Of Comparisons and Bad

A few 'bad' lessons learnt from my trip to Australia, I don't claim to be a know it all, and many may not agree with what I say, but this was very plain when I saw it:


We're not as well known as we think we are. When I was in my internship, I was actually asked by someone if I had learnt English only after I had arrived or if I knew it before. Even assuming that this person knew nothing about the outside world, it's enough to make any educated Indian gasp. This is the level of awareness about India.

Majority of the people (at least the lesser travelled ones) consider India to be an impvoerished country full of famine and hunger. And we are people belonging to that impoverished country.

One of the main reasons we're hired from India is not because we're smart, but because we are smart AND cheap. Indian people can be supported on up to one - tenth the wages of a person with a similar skill set in the western world. Plus, we have a different work ethic, to slog and slog, and that is why a company would want to hire Indians. And that is why many software companies are succeeding in a way. In a sense, we are slaves to the western economy working as cheap labour. And Indian companies are more than happy to use this formula.

We're not bold enough to assert ourselves. We don't talk back or fight back.

Most of the Indians who had newly arrived, had a poor set of soft skills, its not that I am a smooth talker and a perfect example for all, but it was very evident. One could of course easily argue that small talk in India is different from small talk in the west. Even then, we don't have tact in approaching people, or tact in giving a presentation (exceptions to this rule are there among my own friends) or tact in what topics to speak when. We've got to learn that talking loud in a restaurant is rude!

We give too much correllation between age and seniority, which is stupid. The better correllation would be between merit/skills and seniority. Thats why in a sense, the office environment outside India is different.

We have a long way to go in terms of infrastructure. Our roads are horrible, our airports are too slow, our banks require kilometers of red tape to be cut, our people don't have civic discipline (myself included), we don't have adequate support for people with disabilities and so on. Having said this, we're improving, but too slow, too slow.

We follow the herd, and keep thinking about doctors and engineers, not many people realize that some of the highest salaries for jobs in my college placements are given to people working in Mining and Metallurgy or Civil or Naval Architecture. Yet these branches are ranked really low, because they're not "the in thing". What good is an electrical or computer engineer without roads to travel to work or ships for goods transfer, metallurgy deals with nano materials promising to replace our current silicon technologies. Every field has a scope, from what I saw, it doesn't matter if you're a plumber or a district magistrate, two things are most important, first your character, second your skills. They decide your position, not your degrees.

We're horribly late for appointments as if is fashionable to do so, we don't plan our ways, we hustle and bustle and push for our means, rather than letting the pedestrian cross the road and slowing down a bit.

There are a lot of good things I learnt too, and I'll put them up in my next post!!! So don't kill me yet!


Berhael

Of speeches and Inspiration

A speech given by Mr. Narayana Murthy at the New York University (Stern School of Business), really enjoyed it. Hope you do too.

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.

I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.

The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.

A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.

First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.

Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.

Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.

By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.

All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.

This was a turning point for Infosys.

Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.

I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.

Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.

My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?

Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?

I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.

A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.

Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery!

Berhael

Of Trust and Classes

It's a new concept to me, I must admit. Maybe because before I used to feel it, but only now am i grappling with its definitions. Why definitions? Because my mind needs to characterize and analyze and then implement (very comic trend if you ask me). I seem to have to deal with and fill myself with one word - Trust.

Until a few months ago, I used to wonder what trust is all about. Now it seems to be kind of clearing up. It's like when you trust someone, you tell yourself, there is no way they could possibly mean bad for you consciously. True they might muff up sometimes or might hurt you with their comments, but in the long run, their desire is to see you successful, see you do well in life. And if do something good, if something good happens to you, no one is more happier than them. You've got to believe that about them.

I've learned that it means you've got be honest with the other person, not worry about whether he or she will get angry, and that you shouldn't hold anything inside. If you have some problem, say it, all the while remembering that he/she will not judge you in anyway based on this single incident because in the long term you are a good person and have been then when required and thats what they appreciate about you. True sometimes, people might be busy, have other issues which they might not want to talk about, but then again, you've got to trust them and think, ok no problem, he/she will tell me if its important, otherwise, its something they can deal with on their own. It doesn't mean anything else.

I guess it also means, that if two people fight, you tell yourself, its only temporary and that you both truly care for each other and want the best for each other. And ITS TRUE!!! Thats where the trust comes, where you believe in the other person. This belief is not based on past history or on whether or not you had cornflakes for breakfast, but its just belief. Sometimes for no apparent reason, you believe in them because you do. Thats it. There is no logic to it. And that gives you a sense of security, that you can "trust" them, whatever it is. That kind of comfort is unlike any material comfort you can ever have. It gives you a sense of confidence in yourself too.

You might have your differences, your own quirks, your own idiosyncrasies, sometimes even to the point of irritation of the other person, but thats what makes you unique and thats what makes you crazy. And guess what, it doesn't mean squat, because the bottom line he/she trusts you and vice-versa.

It's very tough to trust, much more when your trust is broken by someone else. You keep putting one foot forward and are scared to lift the other leg because you don't want to trip and fall and get hurt. You get very scared to take that big step and in some sense "sell" a part of yourself to someone. But it has to happen man. I mean come on, sure you've made mistakes, sure there are times when you feel, oh shit, what if it doesn't work out, what if the same thing happens again and I feel more hurt. But don't let that one bad experience prevent you for going forward, there is/are one person/many persons who will be there for you and seriously you'd be losing a hell of a lot if you don't believe in him/her/them. You'd lose all those joyful times of hanging out, sharing your successes, being there for sad times, those bear hugs, those beer parties in the night, getting sincere congratulations, listening to the sound of their laughs, laughing at their antics/wise-cracks, and being there. And nothing in the world compares to the joy of watching a smile on the face of someone you trust and knowing very well that you put that smile on his/her face. It literally makes your day or even your week. :) And honestly, it's there for the taking for everyone.

You've got to stop picking on the bad points, and blind yourself to the good points. You've got to say hey we've had so much fun times, why don't I use those times and tell myself oh my god, I've got such a good friend! What the hell am I doing with the times he/she missed out. Those are like few and far between anyway and even if they missed out every time, even though I feel bad, I'll forget it, because they would probably be feeling worse than me about it, very sincerely. And they might be having genuine reasons why. And even if they've not come, forget it dude! Talk to them and say its okay, and that next time they should come. And still ask them the next time. THAT is where the trust comes in.

It means not talking for days on end and still knowing then when you talk later, you can smile and give each other a hug and catch up and talk like nothing ever passed by. It means always knowing that whenever you're in times of need, the first person you can turn to will be them and though they might not say they're sad or that they are feeling bad about it, they do really really care for you and would do anything for you if they could (okay maybe not sponge baths, but we'll be lenient). That is very important, because it gives you stability.

Oh and develop some self confidence while you're at it, because you are a nice person, and there is absolutely no reason why no one should not like you.

I hope this wasn't too naive. I certainly believe in everything I said and I hope my message is clear to all.

Yours Sincerely

Berhael