Reflections

  Why Large Indian Corporates Fail at Innovation A recent piece in the Business Standard accurately pointed out a glaring problem in India’s business landscape: while our startups build frontier tech and the government successfully drives massive digital and defense innovations, our large, legacy private corporations are lagging. The popular consensus often blames this on "rent-seeking"—the idea that large incumbents are too comfortable operating as oligopolies in protected markets to bother with R&D and building innovative ideas and stoking innovation and experimentation in their organisations.   While rent-seeking is certainly a factor, in my long experience of large organisations, it is not the predominant one. When you spend decades in the trenches of corporate strategy and execution, a very different reality emerges. Companies do not actively hold board meetings and vote against innovation. Instead, they fail because of a massive structural and cultural misali...

In   the month a product of a company gets recalled due to performance issues in one country – it gets approval in another country. This statement is by itself more than enough to start a series of questions in your mind; starting with - how could it be so careless, or worse?   The same product, as per news reports, mind you. The deeper you go into the case, the more the questions that arise. Despite being aware of complaints, the said company went ahead with imports of that product. It gets even more murkier as you go into the case further. Be that as it may; my article is not about that case; so let me just be circumspect. Suffice it to state that the above is basis a real story, mint-fresh and of latest vintage. A current news – though you would not know it, as only one Newspaper has complete damning coverage in the 5 that I checked. 1 of these 5 was silent on this; 3 had incomplete coverage. A side-thought here – that last bit seems just bit too coincidental,...

सत्यं परं पर ँ ꣳ सत्य ँ ꣳ सत्येन न सुवर्गाल्लोकाच्च्यवन्ते कदाचन सता ँ ꣳ हि सत्यं तस्मात्सत्ये रमन्ते ॥ १॥ (Mahanarayan Upanishad, 78 th Anuvaak 1 st Shlok) Truthfulness is excellent. What is excellent is truthfulness only. By truthfulness those who have attained to the state of blissfulness never fall from there. What belongs to Sat, namely good people   that is indeed satyam {truthfulness}. For this reason seekers of the highest good find delight in truthfulness Image Credit - Google Images Throughout our scriptures, we will find repeated emphasis on Satya, or truth. This theme is repeated and re-iterated in many sources, and constantly emphasized. But this above verse from Mahanarayanopanishad   is one that has struck the deepest in my heart – a verse that is so down to earth; so clear and precise; so touchingly heart-warming. Reading this verse brought me back to my old question –why is it so hard to be completely truthful in the real world...

I have been consistently highlighting the ethical aspects of a professional workplace in my writing. In the course of writing these articles, I came to realize that this is not a topic too many people like to discuss openly; this is a raw nerve for many people, due to various reasons. These reasons may be due to fear or worry of impact in their professional careers, but it is real. I too have felt this raw fear whenever I write on this topic – Ethics. Rare is the person who joins with my thoughts on this matter; I would certainly like to connect on a social plane with other such like-minded people. My articles have introduced me to many such people, happily – which has helped me to gain a far more positive outlook towards Corporate India. I am pleased to note that there are many people out there who have the same outlook, and are silent for various reasons. I   have had many conversations on this or related topics on various social media; most I cannot place on my blog...

I was enjoying my morning read of the Business Standard, when my eye fell upon a story – Facebook and Google helpedanti-Refugee campaign in Swing States, Business Standard, Friday 20thOctober . I  noticed this story, and marked it for later contemplation. The recent saga over Twitter usage by  Indian Politicians brought my mind back to this story – and its many implications. While the ethical & moral implications are also present – but most vital is the implication of this, and similar happenings we may or may not be aware of, for us the people as well as for democracy. Image Credit - Google Search It is one thing for a politician to openly come on Social Media – quite a few have done it quite successfully; they lay their views, attitudes, national plans, ideals, problems etc – like one Indian Politician. Others use Facebook, and especially  Twitter in their own names to further their own views etc. There is nothing wrong with that – in fact, that is act...

WELLS FARGO BACKDROP One of the latest videos running viral on Social Media currently is the brilliant takedown of the Wells Fargo Top Man by a Senator, an excellent demonstration of interrogative skills, diligent and fair research, and deep domain expertise combined into one devastating argument. For the unaware, in very short, The Well Fagro account fraud scandal is an ongoing controversy brought about by the creation of millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent. Various regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fined the company a combined $185 million dollars as a result of the illegal activity, and the company faces additional civil and criminal suits. You can read more on it here : Wells Fargo Accounts Scandal - Wiki THE SITUATION IN INDIA - A REAL WORLD EXAMPLE – TRUE CASE While I agree with the general contention of all who have voiced a regret that this is not ...

One of the rising themes of management discussion is the concept of work-life balance, compounded by rising stress in corporate life in India; quite a lot has been written about how we need to lessen the stress. Another theme is the concept of how Indian Managers don’t take or get leave too often, or rising lifestyle disease incidence and about rising burnout cases and so  on. Most articles I have read emphasize on a lot of points as a solution – namely, advocating leaves / smaller working hours / de-stressing and so on… sadly, most of these don’t take the overall corporate atmosphere into account. LITTLE ALTERNATIVE TO THE STATUS QUO Let me take a divergent view – that there actually little alternative to what is taking place, at least as of now. And the reason for that is that the current realities highlighted above are actually the symptoms of a larger malaise, or rather problem. We need to examine the overall atmosphere in which a modern corporate operates, the external...

This is a realisation that came to me hard when I was doing my habitual morning reading of The Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta; my thoughts on my learnings of two verses are tabulated below.  BE PRACTICAL, MY FRIEND – DON’T CHANGE THE WORLD Don’t try to change the world… Change Yourself… The headline of this article says it all; this is the most common rejoinder people get when they try to set an example, with one single refrain – aap duniya nahi badal sakte ; be practical, this is the way it is, and many other variations along this theme. Hidden in this lovely gem of a statement, this remarkably ignorant statement is a litany of problems, all of which hover around one single tragic theme in our society today. Some critics of this habit call it apathy, some selfishness, some a lack of confidence while some others blame it on the prevalent atmosphere.  CHANGE AGENTS There are two aspects or parameters to this, in my humble view; the first is ideological, and thoroughly...