The Great Indian Bazaar

2009 is here and The Great Indian Bazaar is about to open in May. I will once again cast my vote and hope to see that the person I voted for is elected and then fulfills at least some of the promises he/she makes. But what bothers me more this time around is who would be the Indian PM?

Well then the question comes wasn’t I worried about that the previous time I voted? I was but then this time it’s a different story. I might have a dalit as next PM. This is not the case to worry. The PM could be a woman. This also isn’t a worrying factor. But what worries me is that she might be Mayawati. Now this sends shivers down my spine. This is because of the way she handles Uttar Pradesh. The decisions she takes – The Taj Corridor case where the project would have almost sold Taj for its next phase if she was given the power to do so and the latest being the murder of PWD engineer by an MLA from her party: Bahujan Samaj Party and her reaction to it before the media got into their act. These are only a few cases which I know. This doesn’t show that she is not competent but just the case where the corruption might reach astronomical heights just as we are seeing financial nadir (or are we?).

Mayawati no doubt has achieved this stature through some remarkable work and no one can deny that. But to see Mayawati jump from being a CM of the most populous state in India to leading India is something which I cannot comprehend at this point in time. Also I think if she spreads her reach to other parts of India before donning the cap of PM in waiting and does some good work with lesser corruption then it’s a different story. And why has her rise been so phenomenal stems from the fact that the ruling UPA and the main opposition NDA don’t seem to be heading towards a clear majority. The left and the various regional parties (third front as it is known as) are backing her as their leader. This general election would be won by assimilation of regional wins rather than the country wide win by a single party. This comes from the clout of regional parties and the weakening of the so called National parties.

This does not mean that if UPA or NDA or if a single party wins a majority, they would elect a competent national leader but I think Mayawati still needs to go some way before she can be crowned Indian PM.

Are corporations humans?

The paradigm shift in the way we look at corporations has been that everyone talks about them as 'Individuals'. They have certain characteristics which we tend to associate with them. This then leads us to believe that we tend to behave in the same way with corporations as we do with other human beings. Is it actually that way? Do we actually think that this corporation might not like my behavior? I don’t think so.

That is the reason why we want continuous hammering from the leader that yes we are the number 1 company, we give the best of a particular product/service. (The advertisements of the leaders will tell you this.) Come to think of the same scenario in case of our relationship with people around us, we would hate someone telling us again and again that he/she is the best at painting, cricket, anything for that matter. We would stop interacting with them instantly but the opposite is true in case of corporations. This may be attributed to our social fear (people will ridicule me if I buy this from here), functional fear (What if this doesn’t work properly), monetary fear (I can’t risk so much on something from this company, I would rather take it from the no. 1 player).

We would tend to like people who show humility and corporation who show their brute power.

When corporations talk about legacy, we feel proud to be associated with it. We feel that even with changing times, we know we are with someone who has seen it all. But if someone elderly keeps on pestering us that since our times, we have been doing this or we need to follow the practice as we have told you to follow, we would be the first one to say that times are changing. You won’t understand what the current needs are but fail to consider their legacy.

We tend to like people who advise us albeit not always but corporations which keep telling us of their legacy every time in every form of their communication.

We also tend to part ways with companies more easily than we do with people. So I think its a long way to go for a corporation before it can be termed as 'human'.

Experience

Yesterday I had the privilege to listen to Mr. Rajesh Srivastava, the man who has been at the helm of UB group and Raymond group and many more. I would just like to pen my thoughts or you can even say my recollecting capability of those 90 minute session which for me was "Experience @ work".

Mr. Rajesh Srivastava is an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, IIM-Bangalore. He started the session by asking us to say what are the things which we thought are going to dictate tomorrow? Jotting them down, he began his presentation as to where does he think marketing is going to go in the future? He spoke that relationship with the customers is going to be the way forward. For this, he said that Bridgestone is giving its tyres free and charging its customers on the number of miles that tyre is used for by inserting the sensors in the tyres. Then he went on to say that giving away your product for free will bring in rewards for you. Eg. The way Google carried its business, Playboy has started giving its centre spread for free to its primary customers. The next in line was "Third eye vision" which is very important in order to be successful - basically rewriting the existing rules. Eg. Tata Nano: trying to create a new set of customer base, SL Cricket changing the way ODIs are played and going on to win the 1996 World Cup. He also cautioned us saying that just by rewriting the rules wont bring in success, you need to work hard and find experts to teach you what you lack in. Then he went on to speak about why luxury products are sold? According to him, these products are mainly for Self Expression and they become your speech without you even having to open your mouth. Arbitrage is going to come to the fore in lot of future markets. Obviously he went on to give a lot of real life examples about a lot of other aspects like customization, the way Ponds have advertised to still appeal to its target audience, companies enforcing cost cutting but recovering it back from its customers.

Finally before wrapping the show, he gave some tips to us which I thought were the icing on the cake. The virtues which we should have -
Patience: Again the anecdote did the trick. Picasso, the famous painter was asked for an autograph while he was sipping his coffee in a Paris cafe. He signed happily and then asked for 40$ and the man was stunned and asked Picasso that how can he charge for what he did in less than 40 seconds. Pat came the reply from the maestro that it took him 40 long years to make this name. (I know this is in direct contrast to my previous blog: Patience: a fig leaf? But let the debate be settled later on :) )
Commitment: Henry Ford after the success of Model T assembly line concept was asked for a celebration by his workers. Ford looked at his watch and said guys "You have exactly 60 seconds to celebrate our success and then we go back to our work." :)
Enjoying pain: A marble statue was asked by the marble floor on which it stood - Isn't the world an unfair place? People step on me to admire your beauty though we come from the same quarry. The statue replied - When the sculptor started chiseling you, you became harder and he replaced you with me. I went through the entire painful ordeal believing in the master, the fruits of which I am enjoying currently.
Doing it for your parents: An anecdote to it. A fishermen family was having a torrid time in meeting their ends. There were incessant rains for a week, the sea was unsafe for fishing and the entire reserves of the food at home had finished. Now the father-son duo had to face the rough sea if they had to survive. So they went on with their mission but after some time could not get away from the dangerous sea, the son sat dejected at the corner of the boat waiting to see his end come near. Seeing this father went up to his son and said - Son, this is the time to work extra harder and not be sitting dejected. This is the time for us to make the prayers of your mother come true. (He also spoke about another quality which I don't remember.)

Thus the best guest lecture which I attended came to an end. I am looking forward to few more lectures from him :) Hope I have not missed many things :)

Inspirational AB

Well I am talking neither about Amitabh Bachchan nor his son Abhishek Bachchan. I am talking here about Abhinav Bindra who has just created history by winning the first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics for India in the 10m Air rifle event. Yes you heard it correctly, its the first ever individual gold medal won by an Indian at the Olympics. We have had four Olympic individual medallist before this remarkable feat - Khashaba Jadav (Bronze-1952), Leander Paes (Bronze-1996), Karnam Malleshwari (Bronze-2000) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Silver-2004).

We are proud of all of them but Abhinav's calm composure has inspired me. I first heard about him from my friend Abhimanyu in junior college. He said Abhinav & I are from the same school and he is an upcoming world champion. So everytime there is a shooting event, I search for his name in the news just to see whats he upto these days. But this feat of his changed all that. I wont lie but this is the first time I actually found out how the point scoring system works in this event. Initially before qualifying for the final 10 shots, the bullseye gets you a perfect 10 and you need to shoot 60 shots in 105 minutes. The top 8 sportsmen then slug it out in the final 10 shots where the bullseye get you 10.9 points. The cumulative highest points earner is the winner. The mark of the champion was evident when before the last shot, both Henri Hakkinen and Abhinav Bindra, were tied and Henri shot a poor 9.7. Now imagine, you are on the verge of creating history and the immense pressure which goes with it, and you come up with not only your best shot of the event but the best shot of the entire event. Yes Abhinav did that, he shot a brilliant 10.8 on his way to clinching the gold medal with the total tally of 700.5. Mind you the bullseye earns you 10.9 and Abhinav able to shoot and earn 10.8, I cant even imagine the pressure he must be in.

Kudos to Abhinav and keep on winning medals and hearts.

The Secret Revealed

Recently I read the famous book “The Secret” after getting it from my friend after a long wait. The author, Rhonda Byrne, wants to put forth one point & in my view, the essence can be summed up by what Paulo Coelho said –

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

(A variant of this being made famous by SRK in OSO –itni shiddat se maine tujhe paane ki koshish ki hain, ki har zarre ne mujhe tujhse milane ki saazish rachi hain). In both the cases, the premise is that you are in charge of what you want. But sometimes you also become in charge of what others should do (read others’ actions which you want to influence). The scenarios are plenty – You are a teacher, you are a supervisor or may be you are a parent or you may be a leader of a team. In all these cases and more, you are the one who decides others objectives so that your wants are satisfied. Now the case arises where you do not have complete control over your wants. Strange isn’t it? But even here, a positive way of putting things will give better results. So now we will see how people usually react while donning these hats and how it can be done in a better way.

Don’t drop the catch. (Catches win matches)

See to it that you are never seen with those friends of yours otherwise you are going to face dire consequences. (I think your these friends have lost their way a bit and you better be careful and spend less time with them)

It would show up in your appraisal if you don’t do this job properly. (The team and individual objectives would be fulfilled and your confidence will grow if this job is done on time)

Though these comments may not bring the desired results all the time but at least will send out the message that you really care about them and not being ignorant of their needs. It also shows that you are giving legitimate reasons why you want them to behave in a certain way. Also indirectly you are focusing on what you want. So the chances of work getting done increases. I think its becoming too philosophical :) So I will keep my further opinions to me :)

Fed Ex Derailed

I am back from hibernation. And what better way to start off than making an attempt to describe the best tennis match I have ever watched. It was an unforgettable, extraordinary exhibition of human talent and flair at work in the longest ever Men’s Singles Final at SW19. Both the hunter (Rafael Nadal) and the hunted (Roger Federer) deserve all the praise coming their way. This bolsters once again the yawning gap between the two and the rest. But wait a minute; can I actually describe the indescribable, outstanding and a memorable rivalry? I know I cannot.

So I would write about what I learnt from this. I am going to run out of superlatives while doing this but then there are no alternatives. It began with the challenger, in this case the eventual champion, showing great self belief by doing what others could not do for a fortnight – breaking the “King of Grass” and winning consecutive sets. At 3-3, 0-40, Nadal serving, it seemed that the Roland Garros is being telecasted but then the King had other ideas. Federer showed his ingenuity and won the tiebreaker and with it the third set. This showed the mental strength of Federer even though he was mauled by the same man a month back. In the fourth set, both men showed why they are ranked above the rest (not that they didn’t show it earlier) and the kind of preparation it goes to hone your skills to be a world class athlete. In the tie breaker, 2-5, Nadal serving, for a moment it looked that he was nervous and will never be able to win on Wimbledon against Roger. But next few games and in particular the return at 8-7 by Nadal put to rest that claim. Federer won the tie breaker and with it the set. Now I assumed that Federer is not going to let it slip from here on and Nadal will have to wait for at least a year to challenge the King. But indefatigable Nadal came at Federer with the same brute force and his agility was not to be shunned even after 4 hour of such high quality tennis. On the opposite side was a man many believe to be the greatest of all time, soaking in so much pressure and that to without any emotions on his face. Watching this match were former rivals – Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe whose 1980 epic final was touted as greatest ever at SW19, their loss of words pretty evident. (Literally, John McEnroe, BBC commentator, could not describe what was going on at the centre court). In the fifth set it seemed that this match is going to go on and on but when Nadal broke Federer at 7-7, no one was ready to believe that it was to be the last break of serve. Finally the saga came to an end with Nadal winning 9-7 in the final set but this was not to be the last match on grass for the dethroned King as was the case with Bjorn Borg after he lost the 1981 final to McEnroe. The graceful acceptance of defeat by Federer and then the assurance (more so as a warning to his detractors) that “He will be back next year” shows that single defeat has revealed a chink in his armory but he is ready to fight.

The sportsmanship portrayed by both the players deserves a mention out here. Long Live Tennis and this great rivalry. I still am an ardent fan of “The poetry in motion” (Federer). Watch out for FedEx :)

Is nadir required to show competency???

Well before I put forth my viewpoint on this, I would like all of you to tell me whether the most desperate situations drives you to give your best?...Is it an absolute necessity to show your calibre?...Is it always necessary to reach the abyss to rise like a Phoenix??...If answers to any of it is YES, then I think we all have the same mindset as most other Indians do. This is not to disparage Indians but just to reinforce our inherent lack of ambition and motivation.

Sehwag's comments afer his triple century - " I was hurt on being dropped from the national team and that triggered me to perform well ". This augurs well with what Sunil Gavaskar once said about Indian cricketers - They need to be whipped badly to make them play to their fullest potential. This shows how we usually need someone to monitor us and tell us what needs to be done. Motivation to be ahead and be the leader doesnot insitigate us to continue doing the good work. If only we can create this environment of being ruthlessly competitive in whatever we do, can we think of not being a follower much of the time. I know that swings are bound to occur but if we can be at our best most of the times, the downswing is going to last for a very short time.

Talk about Hockey - believe me its going to rise once again from this year's dismal performance but I hope it then doesnot fall again to match up to its latest trough. Sports in India has seen this phase quite often because of the lack of respect which we associate with sports and sportsmen and sportswomen. We tend to look at sports as an ancillary to our academically oriented careers. But then if we have a look at our business, we see that Indians put in a lot of efforts to stay at the top. To them, the status and leadership tags are sole motivators. Does this show that we tend to look at our name ( be it as an individual or as a business house ) to be more worthy than when we are perceived as an Indian team??

Enviable consistency is the key to be at the top.