Inside Apple - Adam Lashinsky (Book Review)

Unputdownable.

At first, when I saw this book online, I thought it’d be one among the many, ‘post Jobs Cashing In’, books to be released by a capitalist publisher and a greedy author, with due respect to both of them. So while I was thinking of which one to order among so many of them, somehow, like all Apple products, this one ‘Felt’ right. And Boy, could my intuition be more accurate!

‘Inside Apple’ is an all access card to a secretive behemoth called Apple. The book takes you through all the areas of management, communication, product development and the workflow at Apple. Their obsession with perfection, their emphasis on details right from the text in their ads to the packaging of products, subliminal branding and most importantly, Focus.

There’s a line in the book, which says, Apple is “a company whose methods fly in the face of decades of well established management maxims.” I believe it’s only because they follow a method much older than recent management maxims. Their method is pretty much based on the Zen philosophy of Focus, Minimal and Simple.

It’s very rare for a company to grow to be the world’s largest, in the lifetime of its founder. Through this book, you’ll know, how Apple doesn’t care about either, the size or the growth rate In fact, doesn’t even care about the shareholders. Their focus, like their products, is Simple. Make “Revolutionary” Products and a “Wow” Product Experience, and the rest will take care of itself. Unusual and Surprising, are understatements for both, the company, and this book.

Adam tries to scratch the surface of Apple’s famous Secrecy policy. Right from anecdotes like, the company having plainclothes security at a close by bar to watch over if any Apple employee leaks some information in the heat of the moment, to their memento store at the office, which sells a tee shirt that reads “I visited Apple, but that’s all I’m allowed to Say.” So much is their belief in keeping things secret that most of the times, employees at One Infinite Loop, don’t even know what the person in the next cubicle is doing. The work culture is unlike any of the ‘Best Places to Work’ magazine issues. Something that amused me the most in the book was “Everyone inside Apple is trying to get out, and everyone outside is trying to get in.”

One more thing, it takes us through the leadership and succession planning for the post-Jobs scenario. As an Apple fan, you may rest assured, that the company’s going nowhere south in the near future, for Steve’s pumped enough of his vision into each employee. However, it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out thereafter. The closest one can get to know how Apple works without working there, is through this book. Adam Lashinsky has thrown this light on the ‘dark side of moon’ in a manner that you can’t not be amazed by this company which takes being Casual, very Seriously. I highly recommend it to all. It’s Unputdownable.

The Balance Sheet of Life

The West Indian great CLR James once said, "What do they know of Cricket, who only Cricket know?" Thus, implying the importance of applying concepts and knowledge from more disciplines than the supposed subject. This thought and a conversation with a friend some time ago, propounded me to think of how the analysis of a Balance Sheet can be transferred into the Analysis of Life itself.

As a finance student, I've always been taught the importance of The Balance Sheet. Perhaps, the most sacrosanct document along with the Income Statement for a company. If we look no further, than our own lives, it actually applies to us as well.

The components of a Balance Sheet, if broken down and compared could be something as follows. It should, however, be understood that, all components and their constituents are only an indicative list, not an exhaustive one. Just the way it boils down to Corporate Governance in a Company, it's Subjectivity that rules our Balance Sheet of Life.

Liabilities - Now as the case in a Company, this section of life is all about Resources. The resources out here mean non-monetary, love and duty bound relationships and yourself.

Equity - You and Your Immediate Family. Just how the prime motive of the company is to ensure maximum return to Equity holders, your purpose of life is to ensure maximum returns in terms of Joy and Happiness to yourself, your immediate family and those who you choose to give Preference in terms of inviting them on to your Inner-circle.

The equity holders are made up of Promoter - You, Institutions - Family and Retail Investors - Friends, Extended Family and the Inner Circle. The Preference Shareholders is your partner or anyone you choose to include based on your own preference.

At times, just as equity holders can also infuse debt, in personal and institutional capacity, you may also be indebted to the same persons as long-term creditors for different reasons.

Debt - Anyone who has ever had a long lasting impact in your life in the form of a life changing advice, selfless care or moments that you'll cherish forever, you are indebted to them.

If you give a man, fish, he eats for a day, If you teach a man how to fish, you give him food for life. Therefore, your biggest Debt Holders are Teachers. Not just School, College or B School Profs, but any one, who, you've happened to learn something or anything from.

The outflows to debtors in your life have to be two pronged. Firstly, Constant appreciation, respect and remembrance and walking on the path shown by them would be your interest payments. Finally, bringing glory to them would be repayment of Principal, in part, as most people you're indebted to in life are often, debt holders forever.

Just like a company, the return on equity is a function of ROC and Leverage. However, there is a fine balance to be maintained, as under-leverage may give back lower returns to equity than potential and too many debt obligations would ensure, you have no time for equity holders and thus bankruptcy risks.

Current Liabilities - This part of the Balance Sheet is slightly materialistic and subjective. While you know, you're indebted to a lot of people for life, a bit of give and take, only makes it fair for all the parties. It's about making sure you give back what favors you've accepted in life, material or non-material. For instant, Small gestures such as a person who's helped you by virtue of his influence, position or affection towards you, given you a present, landed you a job interview opportunity, helped you when you needed it most and many similar things, should be repaid by you doing the same when you can, and more often than not, more than just the same. The thumb rule would be try and do at least 10% more for a person who's a current creditor, than what you've received from him, material or non-material.

An important part of current liabilities is Current Portion of Long term debt, which in life can be believed as to, a long-term debt holder of yours, is in an urgent need of help, any kind. As a company it'd be one's duty to fulfill that obligation.

Words like Repayment and Obligation are hard terms to be used in daily life parlance and human relationships, but it's important to recognize the give and take cycle, for better living.

Assets - This part of the balance sheet is all about what we have done with whatever we've received from the equity holders in terms of love and resources and debt holders in the form of knowledge and habits. The first 30 years of lives make our habits and knowledge, the next 30 years; our knowledge and habits make our lives. So Asset Allocation is equally, if not more, essential in The Balance Sheet of Life.

Goodwill - Now a company cannot create it's own goodwill; it has to do so by acquisitions. Your goodwill is nothing but the Credibility and the Value System of your associations, the friends you keep, the family name, your school, your college and your workplace. This can be amortized over a period of time, as over time, your own performance and not your pedigree, or qualification, is important.

However, another important component of Goodwill is your Integrity and Karma. It may be intangible and invisible, but certainly indestructible. Finally Goodwill also includes a factor called “God-will”. This is sheer luck and God's Grace, can't be measured, nor acquired. Major source of this is Faith and Belief.

Fixed Assets - Your fixed long term assets are what you have done with the knowledge you've acquired and the love you've gained. It can be in the form of giving back to the Society by making it a better place to live in, with your work, intellect, actions and words. In doing so, the name, fame, fortune and happiness that you gain are all the returns on these assets. The Body and our health are our plant, machinery and building. Thus, maintaining the same is essential. Our Relationships with people and products, what we Do, not just, to make a Living, but to make a Life, is our biggest asset. It's very to ensure that we're adding something worthwhile on to whatever we've gotten for only then, will our ROC will be greater than our WACC.

Again, like all fixed assets, these depreciate over time too, so it is important to keep applying ourselves and exceeding ourselves always to optimize asset utilization.

One fixed asset that doesn't depreciate over time is Land. In case of Life, the field of Expertise you choose, in either profession or education, is the Land. Ensure that you always continue to appreciate it in value by pushing boundaries, and the biggest parameters of that are Passion and the Quest for More.

Investments - Time, energy and resources spent in bettering yourself intellectually or physically, through, a book, a hobby or an exercise or anything that satisfies the soul are Core Investments. Their returns are accumulative and exemplary over the long run.

Anything that you've done for others, by helping them is your non-core investment. All Social Voluntary Activities fall under this category too. What might be Investments for us are actually Debt or Equity for others. So it is essential to understand that we do the same to others, what we expect the others to do for us as Stakeholders (equity or debt).

Current Assets - What we consider as Current Liabilities for ourselves are again, current assets for the counter parties. Therefore, whatever we've done for others in our capacity, are our current assets. However, it's also important to make a provision for Bad Debts based on a few past mistakes and Wrong Calls as they'll help in reducing grief and high expectations of realization of those assets.

The Yield Curve of Life is upward sloping; therefore it is not advisable to fund short-term assets with long-term debt. Thus, fuming with a long-term debt holder with something short term and temporary could be very expensive.

Inventories are the networks we build over time, which will help us, help others and ourselves. Just like physical goods, these are often difficult to realize at a short notice, but current assets nevertheless.

Cash - As we all know, this is the most liquid of all assets and perhaps the most important for our needs too. Cash in the Balance sheet of life is actually 3 things, Time, Energy and Actual Cash. We may choose to use these wisely and allocate among our activities. While, excess uninvested cash, is unproductive and it's value decreases over time, Scarcity of the same would make day-to-day survival very difficult. Also, In times of doubt, having time, energy and money in hand is the best. So these three components function just Cash in our lives.

Thus, managing The Balance Sheet of Life will lead to Health, Wealth and Prosperity, thus cumulatively Happiness, which is indeed, the Purpose of Life. While at this juncture, when we aspire to be CEOs and CFOs of the organizations we'll work in, or start, it'd be great to quarterly review our own personal Balance Sheets and our Individual Performance against our Peers and Ourselves. The Market or outsiders may value us positively or negatively, depending on the short-term sentiment, but eventually it's our own assessment that'll stand the test of the long run for We are Our Biggest Stakeholders.

(C) Mangalam Maloo 2011.

CatFight

Eureka I scream,

I scream Epiphany.

Post scores of tribulations,

It finally dawns upon me.

That, Inside of me, they reside,

Two ladies who always help me decide.

Ladies, I call my Mind and my Heart,

For, ladies they are, truly works of art,

Logical, mature and succinct at times,

Or impulsive, unreal and unreasonable,

Swaying, just like wind chimes.

Both, attention seeking, like a child in the rhymes

I wonder, if they even belong to me, sometimes.

On matters in which they’re congruent,

They are like a house on fire,

On matters, not so much,

Contests go down to the wire.

They fight, they sulk, and they scratch like cats,

Just like the Nazis, Commies and Democrats.

In my contentment though, lies their ultimate goal,

In my disposition, they play a large role.

Each wants their voice to be heard,

While both debate adamantine,

They expect the other to soften,

Yet eventually they complain,

That I use the other one more often.

Uncomplicate.

No philosophies, I preach,
No Humanities, I teach.
But, I must, if I may,
Bare all that have to say.
To understand,
It takes no rocket science,
That, there lies no sense,
In pointless defiance
Complexities, is on what we all thrive,
Needlessly forgetting, we are Alive.
Gathering some ‘Friends’,
Amassing a ‘Following’,
In the end, it’s the real ones,
To you, who cling.
Of your hearts,
They pull a string.
In us all, stays this ghost,
He, is what troubles me most.
Following, Followers, Friends, Fans,
All futile,
If outside of it,
You cease,
To make a real person smile.
The purity of one’s heart,
If judged by a profile face,
On which lies a pimple,
Well, you know then,
That the most difficult thing
Is to be Simple.

IPL Rantings - Read at your own risk.

I do follow cricket with quite a keen eye and do so with an open mind towards all formats of the game. I don’t necessarily subscribe to ‘Test snobbery’, nor do I have any cynicism about the way ODI is going nor do I believe that the future of cricket is just about an orgy of fours and sixes. A cricket match is just like art, ‘art for arts’ sake’, they say, and each format, a different ball game altogether.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that The Indian Premier League does interest me despite all it's commercialization and innovation (although, I believe the only innovations done are new terms such as Karbonn Kamal Catches, Citi moments of Success and Cricketainment and of course, the MRF Blimp. However, more on that later. I enjoy a closely contested match, regardless of all the 'fixed/rigged' allegations for I have not much tangible to lose or gain anyway.

While the cricket is fine and as great as it can ever be, it's the entertainment that gets me agitated. The overkill of content packaging and 'expert' opinions, which comprise of a wannabe model, a Video jockey and ex cricketers who have forgotten the that it’s a contest of Bat and ball not, proverbs and idioms, and the pre-mid-post-anytime match analysis are actually masking the actual cricket rather than enhancing it. A classic case of the wrapping paper so loud that it takes the sheen out of the actual present. As for the ads, enough has already been said. The marketing heads seem to have actually lost their heads and if the game permits, they would even have an ad for every breath a player takes. For one it does look like I’m being served ads with some cricket breaks in between.

What amuses me more is the fact that brands associate themselves with completely unrelated things. For instance, hardly do I understand why a tire making company would have a phallic shaped blimp at each of the stadia and call it a technological breakthrough. It still makes some sense for they do have some association with the game and also sponsor a cricket academy in the country. But try understanding and explaining why a new mobile handset entrant wants to ensure its name is heard at each catch, and I’ll show you a spin-doctor. Try doing the same for DLF Maximum and Citi moment of success. At the end of it all you’ll be wondering ‘How does it make any sense?’ Now just when you're about to lose it, you have another mind numbing phenomenon. There does exist in actuality, a brand which sponsors 'Nothing', absolutely 'Nothing'. Max mobile sponsors the strategic time-out, during which nothing happens. I may not be a media expert, and perhaps that's why I yet haven't understood why a brand would want to be associated with nothing. Funny! That said, there is no denying that it sells, and there are a bunch of people cashing in on it. I, for one, have caught most matches in the city at the stadium and also followed a large part on TV and the Internet. So I can understand that at any given point in time, the demand for cricket in our country will always exceed the supply. This isn’t even my real concern with regard to the tournament.

My real problem lies in the puny tokenism that takes place in this jamboree. We got to accept that it’s a funny world when charity becomes fashion. All of a sudden it seems cool to be associated with some act of philanthropy so much so, that it forms an important part of the agenda. While the act is not questionable, the intent is. Karbonn mobile, for instance, donates Rs. 25,000 per catch taken during their Kamaal catch competition or whatever that is, for each catch taken. I don’t doubt their ingenuity, but why would I really want to see douche-bags attempting to make full fools out of themselves while trying to grab the ugly pink ball hit by a lesser mortal of a franchise? More importantly, does the company actually need to show such belittling benevolence trying to build brand recognition and presence?

It’s unnerving. What’s even worse is the Green Responsibility taken by the IPL fraternity this season. Certainly, Green is the color of the season and his here to stay. But, this one, has surpassed all boundaries, infuriated enough to make an indifferent and an easy going (plain lazy, if you must) me to have actually written the following to the IPL authorities by virtue of the Feedback section on their website. Here is a copy of the same. Informal it is, but rarely does irritation and anger vent itself formally.

To Whom It May Concern:

This is with regard to the green initiative the IPL has taken this season. While it sounds great, I wish to know what green acts have you being doing? For, My only rant against the IPL is the tokenism it undertakes. Green Initiatives. Ha! Despite a spate of Fireworks after each boundary, Blaring Loud Speakers and Corporate Helicopters Flying to and fro for one puny man, they proudly give a stupid green tip right before the toss. This does nothing to reduce carbon footprints. The only green I see is the outfield, which too is fast disappearing because of advertising signage all over. I wish to know if you'll are actually planting any trees or undertaking such acts to offset the carbon emissions created by this tournament so far. If not, then I wonder of what use is the globe you'll got signed by the captains of all franchises, apart from selling it off at yet another 'charity' auction.

Regards,

Mangalam Maloo.

Finally, the eternal optimist in me still says, things will get better. One Day, Cricket (don’t mistake it for One Day Cricket. The comma lies between one day and cricket) will be played the way it should be, and we shall all enjoy it the way it should be. But then again, what should be, would be only if what could be, would be.

Much Love

M

Phir Mile Sur...

My friend Himanshu Kapadia and many others who shared the same opinion as me on the new version of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, the epic song on National Integration, have made me write this note. While we all feel, this one lacks the sense of awe and patriotism and goosebump generating capacities of the earlier ones, here is my reckoning of the whole thing. Do treat it as my humble and personal opinion and you may also feel free to bash me, add your own and agree in unison. Here are a few points which I think might be the main reason behind it not having the kind of impact as anticipated by us:

1)The first one, unlike this, was a novelty concept. Today, we have videos featuring many big people for each issue, right from the girl child, to elections to even cheering the cricket team for a world cup. Whereas, earlier having such big names in a video itself was enough to create ripples.

2)The Cricket World, as per a friend of mine related to this says, was deliberately overlooked. I think of it as stupid because, a video on national integration is incomplete without Sachin Tendulkar (the epitome of national intergration IMHO.) Can't yet digest, having a punk like Shahid Kapoor, score over him.

3)A few also thought that parts of India, mainly the North-East were ignored. While, North India was somewhat represented through Bhupen Hazarika, it was the complete omission of Corporate India that baffled me most.People like Narayan Murthy, Anand Mahindra, Ratan Tata, One of the Ambanis and Kumar Mangalam Birla together in a frame would have created much more impact than 18 SRKs, 20 ABs and 30 Deepikas together wouldn't.

That said, I think, it was a nice thing to revive the song and the inclusion of a few of my favorite musicians right from ARR, SEL, Rahul Sharma, Amaan n Ayaan, Anoushka and Sivamani made it watchable. Rahman was presented in the best manner ever. We often see him in videos, arms spread and singing in his usual high pitch. However, this one, with him playing the Continuum was done extremely well.

M

Voyage

I, once met a traveler,

As well as a tourist,

With both their anecdotes,

I was having a tryst,

The tourist asked the former,

Have you seen La Tour d’ Eiffel?

“Nope”, said the traveler,

“But, their culture, in my heart, I did fill”

“The Mummies in Egypt?” asked the tourist,

“Mummy’s love world over” said, the traveler.

“Oh! The Statue of Liberty, you, certainly, must have seen?”

“Statues, yeah, many, but liberty has lost its sheen”

They kept discussing, till eternity

Rather soon, it occurred to me,

The traveler looked at everything he saw,

The tourist, only what he wanted to see.

In all our minds, thrive the two,

Our call, entirely, with them, what we do?

At a loved one’s, be a tourist,

Love their souls, ignore the flaws,

They are bound to shower you,

With their applause.

Visit an enemy, as a traveler,

See with an open mind,

Treasure-chests full of knowledge,

You surely, will find.