The four pillars of our life

It’s almost the end of 2012, and for many it’s time for retrospection.

I have this thought lingering in mind for many years now, and its time to put it down in black and white. Life for us is getting busier balancing the needs of ever-busy profession, family, ultra active kids, friends, social work, networking, studying, shopping, gazing at all sorts of screens from TV to iPad, etc.…

Its time to re-prioritize our attention to the most important things in our life. I call them the “Four Pillars”. They are for me

1. Health

2. Family

3. Friends

4. Spirituality

1.     Health – No need to mention the importance of Health, which we often ignore. The whole social and professional setup is against it these days. Abundant food causing the Obesity menace; Ubiquitous stress at work, while commuting (especially in developing world) and even at home.

Without good health we cannot be in position to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

How to keep the Health pillar strong?

1. Learn how to cope with stress and take frequent breaks. Read on Stress by Deepak Chopra
2. Keep a regular check on your health parameters, and listen to your body and mind.
3. Give means and happiness to the ones in dire need.

2.     Family – It’s your closest family members, your spouse and kids and parents, who love you selflessly. Their love and support to each other can be the most important thing in our lives. Do you recollect the tears of happiness on seeing your tender newborn baby? Can you compare this happiness to anything else in life?

This machinery needs some maintenance i.e. regular servicing.

How to keep the Family pillar strong?

1. Say you love them, as often as you feel so.
2. Care for them when they need most, and stand behind them in need.
3. Give second priority to your dreams, for making their dreams come true.

3.     Friends – Well I am sure most of us have friends who know all our weaknesses, secrets, and silly things we did in the process of growing up. And if you are still in touch with friends from teenage school and college days, you know the deep bond I am talking about.

It’s interesting that as we grow-up from a teenager to an adult it’s the friends with whom we share all crazy ideas and impossible dreams. And it’s the never-ending talks/discussions with these friends, which is the test-lab of our radical thoughts and ideas, which later make us the person we are today.

Unlike with Family, with Friends there is no obligation to continue bonding… And this no obligation makes this relationship more special. And we need to keep this fire on.

How to keep the Friends pillar strong?

1. Go to outings just with friends, as you used to do before your spouse came in your life.
2. Keep your ego in check. You may be socially and financially stronger than other. But friends are always equal.
3. You might have grown up now, but the fun is to continue sharing your secrets/thoughts as you did when you were a teenager. You need to vent out your emotions unchecked.

 4.     Spirituality – Spirituality is not being religious. It is much superior and is about knowing your Self (Conscience) and being answerable and true to it. 

There will be trying times in life when neither your family nor friends will have belief, or will support in what you are saying, or want to achieve. In those times you have to walk alone. And you will do it because your mind and your Self (God or Universe or Conscience) believes in you. Rather just because you want to achieve it badly, the whole Universe gets ready in preparation and helps and supports you in getting your dreams come true.

How to keep the Spirituality pillar strong?

1. Know your Self (Conscience). Listen to it. And you need silence for that. Not devoid sound but devoid thoughts. Simple meditation with focus on breathing helps.
2. Spend quality time with yourself. Brood, think, write and enjoy being alone.
3. Retrospect your day before you go to sleep. Understand the cause and effect of actions and thoughts today and correct them next day.

These Four Pillars are important for success and a happy and contended life.

Yes your life can stand on three pillars as well. But the foundation will be weaker. And it cannot stand on two pillars. The choice is yours…

You might feel that your Dollar Net Worth might be lesser if you have to focus on all four pillars. I think its better to be worth $1 MN with all 4 pillars strong, than worth $10 MN with only 3 pillars…

What do you say?

Pillars of the "Sagrada Familia" in Barcelona, Spain

Mahtab Syed

25^th Dec 2012

Paris

A long haul flight really connects two different planets

Even after decades of traveling in flight, I am still surprised at this engineering marvel.

Now it looks like a simple routine of check-in, boarding, repeated safety procedures, takeoff and mostly good landing, baggage collection, and a taxi to hotel or home.

Travel time has reduced drastically, and you can travel from one continent to another in the span of a dinner, sleep and breakfast.

What I find intriguing is the change you notice when you travel from one continent to another. Within 10-12 hours a flight takes you from one place to another completely different place. 10 hrs back you were accustomed to a different world and now you are in a different world. There is a mixed feeling of change due to weather, language spoken, culture of the people, security, laws, prices, food, environment, etc etc…

If you make the same travel by a car or train, it takes much longer and the human mind accepts the gradual change with longer time available. In a long haul flight you are exposed to bigger change in faster time, which makes it incomprehensible and interesting. A mixed intriguing feeling…

I am writing this as I am just returning from a 3 weeks vacation in India (Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata) to Paris. I travelled to India after almost an year in Paris.

The difference is incredible… It’s not good or bad, it’s a mixture of both, some good some not good and some simply unbelievable… rather comic… (in both places by the way)

Let me put them in the order they come to my mind…

While in Paris, its peace, clean air, polite people who hold doors open for you, best quality food at expensive prices, clean walkways (if you ignore the dog poos J ),  amazing health care, parks for kids, medicines always available in pharmacy, slow life, poor growth rate, pathetic competitiveness, zero entrepreneurship, strong safety and police administration, social security, people mostly on vacation, very efficient but dirty metros, mostly French spoken…

While in India its fun, lots of relatives, crowded, loud noise in malls (music and din and bustle, and loud chatter), dust and pollution everywhere, very good food, unsafe water, unbelievably bad infrastructure, superb quality clothes at very good prices, no social security, zero safety and police administration, driving in the city a real pain in ass, mosquitoes everywhere, taxis unreliable but very cheap, markets everywhere and shopping is fun, people speaking in all the Indian languages you can imagine plus some American accent English in Mumbai, and some Bengali accent English in Kolkata…

I can keep on writing… J

And when you are transported from one such world to another in 10 hours, its difficult for the modest conditioned human brain to understand this without being surprised. And then you realize that taking a flight is like a magic, which transports you from one world to another so fast, almost like the way people got transported in the ski-fi fiction Star Trek…  J

Mahtab SYED

Paris, Nov 11 2012 

Global Business Leaders Conference : The Future of European Competitiveness

The Future of European Competitiveness
I got a good opportunity to be part of the “Global Business Leaders Conference” on Fri 06 Jul 2012, in Paris. The topic of discussion was “The Future of European Competitiveness”. The conference was in English, so my involvement was deep.

To begin with, I am thankful to INSEAD for inviting me.
I am writing an account of the conference and a brief summary of the key take away. Refer official Link

1. Introduction & Opening
By Claude Janssen – Honorary Chairman of the INSEAD Board
The Master of Ceremony was Peter Zemsky – Acting Dean of INSEAD
The conference started with a brief of the agenda.


2. Dialogue with Jean-François Copé
By Mayor of Meaux, MP (Seine-et-Marne), and General Secretary of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
Jean-François is a good orator, with good knowledge on Macro Economics and a superb on-stage confidence. He energized the audience with his key message which served as good context setting for the day.

The key message was
1. We all understand that Artificially pushing the Purchasing power in Europe (by funding countries with bail out money) is not the solution
2. Federal Europe, which many are talking as “one solution” is not possible in the middle term. Few countries need to take the lead like France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Scandinavian countries
3. The only way of growing Economy is by increasing competitiveness in Europe
Refer the GDP of European countries here

In the near term, the following three things should be done
1. Stabilize Financial sector
2. Limit public spending (slowly as acceptance in public is difficult, and it’s easy for politicians to lose in elections, if this is not managed well, e.g. people are not willing to cut basic necessities, like hospitals and schools)
3. Rebuild Competitiveness in Europe so that we get real GDP growth by
 a. Reforming Labor Legislation
 b. Implement Structural reforms
 c. Supporting Research and Innovation
 d. Support for SMEs ( Small and Medium Enterprises) so that we have a ecosystem which supports Entrepreneurship (key factor lagging in Europe)



3. Solution Innovation – A European Game?
By Markus Christen – Research Professor of Marketing, INSEAD

Question: Why Europe is broke today?
Answer: Europe = High Cost + Low Innovation

Innovation is not just new Products and Technology.
Significant GDP growth is often realized by finding new ways of doing old business, in particular by providing broader solutions to customers. See the following examples where organizations achieved this.
IBM - Good transition from Products to Global Services provider
Rolls Royce – From maker of Aircraft engines to doing end-to-end Aircraft engine maintenance
Xerox – Good transition from Products to providing Office Solutions

How well placed are European firms to make this transition from product sellers to solution providers?
From a Customer’s perspective; “A solution is a relationship that creates value for me”. And to achieve this Service Providers need to do the following
1. In-depth Problem Identification of the Client(by being with the customer and not sitting in R&D labs)
2. Customized offer integrating Products and Services
3. Solution Implementation
4. Post- deployment support

Successful firms have developed this by
- Extreme closeness to Customers(Customer Relationship is the basis of Competitive advantage)
- Great ability to listen to Customers
- World- class Products
- Close Relationship with workforce

Europe should leverage on the following strengths (some need to be more developed)
 1. Leverage diversity
 2. Leverage lower labor mobility (attrition is very low in Europe)
 3. Leverage education and on-job training ( Education is good, on-job training needs development)
 4. Leverage Global mindset (needs to be developed)

4. European CEO Panel
Jon Fredrik Baksaas – President and CEO, Telenor Group
Thierry Breton – Chairman and CEO, Atos
Jim Hagemann Snabe – Co-CEO, SAP

This was the view of key Business Leaders after a Politician’s and a Research scholar’s view. Some facts1. See the Global Innovation Index 2012. There are many European organizations in the top here.
2. Among Fortune 500 there are many big ones in Europe. Look at some Services organizations below. All are Eurepean and as a side note all have French CEO. :-)
o Accenture
o CapGemini
o Atos
The above three mentioned organizations plan to hire 80,000 engineers this year. But they are finding it difficult to find good available talent.

There is a key dilemma in some European countries
- While some organizations are laying-off people to manage cost, others are finding difficult to find talent.
- There is a big problem of managing supply-demand of talent. In countries like China they manage to do this very fast and in countries like France it takes ages and even then it’s not done. So it’s just mismanagement.
- Sometime employees are laid-off as they do not have the right talent required for the organization. Instead of laying-off organizations should re-train and redeploy talent. This is missing in Europe.

Four key take-aways
1. We are beyond denial of the European crisis. This is the biggest crisis after World War II.
2. Crisis is an opportunity to reinvent and do things differently.
3. Europe can be competitive; the feeling of Europeans for Europe needs to be re-ignited.
4. The need of the hour is greater level of consensus in European countries e.g. look at the consensus they have in Scandinavian countries in-spite of the key differences in Economy in each country.

The key message of the top CEOs was,
- “The European Crisis is a terrible thing to waste! It’s a big opportunity!”
- Young people should be trained first and employed. Rising unemployment in youth can be the biggest threat for the socio-economic stability.



5. Youth Panel
Valerie Coscas, MBA'08D - Strategy Director - Strategic Partnerships, France Telecom Group
Emilie Cousteau - CEO, One World Lingerie
Steven Eichenberger – Managing Director, Euforia
Myriam Oufella Ferran, Vice President, State Street Banque
Mads Jensen, MBA'09J - CEO and Co-founder, Sefaira

Some facts
Top companies: Fastest growing – Very few European on top. Refer
Global 500 : Worlds largest corporations – Few European on top. Refer
Global - Ranking of countries where it’s easy to start a new Business. Rank by "Starting a Business". – Very few European on top. Refer
New Zealand - 1
Australia - 2
Canada - 3
Singapore - 4
USA - 13
....
Germany - 19
France - 29
Spain - 44
Italy - 87
Greece – 100
India - 132

Key Message
Ecosystem for Entrepreneurship is not good in Europe. This needs to be developed so that, “creative ideas from young entrepreneurs is not wasted”



6. International CEO Panel
David Arkless – President of Corporate and Government Affairs, Manpower
Elena Panaritis, – CEO and Founder, Panel Group
Markwart von Pentz – President John Deere

Among other things discussed the International CEOs were asked to site areas of improvements in Europe, as they have the International view. And the list is big…
- Very high transaction cost (Bureaucracy)
- Ageing population coupled with stupid Immigration policy
- Weak Education and Technology link
- Supply and Demand of jobs not managed well( we have seen this earlier)
- Slow Reforms
- Poor Governance

7. Reflections
After a long day of heated debates, it was clear that they are many agreements, and there are some disagreements as well, which is not surprising consider the complex social fabric of Europe.

If we have to summarize then they key messages are
1. Financial system has become too complex to be managed, and its difficult to anticipate risks and mitigate them (word of caution for bankers, governments and regulators)
2. 50% of youth unemployed in a country; this is the biggest threat for the socio-economic stability (word of caution for governments and policy makers)
3. Supply and Demand of jobs is not managed well ( simple statistics and government will required)
4. The only real way of growing GDP is by increasing competitiveness in Europe
5. Ecosystem for Entrepreneurship is not good in Europe. This needs to be supported and eased.

What are your thoughts on this ? Do leave a comment with your top 3 solutions…

Mahtab SYED
Paris, Jul 09 2012

On Hierarchy in Society and Organizations; The God in You and the God in Me

The natural instinct

Human beings have the natural instinct of craving to be superior and being towards the top of the Hierarchy. And they have exhibited this historically. And in the modern day society and in organizations (which is a mini-society) we witness it regularly.

 

It can be the show of affluence by super-rich, show of power by political leaders and big fancy titles in organizations. Even exotic designer robes of religious leaders are means to the same hunger of showing one superior, different, and apart.

Indicator of authoritarian Hierarchy

Geert Hofstede, the influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies, created a framework for measuring it called the Power Distance Index (PDI).

The PDI index seeks to demonstrate the extent to which subordinates submit to authority. This index figure is lower in countries or organizations in which authority figures work closely with those not in authority, and is higher in countries or organizations with a more authoritarian hierarchy.  Refer the interactive world map.

So e.g.

• China and Saudi Arabia and most of Middle East are on higher side at 80 (Arab Spring will be justified because of this)
• US on the lower side at 40,
• Most of Europe at lower side, Germany and UK at 35, Switzerland at 34, Norway and Sweden at 31
• France (unlike most of Europe) is on the higher side at 68 (The socially accepted values of Grandeur and love for monarchy and power might be the reasons)

In Society vs. Organizations

This Hierarchy in large societies is difficult to be challenged, as its key drivers are money and power which rest with the ones at the top. Greed for more power and money brings corruption and those at the top of the Hierarchy get more powerful, increasing the social divide.  And although we don’t have many monarchies left, where this was the norm; even in democracies the once elected humble servants of public, get the lust of it.

In Organizations, being at the top is getting difficult

And coming to organizations this is posing a problem for our Hierarchy lovers who want to be at top eternally and command power.  It’s not easy to command respect and be at the top when you cannot perform and cannot prove by numbers.

In the current Economic scenario it’s not uncommon to see the CXO’s getting changed faster than season. And especially in modern organizations with white collar jobs, which is the “Knowledge Industry”, this is still more difficult.

Flat organizations are not really flat

There was this misnomer created called Flat Organizations few years back in the IT industry to boost productivity, but it was never really flat.

Well it cannot be flat as there are decisions which can be taken only at top, because they have the right skills, have access to confidential information, and it’s their mandate to steer the organization towards the goals.

So what are the key drivers which decide where on the level of Hierarchy you deserve to belong in an organization? Let’s try to list them…

They are the following and depending on your current level, you need a right mix of the below to reach a level above.

1. Awareness
2. Intention
3. Knowledge and Skills
4. Experience
5. Motivation , Passion and Drive
6. Leadership and People skills
7. Influence and Networking

If you have the above in the right mix, and you are ready to be aware and learn more, you will deserve being the God of your organization, with your subordinates happy under your leadership.

The God in You and the God in Me

There is no God outside us, God is in you and me. Like Buddha who was the "awakened one" or "the enlightened one".

The desire to seek knowledge and eventually all the knowledge is within us. We have to be aware of what we need, work towards it and discover it.

The self motivated heroes, who have followed their dreams and have worked hard, have exhibited perseverance and have eventually excelled.

Modern entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg are all at the top due to this. Their subordinates know that they deserve being at the top, and they are glad working under them.

And not just in Organizations even in Societies such heroes are respected. Take the example of non-entrepreneurs as well like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and Aung San Suu Kyi.

So eventually it’s the level of God in You and the God in Me. This level of God in you and me will decide what you and I deserve. And if there is a mismatch, the natural forces will automatically push towards the change.
The good part is our destiny is in our hands, and we can change it, if we want…

Mahtab Syed

12 May 2012

Paris

Le Jardin d’Acclimatation

Official website
It is 01 May 2012 today. It’s supposed to be a summer feeling in Paris now. But it’s much colder than expected. May be this is another aspect of Global Warming !

The schools were off for 2 weeks and we had plans to go out. But its been drizzling and raining from last 2 weeks. It has been grey and gloomy with kids getting frustrated locked indoors venting their frustration on parents, and spouse in turn venting on each other. :-)

But today is different. It’s sunny and less cold. And I got a call from my friend and in few mins we planned to go out with kids to “Le Jardin d’Acclimatation” in Paris. Its just 2 metro stops away from my home.

It’s a 20-hectare (49-acre) children's amusement park. Its 150 yrs old park which was opened in 1860 by Napoleon III. And they have the Japanese festival going on now.

Although it was sunny we were not sure to leave jackets and umbrella, as in past 2-3 weeks we witnessed sudden clouds and rains. Never the less we risked and went out in light jackets, no umbrella, packed with snacks, cameras and bubbly kids, who got the hint that its fun time !

When we ventured out the streets were almost deserted. It was Tue 01 May and a national holiday. All the shops were closed and people who had taken off on Mon had a 4 days break and were probably out of Paris in their parents and relatives place or on vacation to warmer places.

But when we got out at the Metro station and walked towards "Le Jardin d’Acclimatation" we saw the real crowd. The road was already with a traffic jam and most pedestrians with load of kids were all walking towards the same destination. It's not just us but most families with kids had chosen the only destination, and wanted to utilize the most of a bright sunny day after many weeks of dull gray weather.

There was a big queue to enter. Kids were getting excited and some babies were crying. And there was no shortcut or priority for kids as almost all parents were with more than one kid. Luckily we had got the entrance ticket online and we could avoid the long queue(which was for people who had to buy tickets) and went in directly. 

It was nice to be walking in Tshirts. The sun was bright and the entrance was colorful with counter with posters and Japanese art on display. There were counters serving Japanese food and my first instinct was to queue up for Chicken Teriyaki. The smoke from the grill was announcing its presence far enough. :-)

There were Japanese Pogo Stick walkers(Stilt walkers) in traditional costumes. Small girls dressed in Kimono. And various art on sale ranging from chop sticks to paintings.

Inside the park there was a small zoo with farm animals and colorful birds. The sheep barn had most kids visitors. The kids were queuing up to feed sheep and goat and touch their soft coat. And the sheep were also enjoying all the attention and were happily munching the cookies offered.

This was followed by a small fruits and vegetation farm with a small vineyard and kitchen greens like mint, basil etc.

And finally the activities area with rides, merry-go-round(carousel), bike and car for kids etc etc. There was few toys shop which were doing a really brisk business. It was impossible for parents to stop kids from picking whatever they fancied. :-)

After all the fun we decided to return back. It was close to 6:10 pm and we had the last attraction to take. It is the "Le Petit Train" i.e. the small train. This is an open toy train which goes slowly from the part via a green jungle to the metro station Porte Maillot. We had the tickets already but we were not the only ones who had decided to take it. :-) There was a big queue and the there was the train at a frequency of 20 mins with the last being at 7 pm.

The day had been wonderful but towards the end it was like a movie climax. Will be able to get the last train before 7 pm ? Well we realized about this after being in the queue for 40 mins. If we had known this earlier we could have skipped the train and instead opted for the regular metro route. But after a long wait with kids already half asleep in pram, this looked like a movie climax.

We got one train at 6:20 pm and it was full soon and left. We were still some 20-30 people behind and we got the next train after 20 mins at 6:40 pm. And as the climax is expected the train filled while we were 6-8 people behind and now it was the wait for probably the last train. A guard appeared at the scene and apologized to us that its already close to 7 and the last train is gone. The next train coming may not go back. :-( The announcement was in French and we are not expert enough to negotiate in French. :-)

Lucking we had some smart people who apparently negotiated well. The guard nodded slightly(which we wanted to be affirmative). He called the driver of the approaching train on his walkie-talkie and whatever was the discussion it was affirmative. The train came and we boarded as excited as kids. :-) Our kids who were deep asleep got up in the train, trying to understand when and how they landed in an open toy train from the park. Good they missed all the wait and apprehension.

And for us the movie was a happy ending one. Each minute of the day was fun, and the toy train was the cherry on the pie !

Mahtab Syed
Paris, 01 May 2012

First snow fall in 2012

It was Saturday yesterday, and I was up till late night giving the finishing touches to the last blog. So I was still in deep sleep at 8:30 am (being a Sunday).

I woke up hearing, “Wow ! Ayaan its not raining, see its snowfall” from my wife .

I woke up in a jiffy, got my specs, and looked out of the large French doors with glass panes outside. I get the view of a park and it was a wonderful sight. The park with its trees and pathways were all covered in a soft, white blanket of virgin snow. It was Sunday morning and most of the people were in deep slumber, so it was still untouched and pristine. There were only few sparrows and pigeons who were scrubbing the snow all over themselves. The sparrows were chattering with each other, and they looked really happy !

In Paris, from last one week the temperature had been cold; in the range of  -3  -  -9 degree celsius. And a snowfall was welcome, as it makes the harshness of the frigid winter go away.

We quickly had breakfast and dressed up, and stepped out with a camera. By the time we went out many other residents had already noticed and it was a family gathering outside with dogs and kids running with excitement bumping over each other.

Compared to the snowfall in USSR this was less snow. It was just 2 inches of snow. In Paris it does not snow much, so this was an exciting thing,  and especially because it was the first snowfall of this winter.

Kids did not want to miss the opportunity. There were many small snowman made by kids. I liked one. It was small and cute and quite dressed up with all possible ornaments. See this one below. J

I collected some snow from the leaves and threw at my wife. And she started giggling like a kid. And that broke the ice of the assumed seriousness of adults ! And very soon we were like the rest of kids, collecting snow and chasing each other. 

I saw some kids who wanted to have more fun. One cute girl was rolling on the snow. And seeing her my son started doing the same. J 

People were clicking photos and some polite Parisians offered to click photos of us. It was like a family picnic.

Good break from the frigid  winter ! It will be a memorable Sunday morning of the first snowfall this winter.

Mahtab SYED
Paris 05 Feb 2012