Long time no blog. Guess studies sapped creative side of me. The one year passed not sure what I achieved out of this program....Business vocabulary and learnt some tools.... Many here are talking of Return on Investment but I am not sure whether it is measurable for me or not....It has been really difficult time to stay alone in a country like UK. Living in western countries I felt has its own advantages and disadvantages as it comes from living in any country. Sometimes you understand and appreciate value of what you have when you go through real tough times. But it has been really wonderful to see many different aspects of life and how different people and nationalities perceive things.
Life comes with its own kind of problems, challenges and benefits whenever you make a big change or enter into a different phase of life. That’s what I am feeling at this crossroads of life.
I am uncertain about my future career plans. I am looking to get some job in London post mba.
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Reading Branson's book 'loosing my virginity'
I started reading this book and found it an intresting read so far though read only 50 pages so far. The guy himself is a real ecentric. .His media image matches with what he has written in the book. I personally believe diversity of experiences you go through is a major factor in making you what you are. Branson was very poor in acedmeics because of dyslexia since childhood. He mentions that because of this he has to train himself to concenterate and also this makes him more intuitive. He excelled in sports and must have learnt importance of team work from there. He is an adventurer and has gone through some near death experiences as in his trans atlantic balloon flight. He says," I am lucky to be alive". Someone like him would have no fear of failure and that could be one of the reasons why he successfuly started and running so many different ventures.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Change in Generic Strategy of L.G.
L.G. seems to be seriously trying to adopt a 'differentiation' strategy than 'cost leadership' or 'me too' strategy in the indian and world market. L.G. recent advertisments ( the one related to 'ultimate seduction') also tries to send more differentiation message than any cost related signal. L.G. has also dropped 'Abhishek Bacchan' from his brand ambasador in the India. I think they will not go for any brand ambasador in India as most of the stars/icons in India are associated with so many brands that they do not project the right aspirational values of a product. It would be interesting to see the marketing strategy adopted by LG in the coming year....
Saturday, 14 June 2008
It is the best of the world, it is the worst of the world
India is a conutry of paradoxes. I came acoross this para in World Bank Report (2006) about India. This resonates with my experience of India.
The top students from the Indian Institutes of Technology are not just globally competitive, they have set the global standard. Yet, many, if not most, children in India finish government primary schools incapable of simple arithmetic. While there is increasing "medical tourism," where people travel to India for high-quality, low-cost medical treatments—the typical Primary Health Center doctor in Delhi is less competent than doctors in Tanzania. India’s Supreme Court is justly world renowned, but local courts are backlogged and ineffective and local police are frequently a miasma of corruption and brutality. Similarly, in economic performance, while parts of urban India compete for business in software engineering and biomedical research, parts of rural India have poverty rates comparable to borderline "failed states," such as Haiti and Nigeria, and have child malnutrition rates higher than any country in the world.
I think we need some innovative corporate strategies and political policies to have a long term sustainable inclusive growth...
Friday, 13 June 2008
The Intelligent Investor
Warrent Buffet had described the book 'The Intelligent Investor' written by Benjamin Grahman as best book written on investing so far. I was happy to see this book available online. Thought I would share the link with you. The book can be accesses on this link: http://www.investinvalue.com/0/value.php#intelligentinvestor
Thanks. Hitesh
Thanks. Hitesh
Failures and I..
To me failures mean different result than expected or desired.Failures have been an integral part of my life. Since my childhood I have been failing in almost everything I have aimed to achieve. Some of the failures have been really painful. I have also aimed higher everytime I have failed though unintentionally pushed by some internal instinct.
To be ctd..
Friday, 23 May 2008
Poor services in India
In last two and half weeks after arrving from London, My experience of services provided to customers in India has been very bad. Naturally I am comparing the services over here that are provided in UK economy. I do not want to sound cynic but just want to point out so that it could increase the awareness and lead to some improvement. Even at the big brands name like Crossword, Shopper stop, Costa ..services provided to customers are consistently inconsistent and poor. Like Crossword, they said that I can not return anything unless it has some manufacturing defect. At Vishal Garments, three differet sales man told me three different return policies that too after being inquisitive. If I bought anything in discount offer from Vishal, they would not take it back. At Costa, Hot coffee was served like cold coffee. Coffee day AC was not working. Mcdonald seemed like sabzi mandi last Sudnay at GT. Reliance Fresh is so poorly managed , I prefer any day to buy vegetables from local vendors. SBI branch waited half an hour for a person to arrive at his desk and after that being told to come after three weeks to receive my Debit card pin..
I think all this is because we are not demanding consumers. we would fight with local shops and vendors and bargain ..but when it comes to big brands we just let them exploit us..We are so blind in associating ourselves with big brand names that we even forgot to claim our basic rights.
I think, this chalta hai attitude needs to be changed here in India...
I think all this is because we are not demanding consumers. we would fight with local shops and vendors and bargain ..but when it comes to big brands we just let them exploit us..We are so blind in associating ourselves with big brand names that we even forgot to claim our basic rights.
I think, this chalta hai attitude needs to be changed here in India...
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Movie..'tashan'...
Watched movie 'tashan' yesterday....loved it..but I do not know why there were only less than 5 % sits filled up in the hall. Further, the movie had done bad at box office and all the reviews were bad.
I think its becoming quite common these days atleast with me that reviews of good movies are bad. In my opinion, reviewers of movies do not look at the creativity. They are too much into jargons.
The way language use has been improvised shows that how much command Indians have over English language. Without a good knowledge of language you can not play with it..
I enjoyed the movie and would love to watch it again...
I think its becoming quite common these days atleast with me that reviews of good movies are bad. In my opinion, reviewers of movies do not look at the creativity. They are too much into jargons.
The way language use has been improvised shows that how much command Indians have over English language. Without a good knowledge of language you can not play with it..
I enjoyed the movie and would love to watch it again...
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
After effects of Jaipur bomb blasts..
hey..Many friends and family were so concerned about me after they came to know about Jaipur bomb blasts...it is really wonderful to know that there are some people who are so concerned about me..thanks very much for their concern..so nice of you all..
Though many friends n family called /message me up. But, most striking was one of my Pakistani Friend 'Faisal' and another Chinese friend 'Dorothy' called me up to enquire about my well being.Some other friends from London emailed me... It was bit emotional. That you are loved by so many that I come to their mind when they hear about Jaipur through BBC...really love has no boundaries..Also, I feel, its not religion, its not countries..but it is the very few people who are to be blamed for all these gruesome acts...
I went to Gaurav Tower 830 PM around 14 May. There was hardly anyone over there. That was bit shocking. Though I went out but it was very different. There was some fear inside my mind n heart. Terrorism won one more time.
Hitesh
Though many friends n family called /message me up. But, most striking was one of my Pakistani Friend 'Faisal' and another Chinese friend 'Dorothy' called me up to enquire about my well being.Some other friends from London emailed me... It was bit emotional. That you are loved by so many that I come to their mind when they hear about Jaipur through BBC...really love has no boundaries..Also, I feel, its not religion, its not countries..but it is the very few people who are to be blamed for all these gruesome acts...
I went to Gaurav Tower 830 PM around 14 May. There was hardly anyone over there. That was bit shocking. Though I went out but it was very different. There was some fear inside my mind n heart. Terrorism won one more time.
Hitesh
Leadership Reflection..based on Leadership conference at UH...Post 2
Day 1:
Team and Creativity event:
When I first entered the plenary room, the class strength looked much more than usual. Usually I sit in the middle or end rows. As I was late and strength was quite good, most of the chairs seemed already occupied except few chairs that were quite close to the consultants. I sat almost opposite to Simon. Since Simon and I were sitting quite close to each other, we exchanged lot of eye contacts and nods. When he said that we are going to work as a temporary learning organisation. I was bit unsure what does he mean by that. Though, I did not ask him that. After few minutes, he said, if you have any questions so far, feel free to ask. I asked him though with great hesitation that what does he mean by temporary learning organisation. I felt confident after asking this question. This confidence carried along with me throughout the event and I never felt like hesitant in speaking and airing my views during the whole event. In retrospection, I feel, my argument that day with Zareen, Israna and after that, my being late and sitting directly opposite to Simon had some sort “butterfly effect” for me (Stacey, 2007:190). I believe my experience of this event would have been much different had these two incidents not happened.
After that, when Simon asked us to stand on a continuum of 0 % to 100 %. I and Zareen were quite close to each other on that line. I thought, I and Zareen would fall in the same group. I did not want that as I thought it would lead to some more heated arguments between me and Zareen. I was feeling very vulnerable at that moment and was thinking if she comes to same group as I was in, it would lead to lot of chaos. Simon applied some more combinations to form random groups and I was not in the same group as Zareen was in. It is quite strange to me why these thoughts were coming to my mind and how I was consciously and unconsciously trying to choose which group I want to be in. It is sounding bit "eerie" to me at this moment. I could make more sense of my behaviour after coming across Tuckman’s model of group development. Tuckman’s model of group development suggests there are five stages of group development namely, forming, storming, Norming, performing, adjourning. Formation is the stage that characterised by the diffidence and shyness among the group members. I was bit anxious about the group members I would be working with. I felt much better when I knew the members of my team. As I came to know about other team members I had some feeling of belongingness to each other. There was a sudden transition from the state of anxiety and confusion to a more comfortable state when I came to know about other team members of group 3 for the video preparations team work.
In my view, ours (group 3) was a very happy and productive group. We had a good discussion about transformation leadership but our video and presentation was not really that good in my view. Tim was our team’s consultant. I found his presence bit uncomfortable in the beginning but I think, after some time, I became used to his presence. Simon was also coming and going in between the discussion. That was very irritating for me. I did not really understand what he was trying to observe in those 2-3 minutes he would sit in and listen to our discussion.
I feel I took leadership roles in the beginning as I tried to facilitate discussion but I was making some sort of conscious choice that I do not want to dominate the group. I think, it was also sort of an unspoken rule that no one would take out rightly leadership position. I see two reasons for this. One is that Group 3 was discussing transformational leadership and it was a belief that in this type of leadership no one attempts to dominate the group. And, second, is that in the beginning when Lanre said that the group should appoint a leader, I said if the group appoints a leader in the beginning, it might happen that we would all look up to him for all the ideas and approval rather than coming on some group consensus. My point of view was bought by the group and the group moved to discussion and never bothered to appoint the leader again. Though, once the task of shooting a video was done, group members felt that in the end we required a leader who could guide us through.
Reflecting on why I did not agree on appointing a leader, I think, It is because of my belief when someone is appointed as a leader, other members would just listen to what leader is saying and follow the leader rather than also expressing their own opinions and giving a challenge to the leader and his ideas. I believe more in everyone expressing their own opinions and based on reasoning and argument, it should be decided how a task should be done. Now, I feel, it is very idealistic sort of situation when all group members are expressing their views openly and participating with enthusiasm. In my experience, almost every group I have worked with some members would be more knowledgeable and dedicated to task than others and usually these people emerge as a leader, some would do work honestly when they know what is suppose to be done , and some would try to contribute in some superficial manner.
In group 3, there was lot of confusion about what the task is and how the task should be done. I wanted to do something more creative and challenging. But, I went along what Andy had suggested and everyone in the group agreed to this. Though, I did mention that I am with the group on this task but this task is not very motivating for me. This prompts me to think why I did not resist the idea of making a video on a change program. This could be because Andy is a part timer and I had not spoken much with him earlier, and subconsciously, it is possible that I could not strongly oppose to him as he was quite senior than me. Another reason that I neither had motivation nor energy to take this challenge of making some creative video. I am not sure but this could also be because we were all thinking of group cohesion and togetherness that resulted in a bad decision making termed as “Groupthink”. Janis (1972) defines Groupthink as "a way of deliberating that group members use when their desire for unanimity overrides their motivation to assess all available plans of action." Schafer and Crichlow (1996) further argue that faulty decision making has its roots in leadership style, traditional group procedures, and patterns of group behavior. I think, in group 3 leadership style, group procedures and pattern led to a faulty decision making.
Once the video part was done, the consultant, Tim, gave us some remark about the ‘generation gap’. What I understood from Tim’s remark that there were some subgroups in the group. One was of more experienced, older sub group of Andy and Debby. I think, to some extent, Tim was correct that Andy and Debby supported each other’s ideas quite often. I also felt that my ideas were supported a lot by Naznin and there was some sort of pairing between me and Naznin. This pairing could also be because we are quite appreciative of each other’s style of working and how we go about our studies of Mba.
Regarding presentation, I was really not interested in presenting. I did not really understand what the video was all about and I was feeling very tired. I encouraged Naznin to present and even supported her to present on group’s behalf. I also told her that it would be a good learning experience for her. She agreed to present with Andy. I think, Debby supported Andy that he should present. Andy was a natural candidate to present as he was the one who suggested the situation of the video and everyone assumed that he would do a good job on this. It is interesting to me to reflect and see this pairing behaviour going on between me and Naznin and in other subgroup Andy and Debby.
After all the presentations were done, I and even most of the other participants appreciated the video and presentation on controlled styled of leadership concerned about efficiency and rationality. I feel the message was so clear in the video what kind of leadership they were showing. The video was also made very creatively and roles were well played. In my view, it is also probably because it is so easy to understand this kind of leadership and the group who received this task had a clear advantage as far as understanding the style of leadership is concerned. I even mentioned this during the reflection session on presentations. In our group, we were not sure for first one hour what exactly transformational leadership is and who are role models of this kind of leadership. We thought of Ricardo Semler and Steve jobs as kind of transformation leaders. Richard Branson name also came up. First, we were not sure how this kind of leadership can be represented and second, we were confused how our role models show this kind of leadership. When I think of this, it is no surprise to me that other groups’ could not do well in task of making a video on the theme of transformation, task, and distributive leadership. Regarding this one of my friend’s remark I still remember. When I asked her after the videos were made and before the presentations, what is distributive leadership. She was in the group who was given distributive leadership task. Her answer was that I just don’t know.
Team and Creativity event:
When I first entered the plenary room, the class strength looked much more than usual. Usually I sit in the middle or end rows. As I was late and strength was quite good, most of the chairs seemed already occupied except few chairs that were quite close to the consultants. I sat almost opposite to Simon. Since Simon and I were sitting quite close to each other, we exchanged lot of eye contacts and nods. When he said that we are going to work as a temporary learning organisation. I was bit unsure what does he mean by that. Though, I did not ask him that. After few minutes, he said, if you have any questions so far, feel free to ask. I asked him though with great hesitation that what does he mean by temporary learning organisation. I felt confident after asking this question. This confidence carried along with me throughout the event and I never felt like hesitant in speaking and airing my views during the whole event. In retrospection, I feel, my argument that day with Zareen, Israna and after that, my being late and sitting directly opposite to Simon had some sort “butterfly effect” for me (Stacey, 2007:190). I believe my experience of this event would have been much different had these two incidents not happened.
After that, when Simon asked us to stand on a continuum of 0 % to 100 %. I and Zareen were quite close to each other on that line. I thought, I and Zareen would fall in the same group. I did not want that as I thought it would lead to some more heated arguments between me and Zareen. I was feeling very vulnerable at that moment and was thinking if she comes to same group as I was in, it would lead to lot of chaos. Simon applied some more combinations to form random groups and I was not in the same group as Zareen was in. It is quite strange to me why these thoughts were coming to my mind and how I was consciously and unconsciously trying to choose which group I want to be in. It is sounding bit "eerie" to me at this moment. I could make more sense of my behaviour after coming across Tuckman’s model of group development. Tuckman’s model of group development suggests there are five stages of group development namely, forming, storming, Norming, performing, adjourning. Formation is the stage that characterised by the diffidence and shyness among the group members. I was bit anxious about the group members I would be working with. I felt much better when I knew the members of my team. As I came to know about other team members I had some feeling of belongingness to each other. There was a sudden transition from the state of anxiety and confusion to a more comfortable state when I came to know about other team members of group 3 for the video preparations team work.
In my view, ours (group 3) was a very happy and productive group. We had a good discussion about transformation leadership but our video and presentation was not really that good in my view. Tim was our team’s consultant. I found his presence bit uncomfortable in the beginning but I think, after some time, I became used to his presence. Simon was also coming and going in between the discussion. That was very irritating for me. I did not really understand what he was trying to observe in those 2-3 minutes he would sit in and listen to our discussion.
I feel I took leadership roles in the beginning as I tried to facilitate discussion but I was making some sort of conscious choice that I do not want to dominate the group. I think, it was also sort of an unspoken rule that no one would take out rightly leadership position. I see two reasons for this. One is that Group 3 was discussing transformational leadership and it was a belief that in this type of leadership no one attempts to dominate the group. And, second, is that in the beginning when Lanre said that the group should appoint a leader, I said if the group appoints a leader in the beginning, it might happen that we would all look up to him for all the ideas and approval rather than coming on some group consensus. My point of view was bought by the group and the group moved to discussion and never bothered to appoint the leader again. Though, once the task of shooting a video was done, group members felt that in the end we required a leader who could guide us through.
Reflecting on why I did not agree on appointing a leader, I think, It is because of my belief when someone is appointed as a leader, other members would just listen to what leader is saying and follow the leader rather than also expressing their own opinions and giving a challenge to the leader and his ideas. I believe more in everyone expressing their own opinions and based on reasoning and argument, it should be decided how a task should be done. Now, I feel, it is very idealistic sort of situation when all group members are expressing their views openly and participating with enthusiasm. In my experience, almost every group I have worked with some members would be more knowledgeable and dedicated to task than others and usually these people emerge as a leader, some would do work honestly when they know what is suppose to be done , and some would try to contribute in some superficial manner.
In group 3, there was lot of confusion about what the task is and how the task should be done. I wanted to do something more creative and challenging. But, I went along what Andy had suggested and everyone in the group agreed to this. Though, I did mention that I am with the group on this task but this task is not very motivating for me. This prompts me to think why I did not resist the idea of making a video on a change program. This could be because Andy is a part timer and I had not spoken much with him earlier, and subconsciously, it is possible that I could not strongly oppose to him as he was quite senior than me. Another reason that I neither had motivation nor energy to take this challenge of making some creative video. I am not sure but this could also be because we were all thinking of group cohesion and togetherness that resulted in a bad decision making termed as “Groupthink”. Janis (1972) defines Groupthink as "a way of deliberating that group members use when their desire for unanimity overrides their motivation to assess all available plans of action." Schafer and Crichlow (1996) further argue that faulty decision making has its roots in leadership style, traditional group procedures, and patterns of group behavior. I think, in group 3 leadership style, group procedures and pattern led to a faulty decision making.
Once the video part was done, the consultant, Tim, gave us some remark about the ‘generation gap’. What I understood from Tim’s remark that there were some subgroups in the group. One was of more experienced, older sub group of Andy and Debby. I think, to some extent, Tim was correct that Andy and Debby supported each other’s ideas quite often. I also felt that my ideas were supported a lot by Naznin and there was some sort of pairing between me and Naznin. This pairing could also be because we are quite appreciative of each other’s style of working and how we go about our studies of Mba.
Regarding presentation, I was really not interested in presenting. I did not really understand what the video was all about and I was feeling very tired. I encouraged Naznin to present and even supported her to present on group’s behalf. I also told her that it would be a good learning experience for her. She agreed to present with Andy. I think, Debby supported Andy that he should present. Andy was a natural candidate to present as he was the one who suggested the situation of the video and everyone assumed that he would do a good job on this. It is interesting to me to reflect and see this pairing behaviour going on between me and Naznin and in other subgroup Andy and Debby.
After all the presentations were done, I and even most of the other participants appreciated the video and presentation on controlled styled of leadership concerned about efficiency and rationality. I feel the message was so clear in the video what kind of leadership they were showing. The video was also made very creatively and roles were well played. In my view, it is also probably because it is so easy to understand this kind of leadership and the group who received this task had a clear advantage as far as understanding the style of leadership is concerned. I even mentioned this during the reflection session on presentations. In our group, we were not sure for first one hour what exactly transformational leadership is and who are role models of this kind of leadership. We thought of Ricardo Semler and Steve jobs as kind of transformation leaders. Richard Branson name also came up. First, we were not sure how this kind of leadership can be represented and second, we were confused how our role models show this kind of leadership. When I think of this, it is no surprise to me that other groups’ could not do well in task of making a video on the theme of transformation, task, and distributive leadership. Regarding this one of my friend’s remark I still remember. When I asked her after the videos were made and before the presentations, what is distributive leadership. She was in the group who was given distributive leadership task. Her answer was that I just don’t know.
Leadership Reflection..based on Leadership conference at UH...Post 1
I was quite excited to attend this conference. When I first read the notice of this event, I was impressed with the consultants and the way the notice was written. ‘The leadership game’ and the sentence ‘all you have to bring is yourself and curious mind’ provoked some excitement in me. Just reflecting on this, I got impressed and excited because the way the notice was written. The words director, leader, consultant somehow made me respect all the consultants even before I attended this event. This prompts me to think it is probably because of the culture and country I come from i.e. India. From my childhood, I have been taught that respect people who are elder than you and younger person should obey command of elders. (When I am writing this, this is provoking some emotions inside me.) People with titles like director, doctor are given lot of respect in my family.
Two days before the event I was reflecting on my own leadership style and how I see it in my life. I think, it gave me a good start and helped me make more sense of my actions during plenary. The day of the event, Friday April 4, 2008 I was late for the opening session of the plenary as I had some argument with my group members Zareen and Israna regarding Strategic leadership group assignment. That was bit emotionally draining for me and I had lost some excitement for this session. That day, this argument was playing a lot in my mind. My interest in the event of the first day was affected a lot by these external factors. This makes me think, how one part of life is connected with all other spheres of life. It is so difficult to switch off thoughts of mind about some earlier incident. Even though, I knew at this moment I should concentrate on the events at Plenary but still I was really feeling bit disturbed about the argument.
Two days before the event I was reflecting on my own leadership style and how I see it in my life. I think, it gave me a good start and helped me make more sense of my actions during plenary. The day of the event, Friday April 4, 2008 I was late for the opening session of the plenary as I had some argument with my group members Zareen and Israna regarding Strategic leadership group assignment. That was bit emotionally draining for me and I had lost some excitement for this session. That day, this argument was playing a lot in my mind. My interest in the event of the first day was affected a lot by these external factors. This makes me think, how one part of life is connected with all other spheres of life. It is so difficult to switch off thoughts of mind about some earlier incident. Even though, I knew at this moment I should concentrate on the events at Plenary but still I was really feeling bit disturbed about the argument.
Bomb blasts and I..
I was driving back home with my brother and wife, all of a sudden we realised that our car was stopped by police and they were more inquisitive and sincere in their work than I have normally seen Jaipur Police. A thought crossed to my mind that something wrong of substantial nature has happened in Jaipur...may be..some explosion. After few minutes, we received a call from home to rush back home asap, telling us the obvious news about the bomb blasts in Jaipur.
It was scary..I had a sinking feeling in my heart initially.never thought this kind of thing can happen in jaipur (many of my friends said, it is unimaginable for them)..when I reached home, I saw my close family members safe at home. It was such a big relief that at least we are safe. That sounds so selfish but it is the truth. We called our relatives and closed friends telling them that we are safe and asking about their wellbeings. Slowly slowly it just became another news.
Different people (mostly my family members and friends ) had different reactions. Some said politicians are to be blamed. Some tried to gave a religious color to this. All giving all sorts of excuses to put the blame on each other while saying (implicitly) that we are the most noble humans on this earth.
I do not know why all these kind of blasts repeatedly happen in India but somewhere each of us is responsible..I feel..I do not know why I am saying this..
Lot to say...but ..silence is at least golden, if not diamond.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
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