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Dear Readers
#1 #18 September 1, 2013
Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience, a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. - Carl Jung In this issue… Conscience
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Listen to your Conscience
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An Interview with Mr. Clean Conscience Talk Highlights
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Accounting & Finance for Dummies
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Quotes: Conscience
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One of the initial lessons given to each person in the early part of life is to “look into your own self.” Our mother, our teacher and later every person concerned about our well being has been ushering us to go through the self discovery. We have done it eagerly or reluctantly. The self talk has brought us face to face with someone sitting inside helping us distinguish between the good and the evil, the right and the wrong, the paap and the punya etc. We usually ensure that our vehicles and gadgets go through regular servicing so as to remain in perfect working shape. How often do we do it for ourselves? There is no time better than today to go through the servicing of the mind. When the churning takes place inside us, we ensure that our conscience keeps us on top in terms of ethical standards and practice. This is the need of the hour. Time to ask Y not. Start MAG – My Actions Game to become a better person. Cheers, Rajiv Khurana Editor PS – Please don’t forget to send your feedback at thepersonnellab@gmail.com. You may even call me at 9810211256.
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#18 September 1, 2013
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- Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC
A story read in my primary class keeps coming back to me. The Guru asked his disciples to bring something from their home as a contribution to his daughter’s marriage. He kept a condition, i.e. “No one should ever see you picking the thing from home.” Next day, all but one student brought something. When the Guru enquired from this disciple, he said, “There was no time at home when someone was not watching him.” Days passed and this disciple gave the same answer. One day, the Guru angrily asked, “Who is this person who is constantly watching you?” The disciple replied, “The God within me.” The Guru blessed him for he alone had passed the test. Who is this God within us? What form does he take? What is his language of action or inaction? If this God resides in all of us, why is this world so full of complexities and paradoxes? Call it Soul, Inner Voice, Conscience or by any other name, the God within us has an expression knocking to come out and speak for us. Often, we let the world around us overpower us and we blend our actions with greed, manipulation and aggression. The devil, within, takes over and we don’t question our pursuits. A Polish proverb says, “Conscience is the voice of the soul.” What happens to this voice of soul when Godmen commit crimes, the strong exploit the weak, the custodians become corrupt, the lawmen forget the course of law, the press indulges in sensationalism, the devi in the girls and women is traumatized by the devilish exploits, the talk remains talk and we feel our job is over without the need to ‘walk the talk’? Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.” Does this happen with all of us? Is the cynic within us suppressing the believer of good, right and positivity? Or should we follow what Mark Twain said in a jest, “It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.” A clear conscience is the greatest armour. Conscience is a man’s compass. Let’s rekindle it. Sooner, before it is too late. Gandhi showed us, “The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.” We live with this hope and power within.
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#18 September 1, 2013
C Carve a positive mindset
O Open your horizon of acceptance and tolerance N Neutralize your emotions
S Share, Care, Help C Connect with people I
Increase good deeds
E Examine attitude and behaviour to ‘let go’ N Navigate through the path of ethics C Create an example for others to follow E Eagerly listen and act according to the voice within
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*CONSCIENCE acronym is the intellectual property of Rajiv Khurana
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#18 September 1, 2013
An Interview with Mr. Clean Conscience - Rajiv Khurana, CMC FIMC
We generally say something and do something else. It’s more talk-talk than walk-walk. Wearing the cap of investigative management journalism, I thought of taking you through the intellectual corridors of professional hypocrisy. I am reproducing the transcript of my encounter with Mr. Clean Conscience. He calls himself, Mr. Ethics Lal. We will call him CC for brevity. Join me at his work-station.
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Management Correspondent [MC]: “Sir, What is the game of patience doing on your computer?” CC: It’s another way of relaxing. Whenever you get tired of working, you should spend some time on it. You will get totally rejuvenating. MC: But Sir, what will happen to your work? It may become pending. CC: Is pending work more important or the work and life management? In any case, no one can make out from a distance. This idiot box is very deceptive. MC: Sir, What are the ethical issues in your company? CC: There are no ethical issues at all. We all work very ethically. MC: But Sir, don’t you think that playing games on the computer during the office hours is unethical? CC: Rubbish. You should appreciate the programming done in games. Do you know that the multi-media techniques used in the ‘XXX’ sites are much more advanced than the normal and routine business presentations? MC: Sir, what do you think about people using office phones and other resources for personal purposes? CC: Where else should they go? In the crowded PCO outside the company? Won’t that affect the work? Employees feel highly distracted if they do not book gas, share stock market news, gossip or share recipes’ on the phone. To get more, the company has to lose some. Wait a minute, let me call home to find out the latest cricket score.
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#18 September 1, 2013
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MC: [After 6 minutes of hearing the cricket conversation] Sir, I am sure you will agree that cricket is a major distracter in the office? CC: You don’t know. Our Executive Director also does the same thing. The productivity really shoots up whenever India wins. MC: But what happens when India loses? CC: We discuss which actress to blame. This helps in finding the root cause of problems. You would not know. I wonder if you have ever attended any training programme on problem solving and creativity. MC: [Changing topic] Sir, I understand that your company prohibits accepting gifts from suppliers/dealers. What do you do? CC: Yes. We can accept gifts in the office for a value up to Rs.500/- only. Our suppliers/dealers are very smart. They put the expensive gifts directly in our car. MC: …but you said that the rule says Rs. 500/- only! CC: Yeah! The rules say not accepting gifts over Rs. 500/- in the office. We go by the rules. MC: Is it in your rules to use company transport for personal use? I saw you coming out of company car while I understand that you went out to the market to buy something for your child. CC: You are getting personal. Stop poking your nose un-necessarily. Just go out on the road and you will see at least 40% of the government vehicles on emergency duty taking the families of high ups from one place to another. Why are you after me? MC: I am so sorry, Sir. …ooops! Can I borrow your pen, Sir, I have run out of ink. CC: Here you are. Take this and keep it with my compliments. This is a surplus of the 50-odd pens I had taken from the office store to give as a return gift on my son’s birthday. I have some erasers too. Do you want one? MC: No thank you, Sir. How do people in the company erase the records when things are taken out and never returned? CC: No body erases the record. We don’t enter the records. Whenever needed, we write the names of the persons who have already left the company. For example, the laptop computer on which my son plays at home is in the name of an ex-employee sitting in USA. MC: This must be costing a lot to the company. What do people do if they are not entitled for laptops or other expensive gadgets?
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#18 September 1, 2013
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CC: [Says proudly] Only a privileged few like me are entitled for laptops. Most of the people only add a factor of 25. MC: What’s that Sir? CC: Adding 25% for themselves for all the expense claims from the company. We call it COLA – Cost of Living Adjustment in absence of equitable increase in the compensation packages. This is just an average figure. [The telephone rings] CC: [Picks the phone] Yes Sir, Yes Sir, we have already sent you the material. The man must be reaching you. [Puts down the phone and picks up the intercom] I have told the customer that our man would be reaching any moment. Search for Suresh and send him immediately with the material. [Keeps the phone down]. Sorry urgent matter of the customer. MC: Isn’t lying with the customer totally unethical? CC: What nonsense? This is a routine business ‘goli’ that everyone gives. MC: Sir, What happens if the customer gives ‘goli’ at the time of payment? [No answer] CC: Look I have to rush for an important meeting. Do you want to ask anything else? MC: Yes Sir. What are the things in the company, which people do and are not considered un-ethical? CC: Look, you must define un-ethical. If more and more people do the same thing, they cannot be considered un-ethical. My list is only illustrative by nature. People keep adding lot of values to it. Things which have become routine are: -Doing part time business during company hours. Even I have the distributorship of cosmetic products -Extending lunch breaks. You can’t come out of an interesting discussion so easily. Can you? -Blaming others for my mistakes -Enjoying French-leave, i.e., going out on official work and completing personal work -Calling in sick to extend leave, watch cricket match or linking two sets of holidays together -Using photocopiers for children -Surfing the web for children’s home work -Finishing all personal e-mails and snail mails during office hours …What else? There are so many. But I am in a hurry now. [Putting hand in the drawer]. How about buying this cologne for yourself? Its really good. MC: Err…Sir…[Pressing the vanishing button]
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#18 September 1, 2013 FIRST CONTEMPORARY THEME BASED TALK (CTBT) Organised By
ALL INDIA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (AIMA) and
THE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS OF INDIA (IMCI) New Delhi August 30, 2013
EMPOWERMENT
Utilizing Feminine Talent : A Recipe for Organizational Excellence
Envision
Enable
Encourage
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Download Presentation http://imcidelhi.in/yahoo_site_admin/ assets/docs/IMCI_AIMA_CTBT_30081 3.243142151.pdf Download Audio https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BQuNFP9CpgNSWsyUE94U3lsWEU/edit ?usp=sharing
The organisation must strive to create a tension free work environment for its women employees through steps like: 1. Gender sensitisation of all employees. 2. Extensively publicised policy of non discrimination along with punishment for not following the same. 3. Taking an oath of non discrimination in every important meeting / celebratory functions 4. Encouraging people to report cases of discrimination. 5. Taking action regularly on a “Zero Tolerance” basis through fast resolution. 6. Encourage employees, especially women to meet and discuss such issues and formally inform higher management along with proposed solution to which the concerned authority must respond in a formal manner as also send an “Action Taken Report” to the board of directors before every board meeting. 7. Every board meeting must have these issues as an agenda point. 8. Annual Report of the organisation must give details of such happenings and the action taken.
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#18 September 1, 2013
Accounting and Finance for Dummies
A wise woman once told me, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s an essential commodity in making your life comfortable.” In our own attempt to be self-righteous, we may well try and deny as to how money isn’t as important and fundamental as everyone makes it out to be, but the reality is that we all would rather have money, than not. Though happiness will always be the quintessential feeling everyone strives for, isn’t it easier to be happy when one isn’t always worrying about making ends meet? We all need money, it’s in fact one of the things we work for, other than respect. And what is needed alongside, is the knowledge to use it wisely. So, it’s quite important to understand the concepts of Accounting and Finance, which happen to be the two sides of the coin that is money. Complex and scary, as they may well sound, no one is altogether alien to them. Whether we know it or not, we do perform, in our own little way, acts of accounting and finance in our day to day lives. Remember the time when we all received pocket money? Rs. 100 a month? That latest music cassette that cost Rs. 50, a packet of chips here, an ice cream there, and your Rs 20 of saving; we were meticulous with it, weren’t we? But in that seemingly insignificant practice of giving pocket money, our parents taught us planning, saving and decision making. And these are exactly what these ‘complex’ concepts are all about.
Shiven Tandon
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Studied at Shri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Puttaparthi; Presently doing CA
Finance is nothing but performance of various acts to beget money, to fulfil a predetermined purpose, be it through earning, borrowing, even begging and stealing. At a corporate level, it includes raising money through equity that is, selling the smallest units of your capital, called shares, to the public at large hence giving them ownership rights of your company. It also includes raising money through debt, ie borrowing money from a bank or any other person for that matter, on which one obviously has to pay interest.
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#18 September 1, 2013
Whether one chooses to finance an activity or a business through equity or debt varies from one situation to the other. When the project isn’t expected to yield high revenue soon enough, one goes for a public issue because, there isn’t a fixed expenditure (of interest) that you have to incur periodically, which is prevalent in the case of debt; so you give your shareholders returns as and when you earn such profits. On the other hand, when you think you can earn a lot higher than the interest you will have to pay, you go with debt. But then, all things considered, it’s comparatively easier to get a loan than it is to raise capital. And as for accounting, it is the recoding of the inflow and outflow of money, thus helping us make more informed decisions with it. We all have limited power of memory, which varies from individual to individual. So accounting helps us keep track of our money, which further helps us keep track of what we have at the time, what we owe to various people and how much others owe to us. On a business level, it helps us make budgets and hence take better decisions in the future. It helps us see whether we’ve made a profit or a loss in a particular period, to keep track of our savings, and to ascertain our tax liability. It also helps us take various management level decisions, like a staffing decision or the determination of the price of a product/service so that all costs incurred are recovered.
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Of course I do realise that, accounting or even finance aren’t the most fascinating things to do, we’ve never really heard of a kid playing Accountant, even if he wants to grow up and be one, now have we? But it’s like arranging your clothes back in the closet once they come back from laundry; it’s got to be done, because it makes the system a lot more streamlined.
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#18 September 1, 2013
Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience. GEORGE WASHINGTON Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life. KARL BARTH
A man's conscience can tell him his situation better than seven watchmen in a lofty tower. BEN SIRA Let every man be free to act from his own conscience; but let him remember that other people have consciences too; and let not his liberty be so expansive that in its indulgence it jars and crashes against the liberty of others. E. H. CHAPIN
If we neglect conscience, most evils are possible. EDWARD COUNSEL
We never do anything so secretly, but that it is in the presence of two witnesses: God, and our own conscience. BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
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