Humpty Dumpty didn’t have a great fall? Can you imagine such a world? What if Jules Verne never took us Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea?

Regarding Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, the great science fiction writer, once said, “I’m sure we wouldn’t have had men on the moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who wrote about it and made people think about it. I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books.”

Well, you might say what we don’t know can’t hurt us, right? Wrong. Ignorance is not bliss. Creativity, literature, art, books are the soul of any civilization and it would surely be the bane of modern society if we discouraged reading in any form.

Let me share a small personal story. When I first went to Pune, for my first job, I did not know a soul here. I had no friends, no relatives no acquaintances. I was all alone in a big city. But I had my books. And I had my world. Just the knowledge that a good book awaits us at the end of a long day makes that day happier. Outside a dog, book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog it’s too dark to read!

In Pune, one of the first books I read was "Shantaram". It’s an autobiographical account of an Australian named Gregory David Roberts. He was a budding poet who lost his daughter after separation from his wife. He got addicted to heroin to overcome his loss. To support his addiction, he started armed robbery. He was caught and convicted for 20 years. He escaped from this maximum security prison and fled to Mumbai. He learnt Marathi, fell in love, lived in the slums, established a free clinic there, worked for the underworld, went to fight for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and if you thought he he led a dull life, hear this: he acted in a couple of Bollywood movies in between. The book is hard hitting and savage yet tender and lyrical. The vivid imagination and lyrical imagery of the man is so profound, it will leave you spellbound. If it wasn’t for this wonderful medium called book, we would never have known about the remarkable story of this extraordinary “criminal”.

Hitler, the greatest criminal of all, tried to burn all books in Germany to inhibit free thinking and creativity there. You don’t need to destroy books to destroy society. You just get people to stop reading them. And where books are burnt, people would be burnt sooner or later. We all know what happened to Germany in Hitler’s hands. He tried to eradicate an entire race from the face of the earth just because he believed if his own racial superiority. This is what happens when you don’t respect books. So let’s learn from the mistakes of the past and let’s gift our posterity a world which is free, where the light of knowledge illuminates our hearts and minds and graces our souls.

We all have a big part to play in this. Let’s promise to ourselves that we would all read more books, we’ll spread awareness of the importance of reading and learning, we’ll present more books to our friends, we’ll even try to receive more books as presents – you now know what to give me for my birthday!

The books that help you most are those that make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy learning but a great book by a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty. So let’s make a pledge today, that we would try to find this truth and beauty in the world around us and more importantly in the people, from various cultures, across all boundaries, of different nationalities and from all walks of life. Let’s promise, to read and read and read. Amen.

Social Responsibility

For a while now, I have been thinking of posting some of my Toastmasters speeches online. Here goes unedited version of my 7th speech - research your topic.


Last week, my friend Vikram, while approaching a stationary shop, saw a old lady come out of the shop and drop a 5-hundred rupee note in front of him. She kept walking down the street. Vikram looked around: there was no else there and the lady was now far away from him. No one but Virkam saw her drop the hundered rupee note. So what did Vikram do? Did he return the money to the lady who dropped it, even though she was far away at this point and might’ve taken some effort to catch up with? Did he take the note and run in the shop and quickly spend it?
Did he have any responsibility to return that money? Do we have any responsibility towards another person? Well, the bigger question is: can we survive living our lives in an insular disconnected manner?

We owe our existence, and our values to the society which rears us, we owe some responsibility towards its upliftment. All of us privileged persons, who were lucky to be born in a family that could afford to pay for our education, our clothes and all our frivolous desires. – do bear a responsibility towards our not so fortunate brothers and sisters. It is very encouraging to know that many of us here, like AR, AM, and some others in our office are involved in such an initiative, an NGO called Jagaran that financially supports underprivileged but motivated students.

About one month ago, some of us went to visit a few of our beneficiaries to verify how they were doing academically. We visited one a boy named Imran. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, he replied, with a charming smile, that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.
Such is the nature of social work – you get more than you give.

Now the people are what make an organization. So if we, as human beings share a social responsibility towards the society at large, what about corporations?

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm
ethically or in a socially responsible manner. Many people criticize companies which undertake CSR programs because they feel that the companies are trying to distract the public from their unethical practices

Milton Friedman, a Nobel winning economist said, and I quote, "There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits."He goes on to say, "so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." (I'm sure you can think of a few companies that forgot that last part.)
Let's look at some of the side effects of single-minded pursuit of profit
“There were thousands of bodies. There were bodies everywhere. And people were dying all round.” These were the words of one of the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy. On early morning of 3rd Dec’1984, 40 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas was released from pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal. Severe cost cutting measures resulting in improper security facilities were to blame for this disaster. The disaster left 15,000 dead, 5.5 lakhs ill, with a polluted environment that is yet to recover. An average monetary rehabilitation of … Rs 200 per year was awarded to each person. Rs 200(!!) for the victims of such a disaster!
We have all heard about the Enron scandal. At the beginning of 2001, the Enron Corporation, the world's dominant energy trader, appeared unstoppable. However, after a series of revelations involving fraudulent accounting procedures perpetrated throughout the 1990s, it stood at the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in history by mid-November 2001. As the scandal was revealed, Enron shares dropped from over $90 to just pennies.
To draw a contrast with the above examples, let’s see a few examples of socially responsible behaviour by corporations.
Let’s take PwC: it has a well developed CSR program worldwide.
Various offices of PwC engage in activities like volunteering in the community (eg. parties for marginalized children), monitory donations by individuals and the firm to supported organizations, free professional Services such as Audit, Tax Advice, etc to community or not-for-profit organizations and so on.

Closer home, the Infosys Foundation has taken a lot of initiatives. While I was in Pune, I was part of one such initiative: we used to go teach slum kids in a place called Khadki. As most of the kids were Marathi, I had to teach them Marathi while I couldn’t even say “Hello” in that language! Well what happened was I knew Hindi and since the alphabets of Marathi are same as that of Hindi, I somehow managed it. Nonetheless it was great fun.

The ITC e-chaupal initiative also deserves mention. The e-Choupal places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of such information as market prices of the crops and also help the farmers to locate potential buyers. This system is also a highly profitable e-commerce platform for the company.

The social responsibility of businesses may always be a sticky point to argue about, but plain old responsibility shouldn't be hard to strive for. Sir Winston Churchill used to say, “The price of greatness is responsibility”. It stands to reason that companies with great management teams that focus on profiting from excellence and innovation, and not "profit at all costs," are the ones that will produce sustainable profit growth.

So, today we have examined various instances of both responsible and irresponsible behaviour by individuals and corporations. Personally, I believe in what Samuel DiPiazza, our Global CEO, says, “Our obligation as business leaders and as individuals is to leave the world better than we found it”. So the choice is ours: whether we choose to focus our attention on our own lives or we look slightly above and beyond our quotidian tasks and try to make a difference in the lives of others as well. And to come back to my friend Vikram, he did take that extra step. He did run after the lady and return the money to her. He was socially responsible. Just as you and I are. And we all can, as Michael Jackson sang,
Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race

Are you crazy?

Here's the speech I'm going to deliver in the speech contest...

Are you crazy?

How many of you have seen The sixth sense? You know, the movie that made M.Night Shyamalan famous. It’s the story of a boy who sees dead people that don't know they're dead and seeks the help of a child psychologist.
Mr Toastmaster, contest judges and dear guests, today I am going to tell you a little secret
I also recently consulted a psychiatrist, here is how the conversation went…
Me: I see crazy people.
Psychologist: In your dreams?
[I shake my head no]
Psychologist: While you're awake?
[I nod]
Psychologist: Crazy people like, in mental institutions? Did you go to Ranchi?
Me: Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're crazy.

It’s true. I see crazy people all the time; they are everywhere. I even see some in this room.
I get on a bus, and they are there. When I was in college, I once boarded a packed bus and I was hanging on to the rod for my dear life. The bus was speeding past other cars as if racing on a formula 1 track. There was suddenly a tap on my shoulders. I looked around and there was a man who was also hanging just like me. He looked like a saint, had a beard and was wearing grey robes. I thought maybe he wanted to discuss the philosophy of life – the inner meaning of this precarious situation and what it means in the after life. But, he had an even deeper question for me, of which I had no answer to. While another bus whooshed past me, he raised the solemn question, “Boss, why are you pushing me?” Crazy!

I turn on the TV and I see madness. A few months back when Suchitra Sen was admitted in hospital, I was watching an interview of her biographer, who was talking about Suchitra Sen’s favourite food items. Suddenly the breaking news flashed on the screen: I feared for the worst and …. There it was…
Suchitra Sen loved to eat jalebis in the morning. The prime time breaking news on a television channel: Suchitra Sen loves to eat jalebis. Crazy.

After analyzing all these situations, I have come to the conclusion that there are only 2 types of people in this world. Normal and crazy. The difference between the 2 groups is that the crazy people think that the world is normal and the normal people don’t realize that they are crazy themselves.

People in Nadia, a village in Bengal, call Sangeeta crazy. Sangeeta and Rina go to the same school every morning. Rina is in class 3, Sangeeta is in class 11. Sangeeta is Rina’s mother. Sangeeta had to leave school when she was in class 8 because her father couldn’t afford her tution. But all these years later, when her daughters were in school, she felt an inner urge to go back to school. She recently sat for her class 10 exams and cleared it with 63% marks.-Crazy!

So is Sangeeta really crazy? How does one know whether one is crazy? There are actually books on the market titled: Are You Crazy?: 18 Scientific Quizzes to Test Yourself
No, I am not asking you to buy that book.
I have an easier set of questions for you.

Do you feel that inner calling, that urge to do something different? Are your ambitions off the beaten track? Can you think outside the box or when there is no box? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then my friend, I have news for you. Believe it or not, you are crazy!

So now, what do you do?

Rabindranath Tagore had some ideas to counter that,
He who calls you lunatic today and throws dust in your eyes,
Will honour you tomorrow with a garland

Every great idea, every great thinker have been called mad at first
Just because the other people, whatever their pedigree criticize you, please don’t lose hope. Just because they are great, doesn’t mean they are not crazy! In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” –Crazy! Albert Einstein just before the Manhattan project said, “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.”-Crazy! Just before this week, many people in this room said that India would never win an individual gold in Olympics- Crazy! I told you – I see crazy people in this room. So, the next time you have a crazy idea, say quit your job to join an NGO, go back to school, or win an Olympic Gold medal for India …Do remember that you will hear voices all around : “Are you crazy?”… “Are you crazy?”… “Are you crazy?”… “Are you crazy?”… Don’t forget to answer: Well, I am! Aren’t you?

ISB essay update

I am struggling with the ISB essays. I thought things have settled down and all the essays were in shape but a recent reviewer says, that the material is good but the presentation isn't. I'm now in the process of re-vamping my essays from scratch, especially the 1st one.
I feel that the essays lack one important question: Why MBA? (and also why ISB). There just isn't a place to put in Y MBA and my career goals. I feel that my career goal and why MBA are some of my differentiating factors. May be I can utilize the optional essay for this.

This have been quite "normal" at office. We are organizing a humorous speech contest next week. In order to prepare for that, I am switching between writing ISB student body presidential contest speech, humorous speech, responding to Zumba residents' protests and convincing ISB why they should take me. So life is good.

In toastmasters, I have now delivered 5 speeches. Next Wednesday it'll be my 6th speech. So pretty good going there. I hope I'm able to complete CL by this month and CC by Oct.
I'll post some of my past speeches next

Snow, headline and hospital

It has been a long time since I last posted. Towards end Aprial, I took a well deserved break and visited the North East. We were a group of 5 people: friends and family. We took the flight to Assam from Kolkata airport. Thgen the trip took us from the Kajiranga forest (elephant safary) in Assam to the land of the rising Sun: Arunachal Pradesh and then to Meghalaya.
In Arunachal Pradesh we had a great time visiting Tawang, PTSO lake and Madhuri lake (named after Madhuri Dixit as a song from Koyla was shot there). After a long long time I saw snow in Tawang. Military camps mushroomed everywhere we went in Arunachal but the military comprised very nice and helpful people who guided us a lot on the places to visit.














Pics: Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh: 13700 feet
It is said that every place, every name ha a history. The above pics are of Sela pass, named after very brave lady, Sela, who showed great resistance to ward off Chinese soldiers during the Chinese insurgency in the 1960s. The Chinese had killed her in the end.
Her memory is still alive in the region.

Then we spent a couple of days in Nemari forest (Assam) trekking in the dense forest and rafting in the river. In the last leg of the journey, we went to visit Shillong and Cherrapunji (locally known as Sohra, the place getting the highest rainfall in the world).
The whole journey took 9 days and was a thoroughly enjoyable and a refreshing experience.

I needed the calm serene break as a tempest awaited me back home. Soon after returning my mother fell ill and had to be admitted in hospital. In an ordeal of around 2 weeks, my father and I spent nearly 2 weeks shuttling between office and the hospital.

But thankfully she's back home now and on the way to recovery.

In the mean time, our toastmasters club has really taken of. It has got officially chartered and we (the club) have been featured twice in the past month in 2 leading dailies in the city.
Here's a link to the last one which also quotes me:The Telegraph
We have also launched our own website: TM website

So I guess it's been a mixed bag over the last 2 months. I got to experience best and the worst of times. It is said that one finds true friends in most trying of times. That was certainly true in my case. One gets to separate the chaff from the wheat in these times.

Well , one learns every day.

Mr President

The office bearer elections have been held and the executive committee has been formed.

We are a full fledged Toastmasters club now.

I have been elected as the President! The election was conducted as transparently as possible – with an advanced Toastmaster who was not going to become a member of the club, chairing the meeting. Even I didn’t know beforehand who had nominated himself/herself for which role. However, immediately after the election, I faced an ego issue among some people.

We had 3 nominations each for the roles VP-Education and VP-Public Relations. Since the work required is huge, and so as not to disappoint anybody, we decided, in fact I decided to ask the runners up to take up the backup roles and

The eventual winners, who just previous to the elections were expressing interest in resolving the roles amicably without an election, were now taking on airs and refusing to work with the runners up.

I had to call separate meetings with respective parties and had a polite but firm talk with the team members to ensure that they work together. The situation seems to be under control as of now. Let’s see what the future brings.

The whole experience has been so enriching. When we started off, just 3 or 4 of us had the faith that we would eventually make it. But today there is a palpable enthusiasm running across the office. Many people are approaching me as well as the other office bearers about joining the club. It’s very encouraging. In fact there were various people who initially said that there’s no place for such whims in our office. The same people are now approaching us again wanting to join the club. I guess this is basic human psychology. When there’s no structure, people don’t want to get their hands dirty. But when they see a set stage they also want to share the limelight. I guess it’s an achievement on all our parts that we have successfully effected this change in the people.

Hope to have an even brighter future.

Approval

Well, tomorrow's the big day and here I am writing my blog which I'm sure nobody will ever read. Ah well, for posterity may be.
My flight starts at 7:35 in the morning tomorrow.
The sad part is that I'll arrive at the new Hyderabad airport which is around 1.5 hours drive from the main city. I'll be alone and bored for most of the day. The return flight is at 8:40 PM and going by last time's experience, it's sure to get delayed. Today I'm feeling a bit jaded due to the heavy hours I've put in over the last few days. Let's see what happens.

It sure isn't easy to to live a dichotomous life. Here I am, going to Google 2morrow but spending the entire day to finalize toastmasters club processes.
We got the green signal last week from the top mgmt. Yippeee.
3 cheers to all members of our team who done much.

Over and out for now.

TM: Birth

On Friday, the first TM session, though informal, was held. Our L&E head was very supportive of the idea when we spoke to him but tried to stymie our initial enthusiasm and urgency by citing the upcoming appraisal season as a reason why things have to slow down. He promised to hold a demo session towards the end of March, when some senior executives may join us. But the proposed course of action would inevitably be blessed by some political dilly dallying which would delay the whole thing further. So we went ahead and continued our preparations, urging people to develop capabilities in their individual roles. On Friday we held our first full session. It was a major success – very well managed and coordinated.
I gave the only prepared speech on that day as the other person wasn’t prepared. The Table Topic session was a laugh riot. ‘AG’ did a commendable job. The topics for impromptu speech included: “If electricity depends on electrons, should morality depend on morons?” and other such gems!

Given below is the text of the speech I delivered on that day:


Money:It’s a crime

Money, it’s a crime.
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re
Giving none away.

Ahh, “Money money money, if I had a little money, in the rich man’s world”.

We are human beings: the smartest animals on the planet. We are born with the mission to improve ourselves/ our conditions. Our lives are like a complex web of emotions, relationships, aspirations, dreams, heartbreaks and well, money.

However vehemently we try to deny it, everywhere we look, there’s the bait of money and there’s corruption, for money. Take the most powerful man on the planet who, as a hobby, attacks a new country everyday for the sake of its rich oil reserves and in the process kills thousands of innocent people.
Look at a poor government official who is corrupt as it’s the only way he can send his child to a good college. Turn on the television and you would be bombarded with thousands of ads asking you to buy this hot looking car or that cool new TV. Take a look by the roadside and all you will see are hoardings advertising your dream home for a huge chunk of money.
Money drives us all!

Or does it? Did Mahatma Gandhi not have enough money to buy a shirt or a pair of trousers? Why did he spend most of his adult life clad in just a dhoti? He promised to his motherland that unless his countrymen have the means to cover their body, he himself wouldn’t do so. What inspired him to lead the life of an ascetic when he had the opportunity to live life king size as a lawyer?
Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Noble laureate, was born in a family richer than that of many kings. His grandfather, prince Dwarkanath Tagore once had lunch with the queen of England. But he spent the later years of his life in a small hut in Shantiniketan among friends and relatives. Much of Tagore's money including (entire Nobel prize money) and time went towards Vishwa Bharati: an experimental school he founded at Shantiniketan, based on his ideals of an enlightened and free-thinking. What inspired him to do that?
Why did innumerable freedom fighters sacrifice their lives to free India – a freedom they themselves could never witness?
So is there any pattern here? While some people sacrifice their all for money, others sacrifice all their money for a cause! This disparity is due to the characteristic of money. Aristotle once remarked, “Apparently money is not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” Two points to note here:
1) Money is merely useful and
2) Money is for the sake of something else
Money is undoubtedly useful as it allows us to live out our dreams. It gives us the power to buy what we want, to do what we like and more importantly, it allows us not to do what we don’t like. But in all the cases, we are using money FOR something; it is not independently useful. For example, if you were offered a bag full of cash but left stranded in the middle of Kalahari Desert, the offer would surely be an evil one.

Speaking of evil, what about the common refrain, “Money is the root of all evil”? Or as George Bernard Shaw put it, “Lack of money is the root of all evil”. Well, have you ever asked what the root of money is? Money is nothing but a tool of exchange. It is the material shape of the principal that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Man makes money; money doesn’t make man. Money will neither give a downright corrupt person a lofty set of moral values nor will it turn
a saint to a sinner.

But where does the common man stand in all of this? As Woody Allen once said, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons”. Well, personally speaking, I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something. No, seriously, my bank balance seems to be static at the end of every month! It even decreases sometimes!
Jokes apart, whenever we talk about money, we have to put things into perspective.
We live in a country where nearly 30% of the population lives below the poverty line. I spend Rs. 100 to watch a movie at a multiplex whereas nearly 80% of the population earns less than that amount in a day. Hence the colour of money may not seem identical to all and sundry. Most of the people in this country and the world at large spend their lives in pursuit of money - in pursuit of a better standard of living.

At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to: pursuit of a better life. Money can only take you so far in that regard. To have a remotely possible chance of a content life, one needs, among other things, professional success, a loving and supportive family, a reasonable, secure society to live in and of course, money. Each of life’s components must be given due weightage for us to be happy. Just like in a symphony, each instrument must independently produce coherent music so as to give meaning to the complete composition; each of life’s components must also independently produce its own sweet notes to allow us to sing the complete song of life. John F Kennedy, in a completely different context, once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”. I’ll conclude by saying this: Ask not what you can do for your money; ask what your money can do for you!

Integrative Thinking

The latest management fad or the new horizon in management? Whatever may be the case, it certainly grabs your attention.
In an article in HBR (Harvard Business Review), Roger Martin, the dean of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto tries to get into the head of successful business leaders and analyze their unique way of synthesizing conflicting ideas.
Many books have been written about the decisions and the results achieved by great executives but he takes the less trodden path to deconstruct and analyze the causality of these actions – their decision making process itself. He says that many times we have two opposing ideas in our heads. While conventional thinkers usually panic or simply settle for one alternative or the other, integrative thinkers are able to creatively resolve the tension between these two ideas by generating a new one which is an eclectic mix of the best points in both the original ideas. He has extensively studied the actions of and interviewed many highly successful executives like Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, etc to establish his viewpoint.

What is a key takeaway from the article is his conclusion that integrative thinking is not an innate quality but may be developed and perfected over time with awareness and a conscious approach towards the integrative thinking concept. Not only was this article an interesting read, but it also got me thinking about my own personality. I used to think this as a quirk in my own thinking that whenever I am faced in a multifarious situation with equally strong and often conflicting alternatives, I tend to be very careful about taking a particular stance. Most of the times, I ponder over the matter for a long time until I am absolutely certain of the actions and their implications. In most cases, it’s not an either-or decision. For example, in the Toastmasters club that we are trying to set up, there were various views on the cost structure we can propose to the management.
1. Company pays the entire fees associated with the club.
2. The company pays only the $125 chartership fee but the membership fees should be borne by the members themselves.
Now the first option can be very effective in attracting potential new members. But the problem, I have found out from other Toastmasters with similar fee structure, is that many members register with the club just to get it on their CV but never show up again. This is certainly not desirable from the club’s point of view
While the 2nd option is very effective in getting the company’s approval, it hits the members very hard – on their pockets. So this is certainly a deterrent for any potential new member.
After discussing this over with a lot of people, I have come to the conclusion that a hybrid fee structure is the most effective solution. I present to you option 3 (drum roll):
3. Company pays $125 charter fees and $20 new member fees. But the $27 recurring fee is paid by the member himself. However, whenever the member completes say 5 speeches (50% of CTM certification), the company reimburses 50% of the fees paid by the member till date. And on completing 10 speeches (CTM certification), he gets back the rest of the membership fees paid till date.
This structure is genial on the pockets of both parties concerned and performance based as well, in the sense that a member gets back the fees based on his involvement in the club.
Now that’s integrative thinking!

Bitten by Toastmasters

I had my first brush with Toastmasters in Pune, through my previous company.
Toastmasters Club is an internationally recognized club for developing your public speaking skills. Many renowned companies like Infosys, TCS, Capgemini, Cisco, etc as well as great B-schools like ISB, IIMB, Harvard, MIT, Wharton, etc have a Toastmasters chapter.

Back then, we weren't Toastmasters club yet, just a cohort of enthusiastic people who wanted to develop our public speaking skills. The informal club was called Lets Talk Club (duh)! But then gradually the word spread and we became a full fledged Toastmasters club. I was actively involved in its set up, as a Treasurer - (sigh!)- and it felt gr8 to be able to start the club there.
I could not enjoy the fruits of my success though.
At the time the club started functioning, I had already taken up an offer for employment in Kolkata, where, at that time, there was no Toastmasters chapter. Then after a long hiatus, 2 weeks ago to be precise, the bug bit me again. Why not start a new club here? Like most simple questions, this had no simple answer

Back in Pune, there were so many able and industrious people around me and I was a mere cog in the wheel. But if I had to start something now, I had to take on enormous responsibility. But then again, someone has to dare - to venture where no man (at least in my Company!) has gone before!
I realized that I could not do it alone. So I managed to rope in 3 of my colleagues who were aware of the idea of Toastmasters. The most important task before us was generating publicity. I knew that once at least 20 enthusiastic people were 'in', the rest would be a ball in the park.
I also established contact with the only Toastmasters club in Kolkata (which had sprung up 2 months back). The president there is a very nice and helpful guy. He guided us a lot and even allowed us to attend their TM sessions.
By this week we have already managed to pique the interest of around 15 people.
The next step would be to get under the aegis of management. We have a meeting coming up with our Learning and Edu Dept head next week. So if everything goes well, my 2nd Toastmasters baby would be born sometime next month.
Cheers