Forty Plus in Indian IT Sector

One day I got a call from a good friend who is in a very senior position in a bank heading one division in their IT services. He asked me question" Suresh how we can help people after 40s in IT". I was stumped as by then I left my job with Microsoft and started looking for another one after some soul searching and dabbling in diagnostic centres, small medical clinics, a food place, and a few others. Ezsentially, I was one of the people he was referring to. It made me to think a lot.

Suddenly I remembered my time when I was in US and working for IBM, everyone around me was going for PMP exam. I went and asked another IBMer "Is It important to have PMP Certification in IBM?"  Pat came the reply "Yes.. not only for survival to get in to Band 10 you need that". Obviously by then I decided to return to India. I also learnt that if you want to work for Government in US or IBM you MUST be a PMP certified person. I decided I am not going to do anything as I was returning to India and it did work for me to survive without PMP. Can it work for everyone? Probably not.
Thinking back about the question from my Bank friend, what I realized is in India we have a taboo, at 40 plus (not a plus size) you MUST be a people manager or Technology team manager. You don't like to be an Individual Contributor (IC) as people in your social circle look down upon you. So I started to think how the 40 plus can survive in Indian Landscape. I have a few thoughts not in the same order of preference but to evaluate and see what fits best for you. These are only suggestions based on what I saw in US and India, that will work

·        Start a 40 plus club where only people above 40 years age are allowed. Play music from 80s etc. Seriously.. check the patrons IDs J

·        If you made enough money by then, do what your passion is: Travel, reading, writing, painting, sculpture, coaching, mentoring, and anything you love to do including teaching Yoga

·        I personally think an MBA or PMP is not really good idea as it burns hole in pocket when you need the money the most. However if you think it will give you happiness be my guest and go spend money in a good MBA college 

·        On a serious note, I do suggest to think to be an employer by thinking of a start up business - anything you like. This must fill your passion and make you money. The employee turns an Employer

·        One other suggestion is go and explore the world, if you can afford. Meeting people gives you ideas and changes your perspective a lot. In my case I left a note for a GM of a famous diagnostic centre in Banjara Hills saying I want to meet him. To my surprise, he called me and over a cup of coffee, discussed 30-45 min.  good, bad and ugly of the business. Having an open mind opens doors. Go try it.

·        If you are pressed for another job, don't wait till you leave, start tapping into your network at least one year to 3 years before your dead line. You  might need that time to land something you like

So my dear Mid-Career Crisis people, first there is a lot of hope, so don't lose heart. Work on your next best strength. Get over the hill and do something you love to do. If you are in market - happy job hunting.

This is not a political post:

Yesterday sitting at home I was thinking of the day the younger one was born. Its a cold afternoon in Southern California, still in the operation theatre for C Section, I was probably sweating. The young one is out and did not cry. The doctor gave a slap on the back and she started crying. Me and my MIL who were in the room looked at each other with both faces lit up. The joy of someone born that we looked forward to is very tough to describe on words.

Reading a post by CBN after the foundation stone laying, I connected with his expressions. The pain that went into the whole process is commendable. The people who made all this possible including R&B who are responsible for roads,venue etc every one might have felt the pride.

I am a positive person. I was also pained when the cutting of the banana plantation in the rich agriculture land were shown on TV. I read a whole lot about food shortages etc. However, after watching everything for last three months, I felt for every act there will be a positive outcome.

I draw another comparison here with our younger one. I might have felt sweat in the cold Dec afternoon on my neck but when I see the young lady in our house, who hugs me and shows unconditional love, I dont remember anything that I felt sometime back. Same way, I am sure after 15 years or so when we have a proud Amaravathi, we also may not remember anything that we are talking today, but for good things. We might find alternate land to grow food.

In conclusion any birth brings joy after the pain, so is this new capitol, called Amaravathi, this also will bring joy later for sure. Lets hope and wish there is definitely a silver lining in new Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh.

Failing Fast is the new Success Mantra

One of my friend visiting us from US was sharing that in Silicon Valley (where everything is about start-ups and many made it) if you fail faster you are considered a better start up and your stock goes up while people running companies with money from their own pocket or VCs are called living dead as they do not know when to exit the game.

Michael Jordan of the famous Chicago Bulls who won the NBA cup three times in a row against New York Nicks  is my all favourite athlete; not as he gambled off his money; not that he left the team a couple of times and came back but he always learnt from the mistakes.  You need to be really BOLD and GUTSY to admit your failure so my word to all start-up folks, if you think you are failing please fail fast and move on.

You need a mentor,  go find who failed a lot as they would give you best advice on what landmines you need to side step and what you should not do. They may need time to open up, but they are your best bet to get top class advice in my opinion. How many of them do we have in your city? You will never know as they don't have directories, they are not listed in Internet. So my friends it is hard to find these folks than finding the Start-up gurus who conduct conferences, run sessions lecturing, and project themselves as next best thing to sliced bread. Still I suggest you go after finding these unlisted folks who failed and ask them for their time to help you.

If you think 9000 shots and 300 games is a small number better re-think again. Every day we fail in one or other thing, but beauty is have we learnt anything out of that is the question you should be asking yourself. Have you misplaced the trust people put on you in those 26 shots that might have won the game? Don’t worry to admit that you missed and move on. You need Scottie Pippen likes to be on your side to bring a winning company.

So my dear start-up friends, get wet behind ears, see some bad things in life, the earlier you see them the faster you grow. Following the yellow brick road may lead to a fantasy that cannot be fulfilled but creating the road you want to travel will be definitely get you to be on top of the world. 

My Thoughts on startups in Hyderabad

Wednesday Morning turned up to be very nice one. Some time back when there is a lot of activity happening around startups in Hyderabad, a few people asked me why I am not seen in many of them. At that time I told them in private that still Hyderabad start up ecosystem is struggling with many only talking while these must be people with action orientation. One such action oriented person I see is Ravi Gururaj from Bangalore. Do we have our own Hyderabad Ravi? In my opinion the answer is NO.

I see a bunch of events with out any tangible results. Yesterday morning in a one hour phone conversation with a moderately successful entrepreneur from Bangalore we were discussing why still Bangalore address is prefered address to Hyderabad in VCs mind. It is for obvious reasons. We need mentors, we need people who can spare time with out ego and available. If some one postpones a meeting to talk to you would you call him Mentor? My friend in Bangalore approached a Boston based person to be mentor. The gentleman told him politely "you need to have some one close by so you can run to him at midnight when you need help". Do we have such mentors in Hyderabad? I know a few who are doing fabulous job from TiE. Still we need more such individuals.

Location Location Location is key for any good start ups. A product company that sells solutions to Automobile industry that is well placed in Madras outskirts having a office in Delhi wont help. This is so true when you create solutions, services and products for manufacturing. Are people thinking that way in Hyderabad? I have not seen any such folks. All I see is a lot of copy cat ideas. One of the incubator/accelerator head (call him Mr. X) I was talking to was sharing this. He came across a person with an idea (Mr. E) When Mr X asked Mr E how it is different from snap deal or flipkart Mr E said they both don't have what he was doing. Obviously the next question by Mr X is how much time do these giants need t add that function? Think your self: is that a viable business?

All these thoughts I was sharing came to light now as when I was talking to a friend about Hyderabad. This lead to a conversation with Sadhana Chathurvedula. She wrote a nice article about some of the thoughts at a very high level. Proud to present the article that I am quoted along with great people (Srinivas Kollipara)

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/jo8U9TiKFpISL7xnRqTj9K/So-what-is-THub-anyway.html