I'm in the Martian Orbit

India created history on Wednesday, becoming the first country to successfully get a spacecraft into the Martian orbit on its maiden attempt. It aims to study Mars' surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane with the help of scientific instruments.

Nicknamed 'Mangalyaan', the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission will boost India's five-decade-old space programme. The Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission. It was launched on November 5, 2013 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) The mission and was executed in 15 months at a cost of Rs. 450 crore ($74 million), which is a  fraction of the $671 million that NASA of US spent.

As the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi said, our budget of sending Mangalyaan was lesser than the budget of a Hollywood movie. No doubt the Western world is flocking India to get all its work done. What started as a trickle with call centres, body shopping, Business Process Outsourcing has now turned into setting up R&D Centres, Manufacturing hubs, Satellite launches and other high end outsourcing.

India now joins a small club of nations — the U.S., Russia and those in the European Space Agency – to have mastered interplanetary travel, giving it bragging rights over Asian rivals China and Japan whose attempts to get to Mars failed.

Its indeed a proud moment for ISRO and Indian scientists. India has a very successful and reputed Space programme and made a name for itself in the comity of nations in the area of Satellite launches, mission to the Moon and now mission to the Moon. We have shown to the world that we are second to none when it comes to intelligence, science & technology afterall wasnt Aryabhatta from India, the first ancient scientist to explain the spherical rotation of the earth on its axis and also the lunar & solar eclipse.

As our Prime Minister said, its time that we start celebrating the success of this great momentous occasion and felicitate our Scientists and celebrate in the streets just like we do when India won the world cup. In fact this achievement is far bigger than our victories in cricket. So its time the frenzy nation, media & sponsors sit up and recoginise this achievement and honour & felicitate the ISRO scientists.

Modiji’s address to the ISRO scientist was inspiring and am sure will inspire the scientists and the citizens of India to scale up even further reach greater heights. Trust other politicians in the country will strengthen Modi’s hands to do so………. Only time will tell…….

Scheider Electric wins HR Best Practice award at the NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 program

I am proud to announce that Schneider Electric India's entry - Campus Program Management Process Innovation for the Best HR Practice at the NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 has been recognized and awarded as one of the Top 6 HR Best Practice in the Country.

This award was chosen from amongst 100+ Best HR Practices from among 50 companies country wide. There was a preliminary round held on 23 Aug, where in this Best Practice was chosen to be showcased in the Final round (35 of them) held at the NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014, program held at the MLR Convention Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore on 19/20 Sep 2014. In all we had around 2000 visitors to this NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 program spread over 2 days.

Besides a Trophy, the award carried a Prize of Rs. One lakh worth of Gift Cheques from Gift Big and Titan Industries.

Its indeed a proud achievement for Schneider HR and for the team. This is second year in running that one of our HR initiative has won a HR Best Practice award.

Dr Marshall Goldsmith address @ NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 program

We had the privilege of hosting the NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 program 19/20^th September at Bangalore. It was indeed a momentous occassion for NHRD Bangalore to host the HR Showcase program and it was heartening & very encouraging for us to see the overwhelming response that we got from Organisations, HR Service Providers, Sponsors, Academia & Research. It was a great team effort under the leadership of Sudheesh and we thoroughly enjoyed organising this event.

We are glad that the participants & visitors enjoyed being part of this program and found it fruitful in participation. We look forward to your continued patronage towards NHRD Bangalore Chapter and in our journey of networking HR Professionals and sharing our thoughts, knowledge & experiences and enriching the HR Community at large.

In all  we had 40 Corporates showcasing their HR Best Practices, 13 Start Ups and 7 Research papers showcased as part of this program. We had around 2000+ visitors visiting the program spread over 2 days.

As part of this program we had invited world renowned Leadership Coach, Marshall Goldsmith  to the Guest of Honour at the NHRD Titan HR Showcase 2014 program conducted by the NHRD Bangalore Chapter to commemorate its Silver Jubilee celebration on the 20^th September 2014.

Marshall Goldsmith has been recognized as the # 1 leadership thinker in the world and  one of the top ten Most-Influential Business Thinkers in the World and the top-ranked executive coach at the 2013 biennial Thinkers50 ceremony in London.

Dr. Goldsmith is the author or editor of 34 books, which have sold over two million copies, been translated into 30 languages and become bestsellers in 12 countries. He has written two New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year.

His address was eagerly awaited for by the audience and he didn’t disappoint.

Be happy now. Not next week, not next month, not next year. Now. The great Western disease we are spreading around the world is “I’ll be happy when......” When I get that BMW, when I get that newhouse, when I get that status. Don’t get so wrapped up looking at what youdon’t have that you miss that, what you do have.

People keep chasing the future, without realizing what they have before them at present and fail to appreciate all the good things that they have got/achieved in the past. He exhorted the participants to “Live in the present and enjoy it.”

Appreciate your friends and family. When you’re 95 years old and you’re on your death bed, do you think you’ll be surrounded by your clients? It’s your friends and family who matter most. Many a great people who have achieved so much (in terms of fame, position & wealth) have had many regrets on their dying bed and have not passed away a happy person. Many of them have lived a lonely life and died a loner. They miss their family and their near & dear ones. They had everything at their disposal but missed the love & affection. Spend time with your near & loved ones and don’t postpone it for a later day.

 If you have a dream, go for it. Want to write a book? Visit Switzerland? Learn to speak Mandarin? Your dream doesn’t have to be big–itcould be one that people think is silly, or just plain nuts. It’s your dream, and you should go for it now because when you’re 75, you may not be able to do it.

All of us are equal in death. We are not going to carry anything with us on our death. Share all what you have with others and don’t just chase wealth for yourself. Live as if each day is your last day.

People spend most of their time – 75% of their time trying to control, what they cannot control. Let go of things that we cannot control with a deep breathe and focus on what we can control. It reminds me of my Father in Law who used to say “what cannot be cured must be endured”. He exhorted us to focus on what we can change that is under our control and not waste our time and stressing ourselves on things that we cannot change because its not under our control.  He gave the example of Bangalore Traffic and how  people fret & fume and get stressed about Bangalore Traffic. But whats the point. We cant change it by stressing & fuming as it is not in our control.

He also exhorted Live for Yourself and not for others. He said follow you heart. 

On the HR front he said, that Organisation Values are mostly in-scripted on plaques and hung on walls and dont really carry a meaning. Its ultimately your values (individual values) that script an Organisation success. 

He also said that Employee engagement will not be a success unless you win over your employees heart. 

All in all it was an inspiring address and truly inspired many in the audience and was certainly one of the best piece of the HR Showcase program. It certainly touched our heart  for me and my son Anish. We thoroughly enjoyed it and will work hard to follow his advise and live in the present, for we do not know how long we will last……..

NHRD Bangalore TITAN HR Showcase 2014 - Winners

It was indeed a momentous occassion for NHRD Bangalore to host the HR Showcase program and it was heartening & very encouraging for us to see the overwhelming response that we got from Organisations, HR Service Providers, Sponsors, Academia & Research. It was  a great team effort under the leadership of Sudheesh and we thoroughly enjoyed organising this event.

We are glad that the participants & visitors enjoyed being part of this program and found it fruitful in participation. We would like to thank every one - Organisations, HR Service Providers, Sponsors, Academia & Research, Media, Volunteers, National Board Members, Past Presidents & EC members and the Bangalore HR Community for having participated in the program and contributing to its sucess. We look forward to your continued patronage towards NHRD Bangalore Chapter and in our journey of networking HR Professionals and sharing our thoughts, knowledge & experiences and enriching the HR Community at large.

Some early pictures shared from my end.

HRShowcase video

Game, set and what a match! Martina Navratilova makes surprise proposal to her partner

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova popped the question to her longtime girlfriend Julia Lemigova in front a packed U.S. Open crowd over the weekend.

The nine-time Wimbledon champ interrupted an interview to get down on one knee, with a standing ovation from the crowd, after Kei Nishikori's stunning upset of Novak Djokovic in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“Please, marry me?” she asked Lemigova. “It's a yes, no, or maybe,” she jokingly added.

The 57-year-old appeared on the screen at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, and the Russian model said yes to rounds of cheers and applause.

Afterwards, Navratilova said, "I have been waiting for the right time to ask Julia to marry me ... I thought this was the right place and the right time to pop the question and thankfully I got a 'yes.'

The couple has been dating for six years.

Its truly a case of the courage of conviction and moral courage and that too, to profess in front of the world audience. This is truly liberalization at its best. Who said that love is supposed to be with the partner of the opposite sex. How many people dare come out in the open and share their true feeling or being scared of being chasticised by the society. Hats off to Navratilova and her partner for their openness and daring to share their feelings in public and not being a hypocrite.

Marriage is truly a contract for sharing of love & affection, companionship and not just a contract for sex or may be there is fun & excitement in sex with the same gender, for not many would have dared to explore............

Fortunate to interact with Dr Pawan Girdharilal Agrawal, CEO of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association - a day to cherish

The  Dabbawala, (one who carries the box), in the Indian city of Mumbai carry and deliver freshly made food from customer’s home in a lunch box (Dabba) and deliver it to offices. It may sound simple, but it’s not. It is actually a highly specialized trade that has evolved in its current form over a century and has become integral to Mumbai’s culture.

It all started about 125 years back when a Parasi banker wanted to have home cooked food regularly in office and gave this responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala. Other people also liked the idea and the demand for Dabba delivery soared.

It was all informal and individual effort in the beginning, but visionary Mahadeo Havaji Bachche saw the opportunity and started the lunch delivery service in its present team-delivery format with 100 Dabbawalas. As the city grew, the demand for dabba delivery grew too. Their forefathers had the vision to create the Dabba coding system that’s going on strong even today.

The Coding system evolved through various stages with time. In the beginning it was simple colour coding. Now Mumbai is a widely spread metro with 3 local train routes. Their coding has also evolved into alpha numeric characters.

There about 5000 in number and deliver approximately 200,000 tiffin boxes every day.  They operate @ six sigma efficiency. Their error rate is one in 16million deliveries. They are 125 years old. Never have gone on strike and no police / court case against them. They earn a maximum  of Rs.15,000/- per month (annualized basis) and their attrition is zero %. A dream for any HR person or for any CEO’s that matter.

We had invited  Dr Pawan Girdharilal Agrawal, CEO of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association to address the Schneiderites as part of our Leadership Series and it was another memorable occassion for all us. He really inspired the 400+ audience and made us sit up and reflect.

I was fortunate to spend some time with him at our office in Whitefield, Bangalore.  A man who globe trots around the world, delivering his lecture on the Mumbai Dabbawala experience, who's interacted with Prince Charles, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Richard Bronson of Virgin Atlantic, Amitabh, Sharukh Khan and all corporate honchos was so simple, very humble, down to earth and was so refreshing to see such a celbrity. He readily mingled with all and patiently posed for photographs with each one of them. The icing on the cake was when he gave away his trade mark Gandhi cap and a tiffin box memento. I was fortunate to be one of them to recieve this and surely will treasure this for long time to come.

It was truly another memorable day that I will cherish for long time to come. 

Elated to have met & recieved a copy of Insanely Simple from Ken Segall, former Creative Director of Apple

I was attending the 17th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Asia being organised by SSON at the Max Atria, Singapore Exposition Centre, Singapore 1-4 Sep 2014.  

As part of this program, probably the icing on the cake was the BIG IDEA KEYNOTE: Simplicity: The Driving Force in Innovation from Apple’s Former Creative Director, Ken Segell. 

Having worked for 12 years as Steve Jobs’ agency Creative Director, Ken Segall is well acquainted with the power of simplicity. Having played the same role with companies like Intel and Dell, he’s equally familiar with the dangers of complexity. These varied experiences led to Ken’s New York Times Best Seller, Insanely Simple. The man who put the “i” in Apple talks about simplicity as a guiding principal for successful branding, services and problem solving. Being simple is not simple — but it’s the key to winning the hearts of customers and colleagues alike. 

The spectacular success of Apple is well known—but that’s not to say it’s well understood.

How is it that Apple could so consistently out think and out market monoliths who possess greater resources or market share? The answer is surprisingly uncomplicated.

But the biggest surprise and take away for me was when I was fortunate to receive an autographed copy of his book Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success. It was probably one of the best moments of this program and also a day I will long remember and cherish and the few minutes I had with him one-on one. It certainly made my day and made my trip to Singapore to attend this program worth all its penny. 

He was so simple and humble and mingled with every one and took time to talk to many of us and painstakingly sign and autograph his book. Thanks to Ken for presenting me an autographed book. It will surely be a a prize treasure in my library. 

The BOOK

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success

To Steve Jobs, Simplicity was a religion. He built a company based on its principles, in which the complexities of traditional business were simply not tolerated. Simplicity was also his most powerful weapon—a means of humbling category leaders once thought to be invincible.

Insanely Simple is a fascinating read for anyone curious about life in Steve Jobs’s world. It’s an even more compelling read for anyone who wishes to leverage the power of Simplicity to propel their own organization—or their own career.

The ten elements of Simplicity

Insanely Simple explains the ten elements of Simplicity that drive Apple’s success, illustrating each with previously untold stories. It takes you inside Steve Jobs’s world to show you how he enforced the rules of Simplicity—sometimes with humor, sometimes with brutality, but always with amazing success.

Ken Segall has literally captured lightning in a bottle. Insanely Simple reveals the secret of Steve Jobs’s success with such clarity, even we non-geniuses can make use of it. Ken shows us how to cut through the cobwebs of fuzzy thinking, bureaucracy and mediocrity, and clearly see what's most essential—and therefore most important.

Surely a must read for any one and understand how Steve Jobs and his team relentlessly drove innovation but at the same time kept it simple. Thanks to Ken Segall for revealing it all in a very simple manner.......

Watch his video :

Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drives Apple's Success