Where was I when Mumbai was attacked on 26/11

Some events in history are so profound that you'd remember exactly where you were, what you were doing when you first heard the news.

The truth of this statement cannot be disputed. I read it in "The Prodigal Daughter' by Jeffrey Archer. I was thinking of this statement in relation to the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

We are at one year after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. This is one of the defining moments for India, definitely for Bombay. I say defining because it reiterated what we are, our spirit, which many events in the past have done. But this one was different in that we realised that this spirit is not one of defiance, but of reconciliation and acceptance of our limitations.

Coming back to the statement, I feel that it has a personal thrill attached to it. We seem to derive a great amount of pleasure narrating shock events. The more the shock, the more the pleasure. And the closer you are to the event, the more the intensity in the narration.

And what a contradiction this throws up! If I were to be confronted with a developing event such as 26/11, my natural reaction would be to run to safety. But once the event is over, I would want to claim proximity.

Every citizen will have his own story to tell of how he heard the news and how he reacted. And what better occasion than the first anniversary. All news channels had taken full advantage of the situation, just as they had done a year back, in whipping up emotions.

I can tell you where I was. We were writing and practicing our lines for our drama at a friend's place. That was when my wife got a call from her colleague that there had been a blast at Vile Parle. And then I got a call from my colleague about the same blast. And another friend got a call that CST had a terrorist attack.

I'm no different! Some events in history are so profound that you'd remember exactly where you were, what you were doing when you first heard the news.

Peter Drucker is 100

Peter Ferdinand Drucker is 100 today. If there is one person who has impacted the thought and direction in the field of management in the most profound manner, it is Drucker.

I admire his thoughts and his writings for the variety of subjects he covered, for the simple underlying principles for all that he said, and for the vision and foresight.

Some of the basic ideas that he propounded were indeed basic. But those basic ideas had been lost in the myriad and complicated world of management literature. In such a scenario, he chose to remain simple in his explanation.

The belief that thought before action is very important, decentralisation and rejection of command and control structure, focus on employees as assets, who needed to be cared for, 'planned abandonment' of existing and past successes, importance of processes for everything, the concept of the knowledge worker, and the need for community were the highlights.

I liked him because he was a skeptic of macroeconomic theory. Since the advent of banker economists, decisions are being driven by macroeconomic masala with absolutely no awareness or understanding of the real economy. Drucker warned against this. And look where we are today.

He also believed that CEO pay should not be more than 20 times worker pay. This has been flouted many times over, and we've ended up in this state of the mass up against the establishment.

Look at the wide spectrum that he has touched upon, and you will realise that most others who have claimed to have said something path-breaking are but reflections of this great man.

I remember him and his view in a class of cost accounting in which my professor explained why relevant costing was so good, spending great amounts of time to convince us why we should look at relevant costs, only to conclude by quoting Drucker who said that you should cover total costs if you have to be in business in the long term.

There is only one guru, and that is, without doubt, Peter Drucker. He hated being referred to as a 'guru', and said that the term was being used as it was shorter than 'charlatan'. I don't agree with this. I'm not sure if he was only being modest, but in the Indian sense of the word 'guru', a teacher, he absolutely fits the bill.

It would be an achievement if I could test the waters, touch the shores of the ocean that Drucker is. I'll read what I consider to be one of his best works 'Management Challenges for the 21st Century', today. It could very well be called 'Management Challenges for any Century'.

Mozhi, Language

Mozhi is a beautiful movie. And the music of the movie complements the concept well. The highlight is the song 'Katrin Mozhi', written with a lot of love, music and lyrics. This is a song that touches your heart, makes you smile, and feel good. And it reflects the mood very aptly. I rate this as one of the ten best Indian songs created.

The format of the song is very simple, very conventional, following the usual mukhda-interlude-antara pattern. But it scores with its simplicity and its adherance to the mood without exception or stray. Another important aspect of the song is that it ensures that the lyrics are clearly understood by any listener. The singer has an understanding of the feeling expressed in the song.

There are few songs which are able to stick to the regular format, yet establish such a rapport with the listener. And linger on in your thoughts. I reproduce the lyrics below. I thought I'd attempt a rough translation, but realised two things. One, that I was good only at prose, not poetry. And two, translation kills the mood. Most things are better in their original form.

Katrin mozhi oliya isaiya
Poovin mozhi nirama mananama
Kadalin mozhi alaiya nuraiya
Kadhal mozhi vizhiya idazha

Iyarkaiyin mozhigal purindhuvidu
Manidarin mozhigal thevaillai
Idhayathin mozhi purindhuvidu
Manidarin mozhigal thevaillai

Katru visum podhu disaigal kidaiyadhu
Kadhal pesum podu mozhigal kidaiyadhu
Pesum varthai pola mounam puriyadhu
Kangal pesum varthai kadavul ariyadhu

Ulava therya katrukku oruvam theta mudiyadhu
Kadhal pesum mozhiellam sabthakootil adangathu
Vanam pesum pechu thuliyai veliyagum
Vanavillin pechu niramai veliyagum

Unmai oomai anal kanner mozhiagum
Penmai ommaianal nanam mozhiagum
Osai thoongum jamathil uchimeengal mozhiagum
Asai thoongam idayathil asaivu kooda mozhiagum

Michael Crichton on humans

I had to post this compelling quote by Michael Crichton from 'The Lost World'

“Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told — and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity…Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs’…The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.”

Staying on top

An excellent leader in The Economist analyses the calibre of chief executives of banks in America.

Only three of the chief executives from the ten largest banks in America during the unfolding of the financial crisis remain. The rest have been asked to leave over the past year.

Some are claiming conspiracy, in that chief executives have manipulated for personal gain. This may appear true considering the lavish perquisites that they showered on themselves - expenses claim on a $87,000 rug, playing a game of bridge as their firms collapsed, almost like Nero. The article compares this to actions of Kenneth Lay of Enron and concludes that most of the current breed were useless.

It says "Far from expertly manipulating their firms' books, many could not even understand them" and "....even when they had decent numbers, executives struggled to manage their mutinuous staff". One ex-boss said "... his job was less of management, more crowd control".

Did acquisition make a difference? No. Acquisitive firms such as BoA, Fortis and RBS floundered. Those who were not acquisitive, such as JP Morgan Chase and Barclays prospered.

Did long-term perspective make a difference? No. Managers at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers did have a lot of their personal holdings, but did not focus on the long-term.

Did risk committees make a difference? Hardly. Santander had 98 meetings in 2007 while Credit Suisse's had just six, yet both did much the same.

So, what is generally prescribed by the know-it-alls as required and essential is not necessarily the right thing to do. Its better to be a historian than a politician; an economist rather than an executive. The former have the advantage of hindsight.

The summary "On any measure of banks' boards - experience, gender, age, independence - there were successes as well as failures". "What firms need is a culture of excellence, but that is like saying all football teams should be like Manchester United".

My line "It is remarkable that these executives stayed on the top without staying on top of their jobs."

Mediocrity rules

We had been to a music concert of old hindi film songs from the 60s and the 70s yesterday by a group called 'Klub Nostalgia' held under the aegis of our association Mulund Fine Arts Society at Kalidas Natya Mandir, Mulund. I've heard them several times before, out of which a couple were under our sabha. Anil Bajpai was exceptional, as always; Vinod Seshadri was good in some songs, while average in most others. Others were at their own best, but that's it.

To tell you the truth, I always liked 'Golden Greats', another such group, more. I don't know the entire inside story of how and why singers moved en masse from 'Golden Greats' to 'Klub Nostalgia' so I cannot comment on that.

But 'Golden Greats' was true to what they did; the effort was diligent and impeccable; no compromise whatsoever; you could see them being very passionate about hindi film music of the yesteryears. 'Klub Nostalgia' is, at best, a compromise, a 'chalta hai' effort group. And since the whole world is at a level of mediocrity, they thrive. 

This reflects life, as most matters do. The few who attempt to reach excellence and perfection eventually fall to the sides. And the ones who compromise and insist on the mediocre, keep going. You must only know how to capture the stupid imagination of the masses. The numbers count. If you can't act like Naseeruddin Shah, fool around like Govinda. If you can't sing like Sonu Nigam, there's Kumar Sanu. If you can't create a 'Gulaal' make a 'No Entry'. The world has been returned to the bin.

Friends tell me there are a few things left in the world where excellence still rules. Wimbledon, Oscars, are what come to my mind. With no information contradicting that view, I agree.

But we don't live in that world, do we?

Bombay to Goa

We had been to Goa over the weekend. And I must say, Goa is amazing in the rains. With lesser crowd and a cooler climate, it is the best time to be there.

A little on the journey.

We left at 9.30 pm on Thursday, October 1, 2009, by road. We took the Mumbai-Pune expressway, the Pune-Satara-Kolhapur highway NH-4, turned right at Nipani, and reached Panaji at 9.30 am through Amboli Ghat. We reached the Nipani turn at the wee hours of the morning. The ghat section took time because of the inclement weather, the mist and the rain, the poor visibility. I liked the experience of driving the Amboli ghats when everyone else had slept off in the car. It was just me, my car, my music, the mist, the waterfalls and the winding road ahead.

The return back was more routine. We found a better road back to the Kolhapur expressway, that went through Ajara and Sankeshwar. Thats a better road than what we found on the way to Goa. But we found lot of local traffic on the Kolhapur-Satara belt since it is not an expressway. So there are a lot of turns into villages and towns on both sides of the highway. One has to be careful.

A few facts. The road to Goa through Pune-Satara-Kolhapur via NH-4 is the same distance as the road through NH-17. Both are 590 kms. The old road is more enjoyable, I heard, because it has four ghat sections. But NH-4 should be preferred for night drives. But the highway is safe only during nights, since there is no local traffic.

While on the Kolhapur highway, we turned at Nipani, next to a hotel called Cauvery. Its better to continue further and turn at Sankeshwar. As I said before, that road is better.

On the way, you go through a patch of Karnataka. Maybe a few kilometres. And in this stretch, there is no board in English or Hindi. And there is no mention of Goa anywhere. Its better to ask before you turn.

More on Goa later.

The essential and the unnecessary

The NASA probe on the Chandrayaan-1 found water on the moon. The discovery has been hailed as pathbreaking, and it is said to open a whole new avenue in lunar research, and the greatest example of international collaboration in space. Let us keep any speculation on the truth of this declaration aside and consider only what we hear.

I'm not the usual activist-blogger to say that the amount spent on moon research is a waste and that it could be used better to improve our lot here (The project, incidentally cost Rs. 386 crore). Such expenditure may be necessary, as scientific advancement is also required; and there is very little anyone can do to stop it.

Can we look at this entire thing from a different angle altogether. We found water on the moon, which I would certainly call an achievement. But we haven't found enough water to drink on earth, where we need it more. After the discovery, there is talk of using the moon as a place where humans could settle in the future. And they could use the water there. With all the place on the earth, why would we want to go to the moon?

Are we preparing for the future, for the time when the earth would have no water or vegetation to sustain human life, which would've multiplied many times over by then. Why should we get into something more complicated and unnecessary, when we are unable to manage the simple things. I think this is true of life, in general. Man is appreciated not for doing the simple, basic things, but for more complex things.

If you consider an organisation, there are the toilers, the workers who strive to keep the organisation going, the system running, without whom the system would stop. But, invariably, they are not the ones appreciated and compensated. Instead, the brash consultant-management graduate is getting all the attention, for pursuing the new path. He would be specifically employed to do this, against the existing employee who knows more and is in a better position to take the organisation forward. Again, I'm not saying that all such persons are useless. But when you encourage an outsider manager and ignore the insider worker, you are setting up the scene for a cold-war.

And this fact is true in all walks of life. An organisation was just an example. The media likes the person going to the moon. But the person who is out there in the villages, doing his bit to improve the lives of the poor, goes unnoticed.

Andy Grove: The Paranoid

Andy Grove in his book 'Only the paranoid survive',  talks about a point in the life of a company where it will face a combination of internal and external unanticipated forces, that will conspire to make the existing business strategy unviable. He called it an 'inflection point'.

In the case of Intel, such a point came when its memory chips business came under competition from Japanese and Korean players. And micro-processor business was not a major percentage of Intel's business. But Andy Grove put all his energies behind the micro-processors business and Intel became what it is today.

In a recent article in The Economist, he says that the computer industry has always practiced a healthy attitude towards creative destruction, something that is not shared by other industries. Computer firms come and go all the time. He was probably taking a shot at the US government support to ailing banks, the automotive industry and the airline industry. He has asked for the health and energy industries to be run more like the computer industry for them to be more efficient. 

His with is still intact, despite battling Parkinson's disease, and his desire to provoke is strong as ever. But his achievements ensure that his provocations are worth paying attention to. Not many people in this world can garner such respect and attention. And it is the desire of every person to become like that; to be heard and respected.

And your ability to quote and be read later. And coin terms that stay on for a long time, become part of the dictionary. Like 'inflection point'. And 'knowledge turns'. 'Knowledge turn' is the time it takes for an experiment to proceed from hypothesis to results, and then to a new hypothesis - around 18 months for chip-making. This probably is what is the essence of Moore's law.   

Warren Buffett on scheduling meetings

The day went off in attending meetings with practically no significant outcome. And my routine work was severely held up because of this. These were scheduled a month back and so we had to honour them.

I was reminded of what I had once read about Warren Buffett and how he scheduled his meetings. Apparently he doesn't schedule his meetings more than a day before. That is to say, if you wanted to meet him tomorrow, you could call today. If you wanted to meet him the day after, you would have to call tomorrow.

This rule has a simple philosophy: I can't fill up my schedule any further in advance. That way one needs to be worried only about the next day. And not be too worried about not having any dates for the next few months.

But he is Warren Buffett. I doubt whether anyone else would be able to pull off such a schedule. But you could most certainly cut down on how much advance appointment you give. That way you'd be more in control of your immediate plans. And not spend time re-scheduling meetings to the inconvenience of yourself and others.