“Never give up. Put in all your efforts and continue putting your efforts, solutions to problems will arise. There is always a price for any effort – it is called ‘desired results’, in commensuration with the effort” – Norman Vincent Peale.
Persistence does pay dividends.
Category: Deep thoughts
Three types of BUSY people
In your professional life (and many a times in your personal life) you would meet three sets of people:
(i) Really Busy: These are the folks who thing attending every meeting is important although his or her inputs cares for less, their ego is high and correlates with power they think they have, zero time management skills, cannot prioritize properly, do not spend time even with team members, mostly operate on control and direct basis etc.
(ii) Acting Busy: These are the most insecure folks who think that if you do not act busy, you are considered unimportant. So, they would pull all excuses to not have time with you – very hollow thinkers, very jealous of colleagues, just exist because they are there at that place.. unfortunately, I would say 75% of the folks you see would belong here
(iii) Busy but..: These are the best folks you need to work with. A boss or colleague who spends time with you, gives priority to you and the team, remembers your name or face and what you do and what you did, very secure in their position and collaborative, their expertise irreplaceable, excellent in working with people and guiding them. and able to prioritize the right work. These are the folks who gets mentioned in separate posts by Individuals as a role model. Very rare but they do exist.
How to give a professional reference?
Giving a professional reference to anyone whom you worked with should be identical to giving an eulogy for someone dead – it must be heaped with praises and specific events to highlight the best thing the person has done. Same rule applies for the retirement speech for anyone as well. Never give a reference to anyone whom you have not worked with long enough to highlight their strength and achievements and be very specific about what you say. Keep the language simple (not verbose) and talk about impact. Be good on what you write and keep it crisp and short.
Lack of success is not failure
Recently read: “Lack of success is NOT Failure. But lack of trying is.”
Nadal, Djokovic, Federer are all Tennis greats – they play to win and compete well, but they do not win every time they play. Messi and Ronaldo are again soccer greats – they play mesmerizing football but they do not win all the time. IN 18+ years, Tom Brady won the NFL 6 times(SuperBowl titles) for Patriots – not every time, and he got them almost all the time to the Division title. Not every ball that Glenn Mcgrath bowled got a wicket nor did Sachin score of every ball he faced- but they keep at it. That is when they become LEGENDS. Be in an individual or a team, it about attitude and diligence to play the game and work harder – keep on trying and persistence pays dividends. Let not success get to your head.
Gather stakeholders before you fight
” Never engage in a fight you are sure to lose. Bide your time and strike back only when you are in a position of strength” Stieg Larsson.
Almost all businesses operate this way. While biding time , they get powerful stakeholders to gather strength. If you are alone and believe in yourself, then collaborate and compete. If your ego is the only one guiding you, then start praying.
Are Aggregators just living the moment?
It is the Uber and Ola that have come to influence us getting a cab nowadays. Or a Grofers to put the nearby grocery store together and offer you delivery at some minimal discount. Or a Zomato or Foodpanda who have their collection of restaurants that you can order from. Or a Redbus to help us choose from various operators for travelling by bus. Even some e-tailers are just marketplaces!
Who are these folks? Do they have any assets at all? These are the new breed in business circle called “Aggregators”. Putting it simply, they put everything in one umbrella for the customer to search and order but they do not own any of the assets, be it the cab or the restaurant or the grocery store. In old times, not very long ago, we called them “Brokers” who operates on a commission or the Middleman to facilitates trade – unfortunately however you call them, they do operate on commissions and being in their nascent stages of business, they throw away the venture capitalist’s money in terms of discount to acquire more customers like you and me. And overall this is similar to the ‘bazaar’ concept where many traders are lined up to offer their goods to customers like us. At this point, they are not held responsible for the quality products being offered by them, be it a rude driver, or a bad bag of rice or food poisoning. So add ‘no responsibility’ as well. What a way to do business – no assets, not answerable for quality(in a way), no products of their own except an app, no engineering development in them except for some web developers (which they can outsource) and purely only a marketing organization.
This is all great for the customers now(personally, I am smiling) , but in the long run, once they get into some sort of monopolistic mode, they do have the power to increase price and take us for a ride (literally, yeah, with Ola and Uber). Possibly. But my own feeling is they cannot. Gone are those days that any company can last that long and not morph quickly through acquisitions or other growth areas, because the technology is growing so fast they either have to adapt or perish. Some other new guy with a newer business model would eat their lunch shortly… stay tuned.
Who is monitoring the driver if he had not got his required sleep of 8 hours – what happens if a tired driver is at fault? Who is monitoring the time it takes to deliver food for you or its quality? Who is tracking the part if the nearby grocer is getting rid of old stock (but not expired yet)? The Answer is No One. You can say “reviews”, but we all know how the reviews are done. If you happen to pay the ‘premium service’ to these aggregators, your reviews is always above 4 out of 5. If not, you are finished. It is somewhat like media – they chase after TRP and not deliver the news without bias.
They say an Ola cab driver makes about a grand a day in India. He would be making the same amount even if he had not opted for Ola but he has joined Ola which would keep him busier.
Why cannot the Uber and Ola have a stricter licensing law for the drivers – give them a stringent test both on the road and on road rules, and only if they exceed the standards, they are allowed to continue. Pay their insurance premiums for comprehensive and third party liability to ensure protection of the customers. And check the condition of the car every six months and ensure they go through proper maintenance process. These are some of the value adds these aggregators have to do to differentiate from others – they do not seem to want to do this. So, sustaining this business model is going to be hard especially if you are living on venture capitalist money and not making any profits for years together. And the differentiation between like companies is none – there is no USP that they can boast – if someone adds a new feature, immediately the next guy follows with something better. The same situation exists even for e-commerce players here. Certainly all these companies would not be Buffet’s babies! But keep these coming, as we are ready for the RIDE as long as it lasts, LITERALLY.
The Author is a business and strategy consultant and a corporate trainer based out of Bengaluru, India.
Companies are accountable for transportation of their employees
Even if companies outsource meals & transportation, they would be held ACCOUNTABLE for anything that goes wrong in them, they cannot escape the noose. The vendors would be held RESPONSIBLE but still accountability belongs to the companies who outsourced. Remember that, there is a legal angle to it – responsibility vs accountability.
Having said that , I see lots of IT and manufacturing folks who enjoy the transportation facility not correcting their drivers for errant and rash driving – they seem to be unconcerned about the same. As long as they do not bother about traffic, they are fine – this is the sad attitude of the travelers. As a CSR initiative, ensure all the drivers have a proper license that is readily available for passengers, and reinforce proper driver habits regularly. If your driver is wrong and caused an accident, accept it – do not enlist the support of the passengers for your wrong doing.
Constant monitoring by health inspectors of the cafeterias should be done independently, and disclosed in public as a certificate every month or quarter for hygiene reasons.
Get accountable , companies – try not to escape from them. Do not turn a blind eye to bad food, unhygienic cafeterias and to rash and negligent driving. #CSR #accountability
Answer the Questions
” By doubting we are led to question; by questioning, we arrive at the truth. – Peter Abelard”
I do not understand why we Indians getting offended if someone asks too many (relevant) questions? I see lots of folks saying ” you are asking too many questions”. Just because lots of unknowns are there in the situation and one needs clarity the queries are being asked. What is known to you does not need to be known to me or others. We do not ask enough questions to the management as we just wag our tails and keep quiet. We do not question the Tempo driver for driving rashly seated in the company owned bus? Why? Why Not? A High intellect usually likes to answer all the questions, however stupid they are. It speaks a lot about you when you try to avoid questions and not question enough if there is a need. Do not close your eyes when something is happening around you that needs to be questioned (unless the ones surrounding you have big weapons!). “Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom. – Chip Bell” #questions
A Soldier wishes for ‘tomorrow’
The best gift for any soldier is “a tomorrow”. That is what they would want the most. First seek a tomorrow, and then a great tomorrow. Believe in the tomorrow and make a great day today so you deserve a greater day tomorrow. Yesterday is too late, today and tomorrow are your best bet – stay healthy and safe, and ensure you make something good out of any tomorrows.