Dawn before the broad sunshine

My first 3 months at Pune are over . Life has been running at an extremely fast pace . Events , persons , occassions .. its all happening .. or it seems that just something is going to happen .. I have been waiting in this launchpad and waiting for the countdown to begin .. I do hope that the countdown finishes and life catapults me  into the space at the escape velocity . The time has to come and its better I be ready for all the contingencies .

One has to feel the choices that he has taken and I feel I have some of the choices of my own and it is time to run , jump and feel ..

Solving the equation of Life

While doing MBA , I had taken a course called Advance Decision Analysis . The course was about solving equations with all constraints satisfied . Now We could solve all those things in excel solver or premium solver . Now after I leaned that tool , I asked myself whether there can be ever a tool to solve the equations of life . Yes  there can be if we know all the constraints of life before hand and they remain constant all through the time  of solving the equations . The beauty of life is the way all these constraints change and morph and the way we always feel the need to catch up with them . No tool can give you the optimum result if the boundary conditions change always . Sometimes when we feel that we are just about solving the equation , the constraints just move at such a place that you feel lost and sometimes you are in the darkest zone of your life , the constraints just vanishes and you say "I was Close" . Then who makes  all these and who decides which equations can be solved and which can never be ? 

Now what I can say is that Life is not about black and white , it's all about the complex shades of grey which makes it more enjoyable 

The Link

So one day in my new workplace while I was trying to learn the tube marketing business I found a set of  documents . The documents consisted of a Bill of lading , one insurance document . When I viewed the insurance document , I observed that the insurance was issued by New India Assurance and the it was Marine cargo insurance . 

So the link is I worked in the same project of TCS which one ensured the implementation of core insurance module in NIA and from the design of the insurance document , I could very well tell that nothing has changed from the time when I left the project . And the term Bill of Lading .Can you guess where did I first learn the term ? It was while working in the Trade Finance module of Finacle at Infosys . 

So I smiled to myself and told me that I got the answer ... It all merges if you connect the dots .. THE Link  .. from Infy to TCS to ISMT .. as if everything has been planned and what I need to do is to keep trying and keep exploring the terrain to amuse myself and hence enjoy the journey . 

Finally A Post ..

So getting something to post and that to after a long long time . If I don't consider my previous post on Rahul Dravid then it's almost 7 months . The reason was I didn't find anything to write on that time . As the placement season started I decided not to sit for the easier options on the campus and to wait for the profile . Then as time progressed and the situation in job market and campus deteriorated , I some how lost my confidence and one or two job started to desert me . 

Then finally something clicked and I landed on this job . This was as far as close to the profile I felt for and thanks to all good people around me I got it . Yeah on the scale of hefty pay packages this one will definitely fail but I am hopeful that in the long run those things get sorted out automatically :) . How do I feel at the new workplace ? Hmmm .. I will say it is still a bit early to comment but so far it has been excellent . A great learning experience .  

So Now I am once again at a new city in India . Mysore , Bangalore , Hyderabad , Mumbai, Baroda , Kolkata , Chennai , Delhi and now at Pune . Every city with which I was associated had  created a story with me and I  feel a story is definitely due for this . 

And yes , this time I am going to make it . For a change I am making a promise to myself that I will visit all the tourist places at Pune . Because you know I am quite bad at it . I stayed in Delhi for 2 years and have never visited the Taj and Haridwar . So this time I will improve upon this one . 

Rahul Dravid

A lot of things happening around me . MBA getting over , farewell is over and the job search is on ..but one thing that has made me nostalgic is the news of "The Wall" will retire . Along with Sachin , Rahul was my reason for watching cricket . I remember those days when I wake up from bed and switch on my tv to find India batting at 28/2 and on crease two men still playing . 

You sit back and watch the beauty , when 6 balls in a over and each ball will be sent to each one of the in-circles fielders sequentially . The joke is "arey tu bhi le ek ball , fielding kar le " then one super shot and its boundary . 

The straight-bat became a lexicon in my life ..when ever the things are not doing right , dig it out and wait , wait and wait to show the straight bat . 

I still do that . play a straight bat defensive shot like Dravid to wind me up . Dravid on the field and off has been a perfect gentleman and a role-model for me . 

And as they say all good things come to an end  .Some part of me ..my childhood .. died today ..I will  miss you Rahul Dravid . 

Strategic Reflection

The word strategy is probably the most used term in my MBA career. However, starting from the more generic marketing/operation strategy to specific Strategic Management class the word imbibes one central idea: a roadmap to win among all kinds of favourable opportunities to unfavourable threats while leveraging the individual/organizational core competence.

The idea of formulating a strategy though seemed quite generic routine for any organization, the thing which has dreaded me is the “strategy execution and implementation “. How can the idea or the roadmap envisioned by some ten persons sitting in board meeting will be “bought in” by the lowest level of worker in the organization? As formulating a strategy can mean walking a tight rope and making some tough decisions for the overall organization, how to ensure that the intended message is delivered?  How to make a balance of both delivering QoQ profit and long-term stakeholder benefit?

The course has been designed in a fair enough way to provide us a theoretical overview about the whole gamut of Strategic management .But now as the course is coming to an end, I feel, I have been left with more questions than the answers about the “strategy” .If everyone knows the same Porter’s forces and everyone uses the same BCG matrix, then how come some corporations in Fortune 500 of one decade ceases to exist in another decade. What makes it a GE and an IBM to speak a successful corporate history of decades while another multiple corporations ceases to exist?

Perhaps the most paradoxical statement for me is the “Change is constant” .I can try to change, but how to make sure others will change and me being the leader how to identify the bottlenecks?

Though my reflections till now might portray a confused side of my state of affairs, but the silver lining is the my realisation that a successful strategy  formulation and implementation is an affair like riding a bicycle or may be swimming in a pool . Unless and until I fall, rise, learn and then again unlearn the art can never be mastered.  So perhaps the best medicine for me will be to wait till I get a chance in the near future to burn my hand in the “game of strategy “. 

Indian Railways

During my train journey I keep on engaging with fellow passengers with various issues . This time I had a chance to interact with the coach attendant of my B-1 3-tier ac coach . He was a man from my home town , so it took little time to start a conversation . I asked him about the way things are happening , about their salaries , the penalties for loosing the blankets and bed-sheets while in a journey . And his answers were quite eye-opener for me .

He showed me his white shirt , which he was wearing at that time and asked what do you think about the shirt ? I shook my hand saying it looks nice . He said that shirt's cloth is the stolen bed-sheet from train . I was quite surprised as the penalty for a pair of bed-sheets are Rs 200/- . He said that the cost of buying a cloth for his shirts were higher , so he was happy to pay that amount of fine .

Then he said the penalty for loosing the blanket is Rs 900/- and there is also a business model to benefit from this . I asked how and he said steal a blanket from a train and give it to another train attendant who has lost it for Rs 500/- . Obviously this stealing is done by pantry managers . And the benefit that the pantry manager gets is Rs 500/-and the train attendant is benefited by 900-500 = Rs 400 .

So long I was listening . Then I asked how did he get this job ? He said one of the local politician is the chief of a group who is responsible for their sourcing . He takes Rs 10000 - 15000 from these poor souls and gives them a job of monthly remuneration Rs 3000/- . And if the guy keeps on indulging these above mentioned activities then he can very well collect the principal money in 6 months time .

So as my train was approaching next big station and I was getting ready to sleep , I once again thanked the jugaad .