‘Life wants us to win’
‘Life wants us to win’
Vijay Dandige (Contributor)/ KHALEEJ TIMES 21 October 2007
Renowned leadership guru Robin Sharma who is in Dubai speaks to City Times about how small daily improvements over time can lead anyone – be it a CEO or a gardener – to achieve great success in life
THE GURU wears a black trouser and a black shirt — as is his style. At 43, he has a lean athletic body, not an ounce of fat anywhere, the result probably of his love of sailing, skiing and trekking in the wilderness.
And that, coupled with a ready smile and a shining shaved head, gives him the appearance of a cool regular guy. ‘I’m just an ordinary person,’ as he says, and which, in fact, he is.
But that apparent ordinariness itself may just be the secret behind Robin Sharma’s phenomenal global popularity as an expert on leadership and personality development. He has written about 10 bestselling books, including the internationally acclaimed ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’.
His Sharma Leadership International (SLI), a globally recognised leadership development firm, has clients like GE, Nike, BP, NASA, IBM, Microsoft, FedEx, KPMG, General Motors and other big names. Even at the venues of these industry giants, Sharma, the success coach, gives his presentations and seminars, donning a plain trouser and a shirt, shunning any hint of formality or pomposity. He has worked with FORTUNE 500 executives and celebrity entrepreneurs for over 10 years with exceptional results. In an independent survey, he was ranked as one of the top 10 leadership gurus in the world. His ideas on self-mastery and organisational excellence have helped millions in over 35 countries.
Robin Sharma is currently in Dubai as the invited guest of Channel 4 Radio Network to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the radio station. ‘To mark this milestone, we always wanted to do something different, that touches the lives of our listeners and guests who are partners in our success,’ said Ravi Muni, Group Head, Finance & Audit of Channel 4 Radio Network, which belongs to Al Murad Group and was the first English radio station in the UAE. ‘We thought what could be more apt than having Robin Sharma, who is teaching millions how to be successful, to celebrate our own success.’
The famed mentor will speak on the success practices of the world’s best performers to invited guests at the Channel 4 programme on October 23 at Park Hyatt Hotel. Of Indian origin, Robin Sharma, who grew up in a small town in Canada, spoke with City Times about his success philosophy.
Just what is the secret of your boundless enthusiasm?
I love what I do. I think the secret of passion is purpose. And if you look at anyone who is successful in business and in life, they have found something that moves them. Not at an intellectual level but at an emotional level. And that’s passion.
So, you are one of the lucky ones to find work that you love…
I think we all are lucky. Even if you are a manager in a corporation or driving a taxicab, we all have the opportunity to find meaning in our work, the opportunity to make it different. Most of us are being too busy being busy that we forget about the value we could add in the contribution we can make to the work we’re doing right now.
According to your teaching, can anyone change his or her own life?
Absolutely. That’s one of my most prized values that there are no extra people on the planet. And every single one of us has greatness within us. We all can show leadership, excellence and can derive great joy and inner peace by doing the right things.
What is the most debilitating thing you have seen that holds most people back?
I’d say it is doubt and behind it one single emotion: fear. And if you fight for your excuses in life, you get to own them. And no great business and no great life has been built on a foundation of excuses. The point is: most of us are afraid to change. Most of us are afraid to realise we have amazing potential. It actually scares us, because with that great potential comes responsibility.
And does your philosophy apply to anyone, irrespective of their present position in life, whether a waiter or an executive?
Absolutely. I’ve a simple philosophy: lead without title, grow where you are planted, be great within your circle of leadership, whether you are a waiter or a taxi driver or a general manager. We all have a circle of leadership or a certain area that we can influence in, shine within, be excellent within, be enthusiastic within. And the funny thing is, the waiter who is great within his circle of leadership actually gets to expand that leadership and eventually can start living his dreams.
My books are published by Harper Collins, whose worldwide CEO started as a secretary. But she was a brilliant secretary. And that led her to the next position and the next and the next. We forget these things. What we do is say, ‘I’ll be excellent and change when I become a manager in this company.’ But that’s missing the point. The point is, be excellent as a mailroom clerk or be excellent as a secretary… whatever.
What about simple uneducated people, like labourers, can they change their lives? And what are the things they could do to achieve that?
Why not? First of all, we become who we drink coffee with. So if you drink coffee with mediocre people you’ll become mediocre. If you drink coffee with people whose life you want to live, you’ll become part of their conversation. You’ll start thinking like them. Their stardust must rub off on you, even at an invisible level.
And how do you build a great career and great life? One day at a time. There’s a very simple formula: small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results. It’s the daily improvements that most people don’t do but could do that over a time amount to greatness or mediocrity.
How crucial is goal setting in this process?
It’s mission critical. Most people spend more time planning the summer vacation than they do planning their careers and lives. Most people have what I call the ‘lottery mentality’. They think that if they do the same things every day, five years from now somehow they are going to win the jackpot, they are going to find success at work, true love, great health, a great life. How do you get to greatness professionally and personally? You plan it. Clarity precedes mastery.
Can you give a simple example of how to plan?
Take a sheet of paper and write about how you want to be remembered when you’re no longer here. In other words, your philosophy. Then write the 5 things that need to happen between now and your deathbed for you to feel your life is successful. Then bring that back. Write down your 1 year goals, 90 days goals and 30 days goals. Every morning take 40 minutes and review these goals. And pretty soon, you will start achieving your goals. Goals give you hope. Goals also give you inspiration, energy and momentum. I constantly write my goals. I take pictures and glue them into my journals, to make me see my goals vividly. That centers me.
According to you, what is the biggest challenge business people face in Dubai?
I think in Dubai one of the biggest challenges business people face is that they get caught up in the noise. And it’s easy to spend the whole life getting caught up in the noise rather than reflecting on what is most important. There are priorities. And how many people get up every morning and actually intentionally focus on these priorities. Not many.
What is your advice for people in Dubai who have no time or inclination to do these things?
I’d say we all are blessed with 24 hours in a day. The greatest leaders in business and in life actually find time to think. Even if it’s 60 minute while the rest of the world sleeps. They find time to write in their journals, to review their goals professionally and personally, to read. We all can find sixty minutes in a day. But most people get seduced into being busy being busy. And that’s where the discipline of leadership comes in. Pull back from the noise. I suggest get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and spend sixty minutes. Make that your Holy Hour. And the paradox is: that’s not a waste of time. This will make you so much more productive at work, more successful, happier and healthier. It will make you more money.
The essence of your teaching is: we all can change our lives, we can shape our destiny etc. But what about one incontrovertible element: luck. You may do everything correctly, but if you don’t have luck, success will elude you. Do you agree and what have you to say about it?
This question is so profound and exciting to me because I have spent hours and hours on this question. I’ll answer it in one line. I believe that human beings have enormous personal power, abilities and potential to create the lives they want. But that’s not everything and that’s your point.
And I summarise my life and this is just the philosophy I live by: do your best and then let life do the rest. So, just because we may not have total control over the way our lives are going to unfold, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our part: being excellent, setting goals, reading, being loving people etc. But once we have done that, then wherever life leads us that’s when you say, ‘Let go, let life.’
Can you tell us about your new book, The Greatness Guide?
Most people know me for The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. The Greatness Guide is a practical book, with 101 lessons telling people how to be more successful at work and in life. In the book my whole message is: you can create a world-class life and career and business by starting today. And anyone can get to those things by small daily improvements which over time give fantastic results.
How can normal people inject passion into whatever they are doing?
To quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, ‘Any calling can become great when greatly pursued.’ For instance, a chef in a restaurant has a choice. He can say, ‘All I am making is food,’ or he can say, ‘Through my work I get to create delicious meals which create unforgettable memories for people.’ So, it’s all how you approach your work, approach your life.
What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership is not about title. It’s not about where you sit. It’s about what you do. Leadership is a way of being, it is a philosophy. Taxi drivers can show leadership, teachers can show leadership, students can show it. Because leadership is simply an attitude and behaviour. The hallmark of leadership is lead by example. High level of integrity, finish what you start, commit to daily never-ending improvement, commit to being the best in the world in what you do, keep your promises, innovate where you are. But remember, there can be no greatness without integrity.
What has your own success taught you?
Humility. Nothing sells like success. The day I start believing our press releases, the day I fall in love with myself and what people tell at my book signings, I’m in trouble. So, success has taught me that the more successful one becomes the more humble should one become. The more I learn the more I realise I have to learn a lot more.
What you teach has been told, in essence, since millenniums, by scores of inspirational coaches and gurus. Why do you think you are so successful?
The principles of leadership, greatness and fulfilling life have been the same for five thousands years. I’m not going to set about trying to change that. As for my success, it’s probably that people see me as an ordinary person. They can relate to me. They read the books and they hear the speeches and say, ‘Well, if he can do it, I can do it.’ Secondly, I think my message is really relevant. So, people say, ‘He’s not saying I can’t have a Ferrari. He’s not saying I can’t have a nice meal and make lots of money. He’s actually saying if I can do these things, I can have that but there is another piece that needs to be attended to as well. Thirdly, my message is so simple. Fourthly, the books are entertaining, they’re full of anecdotes, stories. So people have fun while reading them. And having fun is a crucial part. It’s really important, as you build greatness in your career and in your life, to make time for fun everyday.
What give you the greatest satisfaction?
The greatest satisfaction is I was not born into this. The greatest satisfaction is I am small town kid who got lost along the way, who discovered the ideas that I now share, apply them in my whole life and get to do what I get to do. I am not different than anyone else.
How do you recharge your batteries?I am a great believer in massage. Secondly, I make time for silence every day. You sit in silence for 20 minutes and go deep, and it is very renewing. I recharge myself by reading great books, on leadership, on travel, on design, travel, art. I am very lucky I spend time with fascinating people. Their stardust rubs off on me. I exercise. What is the point of being the richest person in a graveyard? And I must journaling. I write in my journal every day. There are few things as powerful as recording your life journey, your insights, your learnings, feelings.
Barring financial problems, purely on a human level, can any business, even a small one, turn itself around? Of course. And it can start with a single person, with a single staff. How was the Taj Mahal built? One block at a time. A company that is in trouble through small daily improvements over time can end up in a whole different place. Ultimately, you can change your life with one idea. You can change your life with one meeting with a person who says something that revolutionises the way you see the world. So, if a company gets one idea, maybe it is planning, maybe it is treating people with respect, maybe creating a value for customers rather than thinking of getting their money.
Robin Sharma’s definition of success…
Success means being comfortable in your own skin, living life on your own terms, achieving balance in being successful in your career and successful in your world. There is great pride in achieving, but that is not all of it. Success is also being successful as a human being.
What Robin Sharma really wants people to know…
I’m the most ordinary man. I grew up in a town of 2000 people. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I read voraciously. I’m curious about life. I’m always learning. Sometimes I write 25 pages in my journal in one day. I’m a student of leadership and of life and, with that awareness, I can do what I do. I have many weaknesses that I am trying to improve each day. I have many doubts, many fears…
On creativity
Life wants us to win. We just have to get out of our own way. Everyone has just as much creativity as Salvadore Dali or Picasso. I truly believe that. You may think I have a special creative gift. I don’t. I have just tapped into the well spring of creativity that resides in every single one of us. And one of the ways I learnt to get to that creativity is to be silent and to go into wilderness and to make time for silence.
Want to motivate people? Read this!
Want to motivate people? Read this!
Aubrey C Daniels and James E Daniels
Leaders have the responsibility for creating a work environment that causes people to do their best every day. In theory this should be simple, since the overwhelming majority of employees are willing workers. Only an extremely small number o people take a job expecting to get paid for minimal effort.
Most people, by the act of taking a job, demonstrate that they want to do it well. WE find that many companies squander this goodwill through their leadership practices. Apparently, it is easier to lose discretionary effort than it is to build it.
If people are willing to perform at their best and they don’t, where does the problem lie? Dr Edwards Deming, the noted quality guru, attributed well over 90 per cent of the problems of quality not to front-line employees, but to management. We certainly agree and we extend this to most other performance deficiencies as well. The same leadership practices that throw away the employee’s goodwill also create the climate that suboptimizes organizational effectiveness.
Leaders create the culture, the place, and the conditions for employees and their work. This includes the physical conditions and the management process. The most effective leaders first look at those elements before looking to individuals or groups of employees for assigning blame or attempting a fix. Most failures of organizations are failure o the management process, not employees’ behavior.
Although most organisations have some form of process management, few can specify their behavior management process. Indeed, supervisors and managers are often advised to find a management style that fits their personality and the situation. Because there are so many different personality types and possible situations in an organization, there will be many different solutions to the same problem. No effective, stable leadership process is possible with this number of uncontrolled management variables.
An effective management process causes employees to do the right things at the right time in the right way. To have an effective management process, it is critical that you have an understanding of the variables that affect performance. Getting and keeping followers occupied in meaningful activity is essential to a leader.
The Basics of Follower Behavior
Much of what is common knowledge about leadership is, in fact, fallacious. Ideas extracted from our experience or that of others may not actually identify the critical variables that made that approach work in that specific situation. WE are all taught, for instance, to lead by example and to communicate, communicate, communicate! This kind of advice peddles the banal as wisdom and ignores the essentials.
While the leader’s actions and the visual images he or she paints with words are important, these are not the most powerful influences on behavior. Much more has been modeled and communicated than has been done. Simply put, the impact of your example and of your communications is get followers to do something once, perhaps twice. After that, they must see some personal benefit from their actions or the response to your example and your communications will diminish.
This relationship is clearly stated in the most basic expression of the causes of behavior presented below as the ABC Model.
This model shows that there are only two ways to change behavior: by what happens before a behavior ad what happens after it. An antecedent is simply anything that tells you what to do. It could be a memo, a meeting, company policy, this book, or a thousand things that we see, hear, touch, smell, or taste in a day. In most cases, the antecedent contains enough information for us to know exactly what to do. However, knowing what to do and doing it are two different things.
The telephone may ring, but because we are in a hurry, we ignore it; we may know a company policy and not follow it; we may know a safety rule but violate it every ay; we may know the speed limit and the consequences for speeding but exceed it every day. All of these things point to the fact that most problems that organizations face daily are not the result of not knowing what to do but are often treated by the organization as though they are. Most attempts to resolve performance issues involve emphasizing the importance of the actions, stressing the cost of failure, making our expectations clear, re-telling them, creating new policies and procedures, re-training employees, and simply nagging them to do the right things.
Is it possible to train people to do the safe thing or the quality thing and have them do what you trained them to do every time. Can you communicate priorities and have employees make decisions about their time accordingly? Can you delegate to others and know tat you will not have to worry about the cost, quality, timeliness, or appropriateness of their actions? Of course you can.
However, the determinant of whether these things will be done is not the clarity of communication and effectiveness of training, but what happens to employees when they do what has been communicated. If a person was trained to do something one way and when he applied it found that it didn’t work, would he continue? If a person is given a priority assignment and then someone comes in with an emergency request, will the priority likely be put aside? If a person is delegated responsibility for a project and the boss second-guesses every action that the person takes, will the person soon defer all decisions to the boss? You know the answer to these types of questions.
Leaders who think that people will do their best because that’s what is expected of them are prone to make errors by relying primarily on antecedents. This is especially pernicious because it leads to leadership beliefs and practices that produce suboptimal responses from the followers. You can best understand this when you consider the most important aspect of human behavior.
Behavior is a Function of Its Consequences
The closest thing we have to a behavioral law, as gravity is a physical law, is the behavior is a function of its consequences. Antecedents get their power from the consequences that are associated with them. The bottom line is that the effectiveness of most of what leaders do is determined by how they use behavioral consequences. WE believe if this simple statement was fully understood and put into practice that not a major organization exists that could not improve by 20-30 per cent per year (the government by more than 50 per cent).
This law means that every change must start with an analysis of what will happen to the performers if they do what we need and what will happened to them if they don’t. While most leaders feel that consequences in an organization are in place for those who do or don’t do what is required, the consequences that are typically used are often ineffective in either maintaining desirable action or in stopping undesirable action.
Unfortunately, not all consequences are created equal. Some are more effective than others. Most of the consequences that organizations use, such as compensation, performance appraisal, and reward and recognition practices are weak when it comes to getting behavior to occur every day. Despite the common belief that the bigger the reward, the more it impacts behavior, science tells u that the most effective con-sequences are those that are immediate and certain. The least effective are those that are delayed and uncertain.
Guess which category is the most common in the modern organization? Bonuses, profit sharing, promotions, and raises in pay are all positive, but they are future and uncertain consequences to the performers and as such they have little impact on behavior on a day-to-day basis. The size of the payoff only increase the pool of people who want to participate in the activity and has little to say about how well they will work once selected.
Things that save your followers time and effort are almost always positive, immediate, and certain. Problem solving requires a disciplined approach, for instance, because the reinforcers for most people come from soling the problem, not from analyzing the causes of the problem. Bypassing the analysis phase allows them to get into action sooner so that they experience immediate, positive consequences sooner and more often.
A common leadership issue is the execution of strategy. Every day, opportunities for positive, immediate, and certain consequences arise for less consequential behaviors which compete with the leader’s strategy. If the leader’s process for implementing his strategy doesn’t have built-in positive, immediate, and certain consequences, then such consequences must be created to keep the implementation plan on schedule.
The leader must ensure that the followers are receiving PICs on a daily basis. If they are not built into the business processes (which they rarely are), the leader must find a way to overlay them onto the process. One of the ways leaders do this is by taking work out of the process. This is a common task where the leader runs interference for the follower and removes obstacles wherever possible rather than requiring the follower to surmount each obstacle unaided. In this way the leader reduces the umber of negative, immediate, and certain consequences experienced by the followers.
While important, removing an obstacle to performance does not guarantee that the desired performance will take place. A client of Aubrey Daniels International, a Midwest bank, discovered this truism after they spent millions of dollars removing certain types of paperwork from their branches. Their consultants had convinced them that the administrative burden was suppressing sales. To increase sales, paperwork was reduced by 90 per cent, yet sales didn’t increase. They failed by not building in PICs for the new behaviors, a very common mistake. They built in bonuses, thinking that doing so would drive the correct behavior. Bonuses are positive, future, and uncertain consequences from the performers’ perspective and are weak performance drivers.
You will avoid these kinds of failures if you examine in detail the behaviors you are asking for prior to implementing your plan. What happens to the individual when she does what you expect? We find the best answers to that question when we perform what we call a PIC/NIC analysisr, which is often very revealing when planning any organizational change.
Excerpted from:
Measure of a Leader by Aubrey C Daniels and James E Daniels
Copyright 2007 by Aubrey Daniels International Inc. Price: Rs 450. Reprinted by permission of Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. All rights reserved.
Aubrey C Daniels is the author of bestselling management classic Bringing Out the Best in People. His management consulting firm, Aubrey Daniels International, works with business leaders around the world.
James E Daniels, vice president and senior consultant with Aubrey Daniels International, has developed productivity and quality improvement systems for corporations around the globe.
Photo speaks – Passing shots
Money transferred home, Eid greetings calls made and let us relax for some time. Scene near the lawn in front of UAE Exchange Centre, Hamdan Street, Abu Dhabi. 
Traffic on the Hamdan Street, relatively less compared to Dubai Traffic.
Evening traffic at Abu Dhabi near Madinat Zayed Shopping Complex Abu Dhabi, near Electra Street.
Evening traffic at
MBAs’ guide to lasting fulfilment
MBAs’ guide to lasting fulfilment
By Della Bradshaw
It is a rare business school programme that invokes in its participants a similar fervour to that experienced in a revivalist religious meeting. But this would appear to be the case with Srikumar Rao’s elective course, Creative and Personal Mastery.
Now in its third year at London Business School, the course has also run at Columbia , New York, and may soon become part of the MBA programme at the Haas school at Berkeley.
Prof Rao, a businessman more than an academic and armed with practical experience rather than research, is one of a new breed of business school teachers. They eschew number-crunching and regression models in favour of personal issues.
“It is designed to get [students] to think about things rarely acknowledged in business schools. What makes me happy? What makes me happy at work?” Most people, he says, “don’t have a clue” about such things.
Many, however, would accept Prof Rao’s hypothesis. “When putting in long hours, if you don’t get a deep sense of fulfilment at work, you’re wasting your life.” His solution? “Your ideal job isn’t something that exists; it’s something you can craft.”
Just how to do that is at the core of his programme, which receives gushing praise from many students. “The technical skills that I learn at school will only get me so far and will one day be obsolete,” says Nick Wai, a recent LBS graduate. “What I learn in CPM, however, will help me build a foundation not only as a business person, leader even, but more importantly as a human being.”
Natasja Giezen, another London MBA, says the course teaches the “why” when most business school courses teach the “how”. She believes MBA students are the ideal target audience. “At business school we all think a lot about what we want from our future and this seems to fit in seamlessly.”
Prof Rao says there are four main planks to the course: learning techniques to spark creativity; helping students find their purpose in life; learning how to be most effective; and how to find balance in life.
Many university strictures have been rewritten. Students hand in written work when they think it is ready rather than to a deadline, and they have to make a public commitment to do something for their peers. A weekend retreat is included in the programme.
Prof Rao’s advice on landing a job flies in the face of many careers service dicta. You are most unlikely to find your ideal job straight out of business school, he says, so accept the “least worst” job you are offered.
As for interview techniques, he recommends that the aim should be to find out whether the company is one you want to work for, rather than trying to impress the interviewer.
Once you have your first job, you can start turning it into the job you want, he says. One piece of advice he gives is to focus on the good things about the job and then set the target of increasing the proportion of the job that is the good stuff. An element of learning should be involved in the process.
Prof Rao’s own work record includes experience in both the academic and the business worlds. His own MBA is from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and he has consulted for several blue chip corporations and taught on the corporate programmes of companies such as Bell Atlantic.
He also has a PhD in marketing from Columbia Business School and is no shrinking violet when it comes to promoting the programme he teaches. Students queue to learn about the course, he says, and it is the only business school programme with its own alumni association.
What differentiates the course from a self-help manual, however, are the mental models and long-term exercises the professor sets. MBA students are often labelled the most “me”-centric group on the planet. The obvious enthusiasm of past and present participants, who are undoubtedly some of the smartest cookies around, sets this programme apart.
http://www.areyoureadytosucceed.com
The Financial Times Limited 2007
TOP OF THE RANGE MBA Programmes Worldwide
Top masters in management programmes 2007
1. HEC Paris
2. Cems
3. London School of Economics and Political Science
4. ESCP-EAP European School of Management
5. Essec Business School
6. EM Lyon
7. Grenoble Graduate School of Business
8. Audencia
9. Stockholm School of Economics
10. RSM Erasmus Univeristy
Top executive education custom programmes 2007
1. Duke Corporate Education
2. IMD
3, Harvard Business School
4. Iese Business School
5. Babson Executive Education
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. Columbia Business School
8. Thunderbird School of Global Management
9. MIT: Sloan
10.Ashridge
Top executive education open programmes 2007
1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford University GSB
3. University of Virginia: Darden
4. University of Chicago GSB
5. IMD
6. Center for Creative Leadership
7. Instituto de Empresa
9. Iese Business School
9. Northwestern University: Kellogg
10.Babson Executive Education
Top MBA programmes 2007
1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
2. Columbia Business School
3. Harvard Business School;
4. Stanford University GSB
5. London Business School
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. Insead
8. New York University: Stern
9. Dartmouth College: Tuck
10. Yale School of Management
Top European Business Schools 2006
1. HEC Paris
2. London Business School
3. IMD
4. Instituto de Empresa
5. Iese Business School
6. ESCP-EAP
7. RSM Erasmus University
8. University of Bradford/TiasNimbas
9.Cranfield School of Management
10. Insead
Top EMBA programmes 2006
1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
2. Columbia/London Business School
3. Kellogg/Hong Kong UST Business School
4. Trium: HEC Paris/LSE/New York University: Stern
5. Instituto de Empresa
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. London Business School
8. Washington University: Olin
9. Duke University: Fuqua
10. Northwestern University: Kellogg
Mittal-ONGC oil & gas JV runs out of steam
Mittal-ONGC oil & gas JV runs out of steam
Agencies Posted online: Friday , October 12, 2007 at 1434 hrs IST
New Delhi, October 12: Steel czar Lakshmi N Mittal’s joint venture with state-run ONGC for oil and gas trading has all but folded-up, with the India born billionaire absorbing the remaining two employees including the CEO into his group.
S K Sharma, the CEO of ONGC-Mittal Energy Services Ltd, along with the only other employee at OMESL, is joining the Mittal Investment Sarl, the Luxembourg-registered holding company of Mittal family, industry sources said.
OMESL, one of the two joint venture company Mittal had formed with ONGC in July 2005, is also shutting its Delhi office. “The company will only exist in paper,” a source said.
Mittal had never been happy with the progress at OMESL.
Apparently, ONGC, after the exit of flamboyant Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha, was not keen on trading and shipping of oil and gas (including LNG).
The state-run firm had not even contributed its share of capital and the company survived all this while only on Mittal’s contribution.
In June last year, a government director on the board of ONGC blocked the exploration firm’s equity participation in OMESL as the ministry did not want the state-run firm to make huge financial outlays for non-core trading business.
Frustrated at the delays, Mittal first wrote to the Petroleum Ministry about the delays in shaping up of OMESL and later signed a preliminary pact with Total of France for cooperation in oil and gas business including trading.
Mittal Investment on its own has already taken 49 per cent stake in HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery and Russian oil firm Lukoil’s 50 per cent stake in Caspian Investments Resources for 980 million dollars.
…World’s biggest mass healthcare provider by 2010
…World’s biggest mass healthcare provider by 2010
By Dr Devi Shetty
India is a unique country, no doubt. It produces the largest number of doctors in the world (30,000 medical seats), as well as the largest number of nurses (Bangalore alone has over 900 nursing schools and colleges) and medical technicians. Outside the US, India has the largest number of US FDA-approved pharma companies. With their current capacity, Indian companies can make medicines for the whole world, if they are allowed to. Of course, they are not allowed, but that is a different matter.
When it comes to providing healthcare services, India is not the world leader. Today, the largest number of procedures on the human body is done in the US. Of the 6.5 lakh heart surgeries done annually in the world, 4.5 lakh are done in the US. The rest of the world accounts for just 2 lakh heart operations.
India requires 2.5 million heart surgeries each year but only about 80,000 are done in the country annually. The numbers for other procedures are not greatly different.
So how is India going to bridge this gap in less than five years?
The biggest hurdle in the path of universal quality healthcare delivery in India is the inability of most people to pay for it. Of course, if the US did not have its health insurance programme, most Americans would not be able to afford even a toenail removal, forget about heart surgery. But because most developed countries have organised themselves well and have a functioning healthcare system financed by health insurance, most people can afford to pay.
Four years ago, Karnataka State Cooperative Society in association with Narayana Hrudayalaya started a Micro Health Insurance Programme called Yeshaswin. The insurance programme has proved that by just paying Rs 5 a month, millions of poor farmers can afford to undergo any surgery, including heart surgery, totally free. Today, four years after the scheme was launched, nearly 2.4 million farmers have already benefited and various versions of the Yeshaswini scheme have been launched in other states. One such scheme is Arogya Shree, launched by the Andhra Pradesh government, which sponsors all types of surgeries to BPL (below poverty line) cardholders in three districts of Andhra Pradesh.
West Bengal, too, has a novel health insurance scheme for approximately 4 lakh teachers working in village schools. Each teacher gets Rs 100 each month for health expenses, which is not enough to buy them even a course of antibiotics. Now, the West Bengal Education Department and the National Insurance Company have come together to offer a health insurance cover of up to Rs 1.6 lakh a month for a teacher’s entire family. All the teacher pays is Rs 100 a month. In just one move and without any additional expense, nearly 20 lakh working-class people have been covered for major medical treatment and surgeries.
A few days ago, my wife was walking by a mall where she saw a beggar begging with his face covered. Curious about why he had covered his face, she took a closer look and found him chatting on a mobile phone wile begging with the other hand.
India defies logic and beggars owning mobile phones is not uncommon. The country has effortlessly moved from having no phones to the most modern mobile phones, from no radio to colour televisions with over a hundred channels to choose from. Using technological and economic tools, the essentials of life such as quality healthcare should now be dissociated from affluence. Even a person who lives in slum should have access to high-tech healthcare, which should be within their grasp using a smart card.
Poor people are very weak by themselves, but emerge very strong together. Governments are the only organisations in the world that can do wonders by putting things in order without having to spend money. Micro Health Insurance is an excellent example of this. I strongly believe that the government will gradually become a health insurance provider rather than a healthcare provider. When this happens — and it will require a policy change — this country will become a wonderful place to live in.
( Dr Devi Shetty is Chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, and one of India’s most celebrated cardiac surgeons)
…Technology can transform our country
…Technology can transform our country 
By Mukesh Ambani
India, a nation of a billion people, is well on the way to becoming one of the three largest economies of the world. But there is another reality. India’s average gross national income per capita at $750 is nearly 20 per cent lower than that across all 53 African nations.
There is, therefore an urgent need to bridge the chasm between India’s potential and its realisation. This is important not only for India; it is equally critical for the world. An Indian transformation will be the forerunner of a fundamental global change in terms of reducing regional disparity and, also, in transforming the quality of life of the people all over because one out of every six human beings on this planet lives in this country.
To realise this vision, India must do several things on a priority basis. However, on top of my agenda is the need to integrate technology with every aspect of our economy and make it a major tool of addressing our social problems.
Global economic superpowers are technology leaders. About 28 per cent of the GDP of USA is contributed by technology sectors. Extensive use of technology can bring about transformation in several spheres in India also. For example, technology can help improve agricultural productivity significantly. I am convinced that agriculture has the potential to re-emerge as a strong engine of economic growth and social development. Farmers in India are subject to the highest risks in the economy.
They face climatic uncertainties, have no dependable assurances about off-take of their output, get poor prices for produce, are subject to market manipulation, have to do with poor availability and poor quality of inputs and, above all, pay among the highest costs for private financing.
Unfortunately, they have to follow a model based on low value crops, low investments, low yields and low revenues. They use resources sub-optimally, whether it is land, water, crop nutrition and crop protection. This is an irony. Because India has the highest proportion of arable land, as compared to most countries, notably USA and China. Indeed more than 30 per cent of Asia’s irrigated land is in India.
India has the potential to enhance agricultural production by over ten times. Israel produces US $5.8 million in agriculture output per square kilometre of arable land. India produces just US $88,000.
The Economic Survey 2006-07 has enlisted some of the structural weaknesses of the agriculture sector which include exhaustion of the yield potential of new high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, unbalanced fertilizer use, low seeds replacement rate and low yield per unit area across almost all crops. Agricultural growth has also suffered since rain-fed areas still constitute about 65 per cent of the total net sown area.
The same story is true for water. India uses only one-fourth of the 4,000 billion cubic metres of fresh water that is available each year. This is caused by topographical constraints, uneven distribution of water resources over space and time and low dam capacity. Water productivity in agriculture is only about one-fourteenth of the best in class.
We missed the industrial revolution and were left behind. Fortunately, we were able to catch up because independence from colonial rule was followed by establishment of institutions of higher learning which produced a large reservoir of skilled manpower.
Economic reform unshackled the entrepreneurial energies of our young generation and globalisation opened new vistas. We have to build further on this foundation and seize opportunities knocking at our doors.
We did a great job with the green revolution with high yielding hybrid crops. But since then, our technological progress in agriculture has been slow. We must ensure that India does not miss the biotechnology revolution in agriculture. Today, India needs to develop technology for crops that are drought resistant and saline tolerant.
Technology can also transform Indian society. It can help atomise power to the individual level. True power lies in the ability of every individual to influence and shape his or her destiny. The world, in my view, will move from power among groups to power within an individual. Technology will bring about this transformation. Technology can enable every individual to choose, communicate, collaborate and create.
Following dramatic technological revolution, every individual can have the power to tailor-make a product or select a service according to his or her choices and preferences — whether it is an automobile, a hotel room ambience or a cloned pet. Every individual can have the power to communicate with every other individual in the world wherever, whenever and by any mode.
Every individual can have the ability to collaborate and engage on individual or group activities with anyone else in the world. Every individual can have the ability to create or produce most products or services.
Man’s expedition to new frontiers is eternal. The quest to gain new insights is infectious. Such infective inquisitiveness can be increased by extensive education, awareness and earnings, specially by lifting those at the bottom of the pyramid. There are many frontiers barely explored — the ability to alter the form, duration and quality of life, the untapped power of the mind, the mysteries of the universe and the secrets of ocean depths. Technology can help India and Indians seek new frontiers.
India has the necessary ingredients to become a technology-enabled country. It has a critical mass of educated and skilled young men and women, some of the world’s best institutions for study of science and technology, and the productive energies of a vibrant private sector. We need to scale up these endowments and give our people and our institutions the freedom to rise to global heights.
India must focus on a defining set of transformational technologies. To my mind, special focus is needed in areas of modern medicine, alternate energy, networked communications, public transportation, performance materials, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and automation and aerospace.
Many technologies in the developed world have emerged from the private sector. These have been facilitated by sizeable public funding for research, surpluses from traditional businesses of large corporations, protection for intellectual capital, vibrant venture capital participation, competitive market place and, above all, a demanding environment for academic researchers.
Locations of centres of innovation in the private sector, higher public spend on research and pursuit of research by leading companies will bring about greater innovation in India.
India must be an innovation powerhouse if it wishes to be a global economic power. India must place technology in the highest quadrant of her development agenda.
(Mukesh Ambani is Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited)
Do you keep delaying things? Eat that frog!
Do you keep delaying things? Eat that frog!
Brian Tracy
There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to achieve it.
Napoleon Hill
Before you can determine your “frog” and get on with the job of eating it, you have to decide exactly what you want to achieve in each area of your life. Clarity is perhaps the most important concept in personal productivity. The number one reason why some people get more work done faster is because they are absolutely clear about their goals and objectives, and they don’t deviate from the.
The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and complete the task before you.
A major reason for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness, confusion, and fuzzy-mindedness about what you are trying to do and in what order and for what reason. You must avoid this common condition with all your strength by striving for ever greater clarity in your major goals and tasks.
Here is a great rule for success: Think on paper
Only about 3 per cent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want.
There is a powerful formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life. It consists of seven simple steps. Any one of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you are not currently using it. Many of my graduates have increased their incomes dramatically in a matter of a few years, o even a few months, with this simple, seven-part method.
Step one: Decide exactly what you want. Either decide for yourself or sit down with your boss and discuss your goals and objective until you are crystal clear about what is expected of you and in what order of priority. It is amazing how many people are working away, day after day, on low-value tasks because they have not had this critical discussion with their managers.
One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
Stephen Covey says, “Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building.”
Step two: Write it down. Think on paper. When you write down a goal, you crystallize it and give it tangible form. You create something that you can touch and see. On the other hand, a goal or objective that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy. It has no energy behind it. Unwritten goals lead to confusion, vagueness, misdirection, and numerous mistakes.
Step three: Set a deadline on your goal; set subdeadlines if necessary. A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning or end. Without a define deadline accompanied by the assignment or acceptance of specific responsibilities for completion, you will naturally procrastinate and get very little done.
Step four: Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new activities, add them to your list. Keep building your list until it is complete. A list gives you a visual picture of the larger task or objective. It gives you a track to run on. It dramatically increases the likelihood that you will achieve your goal as you have defined it and on schedule.
Step five: Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence. Take a few minutes to decide what you need to do first and what you can do later. Decide what has to be done before something else and what need to be done afterward. Even better, lay out your plan visually in the form of a series of boxes and circles on a sheet of paper, with lies and arrows showing the relationship of each task to each other task.
You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to achieve your goal when you break it down into individual tasks.
With a written goal and an organized plan of action, you will be far more productive and efficient than people who are carrying their goals around in their minds.
Step six: Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Do anything. An average plan vigorously executive is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done. For you to achieve any kind of success, execution is everything.
Step seven: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. Build this activity into your daily schedule. You may decide to read a specific number of pages on a key subject. You may call on a specific period of physical exercise. You may learn a certain number of new words in a foreign language. Whatever it is, you must never miss a day.
Keep pushing forward. One you start moving, keep moving. Don’t stop. This decision, this discipline alone, can dramatically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.
The Power of Written Goals
Clear written goals have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy, and help you to overcome procrastination as much as any other factor.
Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. The bigger your goals and the clearer they are, the more excided you become about achieving them. The more you think about your goals, the greater become your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.
Think about your goals and review them daily. Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment.
EAT THE FROG
Take a clean sheet of appear right now and make a list of 10 goals you want to accomplish in the next year. Write your goals as though a year has already passed and they are now a reality.
Use the present tense, positive voice, and first period on so that they are immediately accepted by your subconscious mind. For example, you could write. “I earn x number of dollars per year” or “I weight x number of pounds” or “I drive such and such a car.”
Review your list of 10 goals and select the one goal that, if you achieved it, would have the greatest positive impact on your lie. Whatever that goal is, write it on a separate sheet of paper, set a deadline, make a plan, take action on your plan, and then do something every single day that moves you toward that goal. This exercise alone could change your life!
Excerpted from:
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy.
Copyright 2007 by Brian Tracy. Price: Rs 150. Reprinted by permission of Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. All rights reserved.
Brian Tracy is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. Eat That Frog! is an international bestseller and sold more than 500,000 copies.
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