Others' Musings

 








 

 

What We Must Learn From the West

    Excerpts from a lecture delivered by N R Narayanamurthy at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of    

    Management, New Delhi, October 1st, 2002

I decided to speak on an important topic on which I have pondered for years – the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society. Coming from a company that is built on strong values, the topic is close to my heart. Moreover, an organization is representative of society, and some of the lessons that I have learnt are applicable in the national context. In fact, values drive progress and define quality of life in society.

As an Indian, I am proud to be part of a culture, which has deep-rooted family values. We have tremendous loyalty to the family. For instance, parents make enormous sacrifices for their children. They support them until they can stand on their own feet. On the other side, children consider it their duty to take care of aged parents. We believe: Mathru devo bhava – mother is God, and pithru devo bhava – father is God. Further, brothers and sisters sacrifice for each other. In fact, the eldest brother or sister is respected by all the other siblings. As for marriage, it is held to be a sacred union – husband and wife are bonded, most often, for life. In joint families, the entire family works towards the welfare of the family. There is so much love and affection in our family life. This is the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths. Our families act as a critical support mechanism for us. In fact, the credit to the success of Infosys goes, as much to the founders as to their families, for supporting them through the tough times.

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 to the common good. In the West – the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand – individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their community. The primary difference between the West and us is that, there, people have a much better societal orientation. 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. This is where we need to learn from the West.

I will talk about 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.

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. Society is relatively corruption free in the West. For instance, it is very difficult to bribe a police officer into avoiding a speeding ticket. This is because of the individual’s responsible behavior towards the community as a whole. On the contrary, in India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and bribery have eaten into our vitals. For instance, contractors bribe officials, and construct low-quality roads and bridges. The result is that society loses in the form of substandard defence equipment and infrastructure, and low-quality recruitment, just to name a few impediments. Unfortunately, this behavior is condoned by almost everyone.

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 is somebody else’s. On the other hand, in the West, people solve societal problems proactively.

There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. 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. 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. Further, the Milan subway in Bombay is in a deplorable state for the last 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 all this? We were ruled by foreigners for over thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that public issues belonged to some foreign ruler and that we have no role in solving them. Moreover, we have lost the will to proactively solve our own problems. Thus, we have got used to just executing someone else’s orders. Borrowing Aristotle’s words: We are what we repeatedly do. Thus, having done this over the years, the decision-makers in our society are not trained for solving problems. Our decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately, there is nobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy.

Acknowledging the accomplishment of others

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. Remember that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. No other society gloats so much about the past as we do, with as little current accomplishment. Friends, this is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousand years old. For instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logician and traveler 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!

The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and learn from them. Contrary to this, our leaders make us believe that other societies do not know anything! 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 change this attitude, listen to people who have performed better than us, learn from them and perform better than them. Infosys is a good example of such an attitude.

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. This attitude has to change. As Sir Josiah Stamp has said: It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.

Accountability

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 ‘forgot’ to file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years – and he got away with it. To quote another instance, there are over 100 loss making public sector units (central) in India. Nevertheless, I have not seen action taken for bad performance against top managers in these organizations.

Dignity of labor

Dignity of labor is an integral part of the Western value system. In the West, each person is proud about his or her labor 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. However, be it an organization or society, there are different people performing different roles. For success, all these people are required to discharge their duties. This includes everyone from the CEO to the person who serves tea – every role is important. Hence, we need a mindset that reveres everyone who puts in honest work.

Indians become intimate even without being friendly. They ask favors of strangers without any hesitation. For instance, the other day, while I was traveling from Bangalore to Mantralaya, I met a fellow traveler on the train. Hardly 5 minutes into the conversation, he requested me to speak to his MD about removing him from the bottom 10% list in his company, earmarked for disciplinary action. I was reminded of what Rudyard Kipling once said: A westerner can be friendly without being intimate while an easterner tends to be intimate without being friendly.

Professionalism

Yet another lesson to be learnt from the West, is about their professionalism in dealings. The common good being more important than personal equations, people do not let personal relations interfere with their professional dealings. For instance, they don’t hesitate to chastise a colleague, even if he is a personal friend, for incompetent work. In India, I have seen that we tend to view even work interactions from a personal perspective. Further, we are the most ‘thin-skinned’ society in the world – we see insults where none is meant. This may be because we were not free for most of the last thousand years.

Further, we seem to extend this lack of professionalism to our sense of punctuality. We do not seem to respect the other person’s time. The Indian Standard Time somehow seems to be always running late. Moreover, deadlines are typically not met. How many public projects are completed on time? The disheartening aspect is that we have accepted this as the norm rather than the exception.

In the West, they show professionalism by embracing meritocracy. Meritocracy by definition means that we cannot let personal prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual’s performance. As we increasingly start to benchmark ourselves with global standards, we have to embrace meritocracy.

Intellectual independence

 In the West, right from a very young age, parents teach their children to be independent in thinking. Thus, they grow up to be strong, confident individuals. In India, we still suffer from feudal thinking. I have seen people, who are otherwise bright, refusing to show independence and preferring to be told what to do by their boss. We need to overcome this attitude if we have to succeed globally.

Contractual Obligation

The Western value system teaches respect to contractual obligation. In the West, contractual obligations are seldom dishonored. This is important – enforceability of legal rights and contracts is the most important factor in the enhancement of credibility of our people and nation. 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 unfavorable 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 colors 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. We have to change this attitude.

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! If we want our youngsters to progress, such hypocrisy must be stopped.

We are all aware of our rights as citizens. Nevertheless, we often fail to acknowledge the duty that accompanies every right. To borrow Dwight Eisenhower’s words: People that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Our duty is towards the community as a whole, as much as it is towards our families. We have to remember that fundamental social problems grow out of a lack of commitment to the common good. To quote Henry Beecher: Culture is that which helps us to work for the betterment of all. Hence, friends, I do believe that we can make our society even better by assimilating these Western values into our own culture – we will be stronger for it.

Most of our behavior comes from greed, lack of self-confidence, lack of confidence in the nation, and lack of respect for the society. 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. In the words of Churchill: Responsibility is the price of greatness. We have to extend our family values beyond the boundaries of our home.

Finally, let us work towards maximum welfare of the maximum people – Samasta janaanaam sukhino bhavantu. Thus, let us – people of this generation, conduct ourselves as great citizens rather than just good people so that we can serve as good examples for our younger generation.

Thank you.
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Three visions for India, a speech by Dr Abdul Kalam

Quote: I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks ,the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us. My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self assured. Isn't this incorrect? I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economy power. Both must go hand-in-hand.

My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life. I see four milestones in my career: ONE: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be The project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist. TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the Part of India's missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. THREE: The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure,for which we have developed this new material. A very light material called carbon-carbon. FOUR: One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg.each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300 gram callipers and took them to the orthopaedic centre. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed To recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked Me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, You and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give Him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you Have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else." YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kmph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country why cannot you be the same here in India. Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay Mr.Tinaikar had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the o fficers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to The system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into th e distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.
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A very inspiring, interesting and thought provoking speech by Azim Premji (CEO , Wipro)
At the 37th Annual Convocation 2002, IIM, Ahmedabad

"While change and uncertainty have always been a part of life, what has been shocking over the last year has been both the quantum and suddenness of change.

For many people who were cruising along on placid waters, the wind was knocked out of their sails. The entire logic of doing business was turned on its head. Not only business, but also every aspect of human life has been impacted by the change. What lies ahead is even more dynamic and uncertain. I would like to use this opportunity to share with you some of our own guiding principles of staying afloat in a changing world. This is based on our experience in Wipro. I hope you find them useful.

First, be alert for the first signs of change.
Change descends on every One equally; it is just that some realize it faster. Some changes are sudden but many others are gradual. While sudden changes get attention because they are dramatic, it is the gradual changes that are ignored till it is too late. You must have all heard of story of the frog in boiling water. If the temperature of the water is suddenly increased, the frog realizes it and jumps out of the water. But if the temperature is very slowly increased, one degree at a time, the frog does not realize it till it boils to death. You must develop your own early warning system, which warns you of changes and calls your attention to it. In the case of change, being forewarned is being forearmed.

Second, anticipate change even when things are going right.
Most people wait for something to go wrong before they think of change. It is like going to the doctor for a check up only when you are seriously sick or thinking of maintaining your vehicle only when it breaks down. The biggest enemy of future success is past success. When you succeed, you feel that you must be doing something right for it to happen. But when the parameters for success change, doing the same things may or may not continue to lead to success. Guard against complacency all the time. Complacency makes you blind to the early signals from the environment that something is going wrong.

Third, always look at the opportunities that change represents.
Managing change has a lot to go with our own attitude towards it. It is proverbial half-full or half empty glass approach. For every problem that change represents, there is an opportunity lurking in disguise somewhere. It is up to you to spot it before someone else does.

Fourth, do no allow routines to become chains.
For many of us the routine we have got accustomed to obstructs change. Routines represent our own zones of comfort. There is a sense of predictability about them. They have structured our time and even our thought in a certain way. While routines are useful, do not let them enslave you. Deliberately break out of them from time to time.

Fifth, realize that fear of the unknown is natural.
With change comes a feeling of insecurity. Many people believe that brave people are not afflicted by this malady. The truth is different. Every one feels the fear of unknown. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to manage fear without getting paralyzed. Feel the fear, but move on regardless.

Sixth, keep renewing yourself.
This prepares you to anticipate change and be ready for it when it comes. Constantly ask yourself what new skills and competencies will be needed. Begin working on them before it becomes necessary and you will have a natural advantage. The greatest benefit of your education lies not only in what you have learnt, but in working how to learn. Formal education is the beginning of the journey of learning. Yet I do meet youngsters who feel that they have already learnt all there is to learn. You have to constantly learn about people and how to interact effectively with them. In the world of tomorrow, only those individuals and organizations will succeed who have mastered the art of rapid and on-going learning.

Seventh, surround yourself with people who are open to change.
If you are always in the company of cynics, you will soon find yourself becoming like them. A cynic knows all the reasons why something cannot be done. Instead, spend time with people who have a "can-do" approach. Choose your advisors and mentors correctly. Pessimism is contagious, but then so is enthusiasm. In fact, reasonable optimism can be an amazing force multiplier.

Eighth, play to win.
I have said this many times in the past. Playing to win is not the same as cutting corners. When you play to win, you stretch yourself to your maximum and use all your potential. It also helps you to concentrate your energy on what you can influence instead of getting bogged down with the worry of what you cannot change. Do your best and leave the rest.

Ninth, respect yourself.
The world will reward you on your successes. Success requires no xplanation and failure permits none. But you need to respect yourself enough so that your self-confidence remains intact whether you succeed or fail. If you succeed 90 per cent of the time, you are doing fine. If you are succeeding all the time, you should ask yourself if you are taking enough risks. If you do not take enough risks, you may also be losing out on many opportunities. Think through but take the plunge. If some things do go wrong, learn from them. I came across this nteresting story some time ago:
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway. It wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.
Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and totted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!

Tenth, in spite of all the change around you, decide upon what you will never change: your core values.
Take your time to decide what they are but once you do, do not compromise on them for any reason. Integrity is one such value. Finally, we must remember that succeeding in a changing world is beyond just surviving. It is our responsibility to create and contribute something to the world that has given us so much. We must remember that many have contributed to our success, including our parents and others from our society. All of us have a responsibility to utilize our potential for making our nation a better place for others, for those who may not be as well endowed as us, or as fortunate in having the opportunities that we have got. Let us do our bit, because doing one good deed can have multiple benefits not only for us but also for many others.
Let me end my talk with a small story I came across some time back, which illustrates this very well.
This is a story of a poor Scottish farmer whose name was Fleming.
One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby dog. He dropped his tools and ran to the dog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy 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.
"Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me take your son and give him a good education. If he's anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of you." And that he did.
In time, Farmer Fleming's son 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 nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.
This is not the end. The nobleman's son also made a great contribution to society. For the nobleman was none other than Lord Randolph Churchill and his son's name was Winston Churchill.
Let us use all our talent, competence and energy for creating peace and happiness for the nation."
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Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's Teacher...

Respected Teacher

My son will have to learn I know ,that all men are not just,all men are not true.
But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated leader...
Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,

It will take time, I know; but teach him if you can,that a dollar earned is of far more value than five found...

Teach him to learn to lose...and also to enjoy winning.

Steer him away from envy,if you can.

Teach him the secret of quiet laughter.
Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick...

Teach him, if you can,the wonder of books...
But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,bees in the sun,and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him it is far honourable to fail than to cheat...

Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong...

Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon...

Teach him to listen to all men...but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him if u can, how to laugh when he is sad...
Teach him there is no shame in tears,
Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness...

Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right.

Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage to be impatient...let him have the patience to be brave.

Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order, but see what you can do...
He is such a fine fellow,my son!

Abraham Lincoln.
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Larry Ellison Speech, Yale 2003

This is the speech that Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO) gave at Yale University to the graduating class of 2000 last month and he was ushered off the Stage because of it:

"Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude. In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers.

You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am college dropout, and you are not, because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet-for now anyway-is a college dropout, and you are not. Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not. And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No.9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not.

Hmm ... you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your Egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word "therapy."

All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy. You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world.

Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to #10 or #11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer.

Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, Are wondering, "Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all? Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 9 anymore. You have a built-in cap,and I'm not referring to the mortarboards on your heads.

Hmm ... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this could be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former Classmates who dropped out two years ago. Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up. For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me down..."

(At this point The Oracle CEO was ushered off stage.)
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A Story on how to manage your career & your expectations, by R.Gopalakrishnan - Vice Chairman, Tata Group of Companies

There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb which Nature gives to man after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to share my comb with your people, about their career ahead.

1. Seek out grassroots level experience
I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few months before graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for Computer Traineeship.When asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of Computers,I responded negatively : an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy?

Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of comfortable weeks in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket to go to Nasik.Would I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his territory, which included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among other small towns.I was most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's folder in my hand. Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared in front of me in Ozhar, believe it or not! and exclaimed, "Gopal, I thought you joined as a Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a thousand deaths. After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a Despatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the Accounts Department. Several years later, I realised the value of such grassroots level experience. It is fantastic.

I would advise young people to seek out nail-dirtying, collar-soiling,shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn about organizations, about the true nature of work, and the dignity of the many, many tasks that go into building great enterprises.

2. Deserve before you desire
At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears soap, the company's most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what was a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for the production,sales and profits of the brand, accountable for its long-term growth,etc.,etc. I had read those statements, I believed them and here I was, at 27,"in charge of everything". But very soon, I found I could not move a pin without checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning the Facit machine handle through various calculations, I sat in front of the Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I could not be given total charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The perception and reality are both right. You will get total charge when you know more about the brand than anyone else in this company about its formulation, the raw materials, the production costs, the consumer's perception, the distribution and so on. How long do you think that it will take?" "Maybe, ten years", I replied, "and I don't expect to be the Lifebuoy and Pears Brand Manager for so long"! And then suddenly, the lesson was clear. I was desiring total control, long before I deserved it. This happens to us all the time - in terms of responsibilities, in terms of postings and promotions, it happens all the time that there is a gap between our perception of what we deserve and the reality of what we get.It helps to deserve before we desire.

3 Play to win but win with fairness
Life is competitive and of course, you play to win. But think about the balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about how and where you draw the line. Each person draws it differently, and in doing so, it helps to think about values. Winning without values provides dubious fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most are the ones with a set of universal values ¡V Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King for example. Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved army to fight and seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty years. But all the while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil ambition, and not in pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish ambition. I am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and here are two examples of winners.A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover from a cramp. A British kayak team who were trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes went on to beat the British by one second in a three hour event! What wonderful examples of sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.

4 Enjoy whatever you do
Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement, "There is no greater fun than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask any person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment of existence. He will say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means is the struggle for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with success after getting it, the very achievement of it must lead him to unhappiness. Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means to something else". But if you think about it, we should not work for happiness. We should work as happy people. In organisational life, people get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try to be happy, the more unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about your reaching your full potential. Working at one's full potential, whether it is the office boy or the Chairman, leads to enjoyment and fulfillment.
A last point about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humour about yourself. Too many people are in danger of taking themselves far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell is reported to have said, "Keep smiling. The higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see of his backside".

5 Be Passionate about your health
Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight paunch, greying of hair or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the working career begins that the greatest neglect of youthful health occurs.Sportsmen stop playing sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving in mates of hostels eat rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too busy, or that you do not have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the stresses of a professional career.
A professional career is indeed very stressful. There is only one person who can help you to cope with the tension, avoid the doctor's scalpel,and to feel good each morning - and that is yourself. God has given us as good a health as He has, a bit like a credit balance in the bank. Grow it,maintain it, but do not allow its value destruction. The penalty is very high in later years.

6 Direction is more important than distance
Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long distance. In the process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game involves the masterly co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The golf coach always advises that direction is more important than distance. So it is with life.
Despite one¡¦s best attempts, there will be ups and downs. It is relationships and friendships that enable a person to navigate the choppy waters that the ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there was a memorable film by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to commit suicide because he thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him. The bottomline of the film is that "No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends".

Conclusion
My generation will never be twenty again, but when you are older, you can and should be different from my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful country, and realising her true potential in the global arena depends ever so much on the quality and persistence of our young people. Good luck in your journey, my young friends, and God be with you and our beloved Nation.

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In search of excellence in India

Our leaders as well as we the people must deliver and demand excellence from each other in the work we do and not make excuses, says Arun Maira

INDIA has aspirations to build world class infrastructure in its cities, increase exports of manufactured goods manifold and become the world's largest provider of skill-based services. However, the Achilles heel of these aspirations may very well be the subterranean culture of shoddiness that seems to pervade life in India. A carpenter leaves an uneven gap in the door. An el electrician fixes a point crookedly in the wall. A plumber does not show up when he said he would. A painter does not clean up when he is done. And a contractor excuses himself for poor quality because his subcontractors do not perform. These are people who do not take pride in their work. Sadly we accept such ordinariness -'chalta hai'- in our daily lives. This is our culture, we say. Which is difficult to change, we complain. However, we could change it provided we want to and know how.

The keys to excellence are, firstly to want it; secondly, expect people to deliver it; and thirdly, if one is responsible for the work of others, to give them the tools to produce it. Several Indian manufacturing companies, using these keys, have demonstrated that Indians can produce the best quality in the world. Nevertheless many Indian manufacturers have long ways to go yet. And the drive for excellence must be extended vigorously to the infrastructure and basic service sectors also. Therefore let us understand how these keys to excellence work.

Sumant Moolgaokar of Telco had a dream to create a factory in Pune that would make Indians proud. Young engineers were compelled to learn new skills to produce complex machines that had never before been produced in India. I remember the pride with which I took him, in 1981, to the factory floor to see a massive machine designed and built for the first time in the country. Over 50 meters long, with many miles of electrical wire and hydraulic tubing, it automatically machined a casting fed at one end into a cylinder head at the other. Instead of being pleased, Moolgaokar was visibly disturbed when he saw the result of our year's effort! "Look at the hydraulic pipes: they are not parallel to each other!" he said. "Trifles make for perfection. And perfection is no trifle", he added. The machine had to be redone. Because Moolgaokar was a man who wanted the best and was determined to get it. And his persistence enabled Indian engineers to show that they were inherently no less than the best engineers anywhere.

Moolgaokar, one of the country's greatest engineers, was striving for excellence. And so was Lakshman, a driver in Telco. I was barely thirty and Lakshman was almost sixty years old. Every time we arrived at a destination, he would run around the car to open the door for me. I suggested that I was young enough to do it myself. He said that it was not me that he was concerned about but the car! He did not want me to bang the door shut. He said he was striving to set a new standard for maintenance free performance of Ambassador cars before he retired in a year's time. He was tracking the maintenance records of all the company cars. While all other cars had chalked up the usual high costs, costs for his car were negligible. What amazed me was that there was no scheme to hold drivers accountable for maintenance costs. Therefore no one other than Lakshman even knew what he was striving for. He demonstrated to me, unforgettably, that pride in work and the pursuit of excellence are hardly the exclusive purview of the educated elite.

People want to do better. They want to be proud of themselves. The job of leaders is to provide them tools to help them along. When all the workmen in Telco were introduced to TQM in the-early 1980s, the group that turned in the best improvements were the 'uneducated' canteen boys employed by a workmen's co-operative. They were not even part of the official TQM rollout. But they were thirsty to learn. They formed teams on their own, picked up the tools of TQM, and applied them to improve the customer experience in the canteens and reduce cost. Very soon the canteens were showpieces of whose standards Telco was as proud as its machine shops. The canteen boys also won awards at inter-company TQM contests, competing against teams of engineers from other companies. Therefore let us not write off anyone as incapable of producing excellence. Not even the artisans and petty contractors with whose examples I began this piece.

Nobel Prize winning author, V S Naipaul, who had written off India in his books, India: An Area of Darkness, and India: A Wounded Civilization, saw the seeds of a new India when he visited Pune. In his latter book he wrote: "The plateau around Pune is now in parts like a new country, a new continent... (Telco managers and workers) say that they are building for the twenty-first century... Men handling new machines, exercising technical skills that to them are new, can also discover themselves as men, as individuals." There are two lessons in these stories. The first, contrary to the views of some writers including Naipaul, is that there is nothing in the Indian "character" that dooms us to half-measures and slip-shod execution. if the workmen of TVS Motors, the staff of Jet Airways, and the canteen boys of Telco can do it, we need no more proof that Indians can achieve world-class standards in their work. Admittedly these stories describe exceptions today, and the general condition is sloppy. Something is required to spark a broader movement of change.

The second lesson in the stories is that there is a way to produce the change. Leader, change cultures towards excellence by setting their standards high, expecting good performance from all people, giving them the tools they need, and never accepting less than the best. But since India is not Singapore, citizens cannot be fined by the State for being sloppy. We, the citizens and customers of services, will have to take it upon ourselves not to accept anything less than the best from each other. Each of us may be as guilty of failing to deliver the excellence that we are capable of as the others we accuse of falling short. Do we want excellence in India? It is in our hands.
(The author is chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India)
Source: Economic Times 24th July 2003

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Learning Lessons From Early Career, by Muktesh Pant,Chief Marketing Officer for Reebok International, Boston, USA.

In twenty-five years of corporate life, I have probably made twenty five hundred mistakes, and learnt maybe ten lessons. A true lesson is one from which you change your behaviour for the better. Three of these lessons were learnt early, when I was fresh out of IIT Kanpur, coping with the rigorous demands of Hindustan Lever's outstanding management training program.

1) I was still a raw trainee in HLL 25 years ago when Pradeep Dutt, who then ran the Personal Products division, called me to his office late one evening and told me that I was being posted to Chennai as Area Manager for South India. The first few days at Chennai are still etched in my memory as though they were yesterday. My area steno was a wonderful man called A Srinivasan, whom everyone called AS. From the first day, AS and I developed a mutual liking and respect, and though he was old enough to be my father, he never resented me as a boss. But there was one area in which I constantly earned his wrath. AS had a fetish for keeping tabs on expenses.

One day he got really upset when I didn't find time to file an expense report on time, refusing even to sit as he entered my office. He glowered at me, and said in a menacingly low voice " Sir, it isn't your money, it's the company's. If you can't file your expense reports on time, you will never make a good manager.", and he left the room. Eventually we made our peace, but only after I promised thenceforth to carry blank expense statements on tour, filling them out as I rode the train back to Chennai. It's a habit that has never left me, and to this day I have a compulsive desire to square up official expenses within a day of completing a trip. I have realised over the years that it was not so much about that little expense statement, but about the importance of personal integrity-make a fetish of this aspect of personal discipline, and the rest will follow. I have used AS's line on hundreds of rookies, 'If you can't file your expense reports on time, you will never make a good manager, I don't care how smart you are'.

2) Minoo Kalyaniwalla was a legendary HLL salesman in Secundarabad. He effortlessly beat his targets, and had an iron hold on the market. I was fascinated by his style from the time we first met, and I spent weeks with him travelling all over Telengana selling truckloads of Rin and Lifebuoy. He knew every shopkeeper personally, but the most amazing thing about him was that he spent very little time on actual sales talk: he had a fantastic sense of humour that he used to telling effect. I was fresh out of engineering college in those days, unfamiliar with the world of commerce, and tended to be awkward and analytical. Minoo was the polar opposite.

To him selling soap was a by-product of entertaining his clients. For the most part the world of business is serious and somewhat tense. Humour can inject a doze of magic into any situation, and a witty remark or joke can defuse situations and provide a way forward, whether in the soap market in Begumpet or at a boardroom in New York. I will never forget Minoo and his disarming humour, and how he taught me that if you get a customer to laugh, you can get him to do pretty much anything.

3) One of the most difficult tasks in corporate life is to know when to keep your mouth shut. There are constant temptations in the office to gossip, moan and complain, particularly about people in senior positions. I am now convinced that if you say anything damaging about anybody, there is a better than even chance your comment will get back to that person, and damage your relationship. It doesn't matter how much you trust that person you are having the conversation with.

I wish I could take this advice as strongly as I am giving it, because I still tend to make this fundamental mistake. I wish I could learn from CR Tilak, who in 1978 worked for me as a steno.

We had a close working relationship, but in all that time I cannot recall him speak disparagingly about anyone. I can remember times when some of us would gossip about someone or other in Tilak's presence, but he never ever joined the fray, preferring to listen with a smile, or steering us away to another subject.

Personal discipline, humour and discretion are among the hallmarks of successful executives. That is why I will always remain grateful to my early mentors AS, Minoo and Tilak: the three may have retired in relatively humble positions in the Chennai branch of HLL, but they each taught lessons in management that are just not on the curriculum of any IIM.

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  Last updated: 13th July, 2004