simple interpretations

Next Move: Shanghai, China

2009-04-17T15:57:00.003+05:30

I have been planning to write this for a few weeks now, but never got down to it. Thanks to the unexpected day-off from work this Thursday that gave me enough time for this note. By the way, Thursday was a day-off because of the General Elections in India for which all establishments – public and private – have to be shut, so that people can go and cast their votes. But, because I am currently not in Jaipur, where I am registered as a voter, I could not/did not have to vote. The first point suggests how serious India is about this democratic exercise, and the second suggests that we still have some systems to put in place, considering the fact that more and more people will be moving to different parts of the country to work.

Anyways, the real purpose of writing this is to inform you all that I am moving to Shanghai in the first week of July to study further. I will be doing my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). http://www.ceibs.edu/

For those of you who do not know, I am currently working in the leadership development function of UBS in Hyderabad, India. I would be completing two years here in June, when I leave. I took this role a little less than a year after finishing at AIESEC International, in the Netherlands.

A commonly held belief about leadership is that you become a complete leader when you know what to do and also – what not to do – in any given situation. I think ‘this’ experience has helped me in completing that circle, at least for this stage of my life. I believe through my experiences in AIESEC I learnt what to do as a leader, and ‘this’ experience has mostly helped me understand what not to do as a leader. I am in no ways suggesting that my leadership education is over.

I applied to a total of seven MBA programs this year (three in the US, two in Europe and two in Asia). I was accepted at both the Asian programs (the Indian School of Business and the China Europe International Business School), and was waitlisted at INSEAD. So, the choice was limited, but I think this has worked out to be a blessing in disguise. Primarily for two reasons – (1) The American and the European programs are 3-4 times more expensive than CEIBS (I got a scholarship from them as well). Under the current circumstances, I would like as small a loan on my head as possible. (2) I think Asia is the place to be for business now. Asia is definitely where some of the most exciting business opportunities will be in the coming 15-20 years. I did not completely believe in this idea till very recently, but my experiences and readings in the last six months have confirmed this notion.

So – why CEIBS? (Over ISB – I guess – as that program was the only other option I had)

(1) CEIBS is a very reputed in the region, and its global stature is only going to grow in the coming years. It has been ranked as the best MBA program in Asia consecutively for the last six years by Financial Times, and was ranked No. 8 in the world in their 2009 global MBA rankings. http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings

(2) The money I will be spending from my pocket works out to be the same at ISB and CEIBS (after the CEIBS scholarship). So, I just went by ‘Where will I learn and grow more as an individual?’ Studying at ISB was not exciting at all – being in India, I would be in a certain comfort zone, the class is not very international, etc. I think studying at CEIBS will be much more challenging, plus it would be a great set of new experiences.

(3) The ‘story’ – being an Indian, having lived and traveled in Central and Eastern Europe, and having studied (and hopefully worked) in China – I think will position me uniquely, especially as I want my work to focus on business in the different emerging economies and regions of the world.

(4) There is so much to be learnt from the China story. Also, from what I understand, CEIBS attracts some of the most talented business minds from across the region, if not the world. This is a great opportunity to build an influential network here.

(5) The opportunity to learn Mandarin. At some levels, I think I regret the fact that I did not learn any new language while I lived in Europe. This is my opportunity to make up for that. Someone recently pointed out that by learning Mandarin, I would be speaking the three most spoken languages in the world – Hindi, English and Mandarin. Honestly, my first preference was to learn Spanish. But, I guess that would have to wait for a few more years.

(6) It is an 18-month course (almost 20 months, if you include the language and the other elements). I do not think I am the kind of person who would make the most of a 10/11 month ‘quick’ MBA. So, this works out to be just right. Plus, in this way I would graduate in 2011 and not 2010.

I am eagerly looking forward to this experience. And, I would love to hear/read your thoughts on what I have written here.

Kudos Andrew Miller

2008-11-26T13:39:00.003+05:30

This article on Cricinfo is one of the best articles I have read in a long long time about a cricket match. It is titled 'A gap too wide' and analyses the difference in the approaches of the Indian and the English cricket teams during last Sunday's game. It is a good read before reading my post on the game.
http://content-eap.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/379482.html#postacomment

Andrew Miller, the reporter, is the UK Editor of Cricinfo.

This 'Man Of The Match' Business In Cricket

2008-11-25T11:41:00.000+05:30

In cricket, like in most other sports, one player is adjudged the 'Player Of The Match' at the end of every game. In cricketing parlance he is called the 'Man Of The Match'. This award is meant for person who has had the biggest impact on the match and usually, this player is from winning team. So, basically the award is for the person who has helped his team win the game.

The award is adjudicated by the Match Referee, a person appointed by the ICC: the International Cricket Council, the international governing body of cricket, to oversee the match and to ensure that the game is being played in the right spirit and within the defined Code Of Conduct of cricket.

Now, this blog post has been triggered by the 'Man Of The Match' decision that was made for the one-day match between India and England on the 23rd of November 2008. The game was shortened to 22 overs because of rain, so it literally turned into a 20-20 fixture. Now, the rules of the shorter versions of the game (the 50 over and the 20 over game) are infamous for being too batsmen friendly, because the understanding is that the batsmen create greater entertainment value. This was proven again by the ‘Man Of The Match’ decision as well.

India won this game and the ‘Man Of The Match’ award was given to an Indian batsman called Virender Sehwag. But the fact is, and this I am sure was visible to anyone who follows the game, the man who had the biggest impact on the game was an Indian bowler called Zaheer Khan. Zaheer bowled with great maturity and control during two critical stages of the game and mentored the other junior fast bowlers through the game. He was the difference between India and England; his bowling average for the game, compared to the other five bowlers who were used by India, contributed the 20-odd runs that England lost the game by.

I think it is about time that we changed another rule in cricket. Like in American Football, where the winning coach hands the ‘Game Ball’ to the player of his team who he thinks made the biggest contribution to the team’s win, I think the adjudication of the ‘Man Of The Match’ in cricket should be done by the winning captain. He is in the best position to make a decision of this nature. More importantly, I think this change would do two things: (1) the players and spectators will start respecting this award a little more, because right now everyone sees the post-match ceremony where the award is handed out as another marketing event for the sponsors, and (2) having to make this decision will help the captain in further establishing himself as the leader of the team.

If I were in the team, I would be more proud of this achievement if it was my captain’s decision rather than a match referee’s.

Wikipedia link on Cricket - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket

How cruel is this?

2007-06-21T11:06:00.000+05:30

England lost 12-13 in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, in the semi-final of the European Under-21 Football (Soccer) Championship to Holland after having lead the game 1-0 till the 89th minute of regular time.

It seems that the English FA needs to contract Rafael Benitez to train its players and teams, at all levels, on winning games through spot kicks, as he is the only Manager on that island who seems to have figured it out.

Read the full story about the semi-final - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6766603.stm

What's up with these emblems?

2007-06-20T09:43:00.000+05:30

One phrase that was consistently used to describe the Cricket World Cup that got over earlier this year was 'it was a farce', especially after what happened in the final game. I am actually very surprised that people at large were 'surprised' by how poorly this tournament was organized. Honestly, I saw it coming!

One of the first signs for me was the official emblem of the tournament. I remember having a big laugh about this when one of my very good friends forwarded it to me in the summer of 2005, when it was first released. I kept asking myself if this was the best that they could come up with; especially keeping in mind that the International Cricket Council (ICC) wanted to use this World Cup as a show case event to position cricket as a 'serious' global sport.

Since the Cricket World Cup got over, the next event that I have been reading a lot about, with a lot of expectations, is the London Olympics. Well I honestly thought that the English were really committed to hosting a great event in one of the greatest cities on earth. Till the official emblem of the 2012 London Olympics was released.

Needless to say, I am apalled. Again, is this the best that we could come up with?

There are very few events in the world that can truly claim to be global. Olympics is quite naturally one of them and it calls for something a lot better.

The organizers of these events would be better served by opening the 'official emblem' to the public at large to send in entries, like bids are opened for any other aspect of the event. Then either a small panel of people, representing all walks of life, OR the people of the hosting city can pick the emblem by a simple majority vote.

For one, this would help them save some much needed money and I am very sure that the end product would be far better than what we have come to see in the recent past.

What's next?

2007-04-11T01:08:00.000+05:30

So, I was quite desperate today! I heard back from UBS this evening that they cannot go forward with my internship, which had only been confirmed last week. This is the second time something of this sort has happened to me in the last couple of months. Apparently, I am over-qualified according to their internal internship policies, since I left University about 3.5 years ago and their internships are only for 'recent graduates'. Now, why was this not brought up in the last 2 months, while I was participating in different selection processes of UBS, is beyond my understanding. But what I find most amazing is, had I been in a situation where I went back to University for 6 months, after my AIESEC International term, to complete my course (as some of my team mates from AI did) I would have been eligible for this internship :).

So during dinner, my dad had some words of wisdom for me, which I think are worth sharing. He told me the story of an old Indian King, which goes something like this -

"So there was a King who went to hunt one day. He was obviously accompanied by a troop of his soldiers and some other ministers from his court. He also had his doctor with him, for any emergencies.

One day, while chasing a deer on foot, the King was bitten by a snake on one of his toes and was left unconscious. The King's doctor amputated the toe as that was the only way of ensuring that the snake's poison didn't spread to the rest of the body. The King was very angry when he learnt about the amputation and without giving the doctor an opportunity to explain, he ordered for the doctor to be sent to prison for life.

Now, a few year's later, on another one of his hunting expeditions, the King lost his way in the forest and separated from his company of soldiers. He was then caught by a group of tribesmen to be offered as a human sacrifice to their Goddess. At the altar, when the King's shoes were taken off, the tribesman realized that one of his toes was missing. They let him go as the sacrifice of an incomplete man is not acceptable to the Goddess.

The King found his way back to his Kingdom and the first thing that he did was he ordered for his doctor to be set free from prison. He was extremely apologetic to the doctor when he met him next but the doctor seemed unperturbed about the time spent in prison. He actually thanked the King for putting him in the prison. The King was thus very confused.

The doctor explained by saying - Oh good King! Had I not been in prison I would have been by your side when you were caught by the tribesman and I would have surely been the person to be sacrificed. So you saved my life by putting me in prison."

The moral of the story - whatever does happen, happens for the best. It might not seem that way at that particular moment, but in hindsight we come to understand it. As Steve Jobs very rightly said in his very famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford - "You cannot connect the dots of life looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards."

So I ask - what's next? As I am very sure whatever is next is for the better.

The Flattening World & YOU

2007-04-09T14:59:00.000+05:30

So one of the things that I have spent a fair bit of my time on in the last few weeks is this presentation and guest speech that I have been asked to do in one of the local MBA institutes. I am actually doing the talk tomorrow and thought that I would share a copy of that presentation here as well.

I am basically talking about how I think business is changing around the world and what do these changes mean for the role of the 21st century business leader/manager, which I think would be the most valuable for most of the students.

Now, most of the ideas in the presentation are not necessarily orignial, they have been developed over a period of time from my travels, from my discussions with people of all walks of life, from the books I have read and from my observations. I think amongst other things, one thing that this presentation would do for people is help them structure their understanding of some of the changes in the world around us.

You can download the presentation from this link - http://www.mediamax.com/shantanubawari/Links/B74C9C91F8. If you do decide to download, be sure to read the speaker's notes as well because some of the slides do not make sense on their own. And make sure that you share your thoughts and comments here :).

He is a HERO!

2007-04-09T11:21:00.000+05:30

"Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel became on Friday the first person to swim the entire length of the Amazon."

He swam the nearly 5,400km (3,375 miles) from Peru to Brazil in about 66 days.

I have followed his progress over the last 2 months through the BBC website. You can read his weekly journal on this link - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6389845.stm

He is a champion and an inspiration to anyone with slightly unusual ambitions. A great story of how with a certain level of mental & physical discipline you can achieve the most challenging feats.

He is my HERO!

The best ever!

2007-02-19T18:05:00.000+05:30

So, the 33rd National Games of India just concluded in Gauhati, Assam yesterday. Assam is a state in the north-east of India and coincidentally I was born in the city of Gauhati :) and thus I was very proud when Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, who is the President of IOC - the Indian Olympic Committee, at the closing ceremony said that "The 33rd National Games were the best in the history of the country".

I am personally a big sports fan and a big supporter of sports, of all kinds and in all forms. I think a rich sporting tradition goes a long way in building a strong nation. Thus, I was following the games as much as I could, considering the fact that the broadcast on TV was of very poor quality and most of the sports pages in newspapers were dedicated to the upcoming Cricket World Cup. After reading Mr. Kalmadi's statements I decided to dig in a little more and gather some facts about the games.

For those who do not know what the National Games are, they are an event just like the Olympics where athletes and sports men and women from all over the country participate. They represent the different states of the country.

I think numbers paint a fairly accurate and un-biased picture, so I decided to rely upon them to find out what makes these Games the 'best ever'. So, here are some facts about the 33rd National Games -

6,872 Athletes - the most ever in any National Games
426 Gold Medals were given out at the Games
32 Disciplines - ranging from Aquatics to Fencing to Sepak Takraw to Rugby 7s. Yes rugby Frances :)
1 new National Record set

1 National Record broken in 10 days of competition! Is this as alarming as I am trying to make it out to be or it is not as big a deal? No wonder an Indian has never won a Gold Medal in an individual Olympic event. The last time we won a Gold Medal in the Olympics was in the 1980 Moscow Games in Field Hockey.

I am not trying to be another skeptical Indian who can't stop talking about the sad state of affairs when it comes to sports in India. It is a well known fact and our past performance speaks for it. But very little seems to have been done over the years and that very little is clearly not good enough. An average urban 9 year old has far fewer open, grassy fields to play on today than I had when I was 9, which was 17 years ago.

Development over the years has solely been focused on economic progress and is only being measured in economic terms. Some would argue that this is rightly-so, since millions are still homeless and hungry in the country. I believe being a sportsman helps develop very important leadership characteristics in individuals and thus goes a long way in building a strong nation. We as Indians need to address this with a certain amount of urgency, if we hope to have the desired cultural influence in the world that we deserve.

Kudos to Veerdhaval Khade who set a new national record in Men's 200 Meter Free-style Swimming at the 33rd National Games of India.

(I tried to search for the number of new National & World Records that were set at the last National Games of the People's Republic of China that were organized in October 2005, so that we had a relative figure, but was unable to find the exact number.)

Superpowerdom

2007-02-16T17:10:00.000+05:30

One thing that has consistently made the headlines over the last few years and seems to be a topic of discussion around the world, especially amongst the informed and the more optimistic Indians is the topic of India, along with China, joining the USofA as superpowers of the world. Different people and different experts put different timelines to this, but they all seem to speak with a lot of certainty about it. There is also certainty about the fact that China is going to get there first.

So, I thought, this would be a very good time to give some thought to what makes a country a superpower and whether the concept of superpowerdom is relevant in the world of today, whether we need one at all?

The concept of a superpower came to the forefront after The 2nd World War with USA and the former USSR emerging as the two superpowers of the world (the origins of the concept can actually be traced back to the early 1930’s). The two represented two different political ideologies, very closely linked with two different models of economic development. This was the primary conflict of the Cold War, which was fought in the political arena, militarily and in the space.

For a country to be recognized as a superpower, it has to have the ability to influence things in the world. This influence can be good or bad, as we all know, and it comes from a combination of political, military, economic and cultural factors.

The world has changed quite a bit since the Cold War. In the 21st century, whether a country has the influence of a superpower would depend upon if the following is true for her –

Politically!
- A stable, representative and transparent government with a functioning judiciary
- A clean human rights record where every citizen has access to all the resources that he/she needs to lead a dignified life, including things like education, medical care etc.
- A progressive international role through an active participation in global and regional affairs and in bodies like the UN, ASEAN etc.

Economically!
- A sizable population that through its consumption ensures a sizable economy (in terms of GDP) and an improving standard of living for everyone
- A favourable balance of trade (more exports than imports) ensuring dependence of the rest of the world on the country’s economic output, its raw materials, products and services (not just services)
- A hub of innovation and enterprise to ensure continued progress
- An independent and established space research and development program, which would enable continued technological advancement

Militarily!
- Deterrents in place for any kind of aggression against the country and if an armed aggression does happen, the ability to respond and reclaim in the minimum needed time
- Ability to reach and strike any part of the world
- Self-sufficiency through indigenous arms production

Culturally!
- Excellent centers of education and ground breaking research, in every field
- Dominance in various sports and sporting events, with a culture of achievement in sports
- Rich and progressive literature that makes ideas commonly accessible and carries them beyond the country’s boundaries

All of the above mentioned factors would have to come together to make a country influential enough in the global arena. Whether the superpower then uses the influence for the common good of the world or not is a collective responsibility of the political leadership and the general populace of the country, along with the rest of the world.

Do we need superpowers in the world and does having them help the ideals of a truly global world? I don’t think so!

Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, very rightly said on his 75th birthday that “Despite the great opportunity that the end of the Cold War presented to the U.S. to build a safer and more stable world, it only strengthened America's arrogance and unilateralism”.

We are bound to be more secure when all countries of the world have the basics for a life of dignity and equal opportunity in place for their people, and are progressing together. But that seems unlikely in the near future. To ensure balanced progress, to ensure that the fruits of progress reach every region of the world and most importantly to keep a check on the greed of a few, we need to be a multi-polar world today – a world with multiple power centers, which would pave the way for an equal world of tomorrow.

The one common theme that emerges from the above mentioned factors, and is very important keeping the current geo-politics of the world in mind, is that for any superpower to play a positive role in the world, she would have to be largely self-sufficient while supplying to the other nations of the world.

(Where India currently is as compared to each of these factors of superpowerdom is what I would present a perspective on, in the next post.)

A country, transformed?

2007-02-07T21:16:00.000+05:30

Having lived away from the country for the best of the last 3 years, I have heard so many stories about all that is going on in the country. I can hardly think of any socializing that I have done when questions about India and how things are going on in the country weren’t asked to me. I have always tried to answer these questions to the best of my ability. But over the last year or so I had developed a certain sense of discomfort, primarily because I felt I was losing touch and didn’t have first hand information or knowledge.

Thus, being at home at this point of time seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn about and see all that is going on in the country. And this seemed like a perfect opportunity for another thing – to make something of this blog :). So, for now, I am going to use this space to share my impressions of being home. In all my humility, I will also share ideas for how we can make the most of these opportunities and further improve the quality of life of people.

There is so much that jumps out at you and seems different, right from the channels that you can watch on TV at home to the traffic on the streets outside.

In all my discussions with people, I have always mentioned the Indian automobile industry as a very good example of the progress in the country and the choice available to an average consumer today. Till the early 90’s there were primarily 3 car makers in India – Hindustan Motors Limited, which used to make a car called Ambassador; Maruti Udyog Limited, in which the Japanese car maker Suzuki Motor Corporation has a controlling stake, which used to sell 3 different car models and Premier Automobiles Limited, which used to assemble the Italian Fiat’s Fiat 1100 car and sell it by the name of Premier Padmini. After the liberalization of the Indian economy, every major car maker in the world started manufacturing and selling cars in India and exporting them from India. This has given Indians, of all economic backgrounds, a great deal of choice.

With rising income levels this choice was amply used, which is proven by the steady increase in the number of cars (and automobiles, in general) on the streets of the country and the consistent growth in the sales of most of the car makers. Unfortunately, the length and width of roads and capacity of parking lots has not grown at the rate at which the number of automobiles has grown on these roads. The result is more crowded city streets, and this coupled with the fact that the knowledge of basic traffic rules and courtesy is minimal in an average Indian, driving on Indian roads is at times a comical and at times a horrifying experience.

Access to information and a free market have become the hallmarks through which we perceive and measure modern democracies. Freedom of the press and the media is the key to ensuring timely access to information for people, or so we believe. Internet plays a key role in sharing and accessing information in the developed world, but access to Internet is still not very widespread in India and usage of Internet is limited to a select section of the population. So Indians are mostly dependent on the media and the press for information, and thus the second thing that jumps out at you is the number of news channels on TV today.

From the one and only DoorDarshan, the state run TV channel, in the early 90’s which used to have a half an hour news spot, twice a day, the time equally divided between Hindi and English versions of the same news; to about 15 odd news channels today we have come a fair distance. This has ensured constant and regular access to news from around the world to most of the Indians. But unfortunately, most of the news coverage is focused towards sensationalism rather than thoughtful and responsible journalism. Furthermore, there is very little to differentiate between the different channels as they bid to ensure high viewer-ship ratings and end up covering the same events in a similar manner.

96% of retailing in India is currently done through small enterprises and stores, which are owned and managed by individuals and families. Thus a large section of the Indian population, mostly urban, earns their living through these retail stores. After the reorganization of the telecommunication, automobile and the financial services sector of the country, the retail sector has seen the most significant activity in the last couple of years. Most of the bigger corporate houses of India along with some international players have made significant investments in the area in a bid to tap into the unlimited economic potential, by reorganizing and centralizing retailing through big retail outlets. The buying potential of the smaller retailers is no match for the buying potential of these bigger players and thus they are gradually losing out.

The consumer, for now, seems to be winning with better quality products, standardized rates and comfort from the knowledge that they are not being cheated by the usage of a fixed weighing scale. The economic impact of this reorganization on the large section of the population, which earns its living from the retail sector, remains to be seen and is up for speculation. The question I keep asking myself is – are we creating a freer market in India, the second hallmark of a modern democracy, by reducing the market to a handful of players?

It is a very small section of the Indian population, though it is substantially large in absolute numbers, whose buying power has improved in the last decade, and it is this section of the population which can buy those cars, which goes to those bigger retail outlets, which has access to cable television and the Internet. The other section of the population, which is the majority, right now seems to be getting little benefit from these changes and seems to be moving further away from the main stream. The key to this gap, this division which is so visible and is only getting bigger (some describe it as the gap between the have’s and the have not’s) is the disparity in the level of education of the two groups, which doesn’t allow the have not’s to access the opportunities being thrown up in a country that is fast changing.

If progress doesn’t lead to an improvement in the quality of life of people, an improved standard of living for people at large without compromising growth opportunities of the future, it is incomplete and futile. And I wonder if there can be a substantial improvement in the standard of living of all Indians till the rate of growth of the population stabilizes.

Getting on the band wagon...

2005-07-10T20:59:00.000+05:30

...of using blogs. I am not sure yet what I want to be using my blog for:) but I think just the fact that I am going to be using blogs, it is going to help me formulate my thoughts on how the AIESEC learning environment could look like.