Sparing the Rod...

It takes a lot to move the Government these days. As I write this post, there are huge protests taking place all over India on the Government to move to punish few who gang raped a young girl. The protest is disconcerting as it shows the state of lack of security for women in India's Capital City. The protesters are asking for death sentence for rapists.

 

Back in the 17th Century, Britain had 220 crimes for which the penalty was death. These included stealing of property like horse or for felling trees, etc. Later this was reduced to deportation and hard core criminals were deported to Australia. The crimes that some of these people who were deported committed were stealing a loaf of bread or stealing a horse.  By today's standards, these are hardly crimes but in the 18th and 19th Centuries, these were major crimes.  As a society, we have softened our stance on punishment. Some countries have done away with Capital Punishment.  Given the increase in economic disparities, crime is bound to increase. We will see more and more of it as the days go by.  So, we must be looking at punishment carefully.  If we are too lenient, we will not be able to control crime.

 

We have also brought in laws like child abuse, etc. that puts pressure on parents and school teachers. They don't know how to mete out punishment to unruly children. Parents who take their children to task are now punished by some countries' legal system as abusing their children. So, what can parents or school teachers do when their wards are misbehaving...just grin and bear them? This is what the old adage called - "Sparing the rod and spoiling the child".  These countries that put undue pressure on parents and school teachers do not mind spending millions of dollars protecting their citizens from these same children who were spared the punishment when young and turn out to be criminals later on in life.  I have seen very few parents who do not want the best for their children. If this is correct, they do have the right to take corrective action when their children are misbehaving.

 

Given all this and the progressive softening of stance on crime in terms of punishment, crime rates are on the increase. From petty theft to rape to terrorism, we keep hearing of crimes every day. Recently, there was a report that New York had not recorded a violent crime for a period of 36 hours and that was the first time in many years this had happened.  This is an absolute shame on all of us that a city goes through a day without a stabbing or a shooting or a murder and we call it a violent crime free day.  If we continue this path, I am not sure what we will leave behind as a society for our future generations.  I can foresee our future generation celebrating an hour or a minute without a crime sometime in the future.

So, what should we do as a society? I believe that every crime should have a consequence and that consequence should act as a significant deterrent.  Further, the justice system should be fair i.e. implementation of the laws of the land should be ruthlessly followed and punishment meted out in time.  Parents must be given leeway to handle children in a way that makes them (children) understand what it is to live in a society and so unruly children should be managed by them without the State interfering in these actions.  There will always be few exceptional cases...but, we cannot have our laws based on these exceptions.  Most importantly, governments of the day must focus on equitable growth or what we now call as Inclusive Growth so that economic disparities are reduced significantly. This will help reduce crime to a large extent.  I believe that it is better to earn slightly lower salaries due to a more equitable form of wealth distribution than to pay higher taxes so that Governments can manage crime and criminals better.

Crime will be reduced only if there are deterrents and these are implemented ruthlessly by the Governments of the land.  If we have laws, they need to be obeyed.  I watched few movies on this and I was really shocked at the messages coming out of these movies. These clearly are a reflection of the frustrations in the societies that we live in. 

We talk of how people behave like animals, the laws of the jungle where only might is right, etc.  I do believe that animals behave much better than us. Human beings are the most dangerous species in this world. We kill for pleasure, for storing food for the next few years, for wont, for greed, for any reason that you can think of in this world...animals kill only when they are hungry or if their existence is at risk.  Looks like we will be a better lot if we behaved like animals. 

Let us not jeopardize the lives of our future generations and leave behind a society that we would feel ashamed of.  Worse, if you believe in re-incarnation...because you will be part of the future generation :).

The Taxperson is the Mother of Invention...

Who would have thought that a theatre person will come up with a brilliant tax planning idea? In Spain, the taxes for watching a play in a theatre was increased 3 fold to 21%. This has put all those in the theatre industry at risk as no one will watch a play paying so much. While shopping for carrots, one theatre person realised that the tax on carrots was 4%.  So, what he has done is that anyone willing to pay Euro 13 for a carrot gets a theatre ticket free. 

 

This is not the first time I have heard of such stories. Back in the 1970s, India charged very high rates of customs duty for importing steel. One business house is said to have imported thousands of tonnes of chemicals that had very low margins. People were wondering why this was happening and it took them few years to realise that these chemicals were being imported in steel containers for which the customs duty was lower. So, the company was making a killing importing steel cheap and selling at very high domestic prices.

 

There are, of course, so many other stories of people, business-houses, audit firms, etc. coming up with different ways of circumventing tax provisions - or what we call as "tax planning".

 

All these show the human ingenuity when it means coming up with something new when it impacts us personally.  If only we could use this focus on innovation in our daily work lives?

 

I was wondering why this does not happen? Should every company come up with new rules everyday (similar to tax laws) so that we can get the creative juices to flow? Or is just that there is no "Whats in it for me (WIIFM)?" factor involved...or are we so conditioned by our thought processes (maybe due to the education system just taking away our curiosity) that we refuse to think through our jobs?  It could also be that we are doing the same job for so many years that we refuse to think out of the box.

Apart from the WIIFM factor, I also believe that when there is change in the environment, it gets us to think more.  It goes back to the "comfort zone" post that I did earlier.  Operating outside of our comfort zones help us to innovate and think through our jobs differently.  Though this can be frustrating at the beginning, it really gets the best out of us.

I remember that whenever I moved to a new role or had role expansions, the first few months would not be easy as I would take my time to learn the role and also settle in to the expectations of the new role. However, it was during these periods of time that made me think hard on what needs to be done, how these need to be done and how do I go about making things happen in the role. It also got me not only to do different things but do the same things differently.

We also stop innovating or thinking through our roles if we don't have good objectives to pursue.  Personally, I prefer to write up my own objectives and take on few things that are very challenging every year. This helps in stretching me, gets the best out of me and makes me think through the job/role better.  I notice that many wait for objectives to be set or just set objectives the same as previous years with some incremental improvements. Whilst this makes our roles easy to go through, it really does not set us up for success in the long run.

One of my managers used to say, "We are all rebels..if we scratch the surface, the rebel in us will come out." This is very true...any change that impacts us personally gets us all fired up (or worked up) and thinking.  The change brings out the best (or the worst) in us but definitely gets us thinking hard.  This change has caused a new paradigm or a necessity for each of us and, therefore, the need to invent.  Tax laws are similar. Any impact to us will get us thinking hard. So, while necessity brings out inventions, so do our tax laws!!!

Comfort Zones

Over the years of hiring and working with various leaders, I have noticed that people who have rotated across various roles and across industries have tended to perform consistently stronger than peers who have stuck to their role and/or industry unless these are specialist roles.

 

How many of us have actually gone through very long phases in our careers working in the same department, with very similar roles, same managers, etc? What this does to us is that we get used to our roles, the office we come to, the environment around us, the people we work with, the manager we work for and the technical aspects of the job. We get in to a comfort zone. And are extremely happy about it.  More so, if the organization continues to recognize us for the work we do without expecting us to move around a bit. After some time, we stop thinking in our jobs.

 

I am reminded of an experiment that was done with a mouse. Sensors were fixed to the mouse and it was released in to a maze. At the end of the maze was a piece of cheese. The mouse could smell the cheese and started finding its way to the cheese. It was progressing slowly as it got stuck in the maze, but the sensors showed that its brain activity was extremely high. This experiment was repeated over the next few weeks. By the end of the first week, the mouse got used to the maze and just ran straight to the cheese. Now, the mouse was faster in getting to the cheese, but the sensors showed absolutely very little to no brain activity.

 

This is what happens to us when we get in to our comfort zones.  We tend to stop thinking through the job and job gets a bit boring for us. We go through the motions of the role, but the job is really not adding value to us. Our learning stops and our ability to get value add for ourselves and to add value to the role, the people who work for us, etc. starts decreasing.  This is exactly why we need to get out of our comfort zones.

 

So, how do we get out of our comfort zones?  Working in different environments i.e. across various business units or departments in our organization, for different managers, in different geographies or even across different industries will really help.  When I look back at my career, I have worked across different geographies, worked for over 30 managers, worked across industries, worked in different departments, managed business unit profit centres, managed cost centres, etc.  All this has helped me to broad-base my knowledge, keep myself refreshed and also added significant value to me. I have also been able to add value to the organization and to the people who work with me.

 

We all talk of learning organizations.  It would be good to keep refreshing our knowledge too. Somehow, many of us tend to think that reading stops once we leave University.  It is absolutely essential to keep reading and learning. I have used this habit effectively over the years and this helps me keep refreshed. It also helps me understand trends in business and, therefore, make decisions that are of better quality.  Learning and refreshing ourselves is essential. This takes us out of the comfort zone and keeps us on our toes.  What happens to us when we stand up on our toes? I mean literally...we can reach things that are kept at a greater height. 

 

Someone once told me laughingly, "Always be on your toes to reach greater heights."  There is so much truth in this statement.  We reach greater heights, both personally and professionally, if we are willing to get out of our comfort zones at any time.

 

 

Living in the Here and Now

The former CEO of Coca-Cola Brian G. Dyson said, "Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work - Family - Health - Friends - Spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls -- family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same."

I thought I will focus on two things from what I have learnt from my own experiences of what Brian Dyson said - The power of living in the present i.e. living in the now rather than in the past or future and not taking for granted what we already have.

Who does not like to bask in the glory of the past?  All of us always carry fond memories of the past and at times we dwell on what did not go well also. Whilst it is good to reminisce so that we can learn from what went well and what did not, it is important to take the learnings and move on.  Some of us spend too much time pondering on the future...worrying about things that are yet to happen...may or may not happen...things that we sometimes control and many a time do not control. Personally, I prefer to worry about those things that I can control and leave out things that I don't. 

However, by living in the past and in the future, we forget to focus on the present...on the here and now.  It is absolutely essential to be happy, contended and thankful for the here and now...you are alive and kicking...better off than millions of people across the world...just imagine the plight of people in the Gaza Strip and in the Israeli border towns now..they are facing rockets, having sirens blare the whole day long, children are terrified, etc....and for those in the Gaza strip, life is better than those who are forced to live in brothels in Cambodia...and for those in these brothels in Cambodia, they are better off than those who do not know whether they will stay alive the next moment in Africa...and the list goes on....looks like whatever situation one is in, we are better off than many others living somewhere else in the world.

Given this uncertainty of life, let us take what we have now with us and live it to the best of our ability.  It is essential to enjoy the current moment that we have with us for we do not know whether we will be around for the next one.

Most of the time, we take things or people around us for granted. For me, many a time, it has been taking family for granted...and I have learnt that it is the biggest mistake to make. Sometimes, I wish I spent more time with my dad...he is not around now physically, but his words and deeds live deep within me...inexplicably woven in to my mental fabric...

This "taking things or people for granted" and "living in the here and now" are inter-twined. If we decide to live in the present, we will slowly stop taking things or people for granted.

The other part of living in the now is to learn to listen to our body, our mind and our emotions.  We need to look at aligning the body, the mind and the spirit and start listening to what they say. When we do that, we end up being synchronous with the world around us and are consciously reaching out to everyone and everything that is around us.  Though I must confess that I have not been successful in doing this, I have started trying.  I understand from literature that I have read and many who have experienced this, that the feeling is just great.  We end up giving our selves endless power by living in the now. Many people have learnt of living in the now after having experienced death of a loved one or going through what we call as a near death experience.  They believe that the power of living in the now is just amazing. If we put our mind to it, each one of us will be able to do this.

One of the most powerful ways to holding on to what we have around us and not taking people for granted is by using the power of appreciation.  Every one of us has a need - that is, to feel wanted and appreciated. This is the biggest emotional need of human beings. By taking those around us for granted, we stop catering to this emotional need. If we are able to handle this well, we would have gone a long way in not taking the best things and people around us for granted.

Our family and friends are the people that we need to cling to as though they are our lives...because, they are, and without them, life is meaningless.

A Shout Out to Execution Excellence

I was remembering a conversation that I had with one of my team members many years ago. He had walked in to my office and said, "Ravi, I need a job that is more strategic than what I am doing today." I told him that it was really nice that he was trying to tie in strategy with what he was doing and asked him why he thought his own role was not strategic in nature. He responded,"I am handling operations today. It is a delivery role. There is nothing strategic about this role."

Any definition of strategy shows how implementation is critical. This is because, as the poet TS Eliott wrote, "Between the idea and reality falls the shadow." Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." What he wanted to say was that genius was pretty much hard work rather than just a sudden flash of insight.  Similarly, in the organizations of today, a strategy is useless unless there are people who can make them a reality.  Today, there is a desperate need for people who can execute and execute well on time. The best of plans are of no use if they are not implemented.

When it comes to brass tacks, most of the leaders are those who have executed very well on their jobs and not necessarily strategic in their thinking. While strategic thinking has helped, it is not the only ingredient to be in those leadership roles. Please do not mistake me as someone who under estimates the importance of strategy. That is definitely not the case. It is critical to understand that the spark of strategy is essential.  Leaders need to have a strategic bent of mind but not necessarily be strategists.  This also means that leaders need to understand that if formulating strategy is not their forte, they need to hire people with those skill sets so that the spark is available for the organization.  Such skill sets are not easy to find and so leaders need to choose the right mix of people in his/her team to ensure they have these thinkers.

As these strategists are hard to find, we end up paying a premium to them. Hence the clamour for such roles.  In my professional life, I have put a lot of emphasis on getting a mix. To succeed, we need a mix of thinkers, doers and thinker-doers. As we go through turbulent times where everything around us is changing rapidly, there is a need for people who will put their heads down and execute to plan.  With 99% being perspiration, there is more need for great executors and organizations should start investing in to such people. Some of them will be great thinkers but not all...does not matter at all.

 

We pay so much of heed to disruptive technologies (and rightfully so) that, at times, we forget the wonderful beings who are executing phenomenally well whatever be the business condition. Let us invest in these people as much as we invest in technologies...organizations will reap the dividends.

Good, bad, right, wrong...

Good and bad, right and wrong are as created by man. Someone or something is good or bad and right or wrong at a particular point in time only and that too at an individual level. So, what was good for me this morning may not be the same in the afternoon. If the concept is as fickle as this, why do we spend so much time on it? Is abortion god or bad? Is gay marriage the right thing to do? Should trans-genders be part of mainstream society? The news that a pregnant lady who died because she could not go through abortion as law thought it was bad, was shocking. Does all this good and bad come before us as human beings or should we put humans before such concepts? After all, all these concepts are man made.

I was talking to a friend of mine who recalled his first reaction of shock when his brother confided to him that he (his brother) was a gay and was confused. He recounted how it took his mother years to come to terms with the fact. He was someone who had not thought of gays as good or bad, but when he realized his brother was a gay, it changed his outlook. Obviously, the brother who he had grown up with and loved, was not bad. He could not become bad because he was born with a different sexual orientation.

The same goes for trans-genders. In India, we have marginalized them so much that they are in to begging and crime to a large extent. It is only over the last few years that the Government has given equal status. Whose fault is it that someone is born as a trans-gender?  I watched, in horror, a transgender recounting his story of how he was scorned by his family. His parents could not accept that he was born different. He was asked to leave home as he brought ridicule from the society to everyone in his family. He was cut off from the will. Finally, he was the person who supported the family when they needed it most. All of a sudden, the bad son had become an angel. The bad had become good. The so called shameful act of accepting him as a son, was not really shameful after all. But, the fact that he was able to forgive his family was amazing to say the least.

As a society, we are prejudiced. We do things that suit us and call that good. The only problem is that this good does not suit all of us.  Money is a great means to divide us in society. The difference between the haves and the have-nots has increased so much, that this society is facing a time bomb that is ticking away. A lot of what we call bad for society - theft, terrorism, unrest, mafia, etc. are all as a result of economic mal-functioning in society. A person who cannot get a job ends up transporting RDX for $60 a month without realizing what he is doing...right or wrong? People who have fought for their right over land and investments from the government, get tired of waiting for decades for the government to invest. They get violent and now demand for their rights - right or wrong? You turn on the TV and news is all about something not going well somewhere in the world.  And if you look at the root cause, it comes down to our inventions most of the time - money, religion, apathy, greed...and the list goes on.

There are 7 billion of us in this world (7000 million)...of this we have 10 million people in prisons...and maybe another 40 million criminals outside (purely guess work from me)...so, 6950 million people run their lives based on the poor tendencies of these 50 million people.  Take the security checks that we go through at airports..the kind of time and money that is spent on such activities has only been increasing...the society is wasting its resources on protecting us from ourselves!!! Great way of blowing up our money...and guess what..this same money is one of the main reasons for the spend.  We have become experts in leading our lives to protect ourselves from this absolute minority. This minority that was largely created by our own inventions.

Right, wrong, good, bad...we need to think this through clearly. As I stated at the beginning...these concepts are from a particular person's point of view and at a particular point in time. Inclusive growth, lesser greed, a mind to give (and not only to take), sharing and tolerance are the need. We need to put the human being and his/her life above all other considerations. A lady dying because law did not permit abortion is just not acceptable. A trans-gender not getting equal rights as his/her brother or sister is just not acceptable. A gay or a lesbian denied rights in mainstream society is just not acceptable. Human life should mean much more to us than our inventions like money, law and religion.

Corporate Alcoholism

I was talking to a friend of mine who told me how he refers to his work experience not as 20 years in his company but as 80 quarters. So, I asked him why. To which, he replied with a huge smile, "This company lives and dies by the quarter and has been doing so ever since I joined. There is no change. At the end of every year, we believe that the new year will be different where we will be able to plan better. However, the market thinks otherwise. We seem to be working for the investment bankers and their quarterly shenanigans". 

In India, liquor is sold in bottles that can hold one-fourth of a litre. They are also called "quarters".  What a coincidence!!! Corporate executives and alcoholics seem to be living by the quarter.  I thought I will call this corporate alcoholism.

While focusing on the immediate needs of a company and its performance, leaders also need to plan for the long term. Long lasting corporations seem to be those that are unlisted or listed ones that accept that there will be quarterly fluctuations.  There are many listed companies that have been around for over 50 years but have lived on a quarter to quarter basis because of the pressure the leadership feels to deliver to the expectations of the Street. While such companies do exist, their leaders have not been around for long.

The Street does not seem to care whether there is downturn in the economy or the industry is going through its downward cycle or the company is facing some issues. It wants returns and it wants companies to turn in more and more profits every quarter. This has put tremendous pressure on leaders as their compensation, their reputation as leaders and performance are judged by the Street only on this one criteria - growing profitability quarter after quarter.  I have seen many leaders, therefore, sacrifice long term sustainable profits for short term measures.

For this reason, many leaders are now thinking whether it is worth the while chasing illusory profits because some investment bankers want it.  They are asking for a reporting that is just not profits which caters to one stakeholder called the shareholder. They want to be judged on sustainable returns to all stakeholders - shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, society in which the company operates, etc.

Such a measure then challenges what most leaders have been taught in business schools - Maximize Shareholder Wealth. It is not any more about shareholder wealth only but reasonable stakeholder returns which includes the society in which the company operates.  Leaders have grown up thinking that maximizing shareholder wealth is their only mission and suddenly that tenet is being challenged.  Further, investment bankers are worried because suddenly the money they make on scrips and options on these scrips (or vapour ware as I call it), seems to be under threat.  So, such measures, while being the need of the day, may not see the light of day for sometime to come.

What we need is for Governments of the day and Accounting Bodies to come up with reporting and disclosure standards that talk of returns to stakeholders.  We also need theories on stock valuation that are based on long term returns to stakeholders and not just maximizing shareholder wealth. Price to Earnings (or P/E) ratios should be restated as Price to Stakeholder Returns ratio. Such a move, though difficult now, is something that all of us should push for to get rid of this corporate alcoholism.

Discipline

I am writing this post from the Isha Yoga Centre at the foothills of the Velliangiri Hills (also known as the Himalayas of South India) which is near a place called Coimbatore. This is a 300 acre campus filled with greenery and the Guru (or Teacher), Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, and his volunteers are building out one of the best centres that is based on ancient Indian wisdom.  A lot of work is being done on the practice of Yoga. Yoga is a way of life. It is usually misunderstood to be a set of physical exercises or breathing techniques and sometimes even mistaken to be a branch of Indian Religion. It is not religion. It is spirituality. It is a way of life and goes across food habits, physical well-being, breathing, personal reflection, the spiritual body and mind, etc.  The Sadguru says that the human body is the most complex mechanism and it needs a lot of dedication to be able to focus and maintain well-being. It can be done if our way of life is managed well. He asks the question of leaders today, "If you cannot manage yourself, how will you manage others?" An interesting question that all of us must reflect upon.

The whole centre (or ashram as it is called in India) is run and managed by volunteers. So, no one takes home a salary. Yet, you see a smile on everyone's face. They are all here as they believe that they are following their calling.  They strongly believe in what they do and have utmost pride in their jobs.

One of the most striking features I noticed in the ashram is the concept of self-service. This is best exemplified in the canteen where food is served. You pick your plate, take the food, eat it and then go out with your plate and clean it. This is not typical in most Indian households where you have maids to do this. There are many other examples too. This concept of self-service is one of the hallmarks of this ashram.

Everything happens in an orderly fashion. You will not hear too much of noise other than the rustling of the trees, the chirping of the birds and human voices which are in hushed tones. The silence and the clockwork precision with which things happen here is absolutely amazing. Just step out of the campus and you will find utter chaos (very typical to Indian roads, cities and villages) but somehow, in the midst of all this chaos, this campus has been built and it has nothing but absolute orderliness.  I was wondering as to how this came about....it must be discipline...of the best kind...self-discipline.

The ashram shows how a disciplined life can actually benefit all of us as a human race in the long run. From good health to smiling faces and absolute pride in the work that is being done (whether it is a menial task or something that is more complex), people seem to be enjoying whatever they are doing.  All it needs from us is the willingness to be disciplined (from waking up by 4.30am to the food we eat and to the physical practices that we need to follow).  The system seems to relax your mind and your body completely...maybe, this is what the Sadguru calls as the Inner-Engineering.

I heard of the concept of the spiritual body here and maybe once I get to know this better, I will write on that. The real learning for me is how to be disciplined in our lives be that at work or at home or at any other place.  If we can put things in perspective and take our lives one step at a time in an orderly manner, we will not only benefit ourselves but also the rest of the world. 

The Missing Ingredient

Eating out is a culture in all countries.  We enjoy going out and having a good time with family or friends or colleagues. At times we like the food and at times we do not like the food. I have heard people complain many a time - we went to that restaurant and the food was greasy or was too spicy or the salt was not enough.

We grow up eating the food made by our mom and our taste buds are attuned to the food that is served to us by our moms...that is why we hear people say - nothing like mom's food.  As we grow older, we also get used to the food cooked for us by our spouses and children. My wife and kids like my cooking and I like theirs. So, did our taste buds change over the years?

While we complain that the food was possibly spicy at the restaurant, if our mom or spouse did the same, we smile, say that the spice could have been reduced slightly but actually enjoy the food served.

I was wondering what makes the difference between the food at home and that in a restaurant that we prefer home food.  While we do need the change and go to restaurants, we still prefer home food at the end of the day.  What drives the difference? What is that secret sauce? I know of an ingredient and I believe that when that ingredient is put into food, the food becomes absolutely delicious.

As I added oregano seed to the Indian dish, I wondered how it would taste. This was an Italian seasoning but I was adding it to an Indian dish that would typically have had a different seasoning.  Guess what...my kids loved it!!! They not only liked the taste and the aroma, they felt that I had done something completely new and different.  The hug that I got from them, made my day.

I had found the secret sauce...the ingredient that is available in home cooked food that you will rarely find in restaurants - it was LOVE!!! 

The love that goes in to the cooking of the mom, of the spouse, of the children just cannot be substituted. That love makes the food tasty even if there are minor errors...that love makes the food even yummier when it comes out perfect...that love not only fills the stomach but satiates that taste buds...the perfect meal!!!

So, if you have been eating out most of the days, try cooking or try home made food - it will definitely taste better - no one can match the love that family gives!!!

The 4 Idiots

Those who are familiar with Indian Cinema, would have heard of the movie 3 Idiots. The movie was a blockbuster and won immense acclaim from all viewers. The director of the movie has tried to tell the audience that they must follow their passion and not study for the sake of just getting educated in order to get a job. He says that true happiness comes when you follow your passion.  The story is told through 3 young men who meet at the University and decide to follow their passion..hence the title, 3 idiots.

The American education system has been doing this for decades now. They have offered students various options and the ability to follow subjects of their choice.  So, while in India you can do a program in medicine but need to take up science and maths from the 8th grade, you can choose your subjects up to the time you do under-graduate education in the US. So, I have seen children take history or philosophy along with biology in the US or even study music.  These options are not available in India today.

I was reminded of a society that lived thousands of years ago and was highly advanced. They had split their society in line with the needs of their lives. They had broken their society along 4 lines. They realised that all people were not born identical. Some preferred the intellectual path, some where more aggressive, some had a very good inclination for commerce and some liked working hard. Based on this and the need of the society, they split the society in to 4 types of people - the Thinkers, the Warriors, the Traders and the Workers.  They laid down rules of how each of these types of people will behave so that their society lived in harmony.  For eg., they realised that the Thinkers could get a bit arrogant because they were intellectually better off than others. So, they were asked to go house to house and request for their food. The others in the society were told not to refuse food when they were asked.  It was also possible that in a house you could end up having a Thinker, a Warrior, a Trader and a Worker. Society, was driven on the lines of specialisation and aptitude of the individual.

Over years, this society morphed due to the greed of individuals. The Warriors ended up having a leader - the King. The King was always supposed to be the most worthy leader.  Over a period of time, the King realised the power he wielded and so started working to see if his son (if he had one) could become the next King.  The Thinker realised that the society consulted him on all their day to day problems and the King also consulted him/her on complex issues. The Thinker also realised that if he was close to the King, he derived significant power in the society. So, he started aligning with the King and just like the King, he started trying to get his son/daughter to be a Thinker whether he was one or not.  This gave birth to the caste system that we know off today in India with so many castes and sub-castes.

However, all that the society wanted those days were 4 Idiots - a way to create specialisation in line with the aptitude of the people.  Greed morphed it to become something as deadly as what we see today. We are willing to kill each other in the name of caste. We discriminate each other in the name of caste. Discrimination over the years has given rise to reservation for the so called lower caste for decades in India. This has resulted in the marginalization of the forward castes in India today.

I am sure that when these 4 idiots were created by society, no one would have wondered that it could take such ugly turns to become a monster that it is today. 

In India, we struggle to change our education system and keep talking of following our passion when our ancestors had actually created something for us thousands of years ago.  It is unfortunate that we let greed get the better of us and instead of creating a system that changed as society became more and more complex, we created a monster. 

Happiness - A State of Mind

I am a bit impatient when I drive. Those who know off Indian roads, know well that the rules of the road are seldom followed. This irritates drivers like me who follow rules.  When people break the rules, I would swear, "Son of a b$x!\@".  I would not wait to think as to who was with me in the car. One such day 7 years ago, when someone broke the rule, I was about to scream but my 4 year old beat me to it. She said, "Dad, son of a b$x!@" ???  I felt terrible and told her not to repeat that again and apologized to her for doing it myself.  When I got back home I was reminded of an old story of a New York Cabbie.

In New York, many don't follow the rules of the road. A person traveling in a cab saw how the cab driver was managing the traffic. He was driving with a huge smile and humming to himself despite many cars cutting him off on the road or plain just breaking every rule.  The person asked the cabbie, "Are you not upset with these guys who just don't follow the rules?"  The cabbie replied, "Sir, everyday, many people throw garbage at you. This could be in the form of abuses or just irritating you by not following rules or doing something that gets to you.  We need to remember that it is left to us whether to take this garbage on to us or not. If we decide not take the garbage, life is that much more peaceful."

The story taught me a very important lesson in life - People can do anything, but each of us can decide how to receive it and this is what results in how we react to the situation.  If we decide to remain positive and happy, no one can take that away from us.  If we decide to blame everyone else for the situation that we are in and behave like a victim, no one can bring happiness to an unhappy soul like us.

I have seen many people who are in a very good situation in life but are unhappy because something has not worked out in their lives.  I have heard of situations where people get tensed and remain unhappy because they did not have a new dress to wear for a party in the evening.  It would be great if such people just paused and thought of the millions of people who do not even have a proper dress to wear or more than one meal a day. As the great Indian Poet Kannadasan once wrote, "There are millions of people worse off than you. Think of them and the situations they are in and you will get peace of mind." (This is a poor translation of what he wrote in an Indian language called Tamil).

I have also seen so many people who live happily despite all the problems that they face in life. They overcome their difficulties and keep moving on cheerfully. These are the people who are the real heroes in life. Just imagine the world where everyone in the morning train that you take to work actually exchanges a smile with each other...a smile can go a long way and it is one commodity that gets returned by the other person with a very high rate of interest!!!  Yes, happiness is state of mind and you can decide to either be happy or not. If you decide to be happy, no one or nothing can make you unhappy.

Whatever happened to trust

I was watching the flight path on a flight. The screen changed and I could see the map of the country in to which we were landing...below the map I noticed the following words - "This map depicts the physical boundaries and should not be interpreted as the political boundaries."  guess the airline was being careful as any misrepresentation could ground them or cause a problem that would be expensive.

It is a real shame that every thing we say must have a qualification or some fine print as in the case above.  The legal consultants have a field day with this.

In every walk of life, we have got in to a bad habit of wondering what are the liabilities attached. Eg. The doctors ask for all tests to be done because they are worried that patients will take them to the cleaners if something went wrong later.  This has actually increased the cost of health care in all countries and getting health insurance has also become a problem.  The same goes with other professionals.  A large part of the fee that we pay professionals is today an overhead related to "Professional Indemnity Insurance".  Chartered Accounting firms pay millions of dollars of out of court settlements to manage this. The same goes to doctors.

I was driving in a taxi in London and chatting with the taxi driver. He was telling me that after dropping me off, he had to go to school to pick up his child. He went on to add that these schools call him or his wife if their child is suffering from a cold. They say that the school will not accept children with symptoms of flu because this will impact other children (absolutely correct stance to take) and it could lead to litigation later if parents feel that the child was neglected by the school.  He told me with a sad smile on his face, "This never happened when I was at school. The teacher would just take me to the sick room and ensure I was taken care off.  I would be asked to rest and then go home when someone came to pick me up at the time when school was over. The school would take a call if it was serious enough to take the child to a hospital and inform parents.  Today, parents are called if the child just sneezes."

Gone are the days when I would just cycle up to my friend's home hoping that he was there. I would turn up and his whole family would welcome me with a smile on their faces.  The same would happen when he came over to my home to play.  Today, we do not go over to someone's house without calling.  While in smaller towns and villages in India you do see people walk across few streets to visit one another, this is just not prevalent in larger cities. Even in cases of emergencies, we ask friends if we can come over. What is friendship if it needs permission at all times?  I do understand not taking someone for granted and for respecting privacy. But, are we forgetting how to live as a society?

The underlying tenet of most of what we do is trust. If there is a deficit of trust, it would become difficult to live.  We are now making it difficult for ourselves to live.  Our laws are enacted to punish the handful of people who live in this society. Yes, laws are needed to ensure we live in safety...but, I am not sure that it would be a great life if we were to live because laws exist. It would be a better place if we live because trust exists and laws are there only as a safeguard.

In pursuit of growth...

Someone said, "Today, we have larger houses but smaller hearts; more convenience, but less time; lesser children and even lesser time to play with them."  In countries like India and China we have seen unprecedented growth over the last 20 years.  While the countries have prospered and per capita incomes have gone up substantially, I can clearly see a deterioration in the quality of lives. And, as is stated in the poem Leisure, "What is this life if full of care; we don't have time to stand and stare?"

Those who suffer the most are children. They do not have the childhood that was there 40 to 50 years ago.... where we could spend time playing, going to someone's house un-announced, when we could have a great laugh, when playing meant on the field outdoors and not in front of your TV or Computer or Mobile, when condom advertisements did not have 11 year olds as models - when children were children - not adults.

Today, we spend hours in front of our television sets - even, this is not a social event in many houses - they have a TV in each room so that there is no fight for the remote control.  In many homes, families even do not have 1 meal together on the dining table.  There are many couples who just meet over the weekends as they work different shifts and each one is sleeping when the other leaves for office or returns from office.

I am reminded of a beautiful story...a very rich man ( lets call him Peter), was on a holiday and he was sitting on a pier and fishing. The lake in which he was fishing was quite beautiful and he was enjoying the scene when he saw another man (lets call him David) fishing. The difference was that David was actually catching more fish than Peter. So, Peter walked up and asked David, "What do you do for a living?" "Fishing" was the reply he got.  So, Peter said, "You are a great fisherman. Why don't you start a larger business in fishing?" David responded, "And do what?"  Peter said, "Oh, you can get more boats, more fish and actually sell your fish all over the country."  David responded with, "And then?"...and the story goes on with Peter explaining to him how he can catch so much fish and then set up a factory, export fish, etc.  Every time he got a response from David, "And then?"  So, finally Peter said, "Hey, you will become so rich that you will have enough money to come across to a beautiful lake like this and relax and fish.  Don't you want this?"  David said, "But, that is what I am doing now anyway!!!"

As in this story, many a time, we forget why we started or do things in life.  In pursuit of growth, we forget that all this growth, all this money, etc. is anyway to be happy with our loved ones. To enjoy a peaceful life with good health...to enjoy a life where you can sleep well...and, we forget all this. We give up everything to grow and at the end of the day, like, Peter, forget why we started this journey.

Pursuit of growth is necessary, but like everything in life, needs to be in moderation.  Growth at the exclusion of many will not help anyone in the long run.  All this social unrest, income disparities, difference in life styles, etc. that we see across the world is due to this lop-sided growth.  We, as leaders, must decide to make a difference to every society in which we live.  But, it would be great, if we can first start at our own house and make that a real home.

Speed

The car in front of me was not moving fast enough. I kept muttering under my breath, "Move, move..", but only I seemed to be hearing these words.  Similarly, in life, we find that we move at different speeds to each other. Every day we see a little child scurrying to keep pace with the parent, the man/woman struggling to keep up with the dog that s/he is taking out for a walk, the elderly man tyring to keep pace with the teenager and so on....some are faster than others and we all know that the pace at which someone moves, either physically or mentally, differs from person to person. 
As I listened to the person in the meeting, I knew that he had not got the point I was making. My first thought was, "Gosh, this person has just not got it!"  I reacted by cutting him off in the meeting and carrying on the discussion from where I left off as the others had understood what I had to say. How many times have each of us done this in our lives? I am pretty sure all of us do this in our daily lives, not just at work.

When we are slower than others, we always want the others to wait for us.  However, when we are faster, we seldom wait for others.  I struggle with this and am trying my best to slow down for those who need me to and catch up fervently with those who do not wait for me....I must admit that this has been a struggle for me all through my life. This impacts us significantly in our daily lives.

At work and at our home, we seem to get upset with each other when speeds differ.  This causes tremendous stress in our lives and seldom do we realise that if we are able to adjust speeds, we will do ourselves a lot of good.  At work, I have seen some of the best leaders fail because of this. They run at a speed that others are left gasping.  Further, they have little tolerance for those who are not able to run at their speed. They show this by rewarding only those who run at their speed or just ignoring few in conversations.  While it causes stress to those who are slower, these leaders also suffer from stress at the time when organizations collect feedback from employees on how satisfied they are with their leaders.  Typically, we would see the Employee Engagement Scores not being very good where, as individuals, we are not able to strike a balance between speed, agility and the emotional aspects of working.

This is so true at home too where our elders are not as fast as us.  More so if they are really old.  They want to be involved in conversations, hear only a part of a statement and ask questions.  This really irritates us and we end up saying something harsh that can upset them.  This not only upsets them but they feel cut off and lonely after that.  There is, therefore, a real need to stop, think and act in such situations - easier said, than done.

How do we then get around this?  I have, over the years, come to realise that we get better at managing speed differences as the Emotional Quotient (EQ) in each of us increases.  While, I believe, that most of us know this, we do not consciously try to train ourselves to see how to get more of EQ. We tend to be happy with the IQ bit.  Not that IQ is not important. A good balance really helps. As we grow as leaders, EQ is a must and without that, individuals and, the corporations in which they work, will struggle in the long run.  Most companies have realised this and are trying to get this woven in to their leadership skills matrix, training, work practices and rewards and recognition structures.

John Kotter of Harvard Business School: “Because of the furious pace of change in business today, difficult to manage relationships sabotage more business than anything else - it is not a question of strategy that gets us into trouble; it is a question of emotions.”  This is so true in our personal lives too.

There are rights and rights...

The Right to Information, the Right to Education, The Right to Employment, Right to Privacy...all these are rules and laws that the governments of the day are enacting.  As I was pondering this, I was thinking of the thousands of laws that we have, many of which seem ineffective and some archaic.  The Law I really like is the British Common Law - it is unwritten and is managed in Courts through applying precedents to the current context of society and the case that has come up for a judgement. It leaves it to the conscience of the judge to rule based on basic tenets of society.  I wish these Rights are also given through unwritten laws like the British Common Law so that they can change easily with time.

While hearing everyone scream from the rooftops on their Rights and all this noise around India Against Corruption, I was happy to see that people were ready to come to the streets to join hands to force the government to take some action.  What I have not heard in all this din is our duties and responsibilities as citizens.  Will we accept the government slapping us with huge penalties for say breaking a traffic rule - if it really does this, the government will not run any deficit financing - the daily collection will run the government itself. Will the same people not bribe but accept punishment for any infraction of law that they could have done?  It is good to shout for Rights but it is equally important to understand our duties and ensure that we are committed to them so that we can live peacefully as a society.

In our daily lives we see and do so many things that do not deliver to our duties - speeding, rash driving, cutting across lanes, disrespect of traffic lights, throwing trash all over the place, spitting everywhere, bribing to get our work done, etc.  These are all our duties and we don't deliver on them. If we do not do these, why should we expect anyone to give us our rights only?

This is a two-way street and we need to play ball and then expect everything else from the Government or anyone else.  We should also be ready to face the consequence of non-compliance. As a society, we are poor at dishing out consequences and also facing them.  Why is Singapore where it is today? It is the discipline that their Prime Minister drove through severe penalties for breaking the law and also ensured that these penalties were implemented ruthlessly when broken.  Neither do we have harsh consequences nor do we implement existing laws rigorously.  Only if we do all this, will the common man have a peaceful life.

I read an interview of a young politician on whom the future of India seems to ride quite a bit as of now.  He said that if we want to clean up politics, please don't just talk.  Come in, join politics and help us all clean the system.  He accepted that there is rot but said that all of us are to blame for this. I completely agree with him. If you want change, then, be the change.  Don't expect everyone else to do things for you while you spend your life only thinking of yourself and possibly your family and not bothering about what is happening around you.

I watched the traffic constable braving the 35 degree sun, trying to bring some sense of order in to the absolutely unruly and endless stream of vehicles.  He was doing this relentlessly right through the day, inhaling the dust and smoke. He did not have water to drink or the time to answer nature's calls.  Even if he wanted to visit the rest-room, there was none.  I walked up to him and offered him some fruit juice and water. I also told him that he could come over to my house just down the road and use my rest room when he felt like it.  When you put a person in to this situation, what would you get? Only anger, frustration and a behaviour where he will wait to take out his frustration on some hapless passerby.  What can you do to make his life easy?  You can...just follow the traffic rules!!!  Is this asking too much of you?  Would you like to be this traffic constable? 

Working out of our air-conditioned offices, we sermonize on what needs to be done by everyone else in life except ourselves.  Let us all pause for sometime, think of all the duties we have to ourselves, to our families, to our colleagues, to friends, to the society at large and then demand our rights.  We, then, actually have a right to demand for our rights!!!

Inclusivity

History has told us how countries dominated the world at different points in time.  During my time, I have seen UK and US dominate the world.  As the dominance of UK declined, US took over. Over the last few years, I notice that the US is on the decline.  Each country adapted their style and the methods used to dominate the world. While the UK used firepower (cannons), the industrial revolution and its inventions, language (making English as the only official language, medium of instruction, business and law), brazenly taking away wealth from colonies, the divide and rule policy, etc., the US used economic power, sanctions through International Organizations like UN, World Bank, IMF, etc. as well as military power (significantly better air power) and dominated the world.  Along the way, they have made the US Dollar as the global currency, created multi national corportions that edge out local companies in acquiring wealth and resources in different countries due to their superior economic prowess.

Most countries that try to dominate the globe for resources do so for a period of time but when the decline sets in, it is really difficult to recover.  Decline sets in because something else is more important to the world and this country has not spotted it early enough to dominate the trend.  Decline sets in because the country could have become arrogant about its position and wants to grow at the cost of other countries.  Decline sets in when the country does not want to share its knowledge with other countries in the world. Decline sets in when countries stop innovating.

What is needed is inclusivity.  India was the global power thousands of years ago. The knowledge that was available was not shared with anyone else in the world. This started the decline of India. The knowledge gained over thousands of years stands lost today.  The Nalanda and Takshila Universities (the best known universities in the world in those times) do not exist any more. India prides itself for having known many concepts thousands of years before these were touted as being invented. So much was lost because the knowledge was shared by word of mouth and in coded form only to few and the rest of the world was excluded.

I believe that no single country can survive at the cost of other countries.  Nature has given us enough and we need to know how to use these resources responsibly and to share it with everyone else.  Governments of the day can ill afford to ignore this aspect. They need to plan well to ensure equitable distribution of wealth.  Yet, we do not pay attention to this and over 50% of mankind lives in poverty.  The back office industry is a classic example of how companies can make a difference to different countries by putting their work across the globe rather than just one or two.

The social unrest, the naxalite movement in India, terrorism, civil strife, etc. are all as a result of economic issues that have come about because of inequitable distribution of wealth.  Just like no one country can survive at the cost of others, no individual or set of individuals can live at the cost of others.  We need to remember this and ensure we do something about this actively.

Yet, in our daily lives, we seem to be self-centred. There is so much happening in our own lives that we barely step back and think as to what we can do for others.  It need not always be giving money to help someone.  We can help by giving our time, our knowledge or what ever else that is needed by those around us.  The joy of giving can only be experienced and not explained.  I was at a home for the visually impaired. The children there wanted volunteers who could help read books out for them so that they could write that down in brail and be able to read it when they were studying for their exams. The home did not want my money. It wanted my time to help those who could not see this world as we do.  It was paradoxical.  The numbers who can see and read far outnumber those who cannot. Yet, they don't seem to be helping out their bretheren to come in to the mainstream of life.

I will repeat a story that I have told before. It is about a rich farmer who had bought few thousand acres of corn fields.  His neighbours were poor and were not making money out of their fields because they could not afford to spray their fields against pests and these pests had destroyed the fields.  He had the option of buying them out.  Instead, he decided to spray his field and theirs too.  He did this for 3 years in a row and from the 4th year onwards, the neighbouring farmers could afford their own spraying. However, each one of them then helped some other neighbour of theirs to ensure that those fields were also sprayed.  This helped a huge community to not just survive but also thrive.  And all this started because of a selfless act of one human being.

Each of us needs to work this through in our heads.  There is a need to bring many of us back in to main stream...be that economically or physically or mentally.  The task is on each one of us.  We need to be inclusive.  We may ask ourselves as to how to do it...it cannot be mandated. You cannot force inclusivity through law or mandate...it has to come from within. Each of us needs to be a little less self centred and look around us to see where we can be of use to someone else.  If we can make a difference to even one other person, we would have made a significant difference to mankind.

Let us hope that the next superpower of this world is a country that is much more inclusive in its thoughts and deeds.

A new beginning...

The forest fire ripped through thousands of hectares and destroyed everything that came in its way. As fire fighters fought gallantly, the fire raged on for weeks. As I watched the stories of various people who had escaped the fire, I also could not help notice the thousands of creatures that could not escape the fire. Then, someone said something that stuck to my head, "After every such disaster that looks like everything is lost, comes a new beginning."  The fires had created so much heat that it started raining.  The rains had resulted in a small sprout coming out of these burnt forests. Was this the new beginning for this forest?

The pride of lions (or should I say lioness) hunted down a zebra. While few other zebras initially tried to save the one that was killed, they quickly moved on. There was no time to save a life...they had to run for theirs...it was either to be hunted down or escape. They chose to live...they had to start a new journey in their lives without their friend...and their lives moved on.  The narrator in a famous TV Channel said, "And the cycle of life continues..after every such incident there is always a hope of new life. Nature has its own way of destroying and creating." This is what Indians call Shiva (the destroyer) and Brahma (the creator).

This is so true in our lives too....beyond every "end" as we experience it, there is always a new beginning. Those who have experienced death in their families, will definitely understand this.  As in many things in life, the learning is very much experiential.  When a tragedy occurs, we just get pulled in to it and it takes a lot of time to come out of it...in my life when I experienced death in the family, I was shattered...but, as I told myself, "Life has to go on". I had to take charge of few things in life. While the death caused havoc for me emotionally, there was a new beginning in my life as one chapter ended and a new one was beginning. I had to recognize this new chapter and start working on it and, in fact, scripting the chapter.

As we look back on 2011, there are many things that have happened to us.  Some, that we are happy about and some not so happy.  But, this is what life is all about...a mix of both what is good and what is not so good. What we call the sweet and the bitter. If you see most traditional societies, elders typically give us something to eat as the new year begins. The items given to eat would include something sweet and something bitter. They would tell us to take both in our stride.  Only if we experience the bitter will we really appreciate the sweet. Only when we experience an end is there a new beginning.   

So, while we talk of a glass being "half full" or "half empty", I would say that it is necessary to experience the drink in the glass and ask for the re-fill. 

As 2011 ends, a new year called 2012 has begun.  There is always a new beginning after every end.