LTL - Post Midterm

Writing this one for Sridhar, the Neo Gandhi.

On Character
As per Satre,

• Existence precedes Essence
• Stable disposition of feel,think and behaviour are due to Project (Mobile and Motif)
• Mobile -> Fact about agent that acts (I cleaned my room)
• Motif -> Agent environment ( My room is dirty) -- anticipation of future
• Motif causes Mobile

As per Aristotle

• Building due to habituation (Safety > Honour) i.e. from experience

From all this ,

• Character is non -deterministic - This is due to freewill (Difference b/w human and animal..You can plan your suicide)
• Freewill with anticipation of right and wrong makes one responsible

As per Rouseau,

• Freewill of common good -> Utility theory of ethics

Again,

• Choice of Projects define character (Good or Bad)

Difference between thinking and feeling ->

• Feeling -> Subconscious
• Thinking -> Conscious -> Cognitive
• [Hriday,Man,Buddhi]

Hence Character is not behaviour and Unexamined life is not worthy of living.
Gandhi believed in Deorontological theory against utilitarinism or ethics of consequnce.
The Course
Previous defn of leaders were unique and hence heroic in nature.
Business were driven by interest but no ethics.
Managers brought ethics but were in subordinate position
So a combination of Manager + Entrepreneur needs ethics more than before.
Ends vs. Means Debate
Terminal vs. Instrumental values
For Gandhi, Nationality was ends while for Joan , it was divine works.
Machiavelli believed in autocratic democracy,while Socrates in aristrocracy (to rule after working for 50 yrs)
Chankya believed that welfare of people was welfare of king.He proposed the following to be given maximum salary (Minister,Bureaucrats,Teachers,Army chiefs)
Leadership comes from role and not position.
Arthashastra framework for leadership

1. Control on 5 senses
2. Clear soul
3. Control ego
4. Control anger (Manifestation of attachment)
5. Speaks well (In good language , thoughts,words and means)
6. Humility
7. Integrity (Truth)
8. Moment you do not get attached to extrinsic rewards
9. Not happy/sad in adversity
10. Education,Continuous improvement of conscience

As you sow,so shall you reap.

Leadership through Literature

I have taken one of the most creative elective of this term i.e. 'Leadership through Literature'.Its not going to make a leader out of me any ways.But its really a good course for one to reflect on what's right and wrong.Does everything necessarily has to be black and white or we need shades of grey everywhere.
After reading 4 books,there have been lots of learnings and unlearnings.Concepts created ,shattered and what not.Its the most dynamic course of all the course and must have.
Some of the key lessons derived :

1. Heroism -- With 5 important paradigms of leadership i.e Personal capability i.e. vitality and endurance,Decisiveness,Persuasiveness,Responsibility and Intellectual abilities.The 4 important things that make heroes are moral greatness,action,action in face of historic cause,death/martyrdom/spiritual triumph.
2. Selfishness is the act of keeping one's desires above others
3. 4 battles to win in 'Alchemist' -Fear of thinking the dream is realizable,Fear of losing love when its the stimulus,fear of failure and fear of realizing the dream when its near.
4. Human being is made for Action('Yoga'). Other species do not have such purpose as such and are thus made to enjoy ('Bhoga')
5. Morality is to differentiate between 'Good and Bad' while Ethics between 'Right and Wrong'
6. In some cases means are more important than ends (Gandhiji during the freedom struggle) and in some cases ends justify means(Krishna teachings to Arjun).Never thought that this is conceptualized at the entrance of the college.
7. 3 kind of trust - coercive,knowledge based and Identification

Some are just repeat of the BIO lessons ,but more necessary anyways.Many more gyaan to come in the coming days.

On Leadership

Yesterday was an eventful day for me.I was part of the crowd listening to the CyberMedia CEO doling out gyaan on strategy and leadership.In the evening,we had a MTS case on BMG International CEO Rudi.
The learning that came out for me is very important for all leaders.All CEO's should be responsible for delegating certain things and not delegating some things.Things that must not be delegated are formation of organization culture (the DNA of the organization) and the top level decisions.Other things like strategy formulation,operational activities,financials etc. should be delegated to the next level.
This gives the next level a sense of responsibilty and prepares them for the future challenges.CEO's need to look at increasing the toplines and not just cost cutting to improve the bottomlines.Cost cutting can help to only in a short term benefit.For long term vision, the leader must show the path to the managers and have trust in his team,that they will perform.
People like Steve Jobs,Rudi,etc. have shown charismatic leadership but have not been able to pass a good organizational culture to their organization to develop the next generation of leadership.This has resulted in failure of many companies in the past.

Living in Present

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine who has read some psychology books and seems to have some knowledge on the area.As per him,living in present is the most difficult thing one can ever do.We either live by worrying about the past or future.Whatever we say or do,we do it on the basis of what we have done in the past.The past keep harping us.Its like you wake up from your sleep and the bootstrap loader starts to load all the past information on to your brains.There is no alternative ,but to live in the past in that case.Through yoga,meditation and other aspects, one can try and remove those barriers of living in the past.
Only those who live in present are true winners.A case in point is Roger Federer.He can hit the shot wherever he wants to and aims for ,during his peak level.It is because he lives in present and hence has a single focus.The same holds good for Zen archers.They are also able to hit the target with 100% accuracy.This happens because once they see the target ,they transform their intention to hit it ,to the arrow and there is no way it will fail.
These analogies are quite interesting on how things can happen if one starts to believe in himself and live in the present.

40 years on Moon- A tribute to the Human spirit

Tomorrow, we celebrate 40 years of a historic event ,when man landed on moon.Its a triumph of the human spirit and the vision that people set to achieve.It not only commemorates the zeal of mankind to win unchartered territories ,but to keep challenging himself.
The biggest fear that we all have is nothing but the 'Unknown'.To win over that and move ahead in life is the biggest challenge we all set to achieve.
Saluting all the winners who have achieved what they dream of in their life!!

Some learnings

Inspite of being a student for nearly 75% of my life, there are few words that have always been there with me to inspire my thought process.
Some of them are :-

I am what I am.No one can change my identity.
-Father Leo (Value Education teacher taught this in class 7th much before the Reebok ad became vogue)

Having a good night sleep is better than any other thing in the world.
Don't ever love the company you work for.Love the work you are doing because you never know when the company can leave you.
- Narayan Murthy (Infy Mysore days)

Perception is everything.Its the key to everything.
- Prof. Himanshu Rai (BIO Class , Term 1 in IIM L )

Profit and success have no long term impact.Its the pursuit of happiness that matters more in life.
- Article in Hindu on the Satyam fiasco

The rest seem to be lost in some corners of my mind.I will try to take them out some day.

Recession and Terrorism

The buzz word of the times is Recession and Terrorism.One can see it everywhere.
Be it the news report on IIM Placements that define the Indian job market or the amount of time I am spending on padhaai or the grades I am getting. - Recession is everywhere.
What surprises more is that even terror and war related activities around the country has been increasing. Take 26/11 , attacks in Lahore on Sri Lankan team, LTTE war at peak and Bangladesh coup.

Reminds of the popular 3.4 song taken from Roxen :-

jal rahe hai diye... ik nayi aas liye
ho rahi hai subah...ik naya suraj liye
sanson ka kafila...ruk gaya kyun yahan
maut se ladh ja... kyu chinta hai yahan

payenge jo khoya hay,,,andhero ke us par
jayenge aur dekhenge,,, roshni ki naayi deewar
payenge jo khoya hay,,,andhero ke us par
himmatein hai kai,,,jalne ko hai tayyar
roz nai diwar,,,roz nai diwar

Seems only economic growth is the solution to curb the widespread evil roots.
This can happen when the will to grow is there.I just hope everyone believes in it and tries to succeed in the one life we have.

One needs to rise from the walls that we have created around us.

1/24 of the year over...

Wow ..what an year its turning out to be...
First the Satyam fiasco,read the Nortel bankruptcy thing somewhere yesterday.
Slowdown affecting things in various ways on campuses.
And here I am at IIML waiting for the events starting from tommorrow ,MANFEST 2009.
Its something everyone waits for to showcase the college in the best spirit.
Aptly said by someone here "Brand IIML stands for Manfest ,Index and Manjunath besides being an IIM".No one appreciates the truth behind all this.
Just went through the below article link to suggest how the new generation of leaders are being created in Amrika.Its sad but the same story is being replicated here in India as well.Globalization u see :)

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/