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Wednesday 29 September 2010

Value Education - Your brand ambassador

"How did the Physics classes go?", I asked my daughter.  She walked up to me and said that at College they have these Value Education classes.  Somehow she felt that these were very useful to her and to her classmates in general.  She asked me as to how people use this education at work.  I told her that most corporates have a set of Values by which they operate.  "If you read these values you understand that they are all based on the principles that you are studying in the Value Education classes", I told her.

This incident got me thinking.  Most of the time, as parents, we are asking our kids as to how they have done in their course examinations.  We always focus on the subjects that will get them admission in to other universities or jobs in companies.  These universities and companies seem to focus on subjects like mathematics, science or commerce.  They do not focus on what these children learnt in their Value Education classes.  If most corporates are so focused on Values and actually pay so much attention to them, then why are they are not focused on what these children have learnt from a Values perspective?  Just think about it - if you are someone who is joining a University to do a degree program or have just passed out of University and taken up a job - which University or company actually asked you to talk on your values and your opinion on such Values?

Somewhere, I tend to believe that only few Universities and Companies put their money where their mouth is by focusing on Values.  For most, it is more a paper exercise.

So, what is the use of these sets of Values for a company?  These Values, if embodied well in to the organization, set the real culture of the organization.  If leaders in the organization walk the talk, demonstrate that these Values are critical to them and follow these Values in their day to day activities and interactions at office, it sets the Culture within the organization.  This Culture is essential and critical for any organization to survive in the long run.  This Culture, in my opinion, is probably the best brand ambassador for any organization.

I was talking to few people last week and they told me how a Montessori School where their children study has few good points but the one that really stands out is "Honesty".  They all called it an "Honest School".  They felt proud that their children studied in that school.

As I walked out of that meeting, I called my wife and told her how the small school that she runs is known as "the honest school" to few people.  The Values that your organization is known by do become the real brand ambassador.




Friday 24 September 2010

Leadership - Alone at the top!!!

I was looking out for a coach and someone offered me his services.  While I was talking to him to figure out whether I could be someone who can get coached by him, he said, "Many leaders feel lonely at the top.  If you do too, don't be too surprised.  The best thing is to recognize it and learn how to deal with it."  I have heard so many leaders, be it in the corporate world or in the world of politics, say that they are lonely at the top.  I believe that this need not be the case.

While we are all individuals and have so many skeletons in each of our closets, we can share most of these secrets to someone in our lives - could be our spouse, our partner, our children, our parents, our friend, our relatives.  Once we share our thoughts with someone, we are not lonely anymore.

In the corporate world, this is easier said than done.  We have created a brownie points culture in most organizations.  With so much emphasis on individual performance and pay based on individual contribution, we systematically kill team work.  People just do not know who to trust.  My secret, when shared with someone, just seems to do the rumour mills and before I can wink, comes back to me in a different form than what I intended.  So, my secret, remains my secret.  If I cannot trust, I don't share and this is the beginning of loneliness.  If we decide to work as teams and not as individuals, to trust each other as good human beings, there is no room for this loneliness.

Till I reach the top, I have someone who I can talk to, share things with and enjoy the moments.  When I reach the top, I become conscious all of a sudden. The same colleague with whom I was able to share everything suddenly cannot be trusted. He/she does not have all the information that I have.  He/she does not know how vulnerable I am at times.  If I end up sharing this with her,  I end up sharing the chinks in my armour and she could become my boss.  Hey, do I really need that?  Of course not...so, I stop sharing...and when I stop sharing, I become lonely.  If we stop for a moment and recognize that leaders are human beings, not those in-destructible heroes in movies, we would appreciate vulnerabilities and appreciate leadership better. 

Many of us believe that we can compartmentalise our lives as "personal" and "professional".  Our families or friends need not know what happened in office today....if it was not good, my family recognizes it because I am a bit grumpy.  It is difficult to leave your feelings outside your home as you walk in because in today's world, the laptop and the smartphones are walking in with you.  Instead of compartmentalising our lives, if we are able to share our experiences of the day with our partners or children or parents or friends (without having to mention names), we have found our coaches at home!!! 

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Fight or Flight

The pre-historic man was walking round the corner and he stopped. His heart skipped a beat.  In front of him was a huge tiger who was as surprised as he was.  Fear gripped the man.  He had to fight the tiger or run...in other words, fight or flight.  Both needed extreme physical activity.  The body prepared him for that by pumping adrenalin in to the blood stream.  The extreme physical activity of fighting or running washed away the adrenalin from the blood.  This was probably the only fear that man had in those days.

The modern man walked in to office.  Unlike the pre-historic man, who had only the fear of death, he had many more fears.  The biggest among them was the fear of failure.  As he opened up the email box he noticed that it was filled with complaints from his customers.  He swore under his breath.  This could be the end of his career in this company. His boss would probably ask him to leave.  Two of his team members had let him down badly.  He was 35 years old. He was married and had two children.  He had moved in to a new apartment recently.  His monthly loan re-payment was high. What would he do if he lost his job? Fear gripped him. His body reacted in the same way as it had with the pre-historic man.  It pumped in adrenalin in to the blood stream.  However, the only thing this modern man could do was thump the table or swear out loud or both.  This was definitely not enough to wash out the adrenalin from his blood stream.  This excess adrenalin started settling all over his body and had a very adverse long term impact on him.  This is what we call stress and there are so many illnesses that are related to this stress.

Most of our anger, anxiety, etc. go back to the emotion called "fear".  This deep rooted fear in us can happen for different reasons.  Change is one big reason.  Most of us are not used to change. Any change causes this fear which we call anxiety.  Similarly, fear could be due to possibility of failure - could be failure in exams, in our jobs or at home.  This fear is what we end up calling stress.  Most of the time we are stressed out.  This stress could be because "I don't have a dress to wear to the party this evening" to "Gosh, a tiger is standing in front of me".  Whatever be the reason, the body reacts in the same way.

Stress is the cause of most illnesses in our society.  If we think through it clearly, we can all beat stress.  The trick is to reduce the reasons for fear.  Then, try deep breathing every time you are free for few minutes (Deep breathing yoga exercises really help).  Try and walk briskly for 5 to 10 minutes every hour.

My physician once told me that apart from a table, chair and computer in my office, the best thing to have would be a treadmill.  I laughed.  But, now I understand how true this is.  The best way to de-stress our bodies is to breathe deeply and to exercise it.  As they say, "The happiest of people, get back home stinking to high heavens."

Saturday 18 September 2010

So much more to know...Proud to be Indian

Today I thought I will write on the deep and complex India...the fact that there is so much to know in its 10,000 year history...that there is so little that we know of its past and its greatness.  Over the past 20 years, I have received guests from various countries from across the world.  They have asked me so many questions on India and to the best of my ability and knowledge, I have given them replies.  When I reflect on the answers I gave them, I realise that some of these answers have changed as I have got more and more data over these years.  I am penning down five of the oft repeated questions and my repies to them...

  1. Why are there so many Gods in India?
India has many Gods/Goddesses that reflect many aspects of our life – education, wealth, arts, the elements such as fire, wind, water, etc. These are to ensure people respect everything around them.  Eg. We worship Goddess Lakshmi not to get more money but to respect the wealth we possess.

  1. Why do Indians wear bright coloured clothing?
There is a general lack of cheer in deserts and dry areas of the country because of the lack of greenery. Bright colours bring in cheer, so you will find people in the Rajasthan area, mainly a desert, wearing bright coloured clothing.

In other parts of the country, where people work in fields, it’s difficult to locate them if they are wearing black, grey, blue or white clothes. So, they wear bright colours like red, orange, pink, etc. These help to identify people and also bring cheer to the work atmosphere

  1. Why do Indians celebrate a festival almost every month?
What happens in a country during a festival? There is always a lot of positive attitude, a sense of giving and sharing and generally a willingness to spend more. This spend ensures that wealth is shared across different parts of the society. In my opinion, we have festivals every month so that the positive attitude is retained throughout the year.

  1. What is the significance of the rangoli and lamp lighting?
In the past, Rangoli was drawn outside the gate and a lamp was lit and placed in the middle of the rangoli.  Rice flour was the rangoli powder.  The area would be made damp with water and disinfected with cow dung.  The area was made damp so that dust would not go up in to the atmosphere.  Rice flour was used so that ants could eat that, go away and not enter the house - a neat way of avoiding the use of insecticides at home. 

The lamp placed in the middle of the Rangoli served as street lighting. With a rangoli in every house, the whole street was lit up!

  1. What does the word ‘Om’ mean?
Om is actually spelt as A-U-M and pronounced as “AA – OO- M” – these are the only three sounds that a person can make without moving the tongue.  These three sounds resonate and vibrate with the body and when chanted correctly, have a therapeutic effect.

There are so many things to note about this country with a history of over 10,000 years - in India, the Pythagoras theorem was written about 1500 years before Pythagoras was born, planets and how they revolved around the sun was also described in our ancient scriptures. Galileo described this in 1610, thousands of years later! The brain and its cell structure was defined in our scriptures over 3500 years ago even when there was no microscope! Ancient Indian gurus were able to use their knowledge to see and explain things that we are unable to do even today.

There is so much more to be proud of this country, but many of us are not aware of the rich cultural heritage. What can we do to preserve the rich heritage of this country? Why have we lost our pride as a nation? Points to ponder… Please feel free to write back to me with your thoughts.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Chhota Bheem and Corporate Speak

The “Chhota Bheem” comic series that runs on a children’s channel will probably be a popular program for many parents too. Personally, I love to watch the series with my daughter, as I find similarities between Bheem’s character and the values that we see many organizations building.

On the show, Bheem, reputed to be one of the most powerful men in Indian mythology has been made “Chhota Bheem”, so that children can relate to the character. The kids absolutely love this Chhota Bheem as he is strong and fights with villains where necessary. And of course, the show has become an instant hit with most children! The creators of the show are amazing and have popularised mythology with their target audience – children. They have been able to bring out the concept of customer-centricity, in other words, doing what the customer wants.

Chhota Bheem always puts the well being of the kingdom, the king and the people in the kingdom before his personal well being, which is what we call in corporate parlance “no personal agendas”.

Chhota Bheem also resolves complex issues facing the king and the kingdom by going to the place of the problem, taking a look for himself (along with his friends) and then coming up with a solution that is simple, yet, effective. This is what few organizations call as the STARS Framework STARS is the acronym for Stand Back, Think, Act, Resolve and Self-Check.

Chhota Bheem does not sit on issues under the garb of thinking through solutions – he is quick, decisive and makes his move very rapidly.

In my experience, I have had many staff who have come to me and said that what they really like are leaders who take decisions and take them quickly – some could be wrong – but hopefully you are roughly right most of the time!!!

Leaders must try and create more Chhota Bheem's apart from becoming one themselves!!!


Tuesday 14 September 2010

Fastfoward through life

I was reading an article in the newspaper yesterday on how couples are planning children in a way so that they are born between January and March/April of the year so that they do not lose a year in school.  In India, the academic year starts in June.  Children below the age of 6 as at June 1 do not get admitted to the 1st grade.  They will be put in an earlier grade.  Most parents sweat this. So, when I read this in the newspaper, I was not surprised.  To me, this just does not matter.  To a child going to Grade 1, it does not matter. Not sure why parents go to such great lengths just to ensure their child is not 6 to 8 months overaged in their class.  Frankly, does it make any difference in a life that spans close to 70 years?  I don't think so, but most parents do.  I must not be getting this right at all.

My friend was telling me the other day that he had retired and this happened a year earlier because his dad had given a wrong date of birth just to get him in to school a year earlier!!!  I told him to enjoy his well deserved retirement.

In India, we seem to rush through our lives.  Most kids in Europe and Australia go off on a 1 to 2 year travel after they are through with their Grade 12 or University.  They travel different countries, work whenever and wherever they want to and enjoy understanding the lives and cultures in these countries.  I believe that travel is one of the best teachers that we can get in life and in India we do not seem to attach too much of importance to this.  While most of these kids in Europe are travelling, our kids are going to colleges and then to tuitions from 9 am to 9pm every day in Grades 11 and 12.  Not sure what we are doing to them.

Is it worth fast forwarding ourselves through our lives?  I was asking myself this question.  So what if we start working at 26 and not at 22?  So what if we do an MBA program at 40 and not at 24?  We do not seem to pace ourselves through our life. We want everything to happen fast...fast food, quicker promotions, a fast buck...and the word "fast" follows us through our lives.

I was watching a movie that showed the life of a very small sect in India, the Aghoris.  These Aghoris are ascetics and they spend a lot of time meditating, living in crematoriums and try and understand the duality of life.  They do not have any attachments with people and try and believe that we must accept the perfectness of everything in nature.  They seem to be the other side of India where life is almost on a rewind mode and not the usual fast foward that most of us are used to.

When I look at this complete spectrum starting from the Aghoris who just move through life at their own pace to the city dwellers who are busy going at breakneck speed, I wonder where I fit in.  I wonder where should we be?  Both sides of the spectrum seem to have their advantages and disadvantages.  So, is it worthwhile being somewhere in between?  Like the great Gautam Buddha taught us - take the middle path!!!

Sunday 12 September 2010

Which business are you in?

I was watching an interview with the Managing Director of a famous Indian company that makes biscuits this morning.  Let us call it X. The MD was talking of Corporate "Sustainable" Responsibility instead of Corporate "Social" Responsibility.  She said that it needs to be understood that the corporate sector is not an NGO. So, what ever be the spend for the society, it must be sustainable.  She talked of how her company had 99% of its products made without using transfats and the addition of a critical ingredient in glucose biscuits (pretty much similar to iodine in salt).  She said that 47% of children below the age of 5 in India are undernourished.

This got me thinking of the story of the three masons who were in a building project. When the first one was asked as to what he was doing, he replied, "I am laying stones".  The second one said, "I am building a wall."  The third one said proudly, "I am building a cathedral."  The third person was very happy with his job while the other two were not.  This is the power of understanding the end objective and how everyone should relate their part of the work to the end objective.

While, it is critical for everyone to understand the vision and the objectives of the company they work for and how they contribute towards it, it is important for leaders to understand, define and articulate the business in which their company is.  So, what business is X company in?  Making of biscuits or in the business of foods?  Somehow, after hearing the MD speak, I thought X was in the business of Nutrition.  I am not sure how the management of X views the business they are in but if they viewed it as Nutrition, their decisions on products, markets, etc. could end up being different.

Likewise, it is critical for every management team to figure out what business their companies are in so that it helps focus on sustainable development of the company and the society in which it exists.  This co-existence is critical for healthy growth of the society and the company.  Very similar to inclusive growth that I had discussed in one of my earlier writings.

Apart from understanding the business they are in and how to position products/services, the management of the company can also identify the real competitors.  This is what people today call "wearing a wide angle lens".  Examples of this are - IPL became the biggest threat to movies - both these versions entertain people for 3 hours and people seem to enjoy IPL more than movies. So, movie producers and distributors decided not to release new movies during the IPL season or atleast go slow on releases.  Movie stars own some of the IPL Franchises.  If IPL was seen as a sports business rather than entertainment, then, the movie stars would not have seen this as competition.  Similarly, one of the biggest competition to business travel is high resolution video conferencing eg. Telepresence of CISCO or Halo of HP. 

It is essential for management executives of companies to wear a wide angle lens and define the business they are in.  This will help bring clarity down the organization and staff can relate to their companies better.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Price of Greed

India, as a country, was taken over by Britain not just because of the power of the cannon but also by what is known as the "Divide and Rule Policy" of the British. This was nothing but taking advantage of the greed of certain individuals.  The price we paid was huge.  Various accounts are there of how much Robert Clive took back from India to UK in the 1760s. One estimate puts it at Pound Sterling 200 million and he took back personal wealth of Pound Sterling 20 million himself. Not sure if these numbers are true, but we did indeed pay a huge price for the greed of few of us.

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 was a result of greed perpetrated by various financial institutions and the way bonuses were paid.  The Satyam Computers fraud is another classic example of greed.  There are numerous examples of how greed has destroyed companies, individuals, governments and countries.  Yet, we just do not seem to learn.

Does this mean that most of us are not greedy and only few are? Absolutely not!!! Everyone is greedy... what differs is the extent.  Some take it too far, while most are greedy in moderation.

In the corporate world, the bonus system based on performance "at any cost" has resulted in greed going unchecked.  Should pay be based on performance? Why not? The person working harder and putting in more effort definitely deserves to take home more.  But then, what is enough?  This is the imponderable question.  Very difficult to answer and lies in the judgement of each and every individual.  While a hundred thousand rupees as bonus could seem like greed to a poor farmer who is struggling to pay off a debt of rupees twenty thousand, for the typical corporate executive, this could be peanuts.

So, who is to judge? I believe, no one. Let each company take its call.  However, when it impacts the general public, like what the Global Financial Crisis did, each of those companies should pay for the loss impact or hand over the management to the general public.

I have seen societies live happier with lesser money than what we earn today.  Again, happiness is a state of mind and differs from individual to individual.  Our society in India is paying a very high price for greed (in the form of corruption)...poor roads, power cuts, limited water supply, traffic congestion, adulterated food, poor quality of products/services, poor quality medicines...you name it, greed has a role to play for most of the problems that we experience in our society.

One way to reduce the impact of greed in each of us is to practice "giving" or charity.  If each of us can support a cause that leads to more inclusive growth, our sense of greed starts coming down.  The smile on the face of a poor child when he is able to afford a better school or a better shirt, is definitely worth more than a second penthouse.  This sense of sharing and giving, if inculcated in our children, will make our world a better place to live in.