Sack the CEO

A book review

Sack The CEO is a satirical book written by Jeetendra Jain. The book revolves around main characters of Smallfry, Fastrack and Takeiteasy who are co-workers in a multinational called Twist in the tail Limited! The company, justifying its name completely, offers them bucketful of surprises and shock every now and then.

The trio tries to fight their way out of corrupt environment that prevails in the (mis)leadership of Topgun, CEO of the company. In the process of fighting corruption Smallfry identifies several different patterns of behaviour of corrupt CEOs. Smallfry, elated with this discovery plans to put this on paper and he begins to write a book on these corrupt CEOs and the techniques to get them out of the organization!

The book is divided in three parts of which two are the parts of Smallfry’s book describing the corrupt CEOs as various malignant diseases and giving the doctrines for kicking them out. All the characters in the book are very vividly portrayed by the author. Author successfully generates humor from the art of giving very suggestive names to each of its characters! For example the secretary of Topgun is Miss Alarm Belle. The poor accountant who is always being transferred just because he does not fudge the figures is Onewayticket! Even the names of main characters (Smallfry, Fastrack and Takeiteasy) are chosen with dexterity.

The book presents the corruption prevailing in corporate world, the experience of author of having worked with various companies helps him lot in knitting the plots of stories. It is a strong satire on the red-tapism and corruption of Indian corporates. The story is so well-packaged that the reader can have the taste of both a fictional novel as well as of a reflection of REAL world. Never in his writing the author gets cynical, on the contrary the humor of the book has made it a humble description. Some of the dialogues are comic yet most philosophical, For example; when Takeiteasy tells Smallfry “ I have told you so many times that a company is vague and abstract concept, there is no such entity as a company; It is them.” The friendship between the three lead characters also forms an emotional bond in the mind of the reader. But above all it is the humor that Jeetendra Jain successfully brings out of situations that makes the book a good read.

The plot story and characters are such that we can relate ourselves with it. Who doesn’t feel the simple sooth of Smallfry and the dashing, vigorous and heroic machismo of Fastrack and lethargy and carelessness of Takeiteasy? It is our story in our style!

An enjoyable book which presents to you the corruption in comic way and in the end keeps a hopeful candle of honesty lit by showing a victory of the terrific trio over vicious corrupation.

The thing that is common in BEER and Education!!!!

Two years back there was a guest lecture by Dr. Tom, an international marketing expert, (an ex McKenzie employee) who worked for a famous beer manufacturing company. While mentioning about their operations in India he told that in India their biggest challenge was to ask people to drink but without getting drunk. Reflecting on this sentence one realizes that the challenge probably lies in customer education and in driving the customer demands properly. In short, in teaching the consumer what they should demand. Demand is inherently seen as a phenomenon largely decided and dominated by the consumers but here it seems that the product is such that consumers need to be taught as to how their demands should be.

In the same lecture we had also discussed that education sector in India is in abysmal state. Interestingly this follows a very close similarity with the problem in beer marketing discussed above. Not that as a product beer and education has any similarities, nor do students wish to have more and more of it!! (Education being no exception to the rule of Diminishing marginal utility for majority of the people!) Then what is the similarity? Smart readers will have definitely figured out, but let me help you in case you did not get it.

Education in our country is always considered as a mean to some attainments. For most of us the reason why we study something is attached to the fact that where would that education place us. (How much money is there in it?) This is a problem not only limited to the higher education, primary, secondary and higher secondary education’s situation is even worse. Parents while choosing school for their children look how much percentage the students of the particular school have got, while this is certainly something one should consider but there are lot many things that should be (must be) considered while selecting a school. Development of a child as a person being the most important of all is thoroughly neglected.

The problem does not stop here, it begins from here. Parents and students do not know exactly what should their demands be. A student can, no doubt, demand best pedagogic techniques however that may not at all correspond with his best result. Since there is ignorance among the consumers regarding their demands, they are buying everything and anything that is offered. Starting from K.G. Nursery or pre-schools which claim to turn one’s child into MSD or Sachin or Shahrukh (or Amir) or Sania Mirza to bogus personality development institute or training institute which offer 100% placement guarantee with a small, almost invisible asterisk of course!

All this needs to be thrown away! These businesses are perhaps good for making money right now but I am sure, as the market will become mature and more and more educated, learned as to what to demand; only those institutes will survive which offer actual benefits and not illusory promises.

It is a task ahead of us to come up with ways with which we can train customers so that they demand what they rightly need. Research in the area of teaching consumers may prove very useful in time to come.

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FOR what he is, and What he is not....

Conscience aches when one says, “I will”,

-Takes a stand, that one knows, is difficult to keep,

and one can’t.

Conscience aches, when one sees around

Just to find people flaunting away happily,

The rules that are to be followed with rigour.

Conscience aches when one speaks,

Unheard always……and hears all that

Oppose all that is taught to be true and good.

Conscience aches when one doubts,

The god whom one loves so dearly.

In a quandary, whether to curse or to laud, the god,

For what he is and what he is not.

SMSes of a SalesMan

“Call him now, how can’t the bloody connection work?” Came the roar from one of my roommates. He was a software engineer, usually a calm and composed fellow, but it is strange how being disconnected from internet for a few minutes can impact human beings these days!!!!

His anger was visible, even when he spoke with the agent from the service provider. The agent came at our flat at 10:30 PM. All of us, frustrated by loss of our net connection, shouted on him at once. Then began the long list of complaints that the speed is too slow, multiple connections are not working properly, router is not functioning well etc.

While we were venting our anger, he was quietly trying to assess the problem. The computer engineer friend told him that this was an error in technical part and that he (a salesman) was quite incapable of solving it. “You better send one of your technical support staff people, rather than you running around each time.” He was very rude, however all thought that such a treatment to the person, at 10:30 in night after a whole day’s work was acceptable, justified, natural and right!!!

At times our sense of right and wrong change at such rapid pace!!!!

The scene continued for a little while and that fellow was further humiliated by us.

Then, he asked me to note down one of the numbers of the technical support staff from his cell phone. “It must be in one of the messages, please note it down while I will give it a last chance.”

Meanwhile it dawned to us (so late) that we had not even offered water to the man, in such bad summer at so lat an hour. This fault was quickly corrected and chilled water was offered to him.

While searching for the number, I had to go through some of the SMSes in his phone. One that caught my eye first was this

“Finish the target today otherwise forget about the leave you applied for”

After some messages, another caught my eye,

“Do I need to remind you how slow we have been, come on, be fast or else everyone’s payment for the week will be stopped from above.” The tone of the message was threatening.

Fortunately I soon got the number I was looking for, then I put his phone down. Our problem could not be solved and he left our flat at around midnight.

But his exit left me with another problem, why do we see some tasks as inherently shameful, shabby, stigmatic and inferior than others.

To be honest, I perhaps do not have the courage to keep working under such threatening communications from the superior and such disrespectful treatments from customers, even out of sheer helplessness.

Are not all jobs same and all men equal?

Painter of signs - R.K. Narayan

Once a critic had commented “R.K. makes you feel, through his writings, what it is to be an Indian.” With lot of books springing from the soil of Malgudi, “The painter of Signs” is yet another book in which the author, in subtle, comic and poetic way, captures the picture of the Indian society and its interaction with social and global challenges and changes.

Raman is portrayed as a self-satisfied man in the beginning of the book who is happy living in his small, closed world. His life takes a huge toll when it intersects with Daisy’s completely different, outgoing world! Daisy is portrayed as young, bold, beautiful, passionate and hardworking woman, committed to the mission of controlling India’s unbridled population explosion.

To me the characters of Raman and Daisy, who eventually fall in love with each other and decide to get married, are suggestive of two different types of people existing in our society. With vivid description of central characters the author successfully transcends the message of present day social challenges and issues.

The best component or characteristic of R.K.Narayan’s writings is that he makes serious comments in comic manner! This serio-comic style makes reading of his books a hilarious experience! The characters like stern and superstitious lawyer, the lecher bangle-seller, ever irritating Gupta, mystic saint, cow like school teacher keep reader amused throughout the book.

R.K. Narayan is a kind of author who gives space to almost every flavor of thought prevalent in Indian society. The character of aunt represents the integral part of our society, family life.

Her character commands special mention as, though she is always shunned and overpowered by Raman, she is the one whom Raman badly craves for in the end of the story. Her selflessness in treating Raman is very touchy, even she has a story but that is hardly paid any attention…..her character brings somewhat poignancy to the plot of the story.

Daisy after being very close to Raman, leaves him. He feels she deserted him, she is concerned about the cause. The one who provides some stability to the story and also to the reader, aunt, has gone to pilgrimage!

Readers are as shaken as Raman might have been!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is our life worse than the life in our Dad's generation???

Quality of life does not depend on how much you can eat but on how much you can digest. And however comic it may sound, I mean it literally. Here are some of the reasons why I believe my life is not better than generation dad and generation grand dad. My dad use to cycle a distance of 18 kilometers everyday till he purchased his first vehicle at the age of 28. The idea of just commuting for 18 kilometers even on a bike makes me feel tired. I agree that the life expectancy and average life have gone up but the reasons behind this success remain largely medical advancements and not the growth of our health.

Taking a metaphorical meaning of digestion, I’d like to tell that the education has taken a very different role in our life; the motive of cognitive growth has given a way to narrow goals of using education just as a means to some ends. The problem arising out of this is summed up beautifully by T.S. Elliot when he says,

Where is the life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom, we have lost in knowledge;

Where is the knowledge- we have lost in information?

Another crucial thing that we have not been able to carry from our past generations is the simplicity in outlook of the life. There were far bigger problems than financial recessions to terrorism, - some people of generation grand dad came to India from Pakistan while trains were being burnt, they left everything they had, and yet started a new life as if nothing bad had ever happened. Then came generation dad, they too had their share of troubles starting from a sluggish economy to wars, and emergency of course. They were the people who restored and protected the democracy of our country in most critical times. They did all this without uttering a word. They could do this perhaps because they did not know the words like frustration, depression and that we know. They did this because they do not blow their problems out of proportion as we do.

Another reason why we have lost the simplicity is that we have become too obsessed with the narrow idea of success, there are so many among us who are caught in this vicious circle of illusory success. The means like money, machines and other life comforting instruments have become ends of our lives. The idea of simple living and high thinking is being forgotten fast. Repercussions of this are seen in growing number of students committing suicides each year.

It is easy to pass the buck of responsibility to the previous generations but let us take it, that ---

The time is out of joint, oh cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right.

I am sure that by moving closer to the roots we will surely set it right.

There is something more to life than, water bottles!!!!!

48 degree temperature, 2’o clock in the afternoon, the sun is scorching, blazing and the heat is anything but bearable.

There is a tall multi-storey building being built at one of the prime locations of Ahmedabad. In that locality there is an office where a friend goes to work.

On one afternoon when he was going to the office, he saw a boy. The boy was barely 6 to 7 years old. The boy was carrying water for her mother who was working as a labour in the building that was being constructed.

My friend thought that it was too much of a load for the kid to carry two big water bottles at a time, hence he tried to help him saying “let me take one for you” the boy started crying. It was only later that my friend realized that the boy was crying because usually people used to snatch away the water bottles brought by the kid.

He further noticed that people even did not allow that boy to use a lift. So much courteous behaviour towards a kid in a compound of such corporate area!!!!

He could not stand this; he took the boy assuring him that he would safely take him up to his mom. He went into the lift. Some people scorned at him for bringing in a dirty looking kid in their neat lift. Nobody spoke anything though, while getting out, my friend broke the silence “he should know that there is something more to life than just saving one’s water bottles from goons”!!!

[1] Based on a true story, shared by a friend working as a tax consultant at big firm

TOGETHERNESS

Togetherness

Alone I can't change the world
Alone I can't find my way
Alone I can't be remembered
Alone I can't build an empire
Alone I can't be admired
Alone I can't end hunger
Alone I can't be the best man I can be
But together we can.

-Kholekile Monakal

The present article borrows the last words of the poem, “together we can”; and explores the importance of togetherness in the various events and learning of our lives. We would also try and isolate a few important things that may help us fare well when we work together.

Presentations! This exercise of our college is the best way to learn the importance of togetherness. Some of the readers already know that, while what you do individually is important but it is also important that the whole group works well. Often it seems difficult to find right coordination in the beginning when so many strangers are put to work on a common goal. Gradually as the time passes those strangers become friends and that is the time when the goal of the exercise is nearly served! Someone does the editing of all the slides, some searches for matter, some formats the slides, some arranges for speakers, some keeps the time of the whole presentation and some tries to think of intelligent answers to possible questions, when all the things work in this synchronized manner the learning and the quality of the presentations are at their sublime. (Best)

Working together would be perhaps all the more important when we finish our education and enter a job or business or any other work for that matter. The very basis of modern day business lies in the division of labour. And ability to work in a team comprising different people is a precondition to the successful division of labour.

Tempted to take the idea of “togetherness” a step higher, I would like to ask you a question. Do you think that any large scale movement, such as our freedom struggle or end of Apartheid or movements to reduce carbon footprints can ever be a success if millions of people were not to be together?

Same way the problems of the present time like terrorism, global warming, economic recession and dire disparity in distribution of resources will also not end unless we all come together to address them.

In all of the above examples the common thing is that people have united or will hopefully unite to achieve an objective. Unity may not always be easy to attain, but I am sure that effort to attain some of the following things will help us stay together on many important missions in time to come.

o Courage and compassion to support others

o Ability to sacrifice personal interest toward the general interest

o Understanding of the bigger picture

o Tolerance towards different opinions

o Commitment to the objective

Just as there are many problems in the world, there are many possible solutions as well. However in all those possible solutions we need to put the integrated effort. Clearly, in future the ability to work together will determine the quality of our lives. I am committed take the quality of our lives on a higher plain. Are you?

And you thought it affects my life????

• · We think that losing one’s sight and hearing capacity makes one vulnerable but Helen Keller shows it is not like that.
• · We think that having pancreatic cancer was the worst blow of destiny to a man, but Steve Jobs shows it is not like that.
• · We think that it is that an athlete, who comes back after cancer, cannot perhaps play his sport anymore, well Lance Armstrong shows it is not like that.
• · Losing everything in a natural disaster means we have been hit hardest by god, but so many survivors of such brutal blows show us that it is not like that.
• · We thought that being removed disgracefully from captaincy and thrown out of team with reprimand meant an end of a sportsman’s career, but Sourav Ganguly shows us it is not like that.

So many examples are around us. It is easy to neglect them labelling them as an outlier case. What is difficult yet important for us to learn is that in all these conditions individuals faced situations which seemed, as bad as- if not worse than- death. Yet they continued, went on with force, fun and faith.

In the end, what seemed insurmountable once was only a small halt in a great journey.

Most of our problems that we face, do not really affect our life as significantly as we think they do. Think about it, believe it.

Foreign language Teacher

He was a passionate teacher; this could be proven from the fact that even though he was appointed on just temporary basis he used to stay back in the library to help children in their learning. He taught French to the students who were primarily supposed to learn law. To these legal eagles, this subject was merely peripheral.

At best students were insouciant to learning French and at worst; they were unwilling, at times even ridiculing him for his efforts. Yet he kept going on in his efforts to teach him this language he so much loved.

One day a little more sensitive student came to him and told, “Sir, your efforts are good but you know, this class is not made up of students willing to learn this language.” He paused to judge his reaction but got none, he continued “we just want to pass this subject and move on, as it is in a three months course one can’t learn a foreign language.” He paused again, and then continued, “I hope you understand that sir”.

“I am happy that you care for me kid,” He replied with a smile. “But let me assure you son, I know it from the day we began classes, I also know that you people know that I cannot fail you in this paper. However I appreciate your kindness, for reminding me not to expect anything but ignorance from this class. Thanks”

Their conversation ended there, both went on their own ways. It seemed that the student was feeling some sort of discomfort as he saw that the class was not even respecting the efforts that the foreign language teacher was putting in. He respected him, and wanted to express it in the behaviour towards him too, but was not being able to do so. Maybe because he was not courageous enough to stand out as odd in class.

Throughout the whole course he continued to feel that discomfort, part of that perhaps stem from the fact that his father was also a teacher, teaching a foreign language to students in some other town.

The course ended, even the year ended, but the boy could never convey the gratitude and respect, he had for that teacher. Neither did the teacher think it fit to revert to that one odd kid.

I at times wonder how inflexible and cruel can our systems be to the sensitivities of human emotions???

Pillars of professionalism

Power, position, pay package, profitability and of course profile………….

“You are what you do” is a famous statement in most widely (wrongly) quoted book, “the art of war”. I have heard this statement mostly from professors teaching competition and marketing strategies. Certainly B-Schools have their environment which compels you to believe and think only on the lines of position, profile, authority, business sense, profitability, pay package, brand name and of course power.

The question we often forget to ask all the while we are in school is that all there is to one’s existence?

Is there no other dimension to our identity? Why we always tend to classify everyone on only these lines, which we are taught to be the pillars of professionalism.

Even these pillars are very tenuous; they exclude some of the very basic and essential characteristics.

This process of commoditizing individuals, in certain set of characteristics, categories and classes is very dangerous. It prevents us from looking at those things which are beyond MBA. Things like basic goodness, honesty, ability to sacrifice, courage to blow a whistle etc.

There are so many day to day instances where we need not be super humans, but only simple individuals, but alas, simplicity is being fast rubbed off from our minds and hearts…..!!!

Turgid Truth

"The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another... some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice."

Adam Smith
"Turgid Truth", Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759

An afterthought on relationships...... some time back this was a note in my diary, I indeed was not wrong!!

On my recent trip I met a lot of my friends telling me that they were now “committed”. This made me feel odd at first. “I always thought you were focused more on career” was the reaction from me when one of my friends came to meet me with his (girl) friend. He gave me a stern look for this one!

Honestly speaking I was wonderstruck to find some of my friends all of a sudden declaring so big news that too with such high speed! At the same time I also felt a little ashamed at being agonizingly slow in that race to relationships!!!!

On my bus trip to my hometown Bhavnagar, from Ahmedabad, I brooded over this issue a little, just to ensure if I was the only one to be the last among all the runners. To my distress, I was certainly alone. Not only was I alone, people whom I wrote off as dumb and un-cool, also were ahead of me!!!! I felt a jolt. Little while later, a thought dawned onto me.

Why not being in a relationship is taken to be as a stigmatic or shameful thing? Like many other things, relationships are also possessions. Some have it, some may not have it. I felt the whole issue of being committed is slightly overrated.

While I agree that finding a match for oneself is certainly a sign of social guts and that an achievement of it is certainly something one would like to share with/ express to the entire world. However I believe that such a communication should never be a driving force of any relationship.

If it is, than that relationship is nothing more than a marketing gimmick, of a very cheap kind!!!!