When Private Sector Sucks As Much As Public Sector In India


As an Indian living and working in US, I am interested in the political and economical development in both countries. In the US – since this is election season, there is a lot of rhetoric on the extreme sides of the spectrum. One side wants extreme role for government and another wants minimum possible government intervention. In India – it is different. Large government involvement is still the only agenda irrespective of political party affiliation- with privatization getting attention only since the 90s.

Pro-reform leaders like the Indian Prime Minister are all for privatization. One of the areas where there is significant privatization is in Infrastructure – specifically roads. BOT (Build,Operate,Transfer) is very popular for roads. The general idea is the government designs, and private part does building, collecting tolls for a period, and then transfer back to government.

In general – this is a good model, and I have always thought that is the only way to get India to develop faster. But I did not understand the perils of this approach till very recently. Here are 2 examples to make the point, both of which were brought out by an excellent program called “Asianet Newshour”.

BOT for roads is a scam of epic proportions in some cases. In one case – exposed by Asianet news hour – a private company just opened few other companies under different names ( using same office address)  and won contracts (probably with the required political blessings) for road contracts in Kerala. Next, they do a better version (for them , not for people) of BOT . They get money from government for part of the road, and then inflated the cost by a factor of 3 or 4. And even before roads are completed to specs – and not even putting streetlights – they have started collecting a good chunk of money as tolls. Worst case – there was an MLA on the program on TV- a guy elected by people to watch out for them – trying his best to defend the private company vehemently when he had all the facts thrown at him by rest of the panel.  Remember the 2G  scam ? this one looks to be in that league or worse.

Government had leased many farm/forest acres to private farmers in the past for cultivation, under strict norms. These farmers – including big companies that does farming of cash crops – were not supposed to change crops, sell, sublet or encroach adjacent land. Well, guess what – they did all of that and more. And the regulations are so outdated, that nothing much can be done to penalize their wrong actions. I was shocked to see a sting operation on “Asianet Newshour” that showed a communist party local leader explaining clearly the steps needed to claim acres of forest land in Kerala for private owners.  And another political leader is saying that the leased land should not be taken back by government when lease expires or when terms of lease are violated. And he will probably have his way too, given the coalition government cannot sustain without his party.

It is not that the government is doing something brilliant either.  After all these decades of winning independence from Britain – India is still not self sufficient on power. There was the largest ever power cut last week with hundreds of millions of people affected.  Most National highway stretches have 2 lanes at most.  There are plenty of restaurants that serve food that kills people or make them seiously sick. Very little is done to fix any of this with a long term perspective. Corruption is so common place that people barely complain any more. Look at Olympics – for a country with billion people – we have not even won a gold medal yet in London so far. We are still singing praises of Milkha Singh and PT Usha who came close to winning a bronze decades ago in athletics. We have no planning to make it any better next time either.

Anna Hazare had a huge fan following not that long ago. And where did he end up? He just announced his team will contest elections and reduce corruption. And at this point – hardly anyone is supporting his campaign. Why? simply because his team just bickered on every thing and could not put forward a plan that citizens of India could understand as viable.

So where does that leave India ? If neither private sector not public sector is the answer, what is the answer? is Luck the answer?

 

India in Olympics – Will The Plot Ever Change ?


In a (sick/sad) way, I am glad NBC has a delay telecasting Olympics here in the USA. As an Indian living here, I cheer happily for both countries. But the contrast between the two is way too much to ignore.

Lets start with Athletics. Every year, India sends a bunch of athletes to Olympics. There hasn’t been any success – and we still celebrate the 4th place P.T Usha got in Los Angeles in the 80s. Even before they leave India, their coaches will issue defensive statements like “even if we enter the final medal round, we should be proud of it” . Seriously? isn’t that getting old after all these years? Why bother traveling across ocean if the best you can do is nowhere close to getting a medal? If participation is the big deal – why not participate in lesser events and gain the experience?

Almost every retired athlete in India will start an academy in his or her name. Everyone wants to send their wards to Olympics, and do 4 year and 8 year plans. They then go on TV and blame the government a lot for lack of support. If the athlete who started the academy never won an Olympics, or has never coached an Olympic medal winner – what is the chance that they have it in them to do something different? If proof of the pudding is in the eating – well, lets see what comes off next week when the athletics kick off in London. I hope there will be a miracle, knowing well that hope is not a strategy.
Take badminton – where Saina Nehwal is a world class player. She seems to be doing well so far, and good luck to her. And I applaud what P Kashyap is doing too. But the doubles players were atrocious. They just did not play like a 13th ranked team in the world . There just was no intensity in their game.

Or take tennis – where the two big boys have egos fitting a soccer field. India could not field their best pair because they just hate each other. Whether the big boys Paes and Bhupathi would have won in Olympics is yet another question. I would doubt it . In Grand Slams – the top singles players in men’s circuit do not play doubles any more like Connors and McEnroe did years ago. That is not the case in Olympics – where top singles players usually play doubles too. It makes it hard for Paes and Bhupathi to win against players of Roger Federer’s class. Sania Mirza was never a top 10 player in singles, yet is the highest ranked Indian in the mix in women. Does she have a prayer in winning singles ever in Olympics? No – and I would be surprised if her teaming with Paes is going to work out very well after airing dirty laundry in public. After all the fuss – Bhupati and Boppanna who seemed confident of winning a medal, crashed out meekly in second round.

Archery was an area where we had world class competitors. They didn’t do too well either – and were totally outclassed. The lone silver lining is Narang who won a bronze yesterday for shooting. He won a bronze in an event where Bindra had a gold last year. As much as I am happy for him, can we ignore the decline?

All is not lost though – Field Hockey and Boxing are two areas I feel some confidence in. Boxing more so than Hockey. In both these cases the big difference is the difference in preparation that the teams went through. Their coaches are from outside India and they prepared the team to play to its strength. With Hockey – first match did not go well. But the second half was quite good – and I hope the team strikes back. In Boxing, the first rounds were excellent. I was surprised to see how physically fit the boxers and hockey players are now. Way to go – and good luck !

What causes this sob story to repeat each year? I can think of many reasons , but here is the first half dozen that comes to mind.

1. Politicians head sports in India invariably. Most of them have never played at a high level, and have not coached or in several cases not even followed the game. So there is hardly any vision . The one exception probably is our current sports minister who seems quite capable.

2. There is a cultural issue with taking up sports for a living. Other than cricket – most sports don’t have big sponsorship. So most parents won’t encourage kids to make a career in sports. It is changing, but way too slowly

3. Coaching is mostly stuck in the past. Past athletes who themselves were not capable of winning anything are now coaches. Bad idea – we should aim to partner with the best coaches in the world and get Indian coaches exposed to newer methods of training and conditioning. This includes boosting confidence of players

4. Infrastructure sucks in most sports centers. The only way out is to get private sector interested. Government cannot solve it themselves – and we should realize this after all these years.

5. Sports Quota from government needs to be revamped, or done away with. I personally know many who get a government job and never take part in sport ever after.

6. International exposure from young age. Don’t start sending athletes to compete abroad just the year before Olympics. Start sending them from a young age from minor leagues, and build up some bench strength.

I am glad the India – Srilanka cricket matches are there to give something to cheer about now. It is a little less gloomy thanks to that. But who knows – Miracles might happen next week.

Random Management Lessons From Dinner Table


Couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to host a client CIO and a senior IBM executive for dinner at a restaurant in San Jose, CA. It was one of the most interesting conversations I ever had over dinner, and to say the least – it was more valuable to me than many business school lessons. Since the CIO and me have regular meetings, some of it I already knew and had tried on my own. I wish I had taken notes – although it would have been awkward 🙂

The CIO explained how he helps his team set goals. He just asks them three questions periodically

1. What will you stop doing?

2. What will you start doing ?

3. What will you continue to do?

What an extremely simple framework , but it is extremely powerful. I have known his team for a couple of years now, and I have seen them transform. For the past several months, I have asked myself the same questions – and came to an interesting conclusion. My biggest conclusion was that it was way more hard to be fully critical of myself than I thought. Several things that I was very proud of about myself – I realized I could not take the amount of credit I have been giving myself.

Of the three questions, there is one that is harder than others for me. And that is “what will I stop doing?”. I delegate a lot already – thanks to the coaching I got over the years from my mentors. But as I thought more deeply about it – I could delegate a lot more. And if there is one thing I focus on with my mentees now – it is to delegate more. Delegation pays back in spades.

Talking of mentors – I learned the hard way the need to have multiple mentors. Just take the career front for example. To be a successful executive in my line of work- there are 4 things at least that you need to excel in

1. Developing People

2. Developing thought leadership

3. Managing projects and client relationships

4. Managing pipeline and sales

If I look at my mentors – there is hardly anyone who excels in each of these. If I don’t choose multiple mentors – it is not possible for me to become a well rounded leader. And if all of them work in the same environment as me – I probably won’t get any new ideas. IBM has a lot of emphasis on mentoring, and we can find out easily on intranet on who is looking for being mentored, and who is willing to mentor us. But that is just a first step – it does not mean you and your mentor will be compatible. I try to get leaders at my clients, at SAP, from analyst/blogger community, and at competitors to mentor me. It is not easy – and I have ways to go in finding mentors for all aspects that I need improvement. It is also important that I should be able to do something for the mentor in return. There might be a few selfless mentors who will help you without expecting anything in return – but my general philosophy is that if I am taking up their time, I should be able to help them in return in whatever way I can.

The IBM executive at the table is one of my mentors, and I have learned a lot from him. But let me point out just one thing he always does – which I don’t do, and I should try doing. I have taken many clients to dinner at this particular restaurant. The food is excellent, but service is not the best. And then we walked in and took our seats at our table. Next thing, the IBM executive asks the server what her name was. He talked to her using her name in every sentence for about 3 minutes. The result was unbelievable – this was the best service I have ever seen there in 10 years. I have seen this done many times by now, and it works like a charm. He does this with every one he meets – he treats them as peers, respects them, calls them by their name – and remembers them. I firmly believe it is a big part of his success in life.

There are a few more things I am surely missing here from last evening – but I need to go drop my daughter at her dance lessons. Off we go.