Pursuit of Excellence is always from within and not outside

 Once upon a time there lived a humble sculptor called Eshwar in Mayanagar, it was a small village on the banks of River. He lived happy with his family and liked work very much & believed in absolute perfection. His specialty was his ability to find minutest faults in his work and always believed in delivering the best to his clients. He had the highest attention to details which made him best sculptor in the entire neighborhood. Many customers would travel along way to buy his creations.

One day a customer came to checkout Eshwar’s creation with lot of attention, care and passion. Visitor’s eyes fell on a piece of a dancer which was looking almost real and he fell in love with that idol and was keen to buy it. When he approached Eshwar to check out the price and other finer details. The Sculptor politely told him not to buy it has some defects. But the visitor was so much pleased with the beauty that he did not like the explanation and asked him “No one will identify any fault in this master piece”. Eshwar patiently heard his request and eagerness to buy his work, but he explained every minute feature and also explained the minute defect in his creation.  Customer was shocked and could not believe himself that he could not find any fault with the idol and felt exhilarated to realize the excellence in Eshwar work and later learnt about his background, education & values which he practices in his life.

Excellence is not by accident but it is an outcome of dedicated, continuous good intentions, intensity, Self-discipline, tenacity of purpose along with good execution. It’s all about how we work & how well we love our profession. It’s about demonstrating excellence at work all the time and it should come from within and not outside, excellence is not a skill but a deep rooted positive attitude.

Education is a process by which character is formed, strength of mind if increased and intellect is sharpened, as a result of which one can stand on one’s own feet. Education is nothing but the manifestation of perfection already exists in human mind. One of the most important and vital goal of education is to facilitate knowledge enhancement, employment, self-confidence to impact the socioeconomic growth of the country.

As you all know India we are country of abundance, be it all types of resources, human capital and everything else is in abundance. I feel anything in abundance is a risk & this brings in a very different kind of challenges which we need to manage to overcome these risks. World is changing rapidly at the speed of light and everything is revolving around the IoT of the world. The world today has a very different expectations and the need of the hour is not commoditization but a true differentiation. World is full of talent but Talented are very few. As a country our challenge is not to make talent a commodity, not to make engineering education a commodity. Engineering cannot become a commodity as it’s very special and requires a whole new set of skills, abilities & aptitude. Engineering is all about left brain activity & need a fundamental shift in thinking, approach to solve challenges & to develop LIFE skills. We need to reinvent ourselves & rethink differently to differentiate ourselves. 

Watch this space for Part2......

Bangalore - Home for Many Silicon Valley Start Ups

21^st Century has witnessed a rapid economic development across the globe; India has played a central role in enabling global technology development, innovation & human capital development. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka, a southern state in India. It is also known as the Silicon Valley of India. Bangalore is the third most populous city (Close to 9.5 million population) and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. Bangalore is the leading Information technology (IT) exporter across Indian cities. It’s a hub for information technology (IT) companies in India The more prevalent nickname Silicon Valley began in the 1990s based on a concentration of firms specializing in Research and Development (R&D), Electronics and Software Production. Located at a height of over 3,000 feet (914.4 m) above sea level, Bangalore is known for its pleasant weather conditions throughout the year. The city is amongst the top ten preferred entrepreneurial destinations in the world.

Synanpse chose Bangalore as its home in India and the rapid growth led to creating a strong foundation to service our marque clients. Founders of Synapse decided to focus on creating intellectual & physical infrastructure in Bangalore by acquiring 30,000 sq.ft office facility at the heart of IT hub in Whitefield. Synapse new home is located in Prestige Shantiniketan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OfivgeCrr4). The Centre will be developed in a phased manner, as first phase of development we have created a 170+ capacity facility to boost the growth of India development Centre. With world class state of the art infrastructure has mind-blowing interiors with two architect designed conference rooms, discussion Rooms/ work stations.

With A townscape placed in one of the most envied areas in the city - Whitefield. Filled with 105 acres of fresh, green spaces, it is a haven that promises to offer the best in cosmopolitan lifestyles. From an expansive residential precinct, the Business Center to the Forum Mall, a world-class convention center and a five-screen multiplex- all this exquisitely designed and laid-out amidst rolling greens.

The historic event of dedicating the Synapse India Development Centre to all Synapseans & its global clients was inaugurated by Satish Bagalakotkar,CEO, Devesh Gautham,  COO/MD in presence of colleagues from USA, China, Europe & all India employees. 

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step and this was just the glimpse of many more accolades to come in the near future. 

Awake, Arise and stop not till you transform the world, touch lives....

It was a very cold & breeze day at London Heathrow Airport on 28-Mar-08 when I landed for my HR assignment with Mindtree. I have been experiencing a whole new world which is completely new to me as this was my first ever international assignment. The whole experience is new & it will take some time for me to get used to this unusual environment. The more I explored London & rest of Europe the more I thought of my motherland as I always dream of seeing a transformed nation before I am laid to rest (As we live in a very uncertain world and it’s perfectly OK to write this statement). I feel so excited to see great level of planning, discipline, foresight, ability to relate to the larger vision for every city, borough (Local councils are called boroughs for example Eagling, Wembley, Wimbledon etc). The way each council works in London and ways & means to manage every local area (www.ealing.gov.uk).

It’s very strange thing to write but I am forced to pen my thoughts as these were very precious for me, these will help me to live my dream for many more years & will act as a bundle of energy in enabling a vibrant& competitive young Turks from North Karnataka.

I was born in a small village in North Karnataka, the heart of Karnataka state which is neglected by every political party, politicians and constantly denied by any kind development for the last 50 years. While we have to really think & introspects of what we can do to uplift life of our statesmen, I would like to introduce one small baby step in creating awareness among all youths of Karnataka by igniting a need for developing Business Language & survival Skills and how they can impact our lives and open a world of opportunities for everyone.

I was one of those few lucky who grew up & spent most of my childhood in my native place (Navalagund Taluk, Tuppadakurahatti) which had no bus/rail connectivity for a long time. I lived in my village for 11 years before stepping out to visit Gadag, a neighboring town and now a district head quarter. It was great fun going to school everyday, we had bare minimum shelter and teachers (Very Few) who tried their best to teach us some basic common sense under very very difficult conditions. Thanks to my parents and my well-wishers, when I was moved to a nearby town Gadag which is 21 Kms away from my Village (Probably for the first time I traveled to Gadag) to get an admission in a primary school that’s when I realized the real need for quality education at all levels, I did not know the basics of education, trust me I did not even knew few English alphabets and I was already in 6^th standard. All these realities hit me like a bullet and I further unearthed many more facts about my abilities such as basic mathematics & social skills. I was ashamed when many schools rejected admission to me and along with my father went from school to school to seek admission. After a long and painful run for schools, I landed up in Jagadguru Tontadrya Primary School for my 6^th class. My life transformed after joining this school which had great amenities, teachers, friends and a strong social/cultural system and more importantly we were taught survival skills.

Today as I look back my childhood after 3 decades of struggle I had to go through to learn & develop some survival skills, we as human beings, we have the unique ability to envision our future and to see ourselves making our dreams come true. All great people, corporations/ companies and nations have been driven by visions of what they wanted to do, where they want to go, & how they want to be& what they want to have etc. Vision without action is but a dream, Action without vision is a passing thought& it moves with time. Vision with clear action plan can change the world around us and hence the need for a greater vision for your motherland is of great importance. Vision is nothing but a set of clearly defined goals with a definite period in mind to achieve those key goals in life. It’s very critical that we build a great vision for ourselves and develop our intellectual abilities to be able to face the ever changing world.

If you see historically from early days of our independence we have been facing challenges of illiteracy, poverty, hunger, caste, communal divide & so on. As a nation we have come a long way in fighting all these evils and are now at the cusp of emerging as one of the world’s preferred destination for talent & manpower much ahead of china and many other Asian countries. India is also one of the fastest developing economies in the world today, targeting double digit GDP Growth. India hosts 65% of Information Technology global off-shoring workforce, 46% of global BPO [Business Process Outsourcing], having said that we also have many challenges such as sustaining Diversity (Religion, language, culture etc.), unemployment, poverty, social security, health, political will/stability and many more which needs to be addressed to ensure Democracy and Economical prowess.

Sunrise industry of modern India, Information Technology (IT) which has a dream of achieving 86 Billion dollar has clearly taken India to a global arena and has made all of us proud. The whole world is looking at Indian IT industry for solutions to their business challenges. Many global companies are excited about India story and they want to be part of our success story. Many of these companies have a special chapter for India story in their business plans. Many believe that we have the best of both the worlds “Ability to relate to the rest of the world by means of speaking a global business language [English] & Intellect ability to create the worlds best Intellectual Property”.

As we prepare ourselves to face the global challenges we are faced with an impossible task of creating great quality education eco-system which will produce best in class engineers/graduates who are ready to face the global challenges. India's higher education system contributes about 350,000 engineers and 2.5 million university graduates annually to our workforce, yet at any given time about 5 million graduates remain unemployed. A survey done by McKinsey Global Institute shows major IT organizations find only 25 percent of engineers are employable, and NASSCOM report foresees shortage of 8 million skilled/ employable work force by 2020.

For every industry the biggest challenge is to hire the best talent at the right time with a right cost. Indian IT would need 300,000 qualified Employable engineers in the next few years. Today many of the industry leaders/institutions are burning midnight oil to chalk out strategies to build employability skills to all their workforce. Many large organizations are spending enormous money towards training/grooming people on various aspects of industrial & technological requirements.

Infact many large organizations have started learning academy’s which are nothing but corporate universities to develop survival skills. It is astonishing to see these large corporations manage to coach/teach thousands of Engineers and make them industry ready in less than 10 - 12 weeks time which academia is not able to fulfill during long and arduous tenure of collegiate education. If they can have the will & determination to transform young brigade of India, there is something missing in all of us and more importantly in our academic structure, system & pedagogy. I think the time is ripe to introspect and reflect on the challenges we have and commit ourselves to develop a strong foundation which will lend itself to nurture young talent.

Some of the key skills that every young engineer, graduate need to acquire during early days of their schooling/college;

• Business Language Skills – The universal language ENGLISH

• Reading, Writing, speaking, Articulation, Assertive & questioning Skills

• Problem solving, cognitive thinking, Values, Ethics & Social Responsibility etc.

•  Industry/domain knowledge skill & ability to deal with uncertainties in ever changing world

•  Behavioral etiquettes – Social life style, personal grooming, corporate etiquettes, appreciating culture etc.

•  Leadership Skills – Self leadership, People, Diversity Management etc.

The task of imparting all the above skills seems Herculean and impossible at school, college level. These may not be part of any curriculum, but we often miss out on all these and hence we are seeing graduates/engineers who fail to acquire key competencies to enter the corporate world and this leads to increased unemployment.

The world is changing at the speed of light & we need to develop Agility & demonstrate high levels of energy to be able to survive & thrive in this ever changing competitive environment.

Feedback - Breakfast for Champions

Every soul is potentially divine & all of us are born genius, but some people fail to recognize the genius in them and lead a mediocre life. We live in a competitive world where collective Performances drives success, happiness & emotional engagement with organizations. As the world gears up to scale new heights, Human Capital is taking centre stage & playing a pivotal role in ensuring greater value to the customers and enabling in creating stickiness.

People will not become great in their career unless they know where they are doing well, so they can keep on doing these things, and where they need to improve to deliver better results. For many employees it can be a case of ‘No news is good news’, as they only get to hear if things go wrong. Feedback is extremely critical for improving and perfecting performance, but if we do it in a constructive way it acts as a highly motivational & life changing exercise.

There are many ways of engaging & developing talent in organizations. Performance Management System is one of the most trusted ways an organization can measure & evaluate best performance practices and support future development of its people. Every professional needs to know where he/she stands with regard to their job performance. While every individual awaits his/her performance feedback on regular intervals, feedback is related to many facets of overall development such as Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Attitude, Behavior, Value Match etc. It’s extremely challenging to eliminate subjectivity while giving feedback. Often there are differences between manager & subordinates due to focus on personality rather than Performance, Competence & Capability.

As a recipient of performance feedback it’s extremely critical to understand feedback in right perspective, there are few basic guidelines for performance appraisal they are:

1. It’s an opportunity to present your achievements, development areas in the right
perspective (Accurate self- assessment)
2. Evaluating Objectives Vs Measurement Criteria related to a job/project
3. Measuring Behavioral/Values in a professional environment
4. It’s an instrument which facilitates to receive both positive and negative feedback & takes
corrective action for self development
5. Appraisal also focuses on Competence Development & not merely Performance evaluation

But more often than not feedback is not accepted in the right sense by majority in the industry which leads to turbulence in working environment, disengagement & animosity among the supervisor & subordinates. Feedback can be positive, negative, neutral and development oriented. I believe we need to look at feedback as a Power Booster which will help us to realize strengths, development areas, potential & a journey ahead.

It’s extremely important to broaden our heart & Mind when we receive negative feedback as it can work completely counterproductive if we do not take it in our stride. I agree that feedback is a very subjective & person dependent. But if you look at high achievers in IT industry, sports, artists etc. they attribute their success to the constant feedback & its impact on their Performance. We have a choice of feeling completely dejected & let down by managers/supervisors about the Feedback they have given or absorb the data & introspect without any bias to see if feedback can really help you to up your competence levels & start making a difference to your own life.

I would like to share few tips on how to deal with negative/development oriented feedback:

1. Review complete feedback without reacting to what is being told/written.
· Our first instinct in such situations will be to get defensive & start counting reasons
· What is he/she concerned about? What are the key issues raised by supervisor?
· Why is he/she reacting this way & what could be the concerns?
2. On receiving feedback, do not look at the person but focus on the role
· Do not mix your identity with career, instead focus on role & refer feedback on
performance of that role
3. Be comfortable with criticism & take it in a constructive way, as it is focused on you’re role
and not your personality
· When criticized, it’s not easy to absorb, but do not take it personally. You need to see
things in perspective
4. In a professional career, there will be many Ups & DOWNs, but treat feedback as a tool
for self transformation. Feedback is the Breakfast of champions.
· It’s extremely critical to know that career is a journey & not a destination. We need to
learn & enjoy every experience.
5. Lets own up mistakes & be willing to learn from every experience
· It takes a lion heart to accept our mistakes and work on improving our mistakes. Set a
self discipline of not to repeat any mistakes. This is a journey towards growth
6. Know that “Man the maker of his destiny”

We are the masters of our life, we must take charge, create interventions to transform our future & redefine our destinyThe above points are purely based on my personal/professional experience in the industry & hope these learning will be helpful in dealing with performance feedback. It’s not easy to handle feedback but if we learn the art of dealing with it, it’ll go a long way in transforming our lives.

Good Luck at God Speed!

Launching GEN "Y" – Exploring the unkown

Welcome to the world of IT Family.. World is a place full of Life Transformation in every sense – It’s a great Learning University, a happening place for many things in our life.
There are many types of people in this world, people from all walks of life come together to shape up their life, career, society etc. In the process some feel that god did not give what they WANTED, but today I will tell you god has given everthying that we NEED to make our life a beautiful journey.

Transformation does not start with someone else changing you; transformation is an inner self reworking of what you are now to what you will be tomorrow. Your first task is to discover yourself and then commit yourself to your GOAL for the rest of your life. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Many people come with big dreams, but only some achieve their dreams. The only way to realize your dreams to wake up and take RIGHT steps to make your dreams a reality.

To facilitate this transformation there are many innovative & unique concepts in Indiaan IT where people Learn, Share & Inspire the youth of India. So get ready to launch your career.
We Gen "X" welcome you to the new world and wish you good luck and All the very Best…

Life of a Professional - A Journey well travelled...

Life is a journey and one has to celebrate every moment of life either its a personal or professional career. It has been a memorable experience to spend 15 years in a corporate environment. After having spent my early days of my career with NTTF (NEC) & The Indian Hotels Company Limited, The Taj West End, I landed up at MindTree. Recently I completed 10 Years@MindTree . As I looked back to reflect on what is that I have learnt in these wonderful years of my life. I have tried to pen down my experiences & key learnings as a Professional.

The definition of a Professional can be attributed to an individual's ability to work unsupervised at any situation, The capacity to self certify the completion of work well done and while doing this maintain the highest level of integrity at work by doing the right and not the convinient.

1. Take risks in life and never be complacent with what & where you are. Straight from the Gut, listen to your inner call
2. Problems are truly nothing but abundant opportunities/challenges in life. Sky is the limit to your ambition
3. Building a culture Centric organization is a long & painful process. Culture is the nucleus of a true people organization
4. Never complain, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Challenge your limits & conquer the How’s.
5. You past glory has no guarantee of your future success, learn everyday. Road always less traveled, develop forward looking attitude
6. Work is 8.5 Hrs & Passion is (24/7) for life, be passionate of what you do & Enjoy. There are no short cuts to Success & Achievement in life
7. HR Function is the custodian of Culture & values, you are the face of the organization. What you do, say & write is seen as a rule\policy
8. It is simple to be happy, but it is so difficult to be simple. Right Attitude is everything, wear a Smile, it costs nothing to be cheerful. Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. Learn to love what you do and you will be happy and successful
9. Commitment, Dedication, Passion, Hard work & continuous learning attitude are the bedrock of your professional growth & Success. No one is perfect in life, we all evolve over a period of life. It’s OK to make mistakes but never repeat the same mistake again.
10. Man the Maker of his own destiny. You are the driver of your destiny, company can only facilitate right environment & opportunities . Never say No attitude, flexibility, ability to learn, relearn & unlearn.

I would like to thank eveyone who has impacted my life at MindTree and helped me to be a better Professional and it’s been a great journey personally and I will cherish these days for the rest of my life.

Career is a Journey and not a destiny in itself.. explore yourself, experience challenges, Learn, Unlearn, Relearn and Rejuvenate all the time. Sky is the limit for your passion... chase your dreams, wake up and take action to realize all your dreams.

HR OD Initiative - Toddlers Park – Building a home for the Generation Next

• As a HR professional for the last decade and half, one thing I have realized is Human Resource as a function is ever evolving and still has many unchartered territories to explore. During 2007-08, in the early summer as we were rolling out strategic initiatives of HR function, one of the responsibilities I had was to create an OD charter & implement some of the unique practices in my organization. It was very challenging and unique, as none has traversed this path and I was the first one to take a plunge into this assignment. After a lot of research & discussions I realized that the development and implementation of a winning mindset is the core to be able to build and sustain OD intervention in any organization. OD charter can be a way to transform your HR organization. A true HR transformation is an integrated, aligned, innovative, and business focused approach to redefining how HR functions within an organization so that it enables the organization to deliver its value proposition to its primary customers, stake holders and society at large.
  
  There is a perception in the industry today that HR functions are all about creating JOY events, feel good factor and not really providing strategic direction & handling critical issues of people development. HR functions/professionals are working towards creating best practices to enable a strong people centric culture (Culture is the nucleus of a true people organization) that make employees more competitive, comfortable and helps to create a sustained high energy levels across the organization.
  
  One of my first assignments was to create a home for young Minds at MindTree. This was a special need of all young mothers/fathers who have young infant who needs a caring & nurturing home away from home. It was an assignment of creating a Daycare to create inclusivity and support system for oung parents. I felt it was the most interesting and challenging assignment I ever had in the last 13 years of career. It was very fascinating for me as I also had a little son Nishcal who is 2 years who would play in this DayCare once it is ready.
  
  
  
  Evolution of DayCare appeared in the early 1840’s in France, Originating in Europe in the late 18th and 19th century, day cares were established in the United States by private charities in the 1850s. Daycare’s in India evolved because of the need to create support system for all nuclear families. More and more people in India have started living in major cities where both husband & wife are career oriented and have no one to take care of their future (Children). This has lead to starting daycare centre’s in India.
  
  At MindTree, we have a Baby’s Day Out facility where all young parents bring their kids to work, while parents work children play around, in a beautifully decorated place with lots of toys, games etc. This facility accommodates only handful of people and not made to cater to larger needs. Suddenly young parents have to depend on care takers who need to nurture children & hence they were not sure if they will go to office on any given day, since they have to wait till the care taker comes. This issue started impacting young parent’s work/professional and personal life. Many minds were not keen to send their children to outside daycare centres as they were not comfortable & logistically it was a nightmare to manage family issues on a daily basis. All parents went and approached people function to help in this situation. Ideas starting pouring in from everyone, then we started thinking of a facility which can help the parents. There arose the idea of having Toddlers Park at MindTree.
  
  First task was to find out the facts about what it takes to start a DayCare centre, the needs of MindTree Minds and capacity planning to be able to empanel a vendor who will run this DayCare. I broadly created a project plan to execute this assignment and roped in few young mothers Mitali, Shyamala to help me with scoping & requirement gathering. I started an extensive research on what it takes to create a DayCare, spoke to lot of agencies who run daycare, companies who have DayCare, people planning to start daycare. I did quite a lot of networking among the HR community to find out what it takes to set up a DayCare. I met many HR professionals, child specialists, entrepreneurs in DayCare domain to understand how, what, why, where etc. I also visited corporate DayCare centre’s of Honeywell, Infosys, IBM etc. along with Mitali & Vanita. During my discussions I realized it’s not very simple to start a daycare, It needs a complete different mindset to set up a daycare.
  
  Key special requirements for DayCare are;
  - Soft Flooring with special material with mat finish & not necessarily carpet
  - Walls need to have soft padding to ensure that children do not get hurt while
  crawling, walking, playing etc.
  - All equipments in the Daycare to have smooth edges
  - Enough cross air circulation & no Air Condition
  - Special clothing’s, crockery & mattresses along with special floor mats
  - Special Cradle’s for different age groups
  - Need to have unique child to care taker ratio to ensure appropriate hygienic
  environment
  - Special toys, special books, CDs etc.
  
  You will never realize how help is often avail­able just when you need it, One day while visiting Infosys DayCare I met Mrs.Meena Sivaram from Bright Vistas who had done some excellent work in setting up and running successful daycare centres across Bangalore. The way she presented her story was a mesmerizing experience for me, her love for children & understanding of child psychology helped me to narrow down on my search for a partner. This 30 minute conversation led to many longer discussions to see if we can work together and she can help me to set up MindTree’s daycare Centre in Global Village.
  
  We briefed our requirements to Bright Vistas MD, Meena Sivaraman and introduced her to all young parents at MindTree so that they are comfortable with the service provider. A team of young mothers & myself started looking for the space run this facility. We were given many different options but none were suitable to host young children. At last we found space below Coffee day in the Global village premises. While we searched for space, we gave the specifications to our Administration team to work out a layout plan, furnishing etc. I must admit that we pushed them to deliver with stiff deadline but they worked day and night to bring the infrastructure. At last with an effort of 4 months we started our daycare 3rd week of September’2007 we had Toddlers Park ready for inauguration to host young minds of the future.
  
  After the daycare started Kids were very happy since they could learn new things and have lot of friends. But soon we realized that we hit the dead end with no of children registering with Toddlers Park was diminishing as we didn’t get the minimum Nos to to run a DayCare and Meena was getting worried as she started incurring losses within 3 months. We did not know what do and decided to create a marketing collaterals, conducting events at DayCare to educate people about the facilities, services and happiness for children. It took few months before we managed to get the required children to come to Toddlers Park..
  As the happiness quotient started spreading a wave within Global Village and in a year’s time many requests came for the toddler’s park that lead to the extension of the facility to accommodate mmore than 25 children. This has lead to a full-fledged toddler’s park which accommodates tiny babies from 3 months to 6 year old kids and evolved various services such as full day, half day and hourly basis engagement of young children to suit different needs of different parents.
  
  Presence of Toddlers Park with in the walk-able distance of work place brings the feeling of near the dear ones and one could just meet them, cuddle them when you wish; play with them whenever required and comeback to work with absolute freshness. This gave us a sense of work life balance and erased the feeling of way from the loved ones. This facility has helped not only MindTree parents but also given employment to many people for their survival. Most of the people employed are from surrounding areas & have got an opportunity to serve the best creation of almighty and in the process then can lead a more meaningful life for their loves ones with the help of Bright Vistas. People never forget that helping hand especially when times are tough. In helping others, we indirectly help ourselves, for whatever good we do to others completes the circle and comes back to us in some form or the other. Hard times hit us at some point in life, Enjoy everything in life, good & bad, Let your fortune help others, only People helping people makes this world a better place to live.
  It was an experience of a life time to create a home for little prince & princess who will rule this world some day. Children will not remember us for the material things that we provide them but the feeling that we cherished them. Children are the most valuable gifts of god as they the best hope of a better future… Long live the generation next…