7032

When was the last time you set a goal for yourself, chased it hard and had the pleasure of achieving it. It was great to Sachin Tendulkar in that state on Saturday night - it took him 22 years to achieve his life's goal of winning CWC.

I have been trying to setup a goal for my self for the last few quarters and at the end of every quarter it remains untouched, not started.

This time I thought to pen it down here to see if I can come back 3 months later and hopefully see the goal achieved.

Code named 7032. This would be a big and tough goal to achieve in 3 months. However, the tougher the goal is the more is the joy of achieving it.

So let's see..

Aptitude vs Attitude

A couple of years ago I had written this. It was about hard work vs intelligence. I am still unable to answer this question convincingly enough to myself.

Rephrasing the question this time, what is easier to change - Aptitude or Attitude?

At that time, my thought was driven from peer comparison, from people who were working with me in similar profiles and observing them in two shades - hard working but not so smart and vice versa.

I still face the same question for people in my team. There are those who are smart and intelligent but lack that element of ownership and then there are those who are the most dedicated ones but short on smartness, a factor that could make a big difference to their results. Of course there are those who are somewhere in between too.

I think while hard work and dedication is a lot about attitude; smart, clever and intelligence are qualities driven out of aptitude. Challenge seems to be, which one is easy to imbibe, mentor and infuse into others. The intelligent ones are often not the keener ones, because they are the so called clever ones. On the other hand those who are working hard and trying their best, you can only guide them to act smarter, but picking up the smart things requires you to be smart in the first place.

Thus the basic question remains, what is easier to change in someone - attitude or aptitude? How do we go about doing it?

Profit sharing

Why don't organizations do profit sharing with employees like they do with share holders in the form of dividends. Aren't employees share holders too of a different form?

May be organizations should take out some portion of profit to be doled out as dividend to employees. Each one would get in proportion of their salaries. Of course this would be apart from the Variable pays and bonus etc. Since that also depends on the roles of each person.

Quarterly, half yearly or yearly could be debated though. This could make people look at the organization as a whole and not just team, unit, function etc.

Yeah, top management could ask - when company makes losses? Well they do cut jobs and reduce salaries or don't give any hikes in such times. So why not, do it the same with profits too.

Imagine, 3% of profits of next quarter distributed among employees. May not be a big sum but still not bad.

Open feedback

Do you think there are some good people in your organization and some so unwanted people. On top of that the unwanted are more prevalent than those better ones. How do you share your feedback for these people on a platform for their supervisor, his/her supervisor and HR to see it all. Obviously, you can't put that up on the intranet notice board.

How about, an open feedback system. Just log-in and search for the fellow colleague and share your feedback. Could be on a certain scale or just plain subjective description. Like may be an over all rating or detailed rating on certain traits expected from their jobs. Well, it could increase the scope of performance review, although it could have it's challenges too.

There could be of course some checks added, to ensure a more sane system, unlike a Face book group where every one bashes every one else.

- You may not be allowed to provide feedback for people 2 levels above you. I guess somehow we always see very little of those people and assume too much in framing our understanding. Hence, barred from putting those assumed understandings on
paper.
- You must have worked with your fellow colleague for minimum X number of days or have had certain valuable amount of interaction to be able to provide the feedback.
- Feedback will be viewable only to supervisor, reviewer and HR.
- It could also be kept anonymous to all except HR. So that it can be revealed only in critical cases.
- This could have certain weight in the over all appraisal scores of an individual.
- And of course a complex algorithm to convert the feedback into scores by identifying keywords from feedback provided with predefined scores for such key words.

Though it may sound so much like a cliche process again, but imagine kicking the butts of those unwanted people, on the system and actually letting the feedback translate into some action(may be).

Till then may be only cribbing helps.

Freeze

You would have seen those thriller movies, where suddenly everyone around you freezes. What if you are in the middle?

A few days ago, while I was with my coleague on one of he Metro stations here, he pointed and I noticed - everyone slowing down.

While we were still walking noticing carefully what is happening, a few seconds later everyone froze. By now I already had goose bumps, thinking about all those horror movies where some evil happens after every one freezes.

In seconds, every one was frozen where ever they were. On stairs, near ATMs, tickets counters, on the entrance, police men, ticket vendors, public - all.

We both decided to slow down and stop as well, because we did not want us to be noticed by those evil forces which might be looking for human with moving flesh and blood. Our Eyes still ticking left and right trying to see where are those ghosts who have cursed this evil to all these people except us.

We heard some music over us - too low to be heard clearly. With our antennas now trying their best to catch this sound and figure out what it is, I thought may be pide piper was calling.

A few seconds more while we were still trying to decode this background music. Life resumed like ever before.

It was 6 pm in the evening and giving it a little more thought, we realized it was the national anthem.

Horror apart, I think it is a good idea to run national anthem at 6 in the evening at all public places - railways stations, airports, bus stops and all else. At least everyone comes together for those 20-30 seconds and pauses. Every one does get nation on their mind, which we all seem to ignore otherwise. Could be one step to bring the nation closer and together.

The 1-Device

Recently I was discussing with my brother about mobile phones, applications and more on mobile phones(handsets in particular). That's when we were talking about what were the big leaps that happened in mobile space in last few years which changed the industry every few years - more on tehcnology front and not precisely commercial steps.

Considering the start of the road, when we got pocket sized mobile phones and excluding the history of evolution of mobile phones before that, some things which we thought could be considered as the big leaps were:

- Color screens. Gave birth to mobile gaming industry. Otherwise there were only snakes all over.
- Cameras in your mobile phone lead to so many sting operation.
- Touch screens. It's all about touching today.
- Blackberry and push email on the go.
- iPhone and the app store. Touch screen, multimedia, smart phone all in one. Applications is what is making everyone crazy today.
- Android and the opensource mobile OS. You design your phone.

So then came the question, what would be the next big leap from here!

I think next we would need something like a folding screen mobile phone, which could be unfolded into a laptop where we would need it. Even though iPad was an attempt to bring phone and notebooks together, but then it serves none of the two. Neither can I carry it in my pocket nor I can replace it with my laptop.

Let's call it, The '1Device'.
So this 1Device has to be something which I can carry in my pocket like I carry my mobile phone today. Then I reach the destination - let's say my workplace and I pull it out of my pocket, put it on table, unfold it's multiple layers, stretch it and I have my 14/17" notebook like I have today at my workplace.

I think the 1Device could be the next big leap.
What's your take, whats the next big leap?

How small is the world?

VERY.

I stepped out of my KL office today evening and was approaching the near my mono rail station when I felt an Indian lady walking besides me on the foot path.

I glanced once to see like I do for every Indian walking near by. I felt I had seen the face some where and turned back again, and now I was sure I knew the face. I stopped to make sure and realized it was one of my friends from the previous company whom I had never met since I left the company. She was as shocked to see me as I was to see her in Jalan P Ramlee, KL, which is no where related to either of us.

But, it was amazing to have met some one after a long time in such an unexpected place. It has made me think a few hundred times since then - the world is really a small place, something I had never though before.

And for icing on the cake, when I reach Bangalore in the night and call my room mate to tell this - he says he already knows this. Just in about 8 hours. Well that's Social networking though, but its made the world a smaller place too.

So while Thomas Friedman wrote - The world is Flat. Its time for the next book - The smaller world.

Consistency galore

How do you measure someone's consistency? You make them do the same task again and again and monitor the outcome. If the the outcome is more or less same everytime, you consider the person to be consistent.

In case you are thinking what could be the task - I say, write CAT every year. Why ? because I write it every year. Here is the consistency part of it - I have now appeared in CAT for 6 times in a row(not a small feat). How many people do you know, who have done the same? I am pretty liberal and I assume may be a few. But, how many people among that score the same percentile year after year - same 2 digit figure. I have done that and now I ask you again how many people you know who have done that?

With CAT scores out on Sunday, if there was one percentile I was not expecting to score it was X. There is only 1/100 probability of scoring X. the probability of scoring the same X 2 times is 1/10,000. Ok now coming to the point - scoring that same percentile X in 4 out of 6 times in CAT is 4/6 and in percentile is 1/10,00,00,000. Thats better than six sigma. Becuase the probability of error in 6 sigma is 1/10,00,000. So is scoring the same percentile in CAT 4 times is more difficult to achieve than six sigma ?

Anyways, what ever the case be? In case you know me then I can challenge that you dont know any one else who has done the same, so be proud of your self that you know me.

And in case if you do know someone who has scored same percentile in CAT for 4 times then please drop me his/her email ID - would like to go out on a drink with him/her and discuss how and why CAT format should be totally re-done.

Enough of CAT posts. May be next time I will write on something better.

Boosted by CAT performance consistency, I will apply to Toyota soon to rescue them from their recent quality issues due to which they had to re-call thousands of cars.

Who earns it?

Why does he get so much salary man ?? Who ?? There is a different guy in contention every time in the canteen!! So I just recalled what I said in my 2 minutes of gyan session at Peco's on that day(yeah after all gyan become more gyani after 2 pitchers of beer).

2 important factors for that high salary are D&D(no no, not Do not Disturb), but - Deserve and Demand.

To get high slaraies in the long run, one must deserve it and then demand it. Those who demand it but do not deserve it, get spikes only in short term but that does not sustain for long term.

Those who deserve it but do not demand it assuming some day god will smile on them and shower them with his benevolence, do not get it either. Once in a while someone may just show good gesture at them but again sustaining it needs that demand.

And then those who neither deserve nor demand it, well hard luck for them. But, then I think such people should be respected for understanding that they do not deserve it :).

So if you deserve it then demand it. Because you have to earn it, like Cadbury Bournville.
What the heck?

Happy and Healthy

The new year frenzy is over now as the end of the winter break comes to an end today. Last 10 days have been very much like the school days winter break since 4 working days with very little work were squeezed between 2 long weekends.

Now, the time is to be back to work and start the new year like every year.
The motto for this year is - Be happy and stay healthy and be Good.

Wish you a very happy new year.

Sabbatical, before and after.

Last Friday, I was off the pay-rolls of my firs job. Though I was happy to be moving on, there was a small element of sadness for leaving a job that was my first, one that gave me the taste of money that I could claim as mine. I also completed 2 years and 6 months on that very day. Though I did not sit down and reflect upon these years but I felt having come so far and only so far!

I am already 4 days into my sabbatical and I am really liking it!(unfortunately my so called sabbatical will last only 2 weeks). There is so much more time to read 2 full newspaper, read books, practice music, follow stock markets, write blogs and more.

One side effect of a sabbatical of my kind is - I have not taken bath for the last 3 days. I guess this side effect is locational as it did not create problems in Bangalore weather but survival with this in the north India may not be feasible. If god wishes then may be I will take one tomorrow and may be come back with another post - more meaningful.

B-Schools and the ranking mania

In India, B-school rankings often get published around September as applications start rolling out at that time. So when Outlook and others came out with their rankings in September I thought of expressing my own take on the same but as usual missed like I miss on so many other occassions. Last week there was news of ISB, Hyderabad appearing at #20 in global rankings and as always blogs, newspapers like ToI, mint and portals all were flooded with this news. So I thought, why should I be left behind in writing about this frenzied B-school rankings(this is why I say I am just another mortal).

First of all I think B-school rankings should not be taken by their face value and instead should be used as a resource for data they provide.

Though many people have started believing that these rankings are all crap but I think they do offer some value though not in terms of the rank they assign to institutes but in terms of information they provide in the process of arriving at the rank. If, you go through the methodology of every ranking you will feel their are factors that help one institute over the other. Magazines are often blamed for being biased in setting up those parameters in order to skew the rankings. But, any ranking will have parameters and any amount of parameters will always be in favour of one or other participating members. So why exactly blame those rankings? Instead students should actually come up with their own rankings based on their own order of preference.

Here is my wish list of parameters that I expect magazines to publish and consider while compiling the rankings.

Growth in salary of alumnus over a period of 0-5-10 years of period.
Average salary, highest salary and information like that is already taken into consideration. But, today anyone with an MBA degree from any institute is walking out with a handsome package of 4-5 lacs/annum. Fairly good students are getting above 8. But, when the wheel will slow down the first to face the heat would be the bottom layer of students who managed a job today because of the surging economy. A B-school's worth in terms of real value addition to its alumni and industry preparedness would surface only in long run.

Career growth of alumnus over similar periods.
Now, if we were to measure only salary growth over the long run then those placed with huge organizations with stronger brand value or better work quality would rank lower than those placed with some of the smaller unpopular companies just because they shell out bigger sums to fill in for their other weakness. Sometime monotonous work is offered along with better pay cheque and there is no growth either. So an individual choosing a high growth career over high salary career should at least stand at par if not more than the other way.

Diversity quotient of the last 3 batches.
More and more is being written about how institutes are trying to have a mix of students in their batch in order to have a more heterogeneous pool of potential managers/leaders as this stimulates diversified thinking. But, having 1 candidate from arts, science and medical each, a few from commerce and rest engineers is not a heterogeneous batch. Only if there could be a diversity quotient to find out how much hetero a batch really is?

Average input score of last 3-5 batches.
Institutes accepting applications based on scores of various entrance tests can also list average scores of their last 3-5 selected batches. This will inform if quality of input students is improving or its the other way. There is a catch here though - with increasing number of candidates year after year, if an institutes invites same number of candidates as it invited the previous year, the percentile of the last invited application would be higher.

Average experience of the last 3 batches.
As experience is increasingly becoming important during the course of Business education and placements. It would be interesting if institutes provide data on no. of experienced candidates, average experience and average salary of experienced candidates before and after. ISB provides this data.

Average experience of the faculty in industry and as faculty.
Now getting over my obsession of the selected candidates. Having huge number of faculty is easy but the tough task lies in having sufficient number of good quality faculty. Quality is always subjective but still basic criteria - qualifications, total teaching experience, total industry experience and research papers published etc. could be a good starting point for assessing
overall faculty quality.

Entrepreneurship(E)
This is another cliche which everyone is using obsessively. But, it can still be judged more rationally. E quotient of a B-school could comprise of star-ups coming out of schools, initiatives from institute etc. E.g. what percentage of the graduating batch opted out of the placement process to start something of their own. Though this may be attributed to students and not institute but institute initiatives like IIM-A's followed by IIM-Indore's similar action contribute a lot.

There can be many more things that one can look into while opting for admissions depending upon personal priorities. Do share if you think of any.

Till now if you stuck with this post then I really admire your patience.

P.S I was missing from the writing scene for nearly 3 weeks now. But, with this post things will start rolling again.

Paternity leave

When it comes to gender equality most employers claim to be pro women and are more than eager to explain how they ensure women do not get the feeling of a lesser mortal in their organization.

Yesterday I came across the term 'paternity leave' while reading something on mint.

During evenings I am often at my elder brother's place. He had to take leave yesterday because baby was feeling too sleepy and bhabhi had to attend an important meeting. The daily routine of leaving him at day care could not be followed so bhaiya decided to go for the 'miss'. So, when I said to bhabhi "today I read about paternity leave, isn't that a great idea?" Well, to my surprise she replied - such a leave does exist and to my utter surprise she informed it's a 1 week leave!

What is the 7 day leave for? May be it is a gesture from the employer of the would be father to acknowledge that they know his wife is expecting so he should be with her during that time.

"What if companies could give one month paternity leave every year till the child is 3 years old or so?" When I muted this to bhabhi, she was very much in favor of it.

So why don't HR managers come up with something like that. One reason could be, If the father takes leave to take care of the baby allowing the wife to go on work, it does not give any fruits to husband's employer in fact it adds to the productivity of wife's organization. So this step would be considered to be one for the benefit of other organizations.

But, this could be a good tool for the companies who take this as an initiative because this would definitely make the father think many times before he decides to jump over to another company with no such arrangements. In fact in case of couples working in same industry, this could be an attractive policy to poach the other half by rewarding the first half with additional leaves because benefits would not go outside the company.

It would be like a bond for 3 years signed by the parents not for a few hundred thousand rupees but for the convenience of their child.

Does literacy matter?

It does not if it is only about reading and writing and not about the education of understanding and following.

I workout in a gym during evening which has 4 treadmills. These poor treadmills run incessantly due to a rush during peak evening hours. So that they are used judiciously, the instruction in front of the treadmill states "Please use for a maximum of 15 minutes at one time". Yesterday when I was ready for running they were all occupied. After waiting for about 2 minutes I checked how much time these health conscious individuals would take to get down. 3 of them were already above the 20-minute mark, with ladies having run for more than 25 minutes. Finally when I got one treadmill, next to it was a girl may be in her late 20's running for the last 30 minutes. She finally stopped at around 37 minutes - yes, I continued to peep into her speedometer with utter frustration and almost on the verge of asking her to get down.

This triggered the question in my mind whether literacy matters or not?

Looking at the above incident it seems being literate is not enough to make things better because though a gym incident does not impact my life or anyone else' for that matter but incidents like this where people take U-turn under a crossed U or throw garbage in front of a dustbin do reflect society's mindset.

I think literacy matters only if it educates us!

Kholo Kholo

Taare Zameen par might be a meaningful movie. But, I am not writing any review here, I obviously cannot write one before the release.


But the song I find most meaningful goes like this:

kholo kholo darwaze, parde karo kinare, khoonte se bandhi hai hawa, milke churayo sare.
aa jao patang le ke, apne hi rang le ke, aasman ka shamiyana aaj humein hai sajana.

kyun is kadar, hairan tun,
mausam ka hai mehmaan tun, duniya saji tere liye
khud ko zara pehchaan tun.
tun dhoop hai, cham se bikhar,
tun hai nadi oo bekhabar,
beh chal kahin, ud chal kahin,
dil khush jahan, teri to manzil hai wahi.

Basi zindagi udasi tazi, hansne ko razi garma garam sari abhi bhi hai utari.
zindagi to hai patasha, meethi meethi si hai aasha, chakh le rakh le hatheli se dhak le ise.
tujh mein agar pyaas hai, baarish ka ghar bhi paas hai.
roke tujhe koi kyun bhala, sang sang tere aakaash hai.
tun dhoop hai, cham se bikhar,
tun hai nadi oo bekhabar,
beh chal kahin, ud chal kahin
dil khush jahan, teri to manzil hai wahi.

khul gaya, aasmaan ka rasta dekho khul gaya.
mil gaya, kho gaya tha jo sitara mil gaya , mil gaya.
raushan hui sari zameen, jagmag hua sara jahan,
ho udne ko tun azaad hai,
bandhan hai koi ab kahan
tun dhoop hai, cham se bikhar
tun hai nadi oo bekhabar,
beh chal kahin, ud chal kahin
dil khush jahan, teri to manzil hai wahi.

kyun is kadar, hairan tun,
mausam ka hai mehmaan tun.

Sung by Shankar and music from Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy. You can download the song from here.

Broken News

This Tuesday I was on Delhi airport for almost 8 hours waiting for my connecting flight, which fortunately was only 1 hour late.

Delhi airport being many times better than Bangalore airport, I got a seat easily in comparison to the struggle for standing space on Bangalore airport. The plasma TV in front was airing IBN7 (Hindi news channel from IBN and network 18) and here is a short extract from one of its breaking news.

My assumption that every alternate news is tagged as breaking news was proven incorrect as the red flash for breaking news never disappeared for the next 8 hours. Yes, every news was breaking news!

One of the news goes like this:

delhi hawai adde pe hua hungama

Indian airlines ki flight pe hua hungama

Flight 102D pe hua hungama

Already 5 minutes into the news there is no reason explained for the so-called "humgama". Each line of news flashing as a headline. The news report continues with red flashing light stating “BREAKING NEWS”.

yatri subah 5:30 se airport par

Flight ka samay 8 baje

yatriyon ne plane par chadne se kiya inkaar

Plane par 104 yatri sawar

Plane ki der se yatri naraz

These pieces of headlines flashed more than 5 times each. How much was the delay, what made the travelers unhappy etc. - no information. May be the news channel did not find such things important enough. This was followed by the next breaking news about some guy buried alive etc.

Now that being breaking news I think IBN7 will soon have brothers and sisters like IBN8, 9, 10 etc. because there are so many flights getting late everyday on so many airports in India, there would be surplus content.

This poor quality news is not unusual neither are people like me writing about it!

Sad part of the story is, "hindi' news channels are miles ahead of English news channels in this with STAR news and AAJ TAK miles ahead of their competition too. Hindi seems to have become a language only for 'masala' and 'gossip'. In fact growing number of Hindi news channels- there are already around 9 each having short slots for national news and rest all booked for such breaking news and about 4 English news cahnnels further emphasizes that there is definitely a lot of market demand for such content which is not a great news in itself.

People who may still want to watch news in Hindi would depart too as there is hardly any news and probably we would soon get to hear parents telling their kids "beta hindi news channel mat lagana, achhe bachhe aisa nahin karte".

Projecting performance.

Recently a friend of mine was unhappy with his appraisal as he thinks he deserved more because of good amount of hard work he had put in. Well that probably is a case with most of the employees these days especially in IT companies because of the inflating salaries causing huge expectations.

My suggestion to him was "it could be possible that your boss does not know how exactly you are putting in a lot of effort and you must focus not only on the effort but also on the visualization of that effort to the concerned person(boss)". This in other words means projecting the work done is as important as doing the work.

Here is one good example.

"The Taj Group of Hotels once faced a peculiar business problem. The mirror in the hotels’ bathrooms became misty after a hot shower and people invariably used a towel to wipe off the mist to see their face. So, Taj put a heat source behind the mirrors, which prevented the mist from forming. But when customers were asked what they felt about the change in the mirrors, they hadn’t even noticed it. Then Taj came up with the idea of putting the heat source only on a square portion of the mirrors, which showed the face of people. Mist was allowed to settle on the remaining parts of the mirror. The customers found this really innovative"

Found this example on agencyfaqs as a part of Harish Bijoor article. I think it is an excellent example of what is done may not be noticed as long as it is not planned accordingly. This stands equally true @ work as well.

It is not that your supervisor wants you to chase them all day to serve them in sycophancy but then you are not the only one whom he supervises and just as you don't know what all he does in those 9-12 hours he is at work, he may not know about you either. Though you not knowing enough about his efforts does not matter but vice versa will impact you. So keep this in mind when you go in for an appraisal next time.

Anyways no matter what your supervisor gives you, it will not be sufficient for long enough! isn't it ?

Movie insurance

How often does it happen that you start watching a movie and with in the first 15 minutes you realize that it would be a waste of time and stress on your brain? And what if that happens in case you went to watch a movie like that in a cinema hall paying more than Rs. 200 because you were mesmerized by the glitzy promotions.

I think cinema halls should have some kind of an insurance where if you walk out the theater within first 15 minutes then 50% to 75% of the ticket price would be returned.

Prohibited or not?

Looking at this I do not understand whether smoking is exactly prohibited or not inside a plane toilet. If smoking is prohibited then why an ashtray next to it. This to me is equivalent to someone saying - murder is a crime but in case you happen to do one please do not let the blood spill here and there. Clean the knife and floor.

20-50 - Cricket world cup 2015

I always felt 20-20 is not for bowlers. In fact I often used to say that in T20 bowlers could only bleed as the concept of the game was to score irrespective of the pitch, fielding etc.

With India's performance against Pakistan and South Africa where the team defended average scores of less than 150, not only the bowlers have done a commendable job but I also gladly accept my wrong notion of no room for bowling.

But, of course the best thing I have liked in the T20 tournament till now is the short span of the match. 3 hours for a cricket match in my opinion is the best thing to have happened where one can watch the match without having to miss his work, take leave, stay awake the whole night etc.(all so common for Cricket crazy Indian fans).

I think this is how the 2015 Cricket world cup should be.

32 teams to play the world cup.

Round 1 - 8 groups, 4 teams in each group. 20-20 matches intra group.
Top 2 teams from each group to move to next round.
Let us say then we have A1, A2, B1, B2 .... H1 and H2

Round 2 - A1 plays B1 and B2 and so does A2. So 2 teams from one pair play 2 teams of another pair and this round be 20-20 too.

Based on the points and run rates the best 8 out of the 16 move to round 3.

Round 3 - Quarter finals.
and now begins the show down with 50-50 in place.

From here on the tournament goes as any other tournament.

With 32 teams playing cricket I am sure there would be lot more variety than we get to see today and with 20-20 in first 2 rounds it will not last for months. With 50-50 in last 3 rounds the big boys will not be able to complain either about the reduction in the quality of sport.

Of course grooming 32 teams to be able to play up to international standard will have to be ICC's job and I do think 8 years is a good time to bring teams to that level. ICC has much to gain from entry of so many teams into international arena so they should not have any qualms for such a daunting task.

Regardless of my weird ideas till India plays Australia on Saturday we can say - "Bharat desh ka nara hai, 20-20 hamara hai", "Indian's slogan is 20-20 is ours".