21 Reflections from 2021

21 Reflection from 2021

Socrates chided us, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. On the other hand, Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) warns, “I suspect that they put Socrates to death because there is something terribly unattractive, alienating, and nonhuman in thinking with too much clarity!” Let us still take chances with 21 ruminations (aphorisms, self-evident truths) from my own humble 2021 experiences - in business and life. Some that I had read and left an impression, and some from yours truly.

Business Management

1. ‘Big impact on the big things’: Whatever the CEO focusses on generally does well, but, in a zero-sum game of org resources and priority, the non-focus areas tend to go downhill. The race is then whether the enterprise nets off to growth or decline.
2. Subconscious Biases: Corporate decisions, like financial markets, begin not with the knowledge of truth, but with a bias. And then, just like financial markets, we actively create this reality. (Anon)
3. The dilemma of ‘Less is more’: Tail – small products, small markets - form very quickly, as each unit manager desperately tries to find new avenues of growth. Each one promises a bright future but the present sucks!
4. God (and devil) are in the detail: Logical, persuasively delivered arguments may still not be the real truth. Separating real malaise from the symptom, amidst the clamour of each department justifying its turf, requires significant peeling.
5. An illusion of control: Much of what I thought was random was actually in my control, and worse, the opposite. (Anon)
6. Where to play choices: More important than how well you perform is where you stand. [The cricket and badminton stars work equally hard and yet one earns (fame, money) 10x of the other - Jaidev Rajpal, a Mckinsey friend].
7. Strategy vs. Execution: Strategically we think about wondrous growth ideas, but operationally it can all fall apart. Back-end operations reliability supercritical [Nooyi's successor did a two year stint in Purchasing to learn the massive back-end of Pepsico]

Organization Management

1. In a matrix, Organization structure design solves many problems. Conversely, business relationships collapse because of misaligned expectations, esp inter department.
2. Discussion is about Ideas & Thoughts while Argument is about Emotions and Ego. First reaction on feedback is usually latter/defensive (“what worked there will not work in our unique context”, or “we are already doing it”). Cooperating but not collaborating.
3. Hiring for complementary skills is double-edged. You may want at least P&L owners to have few common managerial skills – detail orientation, numbers accountability. Other roles – strategy or functional excellence – may benefit from a different perspective.
4. We agonize too much about ‘behavioural traits’ of our leaders, though the truth is that there is limited correlation between that and hard business results.
5. In junior roles, hire for attitude and potential (less baggage, more learning agility). For senior P&L owner roles, esp in crisis situations, either hire with relevant experience or be prepared to wait out for 9-12 months before visible impact.
6. 9.9 leadership. People and results. Delivering only one is easy. Inspiring people while holding them accountable for results requires maturity. Balancing empathy for their circumstances with some stubbornness for results.
7. Finding time for “Important but not Urgent”, so logical and yet so elusive. We are trained to work on visible things. Quadrant II activities – meeting partners, looking at new big opps, competitor and industry insights – require proactive planning.

Self Management

1. The bigger the gap between who we really are, and what we pretend to be, the more exhausting life will become. (quoted by David Nour in a Cipla leadership session)
2. Speak only when you can improve the silence. (Spanish proverb)
3. There is a part of me that wants to write, a part that wants to theorize, a part that wants to teach… To force myself into a single role, to decide to be just one thing in life, would kill off large parts of me. (Hugh Prather, Thoughts to Myself)
4. ‘Wealth’ is meaningless and has no robust absolute measure; use instead the subtractive measure ‘unwealth’, that is, the difference, at any point in time, between what you have and what you would like to have. (Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes)
5. The number of things just outside the perimeter of my financial reach remains constant no matter how much my financial condition improves. (Hugh Prather, Thoughts to Myself)
6. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).
7. Buddha replied when asked whether he was God, “No, I am Awake” (Jon Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living)

Those were mine. Fret not if you disagree with some, we all have to choose our own path.

What are your learnings/reflections from 2021? Please leave your thoughts in comments.

[Original idea of this thread from my daughter Diza Saxena, who started this on Instagram. All views personal]