Help him, if not Pamper him

It's just too early to compare Dhoni with the likes of Captain Gopinath and other leaders. He might have the hunger, attitude and other ingredients to become a good leader. But probably we need to wait and watch, rather than just drawing conclusions from the feet he achieved. I am sure if we would have lost the game against Pakistan, he would have been the centre of criticism by now. I just don’t go by such immature mentality of our media and other sources. He is good, but not good enough as yet to be compared with big leaders. Allow him to perform atleast in atleast 3-4 series and then draw some conclusions. I am sure post Australia series, he would be in middle of criticism. I wish people can really become constructive. I wish the media and other intelligent sources help to build a leader in him than spoiling him by over exaggeration of his world cup win.

I hope he is not a regular reader of our news papers :)

T20 World Cup – A Memorable Victory

A real tribute to the young Indian Cricket team for winning such a sensational match against Pakistan in the T20 final. They showed lot of enthusiasm and character. I think more than their talent, their character helped them to win all the tough matches. Really, it was a true example of “Give your best, rest will be history”. The euphoria in Indian public was also worth noticing. I am sure the kind of reception the Indian team got while returning home is something for them to treasure for rest of the life to come. It doesn’t happen often.

Ok, now with all these euphoria, time has come to think about future. It’s true that these young lads showed a lot of courage. We probably need to think of introducing them in the longer version of the game. At the same time we must keep them under a good stewardship of Dhoni, Yuvraj & other senior players. It’s just the beginning, probably they need to be trained both physically and mentally to perform better in all forms of the game. We need to think of good and healthy combination of senior and junior players in the team. It will be wrong if we say, Seniors are no longer required. They may not be a good fit for T20, but longer version of the game requires a different kind of mindset which these guys have. In the same time, these guys will prove as good mentors to the young guns if used properly.

I am sure the experience of Seniors and enthusiasm of Juniors will help us build a winning team for future. Good luck to Indian Cricket Team.

4 Obsessions of Leadership

I read a brilliant book off late named as “The Four Obsessions of An Extraordinary Executive” by Patric Lencioni. It’s inspiring and talks a lot of common sense. The book is designed around 4 basic principles which are essential to build an extraordinary organization.

First, it talks about creating a Cohesive Leadership Team. It is about building a leadership team that understands each other well, works towards same goal and more over goes beyond the day-to-day politics to achieve efficiency. Normally the meetings are intense, and full of critical discussions. They confront each other with their points and they hate the “yes-yes” type of discussion. At the end of it, there is no personal attack, there is only room for “what is best for the organization”. I would say, we build a family(among the leadreship team) within an organization. Unless we understand each family member well, there can't be happiness and success within the family.

Second, it talks about creating organizational clarity. This is essential since everybody must understand clearly about where the organization is heading and hence their efforts will remain unidirectional. Each one of them must be clear on the reason behind organization’s very existence, their competitors, their values, their responsibilities. I believe when the goal is clear, people throw ideas in multiple directions to achieve the same and that diversity of thoughts is key to the future success of the organization.

Third, it stretches on over-communication of organizational goal among the employees. Organizational goals are not very straight forward which can be digested in one go. There has to be multiple mediums in which the same communication has to be conveyed and again it has to be done multiple times. It has to be kept simple as much possible. Unless the whole of organization understands the goal, it will be difficult to achieve success.

Fourth, it talks about reinforcing organizational clarity through human systems. Health of an organization is key to its success. Hence there has to be stringent process for hiring the best suited employees, evaluating their performance at work place, rewarding them as and when required and firing them when they don’t meet the organizational goal. It identifies the human resource development as one of the key criteria for a successful organization. After all the organizational success depends on how each individual contributes to the overall success of the organization.

Advantage 99 - Sachin & Team

Will you prefer Sachin making 17,99,8,55,71,94,30 or 17,110,0,7,31,17,51 in a 7 one-day match series? I am sure, the 1^st one looks a much balanced contribution than the 2^nd one. Though in the 1^st option Sachin’s “personal record” will come as “4 half-centuries”, yet it is much better a contribution wrt team than the 2^nd one where he has “1 century” to add to his record. Having said that, let’s analyze Sachin’s psyche and it’s relationship to his performance.

There are quite a lot of player who are very much concerned about their personal milestones. Though they play for the team, yet their personal milestones are also equally important. Sachin is one of them. This is quite evident the way he plays when he is between 90 and 100 (trying to save himself from all possible ways of getting out). Obviously when he got out 99, it would be like a heart attack for him. But when I saw him disappointed after scoring 99, I was quick to realize that he is going to play well in the whole series. It’s because he couldn’t reach his milestone, ie 100 and that will always push him to do better and better in upcoming games. He gets complacent as soon as he reaches his century and he feels very relaxed in the very next game, that complacency costs him dear in rest of the series. Untill and unless he is blessed with a century, he is not going to put his gun down. And that’s what happened in the recently concluded series with England. 99 in second match helped him to play better in rest of the matches. Had he scored a century, I am sure you would have found a different and struggling Sachin. It sounds very out of place, but that’s the fact. As long as he remains a little away from his goal, he is always a better player to watch out. Once he reaches there, suddenly you will find him out of form.

If I have to think from team perspective, I will say it is better if Sachin gets out in 90s in one of the earlier matches of a series. That will push him to perform better and better in the further matches and there by help the team in a greater way. That’s why I call it as “Advantage 99- Sachin & Team”.

Chak De...

Though most part of it is a copy of Miracle, yet it is worth watching. I liked it very much.

The support from the men’s hockey team, losing to Australia in 1^st match, the furious match against Argentina and the one-to-one marking tactics in the match against Korea; all give different perspective to the movie.

Men’s hockey team couldn’t have done better than providing the much needed moral support to the Women’s hockey team. That was the start and the team never looked back. No matter how hard you try, unless there is somebody to support you big time, the going in life is always tougher.

Somehow I feel in every game of life, there is nothing bad to loose 1st time, learn from it and then win the next one. The amount of satisfaction, the feeling of glory and the sustainability of success; everything gets magnified in that case. Most importantly we tend to stay away from all complacencies since we know what failure means and how easy it is to turn the success to a failure. Unless Indian team lost to Australia in 1^st match, I don’t think they would have got the moral booster for the rest of the matches. It makes you try and remove even the slightest possible error in your approach. Probably it’s a human tendency to stay superficial till we commit some serious mistake. That’s why it’s good to commit it sooner than later.

It’s important that a team must be prepared to change its approach if required. And that too on the fly. The match against Argentina was a real example. The idea of treating the opposition with their own medicine was something appreciable. Do we really do that in our day to day life? At least in work place, I know most of us are stuck with the age-old processes. Probably a leader needs to identify that and take corrective action.

Keep a strong eye on the opposition. If you get to know their strategy, it becomes easy to design one for yourself. Most importantly, don’t let the opposition feel that you are playing against their strategy. Allow them to dominate for sometime, make them feel a little complacence and then attack when they are on the peak of their over confidence. Now you understand why Bindya Nayak(specialist on breaking the one-to-one marking) came as a replacement in the match against Korea, if not playing from the beginning.

All these things require a visionary leader to be on the front and that’s exactly where we had Kabir Khan. But I am still wondering about one thing. He noticed about the rivalry between two center forwards from the very 2^nd match. Then why did he wait till Final to bring that issue out? Was that a part of his strategy or was it something overlooked by him; a question that needs to be answered….

Risk Averse Leader - Mr Dravid

I have few role models in life and Dravid is one of them. If you look back in his career, you will probably realize the fact that wherever he is today, it’s because of his hard work and determination. That’s something which I have learnt from him. But unfortunately I could never appreciate his leadership style. I will also go one step ahead and argue that Ganguly was a better leader than him. If I analyze the last test match between India and England in the recently concluded series, that will give some clues to some of the missing pieces (according to me) to his leadership style.

India got 300 odd run lead when England were all-out in the first innings. Instead of forcing follow-on, Dravid decided that India should bat. Reason – It’s difficult to chase in 4^th innings and Dravid didn’t want to take any chances. Also we were already ahead in the series with 1-0 lead and for him 1-0 is no different from 2-0 series win. So he decided a less-risky path. If he would have enforced the follow on, at worst case India would have to chase some 100 odd run to win the series. Unfortunately he showed his lack of confidence on the team. First thing – a leader mustn’t hold such low confidence on the team, that actually brings down the morale of the team altogether. Second, he shouldn’t have sighted physical tiredness as reason for opting out from the follow-on decision. That’s like showing an unhealthy approach to game of cricket. Bowlers were on their top of mental energy after bowling opposition out for such a small total (in compared to India). So I am sure they were not mentally tired. That flow would have helped them to take wickets in quick succession and continue the pressure on England. But Dravid had some different intention. He probably couldn’t visualize the mental enthusiasm in the team, instead he chose a risk-averse route.

Probably the worst part is - A leader mustn’t get into the complacency of “Whatever I have is good, I don’t need more”. That sets up a bad example for the team.

Are you a Visionary?

Often entrepreneurs are known for their visions. NRN, Premzi, Mukesh Ambani are to name a few of those visionaries in current arena. I asked myself 2 questions – 1. How different are visionaries from others, 2. What do somebody need to do to become a visionary in life?

Visionaries are the people who could see future. They probably have the best intuitive power. They tell you – what the industry may look like in 5 or 10 or 20 years down the line. I was thinking how people could make such judgments. I guess the essence lies in 3 things.

First, understand the pulse of current state of the industry. Second, understand the evolution of your industry [peep through the past] and forces behind such a change. Eg, if we look at software development in 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s we will get a lot of data points. Understand how and why changes took place between those decades. Third, understand the critical success factors for the future of the industry and the important change agents.

I believe based on these analysis, we will be able to make a good judgement about the future. There could be a different perspective altogether. You are welcome to throw your ideas.

Pizza Corner - An Experience

I went to Pizza Corner today, all alone in Gurgaon. Surprisingly in the outlet, there weren’t many customers. The well-dressed waiter gave me the Pizza Menu. I was just too hungry. Quickly ordered something to ensure my stomach gets some fuel to work further. In the meantime I was going through the Menu to find out what other offerings do they have in Pizzas. The reason of this blog is because of the innovation that I found in the menu. Starting from its design to content, everything seems to be well thought out.

The names are innovative like Sandwiza (for sandwitch), Conniza (for Cone Pizzas), etc. From a distance it looks very simple. But how many really make that effort to make even the simple things look innovative. Cone Pizza is an excellent innovation, I would say. It actually catches the attention of Ice-cream lovers. Similarly they have a promotion (probably “whizz kid”) for attracting the small kids. And more importantly they have a program going on since 1998 to support the underprivileged. There are quite a few more things which I am not putting here.

From a Product perspective, I would say they are trying their best to bring as much innovation possible. But probably what is lacking is innovation in the delivery of the product. I am not sure how many customers are really aware of various promotions they have. I am not sure how vigorously they are marketing their new offerings. Unless somebody goes through their menu, he/she can’t get to know about the promotions. Probably, the marketing team needs to look at more innovative ways of taking the innovative product to customers. Similarly, the operation probably needs to focus on delivery innovation part to ensure a good customer service.

Good luck to them!!!

4 Friends, 4 Thoughts

And they are...
Dinesh Nayak – “Health is Wealth”
Deba Sahoo – “Chicago Bull”
Subhendu Patra – “Techie No 1”
Bijaya Tripathy – “SAP Labs, What next?”

Thought 1: Premium Assets with Zero Depreciation
They are the most precious assets that I built in last 5 years. We fought at times on trivial issues. We enjoyed life to every bit of it. We struggled together for those waterless days at home. We cribbed about every movie that we saw together. We went for dinner to almost every destination in Bangalore. The only thing that I realize now is that every experience made the bond stronger. Now I miss them a lot. I wish I could get an immediate transfer to Bangalore to get my life back. Anyway, that’s part of life. We must stay away from something/somebody to realize it’s/his actual value.

Thought 2: Premium Service @ Zero Cost
Well, they are the ones who I know would help me under any circumstances. Same is the case with me as well. It’s the togetherness that made me feel so confident about them. 5 years and yet I never felt it when I was there. Suddenly I am out of Bangalore and feel the difference. But as I said, we helped each other always without any strings attached to it and hope to continue it in future as well.

Thought 3: Unique Brands
Everybody is so different than others. Oracle is Subhendu’s second home. He literally stays within the code. Dinesh still tries to convince himself that dieting would help him to reduce his weight. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any change so far. But his passion for technology always makes him stand apart. Deba feels he is here to conquer the world. And he is rightly so. 5 years down the line, I could see another BIG GUY on the Wall Street. As I said, everybody is a unique brand.

Thought 4: Finally it is a Brilliant Team
We together had discussed on lot of things/issues in life. We shared our secrets and at the end of the day we thought we could have faith on each other for rest of life. Everybody knew what other person’s thought process is. Accordingly everybody accommodates or adjust to suite the other person’s need. This looks simple from outside, but actually it’s complicated in all practical sense. We went for numerous number of trips, movies, lunches, dinners together. Hardly there was any conflict of interest. Even if there is any, we all were masters in resolving them. That’s why I call it as a brilliant team.

I am always thankful to have a set of roomies with whom I had best of my time in life. I will relish those 5 years always in my life. It gave me 3 of my closest ever friends, it brought a lot of change in me as a person. They all have some contribution towards all my success that I have got so far in life. I miss them all.

-Bijaya

Personality Matters

It’s being a while I have been contemplating on the topic of “Maintaining a Good Personality” in the society. I don’t really get a hang of what exactly it means. But finally understood in life that that’s the only thing which matters.

Now a days, life is not as easy as it used to be before. I often compare it with my life when I was a kid and find the other one to be more exciting and full of enthusiasm. Every word that you speak out now has good or bad in it. People judge you from what you say. So you must have control over what you say. If it is a professional matter, you may end up screwing up your career progression. If it is a personal matter, you may end up screwing up a marriage. Life has to move on. But you have to be the best judge of what you say. You can’t show up a persona that is true of yourself. You have to wear a mask where everything is good. Remember, everybody has problems. But your personality has to show up only the best things about you. That’s what going to win you everything in this world.

Childhood was not like this. It was simple. You behave the way you wanted to. You talk whatever comes to your mind. Everything was fun. There is no complacency, no hidden facts and no hard feelings. I wish I could go back and start my journey all over again. As we grow we are supposed to behave matured. We are supposed to make sacrifices. We are supposed to think on what we speak. We are supposed to be political in nature. We are supposed to be showing everything good about us. I don’t know, but I feel this to be a little weird. We all are human beings, we have our own way of looking at things. I still believe a little girl is much happier than a grown up one. It’s life and it goes on with all confusion and we never realize that we are just in the process of making it more complicated.

Thank you,

Bijaya

Customer Relationship @ Lawrence & Mayo

I am just impressed with the way Lawrence & Mayo handles its retail customers. They are doing what is very fundamental to any business. They are focusing on common sense.

I had been to one of their outlets (situated in Kormangla) off late. Even I myself have forgotten when I visited them last. Thanks to the system which shows details about my last visit, the diagnostic done last time and my personal information. This gave me the comfort level and confidence that Lawrence & Mayo really cares for their customers. They are cordial, sensitive to customer requirements and above all responsible.

Everybody has to understand that there is no rocket science required to impress and retain your customers. You just need to "take care" of them. This is what Lawrence & Mayo is doing.

However, Lawrence & Mayo needs to focus on getting more varieties of spectacles in different range to satisfy all kinds of customers. Particularly the mid range customers like me remain unsatisfied with the range of choices and price levels.

I wish them good luck and expect them to become more innovative in market place. I wish they defeat my expectations every time I visit their outlet.

Big Dream

I have been observing one very fact in life for quite sometime, mostly from my dear friends. Everybody is defining their own dream and achieving it. One of my friend got through ISB and I thought he must be a happy man now. But I was proven wrong by his extraordinary ambition to do MBA from one of the top 5 schools of the World. He was wait listed in Chicago GSB. I never thought that he was putting effort to convert this [because he had got one offer already]. One fine evening he said he is through. That was like a big surprise to me. I can't help but just appreciate his level of motivation in life. He is all set to achieve all those things which others normally don't aim to achieve. Watch him out.

Well things don't stop here. If I were from a financial background similar to his, I would have never dreamed of doing MBA in US. It's just too costly for anybody to afford. He again proved me wrong here. He went beyond all my comprehensions. There is no looking back in his life now. He is ready to do anything for making this happen. Can you imagine, how his BIG DREAM is channelizing his all efforts. It's amazing to be with a person like him and see how he is tackling the toughest time in his life. I have already become a big fan of him just because of his level of motivation and ability to channelize his efforts in right direction.

On a personal note, I would say, you are the master of your dream. You are the ultimate decider of your life's achievements. Opprotunitites would come. But only the prepared ones will get to act on it and succeed. Cribbers would always remain as the Cribbers.

the Pursuit of Happyness - What do you want?

First of all I must congratulate Will Smith for his extraordinary performance in the movie. Secondly, it made to one of my favorite movies of all time.

The movie is not just about everyday struggle of a common man.It's about pursuing somebody's own goal so strongly and persistently that it finally becomes impossible even for God to hold the success back. Brilliant thought!!! "Success is all about Persistence". Not everybody could really rise to the occastion. Many people would still follow a mediocre approach in life, would accept the defeat and crib about their condition. It requires a great willpower and strength of a character to get what you want in life.

Another point is also worth noting in the movie which is commonly known as Murphy's law: " When the going is bad, you end up facing all bad things". To put it in another way, if you are not prepared for the worst, better don't expect the best to happen. The law just helps you to understand if you really have the guts to get the best in life.

Most of all set our goals like: "I want to become a CEO/Doctor/Architect etc etc". But point is how many of us really rise to the occasion to become successful in life. And if at all we become successful, are we happy with that? The hero in this movie had a very simple goal in life: "To make a good living for his wife and kid so that his family can have a happy time like others." That's why probably the movie is named as pursuit of happiness. In the pursuit of his goal, he ended up working harder to succeed in the brokerage firm. There is a saying: "If you want to succeed, you better try harder than the hardest in that field.". Whenever he managed to sell one of his scanners(remember he was originally a sales man!!!), he would enjoy the most with his family. They would go to the best hotel, have best food, etc etc. It's like: "Don't crib, be happy with whatever you have, try more in future, but don't get bogged down by thinking about the future".

The movie ends with he being selected for the job in the brokerage firm. But wait! do you know what happened next? He finally went on and became owner of a brokerage firm. He eventually sold it out for some multimillion dollar deal. Try to see through the lines now. His goal was never to be owner of such a firm. He was just interested in keeping his family happy. But the motivation was so strong that it pushed him to realize his actual capabilities in life. Way to go!!!

Now do you know: What you want in life ???

Swimming, Tennis & Guitar - No matter how much I try...

I have been under coaching in Tennis over 1 year, I learnt swimming some time back and now I am learning Guitar. Well on face of it it looks kewl. I try to ensure that I continue each one of them on a weekly basis. I am an over enthusiastic person when it comes to outdoor activities. To some extent I do well in them as well. But, wait! I don't want to write a blog on what I do and what I don't. Rather I would like to tell something which I have learnt from each one of them.

Each of these requires concentration, mental strength and regular practice. But the right mix of these differs.

Tennis - "Mental Strength" is key here. Anytime I go for a service, I feel as if it won't go to other side (& it does). No matter how well your stamina is built, your mental strength could take you down to loose a game even against a rookie. Self Confidence and Regular Practice are inevitable to do well in Tennis.

Swimming - I am still wondering what my coach taught me. I am still an amateur. There is good amount of "tactics" involved in this game. On face of it it looks simple which actually is not. But once you get to know that tactics, you can swim for even 3km. No big deal. I am still fighting hard inside water.

Guitar - This is probably the toughest one for me. It's all about "concentration" and regular practice. I find it really tough to hold on to my concentration on the tune. But it's fun. Once you know it, nothing like it. You enjoy playing the tune again and again.

But at end of the day, I enjoy all of them.

No Place for Complacency

I saw on news paper today that my favorite player is unable to accept the reality.

I wish I could have made him read my blogs which are mostly devoted to him. At least my name would have been there on news paper by now (Instead of Greg Chappel)……

The point is very simple: For 17 years, I have hardly seen instances where big guns in Cricket have really shown guts to criticize him. Even if he plays badly, they would say “that was just too good a ball to play”. How stupid is that. You are unnecessarily making a person too much complacent of himself and giving him room for failure in future. Now we see the consequences. A player with close to zero confidence and an attitude which is way beyond my comprehension.

My take away is:

“When you grow in a world of complacency with nobody around to criticize, you tend to become superficial. Better have friends around you who point at your mistakes and create room for you to grow.“

IIMB Convocation - One of my most Memorable Day

26th March, 2007 --- THE DAY of my life.

I have never been to any convocation ceremony in my life. So obviously this is one of those memorable moments of my life. I shook hand with Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani. I also shoot independent photographs with them. Now what else could be more satisfying??? For a moment I felt as if I have "almost reached there". The rigor of 2.5 years in PGSEM came to an end. I enjoyed every moment of it. I was such a confident guy in college today that I felt like jumping all boundaries to be a successful person in life. I was talking to people as if I have achieved something great in life. I was quite surprised to see that in me. Some of my friends realized the fact that I have changed in recent times. What else I want! I was so happy!!!

I saw Nandan and Mukesh. Some kind of internal calling came to me asking "Dude! When are you going to be on the other side?". Of course as before I didn't have a definitive answer to that. But I was enthused by the fact that probably I have got good amount of motivation to become one more "big guy" some day.

Mukesh Ambani's speech was quite moving. He is a shrewed guy and knows how to move poeple's motivation. But I didn't find the same in Nandan's speech. It was filled with more hard data. However everybody is different. I mustn't really compare. Both are great and truly great leaders of this century.

Finally the day ended with all I wanted, a nice certificate from IIMB. Ofcourse PGSEM has taught me a lot and won me a good bunch of friends. Let's see where do I go from here on!!!

Sachin - Epitome of Indian Mindset

At least one thing I can predict correctly now a days: "How much Sachin is going to score!!!". Logic is simple! If he is out of form(as they say in cricket) and any pressure situation, he is not going to score more than 20. If he is in form, then this creates an opportunity for him to loose his form. He would score maximum 30-40. When he is in form and there is no pressure, then you would see the Best of Sachin and who doesn't love that!!!

This is him, the greatest player of Cricket, who doesn't like to be under pressure. If he is in, then he is going to screw up. Where is it coming from exactly? As one of my close friend, Deba says, this is a cultural issue. I am not sure though, but it may have some connection. It's about lacking positive attitude towards somebody's own work. We do well when everything is right around us. Life can't be that simple always. We get to come out of this typical Indian mindset and prove our strengths to the world. The only way to do is to expose the team as much possible to such situations and let them know that repercussions of not playing well would be as bad as loosing a position in team for next 10 matches or any weird punishment that you could think of!!!

Indian Cricket Team! Show me your guts, guys!!!

Why don't we compete with ourselves

There are two ways to become successful. One line of thought says: “Do something radically different”. Second line of thought says: “Focus on your strength”.

“Do something radically different”: Google, Orkut are examples of such model. Google changed the face of internet through its path breaking innovation of “Search Engine”. Orkut in no time won the mind of million people through it’s innovative way to connect people. But the point is such examples are scarce. Probably one out of 1000 such cases succeeds.

Second line of thought, which I am a strong proponent of: “Focus on your strength”. Actually this is a sustainable approach in long term. Can you imagine: Sachin Tendulkar was sent back from MRF Pace Foundation since his performance as a bowler was unsatisfactory? Well that’s the truth. But the same guy came out to be one of the most prominent bats-man the world has ever seen. The idea to drive home is: Once you are aware of your strength, keep working on it, success will come to you eventually.

Sony is a good example. What do they do to sustain in the market? They know that their sound quality is one of the best. They focus on that, keep improving it everyday. Essentially they try to beat the competition before even it appears. To put it other way, they compete with their own products of past and try to beat them next time.

This is a good learning for Indian IT Industry. They should have taken steps to beat the MNCs before even they open their shops in India.

I am Second, that’s why I am trying harder

Sachin Tendulkar and IBM …

“Sachin Tendulkar!” How many teams could really afford not to have a player like him? A cricketer by profession, he has made a big difference in the life of people on and off the field. People feel happy when he scores 100; get disappointed when he doesn’t perform. Why do people talk so much about him? Why do they want him to perform every time? Well the answer is simple: People Love him. He is a cricket icon. People feel proud to associate themselves in someway with him (e.g. He comes to play on the filed in front of my house, I know his brother’s uncle etc etc). Now let us consider “IBM!” Probably 10% of people who are familiar with this company would know its full form. But how does it matter? Customers feel proud to say that they do business with IBM. That is a sense of achievement for them.

Be it IBM or Sachin, the basic premises is that they are both big brands. They don’t have to blow their trumpets in front of anybody. Teams/Customers would walk onto them and they can always charge a premium for their brand. It’s difficult for anybody to take their positions.

Michel Clarke and Indian IT….

Now let’s take another player! Michel Clarke from Australian team. He is not a genius like Sachin, but he is an awesome prospective for Australia. He plays well almost every other one-day match. He knows one fact for sure that unless he performs well, he will be out. There is no “Michel Clarke Brand”. Couple of bad days at field is enough to throw him out. Poor guy! I think this is the reason why he gives his best every time he comes to the field. He tries to establish his brand.

In that way Indian IT brand is similar to Michel Clarke. Couple of bad projects, the deal is over. That’s why we must try to perform best every time we work for a customer. We don’t want to give him any opportunity to think twice for next deal. We need to be aware of the fact that in the due course of our project, we are building a brand for our company. It is the responsibility of the company to make their employees aware of their own brand and instigate in them the habit of taking actions that will increase its brand value in front of the customers.

Now I believe the saying: ”I am Second, that’s why I am trying harder.” . That’s what we are doing, right???