Proof of global warming

Mumbaiya

Focus vs variety - On Investment - Tom Gardner

Diversification vs Focus





By Tom Gardner

October 8, 2004

The brilliant business analyst and writer Peter Drucker has made me a lot of money over the years. The 95-year-old dedicated his professional life to an engaging and exhaustive exploration into how organizations succeed and stumble. His insights double as a blueprint to market-beating investing. I want to share with you a key Druckerian principle that has helped me find some fantastic small-company stocks in my newsletter service, Hidden Gems Drucker believes that most people and, by extension, most companies are terribly unfocused. They have too many loves to satisfy and too few commitments. They dabble here, dally there, and fail to master anything. Peter Lynch, the greatest mutual fund manager of all time, called this phenomenon di-worse-ification.

Drucker hates it just as much, naming it a primary driver of sustained mediocrity.

So, why do American companies diversify?

Loads of public companies actively diversify because, in the short term, all that variety and expansion generates buzz. Aggressive extensions into new markets make CEOs look ingenious. Buyouts, product launches, and new divisions are the stuff of an emerging empire. They grab the headlines and turn executives into visionary white-horse heroes. And that's delicious to investors targeting quick-hit investment gains. But what about the long run? After all, what are the chances that American
audiences will, for example, give a damn about Paris Hilton in five years? The long
run is won by those who pursue excellence through their specialized talents.

Take, for example, athletic-shoe designer Saucony (Nasdaq: SCNYB) . The company
maintains a tight focus on making high-quality running shoes. Boring! Where's
the sex appeal? Where's the glory? Well, the company learned that sex appeal doesn't often deliver permanent value. In the 1990s, Saucony took a dangerous detour into the bicycle business. Management felt its running shoes gave it permission to enter into the expanding market for sports equipment. Whoops! Executives underestimated the complexity of the business, and the move dropped the stock from $50 to $5. Ever since, Saucony has maintained the discipline of focus. Hidden Gems analyst Zeke Ashton recommended the stock in August 2003. In February, management elected to pay out a $25 million special dividend to shareholders rather than use the capital to
expand. Ashton's recommendation is up 163% for our members.

The only stock to outperform Saucony in Hidden Gems is another disciplined small company that has risen 187% since last November. Middleby (Nasdaq: MIDD) is now the leader in commercial ovens for restaurant chains. It wasn't always so. In the 1990s, Middleby was getting picked apart by competition. It was a tiny public company, capitalized at less than $100 million, yet it was trying to win the markets for everything from restaurant deli cases and refrigerators to mixers and blenders to the kitchen sink. The stock was left for dead, selling off more than 50% to below $5.
Then a strange thing happened. Rather than count on expansion to save its hide,
Middleby's board of directors installed new management, which aggressively abandoned product lines. CEO Selim Bassoul simply walked away from 25% of the company's sales, choosing to focus all energies on its high-margin commercial ovens.

Just as with Saucony, so too with Middleby: Executives chose to pay out a special dividend rather than plow cash into expansion.

The power of focus: Operational focus is crucial to the success of most every small company in the world. Yet few small-business leaders practice it. In Hidden Gems, it's my goal to help you find the most disciplined companies, poised to become Peter Lynch's next great 10- and 20-baggers . The next monster winner among small caps will be a company focused like Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) with coffee. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) with discount retailing. Moody's (NYSE: MCO) with commercial credit ratings. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)with pharmaceuticals. eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) with auctions.When these companies were small caps, they had enough capital to expand into wildly diverse product and service categories. Instead, with attractive opportunities to grow organically, they drilled down into their core business, innovated within a defined space, scavenged for economic efficiencies, and made their stockholders rich. Focus, you see, is how competitive advantages are gained, how defensive moats are carved, how commercial niches are dominated, and how long-term margins of safety are widened for investors.

In my experience, the small companies you'll want to own are more likely to expand dividends than product lines. They're more likely to buy back stock than buy up competitors. Meanwhile, their failing competitors will forever look outside for growth. Even with a core business growing 15% or more, they'll blow money on the new-new thing, lose sight of their unique talents, and fall behind.

Don't invest in the jack-of-all-trades. In fact, promise me that the next time you go in search of truly great small-cap stocks, as we do every day in Hidden Gems, you'll remember this Italian proverb: Often he who does too much does too little.

As with each of us, so too with the companies we invest in. If you want to find
the next stock to rise 10 times in value, you won't find it glad-handing every new opportunity. Peter Lynch knew that. Peter Drucker wrote about it extensively. Heed the words of the masters and let's beat the market.

Is hteer smotehing wongr?

Sbujcet: FW: PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID
Icnatmpore: Hgih

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod uesdnatnrd waht I was radnieg


THE POMNNEEHAL PWEOR OF TEH HMUAN MNID

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uineervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and
lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.


Amzanig huh?
Regrads
Pdeerap Vrdaaan


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: FW: POWER OF THE HUMAN MIND
Importance: High

I couldn't believe that I could understand what I was reading

THE PHENOMENAL POWER OF THE HUMAN MIND

According to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what
order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and
last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can
still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read
every letter by itself, but the word as a whole.


Amazing huh?

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask "How are you?"
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done,
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
'Cause you never had time
To call and say "Hi"?
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

The Karma Principle - What goes around , comes around.

What goes around comes around

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.


"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did. Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.

His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.




What goes around comes around.

Corporate Lessons - Humor in Management

Corporate Lesson 1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says "I'll give you 800 dollars to drop that towel that you have on. " After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her 800 dollars and leaves. Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets back to the bathroom, her husband asks from the shower "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbour" she replies. Great, the husband says, "Did he say anything about the 800 dollars he owes me?" Moral Of The Story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk in time with your stakeholders, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Corporate Lesson 2

A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the side of the road, he stopped and offered her a lift which she accepted. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to open and reveal a lovely leg. The priest had a look and nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun looked at him and immediately said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" The priest was flustered and apologized profusely. He forced himself to remove his hand, however he was unable to remove his eyes from her leg. Further on while changing gear, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" Once again the priest apologized. "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun got out gave him a meaningful glance and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to retrieve a bible and looked up psalm 129. It Said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory." Moral Of The Story: Always be well informed in your job, or you might miss a great opportunity!

Corporate Lesson 3

Usually the staff of the company play football. The middle level managers are more interested in Tennis. The top management usually has a preference for Golf. Moral Of The Story: As you go up the corporate ladder, the balls reduce in size. Another good lesson!!

Corporate Lesson 4

A sales rep, an administration clerk and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out in a puff of smoke. The Genie says, I usually only grant three wishes, so I'll give each of you just one. "Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." *Poof!*She's gone. In astonishment "Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina-coladas and the love of my life." *Poof!* He's gone. "OK, you're up" the Genie says to the manager. The manager says "I want those two back in the office after lunch." Moral Of The Story: always let your boss have the first say .

The Ladder to Success - Subroto Bagchi

Address by Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer, MindTree Consulting to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on defining success. July 2nd 2004



I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep – so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today.



As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government – he reiterated to us that it was not ‘his jeep’ but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep – we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance – a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.



The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed – I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ – very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant – you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.



Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha – an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition – delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.







Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios – we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios – alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, “We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.



Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”. That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.



My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper – end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.



Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.



Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.



Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places – I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him – he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create. My father died the next day.









He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts – the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.



My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.



Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, “Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity – was telling me to go and kiss the world!



Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.



Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world.

The Lady Engineer - Anecdote of Sudha Murthy

Emancipation of the Indian women

Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004

An angry letter from a young lady made JRD Tata change his rule Sudha was livid when a job advertisement posted by a Tata company at the institution where she was completing her post graduation stated that "Lady candidates need not apply". She dashed off a post card to JRD Tata, protesting against the discrimination. Following this, Sudha was called for an interview and she became the first female engineer to work on the shop floor at Telco (now Tata Motors). It was the beginning of an association that would change her life in more ways than one.

THERE are two photographs that hang on my office wall. Everyday when I entered my office I look at them before starting my day. They are pictures of two old people. One is of a gentleman in a blue suit and the other is a black and white image of a man with dreamy eyes and a white beard. People have often asked me if the people in the photographs are related to me. Some have even asked me, "Is this black and white photo that of a Sufi saint or a religious Guru?" I smile and reply "No, nor are they related to me. These people made an impact on my life. I am grateful to them." "Who are they?" "The man in the blue suit is Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and the black and white photo is of Jamsetji Tata." "But why do you have them in your office?"" You can call it gratitude." Then, invariably, I have to tell the person the following story. It was a long time ago. I was young and bright, bold and idealistic. I was in the final year of my Master's course in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, then known as the Tata Institute. Life was full of fun and joy. I did not know what helplessness or injustice meant. It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India. One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc. At the bottom was a small line: "Lady candidates need not apply." I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination. Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful. After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco. I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then). I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote. "The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives.

They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender." I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari.

When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip. It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown.


The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview. There were six people on the panel and I realized then that this was serious business. "This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realization abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted. Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a technical interview." They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them. Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply?

The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories." I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories." Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married. It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry.

Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr. Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw "appro JRD". Appro means "our" in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him. I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, "Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked.


"It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?" "When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I am Sudha Murthy." He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room. After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him. One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realize JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

"Young lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I said, "Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD said, "It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll wait with you till your husband comes." I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable. I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee." Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again."

In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused. Gently, he said, "So what are you doing, Mrs. Kulkarni?" (That was the way he always addressed me.) "Sir, I am leaving Telco." "Where are you going?" he asked. "Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune." "Oh! And what will you do when you are successful." "Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful." "Never start with diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society.

Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best." Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, "It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today." I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice.

He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever. Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly. My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.


Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayan Murthy is her husband. Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004
1

Understanding Engineers

Understanding Engineers - Take One

Two engineering students crossing the campus when one said, "Where did you
get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking
along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on
this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and
said, "Take what you want." The first engineer nodded approvingly, "Good
choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

_________________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Two


To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is
half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

_________________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Three


A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a
particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these
guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I
don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude!" The pastor said, "Hey,
here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." "Hi George! Say,
what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The
greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They
lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always
let them play for free anytime." The group was silent for a moment. The
pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them
tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my
ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them." The
engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

______________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Four


What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?
Mechanical Engineers build weapons and Civil Engineers build targets.

________________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Five


The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?" The graduate
with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?" The graduate with an
Accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?" The graduate with an Arts
degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

__________________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Six


Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible
designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer." Just
look at all the joints." Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer.
The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections." The last
one said, "Actually it was a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic
waste pipeline through a recreational area?"

_______________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Seven


"Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Engineers
believe that "if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"

_____________________

Understanding Engineers - Take Eight


An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was
better to spend time with the wife or a mistress. The architect said he
enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring
relationship. The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because
the passion and mystery he found there. The engineer said, "I like both."
"Both?" "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you
are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get
some work done."

____________

Understanding Engineers - Take Nine


An engineer was crossing a road one-day when a frog called out to him and
said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over,
picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and
said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will
stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket,
smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If
you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do
ANYTHING you want." Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and
put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter?
I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, and that I'll stay with you for a
week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The engineer said,
"Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking
frog, now that's cool."

Travails of South Indian Men

"The Travails of Single South Indian men of conservative upbringing"

Yet another action packed weekend in Mumbai, full of fun, frolic and introspection. I have learnt many things. For example having money when none of your friends have any is as good as not having any. And after spending much time in movie theatres, cafes and restaurants I have gathered many insights into the endless monotony that is the love life of south Indian men. What I have unearthed is most disheartening. Disheartening because comprehension of these truths will not change our status anytime soon. However there is also cause for joy. We never stood a chance anyway. What loads the dice against virile, gallant, well educated, good looking, sincere mallus and tams? (Kadus were once among us, but Bangalore has changed all that.)

Our futures are shot to hell as soon as our parents bestow upon us names that are anything but alluring. I cannot imagine a more foolproof way of making sure the child remains single till classified advertisements or that maternal uncle in San Francisco thinks otherwise. Name him "Parthasarathy Venkatachalapthy" and his inherent capability to combat celibacy is obliterated before he could even talk. He will grow to be known as Partha. Before he knows, his smart, seductively named northy classmates start calling him Paratha. No woman in their right minds will go anyway near poor Parthasarathy. His investment banking job doesn't help either. His employer loves him though. He has no personal life you see. By this time the Sanjay Singhs and Bobby Khans from his class have small businesses of their own and spend 60% of their lives in discos and pubs. The remaining 40% is spent coochicooing with leather and denim clad muses in their penthouse flats on Nepean Sea Road. Business is safely in the hands of the Mallu manager. After all with a name like Blossom Babykutty he can’t use his 30000 salary anywhere. Blossom gave up on society when in school they automatically enrolled him for Cookery Classes. Along with all the girls.

Yes my dear reader, nomenclature is the first nail in a coffin of neglect and hormonal pandemonium. In a kinder world they would just name the poor southern male child and throw him off the balcony. "Yes appa we have named him Goundamani..." THUD. Life would have been less kinder to him anyway.

If all the women the Upadhyays, Kumars, Pintos and, god forbid, the Sens and Roys in the world have met were distributed amongst the Arunkumars, Vadukuts and Chandramogans we would all be merry casanovas with 3 to 4 pretty things at each arm. But alas it is not to be. Of course the south Indian women have no such issues. They have names which are like sweet poetry to the ravenous northie hormone tanks. Picture this: "Welcome, and this is my family. This is my daughter Poorni (what a sweet name!!) and my son Ponna lagusamy (er.. hello..).." Cyanide would not be fast enough for poor Samy. Nothing Samy does will help him. He can pump iron, drive fast cars and wear snazzy clothes, but against a braindead dude called Arjun Singhania he has as much chance of getting any as a Benedictine Monk in a Saharan Seminary.


Couple this with the other failures that have plagued our existence. Any attempt at spiking hair with gel fails miserably. In an hour I have a crown of greasy, smelly fibrous mush. My night ends there. However the northy just has to scream "Wakaw!!!" and you have to peel the women off him to let him breathe. In a disco while we can manage the medium hip shake with neck curls, once the Bhangra starts pumping we are as fluid as cement and gravel in a mixer. Karan Kapoor or Jatin Thapar in the low cut jeans with chaddi strap showing and see through shirt throws his elbows perfectly, the cynosure of all attention. The women love a man who digs pasta and fondue. But why do they not see the simple pleasures of curd rice and coconut chutney? When poor Senthilnathan opens his tiffin box in the office lunch room his female coworkers just dissappear when they see the tamarind rice and poppadums. The have all rematerialised around Bobby Singh who has ordered in Pizza and Garlic bread. (And they have the gal l to talk of foreign origin.)

How can a man like me brought up in roomy lungis and oversized polyester shirts ever walk the walk in painted on jeans (that makes a big impression) and neon yellow rib hugging t shirts? All I can do is don my worn "comfort fit" jeans and floral shirt. Which is pretty low on the "Look at me lady" scale, just above fig leaf skirt and feather headgear a la caveman, and a mite below Khakhi Shirt over a red t-shirt and baggy khakhi pants and white trainers a la Rajni in "Badsha".


Sociologically too the tam or mallu man is severely sidelined. An average tam stud stays in a house with, on average, three grandparents, th ree sets of uncles and aunts, and over 10 children. Not the ideal atmosphere for some intimacy and some full throated "WHOSE YOUR DADDY!!!" at the 3 in the morning. The mallu guy of course is almost always in the gulf working alone on some onshore oil rig in the desert. Rheumatic elbows me thinks.

Alas dear friends we are not just meant to set the nights on fire. We are just not built to be "The Ladies Man". The black man has hip hop, the white man has rock, the southie guy only has idlis and tomato rasam or an NRI account in South Indian Bank Ernakulam Branch. Alas as our destiny was determined in one fell swoop by our nomenclature, so will our future be. A nice arranged little love story. But the agony of course does not end there. On the first night, as the stud sits on his bed finally within touching distance and whispers his sweet desires into her delectable ear, she blushes, turns around and whispers back "But amma has said only on second saturdays..."

India's pride, and our good wishes are with you.

The white woman and India:Indian fascination for the White Skin - Francois Gautier

May 20, 2004,The Times of India

Francois Gautier

The spectacle on the night of May 18, of all these Congress leaders, many of them intelligent men and women, debasing themselves in front of Sonia Gandhi, pleading with her to lead the country, made me feel sick. If Sonia had any dignity, she would have stopped it, but she just listened, with a slightly bored expression, right till the last Congressman and woman had wallowed in dirt before her.

And again I asked myself the question which has baffled me for 35 years, although I am myself a white man and a born Christian: why do Indians have such an attraction towards the white skin?

After reading the newspapers on Wednesday morning and seeing how newspapers such as The Times of India still root for Sonia Gandhi, with columnists such as Dileep Padgaonkar saying that her becoming prime minister would be in tune 'with the highest Vedantic ideals,' I wonder: does India, one of the most ancient civilizations on the planet, need a white woman to govern her?

I am sure Sonia has great qualities, but are Indians so dumb, stupid and backward, that they cannot find among themselves someone intelligent enough, non-corrupt enough, to lead them? And what about this craze for Mother Teresa? She may have been a saint, but nobody has harmed India's image in the 20th century so much: when you say India in the West, their eyes light up and they answer: 'Mother Teresa/ Kolkata/ poor people/ dumb people/ starving people/ who do not know how to care after their own underprivileged/ who need a white woman to show them how to pick up the dying from the streets/ to look after orphans'!

Is this the image Indians want today? An image that is harming them, which is stopping Western investors from investing in India? Yet, Mother Teresa is worshipped here, from Kolkata to Chennai, from Delhi to Bangalore, and when she will be made a saint by the Vatican, perpetuating this colonial, superior-minded, Christian symbol of white superiority over the brown/black man, all the Indian media will rejoice in its own mental slavery and the Indian government will probably declare a national holiday!

Why don't Indians understand that brown is beautiful? White people spend hours on the beach and put on a hundred creams to get tanned. And in winter they even artificially lie under infrared lamps in beauty parlors to get brown! Why this obsession for the Indian woman to have white skin?

How come the two most popular actors in India have fair skin and nearly blue eyes? Why this craze for 'fair' brides? If you find the answers to these, you will understand why the fatal attraction for Sonia Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

Obviously, colonisation has frozen the Indian mind in certain patterns and the British made sure, through Macaulay's policies, of leaving behind an enduring inferiority complex among Indians, by constantly harping on the flaws of Indian culture and inflating them. That is why today Indian intellectuals repeat like parrots what their masters had said before them: 'Hindus are fundamentalists/Brahmins are exploiters/Gowalkar was a Nazi/Indians are corrupt and no good.'

But that does not explain everything: most colonised countries have aped their masters after having hated them. No, in my mind the greatest factor behind India's love for the white is the absurd theory of Aryan invasion

According to this theory, which was actually devised in the 18th and 19th centuries by British linguists and archaeologists, the first inhabitants of India were good-natured, peaceful, dark-skinned shepherds called the Dravidians, who had founded what is called the Harappan or the Indus Valley civilisation. They were supposedly remarkable builders, witness the city of Mohenjo Daro in Pakistani Sind, but had no culture to speak of, no literature, no proper script even. Then, around 1500 BC, India is said to have been invaded by tribes called the Aryans: white-skinned, nomadic people, who originated somewhere in western Russia and imposed upon the Dravidians the hateful caste system. To Aryans is attributed Sanskrit, the Vedic or Hindu religion, India's greatest spiritual texts, the Vedas, as well as a host of subsequent writings, the Upanishads, the Mahabharat, the Ramayan, etc.

This was indeed a masterstroke on the part of the British: thanks to the Aryan theory, they showed on the one hand that Indian civilisation was not that ancient and that it was posterior to the cultures which influenced the Western world -- Mesopotamia, Sumeria, and Babylon -- and that whatever good things India had developed -- Sanskrit, literature, or even its architecture -- had been influenced by the West.

Thus, Sanskrit, instead of being the mother of all Indo-European languages, became just a branch of their huge family; thus, the religion of Zarathustra is said to have influenced Hinduism, and not vice versa. On the other hand, it divided India and pitted against each other the low caste, dark-skinned Dravidians and the high caste, light-skinned Aryans, a rift which is still enduring. Yet, most recent archaeological and linguistic discoveries point out that there never was an Aryan invasion and many historians, including the malevolent Romila Thapar, are distancing themselves from it. Yet, most Indians still believe in this absurd theory.

Wake up O Indians: you are as great, if not greater than the white man. You can do as well, if not better than the white man. Not only did your forefathers devise some of the basic principles of mathematics, astrology, and surgical medicine, not only are your people among the most brilliant in the world today -- half of Silicon Valley is of Indian origin, 30 percent of the United Kingdom's doctors are Indians -- but you still hold within yourselves a unique spiritual knowledge, which once roamed the world but which has now disappeared, replaced by the intolerant creed of the two major monotheistic religions which say: 'if you don't believe in my true God, I will either kill you or convert you'.

Wake up India, brown is beautiful, smart and it is the future. Dr Manmohan Singh, whatever has to be said about the Congress, you have partly redeemed India's pride, and our good wishes are with you.

The author is the correspondent in South Asia for Ouest-France, the largest circulation French daily (1 million copies)

My Lessons in Life - Azim Premji

Azim Premji at AIMA

Address by Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Corporation, in the "Shaping Young Minds Program" (SYMP) organized by the All India Management Association (AIMA) in collaboration with the Bombay Management Association (BMA) on February 9, 2004 at NCPA in Mumbai on " My Lessons in Life"

I am very happy to be here with you. It is always wonderful to be with young people. The funny thing about life is that you realize the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black, to salt and pepper and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realize the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have leant along the way. I hope you will find them useful when you plan your own career and life.

The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in
swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim? While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.

The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything
possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be absolutely delicious? The difference was that she has cooked it! In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it.

The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some. You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson.

The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the short comings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received. Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than
becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.

The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth.
Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.

The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring your hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, "Look, why
don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day." The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!" If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective.

The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change, do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations. Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts. At the end of the day, it is
values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to the destination.

And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the Customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, "Thank you, Sir." One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, "Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at him when he
comes back tomorrow?" The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate my politeness?

In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realize that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defied our elders to fall in line with our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do. I wish you all the best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life. Remember, those who win are those who believe they can.

A Question of Physics

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen:

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied:

"You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, and then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string
plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics.

To resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer, which showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics. For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was
running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the
student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the
building can then be worked out from the formula h = 0.5 gt^2. But bad luck on the barometer.

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper.

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqrt (l/g).

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase,it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add.

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the
ground,and convert the difference in mill bars into meters to give the height of the building.

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's
door and say to him, 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper.'"

The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

American Patriotism :An American Doctor

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or
Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in
America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for
God. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2002 earning a better life for their families. I've been told
that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are
not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Hare and Tortoise Story - A retake

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with.

But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. If you have two people in your organization, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap.

It’s good to be slow and steady; but it’s better to be fast and reliable.

But the story doesn’t end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.

The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

The story still hasn’t ended.

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better.

So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

The moral of the story? It’s good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you’re able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.

The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke’s growth. His executives were Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time.

Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.

He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke’s share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The competition wasn’t Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things. Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.

Keynote Address to Kellogs 2002 MBA Graduates of by Summer Redstone

Summer Redstone,
CEO of Viacom
Keynote Address to MBA Graduates
June 22, 2002

Thank you, Dean Jain, for that kind introduction and let me commend you on your first anniversary as Dean of Kellogg. By all accounts, you are doing an extraordinary job. Members of the administration, faculty, parents, families and guests: Good afternoon!
And members of the class of 2002: Congratulations! I’m delighted to be with you today. While I have no association whatsoever with Kellogg – apart from eating the cereal – I was gratified to learn that I had been chosen by popular student vote as your commencement speaker. I’m told it was down to me or Ozzie Osbourne. Personally, I think you made the right choice. There is far less bleeping language when I speak. And besides, I own MTV. I’ve attended enough of these ceremonies to know that commencement speakers are always scheduled relatively early in the line-up. There's a reason for that. It's what Mark Twain called the "live frog" principle. Twain used to argue, and quite convincingly, that one should swallow a live frog at the beginning of every day. That way you'd know the worst part of your day was behind you.
Well, I may not be the worst part of your day, but I am the part of the day standing between you and that emancipation proclamation known as a diploma. And I know that its allure is perhaps — just perhaps – greater than my own. That said, I do have a mission to accomplish here. It is up to me
to utter those words of profound wisdom and inspiration ... That your mother will remember ten years from now. I’ve never been one to pull punches, so I’m not going to stand up here and recycle all those commencement clichés: “life is a journey” … “hold fast to your dreams”… and “remember the golden rule.” Though I’m a natural born optimist... [I learned long ago that optimism is the only philosophy compatible with a sane existence], I’m also a realist…
So… here’s the reality: you guys picked one hell of a time to graduate
from business school. Am I right? Let’s review: In the two years since you took out those loans to come to Kellogg: Billions of dot.com dollars have disappeared. The economy has slipped in and now out of a recession. And our national security has been violated. 2.2 million U.S. employees have lost their jobs in just the past 18 months. Since September 11th, 65,000 pink slips have been issued on Wall Street.
This is no laughing matter. The job market you face is not just bleak… it’s a cold shower. You’ve got to be wondering, “Did I make a huge mistake?” If you came here thinking the Kellogg School of Management would guarantee you a job at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs or Kleiner Perkins upon graduation… then the answer is likely, “yes.” There are no such guarantees. An MBA does not confer superpowers. It is not the key to the front door of paradise [not that McKinsey is paradise].
Your education … any educational experience … is a tool kit, an extremely valuable tool kit, that will help you succeed in whatever career you pursue. But you have to do the pursuing. A career is not going to chase you down…… At least not anymore.
So, getting back to my previous question: did you make a huge mistake? Let me offer an answer that might surprise you – you made the best decision you may ever make. And, furthermore, your timing could not have been better. As members of the class of 2002, you have had to work a lot harder to get a foot in the door at the company of your choice. And once inside, you’ve learned that you can’t pitch pedigree… you have to pitch you. You have to sell all the skills and attributes and experiences that have brought you to this place … one of the most compelling of which is your Kellogg degree… no question.
But will it pay for itself within a year of graduating? No. Within two years? Probably not. Within five years? Maybe… maybe not. But is that what really matters? For years, hoards of business school graduates have flocked to management consulting and Wall Street and, more recently, Silicon Valley. Some have been motivated by a genuine passion. Most were lured, however,
by the promise of instant wealth. You in the class of 2002 have the opportunity to reassess your futures … to ask hard questions with no easy answers. Maybe your next steps don’t have to revolve around quick ways to pay off your school loans. Maybe, just maybe, this economic downturn and the events of September 11th have given you the opportunity to look harder at where you go from here … and why.
For those who chart the landmark roads to success, there is no textbook ... There is no template ... There is no track record to draw upon. Just tools ... The tools you may have picked up here and elsewhere along your life's journey... Along with a brash, unshakable faith in your own convictions and unequivocal confidence in yourself – despite what may be overwhelming adversity and a deafening chorus of criticism.
But that, to my mind, is where the greatest successes of one's life are charted ... Where fortunes are won and lost... Where characters are forged. If you never venture beyond what you know... You've spawned your own limitations. You've erected the walls of your own private prison cell. Now, let me guess, you are all sitting there thinking you should have voted for the live frog. But, you and I have much more in common than you realize. When I first entered the workforce … not too long ago … there was a different kind of debt to pay. I left Harvard early in my junior year to serve my country. It was January of 1943, the world was at war … there was rationing … and the only global opportunities in our future involved armed conflict rather than economic competition. I was asked by Professor Edwin Reischauer to serve in a special cryptography unit being set up under his command in Washington D.C. our assignment: to break the Japanese code. [not something really hard … like a new business plan for Arthur Anderson].
While in the military I attended law school, first at Georgetown and then at arvard. When I graduated, despite offers in private practice I chose the path of least remuneration and went to work in government – in the justice system … first as a clerk for a federal judge and then as a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. It wasn’t until 1954 – 12 years after leaving college – that I embarked on my career in the media business … and, guess what, I took a mammoth pay cut to join my father and brother in running a struggling chain of movie theaters in the northeast. My initial annual salary was $5,000, 1/20th of what I had been making in the law by then. I spent the next 33 years building national amusements from a 12 theater chain into a global leader in motion picture exhibition. During that time, I gained the experience, credibility and industry knowledge to launch a bid in 1987 for a company many times the size of my own. That company was Viacom … and you know the rest. What you may not know is that I was 64 when I acquired Viacom. So, those of you lamenting your ill fortunes at the age of 28 would do well to heed the following three pieces of advice from someone who has never lamented one moment of a career that has spanned five decades:
1. Opportunity never knocks.
2. Follow your heart, but stick to what you know.
3. It’s not about the money – it’s about winning.

First, opportunity never knocks. I don’t know who came up with the inane _expression. In fact, if anything, opportunity always plays hard to get. Do you think that Viacom came looking for me? Or Paramount? Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let me tell you a little story to illustrate how far you have to go for something to fall in your lap. In 1987 when I challenged management for control of Viacom, I was embarking on a battle, the epic proportions of which I could not have imagined. At the time, Viacom was a small but promising company with a diversified portfolio of entertainment assets, but it was Viacom’s cable networks – specifically MTV, Nickelodeon and Showtime – that caught my eye. I was convinced that cable and, specifically, cable programming was a business with a bright future and I wanted to be part of it. Still, I had no interest in running the company… that is, until an investment group led by the company’s CEO made an offer to take it private. At the price they were proposing to pay, the company was a steal. And, as one of the company’s larger shareholders, they were stealing it from me. This “theft” provoked two reactions. It increased my interest in Viacom, and it stimulated my competitive juices. The odds were stacked against us. The board was in management’s back pocket. Information was kept from us. The company piled on defensive baggage… poison pills, golden parachutes, you name it. More than once, I had the opportunity to exit the fray with a tidy profit… but the more I learned about Viacom, the greater my conviction that I would own this company. Remember, true opportunity never knocks. I have found that I have to go looking for opportunity – and if I don’t find it, I have to create it. Some six years later when I looked out over the horizon and saw Paramount, that same sense of absolute conviction returned. Paramount was a perfect fit. It was a gourmet media meal. We simply had to have Paramount. And 18 brutal months and 2 billion dollars later, we had it.
There’s an aphorism: "the older you get, the easier it is to resist temptation, and the harder it is to find it." Well, I couldn't disagree more. In fact, I find that as I grow older, temptation comes looking for me! Temptation, but not opportunity. For a dealmaker like me, CBS was a gift. In fact, compared with the others, it was gift-wrapped. But the point is – I went after it … I trusted my gut … and I did the deal. And I’m infinitely glad I did. Viacom today is a global leader in every facet of the media and entertainment industry and is the #1 outlet on the planet for connecting advertisers with the audiences they need to reach. And as a result of the relative performance of Viacom as against the other media companies in the media world, Viacom has now and recently become the number one media company in the world.
Carpe diem, my friends …because life rarely presents itself in neatly packaged case studies. That's why I would argue that the most important advantage this school has provided is the ability and the tools to take a chance. You have been educated in the art of infinite possibility. You have learned that greater rewards attend to greater risk. Apply that knowledge to your life as you go forward. Second lesson: Follow your heart; but stick to what you know. Taking a quick look at Kellogg’s incoming classes in recent years, one cannot help but be impressed with the rich diversity of experiences and backgrounds. An Indy 500 racecar driver … a clown with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus … an astronaut… an aquaculturist … the list goes on. Each one of you brought an utterly unique passion for life and a rich array of skills and assets when you came here, and I hope that you have kept that portfolio current and top of mind as you crunched numbers and assessed economics over the past two years. Because I truly believe that your greatest success lies in following your heart and sticking to what you know. Everything ... Every dime I’ve made in the forty-plus years I’ve been in the media business … I plowed right back into the media business. The acquisitions I’ve made in recent years – Viacom, Blockbuster, Paramount, CBS – are some of the biggest bets ever made in this industry.
But I’ve been investing in the motion picture industry for decades. During the years I was running National Amusements, the company took large takes in Warner Communications, Disney, Loews and, ultimately, Fox and Columbia… and we made a lot of money. My profit on the Columbia stock alone was $26 million dollars. Many investors are counseled to diversify. That’s probably good advice for many people. But not me. I believe that to understand the value of a business, you must be able to anticipate success. You can’t evaluate a company based simply on the present worth of its assets and operations. You need to understand the growth dynamic, the potential and your own participation in realizing it. You have to be fully confident that if its value is ten, you can make it twenty. If you ever question that confidence, you’ve already lost. While I always inform my opinions with comprehensive due diligence, I take action based on gut instinct. Instinct, as I define it, is a combination of experience and the intellectual capacity to come up with the right answer to a question, the right solution to a problem. I have that instinct when it comes to media and entertainment, because I know that business. And I stick to what I know. My final piece of wisdom: It’s not about the money…. It’s about living and winning. I don’t splurge on much in my life. My material desires have always been minimal. Born to the children of Jewish immigrants, I spent my early years in a tenement called Charlesbank homes in Boston’s west end. Our apartment had no toilet; it never occurred to me that other apartments did. My father peddled linoleum, supporting not only a wife and two kids but his own parents and my mother’s family as well. He was a hardworking, highly competent man, who steadily succeeded through life, ultimately building his own business – first nightclubs, then a small chain of drive-in movie theaters.
My mother devoted herself to the care and the education of her two sons … with an emphasis on education. The values my parents instilled in me did not include living extravagantly and amassing great personal wealth. The truth is, I’ve never cared for money. I realize that sounds strange coming from a billionaire, and I recognize that many people do work for money, but I would wager that those who become extremely successful are more strongly motivated by the desire to achieve, by a commitment to excellence and by an obsessive drive to win. They are not primarily motivated by the lure of the dollar. That certainly describes me. I have the passion to win – in my case you can judge a book by its cover. I put everything I had into every business battle … and I must say I relished every minute. Why? Because the assets were worth fighting for, and because I enjoy a good contest. If you get involved in a major competitive struggle and the stress that inevitably comes with it, you’d better derive some real sense of satisfaction and enjoyment from the battle as well as the ultimate victory … or you’re toast. Anyone who has worked with me will verify that I love being in the thick of the fray. I work ‘til I drop, and I expect those by my side to do the same … I believe in absolute and unrelenting commitment to a goal, and I’ve held this work ethic since I was a child. As a schoolboy, I brought home top honors year after year. And that’s because I worked relentlessly … morning, noon and night. I had no friends. I had no social life. I honestly don’t remember eating in high school. The ten cents I spent every day on the round-trip streetcar fare was a significant expense for my family. I had to justify that expense. I had to be the best. That meant no slips, no lapses, no room for error.
Over the course of my career, my colleagues and I have endured endless, mind-numbing 20-hour days of painstaking negotiation. They were brutal. And they were the best times of my life. That’s the reward of working ‘til you drop. That’s the reward of winning. But let me quickly draw the distinction – as Enron did not – between winning … and winning at all costs. An honest victory is the only victory in the long run, as we all intuitively know. Unfortunately, greed blinds that intuition all too often. In all the negotiations I’ve conducted throughout my career – and there have been many – I’ve followed one preeminent principle: unless it’s a win/win, you both lose.
Well, my duty this afternoon was to provide you with some intuition as to what the journey is like from where you are to where I am, and I hope I have discharged it. Your good fortune, class of 2002, may well be your lack of good fortune compared with previous years. You’ve had to strike forth and discover your own destinies in a difficult and hazardous world, and, in so doing, you have stepped outside yourselves into a bigger and tougher but more rewarding world. I have always believed and I have taught my children and grandchildren that great success is not built on success. It is built on failure, frustration and sometimes even calamity. As the American writer, J.A. Holmes, once observed, "it is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." We all had a powerful reminder of that truth last fall, as we came face to face with the sadistic egos of the few and the selfless heroism of the many. Last September’s tragic events powerfully readjusted our collective and individual priorities and reminded us all that our ultimate legacy is the difference we make in the lives of others. Each of us will define that notion of “service to others” in our own unique way. For my part, I teach. Early in my career with the Department of Justice, I taught at the University of San Francisco Law School. Later, I designed a course called "Law of the Entertainment Industry," which I taught for five hours a week for several years at the Boston University Law School. I’ve since been a regular visiting professor at Brandeis University and at Harvard Law School, and I must tell you, these have been among the most fulfilling activities of my career. It's a learning experience as well as a teaching experience, and it has provided me with the opportunity to give something back to the academic community – a community that has given so very much to me. I encourage all of you to explore any and all opportunities to pass along the benefits of your experience to those who will follow. This may sound like jargon, but it is not – it will add to your own self-esteem and enhance the pleasure of how you work and live. An important part of that experience is the time you have spent here. You will find that it forms a bridge to a larger world, a bridge based on warmth, on caring, on community and, yes, on expectations. That larger world will engulf you; you can never completely escape it. But you will find that the commitment to excellence – that passion to win – that this school has instilled in you will serve you well all the days that will follow. My early days at Boston Latin School and later at Harvard inspired in me both the ability to achieve great success and the character to withstand tremendous disappointment. At Kellogg, you have learned to think analytically ... To organize your mind to accept and assess every possible option ... Every potential avenue. But more importantly, Kellogg has taught you to act on that knowledge, decisively and aggressively. While you arrived here knowing how to take a chance, you leave here knowing how to take the right one. Trust your gut. Be a risk taker. I recognize that it has been a long day, so let me leave you with the following observation on life by the poet, Emily Dickinson. She wrote, "to live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else." That, to me, is the definition of a life lived to the fullest, and
one I strive to fulfill every day. Life should not be a passive exercise. Rather it should be engaging ... And challenging ... And enriching. If we waste it ... If we place limits on it... If we disregard its opportunities, then we have denied not only ourselves, but all those who could have been touched by our efforts.
I hope that you feel the same as I ... And that you greet the life and the career that await you with the same vigor that attended your studies. I commend you on your past accomplishments. Now, at the risk of being repetitive, let me remind you – trust your instinct. Don’t be a follower. Live dangerously. If there is a choice, take a chance. And remember – in the world in which you will live, the world in which I live now, like it or not, winning is everything.
Thank you.

East vs West - Which is the best - N R Narayana Murthy

Some lessons from elsewhere: for starters, extend your family values beyond
the boundaries of your home - NRN

As is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can survive only collectively. Hence, our challenge is to form a progressive community by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this we need to develop a value system where people accept modest sacrifices for the common good. A value system is the protocol for behavior that enhances the trust, confidence and commitment of members of the community. It goes beyond the domain of legality-it is about decent and desirable behavior. Further, it includes putting the community interests ahead of your own.
There are two pillars of the cultural value system: loyalty to family and loyalty to community. One should not be in isolation to the other, because, successful societies are those which combine both harmoniously. As an Indian, I am proud to be part of a culture which has deep-rooted family values. This is the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths. Our families act as a critical support mechanism for us. Unfortunately, our attitude towards family life is not reflected in our attitude towards community behavior. From littering the streets to corruption to breaking of contractual obligations, we are apathetic towards the common good. The primary difference between the West and us is that, there, people have a much better societal orientation. In the West-the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand-individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their community. They care more for the society than we do.
Further, they generally sacrifice more for the society than us. Quality of life is enhanced because of this. Consider some of the lessons that we Indians can learn from the West: Respect for the public good: In the West, there is respect for the public good. For instance, parks free of litter, clean streets, public toilets free of graffiti-all these are instances of care for the public good. On the contrary, in India, we keep our houses clean and water our gardens everyday but, when we go to a park, we do not think twice before littering the place. Attitude to corruption: In India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and bribery have eaten into our vitals. Corruption, as we see in India, is another example of putting the interest of oneself, and at best that of one's family, above that of the society.
Public apathy: Apathy in solving community matters has held us back from making progress, which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We behave as if the problems do not exist or are somebody else's. On the other hand, in the West, people solve societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. (i) For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More than 40 years ago, Dr K L Rao, an irrigation expert, suggested creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in North and South India, to solve this problem.
Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this (ii) The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided to build a thermal power plant to meet Bangalore's power requirements. Unfortunately, we have still not started it. (iii) The Milan subway in Bombay is in a deplorable state for the past 40 years and no action has been taken. To quote another example, considering the constant travel required in the software industry; five years ago, I had suggested a 240-page passport. This would eliminate frequent visits to the passport office. In fact, we are ready to pay for it. However, I am yet to hear from the ministry of external affairs on this.
We, Indians, would do well to remember Thomas Hunter's words: Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for this? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that public issues belonged to some foreign ruler and that we have no role in solving them. We have lost the will to proactively solve our own problems and got used to executing someone else's orders. Our decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately, there is nobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy. Our intellectual arrogance has also not helped our society. I have traveled extensively, and in my experience, have not come across another society where people are as contemptuous of better societies as we are, with as little progress as we have achieved. No other society gloats so much about the past as we do, with as little current accomplishment. This is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousand years old. For instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logician and traveller of the 10th century, who spent about 30 years in India from 997 AD to around 1027 AD, referred to this trait of Indians. According to him, during his visit, most Indian pundits considered it below their dignity even to hold arguments with him. In fact, on a few occasions when a pundit was willing to listen to him, and found his arguments to be very sound, he invariably asked Barouni: which Indian pundit taught these smart things!
At the same time, everyday, in the newspapers, you will find numerous claims from our leaders that ours is the greatest nation. These people would do well to remember Thomas Carlyle's words: ''The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.'' If we have to progress, we have to listen to people who have performed better than us, learn from them and perform better than them. We continue to rationalize our failures. No other society has mastered this art as well as we have. Obviously, this is an excuse to justify our incompetence, corruption, and apathy.
Another interesting attribute, which we Indians can learn from the West, is their accountability. Irrespective of your position, in the West, you are held accountable for what you do. However, in India, the more 'important' you are, the less answerable you are. For instance, a senior politician once declared that he 'forget' to file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years- and he got away with it. There are over 100 loss-making public sector units in India. Nevertheless, I have not seen action taken for bad performance against top managers in these organisations. In the West, each person is proud about his or her labour that raises honest sweat. On the other hand, in India, we tend to overlook the significance of those who are not in professional jobs.
We have a mindset that reveres only supposedly intellectual work. For instance, I have seen many engineers, fresh from college, who only want to do cutting-edge work and not work that is of relevance to business and the country. Yet another lesson to be learnt from the West, is their professionalism in dealings. The common good being more important than personal equations, people do not let personal relations interfere with their professional dealings. They don't hesitate to chastise a colleague, even if he is a personal friend, or family for incompetent work. In India, we tend to view even work interactions from a personal perspective. We are the most 'thin-skinned' society in the world-we see insults where none is meant.
In India, we consider our marriage vows as sacred. We are willing to sacrifice in order to respect our marriage vows. However, we do not extend this to the public domain. For instance, India had an unfavourable contract with Enron. Instead of punishing the people responsible for negotiating this, we reneged on the contract-this was much before we came to know about the illegal activities at Enron. To quote another instance, I had given recommendations to several students for the national scholarship for higher studies in US universities. Most of them did not return to India even though contractually they were obliged to spend five years after their degree in India. In fact, according to a professor at a reputed US university, the maximum default rate for student loans is among Indians-all of these students pass out in flying colours and land lucrative jobs, yet they refuse to pay back their loans. Thus, their action has made it difficult for the students after them, from India, to obtain loans.
Further, we Indians do not display intellectual honesty. For example, our political leaders use mobile phones to tell journalists on the other side that they do not believe in technology! To borrow Gandhi's words: There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
Let us work towards a society where we would do unto others what we would have others do unto us. Let us all be responsible citizens who make our country a great place to live. We have to extend our family values beyond the boundaries of our home. Let us work towards maximum welfare of the maximum people- 'Samasta janaanaam sukhino bhavantu''.
(Excerpts from a lecture delivered at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of
Management in New Delhi on October 1, 2002)
Narayana Murthy is the Head of Infosys, a top software company based in Bangalore