A-Satyam

"asatyam"...how true now in this time when we all know about Mr. Raju from Satyam.
But as Indians should we be surprised or ashamed? To me none...we are gone past that phase I guess. We are used to the scams...mega scams keep happening in this country at a consistent rate.. its just like those bomb blasts..yet another one.

I am surprised by the amount of anger or disgust shown by our community towards this act of Mr. Raju..I still refer to him as Mr. Raju..because maybe 5 years from now he might be contesting Lok sabha elections!

My surprise is partly because of the history of similar scams, well u might consider me as nay-sayer, but I am saying that don't we all know that like most of our political leaders..out business leaders are also corrupt? Don't we all know that do business in this country, whether with government or with private player, overt & covert corruption exists. (if you are still in denial..please watch..films like Fashion & Corporate)

Then why are we surprised? Or is the surprise because this scam happened in the unlikely quarters of the "Rising" or "messiah" industry of IT-ITES? We thought that just because one "Infosys" does or claims to do business in ethical manner all players in the industry would follow suite? BTW. How many of us are aware that Infosys refused to recruit any Satyam employee after this episode? Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water?

Some of us who have studied management would know that the primary purpose of an organization is to generate return to its stakeholders, which means creating higher rate of return than the best possible return in other investment instruments. If this premise is valid then the organization is not a social exercise but very specifically run to make those at helm richer!

I am studying the evolution of organizations and documented evidence of this evolution and very similar to our mental and physical growth..the organization goes through similar dilemmas. These are very clearly related to the life stages. If you also evaluate what happened at Satyam is clearly a question of greed. How many of us in our personal capacity been done by greed many times? Its not correct to single out mr. Raju in this case as the entire eco-system of the organization was definitely in connivance with his ideas.

The lessons from this episode for me as an entrepreneur and HR person are:

• Integrity is King
• Your business friends are actually only friends of your business
• If you screw up, own up early
• If you lie big time, be prepared to lie low for a long time (unless you are in politics)

End of part of a dream

one fine day i finally mustered the courage to venture out in the open and check what do I stand for...well..almost..as u would have it the time that I chose to do it was not the best time..but then someone told me there never is a best time...and having lived so far in this stage and state i agree...many told me you were not ready....i didnt know myself...the only way for me to know was to offer myself and check if I was ready or not...some told me the choices in terms of partners may not work out....some of them were right...some were not so right.

Going against the traditional thought processes has its own rewards and injuries. As I come to the closure of this maiden venture as an independent consultant...word independent had so much meaning....i reflect on this time as the most memorable time in my professional life.

I do remember my own question during my SIBM days..i didnt quite understand that question at that point of time though I asked it to a guest speaker....but now it becomes more clear...its about going through your own experience and not so much about learning from others mistakes.

There were lot of doubts..mainly self-doubts..challenges..imaginary...real..yet the strong will that I could surmount them all and come out a winner..did I? If I reflect back then the answer is yes and no...yes because its like u start climbing a mountain..and reach upto a cetain point to return some other day due to bad weather...no because I could have gone higher in the time that I spent!!

But return I shall....I will...this mountain has the same charisma that Mount Everest has for any avid treker... and for any person who loves the world "independence" this mountain of entreprenuership would keep calling back....I hope that I would be able to scale it in less than 7 attempts!!!. This number 7 is omnipresent...james bond uses it....even in a research on indian entrepreuners it was found that the real success comes to them in the 7th year of the venture!!!

so though the part of the dream has finished the dream would continue to live and grow inside me. The next frontier am sure would offer lots of learning and prepration for the next trip on this mountain!

Its called "down-time" yet you are preparing for the next big assault!! Waiting! Watching!!

New Year 2008

This new year has come for me with a lot of hope. I have been trying or rather dreaming for a life which this new year I would be finally be able to live!!
A life where you are a creator, wanderer, explorer and nurturer. I wish i had started on this journey earlier but am glad that have already done so.
this new year brings with it its promises and hope but more importantly this new year has given me this new found resolve to do it!!! To go ahead and grab it!! dream and achieve all that is there to be achieved!!!
there is no room now for complacency, hiding behind failures but its now my time to take charge and announce my arrival on this world platform!!!