Forced Hiatus

Last few weeks have been crazy. I’ve been busy like hell (Ok, I admit, I have been a little lazy too), slogging my ass off to keep project deadlines, spending time with a very dear friend who is back from the States for a month’s time and helping mom and dad pack for their vacation.

Very few things can bring more joy in your life than the joy you get on meeting a very close buddy after a long time. And similarly, very few things can be more frustrating than having a colleague who has been working with you on a very important project, leave at a very crucial stage. All this and more has happened in the last 15 days. But somehow I have loved the madness and disorientation these incidents have brought to my life. They have taught me flexibilty, they have brought out emotions and they have made me responsible.

Yet, all this is temporary. Soon my project will reach its intended conclusion. My friend will be back in US and I will put up a nice long post.

Judicial Paradoxes

The announcements in various courts of the country in the last couple of weeks, have at once, reflected upon us the good and the bad side of the Indian judiciary.

First the supreme court, citing outdated data as a reason, decided to stay the implementation of the OBC quotas. The move that has put the judiciary and the parliament on a collision course, could have a far reaching impact on the independent functioning of the legal system in the country. In the name of affirmative action, the HRD ministry planned to use sectarian policies to appease the vote bank. In the name of creating equal opportunity, the government tried to create opportunity for certain sections of the society at the expense of certain other sections. Though the final decision on the issue is still pending, I hope that the right to equality is upheld and no community is not forced to pay its ancestral blunders.

Then came the outrageous order by the additional chief judicial magistrate in Jaipur to issue warrants against Richard Gere, for having publicly kissed Shilpa Shetty, at an AIDS awareness campaign. Bollywood movies nonchalantly resort to sleaziness, skin show and sexuality and the so called protectors of Indian culture and traditions merrily trudge into the cinema halls for their repeated viewings. TV channels keep showing the incident to the point of queasiness and nobody raises a whimper. My point is, why should anybody decide for anybody else, what is appropriate viewing for him/her and what is not. Why this selective victimization when the law books don’t advocate any discrimination of criminals on the basis of their religion, cultural and demographic background.

In the last move, the Bombay High Court ordered lifting of the ban imposed by the state government on James Laine’s biographical book ” Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India”. Every individual has a right to his opinion. It is upto the masses to then approve or reject the opinion. Why should certain individuals decide if somebody’s opinions are correct or incorrect. For too long, anybody and everybody has been allowed to censor or ban various forms of creative expressions(1, 2, 3). Whether depicting reality or otherwise, expressions of self have time and again not been readily allowed. I hope the high court decision sets a precedent to allow the same.

Two of the three court orders above should be heralded as unprecedented in the history of the judicial system. They show promulgation of the rights of equality and freedom of expression. But at the same time, these very rights seem to have been be undermined in the other court judgment. What has this country come to, if even judicial laws are not uniformly implemented. Where the law of the land is open to interpretation. Open to be used to suit ones convenience. Only judiciary can help restore people’s faith in itself.

Forget Australia…

….this man might make it to his Fifth successive Cricket World Cup Final.

Starting up?…Read this

I haven’t read many books on entrepreneurship or starting-up. Probably it is because I feel that people cannot be tutored to be entrepreneurs. A few weeks back, I read a very positive review of this book titled The High Performance Entrepreneur by the Mindtree Consulting co-founder Subroto Bagchi. Now after having finished reading it, I can very well say, there are tonnes of lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs in the brilliant book. No this post is in no way a review of the book. Such things are beyond me. This post is about how the book has helped me in correcting some of wrong notions I had and some of things which I had never considered while planning my own venture.1. I always wanted to start a company of my own because I wanted to solve the problems of this nation. In a way, I wanted to do something for the country. And making money was never my motive. Subroto points out the folly in the above reasoning. To quote a few lines from the book itself – “there are many other ways to serve the country. you may not have a selfish view of what you would do if you made a lot of money. But you must be excited about the idea of making money. If you do not love money, it is unlikely that you will understand the nuances of generating wealth….Profitability is a social obligation of enterprise“

2. Among qualities that an entrepreneur should have, Subroto points out that egolessness as one of the attributes, which I feel is very necessary. From suddenly losing your identity of a good performer at your previous job, you become a nobody and have to start from scratch. Facing rejection on funding, customer and investor front will require complete abstinence from harboring egotistic attitude. “While we do all that, our colleagues whom we left behind in earlier organizations are entitled to great creature comforts. We know that postponed gratification is the essence of ownership. Hence, we do not compare ourselves with what we have left behind“

3. While choosing a team for your company, you don’t go about staffing it with your friends or colleagues from previous organization(s). “Friends are meant to give you good wishes, pray for you, occasionally bail you out with a personal loan, and show up in the days leading up to the IPO to make a small investment” The team that you need has to be built based the requirements and matching skill sets.

4. Often what most companies forget is the need to to create a company culture. Culture implies the DNA, mission, vision and values of the company. Rather than just plainly discussing them, they needed to be jotted down and passed on to every existing and new employee of the organization. Though this can be a painstakingly boring and cumbersome exercise, it needs to be undertaken to cohesively organize your team and to get it deliver sterling results, year after year. [ for an elaboration on this, read chapter five in the book]

5. It is very important to understand the work flow at your company. Having right verticals doing correct work in a process-oriented manner is vital. The efficiency and cost-saving solely depends on the processes you adopt. It has been my personal experience that haphazardness is a single most significant reason why most companies never take off or never do consistently well. “After all, Hewlett-Packard was started in a garage and Microsoft was a result of two kids tinkering with their Atari computer. While it may that chaotic circumstances lead to ideation and sometimes a company is born out of that churn…Most start-ups hit a glass ceiling sooner or later because they fail to respect the power of process.”6. ” To be world class, you have to hierarchy free” This can be construed in a number of ways. The right idea is that, besides delegation of work, the organization should have a flat structure where no special treatment is given to anybody. It should become an organization where performance and potential and not seniority are the sole indicators of worth of an employee.7. ” The organization’s resources are not ‘my’ resources…Just because you start a company does not mean that you ‘own’ it” That the company is your baby is all quite fine, but there are many other people who also work in the company. So even though you may be the majority stake holder, none of the company resources are now your own resources.

The book also answers questions like- When do I know if I am ready? How to write a Business Plan? How to build your Brand? How to choose the right Investor? How to manage adversity? Why most start-ups fail?

The book is a gold mine, full of enriching and valuable lessons. In fact, I feel, it is a must read for all you aspiring entrepreneurs.

Disclaimer- The book is not just a must read for companies which haven’t yet got off the ground but also for those which are now struggling or are finding it difficult to survive.

Not a sustainable model

While everybody else is losing money, ICC has just announced that it has doubled the revenues from the ticket sales at this World Cup compared to 2003.
Now with exorbitantly priced tickets anybody can make that kind-off money, even if the stadiums are one-tenth full.

ZEE’s Indian Cricket League

With the announcement of the plans to start a parallel cricket league, many believe that Subhash Chandra is doing a Kerry Packer- the man credited with a lot of innovations that have now become an essential part of cricket. Fundamentally though there is a lot that is different about what ZEE is planning to do now from what CPH ( Consolidated Press Holdings) – the company that Kerry Packer owned – did in late 70s.

Kerry Packer’s WSC – World Series Cricket – was predominately a retaliatory move made to make ACB (now Cricket Australia), realise the folly in its decision to award the cricket broadcasting rights to ABC- Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1976. Also, Kerry Packer’s series was always going to be a temporary adventure, because he was expected to either miserably fail or emphatically succeed. Eventually, as it turned out, the WSC was a resounding success and ACB was forced to not only award the broadcasting rights to Nine Network (one of many media subsidiaries of CPH) but it was granted a ten-year contract to promote and market the game through a new company, PBL Marketing. Though the WSC was only a two year old affair, it changed cricket forever. Among the things that it changed about cricket were that it brought in coloured clothing, day-night matches, action replays, multiple cameras on ground, ‘drop in’ pitches and protective gear like an helmet.

Domestic cricket in India is in shambles today. It was never better though. Where millions stay up to watch India play in the World Cup or any other sidey tournament, hardly a handful care for the tournaments at the domestic level. BCCI has masterfully marketed and brilliantly sold cricket internationally but on the national front it has been a disaster. ZEE plans to change all that with its proposed cricket league. Though the entire methodology hasn’t yet been announced but from what one can infer from the press statement made by Subhash Chandra, I believe, that the idea is doomed unless carried through with a few modifications .

To start with, ZEE will require the infrastructure to hold this league. Unless BCCI approves of it or even supports it, there is no way the stadia can be made available. Kerry Packer too faced similar problems but by using his political clout and administrative reach he leased VFL Park, an Australian football stadium in Melbourne; Football Park another football ground in Adelaide; Perth’s Gloucester Park (a trotting track); and the Sydney Showground and made them cricket-ready. Beyond traditional cricket stadia there is hardly any sporting infrastructure in India of international standards.The very fact that even the existing cricket stadia are in a pathetically deplorable state is ample proof of the enormity of the task ahead of ZEE. So effectively, ZEE will have to work out some sort of a compromise with the BCCI or the local cricketing bodies to procure the necessary facilities.

The cricket league in its first year will have six teams with each team having its own coach, physio, and even a psychological trainer. Also, each team will contain four international players and two players who are playing or have played cricket for India. The other eight players will be drawn from budding cricketers across the country. The plan makes me wonder, how would the teams be managed year after year. Will ZEE handle the affairs of each team which would include new player signings, transfers, team sponsors, travel, stay etc. The number of teams in the league are proposed to rise to sixteen by the third year. Wouldn’t it be a more feasible thing to do, to have independent bodies manage the affairs of each team just like there are clubs in football/basketball. These clubs would then be regulated by a centrally appointed body by ZEE or even BCCI.

ZEE ambitiously wants to set up 35 cricket academies in all the states and Union territories which would pick talented cricketers who would be kept on salaries with our organization. Sadly, unless cricket becomes an actively participated and competitive sport at the school and college level, the process of churning out quality cricketers will be lamentably haphazard.

Money has never quite been an issue in Indian cricket. I know ‘process’ now is a much maligned and abused word but that is precisely what Indian cricket needs to restore order in the prevailing chaos. A process is needed, through which a young aspiring cricketer gets the right resources and his youthful exuberance is efficiently channelized so that he becomes internationally capable. A process is needed, so that the players are paid according to their performance on the field and not on the basis of their reputation and past laurels. A process is needed, so that the BCCI is accountable to the people of this country. A process is needed, whereby BCCI becomes a professionally managed organization and not a fiefdom of some self-centered and greedy bureaucrats and politicians.

ZEE’s Indian cricket League with all the suggested modifications is just one of the processes awaiting implementation. We need many more Subhash Chandras.

Mumbai University on BSE

Move over all you tatas and birlas, the Mumbai University is seeking its place under the sun and on the Indian bourses. In order to raise more funds and reduce its dependence on the state and central govt grants the Mumbai University is planning to get listed on the the BSE. With this move, they also hope to garner enough money to support their international foray.

Brilliant decision, one would say, but the moot question is, will Mumbai University be able to pull this off? Where red-tapism, passing-the-buck and funds mismanagement is an order of the day, to take out an IPO is a colossal task.

Yet it is worth all the effort, time and money because it will bring in transparency, accountability and efficiency in the functioning of Mumbai University.

Quality Education got another shot in the arm yesterday when the Supreme court decided to stay the order that the Parliament passed on OBC quotas in IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other national colleges.

Finally, sanity has began to prevail and things are ameliorating for the education system of this country.

Now I also blog at

and the blog will also be graced by the presence of Rashmi Bansal. We will posting on job trends, happening sectors/companies, peoples’ experiences and a lot more.

Calypso Jamboree terminated for Team India

Half awake and swollen eyed as I walk into my office, I see a group of colleagues involved in an animated and heated discussion. Few sincere souls who are busy working, are too grim faced to greet my entry. To me, it paints a perfect picture of the way the country has reacted to India’s terminated sojourn of the Caribbean. With the post-defeat analysis having just began, the team’s unexpected exit from the World Cup will discussed at length in the media, among cricket lovers and in the Parliament too. No player will be spared as angry supporters will burn effigies and bring down houses. The sordidness of such acts is quite another issue but for once I feel, this result is good for the game.

For too long India’s over indulgence in cricket has affected it beyond imagination. With most of support and money that cricket today survives on, coming from India, it has led to the sport becoming over-dependent on a single country. It is an unhealthy sign for a sport when a team’s exit from a big tournament has organisers worried. Any sport is to be viewed as a celebration of teamspirit, ability and gamesmanship irrespective of who the victor is. Sadly, cricket over the last few years has been reduced to a money driven commercial extravaganza and the simple game of bat and ball has taken a back seat in the process. It is just not cricket when India’s defeat is mourned more than Sri Lanka’s superlative performance applauded.

As things stand today, India’s elimination has pulled the clutches from under the arms of the sport and it is upto the aficionados of the game and the other teams to make it stand on its own feet. It has given cricket a chance to find its lost glory and once again gain interest among the eight other countries which will battle it out over the next five weeks.

Back home, cricket will continue to suffer for some more time. Until India next takes field people will lose interest. A lot of money will be pulled out. But that will again be good for the sport because that will mean that the other sports will get the much needed media space and time and money to exhibit their wares. They will compete with cricket for viewership and sponsorship money. Competition is good because it helps you walk out of mediocrity and constantly improve. For the team, a few players will face the axe. The much celebrated coach will certainly bid goodbye. And in all this cricket will only emerge as a stronger and a better sport.

(The article has also been published on the JAM Magazine website here)

Calypso Jamboree

Over the next few weeks, my writing energies will be devoted to posting on the new blog that I have started for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. So I may not be able to post adequately on this blog.

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