Life Never Better

To think after my last 'crib' post that I would think anything like this..........no, my performance results are not yet decided since like a government office, it's lying on the table of the top most person who has to pass it.....but is he waiting for an 'under table transaction"? Well, I'm not going to bribe him. But yes, it takes as much time or maybe even more!! My dad always said that your organization (before merger) is a shame to the private sector since it functions like a public sector. Even in my dad's organization (its central government) a performance appraisal process is completed within a month after all the paperwork and discussions are done. But then, let's not move away from the focus of my inspiration to work!!
Well I'm very happy today because I managed to get up early and I'm extremely fresh at work. Things are much clearer, I started early and things look more hopeful even though they are big road blocks. This is what should be happening everyday, but late night calls and other stuff take toll on my early rising. I've always been an early riser (I'm happy my parents put me into this habit) for 2 reasons - generally temples in Kerala open by 4 AM and while in hostel, its easier to concentrate in the morning when rest of the crowd is sleeping rather than at night when everyone are at peak activity hours. My temper is definitely more under my control today and frustrations need to try harder to upset me. I also did not get upset when I got a call from my client on a bug and I'm patiently trying to fix it!! Also there is a lot of work left on multiple projects and if I can make it early in the morning tomorrow also, it'll be just great.
A saying which made my day today:

"The quality of leadership is reflected in the caliber of people following you".

Just love the depth in it!!

Patience wearing out

I've been analyzing the major hassles I've been seeing in my organization - both from individual and team perspective. Major root cause as what I've seen is that lower upper management is badly organized with individuals who look for their gain but try to impress that they are wearing the cloak of the organization. This means that favoritism, lack of judgment (short term vs. long term), internal feuds and ignorance of employees form the backbone of the decision-making structure. While they portray and talk of bottom-line/top-line margins, in reality they are calculating their bonuses and profits at the cost of employees. Hollow speeches and material self gains are the sole intentions at most times. Why else would a person responsible for increase in sales push employees at client locations to get in more business forcefully by making it a huge part of the employee's performance evaluation and have nothing for their individual growth? Logically, why is an employee's bother (other than his main work) to help a sales guy with his job for no rhyme or reason? Why would the processing of a person's performance evaluation after being approved by his manager and group manager still not be complete? Just cause the domain head has to prove a point? Why would an organization fight for an ODC in Mumbai or Bangalore and be resolved (or move closer to resolution) when the client steps in? And why would an organization have a favoritism towards the HQ location and neglect other centers? In all this what is talking about share holders’ wealth creation? Attrition rates? Petty fights? Showing lack of decision making ability and disjoint ness of the organization to the client?
One of the foremost qualities for being a manager is understand the difference. What difference? The fact that individuality is sacrificed for the team and your influence on the team is responsible for the outcome of the tasks. If individuality is high priority over team, then you are not ready to be a manager. Clearly competencies for individual success is a whole different set compared to the competencies of being a manager. So, why are people in the lower upper management in their current position? Just because they had individual success and spent a lot of time in the organization? But then, if we kept in mind the goal of the organization (general goal definition), aren't we losing out on 2 terms - first the fact that individual gains they could have delivered is lost and secondly they have become a huge cause of friction in the daily running of the organization? Well, for all this gyan, let me add one thing - offers are tempting and current add-ons are repulsive. Why am I still here? The reason is I like doing what I'm doing and my hope is fueled by one source. Hopefully, I might not reach a situation where temptation exceeds hope and I have to decide. Still not ready to be a manger you think?? Well atleast I'm not disrespecting someone elses contribution!!

Bad day at work

After spending a lot of time yesterday with work and sleeping very little, I come to work early to find that the off-site team is upset. Well, faults on both sides - my side is the fact that I've not been intuitive enough to implement what the off-site team had sent and am still unable to complete things successfully and off-site's is that the release came unexpected even when they knew that implementation for a person (technically on the lower side) who is setting up an environment on-site similar to off-site (where the application works) without documentation or exposure to off-site environment is a difficult task. My apologies, but their mood has certainly put me off. Mainly because of the fact that I was interacting everyday with the team off-site and also knowing the people well. For thinking about growing the team, seems that co-ordination with the core members are neglected. Hugely disappointed and have to find a way to come back. As for the day today, hardly expect to accomplish anything noticeable.

Thoughts during the merger

For 2 years during my MBA I was confronted with change management. Payal and me have always had discussions over change management and most case-studies had always an aspect of change management. I always planned for a lot of scenarios for change management, but then one aspect they forgot to highlight was the psycological state. My company (Tata Infotech or TIL) has merged with TCS and this happened on a Friday evening (after Indian working hours). This was an event that occured atleast 3 months early for me though pretty much on the cards. But then this unexpected event has blanked out my mind. It only has questions of uncertainity - what happens to my project? What is my base location? What is my position with respect to immigration in the US? How will I be treated? Being part of such a vast ocean, will my career ambitions have to be thrown out? Will I be layed off? Do I need to quit and join another organization to achieve what hopes I ahd from my previous company? And so on....................
I joined TIL from engineering, left it to do my MBA and rejoined as soon as I had the opportunity. A set of people and working culture definitely unique to itself. It also gave a lot of freedom to individuals. I'm sure lot of talent stayed back in TIL (inspite of the low pay) because they were in love with the organization and now they might go looking for something they want. I'm glad atleast I was there when the entity TIL diminished in the horizon to join TCS while at her peak with her head held high.
I'm not against the merger, since business-wise, organization-wise, employee-wise and other-wise it is definitely good. Its just that it was so unexpected and that no one even communicated anything to take care of the employee psyche other than a generic letter from the chairman.
Arun, Jayesh, 25% of NIE Mechanical junta of 1999 and Ramadorai - here I come to be a part of your organization and I sure am looking forward to a positive and growth oriented stint with you guys both for the organization and myself.
Tata Infotech - I shall miss you in everyway.

Fun @ work

This was a term coined by Payal while she was a part of the branding exercise of HR at Tata Elxsi during her summer internship. The HR prooudly hosted this section for about a couple of years. She is always the creative half of 'Harpal' while I generally tend to be the logical half - similar to the left brain-right brain concept. The best part of course is that I do not need to be any different since she makes up for my weakness and in her case, I would like to assume the same. She is the one who actually opened my eyes into the concept of enjoyment at the work place. I wouldn't call myself a workoholic though I would go to any lengths to ensure that the task given to me is completed. And I've never been an epitome of concentration more than a few hours. I generally like to take a walk around and see what everyone else is doing while all my problems are processed in the background (I would like to think this is true). And most of the time this break usually helps achieve my objective. I do believe in fun at the work place and I generally disturb others (generally everyone is kind enough not to shout at me and when they want to be rude, they just ignore me) to ensure that they too take a few seconds off work and learn to relax. When I get a team, I shall sure ensure that everyone has their share of fun. Of course the fun does not exactly mean party, but a totally silent atmosphere gives me the creeps. Also this means that you are enjoying the work. And when this happens that means that the job is good.
Anyways, Payal would also tell me that bragging is another habit I have and I generally prove it. But then is putting down my thoughts bragging?? Well I guess sometimes it is, but I would like to see it in another way.

Indian Software Developer

I couldn't resist posting this cartoon that came in my mail. For those who have trouble understanding hindi (not than mine is but I'll try to translate as accurately as possible), here goes:
Project as big as a sea,
Effort as big as a river,
Estimate as big as a bucket,
Salary as big as a small box,
Increment as big as a droplet!!

What good ever happens?? - Achievement!!

Vivek Paul istyle.........

For most people, he is or rather was the man running the wheels of WIPRO. And for many unknown (including my close ones), he was my idol. I've been tracking his stories, his events and news since the end of 2000, when I was getting ready to join B-school. The reason behind that was the most unthinkable - I was always under the impression that he was a mallu who had made it big in the IT sector or more than that the IT management field. Anyways it’s besides the fact that I never found out if he was a mallu. I've always been a fan of strategic management and believed that operations are the key to success of any project (right from shopping for grocery to running a firm). And as I had this argument with Payal, I realized that CEO is not a role I can relate to even though I've always had pride in the fact that my college always made me the CEO to represent at the AIMA Strategic management games. As I look back I realized that even there I was more closely taking over the operations than looking at the whole picture. I'm good in finance and I can handle marketing, but then my strengths never had the ability to excel in both. Even whatever selling I've done have always been based on what can be done not 'selling' in the true sense. Only I can dream of a convincing act of selling a product based on facts!!! So I realize that my ultimate goal will be a COO rather than a CEO as I had always dreamed and still V Paul path is the one I need to tread.
This article is a real eye-opener. I particularly like this part from it -

As Paul says in his interview, Indian managers are "in a cocoon" and don't really understand what it takes to succeed. "In the real world, there is no cocoon."

How very true!!! And mind you change is always top driven!! Here it is a reference to the top management. Sometimes the top management is so content in being "snug'n'fit" in the position they are in that they forget the rest of the team. They are always so number conscious, that they always dream about getting the numbers. Mind you that their dream is single-tracked like a horse, never move out of the track. I'm no expert on operations, but I very well understand the concept of a team. I know that loyalty is something that can get wonders and to get people to be loyal is definitely a good investment. Why would I say this? Because I got a team of three total strangers who were new to technology to deliver on time while I worked only on one thing, getting them to gel-in well together and sat through their pain points during development and assisted them. And now 2 of them are moving from the question mark on BCG towards the star quarter. I'm really proud of them. So getting back to top management, strategy is something that is best understood and implemented when shared with others in the team, atleast the top guys on the team. The reason - for one the top guys in the team are generally more well connected to know the strengths and weakness of the team (more touch with reality) and secondly, they are the people who get into the dirt for implementing the strategy. One fact of V Paul which impressed me is -

Paul was, in many ways, an 'offline' manager. He did not sit with people as they worked. Neither did he follow traditional norms like experience when choosing someone for a job.

You need the right people on the team and being professional to pick guys who have the ability rather than those just experienced is a hidden secret. Anyways I can go on and on giving commentary on what I love.
One sad fact - I've never had the privilege of working with V Paul or being in Wipro. And moreover I believe that I'm in an organization that may go to dogs because of the likes of people higher ups. One truth before I end my blog - never move a sales guy into delivery and the reason - most sales people I believe are professional yet sensitive that hinders the professionalism that they carry over the egos. They are best left alone to work as one man team for targets