D-Company members for an year...friends-for-life

My PGPX syndicate group (Group D; alias D-Company) mates are much more than mere case-discussion-buddies. They are “family” here on campus and I am sure they will remain friends for life. We folks have been with each other through easy and tough times, both within and outside of the classroom! Here are my reflections on each one of the Group-D “magnificent seven” (actually six, cause I will leave myself out of this).

Arun the agony aunt: Have to start with him as he is the most responsible of the group members. He diligently remembers all the deadlines, and handles all the money dealings for the entire batch. An ex-entrepreneur and an experienced hand at stock-market investing, Arun can never be too far away from either money or “numbers” (in case discussions). He is almost the “agony-aunt” of the entire batch due to his easily approachable and dependable persona, and is certainly one of the most popular guys in PGPX-III. For Group-D, he is the one who always does course correction if the discussion is going astray during our endless syndicate room pre-class-prep sessions.

Harish the “sutradhar”: This cool dude from Seychelles is a true Gujrati (no offence meant) who can smell a business opportunity even in the most mundane activities. Sooner or later I am sure he will be a business tycoon. Apart from his commercial astuteness, Harish has a “cool” side to him; he is easily the most fun-loving person in the group. With his interests and amazing knowledge ranging from drinks to cigars to watches (and post PGPX to crazy topics such as retail, 3PL, supply chain :-() he takes a centre stage in most group parties. An amazing story teller, Harish is always looking for a fun (and often scandalous) story to tell; hence his sutradhar title.

Senthil the smooth-talker: Well when our Group D is least prepared for the case discussion or presentation all we need to do is to “put” Senthil is front of the class and his “performance” never lets us down. I sometimes feel his level of “performance” is inversely proportional to Group D’s level of preparation! He is the “calming factor” of the group -- ever so cool and unfazed by deadlines and deliverable schedules; his Australia connection clearly showing in his “chilled” attitude.

Bhaskar the wizard: Bhaskar can “conjure” a presentation deck in 30 seconds flat! So many times it has happened that while the group is discussing a case, Bhaskar’s magic fingers are at work creating the slide deck or the white-paper/report to be submitted; as the discussion ends, the Group has a deck already made! He is clearly the silent-wizard of Group D. While he does not believe in wasting his grey cells (and trust me he has the most in our Group) in mundane discussions; he is clearly the sharpest of the lot. His fun side, which is not apparent unless you know him really well, clearly shows in his hilarious one-liners.

Prateek the sharp-shooter: Behind this ex-army-man’s straight face and a half-mischievous smile, is a really great buddy always willing to step in for people in need of any kind of help. He gets a high in life cracking tough puzzle-type cases, driving long distances, attending/hosting small (restricted) parties, and doing anything adventurous (probably a hangover from his army days!).

Kamesh the Don: He is the “elected” leader of D Company due to his special ability in using ingenious ways (ranging from requesting to soft coercion to threats-to-life!) to get the group together for syndicate meetings. A fun-loving bloke with an infectious laughter, amazing level of enthusiasm, and a chill attitude towards life, Kamesh is most fun to be with during group parties, where he often ends up delivering some truly marvellous and inspiring speeches in high “spirits”!!

As I sit through day-one of term V of PGPX...

Well today (December 19) we start with term 5 (the last term) of our PGPX course. As I sit in the class today listening to some "crazy" (don't get me wrong here; I also mean smart....) work that my peers have done in the past 6 weeks as part of the international immersion program (equivalent of an international project), I am a bundle of several feelings...

- "Really Bored" listening to my peers' presentations about areas as diverse (read: crazy as) as making money out of banana waste to manufacturing semi-conductors to supply chain optimization to marketing margarine!!!

- "Amazed" at how some of my colleagues (especially some of my "Group D" folks) can be so attentive through this "information download" drill

- "Sad" (well sort of) cause the PGPX course ends in exactly 90 days (the course ends on March 19). Well during my life here I have met some really smart folks, interacted with some of the best faculty in the management world, thoroughly enjoyed a zillion hours of course work (well most courses!), and made some great friends (Group D especially -- Senthil, Arun, Bhaskar, Harish, Prateek, Kamesh)

- "Happy" cause the course will be over in 90 days! I am so ready to go back to a real job (and to a life where there is some cash inflow at the end of the month!). Am glad in someway that I opted for a one year program (at some point I was contemplating a PhD; that would surely have been a disaster); did not realize how difficult it would be to go back to school before I joined IIM-A

- "Confused" by all the "gyan" that I have sort of been sensitized to over the past several months. Am not too sure a lot of it can be applied to the corporate world, yet it is all good-to-know kind of information

- "Elated" and "really proud" as my son completes two months today!

And, now I am going back to making my ppt. deck for the presentation tomorrow...

I am a proud Dilliwala

I am no big fan of either the Congress party or Sheila Dixit, but I am glad the way Delhi Assembly elections have panned out. It makes me proud as a Dilliwala to say that the incumbent party victory in Delhi shows that Delhi-voter is a thinking-voter, not swayed by petty mud-slinging done by various parties to gain voter-brownie-points, and votes based on pure individual candidate merit. Folks who won elections in Delhi, despite a strong any-incumbency wave triggered by the unfortunate November 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai, won purely on the merit of their contributions during the past term in office.

As I said earlier I am not a fan of Sheila Dixit, and I believe she could have done much more for Delhi in the past decade that she spent in office, there are at least a few very basic notable changes she has made to Delhi. She at least tried to address some fundamental problems that Delhi has always faced – water, electricity, education, public transport, etc. As a commoner Dilliwala, here are a few positive changes I noticed in Delhi over the past decade.

- Infrastructure has developed enormously in the form of new roads, flyovers and the gleaming Metro, to keep pace with the city's choking traffic. Delhi also began to get new plush buses - benefiting millions who depend on public transport.

- Delhi's public transport has also gone green and polluting industries have been shifted out of residential areas. (Sheila Dixit earned credit for all these developments although some of these took place because of Supreme Court pressure.)

- Initiation of the “Bhagidari” (parternship) scheme, under which the Delhi administration funds Residents Welfare Associations to carry out local area development.

- Water and electricity shortages have also eased (only eased, by no means vanished) in Delhi. The government has also actively promoted water harvesting and encouraged solar power as a green alternative.

- More educational institutes and universities have developed. The government paid attention to the development of the Indraprastha University as well as technical institutes.

I sincerely hope this victory gives a “thumbs-up” to the ruling Congress party and that the chief minister is encouraged to take on more developmental projects in Delhi over her next term.

Management lessons from my six-week old son!!

We were recently blessed with a lovely and handsome boy with bright eyes and a smile to die for! Though we have had our share of sleepless nights and constant nervousness about the slightest indication of our baby’s discomfort, overall the parenting experience has been really great! Here are some lessons that my six week old has taught me; lessons that I can take back to my workplace. I secretly feel that the fact that he was born in IIM-A (close to the campus) makes him a “smart manager” right from his day-one!

Lessons 1: Change is good. Status-quo can make you “wet and soggy” and uncomfortable. And, whenever you aspire for change, shout out loud.

Lesson 2: When you want to say something, say it boldly. Otherwise people may not take you seriously. Have you ever heard a little baby whispering when he/she is hungry?

Lesson 3: Charm people around you to get things done. My six-week old exactly knows when and how much to smile and “coo” to make me and my wife go ga-ga.

Lesson 4: Time-bound and fixed schedule kills creativity and innovation. Throw the time piece and alarm clocks out of the window and live life on your own terms if you want to be creative and if you want to maximize learning.

Lesson 5: Delegate effectively and make people around you work efficiently. Ever seen a little baby make his own bed or dress himself up?

Lesson 6: Be patient, because that is the only way to endure tough times. This is something that parents learn through dealing with their little baby. When a baby cries, there is very little parents can do to cool him down other than being patient. No tactics, no smart-strategy, no amount of negotiation or temper will help at that point.

Lesson 7: Stay hungry, stay foolish. Staying hungry for knowledge and having no ego in being naïve about things can lead to rapid learning and professional progress.

These are some management “mantras” that my son has taught me in six weeks! Well, I will add on to this list as I get more “gyan” from my “smart manager.”

My IIM-A Innings Nearing “Tea Time”…

No. This is not a blog entry about tea time at IIM-A!! I am trying to compare my remaining tenure at IIM-A PGPX with a typical late afternoon (nearing tea time) on day five of a cricket match poised for a draw. There is stark similarity between the two situations.

As I enter my fifth and last term in December third week, I almost feel like a player getting ready for tea (on day five of test match) and then enduring the post tea session of cricket, which will likely be uneventful and cool, with very little pressure to perform as long as there is no loss of wicket! The idea is to get some practice for the next match before retiring to the dressing room.

The fifth term of PGPX at IIM-A will have all “gyan” type courses; thankfully we are done with all the “rocket-science” type quant-heavy courses. Term five is designed to be low pressure (only comparatively; IIM-A rigor is well known) to let students focus on job hunting (the next innings?) and get all set to go to the dressing room (wherever the job takes PGPXers). The only thing we as students need to deal with are “slow deliveries” from professors (those last few courses) without failing any course, while focussing on the post-exec MBA opportunities. While the pressure on the players (PGPXers) will be seemingly low, they will be toiling hard behind-the-scenes to find a suitable job.

Hopefully like most drawn cricket matches, our “post tea” session will have no surprises in the form of either crazy quiz-heavy courses with tough deliverable schedules, or less-than-expected job offers from “selectors” (read: companies coming to campus for recruiting).

What can India do to deal with terrorism?

I am no expert, but just wanted to put some thoughts that I have on how the country should deal with terrorism. This is in continuation to my last blog entry emphasizing that we as a country need to do something about terrorism. We have had enough. Note that these are only high-level thoughts (mainly common-sense):

MUST DOs:-
- De-politicize homeland security. Like the armed forces, internal security should be miles away from any political linkage. The institutional mechanism should be such that no political party can take any kind of mileage out of terrorism and related actions.
- Create a single central agency/organization to coordinate anti-terrorist operations. This agency should coordinate with various forces and should have the lever to call the shots at all levels during a counter-terrorist operation; maybe with direct reporting to the PMO.
- The intelligence bureau should be made fully accountable. The bureau’s responsibility should not end at just providing loose pieces of intelligence reports; it should be accountable to ensure that the central agency has acted upon its intelligence. The intelligence bureau chief should also have direct reporting to the PMO (if it is not already done).
- To deal with terrorist routes through the sea, there should be one agency comprising the police, the coast guard, and the navy to keep vigil in high seas. Right now there is a lot of confusion since all three agencies have their area of operation tightly defined with little coordination, which leads to confusion.
- The NSG kind of crack teams should be based in all states (which is what the PM has already proposed). These men should be taken off VIP security – the state police can do that very well (hopefully).
- Coordinate with FBI, the UK intelligence, the Israeli intelligence, etc. All-said-and-done, these countries are better at dealing with such situations. Putting all egos aside, our agencies should collaborate with them, and learn from them.
- Security should be increased manifold at all public places.

DONTs:-
We should however stay away from two specific knee-jerk reactions:
- This should not escalate to a war like situation at the border. The political/international pressure tactic route should work better in this regard.
- This should not lead to targeting of people with specific religious beliefs. There should be no religion-based profiling, etc.