Grist to the Mill!

A few days ago, in discussion with a visitor to the Alliance University, the topic of training for Cross Cultural Management came up. The visitor a man from the corporate world said that many of these training sessions are a hoax because the trainer has rarely if at all travelled to the countries he/she talks about and the end result is that when the trainee really travels overseas they find themselves shortchanged and wanting to strangle the trainer!
Following this, I said, that we are probably the only nation in the world whose history has been written by foreigners and in that context we as a nation have been shortchanged.Our discussion was short and a little vague, but this is what was in my mind........................
John Mills produced his magnum opus 'The History of British India', in 1801, which propelled him to stardom, post a very ordinary career. Mills made his name by severely attacking Indian's in general and talking about their general lack of culture and 'backwardness'.

This is what Mills had to say, on the subject:

A duly qualified man can obtain more knowledge of India in one year in his closet in England than he could obtain during the course of the longest life, by the use of his eyes and ears in India.

If you are wondering what a 'closet' is, Mills, is talking about his toilet in England. The further question is why did Mills, make this statement? Was it to cover up the fact that he did not visit, India, once, or the fact that he knew no Indian language, unlike say the German 'Max Mueller'. The greater tragedy is that, the tome he produced was embraced by the British East India Company and used as a training manual for their India postings, causing their officers to set foot in India with a jaundiced eye.

Mills, for some reason, concludes that Indian history began in 4000 BC, so everything pertaining to Indian history has to be accommodated in this time frame. If archeo-astronomical data seems to indicate, that the Ramayana dates to 7000 BC, Mills will not accept it and it is labelled a 'myth' because it does not fit his straight jacketed model of India and Indians. The myth story, has perpetuated to our times because Mills, said, in 1801, that Indian's are a backward lot and the British were here to civilize Indian's.

A nation's self esteem comes from its history and achievement and it is interesting to see that Mills had not a single nice thing to say about India? Was he the head of a 'propaganda' machine working for the East India Company? If so, he did a great job, but if he was masquerading as a historian, his tome should have been consigned to the waste paper basket a couple of centuries ago, beacuse as far as I'm concerned you should have been there and done that, before talking!

Loose Cannons!

A week ago the Indian Navy, struck a body blow for shipping, world wide, by sinking a pirate vessel in the Gulf of Aden and capturing the fleeing pirates.With this amazing operation the Indian Navy has clearly established its reach & prowess.
For me it was a redemption of sorts seeing the INS Khukhri being part of the operation, because in 1971, the INS Khukhri was a ship the Indian Navy lost to the Pakistan Navy, in a sea battle.
In a move to take on piracy, our Defense minister is toying with the idea of having 'Sea Marshals' or armed security men on board, merchant ships to protect them.The issue is, ships unlike organizations cannot have 'matrix organizations', where the reporting structure is loose and not clearly established. The point is, will the 'sea marshal' work under the command of the ships captain or will he/she operate as an independent entity answering only to his/her call? On board an Indian ship the authority of the captain is supreme and is established by the Constitution of India ( Merchant Shipping Act 1958 ). This debate has been raging in western Europe and the USA for a while now and no answer has been found.No ships captain would like to see a loose cannon running around his ship.
Another idea is to have a 'fortified' area on board, where crew can secure themselves under attack from pirates and wait to be rescued by a rescue force. Assume this scenario played out on a crude oil carrier with 100000 Tons of crude oil? What would prevent the pirates from blowing up this floating bomb, before the rescue force arrived?
While the Defense Minister's zest is commendable, his lack of domain knowledge is painfully evident and eventually like all conflicts the solution to this vexed problem as well, will have to be found by diplomats on land rather than by guns at sea!

Choices we make...............................

Every time I watch Fredrick Forsyths classic 'The Day of the Jackal' there is a nuance of life that I see, afresh.
To fill you in, the story is about, France in the 1960's, having about lost its last colony in Africa ( Algeria ). The architect of this surrender is their president and WW 2 hero General Charles De Gaulle. A miffed group of army personnel feeling betrayed decide to bump off the president and so hire the 'Jackal' a shadowy Englishman to do the job. Now begins the cat & mouse game, between the French police & Jackal.
The defining moment for me in this superb thriller, is the point where the Jackal gets to hear that the police are on his trail and as per the terms of his contract can ditch the assignment. As he waits, in his 'Alfa Romeo', at a fork in the road one taking him to Paris and the other on to Italy, he you can see his mind ruminating over the choice that he is to make. Flee to safety in Italy or press on to Paris? Take up the challenge and kill De Gaulle or choose safety and admit failure?
The Jackal, chooses the challenge, drives on to Paris, fails to kill De Gaulle and is shot, to be buried in an unmarked grave by the wayside..............Had he fled? Did his arrogance get in the way of his judgement?
He made a choice and paid the price. Fleeing to Italy would have been a different price to pay, maybe being caught at the border and jailed, for life.
Choices in life are killers, you pay a price, for every choice you make, one way or the other and ergo there are no absolutely rights or wrong choices. There is that element of grey in an inelegant world, which creates success and failure, opportunity and threat.

Like Charles De Gaulle would have said:

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

What he did not say, was the price that you pay!

Mad Monkeys and Dictators!

The freshly minted Indian parliament saw a strange language being spoken. Hitherto the only other tongues heard there were Hindi, English & Hindustani.Curious parliamentarians were told that this language was Kannada and spoken in what was called Mysore. The gentleman who spoke this language further made a strange request, he said that the President of India should alter between the north & south!
The same year, a north Indian city saw a strange problem. A rabid monkey was at war with mankind and had bitten about a hundred people. The monkey could not be put down, because in this land, for Hindus, the monkey embodies the God 'Hanuman'. The Prime Minister of India shot off a furious letter to the Chief Minister, asking if he planned to hand over the city and eventually the state to monkeys? Sanity was restored and the mad monkey met its end, whatever its standing might have been.
The year I'm alluding to is 1950! One can see the attempt at inclusiveness and rationality, since which we ( India ) have bungled along, from one crisis to another, even while saying that we are growing to be an economic power.The inclusiveness that the gent from Mysore proposed has all but disappeared even as the disparity between the rich & poor widens and rationality went out of the window with the Babri Masjid & the burning of passengers at Godhra, in Gujarat.
Greater wealth has brought about a strange myopia and lassitude in handling issues which require urgent attention. The politician in India as well as the general well heeled population feel that we will not have an Egypt like uprising here because we go to the polls every five years and elect a motley crew of politicians, to run our ship. Absolute hogwash! The Indian poor is a patient animal but one can feel that patience running thin and when it eventually wears, it is going to be a day of reckoning for many.Unfortunately these kind of revolutions are rarely directed and have tragic consequences for the innocent as well.
Has the Libyan dictator Col.Gaddafi met his end? Amidst increasing chaos the dictator says his people love him? Do they, after 200 or more protesters have been killed and exapts of all hues flee Libya? Shades of a mad monkey?

Awesome America!

( The picture is by Kishore, shot at the Nandi Hills, close to Bengaluru, India )
Apparently the cool tender coconut, that you find being sold for about Rs 10 a nut on the roadside,in India, has become hot news in the United States.The tender coconut's water is touted as the new fail safe Isotonic panacea and is said to deal with a wide variety of health issues ranging from kidney stones to diabetes to being a rich source of potassium.

The tender coconut is receiving a great deal of attention as it is being associated with a host of Hollywood celebrities from Madonna to Demi Moore. No more carbonated drinks for them, tender coconut water is the new flavour of season.

This has caused a host of folk scurrying to market bottled coconut water post which you will have folk branding the stuff and carrying out a high profile marketing campaign where you will see, guys or better still pretty girls,with bronzed sweat stained bodies & skimpy outfits, amidst a game of beach volleyball, endorsing the new exilir! The process of getting the stuff into little bottles will be patented and will create issues of IPR across the world. There is also sure to be a great deal of media coverage talking about celebrities experience with the tender coconut and its benefits to one's health and otherwise.

All this while, the poor Indian, continues to sell his nut, on probably an old bicycle for Rs.10, on a hot afternoon, to tired pedestrians, by the wayside, storing the shell for firewood and after removing the meat which makes a delightful snack.

I'm amazed at the Americans chutzpah to exploit the mundane and create an industry where none existed, surrounded by hype, hoopla and glitz.The coconut is not new to us, but did we create a buzz around the nut? No way!It, probably been quietly drunk in this part of the world for centuries.For that you need to be an entrepreneur and an MBA from a premier B School, hopefully from the USA!It is also not surprising as why you have boom-bust cycles in quick succession, where virtual industries disappear causing immense pain to the poor bystander.

Carrying out a quick SWOT Analysis, what is the 'weakness' that the coconut water faces? Apparently some Americans feel it tastes like 'smelly unwashed socks', which throws up the fundamental question: 'Why in the first place do they chew on, dirty socks?'

Human Resources & Human Beings!

Are humans resources or are they simply human beings who turn up for work ? Are they resources at the work spot and cease to be resources when they walk out of your office? These are fundamental questions that need to be answered by the 'Talent Philosophy' of an organization.

Many an organization,treat sacked employees very poorly,subjecting them to the humiliation of a body search as well as searching their car and so on. These are departing employees who had probably served your organization for a number of years before you found them incompetent.

The fundamental point is, is an employee as asset. Infosys says that employees are assets and so reflected in their balance sheet. Wonderful, but the problem is when the value of the asset depreciates. What then? Sack them..............

How else would you look at at an employee in an age when everything is to be measured and encapsulated in a 'bottom line'? Many Japanese firms treat their employees as 'investors', where the employee is investing their skills & time with the organization. The perspective now changes, dramatically. It is probably the reason why Japanese firms see longer serving employees.

While I respect American Management practise, I also believe that,we should be wary of blindly following imported practices. Management has much to do with a nations philosophy, ethos and culture. To ignore these is stupid and akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water............

While my line of thought looks utopian, I firmly belive that humans are not only about resources and business and bottom lines!

The Power of an idea!

A dozen ships,five hundred soldiers & a few horse was all that was required for the Spanish Conquistador Cortes to roll the mighty Aztec Empire over, who ruled what is today's Mexico. Just spare a thought, a few straggling barbarians from Spain, pursued by their Governor in Cuba, destroying a solidly established empire with a large standing army backed by experience and wealth. How was this possible?

Montezuma the king of the Aztecs was also their general and high priest. A divine ruler whose decision was final.When Montezuma first heard of Cortes he though he might be Quetzalcoatl, the God of Wisdom, who hated human sacrifice and, according to legend, was due to return to Mexico after being banished by wizards, rulers of the land. This worked to the advantage of Cortes, because it made Montezuma indecisive in his dealings with Cortes. He sent gifts instead of armies to Cortes and his men.This indecisiveness allowed the Spaniards the leeway to consolidate and press on.
It took two years, but in the end Cortes and the conquisitatadores prevailed even though outnumbered a thousand to one. At one point Cortes kidnapped Montezuma and threatened to kill him if he did not follow his wishes. Finally, Montezuma was killed by his own people according to the Spaniards. Cortes and his men looted the country, then settled the country, tore down its sacrificial altars, replacing the Aztec rituals with Christianity, and brought European government to the New World, with immense brutality.

A nation and its culture vanished for ever...................!

The power of an idea is all conquering. Ideas can motivate & debilitate as in the case of Montezuma and Cortes. Don't let the wrong ideas take root in your head and lose a battle before it begins.

There will be people who will tell you why you are not good enough or why you will lose or why you cannot do something.Shut them out!

The tragedy of culture!

Culturally Japan is one of the most 'masculine' nations of the world. This does not mean that they are a macho tribe and menfolk of other nations are wimps. Japanese men have traditionally been the breadwinners for the family while the wife patiently waited at home to welcome an unemotional husband.No kiss, no hug for the waiting wife, all things that you would see in a Hollywood flick. Japanese husbands do not believe in overt affection. How about the Japanese wife? Well, fed on a staple diet of western culture she is looking for more of the hug-kiss routine from her husband.........so much so the the divorce rate in Japan has shot up a whopping 70% the last ten years, the impact of an alien culture on the Japanese way of life. A tragedy but that's how it works.With the physical intimacy the Japanese have also imported American divorce rates.These days Japanese woman are said to frequent special restaurants where they pick men off a menu to talk to. Just to talk to and be praised by..............
Cut to the USA. A bevy of Indian students, treated as illegal entrants after enrolling at a fly by night college and worse being deported to India. The Indian media has gone to town, screaming about the fact that the students have been 'dog collared' with a RFID tag that would be used to track them till they are shipped off to India. How can Indians be treated that way? Not done to us, no way!

What the media seems to have forgotten are the following:

#1. The Indians were illegally present in the USA.
#2. The 'Dog Collar tag' was placed only when the students refused to pay a bond.
#3. Only a small percentage of students have been tagged.

Culturally we do not like to lose face & rules mean little to us, but then the action is in the US of A, where rules are to be followed and in an achievement oriented culture 'Power Distance' is low.

A lack of understanding is one thing, discarding our way of life for another, without serious introspection is foolish!

Mumbai Again!

Yesterday’s collision, between a warship and a merchant vessel, off the Sunk Rock, in Mumbai Harbor is a serious affair. More so because it involved an Indian Navy ship the Vindhyagiri, out on a sortie with civilians on board, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Director General of Shipping, has ordered an enquiry and in due course you will probably see the following:
1. The Captain of the Vindhyagiri will face a court martial and be crucified. 2. The Captain of the Merchant Ship will probably, have his certificate suspended and his ship arrested. 3. The civilians on board will be so traumatized that many will not sail again. 4. The company that insured the Merchant ship will pay damages quietly.

The seriousness of the situation is that, damage to a warship, is construed as an act of sabotage against the state, unless proved otherwise. Also the warship is going to be out of action for a while undergoing repairs. It is fortunate that the collision did not result in an oil spill. Mumbai has seen serious accidents too often recently to rest in comfort. Last year, apart from the Chitra-Khalijia collision, a coast guard vessel CGS Vivek sank in the port after it was hit by Panamanian vessel Global Purity in March. On August 31, two ships collided at Indira Docks, the largest dock in Mumbai Port.

Considering the location of the accident, the merchant ship should have had a pilot on board and the Harbor Control should have monitored traffic. Why this did not prevent the accident, is a mystery? Consider the fact that traffic through the Straits of Malacca, off Singapore is much heavier, but traffic control is so good that one has not heard of an accident for a great many years, now. Many of these accidents as well as terrorists landing in Mumabi through sea, are serious pointers that all is not well at Mumbai port in terms of safety and security. Considering that Mumbai is still our commercial Capital the economic fallout would be disastrous if the port is not administered with greater care. Having said that, you will in all probability once again see, the small fish being netted, while the sharks get away!The story of our times...............

Brainless Brawn!

Sometimes, I wonder how I got through school, having spent much of the time outdoors playing one sport or the other and in doing so have played for my state, district, school and club teams.
So the other day when my wife asked me if I had played hockey, I surprised myself in saying no, I had not. Surprised because, hockey was played around me and I had avoided the game...........The thought intrigued me. Why was the sport not on my list? On reflection, I can only come up with one reason. Fear of injury. I can recollect many of my friends being terribly hurt, while playing the game, because rules could not be enforced, at that level & brawn ruled over brain. Being a slight kid, I avoided the sport and the danger of being whacked by a hockey stick on the shin or head.
Is this a monologue on hockey? No it ain't.
The other day, an acquaintance from UP told me he had to sell his 'Haveli' for a song. Why? Jungle Law rules and he would have to face all sorts of harassment, if he wanted the right price. Brawn rules.Thugs running wild in a lawless world.
The point is, if brawn rules brain, then people are going to shy away and zero in at safer avenues. Probably the reason why I stuck to cricket which is not a contact sport and brawn can be handled with a piece of wood and my acquaintance settled in Bengaluru, where there is a semblance of law.
Parallels can be drawn to most places. States, organizations and so on!Organizations without a solid enabling & fair culture is a wonderful playing arena for the Machiavellian manipulator who will run circles around the smaller less scheming folk and will misuse power, real or imaginary.
But then do the brainless brawn have the chutzpah to figure that out? The question determines the success or failure of an entity.........