“A true entrepreneur is the one who sends the elevator down for others, once he is successful” - Anonymous
Archive for the 'Personal' Category
I have been reading a couple of books on strategy and management, with the most recent one being Dynamic Competitive Strategy. I have come to understand that for every business, there are three key fundamentals. These are People, Working Environment, and Strategic Focus.
People are the most important asset for an organization. No matter what strategic plans and operational restructuring a company decides to undertake, if there are no right-minded people to execute these, the whole exercise becomes futile. At the same time, being right-minded is not the only criteria. A successful company’s key personnel are talented and open to change. Team work is the key to execution and a good leader always gives equal importance to the suggestions of his peers, subordinates and seniors. Undermining the importance of any one group of people is extremely perilous. A recent Harvard Business Review article (needs subscription) also articulates thoughts on what the leaders expect from their subordinates - stressing on the importance of ideas generation and collaboration. All in all, the whole interaction has to be highly productive and mutually beneficial.
We need to consistently challenge our future leaders by giving them greater responsibilities and more challenging work assignments. It keeps them motivated and every new challenge gives them something to learn and improve on. Failure to improvise and create such assignments inevitably would result in disillusioned and demotivated employees, resulting in attrition in worst cases.
I strongly believe in a three-pronged strategy that I personally follow in the course of my work at Netscribes. I call it the 3PLD, i.e. 3-Pronged Leadership Development. The first component of this strategy is to identify potential future leaders through regular feedback and appraisal process. This is different from the company-wide appraisals that are conducted in fixed cyclical formats. Instead of getting stuck in the myopic trend of annual appraisals, an ideal modus operandi is to conduct mini-appraisals for each project and identify the best performers. This would prove to be extremely useful in the longer run and also saves a lot of evaluation time during the annual appraisals process.
The second component of the strategy is to put the identified leaders in decision-making roles and give them newer responsibilities. The magnitude of these roles might vary depending on the complexity of the role and the risk factor associated with decisions. If you feel that a wrong decision might place the project in jeopardy, take constant feedback on their thought process and explain the rationale behind their decisions. This would give them insights on how to take situational decisions and evaluate the implications of their decisions. Needless to say, decision-making is one of the most important functions of a leader.
The final component of 3PLD is to monitor the performance of these future leaders in various situations and identify positions that can now be offered to them. The best possible scenario is where an existing project manager moves out of the project and the identified leader takes his place. The outgoing project manager can move on to a bigger role that could vary from handling a more complex project, or setting up a new project from scratch.
All this has worked for me and my teams. I hope that this works for others as well. If anyone ever follows this methodology, I would love to hear your comments about the same. I will continue with my thoughts on the other two topics, viz. Work Environment and Strategic Focus, in future posts.
I went on a short beach vacation to Ganpatipule recently. It is a small beach town famous for Ganesha temple and the lovely virgin beach that stretches for miles. A stay in the Konkani Hut at MTDC Resort and midnight beach rendezvous turned out to be an extremely enjoyable experience. This is a must visit for any nature lover, or for anyone looking for a clean and peaceful beach.
You can find the pictures here.
I am back. After a long break, I felt that today was the time to finally pick up from where I left and start blogging again. Things have changed considerably since my last post. This is a different year, the budget is out and the stock markets are going haywire.
The year started with a bang. There was nothing much for me to do on the new year’s eve, except for the usual and obvious. Hit a party and dance the night away. Of course, this too has suddenly started feeling too much cliched. I intend to enter the next year in a different fashion - maybe a secluded beach getaway … far from the maddening crowds. Or an adventure trip to some exotic location. This is the most that I have been able to plan for now. The coming months will give better shape to these sublime thoughts.
On the work front, things are exciting as usual. There have been a lot of interesting projects to work on, and a few short sojourns into unchartered waters (read new businesses). And along the way, there has been immense learning and new insights. The last couple of months have also seen a lot of action in the online space - with social communities gaining prominence, new startups redefining business models as we had known them, and everyone I had known at some point in my life popping up on Orkut :-). The social networking phenomenon has caught the fancy of masses, so much so that people are not even scared to lose their jobs as they ‘waste’ time here.
My late night dinners have been on the rise - a major boost was provided by the new Maruti Swift that my roomie picked up on a whim. We were just trying to be productive one fine Sunday when we ended up checking out some used cars. We were planning to go for a Maruti Zen at the most, but then slowly shifted loyalties to a Maruti Wagon R, and then to Maruti Esteem. It was a chance visit to a Maruti showroom couple of hours later, and we booked the car. Just like that. Shopping on a whim gets a new meaning here :-). Coming back to late night dinners, the canteen at International Airport is the best place to grab a bite in the early hours of morning. At times when I have been working late in office, coming back home to change and then going to airport to grab a bite has become more comfortable now - thanks to the new car. There are a couple of plans in the making on how we should avoid car showrooms again and hit some adventure spots near Bombay in the coming weekends. The trips will, of course, find a place in these blogs posts - as and when they happen.
I had started reading Dynamic Competitive Strategy last month. It is sad but I am still on the fifth page. That is another activity that I wish to start soon. It has been an extremely busy time but I have enjoyed every bit of it, nonetheless. Here is coming back to the blogosphere again and hope to keep the flame burning.
Hey you! Out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting cold, can you feel me
Hey you! Standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles, can you feel me
Hey you! don’t help them bury the light
Don’t give in without a fight.
Hey you! out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone, would you touch me
Hey you! with your ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out, would you touch me
Hey you! would you help me to carry the stone
Open your heart, i’m coming home
But it was only fanstasy
The Wall was too high, as you can see
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain
Hey you! out there on the road
Doing what you’re told, can you help me
Hey you! out there beyond the wall
Breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me
Hey you! don’t tell me there’s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall
‘Hey You’ - Pink Floyd
Netscribes undertook a very thoughtful gesture this Christmas eve - an act of spreading the message of love. As a part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives, Netscribes sent its messengers of love to St Stanislaus School, Bandra to spend some time with the kids there. Varghis was the Santa of choice :-).
Even though I was not there with the team, I could see the profound sense of satisfaction and rejoice on the faces of people who went there to cheer the kids. Last year saw Venkat and a bunch of other Netscribians taking up the onus of making Christmas fun for the kids.
DNA has the complete story of Christmas eve’s CSR events.
I came back from Punjab last week after a short vacation that was in the works since a long time. It felt nice to go back home after a year - a long year that seemed to have passed like a flash. And just like my last trip, this vacation also brought forth its share of surprises. Once again, the Punjab that I saw last time is undergoing further metamorphosis.
There is a strong NRI boom right now - you will see the youth in all shades and colors, spiky hairstyles or sans any hair, zooming around in swanky cars. And then the central meeting place in Jalandhar - aptly named ‘Headquarters’ is a hotbed for catching up on the latest trends in fashion, gossip, dating, food et al. It makes for an interesting sight to see so many different shades of how lifestyles have evolved in a matter of one year.
A lot of new food joints have also come up. Needless to say, the McDonalds at Jalandhar is on the topmost position in India in terms of revenue - a statistic that came up during a research project in Netscribes. And I was not shocked ;-). However, the past months also saw the sale of Haveli - an immensely popular food joint - that was launched three years ago. I could not confirm the exact deal size but it is believed to be close to INR 170 crores. A very shocking number there.
On exploring the NRI influx a little deeper, I found out that most of them are on vacation at home - just like me :-). All that they do back home is look at properties for making a quick buck and party party party. Not bad though ;-)). The realty prices are also on the rise. A friend tells me that there has been a 25% appreciation in property over the last three months. This is good news for those who are invested in property - but it might cause a tingle of worry for people planning to buy a house. Coming from Mumbai, this was not news for me - Mumbai is seeing its own share of insane price hikes in real estate market. And flats have already made inroads in Jalandhar as well - I visited a friend who has bought his own flat in one of the high rise buildings that have mushroomed recently. Even though I am not fond of closed spaces like flats, the sold-out flats point towards a new direction and an underlying demography shift. Needless to say, shifting into flats is a difficult decision for most Punjabis as they are used to living in big open spaces - homes with big gardens, ample lobby space and huge rooms. So the confinement must be painful at times. I was surprised to see the paradigm shift in the thought process of businesses as well - beautifully designed buildings and offices is the new trend. This is one change that I liked for the good and it was time that Jalandhar started looking at the aesthetics.
My trip to Amritsar was a pleasant one. The roads are awesome - you can actually do justice to your BMWs and Mercs on these roads. And to further take care of the increasing vehicles that ply on the highways, the government is on a rapid road widening spree - the four lanes are being converted into six lanes. There are a lot of new housing complexes and row houses coming outside the city as well. Clicked one on my way to Amritsar.
Golden Temple remains one of my favorite places in Punjab - the calmness and serenity of the place gets to you, and it was an amazingly wonderful experience visiting the holy temple.
Overall, there have been extremely positive developments vis-a-vis infrastructure, cleanliness and business space. If you are into any business that touches youth - entertainment, food, garments, automobiles - you cannot afford to ignore Punjab. One trip and you will become a believer in the business opportunity that this place has come to offer in recent years. I am waiting to go back again soon - every trip has started to become an exciting revelation.
A few pictures from the trip are posted on Flickr.
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