Employee Value Proposition or Capitalist's Value Proposition...

Visiting D-75, Malviya Nagar (The VADHMN den) always results in some post of mine... We're a bunch of professionals from Sales, Operations, Finance & HR from Banking, IT-ITeS, Manufacturing industries and we caught up chatting on various trends across our respective organizations and sundry..

I got to know of a leading bank where an Manager committed suicide due to work stress, another manager who's psychic behaviour gets all his juniors go bonkers; Companies where benefits being provided earlier are being withdrawn, and new leaders taking over at the top and not taking employee-friendly decisions... and many more...

The question here is: Do companies really mean to assess the value proposition in their decisions or the impact their decisions might make for employees at all?

Maybe, it's just another HR tool to sugarcoat the bitter truth. But, does HR too own those decisions? Questionable. Well, the matter of the fact is, without any doubt, that the first assessment of any initiative is to know what's the value proposition for the shareholders? If that's good enough, everything else is overridden. If, as a byproduct employees benefit out of it, the companies encash it as a 'EVP offered at XYZ Inc.,' Way to go guys, what say?!

So, next time you hear that 'EVP thing', ask yourself, if it is EVP or CVP?

When Bosses play God!

Being a manager is quite a privilege. You're in authority, you've got the power to influence... and most importantly you've got subordinates to manage, get work done, groom and develop. But, is it that simple? Being an HR professional, I get to interact with Business Heads, Sr. Managers, Managers & TLs who play a significant role in shaping people in organizations both at strategic and operational levels. Apart from work and styles, what strikes me most, is the 'God' like feeling that these people fantasize.. Ugh! It certainly gets the HR loathing..

Here's what my few experiences of Boss playing God have been--

• They'd like to enforce a certain career path (change in role / domain / department) with a negligible attitude towards individual consent. They feel the individual will see the benefit later (how they wish the employee stays after such humiliating act)
• Overriding a senior's instruction to be carried out, or manipulating the same at own discretion to influence the outcome (and expect the juniors' support if it gets screwed up)
• The biggest show-off comes when the bosses talk about how they can, in a positive or negative way influence the appraisals, progression and salary increments (as if an employee's future is in his/her hands)
  

As I write, and ask for some examples from Joy, she says, "It's little virtual, but they think that ways all the time." Well, the above mentioned are few actions manifested in different forms when it comes to practical application.

However, if we talk of the end, in a world like ours, when we're questioning the existence of God Divine, can we really expect little ones as our managers and bosses to play god with us really? At least with the class of 'somewhat' self-aware people (including myself) I hang out with, they perform miserably, and lose whatever little credibility they have in sight..

TDTY - Pursuit '97

11 years of Pursuit... the memories of it still keep coming back...

Pursuit camps were always organized during mid-August to take advantage of the extra-holiday... I can still remember how I reached my school with a bag, and afraid of not knowing none at the camp, and was walking towards the canteen, and soon I was greeted by Peter Banerjee, Venkat Uncle and with introductions, soon everyone was pals...

Ice-breaker, yes, it was there that I heard that word the first time!!! Uncle John Samuel did it for us, it was the rabbits chasing game.. and everyone just loved it... I got to know some really really amazing people, Anita Paul, Benita Paul, Christina Dhas, Peter Banerjee, Abhishek Gier, Corrie Susan, Judy, Alfred Allan, Rajeev, Celestina, Christina Rayalu, Sherry Thomas, Jerry William, Abhy, Moses, Prashanti so many... I can't just forget it!

Thanks to Evangelical Union (EU), I got introduced through Venkat Uncle & Lata Aunty; Mrs. Parrot & Mr. Sahayam few years before that, and that's how I got to do Pursuit '97.

The first day session by Uncle Gier, and the following discussions with Anita, two by twos with Judy, Alfred (our friendship is in the skies), and the last day session where Prasanna Kumar uncle asked us all to share our learnings, and man, everyone was sinking in grace of God, and each could feel the Spirit stirring our hearts...

I still remember how Christina, Myself used to take walk in the night beyond norms, and share how God's helping hand is with us... Throughout the camp, if I could say something it's only that we were soaking in the love of God. No cares of what was outside the school walls, no news from outside world, nothing... And, guess what, we had camp parents... and... at the end of the camp, no one wanted to leave the school campus, no one wanted to leave each other... That's how bonded we got. Perhaps, we got a taste of what heaven is!

But, that's not what God made us for, right? He wanted us to go out and share the love... so we all dispersed from the camp, we again had a camp follow-up meeting at the same place, most turned up, few didn't. A few among them including me, Christina, Jerry, Rajeev, Celestina/Christina, Benita became committee members and led few camps following the same theme Pursuit for couple of years. I even had the opportunity to go for Committee Members Training Camp (CMTC), with Amit Paul Kerketta in Kotagiri where only handful from across India get to go... till I got into graduation and soon I became too (conspicously) busy in other things...

That one camp, was such a gateway to so many opportunities of learning, and most of all to grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ, that I cannot ever forget it! Perhaps, more than my formal education, that's by far, one of the greatest milestones to my life!

What's Pursuit '97?
While still studying at Faith Academy, Prasad Nagar, it was my first Evangelistic Camp I ever attended in my life. I just passed into XII, and had only joined this school a year ago. Haven't really gelled well with the folks around, except for few... My best friends Satish & Vishnu had left Delhi; had it not been for Krishna, I would've been very lonely then...

Thanks to God's abounding grace to provide me more than friends, and worthy purpose to use me in some manner for His glory in those days... Pursuit '97 has been a great blessing in my life! It keeps me amazed, how God, in his grace, keeps me loving a wretch like me... and I just can't help, but fall in love with him over and over and over again!!!

TDTY - To Nainital and Back...

This day, That year - It was the year 2005, this very day, about almost the same time we just landed (Manohar, Nadeem, Vikram) with our aching bums at J2/30, Malviya Nagar after our 3-day bike-ride from Nainital.

Conversations with Nadeem has resulted in this blogpost TDTY, thanks to him.. or I would have only just kept thinking of this trip.. here's a bit from our write-up of that trip...

A calm surrender to the awesome grandeur of the mountains,
The gratification of senses from the breath of a cloud,
Pine crests, misty roadways, deep valleys, the shimmering sun,
The very knowledge of your presence in the moment was blissful,
The sound of a stream drifting by, echoes in wilderness,
To stand on the highest rock, gaze down on everything else belittled…
A walk in the clouds! Halfway to heaven! Euphoric!

The wind was cool, summer sun dimmed and the rain forbearing.
It was as if the gods have blessed our trip.
Three angels, three kings, three musketeers,
The number was perfect; it was the ‘Three of Us!’
Everything worked out so fine, not a flake of obstruction all our way…
That was what our trip to Nainital has been.

The whole trip detail, and the pics are available here on: My Travel blog

Funny how excited we were then to plan another bike ride 2 years later, but now, Vikram's happily married, Nadeems taking a GMAT run, and me blogging away to glory!

India flags, made in China

It is Independence Day celebrations across India Inc., today, and we ordered for pin-up Indian flags to be distributed and worn by all at our office today. The flags were bought by our facilities folks, and here’s what they looked like – bemusing saffron & green, the Ashok Chakra with 4 spokes only… and guess what? The flags are ‘Made in China’ ;-)

Wonder what's next!

Standing at the graveyard of friendship...

Some times friends just can't be friends for the sake of friendship!

Have you experienced a situation like that? I've had buried many a friend cos they didn't wanna be friends because of friendship. Yet, I am unable to understand why, when we've started as friends; why can't we stand by it till the end? Why should it transform into something else? Why should we expect it to? It's simply too much to ask for...

Now, standing at the graveyard of friendship, I mourn the loss of a great friend; a lovely time which will perhaps never return. Well, there's no regret, even after all the love found is lost. I've taken all care not to bite off more than I could chew... I guess I've done all I could, and would have been much more I could do, but I couldn't have done it my way...

I only wish they knew how much I had loved...

There's no more role for me to play! Goodbye, dear friend!

Renaming my Blog!!!

My blog was initially titled 'A thousand dreams you can still believe...' keeping in mind the content I would flow in here. The initial title inspired from the song 'Where is the love' sung by Celine Dion.

Within 3 months after creating this blog, I had actually almost joined the league of other bloggers who were excited to start up, but lousy to sustain... However, as time went by, I did see me (slowly and) consistently (thus far), doing some posting, and I was glad.

After about 18 months of blogging, I started looking at the content that I was writing - subjects varies from Workplace issues, HR matters, Spiritual, Catharsis among others.. But, a major portion of them was about Workplace issues & HR Matters, so I renamed it to 'HR Matters & Life'.

'HR Matters & Life' wouldn't work for me.. It wouldn't do justice to the other spiritual thoughts I may wanna flow-in. I keep musing over subjects, and then finally, it dawned on me to name it 'Musing Mano', but... that was only for a day!

Now, as I read my e-mails to my friends and other HR Groups I used to send some 10-11 years ago, one theme was prominent - 'Lessons from Daily Life', and that's what I'm sticking to... That's what it will be - the new and lasting (perhaps) name of my existing blog - 'LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE'.

Comments, someone?

Miracles do happen!

I changed my job again last (to last) week. The selection had taken approximately three months, during which I had not much clear indicators of whether I got through the interviews or not. It was only in the first week of July that I had come to know that an offer was ready for me. In that week, I was traveling down south, visiting my sister.

There, I came across a month-old evangelistic newsletter by Dr. Shantavardhan (based out of Guntur), in the matrimonial section, where my new job, company's name were published, with exact salary details which I had not even discussed with my family by then, nor did I know completely. (Now, in January earlier this year my family has initiated match-fixing process for me, and they had asked Dr. Shantavardhan to give out a post in their newsletter.)

Now, I have joined Infosys BPO, which was never in my radar of job search. Got a call one fine evening, and I went ahead without nothing to lose... and here I am.

But, when I saw that month-old newsletter, and now that I've joined, I can't say nothing to it, but 'Miracles do happen!' Isn't it?

Sorting ideas...

With reference to my earlier post about sorting out your fresh ideas, one senior collegiate at IIPM
(I don't remember the name) said, when you're ideating, list down your ideas, and strike out the first 7-10 ideas, cos they may have also occurred to someone else as well. The ideas following then, may be some 'original' ones...

What say?

Plaigarism and the Information explosion...

Two years back, when I came across this company, which was utterly chaotic in terms of functions and processes, I wanted to write about how this organization was 'Thriving on Chaos', but as I generally dwell over the idea for few days, I discovered, the great Tom Peters has already authored a tome titled 'Thriving on Chaos'. Bah! my idea was taken already...

My friend Andy had just joined an IT org, which promotes their own social networking site - My Roob. Well, I am registered on most of the famous social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, hi5 among others, I've always taken extreme care that I should not click on ads, as they result in irritating pop-ups, and that caught me thinking, a significant lot in this world perhaps may carry the same mentality. The question here was, if everyone was so cautious about all this, how exactly do these sites make their money, and there are so many new ones that start-up, and even get the capitalist funding... This idea too, I had found existed on the net, here's the link -Social Networking Remains Hot

Just a few days ago, I had a thought of writing about the 'People over Process' philosophy that companies claim to practice; and I personally perpetuate that idea too. But, Urggggh! I found a blog with almost the same words... perhaps it was better too... In case you wanna read it, here's the link - People over Process.

I'm wondering now, how many of the stuff I had written about are already existing on the internet? Would I be caught for plagiarism? I know the images may be copyrighted, but... what of an idea?

Last of all thoughts, what extra-bit of difference am I making, if most of the ideas already exist? Perhaps that's why research scholars religiously practice 'Survey of existing Literature' before commencing a research project.

Can 'Jugaad' Kill India?

I just hope someone doesn't sue me for Blasphemy and Treason against my nation. But, maybe you'll agree with me at some level with this argument of mine.

First, let's understand what is Jugaad? A colloquial Hindi word, which means 'a quick fix' to anything. For example, if I got caught for over-speeding, and am liable for a heavy penalty; Jugaad in this situation means 'to find a simpler and less costlier means of fixing the situation." So, Jugaad takes a new meaning in different situations, but the bottom line remains - 'a quick fix', or 'finding a shortcut'. It certainly means a solution, but a temporary and short-lived one... for the time being.

Now, I've heard this term Jugaad, from few corporate leaders in their presentations, and even news channels who claim it as India's strength. But I fail to understand how easily they happen to promote this Jugaad culture by raising a favorable voice - Here's my case against Jugaad! How do so many small IT companies get to thrive on softwares? IT's Jugaad! Most of the Software installed is Jugaad! How do so many second-class businessmen get government licenses and all? It's Jugaad! How do so many law-breakers find means to work out a way? It's Jugaad? How do miserly Lala (miser) companies show-off swanky offices and executives? It's Jugaad! How does an incompetent guy get into a good job? Jugaad!

Huh! Many ways of Jugaad, and many ways Jugaad can help you thrive.

Most of Indian businesses, from the small home offices, to the large corporates, a majority of them survive on Jugaad. Not only them, but large organizations have made paths to Jugaad in mainstream management. The way Indian corporates are into Jugaad, it's perhaps counted among skills and competencies employees need to have. They want seasoned 'Jugaad' professionals.

I certainly do not think, that this Jugaad culture is applicable to India alone, but, if this remains the way we do business, and manage our work, it certainly can be disastrous. Cos, Jugaad is a short-term, even a momentary strategy, and will uncover its disgrace sooner or later. If one moves out of India and explores the more developed nations, we can see how Jugaad is simply not done; there's not future in doing 'Jugaad'... and Jugaad actually becomes our way of life and business... INDIA will die! Jugaad will kill it!

This is open for debate...

How unfair are we?

The world, they say is unfair...

But, we're so consciously so unfair to one another.. and that I wonder if God would forgive us for our unfair acts that we so willingly and knowingly commit...

What is the world if it were not for us?

Beware of the Strategy man...

He's fully aware of his own personality, and also the the impact he has on those around him. He's a man driven with ambition to achieve his dreams. It matters not to him, whether you win or he wins. All that matters is whether he's winning it or not. All that he speaks, the harshest word, the humility in his deepest voice; every gesture, every act, whether humble, kind, inspiring or even threatening is not an accident or by chance. They've been fashioned to make and leave impressions, to meet an end..., a detail of a very calculative step.

It's a fragment of a larger well-thought of plan. The strategy man...