LIFE

LIFE

What we know and what should be!

    Life as we know has evolved from many changes. The time when just using small things was enough, now the definition of life as we speak is changing day by day. Life as the word itself says, L- Laughter in times of sadness and woes, I- Integrity in one’s own belief, F- Fortitude to be independent and an individual, E- Enjoyment without expectations. The best way to say live the life would differ from person to person. The happiest person on earth might be the one who doesn’t have grudge, envy, sloth, greed, pride, gluttony. Simultaneously it would be harsh to say to those who posses one of the above attributes  and still enjoying life as long as they know about it and are ready to change it sooner or later.

    Nothing can be more freaky than having everything and still not able to enjoy it completely. The answer to this question as what’s the best way to live life, in my opinion will not be given by a PHD scholar, a 75 year old man who has seen life. But actually a person who has a life in life. Nothing can feel good even if you are driving a car and having pain in back or having huge packets of money to spend in any lavish restaurant but no loved one to sit with. These small things makes life blissful and actually worth living. Billionaire Bill Gates once said, “Money isn’t everything, but make sure you have a lot to talk such non sense.” Well actually his words did have a lot for us to ponder. The main motive behind it was to tell people that one should not race like rats for money so as to forget himself in it, that he is not able to give time to close ones. I mean, what’s the purpose of it when you will be left alone and not able to spend together with anyone of your beloved one’s. 80 year old American Play Boy, The editor-in-chief of Play Boy magazine Hugh Hefner has said, ”There are many roads to Mecca”. Exactly there will be many ways to live life but only few to enjoy life happily.

    A lame man once had an opportunity to live life peacefully and happily by satisfying himself with one golden egg everyday from his hen, as ego is a fascinating monster, all peace and opportunity went to drains leaving him with a knife in his hand and dead hen. So the answer of this question lies within everyone. Do we actually crave for materialistic values more than ourselves or spending quality time with loved ones? At start, yes might be most popular answer but later he might feel squeamish or deserted in his golden ship sailing towards Bermuda triangle, lost forever. Thus craving for something is good but make sure you are not making yourself a prisoner in that fascination. Live happily, spend quality time with close ones, and be optimistic and positive about everything which I guess is key to every door which leads to live life happily. As Gautam Buddha has said, Do not dwell in past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.  Finally I would like to end this with words of famous American Poet Robert Frost:

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” 

Rohit Raina

Adolf Hitler-- The Manager we knew!!!

ADOLF HITLER

UNRAVELING THE MANAGER

The world we know doesn’t like to talk about a person who has done barbaric things or even called as genocidal. Still amidst of all these fuss about the evilness of this man I am writing this article to tell readers about a man’s managerial qualities which were overshadowed by his cruelty and the acts which led to world war. Let’s just drop the idea of negativity and talk about the brighter side of a man who started from nothing and became the dictator of a country which was then one of the most developed nations in the world-GERMANY. His managerial qualities were so promising that every manager should take examples out of it. A person who had nothing in his hand mesmerized the people with his speeches. Germany at that time was devastated by World War I and obviously also with two treaties. 

The economic scenario was bad, 1929 Wall Street crash also hit Germany very badly, hunger prevailed, and unemployment was at its peak. There came this man who not only assured the people of employment but also promised to get them out of their miseries making him look like the Wizard of Oz for German people at the time where everything seemed to go down the drains for them. Hitler was motivated, o yes, he had vision a goal for himself not only to take his country out of the economic misery but also to take substantial and quick decisions to take Germany to top of all other developed nations. 

Managerial Lessons to be learned from the greatest tyrant of the world, “The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category”. Adolf Hitler may seem an evil and a terrifying man, but he was a man with a mission and vision. His passion, dependability, and confidence made Germany a powerful nation. One of Hitler quality that made him a well-known leader is his dependability. By having someone depend upon you makes you feel powerful or even generous. Confidence was a rare quality that led him rising to the power and popularity. Hitler was a captivating public speaker. He would enrapture crowds with his vision and sense of purpose of the nation. Adolf Hitler successfully used propaganda to bring the whole nation under his will. People Management was one of his great qualities; He used to be in them and treated them as a family. He played with their children and enjoyed with them. He was a good Problem Solver; he had an amazing power of concentration. His judgments were quick and decisive. His acts were more like a big brother to his staff than as a Fuehrer and manage to endear himself to, Hitler was able to penetrate complex problems and reduce them to a few simple, fundamental factors. Hitler was excellent with strategies and planning. He followed through with his plan and repudiated the Treaty of Versailles. At first he tried to keep Germany's rearmament a secret but by 1935 he proudly displayed Germany's new army, navy and air force. European nations did nothing to enforce the treaty, leading Hitler to conclude that he could begin to create his vision of a new German nation.

 In the end, I would say Adolf Hitler may seem as an evil and a terrifying man but a man that well-known wouldn't be in history without his passion, dependability, and confidence to make Germany a powerful nation. To get Germany to become a powerful nation did take both negative and positive thoughts upon his actions. In my opinion, Hitler was a man who fought till last man with the help of his military, economy and nothing other than his qualities. A great example of optimum use of resources. As being a man with qualities no other than dependability, passion, and confidence Hitler would not have led himself to victory, popularity, success and rise to the power. I would like to end this article with his quote which in itself is a perfect example of motivation, courage, right attitude and leadership which is essential for a good manager.

“If u win u need not have to explain but if u lose you should not be there to explain”……

ROHIT RAINA

The Indian Railways--and yes they did it!!

                                               THE RUPEE TRAIN

      Source: ZERO; Destination: BILLIONS

     The question arises why management students should read an article about Indian Railways. What’s so good in reading about it and most important, reading about a man who has ruled and ruined Bihar, a  individual involved in the Fodder scam and a politician facing a lot of corruption charges. This article comprises of that particular answer as what were the reasons that his tenure as Indian Railway Minister made people to rethink about him from a Village Bumpkin, an ILL-Literate Politician to one of the best Railway Minister India will ever have. Yes I am talking about none other than Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav and his iconic turnaround of Indian Railways from bankruptcy to profit making billion dollar industry.

     How did the man who bankrupted Bihar turn around railway finances to deliver a cash surplus of Rs 25,000 crores in 2008 from bankruptcy under Mamata Bannerjee in 2001? The Expert-Group report submitted in July 2001 stated:
“Today Indian Railway is on the verge of a financial crisis... To put it bluntly, the ‘business as usual low growth’ will rapidly drive IR to fatal bankruptcy, and in sixteen years Government of India will be saddled with an additional financial liability of over Rs 61,000 crores… On a pure operating level, IR is in a terminal debt trap.” 

So how can a man change the finances and deliver a cash surplus. As a management student I dig up deep in order to know what iconic reforms Mr. Lalu made to achieve this feat. Lalu had to take a strong makeover decision for the IR. It was a people’s wagon and he had to make sure whatever the decisions are it should not create ripples in people’s mind or feelings which is, “no hike in passenger fares, no retrenchment or privatization.” The reformers realized that every decision had to meet the market and societal value tests. Cost-cutting was no option. Jack Welsh’s philosophy – fix, sell or close down – might work in GE but not in a politically-sensitive department employing 1.4 million people. Most items of cost whether salaries or the price of diesel were beyond the control of the Railways.

The operationalisation of the various strategies over the past two years depended significantly on the leadership style of Mr. Lalu Prasad. It was a common sense based approach, showing an astute understanding of the market reality, the asset base of the IR and the expertise and capability of the IR’s management and systems.

Some of the key strategies the Indian Railways adopted were:

·         Downsizing: The number of employees, which peaked at 1.652 million in 1991, was brought down progressively to 1.472 million by 2003, and to 1.412 million by 2006. One of the elements of retrenchment strategy is to trim off excess staff. The approach that the IR adopted was not to fill in vacancies created due to retirement or other reasons.

·         Outsourcing: Besides the catering and parcel service activity, the IR also outsourced advertising activity. In the other business areas of parcel, catering and advertising, the strategy of outsourcing through public private partnership and wholesaling rather than retailing was adopted. 

·         Product Innovation: The IR introduced double stack container trains on some diesel routes. These containers increased the carrying capacity of each train to 2,500 tonnes against 1,500 tonnes, and also reduced line capacity constraint by nearly half and ‘led to saving of about seven percent on capital cost and 25 percent in operating expense.

·         Rise in demand: The rise in freight revenue - the main plank of the IR turnaround. IR raised the freight on iron ore by 17%.

·         Operational Cost: Part of this success is operational. The 78.7% operating ratio (the ratio of expenses over revenues) is the lowest that the Railways has ever seen. According to Lalu, it was also among the worlds lowest.

 Apart from that there were many other factors like increased bogies in popular routes thus increasing passengers, weight capacity of individual bogies were increased so that it can carry more passengers.

So when Mr. Lalu announced in Parliament in his budget that "We have made a record profit of Rs 20,000 crore," although this feat didn’t silence an Opposition that had decided to let the Bofors gun drown his Budget. This figure was absolutely stupendous creating ripples of shock not only in his own Ministry but also among the other private companies in other sectors.

A surplus before dividends of Rs 20,000 crore made Indian Railways the country's biggest profit-making entity. To put it in perspective, the Railways' profits were 25% more than the Rs 16,000 crore, the trailing 12-month profits of ONGC and almost double of Reliance Industries' Rs 10,557 crore.

The Indian Railways, the organization in question, has managed to prove its detractors wrong. Indian Railways outdid every entity in the country at that time. This turnaround from bankruptcy to a billion dollar entity has turned economists go gaga and has now become a case study at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Since then, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav has been addressing students of Universities like Wharton and Harvard Business School in the US, telling them how he scripted the success story of the country's loss-making Railways.

ROHIT RAINA