Reflections

Tone of Voice - Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 10:58:00 +0000

The use of Tone of Voice in Marketing; one of the least understood, and perhaps most misunderstood and misused, in all marketing communication. How important, really, is it in the larger context of the brand? What should the tonality of your communication be? What determines tonality, and what controls it? Who in the organisation ought to be in charge of this – content, or brand team? Or is the creative team that is responsible?

THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD

The problem is that this aspect - Tone of Voice - is by far the least understood in #contentmarketing, and, given that English is not a native fluent tongue to many, is fraught with risk if experimented. Logic tells us that brand comms should be professional, formal and can be conversational [example - realistically depends on the tone and message structure and heirarchy; problem 2 is few brands create these]. Logic tells us that content teams control this.

That is why logic is just one of many guides; both cases above may be inapplicable. Tone of Voice ought to be controlled by the Brand Team, and not the content or the creative team. It does not refer to written words alone – even images, colours and creatives have a Tone. And communication is central to human understanding and marketing both. It is too important to be delegated downwards to either content or creative – it is a senior leadership call, acting together with the Brand Teams.

UNDERSTANDING TONE IN MARKETING

Each brands tone is determined by a gargantuan set of practical factors – industry, product category, purchase behaviour, customer-user-shopper-consumer demographics and psychographics, trends and more. That being said, there are some absolutes and some rules that I have experienced to be fundamental to tonality in marketing. These are encapsulated below, and are my learnings from my professional work in content

1. Tone of Voice - few, and I mean very few, marketers really appreciate, let alone understand, tone of voice and its importance. When working with, you may need to handle pushbacks, as few understand this.

2. It stands as one of the most important attributes of #brand #communication. The human being responds acutely to tone in voice and communication - far more than other aspects. Slightest changes in tone register acutely in the audience. This can be critical for brand communication. It is a known scientific fact that humans are unusually perceptive to even minor changes in tone - even in normal communication. Therefore, Tone in your communication is the single most important aspect, be it #creative execution or be it #digitalmarketing

3. Tone is not related only to text. Creatives, texts, images all have a specific tone. Thus, a holistic view of your entire brand’s communication has to be taken, and has to be in line with brand strategy.

4. Tone of Voice is not static, and depends on the product category, stage of market and product lifecycle, product marketshare, cultural factors, and language. Thus, it needs to be in line with trends,, but also needs to maintain individuality – and needs to be aligned with the product, and other factors

5. Tone of Voice should be a fundamental part of your Brand Guidelines, occupying pride of place above creative aspects. Remember point 3 - creatives have a tone too. As do colours.

6. Diversions from the accepted guidelines should only be on a case-to-case basis, and on a call of the Brand team, not the creative or the content teams. Tone is not a content parameter - it is a fundamental marketing concept, to be steered by Senior Marketing Leadership. It is way too important to be left orphaned in Content Teams, or in Creative Teams!

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TONE

These above are just the high-level rules I have learnt – and yes, they are noticeably short on specifics. The reason is that tone of voice is too tactical and situation specific. Choosing the right tone is matter of situational awareness, relevant market expertise, information, competitive intelligence, brand rules [guidelines], and internal company realities. So, no outsider should dictate or influence you on this matter. But, there can be some rules that can be spotted, and some basics. And if those rules are transgressed, then and only then - listen to sage advice!

1. The Brand guidelines, which ought to - but oftentimes dont - contain the Message Structure, Heirarchy, Tonality, etc. If there isn't any - create one. Follow the brand guidelines - dont mess with them. They are absolute. [Sounds wierd, doesn't it, "absolute" in a VUCA world? There is a process to change the brand guidelines. Outside that process, they are absolute and inviolable. They are your bible] Remember - the #brand communication should be an identifier as individual as a name, and common across channels, media vehicles, etc everything. In this, there is little lattitude - and whatever space there is, rests with the Leadership team, not with the content marketing team. Dont mess with the #brandcommunication, that is not your brief.

2. The Product Category - Each product category has a discernible tonality structure range that suits optimally, understand that range and operate within it - unless you are set to change the rules of the market itself. That is a unique case, one of a kind. Is the product a high involvement planned purchase? Is it a high ticket cost item? It is mission critical for either an individual or a company? In such situations, for example, your choice range can be form informational, assertive, professional, formal, educative etc types of tone. A flippant or easy or humourous tone will not be suited – neither will, ordinarity, a conversational style. [Caveat – conversational tonality requires an article unto itself, so perhaps someday will write on it]

3. Market Structure, Dynamics - This refers to the consumer, customer, shopper and user. Yes all 4 are different, and distinct in most categories. What is the purchase cycle? Purchase behaviour? Decision Making structure? Channel Structure? Power Dynamics in the industry wrt your brand and the communication target? These are all fundamental questions for any #content marketing person, and more- and key determinants of tone. A power brand can afford to be assertive, whereas a follower brand may need to be more informative – while a challenger brand might, in a situation, realise the need to shift gears from, say formal-educative to assertive. If power dynamics are inverted, and buyers have greater power than the seller – then the one tone you cannot use without planning is assertive, for another example.

These 3 are the basic rules that rule the tone. Within these is the specter of situational awareness, which relates to internal company realities, ground market realities, trends and more - that is a topic for an entire blog. Someday, God Willing! Next post, will give an example of one tone and its usage across the industries I have acquired expertise in. But that will have to wait.

EXCEPTIONS TO THESE

But - can we try other tonality options that are outside these commonly understood ones?For example, can a brand suited to formal tones or professional tones shift to more casual tones? Note - changing tone does not mean manufacturing new grammar rules, or being frivolous. A language, any language, as a structure, syntax, grammar - and all content marketers and marketers MUST mandatorily study these indepth. Anyway. This rule – professional / formal / conversational - is a legacy of structured brands and process oriented marketing. Does it apply in the startup world? Does it apply in the current changed atmosphere in the industry, markets, consumer habits etc? Lets see- evolving situation there.. Live and learn. This is what I will try and examine in the next edition of this series on tone of voice in marketing.

Disclaimer - shifting to more casual modes does NOT mean being tasteless, vulgar, cheap, unethical, or frivolous, or edgy / coarse, sarcastic, provocative, irreverant - these are out. Completely out in all marketing communication. It is a business - it is about money. [Personal opinion]. It is feasible to be casual while adopting casuality etc in tonality!

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 07:44:00 +0000

Book Review: Fifteen Judgements – Cases That Shaped India’s Financial Landscape

By Saurabh Kirpal

Image Source - Amazon.in

The modern concept of Economics is more towards the economic landscape being more of a political economy, given the advent of tariffs, regulations, trading blocs, and more – combined with the need to balance environment, and the need to balance the needs of various internal subgroups of citizens. This has tended to intertwine the political, regulatory, and economic sectors completely together in a conjoint situation, perhaps for the best. Just in the recent past, there have been many instances when the judiciary has adjudicated / called upon to adjudicate on many aspects of this political economy. The current book under review looks at 15 such seminal cases.

What The Book Examines
These 15 cases are those that have had, or, in the more recent examples taken the potential to have, a lasting impact on the direction and, in some ways, structure of the Indian Economy. As I not not a trained lawyer, I will refrain from the legal aspects – but suffice it to state that reading this book gives an Indian a tremendous sense of satisfaction in our democracy, judiciary and our executive. Respect to all concerned, and especially the author for bringing these to our attention.

Other Aspects
The book examines some fundamental underpinnings to the structure, nature of the Economy in India. It covers aspects such as the zamindari matter which had a significant impact on rural land holding, to the bank nationalization aspect – and more. It looks at matters related to industrial relations, women in the workplace, the entire telecom imbroglio in 3 separate cases, takeovers, the environment, Aadhaar & privacy, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy act case, and closing with a superb examination of the cryptocurrency case of recent times.

The Economy Link
Any functional modern economy has several layers to it – domestic participants who undertake activities to generate revenue, provide jobs and economic prosperity; foreign participants by way of partners, investors, shareholders, influence groups and more; thirdly, you have the layer of the regulatory bodies who determine the regulations that manage these activities. Then you have the policy and administrative framework that assists, manages and governs economic activity. Fourth is the layer of the executive that creates and amends the laws and regulations with a view to govern all of this. And this brings me to the second aspect of the fourth layer, the judiciary which adjudicates disputes and addresses concerns of the other layers. No economy can hope to function without all of these participants working in tandem. And this is perhaps the key aspect of the Indian Economy – all of these, despite the seeming chaos, clearly have learnt, over time, to work in tandem towards a higher common goal of the common good of the people of India.

But this book is about so much more than mere cases related to financial and economic matters. It brings to the fore facts, though in the public domain, were not in front of us in one place. It highlights the balance [and the need for such a balance] between the various roles in the regulatory, policy, and executive and judicial layers of the economic structure of a nation. It highlights the roles of these layers, and through this we come to realise, not without intense pride on our part while reading, how this overall structure has served India so well. It is this that enables us to stand out as an investment and global destination of note in the world, rising above most emerging markets, our seeming chaos and well-advertised problems notwithstanding. We can, and should, be a lot more proud of what we have achieved. This shows how and why India is a land where the rule of law reigns, where the principles of good rule apply, and where the various participants and layers have learnt to function together.

Conclusion
I am not a lawyer, so have refrained from any position on the legal aspects presented, the arguments, counter arguments, and the judgement analyses, or the aftermath of the cases that has been superbly analysed. That is for legal experts. From my view, if you want to understand, or get a glimpse into the various layers of Indian economic structure, this is one book for you. If you want to undertand how we got where we are now, in terms of the overall economic structure, spanning disinvestment, privitisation, telecom, digital and crypto, IBC and more – this book takes you deep into these matters, and leaves you a wiser person who is richer for the knowledge thus gained.

Book Review - Ganesha’s Global Startup

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 13:56:00 +0000

Book Review - Ganesha’s Global Startup

Prachi Garg

Ganesha’s Global Startup is the third book of the Fiction Series on Startup business models from Ms Prachi Garg, and her 6^th book overall. All previous titles are on Startups, making Ms Garg India’s {maybe the world?} first and only Startup series writer in both Fiction and Non-Fiction. This book, like the other two before this, is also based on a fictional startup, and its planning, strategisation, tactical execution and growth phases, including funding, organic and inorganic strategies, and more.

THE IMPACT OF READING IN THE PRACTICAL WORLD

I am myself in the startup space, and have handled more than a dozen startups in various consulting full time and part time capacities; in my opinion, the 6 books, all of them, are valuable resources for any startup expert on enthusiast. More than once her first 3 books have given me reference models and examples in my professional capacity. More than once, the 3 fiction books have provided ideas, motivation and options in my strategic planning.

READING FOR THE PRACTICING MANAGER

Before I go further into the review, let me note and underscore the importance of reading literature on business. For the practicing manager, at any level, it is an absolute must. The wider the reading within a defined direction, the greater the chances of ideas, plans, paths, tactics occurring to you when in need. The brain has an amazing capacity to absorb information, and bring it out when need. All it needs is brain food – reading, and a lot of it.

Image Credit : Google Search

THE BOOK REVIEW

Off all the books she has written, this one is easily the finest, and by a very long distance. This is a book on absolute fundamentals of building a global scale business, right from the planning exercise, to implementation, growth and funding, and inorganic growth onwards to self-actualisation. Kudos to Ms Garg for writing, and double kudos to her for managing to be so succinct and short about it, packing a veritable knockout punch in a small fast readable book. Given that Managers in general, and the startup community in particular does not read much into strategy, this is a vital point.

This book packs so much in one short sharp volume – just like the other 5 books of Ms Garg, that it is a must read. Furthermore, given that the IT-dominated Startup community is not too aware of Business Strategy, this is one set of books – especially this one – that they can surely read. Wont take too much time to go through, yet packed with information. Best of all, there is an ease-of-read factor here; the approach is practical, making the content very easy to absorb.

The book in its approach scans the growth phase of a startup; this is a bootstrapped startup that has learnt to stand on its own two feet. The books starts from this platform, and builds the startup to organic growth, global as well as national, and then goes onto to the inorganic phase. Simultaneously, it also tells of the growth of the founders, all the way to self-actualisation, where the book ends. That is the fundamental premise and approach : building from a platform achieved by hard work.

It deals with funding pangs, preparing for it, growing the organization itself, the numbers game, standardization of deliverables – product / service delivery and their processes, using funds wisely, customer centricity and competitive analysis and its importance. These are all areas where companies in general tend to be weak, and falter with success as the focus shifts. But basis my personal experience, Financial Literacy and Wisdom & Customer/Competitive centricity should be the two key learnings from this. These two are the focal point of all business; I am delighted that Ms Garg has brought them out so strongly in this book!

Image Credit : Google Search

A SMALL DIVERSION

For those interested – small diversion here – a practicing manager, especially the startup founders – must be reading Business Strategy, Economics, Accounting and Finance, Regulatory Matters on a regular basis. It may not help immediately, but in the long run it always helps. Be it Ms Garg on Startups, or Mr Anil Lamba on Finance or Mr Ruchir Sharma on Global Finance / Business, or any of the other noted writers Indian or Western, make it a point to read them. Each will add value, and build your skills in small ways.

The reason is straightforward – the further up the chain you move, the older you get, the wider is your interaction outside your specialty; and at the top, all functions are equally vital. That is where and when multi-disciplinary skillsets will come in handy. Not only that, even in sales, the more complex Long-cycle B2B sales models cannot be effectively handled without extensive cross-functional interactions with various and sundry teams.

BACK TO THE BOOK : IN CONCLUSION

I have not stated anything about the story itself – I leave that to the reader to discover. Suffice it to state that this is the story of a successful startup and the story of its founder both. It has two distinct storylines built into it, and both have been treated fairly, and given their due importance and balance. That makes for fun reading, converting what could have been a bare case study of success into a fleshed-out, engaging and enthralling fun learning session. This is the hallmark of this writing style, and packs a strong punch in its messages, as the medium is not dry, but is rather more of an experience, a fun time spent reading.

I have given two different reasons for Startup enthusiasts to read – one skills-based, and the other experiential. This is the third reason – it delivers a message in a sublime fashion, and teaches you, gives you ideas and manages to add value in an effective manner. Take it not as a book, but as a fun training exercise. The only thing it almost misses {though this is a late-stage startup with a successful idea & plan, to be fair} is plan validation and assumption analysis, which nearly no one does, and which is the key point VCs, Seed Funders, and FIs nowadays tend to go into… a bit more on that would have been nice. That apart, not a word wrong in this. A brilliant book with a strong set of takeaways!

Available on Amazon.in : https://www.amazon.in/Ganeshas-Global-Startup-Prachi-Garg/dp/9390441307

REALISM : THE WAY OUT OF NEGATIVITY

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 07:15:00 +0000

REALISM : THE WAY OUT OF NEGATIVITY

A lot has been said about positivity in relation to negative situations one finds oneself in; this article attempts to examine that, basis personal experience, and challenge long-held beliefs, basis learnings through deep personal association with pain stretching over a long time. It is said being positive, dreaming, looking sunny etc are the anecdote, that one should try to be upbeat and gung-ho as far as is possible for one to be.

Been there, done that. Dreams and positive thoughts don't help at all. They didn’t for me, at any rate. What helps, then? Realistic assessment, plus n minus awareness, recognition of your flaws, recognition of your strong points, and a plan out of it. In the plan dreams aren't good: small steps, tackle the immediate problems first, and move ahead Also, capacity and capability building, up skilling and constant effort. Accept flaws, yet realise you are not responsible for the mess.

ACCEPTANCE

Dont blame anyone – except for one exception. That is if you have been dealt an unjust hand; on this, acceptance is key. And even here, apportion blame on others only after self-analysis, an honest self-examination. And if injustice is there, apportion the blame squarely, but don’t dwell on it. Your key target is survival while being totally moral and ethical; so just focus on the other points highlighted in this small experience based article. Focussing on the blame merely feeds anger, and frustration. Focus on finding solutions, a way out. {Yes, easier said than done…. Accepted}

MOVING AHEAD

Plot the minuses in you, find issues if any, accepted what you can't change, change what you can. Identify strengths, and start building them. Honesty, integrity, love For all, hard work, constant effort in personal sphere, professional sphere – that is the key. Win back you lost one by one – if you can. And critically, know when you need to give up, else it leads to anger, frustration. Be focused on these points. And cut off all who disagree - just cut them off. Without regrets. Learn when to shift your goal posts, and when you do, do so after deep domain research, and deep thought. Negativity isn’t a period when you rush! Dreams on hold; suspend - not cancel… dreaming is for positive to neutral times; rekindle them when the time is better for you, and keep self updated on your dreams. Most critically, seek out advice, learn-learn-learn, ask for help if needed, listen and read!

THE WAY OUT

This is the only way out of a tough spot, personal or professional. Forget everything else. Survive, understand self swot, build strengths to extraordinary levels of capability. Play on your skills, ruthlessly focus on upskilling if professional negativity, and being calm-composed while improving self if personal – if required. Understand and accept it will take time. And give it the time, while ensuring you survive. AND GOD'S BLESSING ABOVE. ALL. WITHOUT IT. ALL IS POINTLESS. This is also THE ONLY way you can rebuild the destroyed organisation – and this is the only way you can rebuild self, or come out of emotional pain of most kinds, as well as professionally challenging periods.

THE THREE SCENARIOS

There are 3 things to consider in this, and all 3 are different scenarios with divergent causes and diverse effects

You get pain - emotional or physical, or some loss - job, wife goes away or whatever...

1) It is your fault - Scenario 1

2) Both are at fault - Scenario 2

3) Neither are at fault - Scenario 3

The pain is different, the causes is different, and the impact different. You cannot compare or club these 3. For example, you have lifestyle illnesses, genetic heredity based, complicated by your lifestyle. Or you lose your job due to a company shutdown. Is it your fault? Not entirely.. Isnt this pain? How do you deal with this? {Matter of fact, you dont have to deal with it, ust accept it as a part of how you are, and your body genetics – and try to improve lifestyle, if possible}. Or your organization shuts down – is it fault? No. So why focus on it? Move on, accept it!

That Scenario 3. Shit happens, and you are caught in the middle, as in your company shuts down. How am you responsible as Hub Manager? Yet, we get to pay the price- while some others, who may be culpable, do not. Such is life – one just has to accept some things in this kalyug. Do not sweat over it; accept it as we are in Kalyug, and such things may happen to anyone.

Scenario 2 - you fight with your wife. Assume she is wrong, unethical, and is taking some bad decisions. But you lose your temper, and thus despite being right are now also in the wrong. Or your wife and you have a fight over interpersonal relations, and both are at fault for not committing. Or your company fails, and you know you also contributed to that failure by not escalating market intelligence. You did not, as the company would not listen; that does not matter. But in your heart, you knew and did nothing. You are also responsible. The pain this time is sharper, as guilt comes in.

Scenario 1 is the killer. Your fault. You wife and parents have a fight, and you are not able to take the right decision of telling your wife to go home to her parents, that you will side with your parents. Or you side with your wife. BANG! Full-on guilt. This is pain at the most extreme known level, and has no answer. None whatever. Your guilt will strangle you one day - there is nothing you can do unless you deal with it. Or you are in a Job, and have given 0 results, neither have you tried. Guilt hits. This is real pain.

LEARNINGS, AND UNDERSTANDING REALISM

First. The internal message is that you cannot combat this without external help, and god. Period. - that is one. Second, effort. Constant effort - that is the strongest antidote to depression and anxiety… third, positive outlook is just kitaabi stuff if taken in isolation. It does not help - there is nothing more damaging, trust me. Ignore all people who say otherwise. When in deep suffering, it only causes disaster, unless not accompanied by the steps above. These steps are what kindle and support positivity, not the other way around.

Fourth - internal self-examination is the only medicine, even above point 1. You have to analyse yourself, brutally frankly and honestly>>>> there is no other medicine or advice. Fifth, after step 4 - do not be in denial. Accept your flaws, as well as your strengths. Even if no one else does> that is the key to survival. If you are not at fault; your best chance is in becoming a better version of yourself. Positive outlook is actually poison in deep trouble scenarios. Key is accepting your strengths. Play to them - the positivity will follow as a result of your focus on your strengths

This in a nutshell is realism. Realism means accepting the negative as negative

ACCEPT YOUR FLAWS

It is hard to face your own faults. VERY few people I know have shown the guts to do it. It is one thing to accept, and another to act on your acceptance. Only acceptance without action is hypocrisy,. It is only HARD effort, focus on strengths and accepting your mistakes that help. Do not make the mistake of trying to remove your faults as the first priority - that way lies certain - CERTAIN -disaster. Work on your strengths first. That will build energy in you, enabling you to attend to your mistakes

THE ROLE OF HOPE

If you see hope everywhere, you will miss danger signals. Result? Catastrophe. Repeat : Positivity is a poison in such circumstances Positivity is the upper realm, at then physical world level I am going deeper - INTO THE REASONS TRUE POSITIVITY DEVELOPS. Positivity in such circumstances is saying I will marry a supermodel or a superstar. Same thing. Or I will be the next Billionaire.... Realism is - I am decent, highly educated, learned, 20 solid years workex, so let me see how I can transfer these strengths to new areas. And I have a few problems.... anger, ego, arrogance, pride ... etc etc.... let me see how I can improve. This is true Realism – and this is what kindles the fire of Positivity. In Management Parlance, its called identifying transferable skillsets.

As any Army Officer will tell you, you dont attack a division of elite crack troops with a rookie platoon commanded by a Lieutenant on his first assignment. That is not being positive, or being hopeful. {Unless it is a calculated strategy}. it is being, well... you get my point… hope is essential, vital even – but it needs to be balanced in realism; hope needs to be tempered with knowledge, calmness, control and dispassion – and strategy.

DREAMS

Having a dream is different from being positive. For a dream, one accepts negativity; key difference. But it comes at a heavy price. Remember - Dreams and Adamancy carry a heavy burden and a heavier price tag. Dont dream if you cant pay the list price. One advise - keep dream in mind, but in suspended animation. Be adamant on your dream, but also flexible, taking on tasks that respected capability and capacity, while not necessarily being the high grade desired. Adamant on dream, but flexible in day-to-day. Dream is longer term, flexibility is short term compromises so long as the general direction was the same where I wanted to go. It is a fine balance that needs to be maintained…

CONCLUSION

Self Respect - that is the key. Do NOTHING that takes that away. Walk away from Job Children Spouse Family Money World everything if your self respect is challenged. That is the one hard non-negotiable line. People will respect you for it.... No one on this planet has the right to take away your self respect. Not your spouse, child, boss, employee, bro-sis, relatives, friends, - no one. Break all relationships that take it away. No exceptions, no looking back. Maintain your self respect, the rest will follow…

And finally, this is MY path, It was NOT meant to be yours. My experiences have taught me one thing : EACH PATH THROUGH PAIN IS FUNDAMENTALLY UNIQUE> THUS, WRT YOUR PAIN, MAKE UP YOUR OWN PATH, FIND YOUR OWN ANSWERS. Remember, the world laughs at your pain - either that, or fokat ki advice denaa sabko pasand hai. Only the person suffering can understand. You are alone in your pain. Accept it; in its acceptance lies your final release

Book Review : JASMINE - BUILDS ON SHIFTING SANDS

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 07:10:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW : JASMINE

BUILDS ON SHIFTING SANDS

Author : Sanjay Desai

ConsciousLeap Publication

This is a genuinely surprising package, far beyond my expectations. And as this book has come as a total surprise, I will deviate from my usual format to a different presentation. First of all, kudos to Mr Desai for writing such a good yet different book, and kudos to the publication house for bringing it to us readers. I went into it with zero expectations, though the blurb had told me this should be good. I needn’t have worried – it is excellent! The book is a nice, clean, fast paced narrative of a touching set of connected stories, told in a very evocative way that actually builds images in your mind!

Image Source: ConsciousLeap Publications

The story, such as it is, is in two parts. part 1 is a lecture, and part 2 is a very nice enticing story. Let me start with part 2 first. The second part is sandwiched between 2 halves of part 1; and is the story of a supermodel’s rise and struggles, evocatively told – almost enacted – and well presented. This is the story of a Girl, a very good student in college, who quits studies and goes into modelling, and tells the story of her rise, fall and rise to fame back again.

So far it might sound pedestrian, or at best a genre that has been attempted before, and quite often at that. Well, you would be wrong. The best aspect of this part of the story is its freshness – the author has kept off all side-plots, needless love angles, or any unsavoury aspects at all, and given us a clean story – in fact, there is not even one bad word used. Stupendous! Coming back to the story, well – we are treated to a ringside seat as the heroine goes through her trials and tribulations – essentially all of which are her own faults, a rather important distinction that we learn a lot from!

The pull of showing a distraught heroine caught in some web of deceit must have been tremendous; but the author has thankfully and happily zeroed-in on the internal constitution of the heroine, delving into her habits, her perceived arrogance, her high ambitions, and her driving jealousy and how she relates with, combines with and works with the rest of the teams in the projects that she is a part of, and how her these errors lead to her relative isolation from her clients.

Then comes the turnaround, when she finally begins to question herself in the right spirit, as well as recognizes the genuine intentions of the people who are trying to help her – and how she masters the art of teamwork, positivity, humility, control on her opinions & emotions, and simple support to the rest of the teams, thereby delivering a superior end-result. The best part is earlier, her performance wasn’t bad, it was good, but not the best. This is something all of us can relate to; her problems were her own desires, ambitions, arrogance which were percolating to the rest of the people she was associating with, impacting her life and her relationships. The story then charts a lovely revival in the spirit and outlook of our feisty heroine, who then goes on to achieve her ambitions….

Part 1 : The First Part. Well, I am of half a mind not to tell you, the readers, anything about Part 2 whatsoever, and just leave it at that. Let it be a mystery – but then some of you may think I haven’t read it, so, here goes. This part is the meat of the book, the spiritual lesson of the book, the spiritual connect, pregnant with meaning. What if the world we live in, we experience – we can create for ourselves as per our desires? Is it possible? Is it possible that the universe we experience can be influenced by our actions as much as it infuences our actions? What is our power to create? Can we channel our power to strengthen our will so much that our focus becomes superhuman? Here I stop. Reason is I don’t want to spoil your, the reader’s learning. My recommendation – 5 stars out of 5, a must read!

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 05:25:00 +0000

CORONAVIRUS : The Recovery Path

A CoMorbidity Patient’s Perspective

This is the 2^nd and concluding part of my experiences with Covid19 on a first-person basis. In this path I outline my experiences as a recovering patient. This is my personal account, and not meant to be extrapolatable – in other words, learn from this, but do not assume symptoms or approach or diet for yourself without proper medical guidance. This is a serious issue – and my objective is to give those who are unaware of the reality of this disease an opportunity to read about a firstperson patient’s experience.

Further, please note that my experience is firstly of borderline Coronavirus, and is that of a person with CoMorbities – Diabetes {4 years}, Asthma {16 years} and Hypertension {24 years} in a background of Cervical Spondylosis {14 Years} and minor infarcts {10 years} {due to BP} in my brain. I do not know of the technicalities, though am a Biology Grad, and deeply passionate on Genetics. I still study genetics, by the way – but I am not aware of anything on Medicine. I am a simple patient, that is all. Lastly, this is writeup applicable only to myself.

MY EXPERIENCE

Moving ahead – I was out of quarantine by about 10 September or so. It is not two months on from that – and basis my experience, I have never felt such a massive hitback in the post-disease period of any illness, and, as can be seen, I have had some lengthy medical issues to deal with in my life. This is my first and most important highlighted point. The recovery period for me has been one of weakness, first and foremost. And the weakness is taking a lot of time to go. So, ask your Doctor if you feel weak, and obey. I do not know if this is due to Corona, so I make no link between the two. Ask the Doctor.

It is a strange kind of weakness, it does not completely debilitate you, in that you are active, and can feel an urge to return to normalcy. Do not do so without medical advice. Ask specifically, can I return to normal routine to your Doctor. Trust me on this, please. I felt almost normal, but not quite. In the first 2-3 weeks, the slightest activity would tire me, forcing me to sleep in the afternoons for 4-odd hours. Only by the first week of October, 3+ weeks after quarantine ended, was I able to think of restarting professional schedules. Well, even then, entire October passed me by and I was still feeling weakness, though to a lesser degree. My productivity had nose-dived to 20% of normal!

This has been further exacerbated by a series of mild irritants, one after the other, in an almost unbroken chain of events. Every few days I am being hit by a mild cold, or a slight discomfort in the stomach region. {Read Stomach region as the general region below the lung area, not the anatomical stomach!} Added to that is a continuing mild ache at times in the legs and hips region. Of late, there have been some isolated feelings of spasm in the legs, ache in the knees and ankles. These are mild – in some cases so mild that no self-respecting diabetic will even call them an illness!

CONCLUSION

Are these due to or related to Corona? I do not know. I am not a medical person. All I am stating above is the sequence of events as has happened to me. Note that I do not list medications etc that I am taking – my sole objective is to list my experience as a patient of Covid-19, and place on record what I am going through in the hope that it may help others with profiles similar to mine – CoMorbidity patients. All I know is that it is only now, Diwali 2020, November-mid, that I am nearing somewhere near 80% of my previous output. I hope my effort here helps some one reach the right decisions…

Book Review : Arthashastra, The Science Of Wealth

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 06:30:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW : ARTHASHASTRA – THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH

Thomas R Trautmann

This is a book that deals with a subject long-overdue for attention, both in my reading as well as in the national consciousness. I cant say National Reading Habits, for reading is not a habit in the modern world – anything but. So, National Consciousness it has to be. We, the modern educated individuals, regard Western Treatises on Commerce & Economics as the gold standard; no problems with that. But we should also be aware of the highly advanced concepts listed in our ancient literature – I refer specifically to the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Sadly, we are not conversant, living in a world as we are that idolizes western thought, and discounts local practices and writings.

Those of you who are looking for inspiration or confirmation that western economic theories originated in the Arthashastra – don’t pick this one up. But if you are curious about the Arthashastra, and what it mentions regarding commercial enterprise in those days, and how things were managed in the ancient economy, will find it a highly rewarding exercise. Point being, approach this topic with an open mind, a questioning attitude, and willingness to learn. Do not go into it in comparison mode, or wanting to prove our superiority or otherwise.

That does not mean that The Arthashastra and Economics are not related – Modern Economic concepts, more than a few, can be easily traced in it. The problem of comparison is that the Modern Systems are now far too complex, widespread and deal with a much wider range of aspects simply due to the nature of the underlying technology, social, cultural, legal and business changes that have happened in the intervening 2300 years. Meaning, don’t try to compare the incomparable.

THE BOOK AND ITS REVIEW

The is divided into 5 chapters – The Introduction {The Science Of Wealth}, Kingdoms, Goods, Workplaces and Markets, with a 6^th Concluding chapter. That list itself should suffice to indicate the scope of this particular short take on the Arthashastra, as well as give a reasonable indication of the content. In each chapter, the author goes into the salient points of the topic in concern in nice succinct format, making it a pleasure to read, easy to assimilate and fast to go through.

Arthashastra is defined as the science of kingship, the business of running a state – particularly a kingdom. That said, there is a lot to learn from this seminal works, and it should be required reading in the MBA programmes of the nation. In its breadth and scope, it deals with both Economics as well as politics – confirming the modern thought that is now gaining traction of Economics and Politics being intersecting sciences. Specifically, it deals with the what who how where when of earning money – the pursuit of livelihood. But it goes beyond – dealing with the production, the humans engaged in it as well as its view on a larger kingdom {or state-level} outlook.

The key takeaways of this tome are too many to list in a book review; I can at best pick out two or three. Firstly, this book establishes the deep tradition of writing treatises on trade etc in Ancient India, as it identifies the precursors to the Arthashastra, and how they influenced or were included in the original ancient text. For this, as evidence, it quotes from the Arthashastra text itself. If anyone has to compare, then do compare the tradition of original top-notch conceptually deep writing in India of thousands of years ago, to now – the current scenario. Where are we in comparison? Are we really creating any content in any field to compare to our much-praised ancient traditions?

Second, the emphasis on doing right, ethics, and dharma in the the Arthashastra deserves a special mention, and the importance of righteousness, the controls in place to ensure it etc. This is key, as this emphasis on doing the right thing is missing in Modern Economics, which takes a birds eye view, whereas in the Arthashastra, Dharma & Doing Right is highly sought after and emphasized. The primacy of Dharma over Artha also finds its reflection in the societal aspects of Business.

Third, it details in depth the life of ancient India, and the methods, processes, controls, production / facotories, farming, etc in those days. The level of detailing is absolutely amazing – I can think of any number of even Modern Organisations that don’t go this practical, and indepth. It gives a superb look at the Kingdom’s structure, relationships between power and wealth, the various merchant guilds in operation. It goes into control mechanisms, weights measures etc, and how to ensure quality. Again – few companies do this now. It also gives in detail punishments, tactics to ensure quality. All in all, a book that gives an excellent primer look at one of the most vital treatises on Economics ever written!

Understanding True Cleanliness

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 10:30:00 +0000

WHAT IS CLEANLINESS?

What is cleanliness? This seems like a simple, even silly question; it is anything but. What does being clean really mean – does it mean being personally clean, bathed, spotless; living in a clean spicknspan home and a clean city / surroundings? That is all there is to it, from one point of view. But take a step back – and think. Are you really clean? Think of your actions, your thoughts, your feelings. How can it be true cleanliness if these are also not clean? Think about it.

This is a rather short article – I will not belabour point too much. You are physically clean; but what about the way you earn your keep? Your daily behaviour? Your feelings? Your thoughts? Unless these are clean – it isn’t cleanliness at all. In fact, cleanliness, from a spiritual aspect actually refers to these aspects, rather than the overt aspect of physical cleanliness. It is worth going into this highly demanding level of personal cleanliness as described in one scripture, and understanding in a short article.

TRUE CLEANLINESS

The image above spells it out; to summarise, cleanliness of Earning; Food; Behaviour; Physical Cleanliness; Cleanliness of thoughts. This, then, is the full spiritual definition of being clean. It is attainable even in the modern age; but yes – it is exceedingly demanding a level. That said, it is worth striving for. There will be a price to be paid; there will be misunderstandings; but the end result will be a much more clear vision of the world, once the internal purification is done.

UNDERSTANDING TRUE CLEANLINESS

Cleanliness of Earning involves two aspects - Speaking Truth, which is a base requirement of cleanliness in all modes. The full description says “Satyata Purn Shudhh Vyavhar se dravya ki praapti”. The 2^nd aspect is purity in your professional conduct such that no sin is committed as you go about your daily life from waking to sleeping time. The money you earn from such conduct is used to purchase food, which is pure food, {I will not go into details further, as this is a contentious issue, food}.

The next is Aacharan – your daily conduct throughout the day – be it personal or professional – needs to be pure. Meaning established in truth, no attempts to hurt anyone, being forgiving, not proscrastinating, promptness in actions and more. As this can be an article in itself, let us leave it at that. The 4^th aspect is physical cleanliness – this refers to the overall cleanliness of your body. The 5^th aspect is the most vital – Clean thoughts. Here we mean no anger, jealousy, attachment, greed, ego etc.

This, what I call the base layer, is the most vital – it is the controlling level. From a psychological perspective, this is the layer of your personal values, desires, drivers. If these are not clean and pure – your actions in the other spheres are going to be impacted. Unless your thoughts are aligned with it, and you can learn to inculcate these qualities in yourself – the chances of slipping into misdeeds in the other spheres remain. Anger Desire etc influence your actions are they are exceptionally strong drivers.

CONCLUSION

This might sound fantastic, which is why I have given the specific verse reference and the source book for this concept on which this article has been based. This might also sound hard – trust me, it is harder than it sounds. I have trying, and failing at one level or the other. But failure doesn’t mean you give up – some goals are so worthy, it is worth making repeated efforts. But the benefits to yourself far outweigh the costs, as anxiety goes down, confidence goes up, and your comfort levels with your own self go up!

CORONA EXPERIENCE FOR A COMORBIDITY PATIENT - ME

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 04:19:00 +0000

CORONA EXPERIENCE FOR A COMORBIDITY PATIENT

A lot has been said and written on Corona – but very little has been brought to my attention at least as to the experience of a real patient of Corona who has other chronic illnesses. This writeup is intended as a small contribution in that line – I hope that others can read this and avoid the mistakes I made. My medical history is that of Diastolic Hypertension, Asthma and Diabetes. All three are in full control, with not one episode of a major attack or problematic reading in any disease for at least 1-2 years.

THE BEGINNING

For me – the beginning was benign, almost worthy of ignoring totally. Mistake numero uno – if you have a chronic illness among the above, you cannot ignore even the tiny signs. It started with an Acid Reflux {was it related to Corona – I do not know; I am stating exactly what happened between August 9^th and September 7^th. As I said, it was an Acid Reflux, and a damned strong one. I ignored it, helped myself to a Pantocid {Mistake numero duo – medicines aren’t chocolates. Dont choose yourself!}. The Pantocid worked, I congratulated myself, saying what a really smart chap I am and went on with life.

Clearly Mother Nature was more than a little put-out with my flippancy. Next was a mild – and I mean mild set of symptoms. Slight headache, weakness, feeling of being feverish. There was a mild breathlessness on Aug 11^th or so – again, ignored. For an Asthma patient, this feeling can come off and on, and usually goes if you are regular with your treatment schedule. Ignored it totally. These symptoms were so mild, that you would probably feel ashamed as hell even mentioning them to your Doctor for fear of being called a Hypochondriac. Mistake 3.

Out came the Digital Thermometer, reading normal, ignored it as a “vaham”, moved on – Aug 10^th. {Boy, bad idea. Mistake 4}. Around August 12^th or so – perhaps 13^th – developed Mild Fever. Went to Doctor on 15^th – the regular neighborhood Doctor was not available on 14^th. {Aah – now we all are well aware there is only one Doctor in the Milky Way Galaxy, isn’t it? Mistake 5}. On 15^th, finally started treatment as per Doctor instruction. Did not inform my regular MD Doctor, who has been seeing me for nearly 15+ years. Mistake 6. Don’t be stupid, please. Speak to your regular Doctor as well.

CORONA!

By August 18^th, perhaps 19^th, I was facing the full wrath of Mother Nature. Or Chinese Krupa, call it what you want. Weakness, first temperature - and it was barely 99.5, mild bodyache, creeping loss of appetite. Now that is insulting if you call it a fever, and ignored it. Mistake 7. Then the mild taste change started. By 21^st, swallowed my pride, went to Doctor – again, no information to my consulting specialists; Mistake 8. These were so mild symptoms which we usually ignore and move on, so didn’t even enter my mind. The doctor then was categorical – get a test, and placed me on new treatment which was more in line with Corona. And advised consultant / specialist immediately. Finally, finally, finally, contacted my regular Doctor, also my relative, who was, to put it mildly, furious. Also met a proper MD, who immediately stated, without a test – Corona, also told me to get tested, shifted me to the full Corona treatment after I presented the test result to her.

By August 22^nd, the disease hit with power – sever body ache, temperature mild, 100.5, cough, cold – all three mild, except the body ache in the legs and waist region – and a strong loss of smell & taste sensation. And heavy breathlessness. Could not go for 2 days, rain + aalas + tiredness – finally got the test done on 25^th, which came borderline positive at 30.2. The moment the right medication hit my body system, the improvement was practically immediate. Was better in 2 days flat. Mistake 9, superman you are not. Take that damned 15-18 day rest the Doctors advise seriously, please. There is a reason for it!

After being reminded that Doctors might actually know what they are talking about, became the perfect good boy. Earlier, in my isolation, 2^nd day of medication – I moved around, got to near-normal routine. Bad idea, as I said above. After one day of this bravery {doubt whether any Doctor would call it that}, became the perfect good patient {give me a medal!} – took rest as per advise, and took light food, and the medications and diet as per advise. No deviation. Including started Eggs after a several year gap, {I am a near-Vegan}.

PS : Please note that while I moved around on that, I was in isolation, but acted as though mast chhutti mili hai, and had a normal active day; besides - I live alone. No risk to others emanated from my activity that day, so relax.

MOVING ON…

Long and short of it is – this is a bloody dangerous illness, even in its mild form. You do not feel sick at all – yet, it debilitates you, slows you down considerably, in a creeping fashion almost. For normal people, this may not apply – but if you are having a history of chronic disease, a request – please don’t ignore the small signs. My experience above may not apply to you in the symptomatology, but learn from the above that you shouldn’t ignore the small signs at all. And as the beginning is mild, and you are a high-risk category – you should take it seriously. I wish some Doctor would write something for us – the patients with chronic disease history, in such exhaustive detail.

I have not shared any medication or diet history here – my intention is just to spread awareness of the nature of this dangerous disease as applicable to people like – with history of the comorbidities. I was intensely lucky in that I avoided contact as far as possible, with others since March/April, given the history of my illnesses. That was the only smart thing I did, probably. Thus, if you have a history similar to mine – please do not ignore the small signs. And do not worry – the medication exists, it acts bloody fast, and you can recover well rapidly. If you take precautions, there is nothing to worry about; just don’t make the mistakes I did.

Book Review : Akbar, The Great Mughal - A Definitive Biography

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 10:49:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW : AKBAR THE GREAT MUGHAL

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY, by Ira Mukhoty

THE BOOK

This is a book with a remarkably expansive scope, depth and breadth of coverage – it states itself as a biography, which it is; but is far more than that. This is a book on one of the greatest emperors India has ever had – Akbar The Great, and is a fully detailed exhaustive account of his entire life, covering a detailed perspective on every possible imaginable aspect of his life. It includes his conquests and the way he built his empire in full detail, including the political strategies employed as well as battle tactics and strategies. In these, as in everything else, it goes into stunning detail, giving a deep look at the entire scenario.

Source : Google Search

What is special, or rather extra special about this book is it gives a deep understanding of both the times in which he lived, as well as remarkable details of the Mughal and Rajput etc societal structure, clans, relationships between clans, the reasons – politics – tactics – norms – pressures behind these, connecting how these impacted geopolitics of governance and expansion, as well as dictated moves on the chessboard of the geography of what is now India – Pakistan – Bangladesh – Afghanistan – Iran. This is what enables a deep understanding of and insight into the various moves by various players, right upto Akbar himself. This is history the way it should be told – painting a gorgeous kaleidoscope of exhaustive detail of interconnections of clans & people, their driving motivations, norms – all of which result in the visible impact of the movements of empires.

Add to the above potpourri the enchanting detailed and colourful coverage of the actual people themselves, and their families, with the roles played by various relatives to the key players. We know only the key names – here, you will find the people behind these key names, and how they impacted the moves by the key players, helping us visualize the extant power structures in the society as well as in the corridoors of power. This provides richness and texture, depth to the subject matter at hand.

As a sprinkling of icing on the cake, you have a fully detailed cultural account of those times in which these people lived – what clothes they wore & how they wore them; what their daily routine was like, where they lived, the décor of the palaces and homes, what food they ate, how this food was cooked and with what ingredients, their diet, their religious beliefs and the antecedents to those beliefs, the cities and towns in which they lived. The net result is a vivid landscape appears before our eyes as we read through the book, giving us a deep connect into the Mughal Era.

THE REVIEW – the many pluses

This book is literally full of plus points, and I cannot hope to list them all; I have already touched upon quite a few in the precis of the book contents above. But a few points need highlighting so that more people may be attracted to this tome, this awesome biography of one of the two most famous an best Emperors India had. First of all, it is a factual statement of events as they occurred – and the author has not shied away from raising negative aspects of Akbar. This is not an attempt to whitewash; rather, it is a scholarly work of deep study, analysis, and research.

Second, this book helps you appreciate what made Akbar Great, and understand him much better. You will understand both that he was a truly secular ruler, as well as learn to understand and appreciate why he did what he did, including his excesses which are also factually told. Third, the book is full of surprises of how Akbar balanced Hindu interests, and in fact promoted and helped them in many ways. It will help the reader look upon Akbar not as a Muslim ruler – but a ruler with a complex personal religious ethos which cannot be classified so easily in any doctrine. His deep engagement with all religions, as well as active rejection of many Islamic practices and power centers make that clear. His active following of Hindu worship like the Sun worship, also help strengthen this. As also his deep participation with Jesuits {and devotion for the Virgin Mary} and Jain practices also make it crystal clear. There are many other points, but these stand out, and this is but a review.

THE REVIEW – THE MINUSES

There aren’t many minuses that I could spot; in fact – there is only one point here that I would like to bring to the attention of the Author, Ms Ira Mukhoty, as well as the publisher – Aleph Book Company. This book is exhaustive researched, and this comes out in the content; however, the sources and the endnotes are not appropriately presented and numbered. Ideally, a subscripted number of the specific endnote should be within the main content itself, and the detailed endnotes listed numberwise at the end of the book, or alternatively, at the end of each chapter. This is a key aspect, and absolutely vital for the serious readers, who like to check the veracity, antecedents and the key source of each point claimed. While endnotes are there, and in detail – they are not numbered in the main content. This makes tracing of the points slightly cumbersome.

CONCLUSION

I am genuinely surprised no one has attempted such a work before; this is a sorely needed intervention in this modern era. This is a must-read book for all, and makes for a deeply educative read. This is for the serious reader of history – but the real beauty of this book is in its appeal to even the casual reader. The writing style is engaging, the descriptions vivid, enticing and colourful, and the narrative is like a moving motion feature. You are taken on the ride of your life into the Medieval India of Akbar the Great, helping you get a deep connect with it.

DUTY & STRESS : USING DETACHMENT, {SPIRITUALITY} AND A SIMPLE TOOL TO DESTRESS

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 07:03:00 +0000

DUTY & STRESS

USING DETACHMENT, {SPIRITUALITY} AND A SIMPLE TOOL TO DESTRESS

UNDERSTANDING DUTY

What exactly is Duty? What are its parameters? And, from a spiritual perspective, what is the link – if any, between Duty and Detachment? How do we gain from the combination of these? And what is the practical real world application of this concept if any? Before we can understand these questions, we need to appreciate the concept of duty in depth.

Duty : This word does not just refer to your current job at a professional level, and self/family at a personal level. Neither are these independent of each other. There are several levels of duties enjoined on an individual; these are : Duty towards Self, Duty towards Family, Duty towards Employment Place / Organisation {Not towards person - key difference}, Duty towards Community & Society, Duty towards Nation, Duty towards Humanity, Duty towards Environment

This is the full concept of a Human Being's Duty - and all these operate simultaneously on each individual... they can at times be interdepent, in a complex matrix, as this chart above shows. The central circle is the sum total of its 6 tangents, parameters - and the task for each individual is realising the extent and nature of this central Duty Circle with reference to his or her life. Realistically speaking, each of us normally operates only in one, two or three of the circles, in my humble opinion. But a truly effective individual will operate simultaneously in all the subordinate circles that lead to the main Duty Circle in the chart. This main white circle is that person’s complete sense of responsibility, duty all-inclusive, at a particular point in time.

CONNECTING THE MULTIPLE ROLES

One cannot look at any one role in independence; each role impacts others; we make the mistake of operating in one unitary plane of operation. We need to take a bird's eye view, and examine from a larger perspective. This cannot be done successfully unless one operates in a situation of detachment, or in spiritual terms, Vairaagya. In order to perform your duty fully towards all specified above - detachment is the only way ahead

A PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLE
The reason for this is that detachment removes your personal opinion, interests, fears from it - and you are then able to reach decisions from a much clearer standpoint. Involvement will muddy the waters, hiding the full reality from your perception, disguising options, thus leading to sub-optimal results. Now the Case Study : suppose you are the head of a large department, and receive oral instructions from your manager, who is the Dy-CEO, to sack 80% of them. No proper explanation is given, except that it is a shift in strategy. You check – all branches / sub-departments in your function have same instructions, and are executing them. What do you do?

Examine the levels of duties, the entire matrix in the Chart. The Manager is responsible both upwards AND downwards. He is also dutibound to society, family, nation etc. Removing people without due process means he is the cause of the issues of all the people he removes, who placed trust in him. It is a violation of trust of your team - which effectively supercedes all other duties, save nation and environment.

This is because trust, belief and faith are on a high pedestal. Further, there are national norms & laws, which again specify due process. Third, why cant it be given in written? That means, there is something suspicious. Hence... the only option is NOT to sack the employees and fight for their rights, whatever the cost to you personally, or to your family. In the structure of duties, self - family come last. Again, examine that same chart : fighting for rights does not mean going beyond the law, or arguing with the Heads; it means presenting your case properly, and refusing to fire people without the attendant due process which is required as per societal norms, decency, humanity and the law. Doing just one aspect of duty – obeying manager, is a misunderstood duty. Unless it satisfies the full duty matrix as given in the chart, you should not proceed forward.

This is also beneficial to the organization; as it prevents excesses, mistakes, process subversions, and thus creates a strong bond of trust in teams. It establishes and further strengthens processes, and builds confidence in teams. Even for the Management, it creates unprecedented flexibility – as there is little scope for argument left if all parameters are attended to. It creates freedom for everyone in the system. As an extreme example above – people can still be sacked, provided the due process is followed. And it is the process subversion that is among the biggest enemies of organizational performance.

The only way to do this is to separate your desires, personal benefits from your duty. Regardless of the personal benefits or losses – one must perform to his or her maximum best. This is, in simple spirirtual terms, Vairaagya. Varaigya is of two types - First is internal, that is being detached towards all material aspects, thoughts, and operating in the world from a position of Duty only and giving your Best.

Second is Sanyaas - Living aloof from the world... this distinction is important, as people think Vairagya is sanyaas - it is not. It is this misunderstanding that drives people away from spirituality in early age, saying we will do this after retirement. You can be a Vairaagi while being siutated in the . Best of all, all other things being in place – this ensures a much higher productivity level with much lower stress.

DESTRESSING THE SELF

Perhaps the biggest most fundamental mistake we make- we trace our duty towards Employer ... we are NOT having any duty towards the Employer. We are legally employed by an Organisation - meaning we have zero duty towards the promoter. We are having a duty towards the Organisation not the person. This is, once again, actually in the interest of the promoters – as it introduces a strong element of professionalism. Thus, any order you recieve has no bearing on your duty unless it is in proper process. And the moment Organisation enters, then long term, medium term views have to come into consideration. This is a minefield... and an entire 3 day training programme in itself.... The above is based on pure Vedant, advaitavaad – and is a very useful destressing tool, something which is sorely needed in this difficult modern world with its many pulls and pressures. This simple tool will help people destress, relax while performing the same duties that were earlier stressful…

ॐ : A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 08:56:00 +0000

ॐ : A Magical Experience

This article is about the Divine Word, ॐ, and my small experiences with it, alongwith a small introductory background based in our Vedant Shastra. This is a road I am trying to walk, and what follows is a true chronicle of my path, in the hope that I can encourage other students like myself to walk on this wondrous path. It starts from my first actual exposure to the Symbol, this Word, and goes on to detail my experiences in full truthful words, culminating in my first small / tiny personal experience of the immense calm, quietitude and impact this one Word has on the human mind.

THE FIRST EXPOSURE

As befits this Word’s importance and primacy, my first real exposure to this, beyond the daily hymns we used to sing at home and in temples, was through my Guru, my Management Professor, Dr Hemant Indurkar from Indore. {May God Bless his Soul}! What could be more fitting – this letter being revealed to me by my teacher? Earlier, the word had only a rough meaning for me – it was mostly the first word in prayers etc. It was a symbol of our religion – beyond that, I was completely unaware of the majesty, the importance, the relevance and the impact of this one lovely Word.

Dr Indurkar’s message was that Om is not spoken from the mouth, but has to emanate from your stomach… He advised me on the proper way to chant Om, and suggested that I do this as a practice for a minute or so daily. This I could not really undertand; and sadly, I did not get the chance to enquire about it in more detail, principally because I focused on the words, without thinking of their meaning, and the deeper questions just did not occur to me then. It wasn’t till much, much later that the full meaning and import of that advice hit home…

MOVING FORWARD

Life moved on for me, meandering through its curves, ups and downs, and had me flowing with it, just going with the flow – while simultaneously doing my utmost to fight it with all my might… big mistake; but that is a story for another article, in another time. Let us move on. To cut a long story short, I got into the habit of reading the scriptures daily; and from there, slowly, over time, my real learnings started. It now occurs to me that as I did not have a Guru, my learning was perforce slow, meandering and had lots of diversionary paths leading off in divergent directions. More of that later, in further articles on this Sanaatan Dharm Series on my blog. A small clarification – Sanaatan Dharm is a the broader term of our common path – within it, I follow the Sankhya philosophy, also called DnyaanYog, which is itself a part of Vedant.

WHAT IS ॐ

ॐ is mentioned quite literally countless times in the various Vedic Texts and Upanishads; but in this small summary, I use the Atharva-Vediya Mandukya Upanishad, a small Upanishad of 12 verses. It is small only in size, in importance, it is one of the 11 most prominent Upanishads in our Shastra. This Upanishad described ॐ in detail, and the meaning of Aatmaa in its 12 verses.

ॐ is composed of three letter – A, U and M; as quite a few of us are no doubt aware. But going deeper, it emerges that ॐ is in reality the name of God, Parabrahm, no less; and its three letters {which merge to create the sound of ॐ}, are emblematic of first, this entire creation; second, Hiranyagarbh – who is the creator of the current cosmic cycle, that is the Brahm in the trinity of Brahm-Vishnu-Mahesh; and third, the Parabrahm,

CHANTING ॐ

One way to look at it is that the Universe merges into the Hiranyagarbh, which in turn merges into the Parabrahm. When you chant ॐ, this is, in effect, what you are saying… merging into the world with A, then into Brahm with U, and closing with a merging into the creator, the originator, the Parabrahm with the extended M. This is just one of many ways to chant ॐ, and there are known to be several deep meanings.

There are other methods of Chanting ॐ; these are mentioned in the various Shruti texts. {Shruti refers to The Vedic books – Rug, Yajur, Saam and Atharvan Ved; and the Upanishads. These together form the Shruti-vaakya, and are the core of Vedant and Sanaatan Dharm both}. One of the these is the Udgeeth, described in exhaustive detail in the Chhandogya Upanishad. The Udgeeth is a high tonal vocal chant, in simple words.

Another method is the one I call the Pranic method – wherein the focus is on the nostrils and nose, understanding that the Pran, human life itself, is resident in the Nasal area. A fourth method is the Mahakosh-centric method, wherein the vowel A starts with the outer body, pulling it into U which resides in the inner Sukshma-Shareer, and closing out with a Heart / Nose / Head based prolonged M that represents the Creator. One of my Gurus today, Hemant Dada Aadkar, says there are many other ways to Chant ॐ. Point here is that ॐ is not just a letter or a sound; it has deep meanings associated with it.

EXPERIENCING ॐ

I will be honest – at first, nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is where your faith, belief, trust, effort, perseverance come in. And your hunt for Dnyaan, knowledge. I kept at it, though intermittently. What was regular, was my daily prayers. It is, in my opinion, the combination of the two that really clicks – Dnyaan and Faith. That said, I must admit – the experiential dim realization of its power preceded the dawn of intellect, the dawn of knowledge for me at least. This is validation of the various Shruti which state that faith, devotion is paramount.

The Faith part was the prayers to the Devatas – Bholenath, Mata Saraswati etc. And the dedication to reading the Shruti-Vaakya. The Dnyaan part was the repeated Paaraayans I did of the Krushnaarjun Sanvaad {Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta}, and the various Upanishads. Initial realization was slow – I had no Guru. Neither had I a study group. But the cumulative reading finally began to help. And then, I started the Agnihotra! {More on this in a later article – suffice it to state that the Agnihotra is the single most important prayer in all our religious rites. It has clear paramouncy over everything}

ॐ : AUM….

The first realization was heaviness in the heart region; once this became regular – I realized that when I spoke, my voice was actually coming from one of : Mouth, Throat, or deep within the heart, depending on the feelings and the depth with which I spoke. That was when I slowly noticed my Chanting of the ॐ Word was now starting deep within somewhere in my body. It was still not reaching the naabhi {navel} level – which is the ideal; but the sound was definitely coming from the depth of the Body somewhere. It is a wonderful realization, though it takes time for our vivek, our intellect, to realise…

The realization of body tingling as you chant is another experience. It started with me from the palms of my hand, and now it reverberates from shoulder level to toes. Though honestly, this is still sporadic – stilling the mind is very, very hard to do. And holding it still is even harder… and this needs a still, steady mind. But the most awesome experience is the feeling of immense quiet, calm, and solitude, of peace, and of wellness, that emanates from deep within you, and stills for head, your brain, every pore of your being… This is a magical calm, a magical beautiful and hypnotically enthralling experience, as everything ceases – albeit for a few seconds. For those few seconds, all that exists is sheer nothingness, and an infinite calm extends upon your corporeal being. That is the sheer magic of ॐ.….

Summary Examination of Chinese Sourced Imports into India

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 10:26:00 +0000

The latest on Social Media is the rising strident call for stopping imports from China, as a response to the Chinese’ increasingly aggressive border infiltrations into our country. This is an attractive thought – but, there are no real answers in this method. With an approximate 85 Billion Dollar Exim trade with China including 68.04 Billion Dollar Import Trade. , banning all Chinese products would debilitate our own capabilities, thus I dont see that happening. Neither do I foresee industries moving away immediately from China Linked Raw Material and Parts Imports.

TRADE WITH AN ENEMY?

That said, I see zero sense whatsoever in trading with an enemy nation, especially a totally skewed distribution, 3.5:1 outsized against us. This is something that needs to be done. Not because of patriotism - but as it is a very risky situation indeed if key components are sourced from an enemy. This is a major problem. So - yes, in my opinion, we have no choice. The rhetoric will help in awakening people, of that there is no doubt. And through them, the message should get to industries that they cannot anymore take Chinese trade for granted. 

SMELL THE COFFEE - 1

Indian Industry HAS to smell the coffee - and look for alternative sourcing as far as possible. De-risk their own businesses. It is not about patriotism, but building resilience in the system by broadening the upstream supply chains.... this is admittedly easier said than done, given that China is a Manfacturing Powerhouse. In part, the problem is that in the mainstream discussions in Industry, Linkedin, Media – even Whatsapp, there is little being said of what exactly we import from China. So let us look at some numbers in the following charts, which should help place the problem in its entire detailed proper perspective

SOME DATA…

As can be seen, China is our topmost partner in import, leading in imports by a full 7% over the next nation – the USA. That is not going to change anytime soon – regardless of any social media pressure. It just isn’t feasible in the short term. Moving on, let us look at some of the details of exactly what we import from China:

Again, as we see above, the list is extensive and critical both. Electronic and Electrical Equipment, Machinery, Organic Chemicals, Plastics, Iron and Steel, Optical and Medical Apparatus. Let us dig deeper into the individual items, taking just the first two as an example : Electrical and Electronic Equpment and Machinery / Boilers

India Imports from China of Electrical, electronic equipment	Value	Year
Electrical Apparatus for Line Telephony or Line Telegraphy	$3.74B	2019
Electronic Integrated Circuits and Microassemblies	$3.62B	2019
Diodes, Transistors and Similar Semi-conductor Devices	$2.00B	2019
Transmission Apparatus For Radiotelephony, Tv, Cameras, Cordless Telephones	$1.67B	2019
Electric Accumulators	$966.68M	2019
Electrical Transformers, Static Converters and Inductors	$913.46M	2019
Parts for television, radio and radar apparatus	$849.57M	2019
Video recording or reproducing apparatus	$811.56M	2019
Television Receivers	$682.75M	2019
Microphones, Loudspeakers, Headphones	$555.93M	2019

India Imports from China of Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers	Value	Year
Automatic Data Processing Machines, Magnetic or Optical Readers	$3.18B	2019
Parts, Accessories, of Typewriters, Calculating Machines	$1.21B	2019
Air or Vacuum Pumps, Air or Other Gas Compressors	$854.65M	2019
Machines and Mechanical Appliances Having Individual Functions	$628.83M	2019
Parts of Pulley Tackle, Derricks, Cranes, Lifts	$480.84M	2019
Air Conditioning Machines	$450.78M	2019
Machinery for Working Rubber or Plastics	$416.82M	2019
Ball or Roller Bearings	$412.14M	2019
Transmission Shafts, Cranks, Bearing Housings, Gears, Gearing, Clutches	$349.49M	2019
Refrigerators, Freezers, Heat Pumps	$344.51M	2019

From the above it can be seen that the interlinkage of Indian Industry with China is no small matter; it is extensive in its reach, breadth and scope. And more to the point – the imports are in finished goods as well as in components. Our own economy and industries are dependent on these imports; in such a scenario, building a rhetoric will be self-defeating. While I do not deny that delinking is essential, it needs to be thought through. If not properly planned out, we will end up damaging our own industries.

RHETORIC… OR PROPER PLANNING?

It is not just a question of banning Tiktok, removing apps and what-not. There is nothing wrong in doing the above – so long as alternatives are easily available at a comparable quality. If the either of these two is not met – easy availability and quality, then as an individual we can decide to trade quality for locality. This can be done in end-products; for industries, who are dependent on Raw Materials and Components – as seen above in the 3 charts / tables, the trade-off could have serious repercussions in finished product quality, cost, production timelines, inventory holdings and more. What then are we to do? Keep buying Chinese? I think not – we need to plan a bit more thoroughly.

THE WAY AHEAD

If India really is serious about the Chinese de-linking, it needs a national mission for identified Raw Material and Components sourced from China; manufacture those that can be done locally, and identify and set-up alternative supply sources for each, or at least as many as is feasible. This will reduce the dependency on China. However, this will involve some trade-offs, and these need to be analysed thoroughly.

Given the current international anti-China atmosphere globally, this is doable; companies are looking for alternatives to broad-base their supply chains. Chinese wage costs are also escalating. Nations are analysing their China linkages, and moving to de-risk, just as we are. The time to do it is now; but this needs to be done with planning, not empty rhetoric. This will open opportunities for Indian Industry as well, as some manufacturing can graduate to India.

Stopping purchase of a few Chinese end-products isn’t the answer. More often than not, such actions will only hurt fellow citizens, as these stocks are owned locally. Removing Apps you can do – and given Data worries, you probably should too. But do remember there are any number of products in your house and office that contain Chinese sourced components or Raw Materials. Doing only rhetoric will not solve our China Problem, this is a national mission we need to undertake – in fact, Rhetoric will prove to be highly damaging to us.

IN CONCLUSION

But over and above all of this, Indian Industry now needs to wake up and smell the Coffee. The China Linkages need to be identified, sorted out and solved. The exposure to China needs to reduce – even a recent Harward research pointed out that Supply Chains need to have in-built resilience; and for that, broadening your supply chains is essential. Dependence of a high degree on one source – especially if that source is an enemy – is not smart, for sure. In fact, it is very highly risky. So, Industry leaders need to work on their sourcing, and take a long term view for long term sustenance and continued competitiveness.

Understanding Spiritual Level of Satisfaction

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 30 May 2020 11:19:00 +0000

A NOTE ON SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION

What is satisfaction? What does Santushti imply in reality? When I ask this question, I am speaking of Satisfaction, Santushti in its deepest, most profound state. A state wherein one’s mind is at peace, calm and tranquil, a state where there are no ripples in your mind, or any emotions in your heart. That stillness, that calm is true satisfaction. It is most often confused with acceptance, or even compromise – the difference is in both, the burning desire to achieve / possess / do something remains. But in a state of satisfaction, this desire is also quelled – leaving a calm motionless lake.

In its crudest form, Satisfaction is always used in reference to a specific need or want; that is a superficial look at the term, and is typically a temporary state. In such a temporary stage, the core desire remains, and that, with time, again lights the fires of desire, ambition etc. This leads to a mind that is full of thoughts, emotions, feelings and more – and the cycle begins once again – till a temporary new equilibrium at the new level of attainment is achieved.

MATERIAL SATISFACTION VS SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION

A side note here : it is said that this ambition, desires etc are what drive achievement; nothing can be farther from the truth. Ambition and desire may drive personal ambition, growth, but are not the true drivers of excellence; and are frequently not the drivers of team-work, and ethical behaviour. These two, if unrestrained, lead to lack of ethics, or high performance pressure, and many other issues. What controls these is Satisfaction. Satisfaction is what enables excellence, ethics, depth perception, deep situational analysis as your perceptive powers in any situation increase and much more.

Ambition and Desire, if unrestrained, lead to blind spots on many of these parameters. This is so because these are driven by specific objects in the world – like that car, that promotion, that growth target; whereas a person who operates on Satisfaction is driven by core aspects – like giving a full days hard work; or giving your best, or being process oriented – in other words, such a person will not be satisfied even if the target is met but some parameter is ignored – like ethics. This act of omitting something will lead to a mental dissonance in his or her mind – which can only be reached if that omission is corrected and acted on.

Side Note : That is why, in your organizational teams, it is essential to identify the drivers of each team member in your team. Find what drives each individual; and if all your team members are individually driven, then you need someone – or a few someones – in your team who has risen above these, and thinks more of the collective, including the society, than personal benefit. In a cruel world, the only guarantee of sustainability is to have a mixed team of individualists working in tandem with the collectivists. This is but one application area of Spiritual Satisfaction

SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION

This is where I introduce the term Spiritual Satisfaction - The spiritual path suggests satisfaction as a state; even for those not on the path, Satisfaction is state of being that is much sought after. Most take it to mean adjustment, or compromise – it is neither. Spiritually, Satisfaction is very different to these terms. Others imply it as being related to material needs, position, power, status, achievement and more as we have seen above – implying that there is a level that you can say, “enough”. And yet another stream of thought relates it to a psychological state of contentment with what one has – but again in very, very material terms.

In reality, satisfaction is a state of being, a place of existence, that is much deeper, and requires deep thought and contemplation. Satisfaction, in the English usage, is linked, thanks to normal speech, as we saw above, to physical or psychological needs. But when taken in the spiritual language, or even in Hindi, it acquires many dimensions – which give it a fuller, more complete and indepth meaning. In this detailed look, satisfaction emerges as distinct level of being, a plane of personality or of existence that is an identifier by itself. I give the Hindi Translation of the nearest word to satisfaction below:

संतुष्टि

Transliterated version: santushti.

स्त्रीलिंग

1. संतुष्ट होने का भाव

2. तृप्ति

3. प्रसन्नता

Origin

संस्कृत

From this view, Satisfaction has 4 parameters:

1) A Feeling of Being Satisfied with needs - physical & material

2) Trupti - there exists no english word; closest is satiety. _This is a feeling that happens when you go beyond satisfaction; Satisfaction can quickly turn to dissatisfaction as you consume, and new needs are lit. Trupti - in this, you have had your fill, and reached equanimity

3) Prasannata - again, no English word does justice. _This is a deep feeling of contentment, devoid of emtional overtones. Happiness can by happy, or exuberant, or euphoric; this Prasannta is a feeling of deep contentment.

4) Peace – this person is at peace with him or herself, with the world, has reached a state of acceptance, and has risen above all regrets. This person is peaceful, calm and tranquil.

CONCLUSION

It is when these 4 come together - Satisfaction, Trupti, Contentment, Peace and Emotionless Happiness - a feeling of Sthitpradnya {or close to it}, a state when you cannot be moved from it. This is the spiritual level of Satisfaction. In what state of mind can a person reach that level of deep contentment, when he or she is content, at peace, satisfied, Calm, with no regrets, having complete acceptance? When he or she has reached a state when all actions are in consonance with the more core of beliefs, values that person holds and with the small voice, the conscience… then, at that state, that person is one who has achieved a state of being truly satisfied in spiritual terms….

Does The Soul Have A Purpose {Understanding Moksh, Part 1}

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sun, 24 May 2020 12:15:00 +0000

What is the purpose of the Soul, our aatmaa, our Jeevatma? What is Moksh? What is Liberation? Nirvaan? What follows is a first article in a series examining Moksh, from the POV of a Mumukshu, a soul who has just started walking this path of Advait religiously. There is some thought process among people which regards that seeking liberation is the purpose of the soul – which conflicts with my Vedic ./ Upanishadic self-study ; this article is a small examination of this premise, with the following submission from my side:

Purpose of Soul : None. A Soul just exists; just is. Independent, Immutable, Niraakaar, Nirgun. The Purpose is of Life, not the soul; until the difference between these two is realized, there is no liberty.

My entire submission is based on Shruti, their commentaries; the word Shruti refers to Ved Vaakya, and the Upanishads. This is basis English, Hindi and Marathi commentaries of the principal 13 Upanishads, and several translations by various commentators on the Krushnaarjun Sanvaad, also called The Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta. Further, it is basis Advait Philosophy, which I believe in.

THE INITIAL PROPOSITION

The initial proposition is that is The Soul is Akarta, and has no role or purpose as per our Material standards. Here, we need to understand the difference between Material, Mayic – and Eternal. And here, the word purpose is material – that is Mayic in origin and application, and hence cannot be associated with the Soul, which is Nirgun Niraakaar. Thus, while the soul has no purpose – it just is, it just exists – free, unattached, Unity. But it is Life that has a purpose – and the purpose of Life : Enable The Soul to realise its Independent Status as Nirgun Niraakaar. The Mind, Chitt, Ahankar. Icchhaa, Indriya-Vishay all have but one purpose - to be trained to look inwards, jettison external words, enable the mind to rise first towards Satgun and then beyond Satgun into transcendental status, through the judicious conscious use of Karm. Remember, Shruti-anusaar only Karm stays with the Soul - nothing else. Also, Shruti also clearly identifies the Soul as having no Guna, no vikaar, no aakaar, nothing.

The Shruti is clear on this matter. The Atma is a part of the Supreme; and all material pursuits are with a defined ending point. Thus, no material pursuit can be a goal, including the benefit of others. This is as per established Vedic texts. The upliftment of society etc is a function of Guna & Karm - and are thus dependent on the cycle of life & death. This cannot be a target of the Soul. Further, the Vedic documents are clear on one point - no material pursuit can result in Moksh. This is repeated in any number of Shruti-vakya. Thus, upliftment of society will only lead to material benefits and not liberation

THE OBJECTIONS THAT CAN BE RAISED

At this point, objections can be raised – the principal one being that it is the duty of the enlightened to help others reach enlightenment – be a margadarshak, as it were; this view enjoins on the Enlightened the task of being the light for others. This is an excellent point, but one that needs a deeper examination of the concept of Liberation – Moksh, as well as the path of liberation and the duties of a Guru and a Devotee. A second objection is that once enlightened, it becomes one’s Karm to do the same unto others; both these are excellent objections and need a deeper examination. Both of these have some truth in them, and yet, they need a careful and nuanced understanding.

COUNTERPOINT TO THE OBJECTIONS : FIRST, KARM

Of all that we have, man chitt buddhi etc - only Karm stays till last point of Creation; and dissolves at point of Moksh. Moksh is not dependent on anything. The only duty, the only Karm, for a liberated soul is to live the remainder of his or her material existance in purity as defined in the Krushnaarjun Sanvaad 6th Chapter verses 7th - 11th; as also the shruti which states the duty of an enlightened person is only live own life as per established pure ideals as laid down in the Vedic texts. The reason for this is people automatically follow and emulate enlightened souls; which is why we emulate Swami Vivekanand, Adi Shankar, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and many others hundreds of years after they have passed and united with God.

Secondly, The liberated soul, as per Advait, is one with Parabrahm. How can such an entity have any role, any purpose, any Karmic bondage? The moment we state that the enlightened soul has a duty to enlighten others, we are placing a bondage on an entity that has already arisen beyond bondage! That will be like asking the Purpose of the Parmatma. This is the role of a Mumukshu, and a Saadhak - the 2 preceding stages of a Siddh Purush, also called a Yogi. The question is of the state of a liberated soul. These responsibilities listed of enlightenment etc are those of a Saadhak, and a Mumukshu. The Yogi has no fear, nothing left to do; as he is one with God, he or she cannot have a purpose. That is there for the preceding stages. A true Yogi is Tatasth, uninvolved. Of the world but not of the world.

That brings me to the concept of Karm and Akarm; this is important, as being tatasth means being equal in all situations- the state of being tatasth does not ordain any actions or inaction. This is only superceded by the law of karm which states so long as the body exists, its needs exist. Thus, the only duty of a Yogi is going through life, living life as an example to others. The rest is as per Prarabdh. The examples of holy people stated above are examples of their Prarabdh; their previous lives deeds rewarded them with the role of upliftment. That is why some enlightened help others – not as it is a task of their soul, but as it is a task of their Karmic Cycle, their Karm. There is a huge difference between Karm and Moksh – Karm dissolves at Moksh.

Another excellent point raised in this regard is the concept of Akarm – wherein an enlightened, liberated Yogi does this for other souls as Akarm, that is without any bondage. However, the error here is that Akarm is any action that is done without any hetu - good or bad. Even if there is a good sankalp, like a mission - it recedes to the realm of maya, and guarantees a good reaction. This, this is not Akarm if the said Yogi takes it as his or her mission; and also violates the basic principal of the Shruti, that this is a path to be sought, hunted for – and not told as if from above.

COUNTERPOINT TO THE OBJECTIONS : SECOND, MARGDARSHAN

One of the shruti-smruti established qualities of a Yogi, a Liberated soul is evenness in all situations. Such a person can only be a margdarshak and only upon being asked by the other soul. The moment this liberated soul takes on a mission - the entity falls into material cycle. Uptill Hiranyagarbh, all are under Maya. That is why there is no question of a mission. Each soul is bound by own karmic cycle - no external entity, not even the Parabrahm, can liberate another soul

The difficulty is equating + seeing oneself in others, and enabling their liberation is that there is no question of an external source giving freedom from Karmic reactions. Hence, the role of a margdarshak only. That is why all Vedic texts are crystal on one point, as defined in Krushnaarjun Saanvaad 18th Chapter ending - this knowledge is only for self-realisation; and not to be revealed unless asked for, and that too by a true seeker. The onus is on the self; the soul that seeks liberation. Proselytisation leads the liberated soul back to Maya, as it then takes on a material mission. If that were the case, then The Parabrahm would have taken permanent Avtaran and been an active guide. This, clearly, is not the case.

There is no basis in all my reading that ordains a person who has reached Advait with the added responsibility of clarifying for others. This is in fact explicitly against Shruti Vakya which states knowledge is not to be shared - knowledge is for a seeker to obtain. Thus, if a true seeker comes asking for knowledge - then the Siddh Purush will answer. It is not a mission for the Liberated soul. Note that Shri Krushn, The Parabrahm himself, did not even once get into discourse mode throughout his life. He stated the Krushnaarjun Sanvaad only on being asked - and never repeated it, accept an abridged version at the end of the war. Thus, this point by itself proves that a Siddh Purush has no mission.

IN CLOSING :

Explanation of the term "Maya" and "Material" as per Shruti : For this discussion, Maya and Material are as defined in the various shruti and their commentaries. The Entire Brahmand, and the creator, that is Hiranyagarbh Brahm- are all Mayic, material in nature. All pursuits within the Brahmand are material be they wealth, religion, status, society, spirituality, the 7 worlds, Swarg, 5 Gross Elements. And liberation is a status that takes a soul beyond; outside the realm of Maya.

Book Review - Asian Juggernaut : The Rise of India China and Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:41:00 +0000

Asian Juggernaut is a book with a massive, vast scope - aiming for covering the challenges, prospects and history of a massive continent; a continent that for most of History of the Earth was the predominant one. This is historical fact; this also means that its strategic analysis will also have to be of that level of depth. Secondly, Asia is a modern strategic playground for European / American powers, and is likely to remain as such for the foreseeable future. It has had the status of a plaything of the West for 300+ years now. Thirdly, thanks largely to Western interference – aided in no small measure by Asian Naivete & Power Hunger, it is a continent deeply divided. We Asians Fail to realise that we need to be cohesive, unitary, one – giving the West the opportunity to use us for their means & ends. That wont change.

THE MISSES

None of these facts is going to change anytime soon. Neither are they going to be forgotten - in that light, this book has more misses than it does pluses - which accounts for my low rating for it. That does not mean that this book is bad; far from it. It is a good read; my problem is that I feel it just fails to do justice to the vast scope of Asia, or - if you like, going by the title alone - India / Japan / China. Thing is, if you consider these 3 alone, you have to consider all Asia; and if you then pay scant attention to Russia, dismiss it totally almost as an afterthought - you lose 1-2 stars in the rating. And if you then miss out the other vast scope Asia includes - then even 2 stars is a stretch for rating it.

The other problem in this book is the almost exclusive focus on China; this is a book on 3 nations, but it comes out as China centric. While this may seem fine, given China’ dominance, there is a strong need to give a lot more balance to the entire layout and aspects covered. China centricism is fine given a far more wholesome analysis of options for each nation in equal measure. And that means, a deeper analysis of Russia, the Far East and the Middle East. In reality, I got the impression that Australia finds a larger place than Russia in the book, which is a distinct surprise!

In addition to that, a more balanced look at history, especially the entire Tibet saga. What is there in the book does seem to be accurate – but it moves smoothly from 1954-ish straight to 1962; missing a lot of additional events that happened. This lends me to wonder… I appreciate they may seem a logical outcome of the lead up to 1954, but in an analysis all factors, historical points etc need to be mentioned. This is missed here.

THE HITS

I would like people to take a positive impression of this book – hence listed the minuses first. Coming to the positives, first of all, on China, this is a comprehensive analysis. It gives a deep, wide and in depth look at China from almost all angles. The best part is the US-China relationship, which, as it turns out, is far more complex than first appears. If you wash away the posturing from both sides – it emerges quite clearly that it is a multi-layered complex relationship. The simplistic Indian-Rightist take of US-China head-on issues clearly comes out as naïve and just plain wrong. Fact is, USA will continue to manipulate India and China for some time to come; we cannot expect any US clear support.

The US and China will not go head-on; quite the opposite, given the trade between them, the US dependence on Chinese imports, and most importantly the Chinese investments in the USA and its dollar reserves, meaning a debt situation. Then there are other counterbalancing issues in other regions – Japan and the emergent nationalistic feelings there; the Russian bear on the North – meaning it is in US’ interests to keep China off balance, yet engaged. To Indians hoping for USA to go hammer-and-tongs anti-China – rhetoric and empty statements aside – stop hoping, not gonna happen.

The book raised an interesting possibility in my mind – that the USA might also have enabled the rise of China from developing status to the power it is today. For China to have such a massive imbalanced Trade – well, given the real world of tariff / non-tariff barriers and trade politics – this cannot have happened without tacit US support. This is not too far from what happened elsewhere – most newly developed nations have a strong US back-support; but then – China apart, none are truly free to make their own strategic decisions. This again means that the Indian hope of US-India friendship based on a China platform is pointless, and a pipe-dream. This is also corroborated by the US-China Nuclear matters, and the US looking the other way – at times implied tacit support to China - as discussed in the book. So US-India vs China? No chance. Forget it.

The book takes a fascinating look at Japan, tracing the rise of Japanese anti-US sentiment, Japanese internal nationism; as well as the China vs Japan relationship. This is the second aspect of the book that I absolutely loved for its clarity, accurate historical perspective, given that it starts from the Meiji Restoration, and spot-on current analysis. While a lot more space should have been given to Japan, what is there is enough to leave a lasting impression, painting as it does a picture of a nation deep in the throes of some change, and reluctantly taking a relook at its own direction. We Indians would do well to keep our eyes peeled on Japan.

CONCLUSION

A good book for people wanting to remove the rose-tint from their eyes, and get a handle on the real-world geopolitics of Asia. Despite the low rating, this is a must read, as it opens your eyes, points you in several further directions in which to focus your future reading, opens interesting possibilities, and raises curiosity. Sadly, there are some gaps, but what is present in the book is good. It is full of China, and needs more space for others, and a lot more focus on Russia. Agreed that the title is these 3 nations – but you cannot analyse these 3 along geopolitical aspects without bringing in Russia. Especially not India; which is why my review is totally silent on the Indian perspectives given in this book.

The New Normal For Indian Industry : Post Corona, A thought experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 08:04:00 +0000

THE NEW NORMAL

We are in the middle of a complete nationwide shutdown, now in its 26^th day… with around 16 more days to go. Shops, establishments, companies, etc – all are in minimal or shutdown mode. Economic Activity is at a complete standstill; but there will be a day when things will re-start, when life will begin crawling back to normal. With regard to that, a lot of thoughts, facts and/or factoids are being shared by all. In the same line, here is my analysis of The Coming Days for us, Indians.

THE BACKDROP

What will happen will essentially depend on the runup to the event itself, the disease outbreak. If you will recall, we were going through a rather challenging phase on the economic front as a nation, with a plethora of problems to deal with. Clearly, they aren’t going away; this needs to be kept in mind. The going wasn’t great to start with; and on top of that, we have this outbreak. So, prima facie, things look rather tough – but there is more to the story. The point here is, while this remains something to be kept in mind, we have to shift our focus now to other more pressing issues

WHAT WILL CHANGE?

The long and short of it, in fact – the gist of the entire article, is that, as on date we do not know. We can only take a guess; and most – if not all – people opining are guessing. Some may be guessing basis educated estimates, some basis data – but nearly all are guessing. The reason is firstly this situation is pretty much unprecedented in our lifetime at least. We are in new territory here – and for us, it is going to be a path of discovery. This is what I propose to examine in the balance of the article – what are the reasons for this statement, that we are in unknown territory…

ü Principal Factor: Changes in Demand & Consumption Patterns

ü Minor Factors {for consumer segment} :

Ø Changes in Factors of Production

Ø Changes in Sentiment

Let me set out my opinion on the above 3 in summary form; I will not touch the aspects of Monetary, Fiscal responses, other economic aspects, technical disease aspects etc. The focus of this article is on just the 3 factors listed above on the consumer segment only, and in a short precis format.

CHANGES IN DEMAND & CONSUMPTION

This is a total shutdown; what this is doing is, it is catalysing a shift in Demand / Consumption patterns in the Consumer Market. Now these shifts, it might appear, are temporary, and we will go back to the normal. But will we? This is an assumption – and we have no previous similar experience to bank on in our living memory that can give us confidence in such an assumption. This assumption might just be correct – but it might just as well not be accurate.

In opinion, we can expect an eventual return to normalcy in some categories; whereas in some others there are certain to be changes that will stand the test of normalcy. In other words, in those areas – we can expect a new normal. It is hard to see which as of now, but we can make a few guesstimates. The Kirana segment, for example; it will not be lost on any number of consuming households that the local Kirana was a pillar of support. So one can logically expect a shift in demand to some extent from SuperMarkets and App-based services like BigBasket.

Not all categories in consumption in household consumption will change – price sensitive or discounted items will continue in the old way; but some purchases are nearly certain to shift to the Kirana. What will be the extent, volume and type of the shift is anyone’s guess. On the App side, and the Modern Trade side, they may face issues in giving higher discounts on full restart, as they may prefer to wait & watch. The reason is that there is a guarantee of a full loaded rush in the first few days of restart as households restock. Basis that experience and forward judgements, a call will need to taken by them. This may further catalyse shifts.

Another example – other household consumables. People dependent of 20L Water Bottles may want to now install a filter at home due to interruption of supplies; signalling a cross-category shift. A third example – consumables not in stock in these 2 months will have been supplanted by alternatives; for example – biscuits, with a brand not available; leading to a competitor with stock gaining. A 4^th example – changing culinary habits, with the erratic supplies in the kitchen some new experiments may find their way into the Kitchens.

These and other examples are a real threat to the old normal, as this time the interruption is seismic in nature, extending to weeks, giving time for tastes and choice to develop. And these are just a few stray examples quoted above; the point is 6-7 weeks is good enough for new tastes, choices, options to make a home in the consumer’s mind. Or, it might not; we do not know for sure. Basis consumer behaviour, we can make an educated guess. Closing this segment with a 5^th Example: My milk brand has interrupted supplies – an alternative gave me service for weeks. I develop a taste and liking… result: old is minus 1, new is +1. Now extrapolate on an industry wide scale. There will be change; but will it be statistically significant? We do not know.

CHANGES IN THE FACTORS OF PRODUCTION

The factors of production are Land, Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship. I would like to draw your attention to the middle two – Labour , and Capital; although, the startup community might logically and correctly argue that never before has such a seismic event occurred – which has unleashed risks, yes – but also opportunities for innovative thinkers to tap into. That is Entrepreneurship – or a part of it. But my main thrust here is Labour, and to a much lesser extent, Capital. As promised, no economics in this article – so we leave capital aside for a later article on the Business & Industrial Markets.

Now this is, truth be told, a matter for the industrial markets, and this article is dedicated to the consumer segment. But it has one significant consumer impact: Migrant Labour has left to its own homes, meaning we could see impacted factories taking a little time to get to full capacity. And remember, we can expect a demand rush initially – thus, orders will increase. Are there enough supply chain inventories to meet initial demand, and will be the demand be sustainable post the initial rush? There will also be sector-wise differences; which sectors will be hit harder than others? At this point, none of these questions is easy to answer.

CHANGES IN SENTIMENT

This point is by no means minor in its importance; but with reference to this article, it is the hardest to judge. We can only assume here – no estimates or guesstimates are feasible – this is not a topic to lend itself to estimation. Coming out of such a long lockdown, what will the consumer sentiment be towards fast moving consumables and electronic / household appliances? Will planned / desired purchases of costly appliances be postponed, given the EMI resumption that will happen, the job losses, the uncertainty that will prevail? FMCG goods we have already examined in detail above.

What will be the sentiment towards growth expectations, professional expectations, etc post the Corona incident? Some negativity is to be expected; how long will that last – and what stimulus will industry and Government inject into the market? This remains to be seen. The Stimulus will clearly be towards Industries, as it should be, with a segment of it for the economically weaker sections as we have already seen to some extent. How will it impact consumer demand in the market, and what will be the attendant time lag for the resultant response to the stimuli? That will be key.

CONCLUSION

Thus, we have examined the consumer demand scenario in some detail, and looked at two of its offshoots – in summary. From the above, we can note a plethora of questions that I, the author, do not have either the data or an idea as to what will or might happen. Will these concerns highlighted come true - this remains to be seen; it might be that I am wrong on all of the above! But one thing is sure – questions are there, and we will have to wait to see the results of the corona incident in the sphere of the nations economic activity…

Book Review : The Death Of Money - The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 08:18:00 +0000

The Death Of Money – The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System

by James Rickards

ABOUT THE BOOK

This is a book on the International Monetary System, and specifically on the future prospects of the current system we all live under, the dollar-oil-US based Geopolitical system, which together define the world of International Finance, Trade, Geopolitics. In addition to this, or rather, as a part of this, it also serves as an excellent book on Geopolitical analysis of the current state of the world at large. It looks in depth at International finance, trade, geopolitics and the operational realities of this troika that combine to be called what is euphemistically called the International Monetary System

Its emphasis is identifying the existing fault lines, tracing geopolitical developments worldwide, examining the fine line between economics and politics, tracing the threats to Dollar Dominance, the rise of Dollar Alternatives, etc etc. It examines the current trends of Geopolitical realities in the large I international powers, the developing trends, a short past history of how we got here, and the rise, rise and rise of the Dollar that was a result of these factors.

THE ANALYSIS

Fascinating. If ever an hardcore conceptual book of Finance and Economics can be called thrilling, it is this one. This is a page-turner, a fascinatingly fast read. Despite the title, this isn’t about the collapse of Dollar; it much more of a complete geopolitical analysis. And the best part is the way it links International Finance with Diplomacy and Geopolitics, and places money in its proper context. The icing on the cake is the way it traces the vicious circle of the rich nations doing their utmost to protect their own turf, at the cost of the smaller and developing nations.

The central premise of the book is that the Dollar will not continue as the de-facto currency of international finance and trade. The only question is when will it cease to be the standard? To arrive at an assessment, the author has done a detailed analysis of the pertinent factors, viz. Gold & the Gold Standard, The Oil-Dollar Linkage, Geopolitics, International Agreements & Big Nation strategies to keep status quo, emerging trends in finance & geopolitics, IMF & SDRs, Economics: Major currencies, Institutions, Macro Fundamentals, and more. Thus, the scope is truly vast. And that is its main selling point, as it gives a tremendously broad yet detailed look at the entire global scenario.

Will the Dollar based economy collapse? It has to. Too many developments in the past have taken place – so much so that it is, in my opinion, only a matter of time. The western dominated world is now shifting decidedly east; the era of the West is drawing to a sure closure. More to the point, the west itself is breaking up – it is no more the solid homogenous façade it presented; recent developments in Europe, UK and the USA have ensured that. Thus, the emergent challenges to the Dollar Economy, from both within the West and from its Eastern challengers, means that now it is only a simple matter of time. .. When? Cant be said, though I suspect not in the near future, given the depth of the Dollar’s reserves, and its hold on Currency and Bond markets worldwide.

Just 1 or 2 pins need to fall... Oil-Dollar linkage + Stronger Euro + etc... even 2 of the list will slowly move the world away from Dollar economics. This is not so easy as it sounds, though - EU + UK + Japan etc make up 65-70% of world trade, so as on date, this means that firstly non-dollar based volumes arent there. Secondly, there is an absence of an alternative – SDRs from IMF is as of now the only possibility, and it is way too thin on date. Thirdly, Geopolitics; it is in current western interests to keep the Dollar, geopolitically speaking. That is why I stated not in the near future

But this book makes an argument that were the Oil To Dollar peg to fall, the edifice could come crashing down; given ADB, SCO, ASEAN, Middle Eastern trade developments, India-Iran axis, etc. And there is a feasibility that the Saudis are impatient with the USA; another strong point it makes is that Germany, which is essentially running EU for all practical purposes, is also slowly getting irritated with USA. I can also spot a similar nascent undercurrent even in Australia and Japan; there are also fast-paced negotiations and treaties in place to look for non-Dollar trade, like Iran-India demonstrated. Others are also experimenting. Thus, we can see that there is emergent pressure from all sides on the Dollar.

This situation is not being helped by the USA’s inconsistencies in dealing with Friends, Foes and Trade partners alike. It is simply rubbing too many people the wrong way. That cant be good, no matter how powerful a nation you are. It then just becomes a question of time before an alternative is found – in my opinion, decades, nothing less. But the hunt is on; no matter that the current state is a Dollar based status quo for the foreseeable future. What will replace it? There is no currency on date, neither is there one on the horizon. And that remains the single biggest problem for the anti-Dollar brigade. Non-Dollar Denominated markets are wafer thin, and no single unit of exchange can perform the functions the Dollar currently does, and neither is there one on the distant horizon….

Book Review : The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:08:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW : THE SELFISH GENE

by RICHARD DAWKINS

The Selfish Gene is one of the most famous popular books on Genetics. After reading it, I can state that it is an excellent work, though not strictly on pure Genetics. I prefer to call it the realm of "applied" genetics, or rather the external effect, phenotypics of genetics. That said, even that is inadequate; it also covers seminal grounds in a variety of areas of life, and the imprint of the Gene on these areas : simple living, rearing, reproduction, and much more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

But what takes the cake for me is the questions it asks in the last chapter wherein Mr Dawkins has examined the question of why should single celled organisms in the primordial soup evolve into multi-celled organisms, which is the most fundamental question in all Science; it is the proverbial last frontier of Science. As one reads it, it becomes apparent that Science is still floundering; while we have gone light-years into space – we know actually very little of how we ourselves function. The gap becomes evident, as we come face to face with the truth of the current status quo.

I do not intend to criticize; my intention is just to highlight how much we know AND how little we know. This is stated so that we learn some humility, I mean no insult. It becomes more and more apparent that many, many assumptions have gone into the theories of science; of the notable coincidences, and more – as life evolved. To give another example : what exactly triggered the specialization in cells? How exactly did Consciousness evolve? Why should mutations happen? {Random Selection etc is fine; Meotic processes is fine – but what controls it? How does it happen all by its lonesome?}. There is so much we do not know as yet.

SECONDARY TAKEAWAYS

As I stated above, the last chapter stands out; as do two others - one titled Nice Guys Finish First, and the other on groupism - tendency of animals to flock + inter-special cooperation. These 3 stand out head and shoulders as clear take-aways. The random explanations taken from Insects, Animals and Plants alike give a very broad picture in your mind, helping to firm up and clarify the concept. And act as a strong refresher if like me you are returning to the subject after a long gap.

The part on the Natural Selection, its mechanics and the gene simulations are exemplary, bringing to the fore the full convincing power of this theory. Its explanation is truly fascinating, and sticks out big-time. The emergence of the Evolutionary Stable State over generations is yet another strong plus here – all the more so as it helps shift the reader’s view from a one-body state to a far longer term view of life itself, as one begins to appreciate how the small things add up, and how over time things change.

CONCLUSION

This is not an easy read; far from it. It is a read meant for a specialised or deeply passsionate audience. The text is long, arduous and demanding; you need passion to continue - passion for the subject. It raises many interesting questions throughout; it opens avenues in your mind in many areas, and includes a superb examination of cultural aspects as well, which in a tome on Genetics is a true rarity. Best of all, what it does not know it states clearly; & elements that have no explanation are also categorically stated, which is truly rare in a tome on Science.

I have deliberately given a rather disjointed review; while I am passionate on Genetics, and have studied it at UG level – it all lies 25+ years in the past. So, my objective in this review has been to give the reader as many reasons to choose to read this book as possible, through small tantalizing glimpses of its myriad content material. Let me close the review with one small observation on the negative side – the layout and the presentation, like the majority of Good Science Papers, is tedious, pointless and arduous. It makes for exceptionally hard reading; only a true passionate person will go through it. Science needs to learn the art of presentation, of making a good material excellent…

Book Review : Irrationally Passionate by Jason Kothari

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:32:00 +0000

Irrationally Passionate

Jason Kothari

The Book

The book is the story of the life of Jason Kothari, an autobiography if you will. Jason Kothari is a prominent Indian Business Leader, a professional manager plus an entrepreneur. He is currently the CEO of Emaar, and has in the past held prominent roles as former CEO of Freecharge, Housing.com, and Snapdeal. He is also the former CEO of the USA based Valiant Entertainment, which deserves a special mention inasmuch as Valiant is a success story that Jason scripted from literally the dustbin; a once-great corporation with a millions-strong revenue history, and once-strong valuations, but now up for sale – which he bid for, and won, while a kid just out of college, and with zero cash; yes – no money. And from there, Mr Kothari crafted a success story that is stunner…

It dives into exhaustive detail of each of his professional tenures, with generous details of his personal life as well. Jason Kothari was educated throughout, right till college {Wharton}, from the USA, and that is also where he started his professional career. The book tells a remarkable story of an Indian who came back to India, after a highly successful business in the USA, exiting it and starting in India; the kind of story we don’t hear a lot about. That is what makes this book a double delight, to be honest. And that is a powerful learning – in your job, always ask yourself, are you contributing? If not, take the call!

Why Did I Pick It Up

This deserves a special mention – my trigger for reading it. The book cover itself states – My turnaround from Rebel to Entrepreneur. And then there was Karan Johar’s endorsement, more than the person endorsing, it was the words used- “One of the most riveting, raw, authentic, and insightful stories of an entrepreneur I have ever come across”. Well, after reading it, there is for sure no doubt in my mind, that this description is valid in every word. This is an incredible story, and a must read.

Is it just a personal-interest book?

Far from it; while the personal story is honestly riveting, and worth a read for that reason alone – the best and biggest part of the book is the focus on the professional decisions, insights, strategies, tactics, thought-process, organizational processes and responses, multi-functional strategic learnings as well as defined tactical response learnings to be had. To put it very simply, this is a Leadership Training Manual disguised as, or rather combined with, a personal autobiography. The managerial and leadership learnings are there quite literally on every page, and this is not a book that one would read and either forget or not read again. You will read it again and again, for the Leadership and strategic decisions and the strategies employed by Mr Kothari.

The Analysis

I can either focus on the personal aspects, or the professional ones – this is just a review, after all and not a book summary. So, my choice is to drill into the professional learnings that are to be had. The author has an engaging writing or narrative style, that impresses one as honest, down to earth and from the heart. The use of conceptual terms {aka Jargon} is kept to a minimal, which is excellent, as new entrepreneurs can assimilate the contained learnings.

First, my personal take on one of the only touchy or controversial or harsh parts of the book – the repeated layoffs Mr Kothari was forced to undertake. {Please note my choice my words}. Mr Kothari is a troubleshooter; a Professional who excels at turning around bad situations in organisations. Companies go to him when they find themselves in a hole, and can find no way out. And he excels at it; having done it myself at a department level many times, {on a much, much smaller grade ^ 10!} – I can fully appreciate. I have never, ever sacked anyone from any of my teams for any reason other than integrity. Even in the worst of times.

I would stick it out, fight tooth and nail with the Management, prefer to get sacked myself than sack someone else as company didn’t have money. I could never understand or appreciate why Companies resort to it; well, after reading the inside story of the other side, I can empathise and appreciate. I still stand by my actions – a Leaders’ first calling is to fight to save his team, period. Nothing else matters, quite literally; to a Leader, a true Leader. Regardless of the situation.

Yet there does come a time when options run out; and in these – it is how you handle it that matters. Be honest – and, Mr Kothari, I hope you are reading this – the way you handled it is the only way, quite literally, to handle it. What happens is, organisations hunt for scapegoats, sacking by underhanded methods and unethical conduct, which is what I have faced in all such occasions, bar one. And in that one situation – I did not have to fight to save my team; the company did it in the way they handled the sackings. But, Mr Kothari, few people are as transparent as you are. Special Kudos to you.

The above is the first Leadership lesson of the book – managers manage – but leaders lead teams. There are many, many others, as Mr Kothari has gone deep into each business situation he sorted, leading companies from the brink of closure, collapse to growth. This is a review, and I cannot go into details of all; that is why I chose to highlight one – a rare quality today, that of ethics, honesty, transparency and integrity in dealing with your people, your teams. For the rest, each example, right from Housing.com to Snapdeal, is a fascinating case study in Leadership.

Let me quickly give one more small example – Snapdeal; a superb exemplary case study in hard decision making basis solid logic, transparency, and on-point business planning. The way in which he created 3 options – Grow, Sell to Flipkart {a nearly done deal, as we all recall} and a third option. That is one; the second is the restructuring exercise, and the way it was done, how what why where the restructuring happened in detail is a learning you are not likely to get any other place. My special favourite part is again from my domain / experience : Logistics and SCM. I loved every bit of it, and specially the realization that it was a cost-drainer; despite that the way Mr Kothari went about it, protecting teams wherever possible, is simply educational.

Summary

I could go on and on – the Valiant exercise, the way the assets were valued, the legalities traced, contractual obligations studied; the resetting of the business and operations, the GTM for Valiant, and more. Similarly for other companies – but this is a review. Above the reader will find two opposite implementations, and a strong restructuring exercise example as the glimpse into the content of the book, which has all of this and much more. This is not just an autobiography – it is a study book which teaches you the art of situation analysis, making & implementing hard decisions, crafting a strategy, its tactical implementation, and problem resolution. A must read for all professionals!

Book Review : Startup Secrets From The Ramayan

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 06:09:00 +0000

Startup Secrets From The Ramayan

Prachi Garg

The Ramayan is not a scripture one would normally connect with something like a Startup; sounds, well, zany, at least at first thought. Even at a second thought, the connection may not be apparent; so my advice, think a little again. For, from one POV, that is exactly what Prabhu Shri Ram did : Startup, afresh-anew, with minimal resources and an uncertain external world. Now if that isn’t the literal definition of a startup, I don’t know what is!

The Book

This is a book that certainly breaks in a style that continues to break fresh ground; representing a time-honoured scripture in a learning that is mesmerizing, and well-laid-out. The concept is similar to what is stated above: an entrepreneur decides to separate from his existing business etc, and sets up anew in a new city and a new business. He, alongwith his family – Wife, Younger Brother – sets off to build a thriving business, and expanding all over, including Lanka. The 2^nd half of the book is all about how this successful new startup sets up in Lanka and thrives.

Analysis

This is a continuation in Prachi’s efforts, after The Legends of a Startup Guy; this is a work of fiction – a superbly laid out fiction “thriller” almost, albeit a short one – intertwined with a series of Management Lessons. This makes learning much more effortless; and thus, this style has its own advantages. Further, the association with strong existing personalities also further enables easy assimilation as well as recall of the intertwined messages and learnings involved in the text of the book. This fascinating approach works bigtime in delivering a strong non-fiction genre book that gives a powerful message to all Startups.

First, the fictional aspect. It clicks, and big time. You are literally glued to the pages, and have a strong desire to pull ahead, just to see how it all turns out. This is despite knowing the entire story beforehand, thanks to the Ramayan. That is the timeless ageless pull of this magnificent scripture. That said, imaging and recreating a fictional set of characters and a plotline on such a famous story / historical is no easy task. Ms Garg has managed it with aplomb; each character stays well within the character-plot of the actual Ramayan. The story gels with the reader, and has staying power; it has a fluid easy simple narrative, and moves at an astonishingly fast pace.

I say astonishing; this is because the key reason for this book is as a management lesson for Startups and professionals. Despite this unique approach, Ms Garg has managed to ensure that the lessons being derived from the story are intact, and in fact strengthened by their association with the historical base of the story. Thus, the fictionalized version actually strengthens and reinforced learnings, aids in recall & assimilation, and proves to be a powerful tool for Learning and Development. This can for sure be used in a much wider arena to deliver complex involved layered take-aways in Training Programmes. Thus, this makes it a must-read for all L&D, HR/OD and Content professionals as well!

Through the way the Startup Kutumb is built, Startups / Sales-Marketing-Strategy professionals can learn a few ideas, draw some inspiration; this is crystal clear. L&D can learn a lot in telling an educational story, widening their skillsets. HR-OD, as they have to communicate within organisations, can also draw lessons in comprehension, thereby modulating their communiques internally. OD teams can draw a load of inspiration as Kutumb scales up and tackles newer stronger competition, causing internal stress – which is one clear aspect of OD. There is much more; my purpose here is to create a reason, a connect for the reader to the book.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a brilliant, well thought out and presented book that spans the twin domains – Fiction and Non-Fiction both. It has a great storyline that you can read as a light fiction, and it has a great set of learnings in various business domains that you pick up as you progress along the path of Kutumb, the Chitrakoot based startup and its subsequent venture into Lanka. The learnings and characters both stay with you after, long after, you put down the book – which is the hallmark of an excellently penned tome!

Serial Review : Samantar {Marathi}

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 05:47:00 +0000

काय म्हणावं आणि कुणाला म्हणावं असं झालंय; स्वप्निल ला अभिनंदन देऊ कि निर्देशक ला - या मग पुस्तकाच्या लेखकाला? नाही तर मग ज्यांनी स्क्रिप्ट लिहिली त्यांना? आणि बाकी कलाकार, खास म्हणून नितीश? शब्द नाही उरले मनामध्ये विवरण करायला, काहीच कळेनासं झालंय हा रिव्ह्यू लिहिताना. पण एक मात्र नक्की - स्वप्नील ची गोष्टी व स्क्रिप्ट ची निव्वड अगदी अप्रतिम! मोघेही त्यांनी नावीन्य दाखवलंच आपल्याला- म्हणून खरंतर हे आपल्याला नवीन भासायला नकोत, पण तरी समांतर बघितल्या नंतर आता पुन्हा ह्याची जाणीव होत आहे. म्हणून सर्वप्रथम स्वप्निल भावाला अभिनंदन - त्याची स्क्रिप्ट ची निव्वड बद्दल. हा त्याचा आणि सुबोध भावे ह्यांचा एक चिन्ह झाला आहेत - नेहेमी नावीन्य असतं त्यांच्या चित्रपट आणि सिरीयल मध्ये. पुन्हा एकदा अभिनंदन! तुम्हा दोघांची चित्रपट / सिरीयल इतकी वेगवेगळी प्रकार ची असतात - हे कधीच सोडू नये ही विनंती. दोघांना! आम्ही दर्शक उत्सुकतेने म्हणूनच वाट बघतो तुमच्या चित्रपटाची!

गोष्टं

समांतर हे एक मराठी मधील बहुचर्चित पुस्तक, त्याचं धारावाहिक मांडले आहे सर्वांनी. {शब्दांकडे लक्ष्य द्यावे - मी कुणा एकाला उंचवटा देत नाही ह्याच्या करता} कुमार महाजन हा एक त्रस्त मनुष्य असतो - आपले भविष्य विचारायला एका पंडित माणसाकडे जातो मित्रांसोबत. तिथे ते भविष्य सांगायला नाही म्हणतात, आणि सांगत तुझ्या आधीही एक आला होता, सुदर्शन चक्रपाणी - त्याचा आणि तुझ्या भविष्य एकाच. ३३ वर्ष जुनी गोष्ट. इथून सुरु होतं समांतर... आणि कुमार महाजन शोधायला निघतो की कोण आहे हा सुदर्शन चक्रपाणी? त्याचा ३३ वर्षाचा भूतकाळ म्हणजेच माझा ३३ वर्षाचा भविष्य!

धारावाहिक म्हणजे नक्की काय?

असो; अपण पुढे वाढू. MxPlayer OTT वर आलेलं नवीन धारावाहिक, समांतर. एका धारावाहिक मध्ये थोड्या फार वेगळ्या गोष्टी, वेगळे प्रमाण असतात त्याला सफल होण्या करता; खूप धारावाहिक येतात, सुरुवात तर नीट करतात, पण दर्शकांना बांधण्यात उत्कर्ष, यश पावत नाही. त्यामुळे, २-एक एपिसोड बघितले की दर्शक सुटतात. ह्यामुळे धारावाहिक चं रिव्यू करताना चित्रपटाहून वेगळेपणाने पाहावं लागतें. मी एक साधारण दर्शक; मी कां संपूर्ण बघीन? मला बांधून ठेवा, गोष्टी मध्ये गुंतून ठेवा. मला सोडायचा कारणच सामोरी आलेला चालणार नाही - हे लक्ष्य असायला हवं. ह्याकरता, दर्शकांची आवड-निवड काय आहे त्याची जाणीव मात्र असायला हवी, निर्देशक, निर्माता, कलाकार तीघांना. हे तिन्ही जेम्व्हा एक रेषेत जुळतात, तेम्हा निर्माण होतो एक समांतर, एक एका लग्नाची दुसरी गोष्टं, एक रुद्रम, एक उंच माझा झोका ... आणि तयार होतात अविस्मरणीय आठवणी दर्शकांच्या मनात, जे विसरणे शक्य नाही. हा सर्वात मोठा फरक आहे चित्रपट आणि धारावाहिक मध्ये; चित्रपट २ तासात संपतं - धारावाहिक मात्र तासोन्तास दर्शकाशी संबंध ठेवत असतं. आणि यश साठी दर्शकाचा मनाशी गूढ संबंध निर्माण करायला हवा - आणि हेच झालं समांतर मध्ये! संपूर्ण टीम ला मनःपूर्वक अभिनंदन!

समांतर - आभिनय

प्रश्ण हा आहे कि असे काय घडले समांतर मध्ये कि इतकी आवड निर्माण झाली मनात? एकच वस्तू नव्हे - सगळ्याच एक रेषेने जुळून आल्या. सुरुवात करू अभिनय - जे सगळ्यांना स्पष्ट पणे दिसत असतं. अभिनय मध्ये दोंन नावं - स्वप्निल आणि नितीश. स्वप्निल नी तर कमालच केली, अगदी अक्षरशः दंग करणारा, स्तब्ध करणारा अभिनय. कलाकार नाही, असं वाटलं की खरंच कुमार महाजन पडद्यावर उतरला आहे. आणखी काय उपाधी देऊ? एवढंच पुरे. दुसरी गोष्टं अशी, ह्या अभिनय मध्ये स्वप्निल नी पुन्हा नावीन्य दाखवलं; आधी एखाद वेळी पण असा प्रसंग आपण पहिला जेम्व्हा रागिट दर्शन कलाकार होता त्यांचा. पण ह्याच्यात अगदी वेगळं! तसंच हवं, हीच असते खरी कलाकारी.

आणि नितीश? म्हणायची गरज नाही, तरी सांगतो. स्वप्निलच्या सामोरी उभा नितीश, पण कोण्ही दुसऱ्या वर भारी पडला नाही. बाकी कलाकार होतेच - त्यात तेजस्विनी होत्या, पण स्क्रीन वेळ कमी असल्यामुळे तेवढं दिसून आल्या नाही. पुढच्या भागात तर त्यांचा वर्चस्व जास्तीच होणार, निःसंकोच. गोष्टीवरून कळून आले. तरीपण त्यांनी आपला चिन्ह स्पष्ट पणे टाकला माझ्या मनात, फार आत्मीयते ने केलेला उत्कृष्ट अभिनय! अभिनय ला साहाय्य करणारी इतर वस्तू असतात - वेशभूषा, सेटिंग, आणि बरच काही. त्यांच्या साहाय्याविना उत्कृष्टता संभवत नाही - आणि निर्देशन? एका ओळीत सांगतो - बाकी लोकांची तारीफ काली आहे, तर समजावं निर्देशक पण चांगला, आणि त्याचं हे परफॉर्मन्स पण मस्तच!

समांतर - स्क्रिप्ट, लेखन

अभिनय नंतर येते स्क्रिप्ट; खरंतर दोन्ही बरोबर चालतात. एक दुसऱ्या ला सहारा देत पुढे वाढतात; आणि धारावाहिक मध्ये ही गोष्टं अतिशय महत्वाची असते. चित्रपट तर तासात संपणार - एकामध्ये चुकामुक झाली तर दुसरा सांभाळतो. धारावाहिक मध्ये ते शक्य नव्हे; म्हणून महत्व वाढतो. आणि मग बांधणे ही गरजेचं; दर्शक २० मिनिटातच सुटू शकतो! दरेक भाग अश्या जागी संपतो, की तुम्ही ओढले जात असता, सतत. सलग बघावंच लागतं! दुसरीगोष्टं अशी की दरेक छोटे मोठे सीन सुंदरता ने एकमेघात पेरलेले; तर सुटत नाही, आणि गोष्टं सरळ पण अतिशय वेगाने पुढे वाढत जाते... आणि जशी जशी ही वाढते, तशी तशी तुम्ही मोती आणि धाग्या सारखे पेरले जाता त्यात!

इतर बिंदू

तुम्ही हे बघितलं असेल आत्ता पर्यंत, की मी सस्पेन्स, थ्रिलर सारख्या कोणच्याही वस्तू कडे लक्ष्य दिलं नाही; धारावाहिक मध्ये ह्या दुसऱ्या दर्जा वर येतात. धारावाहिक ते, जे गुंतवतं तुम्हाला, ओढतं, पेरत असतं स्वतःच्या सागरात दर्शकाला! आणि अभिनय - ह्या दोन मुख्य प्रमाण! बाकी सर्व काही दुसऱ्या दर्जा वर येते. मग ते काही कां नसो - प्रेम असो व थ्रिलर, हरकत नाही. असो, पण आता हे कबूल आहेच की सुस्पेन्स जसा मांडला आहे {शब्दांकडे लक्ष्य द्यावे, सस्पेंस तयार करावा लागतो} ते अप्रतिम. सस्पेन्स थ्रिल उत्पन्न होतात स्क्रिप्ट, स्क्रीनप्ले आणि base गोष्टींमधून, त्यांचा आपसी तालमेल हून. ह्या जुळल्या की तयार तुमचा एक उत्कृष्ट सस्पेन्स - समांतर मध्ये ह्याच्यात उंच दर्जाचा साफल्य मिळालेला आहे टीम ला.

निष्कर्ष

रिव्यू चा निष्कर्ष हाच - एक अति उत्कृष्ट धारावाहिक, माणसाला ओढणारं आणि आपल्यात गुंतवणारं; अभिनय निर्माण निर्देशन कथा लेखन स्क्रिप्ट स्क्रीनप्ले आणि संगीत मध्ये मस्त तालमेल, ज्याला इंग्रजीत बॅलन्स म्हणता येईल, असा हा धारावाहिक. अविस्मरणीय. पण धारावाहिक मध्ये एक दोन अजून गोष्टी असतात - एक तर, काय दर्शक व मुख्य कलाकार शी सामंजस्य, एकजीवपणा भासतात? नक्कीच; नऊव्या एपिसोड येत येत तुम्ही सगळ्या कलाकार बरोबर एक मैत्री स्थापन करता. आणि हीच गोष्ट दुसऱ्या महत्वा च्या बिंदू कडे नेते : मे तुम्ही पुन्हा बघाल? धारावाहिक मध्ये हे एक असं पाडाव असतं जे सर्वात मोठं; ह्याच्या सारखा दुसरा बिंदू नाही. उत्तर आहे, नक्कीच. खूप कमी अशे धारावाहिक आलेले आहेत - दोन-एक मी वरती सांगितले; अजूनही आहेतच, पण एवढे पुरे उदारहर्णार्थ. आणि त्या पुन्हा-पुन्हा बघणाऱ्या धारावीहीकां मध्ये तुम्ही आता एक अजून नाव जोडू शकाल - समांतर!

Understand & Express Your Individuality

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 03:25:00 +0000

CONFORM, OR PERISH… IS THAT THE WAY?

Why do we let the world dictate to us? Don't use that colour with this, dont mix x spice with y, don't keep this dish with that, dont wear that with this, dont do this, dont do that? So, in other words, we live by external rules? No individual expression? Our self worth is determined by what others think? Is that how thinkers and creaters imagine the unimaginable? Perhaps the biggest aspect of this is that the deleterious impact of this sad habit which percolates and permeates into every sphere of human activity, including profession and family both.

LEARNING THE NEW, UNLEARNING THE OLD

There is little, if any, scope for true individuality. How can we grow out of our current ability and realise potential if we limit ourselves by this pressure to suppress individuality? This is central to imagination, growth, development, and forward / upwards movement. How can we unlearn the old and learn the new if we ourselves constantly pressure others to conform to their ideals of behaviours, opinions, views? Every experiment is frowned upon; and every trial looked at with a combination of superiority complexed arrogance plus disdain.

There is a strong linkage of experimentation of any kind with the undesirable, which - combined with the social pressure to conform, plus an environment wherein questioning established opinions / norms is just not acceptable – leads to lack of innovation, experimentation and individuality. And is that how in business you anticipate the future trends? Is that how you imagine, dream new ideas? Perhaps that is why Smaller Companies and Startups do one hell of a lot more innovative thinking, ideation and trials than the bigger organisations. This pressure is significantly lower in these companies, plus one more aspect – these are generally ideators.

THE PRESSURE TO CONFORM

This is a general observation and increasing trend. There is a constant pressure, societally defined, of slots, and the attempt to slot people into pre-defined definitions. Both Left and Right, and even Center, have this tendency. This is a general societal habit, as well as a professional need. You have to conform, you have to slot yourself and your choices as per some predefined rules. Seperate issue that the majority of ideas that lead to genuine lasting change / inventions / discoveries have originated OUTSIDE the formal framework setup by our society or outside larger companies.

This is testimony to the simple reality that society and its "rules" are wrong. One has to be an individual. Experiment. Do as per your mind directions, independent of societal norms {but within boundaries of scriptures, laws, ethics, morality} - and be your own person, not a copy-cat version of some predefined vague idea. That is the goal of all Rightist and Leftist tendencies. And that is also why genuine new ideas ALWAYS originate outside the societal or organisational framework - a mute testimony to the failure, nay - abject failure - of our society, as well as of large companies.

ORGANISATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

From a company perspective, this needs much more careful thought, and is not to be rushed in blindly; the basis of organisations are strong processes. And too much flexibility & innovation in that is just plain stupid, there is no other word for it. Yet, despite this, careful thought needs to be put in to ensure systemic dynamism, flexibility and operational leeway in an environment that foster thinking, independence and innovative thought. This needs deep changes in the HR-L&D-OD-Strategy domain to be implemented, to create an atmosphere where innovation and experimentation is encouraged. More of that later, in another article…

CONCLUSION

Moral and Learning : Be an individual, not an automaton, not a robot. You are a human being. Make your own rules! And find ways to encourage this innovation, this individuality within the scope of organizational norms and rules. The benefits of the same will be tremendous, as the company will realise newer better ways to perform, to achieve objectives, as well as be a lot more flexible towards market changes and movements.

As I wrote in my earlier article on this - Why must we force people to conform to a certain type? Why cant we accept each individual as unique, a true wonder of God? Doesn’t being human give us intellect and the ability to choose for ourselves basis our own capabilities? Why be something we are not? Animals do not have this ability to choose, or the intellect and skills to create. If we depress individuality, aren’t we calling into question the very basis of our humanity? This is a question that all of you have to answer for yourselves…

Dynamic Processes In Business

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 04:41:00 +0000

DYNAMIC PROCESSES IN BUSINESS

Processes are central to the proper continued functioning of an organization, and its achievement of objectives on all parameters; however, the main thrust of this short article is to argue that it is these very processes which used to deliver results in earlier times, lead to disaster as the market and environment conditions change, making the processes in question out of sync. This creates a time lag in organizational response, creates a drag on productivity as results are sub-optimal, and ultimately leads to erosion of profitability of the organization

The Enviroment

Further, the past 10 to 15 years have seen a sea-change in both the internal and external environments organisations operate in, with the information technology value additions, as well as increased global connectivity. All this operates in a much stronger global trade network with increased cooperation and/or blocs and/or trade wars, all being played out with twin Globalisation + Localisation trends being present in the background. Despite these sea-changes in the overall ecosystem organisations operate in, companies have insisted on maintaining the old style of processes, with zero thought towards modulating internal processes to cater to the changed environment.

The Organisation

Perhaps the biggest erroneous assumption that organisations and the leaders therein make is that it is primarily the external environment that changes; nothing could be farther from the truth. Organisations are not static creatures, they are alive, vibrant and dynamic with real energy and real people, and are in a state of constant flux. And the factors identified above- Information Overload, Global Connectivity, Technology, Globalisation, Localisation {rightwing protectionism} have also changed the internal organizational culture of nearly all companies. And in this scenario, Leaders habitually continue blithely in the belief that internally the company is the same it was; sadly – most leaders also assume the external environment will also respond to the same strategies and tactics in use in old times.

The People

In this backdrop, little attention is given to people in the Organisation, and the need to keep them attuned to the epochal changes that have ripped apart the fabric of what was hitherto known as the Business Environment; in its place is now a completely different organism, another genus / species almost compared to the earlier. Trainings in this are limited to Seniormost staff – by which time attitudes have hardened, and ideas fixed. Changing these takes time; leading to disaster; examples aplenty of Organisational collapse. Little or no training or attention is given to an examination of the internal and external operating environment of Organisations, at any level and any function; when in fact this forms one of the most critical interventions an organization can make in the longer term.

The Processes

Thus, it is in this scenario that we operate our internal processes and external touchpoints to the external environment- wherein we tend to operate them from a fixed perspective. I appreciate that a process is by nature fixed; it is this dependable predictable nature of processes that enables performance and acts as a guideline. Yet, when the environment we operate in is Dynamic, how sensible is it for us to be wedded to a fixed sequence?

This brings me to the concept of a Dynamic Process. While a process is by nature a predetermined sequence of steps, we need to constantly monitor the internal and external environments of our company, and ensure continued fitment to them. This does not mean we change the process at the drop of a hat; all it means is we monitor the environment, and, when required, change the process to align it with the external / internal environment. This is not easy – for processes can be and are regularly subverted by Managers in the system, who know only too well how to game it.

A strong process is one that cannot be easily subverted by a powerful manager. Now, there are two reasons why processes lead to failure of companies- one is subversion. A defined process is regularly subverted, exceptions sought – sometime undocumented. Rarely is any effort made to examine the cumulative impact of these subversions of the process on the top and bottomline, whereas this should be De-Jure in companies. Thus, strong firm implementation of processes is a must, and yet…

A large number of failures can also be traced to the failure of internal processes to capture & reflect external or internal environmental changes on time. The faster your internal processes modulate to external changes, the more nimble your market response mechanism.

An Example:

For example, there may be a defined trend shift in customer demand relative to your products; if the existing processes in Marketing / Production / Supply Chains do not capture this change early, it can and has lead to disaster. These departments regularly interact externally, how they capture the information, for example, {if they capture it}, how much importance & thought they give to it, and what they do is the determinant.

The Purchase department may note a change in raw material price trends that is not explained by developments; the upstream / downstream vendors in the Supply Chain may give hints – or the employees dealing with these vendors might note changes in the pricing, delivery, availability, investments being made by these vendors, etc. All these are lead indicators. The Production team might come across a new technology scheduled to come on-stream; and so and so forth.

Drawing Lessons

The point is that one has to monitor all external touchpoints in the company – any external interface may give hints to coming change. This has to be captured in the system and properly used. And more to the point, if and when needed, one has to alter the current process to cater to the change. You also have to constantly monitor the internal culture of working in a company, and modulate accordingly. It might be that the Sales / Marketing teams are operating at so high a pressure that they miss the vital signs of coming change – this has actually happened. And this is where process subversion starts, with the need to perform, and meet expectations. And that is why a Leader should keep a strong measure on all exceptions to process, and subversion, whether approved or otherwise.

It is in these exceptions, these subversions that you get a hint that something is wrong somewhere - that your internal processes are now not in sync. For example – Purchase sources Raw Material at much cheaper rates. Instead of just congratulations, a Leader should also examine why this happened? Is it a one-off, or a sign of change? Your Logistics from Warehouse Operations shows a paucity of available vehicles; ask, in this scenario – why has this happened? Is it a change in the market, has some sudden demand arisen, are rates not in sync, or is there an internal issue wherein loading is taking too much time leading to losses for the transporter? Sales asks for a discount - track it; don’t let it become systemic. Why are discounts needed? Is this a change in the demand curve – or is it a short term thing?

The price-off for Raw Material could be due to on-streaming of massive industry capacity for example. Or the paucity of vehicles could be as all transport are being pulled in by a much larger capacity plant; or the sales discounts could be due to fall in the demand curve as the product enter maturity. In each case, adherence to existing process will lead to sub-optimal results; the need was for a modulated response to this, wherein the change from usual result was captured, analysed and acted on. Unmodulated processes don’t lead to immediate losses; they allow errors to remain in the system, and allow them to build up till they reach a breaking point. That breaking point is called Organisational Disaster!

Conclusion

Thus, a Dynamic Process is one which changes and responds on a need basis, with the response being superior to the existing process options. In the SCM example above, the standard response would be pressure, insistence of agreed contract performance with vendors, and changed rates; a modulated response would have all of these, plus a longer term examination of other options – namely, backward integration or renegotiated contracts or wider sourcing or alternative logistics partners etc. The discount in sales would have the discounts, but would also have a product-price trade off examination, relook at various marketing options etc. Key point is that this should not be an approval based system, as that would mean hesitant employees do not escalate; the modulation should be hard-coded into the process response. This will actually improve the end result.

Book Review - Orientalism By Edward Said

noreply@blogger.com (Reflections Of Vishal V Kale) — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Orientalism by Edward Said

Book Summary

Orientalism is a scholarly examination of European {and American} writing on Asia, examining the overall approach of western chroniclers and writers with regard to Asia, or as they prefer to call it, The Orient. It is a detailed exhaustive look at the tendency of the Western writers to look upon Asia with condescension, or rather, adopt a patronizing attitude towards Asian cultures and people in general. It examines the deep link between Western writing on Asia and Imperialism / Colonialism, and traces how it had an imprint right into the Modern world.

The book traces through a range of writing on Asia and Asian Peoples, a rising tendency of condescension, and western superiority – which percolated into various aspects and topics of chronicling; indeed it also traces the origin of Eastern Orientalists, as the oppressed were co-opted. It establishes the persistent and now-endemic western penchant for prejudice deep into history, and its impact on historical documentation. The latter part of the book traces the modern impact of this tendency on the people of Asia, with the far-reaching influence of westernism which is now embedded deep in the societies of the ruled classes, as well as the economics and business of these former colonies.

RATING AND EXPLANATION FOR IT

The rating is high, and deservedly so. This is a book that rates as a must read for all Indians, outlining the impact of Orientalism, tracing it from its genesis right till the modern world, and the damaging impact on The East that continues till this day. It is not an easy read - but the best books generally arent easy to read. Highly recommended for its frank analysis, blunt words and factual though literary approach - as well as for its current relevance, especially with the current rise of the East, all across Asia. This is a book that you just cannot miss, given the rise of Asia, its global relevance, and cultural renaissance in evidence everywhere

ANALYSIS

The book is not an easy read; I would be lying if I said otherwise. It is exhaustive, detailed, and is further based on a literary examination of writings / literature on the East that emanated {and still does} from The West. It looks in detail at these authors, their short histories, their driving passions, their style, and the reasons thereof. This makes the book a slow read at the best of times, but the learnings from it far outweigh the slightly pedantic tonality; this is not a book meant for a coffee table read. This is a tome targeted at the interested readers, and for them – it is a fascinating read, a chronicle of sheer brilliance.

Western views, writings, articles on The East and their errors are still rampant; one can still perceive the open bias even in fields where cultural bias is hard to come by – like Economics. The book under review goes a long way in establishing the roots of this clear inaccuracy & bias in the Colonial enterprise, and the inherent western penchant of superiority. While slow change is now happening, this continues to this day – which is what makes this book a must read by all Indians. Those readers who have wondered at this habit in The West, would do well to read this as much as they can – it is by no means an easy read, and it is by no means easy to absorb.

The only negative aspect I can notice is the penchant of the author to focus largely on the Middle East & Egypt; while India and even China to a small extent has been analysed to a much lesser degree. This shows the impact of The Western Mindset even in such an open-minded and fair writer, and the impact of Western people’s fixation on The Middle East & Egypt. This goes to show how deep the roots of this Western habit are! That is something that still continues- though the rise of China and India in recent years have caused a small shift. But the overall trend remains – as also the trend of some Indians to place needless emphasis on The West.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I can rate this book a high 3.5 to 4 stars; it breaks fresh ground, was a very bold book indeed given that it was written in 1978. It has spawned a lot of debate; it has lead to many books and examinations – one such has featured on my blog as well, {The Rulers’ Gaze}. This makes it a seminal contribution. It helps the reader connect the dots, and understand how deep seated this habit in The West as well as in the Eastern Orientalists is, and helps place a context to a lot of reportage, writings etc. But above all, it helps us identify the change that is afoot, with more and more balance in both The West and The East setting in - giving rise to a robust dialogue, which is a heartening sign for the future. For, dialogue always leads to improvement of the status quo, if conducted in the right spirit!