Nowadays, I see Virat Kohli being idolized in the way that Sachin, Rahul and MS Dhoni were not so long ago. The difference in the personalities between Virat and Rahul or Virat and MS, could not be more stark. It is also quite telling that Virat is liked by all the kids. He has a certain bravado about him, the way that he talks, his body language – he knows that he is being watched and he plays his part perfectly. The nod of his head, the swagger, the carefully cultivated beard – all of these are vintage Kohli and are a part of the package of the Indian Test Cricket Captain. I was an ardent fan of Rahul Dravid. Or as I like to look at it, I was an ardent admirer of Rahul. There was something about the way that he seemed to struggle and work hard at his batsmanship that would strike a chord with me. He would
Change the world!
Many companies have a lofty vision which all boil down to a single point – “Change the world”! It is very much like all Hollywood potboilers that “Save the world!” How many of them succeed in doing this? To be fair, many of them do. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon are four that come to mind right away. Each and every one of them has done their bit, earning their respective CEO’s fame and renown for their exemplary vision and drive to succeed. Of course, my list of companies is skewed towards the technology world, but I would argue that the major transformation in the world in the past 20 years has been because of technology. I read somewhere, that one has to be the change that one wishes to see in the world. Very true. So how does a leader transform his or her team if he is only taking care of changing himself? First up, of course,
A L I V(F) E
My grandmother passed away recently, after spending the last few years of her life fighting all sorts of maladies. She was touching 90 years of age. From the last 15-20 years or so, she would always bring up her impending death during every conversation. She would have one thing to say – “when will I die? I want to die”. Of course, the curse (or blessing) of choosing the moment of death was only given to Bhishma in the Mahabharata. So it was, that my grandmother would spend her years lying in wait of the moment when it would come to pass. Her last 4-5 years were spent on the bed, with a nurse/ maid for company. She had lost her memory, could only eat semi solid food and was yearning for a life support system. Eventually, old age and fever conspired to relieve her of her bond with life. Her condition towards the end begs the question – do
Ahoy! Taxi!
Reading this article from the CEO of YatraGenie, I cannot say that I am surprised by his analysis. He talks about how the current Taxi Aggregator model in India is bound to collapse since the operators (drivers who are also the taxi owners) are not cared for and not paid on par with the efforts that they put in. There is no doubt that it is a tough life for the taxi drivers. They have to work at least 12 hours in a day and often chose to do a night shift also so their family can lead a life better than their own. They are, in essence, no different from majority of the population in the cities, especially, who sacrifice their own health, time and joys in favor of a hope for a brighter life for their families. Some basic napkin stuff math tells me that assuming that the car is a Toyota Etios (running on diesel as
Sleep!
And so it has come to this. Sleep – that wonderful part of our daily life that we yearn for and look forward to, is now part of extensive research, more so than ever before. What started off in the 1930s as a research in a University that would later become Carnegie Mellon, has now been quantified as a potentially 79 billion USD business! Really?! We talk about out-of-the-box thinking so much and here, all we need to do is break down everything that we do every day and it is a topic of immense research and potential for business. A recent article on this topic in the Fortune India magazine gave me food for thought. Companies such as Fitbit report millions of dollars in revenues quarter over quarter thanks to their wearable Tech products which basically charts how much sleep and seemingly more importantly, how much quality sleep you are able to get. How much it helps us is
Mithun's Musings 