Management Lessons learnt from Vasudeo – Part 1

Vasudeo is my father’s name. In a normal middle class Indian family of 70’s and 80’s me and my siblings grew up enjoying the freedom of calling him by first name within the four walls of our house. While we enjoy his friendship - his status for us is nothing less than that of a god…. This in fact is a first lesson… you need not follow any rituals to get your natural respect….. He being a man of few words, I learnt innumerable lessons through his simple actions…though the meaning of many I was to understand much later…..these are the few moments that have always stayed with me …..management lessons learnt from Vasudeo

Dusshera is a festival where we follow a tradition of giving gold to each other…well not the real gold, but the leaves of a particular tree that is accepted as symbol of gold in this part of the country. As a part of this tradition, younger ones visit the elders and give them gold while touching their feet.

On one occasion on a Dusshera day, my father and I went to Dadar (a central suburb of Mumbai) near the famous Shivaji Park. One of my father’s colleagues – Mr Bapat used to stay there so we stopped by. My father was a senior government officer with central government and worked long years with BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center). Mr Bapat worked under him….in today’s parlance may be my father was equivalent to his two-up manager. If I remember it right, Mr Bapat was a Sanskrit scholar. He was also elder to my father in age.

As Mr Bapat and my father sat chatting, the tea and refreshments were served. My father got up, took out the gold (the leaves of course!) from his bag, offered it to Mr Bapat and touched his feet…. The most natural Dusshera ritual ,which no one ,except me, felt odd. Well, I knew my father’s rank and I was not sure I exactly agreed with what I saw. As we walked out, I couldn’t resist asking, “you are his boss, right?” “Yes” he smiled, “that’s in office”….nothing more was said or discussed but this incident stayed with me since then for some reason (I was just a High school kid then)

Later on when I witnessed a lot of debate around the stuff like protocols, whether to call your boss by his name, how friendly you can be as a boss and still be effective in the results…. I could somewhat understand the significance of what I witnessed as a schoolboy

You have a position in an organization for a specific goal…your designation is not really your identity that is meant to separate you from the rest… can we ever keep it aside when we are not interacting for a task?....do we really have to carry our corporate identity all the time….

Though these things sound idealistic, they are actually more pragmatic….

My father was known to be an absolute no-nonsense manager, but whenever as an individual he took any risks, people working under him could go and tell him exactly what they felt….please remember this was Government environment in 70’s and early 80’s….even at home as kids we could always speak up if we thought he made a mistake…

Segregating you from your designation is meritorious in more than one ways:
you always know who is interacting with you as a person and who is interacting with your designation
You are not slave of any pattern that your designation can beautifully weave around you
You can enjoy simple pleasures of life

Some of these lessons helped me a great deal, when for a part of my life I was an entrepreneur – I neither had a corporate logo, nor a designation on my visiting card….after a few initial nervous days I must say it was a very powerful experience!

Well, can I do what my father did on that Dusshera day? I’m not very sure… But then I am not Vasudeo… hopefully I’m learning!!!

Rewards of Failure

I was watching the promos of a film that was launched recently with lot of fanfare. The film talks about the ill-effects of current education system, with the director boldly displaying his educational exploits below his name – “12th STD Fail”. The director being one of the well-known successful directors, it was a great marketing tactic.
I wondered – Was he always so proud of his educational exploits – especially at the time when he failed. How much time and how much pain he must have suffered before boldly displaying that failure?
Its interesting what a failure does to you. When I look back – one bold failure that quickly comes to my mind is my own 12th standard. I completed by bachelor’s degree in science. However, in my time rarely anyone went to B.Sc. out of choice – one was either a failure in securing engineering admission or medicine admission. In my case it was medicine. Life suddenly looked bleak….. out of the bunch of guys that used to hang around with me till 12th Standard, I was the only one left behind with everyone else gone either for an engineering college or a medical college..... its little difficult to imagine now, that I actually behaved the way I behaved that time…. For six months in my graduation, this was the pattern I followed:
1. I genuinely believed that I do not belong to my B.Sc. degree but its just a sheer mistake that has got me there – almost always behaved like a martyr however weird it may sound.
2. I did not bother to make a single friend ( I also remember what helped was a long teachers’ strike where colleges were closed down for more than a month)
3. Anyone who cared to listen, I would make it a point to impress that I missed my medicine admission only by 3 marks (big deal!)

As the time passed, I started realizing that I was going to be in that place. I also developed a faint suspicion that people were avoiding me….. I think people generally do not hang around a failure not because the person is a failure but actually avoid him/her because of the way a person behaves in failure…. Who would hang around someone who is perpetually mourning?..... Of course, I must confess that this learning did not touch me that time and came much later after I almost mastered the art of failing.

That time I had no enlightenment that changed me…. It was just boredom with my state of being at that point of time. I reluctantly started looking around… and life around was quite interesting (pun intended!) …. Library suddenly became the most interesting place to hang around, apart from canteen (could you believe – we actually had separate canteens for boys and girls!!!) …. Rose-days and valentine days came and went by… not that I had any luck but taught me to be an eternal optimist!! Not that I became careless about my career but it just did not consume me…. I made some great friends…. My own patterns got shattered – Till my 12th standard, friends would generally come from similar background and with similar aspirations…. Talking to girls was earlier avoidable (how stupid we could get!!) – then I landed in Microbiology class as the only boy with 25 girls!

Life had its own way of holding my hand and taking me on a great journey that was not marked with any great achievement in conventional sense, but strangely I was on a high!!

Strange was the effect of that phase on me – I remained as competitive and ambitious as I ever was – I just could take string of failures in my stride better…. Ability to bounce back after every failure became better….. these shorter cycles post-failure always allowed me to experiment more….. even today there is no great success but I have realized the journey of struggles and experiments itself is lot of fun….. life has its finite beginning and a defined end…what you do in between is entirely up to you!!

Every time I achieve something…. I chuckle… as my first educational qualification flashes some where at the back of my mind….. a failed doctor!!

A memorable DATE!

“What’s a DATE?” – I almost dropped my mug when my daughter asked me this question! “Well…mmm… date is like today is 28th August” I just tried to evade the question...honestly just had no clue how to explain this to a 7 year old! “NO..not that date….whats a DATE?” she asked me with a body language that suggested she was in no mood to tolerate any nonsense…how kids pick up stuff from their mothers, I always wonder..!!

“Hmm…well… generally a DATE is an occasion when two people who like each other decide to have great time together… so they go out to a restaurant, watch a movie…generally have lot of fun together, you know!” “Wow!! is that so? .. so lets go for a DATE today … you and me” …. Honestly I did not know how to react to this sweetest proposal of a DATE I could ever imagine! ‘Not a bad idea’, I thought. It was a lovely Saturday morning in Pune and Saturday mornings used to be time for me and my daughter, as my wife would be away at work. “Ok! Lets go out for a DATE” “Where are we going?” “Hmm… lets go to Meridian…they have a nice buffet lunch…you will like it” “Do they have ice-creams?” “I think so” …… “Ok, you wear your Jeans and that blue shirt, I’ll wear my new blue dress”….I was just beginning to realize the seriousness of my DATE!

As we drove to Meridian, she was quite well-behaved…almost dignified, I would say and I had to remind myself that it would not be polite to laugh. As we entered the Meridian and settled with our plates, she returnd to her normal cheerful self…. As we enjoyed our meals, her eyes lit up…. She looked around the Meridian Lobby from where we sat and exclaimed “shall we play hide & seek here?” …. I almost swallowed my fork!!! “HERE??” “Ya, its kind of nice…we are on a DATE no?”… “Yes of course!” I had to think quickly on my feet… “Well, we will just play it quietly but will not run around” “Why?” “Hmm.. no generally you don’t run around like that on a DATE” “OK, your den first” “sure”

If you have not tried out Hide & Seek at Meridian lobby in Pune…try it out. Its actually an awesome place to play Hide & Seek. We had a great time for next half an hour! Easily it was THE DATE of my life!

Six years down the line, my daughter is 13 now, standing 5 Ft 7” tall… she seriously thinks she is grown up … I’m little amused to see her getting little conscious about herself… spending little more time in front of mirror everyday!

Of late, a thought has started gnawing my mind – I am sure it has troubled million fathers before me….. a few year down the line she may not ask me meaning of DATE and more importantly, may not ask me for a DATE!

Who do you work for?

One of the Hospitals known for its advanced technology, faced a peculiar problem – In room number 101 that was meant for ICU patients, the patient died on 3 successive days exactly at 10.45 in the morning. Entire medical staff was completely foxed – In all the cases the patient concerned was fairly stable as per the morning 10.00 AM check-up. After expensive brainstorming session that involved senior specialists nothing really was conclusive. At the end of a 6 hours meeting, a senior doctor said – let’s just observe the room if the room undergoes any specific change at 10.30 in the morning – sounded little bizarre but they all agreed for the want of a better solution. As a couple of doctors observed the room 101 quietly from the corner next day morning, a sweeper came at 10.25 to mop the floor....he put down his bucket and started mopping the floor...came near the bed.....pulled a plug on the wall...neatly rolled up the wire that was spread on the floor...mopped the floor.... at about 10.35 as he finished the room, he put the plug back...mopped his hands on apron...looked at the room with a smile and walked away......both the doctors almost fainted...the plug that sweeper had pulled off was that of ventilator......

On enquiry it turned out that he was a new sweeper from Housekeeping Department. During an enquiry he made a very interesting statement – “During my brief when I joined, my supervisor told me that we support the doctors.... they are really our internal customers.... so do your job with dedication and don’t cut the corners... One of our core values is dedication which means do your job with you yourself as a supervisor!” While the entire hospital worked for ONE customer – “the patient” our innocent friend was working for some other customer.... with all good intention he just killed 3 customers!!

This story flashed in my mind as I was listening to Dr Wayne Brockbank from Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. The topic of discussion was interesting...the concept of internal customer!

Many of us in HR and support function have been brought up on this beautiful concept of “Internal Customers”....apparently to make us accountable for something may be. Having worked in HR as well as Sales, I found Sales relatively easier in spite of being a qualified HR person....sounds little weird but this is how perhaps it works:

When I work with the external customer, I am at the forefront...I exactly know what stakes are on the table....what’s in it for me and what’s in it for my customer.....we both have a clear agenda....my customer knows what and why is he paying and I know his expectations....works out pretty fine

In this whole transaction a couple of things clearly help:
1. My awareness of the market conditions (competition being a subset of it) which gives me a fair idea of the customer’s options as well as my own bargaining power
2. When I sign up a customer, I know that he is going to work along with me to make it a success as he has put his hard earned money on the table...there are no other agendas!
Though the concept of internal customer sounds perfect, the support functions suffer on couple of accounts:
1. You just know a piece of work that you have to deliver, many a times without a big picture - unless you have a clear visibility and a direct access to the market and more importantly to the customer concerned
2. If your defined customer is sales or production (delivery in service organisations like IT)... you have a problem..... you would never know whether they are up to the mark servicing “THE ONLY CUSTOMER” an organization has.....not to mention at the end of it you have more than a suspicion if you are a scapegoat in case of a failure
While the onus clearly lies on HR professionals to come to the party with knowledge of marketplace along with their own functional competency.....we all must understand that the choice is really between HR as a partner or HR serving the internal customer..... you just can’t have your cake and eat it too!!!!

Key log of Leadership

Dr Ric Roi presented a very interesting concept during the recent NHRDN conference – about a practice that some of us would remember from the school geography book:

This is about the Timber industry and transportation of the logs. Logs cut in winter in the woods were stacked on frozen waterways. As spring arrived and the rivers opened, the logs jostled downstream. The newly cut pine logs would run aground on sandbars, deadhead on the riverbanks or jam in river rapids.

It is these jams which would create problems – if the logs got jammed the blockages would be so severe that it would stop the flow of the river. This is where professional loggers would come into picture – the trick was to identify that one key log that caused the jam – it need not be the biggest log but if one took care of that one log it will clear the entire traffic jam! Interesting!! Really interesting!!!

After listening to various speakers and their ideas my head was really in a spin – I guess that happens if you get too many ideas too fast.... With so many thoughts on leadership it was almost a jam in the mind.....and I was struggling to find that one key log that will clear the jam. What is that one basic underlying principle, that would ensure the smooth flow when it comes to leadership?

As I came home with my thoughts I saw my wife and teenage daughter in an animated argument....my teenage daughter has almost taken it as her mission to have an opinion on practically everything and sometimes it can be quite frustrating.....as I watched them with a mixed feelings of sympathy for my wife and admiration for my daughter, something clicked and I suddenly burst out laughing.....both of them looked at me quizzically but I did not care as I thought I had an answer.....

......When we have an argument with our kids, they feel comfortable to hold up an argument like an equal.... we may be the providers of basic necessities for them but we never bring up that issue in the picture. If we ever do....there is no fight then – there will only be fear and a sense of insecurity.... no views will come forth....no thoughts will be shared.... I guess same is true in the corporate life.... the true calibre of a leader should be gauged by an ability she/he has in allowing the voices to be raised rather than the number of followers that look up to the person.... This is the basis of a healthy relationship where people feel free and comfortable to voice an opinion, reason it out and then most importantly still live together comfortably - after all we still have a family dinner together even after a heated argument! An argument for a true leader is never a threat to a relationship but rather a healthy indication that there is trust and concern lest something should go wrong.

As I got key log to break the traffic-jam in my mind about leadership...I took my wife and kids out for treat while they wondered about the reason for my celebration!!!!

Atal-ji, me and my complacency....

On the week-end I was just spending time at my parent’s place – this is the place where I grew up and spent most part of my life so far. I feel just great wandering around the place doing particularly nothing... In the living room showcase amongst other things I noticed a gold medal. While I kept gazing at it memories came flooding......

Must have been year 1980 or may be 1981...I remember I was in sixth standard. There was a State level elocution competition held at our school....it was a big occasion (or god knows Nostalgia is making it bigger...). I won the gold medal and the medal was presented to me by none other than Honourable Mr Atal Bihari Vajpeyee. Atal-ji had just stepped down as a Minister of External Affairs in Janata Government and had a huge fan following in the area where I grew up. Well...it was a big occasion and when we got my photograph with Atal-ji my mother was particularly ecstatic. As was the practice in those days she took me around the neighbourhood with the photograph and I basked in my glory happily..... As we went to one particular neighbour’s place, he held the photo and admiringly said, “Hmm... future prime minister” and I just blushed! Well, I knew I had won a big competition but this was little too much...... We came out of their house and as soon as the neighbours closed their door my mother whacked me, “You idiot.... they were talking about Atal-ji not you!!!” I remember that shocked expression on her face at the thought that I never ever thought that the other man in the photograph was little better qualified than me to become the Prime Minister of the Country.....!!!

I think this particular incident defines my overall approach to life which has not changed much over the years. Ill-effects of complacency are well-documented so let me put down something in defence of it especially when I feel I have not fared too badly (you are right this is one of the key symptoms!!) .....

Complacency helps you to think of yourself almost as a god’s gift to mankind and just as you may be oblivious to many critical things happening around you, you are also insulated from the scorn of the world!

Your ambitions almost always have a very romantic aura around them so while success does not affect you (you always deserved it right?...) even a failure is nicely engulfed into a romantic feeling that you get watching a well made tragedy film!

There is a fine line that divides complacency and arrogance..... in arrogance you think of others negatively....in complacency you are always so sure that others are fond of you that there is no question any negativity!

Complacency does not allow you to hurt anyone easily as that does not befit your overall self-image of a romantic hero!

You do not mind working hard simply because you generally are well aware of your importance to the world at large!

I do not know whether it was sheer luck or God’s own design(ya...I seriously think God has time to specifically design my destiny!) that landed me in the IT Industry at the beginning of my career and was so comfortable though out my stay there as I thrived amongst the Software Engineers – who pretty much like me have this feeling about themselves that they are God’s gift to mankind!

As I upload this post on my blog...I just wonder how much and how many folks are going to enjoy reading this!!!!!

The lost art of appreciating a Movie.........

The real fun of watching movies was always at my native place – Kolhapur. It was a complete return-on-investment stuff – The action off the screen almost matching the show on the screen. Kolhapur happens to be a prosperous (smallest city in India with Merc showroom of its own!!) art-loving city. I do not know how many cities in India have the film artists’ / directors’, classical music maestros’ statues without they turning politicians and all. I do not know how many cities have Raj Kapoor’s statues in public places – The city has always been a movie buff and quite evolved when it comes to Cinema – The golden era of Marathi Cinema (yes there was!) was from this place.

As most of the school holidays used to be spent there, Kolhapur has always been an integral part of my childhood. It is in those holidays that I really freaked out on the “movie experience” that was so different from routine Mumbai one..... But what made movie watching in Kolhapur so exciting was not the Kolhapur citizens – it was the people who poured in from country-side that made it special. Being the most happening place of that part of the world – folks from nearby countryside used to flock in – to entertain themselves....as well as entertain others albeit unintentionally....

The fun started right at the ticket window..... was not uncommon to have an argument at the window for “One full and one half ticket”!....its only when the fellows in the Queue intervened, the fellow would grumblingly take out the balance money from the folds of his turban.......

No-one wasted precious printing ink on stuff like printing seat numbers on tickets ...... so as the crowd waited for doorkeepers to open the door, scene resembled more like sprinters waiting for the whistle... By experience, you would know that there was no need to participate in the race..... the winners generally preferred front seats!!

The class act was “Big B” movies – always reverentially referred as “Bachchan” – the entry would be greeted with shrill whistles and a generous shower of coins on the screen.... the involvement in Bachchan was so complete that it was not unusual for a few to stand up and cheer the fights.... not to mention the tips that poured in for the fights... well after all its a city of wrestlers....... Loud expletives were thrown at villains - for those who do not know the place, strong expletives (what you call Gaalis) is not considered bad manners...its just part of ...well....normal language!

I still remember watching re-run of iconic Zanjeer in Kolhapur. As I took the seat, a fellow in front of me took out his pouch and while sharing the tobacco with the neighbour said something seriously, which I remember word-by-word to this day ...” this movie there is no tension – that b**##%d Praan (the famous villain) is with Bachchan, otherwise he can be a pain!” as they relaxed in their seats, I just stopped myself from asking – “But what about Ajit? (the villain of Zanjeer)”.

As I watch the movies in comfort of a multiplex or my living room sofa with much better “Technology” experience – I almost get a lump in my throat missing the real experience around – the source of which is a rare commodity now – innocence!


The most amazing movie experience was when Pallavi and I went to Kolhapur first time after our marriage – The big joint family decided to go for a movie – it was the smash-hit that time – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ)........ As we were taking our seats two of my younger cousins (I think they were in 3rd or 4th standard) rushed and sat on either side of Pallavi.... they wanted see the movie with their brand new bhaabhi (elder brother’s wife)..... so I watched DDLJ sitting between my mother and my aunt! I am waiting for those buggers to grow up and marry.....so that I can take them to a movie in Kolhapur with their newly wed brides......!!!!