Author: Suresh Dinakaran

DON a hue: Your thoughts on INTERPOL’s recruitment policy ?

Caveat Emptor: Written purely in jest with malice towards none and deep respect for all, living and demised. May relate only to people with one foot in the brave (or baby boomers, it’s contestable, respectable pseudonym!). If at the end of this(or well before that) so long a rant, you want to call out ‘ so long ‘, I will understand perfectly! It also hedges that the 1.8 people who will read this(after circumventing the social media algorithm), have seen the movie Don(the original one starring the Big B).

 

For the purpose of brevity, acronyms have been used as below:-
OS: Late Om Shivpuri (RIP)
PK: Late Pinchoo Kapoor (RIP)
Big B: (if you don’t know who he is, time to get a life!)
NI: Nariman Irani (RIP)
DS: Dileep Sharma (RIP)
May 12, Circa 1978. A typical summer day in Bombay. Oppressive, sultry, so much so, you wanted to send out the May Day signal. But, aborted the thought. And lived to see another day. Yours truly, with one of my best friends Nazir had set out as usual with wasted interests to do what we did best. Nothing! The breeze was stiff, so stiff, it refused to move. It was when our expectations were close to nadir, did we hear a call, from up above. No, don’t get your expectations that high- it was from the third floor of one of the buildings in our society and DS (one of the most amiable blokes you can find with a perennial smile and hockey skills that would have given Mohammad Shahid a complex) and through the thick foliage of the Mayflower tree directly under the building, we could see he was calling out to us from his bedroom window. He had two tickets to NI’s Don, Amitabh’s movie that had released the same day and asked if we wanted to go. Since he was not. If there was anything called manna from heaven that was it. Big B in two doses(if anyone wanted a masterclass on how to deliver suave with wow and awe, this was it): our excitement knew no measure! Thank you so much Chandra Barot.
The next thing we know we are gaping open mouthed as DS decided to fold the tickets and hurl it (what an inappropriate description for such a gracious gesture) down. Now, if you know anything about movie tickets of those days, they were not exactly printed on 350 GSM Hand Crafted Wood Free Paper. And if they are Lower Stall tickets( Not Balcony or Dress Circle as they were in the day), the paper quality reached a new low. Lower Stall for the uninitiated are seats that are very very close to the screen, sometimes so much so that you go beyond the screen and do an auto-rotate of your neck to discover new laws of concave and convex (apart from discovering that Amitabh could also be right handed and if it’s a double role it only added to the complexity). That being said, the two of us are now witnessing a descent of the tickets of unprecedented volatility- one moment sashaying as if Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie was playing in full blast and in another defying Newton and gravity as it decides to hang nonchalantly, stubbornly, mid air. In the midst of all these, we had one of those brilliant WH Davies moments (yes of the ” what is this life full of care “…fame) as we look awestruck at the mayflowers blooming in unabashed, glorious beauty on the society’s showpiece tree(also our controversial boundary indicator during cricket matches), which every May kept it’s unfailing date with it’s namesake. That ‘ moment ‘ of distraction (shouldn’t it be attraction?) overcome, we see the tickets land firmly on the road, which at that time would have made the lunar surface look like a green top billiard table.
Armed with the most prized possession of our lives, it was destination Topiwala ( not tirchi but the name of the movie house). Before I move on, letting you in on an inside story. During the late 70’s, there was a famous inner wear brand called Dawn( and without paying too much credo to phonetics, we all know even Don sounds the same) and it was only Mario Puzo’s Godfather that gave the word Don a sense of aura and passable respectability.
Enough preamble. Will segue into the constitution now. For those of who have seen Don, would recall the prominent characters from the movie. Big B apart, there was Zeenat, Pran, Iftekhar ( yes of the ‘ born to inspect ‘ lineage alongwith Jagdish Raj, Inspector for All Seasons and For All Reasons!), PK, OS among others. OS, BTW, is not another Operating System but Om Shivpuri as already indicated right at the beginning. And here is playing the role of a ‘ Responsible Interpol Officer ‘, assigned to crack the whip, as captain of the hip. Which didn’t lie. Or so we were made to believe!
Since our growing up days we held Interpol in great esteem. The world’s best International Police Organisation. It had an unquestionable aura. Even Balram wanted to enrol(not from the Ramayana but of Ram Balram fame) into the organisation. So did Pathankar. From Budhawar Peth. And Saini from Munirka. It had a cult like following. If Ajit had his way (just like he had with Mona, Michael and Shetty), Interpol would have been headquartered in the LOIN’s Den near Dongri but sadly it had to be Lyon, France. The jury is still out on that one. How you wish geography could be history!
Time to get serious as the next few paras are all about the interview process at Interpol and how OS got the plum(p) assignment for the roll, I mean role.
To begin with, after acquiring diligent espionage skills, we took a deep dive into the Psychometric Testing Questions that OS was put through during the recruitment process @ Interpol. Psychometric Testing as we may know involves numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, logical reasoning, personality assessment etc among others. Here goes:
Numerical Reasoning
Interviewer: Why do you think your breakfast has to be 12 Aloo Parathas?
OS: I always had a soft corner for having one two many. One and Two is 12. Hence..actually it’s a no brainer
Verbal Reasoning
Interviewer: In the fitness of things, what makes you so eligible for this role?
OS: Two and a half hours of jogging, 250 squats, 80 push ups and 45 minutes of planks…
(he gets interrupted before saying ‘ over the last 40 years ‘)
Interviewer: That’s incredible..
Logical Reasoning
Interviewer: What makes you ‘ different ‘ from other contestants applying for this role?
OS: My name is Vardan(with a V), that means blessing. I am actually a blessing(in disguise- in this case he was pretending to be RK Malik, the role played by Weighteran Actor PK, worth his weight in old).
OS(continuing in chaste Punjabi confidence): And mind you, I don’t have any Imposter Syndrome!
Personality Assessment
Interviewer: What is the one thing that determines your ‘ style quotient ‘ ?
OS: It takes two to tango- so, I am afraid I have two to share:-
1. People have bad hair days. I have a bad hair life.
2. People wear trousers around their waist and use a belt to keep it in place. I have higher ambitions. My trousers are a little above my chest(Sorry, if I am hitting above the belt!) and instead of a belt I use both my armpits to keep it in place. Giving G B Shaw’s Arms and the Man due respect!
As an afterthought he adds
3. Nobody can carry a pinafore dress with a toy gun from Crawford Market with as much I mean business swagger as I can.
That was the sucker punch. That landed on the right spot (yes, you guessed it- a little above the chest) and put OS firmly in the Interpol’s HR spotlight. Appointed with Immediate Defect. To them a new HeRo was born! That will play the perfect Villain.
OM SHADY OM!! It was the Don of a new era for Interpol!
ENDS

The Privilege of Working With Your Mind..

As they say ” The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven“.

 

Back in the day and throughout history, most people have had to do backbreaking labour, just to sustain themselves, with no hope of thriving. The perennial, relentless quest to move from day to day, meal to meal, to survive.

 

Today( and we are fortunate), we get to exercise our creative gifts, solve problems, and create value that none of our ancestors would have imagined(let alone a large percentage of the world’s population today).

 

As adults, we spend a lot of time talking about all the things we have to do:

 

You have to wake up early for work.

 

You have to make that sales call.

 

You have to prepare dinner for the family.

 

You have to go to your daughter’s dance show.

 

You have to work out today.

 

You have to write an article.

 

Now, imagine changing just one word in all of the sentences above.

 

You get to wake up early for work.

 

You get to make that sales call.

 

You get to prepare dinner for the family.

 

You get to go to your daughter’s dance show.

 

You get to work out today.

 

You get to write an article.

 

It’s important to remind oneself that the things we get to do each day are not burdens, but opportunities.

 

So often, the things we actually view as work are actually the reward.

 

Mind you, if you are reading this, you are among the top miniscule percent of a percent of people who have ever lived in terms of opportunity and wealth.

 

So, what are you getting to do? Game | Mind(set) | Match!!

 

ENDS

 

 

CAUTION: THE VALUE OF MARKETING IS NOT WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD IT IS

Let us begin with defining what Marketing is NOT!

Marketing isn’t the act of getting people to buy what you’re paid to sell them.

Marketing is about probabilities and likelihoods. It’s about moving people, both metaphorically and otherwise.

Nobody gives a flying shit about your philosophy. Write that in big letters above your desk.

“Brand purpose” is the first hiding place of bad marketers. We have seen enough and more of ‘ purpose washing ‘. People see through that.

Time to reconsider your tired email lists, sneaky retargeting and costly pre-roll ads.

Instead, reach for next-generation experiences that touch people’s hearts and move their minds.

Give your audience genuine human emotions: goosebumps — quicken pulses, and they’ll never forget you.

Marketing’s value has a different domicile unlike perceived and practiced. So, it’s not about where YOU are but where YOU should be.

ENDS

Curiosity Skilled The Cat!

Curiosity is that strange human trait that got us out of the cave, across the globe, and onto the moon.

 

A trait that has led to communication and  collaboration.

 

“Why” has the X factor! So, start with why!

 

Albert Einstein quoted that a mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size. All research, come to think of it is ‘ formalised curiosity ‘.
Doubt and inquiry are the two pillars of progress. Contrary to public perception. The things that pique your curiosity aren’t random. They will point you to where you need to go. There is a toss up between ‘ chasing happiness ‘ and  ‘ following your curiosity ‘. Learning a new musical instrument, going hiking or tapping into unchartered culinary exploration, maintaining a journal, going white water rafting.. anything unfamiliar that you can try your mind and heart at..can all take us out of the default and deliver a new , happier tomorrow. The GPS to get there is inside us. It won’t throw up on Google search.
There will always be reasons for coloring inside the lines you have drawn for yourself. It is heartbreaking to leave the cocoon of certainty and comfort and embark on a path never trodden. To step into the alien, unknown, where all things that never existed are created. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.
Curiosity could be a lust of the mind, so give into that lust. As Ian Leslie put it so succinctly ; ” Curiosity is unruly. It doesn’t like rules, or, at least, it assumes that all rules are provisional, subject to the laceration of a smart question nobody has yet thought to ask. It disdains the approved pathways, preferring diversions, unplanned excursions, impulsive left turns. In short, curiosity is deviant“.
Let’s move on. From Intel Inside. To Curiosity Inside!

So, what’s your story? I am curious to know.

 

ENDS

How about some B(r)agging rights?

On a recent trip overseas, I had some weighting to do upon landing at the airport, so decided( after the usual skirmish with sweat, suede and swear words) to be an inno scent  bystander next to the baggage carousel as it aimlessly(and somewhat harmlessly) went around in circles. Everything, Everywhere is about the circular economy( not the Oscars, by the way!). So, here’s the 360 degree on it, motivated by well, you guessed it- bags of time.
– The absolute nonchalance with each and every piece of baggage gets treated once it finds its (p)ride of place on the carousel has convinced me that the carousel is the only place in the world that is completely agnostic to brands. Tumi, Louis Vuitton, Delsey, Tommy Hilfiger, Samsonite, American Tourister, VIP, BOSS, Open Story, Away, Echolac, Safari…all came (and went) alike. The message was loud and clear. Rest in Piece…till such time your owner( or an imposter) gets a handle on you! Oh there goes my Safari and I am not able to get hold of it. So is it TATA to the Safari? That you can take the rough with the smooth?
-Nowhere will you see a better study in contrast. The bags taking its own sweet time to get to where it ought to, unabashedly relaxed, clinically unrepentant, approaching arrogance ( I am the BOSS here, you better give me the VIP treatment), do not intrude on my hammock style existence. On the other side, the owners: anxious, impatient, irritated, worried, chaos personified.
– The bags I tell you love drama (and some gymnastics as well). Every now and then they bring you to the edge as they salsa, spin and swirl but manage to stay on top of the carousel. That in the process they knock off a few socks from ankles( sorry, that’s the Malayalee in me) and uncles is a different story. Really edge of the seat stuff!
– The area surrounding the baggage belt is actually a medical practitioner’s delight. The ideal place to diagnose the following including but not restricted to : Slip disc, Parkinsons, Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Colour blindness…is it blue or green? (And the real owner sees red in the bargain). If you don’t mind, could you please help me offload the bag(read cargo) – I travelled light this time-it’s just 87 kgs( any more and she would have had to hire a cargo plane).
– Do you think the carousel is an ideal candidate for acute nausea? Imagine going around in circles, hour after hour, day after day- where does it begin? And where does it end? Flight or fight? Methinks its happy to be a spin doctor!
– So the next time you travel, carry XS baggage. Xtra Small. Give the carousel a break. Unless of course you want to see some Delsey, all at sea! BOSS it makes no sense TUMI! Weight- I will ask TOMMY– maybe HILFIGER it out! Or should it be Facebook? They have pretty good offices with the carousel, I dare say.
The journey is inevitable. Baggage..well.. it can be optional.

“Life truly is a journey, and the less baggage we carry the easier the ride.” ~ Wally Amos

 

ENDS

Power Fool!

The word ‘ oxymoron ‘ is itself an oxymoron.

 

It’s derived from two greek words viz ‘ oxus ‘ (sharp) and ‘ moros ‘(dull).

 

But this is not about ‘ oxymorons ‘. Hope that comes as a relief.

 

Have you ever experienced the ‘ power of giving away power ‘?

 

The myth that floats around is that ‘ if you let go off hierarchy, chaos will reign..or so many leaders believe ‘.

 

But the reality is that when leaders find the courage to distribute rather than hoard power, creativity multiplies, trust deepens and inclusivity expands..

 

..and a new kind of order begins to emerge. Where one can stand out and fit in. Both at the same time. Try it. And see the magic unfold.

 

That’s what is called the Constellation Mindset.. one which (metaphorically put), is about farming than hunting, it’s about being bottom up rather than top down.

 

Where each of us is a star and also connected to others to form something greater. As they say, the whole being more than the sum total of its parts.

 

That is how Visa reimagined how we pay for things..

 

..how Wikipedia beat the richest company in the world ( Microsoft Encarta) and..

 

..how Barack Obama and his grassroots team revolutionised political campaigning during his inaugural US presidential race.

 

All these leaders what most leaders dread- they gave away power.

 

The Constellation Mindset shines the foremost in some of the most impactful organisations and innovations the world has ever known.

 

And it encourages us all to see the power we can create by seeing and recognising the power in others.

 

And making the leap. To lead, TOGETHER!

 

ENDS

 

 

Is there a case to revisit the Case Study Method?

You bet!

 

Back in the 1920s, Harvard Business School(HBS) professors decided to develop and experiment with innovative and unique business instruction methods. As the first school in the world to design a signature, distinctive program in business, later to be called the MBA, there was a need for a teaching method that would benefit this novel approach.

 

 

Central to the case method is the idea that students are not provided the “answer” or resolution to the problem at hand. Instead, just like a board member, CEO, or manager, the student is forced to analyze a situation and find solutions without full knowledge of all methods and facts. Without excluding more traditional aspects, such as interaction with professors and textbooks, the case method provides the student with the opportunity to think and act like managers.

 

 

HBS professors selected and took a few pages to summarize recent events, momentous challenges, strategic planning, and important decisions undertaken by major companies and organizations. The idea was, and remains to this day, that through direct contact with a real-world case, students will think independently about those facts, discuss and compare their perspectives and findings with their peers, and eventually discover a new concept on their own. So far, so good.

 

 

In lecture courses, claimed a Harvard professor, students ” are waiting for you to give the ‘answer ‘ “. There is a built-in bias against action. What we say with the case method is : ” Look, I know you don’t have enough information, but given the information you do have, what are you going to do? “.

 

 

Consider a typical scenario. James is the CEO of MegaCorp Inc. What should the company do now? The professor and almost 90 of James’ classmates anxiously await his response to the totally ‘ cold call ‘- designed to ensure that students have prepared the case. James did give it a long thought. After all, he was told that the case study method is intended to ” challenge conventional thinking “. He has also been reminded that good managers are decisive, good MBA students must take a stand. So James swallows hard and answers the question.

 

 

” How can I answer the question? “- James begins. ” I barely heard about MegaCorp Inc before yesterday. Yet today, you want me to pronounce on its strategy. As is typical at Harvard, James was working on two other case studies the previous night, so he barely had a couple of hours to prepare on the MegaCorp Inc case. He had never knowingly used any of the MegaCorp products. Until the previous day he did not even know that the rat poison that he used on his basement was made by the same MegaCorp Inc. He had never visited any of its factories nor has been anywhere close to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘, where MegaCorp is headquartered. He has never spoken to any of the company’s customers(except of course himself). James says ” My previous experience(the little there was) took place in a furniture company. MegaCorp is a high-tech company and I am a very low tech guy. All I have to go by are these few pages. This is a superficial exercise. I refuse to answer your question “.

 

 

What happens to James? At the business school, I will let you hazard(?) a guess. But from there James moves back to the furniture business, where he immerses himself in the products, the process, the people. And with his courage to be decisive and with an appetite to challenge conventional thinking, James rises to the position of the CEO. There with hardly any ‘ industry analysts ‘ at all, James and his colleagues learn their way to a strategy that transforms the furniture business.

 

 

Meanwhile, John, who is sitting next to James in class jumps in. He too has never been to ‘ You Never Know Where, Newfoundland ‘. But that doesn’t stop him.He makes a clever point or two and gets that coveted Harvard MBA. This gets him into a ‘ prestigious consulting firm ‘(surprise..surprise), where as in those case study classes, he leaps from one situation to another, each time making a clever point or two, concerning issues he recently knew nothing about, always leaving the firm before implementation (action) begins.

 

 

As this kind of experience rolls in, John doesn’t take far too long in becoming the CEO of a major appliance company.(He never consulted for one but it does remind him of that MegaCorp case study). There, after downsizing( it’s fashionable you see) a few thousand unsuspecting Human Resources, he formulates a ” glitzy high-tech strategy “, which is implemented so to speak, through a dramatic program of acquisitions.  What happens to that? Guess again!!

 

 

Readers (of the book ‘ What they Really Teach You At Harvard Business School ‘by Philip Delves Broughton) are probably asking , ‘ Read the case and do that analysis in two to four hours?’ Harvard’s answer is YES. Students need to prepare two to three cases each day..so (they) must work toward getting their analysis done fast as well done well.

 

 

Some years back, HBS ran an ad in The Economist for its executive education programs. It had a dapper, uber smart looking executive-woman saying, ” We studied four companies a day. This isn’t a theory. This is an experience.”

 

Sorry. This is nonsense.

 

 

There was a book released in 1990 called ‘ Inside the Harvard Business School ‘ by David Ewing, for long, an insider. The first line of the book makes a sweeping statement ” The Harvard Business School is probably the most powerful private institution in the world “.  The book listed 19 Harvard alumni who had made it to the very top, the school’s superstars as of 1990.If you took a look at the post 1990 records of all 19, to see how they fared, there was only one word to describe it- BADLY. 10 of them clearly seem to have failed(meaning their company went bankrupt), they were forced out of the CEO chair or a major merger backfired, or the like. Performance of another four appeared to be very questionable. The other five seem to have done fine.

 

 

To conclude, most MBA students enter the prestigious HBS or similarly profiled hallowed Ivy Leagues smart, determined, aggressive. There, case studies teach them how to pronounce clearly on situations they know little about , while analytic techniques give them the impression that they can tackle any problem- no in-depth experience required. With graduation comes the confidence of having been to a proper business school, not to mention the ‘ old boys ‘ network that can boost them to the top. Then what??

 

Begs the question!! Case Study or Case Unsteady? Ready. (Case) Study. Go !!

 

ENDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being An Employee Of Our Own Myth!

We are all frauds.

 

Creating is hard for every last one of us( including those from the allegedly superior Aryan race). Yes!

 

Coal mining is harder. Do you think the miners stand around all day thinking about how hard it is to mine for coal? Certainly not!  They simply dig.

 

Throughout life, you collect data points or dots. And you probably don’t have a clue as to how these dots will connect in the future. As Steve Jobs said, you can connect these dot only by looking backward. But you have to collect them moving forward.

 

Without the mistakes we make, the decisions we regret, and the experiences that didn’t live up to our expectations, we would be woefully short of material and ammunition for our creative work. These things are all ingredients for your soup, material for making meaning and creating art.

 

The creative life, just like the creative process isn’t linear. We don’t know how each of our life experiences will impact us down the road. With each step forward, the landscape differs, the view changes, and the most insignificant experiences of our lives at the moment can serve as the most informative ones in our future.

 

Our creativity is not something that someone can give to us or take away. It’s always something within us. Happily domiciled. Whether it’s the degree we earn or the job we hate,  every experience provides us with seeds to plant for the stories we tell.

 

Life doesn’t pause to make room for our precious creating time.

 

” There is an unknown room in the soul that is constantly turning the stuff of daydreams into myths for us, helping us to get at meaning we can’t get to through the front door “- Phil Cousineau

 

ENDS

FIED and TESTED!

If judging others constitute full time employment, most of the world is a well employed place 😄.

 

‘ Fied ‘ can fall into these three buckets.

 

Qualified means that you have done the work, earned our trust and get invited to join us. You get a seat at the table. More than ever, our current technology and the lack of gatekeepers mean that your body of work could earn you the benefit of the doubt and give you a chance to speak up.

 

Disqualified is what happens when you over promise and under deliver. Or, if you expose intent that is not in alignment with what the rest of the world needs or expects.

 

Unqualified is rare. It’s at a premium. As in ” you have our unqualified support ” . Getting the benefit of the doubt long after most people would lost our trust is a hard-won privilege. It’s hard to earn unqualified support, but, if you do, make sure and be careful that you do not waste it.

 

The worrying trend is that too often even before we begin looking at skill, we’re judging people for other reasons. That’s wrong and wasteful as well. Being confused about what makes someone qualified or not perpetuates injustice.

 

That’s a race to the bottom.

 

“Judging others is easy because it distracts us from the responsibility of judging ourselves.”

 

Stop judging how far people still have to go. Start celebrating how far they’ve come.

 

 

ENDS

A Sorry Tale!

Sorry comes in two variants. Choice architecture anyone?

 

And often times, we ‘ miss the wood for the trees ‘.

 

” I am sorry your dog died ” does not mean that you killed the dog. Not at all.

 

” I am sorry I tripped you ” does mean that you tripped some one.

 

In creating connection and trying to make amends, we often get confused by the two kinds of sorry, and hence don’t apologize because we think that the problem wasn’t our fault.

 

” The homepage of our relationship cannot be currently displayed because of a server error. Can we please click on the refresh button and start all over again? I am sorry “.

 

Sorry doesn’t take things back, but it pushes things forward. It bridges the gap. Sorry is a sacrament. It’s an offering. A gift.

 

One of the hardest things you may ever have to do in life is to deliver an apology. A true and sincere apology offers real regret and remorse for our actions, and carries a promise that we won’t do it again. It means acknowledging our faults, taking responsibility for the things we have done wrong, and opens a dialogue between two people. An apology, when correctly given and sincerely meant, can create deeper and more trusting relationships.

 

An apology is a good way to have the last word. And the first to move things forward. And make a relationship last.

 

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway–Henry Boye

 

ENDS