The Go Live

Week had just started , On Tuesday itself It was proving to be hectic week for Venkat. There were continuous meetings and report preparation for newly live HR application . As per normal change and release process this was sent to production over medium release weekend after completing all formalities and Monday was the first day when employees and HR of organization started using it , so far they were used to a legacy system which had less functionalities and limited usage hence many of the activities were performed into various different applications or even out side system by mail or hardcopies , New configurable system definitely had an edge over older ones as it was true representation of Global HR best practices and had lot more automated functions then actually needed , some even futuristic which organizations can activate whenever they need .

Venkat is operations manager and handles very large portfolio of IT support and services , after landing into RUN mode this application was his responsibility , though there was still post go live support active by Innovation team lead by Prajapati who was actively involved in managing the crisis , there was already mails flowing from HR leadership to provide quick and efficient support , VP of HR even provided a deadline to provide solution within a week or HR would move back old legacy system which was still fall back option as Business continuity and had to be decommissioned once new system is completely adopted across organization .

Since Venkat and team had good understanding of user behavior , issues and expectation from previous system , Management had directed RUN team to support project in this crisis . Venkat himself was very keen to engage in early stages for this strategic HR solution , He had also been active participants in all gates meeting and tried to put all kind of checks to ensure delivery of a robust and resilient service however he was now regretting not pushing the case for performance testing hard enough , in one of the gate meeting when Prajapati proposed skipping performance testing as there was not sufficient budget to establish a production like environment and go for automated performance tetsing simulating user concurrencies , multiple parallel processing etc , Venkat did raise an objection mentioning Performance testing is crucial to understand basics thresholds which was supported and agreed by all key stakeholders in meeting . Taking a note of this condition Prajapati mentioned He would discuss with project implementation partners and product vendor to see how can we assure performance of the application , In subsequent meetings Prajapati produced an assessment completed by product Vendor which assured basic performance levels based on system capacity , number of users etc .

Venkat accepted this report and it analysis however post implementation System performance seems to be the most critical issue , New HR system had many advanced features and users were complaining these features take minutes to load and complete . On the other side while older system had limitation of number of employees associated with a manager , new one had no such limitation which enabled users to assign many employees with Manager but it made activities extremely slow , though product vendor had given a much higher threshold for assignment but system was showing issues at half of the threshold itself . Another challenges seems to be older version of  internet explores and laptop configurations , Change management had not been able to asses that such advanced features may need some uplift of users laptops .  All these issues have created many incidents in the first day itself and huge frustration in Users

The Fat Indian Bonus

Unlike rest of the world where bonus is given at the end of financial year , In india bonus is tightly linked to the biggest festival of the year - Deewali , on which most of the Indian Poor/middle/upper class outspend from thier budget to buy any and everything .

In 2014 , a Diamond exporter of Gujrat state savji bhai Dholakia , surprised its employees as well as entire nation by giving away 2 BHK flats , Cars and Jewelries worth 50 cr to one fifth of its employees ( near 1200) , as of now diamond cutting is not a very organized sector in India but Savji bhai has been giving all the facilities to his employees which are found in organized sectors , in fact he is going one step ahead and adding to this certain items which are core to India values and families like sending parents of employees on pilgrimage .

What stands out that Savji bhai has built great deal of understanding on the needs of employees and giving bonus suitable to such needs , he also understands , for Indian employees their family / parents . He has also kept on increasing the bonus share for employees with companies revenue and profit . by doing this Savji and his organization has definitely become best employer in diamond export industry

Crisis Day

It was business as usual one day and then it happened , didn't start exactly as Jungle fire but rather slowly , Key application used by many countries in a region had decided to take it easy , gradually users started complaining that application is not responding as fast as it used be , for some it wasn't even responding . Business panicked on possible loss of time and not able to move on with routine activities , multiple high incidents and a final blow came as an urgent incident - The moment of truth had arrived , formal P1 declared that means almost every one need to jump in to the crisis call , application support , Application/DB administrators , Managers , product SMEs.


Initially everything was a suspect , All teams started coming out with their analysis but seems no problem identified for funny system behavior, temperature was rising in conference , Business was waiting to move on in such case responsibility landed with product vendor , they have designed it and they would know it for sure and as always they were full of suggestions , we can try this or that , issue seems to be here or little there .


IT realized it was better to try something and move forward rather than not trying any thing so they started with options , subsequent restarts but it did not help so it was time to move on with second option , meanwhile looking at criticality of the issue some more resources pumped in hoping to revive system , that seems to be working for a while.


Teams went back to check further , monitoring on all parameter was put in place meanwhile application kept showing its mood swings and one day it again became business as usual , problem stopped as abruptly as it started  , some had clue that executed actions may have improved the condition only hoping that it would not happen again

Let them Know

A mega event was nearing and organisation was preparing with full thrust , recently developed marketing app to also be used in this event for first time , business was nervous about any issues , its usability , effective support . Constant pressure was built on manager of IT service provider who was supporting this app , every time he visisted his customers in IT/Business , people reminded him how crucial the upcoming event is , mails were started flowing highlighting the situation . IT team and managers were very confident knowing it was a very small app and they have some of the really best SMEs working with this customer for years , they are available and will handle any situation promptly , same was also informed to the the customer but panick continued ..


Support manager understood that emotions can be calmed by showing a structured plan , he sat down with team and developed a shift wise plan for the duration of the event , created a daily report template to be circulated , established escalation structure and wrote it down in the form of document , most of it was already in place as part of application support but team carved out a small support plan very specific to this application , same was submitted to to customer IT and business .
They could now see what all steps will be taken , who can be contacted in hour of crisis and above all thier vendor team is ready to stretch equally to make it a success , they are a stakeholder with written commitment in the form of a plan , emotions calmed down , all aspects were covered.

During event , support team adhered to the plan , there were no issue reported and yet they kept sending thier daily report template . For minor requests also resolution was provided in urgent manner . After successful finish of event Business team was deeply satisfied with IT support , large commendations followed with information on how beneficial new app was .

At times even though things are very obvious , we know that every thing is under control but same need to be communicated . In other times the simple communication may not work , we need to devise ways to comfort people , give them confidence and calm thier emotions.

CASH - Ca-re & sh-are in Life

When visited home this time , A big concrete water tank was placed out side my home , I noticed my parents keep pouring water into that but no one was using it instead stray animals kept drinking from it time to time. My father told that Cow, bull , buffalo, dogs try to drink from the municipal tap near by but its mostly occupied and people chase animals away so he purchased and placed to keep a separate tank . Knowing nature of my parents , it was not much of surprise that they not only spent money for stray animals but also took it on them to keep refilling the tank throughout the day .

We have spent good amount of time in villages where entire ecosystem of survival is centered around interdependence , interdependence between every thing which is available ( and not only with our human neighbors) , of course religion and faith adds big deal into it . I have always seen my mother taking out first chapati from pan and putting it away for cow , left over from night never went into

dustbin , it was always saved with much effort for dogs or any first animal sought in morning . Lunch and dinner was not the only thing we shared with guest animals , after finishing her morning prayers she always took out handful of grain and spread it on our lawn for house sparrows and pigeons , in city now we dont have a lawn still a very small terrace serves the purpose which is still over crowded in morning with more

than 60 parrots , sparrows and pigeons.

My father used to travel few kilometers across jungles daily to reach to his office and often found injured birds ,Squirrel or other small animals which were bought back to home , cared with utmost dedication , named with love and affection and allowed to run away once they are recovered . Those who can not be saved were missed and remembered in prayers .

Sharing a piece of life did come to my parents from basics of religion but they have extended its meaning because they care , they can not stay ignored if a puppy or even a piglet is in pain. When we moved in the city , I thought all of these activities would end but they managed to continue them without any hiccups. It has been a great learning and I truly believe practicing the same will also bring greater satisfaction

Fall of poster boys

Recent verdict on Rajat Gupta for proven charges of insider trading has shown us another fall of a poster boy of Consulting . After holding many high profile positions in some of the best organisations , he was probably early symbol of rising India in international power playgrounds of boardrooms. It all faded now . Satyam founder Mr Raju also faced a downfall after he confessed of doctoring books of his public listed company. The common factor between both of these poster boys are thier personal greed which didnt have any limit , in fact greed never has any limit.

Both had earned enough and were respected globally for their work and status but this was not enough for them and the next level may have looked some what difficult to achive from just means . Motivation was Quick and heavy gains which also led them to their downfall.

Its only few years when we have seen another poster boy who was not from corporate world but from sports ground fell down from his world winning status to an addict and cheater in relationshio . Tiger wood had all any one can ever imagine , a consistent champion who could not stay away from the temptations of life and created a very tangled net from himself .

All of them had built thier careers on the foundation of hard work , good education and consistent performance but at some point they started deviating from that path . Personal gains , aspirations & temptations took precedence over the discipline and code of conducts . As the satisfaction came by , they started reaching out for more and never stopped till it was too late.

Its true , the harder they come , the harder they fall.
 

Expanding Tricolor

Time has changed and so is the world , We have come a long way from the time when we received our independence . Tricolor of India was designed to unite Indians under one flag and to be used as a common symbol accepted by everyone for a common cause - independence. The associated meaning is eternal and still lives with the legend, different colors for religious importance, growth, Sacrifice and peace . Those were the traits desperately needed during the fight for independence and post that.

All religions have to be united to fight and after the fight is won , India needed to set a fast track for new growth and peaceful coexistence in independent India was very basic right of individuals. In today’s context, I would also like expand essence of Tricolor for new India, An India who is now a leader in Asia , who is considered one of the fastest growing economy across the world and to whom entire world looks up as guiding force in many areas including democracy , Well being , cultural harmony ,Knowledge and Technology.

With 70% of population dependent on Agriculture and heaving huge area covered by greenery, India can be a flag bearer for natural ways of living and promoting organic food, nature conservation and saving the natural resources at a time where Mechanical growth has overshadowed Nature and its importance - that’s the significance of green color.

Our work, passion and interest take us across the borders of states and countries. We live in multicultural global communities and it is of utmost important to show respect and sensitivity to other cultures that’s what white symbol signifies – Cultural integration. White is harmless to any other color, if you add white to green, green will not be harmed. That’s how our integration and sensitivity should be with other cultures so that we never become harmful to someone else's heritage and culture.

Independence is gained from Many sacrifices and that’s what saffron color stands for, In today’s context such precious independence is damaged by corruption and the clear cut message for Leaders , public servants and everyone else will be renunciation of their personal desires, Be at the pinnacle of Moral conduct and ACT in the best interest of society , country and world.

That can be new expanded meaning of Legendary Tricolor - Preserve Nature, Integrate with the world and promote personal and social moral conduct