Enigma Solution

During the Wharton India Economic Forum held in Philadelphia on 22 March 2008, former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam ji was asked a question based on his own experience on how leaders should manage failure . Dr. Abdul Kalam responded:  "In 1973, I was appointed project director of India's satellite launch program. Our goal was to put the 'Rohini' satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given all the necessary funds and the talented people I needed." "Several thousand people were involved in this ambitious target and in 1979 we made the launch. Unfortunately the satellite plunged into the Bay of Bengal soon after launch. Professor Satish Dhawan the head of ISRO, (Indian Space Research Organisation) had called a press conference. Through the media he made known to  the world that the failure was his responsibility and by the next year they would have the problems solved." "The following year in July of 1980 the satell...

The class which has the power to rob on a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.                                                            -Eugene Debs

The people and the governments of the PIIGS countries ( Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) are preoccupied. They are extremely busy, not at work, but watching and enjoying football matches.   The rest of the world is busy scrambling to do something to prevent their financial exposure to the PIIGS countries from blowing up in their faces and lead to global meltdown. Now you have an idea about the difference between a lender and a borrower.... My thanks to Mr. Abhik Sengupta for this piece

Alexander of Macedonia conquered a large part of the known world during his life..  After one battle, Alexander ordered his soldiers to stop fighting hold their positions and do nothing to provoke the enemy. Yet a couple of courageous soldiers under cover of nightfall crept to the enemy side and killed several solders as they slept. The stunning news was conveyed to Alexander. He called the two soldiers in front of all his troops and praised them for their courage and then ordered that they to be beheaded immediately. He proclaimed to his troops, "They were praised for their bravery and killed for their indiscipline. Indiscipline can endanger lives of my forces and cost us a battle. This I cannot permit" ________________________ Discipline, a much used and rarely understood word, which means complying with realistic guidelines and laid down systems. A high profile example is road traffic discipline rather indiscipline in India where we have the highe...

It was the first ever lecture by our teacher Professor HVK Rao in 1976.  Professor Rao had barely begun his lecture and his back was turned to the class as he wrote something on the blackboard. Suddenly a piece of chalk flew from the back of the classroom and almost hit the professor's hand. The missile was launched to unnerve Mr. Rao and more importantly determine the balance of power in the class room. Cool Professor Rao remained unfazed and responded; "Gentlemen, I can do two things, I can either teach or be a policeman. I am paid to teach, not police. Most of you have come from afar to get an education. Those of you who are not really interested in these classes but are here because of the pressure of attendance targets, you are free to leave. I  relieve you of the college's demand for attending 80% of the classes and will treat  all of you as having attended my classes irrespective of your actual attendance." About half a dozen trouble makers left the...

A few weeks ago there was a tragic fire at a very famous hospital in Kolkata in which 87 people lost their lives. I was obsessed with trying to find out what lessons could be learnt so that we protect others and ourselves. The root cause for any failure can always be traced back to a handful of reasons, the usual culprits are incompetent leadership, poor management,  inappropriate technology, shoddy design, incompetent staff and negligent people. It is difficult for most people to appreciate that the seeds of a tragedy are sown long before the bitter fruit arrives.  In the case of the Kolkata hospital fire,  this is the inside story as narrated by someone who knows.  About two weeks prior to the killer blaze erupting, a similar fire had taken place at the very same hospital in the basement where inflammable supplies were stored till the ceiling.  The staff of the outsourced security firm promptly responded with confidence and took the initiative. The secur...

How to recruit the right person for the job? Put about 100 bricks in some particular   order in a closed room with an open window. Then send in 2 or 3 candidates at a time into  the room and close the door. Leave them alone and come back  after 6 hours and then analyze  the situation. If they are counting the  bricks,  Put them in the accounts  department.    If they are recounting them..  put them in auditing  . If they have messed up the  whole place with the bricks, put them in engineering. If they are arranging the b ricks in some strange order..  Put them in planning.    If they are throwing the  bricks at each other,   Put them in operations  . If they are sleeping,  put them in security.   If they have broken the bricks  into pieces.  Put them in information  Technology.  If they are sitting idle. Put them in human res...

O ur time can be divided by our focus on ourselves, our family, work, socialising and recreation.  There is however a factor which cannibalises our peace of mind and our time, called 'nonsense'. 'Nonsense work' is time and effort spent on having to cope with problems which make no sense whatsoever, they  should never have occurred in the fist place. These are headaches and problems created sometimes by we ourselves but usually caused by others.  Unfortunately we are dependant on others to meet our requirements and solve problems we face, because we now live in a society of organisations filled with specialists.  The larger and more complex the organisation that we have to deal with, the more bureaucracy there is, and to justify their existence, create enormous amounts of nonsensical work for people. The frustration with bureaucracies is the solution provider is completely disconnected from the person/s who face problems that need to be resolved. The disconne...