Indian Idol Enters the last Eight Phase

Yesterday's Indian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television saw the exit of Parleen Gill who on the day was atleast the 3rd best singer after Amit Paul and Ankita. But unfortunately performance alone does not make someone the "Indian Idol" . Had it been only performance on the given day, I bet Chang the dentist and Prasanth the Army man should have been out by now. Now I am not being too harsh on both these guys but after having set some exceptional benchmarks impressing one and all in the pre-Gala stage, we expected these two guys to be more consistent.

But over the last 3 weeks in the gala round,(where the stage has been reduced to last 8 from 13 in the initial gala stages) , Meiyang Chang and Prasanth have been the biggest disappointments. Both these contestants have excellent voices but unfortunately are not capitalizing on that. Add to that the looks factor of Chang and you potentially have a loved by one and all Indian Idol in Chang. But the basic thing an Indian Idol should have is singing and Chang has not been able to deliver on that front.

In fact the best two singers in the gala round have been Wild card Entrants Amit Paul and Ankita Mishra,one of them I strongly believe will go on win this event unless Emon or Chang come out with something dramatic in the next 2-3 rounds or Amit himself goofs up because of overconfidence. Amit Paul's performance of Pehla Nasha from the movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander was amazing and I think was sung even better than the original singer Udit Narayan.

So what next? My gut feeling says next two weeks will see the exit of Deepali and Puja one after other and unless Prasanth and Chang, come up with some great singing, they will be next in line on the exit door. So let's wait and watch .......

Human Resource Management

Off late I have been hearing a lot of stories about the movement of people across organizations and as I have already written,it is a direct consequence of the Talent crunch we are facing world over. So here is a story which I picked up from my roommate and close friend about yet another guy switching companies in search of greener pastures.

The Protagonist here is considered the superhero by his boss and colleagues alike and everyone really appreciates the extra mile he stretches in order to complete his work and also help the other colleagues' in delivering results. Our superhero after spending more than a year with company realizes that the company's growth plans are not matching his own growth plans(in terms of Moving up the value chain and also with respect to rate of growth). So he decides to move on and sends the dreaded (to the management) email with subject line "resignation".

But 3 days into his resignation, while the whole floor knows that he is moving on and is already discussing "what next?", the management team has not discussed the matter with our superhero. The least a guy who decides to move on expects from the management is a 10 minutes honest face to face talk. But here the management team in question does not even bother. This seems to really puzzle our superhero and finally after waiting for 3 more days, he himself walks to the corner office on the floor to speak to the so called "Unit Manager" and get his resignation accepted. In contrast, when the superhero had left his earlier company to join the current one, the Vice President of the company had walked up to him to talk about the resignation.

If a person who is considered to be the superhero by one and all in the floor decides to quit and the management does not even care to talk to him, let alone stop him from leaving, what kind of message is going down to the junior staff and the others on the floor ? "I as the company's employee am not being valued by the management and this could happen to me as well tomorrow". So even if the superhero is not perceived well by the management team, the least they can do is have a face to face talk and get to understand the reasons for moving on.

As an organization, we need to make sure that every person on the payroll gets his due not just in terms of paycheck, but also in terms of the basic human respect. And the most a person needs this respect is when has decided to move on. Also in situations like this, the organizations can uncover some larger issue (may be something is wrong with one of the line manager?). So I certainly believe that this organization is forgetting one of the basic tenets of Human Capital Management.(And the fact that it is a consulting company makes things worse. People are the only asset a consulting company has.)

My friend has already decided to move on from this company (see this is the ripple effect I am talking ) as he is one of the most junior staff there and he revered our superhero and took him to be his role model.

Myth Shattered !!

Have been busy off late with my preparations to head to the perpetual land of Opportunities - The United States Of America- for my MBA. Got done with one of the biggest pain points of travelling to the USA -the visa - over the last week. The Visa interview was pretty simple and lasted only 2 minutes.

Here is how it went about

Visa Officer(VO): So u r going for a one year MBA in US ?
Me : Yes , sir
VO: Looks at my funding and asks who is funding?
Me: Self and funds from School(loans, Scholarship etc)
VO (Looks at my passport): Oh you have an H1B from XYZ company.
Me : Yes, Sir.
VO: Did you work on the H1B?
Me :Yes sir 15months .
VO: Why did you come back?
me : Personal reasons.
VO: Show me your Degree certificates.
Me: Here they are sir.
VO : Oh you have a degree in XYZ engineering. What are you doing in a IT company?
Me : I do ABC stuff for my company sir .
VO(after listening intently) : You visa is approved. Passport will reach you in 2 days
Me :thank you !!

What is the "myth" I am talking of here? Well this is my 2nd visit to the American Consulate in the last 3 years and I found an interesting new addition to the entire visa stamping experience. The new addition is the manager of the Visa processing division of the Consulate who gives the Visa aspirants a pep-talk on do and don'ts of getting a visa. Apart from the usual "Don't lie", "No fake certificates", the one thing which shocked me was this statement by the Consulate manager. "What do you say when you are asked whether you intend to work in USA post your graduation?" So far the unanimous answer to this question in order to get the visa was "I intend to return back to India as soon as I complete my studies and serve my home country" and every damn so called "Visa consultant" wanted us learn this answer by rote. This despite knowing very well that no one wants to return to India without repaying at least some part of the hefty loan taken for the education and not many actually return without working unless of course you are on Full scholarship or have family business.

But the Visa Consulate manager's answer was "If you want to work in USA post ur studies, be honest about it. I mean how many of the visa aspirants for the F1 student visas want to spend 30K USD on US education and then not have the opportunity to repay it in the fastest possible way". This is the greatest myth I am talking off since I have heard the "No work in USA” statement from hundreds of aspirants of the coveted US Visa.

So next time any of you goes for the visa interview, make sure you are honest and confident about your intentions to go to US and the green Signal from Uncle Sam is yours for sure.

Is it really a Flat World ?

When the NY times reporter Thomas Friedman wrote about the World being Flat , most of us nodded in agreement and were excited about the new order of the world. But seems like a few of us are still living in history and when the "few of us" includes the likes of Steve Jobs and his Apple, it really makes the "rest of us" feel sad. How else does one explain the fact that the Apple's newest toy the iPhone will launched in Europe and Asia only by the early 2008.

Last week Apple released the iphone in the United States and it seems to be selling like hot cakes. And given the media hype generated ( remember Media is now living in a real Flat world with me having access to likes of NY times, Washington Post etc sitting right here in India), it should have been appropriate that the phone gets a worldwide launch. Apple is only encouraging the Grey market selling and smuggling of iphone by not going for a Worldwide launch. Remember how the entertainment industry is fighting piracy ? . It is going for Worldwide simultaneous releases of Movies ( The Matrix -III, Spiderman-III did it ).Also remember that a flat world implies that nearly 3 million Indians today travel across the Altantic every year implying that anyone can buy the iphone in the US and ship it across to his/her friends and relatives back in India.

One would have thought that technical issues like band spectrum are stopping Apple from launching the iphone everywhere. But ask any one in the grey market and all they say is " GEt the phone sir. I will unlock the spectrum for Rs100/- and you can use it". So not sure how long we really have to wait for the official launch of Iphone. Meanwhile I am asking my cousin in the United States to ship the newest gizmo to me whenever he gets a chance to grab one or two :)

Indian Idol and Mass Psychology

As the Bharat ki shaan Indian Idol( A rip off of the Original American Idol) enters the gala round stage, the audiences are being asked to vote for a talented set of singers. This week saw the end of Richa Aneja, who though a beautiful singer, I believe was a year or two early in trying to be the Idol of India. Nothing but her Childish voice did her in. But as they say, the show must go on and over the next few weeks , we will see the remaining 12 singers trying to outperform each other and win the Indian Idol.

One interesting aspect I observed over the last few weeks has been the role which judges and the organizers themselves are playing in helping the so called Janta to choose their idol. With not much separating the various singers in the show, I guess much will depend on how the Hosts, judges and organizers play out the game and in whose favor. For example, everybody who is a regular watcher of the show knows that Ankita is among the most talented of the gals but her Tom-Boyish looks go against her. But Ankita being the favorite of all the judges (and may be the organizers and hosts as well), they nicely fitted in a small trailer of how the rest of the participants in the Final 13 don't like her. This clearly is a playing with mass psychology strategy.

How you may ask? Well as an analogy just think of a typical road accident in India. You are driving your car on a main road at a decent city speed of 40kmph. All of a sudden, a guy on a cycle comes in from the cross road on the left to join the main road. Obviously you being the typical city driver don't expect this cycle and end up brushing your car's edges against the cycle. The cyclewaala falls off balance and gets some minor bruises. The good guy you are, you stop the car and check with the Cyclewaala if he needs some help. But a crowd gathers and for no fault of yours, you are held responsible for the accident and scolded left and right by the crowd. This is called the sympathy psychology. The mass hysteria is to support the weaker section or the suffering section. So by creating Sympathy for Ankita, are the organizers trying to increase the votes for her? Well only time will tell.

I guess the same thing is happening with Abhishek Kumar as well. Like what is the relationship between his being an Adopted child and his being a good talent. But still the Indian Idol showcased him as an adopted child. Obviously Abhishek will get some sympathy votes for this act of this. Let's wait and watch if this will help him win.

Apart from these gimmicks, we had the usual talents Emon, Chang, Prashant,Charu,Puja doing what they are good at !! Singing. Lots of people are putting their money on a gal winning the contest this time and the Ankita ploy may well be a part of the that plan. As of now if you ask whom I have put my money on? It will be a tough fight between Chang, Prashanth And Emon( with Prashanth having an edge as he will get more sympathy votes. He has been shown to be the sole bread earner of his family). I do believe one of these three will surely be the Bharat ki shaan this year . (Personally I have loved and voted for Chang). But can't say whom the organizers want to win. So let us wait and watch........