The myth of perfect set-up (Reposted from : magisterspeaks.blogspot.com)

I reached well in time.

Something inside me said, it was going to be embarrassing. It was not what I set out for. But well, however cheesy it may sound I do take note of certain dialogs from bollywood movies and one which got me over this was from a relatively new flick on life of a salesman and his ambition to go beyond the sculpted way.”Every man has two qualities in him. One which take him up and the other which brings him down and the quality which ultimately wins, the man would live his life accordingly.

It was one of that moment where I thought of walking away without testing the metal of my enthusiasm and passion for what I wanted to. Simply, because the setting was not what I thought would be.

There are two problems the way B-school graduates are taught in one of the best B-schools in this country.

Firstly, the only businesses and only problems which we are taught to get into and deal with are the ones which are BIG.

Second point, majorly emerges from the first. Since we are taught to deal with big, we are habituated towards a particular setting where we have to exercise our so call managerial charm.

I am no exception to have fallen for these two myths of B-school learning experience. What leads to this, is a story I must take separately, but for now I try to flounder across my way out of this twin illusionistic way of b-school erudition towards a tatty building with no sign of welcome which we are conjured about and a bare minimum audience who frankly, does not care where you are from and what you plan to do. Quite a letdown, you see!

Well, I was very liberal about the audience strength in last paragraph. Actually, there was no one to listen to me there when I reached.

I called up my friend who set this up for me and he was kind enough to suggest that I was free to leave if I wanted to. All the brain-cells engaged in forging out plans of making my first workshop on personality development a grand success changed their course in trying to convince me on how this is a recipe for disaster and how quickly I must find my way out of the historic building.

Something stopped me from being a puppet to these few cells which might have already started celebrating when I started my bike with an idea of pulling up my stakes there.

So all of this for nothing? And who said it was going to be easy? It is all about experiences and nothing is going to be as fruitful as an on-field experience of being jeered upon field than being clapped on by friends about a brilliant idea discussed in classroom.

I will deal with it - was the last time I spoke to myself before the workshop started.

I spoke with the in-charge of this workshop and his optimism came as a positive surprise to me about the expected attendance. Encouragingly, a group of young kids came right up to the building, wished me (!) and went inside the room just to discuss how this will turn out.

In less than 30 minutes the room was full with audience. Well, it was a small room and e had the total audience of around 30 but it was good enough for me to start.

I wanted to have a 2 hour session for these kids but they never stopped surprising me with their energy levels, enthusiasm and creativity which was exemplary while we did exercises and group activities.

1 student left the group, I later found her in deep discussion with another guy(behind a tree!) and the discussion did look too serious to be avoided for a workshop. 5 new students joined who were called upon by their friends during the session. What I realized at the end of the session was that the session had run for three and a half hours, without a single break. Nobody went out for water or washroom.

There was sense of curiosity on their faces. They were jubilant and hungry for more. I learned multiple lessons that day. About me, about how important was what I was trying to do, What is the state of these kids lost in ‘India shining’ stories, and most importantly – I was so wrong about the set-up theory!

We will never have the perfect setting to do good work. We will have to own the setting and do good work.

My first workshop on personality development was an experience to cherish, which I will preserve as long as my grey cells allow me to.

Cheers

One step at a time... (Re-posted from - magisterspeaks.blogspot.in)

The writing is on the wall!

Whether we choose to accept it or not, the reality remains to its existence. The statement can be applied to a variety of situations and almost every time you do that, you can’t help but notice a brutal ignorance of people about the transformation of the very milieu they breath in.

An unfortunate success which I met with on my aforesaid conviction was with the state of higher education, as it unfolded before my bewildered eyes.

Having a reasonable understanding of how the higher education system in this part of the country works, I wasmerely disappointed than shocked on the grim situation.

An engineering college which is pushing itself rock-hard in order to have as less unfilled seats as possible. Atleast, not more than the seats which were lost last year. In this case, just like airlines and multiplexes, a seat lost once cannot be recovered ever again. Another one struggling  to get enough students to  run the show.

Just as you feel inception of an empathetic feeling for these institutes, another contrasting thought trickles down your brain. Isn’t it what they deserve?

The answer to this question is both, omnipresent and veiled (depending upon who just read that line!)

There are multiple reasons for the sorry state of alot engineering as well as management colleges in this country. Some people blame it on the regulatory slack for their over liberal rules in granting permission to these colleges during the last decade which has created more supply than demand in the market.

While there is another set who bestows a more pragmatic view on the situation. They opine that the imbalance of demand and supply will always be there in some or the other way. What is required, however, by the institutes is to remain competitive all the times in order to ensure that the correction does not lead to their debacle when the obliteration of this mushrooming sector takes place.

I try hard to take side but like almost every time, fail to do so. It is easier not to fall in the trap of having a stern opinion in this case due to very logical arguments made by the two groups.

What is more disheartening is not the state in which such  institutes are, but the sheer ignorance or denial they tend to indulge in, more often than not due to a conscious effort rather than a sincere mistake.

Encouragingly (surprisingly) however there are many endorsers to the idea of quality education in the same circuit(more surprisingly) who express such wishful desire and accept a need of a turn-around of a sort which will not only shift gears for the industry but for such ailing institute(extremely surprisingly, they don’t think their institute is one them!)

Denial is the first cousin of problem and interestingly, most of these institutes which have been dwelling the problem within, starts challenging it with its cousin as a tool. Not the ideal counter-attack!

Time has come when before finding reasons for the problem, solutions for problems (for others, coz we don’t have problems, right?) and then blaming someone for the problem, we – accept that there is a problem.

Time has come to take - one step at a time.

Indian Retail : Myth or Reality (Re-posted from my previous blog in 2011)

You go to your cousin’s place in a metro city or an urban town and he tells you, “Let me take you to a nice place, it has newly opened and attracts amazing crowd”. What do you guess this place to be at the first thought? Of course, the new shopping mall – claiming itself to be the biggest in the locality or the city or the state and may be in the whole country!

The reason why I started with this incident is because it’s quite easy to believe it. The reason why you believe it is, it is possible to have a big new mall to open anywhere in an urban town now.

And what lies beneath this belief is the fact that we are cognizant of the retail revolution happening right here right now. We are aware that with every passing day, the retail industry is growing BUT what is imperative to mention here is, it’s not the surging retail industry which is the talk of the town now. It’s the organized retail industry which holds the matinee show timings. The world, the retailers, the consumers and not to forget, the real estate honchos, are not excited about the retail revolution as a whole, but the organized retail revolution.

            Now, having seen how the retail revolution buzz has put up on our brains, lets unearth the real question behind this revolution to see where does it lead us to. The sector contributes 12 % of the GDP and is estimated to show 20% annual growth rate by the end of the decade as against the current growth rate of 8.5%. Total retail sales in India will grow from US$ 395.96 billion in 2011 to US$ 785.12 billion by 2015, according to the Business Monitor International (BMI) India Retail Report for the second-quarter of 2011. The Indian organized retail industry has a three-year compounded annual growth rate of 46.64 % and caters around 8% of the total employment. This data essentially means that there is a big market which is still waiting to be tapped in the organized retail sector. A CRISIL report says that the Indian retail market is the most fragmented in the world and that only 2% of the entire retailing business is in the organized sector. This suggests that the potential for growth is immense. There are about 300 new malls, 1500 supermarkets and 325 departmental stores currently being built in the cities across India. According to the Global Retail Development Index, India is positioned as the foremost destination for Retail investment and business development but 90% of the total retail chain outlets and shopping malls are only in the Tier-I and Tier-II cities. The organized retail real estate stock will grow from the existing 41 million sq ft to 95 million sq ft even when the current space is around 3sq ft per person as against 19 sq ft per person in US. It’s a bizarre combination of contrasts to such an extent that it can confuse us as to whether there is actually a revolution happening or it’s a made up! The truth is, whichever way you are thinking, you are right. It’s actually a blend of both.

                                    The Indian retail industry is actually revolutionizing. Its revolutionizing because the consumption power of Indians is growing. Its revolutionizing because consumer awareness and the living standards are rising. Its revolutionizing because a big segment of consumer is youth between 20-35 of age who spends on the choices and choose the way he want to spend. But, at the same time, it’s still budding because the organized retail is still less than 10%, because the organized retail is still far away from the 300 million population of middle class, because the organized retail is still in Tier-I and Tier-II cities, because the organized retail is still far away from real India. And no industry can revolutionize unless it has touched the real India, the actual middle class which earn 90,000 to 2.4 lac INR per annum, who still relies upon the local Kirana stores, who still does not enter the AC malls and extra luminous shelves stores.

And till that middle class accepts the organized retail, this revolution is not a revolution in full throttle, it’s still budding. Retail in India is a revolution in making but not a revolution as yet!!

Riding on phantom ;-)

There were a few things which you need to get right to be on the A-list of your college.I am taking you more than half a decade back when the gadgets collection wasn't that big a consideration.

I was doing my engineering then and it was still fine for me to be commuting to my college which was 7kms away, by bicycle since half the journey was done on bicycle and other half in a 13-seater vehicle which was called 'tempo' in local language.

                   So when i got admitted to second year and was strutting around cos i was senior and there were students around who looked scared, uncomfortable and submissive, my old bicycle started appearing a little too out of class.But i definitely was not in a position to buy a new bike.Then came the angel investor, my cousin.He lent me his scooter, which was a classic by all standards !
                                                                                                                 It didn't have its breaks working, horn was out of order and the headlight was broken.Not to forget it was always biased, i mean bent towards left :-P.Well, as they say beggars and borrowers have no choice i took it with ecstasy, looked at it and said to myself - That's my ride !!
                                      Well, there was one thing which i could not notice about it then. It had astonishing appetite for petrol!!! One ride to college and back uses to cost me 20 bucks. I must mention, 20 bucks a day was quite an amount for me to to spend then. I found a way out - Going college only 3 out of 6 days :-P

It went quite well between me and my 'ride' for some time time till an eventful night. The start of the day was not any good, i must admit. I didn't go to college and a lecture which was supposed to be free was taken by our principal. Quite finicky about the attendance, he took names of all absentees and matched them with overall attendance register. No wonder i was in defaulters, chronic defaulters rather ;-)
So my name honoring the warning list for suspension in afternoon, was a bad news. I thought of visiting my friends in the evening.
One of them didn't know how to ride. Three of us went to a local market and while my scooter was parked outside, this guy chose to satisfy his curiosity on that very day.
The nest thing i hear was a loud noise of somone bumping into a small shop. I came out of the shop and saw a massacre, well almost. He 'managed' to target 4 people in one go!! Thankfully , they let him go with just a little 'treatment'.
We were upset over the issue and decided to watch a movie in night show. Another bad decision!
The only movie playing was "Jani Dushman".
I really don't want to go into whose decision it was, but we went to the movie. Well, if remember correctly, this was the first time when i actually wanted to leave the movie in middle without caring of the expensive ticket we bought for the movie.

My ride had already cost me dear to have come so far to the hall, so adding that to the net outflow, the agony of watching the complete movie won and we watched the whole movie.

Three of us came out, nobody spoke.  Then at one moment we looked at each other and just laughed. We decided to ending this bad day as quickly as possible and set off for the ride back home.

It was just a few hundred meters from our destination that there was a bridge with a gutter. In complete carefree attitude to find another vehicle anywhere on road , it being past midnight, th e "phantom" was on full throttle.

Right at few meteres before the bridge i saw a trucke coming at me. Wrong side. I realized, i can take it from wrong side as well which i assumed would be clear, it was not. The first truck was actually overtaking the second one and there was no place for a third vehicle to pass through. It realized that i cannot apply breaks as there are no breaks.
And then few things in life which u can never forget coz its difficult to explain them.

Just before reaching to bridge, after which any trick would have been life threatening. I saw a ray of hope. Just before the bridge there was tin structure that someone might have come up with the same day coz it was never there before.

Something clicked. I adruptly changed the gear to bring the ride to lowest gear. It was quick but i was very fast with vehicle. Idea was to bump on a small 1 feet soft bump just before the tin structure to reduce speed and then collide with the structure. May sound stupid now, but was the best choice among the three options, other two being going down the gutter which we didnt know was how deep and getting crushed by one or both of the trucks.

Balance lost, bumping into the hump and then just falling a couple of feets before tin structure.
Minimum casualty, but for one of my friend, long lasting one.

He lost his tooth in the accident.

Next day i got the phantom repaired and returned it to my cousin.
I take a ride on it every time i visit my cousin's place and this incident comes alive in front of my eyes :-)

First day at Kathmandu…

And I was at office. Yes, “office” again. It was 18 months back when I made a decision and left my corporate halfway through to be at business school.

This was different though. I didn’t have to sit in a room with staring eyes at me and my laptop and thoughts running in people’s mind –“ Why are these IT guys paid up so much, they don’t do anything”.

Tables were turned this time. I was representing the business and the IT guys were to be on their toes. Well, this is what I thought initially atleast.

After a long wait at my Mumbai office, I finally got to go to the market country I was given project for, Nepal.

My first day at Kathmandu was a rushed one. To my surprise, a rather unpleasant one, It was not a holiday on Sunday. All my hopes of seeing around in the evening dashed as I landed on Sunday afternoon. I was to report at office post-lunch. Agony just grew when the 5-day a week hangover from IT industry got a rude shock only to be debriefed about 6-days a week Saturday off schedule.

Anyways, I was excited enough about my new role that I kept the spirits up and hopes high when starting this new assignment.

Life never ceases to surprise you.

My project scope changed again. It was not more which it was last week or 2 weeks back or when I was first briefed about my project. Yes, I had a different project expectation addressed to me 4 times!!

However, the first pleasant surprise that came to me when I landed in Nepal was the language. Hindi was poster-ed all around the walls, with some blend of local dialects but it still was encouraging.

Like a researcher on work I started seeing the vehicles plying on road, or atleast tried fooling myself by doing that. I know I have no inherent interest in automobiles industry or even cars, to say the least.

Bad roads had normalized my expectations about the hotel, but it was a pleasant surprise. After unpacking and freshing up I left for office in a taxi.

Reached office by 1:30 in noon and met my project guide. Had some discussion and he introduced me to a couple of guys at office. Was nostalgic. How we use to meet team-mates at every new project.

Well, the days passed with a couple of more meetings and it was time I head for home. I had already caught throat infection and cold. On my way bought some medicines and reached hotel at around 8. I thought I would stroll around the market for some time before going to sleep. But surprises never cease to surprise you either.

The Market at Kathmandu closes by 8 pm. This is one thing which was really disappointing to me. This meant that the only time you see the cheerfulness around the market place, aesthetically made showrooms and options to eat and buy, was on a holiday.

 It was just a Sunday and I still had 6 more days before a Saturday. Things kept on piling. I was not happy . I was not happy being here. But it was very difficult for me to find out the reason for this sadness. Was it my return to corporate life? Or it had to do with the place ? Or just my illness is spoiling the game? I will have to wait to have answers to these questions.

The novice marketeer...

Having got a flavor of real marketeer’s life a day before, I went in with better preparation for my next meeting, atleast mentally!

But life never ceases to surprise us.

This time my meeting was at a distant college, some 150 kms away from my place. I had Manish with me who had come all the way from Mumbai for this meeting. We had prepared almost everything needed for this meeting the last night (this is what I and Ajay felt till we were proved wrong!).

Hoping to finish the meeting in half an hour or so we decided to stall our hunger till we are done. We reached the college after driving for about 2 hours. We met with a faculty member and were requested to sit in a room till we could meet the principal of the college. Clock showed 12:30.

Having waited for more than half an hour for my previous meeting, I was prepared to wait for atleast half an hour for this meeting and Dear Lord seemed to be in good mood to grant all my expectations, infact exceed them !

We prepared the laptops and arranged the documents we wanted to share in the meeting hoping to save time so as to explain us in a structured and detailed way. We didn’t heed to pleadings of our appetite thinking that we might be called anytime and it would cast a sad impression if we are called and found at cafeteria.

As someone said, never let the first though rule the proceeding ones. We failed here and stuck to what we decided first, we waited.

Yet again, I was reminded how different is the ground reality of all the cases and live projects which we would do at colleges. How difficult it is to get the circumstances to be able to market before actually marketing. I was also reminded of the infidel buttressing we are fed with for being wards at a premier B-school. And I decided, I would never wear that inexistent spunky hat ever again.

These feelings only spiked with the ticking of clock and the crest came a minute after we entered the room for the meeting with our client.

Clock showed 2:35, more than two and a half hours since we were waiting. Exhausted and hungry!

Finally, the moment came when we were asked to present our case to the client and the first thing we hear after getting in is – “Sorry for making you wait, please tell me what brings you here….but I can give you 10 mins max”.

My ears couldn’t believe what they heard. 10 mins to present our case after waiting for two and half hours?? We drove for 2 hours to reach this place. Manish came from Mumbai just for this meeting.

I was agitated inside but held myself together and said to myself – well, this is what you have got, so go for it!

Our presentation lasted for close to 30 mins. What was the result was suddenly least important to me. How we handled the situation and then meeting was primary and we loved it!!

Another chapter of learning in a novice marketeer’s book.

I am a marketeer !

A building that looked solitary, an untidy statue in the center of the L-shaped building and no one to be seen around. A scene that definitely is far-far away from the glitz and luster of the B-school life at the centroid of Delhi University.

Very few must have imagined that an MBA degree from one of the best B-schools of the country does not offer an alternate path to the journey of success. It definitely equips one with an armor which is quintessential to win the battle though. I had a withered imagination of pessimistic view of life after MBA and all my horrors did come true!

It all had started a month back. I along with two engineering friends of mine was planning to start something up for colleges. Putting it simply - Conducting workshops at colleges for students.

I happened to be the marketing guy. After working for a couple of weeks putting together documents and plans and various models, we were ready to meet our first client.  It was a mixed feeling...or calling it ‘mixed’ is oversimplifying it!

I had been to various meetings, handled various clients, gone to meetings with excellent preparation sometimes and no preparation at all at others. But this was different. No one was bound to listen to me, nobody asked me to talk about X, Y or Z with the client, No one was watching me, No one was monitoring me, absolutely no one. It was me, just me!

I reached the place of meeting 10 minutes in advance and expectedly found no one around. I started roaming around the college and realized there were exams being conducted. First thing that struck me, Will I be given sufficient time to explain myself?

Time started ticking and it crossed the designated time of 4 o’clock, now it was wait time that ticked. From one department to other, from looking at notice boards to pretending to be looking at them at times, I patiently waited, or convinced myself of being patient at the least.

I could not believe it first, a local PG college and I am waiting for a small meeting since almost 40 minutes now. All the flowery and boastful statement about the premier institutes and how we would be treated after our MBA fell flat on face that moment. I was like an ordinary salesman waiting for my turn to demonstrate my product and nobody would give a damn if I am from FMS or IIM or ISB. This was end of one emotion and inception of other. Words like special treatment, FMS, premier, best b-school, top-notch etc started fading away from my mind. Soon I found a different  platform to stand on for myself.

I was not an MBA student from one of the top-b schools here, I was a marketeer! I was already a marketeer!