Day 1: The entrepreneurial dilemma

China's ewaste solutions

Time magazine's photoessay shows the Chinese industry taking the toll on itself, it's country, it's environment in liu of doing what most dump.

Division in Diversity

I'm involved with a startup, named Pictualize and I'm blessed to work with great people as team members. One of the consequences when you start working on your own idea, is the fact that you see business everywhere. Business, more in terms of the management lessons than ideas to mint money ;)
It's not been much of a time being associated with my company, so every lesson I get, I try and accumulate it in my nerves. I've been reading this book called " India Unbound" by Gurcharan Das, and I'm onto deriving some managerial lessons from it. It's hugely surprising how academicians divide the course of a nation piecemeal and give explanations for the behavior of it's people.
It is this behavior which is shocking, disturbing and enlightning.
A part of the book says " Poor teamwork is pervasive in India. Take any institution, scratch it's surface, and one finds factionalism. Whether it's a company, a university, a hospital, a village panchayat, or a municipal board, it is beset with dissension, and it affects national competitiveness."
And there is an explanation given as well, for which I'll recommend you to read the book, but the important part is the presence of a void which is still present. If I talk of a corporate environment, I don't know why, not many Indian corporates look beyond the achievement of their easy and often narrow goals. There aren't many partnerships in existence which go beyond the scale of local businesses. More so, because, scaling up often involves a huge amount of trust between the founding members. Businesses in India are still vey family oriented, is it because of the fact that the profits should remain all in the family ? Family businesses are also not immune to the usual feudal wars for power. Tatas, Birlas, Ambani's all have had or are having their share of sibling rivalry when they should have concentrated more on competing globally. Even the theory of game theory and competitive behavior lays emphasis on being honest for a long term sustenance and productivity.You fight today, lose money, power, image and then fight again to reclaim the lost glory. I wonder have we ever tried to alter the feudal tendency of medieval India.
I have a company today, and are a closely knit group today. I shudder to the thought of facing such a fiasco ever. I will do everything to keep everything working as smoothly as possible, and when it concerns inflated egos, better do something about it soon.

Will read more on competitive behavior and try to establish why it hurts to cheat. Keep you posted as well.
Peace.