Blog

Yesterday, one of my ex-students, after watching a skit performed by the current students, which denigrated a Hindu deity, expressed his anguish at the denigration and his apprehension that if the video of this performance was uploaded to Youtube, it may have negative repercussions. Today I was reading about the Jaipur Literature Festival and the Rushdie […]

In our parents’ time, joining the public sector ensured job security and perpetual employment (till retirement). Most of our parent’s generation stuck to one company throughout their working life. The economy was stable and upheavals were rare and contained. During my time, multinational firms were the rage and we would stick with a company for […]

  Today, a close friend of mine expressed anguish at the following incident. Yesterday, he learnt of the death of his sister’s father-in-law. He was close to the deceased gentleman and they had spent many moments together solving crosswords and discussing other similar mysteries of life. He went over to his sister’s house and started […]

It is very difficult to share our feelings. We have been taught and conditioned to “keep a stiff upper lip” or as the Greek philosophers said – be a stoic. Sometimes we are afraid to share our feelings – people may think we are weak, or cry-babies. There may also be retaliation, or someone may […]

I know that I am supposed to do a particular activity like an assignment, or study a book or write letters. But I tend to postpone these indefinitely, citing various excuses. Charles Handy talks about 3 things that are required in the motivational calculus. I should know my needs. These can be the need for […]

While teaching strategy, I debunk most of the strategies like BCG, Porter, etc. For that matter, I debunk most of what has been taught. Students are then confused. Why did we study them? Why did we learn to ride the bicycle? To learn the concept of freedom, of balance and road sense. This led to […]

For that matter, why do people do anything? De Becker talks about 4 things. Justification: we make a judgement that we have been wronged, hence we need to retaliate. If we think about it, we have justified each of our actions (or inaction). Sometimes we say it was necessary or unavoidable. Sometimes, we assume an […]

Pay and reward How will my performance be measured? How will my targets be set? And how much say will I have in setting them? Who are the key decision-makers that I will need to get along with? And how would you describe each of them? How regularly will my pay be reviewed? And when […]

In medical emergencies, such as a large scale disaster, where need is more than the supply of resources, “triage” is a way of determining priorities. At the most primitive level it is: Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive; Those who are likely to die, regardless of what care they […]

We join the MBA program with visions of “leading a team of dedicated professionals towards a pre-defined objective.” We hope to meet like-minded folks and pit our wits with them. We hope to meet professors who will reveal the arcane workings of the stock market, of marketing and of corporate strategy. We hope to discover […]