The Optimists

I'm currently reading 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins. Half way through the book I came across a piece that I'd like to share here. Its about a prisoner of war, Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was captured and tortured times over in the Vietnam War and his story of survival over eight long years. The part that struck a cord with me was during the course of a conversation years later the good Admiral had with the author. Stockdale had written a book about his ordeal called 'In Love and War'. Jim Collins reports how depressed he felt just going through the book and despite knowing the outcome and wondered how much worse it was for Stockdale who couldnt know whether he was going to make it out at the time. Asked about this, Stcokdale replies "I never lost faith in the end of the story". When asked "Who didnt make it out?" referring to those who could not survive, Stockdale replies, "The optimists". They kept giving themselves false promises, saying they'd get out by Christmas, then Easter, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas again. They finally succumbed to a broken heart. "We're not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!"

Never lose faith of prevailing through adversity; but accept the brute reality and move on.

Recently I came across an article online talking about the Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Ellison is almost 60, a time when most founders kick themselves upstairs and leave the operations to "younger" people. But apparently Oracle has not seen this happen, in fact they dont even have a clear line of succession charted out.

So what's all the hue and cry about, one may ask. Larry Ellison founded the company with two others after the success of a project they did for the CIA, taking the same name as the project code name. Over time Oracle grew into the company we know it as today, a huge tech company (ok, that's oversimplifying things!) With the growth of the company, Larry also grew, but without relinquishing his iron fisted control over the way things were run. This has continued to date. The problem is that with the founder aging, a question mark hangs over the future leadership of the organisation. In most companies, the founders, or the chief executives make way for the future, usually by moving upstairs giving up hands on control, thereby grooming younger talent to take over the reins. Most established companies like GE have a well established long term succession plan in place. Jack Wech was groomed over a period of 6-7 years to take over from his boss. Likewise he followed a similar method to determine his successor from the huge talent base available.

Closer home, a change in the leadership was seen at Infosys, with Narayan Murty stepping out of the company. It was a slow process with the chief moving further and further away from the day to day activities leaving those tasks to those being groomed in the heirarchy.

Succession is a major concern, especially in entreprenueial companies. Most often the founder(s) take turns running the baby they created. This is the case of Infy. In Indian family businesses, usually the chair passes to the eldest son, or legal heir, as the case may be. Another route followed in India is at the Bombay House. The Tatas dont always hand over control to the son (unlike the Nehru-Gandhi family where the country passes to the son/daughter or daughter-in-law :p) Instead, they groom the best available person in the Board room, if he happens to have the surname of Tata, well its a bonus that adds weight. In fact JRD actually seriously considered Russi Modi as his successor, but chose Ratan Tata instead later.

Coming back to Larry Ellison, its a wonder what will happen to Oracle after Ellison. It should be a matter of concern to the Board also but presently they seem to be unaware of such a responsibilty. Or maybe they're just shying away from the reality that Ellison would need to be replaced someday. In the event of a day without Larry Ellison, what will happen tp Oracle? There is no clear heir apparent and without the protection of the founder, well there just may be no Oracle. In all probablity the company would be swallowed up by one of the more powerful competitors.

For now, Larry's around, and from the looks of things, he might be around for some time, he's certainly not announcing any retirement plans as yet.

Jump start!!

Back after a rather long hiatus. Not that i've been unduly busy or anything, i'll put it down to a rather horrible combination of laziness, writer's block and being internet-less for a while.

In the interim a lot has happened, in my life and others'. A few more of my friends have left home for "greener pastures" as it were. I came back from my intership with a lot more exposure and much less expectations of work life. Not all that you learn in class is applied nor is practically applicable, some in the beginning, others never.

In other developments, there is a blanket ban on colas in Kerala. So now I can't drink Pepsi or Coke (always preferred the former to the latter, for some reason) but apparently I can get the other drinks, like Sprite, 7Up, etc. Weird, when you consider the fact that the basic raw materials, viz the water and sugar, are the same. They've also not banned the bottled mineral water of the same companies. And a week after these products were banned in around 5 states in India, an Indian woman becomes the CEO of PepsiCo!! Talk of ironical timing!

Staying with the lady, Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo, a Madras University, IIM Calcutta, Yale alum, has raised hopes for countless Indian girls who still face discrimination of varying degrees just about everywhere. It is also a beginning to the cracking (too early to say shattering) of the proverbial glass ceiling. Many women are heading corporations, national and multinational. But nonetheless, it is indeed inspiring for many young career women to dream beyond just a 9-5 job and focus on a long fulfilling career. Incidently I came across a discussion about this which somehow veered off onto a full scale argument about how Indians seem to be taking credit for achievements of desis in other lands. L.N.Mittal attracted more attention and debate in India for his bids on Arcelor than the interest generated in Europe.

CLoser home, my second year has started, tuchchadom here I am! It can be as fast and as slow as you want it to be. Classes have begun full swing and assignments, projects, exams and all those things that are designed to put you through hell have started pounding on us. But its enjoyable if you know the tricks of the trade.

Saw KANK this weekend. Every successive Karan Johar movie seems to be getting longer, more extravagent in sets, clothes and actors (well, its always had the top B.O. stars) and less bearable. The movie's got too long, it could have done with more precise editing. I'm not just talking about the time, 3.5 hrs I can handle, but the pace I could not. A tried and tested theme, but very poor handling. He tried to give it "his touch" but ended up with a hodge-podge effect.

This week will mark one year of ASB. Our first anniversary. What a year its been. Have I changed, or for that matter does anyone radically change after a year of MBA? I can't really say. I haven't seen much of a marked difference in most people and while some of them come out more confident, I really can't say that MBA makes you a different person. In many ways, it teaches you a lot of things, about working in teams, with people you like and may not like, about persuading the most adamant person to see your point of view, about keeping your cool and silence in the face of a raging bull while holding your ground. This requires a whole post to discuss. I would be grateful if someone out there who reads this could please leave a comment and send me a reminder to post on this.

Of the little joys from life

For the last few months I have been up all night. I've been pretty engrossed in making full use of every possible communication technology available to me (read Yahoo messenger and Orkut). I have been chatting with my friends back home and in other places. Nothing that sounds out of the world there, you may say. But these are people I have known for periods as short as a month.
It is an amazing experience to gel so well with people who you've never even seen. Sharing jokes, pulling each others legs, or simply talking your heart out. The cornerstones of friendship. How did it happen? After 12 years of schooling and 3 years of college, and I had a handful of people who I could still call at any time of the day or night, just to say hi. But suddenly, I am up all night pouring my fears and joys into those multiple messenger windows, to people I've met just a couple of times. What is it that connects me to them?
I have seen the same kind of sentiment echoed at PG meets around the country. Groups of level-headed mature people congregate and feel a bonding that's closer than years of sitting side by side through math class and eating out of one lunch box (okay, that's a bollywood line) But what is it that makes these people feel closer than ever to complete strangers, known by nothing but a virtual image they have chosen to create?
Initially, my thought was that a common underlying thread connecting everyone, was that elusive feline, CAT. But no, its not that. There's a sentiment stronger than just an exam (oh, alright, CAT isn't just another exam!). There was the element of being able to think on a common plane,of intellect, interests, joys, fears. But there was something more also. This is no ordinary friendship, a passing infactuation, in a manner of speaking.
I find it hard to explain what draws me to these people, why I want to spend time just joking around and debating on the silliest of issues with them. But all I can say is that this is one group of people I will not want to lose. Friendship is sometimes like wine, it gets better as it grows older. For all those wonderful frienships out there......Cheers!!

More reservations!!

The reservation debate seems to be progressing with vigour even though the government forced the YFE forum to back down at AIIMS. Today Ms. Meira Kumar took the issue one step further with increasing the reservation for SC’s now!! This is in addition to the pledge the UPA government has taken to introduce the same in respect of jobs in the private sector. It is a wonder how far the government will with so called upliftment policy of theirs.

Years ago, when the Indian Constitution was being drafted, the Constituent Assembly debated this issue. They felt it was imperative to take some step to bring the weaker sections of society to the fore after so many centuries of discrimination. Very noble of them and very prudent. At that juncture, certain senior and highly respected political figures, viz. Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, proposed introducing quotas in certain fields for these communities.

Just a few years later, in a letter to his cabinet, Pt. Nehru admitted that quotas were not the solution to the problem they wanted to eliminate. He admitted the blunder they had committed when they drafted the Constitution.

Over six decades later we are talking of extending the quota system to the private sector. The world has changed a lot in the last few decades but unfortunately the very honourable octogenarians in New Delhi seem to be oblivious to this. Today, the world runs on purchasing power and the ability to stand one’s ground in the midst of the mad scramble for more greenbacks. It is a world where bills of currency decide who is entitled to what. Gone are the days when admission to a club or restaurant or a train coach was based on the colour of one’s skin or caste or religion. You can have whatever you want if you can pay for it. Unfortunately, this also applies to education, that vast ocean of knowledge which grows the more people it is given to. Ask the parents of a 4 year old in any urban city how much they have shell out to ensure their tiny tot can access a decent education. This same logic passes all through the education chain right up to the post graduate education level.

Then why, is it that the government wants to reserve seats only at the end of the chain? If the noble logic behind the gesture of quotas is to ensure access to education for the downtrodden, then pray, why don’t you do the same at the primary level? After all, isn’t a 4 year from a backward caste also entitled to education…or do they become ‘eligible’, by some weird train of thought, only when they come of age?

Pre summers

Orkut has become a regular almost daily thing for me now. Its nearly replaced Yahoo messenger, but not quite yet. Its a nice world to be part of actually, but I don't suppose it will ever really really replace Yahoo and sms :D. A few days as I was madly scrapping my friends on orkut at about 1.30 a.m. it struck me the extent to which technology can actually be created for one purpose and used for something totally different. Like for instance now, Orkut was probably meant to exchange short messages, but I'm using as a proxy for messenger. There are so many instances in the past where the whole purpose of an invention is reinvented by some ingenious user...did you get that..err..never mind.
The reservation strike continues...today the students have been on hunger strike for eight days running. A false sms was doing the rounds about a student dying from the strike..maybe somebody hoped it would somehow reach the PM and force him to do a rethink. Guess not. In fact, celebrating the second anniversary of the government, a Cabinet Minister Ms Meira Kumar announced that the government was very graciously allowing private companies two years to introduce reservations..bah!! Talk about arm twisting! Why can't these people just make reservations on the basis of economic status...they talk about India being secular and then divide the country on the basis of caste. I saw on T.V. a nice poster made by one of the protestors at AIIMS that summed up the situation very aptly :
Divide and Rule - 1902 - British
Divide and Rule - 2006 - ??????

On a personal front, I will soon be starting on my summer project at HPCL, Chennai. Most of my class has already started, it feels rather left out to be among the few who have not yet started. But I'm not the only one, there are six of us placed with HPCL, all of will be starting only on June 1. That means it will be a close run to get back in time for the start of term. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

India going down?

I have just seen the images of medicos being brutally lathicharged in Mumbai during the course of a peacful protest march against the insanity of the HRD Minister and probably the whole government. From looks of things, it seems the country is headed for a civil war led by the students. If the Prime Minister, who is regarded for his sensibililty and practical awareness over political ambitions, does not intervene soon, this country is headed for something on the scale of which the world has probably not witnessed in the past few decades.
India, with a population size exceeded only by China, is one of the countries with the majority of its population in the age group pf 20-40. What this means for the government is that, if a nation wide movement does take hold, its good-bye for many of the people in power today. Students form the single largest group in India today. So far, we have seen student unions backed by political parties wrecking havoc for some political "cause" or the other. In those cases, there have been only a handful involved (handful compared to the rest of the population). But today, we have an issue which unites the entire student community in one large fevicol bond!!
This cannot be taken lightly. And it will not be. Tomorrow hunger strikes and nation wide protests are being planned. What will happen to this issue only time will tell. But one thing is for sure, it will not die down lie many of the other controversies that have rocked the nation so far. This time, the lives of crores of students are stake. I can only hope and pray that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will open his eyes and ears for once and listen to someone other than "Madam" .

A long year draws to an end

No, I haven't got my dates wrong !! :P
My first year of doing somthing I've always wanted to do is drawing to a close. I'll be half an MBA in exactly 10 days.
Its been quite a year, I must admit. I really wasn't quite sure of my decision when I joined here. A new place, so no track record. If I didnt join, that would mean another gamble at that national lottery called CAT. It was a hellish week before I finally sent in the acceptance letter. The thing that finally weighed in favour was the people behind the "project". As far as I have heard, very little these people have been associated with, have gone wrong.
But no regrets since month one. It took me quite a while to get used the system of study and level of work required here. Actually, it took all of us some time to get used to it. Slowly we realised the merits of co-operation, as the first set of tests and assignments hit us. Term 1 seemed rather long, probably because it was the first experience away from home. Term 2 had a Christmas break, so there was a break in between and this made things better. But the third term has just whizzed by. Didn't even realise the time fly. One day we were being given our term projects due at the end of the term, but it seemed like just a few weeks later that we were reminded that the projects were due the next week. And now just 10 days to go.
I've seen movies more frequently here than I ever have. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But you won't run that risk here. There's enough work to do, but we've always found a way to make time for fun. I guess that's how mba teaches you time management!!! :P
I've actually read more books than I have during the past few years. I've taking advantage of the speed of internet here and been downloading e-books left, right and centre. I've built up quite a collection .:D I wasn't too keen on e-books, but I have learnt to make do with what I have.
What have I learnt and how much has this education actually impacted me?That's something that requires a fair bit of introspection for which my approaching exams does not give me time. I hope I'll survive the next week of marathon exams. Then its home sweet home, before I start on my summer project.
My books beckon me longling, while I beg to tarry a while.....but the sooner I get to it the better it will be...

An ode

There are times when the mind goes on a path of its own and comes back with ideas we feel scared to ponder upon. Something like this happened to me yesterday.
My mind returned to me thoughts about life, the meaning of life and why and what do we live for. We all live for a purpose, someone or somthing. Usually its our family, our parents and our loved ones. But what of those who aren't blessed with having someone to live for? How do they plog on through this journey called life? And what of those who seem to have lost their purpose? Yet, they continue to go on...
There are occasions when most things around you seem meaningless. What is the point in slogging over books, burning the midnight oil, or winning at everything? The future is so unpredictable, one minute you're here, the next ....who knows? And yet, at the same time its the small things that make you go on...a smile, a pat, a word of praise, a joke with friends...its the small gestures that make up life, not the accolades and trophies and certificates bunched up in a box. After all, without the small droplets, you wouldn't have the great ocean.
How do we want to be remembered we are gone? As an over-achiever, who strove so hard to be the best at everything and forgot to live, or just as a plain human who had the time for everything...
No denying the big things are important, you won't be able to live unless you can feed yourself, you can't share a laugh when you don't have a roof over your head. But the drive to achieve those "bigger things in life" shouldn't be at the cost of living. There will be no achievement if there's no one to share the joy with you. There may be only place at the top, but it won't be a happy place if you're all alone up there.
Don't forget to live..there's always time for everything else. An important lesson I learnt from a very dear friend who knew how to live life to the fullest....while we pine for you on earth, we know that you are at peace finally with the Creator. May He give your family the courage to see themselves through this dark hour.

Life is so normal

Its been over a month since Iblogged.....didn't realise the passage of time!!
I've got less than 3 weeks to go for the end of term 3 and my first year of MBA!!!! How time flies!! It seems like it was barely yesterday that I was worrying about CAT scores and calls and rejections. Now I'm almost half an MBA.
Looking back on this year, I must admit its been quite a journey. Ups and downs notwithstanding, I've learnt and unlearnt quite a bit. Things that I took for granted seem a lot more important now. Friends, family, relationships in the whole have taken on a whole new meaning. Another thing is to realise how much a person can grow within such a short span of time. Amazing how all this happens and you don't even realise it.
As for now, looks like they're out to squeeze the last bit out of us before they can confiently declare us even half an MBA. This week has been packed with so much that it seems there will not be any work left for the weeks ahead. Just when we start to think they can't give us anymore work (read assigments, ppts and tests, not to mention the pre-class readings) every hour brings on something new. Sir, what's the deadline on this one? Oh..well today is Monday, you can hand the case analysis in by Wednesday 10a.m. That should be enough time. Yup, sure no probs you'll have it, so can all the other 3 assignments due at that same hour.
But the best part is how we actually manage to hand it all in. It never ceases to amaze me how no matter how much work there is, and how the hours whizz by like seconds, we still manage to finish everything!!! Multi-tasking is one of the out of books learnings a good MBA course will leave you with. Can't help loving it all.
Got to finish reading 3 cases for tomorrow, and study that elusive QM chapter (elusive as in I need lots of help to crack this one) for a test also.

Hype vs. Reality

What happens to a new manager, fresh out of a hallowed portals of a top business school when he enters the rigours of the corporate world? This is a question I have been asking myself for a couple of years as I followed the increasing number of discussions on the spiralling salaries offered to management students lately.

The hype surrounding the placement season at top B-schools of the country has been met with mixed reactions. Some are even going as far as saying that these students are worth their weight in gold(?)!! There are others who look quite sceptically at these large figures in Rupees and Dollars questioning the rationale behind it all. They are people who claim it to be an effect of the booming economy.

But what about the people at the heart of it all - the students? What is the effect of all this attention on them? For most of them, months of sleepless nights enable them to face what is probably one of the most toughest exams in the world for the sheer competition, CAT. Those who are lucky enough to be in the top 1 percentile get calls from purportedly the best institutions in the country, the IIMs, and go through a gruelling GD/PI process to finally make to their dream destination. Two years of having been put through the worst pressure cooker experience ever, if they emerge unscathed, they are declared to be fit for the trials and tribulations of the corporate world. They are projected into the flashbulb popping world of media attention for the size of their biggest offers from the companies chasing them, trying to lure them with juicy pay packets.

Almost every year now for the past 3-4 years, the placement records of top business schools, especially the IIMs, have been closely followed by the media. With each passing year the size of the offers have increasing manifold. But what is the effect of all this attention on the students who feel on top of the world, and for good reason too. But when they are pushed into the workplace, they are brought back to reality with a loud thud and with the effect that many of them become disoriented with the experience. What happens to these same people one year down the line? May be someone should track them down and find out how they found their experience in the real world. An often unreported fact, something I can across quite recently myself, was about the attrition rates of fresh MBAs.

Young guns are raring to go, become change managers is the mantra. They are brought up on the lives of corporate giants like Jack Welch and Lee Iaccocca. B-schools impart a slew of skills but do they really prepare you for the harsh world out there? Management graduates are equipped with the techniques and aids to make decisions, but how do they ensure that these aids will give the results required. They are as good as the best consultant who recommends you what options are open to you, but the final decision is yours. Do B-schools give you the grounds to make mistakes and experience failure? Most often, these students have to wait till they are employed before they get their first experience of exactly how much reality differs from figures on a spreadsheet.

Rang de Basanti

I just saw Rang de Basanti. A movie with a great concept indeed, Mig 21's falling out of the sky used to happen too often for comfort. God knows how may pilots lost their lives or were maimed for life because of the faulty parts used in maintaining these outdated aircrafts. The movie goes the distance to sensitise the viewing public to this issue but the solution resorted to by the protagonists makes it unbelievable.
Who goes around killing corrupt officials as a solution? And drawing a parallel with the freedom movement, that's stretching things too far. Bhagat Singh did not become a revolutionary for personal vendetta. The whole freedom movement was based on a different ideology. Today if you go around killing all the corrupt people in the country, then the population of India would be halved!! "An eye for an eye will leave the world blind" as Gandhi said. It is not the solution, it will only lead to more problems.
The movie does address the right issues, but does not offer any conclusive solutions. It will probably provoke a lot of thoughts on the issue though. Maybe a generation will be sensitised to the extent that some solutions do actually emerge. After all there is little that a corrupt political generation can do in front of an empowered public. Aakhir janata ki hathon mein hi hai sarkar ki takdeer, atleast during the elections.

my eyes

Your Eyes Should Be Brown

Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom What's hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Something arbitrary...

I can't believe this just happened..I pride myself on being able to remember names, email ids and my own passords..but I just forgot the password to this blog!!! Looks like I've been away a tad too long. :D

Had a nice break from the rigours of education with 10 days of luxurious relaxation at home!! Returned on the 4th and find time to blog only now. What have I been doing in this period? Nothing much actually, catching up on the work that I was supposed to have done at home. But then, who ever works when they go home?!

Meantime, lots happened since my last post. There was an i nternational conference joint hosted by ASB and the Stanford Centre for International Development (SCID). It was about development in Kerala, with speakers from India and the US (Stanford). Was able to meet people like T.N.Sriniavasan who's a world renowned economist and teaches at Yale! Visitors from SCID included Dr. N.K.Singh, Roger Noll and Jesicca Wallack. Some big names from the industry was also around. All in all a great experience!!

That was in December and soon after that I headed home after almost 3 months!! That's the ongest I've ever been away and I can assure you I did not like it. Came back with a heavy heart, but then this is life and in management jargon it's called trade-off.

This term is heavy as expected. 5 subjects - Finance-II, Organisational Behaviour-II, QM-I, Operations Management and Macroeconomics. All pretty heavy subjects with a lot of concepts to understand and jargons to spew when necessary. For eg. "The variable component of cost structure can be tweaked to improve operational efficiency and profitability by increasing the contribution of the process." That's just some of the statements thrown around when you have the prof staring at you expectantly and you don't have anything of consequence to say since you were busy in Never Never Land!!

One of my resolutions this year is to be more regular in my work and that includes my blog. Which incidently reminds me - "Happy New Year" :D