And never the twain shall meet.....

The East & West, will they ever meet, is a question that has occupied many a thinker from way back in the past. I'm not sure it is something that is going to have a ready answer in the future, too.

The unstoppable Alexander, in 326 BC ran into his first real resistance on the banks of the Indus, from where we in India draw our name - India.

While camping here he was intrigued by a holy men. In fact both were intrigued by the other. Alexander, the busybody, a Greek God felt that he had conquered the world, while the mendicants, felt that they had too, just by sitting on the banks of the river and meditating.

Their leader, Dandamis, tried to show his guest that his conquests were futile: 'You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this earth as will suffice to bury you.' Although these comments were not very encouraging, Alexander insisted that one of them should come with him, and so it happened. Calanus (Indian Kalyana), became Alexander's adviser and must have played an important role in his dealings with the Indians.

Alexander, was so irritated by Dandamis,at the outset, that he threatened him with death, to which the seer laughed at his face.What are you going to kill, me or my soul he asked?

Alexander later, probably met his first military defeat, in India and died on his way back home. His wife and child were murdered by his Generals and he slipped into history.Dandamis too slipped into the sands of time, nary a footprint.So much for the impermanence of the permanence that Alexander was striving for.

The short story would indicate why it is likely that the East & West may never meet. Culturally we are poles apart and our perception of time and space are at the greatest variance.

Now look at the following story.......

To help retain new employees in India, software firm Sierra Atlantic uses a variation on the American "take your children to work" tradition.

The company invites parents of new hires to visit and learn about the company. There’s an introduction from company executives, lunch is provided, and guests--primarily fathers thus far--have a chance to ask questions about the firm and the workplace. Typical questions include: What are the career prospects for their children? What are the company’s plans for growth? And how does Sierra Atlantic support their children’s pursuit of higher education?

The company is based in Fremont, California, and has about 800 employees at offices in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. The quarterly "take your parents to work" events are an attempt to recognize the importance of family and parental guidance in Indian culture--and to make Sierra Atlantic stand out in the competition for technical talent there.

In India, parents have a major say in the career moves of their children.If Sierra Atlantic is able to convince parents about our values, work culture and growth prospects for employees, (it can) increase company loyalty among their children. Since the initiative began last year, the annual attrition rate for new college graduates hired in India has dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent.The program also marks an attempt to ease the cultural strains of tech work in India. With the growth in technology and back-office operations, young Indians are at times required to work at night because of the time difference with the U.S., alter their accents to sound American and even take on Western names when handling customer calls.

East is East & West Is West, never the twain shall meet- said Rudyard Kipling, the British author, many a year ago. Maybe they won't, but that does not mean that we cannot be more accommodating and understanding of each other's cultural nuances in a flat world.Letting perception cloud decision making is disastrous for business.

Should we take our children to work or our parents? What is the answer ? Like always, I will leave it open for debate, because that is the spice of life!

The High Mach..................

Are great leaders High Mach's? Is it a personality trait that successful leaders require?
Machiavellianism is, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince) and other works.
Machiavellian and variants became very popular in the late 16th century in English.The word has a similar use in modern psychology. Machiavelli, according to the popular view, although this is disputed at least in part by most Machiavelli scholars, held that people were by nature untrustworthy, malevolent and self-serving, and thus those in power could only maintain their position through exploitative and deceitful actions.
Strangely, one person, who came closest to Machiavelli's definition was a woman. She grew up in a palace filled with intrigue & deceit, where defeat was death. Cleopatra, the much vilified Egyptian queen, known for her legendary beauty was the epitome of brains and courage. She used her great skills to keep her kingdom of Egypt independent, amidst great political uncertainty and a rampant Rome.She married two of the most powerful Romans of the time- Julius Cesar & Mark Antony. When she was ordered to meet Mark Antony at 'Tarsus', she skilfully manipulated him to come aboard her skiff on the Nile. Imagine doing this to the most powerful man in the world, at the time! Her skillful maneuvering was the order of the day, till it all fell apart at the Battle of Actium where, she & Mark Antony were defeated in a Naval engagement, off Greece, by Octavian Cesar.
It's easy to dismiss the Machiavellian approach to running organisations in today's kinder, gentler world of new age, team-based management. Many believe ( privately ) that leaders can accomplish their goals only by being tough, manipulative, dictatorial, or paternalistic as the situation requires. Take this example of the manipulative and paternalistic style of management. ( It works & then it does not ) When Henry Ford set up his first plant, he was generous in providing for free schools, hospitals and subsidised food for his workers - something unheard of at that time. The "labour welfare" measures were then termed revolutionary and progressive, but Ford's approach was essentially Machiavellian (manipulative) in nature. His purpose was that his workers should have more disposable income so that they could turn out to be potential and captive buyers of the cars he produced. This met with some success. But to Ford's and the industry's utter surprise, the Ford workers one day went on strike as they found their owner was trying to be too much of a "paternalistic" manager by trying to control their lives through diktats such as one which said no worker's children could study in any other school but the one he had set up.
Why did Machiavelli recommend that a prince (read the CEO in the present context) must be ready to be cruel and devious? He himself gives the answer: in the long run, this is often kinder than to expose citizens (staffers in an organisation) to the turmoil let loose by a weak ruler. Even the worst of Machiavelli's critics should find nothing wrong with these arguments. After all, expediency is the name of the game in effective management.
His colleagues often derided one of the greatest business leaders of all times - GE's Jack Welch - as a modern-day Machiavelli. Listen to the Machiavellian ring in Welch's own words in 1982: "Managements that hang on to weakness for whatever reason - tradition, sentiment, goodness or their own weakness - won't be around in 1990". That explains Welch's vow to fix, close or sell any business that could not achieve market leadership. That meant layoffs - big ones - and by the end of 1982, GE squeezed out 35,000 employees, almost 9 per cent of the 1980 total.
Simple arithmetic done by Noel M Tichy and Stratford Sherman in their famous book Control your destiny or someone else will suggests why Welch took this step. "In 1982, GE's net income was $1.8 billion. Imagine that GE had not already terminated 35,000 employees. Their average salary and benefits of a little over $25,000 per person would have increased GE's pretax expenses by nearly $900 million". But while adopting this seemingly "cruel" style of management advocated by Machiavelli, Welch didn't forget the thinker's advocacy of a "human" face. Welch believed the victims of layoffs deserved compassionate treatment - not only generous financial settlements, but humane consideration of their feelings. He personally answered letters of complaint from laid-off employees, and directly intervened in cases of injustice that came to his attention. Executives who mismanaged the downsizing felt his wrath.
The past and present Machiavellis were only practising a dictum that has now become an all-too-familiar phrase in India: Labour reforms with a human face.
From Cleopatra to Jack Welch, we see a generous dose of Machiavellianism, coloring their personality! Are all of us to be High Machs? That's a choice that you have to make. Cleopatra committed suicide after Actium & Welch has been known to have had unsuccessful relationships at home.............

How the East was lost!

In the years to come, the period that we live in will go down, as the inexorable shift in power from the West to the East. It is a process that many would not really be able to see, because they are part of the change. We live that change.

The resurgence of Europe, that began in about 1500 AD, is finally drawing to a close. We always say that the west came good against the east, because, of greater technical superiority, but the truth is that the west, had borrowed much of its early mathematics from India and political thought from the Chinese.

Gunpowder came from the east & the Turks had the best artillery. Indian shipbuilders were the best and Chinese cartographers were amazingly good.

Why then was the east lost? If we had the best ships & charts, how did the Portuguese establish a stranglehold on the seas from West to East, as early as 1509. They were masters of the Indian Ocean & had landed at Goa ( Vasco Da Gama ) establishing a beachhead which as an event stands unparalleled even in comparison to the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, in France ( 1945 ).

How did the Portuguese achieve this? A careful analysis would indicate that they had the most literate naval gunners. Ship board artillery, or for that matter, any artillery at the time required a series of steps that were both complicated and called for precision, over the entire process. The more literate Portuguese seaman achieved this better than most! The British later turned drills into a religion and established solid processes which went like clockwork.

The situation, in most large organizations has not seen much of a change to this age. Policies & Procedures, Rules & Regulations, Quality Standards all require a fairly high degree of comprehension and verbal intelligence to understand and disseminate, to your peers, subordinates & bosses.It is seen to be belived, the quantum of confusion, a verbally challenged person creates at a workplace.

So, the next time somebody, in an interview or entrance test asks you what abatjour means, you won't cringe but will know what they are checking out!

Why did the east lose out ? Our forces had only two classes, the Upper Middle Class nobility & poor foot soldier who was illiterate. ( Our caste structure ). A clear disconnect. It is little wonder that the Europeans with their more literate soldiers called the shots for close to 400 years.

To keep the suspense down abatjour means- n. sky-light; device at window to throw light downwards.

Inconsequential, but you did not know the word!

Success & Self efficacy!

The azure waters of the Mediterranean Sea, slightly choppy, a fair skinned youth with a broad brow & aquiline nose lying on the deck of a pirate sloop.The year 76 BC.
Pirates who had captured the noble looking youngster, were pleased, as their catch would fetch them a ransom of at least twenty talents. After all he spelt nobility.
When the prisoner, heard the ransom, he laughed! Twenty talents, he was worth fifty he said and further added that he would be back to see the pirates hang.
Julius Cesar did return, capture the pirates in a naval expedition & watch each one of them hang! Dealing with pirates was his first major success.
That was Cesar, the epitome of confidence and a man who was always open to learning. He learnt everywhere & from everything.
Self efficacy & Openness to learning are fundamental parameters for success, in any field. It is not surprising that Julius Cesar was successful at almost everything that he took a shot at: Politician, General,Governor & then Emperor of Rome.
Cesar's high self confidence came from his high self efficacy which in turn came from past success. It is the reason why managers, must celebrate every small success of subordinates. It builds the platform for greater success.Nothing succeeds like success.
Like most great leaders Cesar was so steeped in his own pursuits, that he ignored the environment and when assassinated in the Senate,it was a sad swift end.He had ignored jealous conspirators! With his last breath he gasped, 'Kai, su teknon?', as Brutus drove a dagger into his loins.The phrase translates, to 'Even you my son', driving historians to speculate that Brutus was his illegitimate son.
Later Mark Antony, said, at Cesar's funeral pyre ' Often the good that men do lies interred with their bones'.An impassioned cry to the masses.( The rostrum, from where he is said to have made his speech, can still be seen in Rome)
Not for Cesar! He remains on of my favourite leaders for his ability to manage men, through trying circumstances.He was the architect of the 'Julian Calendar' and from the 'Czar to Kaiser', kings adopted his name.Most of all he was brilliant tactician.
As for Brutus, he committed suicide, not long after & his good, if he did any, lies interred with his bones!