The three states of thinking: an insight from Bhagavad Gita

                                                     

After writing a wide range of blogs on the Middle Eastern business scenarios, the author now attempts to write something right out of the realm of spirituality. This blog deals with the “Gradient of Thinking” and has been greatly inspired by “Inner war and Peace”, a book by Osho. “Inner War and Peace” is an insight from “The Bhagavad Gita”, wherein Osho has tried explaining the conversations between the reluctant Arjuna and his enlightened master Krishna. Through the conversation and the explanations that follow them, Osho has elucidated the root cause of pain and anguish of the Contemporary Man.

The blog elucidates on the three states of thinking: Thoughtlessness, Thinking state and No thought. The blog will give a general introduction to the given states along with an overview about how the characters of the Grand Epic Mahabharata fit into them.

Thoughtlessness: This is basically an animalistic way of thinking, where an individual is unable to judge between the right and the wrong. He is blinded by his burning desires and something that we refer to as “the darker side”- ego, arrogance, lust and vengeance. He loses his power to think. Instead of being thought-oriented, he is simply driven by his instincts. The actions taken by such individuals are generally dissimilar from the usual thought process, which is often implemented by normal individuals. A notable point here is that, though definitely a state reflecting animalistic thinking, thoughtlessness is a state of peace, since individuals do not go through the usual trauma of thinking and analyzing, it is devoid of customary anxieties and anguish which thinking brings. In the Mahabharata, the character of Duryodhana is a classic example of a thoughtless person driven by a deep desire to destroy the Pandavas.

Thinking state: This state lies between the state of animalistic thoughtlessness and the divine state of no thought. Moreover, this is not a state; it is rather a bridge between these two. From this state of thinking, man can either fall down into the chasm of thoughtlessness or he can move up the ladder of no thought. This is a state of anxiety and restlessness, because, from here man does not want to go back to the state of beastliness, but he is also unable to transcend  the given state and conquer the state of thoughtlessness. This state, which is somehow a state of dilemma, is very much rooted in a man’s ego. Though it may not be state of egomania, a thinking man’s state of mind revolves around his ego and he tries to decipher every situation or every act in relation to himself. The reluctant Arjuna before the battle is a perfect example of a thinking man.

No thought: On the gradient of thinking, this is the ultimate state, a state of pure consciousness. In this state the individual transcends the state of normal human thinking and goes beyond the chimera of self. Unlike the thoughtless state, in this state the absence of redundant thinking does not arise out of some ignorance or illusion, but out of the self consciousness and enlightenment. Such state is guided by spontaneous actions, without the prying of mind. Here, in this case, lack of thinking means complete freedom. Often our thinking is not free and is influenced by n number of factors such as habitual partiality, surrounding, upbringing, mood etc; but in the godly state of “No thought”, it is just an outcome of pure consciousness. Nothing else has an influence. Though every individual has potential to get into the shoe of no thought, it is very tough to attain. It requires a lot of deliberation, meditation and practice. Krishna, the incarnation of the super power himself is an symbol of “No thought”.

One important point to be noted over here is that that every day as individuals we pass through all the three stages of thinking. There are times when we are pure beast and instinct driven thoughtless creature, whereas at times we struggle with our individuality, with our angst, anxieties and frustrations and, there are times when life moves as effortlessly as pure consciousness.

Now in the following part the author will be placing various characters from the epic Mahabharata across the various parameters of thinking. For better understanding a graph had also been plotted below:-

Duryodhana: King Duryodhana is a perfect exemplar of a thoughtless individual. A symbol of sightless ambitions, Duryodhana was so obsessed with his hatred towards the Pandavas that he just wanted to obliterate them. Even when lord Krishna offered him the proposal of offering five villages to the Pandavas, instead of having a war, he rejected. In spite being a king, he hardly ever gave a thought to the large scale of imminent destruction, which the war could have brought. Hence he had been put at the lowest position of thoughtlessness.

Bheema: Bheema was the counterpart of Duryodhana. A man known for having strengths of many elephants, he was a pure brute force. Like the thoughtless Duryodhana, he had taken the oath of killing all the hundred Kauravas. For Bheema war was a passion, where he could have proved himself. The thoughtlessness of Duryodhana and Bheema gets reflected from their predilection for war. War always brings a large deal of bloodshed and destruction and ends into myriad individual tragedies. Only thoughtless individuals, devoid of the ability to comprehend such destructions, find them engaging.

Karna: The symbol of philanthropy, Karna was without doubt one of the greatest characters of Mahabharata. But the reason of placing him next to Duryodhana and Bheema was his vengeance and deep desire of taking revenge from Arjuna. Sometimes as individuals, we are so obsessed with our hatred towards that one single person, that our power of judgment is lost. The same happened with Karna. He wanted to prove his superiority over Arjuna at any price and in order to fulfill this, he didn’t think of the cosmic destruction that the war would incur.

Arjuna: The great archer Arjuna is perfect exemplar of a thinking man. A man filled with anxieties and anguish arising out of his attachments to the materialistic world. Arjuna’s anxieties before the war were quite natural, given the fact he was going to engage in a war against his own relatives. The war of Mahabharata seemed to be a part of the divine will and stopping it was beyond Arjuna’s capacity, but as an individual he had the freedom to resent, freedom to show his reluctance and this was the source of anxieties in him. Like the other three characters mentioned above, Arjuna was insulated from any kind of deep prejudice or blind thoughts and hence as a normal individual, the entire war seemed merciless, brutal and bloody. He was foreseeing the massive tragedies that would follow after the war.

Bheesma: Having divine origin, Bheesma was one of the characters close to the no thought state. Bheesma was also not in favor of the war, as it was known to him, that it will create a lot of bloodshed. Moreover since he was very attached to his family, seeing his own family members fighting with each other would have given him great trouble. But at the same time, he knew that the war was evident and cannot be stopped. Hence, he accepted it as a part of the divine will and agreed to fight the war on his conditions. He was somehow detached to the final outcome of the war and was just fighting it as a call of duty.

Krishna: Krishna is the perfect symbol of divine consciousness. In contrast to other individuals discussed above, Krishna had gone beyond the state of thinking and reflection. Being a person of pure divine essence, he existed as a completely detached and egoless individual, understood the futility of thinking and hence, believed simply in pure action without being involved in meaningless thinking and reflection. Krishna’s actions were never a reaction, In fact, in a no thought state, one never prefers reacting, because reaction arises out of attachment. When someone is hit hard at his point of attachment, he reacts back. But for someone like Krishna, having the understanding of the whole universe, reaction can never happen. Such people just prefer responding to different situation, without getting attached to them. For Krishna, the war of Mahabharata was not a war for fulfilling some inner desire, nor was he worried of the outcome. For him it was just a normal activity, where he was suppose to deliver his duties.

Reference

1> source of the image: bcswami.com

The Arab community: what they have and whta they dont have

Well the author has reached united kingdom for his student exchange program and beside enjoying the English autumn one very important purpose he is having is to interact with the international community and to have a first hand experience of their culture, beliefs and their strengths and weakness with respect to the global business framework. Today the author is going to write on the Arab community:-

Strengths
1> Relationship based business: In the Arab world relationships matters the most. In contrast to their European or American counterparts where two negotiation parties have the tendency to shoot directly to the main agendas, the Arabs give a lot of emphasis to relationships. Business is never discussed initially. Initial time is always devoted to relationship building and once the relationship is built business follows. In the Arab world gestures have a great importance, customs and tradition play a very important role. And it is these gestures that do help a lot in building relationships.

2> Good negotiators: Arabs have always been traders. Trade had been the life line of Arab economy, as a result of which it had been seen that they are not only good sales man but have great knack for negotiations too.

Weakness
1> Continuous hardworking ability is missing in them: in contrast to their other counterparts they do not have the ability put continuous effort. They do put a lot of effort when needed, but cannot continue it for a longer period of time and this is something that really kills there prospect as strong professionals. In the modern world of business sustained effort is really needed if one wants to succeed. For this flaw of there even the Arabs can't be blamed completely. lot of credit goes to the environmental factors of the Arab world also. The weather had always been hostile in the arab land.So it had been some how tough for them to continue putting hard work. More over economies of countries like Bahrain have relied on stuffs like Pearl, fish etc. For these things one does not need to put continuous effort. One needs to work hard only when needed and then after the harvest can rest for large time.

2> Lack of awareness in brand building activities: Though the Arab world is really growing very fast but still when it seems as if they are not yet very well versed with modern business practices. One of them is there disinterest towards long term brand building practices. When ever the Arab invests in some brand building activity they want a very quick result. But practically this is not the possible. Modern brand building takes a large amount of time. It's not something that can be done in a very small time.

(Views here are based on the authors own understanding of the Arab people, his readings on the Arab world and his interaction with people who have worked in the Arab world.)

Book review: In Search of Excellence

                                                                         
Today the author attempts to write the review of one of his best book ever. A book that escalated his
interest in the world of management like anything.

INTRODUCTION


In Search of Excellence (here after referred as ISOE) written by two management consultants Tom Peters and Thomas Waterman is among some of the best written management books ever. The book has been among the best bestsellers in the world with more than 3 million copies sold worldwide. It was written by surveying 43 best companies in America. The fundamental idea of the book was to find out what drives excellence in a company. What is that common factor which is common in all the top notch and top performing company? The story of writing the book is also very interesting. In 1977 McKinsey director Ron Daniel launched two projects; the first and major one, the Business Strategy project, was allocated to top consultants at McKinsey's New York corporate HQ and was given star billing. Nothing came of it. The second 'weak-sister' project (as Peters called it) concerned Organization - structure and people. The Organization project was seen as less important, and was allocated to Peters and Waterman at San Francisco. Peters traveled the world on an infinite budget, with license to talk to as many interesting business people he could find about teams and organizations in business. He had no particular aim or theory in mind. But after the conduction of the in depth analysis Tom tried to prove that it is not systemized philosophies, high level of no. crunching and bureaucratic systems that make a company great, it’s the so called soft sides such as culture and people that makes a company great. In a way ISOE was an attempt by Tom to refute the ducker’s principles of management that heavily relied on systematic frameworks. The essential message of In Search of Excellence is very simple:-

• People


• Customer


• Action

Main ideas of the books:

The book is based on the 7s framework of “Mckinsey”:-

• Structure


• Strategy


• Systems


• Shared values


• Skills


• Style


• Staff




The book is fundamentally divided into eight chapters. After their conclusive study the authors found that there are eight parameters that are always very important for a company’s success.

1. A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control

2. Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.

3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.

4. Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.

5. Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.

6. Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.

7. Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.

8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.

The best part of the book is that the top 43 American companies are from various backgrounds. These companies include IBM, McDonalds, Caterpillars, 3M, and Walt Disney etc.

The common theme of the book is that it is the kind of culture and shared values that are built in a company are actually responsible for its success and profitability. The book puts huge emphasis on building a culture of innovation. It strictly says that the world is changing (the world here means the business world) and to survive and constantly deliver in this chaotic world it is very important that modern companies should innovate and evolve constantly. Until unless the innovation factor is not there it is very hard to grow continuously, but innovation in itself is not very easy. It is such a dimension that needs to have a very strong culture to support. A culture that isn’t dependent on any particular but on a set of factors. It talks about giving more and more freedom to people, who are in line jobs, who are more close to customers. Because it is these people who are at the front, a CEO dressed up in a resplendent suit may not know what is happening in the field very soon, but the field worker who remains at the market for most of his time can get the glimpse of changes very soon and so it is very essential that authority and freedom must be given to him. Because until unless he will not have this he cannot deliver the message to the upper echelons. The book also has a great message to the top executives of the firm. The book suggests them that they should also try to be visit the field and rather than always getting restricted to their glass chamber they must assign some days of the year where they can directly visit the field and can have a firsthand experience of what actually happens in the field. For this the book gives the example of Walt Disney where the bosses are supposed to visit the field at least once in a year, they are supposed to be dressed as cartoon characters and they greet various customers. These kinds of experiences always make top management close to their customers and help them understand the general psychology of their customers. It also states that the most successful companies are those companies that promote their employees to innovate. Even in the entire process if the firm loses some money they really don’t care much. Additionally when it comes to innovation it’s not essential that innovation will be driven by the top team of scientists only, it can even be driven by normal workmen working in the floor. To strengthen this point the book has given example of companies like 3m which known for coming up with a very high no. of innovative products every year. The book takes a critical view on the “Bean Counters”(Bean Counter is the term used for top B-school graduates in the time of 60’s and 70’s in America, they were highly systematic in approach and used a wide range of numerical tools .) The book is not very supportive of the stands taken by the bean counters. Bean counters were known for doing a return of investment analysis for everything that was done. According to the book such an approach might look sophisticated in the beginning but hampers the qualitative aspect of a company in the long run.

Conclusion

The book is wonderful read that has its own unique flow. The best part of the book is the maverick approach followed by the authors, anyone who has a penchant to do something unique and to think of a situation with a non stereotypical approach, this book is a must read. The book is highly inspiring and very systematic in approach. It’s among the very few books of its time that had tried to consider the “people factor “and “Culture factor” in the success of a company. Another important strength of the book is that it is based on the fundamentals of solid research rather than assumptions.

Though like any other good piece of work it has its regular flaws too. The book primarily focuses on companies that have American origin. The time when the book was written lot of Japanese firms were also rising but hardly any focus is given upon them. Secondly many of the things that the book talks about are in general vague in nature and cannot be described very easily. The book also does not have any analytical tools as such.

But all in all the book is a great read and can be read by all sorts of people such as corporate, Entrepreneurs, Managers, students and general readers etc.

Anxiety can drive to experiment something new in life

The up coming blog that I am going to write will basically deal with the positive side of anxiety, so far lot of negatives have been said on the anxiety factor, and frankly speaking being anxious is a very uneasy state of mind, though it is neither painful nor torturing as such but it creates such a chaos in your inner world that every thing seems to disturbed, any ways this not the point of discussion, the point of discussion is that this state of inner volatility can also do a great good provided if it is used in a proper way .This state can really motivate you to take new resolutions in your life and to implement something new, some thing more positive in your life .

At first it might seem a bit counterintuitive that how come there be a relationship between anxiety and taking a new resolution .But there is a fundamental relationship between them . As human beings we all suffer with some sense of incompleteness and incompetency and we do want to remove it, we always make plans to take something new in life but unfortunately most of the times it gets restricted to planning only .We hardly implement in practice, the reason being the underlying pattern of our habits which is so deep in us that we do not find it easy to break this down .externally we might have some sort of angst with us but internally we are habituated with the way we live and are with complete peace with us ,internally we do not want any change . Now the good part of anxiety is that it creates a lot of inner turmoil, suddenly the so called equilibrium that the mind had created comes to a crash .we start doubting ourself,suddenly we are at some unease with our self, the so called habitual set up that was developed by us disintegrates temporarily. Now this period of temporary disturbance is the most fertile ground for doing some thing new,in this situation of chaos of yours there is no predetermined habitual inclination to stop you from doing some thing new , in anxiety you get the freedom to start any thing new .(In fact rather than freedom it is more of a need , you really want to do some thing new to pacify your anxiousness , to suppress your uneasiness)

The point that has to be taken care of is that anxiety can get you started but after that to continue some thing for a long period of time you need a decent amount of self discipline and dedication .Once the dose of anxiety goes down old habits will like to come back but with a lesser vigor , at such time you need to be a bit more patient and cautious . You need to be committed towards your new found practice for a while, after that over a period of time this new commitment of yours will become a habit and both you and inner being will be used to it .

So next time when ever you suffer with an attack of anxiety don't panic, rather try to use this opportunity for some better purpose .

Mahabharata & new age Managers

                                                                      
In the upcoming blog the author will try to describe five different types of new age managers based on five extremely vibrant characters from the Indian epic Mahabharata.

1> Duryodhana:- Duryodhana defines blind ambition, the ambitions of Duryodhana was so high that he was almost mad about it. To make things happen he was ready to go to any extent. Managers of this category are irrationally ambitious, and to fulfill there ambition they are ready to stretch to any degree, they have huge amount of energy and to achieve success they can cross any line. Though they have tremendous amount of energy like Duryodhana but such they are often very anxious, arrogant and tough to deal with.

2> Karna:- After Duryodhana the another most vibrant character from mahabharata was Krana, though born with divine origin Karna was born and brought in a low caste family and due to which he was always humilated. He was deprived of his true honor, his ego was hurt at every stage of time and as a result of which he developed a great craving for his ego. Whatever action did he take was taken to satisfy his suppressed ego.Even the high degree of morality and philanothropy did he show was nothing but an after effect of his ego fulfillment desire. Manager under such category are completely ego driven, they are self recognition oriented and whatever they do, they do by keeping themselves in centre. Since such managers are recognition seekers they often make themselves efficient and capable with continuous effort self motivation.

3> Arjuna:- Whether it was Dronacharya or lord Krishna Arjuna had always shown 100% devotion, it was this devotion and focus that made Arjuna one of the finest archer in the world. The manager of this category like Arjuna are extremely devoted and focused. Whatever they do , they do with full commitment and devotion. As a result of this devotion they excel in every field whether study or professional world. Though devoted there is no guarantee that they will be loyal to a particular industry for a very long time,but for the time being are with a company will remain devoted to their job. They are quite predictable and are often a bit boring in their social life.

4> Yudhisther:- Though moderate in his abilities Yudhister is the most morally upright and ethical character of Mahabharata. Managers of this category are not highly efficient "moving on the razor's edge" kind of managers but are always ethical in their approach and are inclined towards CSR kind of activities. Though they don’t live very glamorous life but do command a moderate amount of respect.

5> Bhima:- Bhima was one of the most powerful, energetic & also one of the most casual, careless and aimless character. Managers of this category are extremely talented but are like unguided missiles. until unless they don't channelize their energy nothing much can be expected from them, their energy is more of a burden rather than an asset.

Two Misconceptions that Marketers often have

                                                                              
After coming back to TAPMI the author underwent such a heavy schedule that hardly there was any time left for the blog, but today since there is some spare time the author will like to write a very short blog on two very acute misconceptions that generally marketers have.

1> Considering your personal perception as sacrosanct:- This a very big mistake that many a times marketers do. As individuals we have the tendency to put a lot of emphasis on our personal opinions and then based on our personal opinion we generalize each and every stuff. One must understand that everyone is different and if decisions are made on a single person's opinion then that might end up in blunder, having said this it doesn't mean that a marketer should not be guided by his instinct and opinion but it should always be confirmed with a larger set of people.

2> Being aggressive:- Being an MBA student himself author has recognized the fact that among many MBA students and in many industry circles there is a misconception that marketing and aggressiveness goes hand in hand, and if one wants to succeed as marketer then he needs to be aggressive. In the author's opinion the reality is just the other way round, a marketer should never be aggressive, because nothing can annoyed a customer more than an aggressive and dominating marketer. One must be very down to earth, calm and composed while dealing with the customers. A small amount of aggression might work but it should not look obvious, one must understand that as long as the deal is not finalized the customer is the king and nothing should be done on the part of marketer that might make his future customers feel uncomfortable.

How to Brand yourself among your peers: Few Innovative tips

                                                                     
As management students and working professionals we need to continue our job along with huge bunch of peers. Directly or indirectly our professional life is influenced by our peer group. So it’s very essential that we should maintain a strong brand value in the eyes of our peers. Today in this blog the author will attempt to write a few innovative measures that can help individuals in maintaining a strong brand value in the eyes of their peer. Having said this ,the author will like to clarify that the basic rules of individual branding such as hard work, crisis handling abilities , Socializing abilities ,dependability etc are extremely important for maintaining a good image in the eyes of your peers but along with them if the following few tips are followed then it will be of great help .


• Never try to show off your superiority in front of your peers. This can hamper your brand value like anything. In fact fundamentally one should not even think that he is superior than his peer group . The reason being very simple, a group of peers constitute a set of individuals who have more or less same dimensions of competencies and their cannot be much of a difference between two individuals who share the same professional space.(let’s say two management student studying in the same college, only difference that can happen is that one might be good in one stream and the other might be in something else. So your unwanted bragging of yourself or showing off of your attitude will not do nay favor other than putting the general opinion of your peers against you.

• Having said this does not mean that you should not try to project your positive side . Whenever you feel that there is an opportunity where you can deliver never miss the chance. But again be cautious, only be active where you can be active, don’t try to snoop into stuffs that are not your cup of tea, because that might give you the tag of attention seeker.

• You might have a very interesting idea and you are extremely passionate about it, but before shooting it out in public just think once , is the mass sitting around equally passionate, are they going to take it with interest or will they be reluctant to hear it. One must understand the fact that whenever one speaks something publicly he is using his time as well as the time of others. So it is very essential that one must consider the interest of others. Neglecting the given idea can give you the tag of a bugger.

• Avoid being a rebel. Being a rebellion always sounds fascinating and inspiring, but these things work only in the novels of Ayan Rand. In practical life generally being too rebellion does not work.

• Always try to do few things that can be of common interest to your peers. Example let’s say there is a confusion among your peers regarding the pay appraisal policy of the company and you have got a document that explains it elaborately then rather than keeping it to yourself it is advisable to put it in a public folder or send through a batch mail .This can boost your image like anything.

• Along with regular intellectual stuff that one does ,one must also put equal amount of efforts in general routine stuffs, events, and activities that keep on happening in the work place. Not only the intellectual stuff that one does but also these sweat drenching stuffs are also very obvious in the eyes of your peers. So there is no point neglecting them.

5 Socialzing tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

                                                                 

                                                           
If you are an aspiring Entrepreneur then the following piece of writing might be of some help for you .The author has written few points which might be helpful for someone who is an aspiring entrepreneur ,in making strong as well impactful networks.

1> Try to meet more and more no. of  people.

2> Your acquaintance must include people from all kinds of socio economic sphere:-

• Rich & big shot people who has the potential to make big investments in your business plan.

• Govt. officials/employees who can use their positional power in warding off various issues that a start up might come across such as paper works, legal hassles, registration etc. If not in winning contracts then can at least help you in including your name in the govt. tenders.

• People such as lawyers, add agents/media people, furniture shop owners, electrical appliances shop owners etc. Whatever kind of start up one might be contemplating these are the basic few services which are needed in all. So having such contact is always helpful, if it cannot get you things in free then at least can give you some discounts which is always of great help given the fact that initial stage of a businesses are always associated with resource crunch.

• Have good contacts with creative people so that if needed some kind of their help can be availed.

• Also have good contacts with people from lower strata of society, because for a venture not only creativity and capital is needed but also brute labor is required, so such contacts have its own use.

3> Whenever you are meeting a big shot you need to be very cautious, beware of the fact that you are meeting your future investor. Try to take care of the following points:-

• Don’t speak much, do not interrupt in between, but do not also mum, speak when it is required.

• During any such conversation if you think that you can be of some use to the man then without hesitation offer your service, if some remuneration is offered after the service deny it amicably.

• Listen to him patiently(even if you feel he is bugging or bragging too much be patient)

• While leaving ask for the visiting card and while receiving it show humility and respect.

• If possible immediately add the person in some social networking account of yours. Do not buzz him too much but try to interact with him at regular interval of times. Always greet him on special occasions like anniversaries, festivals etc.

4> Coherence of political idea:- While meeting someone if you find there is a coherence of political ideology between both of you leverage this as much as you can. Try to discuss with him on these stuffs. No bond in the world can be stronger than the bonds of political ideology (provided both of you are really about it.)

5> Stuffs such as Cigarettes, drinks & foods (in decreasing order of their effectiveness) are also of great use in socializing with people.

(Views here are personal and since the author is just an MBA student he might not be an expert in dealing with such stuffs, but based on his personal observation he had tried to explain his opinion. Any additional information from the side of the readers is welcome.)

Hypocrisy of Indian IT Companies

                                                                                                                                  
Well the author today intends to write a blog on a very common practice followed by most of the  IT companies in India.Almost all the Indian It companies follow the practice of making new joiners sign a bond according to which if the joiners quit the company before a stipulated period he/she should give a lump sum amount to the company. The logic often used by the IT firm is that since firms spend a huge amount of money on training fresh entrants the company has the right to fulfill the loss which it incurs due to premature departure of the employee.

Today the author will like to write a blog against this practice or rather malpractice of IT companies in India,Before presenting his view point the author will like to clarify that the topic is not based on some managerial analysis but on some philosophical ground whose inspiration comes from the holy spirit of Globalization & liberalization that intends to create a more fair,balanced & liberal market space.

The logic which is being put by these firms are pretty simple , since a huge amount of money is invested on individual training,so it is the right of the firm to make up that loss in case if someone quits early.Now let me ask if a company goes to a college, recruits someone and if the person after attending the firm for a few days does not feel like continuing shouldn't he be given the freedom to leave the firm without any constraint. Why the hell should this bond amount come into picture.Is this what globalization & liberalization teach us? Is this liberty?The very basic principal of globalization & liberalization is freedom ,freedom from every kind of draconian legislative rules that were once imposed,freedom from exorbitant taxes,freedom from regulations ,from high rate of custom duties,stiff labor laws, bandhs and gheraws. One must know that this freedom is not only for respective firms but also for respective employees because freedom cannot be a one way tool of human exploitation but an prevalent idea of human development. If globalization calls for flexible labor laws and supports hire and fire policies, it must also support giving basic freedom to each and every soul to hire and fire an organization. What is wrong if someone goes to a company and leaves it prematurely. It has to be his/her individual choice,one can leave the company for any damn reason,that might range from simple disinterest to availability of better opportunities. But why should he be forced to pay the bond amount.If he has to pay the amount then it simply means that in a liberal word a big company who has got strong clout in the pockets of power has the right to exert his independence but not an individual who is just a pawn in the game of exploitation often disguised as a free market economy.
In U.S also such bonds are there but there the bonds are two way bonds were if the employee leaves a firm prematurely he is suppose to pay a amount but even the other way round is also true where in case an employee is fired the company is responsible to pay an amount to the employee.Such systems are always valid since it gives equal rights to both that is the company as well as the individual.But how come the Indian way be a valid way where the entire rule system is biased towards the company with individuals having no right of his own.
The company often claims that the reason of such bond is the recovery of huge amount money that the company invests on the training of employee, now the author will ask do they spend such huge amount for mere charity purpose?They spend because of their own need, Spending in the recruitment and training is the basic necessity of the firm, so there is no reason to cry foul if some of the amount invested cannot be recovered back. It must be taken amicably ( as demanded by the holy spirit of globalization and liberalization.)

The reality is that no matter how much these firm cry in the name of globalization and liberalization but in reality these hypocrites still have sweet shop mentality. For them free market makes sense only when some govt. policy has to be annulled, only when flexible hire and fire policies have to be put in place, when land has to grabbed at lesser price to build factories and offices,when tax rates have to be reduced.When the same spirit of free market will demand something from them they will prefer running away.

(Views here are personal but the author wants that the gravity of the matter must be understood sooner or later so that public opinion can be gathered against it as soon as possible. One more point that the author wants to clarify is that though this malpractice is present in other industries also but since the author has a brief work ex with an Indian IT company and has a personal experience with such malpractice the term IT company is used.)

Few Traits & Skills :A Manager should have

                                                                                                             
In any industry in order to succeed a manager needs to have a sound domain knowledge but other than this also their has to be a few important traits which are really important if one wants to excel as a manager. These are -

1. Computer/Internet Skills :- A manager must be extremely comfortable with the computer and must have thorough command in various tools like power point, excel, word doc,Gjavascript:void(0)oogle doc etc. Active participation in various social networking sites will be an added advantage .

2. Able Communicator :- He/She should be an able communicator with neither too aggressive nor too submissive kind of persona .A manager must have a pleasing behavior and should always be in a position to communicate the required idea smoothly & convince some one amicably .A good English is more or less a must but knowledge of additional languages will always be an added advantage .

3.Should be Action Oriented :- along with thinking & making plans he must have the zeal to put things in action. ( Mind it this is the most important trait because Planing - Action = Shit )

4. Inclination for reading should be their :- There is no need that a manager should be an avid reader but he must be in practice of regularly going through the latest happenings on and off the business world, few domain specific or interest related websites , one or two magazines . Following a few good blogs, reading some inspiring autobiographies along with some good management books will be a nice add on .( But beware of too much of reading , that might hone your thinking abilities at the cost of putting stuffs into action.)

5. Should not have a very anxious personality :- A manager needs to go through a lot of chaos and ups downs in his course of action, there fore chances of anxiety creeping in is quite high . Now a small degree of anxiety is always helpful in giving a positive push , too much of anxiety will definitely hamper efficiency & decision making ability .

6. Should have some Quantitative approach :- Though their is no need for a manager to be a nut cracker in Maths ,but a mathematical approach is surely a winning trait. A manager must have the ability to observe a qualitative idea with a quantitative frame work

DISCLAIMER :- ( Views here are personal and based on the individual understanding of the author , The author has just finished his 1st year at a B-School with almost no prior work-ex and may not hold the prime authority to give judgment on some thing like this .)

Use of social networking sites for evaluating candidates

This might look weird in first go but social networking sites like orkut and face book can be used as a wonderful tool for judging and analyzing potent candidates for senior positions .

Social sites like face book and orkut can give a hell lot of information regarding one's prospect candidates for senior positions .In social networking site like orkut there are options of joining various communities( since i am not a face book user till now i donot have much idea on this ),there are myriad communities available in orkut ranging from communities on fashion and life style to communities based on politics ,religion , business and others .Generally every individual has a tendency to join some communities of his taste where he can chat and share views with like minded people and also gather some valuable information .Now suppose a company wants to recruit for some senior position and it wants to judge its potential candidates on various parameters, though to make this happen it can rely on the candidate's past experience along with a thirty minute face to face interview ,though they may give some valuable insights regarding the professional behavior of the candidate but still it is n't sufficient in judging the overall personality of the candidate .When it comes to hire an employee for a senior position it is not just the professional behavior that matters but various other things like political inclination, hobbies ,interest are also important and cannot be discounted ,it is tough to evaluate these things just on account of a thirty minute face to face interview ,to know your candidates better interviewer can rely on social networking sites like orkut ,it can go to the interview's account on such sites and can see the various communities the he has joined.To join a community you need to first search that community, then you need to visit the required page,then there happens to be a join option where you need to click,immediately after this another message will appear asking you whether you really want to join this community or not and after replying in yes, finally one becomes the member of the required community .Thus though the entire process does not take more than 3 minutes but if in this fast moving world one cares for giving his 3 minutes then it surely means that he has got some inherent interest in that particular stuff with which the community deals with. Suppose if someone is the member of a community namely "NO MORE COMMUNISM " ,then it surely means that he has some sort of aversion for that communism , or if someone is a member of too many music related communities then then it can be guessed that this fellow is a music buff. Thus with the help of communities (along with some degree of deductive logic) a lot of things can be found out regarding your candidate.

Though this method is as effective in recruiting for lower ladders as for higher ladders but currently it is more practical in using it for high profile recruitment only, in low profile recruitment where recruitment is made in huge bulk and where specific skill set is required from the employee rather than a very diversified one this method will simply end up wasting a great deal of time with out giving much of desired results.

Though a very innovative and wonderful tool in itself it has got it's own flaws:-

1.Some times people join a community not out of love for it but out of hate or differences.Exp:- you might join a community called America not out of love for Americans or America but just to debate with other America lovers regarding your difference in opinion

2. Some times one might join a community not out of some sheer interest but just for some show off.

3. This method can be used as a wonderful supporting tool but too much of reliance on this might not be very effective.
rather than relying on it completely what interviewers can do is that they can get a rough sketch of their prospective candidates with the help of such tools and then based on this sketch a proper face to face interview can be taken to reaffirm the sketch .

NEW PARADIGM OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIP IN INDIA IN THE FACE OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

Introduction:-Industrial relationship is a field which basically deals with the relationship between the management and work force. like any other field of social science it has been subject to change since its inception, initially labor was thought just as a mean for production, and the idea was to exploit it to the highest degree possible, this kind of mindless exploitation gave rise to militant unionism, strikes and gheraos .With time it was realized that that labor is not a resource to be exploited but an ally to be utilized in a proper way to achieve higher goals and gradually there was a change in the dynamics of industrial relations. In present scenario when the Indian economy is globalizing very rapidly followed by the massive influx of technology, capital and ideas the dynamics of Industrial relationship in India again calls for a paradigm shift. One fifth of all those born between 2007 and 2030 will be an Indian. By 2030, India will become the biggest source of labor thereby attracting a huge degree of investments from the global market.[1] Under such a scenario, Industrial relations in India will require major changes to streamline itself with the needs of vast globalization. This change has to be implemented from both sides that is from the end of management as well as from the end of labor force so that it can become a win- win situation for both, along with the growth of the nation.




Paradigm Shifts in Negotiations:

As we know that globalization is followed by huge investments of capital, technology and ideas, so one of the major aspect on which globalization survives is Competitiveness. If India wants to leverage its potential in the classic age of globalization, Indian companies need to be highly competitive. This competitiveness has to be shown in every aspect of the organization ranging from innovative measures to process alignment to efficiency of workforce. If the workforce will remain unsatisfied, and will exert means like strikes and gheraos, then productivity will be hugely affected and a lot of man-hours will be lost along with incurring bureaucratic costs to deal with it. Practically speaking, modern Indian industries simply cannot afford this kind of wastage. So the new Industrial policies call for minimizing to a large extent this unwarranted loss. To have almost a zero rate of such activities is easier said than done. Given the kind of history Capitalism has, this neo-Capitalism will have some sort of inclination to exploit the labor force which might create unrest in the workforce. They need some means to address their grievances. For this they need to design such intelligent ways which will not only solve their problems but will also avoid man-hour loss. An excellent example would be the case of strikes in Japanese shoe factories where if the workforce has to protest, they simply don’t go for a strike as their Indian counterparts, but they produce shoes for only one leg. Once their grievances are addressed, they produce the shoes for the other leg to complete the pair. Thus during the time of their so called strike, they hamper the sales of the company temporarily, thereby gaining the attention of the top management, but the best part is that once their problems are resolved it doesn’t lead to any man-hour losses and the company doesn’t lose out on its Competitive advantage.


Paradigm in Labor rules:

Globalization calls for flexible labor rules with hiring and firing as a norm. So our labor rules has to be flexible enough to give proper room to the process of rapid hiring and firing, so that the industry may not lose out on its competitiveness. But at the same time, the industry also has some obligations towards its employees. One beautiful aspect of Globalization is that it generates a lot of new and diversified avenues for employment. With the help of ample technical knowledge as well as soft skills, anyone can leverage on it. What the industry needs to do is that it should keep on innovating as well as providing the required training for its workforce. This will not only ensure better opportunities for a fired employee to search for a new source of employment but will also help in the productivity of the company. One important point to be noted over here is that since globalization calls for flexibility in hiring and firing, it has to be played on a level ground where the rules are same for the employer as well as the employee. Generally it is often seen in Indian IT companies that before hiring an employee the company signs a bond with the new recruit, according to which if the employee quits the company within a particular time period he needs to pay a bond amount. Such kind of practices are not only highly biased against the employee but are also a mis-fit in the world of globalization. If a company has the right to fire an unproductive employee for reducing its losses, so should an employee have the right to switch from one company to another smoothly for his individual growth.



Paradigm shifts in Reporting Relations:

To gain a high degree of efficiency in a globalizing economy it is vital for the Indian industries to have a workforce that is highly motivated and which sees an alignment in their personal interest and the goals of the company. This can only be done when employees have a say in the decision making process as well as vital functions and processes. This can be implemented with the help of an organic, non bureaucratic and informal structure that does not differentiate between management and the workforce and facilitates smooth flow of information from the workforce to the management. This will not only result in psychological satisfaction (as important as economic satisfaction)of the work force but will also have a lot of positive impact on the industry itself. One of them could be the detection of changes in the market. As we know that globalization is always accompanied with a great degree of frequent changes, so it is imperative that such changes be detected as soon as possible so that the proper course of action be followed. It is not the top management but the common workforce which has the direct link with the market that detects such changes. But unfortunately due to mechanistic and bureaucratic structure, the information doesn’t go upwards which in some cases might end up in huge losses. An example that supports this is the “Sony Way”, which encourages the product engineers to ‘self promote’ in the company by seeking projects in different departments of the company where they feel can contribute more and hence promote the flow of ideas in the company.[2]



Paradigm shifts in managing cultural diversity:

Unrestricted flow of labor is one of the pillars on which globalization is based upon. Today mainly we see outflow of labor from India. But with time we should be ready for considerable amount of labor inflow also. So far our industrial relation policies are not accustomed to deal with a diversified workforce, with varying backgrounds in geographies, culture and thoughts. So we need to adapt our industrial policies in view of these demographic shifts. Our policy should be modified in such a way that it can accommodate workforce from various geographies amicably and can extract the best out of each of them. Since the philosophy of India has always been Unity in Diversity, this will not be a very tough task. So far we have dealt with our own regional diversities, now we need to deal with diversity across borders.



Conclusion:

Along with China in this coming future, India has a very crucial role to play. India has the potential to be benefitted hugely by not only outsourcing but also by other models of globalization such as off shoring and global sub contracting model. Right now the world perceives India as a destination where the forces of globalization can play a constructive role that will not only boost Indian economy but will be in favor of the world economy as a whole. The basic reason for this is the cultural aspect of India (which has always been the melting pot of various cultures), the democracy of India, secularism of India, sound fiscal policies and last but not the least, the huge amount of Indian workforce which is not only very talented but also economically viable. We should also consider the fact that Indian economy can be benefitted not only from the influx of capital and technology, but also from the influx of the global workforce and innovative ideas in the near future. But to make these things happen a very vibrant, flexible, unbiased and technically sound workforce is needed. But at the same stage of time to fulfill these above objectives regarding our workforce we also need a very flexible, vibrant, unbiased and knowledge friendly industrial relationship. As we know that the forces of globalization as well as industrial relationship are mutually dependant, we need to design our industrial relationship policies in such a way that not only we are in a position to strike a beneficial deal for ourselves, but can also fulfill the expectations of the globalized economy.


REFERENCE:

1). Organizational Behavior – Robbins, Judge and Sanghi , Pearson Publications

2). Organizational Theory, Design and Change – Jones and Mathew – Pearson Publications.

3).The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman

4).Kautilya Today – Jairam Ramesh