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Business Mandate | March 2016 of 1

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CONTENTS: Appropriate Dispute Resolution

Honourable Justice

Sanjay Kishan Kaul Page 5 Leading Change in our Ecosystems

Geet Sethi Page 8

The Magick of Mindfulness

Yogacharini Maitreyi Page 13

A New Generation of Change Leaders

Mridula Ramesh Page 17 My Story

Innu Nevatia Page 21 Slipping Stones on the summit march...

R N Kumar Page 26

Avalanches to the Summit

Anisha Sequeira Page 27 Success Stories - How it was done!

Dr R Ramarathnam Page 29 First Steps to the Summit

Shirin Maria Varghese Page 35 Route to the Summit

Nina John Page 36

EDITOR Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM LAYOUT EXECUTIVE D Rajaram SECRETARIAL ASSISTANCE K Pandiarajan

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From the Editor

Dear Members,

The month of February dawned with enjoyable weather and was

eventful with flurry of MMA activities. Its also that time of the year

again, when burning midnight oil seems mandatory. Examinations

are rarely perceived as an opportunity to show someone how

brilliant you are: most of the time the mere thought of appearing

for exam triggers the body’s flight or fight mechanism. The Prime

Minister’s “Mann Ki Baat”, this time was dedicated to students,

many of whom have started writing their annual examinations. The

talk by the PM was inspiring. The voices of the cricketer Sachin

Tendulkar and the Chess wizard Viswanathan Anand will definitely

motivate students to perform well and checkmate the examination. More importantly students

should understand that examinations are temporary; only education is permanent.

The MMA Annual Convention 2016 on the theme “India 2016 – Leading Change” organised by MMA

on 13th February 2016 was a grand success attended by more than 670 delegates. As usual, the

video recording of the Convention is available for your viewing at liveibc.com/mma – stay

connected with MMA from anywhere!

The Union Budget 2016 was one of the most anticipated budgets with lots of expectations. The

budget has clearly focused on rural and agricultural growth. The “Nine Pillars” listed by the Prime

Minister emphasizes that the Centre wants to not only improve the health of PSBs but attract

investments and bring infrastructure growth on track as both agricultural and infrastructure form

the backbone of our economy. As usual, MMA organised a seminar on “Inspiring Confidence –

Budget 2016” on 1st March 2016 with the support of Deloitte & KPMG for the benefit of our

members. The video recording of the seminar is available for your viewing to know more about the

Budget 2016.

Can computer programmes be granted patent? I was happy to note that India’s patent office wisely

answered this question in the negative. I personally believe that there is more important reason for

holding back software from a patent regime and this goes back to what MIT researchers James

Bessen and Eric Maskin showed many years ago; imitation promotes innovations. Patents are a

hindrance here.

Come March it is time again to don your best attire and interact with the women thought leaders,

entrepreneurs and corporate executives. The Annual MMA Women Managers Convention is a

celebration of the spirit of women; and the many diverse roles women play. It was in March 1911,

that International Women’s Day was first celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and

Switzerland. Here we are 105 years later, continue celebrating yet another day dedicated to gender

equality. We at MMA, believe, the Women’s Day Celebrations is not another shallow exercise in

tokenism but is a celebration of spirit of women; and the many diverse roles women play. We

believe that feminism is more a feeling of empowerment, of equality, a state of being and a belief

that comes from within and refuses to cut corner or make compromises. “Route to the Summit” is

the theme for this year’s Women Managers’ Convention which will show case women who live to

push boundaries. When the woman goes through hardship and decides not to surrender – that is

strength.

Each year the theme for the convention has revolved around the evolving role and needs of today’s

women. The event creates a platform for women across different walks of life, to come together,

share their thoughts, opinions, insights and experiences. What binds these women is the urge to

excel in their respective fields, be it as business leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers, artists or

policymakers. The focus of the convention is to inspire and guide women grow in every area of

their life.

It is indeed once again my privilege to convey our best wishes to all our women members and

delegates of the Women Managers Convention 2016 being organized by MMA on the occasion of

International Women’s Day. Thanks to the Convention Committee headed by Ms Nisha

Purushothaman and Cerebrus Consultants, our Knowledge Partner, that the theme “Route to the


Summit” and speakers for the Convention have been finalized with great care, keeping in view the

aspirations and expectations of our women delegates. The aim is to bring together viewpoints and

ideas that are reflective of the changing dynamic. The theme is intended to lend a platform to the

many different, yet many same stories that women have highlighting the importance of women in

leadership roles and how women’s leadership can be fostered, promoted and secured for the next

generation.

I can confidentially say that “They are the hope of tomorrow”.

And last, but not the least, we dedicate this Women Managers Convention Special Issue to you, the

BM reader. Everything we do, we do it for you.

Gp Capt R Vijayakumar, VSM (Retd)

Appropriate Dispute Resolution

Honourable Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul

Chief Justice, High Court of Madras

Extract of the Inaugural Address delivered by Honourable Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul during the

Conference on “Appropriate Dispute Resolution” organised by Foundation for Comprehensive

Dispute Resolution (FCDR) in association with MMA on 27 February 2016 at Chennai

I think one of the very good things was (I believe that is

necessary), the direct involvement of the judges. It is not

hands off involvement of the judges. The advantage of being

part of the training process was that we sat like anybody else,

learning. We participated in the modules, and personally I

think I must have done two to three Basic and two to three

Advanced training courses just going through the process. Why

I am saying this is, that for mediation to catch on as a concept

in the court annexed system, the involvement of judges is

necessary, and that involvement only comes when the judges

are also more familiar about what is mediation.

When I look at the topic today which is “Appropriate Dispute

Resolution” it is really significant. Why? It is not that the

alternative is inappropriate in that sense. But what you are looking to is “structure a solution for a

person according to his needs and requirements”. When you go to a Consultant, when the

corporate body goes to a Consultant or you go to some Specialist, you want a solution for

yourself. You don’t want some abstract solution to be made. In that sense, law which governs the

society as a whole is an abstract solution.

Therefore, I think the most important aspect of mediation is that, we are able to find a solution

which the parties think are viable for them. That is why the voluntariness of the process is

important.

I was fortunate to be able to travel at the invitation of both the US Justice Department and the

British Council in collaboration with India and visit these centres and see how they work. It is a

completely professional centre manned by, as I said, lawyers, judges and everybody else.

I can only give you the example of one of the matters which I distinctly remember. It was a

mediation between a policeman and the police department where the allegation was use of excess

force against the citizens on the basis of discrimination of colour and creed. I am talking about the

confidentiality issue, even as observers, we were asked to sign a memorandum that even as

judges that we would not disclose what transpired there as we watched. The permission of the

parties was sought first, and we were permitted to observe only with their consent.


The mediator started with a matter of fact approach,

saying, “Look, if you want to settle, it is your choice!

You are not doing me a favour. If you don’t settle, too

bad, I will go and have a cup of coffee and go. But if you

don’t want to continue this battle for long and you want

to arrive at a solution, then you better listen to what

you are supposed to know of how this is going to work

out”. He caught the attention of the people slowly and

built upon it.

Similarly in civil suits: it is not necessary that at the

beginning the settlement would take place. Often

settlements may arise at intermittent stages. As people

file the pleadings, as they file the documents, they realise the evidence and power and position;

they realise their strengths and weaknesses. I have found, for example, that a very good time in a

suit is at a stage when issues are framed, you set down the suit for trial and you say, look without

delaying the trial, are you able to utilise the time period to settle? Something which I found equally

true in the US because they also feel this is the time you have weighed your strengths and

weaknesses and at that particular stage of time you know how much you can get if this moves on

to litigation, and therefore there is a little more mood to settle. Also the exuberance for litigation

which is there has become a little watered down by then. Often we do say in court, the party still

wants to fight, they are a little immature and the vagaries of litigation have not hit on them fully

and let them have the little bit of bout before they go for settlement. It is true. There can be

mediation at different stages. There can be mediation at a final stage. There can be mediation after

litigation and there can be mediation before litigation.

No requirement for personal appearance before the assessing officer unless the assessee wants it,

or the assessing officer for reasons to be recorded in writing requires it in a specific case.

For mediation after litigation, I can give an example which is well often cited from Delhi where

there is a couple who actually went through divorce proceedings and there were issues relating to

some aspects of the visiting rights which were not settled. At that stage, Saradha Ramachandran,

who is an established Mediator there, took upon herself to mediate. While going through the

process, she could find out what ailed the relationship of the parties. It was found that there was

something else other than the parties concerned. The parties were not too far apart, probably the

parents of the two sides played a greater intervention than necessary which had caused the

divorce. She was actually able to persuade them in so far as the visiting rights are concerned,

“Can you people stay in the same house separately?” Again they began the process and ultimately

those proceedings resulted in a remarriage of the parties!! This is not some hyperbole, this is what

has really happened! When you actually talk of post-litigation settlements, what can be of greater

example of a family living together after having been separated, have a rethink and get back!

In some stage of the litigation nobody has gone into the pulse of the dispute, which is the problem

of our litigation systems. We are firstly over-burdened and there is no time for the judges to spend

the kind of time required for each litigation. We are bound by the four corners of law and we can

stretch only to a certain extent. Nobody is really looking into what the parties want; nobody is

really looking into what the parties have to say.

There was a family dispute which was going on for long period of time. It was one of the oldest

suits of the 1970’s. I realized that everybody was settled somewhere abroad and the evidences

were also not begun. I said, we will fix a date when everybody from whichever part of the world he

is must come down and be in my court. All of them should be staying for a week, not just coming

for one day and going away. All of them came down. One of the lawyers in the litigation was a

trained mediator. I said to him, please take up this mediation and try to work out. Of all the things,

it worked out after decades it worked out and they produced a settlement before me. After I

recorded the order one person raised his hand; first scepticism in my mind was that this person

should not bring up any other issue after having settled. The lawyer said that everything is done.

But I said, let him have his say. He just got up and said, “The only thing I wanted to say was,

Thank You! We have been having this litigation for so long and we never sat together to find a

solution. We are all in different domains”. I can say that “thank you” possibly gave me more

satisfaction when deciding a complicated version of law.


Leading Change in our Ecosystems

Geet Sethi

9 Times World Champion (Cue Sports), Co-Founder, Olympic Gold Quest

A Summary of the Address delivered by Geet Sethi during the MMA Annual Convention 2016 on the

theme “India 2016: Leading Change” held on 13 February 2016 at Chennai

Success is just a job well done. Redefine the definition of success,

says Geet Sethi, the 9 Times World Champion.

I thought I would come and speak about the change and about the

Olympic Gold Quest Foundation that I started to change the

landscape in the sporting environment of our country, but I am not

going to talk about all that! I am going to take on two words and

two thoughts from Swamiji - the first word is success; the next one I

am going to talk about is, the mind. I have spent 40 years in trying to understand the behavior of

three inanimate objects! Swamiji has written books, he has read books, he has gained wisdom

and all I have done is spend 40 years in trying to understand the behavior of the three balls in the

12” 6” table! And in doing so, I had to understand my mind, and so I would also make a small

comment on the mind. I think both the thoughts viz. success and mind resonate very deeply with

what Swamiji said. Perhaps I will give you a slightly more personal interpretation of what Swamiji

just spoke about.

What is being successful?

Swamiji gave these thoughts on success. I think our understanding of success is ‘fame, money

and power’. That understanding of success being fame, money and power comes perhaps because

we are really being brainwashed by the media. Today I am a nine-times World Billiards Champion.

Because I have world championship and because the world championship got covered in the

newspaper and television screen I have got a bit of fame; because of that fame, and because I was

screened on the media, there is a bit of money and therefore my billiards got me famous and got

me little bit of money. Now just think for a moment; I am trying to eradicate the concept of

success as we understand it today. Now for a minute, just think I am a young kid playing billiards

and I play billiards because I love the game. I really loved it when I started it. I am playing

billiards in a world where there is no television; I am playing billiards in a world where there is no

competition and it is a beautiful world and I gain competency. Every year, I become better and

better and better. No competition, no television, no newspaper and therefore no money! But I

continue and I am going to continue for 30 years and I make the same 1276 break and make a

world record! So, there is no fame, there is no money, however, am I not successful is the

question I ask you. For 30 years I have played the sport and I have achieved supreme

competency in that sport - am I not successful? I am successful. So, success is just a job well

done. Define success according to your own capability and your own potential in the work that you

do. Forget about the media and fame, forget about the money and forget about the power.

I was talking to Swamiji behind the stage and I told him about my Mali (Gardener). Have we ever

talked about successful gardeners? No! Because there is no competition, because there is no

money for great gardening! Yes, we talk about great Chefs today! Why do we talk about Chefs

today? Because they are on TV and they are earning huge amounts of money? If there were no

television programs and if food was not such a big part of the entertainment industry, would we

understand and know these Chefs? So we don’t know gardeners. My gardener who has been with


me for the past 24 years, who looks after the school that my wife has started, is the most

successful person I know! He is the most evolved person I have ever met in my life. He has no

money, no fame, no power but he is successful. Change the definition of success for yourself and

more importantly for your children.

Let me share a small example. A mother and father came to me with their young child and said,

“We want you to coach our child” I said ok and asked a question. I ask this question of everyone,

and urge all of you to ask yourself this one question. “Why do you do what you do?” You will

perhaps spend one year trying to understand and articulate for yourself why you really do what

you do. So, I asked the young kid, “Why do you want to play Billiards?” This is a very deep

question and the answer I got reflects how brainwashed we are in trying to define success today.

The answer was, “I want to win the Arjuna Award!” I was so sad! The 12 year old kid who has

never held cue in his life wants to start playing billiards because he wants to win the Arjuna Award!

So, think to yourself why you are doing what you do and just recognize how brainwashed we all

are.

The power of mind

The other wonderful subject that he touched upon briefly was the mind and the misery of the mind.

I am going to tell you a story on the mind and end this talk. Success, if it is a job well done, how

do you do a good job? Finally you do it with all your talents, all your knowledge and with all the

resources available to you. You will do a good job, if, a. You work hard at it and b. You focus on

it. I am coming to a word called “concentration”. I will define concentration through a definition

that I came across a book by another Swamiji, his name is Swami Parthasarathy and his definition

of concentration is ‘the intellect supervising the mind to remain in the present’. I am going to give

you a very powerful example from a true story.

Story of Wattana

This is the story of the young kid called James Wattana, who was 17 years old and had just won

the World Amateur Snooker Championship! At 17, in 1991, he went to England and in

Birmingham, in his first championship, he was playing with the World Masters with the first prize of

200,000 Pounds. He came from a broken house in Bangkok and his mother used to work in a

Snooker Club as a cleaner and that is how he picked up the sport at the age of 9 and at 17 he

became the World Amateur Champion and at 17 ½ , he played the Birmingham-England World

Professional Snooker championship. He started playing and he played brilliantly. He thrashed his

opponent and won the first round. He won the second round too. This was the World Professional

Snooker Championship and the British Press into the scene and announced, “The young kid from

Thailand is doing exceptionally well and playing so good!” For the first time, the British players

were beaten by an Asian and the Press started building up momentum for him, calling him a

“Typhoon from Thailand”. That was the kind of power with which he was playing. He reached the

quarter finals. His game was just going up. He looked like a monk and his focus was immense; his

concentration was absolutely spot-on and his game and skill was in perfect display as he reached

the finals. The game was absolutely ascending. In the final, he was playing against a guy called

Jimmy White. At that time (1991), as any seeded player, Jimmy White was the most talented

player ever and that was the tag given to Jimmy White. It was a best of 15 games final and

Wattana was leading with 7-3. He was continuing his dream run. One more frame and he would be

the World Champion! This championship was covered live by the television and there were seven

cameras which were piercing into Wattana’s face and at 7-3, suddenly there was a drop in his

game. The score became 7-4. Jimmy White, who was struggling all along, suddenly started

improving his game and it became 7-5. Wattana’s game dropped further it became 7-6. 7-All and

James Wattana lost 8-7! The minute he lost, as is the protocol in Professional Snooker, he was


putting his cue back in a bit of a daze and the Press Officer took him

to the Press Room. Just a minute after he lost his game, the Press

Room with live TV, with all the Press from all over the world put him

in front of the table and a mike and the Press asked him,”Wattana,

what happened?” His answer, at 17 ½, was the most honest answer

that I have ever come across in the world of sport! No sportsman,

really, when they talk to the press, they don’t speak their heart and

mind! This is what Wattana answered. The young kid who had not

gone to school, with his broken English answered as follows. I will

try and enact that answer for you. He said, “When I was 7-3 up, my mind travelled to, he named

a street in Bangkok (He is in Birmingham at the National Exhibition Center in match arena) and in

that street my mind travelled to one house. I saw the house in my mind and I said to myself that

with the 200,000 Pounds that I am going to win, because I was so close to a win, I want to buy

that house for my mother!” His mind travelled 6000 to 7000 miles away! That was his answer!

The mind is the most powerful part of our human anatomy, not your heart, not your abdomen or

your arm! In one instant it can take you to New York! Just by mentioning the word New York, you

will have the image of the skyline of New York and you will be driving in a yellow cab in New York!

That is the power of the mind! Sitting in a match arena, playing the most important match of his

life, his mind went to Bangkok. Here, that is emotion. The emotion and the fact that the mind has

gone into the future – the intellect supervising the mind to remain in the present, has failed

completely.

Mind has a mind of its own! Reign your mind!

Wattana and I shared the same apartment in Bradford. That night we drove from Birmingham to

Bradford. I did not open my mouth. I am a sportsperson and I knew what his mind must be going

through. We went home and slept and I did not open my mouth. We woke up in the morning.

During our morning coffee, I told Wattana, “You very honestly said that your mind travelled to the

street in Bangkok. There is a logical question that comes to my mind and my question is: if your

mind could go to the street and house in Bangkok why did you not call the mind back?” It is a

simple and obvious question. Again, his answer was brilliant! The most uneducated people have

the most wisdom and knowledge. His answer was this: ‘You know what, Geet? I thought I would

indulge in that thought just for two seconds. I actually wanted to indulge in that thought because I

was 7-3 up; I had played brilliantly and I had such a huge margin; even if I had lost the next two

frames, it was such a huge margin and so I thought I would win for sure. So I wanted to indulge in

that thought just for two seconds. But, today I realize that my mind has a mind of its own!” These

are the words of an uneducated kid! “My mind, I realize, has a mind of its own!”

The essence is that we think we have control over our mind. But we don’t! It is so powerful that if

you don’t reign it, it will gallop like a wild horse. That is what it did for Wattana. There is another

part of the Wattana story which is as follows: This disturbed him and the thinking guy that he was,

though uneducated, went back to Bangkok and started introspecting and he came back after about

6 months. He went and visited a monastery, he did meditation, and he talked to people and came

back. He figured out how to reign his mind. He started climbing up the world rankings, became

world number 3. The one incident that I related happened in 1991 and the year now is 1995. He

is about to go to the British Snooker Championship; this is the semifinals and his name is

announced by the MC and he is standing at the curtains and as his name is being announced. Our

Manager, Tom Moore, an Irishman comes up to him and says, “Wattana, I am sorry, I have a really

bad news for you. Your father has been shot dead in Bangkok. I have already blocked ticket for you

for the flight which leaves in two hours from Manchester. As Tom Moore was relating this to him,


Wattana’s name was getting announced, “Please welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, James Wattana”

and the lights are on and so are the claps. Wattana looks at Tom Moore, nods his head sideways,

goes into the match arena, he won 4-0 and he scored a 147 break which is like scoring six sixes in

one over in a T 20 cricket match!

Simplify your life!

That is the power of the mind, if reigned! I am going to catch on one more word that Swamiji said.

He mentioned “simplify’ your life. You want to focus? You want to concentrate? So the question

that is often asked is: “How do you develop your concentration?” The answer is that concentration

and the ability to reign your mind is not God-given. It is not a stroke of lightning and it is not a

stroke of luck. It is simply, ‘simplify your life’. If I look back, and if when I speak to Prakash

Padukone, and if when I talk to Leander Paes and if when I talk to P T Usha, if when I talk to any

sports person who has really achieved some legendary kind of accomplishment and performance,

they all have one thing in common. They have never been for any birthdays when they are in

active training. It does not even affect them when people die. In a sense, they are almost like

robots and unemotional. So, you live a life without birthday parties, without wishing people on

Valentine’s Day; you don’t visit people when kids are born or people die. You only focus on what

you do. You eliminate the outside world. That is one way to do it. But the other way is you need

to simplify your life. As you achieve success from a person with cycle, then a scooter and then a

motor bike, thanks to my game, thanks to the money and the fame and then finally I got the car! I

mentioned to you that for the first 30 years I managed to really focus on the game. But corruption

just creeps in and I think after 25 or 30 years I got corrupted by the fame and money and when I

look back today, I am not talking of concentration alone; the fact that uplifting your lifestyle can

actually corrupt your concentration. Why? I have money, I want to buy a house! For buying a

mobile phone, how much time do we spend in doing research to find out which model to buy!

Imagine how much you spend in buying a house; you spend six months of your time to choose the

best house. When I look back, every time I bought a house I lost a World Championship! Every

time I bought a car, that year, I lost a World Championship! That is the corruption of money, fame

and power. It comes and we will succumb to it. At least, let’s be aware about it. If you can in

some manner prevent that, I think your focus and concentration levels will be great! I am now,

after 40 years, more or less convinced. I have not read the Bhagvad Gita, Quran or the Bible. For

40 years doing meditation on the Billiards Table, I am convinced, because I have experienced this

massive joy when you get lost in concentration where I have had out-of-body experience and that

was the intensity of my concentration. I can tell you with some degree of authority and intensity

that it is the essence of our being; it is the essence of our joy; it is the essence of our living. Can

you imagine, our relationships depend on this one thing viz. concentration? I will tell you why our

relationship suffers, it is because of lack of concentration. Can you imagine two lovers, a boy and

a girl in love with each other; they are sitting on the beach; they are arm-in-arm and looking into

each other’s eyes. It is complete concentration and the outside world does not exist. It is ecstasy.

Just imagine, as they are about to kiss, if the boy or the girl says, “Hey! The breakfast my mom

served me this morning, was horrible!” Can you imagine what it will do to the moment if the mind

goes into the past? It will shatter that moment; perhaps, it will shatter the relationship! I may be

trivializing it, but it is the essence of our existence, it is the essence of the joy we feel.

So, reign in your minds, ladies and gentlemen and please don’t be swayed by the definition of

success as given to us by the media!


The Magick of Mindfulness

A paradigm shift for true success

Yogacharini Maitreyi

Founder, Arkaya Awareness Centre

What is Magick?

Magick with a K means creating a better reality. Magic on the other hand

means sleight of hand, an illusion or a mirage. When we want to live to our

fullest potential Magick is what we need to learn and apply. Instead we fall

prey to quick fixes and advertising promises which fall under the category of Magic which will only

give us instant gratification and not long term satisfaction.

Many mystical and management traditions give us tools for Magick which means changing systems

and things for the better rather than just fantasising about winning the lottery.

Both science and spirituality can complement each other and Arkaya yoga has the means by which

the full potential of a human can be harnessed. We will go on to look at a Yogic paradigm that can

be applied in day to day life as well as management.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means being fully present to what we are doing, thinking and feeling. It is allowing the

space for self observation and seeing things as they arise and accepting them without judging. This

helps us notice dysfunctional patterns and take things one step at a time. We learn to see and not

judge and do what needs to be done.

In the Magick of Mindfulness we explore paradigms that facilitate conscious evolution and true

success. We create a space where we can explore new ways of being without getting stuck in old

ways and identifying with it. This is the true Magick. Being Mindful helps us tap into infinite wisdom

and apply it.

Pushing Vs Pacing

In life as with management, it is about applying principles that make things more efficient and

effective rather than get trapped in unhealthy habits. We are constantly striving to better our best.

In this quest for excellence we also need to focus on the approach rather than just the destination.

We are often conditioned to push towards our goals. Since this is what is role modelled for us, this

is what we pick up unconsciously. We become so result focused that the manner in which we reach

the results takes a back seat. If we want to enjoy the journey as well as the destination, we will

have to relook at our paradigms and make the approach a priority. Pacing is a way of enjoying the

journey. By pacing we avoid burn out and break downs. By pacing, even if we push we take a

break till we recuperate.

Applying Yogic Paradigms in Management

Yoga Vs Exercise

In exercise the paradigm is “No pain, no gain”. Unfortunately asana and other yogic tools have

been approached in the same manner, as yoga instructors are taught to be nothing more than

yoga workout instructors. I was appalled to see many yoga injuries.

The Yogic paradigm is exactly the opposite which states “Sthiram Sukham Asanam”.

This paradigm is given in the yoga suthras codified by Maharishi Patanjali over 2000 years ago.

Sthiram means firmness and steadiness and Sukham means ease or comfort. So asana is not just

about pushing the body.

It is about being firm yet comfortable, steady and relaxed, not in pain. We learn to find balance,

stability and ease in the posture. The practice is about learning to pace ourselves. So even if we

push out of habit we leave room for softening. Even if we feel restless we shake out the

restlessness to create more calm. If we feel emotional, we accept it and learn to channelize it.

As we practice being aware of the approach, we will be tuned into the body rather than drive it.

There is a beautiful synergy that unfolds


What sort of a parent are you?

The mind will try to take over like a tyrannical parent sometimes and we need to keep a check. We

all know what happens when the mind is hung up on the unhealthy expectation of loosing ten kilos

in ten days.

Or it can become a permissive parent allowing the body to over indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle.

So as we observe our own minds’ relationship with our bodies, we see our parenting styles. We

need to create team work between the body and the mind. We also need the emotions to join this

team and it is accessed using the breath. If we were to look at the word “emotion”, it has inherent

in it motion. E-motion is what moves us. It is the driving force in the present that propels us to be

a particular way. It is the adult in us which needs to be acknowledged, sublimated and channelized,

not repressed.

So as we go deeper we realise how all the tools in yoga work on creating this team work within,

between the parent, child and adult. All these three principles need to work hand in hand with a

higher consciousness, which is what is the aim of real yoga.

Children raised by animals

When children are found who are raised by animals or have been kept away from human contact,

you often see them taking on the characteristics of the animal that raised them. It becomes very

difficult to teach them language or social norms, the longer they have been away. We may look at

those children and exclaim how limited they are, as they walk on fours or do not use their full

potential due to their conditioning during their formative years.

However though we may seem better off than them on one level we may have picked up habits or

conditioning from humans that may not be very harmonious or be good for the well-being of

ourselves and others. This is why the rishis or ancient researchers say that we are limited by our

conditioning or the habits we pick up from parents, peers, teachers and those who influence us. So

if we want to rise above all of that conditioning we have the tools available for it in the yogic

system. Where we can tap into the highest and start a step by step journey of getting there, which

is not limited by our circumstances.

Cultivating SQ

There is a cosmic intelligence that can be tapped when we align with it. This collective and cosmic

consciousness will give us the wisdom and the acceptance to deal with things when they do not go

our way.

We are not bogged down by habitual judgements that arise. This is what researchers have termed

as SQ or spiritual quotient which helps us deal with disappointments trusting there is a higher

order that is unfolding. We learn to do our best and leave the rest. We also tap into information

that helps us rise above circumstances and not limited by the rational analysis that IQ provides or

the emotional competency that EQ provides. Both EQ and IQ are limited by ones personal

experience while if one is tapped into SQ one will have access to a cosmic world wide web that can

give us solutions even beyond the realm of our own personal experience. This is an invaluable tool

to have when we are in the process of re-parenting ourselves. This is what Patanjali advocates in

his next stanza about asana. ‘Prayathna saithilya anantha samaapattibhyam”. He says that

perfection in asana means one releases the effort to perform it and the infinite within is reached.

This effortless effort and focusing on the anantha or eternal or infinite principle in asana cultivates

our SQ.

The Arkaya Yoga class is a space for re-parenting oneself

During a practice session of asana, pranayama and other yogic tools we are essentially re-

parenting ourselves. Then we carry that awareness into our day to day lives. That is why those

sessions are so invaluable and not just a physical exercise but an exercise to reprogram the mind.

Just imagine if we were parented by super humans who were superhuman not just in their strength

but in the compassion and love and problem solving capacities. That is what we get if the yogic

tools are used correctly to tap into that mode of being.


The rishis or ancient researchers strived to rise above being the entrapment of conditioning and

have codified the insights they gained by tapping into the highest consciousness. That insight or

paradigm is what we will be applying today to cultivate effortless effort. We practice to cultivate

sthiram and sukham in asanam. Asana is not just a posture but ‘a state of being’. So we apply this

to all moments in our life. We tap into the infinite wealth of wisdom within by focusing on anantha

or the eternal. In this way even if we have had negative influences in our life we learn to override it

with the practice, which helps us to use or create systems that enable wellbeing for all.

The Arkaya Yoga class is a structure for life

Arkaya means light, healing and inspiration. When I started teaching in the west I saw the

prevalence of yoga exercise and hence saw the great need for teaching the right approach to the

practices. In the land of branding, I needed to brand yoga that had its ethos intact. The students

learnt that the class was a structure for life. Just as any game needs a practice session. The game

of life also needed an Arkaya yoga class where people could move in a step by step relaxed

manner towards their goals. One learned to pace oneself rather than push and breakdown. Else we

are pushing ourselves to project the perfect image to society, yet falling apart inside. We need to

pace ourselves so that what seems like a suicidal situation dissipates with the space we allow.

What seems irresolvable can get disentangled with time. So as I see students approach asana,

pranayama and the other tools correctly my role as a life guide is fulfilled. Their approach in class

reflects in the way they approach life.

How do we apply this in day to day life? How do we learn to pace ourselves

Start with the body as the body does not lie. You can either touch your toes or not. With

meditation you can think you are meditating but you might have mastered the art of sitting and

sleeping or day dreaming. So as you sit on the chair be aware of how you are sitting. This is a very

simple mindfulness practice. Be aware of very single part of your body and how your feet are

touching the earth and how your body is touching the chair. Bring your mind to each part of the

body in a step by step fashion starting from your toes and moving upto your head. This of course

becomes much easier under the guidance of a good teacher.

Now be present to your breathing. Watch your breath as it moves into your nostrils, your windpipe

and your lungs and watch the breath move out. If your mind wanders gently bring it back to your

breathing. Do this for 5 mins. To many this might seem very different and alien as we are used to

doing or completing tasks and not used to simple presence or observation. With time we will start

to see the value of how setting aside time to BE will influence how and what we DO. By tapping

into our inner intelligence and internal rhythm we will learn to pace ourselves better.

Yogic Paradigm for Success

The Yogic paradigm for Being is sukham and sthiram. The yogic paradigm for doing is effortless

effort and focusing on the eternal. This means we learn to cultivate this in the present rather than

in some distant future. I find many who are very dis-satisfied and unhappy despite

accomplishments, as they have not cultivated this sthiram and sukham in their lives. This does not

mean we become lazy or complacent but build a strong foundation of contentment and gratitude

right from the start. Else instead of finding sthiram or stability we will chase speed. Stability first

and speed next. Any mechanic will be able to vouch for that when you drive a car. The car has to

be stable, the wheels aligned and a good brake in place before you reach for the accelerator. So be

present to your life and see if you are constantly cultivating Sthiram, Sukham relaxed effort and

gently focused on anantha or the infinite. Then Success will automatically be yours.

This is illustrated by the story of the old donkey that fell into a dry well. Its master thinking it was

not worth the effort to pull an old donkey out decided to just bury it alive. The donkey though sad

in the beginning soon realised that with each shovel of sand on its back, it could shake it off and

step up. So step by step the donkey just rose along with the sand and instead of being buried rose

to the top. Similarly we can also pace ourselves and instead of being pulled down by sad or

negative emotion, tap into the eternal wisdom to use circumstances to rise to the top, one step at

a time.


A New Generation of Change Leaders

Mridula Ramesh

Executive Director, Sundaram Textiles Ltd

A Summary of the Address delivered by Mridula Ramesh

during the MMA Annual Convention 2016 on the theme

“India 2016: Leading Change” held on 13 February 2016

at Chennai

Sustaining a Change

The thing about being the 5th or 6th speaker in a topic

like “Managing Change”, almost all the points have been

covered by the earlier speakers. So all I can hope to do is

tell you a good story.

Have a good reason to start the journey

I think many of you will agree with me, any of you who

have taken up change either at personal level, at an

organizational level or at global level, that change is a journey. It is not an easy journey. And

when you undertake a hard journey, like for example, climbing the Thirupathi Hills, you need a

good reason to do it. That’s the first point I want to make. Let me talk about this in the context of

my own life.

The reason should be compelling, visible and personally relevant

About three years ago, a number of things happened in my life. The first was that we ran out of

water in our house. We get water from a bore well in the house and we had gone to 575 feet to get

water. A friend of mine said, ‘you are essentially mining for water!”. It was not just us but a

number of other people had run out of water. It was also getting hotter than usual. Also, the

definition of ‘usual’ was getting redefined because it had been unusually hot for number of years.

Then there was the drought; Madurai had no water. As a famous journalist said, it was global

weirding. The second thing was, at that time, I was taking a course called “Sustainable

Development”, taught by Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. As part of the course, in the

chapter on Global Warming, I saw a video. The video showed the warming over the past 100 years.

We are essentially about 1-2 degrees warmer in Madras.

Figure 1: Decadal Temperature Changes in Indian Cities; NOAA


You might be thinking two degrees is not a big deal, because one day to another, it is hotter than

that.

But, it’s not just two degrees; it is heat waves. Up to 1950, we had no heat waves and look now

how it has gone up.

Figure 2: Decadal Heat wave incidence in India; D. Guha-Sapir, R. Below, Ph. Hoyois -

EM-DAT: The CRED/OFDA International Disaster Database –www.emdat.be – Université

Catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.

When it gets hotter, the air holds moisture differently, which leads to rainfall changes which in turn

leads to a stormier weather at one end and also leads to drought at the other end. We can see that

this is what has happened when we look at the floods data for the past 100 years.


Figure 3: Decadal Storms & Floods Incidence in India; D. Guha-Sapir, R. Below, Ph. Hoyois - EM-

DAT: The CRED/OFDA International Disaster Database –www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de

Louvain – Brussels – Belgium.

I am sure all of you have had a personal experience during the Chennai floods! This particular

flood had the urban planning element also in it. But what happens is when the climate changes,

events like this is going to become that much more common.

There is another event that happened around the same time. My husband and I were blessed with

a second child. I think the parents here will agree that having a child makes the future that much

more present to you. And that you want to leave a better world for them.

So, taking all these three things together: the climate is changing, Tamil Nadu is in the crosshairs

of the impacts of climate change, and we have children, which means we really want to leave a

future that is safe for them, made this is a problem that I really wanted to work on – because it

was personally very meaningful to me.

Make the message of change relevant to the team

I keep that in mind every day because there are so many times in your journey when you feel that

this is just not worth it. You need that reason front and center visible that keeps you to continue.

What do I mean by relevance? It is an important thing as leaders when you take your team along

you should think in a language that is relevant for them. While talking about climate change with

business dealers I don’t speak about Polar Bears dying in the Arctic. I was talking to a gentleman

from the cement industry here and the question I asked him was, how his rural demand was doing.

He said, it is not so great. There are many segments: two-wheelers, cement, tractors, with

tremendous rural exposures. When I show how climate change has increased the frequency of

drought and then talk about the back-to-back monsoon failures which led to rural incomes

collapsing, business people start getting interested.

Figure 4: Decadal Incidence of Drought in India; D. Guha-Sapir, R. Below, Ph. Hoyois - EM-DAT: The

CRED/OFDA International Disaster Database –www.emdat.be – Université Catholique de Louvain –

Brussels – Belgium.

In the Chennai floods so many factories were inundated, leading to lost production days and lost

stocks. When you talk to business leaders about Climate change, you should relate it to the above


aspects and then say that it should affect your business this year. Then you can get them on the

change journey.

Cultivate a diverse tool kit

So, good! You have started on your journey. But anybody who has taken any change journey

whether personal losing weight or leading a company through an organizational change knows that

you will meet with different kinds of challenges. One thing I found tremendously helpful is

cultivating a very diverse network and cultivating a diverse skill set. This has two advantages.

First, you can choose which tool you want from the toolkit to address the problem at hand. Second,

cross pollination between tools is very important.

Let me quickly illustrate what I mean by that. Our mills won the TPM (Total Productive

Maintenance) award a few years ago. I have found the TPM award, using data, small group

activities, fish bone diagrams etc. to be tremendously helpful in bringing down our waste. We got

our waste down by 90% and we have the data to back it and it goes down every day. This

happened because we follow the ‘zero waste mentality’ from the TPM idea. I write a newspaper

column on Climate Change in The Hindu and I find the skill set developed in McKinsey in terms of

structuring a message and delivering it succinctly is very useful. I talked of cross-pollination also.

The research that I do to write the article helps me understand which areas to look for in investing

in start-ups that address climate change. The discipline that making a profit brings to any

enterprise is something I have the deepest respect for. You know that nobody is going to backstop

you, once you commit a mistake, you have to bear the brunt of that! That makes you more careful

about your choices. I wanted to see more startups in clean- tech. So far, I have invested in about

five startups. One of the reasons for the Chennai floods was the waste clogging waterways, so the

water could not go out into the ocean. One of the start-ups I have invested in is a private waste

collector who collects and segregates waste so very little of it clogs waterways or goes to a landfill.

I spoke about cross pollination. The startups that I deal with help me get ideas for how to make my

business greener and more cost-effective. I talk to solar people on a daily basis and so I know

exactly who to go to for my rooftop solar in my company.

Have Beacons of light

Lastly, long hard journeys often have black patches. You are going to fall. You are going to lose

faith sometimes. Especially in a problem like climate change when you have senior scientist tell you

have crossed the tipping point it becomes very worrisome and at that moment you really need

beacons of light. In this context I want to talk of Israel. Israel is a land of desert; about 50% land

is desert. In India we are facing increasing drought. But Israel has little water; they have one of

the lowest rainfalls in the world but still they export fresh water! Imagine: A desert nation exports

fresh water! They are food-sufficient. They have one of the highest crop yields in the world. Tamil

Nadu is in the cross hairs of climate change and it is going to become like Israel soon! When you

go there you see, they are not suffering. They are thriving! Israel is a desert but they have crops

growing out of the sands. Just bare sand! They do it because they price water. Do you remember

the first problem I spoke about, make the problem very visible and relevant? We don’t price water

in India. It is not a visible problem until we run out of it. In Israel even farmers pay for water and

of course it is a very cheap price. It is cheaper than the price of water that our maids to pay per

one can of water. This pricing allows for innovation. I am desperate to invest in a water startup. I


can’t find a good idea. In India we don’t price water and thus it is not worth a company’s while to

make an innovative product. This is a beacon of hope that we see. We may become a desert

nation, at least Tamil Nadu, but there is hope.

So, these are the three lessons – have a good reason to start the journey and make sure you

convey that message to whoever is coming along in a way they appreciate. That is very important.

Make it personally relevant for them. Cultivate a diverse toolkit and

lastly keep the beacons front in center because you will need it for

any journey going forward.

My Story

Innu Nevatia

I have always strived to do things differently – take the path less

travelled.

There is always a first time: I was the first person from my family to pursue engineering, to

relocate to a different city and stay in a hostel, outside of the pampered realms of my family/home.

This allowed me to step out of familiarity and explore new ground. I was subsequently the first

person to pursue an MBA from a premier institute.

At Indian School of Business (ISB), my decision to opt for an exchange program to The Wharton

School over campus placements raised a few eyebrows. However, the MBA was probably my last

formal education program and the Exchange was a great chance to experience life at world’s #1

Business School. I was sure that the learnings I could draw from the cultural and professional

diversity at Wharton would be unparalleled and would shape me holistically.

Believe in yourself: ~5 years back, post an ISB MBA, my decision to join InMobi was a risk.

InMobi wasn’t as well-known/established then – it was still in its early stages. It wasn’t a

trend/norm to join a 120 member strong start-up back then. But I followed my passion to be

part of a promising small organization in the mobile industry. People questioned to select this offer

over other lucrative offers from larger, better-established organizations. But I believed in myself.

Take risks, Experiment: To join InMobi in an unstructured role as one of the first ’Founders’

Staff’, that too at the start of my post MBA career, at hindsight, seems to be the best decision I

ever made. What excited me was going back to new challenges every day. While my peers jumped


into extremely structured roles with consulting and banking firms, I was more open and

experimentative. Right after an MBA is probably a great time for one to be more open minded.

I donned several hats in this role – I call this a “signature experience”:

Mini GM driving new initiatives - Market Entry strategy for Korea, Strategic Partnerships in

China

Mini COO - Redesigning Performance Appraisal Systems, Global Revenue Management and

Biz Ops

In-House consultant identifying opportunities, owning them as projects, driving change

through the organisation

In short, I got a helicopter view of the business and a cross functional exposure. Also, I mastered

driving projects end to end, from strategy to execution. This experience taught me how to dream

big, learn from failures, and strive for success.

Trust Trumps All Else: In my early days at InMobi I learnt that trust trumps all else. It was the

Founders’ trust in me that got me involved in the Series C 200Mn USD Fund Raise, despite the lack

of prior finance experience. It was the same trust with which I was offered the role of delivery

head, EMEA performance business with direct revenue responsibility and the freedom to negotiate

strategic deals with the largest clients. These are the roles/projects that brought out the best in

me; I explored new ways of thinking, discovered how to make the contribution I always wanted to,

perhaps even in ways I never imagined possible. What I learnt from this experience was to

“Inspire to be the best – succeed in a way that’s bigger than what you originally thought

about…”

Grow, Build and Nurture... Currently, as ‘VP-Global Revenue Delivery, Performance Advertising,’

I am responsible for account management and revenue growth of all performance advertisers

globally (North/Latin America, EMEA, India & SEA). I manage an annual portfolio of $XXXMn+,

having grown the business ~15X over 2.5 yrs. The client base spans across Gaming, Music,

Entertainment, Retail, Travel and Social. I have built and nurtured a multi-cultural team of 40

across India, UK and USA. As a leader, I have carried forward the same principles that I learnt in

my early days at InMobi while I continue to learn from the team.

Very often, people ask me how are women leaders different from their male counterparts? I would

say women are more empathetic, more industrious, good listeners and consensus builders. They

are highly collaborative and work towards making cohesive teams. Women are great multi-taskers

and look for opportunities not seen before. Prioritisation and a strong support network both in my

personal and professional life has helped me maintain work-life balance.

Today, I can proudly say that I have grown with the organisation at InMobi – it has been an

extremely fulfilling experience. In such a dynamic industry and organisation, you don’t just keep

pace with the change, you drive it… InMobi never let me settle for mediocrity, I learned not to shy

away from ambitious and life-changing goals. I have had several moments which made me say “it’s

a dream come true”... But this is just the beginning - there are always bigger dreams to pursue.

Respect Diversity, Embrace it and learn from it: My experiences at ISB, Wharton and InMobi

have been truly diverse and global. Diversity at these institutions isn’t just a buzz word. We live it

every day; we learn from it every day. Each of these adorn a truly global culture, which is

collaborative, intellectual and fun. Over the course of my education and career, I have interacted

and worked with people from over 25 different nationalities, each one of them shaped by varied life

experiences. My experiences with my peers have taught me how to become more adaptable, build

diverse perspectives and broaden my horizon. I would grab every opportunity to work with a

multitude of cultures and pick up roles that allow me to travel - there is a lot to learn from it.

Home is where the heart is: I have had several opportunities to relocate to London/US but I

have always chosen to be based in India and take a global role – in the midst of all the

opportunity, action and growth in the Indian digital ecosystem.

What I have learnt from these experiences is take risks, try new roles, stay focused and dedicated,

inspire others, and work with peers to shape your experience.


“Slipping Stones on the summit march” -

Budding Women Leaders be aware! -

A Perspective

R N Kumar

Context:

Today, Women have risen to key positions in all spheres of life, including the

industry, political, social sector and entrepreneurial space, to mention a few.

They have proved, that they have it in them, to scale the summit.

This article attempts to discuss a few slipping stones, budding women leaders

need to be watchful of, on their march to the summit.

The Slipping Stones:

Let me now go into the discussion of the slipping stones, i.e. the pitfalls / syndromes, as I would

like to term it:

1. “Make us a privileged class”

Considering that equal opportunity is given, right from education to appointments to promotions

in most of the sectors, this merit based system does not warrant gender based privileges. There

may be no special lunches. “Equal work, Equal pay” holds good in the meritocracy we are in /

striving to create. The shift for budding women leaders would be from “asking for special

privileges” to “carving a niche or special class for themselves”, through the education, skill sets,

special competencies and unique perspectives, they bring in to the work or project or

professional role they are involved in.

2. “We have been wronged”

There are instances of women raising hue and cry over a host of issues like working late hours,

lack of appreciation of gender based sensitivities, unreasonable work demands, withdrawal of

gender specific incentives / benefits, to mention a few. We do appreciate the sensitivities. But

budding women leaders need to introspect and ascertain, on a case by case basis,

- Are we asking for too much?

- Are our demands justified?

- What are the overall implications of our demand on all concerned stakeholders?

This introspection will help budding women leaders to desist from knee jerk reactions to situations

/ issues and placing unreasonable demands. The approach would be to introspect, deliberate and

take up important issues, which warrant representation and follow it up for effective closure.

3. “Be careful of what you say!!”

In the recent past, many views (on women), which have been openly expressed by men, has

come into unprecedented media glare and public out lash. This may lead to bottled up emotions

/ unexpressed views of the other gender. This means, an opportunity lost for budding women

leaders, on constructive feedback to introspect and improve. The shift would be “Yes, we do

welcome and are open to constructive criticism”.

4. “Diversity is to do with gender representation”

Whenever there is talk of diversity, it largely revolves around gender based issues like

- Earmarking positions for women, be it at the junior, middle, senior management or board

levels

- Representation of women in politics

- Reservations / Special benefits for women


Budding women leaders need to appreciate that diversity need not be purely gender specific. For

example, in the teams they lead, they need to appreciate, recognize and build diversity, not just

by gender, but more through skills, competencies, perspectives and insights that team members

bring. i.e. Shift from “Diversity through representation” to “Diversity through recognition”.

5. “We Vs You - Come, let us battle the way to the summit”

There is a lot of debate and discussion on the characteristics of a winning female, what makes

women leaders tick, how they made their way to the top, so on and so forth. In this backdrop,

budding women leaders need to appreciate that it is not a battle to the top, but it is a

collaborative team effort that is going to take them there. It is not the point of “We Vs You”, but

it is a matter of “We are all in it together”. Women leaders need to introspect and ensure that

they do not adopt an aggressive approach rubbing shoulders on their way to the summit, but

take the entire team (including the extended team members) along through appreciation,

collaboration and effective team leadership.

To Sum it up:

The march to the summit is not a battle. It is not about one up - (wo)manship, but it is about

openness, introspection, appreciation, resilience and building team diversity. It is not just about

demanding gender specific empowerment and benefits, but looking beyond the gender

boundaries, which will enable the budding women leaders to carve a niche for themselves and

successfully scale the summit.

Avalanches to the Summit

Anisha Sequeira

Every year the MMA Women Managers Convention revolves around a

theme that I somehow end up personally relating to. From ‘Choices’

to ‘Voices’ we all face dilemmas and have to stand up for our beliefs

in our personal and professional lives. This year too, the theme

struck a chord with me. This year’s convention is on the theme of

leadership- “Route to the Summit”. And once again MMA hit the nail

on the head! From the turbulence in Indian politics to the presidential

elections in the USA this indeed is the year of leadership.

Perhaps, not everyone wants to be a leader. And that, I think is

alright. We all have unique aspirations and these aspirations could be our summits. Hence, there is

no perfect “one size fits all” definition of a summit. But the theme being leadership with a focus on

women leaders I have to admit we still have a long and difficult road ahead of us.

In an ideal world given the ratio of men and women is almost 50:50 in terms of population, the

leadership roles too should proportionately have had 50:50 men and women. However, as we all

know the reality is very different. We have a handful of women leaders in politics as well as the

corporate world. And it is not that women cannot be leaders, as a matter of fact studies have

proven that companies which have higher number of women in senior positions report better

profits. This is because women bring in a unique perspective to the boardroom because of their

innate qualities.

So why do we not see as many women in leadership positions? There is a historical, cultural and

social context to this. From a historical perspective till the 21st century the roles of men and

women were clearly defined to as the man being the breadwinner and the woman being the


homemaker. These traditional roles restricted the opportunities for women to display their

leadership skills. It is only in recent times that women have been able to step out of these

restrictions and take their rightful place in the world.

This transition has not been easy and is still not wholly entrenched across the world. However,

there are many initiatives to support women find their right footing in the world. These initiatives

start from the grass root level like the ‘Beti bachao, Beti padhao’ campaign. This symbolises the

twin dangers faced by the girl child in India of survival and education. The statistics on literacy

rates speak for themselves. A number of reasons have been spouted for the poor figures ranging

from lack of toilets in schools to disinterest on part of parents who consider the girl child a burden

and not worth investing on. Attitudes are changing but a lot more needs to be done to encourage

the girl child to study and excel.

Getting a degree is only the beginning of the struggle for few women. They are in their early

twenties by the time they graduate and smother their aspirations for further studies or a career by

succumbing to familial pressure for early marriage. There are women of course who continue to

work after marriage but unfortunately the number of women who have stepped out of the kitchen

is much higher than the number of men who have stepped into the kitchen. Hence women end up

juggling too many things at a time. In India, we are still lucky that a lot of the house work can be

delegated to a maid who is relatively inexpensive. Since a house is occupied by the family, it is

best that the housework be divided among the occupants. In this way the burden on the woman is

reduced. Ariel has recently launched a brilliant campaign #ShareTheLoad which encourages the

men to pitch into the housework.

The next avalanche that hits a woman’s career is bearing children. The role and responsibility of a

mother amplifies post-delivery. In nature, we observe that in many species like birds, mammals

both the parents share responsibility in raising the child. In many societies however child care is

mainly the woman’s responsibility. Though at a young age, the emotional connect the child has

with the mother needs to be nurtured, the father should devote equal time and attention in raising

the child.

On a personal note, I have observed that the working mother not only brings financial benefit to

the family kitty, but it also improves her outlook on life. My aunt who is a Doctor, opted out of

work for many years due to some personal reasons, but on re-entering the workplace, she has

undergone a personality change for the better. Many initiatives have been made by corporates

around the world like reservation at the board level, coaching & mentoring programs, extended

childcare leave, work from home, etc. All of these initiatives have encouraged women to surmount

their avalanches.

I would like to conclude that despite the apparently insurmountable cliffs termed as avalanches,

the determined woman cannot be stopped from reaching the summit. Avalanches may slow down

and disable the woman temporarily, however determination on the part of the woman and

cooperation from her partner will definitely enable the woman to reach the summit and prove to

the world that there is no difference in leadership between the sexes.

Women who have attained the summit have displayed that they are equally if not better at steering

the Company or the Country in leadership positions. What is needed is not physical strength,

witness the frail Mother Teresa who launched the Missionaries of Charity. What is needed is not

tough dominant behaviour, witness the soft spoken Anu Agha of Thermax. What is needed is not

birth in a royal or rich family, witness the commoner’s daughter, Priyanka Chopra. A few woman


have done it and are the clarion call to all woman to emulate these women and work their way to

the summit.

Success Stories - How it was done!

Dr R Ramarathnam

Chairman, Basil Energetics Pvt Ltd

A Summary of the Address delivered by Dr R

Ramarathnam during the talk on ‘Success Stories - How it

was done!’ held on 17 February 2016 at Chennai

Trials and tribulations of a tenacious technocrat! Here is

the success story of Dr. R Ramarathnam, Executive

Chairman, Basil Energetics Pvt. Ltd about transforming to

a futuristic economy!

It was not easy in those days when I started the first

generation entrepreneur business in the late 70s and

make some name in the industry. I will briefly talk about the issues that we had to face and how

we overcame them, and the strategies we adopted when India shifted to globalisation and how we

are now transforming ourselves to a futuristic company. In this there is also a very important

aspect of green energy. I am sure there would be people very passionate about this in the

audience. I will also briefly go through that part of work that we have done.

How it all started…

In the second half of 70’s we started this business. I am an Electrical Engineer by profession and

worked in India for around 8 years. I graduated from IIT Madras and took M .Tech & Ph D from IIT

Bombay.

Electric motor is my speciality. When we started our business in 1976-77, the industry was

dominated by multinationals. We had Siemens, Brown Boveri (iABB now), American Universal

(later acquired by GE). There was one company in Bangalore by name NGEF that had a technical

and financial collaboration of AEG. We also had the Indian companies like Kirloskar Electric,

Crompton Greaves and my own ex-company, Jyoti. They were all motors players. Many of my

friends were asking me, “why are you entering this industry” but we did endeavour to stand out.

Indigenisation is the key…

What was important was positioning your product & choosing the right product mix. All these

companies were concentrating on standard motors. We decided that we would go with very special

type motors & those that were being imported. I am sure many of you would know how difficult it

was to import something in those days. You needed a license. Lot of procedural formalities were

there. So import substitution was a very important thing that we ventured. We actually tried to

position ourselves as a niche player in special purpose motors like vibrator motors. The motor

itself vibrates. You require pump for moving liquids. You require vibratory conveyors, feeders,

bins, etc, for moving solids. Almost all fertiliser plants in India at that time were with our motors.

We indigenised that motor and that was our first major success story.

Many of you would know, there was a company called Best & Crompton. They had British

collaboration in the early 80’s to manufacture valve actuators. Big chemical plants and power


plants use gate valves, butterfly valves etc, which are remotely controlled. You need a motor to

actuate them. It is a special purpose motor which they were planning to import from Britain since

they had a collaboration with a company called Rotork Controls. Now Rotork controls exists but

Best & Crompton is no more. In 1981 we indigenised that motor and we supplied them for 18

years. All the power and chemical plants in this country were actually with our motors. That was a

big success for our company. There was also Torque Motors which are used for the reeling

industry. When you wind some filament or chord on a drum, the torque should vary

continuously. The peripheral speed should be constant. This is how we actually positioned

ourselves. We quickly came out of the initial teething problems and we were doing very well.

Then we identified the defence Sector. They are one of the largest importers and they still are.

Lot of imports are done by the defence sector, though people talk about indigenisation. But we did

quite a lot of work for them. One of their DRDO labs based in Pune needed 400 Hz motors. Soviet

Union was our close Defence Partner those days. We indigenised those motors.

We were associated with the Navy also. In Frigates, a huge windshield is in front of the bridge,

where the ship’s caption stands. The wiper swipes the windshield linearly. We developed this

motor and almost all the frigates at that time were with our motor. The important thing is to find

our place in a very crowded market which was dominated by the large corporates and

multinationals.

Another very interesting project we did was for Hindustan Shipyard, for the ships again. Normally

every ship has two alternators for power supply. Suppose they have 500 kW generators, they don’t

have one 500 kW but two 250 kW and they run these two in synchronism. They need a very

special purpose choke for synchronisation. They were importing from Germany at a phenomenal

cost. We were quite raw in pricing in those days. We quoted Rs. 12,000! We promptly got the

order and completed the supply. This is how the initial set up was done. The electronic industry

which was restricted to public sector like BEL, BHEL, EC-IL, etc. They were importing fans that cool

the electronics. We indigenised these also. The name of the game was import substitution - in

late 70’s and early 80’s.

The Consolidation Phase:

Then came the consolidation phase. At that time I thought, the appliances are going to be the

future. We established a new plant in Sholavaram on the Chennai-Calcutta Highway. It was

actually an agricultural village and we went and established our motor manufacturing facility. In

Sholavaram those days, though they had electricity, the EB would give only single phase power

during day time. There we took local people and trained them. The special purpose motor, the

numbers were small, may be 100 or 200 per month. But in the appliance industry, the numbers

are much larger. So we decided that we would go for appropriate automation of winding. And

again getting the import license for these machines was a difficult job. Hence we decided to make

these machines ourselves! In the mid 80’s, I was more of a mechanical engineer designing these

machines! I used to go to Hannover Fair and Coil Winding Fair in US; as a buyer I used to go to

the manufacturers who make those machines, look at them, come back to the hotel, make the

sketches and that’s how we did that! We successfully implemented them and in early 80’s, these

machines were mostly made in-house. Our strategy was: focus only on winding and assembly.

Don’t get into components manufacturing as a motor has so many components. Fortunately

Chennai being an automobile ancillary hub even in those days, lot of facilities were available and

we made full use of them. We got everything outsourced except winding, assembly and testing.


Of course, design is our core competency. There was

one company in Coimbatore, a mixie manufacturer.

They wanted to do everything in house with no

outsourcing. Except the copper wire, they were doing

everything else in-house! Now that company is no

more.

We marched forward, thanks to Vacuum Cleaner

We established facilities for AC motor and DC motor.

Mixie, Vacuum cleaner etc, use DC type motors with

brushers, commutators, which is a little different

motor. There was no company which did these two

together. We were little ahead of time. Our cycle time was that every minute we can turn out one

AC motor and we could turn out one DC motor for a mixie or vacuum cleaner in half a minute!

People were telling this was a big capacity. But at that time there was a Japanese company called

Mabuchi making small motors. They were making one million motors a day! And 400 or 800

motors per shift was a big deal in India. But many did not want to buy motors from us. They said,

“Motor is the heart of the product and we will make it ourselves”. The situation turned with a

Vacuum cleaner party, whose existing supplier at that time was not able to supply more than 5000

motors a month. In the third month we supplied 15000 motors and after that it increased to 20000

and more. The problem in all these things was that our motors were ‘inside’ the appliance.

Nobody knew who was making the motor and as a typical first generation entrepreneur, I was

really happy to be ancillary to someone else. The Chennai culture was also like that then. This is

where the Coimbatore people were very different. Even a small businessman will sell in his own

name. So we were very happy supplying to these people and later I realised that I should have

done something different. After all I had the motor, I could cover with a plastic body and jars were

available off-the-shelf and I could have made my own mixie! We used to supply motors for washing

machines, mixies, fans etc, Most of you would have used the equipments with one of my motors.

But we were only inside the appliances! Nobody knew us and our motor was very silent also. To

motivate my people, I used to say, ‘we are silent revolutionaries!”

This was the consolidation phase and we were doing very well. We became a debt-free company

since early 90’s and continue like that now!

The difference we made…

This phase was very important as there was huge growth of consumer durable sector. We

anticipated it. One differentiator was that we had both AC & DC motors. We were the only

company making both types. We got certified by leading MNCs for their quality system. Our quality

system by our own passion and customers’ demand made us very strong. We are one of the small

companies who got ISO very early. We also followed Kaizen, “Keep im-proving on a continuous

basis,” a simple Japanese concept. The MNCs used to say, “We will not give you price increase

except for the raw materials such as copper aluminium etc. For other costs, you have to improve

your productivity”.

Post 90’s scenario

Post 90’s with the economic reforms, globalisation, everyone was affected in someway or other.

The licensing barrier was totally dispensed with. The import duties were also drastically reduced.

We had a peculiar inverted duty structure. The major imports were copper and silicon steel. For


these two, the duties were at 50% to 55% whereas you can import a motor at 25% duty.

Normally any fiscal policy should encourage local value addition. Lowest duty is charged for raw

materials, medium duty for intermediary items and the highest duty for finished products. Here it

was just the opposite. We had lot of problems in this regard and it took quite sometime to tackle

these issues. We survived these tough times. The competition was another major issue. In 1991

Soviet Union collapsed and the Western European countries came to East Europe and started

manufacturing in a big way. Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand were there. China was just emerging

as a big producer. We strategised. I said, by end of 90s, motor will become a commodity and we

may have to sell it by weight! Price was the only driver. Most wanted to make the motors in-house

as motors were the heart of the appliances. Many, after getting the motors from us initial stages,

did that. So we decided that we need to do some value addition. Instead of giving a plain vanilla

motor we wanted to give more value to the customer. That was the time when the Rio Protocol

came which dealt with sustainable development and climate control mechanisms. Rio Protocol

specified that by 2010, India will also comply with energy norms for appliances. Introducing the

energy norms for the appliances would come. That actually led me to think that instead of making

ordinary motors we would go for high efficiency motors. In my previous phase I was more

bothered about energy conversion and now it is energy efficiency.

Energy Efficiency is critical for a green economy

Energy usage has lot of implications which is important for all of us who are running businesses. I

am comparing India, China, Germany, USA and Japan, who have set some bench mark in these

areas. First let us see what the per capita consumption of electricity is. World average is around

3000 and India’s 760. China’s is higher. US is very high at 13,000 kWh per person per year. But

what is the emission? We are at 1.58 MT carbon dioxide per person per annum. USA is the highest

at 16 MT. China has also grown very rapidly. More important is the total emission by a country. In

2009 China overtook US to become the world’s largest polluter and India overtook Japan to

become the third largest. This is one area where we have beaten the Japanese! That is why in

2009 when Copenhagen Climate Control Conference happened, Obama insisted that India and

China should be on board for any climate control agreement. As you know recently in Paris COP

21, India has committed very stiffly to containing emission. TOE is tons of oil equivalent which is

very important. You use energy in different forms - electricity, gas, coal etc, Everything is reduced

in terms of oil equivalent. How much energy you require to produce 1000 dollars of GDP? China

and India numbers are very large and China is even worse than us. You see Germany use 1/6th of

what we use. Japan is even less. America is not bad at 0.15 whereas we are 0.6. This means that

we use energy very inefficiently. Energy efficiency is very critical. It is the ‘energy intensity of the

economy’. Our economy is very energy intensive. Imagine what is going to happen when we

catch up with the rest of the world. After all, when there is growth, it should be accompanied by

more electricity consumption. That is one normal parameter. All these statistics are taken from

International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2014.

Now let us look at energy efficiency. Out of the greenhouse gases produced, 40% is ac-counted by

electricity. And, as we develop, it is going to increase. We cannot have this kind of energy

inefficiency. Interestingly, 60 to 65% of this is accounted by electric motors. You see in your

house, how many motors are there. Unknowingly you are using lot of motors and that too

inefficient ones! In India people work mostly on lights. We had the incandescent lamps; then the

florescent bulbs, CFL, LED etc, But everybody neglected the motor which accounts for nearly 2/3rd

of electricity. This is where the challenge lies. I saw an opportunity there. Without energy


efficiency and renewable energy, we cannot make much headway in reducing the energy intensity

of the economy. Particularly countries like India and in Africa which are constrained by monetary

resources. Why not we use optimally whatever re-sources we have? Deploying renewable energy

could be a great supplement for mitigating this problem. Particularly our power problems are

during the peak hours; it is the peak load problem. In Tamil Nadu, three years back we had a

basic deficit itself. Karnataka is now facing this problem. But now the basic deficit is reduced but

still peak hour problems continue. Solar is one natural God-given gift, because during the peak

hour only sun is shining. Energy demand is growing very rapidly. In the next three years, Bihar

and UP are going to have phenomenal growth. The per capita consumption of Bihar is 200. When

Bihar develops, its energy demand is expected to grow very rapidly. Even developed states like

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka etc, have on an average 10% annual growth. In the next

three years, 88000 MW is required. It is a very challenging infrastructure issue and substantial

mitigation is possible through renewable energy resources. I will briefly tell how we can do it.

Conventional Solar System

Solar is the largest of renewable energy. Wind is also there. But wind and solar are unreliable.

Wind is seasonal and unreliable. Same thing for solar. Suddenly a cloud formation would reduce

the output. The grid management becomes more difficult. If somebody tells that we will

completely do away with the grid don’t believe them; it is not possible. You have to have the

conventional grid. Let us concentrate more on solar now. We have the solar power going to

battery charger, charging the battery and then it goes to an inverter (solar produces DC voltage)

which converts that into an AC through an inverter to fans and lights. Generally roof top small

systems can power up only lights and fans. What is the issue in the present solution? You use the

same inefficient appliances. There is battery and inverter. These two can consume as much as

30% of the solar panel power. This solar system cannot operate big motors. For example in the

home inverter, which is a flourishing market now be-cause of the perennial power cut, cannot even

run your refrigerator which has a very small motor, forget the air-conditioner! Why so? Because

these motors have an inherent problem. When you switch on the motor, heavy in-rush current is

there. Even your DG set may not be able to take up this. In many places, when there is DG set

operation, Air-conditioners are taken out. Overall efficiency comes down and hence cost goes up

and the roof top area in-creases. Roof top area is very important. Ministry of New Renewable

Energy is very much active in this area of roof top systems. They are encouraging roof top system.

In Tamil Na-du, as per rough calculations, we can have 15000 MW if you use rooftops only.

Germany has done lot of work in this area. Then comes the battery. None of the suppliers will tell

you how long the battery will last. You will only know when it fails.

New solution

Electrical engineers all over the world are talking of four things. First is distributed generation

Second is smart grid. The present grid is very dumb. You keep on loading the grid and suddenly it

trips. Then when the load reduces, it resumes. The third one is the super-efficient DC appliances.

Instead of AC, you go for DC appliances. The energy intensity of the economy can be brought

down by using DC appliances. The fourth one is when you have a building automation every

appliance has to be smart and be connected to the NET. It is called the ‘internet of things’. If you

look at this slide, this is micro–grid for each and every building. Here the photovoltaic panel is

connected and the power grid is also connected. Then there are appliances such as air-

conditioners, refrigerators, ceiling fans, bulbs and lights. You can have a battery back-up in case

the power grid is not reliable. The battery will be charged from the solar and when the sun is not


there, it will run the appliances from the battery. Of course, that is optional and normally I don’t

recommend that unless it is very mission critical. You can actually feed-back the energy into the

grid. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are allowing such provisions. Another interesting thing is a Roof

Top Micro Wind system and a Pico hydro system. You can put up a run of the river system. All

these power sources can be connected to the smart micro grid.

What does a smart grid do?

It monitors the power available in the solar panel as well as the load demand. When there is

adequate power everything will run from DC directly. There is no need for any inverter or battery.

On a cloudy day when the power generation is somewhat less, it will run as many appliances as

possible from the solar panel and balance from the grid. The third scenario, when at night time it

will run everything from the grid. The fourth scenario, on a bright sunny day, when except

refrigerator other loads are switched off the excess power can be fed to the grid. The smart grid

manages all these four possibilities automatically. The concept of grid is brought to a building level.

The key features are: Super-efficient DC appliances. There is no starting current in any of the

motorised appliances. So you don’t have the issues connected with the starting current. Generally,

no inverter or battery is needed. To specifically talk about super-efficient appliances, I have

compared BEE 5 star rated appliances with the new proposed solution. The 1.5 ton air-conditioner

takes around 1650 watts input for five star. Ours takes only 333 watts. A refrigerator of 300 litres,

two door frost free model, consumes 150 watts for normal 5 star and ours is 40 watts. The ceiling

fans which needs 55 watts for the 5 Star rating and ours draws only 20 watts.

We now compare the conventional solar system and the new solar system. For example for a small

home with one refrigerator, 3 fans, 2 tubes and 2 lights and for a mid-size home, you add a one-

ton air-conditioner also. The panel rating for a conventional system should be 2 KW. But our new

solar panel system will work with 0.3 KW! The panel area drastically reduces. With air conditioner,

it will be a 4 to 5 KW whereas ours is with 1.6 KW. The price is also important. The present one

without appliances will cost around 2.1 lakhs whereas ours including appliances will be Rs.1.5

lakhs. Similarly with air conditioner present system costs Rs. 8 lakhs, while ours is 3.5 lakhs. The

important thing is roof top area. Present system need 160 Sq. Ft for the refrigerator model,

whereas ours requires only 25 Sq.Ft. We are in talk with one builder who is building a 20-storey

building – 4 apartments per floor, each apartment is around 650 Sq.ft. The roof top area is 2600

Sq.Ft. Ours require only 25 Sq.Ft per house. There are 80 apartments in that building and we need

2000 Sq.Ft. It means you have enough area and the whole building can be given the bare

minimum necessities. That is the power of this technology.

Impact of the new technology on the environment and society

What impact does this have on the environment and society and the economic viability of the

ultimate user? Actually we score on all these. As far as the impact on the environment is

concerned, India produces 30 million ceiling fans a year and you can save 1050 MW if you change

over to this technology. On refrigerator, you can save another 880 MW and on LED tube light 3600

MW. This is per year addition. Total saving at the load level is about 11000 MW. You take into

account the plant load factor and the transmission losses. At the generation level, you have 20000

MW power saving year after year. At Rs. 5 to 6 crores per MW, you save Rs. 100000 to 120000

crores per year. We see a savings of 80% on the energy bills wherever we have installed our

technology. We designed a system in such a way that the building is not paying any electricity

charges at all. We have achieved a zero energy building. I was discussing with Vijayakumar about

this and we can have one such demo installation in MMA building!


First Steps to the Summit

Shirin Maria Varghese

I’m going to do what I want to do.

I’m going to be who I really am.

I’m going to figure out what that is. - Emma Watson

As the youngest child in my family, I was always in a hurry to

grow up, to stand on my own two feet, be independent, and take

the world by its proverbial horns. In any traditional Indian

household, studying and being good at it seemed to be the

definition of success and mine was no exception. If you get good

marks in 12th boards, you can get into a good college, if you can

do well in CAT exam, you can get into a good MBA institute. These

affirmations were often repeated and the expectations were

always pre-set for me.

But never did I feel that my parents had any different expectation

of me than that of my elder brother. My parents ensured the best of education for the both of us

and ‘expected’ us to do something with that, someday. They, like majority of people their

generation, wanted our education and background to define us and help us make a living out of it.

As a girl, I had never felt that my school treated boys and girls differently. I felt that all of us had

the same opportunities to excel in whatever we felt our strong suit was. However as I grew up, I

realised, the ability to utilise these opportunities seemed to be skewed towards the men,

particularly after graduation and I watched more than one of my friends fall along the wayside

without reaching her full potential due to various societal, economic roadblocks and hurdles.

Beginning of a Career

The word “corporate” has a ring of sophistication to it. And at its entrance I stood almost a year

back determined and diffident to make my mark and assured of making to the top. The corporate

world looked fascinating from the outside. There was money and power and a sense of self-worth

by being good at something apart from having the ability to make a difference. And slowly my life

began to change.

From being a girl, who let all the decision making to her parents, who was always protected by a

shield of her friends and family, here I am today learning the ropes of leadership, the hard way.

Although quite unpleasant and uncomfortable in the beginning, I have started making decisions

small and large in my personal and professional life.

Every day has been a new learning experience. My workplace and my colleagues have helped me.

They have empowered me to push harder and farther. This new phase in life, didn’t just teach me

to take decisions, it has also taught me to own them, to face the consequences of my decisions.

More importantly I have empowered myself, to belong in this exciting, volatile world, taking onus

of myself and my work.

Today, as I stand at the beginning of my professional career, as a young, independent woman, I

look ahead. The corporate leadership dream is a long way off but I’m imbibing the leadership

qualities that are required. There are questions running through my mind the answers to which I

try to find through my work. Sure, the road looks uncertain, but what looks certain is that the

route to the summit will be nothing short of a fight. And for this fight I’m ready, more than ever.

Once the initial excitement fades and I hit the first of the many obstacles on my journey to the top,

it is this determination that I want to hold on to for the rest of the journey, to keep me moving on

my route to the summit.


FOR THE KIND ATTENTION OF MMA MEMBERS

This is to remind you that the Annual Subscription of the Madras Management Association is

payable in advance on the first day of April each year as per Rule 5(d) of the Memorandum & Rules

of the Association. We request you to kindly renew your subscription for the year 2016-17 at the

earliest, if not already done.

We also request you to kindly intimate us your current email id and mobile number in order to

ensure effective communication regarding all MMA activities and also enable us to serve you better.

We are pleased to inform you that the online system of payment for renewal of subscription is

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Route to the Summit

Nina John

Past District Governor, Toastmasters International

A woman entered a service centre to collect her car. Looking at her homely, non-

descript appearance, the mechanic went into the standard spiel about the

carburetor, engine oil etc. loading it with lots of jargon. To his surprise, the

woman started beaming at him and asked a whole lot of specific and technical

questions in return. And capped it all by telling him that it was the most

“intelligent” conversation she had had in twenty years! Apparently, she was a gold medalist in

Mechanical engineering from Anna University, had got married straight after she graduated, plunged

into family life and never got back to studies or working.

This, unfortunately, is the reality way too often in India. We educate our sons and daughters to the

maximum level we as parents can afford to, and the girls do so well, topping almost all the public

exams across the country. Walk into any IT campus – the number of women and men is almost the

same. Walk into the cabins, and there is a sharp decline in the number of women- life simply gets in

the way. And India Inc. loses trained, intelligent resources that it can ill afford, in these days of the

knowledge era. These are women in the prime productive years, who can contribute phenomenally to

the corporate and national exchequer.

Why are we losing this precious resource, and why are we not doing anything about it? What are the

steps that can be taken on all the different fronts?

Corporates must have family-friendly, not just women-friendly, policies, beginning with maternity

and paternity leave, because the young couple is struggling on its own, in a new city perhaps. The

father needs to be present , to help with the shopping, the night shifts and the cleaning & diaper

changes, too! This also has spin-off benefits in terms of better father-child bonding, which is

beneficial to both in the long term.

Some companies do have crèches and nurseries at the workplace and this provides an enormous

huge psychological support to the young parents who can pop in and check on the baby. All over

Tamil Nadu, and elsewhere, there are industrial complexes for IT and other industrial segments. A

common facility where all the companies’ employees can keep their children would be a boon for

many. When companies can spend on fancy cafeterias with different cuisines, surely some facilities

like these can be included.


Talking of facilities, as one who constantly visits a variety of establishments, I am constantly shocked

at the lack of attention paid to the basics for hygiene, such as in dining halls, basins and toilets.

Some of the toilets are appalling, though the swanky new complexes have some great ones. The

larger establishments do have toilets that are fairly alright, but many do not have ledges to keep

laptops or handbags, and many have no arrangements to dispose off feminine hygiene products.

[Purely a digression, but why is it mandatory for all our toilets, beginning with our airports, to exhibit

their tired and worn-down brooms and mops just at the entrance?] Another simple calculation is the

number of stalls for each floor. Check out the ratio of Men’s rooms to Women’s and you will be

surprised. The fancy five-star hotels have barely three to four stalls for the women and when there is

a seminar or convention, the average queue has to be seen to be believed. Ever seen one outside a

Men’s Room?

Other policies corporate are putting into place are those of mentoring and encouraging diversity.

Some have a formal system, others are more informal, but across the world, the trend is to

encourage women. The research group Catalyst has several studies that show how such

encouragement of empowering women and diversity, all the way up to Board-level has resulted in a

distinct growth in profits.

More and more companies are encouraging women to return to work after childbirth, through a

variety of skilling and educational programmes. These can be leveraged successfully only through

sustained effort, by the company, its management and by employees themselves. Unless there are

prospects for growth and self-development, women are unlikely to return in large numbers. But if

there is a war for talent, organizations cannot afford to ignore this huge workforce. These kinds of

incentives help win employee loyalty, which is so hard to get.

But why is it so difficult for women to return to the workforce? Simply because of society, or the

community at large.

The community has a crucial role to play in getting women to work, or not to work. In the early

stages of the industrial revolution, both men and women worked together, first in the fields, and then

in the factories that displaced these fields. Labour became bifurcated in different areas, and with the

nuclear family and early urbanization, men became ‘breadwinners’ and women ‘stayed at home’. The

World Wars changed all that, with women ‘manning’ the farms and factories of Europe while the

men went to war. When they came back, and asked the women to ‘stay at home’, they refused. The

rise of socialism, democracy, communism, all these sparked different movements across the globe,

with the idea of equal rights for women, the most revolutionary thought being that of education for

women.

The idea of “working women’ then, changed with the times. As more women entered the workforce,

they acquired economic power along with social prestige. Where there were joint families and cheap

labour, women could go out and work, with family members or a neighbourhood where everybody

knew each other. Today, with the nuclear family, the woman is faced with the choice of marriage or

career. Unless there are more facilities for safe crèches and nurseries and licensed, supervised day-

care, more and more women have to make this choice.

Infrastructure in terms of easy, convenient and safe public transport, communications and public

spaces are essential. Access to law and support in times of distress is vital for women. Awareness of

health and safety measures at the workplace and the community is also a big help for women.

On the home front, though more and more urban couples are sharing the housework, across the

world women shoulder a far larger burden, especially in India where the pampered son and even

more pampered son-in-law syndrome flourishes. Women are expected to do the cooking and the

cleaning along with all the childcare (from nappies to homework) and even take care of the elderly or

the sick. That some changes are creeping in are evident in the rash of advertisements (always a

reliable barometer of social trends!) that question why the men who can run multi-million rupee

organizations or stay glued to video games for hours on end cannot operate washing machines. The

flip side of course is why women who run multi-million rupee organizations are still expected to come

home and wash the clothes.

The individual woman has a great responsibility.


There are many millions of women who have successfully combined family life with career or

ambition. There are too many who opt to stay at home simply because that’s the way their mothers

were. There is so much potential just waiting to be unleashed, not necessarily in the corporate space,

but in the social and economic fields. There are hobbies to be taken up, passions to be followed, new

paths to be blazed. Many have set up NGO’s, or volunteered, or become social entrepreneurs while

some have just stagnated. What are the options?

• Study and work.

• Work and get married.

• Continue working after marriage.

• Stop working after marriage.

• Set up a family and take up jobs on a temporary or free-lance basis.

• Work from home- there any number of jobs that are home-based.

• Study further – in the same field or a totally different one.

• Use that to get a job of your liking.

• Set up a business- entrepreneurship, family business, franchisee, partnership.

• Develop your hobbies or your passion –these could be lucrative, too.

• Volunteer your time or your expertise - to children, youth, older people, society, the

underprivileged.

• Join an organization –Lions, Rotary, Toastmasters – develop yourself and others.

• Join politics -the country needs educated , knowledgeable, committed individuals.

It is the responsibility of each couple to decide what they do with their lives, and build a new

tomorrow, for themselves, for the community and for the nation. The MMA Annual Women Managers’

Convention theme was “Route to the Summit” an apt title for the times and one even more apt for

women who, if they want to be, can be the catalysts for change in the world today.


Mr S Nagarajan, Managing Director, Mother

Dairy delivering Inaugural Address during the

Inaugural Session of MMA Annual Convention

2016

The Convention Special Issue of MMA Business

Mandate is being released by the dignitaries

during the Inaugural Session of MMA Annual

Convention 2016

Dr R Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer,

Doha Bank, Qatar delivering the Special

Address during the Inaugural Session of MMA

Annual Convention 2016

Mr Gautam Kumra, Director (Senior Partner),

McKinsey & Company and Head, Organization

Practice Asia & Founder, McKinsey Leadership

Institute delivering the Keynote Address during

the MMA Annual Convention 2016

MMA Annual Convention 2016

India 2016: Leading Change - 13 Feb 16 at Taj Coromandel


(L to R) Ms Mridula Ramesh, Mr Keshav

Kantamneni, Dr Bala V Balachandran and Mr B

Vaidyanathan during the Special Session on “A

New Generation of Change Leaders” during the

MMA Annual Convention 2016

(L to R) Mr N K Prasad, Mr Guruprasad Rao,

Mr K Srinivasan and Mr Aroon Raman during

the Special Session on “ Leading With

Ownership and Accountability” during the MMA

Annaul Convention 2016

(L to R) Swami Sukhabodhananda, Dr R

Seetharaman and Mr Geet Sethi during the

Special Session on “Leading Change in Our

Ecosystems” during the MMA Annual Convention

2016

(L to R) Mr R Srikanth, Mr Ravi Viswanathan,

Mr R Dinesh and Mr T Shivaraman during the

Valedictory Session of MMA Annual Convention

2016


Mr Ravi Viswanathan and Mr R Dinesh

presenting “Best Young Manager Award for the

Year 2016” to the Winner Mr Krishnan

Vijayaraghavan of Tata Consultancy Services

during the Valedictory Session of MMA Annual

Convention 2016

A cross section of delegates attending the MMA

Annual Convention 2016

Mr T Shivaraman, President, MMA presenting

memento to Mr R Srikanth, Convention

Chairman & Senior Vice President, MMA during

the MMA Annual Convention 2016

Dignitaries along with Justice Sanjay Kishan

Kaul, Chief Justice, High Court of Madras during

the Conference on “Appropriate Dispute

Resolution”

Registering Memories


(L to R) Mr T Shivaraman, Mr Mukund

Padmanabhan, Mr G C Shekhar, Mr R

Raghuttama Rao and Mr P Chidambaram during

the Panel Discussion on “STANDING GUARD: A

Year in Opposition”

(L to R) Mr R Venkatesan, Mr R S V S Pavan

Kumar, IRS, Mr V Pattabhi Ram and Mr Rajesh

Srinivasan during the Seminar on “Inspiring

Confidence: Union Budget 2016”

(L to R) Mr Rupesh Rao, Mr S Kannan, IRS and

Mr P C Anand during the Seminar on “Inspiring

Confidence: Union Budget 2016”

The Panel of Jury during the “Danfoss-MMA

Competition for Outstanding Woman Manager

of The Year Award 2016” held on 5 March 2016

at MMA House

business mandate | march 2016 page 1 of 1mmachennai.org/uploads/mandatepdf/mandatepdf_11.pdf ·...

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