Random Walk

What do I want? From this MBA? From life? From myself? What are my values? My priorities? Why is it that I am in a foreign land, away from everyone and everything that I cherish? What is the benefit of a broader view of the world, a broad weltanschauung? What can I do with this? How will it help me in what I have to do?

Janani Janmabhoomischa, Swargadapi Gariyasi. Whatever happened to that? Why is it that people no longer cherish the task of serving the nation? Why is it that serving one’s nation is viewed in terms of taking over other nations, foreign resources? Why is serving the country always equated with non-confrontation and blindly following the directives of established leaders and policy makers? Why is it always win-lose? Why is environment being used as a tool to thwart the development opportunities of developing countries?

Why is it only me who is asking all of this? And why is it me again who has to look for answers? And why do I look for them within myself? Why is it that I do not feel overwhelmed by all these questions? Why is it that... ???

From the bottom of my heart, I care about the environment, about wildlife, about people, about our earth. About providing clean potable water and medical facilities to masses, securing their inclusive economic development – rather providing access to avenues for economic development. What people do with their lives is not my concern, my concern is that people should have the option of making a choice about their lives.

I want to see an end to the misery of the second largest (soon to be largest) population in the world. Ideally would like to see the end of all misery, but I am being a bit conservative in my ambitions here… Even attempting a shot at India’s problems is something that will merrily occupy the rest of my life… who knows what problems the world has? I want to provide people the choice of doing what they want with their lives. I want to free people of shackles – of poverty, of lack of education, of lack of resources, of a narrow mindset. Just think, only urban India has caused this tremendous impact and change in India’s economy, imagine when all of India gets into the action.

I sometimes think the theory underpinning corporate-ism is flawed. Creating share holder value, or in rare instances, stake holder value, somehow always ends up taking away from someone else. Rationalising suppliers takes away jobs, ruins businesses, families even. Off shoring destroys pockets of local economy and creates artificial and stressful environments in other localities. And reversing off shoring decisions because of local public outcry destroys pockets of local economy in the offshore countries. The theory looks too much at one snapshot in time, rather than continued benefits – I am arguing for sustainability if you like the word, but probably in a different way...

I think value is created by people, and people should be the measure of business success. But then, that is a different view, not just a different point of view…