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India’s Master Plan

27 Dec

Many of us have noticed a distinct lack of commitment from the Indian batsmen in the current test match against South Africa in Durban. In the first innings, Cheteshwar Pujara and Tendulkar were guilty of rash strokes. The second innings seems to be taking the recklessness a notch higher. In three of the four innings, Sehwag has got out by playing an injudicious stroke. His dismissal in India’s second innings at Centurion was difficult to explain. India was nearly five hundred runs behind. Was Sehwag really harboring hopes of a victory? Where was the need for him to try and hit sixes? He was scoring fast enough without having to resort to such shots. His dismissal in the first innings of the Durban test was not entirely his fault. But the shocker came in the second innings. Tsosobe, South Africa’s answer to Jaidev Unadkat (both are no more than club level bowlers) bowls wide of the off-stump, Sehwag tries an all-mighty heave and ends up snicking the ball to the wicket keeper. Among all Indian batsmen, I admire Sehwag the most. He makes things happen. He is not afraid of the opposition. Most importantly, he makes test cricket interesting. Even then, one hopes, often against hope, that a player of Sehwag’s caliber would sometimes show restraint. Many times, it is not the ability of the bowler that bothers us. Rather, every ball is about hoping and praying that Sehwag does not throw the wicket away.

Sehwag is not the only one guilty of rash cricket. The other shocker today came from Rahul Dravid. This guy can reduce batting to a PhD program under a demanding advisor – excruciatingly painful. He has been known as the “wall”, “technician” etc etc at different times in his career. For him to waft at a wide delivery, again from Tsosobe, is unforgivable. Finally, Tendulkar continued his horror run at Durban by gifting his wicket in both innings. And guess what, he got out to Tsosobe in the first innings.

After witnessing India’s batting at Durban, it is difficult to fit the pattern into any preconceived plan. Why would a batsman gift his wicket? Assuming that there is no nefarious activity going on in the background, here is my analysis. The team meeting was attended by Coach Kirsten and a few senior players. The main point of discussion was how to face up to the challenge posed by the likes of Steyn and Morkel. Both of them are bowling exceptionally well. They are super fit. Steyn will bowl thirty Overs in a day if required. The only hope for the Indians was to somehow keep Steyn and Morkel out of the attack. Sehwag raised his hand. He said, “I can attack Steyn and Morkel”. So, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Kirsten sat down making plans of attacking the new ball bowlers. The wily Dhoni sat in one corner, scratching his beard. He did not seem convinced of the strategy. Finally, he spoke and he came up with this strategy. He said, “Let us gift wickets to Tsosobe and Harris.” The others looked at him, unsure if they heard him right. Dhoni smiled and explained his point. “See, the only way we can keep Steyn and Morkel out of the attack is by making the South Africans believe that Tsosobe and Harris are good bowlers. And the only way we can do this is by gifting some wickets to them. Once they take wickets, they will bowl more often, and we can cash in by scoring off them.” After a few minutes of silence, once could hear a round of applause for the master plan.

 
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Posted in Cricket

 

Men in Blue need a Blue Ocean Strategy

18 Dec

I am reminded of an episode from the unbelievably funny and popular series, Seinfeld. A Pakistani, Babu Butt comes over to New York and opens a restaurant. He serves typical western stuff-Burgers, Fries, etc. Babu’s business is not doing so well. Then Seinfeld suggests that Babu bring his traditional Pakistani food to New York. That way, Babu could attract customers who were looking for something different to whet their taste buds. It is another matter that Babu’s attempt at oriental food was not very successful. But the idea is similar to the concept of “Blue Ocean” strategy put forward by Mauborgne and Kim. Many businesses have thrived on differentiating themselves from the rat race. The “Blue Ocean” book talks about many such examples in painstaking detail.

India embarked on their cricket tour to South Africa recently. The first test match commenced on December 16, 2010. For those who followed Indian Cricket closely in the 90s, it was a throwback to the old days- a sense of déjà vu. A sense of nostalgia engulfed me as I saw the Indian batsmen capitulate. Many of the faces were familiar-Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman. The unfamiliar faces did not disappoint in living upto their predecessors’ reputation. Raina promptly edged one. So did Gambhir. The only thing different in this Indian team is Sehwag. Although Sehwag scored a duck, he atleast tried to hit the ball. The openers in the nineties did not believe in expending their energy on fruitless attempts at hitting the ball. I guess they were more cerebral than Sehwag, who made a failed attempt.

The bowlers were also eerily similar. The opening bowlers went for runs, and when the spinner came on, he went for runs as well. The choice of the third bowler was also similar. Those days, the third bowler was either Dodda Ganesh or David Johnson. Dodda tried hard, but you cannot always overcome inability. David Johnson was an interesting case. He was a fast bowler. He had the unique ability that he could run faster than what he could bowl. The small South African grounds did not help his style of bowling, which was to bowl short deliveries at a harmless speed. On a large ground where the boundaries would be over two hundred meters from the pitch, the batsmen could be expected to hit the ball straight to the fielders stationed at the boundary. But on smaller grounds, the same shots were disappearing into the crowd. Poor David was hampered by the fact that the ICC has not yet mandated that the grounds should be large enough to help bowlers like him. The longest boundary in current day Cricket is about hundred meters. The third bowler in the current test is the nineteen year old Jaidev Unadkat. This boy just does not have the strength to bowl fast. Currently, he does not have the skill to do anything else either.

So, what is India’s strategy when it embarks on a tour to South Africa? Nobody knows. R P Singh bowled well in Australia. Then he struggled in India, where everyone else did. Since then, he has been out of the team for unknown reasons. Munaf “can’t bat can’t field won’t bowl fast” Patel is still better than Jaidev “can’t bat can’t bowl fast” Unadkat. But Munaf is not in the team. The quantum principle called “Tunneling” states that if you throw a tennis ball at a wall long enough, it will pierce through the wall. For a common man, justifying the principle seems to be lot easier than why Abhimanyu Mithun and Ashish Nehra are not there in the team. How Suresh Raina can ever be a better test batsman than Cheteshwar Pujara is a mystery only rivaled by Alfred Hitchcock’s stories. The team that went to South Africa in 1996 was equally bad, if not worse. However, there was justification for everything. Gundappa Viswanath was the chief selector, and he wanted players from his state to get international exposure. It is also possible that Vishy thought that bowlers with names starting with a “D” made more numerological sense-Dodda and David. But Srikanth does not even have players from his native Tamil Nadu. Selection of Balaji and Badrinath would have at least made sense, if not justification.

Clearly, the selectors were trying a blue ocean strategy. South Africans are adept at playing fast bowlers. At any point in history since their inception into world cricket, South Africa has had at least two seriously fast bowlers. So, the selectors probably thought, “How about some not so fast bowlers? The batsmen will play for the pace and swing that is never there and hopefully get out”. Both Babu Butt and Krish Srikanth have proved one thing. You can try as many Blue Ocean strategies as you want. But at the end of the day, you need a strategy that makes sense. Unfortunately, the book only talks about the successful Blue Ocean strategies. For every successful strategy, there probably were ten failed ones.

India has never been able to unearth good fast bowlers. The ones with any promise quickly retreat into medium “Line and Length” pace when they see ten years of hard work ahead of them. The cup board is full of “I will be probabilistically fit tomorrow” players and “I will never bowl fast even if I can” players. The hard working ones have been implicitly or explicitly told fall back in line. Given the country’s perennial struggle with fast bowling, I wonder if it is time to explore a blue ocean strategy that has seen some success in the past. When South Africa beat India in India, they did so with fast bowlers. They did not beat India with half baked spinners. India should take the same approach. They should create excellent spin bowlers-bowlers who can bowl left-arm and right-arm, off-spin, leg-spin, carom-ball, chess-ball, you name it. They should create a research center for spin bowlers. They should have spin bowlers who can turn the new ball. India cannot rely on an injury prone Zaheer to bail the team out every time. “Slow Kill” is the need of the hour.

 
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Posted in Business and Strategy, Cricket

 

IP or Home Grown

12 Dec

Should I just buy an intellectual property, or should I develop my own? Over the past few years several businesses in the semiconductor domain have thrived on their ability to supply intellectual property to other companies. Correspondingly, many companies have opted to buy IP in lieu of developing their own products. There are many advantages to IP based design framework. A product’s lifecycle consists of architecture, implementation, loads of verification, maintenance, and further improvements over time. The IP is hopefully a well architected and verified product and usually comes with a support structure from the vendors of the IP. However, with open source become mainstream, things may change.

Consider the cell phone industry. In the past few months I have noticed a bunch of mobile phone companies in India. Micromax, and Lava are couple of examples. I am pretty sure that these companies have come to existence on the back of the Android operating system. Now, you can buy a board from any of the platform providers (TI 3430 for example), load the operating system, write a bunch of applications, and sell the phone. The cost to the company is all about licensing the platform, and the software development cost. This makes it very easy for a company to develop its product. Unlike a semiconductor-hardware company that has to get all kinds of expensive tools to even get started, the platform and open source software model has helped companies start without such worries. This helps in developing prototypes faster, and hence, makes getting venture funding easier. This has leveled the playing field to a certain extent.

Now, what is in store for the bigger players? With the leveling of the playing field, there is much more competition. A product is only as good as any other product that a competitor makes or is likely to make. The technological advantage of one company over other is always under threat. If one company adds a feature, the other company adds the feature and more. The competition increases that drives the profit margins down.

In order to gain competitive advantage, we might see some of these bigger players move toward a more hardware oriented solution. Apple has already pioneered this model. Apple develops its own system-on-chip (SoC) and it helps in optimizing its designs for power, performance and area. It is very possible that more and more companies will move toward this model. We might very well see the mobile phone manufacturers divided into two categories: the lower end market that operates with platforms and software, and a higher end market where some of these bigger players get their hands dirty and actually start developing the SoC. Ironically, the proliferation of the SoC companies will be good news for many IP vendors. While companies will want to optimize their designs, they will still buy individual IPs from vendors. It is possible that the companies push the vendor to customize the IP for their needs. However, it is unlikely that the SoC will be developed from scratch. Creating a new SoC from scratch will be just too expensive and time consuming. But then, strange things have happened in this industry.

 
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Posted in Tech Stuff

 

The Forgotten Lives

09 Dec

I was thirteen years old. I was blissfully ignorant of the world around me. My life consisted of school and cricket. I thought I could become a professional cricketer. My ambition was to make a lot of money playing cricket, and then use the money to open a steel plant. I admired Jamshedji Tata, the old bearded man who not only opened a steel plant, but transformed a city in doing so.

One day, things changed. The school was shut down. Delhi University came to a standstill. I heard murmurs about some sort of protest against the reservation policy in India. I knew the perils of the policy, but I did not keep track of the latest and greatest on the topic. Initially I was elated at the school shut down. That would mean more cricket matches all through the day-a match at 6:00 AM, then another one at 10:00 AM, and two more in the afternoon. This was bliss.

Soon, I realized the gravity of the situation. The new policy was designed to place people like me at a severe disadvantage. The reservation policy, known as “affirmative action” in the west, is a pathetic attempt by the Indian Government to uplift the backward sections of the society. While decrying the caste system, the policy is a manifestation of the caste system at its worst. According to this policy, around twenty five percent of the seats in colleges are “reserved” for candidates from backward castes. In other words, a economically rich “backward caste” can avail of this reservation, while a economically poor “forward caste” cannot. And that is what has happened. The rich “backward castes” have exploited the policy to the hilt, while the poor, backward or forward, continue to suffer. What this has done to candidates like me is that it has reduced the number of seats that we compete for by twenty five percent. Now, the new policy increased the reserved seats to fifty percent.

I realized that boys and girls only a few years older than I were protesting against this new policy. They demonstrated on the streets. Mostly, the protests were peaceful. The protests went on for days. The schools were shut for days. The euphoria over the prospect of playing cricket all my waking hours soon gave way to genuine worries about my future. Life was getting tough with the competition in every walk of life. Those days, the college entrance test to the most reputed institutions would have in excess of 300,000 applicants and only 2000 made it. In other words, the acceptance rate was less than one percent. Now, with fifty percent of the seats gone, life would be even tougher.

One day, I heard someone using the term “immolation”. I had no clue what it meant. I went home and saw the daily newspaper on the table. On the table was a picture of a man in flames. The headline said something to the tune of “self-immolation by a student to protest the reservation policy”. There were enough people around me to explain what it meant. A student had set himself on fire to protest against the reservation policy. He had survived, but suffered around 58% burns. That day, the nature of the protests changed. From a peaceful demonstration, the protest became one of self destruction. We have heard of protests turning violent where the protestors attack the opponents. But here, it was Gandhi’s principles taken to the extreme. Young students were killing themselves in protest. Political parties in the opposition got very interested. They saw this as an opening to topple the incumbent Government. From here on, the protest became a struggle-a struggle against the Government as well as other vested interests.

The first attempt at self immolation was just the beginning. It led to multiple other attempts. Young kids started emulating the act. One such case will stay in my mind forever. Chauhan used to live less than a mile from where I lived. One day, he parked his motorcycle at a crossroad. In front of the thousands crossing the street in their cars, motorcycles, cycles and foot, Chauhan went in flames. Before anyone could react, Chauhan died. He had suffered 98% burns.

If Chauhan’s death was an indication of the tragic state of affairs, what followed demonstrated the murder of law by the central and state Government agencies. The police would not release his body to his family. This sparked further protests. As the day went on, the intensity of the protest increased. The police resorted to firing. The students responded by dispersing for a few moments, and returning to protest after the firing died down. When the firing intensified, the students retaliated by throwing bottles at the police. The situation got violent, and we witnessed one of the worst accounts of police brutality. A bystander was shot by the police. He fell down. All he needed was a quick transport to the hospital. But the police had other ideas. Two policemen dragged him on the road for more than half a mile. Eventually, they took him to the hospital. The poor boy died due to excessive loss of blood. The video was captured by the news agency called Newstrack. The video was promptly banned by the Government. Many days later, the students group aired the video at a playground for all of us to view and appreciate the students’ resilience and police brutality.

In the midst of the carnage, there were a few poignant moments. Some students hid in a temple to escape police firing. When the police arrived, the temple priest did not let the police in. He refused to open the temple doors, stating that the temple is not a place for violence. Then there was the initiative taken by the ladies in the neighborhood that I call “mothers movement”. These ladies formed a wall and put themselves in the firing line to protect the kids.

The carnage went on for the entire day. The Government was eventually toppled due to many other contributing factors. The protests against the policy went on for a few more months. Eventually, the students got tired. The policy stayed. The futility of the struggle and the corresponding loss of lives still stares at us. The country and the world have conveniently forgotten the tale. Almost fifty percent of the seats in all of India’s institutions are reserved for those who may not deserve the seat. In some states, the reservation is as high as seventy percent. Now, some politicians are mooting the idea of reservations for jobs in private companies that operate in India. The reservation is not based on merit or economic conditions of the applicant. It is based on caste system. In India, a system that is justifiably frowned upon when practiced by a member of the “upper caste” is law when it is used against the upper castes. However, there were some who refused to take this injustice lying down. Let us at least remember them. They deserve more than the apathy of world media.

 
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Posted in Uncategorized

 

The Soccer Story

01 Dec

Introduction
Ashok Chopra was an Indian immigrant into the US, who worked at an auto body shop. Ashok’s family consisted of his wife Reena and son Jay. Ashok’s boss at the auto body shop was a Columbian immigrant, Carlos Valencia. He had named his son Andres after the footballer Andres Escobar, who was brutally murdered by his own body guards. Andres Escobar had scored an own goal in the 1994 world cup football match against the US. It was around this time that Carlos Valencia had run away from Columbia. He was deeply hurt by the Escobar killing. Being a reasonable man, he did not understand why someone could kill for something as trivial as a loss in a football match.

Andres Valencia and Jay Chopra became very good friends at a young age. Andres introduced Jay to soccer through his Latin American friends. As the two kids grew up, they were regular soccer buddies. Jay had learned a lot about Columbia and Escobar’s killing through his friend Andres. Ashok did not really care about soccer. He was not aware of Escobar’s murder. So, when he learned about it from Jay, he was petrified. He had lost his parents due to betting in sports. But he did not want to lose his only child. He tried to discourage Jay from pursuing soccer. On the other hand, Jay had in-born talent for soccer. Robbing him of his talents would be criminal. Ashok eventually let Jay play the game, but he was ever fearful of what could happen.

Andres was a couple of years older than Jay. So, Jay would follow whatever Andres did. In turn, Jay was a little brother for Andres. He would show him new tricks, both soccer wise and otherwise. Over time, both Andres and Jay went to soccer coaching camps, and decided to take soccer seriously as a profession.

Both Jay and Andres were picked up by Major League Soccer (MLS). Andres played as a striker for the Los Angeles Galaxy, while Jay decided to stay close to home and play midfield for the San Jose Earthquakes. The matches between the Earthquakes and Galaxy would be tense affair. Both Jay and Andres took their football seriously. They would try to outwit each other. The general feeling among soccer fans was that Jay in the midfield and Andres as the striker would be the best ever combination in the history of US soccer. By 2017, football had become quite popular in the country. A match featuring Jay and Andres would attract a full house. Both Andres and Jay were hopeful of being members of the US world cup team.

World Cup Soccer 2018
As expected, both Jay and Andres were part of the United States World Cup squad. The event was being held in Russia. Andres and Jay would be making their first visit to Russia. The US was placed in a group along with Italy, Nigeria and South Africa. It was expected that US will move to the second round with relative ease. The American fans eagerly waited for the pair of Jay and Andres to showcase their respective talents to a world audience. The American players, coach and fans genuinely believed that the US had a chance to win the cup this time.

The American World Cup campaign started in a dream fashion. They thrashed Italy 4 goals to 0. Andres scored a hat-trick, all assisted by Jay. This set the tone for the remainder of the tournament. The US team was the team to beat in the tournament. They topped their group standings by winning all their matches. In the group of sixteen, they beat Mexico by a handsome margin. The quarter final against Spain was a tense affair. Spain had come into the tournament as one of the favorites. They had many super-stars in their team. It was almost impossible to identify any one person as a danger man. Spain got the lead early in the game and played the waiting game. Their defense was hard to get through. Moreover, the Spanish defense was confident that as long as Jay and Andres were marked, the Americans would struggle to score. However, a defensive lapse in the 82nd minute allowed the Americans to equalize. A stupid foul in the penalty area had resulted in a penalty kick, which was duly sent to the back of the net by Andres. The US secured victory in the 90th minute owing to sheer brilliance of Andres. Andres, who usually played as a striker, came to the midfield, stole the ball from the Spanish midfielder, and made a run into the Spanish defense. He dribbled past seven defenders, avoided getting fouled, and finally deposited the football into the net with a deft flick over the charging goalkeeper. Coinciding with the goal, the American fans erupted in the stands. Jay ran towards Andres, and before he could reach there, the other American players had mobbed Andres. The US had reached the semi-final by beating the best team in the world.

The US met Germany in the semi-final. Germany, a dangerous team even when it was at its worst, came to the world cup as one of the favorites. Twenty years back, the German football staff had invested heavily in youth. The investment was beginning to bear fruit now. The German team of today was composed of a neat mixture of youth and experience. This side had crushed all of its opponents on its way to the semi-final. The Germans came into the semi-final confident of pulling off a victory against the US. On the other hand, the US team had reason to believe in itself. It had just beaten the world’s best team in the quarter finals.

The US-Germany match started on a rainy day. The Germans, with superior skill and power, dominated the proceedings. The first half saw some typical German football. Beautiful set pieces, long passes and dashing runs into the opponents’ defense. The Americans played the waiting game. Jay and Andres were nowhere to be seen. The ball hardly left the American half. Jay in particular, was getting increasingly frustrated. He was not used to being dominated like this. The Germans had done their homework. They double-marked Jay, and gave him absolutely no space. With increasing frustration, mistakes started creeping into Jay’s game. Twice, he tried to dribble the ball himself when a pass would have been more appropriate. Jay was particularly troubled by the German defenders. They frustrated the young Jay by repeatedly fouling him. Two minutes before the half time, in a moment of madness, Jay kicked one of the defenders on the head. The defender lay on the floor, motionless. The entire German team mobbed the referee, gesturing in a hundred different ways, but with one demand; a red card for Jay. While the team doctor attended to the defender, the referee called Jay to the side. At the worst Jay expected a yellow card. After all, it was the defender who was the heckler. Jay had only reacted after being fouled numerous times by the Germans. When the referee raised the red card, Jay was crestfallen. He held his head in his hands and wept. Finally, as Jay trudged off the field, one could not but notice the look on Andres’ face. Andres knew that without Jay, the US team stood no chance against the Germans. Suddenly, Andres started thinking about things other than football.A golden chance had been ruined by this stupid player, who came from a country with no football tradition. Why couldn’t Jay just go and play Cricket? At that point, Andres hated Jay like never before.

The second half started with the scores level. Expectedly, the coach substituted one of the forwards with a defender. Andres would be the sole attacking forward. The strategy seemed to have shifted to a defensive mindset, where the Americans would play for the penalty shootout. Goal scoring would be limited to opportunities created during counter attacks. The strategy seemed to have paid off, as the US made a couple of counter attacking moves. However, with a sole Andres making the run, it was rather easy for the Germans to defend. The game went on until around 72nd minute. In the 72nd minute, the floodgates opened. A German left foot strike deposited the ball in the back of the net, giving the Germans their first goal of the match. The Germans, up one goal to nothing, started playing a smart game. They held possession of the ball for long durations, forcing the Americans to come out and steal the ball. The Americans, in search of the elusive goal pushed more men forward. This opened up gaps in the defense, and the Germans exploited the gaps to finally finish the game 4-0 in their favor.

While the Germans celebrated, the mood in the US camp was somber. In general, the attitude of the players towards Jay was that of compassion. However, things were different with Andres. He blamed Jay directly for the team’s failure. What was he thinking when he kicked the defender? This was rudimentary. How can someone make such a mistake at such a crucial juncture? Andres tried hard to forgive Jay, but to no avail. Every time he tried to forgive Jay, his thoughts would go back to that moment of madness. And every time he thought about the incident, he would cry. Although the US over-achieved by reaching the semi-finals of the world cup, it created a rift between a supremely gifted footballer and his adopted kid brother.

2018-2022
Several years passed by. Jay continued to play for the San Jose Earthquakes. But Andres explored opportunities in Europe and was promptly pouched by Real Madrid. The world cup debacle was forgotten by the public. The US got busy with its yearly NBA, MLB and NFL seasons. But Jay and Andres never spoke to each other. As far as Jay was concerned, this reaction from Andres was unwarranted. Everybody makes mistakes. After all soccer is a sport. Nobody died.

Andres had a different story to tell. Yes, someone died. There was heavy betting for the semi-final game between the US and Germany. As the match progressed, the odds against the US had come down considerably. Andres’s cousin Fernando in Columbia was involved in the betting. Andres was aware of this. Andres had assured his cousin that US had the wherewithal to beat the Germans. In making that promise, Andres had relied upon Jay’s mastery in the midfield to take the team home. Fernando had in turn convinced the local drug cartel to bet heavily on US. When the match got over with the US thrashed so badly, the drug cartel was furious. Fernando had convinced them to go against popular wisdom. The results were disastrous. The moment US lost the match, Andres knew that Fernando’s life was in danger. He called Fernando multiple times. Fernando assured him that everything was alright and the cartel understood the risks of betting. Andres was well aware of Andres Escobar, the footballer who was killed for scoring an own-goal at the world cup 1994. He knew that the cartel does not forgive anyone.

Andres advised Fernando to somehow escape from Columbia. He repeatedly tried to convince Fernando that the cartel cannot be trusted. However, Fernando was adamant. He chastised Andres for being a traitor. He told Andres that Andres should have played football for Columbia, not the US. He went on to portray himself and his parents as patriots for staying back in Columbia, while Andres and his parents fled. While this caused a lot of tension in their relationship, Andres still loved his cousin. His well being was always in his mind. Unfortunately, Andres was helpless. The one time he could have done something, his trusted friend Jay let him down. A couple of months after the world cup, news came in that a certain bookie called Fernando had mysteriously disappeared. He was never to be found.

Fernando’s death had a profound effect on Andres’s life. He wanted to move away from the US for a while. More importantly, he wanted to be away from Jay, someone with whom he had shared so much of his life. But whenever he tried to talk to Jay, his thoughts would be shrouded by Fernando’s death. Andres subconsciously held Jay responsible for Fernando’s death and could never overcome the emotions. More than his career, it was his emotional needs that led Andres to explore opportunities in Europe. This way, he could be far away from Jay and thus try to get his mind out of the quagmire it found itself in.

Four years passed. It was time for another world cup. The 2022 world cup was being held in Qatar. The US team now had a highly experienced attack, again headed by Andres and Jay. This time, the US had a very realistic chance at the coveted cup. Last time, they had reached the semi-finals, only to be denied a spot in the finals by a momentary lapse of reason from Jay. This time though, Jay had spent the past four years scoring heavily in the MLS. The debacle four years back had made him a better person. He had become a mature player, very aware of his strengths and weaknesses, and very cerebral in his approach towards the game. He understood that being emotional about a game and being emotional at a game two entirely different things. Being emotional about a game helps you understand your game and iron out the flaws. You enjoy the daily practice, the fitness regimen and the diet restrictions. However, being emotional at a game only makes you lose focus. Instead of thinking, you act instinctively, which given the circumstances, may not be the best course of action.

Emotional outbursts in the heat of the moment are not new to sport. Serena Williams lost her US open semi-final match against Kim Clijsters in 2009 after she shouted at the lineswoman. Zinadine Zidane lost the world cup for France by headbutting the Italian defender Matterazzi. Similarly, Jay gave in to the outburst in the last world cup. He lost the cup and worse still, lost a friend and brother. Jay never understood the reaction of Andres after the world cup. Andres did not stay to explain the situation to Jay. Therefore, as far as Jay was concerned, Andres was angry because Jay lost him the world cup. By that token, as long as Jay won the world cup for Andres, things would return back to normal.

Jay spent the past four years meticulously planning for the world cup. He attended yoga and meditation classes to keep his emotions under control. He worked endless hours on his football skills. He played multiple formations in his mind and developed a plan for each of them. He developed dexterity on both his legs for better control. He also started moving forward more, so that he can be seen as an attacking option when Andres was not available. This time round, Jay was ready for the world cup: physically, mentally, and emotionally.

World Cup 2022
World Cup 2022 got underway with a spectacular opening ceremony. The soccer world cup is unique in that we have participants from all parts of the globe. While only a selected few can realistically dream of lifting the beautiful golden cup, all teams aspire to. With aspiration comes enthusiasm and the will to do well. So, while one witnesses difference in the skill level of the competing teams, no team lacks in effort.

The past four years were characterized by a renewed sense of confidence in US soccer. There was a genuine belief that the team could go all the way in this world cup. Its two wonder kids Jay and Andres were playing beautifully. Even other teams acknowledged that US will not be a pushover in this edition of the world cup.

The US progressed through the league stages as expected. They beat Australia 5-0 on the back of an Andres hat-trick. Then they went one step further against Ghana by thrashing them 8-0. In the final group match against Italy, US faced its toughest competition yet. Italy fielded a typical side that comprised of a very strong defense. The team relied mostly on counter-attacks to score a solitary goal and then go back to defending. Visually, Italy’s game was very boring. But the team was never pretty to watch. In a hard fought game, US prevailed by means of two goals that came from corner kicks.

The knockout stages of the tournament produced some magnificent soccer. The quarterfinal between Spain and Argentina was a memorable one. In a closely fought encounter full of attacks and counter-attacks, Argentina beat Spain 4 goals to 3. The teams were locked 2 goals each at the end of the stipulated 90 minutes. Goals were exchanged in the first ten minutes of extra time to deadlock the teams at 3 all. Finally, with two minutes to go, an Argentina free kick from 35 yards rocketed into the Spanish goal. Nobody moved. The shot was so ferocious that nobody realized what had just happened. After a few moments of silence, the stadium erupted, and so did Argentina’s players. The Spanish supporters and players drowned in sorrow, with their heads on their palms.

In comparison, the US’s journey through the world cup was relatively incident free. The Jay-Andres combination worked beautifully in most of the matches. US beat Mexico and Netherlands relatively easily. In the semifinal, US met Argentina. By now, Argentina was creating waves in the soccer world as a team to watch. The country that produced Maradona and Messi was weaving magic around its opponents. The semi-final started slowly. Both teams seemed nervous initially. Argentina was obviously aware of the exploits of Jay-Andres pair. US, on the other hand, was wary of Argentina, a great football nation that was playing so well. The game proceeded to half-time with the score reading 0-0. All this while, Jay was content playing as a midfielder. He was playing percentage football by getting rid of the ball to either Andres or one of the other forwards as soon as he could. Although this helped in making more moves towards the opposition’s goal, it did not create as many open spaces as could be possible with a master playmaker. Although the game was being played at a fast pace, it was predictable .

During the halftime interval, Andres, for the first time in years, talked to Jay on a personal note. He put his hand around his kid brother’s shoulder and gave a couple of words of encouragement. Jay was surprised, angry and elated at the same time. All these years, despite all the success he enjoyed, Jay longed for Andres’s friendship. Although Andres was only two years older than Jay, Jay looked upto Andres as his role model. He admired Andres’s skills with the football. Even when they were not in talking terms, Jay would watch videos of Andres’s exploits at Read Madrid and try to copy his moves. So, when a word of encouragement finally came from his idol, Jay was surprised that Andres finally talked to him, angry because he never understood the reason for the rift in the first place, and elated to be friends again with Andres.

After the emotions came back to control, Jay paid attention to what Andres was telling him. Andres talked to Jay about a strategy where Jay would be required to make some surprising solo runs through the opponent’s defense. He also advised Jay to hold on to the football for a longer time and create space before letting it go. He encouraged Jay to take some risks, as percentage football was not going to win US the game.

When the US team took to the field in the second half, it was a transformed unit. Jay was making more frequent runs towards the Argentina defense. The attacks came from both ends. Jay alone took four shots at the goal in the first 20 minutes. Argentina changed its tactic by replacing an attacking midfielder with a defensive midfielder. With the US attacking more, the Argentina thought process was to exploit any counter-attacking opportunity that may become available. The game changed in the 81st minute. A calculated move by Andres saw him dribbling past three defenders and taking a shot at the goal. The ball ricocheted off the crossbar right onto Jay’s right foot. All Jay had to do was to kick the ball into an empty goal. The US went up 1 goal to 0. US survived a further ten minutes of relentless attack by Argentina, some of which were very close. One such shot would have gone into the goal, but was disallowed as an Argentina forward touched it while being offside. When the final whistle was blown, US earned its first entry into the final of the soccer world cup finals.

The other final spot was clinched by Brazil. Brazil, a proud football nation, had steamrolled every team that came its way. The semifinal was no different. Brazil beat Italy 3 goals to 0 in a one sided affair.

The Final
On the night before the world cup final, the US team was asked to relax. Jay in particular was told to not think about the game. The coach asked him to watch his favorite movie if that would relax his nerves. The starting eleven for the final was decided and each player knew his role in the team. Everything was going to plan. Well, almost.

At around 7:30 PM, Andres got a phone call. The conversation seemed strange. The call lasted about twenty minutes. After the call, Andres was sweating profusely, as if had just come back from a training session. He was also shivering. Jay saw Andres and got concerned that Andres might have caught the flu. Andres was the US team’s trump card. Jay needed Andres to be in the field. Andres told Jay that he did not have the flu. He was physically fine. And Andres went to sleep.

The identity of the today’s caller was unknown. The caller identified himself as “Garcia”. He told Andres that US had to lose the final. There was way too much at stake and at this point, the US must lose. If the US won, many in the mafia will not be happy. Garcia told Andres that his life along with the lives of many around him was at danger. Andres’s thought went back four years, when his cousin Fernando was brutally murdered by the Columbian drug cartel. So much so that Fernando was never found. Andres felt that there was enough reason to be worried as Garcia seemed to know every member of his family, both in US as well as in Columbia.

Andres could not sleep at night. He thought of available options. He could withdraw himself from the game to reduce the chances of an American win. But he could not be sure. He knew that Jay was an exceptionally gifted player. He could win the world cup on his own. Maybe I should tell Jay everything, he thought. But Jay’s parents were victims of match fixing. Jay had been indoctrinated to have nothing to do with match fixing. Jay had made it clear many times that he would never compromise his professional ethics. Moreover, Jay was passionate about the world cup. No, Andres could not let this information leak to Jay. Jay would get so paranoid that he might go public with this news. After spending several hours thinking, Andres decided to play the final. He would make sure that he made his share of mistakes and blame it on nerves. Andres felt sick, both physically and mentally. The long sleepless night wore him off. Like Jay, Andres was brought up to be honest and ethical. He frowned upon Fernando’s tendency to gamble and while he sobbed for him, Andres knew that Fernando had brought his end upon himself. He thought he could play freely as a US citizen. He did play freely, but even freedom seemed to have its limits.

The final between the rampaging Brazilians and the exciting Americans started on time. The match ebbed and flowed, with neither side keen on taking risks. Jay wanted to play the game he played in the semi-final. But the Brazilian defense was stronger than that of Argentina. Further, Jay never found Andres when he wanted. Andres always seemed to be a couple of steps behind or a couple of steps ahead of the ball.

The match was deadlocked at 0-0 at the 40th minute. Suddenly, another bad pass by Andres saw the Brazilians take the ball all the way to the American goal and score. There was silence in the American contingent. There was more in store. Soon after the goal, Andres collapsed. What happened the previous night was too much for his mind and body to handle.

The second half of the final started with the US trailing by one goal and more importantly, Andres conspicuously absent. In his absence, Jay led the attack. In addition to Andre’s substitution, US swapped a defensive midfielder with a forward. US was trailing and it needed a way to score. The match proceeded in expected fashion. The Americans attacked aggressively, but the Brazilians defended gamely. Brazil, whose natural flair is to play good attacking football, often put the US defense under pressure. With every tick of the clock, the Americans got more desperate and the Brazilian dream came closer to reality. Jay, who had worked so hard on his mental fortitude over the past four years tried to keep his calm. He started to make some of the solo runs into the opponent’s defense that had helped his team in the semi-finals. Alas, there was no Andres to calm him down. The brilliance of Andres was missing and Jay’s runs were thwarted by the Brazil defense. The match went into the 85th minute, with the US still trailing. A goal kick came straight to Jay. He made a move forward. He had support at the left flank. Jay passed the ball to his left and made a dashing run into Brazil’s penalty area. A pass came his way. From the corner of his eye Jay noticed that the striker to his right was making a move. Jay deftly let the pass go the striker. The striker had a clear sight of the goal. He only needed to beat the goalkeeper to level the scores. The forward kicked the ball. The ball beat the goalkeeper. For a moment, everyone thought the scores were level. But it was not to be. The ball hit the crossbar and landed on Jay’s foot. Jay stood there facing an empty goal. Several emotions went through Jay’s mind; the world cup, Andres, his parents account of their struggles, everything. Jay kicked the ball towards the goal. The stadium erupted. And in a second, the American contingent went quiet. A sense of disbelief engulfed every American supporter watching the game. Jay had missed the goal. All Jay had to do was to kick the football into an empty goal. The goalkeeper lay on the side, helpless. The defenders were nowhere near. But all Jay could manage was a weak kick that took the ball to the right of the goalpost.

Nobody including Jay believed what just happened. Jay sank on the ground and started sobbing. All his efforts over so many years were ruined by one bad shot. This was the second time in as many world cups that he had let his team and country down. He was most worried about Andres. How would he react? After Andres collapsed, Jay had taken it upon himself to bring the cup home. He sobbed, “Andres I am sorry.. I am sorry”

Andres watched the match from the Hospital. He did not know how to react when Jay missed the goal. Should he thank Jay for saving his life? Or should he be filled with remorse at not being able to achieve his lifelong dream? He sat there crying, not able to share his predicament with anyone. He blamed himself for his country’s loss. He would have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life, never knowing what was worse; death at the hands of the cartel after a moment of glory or a life full of guilt.

Soon after the world cup, Andres quit professional football. Jay was chastised for costing his country the world cup two times in a row. He was even dragged into investigations into match fixing. However charges against him were cleared eventually. After a brief hiatus, Jay resumed playing and continued scoring goals for his club and the US. One day, he would win the cup for US. And that day, he would not need a helping hand (or leg).


 
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Ashes 2010, First Test

29 Nov

I have spent the past five days wasting my time on the first Ashes test between England and Australia. Although I am neither Australian nor English and none too great a fan of Collingwood or Stuard Broad, watching Australia lose to any team ranks very high on my cricket priority list. So, when England crashed to 260 all out on the first day, I was concerned. Another defeat at Brisbane loomed large. Things got worse when Hussey and Haddin stitched together a triple century partnership. However, everything changed when the POMs came to bat in the second innings. They scored in excess of 500 runs and lost just one wicket in the process. As I write this, the match is petering out towards a boring draw. At this moment, I am not even interested in following the final moments of this test.

The wicket at Brisbane is anything like the flat beds of roses that the Indians and New Zealanders were exposed to in the first two tests between them in India. India is guilty of repeatedly producing such flat batting tracks that make the game extremely boring. Add a Rahul Dravid to the mix, and following the game becomes next to impossible. He slows the game down so much that mortals like me get a lifespan boost due to the injection of boredom (The theory behind this pertains to the principle of making every second feel like an hour, thus making a lifespan of 100 years feel like 360000 years). Coming back to the Brisbane track, it was a good track. It had good bounce and carry. There were cracks on the wicket by the fourth day to encourage spin. But then, all this amounts to nothing if you do not have the bowlers to exploit the conditions. As far as bowling is concerned, this test is has been a let down. Let us not fool ourselves by the bowling figures of a couple of bowlers. Apart from a few spells here and there, no bowler looked like taking a wicket.

I would not read much into the centuries posted by the English batsmen. Alistair Cook looks like anything but a good opening batsman. Here is a guy who cannot play off the front foot. The irony is that the Australians continued to feed him short pitched stuff all along. Oh, how I missed a Wasim or a Waqar. They would have sorted him out in minutes. Strauss and Trott were not particularly impressive either. To their credit, all of them possessed immense concentration and determination. But the Australian bowlers did not present them with much of a challenge. Among the English, the resources were even more limited. James Anderson seems to be a good bowler. The other two fast bowlers (Broad and Finn) were plain pedestrian. Broad and Finn stand more than 2 meters tall. At this height, they should tormenting batsmen with pace and bounce. But all they dished out were lollypops at 130 Ks with no swing, reverse swing, or cutters. The spinners from both teams disappointed as well.

The cricket world needs bowlers of the caliber of Wasim, Waqar, McGrath, Walsh, Ambrose, Donald and Warne. Unfortunately, there was none visible in the current Ashes test. The benchmark should be at least high enough to not let Alistair Cook of all people to get away with a double century. A double century should be his tally for the entire series. If this standard of bowling continues throughout the Ashes, we might be witness to one of the most boring Ashes series ever. What a let down that would be after the series of the century that we enjoyed in 2005. Maybe we will go back to youtube and watch clippings from that series.

 
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Posted in Cricket, Sports, Uncategorized

 

Story of a Kitchen

17 Sep

Here is a story. A gentleman opened a restaurant and hired a cook. The cook created many recipes. When it came to cooking the food, the cook realized that the stove does not work. So, he went to the owner and told him that the stove is not working. The owner asked him to try harder. So, the cook went back and tried harder. He cleaned the stove and made sure that all connections were ok. The stove still wouldn’t work. The owner hired a junior cook to take care of the stove. This way, the senior cook could go back and work on his recipes. The junior cook would report to the senior cook when the stove was fixed. The junior cook tried to fix the stove, but nothing happened. The senior cook in the meanwhile, created lots of recipes, none of which could be cooked because of the bad stove. Now, getting frustrated, the owner assigned another senior cook to assist the current senior cook. The second senior cook started arguing that the recipe is bad. This resulted in the two senior cooks arguing about when to add onions in the soup, the junior cook still fixing the stove, and the customer, who did not really care about the onions, waiting for his food on the table. The owner got frustrated, and when the customer went back without food, decided to close the restaurant and concentrate on his new idea: expensive wines.

The story above can be summarized in a line: “The stove is not working. Let us add a few cooks to get things done.” It can also be summarized in a word: “Stupidity”. How often does this happen in the work place. The problem is somewhere. The upper management, which wants to maintain only a bird’s eye view on the whole situation, adds managers and consultants to projects that are not doing well. The consultants often charge an arm and leg, that too by the hour. There is lot of hogwash on “strategy”. Strategy is such an overused term. Everything revolves around strategy. When one strategy is not working, more strategies are put forward. Then strategies are discussed. Then, we all take a step back and re-think our approach. New strategies are created to analyze the available strategies. A new consultant (or an old one waiting to interfere for a while) tells us that the whole approach is wrong. He proposes a totally new strategy. This strategy is based on maximizing efficiency, long term planning, minimizing throw-away work, etc. Well, what was the previous strategy about then? In the midst of strategy and planning, the real problem is shoved to some corner where nobody notices.

A long term strategy by definition is long term. While course correction cannot be avoided, if a long term strategy requires a re-think every three months, it is not a long term strategy. Successful firms have a long term strategy and a process of continuous improvement to make sure that the firm executes the strategy well. Lesser firms take this big hammer approach, where anything that goes wrong is blamed on strategy. How about fixing what is broken for a change? In many cases, it is the stove that is broken. The cook has his recipes. The customer is waiting for his food. Let us hire someone to fix the stove.

 
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Posted in Business and Strategy

 

Cable TV

04 Sep

Is Cable TV nearing its inevitable death? It seems as though the entire world is conspiring to make cable television irrelevant. On the one hand, the internet explosion has made online viewing commonplace. Then we have all these smart phones with HD viewing capability. Recently, the cable television network saw a drop in its customer base, mostly losing customers to websites like Hulu that offer free viewership for many of the popular shows. Canadian TV was full of advertisements on how the soccer world cup 2010 could be watched on cell phone through “Rogers” networks. I watched many of the world cup soccer matches on my laptop through the live streaming feed from ESPN-3. In fact, over the past eight to ten months, I have noticed myself tuning into the web streaming service of several sports channels instead of the television.

As I write this, the US open tennis championship is on. The more I watch the tournament on TV, the more I am convinced that I should switch to my laptop. The reason is simple. When I watch the match on my laptop, I watch what I want to watch. When I watch the same on TV, I watch what I am allowed to watch. This might be a good research topic for people like Sheena Iyengar (http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/) who study how “choice” affects people. As far as I am concerned, there are times when I get overwhelmed by choice. For instance, when I am getting a haircut, I am at pains to describe what exactly my hairstyle should be. The best I can come up with is “short”. I would rather have the person with the scissors make the other decisions for me. However, when it comes to TV, I do like some choice. Case in point is the matches in progress today. An excellent match between Janko Tipsarvich and Gael Molfils was in progress. Both players were playing excellent tennis. Tipsarvich, his injury notwithstanding, gave Molfils a tough fight. All of a sudden, the channel decided that a useless match between Maria Sharapova and Beatrice Capra was the more appropriate one to show. Suddenly, I was transported from a gripping contest to a one sided farce. Not only that, once the match ended, the channel moved on to a stupid interview with Maria Sharapova.

Back in the past, when something like this happened, the choices I had were to continue watching what was being offered on TV, or in the worst case, switch the TV off. But now, I have the luxury of turning to the internet. Today, while the stupidity continued on TV, I went to the official US open site, and continued to watch the Tipsarvich match from where the TV left off. This is when I realized that I really do not need cable TV. In fact, most of us don’t. The recent trend in the cable TV sales is a clear indicator that at a time where a dip in the rate of job loss is a positive indicator, many people have concluded that cable TV is not a luxury they need. The cable TV channels are not doing themselves any favors by dishing out stupidity ever so often. With the advent of DVR, I am sure we watch a lot fewer commercials than we did before. At least, I do. When it comes to programs other than sports, I just choose to watch the program a few hours later, so that I can skip the advertisements. How this will affect advertisement revenue to the cable channels is anybody’s guess. In these times, the cable TV needs to do more to attract customer attention. Someone has to think out of the box to keep us glued to the idiot box.

 
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Art versus the Artist: What is more important?

30 Aug

Yesterday, I went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). I went there with a friend from Armenia who is visiting the US for a month. He is an amateur photographer and in general, has the artistic side of his brain well developed. On the other hand, my artistic faculties are not what you would call “developed”. When it comes to art in the form of paintings, I am really bad. So, my trip to the SFMOMA was pretty interesting to say the least.

When we got into the SFMOMA parking garage at around 4:00 PM yesterday, we had an hour and forty five minutes to spend in the museum. My best case estimation for the time I could spend in a museum was two hours. The worst case was five minutes. So, with an hour and forty five minutes in hand, I thought there was plenty of time to explore this museum. We entered the museum, eighteen dollars per person lighter on the pocket. Once inside, we proceeded to the third floor, which is where the exhibition starts. I saw a bunch of photographs. They looked ordinary to me. I asked my friend as to what he found unique about the photographs. He politely declined to answer my question. I figured that since I was the ignorant one, I should put in the extra effort to make sense of what I see.

As I moved from one exhibition to other, the fledgling art faculties of my brain were put to a stern test. For instance, I could not understand how a rectangle or a trapezium could constitute a painting. Here I was staring at a piece of art that was essentially a rectangle, something I used to draw every day to solve the “Mensuration” problems in tenth grade. The only thing artistic about the picture was that the numbers depicting the length of the sides of the rectangle did not make any sense. Then there was a set of rectangles that resembled the color palette selections in a home depot. And then, there was one that my friend pointed out was a portrait of a thinking man. Right next to it was another painting by the same artist that resembled a kicking man. I asked my friend what it was. He politely declined to answer. As I tried hard to appreciate art, I realized I was not the only moron in the room. I heard a mother telling her son, “This is the same thing daddy made for you last Christmas”!!!

I realized that after all these years of training and working in a technical field, my brain has been conditioned to look for logic and order in everything. Therefore, I need a mountain, or a face, or an ocean, or anything familiar to appreciate a painting. My brain does not understand a combination of colors that is not necessarily something. The ability to appreciate something for what it is, and not what it is supposed to be is sadly lacking at the moment. On the other hand, the controversy pertaining to the pictures taken by Ansel Adams has confounded me. A photograph supposed to have been taken by Ansel Adams, is worth millions of dollars. Now, an old lady comes forward and says that the photograph was actually taken by her uncle, and not by Ansel Adams. All of a sudden, there is a debate on the value of the photograph. A few days back, the headline in the daily news was something to the tune of “Million dollars or worthless?” So, a photograph taken by Ansel Adams is worth millions. However, the same photograph taken by a common man is not worth anything. In all this, does anyone care that regardless of the artist, the photograph might be worth a million dollars? Or is the quality of the photograph secondary? Are the paintings on display at the SFMOMA a celebration of the art or the artists that created them?

 
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Trust and the Technical Manager

09 Aug

Often times, we hear stories about the corporate structure being a tree full of monkeys, where the monkeys at the lowest branch represent the blue collared workers, and the monkey at the highest branch is the CEO. So, when a monkey looks up, it sees an A**H*** (henceforth referred to as AH). One of the reasons for the AH structure is that the guy at the top is not expected to do anything. He can only direct others. Case in point is the former CEO of BP, Tony Hayward. At a congressional hearing pertaining to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, many of his answers were “I do not know as I am not a technical person”. Those may not have been the exact words he used, but he said something to that effect. All it did was to establish him as a narcissistic CEO, disconnected from the people working for him. It came across as if he was trying to save himself at the cost of his employees.

It is not uncommon in technology firms for people from a predominantly technical background to become managers. These are the guys who have endured AHs for many years, and now are entrusted with the responsibility of being one. The technical manager has a difficult job to do. On the one hand, he likes to stay low enough to be not perceived as an AH. On the other hand, he has to move to a higher branch to be able to get other things done: things such as interfacing other teams, project planning, general management etc. So, he has to make this decision on where he wants to be. He also has to be able to respond to any exigencies and move between branches, as per the situation’s demand. A lot of the manager’s position depends upon his team and his trust on his team. Again, for a technical manager, this is a difficult question. Unlike a manager without necessary technical background (and who only relies on trust), he has a choice of doing the work himself. Let us examine the effect of trust on project management.

Suppose a manager trusts his team completely. Obviously, this approach is fraught with risks and nobody does this. Usually, the manager and his team have regular meetings and project status is updated based on the information provided. However, he only gets the reports from his team. He does not go and check the implementation to make sure everything was done correctly. Take a simple example in a software project. The team claims that it has implemented the feature, and the verification team claims that no bugs have been found. Now, what does the manager do? He checks his project notes, checks the implementation box, checks the verification box, and calls the project done. Now, a few days after the product has been released to the market, the engineer reports that there was a bug that was not caught by the verification team. This is a classic SNAFU (Situation Normal, All F***ed Up) moment. The manager got a go ahead from the developer and the verification team. Now, both teams were inefficient, which resulted in a poor quality product. This is a very common occurrence. Even I-Phone4 suffered from the antenna issue when everything was supposed to have been tested.

At the other end of the spectrum is a manager who does not trust his team at all. He insists on doing everything himself. Now, this has the obvious problem of scalability. Why do you need a team if you insist on doing everything yourself? Moreover, this approach severely stunts the growth of the team and consequently, the firm. The lower level engineers never learn anything as the manager is always seen as the messiah who can take care of things.

The other approach is to trust but verify. Here, the manager lets his team do the implementation, but goes in detail to understand how each feature is implemented and verified. The level of verification depends on the nature of the team. An inexperienced team will need a lot of monitoring and verification. An experienced team may not require as much. The problem here is that verification may sometimes be even more difficult the development. When a technically competent manager implements something, he can get it done in a magnitude of time less than his team. The team may end up making all kinds of mistakes, so much so that the manager spends all his time correcting the mistakes. Errors can creep in the implementation that escape the manager’s attention. After all, the manager is only human, with hundred other things to complete.

One of the understated but important functions of a technical manager is training his team. It is here that the manager can earn the respect of his team. If he engages in active training, he gets to understand his team better. This will in turn help him earn the trust of his team. This will also help him determine the level of trust and the level of verification that his team requires. Over time, with training, his trust on his team will improve.

The balancing act for a technical manager is a difficult one. He needs to ensure that he is perceived as someone who maintains control, is helpful, technically competent, has good man management skills, all bundled into one. He has to consciously restrain himself from becoming an implementation person, so that he can contribute to the larger interests of the company. At the same time, he needs to be prepared to dive in when his services are required. Maradonas and Zidanes, who excelled in their skills as well as captained the team, do not come every day. But it is an everyday job for the technical manager.


 
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