In 1958, an American named John Bissell came to India as a consultant to the Ford Foundation. He fell in love with the country, and decided to make it his home. Bissell was especially taken with the richness of traditional Indian handicrafts, and set up a company he called Fabindia that began exporting handmade home furnishings 50 years ago.   Today Fabindia has more than 200 well turned out and successful retail stores in India and the UK, selling not only home furnishings but also...Read the full article »

"While all aspects of our life are important, without a balance you become addicted and like all addictions you lose”. Catherine Pulsifer.  
Working for a global company can create havoc on any attempt to balance work and family. Many executives think and talk a lot about the time we spend away from our families – both because we are flying around the world and because we work as long as it is office hours somewhere. One of our senior executives in India...Read the full article »

“What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions”. Arnold Glasow.
My wife Girija and I recently visited the Olcott Memorial High School in Chennai. We were shown around by the director, Ms. Lakshmi Suryanarayanan, a highly committed and energetic 60-year-young lady brimming with ideas on how to make the school better. We were especially impressed with the crafts section, where the students not only learnt crafts...Read the full article »

This article is dedicated to one of the many unsung heroes bringing about a change. His name is Vipul Thaker, a simple man with simple dreams. Without going into his background, let me start from one of his birthdays. It was on that day when he decided he wanted to do something different. He decided to educate a Rabari (a tribe in Gujarat) child. A makeshift classroom was created on the terrace of his two bedroom house. As days passed by, Vipul went on to explore the talent in the slum...Read the full article »

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen”. Frank Lloyd Wright     Several stonemasons were working at a building site, all of them using hammers and chisels to cut stones. Someone came by and asked what they were doing. The first one said that he was hitting stones with a hammer. The second one said he was making stone bricks.The third said he was building a...Read the full article »

  “What if humans designed products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture and productivity? That are so intelligent and safe, our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament?” From ‘Cradle to Cradle’ by McDonough and Braungart.  
Taken together, the ants on planet Earth would weigh more than all of us humans combined. We know ants are incredibly industrious. Their work nourishes plants,...Read the full article »

“India is not a poor country. It is a poorly managed country”. William Nanda Bissell.  
William Nanda Bissell is an interesting guy with interesting ideas. He is the CEO of Fabindia – a company that sources and markets the products of 40,000 craftspeople across India – potters, weavers, carpenters and many others who live by the ingenuity and skill of their heads and their hands. He has written an immensely readable book, called “Making...Read the full article »

"What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful". Dalai Lama   My mother’s elderly cousin Neelamani sometimes came to family gatherings, but I knew little about him. We exchanged pleasantries, and that was about it. Recently, however, we found ourselves in conversation at a family get-together at my parents’ house. Neelamani  told me that he was informally mentoring some youngsters in his local community in Chennai. He told them...Read the full article »

  "Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling" – Virgil   I was invited to speak to the students at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad earlier this year as a part of its CEO on campus program. I thought long and hard about how to deliver the best value to these bright youngsters in a...Read the full article »