Question : Are you Abbey? Is this story autobiographical?Answer : No I am not Abbey, though we share a few things in common. I grew up in the Railway Colony at SP Marg, New Delhi and went to the same college as Abbey. My birthday is on 16th November. So yes, the settings are the same as mine. MIJ, the B-School that the story is set in the city of Jamshedpur and I went to XLRI which is also set in Jamshedpur. It was much easier to write about a place I knew well than to set it in a fictitious place or a city I had limited knowledge of. The story is believable because I could write authentically about the life of someone in a Business School. So all in all, if you write about a place that you know well and set the story in a setting you are familiar with, there is an air of believability about it.Question : How long did you take to write this novel?Answer : I wrote the story over seven years. I was not obliged to complete it in any time frame and had no million dollar advance from a publisher to submit the manuscript before a deadline. So the writing pace was slow and unhurried. I worked on the story till I felt that it was complete and ready for someone else to read.Question : Who is your favorite character?Answer : It is rather difficult for me to choose from among my own characters. Each one has some endearing trait or the other. Rascal Rusty tends to be a favorite among many of the readers I notice. I like his wit and insight. I admire the way he has pulled himself up by his own bootstraps in the story. All the characters interact together to create the chemistry of the novel. If anyone were not there, the novel would be incomplete.Question : Who designed the cover of the book?Answer : I did. There was no money to pay for a separate jacket design artist. So I paid myself to do it. The collage of photographs and scribbles is fuzzy – quite like the way someone’s memory would be if you look back at an event set in 1982-84. It has the handwriting of the characters in the story. Ayesha’s note to Abbey saying, “You will always be special in my eyes. XXX Ayesha”, while Arunesh Nanda the guitarist writes, “See you at my concert”Question : Studying for an MBA is very popular at the moment, did you aim your book at a particular audience with this knowledge?Answer : I wrote the story the way it unfolded. I chose the B School setting because I went to one and also taught at one (XLRI) for five years. That gave me opportunities to talk to students and teachers over a seven year period and enabled me to look at what was common across batches and what was transient. I believe the readers of this book are not just B School students or aspirants, (though that is a sizeable chunk), anyone who has experienced life on a campus can relate to the story.Question : The title (very clever!), how did you choose this title? Anyother working titles?Answer : Thanks. The title came out of a line used by the protagonist. The phrase gives the reader a flavor of the story – that it is funny, irreverent etc. I did not have any other titles in mind.Question : It is true all the characters can be related to, are they based upon your college friends? To what extent?Answer : I tried to create characters based on some archetypes. All that make the story touch people across generations and somethings that evoke nostalgia in everyone – ie good times with friends.Question : Rusty (a favourite character of mine!), his ingenious solutions – are they your ideas or were the words of wisdom taken from elsewhere?Answer : I got an opportunity to live the lives of all the characters during the process of writing this novel. So while writing Rusty’s lines I had to think like him. (He is my favourite too)Question : You say you had to treat the novel as a term paper in order to complete it – was the novel difficult to write? Why? It flows very well.Answer : Thanks for saying so. I wrote this over 7 years out of which I had a writer’s block from 1999-2002. WhenI picked it up in 2002, I did not like what I had written before. So I had to start from scratch.Question : The classnotes are very clever and amusing, where did the idea to use them come from?Answer : Many of us like to doodle in class. Abbey is the kind of charcater who starts off in all earnestness and then meanders along. The doodles capture that and build aspects of Abbey’s character eg his sense of humour etcQuestion : The pressure Sethu experiences (to the extent he burns his notes), is that pressure you experienced or based on someone you know?Answer : Doing an MBA is a demanding process. The pressure is especially compounded with the uncertainty of the Placement Season and of course peer pressure. That leads people to do desperate things. Sethu is no exception, despite being a topper. Or maybe because he was a topper and had additional pressure.Question : Would you agree college days are the best days of one’s life?Answer : Without doubt. The days spent with friends. When life is really uncomplicated.Question : This is the first book in the trilogy – when are the next released? (I’m very eager!!)Answer : I am scribbling away at book 2. But I am a slow writer. So lets see how long it takes to mature.Question : The novel explores the journey into adulthood as well as the educational aspect of the business school. Did you plan to explore the emotional side of it as opposed to the day-to-day life in the business school or did it just occur with the writing process?Answer : The book moves at two levels – professional and emotional. The movement in to B School and Abbey’s love life represent the two levels of his existence. I did want to talk about both aspects – hence the tagline “of love and life in a business school”.
Day: May 25, 2008
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Building a Cool Place to Work
B
eing cool is tough. Ask any teenager. The definition of cool changes every time we change the reference group. Being cool has its payoffs. Everyone wants to be seen around with you. When you look at that happening with an organization, it can be a great talent magnet. Most of the times, the shape of the office building and the recommended distance from the cookie vending machine is seen to make an office cool – at least to the wide eyed newbie. If instead, you focus on these five factors, you can build a CPTW (Cool Place To Work) that can be sustained.
1. Iconic Top Management – Smart people like to work for smart people. How many of your company`s top leaders would get voted by the professional peer group as being among the top five experts of their field? Among the top ten? Of all the factors that add the cool factor to an organization this is the least planned part of the organization. Yet this factor has the greatest impact on the Employer Brand. Why? Everyone wants to work with the thought leaders and stars. So when you decide to put someone in a top job, ask yourself how many of the world`s top talent will sign up simply because of the roll of honor among your top talent. If you have the top thinkers and the thought leaders of the industry on your payroll then automatically the media will be quoting them on issues and challenges that take up everyone`s attention and the cool factor rubs off on other employees too. When Muggles share office space with Wizards, some of that stardust rubs off on them too. Similarly, the companies that are seen to impact CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects have an added cool factor thrown in.
2. Informal Culture – I know that most customers no matter how sloppily dressed they are, always expect the employees of the companies they are dealing with, to be impeccably dressed. So if you are in a customer facing job, chances of coming into the workplace dressed like a beach bum is remote. If the dress code is informal, the culture of informality will prevail is the assumption. Yet building an informal culture is a tough thing to do. Especially in today`s multi-generational and diverse workplace creating an informal culture is important so that everyone feels equally included. That is the way to get the best out of a diverse employee group. An informal culture makes it easy to build a crackling and engaging work culture.
3. Healthy Employees – The old world view was that the manager was not expected to supervise you when you took the third helping of dessert. Yet the employer would pick up the cost of insurance that would follow. Somehow that seemed unfair. So the employers started to reward and encourage healthy employees. Many of the companies have gyms or subsidize gym memberships, pay for medical checkups and organize health awareness weeks. Healthy employees mean a healthier pool of employees to choose from during the succession planning discussions. Senior leadership roles often demand punishing travel schedules, long working days that end up in dinner or lunch meetings with employees, partners and clients. Being healthy helps. Being an employer who encourages me to stay healthy is an attraction
4. Technology that Enhances Productivity – One major reason that flex-working hours or work from policies fail is that the technology that organizations introduce these policies without having the technology that supports remote connectivity and gives the employee the option to balance the two major demands that affect majority of employees of the “sandwich generation” – who need to have child care support while also having to support elderly family members. Add to it the challenges of balancing the needs of attending the child`s concert when both parents are managing travel and meetings simultaneously can be a stress creator. Technology can help break this tedium of being tied to the workplace. So as the demographics change, workplaces that leverage tech will be deemed as cool.
5. Careers that Match the Individual’s Aspirations – most exit interviews mention “better career prospects” as the reason to leave an existing role. Career maps in organizations can be a good starting point. The best career discussions are a partnership between the Manager, HR and the employee that focuses on how the person’s strengths and developmental opportunities pan out in creating the next career move for the employee. The employee needs to own the career discussion piece where the role of HR is to provide a wider view of opportunities in the organization based on the strength and development discussion between the manager and the employee.
In summary, while mood lighting in the office with your pet snail crawling on your desk may strike someone as “cool”, it is not what will attract and more importantly, retain top notch talent. As someone said to me once, “I don’t care if I have a choice of chocolate bars if I am not enjoying my work after the novelty factor has worn off. After all I am looking for a career not a meal in a theme restaurant.”
