Category Archives: philosophy

philosophies and guides that shape my thoughts

This 3 day Nepal bandh (total shutdown of country). This is blackmail.

entrepreneurship, environment, governance, ideas, inspiration, leadership, philosophy, thought provoking, , ,
Are you looking forward to this 3-day bandh, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday? (Total shutdown of Nepal)
What say to the sorry fact that a few big egos with no-one’s interests at heart but their own, will oppress you for three long days with the threat of some cheap several-hundred-rupee-per-day-hired-goons. Who benefits from this? Can bullying create lasting change? After 15+ years of bandhs, does it have the power of ‘shock and awe’ any more? This stinks. This is terrorism on the street corner and the masses lie down and swallow it as a part of life in :New Nepal.  But wait a minute…. Are you thinking….
  • Its not my job to stop it ?
  • I am helpless to face up to it myself, what can I do?
    or
  • So what, its just a few days, I can wait it out?
  • I am lazy, I am a coward, I am average….?
Is there really *nothing* we, you, I, me, he, she, they can do? Aren’t you feeling helpless, pathetic, angry? What? You don’t care?
Visualize this,
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.” Someone wise person said that. You all know its true.
Here’s a suggestion. Instead of looking for the nuclear bomb that will wipe bandhs from the face of history tomorrow, let’s take it slowly, be creative, be surprising, reject the shouting, chest beating old-school ways, and have a lot of sneaky fun. Sounds like an ideal romance, no? Let’s start by giving a hint of the steam in this youthful pressure cooker. Start by making small cracks in the wall of nonsense. Lets find new ways to deal with this mob.
Here are some ideas floated by fellow activists in the Facebook Group “Die Nepal Bandh Die”. Join it if you believe in the cause and recommend others.
START THINKING!

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“What about ‘Flash Mob'”?, asked a few people – showing the strength of the silent majority without violence. Know what it is? An sms alert brings a huge mass of people together at short notice at a specific location with secret instructions. Then disperse immediately after the action is over.
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“Exposing faces behind the mob”, suggested another. Get snapping pictures of bandh enforcers now, and start posting pictures on this and other forums. This is one small way of empowering ourselves and see the faces behind this destructive forms of protests.
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Phone jamming – “if you get 1000 people to call every party head office and express their one sentence opinion on bandh, and then hang up. would be fun no?”
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Email the editors – Another suggested, “Mass send emails to the editors of the mass media in Nepal. ‘Please publish on letters page: Dear Sir/Madam, I am 23 from Lalitpur and I want to express my view on the bandh culture which is a hand at the throat of this nation…”.
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“A bandh day football tournament on tundikel, mass random cricket competition in the streets, a cycle rally for the hard-core orwhat the hell – let’s just get people, lots of people together. Otherwise its pathetic, isn’t it?”, emailed yet another.
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Asks a foreigner,”Where is the dissent in this country!?”

The business cost of avoiding confrontation

change, environment, philosophy, thought provoking, , ,

The business cost of avoiding confrontation in Nepal

A friend from the US living part-time and doing business in Nepal expressed frustration over our (Nepali) strong cultural desire to avoid confrontation in a professional relationship. Specifically, the steep business cost of this in-action. We discussed for some reasons behind this.

The graciousness of Nepalis is a double-edged sword. The Nepali hospitality is world-renowned but this can be problematic in international business culture. This is rooted in a Nepali tradition of treating visitors as ‘gods.’ People here go out of their way to make sure that a visitor’s experience is a good one. Nepali people don’t like to disappoint. It’s personal pride. But in business, if you don’t let me know that you are going to ‘disappoint’ me – i.e not delivering on time, not delivering on the quality i seek – then I will make promises that I can’t keep, losing face and disappointing others. This creates a domino effect on all my professional relationships. In business, brutal honesty of your short comings saves a lot of pain later on. In a lot of cultures, this is expected of you in business.

But a Nepali may not understand the true business cost of disappointing others. In other words, things not getting done correctly (with quality) or on time is not a big deal among Nepalis but is a BIG deal in the U.S. So why are we so afraid to avoid confrontation, and to avoid conflict?

Is it because of our culture that worships authority, hierarchy, and guests. This culture that taboos ‘questioning authority or displeasing guests’ leading to complications when trying to keep your professional commitments. While we  stress on the culture of “guests as god” relations, we unknowingly end up belittling our professional commitments. Do we have a conflict between our cultural and professional commitments. Many times I have come across this situation. We deny outright that there is a problem and we lie casually with reassurances to avoid the inevitable confrontation. This is our chaotic contradictory way to avoid confrontations.

To a foreigner wanting a professional relationship in Nepal, this is a contradiction.  On the one hand working with a Nepali earns you genuine care and respect, thus earning great personal relationship. On the other hand, their apparent dishonesty with you in terms of keeping up their professional commitments costs you your professional (and later personal) relationship with others,

Is it, that to preserve this status qua of our fabled “respect your authority and guests” philosophy, we may become a generation of conflict averse professionals who cannot keep up with our professional commitments. Do we really understand the business cost of disappointing others? In this flat world, we need to figure out a way to solve this sooner than later.

on a side-note : why “do Nepalis turn our heads sideways (as if we disagree) when agreeing completely with them! (it makes any foreigner go crazy).

would love to hear your opinions on whynepal.com

5 Whys

philosophy, thought provoking, ,


My car will not start. (the problem)

  1. Why? – The battery is dead. (first why)
  2. Why? – The alternator is not functioning. (second why)
  3. Why? – The alternator belt has broken. (third why)
  4. Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and has never been replaced. (fourth why)
  5. Why? – I have not been maintaining my car according to the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, a root cause)

Solution is I will start maintaining my car according to the recommended service schedule. (solution)

Another innovative way to figure out the roots of problems. The 5 Whys is a question-asking method used to explore the cause/effect relationships underlying a particular problem. Ultimately, the goal of applying the 5 Whys method is to determine a root cause of a defect or problem. Toyota Company used this during the evolution of their manufacturing methodologies. Link to the full Wikipedia article here.
Maybe use this in analyzing and finding the root of problems, even in our daily lives, much like how paraphrasing works to keep everyone understand each other.
What do you think? Where can you use this? Throw in your comments at whynepal.com

wanted to share an article ” how to build startups that matter”

entrepreneurship, ideas, philosophy, ,

Eric Ries talks about how to build companies that matter.

(1) Work on something that matters to you more than money,

(2) Create more value than you capture, and

(3) Take the long view.

Its a good context in the current world wide recession in the world partly caused by “too much greed” and applies to Nepal which has just come out of a civil war ( and is in economic mess.)

Here is the full link. enjoy!

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/lean-startup.html

entrepreneur is a zen master in nepal ?

change, leadership, office improvement, philosophy

if you are an entrepreneur in Nepal right now, then you are also a zen master too. Yes a monk ! because amidst great upheavals you have to keep your mind in focus, calm and empty of distracting thoughts. The trials and tabulations here is hostile to even seasoned entrepreneurs.

The only entrepreneurs who will come out of the present situation in nepal un-scarred are ones with monk like traits, who can stay eternally positive, be at dead present, yet drive passionately on and on, enough to ensure there is no lax in the speed of his/her entrepreneurial effort.
Keep going bunny.. keep going…

you have what it takes to be “a Zen master entrepreneur” ?