Change begins at work!

Most of those of us who have worked in India, have been at the giving end or the receiving of all that I am writing in this post. I have categorised broadly the pains of being a part of the Indian Business Eco-system. Nothing to do with the government, but everything to do with people and the way they do the business.

The bad, 

On the outskirts of the IT capital is a 1 Lakh square feet warehouse, one of the many warehouses operated by the E-commerce companies. In it, are hundreds of men getting lakhs of shipments ready for dispatch. Line Managers constantly rallying their troops, shift managers pushing the boys to do more and beat the clock. Amidst all this organised chaos, are two blokes, who are lazy and arrogant, their only goal is to churn out money and put in no effort. They want to lay-back whole day, not move their ass and just take salary for showing up.

I am sure, people who have worked in such industries have surely encountered men who have tried to pull this off. 

The line-manager is naturally annoyed, he summons the two blokes, tries to put some sense into them, they retaliate. The line-manager then escalates it to the hub-manager, now it's the hub-manager's turn to put some sense into the two blokes. He summons them and this time the message is stern, "Work or go home". Naturally, the two blokes feel threatened, in-retaliation, they threaten to disrupt the operations by staging a dharna in the pretext of harassment. The warehouse head  jumps-in and salvage the situation and the matter was closed. This they say is a weekly affair. There is constant firefighting. You go around India and speak to business-heads and they will tell you, it's a pain to manage such people and there are many of them out there who are just waiting to disrupt smooth operations.. 

The worse 

You are waiting outside a big client's office. All ready for the meeting, you go in with full confidence, you are excited and nervous. The meeting was fixed at 10.30 AM, you reach by 10.15. It's 10.30 and you drop an SMS, the client says 10 minutes. You reply, "Sure, we will be waiting". The wait goes on. 10 minutes becomes half an hour, it then turns into an hour. You send another SMS, client doesn't respond. Finally after a full 90 minutes, he meets you. apologises for the delay, asks if you want coffee or tea! You politely refuse. The meeting with your client goes really well. The client negotiates hard, you play the numbers game and reduce your margin to play the long term game. You are assured of a three year contract. You sign the dotted line. You put your blood and sweat, give an amazing service to the client. 

One month goes by and the client pulls a rabbit out of the hat. He summons you to his office, tells he is very happy with the service and there's some small talk in between and towards the end, he says he will have to drop the contract, he says his sales have dropped and it doesn't make business sense to continue the service. We talk about the contract, he says it's a gentleman's agreement and assures that in future we would be their sole partner. Sweat starts trickling down, a drop in revenue, a dip in the margins. You have no bargaining power.You wonder where to go now!! 

The worst, 
You have served your client for a month, it's time for payments! You submit the invoice along with the supporting documents. You shake hands and ask for the date of payment . He says, 20 days. You smile and say thank you. Days go by and at day 20, you ring up the client, he says it will be done today/tomorrow. You wait patiently for another couple of days. You ring the client up again, he apologises and says there is a small mistake in the invoice and it needs correction. You want to Shout at the M**##@ F**k**r", you hold off and calm yourself. You scramble and quickly send the revised invoice. He then assures that he will clear the invoice in a couple of days. You again call him after three days. He says it's being processed. The wait continues. You call the client again the next day, he then gives you the finance head's number. You then call the finance head, the finance head then tells he needs some tax-certificates. You scramble again and send it. Two more days go by, you run out of patience and shoot an email. Strong but polite. You don't get a reply. Finally two days later you get the payment. You have danced to their tunes on a thorny stage and yet you can't complain. You feel like Basanti from Sholay!

Closing Thoughts

We are always ready to complain and grumble about the bureaucratic hurdles, the red-tapism,the policy paralysis and the tax hurdles that are prevalent in India. We complain to the government about how we are ranked 130 under the category of ease of doing business. But before we raise a finger at our government, we have to introspect about the way we run our businesses and the way we treat our partners. About how we over-commit, over promise and build castles in air and finally not live upto the rock-star rep that we present to a business partner. Some small things like promising X and sticking to that promise, committing to a deadline and sticking to the commitment no matter what.
Some small business policies that will define the company and bring us a long way! 

What's life without a touch of madness!

A Bad year for running, not much of practice behind my back, nonetheless, I did decide to run the Kaveri Trail (10K), 10th edition for them, 2nd time for me.

I decided, I'd do it barefoot like last time. Barefoot running has been good for me, I get the right balance and a feel of the ground beneath really well. 

I went to Mysore the previous evening, reached there by 8.15, met my friend. After having pasta and Egg chilly at a really cool place, my friend and I crashed at his place. 

I failed to sleep early the previous night and yet, somehow managed to wakeup by 5.00 AM. Got ready, had two slices of Brown bread and a glass of water. Changed into the race gear and put the bib onto my T-shirt. Put Rangantittu as my destination on my phone and drived straight through. Upon reaching there, I was delighted and energised to see other runners. Left my slippers in the car and headed to the starting point. Hydrating myself throughout, I felt confident about a strong finish. 

Kaveri trail is an annual 10k/21k/42k event hosted by runnersforlife. Usually happens in September, but this time, it got pushed to November because of the Kaveri protests. The trail runs along the Kaveri river with paddyfields, sugarcane fields and coconut trees situated in-between. It's a point A to point B race which starts at Rangantittu the bird sanctuary and ends at the Balmuri falls. 

Having run last year, I knew the good and bad stretches of the course.

Clock showed 7 and the race waas flagged off.
The first 4kms were easy and I was running along well with little pain in the foot (the pebbles constantly pricking the foot). At the 5KM mark, I realised the organisers had pulled a rabbit out of the hat. The organisers had changed the course making it an Origin to Origin kind (Looped Run). After the 5 KM turn, we moved to a return path that made my feet literally scream. The return path had stones of all sizes embedded in the track. I had to focus and dodge each and every stone. But, there were stretches where I had to give up running and stick to walking if I didn't want my foot to suffer further. There were continuous shots of pain, thorns stuck me quite often and I had to limp and remove those thorns and run again, I stopped at each aid station and rubbed my feet with water-soaked cotton. I dropped pace and focused entirely on keeping my foot safe. I even felt for a second, if I had done a foolish mistake by deciding to run barefoot.

Luckily though, the course got better and I found one of the organisers who came by and motivated me to pick up pace. We started running together. I grumbled on the course change to which courteously explained the reason for change. I found the explanation convincing. We finished the run together. Pain in my feet and joy in mind. On reaching the finish, I was welcomed by  handshakes and fist pumps by fellow runners. I took my finisher's medal. I was glad the assault ended, I was even more glad, the feet survived. With a sense of satisfaction, I headed to the river. Put my foot in the water for a couple of minutes. Got out and quietly headed to the car.

KTR, for the second time.

Will I do it again, Yes, will I run barefoot, yes I will, after all what's life without a touch of madness!