The more one gives the more one gets !

Ever wondered how monkeys evolved in to human beings, with the most distinctive physical change of having no tail ???

If we look at Darwin's theory in a very simplistic manner, it just says - "If you wont use it, you wont have it - over a period of time".

So, monkey's must not have used their tails for any real use ! Hence that part evolved "out" !

Well ! Now switching from Darwin to friend's grand-maa ! She is this woman who has seen close to a century. Wise to the E. One of her stories goes like this.

"One village had a big well. 100s of years old. It had crystal clear water and plenty of it to quench the thirst of entire village and anyone passed by. Everyone in that mountainous village thought it was a divine well, as the water was so refreshing. And it was always present. All other wells of that area, lasted about 25 yrs before going dry. It was a natures gift.

Then a king built a temple near that village which became one of the most beautiful temples of that area and popular pilgrimage ! He then ordered, no one can use the water from that well. The only usage of the water is going to be for God's special bathing ceremony that happens every year on a particular auspicious day.

The well that used to provide water to 100s of people now was only God's.

After a few years the well went dry !"

Grand-maa takes a pause and says, if you don't take out the water from the well regularly, it would go dry. As nature thinks, there is no use proving water to this outlet any more.
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Vicky had an ideating technical architect in his team. He would come up with lots of
good ideas. In good times, all of them were being considered and tried out. Some succeeded and did not. But he kept ideating.

At the dawn of recent recession, vicky got tired of this ideating head and thought of asking him to just come stop ideating as the business is not ready for ideas now.

And before being that stern, he went to betaal. Betaal just told the above story that he heard from the old lady !

Optimism

Whenever I am at my native place, an used to be sleepy town, that is joining the race of "India Shining" growth lately, I meet one of my old friends, without fail.

This person was my classmate during IIT days, went just like all of us to work in US for several years. During the wave of reverse brain drain, when a lot of came back to settle in Bangalore, the IT capital of India, this friend came back to this small town. And more importantly to start IT business.

He has seen his highs and lows just like any other entrepreneur.

This time when I met him, he was going through a low. The projects pipeline has reduced. He company has reduced to only himself and a young trusted programmer. He is able to make enough to run his family. But thats about it as it seemed.

So, during the talk I just brought up the topic of joining a normal job like one of us and was aback by his response and the optimism in that response.

He said - "There are 365 days in a year. And I just need 3 good days out of the 365. Which is less than 1%. 2 days to come across 2 good employable young people and 1 day to land a good project and I am back on saddle".

Nice way to look at it. No matter how unlucky you currently are, 1% of time one will have his luck ! Now, are we looking for that 1% time so that we catch them before the dawn on us ??

Most inexepensive and effective way of making someone's "day" !!

After almost 17yrs, completely out of the blue, I get one e-mail from a classmate on Facebook in-box !

And it was not on any of the present day occasions like - Friend's day, Friends' Friend's day etc too...

It goes like this...

---------------------------------------
"hi ______ !
guys like you needs to be respected & adored more than being just being a friend!!

Although we were not exaclty friends in college but i had opportunities to interact with you ocassionaly coz we had a common friend called Mukesh (met him this july in kolkata).

I am sure, wherever you are, your contributions must be recognised on daily basis.

Love you !!!

----------------------------------------

It really made me feel good ! Even if it may mean nothing ... today !

It would be my new year resolution to reach out to some long lost contacts or even people I meet daily and taken for granted, to say something sweet about them. I ll even keep a time slot every week in my calendar to do this !

Jugalbandi ..

No matter how much a corporation wants to propagate the culture of "collaboration", the personal silos stand tall.

The ego, the urge to go ahead and look better than others, the rush to get to the top, the desire to control and impose ideologies end up winning ! If not, end of being serious nuisance for the culture of collaboration.

What does one do as a manager in that case ?

Watch music reality shows on the theme of "jugalbandi". Where two competing aspirants sing together - and each of their goal is to make the song as beautiful as possible.

They get along ! They pay attention. They pick up where the partner / opponent fumbles.

Such a learning ! As a manager, I would go back and pair up competing people to common goals. I would make one be measured by the others success.

Sounds like something to try out for sure ;)

California Gold Rush

Met up with one of the foremost entrepreneur of Eastern Indian state of Odisha.
It is officially the poorest state in India. And not many enterprises overall apart from mining based PSUs.

25 yrs ago, this gentleman, after having a Electrical Engineering Degree from IIT and an MBA from IIM, did not head to US for a comfortable life.

Went back to the native place to find out, if he can do something on his own.

Around the same time, Odisha was seeing a private boom in Prawn agriculture and processing and was steadily capturing world market of tiger prawns.

This gentleman jumped in to that. Had a exceptionally successful few years. And then a wave of internal jobs and bad fish-deseases wiped it all away for him.

He was struggling to get back on his feet - and then ( he recollects) he saw this program on discovery on "California Gold Rush".

In California Gold Rush, not every one struck gold. The ones who smiled all the way to the bank were the ones who built and supplied shovels instead.

That was it for him ! He went back - knowing all he knew about Prawn industry and the contacts in that industry, to re-building his business around making shipping boats and nets specifically for prawn agriculture.

And 10 yrs on, he is counting his chips and success with a smile. The prawn has seen its cycle. Not the boats and nets so much with a bit of diversification in products.

Quota Systems - for the toughest resource issues !

Finite amount of test beds. Finite amount of runs possible in a month.
Multiple users. Release Ops. Development engineers from multiple teams.
And the 'easy going' quality managers mandating a 'run' for every unrelated development crowds up the testbed.

No real control.

And when, the analysis happens out of 800 odd runs a month, 400 can be policed. But now 'policing' is a 'job' and needs head count. Do not want to 'police' ? Demand to build more such test beds.

Sounds like a familiar problem even your org has ?

When the cacophony reached me 2-3 weeks ago from all the sub-orgs, I looked to traditional Indian political way of fixing (because everyone seemed to have enough justification for their irrational numbers, and even funnier, everyone agreed that the load can come down by 50% at the aggregate level).

Monthly QUOTA of 'runs' for each sub-group and a simple tweak to tool to dis-allow anything more than that from the team. Last couple of weeks, I ve not seen any deliverable of any team slipping because of this test bed.

Stake on the "roof"

Yes.. I am making up this caption !

But not making up this age old tradition narrated below !

In rural parts of Eastern India, during the 80s, every upwardly progressing low middle class, had one dream. To have a shelter / home with a "concrete" roof.

It was looked up as an upgrade from Tile, Asbestos or other forms of roofing.

When people built “Pucca” houses, the toughest thing used to be the roof.

They will put the false ceiling with Bamboo pillars, and wood planks.
Put a layer of soil. Then some leaves, then the iron frame.

Then on one sunny day, the concrete mix will be poured in to the iron frame which has to settle for subsequent 21 days before the take off the false ceiling.

Putting the concrete mix to iron frame is considered last mile and considered tough job. It has to be done in ONE SESSION. Point being, if not finished in one go, and a portion left behind, no matter what you do to blend the cast, there would be a gap and the roof would leak.

And in that last day, invariably the chieftain of the mason’s, in the last moment, will put a 4 inch PIPE / Barrel / Cylinder in the soft concrete cast. If not pulled out quickly and blended in the same session, that would leave behind a permanent hole in the roof, which wont be possible to seal.

This is how the tradition goes after that.

The owner of the property is supposed give him a new dress and praise his masonary skills in front of everybody. After that brief drama is over, he will remove the stick. And the job will be taken to completion.

So how is corporate culture any different ?

This week, a major delivery which has taken an year for 100s of employees to complete is supposed to be released. All of them who are involved, have taken their part seriously. And done the job in a coordinated fashion so far to make this happen. There has been no red flags. Most of the last minute errors are done away with. Most of the people are feeling good and relieved. The smart ones are already blowing their horn, etc. The usual corporate circus !

One employee, who has been responsible of final testing, has not yet found a reason to blow him horn. So, he goes ahead and put the "stake on the roof", latching on to an ignorable thing.

And, the solution, was simple. A public praise of the person's effort and a small corporate borwnie point. The ignorable issue was ignored ! Successfully !

Now, Betaal thinks - may be we should make it a tradition - like the mason's in rural India did 20 yrs ago. Would not that reduce a lot of emotions around the last minute scuffle and make it more fun :)

Balancing ambition and capabilities

I ve seen many leaders talking about this -

"Grow until you are comfortable growing and until you are delivering to the level you are in, handsomely".

But, at least in corporate India, I ve not seen that happening.

People think growing in ranks is a birth right, and a function of doing the job OK, and spending required amount of time in a level.

Then there comes a phase where, ambitions start running high, right around that pre-conceived, peer-defined time period is about to elapse.

That definitely causes a lot of pain.

Over the last few years, India's corporate culture has evolved and now a new variable has been added at senior management level.

That is - beating expectation of your current role and having spent enough time baking in that level are not enough. There has to be a true organizational opportunity to accommodate a person at the next level.

In other words, have you created a position for that next level, where you want to grow in to ?

Valid addition !

With that as a back ground, I was pleasantly surprised today. I went to one of my mid-managers, and offered him and fabulous opportunity, asked him to treat this one as a ticket to grow in to sr. management. And this person is at the top of the stack already in his peer group. So, it was a slam dunk for me to offer him the new opportunity that came along.

To my surprise, the person showed amazing maturity in saying - " I ll do it. I ll do it well, irrespective of it being a ticket. But DO NOT grow me, if I wont fit in there. Do not grow me, if I get in to a level, where expectations out of me are going to be ahead of my capabilities. And that makes me uncomfortable. I would rather be the best mid-manager than the average sr. manager."

Is the next wave of maturity firming up in corporate India now ??

Style vs. Substance ...

Now, we all know "style" without "substance" is not good enough, and sometimes outright ridiculous !

With style, one can get a reception, but not an acceptance. Its pretty much like the Blue Fox !

Substance without style is equally in-sufficient ! At least in today's corporate culture. Its so crowded, that you need to grab attention before they pay attention to your value addition.

Thus goes a story of a mid-level manager in my work place. The guy has been honest with his work, innovative, and smart. However, he never bothered to blow his horns - and the system labelled him as mediocre, year after year.

This year, he spent 25% less time working, and channelled that to some key visibility points based on Betaal's suggestion and guidance.

Wiola ! He is a well known, relied up on, looked up on manager now !!!

So, betaal says, wear your style, now that you have the substance !

Cursing - As a profession

The department I work in, has a full time employee (called a program manager) specializing in "cursing" "swearing" and plain "screaming", twice everyday at 400 engineers. Full time regular employee on the pay roll !

His e-mails would have generous portions of exclamation marks.

All CAPS phrases like - "HOT and URGENT !!". "YOUR TEAMS NUMBERS ARE PATHETIC", "LEARN TO HONOR YOUR COMMITMENT" etc.

Everyone is used to that and its amusing to see that deliverables starving because of plain old "procrastination" do move by those ALL CAPs e-mails.

It feels things do move because of this continuous push ! This persons job is not to understand what is blocking the deliverables. Just take all that was due for that day and send those BIG nasty e-mails. Un-emotionally ! That's his job and he does it right.

This reminds me one annual incident as a child. There is a big festival every July in the part of country where I grew up, where Lord Jagarnath comes out of temple with his brother and sister in chariots pulled by devotees.

And on the chariot there will be a "curser". He would continuously be using foul, nasty, vulgar, cheap (cheaply funny !) two-liners ! Very very loudly.

And if he stops, the devotees would stop pulling the chariot. The language that can never be used legally in social circles and in office space without being fired !

I even asked my father once, why this guy stands on the chariots and spits out such vulgarity in such an auspicious day ? His answer was simple, - "To see where your mind is - in the two-liners or on God". I believed it then.

But after looking at our program manager pushing deliverables using ALL CAPS e-mails, I think his job was actually to get massive chariots pulled few kilometers by mortals.

Is this fair ?

Vicky lives in an apartment complex, where an old man comes to work. His work is "ironing". He collects all the clothes in the morning, irons them in the basement, returns them in the evening.

That's the only way to make his ends meet. A man from the neighboring state.

And one day he stops coming ! Which is OK. That extended to an week. Now residents became restless. They were getting some paid service right under their nose, which is gone now.

And there is no way to contact this person, to ask what has happened. No one cared to keep a contact number.

One more week goes by !

Then Vicky, sent the security guard to the near by village where the "ironing man" used to live. The person went there and found out the old man is sick, with some mental disease, and is in a mental asylum. He has been moved to his native state to be taken care of by few kins.

4 more weeks go by. The consumers (residents) start flooding the housing alias with inconvenience caused by his absence.

Vicky, went to village, found another young man who does "ironing". His only condition to come do the job in a free real-easte with guaranteed customer base was that - "If the old guy comes back, we would not throw him out. He needs to have a permanent job and not a temporary one."

Granted ! After all 2 months have gone by and there is no way to find the old guy and figure out if he would be able to comeback.

The new guy does a good job. Settles in. Two more weeks go by ! Residents happy again.

Then the old guy shows up ! Become more fragile. And still looking a lil unstable in his thoughts. And wants the job back. With him a few kids, looking distressed and in need of a living.

And the same residents who enjoy the service, they all pointed him to "Vicky". Go talk to him if you can get your job back. Now, "Vicky" is in tough spot.

One side a shaken old man with no living... on other side another young man who just got some foreseeable roadmap of hope !

And in this "Dharamsankat" no other resident is willing to emotionally standby Vicky to help him make a decision.

So, Vicky finally took his own and sent the Old man home. Quite emotional ambiance there.

Vicky, in search of solace, went to the trusted adviser "Betaal". Asked if what he did was right.

Betaal says - "Vicky ! These decisions are not measured with metrics consisting of "right"/"wrong". These are measured with a parameter called "appropriate" from your scope of duty's prospective. Think again now. And you ll have some peace."

E.Q.

My kid love his cubes.. Rubik's cubes. 3x3, 4x4. His favorite pass time is fixing them, messing them up again and fixing them again. And measuring how fast he gets doing this.

At this age, during this phase, those cubes are the most prized possession he has. Everything else, comes later.

So, yesterday after the weather cleared up after many days, we were going to the tennis court. And en-route he was busy in the car, doing his cube.

When we reached the tennis ground, he left the cube in the car, picked up his racket and went to play.

When he came back, he immediately said, there is one yellow piece sticker someone has removed and exchanged with one of the White ones. I thought, impossible ! How can even someone find out in a jumbled cube ? He was positive. And as predictable, he threw an tantrum, asking for a new one right away etc. Very upset.

I asked - the car was locked. All of us were playing for the same time. Only driver in the car waiting for us. And do not think he will touch the rubik's cube.

But he was confident, it was physically tampered.

So, finally he asked the driver, - "Did you change it ? ". And the driver said, yes, he was curious.

All of a sudden, the his tantrum was down. Just to test him, I asked my kid - "If you want, I can recover the money for the cube from the drivers salary." And he immediately said - "No need ! Anyway I know how to fix it. I do not want a cube. Don't cut any money from his salary. And in fact he was very apologetic."

That was a great sign of E.Q. for the young guy !

Isolated events ?? Huh !!!

I do not want to undermine the right to protest for some injustice being done.
But looks like the free market is giving in to to socialism, errr... almost to the
comminism !

With the global recession, a lot of industry maturing pain points are exposed.
Like no across the board salary hikes, cut in the variable pay, curb on the promotions
etc.

In a free market, what should happen ? Seeking equilibrium, people would move to
where the jobs are and the money is. Simple !

This is fundamentally a great leveler. Now look what human intervention to natures law of equilibrium can do !


- Jet Airways making huge losses, cutting variable pay ! Pilot take down most
flights. Company makes more loss in 5 days that it would normally do in a
quarter.

- Almost as if it is planned govt. bail out plan, AI pilots launch a strike
right after the Jet Airways. Allowing, Jet airways to hike up price by 200%.
Making up for the loss Jet incurred in 3 days ???

- Kingfisher, another leading airline making enough loss, a partner of Jet, jacking up
prices on both the prior occasions.

Now, two private airlines making up for their losses, with whose money ?
AIs. Govt. Tax payers money. Its like tax money have become the IPO money now.

Tough to believe the strikes are not planned in isolation !!

The fort you built is your prison !!

Worried Vicky storms in to Betaal's office !

He has taken enough amount of pain over last few years building a solid team and a big team. And that was the need of the hour !!

Now, that teams charter is eroding as the team is becoming more efficient in doing the stuff and business not growing that fast during the recession time.

Enters another leader to the scene who is exactly at the same place Vicky was 3 years ago. Has a small team, has a road map to scale but have not capability to grow the numbers. No hiring !!!

And his focus is on getting few from Vicky's team, ready-made experts and kick start his team on the path to growth. He has made 1 or 2 attempts already and successfully so.

That worries Vicky and bring him to Betaal for brainstorming.

Betaal listens through and tell - "One builds a fort to be safe from external dangers. These are impregnable architectures with water ways surrounding them. Big iron gates. Completely guarded and cordoned of the external world.

Now, if the danger goes away the very same fort one builds becomes his / her prison. "

Betaal tell Vicky - "Go ahead collaborate with this new leader and free yourself from the prison. You both will grow ! "

Statistics ...

Betaal moved with his infamous smirk on his face to Vicky's office.
There was a test on his head ! For sure and he knew Vicky this time will flunk !

Betaal - "How you doing Vicky ? Long time no see".

Vicky - "Could be better. A lot of engineers calling in Sick this Friday. I can not understand what is that on a Friday one would fall sick ? I am convinced 99% of them are healthy and just making it a long weekend by calling in sick. And with media reporting H1N1 at this rate, no one can really question it. One never knows if someone is really sick. But productivity and deadlines taking hit."

Betaal - "Good Vicky ! I have a story for you. Let me know what would you do in this case. And I am sure you would do the right thing"

The story goes like this -

"A modern busy executive with family and kids, employed a driver to help with household chores. The driver has a weekly off day, Sunday. One Saturday morning he called in saying his mom is doing some Puja and he needs a days off.

The next Monday he called in to say he is sick.

A week later he called in saying his grandfather died and needs the Saturday off and Monday too. All within a span of one and half months. "

Vicky ! What is your take ? Is the driver telling truth ? He can fall sick, he can lose an elderly relative and has to be there with family mourning. He has to be part of family celebrations too. Should the executive continue to keep him on job ? He has no way to verify all these things. And firing a help over seemingly natural and plausible reasons is not humane. What should he do ?

Vicky did not have to do a lot of thinking. He said - "The driver should be fired. Just because of one fact. The death of grandfather. This is 99.9% of time an excuse used by helps. And if he is fired for telling lies to take off most of the days, the executive would be 99.9% right. And 0.01% wrong. Simple statistics says that this is a lie"

Betaal - "But what if he is not telling a lie ? The guys entire living comes from driving his employers family around".

Vicky - "Yeah ! There is a slim chance of that. Very slim".

Mourning through work

I ve nothing against the fallen hero of Andhra Pradesh (YSR).
Mainly because I do not know him. Not known his work and never lived
in the state he has administered.

Nevertheless, I trust the media outcry, and truly mourn the
loss.

But here comes the sad part. The govt. in this neighboring state
declared holiday for govt. offices as well as schools on a
Friday.

Which is supposed to be a very eventful day for the teachers.
In India it is celebrated as "Teachers Day". I grew up chanting in chorus
with other calss mates "guru bramha guru vishnu gurudeva maheshwara" on this
day. And speaking up in the assembly about the life and work of
Dr. Radhakrishnan.

With the evolving time, last year, the teachers of my LKG going kid, had a
fun day where they presented Bollywood dance numbers to a auditorium full of
4 yr olds and their parents. Fun and full of activities.

This year, none of that. All preparation went in vein because YSR is dead.

And Govt. employees got one holiday to mourn.

Now, this reminds me the events at Toyota in Japan in early nineties.
When the labor union and management could not come to a conclusion on wages
after a long strike, the saddened laborers took up a strikingly the different
approach.

Instead of "idling" to bleed the profit of the company, they decided to
work long long hours and build up inventory so much that, the prices of the
product dropped and created pressure on the management.

That was some counter thinking and act of "expressing sadness through work".

And here we are stuck to doing it by NOT doing work.

Can we switch to mourn / express our humanly emotions of displeasure by working more
than required for a change ? Even if it means dancing to Bollywood numbers and not
chanting "Guru Bramha ... " !

For a few dollars more !

This is not Betaal's usual dose of corporate gyan ! This is a true life experience that came last evening, when I was jogging on the shoreline of a lake, while my kid was in a near by tennis class.

100 meters from the lakes, sky scrapers, India's upwardly-mobile upper middle class residences. Rich, civilized and law abiding citizens.

In the 100 meters between the sky scrapers and the lake, are small patch of slums, narrow un-motrable roads, a temple. A stark contrast with the richness and posh-ness few meters away. The slum holds India's poor. The one's who work as domestic helps few meters away, in small temporary houses.

Nevertheless, its a good place to jog in the evening. Because of the lake and road that are not frequented by vehicles.

Yesterday's jogging was not usual. In my second round, I saw a small gathering on the road. 5-6 people from rich side of the line and 5-6 kids from the poor side of the line, all gathered to watch a drunk man beating a woman brutally.

All spectators from a distance to this act happening out in the open on a road.

Took me by surprise. Some people even watch it for a few moment and then walk away. Small motorbikes watch, honk and pass through the live incidence as if nothing is happening.

I stopped and asked the man, why is he beating the woman. The man said, with a brick in his hand, - "I would smash your head if you interfere. She is my wife and I can beat her anytime I like".

I persisted on knowing the reason. So much so that he engaged with me in a conversation. Something that I wanted.

I took the opportunity ! Asked him a few questions -

Me - "You from Rajasthan?"

Man - "Nope ! Nepal"

Me - "That was my second guess. I am from a place very close to Nepal. I love visiting Kathmandu, but with all recent violence in Nepal not been there in last few years."

Man - "There is no tension now. All settled in Nepal"

Me - "Very happy to know that. How many kids you have and are they here or in Nepal ?"

Man - "4 kids. 2 sons, 2 daughters. They are here. I am 40 yrs old. I was born in "Falguna (Spring)" of 1970. My name is Saran Singh. And sir - if you think of calling police (pointing to the phone in my hand) I do not care. As even police has given up hope on Saran Singh. I can beat up police too and put my khukri through them if they interfere"

Me - "Great. You look so strong. And you are like my younger brother as his name is also Saran. And he is around your age. By the way, I also have 2 sons and 2 daughters. Are your sons elder ? "

Saran - "No. Girls"

Me - "Mine too. Girls are elder. By the way, if your previous slap would have hit your wives eye who would take care of four kids ?"

Saran had softened a bit by then. The woman's crying has subsided. The crowd was thickening a bit.

The conversation went on for almost 30 mins more. But it was completely irrelevant to the act. In the mean time, I asked the woman to go to her job for which she was getting late. She requested as she left, to drop the Saran at his house. I walked with Saran to his house as he was explaining me the reason why he was hitting his wife. It was for Rs. 100. The man gave her Rs. 500/- and asked him to pay back Rs. 400/- to another person who will come home to pick up some dues. And keep the change Rs 100, for his drinks in the evening as he needs it to recover from 3 nights of continuous work he has done for that Rs. 500 saving.

The woman by mistake has given all Rs 500/- to the due collector.

Rs. 100 ( $2) has cost her some blood and pain and cost the man his only means of recovering from long hard 3 days of work.

I saw him off at his house and asked him to try solve problems without violence one time in life. Next time I see him, I ll ask him that. He said, 'certainly' !

That extra *something* ....

Some wise guys said long time ago "If you keep doing whatever you are doing, you will keep getting what you getting".

Well ! That's right in most cases. Unless you are a gold digger and actually find gold one day on that sandy beach !

Something, my gym trainer helped me to understand in a very hard way !

When he says I ve to do 16 reps of a particular weight, and I am *DONE* by 14th, my engineering head tells me - "what will go so right with just 2 more reps? I ve gotten enough". But then he explains, those two are the most valuable ones.
As they are right beyond your comfort zone. Right beyond what your muscles are used to. If you give up at 14, the muscle wont feel the need to get stronger. You did not stretch it.

Makes sense now !! YES ..

And, amazing parallel I could draw to the corporate life. People who grow successfully, stretch that comfort zone of developing / testing / deal making / decision making ! One notch at a time. And many other wonderful employees stay where they are, still doing excellent job within their comfort zone.

Associating .. Can save lives !!

Met a fellow country person abroad ?
Reacted to the very small news in Boston Globe that talks about fire in an "Indian Grocery Shop" ?

Even if you do not know someone, have you felt warm just seeing a person wearing "your" company T-Shirt in a crowded shopping mall ?

All human beings look for a reason to associate and a reason to differentiate, themselves from others.

But I associating could save lives, came to me as an extreme example today.

Bunch of internationally renowned academicians are in Bangalore for IEEE conference. One of the papers being discussed here among these research oriented engineers / academicians and mathematician, was rather interesting.

One Electronics prof. along with a psychologist have come up with a case study if human behavior during catastrophic incidents and the case study is largely based on the world trade center fire on 9/11, post the terrorist attack.

And the most simple yet eye opening conclusion is - "The floor where the entire floor was the same company, casualties were the minimum. People helped each other. No stampede. No chaos. The floors where many small companies rented space on one floor had maximum chaos, stampede and casualties."

Amazing reinforcement of a basic human property. This can directly map to a typical corporate job as a tool for better collaboration.

Change your next call with AS / CA / TAC even demanding customer (the other teams) to a video conference or meet them personally. Talk about something that associates, than something that differentiates.

Most likely the heated debates, that are norm, will trend down !

Doing Good ! Bollywood style ...

Generating Awareness !

.. otherwise called "Promo" in Bollywood ! One of the leading businesses in the field of entertainment !

The week long headlines about Swine Flu, today was replaced in all major dailies with one of the superstars being detained by US Immigration official for questioning.

Big enough news to throw swine flu out of headlines - headlines that has created enough panic about age old "cough and cold" and pushed more people to "get it" by sending them to long govt. hospital lines to get tested. Forcing healthy people to go mingle with sick people using "panic".

And a superstar managed to reduce the panic :)

Post the newsflash - he comes on TV and says "I was discriminated because "My Name is Khan" " .

Wonderful ! This is a crazy coincidence that his forth coming movie is named "My Name is Khan".

A complete novel way to "promo" a movie. Bollywood has figured out a real innovative way ! And unknowingly did good to nation too - by reducing the panic about FLU.

Cashing on "Basic Instincts" !

While the whole world is going crazy over "weight reduction" and "diet plans", comes the study that says this ... (on one of the major dailies with bold headline)

"Blokes with beer bellies can relax. A new survey has revealed that women find manly men complete with hairy chests, messy hair and a beer belly
attractive and prefer them to so-called metrosexuals. "

Until you read through few more lines where you find this ...
"The study, which was carried out by Lion Bar ice cream ... "

While there is a billion dollar industry trying to shape up human race for better attention from opposite sex, this one is sponsored by a high calorie ice cream bar, to do the reverse. Stay the way - eat ice cream and you are better off ! ;)

Any which way to grab that dollar. When you can not fight, join them !

One striking similarity is around "being attractive to opposite sex" ! That one is really age old and the most basic instinct !

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Full story here

Signs of progress !

Well "half sign" if not "full" !

Today I received a PAN card that was applied on-line.

Also, paid property tax on-line. Almost ! Just that right after the credit card approval was secured by the payment gateway, the service misbehaved and as a result I do not have any proof that I ve paid the tax while the money is gone !

Nevertheless, I am sure a lot others did not have to go some office during the day time to pay the tax. Just few clicks from office or home did their job. Good for productivity I guess !

More an more govt. things moving on-line. But surprisingly, there is a pattern that I see. Most of the govt. functions where govt. needs something from citizens are coming on-line and becoming more convenient to get.

The same is not reciprocated for the functions where citizens need something from govt. We still pay the bribe to local police for a mundane passport renewal ! The "bakshish" to the postman who delivers it home.

The municipality officers still take money and make one run 10 times before the handover the "Title" of a property owned by one !

(Half) sign of progress visible. Betaal sees it as half job done !

Where to draw the line on high touch technical support ?

A mail from customer facing customer support engineer to development dept .....


"Hi,

My request may seem a bit unusual here. But my customer, XXXX data center was on fire yesterday. The fireman were engaged to put off the fire. Now the YYY networking devices located at lower floor are seem to be drenched with water. Customer is asking for any best practices of drying the YYYs before running through a power on test.



Do we have such document ? Kindly share.

"

Vendor Management in India

In this age of global business and MNCs, one would expect vendor management to be more professional, process driven and just !

Not in India. Not even with one of the most global companies with a track record of being fair and just. Not even with a CEO who believes "Treat others the way you want to be treated yourself".

Second year in the row, I ve been observing the process of handing out a corporate health club management contract to a vendor.

Its pretty "Desi" in process. Ring up the vendor. Tell that their quality suck .. accuse them of watching porn in health club computer, line up one or two un-suspecting people to complain. Set up everything that would make a situation that the incumbent vendor is no-good !

No evidence needed. No real user feedback needed. No consideration to consequences of changing the vendor. No intention of saving bucks too ! And more over, the people who would make the decision about the vendor, would be the ones not using the facility at all !

And when you make your dis-satisfaction heard about the way of handling a simple and mundane issue of renewing contract of context services, they would tell you - "Let us do our job. This is how it works in India."

Mafia type ! Chicken the vendor out. Squeeze some personal goodies.

Last year, betaal, even tracked the real reasons to the core. And figured out the pool table that costs 8 lakh in market, was bought for 12 lakh while the vendor actually got 8 lakh.

Mafia type it is !

This year, its going to be much more difficult for them to have their way ! Betaal's intuition !

When nothing else works !!!!

There is a vast, well paid, industry out there. Who work to make your money work in stock market.

The brokers. The Bankers and the so called wealth managers.

And that area has been a fantasy area of innovation for many scientists, mathematicians, astrologers, numerologists, tarot card readers and plain gamblers.

All of them have their own formula of predicting the bears growl and bulls rush !

All motivated to make a quick buck from predicting the net vector of mass phycology !

And today, the so called reliable wealth managers from multinational banks call its clients, asking to take money off the market !

Cause ? Solar Eclipse ! It will eclipse the market and its not a good idea to stay invested through 4th of Aug. Huh !

The gloomy October .. the Santa rally ! Many forms of this theory prevail in the modern world, and many top advisers vouch on them purely with statistics. So why not eclipse ?

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Betaal has long accepted Stock Market to be the "leading" most indicator ! Which will predict the eclipse in ones life, not the other way around :)

Good luck investors !

Perception : Its all about me !

Coming back to the "perception" series after a short break.

Well ! Betaal has talked about how knowing when to ask for help as well as the display of sense of urgency, impact the perception.

And time for a new chapter to be written.

This time the theme is - "Its all about me" !

Simple enough !

This happens to the managers who present all the initiatives and ideas they present as their own ! And these people most of the times, are justified thinking this way. They are the brighter ones on the bock. No doubt.

Not the teams - not adopted ones ! No one else to share the credit with.

Its all about one life and one soul !

If the world is fortunate enough to hear a lecture from him / her, it is about his / her ambitions and projected life and killer ideas !
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One of Betaal's key phrase is " Thats a great idea sirjee - really cool". And the timing is even more critical. Its when some one repeats Betaal's thought !

When is it OK to get angry ?

Read an interesting study on recent HBR. It is a detailed study on the characteristics that help someone become successful in today world.

Be it public life, corporate life or family life.

And, as opposed to what we all would believe, the so called "cool" heads don't actually make it to the Top. Given everything else same.

Statistically seen, people who once in a while blow their top, are the one's who grow up.

Now, be careful here - the ones who go crazy all the time, don't even make it to the mix.

Its the creme of the creme population - and mostly consist of people who are cool and unfazed on the face of challenge and tough time. Among, these set the one who expressed emotions from "Anger / frustrations bucket once in a while" are the one who get bump-ups more than the "always unfazed" ones.

And one of the key analysis is, "always unfazed, cool exterior, portrays a less ambitious or more complacent person.

Now, definitely it brings up the point - when can one afford to show that "frustration", get "angry" ?

Betaal's take is - when one is in control and the aggression is a mere display, well calculated one. Used mainly as a controlled weapon to stir up the scene, but enacted naturally. A deterrence to blocking and detrimental behavior by others for an ultimate goal one is convinced about.

One can show the anger and frustration - but can never lose control on own mind !

So, the inner cool is not disturbed. The display of aggression is merely and act and a tool of expressing urgency.

Lord Krishna once during the war of Kurukhsetra did get angry and picked up the wheel of a chariot ! And, indeed it was an ACT and essential part to get to the ultimate goal he had in his mind.

One of the executives I know, used to have these "Whining sessions" with Betaal every once in a while. It is a 30 mins session, where the person whining would go all the way out letting out his frustration, pulling hair, using language otherwise prohibited, being personal and exhibiting all NO-NOs of the bible of greatness ! And right at 30mins, time is up ! Put back the cool shades and back to work !

Smile is contagious !

Vicky was puzzled.

There are few housekeeping staff on the floor, who are always heads down, doing some cleaning work in an office floor where 300 of white collar, well paid, IT professionals work.

A society, like that of India, does not encourage a lot of "chit-chat" / "pleasantries" across such class differences.

Vicky was puzzled because from last few days he notices one thing, which is very uncommon. Few of these housekeeping staff, when they make eye contact with him in the break out area or corridor, "smile" at him.

Normally, stressed looking, these young women smile at Vicky and all of a sudden look comfortable cross path with him. And the difference is visible.

Vicky, started analyzing the root cause of the "smile". Is he someone who breaks the age old class barrier just by his presence ? What else could be going on ? Why don't they smile at anyone else ? Vicky does not remember any interaction with them. No verbal or non-verbal interaction with them, he can recollect.

So, what makes them comfortable and make them smile at him ?

He grabbed his cup of tea and walked right in to Betaal's office and narrated the puzzle in his mind.

Betaal dug deep in to his experience and smiled at Vicky - and explained !

"Vicky ! When you get out of your office to catch a cup of tea, there is always a nice, cordial smile on your face ! You might be thinking something, looking at something else. I ve noticed that smile on your face - most of the time. And you carry it even if you are unaware of it. What these people are doing is they are "reciprocating" your smile.

The difference is seen by you ! Not by them. Most of the people you bump in to, on the hallway or in the break out area, smile at you. You think its customary to acknowledge the presence and have the non-verbal pleasantry exchanged. Its OK and USUAL for you when they are your colleagues. It does not register in your head that they are smiling at you.

But, you carry the smile any way. And these people are reciprocating it, and you notice it and register it because, you did not expect it."

Vicky was relieved in a way ! Yes ... the smile he gets is a mere reflection. And reflection is beyond class division !

One year of Betaal-Speak !

Just completed ONE year of blogging Betaal Gyan ! 150 observations, tid-bits and things that I think people can use, or mis-use or just plain know :)

Comoditizing High-tech !

In the brief history of IT revolution, one thing that stands out is how the expense of doing business with help from IT is reducing exponentially.

IT being pretty much a knowledge centric industry, the key proponents are software and hardware engineers.

And they used to demand high premium, riding on the wave of the revolution. It still goes on to certain extend, although looks like loosing steam.

So, what happened ? The demand by business is still high. Any new world business and most old work business can not live without it now.

The answer to it - however obvious it was - jumped on my face today.

Today while helping my 8 yrs old with school work, I noticed their computer book. Pretty impressive for a 4th standard lil guy ! All control flows, logic, and basic programming in standard 4.

No wonder, over last 10 years, because of the lure of being in key industry and making wealth, has pushed the education related to IT way deep in the education system.

And over the same decade, a lot more knowledge workers are being created. Supply increases. Many fold and is catching up with demand.

And when that equilibrium happens, Hi-Tech becomes commodity.

Wondering if the same cycle did happen for textile revolution of 50s ? Don't know if schools really did teach stitching in a mass scale !

Integration Defect or End-to-End feature ?

Look closely at the picture. The top white box is a automatic, zero-touch, hand cleaner / sanitiser.
These equipments flooded the office buildings recently when Swine Flu got its media space.

This is supposed to keep the hands of the employees clean. All one got to do is place the hand below it.
It has optical sensor to fingure out that something is below it. And it will dispense around 2 ml of this dis-infectant liquid on
to one's palms.

Cool functionality - when one looks at it stand alone.

Now, look at the black rectangle below it. It is a batdge reader. Again another brilliant safety feature for corporations. Anyone who has a valid badge
will have to show this on the rectangle box. The box validates the identity and opens the door.

Again ! Cool standalone device.

The black badge reader is incumbent member of this real estate, while the pig-fear got the while sanitizer to the space later.

Now, together these two wonderful devices have a problem. Every one coming through the door raises the badge to the bar reader. Right below the
dispenser. The dispenser notes movement below it and drops the dis-infectant.

100s of people come through the door everyday. Needless to say all the dis-infectant leaks just because people have to swipe the badges.

Two wonderful devices, integrated makes a money wasting combo !

Or is it a feature ? It mandates the spills on every entrant ???

Building teams that last !

The BJP family is breaking up. Not able to take the shattering loss in the elections, the so called leaders, pointing fingers at each other for failure.

And the family is breaking up !

BJP is / was the only viable alternate front to the dynastic Congress rule, that India has seen since independence. And the team has shown characters of amoeba,

multiplying from mere 2 seats in parliament in 84 to a near-majority govt. under the Thespian leader Atal Bihari Bajpayee !

And set a chain reaction of state wins post that.

So, now that it is breaking up to pieces, betaal looks at what went wrong, organizationally speaking !

- The team was built on one man leadership - Bajapayee ! He was well supported by Advani-jee, Jaswant, Yeshwant, Murli Joshi and all other leaders

- The individual leadership quotients of all these people are still intact. Just Bajapayee, the voice of reason, a resolve of steal and glue between these leaders have retired

- A well thought out Mission/Vision was not in place to appeal and address progressive shining India, that in the first place was set in with the vision and mission of the

same leadership team. It was clearly showing up in BJPs last election manifesto. The manifesto swung between Congress style socialism, to true Right wing ego !

- A well thought out leadership architecture was not put in place for post Bajapayee era

- Overconfidence from a few state wins

So, Mr. Bajapayee - while hats off to you that you built the ONLY viable alternative to the dynasty - you failed to built it to outgrow you ! You led from the front and climbed Everest. But the people who followed you up there, could not repeat that mantle.

Betaal hopes the strong alternative does shape up - first with a purpose that fits the changing India, and then with a leadership that executes further changes !

Perception - "When to ask for help?"

Betaal sees many cases around him, people asking how do they influence the perception that gets created about them.

So, few entries in the blog are going to focus on this. How negative perceptions get created and how we can prevent them from getting created.

First in point - "When to ask for help ?"

This is for the bucket of earthlings who have a perception of a punter. Someone who transfers his . her problems to others, higher ups in the organizations, and reaches out extensively for help even on issues, which he/she is being paid to resolve.

Most of these people, justify their behavior in following terms.

- Giving a heads up to rest of the ecosystem on a brewing issue is a good thing afterall
- Collaboration, spreading the scale of the issues thin and tackling them
- Transparency and proactive communication
- Avoid 11th hour fire-fighting

All valid points !!! Now, whats most critical here is what kind of issues given this treatment.

If it is something within the persons scope or lil beyond it, the person need to stretch to resolve.
Yes - heads up need to be sent out. Yes - collaboration need to happen. Yes - transparency need to be there and Yes - salute to your proactive communication !

However, what if the same person when raising the visibility of the issue proactively also presented 2 or 3 solutions with exact expectations from others he / she is reaching out with the issue ?

Most people help. They help when they know that the entire responsibility of some one is not transferring to them and when they know what they are helping with.

Yet, another trend in some of these people is that - they will raise the flags on each issue and them go back do it themselves anyway ! As a pattern. Issue after issue. Without anyone's help.
That creates a "visibility seeking perception" and in a long run reduces the criticality of the help request in others mind.

Betaal advises - know what to ask help on, when ! And have few proposals to fix it with help needed from others articulated well.

Perception ..

Sometimes unfortunate perception about something or someone gets created. Moves mouth-to-mouth. Amplifies ! And never goes away !

And most of the times, the victim thinks its none of his / her fault. But nevertheless, gets penalized for it.

One of my direct reports, as I take on this new job, has this issue. Anyone I ask, they say, they don't want to work with him. But when I ask, "Have you worked with him at all earlier ?".

The answer comes back NO.

So, how did the perception got built ?

The same person, has a very remote counterpart in Israel he works closely with. And that counterpart thinks he is God. No bad perception there.

People close to him, geographically do not want to work with him.

Strange case indeed ! And his growth is completely stalled in the current org.

So, I asked him, to send me last 500 mails from him "Sent" folder sans the personal ones !

Browsed through just 40-50 of them. And there was a pattern. All his mails to local engineers ended with 4 letters "A.S.A.P".

And all his mails to Israel counterpart were not having those letters. In fact, it was more reporting and summary of all the A.S.A.P items he collected, copied line by line.

There, the puzzle was solved. He distinctly gives a signal of urgency for everything to local team and do not create visibility for them by being the middle person of reporting.

No wonder the perception is created such a way !

What a mentor can do !

Saw this in an adv !

Diving catch syndrome ..

In Cricketing terms, when a match is in crisis state, a high flying, extreme diving, difficult catch changes it all. And it makes heroes.

While what a good bowler should do, is to set up the field such a way that catches should land in the fielders hand. Almost like it was programmed that way !

Matches can be won either way ! A few diving catches or a pre-planned relentless, all inclusive attack plan. But, not many heroes born by the later mechanism.

Because the entertainment value, the unpredictability and the adrenaline factor go missing in that approach.

That's OK for a game.

In corporations, I ve been seeing a relentless pursuit for "Diving catches". Reactive work force, and yet ready to jump in when a crisis hits, and nevertheless successful in abating the crisis, in a war like fashion. Most of the times, if proper post mortem is done, the cause of the crisis are the same set of people.

The same people who go back in to cocoon when the crisis recedes.

Because it makes heroes. Brings in visibility and kudos ! The employee in the corner doing everything in his / her daily routine to avoid that crisis, most probably gets a step-child like cold shoulder.

The need for both is immense. Org should plan out a proactive attack plan that avoids crisis. However, if things do turn out bad, there should be Diving Catchers to save the day !

The way it seems today, it is reversed !

How "Green" is your green initiative ? - Part II

On the eve of environment, this is my second article.

Like a good green citizen, I ve signed up for all e-statements. If you look at it, banks spam you the most on paper mail. And those going to to e-mail in-box is a good thing. A good chunk of paper waste avoided. Not going in to the details of energy consumed for storage of e-docs and transmission, it is definitely a good thing.

Then enters govt. I needed to change my address in pass port. They needed address proof for continuous 11 months. Anything that proves continuous is defined as monthly utility bills, bank statements etc. Now, everything being electronic, can you print those out and provide ? Passport authority says NO.

So, you go request physical paper copies from bank ! While it is probably the same amount of paper wasted, whether you print or you get from bank, it comes with additional hassle.

With the new govt. high on national ID and e-governance, I hope all these will come together in next 5 years. After all there is a majority govt :)

How "Green" is your green initiative ?

Bangalore is not any longer a green city that it used to be. Understood that the economic growth and rapid urbanization has taken its toll !

Now, on the so called "Environment Day" (why is not everyday Environment Day ??? ), one of the key initiatives Bangalore had was to do free emission test on major city roads for the commuters.

Bangalore is a choked. Packed with vehicles. And then when the traffic is interrupted with free emission tests, thousands more wait in the line with Engine and AC ON !

The tonnage of CO2 and CO emission that landed in BLR air today, is definitely a justification why everyday should not be an Environment Day.

We are better off with Once a Year and the phony organizations seemingly great initiatives !!!

Does information help decision making ?

To a lay-person it may not even look like a valid question. Of course, information, the right ones, in the right time do help in decision making.

I am going to narrate two recent situations from my daily life, and these events do repeat in one of the following pattern for rest of the days.

- In a customer escalation situation, which needed a fix, usual life.
We were talking about a fix directly with customer, that the intermediate teams like service delivery, account team etc. like. They want us to pass on all the information to them, and they do the relaying. I know what you are thinking - "In-efficient" ? I am with you !

Now, in this first event, I provided all information that indicates that there is no chance of any collateral of this fix to the intermediate teams. But they still could not confidently tell the customer that there is no risk to this fix. When that question was asked, they looked for me on the call where I said "No Risk what so ever" ! Until then it was beating around the bush !

- The second event was more interesting. Similar situation. I did not have 100% information myself. Neither did the intermediate teams and the customer. And no wonder anyone was taking a decision on how to close this issue. But the time dragged on. And one of them took a decision to close.

So, information amount is not always aiding decision making. Decision making is coming from peoples risk taking ability and gut-feel.

Education begins at home ..

.. or so all like believe !

I happened to be at the Mysore palace Sunday afternoon, being host to couple of old friends. Very crowded place.

They don't allow shoes inside. And the crowd at the shoe stand was un-controllable.

I offered up to look after these friends and their kids shoes.

It was a long meditation in the crowd looking at shoes, where clearly professional working on stealing them.

Then a middle aged woman comes along with her teenage daughter and found that daughters shoes are missing. She was really in a cranky mood. Pushed literally my 4 yrs old who was sitting on the floor to get some rest.

Then asked her daughter to pick up any pair of good shoes which she thinks will fit her, in Bengali - the language I understand !

I followed the discussion clearly. And was shocked by a mom suggesting to a growing daughter to steal to compensate for something stolen !

"Bright" .. but not so much !

(Back to blogging after a small break)

I am coaching / mentoring unknown colleagues last 2 days as part of an HR initiative. Every year, this event, is probably more informative for me than to the people who come seeking guidance.

I get to know people from other departments, with problems and issues, which are common to the ones I know - only at the highest level. Like changing the career track effectively to match someone's interest, or dealing with a bad manager, or setting short term long term goal for oneself etc.

But at the granular level, the problems are different. The dynamics are different. Good learning opportunity about other function within a mammoth of an organization.

One such case caught my attention yesterday !

Young chap, fresh from college - just a year or so in to the job, had this concern.

He has been an outstanding student all through his studies. His parents and teachers and relatives have always referred to him as a "bright" guy ! They have all been proud of his abilities and accolades, which he seems to have plenty.

His current problem is - his existing management does not think he is particularly "Bright". His abilities are not underlined or high-lighted.

Young friend has clearly lost sleep over this new discovery about himself ! He has done his set off soul-searching !

I politely asked his permission - if I can as personal questions. Which he agreed to !

My questions were simple -

1. How many siblings he has ? Ans: none

2. day Scholar or hostel ? Ans: Day Scholar

3. Who filled his forms when he appeared in entrance exam ? Ans: Dad helped

4. Did he choose his branch in engineering ? Ans: Uncle, who is in IT industry for a while, told him what he should pick and in which college !

5. Did he think his uncles decision was right ? Ans: Did not have any opinion either way !

6. What are the parameters based on which everyone thought he is "Bright" ? Ans: Marks / grades

I am sure there is nothing wrong in all the answers he gave. But there is a pattern that I noticed.

A pattern where, the brightness is mere reflection of others light than from own fire !

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I sent him back with an simple exercise for next 4 weeks and asked him to contact me again. Hope he completes the exercise and brings me the journal !

I am sure, he can be as Bright in his job ! Just that the self ignition need to happen. And that's what the suggested exercise is supposed to do.

Yet another innovation...

After the UV protected, liquid ammonia shirts for executives, a real meaningful one here.

A leading home electronics brand, connecting a ceiling-fan and the AC controls.

Most Indian families who use AC, use it sparingly for the huge energy cost it comes with.

The brand lets you set a timer when you go to bed, say for two hours when you get deep in to slumber. Quietly the AC stops and passes the control on to the fan after you are asleep ?

Hybrid cooling ?

Certainly green thinking ! Better than UV protected shirts :)

Marketing to board room dummies !

In a leading business weekly, I found an interesting adv.

Shirts and ties for executives, that have liquid ammonia coating to protect UV rays falling on the skin of the executives.

Innovative ???

Look at the end users - tie wearing executives !

How they move ? AC Cars with tinted glass !
Where they live ? AC houses !
Where they work ? AC closed offices !
Where they play ? Golf in a golf course. But they do not wear formal shirts and neckties to that.

Now, why would these people need protection from UV rays ?

Whats next innovation ? Breast Enlargement for men ??

Amoral "means"

The transport service picks up my friend 2 kms from her house. To work in the morning. Back home in the evening. Again 2kms walk to home with the office bag, computer and all.

And she is expecting now !

She wanted to change the route to a closer place to her house, where there is already a route and cab running to. And there is space to accommodate ! But, the answer was NO.

The answer was NO until she said, she is "expecting", that to ! Of course after that the transport route for her was changed.
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Now take this story and slice and dice it -

1. There was a "route" already through her area

2. Accommodating in that route was not a challenge for the transport dept

3. 4 Kms walk everyday with Laptop and gym bag can be inconvenient even for people "not expecting"

4. She had to use her condition to get the route changed !

5. She felt miserable for using that "condition" ...

Sometimes one needs to use amoral means for a moral end.

Free market seeks equilibrium !

There is a lot of hue and cry over Obama's Bangalore talk today. Everyone is predicting doom for India's knowledge industry, that has thrived with outsources products and services from USA and other richer countries over last decade.

Now, Obama wants to clip the move, to save jobs for Americans, who are going jobless in hordes.
Companies, who set up shop outside USA, if they did not repatriate the profit from the operations back in to USA, they paid a lot lower tax.

Now, that the hole Obama wants to plug, and analysts believe this would raise the cost of outsourcing by 50%, which could make India not-so-competitive among the other service providing nations.

Now, look at it this way. If you have a Pot of a crazy crazy shape, and you pour enough water in to it, the water top level is always the same. Irrespective of the shape below it.

When we say, economy should be "Free" - this is what would happen.
- Businesses would look for cheaper places to go to produce. For e.g. USA to India

- The cheaper places will make more money e.g. Indian working on these would be wealthier

- More money brings more greed, and the salaries and comp. of the workers in the cheaper place would keep increasing, much more than the source (USA)

- When a lot of these job moves, the source country will have joblessness. And their spending will decrease. And more free workers will attract less wages.

- This cycle would continue till US and India (in this example) workers would cost similar !

This is free market. It will seek equilibrium.

Only thing is that, the time to equilibrium is probably expedited by such policy decisions, which are not so free market in nature ! Its like vaccination. Inject bacteria to make one bacteria free :)

Courage to "feed"back !

I sincerely doubt local services are bold enough to take customer feedback, process them and convert them to leverages.

I rented a big SUV for the long weekend to go up a mountain with kids. The driver was trained in Bangalore call center cabs and did lack the skills of carrying a vacationing family for sure.

Starting from safety considerations, like moving when someone is still getting down and door is open, taking the mountainous hair-pin bends, vanishing from the wheels leaving the customers in hot summer sun for hours etc.

Well ! After the trip is over, and Thank GOD its over, I called up the CAB company and requested them not to send this particular cab driver with family crowds.

The driver is pissed with my action and calling me every few minutes drunk !

Not sure, giving the feedback or taking it - needs more courage !

End of ownership ???

Twelve years working for the same employer !
Twelve years of metamorphosis - from being a small nimble innovative company to large diversified corporation.

This company has been generous in handing our "Stock Option Grants" in the past. The theme is - when you own shares, you behave like a shareholder. In other words like a part-owner of the company and do the right thing.

I kinda believed in that when I was younger ;) So, today I am trying to think hard to see if something has changed.

I ve sold the last lot of stock options I could sell. I am holding NO shares what so ever and there is no possibility of stock options being granted in future too. Its done !

Now, is this end of the sense of "ownership" ???

Betaal is either arrogant or un-coachable :)

The City and the intellectuals staying in this city - all are raving about this "Landmark Education". Something that changes lives. Makes better spouses. Better kids. Better citizens. Fixes most of the problems above the shoulder.

Its a 4 days course (9AM to 11PM !!! ) about making one internally strong and see the right prospective.

Most of the people who came out of the course, say that at the end of the four days, its almost an orgasmic feeling ! Trans followed by tranquility ! And the Ohhhh of "I get it now".

Obviously intrigued by this, Betaal went for a Saturday intro class. This is offered as a miniature version for the people to see what is it and then sign on for the 4 day course that costs good amount of money !

As many other self-improvement trainings, this one started with one problem to pick, impact on current behavior because of the problem, missing actions, new possibilities - different stages.

After 3-4 hours betaal did not have any thing close to the orgasmic trance ! A few super-powerful ways of thinking that betaal does almost all sober moments of his life ;)

Truly arrogant or hopelessly un-coachable I say !

If you listen "only" to the customer ..

A giant company, leader in it field, went out asking customers what is the next best technology they can have that would leap frog them in to the gen-next in their business.

Focused around emerging markets - where the percentage growth in business is attractive.

And, yes ! Most innovations have happened by listening to the customer and management gurus have vouched for this technique generation after generation. So it was the apt thing to do !

What came back from the customers was shocking though ? They did not want any new path breaking technology. All the suggestions were around improving the reliability of the systems already out there. About combining the systems to create more scalable solutions.

Does that mean the giant of the company stops innovating new technologies ?

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That reminds betaal what Henry Ford said after building car. "If I "only" listened to customers I would have tried to breed faster horses".

Much ado about "voting"

... is worth it ! At least for the feeling of being a part of a change. A "billionth" part that is.
Nevertheless, a part.

The media and industry this year has done a tremendous job in terms of getting awareness up in urban population about the contestants, the process to register and vote and the complete nine yards.

Before going to the booth, there were profiles of the aspiring leaders and their stance on each of the critical issues outlined in leading daily. The profile even includes their net worth and if they have criminal records.

Information is king ! And the king makers (us the citizens) have access to IT to choose the best king.

As usual on voting days, I make it the first-thing-to-do-in-the-morning routine.

What is disappointing me is that it was declared a holiday. Voting itself is was a less than 10 min job for me including commute to the booth (yes - there is always a closer one to you). And if you go to the booth at 7:30AM, there is no line. Most companies declared Saturday as "compensation" working day for this holiday. Not ours !

Means of communication !

Ever wondered how many different ways we have to communicate today ? Tele-communicate to be specific !

Telephone. Texting. IMs. e-mails. Video conferencing etc. etc.

I ve come across a simple combo tool combination that works magic during the late night customer calls that are part of our job.

When multiple people are on a conference, people belonging to many functions and many sides of negotiation - surprising things come up ! Surprise questions that take you off-guard !

And if you the one talking, or the one listening while one of your team is talking, there is a risk of being out-of-sync right on the call ! Can be very embarrassing.

So while talking on telephone, keeping the IM window open in a chat group with your team, to react to such surprises in a cohesive synchronous way is very helpful !

Bring on the methods of communications, Betaal says ! ;)

Pun intended .....

(not an original post.. plagiarized from some chain mail off the internet)

Marc Faber's comment on the US economy -

Investment analyst and entrepreneur Dr. Marc Faber concluded his
monthly bulletin with the following:

''The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we
spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend
it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will
go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to
Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will
go to Germany/Japan. If we purchase useless crap it will go to
Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way
to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and
beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I've
been doing my part."

Thinking "inside" the box !

A lot happens out there in name of thinking "outside" the box. A lot good. And a far lot chaos !

There are many motivations today to think outside the box -

1. To break away from competition with something new

2. To be visible and for personal growth and blowing self horn

3. To look different and cool

While, as long as the result is good, any of the approach is good, the pre-requisite of thinking outside the box is not met by all who do so. For the gloss and rush of it !

Someone to be successful in thinking out side the box, need to at least know, what is inside the box. Else, this aids illegitimate birth of many dis-jointed, chaotic ideas which do not build on one another. And fail to stand on their own.

There is a *single* problem chansing a business today where I work. And most of the big heads, have chased the think outside the box dream to make it more unreasonable.

Time to look inside the box !

Power of "Non-working Days"

Non-working days - Leaves that one takes from work with pay or holidays !

Power to Employee: In a country like India, where family includes your dependent fathers, from generations, having them included in your health benefits is only logical. But it was not so for a few big multinationals (read US based companies, where one's family does not include the parents).
So, when genuine needs of employees needing health insurance for parents showed up and stirred up the HR policies in one of those big US based companies in India, the committee recommended to cut the Leaves or Paid Time Off by 2 days and fund extra premium needs to include parents in the health plan. Employees did not complain about working 2 days extra.

That is the power of Non-working days.

Power to the employer: When economy nose dived, and companies started looking for every possible ways of saving a few bucks and stay afloat, many announced mandatory time off for couple of weeks, during Christmas (when very less work gets done anyway). Way to push off liabilities from the balance sheet and hence making the balance sheet more positive than it would have been with those promised paid hours of no-work !

Why am I remembering those events today ? Well.. because today is a holiday in India. And I can not understand why ?

Good Friday - even in some real Christian countries it is not a holiday. I think it is wastage of a powerful tool like "Non-working Time" !

Money Talks !

A story - betaal was telling to Vicky ! About setting priorities around money, and misplaced priorities.

Once there was a high tech company. Small and nimble. High on innovation - in productions, pricing, positioning and packaging ! A true Engineering and Sales driven company.

They produced hardware and sold them. Now, every hardware sold went with software, which was never sold separately. But half of the development cost was in software. Then enabling services on the platforms (Hardware PLUS software), was through partners or through education directly to the customer.

Then the company grew. Some wise brains thought of a silo called "services". To recover the money for the software and services on the HW the company built. Very good business idea.

One hole in execution though !

The so called new Silo, "Services" did not have expertise to provide the services customer wanted. That expertise still stayed with Engineering. So, they ended up being a wrapper layer, punting problems from customers to engineering.

So, engineering, spent same amount of time as before. Sometimes more. But the company had more than twice the amount of employees. A boatload of them hired for "services". The wrapper layer !

Now, everyone who counted money loved those people. As services was like lost money found.
Growing at high teen. Customers coughed up more for their speed of deployment. Engineering kept on doing the work in the back ground.

The accounting showed all the money coming in under the PIE of Services. Then money started talking !

When a budget cut came, engineers got cut. Services continued to splurge ! Less engineers more wrapper deadwood ! But more money in wrapper pie.

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Betaal took a pause from story telling. For Vicky, it was not unknown ! It was more re-instating the fear he always had. The company evolved from the technical thought leader to a white elephant ! Nicely decorated and wonderfully presented. Standing on the back of dead engineers who worked and saved all thir life for the elephant to splurge and look good.

Wasteful attention !

Customer Escalation handling is the holy grail for many corporates. It builds business and more importantly builds careers within the company. So it attracts a lot of visibility seeking people in to it.

While, the intention is noble and essential, that is - paying attention to customer, the implementation of it hugely opportunistic and wasteful.

Last night, I went on a call where for one issue, there were 3 program managers, 3 technical managers, 1 escalation manager and 2 technical support engrs, 4 engineers and one customer representative.

There was one hour of internal call and one hour of external call.

2 hours of 13 people, for one issue, which is in root caused and fix found state. Two people talking. Others watching !

Betaal mused the words "efficiency" and "frugality".

Corporate-Govt nexus !

I happened to be in the "south block" of a big corporate. You know what I mean by that.
An area with a lot of ultra white color strategy makers.

Whenever I spend some time here, I get some new insight. Today was not different.

When I went in, there was a special task force working on a completely non-technical thing.
A bunch of people on phone, trying to get in touch with all famous women of India. When I say famous (I can not take all the names here), reaaaaalllly famous ! Like head of state, like ex-super cop, like founder of Biotech in India etc.

And there were a bunch of people celebrating something in a corner. Wondering what is it all about, I started probing few of my privileged friends.

Here is the summary of my findings !

Govt of India in last 15 years have developed many concepts to attract multinational business. STPI and SEZ are part of these gambits. Now, there are still archaic laws that makes it very expensive to move resources between these two bodies. Very very expensive. Mainly because SEZ was created to encourage new business with new tax holiday and STPI tax holidays are over(10 yrs). But corporations do find loop holes.

So, after a long standing negotiation, the corporate has own a battle - make this movement free.
And thats the cause of celebration. Understood ! So whats up with looking up famous women ?

Here is the link - Govt. has asked, industry to encourage "Women Enterprenuers" !
Hence the rush to set up talks. Motivation speeches etc.

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Betaal is flumoxed ! He knows its poll time and he knows, for getting something free for corporate, there is a one time favor to party that would be appropriate during poll time. Betaal also knows Govt. wants to put a official, society friendly spin on it. What better than - "We gave industry a break from duties in leau of them investing in building next-gen women enterpreneurs" ?

A story of two trees ..

Once I went to an ancient temple in Orissa with my father. I was a kid then (I still am :) .

There was one of natures wonders. Two Ashoka Trees believed to be thousands of years old.

One of them Bigger than the other. Shadowing the smaller one. Lil gray leaves.

The smaller one had luscious green leaves. But it was smaller. It was in the shadow of the bigger one ! All along.

They were both planted on the same soil. Same place. Same number of years. One had better leaves than others. But it was smaller than the other one.
And in the shadow !

Somethings happening lately, that reminds me of those trees. The smaller one in particular. The one that exemplifies "Threat perception". Its time to break out !

A tree does not have to move for its food. And anything that can move and does not move, for food and growth, becomes like a tree. The smaller one of the twins in particular.

To touch or not to touch !

There are explosives around me. But not exactly in the territory I am supposed to guard.

I smell them. Know that they are around. Just can not defuse them. Or may be I can, but at the risk of being court Marshall.

This is a tricky issue that bugs many up us while we try to walk through the corporate corridor !

If you see filth, you supposed to walk away or clean up ? Dilemma is while cleaning up, if you enter someone else's house, it is trespassing !

Betaal believes - you should clean it up, entering others house ! But only if the sheriff is your friend !

IT education in India

One of the top IT training providers in the country is trying to set up India's only IT university, a large one with a mission of producing employable students.

So far so good !

The VP of the company asked for a slot to talk to me y'day on what are the stuff missing in the existing PG courses in India that industry would like to see taught in school.

It was a good discussion - I applaud their ambition to set up a curriculum based on feedback from the industry people.

To summerize my thoughts on this topic -

1. PG courses do need to expose students to large development with the entire one class (24 students) working in a team and developing and testing and integrating together.

2. PG courses do need to expose students to "incremental work" on large established systems. This is what 90% of the Indian IT Companies do.

3. The casteism around Dev vs. Test need to go. There should be specialized Test courses.

4. The impact of IT on socio-political environment, and the implications of the digital divide in a country like India

Creative cost cutting ..

The IT companies have one big cost - IT cost !

And this is what some of them do to reduce it.
I was talking to a few friends from different IT companies. They get USD 700 allowance for computing. Meaning, they can choose their laptop and buy on their own. Upto $700 is covered by the company.

Company just mandates the minimum specifications. Now, when you have your laptop, company will provide a few apps to connect to work and standard anti-virus.

Warranty is employees headache on hardware and OS. Employee treats the laptop as his own, and thus the care is better. This makes the laptop last 3 yrs, instead of standard 2 yrs. Thats where the savings come from.

I feel like saying - "What an idea sirjee ! " ;)

Odd Battles - update !

People do find new ways - work around, when pushed with motivation and compassion !

Refer to older post "Odd Battles". The insurance company has come back to me with a mechanism to achieve what I wanted.

Here, I did not push these people, who could not help me within the frame work of current policies.

I just excited them, that during a slow down, if they do not think differently and break mundane policies of yesteryears, they will hurt.

All amicable discussion. No screaming or pushing !

Don't stand under the bridge built by you !!

This is an Indira era slogan, that opposition used, to highlight corruption in India. Civil engineers, in charge of building India's infrastructure, used everything to pocket as much money from the project and nothing to look for the quality of the infrastructure they built.

Hence the slogan !

Fast forward - 20 years gone by ! A global networking giant that wants to change the world by allowing people to work from anywhere, and blend it with life, instructed all its employees to not use the networking technolgy !

Jai Ho !

Fair distribution ..

When a big org and set of new tasks up from grab, there is a lot of attentions from all managers to own the big chunk and take the proven good employees

in their team.

Big chunk should include sexy chunks also. All task is important to business, thats why they are there. But certain sexy works, will need less work for the managers keep the employees motivated.

So the wish list - big chunk of org in terms on employee number, good work and best of best employees !

Now, how would the entire org function this way :)

All the top 2nd lines, setting up 1;1s to put hand kerchiefs, reserve the right chunk for them.

And as a new comer - I only know each employees by name. Not by their true desirability (read a performance and alignment to business).

So, to solve the complex request for all the 2nd lines, devised a new plan !

Told, currently no one owns any of the new pieces. List all the employees, their experience level, their performance rating, their expertise and best fit across all the dozens of managers in the org.

Broken all the new tasks to related 4 major buckets.

Then took the org experience and perfomanace ratio and told the 2nd lines to devide in to those four buckets !

Ground rules -

1. The org experience and performance ratio to be same across all 4 BIG buckets

2. Dont think who is the current manager

3. And none of they know which big bucket they will OWN after this exercise - THIS is the key part

Then I let them lose on allocation and distribution of engineers in to buckets.

Now, because no one knows which bucket they would end up owning, they have all been fair. Say they desperately like few folks. But once in a bucket, they dont know if they would get the bucket.

This seemed to work like a charm. Every bucket for a fair distribution and every task is well funded. Nothing more that required in any bucket !

Its so easy now to go ahead tell who gets which bucket :) My inherent weakness of not knowing each ones capability in the new team is mitigated by combined efforts of my 2nd lines.