Posted by mysteriousmrwong in Corporate, General, Life.
Tags: India Corporate, Jet Airways, Jet Airways Crisis, Jet Airways Employees
Jet Airways, once the pioneer to usher new era of Indian air travel, is almost done and dusted unless final attempts for its revival are heeded by any investors willing to bet on dead horse to revive it again.
By this time almost all interested parties involved, including the general public, are mostly aware of the basic fact that the debt burden was too much for air carrier to carry on it’s shoulder. Ultimately, leading it to crumble under its massive debt. Many analysts and industry experts have disected the issue with most probable reasons for the downfall of Jet Airways and possible ways, if any, to resurrect it.
Jet Airways took to skies just few years after liberalization of economy and showed the world that India too can have world class air carrier. Jet employees were brand ambassadors of the airlines and ensured the success of it. And today all of them, who stood their ground resiliently backing their employer, are left high and dry.
In all the chaos around Jet crisis, the voices of employees (approx. 16000 in number), are somewhere lost. Understandably, employees are seeking Government intervention to help Jet prop up on it’s feet again. Jet employees are sincerely hoping that by some Government action, direct or indirect, can save their jobs.
This begs a question as employees, whether Government should bear burden of wrong business decisions of a corporate entity or we should accept the fact that companies do run their course over period of time and move on?
“Love your job but NEVER fall in love with your company”- APJ Abdul Kalam
Love of company blindsided the Jet Airways employees. In today’s world, taking cognizance of field we are working and the competition present around is primary prerogative of every working individual.
Companies rise fast and fall faster leaving heaps of employees lives in a dump. Jet Airways employees either ignored the changing market dynamics in Indian Air space or were least interested to question the management regarding the eroding market share over the years as the competing airlines wrestled their way in the market.
As an employee, it is always good to look out for how your employing company is doing. Working in listed companies makes this task easier as all company related information is in public domain. It would be interesting to see how many of Jet Airways employees really paid any heed to worsening debt scenario and losing market share going hand in hand over past few years.
Below are some things which we can learn from this crisis :
- Be informed about your company’s health within and outside company.
- Have good rapport with HR department, hiring or retrenching news is always disclosed to them first.
- Try to have friendly acquaintances in different departments so you can keep tab on pulse of what is happening around.
- Try to link the happenings around you with any information that may be available on internet.
- Improve your skills relentlessly and try to work some more beyond your KRA’s. It would be positive addition to your resume.
- Finally, keep eye out and let your resume float around for two reasons:
A) To know if you are still employable.
B) What is your market value as per your current skill set.
Once you keep above pointers while still being employed, you would be in lot better position that the set of Jet Airways employees of today.
Learn from the crisis and arm yourself in this unpredictable world for survival. Your family would surely thank you for it.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in General, Introspection, Life, perceptions, Political, Social, World.
Tags: gang rape delhi, gender inequality, governance, government, India, nirbhaya, politics, rape protest, society, women safety
Finally by the time you read this, the Nirbhaya (a symbolic name given to the girl gang raped in a bus, Delhi) has been cremated secretively. All the protests and anger can be seen on roads and felt in the air. In harsh winter of Delhi the rage, to condemn and seek logical closure on the matter pertaining to violent crime that took a life of an innocent girl, is enough to galvanize the national capital out of it’s insensitive and hypocritical approach towards the issue.
We see protests everywhere and Mumbai too, have had its fare share of them. Everyone talks about the deep rooted gender stereotypes in grained in our social consciousness and how that process starts from very basic building bloc of soceity, home. Maybe the all pervasive and deep rooted misogynistic attitude imbibed in male minds might be one of the reasons of incessant violent crimes against women in India and around the world.
But I wonder if this attack is just on women or it is a convenient offshoot of a sinister malice that spawns such gruesome incidents and more events that affect our lives as citizens of India. When we look at the incident in isolation, it is much easier to point out the failure of law enforcement agencies to discharge their duty of upholding the sense of security among people concerned. But when we see these cases happening all around us with alarmingly high frequency, the blame doesn’t just stop at law enforcement agencies but it goes deeper and higher in deeply entrenched bureaucracy, judicial system and the Government.
And when we take stock of situation in it’s totality, we can sense the real issue. Taking a closer look carefully would reveal the fact that violent incidents against women are not just concerned to women themselves, but the same violent acts are being perpetrated against majority of people in society, but only in different forms. Be it rape, murder of elder citizens, exploitation of weaker section of society, molestation of children, scams ranging from irrigation to big frauds involving national resources and the list goes on. It is a systemic violent attack on the societal infrastructure and well being, which we as a nation and as an individual fail to recognize its full potential to blow up the fundamental right to right full dignified living in a nation.
It is sheer governmental reluctance of handing out an efficient governance to it’s people due to short sighted and self centered political theatrics . And this is the common thread that binds all the social ills together, no matter how different and unconnected they might seem superficially. Instead of taking political mileage in any issue that catches fancy of nation, our elected members should see to it that strong measures are drawn and being implemented. And this rectification of the issue can be a great tool for gaining political advantage in today’s society which wants to see Government taking solid measures to make nation a better place to live.
Time has come for the system to address it’s governance issues and cast strongly relevant stringent laws to make society feel safe in itself and thrive peacefully.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in Books, Hobbies, Introspection, Life, Management, perceptions.
Tags: Benjamin Graham, Financial markets, Investment, Investor psychology, share market, wall street, Warren Buffett
Well Well Well, before you ask me who is this guy I am writing about, let me make one thing clear and that is :
This guy is first pragmatic real investor of sophisticated WALL STREET. Guy was looked up to by none other than Warren Buffett. And this I think is sufficient for all those who are even remotely interested in financial markets.
I was first introduced to this name by a dear friend of mine. Till that day I was as ignorant about markets as anyone else. Name didn’t ring any bells until I was told that Warren Buffett was inspired and guided by this fellow. I was intrigued by this fact and so my fascination began actually to explore what this man has to offer to someone like me, who is almost nine decades junior to him.
First book that I came across was Security Analysis by Mr.Graham. The sheer size of the book made sure that I take it when i was really ready for it technically and psychologically. Value Investing was the next book I saw, and was impressed by the it’s brief. So got a copy for myself n started reading it. As I went on reading this book I realized that every investor ( by investor I mean anyone who is part of markets directly by owning shares or indirectly via mutual funds, insurance ULIPS, Pension funds, etc. which practically means almost any decently legitimate earning individual) should and MUST read this classic book on investing.
It deals with market psychology and the way investor should discipline himself while investing throughout his investment lifetime. Proper homework, patience and owning responsibility of decisions one makes are the most basic building blocks of a satisfying investment adventure. The language is simple and lucid, helping a layman to grasp the points easily.
I fail to understand why on earth do the experts don’t ever propagate what Graham has said. If they really would have done their jobs well as financial consultants, I am very sure that severity of so many market crashes would have been exponentially reduced. Exponentially reduced because if the experts would have just looked at the past and refrained themselves from repeating the same mistakes, the losses in markets would have been lot lesser.
Entire book is kinda of a same story being told over and over again in a different perspective every time. Allowing us to absorb the essence of lessons we should remind ourselves while actively investing for ourselves. This book is kind of a Bible for any investor who is serious enough to take efforts for making sure that his/her money works for it’s master.
After all markets are full of contradictions. Exactly going opposite of common sense all the time just reflecting the same recourse in our daily lives as far as investment is concerned. Most of us work hard to earn money but are equally lazy when it comes to take effort to make it work for ourselves. I don’t blame markets for taking most of us for a RIDE. We deserve the punishment for our ineptness towards our own financial growth.
Graham would smile every time anyone follows his advice and earns respectable returns on his investments. After all he knows very well that you have EARNED for your efforts and surely would be safe in turbulent markets.
May God bless Him for sharing so simple yet profound insights to make our lives better!!!
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in General, Introspection, Life, perceptions, Political, Social, World.
Tags: Anna Hazare, Corruption, Fast, Maharashtra, politics, social, Strong Lokayukta Bill
Anna is BACK!!!
A strong Maharashtra Lokayukta Bill is what Anna wants this time. The method, again is the same, a FAST. The deadline for passing of a strong Lokayukta bill in Maharshtra Assembly is given to be this winter session of state assembly. And once this is acheived, I dont know for how many other worthy social causes would this veteran activist would take up and for how long.
I appreciate and respect the intention of the agitation, but at same time it feels weird as only one person is taking the action. As a man can be killed, but an idea still lives. Similarly in this case, it is better to institutionalise the entire agitation which would carry forward the noble work of Anna. At same time it has to be made sure that, this institution is highly effective, transparent and accountable for it’s work and intent. Also the using same weapon of fasting cannot prove effective all the time as we can see in case of Irom Sharmila from Manipur. Her struggle has been a decade long, but still her fight awaits her.
So we clearly can see the stark difference between the support both activists have garnered. Some may argue that the cause for corruption is more pervasive than the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the support would definitely more for Anna. Again if we happen to look this support beyond Anna, what do we really see? We need to ask ourselves how would this agitation be kept vigilant and alive enough to garner the public support for each cause it stands for, galvanizing the forces trying to prohibit the noble cause?
I see the a complete Void. And the reason for this is the fact that Anna would again use fast as a tool to achieve his goal. How long would he be able to do this? And who would get into his shoes after his time is done? This is major long term assessment Anna has to do and find a solution that would keep the his work on track long after he has gone.
That would be the legacy he has to create, if he wants to really change the Indian society for good.
God speed Anna!!!
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in General, Introspection, Life, Management, Political, Social.
Tags: Anna Hazare, Anti-graft movement, Corruption, India, Jan Lokpal, social
Today is 6th day of fasting by the Anna and his supporters. Am I one of them? Frankly speaking I don’t know. Knowing Indian system and its chai-paani entrenched approached towards its way of implementing things that it is theoretically expected to do, I see a long long way ahead that needs to be covered. These protests, fasts are are only good enough till they last. And now the question is how long would this really last? The enthused support from all quarters of the society over longer period of time, say for an year at least, should be visibly felt by the Government. And how it would be done is going to be a really big challenge. Following are couple of issues that need to be addressed by proactive planning to avoid the derailment of this well conceived, accelerated and well supported anti-graft movement in post independence liberalised India:
1) Effective passing of Jan Lokpal:
The very fact that the both parties are now ready to reach the golden mean is something to cheer about. Finalising the draft would again see few more, if not more, rounds of heart burns for both sides. Hopefully this is not taken advantage off to create the chaos and dilute the draft. Once the bill is drafted, the discussion in both the houses would be interesting to note as this can again play a spoil sport for the severity of the bill. And if refuted, again it would lead to another phase of renegotiation between Anna and the Government. The time would be required or rather deliberately taken by the parties having vested interest in the failure of the bill.
Having passed the hurdle of being passed finally in Parliament and being enacted as law, the care needs to be taken to watch out every step that is being taken regarding the amendments that may be waiting in wings to blunt the anti-graft bill’s teeth.
2) Implementation of Jan Lokpal:
Once the anti-graft bill becomes an enforceable law, the continuous monitoring is required. And for this to be done effectively, there has to be a non-systemic organisational body constituting of core group of individuals dedicated to oversee the effective implementation of Jan Lokpal. This body should be working parallel to Governments effort to execute it effectively. And in case of doubt it should ask Government to furnish the requisite details to clear the air.
This should be an ongoing process, the legacy that has to be percolated to every section of the society in it’s right spirit. Dripping into every household, trying to stir the emotive self of every parent, so that the next generation could be shaped in it’s very essence. Essence of being right, to be fearless, to prosper in level playing field and to be honest with oneself and people around. This opportunity can be also grabbed to seal the communal differences slicing our society. Bringing people together, binding them by common bond irrespective of their regional, communal, ethnic backgrounds for generations to come. This is the responsibility every supporter of this movement should be ready to take. This is the commitment that everyone lending their support,should be willing to walk down aisle with.
This would be real success for Anna and all the people who want a corruption free India. The day it happens, that would be the day, we can hold our heads high and see India win it’s most important war in it’s independent age.
AMEN!!!
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in General, Introspection, Life, Social.
Two days to go for our Independence Day. One more holiday to enjoy considering the fact that it helped us to have an extended weekend. Cheers to this I-day of ours.
I never really bothered to keep track of last 27 I-days that I saw. They were more or less days where I was forced to wake up early to attend flag hoisting and stand up for national anthem. I always detested the very fact of standing in attention for something to which I always failed to connect.
Somehow today morning when I took the newspaper & saw all the marketing hoopla around this I-day, I was amused and somewhat intrigued. Soon I was lost in my thoughts to fathom the meaning of this Independence Day in my life. What is it’s purpose for me, a citizen of a sovereign secular nation?
I was lucky to have some interesting insights coming my way. I am pretty impressed by the fact that I belong to a country, which is the only example of successful liberalization or say opening of an economy. Great to be part of the generation who saw the literal transformation of our lives as the economy opened up. Great work indeed. I am proud of that fact. Proud to be part of nation that pulled it off. Though the style was missing, but still a commendable job done.
Coming back to today’s Anna Era. Everybody is talking about corruption (which was always an open secret). But seeing Ministers and Govt. officials along with Corporate honchos having the a first person account of barred life is something new which couldn’t be imagined a decade back. Is it great ? is it for REAL? As of now it seems that way. Everyone today has this question lingering in their minds, that would all this Tamasha reach to its logical socially anticipated conclusion? And would the new dawn of cleaner society and good firm governance ever arrive on Indian shores?
I am a serial optimist. I wish and hope that I would see that dawn coming on to our lives. And my part in it would be really small, trivial, insignificant but what I do is best that I can.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in Diwali, Life, perceptions, Social, World.
Well Julia Roberts definitely feels so. Great thought I should say and kind of different approach to make amends among various and equally diverse mindsets. Way to go Julia.
When I read in today’s newspaper about it, I was joyous at first and soon it got me contemplating about the significance of thought if it is well accepted and more importantly meticulously executed. Lets just not talk about Diwali. For that matter take any festival having a long history of being celebrated over generations as per respective ideologies (either social or religious). Christmas, Month of Ramadan followed by Id, Diwali to name few. Names may be different so are the ways of celebrating, but one thing that is common mostly in these festivals is the fact that it reflects different facets of human nature and tries to teach us respect those values and have FAITH.
Joy is contagious so are the celebrations. But in massive demonstration of celebrations do we really give a thought to why are those festivities being held and what was the intent of it being given a special place in our religious or say social life??? Well who has time to ponder over this in todays jet-set nano age?? Most of us are busy planning a get-together or some other activities. Having a good time is more important than giving a thought to what is the spirit in it. Capturing the essence of the festive spirit is overwhelmed by excessive celebratory mood all around.
Coming back to what Julia spoke, it would be path-breaking if we really give a shot to accept the festivals of other social/religious groups and try to understand the essence of it rather than celebrating it on face value. Understanding the soul of any festival would help us to understand the way of life on the other side. It would help us to bond better, diminish the misconceptions and rattle the inhibitions we harbour against each other. If that happens, it would then herald the dawn of new world. A world more tolerant, more inclusive of everyone involved and most importantly the mutual respect finely calibrated by willingness to share and accept the things around among each other with joy.
Afterall isn’t every major festival boasts of enhanced beauty of it self when the joy is shared???
The festival just transforms into Divine.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in Books, Life, perceptions.
“What a babe!!!’
“He is so cute.”
“I was damn right about the thing I told you last night.”
Above sentences and many more are very familiar to us, as we always use them to affirm what and how we feel about the things around us. Always. How can we be so sure of our judgement that we take in split second?
Many a times we don’t even realize how the entire process worked and got over. Buying a toothpaste from shelf of any super market is classic example of this case. We just look at the shelf, one glance and toothpaste is picked off shelf and dropped in the shopping cart. At so many other occasions we do use this split second decision making process and don’t even realize how profound the mechanism behind it is.
BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell, exactly tries to present the case of this thinking process and its ability to help human beings to make split second decisions. Blink is a good book for anyone who is interested in knowing how the mind works or is any way interested to learn more about the human psychology and its thinking patterns.
This book is not a story that unfolds, but it is rather set of random instances and the people involved in them. People and the situations mentioned are used as the cases in order to explore and then explain the phenomenon of the split second decision making. The entire premise of the book and the foundation of the said process is about reliance on, state of mind, adoptive consciousness.
The subject though is interesting it is dry at same time. So patience is required while having a fling with Blink. It is not to be read at break neck speed as it would entirely defeat the purpose of the author scripting it. It just needs to be sipped slowly and allow yourself to get engulfed with entirely new consciousness about the decisions we make in split second.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in Introspection, Life, Management, perceptions, Social.
Well that is quite a tough question to ask in today’s 21st century India. No one can firmly say what makes leader – a Leader. Many theories have been proposed and opposed till date. But we still are trying to find the magical formula for designing a made to order leader for ourselves or , shall I say, an elixir to transform ourselves into leaders.
I would rather opt for first option of designing tailor made leader. I am not alone. Most of the times we always want to look upto somebody to help us out or to crucify someone for some failed endeavour. This very basic instinct of looking for leaders outside ourselves is the most elemental difference between a leader and others, atleast I have observed so. Taking ownership for the things is the first baby step towards that delusional goal of becoming a perfect leader.
Are prefect leaders for real?? NO. After all nothing is perfectly sustainable over the period of time. Alexander- the Great, Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Napoleon and list goes on. Newton said gravity pulls the things down to earth. Leaders too rise great heights in pursuit of their individual goals or ambitions. They achieve remarkable success and even more grand failures. But the glory of achievement is so dazzling that the failures faced and sacrifices made are easily covered. Leaders are applauded. They are at top of the world. But then the gravity comes in the picture casting its spell on this leaders causing their descend from the zenith of their life. Downfall can be sudden or gradual. Soon they are long gone. Either as legends or maniacs or mere eccentrics. But a story is left behind. Story that can inspire the generations to come. Their lives are studied in great detail and various lessons are drawn. Great amount of thought is spared to learn from the mistakes of this great men. And we say that had they chosen better alternative, they would have been more successful, or atleast delayed their downfall. But we very conveniently forget that, the person in question was doing his possible best at that point of time. So we come to conclusion that even greatest of the great leaders commit mistakes. After all they too are human, aren’t they?
Still we yearn for leaders, who would show us the way forward. In other words, we are scouting for someone to hand over the responsibility of our own well being. Trying to find a scapegoat who can be held accountable for either success or failure of the mission. If he succeeds, we are happy that our goals realised without any commendable efforts from our side and if we face failure, we already have a scapegoat ready to be executed at guillotine for public crucification.
Unless and until we learn to take responsibilities of ourselves, we cannot expect someone else to do the work for us. But to most people it is too much of work. Exactly this is the opportunity a true leader seeks. A leader wants to take charge of things and initiate the action that will lead to the final goal. The true leader is the one who leads his heard to its destination. But the clever leader is the one who manages to paint the elaborate picture of his achievement, when in reality he really has failed to do so. But this is just a make shift arrangement. Doesn’t work for long time. This time can be used by leader to make amends. If he cant do so, he is doomed for sure.
So moral of the story is that, there are loads of opportunities around us to make difference to ourselves, the ones around us, the world we live in. If we don’t want to work for the change we want to see in the world around us, we don’t deserve that change. After all even the most competent leaders are not for eternity. The moment we realise this truth, we may start working. Till then we would keep the HUNT for our future leader on.
Cheers to Indian Politicos and Long love Democracy (or Slumocracy, as one of my friends love to say) .
” No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”– Abraham Lincoln on Democracy.
Posted by mysteriousmrwong in General, Introspection, Life, perceptions.
Today my mom returned from Pune, after visiting one of our relatives in hospital. He is around 48yrs old. He has a wife and only daughter. He was living a normal ( you can say a usual) life. People perceived them as pretty content family. One fateful day, everything changed. He had an accident. Two of his colleagues were dead on spot. He was admitted in hospital. He was in ICU for a month. His spinal chord had been injured. He got paralysed below his neck. The family is in state of trauma. One moment it took to turn their entire life on it its head.
Here I dont intend to sound pessimistic. But occurrences like these are not uncommon to us. When we do something or when we get something we really wanted, we are happy. When we get some surprises favourable to us, we assume ourselves LUCKY. But when things go other way round, we blame it on to our Destiny.
Destiny!!! A word which can have both, positive or negative, connotations. We always ponder over this word, sometime or the other in our life. We may try to reason our past with the series of decisions we took. We may say God has given us what we have ( irrespective of what it is). But when we think of future, what do we really think??? We, most probably, think of the most rosy picture of our life. We have the luxury to think of the life devoid of all harsh and unfavourable things that might occur to us. After all hope is the thing that keeps the world going. Hope for better life. Hope for better family. Hope for better job. Hope for social recognition. Hope for peace of mind.
We hope, hope and hope. And then we hope even more. Where does this end?? We have an insatiable hunger for this word in our life. Does that hope turns into a reality or a nightmare or a distant mirage, we can only tell as time passes by. Sometimes our hopes do become our own realities. But sometimes they dont. It seems like a game, where we wish to win always. But we cant have our ways always. We loose sometimes. And this is where Destiny comes in.
Destiny?? how the hell, you would ask. I rather think it as a chance that is waiting in the wings of time, just to present itself to us at most appropriate moment. The different paths we choose, different surprises are waiting for us along the road we chose to walk. It is a probability of event happening in our lives, whether we may like it or not. That is the reality. Destiny exists. We live a life securely wrapped in the optimistic cacoon of hope oblivious of the very real probability of lot of things ( both favourable and unfavourable) happening to us. No amount of logic or reason can ever predict the event that may occur the very next moment. It can be your most adored person proposing you or you winning a lottery.
News like that of war, famines, etc. bring us back to real world. It gives us a crude jolt of shocking reality that is all around us. Anyone who has lost his near and dear ones unexpectedly would agree. It sometimes pays to be grounded afterall.
Its better to fall while walking on the road rather than crash landing on ground. After all parachutes of hope doesnt always work. Most of the time it saves us, but sometimes it teaches us hard lessons of life.
But the trick is to hang on to your lot of parachutes, but never trust them.
AFTER ALL LIFE IS GAME OF CHANCE. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN WOULD YOU HAVE YOURS!!!!
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
Winston Churchill
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