Vasant's Weblog

Helping Pharma Cliff Dive

2012-01-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

Cross posted from Everest Group's blog, with minor contextual edits:

In late November 2011, the world's largest branded drug by revenue - Lipitor® - went off patent. The forecasted fall in revenues for Pfizer is expected to knock it off the perch of being the world's largest pharmaceuticals firm. By 2015, industry analysts expect the patent cliff (revenue loss due to patent expiries) to cumulatively knock out more than US$200 billion in pharma industry revenues. For an industry that brings in just under a trillion dollars annually, this is a major revenue hit.

Exacerbating the problem is continually dipping R&D productivity that has constrained pharma firms’ capacity to replenish their pipelines. While R&D spend has doubled to nearly US$50 billion annually over the last decade, new drug approvals across the industry have more than halved.

To manage this unprecedented change, pharma firms are taking a re-look at their business profiles and cost structures.

Emerging market expansions are the industry's new mantra for growth. IMS, a leading provider of information services for the healthcare industry, estimates the industry's share of revenues from emerging pharma markets to double to nearly 40 percent by 2015. And all players, from the big pharma companies to generic manufacturers, are expanding their footprint in these markets, aggressively building and buying distribution capacity, and expanding sales and marketing networks. For example, Pfizer teamed up with ITC in India last year to leverage its distribution network to sell drugs to rural consumers.

In the face of steep revenue declines, productivity and cost optimizations are but a given. The R&D function is being restructured into leaner and more collaborative partnerships, with growing industry-academia interfaces. For example, in 2011, Pfizer aimed to reduce its R&D budget by US$1.5 billion with sizeable job cuts. And in the commercial function, sales force reductions have become the norm. In December 2011, AstraZeneca announced that it would cut its U.S. pharma sales force by over a quarter (even as it announced plans to scale up its emerging markets sales force).

Further, as the industry tries to manage its risk profile, it has begun to diversify into new consumer-centric business areas including generics, consumer healthcare, diagnostics, nutritionals, health management and animal health. For example, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today lists the creation of a ”diversified global business” as its top strategic priority.

In this era of significant change, technology and business service providers have a great opportunity to exhibit leadership and step up to stronger partnerships with the industry by:

· Helping drive innovation in the pharma industry

o Bringing in ideas from other industries, not just in R&D, but also in manufacturing, retail, and distribution, e.g., helping pharma improve field-force design based on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) principles, and its manufacturing and supply chain with ideas from logistics

o Enabling a more effective use of technology to drive business results, e.g., through use of collaboration technologies to improve research, and by leveraging digital media more effectively for a more effective consumer presence

· Helping pharma firms address the myriad of complexities they face as they enter and expand in emerging markets, e.g., establishing local market relationships, navigating regulatory issues, building distribution setups and partnerships, structuring low-cost solutions, etc. Established service providers with significant emerging market presence also have the potential to enable the industry with more holistic propositions to address a number of these complexities end-to-end.

· Helping the industry optimize its cost structure:

o Improving field-force effectiveness – where nearly one-third of pharma spend is concentrated – through enabling sales force management tools, data and analytics (in next generation areas such as effectiveness research and digital analytics) and back office services (sales operations)

o Driving manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies through more integrated technology architectures (e.g., redesigned ERP implementations, and emerging rollouts)

o Managing regulatory complexity (an area in which pharma firms spend a couple of billion dollars each year) through building validated, compliant technology environments and cost-effective BPO services in areas such as pharmacovigilance

o Driving R&D efficiencies through collaborative platforms, and helping manage large volume high-throughput data environments

o Increasing flexibility in the face of rapid change, e.g., through cloud-based models

Today, service providers seem focused on servicing the pharma industry's IT-BPO requirements largely in a “vendor” capacity. Traditionally, the pharma industry's cash rich and risk-averse culture often drove this arms-length positioning. However, in this time of massive change, a more proactive approach is called for, and smart technology and business service providers will not miss the opportunity to challenge the industry's status quo and support its growth through bold, provocative offerings and thought leadership.

Complexity breeds corruption

2012-01-10T23:43:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest drivers of corruption in the India is the complexity involved in interfacing with Government departments. Anyone who has applied for passport, or a driving license, or a voter's id here is well aware of the myriad of processes and procedures that is encountered in the interaction.

This complexity is driven by multiple factors:
1. a lack of understanding or awareness of the process
2. the multitude of specifications that need to be addressed and the range of hand-offs involved
3. the number of human processing points involved
4. a lack of service levels or clarity in turn-around times - which often provides a perception of greater complexity

The average man who seeks to independently interface with Government machinery often gets frustrated by this complex set of opaque processes, and is forced to utilize middlemen who provide a greater understanding and structure to the process.

Now, it is fair to understand that the use of middlemen (touts, brokers, agents, consultants!, call them whatever you will) often occurs in public and private spheres where is significant complexity involved. Take travel ticketing: the rise of the travel agent industry is a function of the significant complexity involved in planning travel and booking tickets among the range of options available. Middlemen often provide a layer of encapsulation to manage complex processes. To that extent, it is not wrong.

Where it becomes a wrong is when the middlemen come in cahoots with officers to maintain the complexity. This drives corruption and inefficiency in the system, as the officers have now a vested interest in slowing it down.

Where it becomes wrong is when the process becomes exploitative and accessible to only a privileged few in the population who have the capacity to pay. When a free public service becomes a pricey interaction, where the wealthy have the option to pay 'speed money', it becomes a wrong.

Unfortunately, this is a reality in most parts of India today.

So what can the Government do?

a. Increase citizen awareness and provide transparency through better technology use
Providing information about services online, and providing means to access Government services online is a big way to mitigate the complexity involved. It improves the accessibility of services, provides greater transparency and helps manage work-load better.

Enable self service online. People who have worked in the contact center industry know this as one of the most effective ways of reducing the volume of processing requests. With most Government departments claiming to be buried under the load of volume, this is an effective approach.

The RTI Act has clearly been a path-breaking piece of legislation in improving Government transparency (I made an RTI application during a passport re-issuance, and got detailed process information within a week of putting it in. That was a 'Wow!' moment for me). Now its time to the RTI applications online - the current process of making offline applications in an unstructured format makes it cumbersome for applicants, and makes queries open ended for Government departments.

The Electronic Service Delivery Act is a foresighted piece of legislation in the works to move services online, though its up-take by States and the extent of its implementation still needs to be seen.

Better still, it is time for the Indian Government to proactively move data online. Government 2.0 initiatives in the US have been a great hit in improving citizen access and interaction, and its time for India to emulate these. The Ministry of IT's draft Framework document for use of Social media is an interesting start.

b. Simplify processes and rules, and standardize
Awareness and transparency will not be enough if Governmental processes continue to remain as complex as they are currently. The Government needs to take a close look at the number of steps and processes required in all citizen interfacing processes, and prune relentlessly.

Isin't there a better alternative to having stamp papers, court fees, court stamps on almost every application? (there must be alternative ways and means of financing the judiciary). Isin't there an alternative to having gazetted officers and notaries stamp every affidavit or declaration?

And standardize. Most Governmental procedures involve multiple levels of citizen identification or authentication, and simplifying this into one standard will help reduce complexity significantly. That's why UID has so much potential if managed well.

c. Institute a customer service culture
It is time for Government departments and officers to realize that citizens are their true customers, rather than viewing the service as a favor, as most currently seem to. A change in attitude will go a long way in improving the interaction into a more pleasing one, and give greater confidence to citizens that middlemen are not required.

Better still, it is time for the Government to consider instituting service levels (after all, isn't it 'For the people'). At least for the most common of interactions. The lack of a definitive turn-around time is one of the biggest concerns for citizens making an application. The Delhi Government's start in this - the Right to Citizen of Time Bound Delivery Act 2011 - is a brilliant move.

-

India definitely needs to reduce the complexity of its citizen-Government interfaces if it needs to has to attack the malaise of corruption in the system. While there have been attempts at various fronts, we need more serious thought and effort behind this issue.

(For the record, this post is written as an outcome of one such extremely grevious Government interaction)

The 'Growth' obsession

2012-01-05T03:07:00.000-08:00

One of the great things of working in emerging markets like India is about being witness to the incredible amount of growth that some industries and firms here are going through. But, is an obsession with growth the 'right thing' in the long run? With stock markets and investors tracking growth on a quarter-by-quarter basis, many firms (and executives) have no choice but to put all their efforts behind relentless growth.

The problem with the relentless focus on growth is that it brings short-termism into decisions that executives make. A recent client had to choose between becoming one of the industry's largest players and becoming one of the industry's most distinctive value creators. Adopting the distinctiveness plank would create significant value for clients and itself in the long run, but would require it to patiently invest in shaping next generation opportunities. Adopting the scale plank would give it immediate growth, but would relegate it to a commodity positioning in the long run.

Guess what the firm chose? A typical senior executive spends 3-5 years in a specific career role during which he/she is measured largely by the extent of business growth in the duration. Who has the time for long-term thinking in this context?

Yet, long-term discipline is the basis of most things that stand the test of time. Launching new initiatives takes time, bringing about a change in thinking and approach takes time, creative innovation takes time, making structural changes takes time. An excessive focus on the short-term takes away attention from the long-term.

Is all this obsession with growth taking us in the right direction in the long run? I worry.

Ah Gurgaon

2011-09-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

This month, September 2011, marks four years of my stay in Gurgaon. I came to this city with a bit of trepidation, having heard unflattering reviews about the city.

Most Indians, in general, hold a pretty low opinion of Delhi's citizens, with their abrasive nature and showy facade being the subject of much ridicule. Gurgaon was particularly reviled for its "mall culture", lack of public transportation, lack of safety, dust, .... Ignoring friendly advice, I had taken on the shift as a bit of an adventure.

I had landed late at night, and caught my first glimpse of the city in the shining Cybercity office corridor.

"It can't be that bad", I remember thinking to myself.

The roads were wide. Much wider than I had ever seen anywhere in Chennai, and almost as good as South Mumbai's well-paved set.

The cars were huge. Flashy cars and huge new SUVs seemed to be zipping everywhere. What more could a car lover want?

Then, out of vast empty space, huge apartment blocks towered. Yes, it was dusty all around, but these 'societies' seemed to be self-contained green oases.

It has been four years since that time.

Cybercity continues to be one of the most impressive office congregations in the country. The wide roads have become way more crowded. Where once Honda city's used to abound, BMWs and Audis seem to be dime-a-dozen. The vast dust-lands have become way more greener. Malls continue to multiply and thrive. Public transportation has come to be, and so has the Metro.

And I have grown to love this city. Love its youthfulness, its independence, its 'brashy' confidence, and the fact that in its own unique way it is a melting pot of so many different cultures from across India.

If Governments can, Why can't you?

2011-05-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted from Everest Group's blog, with minor contextual edits.

All around the world, governments are increasingly stepping up to the Cloud.

Early last week, the U.S. government's General Services Administration (GSA) issued a solicitation for cloud-based email, office automation, and records services, in a contract estimated to be worth up to U.S. $2.5 billion over five years. The GSA expects savings of nearly 45 percent from this move.

By the end of this year, the government CIO’s commitment to a "Cloud First" policy is expected to result in closures of up to 137 data centers across the U.S. While this is only about six percent of the government’s 2000+ data centers, it’s a great start given the extent of change required.

Across the Atlantic, there are plans to consolidate the UK government's 8000 data centers into a dozen centers on an internal G-Cloud. The government also recently released an alpha version of a consolidated government portal (alpha.gov.uk) hosted on Amazon's cloud platform, that aims to centralize access to all government services.

In China, there are plans to build a cloud computing center the "size of a city" within the Heibei province, to primarily serve government departments.

These moves by governments around the globe represent, for perhaps the first time in recent memory, path-breaking leadership in technology transformation. Change is never an easy subject, especially within the public sphere. Yet the extent of potential benefits from a move to the Cloud is making governments take notice, and make the plunge.

Private enterprises stand to learn a variety of lessons from these public sector Cloud moves:

a. They set the lead for large private enterprises

The Cloud is already at the forefront of CIO priorities for 2011. However, many enterprises hesitate to take large technological plunges given the extent of change required from legacy environments. Questions often emerge as to whether Cloud strategies are better suited for small-to-medium environments, and for new next generation initiatives. Enterprises also question how the change can be managed across so many different business units with disparate platforms.

The scale of attempted governmental transformation should put such questions to rest. If an entity with over a thousand departments and an $80 billion IT budget (a.k.a. the US government) can make the shift, why can't you?

b. They indicate greater tolerance towards risk and security challenges

As other recent discussions on the Everest blog indicate, security and compliance concerns constitute two of the biggest impediments to transition to the Cloud. Yet, with risk sensitive departments such as Defense, Homeland Security and the NSA making the move, it’s clear the public sector’s concerns on these risks have been largely alleviated.

As the head of the U.S. Cyber Command General Keith Alexander recently testified in a House sub-committee hearing, "...moving the programs and the data that users need away from the thousands of desktops we now use - each of which has to be individually secured... to a centralized configuration that will give us wider availability of applications and data combined with tighter control over accesses and vulnerabilities and more timely mitigation of the latter...Indeed, no system that human beings use can be made immune to abuse - but we are convinced the controls and tools that will be built into the cloud will ensure that people cannot see any data beyond what they need for their jobs and will be swiftly identified if they make unauthorized attempts..."

c. They herald greater maturity in the supplier ecosystem

Google and Microsoft have sparred publicly over the last few months over the (alleged) respective lack of FISMA certification on Cloud services offered to U.S. government agencies. As the war for public sector Cloud prospects heats up, so will functionality and service provider maturity. For example, Google Apps for Government now includes specialized security functionality: data location and segregation of government data, necessary to ensure greater security and compliance.

In addition, as The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) mechanisms are established later this year to enable government-wide certifications and authorization, more Cloud vendors will step up to meet the bar.

d. They indicate need for concerted CIO-level leadership

Since 2009, when Cloud computing was identified as a Federal IT priority, the U.S. government’s CIO has unveiled a wide range of initiatives: establishing standard definitions; defining Cloud value propositions; launching Cloud store fronts; establishing the "Cloud First" strategy as a keystone of IT strategy; setting clear decision frameworks and timelines; and establishing new Cloud standards. Clearly, Federal Cloud initiatives are leading change across a diverse government organization, much of which has been driven by the CIO’s determined efforts to push through change, despite naysayers and challenges.

Governments’ migration to the Cloud represents a monumental effort in technology change in a large and complex organization. As private enterprises navigate to the Cloud, they have much to learn from the public sector’s lead.

All hara in Pokhara

2011-05-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

No travelogue can do justice to the experiences of a great trip. Yet they outline great memories.

We decided to take advantage of a long weekend break to check out our northern neighbour - Nepal. With Spicejet flying to Kathmandu at costs of a trip down south, we were enthused enough. The early morning view of the Himalayas was breathtaking.

We also had other reasons to lose breadth. We had just realized after boarding the flight that our credit cards indicated they would not be valid in Nepal. And most of our money was in Indian denominations of 500 and 1000, which were supposedly not accepted in the country. Much of the flight was spent trying to figure strategies to sustain in the piddly hundreds we had with us. Thankfully though, we had little to worry. No sooner than we got into Kathmandu, that we realized that not only were our cards fully valid, but all Indian currency can be used freely too. What a relief!

The touts outside Kathmandu airport remind me of those outside the railway station in Varanasi - like mosquitoes waiting to prey on unsuspecting visitors to charge exorbitant rates. The domestic airport is but a few hundred meters away from the international. And if one has but a few bags, can easily be legged to. As we did.

We found seats on the next flight to Pokhara (the visitor assist at the domestic airport is really helpful), and waited to board. Flights start from rates equivalent to 1000 Rs. Indian! The turboprop to Pokhara was really small though - just 2 columns of 10 seats each. With comments from tourists as to whether the flight would actually take off (or land), we were off. The half hour journey was fun, with a beautiful low view of mountains.

Pokhara is a charming small little town, and the starting point for the Annapurna trek. With supposedly 7 lakes around town (the large one near the market is a perpetually glittering shade of blue) and surrounded by mountains, its a beautiful retreat. In addition, its a great back-packer town. The lakeside market area is the coolest I've seen amongst all the backpacker hangouts I've been to: Bangkok, Koh Tao, Kowloon, Leh, and even Goa.

We stayed at a place called the Castle Resort, which is a kilometer or two out of town and atop a hillock overlooking the lake. Castle, is a beautiful resort in itself, and caters to slightly upmarket groups. It has a beautiful swimming pool, a great bar and rooms which offer a stunning view of the lake. In addition, Joe, the proprieter, is a super cool guy. The only downside is the distance from the town center and the approach - a bad broken road up-hill. In hindsight, the best place to stay is near the lakeside market - there are lots of guest houses and hotels, and the environment is amazing.

Sunrise at Sarangkot, Nepal

There are quite a few points to visit around Pokhara town. The sun-rise at Sarangkot is beautiful, with stunning views of the snow-capped Annapurna and fish-tail peaks. The World Peace Pagoda atop the hill is neat and offers beautiful views of the town. The Devi's falls is freaky, and the cave temple in front is a subterranean adventure. The local town market itself is quaint, with even a Marwadi eatery that served us deliciously hot pooris and jalebis. Yet, the best place in my view is the lakeside market - colourful, lots of variety, cheap even by Indian standards and with a happening night life.

World Peace Pagoda

After staying at Pokhara for 2 days, we took the flight back to Kathmandu, promising ourselves that we would be back, for longer. Pokhara is clearly a wonderful place to relax on a long week's holiday, with a trek or two thrown in.

Back in Kathmandu, we found a great guest house to stay, right in the center of Thamel, through a friend's recommendation. Thamel is a bustling, colorful backpacker hangout, with crowds from all over the world. A shopper's delight, the food is great too!

Somehow, Kathmandu reminds me of Varanasi. A crowded, dusty, Hindu town, and seemingly lost in a different century. Sadly, they have even taken after us Indians in the widespread lack of sanitation.

The Pashupatinath temple is a large, crowded Hindu temple, with architecture that reminds me of Kerala's. The large Nandi up-front is quite distinctive. The Lingam is quite unique too, with four different facets of Shiva carved on it (unlike Indian ones which are plain). While queues abound, the easiest way to bypass these is to ask one of the 'guide's' to show you around. They know the guards and give you the enough access within 10 minutes to do the works. Beware though, they fleece you too - so be careful of what they tell you.

Boudhnath, Kathmandu

Boudhnath is the most distinct Buddhist shrine in Kathmandu. Unlike Pashupatinath, it admits visitors of all religions (when will we Hindus change?). With beautiful, colorful carvings and shops all around, it's a worthy visit. The eye's painted atop the shrine are, by far, the most common memorabilia in Kathmandu.

We closed the day, checking out Darbar square. Thamel is quite close to the square and a trip atop a cycle-rickshaw is reminiscent of old Delhi. Has quite a market around and feels like Chandni Chowk.

As we had started our trip to Nepal, a lot of people back home had cautioned us about a lot of things - not to stay out at night, not to wander off alone, to beware of hate crimes, etc. Frankly, we saw none of these. If anything, people went out of their way to help us out, at the airports, markets, shops, and in the temples. We definitely plan to go back, for a much longer trip, to see more of beautiful countryside.

To those who seek to follow: Spicejet flies twice a day from Delhi to Kathmandu. So do Jet and Kingfisher. Indian currency can be used all over Nepal, and all Indian credit cards work (despite what's written on them!). Costs overall are lesser than India. Flights are the best way to travel between Nepali cities. Pokhara feels like Goa, with much lesser crowds around.

One reason digital trumps print

2011-04-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, I bought my mom a book. Something she had been asking about, for quite some time.

Yet, when she got it, she put it down saying the print is too small. Reading too small a print gives her a headache, and she would rather skip it than chance pain.

Now this is one problem with reading books the print way. You cannot resize text, you cannot zoom in and out. The medium is just too static.

In contrast, digital media is way more flexible. Zooming and out is a breeze.

Recently, reading books online has become an addition. With Amazon's Whispersync, I keep track of read pages on multiple devices - my laptop and my phone. In addition, its made my reading non-linear. Now I book-mark pages and jump back and forth, something I found painful to do with books in print. For an avid reader like me, the digital media has been a quick hook-on.

What's interesting is that even the earlier generation may have reason to switch.

National Cyber security policy

2011-04-16T02:39:00.000-07:00

A draft of the much needed National Cyber Security Policy has finally been released by the Ministry of IT / CERT-In, for public comments.

Link: India cyber security policy draft

Interesting points:

Creation of a national level nodal agency on cyber security under CERT-in and sectoral CERT-ins for key sectors
A national cyber alert system for early warning and response
Local incident response teams at key locations, to liaison with expert teams with CERT-in for resolution
Creation of a Chief Info-security Officer post in all government and key sectoral organizations
Open standards to be encouraged and a govt-private sector consortium to be created to promote these
School/college training program on cyber security to be instituted

My view: Great start. Good coverage in areas at least. A much needed start too - IT and offshoring-focused industries should be pleased. This is something that goes against India in a lot of global sourcing evaluations.

A few things missing too: Privacy has just a single passing mention. But any cyber security policy that requires public and corporate participation must address privacy over use of shared / collected data. Check out the US policy review. But then, privacy and civil liberties have rarely been a key element in Indian law.

A second lacuna is that it doesn't prioritize initiatives. The policy indicates over 10 major initiatives without any priorities or timelines. With so many different stakeholders involved in policy implementation, it is quite easy for the policy to remain largely in text. But then, this is common of most Indian policy. Again, this is an early draft, so hope things change.

Overall, a timely and much needed start.

Just in case, public comments can be sent to CENT-In/MIT at (grai AT mit.gov.in) till 15-May '11.

Landing up in lansdowne

2011-04-10T02:47:00.000-07:00

Lansdowne is a small hill-station, situated at a distance of around 250 kms from Delhi. Named after an erstwhile British Viceroy of India, it is the home town of the Garhwal Rifles regiment of the Indian military, and is a well maintained, quiet and beautiful cantonment town. It also happens to be the closest 'hill-station' from Delhi.

A friend's visit and enough weekend enthusiasm got us moving early on an April Saturday morning. Despite limited morning traffic, reaching Meerut (some 70 kms from Delhi) took us over 2 hours.

Meerut is a dusty, yet vibrant and colorful town. A perfect spot to click those 'A day in the life of India' pictures. We quickly crossed the town and headed towards Mawana. Famous for its sugar, 'cane fields and mango orchards lined the route. Verdant green, and at this time of the year, blooming with mango flowers.The route from Mawana heads towards Najibabad and Bijnor, and is surprisingly well laid and maintained.

A few kilometers outside of Mirapur, the road splits into two - with the one for Bijnor heading to the right. Busy with small talk and soaking in the beauty of those beautiful orchards, we missed the turn and headed straight to Muzzafarnagar. Nearing the town's vicinity, we realized our folly and with some Google Maps help, speedily headed back to track.

Drive up from Koratdwar was nice and breezy. Nice winding mountain roads, beautiful pine trees and meadows all around, and with hardly any traffic.

Oak Grove Inn, where we had booked our stay, lies on the Pauri-Lansdowne route, and required a slight detour to reach. This was the day of the World Cup Final match, with India and Sri Lanka battling it out, and we had reached just in time for the start.

The Inn, run by a retired Army Colonel (Col. Rawat) and his wife, is a beautiful, cozy, homely and neat bed-and-breakfast stay, situated a few kilometers outside the boundaries of Lansdowne, overlooking a beautiful valley. The Col. and his wife were great hosts, and went beyond their way to organize our stay. Gave me explicit directions on every part of the drive from Delhi to Lansdowne, and called me up twice enroute to enquire on my direction. While at the place too, they went out of their way to ensure things were up to the market. The closest one can get to feeling homely, away from home.

After settling in, we took a break during Sri Lanka's slog overs to go around town.

The town is well maintained, with the army's discipline well exhibited. Small parks, winding clean roads, military presence all abound. Few attractions exist: a well laid-out museum on the Garwhal Rifles, a couple of view-points, and a lake (that could very well be a ditch).

What's distinctive is the quietness. Unlike most hill stations in India, there is little commercial activity. Few people walking around in gay abandon, and hardly any families with kaw-kawing children, that are wont at every other hill-station. It's almost un-Indian in this general lack of population / activity, and the cleanliness. The winding tree-lined roads make a great walking destination too.

The evening, of course, was devoted to watching the match. And what a fine contest it turned out to be!

Overall, Lansdowne is a great place for a quiet weekend getaway from Delhi. Just don't land up there expecting to shop and party. However, it's just THE place to stretch your legs and detox away from Delhi's dust.

For those who seek to follow the trail: The drive takes 6+ hours, depending on the traffic, and your familiarity with the route. After Meerut, follow NH-119 to Mawana, Bijnor, Najibabad and Kotdwar. The real traffic choke-point is Modinagar/Meerut, the rest of the drive, particularly after Mawana, is a drivers delight. Enroute, shortly after Mirapur, remember to take the right turn at a restaurant called 'Monty Millions' to head to Bijnor. Oak Grove is a great place to stay. Alternatively, the GVMN guest house at Tiffin Top is a picturesque location.

The Spirit of Mumbai

2011-03-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

I stood outside a hotel in Mumbai, trying to find a cab to take me home. My travel was not too far, yet beyond walking limits. A sultry evening in a dusty and dirty part of town.

Just one cab stood outside, with the cabby looked eagerly to find a passenger. A black and yellow cab with a white shirted driver.

My destination disappointed him. He had been waiting for too long, to catch a short ride. He shook his head respectfully. "Sorry sir. Have been waiting here since morning."

I knew I wouldn't find another cab ride there, without a lengthy walk. Too few cabs, all ferrying riders. None waiting to stop. Resigned, I started the jaunt.

But the waiting cabby was beside me. "Sir, I will find you another. I am sorry I couldn't serve you".

He briskly crossed the road and flagged down a cab going in the opposite direction. A heated Marathi conversation ensured. But it ended with an approving nod.

The cabby waved me in and ran back to his waiting spot. Ignoring my profuse thanks and stunned expression.

The Spirit of Mumbai.

(Learn, Chennai auto-drivers. Learn.)

The Electronic Service Delivery Bill

2011-02-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Indian Ministry of IT has put out a draft Electronic Service Delivery Bill 2011 for comments to general public. The intended Bill seeks to accelerate the process of electronic delivery of services to public by government departments by prescribing a time-bound transition from manual to electronic services, and creating an associated regulatory infrastructure.

My comments, based on an initial read.

It is an appreciable start, meant to galvanize state departments into action. While some states such as AP, Karnataka and Delhi have taken sizeable steps in e-Governance, the rest are largely laggards. If nothing else, this bill should make governments sit up and move a bit.

I specifically liked the wording around the use of service providers for delivery of services and collection of associated charges. If implemented properly, this will result in a new era of PPP opportunities for IT service providers in e-Governance.

Yet, the bill gives too much leeway to individual ministries on the extent and time-frame of implementation. One good alternative would have been to prescribe a minimum set of services that each ministry must e-enable. In the current form, it would become the headache of the regulatory Commissioner to push ministries to expand scope.

Another open point is the open implementation timeline. Despite prescribing a 180-day limit for governments to decide on the scope, it makes the cut-off date for implementation, discretionary. Knowing the legendary delays in implementation of e-governance projects, this is a quagmire.

In sum, a great start. May run into financial impediments unless the associated investment burden of states is appropriately addressed (not everything can be a PPP with limited investment); and political bottlenecks could be envisaged since it seems to exert quite a bit of central influence on state functioning.

A case of two disruptive Ms

2010-01-23T06:17:00.000-08:00

As consultants, we tend to be heavy users of travel services. Therefore, disruptive business models in the industry are particularly interesting.

Makemytrip, the travel portal, is an interesting case. For a frequent traveler, the ability to quickly evaluate flight options and comparison shop is of phenomenal value. Often travel schedules do become unpredictable and need change during odd hours. No conventional offline travel agent seems to come close to providing the level of experience and flexibility that a portal like Makemytrip does. In addition, what is particularly interesting is that prices online hardly ever differ from those booked through agents. Maybe its because both are hooked onto the same GDS systems for flight bookings and offline travel agent commissions are increasingly on the downward route.

This is making me and a number of my consultant colleagues, increasingly shift online to make bookings despite having dedicated corporate travel agents at our call. Soon offline travel houses will find it hard to justify their value and premium pricing against flexibility offered by these online setups.

The second disruptive case is that of Meru. Meru provides cab services in multiple cities of India with a dedicated phone-based booking facility. What is interesting is that Meru has been able to provide uniformly high quality cab services using a relatively low-cost model. Their cabs might not be the best of cars (and that's changing too), but are certainly clean enough, consistently in every city. Again where Meru beats "traditional" professional cab firms is the flexibilty of booking a car upto 30 minutes in advance in almost any location in cities where they operate - an invaluable service when schedules change rapidly; and at prices that are one-third of a corporate travel firm, they are a hands-down win proposition.

What both these models are doing really well is using technology to provide low-cost services with reasonable levels of quality and focusing on an important value point for frequent travelers - flexibility.

Moonlight descent

2009-12-01T11:22:00.004-08:00

A descent under incandescent moonlight, in the deep stillness of the midnight, over the sprawling mumbai nightlights; with twinkling stars in the moonlit sky glistening, the distinct deep blue horizon curving, cabin lights dimmed to support the descent, beside the roaring outspread wing, just capturing the moment.

Shouldn't governments have service level obligations?

2009-11-22T03:34:00.000-08:00

Governments, particularly in India, have an abysmal record of providing uniform high-quality services to citizens. At no place is this more apparent than in the capital Delhi, where in a drive of less than 15 minutes, from the beginning of the Grand Trunk Road to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, one can see the entire range from stinking dirty garbage covered pot-holed roads with overflowing severs to sparkling-clean well-tarred multi-laned roads bordered with well-trimmed hedges and expansive manicured lawns.

In a democracy, the Government exists to 'serve' the people. Aside from its greater role as a policy maker, every government spends an inordinate amount of time and money providing services to citizens. It is therefore quite sad to observe that they do such an inconsistent and poor job of it.

In the private sector, mature service organizations are increasingly adopting formal service level obligations (that are clearly defined and measured). For example, airports such as Changi in Singapore, or recently those at Hyderabad/Bangalore, have formal service metrics that guarantee that an arriving passenger would receive his bags, finish check-out procedures and be on his way to the cab in so-and-so minutes; as another, most banks have well defined turn-around service timelines for check/statement processing. The formal definition and measurement helps align incentives across the organization for consistent service delivery.

To expect Governments today to adopt a similar professional service mindset is probably a tall order.

Yet changes may be in the offing - if one is to go by the recent US Court ruling on the Army Corps of Engineers, blaming them for "monumental negligence" for some of the flooding during Katrina: Katrina ruling could bring new deluge of lawsuits.

While this could still be called a one-off incident in the advanced democratic setup of the US, if a Government entity could be held responsible for failing on its service obligation, that's quite a harbinger of things to come. Imagine what would happen if some day, the citizens of North Delhi took our government to task for the neglect of their area!

Why do teachers focus on the best students?

2009-10-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

If anything, it would make better sense to focus on those who struggle through lessons - the best students either are smart enough to understand their lessons and/or put sufficient effort to learn; its the strugglers who require attention. But invariably, most teachers direct their attention at the brightest. Why? I muse.

For one, it has to do with the skewed student-teacher ratios that most schools (at least in India) have. The skew causes undue effort on the teacher's attention span, so that they tend to focus their limited energies on those who are easiest to teach; it therefore, takes no leap of imagination to understand why the brightest rule - they are in sync with what is being taught most of the time, unlike the poor strugglers who gasp at the whizzing bouncers (ah! I still remember the feeling).

Another related reason, is that the best (perceived) students are invariably also the more competitive and aggressive of the lot. So in the babble of the class, the teacher's attention is more taken up by these, who end up asking the most questions and answering a bulk.

A third potential reason, is linked to how teachers get incentivized. Not every teacher is fundamentally motivated by an intent to change the world through pedagogy. For most, its a profession. A profession in which incentives are often linked to the output of the smartest student. Remember how teachers revel in pride when their student tops a school, a major examination or some day wins a Nobel! On the other hand, which teacher is ever felicitated for the poor struggler who barely managed to make it through?

To side with the teachers, one must admit the fact that teaching is a demanding occupation, requiring intense emotional (and physical) involvement and leadership skills that are no less than any other occupation. It is also amongst the most thankless. From the limited teaching I have done, I will attest as much.

So there is limited point in criticism of the teachers. But one must recognize that these behaviors do emerge, and as such might not result in the best of outcomes.

As a concluding afterthought - a personal recollection. I tend to have a quiet disposition and in most of my high-school classes, was often amongst the quietest in class. As a result, at the start of class sessions, I was hardly ever given attention by teachers, and used to struggle to catch their eye if I had a question.

Luckily for me, math and science were my strong points. After the first test or examination in these subjects, I could almost always sense a visible change in the amount of attention I received. The teacher's roving eye would sweep the class and rest on a bunch of us who had scored well.(There were even days, I thought I had perfected the art of predicting test scores in advance based on how the 'eye' swept the class!). Those days, it was often gratifying and embarassing - for along with it came the undue directional focus of questions from the teacher.

But now I look back and wonder - why, oh why, do most teachers focus their efforts on the their best students in class?

Value, a levered affair

2009-10-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

A recent news coverage on PE returns is generating quite a buzz - Private equity’s love affair with leverage. The article cites research on 240 odd PE transactions in the European market to present some interesting findings:

“The analysis found that the value of a company typically rose by 2.71 times during the period it was owned by a private equity house, on average 3.5 years. Of this 0.88 resulted from the use of leverage. Of the remaining 1.83, 0.87 came from growth in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), some 80 per cent of this from sales growth and 20 per cent from improved margins.

Improvements in free cash flow accounted for 0.42 and the effect of a rising multiple (i.e a company being sold for a higher price/earnings multiple than it was bought for) was responsible for 0.51. However, the data suggest the importance of leverage has grown; while it accounted for 28 per cent of value creation between 1989 and 2000, this figure rose to 36 per cent between 2001 and 2006.”

The interesting point is the outcome that a private equity investor could increase a firm's value by a whopping 80 odd percent by merely increasing leverage of the firm.

Now, how does leverage create (so much) value? Valuation theory tells us that debt increases value because its exploits the available tax shield benefit. At a more deeper level, debt increases fiscal discipline in managers as they are forced to commit to a fixed claim on cash flows, preventing them from frittering around with excess cash.

The interesting question is - how could leverage have so much of an impact? And why couldn't firm managers not act on it in the pre-PE days?

One possible reason is that private equity investors have greater risk appetite than internal firm managers, causing them to be more amenable to extensive leverage. This is quite possible - not every manager is incentivized to lever his/her firm to the point where he needs to sweat the business to avoid bankruptcy risks (that arise out of high debt). It is often easier to avoid making those tough project financing decisions than to risk his/her job security from a potential bankruptcy. PE investors, on the other hand, are incentivized to do the opposite. (Note though, at a higher risk).

For another, it is likely that the PE investors went after those firms which had a poor capital structure in the first place, so they could add 'value' by levering the balance sheet. If true, it shows how poorly a number of firms manage their capital structure decisions.

The other interesting note in the article is the (last) point about PE firms being able to time their exit enough to raise exit valuations by ~50 percent! Imagine being able to time valuation cycles in a 3.5 year average time-frame - possibly the function of a rising market in the time-period of the research?

De-attachment

2009-10-19T07:28:00.001-07:00

Why do we get attached to things and people? Despite knowing the fact that practically everything in life is impermanent.

For one, we get attached when we 'invest' in something, emotionally and/or financially, over a period of time.

Long term financial investments result in this attachment, since there is an expectation of return, particularly as the investment often requires us to forego potential alternative consumption at the time. The anticipation of returns from foregone utility creates an attachment.

Emotional investments are a little more complex and subtle to fathom.

For example, we tend to emotionally invest in the things and people we cohabitate with over time. I don't fully understand why this happens, but I have begun to practically notice this behavior in me. I used to think of such things as hocus-pocus, but it is interesting when such things begin to take effect.

One potential (rational?) reason could be, that when we take 'care' of things or when we build relationships with people, we make some form of an emotional investment, and inherently anticipate a future benefit from it - which causes the attachment.

Another variation is attachment to work. Hindu philosophy (to the limited extent I know) propounds this concept called 'nishkarma karma' - to indicate an ideal state of detached 'desireless action'.

But, I am beginning to learn that doing exceptional work requires some measure of attachment. One can do good work, or even great work by remaining detached from the outcomes, but doing 'exceptional' work requires a certain level of passion and dedication - that a detached mind finds hard to muster. In early days in consulting, I was advised that the true hallmark of great consulting lies in emphathizing and taking responsibility for a client's issues like 'they are your own'. Now, how is a detached individual supposed to accomplish that?

Is 'detachment' just an unattainable idealistic conjecture to account for the impermanence of life - for the failures we encounter, for the individuals we must separate from, for the things we must let go - or is there truly a feasible state of detached living?

When in doubt, price up.

2009-08-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

In the absence of other information, price is a powerful signal.

I went to a snack shop today to get some pani-puri. The shop keeper offered me two variants - one made of maida and another made of wheat flour. Now, I knew nothing about the difference between the two (and neither did the shop keeper). But the one made of maida was priced at Rs.10 while that of wheat was priced at Rs.12. I ended up choosing the one made of wheat.

Why? Practically, I'm indifferent to either price. But the costlier wheat variety made me think that it must have something better in it, that made the shop keeper price it higher. So why take a chance with an inferior variety.

The interesting thing is, I have seen this effect in a lot of decision making - particularly where there is limited associated information (other than price) that can help differentiate and decide. Restaurants - same food, but the pricier ones seem always better. Cars - same drive (and particularly if I don't know the specs), the pricier ones are always an envy. Even laundry services - somehow I've figured after a year of experience that the cheap dhobi who comes to my apartment does as good a job as the professional shop that charges 10 times as much - but why do I pay the professional guy so much more?

For one, price is itself a signal of quality. Price is a derivative of value of a product or service - if the seller himself undervalues his offering (and given that he always has more information than the buyer), why should the buyer, in the absence of better know-how, think otherwise?

Secondly, the absence of information creates a perception of risk. In the pani-puri example, why should I take a chance with eating a poorer variant when I could pay marginally better and avoid a health hazard? Or in the dhobi's case, why take a chance with my pricey clothes when I could pay but a small percentage of their cost to prevent the risk?

Third, is a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy effect in intangibles, wherein my belief in the better product/service due its higher price influences my experience, causing me to enjoy it better, which in turn reinforces or fulfils my belief. A costlier hair-cut feels better than a cheaper one (though in practice, there might be no difference at all), because I force myself to believe that there must be a reason for paying more, which influences my enjoyment of the service.

In sum, price acts as a strong signal of the quality of the product or service. So when in doubt, price up.

Of salad days in Srinagar and lingering summers in Leh

2009-08-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

| pagudhi moondru (part III) of the kashmir varalaaru...

Leh, a city set amidst the vast barreness of the Ladakh plateau, besides the meandering Indus river; a city filled with tourists from all over the planet, with Tibetan handicrafts and culture all around, and nice smiling people. The most backpacker-ish destination I've seen in India - milling with European, American and Asian crowd - almost reminded me of Thailand.

The Leh palace, a beautiful multi-tiered, though dilapidated, structure overlooking the city, with a further steep climb up to the Namgyal gompa. The Hemis monastery, with its stunning views of the city, its environs and the airport.

The Khardung La, the world's highest motorable pass, covered in snow even during summer. The sweet kashmiri-ladakhi kahwah. The yellow mustard flowers adjoining meandering rivers.

The Nubra valley. The ride along the river bed enroute to Siachen. The tall monasteries in the middle of nowhere. With smiling, red and yellow covered, monk kids. So intensely quiet. Why do people live here? So far away, yet so happy?

A camel ride on bactrian double humped camels on white sand-dunes at 10,000 ft, beneath the snow covered mountains. Meeting school kids from the US doing social service and backpacking women from the Netherlands, in the middle of nowhere. The long discussions and debates late into the night, on life, universe and everything, beneath the star studded lucid night sky.

The Chang La, the world's third highest motorable pass. Its smiling Indian soldiers who serve free kahwah and biscuits to the worn-out traveller. The ride along meandering dry river beds to the Pangong Tso. The sighting of the Himalayan marmot.

The Pangong Tso, the world's highest freshwater lake (why is everything the world's highest in something here?). Crystal blue and hued in myriad colors as the sun passes by. Incredibly quiet, and icy cold. The hot maggi served to the parched throat by the restaurant beside the lake.

Leh is a place at peace. Despite its bustle, it has an omnipresent feeling of eternal peace, that permeates everyone who passes. May be its the people, maybe it is its isolation and barren beauty, maybe its the monasteries. Om Mane Padme Hum.

Of salad days in Srinagar and lingering summers in Leh

2009-07-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

| part II of the kashmir chronicles ...

The bus to Leh takes a slow, winding (and sputtering) route to Kargil, along the banks of the Indus river. I met a couple of American backpackers on the bus with whom I was to share much a friendship later, a couple of Indian travellers with whom I was to share much a smile, a triad of Portugese with whom I was to share hardly a nod, and the bus driver and its conductor who became my guide on the long ride.

Now I have this zest for photography, nothing serious, but a whimsical fancy that comes to the fore everytime I travel. Early into the ride, not content with getting an aisle seat, I managed to secure a place right next to the driver, that gave me an expansive front view of the route. The seat also bought me the cameraderie of the driver and his chummies, who spent the ride explaining the intricacies of the way.

The road to Leh snakes its way up the hill via Sonmarg, up the Zoji La pass and downwards on to Kargil. The route is dry and barren, but with a stunning scenery of exotic grey-brown and enormous mountains and the blue indus river snaking beneath. At many a section along the route, it seems the road is exposed to firing from across the border, something the driver took great glee in pointing out to us grave-faced folk (but of course, these are peaceful times). And at many a point along the route, are memorial stones of Indian soldiers who have laid down their lives in the multiple wars that the two nations have fought.

Enroute Kargil, is the infamous town of Drass, epicenter of the Kargil war that took place a decade back. Today, the town is yet another small township, with a small teashop, a quiet police station and an exquisite J&K tourism board indicating that the town is the 'second coldest inhabited place in the world' - bloddy hot in summer though, I must admit. Outside Drass, and enroute the town of Kargil are military memorials to the decade old war (yes, it occured exactly a decade before - 1999 was the year).

The Kargil township itself is a narrow, though bustling, market intersection with a bunch of shops and houses crowding the hillside. This was our night halt. Interestingly, the place has quite a few decent hotels, cybercafes and restaurants serving everything from Mughlai to Chinese cuisine and playing old Hindi songs.

Early in the morning at 4 am, vary of my keylong morning dog-chase last year, I made my way, with trepidation, in the darkness to the bus. Thankfully, Kargil had quite a few early birds, up to catch buses, none of whom were dogs.

And what a roar the Indus makes in the quietness of the morning twilight!

It was another day's journey to Leh, a day through dry mountainous passes, through 21S-curved roads, along the edge of tall gorges, with exquisitely shaped mountain ranges colored in red, green, blue and yellow!, through a monasteric Ladakhi landscape and along the omnipresent Indus river. The apricots were sweet, the weather hot, the driver amusing, the company interesting and the ride, unforgetful.

This is a ride people must undertake, if only to realize that beauty exists even in the dry barreness of mountains and in the craziest, remotest of places. As I was to realize later, Ladakh would remind me of this over and over again.

...

Of salad days in Srinagar and lingering summers in Leh

2009-07-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

It was a spur of the moment choice that I decided to hoist my bags and head out to the Kashmir valley. I had a week's alloted vacation, no particular destination in mind and was nursing a loathful grudge against a certain visa officer who chose not to stamp my passport in gay abandon.

The flight to Srinagar took but a passing hour; the cab ride to town with a cowboyish driver, almost half. A hotel on the banks of the Dal Lake, lay roomed beneath a temple hill.

Srinagar seemed so different from other Indian cities. Inherently pretty, the charm of a place still apathetic to the passage of time. The Dal Lake with its innumerous shikaras and multitude of boats, yet so peacefully quiet. The kahwah tea, with its cinnamon, cardomom and saffron scents, that I so fell in love with. The Mughal gardens, so serenly beautiful, wistfully reminiscent of a bygone era. The Shankaracharya hill with its all-encompassing views. The warm kashmiri people - never else across the country have I seen such care and affection for a wandering traveler. And finally, a choking military and police presence, a lingering tension in the air and in words, a smoldering war zone feel to an otherwise incredibly beautiful place.

And yet, Srinagar seemed so similar to other Indian cities. People crib about ineffective politicians. Autos and guesthouses fleece you, unless you bargain. People dump garbage everywhere on the street. People love watching hindi soaps on TV all the time. And all buses belong to the last century.

In such a bus I made the trip to Gulmarg (and later to Leh). Gulmarg is a small hill-station, some 50 odd kilometers from Srinagar. The slouching bullock-cart of a bus sputtered its way to Gulmarg over a leisurely 4 hour period. Slow enough, for us to savor the white-daisy studded green meadows and the tall deodar trees covering the route.

Gulmarg has a two stage Gondola that goes all the way up to the snowline and to the edge of the Line of Control of India. The top was all snow, even in the summer heat. The LOC, an unseen border between two nations, with military huts on either side. The first Gondola stage is in fact, more pretty than the second, with lush green, horse grazed meadows and tall verdant deodar trees beneath the snowy mountainous peaks, as if out picked out of a pretty painting. Stood I, staring there, for many an hour.

... part I of the kashmir chronicles |

Leaving money on the table

2009-07-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Pricing perfectly is a science, nay an art.

I just realized how difficult it is to price something well and not leave money on the table when I paid my laundryman. The guy charges the lowest prices per piece I have ever seen anywhere in the country (and by extention anywhere in the world). His prices are atleast one-tenth the prices I would pay if I took it a professional shop thats a 10 min drive from here. And the poor guy ends up borrowing money in advance to tide over his expenses during the month.

Clearly, he could easily raise his prices without losing customers.

Or can he? Now, he is one of the two laundrymen who service the apartment complex where I live. And both of them charge the same rates. If he raises his prices, there is a good chance customers could switch.

So whats his way out?

He has two basic options. One - collude with the other laundryman to raise prices. Or Two - start differentiating, for e.g. offer a premium service at a higher price point and attempt to move customers up.

Again, how much could he raise prices?

Pricing theory says one could raise prices all the way to the point till customers see value, capped by prices of comparable alternatives. In this case, if I were a representative customer, he could raise prices almost 10-fold (assuming he could match the professional service shop) or atleast 2-3 fold at his current service level. I'd imagine that the money he's leaving on the table could solve most of his monetary problems. But does he realize it?

One factor in this is the availability of quality information. A lot of pricing that happens in practice (even in large firms) is through benchmarks. For the laundryman, the only comparable is his competitor. And this makes him leave money on my table.

This underpricing is something I've noticed in a lot of the unorganized labor in the place where I live. And this is quite sad for it feels almost exploitive to be keeping back money from people who are more in need.

Finally, it is interesting to look at professional services available in this town. Quite a opposite to the unorganized, they seem to follow the maxim 'when in doubt, price up'. With scarcity on their side, they rule the roost. To cite the contrast again, I've never seen professional services priced so high anywhere else in India.

Gurgaon is an interesting city.

The firm of the future

2009-07-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Warning: Idle rambling ahead.

Outsourcing is today, a nascent phenomena, atleast to the general public. Beyond the standard hulla-balloo that is heard in the media on outsourcing and the loss of jobs in the US, most are largely ignorant of its play.

What is interesting about outsourcing is its impact on the structure of the firm. For something that started out as a means to delegate fringe services (non 'core', as they used to be called some time back) to third parties as a cost and headache reduction measure, its interesting to see how widespread its impact is, today. From running entire IT setups to large parts of firms - I've even heard of new firms being setup from scratch in a totally outsourced manner - outsourcing is today an integral part of the structure of the firm.

In effect, outsourcing service providers are turning into service factories - that can take any proven business operation/process and industrialize it to run it faster, better and cheaper.

The only thing that's not yet been ever outsourced is the conceptualization or the ideation of the firm. Entrepreneurs still need to figure out business models and prove their worth - however, once they have done that to a reasonable extent, the operations and management can be very well parcelled out to an outsourcer.

So what will the firm of the future look like? One extreme view is that firms of the future (excluding, of course, the service provider firms themselves) will just consist of the ideators - who will conceptualize, design and initiate service offerings - and a bunch of service managers, who will govern delivery relationships with outsourcers. Therefore, a much leaner and more agile firm.

The other view is that outsourcing service providers will not be able to competitively perform every task that an internal firm environment can; that the marginal costs of outsourcing will someday catch up with its marginal benefits and stop it in its tracks. But nothing we know currently seems to point in this direction - if anything we have a long way to go till we get to that point of equalization.

It would be interesting though to see what ultimately happens - hopefully the options would play out in our lifetime. Or maybe, like the theories of contracting and expanding universes, we would just need to be content with conjectures.

In tall orders we trust

2009-06-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Is our society fundamentally heirarchical? I wonder about this as I work more and more with people from other cultures and am made aware of our subliminal biases ("our" - meaning us as Indians).

Its interesting to notice how we Indians exhibit heirarchies at work so much more than people from other, particularly western, geographies. A laddering of seniorities is almost taken as a given - with a view that somehow, people who are "senior", are greater in some respect. Its noticeable in the body language and the mannerisms, particularly when seen in contrast with the behavior of non-Indians in the same work environment.

You'll even notice it in the behavior of global and Indian arms of the same multinational firm - the global 'big boss' would walk down and shake hands with everyone in a meeting room, while the Indian would hardly ever acknowledge the junior members of his own team. And its weird, for I now notice this pattern over and over again in a number of multi-cultural interactions. (And mind you, this doesn't change much amongst those who return from global stints)

And then maybe, its a culturally inbred thing. Maybe its a remanant of the royalty that ruled our land and its consequent class systems. Maybe its a relic of the brit-raj and their babudom that made some citizens more equal than others. Or just maybe, we Indians do not like shaking hands in meetings :|

In any case, its time we started being a bit more civil to each other (at least in the workplace), its time we got over this false sense of ordained heirarchy and started building flatter organizations, its time we realized that fortunes do exist at the bottom of a pyramid.

To boldly go where no man has gone before

2009-06-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Rarely, just rarely, does come along a film that makes you root for it with whoops and whistles, that makes you forget the adult you've grown into and relive the excitement of a kid. To science fiction aficionados, star trek will always remain an unforgetable franchise - the adventures of the starship enterprise, always religion. It is, but a tall order, to expect a movie to live up to such expectations; and it is to the new Star Trek movie's credit that it, not just meets, but takes it to a whole new level of awesomeness. This post is a tribute to those who made the best science fiction movie I've seen in a long long time.