44 - Random Thoughts

Corruption - worldwide - is but a symptom of the deeply rooted spiritual bankruptcy in society. Society and individuals lack the moral strength to withstand onslaught of material desires. As Gandhi is supposed to have said "There is enough for everyone's need; there is not enough for one man's greed".

Social and political protests may only replace one ruling order by another. But they cannot treat this deep-rooted sickness in society - because a sick man cannot treat himself and in any case, treating symptoms will not lead to the ultimate cure.

Till human beings can find the way - and it is very much possible - to go beyond material desires, symptoms such as corruption, crime, terrorism, riots will continue to trouble society and us.

43 - Two wheelers and Motorists in Pune

Dear All,

Just am back from a personal visit to Pune.

It is a nice city but quickly losing its older charm. The emerging industries, IT companies and others in and around Pune has attracted large scale emigration from all parts of the country and has increased crowds, congestion and pollution. In few more years it is going to become a dying city like Mumbai. But as usual, this is all off-topic. The topic really is about the age-old characteristic even tradition of Pune - i.e. two wheelers.

Older Pune was abundant with bicycles - pedestrians used to be in mortal fear of being knocked down even on the foot-paths. As children we were always warned with one mantra - watch out for the cycles! Today cycles have given way to bikes, scooters and scootys ... even 14 year old kids are whizzing past on easy to start and automatic gear two wheelers. Large number of two wheelers are competing with increasing number of three wheelers and cars of all shapes and sizes.

And the pedestrian fears have increased manifold !

Personally I was witness to a small accident. One senior member of our family was knocked down by a scooty speeding down as he crossed a narrow (8 feet wide) road. Luckily he escaped with a few minor bruises and a sore shoulder. The driver was a teenage girl who herself was scared out of her wits by the accident. What struck me was her immediate apology and comment after the incident "It was neither his fault nor it was mine ... he crossed the road and I thought he had seen me and would stop"!

While this comment may seem idiotic, this is characteristic of the driver ethic in Pune. Drivers assume that pedestrians should be cautious and stay out of way of vehicles. Frankly, I do not believe this is acceptable. It should be remembered that pedestrians do not have to apply for a license but drivers do. The intention of this is that driving a vehicle is not a right, but a privilege. With that privilege also comes a responsibility to protect the safety of self and those around. If a driver fails in this responsibility and is part of an accident, he or she definitely is responsible for this. I think two wheeler drivers in Pune (and even other cities including Mumbai) need some lessons in road safety and civil behaviour. But then, this is known since the last century.

God Save Pune.

Best Regards

Gotya

41. Some readings and some musings

Dear All,

I wrote earlier about reading some interesting books across last year. Some thoughts collected from those readings ...

Perhaps, it all started when I got an article about "10X Change" and strategic inflection points. Led me to the first book "Only the Paranoid Survive" by Andy Grove of Intel. An excellent book about strategy, being aware of change potential and being prepared to deal with sudden change - even leverage it to get ahead of the competition. Was fun reading it. Absolutely recommended. Particularly in these times. But as I read it I was also reminded of another book read long ago - "Who Moved my Cheese". Lot of parallels in the stories although the later is about a few hard-working mice and managing changes in personal and work areas. But you get the idea.

Incidentally discussing about these two books with my good friend Atyab pointed me to another book, this time about operationalizing strategy - making sure we end up doing what we are planning. Not just dream about it. This was a high calorie food for thought "Execution- The Discipline of Getting Things Done" (Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan). But to be honest I did not read this completely. I could not. The book is really targeted at very senior management professionals. So it was like drinking directly from the Ganges - I was happy to fill in a small glass and sip from it. :-) The book is about lot of things - setting goals, establishing appropriate processes, selecting the right people to run these processes, leading them in the right way. Way to go for great CEOs I guess. But it underscored one very important thing for me.

Unless one is having the discipline to control oneself, there is not much point in thinking about leadership and strategies and execution. How can one 'select', 'review', 'lead' other people unless one knows, reviews and repairs one's own faults first? One does not need to lead millions of people like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King (or a Mel Gibson in Braveheart) - it is very much sufficient (and necessary of course) to lead oneself to the light first. The one-eyed man leading the blind is only for the tales.

So some introspection brought me back to a book I had picked up when in school and read but not yet implemented. Perhaps not even understood completely yet. "Seven Habits ..." by Stephen Covey. An amazingly simple, yet truly inspiring book. I read it again - this time seeking for guidance. Again I could get no further than first three or four chapters. Let me explain why ... but in the next post ...

It will give me some breather and just so you guys will wait here for me ;-)

Cheers

Gotya

40. some reading and some introspection

Dear All

Haven't posted much in the last few months - perhaps only 2 or 3 posts in all of last year. Updated my Teletechgyan after a gap of 2 years. But all that (or most of it at least) was not due to laziness.



Part of it was of course, due to my introduction to Twitter. Twitter is the lazy man's blog - microblog to be precise. To a large extent devoid of any purpose - even aimless if I may say so - Tweeting still has its fun and is duly addictive. I believe it reflects the restless nature of the human mind. Just as it is possible for the mind to jump from one thought to another - one moment to the next - so also Twitter allows the users to tweet totally unrelated and yet connected stream of messages one after another. Just as thoughts may be entirely random and yet connected, Twitter's public timeline can be full of random thoughts, news, perspectives from all across the world - some entirely worthless while others totally invaluable. The only flaw is that it also sort of trains your mind to not collect all these thoughts and put them together. One would rather dump out those thoughts like a kid shouting at the mountains to hear his own echo than take the efforts to hear his own voice and refine it in the hope of contributing something worthwhile to posterity.



And yet, that is not the topic of today's post. While Twitter seems to be one of the reasons for not taking the efforts to blog, that was not the only reason. One of the other things were a lot of self-doubts or at least questions about the usefulness of it all. Why think aloud - for that is what this is really about - in the (almost conceited) belief that these thoughts really mean something to anyone at all? Yes there are some loyal readers who visit this blog, email me about it and also take the efforts to comment. But to be honest the visitors are my friends who visit and comment because of their love for me more than perhaps any value that I am adding to them. Of course that is a good a reason (in fact better than) as any other reason. Just to thank and appreciate that love and friendship I should take the efforts to blog. (And I will). And yet, the thoughts are still about what is the value that I can create for them? That question, alas, is still not answered.



I know this is becoming some form of a theatrical monologue but honestly, that is not where I started off with the introspection bit. Anyways since the question is now about what value I can contribute and since I honestly cannot think of something original to speak (and can't get the wisdom to be silent either), perhaps I can borrow from some interesting reading I have been up to in the last few months. But that will surely have to wait for another post, another day. Keep watching this space.

Cheers
Gotya

Have we forgotten Burma and Tibet?

In the last few days we have been reading news about Nobel Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's strange misfortunes in Burma (Myanmar). The heroic lady has been in prison for years now - two decades in fact since 1989 - and just as the term seems over, some mystery swimmer puts her back on Square One. What has been happening in Burma and why is the world ignoring it for most part? Is it really an internal issue of the country when someone who is elected to be the Prime Minister is placed out of touch with the world for such a long time? Why are countries like China supporting Burma?

Perhaps that last question is dumb. Why wouldn't China be backing Burma when it has a Tibet in its own backyard. A place that China is making all out efforts to wipe out from the world's memory. The Dalai Lama - another Nobel Peace Prize winner - is one of the best recognized faces in the world and none who recognized that face is unaware that he is in exile from Tibet all these years. Yet, China can pressurise - even threaten - the world into ignoring him and steering away from any official contact with Tibet.

Apparently now, European (British) and Canadian firms are mining in Tibet - obviously with the approval of China. Perhaps these companies are environment-friendly and will ensure that Tibet's natural environment is not spoilt by the mining activity. Perhaps these companies being socially responsible are taking steps to ensure that Tibetian people will derive the benefits of such activity. Yet, we are not sure. People have put up protest pages urging these companies to stop mining in Tibet. Who is right and wrong on these issues? There is surely no way to know unless China loosens its stranglehold on the information flowing out of Tibet. Which is not going to happen anytime soon.

Has the world - have we - forgotten Tibet and Burma? Or are we just acknowledging that if the perpetrators are really powerful it is better to steer clear? Or is it that because these victims are adopting peaceful methods that they are easy to forget? Too many questions - perhaps dumb questions - and no easy answers.

Best Regards
Gautam

Nutty predictions

Hi All
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers". That was an IBM prediction in 1943 - which is today counted among the 10 worst predictions ever. Now IBM is at it again - predicting that is and I guess it has bettered its crystal ball since 1943 ...
CIO India reports some of the IBM predictions in its third annual Five by Five list. One of the predictions that got my attention was:
"You will talk to the Web . . . and the Web will talk back." Someday soon you will surf the Internet using just your voice, a development that will make the Web more widely accessible worldwide, particularly for those who cannot read or write.
Interesting not that IBM believes the Web will talk but that it also believes that five years from now, there will still be people - particularly in India - who will not be able to read or write.
Now, I wish this is one prediction we as Indians could prove wrong.
Best Regards
Gotya

Creator of the Kohinoor?

Hi All

I had a fun time last two weeks as I joined a conducted tour of Europe. Travelled through 7 countries in the last 14 days. One of the tourist attractions was the Coster Diamond Factory in Amsterdam.

Its a nice place with lot of informative and sales stuff on diamonds and related jewellery. They seem to be good at their work and one of their claims-to-fame is that many years back Moses Elias Coster was invited by the Queen of England to polish/ re-cut the Kohinoor Diamond - expectedly to add to its fire and beauty. What surprised me is that this seems to be enough for this factory to claim to be "Creators of the Kohinoor" ... you can clearly see this label in the picture alongside which was taken in their factory. They have displayed a replica of the Kohinoor in their shop which is photographed. Zoom in and read the first line below.

Ofcourse here (as in most other western museums which display stolen artifacts) there is no mention that the Kohinoor is part of the looted bounty from Indian heritage. But I will let that point rest as much has been said about this already ...

I found at-least one other reference which went on to say that while the re-cuting work done by Coster on the Kohinoor did not add much to the stone's brilliance, it certainly diminished from its historic value. So I wonder whether Coster would accept this graciously and re-phrase that "Creator" to "Destroyer" or at-least "Damager" ...

Best Regards

Landmines in Africa

Hi All

Today on LinkedIn one particular message drew my attention. Apparently it was some online competition asking you to enter your email ID and some details and you stand to gain some free holiday stuff. Now usually I am quite sceptical of such things and protect my details online assuming everything "guilty unless proven innocent".

This time also I have not entered the competition and would advice others to use their discretion.

Now that the standard disclaimer is out of the way, the advertisement was on behalf of an organization that apparently have been trying to draw attention to a serious problem threatening our African (and anyone in Africa ofcourse) friends.

Landmines in Africa !

Landmines are disgusting explosive devices hidden underground and can kill or - even worse - seriously cripple those who step on them. Any weapon of war is a cruel device but something that continues long after the war and warriors are gone is - or should be - unacceptable to human society.

Some statistics like

• It is estimated that there are over 100 million landmines on or beneath the surface of this planet.
  
• They kill or maim someone every 20 minutes, usually women and children.

As the Mineseeker website says, this is not a natural disaster or God's act like a Tsunami or a volcano ... this is a man-made disaster.

Thankfully it is heartening to see organizations like the Mineseeker Foundation and "The Sole of Africa" which are making a serious effort to save Africa from this horror. They are being supported by some eminent people across the world - like the Nelson Mandela and the Queen Noor of Jordan and Brad Pitt.

I suggest my readers take some time to view the websites and if you still want the competition link - it is at

Best regards

Gautam

Guru Pournima

Hi All
Sunday, July 29, 2007 is the auspicious date of Guru-Pournima. While for a disciple, every date has the same importance in terms of regards and respects for his/ her Guru or teacher, Guru-Pournima has a particular significance as it signifies the relationship of love and care between the teacher and disciple.

The Hindu culture and religions accord the highest place of worship to the Guru with the following Shloka.

Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devoh Maheshwarah,

Gurur Sakshat Parabrahma. Tasmay Shri Guruveh namah !!!

This date has significance for all - whether the Sanyasis who having left the material world seek the ultimate knowledge to free themselves or the knowledge-workers like myself who seek to live and prosper in this material world -- for what is this knowledge, if not the blessings of all our Gurus who have guided us throughout our student and professional life.

As I thank all the kind teachers who from time to time guided me on the right path, I remember and seek blessings of the One Supreme Guru - Sadguru Shri Saibaba of Shirdi - who has always guided me through all moments of my life and whose mercy and kind grace I seek beyond anything else.





For the disciples of Shri Saibaba, the festival of Guru-Pournima is indeed the most significant one as it is said that this is the only festival which Baba himself asked his disciples to celebrate ...

On Sunday, please join me in seeking the blessings of Shri Saibaba, to remember our Gurus with love and respect and to pray for peace and well-being of all ...



Best Regards

Gautam

People -- Assets or Stakeholders?

Someone asked an interesting question today on LinkedIN. It went something like "Does anyone really believe that people are the most important assets for an organization?"

It reminds me that one of the first principles of COBIT is that IT Resources includes "people" (along with "applications", "information" and "infrastructure"). So also other literature and best practice guidance classifies people as an important IT or business assets.

So far, so good. :-)

I find it a bit difficult to agree to people being classified as assets or resources along with infrastructure, applications etc.

In our view of assets, we expect them to add value to the business or work at hand without asking any questions! I mean one doesn't have to seek a "buy-in" from an application to get it to work -- sometimes 24 hours a day without asking for any "return" of any sort. Imagine doing that with any person anywhere.

Just to stretch it a bit more, one needs preventive maintenance on most physical assets to ensure the quality and productivity of the assets. The nearest to this with "people" assets is the training and improvement programs that need to be conducted. In this scenario, the maintenance program acts on the asset which can be termed as a passive recipient. Contrast this with training programs where the best trainer cannot achieve much if the attendees are not receptive and motivated. Without adequate participation by the "human asset", ensuring quality and productivity is not achieved.

IMO, people should not be viewed as "assets" but rather as "stake-holders". Only that view will incorporate the fact that people do things with an objective and expect their efforts to be met with due returns.

Whether the returns are monetary or otherwise and what means there would be to ensure motivation are different stories. Let us at least accept that people are much more than just "assets" or "resources".

Have a good day and thanks for spending some time with me.

Gautam