Govinda, Kangaroo among other things are better for your career than checking the Blackberry

I was appalled reading a recent blog on Singapore work culture. Accordingly to the piece Singaporeans are one of the unhappiest when it comes to work. Only 19 % of employees in Singapore look forward to their work day. The global average is 30%. Also almost 70% of Singaporeans check their official emails on holidays and vacations. (Source: http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/what-happens-when-it-all-ends_bp-63023023.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnw)

I see a similar trend with many middle level and senior management people in India. Some are glued to their Blackberry’s all the time, including weekends and vacations. Also in most corporations it is considered very bad to leave office before 6:00 PM. Why are we human beings, the most evolved race on Earth behaving like hamsters, running after the same damn thing day after day? We as Indians I think spend the least amount of time on self development and personal growth. There was joke in the IT world that most developers after five years of experience want to become managers and don’t want to code anymore.

I think the truth is that the poor sucker can't code anymore. He has never kept up with the changes in technology and all he knows is at least 5 years old. Extrapolate this across the organization, you would realize that even CEO’s have knowledge that is dated.

So how does one keep concurrent with new ideas, technologies or even concepts? Well I can only speak from the marketing world. All great marketers spend time off from work. They visit other markets; spend time with friends not from the Industry and take regular breaks. The burst of creativity comes from spending time off work rather than warming the cubicles way past midnight.

It’s like cutting a tree; either you can go on chopping with a blunt axe or take time off to sharpen the axe. Most organizations are finding out that the blunt axe is equal to dead wood and there are these purges that happen every once in a while where these managers are weeded out and removed.

The trick is to keep oneself relevant and fresh. I personally like watching Govinda movies. The kinds of ideas you get from his movies are remarkable. If not the ideas his brand of slapstick comedy is so refreshing that you feel rejuvenated. There is one particular movie where he as a dhaba owner takes on the owner of a Five star hotel on Product (Butter Chicken and Naan) , Price, Promotion (price offs and Free Beer) and Place (Just next to the disco of the hotel). In another movie in a classic case of positioning he declares that he is the number one hero. That positioning – of him being the number one hero - stuck on in many other movies that he did.

In a meeting a few weeks ago I managed to interact with a big branding ‘GURU’ who wore a Mickey Mouse print shirt. He had among other things found out that doctors were in league with unbranded vegetable oil sellers to ensure that people fall ill. The guy is a ‘genius’, he should be on Freakonomics radio. But he again emphasized that a lot many product ideas had come from Nature. The one example I totally empathized with was the BjornBaby carriers for Babies which I use for my daughter, this was it seems inspired from Kangaroos. There was also a Fish that inspired some car. Pringles inspired by fallen dry leaves and so on.

What the guru missed mentioning was that unless you take time out and look at nature or any other source of inspiration; you aren’t going to get ideas. Perhaps, he didn’t understand this as he himself could not boast of any original idea/ thought.

The point I am making is simple, spent time at work but also spend time out of it, with Family and yourself. Develop yourself otherwise things will just pass by and you will become a blunt axe.