Only The Paranoid Survive

It was raining cats and dogs in Mumbai. All plans of an outing or shopping had to be canceled. A book on my music system caught my attention and I ended up spending the whole weekend I reading Andrew Grove' (Intel CEO) book titled "Only The Paranoid Survive" !

The book got me thinking - about the SIPs - Strategic Inflection Points in my life, in my company and in the world around me.

The profound thought process and extremely clear articulation supported with apt examples is the beauty of the book.

The subject of the book is HOW TO DEAL WITH "an all-pervasive change - though subtle and gradual - that can be dangerous to the careers and more so to the enterprises, in the sense that it warrants a radical change in the way career or business should shape up, so as to avoid the Valley of Death and march forward to find the new world"

Grove takes us on this great journey through his own experiences at Intel, and overall with the electronic and IT industry as a whole.

The phrases like - strategic inflection point, 10X change, valley of death, let chaos reign, rein in chaos ring bells in the mind of those who face such business situations day in and day out.

An interesting perspective presented in the book is that the senior management is the last one to sense the change. The snow starts melting at the periphery, similarly the sales people and the middle management are among the first ones to sense the subtle change and the effects of the SIP. Senior management should treat the signals coming from the front liners as Cassandras.

Grove also emphasizes the point of contrastive confrontation which allows all the layers in the organization to express their views without fear.

Acceptance that something has changed around us makes it easy to prepare for the confrontation. The denial results in delay and poses a danger of too-little-too-late kind of situation.

This book is a must read for those who can pursue a single idea with passion, are risk taker and are not afraid of change !

Go read... Be Paranoid... For Only The Paranoid Survive !

Collecting Books - Gateway Park Library Book Exhibition

July 19 and 20 there was a book exhibition in my office library. I tried to resist the temptation to go to the library, for I know I would surely blow some more bucks on buying books, and not reading those later!

However, when one of my colleagues asked me, my legs turned towards the library automatically. Browsing through various titles on IT, Business, Management, Strategy, etc, I could not stop myself from buying books. I bought 10 of them worth of 3000 bucks!

Ryuji Fukuda's volume of Business Transformation was the one I was keen on buying, but had to give up the idea upon learning its price USD 66.50!! I ended up recommending that book for office library, hoping to read it once the library acquires it.

On July 20th, again I went with my friend, but could resist myself and did not buy any book. While my friend was completing the purchase, I was standing in the lounge. I noticed a polio-struck boy coming up the stairs to see the exhibition! The thought that our offices are still not disabled friendly struck me and its a noysome fact that in India not every human being is thought of while creating facilities!

Suddenly I was upset and could not get back to work and insisted on my friend that we go for lunch instead! The thought that - around us so many things are not as those should be and still we choose to ignore those and go on - makes me uncomfortable!

Still the life goes on....... we move on....... without making a difference..... thinking of the poem of serenity!

The Animal Farm

The Animal Farm is a beautifully written short novel which is a perfect metaphor of today's POLITY!

The reader tends to anticipate a happily living animal farm after the animals have toppled the human regime ! As you read on how the animals in the leadership of pigs go onto managing the farm, the camaraderie they demonstrate to run their own empire, you start believing that there will be a happy ending to the story.

The surprises start coming one after other after the windmill episode !

Exactly the same thing happens in today's polity. The intellectually superior human beings, in their own interest, make use of mass mentality to pave path to their own prosperity while creating a smokescreen of development ! They join hands with the foreign countries for personal gains in the name of economic development of the country !

And the masses remain unaware of whats really happening while believing the eyewash created by the politicians !

George Orwell, through this fairy tale, has captured all the dirty tactics that can happen in politics and the end result of it !

The Fountainhead

Recently I finished reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

I always thought man's struggle is between his heart and mind !

After reading the book, I think, its actually a struggle between being able to choose between doing what is approved by the society or doing what is approved by one's heart and mind.

Collectivism Vs Objectivism ! The highest spirit is the man's ego ! In the book Rand emphasizes that being an egotist is not wrong, its better than being a second-hander. Always doing things which makes society accept you Vs doing things which makes you accept yourself as a greatest spirit in the world.

Howard Roark is my hero. He represents the ultimate egotist who stands for himself, his values, his ethics, his self-esteem !

The novel seems so contemporary, because despite of the technological advances the real issues of man's struggle against the collectivist society is still the same.

Today media has become very powerful, like Gail Wynand's "Banner" in The Fountainhead, especially Toohey's column - "One Small Voice", which he uses to raise someone to greatness, and to pull someone out of the limelight ! Today media does the same thing. Not everyone who is a celebrity and is in the limelight has the best talent in the industry, there are people who have talent, but avoid limelight.

Believe in yourself, don't be a second-hander is the essential message of The Fountainhead !