Of tears n travel..

2 days back, my friend from my previous company, called me up and told that he had finally received the UK visa, and he would be travelling next week. He asked to me to accompany me for shopping, as he was not familiar with the stuff to carry and other overseas travel  nuances. I met him on the next evening and took him for some shoes, and casuals shopping (though I, myself hardly shop).

During dinner, he shared how his parents almost instantly had tears in their eyes, when they heard that he was going abroad. Apparently, he was the first person to go abroad in this whole family. His father being a police head-constable, and mother being a house-wife, I could realize the hardship they would have gone though. With the death of other two children, there couldn’t have been better news  for those parents. Isn't it amazing that there is so much happiness in every thing, it is just relative to what you have and what you aspire to have?

Lets stop being emotional, for sometime.  Now what is so special in my friend, that he is travelling abroad? What is his achievement that he is going abroad? Is he really worth all these comforts and travel? These questions were continuously ringing in my head, all through the night.

Eventually, if we go few decades back to our parent's generation, foreign travel was primarily considered for esoteric people, and for a handful of wealthy guys. But today, foreign travel has been eased out so much, that almost anyone and every one in IT industry goes out.  That’s the magic which this industry has created. It made a common man, an extraordinary one.  This is probably, the biggest contribution, which IT industry has provided to our Indian community.

Today, I also found that only 3% of the world's outsourcing comes to Indian players. I cant imagine the impact, if outsourcing to Indian players increases by even 1 more percent. Not far away, that we would not be exporting HR, but importing them.. !!!

Of Thank you's and Sorry's

If there is one significant observation that I need to make in my MBA is this - The number of times I might have told Thank you and Sorry would exceed more than what I would have uttered those pre-MBA. I haven't been so comfortable in uttering these words as frequently as people usually do.

Recently, I had been to Davangere, a small but considerably developed town in the central part of Karnataka. There, I got an opportunity to meet this watchman who was taking care of our car for almost a fortnight . He might be around 70 yrs of age. I was so impressed by the way he had covered the car and the way he had cared for that vehicle ( I am sure, if it was Bangalore - people would even smell, unless u motivate them with money). After removing the car from the garage, I stopped so that I could pay him some money for taking care - he came running to me and I said Tumba Thanks (Thanks a lot). I pulled out my purse to give him some cash, instantly, he joined his hands together, and said - he took care of the car, not because he would get some money, but for the respect he had for my dad. I was literally taken aback by this incidence.  All through my journey from Davangere to Bangalore, I have been thinking, that something different happened here. I later realized that we both had mutually thanked each other.

Immediately I realized what MBA had done to me - I have been used to saying these works more often than not.  I am not sure, if I need to be happy for that. I have known people in MBA, who utter these words so casually, that they hardly end their conversations without one of these. I also realize that these  developments have been based on the strong influences by the western culture - Nothing wrong unless you are truthful to what you say.

When we say thank you, it means - that I am grateful for whatever you have done, and I would make a honest attempt to respect you for that. When we say sorry, it means - that it actually pains me that I have done this to you, and I promise I would make a sincere attempt not to repeat it.

How many of us have felt pain, when we stamp other's foot??

Good Night!!

Placement Beacons…

Note: This post is dedicated to all my friends of GMBA, who are still in quest for job.

One great man said - "History is written by the winning side".  I do believe that. 

The reason I am writing this primarily because of 2 things

• Just 2 days back, I was on the other side of battle
• One quote which my Prof said (I would be sharing it eventually)

I understand that things are just not happening, for whatever reasons it may be. Having said this, I would like to reiterate that this is not the end, rather the beginning.  The biggest takeaways of me having lost and finally made it (though I don’t consider it as any achievement) is this - LUCK matters, but you can't do much - So forget it!!! 

• Getting placed is no indication of your capacity to survive the job, it is just that your 15-45 min of interview went just as you wanted. So all those who got placed (including myself), don’t think you all are the best!!!
• Not getting a job is just an indication, that you messed up with words, or you didn’t say what he expected. For eg. When one person asked me what is your favorite IT subject, I told all subjects revolve around the same thing, and the interviewer was taken aback, may be felt offended also. I messed it up, even though I meant what I said.
• You make it or lose it in the first few minutes. Trust me, I knew I screwed up my interviews in the first few minutes. I also knew I had impressed the interviewer in another one, within the first few minutes.
• Be yourself - you might have read it many places, but again just be yourself. If you want to change, it      should be only for the better. Lot of people criticized me on being direct and open in interviews, but if a company cant receive openness, can that company even nurture my thought process. I was in such a big dilemma, for some time, if I am selling myself in the interview (as all gyan gurus mentions), then the person who buys me should know what I am. Period!!!
• It is not the company, but the interviewer that matters. You are not pitching for the company, but for the interviewer. So sell to the interviewer, not the company. 

Finally let me quote what, one of my fav professor advised me, after I was placed - "Time to take stock and plan life Shravan as this phase comes to an end ". Friends, just look back and think, for what fun did we all spend so much money, time, family life, and come here - lets not forget it, for whatever it may be.  One might have come for real gyan, another for real money, another for great position - lets make sure, we get what we have had come here for. 

This is the time to pause, look, and go forward. Though, this write-up is a bit impulsive, I am writing this with all the empathies towards my mates.

 Congratulations for all those, who are placed!!!

 But, all those who aren't, you have seen the worse, time to see the better one , you will definitely make it!!! Ours is one of the most versatile and robust batch, it is just a matter of time.. !!! I have loads and loads of confidence on everyone.. ( this is not gas; but from what I have seen working with various people)

 Smile Please Click Click !!!!!

 PS:  Humble request to everyone who are placed; stop putting FB updates, no big deal guys. Wake up!! Hope you all understand (or atleast wait for everyone, lets celebrate together)

A paradigm shift for Engineering...

This 15th September commemorates the 150th birth anniversary of Sir M.Visveswaraya, one of the most  revered engineer across the globe. I have a lot of respect for this individual, not because he was an engineer, but he was a professional who thought about public good, in each of his deeds. I strongly recommend reading about his life and achievements. You wouldn’t get a better day than 15th Sep, to celebrate Engineer's Day.

But somehow, I feel off-late engineering as a degree has been degraded a lot, thanks to easy availability of seats, and selling of seats to people who can afford it, not who deserves it.  But there is always a question of why engineer's degree is not in sync with the work he is doing. And once you have done engineering, why should you do MBA..? Trust me - these are valid questions…

Here is my analysis -

Engineering is not a subject, not a degree; it is paradigm of looking at things, it is the attitude which molds your thinking, and problem solving abilities. It is not about why a diode works in a particular manner, it about if a diode is working in a particular manner, how can you utilize this capability to form a half wave rectifier or full-wave rectifier circuit. It is about how creatively you look at getting the half-wave rectifier or full-wave rectifier with the least number of diodes. It is the way you look at issues as cause v/s effect phenomenon.

Engineering is also not about just finding solutions to problems, it is also about working backwards - have a required solution/ end product in mind and then decide the how things should evolve in order to obtain the solution, or to put it simply - reverse engineering. So what is this?? This is the way you look at things - Management books call it Top-Down (forward engineering) and Bottom-Up (reverse engineering) approach.

In a series resistance structure, if one resistance fails, the whole current flow collapses; this is similar to how a typical hierarchical structure in an organization works, if one level fails to execute, the flow of information may be skewed, leading to wrong decision making. In a parallel resistance structure, even if one resistance fails, the circuit still continues to run, as the current is still passing through the other branches of resistance. Similarly, in an silo mode of management, even if one the branches of the company is not working correctly, the company still continues to thrive, because there are other supporting branches. Now the challenge for management is how best can it use this parallel and series structure of management to enhance optimal performance.  The challenge for engineer is also the same, but with resistors. So engineering is not about resistors, but how best you arrange them - this is the paradigm shift that is required.

This is one of the several examples which I can quote to say that my engineering attitude has helped me develop a totally different outlook towards issues, and ways to solve them.

So if you are a mechanical engineer who worked for a software company, in banking domain, and now with a MBA degree, looking out for a consulting job - there is nothing wrong, as long as you can prove people that engineering is a paradigm and attitude, not (just)a degree.

Happy Engineers Day!!!

Innovation = creativity * implementation

"Innovation is not creativity" - A statement made by Vijay Govindarajan, in one of the recent HBR blog. He has tried to quantify things in terms of a simple formula, which says an organization's capacity to innovate is the product of creativity and execution.

Just as I read this article, I came across an update on Google wave.  This was an update saying that it is withdrawing the Google wave product, by this year-end. When Google wave was first introduced, it literally waved across the user community, but it failed to increase the user-adoption. Does that mean, it was not user friendly - Not at all, it was infact very impressive. Then what failed ..??

One reason which I can recognize, for this failure is lack of a great business model. It just re-instated the perspective, that innovation is not just creativity, but also a strong implementation strategy (or a sustainable business model). One cant expect a mediocre business model to propagate a great product. If you give say 9 points (out of 10) to Google wave product per se, and there exists no business model to sell the product, implementation gets 0 points, the multiplication (9 x 0) of which gives 0. So net innovative quotient of that product is zero, even though it was a creative one. If the business model even propagates by 1 point, the overall score increases by 9. This is the splendor of a great business model.

As I skimmed through the humble submission of Google, my fascination for that company actually increased. We say that people don’t learn from their mistakes, how about organizations like Google?  This is the not the first product failure which the company has faced (some of the previous failures being Dodgeball, Jaiku, etc..  apologies for my bad memory), but still it thrives, and continue to be creative and (sometimes) innovative.  Google chandelled with a innovative search engine concept, and has leveraged that growth in expanding into various products.  But Google has never repudiated any legitimate failures, rather has accepted  them graciously and got motivation from each of the them, to succeed. I remember people saying, learn from your failures - and not every person can do so, only great persons can do so. It takes a lot of courage to accept your mistake and get motivation from the same.

Isn't it amazing to find out how organization and humans are analogous? Any maxim applied on humans almost applies to organizations. One great man said - "If you never failed; you never lived" , I bet Google would be the present Google, had it not failed.

Non-blood brotherhood - Reel or Real ..?

If you are thinking, this is another story of a soul crying brother-sister relationship, sorry to disappoint you!!

South India has not been too keen onraksha bandhanfestival historically. But still it was more of a fashion statement, for people to tie rakhis (or not to tie), primarily at school level. I remember my high school days, where we were 9 boys and 18 girls. It was a very good value proposition for girls to tie rakhis, as they brought only 9 rakhis, but boys had to buy chocolates/sweets for 18 girls. We hardly realized the value of brotherhood, and wore rakhis just like that. Thanks to my huge hands, I escaped from those small sized rakhis, though it hardly mattered to me (as I was pretty much sure, that there weren't any potential sister candidates for me.. haha.. ).

Solving this mystery of building relationships just by tying rakhis, has been a challenge, since my high school days, and it still continues to remain so, especially when I see incidences where, in the first year of engineering, a girl calls one as a bhaiyya and the next year they are in an affair.

In my personal opinion, nothing can beat blood. The brotherhood build out of blood relationship is the strongest raksha bandhan between a boy and girl. The most versatile relationship which I have come across, not bonded by blood is that of good friendship. The most fragile relationship which is again not bonded by blood is that with your spouse. Post my matriculation, I have not rejected any rakhi requests from my friends, but made it a point to say that - it doesn’t matter to me at all, and she better not expect any sort of brotherliness from me, and then she never tied it to me.

I don’t need a title of being a brother, to help / care for people. I don’t need a title of brother to serve my friend. I don’t need a title of brother, to guide a girl on a right path. Friendship has given me all the things that I want, for being a responsible and caring person. At the time, when counselors say that siblings should be like best friends, why should anyone tie a rakhi to his / her best friend and complicate things?

Finally, some food for thought -

How ironical things could become when a girl ties a rakhi and can afford spending a night with him, when people are debating whether brother-sisters really can't marry ?

Good Night!!!

Brand + Luck = Success

There were days when I used to think that luck was the least important thing to be successful. Infact I think the same even today, but with lesser conviction. That’s only because of experience, not just mine but also looking at others' . I have heard there are two types of people - wise people, who learn from their experiences; and wiser guys, who learn from others experience also.  I have tried to be in the later category.

Recently, we had a presentation to do regarding social media implementation for educational institutions in front of the professor & class. Ours was a group of 6. Over a grade of 10, I would rate my group, in terms of capability and talent @ 8/10. I must say, it was a pretty fine balance of pure knowledge, smart workers, hard-workers and hardly workers.  We had prepared considerably, but somehow I think, our power point wasn't really showing the work/ effort which we had put in.

It was presentation time, and ours was the 4th group to present out of the 5 groups. The advantage of having to present at a later part is that we know what is the expectation of the professor, but on the flip side, the class and the Prof would have lost interest, and we should do it really well to catch his/her attention. 

There were 3 people who were supposed to speak, starting with myself, followed by 2 other members, one who was like a lucky mascot ( atleast most of the times in the past; even though his group's presentations were a  bit cheek, somehow Profs were impressed), and the other had made a huge impression on the professor, in the previous course and had a brand image of her own.  But, having me in the group obviates it from being the best, especially in this Prof's class, as I had made a very bad impression, and he was one of those sadists who can punish a whole group, based on an individual.

Finally, I kicked off our presentation, and he seemed to be impressed from the beginning itself. It was carried on well by both my group mates. Overall, for that day, I must say, ours was the best presentation, based of the comments, the Prof passed.  He was very impressed with the flow of our presentation, to be particular.  I was infact surprised, what was it that made it such an instant hit, with him.

Then the wires inside my brain started analyzing all the things, that had happened.  Apart from the fact, that our group had that girl who had already made a great impression on the Prof, and we had a lucky mascot, I couldn’t find any great reason for our group to make it big.

I could clearly see how brands and luck could turns things around. Personal branding is a phenomenon, which I have been seeing a lot of value. The best part is you can have multiple brandings, based on the person with whom you have built it. It is equally dependant of how the other person perceives you and how you portray yourself. But the point of interest is, sometimes your luck builds your brand - something which I can't explain. 

However, I still expect a modicum of worthiness in recognizing the best works, though involuntarily, I want to have both the winning brand and luck in my group…  :)