Happy Birthday! Dr. Manmohan Singh

Do nice people have a chance in this country? Take our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for instance. He has been bashed from all possible sections, that include his political peers, civil society, media and almost anyone who could take a dig at him. He has been called a ‘silent’ prime minister, dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat, underachiever, ‘Poodle’ and ‘Puppet’ and all sorts of condescending things. But the fact is that he is  perhaps the only educated, wise and descent politician in the country whom you can look up to.


Who else???

I am so glad that he is our prime minister. His grace, intellect and dignity is par-excellence and exemplary. And to be fair to be him, in the dirty constraints of coalition politics he has been able to perform really well.

But see what we do to him!!! The other day my colleague & friend Prof. Ray Titus made a very interesting comment. He said that the very fact that Dr. Manmohan Singh lost an election makes him a qualified candidate in the political arena and public life. Interesting! just think about it...

But do we really deserve him?

In yet another incident, according to a newspaper report, the officer who was instrumental in stopping the award of a multi-crore annual maintenance contract on a single tender basis at a public sector enterprise was harassed for his honesty. The whistle-blower was reportedly forced to fight a five-year-long legal battle after he was implicated in disproportionate assets by the company officials and government-backed investigation agency.

The result? The whistle-blower saw officers 10 years junior to him being promoted while he fought his court battle to clear his name. If the media reports are to be believed, then the resulting erosion of trust on the organization’s leadership and progressive disengagement of the whistle blower and employees like him is anybody’s guess. Not surprisingly the organization has seen series of employee protests over the past few years.

Do nice people really have a chance?

Rediscovering Selfishness

French billionaire Bernard Arnault decided to sue a news daily over a headline – ‘Get Lost you rich Idiot’ in response to his decision to apply for Belgium citizenship. France’s controversial proposed policy to tax the rich very heavily is driving them away from the country. And obviously there are many who feel the rich should stay and get fleeced. I know most in our country feel similarly and there are two reasons for it – one we believe, like many French socialists, that we should take money from the rich and give if those who do not work all in the garb of larger welfare; and, second, in our country money has been equated with fifth for most of that has been created by ‘few’ who could ‘fix’ the system. However that’s not how money has been created by everyone, everywhere. There are people who through their enterprising ability, hard work& industriousness have been able to create immense value and in the process have successfully created wealth.

And there are millions of taxpaying citizens of France, India and world over who know the value of hard work, who know what it takes to earn a day’s wages. Then there are sloths who want to live an easy life on the hard-earned money of those millions others. Research indicates that many, who received unemployment allowance in Europe, actually blew the money in night clubs, rather using the same on their essentials. But still they should be protected……..why? Why penalize those who work hard and contribute to the value creation in a nation, and reward those who do not want to work?

But that is socialism for you that parts of Europe, India and now Obama’s America believes in - social welfare at the cost of those who work hard every day. Protection of downtrodden, weak, poor….. similar logic? Ayn Rand in her epic book ‘The Virtue of Selfishness’ (1964) wrote- “Since nature does not guarantee automatic security, success and survival to any human being, it is only dictatorial presumptuousness and the moral cannibalism of the altruist – collectivist code that permits a man to suppose (or idly to day dream) that he can somehow guarantee such security to some men at the expense of others. This is the psychological confession implied in such questions and in many issues of the same kind... More often, however that psychological confession reveals a deeper evil: it reveals the enormity of the extent to which altruism erodes men’s capacity to grasp the concept of rights or the value of an individual life; it reveals a mind from which the reality of a human being has been wiped out.'

The socialistic welfare concept is a fallacy that makes people believe that government can ensure their well-being even if they don’t do enough for themselves and their families. Even more evil is the premise that robs people who work hard and wants them to believe that they have an obligation to part a good share of their income for welfare of someone whom they don’t know

Ayn Rand further writes in her book – 'A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment – a society that sets up a conflict between its edicts and the requirements of man’s nature- is not strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutional gang rule. Such a society destroys all values of human coexistence, has no possible justification and represents, not a source of benefits, but the deadliest threat to man’s survival.'

I am not negating charity but engaging in such an act should be an individual choice not a gang –compulsion. Behind the garb of welfare, the corrupt political set-up and ‘match-fixers’ fool and loot all.

Take the FDI in multi-brand retail issue in India for example. A nationwide forced shutdown, hooliganism against public in general, all in the name of opposition against FDI in multi-brand retail. And what is the ground of such opposition – same rhetoric of ‘welfare’. People like Didi feel that FDI in multi-brand retail shall endanger the ‘shopkeeprs’. So they are worried about welfare of those shopkeepers who have been fleecing us for ages? Why they are not worried of the billions of consumers in this country? Why do they want to rob us of better products, improved service, more choice, better quality and more competitive prices?

The system is fixed and so is welfare. Nexus between traders lobby and politicians could not be exemplified any better. And, they are worried about handful of shopkeepers losing their jobs; then why are they not worried about millions others losing jobs (those jobs which could be created in the organized retail, if FDI is pumped-in).

More FDI, more choice better quality & better prices for consumers resulting in greater consumption, more revenues, more sectorial growth, more jobs, more disposable income, more consumption….. Is this logic so incomprehensible?

Not at all, those who are opposing FDI in multi-brand retail are only concerned about their own welfare, of their kins & friends, at the cost of others. So is selfishness bad? Selfishness in the garb of selflessness is bad. Being selfish and asking or rather forcing others to be selfless is bad. Like those call the French billionaire a rich idiot are or those who oppose FDI in India are doing!

Pure selfishness is actually a virtue. I know we have been taught the opposite and most of you must be shocked at my utterances. But man by nature is selfish. Man works, shares, loves, cares for selfish pursuits. Selfishness is at the root of civilization, existence and life. Ayn Rand had written – “In popular usage, the word “ selfishness” is synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment. Yet, the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word “selfishness is ‘concern with one’s own interest’.”

And how being concerned of one’s own interest could be bad? However, only if everybody did that and did not expect others to forego their own interest whilst they pursue their own.

A person becomes selfish for a more secure future for himself and for his family and starts an enterprise. He becomes selfish to produce better goods and deliver better service than anybody else to his customers. The people who work for him become selfish for a better career and future for themselves and hence buy-in to the selfish ideas of the entrepreneur. The customer becomes selfish for better consumption and buys those goods & services. The result is better pay-off for everyone. However in this entire cycle, if anyone while remaining selfish himself/herself wants or forces others to relinquish their selfish motives then ‘some’ lose in the process. And if everyone remains selfish and accept others selfish pursuits as much they do their own then everyone stands to win.

Selfishness is at the heart of engagement too. An organization engages its employees for the selfish reasons of engaging its customers better. What’s wrong in that? An employee accepts to be engaged when he/she sees his/her selfish pursuits being fulfilled. Engagement cannot happen if people cease to be selfish.

Take the case of banks in India which according to recent newspaper reports are facing problems in keeping staff at smaller & rural locations. The employees, mostly younger lot, posted in such locations complain of factors like absence of cellphone signals, choice of food, weekend entertainment; women complain of too much distance from their home & having to stay away from their family as reasons behind their unhappiness with such postings. The resultant high attrition is concerning the banks.

Are the employees being selfish? Yes, but what’s wrong with them being selfish? And what should the banks do in this case. They should also act selfish. If they think that they need these employees to serve their customers better then they should try & act in a way that they can provide these facilities to their employee at such locations. And if they think they got the wrongs people inside, then they should look for the right people who can serve their customers better and who will not have such complains. Such selfish motives on everyone’s part shall engage employees better and consequently customers better. This shall result better payoffs for all & sundry.

In this regard, I quote from my 2011 book Employee Engagement – ‘In an employee feedback and organizational health survey of the employees in remote locations by Aditya Birla Group, the company found that employees in remote locations – factory townships had long-standing needs that were similar to their colleagues in urban locations. Some of the issues that emerged were healthcare, entertainment, education and career for spouses. The findings were very interesting and showed how place or location may not change the way people wanted to live. They found, for instance, that today’s middle-class, young engineer finds a dissonance. He not only wants a great job and a good company, he also seeks a contemporary look and location.

To ensure that such locational dissonance did not happen, the company came-up with a range of solutions. To start with it changed the exterior colour of the residential flats; it tied-up with an event management company to develop events that appeal to various constituencies like musical nights, devotional music programmes, concerts and so on. The company is also said to be discussing with PVR cinemas for setting-up multiplexes near the townships.’

Who is going to benefit anyway?

HBR published reams of paper on Balanced Score Card application in performance management and competency management and suddenly this – “The government today cleared a proposal that would allow it to provide reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotion in state jobs. The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the proposal for making provisions for quotas for SC/STs in promotions in government jobs.” (Source: ET)

So you know one thing for sure it is not only Obama & Romney who are preparing for the elections. After all 2014 is not too far away!

But then the question is who is going to benefit anyway? Even if it benefits few individuals, isn’t the larger question about performance management? At a larger level isn’t the issue all about managing organizational performance? Will such a strategy help to improve the individual performance and consequently the organizational performance? And if not, then would such a scenario endanger the existence of such an organization? And if the organization collapses, who is going to benefit anyway?

In her paper ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Unavoidable: Improving the Public Service in Poor Countries’, Merilee S. Grindle notes that – “…Contrasting conditions of sloth and efficiency, indifference and responsiveness, stasis and reform characterize public sectors in many poor countries. Talented people can be drawn to public service in such countries and significant reforms can be introduced to set the bases for improved performance. Despite many good experiences, however, governments in most poor countries continue to perform poorly. Improving this bad situation is essential. Like their U.S. counterparts discussed elsewhere in this volume, public sector reformers in developing countries need to consider changes that directly address performance incentives and management practices. But even with such changes, the unavoidable reality of inefficient, ineffective, and unresponsive government is likely to persist for some time to come. Just as in the historical evolution of the public sector in the U.S. and other now developed countries, good public sector performance ultimately depends on the development of political societies that expect and demand efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness from their governments.”

Gen Y: The Reversed Happiness Quotient

Institute for Wellbeing Management, Bellevue University, Nebraska, USA, a non-profit consulting group on employee happiness, started a blog on Employee Happiness – tips, tricks & tools sometime back. They identified and involved 26 authors for writing invitational blog post every Sunday.


My first post for this blog – Gen Y: The Reversed Happiness Quotient has been published the Sunday Sept. 2, 2012. You can read the same here - http://employeehappinesstipstrickstools.com/

Please share my post with others if you like the same and post a comment should you feel like. I shall indeed be thankful.

THE ACHIEVERS 50 MOST ENGAGED WORKPLACES™ AWARDS

The Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in the United States, 2012 have been announced. This annual award recognises top employers that display leadership and innovation towards engaging their employees. The award is judged by a panel of judges which evaluate each applicant based on the eight elements of employee engagement:

1.Communication,
2. Leadership,
3. Culture,
4. Rewards and recognition,
5. Professional and personal growth,
6. Accountability and performance,
7. Vision and values, and,
8. Corporate social responsibility.

'The award understand these practices are not only good for employees but also the bottom line. Companies that focus on employee engagement tend to perform better financially, attract and retain the best talent and enjoy improved customer service and client retention.'

Indian Companies in the THE ACHIEVERS 50 MOST ENGAGED WORKPLACES™ AWARDS list -

• Infosys Limited
• Tata Consultancy Limited

Social Media Enagagement Strategy

Current efforts of engaging employees using social media has been limited to at best having a social media presence and building networks with employees. However the future of social media engagement would be drastically different and unimaginable.


The ‘internal’ resources are the set of employee that an organization has and the ‘external’ resource are the vast untapped talent in the eco-space. In my opinion the companies can use both a ‘passive’ and an ‘active’ social media engagement with these communities. Hence we create something like four combinations out of this theory – ‘Passive Internal’, ‘Active Internal’, ‘Passive External’ and ‘Active External’. I shall try to expalin each one, without necessarily intellectualising the post:

The first one ‘Passive Internal’ essentially involves using social media to passively engage the internal resource i.e. the employees. This happens through communication of company’s happenings, changes, achievements, future plans etc. Through company blogs, letting employees network among themselves, letting employees share their employment experiences and even letting employees share how they can innovatively use the products of their company for example employees of some retail companies have shared pictures & posts on Pinterest which is like a virtual bulletin boards about the garment combinations that they have used during the weekend . Alcatel-Lucent uses several social media tools in its business, including internal social media networks created specifically for employees. Within this framework, employees can engage and converse with each other about pretty much anything. Facebook-like platform – Infy Bubble, Cognizant 2.0 or C2, Wikis and Justask at Tata Consultancy Services, Channel W and My Wipro World at Wipro Technologies, Ideabank of BankWest, Australia are few but very strong examples.

The ‘Active Internal’ is where company uses social media to seek ideas, suggestions from their employees. The company also tries to connect with employees and their families and even tries to leverage internal talent identification and internal head-hunting using social media. At Dell, social media is becoming a part of everything that employees do. It is used in internal collaboration, product development, social commerce as well as talent acquisition. Some of the social media tools embraced by Dell include Salesforce.com’s Chatter tool for internal social networking as well as a number of internal blogs and instant messengers. These are great for sharing information, forming project-based or interest-based groups and generally breaking down the silos you’d expect in a large organization.

The passive and active are essentially interpreted in the above two cases according to the one-way or two-way bridges built by the company. In passive mode the idea is to inform and/or provide a platform to employees to share. Whereas in active mode the company wants to hear from employees, explore their potential and tap in to the same.

The ‘Passive External’is the next phase that basically sees a company reaching out to the willing social media contributors in the eco-space and networking with them, often involving them through discussion groups, followership etc. The idea is to create brand advocacy groups and get connected with the cast willing talent base outside the institutional employees. For example about 5 months back the Asst.Vice President and Head of Training & Development Division at Sharjah Islamic Bank, United Arab Emirates started a discussion on one of the groups in Linkedin – ‘’Another name for "Training Department". Hundreds of suggestions have poured-in and more than anything its has given an opportunity for the bank to connect to many training professionals and organizations, that it can possibly tap into more actively later.

Finally the ‘Active External’ happens through the much talked about social media recruitment, back-channel referencing and talent poaching. Under the title ‘By Graduates for Graduates’, Unilever’s Future Leaders Programme sees current graduates helping to recruit the next graduate intake by managing the social networks sites.

In these two cases, the passive and active interpretations are slightly different. The passive efforts with the external resource essentially lets company network with millions of talent outside the boundaries of the company ho are willing to contribute and the company can tap into their potential by c0nnecting with them, using heir ideas and inputs and by creating a greater brand-affinity amongst this talent base. Whereas, the active mode, sees the company trying to use social media to build more efficiencies into its HR system.

The Ides of August

“…At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom…” who can forget these famous speech! These lines resounded literally in my ears last night as I could not sleep since the power supply was disrupted and not restored till morning. But I am not losing hope, I am hopeful that at least by today evening before the independence day celebrations are over, we shall again have electricity. And, we should be thankful that we do not have to burn paraffin wax more than one or two nights in a row for light. We have a power connection!!! And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

Anyways, my day started and since I had to go for celebrations somewhere, I decided to have a quick bath. The tap in the bathroom started spewing muddy water as soon as I turned it on. The water seemed unfit even for irrigation. Hence I paused my bath and thought of enquiring the reason for the brownish black water in the bathroom. Our building association secretary told me that the rain gods have to be blamed for the same. I was puzzled, but she quickly explained that since this year it has rained less, hence the borewell is spewing mud with water. She was helpless and asked me to wait for the rains. I did not know that while living in this IT city, I was sharing destiny with the farmers in Vidharbha who wait for the rain clouds to be pleased for the farms to be irrigated. I never got this great feeling of brotherhood. And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

After somehow managing to make myself presentable, I caught-up with the morning newspaper to glance through the headlines. A shocker awaited me as the day’s headlines screamed about a ghastly incident about a couple who had become victims of honour killing in the hands of their own blood relatives. The couple’s intercaste marriage against the will of their familes was their only fault. They leave behind an 8 month old daughter. Caste is above human feelings and human life and even above an orphan infant’s helpless wails? 65 years have not changed certain things it seems – perhaps this is what is called rooted to tradition. And they say…we must feel proud!!! And indeed they are all honourable men.

Time to go! So without wasting any more time, I took-out my car on the road. Like every day, the road felt a little bumpier. The little rain that we had this year has been enough to leave its marks on the road in form of potholes. The ones formed yesterday have grown bigger today and the one forming today shall definitely grow deadlier tomorrow. I recalled that the road had been laid only last year. Wow! The road has lasted full one year! And think of it after these rain (or no rains) we have hopes for an all-new road once again! That’s too good…besides the new tarred surface that we shall get, it shall provide economic advantage to few. What if it that advantage is skewed in the favour of some? One of the PWD minister of a northern state has been reportedly quoted telling to the PWD employees that ‘if you work hard, you can steal a little’. New road…the thought of it sends me in a frenzy… And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

Still in my thoughts, I was driving my car and was yet to hit the main road. Just then I saw a group 5-6 kids playing on the road, enjoying their freedom. Since the kids were encroaching the road, I had to stop my car. What surprised me though was that adults accompanying the kids were standing on the roadside and happily chatting. When I asked the kids to move, the adults on the roadside glanced at me and again went back to their chat. I could overhear them talking about a biker who must have passed that place a while ago and they were cursing him – ‘what can’t he see the kids play, he should have not sped in that way…’Hmm! So it is the biker’s fault, after all kids would play on roads and he should have been more careful, right? Everyone here treats the road in front of his house or apartment as his own playing ground. What a great feeling of one community… And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

After negotiating the community lanes, I hit the main road and within seconds I found myself drowned in the sea of maddening traffic. But you know what, on our roads you can just overtake from any side you like, change lanes at you will, honk as much as you want, stop whenever and wherever you like to, turn your vehicle wherever the thought hit you of doing so, not get surprised if a cow or buffalo is in your company and so on. In truest sense, if you want to experience freedom, come and drive on our roads. Where else would you find a road that lets you do whatever you want… And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

The route that I took was to pass by a railway station. As my car reached near the station, there was a huge traffic jam. A multitude of people were scrambling to enter the premises of the railway station with their belongings. I was amazed at the huge unusual rush. I asked one person that had railways started some special train or given some independence day special offer that they were all mobbing the place. Instead, I was told that that there had been some threats of attacks that have been given to people from a particular north-eastern state, in light of the recent riots in that state and violence in another city. Fearing the attacks thousands of innocent civilians were forced to flee the city that they had chosen for their livelihood. I wondered whether it is the great migration post-independence that we were witnessing! Those who had issued the threat are among those people who never fail to ensure that we get to witness history even if we have missed creation of the same before, time and again. And they say…we must feel proud!!! And they are all honourable men.

I thought it best to turn my car back and return to the safe environs of my home. I was so happy to see my family again. Rest of the day I spent just enjoying the celebration on display in the ‘idiot box’. As I write these lines, I do not know who is preparing to take the capital on seize for their political gains as millions struggle to go to work or return back to homes, how many more girls are being killed in womb or how many brides are being burnt alive for money, how many girls are being harassed by the moral police brigade for teaching them a lesson… Surprisingly when I share this with people many of them tell me to be more positive and feel proud of our country’s rich heritage and history. And if they say…we must feel proud!!! After all they are all honourable men.