What needs to be done for our environment?

This evening(September 7,2013;Saturday),I had the opportunity to attend  an international event on environment organized by the City Montessori School.It was attended by 65 teams  of students  from Nigeria,Sri Lanka,Bangla Desh , Nepal as also from various states of India.It was a delightful, meaningful and well-organized event.I have witnessed very few events of this kind , where the message was driven home to everyone present, without any doubt.I was asked to say a "few words".What follows is a summary of what I spoke  there.
                               Chief Seattle said:"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors.we borrow it from our children."Chief Seattle was the person after whom city of Seattle is founded.Seattle , the city of Microsoft,Amazon.com,Boeing and Star Bucks , is clean and green , as i found in my visit to this city in May this year.What Chief Seattle meant was  that we must have an attitude that this Earth is to be preserved and made cleaner and greener for the posterity.
                                      Environment has to be conserved by the government as well as by the citizens.Neither the government alone , nor the citizenry alone can do it .It has to be a combined effort.
                                    At government level , it is muti-departmental,multi-disciplinary  area.As many as fourteen departments are involved as follows:
1.Environment.
2.Forests.
3.Transport.
4.Housing/town and country planning.
5.Urban development/Urban local bodies.
6.Power.
7.Non-conventional energy.
8.Industry.
9.Agriculture.
10.Panchayati Raj/Rural local bodies.
11.Health/family welfare.
12.Medical education.
13.Education.
14.Public Works,Roads, and Buildings.
So high level of skills of co-ordination are required to get results out of these fourteen departments.
                      in addition , there are a large number of laws and rules relating to pollution control and environment protection .One has to really struggle hard to keep oneself updated on these legal provisions.Some of the important Acts and Rules are as below:                 

1.The water(The Prevention and Control of Pollution)Act,1974.

2.The Air(Prevention and Control of pollution)Act,1981.

3.The Environment (Protection)Act , 1986.

4.The hazardous Wastes(management , handling and transboundary movement)rules,2008.

5.The Bio-Medical Waste(Management and handling)Rules,1998.

6.The Plastics Manufacture , Sale and Usage Rules,1999.

7.The Municipal Solid wastes(Management and Handling) Rules,2000.

8.The Noise Pollution(Regulation and control)Rules,2000.

9.The Batteries(management and handling)Rules,2001.

10.Energy Conservation act ,2001.
                      A third  aspect of environment is to work out a comprehensive environmental pollution index.Central Pollution Control Board  with IIT , New Delhi worked out a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index(CEPI) based on air , water and land pollution .According to this              

 study,eleven most polluted  cities/industrial clusters/areas in UP:

Critically Polluted(CEPI is 70 or above) . 

1. Ghaziabad . 87.37.

2.Singrauli .81.73.

3.Noida . 78.90

4.Kanpur  . .78.09

5.Agra . 76.48.

6.Varanasi-Mirzapur . 73.79

These six areas are critically polluted.

Severely polluted areas;

7Moradabad ..64.71

8.Aligarh . .63.83.

9.Firozabad . .60.51.

Polluted;

10.Mathura . 59.98

11.Meerrut . 59.38
The state government has  got 52.5 million trees planted in the last 3 months and has developed 60 green lungs in 58 districts , with areas ranging from 50 acres in many districts  to 1000 acres in Etawah. It has decided to go ahead  for  declaring Pilibhit Forests as Tiger reserve.
               Here is my list for what a common citizen can and should do to preserve and improve environment .
1.Enhance the green cover.
2.Learn and implement three R's of environment:recycle,Reuse,Reduce.
3.Adopt an eco-friendly way of living and dying.Make green buildings, do rainwater harvesting, consume less water, conserve energy and practice ecological intelligence.
4.Say "Yes" to gender equality in all walks of life from education to providing washrooms .This will reduce population explosion.
5.Education has no meaning without learning to conserve environment.education and environment should be taught together.
6.Maintain highest standards of cleanliness and non-pollution.
7Respect diversity and bio-diversity.
8.Use eco-friendly transport,public transport and pooled transport.
What is needed is a belief system and an attitude about environment  in every person on the above lines.

           

                             


                                       

Why I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand periodically?

Why is it that we want to read some books again and again?More specifically , why I  feel drawn to read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand again , and yet again?Ayn Rand wrote this masterpiece in 1943 , and it still has the power to hold me in 2013,  70 years  after ,since she wrote it.It has the same freshness, vigour and capacity to uplift ,as it had when I read it for the first time in 1980.The only difference in the last 30 years is that I appreciate it more clearly and admire it more.Where does its captivating power lie ?It has had and will continue to have that staying power which only the classics have.
                                   Ayn Rand wrote this work in 1943 when she was 38 years  .She wrote Introduction to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition in 1968 when she was 63 years  .In this , she asks:"Are there any substantial changes I would want to make  in The Fountainhead?".And answers:"No-and therefore I have left its text unchanged."In the same introduction she says that one of the cardinal reasons of The Fountainhead's lasting appeal is that it is a confirmation of the spirit of youth, proclaiming man's glory, showing how much is possible.
                                        The Fountainhead  has successfully created an ideal man in Howard Roark.He has a code of ethics and a reverence for himself and his values.He does not give up before the usual process of corruption, the way most people get corrupted in this world.He retains his values, his mind , his self-esteem, and does not abandon his values despite great hardships.He does not lose his fire.He holds on and moves on , knowing that the fire is not to be betrayed, learning to give it purpose , shape and reality He does not know what and where his future is,he marches on to realize man's glory and life's potential.He truly demonstrates the power of a  man.This sounds egoistic  but that is precisely the crux:The theme of The Fountainhead is that man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.
                      I especially like the last para of the Introduction:"It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature-and that the rest will betray it.It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning-and it is those few that I have always sought to address.The rest are no concern of mine :it is not me  or The Fountainhead  that they will betray :it is their own souls."
                     This power to inspire, motivate and ignite  for having and following complete loyalty to a code of ethics and having  an unflinching faith in the power of an individual, described in an interesting , romantic backdrop , makes us  read  The Fountainhead , again and again .
                                    

Control in an age of empowerment by Robert Simons

This classic article was originally published in Harvard Business Review in 1995, but is relevant even today .While it is a fashion to talk about empowering the employees in an organization , the top management often chooses to exercise more and more control on the decision making .The two- control and empowerment- - are thus opposed to each other.In India,in public sector and government , there is a tendency towards ever increasing control, thereby resulting in less and less empowerment of the employees at different levels.This often suits the employees as well .In the era of hyperactive Auditors and Courts (through Public Interest Litigation),employees too,of late, prefer less and less powers of decision-making , so that the accountability for decisions and actions lies at the senior levels.This results in control-oriented ,dis-empowering system of management and governance .The ultimate sufferer is an ordinary member of public , who has to wait in-ordinately long, with little accessibility to actual decision makers.It certainly results in poor, corrupt and inefficient  governance.
                                    What is the solution?Does it mean that the employees are given more powers, with very little control at the top.Robert Simons answers this question very precisely and with great clarity.He takes a position that we need to harness every employee's creativity by empowering him or her .But it should be done carefully  with four levers of control, given below.
1.Diagnostic control systems  which define and monitor critical performance variables, with preset goals.
2.Clearly articulated belief and value systems.
3.Boundary systems  defining code of conduct and minimum ethical standards.(The rules of the game)
4.Interactive control systems by organizational dialogue to encourage learning.
                                 The balancing of empowerment and control is clearly the responsibility of the top management .In the government ,both at the centre and in the states , this responsibility lies with the senior civil servants and the ministers .How far they want to do it , and if they want to do it , how far they succeed in achieving this balance , defines , to some extent , the quality of governance .India, alas , is far away from the ideal level of balance.

The Story of a Nobody by Anton Chekhov

This novel of 122 pages by Chekhov is very interesting and powerful.This Nobody, who is also the narrator of the story(Stepan) , belongs to a terrorist group and manages to get the job of a servant in the household of a  government official's son(Orlov, also called Georgy Ivanych) , with a view to spy on the father.But the experience of staying in that house  changes the mission of this young Nobody .Suddenly , he realizes the purposelessness of life and becomes disillusioned with his mission .He gives up his mission.

                            Orlov is fond of reading new books.He falls in love with a married woman  , Zinaida Fyodorovna.She leaves her husband and moves into the house of Orlov.It is then that Orlov begins to avoid her , and goes on  for long periods to stay with one of his male friends , just to escape her.Finally , Zinaida discovers the truth , and Stepan helps her to escape from St. Petersberg  to Venice.

                           Zinaida becomes a cynic and  tells Stepan that there is no difference between Stepan and Orlov.Both had deceived her and abandoned her in their own ways.Stepan does bring her to Paris but she sees no future for her.Stepan first thinks that  it is due to her cynicism and despair , but later  realizes that  what she says has truth in it.

   Zinaida gives birth to a baby of Orlov(Sonya) , and dies during child birth (perhaps by consuming poison.).Stepan returns with Sonya to St. Petersberg. Stepan  realizes that he is not well , is old and is nearing his death .He goes to Orlov to discuss the future of Sonya.Orlov tells him to send Sonya to a boarding house , and also tells him to discuss things with the ex-husband of Zinaida.

                             Stepan realizes  observes and experiences  deceit, hypocrisy , illness and  old age , and it  changes his faith and his convictions in his mission .He realizes that very learned  persons  like Orlov could be mistaken in their beliefs, apparently  honest persons like himself  could actually be cheating others , resulting in  his cynicism and purposelessness .There is only  a sudden flash  about one possible purpose of life:  selfless love for another.

Plant a Tree

                 

                     The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time is today." Chinese Proverb . . .
                       

Successful Managers versus Effective Managers

I recently read the 1988 book called "Real Managers" by Fred Luthans , Richard M. Hodgetts and Stuart A. Rosenkrantz.It was based on empirical data from an extensive  four year  study on real managers.

                           For me , it was a paradigm shifting book.I thought , I must share its central idea with a wider audience through social media .I am sure , if you are a real manager , it will change the way you work .

                           The book has nine chapters but the real findings are given and analysed in chapters four and nine.Briefly ,it says that  the effective managers  have the distribution of their activities/time and resources  as below:

1.Routine communication :45%

2.Networking:12%

3.Human resource Management:27%

4.Traditional Management functions:15%

Comparative figures for successful managers are;

1. . 28%

2 .  . .48%

3. . . .11%

4. . . .13%

The real difference is in the time and resources spent on networking .Successful managers spend nearly half their time and resources on networking while effective managers spend barely 12% of time and resources on networking .

The" Effective AND successful "spend time  almost on the same pattern as that of Effective managers .

                     ( Successful managers are those who rise to the top in the shortest time .Effective managers are those who really bring about the changes they want in the organizations.)

Do we want to be successful ?or do we want to be Effective and successful?Depending on your answer, decide to spend time and resources on networking .

How to get filthy rich in rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

It was just a coincidence that I saw the movie The Great Gatsby when I was in Seattle recently  and read Mohsin Hamid's "How to get filthy rich in rising Asia  when I returned to Lucknow in India.I had read  Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby  about a few years  earlier, and finished it with some sad sense of ending .The novel , the movie both are great .Mohsin Hamid 's book did remind me of Gatsby, and at many levels , it evoked similar feelings in  .The book is about the rise and fall of the protagonist("You") in an Asian city..He succeeds in bringing about  the flavour of a  typically Asian city and people through his work.
                  Self-help books are very popular among  poor but ambitious boys and girls in Asia. Mohsin has shaped his novel  around this frame , and has created a riveting story of a poor ,boy based in a rural area of  rising  Asia .He  traces his journey of becoming filthy rich as a  corporate tycoon, controlling a  huge , sprawling business of supplying bottled  drinking water .His  quest  for wealth and love go together.The Pretty girl , on whom our nameless hero  has consistently set eyes till the very end , also learns how girls become rich and famous in rising Asia .Their paths cross several times , each pursuing  individual  ambition to be rich , still loving each other , till  in their twilight , they  live together , till  they  reach their end , one after another .There are only three persons to attend the funeral of the Pretty girl , and  later , about the same number for our hero.
              The book has 228 pages and 12 chapters.Each chapter  is based on a lesson in self-help;Move to the city;Get an education;Don't fall in love;Avoid idealists ;Learn from a master;Work for yourself;Be prepared to use violence;Befriend a bureaucrat;Patronize the artists of war;Dance with debt;Focus on the fundamentals;Have an exit strategy.The hero is "You". No character is named .The characters are addressed like pretty girl , politician , bureaucrat implying that there could be one or more such persons you may come across in daily life in rising Asia.But let us be clear :by no stretch of imagination , it is a self-help book .It is only that the protagonist is a struggling  ,ambitious  youth in rising Asia .The book is a first rate literary novel , based on this format of 12 self-help rules .The result is a book which is a thousand times more powerful than any self-help book could ever be.(In all honesty , I am not against  reading self-help books .I am not one of those who make fun of those who read self-help books .But literary books are obviously a class apart , and no self-help book can ever come near any of these .
                      The book contains many instances of sacrifice of morality when a  poor , rural youth is determined to be rich fast enough in rising Asia .These are dark sides of  system, which need the attention of all of us , young and old , men and women alike.We need to  provide in rising Asia clean opportunities  , incentives and systems for our youth to rise, earn  and achieve.
                            It is  an extremely well written book of fiction which stays with us long after we have read it. .I strongly recommend you to read it .
                   

In Good Faith . .A journey in search of an unknown India

This book describes a journey across India by the author in search of her own identity and the identity of India she can identify with .During this journey , she frequently comes across people   whose behaviour and practices  challenge  the  commonly held  notions of what it means to be a Hindu or a Muslim in India.As a result , she discovers an India in far away , little places where  followers of the two religions find a common God, a  building  which is both a temple and a dargah. She discovers little islands  where  diverse, multiple religions coexist ,providing the evidence of unity and a  strong counter to fundamentalism .She discovers dialogues and voices which  indicate  that India has a tradition of unity and religious tolerance which goes back to many centuries.
                     The book "In Good Faith  . . A journey in search of an unknown India" by Saba Naqvi  , published in 2012 by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd , has191 pages , and is a racy read .It is essentially a book  about an honest , unbiased and long search for identity .Having worked in Uttar Pradesh as an IAS officer for 32 years and in Moradabad as District Magistrate from 1991 to 1994, I found the author  struggling  to search for answers to similar  questions which often  have  occupied my mind  too.That is why , I find these accounts of journeys by the author very authentic.In a state which is often  plagued by the virus of religion and caste, this book comes like a fresh breeze.Such books inspire confidence between the two communities and must be read by all  the administrative and police officers who have a major role in the governance   as also the  people interested in understanding the traditions of inter-faith harmony and peace .
                                                            There is  always a scope for self-doubt when we see instances of religious intolerance .I quote:"The truth was that , somewhere along the way , I had  also begun to doubt the work itself.That's why it took me so long to give it a serious shape.Having collected the material over several years , I became a non-believer. . . . But somewhere down the line , I knew I had to keep some idealism alive.Over the years , i would periodically return to this project that , in some sense, represented an India I would like to believe in, a culture I wanted to survive.I struggled with my own scepticism about it being categorised as romantic mush to deem that it was worth my while and indeed, a valuable contribution to put down all the material I had collected and knock it into some sort of a sensible shape."I find this self -doubt very real and natural .In fact , this self-doubt  gives this book a touch of authenticity .A parallel self-doubt comes when as a civil servant I struggle with my scepticism and retain my faith that honest governance is still possible , when I see in  some  civil servants   glimpses of honest courage and willingness to pay the price for the cause of truth.The book by  Saba Naqvi gives hope and faith on several planes.
                           The author says that each chapter has the attention span of a journalist sniffing out a story and not the rigour of an academic .To my mind , this is one major strength of the book .Had it been written by an academic , it would have lost  some of its readability and impact .The book covers the journeys to places in  12 states  of West Bengal ,, Maharashtra,,Andhra Pradesh,Orissa,Tamil Nadu,,Kerala,,Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh,Assam,Karnataka,Manipur,Kashmir and Bollywood. The book has rightly highlighted the positive impact of Sufi movement and Bhakti movement  on both Hinduism and Islam .
                               Despite all instances  strifes  and  communal  disharmony in India , the stories described in the book give "glimmer of hope".I recommend you to read this book to understand the  religious and  cultural diversity and unity of India.

World Environment Day . June5,2013

Happy  WorldEnvironment Day .

Think.Eat.Save.

Let us take a pledge  not to waste food.

 (June 5,2013)

Understanding the meaning of strategy

The word strategy  has always  appeared  to me  intriguing.I have been hearing and using this word for many years , with some hazy  understanding.Of course , I have   used  with some clarity words and concepts like  mission , vision , goals , projects and plans.But  strategy  has always appeared illusory.How is marketing different from marketing strategy,data processing from IT strategy, acquisitions from Growth strategy, cutting prices from Low-price strategy?

               We must not mistake strategic  goals for strategy.Strategy is not goal-setting.Strategy is not a belief in the power of positive thinking.Shared visions of successful stages  cannot be the basis of strategy.Vision and mission statements  also are no where near a good strategy.But then , what is strategy , and what distinguishes a good strategy from a bad one? 

               Richard Rumelt in his outstanding book"Good Strategy Bad Strategy . . .The Difference and Why it Matters" has thrown light on the meaning of strategy with remarkable success.At first, I thought  I will be able to read this book quickly .But as I progressed , I realized that it has been written with a richness and compactness that I had to pause , read, think and proceed often enough .But  finally after I completed reading this book , I was somewhat clearer on strategy than before.Published in Great Britain in 2011 by Profile Books Limited, it has 323 pages.

                    Richard Rumelt  was described by McKinsey Quarterly as a giant in the field of strategy.He is one of the world's most influential thinkers on strategy and management .
                    A strategy has three elements:a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action .It responds to a high -stakes challenge.Diagnosis spells out the obstacles.Guiding policy is like a sign post, marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip.Coherent actions are  feasible co-ordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions  designed to carry  out the guiding policy.    If we fail to identify and analyze the obstacles and problems , we do not have a strategy.Instead , we have either a stretch goal , or a list of things we would wish to happen.

                 In many situations , the main impediment to action  is the forlorn hope  that certain powerful choices or actions  can be avoided-that the whole long list of priorities  can all be achieved .It is the hard craft of  strategy to decide which priority will take precedence.
            It is the strategy which transforms vague overall goals into a coherent set of actionable objectives.  A strategy coordinates action to address a specific challenge.Decentralized coordination is difficult.It requires centralization .But centralized coordination  fights against the gains to  specialization..In any coordination committee, coordination interrupts and de-specializes people..There will be costs of demanding coordination , because it will ride roughshod over  economies of specialization  and more nuanced local responses.Good strategy lies in specializing on the right activities and imposing only the essential amount of coordination.
                         The need for true strategy work is episodic, not necessarily annual .In this sense , strategy is different from planning.Planning for financial  resources, human resources, opening of regional offices are not strategy , though some people call these annual exercises "strategic planning".
                       
               Motivation is an essential part of life and success, and a leader may justly ask for "one last push", but the leader's job is more than that.The job of the leader is also to create the conditions that will make that push effective, to have a strategy worthy of the effort called upon.The most important demand from our leaders must be the demand for good strategy.Good strategy  requires leaders who are willing and able  to say no to a variety of actions and interests.Strategy is at least as much about  what an organization does  not do as it is about what it does.     
                Strategies focus  resources,energy and attention on some objectives rather than others.There will be powerful forces opposed to  almost any change in  strategy.In such a situation , it is the task of leadership to  make or enforce hard choices.It requires will or political power. Creating a vision and motivation   is not the same thing as  making  strategy .Strategy is the craft of figuring out  which purposes are  worth pursuing and capable of being accomplished.Leadership in the sense of vision and motivation may be joined  with strategy in the same person , but they are not the same thing .                                         
                 Richard Rumelt is critical of  giving too much importance to shared vision , as has been done by Peter Senge  in his book The Fifth Discipline.(I have elsewhere written a blog post on The Fifth Discipline.).
Ascribing the success of  Ford and Apple to a vision , shared at all levels, rather than pockets of outstanding competence mixed with luck, is a radical distortion of history.
                    A good strategy  uses leverage so that we invest resources where it would make a large and more visible difference..This means choosing an objective that can be decisively affected by the resources at hand.   Another tool for a good strategy is  is the creation of a good proximate objective-one that is close enough at hand to be feasible..A proximate objective names a target that the organization can reasonably be expected  to hit, even overwhelm.
                      The third tool is  to prepare the design for coordinated actions.Effective strategies are more designs than decisions.A master strategist is a designer first and then a decision maker.Strategy is a design rather than a plan or choice or decision  because we need to emphasize the issue of mutual adjustment or integration /coordination .Strategy is a joint outcome/tradeoff between technolgy and design(integration).Good strategy is design , and design is about fitting  various pieces together  so they work as coherent whole.
         At the core, strategy is about focus..Most organizations pursue multiple goals at once , not concentrating  enough resources to achieve  a breakthrough in any one of them.
            Any good strategy  prefers high ground, which is harder to attack and easier to defend.                   This requires us to exploit a wave of change.We need to have a strategy that is in tune with the  dynamics of change.      
 Rumelt  asks  us to  cultivate  three essential skills or habit  to guide our thinking in strategy work:
1. Have a variety of tools for fighting our own myopia and for guiding our own attention .
2.Develop the ability to question our own judgment.
3.Cultivate the habit of making and recording judgments so that  we can improve.
In this regard, Rumelt mentions five intertwined  errors in human judgment and behaviour .These are  engineering overreach, smooth-sailing fallacy, risk-seeking incentives, social herding and finally inside view.
A good strategy  should come out  minds free from these errors .
                  Richard Rumelt knows  the meaning of strategy, what distinguishes a good strategy  from a bad one, and what one needs to do to develop a good strategy in work and life .The book  is extremely useful , insightful . I recommend you to read it , and if you agree after reading  , put it into practice .