Recently, on my flight from Dubai to Mumbai, I had the privilege (at least I initially thought so) of sitting next to Ms Freida Pinto. That girl (and an overnight star) displayed oodles of attitude (you can safely read it as arrogance).
Her behaviour prompted me to think what role luck plays in today’s environment. All those who would have seen Slumdog Millionaire would admit that Freida’s role was miniscule as compared to her co-stars and even to the little slum kids, Rubina and Azhar. She hardly had any dialogues to speak or scenes to act in. Yet, she was hailed as a huge find of the film to the extent that some of the world’s best directors including Woody Allen have cast her in their supposedly next venture.
Her popularity these days is more than some of Bollywood’s top actresses. She was recently included in the World’s Top 20 most beautiful actresses much above some of the prettier faces of Bollywood. She has won some of the most plum modelling assignments which so far only Ashwarya Rai could boast of.
So what do I call of this success?
Is she really that beautiful (I will leave this to debate as most of the times people say that beauty lies in the eyes of beholder)? Did she display a power performance in the movie? What about some of the more talented actors in the movie like Irrfan, Anil Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar etc. They all had roles much larger than her. In fact her co-star Dev who had the entire movie to himself is also not much talked about as compared to her. All the little kids have hardly got much in return as compared to the success/revenues the movie has generated.
This blog is not to pick upon her. I hope she will definitely be worth the hype that she has generated and the next few movies will prove that. I am just trying to use this as an example for the role sometimes luck play in somebody’s life.
And we all continuously try to convince ourselves with the traditional quote “Hardwork is the key to success”.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Should our country be run like a corporate?
In the current scenario, every 5 years (most often earlier), a general election is held in which almost 50-60% of the population doesn’t vote. A bunch of 500+ MPs are selected. Most of them old, uneducated, corrupt and inexperienced. To top that, many have criminal backgrounds. Ministries are allocated based on the muscle, financial, political power (read vote bank / seat share power) to individuals who would have NIL experience and background of the responsibilities entrusted upon them.
Why not consider an alternate and hypothetical scenario?
The various ministers should be selected based on their extensive experience and educational qualifications within their required fields. For instance, the Finance Minister should be atleast a CA/CS or an MBA in Finance. He should have a min of 15 years experience in either a financial institution or in finance organization of an enterprise. Let’s say someone like D Subba Rao (RBI), Bhatt (SBU fame) Deepak Parekh (HDFC fame) and many others.
Minister of external affairs should be run by someone who has spent his career in corporate communications and political affairs. IT ministry by someone who has been a pioneer in the field like Murthy, Nilekani, Premzi etc. Same goes for other ministries like tourism , energy, education etc.
A proper background and financial check should be conducted prior to their appointment. They should sign a character certificate.
Every year, there should be 5-10 focus areas for GDP growth. It can be anything based on country’s potential, political climate, industry trends, global climate, economic scenario and most important internal capabilities. So we focus on areas like IT, Agriculture, tourism, and so on.
KRAs should be set for each area which are quantitative and measurable. They should be achievable with sufficient efforts put in.
Each department should carry a fixed budget that can’t exceed their costs. Salaries and perks should be comparable to any industry standard (which will help counter the need for corruption). The compensation for each of the Ministers and their ministries should be divided in Fixed and Variable components. The Variable component should be paid only if the quarterly or annual targets are achieved. So if the Tourism department fixed a KRA of increasing the number of tourists by 50% (and revenues by 25% yoy), then they get their variable compensation only if the increment is achieved.
Every foreign visit has to be justifiable and a complete report presented with action items immediately after the visit. At the end of the trip, a detailed expense report should be submitted and should have proper channels for authorizing any expense which is non-standard and above threshold.
At the end, awards and bonuses should be given to the Ministries who outperformed others.
There are so many similar scenarios possible if we start seeing around our own corporate environment. The above is just a teaser.
Will this lead to a more efficient and transparent government? Will this enable faster reforms and economic growth? I don’t have ready answers. But why not give it a shot (even if it has to be in phases)?
Why not consider an alternate and hypothetical scenario?
The various ministers should be selected based on their extensive experience and educational qualifications within their required fields. For instance, the Finance Minister should be atleast a CA/CS or an MBA in Finance. He should have a min of 15 years experience in either a financial institution or in finance organization of an enterprise. Let’s say someone like D Subba Rao (RBI), Bhatt (SBU fame) Deepak Parekh (HDFC fame) and many others.
Minister of external affairs should be run by someone who has spent his career in corporate communications and political affairs. IT ministry by someone who has been a pioneer in the field like Murthy, Nilekani, Premzi etc. Same goes for other ministries like tourism , energy, education etc.
A proper background and financial check should be conducted prior to their appointment. They should sign a character certificate.
Every year, there should be 5-10 focus areas for GDP growth. It can be anything based on country’s potential, political climate, industry trends, global climate, economic scenario and most important internal capabilities. So we focus on areas like IT, Agriculture, tourism, and so on.
KRAs should be set for each area which are quantitative and measurable. They should be achievable with sufficient efforts put in.
Each department should carry a fixed budget that can’t exceed their costs. Salaries and perks should be comparable to any industry standard (which will help counter the need for corruption). The compensation for each of the Ministers and their ministries should be divided in Fixed and Variable components. The Variable component should be paid only if the quarterly or annual targets are achieved. So if the Tourism department fixed a KRA of increasing the number of tourists by 50% (and revenues by 25% yoy), then they get their variable compensation only if the increment is achieved.
Every foreign visit has to be justifiable and a complete report presented with action items immediately after the visit. At the end of the trip, a detailed expense report should be submitted and should have proper channels for authorizing any expense which is non-standard and above threshold.
At the end, awards and bonuses should be given to the Ministries who outperformed others.
There are so many similar scenarios possible if we start seeing around our own corporate environment. The above is just a teaser.
Will this lead to a more efficient and transparent government? Will this enable faster reforms and economic growth? I don’t have ready answers. But why not give it a shot (even if it has to be in phases)?
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