Listening – A rare and an extinct quality!
In the world that constantly wants to speak and be heard, listen seems almost a forgotten skill!
And how costly it is! Yet we do not realise it!
God gave us two ears and one month – But we do not understand!
Listen to customers and business will never fail!
Listen to employees and success will soar!
Listen to friends and relationships will enrich!
Listen to kids and family will smile!
Listen to heart and life will thrive!
Winning At Life & Sports – Monday Morning Motivation As Olympics Conclude!
One Of The Finest Talks By The Wise & Accomplished Harsha Bhogle – A Trailblazer!
Indian Institute Of Management Ahmedabad Is India’s Best & World’s Finest Management Institute – Watch A Life Masterclass By Its Alumni Who Succeeded In The Non-Traditional IIMA Profession
– Can you work as hard as you can when no one is watching?
– Humility and gratitude matter the most
– Patriotism is in paying taxes, not Instagram posts
– Big orchards encourage other trees to blossom
Happy to see the reinforcement of these amazing nuggets laced with cricketing and non-cricketing examples! Loved it!
Imagination and creativity are the only passports for a meaningful future in the AI driven world!
Paul Daugherty, Accenture Group Chief Executive & Chief Technology Officer , is spot on when he says: “The hottest new programming platform is the napkin.”
Focus on the vision and leave the execution to AI enablers!
Image: Alex Padurariu
Are you a spectator or doer?
What is your default position?
The roles may differ as per life stage and situation but leaders drive change and are always willing to share. Influencing change, driving action, defining trends and making things happen!
Remember the Covid promises?
Covid was one of the biggest disruptors of our times – which forced us to evaluate our whole lives and existence. Our perspectives towards everything changed – career, health, family, relationships and self. We reprioritised our life and made several promises to self and the world.
As the world has bounced back to normal, we seem to have forgotten the covid lessons. How many of us are still living the covid promises that we made? Are you?
#life #sunshine #purpose #lifepurpose #covid #covid19 #lifegoals #dreams #love #bliss #mondaymotivation #mondaymood
All of the above and much more!
Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard, is a Netflix Documentary that unfolds one of the biggest corporate corruption and financial fraud case of the recent times! Wirecard went bust after its dubious malpractices were discovered and a staggering $1.9 billion was found missing from its books. Skandal! is based on Financial Times’ Dan McCrum’s book ‘Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth’. Dan was the person who unravelled the Wirecard fraud.
Skandal! explains the entire Wirecard drama and its intricacies in a lucid and engaging manner – through a mixture of graphical story telling, rich interviews and brilliant insights. The journalists where followed and spied by Wirecard’s investigators. They were suspended due to smart counter-allegations by Wirecard and a short trader was threatened by thugs. Lots of interesting histrionics!
How did Wirecard execute the scam? Who were responsible? While Skandal! answers such questions about the Wirecard saga, its raises important queries as well:
Lots of truth is still not unknown. The former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek disappeared shortly and is currently wanted by the German police. He is listed on Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted fugitives. CEO Braun resigned and was arrested on suspicion of false accounting and market manipulation.
Watch it!
A few thoughts do emerge….
As always, it was the Wirecard employees, customers and common investors who had to pay the price!
Wirecard had some of the best and extremely talented technologists and business experts, who brought great ideas to life. Many innovative ideas came to an abrupt end and many employees suffered for no fault of theirs.
Wirecard was a darling of investors. The whole financial world watched how Wirecard surpassed CommerzBank and Deutsche Bank, the traditional Financial heavyweights. There was a move to buy Deutsche Bank as well. All investments turned sour!
And biggest casualty was the image of Germany and Germans – extremely hard working, honest, focussed, passionate and determined champions!
The Corona Virus has changed the world. It is the first universal crisis that has affected everyone across the board. The world is clearly going to be divided into pre-Corona and post-Corona world. For better. For worse. Time will well.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to reiterate the commitment to customers. It is a natural reaction to safeguard one’s own existing business. But can you think about the customer’s business? What challenges are they facing? How can you ensure that their business is not affected? Can the teams ensure business as usual? The customer will notice all the actions that an organisation will take for living the promises and delivering value. And will you go beyond? How will the customer’s business change due to the crisis? How can you help them? It can help you identify new opportunities but win the long-term respect of the customer.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to innovate. The status quo is the enemy of innovation in many organizations. The crisis is the best time to challenge the status quo. The crisis is the time to go to the drawing board and think of new ideas and new business models. Corona Virus has opened up time and resources for many organizations. Make the most of the same.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to redefine the business. Digital ready business will have an advantage over the traditional businesses and push the overall digital agenda across all organizations including public services. Digital, healthcare, telecom etc. are the obvious winners in the short term. But all businesses will have to think of the post Corona business situation and prepare – the ones that will adapt will thrive!
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to win and re-engage with employees. The relentless pursuit of execution excellence often blinds an organization to the people behind the success. The organisational hierarchies, systems and work pressure often adds to the distance. This is the perfect time to find the human hearts behind the employees. How an organization will treat the employees in this period will determine the success of the organization for a long time to come. How the organization will protect their interests will speak volumes about the ethics of the organisation. And the organizations that will go beyond the realm of legal compliance and money and stand together with the employees will buy long term loyalty and respect.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to connect to the family. Many are not used to spending lot of time with family members. After the initial awkwardness, people will discover the simple pleasures of family life – cooking with kids, fun of dancing together, exploring a hobby or reliving the journey – many things that usually take a backseat in the busy life. Celebrate what makes you click as a family. Create a family value chart and write the family history. Create a new ritual or do something totally crazy. Lack of time is usually the biggest culprit for any relationship breakdown – now that you have time, make it count!
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to prepare for the future of living. The remote workplace and digital lifestyle has got its biggest boost with the Corona Virus induced lockdown. How we work, how we live, how we learn, how we stay healthy, how we grow – all this will determine the template for future.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity for each and every nation to show its crisis management skills and the empathic care of its citizens. The national health system and the entire government machinery will have to adopt extremely agile thinking and coordinated execution. It is an opportunity to test continual of delivery of the essential services and protect critical infrastructure while facing a contagion crisis.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity for the world to invest in universal and global healthcare goals. Corona Virus has shown that no country can work in isolation. It is a perfect time for collaboration between countries to think of the long-term solution for medical issues. Research funding needs to be accelerated along with investment in local and grassroot delivery infrastructure. The Corona Virus provides an opportunity to think about how to prevent the next crisis? And understand where the world failed in current crisis’ prediction and what was learnt?
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to invest in self. The ‘always-on’ mode leaves with us limited time for self. The ‘someday’ activities and passion projects keep on piling up. This is the perfect time to take up those pending projects. Take an online course or learn a new skill. Prepare for the next stage of career growth. Take an obituary test or challenge yourself for a 21-day habit change. Prepare the bucket list. Paint your dreams. Create smart goals for the lockdown time.
The Corona Virus is an opportunity to give. Many of us are in privileged positions. Except for being confined to our homes, we do not suffer major hardships. But there are millions whose daily livelihood is affected. Closure of schools affects the kids who depended on their daily meals in the schools. Senior citizens are struggling. Children are neglected. Offer help to the medical fraternity, government officials and their families. Help the less privileged brethren. Give time, energy, thought and financial help for the less fortunate ones. There has never been a perfect time to give. Give, give, give.
Corona has changed the world and we still do not the full impact yet! Be positive and look at the bright side. Everyone will emerge better, stronger and faster – together!
Image: Marc Olivier Jodoin
The article first appeared on Thrive Global on March 25, 2020
Trust Kevin Pietersen to remain in limelight ! He has the power to move the needle – on the ground and off the ground ! He is a genius and a great talent – no two doubts on that. He can single-handedly change the course of matches and win series. His records, statistics and victories endorse him as the cricket’s most complete batsman. But he has been in middle of controversies as well – and pretty strong and public controversies!
Recently Pietersen’s England cricketing career came to an end after he was denied a place in the English side. He was told that he is no longer part of the team’s plans. This was a very controversial and bold move by English Cricket Board (ECB). Because England Team has not been performing well and even exited the recent World Cup very early. Only a miracle can help English team to win the upcoming Ashes against mighty Australia. On the other hand, Pietersen has been performing extremely well. He even scored a exemplary 355 not out recently in first class cricket. He has a good track record against Australia. So it made perfect sense for Pietersen to be in the English squad. But he was not included in the squad due to his past vitriolic against his team mates. Apparently, there exists a trust deficit. So was this is the right move by ECB?
Should ECB look at the past and deny Pietersen a chance? Especially when English team is already down and needs all the help it can get. Is the job of ECB and captain to pick the best players to win the match or ensure happiness of few team members? Is winning more important or team ethic more important?
Some people feel that winning is the most important thing. Even if you do not like a person, you still work with that person for winning and achieving organizational objectives. Personal issues cannot be brought to professional arena. The contrarian school of thought says that sports is about teaching life values. So it is the right message to everyone that team is above everything and everyone. If team ethic is not respected, no victory is worth it.
Thus the Kevin Pietersen Saga brings out the classical people management dilemma – individual brilliance vs team ethic.
Quite often in corporate world, we come across individual champions and star performers that challenge the organizational culture and team spirit. The star performers feel that they can get away with anything as they are ahead of the pack. They can have huge egos and less respect for hierarchies, systems and shared values. The sales person who is achieving targets or achieving better targets than others thinks that he can get away with anything. He can break the policies, ignore shared culture, outgrow superiors and challenge other departments. The super talented programmer thinks that HR policies are for others, QA reports are work of fiction and corporate security and compliance policies are anti-open source and freedom movement. The situation becomes more tricky when the said person has less competition within the organization. The situation becomes really explosive when the said person starts pulling down others in the organization. How do you deal with this situation?
If some minor policies are not followed or small rules broken, it can be overlooked. But core values and critical ethical issues cannot be ignored. The short terms costs will be there when action is taken against that player, but the long term results will be rewarding. Corporate cultures thrive on shared values and examples / anecdotes like these do wonders for defining and cementing corporate values.
The true genius and true great understands the importance of respecting others, respecting organizational policies and contribution of other team members. True greatness comes from being a positive contributor rather than a terrible irritant. If you have a problem with policies, sit with HR and management – you will be listened better than others because of star performance. The real great will work with the laggards and help them. One may not agree with everything, but it is a corporate dharma to follow the organizational stand and present a unified face.
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Pointing, Brian Lara, Viv Richards – All Greats have worked within the defined frameworks and showcased maturity. Thus Kevin Pietersen failed this true genius test.
Every team, club or organization is bigger than the individual and overall best interests take precedence. It is in the interest of a star performer to be follow the corporate dharma. It converts the star performer into a great professional.
Anita Elberse’s Blockbusters is one of the must read books in the entertainment world today. It makes a refreshing and a strong argument for the cause of Blockbusters.
Anita Elberse is an award-winning scholar at Harvard Business School. She teaches a course on Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries, covering the businesses of entertainment, media, and sports. Her book ‘Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment’ is awarded Amazon’s “Best Books of 2013” in the Business and Investing category.
According to Anita, the blockbuster strategy ensures higher success rate at box office and reduce risk. Blockbuster strategy of investing in big potential winners reaps rich rewards across industry segments – movies, sports, video games, music bands, hotels, restaurants, electronics. She uses examples of Warner Brothers, Beyonce, Argentinian Soccer Clubs, Jay-Z etc to drive home the point. For example, Warner Bros. earned more than 40% of revenues from the top 10% of films produced from 2007 to 2011. In 2011, 102 music tracks, 0.001% of the eight million tracks on offer that year, sold more than a million units, representing 15% of total music sales. That’s up from 36 tracks with more than a million units sold in 2007, representing 7% of sales. At the other end of the curve, 94% of all tracks in 2011 sold fewer than 100 units, and 32% sold only one copy.
Blockbuster Strategy is exploiting the “winner-takes-it-all” strategy. Studios should focus on more Blockbuster movies and produce less movies.
If you think more about, the strategy is clearing shaping the world around us. The energies that are behind launching mobile phones are example of Blockbuster strategies. See how Samsung launches its new phones.
In Indian context, the same phenomena are clearly visible. The biggest Indian movie of recent time was Dhoom 3. It was the first movie to reach near INR 5 Billion (85 Million USD). Incidentally, Indian movies first reached the 1 Billion INR mark only in 2010 onwards. India’s biggest sporting league is Indian Premiere League (cricket). It mimics NFL. India’s top singer is Honey Singh today. He has taken over the imagination of India. He is our equivalent of Beyonce and Jay-Z strategies.
Infact, India is under the election fever. And the front runner for PM Post has emerged as his party favorite using the Blockbuster strategy. What he did in his party, he is doing at the national level.
Finally, Blockbuster Strategy is carpet bombing the masses. It is mass strategy. The world is also moving towards more customized experiences. The world is moving towards niches. Toward slow movement. It could be the big challenger to Blockbuster strategy.
Culture Trumps Strategy
For a company to succeed, strategy is important, but a great culture is paramount. It’s the one distinguishing feature that a competitor can’t duplicate. So how does one go about planting the seeds of a great culture? First, leaders must surround themselves with the best and the brightest — people with extensive experience and high emotional intelligence. Second, leaders must be compassionate. People are the most engaged, the most passionate, and the most productive when they’re listened to, and when they’re encouraged to grow and learn new skills.
SOURCE: Creating a Culture of Unconditional Love by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz via Harvard Business Review