Sujavna 2015 (4)

Sunday 25, January 2015 1700 hrs

Even as US president Barrack Obama and Indian Prime Minister meet in New Delhi today and in the next couple of days, and everyone eagerly waits for announcement of bilateral agreements on various fronts, I will be patient and will look out for indications that both leaders have indeed thought out of the box, for economic development and world peace (read counter-terrorism).

And so as I wait, my mind is exercised on a more localised challenge – is there a way by which current initiatives to foster entrepreneurship across India make a quantum sustainable leap in the impact? How does one re-engineer the DNA of entrepreneurship in India? The more I think on this, I am intrigued by a typical mental picture of a Johari window of a hypothetical Indian entrepreneur Raju. What are Raju’s feelings about himself and his venture…What do others (family, friends, colleagues, partners) think of Raju and his venture…What does Raju believe about how other perceive him and his venture, and…How do others perceive about Raju’s belief in their “buy-in” to his venture.

The topography of Venn-answers, revealing the arena, facade, blind spot and unknowns for each substantive element of Raju’s entrepreneurial journey thus far, should give us a model of the current DNA of entrepreneurship and expose the fault-gap-lines that will need to be innovatively fixed, and the DNA re-engineered to ensure it replicates adequately and sustainably.

I intend to spend some additional time in exploring this line of thought during the coming week. Wishing you, as usual  a great week ahead.

Sujavna 2015 (3)

Sunday 18, January 2015 1700 hrs

In a commentary on the life of Indian industrialist Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani that I recently read, it was mentioned that he believed that if one does not act on ones’ dreams, then others will recruit one and make one work for their dreams. This set me thinking….

Can there be a situation where everyone dreams and recruits others to fulfil them? How will this work out? And honestly, isn’t this what normal societal structures tend to achieve, going by the law of averages? The difficulty in pursuing this line of thinking is when we assume that all dreams are similar in nature and are all materialistic. But when we realize that each of us dreams in different wavelengths and we realize our dream by smartly working towards them by leveraging the different dreams of others, then each of us is a Dhirubhai Ambani, (sort of…)!

Now you may be wondering how this relates to the theme of lateral thinking. It is my hypothesis that the process of lateral thinking is, in a sense, the same as the search for matching ones dreams to the wider environment of dreams of others and then working out a smart navigational tool to link all of them to achieve objectives.

Do you agree?

Wishing you a great week ahead.

Sujavna 2015 (2)

Sunday 11, 2015 1630 hrs

Will Indians take serious notice that there is a wide slip between the cup and the lip!

A lot of things are going good for India and many Indians, and therefore it is easy to miss the yawning gap that defines the wonderful intentions of the government and the ground realities of how these intentions will translate into a better India for Indians and for the world at large.

Think about it – the Prime Minister exhorts citizens and corporate India to participate and deliver success in campaigns such as Make In India, Swachh Bharat (Clean India), a Digital India, or even Adopt a Village by each Member of Parliament. It is true that a visionary government and its leader need time to show results, and I am most willing to wait, but I am afraid the wait will end up frustrating me and many Indians like me, because I see these campaigns are (a) still lacking “local champions” at many of the key implementation organizations (read ministries and government departments) and (b) are not based on a participative-risk-reward management framework for local stakeholders.

The need to include both the- above-mentioned approaches will require innovations that change these campaigns from being government schemes to projects that excite entrepreneurs, investors and local government departments to sign up for projects that can be appropriately  rewarded for objectively-certified successes.

And this brings us to the core theme of this blog – the need for lateral thinking! Any body listening?

Happy to hear your views. Wishing you all a great week ahead.

Sujavna 2015(1)

Sunday 04, 2015 12 noon

Welcome to the first post of Sujavna in 2015.

I hope that 2014 was a good year that provided ample opportunities for you to practice lateral thinking and innovate in ways that you, your family, friends, local communities, your employer, your colleagues and your customers, have benefited. I wish that 2015 sees even better performance from all of us in this front.

My thoughts for today and for the rest of this week will be focused on how to perfect the art of exercising the right balance between rational, logical thinking and intuitive thinking. I realize that much has been written on these approaches and the predominance of the former in todays’ societies. For me, the unresolved challenge is about identifying the inflexion points when either of the approaches will provide more sustainable solutions to the problems that we may encounter in our jobs, our personal lives, in the developmental and economic challenges that we may face in our small communities or cities or nations or even wider global conflicts such as terrorism and climate change. And how can one practice a balance in the use of both approaches? Can this be taught in our classrooms, practically rather than in a pedagogic manner?

Happy to hear your views. Wishing you all a great week ahead.