What do you want to be?

This anecdote was received by me through an e-mail and is thought provoking.

A young woman went to her mother, told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her wise mother did not say anything but led her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on the stove. And the pots were brought to boil. In the first pot she put a carrot, in the second she carefully dropped an egg, and in the last she put a spoon of ground coffee beans. She let them boil for a while, without saying a word.

After twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She stained both the pots containing carrot and egg, which she placed on separate bowls. She poured the pot that contained the coffee powder and water into a third bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break its shell. After pulling off the shell, she observed that the egg has now become hard boiled.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter asked, 'What does this mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after being boiled in water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water to a rich aromatic enjoyable coffee.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

By the way which are you?

Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity you wilt, become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes when the heat is really on? Do you have a fragile demeanour, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other hardship,  you come out hardened and stronger?

Or are you the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the boiling is over, it adds fragrance and flavor to even the water. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest you elevate yourself to another level. You also have the habit of turning adversity into an opportunity. 

What are you, then, and more importantly, What do you want to be?

A bad feeling about the inflation scenario

The Government, headed by two 'economists' ,Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Dy. Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr.Montek Singh Ahulwalia, has only one prescription to tackle inflation - To increase the interest rates. And this is plainly not working.

We are currently back to the bad old days of 1980's when the interest rates were very high, stiffling productivity and consumption. Immediately following the Petroleum product price hike last week, RBI has quietly increased the repo and revere repo rates by 0.25 basis points. And a probable further raise can be expected on 27th July, when it announces its credit policy.

There has been both supply and demand side pressures on inflation. The petroleum price hike will result in another 1% rise in inflation at the WPI level, while at the retail level, it is likely to be almost double, taking into account the ripple effect on various sectors. However, the unbearable food inflation is purely due to supply mismanagement. We had identified supply side problems for over a year now, but has hardly done anything to combat that. One would have expected Government to come out with a long term Agricultural master plan to to ensure food security for the country. Unfortunately, this Government has shown very little interest in the Agricultural sector, probably because there is no US angle to it. The alacrity shown by MMS in getting the Nuclear Bill, Nuclear Liability Bill, Peace Talks with Pakistan, policies favouring MNC's etc - all with a view to pleasing the Americans, is absent when it comes to a basic issue like Food, which affects the common man.

UPA has been in Government since 2004. Any government is measured by its ability to give a comfortable life to its citizens, with inflation contained and manageable at best. But, Indians have been suffering badly due to inflationary pressures, mainly due to poor governance. Some figures are given below for you to assess for yourself,

The impact of inflation is felt in School fee which has gone up by 100%, public transport charges that has risen by almost 80%. The personal loans have become dearer.

An interesting point to note is that there has hardly been a major farm crisis, or a unprecedented spurt in demand (like export opportunities) for the Sugar, Rice, Tur Dal prices to go up. This can be attributed to bad policies, negligence and downright mismanagement.

We have gone horribly wrong with our economic planning and priorities. The Congress is back to its bad old days of tax and spend high interest rate policies of 1970s and 80s that proved disastrous for India, and took it to the verge of bankruptcy in 1991. I have a bad feeling about the current scenario. Let us just hope we dont end up seeing food riots in the country.

Importance of the less strong

I was active in age group Cricket when I was in my teens and has attended many coaching camps. A Right handed batsman, I was taught the importance of my LEFT HAND while batting. Not many know, but it is the LEFT HAND that is crucial for a right handed batsman and vice versa (illustrated by the Sachin picture on the left). It is the controlling hand, and it also helps keep the ball along the ground (remember, it was the Sunil Gavaskar era, where hitting the ball in the air like Sehwag was frowned up on). The left leg positioning was also critical while playing forward, either in defence or while driving. Early in my career, I had a tendency to drive with my dominant right hand, leading to my getting caught in mid off or mid on. Coach got fed up advising me, called me up one day, asked me to put my right hand behind by back, tied it with a piece of rope to my back, and started throwing balls at me from half pitch to make me drive or defend only with the left hand. Later, I spent hours hitting a ball tied to a rope with my right hand tied to the back to perfect the drives.I found to my amazement that I just couldn't hit in the air even if I want to, and went on to score many many more runs.

In another Coaching Camp, I was standing near a very good bowling coach, who was explaining and demonstrating the importance of the non bowling hand to the bowlers. He showed how the position of the weaker non-bowling hand helped in improving accuracy, and also the criticality of correctly landing the left leg, which is the leading leg for a right hand bowler, correctly. In both the cases the relatively less strong part of the body played a critical role in improving performance(See the wonderful picture of Dennis Lillee in his delivery stride).

In both the cases, the right hand (dominant hand) provides power generation, while the left hand (less strong hand) allows the player to gain better control. An analogy will be the Engine and the Steering Wheel.

This is true in professional life too. I have certain skills which I consider to be my core competencies, and certain others which to me are tangential and not so important. But I have noticed with amusement that it is quite often my lesser skills that have paid off in the long run. I consider Knowledge, out of the box thinking, problem solving, analytical skills, ability to take quality decisions under pressure, team building and leadership to be my strength. The less important skills, at least in  my eyes, are my communication skills, being organized, handling routine affairs with minimum fuss and my doggedness to get things done. And surprise, surprise!! I always use my core competencies to give me the real push, while using the less dominant skills to guide me in my day to day operations.

Ditto in my teaching career. I consider my knowledge and my mentoring skills as my core competency. But whenever I ask  students as to what they like about me, they always tell 'puctuality'. Also when I ask students why he/she preferred to choose me as a project guide, the answer is 'sir, you will make me work and ensure I finish the project on time'. It is as if my lesser skills are more prefered by students for it controls them in a way.

Such is life!

Germany - What a team!

I have been commenting on all my world cup related blogs to never underestimate Germany. They came into this World Cup with a very young team, with two out of form strikers in Podolsky and Klose and without their talisman captain Ballack. But Germans are big match players. They thrive on pressure and they are physically very very strong. They have been magnificient this World Cup and proved that Football is all about scoring Goals.

As I said before, I never thought I will see a day when I would be cheering a German Team, for I used to abhor their functional, artless, physical football. But this German team has been a relevation. In Ozil and Schweinsteiger, they have two wonderful players. And Mueller has been magnificient, and so refreshingly young.

To take apart a supremely talented Argentina, comprising of Messi and Tavez, 4-0 takes some doing. They absorbed the immense pressure put by the Argentines on either side of the half time, and then counter attacked with brilliance to score two more goals to the opening one to settle the issue.  Carefreeness of the youth and a payoff for investing in a youth program by German Football Federation 20 years ago.

Football at its best.

What we teach and What is needed!

ADDENDUM

My good friend Srinivas Rao has his own interpretation of the above diagram, which he was kind enough to share with me through e-mail. I am reproducing his mail and his version of the picture below,

Sir,

What we need is "Balance Sate" between RED & GREEN (ref: Picture Posted by Raja's World at 08:05).

When there is equilibrium state between these two, rest of the people live in peace.

We don't need only RED.......(Ignorance) or we don't need only GREEN(Sophistication of knowledge) which leads to high level stress in human life.

There is a need of both groups for the society.........

Regards

KS Rao

Fuel Price Saga continues...........................

About two years ago, I had written a three part series of posts on Petroleum Prices. You can read them here --> Fuel Price Imbroglio-1, here --> Fuel Price Imbroglio-2 and  here --> Fuel Price Imbroglio-3 .

Situation on the Petroleum Prices front has not improved, but rather taken a turn for the worse. Two years of mismanagement of sector, first due to the elections last year and then a lack of political will and imagination to tackle the issue has seen common man suffering, petroleum companies making losses apart from India looking down the barrel on fuel adequacy issues.

I, for one, am fully in favour of deregulating the Petroleum Prices to bring it on level with international prices, but with a caveat. When international oil prices drop, corresponding drop should be there in the domestic oil prices. Whether this will happen in an Indian deregulated economy is a moot point.

Why do I argue for deregulation of Oil Prices? When we opt for administered pricing, we artificially keep the prices down. But this means Government subsidising the Petroleum Companies in the long run. Where does this subsidy come from? Through higher taxes imposed on the common man. Ultimately the common man pays for the petroleum prices, either directly or indirectly. Let the users bear the cost directly.  It is true that prices will go up in the short term, but then the users will find more efficient means of reducing the waste by going for more fuel efficient equipments, that shall ultimately lead to better energy output per unit of fuel. And the oil companies, which have sustained their inefficiency behind administered prices, will have no place to hide. They can offer no further excuse and run to the Government to bail them out. This shall lead to increased productivity in the sector, which can be nothing but good news for the Country.

An emerging economy like India, aiming for a 10% GDP growth, cannot afford to curb fuel consumption if it wants to achieve its targetted growth. The pertoleum pricing structure is such that the Government taxes total upto 50% of the selling price, i.e: if Petrol Cost Rs 50 per litre, the taxes accruing to the government is approximately Rs 25-26. Everytime the petroleum prices go up, the Finance Ministry is happy, for it brings in additional revenue that can be splurged on non productive sectors. It is high time the taxes on petroleum products are rationalized and reduced to a maximum of 30% as against 100% that is prevalent today. This would mean a base price of Rs 25 and a tax of Rs 7.50 making it Rs 32.50 for petrol, which is what it should be.  Government needs to find other means to bridge the revenue deficit. For a starter, instead of concentrating on raising more revenue, they can think of reducing non plan expenditure drastically. Let us start with cutting the convoys that accompany the ministers, and stop subsidising their wasteful living.

There is no doubt that the poor need to be protected. Fuel coupons can be given to BPL families. It is high time we revisited our top down subsidy structure and replace it with the direct-to-customer subsidy structure. Let the BPL consumer decide where, when and how he/she will use the subsidy coupons, be it fuel coupon, food coupon or education coupon (Read my blog on the subject of coupons here)

But above all, we need a national program on reducing wastage of precious fuel. Let us invest in better roads, better and fuel efficient vehicles, generators, low cost highly efficient kerosene lamps, stoves etc. Kerosene is consumed by BPL families mostly for lighting purpose. We can reduce the consumption by going for 100% electrification (Kerala has already achieved 100% electrification) of households. A simple way of reducing waste will be for us to enforce traffic rules strictly and remove all the checkposts. Enforcement of traffic rules will pave way for free flow of traffic and, ensuring Contractors pave the road as per specification would result pot-hole free roads, all of which goes a long way in saving fuel.

But then that is asking for the moon, isn't it?

Inspirational Leader

Leaders must inspire. It is essential that a leader performs exceptionally well at a personal level. But that alone is inadequate. He should create synergy and lift his team to a higher plane.

Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo and Rooney. These four were supposed to be the inspirational leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and England respectively in this World Cup. But none of them have shown the inspirational leadership that was expected of them. Messi has been efficient at best. If Argentina has performed well, then it is inspite of him. Kaka is easing himself from an injury. He has only shown flashes of brilliance, but has been a pale shadow of the player that he once was. Instead of him carrying the team, it is the team that is carrying Kaka. Ronaldo has been a dud for Portugal. He was virtually incognito in most of the matches, despite having a very good team around him. When they were a goal down against Spain, Ronaldo, instead of lifting his game and thus inspiring his team mates, just faded away. Less said about Rooney, the better. He was a liability for an otherwise woeful England team. One has to only look at the difference Arjen Roebben has made to the Dutch team, when he enters as a substitute or when he started the last 16 match. The team looks totally different when Roebben is in the field. Or for that matter Diego Forlan for Uruguay. He has been magnificient and has carried the team on his shoulders to the Quarter finals.

Let us look at some of the traits noticed in inspirational leaders in organizations,

• Passion for and pride in what they do
• Clarity of vision and ability to share it with their people
• Strong communication – storytelling and listening
• Passion for learning and intense curiosity
• Focus on developing people
• Strong self-belief, coupled with humanity and humility
• Very strong focus on priorities
• Committed to giving something back and to making a significant difference
• Dogged determination and often “ relentless”
• Having fun and very energised
• Not afraid to show some vulnerability
• Regular use of reflective periods
• Almost universal dislike of jargon

It is interesting to note that the list of traits the followers consider is important for an inspirational leader is much shorter,

• Genuine shared vision
• Real confidence and trust in their teams
• Respect for employees and customers
• Commitment to developing people
• Clear standards of ethics and integrity
• Willingness to take risks

The interesting aspect of these traits is that all of them can be learned/developed/acquired through personal effort. Most require just a tweak in your attitude and a determination to master it.

How many of these traits do you have?