A HECTIC WEEK THAT WAS

It is some time that I made a post. Both at personal and professional front, I have been quiet busy over the last fortnight.

In fact, last week was full of activities. The week started on Sunday the 22nd with the KMA Golden Jubilee valedictory function in which I received an honor award from the Kerala Governor, H.E Shri. R L Bhatia, for helping to build the institution of KMA and for contributing to the management movement in the state, it was indeed a soothing moment to have it received in front of friends, colleagues and corporate chieftains.

Later in the week, on Wednesday, there was the seventh installation meeting of Rotary Cochin International, a club I chartered in the year 2002. It was more happy an occasion because the seventh President is my colleague in Team Frontline Ltd, Mr.V. Prashanth Menon. I got the opportunity to introduce Prasanth Menon and from the feedback of the audience and from Prashanth, it seemed every one liked the intro.

On Thursday evening, with the President of ‘Better Cochin Response Group’ Shri. S Gopakumar, I called on the District Collector Mrs. Beena. I had known her earlier through our association with ISTD. Our President laid before her the catalytic efforts being put up by the Group to help Cochin manage of traffic issues and solid waste management issues. A project related to reducing the traffic jam at South over bridge was detailed to her.

On Friday morning Better Cochin Response Group had a breakfast meeting at Sarovaram Hotel on the NH Bye pass. In addition to 15 members from the group who are drawn from various walks of life, other personalities who had attended the meetings include the Deputy Mayor (the defacto Mayor) of Cochin, The Chief Town Planner of Cochin, The Executive Engineer of State PWD in charge of the city roads, The Engineering Section heads of Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and Cochin Corporation. The discussion ensued regarding the projects on the reduction of traffic congestion at South over bridge, a cross-over bridge at Shanmugham Road, bus shelters with public convenience stations at MG Road etc. We also had the representatives of a major signage company based at Delhi who were invited to present their plans of helping out at these projects on Build Operate & Transfer (BOT) model. It was indeed a very fruitful meeting.

On Friday afternoon, there was the Core Group Meeting (CGM) of TiE Kerala Chapter. This was a good meeting with much improved attendance. Charter member retreat and other SIG functions came for discussions. As in other years, this time the Charter member retreat is planned on August 2 and 3rd at Marari Beach Resort Alleppey. I look forward to the same. It is quiet long that I spent some quality time with the Charter members.

Same day evening, we had the election and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kerala Management Association. This year’s election had been very tight and well fought between 15 nominations for eight seats; most of the nominees were big wigs of the State on the management front. Most of the members whom I had cast my votes had won, particularly, Dr. Jyan of BPCL, Mr. K N Shastry our current Secretary, Rajmohan Nair of LIC, S Gopa Kumar Head of the Factories of Apollo Tyres Ltd Kerala and Jayathilakan, formerly Chief Engineer of FACT who was my Secretary when I was the President in the year 2003 . I am very glad about the results. I also got an opportunity to felicitate the President & secretary, M/s Ravi and Shastry. Normally this is not done in KMA as our managing council members and past presidents are very miserly with words of praise. I wanted to break the tradition and I am glad that I did it. In fact, we gave a standing ovation to the President for successful KMA Year in 2007-08. The dinner at KMA was attended by more that 150 managers and I got compliments from many senior members for taking a bold step of felicitating the President and the Secretary.

All those things had happened in addition to my work front where there was series of meeting both internal & external. Our Sales Quarter is coming to an end by this month end and now we need to schedule quarterly review meetings and so on. At the office I got an opportunity to mentor Mr. Avinash Krishnan, CEO of Qanta consulting, a start up company trying to specialize in e-commerce, SEO and web based marketing. We have to meet again for some more times.

One event I missed was the Board meeting of Kerala Venture Capital Ltd. at Trivandrum on Friday last week as it clashed with other Cochin based activities.

Overall, it was a jam-packed week, full of activities. What made this week more special was that I could undertake or be part of lots of meaningful activities that are looking to meet some noble objectives. I do feel happy at the turn of events.