Friday, December 12, 2014

How far is marriage important in your career?

Very recently, i have been helping some graduate students ( with 3-5 years after their graduation) to answer this question. Some students feel that marriage is the last priority for them and completely avoid taking any decision. Some embrace it because their friends went through a marriage. And some adopt it because it is risky to repent later.


But the real question that they should ask is ' How is marriage important for helping or hindering career". And here career does not mean just work-life alone. We, human beings, consider our career successful only when we can ride both horses: Work and relationship. So how does marriage help us in achieving our career objective?

Four big reasons to marry

1. Avoid the big error of fundamental attribution ( Helps increase self awareness which is a common horse of work life and people-life)

"When we make a mistake, we feel that it happens because of the situation we were in. When others make a mistake, it happens because others are 'foolish, useless or villainous'." It is very easy to fall in this trap and assume that others make a mistake because they have a flaw in their character. Psychologist call this the trap of 'fundamental attribution error'. 

It takes a very dense relationship, like marriage, to understand and avoid this trap. Only in marriage, where we stay together and see the other person in different situations for long time, we understand how 'small situations' blow out of proportion, how a minor event of past affect the 'view' of today, and how a minor change in 'belief' can repair or damage a situation. 

2. Understand one's own left and right hand gap (Helps increase self awareness) 

We all of us have big gap between 'what we believe and what we do'. This discrepancy between our values and actions is common in all of us. Psychologists call it a left hand-right hand difference. Without a 'window' of a dense relationship like marriage, we are not even never aware that our actions are contradicting our intentions and beliefs. And because we are not even aware, we cannot even 'correct' it.

In a marriage relationship, this difference between left and right hand is exposed quickly. In the early days of marriage, this gap is a common reason of conflicts and fights. But very soon, most of the couples sense that both are avoiding to face their 'real selfs'. Some of the couples cross this hurdle and manage to see their 'self' which is hidden behind the 'facade'. This process of reconciling left hand with right hand is triggered and helped immensely by this relationship with spouse, even if it is irksome and frustrating most of the times.

3. Develop the skill to collaborate ( Directly impacts work output)

Collaboration requires one to share and expose oneself to others. One has to be prepared to show one's vulnerability. And one has to 'listen' to others ideas and beliefs even though they may seem 'silly and bookish'. One of the biggest bottlenecks of entrepreneurs in their growth, i have seen, is their inability to create a team who can move 'together' with them. The same is true with corporate professionals, who manage to develop such a deep distrust of others that they rarely collaborate with each other.

Marriage-relationship is a practice ground for getting ready for the final play of collaboration with strangers. In marriage, one gets a practice ground to share one's deep values ( and visions), disarm oneself and face the consequences, and develop the practice of trusting people in steps. Entrepreneurs and corporate professionals can grow faster and higher if they can utilise the dense relationship of marriage to learn the basic skills of collaboration. 

4.. Develop the skill to find happiness in relationships ( Helps ride the chariot of people life)

If you have read this, we all believe that career success depends on 'happiness in relationship'. Although, many individuals know this, they ask a very interesting question " Is there any guarantee that marriage will always produce happiness"? One liner answer to this question is " No and Yes". 

If you keep on searching for the right person to marry, then the answer is No. If you however get equipped for a marriage relationship with the right expectation, then irrespective of the kind of partner, you will find happiness in a relationship. Why? 

In a relationship, other person does not determine the 'happiness index'. Happiness index is determined by the 'dynamics' of you and the other person. And this dynamics changes all the time. That is why, even if you are in love with your partner today, there is no guarantee that the dynamics will not change in the future. For instance, if you grow faster than your partner in the future ( this happens most in India where women sacrifice their work-lives), happiness index nosedives even when you have done nothing wrong. But if you understand the 'dynamics' of relationship, you will not make the mistake of setting wrong expectation, or making wrong conclusions.You will still find 'happiness' in relationship. 

Summary

Without understanding 'why' of marriage, many individuals ask a substitute question "Whom to marry". If you want to grow in your life, not just work-life, it is better to exploit the 'four big benefits' of being in marriage. Marriage relationship comes with a package of 'white and black'. And benefits outweigh the costs by a huge mile. Morever, as human beings, we do not have any other option that offers us these 4 big benefits. Other options - like going to Himalayas or joining a non-religious group which are now observed in plenty - do not even come any close in helping us. It is true that marriage relationship does not come with any 'warranty period' or guaranteed benefits. But, it is upto us to utilise the relationship profitably if we want to succeed in career.

We do not get the most from our marriage relationship because we deal with 'marriage' only when it is too late. Late in life, we can only do 'damage-control'. Instead, if we see our careers from different angles ( not just work-life alone), we can have a chance to find 'happiness' in a marriage relationship. Due to new practice of live-in relationship, everyone thinks that marriage institution is dying. On the other hand, because uncertainty is increasing all the time, importance of marriage-relationship has increased, not decreased.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

If you are from Tier 2/3 college, you need to develop Marketing and Sales Skill to influence the job-market

First-job choice ( choice of first job after graduating) is normally made by using one of the following methods: Listen to the gut, Find a job from the available choices or Follow the path of least resistance.


None of these methods is completely wrong, but neither any of the method is adequate. Amongst the three methods, the most popular method is the last one. In my estimates, it is used by almost 80% of the graduating community. Academically intelligent students use it to filter the best choice based on superficial parameters like salary and job location. While average and below-average students use it to pick the first available job that comes their way. Some even find a way to avoid job-market and do further education in a degree like MBA. 

You need both marketing skill and Selling skill to 'sell your credentials' in the job-market. I am assuming that you must have requisite the primary, secondary and ancillary cognitive skills to do the job.

Marketing Skill to influence the job-market 

A> Understand the buyer's preferences in getting a job ( in third year of graduation)

Job positions are determined by companies who employ you. These positions are therefore determined by the active and passive interaction of players in the job-market which include suppliers (colleges) Buyers (recruiting companies, big companies, small companies) and the availability of skilled individuals who seek job. In other words, you are just one of the minor participant in the job-market.You have to play by the rules of job market. And to do so, you must understand the rules of job market that are related to job-entry.

For instance, you must remember that buyers are influenced heavily by college names from where you have graduated, marks you have got, and the paths you have followed in your education. If you belong to less-known colleges, you have to do something 'extra' to get noticed even when you have got good marks. Many good graduates from less known Tier-2/3 colleges ignore this rule and expect quick response from companies to their resume.

For instance, if you are from Tier 1 college, you can wait for good bank employers to find a job. On the other hand, if you are a graduate from Tier 2 , you have to prepare a lot before approaching a bank: study the bank before approaching a bank, such as bank strengths, competitive position in the market, and so on

For instance, if you are from Tier 1 college looking for a joining a premium bank, you must do sufficient homework. For instance, you will have to start writing about 'banking' blog on web, do assignments for a bank if possible, work for a bank during summer holidays. If this is not possible, prepare a comparative analysis of banks based on last 3 years balance sheet. Find people in the bank with whom you can talk, understand about banking industry more thoroughly.

I have met many MBA students from Tier 3 colleges who refuse to do this preparation. They argue that other students from Tier 1 MBA colleges get a job without this preparation.

B> Prepare a good resume where you can lead the interview ( last year of graduation)

If you are prepared, you can write a good resume that will attract your employer. Because you have prepared in advance,  the resume helps you show your capability in a more varied ways.

Please remember resume is a document has two purposes. One it is meant to showcase your capabilities.Two, it can help you 'plant' the right questions so that you can 'lead' the interview in the direction you want. Here are some useful tips to design a resume that will help you get interviewed in the best possible way.

So remember that resume design will not help you get a job. Your resume should help you demonstrate your capabilities in the interview.

Selling skill to sell your credentials to the prospective employer

A> Apply to the chosen employers in the reverse order 

Do not apply to the best employer first. To get practice of giving interview, start from the least preferable employer. That will help you fine tune the process of answering questions and leading the interview more subtly. It will give you the necessary confidence to negotiate difficult questions and doubts of employers.

Applying to the bank through its website is easy but may not lead to desired response, if the bank is not looking for a position. In such situation, it is important to find names of important people in the bank, either through website or friends, and direct your application to the specific person in the company. Getting names from the past students and alumni is also a good idea.

B> Understand the background of the specific employer before giving that interview 

If you are prepared in step 1 and 2, you are intelligent enough to answer any question on your resume.

But this step is meant to help you differentiate from other aspirants. This is therefore very useful if you are from Tier 2/3 college. If you study the background of your specific employer before you go to the interview, you will be show your thoroughness and interest in the interview. You will also look more confident in the interview.

C> Have Plan B if Plan A does not work  

Despite all the work and effort, one may not get a job one desires. It is important to engage in a job even if one does not get the desired job position. Often graduates do not understand the importance of 'engaging' in a job and decide to 'study' further ( without knowing what to study) instead of finding another job position. A job engagement enables student to develop job-skills and more importantly gives him a lens to convert his cognitive abilities in useful cognitive job-skills. This learning can happen only if you work in a job. A footballer knows that a charity match is more important to develop his 'football' skills than just practicing more. Similarly, you must work in an actual job to develop your job-skills.

I have often advised graduates to take up an alternate job, even if it is not one of the first choices. For instance, i helped an Electronics engineering graduate take up a job in sales of a company making 'embedded electronic systems for security', although he was interested in 'product development'. That job helped him understand the market of embedded systems so well in a year, that he found the desired job in the best possible company after 18 months. Importance of sales position is not well understood by most of the graduates.

More importantly, when a graduate takes up such alternate position, which is not desirable, he has to actively draft a strategy of maximising his benefits. Otherwise, he may not get anything in the end other than salary.

Summary

Please remember marketing and selling skills to influence the job-market are necessary to get the first job after graduation for both graduates: Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 colleges.

Even graduates from Tier 1 college require this skill. Because, they face too many options. Because they have the opportunity to chose employers, they must find the right 'employer' that 'fits' their abilities. On the other hand, the graduate from Tier 2/3 colleges have few options to chose their employer. They have to use all the available skills to get the best employer before they approach the second-best employers.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Are Colleges using inappropriate ways of teaching employability skill?

NASSCOM had done a survey of Engineering graduates way back in 2005 and discovered that only 25% of the graduates are employable in IT sector. Even now these reports claim that this % has increased barely in the last 5 years. These kind of reports have put colleges in the defensive for wrong reasons. Because, as it happens in any story, there are two sides to a story. 


On the one hand, colleges can never prepare graduates for a job. Because, education is training for careers not jobs. Let me explain. 

Every job requires specific narrow skill sets and no education can train a student in all the specific narrow skill sets they might need for all the different jobs. For instance a mechanical engineer can work in Automobile, Fertiliser and many other job situations. It is not practical to develop different skill-sets required by each of these companies. 


When companies, especially software companies, ask for employable students they ask for a narrow skill set, say in programming, testing, or software design, they need in their employee to help them become 'functional from Month-1'. It reduces their investment in training and make their business more competitive. This strategy makes lot of business sense for companies, but expecting a graduate to develop narrow skill set required for a company is impractical.


On the other hand, If narrow skill sets required for a job can only be imparted by a company, what can graduates learn in a college ? Graduates can get trained on a broad skill set ( let us call this employability skill set) that are generally applicable in someone's career. Many colleges impart this training of employability skills, But they seem to be using wrong method. 


1. Skill of communicating: Of all the three secondary skills required in every job, this is the most talked, but also the most misunderstood skill. 

The ignorance of this skill set makes it difficult to develop this skill set. Some think learning communication skill only requires 'English-speaking'. Some consider it as matter of dressing well Some believe that it is a skill set required only in 'Sales'. 


Due to lack of clear understanding of communication skill, colleges cannot follow a simple step-by-step process of imparting this skill set. This skill of communication has to be developed for various situations like presenting a view, disagreeing on someone's ideas or making a proposal. This skill can be best taught by making students present their 'assignments' to the class, or talk on topics of 'technical interest'. 


Morever, written communication is as important as oral communication in a job.  In a job, mails, documents are important ways of communicating. A graduate is ignorant about drafting different letters: Official letter of complaint, mail to a team member who knows everything, mail to client team, mail to boss on an important issue of conflict. This training can perhaps done best by classroom training. Surprisingly, this training is not imparted by most of the colleges. 

2. Team working skill: Last year, I attended a training course done by a famous trainer for a Tier-II MBA college for fresh MBA's. In this training, largest number of modules were meant to teach on how to function as a team. In a classroom environment, one can hardly learn this. 

A better way to teach this skill is to create 'live situations'. For instance, another college, where i worked for a short time, forces students to function as a team in all their projects and assignments. With repeated practice, this skill becomes ingrained in all the students of the college.


Important part of the team working skill is to establish boundaries between team members, holding them accountable, understand and incorporate the dependencies between members and managing inevitable conflicts between the team members.

3. Planning skill: This orientation helps a student plan an event on the paper and then learn to manage the inter-dependent steps to accomplish the final objective while executing those planned activities.

Many colleges, I have observed, make the mistake of teaching this skill in a classroom. Or make them learn a Planning software programs to make a plan. 

This skill can best be learnt by using events in a college. For instance, planning an event of '15 August' or 'Techfest' , or planning a 'talk by entrepreneurs', helps the student to understand the sequence of actions to be taken, importance of dependent actions, and then monitoring the actions so that the plan is executed according to the schedule. Like the communication skill, students learn this skill better when they are given a 'practice ground'. 

Summary

Employability skill is just a package. I therefore call this secondary cognitive skill. Without the primary cognitive skill of the basic discipline - be it engineering, arts, commerce or law - this skill set is not useful.  

To be employable, colleges know that graduates need communication skills, presentation skills and team working skills. But they are using inappropriate methods to teach this skill. Colleges call trainers to undertake 'personality development programs' for their passing graduates. Because of these programs, the graduates have learnt to wear ties, dress well, write good resumes and speak 'better English'. But this does not help the graduates in developing these 3 skills. 

Graduates, instead, need something different. They need a proper balance of  'classroom training' along with 'situational training'. They need to offer few classes, but use the college events/situations smartly to help the students practice the skills. Because the students do not have to speak fluent English, instead they must learn to communicate their 'technical' understanding of a subject in a 'workable' English. They do not have to present themselves impeccably, instead they must explain their technical understanding of a subject in a simple and effective manner. 

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Your beliefs determine the actions you take in achieving your career goals

Some like to believe that they should spend their effort on developing their abilities or talent, while some believe in producing results. Let us pause for a minute and understand how these two beliefs can lead us in taking divergent actions. 

Input view of career ( what should I be?)

Input view of career lists down the key abilities/traits that will help one develop his/her talent.It helps a professional to understand the key abilities that he should built. This inside-out view is very popular among positive thinkers and self-help writers.

Every self-proclaimed self-help writer keeps on coming with his own list of input abilities and traits: Become self-aware, Be confident, Set priorities right, Be motivated, Learn to communicate, Follow your passion, Become Emotionally intelligent and so on. Some call the list as Seven Habits of success, others call it 3 Laws of success, while few name it as The secret of success. Everyone claims that his list of abilities/traits is more accurate than anyone else's list. You will find huge followers of every author supported by clever and robust marketing. Trainers join the bandwagon teaching these abilities to aspiring youngsters.

Input view of career has two big shortcomings:

One, this list of abilities/traits required to bring out your unique talent keeps on changing based on whose book you are reading. This view naively assumes that if you develop these 'abilities/traits', you can achieve anything in your career. And there is no criteria on which one can ever prove that one list is more 'right' than other list.

Two, these authors assume that this list of abilities/traits can be developed by anyone, at any age. It has been discovered now that this is no more valid. Some abilities like confidence are contextual and therefore cannot be 'developed artificially'. Some, like communication, look easier to develop but require too much of preparation. Some, like self regulation, can be developed at young age like learning a bike. Some , like self awareness, require age to develop. Some, like emotional inteliigence, can be 'naturally' developed by parents but very difficult to develop on your own.

Because anyone can 'list the best combination of abilities/traits', there are millions of books that have printed a big list of 'abilities and traits' that will carry us to our destiny. All these suggestions are well-meaning, but do not help. When it produces desired output, it is more by chance. 

Output view of career ( what can i do) or Result oriented view


Result-oriented view is outside-in view of career. It helps a professional to produce the results/outputs to achieve the desired goals. To produce these outputs, one may require a set of abilities which can be 'mobilised' either by oneself or through others. This view is more practical, because it makes us function at our best with our limited abilities.

As you can guess, sports professionals and music professionals use this result-oriented view to produce outstanding work-outputs in their work of sports and music respectively. In these single-dimensional professions where outputs have clear boundaries, this view of result works like magic.

Result-view is more useful for professionals, because it is far more practical to use one's given abilities and achieve what one desires with it. Isn't it more practical to achieve with what we have instead of trying to becoming a 'perfect' person?  If you see any successful person, you will always be surprised. You will notice that, despite his imperfections, weaknesses and shortcomings, he has managed to achieve something extraordinary. We know that only ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. 

Your actions in career are determined by these beliefs 

If you believe in Input-view of career, you will always keep on growing your abilities and virtues. For every problem in your life, you will find a solution inside you. If you cannot get a job raise, something is wrong with you. If your relationship is not working, you need to change something in you. If you feel stressful, you cannot manage your stress. If you cannot achieve your goals, your intentions are not honest. In other words, you will try to become a perfect human being who has huge willpower, extraordinary persistence and other virtues.

If however, you believe in result-view of career success, you will focus on the results. You will mobilise the requisite abilities from outside or from within. Instead of striving to become 'perfect human beings, you will focus on developing just 'enough abilities' so that time is better used to produce the desired results. For you, the key to succeeding in career is mobilising your abilities innovatively to achieve the desired results. You will believe that extraordinary results can be achieved without building extraordinary abilities.

Enlight framework is result-oriented view of career. Enlight framework assumes that our abilities unfold if we engage with the work. Unfolding is partly in our influence, but mostly out of our control. And more importantly, it is the synergy of our abilities that matters, not individual abilities. Otherwise, even our virtue like self-awareness can become a liability.

Do you believe that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results ? What are your beliefs?  

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Enlight framework of career success

Every professional wants to succeed in a career, but they do not have a framework ( a structured and coherent approach based on scientific evidence) to take the right actions today to produce results tomorrow. 

In an earlier blog, we saw why a professional must have a framework to succeed in a career. Without a framework, succeeding in career is a hit-and-miss game for a professional. Everything is left to chance. Professionals only can curse their luck when they fail. 

Over a century and half, Doctors have managed to craft a 'generic health framework' that an individual can used to monitor his own unique health. This Enlight framework is perhaps the first step in creating such a 'career success framework' that every individual can use to monitor his career progress even though every career is unique. Until now succeeding in career was more of chance. But with a Career success framework, as it becomes more and more tested and proven, we will reach a time when the art of career building becomes a science, much like a health framework  

To achieve your desired end goals in your career, Enlight framework proposes four sub-frameworks, because each framework helps you negotiate different components of your career. Each of this framework also uses specific beliefs which have been made explicit.

You need Result framework to produce the Results to achieve your end goals. That is not enough. You also need Input framework to bring together the inputs required to produce the results. Your inputs are your abilities. Combining these abilities and mixing them together makes results possible.

You will use these two frameworks regularly in your life. You need Action framework for mixing inputs to produce outputs based on your end goals. Results are not guaranteed. Therefore, when you fail, you also need Diagnostic framework to help you diagnose the root cause and not get sidetracked with the symptoms of your problems.  

1. Result framework to succeed in career: Every professional has a career goal at a point of time, be it performing in a job, altering the work-path, or producing satisfaction in relationships. Each goal is different. That is why professionals think that their challenges are different and therefore they cannot learn from each other. Surprisingly, I have discovered that, like health, even though the end goals of career have huge variety, every individual surprisingly has to produce 2 kind of results: Produce results in work, Produce results in Relationships. This similarity helps every professional to learn from others.

On the contrary, Enlight presumes that Results are produced by 'Systems'. As individuals, we can only influence the 'results'. It is important for a professional to understand when he can produce results and when he has to wait to produce results.

2. Input framework to produce the outputs consistently: Inputs are thinking, physical and senses based abilities. Abilities have to be converted into skills to produce results. Most of the literature on career success, based on positive psychology, is based on the misplaced premise that if you can develop best abilities, you can achieve anything.

Enlight framework however posits that our skills grow only by engaging with the process of creating results. One cannot grow one's skills in the laboratory.

Most of the professionals are ability-blind like Nishikant. They are not even aware that abilities are highly context-dependent.This ability-ignorance makes them commit big mistakes. Enlight framework proposes three different cognitive skills to produce work-related results.

Sometimes, in order to produce desired result, one has to change one's skills. But changing one's skills or traits ( like self control or patience) is not easy. You will find professionals consuming huge effort to acquire new traits which go down the drain. Or take long time to develop a simple trait like communication ability without any success.

Out of all the inputs, Mind is a unique input that man possesses. But our inability to utilise the Mind properly often results in our failure to produce the desired Results. If we understand the limitations of our mind, we can use it as Strength. Or else it can become a huge liability. Mind is used differently in producing work-results and people-results. We use Machine-mind ( more analytical oriented) to produce work-results, and Farm-Mind ( more system oriented) to produce Results in Relationships.

3.Action framework to produce the desired results: To produce the desired results in work, you must bring in the requisite inputs to produce the desired outputs. This framework is used by every professional, while the above two frameworks are used by coaches.

Enlight framework proposes Map and Compass to produce the results in Work-life, while uses Farm and Compass to produce results in Relationships. Whether you are a school student, graduate student, or a working professional you are using your maps to produce the desired results.

4. Diagnostic framework to correct, when necessary: When we cannot achieve results, we need to correct ourselves. In all such situations, it is important to untangle the threads and find the root cause, because in real life, everything is mixed.

An inaccurate diagnostic framework can lead a professional on the wrong path, such as that of Adi. Or like Rohit Sharma ( the cricketer), they focus on the wrong output and take completely wrong actions to correct the output. This diagnostic framework uses Systems thinking as a tool to diagnose.

More importantly, diagnostic framework will help a professional to know when to seek help from experts, much like we know when to seek help from doctors when we are unhealthy. In a real life, a professional can take help from coaches, mentors and friends. Professionals will therefore understand 'whom to ask for help', 'what help to ask for' and 'when to ask for help'.  Many times, prevention is better than cure. If the help is therefore asked 'latter', then the 'help' becomes more costly to take.

Summary

By using Enlight framework, the professionals can now hope to achieve what they desire in their career with more certainty and confidence. Not only can they take preventive actions to prevent damage to their career progress, but they can also take appropriate corrective actions to contain the consequences, if they have sufficient time at their disposal. 

Now, the professionals can use their limited resources in a productive manner. Now, they can adapt the strategies of others, instead of copying them mindlessly. 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

How to use Enlight framework to diagnose in career?

I met Niraj last week.

Niraj is a Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer from Nasik, a town 200 kms from Mumbai in India. Loves Robotics. So he went to Mumbai to work in a Robotics company for 2 years. Then went to Germany to do Masters in Robotics. He plans to finish his Masters by next year in 2014. When i asked him about his plans after finishing Masters , he said ' I plan to return to Nashik. I will either work on developing robots for the factories in Nashik. Or work with colleges to develop a robot like they do in Germany'. Is Niraj taking the right step? 

How can you help Niraj by using Enlight diagnostic framework?

How is learning created by a student


Students use cognitive inputs of different subject (facts and procedures) to solve a specific problem. Projects like robot-making, radio making, and bridge-building help students to produce 'visible outputs' and test the efficacy of their inputs. In other words, the student needs a 'system' to engagePlease read this description of system

System produces an output which gives feedback to the students to find if the knowledge they are creating is indeed correct. Exam 'output' on the other hand gives a poor feedback because it only tests the student's ability to reproduce what is taught, not what is learnt. When the 'project output' resembles a problem in real life, this creates learning for a student

Understand Niraj's confidence using the lens of Enlight Result framework


Instead of project, Niraj has worked in a company to do real work in robots and solve their real problems. While during Masters in Germany, Niraj was working on real project that was funded by a company, supervised by his Professors.The project had a budget and time target, the real world constraints. All this real work done by Niraj has produced deep learning in him and has produced 'deep cognitive skills'. This has also produced confidence in Niraj. 

Remember that confidence is an emergent characteristics resulting after working in the result system. Confidence is not inherent in a person, it is created when he interacts with 'other' elements in a system to produce visible results. Now Niraj plans to use this confidence in developing robots for factories in Nashik ?

What should Niraj do? Should Niraj work in another product-development company which designs robots or Should Niraj set up his own company?

Alternative 1: Should Niraj join another product-development company 

Companies not only develop products, but also manufacture and sell products. Development of products is quite prevalent in software industry in India, but rare in manufacturing and other industries. Indian manufacturing companies, instead of investing money and resources in developing new products, prefer to invest in manufacturing and selling products. Indian manufacturing companies also do not prefer to work with Colleges and universities on new product development like they do in Western countries in US and Europe.

Therefore when Niraj explored the possibility of working in a company for designing robots, he could not find one.

When I told Niraj about the lack of robust product development system in India, he said " I am good enough to get projects myself from the factories around Nashik. I know their problems very well".Is Niraj mis-applying his confidence in setting up his own company to develop robots for Indian companies ? Let us therefore analyse further.

Alternative 2: Should Niraj set up his own company to create the result 

Many of us downplay the role of system in creating an output, and believe that we can 'create' results by using our willpower, knowledge and passion. But it is far more prudent to 'use' the existing system to generate the requisite output in a company by joining the existing team. That is why, it is prudent for students to align with the system by joining an existing well-set company after graduation.

Over a period of years, the well-set company has found suppliers who can supply the necessary services, developed skilled employees to support them, found customers who can pay for their services and earn enough profits so that many competitors have joined the 'system' to make it even more robust. Because the students join a well-set company, they not only learn fast because they face real problems but they also get paid well for their untested knowledge base.

Niraj can form a new company by finding investors who can back him to set a company to set up a product development facility in Nashik, India. However, as the product development system is not matured in Nashik, he has to find trained employees who are willing to work in Nasik, locate the right suppliers and then convince the customers to get a good price. In other words, he has to initiate all the efforts himself.

Will Niraj succeed? Technically anything is possible, but even a most confident person is likely to fail in this scenario.(By the way, it took more than 10 years to set up a new system of cinema making in India)

What are his chances of succeeding in setting up a new product-development system ? 

Let us imagine what Niraj will achieve if he decides to set up his own company in Nashik to develop robots for Nashik Factories. Let us also include luck elements, because in real life they also play significant role.

For instance, Niraj may find a well wisher in a Nashik factory who can give him the 'order' of developing a robot ( a lucky break!) . Even if he gets the right price for his order ( the second lucky break!) , he may not be able to deliver the robot in the requisite cost, because he will find it extremely difficult to mobilise the resources to deliver the order, because people, material and suppliers are not in place. ( Luck does not keep on repeating!) 

Unable to earn reasonable money from robotics, Niraj may start teaching in college. That will give him money, but will also divert his attention and time. This will further reduce his chances of succeeding. So, after five years, he may be losing on both the fronts: he neither has the requisite experience of building challenging robots, nor does he have enough money. What will that lead to?

Unable to understand the 'power' of invisible output system, Niraj will start blaming the customers for not giving him orders at the right price. Or he may start cursing his employees who leave for higher salary because they get well trained with him. Or he may blame the colleges who are not willing to invest in research in India because it is not cost-beneficial for them. This is called 'victim' mentality in the language of psychology.

What should Niraj do? What will you recommend Niraj?