My Feeling after becoming 60+

Well due to certain unavoidable reason, I could not connect up. However, on 4^th of April when I Cross 60 and became 61 the first thing I thought that I should give myself something which obviously the dream for everyone.

Well on that day I gifted myself the ‘Mercedes Benz Car’. When I took delivery,               I remembered the way back 1976-77 when I started my career I wanted to buy a bike,    I had just joined TATAs as Trainee, I approached my Father, well he had capacity to buy for me, but he said something which obviously came shock at that time, but afterwards I realized that statement was a Million Dollar one. 

The statement what he gave was ‘Son, now onwards anything you want to earn and gift yourself (Don’t ask) have this philosophy in life. He saw me disappointed so he said one thing I can do it for you I will get you a Bank loan and I will be the Guarantor, while I can pay for the bike, but I will not you should feel of getting through your own effort, so 4^th of April 2015 I gifted myself the Mercedes. I really worked hard to earn and gift myself.  I always felt that advice of my Father was the real teaching and till today I am practicing even after 60 by playing the second innings with Full Heart and Energy.

If you practice this you feel so proud about yourself that whatever you got is your own through your own effort. This is a kind of Spirituality we should practice, this requires High Degree of Self Discipline and Understanding your own level of Competence, Confidence as well as Ability to Deliver.

I always felt that God has made every human being same. We only try to classify them to be Intelligent, Average and Poor. If you have true Determination and Focus in life with clarity, the entire forces in the Universe will support you to achieve your goal and this is also can be called as a Work Place Spirituality. If you try to split the word Spirituality it becomes Spirit and Ritual, so any act or anything we do in life should be done by Right Spirit, Intention in a Ritual manner, that means in a systematic manner then success will follow you. Systematic means to plan and execute, anything we do in our life whether Socially, Professionally, if we adapt the above approach success will follow and we do not have to chase the success. Success only comes to the person when it sees that this person deserves to have it. There is no point blaming fate and others.

So if anyone wants to be the best then earn it with right spirit, you will be known as true spiritual person that is the meaning of Spirituality. I have understood not making noise by going to temple and other activities, this does not mean I don’t go to temple, but even we want to see the God we should not beg we should only request God to give you strength to earn it.

So let us resolve that every year we would gift ourselves to our desire by earning.

The SOB Stroy...................

Wishing you all a Very Happy Prosperous New Year.

I am extremely sorry for being disconnected for long. I have been aggressively involved in consolidating the Institution M/s. Layam and also drawing the future plans. During the last 2 months there has been many activities including arranging Conclaves, Visits to different States for better reach out what has been good to us and we have got a good opportunity to expand ourselves.

During my visit to many of the Clients especially the Companies which wants to grow I experienced that there is an element of negativity or helplessness by the CEOs and others on the pretext of economic slowdown or otherwise. Experiencing this I coined the word SOB and just try to put my thought on this giving the heading as ‘Romance with SOB for Growth in Business’.

Romance with SOB for Growth in Business

We are in the Country which has an inherent psyche of emotional trends as an Individual or as a Professional or as a Promoter, we have a tendency to hide our happiness and express our sorrow with full steam!

With my experience, whenever I had an opportunity to meet a Promoter either from SME or purely Indian context, invariably they have issues to be listed for their stunted growth. So as a Mentor and Consultant I always ask them why to SOB. As a Promoter and Leader you are the Engine which has to drive accomplishment and extraordinary business results. India as a Country having more than 50% of Young hearts, all are anxiously looking towards the leaders like you for a break.

Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) has been introduced in this Country, but sad to say the Entrepreneurial Zeal is missing in the hearts of Promoters as they always tend to play a safe game.

During my childhood, I was told ‘No Risk No Gain’. If you want to be successful the answer is ‘take risk’, Destiny will follow you. So for any Promoter the word SOB should become Sense of Business and not Sense of Helplessness.

At the fag end of my career +50s I thought why not to play a Second innings and thus I call it quit and started my own Venture. I have always experienced a Sense of Inadequacy and High Degree of Inertia within myself with a statement asking me ‘If he can, why can’t I’ so I always believe that every individual has a potential to be ‘He Can’.

After 32 years of working as a Human Resources Professional with Corporate Giants such as the Tata Group and Hyundai, I was in two minds. The easy way out was to spend the remaining years working with an Industry major and step into a comfortable retirement life. The other, more challenging option, was to start from scratch and set up my own venture which is what I ultimately did.

With a limited years of, high inertia as a Promoter, the qualities which one should have are

1. Environmentally Sensitive with a Clarity of Sense of Business
2. Dynamic Business Driver and Risk Taker
3. Empathetic towards the Resources

Once the Promoter has ‘Sense of Business’ then he has to draw the road map which I feel can be termed as ‘Sense of Purpose’.

The Promoter also needs to have a sense of purpose.  Any business needs to work with a clear purpose to deliver to all parties involved- Investors, Stake-holders, Employees and Clients. A survey conducted on behalf of Deloitte LLP reveals businesses that display “a strong sense of purpose” are more confident in their growth prospects and ability to compete than organizations that lack a purpose-driven culture. The “2014 Deloitte Core Beliefs & Culture Survey”¹ defines a strong sense of purpose as a focus on making a positive impact on Customers, Employees and Society.

So the Promoter needs to be focused and have a clear vision and mission.  He needs to set long term goals with short term strategies. All successful leaders have a good Sense of Purpose. 

A good leader needs to be a Business Driver and a Problem Solver. A good leader determines how the organization functions and how it is perceived.  The Promoter should focus on solving actual problems and not the alleged ones. He must look at the business problem with critical eyes from outside rather than be emotional.

 I have always felt that a Promoter instead of building Business House should create Institutions, as said the Institutions have an Emotional Rhythm. With Sense of Passion it ultimately becomes the Legacy on its own. Hence the Vision part for a Promoters Sense of Purpose should be Institutional building towards Holistic Growth.

We also have a very peculiar tendency to do things with low cost. I always believed with Cost, Quality and Competitiveness should be the Business Mantra, but we must be conscious that the ‘Cost at what Cost?’. In a lighter vain it is said if you pay Peanuts you will get Monkeys in your system and obviously these Monkeys will only contribute towards quality issues resulting into rework and damaging the Brand.

This leads to another aspect which is to be kept in mind is ‘Sense of Brand’ if one has to build an Institution of Par Excellence with high level of Sense of Business as well as Sense of Brand, the aspects which has been indicated should be kept in mind so why to SOB. SOB is the most positive connotation to become successful in your life. So have Romance with SOB that means Sense of Business which would lead to Sense of Brand.

I am sure the above thought or expression would surely give a better insight and positivity to be the best in our own way.

Once again I wish you all a Very Happy  Prosperous New Year.

G.S.Ramesh

Chairman

Layam Group

www.layamgroup.com