Truth is God

Truth is God. Everything else is Maya or illusion. The whole of universe is Maya, false, temporary. Only God is everlasting, permanent. If we want to come close to God, we have to be truthful. Every Religion says “ Speak the Truth”. When I was a child, I read in the textbook which said “Always speak the Truth”. When we grow up, we tell our children not to tell lies. But do we practice what we preach. The answer is probably not. My own experience is that Truth is very bitter, unpleasant and difficult to digest whereas Lies are sweet, Pleasant, good to hear. We lie to avoid embarrassment. We lie to boost our self image. We lie to please others. There are people who lie for no reasons whatsoever. Such people are habitual liers. They don’t feel guilty when they lie. They justify their lies by another bunch of lies. Politicians fall in this category of liers. People who are not habitual liers feel guilty when they lie. Their body language is not in synch with their tongue. Such people can be easily caught while lying. No matter how good we are in lying, in the long run, it is the truth that prevails over lies. If the whole world is destroyed, lies will perish but Truth will survive. Speaking Truth is not so easy. It requires lot of courage, commitment and determination to remain truthful. Are we prepared to pay the price for being truthful. If we are truthful, we will alienate our friends, relatives, colleagues. We will face difficulties in our workplace, at home. or wherever we go. We will have to face humiliation, embarrasment.,insults. Are we prepared to withstand difficulties that come in our way in exchange for being truthful.

T.V. Journalism in India

I personally feel the standard of Journalism has gone down in our country. I remember having seen an interview of "Satyajit Ray", perhaps the greatest Director of Realistic Cinema India has ever produced sometime in 1979. The Interview was conducted in a very polished and dignified fashion. The person who was taking interview chose to remain in the background. Not once did the camera focus on him during the interview session. The voice of the journalist was subdued, barely audible. The entire focus was on Mr Ray who was answering the questions put up by the journalist. Today's journalism is just the opposite. The focus of the camera is more on the journalist and less on the person who is being interviewed. It looks ridiculous. In most of the chat shows that I have seen, there does not seem to exist basic protocol. Most of the time, while the host speaks in Hindi , people participating in chat shows speak in English. Sometimes, it is even worse than this. The same person while expressing his views switches from English to Hindi and vice versa every now and then. What kind of Viewer the program is targetted at. Is the general public expected to understand multiple languages. In a situation where the participant expresses his views in a language other than the language in which the participants are supposed to speak, it is the responsibility of the host to interrupt and spell out clearly what the language of chat show is supposed to be. In extreme scenario, wherein the participant cannot speak in that language for whatever reasons, he or she should be allowed to speak in English as an exception which should be translated immediately by the host in Hindi for the benefit of the viewers. It appears to me that most of the participants have fairly good knowledge of Hindi but still they prefer to speak in English given the choice. When will we learn to respect our own language.

Real Heroes

Yesterday morning at around 9 o'clock , I was watching a program on NDTV news channel. It was a program organised to pay homage to our brave soldiers, commandos, policemen who lost their lives while fighting terror attack in Mumbai on 26/11. This program was so touching that it brought tears in my eyes. For the first time after many years, I saw the glory of our unsung heroes. Generally, in almost all channels, we get to see glorified images of politicians, bollywood actors and actresses and other high profile beaurocrats who have hardly contributed anything to the society. The same holds true of cricketers. Our real heroes are those ordinary people who are not scared to lay down their lives for the sake of the country. There are many other heroes who are selflessly serving the communities without any support from the government. We need to bring them into limelight. They should be made role model of our kids and not Bollywood actors and actresses as is prevalent now a days .Our T.V channels who are busing increasing their TRP through sensational news of murder, rape, vulgar dances, obscene comedies, Reality shows, meaningless saas bahu soap operas should instead focus on good work done by our unsung heroes. There appears to be a positive impact of mumbai terror attack in the sense that at least for few days, our channels stopped showing the usual dirty and useless programs. I only pray to God that after few days, when fear of terror strike subsides , these channels don't refert back to showing same old silly programs. Successful launch of Chandrayan 1 moon mission sometime in October this year was a landmark in the history of Indian space science. This news should have come as a headline in front page of Times of India on the next day of launch, but I was shocked to find some other news occupying the main headline instead. What a pity. When do we learn to appreciate good work done by the real heroes of our country.

Terror strike at Mumbai

The last terror attack in Mumbai has once again exposed the security lapses of our agencies. It looks like our police force with age old rifles and lathis are unable to fight terrorists who are armed to the teeth with AK47 automatic rifles and other electronic gudgets.Mr Karkare was killed because he was wearing a bullet proof jacket which was not good enough to protect him from bullets. Are our beaurocrats so corrupt as not to spare even those who fight for our safety and security. Our leaders are more concerned about their own security rather than the security of common man. Everytime there is a strike, our home minister gives the same old statement expressing sorrow and concern over the death of innocent people. Security of the common man in this country is always given the last priority. Unless common man puts pressure on the ministers and government officials to step up his security needs, no concrete action is going to be taken. Last terror attack at Mumbai is a grim reminder of what price we may have to pay if we neglect security needs of the country. Ordinary people in the country no longer feels secured. Terror can strike anytime, anywhere, in market, in schools, hotels, Hospitals, public places, at home. There is a need to create an awareness among the public as to the urgency with which our government should create special task force in each state to deal with this situation. Our security guards must be fully equipped with the latest fighting machines. Our intelligence agencies must be put on high alert. Our electronic media and print media should play active role in arousing the sentiments of the public towards terrorism. The question that we contineously need to ask ourselves is, should we display apathy towards the loss of life of other people and wait for our turn. Life is very precious and must be protected at all costs. Terrorism has become a global threat as of now and no longer confined to a particular region or territory . All peace loving countries must unite and fight terrorism at all costs.

Tourism in India

Our country is blessed with natural beauty. There is hardly any country in the whole world which has as many beauty spots as India has. When a famous English poet visited Kashmir valley, he was so much impressed with it’s awesome natural beauty that he could not help uttering these words “ If there is heaven on this earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” There are so many places of historical significance that if somebody were to visit all of them, it will take him not less than 6 months. Tajmahal, one of the wonders is the most beautiful monument in the world which was built by Shahjahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaj mahal. It's breathtaking view in the full moonlight is beyond desription. Ajanta and Ellora caves are world famous for it’s architectural marvel in Painting and Sculpture. Goa is famous for it’s beaches. Besides this, there exists great Indian culture and tradition. Cultural diversity is so great that as many as 128 different languages with different dialects are spoken across the length and breadth of the country. Perhaps, there is no other country in the world where there is so much diversity in language, food habits,dress code etc. Indian hospitals are amongst the best in the world in terms of facilities provided and the expertise of medical doctors and surgeons attending to the patients coupled with the fact that they are most economical when compared to other hospitals in the world. India is also the country of temples, churches, Mosques etc and is considered an ideal place for spiritual upliftment. Having said that , the fact is that number of tourists coming to India every year is miniscule considering the size of the country. It is shocking to note that tiny countries like Taiwan, Singapore,Bangkok etc are attracting more tourists than ours. Our tourism ministry is doing very little to promote tourism in the country. We are lacking in providing basic infrastructure like proper road, Transport, Hotels, Airports etc which makes it very difficult for the tourists to plan their travel well in advance. We need to change our attitude towards them. We need to look at them as our customer and not as outsiders and treat them with respect and care. There are instances of rape, murder, cheating etc which is damaging our reputation in the eyes of foreigners. Tourism can bring maximum foreign exchange to this country if handled with care

An Important Decision

When I look back and see what I have done for the upliftment of the poor and needy in my life, I find I have done nothing except feed myself and my family. I have indeed always wanted to help poor but I never translated my thoughts into action. I was too busy trying to handle day to day activities and problems. Anyway, it is never too late in life Even now, if I do something worthwhile, I would not feel guilty of being selfish and self centred.

I have decided to open a bank account in which every month, I will deposit 10% of my income in that month. This money will be exclusively utilized for helping poor families. I don’t want to donate in charity funds, since I know money in charity funds will be misappropriated by unscrupulous elements. I have worked out the strategy on “How to utilize funds” I will visit municipal schools of Mumbai city, talk to the school principals and identify some bright but poor students who are unable to pay school fees. I will then meet the families of these students and assess their living condition. I will look at the scorecard of the students to checkback how they have performed in exams. Having satisfied myself with these observations, I will decide to give monetary help. I will make cheque payment to school authorities towards Annual fee of the student. This financial assistance will be given to the students as an incentive in lieu of good performance of the student in the previous year. In the current year, the performance of the student will be monitored closely and in case the performance will go down below certain standard as decided, the incentive will be withdrawn. If need be, I will give private tuitions to these students free of cost to help them understand the subjects better.

There are many talented students in our country who are poor but unable to continue studies for want of fund. I know whatever help I will give in my individual capacity will be insignificant considering the level of poverty in our country but if each one of us do a bit for the upliftment of poor, it will make huge difference..

Power of Prayer

I was deputed at Lagos, Nigerian capital as country manager by an Indian I.T. company based at Mumbai sometime in the year 2005. I was supposed to develop company’s business in the whole of African continent as part of my assignment. I had very unusual experience on the very first day I landed in the city of Lagos. My sponsor who happened to be an Indian made arrangements for my stay in the guesthouse which was located in Northern part of Lagos. From the airport, I proceeded straight to the guesthouse. I was carrying a packet containing my passport,visa and an air ticket to Doha in the front pocket of black colored suit which I was wearing. It was a long journey from India and as such I was very tired. As I reached the guesthouse, I got down from the car and asked the driver to offload my luggage from the dicky of the car. The driver of the car who was a Nigerian helped me in offloading and carrying the luggage to the guesthouse. The driver luckily understood English so I had no difficulty in communicating with him. The housemaid in the guesthouse was Nigerian but she was trained to cook Indian vegetarian food. I thanked my sponsor for taking care of my food habits. There were two other guests from Indian origin who were staying in the same guesthouse. After I finished dinner, I went into my room and started making preparation for my next day’s visit to the clients. It was 10 O clock in the night and since I was very tired, I switched off the light and went to sleep. Next day, I woke up at 6 O’ clock in the morning. Suddenly, it did strike me that I must check my passport and visa. I searched it in the front pocket of my black colored suit which I was wearing the previous evening but I could not find it there. I became tense and started searching everywhere but I did not find the trace of it anywhere. I tried very hard to recollect where I could have kept it, but I failed to remember. I was very nervous and did not know what to do. I was in an alien country without passport and visa. I had heard that it is very unsafe to live in Nigeria. I could not imagine, what could have happened to me if my passport falls in the wrong hands. I lost all hopes of getting it back. I thought for a moment I must pray to God as last resort. I closed my eyes and prayed to Him for 5 minutes to help me get back my passport. By now, everybody in the guesthouse came to know that I had lost my passport. When my sponsor came to know of it, he telephoned me and said, “Don’t worry, I have contacts at the highest level in labour ministry, I will soon arrange a duplicate passport for you.” But I was not satisfied. I was cursing myself for being so forgetful as not being able to take care of even my passport. I was not in a mood to visit the customer but since I had fixed the prior appointment with him, I had no option but to honour the commitment. After an hour or so, while I was sitting with the customer discussing business, I got a phone call in my cell. It was that of my sponsor. He gave me the good news which I could not believe. He said, “Somebody whom I know has found your passport outside the guesthouse”. When I returned in the evening., he narrated the whole story. It runs like this.

“ At about 8 O’ clock in the morning, a car was passing through the road facing the main gate of guesthouse. As the car approached the main gate of guesthouse, a screeching sound came from the car. The owner of car who was sitting on the back seat heard the sound. He asked the driver to stop the car. He opened the gate on the left hand side and peeped outside to see if something had stuck in the car tyre. At that moment, he noticed a small packet lying on the side of the road. He picked it up and looked into it. He found my passport inside the packet in which my sponsor’s name was written. He coincidently knew my sponsor and immediately telephoned him and informed him of what had happened. It was nothing short of a miracle.

Even till date, I have not been able to find answers to the following:

· My passport was lying the whole night and morning till 9 O' clock the following day on the
roadside but nobody noticed it. How come?
· How come that car develops snag exactly at the point where my passport was lying.
· How come, the person who found my passport knew my sponsor and he was quick to hand over the passport to my sponsor.
Was it a coincidence. I don't think so. After this incidence, my faith in God has increased tremendously.

Unconditional help

My experience has been that if you are afflicted with sense of guilt and if your self image is low, you must help someone without expecting anything in return. I am diabetic and regularly get my blood sugar checked in a pathalogical lab "Belle View" which happens to be at a distance of about 3 km from my residence. One fine morning at about 8.30 am, as I was entering the building in which "Belle View" is located on the first floor of the building for check up of blood sugar, I heard a female voice "Beta, Meri madad karo" ( son, will you help me) . I turned back and saw a very old lady perhaps in the age group of 80-85 years who was struggling to walk with a stick. I hesitated for a moment. Then suddenly, I reached my hand to help her. I held her hand tightly and asked her. "Apko kahan Jana Hai" ( Where do you want to go) . She was speaking in Hindi Language, so I replied in Hindi. She said "Mere ko autoriksha me baithna hai. Mera haath pakad kar Auto Riksha tak chalo" ( Help me in reaching to autoriksha). She could barely walk. I adjusted her stick which she was holding so that she could get firm grip on it. Then I supported her with my shoulder and with great difficulty somehow managed to bring her to autoriskha which was waiting at some distance. After she was seated comfortably inside autoriksha, she thanked me profusely and asked "Kya tum muslim ho" ( Are you muslim). I replied in negative. She put her hand on my head and blessed me. I gave her some money so that she could pay autofare. After she went, I rehearsed the whole scene mentally several times and felt good. Perhaps, this was on account of unconditional help given to someone.

Mumbai's Roads

If you are new to Mumbai city and happen to drive the car in the streets of Mumbai, be careful else you may face lot of difficulties. Mumbai's roads are crowded. You will find people walking in the middle of road. Although there are footpaths on both sides of the road but these are occupied by vendors leaving no space for the general public to walk on it. There is no seperate lane for heavy vehicles, bicycles or auto rickshaws. All types of vehicles move together. Nobody follows traffic rules. Cars, buses, Autos overtake each other from either side. On top of this, people cross the roads anywhere, anytime without bothering to look at the passing vehicles. If you are not careful , you are likely to knock them down. The roads are dirty. People driving cars, taxis, autos atc are in the habit of spitting in the middle of road. Some of drivers are in the habit of chewing Paan ( beatle leaves). When these drivers spit on road, it leaves a red mark on the surface of road. Police is nowhere to be found. These people get away with fines if caught doing the act. While driving, even if your vehicle scrapes through the passing vehicle for no fault of yours, you get the choicest of gaali ( abuse). There are potholes everywhere. During monsoon season, the condition of road deteriorates even further which aggravates traffic congestion. It is a nightmare to drive on roads full of potholes. It takes anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes to cross a stretch of 5 kilometres during peak hours. If you reach traffic signal, you will be surprised to note that even though traffic light shows red signal, vehicles do not stop at it. There is total disregard of traffic rules. Vehicles come from all directions. This is extremely risky and dangerous. In some select signals which are manned by policemen, drivers do stop the vehicle but after crossing half the road thereby blocking vehicles coming from opposite direction. If you want to take left turn at junction, even if there is a green signal for left turn, you can't take left turn because you will be blocked by another vehicle ahead of you who wants to go straight. You will find speed breakers on main roads without any zebra mark or danger signal. If you are driving in the night time, you wont be able to notice it from a distance unless you come very close to it and if you are not quick to apply brakes, you are most likely to damage your car.

Idol worship

Most of Hindus worship idols not knowing that idol worship is not recommended in Vedas which is considered as most authentic scripture of Hindu Religion . According to Rig veda, there is only one God which has no shape, size or color. This is perfectly in synch with other religions. Those who worship idols are living in darkness. Idol worship is considered as sin in Holy book of Bible. Idols are made by man with his dirty hands. It is very difficult for a Hindu to accept that idols are lifeless. They can neither hear nor speak. They can't protect themselves. How can they protect others. Idols are to Hindus what teddy bears are to little children. Just as children cling to teddy bear whenever they get scared, Hindus cling to Idols. They think idols will protect them from all evils. They get false sense of security. They worship not only idols but even animals, plants, sun, moon etc. I am not against Hinduism. It is a great religion. I am only against superstition, blind faith. Most of Hindus do not know their own religion. They are misled, manipilated and confused by the so called swamis to satisfy their own selfish motives. Some of them are even sexually exploiting women and children.

Rich India Poor India

The country is divided into two segments from economy perspective The rich India and Poor India. The segment of the country's population which comes under Rich India is miniscule compared to vast majority of population which come under poor India. People coming under poor India do not have enough money to fulfill the basic needs. So long as there is unequal distribution of money, the GDP growth of the country which currently is second only to China is not going to benefit large percentage of population which come under poverty line. All the empty slogans of political parties like India shining, Feel good factor etc will not change the ground reality. The ground reality is that even today, 75% of rural areas do not even have proper sanitation facilities, safe drinking water and electricity. In a society like ours , it is a sin for a person to accumulate wealth beyond a point which is adequate for him to lead a decent life considering farmers committing suicides everyday because they are unable to repay loans taken from moneylenders and banks. On one hand, we have extremely poor people unable to make both ends meet, on the other hand we have filthy rich people who have amassed wealth worth thousands of crores. The distribution of wealth is highly skewed in favour of filthy rich. This economic divide between the rich and poor is increasing day by day at the national level and international level. The government is doing very little to bridge the gap. Are we insensitive towards the large section of population who have been denied the basic needs. There are many people who genuinely want to help but the money donated by them in various relief funds do not reach the poor. The subsidies given by the government in foodgrains and other essential commodities also do not reach the poor. GDP growth in absolute terms is not an indicator of economic prosperity. Unless the divide between the rich and poor is narrowed down, we cannot claim to achieve any economic progress in real sense.

Challenges India faces today

Two great powers India and China are emerging in the world scene. GDP in india is growing at the rate of 8-9% per annum which is one of the fastest among other nations. It is predicted that by the year 2020, India will achieve the status of economic superpower. India's domestic market is very big and has tremendous growth potential. The biggest stumbling block in the journey towards progress is corruption and terrorism. According to recent survey, India ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption is rampant in Ministry, Govt offices, Police, Municipal corporations, sports,Hospitals etc. There is total lack of accountability among the government officials. How to root out corruption is the biggest challenge as of today. Let us understand what causes corruption. Is it poverty, is it lack of responsibility towards the society or is it lust for money. Poverty does not seem to be the reason. Most people who are poor are found to be honest. In fact, most Economic offences are committed by educated, powerful and well to do influential people. They get away with punishment through sheer money power . Lack of responsibility towards society is of course one of the factors which help breed corruption. Our education system is entirely to be blamed for this. We are still following the same old course curriculam which was designed by Britishers 60 year ago. Our students get degrees from colleges but do not understand what their responsibilities are towards society. The sole purpose of education today is reduced to getting a job in a multinational company. Moral values and ethics has no place in the education system. This is the main reason why there is a degradation of moral values in Indian society resulting in corruption and crime. Corruption is at it' s peak in politics. Most of the politicians are highly corrupt. They serve their own family rather than serving the nation. They are hand in glove with criminals. In fact, some of the politicians themselves have criminal records. All political parties are corrupt without exception . Voters have no choice but to elect one of them. Our elections are funded by underworld dons who have money power. We will have to change electoral process to bring good people in politics. Our education system has to be revamped completely to inculcate moral values and disciplines among students. Terrorism is spreading in the country and slowly weakening the social fabric of multi ethnic, multi cultural, multi lingual Society. Our Intelligence agencies are failing to gather intelligence reports which can help track down terrorists before they strike. There is total lack of co ordination among intelligence agencies of different states, police and home ministry. Every time there is a serial blast, Govt officials get busy passing the buck to each other. No one seems to be concerned about the safety and security of the common man. There is no long term strategy to tackle terrorism in the country which has claimed thousands of lives in last 10-15 years. Politicians are more concerned about vote bank rather than the lives of common people. Media is sensationalising the issues to inrease their TRP. We can realise our dreams of becoming economic superpower only if we address the challenges we are facing.

Increasing Productivity

Human resource is the only resource which can improve productivity of the organsation.
which is so vital for survival in today’s highly competitive business environment. Human resource is more valuable asset than other assets like capital or equipments. If people working in organsation are not motivated, none of the initiatives taken by the company no matter how good they are will be successful. Motivation cannot be thrust upon people. It has to come from within . External motivation like fear factor, Incentives etc work only temporarily. They do not last long. Self motivation is the best motivation because it comes from within and lasts for ever. The person who is self motivated has a clear vision. He is focussed and channelises his energy to achieve goals which he has set for himself. People working in organization come from different cultural, social and educational background which determine the belief system and behaviour of the person. Organisation has it’s own culture which to some extent influence the behaviour of individual employees of the organisation. Organisation culture emanates from top and goes downwards. It is never the other way round. Culture mismatch happens if the organization culture does not fit employee’s own cultural background. HR managers while hiring employees should not only look at technical knowledge but also the cultural background which influence the behaviour and attitude of the person. A person with negative attitude will be critical He will find fault with everyone. He will blame the whole world for his problems. He lacks self esteem. He looks at opportunities as threats and creates hurdles in any change initiatives taken by the organisation for fear of losing control. Apart from motivation, there are other factors like Time management, Prioritisation, Delegation etc which can increase productivity. Most of employees spend 80% of their time doing things which contribute only 20% in achieving goals. That means either they are not clear as to what their KRA’s ( Key Result Areas) are or they don’t know how to prioritise activities if there are too many things to do. If KRA’s are not clear or not linked to company’s overall objective, increasing productivity will not give any benefit to the organization. KRA must be set keeping in mind company’s overall objective. Roles of individual employees should be defined keeping in mind KRA set. Job description of the roles must be spelt out clearly for new recruits so as to assess their capabilities visa vis the roles the job demands. This will eliminate competency mismatch at a later stage. What is important is how effectively the people in the company work rather than how hard they work. Time management helps in doing more in lesser time resulting in increase in productivity. This will eliminate idle time and inefficiencies.
If there is an awareness how critical the activity is from the point of view of achieving goals, activities which do not contribute much can be delegated to sub ordinates.

How to forgive

Holy Bible lays lot of emphasis on forgiveness. When Lord Jesus Christ was being crucified at the cross, he was experiencing excruciating pain both physically and mentally. Yet, he did not develop any hatred towards those who were hurling stones at him, abusing him or making fun of him. He said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Jesus Christ was no ordinary soul. It is impossible for ordinary people like you and me not to develop negative emotions like hatred, anger, Jealousy etc when subjected to humiliation. We not only develop negative emotions but even nurture it inside of us. We wait for the right opportunity to strike back. The longer we carry negative emotions in our body, the more it causes damage to our organs. We slowly detach ourselves from outside world. Our performance at workplace degrades, our relationship with peers, friends, relatives gets soured. We go into depression. Our life becomes miserable. Negative emotions are like steam in the pressure cooker. If steam is not allowed to escape out of pressure cooker, it will cause pressure mounting inside the cooker slowly ultimately resulting in explosion. Safety valve is built to release extra steam from inside chamber to ease pressure. Like safety valve, we must release negative thoughts. We cannot forgive the person so long as we carry negative emotions of him inside our body. But the point is how do we release negative emotions. It is very dangerous to release negative emotions in front of another person. It may hurt his sentiments which might escalate tension further. I have some thoughts to share with you on this. Lock yourself in a room. Keep an object in front of you. This object could be anything say a chair or a table. Now think of this object as the person whom you hate most. Bring out all your anger, pain,hatred from inside of you. If you feel like hitting the object, by all means do it. If you feel like shouting, shout at the top of your voice. Make sure you are alone in the room and nobody is looking at you while you are doing this act.After one or two minutes when all your negative thoughts are ejected out of your body, you will feel relieved of tension. You will be at peace with yourself. You will feel as if you are floating in the air.

How to forgive

Holy book of bible lays lot of emphasis on forgiveness. When Lord Jesus christ was being crucified in the cross, he was experiencing extreme physical and mental pain, yet he did not develop any hatred and anger towards those who were abusing him, making fun of him. He kept on saying "God, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". It is not easy not to react when subjected to humiliation. Jesus christ was no ordinary soul. Ordinary people like you and me will develop hatred, jealousy, anger towards those who try to harm us physically or emotionally. Bible says unless we forgive those who have sinned against us, god will not forgive our sins. True, but the point here is how do we forgive those who have sinned against us. Can we forgive so long as we carry negative emotions like hatred, anger, Jealousy inside of us. The answer is no. As a matter of fact, we not only carry negative emotions, we nurture these thoughts day after day, month after month, year after year. We wait for the right opportunity to take revenge with the person who caused harm to us. The longer we carry negative thoughts, the more the damage to our body system. Negative emotions are like steam in the pressure cooker. If the steam is not allowed to escape, the pressure inside the cooker will mount slowly and ultimately will increase to such an extent that it will explode. It is beacuse of this reason, the safety valve is fitted in the cooker which helps release the extra steam from time to time to ease pressure inside the cooker . If negative emotions are not released from the body in time, it may cause irreparable damage to the body. What do we do to get rid of negative emotions. Simple. Release the negative emotions like safety valve. There is a saying. Your child suffers for what your boss does to you. This means, if your boss shouts at you in office, you go home and shout at your wife. Your wife in turns beats your child and the child cries. What is happening here is each one is releasing negative emotions to somebody else. This works fine as long as emotions dont flow in reverse direction meaning you don't shout back at your boss or your wife does not shout back at you in retaliation. But think of the consequences if you shout back at your boss, you may lose job. If your wife shouts back at you, your relationship with your wife gets effected. It is dangerous and risky. I wont recommend it. I would like to share with you one method which is safe and healthy. Lock yourself up in a room. Take an object like table, chair etc. Keep this object in front of you. Now imagine if this object is the person who is your enemy. Bring out all your negative emotions in front of this object. If you feel like hitting, by all means hit the object. If you feel like shouting, shout at the top of your voice. Make sure that nobody is watching you while you are doing this act. After you finish doing this, which will not last for more than one or two minutes, you will feel relieved of all tensions. You will be at peace with yourself.

You will feel as if you are floating in the air.

Myths sorrounding CRM

Unlike ERP, suceess rate of CRM implementation is very low The scope of CRM is not limited to salesforce automation only as is widely perceived. CRM covers entire gamut of activities including market research, market segmentation, SWOT analysis for product positioning and marketing strategy, distribution network for fast and efficient delivery of products, services and after sales service, reorientation of organization culture to make it more customer centric, faster and consistent response to customer enquires and complaints. If the company is in the business of marketing of consumer products say fashion garments, it has to constantly keep itself abreast of fast changing lifestyle of customers so as to align the products and services in tune with customer’s taste.. Attrition rate of customers in this business segment is very high. More than the product, which has attained a certain level of maturity as of now, it is the quality of service which differentiates an organization from the rest. How does the company respond to the customer enquiries/complaints. Who attends to the enquiry. Are all enquiries channellised through a common database?. How much time is elapsed in responding to enquiry. Is the delay acceptable to the customer?. Is the customer satisfied with the response. Are company’s business matrics in place which can measure company’s performance in terms of level of service provided. These are the challenges companies must address before rushing in to bring CRM software. CRM software can at best maintain customer and product databases with pricing, can keep track of enquires received, tasks performed at the backoffice and can channellise the correspondences between the company and the customer. But it cannot bring about radical changes at the grass root level in the organization as discussed earlier.

Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.

It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.

Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.

The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)

Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.

There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.

In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?

Myths sorrounding CRM

Unlike ERP, suceess rate of CRM implementation is very low The scope of CRM is not limited to salesforce automation only as is widely perceived. CRM covers entire gamut of activities including market research, market segmentation, SWOT analysis for product positioning and marketing strategy, distribution network for fast and efficient delivery of products, services and after sales service, reorientation of organization culture to make it more customer centric, faster and consistent response to customer enquires and complaints. If the company is in the business of marketing of consumer products say fashion garments, it has to constantly keep itself abreast of fast changing lifestyle of customers so as to align the products and services in tune with customer’s taste.. Attrition rate of customers in this business segment is very high. More than the product, which has attained a certain level of maturity as of now, it is the quality of service which differentiates an organization from the rest. How does the company respond to the customer enquiries/complaints. Who attends to the enquiry. Are all enquiries channellised through a common database?. How much time is elapsed in responding to enquiry. Is the delay acceptable to the customer?. Is the customer satisfied with the response. Are company’s business matrics in place which can measure company’s performance in terms of level of service provided. These are the challenges companies must address before rushing in to bring CRM software. CRM software can at best maintain customer and product databases with pricing, can keep track of enquires received, tasks performed at the backoffice and can channellise the correspondences between the company and the customer. But it cannot bring about radical changes at the grass root level in the organization as discussed earlier.

Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.

It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.

Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.

The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)

Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.

There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.

In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?

Why Virus

There is lot of similarity between Human Virus and computer virus. Both are foreign agents. Human viruses attack healthy tissues of body whereas computer viruses attack data and software present in the computer system . When white cells of the body detect the presence of virus in the body, they fight and kill the virus and the body recovers from the sickness. In case of computer virus, when a new virus enters the computer system, the antivirus software present in computer system detects and cleans the virus automatically. Now imagine what will happen if while cells in the body are weak and incapable of fighting, viruses will kill white cells in body. with the result the body will become sick and ultimately, the person will die. The same logic applies to computer virus. If antivirus software present in computer system is incapable of detecting new virus entering the system, it will slowly distroy software and data present in computer system causing irreparable damage. As new viruses keep coming, antivirus software needs to be constantly updated to be able to detect new viruses. Antivirus software is created to distroy the virus and therefore always comes after new virus is detected. It is never the other way round.
That means no anti virus software can offer 100% protection against new viruses specially if the new virus is not known to anybody.
The question that arises is who creates new viruses and why. Viruses are created to cause panic among users across the globe. Panic creates sense of urgency. If your sensitive data is under attack, you will do anything to protect it from damage. The loss to the company is enormous as recreating data is often very laborious and time consuming. Anti virus software is the only solution to clean virus. You start looking for anti virus software so that no further distruction of data takes place. There seems to be a linkage between virus software and anti virus software.
Anti virus software is in demand because of virus software. This reminds me of a movie of silent era called "The Kid". In this film, the hero who is great Charlie Chaplin breaks the glasspanes of windows of homes by throwing stones at them from distance. His collegue is standing nearby who is readily available to repair the windows. The needle of suspicion goes to thosecompanies who by creating virus software stand to gain from anti virus software.

What is the solution. How can we stop the menace of viruses which keep growing day after day at alarming speed. There is only one way which can put a brake to generation of new viruses in future and that is identify the origin of virus software through technology and sue the company responsible for generating virus software.

Pitfalls in ERP implementation

Investments in I.T. projects particularly in ERP is huge and return on investment is not clear. CEO of the company takes a decision to go ahead with ERP without doing any home work. Implementation partners of SAP, Oracle claim to implement ERP in 90 days flat. A closer scrutiny will reveal startling facts. Implementation has been done successfully in case of only 25% of those who have gone for ERP. In some cases, there is total failure. Companies where ERP has been implemented are back to square one and are doing almost everything in excel sheet. The loss to business is huge in terms of investment in hardware, software, networking infrastructure etc besides the cost of human resource deployed in implementation. Cost of maintenance of ERP is very high almost 18-22% of licensing cost. That means , if the licensing cost of ERP is say 1.5 crore, the cost of AMC shall be in the range of 27-33 lacs per annum which the company has to shell out irrespective of whether ERP is a failure or a success. Neither the implementation partners nor the clients come out openly and acknowledge the failure for fear of loss of prestige.

There is not one reason that can be attributed to the failure. There are several reasons of the failure. It is my view that failures must be analysed and brought to the notice of those who are potential customers of ERP so that they learn from the mistakes made in the past and do not repeat the same causing enormous loss to the company.

To start with, let me give you a simple example. You know that if there is pain in any part of your body, you go to the doctor. The doctor diagnoses the cause of pain in your body and suggests remedial measures by prescribing appropriate medicines with instructions on how to take the medicines. Carrying the prescription of the doctor, you then proceed to buy these medicines from a medical store. If you go to the medical store without consulting the doctor and buy a medicine which can relieve you of pain from the body, you are most likely to buy wrong medicine which will eventually harm the body rather than cure it. The point to note here is that you need to know what is it that is causing pain. Even the best medicine cannot cure you if the pain is not diagnosed properly. By the same logic, no matter how good an ERP product you buy, if it cannot address the pain area of your company it is of little use., it will prove to be a liability rather than an asset of the company. CEO of the company has to therefore hire a consultant who will help identify pain areas of the organization and prepare specification which will serve as a blue print to test the functionality fitment of ERP. It is quite possible that even the best ERP may fail to pass the test fully whereas a lesser known ERP product passes the test. The point I am trying to make here is that what is important is not how good an ERP product is , but whether the functionality of the product fits to your company’s specific requirement.

Coming back to the previous example, even if you buy correct medicine, it may not cure you if you don’t take it in the correct dose as prescribed by the doctor. In the same way, even if the right ERP is purchased, it can still fail if not implemented properly. ERP implementation may be done by the vendor himself or may be done by implementation partners of the vendor. Vendors of SAP, Oracle etc recommend certified implementation partners for implementation of their product. In a scenario like this, it is necessary to evaluate implementation partners separately on the basis of type of projects handled in the past, feedback of their existing clients preferably from similar industry, technical background of project team, domain knowledge etc. It is also important to know from existing sites how much time is spent in implementation. Even the financial health of the company should be looked into to ensure the sustainability of the company from the long term relationship point of view. There are instances where the product is good but implementation partner is weak and the vice versa. In both case, chances of failure are very high. Cost of implementation over a period of time has gone up considerably. It is as much and in some cases even more than the cost of product. Therefore, evaluation of implementation partner is as important as the evaluation of vendor. Implementation cost varies depending on timeline estimated in going live which again is dependent on scope defined. Implementation partners submit proposal based on the scope of implementation and man efforts required in completing major milestones as defined. Scope definition is the responsibility of the client and not of implementation partner. If the scope is not correctly defined, the project may be thrown out of gear during implementation resulting in cost escalation and ultimately failure. Even if the scope is defined correctly, the time estimate in completing major milestones of implementation phase may not match with actual time taken. Implementation is not the sole responsibility of implementation partner but joint responsibility along with client. Before project kick starts, implementation partner submits a detailed activity chart to the client highlighting activities under each milestones and responsibility of the individuals to carry out the activity. It is assumed that the person responsible for completing activity dedicates full time and energy in carrying out the activity. If for any reason, the person responsible for doing an activity fails to complete it in time, it may have repercussion on other activities which are dependent on this. Generally, the delay is from client end. Either the person concerned is not dedicated to this task due to his preoccupation with current functional responsibilities or he is lacking commitment . My observation is that this problem is more acute in small and medium sized organization wherein there is acute shortage of manpower. They are in a dilemma. If the person is kept aside to do ERP activities, the business of the company suffers.. Conversely, if they do not spend adequate time in ERP activity, implementation of ERP suffers. The decision to go ahead with ERP should be taken by the CEO of client company after carefully assessing the availability of man power which can be dedicated fully to ERP during implementation stage. Scope of implementation generally excludes certain activities like data clean up, data migration, coding etc. which if ignored can impact and delay implementation substantially. Existing database of the client may be inconsistent, incomplete, unreliable. Existing coding structure may be defective which may cause havoc to MRP., inventory etc at post go live stage.

Training is an area which is often overlooked. The standard practice is that training on various functionalites of ERP is given to core team members of client in the beginning phase of implementation with an understanding that this training will ultimately be passed on to endusers during go live stage. By the time pilot test run is conducted and the system is ready for go live, enduser training is forgotten by the core team with the result end users are left unattended. Core team members are withdrawn from the project and brought back to normal business functions. Implementation partner withdraws the support after project sign off. When faced with difficulties, endusers stop using ERP and reverts back to excel sheet in the absence of any support from either side.

Human resistance to ERP is prevalent in almost all organizations. Users who are fearful of losing control or are unable to embrace new technology resist implementation and block the process of implementation. CEO of the company has to anticipate such resistance and take appropriate steps to counter it. Many companies resort to methods like include ERP implementation as part of KRAs of users so as to increase the ownership of core team and end users.

Steering committee should make periodic review of progress made during and after go live stage. Post go live stage, old system should be switched off completely. Mistakes that most organizations make is they carry on with old system in parallel with ERP system with the result lot of backlog in transaction entry is created and ERP is never used in online mode.

The point to remember is that ERP implementation does not end with project sign off but extends much beyond and is in fact an ongoing process. Generally speaking, benefits from ERP in terms of reduction in cycle time, improved customer service etc is perceived only after 1 year of continuous use. Motivation level of endusers therefore has to be sustained over a period of 1 year after go live stage.

I will summarise by saying that ERP implementation requires dedicated skilled manpower on the part of the client and must be taken up with lot of commitment and dedication. If implemented in full and successfully, it can bring about radical change in the way the business is conducted or else it will become a status symbol only to satisfy the ego of company’s CEO.