WHEN THE IDOLS FALL…………………………….

Two fields that give men and women the utmost glamour are sports and cinema. In both, the heroes (the heroines and the villains) have larger than life image. They are recipients of unlimited adulation from public at large. People are willing to wait for hours to see them. A shake hand from them would make anyone’s life. A photograph with them will make a person a celebrity. These are Idols! For people, they are living Gods.

And among these Gods, there stand out certain names for their clean image and fairness. They have unblemished records in their professional and personal lives. The names that immediately come to mind are Amitabh Bachchan, Richard Harrison, Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar, Steffi Graf & Tiger Woods. They represent ethics, morale, decency and above all fairness. No doubt, they too are human beings with emotions, but by far, these men and women could balance their lives and emotions and come through very clean to the public. And we adored these champions for not only what they are but also for their qualities. And these men and women are invited by organizations such UN etc to be its Ambassadors for spreading the goodwill around the world.

And then there are names such as Beckham, Ronaldo, Maradona, The khans of Bollywood and the scores of Hollywood stars. All these are very presentable and enigmatic personalities. They too were recipients of unadulterated adulation of the fans. However, these men and women were also famous for their emotions, tantrums and fallibilities. Names of many famous (also infamous) men and women were linked up with them and these names changed very periodically. The Lals and Kumar and Khans and Khannas live a make-believe life where fans and followers of all age, beeline behind them. They get everything on the platter and also in multitudes; to the extent their rejects are more than the accepteds. This leads to one night stands and near-term affairs between the stars and the colleagues/fans/followings. Also, it is to be noted that these stars live long durations away from home and in their professions, they go thru tremendous levels of stress. These affairs temporarily take the stress away. By the time they realize that these were not waterfronts but only ‘mirages’, someone must have blown the whistle and the entire affairs would get the wash in the press, in the media and as gossip around dinner tables.

Coming back to the clean ambassadorial idols, l’affair de Tiger Woods had broken many hearts, for he had such a clean image among the public. Everyone wanted him to win and lead every course. Such was his image that very sensitive and clean corporates such as Omega Watches used him as its brand Ambassador. But lo and behold, the beans are spilled. It is said that he had not one, many affairs outside his marriage and today we watched the TV news of his wife Elin Nordegren consulting divorce lawyers. No sane person would ever have wished this for the Tiger.

What would happen to those people who, attracted by his clean image, with such empathy, had been praying for him to succeed al the time? He had broken their heart, for sure. Of all people, Tiger would be the last man they thought would fall into such traps.

When the idol falls, what happens? The trust is broken, the beliefs go to dogs and life loses its meaning. What else?

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Management (KM) is defined as the process of creation, capture, organizing, accessing and using knowledge to create customer/user value.

Knowledge and Information

There is a tendency among people to use the word knowledge and information interchangeably as if they are synonymous. Knowledge consists of Truths & beliefs, perspectives & concepts, judgments & expectations, methodologies & know-how. Knowledge is accumulated, organized, integrated and held over long periods. Information consists of facts, figures and data that are organized to describe a particular situation or problem. From the descriptions, it is very evident that knowledge and Information mean different things, though they are related.

The knowledge is of two types; Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.

Tacit knowledge:

Tacit Knowledge not easily visible or expressible and is highly personable. Subjective insights, intuitions, hunches, gut feeling etc form part of tacit knowledge. It is deeply rooted in an individual’s actions and experience.

Explicit knowledge:

Explicit Knowledge is formal and systematic; which can be expressed in words and numbers; which can be easily communicated and shared. Hard data, scientific formulae, patents, codified procedures, universal principle etc forms part of the explicit knowledge.

The interaction between these two forms of knowledge provides the understanding required for knowledge creation, elicitation and capture

Why knowledge management is required in organizations?

In an intense, open, global and dynamic world environment, new ideas and processes are increasingly becoming focal point of competition. Organizations able to reach the users faster more efficiently with products and services that are well matched with the needs of the consumer benefit from competitive advantage. Thus an organization’s ability to learn and innovate faster than the competition may be the greatest sustainable competitive advantage. This underlines the utmost requirement of knowledge management in organizations & companies.

When does it become necessary to have knowledge management in place?

• When the employees leave, what percentage of knowledge of the organization goes out with them?
• How quickly can expertise be assimilated in a new organization?
• How can organizations reap big returns without reinventing the wheel every time?
• When organizations undergo re-structuring, can it be ensured that the knowledge does not disappear with it?
• When expanding the businesses, can it be done without losing the organizational culture, core values, systems & knowledge?

If these questions frequent in the mind, it is proof that organization severely need knowledge management in place.

Knowledge Management Process:

• Create new knowledge
• Capture tacit knowledge in explicit form (make individual knowledge available across organization)
• Organize knowledge (classify, categorize, store, retrieve & maintain knowledge)
• Access knowledge (making knowledge available to the requester)
• Use knowledge (in work activities, decision making and other opportunities)

Role of Information Technology in Knowledge Management:

Information forms an integral component of Knowledge. Therefore, it is essential to understand the usage of technology in the knowledge management practices. Information technology plays a vital role in capturing, organizing and retrieving and sharing knowledge. IT and the digital nervous system (IT hardware, software, connectivity & applications) has come to stay as the real means of information & knowledge creation, capture, managemnt & sharing. Without IT, Information & knowledge manageent would have stayed at its primitive level. A prime example of this case would the Genome project in which DNA structure was revealed in the ‘book of life’ It was all about concurrent and collaborative research happening in laboratories located in almost all continents being accessed and shared by the scientific community in such a fast pace that the whole project got over successfully almost five years before the scheduled time of its end. And what a breakthrough research it was!

Critical Success Factors in Knowledge Management

• Have a knowledge sharing culture in organization
• Have a proper document management system in place
• Have dedicated knowledge people
• Have a measurement system for KM success.

How to measure the success of KM

It is difficult to measure as it is quite new, but look for trends in:

• Reduction in response time to user queries
• Greater clarity of approach in problem solving
• Reduction in normal innovation cycle and thus time to market
• Saving of labour hours
• Saving of Investment

The successful enterprise of tomorrow will be the one having a proper KM network in place and will be able to put knowledge at the frontiers of innovation and customer service

Myths about KM

• KM should be assigned to a separate Department - Untrue, Everyone in the organization must have a responsibility in promoting KM.
• KM means a good information system -Untrue, Information system is just a tool to ensure success of KM. By itself, it is not KM
• Once initiated, KM will happen automatically- Untrue, KM needs continuous monitoring and nurturing.

Benefits of KM

• Reduction of paper handling and error-prone manual processes
• Reduction of paper storage
• Reduction of lost documents
• Faster access to information
• Online access to information that was formerly available only on paper, microfilm etc
• Improved control over documents and document-oriented processes
• Streamlining of time-consuming business processes
• Security over document access and modification
• Provide reliable and accurate audit trail
• Improved tracking and monitoring, with the ability to identify bottlenecks and modify the system to improve efficiency

Knowledge Management - Benifits to India:

• Better quality of technical education and therefore better employability
• Increase in literary rate of the country
• Bringing health facilities to the rural population
• Improving food production and post production efficiency
• Enormous saving in R&D spending
• Improving national and local governance
• Reduction in poverty, child labour and corruption

Conclusion

Knowledge Management emerged as a scientific discipline in early 90s. It was initially supported by only practitioners mostly in industries. Later, the ideas were taken up by academics and the pioneering institutions were Hitotsubashi University, Japan, Babson College & New York University. In 2001, Thomas Stewart, former editor at Fortune Magazine, published a cover story highlighting the importance of intellectual capital of organizations. Since its establishment, the KM discipline has been gradually moving towards academic maturity. The core components of KM include People, Processes, Culture, Structure & Technology. Varied schools of thought on Knowledge management exists today and once the KM discipline reaches academic maturity, we expect these to converge and then we would see highest levels of its proliferation, thereby bringing tremendous benefits and advantages to the practitioners.

CAT IIM 2009 - THE IIM WAY OF MANAGEMENT !

The Common Admission Test (CAT) for entrance into IIMs for MBA, beginning academic year 2009 had really gone into rough weathers with the online Prometric exam going haywire in almost all centres. Central HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had lambasted the way at which the horrible mistakes had been continuing for the past four days and had ordered an enquiry into the whole affair. The Online exam co-ordinating institute, IIM Ahmedabad’s Director Prof. Sameer Barua had accepted that the selection committee had erred in doing the whole process thru Prometric. The COO of Prometric had put the whole blame to some unknown virus. The passing the buck had started. Finally the villain will be the un-known Virus! The story will end there to everyone’s delight and all will live happily ever after. Only in India will such cases pass!

As a person associated in IT industry for close to 3 decades, I am convinced that the problems are not because of virus but due to capability issues of Prometric company. While it is the king in the Online exam sphere, I am sure the company would not have ever done any such mammoth test as CAT in its history. Without self assessing the capability to do, this huge task, to be done within the time frame and without doing any trial run, the company had fallen down due to the incapability of its systems to handle the load. For everything, now there is a virus to blame! As a tech company, Prometric must be ashamed of itself to blame the virus for the fiasco.

There is another animal behind the story and it is NIIT. Its competencies run in training and not in online examinations. I understand that it is NIIT the lead bidder of the case with infrastructure coming from Prometric. The expectation of success is way off the mark and it had been tested at the expense of hapless students.

Now let me tell you my experience. My daughter was a candidate to write CAT 2009. Her centre was SRM University Chennai. I had promised her to visit her at Chennai and take her to the exam centre which I did today. Her test time scheduled was today afternoon. Though the test starts at 3.30 pm, students were advised to report two hours before schedule which we did promptly. Since one has been reading about the difficulties that Prometric was facing from the d day, I have been following newspapers, CAT IIM web site, Prometric Website and their contact points about any change in the exam schedule. Having not seen or heard anything adversary only did I take the train from Cochin to Chennai to take my daughter to the test site.

Little did we anticipate that we were in for trouble! There were three batches of fifty students each to undergo the test. Two batches were admitted and the third batch was asked to wait. Wait they did endlessly. After about two hours, a person by name Albert Joseph, who claimed to be centre in-charge, called these waiting students and told them hat they had earlier sent s m s & email to these students about rescheduling their exams. It was an out and out lie. Had that been the case, the students should have been told so at the time they reported. The fact is that none of the students had received any s m s or email. At quarter to four PM they were asked to leave by being told that they would be informed the new schedule in the due course. Needless to add, my daughter was one of them.

I was standing aside watching the whole show. This person Albert, had no remorse about telling the hapless students to go way and expect for another communication. In fact he was full of arrogance and showing it off on the anxious students who were numb with shock. Just see this, in my daughters case she had bunked the regular studies to attend the test. The centre is located close to fifty kilometers away from the city. The frustrating experience could have added its own negative impact on the mind. I am sure it would be the same with all the affected students. When I went to talk to the centre in-charge, he avoided me totally telling that he has nothing to do with the parents!

Who is bothered in this country? The ministers, the educationalists or the academicians? No one! It is just another fiasco. That’s it. They are so used to such mess-ups. Everyone will simply pass the blame on others.

The famous IIMs again had proven that they are good at theory and not the practice. If they really were good at the practice, they definitely should not have let this happen. And let it continue for four succeeding days! How can anyone decide the whole online thing without ever testing it? The NIIT and the Prometric had over shown its capabilities to misguide the decision makers. Thus the first ever online CAT had turned into a huge failure with aspiring candidates all over the country suffering!

What do we call this fiasco? The ‘IIM way of Management’? You would all laugh I am sure, but I cannot, for I am an affected parent.

USING TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS FOR GROWTH & PROFITABILTY

Necessity of a Digital Nervous System (DNS)

With globalization resulting in extremely high competition, organizations are required to meet customer expectations before time, in order to delight them, so as to make the difference. To sustain and grow in the face of competition, today’s companies are required to be very fleet footed to respond to the demands of the market. Therefore, organizations require an infrastructure with built-in intelligence to respond to the market demands, on time. This is achieved through a combination of computers, telecom, software, connectivity and information utility devices. These in fact form the Digital Nervous System (DNS) of the organization. The center of this digital nervous system will be the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. With Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application and Supply Chain Management (SCM) application added to it, it gives the organization the necessary competitive teeth. Equivalent to a biological nervous system, DNS is a digital system built on a combination of hardware, software and connectivity; making it possible to receive a stimuli, process the same and trigger a response at the earliest. It is a digital process linking every aspect of an organization's thought and actions.

Why do Companies require ERP ?

Many corporates have information flow challenges due to lack of an integrated transaction information system in place.

An integrated transaction oriented information systems is concerned with the seamless flow of data among the business functions of the enterprise, resulting into improved administrative and operational efficiency in the organization. The absence of such systems in the enterprise may result in to following business challenges:

* High lead time in business processes
* High cycle time in business transactions
* High Inventory
* Poor utilization of financial resources
* Poor productivity
* High stock out etc.

The planning and control oriented information systems are concerned with improved coordination and collaboration among different business functions enabling enterprise to be more dynamic and intelligent in decision making. The lack of such systems may results into the following business issues:

* Poor utilization of enterprise capacities and resources
* Unsatisfied customers and suppliers
* Unable to handle competitiveness
* Poor flexibility in demand supply management
* Unable to plan growth and future etc.

Functional Modules of ERP Systems

Activities comig under functions of a company consists of functional module. Financial Accounting, Inventory management, Invoicing, HR management, Production planning, Costing, Maintenence management, Sales & distribution, Customer relationship management, Supply chain management etc are the examples of the functional modules. These functional modules are seamlessly integrated in an ERP package. The entire data of all these functional modules reside in a single database engine and therefore the organization does not suffer from data dis-integrity that normally happens due to multiple unconnected databases that normally exist with many functions of a company.

From a user prospective, an ERP package is all about a central database connected to the customer front end through tools (software technology) and rules (standards and benchmarks).

Expected Tangible Benefits of ERP Implementation

· Substantial reduction in Inventory
· Substantial improvement in manpower and machines productivity
· Reduction in financial close cycle
· Improvement in cash management
· Reduction in wastage and improvement in its management
· Reduction in transaction cost of management

Expected Intangible Benefits of ERP Implementation

· Improvement in customer responsiveness
· Improvement in order management
· Improvement in production planning based on forecast received from sales
· Materials planning generated from the system to optimize inventory levels.
· Automation of the import process with item valuation

· Online availability of the inventory and its valuation, leading to visibility of both raw material and finished goods inventory at all stages
· Product wise tracking of costs and revenue with consolidation of financial information
· Integration of cost and financial books, elimination of the need for reconciliation between the two, improves the account transactions.
· Real time tracking of material price and usage variances, efficiency variance.


Points to ponder:

· Automating what is being done manually is not an ERP implementation.
· ERP implementation is all about implementing a centralised application package to use data intelligently to arrive at informed scientific decisions.
· Reputed ERP packages have many global benchmarks & standards (rules) available in it. Applying it intelligently for organization benefits it a lot.
· Please ensure localization (local taxes, statutory rules etc) possibility in the ERP package.
· Please look for ERP packages with concurrent license. Versus named license, concurrent license offers tremendous cost advantage (saves up to 2/3rd of the cost).
· Look for a package which is easy to use.
· Look for a package which does not call for installing an entire new IT hardware infrastructure (saves cost)
· ERP implementation brings tremendous change management in the organization. Please prepare the management and staff through training and orientation to face the changes.
· ERP implementation is achieved through a top down drive approach. If the CEO is not involved in the organizational change management, it could come a cropper.
· A senior officer with the required level of empowerment needs to be made as the responsible co-ordinator of the implementation. He should have easy access to all functions and its heads for smooth ERP implementation.
· Be prepared to experiment by applying global benchmark in your business practices. You could gain tremendously here.
· If it is deemed as a onerous task by the company, go for ERP implementation in phases. Take up easy implementable functional modules first and go for complex functional modules later in phases.
· To phase out the budget, go for minimum concurrent licenses at the beginning and increase the same over the time, as per the requirement. This allows easy investment in phases.

The post is made to advise corporates and organizations on the importance of applying technology within it for being more customer focused, more process oriented and to avail the benefits of incorporating global standards in its business process. Once upon a time, ERP packages stayed only within large multi and transnational corporates those of who availed the rich benefits that it offered. Now it is the turn of the SMEs. SMEs are playing a greater role in the economy of countries. Therefore time has come for the SMEs to implement such technology solutions so as to benefit from it to meet the business objective of growth and profitability. From leveraging IT, companies are today consolidating IT for profitability and growth. Companies that are not leveraged on technology will get pushed aside. It is time the CEOs realized this and go for incorporating appropriate technology solutions for taking his company forward.

OBAMA & NOBEL PRIZE; A CASE OF HOW CAN ONE GETS FIXED

When the news broke out about three days back about the President Barack Obama being chosen as the winner for Nobel Prize for Peace for this year, the first reaction was that of disbelief. It looked like too much too soon. My wife Shali commented; ‘yes, that fixes him’. It was then I ever thought of that perspective.

I had read many books and write ups in the past on how the Nobel committees function. What level of aspirations does it has and how it lets its awards move world opinions and how the award positions people and countries. While from outside it could look like a plain and simple merit based award deliberation, it has to be understood that there is much more to it than that.

Let us come back to Barack Obama. Does he deserve a Nobel Prize for peace? Many comments are still reserved. However suffice to stay that he indeed has the potential of a Nobel Prize winner. His views on peace, liberalism, gender, colour, equity, inclusivity etc are very laudable. After about 8 years of the rule of the Bush Junior, USA had really been tottering on many areas. To add to the agony, there is also the global meltdown that had vanished financial empires and brought the country and its citizens to pits. Most of the above were the result of actions by the yester year’s Republican presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan. Yes, Obama had indeed brought the change initiative and thereby boosting the hope of US citizens.

In the last 9 months of his Presidency in the US, had Obama done all those actions that had resulted in global peace? Say, had he withdrawn the US military from Iraq & Afghanistan and brought peace there? Had he brought permanent truce between Israel and Palestine? Or because of his efforts and pleading, had Al Qaeda and other major guerilla fronts put down its arms? Had he mobilized the war torn refugees of Africa to a better future? Had he made countries including Iran stop its atomic energy/bomb quest? What had he done so as to receive this coveted accolade?

In fact, the current situation is not that rosy for President Obama. Public support for him is dwindling rapidly. From a popularity rating of more than eighty per cent, it is now hovering around the fifties. He still has not been able to address the American health policy and set it right. The American economy has not come back to its original self –in fact it continues to be far from it-

If you had seen him on the TV on the day of him hearing of receiving the Nobel Prize, he himself was shocked. His eyes said that he never expected it. His reactions were that of the same disbelief that you and I had, when we heard the news first!

Unlike other US Presidents and some world leaders of the past, Obama may not have done the behind the scene activities to get the Nobel Prize for Peace. He truly may not have any expectation of the same and was in the midst of the challenges of managing American economy and health policy. His biggest worries would then have been regaining the popularity rating that he had lost. Lo & behold, there falls the Nobel Peace Prize into his hands!

So now let us revert to the intricacies behind the Nobel Prizes. Why had the committee decided to give it way to Obama? Of course it knew that if there is one world leader who can achieve something on the peace front, it is Barack Obama. Though he had not achieved any of the things that he has set forth to achieve in the peace front, the committee would have felt him slowly slipping away from his dreams and commitments towards the same. And when there is nobody around to take the mantle, it would have felt the necessity to bring him back to his commitments in a manner that he cannot escape from it. Yes, the Nobel Committee had fixed Obama with the Nobel Prize. Does he have any option now? He has been set up for good.

Let us watch for the developments to evolve. And let us also see how the Nobel Peace Prize sits on his head. Amen!

WINNING INTELLIGENCE

Several years of working with people gives me a perception that there could be yet another form of intelligence, that can be named ‘Winning Intelligence’. It is based on some simple observations as well as review of scientific research in human behaviour.

During my days of employment, I had come across Ms. Ragini Gupta, a smart, conscientious, industrious and caring girl in the marcom department of the company that I worked. In spite of these qualities, she never got invited to parties and get-togethers conducted by her friends and colleagues. When checked, I was told that Ragini had a ‘fiery temper’ and she was an ‘angry woman’. Nobody wanted to interact with her and be with her. Such a caring an industrious girl but she was alienated by her colleagues because of her occasional ‘fiery temper’

The other day my wife told me the story of her neighbor Anand Menon, a gifted kid, creative and intelligent. He was such a dream child and every mother wanted him to be her son. But late in life, she found Anand making a living out of repairing electrical appliances in his apartments. What happened, she enquired. She was told that Anand snapped when his father walked out of his house before he could complete his school.

In another company there was this brilliant accountant, Ajit Kumar who had an IQ 0f 160+. But whenever promotion came, he was passed over. Because, he was perceived to be a selfish fellow by his colleagues.

These few, out of the easily observable several other instances, denote that inability to manage negative emotions can cause the downfall of people - regardless of learning, knowledge, or intelligence. What we notice in such events around can be verified by review of actual research also.

A study by US Navy had revealed that most effective leaders are warmer, outgoing, emotionally expressive, dramatic and sociable.

Studies in retail segment had found that a store manager’s ability to manage feelings and stress of his sub-ordinates is directly related to net profit, sales per sq ft., sales per employee etc.

A survey on buyers found that apparel sales reps. were valued primarily for their empathy. The buyers reported that they wanted reps that could listen and understand what they wanted.

In a research at insurance major, it was observed those new salesmen who were optimists sold 37% more insurance in their first 2 years than did pessimists. When the company hired a special group of individuals who scored high on optimism but failed the normal screening, they outsold the pessimists by 21% in the first year and 57% in the second year.

Organizations in the selection process usually give high priority to intelligence - in the form of academic brilliance and relayed cognitive and intellectual abilities. These kinds of attributes are not connected to any social and emotional aspects and therefore do not help individuals in managing people - a critical requirement of career progress in organizations.

What is Intelligence?

Out of the several definitions of intelligence, I consider the one by David Wechsler, the American psychologist, the most appropriate one - ‘the aggregate capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment’. In effect, Wechsler attributed critical importance to ‘cognitive abilities’, though.
Perhaps, Ragini Gupta, Anand Menon, and Ajit Kumar acted purposefully and thought rationally. Yet, they might have missed the component of ‘dealing effectively with the environment’ - and our environment is nothing but other human beings. This ‘dealing effectively with environment’ is the critical requirement of life and work - especially, in the contemporary world of privatized, globalize, open market economy.

How do we manage with our negative emotions?

Taking clue from Wechsler’s definition, it seems that we need to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively - with our own emotions, especially the negative kind.

Acting Purposefully

The properties of negative emotions are powerful enough to block the progress of one’s life and career. It over-shadows even academic brilliance and job performance competencies. Fear, anger, rage, jealousy, frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression etc are some of them. These emotions when taken into the head result in spontaneous, irrational decisions, and actions that mess up one’s life and work.

If an individual has a strong purpose to succeed in life and work, almost any negative emotion is likely to become insignificant. Most of the detrimental emotions are actually reserved for manifestation before other people. If nobody is around, to whom one would demonstrate her emotions? It is likely that the very basis of emotions is created out of certain probabilities of expectations and behaviours vis-à-vis ‘others’.

It is not about direct ‘suppression’ of emotions. Suppressed emotions manifest later in life in the form of health challenges such as migraine, asthma, palpitations, BP, ulcer, arthritis, depression, mental aberrations etc. And these are extremely dangerous for one’s health.Instead, it is about having a ‘purpose’ in life and work, a clarity about one’s role and responsibility if existence. It is reported that a snake and rat would hold on to the same piece of wood floating in flooded water. That is when a common enemy comes, rivals become friends. Similarly, a higher purpose would mitigate the seriousness of self-defeating or ‘other-defeating’ emotions.

Think Rationally

‘Acting purposefully’ involves accepting the existence of others too, to see things and phenomena from the others’ perspective. For instance, nobody gets wild with a drunkard or a mentally challenged individual, even if he injures or intimidates you. Because, you ‘understand’ his condition. It is called ‘empathy’. Empathy makes us understand other’s emotions. This will give us a service orientation to recognize other’s un-stated needs and concerns and also the ability to read undercurrents of emotion and political realities of a group.The choice and decision to act purposefully would naturally inspire us to ‘think rationally’, to become ‘adaptive’, to develop self-initiative, attending to responsibilities, to improve oneself, and in displaying trustworthiness to others. In fact, intelligence is referred to as the ability to ‘adapt with the environment’. Adapting with the environment, as mentioned earlier, is adapting with relationships. Without proper relationships life and work is near-impossible in today’s world than ever before. Adapting with others involves the ability to help the development of others, open communication, resolving conflicts, practicing team work, and by developing leadership abilities.

Nevertheless, it would involve a certain degree of suppression of emotions.
To take the impact of emotions on our body, we must have a healthy body lest the body would be affected and that would result in our health going down. It is therefore important to care for one’s body. Physical fitness can reduce the impact of emotions on the body. To acquire emotional wisdom, keeping the body fit is absolutely important.We should build upon the emotional muscle every day by taking time to focus on emotional experiences. Slowly we should go through the emotions that we feel and by doing so, we must master them. Practicing is the key. It is something similar to swimming. The more you swim and learn, the better the swimmer you are!By opening your heart to others, you can apply empathy in social interactions. Forever, create an attitude of gratitude in you. We should be thankful to the world and its inhabitants for making our life worth living.ConclusionThus, we may try to re-conceptualize Wechsler’s definition of intelligence: ‘the aggregate capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally, “in order to deal effectively with the environment of people”.

The very purpose of intelligence itself is to facilitate survival and sustenance. Unfortunately, the very activities of survival and sustenance have assumed a high-competition ‘game’. Perhaps, an inevitable consequence of the very intelligence of human beings. The process of learning and knowledge development is a matter of conventional intelligence. But in order to take advantage or to reap the benefits of that learning and knowledge, we need yet another ‘orientation’ to intelligence. An intelligence to win our purpose. Of courses, it is not about defeating others. At least to ‘win over our own emotions’ that tend to defeat our own purposes - great or simple.

A VISIT TO ROME - THE ANCIENT EUROPEAN POWER CENTRE

As a part of the incentive conference organized by our principals M/s. Toshiba Corporation, I could visit Rome for about 4 days during the first week of September 2009. Though we could have flown directly to Rome from Mumbai, due to negotiated rates, the travel was by Swiss Air that took us to Zurich first and then to Rome, thereby adding a minimum of two and half hours of travel time, and by increasing our travel weariness to that extent.

Having read a lot about Rome & Vatican and seen many movies and TV programs on the same, one was very happy and anxious to see Rome which was the seat of art, literature and culture of the entire ancient and medieval Europe. This is not to speak about the territorial control that Rome exerted on almost the entire south west Europe and northern Africa that was touching the Mediterranean Sea during the time.

It was in the end of summer that we landed at the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport of Rome in the morning. We haven’t noticed any Swine flu precautions in the airport. People moved around freely and it was next to impossible to find anyone with a mask on his face. Everyone of us (since all of us were of the male variety – coming from sex starved conservative India) had our eyes fixed on the upper portion of the female anatomy of the travelers as it was found to be abundantly open and bouncing around non-challengingly. It was a treat every one enjoyed albeit the shame that it carried. The westerners dress that way and they have no qualms about it. It is their style, it is their culture! Who are we to question? So we did the best; we simply enjoyed the sight of it.

Rome is a city where everyone in spite of gender, smokes plenty.

As we drove to the city from the Airport, the first thing that hit us was the spread of the city with lots of space around the buildings. Also, the buildings were not that very tall. In the modern part of the city the height must have gone up to 12 floors whereas at an average, the buildings were 4 to 5 floor tall. These buildings have lots of area around it. To an outsider, this gives a sense of peace that was delivered by the space.

Our guide very proudly announced that Rome was the largest city of the ancient world with a living population of more than a million even during the end of B.C. That was very interesting news. An active metropolis two millennium back, Rome would have been such a place that gave earning to the entire European populace to come down and settle there. There had been plenty of stories of the bewitching Mediterranean weather that had attracted a bevy of people to cities and towns located on its shores.

The roads are very good but traffic jams are a usual sight. Unlike India, the jams do not result in things to come to a grinding halt. Even in jams, the traffic moves. The city has very good transport systems. It has buses, trains, trams and taxis plying in it, the taxis are very expensive though. Another observation that hit one as he travels into the city was the size of the cars. Almost ninety percent of cars were the ‘hatch back’ types and not the sedan models. Secondly, small cars are plenty. One saw the two door two seater car called SMART in abundance. Manufactured by Merced Benz, this car, while it is so small, is an extremely modern driving device giving excellent driving comfort. Smart is an acronym for Swatch Mercedes ART. The cost of the SMART car is about twelve thousand Euros and that comes to above INR eight lakhs. The perennial traffic jams must have driven the Italian car designers to make hatch back and small cars rather than the Sedan models that we see all around the world. Most of the cars are European models with Italy’s own Fiat & Alpha Romeo in good numbers. I could see very less percentage of Japanese cars in Rome. It is commonly said that Romans are the worst among European drivers, but I found them very modest when compared to the Indian drivers. One could also see plenty of two wheelers, particularly scooters. Italy is the birth place of Vespa and Piaggio; two of the world’s oldest two wheeler companies.

We stayed at the Sheraton Roma. Ours hosts Toshiba knew about the unpalatability of Italian food for an Indian and hence through an internal arrangement with the hotel, could get Indian foods served to us with the help of the Maharaja Hotel owned by an enterprising Punjabi in Rome. We had continental breakfast every day and only on the final day, an Italian dinner, which most of us ate very little.

On the first day evening we went for the city tour and saw the famous Colosseum from outside. It is indeed is a huge structure! It is now featured as one of the seven wonders of the word through an Internet pole. Built in eight years and inaugurated in AD 80, The Colosseum was constructed as an amphitheatre to be used for entertainment in those days. In the morning hours the show was that of the beasts whereas in the afternoon, the Gladiators performed in it. It could accommodate between sixty and eighty thousand people in the stands. The shows were free but there were tickets meant for audience that were based on their social status. The shows were very wild and violent with beasts and men killing each other, enjoyed by the audience that included the emperors, aristocrats and the commons. Perhaps it was an aggressively violent society that indulged in killing and arson aplenty. The very thought gave me cold shudders! Adjoining the Colosseum, there were the ruins of the stadium where charioting contests were performed. Though there are only very few remnants left, this stadium could accommodate about two hundred thousand people! By any measure, it must have been truly grand. Around the Colosseum is the old city which actually a walled city. The buildings were neatly constructed and the roads had very good geometry which I found very impressive. Rome was originally built on seven hills and the emperors and the aristocrats stayed in the palatine hills which was located at the centre of other six hills. Another attraction was the still standing ruins of the huge Sauna bathing systems built in ancient times for the people to take bath and indulge in swimming etc. Very imposing construction it is! Drawing water through it could have been the ancient engineering feat!

To Indians, Rome is a costly city. Though we were taken to huge shopping arcades, the purchases were very limited. Leather and Shoes are good attraction for shoppers in Italy.
The second day was fully spent ion conferencing. There were plenty of interactive sessions. It looks like Toshiba India had taken a large target for the coming years and they made us work hard to arrive at strategies that could help them meet the numbers. Good, the more; the merrier. The day ended up in Gala Dinner with Belly dancers and tap dancers entertaining us. Just before our Punjabi crowd among us started getting into their dancing shoes, I went to sleep.


The next two days had been sight seeing only. We went to the Colosseum again to see the inside. I must tell you it is huge imposing structure where everything was thought of (Like how to bringing in the beasts, using lifts to lower them into dungeons to be released just before the show. Like making canopy with the leather shade at the top so that the sun doesn’t disturb the audience sitting on the top. Truly innovative designs of the then times!)

I had interesting conversations with our guide. Though it was Greece that started democracy in ancient Europe, it was in Rome it grew visibly in large size. Soon after the Roman Kingdom that existed between eighth century and sixth century BC, from BC 508 till BC 27, Rome had sustained democracy and it was called Roman Republic. From 27 BC, Rome went on to become an Empire that was started by Julius Caesar and consolidated by Augustus Caesar & Ocatvius Caesar. However there had been instances of the common man becoming Emperor in Rome (It is not like the blood lineage as we see in Mughal dynasty etc). For instance, the builder of the Colosseum, Emperor Vespasius did not come from any aristocracy and he was called, in the then terms, a Novus Homo (new man - the first in his family to serve the Roman government). All through these period (Kingdom, Republic and Empire) Rome was growing and it went on to occupy more than half of Europe, lots of Africa, including some parts of Asia (mainly the Middle East; Syria, Baghdad etc). In the nineteenth century, it was King Victor Emmanuel II who unified the kingdoms of Italy and assumed the title ‘King of Italy’ on 18 February 1861. We could see huge edifices built by these men & kings of the past.

St. Peter who was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ who arrived in Rome in the early part of the First century AD with an intention to spread the teachings of Christ. He stayed in Rome and tried but was not accepted by the then Empire Nero and was crucified upside down by the King’s men in AD 64. In spreading Christianity in Europe, beginning from Rome, another saint; St. Paul assisted St Peter. Later St. Paul was beheaded for indulging in acts unworthy of a Roman Citizen who used to worship Gods such as Venus, Jupiter etc and of course the Emperor. Though not allowed, Christianity was spreading all over the empire but only in in fourth Century AD through a promulgation, the then Roman King; Constantine I allowed religious freedom that helped Christianity grow visibly in the Kingdom. And soon after that, Roman kingdom embraced Christianity.

Wherever St. Peter was buried, a Church was constructed and it became the pilgrim centre for the Christians. Today the City state of Vatican where St. Peter’s church is situated is the head quarters of the Catholic Christians (the largest in number among Christianity) of the world, headed by the Pope. Among Catholics, St. Peter is officially accorded the status as the first Pope. Vatican is a walled city inside Rome. It has a population of about eight thousand and the beauty is that all its citizens are unmarried.

We visited the museum, the Sistine Chapel and the St Peters Basilica in Vatican. The museum was good but it is the Sistine chapel that is the main attraction. The chapel is a personal church of the Pope, where the great artists of the Renaissance period had contributed immensely by painting its walls and ceilings. While all of them were famous and considered the best in their trade, it was Michael Angelo who did the most prominent paintings. Initially he painted the ceiling for about 4 years of which the creation of Adam by the God is considered to be the best. The iconic image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam is now being reproduced in countless imitations across the world. Here his series of nine paintings shows God's Creation of the World, God's Relationship with Mankind, and Mankind's fall from God's Grace.

Three decades later Michael Angelo painted the largest wall of the Sistine chapel. It was the ‘Last Judgment’. The Last Judgment is a depiction of the second coming of Christ. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ surrounded by his saints. It is said that Michael Angelo was not happy to do the job and he was pressurized by the Cardinal to so. Therefore, he painted the last judgment with Jesus, Mary and the saints all naked. Years later the genitalia in the fresco were covered by another artist. Officially Michael Angelo was a sculptor and not a painter. He wasn’t happy to do the painting and was cajoled to do so; however whatever he had created is the master piece of the world. Every day Sistine chapel is visited by an average of fifteen thousand people to see the great painting on the ceiling and the wall. The world will never forget Michael Angelo.

In the year 1995 the painting of Michael Angelo underwent cleaning. Since it was sponsored by a publishing house they had got a ban order from the Pope on photographing the paintings so that they could make good the money spent by selling the reproductions themselves. This is the commercialism of the divinity!

After you come out of the Chapel, you go to see the most famous St Peters Church. It indeed is a huge edifice. It is said the St Peter’s church has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world. It is a marvelous building. The construction of the present basilica was started in the year 1506 and was completed on November 1626, after demolishing the original Church that was built in the fourth century. The altar is built over the burial pit of St. Peter. The dome of the basilica is the most dominant feature of the skyline of Rome. As said, it is the largest church and covers an area of 5.7 acres with a capacity to accommodate over 60,000 people. Undoubtedly, St Peters basilica is one of the holiest sites of Christendom of the Catholic tradition. What is interesting to note here also is the fact that Michael Angelo was deeply involved in the architecture of the Basilica!

Once you come outside the basilica, it is the huge St. Peters square before you. Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peters Basilica and it is a huge area that can accommodate more than three hundred thousand people. During special occasions such as Christmas, Easter etc, the place will be filled with devotees from all over the world to pray and get the direct blessings from the Pope.

Standing on the top of the façade of the St. Peters basilica, one would get a complete view of not only the square but also the receding skyline of Rome and it said to be one of the most enchanting sights.

We did a lot of walking around Vatican and Rome during the four days. It has been a gratifying moment to visit one of the most historic cities of the world and see the huge edifices that stood the test of time, that represented the Monarchy, Oligarchy and of course, Autocracy. The disintegration Rome saw the rise of Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire and Arab Islamic Empire. Come to think of it, Rome had been the inspiration of other Empires that came after it. To see such an ancient powerful historic place, people flock to it. So, one of the most important revenue earners of the country is tourism. As we have seen allover the world, whether it is Kerala, India or Saudi Arabia, spirituality combines very well with tourism in making money and Rome is no exception.

BUSINESSMEN & QUOTATION GANGS

The death of Paul Muthoot, Executive Director of Muthoot Group of Companies and son of George Muthoot, its Chairman, did prompt me to post this blog.

The whole week was agog with the news of Paul Muthoot’s death. Various theories were postulated by media before the police started coming out with its version of the investigation. As usual, the police and the media are at variants with each other. The media always is one up there and it went about the inaction of the police on the criminal gangs, the political patronage that these gangs receive, the life style of the gang members etc and pointed fingers at the criminal-police-politician nexus that is quiet prevalent in Kerala. Police on the other hand, look stifled. It seems they cannot tell the complete truth and whatever they swallow is kept for nullifying the politician effect that could happen to their career sooner or later.

Some thoughts are very disturbing.

Paul Muthoot, the Director of a leading Finance company of the state and the country with a turn over of more than INR 4000 crores and with pan India presence, was traveling with gangster Kings! In fact he was driving the gangster’s car just before he was stopped and stabbed to death. The personalities in question are well known in criminal circles, having gone through trials and punishment. It looks like they were proclaimed offenders by the Trivandrum District collector but were not apprehended due to their closeness to powers that be. What has the businessman to do with gangsters? In all probability, he should be using them. Knowing the businesses that the group is in, it might have needed the services of the gangsters, from time to time.

Why do businessmen use gangsters? One is due to the fact that certain things can only be solved by muscle power. It is also due to the fact that Indian judiciary is so slow on defaulters and the chances of getting the justice delivered at the right time never come, so the businessmen take the recourse through the gangsters. However, is it right to set aside judiciary and get things done through muscle power and criminal gangs? It is a mute question. I am sure every one will have an opinion to make.

The freedom with which these gangsters roam around the state and conduct the affairs brings shudder to any law abiding citizen. There had been plenty of instances of them killing the victims, killing wrong victims, bringing terrible harm to the innocent bystanders, engaging in inter gang fights and the associated killings etc that goes unabated. Even if there is investigation and actions by the law enforcement agencies, it gets quashed by the patrons of the gangs with their political and police connections. For example, the two gangsters who traveled with Paul Muthoot are yet to be apprehended though they are very much around. It is a clean evidence of the protection from the bigwigs that they get.

A very young life ended thus, much before it began to bloom, just because of the wrong connections that he had. He could very well have avoided the connections and lived peacefully, contributing to wealth creation and distribution.

Look, living a clean decent life has its merits. That is something which eluded Paul Muthoot.

The connections really matters!

WANTED, SERVANT LEADERS

In its evolution, the world had gone through many forms of economic theories and its application. In the modern world, the communist theory that is centered on socialism caught the attention of intelligentsia and they tried to carry it forward, only to fall to prey to the autocratic tyrants who eventually controlled the community. History is replete with many cases; be it China, Russia, Germany, Argentina, Zimbabwe or the CIS nations. In the process, communism moved away from the community’s welfare into the perceived socialistic wisdom of the autocratic leader who thought of himself as the most righteous and the last word in every thing. From the community centered socialism, communism churned out the worst form of dictatorship and people who had trodden the path got disillusioned. Eventually, with the splintering of USSR, communism bit dust.

Parallel to the same was the Western European and North American thoughts on capitalism that centered on free market, lesser controls, competition, quality, meritocracy etc. This world was controlled by the supply & demand equation. As it progressed through the Thatcher’s, the Reagan’s, the Bush’s and the rest, controls eventually went away completely and greed took over. Money became paramount in life. Money power led to muscle power with which the mighty ones started lording over the under privileged. With the system being what it is, the mighty ones had all the opportunities available to plunder & loot and amass great wealth, either legally or illegally. Whereas in the beginning of the twentieth century the top ten richest nations were only nine times wealthier than the bottom ten poorest countries, today the chasm had increased multifold, to the extent that the top ten richest nations are 130 times richer than the lowest ten poor nations!

“We live in a time of profound change. Science and technology continue to expand our ability to understand and change life. Economies and societies can no longer be thought of separately, for they are intertwined in a global community. Our actions as individuals and as societies affect not just ourselves but our global neighbors. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we contemplate and understand our relationship between each other and the impact of our actions on each other as individuals, as countries and as inhabitants of our planet”, observes the Dalai Lama the Nobel peace laureate. “Be it in politics or science or finance, honesty is important in every line of work. Greed is the source of economic crisis”, he adds further.

Greed led to highest levels of economic upheaval around the world. Though it was fully man made, it had gone beyond man’s control now. And the powerless people, who are marginalized and suppressed, started looking at the outcome as fate accompli. Poor souls, they could do nothing about it!

Today we live in a world where both communism and capitalism had failed considerably. Where had things gone wrong? What led the world to the present plight?

In our societies, human values had changed way to economic theories. Considerations got monetized. And that led to a complete shift from a considerate society to that of a selfish society. We understand that it all happened due to man’s selfishness and lack of concern for his fellow being. When man lost the human thread, the miseries followed.

What is this human thread that binds human beings together? It is the thread that gives the leader - the led, the husband - the wife, to the father- the son, to the individual – the family and to the man - his neighbor. The major constituents of the thread are love, compassion and empathy. When these elements disappeared, the thread weakened. Love and compassion gave away to selfishness and greed. Empathy gave way to apathy. Man started looking at man as enemy. The concern for the neighborhood, the society, the state and country started thinning out. Man got so engrossed to become totally unto himself.

In the olden times there was a concept of servant leadership. Leaders took it as their duty to protect and progress the poor and the downtrodden. Gandhi said, “Service to the poor has been my heart’s desire and it had always thrown me amongst the poor and enabled me to identify myself with them.” He called the dalits as Harijan (God’s children) and went about with their emancipation. In spite of his best try, nothing significant happened in our society. Post his death, all such endeavors got watered down and finally it just became lip service. Though the country progressed and the percentage of below poverty line (BPL) cases came down, a significant lot still remain under BPL, even after sixty two years of gaining independence. There are the ‘rag to riches stories’ of the Ambanis and the like but there still exists untouchability, casteism and societal ostracism in India, in abundance.

Guru Gobind Singh, the last Sikh Guru said “Sardar Sirdar” (he who sacrifices the most is a leader). Today we see people of the underprivileged class in Punjab fighting on issues of suppression, exploitation and social ostracism from the very Sikhs. The spirit of sacrifice, of giving and of protecting the children of lesser Gods has stopped even within Sikhism.

Katha Upanishad says “Tesham sukham saswatam. Tesham shanti saswati” (Infinite happiness and infinite peace come to those who see the Self within and serves the Self in all beings). A society which was originally bound by the teachings of Vedas, the Upanishads, the Geeta and the epics such as Ramayana & Mahabharata, had moved away from its tenets and is fully immersed in an ‘any which way of economic progress’ and wealth creation and is not worried about equality, inclusivity, brotherhood & peace that was advised by great teachers such as Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhava and the like.

According to Kautilya’s Raaj Dharma, the best king is one in whose kingdom women and shudras (meaning, the lowest in society) do not have tears in their eyes. While shedding crocodile tears about the poor and downtrodden, the ministers, politicians and our leaders have their eyes fully fixed only on amassing wealth and own personal gains. The exceptions are very few that could be counted on the finger tip.

Post 1991, the corporates of the country had gone on overdrive to grow faster so as to catch up with the leading industrial power houses of the world. With its mind fully on competition and profitability, we have very few companies here worried about social obligation and responsibilities. What is the result? The corporates greatly pollute the country and the earth, exhaust our natural resources in a frenzied pace and indulge in jobless growth that only help the company chieftains and not an iota of the huge population the country has.

We feel that it is time for the servant leadership model to re-emerge very strongly in our society. With the welfare of the servants (the followers) as the prime focus in all spheres, bit it commerce, politics, academics or social, strong compassionate leadership has to emerge that would preach and practice inclusivity, progress & the welfare of every being.

Examples of servant leadership are plenty. Ram (Ramayana) is a good example of servant leadership. He had only the genuine welfare of his people in his mind. The word ‘Rama rajya’ is an outcome of that. In Bible, Noah is another example. Gotama the Buddha , Emperor Ashoka , Emperor Akbar of the Mughal Dynasty, Sri Chitra Tirunal Balaramavarma- the last reigning king of Travancore kingdom , King Bhumibol Adulyadej Rama the IX of Thailand are some other good examples of servant leadership. Being from Kerala and knowing its history, one can vouch the earning and love of King Sri Chitra Tirunal Balaramavarma for his subjects. While so many political parties here have been claiming it as their achievement to bring about high achievements in Human Development Index of the state, one has to bear in mind about the King’s endeavors in founding innumerable schools and hospitals for his subjects’ way back that led to this far reaching achievement in the state of Kerala.

Leading Indian management Guru Dr N.H. Athreya says: “Either as a strategy or as conviction, unless you subscribe to the spiritual reality of things, servant leadership cannot work. For it comes from the realization that all are children of God, and when serving mankind, you are serving God.”

The same thoughts must have echoed in the mind of the world’s leading Guru’s Guru Prof. C.K. Prahalad when he formed the management philosophy of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP). For the bottom of the pyramid is full of the suppressed, the outcasts and the marginalized. His heart went for them. Seeing their suffering and yet, seeing the potential of the BoP, he formulated theories and advised the corporates and the institutions of the world to do those activities that benefits the BoP. He advised organizations to benefit by benefiting the poor. He always thought for the marginalized to the extent that his only endeavor (though unsuccessful) as an entrepreneur was called ‘Praja” (Subject). His thoughts had led to many innovations in products, solutions and services delivered by leading companies. Nano car of the Tatas, e Choupal by the ITC and Sankara Netralaya at Chennai and many parts of Tamil Nadu are prime examples of the outcome of his calling.

In the act of mentoring, guiding and directing, we see divinity. It is all about seeing the self in others. Seeing the self in others with the spirit of empathy! Empathy delivers the virtuosity to man. Virtuosity is part of the divinity that we define.

Though already mentioned, the unstinted great efforts of Mahatma Gandhi for the resurrection of the Indian, was a classical case of servant leadership. Similar was the case of Abraham Lincoln in the United States of America.

The key to ethical, moral and compassionate behavior that is expected of a servant Leader is honesty. A servant leader cannot exist without honesty and that is the fundamental truth. Other related important attributes are integrity, humility, respect for others and the ability to shoulder the responsibility, even if it delivers pain.

In this twenty first century, we see that the world is poised to go through many catastrophes. Global warming, pollution, lack of drinking water, the spread of epidemic and pandemic diseases come to the top on the list. These, when combined with wars, terrorism and natural calamities; pose absolute threat to the continuation of humanity. When man worry only for himself (and not for his fellow beings), the impact of these catastrophes can become multifold. What could save the world from the brink of going under? First and foremost it is the love, compassion and concern that one could have for his fellow beings. When he gets up to help others with the spirit of love and compassion and when he look for the welfare of others with the feeling of empathy, he rises to become a true servant leader.

And, therein lie our hope for the future!

THE LEGACY OF PANAKKAD SYED MOHAMMEDALI SHIHAB THANGAL

Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, the President of Kerala Unit of India Union Muslim League (IUML) – normally called as ‘Muslim League’ – passed away yesterday at a private hospital in Malappuram due to cardiac arrest. He was buried in the presence of host of dignitaries today afternoon. It is reported that the burial was witnessed by huge crowd who had come from all parts of the state, braving heavy rains that has been lashing Kerala for the last week. That goes to prove his acceptability to people and the regard and reverence that they kept for him.

The whole day, the press and media had been full of Shihab Thangal. Most of the channels were competing with each other to show the events live throughout the day. Being such a current topic of top most importance to the state, every bit of information about him is being brought out. At this juncture it would be irrelevant for me to write all those things.

However I felt it necessary to post this blog to say about an important element of his personality. It is said that his family is the direct descendants of the Prophet. But he had never wanted to give it any level of divinity on him. In the back ground of men and women of many religions and sects wanting to show their divinity, I am deeply impressed by it coming from this noble person not to show it in any of his communications. He lived like a human being and impressed every one within and outside, to consider him as one. Such a display of restraint in thoughts and actions can only come from a person of high nobility. I salute him for that.

Another important trait that I would like everyone to know of him is the highest level of emotional intelligence that he possessed. There had been never an instance of reaction coming from him, howsoever extreme a situation that he had undergone. Even in his own party and community, there had been many instances of extreme reactions coming from people and leadership. Anger, rage and negativities never touched him. His face and body language always showed equanimity. His advices to his people and party, even during trying and volatile situations, were very saintly. Time had proven that all his advices and decisions had stood the test of time and proved to be the most appropriate ones. To maintain such a high emotional quotient is possible only for people of his legacy.

In these days of narrow, selfish politicking wherein every group is demanding its pound of flesh, come what may, here is a leader who had been revered by the leadership of all religions, all sects and all political parties. I would even go to say that among the Kerala leaders; only he could garner such a level of acceptability from all people and all leaders. That is the true greatness of Panakkad Shihab Thangal.

Though it is old age that took his life, one expected more life for him. Our country and State is in tremendous need of leadership of this type. Equanimous, emotion free leadership, full of compassion for the fellow being. Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, with the unique personality of tolerance, empathy, positivity, love, compassion and caring, led his people very well.

I pray for eternal peace for his noble soul. May his legacy live very long!

BUSINESS THE BILL GATES WAY

The New Indian Express of 26th July 2009 has in the headline, the statement made by our Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Sigh, exhorting India Inc. to emulate Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation. He said that Bill Gates is a unique business leader and while others have shown how to create wealth from knowledge, very few had worked as hard as Bill Gates to share the wealth with marginalized people. Obviously Manmohan Sigh was referring to Bill Gate’s attempt to help eradicate the Polio and HIV from the face of earth through the funding that he had done of hundreds of millions of Dollars to appropriate agencies and the funding of those NGOs in educating children from socio economic backwardness, over the past years. Bill Gates was here in India to receive the Indira Gandhi Peace Award from the President of India.

I really do not know if I could agree with our beloved Prime Minister. I feel that Mr. Singh got so enamored by Bill Gate so as to speak out as above, without really knowing Gates & his company. Or he would have just said it ornamentally (as every Indian usually do, without meaning any of it) to please Bill Gates, the richest man and the strongest philanthropist of the world.

Knowing a little about Microsoft would help us understand this person. It was built up by Bill Gates and associates with lots of passion. For a small company that was originally engaged in making Basic and Cobol compliers for the micro computers, Bill Gates realized the chance of a lifetime when he heard of IBM’s search to locate the man who developed the operating system (OS) for Apple computers, to write a similar one for IBM Personal Computers, way back in the early eighties. Having failed to locate the person who was holidaying somewhere in the Caribbean, IBM just accepted the advances made by Gates & company to write an OS fro the IBM PCs. All of us know the impact made by IBM PCs and IBM compatible PCs and the dependence of the world on it now. There was no looking back for Microsoft and Bill Gates. It grew into unassuming proposition and started controlling the software and IT market not only with the OS, but also by adding the productivity tools, internet tools, compilers, RDBMS and now of course, the Enterprise solutions.

Lots of water had flown under the bridge by now. Microsoft became the world’s largest software company and Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. But if you look at the monopolistic practices employed by Microsoft and the huge pricing that it had marked on its software products, one would realize that he was fleecing the customers by pricing his products at very high rates, without ever bothering about the affordability of the same by users, particularly belonging to the poor third world countries. For example, today to buy a PC, one need to spend only INR 12,000/- whereas to have a Microsoft Vista operating system, it would cost a minimum of INR 7,000/- (that is more than half the cost of the physical computer). The office productivity tool MS Office would cost anywhere close to INR 15,000/- to a buyer and so are the costs of other software from Microsoft.

A third world country such as India cannot afford these costs. After spending INR 12K, a customer has to spend almost INR 20 K plus to make it run with OS and software utilities! One finds it very highly unreasonable because it is un-affordable to many Indians.

And you knew the profits that Microsoft made in the last two decades. It was obscene! There were instances of the company’s net profit amounting to more than fifty percent of the turnover of the company. Yearly profits used to be more than US $ 25 billion and there were instances of all of the profits of the company being given away by the company as dividends. Who benefits, Bill Gates Of course, for he is the largest share holder of the company. No wonder he has all the money in the world to dole out as charity!

And then there is this question, is it charity or guilt money? I believe it is the latter. As an entrepreneur, I am definitely not against making profits. It is the selfishness and GREED that the companies show in amassing profits that I am against. And Microsoft is never an exception. Companies like these have no social consciousness. What prevails is utter greed. They fleece consumers with monopolistic products. And they show very roguish behavior in business.

If one goes by our PM’s praise of Gates, one has to surmise that our PM is approving the strategies made by companies such as Microsoft on poor nations like India through its monopolistic pricing. I find the praise very difficult to come from a compassionate person like Manmohan Singh who always clamoured for inclusivity & social justice. Additionally, Microsoft had played all sorts of games from in and outside the book to arm-twist the governments, authorities, hardware vendors and other software developers to accept its policies and tread its chosen path. By doing so, today every computer user is building walls around him that can only help Microsoft to become its captive vendor. When will such games ever stop?

The practice adopted by Microsoft to annihilate the competition has always been very brutal. Investigating this, two years back, the European Union and slammed a huge fine of US $ 1500 million on it. But will it ever learn? The company continues with all of its competition killing strategies, even now!

Would it not make a difference to Indians if a Microsoft OS is available for INR Rs.500/- and MS Office software at Rs.1000/-. I think so. This would have made more legal users of Microsoft in India, not to speak of the Software Piracy in the country coming down drastically. And of course, many users could escape the legal harassment that the company is putting them under. Our PM could have made a request like this to Bill Gates yesterday.

So what do companies like Intel, Microsoft and Oracle etc do. They price their products at unreasonable levels and then arm-twist poor countries and its denizens to fall in line. A small percentage of the profits so made by the company are doled out to causes like HIV, Polio etc. If any one looks at the PR blitzkrieg that accompanies all these, he would be amply convinced that even these charities are small baits thrown to catch the larger fish. You would realize that his eyes are on the 300 million Indians with huge purchasing capabilities and the burgeoning Indian corporates. All said and done, Bill Gates is an American and Microsoft is an all American company. Selfishness forms the core of Americans, particularly the American business. History had so many examples to prove the point. Vietnam, Iraq, Haiti, Pakistan, Gulf war, Arm Sales, Nuclear deals etc points us to the intent of the nation and its business houses.

In 1999, I had read this book titled “Business the Bill Gates Way” written by Des Dearlove (Capstone Publishing, ISBN 81-7310-123-X) and I would conclude by citing some findings on that. It says the secrets of doing business the Bill Gates way are:

* Be in the right place at the right time
* Fall in love with technology
* Take no prisoners (kill them all)
* Hire smart people
* Learn to survive
* Do not expect any gratitude
* Cover all bases
* Have small sized effective team, &
* Never take your eyes off the ball

For companies like Microsoft and chieftains like Bill Gates, business is war out there. And they perform it by doing all the killings and use means that are considered very un-ethical. They justify the means by citing the end. And in the end, the poor and third world countries such as India get this guilt money that is doled out as charity, making our leaders to accept it and award them and praise them.

It is just like that.

MICHAEL JACKSON

He is gone. In all the probability, he is a star now on the sky, a very bright one at that!

Last Monday was his funeral function at Los Angelos. Speeches, songs, prayers, it was a busy ceremony. With so many well known artistes and public figures attending the same. The gold plated casket carrying his body was in the forefront. With that as the witness, people went on speaking / reading / singing his praise. I was very impressed watching the whole show. Simultaneously, it was being watched by whole the world. How many of the dead ones get such a privilege?

Listening to the speakers about Michael Jackson was a great learning, I must confess. Speaker after speaker sang his virtues. Koby Bryant revealed that Michel Jackson was listed in the Guinness Book as the Pop star who did the maximum charity. Al Sharpton screamed a lot asking the world not to focus on the mess that Jackson had created but on the message of love that he had spread through his songs and performances. He also said that Michael Jackson was one of the pioneers to have gained the respect for the blacks (African Americans). The Tiger woods and Obamas must be grateful to Jackson, he said. Jackson interconnected the whole people of the world; the blacks, the whites, the Asians, the Africans and the Latinos thru his music and gave everyone the comfort, he reiterated. Between each line, he was getting huge applause from the audience.

Then there was his daughter Paris, who did an impromptu. She came on the stage and said Michael Jackson was the best daddy the in the world and she cried after that and the whole world cried with her. It was a touching moment. I too could not help weeping.

I am not much of a Jackson fanatic. In fact my attention to popular music is limited three four numbers, in all. However, one of it is written and sung by Jackson, along with others. “We are the world”…... Every time I hear it, it touches the raw nerve of mine and I become very emotional.

Michael Jackson indeed was a musical genius. History has very few like him. The euphoria of Elvis Presley was a similar one. There is connect between them. Jackson had an unsuccessful marriage with Presley’ daughter. Both at musical level and at performance level, Michael Jackson was way up. His moon walking gait is world famous.

What I fail to understand is why he became broke. For a man who had cut the maximum platinum disc in the worlds, where had all his money gone? He was scheduled to start a tour this month and taken huge advance from the sponsors. Then one had heard the fracas he has had with some Saudi princes. What a pity!

It would not be untrue to say Michael Jackson lived as an unhappy person. Health wise, it is said that he was always on medication, particularly the pain killers. It is even suspected that he died of an overdose the same. The child in him earned for much more than what reality was. And the child in him refused to grow up. The only place he was happy was the stage. What scintillating performances had he delivered! What mass hysteria had he created! Never repeatable by anyone!

To his fans he was God. He delivered the message of love, happiness and charity. But he lived unhappily, of course amidst all the affluences. With one scandal after another and through many failed marriages.

The legacy of Jackson is the music he had left behind. Inimitable, original scores! Truly awesome performances! He took Pop music to very high level. Unassailable by many! It would take very long for his memory fade away from people’s mind.

For all you know, he had left behind so much that his name would ever lastingly linger on Mother Earth.

But for now, he is one of the brightest stars on the sky.

THE BUREAUCRATIC SUPREMACY IN KERALA

An article that appeared today in the supplement of the vernacular Malayala Manorama on the industrial friendliness of Cochin had prompted me to post this mail. It says that as per the World Bank report “Doing business in India - 2009”, Cochin enjoys 16th position on industrial friendliness among 17 Indian cities cited in it. It is no surprise that Kolkotta comes last.

The primary reason attributed to Cochin coming among the last of the cities reviewed, is the bureaucratic supremacy. The report says that it would take minimum 41 days to complete the preliminary formalities of starting an industry in Cochin where as it is less than 30 days for the big cities such as Mumbai & Delhi. It goes on to say that it would take 224 days to actually start an industry in Cochin. The World Bank report is also critical about the taxation situation of Cochin. Notwithstanding the fact that IT helps to expedite the delays, Cochin’s utilization of IT in its industrialization front is very poor, the report points out. All these are due to the bureaucratic delays and their lack of empathy on industries and industrialists.

I had always maintained that it is due to the bureaucrats that industries are not coming up in Cochin & Kerala. Here in Kerala, unless and until proved otherwise, an industrialist or a businessman is a tax evader, a labor exploiter and a profiteering criminal. The bureaucrats never look at the industrialist and businessman as job provider, tax payer and wealth creator & distributor. In no part of the country and world have I seen such negative attitude from the part of the bureaucrats and government servants. One doesn’t relish meeting them and if ever he does it, his experience would be nothing to write home about. I write it with my personal experience. Once to a senior IAS officer of the government I pointed this fact and I got a retort from him “Who wanted you here? We didn’t ask you to invest here”.

A year back during a function at Kerala Management Association, the finance minister of Kerala, while inaugurating the same made a blanket statement that so many businessmen are evading tax in Kerala and he is here to catch them. Whatever is the element of truth in his statement, at least one expected him to be moderate in his views. Such statements do not encourage any prospective businessmen to invest in Kerala. With the implementation of VAT, and with the impending Good and service tax to become effective, the opportunity of those businessmen to evade tax would be very minimal. While I hope that those businessmen would behave, one also expects ministers & bureaucrats to maintain the decorum. It is time we all behaved well.

It has been proven beyond doubt that the mainstay of economic prosperity is entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurship to thrive, the State must be industry friendly. This calls for tremendous levels of behavioral change from the executives and bureaucrats of the State. These fundamentals are not going to change. What is required to be changed is the attitude and mindset?

The sooner it is, the better.

TALA CAUVERY - THE GENESIS OF RIVER CAUVERY

A month back, my brother and myself, along with our family went on a holiday to Coorg (Kodagu in Kannada) in Karnataka and stayed in Mercara (Medikere). On the top of a hill, the city still has the old world charm around it, with modernity creeping in slowly. Unlike the fast upcoming Munnar hill station in Kerala, one didn’t see the mushrooming of resorts and holiday homes here. Old buses, the Ambassador cars and the old shops are still there. Other than honey, coffee and spices, there isn’t much to shop here either.

We took time to travel to ‘Tala Cauvery’ where the river Cauvery originates. Cauvery has always been in news. It is the life line of people of two major southern states, Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. There had been many agitations, politicking and incidents about the sharing of waters of river Cauvery. Still, it is an unfinished story with a potential to explode anytime, particularly when there is water scarcity in these two States.

There is this other side to river Cauvery, that of the divinity. Cauvery is the Goddess to people of Tamil Nadu & Karnataka, particularly to Kannadigas. Every third girl in Karnataka is named Cauvery and the best name given for anything, be it commercial, technical or educational; is Cauvery. The reverence to Cauvery, even today, is phenomenal.

Tala Cauvery is located in Brahmagiri hills which is about fifty kilometers from Medikere. Before reaching Tala cauvery, one has to pass through Bhagamandala which is where one first sees the river Cauvery. There is a temple here with Lord Shiva as the main deity. The temple is good and kept neat. One could feel some good vibrations being inside. At Bhagamandala joins two rivers, Cauvery and Kannike. The legend has it that there is a third unseen river too, called Sujyoti, joining the the sangam (a la Allahabad, where Ganaga, Jamuna and the mythical Saraswathi come together). At its beginning, the river looks so small and insipid. One has to psyche himself to believe that here begins the most reverential ‘Ganges of South India’. However the place around has the feel of serenity and calmness. It is said that all storms begins calmly, may be river Cauvery too!

From Bhagamandala it is good climb to Tala Cauvery. The Karanataka government had taken good care to keep the place neat and serene. In fact what hits you there first is a notice board which alerts you that you are now at a sacred place and not a picnic spot (Good idea, it prepares one well). As you climb up the broad steps you reach a small man constructed pond and above it, a small temple with priests around it. All of us went with the thought that at Tala Cauvery, we could see a spring from the hills pouring out to form the stream called Cauvery. We saw nothing like that and we were initially disappointed. At the foot of the Brahmagiri hills, it is this spot (the man made pond)where Cauvery germinates and people reveres the spot with pooja and prayers. One could see the priest making good money as dakshina. From this place, one could climb up the hill through the neatly laid up steps which amounts to about 400 in number. The climb is steep and one may need to take breaks in between. At the top of the Brahmagiri hills, it is indeed a fabulous view of the Coorg district and the Western Ghats.

The myth about river Cauvery is that Brahmagiri was the dwelling place of the sage Agastya and Cauvery was his wife. She wanted to water the people of the place but it was not allowed by sage Agastya. She was kept imprisoned on the kamandalu (water carrying vessel) of the sage. Once she got a chance and jumped out of the kamandalu, and went underground to escape the sage’s attention and manifested in Bhagamandala. She flows as ‘gupt gamini’ (unseen river) between Brahmagiri and Bhagamandala.

Though there was this disappointment of not seeing Cuvery springing out of the Brahmagiri hills, the visit, the climb and the serenity of the hills gave all of us a wonderful feeling of rejuvenation.

LOHITADAS'S PREMATURE DEATH - WHAT A PITY

A news item that had appeared in the paper today about film director Lohitadas who passed away day before yesterday, made me feel very sad indeed. This gifted movie maker had died a pauper. The last movie made by him bombed and he owed money to lots of people. The story goes to the extent that there is no money to take care of the education of his college going children. Some prominent movie personalities had come forward to help.

Just look at this, the plight of the children of the most successful, respected and gifted story teller and director! They have to live the rest of their life on the gratis from others! What a pitiable state of affair is this!

Lohitadas had always commanded great respect from all sections of movie people. His was the lone voice that every one listened. Whether it was Manju Varrrier’s domestic problems or Meera Jasmin’s love affair, the final judgment made by him was always accepted by both parties. But how come such a soul died bankrupt? Was it his overconfidence to bet everything he had on the movies he made? Was he not practical to understand that there are ups and downs in life and saving for the rainy day makes sense?

Being young (54 years is not a old age, considering that at an average, a Malayali male lives up to 73 years) and with lots of dreams in front of him, he must have been looking long terms with regard to his life and career. It could also be that he never thought that the end would come this fast (who thinks so!) lest he would have had something done for his family. There were hundred of people who could have helped him on the simple fact that it was Lohitadas who made their life and career. It could also be that no one knew his story. When everything looks hunky dory, they would never have thought of a state of affair like this.

One had always seen such a plight for great artists. So many people benefit out of them. The money sharks hover around them only to multiply their wealth using the talents of these gifted ones. See the case of Michael Jackson, which too is not different.

Memory is a short thing. Soon everyone will forget this gifted person, including his pal bearers. Even the benevolent persons who had offered the help will forget their promises. For his family it is ground zero now. For the children of Lohitadas, who launched many lives and career, life have to start from the bottom. They have to undergo all the hardships to come up in life. They have to live like nobody. Only time will tell whether they had made it.

Carelessness, lack of farsightedness, cocksureness and being impractical (a trait always associated with gifted, maverick artists) etc could have led Lohitadas not to save for his family. And when he left them all of a sudden, they find themselves in pits.

What a way to die! What a pity!

BIRTHDAY MUSING

Today (15th June ‘09) is my fiftieth Birthday.

I am not truly into birthday celebrations. This has not been part of the value system that I had grown up with. Birthday was felt like any other day. However after my marriage and after being part of social groups such as Rotary etc, there had occurred some conscious mention of my birthday and of course, a dutiful acknowledgement of the wishes from the friends, from my side.

Generally, a purushayus (life of a human being) is considered to be hundred years by our scriptures and puranas. From that perspective, today I had crossed the mid mark. To some of my friends who called me to wish me, I said that I have become UDF (Since LDF stands for LEFT democratic front in Kerala politics, UDF, the opposing front is the RIGHT one. And since I have come to the RIGHT side of the scale of my life, I jokingly called myself a UDF person)

In our Hindu culture, sixtieth birthday (shastiabdapurthi) is celebrated with prayers, feast and get-together. In the olden days, people did not live for more number of years. Reaching sixty, therefore would have been a major achievement and that landmark would have called for celebrations, I presume. Today the case is different. Statistically, in Kerala, a man lives up to 74 years (and a woman, up to 78) and reflecting that, statistically, I still have a one third of my living time left. Good, let me feel happy!

Man is like wine. Maturity increases the strength and substance. I am thinking whether I can put up a different look of me from today so that people can consider me matured, peaceful and considerate, rather than my hitherto original self of emotional, child like, spontaneous, and sort of, ‘on face’ in my dealings. Probably if I tell them my age, people should give some considerations at least, I hope.

Truthfully speaking, I had some calculations about me reaching fifty years. I thought when I reached fifty; I could give way the operations of my enterprise to the second line and indulge more in mentoring, reading, writing and propagating managerial and entrepreneurial thoughts. The current times are not conducive for that to happen. I am required to continue my present profile for more period of time than I had anticipated, I think. This being the reality, I must accept it, with a pinch of salt or otherwise.

However, is there a better way? I am forcing myself to think that there is. What could that be? Continue whatever I am doing with the required level of focus and add more to it such as mentoring, writing etc. This calls for spending more time at work front and getting lesser rest, that is. Will it work? One has to test and see!

That brings me to the story of the Lion and Gazelle in the African hinterland. Every morning the gazelle wakes up with the thought that it has to outrun the fastest running Lion to survive and every morning the lion wakes up and thinks that t has to run faster than the slowest running Gazelle to make food and survive. The bottom line is, it does not matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. Whatever you be, what matters is that you have to on the run to survive!

So what do I do? Ok I will run. Since the load is bigger, the efforts needs to better. But probably, rather than short distance dashes, I think I could be looking at doing marathons now.

Steady, consistent and on the run that is ……………………

A ROLE MODEL LEADER

Really I do not know him that well personally.

But whatever I know of him itself is sufficient to make this blog. I sincerely feel that people like him needs to be projected, for the sheer reason for positivity to prevail.

Today he is a well known entrepreneur in the field of agriculture but he is not into agriculture. Can we say that he helps agriculture, floriculture and horticulture? His organization has developed the technology and know-how that allows highest yield on lowest land area, cultivation in uncultivable places and provides treated organic materials (coconut pith etc) on which plants can grow well. He runs one of the best testing labs in the State and he provides the best consulting for controlled cultivation thru green house technology. Let us call him an Agriculture Technocrat (he calls himself a humble farmer’s friend!). Most of his endeavors are pioneering efforts and therefore he is a true leader in the chosen field. No wonder he is a highly decorated person, winning awards from the President of the country etc. He advises many state governments and organizations in and out of the country on the subject. He has linkages with institutions based out of Europe, Africa and Middle East and he often travels to these places.

He is also very active professionally. CII Kerala and TiE Kerala, both he had chaired, had immensely benefited from him leadership. He continues to contribute to both associations by his presence, efforts and advices. He is the only leader in both the associations to have taken business delegations to outside the country. I had the privilege of being part of one such delegation and had immensely enjoyed his company and leadership.

By education he is an Agricultural Engineer, having studied the same in Gujarat. He made his career in a leading MNC of those days, concentrating on products and services meant for horticulture & plantations. The call of entrepreneurship came at mid age and he left the job to start own venture with a friend. He did well initially, went belly down later and had a painful split with his partner. All through, it was good learning for him.

Then he went alone. He started treading the path taken by the least. All he had was knowledge, courage and sheer determination all of which was bound by the thread of poistivity. Where will such a man go? Yes, only to the TOP! That is exactly what happened to him. He took innovation as his guiding spirit. And innovation led him to much recognition.

When you talk to him and deal with him, he comes thru as very sincere and concerned. From the conversations with him I am amply convinced that he genuinely wants people to progress, do well and live well. He is willing to contribute in any which way for that to happen. He has been doing many services and charity to this cause.

He has kept all his connections and relationship intact. And that had led him to have friends at all places, be it senior bureaucrats, head of Institutions, leading academicians or leaders of industry and commerce. His sophistication, behavior, refined culture (the true palakkad trait, which he is one) and language leave a deep impact on everyone. I haven’t seen him behaving badly to anyone, even if he is under pressure, even to his employees and subordinates. His is the way of conciliatory and democratic approach. He is amenable to advices & suggestions. He always looks at what we can do together and therefore the approach is that of inclusivity. No wonder he has so many dependable friends all over the world.

His wife is full of charm. Combinedly, they make a graceful pair. It is not said without reason that behind every successful man, there is a woman! His children (son and daughter) are employed and settled abroad and they are doing well. His laments that his children are not interested in taking over the successful business that he is running. However, that does not in any way dampen his spirit of entrepreneurship. He continues to slog without much rest, though he had crossed the normal retirement age.

Whom am I speaking about? The suspense is about to end…….

Here is presenting an entrepreneur par excellence, an innovator to the core, an extraordinary decent good human being, a considerate leader, a towering positive personality, Mr. SHIVDAS B MENON, Chairman & Managing Director, Sterling Farm Research & Services Ltd. Cochin.

A person worthy to be a true role model!