Crossroad of life

I'm standing stranded on the clueless isle

Shortest distance to life a cent & one mile

 

My compass asking me for next direction

Searching for even a mirage of destination

 

Sleepless for nights, eyes begin to sore

Wordless hum of wind; can stand no more

 

Walking over amorphous stones in the mist

Wondering if I stumble upon my alchemist

 

In dearth of love, in search of the destiny

Such mundane life trying to make harmony

Raison d’être

I always have been pronouncing myself as a true ‘Agnostic’ person, but to do so without taking opinions of the believers & the atheists equally would just be a prejudice. I always wanted to get the perspective of our great religious manuscripts ‘Bhagwadgeeta’, ‘Koran’ & ‘Bible’ equally. Being a proud Hindu I eventually started with ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ to know what really drives the people to believe in God so blindly. The reason I am a proud Hindu is that I believe that Hinduism is not a religion but a lifestyle in itself & the most important value it preaches is Tolerance. That is one quality the world needs today in abundance.

Let me first explain the true meaning of the word ‘Agnostic’ before I go ahead. Agnostic is a person who believes that you cannot know the whole & complete truth by any means, neither by science & nor by religion. After reading the “Bhagwadgeeta’ I have become even a stronger Agnostic than ever before. There is one biggest reason why I say science cannot help you know everything - the Birth & Death. Science till now has not been able to explain the phenomenon of beginning & end of life as we know it. What exactly happens when you are born or when you die? Today’s science has reached to a stage where you can replace each & every organ of the human being but there is no way to put the life back in a dead body, at least not that I know of. So the science cannot give you the complete knowledge.

But again neither can the religious books; at least I did not get any such enlightenment from ‘Bhagwadgeeta’. I never said I’m an Atheist either. I believe in Lord Ganesha for umpteen reasons. But there are many references in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ where Lord Krishna says to Arjuna that he is the true origin of everything & you should only pray to him & not to other deities. This is so much against the Tolerance that I believe in. How one God cannot tolerate praying to other God, I cannot know. There have been umpteen references of the ‘Karma’ in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ but most of them were pejorative. Lord Krishna says that ‘Karma’ binds your spirit in your body & prevents you from getting Moksha (The ultimate liberation of spirit). There have been references where it says that caring too much about your family your mother, father, wife, children is an obstacle in achieving Moksha. It also says that you suffer excruciating pain in your mother’s womb & that’s how the suffering of life starts & you should try to get rid of these cycles of life & death. & there is only one way to achieve it, Yoga (In the version I read the translator interprets it as Praying to Lord Krishna, which I beg to differ to).

All these views are so much against the beauty of life. There are so many beautiful things you can do in your life, such as love, to your mother & father, to your wife & children & to the whole concept of life. If you live life just thinking about the death (& Moksha thereafter) then where & how do you fulfil your Karma? If you cannot truly & fully devote your love to the people who love you & care for you, then how can the God offer you Moksha for doing such heartless deed? There is absolutely no mentioning of the concept of love in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’, if there is anything close to it, it’s again derogatory. Also there has been no emphasis on the females in the ‘Bhagwadgeeta’; not even Goddesses. There has been no mentioning of right & wrong or sins & good deeds as we know them. I can surely say these things thanks to 3 years in my High school when I learned Sanskrit, so with little explanation of tougher words I can understand ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ myself & I’m not completely dependent on the translator’s view for that. (I knew it would come into use some time in life & I’m thankful to the fact that I learned it devotedly at that time!) I must say that these are my personal views & If they hurt anyone’s feelings, then that is not my intention at all!

So in conclusion, this reading of ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ has made me think deeply on a spiritual level. Yes, I do have lot of earthly ambitions that I have to achieve & I am like a million miles away from it, but then again the satisfaction in life does not come from money (& other earthly things) alone. & the sooner you understand this the better for life, as there would be fewer things to repent about later on. I seriously am trying to understand my Karma here, but that surely is not only praying for Lord Krishna alone & may HE forgive me for that.

Some capitalistic recollect!

Well, this recession has given me a lot of time, thanks to the great capitalist concept of lay-offs. So I’m getting some time to do my favourite thing, rumination! I am prone to pretty weird ideas and people close to me can corroborate that. I have been saying in my previous blogs that, it seems the ‘self proclaimed’ greatest capitalist nation - USA has been trying to solve all its capitalist follies by finding solution the communist way. Just look at AIG, Bank of America, and not to mention GM asking for more & more Federal bailouts. All these corporations have been greatest loss maker in the current financial downturn. Well to be precise, GM has been the laggard for a lot longer time, making spectacular losses for nearly a decade now. The very existence of the firm amazes me. Why have they not filed for bankruptcy at the start of this millennium & handed over the assets to a more efficient user like Toyota for crying out loud? What’s wrong in that, especially in the light of US not minding in financing the Federal budget deficit by selling their papers to more efficient (capital surplus) countries like Japan or China (more than $1.5 trillion combined)?

This brings me to my prime objective behind this article, if you really believe in Capitalism then why on earth you are relying on the Communist way to fix up the mess you created with your belief. Why not go back to ground zero & start looking for the clues to rebuild it. I am a firm Capitalist believer & I can’t even stand the idea of Communism. Just to strike an analogy, Capitalism relying in Communism for rescue out of the current financial mess is like Man relying on God to rescue him from the global warming situation. If you have got yourself into this deep trouble then you better think fast & stick to the basics. Well, I’m not just complaining about the situation, I actually have a probable solution in mind.

The fundamental of Capitalism is the Capital of the organization, the entrepreneur willing to take risk for the ideas he believe in. Putting his money & skills to the work to earn profits & name for him. He also can avail loans from financial organizations like Banks or VCs/PEs for funding the cause, but even they ask for the commitment from the entrepreneur in the form of initial investment. Now just look at the Feds from Capitalistic point of view, they are an organization, they have objective, they have budgets, but where is the capital (I mean Owned funds, not Capital Receipts)? In light of the latest budget proposed by Obama Government, which predicted a deficit to the tune of $1.75 trillion or 12.5% of GDP, isn’t this the most inefficient way of running the organization? Now my question is who made the rule that Government has to run only on debt? Why can’t Governments have owned funds? Why Governments can’t be run like non-profit organizations where they are accountable, even though they are not there to make profits but they have to break-even their operations in a consistent manner? Why the same does not apply to the Governments?

Many developing economies are run in the same manner, Deficit budgeting & Inflationary economy are their USPs. Given the situation of global financial systems, there needs a lot to be done to make good the losses made in foolhardy ventures taken over by umpteen organizations. If the Governments are bailing those organizations out, they can ask for capital in return to fund all the deficits they are bearing for the bail-outs. Otherwise this deficit can lead to another calamity in making; we could enter into galloping inflation worldwide, given the short supply of the resources. The point of contention is why the Governments have to be Communistic in design when the whole economy is strong Capitalistic in nature? Desperate times call for desperate measures, but then why not be desperate the Capitalistic way? I believe there are still many strong Capitalistic believers in US who could be willing to take the risk for their belief. So why not let the entrepreneurs do their bit for the revival of the economy? Why not look at the option of running the Government the Capitalistic way? Worth a shot?

One of my friends suggested me this link which corroborates my view.

The Young Managers, Mentors & their values

I recently went through a case study in Businessworld about YMs (Young Managers). It is about the reckless behavior of the Young Managers, their complete disregard to the seniors' suggestions & lack of readiness to learn from & correct their mistakes. Although I agree with most of the views in that case study, the thing that I thought was missing is the wrong values brought forward by today’s corporate culture. Where is the long term view of the things? All that today’s Corporates are worried about is bottom-line growth (Q-o-Q & Y-o-Y) & share price appreciation, at the cost of anything (Remember RJR Nabisco disaster?). Energy situation, Global warming & Sub-prime lending / over leveraged use of Derivatives causing current financial crisis to name a few.

Whilst this is the picture of values that you demonstrate to the so called ‘cream talent’ without significant experience & adequate EQ to get hold of the situation, what do you expect them to learn? The purpose of acquisition of the talent, their utilization does not seem to have any long term view per se. All the chores are directed towards one thing & one thing alone, annual results! How else would you explain the behaviour of cream talent like B. Ramalinga Raju in the light of ‘satyam saga’? All he was concerned about was the Y-o-Y bottom-line with complete disregard to the long term view of the business & the whole industry in turn. Or did he actually think that he could pull it off eternally (or did he not believe in the principle of company as a going concern)?

If the Corporates today were concerned about long term talent retention, would they not spend a significant time on grooming the talent they have acquired? But that is so not the reason of talent acquisition nowadays. The talent is acquired to fulfil a short term requirement, beyond which the utilization of the talent is not known to them. They acquire the talent keeping in mind that they are bound to leave after some period. So no need to spend time on grooming them or inculcating some corporate values in them. Where is the need of mentoring? In light of current financial crisis, the Corporates are offloading the relatively inexperienced talent without even giving them fair chance to prove themselves (again to sustain the short term profitability of the business & to maintain share valuations or what is left of it). After such an experience that is imparted early in their careers, do you expect them to ever be faithful to any of their future employers? Do you expect them to have any values other than saving their own skin at the cost of others? What can a senior manager or a mentor do in a situation like this?

In my view to conclude, the behaviour of the Young Managers of today is not a micro level issue but a macro level one. There are some very serious issues that need to be tackled about the manner in which the businesses are run nowadays. They are quintessential for survival of growth economics & capitalism as we know them.

Revival of global economy

There is no doubt about global turmoil on economic front but there are going to be umpteen opinions about how the global economy can be revived. The evidence is the huge strike called on by as many as 8 unions in France. This has almost stalled the whole country. As we go on from here this could be more than just an aberration.

To move the engines of growth moving as fast as they were a year back, there has to be free circulation of money in the global economy. So far whatever money was pumped into the global economy has been used to make good the losses made by bad assets of the Corporates like Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae of the world. So more money must be pumped in the global economy to lubricate the wheels of the engine of growth. There are basically two views about the possible quick recovery of the global economy. Let us have a look at them in brief.

One view is that of the governments world over & the actions that they are taking in a little haphazard manner. So far they have concentrated their efforts on rescuing the troubled corporations in their respective countries. So far they have spent as much as $2 trillion in this effort & almost $1 trillion is still in offering. So far the common people have been a mere observer in this preposterous sequence of events. The frequency with which the Corporates were nearing to bankruptcy & the immediate rescue packages declared by the governments to save the jobs in the country & in turn their skin has been astonishing. So should all the hard earned money of the people collected in the form of taxes be spent on revival of the sick companies? Obviously they have not been running their businesses in a correct manner. So isn’t it like rewarding the brats of classes by punishing the toppers. (This looks more like communist than capitalist to me, but hey, that’s just me! This time sponsored by the biggest capitalist, US of A!) This seems to be just an invitation to public outrage.

The second view to revival of the economy could be increasing the public consumption by putting the money directly in the hands of the people who can start spending that, it will flow in the hands of the Corporates who are doing the things right & whom the people trust. This can be done by two ways: by securing & creating jobs of the people working & by boosting the public infrastructure & thereby public spending. (This also is more or less like communism) (So the solution of capitalist follies in communism??? Shock for the American capitalism???)

Obviously in both the cases the banks have to play the role of lynchpin around which the money circulates. But for this the public confidence in the working banks needs to be restored. Both the views mentioned above cannot be executed in isolation but there has to be prioritisation of the actions taken. Should the money left with governments be spent on making good the losses first or should the infrastructure be given precedence over that? Because money also is a rare commodity & is not available in abundance & for free.

Then comes the time to ask who all are responsible for this huge farcical tragedy we got the privilege to witness. Prima facie the responsibility goes to the governments & the Corporates that benefited from the policies followed by the governments such as sub-prime lending & ridiculously low rates of interests for the housing loans & free availability of credit to any & every one. Add to that the lack of infrastructure & transparency in the rating agencies & auditors for the corporations. (Refer my previous blogs for details of this frivolity!) Now it’s time to restore some corporate governance, right after we achieve some government governance.

IT & Employment

The much talked about subject today, the Satyam saga, poses many more questions about the whole corporate governance hullabaloo in the Indian IT industry. The reason for calling it hullabaloo is that last year Satyam was awarded Golden Peacock award for corporate excellence. With the latest discoveries in the case, now they say that even the total employee number in Satyam is also not 53000 as claimed by the annual report, but it is about 40000 & that number was inflated to siphon off money every month.

This is not a small number, the 1/4^th of the staff is fictitious and yet not one person in company raised any eyebrows on it. What are the HR people doing? We are raising questions about the audit people, but we don’t smell the rats that are still sitting in there, employed permanently. This raises questions about the recruiting practices in the IT industry. The already fraught about question is about the bench strength in IT. Hiring the best of the talents in the market & making them sit without work is inhuman & so is hiring them on contract or on vendors roll just to offload them whenever necessary, without much consequence.

The reason to employ people on contract or on vendor’s roll is lack of labour reforms in the country. In India we are not accepting ‘Hire & Fire’ policy for any company. So this is open detour found out by the innovative IT giants in the country. There is no exception to this method, not even the sacrosanct ‘Infosys’. There are so many people being let go by these IT giants in this recessionary time, simply because they needed to save the skin of their on roll, permanent employees. God knows if they are being accounted for! The HR professionals in these companies have become the most despicable people.

No one will raise questions about the ability of the people working on contract or on vendor’s roll, as they all go through the same rigorous process of selection. They would not be in the position if they were not good enough. Another fact anyone cannot deny that these non-employees are the ones who work the hardest in the company with fear & expectation that some day their efforts will be recognized. But when the times like today come, they are made the scapegoats in order to ‘save the costs’. Performance is not the criterion for this dismissal of services. With evidence it can be proved that their performance is better than most of the permanent, on roll staff working on similar positions.

This injustice has to be stopped. Now if all of them were permanent, on roll employees & if Indian labour law allowed ‘Hire & Fire’ policy, all IT giants would be required to rethink a lot before letting these people go and the only criterion for that would be lack of performance. At least there would be a mechanism to address the grievances of the people being asked to leave. Also there would not be any suspicious IT vendors whose only job is to beguile people into work on such high risk profiles, where contradictory to rule the returns are very low for the people who actually bear all the risk. The ‘bull-shit’ in the HR practices in IT industry has to stop. In my opinion the Satyam employee fraud would have been committed through similar means. These contract or off-roll methods have to be stopped or brought under better scrutiny & take my word for it, many more frauds in Indian IT industry will be brought in the daylight.

If at all India is thriving to be a superpower in coming years, first thing they need to do is to get the employment laws in the country right. I know, this would get their cost a little up, but it will not jeopardize the cost competitiveness of Indian companies & instead it will bring in some transparency & in turn brand value in the most ill-organized part of organizations – employment & HR!

Unveiling the hoax

In the view of recent collapse of 4th biggest IT firm in India, namely Satyam. A great paradox! The word ‘Satyam’ means truth. It’s a tight slap in the face of the clamour that Indian IT industry was making about the highest standards they were maintaining in Corporate Governance. What is more painful is that this fraud on the statements & balance sheet was being carried forward for last 7 years, as per the disclosure given by B. Ramlinga Raju, the Promoter & Mentor of Satyam & in turn the IT revolution in India. The whole sequence has left the entire IT & Telecommunication industry shamefaced.
But there is something positive to take from this all. The investors the world over now understand that no one in the world is so sacrosanct to take their word blindly. The extent of this fraud is so horrific that no one knows the truth anymore. No one knows the value of assets & liabilities Satyam holds, the actual turnover it has or for that matter anything in the annual reports. As per the statement given by the caretaking head Mynepalli, they are not sure whether they have enough cash to pay the salary to the staff for Jan 2009.
In such a scenario no one would dare bailing Satyam out or even buy them out, even if it comes to a value of Re. 1 per share. This all was followed by unveiling few more scams in the making. Raju was about to siphon off $ 1.6 billion to his other flagship company Maytas Infra. Which luckily for the investors was discovered by media in time & Raju had to drop the idea. It followed by another event as World Bank banned Satyam for 8 years, because of data theft cases that came out in past few years.
Infosys has come out & publicly announced that they will not absorb any of the staff of Satyam, even on senior positions. They are partially right about it, as no one knows to what extent this scam goes. How can one hide a scam of an extent of Rs. 7000 crores i.e. $ 1.75 billion without having many of the staff accomplice in it. The only salvage for millions of investors is that Raju has been arrested & will be presented in the court. But the problem still is that India does not have its own version of Sarbanes Oxley Act which protects the investors’ interest. Indian counterpart of US SEC namely SEBI is a toothless tiger that only makes noise but can’t bite. This would give a big time wake up call to the bureaucrats & the lawmakers to come up with better mechanism than they have to avoid such instances in the future. At least this will get the economic reforms moving, that had been stalled since the existing government came into power and it’s been 5 years now!
The worst part of this fiasco is that it came in time when it was least needed. Whole world is crumpling under the pressure of recession & joblessness. This even has the potential to pull India into it, which so far was still hopeful of clocking growth of 6.5% in the current fiscal year. But the timing of this fiasco could not be just a coincidence; the scrutiny needs to check where all this started & how. My gut feeling is that, it all started with the dotcom burst in the Y2K. It makes a perfect sense that, Satyam should have collapsed in that burst, but thanks to innovation shown by Raju it not only survived but also was a symbol of strength. When other companies like Infosys, TCS lost their 40% of market cap in the IT slump of 2007, Satyam had lost barely 20% of its. The reason of the strength was impeccable forgery that none of the analysts could suspect.
Biggest question now for the investors is that what the auditors were doing when they signed the Auditor’s reports for all these years. This even has taken world’s trust away from the world’s big 4 accountancy & audit firms. As if the Arthur Anderson’s follies in Enron’s case weren’t enough, PriceWaterhouse Coopers wanted to test the wisdom of the people to discover another scam. Possibly we’ll now be left with only big 3 of these firms or may be we’re on the verge of all new accountability standards which brings some amount of trust back in the business. The stock market watchdogs world over need to come up with some better mechanism than current state of auditors & credit rating agencies. With the current sub-prime crisis & no. of scams that have come out in the recent times, we have all the reasons to question their business models & their integrity towards their profile.
Let us all hope that the outcome of this scam will bring some of the positives that the world has been waiting & longing for. It’s about time that we see the positives of globalisation, put our brains together to innovate the solution.