What can LokSatta learn from Telangana Movement?

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Sorry folks it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post.... Just got married and hence took a small break from blogging. Not having an internet connection at home also made blogging difficult.

Anyway I am back to blogging with more passion than ever. Start reading..

Leader A:

He wanted to bring democracy back to the people. He wanted to clean politics of its murkiness. That person who left a most coveted government job of Collector to make our place corruption free. He has the best solutions to the current system's problems. He gave a guarantee that he will pay you a fine if government services are not rendered in the SLA specified. He wanted to change the face of politics as it is played now to ensure that money power cannot silence vote power. He started a movement called the second freedom movement to prove that democracy is indeed the government - by the people, to the people and for the people.

Leader B:

His record is murky. After being denied a bigger role, he came out of a party to form his own party. He just demanded for a separate state without telling what will he do if he comes to power. He became a laughingstock by talking utter gibberish. He once said he will start a fast-unto-death and had taken food by the end of the day. He broke all the promises he made to himself and to the people. He had no real agenda. Even this time, he was about to break his promise of fast-unto-death but being cornered by all the people who supported him had to undertake it.

By now you would have guessed who leader A and leader B are... Leader A is Mr.Jayaprakash Narayan(JP), the LokSatta leader and leader B is Mr. K.ChandraSekhar Rao (KCR), The TRS leader. These two leaders faced two tests.

Leader A, JP went all out in the recently concluded GHMC elections. But he was not able to win atleast one seat in the elections and hence he failed in the test.

Leader B, KCR had no options having got a drubbing in the recent general elections, didn't even contest in the GHMC elections. He took a way out in doing fast-unto-death. And he turned into a hero for a yet to be formed new state.

How did this happen? Person who looked credible in implementing an agenda got nowhere but a leader with the least credibility was able to achieve a big thing. Though I know that Telangana is a cause whose time has come and it was just crystallized because of KCR's efforts and it was not created just because KCR fought for it is one thing. I think there are a couple of things which LokSatta can learn from the success of KCR.

1. Elections are won on charisma: In the general elections, JP won because he had the charisma in LokSatta. No other leader had that charisma except Rathiah of Vignan, who had lost too we will see the reason in a minute. If someother person other than KCR would have done that fast-unto-death, I am not sure if the Delhi Durbar would have responded so promptly with the announcement.

2. An Emotional Connect is required: KCR had an emotional connect with the people of Telangana on the issue whereas, though each person hopes to get all the above in the agenda of Loksatta, nobody was really hopeful of getting it and was not really emotionally invested in its success. Loksatta needs to do more grassroots work to build up that emotional connect by telling how implementing each can change their lives.

3. Market it so that people make it their cause: KCR had to do just a little, most of the work was done by the student unions who created a war type situation in the state as they identified Telangana as their cause. So Loksatta has to market itself in such a way that people feel good governance as their cause. I couldn't but quote Seth Godin here - 'You are a marketer whereever you are' KCR is a better marketer than JP.

Hope LokSatta learns these lessons and grow from grassroots now so that it can win in the next elections.

Book Review - Upbeat

Rajesh started a company during the dot-com bust in 2000. He says it was a blessing in disguise though he never felt it that way then. He tells his experience of what he learn then and about how to thrive in business having an 'Upbeat' attitude.

As the saying 'It is your attitude that determines your altitude," Rajesh guides us how to choose the right attitude in these tough times. He asks us to avoid the many traps which hit us day in and day out making us even more a part of the problem than of the solution. He prods us to be tenacious, disciplined, flexible and more true to ourselves. He asks us to set higher standards for ourselves and raise the bar in the market and in the process becoming more remarkable and valuable.

Rajesh always has a great take on relationships and network. He teaches how to leverage and improve the network in these tough times by adding more value to it. I liked what he has to say on strategy.

Imagination is a poor substitute for reality. Otherwise people will imagine their way out of their troubles. Reality is real. Now that you have accepted reality, you need a game plan to address this reality and accommodate in your thrive plan. This will call for ruthless re-priortization of your projects.

And finally he exhorts us to play the game rather than watching it from the sidelines by saying "you need to paly the game to get somewhere"

As it is said knowing is not doing, doing is doing, Upbeat has a D I Y helpbook, after it offering practical suggestions to implement the various ideas explained in the book. I liked the excercises very much and it will surely help in making the most of the book.

Seth Godin says that the content of the business book can be condensed into a few lines, and Rajesh's message in Upbeat is to choose the right attitude and focus on what we can control and to tenaciously stay the course. Then why write a book ? It is about the motivation, it is about the persuation and the call for action and Rajesh doesnt just stop there but offers practical tips on how to go about applying the ideas in the book. Ultimately, though it is clear that we have to invent our solutions to the recession problem, reading this small book would definitely put us ahead in finding our solutions.

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• Set Yourself Apart In The Tough Times (socialmediatoday.com)

The Right size..

Seth Godin today wrote a post on the right size for an organization and how technology has enabled companies to work with a very few people.

He gives a good examples about deciding the scale of our business.

Creative Computing delivered an MP3 player. That was the unit. Apple changed this and delivered the player, the software, the music store, the headphonesand the retail outlet. Both sold music, ultimately, but Apple choose a far wider unit. Very risky, but it worked.

He gives another example of Ford where scale doesnt look good...

Ford Motor used to hire shepherds to tend Ford sheep on Ford land so they could weave Ford fabric to put on the seats of Ford cars. Today, of course, that's crazy. One day soon there will be car companies that have 200 employees.

What is the right scale for a business ? When should we scale up? When should we ramp down?

I feel when company feels it should expand vertically like Apple did, only if it can dedicate considerable amount of resources to do that and work on it as if it is their original business, if they are going in only for the cost arbitrage, then surely they will fail.

When should they scale down - When they cant invest into improving each part of the solution, then they should considering leaving that.. Taking the bigger scale is tougher, riskier and more rewarding... Even then whereever technology helps anything be done more easily and efficiently, it should be adopted as soon as possible.

One question which arises is what to do with those who are retrenched and lost their jobs.. I feel that if the company is not a dying position, then the best thing is to have some innovations sessions and think of some problems they could solve and get working on them. This way their experience is used, their motivation is increased and it might even contribute unexpectedly to the bottom line ...

The Dip - Must Read

If I can pick only one person who is an idea machine, its Seth Godin. The Dip is one of his books and I got a chance to read the manifesto written on it before its publication. Download it in changethis.com, another great place for ideas. 

It is about being the best in the world. He argues why and how to be the best in the world. 

Quotables from that manifesto.

The reason that being the best in the world is worth so much is that few can do it.

Scarcity carries a premium

The way you become the best in the world is by quitting the stuff where you can’t be the best.

That leaves you the resources to invest in getting through the Dip.

It’s that simple.

Quit the dead ends and invest in the Dips

Can you do everything? Of course not. Breadth isn’t the point. The point is that in a world of

infinite choice, in a world where the best in the world is worth more every single day, the only

chance you’ve got is to find a Dip and embrace it. Realize that it’s actually your best ally. The harder

it is to get through, the better your chance of being the only one to get through it.

Go read it..