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  • Coronavirus – Lock down? Stop and introspects

    Coronavirus has put many people across the world in a lock down situation. Many cities in Europe, China and US are standstill. In India also, some states govt or cities authorities have closed malls, cinema halls, schools etc. Who have got the luxury for them, it is a great time to sit at home to stop and introspect. People should not become couch potato at home and watch Netflix / Youtube day in and day out. This is a time to sit and introspect, what I did and what is my take? Here it is.

    Phylogenetic analysis of Coronavirus

    Introspection

    I started off with asking a question to myself – have we become dinosaurs of current times? Animals evolve, even the virus evolves check this last para of CDC website on Coronavirus – “…coronaviruses … can evolve….” This research by The Lancet states the virus has evolved and closely related – 88% – to two bat derived virus. Imagine how fast the virus is evolving from 2002 to now. It is an amazement that the tiniest virus evolves. How about human beings? How are we evolving? We’ve improved our healthcare system from outside, is this healthcare restricting us from developing our inherent immunity that has been there in every organism naturally? If your belief system does not allow you to accept the theory of evolution be it. However, this evolution is evident scientifically and being researched and discussed on the science fraternity widely.

    Dinosaur’s extinct one fine day, we are still struggling to hypothesize how this happened? Is it a possibility that something like Coronavirus happened with them too? I do not intend to scare with conspiracy of dooms day. My thoughts are still on introspection, we have developed a lot of technologies. Example is mobile phone, I have a 6 GB RAM mobile, I hardly require such configuration, My father has a smartphone too, he only accesses calling feature and one fitness app. Our technologies have grown multi-fold; many of us we do not even know how to use these. During this lock-down of cities, people are going to waste time on entertainment and create havoc on social media. Instead, we must spend this time with self sitting silently. It could be above conspiracy theories war, economy, healthcare and evolution.

    Conclusion

    I introspect on evolution and meditation. We spend time on how we can remain fit. Here is an interesting research done by Oslo University on a Breathing technique (Sudarshan Kriya) taught in Art of living courses. The research says Yoga Changes your Genes (Oslo university, Norway) and improve your immune system. Until the natural selection helps human beings evolve, practice Yoga and meditation it will help you – as the research states that “…changes in 111 genes expression patterns were observed, improving immune system…”.

    I leave you with this thought – stop, meditate and introspect.

    Image Source – The Lancet “Phylogenetic analysis of Coronavirus”

    Disclaimer – I am associated with the Art of Living foundation and practicing Yoga, Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya from 2004 onward.

    Related other blogs –

    https://business2buddha.com/2013/07/06/yoga-secular-or-not/
    https://business2buddha.com/2019/04/06/the-observer/

  • Coronavirus and questions on wealth

    On the wake Coronavirus and market bloodshed, I leave you with some question this week. These questions are directly related to Coronavirus and on wealth. Our sense of defining wealth – and at times success – need a contemplation. To begin with let me share a story with you:

    Church

    Once a man won a lottery worth ten lakhs (1 million) rupees. When his wife heard this news, she was worried, how should she break this news to her husband. The man had a weak heart and a sudden such news might give him a shock or he might even suffer a heart attack due to sheer excitement. So, the wife went to a priest requesting for help. The priest said “Don’t worry, I will come with you, and together we’ll give him the news”. Next Sunday, priest went to the lottery winner’s home and asked him “My child, suppose by the grace of God you won a lottery of ten lakh, what would you do with it?”

    The man answered, “I will give half of it to the church Father.” No sooner the priest heard this, he had a heart attack.

    Wealth should bring peace. Being wealthy should not bring arrogance, hostility, jealousy, disgust or boredom.

    Coronavirus and questions on wealth

    Wealth should not be something that becomes a reason for happiness or sorrow or a cause of shock. We live in such an artificial world that a virtual belief in wealth governs so many things. Recently I read worldwide markets are down and names of people who lost millions because of outbreak of Coronavirus. The shares are down and thus many people are losing their unrealized profits; some have lost the previous day’s profits and squared off at lesser margin. What to do with riches that are dependent on outside influences. A virus hits the world and (for no faults if yours, you become poorer) the wealth is wiped out.

    I leave you with some question this week – what is wealth? How money / wealth should keep you? How should it affect you? Why do we define wealth the way we define it? Should we’ve a different way of measuring wealth? Should we revisit our definition of money / wealth?

    Relevant other blog

    https://business2buddha.com/2012/10/14/currency-for-the-future/
    https://business2buddha.com/2016/03/13/kanhaiya-to-mallya-why-lessons-from-buddha-prevail/

    Story source – Commentaries on Shiv Sutra by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, The Art of living foundation.

  • Change in belief

    Incidents shape our experience, experiences shape our opinions and opinions in long term shape our beliefs and set of belief become our religious practices. With time everything must evolve and must change! We must always remember – This too shall pass and should always be ready to accept change in belief, questioning our assumptions based on new experiences. Here is an incident that changed a laughing stock of our life into a serious affair after the Corona pandemic in which more than 2,00,000 reported deaths have happened until now.

    Our incident

    It was the year 2015, I had married to Simple – my wife – for only 8 months. In these 8 months, I had to travel out of India twice for a month or more. So before leaving for the second time, I had arranged for my wife’s travel to join me in Toronto. Due to her half-yearly audit preparation, she flew later. This is a story how things make or change us.

    While in flight, Simple sneezed. Fellow passenger, who was flying to the USA, was somewhat taken aback. She quickly took out her first aid box and gave a tablet to Simple. Initially, Simple was a bit hesitant to take this medicine. Remember we were told in our childhood – “while traveling do not eat anything given by others.” She said I am alright, it was due to the cabin temperature I do not have a cough or a cold. Probably the co-passenger was also told something like, don’t eat anything given by strangers, in her childhood. So the co-passenger read the content line by line and said it is just multivitamin. Somehow Simple got away this time. However, she sneezed again, this time she could not say no to her. Simple had realized by now how petrified the lady on her next seat was. So, this time around she took the medicine – unwillingly though. So, the whole flight afterward was peaceful for both – Simple and the passenger.

    Simple landed in Toronto and the first thing that she narrated was this incident. We laughed together on this and, I told her somehow in India it is not a big deal, I think we are so immune to it isn’t it? We remembered this incident whenever we flew, smiled at each other. Karma you call it. This small smile and fun started haunting me recently.

    Change-in-belief

    This Corona happened and we are all locked down at home. Now whenever we go out for buying essentials, we get hand sanitizer at the entrance of D-Mart as if it is a Prasad! Honestly speaking, touching the shopping trolley I feel scared and giving cash or card, I tell myself hope this person is safe. Now, I realize how that co-passenger must be feeling about sneezing of Simple. How life, experience and opinions change, isn’t it?

    One virus that is bothering everyone across the globe has given a new perspective to the joke we used to tell each other almost every time we flew. Small or big all types of incidents shape us as we grow up. So I changed my opinion about coughing, sneezing and more! If someone coughs around us now the eyebrows rise. Simple and I changed our opinion towards the fellow passenger of Simple in 2015.

    https://business2buddha.com/2019/11/10/this-too-shall-pass/

  • Pandemic – why companies should choose to spend

    Coronavirus pandemic is a global phenomenon, as of now 160 countries out of 193 recognized countries are affected. Many countries are in lockdown. All the developed countries are affected, therefore, the economy worldwide is severely affected. In this trying time, the whole world needs Keynesian economics. In nutshell, the concept says – “Increase government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of the depression.” Here I am going to discuss my opinion on why companies should choose to spend and continue working on their ongoing plus upcoming projects.

    https://business2buddha.com/2013/11/24/keynes/

    Keynesian economics considers or provides guidelines to the Governments. You can check India approves 1.70 lakh Crore package for poor, $2 trillion package US Congress has approved recently. Apparently, this is the biggest package US or for that matter, any government has approved. Government spending is only one part. I am of the opinion that every industry must seriously consider not only spending but also sustaining employees. Short term “shareholder value” can wait for better long terms sustenance. I know this sounds counter-intuitive – special when all companies are losing revenues due to lockdown, expecting retaining employees and to sustain a business. Surely this will impact the survival of many firms, projections and revenue targets of almost every company and shareholder returns. Let me give you some basic reasoning for my opinion of private firms too should continue their investment and how can it help bring the economy on wheels again.

    coronavirus-hospitality-industry-impacted

    Due to Coronavirus few industries are directly affected, namely; Airline, Hospitality and discretionary expense items e.g. beauty or apparel. People are going to spend on their basic necessities for the next few weeks or who knows months. The impacts revenue and therefore growth-related projects of these industries. Let us take an example as an explanation.

    Example

    An apparel company wanted to increase its footprints in a new region. That would require – finding retail space, employees for the store, furniture/store interiors design, products to put in the shelf and technology e.g. internet, hardware, POS and marketing to bring shoppers in-store. Due to the impact of a pandemic the apparel company will delay all these. The domino effect will be on – real estate, prospective employees, interior designers, producers (who produce for the apparel company in terms of aggregate demand), internet service provider, IT company planning to provide hardware and software and the marketing activation agency that was supposed to engage in the project – right from printing flyers. Why I brought flyers? Because this and interior decorators have many unskilled laborer working for them. The result – the domino engulfs many part-time workers. When these part-time workers do not have money they will have an impact on purchasing many other things. A self-fulfilling prophecy – read more about self-fulfilling prophecy here.

    At this time, what should private businesses do? At whatever negotiated discounts – they must continue their projects be it starting footprints in new regions as given in the above example. The companies must continue their spending because sooner or later things will fall in place. People will start consuming and the economy will be on track again. If spending is done as usual – the economy will come on its feet faster than it other would. Therefore I am suggesting that after the lockdown due to pandemic – why companies should choose to spend.

    Summary

    I fell in love with research of McKinsey and company, “Grow Fast or Die Slow” sustaining growth in technology companies. Paraphrase of this research is –

    1. Growth matters more than margin or cost structure
    2. No correlation between cost structure and growth rate

    Net-net one cannot cost cut to grow the business. Business growth requires “growth”. This is why I suggest that companies should choose to spend. Cost rationalization is important, questions are the discretion, putting costs in the right perspective and strategic decisions on these investments. This is the time when project costs will be more rational compared to a booming economy. At this tough time, many companies will look at cost reduction – what leadership across the globe must know is that – this is the time to look at a big picture and work towards completing the unfinished projects, starting the planned projects and reopen the businesses as usual after lockdown. Why? Because sooner we start spending on our planned projects, sooner economy will be back on track and most importantly we will be able to reach our projections, targets, and shareholder value.

    The concept of interdependent co-arising perfectly fits this conclusion. When we keep our investments on, the fund will be available to others to either spend or pay as salary. This spending results in moving the circle of growth.

    Related news – Cognizant to offer extra 25% of base salary

  • Gratitude – clap your hands

    A few weeks back I had a chance to meet an Art of Living faculty. During his discussion with us, he said to be grateful. Be grateful to what you have and life will be full of abundance. There were wonderful examples and stories he shared with us. It was fascinating to listen to him. I remembered this discussion on gratitude and Prime Minister Mr. Modi’s suggestions for clapping and applauding many unknown people in healthcare or essential services sector who are selflessly working day in and day out. Show your gratitude – clap your hands.

    Have you ever thought of those who pick up your dustbean everyday morning. The sweeper, the cleaner or for that matter the car washing young man of your society. Many of us may not even know the names of these people whom we pass-by every morning. However, bad is the status of cleaning in Mumbai – compared to Indore, my home town – but it works at its own level of efficiency. Is not it? Should not I be grateful to this cleaning system too? Yes there is room for improvement, yet grateful to the existing levels of cleaning.

    https://business2buddha.com/2015/07/12/gratitude-by-coincidence/

    Gratitude – an example

    Last week, I went for a haircut to a nearby saloon with my father. Since, I was with him, it was nearby and finding parking was difficult I took two wheeler. While returning, my hair were oily, we lived nearby so I took it for granted and did not wear helmet. Murphy’s law kicked in. Police was challaning, I was charged INR 500/- (roughly $70) for not wearing helmet.

    This is another story that I paid the challan outstanding within 15 mins on Mumbai Traffic Police App, ICICI Bank has cut the amount from my account and yet Mumbai Traffic Police App shows the challan is unpaid. On a lighter note a lesson – do not use the app to make challan payment.

    Coming back to the story, I told the police sir I live nearby – literally 300 meters from here, I am coming after a haircut and my hair are oily. So I did not wear the helmet, it is in my dickey. He replied – it is for your safety, you should have worn it. He didnt budge, completed the process. I asked now can I go without helmet it is just 300 meter! He replied what is more important – your head, you and your fathers safety or helmet getting oily? You can go you be a better judge, no one is ahead to cut another challan for you.

    https://business2buddha.com/2018/02/06/driving-in-india/

    I was upset, my father told me he was right. My father always wear helmet (it was even when there was no one wearing it about two decades back). He continued – you should have worn helmet. I made payment on the app instantly and gave it a thought later on. That policeman was not wrong, he was doing his duty, he could have done his job and let me go. However he was kind enough to politely remind me – what is more important “your safety”. This lesson costed me 500 rupees. Though I am rarely that careless, in last 24 years challaned second time. Once for stopping ahead of stop line on signal which where stop-line was barely visible. I felt bad but grateful later on for the policeman – I even wonder if I would see him back in life (I would not want to too :)). Small cautious act can go a long way. In current times it is home quarantine during Coronavirus spread. This small act of individuals can go a long way for the whole society.

    Gratitude – clap your hands – be grateful to the unknown

    Gratitude

    Today is the day when we have to be grateful to the healthcare and essential services professionals. Prime Minister Mr. Modi has said that we have to clap for these people whom we have not seen, not known. They are doing their best to help us fight the biggest challenge our generation is seeing. The graveness of Coronavirus cannot be ignored – especially when there is no known vaccine or medication for that. It is immaterial whether we are sick or healthy, rich or poor, youngster or senior citizen. We must be thankful to these professionals.

    We miss-out on thinking about so many people working on so many things on a daily basis. Some are directly associated with us many are not – be it the local trains of Mumbai or bus or Metro trains services across many cities. If you work in a stockbroking company, you may be taking a local train to the office. Your boss or the owner of the company is not. But to come to work in the owner’s company the employee needs to take the local train. Unknowingly or indirectly the local train driver is adding value to the stockbroking company’s owner. Many a time’s people do not consider this list for gratitude.

    Be grateful

    There is a good amount of research on this – check Harvard articles. Gratitude is a virtue, one must inculcate it. You are alive, be happy about it. Someone told me a couple of days back, you woke up you are fortunate, respect that you have got time and today to live. Especially we must be happy, restrained and grateful at this tough time when the world is facing the pandemic of Coronavirus.

    Be happy today; be grateful for so many known and unknown people and things in your life. Take care and do not forget to Show your gratitude – clap your hands on 22nd March 2020 at 5 PM for 5 minutes.

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