BOBKANNAN BLOGS

The vegetable cutter in a famous restaurant was not getting overtime and also lost the benefit of having dinner free as his timings got over by 6 p.m. Since recession was felt by the IT industries when Obama became President of USA there were fewer crowds in costly hotels. I was intrigued by the economics where when the rich cut on luxuries the poor has to lose on his necessities. While this was the effect of a reduced salary in an industry that pays the highest    with matching perks and onsite visits that earns in dollars, what would be the effect if a factory that pays the lowest (minimum wages) with no perks decides to close down? I looked at the closing down of both Nokia and Foxconn in that perspective. When people who are not educated or skilled enough do not have a job they do manage a living by odd jobs that become even regular over a period. When factories open and offer jobs the people who join as unskilled or semi skilled workers take comfort ...

My friend Piyush Kagalwala was a bit upset that I did not congratulate him on his promotion as Chief Manager that day. My office was surprised that an otherwise disciplined Kannan has not reported back from leave. Why? As usual I boarded my favorite flight IC 440 at 7 am from Chennai for Hyderabad. The pilot used to take off from only the airport at Chennai and also used to land only at airport in Hyderabad. But that day he chose to land rather crash land in a rice field. I was fortunate to have 31F as my seat that was at the rear almost near the door and was also asleep to be blissfully ignorant of the turmoil, the pilot and consequently the passengers in the front had. The wings of the aircraft refused to co operate as the pilot tried to land at Hyderabad and the aircraft consequently flew at lower height   consuming more fuel forcing the aircraft to land at any place airport or otherwise. Captain Balla did a great job of landing in a carefully chosen strip of...

There is a huge bungalow visible prominently in a locality. The bungalow has more than one gate, one for the car, and one for visitors, a wicket gate for the servants and support staff to use and may be one more for the family. The huge gate opens many times to intake people who choose to travel in cars covered with sun film and even the security may not get to have a glimpse of the visitor. The bungalow also has many plants some of which grow to trees and have seen generations, while some plants grow, flourish briefly bearing fruits/flowers and vanish thereafter. Leaders are comparable to such bungalows. Just like the trees leaders have people around them who are loyal to them thro the generation. They also get loyal people who come and go like the smaller plants that come and vanish. People visiting a leader also come thro a variety of gates. Some walk in, others prefer visit in cognito, while others like the support staff manage to sneak thro a gate not visible to ...

The group of students decided on a picnic but Ram was hesitant to join. “Don’t worry I will see that they don’t trouble you, you also come” assured Bharat pointing to three in troupe who were boisterous by nature and seen as bully. Ram joined the party.  All that Bharat did was to size up the anxiety and hesitation of Ram who was otherwise timid, submissive, conforming and yet joyful and inventive on such occasions. The secret of success of Bharat as leader is he is able to similarly size up the mindset of other people who may be brash, bully, aggressive or even uncouth  and prop them up to come out of their original shell at least for the time being. This is achieved without the individuals expressly spelling out their feelings to Bharat, yet he read out their mind successfully and has also been a part of that mindset on occasions.  In other words people of varied nature find something in the leader that resonates with theirs. People do have anxie...