A tryst with a City

Nick hated Hong Kong the moment he set his foot in the arrival area of the Hong Kong International Airport. "There are people everywhere !!" he cried out loud. Coming from Perth, Australia where miles and miles would pass before you find another soul on the streets, the sheer volume of people and buzz was alien to Nick and it intimidated him. "This will work. This has to work" Nick reassured himself again and again. He had extensively researched “living in Hong Kong” but being in the city and in middle of all the commotion was very different and overwhelming.

Nick worked for an Australian architectural company as a landscape designer. With new projects mostly originating in Far East, the company needed stronger presence in the region. Someone had to move. Nick was the best and hence, the obvious choice and so there he was standing clueless in middle of a human jungle which people called Hong Kong. He purchased a ticket and boarded the Airport Express train to the city. Securing a seat, he gave a wide grin to the Chinese middle aged woman sitting opposite to him. She glared at him and then turned her face thwarting any further conversation opportunities. Nick was taken aback and swore to himself that he will mind his business from now on. The HK airport train takes a very scenic route passing the ocean and plenty of virgin green mountains. For a regular person, the ride would be filled with joy and awe but Nick, coming from the beach city of Perth, wasn’t much impressed. The train furiously raced on its tracks and reached the central district. He stepped outside and was trying to take the elevator up and someone broke into the line meanwhile stepped on Nick's toes. A sudden excruciating pain transmitted through Nick's system. By the time, he could give his piece of mind to the messenger of pain, he had long disappeared amidst the thousands of people." %#%$ !! Not a good first day at a new city" exclaimed Nick. Now, he entered the never ending queue for cabs. After waiting twenty minutes in the unforgiving June heat and humidity, Nick made it to his cab and now it was time to explain the cab driver where he wanted to go. Elgin Street shouted Nick ghastly. “Come on mate!! you need to know your city well”, pleaded Nick. The normally “a 10 minute cab ride” turned into a 45 minute one with the cabbie having no clue where to go. At one instance, Nick wondered if he should take the cab back to the airport and fly back home!! Nonetheless, the cabbie made it to his apartment.  There was no lift and Nick had to carry his stuff 3 floors up. His first response after seeing his apartment was of pure disgust. "Come on man- I can't stay here!! The rent to this junkyard is 8 times my house in Perth and is 10 times smaller!!!" he exclaimed. His property management company executive accompanying him gave him a smile and commented that he got a great deal on this one. Nick already drained for the day, gave up on things getting any better. “Yeah, I guess so“, sarcasm flowing through his words. By now, the city had got on his nerves and he was skeptical of his decision to move.

He unpacked his basic necessities, took a shower and settled down on the couch in apartment. Being a complete stranger in town, he wasn't sure how to spend his first Saturday evening. Being too tired by the days’ events, he was reluctant to step out but he had to grab dinner. He googled it up and an online travel website suggested to go to peak to see the laser show over the skyline and grab a good gourmet dinner at the same time. Not finding anything better to do, he printed the map and was on his first expedition in the city. He flagged a cab for an uneventful ride to the peak tram station and then there were hundreds of people queuing for the tram. Nick thought "Gosh !! Queue here too - this city should be renamed QueueLong rather than Hong Kong! ". The online travelogue absolutely recommended taking the Peak Tram to the Peak, so without questioning their judgment, he joined this never ending and extremely slow moving human chain. It was another painful one hour before Nick could board the tram and by then he had completely lost it. He was sweaty, jet lagged, hungry, tired and annoyed. Moreover, the eager and loud Mainlanders were not helping the cause. His emotions were at conflict where at personal side he was bitter and isolated while at his professional side, he wanted to see the famed HK skyline. He was bitter at his company for sending him to this remote place. He had left behind everything- his family, his girlfriend, his comfortable lifestyle to come to a place he couldn’t relate to, a place which had isolated him from things he liked. He wanted to go back to relative comfort of his apartment but the architect in him persevered and ruefully, he walked towards the peak gallery with no expectations at all.

          

Once he was on the peak gallery with a view of the entire Hong Kong skyline, time stood still. He was flabbergasted by this man-made wonder which was in perfect harmony with the breathtaking natural scenery around it. Nick was on a high – a high which he had never experienced before.  In a flash, neither was he tired, nor was he annoyed or hungry and the continuous chit chat of the tourists now sounded like symphony to him. He was allowing the grandeur of the view to absorb into his system and the process was taking its own sweet time. After a dazzling one hour, Nick stepped down the staircase to have dinner in a city which he felt he could call home.

The stigma of perseverance

Last week I was interviewing for a job. A standard interview question
is - give me 3 of your strengths.
I went on listing them out -and one of them was perseverance. At that
moment, I thought to myself - Can perseverance be a negative trait at times?

Perseverance is essentially one's ability to stay put regardless of the situation and consequences.

It basically defines your character i.e. - how strong is your resolve and how firm is your commitment?

Most say that its an unbelievable quality. It’s a stepping stone to success and be proud of it.

I say anything in extreme always has a negative consequence.
It’s good to be committed to what you believe in. It’s also good to have a
strong focus in life but one should know when to give up and let go?
Of course, if you are passionate abt something, it’s very difficult to
give up, but at times that's the best way out to be happy and content.

I always believe that one should follow the 80:20 role. One should
have a limited confidence in something. One should take the leap of
faith but with a pinch of reservation. This reservation or doubt will ensure
that if you fail at what you try to do, then your disappointment
levels are manageable and you can get over that failure quicker and move on.
We as a society don't sufficiently train ourselves to be good losers.
We assume that our survival instincts will help us get through any
emotional distraught but we couldn't be more wrong.

My thought might deviate from the general norms of society and living
but I believe that sometimes wanting something too bad is just as bad
as wanting nothing.
So occasionally just let yourself loose and ready to move on easily.

china - what needs to be done

China is unique compared to other developing/emerging economies in the world. While other such countries are always cash strived and undertaking any major infrastructural/ industrial project requires major mobilization of resources, China remarkably commissions and executes major infrastructural projects with ease and panache. However, practicality of those projects itself are irrelevant.
For instance, the Shanghai MAGLEV. Building the Shanghai MAGLEV cost the exchequer USD 1.2 Billion. It doesn’t seem such a large investment considering the fact that China invests 2.6% of its GDP (USD 125 Billion annually) on infrastructure. However, MAGLEV capacity utilization is 20% and at its current revenues, the project is not even going to recover its financing costs. Another example is the High Speed Rail network connecting the entire country. The ambitious project that is expected to cost USD 300 Billion is one of the largest infrastructural projects ever taken globally. By 2012, China plans to build over 8000 miles of high speed rail lines which surpasses that of the entire world combined.
The important question to ask here is – are these huge infrastructural projects economically viable? The short and sweet answer to that is – “It doesn’t matter”. Why because – mostly Chinese Banks finances these projects and the Government owns most of the Chinese Banks. When the Government wants to build, they ask the banks to finance. When the banks don’t have liquidity, the Government prints more money and liquidates these banks. So the entire notion of practicality and economic viability of these projects don’t form a criterion during decision making.
This raises question on the robustness and feedback mechanism of the financial system in China. An optimal financial system should draw savings and channelize them to effective investments efficiently. Although, China efficiently attracts savings into its banks and investments funds, its capital allocation process which includes decision making and funneling those funds are lacking efficiency and independence.
The same applies to capitalizing Chinese companies. Chinese State owned enterprises are known for their inefficiency and low profitability. While private enterprises contribute 50% to the country’s GDP, they have access to only 27% of loans from the financial system. The remaining loans fund SOEs and infrastructural projects. Thus, private enterprises in China have limited scope for expansion. Not surprisingly, 25 largest companies in Mainland are all public sector. This explains the vast non-performing loans in China’s banking system. A more efficient capital allocation process will also create higher returns on savings. Currently, Chinese financial assets earn only 0.5% after inflation. A more efficient financial system which gives 1.8% inflation corrected return, similar to that of Korea, will infuse USD 25 Billion into Chinese households and will increase domestic consumption.
An important succeeding question is - how can a financial reform be brought into the Chinese financial and banking system? This is a very tricky question to answer – particularly since there is so much scope of improvement in the Chinese Financial System. However, a few primary suggestions are:-
• Making key decision holders in the banking system accountable for their capital allocation. This will enable banking system to be independent of the political forces in the market.
• Easing rules to enable SMEs and private companies raise capital from the equity markets.
• Strengthening and coordinating the Chinese Corporate Bond markets. Banks should ideally finance SMEs and individuals while Corporates and Infrastructure projects fund themselves by issuing bonds.

Inclusive Growth - where do we stand

Recently, suicide of Chinese labor hit headlines across the world. It was a painful realization for the world that glory is not in growing your GDP by 10% or becoming the second largest economy in the world. It’s about ensuring that every human being in your country can live like a human being having access to the basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

What I am writing about is common sense but again common sense is not that common.
Today's buzz word is inclusive growth. Every political leader or economic strategist uses this term in their speeches and analysis.

What is Inclusive growth?

Inclusive growth as a notion means – creating economic growth in a region or a country where the entire population contributes and benefits from this economic development.
Sounds quite obvious but the harsh reality is that 300 M people in India are still living below poverty line, 116,858 workers in China annually die in work related accidents due to negligence,  infant mortality rate in Brazil is 23 out of 1000 children born, only 7% of 142M Russians have access to business loans.

I am focusing on emerging economies or specifically the BRIC nations. These countries have astonishingly high GINI indexes. While 5 Indians are on Forbes 100 richest list, there are also 300 m poorest people in the world. They are debt ridden, unhealthy and illiterate. We talk about the brilliant economic performance of India in the last 2 decades and conveniently ignore this harsh reality. Noone is alien to China’s labor situation where 30M migrant workers are virtually living in hell on the east coast. Lately, Chinese labor suicides in the Pearl River Delta hit the headlines.

Why is inclusive growth so important? Because it will define how sustainable is this celebrated economic growth is in emerging economies. A society where 5% people are buying Louis Vuitton bags while 20% of population is struggling to acquire a meal a day is sure shot formula for a social disharmonious society. For ex; my chauffer in India makes US $100 a month. He drives us to a fancy restaurant where we spend
a similar amount in one evening. Somewhere in his mind, this thought definitely arises that what he works so hard to earn in a month, is spent by us in a few hours and life is unfair. The warlords in
Brazil, the Maoists in India, Russian rebels are the fruit of this economic disparity. For sustainable economic growth, it’s critical to form a society where everyone meets their basic needs and the struggle for survival is history.
The important question is - how is that possible? I am no expert but the foremost need is to provide quality education to the masses so that everyone can compete on the same leveled field. Again this is a
no brainer but sometimes reinforcing a fact makes it more credible.

Another way is urbanization. This is a controversial and a debatable proposition. After all, the miserable living conditions of migrant workers in urban China strongly advocate against it. But still China intends to urbanize 400M people in next 15 yrs. This will create 3.5 M jobs bringing some prosperity to the worker class of the country.

Providing access to banking to the poor. Almost half the world is unbanked. Yes, that’s staggering 3.5 billion people. Many of them can drastically improve their living standards if they have access to basic loans and saving accounts. Governments have realized this but a more expansive thrust should be applied on providing banking to the poor.

We read about the phenomenal growth potential of the BRIC economies in the last 3 decades. My colleagues and friends from West are inquisitive and excited by this next leap forward for 3 billion people. However, to sustain this growth and bring massive upliftment for the society, focus needs to on providing livelihood opportunities for the common masses. This proverb though an old one is very relevant to end this post.  “Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach someone to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” -  

2 mates and a bottle

"Let's get drunk!! " Were the first words out of Drew as he met Stuart.
"These are the greatest three words I have heard the entire day. Take out the goods" exclaimed Stu.
Drew eyes brightened up.

The duo crossed the creaky pathway to sneak into the barn. Drew cautiously uncovered the rusty looking bottle of country vodka out of hidden spot.
Stu though used to drinking more finer liquor, didn't complain. After a mundane and superficial evening with his father's aristocratic and self righteous friends, any kind of alcohol would content him. The two friends formed the most unlikely pair. Stu, the only son of the local parish with his polished demeanor, was so different from Drew, the son of the village locksmith, and his countryside simplicity. While Stu could read and write 5 languages, Drew could faintly read basic Russian. But sometimes intense variance forms the foundation for an everlasting relationship. The duo's alienity to each others' world formed the crux to their friendship. Maybe it was the dynamicism of the era which defined this unique friendship. 1916 Russia was a difficult place to comprehend. A bitter and violent conflict between two different worlds was on full throttle. The Tsar’s influence was weakening alarmingly and Marxism was gaining flair. However, the 2 were oblivious to the external world. All they saw today was the bottle of vodka and an evening where they could shed all their inhibitions and be themselves.

" What’s taking you so long to open the bottle. Hurry up. Will you?" blasted Stu."Patience -my good man!! Trust me, the wait will be worth it" and Drew unscrewed the cap masterfully.
The glasses were out and the liquor was poured. Cheers were shouted out loud. "Long live Gustav Mahler". “To new Russia!” and the drinks were gulped. The glasses looked pleading to be reconnected with the divine fluid. And their wishes were answered.
Drew adroitly refilled the glasses and the alcohol met its assigned destiny. When the two drank, they didn't talk. Enjoying the feeling of intoxication, both were lost in their own ocean of thoughts. They thought about the meaning of life, religion and music. But unlike their thoughts, the bottle had a finite boundary, and after 2 more drinks, it reached its limit. Now, with the bottle depleted, it was time for conversation. This was their ritual- the first half was dominated by alcohol; the second half by their conversations.
Tonight, Stu was unusually philosophical. “Drew, life can be delusive. Just when you start believing that everything is in control, life plays a ruthless trick on you. At times, I lose faith in the spirit of life”
“Well said Stu. Life is unreliable. Tell you what, this empty bottle, which is smirking at us, is more trustworthy than life. After every drink we make, it audibly shouts out loud that I am abandoning you. And when we see the empty bottle without the Vodka, it is undoubtedly hurtful but we knew its coming. This reduces the pain”.
Stu nodded in approval. Drew carried on. “One more thing Stu. You were lucky to have got out of that Stephanie Business. That girl was no good for you.
Stu was unmoved and silent. Drew smirked “It’s good that you are beyond her now. She would have made life a living hell for you. It is better that she gets married to some other chap. Maybe to that fraud banker’s son, Edward and make his life miserable.”
All of a sudden, Stu felt this pang of despair. He only saw thick dark clouds of hopelessness hovering over him. The thought of losing her forever had never occurred to him and now this reality of the situation struck him.
“Now Stu, you need to be strong. Maybe, Stephanie will want to come back to you but Stu, you need to be strong. You will not take her back. I will not let you take her back”. Stu smiled. The possibility of she coming back and they being together made him feel better.
“Watch your smile Stu. I know what you are thinking. You are not going back to her and I will ensure that”. Stu nodded but he knew that all is not over. He felt happier. Maybe if he pleads hard enough, she might take him back.
Drew was too drunk to understand his compatriot’s ambivalence. “You are a true man Stu. She is not good enough for you. She kept you in a leash and she will make you give up everything you love. And what about her snobbish father who treats you like dirt. You need to forget her and it will be better for her to forget you as well”. Drew’s words pierced Stu’s heart like needles and the pain was unbearable for him. All the Vodka inside him was not helping either.
“I would rather not talk about it” Stu offered.
“Yes. We will not talk about it again. We ought to get drunk. We should go to the town and get more Vodka. Come on Stu. Get us two of your father’s finest horses and we will ride to the town like the Cossack’s cavalry”.
The idea of riding horses to the town and more Vodka brightened Stu up. He immediately unhooked two horses from the stables and gave the leash of one to Drew.
It was a full moon night and the beautiful Narva river sparkled like a new bride. The two friends rode the horses in such grandeur as if they owed the town. Stu felt much lighter. The pain seemed to be alleviating and memory of Stephanie was fading away. A lightning struck; Stu was jolted from his thoughts and once he regained them, he couldn’t recall her face. It felt much better.
The rain started pouring and teenage girls were scampering for shelter. Stu bowed to one of the pretty ones and rode away while Drew gave a knowing smile.

Its been a YEAR !!

Well, it’s been a year. Last year on June 26^th, we packed our bags to go on one of our most significant and cherishable journeys in life– the journey of a MBA. At this moment last year, I would have met my MBA colleagues for the first time in Beijing.

People say MBA is a life changing experience. I couldn’t agree more but its life changing for several reasons. OK, it infuses formal knowledge about core business domains, widens your perspective, grooms you as a person; but there is much more to it than that. Basically, It gives you access to the most wonderful people in the world; people whom you are going to call friends; people who would leave an everlasting mark in your life; people with whom you will share a bond which will be unbreakable for a lifetime.

Well, I did groom as a person, did widen my perspective and gain formal understanding of core business domains. But my key takeaway from this MBA program has been these everlasting friends I have earned.

It all started once I got the holy acceptance email from University of Hong Kong. The entire admission process is very taxing and the email was very gratifying.

So I reached Beijing and the first set of people I met were Nikhil Wadhwa, Hitesh Dhawan, Karan Kwatra, Mohit Ishar and Akanksha Arun. Immediately we guys gelled and became a Gang. 

I guess the theme of this post is getting clearer now. The post is not about MBA and things to do/not do during one. Its dedicated to the friends I made in this program and want to express my gratitude to them for ensuring that we all had a great year.

So let’s start with Nikhil.

Nikhil is one of my closest friends. An ideal romantic. Everything about him – his music, his style, his thought process has a bit of romance oozing out of it. A philosopher by heart – we have had so many candid conversations about life. I will remember all those convos for a long long time. 

One of the most dedicated among us – his hard work and commitment is worth a mention.

A moment which I will never forget about him is the his dramatics at the International Restaurant in Beijing where he very eloquently explained to the non English speaking waiter what food he wanted :-)

We call him the cribber for the obvious reasons– I guess there hasn’t been a single meal where he hasn’t had issues with the food. But to be honest – the day he doesn’t complain about the food, there is something missing in that dining experience. People say 'keep rocking' but buddy I will ask you to – keep cribbing :D

Next is Hitesh. Mr. Dhawan creates an impression of a person who wants things to happen according to what he wants. His mantra seems to be – my way or the highway ;)

I got close to Hitesh in the last few months and am glad I did. He is my partner in crime to hunt for cool food joints in town. Dude – frescos was a good one : )

No one deserves ownership to the word passion more than Hitesh. His passion and zeal for finance is unbelievable. So unbelievable it is that it gets annoying at times. There are times when we are enjoying some good music or a good restaurant atmosphere and Hiteshji will start the most uninteresting topic in the world. The one about derivatives or hedge funds!!!!!!! OK – I might be exaggerating a bit but I am pretty close to reality.

An avid poker fan – the Beijing Poker days will not be forgotten for a while. His favorite quote – “ feel aa rahi hai “ ;)

The MBA has also been a very important landmark for Hitesh. He is getting engaged on 8^th July.

It has to be Karan next… The heart throb of the entire MBA program.

One thing is guaranteed about him – regardless of the circumstances a smile on his face. If there is a party planned, Karan is always a part of it. That’s a trait we share besides our liking for the same genre of romantic Hindi music. 

The kumb’karan’ of our group has not seen many mornings during his MBA but with his Microsoft internship starting in a month – I am sure the 7 am sun is not going to be a pleasant experience for him :p

Akanksha (Akki) is the BUDDY of our group. I can’t imagine a more perfect ‘friend who is a girl’. She cooks for all of us, makes the best coffee in town and doesn’t have any of the nakhras ( tantrums ) generally associated with the female gender ( I am not being a chauvinist – just making a point :P )  

First one among us to get married, I hope she has a great married life !!

What I like the most about her is that she doesn’t have any issues in life. Her simplicity is her greatest forte. Very hardworking and devoted towards her work. I am sure with her impeccable execution ability, she will go places.

When we first met, we didn’t hit off well. Guess she formed a bad opinion about me ( Can’t blame her. Capricorns are the most misunderstood people in the world)… I hope now I am in her better books.

All said and done, I am glad that we met Akki. She is our best BUDDY !!! Akki coffee chahiye : )

 Mohit – He is one person about whom whatever I say is going to be a little less.

The superstar of the class – An IITian to the core, brilliance is his middle name. I don’t think many will forget DRA course where he single handedly saved his team from a definite doom.

If this MBA has impacted someone more than me, it’s this guy. Just see the pictures below and you ll understand what I am trying to say. 

Mohit has the ability to get people to absolutely adore him. He is one guy regardless of the situation/time, will be there for you.

Though we have drifted apart with time, I will never forget those amazing ‘walk the talks’ we use to have. And how can I ever forget the 3 hour midnight walk in Beijing when there were no cabs or English speakers on the road.

People say the best should be saved for the end. And this best is my best buddy Asanka Samaranayake. Initially, I didn’t know him well enough but with time I realized what an amazing guy he is. 

He has been there for all ups and downs of my life in majority of last year and my MBA experience would have been total shit without Sanki’s support.

One of the most genuine people I have ever met in life. I have always believed in this mantra that “What’s in your mind should be in your face”. This dude is a living example of that.

A guy whose sense of humor can be lethal – one might just kill oneself listening to his crappiest of all jokes : ).  I am surprised how did I survive it ..

A true Capricorn – ambitious but persistent to his values. There is no doubt in my mind that he will excel at whatever he does. Dude – when you become a big man, remember your lowly friends.If I make it big in life, I ll buy you a wardrobe ( pun intended )

A total failure at love – I am sure you have hit jackpot this time around man ..

 A MBA can be a very challenging experience. Being among so many brilliant people can be more intimidating than you would ever imagine. For me, it could have been a long and never ending one year. But with these guys around, the year just flew off in a jiffy. Someone once said that generally it is the person closest to us who must travel the furthest distance to be our friend. Very apt.

Today, completing one year in this program, my fondest memories have all been associated with these tremendous set of people and am grateful for their support all this while. Just remember that relationships is all that matters in life, everything else is a vague notion.

If you are reading this and are doing/planning to do an MBA, I just want to share one bit of gyaan (advice ) with you. Consider your MBA to be a vacation – treat it like one because once you get out, there is this unforgiving corporate world waiting for you.

The price to pay for automation

These days how many of us need human interaction to buy goods or services? When was the last time you bought a flight ticket or made a hotel booking through a human travel agent. We very conveniently log onto the web and book our tickets in a jiffy. Are you aware that this paradigm shift has cost 77% of all travel agent jobs globally? If you also visualize automation a major reason for world unemployment issues, then read on.

The modern world has witnessed some tremendous technological leaps in the past few decades. Undoubtedly, these technological advances have made world a better place; it has increased living standards, raised life expectancy and made us more coherent ( atleast theoretically ).  Technology has played a pivotal role in making things more efficient and businesses more streamlined. Eventually, Businesses have got so efficient that human labor is gradually becoming redundant in them.

Technological advances have made life easy. However they have also created an astronomical social, political & economic issue – that of automation and its by-product ie. Unemployment.

The world population grew by 12% from 5.9 Billion to 6.76 Billion between 1999  and 2008. In the same time frame, global economy added 820 million people in the mainstream workforce. This workforce growth meant that the world economically had to grow sufficiently to absorb this new emergent workforce. Global economy doubled from USD 31 Trillion to 61.3 Trillion between 1999 and 2008 but at the same time global labor force only increased by 11% from 2.82 Billion to 3.17 billion. This data indicates that for every 1% increase in workforce, there is roughly 10% increase in GDP. This is only possible if human workforce productivity rises drastically. Economics 101 – one prime basis for rise in productivity is technological advances. So technology helps people do more work in less time and the work is getting more complex to do than ever. This rising trend seems to indicate that the need for semi skilled and low skill labor is dropping. No wonder our global unemployment rate is 8.7% (that’s close to 250 million unemployed people). Thus, technology advancement has made humans redundant in many industries and processes.
                Many people argue- what’s wrong with that? You are reducing costs and generating employment for those who build these technologies and processes. Their justification is true but is this truly what the complete picture is.

As per World Bank data, there are close to 1.9 billion semi or low-skilled in the world today. With emergence of robotics and superior machinery, for the same labor, the manufacturing industry produces 8 times more products than what it produced in 1995. This trend of automation of the manufacturing sector is going to get more prominent with time and gradually human interactions in some industries will drop to almost zero. The impact will be staggering. I assume 20-25% of all low and semi-skilled work force will become redundant. They will have a choice to climb up the value chain by learning new skills and enhancing their viability. But how many developing countries workers can afford to learn these new skills when they just can barely meet their daily ends and survive this expensive world.

I discussed this idea with a few economists and they found it absurd that I think like this. After all I am a MBA and I should take a rational view point (rather than an emotional one) and only see numbers and P'&'L statements. To get the rational perspective to this discussion,  Read on ….

These days on the name of efficiency, companies are cutting their employee rolls. What they don’t realize is that – if they all start automating and laying off their employees, who will have the money to buy their goods.
This is the essence behind Henry Ford and Ford Motors early success. When Henry started Ford Motors, he paid his employees double the standard industry rate at those times. He was no fool and clearly knew what he was doing. By creating this surplus cash in his employee hands, he made those employees his first set of customers. According to Ford Motors sales records, in its first 8 years of operation, Ford sold 40% of his cars to his employees and contractors.

So Ford enabled and empowered his employees and converted them into customers. And what are the fortune 500 companies in the US doing today? They are laying off 400K employees. These employees form these companies' core customers and when you lay them off, you are ultimately reducing the buying power of your clients and hence depleting your revenues.

No doubt that technology plays a key part in uplifting basic human lifestyle but the price you pay for this luxury is an appalling story of greed and self-centered perspective. If a key decision holder of a company is reading this – pls stop visualizing your business to be just a stream of numbers. As Charles Handy very eloquently said – “You need to ask yourself a fundamental question – is the purpose of your business only profits? Or is there a grander picture in horizon?

Google's growth Secret

When talking about growth, one particular company definitely comes into our mind. This company changed the way we access information and is currently leading the web space. I am talking about Google Inc.
2 Stanford University graduates – Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997, started Google in a garage. Google’s phenomenal growth in the last 13 years is one impressive story. In 2009, Google posted revenues of USD23 Billion with office locations in 43 countries and 20000 employees across the Globe. Google processed 760 Billion searches in 2009 and owes over 150 domains. Its performance has clearly made it the web industry leader with competitors nowhere close. Many wonder how did Google grow so rapidly and why industry biggies such as Yahoo, Microsoft and others couldn’t catch up with it.

How Google differentiated itself from its rivals was by adapting a combination of Razor Blade Strategy and acquisition strategy. Its acquisition strategy was to acquire companies in related industry verticals. In the last decade, it has acquired several technology companies of different sizes. Youtube, DoubleClick, Picasa are a few examples. These acquisitions brought in inorganic growth in the form of new technologies and user base.

At the same time, Google used the razor blade strategy to optimal use. Now, what is razor blade strategy? It’s the same strategy used by Gillette & mobile operators to subsidize the initial instrument (razors, cellular phones) expenses for the users and then make money from the blades or the mobile subscription charges. This strategy was also successfully implemented by Kodak and computer printer manufacturers also where they subsidized cameras and printers to capitalize on sales of photo films and printer cartridges.
What is Google’s razor in this case? It is Internet and Google’s list of free-to-use technologically innovative products. By offering free products and thus, providing an useful and productive Internet environment, it has dramatically multiplied Internet users and hence its client base. Internet has grown by a CAGR of 38.6% in the last 14 years, while Google’s revenues have grown by a CAGR of 120.1% in the last 9 years. Google is setting the tempo for the next wave of growth by following its customer needs. At present, Google is putting a major thrust on mobile web with its Android based mobile operating systems and mobile enabled search engines. I spoke to a senior Google employee who shared the underlying corporate philosophy of the company. She said “Google is an idea and customer driven company more than anything else. We never focus on profits but rather dedicate ourselves in bringing an unique and beneficial customer experience. Sales and profits will automatically follow”. The company actively seeks customer feedback to improve its product experience. The company understands its customers and listens to them. Such high levels of customer focus for free services is unimaginable. No wonder the company enjoys terrific levels of loyalty and is ranked 7th most valuable brand by Interbrand in 2009.
At any time, Google Labs (company’s new product development showcase) will have atleast ten products in its pipeline. Google employees are encouraged to make mistakes and try new ideas. Employee performance is evaluated by their innovations. Only 2-3 of Google’s 120 products are profitable. It’s unimaginable for a public company to operate in this manner. Google is an example of how a company grows by building a unique culture of customer experience and technical expertise.

The stereotyping trap

I have been in London for the last few weeks. Last Sunday I went for a haircut at this Arabic colony in central London.  Without giving much thought, I entered one of the salons which turned out to be owned by an Algerian. Now, Algeria was a French colony and the only languages he spoke were Arabic and French. Well the only French word I know is Moulin Rouge : ) Needless to say, I got a very unprofessional service which also included a terrible haircut. Now with my good hairstyle aspiration gone haywire, I put the entire blame on that Algerian saloon owner and very conveniently labeled the entire Algerian community as a bunch of incompetent clowns. 

What happened is that I fell in the stereotyping Trap where one individual/product’s behavior made me categorize the entire group.

A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or certain types of individuals. Stereotyping is assigning a certain stereotype to a group of people or an individual.

Stereotyping also works the other way where one person is generalized to be a part of certain group of people with particular personality traits.

Humans as a species extract comfort in familiarity. That’s the whole basis of brand value. What major billion dollar brands sell is this notion of familiarity associated with them. Relating this logic, when we can’t figure out what the other person or the groups of people are all about, we mask this lack of knowledge by sampling out a few of their external behavior characteristics to stereotype them to a group.

I have been frequently stereotyped and personally hate it, but there is no escape from it. What I would suggest to you is don’t get affected by all these opinions created about you by people. Live a life where you do things which bring you happiness and contention rather than things which might make you popular but they deviate away from what you are in spirit and identity.

Also, try to escape from this stereotyping trap. Don’t judge people superficially. Give them the benefit of doubt for sometime before forming an opinion about them. And though you can form an opinion about them, always always act neutral to those opinions. Because you never know, the cute blonde you just categorized as arrogant and egoistic and promised not to talk again, may had turned into your future life partner.

Khymer Rouge - the unspeakable

My blogs are generally optimistic in tone and are developed around the central idea of staying and being happy. However, today I am going a bit off-track.

Last month I was backpacking across Cambodia. Now, Cambodia is famous for its mystic and magical Angkor Vat temple campus. Most people visit Cambodia to see Angkor.

Being no different, I originally planned Cambodia to see Angkor. However, while researching about the country, I came to know about Khymer Rouge and its 4 year rule of barbarism and human atrocities. History always fascinated me and unwittingly, I was hooked to the Khymer story which bought me to Phnom Penh.

There are 2 primary cities in Cambodia – Siem Reap which is close to the magnificent Angkor temples and Phnom Penh – the capital of Cambodia. This blog is more about Phnom Penh and specifically 2 spots there – The Genocidal Museum and the Killing Fields (the names have already given you a hint of what is to follow)

The human race is more diverse in its actions than any other race which ever existed. On one hand, we have angels likes Mother Teresa and Florence Nightingale who served mankind till death while on the other hand the same human species has given rise to demons like Pol Pot and Leng Sary of the Khymer Rouge.

Now, what is Khymer Rouge? It was the communist political party which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. They were backed by the US which grabbed power from Lon Nol - Cambodia’s previous Government. With the anti-American Ho Chi Min in control of Vietnam, the US needed an ally in Indo-China region and Khymer Rouge fitted US’s strategic bill perfectly. What followed was the most horrid and agonizing 4 years of human atrocities world had seen since the holocaust in Europe during World War 2. After coming to power, Pol Pot, the head of Khymer Rouge enforced his economic and social policies on Cambodia. His policy to convert Cambodia from an industrial and knowledge economy into an agrarian economy crippled the country for the next 30 years and which’s impact is still felt. Pot envisaged Cambodia to be a peasant society where rice would the primary economy driver. To ensure no opposition from the academia and industrialists, he went on an offensive where he completely dismantled the education and industrial sector of Cambodia. How he did it, is a nerve wrecking and shocking story which I will try to share as I witnessed it in Phnom Penh.

During its rule, Khymer Rouge went on a large scale cultural cleansing act where they directly and indirectly killed over 2.2 million people. You might say- big deal!! China lost over 40 million people in the famine following the “Great Leap forward” while the great influenza of 1919 took close to 30 M lives across Europe. However, one must note that – during the 1970s Cambodia’s population was mere 8 M and 2.2 million dead meant a country losing over quarter its population.

So, I went to these 2 sites in Phnom Penh. I started with the Genocidal Museum which was a higher secondary school converted to a high security prison/interrogation center by Khymer. Over 20000 men, women and children were detained and killed here by Khymer during its 4 years of rule. The Governments following Khymer have done a fantastic job of preserving the place intact for people to get a feeling of the mass scale human manslaughter which happened over there. When I entered the place, I got this eerie sense of bloodiness which words can’t explain fully. I felt this sense of discomfort and doom which one feels in a cemetery. I could smell death and blood all around me. The tour of the facility was an hour of mental torture and anguish for me which brings tantalizing memories even today. I saw torture rooms with torture equipment, torn clothes of the dead prisoners, prison cells and gallows. Every room had a story to tell and they all were shouting those stories out loud. The Khymer were meticulous in recording prisoner data and the museum had rooms where photographs of all the detainees were illustrated. There were thousands of front portraits of men, women and young children glaring at me. I couldn’t believe that these 12 year olds were tortured and ultimately killed here at the same spot I was standing. I was suppose to spend 2 hours at the genocidal museum but after an hour, I couldn’t take it anymore. Speechless and in agonizing pain, I left the place. My tuktuk driver exactly knew what I was undergoing and without mentioning a word took me to the next spot which were the killing fields.

Now, if I thought Genocidal museum was bad enough, ‘killing fields’ took this experience of witnessing human brutality to the next level. The killing fields which were around 45 minutes away from the city were the mass burial site where Khymer killed and buried over 80000 people. 

You could see skeletons, skulls and blood stained clothing everywhere. There was death all around me and the silence in the place was deafening. In order to save ammunition, Khymer soldiers carried on executions using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. Some victims had to dig their own graves.  The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families.

While walking over the mass graves, I was thinking about Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon. Armstrong said every step he took on Moon was a giant leap forward for the mankind. Every step I took in the killing fields made me realize how many giant leaps backward we went during this brutal era of Khymer. Killing fields bear witness to such large scale killings which teaches us a lesson that if power goes into the wrong hands, it can bring upon destruction and havoc which can wipe out generations to come. After staying at killing fields for 20 minutes, I couldn’t take it anymore. With a heavy heart and a deep sigh, I bade farewell to Phnom Penh and Cambodia that evening.

I want to leave one message behind for all. I want all of us to bow to our Gods in gratitude for ensuring that we were not born in Cambodia at that time. While we are reading this blog at the comfort of our homes, just remember the pain those good innocent men, women and children went through. Also request you to contemplate whether are we giving back enough to the society? Isn’t it our moral obligation to do so? Obligation is a pretty comforting word here, I would rather call it our duty.

What was appalling to me was that no country raised any voice against what was happening in Cambodia in those 4 years. This reminds me of a quote by Nelson De mille – “If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.”

test tickles

There is a factory in Northern Minnesota which makes the Tickle Me Elmo toys. The toy laughs when you tickle it under the arms.

Well, Lena is hired at The Tickle Me Elmo factory and she reports for her first day promptly at 8:00 am .

The next day at 8:45 am there is a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The Foreman throws open the door and begins to rant about the new employee.
He complains that she is incredibly slow and the whole line is backing up, putting the entire production line behind schedule.

The Personnel Manager decides he should see this for himself, so the 2 men march down to the factory floor. When they get there the line is so backed up that there are Tickle Me Elmo's all over the factory floor and they're really beginning to pile up.

At the end of the line stands Lena surrounded by mountains of Tickle Me Elmo's. She has a roll of plush Red fabric and a huge bag of small marbles.

The 2 men watch in amazement as she cuts a little piece of fabric, wraps it around two marbles and begins to carefully sew the little package between Elmo's legs.

The Personnel Manager bursts into laughter. After several minutes of hysterics he pulls himself together and approaches Lena .

'I'm sorry,' he says to her, barely able to keep a straight face, 'but I think you misunderstood the instructions I gave you yesterday...'

'Your job is to give Elmo two test tickles.

Amit on South China Morning Post

I was recently interview by South China Morning Post (SCMP) for their weekly MBA extension.
Uploaded the copy below -

I read this somewhere!! Very powerful! My version of it


If I could offer you only one tip for the future –



LOVE YOURSELF !!
Enjoy the power and the beauty of your youth, but no matter how many times people will tell you to do that, you will not!!
And you will not understand the power and the beauty of your youth till they get faded.
But when you see your pictures 20 years later, you will realize how fabulous you looked and the unlimited possibilities you held.

You are not as tall or as short as you think you are!! Nor are you as fat or thin as you think.
You are fairer then you think you ever need to be, and you are as tanned as you can get

Don’t worry about the future, or rather worry about it but realizing that worrying is as effective as solving an algebra equation by chewing gum

Real troubles of your life are the ones which have never even crossed your mind

Do one thing in your life everyday which scares you. After a while, there will be nothing which you will fear. You will simply become fearless!!

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts and don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Because when hearts break tears shed and Because a tear is 1% water and 99% feelings

Don’t waste ur time on jealousy! Sometime you are ahead, sometime u r behind. the race is long and it will end only with you!!

Remember compliments you receive and forget the insults.
Keep all the love letters you received, throw away all your bank statements

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do in life!! The most interesting people in the world were the ones, who didn’t know what to do when they were 22. Or as a matter of fact, the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 40 !

Be Kind to your needs – you will miss them when they are gone!!

Maybe you will marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you will have children, maybe you wont!! Maybe you will divorce at 40 or maybe you will do Salsa at your 75th weddding anniversary Whatever u do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself too much

Your choices are your half chances!

Never read beauty magazines! They will only make u feel ugly!

Enjoy your body !!! Love it now , enjoy it the way u want !! bcoz u don’t know for how long u can run a mile or backpack Cambodia or climb Mt. Kilmanjaro
Don’t be afraid of what other people think of ur body!! it’s the greatest asset u ll ever have!!!

DANCE !! even if u don’t have anywhere to do it Or a reason to do it. You never need one !

Get to know your parents !!! you never know when they will be gone for good !

Be nice to your siblings – eventually they might be your link to your past and are most likely the people who might stick with you in your future.

Remember friends come and go, but only a few special ones stay forever

TRAVEL !! Work hard to fill gaps in geography and being! Widen your perspectives and travel is the only way to do it.

Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard. Live in California once, but leave it before it makes you soft.

Accept the truths of life : Prices will always rise. Politicians will always cheat and you will get old. And the older you get, you will think about the days when you were young, when the prices were better, the politicians were honest and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders. !!

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Your fund or your spouse – they can ever run out but your elders will always be there to support you if not in physical world, in an emotional world.

Experiment in your life!! don’t crib at 40 for things u could have done at 20

Read directions !! even if you don’t follow

Be careful about whose advice you take, but be patient with all those who offer it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from your life!!

but again I say love your life, love yourself . If you can't love yourself , who will!!

John Lennon Quotes

There are times when you are looking for direction. At those times, you seek an influence. I have always been inspired by John Lennon. His music, his thoughts, his values and his beliefs.

Some of his favorite quotes - ( a tribute to Lennon )

1. A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

2. All we are saying is give peace a chance.

3. As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.

4. Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground. ( this is one of my favs )

5. God is a concept by which we measure our pain. ( another one )

6. I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.

7. I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!

8. If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.  ( this one is also awesome )

9. Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.  - ( this is my all time favorite )

10. Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.

11. Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem.

12. Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

13. You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

14. We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.

15. You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die. ( and he died fighting for peace )

Everytime, I am down, I read these quotes out aloud. and I tell myself how lucky I am. We need to love life more, much more than what we all do.

The irony of a common name

After reading my recent posts, people have been calling me with a lot of names.

Wannabe, philosophical, gyaan guru are a few!

Some also said that you are such a funny guy ( yup I like to believe that :) ), why do you always write about deep, serious topics!!

So, I told myself – fair enough – I can write funny and after 15 days of clueless thinking, I gave up. But, you know I believe in destiny. Tonight I got an email which was meant for some other Amit Agarwal and it was the Eureka moment!!  I knew what I was going to write about.

So let’s discuss the irony of having a popular name.

Well, Amit is a very popular name back in India and Agarwal is an equally popular surname. So the combination of both can be highly lethal and devastating.

One big issue with having a common name is no availability of usernames of your choice on the web. Thousands bucks if someone can find me a username of my choice on any popular website. And believe me, I have tried all the possible permutations and combinations. So, what are commoners ( common namers ) like me left with – an username or an email which consists of my name and some obscure or weird numbers.

I am a big fan of Google – it helps you find facts and people so easily. I personally use it to look for people all the time (it’s not stalking). However, do you want to google me. Try it – a search on Amit Agarwal gives you over 240K results. So people who are looking for me ( dhoondhte reh jayoge )

The funniest and the most annoying aspect of having a common name is that in a 100 meter radius, you will definitely find a few who share the same name. So if you hear someone yelling out your name, there is no assurance that that name call is for you.

Also, I personally don’t like the idea of someone calling you by your surname. But as things would be, my surname has always been tagged to my name for identification purposes in class, at work and everywhere else. So, I have been unwontedly called Amit Agarwal all my life.

Having a common name also hits you big on your identity (so called pehchaan). With a common name, creating a niche for yourself becomes more challenging.

As a human trait, we will always find the grass greener on the other side (but, since I have achieved Nirvana, I am above all this :p). I only look at the benefits of a common name and they are numerous.

To talk about the first benefit, let’s go back to the story of the email I got today about the other Amit Agarwal. Couple of months back I went to a seminar on financial derivatives and risk analysis event (details intended). At the registration desk, when I gave my name, I was ushered into a private more luxurious suite. I was offered VIP treatment there with the perks. Now, I am a meager MBA student who deserves but never gets this kind of exclusive treatment. So without asking any questions, I enjoyed my moment of glory and fame.

After a few minutes, I was asked whether I was ready with my presentation. Trying to not act surprised or petrified, (which I obviously was) I asked the organizer what presentation are we talking about? With a bemused look, he said the 30 minutes talk you are going to give us about “Structured Products and their long term risk implications”. With the straightest face I could manage, I admitted that I didn’t have freaking clue what he was talking about. Apparently, there was a different Amit Agarwal ( yes another A.A. in HK ) who was suppose to give a presentation on that Greek or Latin topic . Well, it didn’t matter- The blueberry cheese cake they served in the VIP room was delicious.

Morale of the story, there can be perks of having a common name.

Another significant benefit of having a common name is that you can easily camouflage yourself when you don’t want to be revealed. I lost counts of the number of times I have shifted responsibilities by blaming it on some other Amit particularly if it’s about being delegated a task or an unwanted work.    

Furthermore, having a common name has the benefit that I never need to correct the pronunciation of my name. While my other Indian friends who get tired correcting the way their names are pronounced, I never have to go through that exercise.

Nonetheless, irony of having a common name will always exist. It’s upon you how you want to perceive this scenario.

Fear of Rejection

What is your biggest fear?

For some, it’s the fear of death, for some its fear of spiders. According to a survey, for most, it’s the fear of public speaking. However to me, the worst fear one can have, is the fear of rejection.

The human race has survived brutality of wars, diseases and natural disasters. However, fear of rejection is one fear which tends to eclipse most men. The fear of rejection is such an impeder that it deters us from doing things which we want to do. This fear hinders you to pursue your dreams, restricts your ambitions and diminishes your action taking ability.

I agree that any kind of rejection can be devastating. It generally hurts where it matters the most, i.e. it hurts your psyche and it absolutely demolishes your confidence. A normal human tendency is to avoid any sort of pain and after the initial rejections, you simply stop trying.

A few things you experience when you have fear of rejection

• You feel that you have lost all your confidence and can never accomplish any job.
• Inability to say no to anything because you feel awful about saying no and getting others to reject and neglect you. Thus, you keep agreeing to perform tasks which you don’t want to do.  
• Absence of self opinion about yourself. You judge yourselves as what people say about you rather than what you think about yourself.
• Loss of identity. You tend to idolize people very quickly and hence imitate those whom you think highly of.

The most successful people in the world have been the ones who have been able to overcome this fear. Talk about Abraham Lincoln, he lost 3 elections before he won his first. Or talk about our own Amitabh Bachchan – he was rejected by the radio, by the theatre and by several movie studios. But he still had the courage to face more rejections before he got his first break.

Relationships are one part of our lives where fear of rejection has such a deep impact. The horizon of this fear stretches right from your professional career to friendship to your love life.

While operating my start-up venture, I faced professional rejection on a daily basis. So much so, that I wondered whether facing rejection was part of my job description. It generally was a traumatizing experience when after having one sales meeting and several follow-up meetings, the prospective client just rejected your proposal. I have started to believe that those initial rejections were one reason why I am doing a MBA and not running a successful business.

I read this true story in one of the Chicken Soup books where a guy in high school is madly in love with his classmate but never approaches her as he fears rejection. The guy could never develop the courage to approach the girl and after 2 years of anguish, gives up. 25 years later, married to their respective spouses they meet at High School reunion. The guy, who still has a soft corner for the girl, finally tells her how crazy he was about her. The girl starts crying hysterically. She tells him how much she loved him throughout high school but was waiting for him to make the first move. Both speechless, they just part ways. This is one example how a meant to be relation never happened because of their fear for rejection.

There are many other incidents where broken friendships don’t mend because both the parties are paranoid that their offer for reconciliation will be rejected by the other.                                                         Another chicken soup story. 2 close friends with their friendship of 20 years. One day, they quarrel on a trivial matter and ultimately stop interacting with each other. A few weeks later, they both realize that the quarrel was absurd and uncalled for. However, they both not sure if the other guy wants to be friends again, don’t make the reconciliatory move. Eventually no one does and when one friend dies, the other realizes his mistake. But, it’s too late. Their fear that the other might reject the reconciliatory offer, never give it a try.

My apologies for the sad stories but blame Chicken Soup for that. They are just filled with them.

Some instant gyaan for overcoming fear of rejection.

Don’t ever be scared of rejections in your life. Every time you are rejected, take that as a challenge to prove yourself. Develop a frame of mind where you view getting rejected as a stepping stone to success. Once, you are able to accept rejection, you’ll realize that with every rejection, it gets easier.

Be yourself because everyone else is taken. Don’t ever succumb to peer pressure and do things which you don’t want to do. Don’t let others dictate your individuality.

 And finally, Don’t make success the ultimate goal and focus more on the process than the result. Try rewarding yourself for just making an effort and getting a "no."

A relevant quote from Sylvestor Stallone to end this blog - “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.”