Category: On Communities

From Boom to Bust: On Organization Identity, Sustainability and Transformation

From Boom to Bust On Organization Identity, Viability and Sustainability The Context The WeWorks fiasco is not a new story … it is yet another blip reminiscent of similar fiascos in new age capitalism, each fiasco that has been shaped through orgiastic rituals involving tyrannical entrepreneurs,  pipe-dreaming and perhaps delusional angel investors, and narcissistic but […]

Deconstructing the Voice of Technology: Looking through the Actor Network Theory (ANT) Lens

Preamble In 2013, Raghu Ananthanarayanan and I published our book on the Tensegrity Mandala, proposing an alternative organization design and philosophy for firms preparing to make a leap into the world of networks. We believed that the paradigm of traditional hierarchical structures and associated control mindset can only be transformed if the firm is able […]

The Case of Two WhatsApp Groups Management of Self & the Other: Intimacy, Vulnerability, Power, and Competitiveness

Preamble I have been privileged to be a member of two very active ‘WhatsApp groups’ – each group deriving its identity from one’s education with an elite business school in India. Each group comprises of senior leaders, men and women, who head or run large organizations or strategic functions – the average experience in management […]

Do Brand Managers and Marketeers need a Soul?

We all know that the greatest challenge humanity is facing is environmental destruction or catastrophe that looms larger, every second that passes. Take the latest ad campaign on PET bottles that was proudly pasted on all national dailies, possibly funded by All India Plastic Manufacturer Association, which  claiming that 90% of PET bottles are recycled […]

The Tyranny of Positive Thinking in Indian Corporations … Manipulating Optimism within, but without Faith

This blog explores and critiques the impact of positive thinking and its many derivatives on leaders and managers in India. I believe that the ideological stances and axioms behind positive thinking, positivist psychology, and its cruder interpretations by consultants, management gurus and coaches, create a set of complex defense process that not just isolate and alienate the human being, but obfuscate various ways in which corporate capitalism manipulates, and oppresses all its stakeholders.

The Grand Experiment at Antelope

INTRODUCTION Wild Wild Country is a remarkable and beautifully narrated documentary on Netflix, covering six episodes, each episode covering a milestone of a surreal tale across four years in Antelope, Oregon, USA. The narrative begins in a small nondescript town of 75 odd denizens, living in Orlando USA, who one day discover that a large […]

Ferdinand: A Manna of Hope and Love today …

Ferdinand: A Manna of Hope and Love today …   The Context Last night, I saw the 4-D version of Ferdinand – an animated film adaption of a classic story that refuses to die down in a world that is besotted with achievement, success, greed and masculinity. On one hand, there have been a series […]

Self Help & Actualization Movement (SHAM): Uneasy Speculations!

The Trigger A distant relative has recently decided to attend one of those “Self Help” seminars in New York, an event anchored and designed by a ‘self-help guru’ known as Tony Robbins, who is white, male, extremely rich, charismatic, successful, and appears to have many celebrities as parts of his clientele or so his website […]

Anomalisa – A tragicomic search for Intimacy & Meaningfulness

Anomalisa – A tragicomic search for Intimacy & Meaningfulness   Shadows within the Self Obsessed Networked World        Introduction This blog explores the dark shadows that lurk within the self obsessed networked world that we may discern around ourselves – comprising of successful, well connected, yet perhaps delusional, paranoid  and immensely lonely individuals, […]