And Vijay Says…

I am always looking to find one more way of tuning up my productivity . Off late a lot of people have started asking me of my work habits , and I thought maybe if I jot down mine – maybe it will prompt a few more of you to chime in and we all gain a new trick or two

1. Sleep more

Counter intuitive as it may sound , I am more productive when I sleep well . So if I have to make a trade off between spending an hour prettying up a presentation or sleeping , I choose sleep every single time . I picked up this habit during business school and it works well for me till today

2. Don’t sign up for news letters etc on work email

If I need one issue of some magazine type thing , I use a hotmail id that I don’t monitor . If I am part of an email group that someone else is monitoring , I use an automatic rule to move to a folder in case I need to search later .

3. Delegate aggressively – both responsibility and authority

This needs trust and I have a simple policy on trust . I trust everyone in my team by default . Everyone has exactly one chance to break that trust . The second time it happens – I just stop trusting and won’t delegate to that person . Thankfully I very rarely have had a colleague break my trust . If you can’t trust your team , why should you lead that team any way ?

4. Move people to bcc the soonest you can when an email needs threading

If my colleague introduces me to someone on email and I need to set up time with that person – I move my colleague to bcc on my first reply, with a thanks . He just needs to know I am on it – he doesn’t need to know when I am doing the meeting and whether I need to go back and forth 10 times to set a time . It saves a lot of trouble for all the people who are drowning in email

5. Aggressively stay on top of email and twitter

Once you have the discipline of minimizing email , then be aggressive on making sure you read everything . I do it in stages – flagging as I go anything that needs more attention . Then I get to them throughout the day . No mail stays unread when I go to bed . The one exception is vacation – where I usually schedule a day or two at the end to catchup on mail before I return to work . I can type fast on my phone – so I don’t need a larger device for email .

Same deal with twitter – I respond in real time if I can when I get a notification that needs my attention . It takes a lot less effort than doing so in batches .

6. Keep all conversations as short as they can be

On internal emails , I rarely write more than couple of sentences and sacrifice the salutations etc . And if an email thread starts to bulge – I pick up the phone and call and get it sorted out quickly . Email warfare is the biggest productivity killer – and it is full of misunderstandings . Phone solves that easily .

7. Unless it is a customer related activity , don’t get into a string of back to back meetings

My internal calls are all on Fridays . And on other days , I take time off calendar to let serendipity do its wonder . I will talk to anyone who will talk to me at that time – and more often than not, good things come of it . There is no excuse for not having time – we always make time for things that are important for us .

8. Value agility over elegance

This is an easy trade off for me – if I can do something to solve a problem then and there , like making an email intro for a friend , I just type as I talk . It won’t be polished – but it gets the job done and helps me do more . The exception is with customer facing stuff where I am more careful , especially with prospects who need to be converted to customers . Slip ups can be costly in those cases .

9. Planning is everything , the plan is not everything

The process of planning is useful – we get to think through stuff carefully. But the plan we come up with shouldn’t be set in stone – because circumstances change . So when people say there is no budget for this change or that change – I don’t take it at face value . There is always something else that can be sacrificed . Budgets and plans are for business convenience – they shouldn’t be the tail wagging the dog . There is a limitation that this only works for things under your influence – it’s hard to convince others to view plans the way you do 🙂

10. Spend time with family

I have a crazy work schedule on week days . So on weekends , I try hard to not get pulled into work related stuff . I am not completely successful in turning off from work a 100% , but I am much better than say two years ago . There is no one else to blame – if I don’t set a boundary , work will set a boundary .

I am sure there are more things – but this is a good summary . So what are your tips ?

First off – I am a big fan of Mr Singh . He has always come across as an honest police officer with impeccable integrity , and with tremendous respect for the rule of law .

And then I saw this news today

http://www.madhyamam.com/en/node/24107

But in the case of the hurried enforcement of the seat belt law – I think he totally jumped the gun . For a guy who has lived in Kerala for decades , he should have known clearly that a rushed enforcement won’t succeed in increasing passenger safety. I hope he doesn’t resign in haste

1. Kerala has no culture of traffic discipline

Every road has lanes drawn on it – yet you will never see anyone sticking to a lane when they drive . Till that lane discipline , speed limits and respect of signals get ingrained , the fundamental cause of accidents won’t get resolved . Also – for putting a seat belt in rear seat , how many cars have seat belts in back seats to begin with ? Not many ! So what exactly is the enforcement going to accomplish ? Not much more than citizens facing harassment from police .

That needs significant education – at big scale . That hasn’t happened yet . There is no enforcement either given police cars don’t follow traffic discipline either

2. Police needs to demonstrate respect for spirit of law before they implement letter of the law

It is illegal to put dark tinted glass on vehicles in Kerala – it should be possible for passengers to be visible from outside . Police cars used by senior officers don’t use tinted glass either . Instead , they use curtains ! When police officers – colleagues of Mr Singh himself – can circumvent the law , where is the moral ground to enforce another traffic law ?

3. Government of the people

Ultimately , police is part of the executive wing . They need to consult with the government before heavily enforcing a law that affects most of the people . Such a consultation would have resulted in a realistic implementation time frame . Political masters don’t always make it easy for able officers like Mr Singh – I totally get that . But that consultation is a necessary part of doing government business .

I also hold the politicians responsible . They could have handled this better without destroying the confidence of a very good police officer . It’s one team that is elected and/or paid for by common man . The citizens don’t get amused when they point fingers at each other

Bottom line – road safety is paramount and at the moment the scenario is terrible in Kerala . It needs a whole sale solution , not fits and starts and certainly not heroics . Police , Government and people need to do this together .

I did not think Vishal will take the job – but I saw the news now.

First off – Congratulations Vishal ! I wish you the very best in the new job. I hope you get to revive the fortunes of infosys and take them to new heights. 

For Vishal, I think this is a good move . He gets to be CEO of one of the biggest brand names in IT. It is a bit of a surprise for me that a guy with his roots in product and technology chose to take the lead of a big services company. I am suspecting this means infosys is going to focus seriously on products going forward. Knowing Vishal’s big thinking abilities, I assumed he won’t go to start ups. He definitely needs a larger canvas – which I guess explains him joining infosys. But what I really expected to see for next few years is to see him be a partner in a top tier VC firm investing in the technologies of tomorrow. Guess that needs to wait.

For infosys, I think this is definitely a benefit – and surely so in short term from an investor’s point of view. Vishal’s forte is innovation – and infosys needs a new strategy. I think investors will reward infosys in near term for scoring such a big brand hire. Long term – we need to wait and see.

Vishal is not a services sales guy, and he is not an operations guy. But he is terrific with customers and he knows the who is who in technology and is close to many CXOs at customers . So yes, this could work very well for Infy if he builds a team around him that knows the services business well, and has operational excellence. It also helps him that most of the current infosys leadership team is stepping down before he takes over. Vishal gets a clean start – much like Bill McDermott got a clean start at SAP with a new(ish) team . Win or lose – its on him now. No pressure, eh? 🙂

But then leadership team can only do so much – it is on the infoscions rank and file to make the shift to an innovation agenda. Vishal moves at a speed that is hard to keep up with, and he is not exactly a process oriented dude – I know that first hand. So my suggestion to infosys employees is to get some rest while you can, and then be ready for a wild ride 🙂

So what about SAP ? this is an interesting development for SAP. Infosys is an important partner for SAP – and infosys has a lot of services business on SAP technologies and products. I imagine the partnership will grow even stronger now. Although Vishal probably can’t poach talent from SAP legally, he has a cult following in some sections of SAP. It would not surprise me to see some of my former colleagues jump from SAP to Infosys soon. 

Good luck again, V !