Oh so "Intolerant and insensitive" ..

Last couple of days I have been in a "All Women" conference. Driven by the new age HR initiative across many companies - I&D. Inclusion and Diversity !

One of the key proponent of I&D, wanted to have my opinion on initiating tracks on "LGBT" networking within companies here in Bangalore, India. Support groups. Prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation in the MNCs.

My honest opinion was "Why solve something that is not even a problem ?".

She said - In India, people who are coming to work in IT companies, all in closet. With all the support structure they may come out of it. And the society here is not very tolerant, as good corporate citizens we need to support them.


My opinion was still the same - "Why solve something that is not even a problem ?"

if they are in closet, they are not being "discriminated" in work place. And if we know, society here is intolerant and we are afraid that people may be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, then why put them on spot light by supporting them to come out of the closet ? Won't we endanger them more ?? What service will we do as good corporates ?

Of course I got the LOOK - "Oh so intolerant and insensitive - YOU !!! "

Ok - go ahead ! in the name of inclusion and diversity, differentiate certain people and keep them outside the circle, so that they can struggle to be inclusive !! huh !!!

"Longitude" - A poem !

Naughty grin, stuck to the face
Been a while since you left
shuffling you in my mind
Forward, backward, wind, re-wind

The magic allures
The taste lingers 
Scent scintillates the senses
Can't  you leave me,
Just for a few moments ?

Go ! Far far away
I want to miss you -

say "My friend! so long !"
and wish like a parting soul mate -
"May you never get to cry alone" !!


- Betaal, A Rainy Sunday of November 2011

Superstition !

All of us have some of the seasoned believes, backed by mental statistics and correlations to results - good or bad !

If I wear the blue dress, the presentation will be good.
The old wrist band for a few free aces in the game.
Enter home with left foot in first ? Ok... that's too much !


But all of have some form of superstitions. And when we rationally think about them or especially when we advice others, we frown up on superstitions ! We know, logically,  they have no relevance to reality.

However, superstition can be very very useful in many cases. Most athletes have strong superstitions. When they are not in form, superstition comes handy is getting out of it.

How ?

When an athlete goes through a bad patch, which is not because of physical injuries, it is because of a mental block, self doubt, cluttered thoughts etc.

And if a pair of socks form two different sets, makes him feel lucky and get over all the above what's wrong ?

We can certainly make it a tool to break some degenerative cycles.

PS: Personally tried and tested :)

A week of change

India story turns to the page of "Formula 1", "Lady Gaga", "Metallica" - all in the same week.

The youth has moved on from "I am Anna".

From fighting financial and political corruption, to inviting moral and cultural corruption.

From the demand of inclusive growth, to showcasing capitalistic-porn !

The priorities have changed. The focus has moved to more comfortable subjects.

Nevertheless, change is good and the only constant ! And its cyclic in intention too :) That part is new discovery for sure.

Diwali Greetings !!

Diwali - the festival of lights !
The victory of truth.
Awareness over ignorance.

My very dear friends !
      While you must already be getting tons of best wishes from all around you, let me wish all of us just one thing - "To be aware of what exactly we wish for in our life, family, friends, society, country,  planet and universe. Let just be aware of that."

And  old drop of wisdom "Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram".

Seeking truth will lead to God up on attaining whom we will be beautiful !!

Appreciate beauty. Stay beautiful !

Happy Diwali !

Something for the weekend ..

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
 
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
 
Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.
 
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity." - Lao Zhu

whodunit ???

I often turn to kids to tap in to some fresh, pure, un-cluttered, uni-dimensional, courageous thinking.
Its interesting to watch them analyze grave subjects and come up with probable solution.

They are not too sensitive to feedback (one saying other "what a dumb idea! you shut up !") neither they are afraid to accept others' idea ("cool didi .. thats a great idea !").

Today morning, the kids of the apartment complex I live in got a really grave subject to discuss. Theft !

Last night, between 3AM - 4AM, 3-4 apartments within the complex were burgled. The thieves were confident climbers, as proficient in sneaking in through high rise balconies, as our security guards are proficient in sleeping through the night ! They have just taken cash from all the wallets left in living rooms and had time to remove the SIM Cards before taking all the mobile phones too. 

So in the morning, when the residents are all in a state of nervous excitement, all pointing fingers to security guard, police doing some investigation etc. kids started their parallel analysis.

- "The apartment complex has just one gate, where security office is there. All other sides are apartments. So it has to be insiders. Not people from outside"

- "Police should go look for people who are sleepy now in the morning time. If some of them are sleeping with cash and mobile, then they are the theives"

- "lets just call the mobile phone they have taken and ask where are you? "

- "Some people become thief because they did not study when they were kids. Lets put a poster, if you are a thief, we can teach you math for free"  

- "our karate teacher should stay here in the night. He can kick all the thieves"

And many more. Agreed, most of these have been shaped by the TV they watch and other stuff, but the focus and team work is exemplary.

Adults simply have forgotten this level of team work, while developing their ego over the years, somewhere ! Who stole that from all of us  ???

Looking backwards..

20 yrs ON, one of the so-called management Guru's of that time, would probably publish some paper / theory telling how Steve Jobs demise, simultaneous iPhone 4S launch, which failed to excite users, caused a brand like APPLE to disappear. In a couple of days the fate of the biggest ever tech giant was sealed.

.. that's assuming APPLE does struggle from now on and marginalized in next 20.

If that continues to be #1 the story would be different - Not even Jobs' demise could stop the success, as he built an enduring line up of leaders. When the fundamentals are solid one or two product failures and change of charismatic leaders do not change the course of great companies.

Nevertheless, NOW will be in History ! 20 yrs ON !!

Kids talk ..

How human beings, as young as 7 yrs react to same stimulus ? Here is an example ..

Two kids rushing home in the evening at the end of their play time in the garden down stairs.
Both have insect bites on there legs.

First kid whines - "Mama ! Why do mosquitoes bite ONLY me ?? "

The second kid - 'No they bite me more. Because my blood is sweeter. Even the doctor gives it "A+"'

Not my work syndrome ..

Heightened senses..

Few months ago, I tried to help a struggling manager with a small metaphor.
This manager was not the usual, organically grown from technical hands-on engineering ranks !
But had enough common sense to land there. And penchant to follow right things up at right time.

But, he did have tough time feeling competent in a group where everyone else grew from engineering and technically strong. Understanding of business and other technical problems came easy to them - but not so easy to this manger !

Among all other tips, I told him "For a blind person, other senses are very heightened. Their touch, smell, hearing capabilities etc are much more enhanced." And I did forget about what I told ..

Today the same person comes back and thanks me for that one liner ! And his other non-technical skills have enhanced quite a bit ! 

Metrics Overruled ..

When time comes to do a org wide equity adjustment after more than 2 yrs of wait, the anxiety hits the roof. The HR types swing in to action to figure out ways to be very fair in terms of distributing the new booty !

And hence invented a nice new formula that takes many things in to consideration -

1. Total industry experience and relevant experience
2. TIme in current grade / role
3. Performance for last couple of years
4. Current salary with respect to grade mid point

Plug in all these and life is easy. You know how much of the dollar go to who.
But here is a catch ! When we go one after another name as suggested by this so called "formula" we start finding exceptions !

1. The people who performance has been great in last cycles have been taken care of even during recession - and hence the gap to market is low

2. People who have max industry experience and max time in grade are there for a reason. They are not the high growing ones. And more money should not go in there.

etc. and the money finally falls on the plate of the usual successful gang, be them young, be them above market already etc. True capitalism shows up :)

Metrics overruled ! 

Childhood OCD'ity ???

Disclaimer : Not really trying to be pointing out any fault in any behavior below ! Just that I see that around me a lot and this is one more instance !

There was a new admission to the tennis class where I take my kids to. So, on a Lazy Sunday afternoon, I am just sitting beside the court and watch kids arranged in to beginners, Intermediate and Advanced in to three different pools - hitting at it ! While the coaches keep feeding baskets of balls shouting "Forehand", "Backhand", "Don't open the face of the racquet" etc.

The new admission is a cute lil (around 7-8 yrs) girl in a pink frock and 2 pony tails. Noticed one thing in her.. she was not really interested in hitting the balls, or listening to the coach. She was very very bothered by 100s of balls lying around on the ground. So, she eagerly waited each time to the shout "Clean up". She was at it immediately. Collecting as many balls as possible and stacking them neatly back in the basket. I could not ignore the smile and satisfaction in her face, when the ground was clean.

Then as soon as the game begins and the balls started floating around, she looked stressed !

That thing (OCD'ity as I call it) comes in every size, really !!

Tired ??

Sometimes the obvious stuff comes to you, when you go through it. One such thing is "when there is motivation, one does not get tired".


Clearly see that in the game of tennis - when having a good match, running becomes really easy as long as you know that you have enough oxygen to beat that other guy. Winning is within reach. The running mercilessly does not hurt that much. But when the equation is lil bit out of balance, and there is no hope of snatching a few matches, the running around feels very tiring.

Hmm... now how do we take it to work place and make employees feel there is a Big chance of WINNING at the end ? How do we take it to family and motivate kids ?

Learning from porn ...

.. this independence day !

In the advent of Internet media, advanced countries struggled regulating p2p sharing for porn. There were enough laws to control the infestation - both production of pornographic material and consumption of it were illegal. But tracking it down to the offenders was not possible !

It was and is well, very well trenched in the society. There was and is plenty of demand. So the supply used to keep up - including the wrong and illegal types.

That was until, the "whistleblower" regulation .. where one key thing changed, "Consuming porn is NOT illegal, just producing is".

Just "WOW" impact on the number of illegal porn production. Now, anyone can be a bait consumer. Take it, and can tip off about the source. He is protected by law ;)

Corruption is the neo-child-porn of independent India. Nothing happens without bribing. And giving bribe and taking bribe, both attract the same level of punishment. We, the citizens, happily pay  out, and stay mum !

Lets learn from Porn this Independence day. If ANY law can change this social disease,  that would be to tweak the existing one a bit, where paying is no longer a punishable crime.

Happy Independence Day !  Jai Hind !

Role Reversal !

Mixed feelings ! My younger brothers, who until few years ago, were my responsibilities to large extend- education, marriage, housing all the typical things human being does to "settle down". I was the one helping them through all the phases, at every stage feeling proud of their progress and their success. At every stage feeling satisfied about being able to take care of brotherly duties.

But, all of a sudden, there is a role reversal. My younger ones buy me the single malt, that I thought would be awesome but way too expensive. My younger ones book the resort for that beach vacation and don't let me pick up the bill !

Its different feeling for sure. I am still proud. But at the same time, I am a bit depressed too. Did they grow up so fast ? May be I enjoyed taking care of them too much.. ? Not sure what it is. But its a weird feeling.. where happiness, sadness, confusion - all mixed up !

End of the day, its very very good !!!

Experience & Equilibrium .....

A recent bout of lay offs in US of A clearly shows the age discrimination in its full ugliness.

Companies are going for more and more young people in the work force. They put in more hours. They take less sick leaves. Not much of families to take care of. There is ambition to grow, so they all work hard.

While the people in the other side of middle age, have families, have found out better things to do in life. They have figured out that the rat race is meaningful only up to certain extent. And this is the band targeted to leave the business.

Nature is a great equalizer. It creates balance. It creates equilibrium and seeks equilibrium in everything. Every employee goes through, seeks for the growth until he or she gets it and adopts to the pressures of it and creates the appetite for more.
But then, one fine day, it reaches a point where it is perfectly poised - what he/she is doing, where he is vs. his capabilities. perfect equilibrium ! Any one who has appetite beyond capability not only fail, they also get humiliated and do permanent damage so some thing that was going on very well.

Its like the satellite that burns stages of fuel of the rocket propelling it until it reached the geo-stationary orbit, where it DOES its work. Does it well. No more burning fuel. It reaches a point where its most effective in delivering what it means to deliver.

This is what I think that goes missing in the recent corporate decision to lay off older folks. And more importantly, the folks who are no longer in the rat race of corporate growth ladder.

Most of them are at a stage where they are not working hard, but they are delivering their best ! Because they are in perfect balance. They have figured out their capabilities. And mastered the art of playing that role. And have no further ambition to grow. They work the 7-8hrs, and go home for better things.

And that's the bracket that is targeted the most !! Something is wrong. Some of the decision makers should just chill and watch a masterful innings of Lil Master batting with a very capable younger non-striker. They would know, what experience means. They would both do same number of runs may be - but one of them would do it with much less effort and much more grace. Making it look easy.

No marks for guessing which one.

All in a days work ...

C.I.D office. Cyber Crime Division.

Arrived on the dot for the appointment with the Inspector and Investigator - 2PM!

Inspector was having lunch. His assistant outside wanted us to wait for a few minutes, take a round about the office and come back in some time. We were back again after having a coffee at the canteen - 2:20PM.

This time we talk ! Long interrogation. Detailed observation of all the paperwork.
Fine technical questioning. Among infinite interruptions..

Mostly people queuing up to complain "someone created a fake face book profile and harassing ...", some one hacked in to g-mail deleted job offer. Many such complaints. The inspector sending them away to local police station.

After a good long discussion, he gets the importance and seriousness of our complain. And slightly leaning towards accepting it .. but not sure yet !

He walks us to the DIG. Young IPS officer. And aware of the name of the company.
We again walk through the entire explanation. He shuts the inspector and the lawyer off, and wants to hear only from the business guy (yours truly).

He gets convinced and sends us back, instructing his inspector to file the case.

Its like any other work place really! The inspector assigns the case to one of his team, and the guy says he is over loaded. He should assign it to another one. The conversation was really eye opener. With the superior one saying "you have not closed 3 cases even this year", and the sub-ordinate explaining his problems, suggesting him how his next cube guy is always idle and should be assigned new job. The inspector them telling him, this is the easiest case, all work has been done by the company.. quite an interesting manager-sub-ordinate talk.

Then another session with him. Re-tell the story once over. 6 PM.

He then passes us on to another technical guy. Same story. Repeat one more time. 6:30P.

Finally, we get a long list of items to collect. Logs of this and that. Additional information, asked to go back and submit all that and get a receipt of FIR.

With all these, the most comforting feeling was from the fact that, they were really detailed, knew what they were doing and from their questioning generates a good level of understanding of this highly competent organization.

Ok.. will be back here again couple of more times looks like !!

Feeling of safety !!

.. is it just me ?

If I am driving by a lonely road in the evening, I am more scared to see a police than odd strangers.
Should not police evoke the feeling of safety ? And no - I ve NO criminal intent or back ground - ever ;)

Even then, in India, the sight of a cop is scary !

But normally I do not ponder on that much .. I do see them, get nervous, and when they disappear in the reverse mirror, everything is alright all over again.

Until now.. !

One of the fellow engineers from my team left the company and went to join a competitor. This happens a lot. Nothing un-usual. But in this case, we figured out - this person has secretly copied very vital intellectual properties the day before his last day.


The employer decided to file a case with city cyber crime police commissioner - and I became the chosen representative for the company. All traces, proofs in place. Just that I am scared to keep going to police station, where even though I am representing the victim of the theft, I feel treated more like a thief. And only after getting there struggling morning traffic, I am told to either wait for few hours, to be told again to go home and come back on another day !!!!

..is this only me who gets the creepy feeling when I see a cop, or are there other normal citizens out there who feel the same way ??

Living is expensive.. Life is cheap !!

Reading the events of the week, on a rainy, lazy weekend that forces one to reflect back on issues wider in scope - I notice the following !

The very basic necessity to survive, that we buy, Food is being more and more expensive. Double digit inflation year over year in India, on food items. No sign of prices cooling off.  

And people refer to this as "Cost of living is very high".

Turn the page of the newspaper - you see dozens die while going about their routine evening stuff, by some indiscriminate explosions. "Life is cheap".

There definitely is a disconnect in this economy of time - If life is so cheap, why should living be so expensive ? 

Brownian motion ..

I notice two types of inaction in corporate life. Especially when there is huge change ahead of all.
Especially when the future is not clear, and challenging.

And that happens every few years for sure .... !

The first type of inaction is Leaders moving very slow to take decisions. Not sure where to put their money. This batch gets in to a spectator mode - the "wait and watch" mode ! And all become som sedentary, restful, lazy and static - YET very very tense !

And there is a second set of leaders - given the exact such changing environment and uncertainty they will make very fast moves - tall decisions, bold moves - alas ! Only to roll it back the next week. And make another one ! Taken a horizon view, it ends up all being static. Running on a treadmill, and still where you were.

I ve been wondering what could be a scientific term for it - and then I saw a note on "Brownian Motion" in a different context ! That's it. Brownian motion.

A lil bit of control..

Met a wonderful couple in their 70's. Golden years  !
The husband (Mr. Bose) was in forest services and he sure loves to drive his vehicles fast. Ghats, city traffic, unknown terrain - he just keeps driving fast.

While taking a ride with him, he driving, Mrs. Bose in passenger seat, and bunch of us in the back seat, and as usual complaining about Bangalore traffic, we noticed one unique thing.

As he drives criss-cross ducking all BLR hurdles and traffic, his vehicle screams out two types if horns.
Two distinct sounds !

Finally, while having lunch, we asked ! Why two types of horns ? There he spills the secret. In his vehicle, there is one horn for the driver, and another one controlled by the passenger seat.

And that's because, Mrs. Bose was always afraid of driving fast, no matter how clean is Mr. Bose's driving record. And to just calm her down while driving, he had devised this technique. Wherever, she felt the car is out of control she honked, from the passenger seat.

She was a co-driver in a way !! And that kept her calm. She needs that even to her 70's.

Getting lucky !!

Imagine walking in to a WAR room, where the experts working hard for hours to get to root cause.. not having any context, and first thing you notice among thousands of lines of information is the Root Cause of the issue ???


Yes it happens !!

Culture Shock ...

Entire last working week, been in a real cross culture room of executives, assembled in Beijing. Americans, Indians, Chinese, Singapore, Australians, Malaysian.

Easily 2-3 meta cultures in that room. The schedules were crazy too. Everyone need to get to the room at 7:45AM and can only get out at 6:00PM. No real breaks in the middle, no laptops, no iPhones to fiddle with. Just focus on what you doing.

And if you could not have your breakfast in the morning, then you ll have to wait till lunch.

Here, one of the local executives from Beijing, used to get nicely packaged breakfast and coffee, by his admin, a petite and pretty young woman - who would time to time sneak in to the room, tip-toe through the desks and hand over the stuff to her boss !

And you got to look at Amerians and Australians that time. What ? Your office admin does that ?

Selling experience ..

Cloisonne handicraft in China is very famous and extremely pretty. I saw quite a few in a good shop, but did not buy any. There was some amount of intention in me to get one, but for some reason ended up not getting any.

Next day - on my way back from "Great wall of China" - in the rural area, I stopped by a "Cloisanne" factory. It has chambers for each phase of copper-smith, coloring, polishing etc. You see one piece getting done over a day. The pipeline, the people who work, the fire, the furnace, the artist, the molten metal and the stone colors.

Right next to it there is a counter with perfecting English speaking sales person and symbols saying "all sorts of credit cards accepted".

The same piece I could not convince my self to buy, ended up buying at this place. It was a holistic purchase of "experience" - not just the final product !

After a long day - heading to an open kitchen restaurant, where we are going to point to the raw material that would be cooked  behind transparent glasses. Another "experience" purchase I guess !!

Oh China !!

My first opportunity to come to Beijing, China.

While I would like about other experiences, this one experience is worth mentioning right away !

China does have dubious record of producing "duplicate" Global brands. And in Beijing there is a place called "Silk Market". This place is a good old china market. Everything is available. And you have to be shameless at bargaining. For example if a Sony PSP they say 1800 RMB, you can actually get it for 130 RMB. A Chinese silk formal Scarf of price 300 RMB, can be bought for 30 RMB with proper bargaining.

A lot of people warned me of duplicates, cheating etc. when I went in there. But I was thinking, its ok - "China Cheez, Chale to Chaand Tak -- Na chale to Sham tak".

So, found some cute silk dress for the cute lil girl of my neighbor back in Bangalore, few puzzles, scarfs etc. and bargained them all down to a 5th of the price in each case or even better. When I was about to pay, I realized I ve to withdraw some local currency. The ATM is right there in the same market, so when the shopkeeper was packing I decided to withdraw money  !

Got 500 RMB. But the ATM card never came out. Just like that it went in ... and I am like helpless. ATM card eaten up after a *Successful* transaction ! Why ?

In any case, I handed over the money to shopkeeper and she says, this is "duplicate money" can not accept.

I was like - "wow" !

While trying  to come back and contact HSBC back home to block the card, I saw these two BIG posters in the market - intended to increase consumer confidence ;)

Extreme Experimentation !!

While on a long flight, I was catching on a documentary on Tennis. And there was this 30 min biography of the most famous uncle in the Tennis world - Uncle "Toni".

Yes - Rafael Nadal's uncle and coach from the age of 6.

And here was the most significant piece of information I came to know from there. Rafa is a "right hander". He does everything with his right hand. He started playing tennis also with his right hand. But then uncle Toni asked him to use left hand at age 7, and the stuck to it from there on. And this also came out of some very acute observation of his hand moments in his child hood.

Its not exactly ambi-dexterity. Its extreme experimentation for that fine advantage over the usual.

After this documentary,  I started noticing Rafa throwing his wrist bands in to the crowd after winning a match - using his RIGHT HAND !! You can not do that naturally and easily if you are not a Righty ;)

Kill that initiative ..

Add a "Dalit" to "Lokpal" panel - says Mayavati !

Often we see a dreamer takes a really audacious step for an "obvious" reason. For a path breaking idea, that is as simple and obvious as day and night.

In the cycle of "Idea generation -> Communication to garner support -> getting attention / funding -> execution -> Enjoying the fruits" - most of those fundamental dreams, simplest of ideas, those that have ever pervasive implication, the ones that would have been obvious - killed before the execution starts.

Everyone adds their ideas to it. Such fundamental changes are after all never welcome... are they ??

The Human touch to business ..

Travel for leisure industry has boomed in India, many fold over the last decade or so.

With disposable income increasing and breathable oxygen decreasing, the urban lining up to hill stations and stretches of green.

And wherever you go, you come back with some level of good/bad/ugly experience.

But my last outing to South Coorg, Kutta, Spice Garden Homestay was different. I came back with a lot of memories and more over friends, I can call 4AM without hesitating. The host families were so fabulous and so dexterously mix business with the most missing "human touch", it can be scary to a  urban person.

The host spends hours with the guests. Taking them to each spice tree and talking through their uniqueness, as part of a tiger census volunteer he knows each predator in the jungle by name and pug mark. While his wife dishes out most delicious local dishes, not over looking the test and customized requirement of each one in the family, starting from 1 yr old to 65 yr.

Its the knowledge, time and genuine hospitality while keeping business, very business like - that makes a whole lot of difference.

I was wondering how he would scale if he puts so much time in to each guest. But then, it was easy when he explained it to me. Its mostly weekend traffic there, and this person just enjoys spending time with new people, keeping abreast of all information about the surrounding, learning each day something new, gaining influence by pure service to local community and gathering respect by conserving wild life. Its all a package, and the entire family just love the whole nine yards.

I am sure the business grows as an after effect. Like if I am getting out of the city for some lung space, I know where to keep going :)

Productivity and role of communication medium ..

Just a wild case study !

60+ yrs ago - another saint, The Great One, went on a "Hunger Strike" protesting against unfair laws of the land. News spread ! Word of mouth. Supporter came in herds. Protest gathered momentum, until the then govt caved in to the demands. 31 days of fasting.

Today, Anna does the same for the independence of the new kind, in the new world. Facebook, Twitter spreads it to 4 million supporters in few hours. Govt caves in in 96 hrs.

Apology

Apology = power to move !

A huge tech company, once a leader, a bell weather, is struggling for last few years.

Looking back, blame goes to some bad strategy, bad acquisitions, bad partners, wrong hires, letting go of good leaders, focusing away from core competency, being shallow etc. etc.

Not done ! The biggest cause is - "Denial" that the company is in trouble.

Being a public company, investors have severely punished this ticker over recent past. Once, the blue eyed boy of wall street, the CEO is clearly out of favor. Someone who has led this giant to where it is today in 20 yrs of his tenure as CEO.

The past glory and charisma mixed with Denial, sure confused the hell out of everyone who loves this company.

Then comes this "Apology". Like magic, the investors showing trust again. The ticker is green for a change. Hope, this is a wake up call, and the apology is an end to the denial.

Prospectives..

2011 census is over. The populations increase is 18.6% over last 10 years in India and pegged somewhere at 1.2 Billion.

20 yrs ago, when census was done, for months and years to come, each politician of the country, each arm chair commentator, each intellectual talked about close to 1 billion mouths of India that is eating it all. Talked about, how basic needs like food itself is scarce. Equated all social and economic issues to one thing - "Population Explosion".

Last 15 yrs, a portion of young, upwardly mobile India, has referred the "billion mouth" to "billion minds and 2 billion hands". Referred "population explosion" as "Rich human capital".

No wonder, 2011 is so much more positive. The key diagnosis of all diseases, population, has become the panacea. No sweat, analysis, intellectual blabbering over the number 1.2B !!! 

Scratching each others back ..

a.k.a building "support structures".

Just a week ago, we requested a gen next platform owner within the team to pool in his voice to get some expedited support from a support team.

Its a serious irony, that support functions give higher priority to systems that are building now, than the systems already widely deployed all over the world. They all know, the real support is needed in what is deployed. But that's yesterday.. ain't it ?

Anyway, when my team was getting frustrated knocking on a stone wall, thought pooling in the Gen Next system owner to pitch in will help. But the gentleman clearly said, its your problem, you deal with it. Then I said, the same customers will move to Next Gen systems, will have the same issues in a short while. We will help you find some issues proactively this way to help your product do well.

"Nope ! Not my problem" - denial !

Just within a week, the karma has turned it around. Now, he is looking for our support to pool in !!!

Communication Breakdown ..

Today I had a visitor from another building, another department - desperate to get out of his current job and find new opportunity inside the company ! Not an old friend, however - we have a common friend, was he wanted to come over and spill his heavy heart in front of me .. betaal obliged !

Here is the story !

This guy is clearly the "hardest working" of the team. Offloads his boss and super-boss from most of the mundane process driven job. Manages small pool of employees independently without being a manager.

BUT - he constantly reminds the management about his growth, his promotion that is pending, his designation as a manager.

The management has given the promotion. And not yet sure about whether the designation "Manager" is proper yet. In the mean time the employee has gone ahead, ramped up his game, picked up more responsibility, did a bit of business development too.

Then the employee gets a bit more confidence with his new expanded role and went to his management chain and said to consider or he would look for alternatives.

The manager said to find someone in the team and ramp him/her up to his level - which he did :)

Poor guy, he did not know once that happened, his manager told him to "Go find a job within 2 months".

A pure case of communication breakdown because of irritation. The employee was irritated as he felt no one is recognizing his work. The Manager was irritated by constant asking for the promotion.

Now a perfectly good and effective employee is on the look out just to survive !

pattern ... !

Back to blogging after a long break ! 
And considering all the stuff going around, I am sure there will be a steady flow for a while.

The break went very fast, mainly this is the time that is busy in corporations. Post the holidays of December, until the summer school vacation, there is this stretch where a lot of year ahead set ups happen. Just like new years resolutions.

Some lesson's learned. The commitment to keep the commit dates. Re-resolving the resolutions ! etc and time flies away.

But, during this same time, I ve seen history repeating in many cases. Leaders, tired of space and independence moving on to new areas. Happened in 2005, in 2008 in 2009 and again in 2011.

A scary pattern is forming, that tells me - "there is something wrong here".

Will do the root cause analysis and then may be taking a mid-year resolution !