hec conference

When I attended the HEC conference in Paris, it was an interesting experience. I was keyed in to most of the discussions, i was familiar with most of the topics. In fact I had even been meaning to contact some personalities, who turned up as speakers at the conference. Of the keynote speakers, I was able to properly attend only one, and I must say it astounded me completely. Simon Pickard, from EABIS and HEC Alum, raised the question about how much growth do we really need?

Do we need growth? Is that even a question? Of course we do. That's what shareholders want, that's what people in business aim for. Isn't it a businesses responsibility to make profit for the society? I mean, if this consideration can keep a giant of a company like Walmart on its toes, of course its the norm. Wouldn't I want my wealth to grow, my reputation to grow.. ?

But as I kept listening to him, I was slowly and gradually drawn to his side of the argument. and thats where sustainability came in. there is a difference between profit and growth. I can still make profit and not aim for growth. shareholder value does not necessarily have to be my main concern, I can think about investing to get better at what I do. La Fageda does not grow becuase they think further growth on from that point will not be sustainable for them. Typically one would think of increasing the leverage of a company (increasing debt in a company as compared to its equity share) to get bigger. Whereas i am just talking about being better. To bring it to a context closer home, do I really need to grow my wardrobe because I want people to see me wear different clothes everyday? Or do I replace worn out / old clothes when time comes, in order to make my wardrobe better in a more sustainable way, without really increasing its size. This example may sound off the mark, but hopefully it conveys the thought process..

The rest of the conference was justified to its mode - student run - and leveraged the corporate network really well. It is heartening to see how in our generation, more and more people are becoming conscious of our social responsibility, and HEC conference was yet another attestation to this effect.

Finally, I did get to see the Eiffel Tower, even if while commuting, and suitably juxtaposed with the (original?) statue of liberty. Felt like globalization, stretching over from centuries ago. and it left me with a good feeling, of having caught a glimpse without really having the time, having caught the bus to the airport just in time; in general, feeling good about what we have.. driving through the contry-side on our way to beauvais airpoirt, even though we had to miss the last session, but the landscape was worth noting and apreciating..

Pain in my neck

so one fine day, i wake up with.. lets say.. discomfort. and then i realise that the pain i had thought i had been dreaming about, was in fact real. the only explanation i could have was, i don't know! the official explanation was i probably didn't sleep properly on the pillow, coz i generally avoid using one.. but the real one is a mystery..

in the beginning i didn't pay a lot of attention, it was just another sprain, nothing to worry about. i was sitting at my laptop, whiling away my sunday afternoon as usual. but soon, i moved to the bed and i convinced myself that it was just me being lazy and had nothing to do with my neck. even though i never work on my bed, coz its too small. unlike in the past, particularly in pune, but never mind that..

gradually it started getting worse, till the point that i couldn't move it at all! and if i tried, i would get a sharp shooting pain up the muscle, and i would be immobile till it passed. that scared me enough to ask for help, to take painkillers, to apply the ointment and take bed rest. thankfully it was a sunday afternoon and wissam and tariq managed the team presentation, which was due the next day. else it could have been worse. and thanks to the many suggestions of medicines and posture in general, it got better. there are still traces of the strain left, but now it doesn't inhibit neck movement.

all that happens, happens for the best. and the neck strain is another example proving this. not only did it encourage wissam an tariq to feel confident about making ppts, but it has also corrected the tilt i always had in my neck. i am serious! every time i got a passport size image clicked, the photographer would first ask me to straighten my neck and then ask me to smile. :) funny how things work. wonder why it was only my neck that was strained and nothing else?! and then you give ppl more reason for humour. right from robocop imitations to finding more creative reasons about the "positions" that may have led to this strain. what better service than to make people laugh?

and finally the small pleasures of life. it feels great to turn my head to all angles again! when i stretch and the spasm doesn't come anymore.. then to see friends from as back as school respond to you, with you so much as having sought a suggestion.. touching.. tissues anyone? or maybe i should put that on facebook and smile when ppl respond :)

being a feminist

I am not a feminist. And i don't believe in the concept of feminism. this means that while i believe in equal opportunities for men and women, i don't believe in the need for a revolution to achieve this.

women have been looked up on as the weaker sex. women have to undertake more stress in balancing work with personal life. women are physically weaker than men. at least in average terms. women have different tastes than men. women are emotionally stronger than men. again on an average basis.

BUT. they are as much a human being as men. both have their fair share of work and challenges, happiness and sorrow to deal with. in the species of human beings, gender is just another basis for classification. disability vs normal ability. colour skin. nationality. height/weight/ you can think of many more.

how do we deal with these differences? we give them special benefits to come up to the level of the other section, if there is a sense of exploitation. but unless the distinction is pointing towards an inability such as for disabled, or refugees, or rape victims, why should there be special benefits? when we do that we acknowledge them as disadvantaged, as a symbol of some kind of inability. and that is why i don't like the concept of feminism. feminism for me is a way of acknowledging women as weaker. do we really need to do that? do we make special quotas for sad people? do we provide special quota for vegetarians? there is nothing sub-ordinary about being a woman. let everyone compete on a fair level and taste the unadulterated taste of success!!

Social Evolution

In the last two months I have come across many terms related to "Social" something, and it struck me that this might be the next big evolution. now i can't put a finger on which was the first point that struck me in this context. i am just listing them all down now.

facebook - how many of us are spending time on one or the other social networking website? for various reasons ranging from friendship to dating to professional.. i trust this network enough to find me a job, to cure my neck sprain, to keep me updated about who's getting married to whom.. and so on.

wikipedia - why do we trust what's written on wikipedia? agreed that we do give it a discount of error, but still it has become out standard defining source of information.

internet in general - why do we trust that google search will give us the significantly accurate information? why do we trust in purchasing items of eBay?

reviews - why do we believe in reviews posted on imdb or other such websites? and take that one step further to reviews about gadgets, devices, even vehicles..

and if i go to controversial areas -

capitalism - as my economics prof said - why is it that the gains are for the capitalists while the losses are for the socialists? why did the government step in to save the banks that were apparently too big to fail? why was greece so sure that germany will bail it out?

social business - more and more trends are emerging in social business. its no longer philanthropy, or working in refugee camps, its now business. for profit organisations, Impact investors, Social ROI, ecological ways of urbanization, to name a few..

I believe that we are in the midst of a revolution. we are beginning to trust the knowledge of the masses. and the internet has proved to be the medium for this. what is accepted and verified by the masses is acceptable to us. all the examples i gave above have this commonality. and thats is why this is different from the social phenomenon of the past. yes there existed such social phenomenon in the past as well - libraries, festival celebrations, army, even the parliament is such an example, but these were not verified by the masses. at least not as much as they are now. its like a new democracy- a democracy of knowledge..

i also came across this interesting thought - of that capitalism leads to communism which leads to socialism. and this order is necessary as elimination is a pre-requisite for evolution. we accept the ideas of those whom we believe are equal or above us in thoughts. and capitalism is the way to reach that stage of equals. and then social ownership of property makes sense, because each one has proved his right to having that share. its like a class of mba students who have been selected after a competition and then among them they have access to equal opportunities.

i will leave you with another example - TED - why are we coming together and sharing our ideas about change? what is the magic of social networks? according to this talk below, it is the difference between graphite and diamond. the carbon atom that these two consists of is the same, but the arrangement is different. just compare the carbon to a human and the arrangemet to his social network. are you graphite or are you a diamond?

for the whole talk visit:

http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks.html

looking out of the train window

i know you know i love train journeys. i took another one today coming back from madrid, a 3.5 hour journey in a superfast train. it was a beautiful landscape and my attention was diverted between the movie on the screen and the movie outside the window.

the movie was interesting, about a syrian migrant in new york, dubbed in spanish. but after a while it started raining. needless to say, the washed green was a treat for the eyes. you could tell where it was raining where the clouds were descending on the earth. and then the patterns struck me. for a while it was slanting drops getting splattered on the pane, and then a few sliding down vertically without a trace. as i wondered, how that was happening, the pane got crowded with more water patterns, almost to the point of getting confusing. then as we stopped at a station, just like an intermission. we started moving again, and by this time it had stopped raining. a completely different movie played out this time. as the train picked up speed, the water drops settled on the pane started getting blown away. between 150 and 180 km/hr it looked like fish swimming leisurely in the sea. as the speed increased to early 200s, the fish became horses galloping across green meadows. soon most of the water had disappeared, but the increasing speed somehow brushed out more drops out of all corners and crevices. late 200s, even touching 300 for a bit, and the drops were now minuscule bullets whizzing past in an action packed sequence. i missed the sound though. then all of a sudden the glass was so clean, all i could see was outside.

but outside encouraged another chain of thought. isn't it the same world everywhere! the same land, mountains, greenery, fields, and the sky. the industrial suburbs outside a big city. the population here is lesser for sure. although the absolute number of cars in barcelona would be the same as those in mumbai. but if i had to take a leaf out of the civilization here, i would take the small towns. and thats probably the nucleus of the difference between developed and developing countries. clean, well developed, and yet simple. no sense of embarrassment in being a small town person. rather there is a pride in the purity, in the simplicity, in being untouched by materialistic madness. i was reading "beyond profit" on the train, a magazine published by Intellecap India which updates everything going on in the responsible business sector. and there is a lot going on, in india and in the world, and not surprisingly there is a common thread to all sane things in life. i wish the villages and small towns of india develop on these lines in the coming years. to the point when you look out of a rain drenched window you cant identify the political affiliations of the land, just its beauty, consistent wherever you go.