Finally today I had some time to kill. After a really long time, I had some time and I did not know what to do this Sunday. So decided to take time out to reply to all the pending mails and also read some of the ISB blogs. It was an interesting experience. I wish my class too had had a few more bloggers. The one year at ISB flew past like it had never existed. Today when I look back, what has stayed with me the most has been the understanding that there is still a long way to go and many more brilliant minds to work with. I probably use only 20% of what I learnt there as far as the academics go. In fact, most of the days, it’s not even that much. That is in terms of financial calculations and marketing concepts. Maybe I am able to understand the business of telecom better now and feel the need to keep track of competitors, emerging business models and have an eye out for a new opportunity to strike gold.

Otherwise, management most of the times boils down to common sense, people skills and presence of mind. I guess "management is common sense" has become a cliché of sorts but I think I understand the importance of presence of mind as I move up the ladder. When you are given the kind of responsibilities that a management grad is expected to handle, it is extremely important to be aware of the situation around you and have the presence of mind to understand, talk and react to the situation. I was extremely poor at this before ISB. I used to always feel the freedom to speak my mind unmindful of the changing pace and meaning of the discussion I am going through. I don’t know why I have changed or what I did in ISB that has seemingly changed me. What I do certainly now is listen more. That way, I do not give myself the chance to miss the plot but at the same time, afford myself the time to think through what the other person is saying. I was reading the book, "What they don’t teach you at HBS" by Mark McCormack when I was at ISB and I still remember the amount of emphasis that he put on the well placed pause in a conversation as well as the importance of striking common ground quickly in a conversation.

The other day, my boss told me that he had had no complaints about the way I had performed (which was in a way worrying). He went on to add that it was people skills that were the difference between me and the others (who were non management grads). It was heartening to hear. Though I fear many a time that I do not know how to act tough when the situation demands, I do certainly act soft and less impulsive nowadays. ISB certainly had an effect there. Before ISB, I was sort of the king of my world. Top ranks at school, topper at college and a great performer at work. ISB brought me down to earth. When you are battered with the kind of diversity, brilliance and smartness that you see around yourself, you begin to realize how important it is to know how to handle a world full of people who are either as brilliant or more than you. The student diversity works in many ways. One, the academically brilliant show you how important it is to know how to work with sharper minds and how important it is to not stop to challenge and push yourself to greater heights. The other students who are not so brilliant at the grades but have some special talent, be it anything, show you how important it is to read, understand and respect people for what they are. There were many fellow students on whom I had formed an opinion, which, as the year went through, I realized was completely wrong. Throughout the year, each person I got to know showed me something special about him or her that shattered the opinion I had formed.

I remember discussing exactly this with some friends and they reflecting the exact same learning. It is very easy to underestimate people. It is very easy to form opinions. But if you want to lead and inspire a team, it is extremely important to reach out and find out more about each person your work with. Everyone is special in some way. A leader has to be sensitive enough to find that out and nurture that. That special talent motivates and drives that person to work passionately. And passion at work is one of the best ways to extract success out of people.
Another factor that is important is to occasionally at least put yourself into a crowd in which there are a lot of people that are better than you. Going through humbling experiences time to time in life is very important I feel. Such experiences teach you a lot, remove complacency and bring you down to earth. If taken positively, they leave you with calmness and a determination to push yourself to greater heights rather than enjoy the accolades that you are receiving.

I noticed that there were comments asking for my mail address. It is ramki dot rs at gmail dot com. Added that to the sidebar as well.

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Its a cloudy and drizzling monday morning in chennai. This summer hasnt been the usual summer in chennai. Of course, when the days have been hot they have been HOT but there have been more than the usual rainy days. For all my fellow ISBians from other parts of the country, who decided to "take the risk" of coming to chennai, its been soothing. Talking of which, many of them think chennai is not as bad as it gets portrayed. The general impression among many non-chennaites, especially those form the north, is that of chennai being this hot humid and sweaty place all through the year, a conservative society, lack of social and night life and a huge language problem (like, "no one known anything other than Tamil"). Some even rejected job offers simply for that reason.

The fact, as they have told me, three months down the line, is that its not all that bad. Yes, chennai is hot and humid and sweaty, but bearable. Delhi is much hotter when in the summer they say. I wudnt know. I have never been to Delhi. And given that this summer has had quite a few rainy and cloudy days, its been all the more comforting for them. Besides, I am waiting for December to come by. There is no "winter" per se in chennai but December and January are months I would love to live in chennai anytime.

A conservative society, yes, any day compared to the rest of India, but they also say people here have a ready acceptance for things that are not so conservative as long as it does not affect them. There is easy tolerance for things non-conservative. Besides, the immigrant population that has changed the face of Bangalore in the past 5-6 years is beginning to do the same here.

As for lack of social and night life, yes, there aren't the numerous pubs and discs to go to as in say, bangalore or Bombay but the few that are there are as good. And there is night life for the one who wants it. There is a thriving population of youngsters in chennai who like to go clubbing and that crowd is only growing. Besides the partying, there are the usual movies and chennai's USP, beach resorts... Just go along the ECR. I wud agree.

As for the language, well many of them said the lack of hindi was being more than made up by the knowledge of english the average chennaite had. That was an interesting observation. Come to think of it, given the emphasis on education for the educated and the lack of other communication mechanisms for the uneducated, english had to take that place.

If there is one complaint that I could agree with, it was the auto rickshaw drivers in chennai. I dont like them too. I think they are a necessary evil. Especially after having seen them in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Bombay, chennai certainly has a minus there.

But all said and done, the opinion is that chennai is a lot better than what is being portrayed. I would certainly agree. More so because, chennai has the one place that I have missed a lot wherever I have gone, a clean and thriving public beach. There is nothing like a gossip filled evening with friends on the sands of the Besant nagar beach under the rising moon :)

Life has been absolutely hectic in the last couple of months... work has hijacked my life, but so subtly that I havent realized it... Its when work gets interesting that you dont realize that you are actually working for 14-15 hours a day... Its been such in the last few weeks...

anyways, now have a brand new PC at home... replaced my dear old cyrix 233 with a 2.8 gig pentium... now at least i have the time and peace to rely to a lot of unanswered mails... this weekend is going to be enjoyable...