Thought Center

There is a consulting funda of problem solving called 5-whys. Apparently by the time you ask the fifth why you are at the root cause of a problem. But I have gone a step further in asking my 7 whys! And I know that if I get an answer to at least one why, I will be a lot less wired!!! Seems to be the case with me all the time! Like I've said before, week of exams and submissions, please expect the random rambling post and here it is. So, I wonder

1. Why I always have a dozen things to do and realize that the time I have would just accommodate two tasks?
2. Why is it that I always chance upon a real good article just when I have course work reading running into volumes?
3. Why am I always swamped with work, such that I feel that I am not doing justice to everything?
4. I am here for this one year, to learn, but why do I feel like something is missing?
5. Why do I have so many things happening at once and why do I always need to apply trade off theory?
6. Why do I feel like reading, writing, studying, walking, playing and goodness knows what else, all at once?
7. Why do I always apportion an hour to a task that ends up taking a whole day?

All this while I have been hunting for answers, but so far I've found none. So my quest continues!!!

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Yup. 2nd December was the actual 8th birthday of my present school - ISB. And today, we celebrated her birthday. Much like how it happens in the west, where irrespective of when your birthday or anniversary falls, you celebrate/party on that subsequent weekend! And celebrate we did indeed!

So, on Wednesday, the 2nd, we hoisted the ISB flag, and cut a cake! Well, in traditional ISB fashion, we should have had a dunking as well, but then we skipped arbit dunking for want of a dunkee!!! Besides, of late, on birthdays people feign colds and coughs - since it is frightfully cold in Hyderabad these days! And today, we had a cultural fest, with professors, staff and students putting up a gala show. Noteworthy was not just the quality of the show, but actually the enthusiasm shown by everyone. Now, all of us are hard pressed for time, caught up in a jungle of assignments and coursework. But today, all of that actually took a hike, as ISBians settled down to some serious fun.

While all this was fun, on my walk back home, I was reminded of my time in school and undergrad. Our annual days and college fests respectively were gala events for which people prepared for weeks. The enthusiasm would be huge! We used to bunk class under the pretext of practice. Well, of course we'd practise, but for 40% of the bunked time! In school it used to be all the more fun. All of us were kids and I vividly remember one girl in my class had the best dancing skills in the world! She single-handed choreographed all dance performances for our batch almost every year! And then in undergrad, during our inter-college fest, we used to have colleges visiting to participate. The mood would be nothing short of a Whyteleafe in a home lacrosse match mood. (Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girl - for the uninitiated). The show stealer used to be the fashion show - where the best looking people of the college would take center stage. The clothes would be designed by us, the walk, the show would be choreographed by us, the props, lights and everything needed to pull off a visual extravaganza would be arranged! The fashion show would not just be a ramp walk, but a themed show. I remember the first one was themed 'attitude' and actually had our show stopper bite an apple and throw it into the crowds as a sign of 'attitude'! Coming of age? Well yeah I guess! And then of course - the college chant and the benign sledging when competition would come on stage - 'Ek Do Ek Do XYZ ko phenk do!' Man, the sound still reverberates in my head!

Good old days of college and school, and with today, I have yet another bookmark of a college event that I will cherish for life. Read More......

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Today in a consumer behavior class, we studied the case of TiVo, the first entrant in smart television. The first player who brought in the concept of rewind, pause, record, fast forward live TV. The first player who wished to put control of what the consumer saw on TV into the customer's hands. The TATA SKYs of the west if you will? The first player who actually failed to capitalize on the first mover advantage, due to some strategic errors. The first player who failed to capture significant market share despite a brilliant idea.



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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things...

This is one of my favorite songs, not just for the movie, or the music, but for the lyrics themselves. Put alone, one really wouldn't pay too much attention to raindrops on roses - you'd probably want to run home and escape the rain. Or for that matter brown paper packages - you'd rather rip the package open to see what's inside. But the things mentioned in the song, are small, everyday things that are... for the lack of a better word... sweet!

So some say that the devil is in the detail, I say that life is in the details. Managers tell us to focus on the big picture all the time. So in life, we look for the big house, the big car, the big career, everything! But somewhere down the road, when you have a minute of reflection time, you don't think of that BMW in your garage or your palatial villa in the French Riviera. You think of that rainy day when you sat drenched with a few friends in an Irani restaurant with a cutting chaai. You think of the classes in school where you convinced the prof to give time off so you can play dumb charades. You think of that one night where you sat with friends playing truth and dare all the way to the morning! Yes, life resides in the details.

The number of places where tea has lodged itself into my slot of unique memories is huge! The 12.30 random tea with a friend after a gruelling assignment. A 2.30 tapri chaai after a crappy movie. The piping hot cuppa after stepping into the house from sub zero temperatures. The insane desire to drink tea in the backyard after a first sighting of snow! The 4 am tea with a friend complaining about a painful project client. The memories are plenty. But the core anchor is not just the tea, but the company.

So, life is in the smaller things in life. It is not always a big picture story. A walk in a nippy weather, with a random conversation sitting atop a rock, talking about books, life, friends, people, is a memory that will be cherished forever. A movie with a bunch of friends within the confines of a campus, on a surprisingly, relatively free evening is divine. At the end of the day, its these things that I would want to look back on and smile at, and think back about a life well lived. Read More......

26/11 - One year ago, Maximum City was ripped apart by terrorists who took India's commercial capital hostage. Terrorists who hurt Mumbai's elite core. One year ago, a few people valiantly fought the terrorists, in spite of being ill-equipped. A few lost their lives trying to protect the rest of us. We watched terror TV sitting in our living rooms, getting angry at the way the city was being plundered. We watched as news channels left security and the efforts of the security forces to the wind in the rage to capture the 'juiciest' footage. We saw the smirking face of terror. We read horror stories of differential treatment meted out to the injured at the Taj versus the injured at CST (not sure how much of that was true and how much was journalistic justice) . We saw a visibly shaken and battered Ratan Tata at the Taj premises. We heard stories of brave Taj staff, who put duty ahead of themselves while saving the lives of their guests. We heard poignant stories of an orphaned 2 year old and his brave nanny. We watched in horror the terror attack on Mumbai that lasted for days that seemed like it lasted forever. What has happened since then?

One year on - the tears have dried up, the blood stains washed away, the cries for justice have been muted. The Taj opened on 21st December last year - a sign of true resilience. Trains plied from CST the very next day.The 2 year old orphan makes an appearance in some papers. The smiling assassin is still languishing in prison, though most Mumbaikars wanted him dead a year ago. The masterminds are still at large. Security has been beefed up. Terror bills have been passed.

What remains is hope. A Satyagraha of sorts is on against Pakistan, in the hope that Pakistan takes steps to rein in the reign of terror. (Although as we speak, Pakistan has graver issues of her own). Hoping for a proper culmination of the anti-terror efforts, the incumbent government has been elected at the center and the state. Hope, as usual, still exists. Hope of a safer tomorrow and more balanced justice. Hope that the lives lost have not been lost in vain... Read More......

Well, today is Wednesday and so the post must ideally be 'what I saw on Wednesday'. But today's post is going to be on what I did not see on Wednesday or for that matter haven't seen at all. And that what I haven't seen on campus is a snake. Yes, I am fretting for I haven't yet seen a snake on campus. Almost all my batchmates have seen multiple snakes, even some of the exotic kind! But I have seen not even an earthworm! Exchange students who came here a month ago have seen snakes, while I, who have been walking with my eye glued to the ground, hunting, watching, waiting for the slithery creature haven't seen anything longer than a centipede!

Do I feel deprived? Like hell yes! I don't have a snake memory to take back. I run out each time it rains hoping to catch a glimpse at least of the tail of a snake as it slithers into the bushes. But for some reason, the snakes are playing hide and seek with me. Only that they prefer playing hide and don't seek instead!

The other day I heard a song on FM that went like 'Will I ever fall in love and blah blah blah' I don't remember the rest since I was too busy humming along with the tune singing ' Will I ever see a snake, and if I do will it not be a centipede' and by the time I got out of my reverie, the singer on air was singing 'Na na na aye o'. I guess I got my answer... Sigh!!! Read More......

A good negotiator, a professor once said, is one who ensures that both parties leave the table satisfied with the deal reached. I couldn't agree more. His reasoning was that the world is much too small to make enemies, and that try as one might, one cannot avoid anyone forever. Paths just simply have to cross. Given that premise, how much of hardball can one actually play?

Ok, dealing in narcotics is wrong. Why am I stating the obvious? Well, because I recently came across a couple of articles that took on narcotics dealing and described how two separate law enforcement agencies have dealt with the issue and how the results as expected were antithetically different.

This was a case in a US state, which was dominated by African Americans, wherein the drug peddlers and addicts freely roamed the streets. Leaving children on the streets to walk to school, was totally out of the question, since there was no idea what the kids might come across. One option was to apprehend these criminals and put them behind bars. But this was not effective, since many more new criminals would come out into the open. Besides, some were hardened criminals and some were still softer offenders. The free male population started literally dwindling, as more and more men were being locked up! So the civic authorities realized that hardball tactics were falling flat on their faces! So they decided - 'if you can't cure them through force, try persuasion'. The age old grandma tactic of 'emotional appeals' were used. Pastors, elders of the area rounded up the petty offenders and coached them about their wrongdoing. The hardened criminals were locked up, and rightfully so, while those guilty of misdemeanors were given a chance to get back on the right track. Surprisingly, the method showed results, and crime rates there are significantly low.

So, is the model easily replicable?

Try the case of Brazil. Now, that a parallel economy exists in Latin America that flourishes on drugs and narcotics is a given. Well, no use fighting the fact, you might as well just accept it. So, these drug gangs, the article went on to say, operate parallel economies that provide electricity, and also go on to run a parallel justice system that punishes by the bullet. Meaning to keep these gangs in check, and at least not ostensibly violent, the police 'encouraged' the parallel justice system and the parallel civic services! But this complicity soon grew out of hand, and as recession struck, each gang's profit margins started shrinking, encroachment on another's sacrosanct territory increased and violence skyrocketed. So clearly, this model is not really replicable!

So what is the point of this discussion? Well, let's suffice it to say that every problem need not be solved by brute force alone. In some cases, the power of persuasion is a lot more than the efficacy of the stick or the bullet. So while Maoist violence in Eastern India is absolutely abhorrent, tackling them through brute force or counterattacks could only perhaps cure the symptom temporarily, and not nip the canker in the bud. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And more often than not, desperate measures lie outside the box. So we need to figure out a way for all of us to leave the table satisfied. Read More......

Hand of God. Again. The debate on whether the ends justify the means has come up. Again. A smirking Thierry Henry has now made way for a remorseful Henry. But like Arsene Wenger has said - sport is actually full of examples of people who have committed some form or another of foul, just to get to that end goal (pun intended). (Pic courtesy Sky News). Now France has qualified for the World Cup, but how many would remember the team for the qualifier? If France were to proceed strongly in the World Cup, would people observe the sport or still talk about Henry's hand goal? Do the ends truly justify the means?

But as instances throughout this year have shown, there really is no simple distinction between right and wrong in sport. This year alone has seen enough and more of such cases. Take F1. From the ignoble Lewis Hamilton scandal to the permanent expulsion of Flavio Briatore. The examples are plenty. People allude to the 2002 season, where Schumi passed Barrichello at Austria and then returned the favor at USA allowing Barri to win by 0.011 seconds! People say that such 'fixes' run contrary to the free spirit of sport. I argued then and I do even now that at least those moves were within a team and geared towards the greater good of the team. But in case of Henry, this is a clear violation of rules and I can draw a parallel with another rule in F1 where a driver is not allowed to make up positions by driving off a track around a bend. And if he does that he is penalized. Here, didn't Henry mould the decider goal by unfair means? Had that hand goal not happened, could we have seen a French victory? I doubt it very much.

And after the game, Henry very blatantly blamed the referee. Now whatever happened to integrity? Everyone extols Adam Gilchrist, for 'walking' in the 2003 World Cup in the semi final against Sri Lanka, after having hit just 22. Now, he could very well have stood his ground, since the umpire showed no reaction. But his action not only brought glory to him, but to the sport as well. All of a sudden meintions of cricket being the gentleman's sport started surfacing again. Scores of youngsters found a role model, again. So granted, there was a slip-up by the referee in the France-Ireland match, but the biggest referee of all, Henry himself knew that he was cheating. Shouldn't that have been grounds enough to admit to a fault and do something about it? Again, FIFA quotes the rule book saying an outcome cannot be changed. Now, what is the use of an archaic rule book if the rules do not allow fair outcomes? Isn't it time the rule book was amended then? By example?

All in all this is not just an unfair moment for Ireland. I guess it surely is a sad moment for France and a sadder one for World Cup Football. Roberto Baggio perhaps kicks himself still for that missed penalty. But Thierry Henry would be answerable to himself for the rest of his life if France goes on to win the World Cup. Given that repercussion, I guess the ends do not under any circumstance justify the means. Read More......

I still vividly remember a chap who used to sell rat poisons. Not for any other reason, but the fact that his advertizing techniques looked absolutely awe striking back then. This chap used to walk around with a huge banner stuck to a stick, that had a small wheel on it. So this guy would wheel it around, and the banner had a clipart description of what the poison would do. I don't know whether anyone bought anything from him, but as far as advertizing goes - hats off to him indeed.

The other day, I saw another piece of advertizing that caught my attention. I forget the firm, but there was an ad for a financial service, along with a number you're supposed to call. And this data was printed on a sheet of paper that actually was the centerpiece of... hold your breath.... the headrest on an airplane seat!!! So imagine, this firm had actually captured one and a half hours of undivided eyeball attention. So much for in-flight entertainment. As though that were not enough, later, I saw another piece of advertizing by Vodafone, if I remember correctly, touting their pay-per-second plan on the back of a bus seat! They sure as hell have Mumbai traffic to thank for making me completely aware of the nitty-gritty details of their proposed plan. In your face adveritizing? Absolutely!!

This is the age of hoardings on top of skyscrapers, mobile advertizing vans parked at strategic locations, ads on lamp-posts, bridges, buses, whole local trains, and so on. I wonder what can be next. Perhaps we can extrapolate rat-poison-man to the next level and redefine a field sales person. Looking at the degree of in-your-face advertizing, the next time someone says that she or he is a field salesperson, do ensure you ask for the person's exact job description. Given our current status of advertizing, I wouldn't be surprised if the person walked the streets with a banner dangling from his/her neck, detailing the features of the newest electronic gadget to hit the street! And if a prospective consumer were to walk up to the salesperson and show sufficient interest, the consumer could even get to see a demo of the product! Sounds interesting? Well, let's wait a couple of years, this type of advertizing might just become the norm of the season... Read More......

There's a story in the papers about how the number of airline passengers has increased in the tier 2 towns of India. The article goes on to describe that the number of flyers from metros has not increased as much as the number of flyers from smaller cities and towns like Patna and Bhopal . This is a good thing, actually. Airplane travel is still perceived by many as being aspirational more than anything else. Although I truly wonder what the aspiration actually is, given that (quoting Shashi Tharoor) - most of us still travel cattle class, packed like sardines on tiny air crafts. I now understand the motivation behind the depressed look a perennially-traveling colleague of mine would bear at the very mention of the word 'travel'. 'I hate the TIN CAN', he'd say. The woes of low cost air travel still continue - with delays, slow baggage handling, not very efficient in-flight crews, painful seats, the works!!

But still, news that tier 2 towns are slowly achieving their self-set goals of graduating to air travel is good news! We can view this as being a manifestation of probable all-inclusive growth. It is a good thing that tier 2 towns are being developed enough economically - through entrepreneurial motivations of some, or even through Governmental enterprises. It most definitely is a breather for most cities since most of India's metros are packed to capacity and literally bursting at their seams. So the economic growth of the satellite towns is a step in the right direction towards eliminating migration as the only possible means of self-development.

Another interpretation is to look at the model of the low cost carriers themselves. The oft-beaten-to-death-at-B-schools story of Southwest Airlines shows that the low cost carrier used operational efficiency and 'organizational culture' to position the airline as competition to road travel. In other words, air travel through Southwest was not as much a sign of having 'arrived', as it was a sign that people were finally realizing the opportunity cost of their time! So, I would perhaps say that the augmentation in air travel from the tier 2 towns is testimony to the fact that given the length and breadth of India, people perhaps are able to realize the true value of their time. Granted income levels may have grown, but strong competition in the sector has made all airlines offer services at affordable prices. So, while all-inclusive development is one part of the explanation, I feel that there has been a certain level of rise in the economic status of the normal Indian consumer, who now feels that the price she pays for that airline ticket is worth at least the opportunity cost of her time. Read More......

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This was a forwarded message that came to me today. Just goes on to epitomise the greatness of India's Sachin Tendulkar. I am not a huge fan of cricket, but Sachin's latest 175, after all these years most certainly deserves a note. I also respect him a lot on account of something I read about him a few years back - wherein he had been quizzed about all the endorsement money he was making and so on. He had said that he was in the sport, not because of the money, but because he liked playing and that money was transient and that when you truly love what you do, money will come on its own. That thought has stuck on in my mind, since it is a very strong tool one can use while evaluating choices in life. Besides, reading these quotes by other greats of the field is really inspiring in that it makes you aspire to reach a greatness of that level. So read on, and I am sure you'll leave with a smile on your face.

"Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it." - Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.

"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job." - Yaseer Hameed in pakistani newspaper.

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be" - Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.

"Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives." - BBC on Sachin

"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?" - Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch in 2003 WC.

Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal. - Brian Charles Lara

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin." - Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock." - M. L. Jaisimha

"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility - all make for a one-in-a-billion individual," - Glen McGrath

"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play," - Anjali Tendulkar

Question: Who do you think as most important celebrity ? Shah Rukh Khan: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!! - Shah Rukh Khan in an interview.

"India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte.. " - Navjot Singh Sidhu on TV

He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also. - Waqar Younis

'I Will See God When I Die But Till Then I Will See Sachin' - A banner in Sharjah

Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world. I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting I told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries. - Allan Donald

On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!! - Peter Rebouck - Aussie journalist

"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination. " - NKP Salve, former Union Minister when Sachin was accused of ball tempering

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others. - Andy Flower

"I have seen god, he bats at no.4 for India" - Mathew Hayden

"Commit all your sins when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed coz even the GOD is watching" - A hoarding in England

NOW THIS ONE IS PROBABLY THE BEST AND MOST CUTEST OF THE LOT

"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar." - Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her father's name after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.

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• Any sport - especially when you're playing for a team, or a region or a country, loads one with a high degree of responsibility. Imagine how so many people collectively are looking to you to deliver and provide them with their moment of glory. I can't begin to imagine the pressure Tendulkar feels when he on the pitch. 900 million Indians wanting him to convert a delivery into a six. 900 million Indians wanting a few runs more from him to win a match. Even better, think Michael Schumacher - he crosses nationalities, as scores of F1 enthusiasts want the Westmeister to tame the rain and win a race.
• While playing in a team, the individual really slinks away into the background. Ask Schumi and he says that winning the constructor's championship means more than winning an individual title. Why? Because the team achievement is a collective effort and winning a title for the team is an actual reward for this team effort. Team effort is not just individual sparks of genius, but it is rather the perfect harmonization of each one's talent coupled with strong synergies.
• There is a story that when Michelle Obama took Barack home to meet her family, her brother took Barack to play a game of basketball. His logic was - observing Barack's manner of dealing with the ball, in terms of the quantum of time he held on to the ball versus the amount of time he spent passing it along fluidly through the game, would display his degree of selfishness!
• In any team sport, one needs to strategize on the field. The coach can discuss a thousand different formations, strategies, expected behavior and so on. But when the ball is passed to you on the field, it is up to you to decide whether to kick it all the way to the goal post or whether to pass it to your colleague standing 10 yards away. And this decision is to be taken in light of the fact that your opponent is sprinting towards you really fast with that goal post in view. And you must also bear in mind the fact that if you pass the ball to your colleague, an unexpected opponent could materialize out of nowhere rendering your strategy worthless. At that time, you need to switch effortlessly to plan B within seconds and keep moving on.
• Putting up with destructive criticism. In cricket, it's called 'sledging', where an opponent plays mind games on a player, by trying to unnerve her. Either through insults or snide comments, or any other way of irritating the player, the opponent attempts to disrupt her cool and thus tilt the psychological balance against the player. How does one then deal with such destructive criticism? Certainly not in the way Zinedine Zidane dealt with it in 2006!

Each of these qualities - responsibility, selflessness, thinking on your feet, team work and dealing with criticism are key elements to be mastered in the world of business. What would you rather do? Learn these skills in a class or while fighting fire in a boardroom? Or would you rather learn it over an invigorating game of soccer or basketball?

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