JULY 6, 2003
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Q&A: Subrah S. Iyar
As Chairman & CEO of the $140-million Nasdaq listed WebEx Communications Inc, Subrah Iyar is in an enviable position. His company has been ranked No. 1 in a recent Forbes' listing of the fastest growing tech companies. With a CAGR of 186 per cent over the last five years, he's the man to listen to on growth.


Confer Different
'Here's to the crazy ones…' begins the classic ad. Except that there's not a murmur in the conference hall. In fact, there is no hall. It's a virtual seminar. The delegates use VSAT-linked PCs to get across to panelists Samit Sinha of Alchemist, Harish Doraiswamy of Adidas and Kalyanmoy Chatterjee of TN Sofres-Mode.

More Net Specials
Business Today,  June 22, 2003
 
 
Geeks And Their Funny Bone

Tech companies are going out of their way to make working fun.

Taking fun seriously: Work at NIIT takes a backseat as its employees gather for a session of dumb charades

BACK OF THE BOOK
Second Thoughts

BOOKEND

This has to be a joke, I said to myself as I hopped into my white Maruti 800 and buckled up for a 30-odd kilometre drive to niit's headquarters at Kalkaji in South Delhi. Vijay Thadani, I had been informed just hours before, had been redesignated as the computer education company's CFO. Well, I knew that NIIT was going through some really rough patch ever since the tech slowdown started three years ago, but the move seemed harsh even by the tech industry's unorthodox standards. Besides, why would co-promoter Thadani, who has been working out of the US for the last few years, meekly accept the demotion?

As it turned out, it was a joke alright-pulled on me. The new addition to the 51-year-old Thadani's title didn't read Chief Financial Officer as I had thought. Rather, it spelt Chief Fun Officer. His mission: To bring the smile, rather the guffaws, back into the workplace. "There's a new intruder who has crept into our lives. It is causing terror in NIIT. As the CFO, I declare a prolonged war against that intruder-seriousness," declared Thadani, er..., seriously. An army of fun officers have been "appointed" across NIIT's offices, and the theme for the year is: 366 Days of Fun.

That fun is (or, rather, was) a serious business at dotcoms is nothing new. But why are hardcore tech companies now either entrusting the serious business of fun to their senior-most executives or going out of their way to tickle the geek's funny bone? Is it because profits are under pressure, there's a growing backlash against the Indian techie, or that h1s are getting scarcer? Sure these may be some of the reasons, but not as big as the problem such programmes are aimed at addressing: Attrition. Yes, despite the slowdown, the industry churns over a staggering 13-14 per cent of its workforce every year. And it is a proven fact that companies with better work environment lose less people.

Infoscions at a golfing session: It is the company's stated goal to provide its employees "a home away from home"

A case in point: HCL Perot Systems, where the attrition rate is half the industry average. "The philosophy is to encourage people to enjoy themselves," says Rajnish Kohli, an associate and a co-founder of HCL Perot Systems. The last Friday cake and coke party at the Noida-based company, for instance, required the basement dwellers to show up in black and white, bright blue was fixed for the ground floor guys, purple for first floor, second floor got yellow/orange, while it was a red day for the third floor associates (there are no designations in the company and everyone is an associate). Trekking breaks. Art of living courses. Even Hypnosis. All these go into the positioning of HPs as an adventure company, and which, according to Kohli, boosts productivity and curbs attrition.

Teams at the Chennai-based Polaris occasionally break-out into impromptu get togethers dubbed JLT (Just Like That) Parties, which are amorphous in nature and take shape according to the mood at the time. I thought it was some kid's b'day party plans when I heard their listing of fun events, which range from balloon busting races to eating competitions to painting competitions to dumb charades (a hot favourite). That is just the superficial part though. "We realise that the challenge is in engaging the highly creative minds that work for us," says Senior Vice President at Polaris, R. Shekar. "The aim is to encourage creativity while imbibing the discipline that project execution requires."

And families, more often than not, are welcome to be part of the merry-making. The grand-old-company of the IT industry, Tata Consultancy Services, has its annual Family Day in June. But it is not collegial flippant and flamboyant atmosphere that is sought to be replicated, but a more sophisticated one in keeping with the profile of the Tata group. "There is a least one fun event scheduled each month," says Atul Takle, Vice President for Corporate Communications at TCS. No, February is not set aside for Valentine celebrations here. It is the month in which each branch office has the option to choose its own activity. The company does, however, celebrate Women's Day along with the rest of the world in March and Secretaries' Day in April. You could play around with your workspace creatively and get the TCS workspace award (September) or just hang around at the company long enough and get a Hats Off for long service (August).

Similarly, Infosys has a maturish profile of events which it categorises as fun: Dhun-Dhun cultural festival involving a variety of competitions; Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment plan; Training on Confidence in the Face of Aggressive Response; meditation workshops and...okay, there are dancing sessions too. Interestingly, this is what I found to be a first for any company-Infosys aims to provide "a home away from home" for its employees, enabling them to be enriched intellectually, physically, emotionally and materially. In keeping with the all-embracing philosophy of the firm, one high point of celebrations is the Petit Infoscions day dedicated to the children of the employees.

Sadly, not one of the companies I spoke to measured up to the high that some Japanese firms provide to their employees by a simple inexpensive device-a punching bag that resembles the boss.

TREADMILL
May I See Your Brachioradialis?

I mentioned last time about how there are minor muscles that we often tend to neglect. Muscles that connect bigger muscles and joints and whose development complements the development of larger muscles. The brachioradialis isn't a subtle small muscle. Here's what it is in muscle-speak: The brachioradialis is a stronger elbow flexor when the radioulnar joint is in a mid-position between supination and pronation. When the forearm is pronated, the brachioradialis is more active during elbow flexion since the biceps brachii is in a mechanical disadvantage. When the forearm is pronated, the brachioradialis tends to supinate as it flexes. In a supinated position, it tends to pronate as it flexes.

Gobbledy-gook? Here's what it is in English: it's the muscle along your outer upper forearm. And it's a muscle most tend to neglect. Well-developed biceps are nothing without a well-developed brachioradialis, yet legions of gym goers are done with their arm exercises if they've targeted the biceps and the triceps. Do a bunch of barbell curls, dumb-bell curls, perhaps some preacher curls and that takes care of the biceps. Then cable pulldowns, barbell curls for the triceps and a dips. You're set to go, right? Wrong. Without well-developed outer forearms, your sinewy biceps are going to look odd and out of place. Enter reverse curls. Every self-respecting gym goer does curls-barbell or dumb-bell-for the biceps. You grab a barbell with both hands with underhand grips and curl the bar, flexing your arms at the elbow but keeping the upper arm fixed. Or grab two dumb-bells and do the same thing, alternating between two arms. And see your biceps grow.

Reverse curls are a variation. You can use dumb-bells or barbells but instead of an underhand grip, employ an overhand one, with the fingers facing downwards. Now do the curls. You'll feel the pressure not on your biceps but on the outer side of your forearms, especially upper part of the forearm. To complete the development of your arms, you need to supplement your biceps and triceps workouts with reverse curls for your brachioradialis. Do either barbell reverse curls or dumb-bell hammer curls (you hold the dumb-bells at your sides, palms facing in) or even preacher curls using the reverse-overhand-grip.

Tip of the fortnight: Don't exercise on an empty stomach. Grab something to eat about 30 minutes before your workout. It could be simply a handful of nuts or just a couple of whole-wheat cookies.

 

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