Open Letter to Shaheen Mistry

(This letter is in response to an allegation made by my friend and activist Shakil Ahmed regarding non compliance and discriminatory treatment to his child by a school run by Akanksha. Shaheen Mistry is the founder of Akanksha, one of the leading NGOs in Mumbai working on education. The letters are produced at the bottom. Both Shaheen and Shakil are part of the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship)

Dear Shaheen,

I have been following Shakil's struggles to get admission for his son for sometime now. After he was able to get admission in the school run by Akanksha, he has been observing many issues in the way the school was run.

I am sure you know Shakil and Shakil, being what he is, has his simplistic way of addressing these issues. He plays by the rule book, and with him, there are not too many shades of grey. If there is a rule or a policy he expects whole-hearted adherence to that policy. He expects the teaching staff and management to be open and honest if they are experiencing lack of resources. He expects the teachers to be caring and empathetic to the children and transparent with the parents.

Unfortunately he forgets that he is not Gandhi. He forgets that it should be him that has to be indebted to the school for providing such a service instead of questioning it. He forgets we are living in an imperfect, third-world society where hierarchy, unfortunately, is the only rule. The real rules are only to be followed if convenient. Teachers and school management have power because they know English - the magical key to a better life. The children have to submit to the teachers and receive empathy only if they and their parents sufficiently inflate their egos.

In this society, Shakil stands out like a thorn. A naive, hot-head antagonist who only ends up being an annoyance to those associated with him. Not only does he speak rudely, but he also ends up being right in most of the cases, so you can't even nail him. The only way remains is to isolate him and make sure he goes away. Minimize the damage he can do.

I think that is what your school management and teachers want. They want him to go away, so they can continue their life with peace. Who, then, will dare ask the questions. Who then will ask why there is no drinking water in school. Who then will question the qualification of the teachers. Who then will ask about safety of children in picnics.

I know the emotions of poor people don't matter much and neither do their lives. I know that you will always be famous and your name will always be kept in high regards because of the selfless charity and sacrifices you have made. You are and will remain a role model for the youth of this country.

Somewhere in the corner, hidden from the mainstream, idealists like Shakil will end up making more enemies. People will surely realise that he is only a muck-racker. His son will grow up, isolated and victimised because of his misfit father, maybe with not enough confidence to fight back. He will grow up wonder what wrong did he do and why did they treat him differently in school. Why had they left him alone.

In the middle of all your successes, I hope there would be a corner in your heart that would say, I wish I had investigated a bit more in that Shakil matter, been more honest and transparent about the shortcomings of the program. I wished I had been a bit more critical of the teachers and management's attitude. I wish I had taken more responsibility.

In the end you may probably lose a valuable opportunity to improve your program. And a child will probably lose his innocence.

Rushabh Mehta

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Shaheen's (obviously dignified) response to Shakil's criticism:

Dear Friends,

You may have received a mail titled "Shame Shame Akanksha Saheen Mistry" sent by Ashoka Fellow Shakil Ahmed. Since the mail contains pretty serious accusations against the NGO Akanksha, I thought I would clarify the points raised in this mail.

On July 20th, 2012, Shakil Ahmed’s son was admitted to the Abhyudaya Nagar Mumbai Public School in Kala Chowki. Since joining, the child has adjusted into his new setting and is performing well in class

On numerous occasions, Mr. Ahmed has requested for information regarding the demographics of the school’s students and general operational practices, and Akanksha has always provided the information in a timely manner. If and when an issue is under BMC jurisdiction, Akanksha has directed him to the requisite BMC department, as they are the appropriate party to handle such issues.

Mr. Ahmed has also questioned the qualification of Akanksha teachers, despite the fact that the organization has made it clear that the BMC has given Akanksha until 2014 to complete the necessary qualifications. Moreover, most Akanksha teachers are already B.Ed/D Ed qualified as per BMC rules.

Mr. Ahmed has also stated that the organization attempted to prevent his child from gaining admission to its school due to discriminatory or illegal practices. As per the RTE, BMC schools are only allowed to accept children from within a 1 kilometer radius of the school for primary classes. It was explained to Mr. Ahmed numerous times that enforcing such policies does not violate any law, rather it complies with the RTE. Furthermore, the school principal suggested that his son be placed in senior KG because he had not attended school before, as she believed it would be of the most benefit to the child. Upon the father’s insistence, the child has been placed in first grade and the school is making special efforts to integrate him into the class with ease.

Finally, Mr. Ahmed has claimed that his son was purposefully kept in school and out of a field trip due to discrimination. This is not the case. The weekend prior to the trip, a parents meeting was called outlining the procedures and forms necessary for children to attend this trip – as per BMC regulations – including a signed permission letter from the parent. During this meeting, however, Mr. Ahmed continuously disrupted the session and interrupted the teacher, impeding her ability to run the meeting. He was, as he has been on previous occasions, verbally abusive and disrespectful to the teacher and school staff. On the morning of the field trip, he left his son at the gate without entering the school, so the consent letter could not be obtained. The school principal tried to contact him, but he did not answer his phone. The staff was therefore forced to keep his son in school due to lack of a consent letter as per BMC rules.

Akanksha understands that ensuring every child has access to a high-quality education is imperative, and it has worked for over 20 years to realize this vision. It is rapidly expanding to open more schools in partnership with the BMC so that it can serve more children. 

I personally, and Akanksha believe that Shakil Ahmed believes in, and is working for the rights of all children - just like Akanksha is. I do wish he would work with us, and not against us, as there is so much work to be done and while I am sure we are making mistakes, we are certainly trying to do our best and will continue to do whatever we can to do more, and to do better for all children.

Warmly,

Shaheen

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Shakil's original (obviously rude) allegation:

SHAME SHAME AKANSHA ,SAHEEN MISTRY

Dear

Akansha founded by ashoka fellow by Saheen mistry is running a BMC school in kala chowki , mumbai where they are violating all the sections of Right to Education Act , I made formal complaint regading this to variouse authority , due to this they are discriminating my son Kabir and today they have not taken Kabir to the picnic and they kept kabir in the school alone , this is the shameful act on the part of Akansha and Saheen Mistry . 

Regards

Shakil Ahmed 

Dear Shaheen Mistry,

I am a father of a six- year old boy, who, like thousand other parents has been anxious about finding a best educational institution for my child. As a law-practioner and a civil rights activist for over two decades, I have been working on a very close quarters with the education system. One such cause that I have invested my life in is trying to bring in accountability and transparency in state run educational institutions. I along with eight- nine other members, run Parivartan Shikshan Sanstha since 1997, and have been fighting to overcome lack of education facilities for children in the slums of Sangam Nagar, Wadala (east). Our NGO has ensured that a civic school was built in this area in 2006, following a Public Interest Litigation. Akanksha and Parivartan has worked together in the past.Akanksha helped us focus on the quality of education.

So when my son Kabir turned six this year, I knew, keeping all his constitutional rights intact, I had to zero down on one of the near- by schools. I too, like lakhs of parents wished to enroll him in an English medium school. But after several months of research and rejections, I was hit by hard and pressing reality that the admission process in most schools violates every premise of Right to Education Act. I then turned to your organization- Akanksha. And to my shock your school, too, did exactly what private educational institutions did.

Running you through my experience:

Over a month ago my wife Shabana had gone to Prabhud Nagar Municipal School (English medium) Cotton Green, to admit our son Kabir in 1st standard. One of social worker in School run by Akansha, NGO informed   that all seats were already full. When we pressurized to admit out child citing the Right to Education Act, they told that they do not take the students residing outside 1 km. Thus School Authority turned my son away on the ground that we reside outside 1 km. from school.

We wanted to know the admission beginning and closure details but Akansha refused to disclose and said that they have taken admission of Senior K.G students then we asked the detail list of students admitted with their residence address. My wife wanted in writing the reasons for denial of admission but she was not given then my wife gave a letter in writing stating that we had visited school for admission of our son but they refused to take that too. We lodged a complaint before Commissioner of Municipal on the same day.

On July 19, 2012, I was called by one social worker from Akansha organization who informed me that they have been directed by Administrative Officer (School) to admit my son. On July 20, 2012, I visited the school for admission and met Ms. Chitra, Principal of school. Ms. Chitra asked me to come the next day as there was a shortage of staffs in school and she was finding it difficult in carrying out formalities of filling up the forms. I told her that I have come there on receiving a phone call and can hardly find time out of my busy schedule and insisted for admission filling up form myself in absence of the staffs. This is in sheer violation of Section 8(d) and 9(f) which enshrines the duty of the Appropriate Government and Local Authority respectively to provide infrastructure including school building, teaching staff and learning material. She interrogated me about my son’s previous schooling upon which I replied that he had not attended school previously. She refused to admit him for not having previous schooling background. I wanted to come back on their refusal on which she agreed to give admission and asked me to wait as she had no idea about form fill up and called staffs from head office.

After half an hour, two ladies staffs came from head office who advised me to put my son in senior K.G as he would not be able to cope up with other student having schooling background. I shall again point over here that in refusing my son to admit in Class I, Ms. Chitra violated section 4 of the Act wherein a child above six years of age has not been admitted in any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age. The proviso to the section says that such child shall have a right to receive special training, in order to be at par with other children. They suggested me that these are in the interest of my son’s career. I did not agree with them and pointed out provision of RTE, Act which ensures special training for child to cope up in case child is admitted to class in appropriate to their age.

When I kept insisting her to take admission with the reference of Administrative Officer’s direction, she replied that AO has nowhere mentioned in letter to give admission and  again advised me to put my son in senior K.G. I did not agree for putting my son in below standard than his agree and came out.

After five minutes Ms. Chitra called me over my phone and told me that she is ready to grant admission without any condition.  She took prescribed admission form of BMC and thereafter she gave me another sheet carrying terms and conditions of Akansha, NGO. The conditions were not acceptable but I had no other option than to sign it. For example: Ms. Chitra told me to give only vegetarian food for lunch in tiffin, because it is the rule of school. I would like to point over here that the provision of mid-day meal in schools is a basic amenity provided by the Government towards ensuring that the children of all strata have the facility of having lunch provided in the school itself. Again emphasis by the school Principal to give only vegetarian food in lunch creates a sense of disparity among the children themselves as they come from all the sections of society. In fact, they should be made aware of the qualities of healthy food habits rather than discriminating them on vegetarian and non-vegetarian grounds.

While talking to the Principal I came to know that the school has tie up with Akansha, NGO under agreement to provide teaching staffs in the school. I asked per municipal rule the qualification of teachers of primary schools. She told me that minimum qualification of teachers is D.Ed. I asked number of teachers and their qualification of those teaching in their school.She informed that there are 20 teachers, out of 20 only 8 teachers have D.Ed or B.Ed qualification. I wanted to know the process of appointment, she told that they are employees of companies like Wipro, Infosys and deputed for two years in school. On asking about training I was told that Akansha provides them 20 days training. The project of deputing the teaching staffs in school are run by Teach India, NGO. Hence, the basic question that arises over here is, though the teachers over here may have worked with reputed organizations such as Infosys and Wipro, but do they have the minimum qualification of a B.Ed or D.ed degree to teach in a school? Teaching children between the age of six to fourteen years does not require experience of an IT Firm rather what is needed is the skill and training to be qualified as a teaching staff.

I asked for drinking water from one of teacher available in office for which they said that they have no water facility in school.   I expressed shock for non availability of water in school. Upon asking how children get water she replied that children are told to bring water bottle and in case they don’t’ bring water, they call parents to ask them arrange for water for their children. They further informed that school staffs take packaged drinking water when required. On asking about complaint in this connection they said that construction work of building is still going on and they are arranging funding for aqua guard. I observed that water connection is available in school but they are not providing water to children as they are waiting for aqua guard. The non-availabilty of safe drinking water facility in a school is in clear violation of The Schedule of the Act wherein the norms and standards for a school are laid down. Item (2)(iv) of the Schedule lays down that all-weather building should consist of safe and adequate drinking water facility to all children. It is to be emphasized over here that section 19 of the Act lays down that where a school fails to fulfill the norms and conditions within a specified period of 3years of its commencement, then the appropriate authority under section 18 of the Act shall withdraw recognition granted to such school.

Here, I would like to bring to your notice that thousands of parents like me are struggling to admit their child in school. Though there is legislation for providing children elementary education in govt. run schools, so that children right can be protected, it has been violated by your school. Akanksha has been in the field of imparting education for a long time and is perceived as one of the committed NGO’s.

But my experience with Akanksha has confirmed that your institution, although constitutionally bound to provide education to all, has failed a large section of the society.

Your schools arbit grounds to admit a child has violated not only the child’s constitutional right, but also defeats the purpose of a NGO.

RTE does not cover 0- 6 years age group. So when a child come to a school to be enrolled for the first time in a school at the age of six, it reflects a lot on his parents social and financial status. it for such a child that RTE comes for rescue and not for the ones who has an access to pre- primay education. Akansha should have been more careful and sensitive towards such kids. A child, who is deprived of this educational rights, should be Akanksha’s priority and not the one’s who have been to some nursery and pre- primary schooling. By asking me if my child has been to any such institutions before securing admission in standard 1st, your organization has violated my sons fundamental right to education. Previous qualification, age and the time when a parent approaches a school for admission is secondary. Every child should be in a school is and must be a priority!

I would like to ask, has Akanksha done anything to find out where are those kids it has denied admissions? Does Akansksha know, after stripping them off their basic rights, have those kids been admitted to any school?

Unless a NGO works within the realm of the RTE and ensures each and every child is admitted in the school, without any discrimination, their existence can not be justified.

Epic Failures and Rent Seekers

Sixty years ago, when Nehru spoke about socialism in India, he said socialism was about sharing wealth, but in India, he said, we can only share poverty. He went on to explain that the need of the hour was creating wealth - not gold and silver, but goods and services. His way of creating wealth was planning. Five-year plans. Unemployment will end in ten years, two plans sir.

In the 1950's India's power generation was one 1/10th of France. Today it is one and a half times. Its not enough, but we did some progress. Maybe the problem was that we did not take Nehru's dream to its full conclusion. We got lost in the politics. 5 IITs was not enough, we should have made 20. Though I am not fully aware of how the government lost grip of the situation but I assume they started fairly strongly with an army of nation builders. Progress ended by the time the rent-seekers came in.

Probably India's first rent seeker was Indira Gandhi, or rather the spineless Congress men and women who hoisted her to power. My guess is that is the time when we lost the focus. When former Indian Prime Minister, was woken from his sleep, right in the middle of a conference on power generation, (you know whom I am talking about, Shri H.D. Deve Gowda) he blurted, "Aai yem thinking of giving them power", he smirked with half open eyes at T.V. cameras, "not yelectrical power, but powlitical power".

Today, we are primarily a nation of rent-seekers. We have no technology of our own to speak of. Only servicing the multinationals, sir. How many products has Infosys created, or TCS? No sir no products. Barring a few examples, there is a shocking lack of any risk taken by Indian firms. Why take the risk when cronyism is so easy? Not only rent-seekers corrode that national frame with corruption, they also ensure that there is no need for hard work. Rent-seekers procreate rent-seekers. The second and third generation business and political leaders mostly distinguish themselves by their taste of foreign luxury goods.

The problem is so deeply entrenched, that people have think that rent seekers are smart and should be emulated. Be practical, son. Advertising money ensures IPL players don't need to earn their revenue. Note their humiliating performance in the Champions' League. Even our cricketers are starting to become rent-seekers. What happend to the work ethic? Did it retire with Rahul Dravid?

If you want more evidence, look at the media. Baring a small minority, our media has become the biggest rent-seeker. Want coverage during election? Sorry sir, but editorial is sold out. These were the exact words told to a friend who stood for elections. And let's not even talk about the NGO sector. If there is any sector that contains mostly rent-seekers its the NGOs. NGOs are the biggest scam in this country. Did you know, 50% of your donations to CRY go towards "fund-raising expenses". Less than 20% of it is actually utilized for their stated goals. Next time you make a donation, do take a moment to study the NGO's financials.

Kejriwal wants us to believe that the current crop of rent seekers should be trashed. Power to him! But replaced by whom? Who do you freaking trust? The epic problem in India is not corruption, but incompetence. Incompetence that emanates from this rent-seeking culture. It is epic and it is bringing us down. Along with incompetence, our political and business leaders are also delusional. They think they are doing a fairly good job.

But there must be hope and there is. There are many people who are doing phenomenal work on the ground so that the wheels keep moving. These people need to get together and maybe with Kejriwal and throw out the parasitic rent-seekers. I hope there is a secret society that is being formed of people who believe in risk taking, hard work and meritocracy that will eventually take over.

Things are not as bad as they were when we began our "tryst" with destiny. Today India has a lot of wealth to be distributed. And thankfully, nation building is back on the agenda. The time has come for the rent-seekers to decide if they want to wilfully step aside, or they need a push. We don't trust them to be in charge of our administration or wealth anymore. Its only a matter of time.

The Mercenary and the Nice Guy

Last week, one of the all time greats Rahul Dravid of Indian cricket, called it a day. Rahul Dravid was a favorite of the intellectuals and glowing tributes were written on blogs and newspapers. In those tributes, I sensed a feeling of resentment towards another great of Indian cricket, the little master, Sachin Tendulkar.

Maybe they were resentful of the fact that had it not been for Tendulkar, Dravid would have ended his career on the top of the batters list. Or maybe they were resentful because Dravid, who was a key part of famous wins, never got his due under the shadow of the master. Or maybe they were resentful of Tendulkar's prodigious talent, while Dravid, a zen master with arguably half the talent reached so near him.

Tendulkar though has a great flaw (in the eyes of the pundits) that his famous performances came in losing causes. Dravid, on the other hand, was the reason why India won famous victories in Australia, England, Pakistan, the West Indies. The reason why Indian cricket was ranked number one for a brief period. Rahul, they say, who has scored better in tougher overseas conditions, has been denied his glory.

Part of it is true. What they ignore is that Indian cricket is a key part of the narrative of new India and though the phrase has been used often, it was Tendulkar who had to carry the burden of the billion dreams. A burden, he carried with courage and full awareness. Dravid was probably lucky to have been kept under "lesser"scrutiny to an extent. To his credit, he kept pace with Tendulkar all the way. It was not unlike Frodo (Tendulkar), who had to carry the burden of the ring all through the journey, and Samwise (Dravid) who had to get in action in the final act and snatch the ring to bury it in the inferno.

In a world where winning is everything, what they also forget is that we watched the losses as well. The losses where Tendulkar performed were heartbreaking, but they gave us honour. And I would argue were every bit as dramatic as the wins. Whether it was the league match in the 96 World Cup in Mumbai against Australia or the Test match in Chennai against Pakistan, we were there till the very end. They were honourable defeats. More often than not, it was one man vs the rest. The performances were so stupendous that I can imagine other team members would have been in awe, losing their bearings and not performing themselves. (Something I have begun to notice happening with AR Rahman's soundtracks, they are so amazing but the movies are nowhere close, like Rang de Basanti, Raavan and Rockstar).

To me, Tendulkar was the ultimate mercenary, the ultimate zen master, the ultimate gladiator. His defiance brought the team closer to those famous wins. We may have lost those matches, but we believed we could win. Dravid was the perfect counter foil. The opposition who would have concentrated bulk of their energy on Tendulkar (atleast in the first half of their careers) would have to contend with the Dravid once Tendulkar would have been dismissed. Though Dravid is no doubt in his own league, the intellectuals are doing a disservice to both by underplaying Tendulkar's role in Dravid's success.

As this dramatic phase of Indian cricket comes towards its sunset, there will no doubt be a lot of discussion on this. Powerful stuff that binds the nation together.

My thoughts on the Anna Hazare Crusade

Since I have had so many interesting discussions over the last couple of days. I thought I will put all my points in one place.

1. My Question to Arvind Kejriwal. Who is "civil society" and who appointed you to represent it.

I am sure Kejriwal has the best of intentions but I have seen him on TV shouting "civil society" and claiming to act on its behalf. To me this is a subversion of the democratic process. Candidates elected by a due process represent civil society, not self proclaimed individuals. Just because the credibility of one set of representatives is poor, the other set cannot usurp the process on basis of morality. They are wrong because if they seek decision making power, they have to join the heat and dust of elections. There is a brilliant piece on this by Ambedkar.

2. Lok Pal will not change the abuse of power by politicians.

The recent scams that were exposed were a combination of whistle blowers, RTI and action by Supreme Court (via PILs). This process needs to continue. We need many more people filing RTI and PILs. The problem is that the law enforcement and investigative bodies are not independent enough and the Lok Pal cannot solve this. The other huge problem is that elections are won on money power and hence politicians need money to get elected. This has to be fixed via police, electoral and judicial reforms.

3. The elite and middle class are participants and beneficiaries of a corrupt system.

Most business, and I know this for a fact, give bribes at various levels. They do this to pay less tax, get more business and abuse rights. From the tea vendor who employs underage children to the big corporate that pay crores to corner national resources, everyone is involved. The salaried class that is involved too. If a salaried manager is on target to achieve x results and if the target is too ambitious, most likely that person will do "whatever" it takes to get the result. To overcome the moral discomfort, they blame the "system" and use euphemisms like "manage" instead of bribe. Ambitious people - business owners or salaried managers - bend laws to reach their goal without fear of punishment.

4. The "rang-de-basanti" crowd if fickle and represents only 0.1%. 

I really hope to be proved wrong on this one and this is not a culmination of some World Cup euphoria. But the media and celebrity circus around this has credibility that is only a fraction more than the politicians. For many of them its an opportunity to grab some more lime light by becoming "experts" on TV. None of them can come close to winning an election.

5. The positivity is a good sign.

The only good part about this campaign that it has a lot of positive energy. It is ideology based and also a non violent movement. This is truly India's first Facebook movement. The upper-middle class has reached a critical number to be counted and they have found the tools to get connected too. I hope this results in more local engagement, volunteerism and giving.

Large Company Sales Tips for Founders

Steve Blank has one message for startup founders - Get out of the building

So what happens when founders go out of the building and have to do sales with no previous experience? This is what happened to me. I had no experience of how large companies work.

Here are a few lessons I picked up from my experience of selling to large companies.

1. Network - There is only one way to break into large companies independently, that is via your contacts and network. Go back to your alumni association, your family, your school and college buddies. Start working on your networking skills. Networking is all about first finding a common interest (say Open Source or you went to the same school) with someone and then getting to personally know them - their family, interests, goals etc.

2. Find the right audience - If you are selling a business product, find business users who may benefit from the solution, if you are selling a technical product, go to the technical users. If you are not sure, go to the business users - they are likely to find a use for your product.

3. Be patient and consistent - Large companies are usually bureaucratic and paranoid about startups. But even within large enterprises there are early adopters. Once you get someone interested in your service, keep them in the loop. Remember if someone takes interest in you, they will give you a pilot or refer you to someone

4. Dress and present well - Large companies are used to smart (power) dressing and glitzy presentations. Make a good presentation, polish your shoes, wear neat formal clothes and talk confidently and clearly. Be prepared to flash a knowing smile as often as you can. Everyone likes people who look and behave like them. So try and mirror your contact.

5. Blend in the culture of the company - This may be difficult if you are not too experienced, but try and look for signs. Are your prospects specific or vague? Do they act important or humble? Are they paranoid or risk-taking? Are they formal or casual? Tailor your pitch accordingly and try to fit into their culture.

6. Communicate and be serious about commitments - Once your foot is in the door, keep your contact in loop. Startups usually fail to grasp or estimate the true costs of executing a project. So it is best to under-promise and over-deliver. If you think you are going to run over deadlines, keep communicating. By communicating, you will get valuable feedback about how your project / pilot is progressing and if you need to make any changes to your solution or approach.

If all this is not for you, then you do not have the temperament to do large company sales... like me :-) All of this is usually time consuming and expensive. This is why enterprise products are so expensive!

Finding the ideal team structure for Startups

A lot of what is written about managing teams is a discussion of the two basic classes of teams, centralized and decentralized teams. Both have their pros and cons and are best suited to different situations.

Centralized teams also give rise to a top-down structure of an organization. Top down teams can get a lot of work done as all members work in tandem. Independent and creative thinking can jeopardize the entire organization. The scope of work is divided into two classes, thinkers and doers. Thinkers do medium/long range planning, anticipate issues, allocate resources, manage motivation and doers execute the activities that the thinkers have identified on a transaction basis. Centralized teams are usually stable and provide security to all its members. Large companies and governments usually fall into this category.

De-centralized teams on the other hand are much more fluid and depend on creative and independent thinking members. These teams are usually upstarts and their objective is to find a niche that has not been exploited by others. Every member is a thinker and doer. The tasks are not stable and the position of each member is not secure if they are not willing to change their roles or learn new skills.

Truly decentralized teams are a much more rear phenomenon in business than centralized teams. Hence most people would have never experienced working in decentralized teams or even heard of anyone who worked in one. This also includes founders of start-up companies

A one to three person start-up does not face this problem, but when a start-up takes more risk than usual, the centralization / decentralization problem comes up. This is because most people have no experience / understanding of de-centralized way of working. As Steve Blank rightly points out, a start-up is a "search" for a scalable business model and hence what it requires is a de-centralized team. This is exactly what Jason Fried and company write about in "Rework"

Or the other option is to become ambidextrous. Be centralized and de-centralized at the same time. Let the need drive the structure. Say if you need to do extensive testing before a new feature release, make a centralized team and split planning and doing. If you need to build 10 new features in a month, keep it de-centralized. The catch here is that all the team members also have to be ambidextrous.

Frugal Engineering: Jugaad is the new Kaizen

The rise of Japanese manufacturing in the 80s gave rise to "Lean Manufacturing". Lean is based on core values that are a part of the Japanese culture of minimalism, automation and elimination of waste. As Industrial Engineers, we even learned these concepts with their Japanese terms like "Kaizen" (continuous improvement), "Jidoka" (automation), "Poka-yoke" (full-proof) in school. Using the Japanese versions of these terms forces us to create a new meaning to the concepts keeping with the spirit in which the Japanese companies applied.

With the turn of the century, the recession and the rise of Indian companies in the eyes of the world, a new paradigm shift is just beginning to take place, "Frugal Engineering". C.K. Prahlad's book "Bottom of the Pyramid", Tata Motors new $2500 car the "Nano" and Bharti Airtel's telecom business model are the main stories around this new concept of Frugal Engineering. With billions of people from developing countries around the world, joining the "mainstream" market, companies need new thinking on how to succeed with this big opportunity.

A new management jargon that is heard often these days is the Indian word "Jugaad" (to get a solution where there is a scarcity of resources). As with the Japanese terms, it is the spirit in which it is spoken in India that makes it unique. When you want to do a Jugaad, you look for an out-of-the-box solution using existing cheap resources and you want it quick

So if "Frugal Engineering" gets popular like "Lean" and managements around the world start looking for ideas on how to cater to developing countries, like Jugaad, what are the core cultural elements of Indian companies that will be talked about? Here is a proposal:

1. Cutting (micro-consumption): The concept of "Cutting" is you provide in the minimum possible serving size. Cutting is used in relating to tea, where a "Cutting" tea is half-a cup of tea, roughly 50ml. Huge majority of tea drunk in Mumbai is Cutting tea. The majority of mobile phone re-charges (in India most mobile-connections are pre-paid, i.e. you pay first and use later) are for Rs 10 (20 cent). What Cutting does is that it allows for mass consumption of a service or product at very low costs. Cutting is micro-consumption to services like micro-finance is to banking.

2. Zor-laga-kay (the-push): When there is a big problem that needs to be fixed quickly, a large number of people stop whatever they are doing put in effort to solve it. In India more people are likely to be a Jack-of-all-trades rather than specialists. Indian companies are also more chaotic where it is hard to put people into fixed roles and functions. There are obvious down-sides to this, but the upside is that when there is a major problem that threatens survival, everyone contributes. The team self-organizes itself around the problem and everyone puts in synchronized effort to "push" the problem out. A new team spirit and confidence emerges and seemingly impossible tasks get accomplished with Zor-laga-kay.

3. Chalta-hai (take-it-easy): This term is usually used by high-minded Indians as a self-critical symbol of laziness, fatalism and poor quality. But if taken in the right spirit, this concept has a great balancing and harmonizing effect. Indians are more likely to make a compromise rather than pick a fight. In my opinion, the west is too result oriented and sometimes forgets that the journey is as important as the destination. As you enter the developing world, the problems are plenty, your resources are limited, and most things are not in your control. So be prepared to suck it in, calm your mind and say "Chalta-hai".

4. Fat-a-fat (instantly): This means, what ever you want to do, do it NOW. Don't think too much, use your instinct and move on. Sometimes in the West, a lot of resources are used to strategize and plan. The Fat-a-fat principle says, that you don't have much resources or time to plan so just get on with it. Fat-a-fat brings a sense of urgency in an otherwise slack environment. In developing countries, things often seem to move very slowly, with people taking their own sweet time to get things done. Like Narayana Murthy of Infosys said "In India articulation is often mistaken for accomplishment". So if you are feeling interia, just do it - Fat-a-fat.

So next time, hear these words as management jargon, remember where your read them first. And I am sure you would have many suggestions, please write them in the comments!




Note 1: These are terms that are usually spoken in Hindi in Mumbai, every region of India is unique and has their own terms. But I am sure the spirit and culture is very similar.