Domain knowledge is very important!!! Else your supplier will trick you.

There was this family with one kid. One day the mother was out and dad was in charge of the kid, who just turned three.

Someone had given the kid a little 'tea set' as a birthday gift and it was one of his favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when kid brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea from father, kid’s Mom came home.
Dad made her wait in the living room to watch the kid bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'

Mom waited, and sure enough, the kid comes down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him, 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??'

....Mothers know!!


MORAL OF THE STORY:

Domain knowledge is very important!!! Else your supplier will trick you.

My First Localization, which was not that accurate instead it saved India’s Prestige

Around 15 years ago I met Mr. Young he was an Agricultural Engineer from Poland. He was in India on an official visit for some research. In our colony, sometimes in evening we (I and my friends) had the privilege to sit with Mr. Young. He was able to communicate in Polish and English as well. We did not know Polish at all and our English was just okay. One fine day my friend Navin was also there with us, we were just chatting in a corner of the ground. As few days back Navin's grandpa passed away so his head was shaved although a bunch of hair was there. Suddenly, Mr. Young asked Navin – where your hairs gone and what is this the bunch of hairs. Navin could answer well for the first query but as he did not know what a shikha is called in English. Neither he read about it in ‘Parts of Body’ nor his teacher told him about it, so he got confused. Each one of us tried our level best to convey to Mr. young that its’ a Shikha but he was not understanding it at all. It was very difficult situation for us – like India’s Prestige was on stake. Finally, I could come up with an explanation – I said "According to Hindu Mythology this is antenna of mind." Ohhh… and Mr. Young understood well. And, we could save India’s prestige…. Hahahahaha…..

मेरा पहला लोक्‍लाइजेशन, जो काफी सटीक तो नहीं था फिर भी उसने भारत की इज्‍जत बचाई

तकरीबन 15 साल पहले मैं यंग से मिला वो पोलैंड का रहनेवाला एक कृषि इंजीनियर था। रिसर्च के सिलसिले में वह भारत में एक ऑफिसियल विजिट पर था‍। हमारी कॉलोनी में,
कभी-कभी शाम के समय हमें (मुझे और मेरे दोस्‍तों) को यंग के साथ बैठने को सौभाग्‍य प्राप्‍त था। वह पॉलिश के साथ-साथ अंग्रेजी में भी बात कर सकता था। हम पॉलिश तो एकदम नहीं जानते थे हाँ हमारी अंग्रेजी थोड़ी ठीकठाक थी। एकदिन मेरा दोस्‍त नवीन भी हमारे साथ था, हम बस खेल के मैदान के एक कोने में बैठे बातचीत कर रहे थे। कुछ दिनों पहले नवीन के दादाजी को देहांत हो गया था जिसकी वजह से उसने सिर मुंडवाया हुआ था यद्यपि बालों का एक गुच्‍छा (शिखा) अभी भी उसके सर पर मौजूद था। तभी अचानक, यंग ने नवीन से पूछा – तुम्‍हारे बाल कहां गये ओर ये बालों का गुच्‍छा क्‍या है?  नवीन पहले सवाल का जवाब तो सही-सही दे पाया पर शिखा को अंग्रेजी में क्‍या कहते हैं ये उसे पता नहीं था। उसने इसके बारे में ना तो “शरीर के अंग” में पढ़ा था ना ही उसकी टीचर ने उसको बताया था जिसकी वजह से वह उलझ गया। हमसब ने अपनी तरफ से यंग को समझाने की पूरी कोशिश की लेकिन वह कुछ भी समझ नहीं पा रहा था। यह हमारे लिए काफी कठिन स्थिति थी – जैसे कि भारत की इज्‍जत दांव पर हो। अंतत: मैंने एक स्‍पष्टिकरण दिया – मैंने कहा “पौराणिक भारतीय विश्‍वास के अनुसार यह बालों का गुच्‍छा मस्तिष्‍क का एंटिना होता है। ओह…. और श्रीमान यंग समझ गये। और, हम भारत की इज्‍जत बचा पाये… हाहाहाहा…..

Customer Service - other way round...

एक 9 साल की लड़की आइसक्रीम पार्लर गई..
वेटर : क्या चाहिए ?
लड़की : ये कोन वाली आइसक्रीम कितने की है भैया?
वेटर : 15 रूपये की
लड़की ने अपना पॉकेट चेक किया फिर छोटे कोन
वाली आइसक्रीम की कीमत पूछी
वेटर ने गुस्से से कहा :- 12 रूपये की
लड़की ने कहा छोटा वाला कोन दे दीजिये भैया..
वेटर ने एक प्लेट में कोन टेबल पर रख दिया..
लड़की न पैसे दिए और आइसक्रीम खा कर चली गई
जब वेटर खली प्लेट लेने गया तो
उसकी आँखों में आंसू आ गए
क्यूंकि
उस लड़की ने उसके लिए टिप केरूप में 3 रूपये छोड़ थे......
कहानी का सार ये है: आपके पास जो कुछ भी है उसीसे
लोगों को
खुश रखने की कोशिश कीजिये..!

It is the little things that make a big difference / छोटी चीजें जो बड़े बदलाव कर सकती हैं

There was a man taking a morning walk at or the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die. The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."

What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we?

छोटी चीजें जो बड़े बदलाव कर सकती हैं

समुद्र के किनारे के एक व्‍यक्ति सुबह-सुबह टहल रहा था। उसने देखा कि लहरों ने हजारों स्‍टारफि‍श मछलियों को किनारे लाकर पटक दिया था, अभी तक तो वो‍ जिंदा थीं लेकिन आनेवाले समय में उनका मरना तय था। उस व्‍यक्ति ने कुछ कदम आगे बढ़ाये फि‍र एक-एक कर उन मछलियों को वापस समुद्र में फेंकना शु‍रू कर दिया। एक दूसरा व्‍यक्ति ये सब देख रहा था, उससे रहा नहीं गया वह उसके पास गया और कहा ऐसे तुम कितनों को बचा पाओगे, इन कुछ मछलियों को बचाने से क्‍या फर्क पड़ेगा। उसने कुछ नहीं कहा, दो कदम और लिए, एक और मछली को उठाया और वापस समुद्र में फेंक दिया और दूसरे व्‍यक्ति से कहा “किसी को फर्क पड़े या ना पड़े लेकिन इस एक को तो फर्क पड़ता ही है”

-- बदलाव छोटा हो या बड़ा इससे फर्क नहीं पड़ता। यदि सभी एक छोटा-सा बदलाव लायें तो, सब एक बड़े बदलाव को आता देख सकते हैं – सही है ना!

Happens!

In 2008, a Chinese restaurant displayed a bilingual sign above its storefront to accommodate English-speaking patrons. Unfortunately, the translation utility was not working that day. Because of the misfortune, Internet users worldwide have seen photos of the restaurant sign displaying the supposed English translation, "Translate server error."

Manager Vs Leader

 "Managers are people who do things right; 
Leaders are the people who do the right things."

Speaking about Leadership is a very general thing in the concurrent working world. Some organizations talk about encouraging a leader in every single team member. However, implementing this thought is really a complex effort. This is not like participating in a technical training where once training is complete,  people will start working.

Developing a Leader involves looking things with various prospective – it’s like changing the very thought process of a personality. You are with me or not but it’s a process for encouraging people to see the things from end-to-end and to foresee them too. I’m not sure how many of organizations would like to do that. Once a thought process is set – maintaining a consistency across the organization will be another difficult task. It means that no matter which level of leadership the customer is interacting with, he would have same customer centric experience.

Being just a manager means accepting the status as it is while being a leader means challenging the status and looking more into the horizon. It depends more on how strategic leadership provides an environment, where a manager is just not supposed to look at 30 degree but at least 180 degree. 

Some people say “Leaders create the vision and show the direction. Managers implement and motivate.” Accordingly amid both (Leadership and Managership) inter-dependability is so much that in order to be successful one team must provide with an environment where both things overlap each other to a great extent.

Most of the organizations seem to separate both (Leadership and Managership). But should a manager not be a leader? I think that if you are a manager and all you do is follow what everybody tells you to do really you are not worth much as a manager? Let’s see this thing with this perspective – Adopt a strategic vision in a best possible way and deliver it to the best in your own way, with a personalized touch. It’s like 5 sales persons interacted with a customer at different times and customer experienced was consistent with a personal touch of every sales person.

 Despite the fact that managers are nominated and supported by the top, while leaders are recognized and supported by followers; creating an overlapping area for Leadership and Managership can create a hotbed for fast smooth growth – a growth with a difference.  Not to say separately that good leaders use inspiration and rationale to keep their followers while bad ones use coercion and/or mind manipulation.

Happens!