Nationalism or real social concern ?

Mr. Mishra (Mishra Babu as we call) is a childhood friend. We went to school together. He also had a lucrative software career like us in USA.

Mishra babu is a strong follower and spokes person for traditional values, local culture and tradition, local language etc.

So much so, that he quit his comfortable job in Boston 7 years ago, and returned to his village to bring about some change. Or lets say, to stop some changes that was already happening and eroding all the stuff he was passionate about.

Unlike rest of us, who left USA and came to Bangalore and effectively changed nothing in our life, his life kind of changed completely.

He built a library, a computer lab in village. Started coaching the young people on some vocational skills.

But, nothing really helped. When he helped someone, they just wanted him to give him a job and a monthly paycheck. No one really wanted to work or learn.

He built libraries, no one really cared to study.

All this time he himself doing software project development as an individual consultant with a few companies, to sustain his family.

The recent "Kandhamala" caste and religion war in Orissa has shaken him up. He was explaining me the root cause of it through the evening.

Then kids wanted Pizza. When he called up Pizza Hut, the person responded in Hindi and English. Even after Mishrajee kept giving order in Oriya.

Th girl at the other side knew Oriya. But she has been told by the employer only to speak in English or Hindi. What would one expect if they call Pizza Hut in a small eastern town of India ? The fact that there is a Pizza Hut, already is telling a lot about where the real change is heading.

He was a disturbed man. I never give him my views, which are ultra liberal.

He is currently trying to start a news paper in local language to promote local language, culture and stop the westernization movement.

Can you hide from yourself ?

(This is something came by me via a chain mail, thought like posting it here as it has a lot of relevance to the theme of this blog)

A gentleman once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby.

Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked."There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work.

"Where are you going to install the idol?" The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I know it!"

Interesting Trend ...

Not sure, if it is exactly a trend in making or couple of spurious cases in a short span of time.

A couple of days after the Sr. Mgr who went to join active state level politics, from a smooth, conenient, well orchestrated life of a corporate employee

(http://betaalgyan.blogspot.com/2008/09/re-living-long-dead-dream.html), another such event happened.

I got a ping on the istant message from one young engineer, who was hired from one of the prestigeous IITs, 2 yrs ago in to this company.

He does not work for me. Infact, I not sure who he does work for. I remember meeting him in the new hire induction program (where I normally do the Corporate culture talk) two years ago.

He wanted to talk to me for a few minutes.

Normally these kind of suspicious instant messages from other team people come, when they want to change their team ;)

He walked in and told that I am quitting Cisco to go to Delhi and to prepare for Civil services. Then he delivered a very convincing powerful argument, why Civil service might be the right thing to do ! He wanted to share that with me. I was feeling honored in way, while wondering why he was sharing that with me, that to asking for a one on one meeting.

I am very excited to see these young successful corporate people, wanting to go back to public life. Where the root of all socio financial changes lie.

We are all on the periphery, because it is convenient. These young people are risking that convenience and security and taking bold steps.

This is really heartening to see.The trend vanished in last 10-13 years. It is return of a healthy trend in a way and in the right time.

Wished him all the best and asked him to add me in his Orkut friend list to stay in touch. I am sure he is going to succeed. He has that determination to do something - different !

Power of "Homework" !

Being in this industry, especially in the division that takes care of Telecom Service Provider market ( the ATT, Verizon, RelianceCom and Bhati types), is a continuous challenge.

It is difficult to make them all happy, all the time. They all want the latest technology all the time with least number of defects that can cause their networks to go down even for a few seconds. Very tight SLAs. Very tall competition, for them and for the equipment providers like us too.

Last week I visited one such big national career of a European country. They have had their share of displeasure and often in recent past, they have pondered to buy equipments from our competitors.

And, when the engineering person is being called to such a customers quarterly business review, it is normally not a good sign ;(

Needless to say, I dedicated pretty much a week to doing homework before I landed there.

- What have been their history with my company ? How long have they been doing business with us ?

- How have been their experience with us ? Every six month period at time over last 3-4 years ?

- What are their current cribs ?

- How are our competitors doing in that country and in Europe in general ? Have they been able to take away some business or they have given away more business to us ?

All these data to be analyzed. And interpreted and need to be told in a manner that makes our position stronger, especially when the customer is not happy.

Once analyzed, I did notice there are two or three key areas where there are real genuine reason for the customer to be unhappy.

But equally more important data point was that, in last three years the share of equipments bought by this company from us, is increasing against our two biggest competitors. There was no way to get the data which areas our customers are struggling in.

After analysis, made a simple slide deck that talks about every concern area found during analysis, and showed trends how they have gotten better over last 3 years.

There was just one job left. Critical one. In the business review meeting, I wanted to go first, before customer to present our data.

So that by the time the customer presents the same concerns, they have seen the better side of it.

Doctoring the schedule you may say ! That was easy indeed. Just asked for its, saying let the "English" presentation get done first and then we can go on for all other topics in local country language.

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The trip did end very well. Customer was lot less worried than they used to be. We did not get trashed.

The VP, Finance of the customer said, over lunch, that its them who always need technology 3 years in to future now, and want to pay the money 3 yrs later :) Talk about internalization of issues :)

Re-living a long dead dream !

I have never been so excited lately.

Today a senior manager from our extended team walked in. He has been around just for about 3-4 months.

We have never interacted personally. It was more in meetings and other work related interactions.

So, when he pinged me to meet me personally behind closed door, I could not really guess a reason. That rarely happens.

He came in, and told something is running in his mind that he wanted to share with me. Personal !!!!

Then he said, he is going on a long leave from job. To try his hands active state level politics.

He goes on - "I have handled teams up to 300 people. Been to IISc to study. Publish many patents. Headed business worth 2 Billion USD. Its his time to go back and do something in the space of real leadership."

Over the talks, I did figure that he already has a good support structure in state level politics, including the current chief minister of the state. He is very hopeful that he will get a ticket to run !

I for the first time did feel that Indian politics is heading in the right direction. Taking the right turns. Attracting the right talent.

Its no more the dirty word that everyone could utter in front of others.

Did a cheers for his career in politics with two liquor chocolates :)

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He reminded me of my student days, when I never thought I would end up being an engineer. I was very active in politics through student councils. My late political mentor (very renound politician of those days), used to trust me with very critical jobs like worker union and factory owner conflict resolution. I was well on my way to state level politics.

It was turn of the fate and lack of mental strength, that dragged me to a more mediocre career. The whole passion for public life was re-kindled in me, through him.

Alas ! I ve been traveling way long in a one way traffic with no U-turns.

Sizing it up !!!

I took the battle of Ram to Dr. Das over the weekend.

Dr. Das is amazing human being. Very humorous, fun loving, extremely knowledgeable and down to earth.

I get a lot of comfort in his presence and in his words.

Dr. Das listened to the story of the battle. As usual smiled and nodded through it without uttering a word. Very intent listener he is.

When I was done he said, "I know you did not tell me this to get a solution. I do not have a solution to this issue. And I know you would find a solution yourself."

That was comforting already.

Dr. Das goes on to a small story from mythology.

"When Hanuman was sent to bring Vishalyakarani from the Gandhamardhana mountains to save the life of Laxman, he could not find out the small plant in the big mountain.

It became a big issue for him.

As we all know, he expanded his body to bigger than that of the mountain and took the whole mountain to Lanka Nagaree. "

"Our issues might be much bigger in scale than what it look before we understand it completely. And we all have to grow bigger than the issues to face them effectively"

Unexpected gratitude ...

It was the fateful day, I was distributing the salary raise letters and bonus letters to all my employees.

This happens normally once in a year.

One of my employees, who has done very well last year, I was handing over the letter to him. He has done well. And expectedly his salary raise was very good.

I was expecting happiness on his face after seeing the mail. And selfishly looking at some gratitide on his part for me. Although in big scheme of things, I am just the messenger.

This person, takes me by surprise.

He did not even bother to look at his letter. He said me, that he is grateful to me no matter what is written on the letter, he will remain grateful to me.

I was shocked, internally though I was able to maintain a straight face. I was wondering why.

Then he goes on to explain, that 2 years ago, his wife had an major accident. And while he had a deliverable at work. Critical one.

He narrated how I took care of the situation. How I asked him to focus on family and told stories to others and delayed the deliverable.

How I was able to accommodate the accident and made him focus on family without much impact on the deliverable.

The narration almost brought tears in my eyes. Although, to be honest I did not remember any of that till he described it in detail.

He said, he would have never nagged me even if I ve not given him any raise.

Think about unconditional gratitude. Think about how long it lasts.

I learnt a lesson from him today. To count my blessings, and be grateful to people who have shaped my life. Unconditionally !

Objectionable ?!??

(OK. This is a detour from the usual theme of my blogging. But does touch up on some different view points )

I ve always encouraged people to communicate more than required. As something that may be obvious for one may not be obvious for all.

Sometimes we do not communicate thinking, whats there to communicate ? It is commonsense, so obvious. All would know it ! Nah .. not really !

In our cafetaria there is a poster of the Karv-Maga program (placed on behalf of the health club ).

Karv-Maga is an Israeli martial arts / self defence technique. I do not know anything about it, however, I have seen this poster everyday during lunch, for many days now.

The text says - "Karv-Maga ! Israeli Military Tactics for self defense".

I never thought so much about this text.

Today, I received a strong rebutal via. storming mails, that this advertisement contains objectionable words "Israeli Military Tactics".

I was also told, it is against HR policy to use those words publicly !

Huh ! Was not obvisous to me after 11 yrs of working in this company !

Was not obvious to me sentence segments like "Israeli Military Tactics" are objectionable !!!

Is "Indian Military Combat techniques" objectionable ? well.. none of them seems to be a FOUR letter word to me ;)

But the point is - just because the bad in it is not visible to me, it is not bad.

I wont fight this battle and order removal of the poster from the cafetaria. Not worth it !

Fighting a losing battle - Why battle first of all ?

(The chronicle of this battle will show up in this journal as the battle progresses)

Vikram is pretty puzzled by "Ram" situation as described by Betaal. He has been doing some deep analysis putting himself in Ram's shoes.

How do you fight a battle that you know you are losing ? And one choice ruled out ! Can not surrender !

The only option left is keep on fighting the battle.

He can not think of the end result. That is too disturbing.

Vikram takes it on him and walk to Ram's office. They sync up on the situation.

Vikram asks, why the battle ?

Ram: There is this peice of roadmap, my team is most suitable to acquire. I know the players, customers. My team has the know-how. We will do justice to the business.

Now, the other warring team believes, if this happens it becomes a threat for them. Other team is happy being a complecent team. Happy being given direction.

Do not want to own or drive. Do not want to take responsibilities and take decisions. Want the decision to come to them from other sites and they will be happy executing them. The other site people are happy as they have all control and they have helping hands but no one of the helping hands will become indispencible for them. They will be slaves. They will take order. Do dirty work. Get paid and be happy.

So, both the sites joined their hands. And now want to take the know-how from my team and use them in the dirty, non-accountable model. That will break my team up and that wont grow my beloved engineers to think on their own. To innovate. To thrive for success. They will get the task. They will execute them.

This will breed mediocrity ! This will bring down this sites credibility and technical strength to pre-2003 era. This is a regression.

Vikram came back with some food for thought ! He has to help Ram make a battle plan ! Soon.

Fighting a losing battle

Betaal and Vikram are sharing a flight to a near by city. Some time out of office atmosphere to chat and do some soul searching. They both enjoy that kinda time !

This is when Betaal narrates story of a struggling manager, Ram. Who has so far been one of the most successful ones around.

Betaal: This is story of a manager named Ram. He is going through the toughest corporate battle of his life now.

We all fight battles of different scale through out our life. All to stand by our conviction and our ideologies. We choose to let some battles go in terms of gaining some friends. We choose to fight some like its a war. That part is clear to Ram.

However, what he is struggling at is, he knows he is going to lose this one.

He does not have any support structure. His boss is equally helplessly watching the game plan unfold. Losing in this battle means far reaching consequence to him and to his team. The whole team will be disintegrated. The team that he has been building over past five years with careful hiring and grooming. The team that looks up to him to find them the next phase of road map and growth.

Ram has two ways to go ! Surrender to the other camp and get some respite. Not jeopardise the teams fate. Find a graceful time for exit and move on. Second option is, stay in the battle head on and wait for the right opportunity which runs the risk of un-graceful exit for him and

What should Ram do Vicky ?

Vikram: This is a tough one. I know Ram and I met him even y'day and it did not seem he is under any kind of stress. I like that about him. He has been instrumental in taking this team to this level. He is a man of conviction and very positive.

And his team is very dear to him. Knowing all that I think he should fight it head on and go through the battle. Surrendering would not give his team the road map he wants and would risk his job. Fighting it, would do the same if he loses.

But until he loses its not done, even if it is a losing battle. A few minutes would change all the fate.

But what bothers me is no support system. Its very unlike Ram. If he is caught in a scenario without any support structure, then he did not anticipate the warring camps early enough. He may have to break the camp. He may have to fight the battle by looking like he is surrendering. He might have to gain some support through this battle. Buy some time and wait for the right opportunity. Not to give it up now. That would end the battle.

Betaal : Hmmm..lets wait and watch it !

Hiring senior people from outside ??

Read this first ....

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2041

Leading the unknown !

I do like the PTMs (Parent Teacher Meetings) that kind of forces me to see my kids without colored glasses.

To top that off, the school where my kids go to, have a unique way of welcoming the parents.

They dont hesitate to teach the parents without the hefty tuition fee that they normally charge :)

Last PTM, they had a small competition for the parents. As usual, there were more moms than dads in PTM.

They made groups of 10 parents each. And asked us to choose a leader from each team.

I asked, the leader needs to lead what ? The answer was - "that's the unknown, you need to choose a leader who will lead the team when it is known".

I had a few other parents in my team. All others were moms. And although all were capable of leading, they all pointed the finger to me to be the leader of the team.

The leader of the unknown.

They the game unfolded. The organizer announced that each team will be supplied 100 straws ( the ones we use to drink soft drinks and juices).

And the game is about fixing the straws straws in the leaders head / hair. The team that gets the maximum, is the winner.

Damn, I has so many women in the team with plenty of flowing and knoted hair. Too bad I was chosen the leader :(

There was only one team, where a woman was bestowed the leadership and that team ended up winner.

Huge lesson to learn. There is no one leader in a team for all events to lead. We all need to be leaders and followers depending on what we are leading

at that point of time.

Need a "Pokhran" ?

Betaal : Viky ! Another puzzle for you.

This is about an employee in this org.

This employee is caught in a downward spiral of negative perception. He got hired in a wrong role. A role that is not easy to be successful in a core technical, chaotic dept like ours.

To make things worse, his management changed on him three times over last year. And all threee coached him differently.

Its been more than a year and he has nothing to show as his major accomplishment. He probably had one of two scopes given to him. But too early with too bad coaching and he has failed to make an impact in both cases. In those cases, someone else overrode him with their technical knowledge and history with the org.

This employee is smart and ambitious. But never been able to focus because of management change and variance in guidance.

Been more than a year, and there is nothing much thought about him. People ask him in the meetings to take notes.

He has been given couple of weekly reporting jobs. And moreover, the perception around his name is not great. And consistently becoming worse.

Employee wants to break away from this spiral and make it up. The will is there. The opening is not there. The matching level of initiative and technical and org

know-how. He is getting those slowly. But may be too slowly.

How would you help him out of this spiral ?

Vikram so far has simple solution to these problems. He cuts his losses and let the employee go out to other companies where he will be successful.

He believes in not dealing with these problems. He believes that its the employee who could not keep up, and would be better off with a new start somewhere else, in a

little less challenging environment.

But Vikram also know, Betaal wont ask him this puzzle if he expects this answer.

He goes in to a thinking mode for a few seconds. And then tells...

Vikram: This employee needs a "Pokhran". And smiles. When there is nothing much to loose, you need a bang to recover.

The employee should take one action in the org that all know is a problem area but no is working on. Complete it.

Market it. Have couple of his support structure publicly appreciate it (its not doctoring, if the intention is seriously to bounce back and contribute).

When world was not thinking much of India, even if she had more than half of the population starving, spent thousands of crores to do "Pokhran II " test.

Within 5 years (after many condemnation and sanctions), India was on its way to Shine. The old negative perceptions are not gone. But they are way too

shadowed by the new achievements. Countries have taken her very seriously. And the negativity is gone.

Positivity is re-generative : )

Betaal smiles and nods in appreciation of Vicky's analysis and solution.

Story Teller !

I came across the this master story teller today.

Ganpati - whole residential complex is in celebratory mood. Kids preparing for a play and some dance numbers (Oh my friend Ganesha - but its supposed to be a secret until played shhhhhh . ..).

So, we had this pandit / bramhin doing the puja in the morning. Me and my wife were chosen to be the ones by apartment to sit in the Yagna.

Panditjee is an amazing story teller. He was explaning great gyans through stories.

One of those stuck in my head.

This is when inviting Gauri (Ganesha's mom) to the puja. He took the oppertunity to explain us, why "women" are important. Why we should pay respect to women and fairer gender.

The story goes like this.

"Bramha, before creating the universe, asks lord Shiva, what is the bare minimum stuff I need to create the universe ?

Lord Shiva says - you need "energy". Energy is key to every creation.

Then Bramha asks, how can we tangibly define energy ?

Shiva replies to that - Energy is the capacity to do work. It can neither be created nor be destroyed (this is what our Physics books say too ;) !

Lord Vishnu, who has been identified as the sustainer of the universe, also says - Yeah ! I need energy to sustain the universe.

Lord Shiva (the Destroyer) smiles and says - even I need energy to destroy.

All three of them were somewhat getting closer on defining energy, over the discussion, but did not know how to tangibly blend it in to the system. How to fit in enough sources of energy.

Then Lord Shiva says - If you take the "i" (pronounced "ee") form my name what would be left ?

Brmha and Vishnu both respond - "Shav" (which means dead body). Which symbolizes "no energy" or "No more capable of doing work".

And "i" or "ee" pronounciation symbol of the fairer sex. ("ee" is used for "shtri ling").

In a nutshell, the fairer gender is the "shakthi". Woman is the energy. Without which the universe won't go forward, won't sustain itself.

Well.. the story is much better told and articulated by the story teller himself :)

Success is a bastard ....

and failure an orphan !

Everyone jumps in to take credit as soon as something becomes successful.
The same people who stayed away from the same stuff when there was very little chance of
success.