Looking Back and planning ahead on this Diwali festival

With the festival of lights is here I wish you happy days ahead, and will dwell upon looking back as I completed 40 years of my professional life about 2 month ago. It’s a long period for anybody, and I decided to take stock of it and share my views as well as some social activities I plan to carry out in next few years.

I passed out from college, finally, in June 1968, and after getting through the interview process with a few companies and started working as a trainee from 16^th August, 1968. My days of freedom - of getting up late, bunking lectures and going for a movie as I wished - were over one day after the 22^nd Indian Independence day - but I was happy. I had been longing to enter the professional world, which is what I did. On 16^th August, 1969 I was confirmed as an employee.

I will dwell on three things: first, what I learnt, second, what I achieved, and third, what I can contribute in the next 10 years, which would probably be the last phase of my active professional life. I will divide these forty years into 3 phases of which the first phase would be of ten years, the next phase of 20 years and the last of 10 years. Since this covers 3 parts in my life I am also spacing this newsletter in 3 parts. In this newsletter I will cover what I learnt.

The first phase was the learning phase. I joined as a trainee engineer, learnt what was not taught at all in college, learnt different aspects of working, that is, how people react, hate work, what is meant by excellence in a job and office politics, good bosses, bad bosses, colleagues who will protect you and those who will dump you and so on. I am sure everyone goes through such phases. Since I had decided to start my business in early college days, I plunged into it with 6 years of experience, and since I do not come from a family background having a business, everything had to be learnt from scratch.

By the end of the first 10 years I was firmly established in the business of office electronic equipment. I had not graduated in this field, but I could establish myself because I had learnt what commitment meant. I had followed what was described by somebody as commitment:

"Commitment" is not a game for bystanders or

other witnesses of events, who can only report on what's happening....

Rather it's for those who can only define events and make things happen!

I have never forgotten this, and at times suffered financially, but in the long run, it has paid off. In my opinion, the present debacle in the world financial market is because of a lack of such commitment in the entire supply chain.

I sign off now with my best wishes for a Happy Diwali to you, your family and your organization. The business scenario is now more encouraging than last year, and let’s hope this festival of lights brings better business in the New Year as per Indian tradition.

With best wishes

Satish