On Ownership and Empowerment
We are the leaders. One of the American Presidents, Harry Truman, had an inscription on his desk, "The buck stops here". It was his way of conveying that he takes decisions and he owns it. There are many processes where the expertise completely resides with us. In others, we will build. So feel confident and take decisions.
On Career Management
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, my earlier company, quipped, “Take charge of your destiny or someone else will”. This is also the time when you should think and plan not only short-term but long-term as well. It reminds me of a very memorable Para from Lewis Carroll's, Alice's adventure in Wonderland, we would have all read. The conversation between Alice and Cheshire cat as follows:
`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
On Why it makes sense to stick to a company
While talking of compensation, I would like to share a very powerful concept which I picked up in my conversation with Anshu Jain, the concept of slope vs intercept. Remember the line equation,
y = mx + b (where m is the slope and b is the intercept).
When you leave an organization for money, you probably gain from a one-time bump on the intercept but pay for it by winding up on a shallower slope, which over time, provides a lower total output. Staying back with a stronger firm, like ours, keeps you on a steeper slope.
On Work-Life Balance
Yesterday night I was reading Kalpana Morparia’s interview in the latest issue (Nov 6) of Forbes India, where she comments on Work-Life Balance (WLB). She frequently gets asked, ‘How do you get your work-life equation right?’, to which she replies, ‘My work is my life, so where is the balance required’.
On Corporate Social Responsibility
We have become prisoners of our self-created comfort zones. So we need to open up, open up to the society we belong to, open up to the society which has given so much to us, open up to the society from where we draw all our resources. I hope we as a group can devote some time towards a noble cause. Can we as a team participate in at least two CSR activities in 2010?
On practicing to believe and think the Impossible
To make most of it, think BIG and think the impossible, sought of 'Re-Imagine' as Tom Peter says. If you cannot, then please reach out to Alice! I quoted earlier from, Alice in Wonderland, now, let me take you through another piece which I love, from Lewis Carroll's "Through the looking glass".
"There is no use trying, " said Alice. " One can't believe in impossible things."
"I dare say you haven't had much of practice," said the Queen. "When I was of your age, I always did it for half an hour every day. Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
If Alice can do it, can't we?
Continuing on the above...On the power of belief and how to begin the change
We have squared off the positions and start afresh. I think some of you tried chasing money.....why don't you think of turning the table....why don't you exponentially up your performance where 'money starts chasing you! This is an era of 'hyper-competition and 'exponential' growth...so your performance also has to take an 'exponential' leap. Why don't you make a beginning in 2010! Each one of you has it in you....you have to believe it ...if you don't ...then you are not practicing to believe the impossible! You think this is cliche, then let me take you to the 'Master' - Yoda, the Jedi Master of the Star War series...Here goes the conversation...
Luke: “I can't believe it”
Yoda: “That's why you fail”
So where do you make a start...well again the 'Master' guides us. In " The Empire Strikes Back", probably the best in the Star War trilogy, where Luke really struggles hard and Yoda offers his words of wisdom.
"Unlearn what you have learned"
