Wit Wisdom and Whoop

Yesterday someone shared a note from one who had retired talking of leadership. Largely by default and sometimes by design I have found myself in leadership positions all my life and felt inspired to share my thoughts. I have learnt from many and that is a blog which is work in progress but delayed due to ethical dilemmas of what I can share or not share. But with due credit to every one of the bosses in my life - and barring for some unpleasant episodes - I can claim to have worked for some of best bosses that anybody could have worked with, unlike the popular opinion on bosses. So, here’s my  thoughts on leadership, not in any particular order. Leadership is situational and not a title or position. We often forget this in the cloud of our ego. If you are the head of a huge organisation and have a security detail or caught in a fire, you will obey the instructions of the guard or fireman even if you think he is way down the food chain and you are the top boss. HE/SHE is the leade...

From 1947 to 1991 Nehruvian socialism brought us to bankruptcy but also created #ISRO #NuclearTech   #ArmedForces   #FoodSecurity etc which are proud jewels in our crown. There are many more jewels we can be rightly proud of like the dams we built, the irrigation projects, the railway network and bridges, the power plants, eradication of polio, sustaining democracy and keeping it vibrant etc. Those who look at the glass as half empty can go complain elsewhere. We can passionately criticise every PM we have had but based on their tenure, opportunity they had some have kept the ship steady while others have disrupted it – by choice or otherwise. The disruption of 1991 was hated by so many including top notch industrialists, economists, politicians, officers, etc that it caused huge fear amongst the senior populace - including myself even though then a youngster - but the audacity of the young made them excited at the unknown. They embraced it & today in 27 yrs we...

I have been seeing the RuPay logo for sometime in various locations, knew that it was some new credit/ debit card but honestly had never given a thought to it. It didn’t matter, it didn’t interest me, it didn’t affect me – so I never educated myself about it. I then saw this news item. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/mastercard-lodged-us-protest-over-narendra-modis-promotion-of-indian-card-network-rupay/articleshow/66466794.cms It prompted me to read some more and here are a few snippets for further reading. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/rupay-set-to-emerge-no-2-card-in-volume-and-value-of-deals/articleshow/63964841.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/governments-rupay-making-solid-gains-in-payments-space/articleshow/64183714.cms https://www.ibtimes.co.in/mastercard-visa-want-level-playing-field-rupay-pms-jan-dhan-yojana-659723 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/busin...

A disclaimer to begin with is that whatever analogies given below are meant to effectively convey a point and have no negative or insulting or other undertones. Talking of the Indian economy and its underbelly I had written two blogs that can offer a foundation to my thoughts and the links are given below. http://rvasisht.blogspot.in/2014/11/congress-and-nehru-legacy.html http://rvasisht.blogspot.in/2014/12/crony-capitalism-indian-style.html It is often said that you must never wrestle with a pig.  It is you who gets dirty and the pig enjoys it.  Likewise here the government, the systems, the existing order, the polity, the administration, the establishment as it is called is to me the pig. We the citizens grapple with it and they enjoy it, we get dirty. Soon status quo is established and we citizens adjust to the new normal – being dirty, hungry, deprived, handcuffed is perfectly OK. We don’t think that anything otherwise is better. Our status quo turns into i...

An early lesson I learnt when dealing with customers was that invariably there is a Stated reason and there is a Real reason. Not always easy to even know such a situation exists and very difficult to know the real reason.  Over time I have realised that this behaviour extends to even strategic decisions of companies, decisions by politicians and sometimes even within family and friends. My most interesting lesson in this was in dealing with a giant multi billion dollar corporate where they needed an electronic consumer product “reworked”. The estimated size of the deal was hardly Rs 2 Million but someone two heartbeats away from the Chairman was talking to me and putting pressure to close the deal. Sensing that there was something I didn’t know – the Real reason - I doubled our price estimate, he agreed without batting an eyelid. I then said extras not included and he further increased price by about 15% and I had no choice but to agree. We did the work, didn’t lose money and ...