Casting the first stone

8^th November 2016. I was in a restaurant in Hyderabad sitting with a bunch of fresh Chartered Accountants.  It was a few minutes past 8 p.m. We were waiting for the juicy succulent kebabs to come in, when suddenly mobile phones started buzzing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced Demonetisation,. All currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 were now invalid. Processes for exchanging the hard earned money were announced.  The next hour in the restaurant was an animated conversation. On one side there were people who extolled the virtues of this move, on the other was another bunch who criticised the move completely. 

All of us converted into armchair critics in a few minutes. It did not matter whether you understood the move, criticising and having an opinion were extremely important.The entire nation got converted into a bunch of instant economists and critics, each having acquired their expertise instantaneously. The nation got divided along political lines. and the political tamasha had begun.

Over the next few days, the media fed us with visuals of people suffering and dying while standing in queues. On the other side, there were visuals of police having found money flowing in rivers, in garbage dumps etc. Experience has told me that both sets of reporting can either be factually true or manipulated.

Over the next few months, everybody who has an opinion and more were discussing the benefits or otherwise of demonetization. It was predicted to be Prime Minister Modi’s waterloo. But the forth coming election results surprised everybody. The BJP made a clean sweep of most elections. The opposition could not believe it. They now started contesting the validity of the Electronic Voting Machines.

Anyways 10 months later RBI has finally released data. More than 99% of the invalidated currency notes have come back into the system. Most economists and armchair critics are out to fry the Government for what it calls as an unsuccessful experiment or a colossal failure.

And the Government on its part is trying to give a different spin to the episode, by insisting that the success of the Demonetisation move has to be measured differently.

As for as I am concerned, demonetisation is a thing of the past. Today by looking at the number of notes returned, we are only conducting a post mortem. The organ has been removed. Was it cancerous? Or was the surgery unnecessary?  This post facto analysis tells us whether the Prime Minister was right or wrong.

I wish the prime minister had the benefit of clairvoyance at the time of taking the decision. Or there was a crystal ball which he could have looked into and decided about taking this decision,.

Let us look at the decision making process. First, is there or was there black money in the domestic market? The answer is yes. Anyone who denies the same, is either blind or naive or motivated. Would part of it be held in currency of a higher denomination? Would these people holding this black money have difficulty in converting money into cash? The answer to both the questions is yes. With this evidence, was demonetisation a correct decision? Maybe. 

Now let us look at what foiled the plans.One there were a host of accountants indulging in a colour change operation. Secondly, there are stories of corrupt bankers, who helped these people exchange their old notes into new notes for a commission. These were the two factors which ensured that most of the notes came back into the fold. Wonder whether the Prime Minister had bargained for  the ‘support’ of these so called professionals who made a fast buck themselves in this process.

On 1^st July, 2017, addressing a bunch of Chartered Accountants, he chastised them for these activities. I don't think the Prime Minister has failed. If we look deep, we as a  society have failed.

I remember a story where a liar was going to be lynched. Along came a wise man and said, “Let the first person to  throw the stone be someone who hasn’t lied ever.” No one came forward. Similarly, for those who are expert at throwing stones at failure, let me say, “Let the first stone be cast by someone who has taken a risk and never failed.”

Grip of the Patriarch

Once upon a time Hindi movies came with a social message. It was about good winning over the evil. There was a moral to the story. The protagonist would be allowed to stray, but would suffer and would always come back to the righteous path. Since 1990s plots have changed. Most of them are now shades of grey.

However things seem to be changing. ‘Toilet – A Prem Katha’ is a movie with a strong social message. I am sure it will do a lot for the Swach Bharat Mission. Movies have a magnifying impact on society. While the movie emphasises the importance of building toilets for women, the protagonist is unable to build a toilet in his house or village due to objections from the village head and his father.

Indian culture lays an emphasis on respect for elders. I have seen families where the father figure’s writ runs large. Nobody dares protest or speak anything against him. Let us call him the controller. Deviations from his script are practised in private outside the house, only to have a mask of compliance and respect in front of him.

The controller does all this for the good of the family. He is the one who has raised the family through tough times. The children were young and the family was struggling for two square meals. The controller worked hard, put in long hours, skipped meals only to ensure a strong future for the family. And today when the family is strong and independent, he does not want to let go. He wants the next generation to carry on his legacy, not on their ideas, but as per his wishes. He still continues to wield an iron fist. Any attempts to break free are chastised.

Most of the times, the progenies of the patriarch are weak. They can’t, don’t want to take or are not allowed to take independent decisions. Initial attempts at breaking free are snubbed and chastised. The patriarch takes pride in ensuring his writ runs large across the family. The patriarch’s decisions are not to be questioned. The problem with these families, is that it becomes very difficult for the patriarch to walk into the sunset. The progenies aren’t strong enough to handle crises and the patriarch is always relied on for advice. When the patriarch is no longer available, the families struggle to thrive.

The behaviour of the patriarch is part ego, part concern, part resilience to change. And in this environment, the younger generation feels suffocated. Outsiders who get married into the family feel the suffocation even more. They come from a different environment, a different culture, sometimes even an open culture. They are raised as independent individuals in an environment where creativity is encouraged, issues are debated and people are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. These outsiders find it very difficult to adjust within the family. They either rebel against the patriarch or leave the family. They are then accused of splitting or driving a wedge within the family.

What then is the solution? The patriarch needs to start loosening his grip. The patriarch needs to decide which battles to fight. The smaller battles need to be left to the progenies to fight. Failure needs to be tolerated. It is not about being victorious all the time. Discuss the repercussions of various decisions and leave the progenies to make mistakes. Let the progenies learn from their mistakes.

In case of a failure, criticism should not be “I told you so.” It should be, “How can we now retrieve the situation or minimise the damage?” The next generation should be hand held into succession and the reins should be handed over. The handover process should be initiated well before retirement and the transition has to be smooth and lengthy. Most importantly standards of success need to be altered. 

One cannot expect perfection all the time.

Most of the times, the routes may be different. There are multiple ways to success and the patriarch has to realise the same. Different routes need to be tried out, to identify what will work and what will not. There has to be a tolerance for different thoughts, failure and different measures of success.

At some point of time, even though the patriarch has a stake in the family, he needs to disengage from the proceedings  and focus his attention on something else and let go. The child has now grown up and needs to find its own feet.

Do you see similarities in your lives?  I thought I was writing about the Infosys and Tata episodes. 

Kumble-ing Lessons

Recently, Anil Kumble, one of the pillars of Indian cricket, resigned (or was forced to resign?) from the position of coach of the Indian Cricket Team. The team had a very good run under his leadership. The resignation, was due to reports in the media, that there was a rift between the Captain of the cricket team, Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There are also reports that the players felt suffocated b y 

Kumble’s approach to practice sessions and his leadership.

The media is gaga about how it is a sad day for Indian cricket, or how Indian cricket will be at a loss due to Kumble’s departure. There are also narratives about how Virat Kohli (a superstar in his own right) is growing too big for his boots. I would like to present two perspectives here.

Firstly, India as a society is very patriarchal. Our culture talks about respecting elders, and the word of elders is final. There is no appeal, no reasoning. However, there is a difference between listening to elders and respecting elders. People can chart their own paths, deviating from elders’ advice, without disrespecting them. The narrative can be “Fine, I heard you, but I beg to differ. Let us agree to disagree.” There is no feeling of disrespect to the elders. For eg. I love my father, respect him, but don’t agree with his perspectives.

The elders have good intentions in their heart. They don’t want the juniors to make the mistakes that they have made. But what they don’t realise, is that their strength has only been obtained by learning through these mistakes. Our society frowns upon disobedience confusing it with disrespect.

This is exactly the narrative that is being played out. I don’t think Virat Kohli disrespects Anil Kumble. He may not be agreeing to his methods and hence wants someone with whom he can be more comfortable.

The other perspective is from the corporate world. Many times when two strong personalities, clash, something has to give. Let’s take this case of a very strong Leader who is extremely hands on, bright, brilliant and very talented. And then there is another person who is recruited as a second in command, let us say the Deputy, who is equally bright and equally aggressive. Something has to give. There have to be times, when one of them takes the back seat and allows the other to prevail. Leaders tend to get blinded. I am differentiating blindness from arrogance. They get blinded by their own success and confidence in their own abilities. This confidence leads them to want to have their own way, always.

Initially the Deputy soaks in everything that the Leader says. He is also in awe of the Leader and wants to learn from him. However this continues for not more than 6 months. Being bright and talented himself, the Deputy has his own mind. And slowly starts getting stifled. He believes (rightly or wrongly is not relevant here) that some decisions of the Leader may not be right. He wants to try things in a different manner. But the Deputy does not get the independence. The longer that happens, chances are that this relationship will break.

It is not who is right or who is wrong. This is a reason, a lot of children fight with their parents. The stubbornness is transferred genetically, which leads to clashes. This is exactly what happened in the Kohli –Kumble saga.

In Corporate Life, employees leave their bosses. In sport, players sack their managers. Ravi Shastri was more successful in managing the boys than Anil Kumble. Who was the better player? No doubt Anil Kumble. But maybe Shastri was the better coach.

I personally think this divorce is very good for Indian cricket. The victor is not always the villain as is being painted in this picture. 

The Trust App

Today, you have apps for everything. Apps for movie tickets, fitness, flight tickets, banks, payment, religion, spirituality etc. Name the service and you have an app. Kar lo duniya apni mutthi me..is actually a reality. I am waiting for the day, when I click something on a phone and it goes and burns my bulging fat.

The other day, I met someone who came to me with a tech solution. She runs multiple training centres and uses technology to keep tab on the trainers, the quality of teaching etc. She has an army of trainers conducting training sessions simultaneously across multiple locations. She has a tracker which tracks where every trainer is and whether he / she is going to reach in time for the session.

The need for this feature, is based on the inherent premise that normal trainer behavior is to be late. But why would a trainer be deliberately late? His / Her bread and butter depends on the training, so they will always try to be on time.

I wonder if I am one of her trainers, and 10 minutes before the start of the session, she comes to know I am not going to reach in time. Say there is a traffic jam, or the local train electricity grid snaps, or I have an accident, or I have just started late. What can she do? Sitting some hundred miles away, can she fire a command and have a jet or drone, or time machine sent to me, which will lift me from my current place and transport me to the training centre? The answer is no. The only benefit is that the app will automatically shoot an email or a message to the training co-ordinator at the location that the trainer will be late. But then this can even be done by the trainer himself or herself.

What if the trainer is a habitual late comer? Three sessions and he / she will be found out by customer complaints. You don’t need to build a sophisticated tracker. As a customer this feature is good, but like a lot of such features is just a mirage. Just simple trust in the trainer, saves me the cost of building this tracking feature. However, trust isn’t sexy, apps and technology are.

Another feature tells you how much time the trainer has spent on which slide. The whole focus is on following the process, the assumption is that if you follow the process the results will be fruitful.

Unfortunately training is different from manufacturing. In manufacturing, multiple raw materials need to be subjected to different processes in specific environments to get desired outputs. Training is more of an art. By focusing too much on the process, you will kill the art and slowly robots will take over training. Then you will find that training is not effective, and you will go back to the trainers.

Every trainer is different, brings with them their own flair, style, creativity, anecdotes. Being a trainer for 20 years, I can see into a participant’s eyes and decipher whether they have understood the subject or not. There have been instances, when I have seen into somebody’s eyes, and asked the query what they wanted to ask. This my dear friends, is the art. There are so many other trainers I know, who have superb flair and are great trainers and story tellers and are also effective. The best trainer is one who runs the session without slides.

I am personally uncomfortable with such tracking features and later being appraised by ‘analysts’ who rely on ‘data’ to tell me where I am going wrong. If you employ me, trust my abilities, else I don’t want to work with you.

Remember, freedom comes with responsibility. The sign of effective law and order is minimum policing. What the world needs today is a Trust App.

Internal Controls at a Dosa Stall

I like to begin my day early on Mondays, for primarily two reasons. I beat the traffic and get a decent parking space and I also like to get a head start to the week. The result is that most Mondays I end up not carrying my lunch and end up eating outside.

One such Monday, a friend working nearby convinced me to join her for lunch at a roadside dosa vendor. I had a look at the menu card and was flabbergasted. There were thirty five types of dosas on the menu card. I am sure, that even Udipi restaurants don’t have more than 10 to 15 varieties. One name on the menu intrigued me – it said Gini dosa. I was wondering what it was and mentioned it to my friend, who recommended it very highly.

The place was crowded. There were at least 20 people waiting for their orders. There were only two people manning the stall. One was taking orders, serving people and taking money, the other was preparing dosas on three hot plates simultaneously. The person taking orders was a genius. The piece of computer six inches between the ears, would memorise every order in sequence and remember who placed it. There was no advance payment of money, people would finish their food and pay the money.  The biggest challenge was when a group of 5 or more youngsters came it and placed the orders. They would change the orders thrice in a span of 45 seconds, and this guy would always get the order right. When it came to collecting money, he would do the calculation in his brain and had no time for a calculator. And if anybody disputed the amount, he would verbally roll out his calculation and he would be right.

The person preparing the dosas was simultaneously working on three dosas, knowing exactly what ingredients to put in which dosa, and the order in which it was to be prepared so that no customer was made to wait for a long time.

I was amazed at their capabilities and processing speeds and retention power. A stray thought entered my mind, how would these people function in corporate? After all they were competent, had a great processing speed, great calculations and a great memory.  I mentioned this to my friend, and she had an interesting reply. She said, you will destroy their skills by corporatizing them. The reason these guys are good, is they are constantly using their brain, which is getting sharpened every minute. While I agreed with what she said, I was slightly insulted by her answer. Not wanting to accept her argument, I asked her, “Do you mean to say we in Corporate don’t use our brain every minute?” She smiled and said “I didn’t say that.” 

While we were waiting for a dosa, she asked me whether the dosa maker lacked internal controls and what could be the risks for the business. I said, yes, it lacked internal controls big time. I mean, the guy could take wrong orders, he could miscalculate the bill and importantly customers could go away without paying, resulting in substantial loss of revenue.

“So what is the purpose of internal controls?”, she asked. I said “prevention of fraud, accuracy of data, correct repoting.” I had left accountancy practice 20 years ago, but not forgotten the basics. She once again smiled. Now her smiles were starting to get on my nerves. Are you saying, I am wrong?

“Which of these two guys is going to create a fraud, what data are they reporting and to whom? Do you realize that lack of internal controls also indicates presence of trust.” And then suddenly it hit me. Internal control systems are designed mostly by accountants. Their basic motto is “Trust but verify.” As a matter of fact, they want documentation and documentary evidence for everything. Their basic functioning is based on ‘mistrust’.

My friend then made a suggestion. Lets come back again at 4 and speak to this fellow about his lack of internal controls. Instinct told me, I was going to learn something.

At 4 pm, both of us returned. She was a regular customer and hence knew the dosa vendor. She started, “How many times do you prepare incorrect orders?”

“Rarely. Maybe 5 wrong dosas in a day if it is a bad day”

“And how many dosas do you make in a day?

“Close to 1000”

I was impressed. An error rate of around 0.5% on a bad day, is setting very high quality standards

“Does it happen that people go away without paying the bill? Are you not worried of that? “

“Saab.. nobody in this world steals food.”

My jaw dropped… what was he saying?

“Sometimes people forget to pay in a hurry, but they come back the next day and pay. A poor guy who is hungry will beg, ask for food and not steal it. There is only one category of persons who steals food and that is college kids who are out for a cheap thrill. We get one such bunch, once in a month, and we allow them this thrill. They are not thieves, they just want to beat the system.”

I got one of the greatest insights of my life with the answer

In the evening, driving back home, a thought struck me, “His business revolved around trust, while internal controls revolve on mistrust. I looked at the people around me and realized that most of the people at junior levels are honest. Is it time to dismantle internal controls? Maybe it is time to hand them over to a non-accountant, who will design them from a perspective of trust.

Managing Fast Growth

This is the story of two friends, Amit and Vaidehi. Both are friends, work in a technology company, and are at crossroads in their career. Amit is in his mid 40s while Vaidehi is in her early 30s. Both are bright, brilliant and achievers in their respective careers.

8 years ago, Vaidehi was graduating from B-School and was eagerly waiting for the campus placement process to begin. A reputed technology company was scheduled to visit on Day Zero, and Amit was part of the recruitment team. That is the first time when both faced each other. After a grueling interview, Vaidehi got selected and joined the company.

Vaidehi was bright and brilliant and in due course of work was also a super achiever. At the end of the first year of her career, Vaidehi stood apart from the rest of her batch and was a hot candidate for promotion. Amit was part of the committee which voted on promotions. Vaidehi’s candidature was solid and there were no grounds to deny her the same.

Amit was very fond of Vaidehi. He had personally selected her from campus and through the rest of the year, continued to groom her. He had a habit of keeping a tab on candidates having a bright potential. The information that he had gathered on Vaidehi in the last one year impressed him. He silently patted himself on the back for having unearthed a raw diamond.

However sitting on the committee for promotions, Amit was worried and not convinced about Vaidehi’s candidature. He had absolutely no doubt about her promotion, or whether she deserved it. 

His only concern was whether success was coming too fast for her. He wanted to test how she would deal with the dejection of not getting a promotion. Amit argued vehemently opposing Vaidehi’s promotion, but was outvoted. The management said, that if they did not promote Vaidehi, she would leave and the organization would lose a top talent. Fear was an integral part of the promotion decision.

Amit came out of the meeting with mixed feelings. While on one hand he was happy about his protégé’s success, he was concerned whether she had the maturity to handle success.

Over the years Vaidehi's career grew from strength to strength. However the profile of her work changed. While she had started her career as an individual contributor, with a couple of promotions, she had moved to managing a team. As she got promoted from an analyst to an associate and later to a Vice President in a short span of 8 years, she had moved from actually doing work to managing teams and stakeholders. A typical day would begin with a few meetings, followed by few more meetings, followed by conference calls with international stakeholders, followed by a few more review meetings with her team.

On the other hand, Amit being fairly senior, had become an expert at playing the meeting game. One day he wondered, whether he was doing any work himself or just conducting meetings. Meetings for leading cross functional projects, meetings for review with clients, internal strategy meetings, review meetings with teams. He convinced himself that he was a leader and his leadership skills were his USP.

But today, 8 years later, both found themselves at crossroads. Being highly successful, they were very well paid. This also ensured that they were ‘high cost’ resources. While they were proud of their success and where they had reached in their life, they did not realize that fast growth was a curse in 

itself.

Just yesterday, the company had announced that due to shrinking business and rising costs, the firm was offering a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to AVPs, VP and Directors. Suddenly the rug of comfort was being pulled from under their feet.

This announcement had thrown the cat among the pigeons. Everyone who was in these ranks were wondering whether they would be on the ‘hit’ list. Amit was more or less convinced that he was. Vaidehi was not sure, and felt that she would ride out the storm.

Amit was now wondering, whether at the age of 45, having the brand of being a VRS beneficiary, in short a sophisticated name of being sacked, he would get a job. He wondered, how he would pay his EMIs. The total EMIs came to more than 1 lakh rupees a month, which consisted instalments for housing loan, a brand new IPhone he had purchased for his wife, and the new BMW which he had bought 24 months ago. He was also wondering, how he would break the news to his family and whether they would adjust to the reduced standard of living.

Vaidehi, had a different concern. Being single, she had splurged most of her income on partying, shopping and vacations, and hadn’t saved much. She wondered about the longevity of her working life. She felt that she had a high probability of surviving this round, but wondered whether there would be another round of VRS five years later and whether she would survive the same.

What was Amit and Vaidehi’s mistake? Over the years, both had developed strong leadership skills. There would be so many people with experience having leadership skills competing for senior management jobs which are anyway in short supply. Organisations are like pyramids. There is very little room at the top and the danger of falling off is very real.

I am sure there are many Amits and Vaidehis around at the workplace. How do they avert this danger? One of the ways is to develop strong functional skills. As we grow in an organization, we lose touch with ground level functional skills and develop leadership skills. While leadership skills are good, they are really not differentiators. Leadership skills coupled with strong functional knowledge is going to stand you in good stead and will elongate your career.

Measure your success, not only by your promotions and money, but also by what domain skills you are sharpening. If you are not sharpening any domain skills, you are living in a bubble which will eventually burst.

Remember, Sachin Tendulkar was not a great leader – as a matter of fact he realized very early that captaincy was not for him. His longevity was a function of his domain skills. To survive in the team, your leadership skills need to be backed by strong functional skills.

(The above is a fictional piece written in response to an IT Majors announcement of VRS for its AVPs, VPs and Directors. Any relation to any person is purely conincidental)

Best of Luck Mr. Bhatti

Today I met a real victim of Demonetisation. Let us call him Mr. Bhatti. Riding in a taxi in Delhi, a small piece of conversation with Mr. Bhatti made me realize that he is not a stereotypical taxi driver. Something in the first few words made me shift from the back to the front seat and engage Mr. Bhatti in a conversation.

Mr. Bhatti, it seems was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His dad had a factory in 1979 which supplied AC to DC (Or is it the other way around?) switches to a television company.  Mr. Bhatti enjoyed his childhood and his father owned a hotel in Manali where they would spend their vacations. There was never a need for education for Mr. Bhatti. After Class 12, Mr. Bhatti’s father opened another factory for him. Life was excellent and the Bhatti’s were rolling in money.

But then televisions moved from black and white to colour. Technological advances made the Bhatti’s factory redundant. They had to sell everything to pay off their dues and start back from scratch.

But our friend Mr. Bhatti was made of sterner stuff. He borrowed a small amount and set up an office of a real estate agent. He started with thousands, made lakhs and turned them into crores. He converted himself to a builder and started implementing real estate projects in the NCR region. Life was again back to normal… or so it seemed.

2008 brought a global crisis and a slowdown in the housing market. Mr. Bhatti lost money and was cheated by his partners. He lost everything. Another riches to rags event – another setback

He then started working with a real estate developer. Someone who was once the owner was now an employee. Salaried people will never ever understand this transition. I am amazed at Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. He started cutting down on his expenses. Someone who spent in lakhs per month, was now working at a salary of Rs. 55,000 per month. Try doing that my friends. Try explaining to your wife and children that the outings, shopping, toys, movies, dinners or any other spending which was once normal is now to be curtailed.

Then comes November 2016. It is an open secret that demonetization has hit the real estate sector extremely hard. Mr. Bhatti lost his job, as the real estate company he was working for downsized their costs and in turn their employees

Today  Mr. Bhatti drives a taxi. Some one who  once owned 5 cars, drives a rental taxi. He earns upto Rs. 25,000 per month. He now has to downsize his expenses by more than half. I shudder to think how he is dealing with a 12 year kid’s aspirations. Mr. Bhatti is unhappy with the hand that fate has dealt him. But he is not completely bitter about it. He goes about his work hoping for a better tomorrow.

What Mr. Bhatti is unhappy about is this. His friends who did all kinds of unscrupulous things thrive today, while somebody like him, who hasn’t had any wrongdoings (as he says) is suffering. His aunt is a sanyasi. She says this is the result of the karma of his previous life. He says he is not bothered about previous life or future life. He is bothered about his aspirations, his family his current life. My heart goes out to Mr. Bhatti. That 45 minute ride taught me quite a few lessons.

The first setback in the Bhatti’s life was the development of technology, which took away their living. Is this a sign of things to come? While one may be pardoned for not being so forward looking way back in the 1980s, the situation is different today. The pace of development of technology is rapid and the day is not too far away, when quite a few of our jobs will be taken away by technology. If today we do not anticipate the change, and live in our cocoons and comfort zones, we are idiots.

Secondly, let us not undermine the value of education and upgrading our skills. The one regret Mr. Bhatti has, is that he does not have a qualification. But with a silver spoon in his mouth and factory under his belt, he didn’t need it; or so he thought. Today thinking like this is committing suicide. The quality of education is a different matter, but education is an entry barrier.

I would like to end this by paying a tribute to Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. If growing up in poverty is tough, a riches to rags story is tougher. The mental make up and adjustment required to bear the humiliation from family members, questions from children, accepting and living through failure is not at all easy.

Salute to you Mr. Bhatti. Some day our paths shall cross and I hope you will see better days and we shall have a drink together. Best of luck for a better future.