KRA - Key Result Area

This is the most used abbreviation in the month of March. It tells whether the person can be promoted in 2 years or 3 or 4 depending on the grade he gets.

I still remember my immediate superior tearing his letter of appreciation (as ‘good’) when my boss delivered to him. When I asked him few days before about the grades, he said he wasn't interested in it. He he!!!!!

My KRA is over. I tried not to fill stories. I tried to quantify the work that I have done (like 10 testing, learnt xy testing procedures and so on and was ready with back ups too. Let me tell you the best and worst of my first year

The bad ones first,

- I was late to work for 44 days out of 285 days. (So roughly 20%. I am still in college mood. My boss tops the list with more than 80 days. Well this is not taken serious in our department but in some departments it is considered a half day holiday)

- Twice had minor accidents in test track and twice had near miss case. (I one such case I even tried to kill my boss but somehow he managed to escape. You know accident is really a good term rather than calling it as brutal killing)

- Documentation and me are always at last minute.

- My boss told me to organise for review meeting but never did it happen.

- I went home even when I did not achieve my daily targets(because no one in my department work with daily, weekly or monthly targets. Whatever comes with a tag "important, urgent" is done rest postponed)

- I could not get the work done. Well it includes all new age engineers. My boss always used to tell me it can be got only by experience.

The good ones, I have only one

- I cleaned all the mess I created. (I stayed back which is not usual for my department) I could prepare documents such that the Japanese are satisfied (seriously in my department if Japanese are happy boss is very happy but if they ask any query then we are on toes)

On the day of giving grades, he invited me inside a separate hall (ordered a cup of coffee) and he was really cool to give feedback. He started asking me about our department,

how happy are you here?

(I am sure very few department heads dare to ask such a question)

Are you comfortable working with the present team, give your feedback about me, department, senior managers ?

I did not give negative feedback on individuals but I gave him stings. (Actually this is the perfect time to give because he asked for feedback) I told him we plan but things never go according to plan. I think either we should plan robust or have some contingency plan so that the work does not suffer. It sometimes makes me that I am an Assistant MIS-MANAGER. He gave me stare and noted what I said.

Then he started his feedback on me,

I am happy with your work ....(I think it is the repeat dialogue he tells to everyone)

Please improve your network........Get the work done from others.........

And finally,

If you have problem talk to me man. You do not talk to me at all. Many times you give me a feeling that I dumped a lot of work on you.(J)

So what good thing happened to me because of the sting?

Ha ha!!!!!! I have the bare minimum responsibilities on my head (I compare with my friends KRA where a similar project is just 20% his KRA) for this financial year. I have a diesel project which is 60% of my KRA and the rest 40% is only to learn the durability basics and Japanese testing methods. (These were not in our text books).

I think I will have a happy learning. J

My Friend's Book

This is a great work from my friend who studied with us during college. Well I am not sure we have studied together but we stayed in hostel together. We had a hai-bye relationship except while watching "Da Vinci Code" movie where he already studied the book and explained to us how the movie is different from book.

This novel will be available in market in July.

Game Theory - example

I remember talking about game theory with one of my friend. He was explaining to me about it. Beautiful Mind movie……. John Nash…….. they were the only two words I understood from his long lecture. (But I was shaking my head because he was in a mood to make me understand about game theory). But he developed enough curiosity that I came home and checked some of its basics and some case studies. The best and simple example I have just copied for you. A really good one.

Courtesy : Internet

Prisoner’s dilemma

Two criminal accomplices are arrested and interrogated separately. Each suspect can either confess with a hope of a lighter sentence (defect) or refuse to talk (cooperate). The police does not have sufficient information to convict the suspects, unless at least one of them confesses. If they cooperate, then both will be convicted to minor offense and sentenced to a month in jail. If both defect, then both will be sentenced to jail for six months. If one confesses and the other does not, then the confessor will be released immediately but the other will be sentenced to nine months in jail. The police explains these outcomes to both suspects and tells each one that the other suspect knows the deal as well. Each suspect must choose his action without knowing what the other will do. A close look at the outcomes of different choices available to the suspects reveals that regardless of what one suspect chooses, the other suspect is better off by choosing to defect. Hence, both suspects choose to defect and stay in jail for six months, opting for a clearly less desirable outcome than only a month in jail, which would be the case if both chose to cooperate.

Blogs

It is great to see many of friends blogging. I really love to read their blogs. (And I still expect few more who are really great people to blog) They show the same character as I knew when studying with them. Some choose to write about their Job, some about their passion and some always has a sad note attached to it. Be it anything it is great to read about their work and their thoughts. I think blogs have also become an important feature to networking among friends.

My 2 years with Auto industry – Part 3

Yes the Engineers returned from Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan.

Every one who visited Japan, at least for their next 3 months talk about only one thing, how the same work that is done in India is different from how it is done there. As per them, the amount of work that we do is almost the twice that that of what Japanese do, but the lag is at the quality of working. They make big reports presentations and forcefully make us sit and listen and make us try to implement in our work.

I should appreciate one person. Certainly one of the gem that Maruti has. He is very systematic in work. He is not the god with high technical background but he can screw any one, to be precise he does not mind to kick anyone if he finds it is a flaw.

“If it is his boss the kick will be on his face, if he is a subordinate like me it will in our butt”.

He was so brute with work (only with work) that our head calls him for every problem that he has and I have seen 99% of the time it will be resolved by him. I will definitely call him perfect. (But I always consult him for critical issues that I face). He breaks every problem into bits and find out the way. I will definitely call him the best guy I have met in MSIL. I think I can call him a mentor rather than boss. Well he is just 2 years elder to me and I always loved his sincerity in work and commitment. I have become his follower though I rejected to join his team. (as I felt he was too perfect and I will not have the luxury to experiment with my style of managing / mismanaging the work)