Why I Can't be an Entrepreneur

Too much work, if I have to put it succintly. Matlab, there are no defined work hours. The buck stops with you, so everyone looks up to you for advice, guidance and operational decisions. How do I know? I have worked with promoters in the education sector.

Also, chasing payments is one part of their role- or any role- that I dislike. Of course, many of those I worked with had the reverse problem-they wouldn't pay vendors on time, until they were  chased for months.

I would rather be at peace knowing that I can leave it all if I feel like it, and let the CEOs or promoters carry the burden the rest of the time. 

Work-life balance is a thing, yaar.

Not Being Useful

 When you are in a job, you can be useful to friends in your network, either due to your expertise, or your position, or contacts. Maybe you can get things done. Fix a summer internship for your friend's son/daughter, or call someone to do someone a favour.

When you stop working, most of these "powers" go away almost instantly. People who knew you 'forget' you, and you are pretty useless to anyone. It's a different feeling, and can affect you negatively.

But there's also a positive. It's liberating, the feeling that you are no longer going to be approached by anybody to do things for them. You can play God no longer, you are just a human on your own. 

Freedom, at last?

Roomies and Colleagues

 Sometime in life, you have roommates, or roomies. I had some in my school dormitory, in my engineering college hostel, both in Hyderabad. Later, had some in the U.S., until I got married. IIMB had single rooms, but great diversity in terms of classmates.

These are great learning opportunities. You live with completely different kinds of people, and learn to get along with them. My engineering roomies were Telugu speakers, and it improved my Telugu. In school we had to speak English. 

The U.S. roommates or flatmates were all from Hyderabad, so it was not a big challenge. Also, we had a French friend, an Iranian one, a Turkish one and a Nigerian one among classmates in our courses, apart from Americans. 

A Korean and a Venezuelan colleague followed at Lander, my workplace. And of course, an American, Leslie, who became good friends with my wife. 

In India, multicultural colleagues followed (I worked across the country), including Odiyas, Bongs, South Indians from all states, and Marathi and North Indians from all over. Enjoyed the diversity and good times, with festivals of all kinds being celebrated. 

What You Do and How You Do It

 We are always talking about what we do-and ask questions around it, one way or another, to those we keep meeting. But whatever you may be doing, it's more important whether you like it, and if you are able to contribute meaningfully, and whether it gives you satisfaction at the end of the day, week or month.

I think Hoe you do something is as important as what you do. Are you bringing in new ways of thinking? Are you helping a colleague do better than he/she would have? Are you spreading cheer around? A movie called Bawarchi directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee comes to mind. A dystopian household with a lot of problems hires a cook- a bawarchi- who brings sunshine into the house. He helps each one in the house to achieve what they only dreamt of till then. More importantly, he teaches everyone to love and respect one another! In another film of his, Anand, the hero knows he's dying from a rare cancer. But while those around him are grieving, he spreads joy among them till his last breath, because he wants to enjoy whatever is left of his life- looking at the positives.

It is possible, in most cases, to be able to do more than the minimum, whether it's a job or your own enterprise, or something else. The joy of doing it- anything at all- is infectious, and can help you and others to enjoy it to the fullest. Many jobs are dull and repetitive, but you can inject some fun into them if you try.

Try it.

Some People Say

 Some people say that I have been doing nothing useful in all these years (not the wife, some others).

Some people say that if you enjoy your work, then it doesn't seem like work.

Some people are right- I have enjoyed what I did, mostly- teach, attend conferences in multiple places, give invited lectures, teach Golf to my students and MDP participants (outside their curriculum), write books, publish papers and case studies, help people get a Ph.D. by advising or mentoring them, and develop some people when I was in leadership positions-both faculty and assistants.

So I wasn't actually 'working'- get it? 

And bosses, I mostly ignored them. You can do so in academia, and get away with it. I had a couple of good ones, though.

Things I am Proud of

 Work first.

Started a journal, PES Business Review when I was at PESIT, Banashankari, Bangalore. Manasa, Jayasimha and Shahida all played a role. We launched it with some good papers.

A Case conference at Goa when I was Director at IMT Nagpur. It was exotic, fun, and very successful. Harsh Halve was a prime mover. 

Successful convocations at IMT Nagpur. The Admin. played a major role. Also the faculty in various organising committees.

Publishing my first book, on Marketing Research. KIAMS staff helped, and students by writing cases for it. Now in its fourth edition, released at IIM Indore.

Alumni meets for IMT alumni. Many were memorable. Some friends made there are forever. Sheetal, Nikita, Anchal, Shuchi, are just some of those.

Ph.D. students I worked with as a Guide, or mentor. Manoharan, Suma and Naveen Das actually were my students as a Guide. Others, I was on their committees.

New courses, like a Seminar on Thought Leadership, or Digital Marketing and Seminar on Tourism Marketing. Taught me a lot. 

Learnings Over 40 Years

 The first step after my MBA in 1984 was into advertising, and then into Marketing Research. Followed by a trip to the U.S. that lasted 5 years, including a Ph.D. and a lot of teaching experience. And driving too, on beautiful 4 lane roads and 2 lane country roads. A couple of pics, from Niagara Falls and Bryce Canyon, below-

Then, my academic journey started in India with XIMB, followed by VJIM, KIAMS Harihar, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, PES Bangalore, IFIM, IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad, IIM Indore, NMIMS Bangalore and now, Prestige University Indore.

My learnings are not easy to summarise, but let me try-

1. Learning never ends, whether you are a student or a teacher. Unless you close your mind.
2. People are generally nice, except for a toxic minority. If unchecked, the toxic ones spoil the environment for others. 
3. Productivity is hard to measure, and so is success. Sales figures can also deceive, because quality of customers matters.
4. Advertising is losing its credibility, but over a long period, brands can achieve credibility through good performance as per customer expectations.
5. Hard work does help, in various phases of a long career.
6. Conceptual skills and problem-formulation skills separate a leader from others.
7. People skills too, sometimes. 
8. Most employees are confused by contradictions in the workplace. Advice? If you have control over things, be consistent.
9. How to succeed? Have multiple goals, and achieve as many as you can. If you cannot achieve some, it may not matter. Refer to No. 3 above.
10. Chill, have a hobby, travel, meet friends. This always works, no matter your situation.

On Being Creative

 The typical artist/painter is supposed to be poor, unkempt and not adept with the ways of the (rest of the) world. Though that may be an exaggeration, there is an element of truth in the image. S(he) may be less concerned with the world than a person in a 'normal' profession. The primary reason, of course, is love for what she is doing.

Very few jobs offer the luxury of doing what you love (teaching may be one). Mostly, they are bread-earners for an employee, however much we may try and match the employee's strengths with the job on hand. Yes, it's possible to motivate through incentives, but that motivation may end when the tap of incentives closes.

Being creative (if allowed to) may be a way out. It seeks to motivate an employee by being creative, or innovative. For example, there is a dancing traffic policeman (saw a video of him), and a cricket umpire who used variations of the sign for declaring a batsman 'out' in cricket.

Lots of creative ways of doing things can be explored, as I have found out in teaching. And observing people in 'boring' jobs doing things differently. Conversations can be creative too, with co-workers, or subordinates.. and dare I say it, with bosses. 

Of course, one can pursue creative pursuits outside of the job, like photography, painting, writing or travel.

Gatherings at Work

 Socialising is one reason why work becomes more tolerable, to most people. So it is important to have a social event or cultural event, once in a while. We have some good singers in our team at NMIMS, and we had a good time discovering new ones too. Here are some pics from the latest get-together to welcome new members..work begins to look like a party! 

Managing Egos= Managing People?

 Yes, most of the time, these are the same thing. 

That is one reason why flattery works in a lot of places. Bosses, for example are usually happy to hear good things about themselves. King's courtiers knew this very well, in the days when monarchy was prevalent everywhere.

It is a rare person who is immune to praise- deserved or undeserved. I am not recommending this route to get ahead, but maybe awareness of it may still be useful. Even otherwise, you can get things done if you recognise that people have egos- sometimes, bloated egos and the easiest way is to play along and get that satisfied.

Government servants in monopolistic situations are a good example, because they can block any initiative or request, unless egos are massaged. Well, that is sometimes given other names, but like Shakespeare said, the name is not very relevant. So, recognise and work around it if you face a monopoly of power. 

Delhi

 I lived in Delhi twice. The first time, I lived in South Delhi and worked at New Horizons, an ad agency of the India Today group, in C.P. K-13, Connaught Circus. That was in 1984-85. I did not like the weather one bit, though the job was OK. Left and joined a Marketing Research company in Bangalore.

I recently worked with IMT Ghaziabad, and lived in Delhi again, in 2012. This lasted for about a year, and was better, but I still didn't like the weather or the pollution. I left for IIM Indore in 2013 December.

But my visits have always been lovely, as I have met friends all over. Alumni like Vrinda Khanna or Surbhi Mehta Chadha, Nikita Kumar, Shruti Sharma and Aditya (IMT Nagpur), or Sunil, Shweta, Sharmistha Singh, Padmapriya (KIAMS), or Bhuvneet Raheja of IIM Indore were some I met two years ago, just before the Corona pandemic. I have a few more invitations that I had to take a raincheck on.

I also visited for admission work, and on invitation from institutes like IIT Delhi for Ph.D. vivas of their students. Living on their campus was a pleasure. I also used the Delhi metro when I visited, and am happy with their coverage which is extensive. 

Mayday

 May used to be a month of school vacations, right from childhood. Though hot, we had compensations like a swimming outing in our club, and mangoes, and visits to cousins in slightly cooler places, as we grew up in the hot coal-mining towns of Kothagudem, Ramagundam and Bellampalli. So a trip to Pune was almost like going to a hill station. 

This time around, though, the situation is unreal. There is a forced Work From Home for most. The COVID situation is actually worse than it was last year, at this time. Though we know a lot more about the virus, somehow we seem less prepared for the ferocity with which it is now hitting city after city, even smaller towns.

Hunkering down and waiting for it to pass seems like the only option available, hoping you won't catch it, and getting vaccinated is the other. Of course, double-masking too, and distancing, when you have to go out of the house.

Here's hoping that the nightmare will end soon, and wishing everyone a safe month ahead. 

Vocations and Vacations

 What a difference ONE letter makes. You can only take a vacation once in a while, but a vocation is something you need to indulge in for a few decades, if you are not from the gentrified class. Not a bad thing, the vocation, but sometimes it can get on your nerves. Then, you start pining for a vacation.

Vacations come in all sizes, shapes and types. From a road trip into nowhere (or somewhere), to an Alaskan cruise, it also has options of the means by which you travel. Most of our childhood vacations were by train. And the coveted seat was that at the window, even though coal dust from the steam engine frequently flew into your eyes. But the sights were mesmerising, including a view of the train rounding a curve. I also remember a more exotic European train trip or two, when we passed great scenery, which the film DDLJ later reminded me of. 

One really hot train trip was to Kolkata from Hyderabad, which we undertook in April or May, and stayed at the Police Mess, courtesy a friend. Apart from the heat, it was a fun trip, and we enjoyed taking the bus, the tram, and the boat on river Hooghly, including a view of the Howrah Bridge, for moving around the city.

Ladakh was another vacation that was memorable for its scenery- very different from anything we had seen till then. I think the Ha Long bay Cruise comes next in memorable trips. Greece too, but its memories are fading. The Jaisalmer road trip a few years ago was also very good. And Sri Lanka, for a destination wedding.

Excuses

They are everywhere. Individuals have them, from students to teachers, from subordinates to bosses to peers,..and from politicians to bureaucrats-in other words, the governing classes and the opposition too.

They make the world go around, in other words. The world would be much duller without them, because everything would happen on schedule, as it was planned. What is the fun in that?

Man's innate creativity needs an outlet. And generating excuses provides an excellent one. Imagine the kinds of things you have to make up for coming late to work, class, or a date! Or the relatives you have to kill or get married to sneak away for a few days from the humdrum work life.

Students, of course, have a Constitution of their own which protects them from all consequences that excuses will bring them. There is always a way out.

As you can see, I am all for excuses. I have a few of my favourites too, but will keep them to myself, so I can use them when the time comes.

Coffee Room Banter

That's just a term-the beverage could be tea, which it is more often in my case. But it's not the beverage, it's the banter that is the focus here. We underestimate the power of socialisation, methinks. It needs effort. You can always have tea in isolation-doesn't taste the same. You can watch inane stuff on TV and comment about it, joke about it, or have a serious discussion about the world's problems and solve most of them in the course of one morning -or afternoon. I have done it many times over!!

The tea break relaxes you like nothing else, when you are busy working on something or thinking- we in academics need to do a lot of the second, and it can be hard work, though some think it's vella-giri ( an Indian term for fooling around, wasting time).

Therefore, I recommend a tea break as a restorative, if you are doing something serious, once in a couple of hours. Of course, after a break-up, it's even more important- just kidding!

Dilli O Dilli

 Went to Delhi and a conference at IMT Ghaziabad, where I found old colleagues. Two of them, Rashmi and Jayanthi were in a mood to smile, so here they are (above). Below, a special session on Retailing (a course I teach to doctoral students at Indore).

 The address below is my workplace in Connaught Place, that I adorned (!) between 1984 and 1985.-now you know how ancient I am :)  It used to be an Ad agency of the Living Media/Thomson Press group. My work life began here.

 An interesting way to adorn the outer wall of a restaurant in C.P. (below)

 And my visit to a city is never complete without a book store being included..this one has a tea room called Cha bar attached! The layout of the books is really tasteful too.

Stupid People-Strategies for Dealing with Them

These are simple strategies to deal with stupid people. I think we all can try them out, as they should work, unless you do something stupid..

1. Get them a job..if they are colleagues, get them a job elsewhere-preferably at your competitor's company.

2. Don't give them work, if they are your subordinates..this is because the stupid things they do will take days to remedy, and you would have to do that..and that would be..YES.

3. Ignore them..this is difficult, because like cranky kids, the stupid guys keep drawing your attention..well, you draw it back.

4. Promote them. This may seem stupid at first, but eventually, this works, because soon, they'll become the CEO. And since no CEO talks to underlings regularly, you are safe..

5. Write poetry or prose about them (like I am doing)..this will do nothing to them, but at least you would have done something useful, instead of something stupid.

Dealing with Stress

Disclaimer-this is not a serious post. Intended purely as a de-stresser.

Stress is a big, big, problem. Or is it? What is stress? What used to cause us stress-inability to spell correctly words like onomatopoeia-is no longer a cause of it to the generation which has auto-correct. It's another matter entirely that auto-correct causes its own stress by creating and inserting words that were unintended in messages and mails.

Let's see-what else caused stress? At teen age, maybe the eternal question - "Will she, Won't she?" was a cause for eternal stress. And pimples. A teen did not think beyond love and pimples. Clearasil solved the pimples issue. But the other one was quite a handful. And no solution in sight, too. Today's teen might get stressed if the net connection is off for two minutes or more.

In adult (read working) life, bosses are supposed to be the cause for stress. But there are easy solutions to this-change your job, or become a boss. In the former case, you change the stressor, not remove the root cause. The second solution is always the better one. But the best solution is to get adopted by a millionaire so you don't HAVE to work.

Having caused distress to you instead of helping you de-stress as promised, I shall stop here and leave you to meditate upon what you have read-or just meditate. That's supposed to relieve stress. You never know until you try it, do you? Good luck.

In Praise of the Malayali

I am not a fan of boiled rice, but I used to like the seafood whenever I ate it during my stay at Calicut- Paragon was one restaurant we frequented. Fish Moily in particular was one dish that I liked a lot.

People from the state of Kerala have been pioneers in the art of working abroad, and though many have focused on the Gulf/Middle East, there are some in all parts of the world. And invested their earnings back home, making Kerala prosperous. Those that lived outside also were cosmopolitan in outlook.

I have had lots of students of Malayali origin at Kirloskar Institute, and they were generally very good students. A couple are in these pics.

Some names that I remember are Dheeraj, Vidya TC, Sandhya Sajeev, Pooja Daniel, Smita Mohan, Sujit, Mamta,...of course, I have had Malayali students at other institutes too, but not as many in number. And, Uday Damodaran has been a friend since IIMB days, and a colleague at two  B Schools.

I once met P.T. Usha, the athlete, at IIMK (her hometown is close by)-a highlight of my stay. The memories of Calicut and the staff there at IIM are good. Years later, my secretary at IMT Ghaziabad was from Kerala too. Though there is a lot of commie activity within the state (leading to near-zero industrialization), the greenery and generally nice behaviour one-to-one compensates. This (Calicut) is the only place where I had a home (rented) with a Jackfruit tree, pepper creepers, and coconut trees. A pic taken in the house, with my brother and the kids, below.

Speaking from a marketing academic's standpoint, they have probably had the best advertising campaign for tourism- God's Own Country was the branding slogan.

My Life in Industry

It was only two short years, compared to twenty plus in academia. But this is about those two.

I worked in an ad agency called New Horizons Pvt. Ltd. in Delhi right after my MBA. This was a part of the Living Media group, publishers of India Today and a couple of other magazines, I remember some colleagues- Madhu Vohra and Sunil in particular. I was an Account Exec. there, basically a customer liaison job. My major clients were India Today itself (in-house) and Appu Ghar, India's first amusement park. We had another client, Modern Suitings from Alwar, Rajasthan.

I learnt a lot from working there for about a year. But eventually, I got restless and left, joining another small Marketig Research firm called MBA in Bangalore (and later, Mumbai). This was a much more challenging job, and gave me exposure to Marico, HDFC, Sandoz and BHEL, among others as clients. Designing studies and seeing them through execution, overseeing field work (or sometimes doing it myself) was very interesting, and I enjoyed myself. One of my first assignments took me to Ooty and Coonoor. I went berserk with my camera during that assignment. I had to cover tea estates and potato farmers, trying to find out the demand for a plant nutrient spray.

Great stuff, which I still remember fondly. It helped me a lot when I started teaching Marketing Research later on and when I wrote a book on it. I also met Muthu, a friend who stood the test of time, during my stint at MBA, the M.R. firm.