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Let another man praise thee,and not thine own mouth.

Capital is not so important in business.Experience is not so important.You can get both these things.What is important is IDEAS.

If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there is not any limit to what you can do with

your business and your life.Harvey Firestone.

THINK BIG.. THINK FAST.. THINK AHEAD..Ideas are no Ones Monopoly..

Our ambitions... higher, Our committments...deeper and

Our efforts... Greater..Dhirubhai Ambani

e-Panorama 6th Jan 07. Year2,Vol.8Newsletter of Bharuch District Management Association

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Tips on climbing the corporate ladder

{The article is meant for Professionally run organisations and readers in Govt./ Semi-Govt organisations may pls excuse, where other criteria have priority over performance.}

There probably isn't a person in the world who would not wish for a fair chance, and anopportunity to succeed. We would all prefer to be measured by the content of our character.In the business world, this translates into an opportunity for a rewarding career. For that tohappen, both individuals and corporations need to take responsibility to effect change. Therehave always been differences between perception and reality. During my career, I haveobserved that the perception of a successful leader in a small, entrepreneurial company canbe quite different from the perception of a successful leader in a large corporation. In anentrepreneurial organisation, one's success is almost always the result of individualperformance. Measurement of success is absolute -- and can be tied to the amount of moneyone makes, or the amount of individual recognition one achieves. In a large corporation,success is somewhat dependent on individual abilities, but also heavily reliant upon teamperformance and influence skills. Here, success is relative -- one's degree of success ismeasured against the performance of others, before the next move up the corporate careerladder.

Ultimately, we are all responsible for our own careers. However, it is important to know andunderstand the impact of perceptions, and a willingness to recognise that companies expectdifferent skills at different points in one's career.

As a man of Indian ancestry, I have developed my own beliefs about the perceptions ofIndian professionals. These are my personal opinions, and may not reflect reality, but when Imentor or speak with Indian groups, these are some of the perceptions we discuss:

y Excellent academic credentials y Smart and aggressive y Ambitious y Very good individual contributors y Good communication skills y Good functional leaders y Not necessarily good leaders of large, diverse organisations.

What's the missing link here? Strong influence skills.

Early in your career, you are known for specific, often specialised skills. For example, youknow the intricacies of tax law especially well, or you are up to date on the latest generallyaccepted accounting rules. People seek you out for your expertise, individual knowledge andaptitude. Those incredible skills you had at the beginning and middle part of your career --in accounting or tax -- become less important as you move higher up in an organisation.These skills are replaced by your ability to influence and persuade people -- often yourpeers, or people higher in the organisation than yourself. In these later stages, people seekyou out because of your collective experience across many endeavours, and for the peopleyou know both within and outside of your company. Your ability to move a project forward


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that involves many team members is valued. You bring solutions to the organisation evenbefore they realise that a problem exists.

These are the skills to develop in order to reach these higher levels of performance:

y Learning agility: The ability to learn new things even as you let go of outdated concepts y Flexibility: Being multidimensional y Risk-taking: Get out of your comfort zone and try something new y Focus on results/performance y Surround yourself with positive thinkers y Form deep and meaningful relationships, personally and professionally y Find mentors/sponsors within and outside the organisation y Deliver on your commitments y Behave transparently y Confront reality y Find the right balance between work and the rest of your life

These are characteristics to avoid:

y Rigidity, being one dimensional y Playing organisational politics to the exclusion of developing your own skills. y Cynical/negative thinking y Making false promises y Harbouring hidden agendas

Above all, as you make this journey, be true to yourself. You will not get ahead by tryingto act like, talk like or behave like anyone else. You must be sincere, open andstraightforward.

A good company will value the differences it sees in the workforce. A smart manager willunderstand that there are legitimately effective ways to get things done that might lookdifferent than the path he or she would have chosen. A smart employee who wants to be asuccessful manager will understand that influence skills really are a combination of aptitude,attitude and approach. Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric, made anobservation that I happen to agree with wholeheartedly. It sums up my belief in what everyleader needs to do to ensure success: 'We spend all of our time on people. The day wescrew up the people thing, the company's over.' The discovery, deployment anddevelopment of talent is the lifeblood of any company, and the competitivedifference in the ability to bring innovation to the global market. If we believewe should all be judged by the content of our character, then an ongoingcommitment to diversity is an integral part of being citizens and companies ofthe world.

I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour oftheir skin, but by the content of their character. -- Martin Luther King

(Inputs from Mr. Mukesh Mehta Heubach-India)


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Letter from Abraham Lincoln to his sons teacher

My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for awhile and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might takehim across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy andsorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things hewill have to know, teaching him - but gently, if you can. Teach him that forevery enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just,that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is ahero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollarfound. In school, teacher, it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat. Teachhim to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win. Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him awayfrom envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him ifyou can - how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears.Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him toscoff at cynics. Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder theextreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a greenhill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tell him theyare wrong. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else isdoing it. Teach him to listen to every one, but teach him also to filters all thathe hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put aprice tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, lethim have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself,because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice littleboy and he is my son.

(inputs from Ms. Sheela Mistry, Insight Associates)


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10 ways to suppress creativity / 1. Always pretend to know more than everybody around you. 2. Get employees to fill in time sheets. 3. Run daily checks on progress of everyone's work. 4. Ensure that highly qualified people do ordinary work for long periods. 5. Put barriers up between departments. 6. Don't speak personally to employees, except when announcing increased targets, shortened deadlines and tightened cost restraints. 7. Ask for a 200-page document to justify every new idea. 8. Call lots of meetings. 9. Place the biggest emphasis on the budget. 10. Buy lots of computers.

(Inputs from Mr. Vijay Mistry, Remi Metals Gujarat Ltd, Jhagadia)

*****************************Q :: Do you know.. name of this place? ... country?


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In the new year lets Be like a Japanese Garden

Be the still pool. Let your face reflect the glory, the wonder.Be the dragonfly, silent but joyful.Be the bud. Prepare to blossom.Be the tree. Grant shelter.Be the butterfly. Accept the riches of the moment.Be the moth. Seek the light.Be the lantern. Guide the lost.Be the path. Open the way for another.

Be the wind chime. Let the breeze blow through you. Turn the storms into song.Be the rain. Wash away, cleanse, forgive.Be the grass. Grow back when you are tread upon.Be the bridge. Reach in peace towards the other side.Be the moss. Temper your strength with softness and mercy.Be the soil. Bear fruit.

Be the gardener. Create order.Be the temple. Let the spirit dwell in you.Be the seasons. Welcome change.Be the moon. Shine through the darkness.Be the pebble. Let time shape and smooth you.Be the leaf. Fall gracefully when your time comes to let go.

Trust in the circle. To end is to begin.

******************************


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e-mails that have educated me A Summary of 2006 e-mails

I must send my thanks to whomever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue onenvelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needssealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every drink bottle / Can I open for the samereason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Susie Brown) who is aboutto die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 thatBill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mailprogram. I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me,and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. Thanks to email, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward anemail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toiletstains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking a man along to watch the car so aserial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas. I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup water in the microwave anymorebecause it will blow up in my face..disfiguring me for life. I no longer eat Pani Puri because I could be infected with AIDS.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for whichI will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spideris lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.


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yAfter the game, the king & the pawns, all go in the same box! yBehind every successful person....there is always he........himself! yChances always favor..............a prepared mind! yNothing is as far away ...............as one minute ago! yNobody is perfect.................that is why pencils have erasers! yImagination is more important.........than knowledge! yYou stay connected......only when you're plugged! yThey (color pencils) are different colors ..........yet they stay in the same box! yIf you think you can, you can...................if you think you can't, you can never! yChoice, not circumstances ...............determine your success!

D H a I :: Editorial Committee ::

ChairmanMr. Jayen Mehta, GNFC Ltd.

Members Mr. Mukesh Mehta, Heubach Colour,

Ms. Sheela Mistry, Insight Associates, Mr. G M Patel and

Mr. R V Revar, GNFC Ltd.

ePanorama Advisory committeeMr. R P Vyas -President,

Mr.Kamlesh Udani -Past President, Mr.Ashok Panjwani -Vice President,

Mr.K A Shah -Vice President.Bharuch District Management Association

601/602 Vaikunth Township, Opp: Polytechnic College

Bharuch - 392 002 Gujarat - IndiaReaders are welcome to send feedback, suggestions

and articles/inputs by e-mail [email protected]


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