Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Journeys!


There is no justification for not writing or updating your blog.  Especially, when the initial few entries were well received by friends, families and colleagues (both current and former). To be truthful, when asked, I hate to talk about my laziness and end up coming with some excuse or the other, including stupid ones like lack of time. With an honest intention of being more regular in writing, here go my thoughts!
Today, as I post this piece, team Adhrit is on the verge of completing three years of its operations. It has been an amazing journey. And of course, in the last three years, along with this experience I have been part of some very beautiful journeys. I clearly remember drawing up business plans and getting a hang of how to professionally approach issues like marketing, invoicing, etc while overlooking the grand lake in Bhopal at a close friend’s house (or should I call it a manor) on the lakeside. The pristine beauty and the sweet tinge of fresh air while making some very important decisions in the early days is something I shall remember for a long time.
When we started off, many warned us about a long ‘gestation period’.  But as long it has been, I feel that the bigger challenge was adjusting. I can safely correlate this experience with landing in London bang in the middle of celebrated English summers and getting used to bright sunshine, as we went for dinner at 10 PM. Despite all the readings of Enid Blytons (of course there were others too), all those friends who lovingly told us about their summers in London, all that web research on things to do in UK, the long days came as a surprise. We quickly learnt how to make most of the days, were lovingly introduced to the English way of life by wonderful friends and family, and just went with the flow. So, coming back to Adhrit experience over the last three years, I feel that what helped us out was quickly developing the ability to go with the flow. We faced some very pertinent challenges. More often than not, we were facing situations which were new for us. What rocked the cradle for us were people, who helped us to maintain our thinking, kept us on the edge and played an instrumental role in maintaining our sanity.
But, as you go with the flow, it is also important to keep your eyes open. While rafting down the Ganges, I realized that I was missing out on the fun because I ended up closing my eyes when the water became rough. I was merely sitting as a silent spectator depending on someone else if I was thrown overboard by the rapids. As I learnt to keep my eyes open in rough waters, not only was I more confident, but rather, was trying to convince the guide to let me jump from the boat in the next rapid. Of course, I did not get that privilege, but learnt that eyes wide open can change the entire experience. A classic example of the difference between going with the flow and going through the motions.  

I often take a lot of pride in the efficiency by which a small team like ours is able to deliver quick turn-arounds and handle projects, which would ordinarily require more hands than what we have. I have been after my colleagues to agree to a roadmap for team expansion, a plea that has landed in deaf ears. Every time I talk about recruiting more people, I am reminded by Surbhi of how most places that we stayed in during our journey across Europe, whether it be Paris, Colmar or places in Switzerland, reasonably huge establishments hosting 150-200 people were being run and managed by not more than 2-3 people. Back home in India, an establishment that big would have at least 2-3 managers aided by 3-4 assistants aided by 5-6 peons. Inspite of all that, the actual cost of living would be a fraction of what it would cost you in Europe. This brings me to a question, which I am sure a lot of firms in similar capacity would be grappling with. We have an option to follow the well established industrial practice by making the most of the inexpensive resources available in our industry, a process which we all have been part of as freshers in this profession. This allows us to be aggressive on the hiring front and project a team which shall be a good reflection of capabilities. On the other hand, thinking about those establishments in Europe, I feel that we still can deliver a lot more individually and pamper ourselves with the additional benefits of success (I really envied the Jaguars which the receptionist/cum cleaning lady/ cum project manager cum marketing executive cum accounts person drove home after her shift).  Anyways, we have shelved all these issues for the time being and will take this issue up in a couple of months as we move to our new location.          
‘Small is beautiful’ is a term that every entrepreneur has gone through and remembers for times to come. I have to admit, I love the fact of us being a small outfit. It allows us to bring in innovative changes in our work methodology. A few months back, we were faced with an enormous exercise, for execution of which the bare minimum requirement would be a team at least twice our size and consisting of people from other practice areas which we lacked.  We had a simple solution to counter the problem. We relocated to the project location for almost a month. We got the resources available on site and modeled the assignment in a manner that turned out to be efficient and cost effective for client. During that month, every day, we followed same discipline which we would follow in our office (maybe more). This gave us the freedom to chart our time in a manner that other ongoing assignments were not affected in any manner. If you think of it, the time spent in project location was same as anyone would spend in a project of this manner. The difference was in perception, where we told ourselves that the project site was our office for a month. The experience reminded me of the long trek which I took to Annapurna Base Camp last year with a buddy. When tired of climbing the steep paths, I would try to forget that I am on an adventure journey and tell myself that I am going home after work. See, how perceptions make a difference.   
A recently aired ad (I think it was emirates) talked about a person being as rich as much he has travelled. Now, I can’t boast of being rich or for that matter being well travelled. I know a lot of people who travel more than they sleep. One of my cousins recently tweeted about his tendency to loosen his seat-belt after watching a movie. Despite my recent professional travels to other metros, I really can’t say that I have seen those cities, so can’t say that those travels have made me richer.  Having seen almost the whole of India, I can say with some amount of conviction that not too many things will surprise me too much (exception being the long days in Europe) and every new travel shall surely make me richer (if not wealthier).
Cheers till next time.