And employees are important??

So I learn yesterday that one of my good friends and a great developer quits from my company. And of course, I am not thrilled! I decided to blog about it to express some of my frustrations. It so happens, although the topic is not itself related to architecture, more often than not, architects or people in that role are generally put into leadership positions and expected to deliver in a team environment.
I got this important lesson from my Dad a long time ago (he retired as an executive in a manufacturing company) about how the most important thing as a manager is to make sure you hire and nurture good people. Although I had largely ignored that statement, it started to resurface when I started facing situations where I had to compensate for the lack of experience or skills on the team. I spent countless hours trying to explain the problem domain, trying to ramp people up on the frameworks being used etc., at the same time keeping an eye on delivery dates. It helped, but not to the degree I had expected.
My current company has the philosophy of lean and mean operations, with very little cost overheads. And there are definitely pros and cons of this approach. A lot of us (including two of the founders) came from my previous company where exactly the opposite was true (excesive spending! But then again it was the dot-com era! Who cared!) So I do understand the drive to keep the costs low. But what happens is because of such an approach is that there isn't enough investment internally.

• Managers (or lack of thereof) are busy trying to grow the topline.
• There is hardly ever any bench and if there is, there is no active management of it
• Lack of structure ensuring delivery quality
• Always hiring on-demand doesnt allow teams to gel, putting pressure on delivery leadership
• And I could go on and on...

Of course, on the positive side, and its definitely a *huge* positive, is that we have never had a single layoff. We are always short on resources (not intended to be a pun!) to delivery on the pipeline and so, we don't have to really worry whether we will stay in business.
I did try and communicate this out to the decision makers within the company, and it did seem like at least a few of them acknowledged the fact. But I have yet to see follow-up or any changes on the ground with regards to the issue.
There probably is a middle ground where there is fiscally conservative policy but at the same time, adequate investment back into the company. I would love to hear others experiences in this matter and any pointers on how to go about improving the situation.

My recent trip to India

So I am back from a month long trip to to India. What a blast! Each time I visit India, there is a slew of change that greets me, right from the time I land at the airport. This time around, I was visiting after only a couple of years, and yet, I couldn't believe how much had changed in that relatively short duration of time.
The landscape - new buildings coming up next to where my parents live in Pune, the traffic going from bad to worse (both in Mumbai where my in-laws are) and in Pune, new coffee houses everywhere (a change I do welcome!), new swanky cars (I barely saw any Ambassadors or Fiats on the road other than the taxi cabs that are still reminiscent of the not so distant past), . We even had a chance to visit a brand new mall that opened in Pune. Of course, everyone now has a cellphone, including my little cousin sisters, one who is in junior college and one in high school.
The other very interesting trend I noticed was the kind of career opportunities that are now available to kids growing up. Language translations, transcription, media, journalism, finance... there's demand for all kinds of work. Growing up, if you were not an engineer or a doctor at least, it was a struggle to land a job that could earn enough money to live a decent life.

Pay scales in India are phenomenal!!! I couldn't believe how much some of my buddies were making in India. The middle class is becoming quite wealthy and people are spending money like there's no tomorrow, some loading up on as much debt as they can. Hmmm, I wonder where I have seen this before?? ;)

There are those that are argue that the rapid liberalization of the economy and opening up of the marketplace is good for the country and then those that say that recent policies are increasing the gap between the rich and the poor, that only a fraction of the country's population is benefiting from the change. I believe both are right and its only a matter of time before the wealth percolates down to the lower rungs of the economic ladder. I think this is the price that the country is paying for the transformation. I think its all good! I like change. India has gone through much tougher times in the past, and I believe it has the capacity to assimilate this change too.

Anyways, what has all this got to do with architecture, nothing! Just felt like sharing my experience with fellow netizens out there.

Peace out!