I first set sight on this book at a bookstore in Raipur. I did not purchase it then as the management entrance exams were knocking at the door and I had to prioritize   more of my time trying to brush up the rough areas of my preparation. The next time I saw the book, was when I was browsing the library to get some books which I could take home for summer holidays reading.

I first thought that the book was the usual stuff of how great CEOs turned their dying companies around. I had read two such books earlier, one was on how the big blue elephant of America did a flat turnaround in ‘Who said, Elephants can’t dance’ by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. and the other one an autobiography by Lee Lacocca, the man behind Ford Mustang, who later went to bail out the number three car company of America, the Daimler Chrysler out of bankruptcy.

But this book ‘Jack Welch and the GE way’ speaks on how Jack Welch made a good company into a great company. The book is written by Robert Slater who has another book to his credit, ‘Get better or get beaten! 31 leadership secrets from GE’s Jack Welch.

Jack Welch was at the helm of GE’s affairs for 17 straight years. The book dwells on many of the thoughts of Jack Welch which made GE the company that it is today. I would be dwelling lightly on those areas of the book which made reading it, interesting to me.

Number 1 or Number 2:   One of the theories that he put forward is the theory of number 1 or number 2.  According to him due to economic harms like inflation “the winners would be those who insisted upon being the number one or number two leanest, lowest cost, world wide producer of quality goods and services or those who had a clear technological edge or a clear advantage in their chosen niche”. To people who failed to understand this idea of selling profitable companies solely on the pretext that it is not number 1 or number 2 in its field,  Jack Welch counters by saying  “When you are number four or five in a market, when number one sneezes, you get pneumonia. When you are number one, you control your destiny. The number four keeps merging, they have difficult times. That’s not the same if you are number four, and that’s your only business. Then you have to find strategic ways to get stronger. But GE has a lot of number ones.” This thought worked very well in the 1980s but by mid 1990s, this strategy had lost a lot of its sheen. There emerged a big flaw in this strategy, this is when it became the natural tendency of GE managers in search of market dominance, began to define markets in a way that virtually guaranteed that they were number one or number two.

GE getting into TV Channel Business through NBC

GE is mainly known for its manufacturing prowess in the manufacturing of aircraft engines, plastics, light bulbs, and running power utilities. Quite a few eyebrows were raised with GE acquiring RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and through it the famous TV channel NBC which in India is in the avatar of CNBC TV 18. The book dwells on how Welch made Bob Wright the top man at NBC and how NBC got slowly sucked into the GE Culture of being profitable and reducing wasteful expenditure.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h

Stretch is Jack Welch’s belief in doing the best possible - and then reaching beyond. He notes, “We have found that by reaching for what appears to be impossible, we often actually do the impossible; even when we don’t make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.”

Growth of Service Business

The book dwells on GE making a transition from primarily a manufacturing company to a services company. On being asked “Are you going to be out of manufacturing and into services?” he replies, “If you are, you are dead. If you are going to be all services and no manufacturing, you are dead. If Bill Gates didn’t have cooperation with Intel, his system wouldn’t work on their chips. It’s an integrated game.”

Jewel in the Crown - GECS (GE Capital Services)

 GECS is one of the main components of GE’s services arm. In the mid 1990s GECS comes out with 60 % of GE’s profit up from 16% in 1980. Some of its areas of operation are:

·         Finances everything from airplanes to cars.

·         Owns and leases fleets of trucks, cars, railcars, planes and business equipment.

·         Leverages technology to deliver consumers services over the internet.

·         Sells mutual funds and insurance fund products.

·         Is America’s largest issuer of commercial paper.

Six Sigma – The Quality Initiative.

The writer also dwells on the vigorous fanaticism with which Jack Welch went with implementing the Six Sigma quality initiative in the company. It also discusses on how for getting different levels of promotions in GE it was made necessary to be either a green belt, black belt or a master black belt certified Six Sigma expert.

Harvard of Corporate America – Crotonville

This was the name given by Fortune magazine to GE’s management institute.  It is a place where the company’s junior and senior managers discuss, debate, create, and recreate GE’s much boasted about management style and techniques. Basically a training centre for junior managers of GE and a brainstorming centre for the senior managers of GE.

Recognizing India as a great place to do business, here is what he said of India, “Today we like India very much, but we have to recognize that in the last couple of years India has slowed down substantially. The bureaucracy is making life more difficult in India, so we have to be realistic and take the long view for India and accept that the movement is going to be a bit slower”

To sum the book and the person on which the book is written all about, here is a quote direct from Mr. Jack Welch,

“Jack, how can you be at NBC? You don’t know anything about dramas or comedies.” Well, I can’t build a jet engine. I can’t build a turbine, either. Our job at GE is to deal with resources – human and financial. The idea of getting great talent, giving them all the support in the world, and letting them run is the whole management philosophy of GE, whether it is turbines, engines, or a network.

Well I am a happy man, I am overwhelmed by the moderate responses that I got from the blog titled "The day Andy said good bye to 9893159679'. I know that the story could have been better written. I would try to spend more time polishing my next story. Well friends I write stories by visualising myself in other people's shoes. There is nothing more or nothing less.

Well the protagnist in the story was giving up his SIM number because as it is said in the story that he was migrating to another state. The concept of number portability happening in India is still somewhere in the distant future. Once that is implemented there would not be the need for surrendering the number when you move out to another telecom circle. With a prepaid mobile connection you have the advantage of retaining the SIM but when you have a postpaid connection, there is no option but to surrender the SIM, otherwise you need to be ready to pay huge monthly bills in the form of roaming charges.

I want to thank all the people who have been kind enough to encourage the small writer in me.

9893159679 was Andy's
mobile number for the last three years. This was his first number and he was
very fond of the number like the people who never forget their first love.
Friends who used to call him up all these three years have learnt to imitate
Andy who would reply to their calls in a characteristic Marlon Brando style,
"Yes, this is Andy speaking" or when he used to call somebody up he
would use the Amitabh Bachan baritone and say, "Mein Andy bhol raha
hu".


This day Andy was sitting in his mobile operator's office with an application
in his hand stating that he wanted to surrender the number as he is migrating
to another state. There was a long queue at the office and Andy new that it
would take another ten to twenty minutes till his turn comes up. He was not in
a hurry. Sitting there he began to recollect the time that he had spent with
9893159679. He could remember the cold rainy night when he was driving through
the roads of the steel city and his mobile lighted up. He answers the phone and
he finds a very sweet and sexy female voice at the other end. That was a
misconnection. He said that it is a wrong number and hangs up. After reaching
home, he is haunted by the voice and he decides to call back the number. The
sweet voice answers the call and their conversation hit off.



Next several days, he was completely captivated by the sweet voice. He would
sit on one of the windows of the half completed building he lives in, caring
less of a very nasty fall, six stories down and be mesmerized with the talk of
the Sweet voice. Time passed by, the building got completed, he shifted his
place of talk to the terrace of the building and amidst the simmering lights of
the steel city he would fall for the fancies of the Sweet voice. With the
coming of the spring, he shifted his place of talk once again,this time to the garden of
roses. There he sat in with the company of the roses in the middle of countless
nights. He could now even smell the Sweet voice with the fragrances emanating
from the roses. There were times when the night patrolman would lighten up his face with the rays of
torchlight and Andy would shout at the patrolman, “This is Andy, won’t you let
me speak with my Sweet voice peacefully”. The patrolman would apologize and go
away promising himself never again to disturb the man in love.

Those times it seemed
to Andy, that the whole world was his and everything was his for the taking.
Then the harsh winter sets in. Sweet voice would now call him only
occasionally. He knew that this short period of cheerfulness in his life was
about to end. The Sweet voice did not call him anymore. He knew it was the end
but in the deepest part of his heart he knew that Sweet voice would return to
him someday. He waited, winter passed and summer came, and the Sweet voice
began calling him once again, the intensity and the warmth of the calls
increased. Suddenly one day the Sweet voice announced that she would be
disappearing from his life. Andy did not protest for some reason he did not
know, may be the time was not yet right. That summer, when the sun was at its
peak of glory, Sweet voice finally disappears never to return again.

The rain sets in and
Andy curses himself of letting the Sweet voice go. He walks in the rain to hide
his tears and complains to his friend that this was gross injustice done to
him. The rain stoped, and Andy founds himself all soaked up with rain water. He went home
and changed his clothes

Sitting that day in the
mobile operators office he could still feel himself shivering on that rainy
night crying and complaining to his loyal friend. The lady at the reception
announces Andy’s name, Andy recovers from his chain of thoughts and walks to
the lady. The lady asks why he was surrendering 9893159679, he tells her with a
great deal of sadness that he is moving out of the steel city. The lady smiles
and asks him to pay his dues. He pays the dues and asks the lady if he could
have a last look at 9893159679. The lady seems surprised. He has his last look at
9893159679 and walks out of the office without muttering a word.

That’s how Andy said
goodbye to 9893159679.

The past few days, the
world was witness to three terrible events that made every person to stop their
work and take note on the happenings that were taking place in the world
through the eyes of the television news and other medias. The first two were
natural disasters that happened in our neighboring countries. The killer
cyclone, ‘Nargis’ which wiped out almost 1, 00,000 people in Myanmar. Then the
deadly earthquake in the Sichuan province of China where an estimated 25,000
people died. The third incident happened in our own backyard, in the pink city,
Jaipur orchestrated by the so called jihadi elements.

When the killer cyclone
stuck, Mayanmar, I was vacationing in the north eastern part of India; many
states there share a long international border with Myanmar. At that time
sudden drizzles had fallen in the place but the rains were of negligible
proportions. Myanmar which is ruled by a military junta is one of the poorest
countries in South East Asia. The cyclone is certain to set its mark on the
poor people especially children living there in the years to come. A photograph
circulating in the internet speaks a great deal on the living conditions of the
people there. As international aid starts to pour in on Myanmar, it remains to
be seen, how much of this aid would actually reach the affected people as Myanmar
also holds the dubious distinction of a corrupt state as well.

The last time I heard
of Sichuan was when I went to a Chinese restaurant in central India and had a
look at its menu. There were a lot of items with the word Sichuan in it for
example Sichuan chicken curry, Sichuan noodles. I taught of asking the Chinese
couple who run the restaurant the meaning of Sichuan but I did not go ahead as
the couple were very quite people and did not entertain any extra
conversations. Last week when I read the news on the deadly earthquake which
struck China in the Sichuan province, I realized that the items in the menu
probably had their origins in the Sichuan province of China. China is in a
better position to cater to the needs of the earthquake affected people because
of its growing financial and military prowess. But the earthquake would
certainly leave its impact on the Beijing Olympics games which are scheduled to
be held this year.

Jaipur, the pink city
of India; one of the fastest growing commercial city competing with the IT
giants of the likes of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai; one of India’s most
popular holiday hotspots and home to the best cricket team in the Indian
Premier League, Rajasthan Royals was the next target of the terrorist elements.
This attack speaks of a shift in the terrorist strategy in targeting the non
metro cities in India. It started with the attack on Indian Institute of Science;
Bangalore then came the Hyderabad blasts and now Jaipur. It is high time to
take note of the fact as to are we sending the wrong signals to the Jihadi
elements. The Government has to sincerely answer these opposition’s questions. Are
the terrorist orchestrating these heinous crimes because they consider our
country as a weak state? Was the repealing of anti terrorist laws like POTA by
the UPA government a step in the right direction?

Finally, let me
highlight to you certain incidents that were reported in the press in all this
three countries or places before the above mentioned deadly events took place. Myanmar
was in the news for putting an iron hand on the monk’s protests in Myanmar for
the restoration of democracy. China was in news for the protests by the Tibetan
people against the oppressive policies of the Chinese government. Rajasthan was
very recently in news on the naked parading of two dalit boys with tonsured
heads by villagers on the crime that they had killed some birds. This happened
in Byawar village in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district.

It was after a long time
that a book has captivated me, to such an extent that I would extend my normal
reading hours in the night. I became so much engrossed in the book that I put
on hold, a lot of works that I set aside to be done on my holiday trip to the
city where I spent my childhood years. For three days and nights, the book was
a constant companion. The book bears a resemblance to the fast pace of modern
fictional thrillers like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, except for the fact that
the book is not a work of fiction but essentially a look into the history of
adult India through the life of Indira Gandhi.

Before reading the
book, I had quite a few negative notions on Indira Gandhi. I blamed Indira for
keeping India locked to outside influences from the period beginning 1960 to
1980. This was the period when a lot of our East Asian neighbors including
China raced past India in the economic sphere. I was severely critical of
Indira Gandhi’s government in exercising Emergency rule in India which had
nearly put out the democratic flame burning in our country. But after reading
the book, my perception of Indira and the Congress party she represents has
changed. I have to remind you of the fact that I belong to a generation that
has grown and matured right after her 17 years of reign. 

The book is written by
Pupul Jyakar, a close friend and confidant of Indira Gandhi. She traces the
history of the Nehru family right from the Mughal times, where an ancestor of the
Nehru family occupied a position in the court of the Mughal Emperor, Farrukh
Siyar. The book speaks on the journey of the ancestors of the Nehru family from
the Kashmir valley to the court of the Emperor in Delhi and to their final
settlement in Allahabad. The book also gives a good deal of insight into the
freedom struggle of India.

There is a lot of
information on the founding fathers of our country, which one comes to know of
after reading the book. The book paints the picture of Indira Gandhi not as
someone who needs to be eulogized for but of a shy lady who transforms into an
iron woman but yet vulnerable and loveable. It brings to light the early
shyness exhibited by Indira Gandhi, the reason being a crude remark made by her
aunt Vijayalakshmi Pandit, by calling her an ugly girl. The book dwells on the
German professor Frank Oberdorf who would court Indira Gandhi ceaselessly by
reminding her of her beauty but she would not give in to the charms of the
German. The book speaks the deep conflicts that  Jawaharlal Nehru had with his daughter on
account of Kamala Nehru. Her relationship with husband Feroze and son Sanjay is
also covered lengthily in the book.

After reading the book,
I come to the conclusion that people of India would always be grateful of the strong
and gritty leadership that she gave to her mother nation. I wonder what would
have been the fate of India had she not come into the political scene in India.
One truly wonderful deed that she would be ever remembered for apart from the
Indo-Pak war of 1971 and the first Pokhran atomic blasts would be her removal
of Emergency which she had herself imposed on the people of India. That single
act strengthened the Indian democracy. It laid to rest a common quote often
told “No dictator was known to give up power except through a counter-revolution”.  Indira Gandhi knew that giving up her power
might ruin her but she went ahead for the good of the country. Sure enough she
suffered a heavy loss but it also became very clear very soon that at that
particular period in the history of India, there was no leader in the scene who
could capture public imagination like the way she did and made a brilliant
comeback. She fell to bullets but even here at her death she was able to bridge
a wide gap between the various cross-section of people living in India. She can
be rightfully called the daughter of India.

To end with a quote
that someone said about Indira Gandhi in the book (I am not able to locate the
page) – “India is Indira and Indira is
India”

Andy stood alone in the
rain drenched watery night all soaked up and shivering.  In a few moments he would board the ship ‘The
Promise’ that would take him to the new city. He felt an unusual chill in his
heart that night, a chill of deep sadness. He was very much familiar with this
chill in his heart, it normally occurred to him when an eagerly anticipated
event was about to unfurl before him.  It
surprised him because he thought he was happy as he was going to a new city
where he would spend the next couple of years, a city which was unlike any
other city where he has lived so far.  The
city held tremendous opportunities for him, be it in pursuing a career in trade
and commerce and also in enhancing his knowledge. He always dreamt on living in
a great city with all the opportunities open to him. He was tired of living his
life in small cities with small ambitions and much smaller way of thinking.
This was not a time for sadness to rein his heart.

He told himself, ‘I
ought to be happy’. This was one moment he was waiting for the last several
years. But the unusual chill in his heart refused to go away. He stressed his
mind to know the actual reason for the sad chill in his heart which was getting
deeper as if like his heart was being cut into two pieces. It seemed the chill
reminded him of a person or an incident, he was very familiar with. Just then
in the shining waves of the sea illuminated by the port lights he saw a face forming.
It was her crying. He gets angry and kicks the sand with his wet shoes. He
thought it was all over. He thought he was over with the bitter memories he was
trying hard to forget. But that instant he realized, perhaps he has to live
with those bitter memories for the rest of his life. He could not decide whether
the sobbing face he saw should be treated as an omen. May be it is trying to
call him to her. He starts moving towards the ship. Either way he has to make
the voyage. 

As the ship starts to
move with a loud howl, he remembers what he said to her one day before they
finally parted. “I will wait for you, you cannot take that right away from me
and that’s the only thing I can do”. Perhaps all is not over yet.

He waits for the storm
to blow him over again.

When I came across an article in a newspaper named ‘Ravi Mathai the living legend’, I immediately wanted to pen some thoughts that crossed my mind as I felt some points to be closely related with the institute I serve now.

Mr. Ravi Mathai, is the legendary founder-director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). His father is Dr. John Mathai, noted administrator, educationist and economist. He was the Union Finance Minister in Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet and also the Vice Chancellor of Bombay and Kerala Universities.

Mr. Ravi Mathai was appointed the first full time director of IIMA in 1965 (Vikram Sarabhai had been honorary director until then). The choice of Mr. Ravi Mathai as the Director was astonishing during that time because he was a young man of 38 and besides did not have an advanced academic degree. He was only a corporate executive who had very recently joined IIM Calcutta as a Professor.

When Mr. Ravi Mathai stepped down in 1972, he had not only put IIMA on India’s national map but also had built a strong foundation for its continuing success. Today IIMA is a world renowned institute and many attribute the success of IIMA to the strategic decisions taken during Mathai’s time as well as the culture, systems and processes he put in place.

In the following paragraphs let me point out some systems and processes that he had put in place in the institute. Firstly there was a clear sense of purpose. He held that IIMA’s main concern should be “the application of knowledge”. This meant that the institute would be involved in teaching, research and consulting. “The impact would be greatest if it were the combined result of all activities”. So the faculty must engage in all the three activities.

Secondly Mathai had a deep conviction that academic activities can flourish only when faculty are given full freedom. In an academic institution, excellence cannot be ordered. It springs forth when people are given the space to grow and to express themselves freely.

Thirdly, he implemented the idea of a faculty-governed institute where decision-making rests primarily with the faculty and not with the director or the board governing the institute. An example that the writer put across is the admissions committee that is independent of the director and the board of governors.

Fourthly, and could be Mr. Mathai’s greatest bequest to IIMA, the principle of a single term for the director. After six years as the director, Mathai stunned the teaching community by announcing his decision to step down and stay on as professor. He gave two reasons for doing so. One, leaders of academic institutions tended to use their academic institutions for career advancement; this was not good for the institutions. Two, it was important to establish the principle that the director’s position is not hierarchical; he is only first among equals. You are a professor, you become director and then you become professor again.

Reference:

‘Ravi Mathai, the living legend’ by T. T. Ram Mohan, The Economic Times, The Big Picture section, December 13, 2007.

Once Andy asked his friend who was recovering from a very harrowing experience in life. How did he cope up with failure and still kept on hoping that good would turn out.

His friend replied" Andy, its the sheer unprecdictability of life" So friends enjoy this unpredictability  life. You would have no regrets.

Here are some memories of a wonder full night that happened with me quite some time back during my graduation days at NIT Agartala

One night my Naga seniors made a plan to sneak out of the Hostel and go to the academic block of the college where a huge bee hive was hanging from the 2^nd floor. So here went a group of 20 students in a winter night to the college. That was my first outing to the college at night and the silent buildings with the moon shining down on it looked quite quixotic. The bravest among the group climbed to the 2^nd floor of the college with the help of a rope and extracted the hive after burning it down with a torch and brought down the hive. That was the first time I saw honey being extracted from a white like material. Also that was the first time I tasted raw honey. We went back to our hostels with the cache but not before giving a portion of our bounty to the guards stationed in the college so that the college administration does not make a hullabaloo when they come to know of it.

That’s a night which I won’t forget for a long time to come. I can still remember a group of 20 boys standing in the ground and shouting orders to a annoyed person suspended on a rope whose body and head was covered with bed sheets.  He looked more like a Egyptian mummy suspended in the air trying to torch the hive. Added to it was the pure romantic nature of the night.

I was returning back to my work place after meeting my mom in the hospital. A 16 hour journey awaited me. I hated every moment of that train journey. Because it was a time when you are left alone with yourselves and your environs are filled with strangers. When you are lonely, old thoughts crosses your mind like flashbacks which would not surface on a normal working day because you try to be busy and the act of keeping oneself busy never gives those old thoughts to stage an entry into your mind. I had to do something to keep my thoughts from wondering. The only possible way I found was to buy a book and keep myself engrossed in it. That’s when I came across The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma. His fans have started calling him a guru. He vehemently opposes those who call him a guru by telling them that he has written all these powerful chapters only after experiencing the ups and downs in life. For example, I was pretty surprised to learn that he too could not escape the rigors of a divorce. That was surprising because it is normal to believe the life of a person who gives hope to lakhs of readers around the world through his bestsellers would be anything but perfect.

Here are certain excerpts from the book that I noted down for future reference.

Chapter 16: Focus daily improvement plus time equals genius. Understand that formula deeply and your life would never be the same.

Chapter 40…I came with the whole concept behind Leadership wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 rituals of a visionary leader while taking a long solo drive out in the country. When the idea hit me, I pulled over onto a dirt road and downloaded the ideas into my journal for more than two hours. An unforgettable experience for me………

Chapter 58: …… As Vaclav Havel once observed: ‘Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare down at the step; we must step up the stairs’…….

Chapter 61: “I cursed the fact that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feat.” Comes from a Persian proverb. That line send shivers down my spine. Whoever wrote that really gets it. It’s easy to fall into the very human trap on focusing on what we don’t have rather than being grateful for what we do have. I’ll bet you have more blessings in your life than you are noticing……

Chapter 82 : ……I remember reading a book years ago, written by a magician named Al Koran, called Bring Out The Magic in Your Mind. One of the ideas that stayed with me is his suggestion that, in order to be successful. It’s important to go where the successful people are. Even if you have only $10, go have coffee at the best restaurant in your city. His point? Your surroundings shape the way you feel. And the way you feel drives what you do. Feel world class and you will behave world class.

Chapter 92: ……….He took out a piece of paper and scribbled out a list of the 101 things he was absolutely committed to do before he died……………

It was a good book. I completed the book just before train came to a screeching halt at my station. I am ever grateful to the book in giving me company during that train journey.

You can download some cool stuff from the author at his website robinsharma.com. Enjoy reading.