This is a landmark leap year , in a sense that I just realized that I havent leapt this year !
With the end of 2008 , Mumbai becomes the place where I have spent a record steady four and half years . Here's how the record came to be broken :
1969 : Born in Military Hospital , Pune
1970-71:( 2 yrs ) Mhow ( Military HQ Of War ) , Madhyapradesh
1972-75:( 3 yrs ) Srinagar , J&K
1975-78:(3 yrs ) Gwalior , Madhya Pradesh
1978-80:( 2 yrs ) Tezpur , Assam
1981-84: ( 3 yrs ) Ambala Cantt , Haryana
1985-87: ( 2 yrs ) Pune , Maharastra
1987-91: ( 4 yrs ) Nanded / Nagpur , Maharastra
1991-92: ( 1.5 yrs ) Chennai , Tamil Nadu
1992-93: ( 1 yr ) Bangalore & Hubli , Karnataka
1994 : ( 1/2 yr ) Mysore , Karnataka
1994: ( 1 yr )Coimbatore & Madurai , Tamil Nadu
1995: ( 1/2 yr ) Ahmedabad , Gujarat
1995 : ( 1/2 yr ) Goa
1996: ( 1/4 yr ) Hyderabad , Andhra Pradesh
1996-2000: ( 4 yrs )Pune , Maharastra
2000-2001: ( 1.5 yrs )Gurgaon , Delhi
2001-2003: ( 3 yrs ) Pune
2004( Apr )-2008 ( Dec ): ( 4.5 yrs ) Mumbai
A sure nomadic pause if it lasts into 2009 , else a new record for long stays .
Mumbai is rapidly growing on me , as I grow rapidly in Mumbai .
Hope and pray the pause is permanent .
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
My 2008 lists
A quick list of people and things in the year gone by and how they affected me :
Events : The Wall Street Collapse , the doubts on free market economy and the mindless surge of oil prices to $160 a barrel and back swung the sensex from 22000 to 7500 taking with them more than a million of my hard earned rupees . My leessees of my houses , mostly software blokes , also evacuated citing job losses , leaving behind no rental income for me . Making it quite an unforgettable year of fiscal losses .
People : Barack Obama ( he's the man ) won a hard-fought heavily publicised election battle redeeming my faith in audacious hope , beautiful Sarah Palin( she's something - can't figure out what ) gave me quite a few laughs in a trying year and Ratan Tata's battles with Corus , Jaguar , Singur , Nano and Taj showed me how mettle matters while Lalit Modi with his awesome marketing converted me single-handedly into a cricket fan . Alan Greenspan who wrote an Age of turbulence before the Age of trubulence gave me an insight into how he created the mess that was to come after his quitting . Imran Khan , the new kid on the bollywood block was refreshing and his second movie , Kidnap , was just so . Daniel Craig endeared and so did joker Heath Ledger , just before he died . Adiga stole my plot and won the booker , but am not complaining .
Movies : The Dark Knight and Casino Royale earn my accolades while Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na turned me into a hopeless romantic again .
Books : Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Shaw's Pygmalion set me thinking , Maughams autobiographical Of Human Bondage's 700 pages mirrored my life too and the Audacity of Hope enlightened me . ( Is that all the fiction I read this year ? ) . Read a bunch of books on television journalism - Crazy like a Fox finally told me what was right and left , how embedded journalism has changed the world and how CNN lost the plot to Fox news , Hugh Miles's Al Jazeera stunningly clarified my views on the Arab media scene , Nalin Mehta's India on Television was boringly historical , Bonnie Andersens cryptic NewsFlash was CNNs story and McGowan's Coloring the News provided worthwhile perspective on print news journalism , probably also indicating reasons why Obama could have won , the pacy thriller Television Disrupted threw me deep into the technicalities of broadcasting and Dilip Awasthi's The Special Correspondent gave me insights on the tactics of news gathering . Bought most from Rediff.com , except Newsflash which was from Amazon.com
Adventures : The Sky jump - worlds highest - Macau ( my legs still tingle when I visualise the final few seconds before I jumped ) made me believe more in myself while the Cruise on the Nile fulfilled me with wonder on the largest river in the world .
Moves : Radio to TV ( theatre of the mind to mindless theatre ! ) Saw news happen - terrorists at the taj , US elections ,Indian olympic victories upclose from newsroom .
Gadgets :The iPhone has changed my life - snaps , maps , mails , youtube , blogs , itunes , surfing the web and of course , taking the calls couldn't have been more brilliant . A new record score of 36000 in my macman stands - could be breaking it anyday.
Architecture : The Bangalore and Hyderabad airports are terrificly visitable - at the airports , feels like Hongkong in there . The Pyramids - were a true wonder - so was the Bibliotheque at Alexandria - sheer engineering brilliance . The Bandra-Worli sea link is turning out to be one too .
Sports : The sensational IPL matches dragged me into stadiums in Mumbai ( DY Patil ) and Delhi ( Ferozeshah Kotla ) as I fell in love with the abbreviated version of the game . But a hard-earned crystal cup after many years brought me back to my first love - soccer .
2009 , here I come .
Events : The Wall Street Collapse , the doubts on free market economy and the mindless surge of oil prices to $160 a barrel and back swung the sensex from 22000 to 7500 taking with them more than a million of my hard earned rupees . My leessees of my houses , mostly software blokes , also evacuated citing job losses , leaving behind no rental income for me . Making it quite an unforgettable year of fiscal losses .
People : Barack Obama ( he's the man ) won a hard-fought heavily publicised election battle redeeming my faith in audacious hope , beautiful Sarah Palin( she's something - can't figure out what ) gave me quite a few laughs in a trying year and Ratan Tata's battles with Corus , Jaguar , Singur , Nano and Taj showed me how mettle matters while Lalit Modi with his awesome marketing converted me single-handedly into a cricket fan . Alan Greenspan who wrote an Age of turbulence before the Age of trubulence gave me an insight into how he created the mess that was to come after his quitting . Imran Khan , the new kid on the bollywood block was refreshing and his second movie , Kidnap , was just so . Daniel Craig endeared and so did joker Heath Ledger , just before he died . Adiga stole my plot and won the booker , but am not complaining .
Movies : The Dark Knight and Casino Royale earn my accolades while Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na turned me into a hopeless romantic again .
Books : Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Shaw's Pygmalion set me thinking , Maughams autobiographical Of Human Bondage's 700 pages mirrored my life too and the Audacity of Hope enlightened me . ( Is that all the fiction I read this year ? ) . Read a bunch of books on television journalism - Crazy like a Fox finally told me what was right and left , how embedded journalism has changed the world and how CNN lost the plot to Fox news , Hugh Miles's Al Jazeera stunningly clarified my views on the Arab media scene , Nalin Mehta's India on Television was boringly historical , Bonnie Andersens cryptic NewsFlash was CNNs story and McGowan's Coloring the News provided worthwhile perspective on print news journalism , probably also indicating reasons why Obama could have won , the pacy thriller Television Disrupted threw me deep into the technicalities of broadcasting and Dilip Awasthi's The Special Correspondent gave me insights on the tactics of news gathering . Bought most from Rediff.com , except Newsflash which was from Amazon.com
Adventures : The Sky jump - worlds highest - Macau ( my legs still tingle when I visualise the final few seconds before I jumped ) made me believe more in myself while the Cruise on the Nile fulfilled me with wonder on the largest river in the world .
Moves : Radio to TV ( theatre of the mind to mindless theatre ! ) Saw news happen - terrorists at the taj , US elections ,Indian olympic victories upclose from newsroom .
Gadgets :The iPhone has changed my life - snaps , maps , mails , youtube , blogs , itunes , surfing the web and of course , taking the calls couldn't have been more brilliant . A new record score of 36000 in my macman stands - could be breaking it anyday.
Architecture : The Bangalore and Hyderabad airports are terrificly visitable - at the airports , feels like Hongkong in there . The Pyramids - were a true wonder - so was the Bibliotheque at Alexandria - sheer engineering brilliance . The Bandra-Worli sea link is turning out to be one too .
Sports : The sensational IPL matches dragged me into stadiums in Mumbai ( DY Patil ) and Delhi ( Ferozeshah Kotla ) as I fell in love with the abbreviated version of the game . But a hard-earned crystal cup after many years brought me back to my first love - soccer .
2009 , here I come .
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Hunter and the Farmer
The Hunter and the Farmer
Airtel recently announced their reaching the 75 million subscriber mark . Reliance and Vodafone had hit the 50 million cellphone mark some time back . Idea will reach it maybe a year or two later and Tata might take even longer . What is significant about these numbers is that Idea was the first cellphone operator amongst them all and is yet to reach even the 50 mn mark while Reliance was the last to begin operations . . So why is one operator so slow and one sprinting away to glory ?
ICICI has crossed the marketcap of India’s largest bank , SBI . ICICI’s market cap is just under 85000 cr ( had crossed Rs.1 trillion when its stock hit Rs.950 ) , with SBI at 65000 cr and the robust HDFC at 35000 cr . With much higher NPAs, ICICI bank is aggressively straddling all spaces in the financial basket and moving to overtake SBI in overall sales soon . Its stock gotten hammered , punished for mistimed moved in the US markets , yet it carries on .What makes a bank like ICICI so strong ?
Infosys makes more press than TCS . Isn’t TCS’s $4bn revenues similar to Infosys’s US$ 4 bn revenues ? Here’s the difference , TCS was established in 1968 , while Infosys was created almost 15 years later with a $250 corpus . TCS rewrote none of the rules of IT game . When Indians became expensive manpower , Infosys went to China and got work done cheaper . It listed on the NASDAQ . As the dollar strengthens , Infosys rewrites its strategies every week . It has targeted attrition and won that battle too . Its annual reports begins by calling people its assets . So why does Infosys make so much press ?
Why does the Times of India increase its rates by 40% in an inflationary year or a Dainik Bhaskar launch editions rapidly while the Hindu reduces cover price as competition enters the city ? The Times launches an additional newspaper to combat a competitors entry . It changes advertising pricing , dictates editorial policy differently , kills the subscription business to thrive and trounce competitors . Its count of innovations is legendary . Why is there no no.2 newspaper around for miles .
How did UTV movies break into the top 10 distribution companies in revenues in the US in under 3 years or how does Adlabs buyout over 300 theatres in the US in under a year ?
SO why do some companies grow at an abysymally low rate even in a super-charged economy and why do some others grow at a rapid clip , consuming all available venture capital and human resources ? Why do some companies continue to languish inspite of enormous opportunities around while some others with seemingly sketchy business plans create need and want in the process of sprinting away on the sensex ? Why do some managers who join a new company do very well but some who join quit immediately citing cultural differences ?
The difference in these companies is genetic in nature . Lets examine the difference in operating style of both types of companies . One set of companies operate as hunters . They have no idea what is the next business idea or where the next years growth is going to come from . They aggressively seek out ideas for growth and move rapidly in that direction . They borrow capital on the run , set up businesses , expand , buy out competitors and hit new peaks of market capitalization . Like hunters , they have no idea which forest to hunt in , which animal they are likely to confront and what tools are going to come handy . They could go hungry over days and feast for the next few . The other set of companies operate as farmers . Farmers seek predictability – they get up at the same time every morning to toil on the land with their cattlefolk , sow the seeds , wait for the monsoons and rejoice when the crop yields what it is meant to yield . They have set systems – the time to wake up , the time to herd cattle , the time to return from fields , the time to eat is all defined and any upsetting of schedule results in under-performance .
Hunter managers don’t care much for systems , and stay extremely focused on results . They deliver higher than expected results , but can fail dramatically too . And they will be the cause of failure , but they will find the next big company to work for and move on. Some hunter workers grow to become hunter managers and hunter leaders , increasing their maturity of aggression and their ability to create control in chaos and unpredictability . Farmers are less likely to take risks and operate within a web of systems and processes . Many hunting firms evolve to become farming companies with a myriad of systems , but the genetic coding makes its appearance once in a while as they attempt a hostile takeover or start a new businesses absolutely unconnected with their core strength.
As Reliance Industries gets into Retail , one sees remarkable aggression be it in its acquisition of talent , land , alliances , consumers or capital .
Hunting firms focus on results , Farming firms on procedure . Ever wonder why Infosys puts its sales figures on page 13 of its annual report while TCS talks revenues on page 32 ? Its in the genes .
When mergers fail , it is most likely that a hunting company has acquired a farming firm or a farming company picked up a stake in a hunting firm . AOL Time Warner alliance collapsed as the hunting instincts of an AOL and a Warner Bros. conflicted with the farming culture of Time . Similarly , when people quit , examine the DNA of the person who quit and the genetic coding of the company he left behind and you find the hunter vs farmer fight playing out .
There is nothing wrong in being a hunter or a farmer . Great hunters and Great farmers have both had their places in the history books . Realization of where one stands makes the difference .
Look yourself in the mirror every morning .
Who do you see - A hunter or a farmer ?
And where are you dressed up to go - To the forest or to the farm ?
Airtel recently announced their reaching the 75 million subscriber mark . Reliance and Vodafone had hit the 50 million cellphone mark some time back . Idea will reach it maybe a year or two later and Tata might take even longer . What is significant about these numbers is that Idea was the first cellphone operator amongst them all and is yet to reach even the 50 mn mark while Reliance was the last to begin operations . . So why is one operator so slow and one sprinting away to glory ?
ICICI has crossed the marketcap of India’s largest bank , SBI . ICICI’s market cap is just under 85000 cr ( had crossed Rs.1 trillion when its stock hit Rs.950 ) , with SBI at 65000 cr and the robust HDFC at 35000 cr . With much higher NPAs, ICICI bank is aggressively straddling all spaces in the financial basket and moving to overtake SBI in overall sales soon . Its stock gotten hammered , punished for mistimed moved in the US markets , yet it carries on .What makes a bank like ICICI so strong ?
Infosys makes more press than TCS . Isn’t TCS’s $4bn revenues similar to Infosys’s US$ 4 bn revenues ? Here’s the difference , TCS was established in 1968 , while Infosys was created almost 15 years later with a $250 corpus . TCS rewrote none of the rules of IT game . When Indians became expensive manpower , Infosys went to China and got work done cheaper . It listed on the NASDAQ . As the dollar strengthens , Infosys rewrites its strategies every week . It has targeted attrition and won that battle too . Its annual reports begins by calling people its assets . So why does Infosys make so much press ?
Why does the Times of India increase its rates by 40% in an inflationary year or a Dainik Bhaskar launch editions rapidly while the Hindu reduces cover price as competition enters the city ? The Times launches an additional newspaper to combat a competitors entry . It changes advertising pricing , dictates editorial policy differently , kills the subscription business to thrive and trounce competitors . Its count of innovations is legendary . Why is there no no.2 newspaper around for miles .
How did UTV movies break into the top 10 distribution companies in revenues in the US in under 3 years or how does Adlabs buyout over 300 theatres in the US in under a year ?
SO why do some companies grow at an abysymally low rate even in a super-charged economy and why do some others grow at a rapid clip , consuming all available venture capital and human resources ? Why do some companies continue to languish inspite of enormous opportunities around while some others with seemingly sketchy business plans create need and want in the process of sprinting away on the sensex ? Why do some managers who join a new company do very well but some who join quit immediately citing cultural differences ?
The difference in these companies is genetic in nature . Lets examine the difference in operating style of both types of companies . One set of companies operate as hunters . They have no idea what is the next business idea or where the next years growth is going to come from . They aggressively seek out ideas for growth and move rapidly in that direction . They borrow capital on the run , set up businesses , expand , buy out competitors and hit new peaks of market capitalization . Like hunters , they have no idea which forest to hunt in , which animal they are likely to confront and what tools are going to come handy . They could go hungry over days and feast for the next few . The other set of companies operate as farmers . Farmers seek predictability – they get up at the same time every morning to toil on the land with their cattlefolk , sow the seeds , wait for the monsoons and rejoice when the crop yields what it is meant to yield . They have set systems – the time to wake up , the time to herd cattle , the time to return from fields , the time to eat is all defined and any upsetting of schedule results in under-performance .
Hunter managers don’t care much for systems , and stay extremely focused on results . They deliver higher than expected results , but can fail dramatically too . And they will be the cause of failure , but they will find the next big company to work for and move on. Some hunter workers grow to become hunter managers and hunter leaders , increasing their maturity of aggression and their ability to create control in chaos and unpredictability . Farmers are less likely to take risks and operate within a web of systems and processes . Many hunting firms evolve to become farming companies with a myriad of systems , but the genetic coding makes its appearance once in a while as they attempt a hostile takeover or start a new businesses absolutely unconnected with their core strength.
As Reliance Industries gets into Retail , one sees remarkable aggression be it in its acquisition of talent , land , alliances , consumers or capital .
Hunting firms focus on results , Farming firms on procedure . Ever wonder why Infosys puts its sales figures on page 13 of its annual report while TCS talks revenues on page 32 ? Its in the genes .
When mergers fail , it is most likely that a hunting company has acquired a farming firm or a farming company picked up a stake in a hunting firm . AOL Time Warner alliance collapsed as the hunting instincts of an AOL and a Warner Bros. conflicted with the farming culture of Time . Similarly , when people quit , examine the DNA of the person who quit and the genetic coding of the company he left behind and you find the hunter vs farmer fight playing out .
There is nothing wrong in being a hunter or a farmer . Great hunters and Great farmers have both had their places in the history books . Realization of where one stands makes the difference .
Look yourself in the mirror every morning .
Who do you see - A hunter or a farmer ?
And where are you dressed up to go - To the forest or to the farm ?
Ignorance is progress
Ram : ( Adjusting the belt he couldn't see below his tummy ) Ignorance is progress .Absolute ignorance is rapid progress . Whatdyasay ?
Shyam : ( ridding the collar button of its anchor and loosening his tie ) Preposterous . Ridiculous . All progress is built on knowledge and learning .
The taxi turned onto Tulsi pipe road , the connect to Bandra from Parel .
Ram : Not quite so . Think about it . If Columbus knew he wouldn't reach America , would he start at all ? If Alexander knew he would get malaria , would he move a muscle ? They haden't read history , seen Magellan maps , studied Flemings theories on pencilin or listened to leadership speeches on battle preparation or read Homers the Illiad or Odyssey . That lack of information spurred progress , led to discoveries of a new continent , new methods of warfare and birth of new civilizations - America and Greece .
Shyam : The drivers for such quests were different . It was an individual need not societal so you can't sweep society into the generalization .
Ram : The ability to take a risk leads to progress . The word 'Risk' implies less knowledge , for if all was known wheres the risk ? Look at what happened yesterday . The ex-Nasdaq head Bernad Madoff has run a $50 bn scam . How did he manage to do it ? Wasn't an Enron collapse the start of a lot of regulation and governance ? Who forgot to implement ? Who pays the price . Harshad Mehta did a massive bull run sabotage - mind you , he paid back 550 cr over 5 days to various banks . One man . Then heavy duty regulations came in , there was a bear hug on the markets . Seven years later another broker - another scam - Ketan Parekh . Again more regulations . Five years later - Telgi - 50000 cr gone . The stamp scam was 100x Harshad , but measure the $ 1 trillion economy against a bankrupt govt in 1991 and it's the same size .
The car crossed the small flyover that spared one from the Dadar flith below . Traffic was dense and three km stretch took over three quarters of an hour .
Ram ( looking out of the half-rolled down window cursorily ) : Throughout history , its the same example . Napolean attacked Russia in winter in the early 18th century and paid a massive price - defeat , demoralization and end of french dominance . A century later , Hitler attempts the same - loses his ground to Russia in a winter attack and loses the war . Yet another example - Soloman bros , the great investment banking firm in the late 80's filed for bankruptcy after years as the largest bond trader in the world and brought the US economy down quite a few notches . Today Lehman , Bear Sterns , Merryl Lynch are doing the same . If they had learnt , the world would have been different . But in the process , millions have been made rich , millions have lived a life , enjoyed homes , fulfilled aspirations . And millions have forgotten again . More money is being pushed into the system , to force people to pull our their credit cards again , to leverage assets to buy another house they don't need , to think of a car they can never afford and help another million somewhere in the chain make real wealth .
The taxi slowed down further for the next kilometer or two .
Ignorance , my friend , is real progress .
Ram : Remember the old line from the movie Anadi - ' Sikandar ne Porus se ki thi ladai , to mai kya karoon ' ?
Shyam : Sure
Ram : Thats a guy who would make progress , not bogged down by historical facts or improbalities . Think of this . We have had a good and maybe slower journey today because we didn't have a clue on traffic on tulsi pipe . Had we known , we would have taken a train . And maybe lived the same mundane sleepwalking life , we live everyday . Maybe not seen the new malls , the new highrises on tulsi pipe , the new wealth being created , the new showrooms . That's probably what the Mumbai grind does , the train travel , the lack of information , the mundaneness , the selfishness , the acceptance , the realisations sort of keep your head down , so you can take in this harsh city and yet not break down . Till one day , the tide turns , and Shyam mark my words , the tide does turn - thereafter , you take on this city - richer , enriched , wealthier and content .
Shyam : Maybe . Now that you set me thinking....
Shyam : ( ridding the collar button of its anchor and loosening his tie ) Preposterous . Ridiculous . All progress is built on knowledge and learning .
The taxi turned onto Tulsi pipe road , the connect to Bandra from Parel .
Ram : Not quite so . Think about it . If Columbus knew he wouldn't reach America , would he start at all ? If Alexander knew he would get malaria , would he move a muscle ? They haden't read history , seen Magellan maps , studied Flemings theories on pencilin or listened to leadership speeches on battle preparation or read Homers the Illiad or Odyssey . That lack of information spurred progress , led to discoveries of a new continent , new methods of warfare and birth of new civilizations - America and Greece .
Shyam : The drivers for such quests were different . It was an individual need not societal so you can't sweep society into the generalization .
Ram : The ability to take a risk leads to progress . The word 'Risk' implies less knowledge , for if all was known wheres the risk ? Look at what happened yesterday . The ex-Nasdaq head Bernad Madoff has run a $50 bn scam . How did he manage to do it ? Wasn't an Enron collapse the start of a lot of regulation and governance ? Who forgot to implement ? Who pays the price . Harshad Mehta did a massive bull run sabotage - mind you , he paid back 550 cr over 5 days to various banks . One man . Then heavy duty regulations came in , there was a bear hug on the markets . Seven years later another broker - another scam - Ketan Parekh . Again more regulations . Five years later - Telgi - 50000 cr gone . The stamp scam was 100x Harshad , but measure the $ 1 trillion economy against a bankrupt govt in 1991 and it's the same size .
The car crossed the small flyover that spared one from the Dadar flith below . Traffic was dense and three km stretch took over three quarters of an hour .
Ram ( looking out of the half-rolled down window cursorily ) : Throughout history , its the same example . Napolean attacked Russia in winter in the early 18th century and paid a massive price - defeat , demoralization and end of french dominance . A century later , Hitler attempts the same - loses his ground to Russia in a winter attack and loses the war . Yet another example - Soloman bros , the great investment banking firm in the late 80's filed for bankruptcy after years as the largest bond trader in the world and brought the US economy down quite a few notches . Today Lehman , Bear Sterns , Merryl Lynch are doing the same . If they had learnt , the world would have been different . But in the process , millions have been made rich , millions have lived a life , enjoyed homes , fulfilled aspirations . And millions have forgotten again . More money is being pushed into the system , to force people to pull our their credit cards again , to leverage assets to buy another house they don't need , to think of a car they can never afford and help another million somewhere in the chain make real wealth .
The taxi slowed down further for the next kilometer or two .
Ignorance , my friend , is real progress .
Ram : Remember the old line from the movie Anadi - ' Sikandar ne Porus se ki thi ladai , to mai kya karoon ' ?
Shyam : Sure
Ram : Thats a guy who would make progress , not bogged down by historical facts or improbalities . Think of this . We have had a good and maybe slower journey today because we didn't have a clue on traffic on tulsi pipe . Had we known , we would have taken a train . And maybe lived the same mundane sleepwalking life , we live everyday . Maybe not seen the new malls , the new highrises on tulsi pipe , the new wealth being created , the new showrooms . That's probably what the Mumbai grind does , the train travel , the lack of information , the mundaneness , the selfishness , the acceptance , the realisations sort of keep your head down , so you can take in this harsh city and yet not break down . Till one day , the tide turns , and Shyam mark my words , the tide does turn - thereafter , you take on this city - richer , enriched , wealthier and content .
Shyam : Maybe . Now that you set me thinking....
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