Daily Archives: June 5, 2009

Doing Good is not a Strategy

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I am writing this after talking to a good friend of mine from California. That has inspired this post.

He is an Indian residing in the US. Stayed there for 10 years now. A Masters degree holder, successful, married the love of his life, makes enough money to lead a decent life and works in the environmental/water field. What else can you ask for a good life?

But he is frustrated and he wants to do something good, especially for India. Can he travel back to India and do something there which makes it a good deal for him and for India?

I have faced that conundrum before and I do not have a solution. What I do have is some stories and experience.

Our work in Deeshaa revolved around doing good. That did not go well.

One thing I have learned from my experience and better still, the experience of others is that doing good is not a strategy. Doing good can be a principle. For example, Google says ‘Do no Evil’ and that is its principle of running business. It’s strategy is making money from ads. Then Google can give some money to its charitable arm and invest in some good stuff.

However, do no evil is not a strategy. In the same sense, we cannot go out with a goal of doing good as a strategy.

Because that will not help you to determine a market, a consumer, a business model and how you can going to sustain yourself or a company.

And what is true for a company is true for an individual too.

Does this contradict with the whole purpose of this blog? Yes and No. If sustainability is the only goal then it is wrong however, if sustainability can drive business strategy then yes.

Racism and Australia

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I tend to stay away from writing about personal and unrelated topics to the main goal of this blog.

In the case of the issue of the Indian students in Australia I want to make an exception.

As an Indian in Australia living for the past 4 years I think it is important to comment on this.

Racism comes in many different scenarios. From the point of view of the victim it is one dimensional but from say a local resident it is multi-dimensional.

Some people are racist. In Australia, in India and other parts of the world. So that is the bunch which is the issue.

Some people are ill-informed. An example of this is the english language. People are surprised when they hear me talk in english. C’mon, I have always studied in English all the way from Kindergarten to the MBA. And there are millions of Indians in India like that. Times of India is the largest english newspaper in the world. India has the largest english speaking populace in the world etc.

And most of the Australians are very nice.

Is there some kind of racism in Australia? Yes.

Is Australia racist? No.

I have faced racist situations many times however, you tend to ignore them. Not all Australians are racist and it is not worth discussing everytime.

But if you are being assaulted because of being Indian, then there is an issue.

The recent attacks in Australia are deplorable. Some are opportunistic rightly and there have been racist attacks. How many? Well, the police has not been much helpful by not accepting the scenario.

It is hilarious that the Victorian police did not accept the issue but were ready to send a police officer to India to convice interested students how safe a place Victoria is. If you convince the local students then they will provide the best feedback back to India. It goes to show the tendency to not see the issue at hand.

The other issue is the coverage in the Indian media. I have received many calls from family and friends asking for my well-being. It was quite surprising to me.

I consider Adelaide and Australia in general to be a safe country. I never had any kind of fear in this country. Not even while walking in Hindley St in the middle of the night on a weekend (the locals in Adelaide would understand that!).

I do not agree with the Big B’s stance of the doctorate nor the Bollywood union ban on shooting in Australia. The biggest problem seems to be the media in India.

On the Australian side, there needs to be an acknowledgement that there are some issues and we need to work through them.

Adelaide has security personnel on trains after 6:30 PM or so. Why can’t that be done in Melbourne? There are simple solutions.

The most important issue is regaining trust of the local Indian students and residents and also to look at urban crime as a whole.

On the Indian side, please do not worry that much. We live in a safe country!