Management Musings

I often felt how time seemed to slow down when I visited my grandparents' house. The pace of life seemed so much more relaxed in the smaller towns. Of course it helps when we are the out of town visitors once in a year, pampered to a fault. We would often visit the "native" town during the summer holidays. My grandparents lived on the seaside so the weather would invariably be hot and humid during the months of April and May. The freedom of the mind as kids would tell on us as we would be completely impervious to the heat, power cuts and even a supposed shortage of water supply! Those were the days of endless cricket matches - played with a rubber ball and a make-do bat. The wooden planks lying around the yard, the dried coconut tree leaf would serve as cricket bats good enough for us to re-live the latest exploits of Mohammad Azharuddin and Venkatapathy Raju. Throw in a good ol' six from Navjot Singh Sidhu for good measure and we would be in Nirvana! Summers would...

  Checking into a hotel, I look around the lobby area. I notice there are neat bonsai trees on the counter top, a few pots around the region, plush sofa sets. Minimalistic, modern and clean. Not many people mulling around, all looks good. We walk up to the room and the corridor is clean, the room is impeccably maintained, well aired, the A/C, TV work and importantly, the bathroom is neat, dry and clean. We walk down to the restaurant and once again, the ambience is neat and well kept. It all looks very impressive.   The next morning, the story continues - the cleanliness is maintained. I notice janitors and cleaning staff only once in three days of my stay at the hotel. I have moved in and out of the room fairly frequently and uniformly, there is a sense of cleanliness right through. The cutlery at the restaurant is always clean, the plants always look impeccable, the newspapers in the paper stand are always neatly arranged. In a well run organization, discipline is essenti...

Sebastian Vettel has won the 9th Grand Prix in a row this year. A feat that has been accomplished for the first time in the history of Formula 1. He also won 13 races over the course of the season - what a driver! When Michael Schumacher was winning all his championships not more than 15 years ago, it was thought unlikely that anyone could ever match those feats. Vettel has now won 3 World Championships in 3 consecutive years, the youngest ever triple World Champion. Of course, it is not just his accomplishment - it would be pre-mature to assume that were the case. The real story is that of the team - Red Bull Racing. Christian Horner is the Team Principal and to him must go the lion's share of the credit for creating a winning environment in the team. Anyone in the sport, in any sport, will vouch for the difficulty involved in creating and sustaining a winning culture. Sports makes it somewhat easier to define a winning culture since the results are there for anyone to see. A s...

It was interesting for me to note that the Economist, in its Sept. 7th edition, had an article on "Clever cities - The multiplexed metropolis", touching on Smart cities as the cities of the future. New cities can plan and develop along the lines of smart phones by relying on computer networks and grids to Operate, Administer and Manage governmental tasks. It would then be possible to gather data and have it made available online for people to use in ways unbeknownst as of today. Gamification of some of the processes within the city ties in wonderfully if the smart cities do come into existence. Indications are that some cities are already implementing a few concepts. The corresponding potential pitfalls were captured in the Bruce Willis movie - Die Hard 4 in which the bad guys take over a city's online grid system causing wide spread chaos. Of course, in a secure network and process, the bad day never comes to pass! Intelligently done game concepts built into the fabr...

Sebastian Vettel is on a roll. He is winning the Formula 1 Grand Prix like it is nobody's business. He reminds me of Michael Schumacher in the 2000s when he drove for Ferrari and won 13 races in a single season. Winning one Formula 1 GP is achievement enough for mere mortals, to win multiple races in one season, to win 3 championships in a row is what makes these people great. Not all races are won "easily". Not every time that success is tasted is the story the same. The end result, however, is the same. When on a roll, everything just seems to fall in place. The path is difficult, always unyielding and always challenging - it is the end result that people see and the past is forgotten while jubilating over and celebrating the success of the present. So what is it that people do to get on a roll? If Seb Vettel can do it, if the Australian cricket team under Steve Waugh that won 15 or 16 test matches on the trot could do it, can't it be replicated everywhere? Yes, ...

I wake up in the morning, the start of a new day. Unknown to me, at some time during the night, the day has changed . I have adapted to this change subconsciously - I knew  this change  was going to happen. Monday would turn into Tuesday and I at some level in my mind, I have accounted for my approach to this day. However, certain tasks during my day undergo a change . I find that there is no electricity in the morning - I will not have hot water for a bath. Oops! I have to change my system to brace for the cold water on a chilly morning in Bengaluru. Leaving for work later, I find that the road near a traffic signal has been dug up for repairs. I have to change  my route again to be able to reach the office. I have adapted to these little   differences in my daily routine, sure. How could I adopt to bigger changes  happening around me all the time? There are changes  in the government. I don't feel the effect of that change  immediately, but surely...

Honesty is the first aspect that builds trust between colleagues at the work place. While I insist on honesty being paramount, it is quite remarkable to see how it stands to be one of the most compromised values that one holds. At the risk of being pessimistic about values, I do believe that honesty becomes a by-stander when it pressure is on and the delivery of products are at risk. Far too often have I seen honesty about the product quality, about timelines and processes being fudged underneath words. The power of a word is more powerful than a sword, as the cliche goes. True enough. Meetings and written exchanges between people are powerful reminders of this cliche. Of course, as a "realist", circumventing honesty at a sufficiently high level is termed as strategy. So it is a strategic move when India does not discuss the CTBT treaty (if I remember correctly) in public while it is being signed. It is strategic when the Indian army misuses the Armed Forces Special Provis...