A thought - Travel policies, Greece

I have been following up with the news of the Greek gods melting down owing to the bad financial policies of the nation and hence reduced employment opportunities for the locals. Tough decisions like reducing the pensions, increasing VAT along with administrative reforms had to be taken in the past to let the economy sustain to its current levels. This doesn’t of course augment the huge surplus the government will get if they recover the tax to be paid by the rich locals (who in essence are controlling the economy and hence political that way to take that route as well…). All these led me to think towards what will happen to one of the most picturesque destinations in the world. The implications are high. If not in the euro zone, Greece will be one of the third world nations and high rate of unemployment will surely lead to a lot of corruption and hence the nation will enter a vicious circle.

All said and done, what does it mean to the travelers? Can people still take it for granted to travel around Greece? Will it continue to be safe and care free? May be not unless the government realizes that travel can turn out to be one of their main stream incomes and employment creator. Policies need to be modified accordingly to ensure that the income doesn’t stop there but on a contrary increases. If Greece goes to be categorized as one of the third world countries, the expense to travel to and around Greece will surely come down. Due to the increase in competition, the below implications can be foreseen:

• Rich can exploit the opportunities as they have the power and reach
• For the small players, the market becomes highly competitive with low margins
• With lower margins come lower quality
• With lower quality of travel, the category A travelers reduce
• That will mean lesser income and lower employment and GDP growth

It might turn out to be as bad as I described above. But there are every indications of the scenario turning out to be as above owing to the steps taken by the previous government. Hope there are better policies made by Alexis Tsipras’s team. At towards travel & leisure industry, I think the below should be put in place:

• Categorize the travel and fix a cap and floor for each category
• Associate a government fee (apart from tax) - in turn offer to maintain standards across
• Law & Order needs to be maintained. It is easy to be carried away with other nations investing and hence taking control of the country with lesser investment in defense and education. But it is very myopic a view
• Encourage more entrepreneurs invest in the travel sector with innovative business models. The message here is to go aggressive rather than be submissive about the wrong doings of the past

There is of course more to it. These are just starters which should help them sustain the income and maintain the quality if Greece gets qualified as a third world nation.

Everyone has a Buddha within

Spirituality is experienced irrespective of religion, opinion, sect, region or gender. The experiences in life defines the intensity and frequency of this experience. They say that life should have an aim else you do not have something to look forward for every day. Spirituality teaches you that no aim is worth it. Life is in fact beyond all one achieves. Beyond everything any soul exists for. No desires, end goals - nothing matters at all. The more you learn, the more you earn. Of course there needs to be enough to take you forward towards the end of a physical life. That is what is the struggle for. But once you have all that, there isn't any necessity of a materialistic pleasure.

The association of spirituality is usually done with the mountain ranges. Always wonder the reason behind it. Any journey of spirituality, is arduous with lots of hurdles in between - family, emotions, society, desires and much more. You need to stand tough undeterred even with all of these around. Every day is new. Every day needs to be welcomed with a smile - no matter what. When you know that discovering one self is much more than anything else - beyond the fact of unified theory of physics, that is what triggers you to move ahead towards submission.

Likewise travel is another which lets you go through the learning process of variety and gives you the open mind needed to accept and move on. Not get associated with anything though you like it. Moving on is the only way ahead. Meet, greet and stay happy as long as you travel. Beyond all the materialistic pleasure, travel teaches existence with minimalistic resources.

A few thoughts as an output of high influence of Buddhism off late...

Startup to Enterprise

This was an interesting one-liner which came up as a discussion point with a friend last noon. Both of us were sailing in the same boat of ‘enterprisation’ of a startup. Needless to say, with our hands totally dirtied in all aspects of the startup, we were of course feeling jittery about it. As always we had something in common to share when it came to an experience.

The night was filled with thoughts around how should an effort to move from a startup to an enterprise be. Where should the focus be and where should the effort go in. This is essential more from the perspective of retention of the ones who have put in their heart and soul to let the start up sustain and perform to feed the investors.

Any organization goes though the stages of survival, sustainability, scalability & glorification. In a startup it is more dynamic and the phases appear more often intersecting. But as the organizations mature, the degree of intersection does reduce! This is when the natives of the land feel that they are not contributing. They will not be so stretched; there won’t be any diversity at work & decision making powers will usually be stripped off. This will lead to boredom at work and as an eventuality, a disassociation. This usually coincides with the stage of growth for a startup and the impact will be huge - both psychologically & otherwise.

How do organizations avoid such situations?

Getting back to the old school of thoughts, there needs to a focused effort on the big picture of growth, failing which there will be turbulence in the concept of growth. An organization structure with the right mix of people (may be easier said than done - but this is essential) and an eventual role for the war heroes need to thought through. This will set a role expectation at the time of start and eventually stops them from being carried away due to the glory and wings.

Hire the people who can hire - this aspect of growth is usually missed or outsourced. If undone, the support structure needed for the growth will crumble down and eventually the growth as well. This is a usually neglected aspect of growth which will hurt the entire system in the long-run.

The top has to be visionary - the ones who have slogged their ass out at the initial stages are aggressive. They look forward to work with people who can make their life miserable. The moment a learning curve stops, there is a tendency to move on to the next challenge. Needless to say - without a stable head, the body is non-existent.

Policies need to have a thought process of improvement. Processes and policies are generally perceived to be work impairing. But the requirement of a policy should always be towards the betterment of the people involved. Else, it will backfire - especially if the transformation is from a startup to an enterprise.

The healthy you - an investor’s insight…

Healthcare industry in India is undergoing a transformation. From being a typical doctor-driven model, the entire industry is undergoing a transformation to become an institution which delivers with care. ‘Customer centricity’ is no more just a word of an internal market. It has started branching out in the need-based models as well.

There have been many hospitals which have identified & adopted the need of the hour and paying attention & extra care to the high-paying customers; but they seldom do it for the mid and lower mid strata that avail services. India being 70% at the bottom of the pyramid, word of mouth of a bad service is just a blink of the eye away. The perceived ‘inaccessibility of medical services’ is becoming a distant reality.

This being the scenario, the who focus of the industry has shifted towards delivering seamless services under one roof and hence retain the customers. From a management perspective, this means repeated business and probably an extended business at times where a relative comes over as well. But with every brand getting into being a multi-specialty unit, there is immense pressure on the people involved in the system to do it right.

Till date, the hospitals have been a basic necessity of mankind and hence there are funds allocated in the budget in the name of social welfare allocated to healthcare. The scenario has now changed with private players parking their presence in the sector. Especially in tier 1 cities, the focus on customer centricity has been really high to an extent where MIS parameters have now been defined to calculate ‘conversion’ (typically - how many actually took the procedure with the hospitals and how many went out…).

If we dig deep into it, everyone understands the fact that there is big money involved in the healthcare sector. The brands which have been existent since sometime now are seeking the help of private investors for expansion. The typical ‘Eskimo hunters’ are now creeping into the healthcare sector. This means, they need more means of giving awareness to the otherwise healthy community to indicate preventions. To put it in plain text - ‘we need more footfalls’ is the management motto.

There is a sad side to it as well… It is leading to a lot of ethical issues as the doctors are turning to be Eskimo hunters as they are given targets! Are we trying to cure ailments or create scare? Only time will answer it…

Though the interest of private investors is helping the sector to institutionalize, I feel there needs to be a broader thought of contribution from policies, ethics and professionalism which will help to drive it in the right way. Else, we may end up doing what we did back in the 1960s in the name of industrialization (cut all those bloody trees…)!

Have I done it right…?

The last 6 months, though taxing, has proved to be something which has taught me perceptions - in the Indian market at least. Handling marketing at the ground level always gives an understanding of the pulse of the population around. With this write up I make a humble effort to list down the learning of the past.

It started around half a decade back when I realized my love towards understanding what people think. It started as an interpretation of the muted actions in the next table of a coffee shop and grew as an analysis of the people I am associated with. Though ‘thinking from their shoes’ at times meant experiencing loneliness, it helped build a confidence level about understanding people.

My first professional experiment of trying to sell my photographs in a retail outlet helped me read through the mindset of a retailer. To my luck, it was a Sardar who I was dealing with - the best known breed for being astute businessmen. Though the whole venture started off by passion, running it in the commercial way takes a toll on the creative aspect of it. (Or should I say - ‘it expects you to be more creative!’?). ‘What’s in it for me?’ was a reality which I realized in the hard way.

My next venture with a professor of mine in setting up the marketing & sales function let me implement the ‘What’s in it for me’ factor. But what we really forgot was - are we educating the already aware or trying to solve their problems? The whole effort of 5-6 months, though helped to create a buzz in the known circle, couldn’t create a big impact to help the initiative turn out to be a successful venture. This was the ‘Do I really need it?’ phase of learning for me.

These initiatives helped me gain some experience around the expectations from a marketing role. This helped in my next role for technology marketing. The scope of perception was international with an expectation of maintaining the already established brand positioning. It being a new domain (neither retail nor a product), the expectations were different. It was more of a sale pitch termed as marketing. The learning from the past did make a difference here. The questions / needs got redefined now - ‘is it a life and death situation for me?’

Jump into the healthcare sector meant a lot of ground zero work. Situations demanded me to take up marketing. With the help of a good investment & technical support, was able to answer the above questions to a good extent. Having done it all, there is still a void. There is a never a wide-spread acceptance of the message sent across. A concept of mass appreciation doesn’t exist. This lets me think ‘Have I done it right…?’

Does a ShAky top mean 'Problems'?

Well, this title made me giggle at myself… It definitely isn’t pervert and it definitely isn’t anything related to what you may be thinking about! ;)

Since the time I have decided to move on from IT, it has been a roller coaster ride and work has usually defined / controlled my time. Amidst doing it, a lot of random thoughts come by which affects decision making and which creates an environment of healthy argument. At times, it goes crazy enough to an extent that it becomes hard for me to decide on what exactly is required. Had taken my time off from work off late to introspect on what was happening and am I doing it right?

In a whole startup environment, the situation is usually very random with loads of thoughts coming into the mind of the group of people spear heading it. There will be humongous amount of situations which wouldn’t have been included in the ‘planned’ expansion. But usually one thing will be very clear - the final destination. Without that in mind, there isn’t anything which will take the growth of the organization in a healthy way and in the right direction. This article is my attempt to bring in the nuances any organization may encounter when this so called ‘destination’ is missed / miss communicated.

When the individual / group heading the organization isn’t clear of what they want as an output and which is the market segment they want to play in, it usually starts having ripple effect in all its functions / departments. For the sake of simplicity, let me take you through the core functions any organization will have - Sales & Marketing, HR, Finance and Operations.

Sales & Marketing

Marketing is usually considered as an overhead in the IT industry and usually confused to be a part of the Sales function (at least in a SMB setup). It is usually the other way round in the healthcare industry. That is why I have clubbed them both out here as the end result of it is revenue to the organization.

When the thought process isn’t clear, the investments go hay wire. The expected ROI out of the effort is usually perceived to be zilch. But what people fail to understand is the fact that the communication hasn’t gone right and hence the person executing the whole thing isn’t doing it right. Added to this, if there is a fickle minded boss sitting on the top, one is in for a jolly ride!

Now, the ripple effect for this is enormous!

• The employees don’t feel they have contributed enough as there is no recognition for the effort
• The market may start perceiving the organization as something which one may not want to be positioned as
• The competitors if smart enough will take one for a ride until they have a bloody home run!

HR

The most important thing when the organization is growing is to hire the person who can hire. Without it, the growth story cannot even crawl - forget running. But what one needs to be careful of is the fact that there has to be a structural thought process in mind. Here again, the thought process of the top management has to fizzle down - else, the situation will be screwed up and the recruiters wouldn’t know whom to source. Without the aim, the policies go hay wire and hence one runs a risk of losing the star performers which will be a big impact in a growth path - not worth the risk I suppose…

Finance

Finance as a function is the most powerful according to me for the internal functioning of the organization. Though the others are equally important, without a proper finance structure, writing a single letter in the growth story would be difficult.

One needs to have a mix of people who have the following qualities. It indeed is a killer combination!

• Know all the rules & regulations to the T - but more importantly know the loopholes in the system
• Know the processes & how can they be tweaked to make it comfortable for coworkers
• Understand the business scenario and work closely with the marketing team to understand the market trends
• Data entry - day-in & day-out

Imagine the change in confusion a finance person observing the market trends and MIS will have with a shaky top management. They won’t be able to budget for the next month, they wouldn’t know what will happen in the coming months and they will not be able to promise anything to the board / investment committee. This defines the way any organization is heading towards and this defines the future of the growth story. So, is it shaky enough??? Not yet I guess…

Operations

Managing vendors is the biggest challenge and the grouse of the entire gamut of people involved in any organization revolves around the timelines of the support functions. Though it is more of a back-office job, it is the most interesting piece of work for any management enthusiast.

When it comes to a growth pattern, no involvement from the operations team (assuming one has the right set) will have an impact on vendor relations and reduces the negotiation power. One cannot exploit economies of scale. There is no price discounts one will get and there is no relationship built in the due course.

Having dealt with a shaky top head, for the last 6 months, it definitely is a very uncomfortable situation to be in for any middle management. There is no one person who can take a proper decision. Nobody in the system is sure of any decisions taken and there is no accountability at the top for a decision taken - a perfect recipe for a degraded growth story I suppose!

Get a larger purpose

A day which started with a deja vu when I sat on the bed staring at the ceiling wondering WTH am I doing in life. Is it all worth it at the end of the day? How is it going to impact my future life - is it going have an impact at all?

This lead me to think towards the larger purpose called 'Life'. Wish I could just do what I liked to and have just enough to lead a content life. But then what do I like to do? That to me is the biggest question mark? Would love to just travel round the world for the rest of my life - but without a purpose? Not done! What would I achieve at the end of it? Not something which I would sit on a hammock and rejoice about.

The thoughts then got back to where it was - WTH is the larger purpose? How I wish I had an answer for it and could just get it rolling from the next moment. I should stop thinking about it and get on with it I guess...

Stick to the basics

Creating a jazz has become the need of the hour these days. Every service you take needs an enormous amount of it! The argument is that without jazz people will not know and appreciate and feel the sense of growth of the industry. Might be - but are the people associated with creating this jazz really thinking about the so called side-effects of it? Tried revolving my head around a few of the sectors where it has become evident.

Travel being my prime interest, the images of the recent Kedarnath floods stuck me with despair. The holy place for the Hindu community is now a disaster-hit spot with more than 250 people dead around Kedarnath alone. Let us go more than 100 years back. Were there no cloud bursts then? There might have been - a few which might not have been recorded as well. The main reason for building a temple around the lingam was to protect it and the reason for keeping the pilgrimage so far off and out of access is to make the pious people realize the fact that it is not easy to be where they are and hence they will appreciate the act of being present around Kedarnath and such regions.

By doing this, the general health & the determination of the person visiting such places increase and it is natural for this to happen. With all the modern amenities and the thought process of ‘making the travel conducive and accessible’, the beauty of it is gone! There are associated services of lodges; restaurants etc around to ensure that the travelers are taken care. I am not refuting the requirement of the hour for travel and hence the income to the nation is improving and all that. But then, there probably could have been better ways to implement it rather than losing the beauty of the place and spoiling the natural habitat.

The other area of interest imbibed from my mom being education, I have been a constant observer of the recent trends that are taking place in the sector in India. Technology off late is playing a vital role in pulling in the crowd (to be read as parents). ELearning with digital classrooms are becoming a reality these days. My mom was attending a seminar which spoke about implementation of cloud computing in the schools and colleges to help share the information across without caveats or scalability. This of course brings in the pricing model of pay as much you use. So, a win-win situation is created according to the marketers there.

I have my own doubts about this. The other day, I was seeing a video of one of the greatest innovators in education - Sugata Mishra. He, with his efforts of proving the working of child self-learning has communicated a research idea of self-learning which works everywhere. Unfortunately the mediocre educationists have just taken the ‘self-leaning’ bit of it into consideration thus killing the whole essence of Indian education of giving it a motherly touch. There are only grades now and the kids don’t really need to know stuff to get through with higher grades especially with a proposition of increasing the percentage of multiple choice questions. There are other sets of people who argue the reason for knowing the basics when they are readily available and thus the concentration can be on what is not existing and thus contributing eventually to the innovative community.

That may be one view of seeing it. But without knowing the basics, without going through an arduous effort, the amount of appreciation the kid will have towards learning probably will not be so much and they will tend to make a lot of basic mistakes without a 100% understanding. Technology is no doubt a great enabler for innovation, but I feel that it has to be implemented in a proper sense. There are things which cannot at any point of time replace technology and we cannot create silos out of kids. They will eventually not know what bonding is all about. Educating kids is not all about getting them to the next level. A lot of moral, ethical and social feelings are associated along with the basic sciences; and these cannot be replaced by technology (however advanced it may get).

Innovation, increased level of service and technology are indeed great terminologies - but only till the time they are used constructively. Else, they turn out to be beasts. I can correlate it to the famous saying about processes - ‘A process is supposed to ease the living of the individual going through it; else, screw it!’

The changing designation

I have been observing the change in trend in the 'designation' offered to people around for quite some time now. The trend has changed so much from being a straight forward 'what I do as a job' to 'what am I perceived as', especially in the companies which are big in stature. I have captured a couple of those fancy designations here...

• Associate Vice President - A senior technical designer
• Architect - A senior developer
• Deputy Manager - An entry level manager

The argument which the HR personnel might have for such false impressions will be around motivation levels. Well, look at how the motivation levels will act upon when they search a job outside. Companies which are small & blunt will not even look at such roles... A HR will have an argument of this being a retention strategy. Well, the arguments are endless - aren't they!

On a contrary, there is another trend among the so called startups with a trendy looking designation. A few of them listed below:

• Story teller - CEO
• Eskimo hunter - A sales guy
• Head of creative destruction (HOCD - a derivative of HOD) - Creative head

Well, what can I say for all this?!? The corporate world has truly come a long way!

An event called death...

This has been hovering around my head since a while now. The fact that I wasn't around during my sister's death has stayed back I guess; with glimpses of my imagination of the moment wandering among the neural networks inside the skull. Today was one such day... The news of BGS passing away, triggered a few muscles at the top.

Always wonder what happens after death. Remember having endless conversations with a few of my friends around the existence and non-existence of an entity called 'Soul'. They say that a well defined version can be referred in Garuda Purana, to which I got introduced to, through the Tamil movie Anniyan. It apparently is a bad omen to read Garuda Purana while you are alive! It is best read during the rituals of death. It is said to show the path beyond death according to the Hindu belief.

More importantly, the event of death leaves behind a humongous amount of misery for the ones left behind. Given the fact that the person cannot return, the focus of the close ones around should be towards living through the loss and moving on. That probably is why a 13 day post-death ritual is imposed among the Hindus - so that a good lot of relatives will be around to help out...

On a contrary, there exists an entire community who live on the dead bodies - yes, the Aghoris. The event of death for them is usually filled with hope of food and joy of an opportunity to perform the rituals. Its a little sad, but a coin always has two sides... 

Well, I agree with you - This article is a little confused - more like the event itself! Just penned down a few stuff running through my mind.

Education - A thought...

Education - An act of making a nation better; an attempt to build a nation for the future; a sincere and honest effort to achieve the vision of a nation!

As any other turf, even education in India has evolved over the years. From Gurukuls to foreign-influenced methodologies to the modern day education system - India has seen it all. The kids getting associated with the whole system have grown to be smarter as ever. The whole education system, policies, investment & traction around it has evolved to add more value to the people associated with it and has matured to be result oriented. The increased concentration on the rural part of India which is close to 70% of the nation has helped the nation grow in a holistic manner.

Even though there has been a tremendous improvement in the thought process and the efforts involved in building the system, even today there are a lot of gaps in the system which is hampering the speed at which these changes are being implemented. This article aims at communicating honest plans which can be practically implemented rather than saying the same old politically correct statements. Please note that the political angle is not covered in the article. It is a pure set of ideas which needs to be imbibed in the system.

The basic problems which the current education system is facing can be categorized as below:

• Moral values diminishing as an output from the system
• With the intake to the system being smarter every year, there is a lack of smarter people who can guide the young blood
• Even though there is a proper reach to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP - Villages) of the nation, the constraints of the kid having to prove his knowledge via ‘marks’ is disorienting the kids from the practicality of ‘having to exist’ in this world
• Education institutions are becoming money making organizations rather than concentrating on implementing ideas which will strike a balance become making money and spreading the right knowledge among the right set of people

Among the many other problems which exist in making the system succeed in its ultimate goal of making India a better place to live, the ones above are highlighted as these parameters contribute most to the vision of the system.

Moral values:

With the emergence of the modern day education, the importance to result orientation has increased. It sure is a very good thing to be implemented as the people who execute it on the ground will be driven to succeed in the goal. But, the implication of this is that the children are losing their moral values. There are more reports of social disruption by children these days. The basic ingredient of development of the mind of a child to live, to respect, to have common sense, patience etc is being missed in the rat race of achieving the results.

The moral values should be imbibed in a progressive manner. The first step is for the teacher to gain respect from kids. The way he presents himself, the way he talks, handles queries, situations and even the way he dresses have an impact on the image on the teacher on the kids. This should be set right at the first place. Kids should be involved in activities which will uplift the society & it’s thought process apart from the regular curriculum. They need to be made to experience the reality on the ground rather than showcasing the rosy A/C classrooms. The ancient stories of the mythological heroes are told to the kids but they don’t make sense in the minds of these innocents. The implications, morals and adaption need to be emphasized instead of it being told just as another story!

Get Smarter:

Knowledge is the basic reason why the kids these days do not respect the teachers when compared to the earlier days. With the introduction of internet in the ecosystem, the accessibility of information is no more a problem. Every kid knows what is happening around and has access to all the latest happenings around. The teacher needs to be more updated than a kid. Let me give you a simple example - A kid reads n update about a satellite launch. If the teacher just tells about the information or even skips that information, he is not doing any good in gaining trust & respect from the student community. He has to add value to that information. He needs to explain the reason behind the launch, the complexities involved, the science involved and all the other angles. This information is not readily available for a 10 year old kid.

The teacher should get acquainted with the latest trends and technologies in the market which can make a difference to the life of a student. There may be a counter argument for this that there will be an immense amount of support required from the management to do this and they do not have funds for this year etc. They will need to be pushed via the policies & policing of the government.

Does ‘marks’ really matter?

This is a classic problem of the education system which each one of us has faced and probably the most debated topic as well. We don’t get a good score and hence parent pressure, peer pressure, unhealthy habits and what not! Is the score of a kid a representation of his knowledge? Does it really matter? We thought about all these and came up with a grade based system for evaluation. But how is it working on the ground?

The basic problem here is the drive to learn. As teachers, the basic responsibility / target should be to inculcate the habit of learning in students and not aim at better score / grade. This is the basic flaw in the system. Does it mean that the teachers shouldn’t be result oriented? - Definitely not! They need to be - but just that the expectations need to be re-looked at. If the habit of learning is there, marks & grades really doesn’t matter for the kid to grow in the industry sector later during his career.

How do we inculcate this habit? It isn’t magic right? The approach must be more of activity based teaching rather than it being theoretical & amidst the four walls called ‘classroom’. Their creativity needs to be appreciated and encouraged; there should be no caps to the thoughts. Teachers should accept & appreciate & encourage these thoughts. A few thoughts which have a real value associated can be looked at being funded in a big way - look at negotiating with the education department or raising funds for it and implement it as a project. This will give the student a whole new outlook and perspective.

Money matters…

At the end of the day, institutes can’t run on ideals. Let us get practical! A management requires fund. All the above said activities come at a cost. So, the biggest question here is - can a middle man afford it? Probably not… In which case, not all the kids are provided with an equal level of education. There are a couple of ways in which this can be implemented:

• The government can provide subsidies to the various schools who cannot afford it. As we have the definition of a BoP to issue a ration card, we can have a definition for a middle-man who can avail this subsidy in educating his children.
• Policies by the government to make a common level of schooling till class 5. Every kid need to undergo a class apart from the normal schooling. Have a common area in a locality which can act as an arena for schools around to come together and learn. This common area need to be facilitated with the models much needed for experimenting.
• Government can look at appointing education consultants to visit all the schools. The job of these guys is to induce the fire of innovation in the kids & provide them a platform to perform.

These are a few steps which need to be made a part of the expectations from any school which registers for approval. The concerned policies need to be amended & well thought policies need to be introduced. The teachers should be motivated to deliver better. Orientation workshops, quarterly review, audits & revisions need to be made an essential part of the routine activities. The bottom line is, this can be achieved only through a collaborative effort of the society, educationists and the government. It is definitely not right to just blame the government because it can’t speak out. The society should realize that education is not a status symbol! The educationists should realize that they are the catalysts at the grass route level...

Sipping away life…

It has been so bloody long... I think we should catch-up guys! A usual conversation between buddies who have missed each other… The first thought of a place which comes to the mind is a CCD, Cuppa, Caffé Pascucci where people can hang out for however long they want to. ‘A lot can happen over a coffee’ & ‘Life, refreshed’ has become a very commonly discussed taglines these days…

Since the introduction of Café Coffee Day (CCD), the definition of hang-outs has changed. The business model of a coffee outlet has been well discussed & exploited these days. Bangalore never thought of paying 50 odd bucks for a simple cup of coffee which otherwise would cost less a tenth of the amount. But with the introduction of CCD, a whole new era of conversations were triggered. The Mango man who initially perceived the outlets to be for the rich and the show-offs started sneaking into the habitat of the polished brews and here you go - a large bunch of customer base was developed in a jiffy!

With the rich response, there of course will be motivation for the players to go an extra mile and innovate. The result was something really nice which the city lacked. A whole new set of flavors; newer players; Indianised customer focus and what not! The most important thing is that the competition did not get into a price war - though it looked like at the beginning of the introduction of the competitors. But with the onset of exclusiveness and brand association, the individual players did gain the market share which they deserved. The market now is all the more matured and ever innovative! Perhaps the only player who lost out in this was Barista who was not able to cope up with the market pressures. Customer retention became a huge problem for him as CCD just grew bigger and better each day!

Apart from the generic business model of a coffee shop, some chairs & tables and something to munch, there are a few more which specialize in a beverage. ‘My Tea House’ in the southern part of Bangalore is one such place which is exclusive for tea. Likewise is ‘Infinitea’ around Central Bangalore. There also exist the older ones - ‘Coffee House’ is a classic around the central part… A few of them have emerged out of the concept of being a typical hang-out spot. There is this Cuppa around southern Bangalore which has an open air projector where corporate can hang-out and convert boring presentations to lively hang-outs! For innovations and ideas, sky isn’t the limit!!

Well, this write up isn’t about the business models around the coffee shop market of Namma BengaLuru. But its more to do with the emergence of the whole new era. A new world which is chilled out filled with energy, enthusiasm, hospitality & freshness - just by associating itself with the basic beverage - Coffee & some tea!

Here I sit in one such open air coffee house around JP Nagar (south Bangalore) wondering what really has attached me to these coffee shops over the years. No, it surely isn’t the brand; it isn’t the coffee / tea I get here as I found a similar association with the coffee shops around the European region as well. Then what else is it? - The noise, people around, chilled-out environment, freedom, freshness … ???

These coffee shops have been a place where my mind thinks and inks. Amidst all the noise around; movement of people, honking of the traffic, activities on the large wide screen idiot box - I still can sit and think. Imagine, get crazy with ideas. The whole setup makes me get out of the normal way of thinking and lets me be imaginative. I don’t go to put forth the classic question - ‘Why?’ I just do it (Guess Nike can’t sue me here… :))… At times bump on to known faces; converse with unknown faces; wonder staring at strange faces; Observe different expressions; Predict actions; More importantly smile! :). Guess that’s what it really boils down to… It just lets me be myself and gives me the freedom to express it in the way I want without any expectations… Sounds familiar isn’t it (Especially if have been in a relationship with a lady ever in your life :D).

Conversations

Coffees are the best way to start a conversation around. The aroma, the refreshing feelings are things which are common among people who come over. The conversations usually take the route of the ‘horrible Bangalore traffic’, ‘political mismanagement’ blah blah… But also brings in a whole new perspective to the entire jazz around these and minds start talking. At times you find a connect with people whom you converse with. Once on my way to the Eastern Europe, bumped on to an old fellow who had travelled around the world working in various places across the globe (sounds like a really cool job to me!!). The visit was rather unplanned - this conversation helped me plan it all (though I almost missed my flight because of the conversation :)) … never could I have imagined such a stuff! Conversations in Koshy’s led me to meet a really interesting person - Ravi Lobo who is into making documentary movies… In that phase of life where I was really into knowing about the existence of communities like Aghoras, it was something which gave me goose bumps!

The Art of Guessing

My favorite pass time is to look at people who are sitting distant apart within their groups and guess what will be their next action! Well, I aint eve teasing or intruding here. It is just a fun element when you are sitting along in a coffee shop trying to kill sometime. Instead of getting bored, it always is a better option to do this :). The conversations build in your mind, you figure out that you are an innovative person, you can draw inferences on the actions, you can build stories, you can imagine and sky is the limit here! Trust me, if not for anything, I bet you will have a smile on your face after this (like the one you have now! :))

The blankness

At times the mind just doesn’t want to think. Fair enough! It after all needs some rest as well… Open air hang-outs are the best place to be! Stare at the stars on a clear night; enjoy the loud music; observe people and their actions and more importantly fill your tummy with something light and refreshing!

Well well, the story never ends... Where else do you find such variety which will not go over-bound with what fills into your pocket? They say that change is inevitable. Trend is something which has to change to give a respite to the otherwise monochrome outlook. This change has of course added more spice in my life. The moment I get bored of the menu at a place, I find it getting changed... What more do you need :). I sit here sipping away with a mastermind called Life... in the way it matters! A business model which has changed the outlook of life and the experience around existence...

Hush, Hush - Do you know?

What happened mate? How did it happen? Oh, is that so... Why do you think it happened? Don't you think the reason might have been something else? Anyway, how will it affect me now? Will I loose my job? Will I need to undergo a situation where I will need to counter downsizing? What wrong did I do? Why am I facing such a situation? ... Thoughts thoughts and more thoughts! Irrelevant, irrational, random - but valid!

Dealing with situations of rumor is very tricky. More so, for large organisations. The butterfly effect has a huge impact in the flow of information across the various ears in the organisation. The whole of last night my thoughts were wandering around the ways to handle such situations. It boiled down to - Is being frank and open about the situation an answer to this? Does it give the right message to the individuals without maturity? Will they not start assuming more and eventually take hasty decisions?

Being frank about the situation definitely helps. Just that there needs to be a measurement of frankness. At the business level there may be a lot of decisions which need not be made visible to the team members as it will definitely not make a difference to them. But I feel that the reason behind the decision affecting the people should be associated in our communication of decision to the people across various levels to ensure that the right information is spread to them and they are not bogged down by unnecessary stress. Give them the bigger picture of what things are and ask questions to them which will invoke thoughts in their mind - given a similar situation how would they have handled it if they owned the organisation... things of that sort...

Things do not end here. At the end of the day they will still have the basic question of job security in their minds. It is always better that you as a manager tell out the questions which they may have thought of upfront rather than they coming out with such questions. This always increases the confidence level of the employees as you would showcase the thought process you have in mind and that it is positive and there is a ray of hope. Now the real big question - What if the news if really bad? Do I tell the people directly or do I need to beat around the bush? Another tricky situation - Given an opportunity to do it - I wouldn't beat around the bush giving a false hope. Tell them directly in a way they can accept it - motivate them by giving the perception of it not being the end of the world. Well, it really is not the end of the world folks! We have new challenges and new mornings everyday ...

All you are helping by doing this is - avoiding unnecessary rumors. Lets be frank - will the news not spread from one ear to the other? It is a general human tendency to tell things which are not supposed to be told. No, the industry isn't so matured yet! We have immaturity from the top layer to the bottom most layer... That is the sad state of IT these days...

So, delivering the bad news - be straight forward, practical, give confidence and hope if you have; if you don't have hope, be straight forward again. It seriously doesn't hurt any individual if it is told in the way it has to be told. It is all about understanding the pulse of the group and responding to it...

Have fun while you do it...

It was an odd day today. Missed attending a close friend's wedding - thanks to the insane weather at Rajastan around this time of the year. Decided to attend TEDx Bangalore instead... Disappointed again as it turned out to be a live streaming of a global event.

Anyway this led me to have a session of jogging after quite sometime. A relaxation in the park after the jog and I sat down observing the kids playing nearby. Kids have always been an interesting mode of observation for me. The amount of need, urge, innocence, inquisitiveness and the resultant joy is immense... There was an old fellow teaching his grandson to count from 1-10 in various languages while he was playing on a swing. Every time the count reached 10, the kid used to be filled with joy and look forward for the next series. This made me think... Can we ever create such an environment at work / academia? Can we have so much passion and fun associated with learning that pride is associated with it?

In the due course of 'growing up', humans usually learn a lot of Dos and Don'ts associated with every activity they perform. These rules of Dos and Don'ts however is associated with the kind of environment they grow up in; the kind of situations they encounter in life. The amount of influence each event in life has on a person's mind generally decides who he turns out as. So, is it just innocence that makes the community of kids enjoy whatever they do? Probably not... It is a combination of many things...

If you think about it and consider all the parameters that influence this thought process, the whole question of passion and fun getting associated revolves around the attitude of an individual. As a person who will groom people, should the maximum time be spent on getting the right attitude in the individual? How does a change in attitude affect the association of a person with his work? Before we do that, is it all that easy to change the attitude of a 'grown-up'? :)

The answers to these questions differs from person to person based on the level of experience, exposure and maturity. For now, from my perspective all I would say is - Yes! A change in attitude can be brought. It takes time, requires effort to customize it, requires a lot of patience and needs to under-go an act of 'getting screwed at the grass root level' ...

Anyway... getting back - Can we create such an environment at work? I think we sure can... All it requires is energy, creativity, right attitude, inquisitiveness, maturity and an open mind. Well, deadly and a rare combination for sure... But where can we find such a combination at all levels of a growing economy? Its humanely not practical. All we require is a top layer which ooze out this combination. Style of leadership differs for sure... but however it is, all we require is a proper mechanism of grooming around the behavioral parameters which should help this to be percolated till the ground level... This will mean that as an organization, there will be attrition, weeding exercises etc... To counter this a proper recruitment team who have the same intent should help build the organization. So basically, a holistic approach towards building an organization from all the associated support functions and we should be there ... Difficult; but achievable.

Client Server

The idea bulb switches on in weird places at times... Today was one such day! 7:50AM when I was taking bath and out of nowhere this concept of client-server architecture sat in my mind. Nothing technical... but just the term came in and I started thinking; correlating the concepts of management and technology (of course was taking bath in parallel :D ...)

In a classical Client–server model, the client is the requestor and the server is the service provider. The same thing applies to a typical service design model. The clients are the ones with requirements and the servers act as knowledge / analytics base and service the request.

At the management level, there are innumerable number of parameters which contribute to design thinking. In the due course of dealing with all these parameters one gets lost in the thought that the client is the boss (more widely used as 'Customer is the King'). Really? What if the server (service provider) goes down? Will it not disrupt the client? :) ... But this isn't the way it works in the technology front. You have counter strategies which are much easy to deal with and feasible to work out. This lead to conceptualising this (w)hole thought into a new addition to the list of oxymorons. The first thought which came into my mind was whether these concepts qualify to be a pair of oxymoron. Yes, a pair of it - Client-Server wrapped under Technology and Management concepts. So mathematically speaking a second degree oxymoron...

The Bangalore traffic then let me have a different perception though :). Is it really the case?? Are there any similarities (a 180 deg phase shift... :P) between the conepts in technology and management? Hmm... In a technical arena, what happens when a server goes down? A reboot? Replacement? Revamp? ... many ways to counter it... So basically, a backup strategy is planned. What happens in a management arena? What if a service provider brings the shutters down? Will it be an end to the client operations? Not really, a service doesn't shut down over night. There will be a phase of transition and handover where the incumbent is paid to work. It may be no loss no gain scenario for the incumbent but this means that a backup strategy exists. Of course there are other parameters of legal, ethical & blah associated to make the situation more complex...

So what have I arrived at as I walk in to office in the morning?? A confused state of mind? A don't care attitude for the day? A 'What the hell!' feeling? ... Well... a happy state that I atleast was able to continue the thought that originated early in the morning and have a logical conclusion. They aren't oxymorons after all. They are similar concepts dealt under different situations at different levels of complexity...

Randomness is good...

'Randomness is fun dad! It makes you deal with situations as and how they come... You don't need to actually plan stuff but at the same time you gotta make sure that things work in the right way when they come up. The positive side of this is that the person dealing with it is avoiding himself from unnecessary worries of a "PLAN" not working and the risks being mitigated!'

Well, I know ... a heavy conversation between a dad and his son... But this was the way my day ended! A lovely laughter after that and my dad was all in the mood to switch the idiot box ON for the series of his daily soap operas... I came back to my mode of dreaming... Is it really true that randomness creates a situation where you don't need to plan? Doesn't it create more and more chaos? Doesn't it create imbalance, anxiety and thus higher blood pressure? :)

If I think of it now, I can link it to the concept of creative chaos which I am right now concentrating on ... How can we build something around randomness to reduce the chaos? Do we ever need to reduce the chaos BTW? What is the problem with having such a chaotic environment? Is it not condusive for problem resolution? Is it not fostering creativity any more? Is it something which leads to an increased level of confusion? ...

Randomness comes with a beautiful gift of expectation of increased level of smartness from a person dealing with it. Yes, it is a blessing in disguise! I have been observing this at work and trying to implement it as much as I can... Do not actually plan things considering all the factors in place... Let a few factors come and influence your plan as and when they appear. This fills the concept of a plan with excitement... An unexpected behavior adds on the much required (rather pretty much missed these days...) surprise element in the implementation of a plan. If these externals factors stop influencing, the involvement of people will start reducing as they will not be motivated enough to just become 'implementors'. They will not learn the hard way... They will not be groomed enough to take up the task of planning when it is really required for them to scale up... So, Randomness is good! :)

The Travel experience

More than an year back, my urge to travel beyond India increased and to my luck, was able to put myslef into a job in the UK which meant an entry into another culturally diverse continent - Europe!! After a good 7 trips old, here I am summarizing the diverty of thoughts I went through during my 6 odd months of travel alone (not a continuos one though...)

The first step towards a travel is the urge to travel. Even though the inquisitiveness of a homo sapien is natural when it comes to travel, for a few it may not be so very obvious. I discovered myself to be somewhere in between these categories of people. Though it was an immense urge to explore while travelling around the UK, I went through a phase of draught where I just wanted to stay back at home; do nothing; stare at immobile objects and stay blank... Sounds a little depressing but yeah! There you are - facts are facts! This lead me to take a break in between my travels to UK and the Schengen nations... A good break of a couple of months in between and I was on the roads again. A draught followed a series of trips again... That is when I realised the importance of chilling out while travelling. It helps you not only to take a break but also to appreciate the rich cultural diversity around! The more time you have to wonder, the more will you discover! - Yes, it is true while travelling!!

'Every travel needs to have a plan in place'! Nah...! The best travels I have had are the ones which are not planned! All I knew is the place I was travelling to and at times the place where I was staying. Having spent many nights at the airports and railway stations made me realise the fun of doing so. The endless conversations you get into with strangers while at airports, hostels and railway stations are always cherishing. A few end up being real good friends and a few remain strangers... Dealing with these uncertain situations makes you realise the importance of randomness in life and the amount of happiness it provides. Of course, no doubt that the planned trips also are filled with people whom you will cherish for a long time as long as you will cherish the place itself. But there is un imaginable fun in the way randomness can fill your happiness. The way you get lost in an unknown city, unknown language with strange people around; not knowing whether to trust them or not is fun by itself for sure!

Food and drinks can never be disassociated with you as an individual if you are travelling or not! But with a travel, the miscellany of the same increases. There is an interesting observation which I went through during my travels. The flavours in the food and drinks of a region has a direct correlation with the mood of the people in that particular region! The paelladors of spain does reflect the loudness amongst the Spaniards; the kick you get in a small sip of an authentic french wine does reflect rh passion of the French; the rawness of a mixture of Brandy and Caffiene reflects the aura of love prevailing in Praha; The coffee on the marbles reflects the exuberance of the Austrians! It is a similar trend across the globe. Having lived in India for over 25 years, this definitely reflects the trend out there.

Regional diversity and change in culture will definitely not affect the basic thought process of a human being. Having lived with strangers, moved along with them for quite a while, one fact is very clear in my mind. Be good to people and they will be good to you! No matter who they are... Where they come from...

The missing link

My mind has been going through a lot of unrelated thoughts since a week or two now. And today was the day when music helped me figure out the missing link between those thoughts... Thanks to this new fusion music series of Dewarists!

A week back, I read an article on the three traits of an individual which will 'qualify' him to be fired from an innovative setup which led to a very healthy discussion with an old friend. The same day, other duties were calling me - I then moved on to discuss some marketing strategies with a friend being a pessimistic devil's advocate! ... Thoughts around concepts continued over the week and carried over to the next. Came across this really wonderful series of Dewaristis in the morning today. Strings of music were just humming in my ears all day long. Once at home, followed the entire series and experienced the whole process of creation of fusion music... Was amazing!

'Why am I saying all this and why are you reading all this and what does it all have to do with the title of this article? FO man...!' should have been your natural reaction at this moment of time...! :) But hey! Hang on! I have just started off... Am sure you are gonna enjoy the rest of the writeup!

Well... there was one thing in common what I observed across all these activities over the last 2 weeks. PASSION. Yes! That is the magical word connecting all of it. If you happened to click on the hyperlink for the article above, it reflects how impassionate people can create an immatured environment and thus impaire innovation! If the team is driven by the passion of the end result, money, time and any other parameter in life doesn't really matter!

I literally am bugged of the kind of work I am doing right now; there isn't anything which can drive me crazy out there at work. But when I started discussing things with another old friend of mine around the marketing strategies required, customer perceptions blah blah; I felt like I have got my life back on track! I ended up my day with goose bumps all over... thoughts in my mind which could prevail for the next few days... ideas, creativity and what not!

Then came the game changer... Yes! The dewarists ... An amazing series with an astounding display of passion about music. The journey towards achievement, the love for passion, the struggle to get to where they are today... All they knew is that they liked music and they wanted to play music. They were bloody good at it for sure. Else they wouldn't have come this far.

I am glad that I am starting my weekend on a high... High on thoughts, high on energy and hope its gonna be a fun ride for the next two days...!

Managing a change

When the whole country is behind a 74 year old man having an honest intension of eradicating corruption from an emerging economy, I was busy scheduling my trips around EU. The next time I spoke to my parents back in India, they were mentioning about the anti-corruption fire burning in India. Well, this blog is definitely not about the same issue and ‘my perspectives’ to it!

I thought it will be better for me to write about something which I have experienced over the past year at workplace and leave it to the reader’s imagination to link it up with the situations around rather than writing an entire booklet about the hottest topic around the world! I have been a Change Analyst since the last December where I am responsible to change the perceptions of people to adapt to a process oriented set up. Sounds easy? Yeah… but difficult on the ground! It is about changing the way of working for people who have seen things working without processes. It is about changing the thought process and turn around the way in which things have been working!

It was an exciting start early this year. The whole community of IT users came back to work after their Christmas of 2010 and what they see back at work? No more the same control, process, people to work with, etc. So, on a whole, a cultural shock to the way of working from what they saw before going home for Christmas! Not that they did not know about the change; but as a universal fact, things start affecting only when you start realizing it and relating yourself to it. As expected, there were agitations, unhappiness and an overall negative environment around.

As a department, IT came up with shit loads of documents and bombarded them on the business community. Acceptable? NO! Not at all! It was termed ‘being bureaucratic’ by the community! All they needed was people to hand hold them through the change. Having realised that, we went into a mode of conversation with them. All the agreements which were initially made during the time of design of this migration phase started to look void. There was a phase where the business community was literally shouting at the top of their voices against our actions!

Having seen the (over) reactions, we changed our approach of managing the change. We started speaking their language. Treated them as a child who understands the same thing said in a way he would expect. There we saw a connect! But, in the due course of this change, there were a lot of people who were very much against the process and decided to move on. Was it bad? Well, all I would say is that, I would have been a lot more happy if they had stayed for a few more months! The joy would have been their’s.

The movement of these old guys came as a blessing in disguise for we at IT. There came a fresh set of individuals with whom we could establish a better thought process and a better frequency resonance! In between all this, there was a Change catalyst among the business community who always took the pain under the wrong part of his body but stuck on to the new way of doing things. Having noticed all this over a couple of months, we opened up. Wide open to ideas; shifted from a mode of ‘We want this to happen in this way’ to ‘let us discuss and decide what is the best workable solution amongst the both of us and create a win-win platform’. There was the turn-around which we waited for a good 3-4 months! What I see today after a good 8 months spent on doing things at the ground level is a healthy environment which has so much agility and fun!

Having said that, I questioned myself - should we have been an open book from Day 1? I don’t think so! The situation has to be tackled exactly like moulding a child. The situation wouldn’t have been smooth after say 6 months if we had been an open book since Day 1. If your question is why, here goes the explanation. What will a child do when you don’t give him a boundary? Unknowingly he will get into a lot of troubles. There has to be a care taker initially telling the dos and don’ts. After that phase, give them a little bit of freedom and let them mould, learn on the ground, experience etc. A similar situation here…

Now, do you want to compare this with the situation around the nation? I shall leave it to you :)