It's easy to fail ... Wake up before it is too late!

More often than not, in our careers, we learn what it takes to fail rather than what it takes to succeed. Part of this can be attributed to the herd mentality which has kind of become a norm. It takes a probing mind to actually pull away from this vicious phenomenon and refrain from the kind of anti-learning that is prevalent in most organizations today.

A few pointers which apply to people at all levels within an organization:

(1) "Learn to delegate". Isn't this one of the most common management tips? People have taken this too seriously and to such an extent that they have nothing left to do but delegate. And this seems to be the best way of escaping accountability. Even if used in the right proportion, another flaw in this approach is delegating to a person who does not have the required expertise. Remember, effective delegation includes educating your subordinate and a little-bit of hand-holding till your sub-ordinate learns to fly on his own.

(2) Please let the information flow downstream. Every resource has a right to know the big picture; why he is doing what he is doing.

(3) Please let the information flow upstream too. Don't sweep problems under the rug and portray that everything under you is happy and gay. Some day, the time will come and it will be too late.

(4) Beware of people who speak fast, loud, confidently and have tremendous convincing powers. You never know, maybe thats the only thing they can do well. And a message to such people, its ok to think you are smart but do not assume the person in front of you is a fool.

(5) Do you hire based on certifications? Stop and think hard and look closely around you. A vast majority of people who do certifications do it with the sole aim of gaining the tag. (Look at the gamut of people on LinkedIn who have their certifications tagged along with their names as thou it were their last names.) This is usually a result of a cramming session for a certain period before the examination, the period being decided by a combination of experiences of other certified individuals and individual cramming abilities. It would be tough for a recruiter to find one of the limited few who would have done the certification genuinely. And even if such a candidate is found, the point to realize is that certification is just a tag of awareness and a grounding in the basics and the basics of advanced topics. There can never be any substitute for experience. And the experienced may never have found the time to certify themselves.

(6) Message to technologists who think an organization can be run purely on technology and to CMM gurus who think an organization can be run purely on processes. Not possible. You need what you call sensi-balance (a term I flicked from a brand of Loreal shampoo) - a sensible balance of technology and quality processes.

(6.a) I have seen umpteen cases wherein the solution prescribed for a troubled project is a plethora of quality processes. Resources who could have otherwise saved the project end up wasting their time on fulfilling processes thereby putting the actual deliverables at stake and fail in the end. At the end of the day, leaders are surprised as to how come CMM couldn't save the day.

(6.b) Another set of cases is wherein the tech savvy guys feel they dont need any processes to dictate to them what needs to be done. Point to remember is that not every resource in the company is as savvy as you; plus there is an actual dearth of resources like you in the outside market. So it is not just about you. Processes enforce best practices and attempt to keep a combination of resources with highly varying skill levels that comprise an organization, on the right path. Plus it attempts to ensure uniformity across varied assignments within an organization.

(7) The solution to the so-called most complicated problems are sometimes very obvious and might be right in front of you. Just because the wizards in your organization have not been able to solve it doesnt mean it cannot be resolved by a younger wizard like you. So go for it.

(8) Do not go insane on metrics. If you spend half of your life generating and analyzing metrics, take a step back for your own good.

(9) The age-old adage "Learn from other's mistakes" - Do not take this literally but seems thats exactly what most people do. They actually learn to repeat the mistakes that others make. Projects after projects, and organizations after organizations fail committing the same mistakes. And at the end of the day, the leaders are still surprised as to what went wrong.

(10) Last but not the least, learn to differentiate between success and luck!

Investment Tips

A few practical investment tips for the experienced as well as the uninitiated from a non-expert. Apply at your own risk because I am by no means a certified financial guru.

• Investing is not rocket science. You can do it as long as you are willing to invest some time in learning the basics and prepared to spend atleast 15 min a day to understand what is happening in the stock market. Also you need to have a reasonable dosage of common sense.
• Do listen to what analysts have to say but DO NOT believe them. They claim to have based their forecasts on macro-economic trends. But who the hell knows what macro-economic trends. Do not get blown off by jargon. Nobody can know for sure how the stock market will behave. The stock market works on this very element of uncertainty.
• Do not leave everything to money managers assuming that they are financial wizards who would know much better than you could ever know about money. Just remember that they are doing their job and they get paid to do it. Even you do a job and even you are paid to do it. But do you always do the right things? Are you 100% sincere in all your endeavours? To add to that,  the money managers have an added leeway as they are always safely protected by a disclaimer that says investment entails risk and that past performance is not any indication of future performance.
• Abstain from herd mentality irrespective of the composition of the herd, be it your CEO or be it your Dad. If the herd could always get it right, wouldn't this world be full of millionaries. A classic example is oversubscribed IPOs which fizzle out when listed. So when too many people seem interested in something which is the talk of the town, just stay out of it.
• Do not stay away from the markets because of its volatility. This is the time to make short time gains. Just look at what keeps going up and down without understanding the sector or the fundamentals or the history. Capitalize on dips and spikes and try to make a quick buck.
• When the market goes really really down, put all the money you can afford into NiftyBEES.
• Do not invest blindly via SIPs to benefit from the much publicized principle of averaging. Sipping is definitely good but I would recommend that you sip manually. Pick a few good stocks or MFs and invest a chunk in these maybe once in a month. Unlike a SIP that is configured, for example, to execute on the first of every month, which will go ahead and execute irrespective of the blazing price of the MF on that particular day, take the reins in your hands and invest on dips.
• Contrary to the advice that an investor should never attempt to time the market, it makes sense to precisely do that under certain conditions. Even when the Sensex was at 20k+, I read in several places that you should not attempt to time the market and should keep investing if the fundamentals of a company are sound. But the thing to realize is that in a bullish market, most companies, irrespective of whether they are sound or out of their mind, will tend to be overpriced. When the market corrects, even a company with strong fundamentals will get corrected which will transalate into a loss at your end. There can always be exceptions but dont attempt to identify those exceptions.

So the question that you may want to ask is that what should be your investment strategy considering current market conditions. Considering that the Sensex is at 15k+, I think we are very much in the vicinity of another peak thou lesser than the 20k+ peak that we experienced in the beginning of 2008. Will it become 22k in 1 year from now as predicted by some analysts. It may, but to bank on that would be greed. Beyond 15k, I definitely do see a risk in pumping in money from a long term perspective, unless there is a company with sound fundamentals listing at a low price for some thoroughly justified reason. Otherwise, now is the ideal time to book your profits. If you did manage to catch the bottom at 8k, wait no more, just exit. At the same time, keep playing the short term game by capitalizing on the dips and spikes. If you think you dont have the time for that, make a call as to what is more important to you - time or money. Well, thats like a chicken-or-egg, but I will leave that to you to figure out.

Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that I will not be responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of reading my blog and applying my tips to your investment routine.That said, please feel free to pay your respects if you do manage to make a buck.