Rahul: what is this shivaratri stuff?
Rashmi: shiva rathri ----> festive for lord shiva ? aren't you hindu?
Rahul: I hate the word
and the religion
in fact all religions
and I forgot
I dont give a damn for the God
or the Gods I meant
anyway.. whats shiva rathri for u?
Rashmi: Do not shun away things you do not beleive in
it is of value to someone else ;-)
Rahul: ok now.. why dont u answer my question. Whats shiva rathri to u?
Rashmi: It is a fast for lord shiva ---
See --- in this materialistic world -- different fasts and festivals are created for a reason ----
for humans to stop for a moment and recoup ---- it is a like recharging your batteries
Rashmi: shiva - rathri is one of them -- where you spend the whole night in either in the temple or at home concentratning on the infinite power
Rahul: see surprisingly
Rashmi: I respect your atheism --- I am sure you have a theory for it ----
Rahul: i thought I will spend the whole night today awake and doing something
so kinda my shiva rathri too
Rashmi: just like my firm belief in the almisty power
Rahul: ok god.
if I hear one more indication to swami.. I will curse him twice
Rashmi: see --- I told you I respect your aethism --- thus resiprocate by respecting my belief
Rahul: ok swami
as in swami's girl
Rashmi: ;-)
Rashmi: shiva rathri is in four stages ---
the times arew 9.00 - 12.00 - 3.00 and 600
usually there is a big pooja at these times in the temple ---
In SL --- I used to go to multiple temples
Rahul: and...
Rashmi: hire a van start from one corner of colombo and go to the other corner
try to make it to shiva temples at the above times
I used to cover around 12 temples ;-)
Rahul: this is just sounding too rummy
i meant.. cover 12 temples! who does that
Rashmi: rummy --- what does that mean
Rahul: is ur family into preisthood?
rummy - Beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
priesthood I meant.
Rashmi: no no -----
they are pretty releigious
I like it --- a mix of materialistic life and religion
Right after my A/L ( advanced level) --- I used to go for some releigious discourses
I had a few friend who were into it ---
Rashmi: The Ramakrishna mission priests from India are amazing
Rahul: goes to the temple ever so often
Rashmi: thats a nice habbit you know ---
Rahul: pls dont get me started. I : God :: Hitler : Jews
Rashmi: To me ---- releigion to human is like a operating system to a computer
Rahul: so what happens to the irreligious Computers
Rashmi: PLEASE DO NOT COMPARE RELIGIOUS FANATISM and religious beliefs
Rahul: I think religions to humans are more like Spam to Inbox and Virus to Computers
fanatism is plain stupidity and is not even in the picture
Rashmi: They are baseless ----
you are talking talking about hitler and jews in the context of releigion
Rahul: even believing in god is bad, religion is like worse.. and fanatism is worst
that was to give u a perspective of the word Hate
Rashmi: I agree that there is releigous fanatism and I oppose it
but I cannot blame releigion for it ------
Rahul: its religion
Rashmi: desruption in the world is inevitable --- religions is just used as a tool --- if not releigion something else will be used
Rahul: i dont know how man came out with the concept of God.. and of course the creativity behind creating religion is extraordinaire
Rashmi: religion is not creativity -- it is realisation ----
Rahul: thats so corny
Rashmi: it is a "way to live life" ----
sad to here religion and corny in the same sentence
Rahul: i can use religion with a lot of other worse words in the same sentence
dont be mad
Rashmi: Rahul --- whether you like it or not ---agree or not --- religion is a beatiful concept ---- try to read a few books --- start with Bhagavat Gita ----
Rahul: i will read all of them
but not with the idea of adopting a religion
Rashmi: I agree it is used wrongly be people --- but it is still a beautiful
Rahul: pls.. there is enough in the world to devote time to.. instead of putting it into religion
Rashmi: like what?
Rahul: like saving nature, species,
curing ills such as Iraq
and other man made disasters
like Kashmir for me.. North of Srilanka to u
religion is the last thing we should devote time to
its man made and so is God
imagine a world without God
Rashmi: when you loose everything in life -- you need something to cling onto ---
Rahul: peaceful!
how abt Karma
cling to Karma
Rashmi: you need to believe in something
you beleive in arma?
Karma?
Rahul: Karma = good deed
thats abt it
Rashmi: you beleve in it?
Rahul: not in karma for a better life next time or some crap like that
I believe in my own version of Karma. Not that if I do bad deeds.. its gonna comeback to me but because its natural to do good deeds
or at least we should do unconditional good deeds
Rashmi: karma is not about better life --- it is about the purpose of life --- is the finance account of each soul ---
Rahul: but I guess we cant get all to believe the same so we get god and religion into it
to each his/her own version of karma
Rashmi: exactly ---
Rahul: anyway so just because we are corrupt or stupid to not understand what say PI is.. we tell everyone a different version of PI but not the true value of
Rashmi: you said it all ----- human mind is so fickle , it needs to be given a physical form to hold onto
Rahul: 3.1415926535897932384626433832792
and so on and so forth
Rashmi: thus the temples and the statues in it
for a person like you --- who could see beyond that --- you do not need temple, rituals etc etc
Rahul: or God for that matter!
Rashmi: you see god in "peace" in "cause"
Rahul: Do u mind if I put this chat on a blog
without ur and my name on it?
Rashmi: ya --- I think you beoleive in god too --- you just do not admit is
it
ok ----
Rahul: yes I believe in God.. Hating God
Rashmi: without my name
Rahul: :)
and mine of course
We will make u --.. tell me what name u want?
Rashmi: you just do not like the word god --or the physical form ---
Rahul: or the concept?
Rashmi: you are in the third stage or seeing god in eeverything
Rahul: see let me explain u what I mean.. suppose man had never thought of God and had only thought of Karma and that was brought down centuries after centuries.. and ppl were told to do good things etc.. all the time.. world would be different
so God is just taking the limelight where it should be something else
Rashmi: God could be perceived in three forms ---
Aruvam , Uruvam and Aruvuruvam
Rahul: now u r enroute to disclosing who u r
not many ppl know this stuff
Rashmi: Uruvam --- physical form --- which my small fickle mind needs --- the temple and its rituals
aruvuruvam --- shivalingam -- semi form
aruvam --- no form but deed --- which you believe in
the end cause is always the same --- you do not hate god ---- you hate the rituals and temple
who said you are an aethist?
Rahul: actually atheist dont believe in existence of God
I certainly do believe in existence of a concept.. I however hope it would be better to eradicate the concept
Rashmi: you believe in "peace" , "love" , Karma and good deed --- you beleive in god
Rahul: well ur definition of God is too broad to accomodate all
Rashmi: i cannot speak for other religions --- but Hinduism is a customiseable religion
you could fit it to your size ;-)
Rahul: wait till u see this text online
Rashmi: mine is in the low end --- I need the temple and rituals
Rahul: ppl will hail u as a South Indian Priest
Rashmi: yours is in thought and deed
I am not a priest --- I just happen to appreciate the beauty of Hinduism
Rahul: ok ok
Rashmi: you may want to do a spell check before you put this online;-)
Friday, February 16, 2007
OFW - World Business Dialogue in Cologne, 28th-29th March 2007
Well, I know this is atypical of me, but I am finding out loads of avenues to make this blog the best ever! At least the most interesting ones around. So I am starting out by putting out here a random article that kinda got me through to the above mentioned conference....read it to kill urself of boredom. I promise my next post will be interesting to say the least.. lets just say the least... Least!
References
[1] Indian Census Report 1991
[2] http://www.bpoindia.org/research - Research on the Indian Business Process Outsourcing Industry
[3] http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/in.html - The Indian Fact book available at CIA.gov
[4] http://www.leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/winter98/drucker.html - Civilizing the city, full article by Peter Drucker
[5] http://www.voicendata.com/content/bporbit/annualsurvery/default.asp - First Annual Survey of the Indian BPO Industry
[6] http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37325 – Indian BPO industry does an about face
III – Changing Society
Homecoming of the Work Culture
Introduction – The Indian way of life
It was not so long back in a country known worldwide for its undeniably immodest population – with a base population of a billion and an unrestrained growth rate of 2%, we were adding the population of the Australian continent each year – that urban life was an unrealized dream for millions. In 1990s, with over 85% of the subcontinent population[1] sustaining itself in rural areas and townships, the problem of isolation and anonymity was unheard of. With the Indian culture deeply rooted in these civilizations, traditional family circles and closely knit community life were the unquestionable norm. No individual in this way of life was safe from the prying eyes of the community – a bane (?) or probably a boon, considering that this form of equilibrium has existed not only for decades but for centuries for a country teeming with one sixth of the world population.
It may interest us here to analyze the aspects of this way of life that knit the residents of such a community to each other so profoundly. Community in the rural was ancestrally defined, carried forward year after year and was formed more out of compulsion than choice. Caste, occupation, social class, religion and family made it a certainty for any individual. Man’s inherent dependence on his social fabric for existence, thus helped the cause of such a community. Other factors such as the absence of an efficient communication system, an unexplored transportation network and general inertia kept such communities at bay from other neighboring ones.
A paradigm shift
With the liberalization process initiated in the Indian economy during early 1990s, there was a gradual yet unprecedented rush of investment into the economy. The industry sectors most becoming for these investments were the traditional ones such as manufacturing (automobiles, pharmaceutical etc.), financial and other services. But, this era was to be characterized by globalization, which was underlined by the exponential growth observed in the prospects of the Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services. An increasing number of jobs were moved from all over the developed world to a select set of destinations in India. Urbanization in its rudest form was knocking at our doorstep and while towns upgraded their stature to unplanned cities, the cities converted to bustling metropolises within a matter of months. Within the decade, the urbanization was complete for additionally 15% of the nation’s population.
Factors that helped the cause of India were its strong reliance on its comprehensive education system and its comfort in communication using the medium of English. While, educated Indians found jobs aplenty, the unemployment rate ebbed to its lowest recorded levels. The tool we had come to know as Internet turned out to be critical in transforming the socio-economic order of the country. Referred to as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) or KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing), the fastest growing industry in the country along with the IT industry, employed 15%[2] of the working population and claimed account for over 25%[3] of the Indian Gross Domestic Product. There are few known precedent for such dramatic transformations and none that have affected such a significant part of a nation’s populace. Oil discovery in the Middle East, California Gold rush and the Chinese manufacturing engine have similar tales to narrate.
Alienation in the new Metropolis
Large scale migrations occurred between the rural and the urban regions of the country during this decade to meet the employment demand supply curve. Not only was the rural urban divide widened in terms of disparity in labor compensation and quality of life but there was a significant transformation in the communities represented in the two regions. As pointed out by Peter Drucker[4], a management guru of our times, city was attractive precisely because it offered freedom from the compulsory rural community making it more voluntary. Since the measure of choice worked as a double edged sword, there was severe alienation in the new Metropolis, with an increasing number of disgruntled and disjoined individuals swarming the city.
Empirically, it has been observed that the absence of strong societal structures contributing to this feeling of alienation is not an isolated event restricted to the neo-cities of India. Even within the developed countries of USA, UK etc. the top priority has been of reforming the cities to form meaningful urban communities that call for individual participation and contribution. There has been, in general, a failure at the business and government level to however bridge this gap. In the sections that follow, I have outlined instances of successful communities that have formed for the highly educated knowledge workers with an example each in different cultures and economies. A thorough analysis of these lead one to believe that there is certainly a model to be followed to dismantle the feeling of alienation that an individual is exposed to within the pressures and confines of an urban civilization.
A unique and unexpected societal structure
It has been universally agreed that an unlikely and successful community that has come to stay has been in the country of Japan in the form of the large business enterprise – both successful family businesses and the massive corporations such as Toyota, Sony and Matsushita. Not only has the successful corporation provided its denizens with a source of employment, but with its motto of "lifetime employment" the private sector increasingly has become a way to make a life far more frequently than a way to make a living. In sharp contrast to Japan, the strong rigid capitalist economic system in USA has been the least successful in developing such a community. However, very successfully enterprises that have stood the test of time and remained true leaders in their niche sectors have proved their ability in providing such communities to their employees. Corporations such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co. and Microsoft are leading examples of firms that have enabled this strong community for their employees.
Other additions to this small list of successful corporations have been the new insignificant players in the IT enabled services in India. Within the Business Process Outsourcing domain, there has been rise in the number of call center corporations as well as companies off-shoring processes such as legal, technical, accounting, risk, operations etc. Most of such firms mushrooming in India in dozens have had an average age of their employees at almost 25 years[5]. To constrict the turnover rate which has been hovering over the 100%[6] mark annually, these firms have tried to quickly develop a unique culture that would provide their employees with a feeling of achievement, of satisfaction with their job and the social fabric that would put them at ease with their peers and seniors alike. Overall, it remains to be seen how successful this strategy has been with the attrition rates dropping considerably, as retaining their employees, clearly their greatest asset, has become the most significant goal of these firms.
Home coming of the Work Culture
We stand to learn quite considerably from each of the instances profiled above. Empirically seen, the business enterprise has been more successful than the average government organization in developing a community for its individuals, one that honors personal attributes of achievement, job satisfaction and friendly competition. However, the enterprise is clearly not the sole body that has the power of envisioning such stable and self sustaining societies for its employees. In future, we increasingly expect nongovernmental, non-business and nonprofit organizations to take a lead in developing such communities with the aim of repairing the already damaged social fabric and participate in the process of civilizing the cities.
On the other hand, the foremost lesson that one can surely derive from the observations made above is with regard to the factors that a business enterprise should indulge in to make such a community possible. A unique culture comes within a healthy organization which chooses a path of leadership in its own niche industry. The employees are made to feel an integral part of the growth story of such a firm, via rewarding measures such as the Employees Stock Option Plans (ESOPs), pay for performance and focus on employee development/training.
In addition, the firm should realize that the Japanese model of life time employment, may not be the ideal one to look up to, as the transience and dynamism of today’s world may make this option quite unrealistic. A quick realization could go a long way in determining the changed strategy of the firm in retaining its employees by focusing on the internal community development. With the workplace accounting for over 35-50% of the total life of any productive individual, it logically follows that the workplace culture be instrumental in providing the new social fabric that can support and indulge the abstaining employee. With better recruiting practices, intensive workplace training, and programs that can facilitate informality at the work place (such as casual dressing, celebrating festivals, fun days at work to help bonding among employees etc.) a firm can safeguard their existing employee community by choosing the right individuals to become a part of it. The phrase “homecoming of the work culture” is coined to represent a work place community that makes the employee a part of the family of the firm.
Homecoming of the Work Culture
Introduction – The Indian way of life
It was not so long back in a country known worldwide for its undeniably immodest population – with a base population of a billion and an unrestrained growth rate of 2%, we were adding the population of the Australian continent each year – that urban life was an unrealized dream for millions. In 1990s, with over 85% of the subcontinent population[1] sustaining itself in rural areas and townships, the problem of isolation and anonymity was unheard of. With the Indian culture deeply rooted in these civilizations, traditional family circles and closely knit community life were the unquestionable norm. No individual in this way of life was safe from the prying eyes of the community – a bane (?) or probably a boon, considering that this form of equilibrium has existed not only for decades but for centuries for a country teeming with one sixth of the world population.
It may interest us here to analyze the aspects of this way of life that knit the residents of such a community to each other so profoundly. Community in the rural was ancestrally defined, carried forward year after year and was formed more out of compulsion than choice. Caste, occupation, social class, religion and family made it a certainty for any individual. Man’s inherent dependence on his social fabric for existence, thus helped the cause of such a community. Other factors such as the absence of an efficient communication system, an unexplored transportation network and general inertia kept such communities at bay from other neighboring ones.
A paradigm shift
With the liberalization process initiated in the Indian economy during early 1990s, there was a gradual yet unprecedented rush of investment into the economy. The industry sectors most becoming for these investments were the traditional ones such as manufacturing (automobiles, pharmaceutical etc.), financial and other services. But, this era was to be characterized by globalization, which was underlined by the exponential growth observed in the prospects of the Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services. An increasing number of jobs were moved from all over the developed world to a select set of destinations in India. Urbanization in its rudest form was knocking at our doorstep and while towns upgraded their stature to unplanned cities, the cities converted to bustling metropolises within a matter of months. Within the decade, the urbanization was complete for additionally 15% of the nation’s population.
Factors that helped the cause of India were its strong reliance on its comprehensive education system and its comfort in communication using the medium of English. While, educated Indians found jobs aplenty, the unemployment rate ebbed to its lowest recorded levels. The tool we had come to know as Internet turned out to be critical in transforming the socio-economic order of the country. Referred to as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) or KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing), the fastest growing industry in the country along with the IT industry, employed 15%[2] of the working population and claimed account for over 25%[3] of the Indian Gross Domestic Product. There are few known precedent for such dramatic transformations and none that have affected such a significant part of a nation’s populace. Oil discovery in the Middle East, California Gold rush and the Chinese manufacturing engine have similar tales to narrate.
Alienation in the new Metropolis
Large scale migrations occurred between the rural and the urban regions of the country during this decade to meet the employment demand supply curve. Not only was the rural urban divide widened in terms of disparity in labor compensation and quality of life but there was a significant transformation in the communities represented in the two regions. As pointed out by Peter Drucker[4], a management guru of our times, city was attractive precisely because it offered freedom from the compulsory rural community making it more voluntary. Since the measure of choice worked as a double edged sword, there was severe alienation in the new Metropolis, with an increasing number of disgruntled and disjoined individuals swarming the city.
Empirically, it has been observed that the absence of strong societal structures contributing to this feeling of alienation is not an isolated event restricted to the neo-cities of India. Even within the developed countries of USA, UK etc. the top priority has been of reforming the cities to form meaningful urban communities that call for individual participation and contribution. There has been, in general, a failure at the business and government level to however bridge this gap. In the sections that follow, I have outlined instances of successful communities that have formed for the highly educated knowledge workers with an example each in different cultures and economies. A thorough analysis of these lead one to believe that there is certainly a model to be followed to dismantle the feeling of alienation that an individual is exposed to within the pressures and confines of an urban civilization.
A unique and unexpected societal structure
It has been universally agreed that an unlikely and successful community that has come to stay has been in the country of Japan in the form of the large business enterprise – both successful family businesses and the massive corporations such as Toyota, Sony and Matsushita. Not only has the successful corporation provided its denizens with a source of employment, but with its motto of "lifetime employment" the private sector increasingly has become a way to make a life far more frequently than a way to make a living. In sharp contrast to Japan, the strong rigid capitalist economic system in USA has been the least successful in developing such a community. However, very successfully enterprises that have stood the test of time and remained true leaders in their niche sectors have proved their ability in providing such communities to their employees. Corporations such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co. and Microsoft are leading examples of firms that have enabled this strong community for their employees.
Other additions to this small list of successful corporations have been the new insignificant players in the IT enabled services in India. Within the Business Process Outsourcing domain, there has been rise in the number of call center corporations as well as companies off-shoring processes such as legal, technical, accounting, risk, operations etc. Most of such firms mushrooming in India in dozens have had an average age of their employees at almost 25 years[5]. To constrict the turnover rate which has been hovering over the 100%[6] mark annually, these firms have tried to quickly develop a unique culture that would provide their employees with a feeling of achievement, of satisfaction with their job and the social fabric that would put them at ease with their peers and seniors alike. Overall, it remains to be seen how successful this strategy has been with the attrition rates dropping considerably, as retaining their employees, clearly their greatest asset, has become the most significant goal of these firms.
Home coming of the Work Culture
We stand to learn quite considerably from each of the instances profiled above. Empirically seen, the business enterprise has been more successful than the average government organization in developing a community for its individuals, one that honors personal attributes of achievement, job satisfaction and friendly competition. However, the enterprise is clearly not the sole body that has the power of envisioning such stable and self sustaining societies for its employees. In future, we increasingly expect nongovernmental, non-business and nonprofit organizations to take a lead in developing such communities with the aim of repairing the already damaged social fabric and participate in the process of civilizing the cities.
On the other hand, the foremost lesson that one can surely derive from the observations made above is with regard to the factors that a business enterprise should indulge in to make such a community possible. A unique culture comes within a healthy organization which chooses a path of leadership in its own niche industry. The employees are made to feel an integral part of the growth story of such a firm, via rewarding measures such as the Employees Stock Option Plans (ESOPs), pay for performance and focus on employee development/training.
In addition, the firm should realize that the Japanese model of life time employment, may not be the ideal one to look up to, as the transience and dynamism of today’s world may make this option quite unrealistic. A quick realization could go a long way in determining the changed strategy of the firm in retaining its employees by focusing on the internal community development. With the workplace accounting for over 35-50% of the total life of any productive individual, it logically follows that the workplace culture be instrumental in providing the new social fabric that can support and indulge the abstaining employee. With better recruiting practices, intensive workplace training, and programs that can facilitate informality at the work place (such as casual dressing, celebrating festivals, fun days at work to help bonding among employees etc.) a firm can safeguard their existing employee community by choosing the right individuals to become a part of it. The phrase “homecoming of the work culture” is coined to represent a work place community that makes the employee a part of the family of the firm.
References
[1] Indian Census Report 1991
[2] http://www.bpoindia.org/research - Research on the Indian Business Process Outsourcing Industry
[3] http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/in.html - The Indian Fact book available at CIA.gov
[4] http://www.leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/winter98/drucker.html - Civilizing the city, full article by Peter Drucker
[5] http://www.voicendata.com/content/bporbit/annualsurvery/default.asp - First Annual Survey of the Indian BPO Industry
[6] http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=37325 – Indian BPO industry does an about face
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)