PALANIVEL THIAGA RAJAN

Finance Minister, Tamil Nadu.

 

Lineage

Grandson of Sir P.T. Rajan, former Chief Minister, Madras Presidency

Son of PTR Rajan, former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker and Minister

Qualification

B.Tech(Hons) from NIT Trichy

Masters and PhD from State University of New York

Formerly an investment banker at Lehman Brothers and Standard Chartered in New York and Singapore.

 

Attributes his sense of inner stability to two major events – a miraculous escape during 9/11 attacks (his office was in the basement of the twin towers) and his job with Lehman Brothers during the 2008 freefall.

“You realize nothing is permanent”, he says.

In a corporate set up you strive to add to your own value. In public life you have to add value to society.

Inclusive growth – everybody has access to everything within the boundaries of social and economic fairness.

“I do not need to name drop. I am who I am. And, yes, every chance I get, I invoke my ancestors because it is our Tamil culture to pay respect to our forefathers”

“My sons are young at 16 and 11. I am not going to put any pressure on them. I want them to study well, see the world and do what interests them.”

“I am fortunate to have been blessed with a strong partner. Margaret and I met at university. She has adjusted well to life in India. She keeps the sons grounded. Though it hurts, we deny them certain luxuries because we want them to understand that we are instilling certain values.”

“I love to spend time with my family. They are my lifeline and laughter is our medicine. Our pets bind us. The five dogs and a kitten at home are my best stress busters. . 

In a corporate set up you strive to add to your own value. In public life you have to add value to society.

Inclusive growth – everybody has access to everything within the boundaries of social and economic fairness."

“I do not need to name drop. I am who I am. And, yes, every chance I get, I invoke my ancestors because it is our Tamil culture to pay respect to our forefathers”

“My sons are young at 16 and 11. I am not going to put any pressure on them. I want them to study well, see the world and do what interests them.”

(Excerpts from a 40 minute slot seamlessly transcended into a 140 minute off beat conversation with Soma Basu, published in The Hindu Magazine of 10 October 2021)

 

 

 

YOU CAN’T OUT – AMAZON AMAZON Purple Cow Seth Godin

 

YOU CAN’T OUT – AMAZON AMAZON

No one will argue with you if you claim that Wal-Mart is the biggest, most profitable, scariest retailer on earth. So, when Wal-Mart was frantically trying to catch up with Amazon.com, what did they have plastered on a banner in their offices?

 

“YOU CAN’T OUT – AMAZON AMAZON”

It is a great insight. Even this mighty retailer realized that just copying Amazon’s strengths wouldn’t be sufficient. Once someone stakes out a limit, you’re foolish to attempt a pale imitation. The democrats will never be able to out – Republican the Republicans. Reebok can’t try to out – Nike Nike and JetBlue didn’t try to out – American American.

You have to go where the competition is not. The farther, the better.

Purple Cow

Seth Godin

 

The indication is, you have to be one up on Amazon in everything, everywhere to make a splash, a mark.

It is akin to what Novak Dojokovic described after beating Rafael Nadal in one of the most exclusive semifinals in the  French Open at Roland Garros, Paris, on 12^th June 2021

3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2

 

“You have to climb Mt.Everest to win against this guy”

It is reported the 90 minute third set is reserved for eternity where two of the sports’ greatest pushed each other to their limits.

The Serb’s victory is special because it was on a surface where the Spaniard – 13 time French Open winner   had seldom been challenged.

 

EXTRACTS FROM ‘PURPLE COW’ Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable Seth Godin

 

EXTRACTS FROM ‘PURPLE COW’

Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Seth Godin

The author and his family were driving through France. They were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway. For dozens of kilometers they gazed out the window, marveling about how beautiful everything was. Then, within twenty minutes, they started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows. What was amazing became common, worse than common and boring. The author perceives a Purple Cow if found grazing would be interesting for a while. He writes, the essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be Remarakable.

If you are remarkable, it is likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise - ever.  The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.

Where did you learn how to fail? You probably might have learned it in the first class. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in.

We’ve been raised with a false belief. We mistakenly believe that criticism leads to failure. From the time we get to school, we’re taught that being noticed is almost always bad. It gets us sent the principal’s office, not to Harvard.

Some restaurants in New York are just plain dull in comparison with few amazing restaurants there. Why? Simple. After spending all that money and all that time opening a restaurant, the entrepreneur is in no mood to take yet another risk. A restaurant that’s boring won’t attract much criticism.

The problem with people who would avoid a remarkable career is that they never end up as the leader. They decide to work for a big company, intentionally functioning as an anonymous drone, staying way back to avoid risk and criticism.

However Safe is risky. Be exceptional.

Remarkable people are often recruited from jobs they love to jobs they love even more.

When Herman Miller introduced the $750 Aeron chair in 1994, it was a radical risk. But everyone who saw it wanted to sit in it., and everyone who sat in it wanted to talk about it. Sitting in the Aeron chair sent a message about what you did and who you were.

Mass marketing demands mass products. And mass products beg for mass marketing.

Ideas that spread, win. A brand (or a new product offering) is nothing more than an idea. Ideas that spread are more likely to succeed than those that don’t. The author calls ideas that spread, ideaviruses. Sneezers are the key spreading agents of an ideavirus. Sneezers launch and maintain ideaviruses. They are the experts who tell all their colleagues or friends or admirers about a new product or service on which they are a perceived authority.

You can no longer reach everyone at once. And if you don’t grab the attention and enthusiasm of the sneezers, your product withers.

Remarkable is the way you answer the phone, launch a new brand or price a revision to the software.

Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy says, “Instead of selling what we wanted to sell we sold what people wanted us to sell, and then figured out how to make money doing it. Every time we talked to our customers, they wanted us to follow the path that turned out to be the hardest possible path we could follow. And every time, that path was the right path.”

When a store is in the initial stages, if someone asks for a product, someone would walk him over. After a while what happens is nobody walks you over. Someone would point in a vague direction and say, “Over there.” It would mean a lost business opportunity.

The grocery business is pretty special in that once you stake out a location, you can profit from it for a very long time. There’s also not much chance that grocery stores are going to go out of style, so your ride on top is pretty long indeed.

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department” David Packard

 

The Plague Albert Camus and Covid 19

 

The Plague

Albert Camus

and

Covid 19

 

The Plague is a novel about a plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran. In April, thousands of rats stagger into the open and die. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. The authorities finally arrange for the daily collection and cremation of the rats. Soon thereafter, M. Michel, the concierge for the building where Dr. Rieux works, dies after falling ill with a strange fever. When a cluster of similar cases appears, Dr. Rieux's colleague, Castel, becomes certain that the illness is the bubonic plague. He and Dr. Rieux are forced to confront the indifference and denial of the authorities and other doctors in their attempts to urge quick, decisive action. Only after it becomes impossible to deny that a serious epidemic is ravaging Oran, do the authorities enact strict sanitation measures, placing the whole city under quarantine.

Dr. Rieux's mother comes to stay with him while his wife is away. Meanwhile, Dr. Rieux contacts Mercier, the man in charge of pest control, to suggest that sanitation measures be taken. The public begins to feel uneasy when the flood of dying rats continues to increase. The newspapers clamor for the city government to address the problem. In response, the city arranges for the daily collection and cremation of the corpses. Just as a mild hysteria begins to grip the public, the phenomenon abruptly disappears.

The same day, Dr. Rieux meets Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, escorting a feverish, weakened M. Michel to his home. M. Michel's neck, armpits, and groin are swelling painfully. Dr. Rieux promises to visit him later in the afternoon. Meanwhile, he receives a telephone call from a former patient, Joseph Grand, regarding an accident suffered by his neighbor, Cottard. Upon his arrival, Dr. Rieux discovers that Cottard has tried to hang himself. Cottard becomes agitated when Dr. Rieux states that he will have to submit a report about the incident to the police. Dr. Rieux visits M. Michel to find his condition worsening. M. Michel dies in an ambulance en route to the hospital.

Other victims succumb to the same illness in the days that follow. The narrator introduces the reader to Jean Tarrou, the author of the written documents mentioned earlier. Tarrou, a vacationer in Oran, keeps notebooks containing detailed reports of his observations about daily life in Oran. He records conversations regarding the appearance of the mysterious illness in the wake of the dying rats. An old man periodically comes out onto a balcony opposite Tarrou's hotel room to spit on the cats sunning themselves below. When the plague of dead rats entices the cats away, the little old man seems greatly disappointed. Tarrou writes about a family of four with a disagreeable, strict father, M. Othon, who dines every day at the hotel. The hotel manager, dismayed at the dead rats in his three-star hotel, takes no comfort in Tarrou's assurance that everyone is in the same boat. The manager snootily explains that he is bothered precisely because his hotel is now like everyone else. One of the chambermaids becomes sick with the strange illness, but the manager assures Tarrou that it probably isn't contagious. In the midst of these vignettes of daily life in Oran, Tarrou ponders philosophical matters such as how not to waste one's time.

The public reacts to their sudden imprisonment with intense longing for absent loved ones. They indulge in selfish personal distress, convinced that their pain is unique in comparison to common suffering. After the term of exile lasts several months, many of Oran's citizens lose their selfish obsession with personal suffering. They come to recognize the plague as a collective disaster that is everyone's concern. They confront their social responsibility and join the anti-plague efforts.

Camus writes,” A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions. Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that pestilences were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.”

“But once the town gates were shut, every one of us realized that all, the narrator included, were, so to speak, in the same boat, and each would have to adapt himself to the new conditions of life. Thus, for example, a feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike and, together with fear, the greatest affliction of the long period of exile that lay ahead. One of the most striking consequences of the closing of the gates was, in fact, this sudden deprivation befalling people who were completely unprepared for it.”

“And in the warm darkness of the summer nights the cars could be heard clanking on their way, laden with flowers and corpses.”

When the epidemic ends, the public quickly returns to its old routine. But the battle against the plague is never over because the bacillus microbe can lie dormant for years. The Plague is the chronicle of the scene of human suffering that all too many people are willing to forget.

The most meaningful action within the context of Camus' philosophy is to choose to fight death and suffering. In the early days of the epidemic, the citizens of Oran are indifferent to one another's suffering because each person is selfishly convinced that his or her pain is unique compared to "common" suffering.

The Plague is a transparent allegory of the Nazi occupation of France beginning in spring 1940. The sanitary teams reflect Camus' experiences in, and admiration for, the resistance against the “brown plague” of fascism.

The narrative is entirely sourced from multiple references in the Internet.

Covid 19 has unleashed endless restrictions and Lockdowns that radically constrict our life.

We are at once ravaged by the Pandemic and the enforcers, a minority of whom, in the garb of protecting lives, revel in exhibitionism of the ultimate in superciliousness conjoined with an annihilating power and invective expressions.

We can only hope and pray that Covid 19 signs off from the surface of the earth just as it had burst out unsolicited shattering our sedentary lives quite similar to the dousing of the Plague in Oran as evinced  in ‘the gripping yet explosive narrative  by Albert Camus.

 

FOUR POINT STRATEGY TO CONVERT YOUR BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER DRIVEN YET PROFITABLE VENTURE

 

 

 

FOUR POINT STRATEGY TO CONVERT YOUR BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER DRIVEN YET PROFITABLE VENTURE

 

1.    EMPLOY YOUR FIXED RESOURCES BETTER

 

It means,

 

 You have to utilize to the full your own capabilities, the capabilities of your staff, the available space within the premises, the space you have in the parking lot, the compound walls and the aerial space.

 

You have to rotate the finance at your command without any overdrawing.

 

You have to ensure you are not debt driven

 

You have to depend on the support of the family and their capabilities to the full.

 

You have to respect your employees and the customers.

 

You have to fill your shelves with what the customer needs.

 

You have to be innovative.

 

You have to reach the customers through the social media.

 

You have to reinvent all the time.

 

You have to be polite to the customers and your staff too have to follow suit

 

2.     Establish your business – the supermarket - as the best supermarket.

 

This is prmary

 

3.    Spread responsibility among all the staff in the organization

 

It releases resources that would otherwise remain concealed.

You can get the best out of everyone around

But you should never abdicate

You have to be in command.

 

 

4.    Streamline administrative resources toward a more profit oriented approach.

 

It means,

 

You have to keep everything in order within the premises, your table, your cabin

 

You have to be aware of everything that happens within.

 

You have to ensure that the physical stock matches with the Balance Sheet stock  

 

You have to know the shelves that require replenishments.

 

You have to ensure the quality of the goods

 

You have to ensure that the wastage of quality goods never occur in your sphere

 

You have to ensure ‘out of date goods or products’ are not displayed at all.

 

You have to ensure goods to be returned are returned at the earliest

 

You have to ensure that the waste is properly disposed off

 

You have to insist on cleanliness.

 

You have to ensure your packing area is not in a mess.

 

You have to ensure that the available cash is remitted at the bank without fail

 

You have to ensure that all the cheques you have issued are honoured.

 

You have to ensure that you pay the rent, electricity& water charges and all dues in time.

 

You have to ensure that you never renege on your commitments

 

 

REMEMBER BUSINESS IS NOT CHARITY.

BUSINEES HAS TO BE PROFITABLE FOR SURVIVAL.

 

Scripted for my son Ashwin Abraham while he ventured into Retail,                                     

TRAVANCORE FRESH SUPERMARKET  two and a quarter of an year ago at

Vandithadam, Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala,.

 

 The write up was inspired by MOMENTS OF TRUTH by JAN CARLZON

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

FOUR POINT STRATEGY TO CONVERT YOUR BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER DRIVEN YET PROFITABLE VENTURE

 

1.    EMPLOY YOUR FIXED RESOURCES BETTER

 

It means,

 

 You have to utilize to the full your own capabilities, the capabilities of your staff, the available space within the premises, the space you have in the parking lot, the compound walls and the aerial space.

 

You have to rotate the finance at your command without any overdrawing.

 

You have to ensure you are not debt driven

 

You have to depend on the support of the family and their capabilities to the full.

 

You have to respect your employees and the customers.

 

You have to fill your shelves with what the customer needs.

 

You have to be innovative.

 

You have to reach the customers through the social media.

 

You have to reinvent all the time.

 

You have to be polite to the customers and your staff too have to follow suit

 

2.     Establish your business – the supermarket - as the best supermarket.

 

This is prmary

 

3.    Spread responsibility among all the staff in the organization

 

It releases resources that would otherwise remain concealed.

You can get the best out of everyone around

But you should never abdicate

You have to be in command.

 

 

4.    Streamline administrative resources toward a more profit oriented approach.

 

It means,

 

You have to keep everything in order within the premises, your table, your cabin

 

You have to be aware of everything that happens within.

 

You have to ensure that the physical stock matches with the Balance Sheet stock  

 

You have to know the shelves that require replenishments.

 

You have to ensure the quality of the goods

 

You have to ensure that the wastage of quality goods never occur in your sphere

 

You have to ensure ‘out of date goods or products’ are not displayed at all.

 

You have to ensure goods to be returned are returned at the earliest

 

You have to ensure that the waste is properly disposed off

 

You have to insist on cleanliness.

 

You have to ensure your packing area is not in a mess.

 

You have to ensure that the available cash is remitted at the bank without fail

 

You have to ensure that all the cheques you have issued are honoured.

 

You have to ensure that you pay the rent, electricity& water charges and all dues in time.

 

You have to ensure that you never renege on your commitments

 

 

REMEMBER BUSINESS IS NOT CHARITY.

BUSINEES HAS TO BE PROFITABLE FOR SURVIVAL.

 

Scripted for my son Ashwin Abraham while he ventured into Retail,                                     

TRAVANCORE FRESH SUPERMARKET  two and a quarter of an year ago at

Vandithadam, Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala,.

 

 The write up was inspired by MOMENTS OF TRUTH by JAN CARLZON

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUST BARELY AN INCONVENIENCE

 

JUST BARELY AN INCONVENIENCE – A TRIVIAL AFFLICTION

Kent Cullers is a scientist with a doctorate in Physics. He headed NASA’s search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence project that was developing software that would search for radio signals indicating the presence of other life forms in the universe.

 

But Cullers had a physical challenge to contend with. He refers to it as “a trivial affliction” and

“just barely an inconvenience”.

 

What is the physical challenge?

 

Cullers is blind.

 

It is incredible if someone describes blindness as “a trivial affliction” and “just barely an inconvenience”.

 

Kent Cullers empowered himself to reach greater heights employing the two phrases.

 

He doesn’t give any power to his limitations whereby he is able to transcend them and accomplish more than those who have their sight.

 

Look at the obstacles if any you face in your life right now.

 

Imagine the power you could unleash if you saw them as “just barely an inconvenience” instead of as an insurmountable barrier.

 

ATTITUDE EVERYTHING 

JEFF KELLER

 

Morris Plaintain Fruit Tissue Culture

 

Morris Plaintain Fruit Tissue Culture 

Our own product

Cultivated at our garden

Thiruvananthapuram 

Kerala

India

Evana Three years

 Evana  Three years

Flowers in our nam ke vaste garden

 Hibiscus - Shoe Flower

 

10 mani poovu

Flowers that bloom at 10 o'clock in the morning

C.A.CHACKO Former Mechanical Foreman - B Covenented Official KDHPCo Munnar Kerala India

 C.A.CHACKO Former Mechanical Foreman - B Covenented Official  KDHPCo Munnar Kerala India

It's 13 years

Left us  on 5th April 2008 at the age of 91 years 2 months and 4 days.

Led a many splendoured life

They say a cat has 9 lives

But he had  lived through the Second World War where Bombs and Bullets reigned

Never knew he would survive the present moment

Overcame Japanese invasion and occupation

Jack of all trades

Master in everything 

A fighter

RISK AVERSION

 

RISK AVERSION

We protect our children as they are precious to us. We place them in the protective mode.  Biologists call it the ‘shield tendency’. Parents are worried about their little ones getting hurt playing sport, going on adventure or climbing trees, they impose strict control upon them to prevent the occurrence any unfortunate mishaps.  They are forced to confine themselves to their studies. The parents are after their children to make it good in the world as they delineate. But there are risks if you are over protective. Kids lose their sense of adventure, their spirits, their resilience, their sense of humour and their joy. Eventually they lose their way as they grow up. Do not structure them. Do not think for them. Do not force risk aversion upon them. Let them speak. Let them think. Let them fall and get up. Let them act. Let them laugh. Let them take reasonable risks. Let them grow up as the finest individuals they ever can be.  

DRAWING A LEAF FROM OUR OWN FAMILY

 

DRAWING A LEAF FROM OUR OWN FAMILY

We had put both of our sons at the Christ Nagar English Medium High School for their schooling from the fifth standard.  It wasn’t co-ed at that time. I was happy they were in a premium English Medium School. I knew my failings, studying in a Malayalam medium Government High School. Though I had been a good student, though I had good teachers, though I had an exceptionally commendable result at the SSLC, though I could easily garner admission at the UCCollege, Aluva, a premium institution, I had been all at sea in the College atmosphere. I was lost. The abrupt shift from the Malayalam medium to the English medium had damaged my intellect and my career beyond redemption. I could not communicate well in English. I could not understand the nuances of the language. The deficiency had played havoc with my career too as I had found it difficult to land a job and finally my functioning when I had a job. I was happy my children would not have the hard grind I had. But it was not to be. They still do suffer from the Christ Nagar branded English medium.

‘SPEAK ENGLISH’, the School had written everywhere. But no one spoke English there.  The teachers communicated in Malayalam.

I found the going pathetic. I told my sons to speak in English at least when they were at home. I said their mother. PG in English, degree in English, (both from Women’s College), Pre-degree at All Saints College, and Schooling in Holy Angels was the apt person to bring them up in an English medium environment. But all the three were diffident. They confined themselves to Malayalam with a vengeance putting to naught my pleadings.

I did not let go. I asked a classmate of my elder son at the degree level whether he was well conversant in English. He said he was not. I asked him again whether he wished to acquire the skill. He said yes. I had asked him to bring a few of his friends if they were interested.

We had around ten young men at home. I invited my sons and my wife to join the group. I had been very concerned about my younger son who had been insecure to the core.

Well, the activity began.

I said each one had to speak. There would be a topic they themselves would choose the previous week. One person would speak on the topic for fifteen minutes in English. They would have to stand and speak and there would be no allowance on the fifteen minutes criteria. Once the speech was delivered, the rest had to do a critique. They should not speak in any other language than English, once session was on.

The young men took up the challenge sportingly. The improvement was clearly visible as time progressed.

After a while the sessions could not be continued.

One day, I and my wife were strolling on the road adjacent to the Secretariat. We saw someone riding pillion on a Scooter and waving.  They stopped the Scooter. It was one of the participants in our sessions along with his mother. As we stood there waiting both of them ran back to reach us. The youngster introduced us to his mother and said, ”Amma, these are the people who have made me what I am.”

We felt fulfilled.

I narrated the story solely to suggest we can extend the activity anywhere.. The participants would be better off if we do this. If feasible, the modality could be worked out. My only suggestion is the sessions should be confined to one hour with groups of ten students each, once or twice a week, monitored by  those who are well conversant in English.

I remember the words of the CSI Moderator while attending a Governing Council meeting of the KUT Seminary, Kannammoola, Thiruvananthapuram, “The graduates from KUTS should have the ability to lead Worship in English and deliver messages in English, just as they develop the proficiency in Malayalam or their mother tongue.”