Hits and Misses

Our ability to act upon an opportunity (or an advice) is directly related to our awareness about the facts surrounding it. For example, I feel my neighbourhood shops can significantly improve their business if they did as simple a thing as to create a page over a social network and invite folks, who patronize the shop, to it. Think of it, if they can get testimonials regarding their businesses, wouldnt more people be drawn to these shops, particularly in areas such as my neighbourhood, where almost everyone has a social network account and an email id. I made this suggestion to the owner of the Gym I work out at, genuinely concerned as I was for his business, given that there have been occasions when I have been the lone soul working out. He has a decent Gym, in fact, he has  better facilities as compared to some of the other more expensive places I have worked out at. I think his apprehension arises because 1. his awareness regarding the power of the internet is low, 2. he does not trust me enough (I dont trust my real estate agent) and 3. he hesitates in selling.

To generalize, I think for successful interventions either in the business or in the social development domain, it is important to address the three issues I have mentioned above - provide full information (and ensure that it is internalized), build credibility and help people overcome their potential-limiting inhibitions. 

What makes Gandhi special?

I think he possessed two very-very rare qualities.

1. He had an unwavering sense of purpose and he was not willing to compromise on it given the necessities of practicality - he'd rather be unreasonable than compromise. He'd rather pay the price of being impractical, than reap the rewards of being an opportunist. This made him extremely selfless;
2. He was supremely competent which made him extremely effective as a leader. He could capture the imagination of the masses, instilling self belief in them. And he did not need violent force to achieve it.

Any wonder then that Gandhi has been invoked in almost all popular movements related to human rights and freedom.

Bye-Bye, French Lie!

SKS continues to intrigue. Its a publicly listed company now and in its board , it has some of the most competent people. Still, the decision making in SKS appears arbitrary (or rather tailor-made to favor the founder):

December 2008 - SKS appoints Sursh Gurumani as the CEO

May 2010 - Gurumani gets a 50% raise for his performance

July 2010 - SKS's IPO is oversubscribed

October 2010 - SKS board sacks the CEO, Suresh Gurumani

The day's central story in the Economic Times is better than a Hollywood drama. Read the Economic Times story on SKS, and figure out for yourself.

Happy Reflections (My Dear Peer Group)

We are in a rather happy situation, isn’t it? After all we are the citizens of a powerful country growing at a rate of close to 10% annually – well there is a bit of a difference between 8% and 10% when it comes to GDP growth rates, but since these are happy reflections I have taken the liberty – with a very realistic chance that it will overcome economic backwardness and associated vulnerabilities. Those of us (everyone in my peer group), who are financially secure have the great opportunity to play a meaningful role in shaping our society and helping it overcome its gravest problems. But this particular post is not regarding the opportunity, it is regarding things from our past, things that we need to be thankful for.

Value System: We all started fairly poor – did not have an “economically” privileged childhood. What we had instead was a blessed childhood with our elders, teachers and parents emphasizing on the need to be hard-working, humble, polite and principled. Consequently, we all understand the importance of material possessions but these do not dictate the choices we make.

Glorious Traditions: We never had any doubts regarding our glorious traditions – be it religious tolerance, non violence, or overcoming unjust systems such as colonialism and “emergency”. 

Learning Society: Proud that we are of our traditions, we embrace progressive systems. We chose to be constituted as a secular democracy in 1950, we started liberalizing in the early 90s, we have satellites facilitating mobile telephony (we still do not have public toilets in sufficient numbers). We have not turned a blind eye to the corrupting influences of economic incentives and are using technology to improve transparency in public as well as corporate governance.

Tenacity: We have all overcome odds to be what we are today. Be it the higher education system that tried to tell us we were just not good enough or the prospect of unemployment because there weren’t enough government jobs, we didn’t let these things deter us. In fact these have only made us stronger as we brush shoulders with the best the world has to offer.

Look at it from this perspective - Is there anything that can stop us?