The young camel asked its mother, ‘Mom, why are our hooves so soft?’
The mother replied, ‘Sonny, so that we can run fast in the shifting sands of the desert.’
The young fellow was not satisfied, ‘Mom, why do we have a huge hump on our back/’
‘So that we will never go thirsty in the hot and arid desert,’ the mother responded patiently.
‘Why are we shaped in this peculiar way?’ queried the youngster.
Mom decided to give a conclusive reply. So she said, ‘We have been designed by God in such a way that we are most suited for living in the desert!’
The young camel then asked, his mother, ‘Mom, if God created us with all the qualities necessary for life in the desert, what are doing in this circus?’
A great story I heard at the inaugural of a Communication Skills Workshop for fresh Chartered Accountants. I was on the dais with Mr. V Murali, a Central Council member of ICAI and Vaz a.k.a Vasudevan, a co-facilitator on the programme. This is Vaz’s story!
I thought I’ll share it.
The story shows how we get locked into situations which are not at all what we were meant to do in life. Our talents and passion could be elsewhere. But we have to lock it all up and join the circus! Whose fault is this?
I keep constantly hearing negative feedback and views on the recession. Students of B Schools are worried about their campus and placement. They keep asking what their chances of getting hired are. They hear feedback like this recession is going to take two years to go away. They become despondent and negative.
When the sensex was nearing the dizzy heights of 20000 points most people barring a few market savvy ones predicted a boom for the next five years. In fact they put their money into the market and ended up ot knowing what hit them when the correction happened. We believed the wild hopes that these ‘well informed’ sources sowed in our midst. Now that this illogical optimism has been proved to be wrong should we not pause to question the right of these people to give us our opinion? Why should we take our thoughts second hand from these talking heads who keep jumping from one reactive comment to the next.
If we are to believe these doomsayers, the whole world is in for a huge downturn. So all of us should stop hiring new talent, and stop building new capacity. I agree in principle to a logical culling or right sizing in organizations. While these efforts need not wait for recession to trigger them, there is nothing wrong in using the general atmosphere of gloom and despair to say goodbye to unproductive and costly man power. The people who will benefit us most when employed by our competitors! (I once gave an appraisal with these words. I said, ‘This person will be great asset for us if he is employed by our competitors. In fact, he is so useless and irresponsible that we should somehow send him with our compliments to our competitors! He will ensure that they lose!)
But indiscriminately sacking people without regard for contribution is, to say the least suicidal. Remember, boom follows a depression, as the night the day! So, somewhere down the line, there is going to be a revival.
Even assuming that a full recovery is two years away, which, in my humble view, is too long, we are talking about a need for skilled, talented and trained people in hardly 24 months. Remember, the recruiting, inducting and skill-building cycle will take eighteen months. So if you need your plug and play managers by April 2010, you need to start hiring 2008!
The same will hold true for CAPEX too! You can’t have capacity just by snapping your fingers!
Why are IT and BPO companies sacking? Because they are people intensive and whether we like it all not they have to be flexible in hiring when faced with a possible sharp decline in order booking. Moreover the skill sets they need can be provided in a short duration. In fact by the time IT industry starts hiring again, the knowledge base of the IT industry would have changed totally! So taking in new recruits would possibly be better than retaining the older guys who may not be willing to learn new tricks.
So remember there is going to be an unasked question in every new selection interview. It is, “Our company is expecting heavy pressures on the bottom line, we are going to be hit by higher costs, power problems, cost overrun… etc., etc., so why should we hire you!’
Your answer should be convincing and positive. Your body language should exude positive energy. We need positive thinking now more than at any other time! We have considered ourselves great positive thinkers! Well, here is our opportunity to practice the virtue we have professed to admire!
The mother replied, ‘Sonny, so that we can run fast in the shifting sands of the desert.’
The young fellow was not satisfied, ‘Mom, why do we have a huge hump on our back/’
‘So that we will never go thirsty in the hot and arid desert,’ the mother responded patiently.
‘Why are we shaped in this peculiar way?’ queried the youngster.
Mom decided to give a conclusive reply. So she said, ‘We have been designed by God in such a way that we are most suited for living in the desert!’
The young camel then asked, his mother, ‘Mom, if God created us with all the qualities necessary for life in the desert, what are doing in this circus?’
A great story I heard at the inaugural of a Communication Skills Workshop for fresh Chartered Accountants. I was on the dais with Mr. V Murali, a Central Council member of ICAI and Vaz a.k.a Vasudevan, a co-facilitator on the programme. This is Vaz’s story!
I thought I’ll share it.
The story shows how we get locked into situations which are not at all what we were meant to do in life. Our talents and passion could be elsewhere. But we have to lock it all up and join the circus! Whose fault is this?
I keep constantly hearing negative feedback and views on the recession. Students of B Schools are worried about their campus and placement. They keep asking what their chances of getting hired are. They hear feedback like this recession is going to take two years to go away. They become despondent and negative.
When the sensex was nearing the dizzy heights of 20000 points most people barring a few market savvy ones predicted a boom for the next five years. In fact they put their money into the market and ended up ot knowing what hit them when the correction happened. We believed the wild hopes that these ‘well informed’ sources sowed in our midst. Now that this illogical optimism has been proved to be wrong should we not pause to question the right of these people to give us our opinion? Why should we take our thoughts second hand from these talking heads who keep jumping from one reactive comment to the next.
If we are to believe these doomsayers, the whole world is in for a huge downturn. So all of us should stop hiring new talent, and stop building new capacity. I agree in principle to a logical culling or right sizing in organizations. While these efforts need not wait for recession to trigger them, there is nothing wrong in using the general atmosphere of gloom and despair to say goodbye to unproductive and costly man power. The people who will benefit us most when employed by our competitors! (I once gave an appraisal with these words. I said, ‘This person will be great asset for us if he is employed by our competitors. In fact, he is so useless and irresponsible that we should somehow send him with our compliments to our competitors! He will ensure that they lose!)
But indiscriminately sacking people without regard for contribution is, to say the least suicidal. Remember, boom follows a depression, as the night the day! So, somewhere down the line, there is going to be a revival.
Even assuming that a full recovery is two years away, which, in my humble view, is too long, we are talking about a need for skilled, talented and trained people in hardly 24 months. Remember, the recruiting, inducting and skill-building cycle will take eighteen months. So if you need your plug and play managers by April 2010, you need to start hiring 2008!
The same will hold true for CAPEX too! You can’t have capacity just by snapping your fingers!
Why are IT and BPO companies sacking? Because they are people intensive and whether we like it all not they have to be flexible in hiring when faced with a possible sharp decline in order booking. Moreover the skill sets they need can be provided in a short duration. In fact by the time IT industry starts hiring again, the knowledge base of the IT industry would have changed totally! So taking in new recruits would possibly be better than retaining the older guys who may not be willing to learn new tricks.
So remember there is going to be an unasked question in every new selection interview. It is, “Our company is expecting heavy pressures on the bottom line, we are going to be hit by higher costs, power problems, cost overrun… etc., etc., so why should we hire you!’
Your answer should be convincing and positive. Your body language should exude positive energy. We need positive thinking now more than at any other time! We have considered ourselves great positive thinkers! Well, here is our opportunity to practice the virtue we have professed to admire!
1 comment:
Hi,
In an interview with Pagalguy, GIM Director Alan D’Souza shared his positive views on the placement scene in the current financial crisis. The director has given an insight about the placement scenario in B-schools regarding the financial crisis.
Alan D’Souza says “I really don’t see the need for an overall panic”. The full article can be read: http://www.pagalguy.com/index.php?categoryid=51&p2_articleid=1606
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