In the time of change we the people...........

With the general elections over and  Modi led government 2 months old Indians  are  searching  for change. Before the elections the congress lead government remain engaged with corruptions scandals started perhaps with the 2010 Delhi common wealth games. In between came the Anna movement which captured the nations imagination and saw the rise of Arvind Kejriwal , who went on to become the Delhi Chief Minister. Then came  Modi wave as became evident with the election results,  which  swept everybody aside and here we stand today, looking around and asking - are things changing? or will things change?

Mahatma Gandhi had said : be the change you want to see" and we the common people perhaps does not want to be that change agent. Historically we as a nation does not react  till the system  breaks down completely or a situation takes a epidemic proportion. We have many experts who have all the opinion  and analysis once the event has happened, but does not take the accountability, when they were in the thick of things.

Change can happen-  but not from the top down approach but from the bottom up approach. It will be like micro changes which can  create macro impact. As a individual what we need to first adopt is civil order. Change our behavior towards our immediate surroundings weather natural, animals, fellow human beings  or man made  buildings, roads or civic infrastructure.

Lets start with small things- Do not cross the signal when it is red, do not park in a way which obstruct others, do not honk,  stand in a line for ones turn  in all public places,do not throw the garbage on the road or  outside house, do not break or spoil public property, speak softly, do not take bribe and do not give bribe, read the rules . Above all,  keep making your list of things you want to change and start with yourself.

We do not know what Mr Modi will do, but we surely know what we can do. 

Leadership

L&T could not find a clear next leader to Mr Naik is a poor reflection where an individual is perceived to be more important than the institution. Remember when Ratan Tata stepped into the foot steps of legendary JRD, it was mainly because He had that famous surname. That was the reason that most experts at that time had to say. But look what accountability and responsibility do to a person. Ratan Tata transformed the Tata Group and left His stamp. 20 years back no one would have thought that He will succeed the way He did. Therefore to think a responsible professional can not run a company and requires hand holding is far from true. Mrs Kochar stepped into the shoes of Mr Kamath quite well And they were big, considering the pace with which He grew ICICI Bank. There were questions about Apple after Steve. But look at apple today. In the last one year it has grown in market valuation by 45% and Tim Cook will bring in his own authority over the company, which today is the most valuable company in the world.

So to say that leadership transition is a challenge for company, sound like a logic with no sound reasoning. Give a person a chance and he/she will perform. Heavy engineering is no different.

Steve, Bill and We

Recently while taking the tour of Harvard Business School, the guide showed where Bill Gates room was in the dorm. He left Harvard as we all know and went on to establish one of the most successful companies, Microsoft formed till date. He has left that too also now and focus on healthcare. On the other hand Steve never went to Harvard, so to Him did not matter- WHAT THEY TEACH OR NOT TEACH AT HARVARD. He went on to form another game changer company in world called Apple which redefined that way product and services integrate. Steve left the world last week as we all know.
There has been debates on how Microsoft left Apple stranded in 80'S and what will happen to Apple now? World will keep moving. Apple will do fine so will Microsoft and there will be new Bill and Steve as we move along . Already there is Facebook and Mark. Lets recognize all these individuals got the world to change from the product and services they came up with. It shows the power what an individual has and what a person can do in one own life. Back home Dhrirubhai Ambani is an example. What ever any one might say how He did it, He did it. Every one want to so some thing , but only few can do some things, and more so which change the world.

So to Steve, Bill, Mark, Dhirubhai words own a great deal in what we are and what we can be in near future and to so many others who do not get the media attention they deserve. So lets THINK BIG-SOMETHING SMALL WILL HAPPEN.

Where it went wrong

Anna got on with right point 4months back to bring bout the corruption that has engulfed our system. He made a point which every one seem to listen and made government to listen. What followed was looks an classic example of following the heard. Bhushan of the world who are commercial lawyer, Kiran bed who I believe government takes government pension and kejriwal who is a intelligent guy becoming the face. Too many things too soon spoil the party baba rammed who also became too big for his shoes paid the price. It shows a very good example of how technology made Anna and camp powerful and how behavior is making them do silly mistake. Let's not go into numbers as people follow herds first ask how many of us had read both versions of the bill? Anna had a point and government was listening. It was a question of keeping the pre sure with technology on his side I.e the media they could have eventually made government listen. Gandhi philoshly is patience. Indian did not achieve independence in one day. It was Gandhi patience and his non violence movement which took us to a sustainable independence. So what is the hurry of putting the deadlines of lokpal bill? Few thousand does not make large crowds" let's not get fooled by media who need news and hence eye balls. A simple step is to ask your self, if you are not happy with the lokpal bill have you met the elective representative whom you voted to parliament . Did you told your reservations? If not them what we are complaining about. Technology or behavior?
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Cars and Drivers

Cars are symbol of Technology Innovation and Drivers are symbol of Behavioral progression on the roads and India is a country which is the example of mismatch between the two. It is a simple demand and supply mismatch. Wheres as car are in ample supply , thanks to global major presence in India and behavior is in short supply thanks to our DNA, which treats good behavior as once in a year ritual like Diwali and holi.

Seeing more and more cars on Indian roads brings more and more drivers. These boys, girls, men and women, some educated, some highly educated and some un-educated, drives these TECHNOLOGY wonders seating on the front seat and keeping the BEHAVIOR on the back seat , some even leaving it behind home and some WHO do not have it at all. Like the licence , which we can manage, they also some how manage , by some time hitting, some time missing, and always blaming the guy in the next car.

Car companies have a responsibility, government has a responsibility and together they can do something. What?- stop making cars in India for next 5 years!!!!!!!!. In the interim [period make the GM, Ford of the worlds partners in developing roads and changing behavior of the drivers.

That will be CSR of auto industry towards India.

Whose companies are these

The bigger the company becomes, the further it goes from the customer. Walk into a store or customer services of a company and you can see or experience the truth. Their leaders who once created these companies gets involved into bigger picture of nation building or participating in economic forums or becoming global companies. This bring in the question, how big the company can be and who owns the company and who owns the accountability.

Public companies have board? but can a customer call a board? companies have employees, who call WE, as they move from one company to another. Technology has given the scale but in the process killed the human interface. Call any back office of a bank and be ready to face the music.

So how do you make the companies more human? It is a challenge. As we get engaged in wiring the world, creating virtual networks, social networks the touch and feel of the real world will start moving to the background. So while we need to keep working on the technology , it is the HUMAN BEHAVIOR which need to be tuned to current times

Companies need to work on the training of their employees from the perspective, where they not only know how to handle the technology but also how to handle another human
beings.

1st day of 365 in 2011

It's an another day in the calendar, but a leader. And we look towards leaders. Don't we?So every one wishes that leader day is a good day so that followers days also happen to be good. But if one were to keep this aspect silent then there is a catch people celebrate and party the last day of the year or to welcome the new year. Quite a few then do not go to work and quite a few places are now officially off. So the leader day becomes the off day and if the leader day is the off day then followers day also becomes off to some extent. Therefore people who party on the eve of new year are not productive as they could have been.in contrast are the people whom it is another day and if they do not go to work they do not get for the day. Their leader day is same as any of the follower day. So they remain stagnate throughout the year as they have been in years before that. So people who party on the eve and also start the leader day with work makes the most of it . They are not only effective but also efficient and their follower days remains the same for them .so make the Leader day especially day so that the follower day becomes good and who benefit You.

India 2010 or 1990?

India 2010 is suppose to be anchor of sinking world, considering China does not exist. So are we make to believe. USA economy is on the downhill, like what happened to the British empire a century ago. European crisis is not of banks but of countries. So on and so forth. Various TV debates, commentaries, essays and books talks of one or the other way. One economist say THIS and other say THAT. But fact of the matter is reality on ground.

India 2010 is not much difference to India 1990, except few changes on the built scape across the country, where few people have been able to take advantage of INDIA SHINING. But as a country we are still a century behind USA and Europe in terms of quality of life for common man. It will require structural shift in the behavioral of not only who govern India but also WE THE PEOPLE, who let governed.

The glaring example of India's failure is whats happening in Delhi. It is city in shame. Delhi and its glorified cousin GURGAOAN are examples of how things can go wrong. t GURGAON is nothing more than a glorified GAON. On one hand where as government has failed to deliver the infrastructure in Delhi for the common wealth gales, Gurgaon stakeholders who made all those buildings failed to create a urban community which is URBAN. It is pity that people have no option but to opt for what has been imposed on them. There are various such examples across the country.

India needs to THINK and THINK HARD , otherwise 2020 might look like 1980!!!

Pepsi today announced that it has pledged to pull out sugar related drinks from schools. Coke also have a similar stand where it does not serve aerated drinks in schools. This is for better health of our children. So says, Pepsi and Coke. So nice of them!!

But in terms of revenue they get between1-2% from schools shares. But that does not mean children will not want these sugar or aerated drinks? They will not get these in schools, so their urge to have them will increase. Meaning the consumption of these drinks might go up at homes by " school children" . Fair possibility.So the revenue loss of 1-2% might result in revenue gain of 1-2%.

This is innovation on human behavior. Did we say " Dil Mange More"

Every one want everything

Google want to be a twitter, Google want to be iphone, Google want to be Microsoft. except may be Google. Closer home LIC want to be bank. IRDA and SEBI has issues over insurance companies clubbing mutual fund etc etc. L&T which one knows as a construction company is into IT, Finance and more. Banks want to do every thing except simple banking of credit/debit. Brokers are becoming investment banks, which any way investment banks are. Except over the years they start behaving if they owned the money.

So crux is start doing other things once you achieve critical mass over the original business plan.Apple and Blackberries were simple fruits few years ago. Today they are complex technologies shaping human behavior. Not different from Roman or British empire????

Ministry of Home Work?

The minister of surface transport Mr. Kamal Nath mentioned of constructing 20KMS of road per day. He means business and the ministry he goes sees lots of action. One question that comes to mind is, why 20KMS? I have been wondering it for some time and no one ever ask him this question. How was this arrived? Why not 25 or 15? In a recent interview he said that we will not achieve the target but are currently doing 9 KMS per day. So why not set a realistic and achievable target in the first place and gradually increase it? But there can be reasons for this.

We Indians like to over promise and under deliver. Ask the foreign investors? And why is so? Because one, we do not like to do our home work and two we do not like to say “I do not Know”. We become experts in no time, with out doing ground work or homework. The result? Our project execution is bad, because we spend very less time on the drawing board. This is true for in majority of cases. Have we not heard about affordable housing? Coming back to the roads example. Should we not have all the proposed roads mapped digitally? On the click of a button, we should know all the statistics from land acquisition, soil condition, topography, major urban and rural center along the way. The bidder can so very well then design the roads along with utilities and facilities. I know this is not easy as it will bring the question of digitization of land records to start off. But that’s happening and India has the IT strength.

So may be surface transport ministry start with 5KMS and gradually move towards 20 KMS in a well articulated execution plan completely mapped and digitized. They should set up a command center for the surface transport ministry. Now roads can also carry utilities gas, telephone, water, broadband etc. May be command centers for respective ministries to plan their things and coordinate among each other. Link these command centers to a central command center. Recently I think Cisco; Chief Technology Officer said that we need to understand the impact technology can have on urban planning. He is right. Infect the impact technology can have on nation planning, especially for India is huge. Roads will also require facilities and opportunity for hotel, petrol station, bus stands, container depots, railway station, cargo airport and list can go on. USA as a country on infrastructure planning is a good example.

This is a big assignment now. Some one need to do the homework. Do we not need a ministry of coordination and a ministry of homework? Who then set up a National Mission for Infrastructure Planning to map each square inch of India . Time to identify another Nandan Nilekani?

Airplane and Mobile

India is close to 500 million mobile users. India is also flying, more and more every day. Most of us, who fly, have minimum of one mobile phone. In flights we are suppose to keep our phones switched off. It interferes with the navigation system. Most of the people do switch off. All of us fear death. Some brave ones don't, as they want to see if at 35,000 feet also they can catch the signal) Just a test!
But guess what, the moment the flight touches down, You start hearing-- ring- ring, ting tong, hello-hello-hello, " Yes it is taxiing" " We have landed". etc etc. Airhostess make the announcements, take a walk, request, order to switch it off,’ till the time the flight has come to complete stop and captain has switched off the seat belt sign”. All the educated and well to do people, try to hide their phones from the moving airhostess. She becomes like the school teacher for some time

What this tells us? Mobile technology has moved leaps and bound, at a pace which made it affordable to common men- domestic help also. Airplane technology has not kept pace as they need to find solution, where the planes navigation system can work independently of mobile technology interference.

What has not changed or should we say changed is human behavior. Who will bell the "Human" is the next big social and economic opportunity. Technology has to play a role in this for sure.

Exchange- Behavior for Technology

Copenhagen Climate Summit like most of the global issues, is turning out be complex. Not many are sure what the outcome will be. Kyoto Protocol- what is the status and why the objectives were not achieved, not many are talking. We have a tendency to look into the future and forget history quickly. The complexities, like in all issues, are also because of History and Future. Developing countries want history of the developed countries to be kept in mind and developed country want developing countries to take up the responsibility of the future. History vs Future. Developed vs Developing. Progress vs Climate. And the debate continues. Human nature makes the entire things complex. If things are not complex and made to be simpler –human being will loose the importance Infect, few people who will loose the importance. But then few people controls majority of the things.

But can we make climate issue Simple. How? Exchange!!

Developing courtiers need to progress and for that progress they need clean technologies, which developed countries has but do not want to pass, what come in between? IP..

Developed countries need to stop polluting more and what come in between- Behavior.
Developing countries because of scarcity of resources or means have lived all these years on natural sustainability. Recycle, Reuse, Remake are part of the mental make up

Exchange Behavior with Clean Technologies.

Exporting Behavior is a huge business opportunity for developing countries and importing clean technology and provides business opportunity to developed countries.

Who will control this? Again, very few. But who will benefit? All.

After all Gods is also one (or few) and he/she (they) controls!!!!!

Family Business

An investment banker recently made a statement of SME business, which is family run. With out going into the statement and its merits or demerits one question comes to mind is'nt all businesses started by a family and in which family member still hold the executive position -a Family business?. And this is true across the world.
From Microsoft, to Oracale to Mittal Steel to Relainace to Biral to JM Financial etc etc and list can go on. No doubt there are "professional run”, but there still a big boss, who is the above the professionals. Apple?
So why single out the SME. Hasn’t few family members of the largest shareholders company in India did a family agreement? So even if businesses become big the family still remain small. That’s why Small is beautiful.
Crux- all businesses are Family businesses. So Sharma Brothers you can be next Lehman Brothers.

First Step

Our Home minister also said this today- Mindset.
Yes thats one of the most critical aspects for us to achevie progress. He was refering to it for the Delhi Common Wealth Games and I am referring it in general and linking it with the Climate debate. Economic and Ecological balance, the two common link will be Behavior and Technology.
The focus group for the Behavior has to be Childrens and that should be the focus of Delhi goverment. Make a action plan to change the mindset of the children and they will take care of their household. for the bigger Climate Change. Make childern again the focus of the action plan and they will take care of the Planet, Progress and Preservation.

Small Steps

Its logical to improve things and there are experts, to tell us how to do.
The critical question is implementation. More than economical its the social reasons which creates hurdles. Focusing on childrens can make things better tomorrow if not today. Children behavior today can be moulded in brining the social change. And keeping it simple will be the best way forward.
Small things can make a big difference.

Globe Society

GLOBE (General Learning of Built Environment) is an attempt to impart the awareness of our built environment to society.
In an ever developing world there are concerns of rapid degradation of our environment and issues related to climate change coming in forefront and effects visible in ones own lifetime. But progress is also a truth, so landscape of environment will keep changing from natural to build. Rapid advancement in the technology should be able to bring the balance between the two and keep the progress on. Mankind has always utilized environment to develop built environment. Stone makes buildings and oil runs automobiles are two examples of static and movable built environment.

The idea of GLOBE is to create a behavior and mindset shift, to make present better with learning from the past and eye on the future. As adults it may be difficult to change behavior or habits, but if the target audience is children, the response will be different. What a better way, then to catch these children in their formative years. This will make this process more sustainable and let children adopt it as way of their life. Globe Society is an endeavor in that direction

G-5 is a GLOBE module for children till the age group of 5 years. They will be leaders, policy makers & users of tomorrow. They will preserve and manage our environment and make this world ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. G-5 comprises of content in the form of animated presentation, workshops and talk shows targeted towards the children in the age group of 3-5 years and their teachers.

GLOBE Society will comprise of political leaders, business leaders, academicians and professional from various fields to provide support in some capacity to this endeavor. This will help in leaving a better place for our children’s tomorrow

GLOBE Society is also collaborating with Climate Project to take this initiative forward. We invite you to become member of GLOBE to create Society of tomorrow.

Please join GLOBE Society by writing back to globesociety@gmail.com