If I Become a Consultant

 I would make a good consultant in some areas. Can't compete with the McKinseys and BCGs in their areas of Core Competence, but I have my own.

1. How to tackle different kinds of bosses.

2. How to play Golf, and Why to Play Golf

3. How to Avoid Toxicity and Lead a Happy Life

4. How to Read Books and Forget the News Headlines

5. Why Life is Not a Four-letter Word

6. Careers That Give More Satisfaction Than Others, and Less Heartburn Too

7. Food Experiments You Should Try

8. Travel Tips for Oldies 

9. How to Avoid Stress

10. How to Make Friends- Listening Skills are paramount

11. How to be Funny and also be Liked!

Differences and Similarities

 I was born in 1960, and have been through six decades of life. What are the similarities and differences in each decade, or among various time periods?

Similarities

Family is still an important part of life and life support for most of us.

The middle class still believes in education as a transformational tool.

The politician has not changed much. Promises outpace real change.

Corporates rule the roost-though a different set.

Wars remain, fought for any stupid reason. 

Differences

Technology has enabled Work From Home, Travel (simulated), conversations across the globe, digital photography

Families are getting smaller in size, at least urban families

Agriculture is losing out to Services in contribution to the GDP.

Careers other than engineering have gained traction.

Globally, wars are supplemented by shootings, and more suicides than before.

New Careers

 I am half-serious, as always. Some careers that I have heard of- or maybe not.

Ghost-writing. You don't have to be a ghost to do this, though you can continue to inspire the living when you reach ghosthood.

Coaching. Not teaching people to bat, bowl, or field, but how to conduct their life- as a conductor! 

TV Debater. There are only 10 people appearing in TV debates on all Indian TV channels put together. This looks like an easy career, if you have strong vocal chords...strikes a chord?

Tele-caller. If you can start selling anything, from undergarments to credit cards to a stranger in under 10 seconds, this one is for you. Numbers to call are provided.

Management Guru. This is a tough one, because half of the U.S. is your competitor. Every Tom, Dick, and Mary has written a book too, so you are way behind. But still, you could give it a shot. 

Ok, you only get this much for free. For more careers, contact my bank..

There is no Single Right Way

All our life, we are attempting to do things right. But what is right? Who decides? You should decide what's right for you (within bounds of decency, of course). For example, what to wear. Formal clothes are such a pain, for example, particularly when we ape Western wear in Eastern Tropical climates. Why can't we develop our own norms for what is formal, if we need to-or have multiple possible attires, including some traditional options?

It goes on in all walks of life, not just what you wear. Many people have achieved happiness or success doing things which did not feel right to someone or the other. Some were crucified for it historically too. Being judgemental about other people comes a bit too easily to most of us...a lot of us may have been judges in a past life!

Sometimes advice is sane, but mostly, it is a case of one size does not fit all. Career choices are also somewhat similar. I became an engineer (I mean I got a degree in engineering), but I turned out to be a non-engineer-whatever that is. So exploration may be a good idea, as far as your own choices go, so long as you can afford to be independent economically. If you can't, well, follow the advice of all the well-meaning folks and do what's RIGHT.

Anything to Look Hot- Book Review

A plastic surgeon has written this unusual book. It's about Indian celebs wanting to go under the knife to perpetuate their careers through their looks. Not surprisingly, no body part has been left out, and no technique. Names are disguised, of course, but some are guessable.

Shows that this is a need- almost hunger-like in its intensity, and will keep many a plastic surgeon/cosmetologist busy. A nice read, because there is his story at the bottom of it- a romance too, between a Dilliwala Panju and a girl from the North East who marries him. Very truthful, shows the downside for both patient and surgeon when things go wrong. And some unethical practices too.

There are benefits, of course, for the celebs, and some non-celebs-accident or burn cases, for example. Worth a read! Author-Jas Kohli.

Some gyan about how marketing is necessary too, particularly Word-of-mouth.

Talking to School Children at Nanded

Had a unique opportunity to talk to school kids at a Nanded school. It was scary too, because I was new to this experience. The talk was on careers, since the small-town Indians are generally a bit less aware of career options, and their parents may be less aggressive in hunting for options other than the mainstream- CA, Medical or Engineering. Though I am a mainstream engineer/MBA, my kids are not, so I gave examples of careers that are non-mainstream.

These are the kids-all of them, with some teachers.Biggest audience for my talk in recent times!

Nanded is famous for a Gurudwara too, and here are some pics of this amazing place of worship.

Unusual Business Ideas

In India, we are different. We walk different, we talk different, we spit (yuck) different.

Thus, there is a case for different business ideas.

1. Acid factory for acid-throwers. This is not a game. Serious maiming of face happens in cases of spurned love, or just for settling old enmity. Brisk sales guaranteed.

2. Betting syndicates for any event. Not restricted to games, or racing. What time the boss will come to office, could be bet on. Bosses that defy Murphy's laws (If you are late, he will be early, and vice versa) . Or, there could be bets on who will have a wardrobe malfunction in the next celebrity gathering/award function, etc.

3. Mall development. We believe malls are necessary for improving the GDP, which is not really improving, by the way. But we must keep trying. Never give up. Even if nobody shops in them. Empty ones can always run a B school. Or a nursing college.

4. School for Mobile phone calling etiquette. The students will have only one course to pass- How not to Annoy the Receiver of Calls. If they can learn this one thing, your job is done. But who would enroll? A question to Ponder.

5. Media anchoring school. This will have high decibel shouting matches in class, with no one able to hear the other. Direct placement offers from Times Now will follow- not now, later.

Data Analytics Seminar

There are lots of openings for MBAs in Data Analytics. This was the message that came out strongly in a seminar on the subject where I was the odd man out. Meaning, I was the academician among industry speakers. This was held at Narsee Monjee Institute's Hyderabad campus. I spoke about marketing analytics by virtue of my having written the marketing research book, and having taught the subject.

There was an interesting presentation on Banking and its uses for analytics, particular emphasis being fraud prevention by looking at patterns of spending or other behaviors. There was another on Big Data. That reminds me of a joke I read elsewhere that a person wanted to do a course on Analytics techniques, AND on Big Data, thinking that Big Data was a software package for analytics. Anyway,  what I gathered is that Big Data is all data, text or graphics or Facebook Likes or whatever, about an entity that you are tracking-like you and me. Gathering it is easier sometimes than figuring out how to use it. We frequently have this problem with all types of data.

Anyway, one sidelight was that a speaker likened the Data Analyst to a Sherlock Holmes on a murder trail, because you are trying to find meaning in it, by trying out various things, or trying to prove a hypothesis. There was some discussion about use of the cloud by small and large companies, and of applications for cricket players and teams, and techniques like Camera-based reviews.

All in all, an interesting 3 hours, compered and organised very well by the students.

Sudhir Kakar’s Book of Memories

India’s best known psychoanalyst is good to read. He has recounted in this autobiographical book various episodes in his eventful life. One is about his growing up years and career choices- unsurprisingly, driven by his father’s ideas of what he should be doing. Which he did at first, under protest. But at some point, partly after his meetings with Erik Eriksson, the Harvard psychologist in Ahmedabad, he decided to follow his calling and go for it. His dad later admitted his mistake in driving him away from it.

He also recounts how Vikram Sarabhai prevailed on Nehru to set up IIMA at Ahmedabad instead of Mumbai and why. The reason was not entirely professional, he candidly admits. It appears there was a relationship between Sarabhai and Sudhir’s aunt Kamala, and both were at Ahmedabad. This was one reason that drove him to set up the institute there.

There are a lot of insights into how he set up, with great difficulty, a psychoanalysis practice at Delhi, and how entire families got involved in an individual’s case- particularly if the patients were women- daughters or daughters-in-law!

An interesting read, with many observations about Indian psychological and sociological predilections. Those with an interest, should read it for a look at these and more.

Parenting Blues

Just attended a panel discussion as a panel member titled 'Duvidha'- about confusion faced by parents of 9th class students about careers and life, and parenting. Rather scary, but had a few good panelists for company, including an IAF pilot, a Doctor, a theatre personality, so not so scary in the end. It was organised by One Foundation, an NGO in Nagpur.

Very interesting. Coincidentally, am reading a book written by Bill Cosby, the star of the Cosby Show, a very popular TV show of the 80s in the U.S., which talks about similar issues about the Black community in the U.S. The book, titled 'Come On, People', is meant to make parents aware of their responsibility in child-rearing if they decide to have children. He talks about the bad effects of gangsta rap, black English and other bad role models in media for black kids.

Bill Cosby was a very successful TV artist, and through light comedy, touched on a lot of important issues like parental control, kids' behaviour particularly teenage behaviour and so on.

The panel discussion got a very enthusiastic response from Nagpur parents, with a hall full of people who were invisible, because the spotlight was on the stage. Focused on our inspirations for our careers, and whether things were planned, or aided by parental or other pressures. A variety of choices and circumstances emerged, and there were probably some takeaways for everyone. For example, letting kids make the final decision about careers, after providing them some advice- Indian parents are still playing God too often.

The Curious Case of Ken Jolly

No, this is not a Sherlock Holmes mystery or an Agatha Christie whodunit. It is a friend who renamed himself Ken Jolly. The story begins around 40 years ago in the coal mining towns of Kothagudem, and Ramagundam. We were kids then, and had a lot of older friends. Kiran was one among them, his full name being Kiran Kenjale. He completed his engineering from VRCE (now called VNIT) at Nagpur and went to Texas Tech at Lubbock in the U.S. for his Masters. But what he did after that was amazing (to me at least). He figured out that he did not want to be an engineer, that he could maximise what he wanted out of life by becoming a real estate broker.

Why a real estate broker? Because according to him, it required minmal skills and got maximum returns in terms of brokerage fees. And a lifestyle that allowed him to take long or short breaks from work to travel and experience things that most of us only dream about through our entire lives. He has probably been to every continent and more countries than I can even remember. He has done bungee-jumping, taken cruises in Alaska, and visited Rio several times.

I think it's also a tribute to his market-orientation that he changed his name from Kiran Kenjale to Ken Jolly because it made it easy for customers to remember it, and give him their business. As a marketing professor, I think that is sheer genius! He came visiting yesterday to IMT Nagpur with his wife Neena, and we had a good time meeting up after a long time. His brother Prakash Kenjale was a sort of legend at TCS, where he worked a long time, and in a curious turn of fate, TCS is here today for campus recruitments. Amen!