The Waterfall

For the first time in my life i was happy with politicians of my state because they announced holidays for 3 days which coupled with the weekend suddenly reminded us of 2009 which was full of extended weekends which allowed us to attend the wedding of our classmate and then we went to this tourist place called Suruli waterfalls and it was in this waterfalls where the first scenes of Raavan were shot ! My god it was breathtaking place. The climb up to the top of the hill scared me as it was a pure forest and it was steeping at about 80 degrees straight up. But we settled for a falls lower which was not at all crowded and was covered with boulders and the river water flowing. nothing but picturesque and we moved around till the source to enjoy it. The best part was travelling up and it was exhilarating because were we thought we would spend an hour being there we spent close to four hours and many of them on empty stomach. When we were crossing a lot of people influenced my thoughts and ideas which i could relate to HR and Visualize it, Some of them are


(i) When in trouble wait for help - When mostly we are in trouble we refuse to ask for help believing they may not help or they would rather ask more questions and compound the problems but the issue will be that when we itself have no ideas there is nothing wrong in waiting for help to arrive. This was an incident where i was caught confused between taking two paths and ultimately decided for others to come who already gone through it once and then i went via that path which could actually help me get out of that sticky situation.

(ii) Rush but don't hurry: We often realize that when the time is short we rush up things randomly but we ultimately do it in a bad way which would require further sweeping up from us. Most of the times we do not realize that there is more time than we think, if we sequentially follow an order of doing we would very well end up doing the work.

(iii) Do not attract distractions : in a forest its crucial to be silent and be focused on your goals unnecessary attention will create trouble which happened when Monkeys invaded our area and we were scrambling for place with them fearing them.

(iv) Showboating is necessary : It may not be wrong to showboat and take pictures when you have enjoyed something fully and the picture is worth cherishing for but a picture at every instant and every place might make you happy but could put off others similarly its best to celebrate an achievement and not any incident but do celebrate.


A lot more great things but mostly on which i have already written

Cheers

Arvind Srikantan

Extending HR

"Recently i had a strange encounter in the offices of one of India's leading ITES organization which baffled me. In the waiting lounge while reading the paper i noticed a north Indian woman barely about 25 or 26 with a toddler and she looked poised and focussed waiting for someone. When the HR executives of the organization came to meet her there was an obvious sense of fear when they were walking towards her and later listening to their dialogue i was able to configure out that her husband was working for the organization and was absconding she was not willing to move and was creating a scene which was making a huge blemish they were explaining that he was in another city and even made her converse with him through mobile but she was not buying any of it and stood firm demanding him to come to office or asking for his new address"


Well when these kind of awkward situations arise in an office its tough to ignore them and stop rumors. And here is where am wondering are fresh graduates trained to handle this kind of a crisis situation ? A hysterically possessed woman threatening and there is pile of work lying inside to be completed like recruitments to be done, shortlisting candidates is left, calls to business partners to be made, forms pending, mails stacking up.

And you have someone who is not ready to listen to you what do we do and am intrigued by the fact i could be in the position of HR folks in a year, The time has come with work from home and other ideas where the line between office and home is vanishing in Thin air which could leave people gasping for breath if they are not trained to handle these kind of scenarios.

Stressed out employees are a huge factor which could affect the organization many people believe if an employee is ready to work overtime or holidays it might be that he is committed to their work which could be very true but also there is a high chance that he is using office as a solace to escape from home where the situations are not good and thus it is essential to identify the stressed ones out and it is good if people are not workaholics then they are done with all the jobs and at the end they might be ready to move on.

Tiger Conservation

When the whole campaign of 1411 tigers and save the tigers was started i was very cynical towards it and I had blogged about it that there was nothing which i could do.

But thanks to my association with the Vasantha Youth Lodge of Theosophical society i had the privilege of watching a special screening of "Truth about Tigers" a movie by Shekar Dattatri the eminent wild life photographer which focussed on how important it is to conserve the tigers.

The essence of it we have to understand is that the Tigers have existed on Earth even before Humans came, if we believe the Evolutionary theory and its a shame that our national animal needs to depend on our intervention for its survival.

The fact remains that when we are bloating of being an emerging economic superpower it will be a huge vacuum if we become cynical and throw our hands saying we are hopeless in saving our national animal. The tiger has been pushed from the free roaming forests all out India to just 1% land and even here we humans still fight for space with the tigers which for a fact can live in any sort of forests. The current forest coverage is low but research experts its still enough for close 10,000 tigers to survive in the wild.

The truth which should astound environmental conservatives is that a healthy tiger population is a clear indication of a healthy vegetation this is because the tiger is the apex hunter and thus when there is healthy tiger population it shows that there are good herbivores and thus a good vegetation which will help in fighting global warming. With illegal demand of tiger products to China never seems to decrease every part of it is wanted including the Whiskers which are used for tooth ache.

The reality is that Tigers die when they do not have proper food, a tiger needs approximately a prey per week and thus for every 5o deers that are hunted we lose a tiger as it starves without food. We have celebrities going on dear hunting escapades and mostly even the courts let off people saying its only a dear and charges them a meager amount of fine but this compounds and has put this grave situation. We can replicate a good system which was used in the Bhadra forests of Karnataka where the government offered 1 million Indian rupees to any family which is ready to move out of the forest and thus the tiger count in that forest has remained steady unlike the famed forests of Sariska, Panna and Ranthambore where we have lost the tigers because of

(i) Faulty methods to count them
(ii) Poorly trained rangers
(iii) Denying gtruths given by experts
(iv) The greed of the poachers

The major activity which we as common people could do is press the issue a call to all lawyers please if you can take up cases of NGO's and fight as the ratio of poachers caught to sentenced for crimes is less than 5 % thanks to lack of good legal support. An urge to use recycled paper which will save forests and finally let us stop living in Ignorance that government will do anything we need another revival like project tiger or else we could better start looking for a new national animal


And please visit this link if you are interested about tiger conservation and feel something should be done for the national animal

"The Truth About Tigers"
Cheers

Arvind !!

"Redefining HR"

Any person should consider themselves lucky if they were able to attend the event on 11/06/10 organized by one of the legends of HR in Chennai Mr.GD Sharma. The chief guest of the day was Mr. HN Srinivas Senior Vice President (Human Resources) of Taj Hotels who spoke about the redefining parameters or changes in HR.

The key aspect he focussed on was that HR was not limited to the office space or office premises as it earlier was. He pointed out to the fact close to 60% of Employees in US software firms work from home, Thus the physical role of HR is decreasing and then he spoke about what can be done in this world where every one seems to be threatened by the offset of Gen Y who present a huge challenge as the Job Security factor for them rates very low in their needs list and recognition is the most desired one.

He spoke with certain instances of the bravery of the staff of Taj Mahal Hotel during the Cowardly Terrorist act of 26/11 and special was the story of a 23 year old executive named Mallika who was in charge of a event which consisted of Global CEO's of Unilever. This young lady took charge when she got a message from the security department about miscreants and locked the door for protection and took care of the whole event including risking her life to get a proper Wine glass for the guests and later arranging car at 3 am

He gave another instance of a young waiter in one of the restaurants who understood the plan of the terrorists and helped the guests escape by guiding them in an alternate pathway but ultimately sacrificed his life in saving theirs.

These instances were shown to say about the importance of company value which gets embedded in every employee and it is the base which should never be compromised on and also on which only further additions can be done.

The event was loaded with the facts on what TATA's did after 26/11

A small note of it from the Asian correspondent


The Taj Hotel in Mumbai is a Tata property and one notes that the property is largely restored. Lives too were shattered by Islamic terrorism. What did the Tata's do? I didn't hear about it until I came across the following forwarded account. (HT Raj Iyer)

The author is one Dileep Ranjekar. [I have a few comments in parenthesis.] (Pardon the horrid formatting. The interface makes it difficult to do much about it.)

October 10, 2009

Meeting with H N Srinivas - Senior Executive Vice President, Taj Group of Hotels




A. Terrorist entry



1. They entered from the Leopold Colaba hotel entrance and also from the northern entrance - spraying indiscriminate bullets on the Taj security personnel and guests in general.

2. Though Taj had a reasonable security - they were surely not equipped to deal with terrorists who were spraying 6 bullets per trigger.

3. The strategy of the terrorists was to throw chunks of RDX in an open area that will explode and burn - creating chaos so that the guests and staff run helter skelter so that the terrorists could kill them. The idea was to create maximum casualties.

4. There were several critical gatherings and functions happening in the hotel on that day - a Bohra wedding, global meet of Unilever CEOs and Board members and 2 other corporate meetings were being held in the hotel - besides the usual crowd.

5. The firing and chaos began at about 8.30 p.m. and the staff including employees on casual and contract basis displayed exemplary presence of mind, courage and sacrifice to protect the guests who were in various halls and conference rooms.

B. Stories of Staff Heroics
1. A young lady guest relation executive with the HLL gathering stopped any of the members going out and volunteered 3 times to go out and get stuff such as ice cubes for whiskey of the guests when the situation outside the hall was very explosives and she could have been easily the target of the bullets [That's not heroic -- that's stupidity. AD]
2. Thomas George a captain escorted 54 guests from a backdoor staircase and when he was going down last he was shot by the terrorists

3. There were 500 emails from various guests narrating heroics of the staff and thanking them for saving their lives

4. In a subsequent function, Ratan Tata broke down in full public view and sobbed saying - "the company belongs to these people". The wife of Thomas George who laid his life saving others said, she and the kids were proud of the man and that she did not know that for 25 years she lived with a man who was so courageous and brave

5. The episode happened on 26th November, a significant part of the hotel was burnt down and destroyed - the hotel was re-opened on 21st December and all the employees of the hotel were paraded in front of the guests [What's this supposed to mean? AD]

6. It was clearly a saga of extra-ordinary heroics by ordinary people for their organisation and in a way for their country. The sense of duty and service was unprecedented

7. The young lady who protected and looked after the HLL guests was a management trainee and we often speak of juniority and seniority in the organisation. She had no instructions from any supervisor to do what she did
a. She took just 3 minutes to rescue the entire team through the kitchen
b. Cars were organised outside the hotel as per seniority of the members
c. In the peak of the crisis, she stepped out and got the right wine glass for the guest [They were elegantly drinking wine at the peak of the crisis? AD]
8. People who exhibited courage included janitors, waiters, directors, artisans and captains - all level of people



C. The Tata Gesture

1. All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed

2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the "Pav-Bhaji" vendor and the pan shop owners
4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent my money order
5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help
6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people's mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided
7. Employee outreach centres were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counselling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility
8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person's responsibility to act as a "single window" clearance for any help that the person required

9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner - either through injury or getting killed - were affected.

10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks

11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents - as to what they wanted him to do.
12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her
15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts
16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror
17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible
18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs in addition to the following benefits:
a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents

b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents - anywhere in the world

c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life

d. All loans and advances were waived off - irrespective of the amount

e. Counsellor for life for each person

D. Epilogue

1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?

2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that - everyone laughs

3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority

4.The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.

5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.

6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan - he said - do you think we are doing enough?

7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property - why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

Pyramid of Success !

The words of a great Sports leader














Cheers !!

Arvind !!

Quotes from John Wooden

John Wooden is an all time legend in Basketball and a great coach. He passed away on June 4th. He was popular off the field thanks to his widely used quotes some of them are


"Be prepared and be honest".

"Ability is a poor man's wealth".

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."

"Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then."

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. "

"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights. "

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. "

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."

"I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent. "

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? "

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes. "

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it"

"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

"Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters."

"Never mistake activity for achievement."

"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts. "

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. "

"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

"Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character. "

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. "



The final quote is a truly awe-inspiring and something which every individual should ponder upon. The secret to these wisdoms lie in a closely followed creed which are


1) Be true to yourself.
2) Make each day your masterpiece.
3) Help others.
4) Drink deeply from good books.
5) Make friendship a fine art.
6) Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7) Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.


Rest in Peace John Wooden and hope the world learns from his teachings


Cheers !!

Arvind !!

Underplaying ourselves

It's quite often when we say about best practices it’s either

a) Japanese when it comes to quality

b) Americans when it people practices

But more often than not I have felt us as Indians as managers could do a better job of man management if a little bit of free reign is given. We often are proud of the fact that Indira Nooyi and Shantanu Narayen and Sanjay jha are CEO's of top organizations.

But when Mr. Ravikant retired from Tata Motors we had to wait for Carl-peter Forester to take over and adding a global perspective which baffles me. With due respect to Mr. Forester and his achievements are we trying to say we do not have adequate talented individuals when warren buffet looks for his successors in India we in India are wondering if Arun Sarin will replace Ratan Tata.

Why are we painting a picture ourselves deficit of talent when the world is looking out to India for talents?

I basically believe we have some of the best man management skills because you look at indian kid the roles it has to play right from school are

I) Diligent Student

ii) Multi talented Individual

The weight of expectations is very high, and these roles keep growing to a stage of an adult where he has to juggle multiple roles simultaneously and most of them succeed.

I believe the reasons why Indians appear less People oriented compared to Americans because

i) We have never enjoyed work or life It has always been cut throat

ii) The fear of failure

iii) The burden of expectations

iv) We always measure performance by the outcome and not the effort

v) We are never convinced and tend to be pessimistic

vi) Very low gestation time for an Individual to settle.

It is not easy to remove these hurdles overnight and will take years but what we need to understand is that by following Japanese styles of Pokayoke or American methods is not going to pull us up because we vary from them it is time we accepted the change and created a system for our fellow Individuals to flourish and help Indian Organizations to grow

Cheers!!

Arvind!