Managing Career & Expectations : Talk at IIM - Good Read!

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Hi friends,

 

An inspiring article as follows :

 

 

 

----- Forwarded by vinodhini.j/Polaris on 01/13/04 04:26 PM -----

 

suranjini.jayasu

riya

vinodhini.j/Polaris,

joseph.kishore/Polaris,

01/13/04 12:59 KarthikeyanK

PM cc:

Managing Career &

Expectations : Talk at IIM -

Good Read!

 

 

 

 

> > This is a good read. View of Mr. R.

> Gopalakrishnan, Director - Tata Sons. An IIT pass

> out who joined HLL at the start of his career and is

> currently a Director of Tata Sons.

> >

> > A Story on how to manage your career & your

> expectations by R.Gopalakrishnan

> >

> > There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb,

> which Nature gives to manafter he is bald. As I grow

> bald, I would like to share

> > my comb with your people, about their career

> ahead.

> >

> > 1. Seek out grassroots level experience

> >

> > I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A

> few months before graduation, I appeared for an HLL

> interview for Computer Traineeship. When asked

> whether I would consider Marketing instead of

> Computers, I responded negatively: an engineer to

> visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy?Gosh,

> no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of

> comfortable weeksin the swanky Head Office, I was

> given a train ticket to go to Nasik where Imet Mr.

> Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two

> months? He wouldteach me to work as a salesman in

> his territory, which included staying inKopargaon

> and Pimpalgaon among other

> > small towns. I was most upset. In a town called

> Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop with a

> bullock cart full of products and a salesman's

> folder in my hand. Imagine my embarrassment when an

> IIT friend appeared in front of me in Ozhar, believe

> it or not! And exclaimed, " Gopal, I thought you

> joined as a ManagementTrainee in Computers " . I could

> have died a thousand deaths. After this leveling

> experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a

> Despatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice

> Clerk in the Accounts Department.

> >

> > Several years later, I realised the value of such

> grassroots level experience. It is fantastic. I

> would advise young people to seek out

> > nail-dirtying, collar-soiling, shoe-wearing tasks.

> That is how you learn about organizations, about the

> true nature of work, and the dignity of the many,

> many tasks that go into building great enterprises.

> >

> > 2. Deserve before you desire

> > At one stage, I was appointed as the Br> and

> Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears soap, the company's

> most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what

> was a Brand Manager? " A mini-businessman,

> responsible for the production, sales and profits of

> the brand, accountable for its long-term

> growth,etc.,etc. I had read those statements, I

> believed them and here I was, at 27, " in charge of

> everything " . But very soon, I found I could not move

> a pin without checking with my seniors. One evening,

> after turning the Facit machine handle through

> various calculations, I sat in front of the

> Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and

> gently asked whether I could not be given total

> charge. He smiled benignly and said, " Th> e

> perception and reality are both right. You will get

> total charge when you know more about the brand than

> anyone else in this company about its formulation,

> the raw materials, the production costs, the

> consumer's perception, the distribution and so on.

> How long do you think that it will take? " " Maybe,

> ten years " , I replied, " and I don't expect to be the

> Lifebuoy and Pears Brand Manager for so long " ! And

> then suddenly, the lesson was clear. I desired total

> control, long before I deserved it.

> >

> > This happens to us all the time - in terms of

> responsibilities, in terms of postings and

> promotions, it happens all the time that there is a

> gap between our perception of what we deserve and

> the reality of what we get. It helps to deserve

> before we desire.

> >

> > 3. Play to win but win with fairness

> > Life is competitive and of course, you play to

> win. But think about the balance. Will you do

> anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about

> how and where you draw the line. Each person draws

> it differently, and in doing so, it helps to think

> about values. Winning without values provides

> dubious fulfillment. The leaders who have

> contributed the most are the ones with a set of

> universal values; Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther

> King for example. Napoleon inspired a ragged,

> mutinous and half-starved army to fight and seize

> power. This brought him name and fame for twenty

> years. But all the while, he was driven forward by a

> selfish and evil ambition, and not in pursuit of a

> great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish

> ambition. I am fond of referring to the Pierre de

> Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was instituted in

> 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and

> here are two examples of

> > winners.

> > A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the

> umpire to give his opponent some more time to

> recover from a cramp. A British kayak team who were

> trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to

> help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes

> went on to beat the British by one second in a

> three-hour event! What wonderful examples of

> sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.

> >

> > 4. Enjoy whatever you do

> > Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement,

> " There is no greater fun than hard work " . You

> usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask

> any person what it is that interferes with his

> enjoyment of existence. He will say, " The struggle

> for life " . What he probably means is the struggle

> for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do

> with success after getting it, the very achievement

> of it must lead him to unhappiness. Aristotle wrote,

> " Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a

> means to something else " . But if you think about it,

> we should not work for happiness. We should work as

> happy people. In organisational life, people get

> busy doing something to be happy. The more you try

> to be happy, the more unhappy you can get. Your work

> and career is all about your reaching your full

> potential. Working at one's full potential, whether

> it is the office boy or the Chairman, leads to

> enjoyment and fulfillment. A final point about

> enjoyment. Keep a sense of humour about yourself.

> Too many people are in danger of taking themselves

> far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell is

> reported to have said, " Keep smiling. The higher the

> monkey climbs, the more you can see of his

> backside " .

> >

> > 5. Be Passionate about your health

> > Of course, as you get older, you would have a

> slight paunch, greying of hair or loss of it and so

> on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the

> working career begins that the greatest neglect of

> youthful health occurs. Sportsmen stop playing

> sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers

> smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving

> inmates of hostels eat rich food in good hotels and

> so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I

> repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too

> busy, or that you do not have access to facilities,

> or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the

> stresses of a professional career. A professional

> career is indeed very stressful. T> here is only one

> person who can help you to cope with the tension,

> avoid the doctor's scalpel, and to feel good each

> morning - and that is yourself. God has given us as

> good a health as He has, a bit like a credit balance

> in the bank. Grow it, maintain it, but do not allow

> its value destruction. The penalty is very high in

> later years.

> >

> > 6. Direction is more important than distance

> > Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very

> long distance. In the process, all sorts of mistakes

> occur because the game involves the

> > masterly co-ordination of several movements

> simultaneously. The golf coach always advises that

> direction is more important than distance. So it is

> with life. Despite one's best attempts, there will

> be ups and downs. It is relationships and

> friendships that enable a person to navigate the

> choppy waters that the ship of life will encounter.

> When I was young, there was a memorable film by

> Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed,

> and named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man

> who is about to commit suicide because he thinks he

> is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him.The

> bottomline of the film is that " No Man

> > is a Failure Who Has Friends " .

> >

> > Conclusion

> > My generation will never be twenty again, but when

> you are older, you can and should be different from

> my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful

> country, and realising her true potential in the

> global arena depends ever so much on the quality and

> persistence of our young people. Good luck in your

> journey, my young friends, and God be with you and

> our beloved Nation.

 

 

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