CEOs learning

To start with, this is my second blog and I must say this is a hard earned one, unlike the first which I posted. Today is the 11^th of June and it has been two days since I came to pune to pursue my MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Management studies.

After a wonderful and tiring first day, it was time for us the MBA-1-A class to start wondering about some business activity we needed to do the next day. I remember cursing my roommate as he had to report on 9.30 and I had to report at 8.30.

The day started with jogs in the morning and after that we got ready for the Business activity Class. With no breakfast and just a Chocolate in stomach I was wondering what will it turn out to be. But once our Professor came in it was a something different. He gave us a nice insight on how CEOs are different from others guys.

Now started the activity at 9.30 am and all of us were thrilled about how the activity would go. Soon we were out of the campus looking for a lift from complete strangers with our BUDDY. Fortunately within minutes of getting out we got a nice chap who helped us get to Pune Central on his scooter. It was a very exciting ride. Soon we were out searching for another mode when a lady actually a very kind lady topped her car and went out of the way to help us reach CAMP: the ground zero of our day.

Once in the camp we started looking out for jobs in every possible shop, company, hotel, infact everything we could see. After half an hour of traveling, may be by 11 or so, we found a hotel called Mona Food our first employer in Pune and got a positive response or so we thought it was. But we were asked to wait for a while and we took a call that we should trust the manager and we waited, which got us in. Once in as Captains, me and my buddy Satyamvada, started exploring the hotel. It was a small hotel but it was first visit to the kitchen of a hotel which cannot be described in words(Whether or not it is positive statement is the work of readers imagination). Then I floated the question of SALARY and though reluctant , the manager agreed that he would give us 110 INR each for work till 4.

Soon came in the first customer and I was thrilled as I was going to be doing something which I never thought I would. It went through well and now I knew I was excellent at it. Although I remembered my canteen guy in the old company who once said “Salil tumhare equity se humara kam ganda hey” I had laughed then but now I knew what it is like having to stand for hours, serving delicious food without having to eat it was impossible for me. Soon a group of visitors came and left after devouring the delicious food. Both of us took the orders with a smile and the guests were surprised being served by good English speaking waiters. It was 2.30 and I found out interesting facts about the industry like a normal man eats 35 tonnes of food in his life and some relevant things like we should serve water before giving the menu cards and harder one like customers at times tend to get erratic in behavior for no reason. We did a good business in that five hours and the reward was good too. At the end of the day we got good food from the restaurant and the shortest pay raise in history around hundred percent in 5 hours. Now it was 4 and time to go; we rushed and found many of our batch mates doing the same rushing. So collectively we convinced an army truck driver to drop us at Pune station. We reached on time but the line for tickets could not get us on the platform. Again we met our batch mates and decided to go back and prepare the writeup since the meet was over..

One thing I noticed was that the hotelier literally knew every minute detail about his hotel and cared about it as his own child. This business activity I can say was my first step towards the corporate life and I learned one thing that you need to know your organization from the roots and treat it like your child. That is the best metaphor because a person, whoever it is, knows that he will give the best for his child more than anyone else.

"A chain is not stronger than it's weakest link."

Well, here I come with my first blog. Someone who reads this might think, what a ridiculous topic to start with but that is what I am all about. The whole concept of blogging never went down well with me until recently when somebody made me realize that it took me an hour to write a simple letter. And when I started thinking about it my friend came up with the whole blogging thing.
A chain or a concatenation of things or particles or emotions or anything which can be linked is said to be made of different links or components. When someone looks at it from a distance a chain has either strong links or weak links but a deep study contradicts the former as it proves that every link has its own importance in the concept of chain. To give an example we can say that a dozen represents 12 things grouped together. So, if a fruit vendor sells a dozen mangoes with one of it rotten ( which is the weakest link) is going to make the consumer reluctant to buy the next time. But that mango on a very abstract note has its own importance in the formation of the term "Dozen" whithout which it would be eleven. Some may argue it could be easily replaced
and so it has no relevance and no utility to the consumer and also the rotten mango is an headache to the vendor. Which led me to think that such a mango would contribute to becoming a tree ( mango has its seed within) or act as a fertilizer. Again it can be argued that this argument is redundant but such small useless things contribute in a silent way to form the earth.
A rotten mango, a lunatic monkey too is a very important element forming the chain called earth.

So the moral is that there is no weak link or a strong link but every damn thing has its own importance and it abscence breaks the chain. Again very annoying thought to explain... phew...
The words weak and strong are coined by the hollow people who think a lot about themselves. Sachin is said to be the strongest batsman but every single batsman in the team contributes. The player with the least score is termed weak. But is it true the extra run had its own importance and so we cannot undermine its contribution. Without which the win would be impossible ( very hypothetical but true if you give it a thought).

I will surely come up with a more organised blog or simply an organised blog :P on this topic because now when i read I feel i need to organise it ...