Work finally catches up!

This is something I always knew was going to happen and finally it has. Work has become most part of life these days. The time between Sunday evening to Friday evening just moves by in a jiffy and a week is gone. Weekends seem to go past so fast. I look back and it has been 4 months I have been here and it seems like yesterday. I always wanted to work in this role in sales but little did I realize that the role is all about being the eternal hustler. It is really a reflection of life. Just as in life day in day our we are seeking happiness, similarly in work we chase opportunities. And it is illusive as always. And even if you feel you finally got it the feel good is just temporary adn then again it is back to chasing something else. It took some time but now I feel I have started running on this treadmill and the speed is getting faster. But I also feel that the next few years of my life are the most significant in terms of my career. It is a new start, a new role, challenging but rewarding. So I guess I just haveto keep running and hope it will lead me somewhere. Ahh well we will see.

I am also learning to deal with new paradigms. Trying to imbibe how to get job done by others, how to align misplaced agenda of everyone, how to have a never-say-die attitude and how to always think through a problem as if the buck stops at you. Trust me these are not the things they tell you at a B school (not even a premiere one) and there is only one way to learn - the hard way. When I was doing my MBA, we used to live in a fantasy world when all it took was to write a report about the theoritical situations, problems issues and believe that it is really simple. Actually, there is nothing glamorous. Hard work, determination, adaptability and will to succeed are the only eternal qualities needed on the field.

So here it is another of the non-descript weekends and there is nothing better to do than sit in front of my computer thinking what to do next. There is a report that needs to go Monday morning, there are dishes that need to be washed, clothes that need to be ironed and and empty fridge crying for a refill. So its bye for now and I promise to write an interesting post next time if you do bother to check my blog. :)

100

Okay this is kinda landmark for me...Can you believe this is my 100th post??When I first started writing in 2005 the objective was purely the joy of expression. While this basic drive is still there, many other reasons for the blog came up in due course of time. It became a way to recollect the happenings of life, reminisce the good old days gone by and then ISB happened. I promised myself that during my stay at ISB I would try to give the prospective applicants a glimpse of life of an MBA grad and the emotional ride he goes through. Now that is over it is more about my life and happenings and feelings again. Anyways I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the readers of my blog. Some of you have been the source of inspiration, critic and your inputs have been invaluable to me personally.

It has been quite sometime since this post was overdue and I kept thinking what it should be. Well to be honest I have not decided on that..so let the post be another of my rants about life in general and things that affect each of us.

"I Need someone to make me happy" - You hear this over and over again from people at different phases of life. While the basic tenet of the statement is undeniable, I think the finer and important point that most people miss out is that no one can make us happy unless we try to make ourselves happy. Each of us must "practice the art of being happy". People around us can try to make us feel special and happy but ultimately the onus is on us.

"You need two people to make a relation succeed" - Again an oft repeated and beaten to death statement. You need both parties to give an effort to make a relation succeed. Of course this is true but is there more to this? On the face of it this seems very natural but I think many a times it doesn't take two people to make a relationship work. It takes one person who has enough patience and maturity to ride out the difficult phase. Every couple goes through turbulent phases in a relation and the key to the relation is how to deal with this phase. And I think if one person gives the other time and space to sort things out on their own, things look really bright. Well the key assumption is that when things are better both people put in an effort to sustain it.

"You should never trust anyone unless they earn it" - In today's world you can literally be ripped apart if you do not follow this. Time and again it has been proven that we should be extremely careful as to whom to trust and how much. I somehow subscribe to a different view. Somewhat a judicial view that everyone is trustworthy unless otherwise proven. Does that mean I blindly trust people and get taken for a ride? No that would be foolish. All I am trying to say is not to look at everyone thinking they are there to cheat us. There are enough good honest people around us still. Sure you can end up getting hurt, loosing money and so one and so forth and hence I would advise you to think of the cons if you want to try this path out.

"Money doesn't buy happiness" - I am a total believer of this. But at the same point many people who use this statement are people who have money. The thing is while money cannot buy happiness it surely goes a long way in making our lives better. I mean these days you can literally throw money at any problem you can think of and get a temporary respite or a momentary high. But once the effect wears off you can be sure that feel good factor is going to vanish too. So in effect money is a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition for happiness.

I would like to end this very heavy philosophical post with a thought. Each of us are inherently nice and we have the ability to make some people around us feel special and help them be happy. We should give this a serious thought. Trust me it will make you happy too. So go ahead spend sometime with you neighbourhood elder whom you typically ignore or play with the naughty kid whom you generally find irritating or gift something to the hapless or just Say Thank You to an important person in your life whom you never told how special he/she is.

Philosophy Revisited

Life comes a full circle. According to Hindu mythology this full cycle comes either in one lifetime or in multiple...but the fact of the matter is that it does. As I stand today at one of the most fluid phases of my life, I wonder if indeed I can see things repeating from my past...only this time circumstances and my feelings towards them is different.

Work - When I first started work after my engineering, I really did not have much to do. I remember going to work and being upset about the fact I was not contributing. Now 7 years later, faced with same situation, I know that its a temporary lull before the storm that awaits me. I left my first job in 3 months due to this frustration of not working and now I am enjoying the 3 months of honeymoon period.

Travel Abroad - Before I had travelled to US, this was definitely one of the top must-do things in my life. I craved for it and was extremely happy to have finally made the first trip in 2004. Now as I stand on the verge of filing a US visa again, I dont feel a thing. Infact I am not at all bothered by the time it will take. I am more like things will take their own time.

Personal Life - All I have to say here is that no matter how much you try to fit the wrong cap on the bottle it wont fit and jump out.Yet the right one seems to fit in quite effortlessly. Common sense but then who said that common sense is common.

Right and Wrong - This is a broad bucket under which would like to classify all my general perspectives of what I historically considered right and wrong. As days have passed, I have seen that faced with similar circumstances and issues, I am more considerate, more holistic and more insightful. I understand that a lot of times right and wrong depends on the viewpoint.And there exists a lot of issues which are in the shades of gray. Seeing life, cultures, societies and people in general helps.

Anyways enough of this philosophy - some updates from my life

ISB Alumni Meet (Bangalore Chapter) - This was really nice and happened at Geoffrey's in Bangalore. The dean had come down and it was a great opportunity to meet people from our batch as well as from earlier batches. Wonderful evening.

Phoenix - Seems this is the place where I might have to relocate. Having flown through Sky Harbor International multiple times, I liked looking at the sight of the imposing city on the northern fringes of the Great Sonoran desert when the flight takes a sweeping turn before landing. Now the feeling of having to stay where the average temperature is more than 40 degrees in the summers is slowly sinking in.

Infosys - A lot of debate as to whether the CISF commando deployment at Infy campus was a step in the right direction. Whether a company should pay for security from the government when it should be the duty of the state. I agree with concerns from many corners that many of the smaller companies would not be in a position to afford this security cover. But one needs to be cognizant of the fact that with the law prohibiting non-government forces from operating any automatic weapons, the private security is reduced to sitting ducks if a horrible attack does happen. With around 20,000 people in the picturesque campus in Bangalore, Infy is the showcase of the might of Indian IT and this deployment will go a long way to send a positive signal to clients and businesses across the world that India Inc is protected.

The Other Murthy

Disclaimer: The following is from an article published online in 2004 which I happened to come across.

December 1992. It was snowing hard in Boston. The man stepped off the plane and made his way to a small hotel. He had a year to prove himself in this foreign land. "It was the first time I had seen snow in my life. The first few days were tough. They had nothing vegetarian. I was eating pasta three times a day. I was fed up. I decided I had to go to a McDonald's," says Phaneesh Murthy. It had been snowing all through the week. So he just decided to wade through the slush and reach the nearest McDonald's. "But they didn't have anything vegetarian either. I was freezing so I sat there and drank three hot chocolates and munched on a few packets of French fries. It felt good. Here I was in America and I was in McDonald's. The American journey had started," he says.

For the next decade it would be a ride without any punctuation. And then in June 2002, the American journey came to a sudden full stop. Accused of sexual harassment of his executive assistant, Reka Maximovitch, Phaneesh Murthy would be dragged into courts. He would stand accused of suppressing facts, misrepresenting them to the board and, as a former colleague points out, "guilty of a serious error in judgement". Rather than choose to fight, he would agree to a $3-million payout to Ms Maximovitch. Phaneesh denies being a party to the settlement, but Infosys Technologies says the exact opposite. With the Karmic wheel in complete spin, the price would be dear - loss of job and definitely some reputation.

Cast down from nine circles of heaven into purgatory, he would wander looking for a fresh start. He would find temporary relief in Quintant, a consulting outfit. He would raise $30 million ($15 million was actually invested) before his funding agency, the Rs 2,500-crore GMR Group, a successful investor in ING Vysya with large interests in power, decided to pull the plug. GMR says it wanted to invest in its power business. But there is talk of Phaneesh being unable to get the revenues and business, and his investors getting impatient. Without the redoubtable army of developers, Phaneesh would be forced to abandon the fresh start and allow himself to be courted as CEO of software company iGate. Life would slowly slip back into the familiar. The future looking more like a linear extrapolation of the past, Phaneesh Murthy would wake up from a new dream into an old reality. But what matters is that it's real.

He is ready to float once more.

Phaneesh Murthy is sliding across the globe. He's dropped off the 30th parallel into Singapore. A week later he has tumbled down the E151 longitude into the Kangaroo land. It's late at night in Sydney but he's still trying to keep his antennae up. "I know what you are trying to say... but that's not the incident which fits. Let me think.... Hmm... hmm.... Okay, here's what is interesting and this happened while I was at IIM...," he says. That's when it strikes you. Phaneesh Murthy is a modem. No, no, don't go away; this is serious stuff. Think about it. In much the same way a modem screeches, whines and wails as it tries to match its thoughts with the other modem at the far end of the line, Phaneesh keeps rummaging, shuffling and hunting through analogies, metaphors and incidents to help you 'prove' your point. "I don't think the physics teacher example really demonstrates the point about 'my persuasive powers'. I'll give you another example." And off he goes again. It is a glimpse into the mind of a man who claims he scaled up Infosys sales from $2 million to $700 million. (Never use this line when talking to Infosys - it infuriates them to no end.) He has to do it all over again now.

Phaneesh has been on the road travelling to various iGate offices. "It's been gruelling," he says. "The passion level is high but we still have to do a lot of hard work before we realise value from that passion." That's as much an admission as a confession from the man, who, even close associates say, never had to try too hard to make things happen. This time it is different. He doesn't have as disciplined a cadre as he had at Infosys. He does not have as charismatic and far-sighted a guru as N.R. Narayana Murthy ('NRN') to open doors. Neither does he have as capable a strategist as Nandan Nilekani. "Sometimes I wonder if it was all a fluke. I really want to test myself again," he told a friend recently, referring to his innings at Infosys. The innings was not supposed to end the way it did.

It wasn't even supposed to begin that way. Phaneesh wanted to study medicine. But, instead, listened to his father, appeared for the IIT JEE, got a 132 all-India rank and did the obvious: joined. The IIT years were pretty uneventful otherwise. Phaneesh recollects that at IIT he was quite a "vela character".

In 1985, when Phaneesh finished his Bachelor's, he heard the song of the medicine man once more. "This time I took the test for medical schools in the US and applied to the Top 5 schools," he says. Harvard made him an offer with financial aid. Once again his father asked him to wait a while. He took the CAT and was selected to IIM-Ahmedabad. His ability to think big started right there. "Once we were trying to raise funds for an event and we had kept the sponsorship price at Rs 5,000. I said let's take it to Rs 10,000, and it worked," he says.When he left IIM-A, FMCG was big. The Nirma versus Hindustan Lever battle was drawing to a close; most people from the top of the class headed for a Lever or a Britannia. Phaneesh made the first unconventional decision of his life. He chose Sonata Software, a start-up in a tiny industry. To put things in perspective, TCS, a $1-billion company today, had a turnover of $15 million in 1987. "I did not find soaps intellectually stimulating. I wanted to do product management. In soaps or industrial products, most of the product definition is rarely changed. In software, you can use the customer feedback to improve the product," says Phaneesh. In Sonata, he also started on his first Mission Impossible. Design and sell a software for the Indian market. All the heroics were in vain though. The Indian IT industry was undergoing a disruptive change.

TCS started the offshore business model in mainframes in 1989. Soon Indian firms figured that a dollar was 17 times better than a rupee. Phaneesh realised the domestic software industry would not go anywhere. Indians could not take advantage of great products as they were just not ready for automation.

And then, in 1991, India Today carried an advertisement.The India Today AdvertisementIt was a two-page recruitment advertisement for a company called Infosys. There was a small line at the end of the ad: "We also need a marketing manager for the US. Should be willing to relocate and travel extensively." The position did not require major qualifications. "I said this is a company that needs some serious marketing help. For every other post advertised they had at least a paragraph of qualifications!" Phaneesh hit it off with Nandan. And then the turn came to meet NRN, who would be his mentor, guide and, ultimately, his judge.

NRN thought Phaneesh couldn't do the job. Phaneesh did not smoke, drink or eat meat; NRN thought he would not last. But he liked the fact that Phaneesh was a numbers-driven, facts-oriented marketing guy. The deal was done. But before that, a target had to be set. Nandan, domestic business head Vijay Kumar and Phaneesh sat down to set one for the first year. "I told $1 million," Phaneesh says. Why? "Because it was a nice number!" Nandan agreed. Infosys' turnover was about $2 million then. Vijay Kumar was bewildered and asked Nandan: "Aren't you going to ask him how he will get $1 million?" And Nandan replied: "That's his problem. If he wants help, he will ask." Phaneesh was told that he had one year to show results.

Coming To America

His first negotiations were anti-climactic. He was dealing with Apple Computers. "When I went back with the contract I found the entire team... on the deal had been sacked. I admired them. They (knew) it not personal, not stigmatic. It happened and you moved on," he says.The years after 1992 saw a huge acceleration in IT offshoring. "We were getting so much work that when I bagged a huge order somebody said 'Shit! That means we will have to work more'," says Phaneesh. The big break came in 1994. Infosys was pitching to Nordstrom for a sale order management system. "I studied all the literature and approached the CIO. They liked the proposal but thought we were not familiar with the US market and so, gave us the merchandising system to develop." It was Infosys' first-ever million-dollar contract.

That is also when Phaneesh started building up the sales organisation. His rules were simple: agree on certain things - like not signing unlimited liability clauses, deciding on targets - and you have a free hand. That was the only one way to handle the salesforce and the bigger accounts that Infosys was trying to bag. "I met Phaneesh on his return trips to India every three months. He would be full of questions: How's so-and-so? Where have you been recently? What's the feedback on that firm? He remembered everything you told him," says T.G. Ramesh, founder, Bangalore Labs, who now works with Phaneesh.

The sales team grew after 1994 and threw up stars like Basab Pradhan, Srinjay Sengupta and Shobha Meera. "He created the 'two cultures' of Infosys. The process-driven, conservative software developers... (and) his team that was answerable only to the board," says a source in Infosys. Phaneesh feels it was more the customer-facing culture that he developed. "I believe people who interact with the customers should drive the organisation. As for a free hand - the only way you get high performance is if, after an initial watch period, you give a high degree of autonomy.

In 1996, that point was proved. For the first time Infosys went head-to-head with a formidable consulting firm - Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP). The contract was for about $9 million. CTP bid $8 million. Phaneesh and his team's math: total cost, including profits, of $4 million. The majority was for quoting this price. The sales team figured it would be a mistake: the client would think they had no idea of the project's complexity. So the team doubled the bid to $8 million. Infosys got the project. It was a crossing of the Rubicon. Infosys could beat the heavy guns at their own game.

Such victories made the man who was once a doubting Thomas, a believer. NRN became like a father to Phaneesh. Phaneesh had been a Maths Olympiad top scorer; NRN loved to communicate in mathspeak. "You could be discussing at a dinner table and these guys would start. It would begin with problems and degenerate into discussing the greatest mathematician of all times," says a person who was at one such dinner. The relationship grew till Phaneesh broke the inverted first law of robotics: "A human may not injure a machine, or, through inaction, allow a machine to come to harm." That machine was Infosys. Phaneesh had already met Reka Maximovitch. "He tried to hurt the company. He tried to hurt Infosys," says a person who knows NRN really well.

Phaneesh had one last victory. He says he won the $37-million Greenpoint deal for Progeon. But the stories of his power within Infosys, his conduct, his putting the firm at grave risk, grew and grew. And on 23 July 2002, Phaneesh resigned. Some say he was "de-risked".

Is there something in the last two years that Phaneesh would have wanted to change? "That's a very open question. But tell you what - to go back and study medicine; that's what I want."

Nostalgeek

It was a nice Friday night dinner. A bunch of friends from ISB met at an Afghani restaurant called Samarkand, one of the better rated restaurants in Bangalore. The ambiance was nice and so was the food and we soon got talking over some nice starters and a wonderful drink called Angoori Nasha. But the first thing that struck all of us in the first 10 minutes of our discussion was the fact that all of us miss ISB.

ISB was everything a dream life can have. A group of very bright individuals and their families as friends. A gated community offering California lifestyle shielding us from the horrors of daily life. Wonderful stimulating discussions on all topics under the sun. Working your *** off till wee hours of the morning. Then sleepwalking to class and dozing off in a jiffy. Sharing the fun and the pain of everyday life with your friends and peers. And lastly the most awesome parties ever.

ISB parties are the single biggest phenomenon I miss now. There is no better fun than working hard and playing hard. Letting your hair down with a few drinks and then swaying with some wonderful music by DJ Ananth . And for grabbing a quick rest there was the grass banks by the dance floor which got renamed to the Great Wall of Bengal. And then there were themed parties... The rain dance parties with water sprinklers in the mirror pool and live chaat counters, the Bollywood theme party, pyjama party, section parties and the awesome Holi celebration. Thinking about each of them makes me sad and I long for those amazing times to get back. Here after ISB, I have not partied for ages.

Actually part of it also has to do with the company. Many of my friends have got married and I don't know why but their party appetite has now dropped to ZERO. Anyways for the friends who are still interested, I think we need to explore some nice places for partying in Bangalore. Although Bangalore nightlife gets over by 11 PM due to government restriction, its still better than nothing. I think over the last year at ISB, we used to frequent almost all the discs and nightclubs in Hyderabad in addition all the premium restaurants. And look at us now. We are not students anymore and earning now but our "quality of life" has degraded. Something needs to be done about this. I am serious.

Predictability

Its strange how predictable life becomes when we start working. In my 1 year at ISB, everyday was different. Waking up in the morning after barely sleeping for 5 hours, I used to wonder what the day has in store. Now it is definitely not the same. Mondays to Fridays, I definitely know how the day will pan out. Weekends are similar as well with more sleep and occasional movies and a dinner out with friends. Sometimes I feel it is fine and this is how life is supposed to be. But there are times when I want something different. Something to break the shackles of this routine. I guess these are the hallmarks of a Sagittarius man and more so ME.

This week, finally got allocated to business units after being dumped with loads and loads of information about the company. But on the lighter side got allocated to Manufacturing BU after having an experience of close to 5.5 years in Media and Entertainment. But then as they say, sales is sales and a true salesman can succeed anywhere. In spite of a wish deep down to go to Europe, I would be required to take a permanent transfer to US by the end of this year. [Sigh] I guess vacationing to Europe is the only way out. But in hindsight, maybe US is not a bad option. I know my way around after having been there for close to 4 years and most importantly Indians are accepted easily unlike countries like France or Germany. Once we go to our units from next week, the picture would be clearer regarding actual responsibilities and specifics of the location.

On a personal front, the week was eventful though. Attended the wedding of a good friend of mine in Bangalore and happened to meet two of my school buddies there after 13 years. It was so good. I think we strike up a bond with school friends the best coz even after 13 years of not seeing each other, we got along just perfectly fine. The weddings also make me realize that with every passing day I am being reduced to a minority group called "bachelors". So when people come asking my standard response is "I cannot get married whenever I want. I need a willing girl as well ". So much so for the curious folks in India who will go to depths of questioning about your personal life. Anyways changing topics, yesterday evening also happened to watch the movie The Hangover. It is one kick ass hilarious movie. I laughed so much after a long long time. Although it can be a bit loud for some, its definitely the kind of movie you should watch on a Friday after a strenuous week of work. So there it is... Saturday morning now and I am already looking forward to the predictable weekend.

Doing Nothing

When I close my eyes, I can literally relive the hectic pace at ISB...the cacophony, the friends, the deadlines, the exams, the club activities - everything just whizzes past like one super fast train. And then I open my eyes and the reality strikes. I really dont have anything to do the whole day apart from enjoying the delicacies that mom is dishing out and the unbearable 40+ degree heat that mother nature dishing out. I talk to my friends and the same withdrawal symptoms are evident to all. It is just but natural I guess.

The O week at ISB was a lot of fun. But the last day was really sad and painful. I mean that was the time it really really struck me that the campus will not be ours anymore. A new bunch of guys will take it over and make it a year of their life. Anyways I tried to drink my way out of the senti mood and things just got worse on 18th night. I cried in public and I don't even remember the countless guys who tried to console me that night. Bottomline I had a blast the entire year and made some of the best frinds ever and I miss them all [sigh sigh sigh]. It feels nice to read your own posts to relive your own experiences. I felt that life has come a full circle when I read my own post " Orientation week ends at ISB" of last year.

I met some really interesting(and beautiful) people at ISB from the current batch. People unsure about what to expect from ISB, people confused about career options, people just plain simply overawed at life in general at ISB. My only advice to them was to just enjoy life and make some friends for life and everything else would fall into place. I am sure everyone of you will do just fine. And if any of you need any gyaan just reach out to me and I would be happy to help.