Rampant Racism or Natural Human Behaviour?

This article appeared in Outlook magazine in the June 29, 2009 issue. I came across it recently and it appealed to me so much that I knew I had to re-post it to get the message across to a lot of people in India who live with this sense of false pride I have sensed time and again. Do follow the link at the bottom of this article to follow the rest of the comments because they provide with a lot more insight on the subject, including some other personal experiences.

opinion

'India Is Racist, And Happy About It'

A Black American's first-hand experience of footpath India: no one even wants to change 

In spite of friendship and love in private spaces, the Delhi public literally stops and stares. It is harrowing to constantly have children and adults tease, taunt, pick, poke and peer at you from the corner of their eyes, denying their own humanity as well as mine. Their aggressive, crude curiosity threatens to dominate unless disarmed by kindness, or met with equal aggression. 

Once I stood gazing at the giraffes at the Lucknow Zoo only to turn and see 50-odd families gawking at me rather than the exhibit.

On a visit to the Lucknow zoo, people gawked more at me than at the exhibits.

Parents abruptly withdrew infants that inquisitively wandered towards me. I felt like an exotic African creature-cum-spectacle, stirring fear and awe. Even my attempts to beguile the public through simple greetings or smiles are often not reciprocated. Instead, the look of wonder swells as if this were all part of the act and we were all playing our parts. 

Racism is never a personal experience. Racism in India is systematic and independent of the presence of foreigners of any hue. This climate permits and promotes this lawlessness and disdain for dark skin. Most Indian pop icons have light-damn-near-white skin. Several stars even promote skin-bleaching creams that promise to improve one's popularity and career success. Matrimonial ads boast of fair, v. fair and v. very fair skin alongside foreign visas and advanced university degrees. Moreover, each time I visit one of Delhi's clubhouses, I notice that I am the darkest person not wearing a work uniform. It's unfair and ugly.

Discrimination in Delhi surpasses the denial of courtesy. I have been denied visas, apartments, entrance to discos, attentiveness, kindness and the benefit of doubt. Further, the lack of neighbourliness exceeds what locals describe as normal for a capital already known for its coldness. 

My partner is white and I am black, facts of which the Indian public reminds us daily. Bank associates have denied me chai, while falling over to please my white friend. Mall shop attendants have denied me attentiveness, while mobbing my partner. Who knows what else is more quietly denied?

"An African has come," a guard announced over the intercom as I showed up. Whites are afforded the luxury of their own names, but this careful attention to my presence was not new. ATM guards stand and salute my white friend, while one guard actually asked me why I had come to the bank machine as if I might have said that I was taking over his shift. 

It is shocking that people wear liberalism as a sign of modernity, yet revert to ultraconservatism when actually faced with difference. Cyberbullies have threatened my life on my YouTube videos that capture local gawking and eve-teasing. I was even fired from an international school for talking about homosociality in Africa on YouTube, and addressing a class about homophobia against kids after a student called me a 'fag'.

Outside of specific anchors of discourse such as Reservations, there is no consensus that discrimination is a redeemable social ill. This is the real issue with discrimination in India: her own citizens suffer and we are only encouraged to ignore situations that make us all feel powerless. Be it the mute-witnesses seeing racial difference for the first time, kids learning racism from their folks, or the blacks and northeasterners who feel victimised by the public, few operate from a position that believes in change. 

Living in India was a childhood dream that deepened with my growing understanding of India and America's unique, shared history of non-violent revolution. Yet, in most nations, the path of ending gender, race and class discrimination is unpaved. In India, this path is still rural and rocky as if this nation has not decided the road even worthy. It is a footpath that we are left to tread individually.

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(The writer is a Black American PhD student at the Delhi School of Economics.)


My Comment:

Mr Kuku, 

First of all I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart on behalf of my fellow countrymen for the treatment meted out to you. I know the tendency among my countrymen to give preference to fair skin in every field of life. Being a North Indian, I am also well aware of the fact that this practice is more prevalent in North India than in South India. But there are some intricacies that need some discussion. 

First of all, it’s not racism. It’s more a fascination for the white skin (which is exemplified by the fact that Indian Premier League (IPL), Cricket’s top tournament currently, has white cheerleaders of every team!). And the primary reason that this is prevalent more in North India than in the South is that an average North Indian is, so to say, fairer-skinned than an average South Indians. Also, over the past few decades, education has been held more important in the Southern states of India and has thus had a greater impact in South India than in the North. This is another reason for the backwardness of thinking of the people in the North. 

Another important thing of note is that India is full of very different cultures, and you will find people with very different personalities and preferences over a distance of just a hundred miles. Not all cultures breed this exclusionary attitude. Hailing from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, and having lived in Shimla, Chandigarh, Indore, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore, I can vouch for the fact the people from Himachal Pradesh, being hill people, or may be because of some other reason, are much warmer towards people and would go completely out of the way to help you out, no matter what is the colour of your skin. And I’ve seen it happen – it’s all there in the speech, in how strangers reply to you. It all comes across, and I’ve had the privilege to compare this nature of the natives of all the six cities. So when you say North Indian, let us not generalize. The same goes for New Delhi. If you feel people of New Delhi are more inclined in their preference towards the fairer skin, that may be true, but then there are a lot of people who will be very helpful and who will never discriminate on the basis of your skin colour. Delhi has a population of over 22 million, and people in Delhi come from all over, especially the labour class, most of which is a victim of urbanization from the poorer nearby states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the kind. It all depends on who you are interacting with. ATM people and autowallahs have very low education levels, as most of India is still very poor. Almost none of them have had any exposure to different cultures within their own country, let alone abroad. So it is their ignorance and naivete that comes across as “racist” to you. I know it’s very hard for you facing all this every single day, but I would like to ask you to forgive us for our poverty, which perpetrates lack of belief in basic education, which thus makes people behave like this. 

We were ruled by Britishers for over 200 years. And this is the time during which poverty in India became widespread, as we were denied very basic human rights by the Britishers, and we were persecuted for a long time by those who forcefully ruled us and treated us like speck of dust on their shoes. Maybe this deep rooted preference for white skin emanates from this subconscious idea that was hammered into our minds that white people are superior. Who is to blame? Widespread poverty and a very late opening up of our economy to the outside world perpetrated this thinking and in a society where caste discrimination was already rooted since millennia, a new aversion towards darker skin was not difficult to assimilate. That said, I have to mention that it is a very sad state of affairs, and I feel ashamed of this bigoted behaviour on the part of my countrymen. 

Specific to the problems faced by you, I think the gawking that you get is more out of curiosity and our own lack of awareness or access to the outside world. This is mainly attributed to the fact that there are very low Africans present in India. This goes for any place where an outsider comes when the people are not used to his/her presence. A white skinned person goes to Goa, and he might as well feel at home. Let him go to the north-eastern states of India, and see the kind of discrimination and gawks does he have to face. Let him go to a small village where people have never seen a person with such a fair skin, and then see the kind of stares and whispers and comments he gets. It’s all about how “developed”, to use a word that everyone here can relate to, the country is, and India, sadly, despite its tries of pomp and show in the Commonwealth Games and buys of the best of their kind military fighter planes, and it’s ambitions of being a superpower – notwithstanding all that, India is still a developing country and, with the kind of burdens and problems of population, deforestation, lack of basic education, or mass poverty that it faces, India will continue to be in the “developing” bracket, according to me, for many years to come. And a change in attitudes and acceptance of people of all colours, creeds, castes and communities will come with time, no doubt about that. What I have said in defence of my countrymen, in no way lessens the anguish I felt when I read your article and continued to read all the comments on it, and my sincere heartfelt apologies for all that happened.

For other comments, refer to the link below:
http://www.outlookindia.com/feedbacks.aspx?typ=100&val=250317


Friends, what do you guys have to say about this? Do you believe this is a shameful act on the part of Indians, or do you think this is a part and parcel of everyday life everywhere in the world? What are your thoughts on it?

Decode Yourself Organizationally

This was a part of an Organizational Behaviour assignment. We were supposed to write futuristic answers. Although these answers are different for everyone, this is what I had to say about being in a manager's role in the future. 

1.  Which is more likely to increase learning: a winning moment with reflection and recognition or a classroom training experience? Which is more likely to aid in development?

There can be no doubt that a winning moment with reflection and recognition will be much more of a learning experience than a classroom training session. When you win, the adrenalin pumps in your body and your heart beat increases. But more importantly, you reach, atleast temporarily, a level of consciousness where reflection becomes easier and introspection becomes all-too-familiar. In such a state, when there is a heightened sense of accomplishment and positivity and optimism surrounds the person, it gets much easier to tell the person of his strengths and weaknesses, and the critical balance between the handling of these two that led to that person’s success. Moreover, the person will even listen, and will not get defensive on hearing his weaknesses. That is the power of victory – it makes you wiser, and it makes you a person much more receptive to feedbacks. If provided in the right manner, these feedbacks can form the backbone of a very strong character later on. There is a certain feeling of goodwill which envelopes you when your hard work is being recognized. This is a moment a person will be proud of his achievements. So one should try to use this moment to let the person know his worth, and aid in his development and learning.

Classroom training sessions give you a perspective. And I believe that is what MBA does too. And only that. It can add only a new perceptive to your belief system, but it cannot make you learn things. You cannot sit in a classroom and learn how you would behave with your team members in times of conflict. You cannot learn such stuff from books. Books cannot teach you behaviour. It can only be learned by actually interacting with people, or actually working in teams. This is the only solution. Books and classroom can only tell you how far you can think, how far great people who lived before you thought. So it tells you of the horizons of others, it tells you of the thought process of others. But it does not tell you your own potential. Your own potential can only be learned by actually going out there. And a winning moment of reflection and recognition can serve as a great learning tool.

2.    Are you diligent about talking with your employees about their progress? Mention what you would do and how would you do it. What ‘measurements’ would you use to track your progress; the progress of your employees?

Talking to your employees about how they have been performing is very essential. Consistency cannot be achieved if feedback is missing. When a person is not sure how efficiently he has been performing, or he does things and he does not know the ones which were profitable and the ones which turned into losses, how would he ever know how to choose between the two? He would never know the right decision from the wrong one if constant feedback is not provided. And providing this feedback is the role and responsibility of his superior, that is, I. I shall be very diligent about talking to my employees about their progress, because such a behaviour from my side will drive efficiency in the entire team. I would start a concept called The Progression. One Progression would happen every Friday, where we would first discuss the progress made by each of the team members during the whole week, and then I would talk about their progress in front of the whole team, as if it is something the whole team should know about. It is actually, as one team member’s performance can make or break the entire team. I need to know what is the progress being made on different accounts, and then I will give back my feedback and opinion of each member of the team. I will come prepared for it based on what I had noticed about each team member in the whole week, and also listen to the progress made by them which they will detail to the whole team at the start of each Progression, which would be held before the end of every week.

I would rate the progress on the following two factors (one that I would notice, one that would come from others): i) Sociability – What dynamics does a person share with his team members. This does not mean that he needs to have lunch with them, or go out with them, etc. But he should have a few people atleast who he gels well with and feels very comfortable around. Presence of such people is very necessary for a person to feel connected to a place, and if they are missing, the person might feel disenchanted by the place and may as well leave it soon. ii) Peer Feedback – I would like to see how the person is evaluated by his peers. This would differentiate the people who actually work, from the slackers and the sycophants. There are a lot of people in an organization who do not work much, but at the end of the day shoot a mail to the boss, and keeping everyone else in the CC, trying to take credit of someone else’s achievement just because they did a very insignificant part of it. Presence of such people would come out through this exercise. Also, there are always people who are disliked by everyone in the team. Most of the people do not want to work with them, and if paired together, would not like to share the responsibilities of the work with that person. Even if such a person is extremely profitable, his mere presence is detrimental to the interests of the organization as it kills team spirit. Thus weeding out such people is extremely important.   

3.    What development do you need to excel as a leader or manager? What do you need from members of your group to aid in your development?

I believe that one thing that I need, more than anything else, to excel as a leader or a manager is to learn to be empathetic towards my team members. Before we get lost in clichés, I would like to explain what this word ‘empathy’ means to me. To me, it means being considerate towards others’ feelings, to know when and where to say the right thing, to try to understand what is going on in the name of ‘team dynamics’ within the team under you, who is feeling threatened, who is losing interest in the work, who is the champion who works without complaining and without being a part of the race to claim credit for the work done, who is the one who drives profitability the most, who is the one who makes the team gel together, etc. These things can only be known if a manager is empathetic. Moreover, I believe I can be a better listener, as listening to what the team under you has to say to you is very important. There are a lot of times when your subordinates have a lot of complaints from the system, and they feel they have been wronged. At such times, they should feel that there is someone to share their grievances. More importantly, you should leave your ivory towers and be approachable by your subordinates. Another challenge I feel the managers universally face is to balance strictness with openness. Today’s managers need to learn to love and be strict at the same time. What is important is to know when to be strict, and while being friendly, not to cross that thin line, or your subordinates might start taking you for granted.

One thing I believe would help me along the path of improvement, as a manger, would be to receive reverse feedback from my subordinates about my performance. I have not experienced this thus far, but I believe this can be a very humbling experience and there is a treasure trove of learning that needs to be unearthed here by digging at the right spot. 360 degrees feedback, if applied universally, can break the unjustifiably high egos of some of the managers, and would immensely help in keeping their feet on the ground. Also, you would know what your subordinates expect from you, and how well you are actually doing well on those parameters, rather than just believing that you are doing well. Moreover, getting a feedback from a subordinate would serve to break the barriers of formality and make that person open up to you better.  

4.    How will you create opportunities to communicate and discuss mission? How is mission important in the workplace culture?

“Mission” can be defined as the raison d’etre of an organization. It is the reason why whole organizations exist. Without a mission, organizations would be like a rudderless boat sailing in the treacherous sea of the business environment. It would become very difficult for an organization to survive if it does not have a purpose, and a reason for doing what it does. There should be a clearly defined goal, of what the organization aims to achieve, and that is delineated by its mission. Mission needs to be the lifeblood of an organization, and thus of every member of it. While working, each step that an employee takes should be justified by the mission of the whole organization. If it does not resonate or fall in line with the mission, it is futile, a waste of resources. As a manager, it would be my duty to make sure that each of my subordinates has one eye on the mission while they go about their daily activities. I will make sure that his every step integrates well with the bigger picture. I will organize monthly meetings where every one of my subordinates will be present and the bigger picture will be communicated to them – where the company is headed in terms of profits, what are the new markets the company is looking towards, what is its competitive advantage where it scores higher compared to competitors, and other strategically defined benchmarks. Having worked in an organization, I have realized that a disconnect occurs because most of the engineers working at the most basic level and doing all the actual work are not in the know of strategic aspects and the reason why they should be working on these things at all. No one involves them with this, and these discussions are limited to the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy. Very few of the Team Leads or even Assistant Managers understand well the “why(s)”, all they know is the “what(s)”. I would like to rectify this mistake by creating opportunities to interact with my subordinates about the happenings at the bigger front.

Workplace culture is defined and created by the mission of the whole organization. A workplace should reflect the underlying ethos on which the organization was established and these ethos should be a part of how an employee conducts himself in the organization. I believe how a person conducts himself outside of the organization is equally important, as apart from “living his principles”, he is also representing his company tenets in his behaviour, and whatever he does an employee becomes the work of the organization, in the eyes of a layman. Thus it is important to carry yourself with grace and be morally upright.

The Speech That Was Never Delivered: Corporate Futsal Tournament

Prologue 

I was supposed to deliver the following speech at Retina India Corporate Futsal Tournament organized entirely by us. Retina India is an NGO, and since some time we had been trying to think of something to organize at a managable scale which helps build Retina India's brand in Pune as well as develop corporate connections. The event was a success, and this is a speech which I had prepared, but I did not deliver it due to certain reasons. Now that the event is over, I would want to share with everyone what I had to say. 

"Over 60 years ago, the world witnessed something that changed the course of every nation. A country based on disparate ideas and cultures, with people who dressed different, ate different, spoke different and thought different came together to break away from the shackles of servitude and established a democratic and secular government. The people who lived at that time had an overdriving purpose, one that overshadowed all other personal wants and ambitions. The idea of attainment of freedom was brought out, discussed, disseminated and became an important part of everyone’s daily life. This was the reason why the freedom movement had such a huge impact – people used to live and breathe independence. There was a higher purpose. 

The India of today is very different. We have grown and have been able to lift many millions out of poverty, especially in the last two decades. We have the latest technology on our mobile, we have access to the best brands, we can boast of being the most competitive in the industry of tomorrow, we are considered to be a largely English-speaking nation by the Western world, and they say that our demographics are going to be our weapon and our saviour in the years to come. But there is a sad side to it all. 

We are becoming more and more individualistic. Everyone is busy in accumulating more wealth than thy neighbour. Materialism has seeped deep into our daily lives, and as we spend increasing amount of time in front of digital media and the internet, and read less and less, we notice that idealism is being laughed at, and having a strong value system is derided. Why do we not encourage the one who is winning rather than pulling him down, why do we try to put up a face that is not our real self, why is our dream job always never the one that we are actually into, why don’t we find satisfaction in what we do, why is most of our adult life spent chasing the unimportant things and always postponing the things that matter, why is it that when someone tells us that your neighbour has got a promotion, is being sent on-site, has won a lottery, or is very happily married, why the first tinge of emotion that we feel is that of envy, and the first thing we tend to do is give excuses for the success for that person, and very very seldom does it lead to a first tinge of happiness or pride. Why are we becoming so hollow today? I believe it is because we no longer have a higher purpose, unlike 60 years ago. We are lost in the crowd of meaninglessness, trying to grab at everything that comes our way. To find true happiness, there needs to be a greater meaning to life. 

When we volunteered for Retina India, we were asked what purpose does it serve, how would you gain from being a part of it, some even went so far as to ask: “Will you get a CV point for this?” The only reason I personally did it was because I always felt that itch. That itch to give something back to the society. That itch that comes from the guilt that I feel deep down when I see a beggar on the road, or lower class people trying to just make ends meet. I feel blessed, and I feel guilty. I feel this is my way to taking that first step towards doing something that really matters. It is my way of stepping out of the mundane and taking up something with a higher purpose. I hope some of this resonates with each one of you. Think about it. Thank you."

More Than Words

I pull the cloth curtain and look outside. It is one of those days when the morning air strikes up a magical mixture between the frowning cold and the eager sunshine. Full of promises, it diffuses in you a sense of optimism that is unmatchable under ordinary circumstances. The old building running up the hill tells me that the village is near. As informed, it was indeed not very far away from SIBM Pune’s Lavale campus. 

I see a board which has Nande written onto it in wide alphabets. This is our cue as even the bus starts to slow down. A look to my right tells me that we have reached the school. The big blue steel banner, painted in white with the name of the school stares at us. I feel the familiar smell of uncertainty engulf me. Fact – I have never taught school kids, especially in a school. The thought of teaching students of Class 7^th was, I admit, a bit intimidating, just because it was the unknown till this moment. The same churning of emotion in the bellies was reflected on the faces of a lot of my batch-mates who had also volunteered for teaching students through this initiative Prerna made possible by Social Entrepreneurship and Consulting Cell (SECC) of SIBM Pune.   

As we walked into the school, staying close together for comfort, we saw a recess underway. Students, big and small, were playing football, badminton with racquets and plastic table tennis bats, cricket with and without bats, a bunch of 5 girls playing train-train, circuitously finding their way through the crowd. It reminded me of the melange of games and sports that we used to play in the field during our school days where a football used to hit a batsman ready to face a ball by a bowler who is waiting for the pitch to get clear because younger students are running all over it running after a small bright-yellow plastic ball, which for a moment gets mixed up with another similar bright-yellow plastic ball thrown by a student who is playing throw-throw, a game which included throwing and catching a ball in turn by two teams standing on opposite ends of the ground – in short, a microcosm of the rich playful energy of all kinds that is epitomized by children across barriers of race, community, religion and nation.   

The bell was sounded and the students were called in to their classes. When we reached just outside the classroom, a student with a black monkey-cap on the head ran up to us and gave us a mango-bite each. We were told by his sidekick, who always seemed to accompany him, that it was his birthday today. Then they ran into the classrooms. As we entered the rooms cautiously, the first thing I noticed was that the boys and girls were sitting separately – the girls on two rows on the left of the class and the boys on one row towards the right. I reminded myself that this was the rule and not the exception. We were faced by an eager looking bunch of around thirty kids, who got up instantaneously and started singing in unison a “welcome teacher” jingle, which was obviously taught to them, and which nostalgically reminded me of the “gooood moorrrniiiinnnggg siirrrr”, the elongated wish which was the established norm in school, universally replicated in each and every class room. 

After preliminary instructions, we started by teaching them basic introductions in English like “I am a student”, “You are teachers”, “We/they are students” etc. Initially we tried addressing the class as a whole, but seeing that we teachers did not seem like strict disciplinarians, the boys, who interestingly formed just 1/3^rd of the class, started chatting amongst themselves. So after a basic address to the whole class, we started roaming about in the class, asking the girls and the boys to individually recite the conversation starters to each other and we went about correcting individual mistakes.

 Some students were eager to perform – especially one girl whose body language was very confident. Whenever we asked anyone to come up to the front of the class, she looked at any girl sitting around her and tilted her head as if to say “Hey come on! Let’s do it!” Then there were others – a smallish girl sitting on the front bench, who was so shy that when we asked her to recite a sentence, she looked shyly at their partner and hid her head behind her, laughing uncontrollably. 

The most difficult part was to get the boys and the girls to perform a group activity together. The boys seemed shyer at this than the girls. It was tough to get them to do an introduction round together. The girls seemed pretty okay with it, but utter shyness made the boys bend, twist and loll their bodies in impossible ways. Also, when we asked the boys to write a couple of sentence “He is _____” and “She is _____”, they completed the first sentence, but for the second, did not write a name. One of them, hiding the sentence on his notebook with both his hands and with a wide grin on his face, said he will write the girl’s name later. 

After about an hour, we were asked to let them have a break of about 10 minutes. That was it – there was no looking back. Afterwards, when we tried to get them back in the classrooms, we were told that once they are let out to play again, it’s very difficult to discipline them again to go back in. So we gave up trying. Moreover, today being a Saturday, we could not see a single teacher around. So the students were in their full gaiety and merriment. 

One thing that was difficult to miss was the difference between the 7^th Class girls and the rest of the school students. The “senior” girls reflected discipline, standing in line waiting for their chance to play badminton, curious faces affected with the burden of imminent adulthood, disciplined by their mothers not to mingle much with boys, and looking responsible far beyond their years. The rest of the kids looked like a mish-mash of fun, playfulness and frolic, what with their unique game of jumping upon the teachers, trying to hang from them like one would from a branch of a tree, all at the same time. 

Soon it was time to leave. There were endearing kids that came to us and said good bye, requesting us to come again “tomorrow”. To the responsible and mature ones, we told that tomorrow would not be a possibility, but another time in the next week could happen. I also asked the SECC guys to organize something before our mega-fest Transcend begins next weekend. We had tea and vada-pav, which each one agreed were far better than what we got in our university canteen. May be it was the delicious taste of self-satisfaction. 

Nande opened my eyes to the extremely poor quality of education in government schools in rural areas. Also the lack of teachers and funding, social inhibitions and absence of fruitful ways of making students learn stifle the creative in each one of them. What they need is an effort to go beyond rote learning, to learn more than just words. Nonetheless, their spirit to learn and their sprightly enthusiasm floored me and it gives me hope. Hope that there is enough want but only lack of availability. Hope that if persistent efforts are made, a change can be brought about. And this is where the true India begins. It is time the politicians leave their ivory towers of discussions, speculation and suggestions and get down to some real work.     

The Glass Ceiling

Interpret the picture with respect to the theme "The Glass Ceiling"

Riju Dutta and Pranay Gupta

Human beings have a history of making promises, cosmetic guidelines for us to follow. There’s a huge hue and cry, teams are brought together, there is talk of change, empowered winds of change can be felt all around. There’s brainstorming, neatly dressed Ivy League graduates bring out ideas, and there’s a fragrance of change. But the day ends, everyone disperses and all that remains are new rules, reams of paperwork and a comfortably forgotten but burning issue. Glass Ceiling. It represents the disempowered thoughts shackled to the prejudices of yesterday. It represents forgotten ideals, ignored responsibilities and hypocritical ramblings. It represents us, and our actions that fail to live up to our words and promises. We talk of change in the workplace, in the world around us – change for the minorities, for women and the marginalized, but the actual changes are only minimally brought about. It’s time to accept responsibility and be personally involved to be a part of the change. It’s time to act.

The picture is a microcosmic representation of the minority and women presence in an organization of today. The Glass Ceiling is represented by the limits within which such rich amount of ideas and experiences are forced to operate. The everyday innovation in thought and in human capabilities is bounded by the man-made but invisible barriers to change. On having a closer look, it can be seen that the growth, rather the mere presence in an organization of women has been skewed. There is a greater number of women willing and able to be a part of the organization in the initial years. This changes with time because of familial roles and maternal responsibilities that a women encounters eventually. This leads to a gender imbalance. The lower end of the room can be interpreted as representing the beginning of a woman’s life in an organization. The number of women can be seen to be decreasing as the years pass by. This not only leads to a loss of gender parity but the diversity of view-points and thoughts that strengthen an organization get lost with the passage of time. The thoughts are not able to diffuse through the organization’s work culture. But there is hope. The bigger blocks represent the trailblazers, the mavericks, the leaders among not only the women, but also other minorities. They can be the torchbearers, the role models of the minorities, representing their cause and leading the way.

Diversity of actions emanates from diversity in people and their thoughts. Change is the order of the day. The question that today’s organizations face is whether the change needs to be top-down – a CEO lady leading the way and giving impetus to change, or bottom-up – broader recruitment initiatives, fostering a culture for gender diversity and policy action. The challenge is to bring about a change within specific domains which have not been considered to be a women bastion, like sales. Other suggestions include flexi-working hours, liberal paternity leaves and coaching, mentorship, sponsorship, and an improvement in social infrastructure. And most importantly, a change in attitudes is important, and it is time to walk to talk. Diversity is a given, but making it inclusive is important. Getting everyone aligned to the whole idea resulting in a cohesive spirit throughout the organization is the challenge.

SIBM Pune GD-PI Experience 2011

These are some of the questions are recently answered for an online site similar to PagalGuy. I am posting them here too. I shall be more than happy if it helps someone. Cheers!

 

   1. How is the GD- PI process structured at SIBM Pune? Can you share your experience?

The GD-PI structure at SIBM Pune consists of four legs. In the first part, we are shown an advertisement which we have to assess, dissect and give our views about. It tests the creative, marketing and interpretive side of us. We were shown an advertisement of Camlin Markers which had an element of humour in it. The second part of it is a Group Discussion. A contemporary topic, mostly from the national news domain, is given and you have to discuss on it with a group of 8 people for 10-15 minutes. Then with the same group and the same panel, you discuss a case study for the same amount of time. The case in our case was a general case study, which had the usual clash between ethics and performance. It was a non-organizational case study and we had a healthy discussion. The final leg included the interview which, in my case, was led by a panel of 2. Both seemed elderly and very polite. They made me feel at ease and the interview was not at all stressing. But then people with so much experience have a way to find out what they are looking for at the exact moment when you feel relaxed. They had my Annexure in front of them and they had already gone through it. The moment I saw their faces, I knew that half the job was already done. So for SIBM Pune, work hard on your Annexure. 

   2. What are the best sources to prepare for the SIBM Pune GD-PI?

For the Group Discussion, you need not prepare by picking up a current affairs book or something. It can be done by diligent reading of the newspapers of the last 3-4 months. Basically you need to be aware of all the big 5-6 news doing the rounds. And for each one you need to have a few arguments, either for or against. That will sail you through the GD. As far as the PI is concerned, you basically need to be thorough with the Annexure that you were asked to submit when you got a call. My Annexure can be read at http://pranay-joiedevivre.blogspot.com/2011/02/annexure-that-got-me-through-sibm-pune.html

 

   3. What are the characteristics that the panel look for in a candidate?

They basically look for the right learning attitude (40%), skills and ability (20%), interests and background (20%) and creativity and ability to think on your feet (20%). Remember, they do not expect much from you, as you will be groomed by SIBM in these two years anyway. All they want to see is a clarity of thought, and if you are mature enough to be in a b-school or not. If they do not feel so, they might think that you need some work experience before joining an MBA course. And honestly, it's much more learning if you have come with atleast a bit of work experience. But that is a separate issue. 

   4. Tips and Advice that you would like to give students?

Be aware of what is happening around you, watch debates (The Big Fight, We the People) on NDTV.com, watch TED talks, inculcate a habit to read articles from Economist, Tehelka, Frontline and Harvard Business Review, apart from the usually suggested Economic Times and The Hindu. Read a lot during this preparation, anything and everything you can get your hands on. Make up your mind about the specialization you want to choose by reading more about related careers on the net, on blogs or by talking to seniors who are in B-schools or have passed out from them. Read books, listen to good music. Make a list of the books and music artists and interests that you want to talk about in your interview. Do an inside-out research about them, because it happens that we have read a book or seen a movie a number of months ago for us to remember the nuances about the characters. So, it’s better to refresh those memories.

Words

Unhinged in the rush of semantics,

Deeper into words I climb,

Feeling my mind unclasp,

From the exasperating rituals of days unbound.

Blinded by the darkness in the character,

Sullied by the dirt sublime,

My soul gropes for the scattered reasons,

Tasting the numbness of time.

Oh my! It’s six already, hours passed by in a daze,

In the unreal human lie which I now faintly perceive,

Let me fly, the literature unshackle my soul,

This is the only life I want to breathe.

Doom II: Trouble?

The worst performing currency in Asia. Ever increasing and uncontrollably high fiscal deficit. Inflation continually above 9% in all the months of the calendar year 2011. Eurozone simmering. Foreign Institutional Investors pulling out of India. Humongous current account deficit. World economy teetering. The worst performing stock market in the past year in the whole of Asia. Capital goods sector shrinking by a gigantic 25.5% portending doom. Stultifying policy paralysis. These, and more, are some of the terms that I hear even in my sleep these days. They are all around me. From my Macroeconomics lecture to the dinner table, from class presentations to late night hostel discussions, this topic rules the roost. No matter how much you want to run away, sometimes it gets difficult to tear your ears away from these numbing predictions. The sword of economic doom is dangling perniciously on the neck of the faltering elephant.  

The perception of the economic performance of a country, especially in foreign markets, is shaped primarily by the level of its political stability. Assertiveness towards change is what the government of India lacks right now. If the Congress Party fails to win a lot of seats in the upcoming Assembly elections, it would have to depend heavily on its whimsical partners to garner the support needed to stand on its broken legs. If such a scenario turns up, forget about any reforms. The future sessions of the Parliament would be a repeat of the laughably depressing winter session, whose proceedings were some sight. Only a favourable result for the Congress party could give enough legroom for the party to make the train of reforms atleast start moving. The Assembly elections are important also because it would make or break the plans that the Family has for its “young” scion. Whether Rahul Gandhi’s attacking tactics can make a dent in Mayawati’s big plans is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, B-school students can only sit down and pray. 

Fear and pessimism is written all across the faces I see. Doom splashes in the ocean of their eyes. The possibility of poor final placements by the end of the next year scrapes our soul. But then half-glass-full-me steps in. Did I scare the wit out of you? Of course I was exaggerating! The main driver of inflation – food inflation has fallen to a six-year low, Eurozone may finally extricate itself out of the morass, US economy seems to be improving, and car sales finally up. These and some other leading indicators are giving a glimpse of the light at the end of the long dark tunnel. But for the light to come true, I guess I better pull myself away from the web of words and start preparing for the quiz I have tomorrow!

        

Kiva.org - Making a Change

I wrote this paper as a part of the curriculum for Rural Marketing on the topic 'A Marketing Model functioning outside India, impacting the bottom of the pyramid'.

Introduction

Kiva Microfunds (commonly known as Kiva.org) is an organization which allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students. It basically funds the working capital needs of the entrepreneurs in villages, who either have their own shop, want to start up their own business, aim to increase the scale of their business or just want the money to educate themselves. 

It is a non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in San Francisco. It is supported by loans and donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions.  

Administering Loans

Kiva primarily functions by interfacing with the lenders on its online presence called Kiva.org. With a mission to “connect people through lending to alleviate poverty”, and leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25. Kiva does not keep a cut of the loan. Nor does it charge an interest rate to these microfinance institutions.  

Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. These MFIs are called “Field Partners”, and they are the ones who administer loans in the field. Kiva relies on a world-wide network of 450 volunteers who work with the Field Partners, edit and translate borrower stories, and ensure the smooth operation of countless other Kiva programs.

  

The people behind Kiva include volunteers, Kiva Fellows, Field Partners and the board, and a team of employees (shown above) and contractors. The Kiva headquarters are located in San Francisco, California.

Funding

Most of what Kiva lends is primarily funded through the support of lenders making optional donations. Funds are also raised through grants, corporate sponsors and foundations. 

History – Kiva through the years

Kiva was started by Matt Flannery with his wife Jessica, in 2005. In its first year, the site featured a spinach farmer in Cambodia, a hot dog stand man in Nicaragua, a carpenter in Gaza, a bee keeper in Ghana, and a fish seller in Uganda. Behind each of these businesses lay a story. These stories are at the heart of Kiva’s goal and strategy: the human connections Kiva claims to build between lenders and borrowers have brought new lenders to the microfinance movement, and fostered in them a new awareness and connection to the people who briefly use their money. By telling stories, Kiva allows MFIs that lack access to capital markets to efficiently raise money and serve more clients.

Matt Flannery claims to have been primarily influenced by Dr. Mohammed Yunus – Nobel Peace Prize 2006 laureate, and founder of the Grameen Bank. By sticking to their idea of “Sponsor a Business”, Matt Flannery wanted to focus on progress rather than on poverty. During the early days when he did his research, he found out that there had always been a historical tension between the donor/lender desire to “know where my money goes” and the recipient organization’s need for efficiency.

Another challenge that Kiva faced early on was the question of whether it was better to be seen as a charity or as a business. This was a challenge of perception. Flannery noticed that people seemed to think in these big categories, and breaking existing mental models proved harder than it seemed.

Also, commercialization of microfinance institutions was another trend to be watched. If microfinance was going to have a significant impact on world poverty, the argument went, then MFIs needed to be integrated into the global economy and tap into the capital markets. But an online survey showed that 50% of the potential users of Kiva would not lend on the site if Kiva adopted the for-profit model. Rather than compete in the commercial investment fund game, Flannery wanted to get individuals who had never even heard of microfinance into the mix.    

Legal Hurdles at the Outset

In the US, there are a number of regulatory bodies that pay attention when you offer investment products to the public. Such bodies protect investors from losing their money on scams. Most notable among these is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC maintains a definition for what is and what is not a security. If the SEC says that you are issuing securities, they require that such securities meet a long list of requirements. One of those was that the businesses being invested into comply with US accounting standards. This was not always true for a goat herder and a fish seller in rural Uganda.

Another issue was that Kiva wanted to center around loans, not donations. They preferred to call their users lenders, not donors, as Kiva would actually return their money, possibly with interest. Thirdly, under the US Patriot Act, there was high scrutiny around flow of funds to other countries. Since the initial MFIs that Kiva wanted to focus on were in Africa and Asia, there was uncertainty regarding such scrutiny. 

Making a Beginning

The first task that Kiva owners faced was to define exactly what, in terms of investing, were they trying to do. There were a few high level goals that they were trying to focus on:

• Allow internet users to make small loans to specific micro-borrowers around the world, possibly with interest.
• Connect a network of MFIs to the Kiva platforms and have them post the loan applications of their borrowers to the site.
• Create financial connection between lender and borrower whereby the lender assumes the default risk.
• Create loans between people, not necessarily organizations, where Kiva acts as a platform and MFIs act as distributors.

Considering the role of SEC and the problems it might have created had the loans had an interest attached with them, they would have been considered securities being offered online. Thus, Kiva owners, after a year and a half of debating, exploring and researching, decided to launch Kiva.org without the interest rates on the site.

The domain name “Kiva” was initially being held by a squatter. Flannery bought it from the squatter for $600, and till date, considers these $600 the best money he has ever spent. The beta version of Kiva.org was launched with seven borrowers profiles online. All of them were funded over the weekend, where the managed to raise $3500 in a few days. Matt and Jessica were blown away! This was better than they had expected. 

How Different From Microfinance Institutions?

Kiva claims that the following two reasons are instrumental in differentiating it from the standard microfinance investment model:

• Kiva has a risk-tolerant source of funds: Individual internet users lending small amounts at a time have a greater appetite for risk than commercial institutions or wealthy individuals using microfinance.
•  Kiva uses the internet as a reputation-building mechanism: Through Kiva, MFIs keep a track record for borrowing and paying back in real time. Users can monitor the performance of each MFI and the borrowers associated with it. Thus, Kiva claims to give organizations the ability to prove themselves through performance in a similar fashion to how Ebay allowed lesser known individuals and businesses to become major e-commerce players through credibility scores. 

Camping Grounds

Kiva initially began by having tie-ups with around twenty MFI partners in a few months of its inception. But soon the owners realized that by limiting themselves to Africa, they would artificially reduce their potential partner base by 90%. While many such institutions exist in Africa, the majority are elsewhere. In fact, in 2007, Africa represented only 10.4% of microfinance worldwide; the areas of greatest concentration lie in Southeast Asia and Central and South America. Two factors have led to this situation:

• Africa has a low population density. Microfinance has scaled best in places where crowds of people live in close quarters. Dense populations bring down the transaction costs. The lower the transaction costs, the lower the interest rates. Higher interest rates are less appealing to the poor and thus inhibit growth.
• Microfinance does not have a very long history in Africa – it is relatively new. The first great movements of institutionalized microfinance occurred in Bolivia and Bangladesh and spread from those regions.

Kiva’s Revenue Model

Kiva divides its financials into two separate buckets – loan volume and revenue.

Loan volume refers to the capital that the lenders send to the entrepreneurs on the site: $25 at a time. One hundred per cent of this money is channelled to Kiva’s partners and then distributed to the entrepreneurs. Neither Kiva, nor its partners, as their agreements dictate, take any money out of the money stream to the entrepreneurs.

Revenue is capital that flows to the organization itself to fund their own operations – rent, servers, salaries and other expenses. They calculate the project revenue as a factor of loan volume. Today, Kiva has two streams of revenue – “optional lender fees” and float.

Optional Lender Fees are essentially small donations that Kiva’s users make during check-out on the website after making a loan. Typically, 7 out of 10 users choose to donate 10% on top of their loan to Kiva. For instance, making a loan of $100, the typical user chooses to pay $10 on top of the loan, bringing the total to $110. These small donations are tax deductible and Kiva doesn’t pay taxes on any profits made from them.

Float refers to the revenue from the interest accruing in one’s bank account. In 2007, float was a small revenue source that accounted for 1-2% of Kiva’s loan volume, but today it has grown to become a greater contributor to revenue streams.

Kiva’s Product Philosophy

People are central. The first thing one notices are faces. Money and organizations are secondary, people are primary.

Lending is connecting. At Kiva.org, money is all about information exchange. In a sense, money is a type of information. Lending to someone else creates an ongoing communication between two individuals that is more binding than a donation.

Things are always changing. Every time you load Kiva.org, it should be different. Every minute, loans are being purchased and repaid, and stories are being told about the borrowers. This can lead to a dynamic where philanthropy can actually become addictive.

Emphasize Progress over Poverty. Business is a universal language that can appeal to people of almost every background. This can lead to partnerships rather than benefactor relationships. We appeal to people’s interests, not their compassion.

Create a Data-Rich Experience. Whenever it is possible to collect data from the field, collect it. Over time, Kiva will display as much information about its partners, lenders and borrowers as possible and let the users decide where money flows.    

Statistics

I end this report by shedding some light on the achievements of Kiva represented in the form of numbers, though I would like to admit that the impact that Kiva has had goes way beyond mere numbers. As on 27^th December, 2011 (Kiva updates these statistics every night on its website), the following were the numbers that stamp the element of success all over Kiva:

Total volume of all loans made through Kiva	$270,656,900
Number of Kiva users	1,053,184
Number of Kiva users who have funded a loan	661,323
Number of countries represented by Kiva lenders	217
Number of entrepreneurs that have received a loan through Kiva	356,106
% of Kiva loans made to women entrepreneurs	80.53%
Number of Kiva field partners (MFIs Kiva partners with)	147
Number of countries Kiva field partners are located in	61
Current repayment rate (all partners)	98.92%
Average loan size	$385.48
Average total amount loaned per Kiva lender	$257.58
Average number of loans per Kiva lender	7.82

Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

I’m in a business school. Within the four walls of this “launching pad”, so to say, solutions and explanations are being hammered into our benign minds, ready to give a “fresh beginning” to our careers. (One very oft expressed assumption, not entirely inaccurately though, is that most of the students who have a work experience prior to coming to the b-school just wanted to change the sectors that they were working in). We are finally getting to make head from tail of the jargon that the newspapers like The Economic Times are full of. (The dull orange colour of the newspaper is ubiquitous; it is to be seen everywhere in this campus – the mess, the classrooms, the library, and sometimes even the poorly lit corners, perfect for the couples, can be found with the dull orange lying in a corner). But still, after so much of an effort, it is strange how perfect understanding of some topic always seems one step away – the closer you come, the further away it flits. Having subjects like Macroeconomics for the semester helps, but you never find enough time to do stuff. I like playing guitar, writing, listening to music, reading lots of books, but never find “enough” time to pursue each of them. The word “enough” is by its very nature illusory, especially in the context of a b-school. 

One good thing about a b-school is that you find all varieties of people here. I would say to the extent that it is a perfect representative sample of human beings – not financially or taking their educational background into picture of course – but by their very nature. You will find the “loner”, who is into his books all the time and not giving two figs about team work, collaboration, leadership, and all such ideas that they keep talking about. You will find the “screamer”, one who is hyper-active almost all the time, who dares to shout his lungs out at 3:30 am in the morning in the halls of the hostel. You will find the “ideal”, the student everyone wants to be, who is academically strong, perceptively astute, street smart and one who earns good name for whichever institution he is associated with. You have the “irate”, the one who cribs about everything from the mess food to the dirt under his bed, from someone’s way of walking to the unfairness of the whole system. You have the “balanced”, the one who everyone can bank upon in times of distress, and who never gets angry, not even while driving (can you believe that?!). And believe you me, at the end of the day it is such people who give you a perspective about life and it is they who make the whole business school experience something to cherish. And contrary to what Roger Waters said in 1979, when it all ends, you won’t be just another brick in the wall.