Captive Adaptations

Chicago, I will remember it forever. Why ? Below is the temperature yesterday. It was close to the lowest recorded EVER, - 31 C.

I kept asking myself, and wondered non-stop why on earth people endure this ? Today I got my answer. To experience even more bone chill !

Yes, you are reading it right. It feels like -35 C. To appreciate this weather, I should only be reborn like a penguin. On second thoughts, I think this weather would intimidate even penguins !

The topic I want to write about today encompasses many spheres of thought. Lets think about Planning and Execution for a moment. How many times have we succeeded, in executing all the good ideas or plans we come across in our daily lives, I think the problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do, but the absence of doing it. Everybody’s alibi, Lack of time. Well, I wrote about it on this blog here.
However, some of the Elementary questions I still need to get answers for are listed below.

• Is Execution just about setting clear goals and priorities ?
• Is it about the “Power Questions” and following through ?
• Is it about the “Personal Product” and Capability ?
• Is it about the “Responsibility” and Rewards ?
• Is it about Introspecting everyday, learning & making those small changes ?

It might be a combination of all of the above, but maybe deliberating here in a much smaller scope might give us some answers. Lets focus our topic on one gap which we so often encounter, finding the right resources for any initiative. The plan is always there, to get the best candidates who will embark on owning the initiative and delivering the goods. But the challenge of finding and retaining good talent can be surmounted only by executing it right.

What does it mean by “executing it right”? To me the challenge of finding and retaining the right people is simple. Go by the attitude of the person, rather than the intelligence or skills of the person. I think gaining the attitudes of tenacity and resilience take a much longer time, than gaining hot skills, but may be that depends on individuals, being a techie I think the skills may be easily acquired.

Is this true in general, however ? How much does Attitude matter over Intelligence or Skills, in matters related to Execution ?

Is it the Team’s Collective Intelligence or the Team’s Collective Attitude that overcomes any gap between Planning and Execution ?

Can attitude be imbibed in people through training, is the attitude of the subordinate truly influenced by the attitude of the leader ?

In short is it all about having a Mighty Heart ?

America is as much a story of deceit, as its a story of genius. Anybody who has paid attention to the innovations and the rise of Corporate America would have realized this. I lived in the Bay Area for almost 6 years, and like all young aspirants, I for one, always believed that a small group of bright engineers can design, build and support an industry. At the same time, I have always been intrigued by the “Creative Marketers” who stole the genius from true innovators to serve their own greed. Experience has hence taught me that “discretion is the better part of valor”.

We all know of the industrial behemoths like GE (General Electric), AT&T (Bell) or the now Thomson, RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

For the uninitiated, in the world of outsourcing SWITCH Hunting for a long time stood for Hunting Offshore Vendors from India. Why ?

S - Satyam, W - Wipro, I - Infosys, T - TCS, C - Cognizant, H - HCL … in effect it was conveniently called SWITCH. And the hunt generally used to start and end with either of these six. The smaller players did not have a strong level playing field, even though the World is Flat, according to highly respected CEOs in the industry.

But now with the debacle of Satyam, S is lost and SWITCH has gone into WITCH hunting, as wikipedia aptly defines its a search for evidence to the root cause of evil often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and legally sanctioned trials. In fact for entities like the World Bank its more of a ITCH than a WITCH, as it blacklisted even Wipro.

Will it take long before WITCH hunting goes back to SWITCH hunting ? Hint, the company that I work for starts with an “S”.

Time and again I have asked myself these questions. Sometimes philosophically, sometimes analytically. There is however one report from Wharton that I read today, that resonates with all the emotions, fears, uncertainties and dilemmas that most of us Non-Returning Indians (NRIs) go through. Its a very special report to me personally as I relocated to Bangalore in 2005 (of course I have learnt to comfortably live under 2 roofs now shuttling between US & India ever so often). Coincidentally, Shoba Narayan also relocated in 2005 to the very same city of Bangalore, so the vivid details are very easy to associate and relate to.

Being a writer, she strikes the emotional chord so well, that I happened to read it all over again. READ IT. This might be the trigger for your true calling !

Dads dialysis started today after doctors confirmed ESRD. He has been a true Humsufer for everybody in our family.

The amount of time he invested in each of us, and the idea of tolerance he inculcated in us, both are priceless. Its little wonder that for the past few weeks, its been gut wrenching, uneasiness. No matter how much I convince myself to get used to this, somethings just hurt !

Few Indians have heard about him, let alone the world. I have been following the articles of Mr. Rajan since he was elected Chief Economist for the IMF, around 2003, the youngest ever I think. In fact my basic understanding of over-leveraging came from an article of Mr. Rajan where he lucidly explained, how most Investment banks have over-leveraged.

His accomplishments and timing speak for itself. He is now credited as one of the first guys to call it right on the issues with the Economy.

From my analysis Mr. Rajan is very similar to Milton Friedman who around the 1960 and 1970 predicted problems with Keynesian Economics. Of course we are now back to square one of adopting Keynesian Economics once again, that’s another story. More similarities between Friedman and Rajan, both have long served the University of Chicago.

Most importantly around Nov 3rd 2008, Mr. Raghuram Rajan was appointed the Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India, by Mr. Manmohan Singh. What is interesting to note is that Mr. Manmohan Singh himself took over the role of Finance Minister from Mr. Chidambaram after the 26/11 attacks.

Was appointment of Mr. Raghuram Rajan by Mr. Manmohan Singh just 3 weeks before a coincidence ? Maybe.

The key thing however is to know that India has some very safe hands steering it through the Great Recession of our times.

Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro

Explained in a minute. If you know Hindi, ignore the subtitles, the voice-over is fantastic.
Not to over-read the intent of the makers of this movie, I liked it because it explains life in all its simplicity, while death is gory.
My name rhymes with “Koli-Unja”, if you understand Kannada, and during my childhood that was the natural taunter from my buddies.