chaotic order

Jottings - Slice of Life - 115 ( “Disagree and Commit” - Jeff Bezos’ mantra ) Every year Successful CEO’s and Business investors have the practice of writing a letter to their employees, shareholders and to the public at large on the business philosophy which helps them innovate, transform and be successful at the market place. Bill Gates does it in measured management style, Warren Buffet’s epistles are touchstones of practical wisdom in making money; but my personal favorite, which I look forward to reading each year is the one Jeff Bezos - CEO of Amazon pens in rustic, down to earth nuts and bolts philosophy of life and business. In the corridors of Business power, Jeff’s name is taken with little caution, apprehension but definitely with Jaw-opening awe. Amazon is not merely the most transformatory and successful consumer business model ever - a revolution on the lines of agricultural and Industrial and technological innovations - it is also a company that constantly innovat

Jottings - Slice of life - 110 ( Karma yoga in action ) In 1967, On a beautiful April day in Cleveland, Dr Martin Luther king addressed High school students in Glenville. Towards the end of that memorable oration, Dr King exalted the quality of workmanship one should carry into any field of work that life chooses to lead us into. He said , in his own inimitable, passionate and measured style “Set out to do a good job and do that job so well that nobody can do it any better. If it falls your lot to be a street-sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say here lived a great street-sweeper who swept his job well..” In this single utterance, Dr King summarized the entire philosophy of work ethic so hotly debated across boardrooms, governments and societies all around the globe. It is a

Jottings - Slice of life - 111 ( The girl on the train - Book, Movie and Emily Blunt) During my flights to Seattle and back this week, I watched two films : “The girl on the train” and “Devil wears Prada”. Both of them are based on books with same names, and both of them are wonderful adaptions - true to the intent of the author. I chanced to read Paula Hawkins book in 2015, just because I had nothing to read on a particular flight. I picked it from an airport book store, and was half hoping to fall asleep midway. But surprisingly, it was powerfully written. The story and characterization of a depressive, alcoholic; her perception of life that flits between imagination and reality at regular intervals, kept me reading till the end. It was a murder mystery, and Paula had enough command over the medium to keep the story at the edge and not revealing the true killer till the last few pages. It was a four hour flight, and I had almost finished the book before we landed. I remember fe

Jottings - Slice of life - 112 ( Rajan, yet another milestone..) Loyalty is a quaint word in an organization. On one hand, it shows tremendous sense of discipline, contentment, innovation, finding ones right footing in your field of work, climbing up a specific ladder with unwavering sense of purpose; and on the other hand, loyalty can also means inefficiency, incompetency, comprising to the lure of mediocrity and staying where you are and living out a professional life without pushing the bars of excellence for oneself and others. When you tell somebody, you have worked for a single organization for twenty five odd years, without a break or sabbatical, your listeners will involuntarily interpret your stay there in either of these ways. They can perceive you have grown and excelled into something better each year, with increasing responsibilities, elevated positions and carving out new opportunities for yourself and the organization , or they can easily surmise you have stagnated,

Jottings - Slice of life - 113 ( Anna, congratulations!!!) It is not often that one gets to write congratulatory notes on the growth, evolution and promotion of two individuals close to you. I wrote a short piece on Rajan’s remarkable journey today morning, and in the evening, as I was sitting in the sauna basking in its intense heat and sweat listening to the sonorous voice of Abida Parveen singing rapturous poetry of Kabir , my brother called to inform his elevation to a very senior position in the oil industry and will now move to Mumbai - the heart of India’s business. I felt twice blessed with good news today. Driving back home, My thoughts went back to the mid eighties, when my brother had just finished four years of bachelors education in Chemical engineering at coimbatore, and was with us in Hyderabad applying for jobs. It is always a pivotal point in a Man’s life - the pregnant waiting, the undetermined transition from secure student life when no questions are asked to a

Jottings - Slice of life ( A remarkable professional journey) RV college of Engineering, Bangalore may not be in the same league as IIT’s. At least, not in general public perception, but for those who have lived in Bangalore, interacted with the college, met its professors or head of departments, mingled closely with its alma mater - it quickly becomes quite clear, those who have studied and graduated there possess an ambition, charisma, grace, leadership and an ability to continuously learn which have often propelled them to highest echelons of success in many organization across the globe. This is not to say it is the atmosphere of the college alone which contributed to their success; we must give equal or more credit to the quality and calibre of students it has managed to attract from all parts of Asia. Over the last half a century, it has produced stalwarts in virtually every walk of life without too much fuss or propaganda. Sapnesh Lalla, our new CEO- designate ( announced

Jottings - Slice of life - 114 ( frequent flyer - eccentricities and uncertainties) Every seasoned flyer will have at least one; most likely many personal stories to share about flight delays, interminable waits at airports, missed flights and bags, bad seats, re-routing, long layovers, unexpected upgrades, bad food, ineptitude of flight personnel , so on and so forth. In fact, in most airport bars this is the most common subject matter of conversation - whose and which flight stories are more entertaining or excruciating than the other? But I believe the true sign of a frequent flyer lies in the composure and presence of mind they display during abnormal travel conditions. How well and how quickly can we accept the fact that running this complex network of air travel , including a zillion variables - both man-made and natural - can break down in so many different perceptible and imperceptible ways. While, as travelers, our focus is to reach our destination as painlessly as possibl