India: Is it losing its supremacy in Cricket, Lessons learned

I am sure you will be reading this above headlines in all newspapers and magazines. But what does this decline in the Indian Cricket have to teach in the IT Industry. Let us look at the Indian Cricket team with the eyes of Business Management.

I merely thought that last saturday's loss of India to Bangladesh was a flash in the pan, but today;s loss to Sri Lanka, merely demonstrated the sheer bankruptcy of talent in the Indian Cricket. India has world class players, "STARS" in its "team". But could any of its star have the power today or could they shine as a team, unfortunately No.

We are getting beaten consistently by minnows of cricket today. The Giants in the Sub-Continent, India and Pakistan have had losses in the world cup, which it could never have imagined. The last time such an event occurred where both the teams would not be participating in the next round was in 1979 world cup. Has the subcontinent cricket come a full circle. will the subcontinent be dominated by the Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh cricket to come.

What lessons does this cricket team's loss hold for us in other streams of life. Let me draw some parallels with the IT industry today.

* The current cricket team is fed on a lot of sponsorship money and is not dependent on a reward for performance. The same seems to be happening in the IT Industry in India too. People are demanding salaries which are no commensurate for either the knowledge or the capability to work. Unfortunately companies are willing to pay salaries too for such work delivered, because they want to leverage India.
* The current team is so busy representing the country in the World Arena, that it is not playing in the Ranji matches, thereby younger talents are not getting an oppurtunity to work together and learn from the experience garnered by the Seniors. Same case in the IT industry. Senior leaders are too busy fighting day to day fires or are on onsite oppurtunities that the new comers don;t know how to work in a competitive global environment and learn from the mistakes of their seniors. Organizations are growing so fast that it is becoming more and more difficult to put mechanisms of learning in place to leverage the knowledge gained over the past 10 years
* Unknown cricket playing nations have nothing to lose and are putting up a brave fight. Similarly, there are nations like Vietnam, Mexico and other nations that do have a potential to give us a fight in this journey
* The cricketers are forgetting that they are representating a nation " Khoon se Khelenge Holi Gar Watan Mushkil mein hain, Sarfaroshi ki tammana ab hamare dil mein hain". this is the passion with which each Indian across the globe supports the Indian team. But is the team having the same passion. In the IT industry, the " Customer is the King", being in a service sector, this is one thing we have to remember, but unfortunately is being forgotten, providing value to the Customer is being forgotten. As Mr. Narayan Murthy had said a year ago in one of the interviews, Customer focus is the key at all levels within a service organization, the day this focus is lost the organization is in trouble.

Well we can see the Donut or the hole in the Donut. Let's be Wise and see the Donut.....................

Fair Process: How Critical is it in Management

A very interesting case study that i read in my course, relating to Fair Process, about how it" justice delivered being fair does not matter, what also matters is the process of delivery of justice should be fair too".

We run into this in every day life in India,

• traffic fines being paid
• confidence in the police systems
• selection process of the indian cricket team (even though team is good we still doubt the selection process because of the quota system)
• and many others

This is very much applications in the realms of Managing Companies esp in the Knowledge Economy. In the earlier manufacturing industry era, work could be "extracted" by various means. But in today's world, work can no longer be "extracted", you have to create an environment and motivate people to give in their best. There are way too many opportunities fo an individual if he/she does not perform. Also in today's global world, the impact of having a demoralized workforce has a very significant impact on the organization as a whole

Eemploying knowledge resource and keeping them motivated is getting tougher and tougher. In an Era where in the knowledge economy, organizations are finding it difficult to retain resources. It becomes imperative

• that we keep the communication channels open
• make them partners in decision making, even though the decision might not be in favour of the decision makers
• make them feel a part of a larger community and emphasise the need for consequences of their action

We have to realize that each individual is a brand ambassador of the company, and each individual will give more than 100% if he believes that the process supporting him is fair.

Marketing Myself : Is it really needed

Coming out of college, fresh and new ideas in mind. Working Hard was all that I thought was needed to grow in an organization. I used to think that guys who blow their own trumpets are guys who are not confident about themselves or are shameless.

It was my first Manager ( whom i respect and learnt a lot from ), who taught us the importance to respecting our own work.

He used to say " Doing a good job is just one aspect of the work. Publishing it so that your manager and others can learn about is a must too". No need to boast or blow your trumpet. But you need to market and defend your work

It is a must in today's world to talk about your work and let others know your capabilities. One of the critical reasons is only people who are close to you will know about the details of how you work and what you are capable of .

Another common perception, when giving interviews is that my resume will do the talking. Well unless you are writing the resume as a person who is seeing 1000's of resume you will not elicit any response. Also when you are face to face with the interviewee, talking or defending your resume is a key, because you have an hour to tell all about yourself and selection. (I will talk about interviewing and interview techniques on another day).

So base line is

a) Market yourself and your work
b) Know the difference between Marketing your work and Blowing your trumpet too loud
c ) Respect the judgement of the person whom you are talking to

Passion - the key ingredient

Passion

This is one key ingredient which differentiates a Happiness and Success from all others. Passion drives an individual to work and achieve great heights. Be it sports, be it business, be it teaching or be it being a student. Every single task done with passion delivers a better end product and a great inner satisfaction.

As humans we waste a lot of negative energy either cribbing about how " Life Sucks" or " what a lousy situation we are in", and unfortunately we spend a lot of our time wallowing in such thoughts. Ever thought of the best things that we got and the frame of mind we were in when we achieved that. Ever thought what was it that caused us to work well or do good. From small things as proposing to your girlfriends on " valentine's day" to getting the best grades.

Passion to plays a role in the direction you give to your life, which path you want to journey thru.

As a Leader and a Manager in today's business world, this is one element that will clearly differentiate you from the other managers. Passion to work with your team and make them grow will give you a team that wants to work effectively with you.

As a Parent, it will give you a family that cherishes to be with you through your lifetime.

For the feeling of inner happiness, please check yourself regularly are you passionate about anything in life and are you doing those activities...

Global Village - Are we ready

It is said that we are living in a global village, any act of ours has a global impact. In one way or the other we seem to get impacted or have an impact on lot more people than we expect.

But are we ready to join this global village,

• Do we have the means to survive in this new world
• Are we rooted deeply to our past so that we do not get pushed out into a unknown future
• Do we have the means of communication to understand and appreciate the things around us

Mankind has been evolving from ages, ancient texts from across the various civilizations ( Greek, Romans, Egyptian and our Indian ) tell us that mankind was very progressive. But we living in today's world think that we are at a higher state of evolution than them.

Our ability to live with nature is a subject for another rambling.

Look at the world around us, there is so much in intermingling of races and cultures. Let us take India for example, the inflow of people moving across the states. It certainly has increased in the past few years, more and more cities are becoming cosmopolitan. There is access to the whole world from even the smallest of villages. More and more Indians are travelling abroad and settling down. Similarly we see a lot more people from across the world settle in India. But have be grown intellectually to assimilate the new surroundings. Have we grown to appreciate the small nicecites in each of these communities and enrich ourselves.

That is the thought to think.

As Woodrow Wilson said

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with a greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish yourself if you forger that errand"

Ganapathi

Ganapathi : The remover of Obstacles, the guardian of the mooladhara chakra. Ganapathi is the diety who is worshipped first prior to commencement of any task or activity. He is worshipped to ensure that there are minimal obstacles towards completion of the tasks at hand.

There have been many times in my life, where i have gone thru the most difficult of tasks worshipping him. The image set on the left is what is on my laptop desktop background.

The beeja mantra of Ganapathi for those who are interested is " Om Gam Ganapathi yena mahah Ekadantayavidmaheh, Vakratundayademahe,
Tannodanti prachodayatu"