What is IBU?

Infosys Technologies is one of my favorite companies - largely because of the inspiring leadership and also because I started off my proffessional life here. 

Soon after I joined in 2004, the company was re-organised into different industry verticals. Almost every Infoscion today is a part of  one of this vertical known as IBUs. 

I used to forget the full form of IBU initially when they were formed. And gradually I had drilled it into my mind. But recently that information betrayed me. The full form which I knew for so long - "Independent Business Unit",  was wrong. 

So I decided to ask my friends and ex-colleagues if they knew what IBU meant. The results were interesting. 

The question was posed to 20 people - including ex-infoscions, present infoscions who joined along with me, some seniors and some young people with less than 3 years of experience.

3 answers formed the majority - 25% each for "Independent", "Industry" and "Dont know". (that was the I of the IBU. Everyone knew that BU stood for Business Unit). 

The correct answer according to the intranet @ Infy is "Industry Business Unit".

Yes, 20 people out of more than a lakh is a totally illogical sample size for a survey to provide any kind of conclusion or evidence. But it may be a fodder for thought for some intervention by HR @ Infosys. 

P.S: A special thanks to my friend V at Infosys for quickly getting the responses from people around him. 

P.P.S: I have a strong feeling that it used to "Independent" earlier. Even a very senior manager who now has left Infy replied "Independent"

Update: Amit just pointed towards this Client Presentation (Slide 7) where IBU is Independent Business Unit... and this presentaion where it is "Industrial".  In Business World the definition is "Integrated". Seems like no one knows!!!

 

Responses of 20 people who were asked the full form of IBU

Anniversary

9th August will always be an significant day - no matter it is forgotten or remembered..

The graphical representation inspired by NM-Indexed (and originally by Indexed). Just thought to try it again - not satisfactorily though.

Football Craze

Read an interesting Faking news and it prompted me to write this.

I could totally relate to the Fake guy Nitin. Wherever I turn, I can see people super excited, ranting off strange, and tough to remember names.

Recently I posted something on Facebook asking who Messi was and it evoked a whole lot of emotional responses - quite similar to what would happen if you happen to ask "Who is Sachin" to someone in India. (Btw I knew about Messi. was just being cynical)

I also realised that Football (or Soccer.. whatever) has striking similarities to our Hindu Mythology. There are multiple Gods. In cricket it is quite the opposite. Hardly months ago there was one and only one chant - Sachinnnn Sachin.. He was the only God that was there.

Despite everyone saying that football is a better game than cricket (duration + full of action), I could never watch a complete match without dozing off or changing channels.

Hence, unfortunately I am never able to comprehend that why there are so many Gods, some hardly 22 year old.

I used to play football but never got interested in it. It was only for recreation and keeping fit (no doubt it is a great exercise).

Often I wonder, if like the Faking News item, many of us are just trying to fall in line with others - a mere peer pressure to follow the game. I, myself have tried it in the past - just to see what is it that the whole world is mad about. But alas, despite several attempts, I still prefer watching Sachin or even Federer than Messi.

And ya, I too (like the FN article) came to know of the funda of football's off side when I was 20 while cricket's off side - I think I knew it when I was born!

Sabse badi Invention…

The most important invention of all times may be a highly debatable topic. The choices can vary from a wheel to a light bulb to a telephone to an aircraft etc etc etc. But they all span over a large period of time.

Lets narrow our search of the most important invention to our generation.

But before that lets define the parameters based on which we can build a case of our choice. Though there can be a variety of parameters like communication, computing, entertainment, transportation and so on but I won't opt for all these. I would like to go to the roots of our existence.

What is the basic necessity of a human?

Yes, it is the cliched Roti, Kapda aur Makaan. We can live without our cars and mobiles and TVs and Laptops, and Internet. But its really tough to live without the above 3 things.

And it is under Roti or Food, that my choice of the greatest invention lies. The invention is.. <drum rolls>

Maggi Noodles!

I hope everyone agrees!

We love it when we are kids - a time when we have plenty of choices of the home cooked food. It is a delicacy - to be enjoyed once in a while. The scarcity of it providing the Value.

Once you grow up, it becomes kind of a necessity. Hostelers swear by it. You can have it anytime - the taste becoming better as you move closer to midnight.

If you  are on a trek, making a maggi over a bonfire becomes the highlight of the trip.

Though I have no experience of it but I can imagine its use in a married life. Ya, when you have a fight and the wife refuses to make dinner!

In any case, it is the perfect backup when you are not in a mood to make dinner and running tight on a budget so can't order or go out.

The basic point is that maggi has been a solution to the most important need of your life when you need it the most.

Now, after writing so many words on it, how can I resist not having it right now. Will be back in 2 minutes!!!

And the Oscar goes to......

So I turned 28 today. Through the day, I realized that wishes came from 2 sources - Calls and Facebook (Orkut

bhi check kar lena chahiye ek baar). In 'good old times' sms wishes used to form a sizeable chunk of these

wishes. Now it has been almost eliminated - a huge loss in revenue for the Mobile operators for sure.

Actually when you think of it, the case is of Volume vs Value. Facebook is definitely for Volume Lovers -

hundreds of wishes from across the globe - it certainly feels nice to have them.

Sms provided the value. After all it took a little bit of effort on the part of the sender to type it and he/she

needed to know your number!!!

Reading the above lines again, I realize that being a part of the 'Change Generation' - the one who have seen

both sides of the technological revolution - it is a sin to call something 'good old times'. I mean how can you

say 4 years ago as old. Good, on the other hand is definitely subjective.

Anyways, the idea before penning down this post was something else but is turning out to be entirely

different. This was meant to be an Oscar like speech on the past 28 years of life - a suggestion from KT.

But now I realize that for a Oscar-like speech, you need to have an equivalent achievement. Most Oscar winners

have one thing in common - they have been able to focus all their energies on one project and make it the best

in the world. In many cases, they have toiled their whole lives to reach that pinnacle. I compare my 28 years to

it and find myself at the other end of the spectrum. I graduated as Mechanical engineer, became a Software coder

and then delved into learning the art of Management. On the way washed my hands in the washrooms of a heavy

machines manufacturing plant, a steel plant, five star ones of an IT company, a small branch of an Insurance

company and then quite literally with five different types of oil. In a nutshell, these 28 years cannot be more

diversified - quite the opposite of a 'Focus' that is required to be the best in the world.

No prizes for guessing what the learning is out of the thoughts in the last few lines. Wish it was easy to find

out what exactly you need to do in life... You can call that my Birthday wish!

Moral Conflicts

The biggest challenge, I have faced on job is to deal with people - people who are not very literate, have low IQ, come from low income backgrounds and many times earn on daily basis.
So what are the challenges?

1. First and foremost is to know whether a person is actually idiot or just acting idiot to gain attention or sympathy. There are some who ask about each and everything all the time. Though they have been doing the same thing for a fairly long time. But they have the habit of just asking. It may also happen in case if the person has made some mistake. He knows he has so he acts idiotic to show he doesn't know. This brings up the correlated second challenge.

2. To know when someone is lying. How do you know if a person is telling the truth or not when he asks for a leeway on the pretext of some death in family or a court case or he being stuck in a traffic jam. Experience - some own and some of the others, tells that for every genuine case there are 10 fakers who have killed all their living relatives at some point or the other. Taking a morally correct path and accept the excuse every time may lead to you being labeled as "Soft" and may affect work in some cases. Sticking to "rules" may be considered rude and may not be acceptable to conscious. so how do you maintain the balance??

3. Then comes the 3rd case - When someone commits a mistake. Any mistake in my present line of work should be and are generally taken up seriously as it can take a real disastrous turn - take the case of recent fire in Jaipur. So strict action is sometimes taken against non-employee workers and drivers committing mistakes. The strict action, many times according to "rules", sometimes result in their loss of wages for the day. And hence comes the moral dilemma. Mistakes can be made by anyone but it can be a difference between life and death considering the sensitive work. So to punish and affect his earnings so that learns never to repeat it or let him go this time?

A special case of the above moral conflict comes when the person realizing his mistake, comes, pleads to you and some times even try and touch your feet. Mind you the person begging forgiveness is 10, 20, 30 years elder to you. what to do at this time? Even if you want, it is very tough to follow rules.
You know that the guy is doing it deliberately - to influence you, to soften you up but the oddity of the situation leaves you confused.

There are no easy answers and may be it is experience which gives the answers.


Related MMT Comic

The One

Yesterday it was the last nail in the coffin for all so called critics of Sachin. Strangely, these were the people who have not seen or experienced an iota of cricket in comparison to what the master has. After today, whenever a voice against Him will rise, only a scorecard or a shot square of the wicket to a widish delivery will be needed to be shown. And the sad part is that it will not be the umpteen other bat raises of the past.

Now His place has been permanently fixed as THE GOD. In fact, He quite literally is. Every so called religion, caste, region has its distinctions and beliefs. But one thing that remains undisputed is the common belief in Sachin - belief that he will never cheat, belief that he will try his best for the team and the country, belief that Hope is alive till He is there. Now compare that to what all is associated with God - the one that people normally pray to. That God will be always be fair, that whatever he does is the best for you and that Hope is there till the time you are under his wings. Any similarities??

They say that God created the world - the grossly flawed world that we know and live in. Sachin created another world where in people live in pure harmony till the time he is on the pitch. No egos are hurt when a guy in a Mercedes comes to a autowallah with a radio and asks "Kitne pe khel raha hai??". There are no class distinctions when outside a TV showroom you can see people with expensive clothes standing alongside street vendors looking at the screens - all with the same wish in their hearts. And a world where a whole nation can rise with one voice if something goes against the God. Where else can you find such a homogeneous world?

If world is destroyed today and the twitter, facebook and google servers are somehow saved, it will not be surprising if historians of the next phase of human evolution conclude that Sachin was a God who walked the earth - uniting people, making them rise over petty issues - even for a few hours and most importantly making them happy.
If the historians of tomorrow can conclude that, why not do that today??
We are a terribly fragmented nation. There is virtually no so called Unity in the diversity. There is that only one person - THE ONE who provides the constant factor - the unity. He does to India what no Other God can and will be able to do!
*Bow*

Random Observations

It was a small dinner with a transporter last night. As I sat there enjoying the Kashmiri delicacies – Ristae, Rogan Josh, Gushtaab, Sheekh Kabab and Mirch-wangan korma (Ya I ate all that!!), two things struck me.

One was the Similarities in Diversity. Sanchit, after his trip to Srinagar had remarked that he didn’t understand the language in the markets of Chennai. But he didn’t expect the same in North India(Kashmir) as well. But yesterday, I observed the Similarities. As I started eating Spoon, Fork, Knife etc, it was recommended to use hands. So rice was mixed with the Ristae like it is mixed with Sambhar and eaten in the same ‘andaaz‘ as till now I had seen only South Indians eat.
I found it quite amusing.

The second thing which struck me was the extent to which an entrepreneur has to keep his senses open to happenings around him to survive, compete and grow. The guy treating us was a transporter – with a fleet of trucks which carry oil from the IOC facilities to various retail outlets, army, air bases etc. He was interested to know the effect of China skirmishes in Ladakh region to his potential growth. The link is quite simple but it has to be observed. Due to the China factor, there has been an increased movement of army towards the Ladakh region. The area experiences extreme weather conditions hence to meet the fuel demand in the winters, something called Advanced Winter Stocking or AWS is done during summer months. Now with increased army presence and the potential longevity of the issue at hand, the demand – both current and for winters is going to be high. This means many more numbers of trucks required to carry the fuels from here – more so because it takes much more time for them to supply and return than say a trip to Srinagar or Kargil. Hence, with increased requirement means he has to take a decision to invest capital to buy more trucks (and eventually increase his profits – somebody has to take it!!).

Foggy Drives

Returning from work..Night time.. Dense Fog… Headlights on low beam.. Can’t see more than few meters ahead…Slow Music… Heater is on… Trust your instincts and carry on..

Want to keep driving infinitely...an urge to hit the highway.. the practical mind comes forth… calls you idiot.. turns the wheel in the opposite direction..

Not a soul on road…Misty settings...Seems like a dream sequence from a movie.. Suddenly the mist clears…the destination beckons… Dream Over.. reality time…

New Year Resolution

I didn’t have any last year. Just hoped that it should be a good one. It was an amazing one. I can easily call it the most amazing one till now – full of ups and downs. It really went to real extremes this year – a roller coaster year… a year of crests and troughs.

Well, I am not in a mood to fret over the bygones – a lesson learnt in 2009. Let’s focus on the one to come and start with the (in)famous new year resolution.

It is not a long list that I have in mind right now. Only one – reducing the net addiction. Possible? The year end will tell. But with things spilling over from computer to internet on mobile too, something definitely needs to be done!!

So how to go about it and what should be the metrics of reduction in the net addiction. Quite simply, a control on time spent on the web!

To detail it further, 2 main things need to be done.

1.  No frequent checking of mails, twitter and facebook

How to do it?

-       Not keeping all the tabs open. The college time is over – the time when there was a new mail every 5 minutes. It was important to check them because there were some where there was the most important information on lecture cancellation and you wanted to be the first one to know and tell others, gaining some good wishes from them for telling them the good news.

-       Switching off the alarm sound on Tweetdeck – already done.

2. Keeping a designated time for reading blogs/news/articles etc.

This is a tough – very tough thing to do. But that itself is the challenge.

Ego:Now… time to plan the timetable for mail checks…

Alter Ego: Damn!!! What are you doing? What for? Plan something else.. Make a new resolution. You will not be able to do..

Ego: Shut Up Shut Up… Take out the diary and write it….

And the fight continues….

Why I am an Atheist - I

Definition: a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods

It was this autobiographical piece by Bhagat Singh (http://www.boloji.com/spirituality/051.htm) that started my mental turbulence- of questioning the beliefs.

Bhagat Singh was a superbly clear minded person who could put what he thought about his atheism so eloquently in words. I am still trying and this is an attempt in putting tough thoughts in words.

Some of these thoughts and ideas would, of course, be borrowed from what Bhagat Singh wrote.

One reason is that belief in God leads to an association with a religion. And religion is something that leads to biases. In Mumbai, when we went out to find a house on rent, the point of religion came up many times. If you are of a particular set of religion, then only you can rent the house.

Why?

Are the others not the sons/daughters of the so called GOD?

And needless to say we have been witness to so many incidents where the division of INDIANS on basis of religion has been exploited. Religion makes boundaries around the lives of people. A bhakt of Hanumaan has to go to Mandir every Tuesday. He reads Hanuman Chalisa every day. A Sikh has his own rituals – may be reading Japuji Sahib every morning. The ritual is good intentioned – so that people read it, understand it and may be follow the learning in their lives.

But do they understand what they read? How many people try to follow it? It has become what it is - a ritual that has to be done so that the Gods are pleased each morning.

So my first step to atheism start here – reading a religious book or praying each morning. Why not read a good motivational book or some article on positive thinking instead?

HR is not all Gass

An Oil Depot, though a part of a gargantuan organization, is a small company in itself. We have our own set of customers, our own products, a separate finance department and an operations department. Products are the different types of fuels. The team which is responsible for filling these products in Tanks and dispatching them can be called an operations department. The Supply and Distribution(S&D) Deptt gets daily orders from customers and assigns tank trucks to meet the demands on a daily basis.

For the past few days I have been shuttling between the two departments of my office – the client facing S&D and the operations. And I can clearly see how susceptible they are to conflict.

S&D has to cater to the demand of all the customers – from the next door retail outlets to the far flung, many times inaccessible parts of the crown state of India. Sitting in an S&D room means non-stop phone calls, people barging in through to know the status of their demands. You cannot turn them away as the product is an essential good.

Coming to the operations part. Filling of Tank Trucks (TT) as directed by the S&D is just the basic requirement. In addition to providing the right fuel with right quality and quantity, operations also has to take care of the safety aspect as we are dealing with a highly inflammable product here. It has to take care that the TTs have all the safety fittings on, the drivers and helpers who are filling the product are doing so in a safe fashion. And add to that the normal operational hazards of dealing with erratic behaviors of both man and machine.

Now this creates a potential Mahabharat type situation.

For example, a customer is pressuring the S&D to dispatch the product at the earliest.

But while filling of the TT, one of the following occurs:

-       The loading mechanism goes out of order for some reason in the middle of the filling

OR

-       The less educated worker makes does not follow the safe filling procedure and has to be reprimanded so that he does not repeat the mistake. (old school methods)

OR

-       There is some deficiency in the Truck for which it is not safe to fill it with the product

In any of the situations above, there will be delays in meeting the customer demands.

Primarily no one is at fault and are doing their job but it creates a conflicting situations where there will be fingers pointed at each other.

This is at a much smaller scale. I am sure big organizations face this conflict at larger levels.

So what is the solution to avoid such conflicts. One classic solution which we generally used to write in the MBA exams was Job Rotation - people involved in both the jobs be rotated so that each other can understand the pain points of other.

But it has other associated problems of handling the ego conflicts and the human resistance to change.

The point is that all problems at the end involve Humans or in other words are HR problems. May be the HR subjects in MBA courses need to be marketed well to students – after all that is what they need to know the most!!

Rekindling the Future

Few moments have passed in the past 3 years when there was a laptop in front without it being plugged into the vast cloud of internet. But the last 5 months were exactly opposite. Getting an internet connection here in Jammu was a project in itself. But, as they say everything has a brighter side. Lack of connectivity on the laptop meant getting GPRS activated on the mobile.

Once I was a net addict and now I became a mobile net addict. With laptop, you still had times – travelling, in the class or in general where there was no wi-fi available. But with that small piece in hand and it being connected to the world meant the addiction was waiting to happen.

So now after around 5 months on surfing through the mobile, I am having trouble concentrating on the big screen of the laptop when it has been finally found purpose. Checking mail on the mobile is much easier, though replying back is not (It can be made easy if you have a qwerty keypad. But can’t complain much as I am using a high(est) end mobile phone that too given for free by Lalit, which also had a major role to play for my mobile-net addiction given its huge screen).

Recently, I have also been reading books on mobile. Well !! From paper to laptop to mobile. With the emergence of Kindle (and some other e-readers), a debate has been sparked on what is better – a traditional book or reading on some e-reader like Kindle.

Well most of the arguments in favor of books have been emotional – that smell, filling up the racks with a rainbow of collection, getting cosy with a book in a corner with a cup of coffee on a lazy Sunday etc etc.

Yes those things make you nostalgic and difficult to toss the books aside. But thinking rationally, for me, books always meant less concentration. It is easy to lose track after some time, especially if you are reading a tough book.

I read books on speed reading and am still struggling to reach the enormous reading speeds which these books make you dream about.

I find it much easier to read swiftly on a mobile or on a laptop – without any speed reading guides.

Though I am yet to experience Kindle but I am pretty sure that I will like it. The only problem that remains is that of High prices. As of now, it is out of reach but that is the best thing about technology. I am sure it will be ‘pocketable’ in no time.