Tuesday, October 19, 2004
On a different Plane
Last weekend we at NITIE conducted Prerana 2004, an inter b-school event. Let me give a brief about the event … it’s a mega event full of activities… Summer Project Contest, Srijan (strategy game), Prerana Business Meet, Prerana Business Quiz… this year we added red herrings (a consolidation of several games) and online games. Online games were under the banner of Mashtisk covered online games in all the management segments and also included an informal section where a comic character was introduced… Arbit Choudhury … Generally speaking, any event like Prerana will require enormous effort and team work, without which nothing can happen… one can learn real life management through these events…
It is simply a team work… if team is not together… failures are unavoidable. It can not be eight individuals working for a goal… there should be cohesion in the decision making. Though I am not commenting on coordination of Prerana, but there are few things which came up as points to ponder… first and foremost… understand last year how things rolled and what were the failure points. Second, have certain rationale behind assumptions. Further, take wisdom from people who have some experience (they might not come directly in the fore front, but then talking to them on individual basis can reveal a lot of ideas and possibilities). Also delegate responsibility and decision making powers rather than just work (in such cases there is no hierarchy and all prefer to be accepted on equal platform)… [Giving such responsibilities help better work coordination, and reduce unnecessary workload]. Last and not the least… communicate… internally and to the mass (whose support you are expecting). There should be least gap in terms of expectations. Another thing is divide work and responsibilities… every one should not do everything… as it ends up no one doing anything … finally, it should be as the eight individuals should be making critical decisions (specially financial) and coordinate with the delegated responsibility owners.
Another key thing is managing time and ensuring that it is not lost… specially when targeting big people, time is the most critical factor which determine the success of the effort. And accept and give proper credits to the person who is contributing to the event (it gives psychological win!).
The above is not just true for any event management, but also in projects in work and our daily life…
It is simply a team work… if team is not together… failures are unavoidable. It can not be eight individuals working for a goal… there should be cohesion in the decision making. Though I am not commenting on coordination of Prerana, but there are few things which came up as points to ponder… first and foremost… understand last year how things rolled and what were the failure points. Second, have certain rationale behind assumptions. Further, take wisdom from people who have some experience (they might not come directly in the fore front, but then talking to them on individual basis can reveal a lot of ideas and possibilities). Also delegate responsibility and decision making powers rather than just work (in such cases there is no hierarchy and all prefer to be accepted on equal platform)… [Giving such responsibilities help better work coordination, and reduce unnecessary workload]. Last and not the least… communicate… internally and to the mass (whose support you are expecting). There should be least gap in terms of expectations. Another thing is divide work and responsibilities… every one should not do everything… as it ends up no one doing anything … finally, it should be as the eight individuals should be making critical decisions (specially financial) and coordinate with the delegated responsibility owners.
Another key thing is managing time and ensuring that it is not lost… specially when targeting big people, time is the most critical factor which determine the success of the effort. And accept and give proper credits to the person who is contributing to the event (it gives psychological win!).
The above is not just true for any event management, but also in projects in work and our daily life…
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
The RAT race!
Y’day I happened to see a play at Prithvi Theatre – Chabi (Key) directed by Dinesh Thakur. The play was about an assistant accountant who has dreams… dreams we all have… of money… of promotions… of love… of life! Having a room (with just bathroom and no kitchen) his life was nothing more than work, work and then sleep in the room (can’t call it a home either). And then… some senior members of the company found him or rather his “room” a bit of “need” for their “past times” … Yup! You got it right… it was needed in evening/ nights… from day one of the week, his room was booked for almost whole of the week. He had to do nothing but to pass on the keys. This would help him in getting some raise and some promotion.
It happens in our daily life too… of course in many different ways. We try to get into the “rat race” and to get ahead of people around us in all the possible ways … forgetting the core fact that even if one wins the race… we still remain a RAT!!!
So the bigger question is are we too in a rat race… running against the life… getting tired, frustrated, and depressed with the seeing rats around … if yes then I think, being in a rat race we chose to have rats around us. But why are we in that race… can we survive without it…
The answer is not NO… neither is yes! Since childhood, we are tuned by our parents, neighbors, teachers, and preachers, about the good, the bad and the ugly. We make our choices with the option given to us and nothing beyond that. Our thinking is limited to a world designed by the environment we grew in. We try to achieve what everyone else is seeking – even if it is not worthy or no way related to us. And the story doesn’t end here – the performance is evaluated every now and then, and it’s more of complains every time rather than appreciation of what has been achieved. (That’s the making of rat!)
Is there any solution to it? Yes! But it’s not easy to achieve. It is salvation – nirvana … NO! I am not talking about going to Himalayas and do meditation… (actually that can be one) I am talking about self realization – what do we really want? What is the intrinsic value we are seeking by doing something and are we achieving it…
As I said, it’s not easy! In the play too, though the man gets his love (after the lady realizes the intentions of the boss and took a bold step of refusing him); he, when reaches the status of being the Boss (!), does the same act of getting the key!
We all are rats and will continue to run throughout our life. There is no escape!
It happens in our daily life too… of course in many different ways. We try to get into the “rat race” and to get ahead of people around us in all the possible ways … forgetting the core fact that even if one wins the race… we still remain a RAT!!!
So the bigger question is are we too in a rat race… running against the life… getting tired, frustrated, and depressed with the seeing rats around … if yes then I think, being in a rat race we chose to have rats around us. But why are we in that race… can we survive without it…
The answer is not NO… neither is yes! Since childhood, we are tuned by our parents, neighbors, teachers, and preachers, about the good, the bad and the ugly. We make our choices with the option given to us and nothing beyond that. Our thinking is limited to a world designed by the environment we grew in. We try to achieve what everyone else is seeking – even if it is not worthy or no way related to us. And the story doesn’t end here – the performance is evaluated every now and then, and it’s more of complains every time rather than appreciation of what has been achieved. (That’s the making of rat!)
Is there any solution to it? Yes! But it’s not easy to achieve. It is salvation – nirvana … NO! I am not talking about going to Himalayas and do meditation… (actually that can be one) I am talking about self realization – what do we really want? What is the intrinsic value we are seeking by doing something and are we achieving it…
As I said, it’s not easy! In the play too, though the man gets his love (after the lady realizes the intentions of the boss and took a bold step of refusing him); he, when reaches the status of being the Boss (!), does the same act of getting the key!
We all are rats and will continue to run throughout our life. There is no escape!
Monday, October 04, 2004
IQ: Inspirational Quotient
Well inspired from two of my cousins… I also thought of writing a blog! Yup… this is my first blog… now before I introduce myself… this is more of putting down myself and my thoughts on paper… ok ok … on web! So just in case you don’t agree with any of my point of views… keep it with yourself!
Okay… so I am currently pursuing my post graduation in management from NITIE (Mumbai), one of the top 10 b-schools of India. Though the official specialization is industrial management, I am looking forward to IT & SCM Strategies as my focus area. Prior to being in NITIE, I did my engineering in Instrumentation & Control Engineering from REC Trichy (presently known as NIT Trichy) and worked in Wipro Technologies, Bangalore for about four years.
I love photography (I own a Nikon F65 with two lenses) and reading books… generally I can read anything, but prefer not reading classics. I have read so far from Sheldon, Cook, Segal, to Asimov, to Ruskin Bond and in hindi Prem Chand! Apart from that I have read a lot on philosophy, psychology, science fictions, fact-based books, and a gamut of management books (though some of them forcefully L ).
So, who are these two cousins of mine who inspired me to write… well they are genius. One of them, an alumnus of IIT Madras, is presently pursuing his masters from Harward, USA, and the other is the darling of ours pursuing Chartered Accountancy (CA) from Calcutta (Kolkata). Well… don’t you think that’s inspiring!
That’s it for now… more later…
Okay… so I am currently pursuing my post graduation in management from NITIE (Mumbai), one of the top 10 b-schools of India. Though the official specialization is industrial management, I am looking forward to IT & SCM Strategies as my focus area. Prior to being in NITIE, I did my engineering in Instrumentation & Control Engineering from REC Trichy (presently known as NIT Trichy) and worked in Wipro Technologies, Bangalore for about four years.
I love photography (I own a Nikon F65 with two lenses) and reading books… generally I can read anything, but prefer not reading classics. I have read so far from Sheldon, Cook, Segal, to Asimov, to Ruskin Bond and in hindi Prem Chand! Apart from that I have read a lot on philosophy, psychology, science fictions, fact-based books, and a gamut of management books (though some of them forcefully L ).
So, who are these two cousins of mine who inspired me to write… well they are genius. One of them, an alumnus of IIT Madras, is presently pursuing his masters from Harward, USA, and the other is the darling of ours pursuing Chartered Accountancy (CA) from Calcutta (Kolkata). Well… don’t you think that’s inspiring!
That’s it for now… more later…
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