GO KISS THE WORLD

This book written by Subroto Bagchi, Vice Chairman & Gardner, MindTree, Bangalore has been with me for some months. After having done a perfunctory scan and ‘mota mota’ reading, I kept it in my rack of pending books to be read. In between so many books came and went (including Bagchi ’s ‘The High Performance Entrepreneur’) but somehow I could not lay my hands on it for long. Having got some free time on Sunday the 14th August, I took the book and completed reading it within the next four hours in one sitting. In one reading because the book was so interesting, well written, well printed and contextually well composed. If I didn’t read this book it would have been a great miss for me, certainly. My Independence day SMS greetings to friends contained a one-liner from this book (“Our achievements are as good as the value that they create for others”- can it be said better?)

Instead of writing a review about the book, I thought it fit to place here some of the other insights that I picked up from the book, as below:

1. Your pain is as large as your inability to see the pain elsewhere
2. When you make a choice, you also chose the consequences
3. You can acquire any amount of material success you want but do not expect that to be the source of your happiness
4. Sometimes, one has to blessed to be ordinary
5. Success creates entrapment as it is much easier to stay with the familiar
6. Perception is reality and it takes time for perception to build (as told to him by Sridhar Mitta)
7. While it takes time to build perceptions, it takes even longer for perceptions to change (as told to him by Sridhar Mitta)
8. What makes an organization truly memorable and provides it with not just differentiation but defence is its EMOTIONAL INFRASTRUCURE. Emotional Infrastructure is the collection of all emotional aspects of an organization. It is the shared consciousness and soul of the enterprise. It goes beyond just culture
9. Most men takes more out of life than they give to it, a few give more than they take out of it. The world is run by the latter.
10. No other profession takes the true worth of your own abilities than a sales job for the simple reason that the outcome of the job is binary; you either made a sale or lost it.
11. Those who write well, learn to synthesise their ideas better and it makes them better thinkers.
12. Success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever be your current state of wealth.
13. There are two futures; the future of desire and the future of fate. The man’s reason has never learnt to separate them (Written by J D Bernal in his book ‘The World, The Flesh & The Devil’ as quoted by Bagchi)

Throughout the book one found several similarities of the background, the thoughts and actions of the author with oneself. Thus the empathy factor while reading the book, has been the highest.

Bagchi ’s way of expression, clarity of thought and contextual communication are brilliant. Somewhere he said he would have made a better teacher. Indeed it is true. Reading the book, one couldn’t have thought of a better teacher than him.

For professionals and entrepreneurs, it is a book worth reading. I strongly recommend it to all.

In this connection, I also deem it fit to add the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as expressed in ‘Young Indian’ in the year 1928. He had mentioned seven SINs therein and they are:

* Politics without Principle
* Wealth without Work
* Pleasure without conscience
* Knowledge without Character
* Commerce without Morality
* Science without Humanity; &
* Worship without Renunciation of EGO

Continuing with the thoughts of Subroto Bagchi, I feel that knowledge of the above sins and behaviours based on that will reach a professional and an entrepreneur way above the rest.

Are you listening?

ANOTHER ECONOMIC DOWNTURN IN THE MAKING

Brace yourselves Ladies and Gentlemen, in all probability; there is a global economic Tsunami in the offing. The dark clouds of the same have been hovering around the sky for some time now, in the form of global inflation, food shortage, stock market slides, northward interest rates and liquidity shortage. The Deficit crisis in US though got resolved for the time being by the Obama administration, had resulted the Standard & Poor downgrading the rating of that country from AAA to AA+ and this had amply augmented the process of Downturn. (It is another matter that the same Standard & Poor applied poor standards in rating the derivatives of the subprime loans). The present precarious economic condition of European nations particularly Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain & Italy will make matter worse for the globe. The crude oil price hasn’t fallen yet and the skyrocketing of Bullion rates is another manifestation of the challenges to come about.

Then there are talks about Rupee appreciating against dollar which is bad news for exports. Conversely it could be positive for the country that our oil imports will get the benefit from a weak dollar.

In the last instance of the major global recession that happened only 3 years ago, though India was not impacted at the scale of what happened to China and all, our IT sector and Exports were affected. This time too it could happen to these sectors though there is this comfort factor that western IT companies have sufficient cash surplus to pursue the ITS & ITES services to continue being in India. This is happy news.

What is the situation for India now? We would want the crude oil prices to come down. This alone will control the inflation and bring down the interest rates. Lower interest rates will move up the financial services market, particularly the stock market, giving fillip to retail investors who are really off it now.

When American and European markets are not doing well, the advice given to FIIs was to invest in attractive Asian market. India should await that to happen. But will that ever happen? Please consider the present political situation in the country. Madam is sick and away, the PM is inactive and not really in control, the coalition parties are continuing the loot, perceptions of big and rampant corruption at high places, civil society agitations, states wanting to split etc. are not giving them any confidence to do so. This could be a major worry for all.

News of Global recession brings fear in every body’s mind. Our Finance Minister hasn’t really commented on it. Like everyone, he is also on a wait and watch mode. I hope and pray that as in the past, the recession will not make a major impact on our country. However, my hunch says no. As we are getting more and more integrated into the global economy (do you know that India has invested in Rs.1,83,000 crores in American Debt papers?), the chance of the impact can only go up. Is that not the reason for our FM, RBI Governor etc . keeping mum and watching the developments? So, there is no surety on anything. It comes as it comes. We cannot predict anything in advance.

Is there a reason to panic? Presently, no. Though time hasn’t come for one to go into true austerity measure, it would be a good idea to restrict ostentatious spending. This is time for cautious optimism. The emerging huge Indian market could be a saviour for the Indian trade and commerce. However we need to ensure is that we get into the market with products and services that has global quality and standards. That could be a challenging task for the Indian industry particularly the SME sector. The huge SME sector needs to go thru the transformation process to be the best. It is where systems, process and technology come to help. Organisations that undergo the change in these lines will benefit immensely from the local market. So it is time for Indian industry, particularly the SME to think, plan and act.

Is it a tall order?