What a life!

Friday 5 October 2018

Back in action

Here we go again!

It has been a whirlwind four years since the last post that I had put up in 2012. That year, among the many momentous milestones, one was a meeting with a friend and his friend - a former rally champion, who had partnered with the national football team captain. Their objective was to create a brand and messages that could save lives needlessly lost on the roads. Convinced that this would be an opportunity to not just re-engage with Oman, but truly make a difference by saving lives of people, I accepted the offer to create a startup.

What a journey it was. Two years of non-stop mega-humbling action. No mean task to begin from scratch and set up everything. From branding to the organisational structure to securing sponsorships and then some. 15 hour work days, dragging myself back home and crashing on the bed with the glint of a smile in the eye, thinking that somewhere out there amongst the myriad blacktops criss crossing Oman, somebody had heard what we had to say and had maybe thought just enough to make a minor change in their driving behaviour which led to many a life being saved.

By mid-2014, life as an ongoing set of constant adrenalin pumping challenges once again intervened in a manner, wherein moving to Dubai became an option that I just could not refuse. Next thing was working with a firm completely run by Indians. UAE, its work and spend culture which I had detailed many a time before (tourist, job-hunter, philosophy), still managed to surprise me in more ways than one. From moments of sheer bliss to absolute horrifying let-downs. I shall leave it at just this - it was an eye-opener in so many ways that even my words may not have the power to make the reader fathom the impact.

Circa 2018, I am back in India for good. Hope soars as a strategy and plan to get going with my own business which began as a seed has now begun to sprout. Now, am on the cusp of getting the business started, whilst another project in nearby Kochi, keeps me more than somewhat occupied. Somewhere in the midst of all this clamour for time, space, energy, familial duties, monetary concerns, and whatnot, which not so strangely, features rather strongly in the typical life of a middle class Indian, there was this yearning to pen the words that convey my feelings out to the world.

So here, we go again. Am truly looking forward to a better future for all of us. Let's engage, chat, debate, discuss, share and care.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Work culture

"Culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses: Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture; An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning; The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group

(Source: Wikipedia)

In this post, I want to focus on the last point about attitudes, values, etc. that characterizes an organization.

I was lucky to have worked in multiple countries, and sure each place has its own culture. However, the work culture while being a microcosm of the larger prevailing culture tends to have its own characteristics. These are manifested in form, type and regularity of good and bad depending usually on the people who lead from the top but sometimes exceptions do occur.

A key characteristic that differentiates a good governance organization is the transparency of information (internally and externally) as well as the respect shown to individuals within and outside the system.

It is sad when, especially younger, people are subject to the wrong sort of experiences as a result of the management's lack of desire to shoulder their responsibilities, in the right way, and practice a better quality of interaction and responsibility. Organizations who do not care to understand this, are risking their future. This is the sad truth. For no longer does the world abide by the manner in which organizations were run decades ago! However, it is a truth that is unpalatable, undesirable and incomprehensible to those irresponsible management staff who can actually make a difference to the way perceptions and experiences are shaped.

Today, the world has changed. No longer is it closed. It is open and opens further every second. Communication is instant, wide reaching and phenomenally fast! Watch out for the danger for someone, somewhere, soon is going to step up sideways and out-punch the 'averse to change' organization.