NEW YEAR.

Coming year will be the most crucial for me. I somehow managed to secure admission in B-school this year. I could have done better but that's how you feel every time you look back. With great power, responsibility comes.I am wondering whether the converse is true. I hope it is.

Few days back I was having a conversation with a professor.( He is one of the most powerful man I have ever known. He has 10-11 degrees and one of them is I.A.S. I think that says it all ). He said a very wonderful thing to me. He said " Always remember , there are certain marks found on the body of a child, these marks stay with that child throughout his life and even after death.We call these marks 'Birth Marks'. Similarly there are certain events. They stay with a person thorough out his life and even after his death. " I felt privileged to get such a wonderful insight towards life from such a respectable person and at the same time felt sad when I realized that, I don't have ( at least at this stage in my life ) intellectual , emotional and spiritual depth, to fully understand the meaning behind those words. Nevertheless I am lucky to have received those words.

I understand that few of these 'events' will 'happen' to me this new year. I hope with great responsibility, power comes.

REFUSE THAT AUTHORITY.

Day1:

Sir1: Leaders are born and not made.

I: Yes sir, I completely agree.

Day2:

Sir2: Leaders are made and not born.

I: No sir, I don’t agree.

Sir2: Why do you say so??

I: Sir If leaders are made and not born, Why the world is facing severe leadership crisis today?

Sir2: Because it’s not easy to become a leader. It take hard work, patience, etc to become one. It is very easy to know what it takes to be a leader but very difficult to become one.

I: So can we say that the world will not face any similar leadership crisis in future, as there are so many management institutes and leadership courses are coming up these days?

Sir2: No you can’t make a generalized statement like that.

I:K. Sir I saw a video of Steve Jobs few days back. This video was of year 2000 that’s 10 years back, in which he explains how the world will change in coming years, how technology will emerge and how power will shift from desktop to mobile devices etc. towards the end of that video Mr.Jobs explains where will Apple place itself in the changed world. That’s what I call Vision. Can you say that, similar vision can be developed in management course or a leadership program like this?

Sir2: To a certain extent. But all I see is you have a very fixed mindset. You are not listening to me.You only want to hear what you believe is right.

I: Sir you havn’t answered my question.

Sir2: See I told you , you have a very fixed mindset. You are not……….

I: Thank you for your time sir.

Day3:

I: This is the kind of conflict.

Sir3: This is not the way you talk to an authority. If you ask questions to a person on the stage in this manner he will have bad impression about you. You should be slapped. I would never recruit a guy like you. You are not…………..

Conclusion :

Speak your mind and they’ll bash you, but it doesn’t matter. If authority can’t answer your questions, refuse that authority. If authority feels like slapping you for putting forward your point, refuse that authority. Speak your mind and they’ll bash you, but it doesn’t matter, and it never will.

CHESS VS GO.

I happened to watch a video which talked about the book called ‘Art Of War’ by Sun Tsu, was an ancient Chinese Military General, strategist and philosopher. Sun Tsu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He talks about 2 strategies in particular, Chess¹ strategy and Go² strategy. According to him Go strategy can work better than Chess strategy in warfare. Here is the example of 2 companies in war, from same industry. One opted for Chess strategy and other for Go strategy.

The first company is Microsoft, which applied Chess strategy and other Apple, which applied go strategy. This is the description about how this battle was fought. In beginning there was IBM(International Business Machines).IBM started computing in the form of Mainframes. The machines were very big, and very primitive those days. It was basically only a piece of hardware which used to perform tasks. Assembly language was there so that Instructions could be given to machines, but as more and more components were developed and needed to communicate with each other, things started becoming more and more complex.IBM needed a piece of software which will regulate the entire machine0, allowing messages to be sent from one component to another using a predetermined protocol. They decided to outsource it. Microsoft got the opportunity to do it. They developed OS(Operating System) for IBM. Bill gates made sure that the rights for source code remained with Microsoft. They started selling OS to other clients as well.It was MS-DOS at that time. Soon they came up with Windows and as they say rest is history.

In the other part of the world(though in America itself), Steve jobs had started a company called Apple. Apple developed everything by themselves, the hardware, the software and the applications. The problem with this approach was that the price of Apple machine was higher. People realized they can buy hardware from any vendor and Microsoft OS and it will be cheaper for them. Microsoft could launch new versions of OS and all you have to pay was for OS and not for the entire machine. On the other hand Apple machines were difficult to upgrade. Soon Apple lost their market share and were nearly out of business. Microsoft was so dominant with their chess approach that they literally killed companies like Apple and Netscape.

Time passed, many things happened in between. Microsoft became giant, Apple was almost on the brink of bankruptcy. Steve Jobs realized that Apple can not survive if they attacked Microsoft directly. Apple under the vision of Steve jobs took a different route. They realized that market for portable music was largely untapped. They came up with a product called iPod. iPod was a HUGE hit. Brand Apple finally on the right track. They launched different versions of iPod catering to the needs of different audiences. Soon apple became a dominant player in portable music market. Steve Jobs saw another market which could be captured, it was cell phone market. They launched iPhone. Again a HUGE hit. With products like iPhone and iPod, which was declared as the greatest invention of the decade, Apple became a brand which everyone aspired for. Everybody wanted Apple. It was seen as sign of style, and prestige.

Meanwhile the computers were becoming cheaper and cheaper. People wanted and could afford to change their machines in 2-3 years. Brand Apple was a hit millions and millions of those who had iPod and iPhone wanted to switch to Macbook/Apple desktop. With products like iPod, iPhone, iPad these days everybody wants Apple and last year Apple’s Market Capitalization was more than Microsoft’s. In the hindsight Apple took a different root, a different strategy, Go strategy. At least for now it seems to be working for them.

1-Chess: Chess is a board game played between two players. It is played on a chessboard, which is a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack on the next move.

2-Go: Go , known in Chinese as weiqi, is an ancient board game for two players that is noted for being rich in strategy despite its simple rules.

The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a grid of 19×19 lines. Once placed on the board, stones cannot be moved elsewhere, unless they are surrounded and captured by the opponent's stones. The object of the game is to control (surround) a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

1,2 explanations have been taken from Wikipedia.com.

Dilemma

One fine morning you are going to your workplace, you are in a good mood because you have got a place in train to sit and listen music or to read a book,you get down a train and walk out of Railway station, you see a 9-10 year old girl, shabby, dirty, wearing a torn frock, begging in one corner. You see her and start walking, you take few steps and stop suddenly. The moment freezes and  thoughts start running in your mind. The feeling which made you stop is part pity, part humanity, part philanthropy, and part empathy. You take few steps back, go to that girl, give her a rupee or two, pray for her in mind think good of yourself that you helped her ,thank God for you are not her. If you wonder whether you did good or bad?  This situation can be viewed from different angles.

                                             Had  you asked Mr.Gandhi, he would have said well done, in fact he would have added that you should do this on a larger scale. Join NGO.Make sure you spread love, humanity, help others. Helping  others should be your priority . Selflessness should be achieved. It is your highest virtue. Human beings are social animals. Society can only be held together only if people understand other's needs, and treat them equally. Gandhi gave his life  serving others.

                                             Had you asked Mrs. Ayn Rand, she would have said your first priority should be to serve yourself. She  would have told you not to believe in charity. Everybody deserves what she/he got in life. Charity is the word invented by men who were not willing to work hard to achieve success. They were not competent enough to earn(Respect, Money ….etc). They made, those who had ability, feel guilty for talent and ability . They said lied, they said all human being are equal and deserve to live good life. Remember where socialism got Russia and Capitalism got America. There is a clear difference in ability , talent , perseverance, I.Q , E.Q, S.Q of different people and if you earn more( Respect, Money…..) you are not obliged to give the same in return, to those who don’t deserve it.

                                             Had you asked Mr. Gurcharan Das, he would have chosen middle path, which he would have said is more pragmatic. “This is what  Mahabharata teaches us”, he would have said. If  helping others does not cost you anything why not.Extremes should be avoided. Practical approach is ‘wear a good smile on your face but don’t allow anyone to exploit you’. Helping others is fine if does not harm in you in first place. Mr. Das would have given you an example of Prisoner’s dilemma ¹ and would have told you how ‘reciprocal altruism’ ²  would  help in real life.

                                             Same argument can be made about nature of  Socialism and/or Capitalism. If we  take  example of socialist countries which are fighting for survival ,you would think capitalist countries, read approach,  are better. But  post sub prime crisis, economic collapse and so many jobs lost, and panic everywhere  you would says capitalism is no better. Extremes  should be avoided. Countries like India were not much affected by recession because we avoided extremes. It’s neither socialism of Gandhi nor Capitalism of Ayn Rand that will save you, but right mixture of both.

                                            Look at U.S. healthcare reforms. In U.S. millions of citizens will  now get health coverage. Where will the money come from? who will pay for it? Good question. The money will be given from ‘Equalization pool’ , read it as taxpayer. Will it help hospitals, insurance companies? of course it will. Now hospitals and insurance companies will get large compensation for insuring ill and  senior citizen. This is what I was talking about. The exact mixture of socialism and capitalism, selflessness and selfishness.

                                              It’s interesting how a small dilemma has led us here, discussing healthcare reforms and nature of socialism/capitalism, but that’s what it’s all  about. I call it an effort to understand micro and macro picture of everything you do.

                                                    

1.Prisoner’s dilemma-( following explanation is taken from wikipedia )

A classic example of the prisoner's dilemma ("PD") is presented as follows:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?    

2.Reciprocal altruism- It’s an approach that gives best result in many situations like prisoner’s dilemma. In the first attempt, considering that you are playing 10 rounds of this game and optimum solution is to minimize the total number of hours spent in jail, you should remain silent and repeat what other prisoner has done from the second round onwards.