Incredible November and the Pack of Cards!!

November, 2008 will go down in the history of the world as a month which taught mankind how illusionary and transitory size and scale is. November brought with it, one of the biggest hurricane the corporate world had ever witnessed in the financial meltdown and also made us witness to one of the most the horrific terror attacks in India. Somewhere, a common theme between the collapses of very different empires is that of lack of controls, discipline and processes. It is all a result of the games our mind plays with us. The fall of empires is an outcome of allowing the mind to run wild.

Let us connect this with something we do everyday. Crisis management is about creating a simpler and focused regulatory environment which is efficient, quick, consistent and reliable. Be it related to financial or human security regulation. If you look at it objectively keeping emotions aside, I think it is about clearing out all the “Unpredictability & unreliability” that exists in the way we currently tackle our situations of crisis across forms & scale in India. In a model such as this, controls come in without making the whole deal look bureaucratic. Technology takes over the role of controls and doesn’t allow leaks. This is exactly how successful business processes get built too. Responsible organizations control their minds. Or they go down like pack of cards. (Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch)

That brings me to another performance metric, which is reliability. Reliability is essentially a testimony of inherent strength. Superlative performance one week and down the next doesn’t get us too far. *(Kudos to the clinically consistent approach followed by NSG throughout the rescue operation). If you go to see, every stakeholder wants to see an expected consistency in performance levels, and here the stakeholders are the citizens of the country.

We have hugely challenging times coming up. As I have already said, “The insanity of extremism is over…but the insanity of polity will start now!” and we must collectively suppress it in its attempt to polarize us using their age old disguised sympathetic vote bank politics, especially in times of general elections looking large on the country. Times to come are going to challenge our grit, reliability and determination as a collective dynamic emerging society. Let’s look at this adversity and turn in into a positive opportunity to bring about a lasting change. The youth of our country have enormous power. Let’s give it everything we’ve got and get this period so right – like never before!

Remember we want the systems to be reliable, consistent & effective. Let’s ourselves be that. Let’s not be shooting stars. They sure look good, but they shine for a few seconds and later get relegated to National Geographic episodes. It takes a real sun to rise every morning – tear the clouds apart, chase the darkness away and say, “Sun, good morning, may I shine on you?” and do so every morning. Lets rededicate ourselves to our purpose of life with rejuvenated vigor. Let’s do, what we do best, a little better. Let’s not be terrorized by the losses of money and men. Let’s unshackle ourselves from the misery of cynicism and let’s free ourselves from being called the victims time and again.

C’mon India, It’s time to make that journey towards change. Let’s answer all the difficult questions together, and tell them… “Yes, we can……”

Wake Up!!!

"I have a dream..." exclaimed Martin Luther King, a few decades ago, and that sparked off a civil upsurge in the United States of America. Today, several years down the line, we celebrate the accomplishment of that dream!

A black man has claimed the white house!!! The son of a Kenyan father, who until just 4 years ago, was not even a senator, has today risen to stake claim to, arguably the most powerful constitutional position in the world!

How many people would have given this man, whos middle name reads "Hussain" the chance to be called "The President"? This shows that America has risen again, to the call of democracy by electing Barack Hussain Obama as their 44th President. This is a great testimony to the maturity, enthusiasm and great foresight shown by the American electorate. Brushing aside issues like name, caste, colour and religion they have reposed overwhelming faith in a leader who signifies Change!!

It is time India woke up to the qualities of mature use of the right to adult franchise as we too are faced with a General Elections soon. This race for the White House has thrown at us, certain significantly important learnings in operationalising a successful democracy. The most important of these lessons is the need for greater seriousness of the election campaigns. Both Obama and McCain campaigns were extremely praiseworthy, for having put forth the genuinely pressing issues which concern America today.



It is high time we learn from it & start talking "Real" issues. Our fracas for the "Son's of soil" need to be buried deep down the same soil. It is the economy, foreign policy, housing, inflation and the environmental needs of India which need a louder voice. Fiscal deficit, farmer suicides, reservations & quotas, infrastructural development and issues of social security deserve far more public debate and attention over the age old caste based politics which raises its ugly head time and again during the "Great Indian Election Tamasha"
We are poised at the threshold of global dominance. It's our time now, and we must not let this opportunity pass due to our callous approach towards politics and governance. Let us all get together and imbibe our collective wisdom in electing a young new resurgent Lok Sabha in the coming months which will put our nation on a robust path of sustainable growth.



We must also ensure the growth to be socially inclusive. Explore all possible public - private partnership opportunities and venture out bravely into various forms of social entrepreneurship. As I said, it's our time now, let everyone realise it. Today, the world is just emerging from a global financial crisis. We too are faced with some real problems at hand, and we need some real leaders who will help us solve these problems by giving us real solutions.



We do not want false promises or glorious sermons, we've had enough of it! We need action oriented leadership which will help us get things done... It's OUR time India.... WAKE UP!!!