Friday, January 30, 2009

Moral Police - Pub Bashing - Hey Ram!!!

To drink or not to drink - that is not the question. To mob or not is seriously the point, because political parties in India have lost all pertinent objectives. Ashok Gehlot (CM Rajasthan) says - destroy all pubs and malls, Yediyurappa (CM Karnataka) says - pub culture must be eliminated, eagerly echoed by Modi (CM Gujarat) and many other statesmen as well. Essentially, there is nothing productive worth spending political energy over. Let's not talk sanitation, education, health, infrastructure, corruption, lawlessness, education and topics that constitute progress. 

Let us not have protests over corrupt departments like customs, public works, road transport, electricity, water, registrar of companies and several others - you name it, and disinfect them. Let us make up some illogical word like "pub culture" and beat up vulnerable people. What on earth does pub-culture mean anyway and is it as bad as hooch culture, mob culture or lawlessness&corruption culture that is growing in India? 

Who needs moral police when the real police force is corrupt, underpaid, overworked and underequiped? 

Besides, the National Commission for Women - NCW, takes the cake. If you read the latest NCW report on the Mangalore incident - you will notice a very prominent phrase - "whatever it is...". Check http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090081971&ch=1/30/2009%2010:09:00%20PM for the gist. Niramala Venkatesh (investigation committee head) says "the girls were participating or whatever it is" and "pub had to serve food or whatever it is", etc. After all this, whatever it is, it is the fault of the girls themselves! Awesome work NCW, you hit the nail or whatever it is on the head.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Satyam - Where is the Dharma?

Tis the truth that scandals don its day, controversies its night and Buddhism the twilight. Satyam may have become the bad poster boy of the Indian IT industry and ire seems to be piled upon it by the minute, but the dust and smoke seem to be hiding some bravehearts that continue to fight the dark clouds. Satyam's HR team is on an overdrive communicating to its employees literaly on an hourly basis. Senior executives are doing their best to boost morale communicating parallels in the industry. Industry personnel need to recognize that if Satyam collapses, it's going to hurt everybody that constitute it - competitors included. Many companies are trying to adopt a a "hyena" approach towards picking the spoils, which in my view is just as bad corporate ethics as fudging accounting statements.

The righteous approach should clearly be frontline competitors declaring openly that they will not poach Satyam clients and perhaps contribute to a bailout fund. Perhaps the latter is too utopian for the moment, but the least they can do is stay away from adding to Satyam's pain and support the bravehearts who continue to battle the evil that has befallen them.

Motorola fires twice

Fire - Hire and Fire again. No end to the knee jerks from Motorola. Key executives are being tossed around at the moment as Motorola tries to shake itself off the juggernaut that it is in. One interesting story is that of FZ - senior director, who got laid of a month ago, got rehired in a different division and then got laid off again. 

Razr has been the only success so far for the former giant, but nothing beyond that. 2 more quarters left before the final demise, I guess. The time is ticking - Hello Moto...