Managing Career & Expectations
Thanks guys ....
For reminding me that me too am a blogger ....
I had some ideas for blogging ... and then theu were lost ...
the spate of blogs created today reminded me of this lost forgotten world ...
thanks again to you guys ....
Here is something to read .....
Managing Career & Expectations - Talk at IIM
These are the personal views of Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Director - Tata Sons.
Great Stuff from a great ex-HLL manager. A Story on how to manage
your career & your expectations by R. Gopalakrishnan
There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb which Nature gives to man
after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to share my comb with your
people, about their career ahead.
1. Seek out grassroots level experience
I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few months before
graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for Computer Traineeship. When
asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of Computers, I responded
negatively : an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy?
Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of comfortable weeks
in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket to go to Nasik. Would
I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two
months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his territory, which
included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among other small towns. I was
most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop
with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's folder in my hand.
Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared in front of me in
Ozhar, believe it or not! And exclaimed, "Gopal, I thought you joined as a
Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a thousand deaths.
After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a
Despatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the Accounts
Department. Several years later, I realised the value of such grassroots
level experience. It is fantastic. I would advise young people to seek out
nail-dirtying, collar-soiling, shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn
about organizations, about the true nature of work, and the dignity of the
many, many tasks that go into building great enterprises.
2. Deserve before you desire
At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears
soap, the company's most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what
was a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for the production,
sales and profits of the brand, accountable for its long-term growth, etc.,
etc. I had read those statements, I believed them and here I was, at 27,"in
charge of everything". But very soon, I found I could not move a pin
without checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning the Facit
machine handle through various calculations, I sat in front of the
Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I
could not be given total charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The
perception and reality are both right. You will get total charge when you
know more about the brand than anyone else in this company about its
formulation, the raw materials, the production costs, the consumer's
perception, the distribution and so on. How long do you think that it will
take?" "Maybe, ten years", I replied, "and I don't expect to be the Lifeboy
and Pears Brand Manager for so long"! And then suddenly, the lesson was
clear. I desired total control, long before I deserved it. This happens to
us all the time - in terms of responsibilities, in terms of postings and
promotions, it happens all the time that there is a gap between our
perception of what we deserve and the reality of what we get. It helps to
deserve before we desire.
3. Play to win but win with fairness
Life is competitive and of course, you play to win. But think about the
balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about how
and where you draw the line. Each person draws it differently, and in doing
so, it helps to think about values. Winning without values provides dubious
fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most are the ones with a
set of universal values, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King for example.
Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved army to fight and
seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty years. But all the
while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil ambition, and not in
pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish ambition.
I am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was
instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and here are
two examples of winners.A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the
umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover from a cramp. British
kayak teams who were trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to
help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes went on to beat the
British by one second in a three-hour event! What wonderful examples of
sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.
4. Enjoy whatever you do
Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement, "There is no greater fun
than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask
any person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment of existence. He
will say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means is the struggle
for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with success after
getting it, the very achievement of it must lead him to unhappiness.
Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means
to something else". But if you think about it, we should not work for
happiness. We should work as happy people. In organizational life, people
get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try to be happy, the
more unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about your reaching
your full potential. Working at one's full potential, whether it is the
office boy or the Chairman leads to enjoyment and fulfillment. A last point
about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humor about yourself. Too many people are
in danger of taking themselves far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell
is reported to have said, "Keep smiling. The higher the monkey climbs, the
more you can see of his backside".
5. Be Passionate about your health
Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight paunch, graying of
hair or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the
working career begins that the greatest neglect of youthful health occurs.
Sportsmen stop playing sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers
smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving inmates of hostels eat
rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I
repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too busy, or that you do not
have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the
stresses of a professional career. A professional career is indeed very
stressful. There is only one person who can help you to cope with the
tension, avoid the doctor's scalpel, and to feel good each morning - and
that is yourself. God has given us as good a health as He has, a bit like a
credit balance in the bank. Grow it, maintain it, but do not allow its
value destruction. The penalty is very high in later years.
6. Direction is more important than distance
Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long distance. In the
process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game involves the masterly
co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The golf coach always
advises that direction is more important than distance. So it is with life.
Despite one's best attempts, there will be ups and downs. It is
relationships and friendships that enable a person to navigate the choppy
waters that the ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there was a
memorable film by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and
named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to commit
suicide because he thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him.
The bottom line of the film is that "No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends".
Conclusion
My generation will never be twenty again, but when you are older, you can
and should be different from my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful
country, and realizing her true potential in the global arena depends ever
so much on the quality and persistence of our young people. Good luck in
your journey, my young friends, and God be with you.
For reminding me that me too am a blogger ....
I had some ideas for blogging ... and then theu were lost ...
the spate of blogs created today reminded me of this lost forgotten world ...
thanks again to you guys ....
Here is something to read .....
Managing Career & Expectations - Talk at IIM
These are the personal views of Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Director - Tata Sons.
Great Stuff from a great ex-HLL manager. A Story on how to manage
your career & your expectations by R. Gopalakrishnan
There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb which Nature gives to man
after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to share my comb with your
people, about their career ahead.
1. Seek out grassroots level experience
I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few months before
graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for Computer Traineeship. When
asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of Computers, I responded
negatively : an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy?
Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of comfortable weeks
in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket to go to Nasik. Would
I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two
months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his territory, which
included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among other small towns. I was
most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop
with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's folder in my hand.
Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared in front of me in
Ozhar, believe it or not! And exclaimed, "Gopal, I thought you joined as a
Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a thousand deaths.
After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a
Despatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the Accounts
Department. Several years later, I realised the value of such grassroots
level experience. It is fantastic. I would advise young people to seek out
nail-dirtying, collar-soiling, shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn
about organizations, about the true nature of work, and the dignity of the
many, many tasks that go into building great enterprises.
2. Deserve before you desire
At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears
soap, the company's most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what
was a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for the production,
sales and profits of the brand, accountable for its long-term growth, etc.,
etc. I had read those statements, I believed them and here I was, at 27,"in
charge of everything". But very soon, I found I could not move a pin
without checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning the Facit
machine handle through various calculations, I sat in front of the
Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I
could not be given total charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The
perception and reality are both right. You will get total charge when you
know more about the brand than anyone else in this company about its
formulation, the raw materials, the production costs, the consumer's
perception, the distribution and so on. How long do you think that it will
take?" "Maybe, ten years", I replied, "and I don't expect to be the Lifeboy
and Pears Brand Manager for so long"! And then suddenly, the lesson was
clear. I desired total control, long before I deserved it. This happens to
us all the time - in terms of responsibilities, in terms of postings and
promotions, it happens all the time that there is a gap between our
perception of what we deserve and the reality of what we get. It helps to
deserve before we desire.
3. Play to win but win with fairness
Life is competitive and of course, you play to win. But think about the
balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about how
and where you draw the line. Each person draws it differently, and in doing
so, it helps to think about values. Winning without values provides dubious
fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most are the ones with a
set of universal values, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King for example.
Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved army to fight and
seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty years. But all the
while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil ambition, and not in
pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish ambition.
I am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was
instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and here are
two examples of winners.A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the
umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover from a cramp. British
kayak teams who were trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to
help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes went on to beat the
British by one second in a three-hour event! What wonderful examples of
sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.
4. Enjoy whatever you do
Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement, "There is no greater fun
than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask
any person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment of existence. He
will say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means is the struggle
for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with success after
getting it, the very achievement of it must lead him to unhappiness.
Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means
to something else". But if you think about it, we should not work for
happiness. We should work as happy people. In organizational life, people
get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try to be happy, the
more unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about your reaching
your full potential. Working at one's full potential, whether it is the
office boy or the Chairman leads to enjoyment and fulfillment. A last point
about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humor about yourself. Too many people are
in danger of taking themselves far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell
is reported to have said, "Keep smiling. The higher the monkey climbs, the
more you can see of his backside".
5. Be Passionate about your health
Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight paunch, graying of
hair or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the
working career begins that the greatest neglect of youthful health occurs.
Sportsmen stop playing sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers
smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving inmates of hostels eat
rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I
repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too busy, or that you do not
have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the
stresses of a professional career. A professional career is indeed very
stressful. There is only one person who can help you to cope with the
tension, avoid the doctor's scalpel, and to feel good each morning - and
that is yourself. God has given us as good a health as He has, a bit like a
credit balance in the bank. Grow it, maintain it, but do not allow its
value destruction. The penalty is very high in later years.
6. Direction is more important than distance
Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long distance. In the
process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game involves the masterly
co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The golf coach always
advises that direction is more important than distance. So it is with life.
Despite one's best attempts, there will be ups and downs. It is
relationships and friendships that enable a person to navigate the choppy
waters that the ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there was a
memorable film by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and
named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to commit
suicide because he thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him.
The bottom line of the film is that "No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends".
Conclusion
My generation will never be twenty again, but when you are older, you can
and should be different from my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful
country, and realizing her true potential in the global arena depends ever
so much on the quality and persistence of our young people. Good luck in
your journey, my young friends, and God be with you.
