People at Work & Play

Enjoyed “John Wright’ s Indian Summers” written by John Wright with Sharda Ugra & Paul Thomas. Wright was the first foreign coach of India’s cricket team. His appointment set to rest, although temporarily, the Indian vs. foreign coach issue.

I was impressed by Wright’s professionalism. He brought a lot of passion to his role as India’s cricket coach. A job, he quickly found out, which was more in the limelight than he would ever have imagined.

At the end of the day, the team did prosper under his regime. With Ganguly as the aggressive captain and Wright as the sobering influence, India did much better than in past years. Amongst other achievements, they reached the final of the 2003 World Cup.

Here is BBC Sports assessment of his tenure as coach. India left on the Wright track.

I believe Wright did a lot of good for Indian cricket. If he is to be believed, before he took charge, “nets” was a leisurely affair where porters brought out the kits of the players and they condescended to bat after having pots of tea and sandwiches.

The book has some interesting stories: How communication is vital in the game. How Rahul Dravid declared when Tendulkar was on 194 in a Test against Pakistan. How Wright himself lost his temper and caught Sehwag by the collar when he had once again thrown away his wicket, the machinations behind the selection process, the heyday of Jagmohan Dalmia, the changing complexion of the game and status of the players thanks to television and big time sponsors. The game - and the new found stars- changed for ever.

All in all a good read, if you -like me-enjoy cricket and follow the fortunes of the Indian cricket team.

John Wright is right in all his observations on Indian cricket. In attempting to change the mind set of our players, and in getting higher leverage for the coach, was Wright wrong?

Die hard Dilbert fans have something to grieve about. Sadly, Asok the intern is no more.The IIT-educated supergeek with telekinetic powers, who charmed millions of readers across 2000 newspapers in 65 countries for over 11 years with his innocence and geekiness, is no more. He was created by Scott Adams in March 1996, 7 years after Dilbert was launched.

“I am sad to report that Asok the Intern died during a test of our moon shuttle prototype,” cartoon world’s most evil boss announced on Friday. Even in his death, Asok did not ignore the cause of science - “Before he left, he put a sample of his DNA in a jar,” the Pointy-Haired Boss added. “His plan is to reincarnate into his own clone.” That may seem doubtful, though. Carol, the misanthropic secretary, now uses the jar as her second candy storage device.

Although Soctt Admas never mentionesd Asok’s nationality, his education at the Indian Institute of Technology and his love for Hindi songs make his origins self-evident.

In his book Seven Years of Highly Defective People, Adams said why he left out Asok’s nationality: “I only like characters who have huge, gaping character flaws. The world is far too sensitive to let me get away with a highly flawed minority member.”

Adams gave Asok extraordinary powers, though. He had an IQ of 240; he could reheat a cup of tea by holding it to his forehead while thinking of fire; and once, in 2005, he vapourised an obnoxious Texan (sometimes, if he is hungry during meetings, he also steals doughnuts using only his mind). He also had the ability to solve complex problems with a few keystrokes. And yes, he also slept only during national holidays.

RIP, Asok. We’ll miss you.

PS: Considering his origins and geekiness, can we expect a re-incarnated Asok 2.0 in the future?

Just completed ” It Happened in India” written by Kishore Biyani (the man who revolutionised retailing in India) with Dipayan Baishya, a business writer.  A very well-written story which gives tremendous insights into what makes an entrepreneur successful.

Kishore Biyani re-wrote the retail script in India. From a position when he was almost looked down upon as a trader who wouldn’t amount to much to his current position as the Group CEO of the rapidly growing Futures Group, he and his companies have come a long way.

“It Happened in India” is interspersed with comments made by various people associated with Biyani from both within and outside his organisation. The book is written in a simple yet effective style and grips the reader. It is described as “the story of Pantaloon, Big Bazaar, Central and the great Indian consumer”.

Right from the time he first started, Biyani showed amazingly accurate perception of the Indian consumer -especially in the retail space. He perhaps understands the psyche of his typical customers more than anybody else. Therein lies the secret of his success.

The Pantaloon chain , headquartered in Mumbai, has grown to operate over 5 million square feet of retail space. It has over 450 stores across 40 cities  in India and employs over 18,000 people.

At the heart of the organisation is what Biyani calls the Pantaloon Genes. These precepts are :

• We like being simple
• Speed is the essence of everything
• We like to learn while we execute
• We like thrift
• We believe that customers are always right
• We like to think in terms of the majority of people
• We take pride in our core value of Indian-ness
• We believe in ourselves
• We do not like to blame others or external factors
• We like to think positively in every situation
• We like building and nurturing relationships
• We love to rewirte rules even as we retain our values

As is said in the book, what we become is a result of the way we think. “Sometimes we a nation of billion people, think like a nation of million people” said former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Kishore Biyani dared to think big. His story is worthwhile reading not only for entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs but also for those who want to understand the Indian consumer.

Scott Adams has given millions around the world great pleasure over the years. Through his cynical look at managers and management using his creation, Dilbert. It now turns out that Adams has been called on to demonstrate those very same managerial skills himself.

In “The Tables Turn for Dilbert’s Creator”, Brad Stone writes in the New York Times: “To make matters worse, this befuddled manager has never run a restaurant before or even supervised another person’s work in more than 20 years. His greatest qualification for the job, one might say, is 17 years spent satirizing cubicle culture. In other words, Scott Adams, the “Dilbert” creator and the progenitor of the multimillion-dollar Dilbert empire, is now a pointy-haired boss himself.”

Adams has been quick to acknowledge his latest challenge in his blog. He writes:” It’s more entertaining than whatever drivel I was planning to spew today, so I direct you to it:” !!

I wanted to gift my son on his 21 st birthday with something which could help him succeed in life.

I chose Jack Canfield’s ” How To Get from Where You Are to Where You Want To Be- The 25 Principles of Success”.

Jack Canfield is best known for his “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series of books. He is the editor and author of over 60 best-selling books with over 100 million copies in print in 46 languages around the world.

He has a record in the Guinness Book of Records for having 7 books in the May 24, 1998 New York Times best seller list !

I need hardly say that I read “Success Principles” myself. It was absorbing and comprehensive. The ideas are interspersed with a wonderful collection of thought-provoking quotations.

I am convinced this collection of principles can help us succeed.

Highly recommended.

“Anything For You Ma’am: An IITian’s Love Story”, Srishti Publishers and Distributors, 2006, Rs. 100 is an entertaining book by Tushar Raheja.

It is the love story of an IIT Delhi student and graphically captures the spirit and culture of the IIT campus and of life in a typical middle class Indian household.

As a review in The Hindu says this novel is highly recommended for all veterans of campus life in India. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the book .

Congratulations, young Raheja. We look forward to more of your writings.

Delighted to come across “Creative Think” the blog of Dr. Roger von Oech. I think he is one of the best writers on creativity. He is a Ph.D from Stanford on the “History of Ideas”.

I fondly remember his older books like “Whack On The Side of the Head” and “Kick In The Seat Of The Pants”.

Although I read it years ago, I remember his description of how creativity lives in the brain and how if not utilised it sinks lower and lower down the body to eventually rest and get fat - you know where!

Just completed ” Small Town” the first book I read by Lawrence Block.

Set in New York after 9/11, it is a racy story- if you like thrillers like I do. I won’t spoil the story by telling you what it is about. I liked his writing style- crisp, direct and hard hitting.

I find from Wikipedia that Block’s major creations are Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr. I look forward to reading more of his books.

Wodehouse fans may want to see this about Lord Michael Pratt who died recently.

He has been described as being “one of the last Wodehouseian figures to inhabit London’s clubland”.

Reading about him in The Telegraph - his habit of dropping in for a day and staying for weeks and wearing a monocle- makes me convinced that he showed Duke of Dunstable-like behaviours.

Every country and indeed every city has an unique culture. A large number of US and European companies have business interests in Bangalore, India.

With many expats being posted to India for a tour of a few years, a guide for the “new” expat is of great value. Joanna Budelman, Co-founder of Chillibreeze, attracted a lot of email enquiries. What to bring? Where to live? How safe is the place? Will it be difficult to adjust? What about schools?

Her ebook “Bangalore: An Expat Survival Guide” will be of immense use to expats. She has first hand experience of shifting to and living in Bangalore as her husband, Ralph, is the Managing Director of Stylus Inc. here.