The Hindu Business Line : Big results require big ambitions

Chanakya's advice is that you should ask yourself three questions before starting any work: "Why am I doing it, what might the results be, and will I be successful?"

This is the results season. Each passing day, for a couple of weeks, a barrage of corporate announcements will be upon us, in the form of quarterly performance reporting, telling us tales, both of success and failure.

An example of the positive is Wipro, about which Michael Paige reported on www.marketwatch.com, `Results outpace expectations as global IT services sales soar.' For the negative, LG Electronics is a recent example; on Wednesday, the company reported its first loss in 10 quarters.

Even as markets and investors come to terms with the results, let us explore the word. `Result' means "a consequence, effect, or outcome," according to Concise Oxford English Dictionary. "Something obtained by calculation or investigation," says Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. "Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result," assures Oscar Wilde.

Result is "common lawyer lingo for outcome of a lawsuit," informs http://dictionary.law.com. `Result!' is sandwiched between `rent-boy' and `retard' on A Dictionary of Slang and it means `an exclamation expressing a successful outcome.' Result has generally a neutral connotation, as in `Their profligate lifestyle resulted in bankruptcy,' an example that www.bartleby.com gives. Or, this example from Webster's 1828 Dictionary: `The misery of sinners will be the natural result of their vile affections and criminal indulgences.'

Result can be disastrous, unfortunate, inevitable, logical, dramatic, spectacular, surprising, lasting, and so forth, according to Oxford Collocations. Strangely, the plural `results' means `the desired outcome from an action,' explains Encarta. Be prepared to hear about losses when companies announce their results, though such an outcome may not have been desired. Not all results need be final; there can be interim, preliminary, experimental, research or survey results too.

Big results

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked, leadership is defined by results not attributes," counsels Peter F. Drucker. That's in tune with Heraclitus' quote: "Big results require big ambitions." In contrast to that Greek gyan, James Allen exhorts: "Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts inevitably bring about right results." Emily Bronte could be similarly unambitious, when wishing, "If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results."

One of the main doctrines of the Bhagavad Gita is karma-yoga, "the yoga of selfless action performed with inner detachment from its results," illuminates www.answers.com. "What is important in life is life, and not the result of life," argues Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on a similar note.

Chanakya may not agree; his advice is that you should ask yourself three questions before starting any work: "Why am I doing it, what the results might be, and will I be successful". Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead, he instructs.

From a linguistics angle, www.sil.org says, "A result is a semantic role that refers to that which is produced by an event. This role is usually encoded as the surface object of a sentence." Not plain enough for the common man, that may be, as much as the words and phrases one hears when companies announce their results, and analysts dissect the same thereafter.

For instance, a line such as `results were quite satisfying' may result in varied understandings. Other examples of similarly interesting usages, drawn from recent result announcements are: `standalone net profit, purely volume growth, investment in new talent, and integration of new acquisitions as well as from ramping up on large projects which will pay off later.'

Back to starters

An exercise that can pay off well in any study of words is the exploration of etymology. Result is a fifteenth century word, from Latin resultare `spring back, reverberate', from saltare `to jump', enlightens http://encarta.msn.com. More elaborate is Online Etymology Dictionary, which finds the root of result in resilire `to rebound'.

"The noun is 1626, from the verb," states the dictionary, giving further link under `resilience'. There, you'd find, "re- `back' + salire `to jump, leap' (see salient)." Leap to `salient' to find the following entry: "1562, `leaping,' a heraldic term, from Latin salientem, present participle of salire `to leap.'" Connected words are Greek hallesthai `to leap,' and Sanskrit ucchalati `rises quickly'. Saliently, `salient point' (1672) refers to the heart of an embryo, which seems to leap, as `starting point' of anything, notes www.etymonline.com. What a journey, from result, which is the end, to the starting point!

`End result' means `a result of a series of events or a long process,' says Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. And `net result' is `the situation that exists at the end of a series of events.' Result, with reference to games or wars, describes the victorious party and possibly effects on the environment, observes Wikipedia. In mathematics, result is `the final value of a calculation.'

Business angle

In democracy, the word refers to `the election of a representative or vote on a subject.' And in economics/accounting, it is `the profit or loss at the end of a fiscal period.' Inexplicably, however, the word doesn't find a place in Oxford Dictionary of Business, which has an entry for `result node' (meaning the end-point on a Web chain), between `restrictive trade practices' and `retailer'.

The phrase `as a result of' means `because of', as in `profits have declined as a result of the recent drop in sales' — an example on http://dictionary.cambridge.org. A report dated July 16 on www.gulf-times.com cited the Foreign Secretary, Mr Shyam Saran, thus: "As a result of these terrorist incidents, it is becoming difficult to take this process forward."

The statement was made on the eve of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to St. Petersburg to attend the G-8 summit, and the reference was to the ongoing peace process getting a jolt post 7/11.

How different India's approach has been towards cross-border terrorism, compared to that of Israel, which is currently waging a deadly war with terrorists in Lebanon! "A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results," assures Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

The question is whether we are seeing results.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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