The 'i-Pod' Syndrome

How many times do we see joggers putting on their i-Pods to their ears and running in a park unmindful of things happening in their surroundings? Don't we see pedestrians walking on the road with their i-Pods or headsets from their mobiles in their ears, not responding to deafening horns ('Horn'y guys eh!) ?

Is this i-Pod syndrome applicable in the Corporate world?

My answer to this question would be 'YES'. The leaderships in organizations wear i-Pods (not literally) and tend to lose touch with the environment. The environment constitutes not just the organization and its employees, but also includes the customers, partners, resellers, distributors, etc, etc who form a part of the 'Supply Chain' of the organization.

The IT industry seems to suffer more from the 'i-Pod Syndrome' than some of the other industries. Let us look at some of the unwritten norms / rules in the IT industry in terms of expectations

1. Six Digit Salary within 3-4 years of joining the industry
2. Onsite trip, preferably to the US, in the first year of work. The wait should not be longer than 2 years. 
3. Salary hikes that are comparable to the best in the industry.
4. Promotions every two years.

All these could have worked with the IT industry was growing at an enormous pace. There was a time when companies showed 100% YoY growth and at least a 30% QoQ growth. Is that the case today? 

Firstly, IT industry in India is a business driven completely by global factors and have not much to do with the local Indian environment. Laws and rules against outsourcing is one of the issues that is plaguing the industry. Competition from Philippines on the BPO / KPO front is tremendous. Above all, India is mostly used as a platform for 'service and repair' rather than 'innovation and creation' of new products and services. 

Let me make an honest confession over here. These are not facts that most of us who work in the IT industry do not understand. All of us are aware of these and we are trying to increase our individual skills to suit the needs of the future. 

This is where the i-Pod Syndrome of the organizational leaderships come to the fore. One of the senior executives from a leading IT company comments  "...... Our employees will understand ...." depicts the magnitude of the problem. 

As a part of the middle management, in one of my earlier jobs, we had to face a lot of flack from our reportees. In the all employees calls / meetings, our leaders used to compare our performance and pace of growth to that of Usain  Bolt. When you are comparing yourselves to somebody who has been winning every race and creating world records, you are giving an impression that you are doing wonderfully well. However when it came to that time of the year where we were supposed to decide on promotions and increments, there comes the quota and the bad news. The middle management takes the blast from subordinates and superiors alike. Reportees shout at you saying "We are told that we are like Usain Bolt, but what you are saying is completely contrary to that. I don't believe you". The management says "You need to own the careers of your reportees and convince them that the times are not the same as it used to be in the previous years. If you can't do that why do you deserve to be in your position ?" 

People would have worked very hard year long (At least most of the 'Professionals' who believe that their aim in joining the IT industry is not just to use it as a platform for their MBA) for these pay hikes. The inflation is going through the roof. Price rise has been the order of the day in every walk of life. (Managing a Girlfriend is becoming next to impossible, is what some of my friends say!). All of a sudden a decision like this is communicated to the employees, that too through the media! 

What prevents the leadership from listening to what is happening around. All somebody would need to understand the pulse of the employees is to walk into the cafeteria and eavesdrop into some of the ongoing conversations. I am not opining that people should have been given hikes or not. That is purely the decision of the management. However what puzzles me is that the way some of these 'Game Changer'' decisions are handled. Why couldn't the management take their own colleagues into confidence and let them know about the situation? The only point here is, when the leaders speak to their line of influence, they should talk about plans on how they intend to revive the situation. In my opinion, lack of this plan is what prevents managements from communicating directly with their employees, thus making them adhere to forced i-Pod syndrome, where they pretend to be listening on their i-Pods. 

This attitude leads to the employees losing faith in their organizations, thereby impacting customer work most of the times. Customers see a dip in the levels of service that they have been getting. Mostly this is a temporary phenomenon, thanks to some amount of 'righteousness' left within us as individuals. But if this process of non-communication continues for sometime, then the person is bound to quit the organization. If the person can influence the decisions of the customer, S/He could walk away with the customer in the long run. 

An unsatisfied customer will leave no stone unturned to ensure that their requirements are met. Organizations end up hiring somebody to replace this person at probably a higher cost. The new employee comes into the organization with a completely different work culture and it will take a minimum of six months for the new employee to become 100% productive. 

Squeezing suppliers / vendors of all their margins will obviously leave then red eyed. Sudden decisions to fire supplier resources lead to a lot of heart burn and non cooperation from the suppliers when the organizations need more resources once their positions become strong enough. 

The forced i-Pod syndrome, where leaders want to isolate themselves from the happenings on the ground will eventually ensure that their businesses suffer drastically. Yes, everybody in the industry understands that these are difficult times. What is needed is more of an 'i-Phone' where there is a two way communication rather than an i-Pod which keeps the leaders in their own world. 

Immortals of Meluha

I wanted to read some fiction and found a book called 'Immortals of Meluha' lying in the garage. My Bro had bought the set of 2 books, but had dumped in the garage for some reason. The only reason why I picked up the book to read was, I was feeling bored and the cover page had a 'Jataadhaari' with his back with a 'Trishul', which made it look somewhat different.

The story starts near Manas Sarovar, near Mount Kailash. Going on a trip to Manas Sarovar has been my dream for a long time, and I hope to do it sometime during this life. As a matter of fact, this is the reason I continued reading beyond the first page.

The plot starts with a tribal lord of 'Gunas', called Shiva, who thinks he is a normal human being taking the place of God. Shiva gets an offer to immigrate to 'Meluha' ruled by a Survavanshi king called 'Daksha'.

Suryavanshis are people who deserve a PMP and ITIL certifications. Their architecture is driven by 'Enterprise Architecture' techniques similar to the TOGAFs, Zachman's of the current day world. Orderliness prevails in their daily life and they wouldn't go even an inch away from the agreed upon rules.

Suryavanshis have a secret magic potion called 'Somras' (like the Obelix and Asterix comics), which is prepared using the water of river Saraswati. This Somras ensured that the Suryavanshis had a healthy and long life. There were some unfortunate souls called Vikarmas who were believed to be cursed due to their sins in past births.

Shiva and his people migrate to Meluha at the invitation of 'Nandi'. They travel across the Himalayas and enter a city called 'Srinagar' where they are treated by an able Doctor called 'Ayurvati'. Without the knowledge of the tribals, they were fed with Somras. Shiva becomes 'Neelkanth' here, without his knowledge. The Meluhans would be waiting for Neelkanth to lead them.

He would accompany 'Nandi' and Bhadra to Devagiri which is the capital of Meluha to meet Daksha, the King. On the way to Meluha he sees 'Sati' who was Daksha's daughter and also a Vikarma. Sati would be a very beautiful lady and a valiant swords-woman. Shiva makes a visit to Mount Mandar where the Somras was produced and meets Brahaspati. They get so close to each other that Shiva considers Brahaspati his elder brother. When the entire Meluhan nation would have been taken over by the 'Neelkanth' hysteria, Brahaspati would be one of the few who talks sense to Shiva, making them even closer. The other character that is equally impressive is Parvateshwar, the chieftain of Meluhan Army. He doesn't approve of Shiva's ways initially, till he sees Shiva in action against the evil Chandravanshis in a war. He becomes an ardent supporter of Shiva beyond that.

An attack on Mount Mandar ensures that the production unit of Somras goes up in ashes and the Suryavanshis believe that Chandravanshis hatched a conspiracy to raze the production unit. A war ensues between the two, a meticulous, and a small Meluhan army versus a large Chandravanshi army. Shiva leads from the front to ensure a Suryavanshi victory.

After winning the war against a large Chandravanshi army, Shiva and the Suryavanshis go to Ayodhya, which would be the capital of Chandravanshis. The city of Lord Ram, whom both the Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis believe as their benefactor and the guiding light. Chandravanshis also would have an unstinted devotion to Neelkanth and that helps Shiva in a big way. Shiva creates peace between Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis and realizes that they have a common enemy, the Nagas. The story ends with a realization for Shiva that Chandravanshis are not evil, but are different.

Each of the characters portray a very strong reason for their existence in the plot. Amish Tripathi has given a gem of a book. I could not keep the book down till I completed the book in one shot. The book has a lot of twists and turns and definitely makes an interesting read.