A word from R Gopalakrishnan -Tata Sons

There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb,
which Nature gives to man
after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to
share my comb with your
people, about their career ahead.
1. Seek out grassroots level experience:

I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few
months before
graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for
Computer Traineeship. When
asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of
Computers, I responded
negatively: an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell
Dalda or Lifebuoy?
Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple
of comfortable weeks
in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket
to go to Nasik. Would
I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached
for the next two
months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his
territory, which
included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among
other small towns. I was
most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving
around from shop to shop
with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's
folder in my hand.
Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared
in front of me in
Ozhar, believe it or not! and exclaimed, "Gopal, I
thought you joined as a
Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a
thousand deaths.
After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed
to work as a Dispatch
Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the
Accounts Department.
Several years later, I realized the value of such
grassroots level
experience. It is fantastic.
I would advise young people to seek out nail-dirtying,
collar-soiling,
shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn about
organizations, about the
true nature of work, and the dignity of the many, many
tasks that go into
building great enterprises.
2. Deserve before you desire:

At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for
Lifebuoy and Pears
soap, the company's most popular-priced and most
premium soaps. And what was
a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for
the production, sales
and profits of the brand, accountable for its
long-term growth, etc., etc. I
had read those statements, I believed them and here I
was, at 27,"in charge
of everything". But very soon, I found I could not
move a pin without
checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning
the machine handle
through various calculations, I sat in front of the
Marketing Director. I
expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I
could not be given total
charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The perception
and reality are both
right. You will get total charge when you know more
about the brand than
anyone else in this company about its formulation such
as raw material,
production costs, consumer's perception, distribution
and so on. How long do
you think that it will take?" "Maybe, ten years", I
replied, "and I don't
expect to be the Lifebuoy and Pears Brand Manager for
so long"! And then
suddenly, the lesson was clear. I was desiring total
control, long before I
deserved it.
This happens to us all the time - in terms of
responsibilities, in terms of
postings and promotions, it happens all the time that
there is a gap between
our perception of what we deserve and the reality of
what we get. It helps
to deserve before we desire.
3 Play to win but win with fairness:

Life is competitive and of course, you play to win.
But think about the
balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not.
Think deeply about how
and where you draw the line. Each person draws it
differently, and in doing
so, it helps to think about values. Winning without
values provides dubious
fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most
are the ones with a
set of universal values Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther King for example.
Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved
army to fight and
seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty
years. But all the
while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil
ambition, and not in
pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of
his selfish ambition. I
am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair
Play Trophy. It was
instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern
Olympic games and here are
two examples of winners. A Hungarian tennis player who
pleaded with the
umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover
from a cramp. A
British kayak team who was trailing the Danish kayak
team. They then stopped
to help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The
Danes went on to beat the
British by one second in a three-hour event!
What wonderful examples of sportsmanship! Play to Win,
but with Fairness.

4 Enjoy whatever you do:
Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement,
"There is no greater fun
than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which
you truly enjoy. Ask any
person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment
of existence. He will
say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means
is the struggle for
success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with
success after getting
it, the very achievement of it must lead him to
unhappiness.
Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in
itself, not as a means
to something else". But if you think about it, we
should not work for
happiness. We should work as happy people. In
organizational life, people
get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try
to be happy, the
unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about
your reaching your
full potential. Working at one's full potential,
whether it is the office
boy or the Chairman, leads to enjoyment and
fulfillment.
A last point about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humour
about yourself.
Too many people are in danger of taking themselves far
too seriously. As
General Joe Stilwell is reported to have said, "Keep
smiling. The higher the
monkey climbs, the more you can see of his backside".

5 Be Passionate about your health:
Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight
paunch, greying of hair
or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7
years after the
working career begins that the greatest neglect of
youthful health occurs.
Sportsmen stop playing sports, non-drinkers drink
alcohol, light smokers
smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving
inmates of hostels eat
rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the
years to watch. Do not, I
repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too
busy, or that you do not
have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you
do this to relieve the
stresses of a professional career.
A professional career is indeed very stressful. There
is only one person who
can help you to cope with the tension, avoid the
doctor's scalpel, and to
feel good each morning - and that is yourself. God has
given us as good a
health as He has, a bit like a credit balance in the
bank. Grow it, maintain
it, but do not allow its value destruction. The
penalty is very high in
later years.

6 Direction is more important than distance:
Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long
distance. In the
process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game
involves the masterly
co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The
golf coach always
advises that direction is more important than
distance. So it is with life.
Despite ones best attempts, there will be ups and
downs. It is relationships
and friendships that enable a person to navigate the
choppy waters that the
ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there
was a memorable film by
Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and
named IT'S A
WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to
commit suicide because he
thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue
him.
The bottom line of the film is that "No Man is a
Failure Who Has Friends".

Conclusion:
My generation will never be twenty again, but when you
are older, you can
and should be different from my generation. Ours is a
great and wonderful
country, and realizing her true potential in the
global arena depends ever
so much on the quality and persistence of our young
people. Good luck in
your journey, my young friends, and God be with you
and our beloved Nation.

HAVE A GREAT CAREER