Frauds

Frauds are bad. Everybody knows that, right? It is a breach of security, you are shaken to the bone and you suddenly realize that your processes were not sound at all. Someone took you for a ride. Bad.

But once the mess is cleaned up, the losses written off or the fraudster captured, the effect lingers on for a much longer time.

One of my earlier bosses had experienced this first hand. A fraud happened in the department that he was heading in a finance institution. He was not directly involved but had to take the heat of the entire organization. While not much of the money was recovered, he did a good job of redefining the processes and giving the comfort to the organization that now the things are in a much better shape.

So far so good. He went on to do a good job within the organization; was given larger responsibilities and given a plum job in a new area - the one where I worked. The poor chap still carries monkeys on his back. Will not trust anybody. Will not trust any document. Will not trust anything. Goes through everything with a microscope and talks in a language bordering on accusing people. All the time.

Needless to say, morale dropped. People stopped contributing. Several left. But he probably is not even aware of the effect that this is creating on the team members.

And so, that is why I say, frauds are bad. If they colour your lenses permanently, the whole world will look like a fraud to you.

Any medicines for my ex boss?

Coffee

Starbucks coffee is not yet available in India…..not yet. So, when I was in Singapore last month, I jumped at the opportunity to have this world famous coffee.

So much has written about Starbucks - their lovely coffee, the fantastic service and a customer oriented business model that is the benchmark of the industry. So, when I lined up at the counter to pay four times more than what I generally pay for a cup of coffee back in India, I was stepping into a haloed territory.

Sadly, the experience was very poor. The coffee was cold, and the waitress spilled it all over the mug while pouring it. So much for the core product and benchmark service. I sat on a table trying to stretch the experience, taking small sips of the already cold coffee but could not go beyond five minutes. And one strange thought kept coming back again and again during those five minutes – what was all this noise about? Value for money? No. Good coffee? Not at all. Cool experience? Maybe. But will I make this my regular haunt when Starbucks lands in India? Unlikely.

And then today morning I read in the business papers that the Starbucks chief was fired earlier this month. Was there any connection between these two incidents? Maybe. Maybe not. But it certainly gave me a “so there” feeling and a sense of vindication.

And lastly, I don’t know why Robin Sharma keeps singing praises about Starbucks all the time. Maybe I need to travel across the world more and keep sampling the coffee or need a pinch of salt for Robinji…..guess the latter is going to be much easier…. :-)

TEST

The first blog. Aptly named Test. This is what we have been taught to do. Test before launch. Pilot before before full fledged roll out. Makes sense.