Hello Friends,

Sorry for not updating my blog for quite some time. I had a hectic schedule for last one month with Internet World in London, followed by a family holiday in Dubai. Before I could recover, I am visiting the NASSCOM BPO Strategy Summit in Bangalore. To be frank, I am not used to so much of travel.

Anyways, this means that when I am back to writing, there will be far more many insights, experiences-that-i-wish-to-share and ideas that struck me during all these events and interactions!

Abhishek

Guys,

Recently some of my employees got unsolicited call from a gentleman called Manish Gupta, who wants to woo them away from my company to his startup. Of course like every normal human being, my colleagues also need a reason to go and work for a relatively unknown and small company.  So they need convincing. And he did put up an argument to convince them…

And then came the bummer!

He thinks that my colleagues should work for his company because he has a bigger vision and everyone has a bright future with him. But how do people believe him? Simple – His was the runner-up of the Business Baazigar contest of Zee TV.

I could not stop myself from laughing out at this humbleness.

Then I thought of doing some research on the business model and modus-operandi of his company. I found out that there was no innovation and no marketing strategy (mind you, he must have spent time in sales, but definitely not in marketing). He is selling the same old wine in the same old bottle with no value addition. There is no investment in human resource development, since the human resource policy is absolutely based on poaching.

Is this the vision, he is selling to my employees?

I wish him best of luck!

BTW, in all my humbleness, I will like to get my message across to Mr. Gupta that I have been on the jury panel of nationwide business plan contest (organized by one of the most reputed management institution in India), giving my inputs to several business baazigars who are working hard to build their dream company!

And yes, it does not hurt me anywhere. But it is sad to see this approach to business after getting the said recognition.

I hope he learn to differenciate, innovate and deliver!

And yes, I am fast losing faith in TV programs like Business Baazigar if this is the talent they have identified

I often hear from people:

• I hate my job.
• I don't feel like going to work.
• I have no excitement in my career. It is the same old grind.

This happens more so often because most people are doing things that they never wanted to do in their professional life. I have written about this problem in my post – Are you what you always wanted to be?

I suggest a three step solution for people who are stuck in such a situation!

1. Take a positive attitude to work.

Even if you want to change the big picture, you got to do what you are expected to do on the given day when you reach your workplace. You may hate the work, but you have to do it. Now, if you can take a positive attitude towards your current job and enjoy the same, you will have a good day at your workplace and you will feel satisfied and happy at the end of the day. If you keep cursing the world for putting in that position, you will end up feeling more frustrated and probably mess up the work that you are doing.

So, cheer up and take a positive attitude to work. Think of the ways your work makes a difference to others. It does. Else you would not have been doing it and your boss / client would not have been paying you to do the same. 

2. Visualize the value chain

Once you know, how your work helps the company / social setup in the bigger context, try to visualize the value chain. So you might like to find out what happens before and/or after you do your job. What is the value that the end consumer gets? Try to visualize the entire value chain and see where you fit in based on what you will like to do and the profile which can have maximum impact on the company / social setup where you want to contribute.

3. Make your moves

Once you have learnt to live your daily workday in a positive way and have visualized the area where you will like to see yourself in you can start making moves towards achieving the same. Please note that this should be closer to what you always wanted to be or should be able to derive similar level of satisfaction, else you may not feel the drive to achieve this new position.

You can start training yourself appropriately. Gather knowledge through books, Internet, friends, professional gatherings, etc.

With the appropriate knowledge, show your organization that you are capable of doing something better or more valuable than what you are currently doing. Everyone wants a proof-of-concept! Once you have proved your credibility and capability, you can surely find you way to reach your goal.

Take action.

Hello Friends,

I will be visiting London from 13th October till 23rd October for some business meetings.

If you –

• are an existing client of Indus Net Technologies (or any of our service brand) OR
• are a business considering outsourcing your web design, web development or Internet marketing business OR
• just want to meet up for a friendly 1-2-1 meeting

Please drop me a line at talash@indusnet.co.in and we will meet up!

Abhishek

Everyone who watches television in India must have come across the "Hari Sadu" advertisement aired by Naukri.com. This ad became very popular for its creativity and also won the award from the Advertising Club Kolkata. Here is the full story board followed by the video of the ad.

There has been a lot of controversy around the advertisement by two set of people:

1. Whose first name is "Hari"
2. By a group of people who caused objection since "Hari" also refers to a deity in Hindu mythology

Naukri.com decided not to withdraw this advertisement citing that this is a work of fiction and they got a clean-chit from Advertising Standards Council of India.

This advertisement is really humorous and can be a great way to advertise a job site. In fact they managed to create a character – Hari Sadu, who can be recognized with the Naukri.com brand.

On the other hand, I find the ad to be in a very poor taste, showing bosses in very poor light who should be insulted and abused when opportunity strikes. This is teaching people to consider boss (or a business owner) as a blood-sucking beast, an idiot and an inhuman being. This is definitely not true in most of the cases. Above all, it shows that – when you don't need someone, have a go at him – and walk out of the door!

In a growing economy like India, where attrition is sky high, job ethics are hard to spot and consideration for one's job responsibility is at an all time low, this ad has only added fuel to the fire.

I know, Naukri.com has got superb mileage from this ad and it is close to heart of thousands of people. However, the question remains – Is this ad instilling the right culture? As a corporate, does Naukri.com understand it's responsibility to communicate the right culture to the people who are destined to shape the future of this economy – the young executives.

I think online networking is the best thing that has happened on Internet in last few years. I see several benefits of networking and spending time to meet new people and build professional and personal relationships.

• You can make new friends in new places.
• Someone might be of great help to you in a given situation. You never know.
• If someone cannot help, they might know someone who can help. They can simply connect you to the right person.
• You might get references for business and professional engagements if you can build a trust relationship and prove your expertise. We all know that word-of-mouth publicity is the best advertising. It is most influential and cost almost nothing. Most of the times networking is the only way to reach a particular person to discuss a proposal.
• You can get feedback on your idea, plan or work from different people with different point of views.
• You learn by sharing knowledge and experience. This can be done on a 1-2-1 basis or in a knowledge forum where people with same interest can discuss on a given topic.
• You can create mastermind groups where members discuss individual problems and help each other achieve their goals.
• You can help others. It is a great feeling to be of help to others. It makes you feel purposeful.

I have seen several online social networking websites. The ones which I liked the most are:

• Ecademy (No doubt the best business social networking website on Internet)
• LinkedIn (A great fan following and very good selection of people to connect to)
• Facebook (Looks like a decent social networking website – I really do not have much experience on this platform to make a firm comment)

BTW, I keep traveling between Kolkata, Chennai and London for business and will love to meet people who feel that I can be of help to them. Please write me a small note with your area of interest and I will get back to you.

May you have a million connections!

Abhishek

Blogs have fueled the growth of peer-to-peer information flow in form of news, knowledge packets, ideas and individual point-of-views. However it has also resulted in "Information overload" which drives a normal person nut as he is at risk to wasting too much time reading the flesh before he reaches the crust.

Learning becomes more difficult as we face a situation where we have less time and most if it is wasted while absorbing the excess information and then an equal amount of effort (if not more) is required to skim the real message out of it.

A hot debate is going on at – http://guydz.com/moneypowerwisdom/?p=19

I personally think:

A summary can solve all the problem. There are people who understand the concept in few words. They hate to read through long articles to get that “dosage” of knowledge.

However, there are lots of people who might have difficulty in understanding the concept. There may be several people who might not accept a point of view unless backed with examples from real life.

Therefore both formats are required in my opinion.

Now the question is – On a media like blog, do we have enough time to summarize the ideas that we put together?

 What do you think?

You ask any student – What do you want to be?

You will get a quick reply -

• Doctor
• Software Engineer
• Singer
• Pilot
• Teacher
• Etc.

Why do different people want to do different things?

Because – they "want" to do that. They have a "desire" to achieve something in the given field. They want to "make a difference" in a given way and want to make a living out of that. Clearly, making money is an important component. But it is not the priority. The attention is on the quality of achievement and how he will come out superior among his peers (we call it competition).

But what we see around in real life is something totally different. That same person when he enters into his professional life, forgets about his wants, desire and the "make a difference" attitude and turns to "make a living out of it" as the only goal. He turns towards mediocre work just to walk through the day. Where is the fire to be "the best" in what he does?

What has gone wrong? What has happened that has turned around the entire goal of life!

If you ask this question to most of the people, they will start playing "pass the blame" game. The person they blame may change from scenario to scenario!

• Someone will blame their employer
  • I don't get opportunity to perform 
  • I do not get paid enough
• Someone will blame their customers
  • My customer do not give me enough space to be creative
  • My employees are not dedicated).
• Someone will blame their education
  • I could not crack GMAT and hence could not proceed with my career of choice
  • My college degree is useless and it has not prepared me for my job

The reality is – "We have taken a shortcut in our life."

Most people want to get the goodies, but will not like to take the pain. To make themselves happy they invent a new theory! It goes like this –

Innerself: Why do we really work?
Outerself: To earn a living!

Innerself: Is this the only way to earn?
Outerself: No

Innerself: So what are my options?
Outerself: Anything that helps me achieve my ultimate goal. That is, to earn a living!

The problem starts when we answer the first question raised by the "Innerself". When someone is in school, the answer is different and is driven by passion. When the same person steps into real life the answer is driven by immediate need.

So, when a person gets this immediate need to be satisfied, he will change course. He will take a shortcut, which looks very rosy. He trades his dream against his immediate need. It is good or bad – I don't know. People may have real compulsions or they might have pre-conceived unreal problems. But this is the day they get out to walk on the "most used" path which takes them away from glory and satisfaction.

I sincirely believe that if a person is passionate and he works for his passion – to be the best in what he does – to do it honestly and to stick to his dream – he will be successful in achieving what he originally dreamed. And there is no bigger satisfaction in life compared to achieving this.

So, to be what you "want to be", hold on to your dream and stick to your passion. Of course nothing comes cheap and there will be adversities on the way, but if you do not take the shortcut, life will treat you like a king.

BTW, while you work hard to achieve what you "want to be", your financial goals are well taken care of.

Why? Because you are not wasting your time in thinking about money. It can result in very high level of anxiety. You are focused on your goal and doing the work, which results in money. Thinking does not get you any money! So you earn much more than you expected out of the immediate "shortcut" that you avoided when taking a decision about your career.

May success belong to you and your dreams come true.

Note:

I have been inspired to write this blog post as I see thousands of IT professionals in India slog in day and out running after their dream career. I have met several young IT professionals who have no ambition to achieve something except a good living. They don't take any pride in what they do. They do "what others want" because they have taken a shortcut.

I was reading somewhere that "India has the youngest population in the world and is poised to take a giant leap …"

But if the young workforce is directionless, then in which direction are we taking the "giant leap". Towards being a mediocre service delivery center for the world? or Towards becoming the largest consumer market in the world?

Let's think!

Here are some photographs from one of my trips -

Here is a funny incident that took place when I was exhibiting at CeBIT 2007 in Hanover.

I was in Hanover with my friend – Srish Agrawal for CeBIT 2007. After a tiring day at the exhibition hall, we were looking for a decent dinner. The only problem was our being vegetarian.

It was quite late and we were hunting for a restaurant near Kropke. We could not locate a restaurant which will serve a proper main course vegetarian dinner. Suddenly I spotted the famed golden arch down the road. We decided to compromise with a vegetarian fast food instead of a proper dinner. Something is better than nothing.

When I reached the counter,

I asked – "Do you have vegetarian burgers?"

The lady on the counter got puzzled. She rushed to consult her senior. There were murmurs and finally she came back to the counter.

She said – "Sorry Sir. We only serve normal food."

We could not stop laughing.
That day I learnt – There are two kinds of food – Normal & Vegetarian.

We finally managed to find a small mom-and-pop shop which baked us a pizza with toppings of our choice. The guy was really friendly. The pizza was fresh and his hospitality worth a mention.

Few more difference we experienced which is worth a mention –

1) Diet Coke is known as Lite Coke

2) Mineral spring water is not common. You generally get "gas water" or "sparkling water" which is equivalent to soda water.

If you had any funny experience hunting for vegetarian food or your-kind-of-food, feel free to post. I would love to know!

Recently I was trying to make a payment for a company purchase online using my MasterCard. Inspite of having a positive balance the transaction did not get through. I tried my sisters card (which again is a MasterCard) and it still wont go through.

Then one of my collegue volunteered to help me by trying his card.

It worked!

I asked him which card did you used – He said Visa.

I felt the "Visa Power". I also realized that "Something money cant buy. For that you have MasterCard"

Abhishek

It happens to me every time..
I am in an elevator which is going up, and it will stop at a floor in transit and a guy will peep in his head asking if the elevator is going down!

10 seconds wasted!
Think of the frustration if it happens five times during one ascent.

I am not sure, who is at fault?
- the guys who press both the [up] and the [down] buttons near the elevator OR
- the company which designed the elevator

If this is about the guys, then they must not be "software engineers" (90% of the companies are software companies in the building in which we are housed). I am very much worried about the quality of code based on their understanding of "how things work"

If this is about the company and the designer of the elevator (which Don Norman will generally like to say because he says in his "Design of Everyday Things" that users are not stupid and it is normally the fault of the designer of the product) then why did we adopted such a flawed design and have standardized it all over the world!

I am confused. Do you have an answer?
Or this only happens in India? Or worse, Does it only happens with me?

Gautam Ghosh has tagged me to write about eight random things about me! So here it goes -

1. I am a trekking addict. I have travelled extensively in the Himalayas. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to peek across the mighty Himalayan range. I will love to explore Tibet on foot. I am scared of the Chinese army though! The closest I have been to adventure in last few years was when I got stuck in snow at midnight in Sikkim in December 2003.

2. I cannot resist myself when I see an opportunity and an unfulfilled demand, especially if it is around Internet service domain. Sometime I feel, I could have been a consultant or an investor instead of an entrepreneur.

3. I feel sorry to see people who are deprived of quality education. I firmly believe that India cannot progress unless we have a better education system and a system comprising of selfless teachers, who live with a purpose in their life – to build a better India. I am working on a project in this direction. I wish I can make it happen.

4. I wish I can make my vision / thought broader and can think and care about global issues. At this point, I find myself very much centered on my family, company, work, clients and country. I hope it will happen with time.

5. I run a company called Indus Net Technologies. It takes up more than 2/3rd of my time. I wish I can make it 100% self sustaining and professionally managed. I have been reading Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrangle by Robert T. Kiyosaki and want to move to the "B" quadrangle!

6. One day, I was out on my morning walk. I saw a cab hit a man and his feet (below hi ankle) was literally cut off from his leg. This happened because the cab driver steered his taxi sharply in one direction to save a guy on a cycle who was day-dreaming! I got an opportunity to help this person in a small way. However the strange thing is that, you cannot blame anyone "directly" for the accident? Who should be blamed?

7. I recently (September 2006) bought a Hyundai Santro Xing. It is a true driving pleasure. Unfortunately, I had to hire a chauffer to drive it so that everyone at home can make use of the car! So I am at the backseat – which I hate.

8. In March 2007, I went to Ecademy Blackstar Meet and met several wonderful people. It is such a wonderful club and you meet really nice people. I will like to travel to UK again sometime this year to meet and network with Blackstars of Ecademy.

I am passing this on the tag to eight of my friends – Arun, Sundeep, Nicholas, Ajay, David, Jim, Kath and Mike

Just like the above listed thoughts the eight names are in purely random order!

 The rules….
-Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
-People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.

So go ahead and post your Eight Random Things!

Today, I was browsing through and stumbled across a website called Kiva.org

Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty. 

It's a new, direct and sustainable way to fight global poverty, and the way I see it, I get a higher return on $25 helping someone build a future than the interest my checking account pays. 

Anyways, if you have a minute, please check out the site: http://kiva.org.  If you need more "reputable" validation than my recommendation , know that they have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to NPR to BusinessWeek.

I have signed up with them and am already doing my bit. Why dont you also contribute and help create a self sustaining society? It is much better than giving a donation which only work for once. By helping someone create a business, we are helping them to help themselves or life. This is the same reason, I believe that money should be spent towards education, which helps in creating educated members in the society who can earn.

Here is my Kiva.org page: http://www.kiva.org/lender/abhishekrungta

And here you can start helping someone NOW!

Plains can look beautiful too!

These pictures were taken from a moving car.

If you want any of these pictures in higher resolution, feel free to contact me.