Business to the Buddha

Category: Business

  • Welcoming’12, Seasons of ’11 and accountability







    For some new year is getting new fancy, even more exposing table calendar and flaunting that. For some it is a continuum of the life – life as usual. For some it is a time to celebrate. I think this is the occasion when we should ask ourselves what happened last year and what should be improved? In 2011 I asked myself -” would I support places such as Barasti in Dubai?” I felt that Barasti is a place which supports racism and I decided against going there.

    When it comes to the year 2012, some time back there was a rumour about the year 2012. Hollywood made a movie – 2012. That movies speaking about this year as a question of existence, right? Well, why start the year with that question. Or we can start thinking about existence and ask questions to ourselves. Look at the 2011, what we did not see? We saw Arab Spring, Summer of India/USA and Winter of Europe. Let me elaborate –

    Arab Spring – I was in middle East during the time when Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and other such uprising were in news. I wrote in 2011 about Arab uprising – Power Corrupts. Yes, it does and had been in question for Middle East in 2012.

    Summer of Europe – Have you not noticed that the production in China, industrial growth figures of India and other developing nations were not positive lately? The likely reason for that is slow or negative growth of developed nations e.g. USA and Europe. Euro zone saw a unique problem this summer of 2011 when countries were likely to default on their loan payment! I asked a question to myself Euro is it dead? and in May 2011 asked my Teacher of economics – Professor Mankad is Euro dead? We saw the turmoil of Euro for couple of months. Lately, I read on Reuters that “the Euro is not an experiment…” ECB executive said that. On a lighter note – “as if it was supposed to be an experiment until now”. Personally, I am in favor of the kind of economic zone Euro has created. However there are problems with accountability which needs very strong measure.

    Winter of India and USA – Euro zone crisis did not end and we saw another people’s movement – the Lokpal movement in India and Occupy Wall Street in USA. In brief Lokpal bill is to curb corruption and bringing high and mighty beurocrates and politicians under the ambit of LAW. Strange a democratic country India talking as if it is an autocratic country where KING/QUEEN (beurocrates – include lower and upper – and politicians) is above the law. On the other hand citizen of USA were questioning ‘the top 1% holding maximum wealth‘. Why not Investment Bankers take responsibility for not only creating toxic assets but also burning those assets which eventually ruined the economy – of the whole world.

    Well what do you make out of these seasons of 2011. If I look back and take a macro perspective – all these big events of 2011 were Questions on “accountability”. Let us begin the new year with taking responsibility of our actions and working towards a peaceful (Middle East), moral (India) and equitable (Europe and USA) world.

  • A dancing elephant







    Louis Gerstner… Remember him? The legendary CEO of IBM and I crossed our paths this week when I decided to go through a book titled, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?. As chance would have it, it was also the time when I bought my new Lenovo laptop. For all those who have been disconnected from the world, Lenovo is the company that bought IBMs PC business some years ago. After using many renewed brands like Samsung, Dell, HCL, HP and compaq, selecting a new laptop should have been easy. It was, but not because I am more intelligent than 3 years ago. Only because the industry has consolidated a little bit.

    Is not it true with you too, that one factor for decision making is price – this holds true for me too. In first few chapters Lou says IBM had to do a price rationalization of its servers. This event of the book brings back memories of class of Prof Tomas Lopez and my long nights cracking the case with my buddies of MBA – Saurabh Deshmukh, Nikunj Pandya, Ashar and Chanchel Menon. How often have you made an opinion and written about a book even before completing it? I have made my opinion the book is very interesting and I am so impressed that I thought to write.

    IBM a gigantic and bureaucratic organization of 90s! If you are an Indian and have repeatedly circled tables of Govt offices and babus you would be able to understand what challenges Mr Gerstner must have gone through at IBM in first couple of months of his assignment. Honestly, only a few have to chance to lead such place and change this. However, seeing Indian bureaucratic system I believe there are a lot of opportunities for Indian Gerstners (Govt officers would read this blog). I can relate to IBM of early 90s (reminds me of one series of Asterix in which they have to clear a task of Greek Office). We in India say we are democratic country yet currently we are democratically fighting for Lokpal which is not heard by Govt.

    While reading that book I am asking myself – what is the purpose of existence for IBM (of 90s) and of Govt? Don’t you ask similar question to yourself – the purpose of our existence?

    Customers were last in the list at IBM (clearly not in the first few on the list) and in India Citizen are not the first priority (alas! it is democracy). Priorities are – Govt/political parties/bureaucracy, at IBM priorities were country heads/department etc. IBM was (not exactly though) out of touch with changes in IT industry Govt seem to have lost touch with masses. IBM was a big fat elephant so seems the Indian Govt system. “One has changed and is dancing now, will the other too?” is the question to ask.

    Also, I could relate to the teachings of the Buddha while I am reading the book. More on purpose of our existence and middle path later.

    Related blogs – Line of understanding, Lost in translation, Playing golf, work and meditation”…you have to swing naturally”

  • Need of the hour!







    Recently, I woke up early in the morning, it was not because I had to go somewhere, but because in the night I forgot to switch on my mosquito repellent. Apparently, I didn’t have to kill the mosquito. All of them put together had sucked enough blood to wake me up and as individuals had sucked enough to full their bellies that none could fly. And they all fell under my weight to die!

    I was wondering about the same in different context and thought about politicians of India and some corporate houses (include Kingfisher). In current context the Anna movement, Occupy Wall Street movement and economy world around has made every commoner – like me – to think seriously about what is happening around. Now it seems that not all politicians and executives can get away with the deeds. They have to be accountable and answerable because the pinch of the rash and extravagant decision are backfiring. If I compare the scenario to my waking up and inadvertently killing few mosquito, the weight of economy has killed some companies (Lehman Brothers) and some are in the lurch. Either politicians and executives have to understand that there has to be enough and more responsible actions and decision or people would gather on streets to protest.

    I am not against development and taking risks yet we have to balance risk and be responsible for the powers offered to us by the shareholders, banks and others. Is it fair to party when you know you are under debt of 1000s of cr (tens of billions) rupees? Is it fine to sponsor and own events when you are under lots of liabilities? I was wondering when I read the news – LIC may be forced by the Govt to rescue Kingfisher. Thankfully it does not seem to happen, otherwise LIC policy holders – such as me – would feel robbed of their hard earned income.

    The collective power has toppled a Govt in Middle East – I term it as French Revolution of Middle East – and other countries of Middle East are feeling the heat. Credibility of a company was on stake when Murdoch was summoned. We see a strong voice against corruption in India and against the reckless decision of bankers as Occupy Wall Street movement. Is not it fair to assume that all educated people (politicians and executives) would understand that commoners are asking for only fairness and accountability, and perhaps it would solve many issues we face in current times, That’s it!

  • Money – what is it?







    This was a very candid question Prof Mankads asked once – ‘What is money?’ and he answered – ‘Money is what is accepted a money.’ True, money is what is accepted as money. Humanity needed some tangible measure so we deviced various forms of money at various time. For example at the time of barter system ‘everything’ was weighted against the other. So everything was acceptable in trade as money. Then came matels and now paper and plastic money (credit cards).

    I started thinking if we needed something tangible as money what if we made something like Camay (soap) a currency? If some other things be made money what would happen? Take an example of age – everyone would gradually get money. Fun or being funny – comadians would have maximum money in the world. Seriousness – patients in extremely intencive care units. Trust – Indian politicians or politicians in general would stand nowhere. Spirituality – the spiritual masters would be at the top, one I know is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

    Now if we ask ourselves – who is rich? The simple answer is one who has ‘more’ money. ‘More’ is contextual (adjective). Now, if we take money as fun, being happy or being funny. How many of us are rich today? Kids in school are competing, people are jealous or many of us have only instant gratification and long term sorrow. Not many of us are rich! Has money made anyone happier?

    Assume Trust be the currency. How many have earned it? Yes trust is hard earned currency, right? Bankers have lost their trust of 100+ years (see the occupy wall street movement), politicians have lost it. Citizen vote because they think someone will improve the systems. On the contrary we all still remember Jesus, the Buddha and other Masters. Plato, Aristotle and Chanakya. We named unit of force on the name of Newton we say Da Vinci was genius. Were they ‘RICH’ in terms of hoarded money? So, what if we measure richness on different factors now and in future. See this engineer mind thinks of formulae (which is not correct, yet I am writing it) –
    Richness = [{(money + Happiness)*Trust/greediness}^(1/greediness)]*(peace of mind)*spirituality
    and other important stuff
    Range of the variables
    0 > Money, Happiness and Trust > 1
    Greediness > 1 upto infinite
    peace of mind and spirituality> 1
    ^ stands for raise to the power

    I think everyone of us has to identify what we want from our life and that one or few things would be The thing(s) which would make each one of us Rich (not necessarily Money). Of course, this richness should not come at the expense of others or harming others.

  • Abundance of scarcity







    I was watching NDTV after a long time no no…TV after a long time. Also, NDTV has not been my favorite for a couple of years now. Anna movement gave chance to every news channel, however, only Times Now could make it to my consideration set. So, by chance I was watching NDTV. Well to be precise, I was not watching; by chance NDTV was on and we were talking about something. I gave it a heed because the news was about increase in petrol price in India. Some experts were talking and one said – “India has grown, we are producing more grain, (Precisely, the number thrown was about 250 units to 270 units). So when we are growing, with growth if inflation is high it is fine!…”. The argument was largely – we are growing and so is inflation thus it is fine if petrol price is also increasing.

    I started thinking, if we are producing more than why people die of hunger? If we are growing then why still we are not satisfied? If India of today is better than India of 90s, 80s or 70s why we are still struggling with roads with potholes (even in Mumbai), load shedding (for non-Indians load shedding means power cut in different location because of scarcity of power) and other problems. We are producing more, in fact the argument was we are producing more than we consume.

    We can see that we have enough and more mediums for entertainment (I was watching TV and thats why this came in mind first), enough food (as per the expert invited by NDTV). Surprisingly we do have enough and more Money – in Swiss bank accounts in Indian context and in developed economies hefty bailouts. Still there is inflation, there are economic issues.

    Largely, the basic problem is greed. Because of greed we see scarcity of many things. In fact after reading an MBA case we felt that Diamonds are not rare as we believe. In other words, we are in a world with abundant supplies of required things however we create scarcity of other things (and of the basic necessities). Greed for growth, money and possession. Effectively, we need few things which are in abundance but we live in artificially created scarcity of those. Because of greed abundance becomes scarcity and we live in the world of abundance of scarcity.

  • Theory of constraints






    Prof Moradian taught us concept of the Theory of Constraint. He also suggested us to read a book by Eliyahu Goldratt – The Goal. In the novel, protagonist is struggling with the operational inefficiencies of his plant and therefore facing a constant fear of management decision to close the plant.

    Well, what is this theory of constraints (ToC)? In brief ToC states that “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link”. I was thinking that this concept is applicable to our society too. We are evolving, we are constantly developing some thing or the other, society is a sort of factory. And the concept of the ToC applies equally to our life. Look at it this way if rich becomes richer the poorer would become weaker link of the society. Have you heard that during recession crime rate increases? This is ToC for our society. Lately, lot of demonstrations are happening across world by the title Occupy Wall Street. This is where I think that ToC can be applied in the society.

    I thought about interdependent co-arising and the Theory of Constraints in conjunction. My understanding of interdependent co-arising is that – we are all dependent on each other and for growth of each individual other has to necessarily grows. In other words, if society wants to evolve, everyone in the society has to evolve. The weakest link of the society may hamper the growth of society in total. Here I see a solution to the constraint, perhaps a socialistic one. We as a society have to help each other to grow (strengthen the weakest link), otherwise we would see increasing “Occupy Wall Street” kind of movements or increasing crime rates in future.

    I shared these thoughts with Prof Moradian and he said the idea is good why don’t you think about throughput and operating expenses and develop this concept of ToC in society further? This made me dig deeper. It is said that ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. If we rewind to 2008, after months of searching for alternatives Mr Barnanke, Mr Paulson and others had to bail-out banks of USA. Why not we start doing something now and for future. I see the operating expenses of this approach as deferred expense of brand building (building society) exercise for future. The throughput of the exercise would be availability of competitive, capable and intelligent work force for companies. These capable people would be the spenders of tomorrow – moving the wheel of consumerism forward – effectively, the solution may not be as socialistic as I think.

    Related blog – Ideate – save the sinking ship

  • …there is a new beginning!







    I was reading – Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama and came across an interesting analogy which I am sharing here.

    “…A candle light is extinguished by the breeze very easily, but if that light is protected and allowed to catch the forest, it will grow into a forest fire. Then the breeze helps that fire instead of extinguishing it. Similarly, when an aspirant, with the help of discipline, protects the flame of desire burning within, it grows more and more. Then all the adversities instead of becoming obstructions, in fact, start becoming means. The obstacles which are supposed to obstruct the path of self realization are not really obstacles. Our weaknesses and the values we impose on the objects of the world create these obstacles for us. Attachment is one of the strongest obstacles created by us…”

    End result changes when context changes. A breeze may extinguish or support fire. I read few lines long time ago –

    …पेड़ थे मजबुत वो जड़ से उखड कर गिर गये (stronger trees have been uprooted)
    और पौधो ने किया है आंधियो का सामना … (however, saplings/plants have faced storms)

    Here definition of strength becomes a weakness. Strength of a tree is being tall and ability to withstand forceful blow. However, this strength becomes a weakness in case of a storms. Here we need to think – the context defines many things, at times changes the approach to the decision making also. I remember my Professor of MBA – Prof Lopez – we used to have animated discussions on various things because context used to differ. He always suggested that there are no ready made solutions – one size does not necessarily fit all…

    With reference to the economic problem I may say that there are many issues. Initially, it was love for the ‘Free Market Economy’ (with respect to the above para – ‘attachment’) by the policy makers of USA, and later the other extreme (protectionism) is one of the issues. We may say that – ‘…any time world economy may crumble’. However, when I change the context I think the time has come to move on to a more inclusive world – Vasudhev Kutumbakam (in one way “not protectionist”). I am of the opinion that we need to think of each one of us as a unit. The solution is there, provided we move from ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘You’ to ‘Us’. The changed context will show us new possibilities – I think there is a new beginning. … Destruction sometimes has value!

  • How long will we live in the world of $! from ‘Network’







    The following are few dialogs (curtsey – www.imdb.com)… It is interesting so sharing on my blog. ‘How long will we live in the world of $!’

    The concept of movie is based on how a news channel management and one of its anchor share relations and What happens in an apparent conflict. This movie was released in 1976 (after the oil crisis – perhaps ’70s- , before the economic crisis in US – early ’80s). So effectively, we have been like that and we will remain the same, provided we learn a lesson this time around. The time is here and now, to learn – we would have an economic crisis again in 3 years and I wonder how long it will take to get back to normalcy. This movie was made 30+ years back, world saw 1910’s (World war), 1920’s (Great depression), 1930’s-1940’s (world war and after effect) and then 1970’s (oil crisis) and 1980’s (economic slow down). When did we have a peaceful time? There has to be some sense in the world – we need to learn, we have to learn – how long will we live in the world of $? Life also exist beyond the turmoil of $.

    The dialogs are below –
    Arthur Jensen (owner of the channel): [bellowing] You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale (the anchor), and I won’t have it! Is that clear? … The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. (I wonder why we do not understand interdependent co-arising only in terms of dollar) It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU… WILL… ATONE!

    Arthur Jensen: [calmly] Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those *are* the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, (in my opinion – world is more than *JUST* business or in other words everything is a business) Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that… perfect world… in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

    Howard Beale: [ascending the stage] So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth… Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that’s the only place you’re ever going to find any real truth.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sySuIXG_IM]

  • God be the CEO!







    From The book of Mirdad –

    God is your captain, sail, my Ark!
    …
    Love is your compass, ply, my Ark!
    …
    Faith is your anchor, ride, my Ark!

    Today I was wondering about what if the world is an organization and the God is the CEO! What would be the situation, in the boardroom and what must be going through His mind?

    Situation – the countries and continents are a department each. There is a cost center – USA – this department is in debt and there seems to be no way out for it to survive. The likely other cost center is the EU – European Union. Operations and manufacturing unit is China. Parts of Middle-East and India a chaotic department wherein the left hand ‘does not know‘, ‘does not want to know‘ and ‘does not want to support‘ what the right hand is doing. The chaos is such that the department is rather a destruction center, not even a cost center. Only good department seem to be Africa and the South East Asia region. Would the CEO resign? Or He would dismiss few those who are responsible for this. For namesake – Former president of USA George W Bush (he forced the world to a war – to me which was unnecessary – the Iraq war), Gaddafi, many politicians including Indian politicians, leaders of the terrorist organizations (Osama is already dead) and those others who are the culprits.

    Keep aside the joke of the God being the CEO. Do you think that the situation is really dire – accounts (economy), production and administration everything is in a chaos. If yes, do not you think that it is our responsibility to improve everything round us. Should one take life of the other in the biggest organization – The World? (terrorism). Should one be corrupt in the organization where her/his family will also be at the receiving end? (India). Should one produce products which could be contaminated by Lead (China – some toys), be prone to fail and take life (cars)? Should one be so extravagant that the whole organization is under debt because of that department? (USA).

    Even if we still continue thinking the God be the CEO, would not the CEO want every employee to do his/her job responsibly, be moderate and ethical? Let us hope that the CEO succeeds in his mission and vision of making the organization profitable with the triple bottom-line and make it an ethical organization. With that hope what we need is ‘responsible we’ – each one of us – and committed employee to make the organization a better place.

    Note – those who are agnostic, for the time being consider God exists. Or do not read the blog, or shoot your concerns/comments. Even if we do not want to consider God be the CEO, I thought about another philosophy from India – ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. It means that the whole world is one single family. Would you kill your brother or sister, would you do something for which you may have to feel sorry in your family?

  • Business of religion!*







    The first message we heard in the class of Brand Management of Professor Ram Kumar, was “It is an eco-system…”. An entangled, closely knit or perhaps confusingly mingled ‘Eco-system’. Econ-system of brands, products, product variants (variants are very confusing, no doubt) and bombardment of marketing messages (communication). Here everyone wants to say that our product is the best using different channels and different language. Hum! it sounds very common, right? So common that we overlook it.

    In another class of Marketing we were asked which is the oldest business in the world, still running successfully? I (when I say ‘I’, literally I) responded ‘religion’. Every religious institution says our religion is better (perhaps the best) than others and is the only path for salvation. Walmart, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Tata or Reliance might exist, or not, for 1000 years but for sure we will (and had) many religion for 1000’s of years and we will have them in future too. Why? Because – religious institution sells itself on emotions. Even without learning any Marketing concept, religious institutions learnt that emotions should be hit directly to let people decide emotionally and justify rationally.

    Let us talk about the channels they use. It is similar to what we learn in distribution channel or managing supply chain. ‘Retail store’ of Religion or distribution channels are found everywhere, and finances? Well there is no limit to it (find it for yourself – a recent News in an Indian Newspaper The Hindu or Google search for $ with any major religion of the world…). Every religion has a source of income this source of income germinates from the EMOTION we talked earlier about. Yet there is a lot to learn from religious institutions, learning the administration, Marketing and distribution channel and much more, is not that true?

    Personally, I am a strong believer that religion plays an important role in building and binding society. Religion is a path wherein you have to follow the traffic rules. If you do not follow the rules you are likely to meet with an accident. What is the question of saying rules of left hand drive better than right hand drive? The rules are there to avoid accidents and make the journey safer and easier. When I say ‘firm believer’ I mean the rules taught by the religion, and not the comparison of one to the other.

    Well, not only for business but also for being righteous person we can learn a lot from religion!

    * Conditioned applied – Thoughts presented here are my own and learnt from different sources, I do not intend to hurt any sentiment or question any religion.