Army:Talent:Pension

I once read - I think it was in the Art of War by Sun Tzu- that it takes a 100 villagers to support 1 army man in war. Our armed forces are in similar quandary. The money just can't keep up with expenses. Most of the money goes in supporting salaries and pensions leaving rather little for modernization. There is already a lot of debate on how much money is wasted in hiring people for non essential jobs and unoptimized logistics operations.
In other news corporate India is facing a talent crunch because well most of our university graduates are unemployable the univs being nothing more than mugging shops and rather terrible ones at that too. So there is this line of thought that says that since most soldiers and junior officers retire rather early why not train em to take up jobs in corporate sector. They already have plenty useful skills in some areas, train em in some more functional stuff and there you have ready material to fuel our economic engines.
The idea does have its merits. While its true that many of these guys our in their 30s and 40s (thing soldiers and JCOs) and corporate are seem to prefer young blood; it should work because these folks after a life of moving about may actually be interested in a stable life and may therefore stick with the same firm on a longer term.
What i want to talk about is how it can benefit the army. As we already know that getting people to join army is becoming tough. This is more true for senior officers but the argument I hold for soldiers hold for senior positions also. One many of the army recruits come from poor families. Unless you are brilliant, chances of making it to top institutes (or sports team or whatever) is rather remote. If they don't join army and go for corporate sector as workers chances of their being employable is remote. On the other hand army gives them a great lifestyle for a while and then when u settle down, a nice decent job with training done on maybe govt or corporate+govt money. But then maybe if they managed to join someplace as a worker which trains them and pays them peanuts for years because well they started useless 15-20 years is a long time to catch up.
What the army needs to do is 2 fold. It can actually train the soldier in skill, over years, that may have required maybe a few years in various schools. Then army has canteens and pension and the glamour of its lifestyle. What can really sweeten the deal for the army is that if it says that ok we'll train u well. In return if you start earning maybe say 20k per month in corporate I do not pay u pension. If if income falls below certain limit I start paying pension. If the payout is such that soldier gets partial pension depending on how much is the total earnings and pension reduces as a proportion to the outside earnings which is not linear. Since there is a guarantee that the pension is not stopped permanently, only till the soldier can earn more. And my reducing proportionally those who can work outside will make more money by taking up jobs as opposed to those who decide to live on pension only. This will reduce army's wage bill.
By tying up with corporates for trainings army can reduce its training costs too. Corporate sector can prepare targeted trainings. Army bears the salary bill while the soldier trains and corporate bears the training preparation and may administrating costs. Again a win win.

Monk and Abbot in conversation 5/M&A talks 5:What organised religion can teach corporates

Abbot: A guest here had a query on how he can reconcile his quest for corporate glory with his deep religious moorings?
Monk: Master is the two related?
A: Child how many years have the major religions you know of thriving?
M: Master most of them for 1000 years or more!
A: How many firms you know of that are even 200 years old?
M: *thinking*
M: Not any master though there are some - a bank here, a shop there that might be 300-400 years old, but maybe only 1 or 2 I might have read about.
A: Assuming that there are even 100s of these they obviously are not thriving too much since we would otherwise know of them?
M: True master but can we really equate the 2?
A: Patience child.
Now do you think that the organized religions have a large base of followers and the base keeps increasing?
M: Yes master
A: And that is probably the purpose of the religionists- to increase their ranks?
M: Yes master
A: Also look at one of the most potent org. rel. concepts. You are usually born into faith if your parents were in it. Thought most have some ceremony to confirm your initiations. See the power?
M: Master can you shed more light?
A: The idea for corporate is that form such a bond that the children of consumers are born into the brand. Kids use it automatically because parents use it too. Hence a brand should follow similar concept. If it’s a product that can be used only say after a certain age, try being in segment where kids form an emotional bond with it seeing their parents use it. If selling shaving cream make it an aspiration to have the kid look forward to using the same cream as the father. Better still don’t just do shaving cream, do toothpaste.
A: So in short organized religions have very good marketing?
M: Now that you point me in the direction yes
A: Can you have mere evangelist succeeding if they have no backing? Without the means and souls/bodies?
M: Yes master, being an evangelist converting heather requires money, lots of money, free schools, hospitals, buildings, people
A: And we get others to contribute?
M: Yes master but we often have own resources too - villages attached to old monasteries, fees and so on. Some of the monasteries are very wealthy master.
A: So let’s look at corporate - they want people to know the brand and spend premium to buy the brand? Can we say that premium for a brand is similar to charity money in religion? Same idea of pay for satisfaction? It works even better for service industries.
M: Yes, yes and yes
A: So we already agree that the mode of operations of corporate and religions are same even if the intentions may differ.
M: Master but is mode of operation reason enough to count them similar?
A: Child that is not what I mean though I am not saying if they are similar or not. But organized religion is an example of very powerful organization practices that corporate can follow.
M: Enlighten me master.
A: Religion succeeds because they possess the target as well as employee segment. Which is more important to them is another question but by and large both segments need to be fired up for them to succeed. Which corporate will not give an arm and a leg to do that? That’s lesson number 1, both are important in order to move up the food chain- the consumer and the producer.
A: Now religions can be of two types - those that have an incontestable vision. It makes it easy for employees to adhere to it and u can force out non believers. One an organization makes it a policy to either fire or kill those who question the top management's vision it makes for very little employee turnover.
M: Master how will those who merely fire have high retention?
A: Child humans like their snug cocoon, given a threat most will prefer to like the directions than to be out in the rains naked? And what if most of what you learnt is being done by only your ex-organization which denounces you? Your chances of another job are low. So we see such org. rel. already lowers its training costs.
On a deeper psychology level once people start believing the vision they see it everywhere so we can now make them work overtime.
A: Other religions are those who do not believe in vision but prefer to think of new products depending on needs or same product customized. These are often better at engineering skills but suffer from a rather fickle employee base. Advantage that they get is that great innovators may want to become a part, but ordinary employees do not have the same level of commitment base.
M: So master what lessons are there for corporate? Vision is all powerful?
A: It seems yes vision makes things easier but do not underestimate the versatility of the other. If you are playing the innovation game or are in a market of people willing to try new things - it pays not to get wedded to a single vision. However the mass market is in vision thing. So most organizations should go in for 1st kind of approach.
M: Yes master.
A: So we looked at the supply side, lets see what the demand side offers. Organized religion plays on emotions or they play to spiritual. Similarly corporate marketing need to play on emotions or serve basic needs.
M: Is not spiritual and basic opposites
A: Not really child. Spiritual quest for humans is the basic quest. its about the what and whys of life- stuff that becomes 'necessary' once the basic needs are filled.
So corporate need to project their goods in such a way that an emotional bond develops. If your child does not use this toothpaste, his/her social life will be hellish and (s)he’ll end up in asylum/ if you don't buy our TV not only will u not know the latest happenings but you are forcing my workers to starve and their children to beg. No other brand of medicine can keep your loved one alive, in fact others will kill them and ours will make them do salsa within a week. That is the kind of image marketing need to convey.
M: Master apart from marketing?
A: Marketing is the mantra. Look at how most organized religions try to control life for consumers. Corporate can use similar techniques. Make products (this works very well for technology) that work with only your own products. Tie them in to your platform and make migration prohibitive. Once your emotive/spiritual marketing does its initial job just take over their life.
M: Master what once all our consumers have all our products, how do we earn more?
A: that is why organized religions have festivals, period meetings that are supposed to be mandatory. And mandatory charity- force people to keep paying you more.
Corporate should aim for subscription services. Consumers are tied to their products and they pay a period fee to you to keep them alive.
M: Master I never saw such possibilities
A: Corporate are new kids on the block, organized religions have perfected techniques over years. it helps that organized religions were also started and led by some of the sharpest minds of their time and beyond.
There are more learning
M: I'm all ears Master.
A: Most of organized religions aimed to convert the nobility to their cause. Corporate similarly should target the mind share leaders or those in power. it was not always easy to convert kings because they fight back. So org rel shed plenty of their blood too. Once the nobility was converted they either forced the serfs to convert or made it attractive to wannabes to convert. Who doesn't want to be on king's side? It’s the same for corporate. Get the mind readers. Make government/military your clients. The big business houses. Then they in turn force suppliers to use same products. Remember it pays to keep products incompatible to others. Sometimes corporate have to bleed in order to get the leaders (or even masses). The idea is that the enemy bleeds more. So if corporate is the one with most staying power, let there be blood bath all around.

M: Master why then has corporate not taken these lessons to heart?
A: Child they often lack courage. Org. rel. has often been cruel to extreme in order to win market share and then they turn benign. Corporate if they start ruthless can become big enough where the need to be ruthless vanishes.
M: Master but ultimately the aim of all religions is to find God?
A: No child, the aim of all religions is to find 'truth' but even then most espouse the vision as truth in the beginning! So that means that most org. rel. basically is aiming to be a monopoly. There is a lesson even here. Most corporate should aim to be monopoly.
M: Master what is the single biggest thing that org. rel. should teach corporate?
A: That I is the only 'true' one. Once you believe in that it makes it very easy to practice all other.

The linguistic frailities

This 'lie' word in English is kinky.
same word for lie - (veracity un-inclined) and lie (merely inclined). If I tell someone the only place I lie is in bed they give all sorts of mischievous winks while i wonder why do they find it funny?

What am I?

I somehow have this notion that religion in particular and a lot of philosophy in general is trying to find out what is death and what happens to us when it happens. There is this whole new arena opening up as a result of medical researches and as already been seen a lot of it is challenging our beliefs in life, soul and so on. Newsweek has this interesting article on reviving the dead. The article argues how death is not an event but a process (itself a rather interesting notion) and its a complex biochemical process.
We have talked of some of these earlier in a couple of posts, so here i talk about some deeper issues and in keeping with the random sanity theme a couple of more frivolous but immediate ideas.
Religion is a mess and theologians will have a lot more thinking to do. I did read an interesting comment on Slashdot that talked of an ego-less state mentioned in some Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. The ideas of mind and body living but the "I" having died. Interesting indeed. But its not something I have heard before (and I cannot by any stretch claim to be an informed source on these philosophies) so if its there it indeed is an interesting idea.
So maybe the next great career is going to be in philosophy. Poor flock distressed at the whole unravellings of thousands of years of life-death- back to God rigmarole suddenly trying to fathom the implications of dead not being an event. So are the last rites really a way to ensure that the "dead" are not able to come back to life? Imagine that, its rare enough not to make it practical for most to wait days on end before the hope is gone but happens so that there is this thought that the loved one may not be dead even tho it looks like it? lets not even get into the resurrection theme.
So philosophy will again be in demand with a whole new era opening with its fresh fodder for thought. On a more deeper level what really happens to the whole idea of "I". Where am I while I am frozen - dead but not dead waiting to come alive. Now we are arguing that the person is not dead because death is not an event. But then what if its a process (maybe reversible) and I am 30% dead. What am I then? If I came back to life and maybe 100% life not just 70% am I the same "I". If not who am I? Or what am I? Its a shift in cultural notions of the Quantum types. Like in physics - Newtonian which is easy to understand and now quantum and relativistic which baffles almost all of us. Well its only a matter of time before the same happens to other branches.
Then there are the whole host of associated issues. What is consciousness? If all life is essentially a result of coding of genes, and so is our information, can we really put it all in some computer and have the consciousness live forever? Will such a consciousness be as "real" as in a person? When I talk of "I" do I mean this consciousness? Most fundamentally what is "I"? Is there life after death? When does it begin? The near death experiences documented have sometimes people saying they saw light or something? But were they alive at a cellular level (which they should right) then is life not really cellular? If it is not, then how come I can revive before or during cellular death? Can I force soul back in the same body? Can a soul be forced? If yes is it really that important?

In other news scientists have cured fear it seems. I thought death was the greatest fear. It couldn't have come any later :).

Thats it, the last straw?

We often said fondly to our friends abroad should talks come to terror attacks how India while being one of the biggest sufferers does not contribute to the poor of people carrying out this shame across the globe.
Last week truth or change hit home. Among the perpetrators of failed attempts in UK, a few Indians were at forefront it seems. While lets not presume the guilt till the courts hold them to after due diligence, the impact already hits.
I remember when I was in US a few years ago, well after 9/11 the "random" airlines extra scrutiny will unfailingly select almost all Indian (actually all Asians). The randomness looks a bit uncanny once u realize that almost 90% of the sample chosen looked like I did at-least in terms of skin colors or alien names. To be fair, I did see Caucasians also being selected and an occasional Indian not selected, nearly everyone selected was young. And maybe it was a case of all young men (sometimes women too) traveling alone was the biggest factor. Also the security was usually very polite and at least once I had this gentlemen actually helping me pack back my stuff carefully while we discussed my collection of camera lenses.
A big grouse was why all "browns" seem to be selected? Aren't we all highly educated, traveling frequently abroad, working for good firms? That is what worries me. The ones accused this time fit the bill. All highly educated in some of the toughest fields in academic terms, lived abroad and were by all accounts doing good in professional life. I wonder if now Indians (other Asians too probably but I know more about Indians so will use this as a specific example) will not spend in-ordinate time in security checks? Visa could also be an issue. A large chunk of forex is earned by Indians doing small jobs in Gulf sending money back home. Money which sustains the rest of the family, see kids go to school, pick more valuable skills. In short money that uplifted a whole family out of poverty. There is a talk of nursing services being the next boom and this time to Europe already suffering from bad demographic ratios. What if suddenly this avenue dries up?
I wonder what if this was a target as much as the airport in question? What better way to destroy lives than making all suspected in the eyes of the rest of the world. While I'll wager that this probably is a long shot but the fact is that it could have a tangible economic impact on especially poor strata trying to move to higher wage areas. People poor enough or not in that high wage category where they or the employer can afford to pay for greater security scrutiny?
And this is where our apathy towards such criminals is such shocking. I have this grouse against most of Muslim leadership in India. They almost never condemn any attack linked to Islamic terrorists without trying to Justify it on some level. Yup this is a barbaric act but they were provoked! Whats the need for but? Gandhi has shown that violence is not the only way. Even when our own freedom fighter fought with arms the targets were invariably military/police almost never the families. And remember that once during Quit India movement there were civilian casualties Gandhi did stop the movement as a protest against our violence.
Its time we woke up to the fact that terrorism is against innocent civilians and must be unequivocally fought against. True powers often act against innocent victims but then two wrong acts do not make a right.

Why don't we lose sleep?

Tavleen Singh In Indian Express makes an interesting point Why didn't PM lose sleep over 7/11?
The fact of the matter is that we Indian simply cannot overcome our lust for petty gains over longer term good. Its a story repeated time after time. Any outrageous act (not just terrorism, it can be local rivalry, political point scoring, regionalism in cricket team selection of all things, and its the same story.
The PM otherwise an honest man from what i gather hastily gives a clean chit to a minister who is forced to resign after a couple of days on the same issue and is blamed by the ruling party as guilty! Why was the PM not sacked for giving a "clean chit" without checking on facts? He is after all the Prime Minister. Or are we saying that the PM of India actually make statements he expected to be taken seriously without checking on facts? If not so then obviously he makes statements while knowing that he is being at best economical with truth?
The ruling coalition's Presidential nominee is accused of political and moral crimes and the spokesman says all political folks have these kinds of charges including the opposition candidate. How does the unsuitability of opposite candidate makes the choice of someone with serious credential issues right? Let both be declared unsuitable. Reminds me of that argument in movies where a criminal caught for an act says first catch all those who get away before catching me. What makes this so sad is that audience will happily clap if this criminal in the movie is a favorite star. We condone turpitude if it comes from our favorite people.
Somewhere I think we are ourselves to be blamed because we within our democracy refuse to punish leaders for their sins. Until that starts happening expecting those wielding power to be holy in thoughts is naiveté of tallest order.

Lost in time

The other day while having lunch in cafeteria conversation turned to traditional food dishes.
There was a time when this girl had sipped fresh froth of vats cooking jaggery sometime mixing it with fresh 'imli". The gentleman on left was lamenting those barley concoctions that villages once used to cement social ties.
I remember there used to be those bonfires at my place where we kids would strategically bury sweet-potatoes under ground putting loose soil over it. The fire was kindled over this slowly roasting them and voila a yummy breakfast.
The mango parties in gardens where mangoes by the bucket (immersed in cold water) were ravished by foodies. Mango had so many things being made out of it. Aam pana, kalonji, various chutneys used to make the torrid summers fun. Then there were other coolers like the 'faalse' sherbet, I don't even see the berries around any more. Mint sherbets, the 'kala khatta' sherbet and ice crush all seem an almost lost delight.
There were pakoris wrapped in colocasia leaves (called patri also in west of India) which were made fresh typically in rainy seasons. In fact that whole tradition of food and tea under some porch while rain washes the trees around you is such a lamentable loss.
With the loss those long leisure days of summers and grannies not really living with grandkids any more with the whammy of flat living has ensured that those delicately prepared delights are getting lost. There is hardly any time and energy left to spend time in doing all this. Besides lifestyles are such that most find it advisable to stay away from anything that might have hint of oil/sweet in it.
I believe there is a market for food resorts which recreate these old cuisine practices. Current generation will come to relive nostalgia and future for the novelty. Any capitalist looking for investments?

Just cricket?

Just happened to tune into CNN-IBM the other day. The caption for the program said "India's war on terror". What was being discussed was Indian team's performance in cricket against South Africa.
Finally we admit that these fast bowlers have been terrorizing us on pitch for long enough. Indian minister (as in all other fields, the cricket board is headed by a politician explains the state of our game nah? ) probably declared a war on other teams or some such thing. It must have been because we won the game. Ye Ye