"Career in these times" - Harsha Bhogle

Renowned cricket commentator and journalist Harsha Bhogle was invited to SPJIMR campus on 14-Feb-09 to share his opinion on “Career in these times” . The inspiring talk was part of institute’s maiden business fest OJAS. The speech was packaged with Harsha’s usual spontaneity, sense of humour, innumerable references to cricket(sports) and other aspects of life. One of the humour was a self directed comment on his new hairstyle after hair implantation.

Following are excerpts from the speech. (in some lines I have used second person directly to share the phrases/words as it was delivered by Harsha)

Howz the current situation ?
Before economic meltdown an individual who was earning Rs 100 per day and was saving Rs 50 per day. But due to excessive greediness, the person was spending Rs. 110 (on credit) on same day thinking that he/she will save Rs 50 tomorrow. Now the current situation is the same individual spends Rs.50 for basic needs and then he spends Rs.45 on luxury stuffs and finally end up saving Rs.5 ! So the situation is not so terrible.

What’s the advantage ?
Every situation can be looked in different views. Crisis is bad for many but it’s good for some. The current situation can be compared to a batsman making his test debut at No.6 position. His turn comes when 4 wickets are down, 2 runs are on board, on a seaming pitch, under overcast conditions! It’s a fantastic opportunity for a debutant to prove himself. But things were different in job market 1-2 years ago, which can be compared to a debutant coming bat when the score is 250-4 on a flat pitch. If tough times come early in life, one won’t be pampered like it’s done usually in good times. Being more solid, you will be mentally prepared for every tough situation in future.

Shortcuts in Life ?
The moment you see an empty parking space in Mumbai you should think that there’s something wrong. One should hang-on and evaluate why someone else has not taken the shortcut. This kind of evaluation was not done by B-school passouts a year ago, and decided their career on salary, prioritizing money above a job which had more satisfaction and better career growth. Harsha made a point that he’s yet to meet a person with a very good career and simultaneously facing financial problems. There’s life after tomorrow, choice should be created by judgment. If one thinks the salary is less, he/she has to imagine situation in 1985, by whatever method of valuation the minimum salary of current era will be more than an MBA graduate in those times.

Working in teams
The biggest problem corporate India is facing today is that people are unable to work in teams. Only team a person know is his/her laptop. If one has to go up in career first he/she should be a good team player and subsequently should be able to lead a team. Basically, a person is accessed by how good a team player he is, how he understand and relate to other’s problems, but not by how much cash flow or financial ratios he’s aware off. It’s unfortunate that today young people communicate by scraping on books or writing on walls.
Harsha referred to a line he read a few days back “Good coaches coach players, great coaches coach people”.

Getting Hands Dirty.
Today lots of people don’t like to get their hands dirty. One of the problems with management education is that it's creating slots, and graduates go into those slots. It’s nice thing to see that people these days talk about entrepreneurship and social movement etc, irrespective of whether they implement something or not. Some of the best marketing people are the people who work in small towns. So if one gets a great career opportunity he should go for it, a good job early shapes an individual’s career. The reason Hindustan Lever has been producing greatest marketing minds is mainly because of first 2-3 years stint in a small remote town where the managers gets an opportunity to understand the market. So don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty. There’s nothing wrong in starting a career right at the bottom. Never let prestigious degree come in the way of your goal. Prestigious degree does is that you wont know what you really want to know. That’s the sole reason today city boys and girl are getting their pants taken off by small town boys/girls, whether it’s in cricket or getting into IIMs/IITs. They understand India better and they have been getting their hands dirty in every area of life.

Bodhgaya – learning from a SriLankan Monk.
Harsha also shared experience of meeting a SriLankan monk a Bodhgaya and learning a few meditation tips from him. The major suggestion from the monk was that an individual should take all things from his mind and focus on one thing. “Maximize your present” is one of the motto of Buddhism. Just give your 100 percent. Never know who is watching, you might be featuring in a small program but someone important person might watch you while switching between channels. Take example of Brad Haddin, if he had scored runs of last two matches a week back, who knows he would be having million dollar offers IPL franchises. Never know what will happen when!

Coaches in Sports
In sports players have become too much dependent on coaches and supporting to this fact is that these days in a team support staff is bigger than playing staff. For example in cricket, if you have a bowling problem you go to a bowling coach, if you have a fielding problem you go to a fielding coach. It’s not the right way to grow in career. It's like a person goes to Mc-Donald and seeks solution for whatever problem he has life. So, don’t be in search for coaches.

Bad times come in real world.
One can’t just say in real world "Ok guys here I am” like star sons usually do. Such people with godfather manage to stay in limelight at most for 1-2 years and ultimately disappear. Every successful person has been through a bad phase including Himesh Reshamiya ! ( burst of laughter from the audience).

Fitness and health.
B-school should teach an individual about fitness, diet and health. These days a norm is a B-school is that sleeping for 4 hours is ‘way to greatness’. There’s so much glamour associated with sleeping less. There are so many misconceptions. Unless one won’t have a puff he won’t get a great idea. For some people Rum has become a ‘must have’ to put themselves in right mood. Bottom-line is that if one can’t take care of his health, how other people will have confidence in him? Focus doesn’t means obsessed with health. World is beyond inches of biceps or whatever number of packs!

Other stuffs.
- Keep reading good things and always challenge whatever you are reading.
- There’s no need to watch news channel because in two months as they will be taking about only politics and IPL.
- Greatest best time in the world to be a young Indian. Five year from now you will value that the current situation was tough.

Q&A session.
After the talk Harsha opened the house for questions and sincerely requested audience to avoid questions like “Why Dhaval kulkarni was not picked” or “ Why Krish Srikanth is biased towards players from Chennai ”

A few major questions
- What’s ur opinion on peer pressure? .... “No harm being better than someone else. But in process you may forget you own strengths”.
- Is it difficult to maintain spontaneity speaking to a billion people ? ....“I just speak to lens, however I behave in such a way that I have actually entered viewer’s home.”
- Has IIM-A tag helped you in moving ahead in career ? .... “Not always, but sometimes it has helped a lot”.

The other questions were on regarding sharing experiences with fellow commentators and in the end there were a few stereotypical questions “How do you rate Dhoni as leader?”, “Do you believe in faith and destiny?”.

The special session was concluded by breakthrough vote-of-thanks speech by SD.

Going to office by BMTC

This is a trackback post. I had conceived this post last year in August, but was not able to post as it pending for refinement. Then in mid-September I traveled to Seoul and stayed there for 3 months. I deferred from posting as I didn't want share my thoughts on BMTC travel being miles away from Bangalore. Then after coming to back to Bangalore I got busy with personal work and getting set for my B-school endeavor. Finally today ignoring that I am out of Bangalore, making this post to see light of the day. The post is basically regarding my experiences from Feb to Aug 2008.

With the advent of cost cutting measures in Indian IT sector, the travel to office changed a lot. Our admin team first increased cab fees and then all of a sudden rationalized the routes. 18 routes were merged make only 3-4 routes long routes. And the vehicle selected for the route was 32 seater Swaraj Mazda (?). According a trusted source Swaraj Mazda is one of the hopeless passenger vehicle running on Indian roads at the moment. The chasis of the vehicle is actually meant for a goods vehicle. It will be like a hell sitting inside the vehicle and experiencing the bumpy ride.


Rubbing salt to wound was the rescheduling of pick up time as early as 7.00 am, a time of the day when most of people will be doing various morning activities or jogging in a park. Also leaving early doesn't mean that you will be reaching early. The cab used to do detour and reach office at 8.45 am. One and half hours in swaraj mazda(!!). For the all these reason I chose to opt for BMTC for going to office, and for returning to home there were free office shuttles after 7.30 pm.

First things first, some advantages of traveling by BMTC

• Flexibility: I could leave my home at my own time.
• Normal BMTC buses are way comfartable than Swaraj Mazda.
• Constructive activity: Even though I spend one and half hours while traveling, I was doing some constructive like reading a magazine or even sleeping`
• An opportunity to travel in BMTCs premium service Vajra - commonly known as Volvo service.

But with the comfort and flexibility, many not so desirable things come part and parcel. There was no direct bus from my home(Hanumanthanagar) to the office Sigma Tech Park(Varthur Kodi). There used to be a constant daemon running in my mind about which option to opt with varying comfort, convenience and cost. Finding the best option in terms of cost, time and convenience had become a NP-hard problem. In six months I managed to find a optimal option in terms cost, time and convenience.

But from a different perspective the activity was a fun mainly because I was breaking pattern everyday. Sometimes patience used to pay off ... other times it didn't use to pay at all.

Let's look at the route options(in detail) I had:

Via K.R. Market
From my home there were innumerable buses Market and from market to Varthur Kodi there were many direct buses. It was most economical option as the cost was only Rs.17(6+11). But it was the most inconvenient. Just imagine, how it will be getting down and boarding another bus in K. R. Market. All the buses starting from market will be loaded with baskets of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

Via Richmond
There were very less buses from Hanumanthanagar to Richmond. Also in peak hours it used to be crowded like anything. But from Richmond there were better options towards my office. I could take direct, infrequent 333P volvo to office or else I could break the journey by taking frequent 335E to Kundanahalli gate from there any ordinary to bus Varthur Kodi. The major inconvenience with this option was waiting for a bus at Richmond. I had to scan name of plate of several buses to find out is the bus for to your destination. In addition to this, the rescheduling of school timings to 8.30 am was a major nuisance. After 7.45 am there were frequent deadlocks at the junction, courtesy parents dropping their kids by car. The trip cost varied depending on service I opted. If I took a Volvo bus from Richmond, the trip cost will be Rs. 42(7+35 or 7+30+5). It's was the most optimal route w.r.t distance and travel time. Sometimes I reached office in an hour even after changing 3 buses.

Via Majestic
In order to avoid the process of number-plate-scanning I switched to option of going via Majestic. I could take 45G pushpak(via goodshed) to majestic and from there a Volvo to or towards my office. Eventhough it was round about option it is one of convinient one. I can patiently wait for my dream bus 333P(more about it later) without any number scanning task. My usual target used to be 8.15 am 333P which will be always on schedule except in May, when there was a problem for a week as some BMTC resources were moved to Airport shuttle service. The major target at that time were drivers and conductors of 333P! One day I waited for the bus for 45 minutes at KBS. After one week patch things were back to normal. But due to longer distance there is high time variance of travel. But with the introduction of 45-G Volvo, via majestic option became more convenient. Some days I could make an end-to-end Volvo journey from home to my office.

Via Corporation
Finally, I switched to via corporation option to make the journey more optimal w.r.t time and cost, compromising a little on convinience. I used to take the same 8.15am 333P bus which used come to corporation bus stop around 8.25 am. I couldn't avoid number scanning process, but waiting under huge canopy of tress next to cubbon park, experiencing cool breeze evened out a little bit of inconvenience. Also because punctual Chandru(my colleague) the waiting at corporation bus stop annulled. He used to give me missed call after the departure of bus from majestic. Total cost of Rs.47 was bit economical then 'via majestic' option. But with the introduction of Suvarna service(no pass and one and half charge) bus.. brought down my expense. Suvarna 333E was a direct bus to my office and the ticket cost Rs.15 from corporation brought down total cost to Rs.22.

333P, the dream bus
My eyes lit up when I used to see the number. Since the frequency of the dream bus 333p was very less, many a times I opted for more frequent 335E upto Kundanhalli. But getting down at Kundanahalli from 335E was always an ardous task, as the bus directly goes to ITPL and always loaded with IT people going towards ITPL.

Some other thoughts
- In Ordinary Service - I had to be careful to avoid stepping on someone's legs. Otherwise the resultant was usual bashing towards IT professional.
- On some occasions I became on the spot route expert at Majestic bus stand. If one person asks bus number for a particular locality, after my response there used to enquiries by several other people surrounding me.

In Volvo service

• the ACs were intolerable many times, and driver used to ignore our request to increase temperature.
• If a co-passenger farts, the feeling used to be like staying in a hell. The comfort of paying premium price was all lost.
• In seating leg room was the major deciding factor. In the back section of the bus I used to prefer only front and last row seats.

Different co-passengers everyday
Unlike traveling in company cab, I used to travel with co-passengers everyday. The experiences were sometimes not so good. One day I was sitting next a lady who was arguing with her husband on phone for the reason that why she slept early last night. Some other times passengers are accompanied by a person new to the city. Whole journey there used to be running commentary showing each and every landmark on the way "Look this is Kanteerva stadium, this is HAL airport, this is Mayo Hall etc"

Last few days in Dec-Jan were bit comfortable with increase of frequency of 333P service. In fact on last day to my office I managed have an end-to-end Volvo ride because of more frequent buses. Things seem to be improving gradually. There has been discussion Bangalore's Infrastructure forum - praja.in to rationalize BMTC routes into zonal routes to reduce travel and waiting time. Let's see how it materializes and hope for the best.

A career break in times of change

Last to last week I joined SP Jain (Mumbai) for pursuing PGPM program ( 1 year full time MBA). It's a residential program and I have taken a break from my work. The decision to join the program and leaving a cosy job was really tough one, especially at a time of trillion dollar meltdown. But following two sayings helped me to stick to my decision.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -- Benjamin Franklin.

"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." -- Warren Buffet.

The actual decision to join was taken well before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It was first week August 2008 when I had got an admission offer. The decision to take a plunge was not so easy considering monetary investment and one year holiday from work. First I did a self assessment, looked back at my track record, reevaluated my aspirations and goals and came to a conclusion that it's a right time to join.

Then I consulted many of well wishers, cousins, friends etc. I also contacted a few career advisors too. Here are some of excerpts of chat and e-mail with some of them.

Gautam Puri: MD of Career Launcher.

SP Jain is a good institute and its 1 year program is well regarded. Given that you have work ex of over 4 years, I would not recommend a 2 year MBA. I would suggest that you join this program. If possible, please talk to an alumni of this program to check out placement record.

Aditya PK: my classmate in Engineering, now working at Google.

It depends on what you want to do if you want a long term career as an IT manager or maybe even Program Analyst then it's a very good idea.You can probably even drift to other sides of management after your MBA slowly.

Krishna: my cousin

It's a good program and like investing in a mini car. If u ever thought you wanted to do a MBA - now is the time when you have the luxury, the mindset to do it and the right approach. As u proceed in ur career it becomes tougher to take this step - especially in India.

Ritesh Kamath: classmate in Engineering, doing PGP at IIM-C

An MBA should make u something like - brand mgr, asst brand manager in a marketing firm, an analyst in a financial major, a consultant in top 4 consulting company, an area head, a person managing 500 Cr business in retail & shopping. however i still feel doing this prog is going to give u leverage than not doing it . it will push u atleast 5 yrs ahead in life.

Rashmi Bansal: A Career Advisor, Editor of Jammag, Blogs at youthcurry.blogspot.com

I think even if immediate return is not that good in the long run an S P Jain MBA will help ur career and mobility across industries. Also a 75% jump in salary for 54% of the students after 1 year is pretty good. Cheer up! Course architecture etc is of no great consequence. It's all about learning from each other and the overall environment. And getting 'branded'. So do join ... and good luck!

Sudhir Kumar: my ex-colleague

God has given u a chance shande man, go for it

In addition to this I contacted a few alums and candidates pursing program by searching for profiles in orkut and linked-in. In the process, I experience one funny thing on decision making day. In my Orkut's homepage "Today's fortune" very appropriate to state on mind!



To conclude for next one year there will be very less traveling and hence less travel blogging from my side. However in minimal free time I will be clearing all my backlog posts and also will be periodically posting some high fundoo gyan which I am expecting gain in B-school.