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Silence is culpable
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ~ George Orwell India has changed. I hate to say it, but that is the truth. It is no longer the nation I grew up in. The question is, ‘Do we want to continue to…
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Do’s and Don’ts for professionals in family businesses?
There are many reasons why bright and highly competent professionals choose to work for family businesses over working for global MNCs. One of the most common reasons that professionals join family businesses is to be close to the seat of power. It is the nature of the family business that key professionals get maximum exposure…
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Outside talent inside family
It is a no brainer to say that there is no family in the world that can continue to provide all the knowledge, talent and energy it needs, to fuel the growth and development of their business, indefinitely. Yet it is amazing to see the usual reluctance to bring in outside talent, even when it…
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Friends of Fake News
Fake news is the bane of our lives and believe it or not (and MIT study, no less, proves this) it is so-called well-meaning people who spread it faster than any bot. Are you one of them? If so, cease and desist.
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Urdu? What did I do?
A language, any language, is not simply sounds and script characters which represent thoughts. A language is the soul of the people. It is the vehicle which connects their past to their present, their present to their dreams. It is the means by which one generation leaves its legacy for the next. In my view…
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Challenges of Parenting in the 21st century
The biggest challenge of parenting is to accept that we are facing a world that is very different from the one we grew up in. This is true irrespective of which country you live in with the additional complexity of a rapid destruction of walls between cultures. The truth is that your solutions don’t work…
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What comprises leadership?
What is it that enables some leaders to continue to be inspirational and not lose followers even when their decisions may not be to their follower’s liking? This is a very critical dilemma of leadership, of walking the tightrope between populist actions and doing what needs to be done and risk losing popularity. In today’s…
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Strategic advice to Indians in South Africa
In 2005, I wrote an article titled, ‘State of the Nation’, after a trip to South Africa at the invitation of the Jamiat ul Ulama where I met and addressed hundreds (perhaps over a thousand or more in total) of Ulama, businessmen, scholars, teachers and parents in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. I also…