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Nuturing Big Dreams in the Silicon Valley

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The Annual MMA Women Managers Convention is a celebration of the spirit of Women; and the many diverse roles Women play.

CONTENTS TRENDS 5

Internet of Things 101

The Best Health Apps

Coworking Spaces: Go or No?

Tips on Lettering Like a PRO

50 Stunning 3D Printed Products

cover story

ANALYSIS 5

Internet of Things 101

The Best Health Apps

Coworking Spaces: Go or No?

Tips on Lettering Like a PRO

50 Stunning 3D Printed Products

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP Finding answers on helping women stay and win the leadership game / P 21 features

FOCUS 5

INTERVIEW: B.N.Ranka

Industry Round-up

Special Focus

Startup Diary

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Nuturing Big Dreams The Making of Hero by R,N,KUMAR / P 21

by SUNIL KANT MUNJAL Chairman, Hero Enterprise / P 21

Corporate Strategies by SHEELA SREE KUMAR / P 21

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FROM THE EDITOR

A platform for inspiring & guiding women leaders The Annual MMA Women Managers Convention is a celebration of the spirit of Women; and the many diverse roles Women play

ome may say that all days/months are lovely. I agree but I do have a choice. The month of February dawned with enjoyable weather and was eventful with flurry of MMA activities. The MMA Annual Convention 2020 on the theme “Adapt to Win: Leading Disruptive Change – In a Changing Economic Order” organised by MMA on 08th February 2020 was a grand success attended by over 750 delegates. As usual, the video recording of the Convention is available for your viewing at liveibc.com/mma – stay connected with MMA from anywhere! The rising number of COVID-19 cases in India poses some challenging questions. One is a developing country like India doing enough to stop the spread of the infection when developed countries are struggling to contain it. India faces numerous challenges when it comes to being prepared for epidemics and outbreaks. Not only do we have a large population which is spread across a very large Geographical area, but we also have to deal with a severely hampered public health system with poor infrastructure, limited public funding and an inadequately functioning primary healthcare structure. This is further compounded by high rate of internal migration. What is the effort required is an efficient and effective disease surveillance system which is functional throughout the country and not just in urban areas. The experts

estimate that a global growth will slow down. India will be hurt but may be less than others. Falling oil prices are a blessing for India. India’s, and the growth arises primarily on the strength of domestic market. COVID -19 demands new lines of production from testing kits and protective gear to Medicines, Vaccine and Data Analytics for meeting assorted epidemic scenarios. For the moment however the bottom line is that we must fight the epidemic first, then worry about the economy. Establishing exemplary ethical values, integrity, and professionalism is very vital in all industries at a time where the world environment is ruthlessly competitive. In such an environment it is easy for CEOs and Boards to be influenced by commercial interests and competition at the cost of professional integrity. Swami Vivekananda rightly insisted on “Character Building” education which he said is a must for the development of our Nation. When I was a student, I had the privilege of having moral instruction classes both in School and College which had instilled in me a great sense of commitment towards discipline and taught me the values in life. Today, morality is de-linked from Degrees and Diplomas. Do we assume that because someone is a Graduate. - Gp Capt R Vijayakumar, VSM MAR-APR 2020

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BIOGRAPHY

The Making of Hero A summary of the address delivered by the author Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, post the launch of his book titled, ‘The Making of Hero’ at MMA Annual Convention by SUNIL KANT MUNJAL

he idea for writing this book is not new. The book has actually been in the making for many decades. Right since the 1980s, we started getting requests from a variety of people to write a book either about my father (Dr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal, founder of Hero MotoCorp, earlier known as Hero Honda) or about the family, the company, the businesses or a combination of these. My father’s response was always the same –‘You’re not supposed to talk about yourself. It’s not okay. This is not the Indian thing to do.’ These requests would pour in from economists, business specialists, writers and authors of all kinds. Many of our friends said that this is a story which needs to be told. He finally agreed when he was over 90.

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There are many stories in the book- about how partnerships and relationships got built, the challenges of technology and, as to how India, a fledgling nation with an ancient civilization was looking at manufacturing as the backbone of economic activity.

An Emotional Birthday of Letters For my dad’s 90th birthday, I called many of his friends and colleagues. What can one give as a gift to someone like him? He was not a person fond of material goods. So we asked all his friends to write a letter to him and say whatever they would like about him in that letter. But I added, “Please send it to me. Don’t send it to him. We’ll publish this in a book and circulate to family friends and all those who wrote the letters.” It was both emotional and quite surprising, once the letters came in. Many of the letters were very personal. He had done favours for many people that we knew nothing about. The majority of the people who had written the letters said that my father was their special friend. There were hundreds and hundreds of letters. Numerous people had built connection with him. We published only one copy of the book. Because the letters were so personal, we decided not to circulate it widely. We gave it to him as a gift. He would always say, “My wealth lies in my relationships in the family, with the people that I know and people that I have grown up with.” One of the things that had got built almost as a rigour into the

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organization was that other things being equal, somebody who’s been working with us will always get more business. Another thing he did was to build friendships across the board. Many of our competitors in different businesses- some of whom are sitting here - are our family friends. While we were competing in business, these relationships developed which are both endearing and enduring through generations. Going back a few years, he finally agreed that it was okay to write a book. We picked a team whom we thought would be most suited to do this. Unfortunately, they were busy doing another project and they asked for time to come back and write the book. By the time they came back, it was late and we lost him. But the request to write the book continued to come even after that. I thought a little bit about it. Since he had agreed, I felt that the book should be written. But who would know the story better than someone from inside? So I decided to take on this challenge and exercise myself. The Story of India It was an interesting and unusual challenge because the story starts in the 1930s before India’s independence

and before the partition with Pakistan. It was hard to get real data. Of course, I knew the stories that I heard many times at home, in the family, even at work about what used to happen, with individuals and members of the family. I knew what the environment was like. Even if you think about the partition, it was the bloodiest migration this planet has ever seen. Millions of people lost their lives and we had some members of the family who were literally on the last train which came into India. They moved around too many places like Delhi, Agra and Panipat. Finally they settled in a small town called Ludhiana where they started the business with literally nothing. They came with their shirts on their backs. Like millions of other refugees, they left everything behind their homes, business, properties or whatever they had. One Man, Four Brothers and Two Wheels When I started to write, in fact, I started writing the story about my father. Mr. Rai who is the managing director of Hero Cycles called me one day and said that he had gathered a lot of information about all the four brothers and asked me, “Why don’t we write a

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book about them?” Mr. Rai and I had written another book earlier and I told him, “Look, I’ve already started.” But I thought he was right. I took a pause and a step back. I thought about the way my father behaved every time he got recognized and he won an award. He got many such awards and he would always say, “The reward is not for me; it belongs to everyone around - my entire family, all the people in the company, all our suppliers and dealers. All of them are partners in this.” I thought it would be more appropriate to write a story about all four of them. It’s not just a story about four of them. It is about the universe around them as well. So it’s a family story. It’s a business family story. It is a business story. It is a story of the evolution of the economy of India in the early days, going all the way down to the 80s and then to more recent times. It’s also a little bit about the geopolitics of the world. Who’s Your Audience? The publisher asked me when we started the work, “Who is the audience? Who are you writing this for?” Frankly I never thought I was going to write a book. But because we are where we are now and many people

have said that this is a story which needs to be told, if not for anything else, but the lessons which lie in the story, I decided to pursue the book. Even the kids in our own family will realize that business is not a cakewalk when they see a successful enterprise. Everything looks easy but if you dive deep inside, each enterprise has faced many challenges to get to where they have got to. If they really become successful, build size, scale, brands and credibility, there are many sacrifices which go behind this. Therefore it is important to talk a little bit about this, especially as they connect with the old systems which are going away in the present world. It’s also important in the medium that people would be interested to read. So I said that I would ideally like to target as wide an audience as possible - entrepreneurs, business managers, business consultants, students of business schools and just anybody else.

The publisher told me to restrict the book to certain number of words and pages. I did agree hesitatingly, though I was not keen on it. But what it helped me to do was to make the book short enough, so it can be an easy read. It’s written in a style of multiple stories. There’s a little bit of a message we’re trying to give at each stage. The book was released with newsprint paper and not using excessive plastics, as sustainability is something that the group, the family and the business have worked on for the last 50 years long before it became fashionable or mandatory. There are many versions of this book. Each time I would write and read it, I would find something needed to be different. n Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal is the Chairman

of Hero Motors Ltd. The book Making of

Hero, is its first book and traces the life of this father, MR. B.L.Munjal

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e at CFI and totus consulting, spoke to a large number of women at various ages and stages of the corporate trajectory to identify the answer to the billion-dollar question “What does it take to increase representation of women in leadership?” We learnt that several organizations, professional bodies, even nations have been hard at work trying to decode this complex phenomenon. However, in our research our prime focus was on the Indian Corporate context. Our research efforts included 27 in-depth interviews with women across various life and career stages, experts in the field, a survey covering 30 millennial women and a fair amount of secondary research. We found that, while most women begin their corporate careers with great fervor and are represented in good strength at the entry-level, this strength begins to dwindle as they approach middle-senior management level. This is really where the leadership gap begins, and the pipeline leaks the most. Research shows that 48 percent of Indian women drop out of the pipeline before reaching mid-career. We discovered that this happens not only because of the hesitation to “Lean In”, but also due to the onset of competing personal commitments including marriage, maternity, child and elder care. All this has resulted in a situation where women tend to drop out of the game in large numbers. We would like to propose that in order to have more women leaders, organizations need to start early, catch them young and most importantly,

help women stay in the game. While a lot is being said and done to make women more assertive, network better and aspire to have it all, very little is changing for men. Men are continuing to be told that they are the primary breadwinners and need to be ambitious and career focused. They are rarely, if at all taught to strike a balance between work and home. In most countries across the world, women continue to be primary caregivers and continue to do majority of the housework. Additionally, many of the women we spoke to also revealed the inability of men to accept or come to terms with women who are ambitious, or career focused. The lack of close women role models who have strived for a career might be one of the reasons for this phenomenon. A common theme that emerged when we spoke to our network of women, was the allusion to a workplace that seemed to be shaped by and for men without being cognizant of the realities faced by women. This was communicated in different ways- Like the need to be available for an overseas call in the middle of the night, the need to be available 24/7, the need to be seen more often at office parties, the need to stay back late and stretch beyond regular working hours and the overriding importance of face time over performance! A man who does make himself available, is more likely to be considered for the next promotion or special project than a woman who is constrained from doing so! Networking appears as a stereotypical competence needing development among women. Unfortunately, the competence is defined from the vantage point of men and therefore, women appear wanting. When a person meets someone with a similar personality or a common experience, they tend to connect more readily with them. A recent study shows that managers are more likely to dole out

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When a person meets someone with a similar personality or a common experience, they tend to connect more readily with them. A recent study shows that managers are more likely to dole out raises and promotions to people of their gender. It is also likely that this form of bias plays out during hiring decisions and leadership positions are largely dominated by men. Confirmation bias Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions, leading to statistical errors. For instance, we have heard of hiring managers expressing reservations about hiring young/ newly married women who might eventually have to take a break for maternity, or about recruiters being wary of hiring women for night shift roles or jobs in remote locations. Battling the Double-bind When a woman makes hard decisions, she is labelled as aggressive. When a man makes those same decisions, he is perceived as a competent individual. Alternately, when women act according to their true nature, they are considered passive or soft. This often results in a Catch -22 situation often referred to as the “Double-bind”. Beliefs that lead women to leave the game Some belief systems are socially constructed and deeply impact both sexes. They are often internalized and nurtured over the years and get in the way of women staying in the game and assuming leadership roles.

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These are societal belief systems about the role of a woman. We believe that in order to help women stay in the game, there is a need to challenge these belief systems and replace them with more balanced ones. There are four important belief systems that we identified. Women must always be the primary care givers and Men must always be the primary breadwinners. These gender roles continue to be reinforced in our everyday lives in seemingly small yet significant ways. Whether it was about women’s income being viewed as a supplementary source and women not seeing the economic rationale of actively pursuing a career. Or the child needing only the mother’s attention, or the men not chipping in with housework. All these challenges seemed to be deeply rooted in gender roles that have been socially constructed. They deeply impact the behavior of both men and women and shape their attitudes towards each other. Women must always put others before themselves Women are conditioned from a young age to be nurturing, caring and compassionate. In their book “How Women Rise”- Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, explain that While the need to please everyone may serve women well at the earlier stages of their career, it will impede them as they move higher, eroding their capacity to demonstrate leadership and serving as the ultimate tool for giving their power away. Hence, while this altruistic tendency is beneficial to many including the organization and the family, the price to pay is often the woman’s own progress and aspirations. The words sacrifice,

compromise, prioritize seem to figure much more frequently in women’s vocabulary than for men! Power is always a zero-sum game In her latest book titled “Chup”- social scientist Deepa Narayan describes how power unfortunately is a most misunderstood word. It is mostly construed as control through force. However, power can also mean persuasion, inspiration, motivation and collaboration to realise one’s dreams. Power is not a Zero-sum game she says. Having more women in positions of power, does not necessitate men to abdicate their power. It simply means that there is more balance in decision-making. This is something that not only women but more importantly, men need to realize and internalize. In her latest book titled “Chup”social scientist Deepa Narayan describes how power unfortunately is a most misunderstood word. It is mostly construed as control through force. However, power can also mean persuasion, inspiration, motivation and collaboration to realise one’s dreams. Power is not a Zero-sum game she says. Having more women in positions of power, does not necessitate men to abdicate their power. It simply means that there is more balance in decision-making. This is something that not only women but more importantly, men need to realize and internalize. In her latest book titled “Chup”- social scientist Deepa Narayan describes how power unfortunately is a most misunderstood word. It is mostly construed as control through force. However, power can also mean persuasion, inspiration, motivation and collab-

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women act according to their true nature, they are considered passive or soft. This often results in a Catch -22 situation often referred to as the “Double-bind”. Beliefs that lead women to leave the game Some belief systems are socially constructed and deeply impact both sexes. They are often internalized and nurtured over the years and get in the way of women staying in the game and assuming leadership roles. These are societal belief systems about the role of a woman. We believe that in order to help women stay in the game, there is a need to challenge these belief systems and replace them with more balanced ones. There are four important belief systems that we identified. Women must always be the primary care givers and Men must always be the primary breadwinners. These gender roles continue to be reinforced in our everyday lives in seemingly small yet significant ways. Whether it was about women’s income being viewed as a supplementary source and women not seeing the economic rationale of actively pursuing a career. Or the child needing only

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the mother’s attention, or the men not chipping in with housework. All these challenges seemed to be deeply rooted in gender roles that have been socially constructed. They deeply impact the behavior of both men and women and shape their attitudes towards each other. Women must always put others before themselves Women are conditioned from a young age to be nurturing, caring and compassionate. In their book “How Women Rise”- Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, explain that While the need to please everyone may serve women well at the earlier stages of their career, it will impede them as they move higher, eroding their capacity to demonstrate leadership and serving as the ultimate tool for giving their power away. Hence, while this altruistic tendency is beneficial to many including the organization and the family, the price to pay is often the woman’s own progress and aspirations. The words sacrifice, compromise, prioritize seem to figure much more frequently in women’s vocabulary than for men! n

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FEATURES

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â&#x20AC;&#x153; M N I A P R O V I T, S A M L A U T Q U AT I S Q U E C O N S E Q U I V O L U P TAT U R ? â&#x20AC;?

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oration realise one’s dreams. Power is not a Zero-sum game she says. Having more women in positions of power, does not necessitate men to abdicate their power. It simply means that there is more balance in decision-making. This is something that not only women but more importantly, men need to realize and internalize. belief systems about the role of a woman. We believe that in order to help women stay in the game, there is a need to challenge these belief systems and replace them with more balanced ones. There are four important belief systems that we identified. Women must always be the primary care givers and Men must always be the primary breadwinners. These gender roles continue to be reinforced in our everyday lives in seemingly small yet significant ways. Whether it was about women’s income being viewed as a supplementary source and women not seeing the economic rationale of actively pursuing a career. Or the child needing only the mother’s attention, or the men not chipping in with housework. All these challenges seemed to be deeply rooted in gender roles that have been socially constructed. They deeply impact the behavior of both men and women and shape their attitudes towards each other. Whether it was about women’s income being viewed as a supplementary source and women not seeing the economic rationale of actively pursuing a career. Or the child needing only the mother’s attention, or the men not chipping in with housework. All these challenges seemed to be deeply rooted in gender roles that have been socially constructed. They deeply impact the behavior of both men and women and shape their attitudes towards each other. Whether it was about women’s income being viewed as a supplementary source and women not seeing the economic rationale of actively pursuing a career. Or the child needing only the mother’s attention, or the men not chipping in with housework. All these challenges seemed to be deeply rooted in gender roles that have been socially constructed. Women must always put others before themselves Women are conditioned from a young age to be nurturing, caring and compassionate. In their book “How Women Rise”- Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, explain that - While the need to please everyone may serve women well at the earlier stages of their career organization and the family, the price to pay is often the woman’s own progress and aspirations. The words sacrifice, compromise, prioritize seem to figure much more frequently in women’s vocabulary than for men! n

SHORT TAKES TITLE

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Find Your IKIGAI A summary of the Valedictory Address by Mr Suresh Narayanan on “Find Your IKIGAI” during the MMA Anunaul Convention

would like to talk about winning, from the perspective of a practising corporate executive and based on my own persona experience. In a human life, three things are important and I call them as the triad of life. Finding your purpose is the most important thing. What is it that you want to achieve and why? This is not a philosophical question but it is like having a beacon in front of you- a guiding light. If every act that you do is in consonance with your purpose, your life is better led and your direc-

tion is far better, your actions are far purer and your goals are far clearer. You can come out as a much better human being. What is your organisational purpose? Configure your purpose with the organisation’s purpose and a congruence of both leads to a happy situation for every employee. If my purpose in life is to be ethical, sincere, honest and hard working and my organisation’s purpose is also the same, the congruence will make me happy and satisfied. Next comes the

national purpose. Many of us are very fortunate to be here, as compared to many others who are underprivileged. If our purpose, the organisational purpose and the national purpose are in alignment, then we can, as Japanese philosophy says, we can find our Ikigai. Research shows that in the island of Okinawa, there are more centenarians. In one of their parties, there was a gentleman who was 100 years old. He said that he was the youngest in the group. They lead their life by simplicity and clarity of who they are, what they do and what they expect. Corporates can be accused of making things more complicated than they need to be. What is your toughest battle as a corporate executive? My own career has been from a very ordinary family. With the blessings and the good education that my parents gave me, I have been able to rise through the jungles, tumultuous situations, politics, disappointments and moments of happiness to get to wherever I am today. This is not an end in itself but it is part of the journey. FIVE “A”s TO WIN From my experience, the toughest battle is with our own selves. Let me call it as the Five ‘A’s. The first ‘A’ stands for Attitude. Many of us begin with a negative attitude that it will not happen. We either feel that we are the most superior beings or the most inferior beings. I have developed an attitude to seek – seek people, seek opportunities that are better than what I am. Poet Kabir said, “I went out into this world to seek people who were worse than me, till I introspected and looked at my own heart. I reMAR-APR 2020

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alised that there’s nobody worse than me.” If you look at your life as a series of steps that you took to improve yourself, you become a lot more positive. We must achieve something each day. We must improve ourselves each day. We may yearn for more money and recognition, but it is better to be better each day. We are living in stressed times, when rhetoric is bad and decency and respect are at a premium. We don’t respect each other. If there is a purity of purpose, it will shine through any critical situation. You don’t need to play cloak and daggers all the time. It doesn’t pay in the ultimate analysis. You can achieve your goals, yet be moral, decent and ethical. Next is Ability. All of us are here in this room because of our ability. We seek ability. MMA has been doing a lot to build ability in all of us. Do not compromise on ability as it is your tool and a weapon in difficult times. Articulation It is important to understand that what you speak and how you speak are extremely important. To quote Kabir again, “Talk a language that keeps you, your mind and your heart at rest and cool.” Inasmuch as you remain cool, you provide the same coolness to the person listening to you. Difficult conversations can be had, but if they are done with dignity, decency, moderation, modulation and sincerity of purpose, even the most difficult situations can be tackled easily and we can get to a better spot. Adversity My friends who spoke today talked about the Maggi adversity. People

MAR-APR 2020

think that adversity is a curse. From my experience, it’s actually a blessing. Adversity is the best teacher of all. There is a saying in Hindi which says that in spring times, there are a number of parrots that chirp. It is in difficult times that you learn; the best in you and your values come out. So my dear young friends, embrace adversity. When you start your assignments, take the tough ones. The easy ones may tempt and compel you to take as they are easy. You may have a 9 to 5 job, your parents, wife partner will be happy. But if you take the tough ones, you can learn a lot. These lessons will become portant in your life. How can we win every moment? 1) Winning is not an absolute. It is always relative. It has to be viewed against a goal. But, as Swami Mukundananda said, it has to be viewed in the context of happiness. We don’t seek happiness anymore. We seek wealth, houses, cars and various other gizmos. In the corporate world, we seek bigger and bolder visiting cards, greater places to stay in, bigger influence groups and the capacity to crush people, rather than to make people. Unfortunately, that is seen more on the positive side. As a corporate leader, I can tell you that the contrary to that is far better and greater; it keeps you far more on an even field as a human being. 2) Acceptance is an inspiration for action. Accept your situation. Acceptance is a realistic pause that you take. You know that you need to act but yet realise the situation that you are in.

Acceptance of reality is very difficult. The more senior you are in the corporate ladder, the more difficult it becomes to accept reality, because it is tied up with your status and the three letter word – EGO. 3) Perspectives revolve around your values and your purpose. Why is it that your fondest memories are about your school and school teachers rather than of your first boss, second boss or fifth boss? Because the bosses have not made as much of an impact on your being as your teachers have. 4) Your IKIGAI is for you. Your purpose is for you and so, do not make comparisons. In the corporate world, we make too many comparisons- on the status, designation, perks, physical looks, etc. These are not really important. At the end of it all, as Swamiji said, you measure your life and ask, “Was it worth it?” If you think it was not worth it, unfortunately, time does not give you the opportunity to go back and start all over again. At the end of it all, as Swamiji said, you measure your life and ask, “Was it worth it?” If you think it was not worth it, unfortunately, time does not give you the opportunity to go back and start all over again. If you think it was not worth it, unfortunately, time does not give you the opportunity to go back and start all over again. n

Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal is the Chairman

of Hero Motors Ltd. The book Making of

Hero, is its first book and traces the life of this father, MR. B.L.Munjal