Service, Feedback, Drive, Reading, Shared value.

POST 191

Today, I had officials from a nationalised bank visiting our Apatment complex for a campaign to offer their banking services. How much things have moved over the past 15 years.!!! When you visited these banks, the delay, lethargicity were very notorious in those times. I think competetion drives people to improve and sustain excellence. The officers were professional, courteous. I am thinking of working out some transactions which could be mutually beneficial to us.  

I also realised the importance of feedback and how it is like breathing. I was in one of the non work related meetings. There were issues when raised the issue took a personal turn. I was quick to point out to people that if they have issues with any one (Me Included), they need to give feedback on those issues immediately, rather than bottling it and bursting out. It needs to involve, 1)the behaviour, 2)the effect and consequence and 3)what can be done differently. All it is needs is to work that way and it doesnt get personal. It is such a simple thing like breathing and feedback should become a natural process.

Yesterday, the Bangalore Bandh due to the political tug of war between Governor and the Government took it's toll on the normal activities. School exam postponed, traffic came to standstill. Our maid was literally chased away by baton charging police and some how she managed to escape the beating. Gandhi's way of civil disobidience was ok in a ag based, rural India where impact on issues were less and ofcourse, British were very sensitive to issues and treat the opponent with dignity. Moreover, the courts have termed bandh illegal. Wonder what is being done to put that in to action thro legislation etc. I would assume nothing. All issues are forgotten here in medium/ long term as new urgent issues crop up.


I am going thro Dan Pink book, "DRIVE". This book is one of the life turning book for me. It talks about Intrinsic motivation. Type I and how rewards alone wont bring the change we want. It describes in Detail the Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose that are essential to internal drive. The 4 enablers---> Time, task, Team and technique to be explored. I am glad I could get a chance. This will help me a lot.

Another article, that captured my imagination was the Corporate way forward on Creating shared value by Porter/ Kramer. This gives the practical approach to address social issues and from an outiside perview of CSR. But the pity is that in a compliance driven environment and to meet numbers, I wonder, how many would take this giant leap to see a big picture to act like Leaders?????.....


The article on reading is basic to democracy touched me a lot. The present generation seems to have lost this art for whatever, reasons. I recollect grabing books, magazines like food and go thro and parents encouraged me a lot. That helped as I grow so as to pick an IPAD only for reading at ease.


At the homefront, last week we completed our 20th Wedding anniversary on 18th Jan. It was mostly smooth success all the way. I would attribute the success we had so far to empowering my wife to do anything she feels is right and I stand by her decision. On her side, she was very very generous and magnanimous to see large picture, long term and let issues go. It is all down to give and take. 

The other news is my daughter passed out the CA articleship entrance exam with a score of 125/ 200. What was intersting was the day she finished the exam and came home, she said she will get 125 and it was. What an amazing self confidence and judgement. Children of this generation are excellent in self analysis and do what they think very well.


Untill, next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

School contact, roads,

POST 190

Wishing the folks a Happy and prosperous 2011. Better late than never. I was tied up with Personal travel and beginning of year tasks etc. Sundays kind of went in chasing and getting things done like car repair etc. By the time I write this, we are in to the middle of the Harvest festival Pongal, the festival of thanks giving to the Sun god, the Farmer.

I was in for a pleasant surprise when some of my school mates from Karaikudi got in touch with me. It has been 31 years (1980) since I passed out of Algappa Model Higher secondary school. I had given up hope of getting in touch with them as people had moved and my visits to Karaikudi to meet parents was kind of once a year for a day or less with practically no time to make contacts in person. Yes, it helps to have your profile in the social media like google profile, Linkedin, Facebook etc as people who do a search can ferret you out and make contact. This should now help us to find most of our school mates if not all. Feeling very good about it.

We make our annual visit to our family temple at Karisulnthamangalam PIN 627453 (KS Mangalam or Karisuzhntha Mangalam) in Thirunelveli district of TN. It is 5 km from famouse Pathamadai town. Last year we made it on 31st December and achieved the target of a visit every calendar year. One thing that impress me is the small towns are developing and standard of living are improving. For the first time, the temple priest indicated that he would like to wear a T-SHIRT(!) and we picked a couple of them for him. Unheard, 20 years back and also all the bank fund electronic transfer at the most rural of locations. Yes, Tech is changing lives.

We had the road in front of our Apartment, Renaissance PARK 3, (First main road, Malleswaram West) which was in worst condition redone after a year with lot of followup. The road was formally inaugurated by the Local MLA, Dr Ashwathnarayan, this week. This has given a rood drivable road, but the traffic will go mad due to various diversion putting children etc at risk.

Take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Thommo, APPS, Books, Tapes.

Post 189
A friend was telling about how only a particular section of  function/ location/people were getting all the promotions/ growth in the organization. I had to tell him that there are some bias, halo effect that exist in organizations that can't be overcome easily. I recollect a comment from a famous Aussie cricketer who said, "you just try hard to play for New South Wales, playing for Australia is then very easy for they hand over Baggy Green to save envelope costs". ( I guess, It was Jeff Thomson).
This week also is the week in which the famous FIRST TIE Test at Brisbane happened. I was not born at that time, but I have heard so much from the previous generation. The result was confusion and some people missed the action including Commentator Alan McGilvary. I would think the 2005 Ashes England was the closest we have seen on such even contest.

For the Techies, the Top Ipad apps have been released, it is worth working these apps in your Ipad/ Iphone. 

Also the best 2010 Business books have been selected by 800-CEOREAD. The list contains 25 Books. Vineet Nayar's "Employee First, Customer second" had made it.  Chip and Dan Heath's SWITCH too makes it to the list.

Amazed at the OUTLOOK revelation today on the 800 more tapes on how corporate have manipulated politician / system.... More names are pulled out. People who were pretending saint have shown the ugly side. It was long suspected that there is a nexus, but never to this extent the manipulation. I always felt many of the issues in News TV here,were like character (Fiction!!) Edward Armstead's "ALMIGHTY"(Irwing Wallace) and I stayed away as much to Web for my news update. So I am proved right. News is created / manipulated.
I am daily voting for the PODCAST awards. The voting open until 14th Dec. This is our chance to pay back the gratitude for all the hard work the podcasters put in.


Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live Consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Black Friday, BMTC, Books, Test match sofa.

Post 188

So the Thanksgiving week is over indicating that the Holiday season has begun. Also this is the time for conducting Annual Performance review/ setting up goals. I am an ardent Mike and Mark, Manager tool fan. Following their advise over the past 5 years, this has become a routine affair for me. Work the MT goal (Measurable, Timely Goals).Performance review supporting documents prepared by spending 15 minutes a month to collect summary of each month and seamlessly integrating in to the final document. Thank you Manager tools.


As my car was involved in a minor road accident and I had to use public transport for attending a family event. This gave me an opportunity to explore Bangalore public transport buses for inter city commute for the first time.(more than 2 km ride changing buses i.e) I must confess, the experience was much better than what I had anticipated, the volvo buses, professional conductors, Air conditioned environment, All sitting protocol was good enough. The fare was also decent. Yes, the only condition is you need to have time on hand as the bus travels in fixed route and you cant take shortcuts to save time. The 15Km Journey took 2 hrs. ( Including 25 minutes for change of bus at bus station). Infrastructural inadequacy correction has some way to go!!... Let's see.


it is surprising that despite more than a year in to Indian operations, the Wall street journal has not been able to deliver same day delivery of the print journal here in Bangalore. I feel that the news paper/ journals are to be read in print to get a feel of having read. I hope WSJ India works something on this. I am also working for renewing my HBR subscription. This time HBR is offering only 2 year renewal at 47% discount. Looks like cost pressure is building up. But it is worth the renewing.

I heard an interesting podcasts on book review.
1) Spendshift, how the USA recession is seen as an opportunity to change spending pattern and lesson learned. The book SPENDSHIFT.
2) Riding the TIGER, How the adverse situation at Saytam was not allowed to escalate in to an enron, thus collapse of the company. Good learning. 



The Stanford Entrepreneurial Though leaders podcast threw some interesting topics.
Diego Piacentini, Senior VP of International Retail for Amazon, discusses the company's growth-centered business model, its global presence, and the strides it takes to sustain a successful customer experience. Piacentini also describes Amazon's innovative approaches to operations, mergers and acquisitions, and labor practices. 
Jennifer Aaker shares the power behind creating ideas that can build momentum. Through her research on the perception of happiness and meaning, Aaker describes how these concepts relate to a successful and powerful social media campaign.

So the Ashes are of to a cracking start, boy! What a first 4 days of test match. Swing of pendulum could be the best comparison. We are in for a cracking winter. This is the best thing that could have happened to Test Match cricket. I am indeed a bit saddened / disappointed for the absence of Radio commentary coverage to Asia/ Outside UK on test match special. I sincerely hope BBC does something to restart the radio coverage. It can help you to focus on task on hand without watching TV. I have also emailed my request to BBC. Hope something is worked before second test. In the meantime, I came across TESTMATCH SOFA, a website that dishes out audio ball by ball coverage to track.Good job done.


The IPAD version of economist is super, helps you to scan articles quickly. This is free app too for others.


Wayne Turmel's new website, Great web meeting is cool. Links to future webinars, excellent links to practical articles.


Until next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

PS: Felt good to talk to my schoolmate after 31 years, he called from USA. Tech connects and helps you to find people.

HTTLeadership, Books, Thoughts.

Post 187.

So another year gone by, today is my star birthday. Born Karthik month Full moon day, so the name Karthik. Felt good to get call wishing from friends, more so from Parents.In fact I should have called them to seek blessings. The calendar birthday is in 10 days time.

The Hindustan times leadership Summit 2010 was a better worked out event than previous year. The sessions by Jairam Ramesh, Arun Jaitley,Kapil Sibal were frank, honest reflections of the situation in Indian scenarios. Pranab did a decent job of defending the 2G scam.The answers looked convincing in terms of referring to the public accounts committee take the issue forward. The session of Brain was simply amazing. Hats off to Dr.Ravi Gopal Varma on the efforts on the patient who had no control over what she does!!.In 6 months, he turned around the impossible. Bangalore was the IT capital no questions, The way medical challenges are addressed, I wont be surprised if it takes the Medical innovation capital.
The session by Al Gore, Gordon Brown were also practical aspects. I missed the session of PM,(The only one I didn't bother!!) no worth under the present situation, he needs to come clean with an explanation( As like Bhishma in Mahabharat, turned bind eye to Draupadi being stripped off in the court of Kauravas) to be taken seriously. The concluding session on China as a challenge was the icing on the cake. Any discussion of Indian growth/ strategy, without China is meaningless. The Indian press missed this point of view during Obama's visit. No Indian Press/ TV bothered to check the Chinese perspective.
 
The moderator is an area where the HT leadership summit needs lot of improvement. The Indian TV /News personalities it appears, play a pre arranged script, artificial. (More so, I have overheard participants in Indian news tv show confessing, offline, that they have been scripted, thus the ingenuity/authenticity of discussion is questionable!!???????)They can learn a thing or two from Nik Gowing who did an excellent job on the session with Pranab Mukherjee. And yes thankfully NO damm Indian cricket lousy stuff. Yes, Wasim Akram came in on the diabetes session, that is pardonable.


I finished reading the book "SWITCH" by Chip and Dan Heath. It has left a deep impact on me. 3 simple principles, Motivate the elephant, Direct the rider and Show the path. The authors have used 10s of example in each section as well as working the practical tips to start change. It easily connects to Gandhi preaching, You must be the change that you wish to see in the world. I am glad, I picked up this book.

I have begun reading "The Essential Drucker", I was tempting to take notes, but I found it impossible as each paragraph is more important than the previous or the next one. What amazed me was that Drucker had the vision to see all this in the late 60,70,80s when Knowledge worker, Globalization must have been unheard off.
From my e-reader, I got a copy of Seth Godin's Linchpin. The practical way to move from routine,cog in to indispensable. 

So the Ashes, the only cricket action that I bother following live on TV starts this week. This may bring disruption in to my daily routines over the next 6 weeks. It is worth it. Ashes in Australia is always special more so with Bill Lawry's it is all happening!!!.. , also the Nov-Dec, cold weather lot of coffee to gulp and watch over breakfast, lunch is pleasure. (More so on Saturday, Sunday!!!!). Yes, Will match the radio commentary (that use to wake me up at 5am) of Jim Maxwell, Alan McGilvary, legends, no one can replace them. I expect Aussies to regain the ashes comfortably. That is what my predictor tool "The  Economist" says. I have always gone with that and never felt let down. Yes, England good team, but Aussies are picking steam........

I close with a great feeling of getting connected to my school mate from karaikudi after 30 years. Thanks to Linkedin. More so delighted to see that he is now a CEO, settled in east coast,USA. His upbringing by his parents,(More so by his father who was demanding) never left any doubt in me that this guy will go places. Glad it materialized....Parents know what they do.. It is like bitter medicine, good for health. Wonder if the present generation, realizes that.
Yes, till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Diwali,Books,

POST 186

The Diwali the festival of lights was an quiet affair for all of us in the family. The children were very busy with coaching class schedule as well as there had been a bit of personal situations which have made to take the diwali on a low key one. We did participate in the community gathering at the PARK 3 celebrations for an hour. I was wondering on the money spent on bursting crackers by the community (easily in to US$3000 or so) that could have been well spent for a better cause (Children education or etc).

As indicated, I had taken a week off, and spent useful time to catch up on reading books as well as to spend time in the Kitchen.

1) A must read is Marshall Goldsmith's book MOJO. It was an eye opener for me, especially  on issues that people tend to connect everything to the past happening and let that affect your present performance. Also the calculator of Overall Mojo was a good theme. Also connecting from the personal sense was the distinction and transgression people make to get a bit off guard between personal and professional lives. I have also began to let go off the people who had been not good to me, forgive and move on. An excellent book. This was also touched on the recent podcast by Anna Farmery on the Engaging brand podcast with Anna Mason.
2) Got a chance to read John Grisham's THE CONFESSION. A good begging, goes well up to 75% and then loses steam. A bit of let down for a die hard Grisham fan.
3) I got the book Beating Diabetics, which I went thro to know a bit more of the life sytle handicap. The book is a  must read for all TYPE I & II (More so for type II). It covers all practical aspects the temptations, the overdo, the food charts etc. The good thing is the book offers a lot of solution to the day to day issues.
4) I am halfway in to TRUE BLUE, the Baldacci Thriller, going good. I may try to finish it before the year end, hopefully.

Ok, so the clock is put back by an hour in Europe/ USA, so Indian work days will get longer by an hour for all the conference calls. In this connection, the Podcast by Mike and Mark on managing distant team is a good practical guide. Wayne Turmel does monthly training sessions on how to manage remote teams. A good one to participate.
Another must listen is the WEEKLY Leader podcast by Peter Mellow. Lot of thought provoking interviews. Yes, you may require more than 45 mintues for most show, but worth it.

I guess, I haven't mentioned about Grammar Girl podcast. A must listen if you care to improve your English speech/ writing. I do as it is not my mother tongue.


Until next week, take it easy and take care; Live Consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Google, Friends, Food.

IYou would assume that Google is well used all over the world, well,my experience in the USA last week,was that there are some people still who dont google to find out things that are beyond LA to NY( That they call World series!!!).

1) A friend asked me if Budhism is the biggest religion in Pakistan? (He has double master's degree). He had been to this part of the world!!...
2) 2 folks from Latin America had no clue where Bangalore, (I was too embarassed to ask if they know where India is!!) is and what is it's commercial signifiance? I too struggled to explain them, thinking it is obivious!!....
3) There was also confusion/ hesitancy in many people I met to know whether I am a MUSLIM? (My beard didnt help). Yes, I guess the Pakistan work association must have paid off for this Madarasi, Indian Brahman!!!!...

So the world has lot of catchup to do??? What intelligent software/ implant would do this!?

So this visit also helped me to do some important things.

1) Met my first working boss, Dr M V Patel ( 1986-1991, Unique group, Ankleshwar) at Chicago after 19 years, did lot of catching up over  Gujarati dinner at his place in West Chicago. It was great to meet his family too. 


2) Met Wayne Turmel, the Host of Cranky Middle Manager podcast show, over dinner at a Sea food restaurant. 2 hrs just flew by. I always felt that great people always squeeze out time from their busy schdeule to interact with people. Wayne is no exception. Thank you very much for your time Wayne. We appreciate what you do over CMM.


3) Sat behind a wheel of a car( Toy Car) at GO KARTING at Lanciano, Italy at a team event. This was my first experience behind wheel after 10 years, as Bangalore traffic is hazardous to self driving and leave it to professionals. Some initial nerves, things worked out.

Dr Patel

Go karting

Wayne
 It was sheer delight to be back at the CASTELO DI SEPTE,hotel in Mozzagrogna. The hotel is in my best hotel list. It looks a castle and rooms are standard with basic amnities. Wireless internet (Free) is bonus add on since my last visit in 2008. The food in the resturant is amazing.
We had been to a restaurant (more like a Agri tourism farm house), the Italian food was amazing!!. (more than 3 course dinner and we finshed at 1am!!)....

One of the other learning on the trip was the airline food has shrunk in long distance flights, the food they serve is simply not enough. I learned the lesson quickly and started picking up food from counters as an addon to the served flight food to prevent going hungry for hours. Yes as usual, the baggage didnt make it during the short flight to Chicago. (4th time!!)So rushed to Walmart to get some clothes, (My relatives helped for the trip for 2 mile drive, if you cant drive you are in trouble over distances in USA!!)


I was also very very much disappointed at absence of paid lounges in TERMINAL 5 at Heathrow during the 6 hrs transit. (I lost my BA Silver status due to lack of inernational travel for some time!!)The absence of Shower facility is an insult to the clean traveler like me (Who shower minimum twice a day come rain or shine, (I even did at -15 deg cel at Salt Lake city). I hope some one listens and do something to install some showers (Paid one also would do!!).......

By the way finished reading Frederick Forsyth's COBRA. A must read to know the intricacies of COCAINE Trade. Master story.


Until next week,take it easy and take care; Live Consciously.
Regards
Karthik.