What the year taught me

The trick to answering that question is knowing what you are and what you were, which I’m not sure I do. A close friend may notice something.

We had an exercise in one of our courses in which we were put into a group and ask each other to tell what the person’s first impressions were about the other. What do I come across as first up? An intellectual! What doesn’t make me laugh is an impression that I’m sarcastic. Well, may be, but never intended to bite anyone.

I’m not proactive. I always believed in sanctity of the system, whatever that means, and followed it. I thought may be that will change. Not a bit.

I thought may be my stupid jokes will be sobered by the purported superior education. It didn’t because there is no need to, as long as it tickles one funny bone, one beneath my skin.

One thing I learn t is that the results i get depends on my mood which tends to swing from wild euphoria to gloom. I’m sober as write this line though I don’t know why. I also don’t know why I become cold in the presence of my gregarious sister though I cannot stop talking about her to everyone I know. I don’t know how I managed to get over my lovable granny’s death so quickly and say ‘her time had come’ to my astounded relatives when I was only 9.

I can’t be that bad, can I? The year should’ve taught me something. May be I do things I can, complaining less frequently. May be that’s why I walk around in circles less, when the deadlines approach. And I speak out more than I ever did. Because its one of the few things I’m good at.

Happy New Year.

Hail Gravitas!

Gravitas

Pronunciation: 'gra-v&-"täs, -"tas

• high seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject)
• Name of our institute publication.

Our communication professor is the Editor with 6 people on board. (3 seniors and 3 first years). Last year was its inception. They had dabbled with some magazine sometime back and dropped it later. Anyway, last year it was close to institute fest when we came up with the idea (my seniors to be precise) and we discussed endlessly as to what the end product will look like and who will find it useful. After dismissing journal like stuff (our institute has one called Metamorphosis, but no one cares to remember let alone read). Magazine is too juvenile to be taken seriously. So we zeroed in on the sweet spot, an Indian HBR.

Next was the name- we discussed Ergo (doesn’t it sound like a burp?), Citius Altius Fortius (unreadable), Chrysilis (what’s this fixation with Greek names?) etceeeeettttteeeerraa..Gravitas (C’mon! Let’s move on to more important things)

Next was to decide who will write and who will read. If we want industry captains to read it, why not ask them to write? Great. Things started to move on pretty fast. We decided a theme and possible list of speakers who embody them ask them to write and bingo! Pops the magazine.

Well, it didn’t go quite that way, because the toughest part was the last one. Anyway, our revered editor pulled the first edition herself- did the convincing. We, on the other hand, did the donkey work- proof read, designed, published, distributed, and wrote a thank you note (Boy! Was she paranoid about that part?)

Second edition is slightly different- we still have a theme ‘Indian roots, global ambitions’, still zeroed on the speakers (industry captains, sportsmen, politicians, writers, economists), the only little part we are supposed to do is convincing. You call the secretary, talk talk talk and we get the article, right? WRONG! I did try it last year with no success. Tried 6, converted none. Somehow everybody had gone to China. (China is definitely a threat)

This time I tried the same people. Rang the secretary and said hello Mr. Das. How do you know my name? I talked to you last year also, remember? Well, the other end is sympathetic this time. Yesterday’s rejects are today’s converts. Today’s, tomorrow’s converts and so on.

Lesson 2- Mr. Secretary? Yes saar (sir). Tamizha? Amam. How did you know? Never mind. Mother tongue worked!!!

We have only 2 articles till date (and a few commitments) and one and a half months to go. I’m still apprehensive. C’mon buggers! Let’s do exactly that.

Happy b'day America

US recently had its 300 millionth baby, the last 100 million was also its fastest. While European union, Japan, Russia and to some extent China are on a suicidal spree (shrinking population in the next few decades), US population is expected to cross 400 million by as early as 2043 (Economist). This will help avert problems that will plague others (social security, insufficient workforce, culture clashes with immigrants etc.) and fortunately/unfortunately, US dominance may not wane anytime soon.

I’m gratified

I just had a casual conversation with a batch mate, a relative stranger. The person would love to work with me because I’m a workhorse (word of mouth). Boy, I felt wonderful.

Is extravert-introvert siblings a myth?

We read stories which portray diametrically opposite siblings. Is it a cliché which was invented to base a juicy story? Studies have confirmed that this is the norm.

The phenomenon is called sibling de-identification, popularized by American psychologist Feinberg, says this occurs predominantly in siblings of same sex, have limited age differences and those who are immediate ones (the first and third sibling tend to be similar than first and second, say). The second one tries to pursue different courses, enjoys different genre of movies, have different hobbies, which is acceptable. But what is surprising is that they have a very different personality traits even though brought in exactly the same environment- the second one is reserved if the first is enterprising, short tempered if first is warm, takes quick decisions if first is contemplative etc. Research shows the second girl of the family tends to be tomboyish and lacks feminine interests like dance, reading romantic novels etc.

Why does this happen? Siblings compete for parents’ share of attention and love all the time, which leads to friction (prominent cause of sibling rivalry). Over time, they (mainly the second one) try to differentiate themselves from the each other. (In marketing terms, they tend to carve out and operate in separate niches so that they don’t have to compete for the customer (in this case the parents) directly.) So, by having different personality, they unconsciously establish they are unique in their parents’ eyes.

I have a sister, 3 years older. She is the smarter one who pursued a lot of things- carnatic music, veena, bharatnatyam in addition to being a CA/ ICWA/ ACCA and god-knows-what-else. My relatives used to praise her in my presence and it always made me squirm. May be I am little reserved and short tempered (Ah, I hate to admit it!!!!!) and used to pick fights with her for no reason. It always gave me perverse pleasure. Now I feel I wasn't wrong. I was just a victim of Sibling De-identification. Hahaha.

Do you have any experience like that?

Why can’t world be a melting pot?

Just the other day, a sikh boy was beaten up and his long hair was cut off by a bunch of Scottish thugs. Punjabis in America are still mistaken as Arabs and looked upon suspiciously. Lower class Dalit women are paraded naked by upper class villagers at the slightest excuse in some Indian villages. Some Indian states previously imposed legislations stating only natives will get employment there. Some of my friends routinely taunt me that south Indians (like me) are not patriotic enough, because most of the famous freedom fighters (event dated 6 decades) are from north. When I grew up I used to hear this term ‘melting pot’ and wondered what's cooking, sorry for the pun. Thankfully people have long forgotten the term.

Why don’t cultures reconcile, let alone blend, even after decades? May be it is because of basic human psyche to be comfortable only with what looks like us, what we recognize. We trust things that we know and vice versa. Familiarity does not breed contempt; on the contrary, it inspires trust. To trust them/those is to gratify ourselves, in some way.

That is why advertising works. We hesitate to buy anything not advertised even if it’s cheaper (or especially if it’s cheaper- what will my friends think of me if they see this toothpaste?). It is another matter we never admit that we bought anything because of ads; At best we may admit that we bought something because other ads suck.

Now that we know that we can’t blend or possibly even reconcile fully, can we at least coexist peacefully? Fortunately, we have done it so successfully that we almost forgotten how significant it means. Because, the reason Pakistan lost its eastern part (now Bangladesh) was not because India fought for its independence, but because, the urdu speaking Pakistanis considered the Bengali speaking Bangladeshis culturally inferior and treated them as such. In India, Nehru sought to impose what he considered the superior language (hindi) on all states and had to drop the plan owing to stiff resistance. If he had succeeded, who knows what might have happened.

Folks! We are one!

Plagiarism claimed its first casualty. For those people who didn’t know the seriousness of the offense, Professor Rocky gave a shock. May be forcing the student council resign because its members were involved in this was not a grave punishment in hindsight (may be there is more in store), it sure is a start. Professor had a personal grudge which he doesn’t hide too well (institute party disturbs his daughter study for board exams-he requests student council to reduce decibel levels-council choose to ignore-he has a grudge) but plagiarism is not an offense that can be washed away by that. We cannot be a great institution by having brilliant students alone, a dose of high standards is definitely required. Result: Council resigns.

But what did perturb me was the fact that committees (Interest groups, clubs etc.) chose the occasion to settle their scores with the council. We have a system where committees are responsible to the council and council to none. You can’t just blame the council members as autocratic, the system breeds autocracy. The committees call a meeting and does a council-bashing (even if some of the grievances are genuine), under the guise of how to improve the system. We even have a moderator who writes down the wrongs of the council. Call it timing the meeting.

I’m not an ardent admirer of council; I will even say I’m indifferent. I came here to learn something in 2 years, not be part of politics. But hell, we elected the council, and we are responsible if it turns out like this. And these members are our own folks, who made a mistake (along with 2 dozen others) and have been humiliated by a professor who had a grudge (Professor didn’t disclose the names of 2 dozen other people), and we choose to embarrass them, to hit a nail in their coffin hours after that nasty public disclosure. Folks! Remove the veil of committees and councils; it’s never us vs. them. We are just a bunch of students who came here to be a part of a memorable batch.

May be its time to move on, to elect a new council but more importantly put a system in place for checks. Our nation has a vibrant democracy, why can’t our institute have one? Why don’t we have the runner up in the council election as an opposition member, to question the council about things like spends, activities, and rationale of their decisions and make them public (organized bashing!)? Why not have disclosures after 6 months about these things along the lines of Parliamentary budget session? If its there in the constitution, its time to follow it in letter and spirit.

Why the fuss?

I’m one of the few who missed the final. So when everyone talked about head-butting (I had graphic thoughts in my mind!), I looked it up in wikipedia. Do you know what example they quoted? I don’t know if the world is flat, but it sure is fast!

What he did cannot be condoned but sportspersons involving in verbal abuse or clashes is not uncommon. Maradona is known for his mercurial character and violent acts on field. Australians are so notorious for sledging in the game of cricket that they developed it like an art. Because of the occasion, the press employs lip readers to find out what provoked the great man. It’s called public interest reporting.

Too bad the story has put a shadow on the glorious run the Italians had throughout the world cup. Normally notorious for underhanded tactics to win penalties, Italians played with compact defense and great goalkeeping. Let’s cheer them for the entertainment and salute the man who treated us with his ball skills.

What do Nostradamus and Akbar have in common?

Akbar is our strategy professor, not the mughal emperor. Do you know how strategy cases work? We study a case; discuss it in the class while he acts a facilitator and then discloses what actually happened later. Tell you what; what happened later will be exactly what we had predicted. Oh boy, are we budding Nostradamuses!

Just the other day, Spanish reporters quoted a Nostradamus prediction that Spain will win the world cup. Alas, they were kicked out of the tournament (This is my best pun yet!!!!) the same day by zidane and his men. So Spaniards brought a heapful of embarrassment not only for themselves but for the otherwise successful prophet as well.

So what’s the connection? The reason why we get our predictions right and Nostradamus his is because we know the outcome. Nostradamus cannot predict things which haven’t happened already. Ably led by Akbar, we would always zero in on the right alternative although other two looks equally good on case-sheet.

That brings me to the question. How did Nostradamus predict a lot of things that did happen already? I could think of only one answer. He simply wrote too much. And more importantly, he was cryptic. So it’s easier to retroactively re-engineer his prophecies. (Beat that for jargon!)

May be I’m a pessimist. May be this is the best way of teaching. Or, perhaps we should discuss a case whose outcome is not known presently and see what happens after a few months. Would that be more interesting?

Who cares about bacteria anyway?

Just the other day, BBC showed an expose of the counterfeit drugs in India and its operations. India is the world’s fourth largest pharmaceutical industry and the leads the counterfeit market. The footage shows interviews by two such manufacturers on how they work, bribe and network. (Tehelka could use a better video for secret filming. The BBC footage would’ve passed off as a normal interview but for the status message at the bottom).

One manufacturer even shows his unit and 40 qualified technicians skillfully preparing the potions. They are as good as the best in the industry, he avers(Which industry?). Other manufacturer, a woman, says she can prepare any combination and deliver it anywhere- Professional service guaranteed!

It’s unfortunate and disheartening that (at the risk of sounding immodest) a supposedly well informed urban educated ‘elite’ like myself have little clue of how big a problem it really is. (What does an elite do anyway other than blog it and discuss it endlessly?) Tuberculosis kills more Indians every year than any other infectious disease known. Why? The counterfeit drug with half to quarter the content of active ingredients in a genuine tablet (it translates to 200-400% increase in margins for manufacturers) increases the resistance of the pathogen stains for real drugs. In some cases, the active ingredients are substituted with paracetamol for cost cutting (aren’t we good at this?) One cannot but feel outraged that the woman says all this with such impunity.

The law awards death sentence for counterfeit manufacturers, but not one manufacturer has been caught so far. Perhaps it’s because of the difficulty to treat them at par with mass murderers (which they are), the system is happy to accept the bribes and leave them off the hook.

One would imagine exposes and the TRP it brings would make it a commercially viable option, if not a media’s responsibility to the society’s well being. But it’s bewildering that exposes are practically absent. Indian media gives more airtime to AIIMs and IITs strike against reservation or Finance Minister’s rhetoric to sooth the market (Is there any other country whose FM worries about stock market more than wasteful spending on education?). Which suits us fine- bright young students hitting the streets against the government looks better on TV than some unknown manufacturers increasing the resistance of pathogens and responsible for the deaths of poor sick patients in some corner of the country.

Who cares about bacteria anyway?

Hail reservation!

Human resource and development ministry is one every national party secretly wishes to abolish. Murli Manohar Joshi tried to write history books and reduce IIM fees to curb its autonomy. Arjun Singh's recent move to get 50% reservations for minorities in prestigious institutes like IITs and IIMs and medical colleges faces upper caste backlash. Surely HRD ministers have a knack of putting Governments in a fix only a few ministries can match.

So what if 50% seats are reserved for minorities? IT firms aren't recruting from IITs but hordes of second and third tier colleges and the industry is doing fine. IIMs total strength is 1400 but India inc is not complaining. There might be concerns about quality, but in the bigger scheme of things, the impact is marginal.

Everytime, reservations issues crop up, the standard excuses crop as well- The system discriminates a poor brahmin to an elite dalit bureaucrat, it affects quality, reservations have been in place for too long with little results and lastly, give them opportunities in education, not seats or jobs. Lets see it one by one.

First one- affirmative action is intended to target those segments of population which has been deprived of opportunities for long so that social imbalances are corrected. The issue needs to be dealt with independently of reservation on basis of economic imbalances.

The system doesn't place minorities in IITs. It only relaxes criteria for them- its like having a shorter boundary for a OBC cricket player- he still has to get the runs himself.That is why inspite of reservations, institutes find it difficult to fill them with actual minority candidates.

There is no reason to think reservations must've delivered after 6 decades- see the endless potholes, frequent powercuts, traffic jams. Don't be too hard on the poor system;it never works.

As far as giving them opportunities than reserve jobs, the former is taken care by the latter. Its very difficult to correlate the rupees spent on opportunities and the results. If a way is found, its the best way to go about it.

Hail affirmative action! Thank god minister's move is after I got into IIM.

Musings from munirka

We have a serious problem, my guide tells me, we find it difficult to sell the resin during lean months. I’ll reserve my strong emotions for worse disasters. I nod my head gravely anyway.

The summers project started a month back, with an orientation session. A whole session went off with the company history. One Lala Shriram who founded DCM, gave birth to three Shrirams who in turn gave birth to well, lot of shrirams. They fought among each other and gave birth to even more shriram companies and here we are, he showed one corner with a laser pointer. Thank god for flowcharts, it might well have turned out a disorientation session. I already had first three pages of my report ready.

Tell you what, there is a saying in tamil – oru paanai sotrukku oru soru padham. (How do you know whether the rice is cooked? Sample one grain and see.) It couldn’t be truer with my survey. I could’ve written the whole report after meeting one consumer. They are all the same. The good thing is I chose my time to work and when to go to office.

I frequent my relatives place here during weekends to eat south Indian food and well, keep in touch in the process. Wherever I go, I’m asked to advise the kids- Jyotika, anna is brilliant and hardworking (I know) so ask for his advise. The kid comes to me and looks at me like I’m some…whatever. Where do you stand in class, kid? Last time, I missed the first rank, she avers. Hmmm, how can you miss first rank? I shout at her. What comes around goes around. Hahahahaha. Thankfully, she didn’t ask the same question.

No one is perfect

You know orkut, right? Communities are a popular feature in orkut. From 1984 borns to I-love-to-sleep (!), there are thousands of communities spawning everyday.

So it’s only natural that there are a few hate communities. I’ve been getting mails saying such and such community (India sucks, I hate India etc.) exists and please report as bogus. It’s a way to show patriotism. Some people even discuss it hotly.

Great. If this is a fight, its worth shying away from. One, It’s very easy to start a hate community (one person is enough) but difficult to stop one (50 votes as bogus required to take community off). And there are I-hate-Pakistan communities too, so we don’t hold a moral high ground.

I don’t mind reporting them as bogus, but I wanted to know what they have in their forums. After all, sustaining a hate community is a tough job, isn’t it? How long can you rail a nation with same hatred unless you are a brainwashed terrorist? Some of the owners and members are well educated, so what do they discuss?

Surprisingly, I found a few valid objections. Some posts talks about female feticide, which is a matter of shame. India has an abysmal sex ratio of 931 females per 1000 males, and it is pathetic in modern states of Haryana and Punjab (860/1000). Southern states fare much better, particularly Kerala with a positive sex ratio of 1031 per 1000 males. Contrary to popular belief, Muslims are a more tolerant lot than Sikhs and Hindus when it comes to female feticide, which is shown by sex ratio classification by religion.

Other is about the high incidence of Aids which threatens to harm the productivity of a growing nation in the future if not checked. Low Female literacy finds a mention as well.

The language is reprehensible, but the objections are sound. It’s a totally different picture from what the Indian media gives- burgeoning economy, unstoppable stock market and more recently, a nuclear deal. Bad news never gets the same publicity.

So do I justify these groups? Hardly. Its time we recognize that we are a truly great nation not because of our culture or history; but because we have a working democracy and strong institutions for a place that is so diverse even in mindset. Once we do that, we get the courage to take criticisms, even hate writings in stride. We get the courage to seek harsh truths even in them.

That’s what a mature democracy does- reality check.

Game theory and Pecking order

Only recently did I come across game theory and all its applications. Nowadays I see it everywhere. Pecking order is an application I read recently.

Pecking order is a theory of corporate structure. It says firms follow an order for pecking money- internal finances first, then debt and issue shares as a last resort. Debt is always preferred over equity, no matter what.

The theory assumes asymmetric information- managers know more than investors. This is easier to see. When a big announcement comes, share price spurts. If investors knew as much as managers, this would not happen. Investors would’ve bought all shares in anticipation.

When manager thinks shares are undervalued, he should prefer debt- why issue more shares when they are traded at below fair value? On the contrary, they prefer equity when shares are overvalued- make hay while the sun shines.

Why then do they prefer debt always? The answer lies in game theory, the theory of choices where decisions players make affect one another. Suppose the firm issue equity to raise money (to make hay). Investors anticipate trouble and share prices fall, sometimes more than what it should. On the other hand, when debt is issued, share prices rise.

Now manager anticipates this behavior and considers he is better off issuing debt, even if shares are overvalued. Why not let bad news go to investors through other channels? So he issues debt no matter what. But does share prices rise? Not always. Why? Investors anticipate manager’s behavior, so they have no clue as to whether shares are over/under valued.

The conclusion of game theory reinforced in this example is this: A system where rational players operate rapidly evolves to a point where no one is better or worse off.

Blogger’s dilemma

Let’s cross-link our blogs, my friend tells me. What does that mean, I ask him. You put my link on your blog and me, you. So what happens? We will get each other’s readers. It increases our hits.

Confused, I ask him. Increase hits? Why should we increase hits? If we increase hits, it means our blog is popular, he explains. Hey, I can understand what it means, but is that the reason why we blog, to become popular? He seems exasperated. Well, hmmm, if you don’t want popularity, why don’t you have a personal diary instead? I couldn’t think of an answer, and said as much.

We moved on to other things. After a while I tell him, I don’t blog regularly. How will I increase hits, even if I crosslink? Well, if you want to become popular, you have to blog atleast once in two days. Put your link in orkut groups, chat messages and mailgroups…learn to network, he advises me. I thank him for the enlightening discussion.

A blogger’s dilemma is this- he blogs because he wants others to read it, but the more readers he gets, the more pressure he is under…what can I change to make this post more readable?, This is interesting, may be posting this will get me more hits, etcetera. Suddenly, there are no uninhibited feelings, ideas, and thoughts; only conformity.

So what is my final take? I write blogs because I do want others to read it. But I don’t like to push it. I don’t like to worry about losing readership just because I don’t blog regularly.

When someone stumbles onto my blog, reads it and puts a comment ‘nice one’, I do feel pleased. In fact I used to get a lot of 'nice ones' before. Unfortunately they were invariably follwed by messages like how to enlarge your, well, stock returns.

How about Casio sponsoring Exams?

Mid term exams of term3 started today. Financial management II. I could have taken the exams last term and still performed the same way. There was nothing conceptual, all calculations.

NPV (net present value) is the most basic of all financial calculations; and the most intensive. There is supposedly a table which simplifies the calculation, but the professor thought we had enough time. So there we were, doing NPV for 20 years for different rates, by trial and error. Imagine using both hands on calculator

May be we could have casio sponsoring our exams. We can even have commercial breaks ‘You will solve the next question after these messages from our sponsor’. The way papers are being set, that looks a distinct possibility.

How do Chennai-ites quarrel over water?

Game theory and its implications is one subject that never fails to amaze me by both its simplicity and profoundness. The recent Nobel Prize in economics awarded to Robert Aumann, a mathematician based in Jerusalem and Thomas Schelling, an American economist for their work in game theory highlights the richness and diversity in this subject.

Game theory is a theory of choice, where decisions players make affect one another. Aumann’s contribution is that cooperation between players is possible if the game prolongs infinitely often, but players compete if the game goes for a finite period of time. How?

Coming from a water starved city like Chennai, let me quote a normal quarrel that happens between neighbors: the bore-well problem. Suppose our neighbor installed a bore-well and a booster pump, which sucks up water twice as fast as the normal pump. When both of us had normal pump, we got 10 liters of water each. Now that he has a booster pump and we don’t, he gets 15 liters and we get none. (Assuming 5 liters gets wasted when booster pump sucks water furiously).So we have no option but install bore-well ourselves, and now both of us end up getting 5 liters each. (5 liters wasted per pump)

In the long term, this is a suboptimal solution (5 vs. 10). So we enter into an agreement where either of us won’t switch booster pump unless the other person switches it on the previous day.

Thus, if the game goes on infinitely, the players cooperate. What if the game is for finite interval? Suppose our neighbor vacates his place next Sunday, he will switch on the last day, because he has no motivation to do otherwise. Anticipating this, I’ll switch the motor on Saturday, which he anticipates on Friday…and the entire thing unravels.

Schelling’s work is on the formal theory of deterrence and retaliation, where paradoxically, the player is better off by making his response uncertain. The Spanish general Cortez who colonized Mexico burnt his boats on arrival demoralizing his adversaries because they knew that his army could not retreat.

The works of Aumann and Schelling demonstrates the subject’s breadth and depth.

I love orkut!

Do I have to tell you what orkut is? It’s popular software for networking with friends. As I am a slow adapter to new technology, it took so long for me to appreciate it. Appreciate? I couldn’t have enough of it. Met some long forgotten school friends, and felt we were never away.

Profile? Naah, I don’t believe in writing about myself. After all I have a blog to do that. But one thing I like about orkut is the testimonial. People don’t just love, but crave to hear what others, particularly their friends think of them. You may not be Wordsworth, but do write a couple of lines about them, good and bad. They will really appreciate it.

Happy scrapping!

Big is beautiful

We live in an era of transnational, the likes of Wal-Mart, Exxon, Microsoft and Toyota, (mega institution is one which earns more than 10 billion dollars in revenues annually and has more than 100000 employees worldwide). In the last few years, the trans-nationals have managed to earn more revenue per worker than the smaller companies, and improve its profit margins dramatically. Companies like Microsoft and Exxon has managed to improve its profitability without any drastic increase in workforce, while companies like HSBC, GE, Toyota and IBM has managed to increase the profitability faster than the increase in workforce. There are 4 companies (Toyota, GE, Citigroup, and IBM) that employ more than 200000 people and earn 20000 dollars or more per employee (McKinsey studies). These companies have managed to overcome the complexity that comes along with size and grow faster their smaller peers. How?

The companies previously were leveraging their scale and scope to control supply chains and means of production. Ford, which took economies of scale to an extreme, at one point of time owned rubber plantations in Amazon for tires, rail wagons to transport them, tire, steel and assembly plants and planned eventually to sell and service Ford cars (though they never did). This proved a disaster.

Now companies are not just selling of their loss making units, but selling off their reasonably profitable ones as well, in preference to their high margin businesses. Citigroup sold off its cash cow Travelers insurance business to Met-life to concentrate on their core banking business. GE, which were traditionally manufacturing, gathered sufficient experience in financial services and now predominantly a services company. So is, IBM, which is moving away from manufacturing (at one point of time, it got a measly 1% ROI on its manufacturing business) to business consulting. It is rumored that in Japan, Toyota intends to market its manufacturing consultancy to non-car companies.

The more significant move was to find and tap the knowledge base of the people. Rockefeller found it difficult to find people who knew even basic accounting and awareness of most commonly used business terms. That is hardly the case today. Companies are trying to make sure they make the systems simple and management decisions consistent so that the ideas of employees aren’t lost in the bureaucratic maze.

The big is beautiful in India too, it’s the big Indian IT companies like Infosys and Wipro that are clocking faster growth in workforce and bottom-line than their smaller counterparts.

What do mega-institutions mean to India?  IT companies are thinking about relocating abroad due to skills crunch, even when there are 5.3 million unemployed grads at home. If Infosys has any chance of becoming an Accenture or IBM, the government must make sure that there are employable graduates in the country. Already, the services are raising their headcount faster than any other sector. It’s high time the supply steps in.

Cheap workforce like China’s is not the recipe to superpower status, quality workforce is.

Evolution of CP

CP means class participation. You may think that it’s such a frivolous topic and the person must really be jobless to write on it. But it will amaze you that it’s one of the hottest topics in IIM.

If you have a question, you raise it, don’t you? It’s much more complicated than that. One, we have a system that rewards CP albeit a small cut in total (5%). Then you have a suspicious bunch of fellows who frown on anything more than acceptable level of CP (though the question of what is acceptable is as yet unresolved); To complicate matters further, a professor who mistakes CP as interest in his class and addresses the rest of the session to you, so there is loss of opportunity to do productive work, like snooze.

What do you do in this dynamic environment? This must be the evolution of CP.

Stage 1: Dumb/Passive CP: This is the lowest level. Here, you do a CP to clear your doubts. Unfortunately, yours truly is at this stage. ‘Sir, I don’t understand this’, ‘Could you repeat that?’ and so on. The advantage is that you don’t face jealous friends, if anything you get a lot of sympathy. Poor chap can’t get this one. Disadvantage, showing ignorance is nothing to be proud of.

Stage 2:  Frivolous CP: At least here, you recognize that you want the cut, but you make such frivolous comments which annoy classmates. Whatever question is posed, you give a lot of chaff.
Advantage: Most of the time the prof is confused. He neither accepts nor rejects what you said. Disadvantage: Face the wrath of your buddies.

Stage 3: Intuitive/perceptive CP: Here you try to predict what prof is about to say next, and ask the question ‘what about…’ whatever he was about to say. Now, prof is real impressed. But if you can predict his next line, so can others. They will sulk, if not annoyed.

Stage 4: Strategic CP: Here, you paraphrase what prof said or agree with him without making it too obvious. Eg. When communication prof said ‘Write clearly and precisely’ Tomer replied ‘Yes Sir, this is something everyone say but no one follows’. As such, you can’t call that a CP. You tend to ignore it. So there is no ill will among the buddies. But, at a psychological level, you reaffirm what professor said. He doesn’t reply, but forms a very positive view of Tomer. This is the highest level of CP which everyone should try and achieve.

Happy new year

Well, it’s been almost a fortnight since I wrote something. As if I do nothing more than stay in my room and vegetate. It’s almost true, but I did do something this Jan 1st.

A 21 year old going on a pilgrimage in south India on the new year eve instead of partying all night may sound too conservative, or price you pay for being born to a religious parents, or is it?

Temples aren’t just places of worship. They are a gentle remainder that we mortals, who revel in our technological achievements, couldn’t build things which last a century or a plane crash; Remainder that we mortals aren’t capable of thinking beyond our present, leave alone a millennium; that we still aren’t able to bring the best out of human potential that a Rajaraja chola could. Mere rewards couldn’t have produced these temples.

Some ‘experts’ say that the kings in south India amputated the architects after they constructed these temples, so that they couldn’t be replicated. It’s hard to believe that any of these masterpieces could have been constructed in a cruel ruler’s time. You can control a man’s hand, not his spirit.

We visited our small ancestral temple at thandanthottam near Tanjore, which finds a mention in Sundarar padigams (hymns) which dates the temple to atleast 8th century AD. The temple is now dilapidated and cries for attention, and only recently has some work started. Rich temples like tirupathi should donate funds to such temples, instead of going on building newer temples, which are basically cash cows for them.

We then visited Tanjore Brihadeeshwara temple or big temple as it's popularly known, is one of the architectural wonders of the world and Unesco’s world heritage site.

What is so special about this temple? The 10th century temple (shown in picture) is constructed in such a way that its shadow doesn’t fall on the ground, no matter what time of the day it is. Also, the cupola (dome) is carved out of a single stone weighing 82 tonnes moved along an inclined plane 6 kms long.

Nandi (the bull facing the temple in the picture is 12 feet high, 19.5 feet long and 18.25 feet wide and carved out of a 25 ton stone.) is the vehicle of Lord Shiva, and supposedly the head of the ghosts who worship him. All temples before this one had a small nandi. Legend has that Rajaraja chola wanted a temple and a nandi that is mighty, because no ghosts fear a puny nandi! So the temple rightfully came to be known as big temple.

So my pilgrimage is not essentially one of religious nature, but that of a curious visitor who has never become used to such marvels as to not gape in amazement. The pictures painted in the inner walls had long stood the test of time, but when I went there, there were scribbling on the pictures like X loves Y, Z came here on so-and-so date (!) by our mortal peers, who wanted to immortalize their whatever. May their souls rot in hell.

Happy new year.