Bharatha's of this world are priceless

Born with Gaja Kersari Yoga, I have always been or aimed to be the leader wherever I am. If I am not, it makes me very uneasy.

 

Naturally born leaders in the Ithihasas like Sri Rama became my heroes. However, Age has brought with it the much wanted wisdom, broader perspective and a fine tuning of the mindset which makes me appreciate the contribution of non leaders too.

 

There are many silent contributors in our epics, and in our work place who deserve much more respect and recognition than we give them. They do silently efficient work all the time, without being in the limelight, thereby allowing the leader to focus on other issues. They are the workhorses, who take considerable load and whose maintenance cost is very less. They run the Organization. The nurses in the hospital are one example.

 

Though I have been fascinated by Ramayana since childhood, somehow I had never given a second thought to the character of Bharatha, until recently that is.

 

Bharatha stayed under the radar, but his virtues are unparalleled. Perhaps his devotion to Sreerama is even more than that of Lakshmana.

 

On hearing that his mother has conspired to banish Sree Rama for 14 years, and thus giving him the Kingdom on a platter, he berates her no end and flatly refuses to accept the Throne, which rightfully belonged to his brother. It took lot of convincing from Sreerama to make him go back to Ayodhya, but only on the condition that he will rule as a Caretaker alone. He also eschewed all the comforts of the palace, and chose to live a simple life like his brother for the 14 years.

 

Bharatha was a brilliant and wise king. During his 14 years, the GDP of Ayodhya grew 10 times! Thus he ensured his brother got to rule a much richer, stronger and prosperous kingdom on his return from Vanavasa.

 

Once Sree Rama was back, he quietly slipped back to his role of supporting him in his duties, and to his credit, not even for a moment did he have any thoughts of wanting the Kingdom for himself.

 

If ever one wants an example for Nishkama Karma, he has to only look up Bharatha.

 

Though India's original name Bharatham has nothing to do with the Bharatha of Ramayana, it is a fitting tribute to him that, though inadvertently, we call our great country Bharatham

Straight ball on a Square Turner

One of India's famous Spin Quartet, Bishan Singh Bedi, once said that "On a Square Turning Pitch, the  most dangerous ball is the one that doesn't turn', which indirectly means 'don't get carried away by the prodigious turn that you are getting, but bowl the straight balls (or the arm balls in the case of Off Spinners and Left Arm Spinners or the Top Spinner in the case of Leg Spinners). more often. This is because the batsmen is expected to play for the huge turn, and can be caught napping if the ball goes straight through.

Ditto, on Seaming pitches, bowlers should not try to swing or seam much. Doing so might end up beating the bat very often, but all that will result in is a few oohs and aahs, but not regular wickets.

That Bedi was spot on is evident from the recently concluded Mohali Test, where more South African wickets fell to Straighter balls than to Viciously biting and turning ones.

This is true in other areas of life too. One tends to get carried away with success, and overdoes things which can backfire at a later stage.

Recently, I pulled off a  deal for my Company. I managed to close the deal with a major investor to set up a $ 11 Million New Company. Everyone expected me to have a major position in the new company, and it was a fait accompli. But I decided to walk away, satisfied that I have achieved what I set out to, and allowed others to run the Company. This caused considerable confusion, and panic amongst my colleagues and subordinates, who were baffled why I did what I did. They expected the big turning deliveries on a square turner but I bowled them a ball straight as an arrow.

Last heard, they were scratching their head. Let them for a while, till I explain to them why I did it.

SPICED test while recruiting a person

When you recruit a person, check against the following parameters;

 

Skill

Personality

Intelligence

Commitment

Emotional Stability

Decision making ability

 

 

I call this my  SPICED Test

Go for Specialists any time

The Industrial Era saw the predominance of the Specialists in the workplace. The focus was on maximizing the production, which required in depth knowledge of the task on hand and the technical skills that go with it.

 

Later on, at some stage, there was a gradual shift to the generalists. Maybe the development of Management Science had something to do with it. People were cross trained so that we had jacks of all trades, who were masters at none, running the organizations for a long, long time.

 

This was the norm not only in the Private Sector but also in the Government sector. The IAS officers of India managed everything under the sun, from Districts, to sports, to Industry, to mining, to Nations Finance and even were the preferred choice to head Public Sector Organizations. A guy, who was a middle level IAS officer in the Agricultural Ministry would be posted as head of State Road Transport Corporation. Is it any wonder most Public Sector Undertakings have gone down the drain?

 

We have seen the strange scenario of IT companies recruiting Engineering students, en masse, irrespective of their stream of education in the College? After a few years, a mechanical engineer, so selected will be totally unfit to take up a job in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Education and job has absolutely no relevance, leading to the chaos that is seen in the organizations these days, and also one of the biggest reasons for employee attrition.

 

I was reminded of the above, while reminiscing about the World Cup past. No team that depended on bits and pieces players (with the freak exception of India in 1983, whose victory was an absolute fluke) have won the World Cup. West Indies of 1975 and 1983 had a legendary batting line up, backed by a set of world class fast bowlers. You wouldn't want to be chasing any target against Roberts, Holding, Garner and Marshall. The very thought scares you. 

 

Australia, winners of 1987 had a strong batting line up Boon, Marsh, Jones, Border, Valetta, two world class all rounders in Steve Waugh and Simon O'Donnel, and the bowling was led by McDermot, Reid and May. Both Waugh and Simon could get into the team as either batsman or bowler alone, and can never be considered as also ran players.

 

Imran's Pakistan won the 1992 world cup with a quality balanced team - Aameer Sohail, Rameez Raja, Javed, Salim Malik, Inzamam, Ijaz Ahmed as batsmen, wonderful all rounders in Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, backed by Aquib Javed and Mushtaq in the bowling department. Add to it the fighting wicket keeper Moin Khan. All specialists and no wonder they won the cup hands down.

 

Srilanka won 1996 using their batting might - Jayasurya, Kaluwathirana, Gurusinghe, Aravinda Desilva, Tilakaratne, Mahanama and Arjuna Ranatunga could chase any target down. But don't forget, they had a good bowling attack in Murali, Dharmasena and Vaas, but still the depended on their batting.

 

Australia dominated in the next three world cups and had a phenomenal batting line up led by Gilchrist, Waugh, Hayden and Ponting. They also had McGarth and the redoubtable Shane Warne in their ranks.

India in 2011 again depended on their strong batting - Sehwag, Sachin, Gambhir, Raina, Kohli, Yuvraj and Dhoni. This covered up for their relatively weaker bowling led by Zaheer and Harbhajan. But since the tournament was in India, batting dominated.

The interesting take away from the above is that it doesn't pay to take generalist bits and pieces players, if you want to win the World Cup. England had tried this with disastrous results in the past, and continue to do so. Ditto New Zealand, though they have had a rethink this time around.

History is against it. They why-oh-why is India carrying these below average neither batsman nor bowler players like Stuart Binny, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja or even Ravichandran Ashwin. And we don't have a strong batting as a cover for them.

I don't see us going beyond Quarter Finals, and we don't deserve to, on form or on talent or on selection.

The most balanced side is South Africa. They have quality batsmen in AB Devillers, Amla and De Plaussis, and a world class bowling attack led by Steyn and Mornie Morkel and a wily coach in Kirsten. My money is on them. This is their best chance to win for a long time, and I hope they do.

And on form, New Zealand could be a finalist.

 

 

 

Don't be an Abhimanyu in Business and Life

I sacrificed 17 years of my Work Experience when I joined somewhere at the lower end of the ladder in an Investment Bank in Kuwait. I was known as an Educationist and this was hampering my career in Kuwait, where one can easily get type cast. Once an Educationist, always an Educationist is the motto in Middle East. There is no talk about transfering the knowledge of one sector to another.

It is another matter that I grew up very fast in the Investment Banking Sector, partly due to favourable market conditions, partly due to the Company registering phenomenal growth in the Private Equity Sector and partly due to good fortune. I have never looked back since. Though I have moved away from Core Investment Banking, I still think and act like one, and have not forgotten the lessons I learned during my stint as an Investment Banker.

Though I had been an entrepreneur once in the past, having been a franchisee of NIIT, I need to admit that it came too early in my career, at the age of 29, when in retrospect, I have to admit, I was not ready for the task. I did not have a good grasp of Finance, Costing, and was poor in man-management. I also thought there will be sustainable growth, and the higher revenue will justify the higher cost and paper over other cracks. When the inevitable downturn came, and the growth plateaued, I didnt have too many answers. And to boot, I didnt know where I went wrong.

I got the answer to this riddle during my stint as an Investment Banker. I am a sucker for new ideas, and whenever I get a good hair brained scheme that requires funding, I used to champion the cause and take it to my Chairman, explaining to the virtues of the project and the profit that will accrue to the Company. He will listen patiently and ask just one question 'Rajaaan, what is the exit?'. I didnt know initially what he meant. But later on learned that Investment Companies enter at an early growth phase, add value and exit when the time is right, making a tidy profit. The exit option is always important. This was drilled into me time and again. These days I dont encourage any investment proposal without a clear exit strategy.

Be it in business or in personal life or professional life, always have an exit strategy before you enter.

Remember the story of Abhimanyu, who learned while in the womb how to break into Chakravyuha, but did not know how to exit, and paid for it with his life. Whenever I have an itch to start a venture without considering the exit, I remember these stanza,

Veenithallo Kidakkunnu Dharaniyil
Kshonithavumanijallo Siva Siva
Nalla Marathaka Kallinotothoru
Kalyanaroopan Kumaran Manoharan

Are you in Control?

Years ago, when I was a rookie with HPCL, I used to prepare meticulously for our Sales Review Meetings held 3-4 times a year. At least one of the meetings will be chaired by GM South Zone. You need to understand that computers had not become popular, and one had to painstakingly type the Sales Presentation document in a rickety Remington Typewriter oneself. I was known for my immaculate groundwork.

There were 8 of us, Sales Officers. The meeting will start at 9 am, and the Regional Manager would decide who goes in first. I was never given the first slot, nor was Shaji, my Trichur Colleague. The first presenter will normally have a presentation lasting 90 minutes, during which most of the general issues will be discussed threadbare. But no one had any doubts that he was the target for the management (any review meeting the management will come prepared to rip one of the Sales Officer apart). The second presenter will be given 45 minutes. At around 12.50 pm, they will ask me to present with a caveat "Rajan, you have 10 minutes! Just highlight your major problems. We are hungry and need to break for lunch at 1 pm". Or alternatively, I will be given the last slot at 4.45pm, or immediately after lunch when no one is interested. 

Intrigued, and disappointed that all my preparations had gone to waste, I, once, complained about this perceived injustice to my GM when he was on a private visit to my Sales Area in Coimbatore. A very soft spoken paternal gentleman, he smiled, patted me on the back and said,

"Rajan. we look at only a few things. Are you in control of the situation? Are you aware of the problems? Have you applied your mind to find workable solutions to the problems? Have you identified those problems which need decision making at a higher level, and if so, are you approaching us in time?. In your case, you score high on all of the above. And so does Shaji. That is why we leave you to your job, give you limited time during which you normally clear up the 2-3 issues that need decision making at my level" 

That is one lesson I have never forgotten in my life. I have applied that rigorously in my professional life, and in my teaching life. I worry (and some say behind my back, reveal the Darth Vader side of my personality) only when my subordinates/students appear to be unaware of the pitfalls or when they don't think it through or when they are reluctant to approach me when they are stuck or when they approach me to solve things that they can solve on their own.

Rajasilpam-Marketing Model-1

Everyone has his own model of Marketing, starting from 4 P to 7 P, to 4 C and beyond.

Let me add my one bit to the debate.

My model is based on treating the word PRODUCTS as an Acronym. You might ask Why Products? Simple - Marketing do not have a cause to exist without a Product (or Service). It is the foundation on which Marketing edifice is built.

The first letter 'P' represents PRICE.

The price has to be viewed from two angles. The Maximum price that the Customer is willing to pay and the Minimum Price that the Seller can afford to charge to stay in business. Both do cost-benefit analysis, and would effect the transaction if the B/P is => 1 for the Customer, and P/C=>1 for the Seller - B,P,C standing for Benefit, Price and Cost respectively.

Higher B/P for customer means lower P/C for the Seller as C increases with increase in B. A very high B/P for the customer would make the transaction unprofitable for the seller, who will then back out of the transaction. Similarly, a very high P/C for the seller, which is effectively exhorbitant profit, would make the B/P considerably less than 1 for the buyer, who will look for alternate solutions, jeopardising the deal. An equilibrium point between the two will be one when the transaction is effected, which in effect means a Win-Win situation. Succesful marketing stories are all about creating these Win-Win Situations.

Quarter of a century ago, I used to visit my brother regularly while he was working with IOB in Delhi. We would go to Karol Bagh monday market for purchasing dresses. My brother would ask the price of a kurta and the salesman would say Rs 100. Brother would make a counter offer of Rs 10. Then the haggling starts. At that point B/P for my brother is very high and the P/C for the shop owner very low. It is a no-go situation. The shopowner reduces in stages of Rs 10, while my brother increases his offer in stages of Rs 5 or 10. At around Rs 35, there is an acceptable B/P - P/C trade off, and the deal is effected.

The model will be revealed in parts in the subsequent blogs. Keep coming back.

C is not for Cat in Business

When an entrepreneur starts a Small or Medium Business, he follows the 3C Model for establishing the business and to generate sufficient cash flow - Capability, Capital and Connections. At this stage he is essentially inward looking, putting more stress on his strengths. He should answer the following questions - Do I have the Capability to succeed in this business?, Do I have sufficient Capital to sustain it till it breaks even? and Do I have the right Connections that I can leverage?

As the Business grows he needs to focus on 4 more C's - Competition, Customers, Communication and Commitment. The first is obvious. He should now be having a set of Customers and should focus on thrilling them, apart from attracting new customers. Communication becomes more important at this stage, both external and internal. The latter helps to build a strong team while the former aids in developing the Brand Equity. One thing noticed amongst the Entrepreneurs is their fall in Commitment as the business starts dipping post the initial spurt. The enthusiasm of starting a new venture falls off and one has to plod on. It is a time for consolidation. Most entrepreneurs, by nature, enjoy the creative freedom the new venture gives them but are hopeless when it comes to handling the nitty gritty routine of consolidating the business. This is the time when they have to tighten their belt, grit their teeth and hang on - and this requires strong Commitment.

At all stages, the entrepreneur requires an additional 4 C's - Cash Flow, Clarity of Thought , Core Competency and Competitive Edge. Cash is the bloodline of any organization. It is what fuels it. Most business schools downplay the importance of cashflow, while talking up abstract conceptual issues. No Cashflow and business will start stuttering. The 9th C stresses the importance of Clarity of Thought - one should be certain of one's Convictions, as to what the business stands for and how to run the business. Vagueness and hazy vision will lead to confusion amongst stakeholders. Right or wrong, follow your Convictions. And finally, over a period of time, develop not one, but multiple Core Competencies in one's business. This helps the entrepreneur to maintain a Competitive Edge in the market place, without which any business is doomed to fail.

5 Why's

Japanese have a simple technique of asking 'Why' 5 times to arrive at the root cause of a problem. The standard example is as follows,



1. Why has the machine stopped?
    A fuse blew because of an overload

2. Why was there an overload
    There wasn't enough lubrication for the bearings

3. Why wasn't there enough lubrication?
    The pump wasn't pumping enough

4. Why wasn't lubricant being pumped?
   The pump shaft was vibrating as a result of abrasion

5. Why was there abrasion?
   There was no filter, allowing chips of material into the pump

   Installation of a filter solves the problem.
 
Another example that I am fond of narrating goes like this.
 
An employee is late to the office. He is queried by the Manager.
 
1. Why are you late today?
     Sir, I missed the bus.
    ( Wrong Solution: Dont you know you have to be on time. Reach the bus stop early tomorrow)
 
2. Why did you miss the bus?
     I was late getting up
    (Wrong Solution: Buy a good alarm clock)
 
3. Why did you get up late?
    I went for a late night movie with my wife
    (Wrong Solution: Dont go for a late night movie the night prior to a working day)
 
4. Why did you have to go for a late night movie when today is a working day?
    My wife is upset because I am going late every day.
    (Wrong Solution : Go home on time. Dont stay back in the office)
 
5. Why are you staying back in the office?
    I have been recently posted to a new job for which I am not trained properly. Hence I am forced to stay back to complete my work
   (Correct Solution: Arrange a proper training program for the employee ASAP)

Of Chariots, Horses and Reins

Ramayana beautifully depicts the qualities required of a leader. When Vibhishanan expresses his doubts as to the ability of the vanara sena to take on the mighty army of Ravanan, Rama explains to him the need for a clear vision. Then he goes on to explain the concept of leadership using the analogy of a Horse Driven Chariot. This thought process can be extended to a top manager in an organization.

Rama visualizes the four wheels of the Chariot as the four critical traits requied of a leader - Character, Ethics, Courage and Valour. Character is the most fundamental of all. It is absolutely essential that the leader should be clear of his value system and he should be able to communicate this clearly to his subordinates and other stakeholders. The communication should be through action. He should walk the talk. He should also be ethically perfect to gain the moral high ground that is so essential for earning the respect of the employees. Power earned by virtue of official position, as depicted in ones business card, is meaningless unless one earns the grudging respect of one's peers and subordinates. Courage, comprises of both physical and mental courage in the Ramayana context. But in an organizational context, this has to do with taking unpopular decisions when required. Leader is a change agent, and people abhor change. One has to have terrific strength of character and the Valour, which is the mental fortitude to stand by one's decisions so needed to achieve the vision.

Continuing the analogy, Rama explained that the horses of the Chariot stood for Strength, Energy and Passion. One should have the Strength, of staying power to beat back the competion and stay in the hunt, and should possess unlimited Energy, which should act as a tonic, not only for the manager, but also for those around him. Finally, my favourite - Passion. A leader should be passionate about his work, however small it might be. One should throw one's whole weight behind every activity, should have complete involvement and love doing it.

But a leader is incomplete without the traits represented by the reins of the horses - Forgiveness, Compassion, Consistency and Equanimity. A leader has to be consistent all the times or else it would send contradictory signals to his subordinates. Along with Equanimity, it helps to develop trust amongst them, so essential for the success of the venture. A leader should be humane. He should be empathetic, and understand what is in the mind of the subordinates before they express it. This helps him develop pathos -for unless you apply to the subordinate's emotions, the support wont be whole hearted. Here is where Forgiveness and Compassion play an important role.

Add to the above, Knowledge, Strategic competence, Intelligence, Skills, Commitment and absence of ego - you now have a wonderful set of tools to win under any trying circumstances. 

It is time that we take the leadership in developing a Managerial Style suiting the Indian mindset using the wealth of knowledge hidden in our scriptures.

(Picture sourced from the web shows Krishna giving Gitopadesam to Arjuna, just prior to the commencement of the Kurukshetra War)

Business shift during the first decade - 3

Another major shift that has happened during the past decade is the rise in purchasing power of the consumers in the Emerging market. This has resulted in a paradigm shift. At the initial stages of globalization, the MNC's in developed countries beningly looked at emerging economies like the BRIC as a souce of natural resources, cheap labour and inexpensive manufacturing that will reduce the cost of products for the consumers back home. But rising wages, information explosion, greater global travel all led to increased consumption in the Emerging economies. Today, the consumers of emerging economies have become the cynosure of all eyes forcing the self same MNC's to shift their R&D bases to these countries and develop products that are best suited to the needs of the consumers from emerging economies. The learning accrued from that is then transfered back home. The consumers of emerging economies get the first taste of product/process development. The emerging economies no longer have to enter into deals with Firms from developed countries for product import followed by technology transfer. The technology is now developed in country at the destination.

Business shift during the first decade - 2

The decade gone by saw the era of informed customer dawning. Thanks to internet, cable tv, 24x7 news channels, news on desktop and above all Google, the customer can get as much information as he can about any product or organization. Organizations of the past used to exploit the information asymmetry, when they new more than the customer or when they deliberatively kept the customer in the dark. Today, the shoe is on the other foot. Modern day customer knows more about a company's product than the company itself, for he scours the internet discussion forums and reviews prior to making the buying decision - and the Company just doesnt have the organizational capability to track all the positive and negative reports that are available on the internet and develop the appropriate strategy. This has ensured higher quality, better processes and innovative marketing strategies, all of which augurs well for the customer. Companies are developing strategies to listen to the customers through rating scales, opinion polls, limited customization through the Web. One advantage the Companies have in conducting these research is that they are cheap to execute as putting up a poll on the website hardly costs anything to the firm. Inexpensive feedback is a goldmine.

Business shift during the first decade - 1

A decade into the millenium, it is the right time to have a look at some of the management concepts that have come into prominence post millenium.

The primary shift has been towards maximizing shareholders return and increasing the market capitalization at the expense of everything else. Of course, business has always concentrated on increasing value for the shareholder. But this was not the SOLE priority as it is now. Shorter business cycles, still shorter product life cycles can be attributed to this shift. Executives are paid to take more risks to maximize short term returns and for that they were paid huge bonuses, and damn the consequences. No cautionary word as to the impact this will have on the long term sustainability of the business. Government actively supported this, for a buoyant stock market gave them a false sense of economic security. This attitudinal change led to the Global Financial Crisis towards the end of the decade, but no lessons have been learned. The risk takers are lying low for now, till the situation improves when they will be back with a bang, for the model works well in the short term for all concerned - shareholders, executives and the government and who cares about the long term consequences? ............ to be continued

Cleaning the Aegean Stables ourself

The just gone decade did not see any major concept in management coming up, which in itself is a great achievement. One is tired of many fads including Knowledge Management, Change Management, Balance Score Card, TQM etc.

The decade also saw the systemic failure of the Management theory that is practised today with the events that led to the Global Financial Crisis, and the subsequent recession/depression.

Though many attribute this to the greed of the top management in the Financial sector, or more specifically their remuneration that rewarded high risk investments producing near term returns, at the expense of long term institution building, I beg to differ. This was not the sole reason. Nor was the reason the failure of the regulators. For far too long our Financial Sector companies have got away with murder with fancy accounting and window dressing. Using the 'unrealized profit' method to boost the profit figures year after year is an old trick. This shall continue to happen till such time the 'independent' auditors continue to earn from the company itself. We have not learned our lessons from Enron and Arthur Anderson or Satyam Computers and PWC. Every company should be made to pay a % of its revenue to a common pool that shall be used to pay the fees of the Auditors, with the choice of the auditor being left to the regulator in charge of the pool. And we need a wider set of Audit firms. Now the business is cartelized by the Big 4- PWC, E&Y, Deloitte and KPMG. Steps should be taken to encourage the growth of tier 2 audit firms so that there is more competition. Also, the Audit firms should be asked to remain doing auditing and not venture out to other Financial Services activities like valuation, feasibility studies etc. There is a clear conflict of interest here which clouds the objectivity of the audit firms. Caesers wife should be above suspicion.

We need to take a serious look at how the Balance Sheet and Financial Reports are prepared in our Companies. The exisiting balance sheet is a relic of the industrial era, where the capital employed went directly to finance acquisition of assets, to fund expenses or to pay the wages. The tangibles could then be shown in the balance sheet. 70% of the capital deployed could be backed by assets in the Balance Sheet with wages constituting only 16%.

This has to change in the services sector dominant modern world. Bulk of the capital deployed goes towards recruting, training and maintaining high profile, high skilled employees. The asset creation is more intangible in nature, as intellectual assets. Today, following the traditional method of valuing the company, most of the services sector companies wont have any assets to back their investments. We need to have a provision for ascertaining the value of intellectual capital in the company which should APPRECIATE every year as agains the depreciation of the assets in a conventional company.

It is high time we, professional managers, cleaned the Aegean Stables ourself !

P.S: The above are some of the random thoughts based on the learnings from the past decade. Your thoughts are welcome.

A thought provoking Article

I am not one for giving links to other articles unless they are really worth reading. A maverick myself, I love others of the same genre. Swaminathan Ankleshwara Aiyar, who has a weekly column in Times of India is known for his out of the box thinking. I have found many of his articles food for thought. This one, the link to which is given below on the future of Cars is worth reading. Though the concept of hybrid cars and electric cars is old hat, the narration is quite novel as it has an Indian angle to it. Should interest marketing students of mine.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/tata-motors-think-electric-for

Strategies to tackle your enemies or competitors

How do you handle your enemies or your competitor?

There are 6 distinct methods to tackle your enemies/competitors as per 'Panchatantram',

1. Peace,
2. War
3. Retreat
4. Entrenchment
5. Seeking the help of allies or
6. Intrigue

But how do you choose the ideal strategy. Again let us hear what Panchatantram has to say,

Make peace with an enemy who is as strong as you are, for, in a battle between equals, the victory hangs in the balance, never fight unless you are sure of success. Never make peace with an enemy who is unethical. He is bound to flout the peace terms at the first given opportunity. Such peace wont last long (It is why India should never make peace with Pakistan).

Only intrigue is effectual when your enemy is powerful. The wise first puff up the enemy and afterwards destroy them. Find out your enemy's weak points and then take advantage of them at the opportune time.

Read the full Panchatantram if you are a Management Professional. It is worth it.

Basis of Western and Indian Management

The western management system that evolved in the early 20th Century has been profoundly influenced by two powerful institutions - the Army and the Church. The Western nations always had global ambitions of annexing nations for their raw materials and cheap labour. They aggressively pursued this agenda through military operations that required a clear cut line of authority and a logistic support system. Religion has always been the foundation on which these campaigns were built. The Church had an expansionist agenda and sent missionaries far and wide to all parts of the world with an objective of converting as many as possible. Most of the times, the missionary had to work independently. But since the success of his mission was dependant on relief supplies, health care and education the Church had to establish a global network of communications and organizations that ensured the flow of goods and services. Also it was imperative that the Church headquarters received the necessary feedback. The ideal organization structure for the church, like the military, was line that ensured smooth flow of decision and instruction downward while the information flowed unhindered upwards.

The industrialization in West started with a similar aggressive agenda in early 20th Century. When the West ventured into business, it was logical for them to pursue what they know best and they replicated the structure and systems similar to the Church and Military in their Organizations.

One needs to understand the contrast in India. The temples never had a single control. The Hindu religion being not controlled by a single entity ensured that the temples were more a local issue than a central issue. Each temple were managed by the locals with the patronage from the King or the Jamindar. They never had an expansionist agenda. In fact, the temples tried hard to keep the people out rather than in. The whole structure was to ensure protection in the area of operation. Mergers between temples were unheard of. The decision making at the temple level was more consultative in nature. There was a core committee of temple administrators who were involved in key decision making.

India was a conglomerate of different small kingdoms prior to the colonization. Each small kingdom had under them many chieftains who lorded over their small area of fiefdom. They maintained small armies. The King maintained a core army but he could and did call on his Chieftains to send their men in case of a necessity. These small groups had different culture, organizational structure and their loyalties were with their local Chieftain than the King. Also, the armies were essentially for self defense and were rarely used for major conquests, though there are exceptions. But the exceptions were few and far between. The western style of army organization did not work with Indians. While western army focused on collective fighting, the Indian fighters were more known for their individualistic brilliance and valour. Even our mythology is full for individual valour – whether it be Ramayana or Mahabharatham. Kurukshetra War talks about formations – like Garuda Vyooham to counter Sarpa Vyooham. But once the fighting starts, it was every one for himself. Also, extensive consultations took place amongst the elders on the evenings of the war to arrive at the ideal strategy.

The Indian businessmen obviously followed the above when they started their operations. Also, they were very suspicious of the West post independence. We can thus see certain distinct traits in Indian system,

The hierarchy is based more based on Seniority of age than Authority due to position. (I can vouch for this, for when I took over Coimbatore Sales Area of HPCL as a 25 year old, it took me two years of bloody hard work to be accepted by the Petrol dealers)

Since we were not as rigid as the Westerners, a degree of confusion in systems and procedures is considered natural since there is no clear-cut division of responsibilities and authorities. People tend to be vague, philosophical and holistic than precise and logical

Trust and personal loyalty is extremely important and people are judged on the basis of their ability to be loyal to individuals, i.e owners.

Greater western influence over the years and a management education based on US style of Management has started making dent in our traditional management style. But its influence can still be seen and felt

(Hot) Air India

Air India has revealed its turnaround plan. Much of it will make the airline not Air India but Hot Air India as it looks like someone's pipe dream. Let us take a look at the salient points with my comments in brackets and in italics.

Turn around to be made in 24 to 36 months (Reasonable time frame, especially in view of the economy likely to revive during that period. But we have heard AI turning around and making profit for decades. All those promises have vanished into thin air the moment the airline gets additional tax payers money as subsidy. So why should this be different).

Focus on low-cost carrier for high density ports from September with 70-75% of domestic flights to fly as low cost under the brand Air India Express and the Airline is exprected to earn Rs 180-200 crore through this (Low cost airlines the world over has never been able to sustain profits even in the medium term. This premise of AI that it can successfully run a profit making low cost operation with its huge baggage of ageing aircrafts, highly paid PSU staff and bloated management is someones pipe dream. For any organization to adopt a low cost strategy and succeed it needs to have the following advantages, as per Strategic Guru Michael Porter; Sustained Capital Investment, Intense Supervision of Labour, Process Engineering Skills, Products and services designed for ease of manufacture or use & Low cost distribution system. Our national carried fails to pass muster on even one of these parameter. Then, pray, how will this strategy succeed?)

Plans to create a subsidiary for MRO, ground handling and cargo unit which would lead to almost two-thirds of the 32,000 staff going out of airline operations, thus lowering the aircraft-to-employee ratio to match global standards. Logic being that the ground-handling subsidiaries of Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines account for almost 40 per cent of revenue of the parent company, whereas AI currently earn only two per cent (This is only shifting the problem. The employees will be moved from AI roster to the the subsidiary roster, whose accounts will be reflected on AI balance sheet. It is another matter if AI were to divest this operation fully. The reason why Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have 40% of its revenue from ground handling and cargo operations is because they have the advantage of having the biggest two hubs in the world -Frankfurt and Singapore. Also, both airlines have clear focus on their cargo operations, whereas Air India scantily pays attention to the cargo division, which is less glamorous but more profitable)

Air India, which has over the year lost its market share, is expected to lose over Rs 7,000 crore this year. The carrier is also overburdened by its working capital borrowings worth Rs 17,000 crore. Airlines is facing a cash-flow problem and is unable to service its interest and debt liabilities with internal resources. The airline also said to go for an IPO in the next 18 months (The question that remains unanswered is why has AI lost its market share. It is understandable during recession for revenues to drop. But to lose market share? AI should explain why NRIs and Indians travelling abroad almost always never opts AI as their first, second or third choice Airline. It has to do with the culture and value system of the organization that treats Indians shabbily. With Indians being so mobile globally and travelling more than ever before in the history, AI has to have a relook at its strategy and focus on Indians rather than foriegners as its prime target segment. If they make a sincere effort in changing their approach to Indian citizens, give them top class service and special offers, be courteous, be more sensitive to their needs and run the operations on schedule, I am sure Indian travellers will reciprocate and start patronizing the Airline. It is not that other airlines are great when it comes to serving the Indian passengers. I have found them to be condescending and at times downright patronizing. If they still fly in those airlines, it is only because Air India is terrible. Improve the service by at least 60% and you will see customers flocking back)

Finally, if AI were to be turned around, it has to be allowed to operate as an independent entity, with the Ministry of Civil Aviation having absolutely no say in its operations for the next 36 months and may be forever. Elect an eminent board, get the best talent in the Airline Industry in the top management, have an intense program for retraining and re orienting the staff, re brand, re package, focus on efficiency, cut down on routes, follow a focussed differentiation strategy of targeting Indian travellers, give them time to turn around and we may yet have an Airline that we Indians can be proud of.

Wisdom of Indian Management

It is a tragedy that while we have a rich heritage of Management thought that was specifically developed for Indian psyche, our B-Schools and Corporates blindly follow the more materialistic Western Management philosophy, which is skin deep to say the least.

The Indian management philosophy clearly makes a distinction between the 'subtle and intangible' Subject and the more 'concrete, visible and tangible' Object. While the West stresses a lot on the tangible aspects, the emotional Indian is more in tune with the Subjective side of it. This is manifested in our dependence on the Third Eye or the eye of the wisdom. It transcends everything that is tangible.

We attach more importance to integrity, fearlessness, courage, social awareness, vision, purity of mind,truth - all of which are subjective, subtle and intangible. For us these are as important as the materialistic things like money, materials, data and other tangible items. One might argue that, of late, we are attaching greater importance to these of late but that is only in the metros. Majority of India is still untouched by it.

While our body and the panchendriya are objective, the most important thing the 'Athma' or the soul is highly intangible. For indians, athma comes above everything else. The skilled manager stresses on the panchendriya while the wisdom/knowledge based manager uses the latter. Hence he is more valuable.

The West is just discovering the value of Knowledge based economy. We were practicing it 5000 years ago and there is so much literature on it. But, we as a nation, dont do anything to uphold and propagate our ancient wisdom. And it is such a tragedy.

Oh! For an Indian Management System

India has a culture that goes back more than 5000 years. The country has weathered many a storm, whether it be invasions, alien rule, colonial ambitions and a post independance chaos. The Indus valley civilization, along with the Nile Valley and Mesapatomia civilazations, were far ahead of their time in the areas of management, planning and organization.

The problem with Indian Management Education and the Management style is that it do not take into account the Indian ethos. Traditional wisdom says that Asians in general, and Indians in particular are driven by emotions than by reason, but the corollary is true for Westerners, basically the Amercans who have developed the current management system.

Indians attach importance to 'Karma' rather than 'Karmabhala'. For me personally, it is doing a thing correctly that matters, and what I get out of it materialistically is secondary. Doesnt mean that the rewards are not important, but just that rewards are not THE MOST IMPORTANT. In short we are not work machines, but people with more emotions than a normal western professional. So any management theory has to take this into account for it to be successful.

To illustrate it further one doesnt have to look beyond the sports field. Morten Frost Hansen of Denmark, the World Badminton Champion in 1980's was in awe of the things Prakash Padukkone can do on a Cricket Field. Normal coaching techniques cannot explain the sublime artistry of VVS Laxmans batting. Though we have slid down the slope, Western hockey teams never tire of eulogising the wizardry of Indian hockey players and have failed to replicate them. This wrist work and self expression in the sports field is indicative of the Indian psyche that is creative, artistic, emotional. Contrast VVS Laxmans batting with that of Mathey Hayden or Andrew Strauss, and you know what I am talking about.

Westerners tries to find a logical reason for everything. If things are not logical, then it is not acceptable to them. While Indians understand and accept that there are many things which cannot be logically and rationally explained. The irrational plays an important part in our life.

This is the reason for so much strife and acrimony in our organizations and why they are not as effective as they should be. It is a tragedy that a land reknowned for great thinkers, cannot find a few who can develop a management style that takes into account the values, ethos, attitudes, aptitudes and culture of Indians.