Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
Excuses- even good ones are bad for your career
If you are a human you are not far from making an excuse at this very moment, as you read this line. We are always thinking of excuses and give excuses at a frequency which varies from individual to individual. Don’t be surprised, you are not a human if the computer situated inside your brain is not working overtime to find excuses for you to give.
Let’s see what an excuse is Definition of excuse - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Now that we know the real meaning of excuse, let’s explore how the quality of our excuses depicts our character especially our mental alertness or shall we say mental laziness. But before coming to that we need to know why we are giving so many excuses in the first place.
Excuses are normally given to momentarily get over an unpleasant situation. It is done to avoid the immediate embarrassment in our own eyes if the excuse is not given. Just imagine that you receive a call from an insurance agent trying to sell his product. You feel embarrassed to tell him or her that you either do not have the money to pay the premium or you are not blessed with intellect to fathom the virtues of any product so you take the easy way out and say “ I am in a meeting , could you please call after two hours”. The call ends and the caller if not the persevering kind will drop you from the list. By giving the excuse you have avoided feeling small in your not so bright eyes.
Excuses are also given as a defense against our inability to complete a given task or in order to postpone a possible embarrassing situation for the future. But this article is not about why excuses are given, we all know by now that every one does that. This article is about how excuses can be interpreted to know more about an individual.
More often than not we give excuses assuming that the person who is receiving the excuse is so gullible as to accept any of our excuses. Here we are clearly undermining the mental intellect of the target person. If the excuse is identical to what you had given earlier to the same person it clearly shows how horrible a memory you have.
Six months back I had called an ex colleague on his cell to enquire his well being. Let’s call him Tag. After talking for sometime he promised to call me in a week’s time when he was visiting Mumbai. He didn’t call and I waited for two weeks before I called him again. He took my call and said “Its good you called I had lost my cell and didn’t have your number and now that I have your number I’ll call in exactly two minutes and we can talk”. Those two minutes never came. That was six months back. A fortnight back I was in Delhi and thought of meeting him in person. I informed him that I was in Delhi till Friday and will be mostly free so he can call anytime and we could meet. He didn’t call and just to check what happened I called him last Wednesday. He took my call and said
“Its good you called I had lost my cell and didn’t have your number and now that I have your number I’ll call in exactly two minutes and we can talk”. Tag has a habit of even recycling excuses. What do you call this guy – “a milquetoast”. That’s a very simplistic way of analyzing a human behavior. Tag is in the same organisation for more than twenty years. He is politically correct most of the time and is generally known as a helpful guy. This article is about excuses, so let’s stick to that. For a person who loves to study human beings and analyze human behavior let us base our conclusions only on the excuses. My analysis is as follows:
a) Tag is a mentally lazy person
b) Tag has a bad memory. Giving same excuse to the same person under same/similar circumstances.
c) Tag doesn’t value his word.
A HR expert concludes that this person should never be promoted as long as he continues to exhibit traits shown above.
More and more HR experts are now analyzing individuals by sitting in normal departmental meetings as observers and dissecting various excuses given by individuals. The feedback given by HR team is then reviewed by the top management before deciding the promotions.
There is a hierarchy of excuses which people use at different times. Innocent excuse like “I forgot” is extremely common in schools and colleges which lower rung employees continue using blissfully forgetting that they have graduated out of the college. This excuse is least tolerated in any efficient corporate.
Many employees take the lead from their bosses when it comes to spinning a tail of excuses. In many a big corporate houses an outsider can easily find who belongs to which division by merely listening to the excuses. Lessons learnt from bosses are rarely forgotten.
While intelligent, cogent and plausible excuses do display that an individual is using the mental faculty he or she has, but too frequent a use of this capability does also reflect that the individual is spending / wasting too much time on finding excuses rather than doing what he is supposed to do in the first place. A discerning human behavior analyst doesn’t miss even this trait of yours.
Excuses will exist as long as human beings will. A good and successful company will have lesser frequency of excuses than a less successful organization. So it boils down to having bright, intelligent and passionate employees in any organization to make it successful.
Let’s see what an excuse is Definition of excuse - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Now that we know the real meaning of excuse, let’s explore how the quality of our excuses depicts our character especially our mental alertness or shall we say mental laziness. But before coming to that we need to know why we are giving so many excuses in the first place.
Excuses are normally given to momentarily get over an unpleasant situation. It is done to avoid the immediate embarrassment in our own eyes if the excuse is not given. Just imagine that you receive a call from an insurance agent trying to sell his product. You feel embarrassed to tell him or her that you either do not have the money to pay the premium or you are not blessed with intellect to fathom the virtues of any product so you take the easy way out and say “ I am in a meeting , could you please call after two hours”. The call ends and the caller if not the persevering kind will drop you from the list. By giving the excuse you have avoided feeling small in your not so bright eyes.
Excuses are also given as a defense against our inability to complete a given task or in order to postpone a possible embarrassing situation for the future. But this article is not about why excuses are given, we all know by now that every one does that. This article is about how excuses can be interpreted to know more about an individual.
More often than not we give excuses assuming that the person who is receiving the excuse is so gullible as to accept any of our excuses. Here we are clearly undermining the mental intellect of the target person. If the excuse is identical to what you had given earlier to the same person it clearly shows how horrible a memory you have.
Six months back I had called an ex colleague on his cell to enquire his well being. Let’s call him Tag. After talking for sometime he promised to call me in a week’s time when he was visiting Mumbai. He didn’t call and I waited for two weeks before I called him again. He took my call and said “Its good you called I had lost my cell and didn’t have your number and now that I have your number I’ll call in exactly two minutes and we can talk”. Those two minutes never came. That was six months back. A fortnight back I was in Delhi and thought of meeting him in person. I informed him that I was in Delhi till Friday and will be mostly free so he can call anytime and we could meet. He didn’t call and just to check what happened I called him last Wednesday. He took my call and said
“Its good you called I had lost my cell and didn’t have your number and now that I have your number I’ll call in exactly two minutes and we can talk”. Tag has a habit of even recycling excuses. What do you call this guy – “a milquetoast”. That’s a very simplistic way of analyzing a human behavior. Tag is in the same organisation for more than twenty years. He is politically correct most of the time and is generally known as a helpful guy. This article is about excuses, so let’s stick to that. For a person who loves to study human beings and analyze human behavior let us base our conclusions only on the excuses. My analysis is as follows:
a) Tag is a mentally lazy person
b) Tag has a bad memory. Giving same excuse to the same person under same/similar circumstances.
c) Tag doesn’t value his word.
A HR expert concludes that this person should never be promoted as long as he continues to exhibit traits shown above.
More and more HR experts are now analyzing individuals by sitting in normal departmental meetings as observers and dissecting various excuses given by individuals. The feedback given by HR team is then reviewed by the top management before deciding the promotions.
There is a hierarchy of excuses which people use at different times. Innocent excuse like “I forgot” is extremely common in schools and colleges which lower rung employees continue using blissfully forgetting that they have graduated out of the college. This excuse is least tolerated in any efficient corporate.
Many employees take the lead from their bosses when it comes to spinning a tail of excuses. In many a big corporate houses an outsider can easily find who belongs to which division by merely listening to the excuses. Lessons learnt from bosses are rarely forgotten.
While intelligent, cogent and plausible excuses do display that an individual is using the mental faculty he or she has, but too frequent a use of this capability does also reflect that the individual is spending / wasting too much time on finding excuses rather than doing what he is supposed to do in the first place. A discerning human behavior analyst doesn’t miss even this trait of yours.
Excuses will exist as long as human beings will. A good and successful company will have lesser frequency of excuses than a less successful organization. So it boils down to having bright, intelligent and passionate employees in any organization to make it successful.
Monday, June 8, 2009
T20 CRICKET
Cricket is an interesting topic for most Indians, and this applies even to Indians living in countries where almost no cricket is played. T20 cricket has revived interest even amongst aficionados who were on the verge of losing interest in this lovely game.
I plan to do two things in this article; one is to find reasons for the run away success of this brand of cricket with the Indians and two will do some crystal gazing on what shape T20 will take in the foreseeable future.
Indians as we all know love two things the most and these are bollywood movies and cricket. Any entertainment for Indians to be wholesome has to be a family affair and entertainment has to be for minimum three hours duration. Is it surprising then that most Hindi movies are stretched so as to be nearly three hours affair. Even the satsangs, musical concerts, satyanarain kathas are all stretched to three hours duration. A T20 match is a three hour entertainment with a short interval during change of innings. Involvement of stars and big industrialists has given T20 enough star value for Indians to lap up this version of bang bang cricket. In which other event do we Indians get to see their favorite cricketers performing with bollywood stars and successful industrialists supporting them. Most young Indians dream of becoming either a national level cricketer or a bollywood star or a businessman. Is it surprising that most of these dreams remain a mere dream? Consequently these unfulfilled desires are relived through IPL T20 matches. How I would have played? How much each player is really worth? How the advertisements should me made? All these and more are discussed by the fans as they attempt to relive their lives as successful icons they had at sometime aspired to become. One important reason why T20 cricket has become so popular with Indians is the fact that technical knowledge of cricket is no longer needed to understand and appreciate the game. Whether the ball delivered is a late swing or a reverse swing the batsman is expected to hit the ball out of the park. Full tosses are no more bad balls as long as there is a surprise element to it .Matches are easier to follow and this has brought the fairer sex to the game. Kids simply love the format. Music and dances in between balls and overs just add to the fun. Players’ uniforms are now designed by top fashion designers. Players look much smarter in their new attires with all the advertisement they carry on their uniforms. The game has forced them to be fitter and more athletic. And there is no better sight in cricket than watching fit fielders diving to bring miraculous saves. One other reason for popularity of this form of cricket whether you go to the stadium to watch the game or watch it on TV at home or in a pub is that you miss your work for not more than couple of hours. So dear readers be rest assured that this brand of cricket will only continue to gain in popularity in future. Though I must admit that I feel that T20 will ultimately see the demise of the one day version of pajama cricket. Test cricket will survive for some more time for cricket fans who love to watch the challenges between bat and ball in situations which really tests cricketers’ skills.
Now let’s do some crystal gazing and see how the rules of the game will be rewritten in future to make this form more entertaining.
1) Today theoretically it’s possible for one batsman to face all the 120 balls. I see the rule changing. No batsman will be permitted to face more than 24 balls ( 20 % of the total)
2) Fielding restrictions which is currently for six overs at the start of the inning will be in three installments in future. The first one of two overs will be mandatory at the beginning of the inning. The second one will be at the fielding side’s request and this one becomes mandatory if the fielding side hasn’t opted for it till the beginning of the seventeenth over. Batting power play (as it is called in one dayers) of two overs will be immediately after the fielding side has finished its power play.
3) Every team will compromise of thirteen players. A fielding side will have a maximum of eleven players on the field. Batting team can only have a maximum of eleven batsmen but will be permitted to use any from the team of thirteen players. (Similar to the rules they are following in the practice matches before the T20 world cup).
4) To speed up the game the batsman’s guard will be pre marked with a sticker line which will start from the wickets on each side and end two feet from the crease. Batsman won’t be allowed to ask the umpires for the guard.
5) All stadiums will be forced to have same dimensions. All boundaries will be of seventy five yard no more no less.
Now let’s examine which kind of players will be consistently successful in this brand of cricket.
1) With fitness level of players increasing I see the average age of players in team be over thirty ( Hayden, Gilchrist, Gibbs and Warne are prime examples )
2) Players who are less excitable will succeed. In this game success and failures happen so fast that players who can’t control their emotions are bound to fail.
3) Players who are taller than the average will have greater success. The longer reach and stronger built will help players get more power. Short or tall a player will be expected to be very fit. He should be able to run like a hare and have enough strength to throw a flat return to the wicket keeper from the boundary line.
Let’s enjoy the T20 WORLD CUP and wait for the rule changes and predictions made above come true.
I plan to do two things in this article; one is to find reasons for the run away success of this brand of cricket with the Indians and two will do some crystal gazing on what shape T20 will take in the foreseeable future.
Indians as we all know love two things the most and these are bollywood movies and cricket. Any entertainment for Indians to be wholesome has to be a family affair and entertainment has to be for minimum three hours duration. Is it surprising then that most Hindi movies are stretched so as to be nearly three hours affair. Even the satsangs, musical concerts, satyanarain kathas are all stretched to three hours duration. A T20 match is a three hour entertainment with a short interval during change of innings. Involvement of stars and big industrialists has given T20 enough star value for Indians to lap up this version of bang bang cricket. In which other event do we Indians get to see their favorite cricketers performing with bollywood stars and successful industrialists supporting them. Most young Indians dream of becoming either a national level cricketer or a bollywood star or a businessman. Is it surprising that most of these dreams remain a mere dream? Consequently these unfulfilled desires are relived through IPL T20 matches. How I would have played? How much each player is really worth? How the advertisements should me made? All these and more are discussed by the fans as they attempt to relive their lives as successful icons they had at sometime aspired to become. One important reason why T20 cricket has become so popular with Indians is the fact that technical knowledge of cricket is no longer needed to understand and appreciate the game. Whether the ball delivered is a late swing or a reverse swing the batsman is expected to hit the ball out of the park. Full tosses are no more bad balls as long as there is a surprise element to it .Matches are easier to follow and this has brought the fairer sex to the game. Kids simply love the format. Music and dances in between balls and overs just add to the fun. Players’ uniforms are now designed by top fashion designers. Players look much smarter in their new attires with all the advertisement they carry on their uniforms. The game has forced them to be fitter and more athletic. And there is no better sight in cricket than watching fit fielders diving to bring miraculous saves. One other reason for popularity of this form of cricket whether you go to the stadium to watch the game or watch it on TV at home or in a pub is that you miss your work for not more than couple of hours. So dear readers be rest assured that this brand of cricket will only continue to gain in popularity in future. Though I must admit that I feel that T20 will ultimately see the demise of the one day version of pajama cricket. Test cricket will survive for some more time for cricket fans who love to watch the challenges between bat and ball in situations which really tests cricketers’ skills.
Now let’s do some crystal gazing and see how the rules of the game will be rewritten in future to make this form more entertaining.
1) Today theoretically it’s possible for one batsman to face all the 120 balls. I see the rule changing. No batsman will be permitted to face more than 24 balls ( 20 % of the total)
2) Fielding restrictions which is currently for six overs at the start of the inning will be in three installments in future. The first one of two overs will be mandatory at the beginning of the inning. The second one will be at the fielding side’s request and this one becomes mandatory if the fielding side hasn’t opted for it till the beginning of the seventeenth over. Batting power play (as it is called in one dayers) of two overs will be immediately after the fielding side has finished its power play.
3) Every team will compromise of thirteen players. A fielding side will have a maximum of eleven players on the field. Batting team can only have a maximum of eleven batsmen but will be permitted to use any from the team of thirteen players. (Similar to the rules they are following in the practice matches before the T20 world cup).
4) To speed up the game the batsman’s guard will be pre marked with a sticker line which will start from the wickets on each side and end two feet from the crease. Batsman won’t be allowed to ask the umpires for the guard.
5) All stadiums will be forced to have same dimensions. All boundaries will be of seventy five yard no more no less.
Now let’s examine which kind of players will be consistently successful in this brand of cricket.
1) With fitness level of players increasing I see the average age of players in team be over thirty ( Hayden, Gilchrist, Gibbs and Warne are prime examples )
2) Players who are less excitable will succeed. In this game success and failures happen so fast that players who can’t control their emotions are bound to fail.
3) Players who are taller than the average will have greater success. The longer reach and stronger built will help players get more power. Short or tall a player will be expected to be very fit. He should be able to run like a hare and have enough strength to throw a flat return to the wicket keeper from the boundary line.
Let’s enjoy the T20 WORLD CUP and wait for the rule changes and predictions made above come true.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
FLOCCI-NAUCI-NIHILI-PILI-FICATION
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the longest non technical word in English language. For readers who are keen to know more about this word which basically means “ an act of estimating a thing as worthless” can go to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/floccinaucinihilipilification.
This is the word which readily comes to my mind when I recollect my first encounter with the Managing Director of the company I had joined straight after graduation. I had joined a company whose name itself I hadn’t heard till three days before receiving the coveted appointment letter. It so happened that we were selected in the campus interview by the parent company and were called for formal group interview by the parent company. On not being selected by the parent company a few of us were asked to appear in a similar group interview by this company. A few of us were selected by this company as “Graduate Trainee” and were given the appointment letters.
My father who had started his career exactly thirty years earlier as graduate trainee of the parent company was both surprised and saddened when I informed him the name of the company I was planning to join post my graduation. I had found nothing wrong with this company with its well manicured lawns and very polite and helpful executives who we met during the course of the selection process. Those were the days of control and the government controlled every thing including the capacity you built, quantity you produced, price you charged your customers etc etc.
Our training for a batch of about twenty (twelve graduate trainees and rest management trainees) started in right earnest. This was the first time I encountered class distinction. Management trainees were on board neither because of their abilities and nor because of their need to earn livelihood, they were mainly there because they happened to be from rich and influential families. Trainers obviously and for good reason cared more for the management trainees, and it wasn’t unusual for them to turn a blind eye to their misdeeds and indiscipline. The top management new all the management trainees well and went out of their way to make them comfortable in the new corporate jungle we had stepped into. The training was structured and informative. All the graduate trainees just out of engineering colleges found enough areas where they felt that their ideas if implemented could make material difference to the company.
Our training period was of one year duration and even after finishing more than six months we hadn’t met the MD of the company. We had heard enough inspiring stories about him to have really started looking forward to interaction with him. He was almost projected as demi god and the whole company apparently owed their continued employment in the company to his charisma and dexterity in turning around the company. The calendar year was about to end before we got placed in our respective departments (some out of personal choice and some out of corporate needs). One month before this was to happen we were asked to do any project of our choice to suggest improvement in the company. At the end we were expected to do a presentation to the Managing Director (MD). By this time the trainees’ strength has reduced to fourteen from original twenty. Some had left for greener pastures and most of the MT’s had left because they didn’t find the hostel food good enough and the quality of equipments in the gymnasium very inadequate. Every trainee got down to serious hard work as this was our one in million chance to get into good books of the MD.
My project was “Change of pickling media in our old plant from Hydrochloric acid to Sulphuric acid to reduce cost”. It was detailed work in which I covered just about everything. It was to bring in an annual saving of almost rupees one million on one time investment of merely one tenth of that amount. I discussed this with my close friends and also took help from my professors. In short I seemed to be satisfied with my maiden effort on a project in the corporate world.
The month was February and the year was the year when Reliance world cup cricket took place in India. We were asked to be ready with our presentation as the date could not be finalized. The MD had a very busy schedule and since the month is more famous of Indian national budget the MD had to keep visiting Delhi to ensure favorable pronouncement from the Govt. Everyone knew how these things work and how important they were for any company. It seemed that the brother of a big superstar of bollywood , with his strong political contacts , had license to import inferior product from developed countries, and this was playing havoc with marketability of the product our company made.
Presentation those days were very different from what we are used to day. There was neither power point nor overhead projectors. All you did was having your presentation typed and circulate it to the people who were going to evaluate it. In case of a query you used a blackboard and chalks (even ubiquitous white boards hadn’t arrived). I was asked to keep twenty sets ready. Any interaction with MD meant that all the senior and not so senior managers will be present in the conference room irrespective of what prior engagements they were having. It provided them an opportunity to impress the MD and also show how they have helped certain trainees who were known to the MD.
Excitement was building as we waited for the call informing us about the presentation. On a Tuesday (can’t recollect the date despite possessing a very good memory) at around 10 AM we were informed by the training manager that our presentation will happen at 11.45 AM in the conference room. We were asked to give a copy of our report to the manager so that the same could be given to the MD’s office. At exactly 11.30 AM we were ushered into the conference room. The sequence of the presentation was clearly spelt out. I was fourth in the list. We occupied the massive oval table. By 11.40 AM the seats behind the oval temple were taken by the top managers of the company. The trainees looked nervous and the managers kept giving us meaningful looks. And we waited for the MD’s arrival. At exactly 11.50 AM the MD’s secretary entered the room and announced “MD will be here in five minutes”.
At 11.58 AM MD entered the conference room with his secretary who was carrying a thick file. Till then we had only heard about the MD and seen his black and white photographs and today was the first time most of the trainees were seeing the MD in person. He was not only the MD he looked like one also with his aristocratic looks. Any fool entering the room could have guessed that he was the MD even if the MD had decided to sit on the back seat. MD took his seat at the top of the oval temple and then he spoke. He had a booming deep voice. I can still vividly remember his first few sentences and it went
“Good Afternoon, every one. My sincere apologies to the trainees for not meeting you earlier. The last few months I had been rather unwell and after that I was busy traveling to ensure that our company remains afloat. I hope you have been well looked after. After brief introduction of trainees we will start with the presentation. I have a lunch meeting at 2.00 PM and we should try to finish at 1.45 PM. Ok lets start”.
Introductions took only ten minutes. We followed the same sequence as laid out for the presentations. The presentations started immediately after that and the three trainees who were before me in the list finished their presentation in a total seventeen minutes. MD had gone through all the presentations as he had both questions and suggestions. He made few notes. And then my turn came. I got up and started reading from the bullet points I had made. Since my project was slightly technical, questions started from the managers who were working in the plant. As I was well prepared I was able to handle all the queries with ease. My presentation copy which was with MD had a detailed explanation on monetary benefits. Surprisingly the MD didn’t ask any question. This could be either construed as a good report or his total disinterest. Just before I was to say “thank you” and take my seat the MD’s booming voice was heard. He just said one word that was “flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication”.
What followed was deathly silence in a room which had at least forty individuals. I heard muted chuckle from some of the managers and their face had an expression as if the word just spoken by the MD was the first word of his favorite joke which these people had forgotten and now eagerly awaited to hear it again. The rest kept staring at me awaiting the next scene to unfold as if a suspense thriller had reached its defining moment. As far as I was concerned my mind had totally drawn blank. I kept looking at MD expectantly and he kept staring at me with no decipherable expression. The ten to fifteen seconds gap between his last word and the next seemed eternity for me. Finally MD decided to utter his next word, the consequence of his last word had ensured that I was still standing and now my gaze was on my report which was lying on the table in front of me too frightened to even look at the MD. This is how the conversation went after this.
“Have you heard of this word before?”
“Yes, Sir”.
“How come?”
“I was interested in quizzes during my school and college days”.
“That’s very good, I love quizzards”.
“Thank you, sir”.
“And, what does the word mean, Mahendra “.
“Act of estimating a thing as worthless”.
“Brilliant”
“Thank you, sir”.
“Good, come and meet me one of these days. Thanks. Next presentation”.
As I took my seat, I had no clue on the fate of my presentation. I was merely relieved that my ordeal was over. For the next few days the discussion in the hostel mainly revolved on my presentation and why MD asked me to meet him.
For the MD it was easy to say come and meet me one of these days. For me it was the logistics which hampered immediate execution of MD’s order. Where to meet him, his office or in the club or his home and what if he has forgotten about his comment. Time flew and this conversation became less and less important. I was placed in the production department and serious work started. My idea was the only one which the management felt needed a serious look into. A committee was formed which thought that though the idea was good but it couldn’t be implemented as the company had signed a five year contract with the hydrochloric acid supplier. Moreover the supplier was very well connected and any rescission of the contract would have long term ramifications.
In less than two months I was not only bored with my assignment but felt the need to run away from the daily routine of managing an operation which mainly called for one’s man management skills. I remembered MD’s invitation. I had been told how good a human being he was and how he always helped people who went to him seeking help.
It was end of March and I had just completed an uneventful night shift where our shift had achieved a new record on highest production in a shift coupled with the highest yield factor. After reaching the hostel I had my breakfast and went to sleep. Got up at 11.00 AM and had a quick bath and walked my way to the MD’s secretariat with fear in my heart and prayer on my lips. MD’s secretariat is some place where you are not expected to be seen. Most of the visitors there were either summoned by MD for any deficiency in their performance or had come to give MD some special information about something which couldn’t reach him through proper channel. I was there to meet MD to seek help. I gave my appointment slip to his secretary wherein I mentioned personal against purpose. His secretary insisted on knowing what personal meant and kept prodding for quite sometime to know the exact reason. On my refusal to tell him the reason, he gave up with a warning that MD would be very upset with me for not trusting his secretary and might not meet me. I just said I will wait and went to take my seat amongst other people who were waiting for their turn to meet him. People kept going into his room and coming out without even spending a minute there. I couldn’t make out from their facial expression whether they had achieved anything from the meeting. I knew that I will have very little time in front of him and so worked out in my mind what exactly I was going to say. Time was running out and the number of people waiting to see him was getting fewer and fewer by the minute. People had started talking that they might not get their turn as MD has to go for a luncheon meeting.
Rather than fearing the prospect for not being able to meet to him today, I was getting relieved of the fact that I won’t face the prospect of coming face to face with him. Suddenly his secretary called my name and I entered MD’s office with measured steps but with nervousness writ large on my face. When I saw his towering figure going through a file in a massive room all my rehearsed lines refused to come to my lips.
“Good morning, sir”. I said
“Good Afternoon”. He said without lifting his head to see who the guy was who had made the first faux pas even before taking the hot seat.
“Sorry sir, good afternoon”. I blurted out.
I kept standing not knowing what to do next. During such moments you normally do not know what to do with your hands. I started counting the number of fingers I had in each my hand. Just as I was relieved at my discovery of having all my fingers intact, he looked up and said “Sit down”. I took my seat. MD continued reading the paper he had in front of him. I kept staring at his face. After a minute or so which seemed a lifetime for me, he looked at me and smiled.
“How are you Mahendra?”
“I am fine sir.”
“Don’t lie, people who are fine do not come to meet me and by the way I had asked you to meet me. I wanted you to represent our club in quizzes but you never came to meet me.”
“I am sorry, Sir. I was too afraid to meet you.”
“Now that you are not afraid tell me what brings you here.”
“Sir, I want a transfer.” I told him the exact reason why I wanted a transfer. He listened to my spiel without once interrupting my rehearsed lines. After I was through he waited for a moment and spoke.
“Well I understand your reason of need for change but the company had recruited you with its specific need in mind and if I transfer you the company’s plan will get affected. Anyway let’s see what best I can do for you”.
Then he called the chief of HR and asked him to meet him with my personal file the next day at 11.30 AM.
“Ok Mahendra. And yes go and meet Mr. So-and-so in the evening and join our quiz team.”
“Thank you, sir.” I left the room quite satisfied with my performance but not very hopeful of any favorable response. I had heard enough stories about the MD which gave me hope. The logic said it won’t happen but the world lives on hope and so did I.
More than a week had elapsed and my hope had started giving way to reconciliation with facts of life. I was asking for something which was going to help me but what about the company. But something told me to remain hopeful. After all great people are known for their ability to help when needed and forgive when asked for forgiveness.
Exactly ten days after the day I had collected all my courage to meet the MD I received a call in my office when I was busy sorting out another issue between two supervisors in the afternoon shift. I was asked to come to the MD’s office. I reached the MD’s office in fifteen minutes time. The secretary asked me to wait. I collected my thoughts and started my wait. MD was in a meeting at that time. The meeting took more than an hour. I was asked to go inside.
As soon as I entered MD’s room and even before I could even wish him I heard the lines I was dying to hear.
“Mahendra here is your transfer letter. I hope you are happy now. Do a good job here. All the very best.”
I just said thank you and kept standing there amazed by a man’s action to help a fellow employee. When he realized that I was still standing there with confused look on my face he just said “Ok” and I left his room. I couldn’t help admiring the person who in one stroke had given me what I really wanted but didn’t make me feel that he was doing me a favour. That one decision changed my life for better and for ever. What a man and what a human being!! And to think it all started with floccinaucinihilipilification.
During my tenure in the same company I had pleasant association with three more MDs. Some day I might decide to write about them.
This is the word which readily comes to my mind when I recollect my first encounter with the Managing Director of the company I had joined straight after graduation. I had joined a company whose name itself I hadn’t heard till three days before receiving the coveted appointment letter. It so happened that we were selected in the campus interview by the parent company and were called for formal group interview by the parent company. On not being selected by the parent company a few of us were asked to appear in a similar group interview by this company. A few of us were selected by this company as “Graduate Trainee” and were given the appointment letters.
My father who had started his career exactly thirty years earlier as graduate trainee of the parent company was both surprised and saddened when I informed him the name of the company I was planning to join post my graduation. I had found nothing wrong with this company with its well manicured lawns and very polite and helpful executives who we met during the course of the selection process. Those were the days of control and the government controlled every thing including the capacity you built, quantity you produced, price you charged your customers etc etc.
Our training for a batch of about twenty (twelve graduate trainees and rest management trainees) started in right earnest. This was the first time I encountered class distinction. Management trainees were on board neither because of their abilities and nor because of their need to earn livelihood, they were mainly there because they happened to be from rich and influential families. Trainers obviously and for good reason cared more for the management trainees, and it wasn’t unusual for them to turn a blind eye to their misdeeds and indiscipline. The top management new all the management trainees well and went out of their way to make them comfortable in the new corporate jungle we had stepped into. The training was structured and informative. All the graduate trainees just out of engineering colleges found enough areas where they felt that their ideas if implemented could make material difference to the company.
Our training period was of one year duration and even after finishing more than six months we hadn’t met the MD of the company. We had heard enough inspiring stories about him to have really started looking forward to interaction with him. He was almost projected as demi god and the whole company apparently owed their continued employment in the company to his charisma and dexterity in turning around the company. The calendar year was about to end before we got placed in our respective departments (some out of personal choice and some out of corporate needs). One month before this was to happen we were asked to do any project of our choice to suggest improvement in the company. At the end we were expected to do a presentation to the Managing Director (MD). By this time the trainees’ strength has reduced to fourteen from original twenty. Some had left for greener pastures and most of the MT’s had left because they didn’t find the hostel food good enough and the quality of equipments in the gymnasium very inadequate. Every trainee got down to serious hard work as this was our one in million chance to get into good books of the MD.
My project was “Change of pickling media in our old plant from Hydrochloric acid to Sulphuric acid to reduce cost”. It was detailed work in which I covered just about everything. It was to bring in an annual saving of almost rupees one million on one time investment of merely one tenth of that amount. I discussed this with my close friends and also took help from my professors. In short I seemed to be satisfied with my maiden effort on a project in the corporate world.
The month was February and the year was the year when Reliance world cup cricket took place in India. We were asked to be ready with our presentation as the date could not be finalized. The MD had a very busy schedule and since the month is more famous of Indian national budget the MD had to keep visiting Delhi to ensure favorable pronouncement from the Govt. Everyone knew how these things work and how important they were for any company. It seemed that the brother of a big superstar of bollywood , with his strong political contacts , had license to import inferior product from developed countries, and this was playing havoc with marketability of the product our company made.
Presentation those days were very different from what we are used to day. There was neither power point nor overhead projectors. All you did was having your presentation typed and circulate it to the people who were going to evaluate it. In case of a query you used a blackboard and chalks (even ubiquitous white boards hadn’t arrived). I was asked to keep twenty sets ready. Any interaction with MD meant that all the senior and not so senior managers will be present in the conference room irrespective of what prior engagements they were having. It provided them an opportunity to impress the MD and also show how they have helped certain trainees who were known to the MD.
Excitement was building as we waited for the call informing us about the presentation. On a Tuesday (can’t recollect the date despite possessing a very good memory) at around 10 AM we were informed by the training manager that our presentation will happen at 11.45 AM in the conference room. We were asked to give a copy of our report to the manager so that the same could be given to the MD’s office. At exactly 11.30 AM we were ushered into the conference room. The sequence of the presentation was clearly spelt out. I was fourth in the list. We occupied the massive oval table. By 11.40 AM the seats behind the oval temple were taken by the top managers of the company. The trainees looked nervous and the managers kept giving us meaningful looks. And we waited for the MD’s arrival. At exactly 11.50 AM the MD’s secretary entered the room and announced “MD will be here in five minutes”.
At 11.58 AM MD entered the conference room with his secretary who was carrying a thick file. Till then we had only heard about the MD and seen his black and white photographs and today was the first time most of the trainees were seeing the MD in person. He was not only the MD he looked like one also with his aristocratic looks. Any fool entering the room could have guessed that he was the MD even if the MD had decided to sit on the back seat. MD took his seat at the top of the oval temple and then he spoke. He had a booming deep voice. I can still vividly remember his first few sentences and it went
“Good Afternoon, every one. My sincere apologies to the trainees for not meeting you earlier. The last few months I had been rather unwell and after that I was busy traveling to ensure that our company remains afloat. I hope you have been well looked after. After brief introduction of trainees we will start with the presentation. I have a lunch meeting at 2.00 PM and we should try to finish at 1.45 PM. Ok lets start”.
Introductions took only ten minutes. We followed the same sequence as laid out for the presentations. The presentations started immediately after that and the three trainees who were before me in the list finished their presentation in a total seventeen minutes. MD had gone through all the presentations as he had both questions and suggestions. He made few notes. And then my turn came. I got up and started reading from the bullet points I had made. Since my project was slightly technical, questions started from the managers who were working in the plant. As I was well prepared I was able to handle all the queries with ease. My presentation copy which was with MD had a detailed explanation on monetary benefits. Surprisingly the MD didn’t ask any question. This could be either construed as a good report or his total disinterest. Just before I was to say “thank you” and take my seat the MD’s booming voice was heard. He just said one word that was “flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication”.
What followed was deathly silence in a room which had at least forty individuals. I heard muted chuckle from some of the managers and their face had an expression as if the word just spoken by the MD was the first word of his favorite joke which these people had forgotten and now eagerly awaited to hear it again. The rest kept staring at me awaiting the next scene to unfold as if a suspense thriller had reached its defining moment. As far as I was concerned my mind had totally drawn blank. I kept looking at MD expectantly and he kept staring at me with no decipherable expression. The ten to fifteen seconds gap between his last word and the next seemed eternity for me. Finally MD decided to utter his next word, the consequence of his last word had ensured that I was still standing and now my gaze was on my report which was lying on the table in front of me too frightened to even look at the MD. This is how the conversation went after this.
“Have you heard of this word before?”
“Yes, Sir”.
“How come?”
“I was interested in quizzes during my school and college days”.
“That’s very good, I love quizzards”.
“Thank you, sir”.
“And, what does the word mean, Mahendra “.
“Act of estimating a thing as worthless”.
“Brilliant”
“Thank you, sir”.
“Good, come and meet me one of these days. Thanks. Next presentation”.
As I took my seat, I had no clue on the fate of my presentation. I was merely relieved that my ordeal was over. For the next few days the discussion in the hostel mainly revolved on my presentation and why MD asked me to meet him.
For the MD it was easy to say come and meet me one of these days. For me it was the logistics which hampered immediate execution of MD’s order. Where to meet him, his office or in the club or his home and what if he has forgotten about his comment. Time flew and this conversation became less and less important. I was placed in the production department and serious work started. My idea was the only one which the management felt needed a serious look into. A committee was formed which thought that though the idea was good but it couldn’t be implemented as the company had signed a five year contract with the hydrochloric acid supplier. Moreover the supplier was very well connected and any rescission of the contract would have long term ramifications.
In less than two months I was not only bored with my assignment but felt the need to run away from the daily routine of managing an operation which mainly called for one’s man management skills. I remembered MD’s invitation. I had been told how good a human being he was and how he always helped people who went to him seeking help.
It was end of March and I had just completed an uneventful night shift where our shift had achieved a new record on highest production in a shift coupled with the highest yield factor. After reaching the hostel I had my breakfast and went to sleep. Got up at 11.00 AM and had a quick bath and walked my way to the MD’s secretariat with fear in my heart and prayer on my lips. MD’s secretariat is some place where you are not expected to be seen. Most of the visitors there were either summoned by MD for any deficiency in their performance or had come to give MD some special information about something which couldn’t reach him through proper channel. I was there to meet MD to seek help. I gave my appointment slip to his secretary wherein I mentioned personal against purpose. His secretary insisted on knowing what personal meant and kept prodding for quite sometime to know the exact reason. On my refusal to tell him the reason, he gave up with a warning that MD would be very upset with me for not trusting his secretary and might not meet me. I just said I will wait and went to take my seat amongst other people who were waiting for their turn to meet him. People kept going into his room and coming out without even spending a minute there. I couldn’t make out from their facial expression whether they had achieved anything from the meeting. I knew that I will have very little time in front of him and so worked out in my mind what exactly I was going to say. Time was running out and the number of people waiting to see him was getting fewer and fewer by the minute. People had started talking that they might not get their turn as MD has to go for a luncheon meeting.
Rather than fearing the prospect for not being able to meet to him today, I was getting relieved of the fact that I won’t face the prospect of coming face to face with him. Suddenly his secretary called my name and I entered MD’s office with measured steps but with nervousness writ large on my face. When I saw his towering figure going through a file in a massive room all my rehearsed lines refused to come to my lips.
“Good morning, sir”. I said
“Good Afternoon”. He said without lifting his head to see who the guy was who had made the first faux pas even before taking the hot seat.
“Sorry sir, good afternoon”. I blurted out.
I kept standing not knowing what to do next. During such moments you normally do not know what to do with your hands. I started counting the number of fingers I had in each my hand. Just as I was relieved at my discovery of having all my fingers intact, he looked up and said “Sit down”. I took my seat. MD continued reading the paper he had in front of him. I kept staring at his face. After a minute or so which seemed a lifetime for me, he looked at me and smiled.
“How are you Mahendra?”
“I am fine sir.”
“Don’t lie, people who are fine do not come to meet me and by the way I had asked you to meet me. I wanted you to represent our club in quizzes but you never came to meet me.”
“I am sorry, Sir. I was too afraid to meet you.”
“Now that you are not afraid tell me what brings you here.”
“Sir, I want a transfer.” I told him the exact reason why I wanted a transfer. He listened to my spiel without once interrupting my rehearsed lines. After I was through he waited for a moment and spoke.
“Well I understand your reason of need for change but the company had recruited you with its specific need in mind and if I transfer you the company’s plan will get affected. Anyway let’s see what best I can do for you”.
Then he called the chief of HR and asked him to meet him with my personal file the next day at 11.30 AM.
“Ok Mahendra. And yes go and meet Mr. So-and-so in the evening and join our quiz team.”
“Thank you, sir.” I left the room quite satisfied with my performance but not very hopeful of any favorable response. I had heard enough stories about the MD which gave me hope. The logic said it won’t happen but the world lives on hope and so did I.
More than a week had elapsed and my hope had started giving way to reconciliation with facts of life. I was asking for something which was going to help me but what about the company. But something told me to remain hopeful. After all great people are known for their ability to help when needed and forgive when asked for forgiveness.
Exactly ten days after the day I had collected all my courage to meet the MD I received a call in my office when I was busy sorting out another issue between two supervisors in the afternoon shift. I was asked to come to the MD’s office. I reached the MD’s office in fifteen minutes time. The secretary asked me to wait. I collected my thoughts and started my wait. MD was in a meeting at that time. The meeting took more than an hour. I was asked to go inside.
As soon as I entered MD’s room and even before I could even wish him I heard the lines I was dying to hear.
“Mahendra here is your transfer letter. I hope you are happy now. Do a good job here. All the very best.”
I just said thank you and kept standing there amazed by a man’s action to help a fellow employee. When he realized that I was still standing there with confused look on my face he just said “Ok” and I left his room. I couldn’t help admiring the person who in one stroke had given me what I really wanted but didn’t make me feel that he was doing me a favour. That one decision changed my life for better and for ever. What a man and what a human being!! And to think it all started with floccinaucinihilipilification.
During my tenure in the same company I had pleasant association with three more MDs. Some day I might decide to write about them.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Degree versus Pedigree
For a person passionate about cricket I have been amazed by the ease with which batsmen all over the world have started hitting sixes. Is it because of better bats or because of smaller grounds or because of physically stronger batsmen or is it because batsmen are practicing big shots more in the nets. The answer I think is the combination of all the above mentioned factors. It seems, so easy as batsmen after batsman move their front leg and with a golfer like swing lift the cricket ball out of the ground. It looks ridiculously easy. On Indian pitches where ball rarely deviates from its original line it is easier to get in line of the ball and with a deft swing of the bat send the ball out of the ground.
The same batsman who seems capable of doing anything with the bat comes a cropper when confronted with swinging atmosphere and seaming pitches. Is this a case of not being taught to handle a condition which is foreign to him? We have to assume the fact that a talented and intelligent batsman should be able to make adjustments in his batting technique to handle alien conditions. This brings us to our topic of degree vs. pedigree.
According to me degree is what is taught to us whereas pedigree is what we learn in life from the day we are born. We may be taught to become a doctor but what we learn differentiates a good doctor from an average one. It is no denying the fact that our DNA contributes to our pedigree. Pedigree is also about our family upbringing, school upbringing (which school we went to), college upbringing (whether we went to IIT / IIM), corporate upbringing. What good things we imbibe during these upbringings makes us pedigreed.
For more than six years India saw phenomenal economic growth. We saw lot of new businesses coming up and the big business houses became bigger in this period. All these necessitated search for educated work force which India had in plenty. The recruitment process was simplified and almost became a part of logistics management. A recruiter merely saw what degree the prospective candidate had and how he / she were able to display that degree and years of experience. With the economic boom it was relatively easy for most candidates to perform (quite akin to a batsman taking a swing on Indian pitches and connecting beautifully and sending the ball for six!!!). If the recruiter was not sure of what skill was needed to perform a particular job he merely advertised for an MBA and got one, though at a higher cost.
And then in September 2008 the world changed. With the fall of Lehman Brothers the world woke up to a new economic order. The trust between bankers reduced. Credits which were easily available simply disappeared. The world economy which till then was merely showing signs of tiring after a long and fast run went into a tailspin. Businesses started showing drastic reduction in top line and bottom lines. A manager who till then was considered a great performer looked shaky in the changed economic environment (similar to what happens when a batsman bred on Indian pitches is asked to play in seaming English conditions). HRD of almost all Indian companies had to start redefining the skills required for a particular job. Gone was the stress on mere degrees. The middle level managers slowly started feeling the heat. HR heads were besieged by complaints about non-performing managers. These were same managers who not even six months back had been short listed for fast track growth. These managers were born and bred on growth formula and could not react to the changed environment which called for different way of thinking.
MBA as a degree lost considerable amount of its shine post the mortgage fiasco in USA. The complicated and complex mortgage instruments that were designed which led to collapse of US housing and US economy could have been the handiwork of most fertile minds which the MBA graduates possess. Days of creating complex business models are over giving way to simple models. The world is once again embracing the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) formula. In an economic upturn you are appreciated for finding complex solution to a simple problem whereas during economic downturn promoters are looking for employees who can find simple solution to complex problems. Suddenly experience became important. Companies started their hunt for candidates who had seen recession and who could react to ever changing ground realities. Most companies became risk averse and capital expenditures for future revenues became avoidable. It was a question of riding the present situation. Cost cutting and belt tightening became the order of the day. Employees who had got used to wining and dining on company expenses in order to entertain (so as to retain) customers were asked to stop the practice.
Arrogance gave way to humility, as if a new formula was thought of by a clever teacher who decided to pass on his teaching to his pupils. Employees were back to good behavior and started looking for lost friends. No one’s job was any longer safe. People who prided on the number of missed calls they had in a day started taking calls. Individual’s trait of not taking calls has bewildered psychologist a lot. No education teaches us to be rude and so individual’s reluctance to accept a call can’t be part of his degree. Nor does any upbringing teach us not to return calls. So this trait comes from individual’s faulty self learning. These kinds of traits became important for HR professionals when they started evaluating a candidate’s suitability to handle a job. If avoiding a call is our way of avoiding a situation (however unpleasant), or it’s our way of saying no, then it’s a trait not suitable for most jobs.
One big Indian company which is in the engineering sector decided to judge their middle management (it had more than thousand managers in this level) in informal environments. In off site get together it started video taping employees’ outlook. How employee reacts to their superiors and how they react to their subordinates? A manager to be really successful has to be first a good human being. The CEO of this company has often said that keep a manager only if he is able to use the same tone to address his boss as he uses to address his subordinates. Wonder how many of the Indian managers will be able to hold on to their jobs if this principle was implemented? This very CEO had asked his HR Head to redraft the HR policy with one simple guideline. If the policy is going to be right for your child then the policy will be right for all our employees.
There is one listed company based in Bangalore which thinks that they have made huge mistakes in their recruitment by laying enormous stress on candidate’s degree. They now have series of informal interaction with the candidate to judge his pedigree. One thing they do is take the candidate for a drive on chocked roads of Bangalore. The candidate is asked to drive while three of their employees chat like old friends. This drive through lanes and by lanes of Bangalore takes close to two hours and ends with beer and lunch in a restaurant near their office. The candidate drops his guard and is able to show his true self. Bad traffic really tests people, its not uncommon to find people who assume that except for them every driver on the road doesn’t deserve the driver’s license they may be carrying.
The best way of judging a person’s depth is how he reacts when someone close to him/her asks for help. Remember that no degree teaches us not to help a needy person. A help is normally requested by a person who is close to you. All our upbringing (pedigree) also teaches us to go out of the way to help a person in need of help. But how do people normally react. Some will simply forget the request hoping that the help seeker will never broach the subject again. Some will start avoiding you as if you have asked for some unethical assistance. Some will give excuses which you will find so shallow that you will be forced to drop the topic. The most surprising thing is that no one will admit that they are not in any position to help. A person who is unable to find time and ways to help a friend will never be able to find time and energy to help a colleague and his organization.
Needless to say, in conclusion that time has come for recruiters to look for pedigreed candidates rather than a candidate with a long list of impressive degrees. In cricket they aptly say that form is temporary but class is permanent. There is no denying the fact that effort required to get a pedigreed candidate will be much more than just looking for right degrees but then benefits for the organization in the long run will also be much more.
The same batsman who seems capable of doing anything with the bat comes a cropper when confronted with swinging atmosphere and seaming pitches. Is this a case of not being taught to handle a condition which is foreign to him? We have to assume the fact that a talented and intelligent batsman should be able to make adjustments in his batting technique to handle alien conditions. This brings us to our topic of degree vs. pedigree.
According to me degree is what is taught to us whereas pedigree is what we learn in life from the day we are born. We may be taught to become a doctor but what we learn differentiates a good doctor from an average one. It is no denying the fact that our DNA contributes to our pedigree. Pedigree is also about our family upbringing, school upbringing (which school we went to), college upbringing (whether we went to IIT / IIM), corporate upbringing. What good things we imbibe during these upbringings makes us pedigreed.
For more than six years India saw phenomenal economic growth. We saw lot of new businesses coming up and the big business houses became bigger in this period. All these necessitated search for educated work force which India had in plenty. The recruitment process was simplified and almost became a part of logistics management. A recruiter merely saw what degree the prospective candidate had and how he / she were able to display that degree and years of experience. With the economic boom it was relatively easy for most candidates to perform (quite akin to a batsman taking a swing on Indian pitches and connecting beautifully and sending the ball for six!!!). If the recruiter was not sure of what skill was needed to perform a particular job he merely advertised for an MBA and got one, though at a higher cost.
And then in September 2008 the world changed. With the fall of Lehman Brothers the world woke up to a new economic order. The trust between bankers reduced. Credits which were easily available simply disappeared. The world economy which till then was merely showing signs of tiring after a long and fast run went into a tailspin. Businesses started showing drastic reduction in top line and bottom lines. A manager who till then was considered a great performer looked shaky in the changed economic environment (similar to what happens when a batsman bred on Indian pitches is asked to play in seaming English conditions). HRD of almost all Indian companies had to start redefining the skills required for a particular job. Gone was the stress on mere degrees. The middle level managers slowly started feeling the heat. HR heads were besieged by complaints about non-performing managers. These were same managers who not even six months back had been short listed for fast track growth. These managers were born and bred on growth formula and could not react to the changed environment which called for different way of thinking.
MBA as a degree lost considerable amount of its shine post the mortgage fiasco in USA. The complicated and complex mortgage instruments that were designed which led to collapse of US housing and US economy could have been the handiwork of most fertile minds which the MBA graduates possess. Days of creating complex business models are over giving way to simple models. The world is once again embracing the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) formula. In an economic upturn you are appreciated for finding complex solution to a simple problem whereas during economic downturn promoters are looking for employees who can find simple solution to complex problems. Suddenly experience became important. Companies started their hunt for candidates who had seen recession and who could react to ever changing ground realities. Most companies became risk averse and capital expenditures for future revenues became avoidable. It was a question of riding the present situation. Cost cutting and belt tightening became the order of the day. Employees who had got used to wining and dining on company expenses in order to entertain (so as to retain) customers were asked to stop the practice.
Arrogance gave way to humility, as if a new formula was thought of by a clever teacher who decided to pass on his teaching to his pupils. Employees were back to good behavior and started looking for lost friends. No one’s job was any longer safe. People who prided on the number of missed calls they had in a day started taking calls. Individual’s trait of not taking calls has bewildered psychologist a lot. No education teaches us to be rude and so individual’s reluctance to accept a call can’t be part of his degree. Nor does any upbringing teach us not to return calls. So this trait comes from individual’s faulty self learning. These kinds of traits became important for HR professionals when they started evaluating a candidate’s suitability to handle a job. If avoiding a call is our way of avoiding a situation (however unpleasant), or it’s our way of saying no, then it’s a trait not suitable for most jobs.
One big Indian company which is in the engineering sector decided to judge their middle management (it had more than thousand managers in this level) in informal environments. In off site get together it started video taping employees’ outlook. How employee reacts to their superiors and how they react to their subordinates? A manager to be really successful has to be first a good human being. The CEO of this company has often said that keep a manager only if he is able to use the same tone to address his boss as he uses to address his subordinates. Wonder how many of the Indian managers will be able to hold on to their jobs if this principle was implemented? This very CEO had asked his HR Head to redraft the HR policy with one simple guideline. If the policy is going to be right for your child then the policy will be right for all our employees.
There is one listed company based in Bangalore which thinks that they have made huge mistakes in their recruitment by laying enormous stress on candidate’s degree. They now have series of informal interaction with the candidate to judge his pedigree. One thing they do is take the candidate for a drive on chocked roads of Bangalore. The candidate is asked to drive while three of their employees chat like old friends. This drive through lanes and by lanes of Bangalore takes close to two hours and ends with beer and lunch in a restaurant near their office. The candidate drops his guard and is able to show his true self. Bad traffic really tests people, its not uncommon to find people who assume that except for them every driver on the road doesn’t deserve the driver’s license they may be carrying.
The best way of judging a person’s depth is how he reacts when someone close to him/her asks for help. Remember that no degree teaches us not to help a needy person. A help is normally requested by a person who is close to you. All our upbringing (pedigree) also teaches us to go out of the way to help a person in need of help. But how do people normally react. Some will simply forget the request hoping that the help seeker will never broach the subject again. Some will start avoiding you as if you have asked for some unethical assistance. Some will give excuses which you will find so shallow that you will be forced to drop the topic. The most surprising thing is that no one will admit that they are not in any position to help. A person who is unable to find time and ways to help a friend will never be able to find time and energy to help a colleague and his organization.
Needless to say, in conclusion that time has come for recruiters to look for pedigreed candidates rather than a candidate with a long list of impressive degrees. In cricket they aptly say that form is temporary but class is permanent. There is no denying the fact that effort required to get a pedigreed candidate will be much more than just looking for right degrees but then benefits for the organization in the long run will also be much more.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Recession and Donations
The world is facing an economic crisis of unimaginable proportions. Economic activities have slowed down all over the world ( including India , though our government will like us to believe otherwise). USA's GDP is expected to contract by atleast 1.5 % in 2009, India's GDP is expected to grow by 6 % ( against 9.7 % in the previous year) , China the world saviour will see a slow down but still expected ( or hoped !!! ) to grow at a rate higher than 7 % in 2009. The world's GDP will grow by a mere 1 % in the same period.
Now view these economic growth / contraction against population growth figures. The world's population is growing at 1.19 % per annum. USA's population growth rate is 0.883 % per annum. China's population growth is at 0.629 % and India's at 1.578 %. You do not have to be an economist to work out the per ca pita growth in USA / China and India based on growth rates given above.
You will see a very small drop in per capita in USA and a resonable increase in per capita in India and China. The figures may show a small change from the figures of 2007 but the " R " word is having a catastrophic effect on people's psyche. Now lets come to India and see how the "R" word has started affecting the poorest of poors.
Till the third quarter of 2008 the donations to NGOs working for poor , donations to hospitals serving the poor, donations to every activity which helped the poor were robust. Corporates and individuals were playing their part in exercising their responsibility towards the less privileged. The situation changed drastically from October of 2008. All such donations drastically reduced . The reduction in such donations / grants were by almost 35 %. The poorest of poor were thus impacted the most despite technically India not being under any form of recession.
While the donations and grants to help the poor has reduced from Oct '08 the offerings by people at various temples / other religious places has seen an increase of almost 40 %. What does this show - people are ready to help others only when they feel good about themselves and about the future. Once that feeling 'good' factor is under stress people tend to become self centered and selfish. Whatever extra they have is given to God so that the almighty will remember to help them before any one else.
Coming out of recession is a slow process and more than financial stimulus it requires emotional cleansing so that we start feeling good about life and future once again. Only then will people start spending and helping the needy.
My next article will be on Degree Vs Pedigree. Here we will see how the recruitment yardstick for middle and senior level management has changed post economic slow down.
Now view these economic growth / contraction against population growth figures. The world's population is growing at 1.19 % per annum. USA's population growth rate is 0.883 % per annum. China's population growth is at 0.629 % and India's at 1.578 %. You do not have to be an economist to work out the per ca pita growth in USA / China and India based on growth rates given above.
You will see a very small drop in per capita in USA and a resonable increase in per capita in India and China. The figures may show a small change from the figures of 2007 but the " R " word is having a catastrophic effect on people's psyche. Now lets come to India and see how the "R" word has started affecting the poorest of poors.
Till the third quarter of 2008 the donations to NGOs working for poor , donations to hospitals serving the poor, donations to every activity which helped the poor were robust. Corporates and individuals were playing their part in exercising their responsibility towards the less privileged. The situation changed drastically from October of 2008. All such donations drastically reduced . The reduction in such donations / grants were by almost 35 %. The poorest of poor were thus impacted the most despite technically India not being under any form of recession.
While the donations and grants to help the poor has reduced from Oct '08 the offerings by people at various temples / other religious places has seen an increase of almost 40 %. What does this show - people are ready to help others only when they feel good about themselves and about the future. Once that feeling 'good' factor is under stress people tend to become self centered and selfish. Whatever extra they have is given to God so that the almighty will remember to help them before any one else.
Coming out of recession is a slow process and more than financial stimulus it requires emotional cleansing so that we start feeling good about life and future once again. Only then will people start spending and helping the needy.
My next article will be on Degree Vs Pedigree. Here we will see how the recruitment yardstick for middle and senior level management has changed post economic slow down.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Spiced Buttermilk
My guru feels that very few of us like to experiment and still fewer like to change. This according to him is the main cause of stress people encounter in their lives. Such a profound start to an article captioned " Spiced Buttermilk " would have totally stumped a lot of readers. Well , I am going to tell you about a simple experiment you need to do to change your brealfast menu.
Most of us love corn flakes for our daily breakfast. It is indeed a healthy food and is easy on time also. Cornflakes is eaten with hot or cold milk with sugar for taste. It may come as a surprise to lot of Indians that its only in India that most people eat cornflakes with hot milk. Worldwide cornflakes is predominantly eaten with cold milk.
People who prefer eating corn flakes with hot milk and are not ready to change will have to give this experiment a miss. Others can try eating corn flakes with cold spiced butter milk. I bet you will love it.Its healthier ( no sugar ) and tasty. Experiment this new recipe !!!!!!
Most of us love corn flakes for our daily breakfast. It is indeed a healthy food and is easy on time also. Cornflakes is eaten with hot or cold milk with sugar for taste. It may come as a surprise to lot of Indians that its only in India that most people eat cornflakes with hot milk. Worldwide cornflakes is predominantly eaten with cold milk.
People who prefer eating corn flakes with hot milk and are not ready to change will have to give this experiment a miss. Others can try eating corn flakes with cold spiced butter milk. I bet you will love it.Its healthier ( no sugar ) and tasty. Experiment this new recipe !!!!!!
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