Bargaining Power

Reproducing a brief article from https://pestleanalysis.com/bargaining-power-in-business/

Negotiating the terms of any agreement, formal or not, is a complicated matter. Taking commerce as an example, buyers will always want to negotiate to the lowest prices possible, while sellers will always seek to sell at the highest prices possible. Bargaining power is one of many economic concepts introduced to facilitate the understanding of all of the different factors that can affect how deals are struck and how businesses perform.

What Is Bargaining Power?

Bargaining power is a measure of the capacity of one party to influence another. It is an important topic in negotiation because parties with higher bargaining power are able to leverage their circumstances to strike more desirable deals with others.

All of the parties in an agreement have their own bargaining power, however little or great.

What Determines Bargaining Power?

There are a number of different factors that determine or affect how much bargaining power a party has. In the following list, you can see some of these factors along with a short explanation of how they affect a party’s ability to bargain.

Factors that affect bargaining power:

Having alternatives — If a party does not need to be dealing with some other party, because they have alternatives, then they have more bargaining power. This is because they present a risk in being able to walk away from the deal without causing themselves too much trouble.

If a party does not have any alternatives, then they have little bargaining power as the other negotiators can threaten to walk away from the deal, leaving them in an unfavorable situation.

Little trouble in switching to an alternative — Similarly, a party has more bargaining power if there is little trouble in them switching to an alternative, and vice versa.

Lack of necessity/importance — If one of the parties in a negotiation can walk away from the deal without suffering any consequences, either due to a lack of necessity or importance to cut the deal, then they have more bargaining power. Once again, this is because it indirectly threatens the other party with them losing business, so they have to offer a better ‘bargain’.

Relevant knowledge — Being knowledgeable in relevant fields also provides parties with more bargaining power. This is because they are less susceptible to making unfavorable deals due to being uninformed or misinformed.

The trigger for this post is the twin bargaining situations we are facing at the moment. One is staff agitation. The other is students request to reduce fee components.

The bargaining situations often arise in many facets of our lives. Knowing the bargaining power we possess is crucial to successful negotiations. Assuming more power than we actually have can lead to self harm. On the other hand, having more power should not lead to exploitation. As long as both parties perceive what they have got, the negotiation is successful.

Assess your own bargaining power. Assess the bargaining power of the other party. Be reasonable. Keep the greater good in mind. Understand environmental limitations. Bargain for win-win. 

Unintended Consequences

I have heard stories of unintended consequences.

Here is the first one I heard from Madhu Sudan Padhi. During the time when British were ruling India, at one time, there was a problem of snakes in Delhi. They debated a for a solution. The solution they arrived at was crowd sourcing. Give incentive for catching a snake. Later they observed that too many snakes are caught. On investigation it was found that people are breeding snakes to claim incentive. The solution has the exact opposite effect of increasing the problem. It has a name now called the Cobra effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

Here is one more. In the past, the banks will staple currency notes in bundles of 100. The problem was that the notes were damaged in the process. RBI came with a notification to stop this practice. Tata Steel found that they had a revenue loss of a few crores as the demand for staple pins dropped. RBI certainly did not intend to harm the steel industry through this notification.

Here is the last one. The Demonization in 2016 was meant to wipe out black money from the economy. But it ended up harming the real economy. Whether black money was eliminated remains debatable.

I was surprised to see a website on Unintended Consequences. http://ucstories.com/

Any action from me or us has consequences and sometime it is unintended. We often score a self-goal in the process. One needs to game our decisions to see its consequences on oneself and others,

Over confidence of a group

During this pandemic, I have been busy reading a few books. One of these books is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari an Israli Professor. One of the messages from the book caught my attention.

The Homo Sapiens is a social animal. We live in groups. The groups have now gone beyond the geographical boundaries. Being social, we exchange information and knowledge.

I have not invented the air-conditioner. But, I use one for comfort. I assume it is safe because millions use it. I have not invented the mobile phone. But I use one for communication. I have not invented the bed and the mattress. But I use one for sleeping. I have not invented the pen or the paper. But I use them to write. I am not going to invent corona vaccine but I will use it when it is invented.

The question in my mind now is why did the inventor of air-conditioner, mobile phone, pen and paper allow me the use their inventions for my comfort and my work. If I were an animal, to use these gadgets, I would have to invent them myself. I will not share my tricks with any body. So, my fellow animal have to invent their stuff for their comfort. No so with Human Beings. We share every thing: some times free and some times for a price. The development of the human civilization is based on this principle. More so with academicians, who have to share their knowledge, old or new, with everyone in books and journals.

Socializing and groups breed confidence, some times over-confidence. When, we go to a strange place or a strange domain, we get more confidence when in a group and less so when we are alone. Refer to a previous blog by my colleague Sushant Mishra. Some of our students went to the beach in a group. When a few entered in to water, others who knew no swimming, also entered the water. They probably would not have entered the water individually. An incidence of over-confidence. One student died when the under currents pulled him into deep sea. The sea did not divide the tragedy among the group. There are many instances among the youth who do very risky stuff in a group without realizing the personal risks involved.

We do things in a group which we will perhaps not do as an individual. It has positive and negative connotations. We join a mob and resort to ugly behaviour because the mob gives us the confidence. However, when the police fire at a mob, they do not harm everyone but a few individuals. We join a cultural group and perform a play. The performance is appreciated and we all take credit. The performance goes bad and we all share the discredit.

It is easy to succumb to the over-confidence we derive from a group. But, we have to remember that when a bullet is fired at a group, it is not shared by the group and an individual takes it, . Some may survive the wound, others may succumb. If I do not want to take a bullet, I should not join a group where the bullets may be a possibility.

What the hell happened in 2007

I was watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUWCj-d2heM when I decided to write this blog.

Thomas Friedman is one of my favourite authors. He was interacting in a Intelligence Squared debate - again one of my favourite shows.

He was talking about his book Thank you for being late and specifically talking about a chapter which shares the title of this blog.

What happend in 2007? Most people remember the financial crisis in 2008. Here are some events which took place in 2007:

1. Steve Jobs introduced iPhone, the first smart phone in the world
2. Google bought Youtube
3. Google launched Android
4. AT&T introduced Software Defined Networks (SDN)
5. Amazon introduced Kindle
6. Air BNB was conceived in an apartment in San Franscico
7. IBM built its cognitive computerWatson
8. Intel introduced non-silicon material in chips
9. Facebook opened up to public a few months before 2007
10. Twitter started a few months before 2007

While the world went into a tailspin because of the financial crisis, the events of 2007 augured the beginning of the tech driven world.

Coincidentally, IIIT Bhubaneswar started around this time.

1. The foundation stone was laid in 2006
2. The Institute started functioning in 2007 and M.Tech. programme started in 2007.

It feels great to be in company of such tsunami like events and hopefully we created small waves in our own environment.

RIP message of a Student : A Strong Lesson for Others

Sushant Mishra

“Death” is the answer which nobody questions, and “life” is the question which nobody can answer. Death is inevitable, nobody can avoid it. But reasons could have been avoided.

The unnatural death of a 4th Year student, Himanshu Rathore at Paradeep  on 28th Feb 2018  due to drowning  came as a shocking news to the Institute.

Students prefer to ignore advice / warning of the Institute. They prefer to take certain adventurous actions, which may result in fatality. They do not visualize the consequence of error. For the daring actions, they may get temporary satisfaction; even this might have gotten them brownie points from friends. The temporary provocation or temptation sometimes results grievous consequences.  

Apart from venturing into sea for bathing, doing acrobats in bikes or high wall jumping or Spiderman stunt or taking Selfie pic in vulnerable positions are some bright examples. But fatal results will leave tears in the eyes of your family and well wishers.

Life is very precious and delicate. There is no re-take or un-do. You don't have exclusive right on your life. A major part of your life belongs to your parents, relatives, and friends. So one should not dare / take risk on his life, which you have no complete ownership. Parents have many expectations, wishes and dreams on you. Don't dishearten them. They get pleasure from your smile, so keep them smiling, not crying.

The Institute has witnessed half a dozen unnatural deaths in its brief period of existence. A few had miraculous escape from the jaws of death. They got new lease of lives. The stigma, traumatic feeling of the survivors will last for their life long. They ventured into the water despite warning from the Institute and from others.

Off late some mischievous students get sadistic pleasure by breaking fire extinguisher system.  Fire extinguishers which are meant for protecting them will be no use in case of  a fire.

Death due to drowning is one kind of willful death or shadow suicide. Any kind of daring instinct and challenge should be avoided which will cause sorrow to family. Being aspirant of a bright professional career, you should do certain action for which your family, friends, Institute, nation should proud of, not to feel sorry about.

The Institute expressed condolence to his bereaved family. We know the Institute will back to normal within a day or two. Friends will mourn for a week or so. But we understand the heartbreaking feeling of parents, whose tears will not dry.

May the soul of Himanshu Rathore rest in peace. And it will be great tribute to him, if all other students learn a strong lesson from this irreparable loss and they should vow not to venture into life-risk actions beyond protection limit.

The Yellow Line

I have seen a yellow line in the airports at the metal detector near the security check area. The queue starts from the metal detector and one must stand behind the yellow line.

I have often wondered what purpose the yellow line serves.

Recently, I visited USA on a vacation. I noticed yellow lines every where. Even in the coach we traveled, there was a yellow line in the aisle near the driver. The driver will not start if some one has crossed the yellow line.

Queues are a very important element of civilization. In operations research, queuing theory is a tool in optimization. In computer science, queues are a very important data structure. In nature, we find ants achieve seemingly impossible things by following a queue.

I have noticed the futility of jumping the queue in the airport. We need to stand several times in a queue: when getting into the airport, check in, security, boarding, getting in the bus which takes us to the plane, deplaning. No matter who is ahead of us, we all reach the destination at the same time. It seems like a small victory in being ahead in a queue but there are no benefits. Following the queue helps in completing the process faster.

I have also observed how people respect a queue in a temple. In Jagannath Temple in Puri, queues are rarely formed and the Darshan is a traumatic experience for many. In south India, the queues are more regularly followed in temples.

I have observed school children meticulously form and follow a queue in school or when they visit a zoo or a museum in a group. But, as adults we often are too impatient to follow a queue and end up being chaotic.

I do not know why we hate queues but some reasons may be a. feeling more important if you do not stand in a queue, b. a feeling that you will achieve or acquire some thing out of turn, c. the VIP culture.

I hope to see more queues and less chaos in the Institute.

Bad News First

Everybody loves a good news. Be it in exams or job or family, or health, we welcome the good news.

I was chatting with an IT executive and he told me that he wanted to hear about bad news first and good news later. The logic was simple: you can do something if you hear the bad news early. He narrated incidents when he broke the bad news to his clients early and was appreciated for that.

That discussion got me thinking. It is said that before the truth takes off, the lie travels around the world. It may also be true of bad news and good news. I have often shared the bad stories with students and parents first. A few of them have appreciated the idea.

In our culture, the bad news is often not shared but the good news is gloated upon. Personally, I think no news is good news and bad news is worse news. One has to keep both eye and ear open for the bad before it becomes a news item.

Here are some good news and bad news jokes.

A man receives a phone call from his doctor.The doctor says, “I have some good news and some bad news.”The man says, “OK, give me the good news first.” The doctor says, “The good news is, you have 24 hours to live.” The man replies, “Oh no! If that’s the good news, then what’s the bad news?”The doctor says, “The bad news is, I forgot to call you yesterday.”

Here are some quotes about good news and bad news.

“It is much, much worse to receive bad news through the written word than by somebody simply telling you, and I’m sure you understand why. When somebody simply tells you bad news, you hear it once, and that’s the end of it. But when bad news is written down, whether in a letter or a newspaper or on your arm in felt tip pen, each time you read it, you feel as if you are receiving the bad news again and again.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

“There's good news and slightly less good news.”
― Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

“The bad news is nothing lasts forever,
The good news is nothing lasts forever.”
― J. Cole

“In my experience , big words ornament bad news.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Star-Touched Queen

“Bad news has good legs.”
― Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley    

First Convocation

There is something special about First. Often in the family, the first child is special. In movies the First Day First Show is special. The first day of your life is special and is celebrated as the birth day.

For the Institute the First Batch will always remain special. They have gone through a lot of hardship but got a lot of attention from the faculty and administration. The First few faculty members will also be special as they have built the Institution.

Our first convocation will also be special. It is the most important event for the Institute became an University.

The Institute became an University in Jan 2014. Therefore, the students graduating in 2014 were awarded degree by the Institute. However, we did not hold the Convocation in 2014 and 2015. The reason being the we were working on many formalities demanded by the University Act. In the last board meeting, it was decided to hold the first convocation in 2016. It was also decided that Hpn'ble CM Sri Naveen Patnaik will be the convocation speaker.

We started preparing for the Convocation by seeking a suitable time from the HE Governor and Hon'ble CM. Once the dates were finalized, we prepared the long check-list of thinks to do. The check-list was long and included items like stitching the robe, medals, tent, and many other items. We wanted this event to be memorable. We wanted the event to be executed to perfection. We wanted the event to be crisp and precise.

We started the event on time and finished in an hours time. The timing was nearly perfect considering that it was the first convocation.

We has unexpected last minute challenges we had not anticipated. The security requirements of the Hon'ble CM had to be complied with at the last moment. The certifications - civil, electrical and fire - for the temporary structure had to be obtained at the very last moment. The police demands for frisking had to be complied with at the last moment.

There were disappointments also. Some students inspite of our clear communication came late and were not given the robes and the certificates on stage. Many parents commented on non-serious nature of a delay by a few minutes and the Institute's undue hard stand on the same. While we have our sympathies with them, I believe that they failed in their professionalism in not reporting one time.

All Student volunteers, staff members and the faculty members did a wonderful job. I thank each one of them for making the First Convocation an event to remember.

SPICMACAY in IIIT

Dhanada Mishra and his wife Babita Mishra are my good friends. Dhanada is slightly crazy (which may be an underestimation). He studied in India, USA and worked in Australia. Then he returned to India and now plays politics in AAP. But the couple do wonderful things like running Spicmacay chapters in Odisha.

Here is an extract from Wikipedia about SpicMacay

SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is a non-political, nationwide, voluntary movement founded in 1977 by Dr Kiran Seth, Professor-Emeritus at IIT-Delhi who was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ for his contribution to the arts in 2009.

SPICMACAY’s intention is to enrich the quality of formal education by increasing awareness about different aspects of Indian heritage and inspiring the young mind to imbibe the values embedded in it. It seeks to inspire youth through experiencing the mysticism embodied in the rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry of Indian and World Heritage, with a hope that the beauty, grace, values and wisdom embodied in these arts will influence their way of life and thinking and inspire one to become a better human being. For this, the most accomplished artistes of the country render programmes of Indian classical music and dance, folk, poetry, theatre, traditional paintings, crafts & yog primarily in schools and colleges. In 2011, SPIC MACAY was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana award in recognition of its contribution to youth development.

I had my brush with Spicmacay in IIT Kgp in 70s, IIMB in 80s and XIMB in 90s and 2000s. I always made it a point attend the Spicmacay programs and witness some great performances by icons of Indian classical music.

It has been my dream to start Spicmacay programs in IIIT-BH, This year we had three classical performances - the latest being by Sarod Maestro Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. The programme was enthralling. The claps from the audience reflected their appreciation.

We hope to have many more such programmes and more so from local artists.

Tragedy Strikes Again

In my interactions First Year students and their parents, I often narrate many tragedies that have struck the Institute, its students, staff and faculty. The objective being we learn from those mistakes and prevent such tragedies in future. While some learn from such narratives, others do not.

The tragedy happened again this Monday a day before the Republic day.

Five of the First year students went to Puri on Monday. This was a working day. They took an auto rickshaw to go to Puri. They went into the Sea, There was a huge wave. They lost balance and were being dragged into the sea. The Life Guards swung into action and rescued four of them. One them could not be rescued. He went missing in the sea. His body was discovered 2 days later in a lonely beach 7 kilometers away from the main Puri beach.

Sourav Kumar was a decent, studious and honest boy. He was in his full senses when he went into the sea. He and his friends went into the main Puri Beach where hundreds of tourists, shop keepers and life guards found. Many people take bath in the sea. While accidents are rare in this beach, they happen with distressing regularity.

The Institute truly saddened by the loss of life of promising young boy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving family members of Sourav's family. We hope they will learn to live with Sourav's loss quickly.

However, I am concerned with us missing lessons from such tragedies. To my mind following are the lessons for the Students and their Parents:

1.  The students must keep their parents abreast of their movements and coordinates when they go out of the campus.
2. The parents must keep track of their wards at all times.
3. We feel powerful in a group and underestimate the risks involved in our actions. Being aware of risk and having a plan to mitigate the risk is important

SRK's Keynote at IIM Bangalore

IIM Bangalore is my alma mater. I spent two of my best years there about 25 years ago. Recently, they held a alumni convention and Shah Rukh Khan was the Keynote speaker. I share his inspiring keynote.

Thank you to Saif and team to put all this together. Good evening to the Alumni of IIM, the faculties, students and distinguished guests.

I was so pleased with myself when Mrs. Shaw requested me to give the keynote lecture for this alumni conclave until I saw the alumni list. My mind suddenly froze up like the icebergs in Iceland where I have just shot my latest song, and I thought, “What will I say to all these wonderfully wise people?” For a second I contemplated sending a stunt double but then I read a joke about the wisdom of all you amazing achievers from IIM. The joke made it clear to me that all of you are extremely wise, but your wisdom is of a different kind from us lesser mortals. It went something like this….it was about a kid who claimed he was too good for the standard 1 that he was in and should be promoted to the fourth standard. He was marched to the principal’s office and for gender equality reasons; obviously the principal was a lady. She thought the kid should be given a fair chance, as ladies are always fair and said she would ask him a few questions and if he will answer them right…he will be promoted to the fourth standard. Her first question to him was… 

what does a cow have four of that I have only two of? Boy after a moment…Legs.

What is in your pants that you have but I do not have. Boy…pockets.

What does a lady do sitting down a man does standing up and a dog does with his one leg raised. Boy…shake hands.

What starts with F and ends with K is a four letter word and if you don’t get it, you have to use your hand….boy confidently…A Fork.

The principal looks at the teacher and tells him, send him to the IIM …he will fit in there just perfect.

That gave me some confidence to stand before you all. Maybe in your quest for knowledge, you all might have overlooked some very basic and simple truths…so here I am…to widen your sphere on how normal mortals would have answered those questions.

I am no guru in creative leadership so please bear me with some compassion and patience and do excuse my humour.

The essence of creativity is the ability to channelize imagination into expression and build from it something new and possibly ingenious. Whether it is an art form or a scientific invention or discovering a new way of doing the same old thing…it begins in the mind. A mind that does not function within the framework of boundaries but constantly searches beyond them is a mind that is able to create anew. The cornerstone of leadership, I believe, is nothing more than cultivating the discipline and courage to nurture and sustain such a mind while constantly calling the bluff of the illusory limits imposed by life.

See I am fifty. An age where you most likely are making retirement plans not romantic plans. But here I am still coochie cooing girls my children’s age. And no they don’t look up to me, actually they can’t because they are all taller than me, they treat me as their age/equal having been put in the position of someone who is a romantic hero, I have cultivated a belief that I can love them back as beautifully as any man can age notwithstanding. With respect dignity and put in my own experiences of life, which younger heroes won’t have. Though I must admit girls having a bit of a father fixation, comes in handy with my endeavors.

Leaders are able to assimilate experience in order to reframe the world around themselves on their own terms. They use the very structure of life to dismantle it. They are not afraid to question, to imagine, to dream and to believe. They are also not afraid to act even if their actions might not result in success.

There is an old song I always turn to, when I am faced with adversity. Being a public figure most of my actions and intentions are questioned, reviewed and sometimes loved and sometimes even distorted. Ranging from praising my sexiness to questioning my sexuality, I get it all. But whenever I feel thwarted I think of this song…Hum to ACT karega. Duniya se nahi darega. Chahye ye zamaana kahe humko deewana kahe hum toh ACT karega.

Many books have been written on leadership skills, on methods and models for it but in my view, it really isn’t all that complicated. To be able to dream unencumbered, to imagine and hang on to a boundless mind filled with ideas so that you never stop renewing yourself and the world around you whether it is your inner world, your consciousness or your outer world that encompasses your profession and your relationships is essential to leadership. But dreaming is not enough, its also important to be able to dismantle the old, the frameworks that are laid out before you, the ideas that you yourself cling to, the ones that hold you back and prevent you from growing. It is by disassembling your fears of failing, of losing (not just things, but people and positions), and most of all- of change that you can be truly creative not just in the things you choose to do, but in the way you view your part in the world you inhabit.

I meet many successful people in the world of business and I often find that while their ideas are very clear, the way they speak of them is oddly dispassionate. The madness and passion are missing. I get the sad impression that business often becomes numerical: about millions and targets or it ends up being so goal driven that there is a stark loss of inspiration from it. I think the emphasis on organizational goals and efficiency has clouded the poetry of creating. Perhaps because of the artistic basis of the work I do, it is difficult for me to relate to this starkness. I feel it lacks life. Creation cannot be a managerial concept/notion, no matter how good the idea is, it has to be an “imaginerial” conception. To lead means to inspire, and you cannot inspire people mechanically or through numerical (with all due respect…unless they are stock brokers or bankers!!). Inspiration is an emotional construct. To make people believe in anything, whether it is a product, a story, an idea, or you: you need to connect their ability to imagine and dream with your own.

You can’t create within a box with unbending walls. It is an open process, one that is welcoming and wild. To abandon that inclusive wildness for a narrowly defined goal is illusory. I have never set one- truly. I have never set out to earn a particular amount, to count the crores at the box office or to compare my worth with anyone else’s. In fact I would go as far as saying that quantifiable goals are indeed illusions. The only reality is hard work.

Diligence is imperative to both creativity and leadership. Making the mistake of thinking that your dreams will take flight without you having to flap madly at those wings to get up into the sky is plain silly. In my experience, its great to delegate, but there’s no short cut to working hard. To know and to understand what you are doing, to be open to learning about it and from it, every single moment requires diligence. It requires work. If you want to excel at something there shouldn’t be a single person around you who can claim to be more familiar with its mechanics than you are. Its non negotiable to strive and to be familiar with your trade. Life remains ordinary if you are unable to sustain the capacity to work hard on your dreams. If you aren’t determined to get there- you won’t. And this is a paradoxical thing because I’ve heard many people say that you need to know where you’re going to be determined about reaching there but it hasn’t been the case with me. I never knew my destination, I can’t even claim to know it today…Now that I am on the cover of Forbes India, is that where I wanted to be as a businessman.

My IPL team has won the championship and its profitable, is that the dream I had for a sporting franchise venture. I have a film running in a cinema hall for the last twenty years…should that be the attempt in terms of achievement for my next film. No I don’t think so. I believe goals actually limit our ambitions and desire. I don’t mean that don’t have goals, but call them milestones…think of them as a passing moment of excellence and keep on striving harder for a place which can’t be defined or confined by names or numbers. I have never set goals but I have truly never done a single thing that I wasn’t determined to do the best. I had no idea where it would take me for the most part of it, but I had the idea that I would do whatever it was with a determination that would scare everyone else away.

No matter how hard we work, however, leadership implies being prepared for disaster. And it will come. If it doesn’t hit you like a tsunami washing away your house and home…it’ll show up some other way, as failure maybe, or then by taking away something (or someone) you loved and believed in… so what are you going to do about it? You can cry and wallow. I do that often and I am not ashamed to admit it. I do that in a special corner reserved for tears in my huge golden bathroom. Somewhere between the Jacuzzi and the steam room, I sit on the floor and shed huge tears of self pity, persecution and how the world doesn’t understand my genius and effort….but then I take a hot and cold shower and walk out wearing my limited edition cologne… ready to embrace disaster. So a bit of wallowing and crying is ok… but the thing to understand is that if you learn how to welcome disaster you overcome it. So what if everything gets turned on its head, change your perspective- do a hand stand- don’t sit there staring at the ruins, start getting bits of you together and rebuilding yourself. That’s what leadership is about after all. Besides a “perfect life” is a farce. God isn’t making utopian ad films and screening them on the clouds to sell it’s USP to you. It’s a man made idea and we’re buying into it all the time. Actually, there is nothing more beautiful than the imperfection of life. Creativity is about taking this imperfection and translating into something beauteous. In my trade, life serves as a fertile ground for innovation and ideas. We use its imperfection every moment. In fact there is really nothing that allows us to create better or to live better than trouble so why not embrace it and embrace ourselves too in the bargain. And while we are embracing, lets embrace destiny too ( in my case I will embrace Kajol, Madhuri and Alia also, which unfortunately doesn’t come in your perks package whichever company you join or create…ha ha) because Destiny isn’t what it’s rolled out to be either. Accidents happen (I am a living proof of an accidental movie star/entrepreneur/speaker at an IIM gathering. I wanted to be a sportsman. Represent India hopefully as a hockey or a cricket player. Suddenly I hurt my back. Didn’t have the resources to get the best treatment. Joined a theater group to fill in time and overcome my sadness of not being able to play at a professional level. Father died and we were evicted from our rented house. Mother went looking for a smaller place and the dealer’s father in law was making a series, called Fauji. My mother sent me to him and he cast me as Abhimanyu Rai in the serial. Things went ballistic from there. I got film offers and one thing led to another, and I became a movie star. By the way we never took the house from the dealer, Mr. Dhawan who actually got me on the road to stardom. And my mother didn’t live long enough to see my work either). I realize now that hurting my back wasn’t an accident, being here speaking to you all is the larger happier accident. So destiny plays a part for sure and no one can teach us either how to find it or how to chase it. Just like disaster, it will come your way but if you don’t have the courage to ride its wave when it does, it’ll toss you right back on the beach and all you’ll get to see is the sunset of a tired and weary life (plus your backside will be sore!). So I would advise keeping your eyes open for life’s magic and not turning away from it citing practicality and good reason. There isn’t one. Be brave enough to face your destiny, to sacrifice for it and compromise for it if you have to. It will always be worth it. To imagine that you know better than life is the silliest (and possibly the most costly) mistake one can ever make.

To conclude, I’d like to borrow from my latest endeavour of creativity- Dilwale and say that unless you live by the heart, unless you are Dilwale, none of this will truly translate into the splendour that life is capable of unfolding before you. The mind is the seed of creativity but the heart is the soil. That seed cannot grow without an open heart. To be able to love, to give, to share, to nurture, to take others along on your journey with as much goodwill for them as you have for yourself is the basis of all creative endeavour, of all real success, of all happiness and of true leadership. If you close up your heart to the world, if you choose to live your life on parameters that let you forget how to love, you will dishonor life and disallow it from honouring you. There is no greater creativity in life or leadership than the ability to touch each moment that you are living with the beauty of living it by your heart, to give back to life the fullness that it has had the generosity to give to you.

And that joke I cracked about the little kid…giving all abnormal answers to basic questions….was just a joke. I really think all of you from IIM are very sexy and cool. Actually I must admit it’s really next to impossible to find such a combination of smart and sexy in so many people together. It’s an honour to be amidst you, and talk with you, for it does get lonely just talking to myself in the corner of my golden bathroom.
Thank you. 

Thoughts on Teachers' Day

The Doctoral students invited me to be part of the Teachers' Day celebration. I shared a joke with them which I am repeating here.

There was a preacher and a bus driver.

The preacher used to conduct the mass in the church. He used to give messages like be be good, be kind, love thy neighbour etc. His mass was repetitive, boring and least engaging.

The bus driver was a rogue. He used drink and drive. He used drive too fast. He never followed any traffic rules. The passengers in the bus and the public outside used to be very afraid.

The preacher and the bus driver died on the same day. They landed at the pearly gates. St. Peter looked at their records and asked the preacher to go to hell and the bus driver to heaven.

The preacher was shocked. He could not believe the decision of St. Peter. The preacher told  he was a man of god, he always advised people to be good, he himself led a exemplary life. St. Peter told that the decision has been made and cant be changed. The preacher demanded an explanation.

St Peter said when you were preaching people were sleeping but when the driver was driving they were praying.

We encounter two kinds of teachers: ones like the preacher and the others like the bus driver. The first kind believes in teaching in a boring way while the second kind makes you learn in their own unique way. The most memorable teachers are the second kind who pushed students against the wall.

Diffuculties of being honest

I admire Gurcharan Das. He was a former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India and now an author and news paper column writer.

He has written a book called Difficulties of Being Good. It revolves around various episodes of Mahabharata and raises ethical questions. One classic one is where Arjun questions the war against his own family members. There is link to a youtube video at the end of the blog

In IIIT, we have always believed in being truthful and being honest. It is not easy when the truth and honesty involves talking about not so nice things about ourselves.

This year I made a rather long presentation before the parents of freshman students. Among the many things I talked about, here are a few:

• Students have lost lives due to misadventure or illness
• Students have flunked in examinations
• Students have been detained for a year due to indiscipline
• Students have been fined heavily for stealing or damaging Institute property
• Students do not become eligible for placement due to poor CGPA
• and a few more..

Also I talked about our achievements in the last few years.

I have often wondered whether such true but negative incidents will turn away potential students and their parents. Whether we will be perceived as a pessimistic Institute.

One of the parents of a freshman student met me later. He told me that he had investigated (he is a vigilance officer) about the Institute. In fact he had more refined statistics about the Institute than I had. He knew about most the negative incidents I mentioned above. He appreciated the courage and the honesty of the Institute in narrating such stuff while meeting the parents the first time. He told that he is now certain that his ward is in the right place for next four years.

One may achieve temporary results through lie and deceit but lasting achievements come from being being truthful and honest, having a vision and working towards it, accepting both success and failure and learning from them. This strategy has paid rich dividends in last few years.

And, I hope that being truthful and honest never becomes too difficult a job for us.

In two days time, 69th Independence will be on us. Jai Hind.

NBA Accreditation

Autonomy is not autonomy.

Let me elaborate. The University status gives the Institute autonomy of many kinds. We can offer new programmes. We can institute new degrees. We can fix our fees. And many more.

We want to be known for our programmes in masters and doctoral level. At these level, we must provide assistantship to the masters and doctoral students. As a self-financing Institute, we do not have the resources to do that. Hence, we depend on other agencies to provide these financial help.

When we started Ph.D. programme last year, we requested the Government of Odisha to provide a few scholarships to the Ph.D. students. As always, the Government has gracefully obliged.

We get Assistantship for Masters programmes from AICTE. This year we started a new Master's Programme. However, before we can apply for scholarships to AICTE, we needed to be accredited by NBA.

Now, accreditation has a lengthy preparatory process. The process is based on defining outcomes and working backwards.

This year's faculty retreat is devoted to preparing ourselves for NBA accreditation.

We plan to get a couple of departments accredited by next year.

Wish us luck.

Uniqueness of IIIT

This is a question I face often. Perhaps, no one is in a better position than me to answer this question.

In my days as a MBA student, I learnt about Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of a brand. Why will any one buy a product - because of its USP. Every consumer product has a USP given in the form a slogan. For Volkswagen it is Das Auto. For KFC it is Finger Licking Good.

One slogan which stayed with me is by a car rental company called Avis. The slogan is we try harder.

Here are more images of that campaign: https://www.google.co.in/search?q=avis+we+try+harder+campaign&hl=en

I believe No2ism should apply to our Institute. We are certainly not No 1 or No 2. I shall be happy if some one says we are No 20. What can be the USP of a young Institute like ours.

With no shame, I shall borrow the tagline of Avis:

• We try harder. 

Also, I shall add more No2isms:

• We are Hungry for success because we are not No 1
• We are Humble because we are not No 1
• We are Honest because we can not afford otherwise

However, there three types of people in our community:

• The ones who believe we are No 2 and hence they try hard
• The ones who believe they are No 1 or may be No. 0 (which is better than No 1) and hence do not try hard
• And the ones who believe we are no 2000 and hence no point trying harder.

Fortunately, the first category is the majority. We have to eliminate the second and the third categories by bringing them to the first category.

I have been talking to the students about this. Both at a personal as well as Institutional level, this is a great doctrine: We try harder. 

Capacity Building

In XIMB there was a center called Cenderet. It was brain child of Fr. Bogaert, a Belgian father. Cenderet mostly did rural development work. They will do a lot of training programmes called Capacity Building. I was always a little confused by this. I always wondered if Capacity building is synonymous with training.

When IIIT started there were very few employees: 2 to be exact. I wondered what can two people do. In other words, I was asking the question what is the capacity of two employees:  the capacity for Institution building. I was wondering if capacity is proportional to the employee strength.

Yesterday, I was witness to the high mast lamps being hoisted and installed in the tennis courts. These lamps have been fabricated in-house in our tiny workshop. The procurement to fabrication to installation is being done by our own people. This is a unique capacity of the Institute which was built over a few years. This saves us a lot of money. But more than saving money, it shows a peripheral activity like the workshop can contribute so much towards the Institute Building.

We have built our own ERP for Administration, education delivery. That is a unique capacity.

We have done the project management of our construction. This is also a very unique capacity.

However, on several core fronts of the Institute, we either depend on others or do a shoddy job our selves. The capacity is sadly missing in these activities.

Capacity is what you can do with your own hands and what an organization can do with its own people. The capacity is both capability and willingness to go the extra mile. Often, one or the other is missing. I hope we develop more capacity in many aspects of our operations.

Two Stories for the Teacher's day

Here are two stories about teachers. One picked from the Internet and the other is a story my father told me.

The Blueberry Story: The teacher gives the businessman a lesson

“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!”

I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.

I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle1980s when People Magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best Ice Cream in America.” 

I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge society”. Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement!

In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced - equal parts ignorance and arrogance.

As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant – she was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.

She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream.”

I smugly replied, “Best ice cream in America, Ma’am.” 

“How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?” 

“Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed.

“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.

“Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.

“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”

In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap…. I was dead meat, but I wasn’t going to lie.

“I send them back.”

“That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!” 

In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!” 

And so began my long transformation. 

Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night. 

None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.

A student visits a teacher in the Hospital

My father was a high school teacher. In one of his classes, he observed a student. He was not attentive. He was gossiping with other students. My father warned him a couple of times. But, the student continued to disturb. In a fit of rage, he threw the duster at him. It hit his fore head. He started bleeding profusely. My father dismissed to class and went to see the headmaster to report what happened. The head master was alarmed. He said the student is son of a local politician and the incident is sure to cause trouble for the school and my father. He advised my father to take leave and disappear for a while. My father followed his advice.

Many years later, my father was admitted to the hospital for a surgery. Many people visited him. An young man visited him with a bouquet of flowers and wished quick recovery. My father told him that he could not recognize him. The young man told him that he is a bank manager. He was a student in the school where my father worked. It was he who was subjected the duster missile and that that incident had changed his life. He became a serious student and eventually did well in his career.

I was amazed to see that being hit by a duster made him grateful enough to visit my father in the hospital when he heard about his illness.

Happy teachers' day!

Enforceable Rules and Courage to Enforce them

The faculty members spent a week for a retreat in last week of June.

We discussed various aspects of the Institute's function. In particular, we discussed regarding the academic regulations for the B.Tech. programme.

The view was that we should have a rigorous regulations. I always asked the following questions

• Is the rule enforceable. It is a very fundamental questions. We translate a principle into a rule. We may agree with the principle. However, when we try to enforce it, we encounter difficulties in the form of a. too much administrative work, b. difficult to measure the act or c. unfair consequences.
• Does the rule work fine in the boundary conditions. This is the programmer in me asking the question: have we exhausted all the possibilities in a if-then-else statement. Often the rules we make fail in the boundary conditions.
• Is the rule fair to the people on whom it is being applied.

These questions often result near perfection and refinement of the rules.

The people who violate the rules often think that the authorities will not have the courage to implement for emotional, humanitarian and other such reasons.

 

Among many decision taken in the Institute the most difficult ones were to detain some students for a year, asking some students to leave the hostel and non renewal of contract of some staff members. These were emotionally tough decisions to make but necessary to bring some discipline and sanity into the Institute's functioning. I hope we will never have take such decisions but if the situation demands we should not shirk our responsibility to take the decision.

IIIT - a National Institute

The IIIT Bhubaneswar act passed by the Odisha Legislative Assembly gives the Institute status of a University and autonomy in many respects.

When the Institute started in 2007, we were affiliated to BPUT. BPUT gave autonomy for M.Tech programme but there was no autonomy for B.Tech Programme.

The admission to the M.Tech. programme was through the counselling process conducted by the Institute. However, the admission to the B.Tech was through Odisha JEE.

As per the norms of the Odisha JEE, all the seats in Government Institutes were allotted to the Odisha Domicile Students. IIIT being a Government Institute also got all its seats filled up by Odisha Domicile Students.

IIIT Bhubaneswar like its peers in Hyderabad and Bangalore was conceived as a National Institute. The National nature of the Institute requires that curriculum be at par with the National Institutes, the composition of the students be national. The Act provided this feature by reserving 50% seats for the Odisha Domicile Students and rest for the students from other states.

The National character of the Institute will help in enhancing recognition, placement, industry relations of the Institute. This will help the Institute to be competitive among the other peer Institute.

Odisha JEE has a few constraints. For example, it is not possible for a participating Institute to impose a specific minimum standard for its students. To get better students, the Institute may like to enhance the minimum requirements. However, the structure of OJEE will not permit that.

Hence, the Institute has decided to have its own counselling process. The Institute will endeavour to make this process efficient, transparent and student friendly. Watch the website for details which will be published soon.

University Now. What Next

At long last the Government of Odisha has notified giving University Status to IIIT Bhubaneswar.

What does this mean in academic terms. Now the Institute has the powers

• to award degree
• to float new programmes
• to create own curriculum
• to follow its own admission procedure
•  

The powers invested with the Institute will be used to improve the curriculum, rigour of delivery. To start with, Doctoral Programme will be introduced.

The act empowers every one including the faculty, staff, students and the administration and demands higher quality output.