Today was an interesting day at the NASSCOM HR Summit 2008 in Chennai.

There was a session on HR Leadership: Paradigm shift from process recruiters to business leaders. When the Chairperson of the panel, Mr. Pratik Kumar (EVP HR, Wipro) asked the speakers as what would they like to request from their business leaders, we had some *really cool* answers (read: CEO bashing)!

Nandita Gurjar (VP & Group Head, Infosys) would like to see a recession, so that things cool-off a little bit, giving her the most deserved respite from managing change and pushing growth initiative at the same time - definitely not an easy job by any standards. I understand that she said it on a lighter note, but if you have a serious thought on this issue, it is actually not a bad idea!

Elango R (Chief HR Officer, Mphasis) in his witty style wants CEOs to stop reading books and attending conferences. He feels that there is a new "clone it" idea brought in by the CEO everyday, which makes life really difficult for the guy. I know he does not mean it. But does it really matter. It is not going to change anytime soon.

CEO’s: Are you listening?
It just resonated in my own ears! After all, I am also one of the culprits.

Just wanted to share some light moments (read: CEO bashing).

Do you send handwritten seasonal greetings to your clients?

It may sound to be very simple, regular stuff.  But it is surprising that still a large percentage of small businesses fail to use such an opportunity to strengthen their relationship with their clients on a personal level. And when I casually asked some of the culprits about the big problem that restricts them from acknowledging their clients, this is their surprising relevation:

• It is about time. Or shall I say (as I understand), mismanagement of time, since clients are the purpose of the business!
• Procastination. Almost every culprit claimed that he thought (I am really not sure if he is being truthful), but kept procastination and in no time the festive season was over.

But, if you are doing this, you are missing out on a great opportunity to make a personal contact with the "core of your business (i.e. your clients)" and saying them "Thank you" for the business they have given you. Not only it makes them feel special, it keeps you on top of their mind at all times, which can lead to more word-of-mouth and references.

But, its never late.
I will recommend that you:

• Plan out a small budget and some time for your special customers. BTW, if you can do it for all your customers, then go ahead and do it.
• Create a mailing list of all customers whom you wish to delight. Sign greeting cards personally. Do it much before the festive season (so that you do not forget this due to the big conference). Despatch them at the right time (or else have someone responsible for sending over these greetings on time).
• If your budget permits to spend 0.25% - 0.50% (I generally do spend this much) of your annual turnover, do send over seasonal gifts, sweets and wine to your special customers! You do not need to buy something very expensive. Just get across something special, which makes the day for your client and his family.

It makes your clients feel special and they remember you more often. And if they remember you more often, you get more business. Because timely recall and top-of-the-mind position will be the difference between you getting a deal over your competitor when the credentials, pricing and quality of service / product stands neck-to-neck.

I came across this quote today at BusinessPundit. 

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. - Kenji Miyazawa

How true When you start a company, you get rejected by almost everyone:

Bankers:

They want to lend you money only if you have a strong financial background. Ever thought, why will you even go for borrowing money if you have that solid financial backing!

Customers:

Have you heard prospects saying - You dont have enough credentials! Its a chicken and egg situation. You got to get few customers to build credentials. But to get customers, you need credentials.

Employees:

Have you heard people saying - I don’t see a future in your company. I would prefer to work for an established brand. Have you ever thought that "established brand" was also built by some "go getters" who came out of their comfort zone and took risk to build the "established brand".

I don’t want to rant about the pain. Just want to let you know that everyone faces this. Only those people, who use it as a fuel for their journey succeeds. Those who give up results in those 80% of the businesses that dies within the first few years of operations!

Keep going!

I have noticed that several companies offer joining bonus to a prospective employee to join early (or shall I say "immediately").

I was wondering if this is a right tradition? Is this ethical?

I see it this way -

A guy is working in Company A and he has a notice period of 30 days. if he wishes to terminate his contract/job with Company A and move to Company B he need to serve a notice period of 30 days to Company A. This is supposedly required so that he can transfer his responsibilities in a proper way to an assigned person by Company A enabling them to maintain the smooth function of the organization in his absence. However, Company B tells the guy - "If you can join us within 7 days, we are willing to pay you a joining bonus of $X.

I personally feel that it is like bribing the person to go against the separation clause of the employment agreement, so that he can pay for any financial loss (that might arise from any penalty clause) and enjoy a bonus amount - all for doing something wrong! I see this happening almost everyday.

Don’t you think this HR practice is unethical and is further rewarding people to stoop low for some quick bucks?

What do you say?

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!

On my recent trip to Munnar (South India), I had the fortune to see the bloom of Neel Kurinji (blue-kurinji). It is a shrub like plant which blooms with a blue flower once in twelve years! If you want to experience the same, you will have to visit Munnar in 2018.

Some photographs for you -

A neel kurinji shrub

Kurinji field

Enjoy the pictures. Feel free to use them (and give me credit for the same!)

I was trying to think out - What is the most important soft skill in life?

Some options I came across:
Communication? Public speaking? Problem solving? Team management? Time management?

The list was getting too long!

I tried to find a common thread which underlines several soft skills which came to my mind. I zeroed upon something which can be described as - "ability to take neutral view-points" to be the most important  of all. Communication is an integral part of our personal and professional life. To interact and understand the communication and to respond in an appropriate way, it is most important for a person to be able to see things from various viewpoints and understand the reason behind an action. Only when we understand the reason behind someone’s action, we can modify our approach to get the desired result from the person we are dealing with.

A person should be able to put himself in place of the other person and see how will he feel or how will he react to a given situation. This skill can be very important for people who work in communication-centric jobs like sales and marketing, public relations, teaching, project management.

The root cause of all problems and disappointments is that we see things the way we want to see it. We all do this mistake conciously or unconciously.  However whenever we interact, we can try to remind ourself - "Step in his (the other person’s) shoes".

Happy changing shoes!

I am a big fan of Gmail because of its speed and simplicity. However Gmail makes life hell lot of difficult in some cases -

1. The Threading Bug
While threading, Gmail creates threads based on the “Subject” of the email. It should be “Subject” & “Sender/Reciepient”. It is very cumbersome to sort out and read mails in reference when you are dealing with two or more people with the same subject.

It all gets jumbled up.

2.  Keyboard shortcuts
Some of the keyboard shortcuts are so “short” that they get pressed accidentally. This results in a terrible anxiety.

3. Stupid web clips
It is very common to see stupid web clips like “Spam potato salad”. They do not make any sense and causes unwanted distraction.

I look forward to see these corrected very soon

Abhishek