Performance vs. Position

This is really a wonderful joke that enlightens the difference between Performance and Position...

A priest dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who's dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. Saint Peter addresses him, "Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven?"

The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, from New York."

Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Now it's the priest's turn. He stands erect and booms out, "I am the Right Reverend Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last forty-three years."

Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the priest, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Just a minute," says the priest. "That man was a taxi driver. Why does he get a silken robe and golden staff?" "Results," shrugged Saint Peter.

"While you preached, people slept. When he drove, people prayed."

Celebrate Work!?

I recently read this FORTUNE article titled “Going down the talent drain” and I must say it was definitely interesting and thought provoking. I feel in today’s corporate world, many executives with exceptionally good qualifications who are highly talented & motivated, aggressive with relevant experience (at middle or senior levels) and who have a ‘never-say-die’ attitude tend (have the guts!) to try something new & innovative with small (or smaller) firms rather than end-up with a humongous large dinosaur-type (bureaucratic) organization that neither recognizes all of what is mentioned above nor creates an atmosphere (platform) for grooming & garnering young & hungry talent to manage the next-gen organization.

Instances of high-level career shifts (to small / smaller organizations) in the recent past is nothing new…its been happening for quite a while and many feel that money could be a major measuring rod for such career decisions. Well, in some cases “yes”. However, money is NOT everything when it comes to a few high-level exec shifts. If you look at FORBES TOP-500 pay rankings (2005), you would be amazed to know a few execs who are actually very famous (and have rocked the corporate world) and are indeed high-flying actually rank at the bottom of the charts…Steve Ballmer (Rank: 478), Jeff Bezos (Rank: 495), Steve Jobs (Rank: 496), Eric Schmidt (Rank: 494)…Need more names & numbers???

Now, do you think these execs don’t love their job or don’t want their job because they are ranked at the bottom of the compensation pyramid? The answer is “NO”. They love their job immensely (ofcourse, results speak!) because they ‘Celebrate WORK’ and enjoy every moment at work. The bottom-line is no matter where you are or what you do, just DO IT and ENJOY DOING IT!

Event: CFO Rising Southeast Asia Conference

Sriram speaks on how Asia’s finance leaders can foster and promote good ethical practice within their organizations at the CFO Rising Southeast Asia Conference on November 16, 2006 at The Oriental, Singapore.

Click here to know more about the program, speakers & registration details and do feel free to pour your thoughts / views / ideas / suggestions on this topic.

NRN Retires…?

To me “retirement” is not the right word for a man like Mr. Narayana Murthy. The right word would be “rearranging priorities” like what Mr. Bill Gates said when he had charted himself a retirement plan to plot a future course of action in engaging himself with projects that have a social cause & contribution (like education, AIDS awareness, poverty eradication, helping the under-privileged etc…).

Little did Mr. Murthy realize then (about 25 years ago) that he would create a multi-billion dollar (Market Cap = US$23 bio and Annual revenues of US$ 2.15 bio) IT/Consulting enterprise called Infosys Technologies Limited from India (Bangalore to be precise) to show to the rest of the world the NEW “re-incarnated” FACE OF INDIA & INFOSYS – A company with vibrant thoughts, brilliant ideas, empowered execs, superb strategies, flawless execution and above all “customer-focus & relevance”. Kudos to Mr. NRN for having carved himself (and Infosys) a unique position (stature) that every aspiring entrepreneur would like to think of doing.

We all know that Mr. Murthy will continue to be associated with Infosys in an advisory role of a non-exec Chairman and Chief Mentor and am sure he will do a terrific job in his new advisory role (after all…he is the Chairman of the governing body of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Cornell University Board of Trustees, Singapore Management University Board of Trustees, INSEAD's Board of Directors and the Asian Institute of Management's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at Harvard Business School, Yale University and the University of Tokyo’s President's Council and many more…)

PS: Do you wanna know what the noted Management Thinker & Thought Leader Mr. Tom Peters had to say about NRN? Click here.