Diwali Eve @ UBS

The SCMHRD Birthday Bash

Birthdays in SCMHRD always begin with ritualistic celebrations. They are the most awaited of events; spiced with fun, joy, laughter, revenge and plain old violence.

The ritual starts off with the preparation of the sacrificial lamb - in this case the birthday boy/girl. At 11:55, the roommates wish the lamb with a warm hug and a birthday greeting.

One minute later, the town criers arrive at the door. "MAAARRRROOOO!!!!" (Maro is a hindi word, which translated means "Hit Him"), they bellow. The cry echoes through the corridors and alerts all the souls to the upcoming ritual. This cry is uttered several times until a considerable "sena" gathers outside the door.

The lamb is then escorted down to the ground floor, to the place where the holy cake is placed. 

 

Last minute greetings are exchanged before the sacred, plastic (recyclable) knife is placed in the hands, err.. paws of the lamb.

While the cake is cut, the closest of friends stand close, so as to be the first ones to deliver the birthday kicks.

 

They will also be the first ones to be given a piece of the holy cake and they will also be the first ones to smear the cake on the lamb's face.

 
Then the lamb's face is smashed into the rich chocolate pastry and rubbed in, to ensure the butter softens the skin. (you need to look good on your b'day, right?)

 

Ritualistic rule #12: Do not spare any leftover cake. Ensure it is all on the lamb.

 

More kicking by some of the lamb's friends.
(Tip: Hold your butt tight. It mitigates the impact. So does the shorts inside the jeans)

 
Then is the water wash under the fire-hydrant.
(Tip: a nice way to get rid of the cake!)

 

Post event photos

                           

 

Then the lamb goes back, battered and bruised, soaked and buttered back to its den. After a wash up, the closest of friends join in for another cake cut. This time, for eating.
(Tip: Cutting the cake with a dental floss rather than the knife keeps the cream in tact and gives a cleaner cut!)

So ends the ritual. A few more hugs and wishes may follow. Then comes the part where the phone calls must be answered.

Then finally, for those who wish to keep their room clean, there is the cleaning ritual. But that is entirely optional :)

More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/clintonrozario/Birthday25

The most obstacle ridden day so far

This has been quite a day so far and I'm not allowing it to pass without noting the kind of obstacles I've faced. May it be a reminder of how bad things could possibly get, yet how I could be able to wade through it all.

Late start to the day with the 8.00 am call by Vetrivel. I remembered I had to wake with my alarm at 5 that morning. I had my Financial Statement Analysis assignment and the brochure of Priya Kher to complete. Already my study group was complaining about my lack of involvement in the assignment and my submission to PK was late by a day.

Conveniently ignoring these facts, I proceeded to complete my ablutions wondering how fresh a beer the previous night and a good night's sleep can make you. Good start to the day. Innovation workshop was scheduled at 9.15.

The innovation workshop was devoid of people. The 30 students had lost interest. In the midst of all the confusing PPTs people were going thru (I was not very active in the Innovation Workshop either) I ot a call for e-cell work. Strike One. Had to co-ordinate in the midst of the class for the Mira Bazaar, a fete in which we had to participate on Saturday, being part of the e-cell.

Strike Two came at 12.30 when my outgoing cell phone service got disconnected. The Airtel representative I had paid the bill to 10 days back had disappeared with the money. 850 bucks down the drain. And I was handicapped.

Strike Three was when different people kept giving me an unusually high number of missed calls and expected me to call back, which of course I was not able to do so because of my impaired phone.

Strike Four was when I found out I was to make the Innovation Workshop presentation to the client because Ashish and Sushrut were opting for the Branding Seminar to which I had offered them entry passes the previous day. I was happy that they were taking it but I was concerned because my level of knowledge on the project was very little.

Strike Five was when we found out that the regular bus to the city had a puncture. We were going to be late for the presentation to the clients. We were late by 10 minutes. The people at the client's end were top executives of a particular insurance company in India. Damn. Bad for college.

Strike Six was when we reached the Reliance Video Conferencing and realized that the facilities were not ready yet. We kept the clients waiting for a whole 20 minutes, with the video conference on, as we corrected the technical obstacles.

Strike Seven was when we found out that the client was not surprised by our findings. We seemed to have found nothing new. Ok…. So perhaps it was a problem on their side. Now we find out that our project is far from over.

Strike Eight was the biggest. Found out that the semester exams this time were postponed. Instead of ending on the 30th of Oct, college had postponed it till the 3rd Nov. I had already booked my tickets for the 1st. Air tickets. What's even worse, I had booked the air tickets initially on the 4th. Due to a free ticket scheme, I had forwarded my tickets to the 1st in order to get a 1800 Rs benefit. Now I will be losing 2600 bucks in the process. Damn! Financially correct decision at that time, strategically wrong!

Strike Nine. After the video conference I missed the bus back to college as I paid my Airtel bill. Now I wait in the Café Coffee Day outlet and type this over a cup of Ethiopian Quawah. Phew….. What a day.

And tomorrow morn I have to leave at 3 in the morning to accompany a guest from Mumbai for an Integrated Marketing Seminar at college. Apparently the guest is close to Subbu, my director. One screw up there and I'm dead. And he's in some part of Andheri. I have no idea of Mumbai city.

One day down… tomorrow, here I come!!!!

I'm Google-able~~!!!

Joy Supreme! I tried searching for "Clinton Rozario" on google... and guess what! I'm on the first 5 results!!! WHOOO HOOO!!!!

Damn, that feels good.

Now I can brag to new people who I meet, and say "Google me".

Weeee..... I love my name.

Experiment # 3440: My first self-bought Kurta

I walked into Fabmall one day with my roomie Denis Pillai,  as we waited for our other roomie Aditya Vetrivel for a discount lunch at Kobe's, the sizzler joint. I saw it, liked it, bought it... the kurta.

I must give credit to Ritesh and Maneesh for buying me my first kurta for my birthday three years back. And then credit to Maneesh again for my first kurta which I could wear for a friend's wedding. And now this is my first. I ust admit, these things are mighty comfortable. The only downside is carrying stuff in your pocket... the pocket tends to sag on a side. But overall, I like this piece.

Result: Experiment # 3438: Review of Foxit Reader 2.1 - The Light Weight PFD Reader

I've been using Foxit extensively in the past couple of days while doing the JPMC case study "The Deal" (which I mentioned about earlier); most annual reports of companies are best viewed in pdf format. Here's what I feel about the software:

(+) Foxit is very responsive. It opens up quite fast and closes (or at least disappears from screen) quite quickly. I'd say 3-5x times faster than the "other" PDF reader.

(+) It definitely lighter on memory. Yeah, maybe not with a 2mb footprint, but muuuccchh lighter than it's counterpart.

(+) The free-to-use tools are superb. Especially handy is the annotation tool, I find myself using it in a lot of places to note down ideas as I read my case.
I haven't used all of the tools extensively, but the line up is impressive.

(+) The free pdf writer and the pdf editor are also highly appreciated. But when it comes to pdf's which I have to send to other people, I would prefer to use PDF995. Foxit leaves an evaluation mark "Generated by Foxit PDF Creator © Foxit Software" on each printed page.

(-) The "Find" dialog box is a pain. It appears right in the middle of the window. I have to constantly move it around in order to see the text that it finds. Either it should move around automatically to reveal text that appears behind it, or the "Find" textbox should appear in the toolbar, like Firefox or the "other" PDF reader.

(-) There's a screen painting problem sometimes. When I open a 165 page document and search, the page on which the word is found is not drawn properly. It seems like the previous pages have overlapped it. When I minimize the window and maximize it again, the window draws itself well. It does not happen always. I think when too many programs run it happens.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
I've made Foxit my default PDF reader and kept the "other" reader as backup. If Foxit proves that it can handle all that the other reader can, then next time I format my system, I might simply "forget" to install the other reader. :)

Experiment # 3439: The Deal - A JPMC Case Study

Learning for an MBA student is in the form of case studies. You do get used to the 20 odd page case study in a couple of months... but then comes along those competitions, where they stick you with a big-fat one... 165 pages in this case!

JP Morgan had launched a nation-wide competition called "The Deal". It's a case study competition in which, if you win, you get a PPI (Pre-Placement Interview) from JP Morgan. Quite a lucrative deal! Good motivation to drudge thru the 165 pages.

The case is about the takeover of Safeway Inc (SWY) by Morrison (MRW). The former is in the US and the latter in the UK. While the actual takeover/merger did take place in 2004, this is still a case worth solving because the current global situation will affect the way the takeover is financed.

However, Mohit has his conspiracy theory. Says that JPMC is short on staff, that's why they are looking for a few good men (and women, of course).

I got good team mates, Ramachander Shenoy and Lakshman. Right now Lakshman's done most of the valuation and the finance stuff...(frankly, I've not understood some of the stuff he's done and said... he's gone that deep into valuation and financing options....) I'd say he's done a great job!

The SCMHRD Entrepreneurship Cell Logo

On request of one of my close friends, I'm putting up the SCMHRD eCell logo which I designed about a year back.

There's a little history behind it as well. In 2006, we (the eCell) were trying to build a brand image. We needed a logo. And as most stories go, we too had some frustrating times in coming up with the logo.

It was on one afternoon, bored in one of the guest lectures, I took my notebook and drew the scmhrd square. In order to make a cube I drew another square next to it. For some reason I put three leaves on the corner of the topmost box. Hey.. this looks nice... Hey, wait a minute... then the words scmhrd and ecell went in.. Eureka!!!! (No I did not strip and run around the auditorium in classic Archimedes style)

After a few iterations the top square became smaller. We didn't want to make ourselves appear bigger than the institute... (not just yet).

Subbu (my director) did not approve of the logo. He wanted something more like a banyan tree.... with topics dropping from the leaves.... "Sir, we have an event tomorrow, so let's try it out as a beta. We'll change this logo after that"... and the logo stuck.

And now I have a new eCell member Devinder telling me he wants to change the logo. Well,... I don't mind. As long as it looks better than mine! If that does happen, then this post will be proof that such a logo once existed. (and you-know-who designed it :)

Experiment # 3438: Trying Foxit - The Light Weight PFD Reader

Ashish Rathi's recommended this lite-weight software for reading PDF's... says it takes 2mb on memory... trying it out.. It's called FoxIt.... wonder if the name has anything got to do with FireFox.

Experiment # 3437: Online Personality

Meet Ajay D'souza. I'm glad to have met this guy. His website has got a hit-ranking higher than my SCMHRD's site. And to think he is studying here. For that matter, I think his ranking would out do any of the IIM sites as well.

He's inspired me to get online and create this Online Personality for myself. Why? In his words, "for name, fame and money". Superb logic. I think I'll do just that. So that explains the regular updates to my blogs. And the updates to my Google Photos. And my Google Calendar.

Might I take this opportunity to redirect the reader to an interesting blog of a good friend of mine, Mohit Malani.

Experiment # 3436: Google Calendar

It has been observed, in the course of career progress, that there are too many people trying to find out when you are free.

In the interest of making life easier for both them and yours truly, I have started to use Google Calendar. And this is my public Calendar.

'Twill be interesting to see what happens next....

Experiment # 3435: Jive Classes

All Anglo-Indians are known for dancing, ... ballroom, waltz, jive... well... almost all of them. Except some nerdy types like me who "forgot" to learn the fine art. Now that leaves me like a fish out of water, especially at family weddings.

Enter Amrita Sundar. My batchmate who is a professional dancer. She started classes for the jive, about two weeks ago. I've attended one class so far. I asked my Freshers Date Rekha to be my partner.

Hopefully I will be able to catch the basics before the next family wedding in Feb 08.

The Backlog

Ah... the Managerial Accounting backlog is done. The exam was completed at the stroke of 1600 hours and was it a relief.

In the 36 subjects that I had in my first year in SCMHRD, Managerial Accounting was the one subject that I flunked in. Quite an insult, especially for a Commerce Grad from Loyola College, Chennai. But then, I've always had problems with cost accounting.

We got the smae Mid Term paper that we gave last year. That was a breather. And I had Sindhu sitting beside me, so we "verified" each other's answers. :)

Now since that is out of the way, I can move on to other things... oh no... There's this Knowledge Management Systems class tomorrow... my class has not progressed on its assignments.... Looks like out whole class is going to get a backlog in that if we do not shape up.

Interview with Narayan Murthy - The Video

Rahul - Clinton - Narayan Murthy Interview Part 1 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1030612

Rahul - Clinton - Narayan Murthy Interview Part 2 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1030645

The transcript is below this blog entry.
Apologies for the low quality video and sound. That was recorded with a Nikon L5 Digicam.

Preface and Epilogue to Interview with Narayan Murthy

22 Aug 2007

Tomorrow I meet Mr Narayan Murthy for an interview on entrepreneurship.

So far, it has been quite an eventful journey from Pune to Bangalore. It started last night.

Rahul and I took the last bus to the city from college at 9.00 pm. The Coimbatore Express would arrive at 2:00 am. To kill the spare time we had, we left our bags in the custody of the Atur Center Security guards and headed off to E-Square (the multiplex). We were already late for the start of “28 weeks later”. About 20 minutes late, but we still would kill time.

The movie turned out to be quite a letdown. There were the usual scenes of the masses getting infected with a deadly virus and the infected running around biting other people.

We left the theatre at about 11:30, picked up our bags and headed to the station. At the station I pulled out the last book of Harry Potter (thanks to Amrita for the book) and read away. Rahul was reading an interview of Dr Prannoy Roy with Mr Murthy on my E50 Nokia phone. Then I got a call from The-One-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named and we spoke for about an hour. We spoke about new business plans and new beginnings in professional life.

At 1:45 the train rolled onto platform 3. We got our waiting-list tickets confirmed in coach S6. As Rahul and I walked…. S11, S10, S9… oh goodness, a huge crowd of Pune college girls in S8… and in S7!… none in S6. Rahul and I looked at each other… better luck next time.

We found our seats and hit the pillow immediately. The 6 other seats in our coupe were empty.

At around 3 in the morning I woke to sounds of arguments… ahh.. some girl is disagreeing with the TC. In the morning I woke to find all the berths around us occupied. Wait a minute… why do all the figures under all the blankets look so slender? Odd. Then a blanket came off a bit and a girl looked around and went back to sleep. Oh great! We have 6 Pune girls sitting around us! Weee.. this is the first time I’ve got so lucky.

When I had to brush my teeth, I found out that the number lock in by briefcase was stuck. Drat. No amount of prying made it open. Damn good lock.

Hours later, after a few games of Bluff (the card game, silly) and bits of snacks they had brought along (they had a full bag of it) I was bored. They were good fun, but no intellectually stimulating conversation. Dhara, Pooja, Gauri, Sneha, Pokie (that’s her nick name) and one more, who I do not remember. Rahul could tag along better than I. I pulled out the Potter book.

We arrived at Bangalore after the 20 hour journey at 10:15 pm. Hungry, we stopped to get some roties and dal, which took a good 40 minutes. At the restaurant, we bumped into a bunch of Belgian lady tourists who thought that Rahul was almost an exact replica of their friend in Belgium. He stood while they snapped his photo for to take home. How weird can life get?

There were no more city busses at 11:15. We opted for a prepaid auto. Worse, my cell phone was totally discharged. Maneesh had given me instructions to reach his place, that seemed to be enough. 30 minutes later, after dropping off Rahul I reached the vicinity of Maneesh’s place.There was no electricity. Pitch dark. No phone booth around. My cell phone was dead. Nuts, how bad can things get. After a few rounds around the place, we found a one-rupee-coin phone. Good.

Nuts, I did not have a rupee on me. I looked at the Auto-rickshaw driver who promptly handed me a rupee. When I put the rupee into the telephone and dialed the number, it said “45 seconds remaining”. Maneesh… quick tell me where to come…!

15 minutes later, Maneesh picked me up and an hour later (after breaking open my permanently locked briefcase) I was fast asleep promising myself I would get up early to prepare the questions for the interview. I realized next morning I woke late by three hours.

23 Aug 2007

Today has been yet another red-letter day. Today I met Mr. Narayan Murthy in person, in his office and interviewed him on “entrepreneurship”.

A little background: three weeks ago, Rahul Rajagopalan, a freshman, obtained a time slot to meet Mr Murthy. Every SCMHRD-ian has to interview one CXO and one entrepreneur before they join. Being in Infy before joining SCMHRD, Rahul naturally tried to get an appointment with his Chief Mentor. Circumstance had it that Mr Murthy was out of the country. But Rahul was smart and did not let go of the contact he had with Mr Pandu, Mr Murthy’s PA.

In the first week of August, Rahul got a time slot to meet Mr Murthy – 23^rd Aug, 2:00 pm, for 25 minutes. When he went to Subbu with his information, Subbu wanted him to interview Mr Murthy from the point of view of an entrepreneur. So, chance had it that Rahul decided to ask me to accompany him for the “entrepreneur” angle. I am so thankful to him for the offer.

With a late start to the day, I finished a quick breakfast with Maneesh before parting with the friend who has always been there when I needed help. Rushing over to Rahul’s place, I contemplated the questions to ask Mr Murthy. By mind was the same as it was three weeks ago – numb, blank, with no idea what questions to ask him.

After two hours of ruminating over the set of questions we had, and creating a 7 slide ppt on the eCell we headed off to Electronic City.

I had no idea of the size of the Infy campus in Bangalore. All I know is the security guard at the entrance both did his job well and was one of the most courteous people I’ve met. We waited for Mr Pandu to finish his meeting, since we needed to wait for him to ok our entry into Mr Murthy’s room. We walked into Mr Murthy’s room at 2:15 after greeting the jolly Mr Pandu.

Mr Murthy gave us a whole 20 minutes of time. We went through our lineup of questions and he diligently answered all of them. After the 20 minutes (it seemed much shorter than that) were over, he ended it with a clap and a smile, “Wonderful” he said. That brought a smile to my face, … one of those smiles which come out of pure joy, one that cannot be suppressed. After a couple of photos for the album (ours, that is) he commented on the innovation that is the digital camera. Man, what an observant individual.

We left his office, still on a high and headed for the food courts. After two kati rolls and a Kapi Nirvana at the stalls in the campus, I headed toward the bus station, almost on the other side of the city. Got to the KSRTC (Govt bus) on time.

Watched Chak De India in the bus.

Later called up Rathi and Vetri to find out what happened during the day. Then I found out about the developments related to the Innovation workshop.

And now, I’m faced with a cross-road. In order to attend this interview, I had to forego one day in a workshop on innovation. This workshop is conducted by someone connected with Marico, and according to Subbu’s decree, if anyone misses one day of the workshop, they do not sit for the Marico placements. Knowing this fully well, I made my choice. And what’s more, Amrita Sunder is filling in for me at the workshop. Now, what repercussions does this decision have on the rest of my life is left to be seen. Chance had it that Rahul asked me to accompany him. Chance had it that the innovation workshop was scheduled on the day I had to interview Mr Murthy. Chance had it that Amrita wanted to sit for the workshop. The co-incidences are too many. Is this one of those decisions that change the whole course of your life? I certainly believe so. Time will prove if I am right.

24 Aug 2007

The story was not complete. My innovation workshop started out at 9 am. The bus arrived at the other end of Pune at 9:00 am. Took an auto and rushed to college. Bangalore to Pune, bus fare: Rs. 813. One end of Pune to the other, auto fare: Rs. 600. It was then that I realized I had not paid Maneesh for the bus ticket. Had I taken a private bus, they would have dropped me at an area near by my college. But I was in a Govt bus, “No sir, you have to get down here. We will not drop you anywhere else”.

Rushed from the auto-rickshaw to class in the same white short and grey pants I wore for Mr Murthy’s interview. If it was not for Rathi seeing me and warning me not to come in, I would have barged an entry. So I waited for the break and then spoke to the trainer and then got in. He even used my interview video for a discussion on personal assumptions and biases that show up when we ask our questions. I was not part of the class. And Subbu does not know of it yet….

Interview with Mr Narayan Murthy

The following is an interview that Rahul and I had with Mr Narayan Murthy on 23rd Aug 2007 at Infosys Campus, Electronic City, Bangalore.
Pictures are available here

Rahul: Creating a small organization and then transforming it into a world class organization like Infosys could not have been a dream. Was it destiny?

NRN: No, it is not destiny because at the end of the day, God helps those who help themselves. Fortune favors the prepared mind. In that sense, it was clearly luck, there is no doubt at all. But at the same time, it was also the result of a set of policies. For example, right from day 1, we said we would seek respect, respect from customers, respect from employees, respect from investors, respect from venture partners, respect from government of the land and society. So because we had that very clear objective, we conducted ourselves in a manner that more and more customers were happy with us, more and investors were happy, good employees came to us etc. So in that sense, it was not so much destiny. There was a lot of hard work. We were ready. Again somebody said, when God is shy to announce his presence in person he comes in the form of chance.

Rahul: Sitting in a position of power, where you could stir a nation, you decided to retire. Was it the characteristic of a normal person or are you something special?

NRN: No. Right from the beginning, we have always believed that youngsters should get more and more opportunities, at a time, at an age when they are energetic and enthusiastic to take those responsibilities. I said I have to set an example to create an opportunity for a younger person. So now Mr Nandan Nilekani has done it. Mr Mohandas Pai has done it. When he was voted India’s number 1 CFO at the age of 45 or so, he gave it up in favor of someone who was 36. He said that ‘I have done this for 12 years, now let him do’. So I think it is a culture. That culture has to be nourished in India; because here we have 75 year old, 80 year old people, hanging onto their jobs, which is not good because youngsters should get opportunity.

Imagine… when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, the fact that he was a young man, there was so much of confidence in the country. So I think it is very important to change over.

Rahul: God forbid, tomorrow if we hear Infosys is in losses, losing clients, how will react? Will you be coming back?

NRN: No, not really. Even today, I add value to the company, though I am the non-executive chairman now. I add value to the company in so far as they want me to add value. If they ask, I will certainly be there. Even today, all major decisions, they are discussed, they are debated, I give my point of view. I have been and will continue to add value wherever they ask me to. While I won’t impose my views on others, if they ask, then certainly I will.

Rahul: Do you think entrepreneurship is an attitude which can be developed or is it in born?

NRN: Entrepreneurship can be developed; there is no doubt about it. As long as you put in the required enthusiasm and hard work, as long as you put in good ideas whose value can be expressed in a simple sentence; as long as you are willing to make short term sacrifices, certainly it can is possible. It can be developed.

Rahul: How can B-Schools develop this? Now-a-days B-Schools have the best minds, how can they act to develop these entrepreneurship skills rather than acting like mere placement agencies?

NRN: Well, entrepreneurship as I said is about converting ideas into wealth, ideas into jobs. If you want to do that, you will need an idea whose value to the market can be expressed in a simple sentence; not a complex sentence, not a compound sentence. Either it reduces cost, increases productivity, reduces cycle time, improves customer base, enhances comfort, etc.

Second, you need a team which brings complementary strengths.

Third, you need an enduring value system.

Then of course you need finance.

So B-Schools will have to train their students in seeing opportunities for improving any one of these attributes like reducing costs or improving cycle time, in everything they see and to express that in a simple sentence. Second, they can teach people to work in teams; how to subordinate their ego, how to appreciate good things in others, how to become more open-minded, how to put the interests of the team ahead of their own personal interests, by case studies, by role models, by examples etc.

Then I think value systems are not easy to teach. But by bringing case studies and role models in flesh and blood to the schools, by these role models talking about their experiences, on how they stuck to the value system and eventually benefitted, I think the youngsters would be inspired and they too would use the value system. And then of course, B-Schools can bring venture capitalists, the VCs can talk about what kind of financing is available, how they evaluate ideas, etc. So certainly, B-Schools can add value to entrepreneurship

Rahul: Why do you think the Indian youth should think of entrepreneurship as a serious career option?

NRN: India is a very poor country. We have a billion-plus people. A large percentage of our people are unemployed. The only way we can solve poverty in this country is by creating jobs, jobs with good disposable income. That’s where entrepreneurship is extremely important.

Clinton: Sir, do you value entrepreneurship inside your own company? You did say that young people should get opportunities. So do you believe that if you encourage entrepreneurship culture inside an organization like Infosys, Infosys itself would grow?

NRN: Remember that I said entrepreneurship is all about ideas that bring value to the market. In our case, every one of us is encouraged to think in terms of improving speed, bringing in better ideas to the table, enhancing excellence in execution. So as long as our youngsters do this, they are indeed entrepreneurship in some sense. Entrepreneurship in some sense does not necessarily mean that you always have to form a new company. Entrepreneurship is all about bringing the power of ideas and converting them into a larger number of jobs, into wealth. So if all of us bring good ideas to the table, and the company becomes stronger, we are all better off. We will be able to recruit more and more people; we will have better salaries, better compensation for all of us. So there is a role of entrepreneurship inside a large corporation too. Some people call it intrapreneurship. It is a mindset.

Clinton: When you start off as an individual starting an organization all by itself and when you are working inside an organization doing intrapreneurship, there is still a difference. For example, an entrepreneurship has to take a huge amount of risk and should be able to see the future and recover from any failure that can happen in the future; whereas, the intrapreneur does not have to face such risks. So doesn’t entrepreneurship require much more capabilities and skills from the individual?

NRN: Not much more capabilities, because even in Infosys, a person takes up a fairly big project. If that project succeeds, his or her future may not be as rosy as somebody else’s. There is a certain risk taken. But it’s all about a mindset. Certainly I agree with you, if you are not sure whether you will be able to put food on the table for you and your family tomorrow, that’s certainly a much more daunting challenge than perhaps not getting a promotion. But still it is a question of mindset. A question that says what new ideas can I bring to the table so that it is a better world. Some say that is entrepreneurship; though the risk factors in a large organization are lower compared to a startup.

Clinton: Sir, besides these four main items that you mentioned, ideas, a good team, an enduring value system and finance, what other skills do you think an entrepreneur should be building?

NRN: Obviously, passion, hard work, optimism, ability to sacrifice short term interests for long term, ability to lead people, these are all major too.

Rahul: Sir, you have affected the life of lakhs of Indians in a very positive way. But India needs more Narayan Murthy’s like you. You have reached the pinnacle of success. Are you planning to do anything to create more Narayan Murthy’s?

NRN: No, not really, but certainly I think there are many suggestions that say that maybe I should look at becoming a venture capitalist, not so much to make more money but to encourage more youngsters. I think that is one thing that maybe I should look at. Second I think at I get probably 10 – 15 emails a week from youngsters who want to become entrepreneurs. I take time off and give my views. Third I go and speak to probably hundreds and thousands of youngsters every year in different towns and cities; I talk to them about how we are at a very historic time in this country; how never before in the last 300 years Indians received respect, Indians received attention like they are receiving today. So you are born at a wonderful time wherein you can take advantage of it, you can consolidate it. So I give a lot of pep talks.

Clinton: Besides the pharma , the retail and the telecom sector, which are the areas you think that entrepreneurship should be putting their money in the next 10 years?

NRN: In this country there is opportunity in almost everything because we are still not as well developed as the developed nations. We have lot of opportunities in infrastructure; power, airports, roads, ports, schools, hospitals, food, food preservation. For example, in this country so much of food grains are lost; 30-35% is lost, eaten by rodents, so if we can save that we are so much better. Similarly, we need micro-insurance, we need to take advantage of the latest technologies. Biotechnology is a great instrument, particularly in agriculture, in pharmaceuticals. Nano-technology is another field where there will be wonderful opportunities in the next 10 years. Then of course there is IT. It offers considerable opportunities. So I would say in India there are so many areas where there are opportunities. The only issue is that Government should become a catalyst rather than being an impeding force. Unfortunately, the tendency in India is that wherever there is an interface with Government, there is a lot of friction, there are a lot of problems. So as long as our political leaders and bureaucrats understand it, our youngsters will create so many jobs, so much of wealth, this country will become a better place. But otherwise it is going to become difficult.

Rahul: Humility and sensitivity to the society – is it a precursor to be a successful entrepreneur or is the result of being a successful entrepreneur?

NRN: I think humility is very important because if you are not humble, you are not open to new ideas, you will not learn many things. Humility means you can subordinate your ego. If you subordinate your ego it means you can work in a team better. Humility also helps you to accept setbacks and still keep up that optimism. Whereas if you think you are the smartest guy, you are the last word in the world, then you will not accept setbacks.

Sensitivity to society is very important for every human being whether he or she is an entrepreneurship or not. But at the end of the day when you have been successful, you have to have sensitivity to society. At the end of the day, how much food can you eat, how much cars can you have, how many houses can you buy? If you are amongst the people who are happy, who are healthy, then you feel so much better; because I often define success as, if your eyes light up when you meet other people, and their eyes light up when they meet you then you are a success. So if that is indeed the definition of success, then being sensitive to the problems of the society is what will make you a successful person. Because people will be happy to meet you and you will be happy to meet people. So ultimately that is the most important thing.

Mid Term Review by My Manager

My thoughts, Suggestions for improvements more as we go along
Warm Regards
Saju
Manager - Marketing Operations
APJ ESS Marketing
+91-80-2504 5007

-----Original Message-----
From: Rozario, Clinton Mark
Sent: 09 May 2007 12:10
To: Verghese, Saju C
Subject: Review
Hi Saju,
As part of my mid-project review, I would appreciate it if you can help me assess my performance so far by marking me on the parameters below.
Please be open with your feedback; I understand the importance of critical feedback; I've both given it and received it before.

(Mark on a scale of 1-to-7. 1:Very Poor, 7:Excellent)
1. Variety of Ideas:5
2. Extent to which Suggestions can be used/implemented:5
3. Thoroughness of Work:6
4. Involvement/Interest shown:7
5. Initiative shown:6
6. Creativity:6

7. Overall Performance [Excellent/Good/Average/Below Average]:Good
(note: criteria for Excellent: if you describe the work to a thrid person, he should be able to easily identify it as excellent)

Suggestions for Improvement:
1.Better understanding of Business context and merge the ideas (make the ideas actionable)
2.Creativity can be further harnesed
3.



Thank you for your time,
Clinton

How huge companies are able to sustain themselves

.. and why companies spend so much of money on "culture creation"...

I'm penning down a thought stream that leads to a clear view of the future of this KM venture.

Background

Individuals, groups and teams are temporary. They last as long as their leader / goals lasts.
Societies and cultures are more resiliant. They last for ages. They sustain themselves.

A society is a group of individuals, characterized by common interests, and may have a distinctive culture, and
Culture refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such actiity significance.

Therefore,

What if there is a HP Knowledge Society? a HP Knowledge Culture? Knowledge creation and usage will then become self-sustaining....!

Cultures require:
1. Values ==> Rules which govern the generation and sharing of knowledge
2. Norms ==> Each individual must make a knowledge contribution / reuse every once in a while. Else they will be viewed in negative light.
3. Institutions ==>
4. Artifacts ==>

Cultures require leaders.
The whole system would require an autocratic leader to gain compliance initially.
Gradually, the whole system would go democratic. Democracy will be needed to survive.

The system would need an information system. Some thread that binds them all.
Something that reminds the members of their association, of their values, their norms,
their institutions and their artifacts.

Hosting the Closing Ceremony of The Entrepreneurship Week 2007