Financial growth - The but(t) of it all

Is unbridled financial growth any indication of a company’s employee satisfaction? Many of you might think this to be a stupid question. To be honest, I always believed that higher financial growth meant higher employee satisfaction. Recently, though, Microsoft opened my eyes to the financial growth versus employee satisfaction balance.

Microsoft is easily the most profitable player in the tech industry. And it's raking in more moolah than ever, with a net income of $12.3 billion on revenues of $39.8 billion for the past fiscal year. Its twin monopolies, the Windows PC operating system and the Office suite of desktop applications, give it crucial advantages when it plunges into adjacent markets, such as server software for corporations and instant messaging for both businesses and consumers.

All that said and done, are its employees happy and satisfied? Methinks the answer is "maybe not".

In 1998 Microsoft Corp. hired computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee away from hardware maker Silicon Graphics Inc. The move showcased the software giant’s thorough dominance of the computer industry. Lee's expertise was in speech recognition, considered one of the next big leaps in computing. With people like him flocking to Microsoft's labs, it seemed but obvious that the digital world's reigning champion had a secure lock on the future. Things, however, did not turn out that way. In July 2005, Lee bolted from Microsoft for Web search king Google Inc. When asked about his shift into Google, Lee smiled broadly and threw both arms in the air. "I feel great, I can't wait to start work tomorrow morning."

Contrast that with how Lee felt about Microsoft. He painted a distinctly unflattering picture of the company's inner fabric. Lee, who opened Microsoft's research lab in China in 1998 and moved to headquarters in Redmond, Washington, two years later, fretted over what he saw as repeated blunders. He detailed how the more than 20 product-development centers in China tripped over one another, duplicating efforts and even fighting over the same job candidate. Lee called the company "incompetent." He praised Google, noting, "the culture is very supportive, collaborative, innovative, and Internet-like -- and that's bottoms-up innovation rather than top-down direction."

Lee is not the only one giving Microsoft a caustic treatment. Much of the sharpest criticism comes not from the outside world but from within. Scores of current and former employees are criticizing the way the company operates internally. Recently two researchers sent Chairman Bill Gates a memo in which they wrote: "Everyone sees a crisis is imminent" and suggested "Ten Crazy Ideas to Shake Up Microsoft." Many workers, like Lee, are in effect saying: "I quit." More than 100 former Microsoft employees now work for Google, and dozens of others have scattered elsewhere. Employees' complaints are rooted in a number of factors. They resent cuts in compensation and benefits as profits soar. They're disappointed with the stock price, which has barely budged for three years, rendering many of their stock options out of the money. They're frustrated with what they see as swelling bureaucracy, including the many procedures and meetings Chief Executive Steven A. Ballmer has put in place to motivate them. And they're feeling trapped in an organization whose past successes seem to stifle current creativity. "There's a distinct lack of passion," says one engineer, who would talk only on condition of anonymity. "We're missing some spunk."

Ironically, these were the very same characteristics that made Microsoft a popular workplace years ago. The company rode high and its employees rode high with it. Everyone slogged so that the company, and they themselves in turn, could do well. The stock prices soared and growth was the flavour of their work. Creativity was encouraged and passion was a common characteristic of Microsoft employees.

So what happened along the years? Was it poor leadership? Probably not…that is an unlikely theory. The most probable reason for employee dissatisfaction might have stemmed from the sheer size, financial stake and non-maneuverability of the organization. Microsoft, in short, had grown beyond the dreams of a creative thinker that was once William H. Gates III.

I don’t intend to claim that high profit making organizations will absolutely have employee-work dissatisfaction...that would be silly. All I’m saying is that monetary growth is often not the correct gauge to measure an organization’s success. A successful organization will definitely need to make excellent money (heaven help them otherwise!) but it will also need to necessarily ensure the constancy of the passion that ensured its progress. As they say, "The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions. "

Financial data and the case study for this piece were taken from The Business Week

The Lion City

Mixed moments of anticipation followed closely by gushing speed…SQ 407 took off to deliver us to the Lion City - Singapore.

The Flight
After Thai Air, Singapore Airlines was like paradise. The seats were spacious enough and the entire ambience was conducive to comfort flying. Once we were airborne, the stream of food and drinks started flowing. The food and wine were excellent by any standards. Although they did not serve Dom Perignon, their La Vieille Ferme Rouge was just as good. The in-flight entertainment also was a class apart. Latest movies and music albums filled the system and we were soon absolutely comfortable in our seats. An hour into the flight, air disturbances took over. From then on, till we touched down at Changi, the plane rattled like a, …well, rattle. I did not catch a wink of sleep on the flight primarily because I was loaded with too much entertainment and secondarily because the weather was unruly.

Changi – The Airport
The name ‘Changi’ is derived from the Changi tree that finds pride of place in Singapore. The Changi tree is protected by law and the airport is an outstanding tribute to it. Okay, I admit that I have not been to many international airports but it is difficult for me to imagine an airport better managed and facilitated than Changi. The airport was absolutely spic and span with travellators and escalators in almost all places. The most amazing characteristic of the airport was its deathly silence. In fact, this was exactly the case with all of Singapore. The people were absolutely quiet as if under some oath of silence. The immigration officials in Singapore were lightening fast and very friendly. It took all of 10 minutes for us to leave aircraft and get onto the streets of Singapore. This too after several lingering moments watching the different airport sights.
While returning to New Delhi we spent three hours at the Changi airport and still managed to be just in time for the boarding. Why? We were just taken in by the amount of shopping that was possible at the airport. Enormous duty free shops held center stage and they were offering everything from imported chocolates to imported wine at reduced prices. The airport had centers in the lounges that offered free Internet access and no one was seen hogging the terminals. Hello Indira Gandhi International Airport! Anybody listening?

Singapore City
The entrance to the arrival gate of Changi airport was decorated with stunted palm trees and the drive to the city only demonstrated why Singapore was probably the cleanest city in the world. There are probably more dustbins than there are people in Singapore! Jokes apart, I doff my imaginary hat to all the citizens of Singapore for keeping their country so beautifully clean.
The transport system in Singapore was really admirable. Although the teksis (taxis) were very expensive, buses and the MRT (Mass Rail Transport) were very affordable means of travelling. The frequency of the MRT and the bus service was definitely above par. We practically never had to wait more than a minute or so for transport.
Singapore gave me an impression of a flourishing Asian city albeit with a strong European flavour. Expensive tastes, fast cars, quiet people, business and more business. The people are very dignified and helpful. In fact, there was never a moment during my trip when I felt like an outsider amongst them.

Jurong Bird Park
You need to see this to believe it. If you love birds, don’t pass up this experience for anything. Although the price of the ticket was cutthroat, Jurong Bird Park was ceaselessly amazing every second of the time spent there. Every kind of bird that we ever studied or dreamt about was present there. The true beauty of the park was the proximity with the birds sans cages. The pelicans, swans, flamingos were all beautiful. My favourite experience was feeding the lories. As the picture would probably tell you, I was delirious with joy! The Bird Amphitheater was also great with the macaws, toucans, hornbills and parrots doing their histrionics with extreme dignity.
The birds of prey looked out of sorts in their enclosures. These birds belonged to the free skies and even their large cages looked small compared to the skies. The enclosure of the hornbills was excellent. We ‘met’ many different types of hornbills and 'spoke' with some of them. We also saw the world’s largest species of pigeon. This pigeon would easily weigh about 8-10 pounds each and stretched to at least 2 feet from beak to tail. JBP also boasts of the world’s highest man-made waterfall. This waterfall, at the waterfall aviary stands at 30 meters and is a majestic sight to behold surrounded by the mist of the rainforest.
The ostrich, emu, cassowary, penguins…I could just go on. If I start to completely describe the JBP, it would take me all of 2 hours and loads of writing space. So I’ll just say this much, whatever you do in Singapore, for your own sake, please do go to the JBP.

Night Safari
Those of you who are from India, please don’t waste your precious dough on this. It is simply not worth it. Somehow all the animals looked drugged to me. They were unbelievably stationary for wild animals. The leopard trail, however, was the only notable exception. We walked through an enclosure with king size bats in its. You could touch the bats for all anyone cared. The leopard was only a 6-inch fiberglass wall away from us. That was all that was between the king of the night and us. The tram that took us through the safari showed us more cattle and deer than we had ever dreamt possible. One animal that was a genuine surprise package was the tapir. Well, that’s about it!

Sentosa Island
The meeting schedule was too tight…still we accommodated the Sentosa trip and we would have been silly to miss it. After our entry, we took the free bus to the underwater world. This cost us a fortune compared to the fares it had to offer us. We saw some fantastic sharks, dugongs, sea-dragons etc but nothing worth the money spent in gaining admission. Also, the souvenir shop in its premises was incredibly expensive. In short – no fire, only smoke. After having spent 40 minutes underwater (we had to recompense for the dollars spent there!) we took another bus and headed out for the musical fountains. These fountains were some of the most amazing that I had ever seen. It came packaged with a complete hologram show. The entire musical extravaganza was held under the auspices of the 23-meter tall merlion that stood towering over everything else.
The show went on for all of 15 minutes. Thereafter, we went to the Siloso beach and ate at the Seven Eleven store there. By the time we had completed our rambles on the beach, we were close to 10:30 p.m. A helpful bar owner arranged taxis for us. The taxi that arrived to pick me up was a Mercedes Benz - C class. Admitted, that was a first and special too!

Malls
Singapore has malls that are really worth visiting…unfortunately I am not too much of a shopping person. However, I still managed to go to Suntec City Mall. There was an ongoing electronics exhibition that allowed us to get away with great prices. We even bought a Sony digital camera and saved at least INR 7000 on the bargain. The Suntec City mall had 5 ‘towers’, each for a different commercial purpose. It was wonderfully organized.
I also visited the Raffles City Mall. This was actually more amazing than the Suntec mall. It had a fountain that danced (not to our tunes though) and had almost all the major international fashion and food chains possible in it. The entrance to the mall had tall artificial palm trees that looked like sentries.

Clarke Quay
All I can say is that this could easily be called the Venice of Singapore. A beautiful riverside with eateries and shops on both sides, this is the source of eventful walks and beautiful sights. The riverbank was lined with barges that were excellent places for eating. The opposite side of the road had numerous pubs, ice-cream parlours and small shops selling dandy items. There was also a spot where you could do partake of reverse bungee jumping and get your horrified face taped for S$45. Worthwhile?


Little India
You’ll know when you get there. As soon as I got out of the MRT, the first wall to my right had the words "Fu** Co**" sprayed in large black letters. Absolutely aghast, I turned away only to see walls stained with betel juice. This had better be India…little or not. The first time I went to Little India, it was after the Night Safari and almost 11:00 p.m. The restaurants were shutting down and I just about managed to get some food from an Andhra food joint. The biryani was as sumptuous as that made in a Shiraz or a Karims. After dinner, I had to nearly wait for 10 minutes to get a taxi. The taxi drivers wanted to hurry away from Little India as fast as their wheels could take them (which was about 80 km/hr).
The second time that I went to Little India (Actually the MRT stop before it) was to visit the Mustafa shopping center (Serangoon Road). Be forewarned, if you are from a developing nation, (where a S$ would mean 28 bucks) don’t try to buy clothing from Singapore (Mustafa or not). Only the toiletries are a little cheaper than India. You get a lot of original Gillette, Nike and Adidas products for much cheaper than you can imagine - Bigger the brand, more the margin.

Food
Good food… that is the key to a satisfying trip anywhere – at least that is what I believe…and good food we did have. Lets start with Indonesian. Kintamani, the Indonesian restaurant in Hotel Furama Riverfront was an excellent choice. The food was almost Indian except that it was much sweeter. Even the meat items were far sweeter than admissible to the Indian palate. We had different preparations of fowl, and red meat, each matching up to the other. Finally the dessert arrived – a dish called Tjendol (Bride’s tears). It is a sweet drink with milk & some jelly things in it.
Chinese food was unimaginably different from our usual Chinatown fare. We had steamed rice, beef steak, fish and chicken in soya sauce. Dessert was a sweet drink made of dates, something that looked like seaweed and some other ingredients (I’m sorry I could not catch anything the bearer said about the dishes). Water was ably substituted by green tea. Although it looked very simple, it was delicious and very satisfying.
For our timely dose of Indian masala we went to Muthu’s Curry. My, my…what amazing curries. Apart from home, I have never ever tasted such classic recipes. The ambience was very calming and conducive to good eating. The bearers were very friendly and eagerly showed us what we were going to eat. My eyes sought out and zeroed in on a large flower crab. Ten minutes later I began to deflower the crab that was done rare in an explosive curry. Niju had the famous meen thala (fish head) curry. It was definitely the best food that we had in Singapore.
Seafood was at its best at Shangrila, one of the most posh hotels in Singapore. Here I had some fabulous stuff. The chef in charge of cold seafood helped me in my selection of the choicest items. I had live oysters with Tabasco sauce and lime (mind blowing). This really pepped me up and I went ahead and had octopus tentacles with some weird sauce (I had lost count of new sauces by then). This was also marvelous. Apart from this I had plenty of squid, lobsters and crabs. The crowning dish was a bowl of shark fin soup. Although I partook of the dish, the story behind procurement of the shark fins was very painful and I silently vowed to never consume that dish again. Dessert also had unbelievable variety. I had tepanyaki ice cream and strawberries dipped in molten chocolate. The height of bourgeoisie was the existence of a chocolate fountain. People could simply collect some of this molten chocolate and dip their candies or fruits in it to enjoy a delicious bite.
My tight business schedule disabled me from going out to try ethnic Singaporean dishes but I did try the various satay (Although all the Southeast Asian countries will lay claim to it). Other joints that I visited were KFC, McDonalds and Burger King. Most of these international food chains are available only in select cities in India. The food was simply amazing and it is a pity that most people in India do not get to taste the crispy fried chicken of KFC or the celebrated beef burger of McDonalds or the turkey bacon burger of Burger King.

Tears of a Nation

"The agony of shattered dreams
or that of a condemned station
augmented by haunting screams
and the renascent tears of a Nation"

It was early evening of November 1st, 1984 and Block 32 of Trilokpuri, a resettlement colony in east Delhi, was gently bearing witness to the end of yet another day. The women were beginning to prepare dinner while their men-folk were returning from work. Suddenly the streets were filled with a fierce uproar. Men, turned blind by hatred, stormed into every house. Women were raped in the presence of their families while their terrified families pleaded for mercy. In one of the many incidents, a woman was gang-raped in front of her 17-year-old son; before leaving, the marauders torched the boy. Scores of families were killed over the three days and nights of non-stop violence: most of them were butchered by putting burning tyres around theirs necks. Trilokpuri, like the rest of the Sikh settlements in and around Delhi was turned to ashes. Street dogs gorged on rotting human entrails; drains overflowed with charred and mutilated corpses; women, wailing and clutching children fled the wild mobs armed with every conceivable weapon. The very last shred of human dignity was torn away and trampled under foot.
21 years later, a packed upper house witnessed a particularly somber scene. The Prime Minister of the nation, ironically a Sikh himself, apologized for the tragedy that took place in 1984. "I have no hesitation in apologizing to the Sikh community. I apologize not only to the Sikh community, but to the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood enshrined in our Constitution," he said. An emotional Dr. Singh said that while one cannot rewrite the past, "…as human beings we have the will power and we have the ability to write better future for all of us".
1984 Delhi to 1993 Bombay to 2002 Gujarat – The situation remains the same. As a country we fail to protect the secular fabric that binds us. Humiliating history also fails to prevent us from committing such heinous crimes against humanity and against the very concept of nationhood. As soon as such communal crimes are committed, various leaders of the society start the blame game to ensure maximum mileage for the next election. No one thinks, even for a second, about the corpses that once had the breath of life but now have only a family to weep for them.
The date or the community is irrelevant. True relevance is only of the fact that the nation must be responsible for its people. That means we must accept responsibility for each other. This can happen only if we learn to accept our diversity as our greatest boon and learn to love and live with each other.

Software Testing, Trials and Tribulations V 1.01

The entire education wing of our mother-company was implementing software to automate the publishing processes. Our Delhi office was abuzz with activity because our foreign colleagues were going to arrive at (Read: Take over) our office.

They say that the Gods must be crazy…yeah, looking at what I had to undergo in the initial session, I’m sure that that’s pretty much the same for the rest of us!

The schedule-overview session saw a remarkable happening – over 50 well dressed ladies and gentlemen getting stuffed (now don’t get the wrong idea!) into a 12 ft X 30 ft conference room. For the first time the poor room, once the pride of the office, looked like it had met its match. On top of that we had a (our own) high ranking official declare that it was the largest room we had (so not true) – Embarrassment 1 & 2 (the official was the first embarrassment!).

The next session brought out the humiliation factor. There I was sitting in a group of editorial and marketing ‘experts’ with an Aussie ‘sheila’ telling us how to use a mouse! My ‘geek’ pride got kicked in the you-know-where. I felt like I was being dragged through 3rd grade. The level of tutoring might have been painfully stupid but the product was, by all means, useful. It made our current system look like the caveman’s tally. Suddenly sheila’s laptop cable got disconnected and the room suddenly became a hive of activity with every single guy giving her a view on how to put the damn thing back together…truly amazing considering that these would be the last people to normally help you around the office. They were vying for the bonus of getting a front row view of what her skimpy top was trying (in vain) to hide. Aside: You should have just seen the faces of the other women go…this shiela literally pulled the ground from under them! Interestingly, the office boys had a competition about who would serve her the most cups of tea in a day.

Throughout these sessions, apart from getting an overview of the system, I also got a fairly good view of our attitude towards whites and also towards change. We are still shit-scared of both. With the whites the issue is more than skin-deep. I have often mentioned it in my discussions. With change, it’s the who-moved-my-cheese syndrome…if you can call it a syndrome. The whites are considerably staunch in their belief that we Indians are scared of them. We augment that by not speaking up when we are supposed to and also by speaking out when we should have held our peace. Discretion is the better part of valour. Indiscretion leads to disgrace. I was observing the look in the eyes of some of my colleagues. Man! There was a slinky desire to please…the only missing formality, as I see it was raising an arm, standing up, lowering the gaze, and addressing the dude as ‘Sir’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating disrespect. I am the first to give respect…as long as drooling is not part of it.

The general sessions came and went…as and when the top officials felt like having an audience. Finally, lots of cancelled sessions and successful lunches later I was ‘invited’ for a ‘discussion’ with the ‘elite’ group. The group consisted of an expert from our Aussie office (not the showstopper please…although even this lady had her personal fan following), a programmer, my boss and several other people. They discussed, they decided and I clapped…case closed.

Okay jokes apart, the system turned out to be excellent for our work. It had several modules for the successful functioning of a publishing company. Everything was covered from the publishing process itself to finance and inventory. However, there were still modules that they had to activate without which the remaining modules only increased our workload. All in all, I was pretty happy with the implementation (as if anyone cared). My boss worked very hard for it (as the editorial expert) and she deserved kudos for it.

Such work on an international scale deserved dinner and dinner it was. It was probably the single-most boring dinner I had ever been to. It was a steamy evening made worse by itsy-bitsy showers. I was the only guy from the Indian editorial team. As if this were not enough, the Englishmen sat together, the Aussies sat together, the Chinese sat together while the Indians sat scattered. Among the Indians, the bigwigs sat together leaving us small fry to linger around like unwanted kids. Some of our senior and most respected officials were playing the role of the court jesters to entertain a group of foreign women. I was just wondering where all this would lead to. Anyway, I chose a hitherto unoccupied table and was immediately joined by another Indian colleague who was in the same predicament as I – To leave or not to leave.

Soon an Aussie, who was an exception to the rule of groupism, joined us. He did not mind having his dinner with a ‘brownie’. However, ‘elite’ company did not come cheap…I had to ‘actively’ listen to his graphic description of kangaroo meat processing in Sydney. By the time he got to saying, “On Delhi roads I would normally have to drive my car up another’s arse” I was at the end of my patience. I was just hoping that the dinner in itself would be sumptuous. I could not have been more off the mark though. The food was almost entirely made for the effeminate taste buds of the goras. The word ‘spice’ needed to be thoroughly redefined to the cook. I finally settled for some dinner-rolls with Hawaiian Chicken salad and some ice cream. It was positively the worst corporate dinner that I had ever attended.

Finally, the good-byes were said and the visitors returned to their countries after having ‘gifted’ us with an automated system. Although the automated system promised to make our work easier and more standardized, it also signaled change. It demanded that space be made for paradigm shifts in our work policy and this, it seemed to me, was not acceptable to several of us. However, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to resist change the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant changes also begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of changing.

The Power of Saying 'No'

The world today moves at a truly mind boggling pace. Gone are the days when 8 hours of work earned us a peaceful rest with our families. Our lives, as we know it, are governed by our irrepressible urge to please and please further. It is in this quest that we have given up the freedom of doubting, the willingness to forgive a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting and most of all the choice of saying NO to any authority --literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political.
This apparently mighty word is getting rarer by the day. NO, the word in its true essence is now an embarrassment to most of us. It does not matter how much we are pushed around, we never say NO. The reason for that is very simple – our education and tutorials.
We are taught to say NO to strangers, NO to objects that don’t belong to you, NO to drugs and NO to premarital sex among other things. Excellent…but nobody taught us to say NO to being pushed around, NO to doing work that is not ours. No…when it comes to work, never say NO. Work is Worship…Other’s work is also worshipped. Come to think of it, even we would not like anyone to say NO to sharing our work! There is but a thin line between enthused work and coercive labour. That line, I suspect is often been crossed all around the world.
Picture this for a start – Zach is a dude in the toilet paper industry. Neck deep in scheduled work, Zach goes all out to do a job that was not his own but was expected from him. He, along with 5 teammates had to bail out their unit and their proprietor from public shame and dire consequences. 7 days on the job that was menial to say the least, (large amounts of lousy data entries) they are finally asked to take it upon themselves to provide the finishing touches to the assignment. Behold their agony when they have to work very late into the night to complete it to save their unit’s behind. They do the work, albeit screaming like madmen (nobody else was around to listen to madmen…except toilet paper)…even miss their dinner for the sake of the job and deliver it on time. You know what they get for all this team spirit, effort, passion and pain – That’s a five letter word that I would not say in public.
Yeah you heard me right…nobody cared once the objective was achieved. The time, the effort…everything was forgotten in a second. What remained behind was a backlog of toilet paper suppliers, tired sinews and an implosive anger. They were rubbed the wrong way…with zero degree sandpaper.
Whom would you blame for what happened and the after effects?
After a lot of thought, my take would be that it was the fault of the guys who agreed to doing work that was not theirs. This dude Zach, he just never learned to say NO. I’m not talking about an aggressive NO…nothing like our Bollywood stars vigourously shaking their heads, snapping their fingers and saying, “na thakur na!” I am talking about an assertive NO. Something like, “No, I’m afraid I can’t sit late tonight and complete this task. I need to catch up on some important mails.” Instead Zach’s reply to the coercion was, “Definitely, it will be ready by tomorrow morning.”
Learn from a 2-year-old. Ask him to do things that he ‘thinks’ is not worth his while and you will get a sharp NO. You can do all you want but he would not take the hint. If the kid can do it, why then are there billions of adults who can’t? The reason is very simple – We, the educated adults have learnt the pinch of a long word ‘consequence’. It teaches us that we have the duty to be right and also snatches away the freedom of being wrong. This realization puts us in chains and liquidates everything our forefathers shed their blood for.
Apparently Zach is the product of the system and a hopeless case…nothing different can be expected from him. However, you, who are reading this can change and right the wrongs. You can stand up and use the 2 lettered word that was once the power of an enslaved nation. Remember that no one can make you accept anything without your consent. As the great Galileo once said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”