Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Deadly Racist Cycle

This blog entry just came out after listening to the new song of the movie “Singh is Kinng”…The lines were like “Ek colour ke 13 patte lekin sab mein bas ek king”

What is a Leader without his followers? What is a King without his pupils? What is a CAT 100% scorer without the other 1, 99,999 (Maybe more than that) people who couldn’t crack the same. Actually everyone is unique in this society but we all have a habit of demeaning the position of others; Talking about demeaning, I think of racism. It’s a very popular word among us Indians, according to us most of the people (outside the boundaries of our motherland) are totally racist, but it’s we who have perceptions about every culture in our multicultural society. Forget cultures think about colleges, courses, schools etc. How many times have we heard he is pass out of DPS, he must be good …no offence made to all DPSites but I find it funny because over the past 12 months in Global Business I learned not to have preconceived notions about any person in this multicultural society. I don’t know how being from a particular college or a course will mean I am worthless or worth my metal. Although this school of thought cannot be dismissed totally but it is flawed, It’s the newspapers which fuel the demand for MBA courses by posting only the Rs 1 Crore packages that are given to fresh graduates of a leading B School, but then why is everybody expected to earn that amount;

All the above random thoughts come to me over a piece of music which emphasizes the fact that u need to be a King in this society, Actually the thing is its not what u see yourself as, its how the society sees you as; So I try to make an image of mine in which I try to balance my own interests and also that of the societies, so there is confused positioning of my image. Actually at this point only branding can help for the unbranded people; so the best way is to join an IIM or an IIT so the image the society has of you changes and they have an aspirational value for you and they are willing to pay for you much more than what you are worth of. But joining such an institution may lead to increased expectations on your side and maybe having a higher view of yourself and hence demeaning other people leading to racism. So a prey of racism becomes a racist….

Monday, July 7, 2008

Actual Expected and What???

Branding, Quality, Methodologies, Process improvements Rebranding Total Quality Management, learn unlearn and relearn, Learning Curve, Productivity enhancement etc…

We as managers use rather abuse each and every term from the above list without fail, but yeah we do it in the Global context; But do these actually hold true or are they some words out of the fantasy land, Well I learned in my short stay in Delhi that Harry potter may exist but these concepts are more academic than in reality…………..

My recent experience with a leading bank (which has just spend some millions of Rupees on rebranding) is really worth mentioning.

I landed up one fine day to close my account in the bank at 12:20 pm. I could see four people seated in a 2000 square feet of area each wearing spectacles with lenses (two inches (radius)), but all these people never use there glasses and have a habit of surpassing the big obstacle in front of their eyes by turning their face 135 degree from the vertical axis. Also I read a board, which mentioned, “ We are a bank with a goal of providing continuous customer satisfaction through Total Quality management and process improvisation”

Time: 12:20 pm

12:20 is actually close to the 1:00 break and already the decreased productivity level was evident. They delayed me enough through their super vertical hierarchy to make the clock race another 180 degree and since now it was 12:50, they close for lunch. I on the contrary had very high hopes expecting them to come by 1:30; somehow managed to wait for 40 minutes; but then afternoon siestas are never less than an hour long (A corporate lesson for me). On continuous nagging and repeatedly insisting that I am an MBA( haha) I could get the work done with 75% more efficiency; I would have left much before but each passing moment you calculate the time you invested and the return you get so it gets even more difficult to leave without the completion of your work ( Indian attitude chal na 2 ghante wait kiya adha aur sahi)

Time: 3:00 pm

I could manage to get them and pass through their super vertical hierarchy only in another two hours, finally I got 3000 Rs from the bank and you know what I really felt I have earned my money again

SO I guess that is what Earn, Unearn and Reearn means…..