Saturday, September 14, 2013

A summit experience

Panel Discussion

Featured speakers

Doom and gloom. Call from HQ?

Security guard and doorman

Not all panelists showed up.  

Concierge and waitress in the lobby

I was in Mumbai for a “Summit”.  I had been there last year as well. Here is the post from back then. Perhaps the best way to kick off a conference is not with a depressing story. The Emcee started off with:  ”One of our delegates told me today that he may not have his job when he gets back to work on Monday”.
 
Well, it was doom and gloom in the Learning and Development sector of Indian IT /IT ES.  I provided my support by drawing in my little notebook as serious discussions about “Investments in Imagination”, “Human Capital”, “Bharat and India: It’s not the same India for all!” etc . raged. OK, not quite “raged”.  More like diffident non-committal declarations upon persistent prodding by the panel leaders:
PL: “Come on <> you surely have an opinon”,
Panelist: “Yes, yes.”
PL: “You must say it!”
Panelist: “Yeah, I suppose…*mumble*”
PL: “There you go folks, <> will now tell us his experience from the helm of<< Name of a super multinational>>”  Hands the microphone firmly to the panelist.
Cornered Panelist: “It’s a demand and supply situation. When in doubt go to the basics. It’s not “One size” fits all.  The situation on the ground is always different and we must assess it before we make strategic commitments in this recession prone economy.”
Thrusts the hot potato microphone back at PL and gulps water. 
I did learn a new term.   Apparently, Indian youth suffer from a severe ‘Intent Deficit”.  Turns out, it means that they don’t know why the hell they are working.
It appears that corporations in India regularly ask their youthful employees if they know why they are working.  And their employees aren’t giving answers the corporations want to hear.

I couldn’t take it after that.  I had to duck out and laugh into the delicious orange & poppy cupcakes served with black coffee outside in the lobby. God bless our youth!