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December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Travel

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Vietnam Travelogue – Part 1

I have had the chance to travel across the country, and this is a good time to pen down this ‘Vietnam Travelogue’ for my friends, family and other travel enthusiasts. In this first of a two-part travelogue, I will cover the country’s two major cities: Ho Chi Minh City (the erstwhile Saigon) and Hanoi. In part two, we will discover the famous beach resorts and islands of this amazing country of 90 million, bordered by China to the north, Laos to the north-west, Cambodia to the south-west, and Malaysia across the South China Sea to the south-east.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Life

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Turkey

It was that time of the year again when the travel bug hits our family. Schools were closed for summer holidays and Gurgaon was unbearably hot. Our last real vacation had been to the Hobbit country down under, but that seemed a long time ago and it was time to submit to our wanderlust again. Weighing several options we decided to head westwards to the enchanting lands of Turkey and Greece.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Life

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Ties That Bind

lot has been written about individual and team effectiveness with focus on leadership and teamwork and how they combine for organisations and teams to succeed. Not much has been written or spoken about what it takes to build sustainable, strong and effective families. It’s important to look at the framework of a family. Family has universal appeal and recognition but the structure of families across the world has changed.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Life, Work

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The Case for Adaptability

The only thing that is certain in life is change.” This is one adage I have come to strongly associate with my own life. It started early, as a child growing up in a middle class Bengali family that moved around every two or three years. As a result, I shifted schools seven times before heading to a boarding school in the hills. Twenty three years of work life has seen me move 10 jobs and half a dozen cities in India and abroad.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Travel

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New Zealand

Our family has always suffered from a serious travel bug. This wanderlust has taken us to distant lands including Scandinavian countries, interior Africa, and several other places in Europe and South East Asia. More recently, our longing to visit distant lands began to grow once again in the winter of 2012, especially since it followed a two-year abstinence from holiday travel and a tough relocation back into India after an international stint. Weighing several options, we decided to head down under to Lord of the Rings (LOTR) country, New Zealand!

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Work

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Managing Joint Ventures

There has been much debate about the rationale behind joint ventures and how they can open up new markets, distribution networks, supply chains and manufacturing capacity for organisations. However, not much attention is paid to what it takes to sustain an enduring JV relationship. As Harbir Singh of Wharton Business School notes, companies tend to be cavalier about alliances, regarding them as being ‘no big deal’. As the old Turkish proverb goes, however, ‘No road is long with good company’. So, the key issue here is, what exactly makes for ‘good company’ in a joint venture context?

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Life, Work

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Lead by Influence

Twenty five years ago, as a new entrant in the Industry, me and my peers were quite in awe of the senior managers and directors of the company. To us, they were powerful people, not easily accessible and wielded that invisible arm of authority which we revered and often feared. Power flowed from authority and work got done through directions down the chain of command. Hierarchical management structures were the order of the day and there was a clear demarcation between the thought leaders who gave directions and followers who executed them in an organisation. That was the era of “Command and Control” leadership.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Travel

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Greece

After four eventful and enjoyable days in Cappadoccia and Istanbul we headed further west. A short Turkish Airline flight across the Mediterranean Sea got us to the Greek capital of Athens, a city with a glorious past. The first thing that hit us as we landed in Athens was the heat. If Istanbul was warm and summery, Athens was hot and sultry. The one hour drive to our hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel, was pleasant as we soaked in the milieu of a new unfamiliar land.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Work

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Empoyeeship

A significant part of management writing has been focused on Leadership and its attributes. Not much has been said about “Non-Leaders” or in other words the vast majority of employees in an organisation who do not play a leadership role. The success or otherwise of an organisation is as much dependent on the quality of its leadership as it is on the quality of its “Employeeship”. This article turns the focus on the employees in non-leadership roles; the forces affecting employees in an organisation and what it takes to deliver high quality ‘employeeship’.

December 15, 2017by Kaushik Mitra in Life

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Collaborate to Win

In today’s fast paced and constantly changing business environment, Organisations are constantly striving to out innovate and out execute each other to remain competitive. As cost advantages narrow and product differentiation and life cycles dwindle in most industries, the ‘Right to Succeed’ is often determined by ‘Execution Excellence’, that is, the speed and quality of execution. Not surprising therefore that a significant part of management writing has focused on execution.

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