Why Winning is So Imp!

It is often said, that winning is not important. What is important is being part of the game, participation in it, putting your heart out for it; and then winning and losing is just an outcome. Here, the reference to game is not only about sports game, but anything that you want to do in your life. But, a Big But. If you want to do something big in your life, then you must Win. Who are remembered, are the ones who Win. The ones who win at consistency.

Why do we still remember Dhyanchand? Why is Sachin made name for himself. Why do we follow Dhoni, or Saina, or Sania. Not alone their hard work, but the results that they delivered for themselves and nation. Not once or twice. But, consistently. 

Tatas, Ambanis, Mahindra's, not one generation, but generation after generations have delivered success for themselves, for the country and its people. 

See, we also remember Muhammad Ghouri. He lost battles after battles against Prithaviraj Chauhan. But he kept trying. He prepared hard, kept coming back again and again. Finally he did win. That win made his names engraved forever. His will to keep trying for that WIN, made him special. Such hard earned wins are remembered.

You don't remember those, who have not won. Or who became mediocre after the first win. You don't remember those, who never tried to win.

See it is completely one's personal decision, the path that one takes, to go for a win, or settle for something mediocre or settle for nothing. It is a choice that one takes for oneself. We must respect it. We must respect our own abilities of doing something. Don't push yourself if you can't.

Taking your own life, if you can't achieve something is absolutely not an option. One must not do it. Either keep trying to extract a win. Or quit the profession to try something else is always another option.

Winning at any cost is not right. Being fair, being human must come first when winning. Otherwise history will not judge you fairly. There are examples, after examples, on how people have become villain in their lives, and post-life if they had not done things fairly.

So, go out, put your hearts out and try to Win your game, make your lives count. Else, keep trying. Else there is something else in the life for you to do. Right? That is always an option.

Corona Mess in India!

India is going through tragic times. Corona cases and causalities are an all-time high. Every day is adding to the numbers, stress and chaos. It has truly caused strain on the healthcare resources, i.e. staff, medicines, and other related infrastructure. It pains to see that hospitals are not able to save lives, due to shortage of oxygen. Fire in hospitals causing deaths is a common news.

So, what went wrong? A question on everyone's top of mind. We just came out of wave 1, when we saw the other world was grappling with wave 2, and a severe one. So, did we not learn the lessons, did we not act in timely manner, did we assume that corona will be kinder to us. Sample the inconsistencies. While Holi celebrations were banned in March, Kumbh was allowed to happen in April. Gatherings during election campaigns were allowed to be bigger, and better each time. Local trains were opened in Maharashtra. Schools were opened everywhere. All mass-gathering activities were allowed to be opened with no check and balance. When? When the second wave has already struck; the cases in India has already started increasing from the 'low'. But the right sense did not prevail as early as April 14.

When the entire world was dealing with Corona wave 2, why were we sleeping? Why didn't we upgrade the healthcare infrastructure? Why didn't we increase the capacity all-across? Why didn't we go a bit slow on opening up, and wait for vaccination to conclude? Why did we lax on the awareness campaigns?

People got relaxed, casual behavior added to the panic and mess. Our Prime Minister was so instrumental in controlling the pandemic during the initial months of wave 1. He maneuvered the behavior of public. He should have done it this time as well. Our own people need reminders, need the same consoling, need the strict action from police-force and govt to fall-in-line. 

For now, we see that the central and state level govts are in action. Vaccination has been sped up. People have learnt the lessons amid the scare. Hoping that things get in better control in next few weeks. Hoping that God is kinder to us, and all is well soon! 

Exhibiting Leadership in Connected World!

Co-location of teams is always an important part of executing IT projects. Being Agile, this is one of the adopted principles as well.

It does help to have all team members located at a common place. It makes discussions easier, enables quicker decision making and executing projects smoothly. This also helps in developing team atmosphere.

However, the world that we live in today, is more scattered, and it requires connecting various locations across geographies which go beyond oceans. Managers and leaders get to manage teams spread across. That presents a challenge in itself.

The reasons for such a diverse presence are different. Cost obviously is the reason, but getting the right talent pool is important too. Most of the IT service organizations have teams split between Onshore, and multiple offshore development centers. The most complex set-ups specifically are product development shops, who do niche development work. They set-up offices across the globe to attract best talents. They will have multiple offices across the world, and each team will have team members spanning across different set-ups. E.g. it may consists of few developers from New York, Nashville and Mumbai. Testers could be from Chennai. Business Analysts could be from Japan. This is not always a forced choice, but many a times by design.

In such a set-up, a manager appointed for such a group will be based out of one location, so how does he manage such a scattered team. He will have different challenges to deal with, scarce choices to make but with the same set of goals/ objectives as that of any collocated teams i.e. to execute the project successfully.

Any such leader needs to be always aware of what are they missing because their teams are not co-located:

1. Unable to have adhoc connect and meetings with individuals and teams
2. Ability to empathize with people in person 
3. Unable to quickly understand sensitivities, not sure of likes and dislikes of team members
4. Team Celebrations, Off hour connects between team members

Below is some of the guidance steps, one must take in such set-ups:

Always Plan Ahead for Discussions
Set expectations upfront for project meetings. Define a clear-cut guidance on how to set-up, conduct and follow-up on these meetings.

Plan for your discussions much ahead. Think through what requires to be communicated, how it needs to be communicated.
Particularly for remote teams, it is important that the core message is re-iterated so that it is understood uniformly across all of the teams. It may be a good idea to have at least one member at each location to repeat the message.

Frequent Feedback Discussions
This is an extremely important item in today's world. Setting clear expectations for each role and each individual in the team; tracking it more often and then providing periodic feedback to the team to allow them to course-correct.
In a connected world, this becomes extremely important. It is easier for the team to mis-understand the ask, and get non-aligned to the core goals.
One needs to prepare well on what feedback to share, and how it needs to be shared. Understand the nuances of language that you will use, and what aspects will be interpreted in what way.
While practicing, I always suggest anyone to play a dual role - one himself, and the other one who will receive the feedback.

Video Connectivity
This is a must item in today's connected world. This helps add personal touch in absence of in person meetings.
Educate your teams to leverage vidoe calls and video meetings more often.

While the teams are set to get more and more scattered as the organizations continue to grow; it is important to improve the infrastructure, frequent coordination, etc.

People have voted! Now the wait for the D-day!

I am publishing this a day earlier. Election campaign is finally over in India. The entire world can only guess the size and scale. No part in the world could match the democracy exercise that India just went through. It is the largest franchise in the world. And, India, and the people of India celebrate it to the core.

This election season was as intense as it can get. Political parties and candidates have put in all their might, their energy and soul into it. They know, if they lose this time; the wait is for 5 years. So, 'make it happen, and happen this time' is the mantra that they are following. "Win at any cost" is true, if you follow the entire discourse. The sloganeering, and language has gotten only cruel, abuses have become common, lies or twisting of facts are thrown as weapons. I cannot say that the political discourse has gotten low or lowest this time, as I have seen this happening every election past many-many years. The only difference this time is real-time news coverage, and spread of the coverage; that makes this years and future elections very different from the prior ones.

In this process, media and social media is being used, misused and abused. They are being played into by each side. Media thinks that Information is being thrown and they think they are lapping into it. But is is reverse. They are made to lap onto it. You could sense optimism and pessimism in every news in how it is covered.

Anyways as the current prime minister has said, that the biggest festival of democracy is about to conclude. All the political pundits have started putting their predictions, math and statistics and formulating the various possibilities. Obviously NDA is claiming a clear majority and the other two groups (UPA and Third front) are claiming that they will secure the maximum no of seats. The intellectuals and news outlets are clearly indicating a major lead for NDA; however still short of half way mark. I predict it to be plus-minus 25 seats for BJP from the half-way mark; and NDA to secure the full majority by themselves.

Let us wait for the May 23; when the results will be out. Let the people come out as triumphant. Long live the democracy.

Let Voter do the talking!

So, the election season is on. 

There is a euphoria all across. It is all about whether, PM Modi will get a second term, or he will be replaced. Mind me, the replacement is possible in two of the three situations.  NDA does not get enough seats to form the government, and opposition is at the forefront. NDA gets enough support within and outside the current umbrella, but Modi as PM is not acceptable to the supporting parties  who are in a position to call the shots.

On campaign trail, PM Modi and his lieutenants are trying very hard to communicate to the masses on the achievements of the government. Also, tilting the balance on their favor using the other non-development factors such as security, sentiments of majority and so on.

Opposition is fragmented, have done the ties as much as possible. However, anyone can guess the situation post-election on the potential tie-ups. With respect to messaging, there is nothing new. There are lies, half baked truths, big bang promises and Modi bashing.

There is a role, Media is playing as well. They are running their own campaigns. Almost all of them clearly have some political affiliations. They are presenting the perspectives of their political bosses. It is the same topic, you would hear two different perspectives on two different channels. You will be convinced with one side if you do not hear the same story on the other channel. 

Let Voter decide, is what you would hear on most occasions. Without being sarcastic, I just wished that each one of the voters were intelligent. I do not mean that they need to be academically qualified, but there is a need of education on elections and voting to masses. Every voter needs to vote based on their needs, the priorities; and not based on caste, religious preferences, or influence or favoritism.

But that's India. We have progressed in 70 years; and improved every election. More to come in the coming years. Democracy is here to stay.

2018 Bollywood Superstars

After a long long time, I see superstars being produced in Bollywood. This is in this year, 2018. These are the times, when we, the public are moving away from Khans, Bachhans and Kapoors; and ready to explore, give a chance to new generation of actors.

In around 2000-2004, when we saw Hritik and Abhishek coming in, there was hope that they can displace the Khan superstars of that time. However, that euphoria fizzled out very soon. While Abhishek could not establish himself as an actor, leave aside star status. Hritik showed some promise, but a few wrong choices and judgement did not allow him to sustain the momentum. He has picked up his act in last few years, however not enough to bring back the glory for himself. It was the same period, when an average actor Akshay made some right choices, did the right movies, improved on his acting quotient, exhibited consistency and he acquired the superstar status. His name is now taken in parallel with some of other superstars of Indian cinema.

This year (2018), we saw the coming of Rajkumar Rao, Ayushmann Khurrana. Public has accepted their acting talent in last few years; but giving them the well-deserved 100-crore superhits establishes them as superstars in the Indian Bollywood industry. This is really a good sign for Indian cinema.

I simply love the way, how public is becoming more aware of what interests them, and what they want to watch. There were those days, and those years; when films were hit or even superhit because there was a particular actor in the movie, or it was a movie from a particular director. However, now a film cannot sustain itself, if the so called actors don't perform, if the movie is not backed by strong content, if the story is not holding together a movie. We have seen bigger blunders, and disasters from the actors and directors who were reckoning once.

Todays moviegoers crave for watching meaningful cinema has given rise to Rajkumar's and Ayushmann's of the world...Also, another crop of good actors such as Vickie Kaushal are coming up. These are indeed good times for Bollywood.

For now, let us welcome these new age actors of our times. May the good work shine, and create place for itself. May the public become more demanding.

Have Differences, Resolve It Soon!

We get into conflicts at work, and in life. Humans do think, and each one is unique in their thinking. Everyone is not necessarily seeing something the same way. When the interpretations are different, there are bound to be differences between individuals, teams and societies at large.

Life is so unpredictable. It is as short, as it can get. Why to carry the old baggage, and carry on with a territory of dispute for long.

One must try and do their own best to resolve the differences in their lifetime.

Initiate a Talk

Yes, talk it out, and you will more or less understand each other. Talking helps resolve differences.

It takes lot of courage to step up, and initiate conversation with someone. Someone, with whom you do not agree, or you do not share the same set of principles, or thought process.

Remember, it is only the initial effort that you take, and reciprocity from the other side then makes it easy.
If you hear "Yes", then it is first step towards resolving your differences. If it is "No", then don't attach this to your prestige, and lose your sleep over it.

Go with an Open mind

You must get into a discussion with a right frame of mind.

Prepare well on arguments, and counter-arguments. But, be ready to be surprised with something new. Do not be judgmental. Be respectful of each other.

Understand perspectives

Be sure of yours. And, appreciate the one, that the other one has.

Be ready to listen. Appreciate the fact that there is a difference of understanding, and opinion. The other party is not seeing the situation with the same pair of eyes.

Encourage Facts

Encourage fact based discussion to reach to a conclusion.
Clarify if there are any observations. Observations are nothing but interpretations. It is important to knock off those interpretations or observations, which are not facts.

Try to conclude

This is an extremely important step. Be flexible in arriving at conclusion.

Apply the various conflict resolution strategies to arrive at conclusion. The famous conflict resolution model is "Dual Concern model", which is based on concern for self and concern for others.

• Avoidance - Avoid engagement into conflict.
• Competitive - win/ lose. Maximizing favorable outcome to you. No concession to others.
• Accommodate - Give in to the others wish.
• Compromise - Give and take of resources..
• Collaborate - Work together to mutually agreeable solution

During your discussion, it is important to maintain respect for each other. When you sense a destruction or deterioration of discussion, try to calm things down. Note the topic of conflict that you both can take up at later stage.

If it looks difficult to reach to a mutually agreeable decision, then the best conclusion would be to schedule the next meeting for discussion.
Isn't it always good to end your meeting with phrase "We'll talk soon".

Do the Leaders follow, what they preach?

Do you take inspiration from a leader? Do you follow someone very closely and seriously? Do you want to become like someone?

I'm sure, many of us take the learning from many such leaders. Some of the traits that these leaders have exhibited all their life, which has given them all the fame and adulation; they tend to write something contrary, when they write their autobiography; they speak of the person living an idle life.

Sample the below:

Work-Life balance: These are the folks, who put their sole into everything that they do. Don't care of days and nights. Don't care for relationships. Even forget their families. But, after having lived a (so-called) successful (let me call, famous), and tensed life; they believe in preaching to public on the importance of work-life balance.
On the contrary, it is the ONLY truth. You have to go above and beyond, put everything that you have got (time, and effort) to get success, and achieve the fame.

Being Truthful: Ah. This is the most boasted falsehood statement being made. They tend to hide all the sins that they have committed to reach to, where they are today. And, when it is time to retire, they wear the mask of "Being Honest, Being Truthful". This is nothing but all their plans to retire on  the legacy of high morale grounds.

Leading thru Vision: They tend to hide all their decisions made just on the basis of their guts. Just taking a chance is many a times the reason why they are so successful. They tend to hide their ability to take risks, and going with the flow as two important facets of their success. Many a times, they want to be perceived as a leader with brain, then a leader with instincts.

Caring for People: That's the uncharacteristic thing that they claim for. After having committed all the blunders in life, tossing people around for financial gain; it is like they have achieved Nirvana, and ultimate psychological satisfaction towards end of their work life.
They claim to be caring for people. There have been several times, when they took decisions based on what they thought is right; biased by their own judgement and ideas.

What I follow, and advice to people around me, is be your OWN Leader. Be objective. Be aligned to your own goals, and aspirations. Do RIGHT, what you think is right. And, whatever is the outcome, you will feel happy about it, and take lot of learning from it.

Back to Mumbai, very briefly - After 4 years!

Finally, I was in Mumbai, India after close to 4 years on Jan 1, 2018. Really a long time. I understand it is subjective...But to me, within my heart this really took so long to be back in your country.

I stepped out of Airport early in the morning. It was 3:30 AM. And, witnessed what is true to Mumbai. It was packed like any other time during the day. 

Truly AWAKE, and LIVE. I've seen several cities and its airports. Very few come close to what Mumbai is. Always ALIVE, non-sleep, dynamic, vibrant, and MOVING.

Experiencing the population, buzzing traffic, pollution. Feeling was pretty much the same. Olden days are still in memories.

Very warm people. It was great to meet my own family and friends. People on roads, in buses, in guest-house, others are ready to mingle, get into conversations. Topics are endless:)

Then got to face the heat of Andolan (strikes) as well. Roads were blocked, trains were not running. You could not move, it was crippled for hours. But, Mumbai being Mumbai; no-one can bring it to ransom. In this situation too, there were people ready to help each other, caring for each other. It was quite a adventure for me to reach my destination though.

So what has changed. I found more people talk in English than Hindi. You go to banks, go to offices (non-governmental), people prefer communication in English. They mix it with Hindi.

Work on Mumbai METRO is on full swing. Everybody I met was very appreciative of the speed at which the construction was going in. There is a positive wait for it. It will ensure better connectivity across the city, and gives the HOPE of easing traffic congestion.

On departure from Mumbai, I could see the beauty of Mumbai Airport. I did not notice at the time of arrival. It has changed much, 'n changed for better. At par or better than many of worlds best airports.

Will get back soon, Mumbai!

India Visit - What a common man thinks!

During my India visit, I happen to spend some time with a scientist. A scientist in his own thinking, and approach was this auto driver. It was an insightful discussion with this individual, and relate to his passion towards growing India.

This is a Muslim man, who is very passionate about our country, India, our prime minister Mr Modi, and future prospects.

 

One of the important things that he said is he believes in logic. Science is all about applying logic instead of blindly believing it.

 

Some of the logical explanations were:

1. Were we monkeys, NO...Were their dianosours, NO. Human beings were never monkeys, or dinosaurs. Just that human beings were larger in size creatures, and with time their size 
2. Once he found someone who has been having medicines for past 3 months, and still having cold and fever. He asked a basic question - Do you sleep on the floor, do you take bath in the morning with cold water. And, there were reasons why he was not being cured quickly.
3. Body is like a machine...It needs to be oiled, and nurtured. Sleep and Food provides the fuel to the body. It is important to take care of body the way you would take care of Car. Right amount of sleep is important. And right diet (quantity and content) is very important.
4. There is one GOD, and that exists...Everybody else has expired...If something has expired, then it cannot be God. I will not get into further details here. But he has explanations around what exists even today, and that is permanent. And, that is GOD.
5. He justifies why was it important to go away with Triple Talaq. This is not only good for Muslim women, it is equally good for Muslim me and in general for Muslim society. He gives kudos to PM Mr Modi on strongly implementing this. Other governments had a chance to do it several years ago, however they did not.
6. He touched upon population control too. Does not agree with We "Two", and Our "One"...He wanted to at least keep it to "Two". He attributed several reasons to it. Primary being allowing two siblings be the support for each other, and also they can act as back-up to each other for ageing parents.

There are three key take always, and innovative solutions that he talked about:

1. We all need to continue to learn and be in present times. Same applies to religious literatures...It needs to be updated based on current context.
2. Today's Traffic problem can be resolved. He had several suggestions. His prime suggestion was to limit the cars based on how rich the person is. It must be on tax declarations. Allow only two cars, if his annual income is above Rs 10 lakhs...limit it to only 1 car, if it is between Rs 5 Lakhs and Rs 10 Lakhs...And, so on.
3. To secure India, one needs to provide right salary to Police, and some of the key roles in middle income society such as watchman and drivers. Police definitely plays a key role in the society. Had it not been to Mumbai police, things would have been really bad in Mumbai with the population, and variety who lives in the city. He gives thumbs up to Mumbai police for doing their job so diligently. He also clearly articulated that some of the regular daily job earners watchman, drivers need to be paid adequate salary to not caught into corruption. They have extremely important role in securing the society.
4. Employment Generation would not be a bigger problem in India. There are ways to generate employment. His biggest suggestion was to implement three shifts. Instead of 8 hours shift including lunches and breakfast time; limit a shift to only 6 hours. A shift should be rigorous without having lunches, breakfast...That way you can introduce three shifts in the day, or four shifts if it is 24 hour working office.

He anyways concludes that Mr Modi is the best PM that India can have...It is after a long time, that our country has gotten a world level leader. He also says, that we being a democratic country; we need to have a next rung of competing leaders..So, it is time either Rahul steps up as a leader, and passes the baton to another qualified leader in Congress party.

Reporting, in today's times!

In today's times, reporting is not fair, and impartial.

You don't believe it, open any news paper or website right now. Read any article, opinion, and coverage; you will sense an inclination towards one side. You read the first para, and you know the direction of the rest of the article. Para after para, the article would just reinforce what you have read in the first para.

A writer has a specific narrative affiliated to a particular political party, one stakeholder, that he or she wants to communicate. In the process, they tend to twist or hide the other possibilities while writing an article...You can sense only one narrative, and there is no alternative. There is no effort to explore the "other" possibilities.

I'm not talking about the clarity that one should have at any point of time...This is not about the black, and white, one should be in a situation. You reach to a conclusion only after research, and only after acquiring facts.

Job of a reporter should be to present an unbiased opinion. In the absence of facts, a reporter cannot take a position; he or she should present the various possibilities.

Readers as well have become more smart today. Gone are the days, when they were loyal to one news paper, or website...A reader in today's times is looking for articles that either matches to the narrative that they appreciate, or the ones which are neutral in the assessment. They start ignoring those writers, articles, and to the extent news papers/ websites as well; which strongly enforce the opposing view.

I wish, and request all the intellectual writers to start presenting neutral, holistic and all inclusive view on any topic, or subject. Don't be prejudiced, or influenced by a specific party to the story. Absolutely take a stand, but only if it can be substantiated with facts. Else, such reporters would be labelled as paid media.

See, I have taken a stand myself, starting this article with a conclusion in itself. Isn't that what you see with every other article:)

Time for elections, and role for Shatrughna Sinha!

This year has been phenomenon for BJP, they have performed exceedingly well across the elections throughout the year. Be it assembly elections, civic body or gram panchayat; BJP's saffron flag kept flying high. Not getting the desired win at a few university elections may sound alarming, however they do not figure on a bigger scheme of things.

This time, it is all about elections of two more assemblies - Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Both the states are significant to the principal parties in India - BJP and Congress. They have applied their own strategies, and arithmetic at work to ensure that they regain the control of the assembly and increase their vote share. Amid all of this, I find it interesting to track which way Mr Shatrughna Sinha is trending.

Like all the previous assembly elections post the 2014 Lokshabha elections; Shatrughna Sinha is sending all the wrong signals. He claim to be speaking for the benefit of the party, but the language is more of someone who has sour mouth. He is not given any more importance on election campaigns, and has not been given any important portfolio or positions in the party. He probably knows that his shining  days in the party are over, and in most probability his parliament seat in the next election in 2019 is at risk.

BJP also seems to have not a clear strategy on how to tackle a high profile individual such as Shatrughna Sinha. The BJP leadership look to have made a decision to tolerate all the wrong-doings and outspokenness of him at the cost of impacting the party's image. They are probably waiting for him to make the first move.

I strongly believe it is time for the party leadership and Shatrughna Sinha to have an open discussion to allow an amicable end of this sourness. A change of party at this time for Shatrughna Sinha will not do any favors, and will only impact his image and dilute his contributions to BJP for such a long time.

Hope a right sense will prevail soon on both the sides.

Need of revamped Appraisal System!

Performance Appraisals are part and parcel of today's HR possesses, conducted minimum once a year in organizations. Objective is to evaluate employee performance for the term (mostly a year, this could be quarter, or half-yearly), provide feedback, and also use it as a basis to finalize compensation and promotions.

In today's times, appraisal systems have become mechanical in nature. In trying to introduce Objectivity, it has been made more of a computer game; the smarter the individual is, he or she can easily control and manipulate the final score...Subjectivity for that matter is not completely gone away. Still many of appraisals, and in many organizations, are addressed through the act of favoritism. 

So, is it time to revamp the performance appraisal systems? Indeed it is time to reason out the Performance Appraisal systems. Lot of time and energy is spent each year in managing this process year-on-year. Our HR theorists should come up with different ways to assess employee performance, and improve the morale and motivation across employees.

Wouldn't it be better to replace a performance appraisal system with Self-Assessment, and guidance from the management? Any negative performance or positive performance needs to be captured as they occur in the form of events. De-link the compensation and promotion from the performance assessment. While it will help to flatten the compensation structure, it also removes uncertainty and favoritism to a greater extent...Promotions need to be based on the capability of an individual. Capability evaluation needs to be based on System, Domain, and Technical understanding; coupled with future prospects. If an organization is really flat with fewer slabs of hierarchy, it makes it further simple.

In today's times, employees are more smarter, and expecting a lot from the organization and management. A complex performance appraisal system, only complicates the situation for the management. So, it is time to bring in simpler nuances of appraisal system, and replace the other components with what will keep employees motivated and attached to the organization.

Gandhi Day - Path of Truth!

It is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi today! A man, who mass-managed a mission to seek independence for our dear country! What we are today, and how we have achieved everything that we have until now; Gandhi's theology has an immense impact. I being a human being, and also being an Indian, have always admired him for how simply he defined and led his life.

When I was in school, I understood several facets of being Mahatma Gandhi. Be it non-violence, be it the doer and not being the preacher, cleanliness, and so many things...The one that created a huge impact on my life, is to follow the path of truth.

One can live a healthy life, if he is on the path of truth. There may be inconvenience at times, but you will never have a guilt of living a fake life. One can live with a clear conscience if you are on the path of truth!

Best Days of Cricket!

Cricket fans would love to see their base team always winning, and wish for un-predictables when the other teams play.

What we saw last two days, is exactly what a cricket fan wishes for. Two powerhouses in the world of test matches lost to lower profile teams.

West Indies came out as a winner against England, that was through determination and young heroic effort. West Indies is quickly getting into the groove, and they will be one of the tough teams to beat in next 12 months or so.

Bangladesh is another team, which has been challenging bigger teams time and again. They are already a power-house in one-day tournaments, and quickly sharpening their skills in longer format of the game. They were high in confidence when they beat comfortably and handsomely Australia, one of the top 3 teams in the world.

This is getting exciting...No team can take it for granted when they are playing against the other team.

Ensuring Project Success!

You envisioned a project, and now you want to ensure that it is successful, right? Absolutely yes!

Once there is an agreement that the project has specific purpose, and will help achieve objectives for an organization. Then we must ensure that the following 4 things are aligned before we get into its execution.

Identify a Sponsor
Right. Without a Sponsor, you cannot move a single step ahead. It is important to have a stakeholder preferably a business, who can sponsor your project, and help obtain the necessary approvals.

Ensure that the Sponsor has a budget
Yeah, a sponsor having no money in the pockets would not be of much help. You  must look for someone who already has a budget to fund the project, or can influence the budgets to secure funding of the project.

Sponsor's team supports the project
It is important to get a buy in from a bigger audience. A sponsor may help the cause, however your need to have a solid blueprint that can convince and align Sponsor's team.

IT has the resources to pull off the project
That sounds pretty basic. Yeah, but many projects fail at a later stage, because this aspect has not been thought through. Ensure that there is a mix available in the IT team to execute the various pieces of the project.

Being Simple in Changing World!

Change is constant, no-one disagrees with the phrase.
However, the speed at which we are undergoing change defines the moment we are in. Acceptability is into aligning ourselves with the rate of change.

Be it the employee demography, Customer mindset, or your own leadership expectations, it is changing at a fastest pace than one would think several years ago.

Digital innovation all across is adding to the complexity. Technological advancements in terms of IOT, Advanced Analytic and Predictive Modeling is bringing the paradigm shift, and a new normal norm.

With all of the complexities in the changing world, how should one cope up with it....It lies in the simplicity at which one adopts a change. All of us into management are perfectly aware of how difficult it gets to do things in a simple way. Isn't it?

While approaching change, introducing simplicity in the processes, people and tools aspects is the way go forward.

Hail the Supreme Court!

News websites in the mornings were filled with two important stories, which exhibit the autonomy and integrity with which Supreme Court of India functions! I salute to these judges with the conviction that they run one of the most important pillars of our democracy. They surely represent the ethos of the Indian President, who recently requested all Indians to be argumentative and not intolerant.

Ok, let me mention those two decisions that I am referring here.

The first one, where Supreme Court ruled that the electoral process cannot  be driven by religion and caste. Candidates must not try to seek votes on the name of religion or caste. If this is construed and implemented properly, it will go a long way in changing the fundamentals of how the elections are won today in India. It will set-up norms to run for elections on the name of development, social justice and ensuring peace. I think, in a long run if the limitations of this judgment are covered from time to time; it will also help in changing the perception and behavior of public in general. 

Again, kudos to our judges, Supreme Court and the process that they went through to deliver this judgment.

The other one is in reference to the game that most of Indians including myself hold closest to our heart. It is with Cricket and its governing body BCCI. Board Chief and secretary were removed with an order in an immediate effect. I highly recognize the need and efforts on part of Supreme Court to bring in transparency and highest level of governance in the functioning of Cricket board. However to me the latest judgment and the episode for last few months has been to the extent of interfering in the private matters of a private organization. To me all of this seem unfair, and BCCI seem to be subjected to such a treatment because of the whopping amount of money that they deal with is unparalleled not only in India, but also in the world...In last 10-15 years, what BCCI has been able to achieve is, very few private organizations (and public ones to) can boast of. They have set-up India on the world road-map, and we have gained so much muscle power in the functioning of world cricket. Whats happening today is just taking our Cricket to where we were several years ago.

In all realities, BCCI is and has always been a private party, and must be governed by the standards applicable to other companies operating in India. BCCI must be brought to norms with what has been already set in our Law; and not with an intent to set an example.

Let us see, how these two events unfold in the course of time!

Rural India - Healthcare Challenges

Rural India has several challenges, and one of the most prominent ones is lack of quality healthcare. I find it despairing to see the condition of healthcare in every village that I have visited, and people I have talked. Leave aside the availability of hospitals, one cannot easily find a good clinic doctor for outpatient visits. One has to travel for 150-200 kms to reach to a town and access good quality care. Being in such situations, villagers typically avoid seeing a doctor unless it becomes an emergency; and many a times it is too late and life-threatening.

To meet the basic needs, there is a crop of pseudo-doctors (read illegal doctors) have come up. Farmers, rural villagers with no choice are visiting these pseudo-doctors in dire needs. Such pseudo-doctors generally would not have any basic knowledge of medicine, and they are checking the patients, diagnosing them and prescribing unnecessary tests and medicines.

There have been several cases of overdoses of medicines, incorrect medicine prescriptions and delayed discovery of a severe disease. People are suffering, however lack of options are making it difficult for villagers to avail right timely care.

Governments, both federal and state levels need to work together and put in efforts to improve the healthcare standards in villages; which comprises of over 60% of India. Governments needs to start with some  basic provisions such as setting up rural clinics within a proximity of 50-60 kms, and ensuring to have a quality hospital within 150 km. 

To facilitate access to good quality doctors and hospitals, government needs to motivate them by monetizing them or providing special accreditation to them.

Governments may want to include a special clause for doctors to retain their certification or accreditation by ensuring that they spend certain hours of time in villages providing care.

Governments and Private players can tie hands to set-up facilities in rural set-ups and in turn governments may want to reward them through relaxed tax norms, or some other means.

Apart from governments, and private players, I would urge the charitable institutions to focus on rural healthcare; and bring more awareness to general public on this issue.

Demonetization: What Rupee could do, Bolivar could not manage it!

On October 8, 2016, India implemented unthinkable is to implement Demonetization. It effective removed the currency notes of rupees 500 & 1000 (86% of cash in circulation) from market by declaring them as an invalid legal tender.

Venezuela, taking a cue from this, tried to implement something similar by scraping Bolivar 100 notes, and replacing it with higher currency notes (up to Bolivar 20000).

While the intent on both the occasions was more or less the same to curb corruption and deter black money hoarders; it met with different fate in both the countries.

In India, the implementation still seems to be successful, and true success of demonetization can be measured only after a few months. It had to be rolled back in Venezuela within few days of rolling it out.

I see three main reasons for the successful implementation of demonetization in India:

1. A vision: Clarity of thought on the need to implement this. Underlying idea was very pertinent to the people in general.
2. Better Marketing: Howsoever short notice to implement the initiative, the concept was presented rightly to the people. Crisp and clear message noting the point #1, and coupled with  with broader nationalism angle left little opposition. 
3. Conductive Environment: Indian economy is comparatively in much better shape, and government still enjoys a majority support. Government came up with this offensive, when opposition was asking questions on its pre-election manifesto to curb corruption. It was killing two birds with one strike.

These three reasons allowed the people to embrace the idea, absorb the pain (supposedly short term) and support the initiative.