Lessons from Mahabharata -- Ep.4

Modern Uttara Kumaras have a tool called Power Point Presentation!

When the Kauravas heavily suspected that the pandavas were serving the agnathavasa in the Virata kingdom without being noticed, Duryodhana and the Kuru host invaded the kingdom of Virata. With Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, Karna, Ashvatthama, and Duhshasana, Duryodhana succeeded in provoking the people in Virata by stealing cows in their kingdom. The cow herdsmen went to King Virata to complain of the situation. Since king Virata was out and was unavailable, they approached Uttara Kumara, the son of the King for help as last resort. They explained him everything and asked for help. Hearing the appeals, Uttara Kumara wasted no time in ostentatiously boasting his skills!

"What an unlucky day for me and what a lucky day for Kauravas. If only I could find someone who could be my charioteer, I would set out this very moment to destroy the forces of kaurava army. If I find someone capable of driving my horses, and I will without delay enter the battlefield and penetrate deep into the ranks of the Kaurava army. If only I could get the right Charioteer, the world would have understood that there is a greater archer than Arjuna today!"

Hearing these boastful words, Arjuna (Brihannala) whispered in private to his dear wife Draupadi, to inform Uttara that he (She) has formerly been Arjuna's charioteer, and has experience in many battles. Meanwhile, the prince still continued glorifying himself.....

Informed by Sairindhri, Uttara requested Brihannala to serve as the charioteer of Uttara Kumara. Brihannala agreed and came to the young prince. Uttara Kumara said, to Brihannala, to consider, driving his chariot, and help him conquer the Kuru host. Brihannala agreed and together they then mounted the chariot prepared to leave.

Arjuna quickly drove up to the Kuru army. It looked like a vast ocean of people and was causing an illusion of infinite people led by Bhishma, Drona, Karna, and Duryodhana. Looking at the sight, the hairs of Uttara's body stood on end out of fear. He then revealed to Partha out of anxiety that he is really not capable of fighting with such a big army lead by such great warriors. He then pleaded Arjuna to cease from advancing any further. With, his knees shaking, he was ready to let the men and women laugh at him, ready to let Kurus steal all the wealth in his kingdom, let the cows perish, and let the city be a desert. Saying this much, the prince panicked, jumped from his chariot and ran away, sacrificing honor and pride.....

It is a well known part that post this Arjuna revealed himself to kauravas and fought with them so fiercely that he singlehandedly won the war on behalf of Virata Raja.

Let's pause here for a moment.... The crux of this incident is to say that don't be a windbag like Uttara Kumara and in contrast story to get as skillful as Arjuna. Also, this incident inspired Uttara Kumara to be more courageous and fight the future wars without fear. But lets say Arjuna was not around to prove a point and Uttara Kumara had to come back without fighting.... What do you think would have been next course of action? What would he have told the world.... Quite possible that he would have gone on to rant about the unfavorable conditions which failed him and justify that otherwise he was all set to win the war?

Modern corporate world has produced a lot of Uttara Kumaras who also are equipped with a special tool called PPT!

When I was working for a service based organization in one of my client meetings, I had carried a wonderful slide deck to tell him how we are all set and equipped to handle the ongoing mess in competence failure and attrition. He immediately called out something that shook me a bit before I could recompose and finish the presentation. He siad without hesitation, "I know you guys are wonderful PPT engineers, I need results on the ground!"

Though I did not like the comment a bit at that exact moment, I later had to accept a great deal of truth in that statement unfortunately. In the new VUCA world which is driven by ever changing trends in technologies often calls for a huge amount of people with new skill sets in a short time. A whole lot of companies in the business of a service model face the upskilling challenge coupled with the a rat race with their competitors.

To deal with the situation and win the race, these companies jump to pick up some technical Jargons, a bit of internet search and (these days say chat GPT) and make stunning slide deck after amassing quickly accessible contents. Then they flaunt in front of a executive crowd to desperately showcase that they have the skin in the game.

These presentations which often is reduced to nothing more than a sales pitch contains traces of exaggeration in every corner of the slides. Exaggeration of the skills and competence that the companies actually possess, exaggeration of kind of projects that the companies already have dealt with, exaggeration of their reediness to deal with latest cutting edge technologies and most importantly an exaggeration or almost a lie about the kind of subject matter expertise the company has and nurtured... This is a clear modern day replica of what we call as Uttara Kumaras Paurusha!

And the result? Whenever you feel like asking why doesn't India have a Google or Microsoft or a Facebook or an Amazon, think of this scenario and connect the dots. When Uttara Kumara was actually confronted with real battlefield, he could not sustain. Likewise when companies face real engineering challenges, they succumb. Getting and grooming experts and expertise is not a short term affair. A company needs to have a long term vision and strategy and work towards keeping, growing and nurturing talent to create expertise. This is precisely what Arjuna symbolize.

The time that is really necessary to groom talent is never given. In the narrowed vision and ambition to win a small rat race, a larger eco system of underdeveloped, half backed talent pool is created which over the time turns out only to be numbers to boast about but otherwise a huge liability to the organizations.

Companies need to move away from ppt engineering and stop talking about technology using Jargons at 60,000 feet high. Companies should create eco-system that keeps and nurtures slow burning and building expertise to bring in real innovation and technical skill advantage. It should promote real learning through hands on experiments and continuous improvement. It should envision to create a place where people call themselves experts only when they are real experts and develop the capability to stand for their skin in the game.

Am not all against the ppts. It's a powerful tool to wonderfully express your thoughts. My belief is to keep it simple and tidy to simplify what we know and not exaggerate and complicate the information. Learn in depth, simplify it to present for benefit of others. That is the sign of an expert!

Companies should leave aside the glorified ppts and encourage real upskilling through building and learning. Companies should really build the expertise the hard way before claiming expertise. In short, companies must shed their Uttara Kumara avatars and look at grooming more Arjunas in the eco system.