The Hindu Business Line : Adapt with agility

It's Monday, and you are beginning a new project. The client expects you to be `fully present and ready for the project' though you were in a different world the previous Friday.

"There is no concession or sympathy shown," and if you don't plan to adapt consciously, you will be made to adapt to the situation by brute force, cautions Rajesh Setty in Beyond Code, from Vikas (www.vikaspublishing.com) .

Instead of falling into the trap of `frustration, long hours, and sleepless nights', you can follow three steps to be ready, says Setty. One, seek information, not only about the project but also about the trends that are looming. Two, develop a powerful network. And three, be prepared for rapid context switches.

"You can start small by introducing some variety into your life - pick up a habit, read some non-fiction, play a game, call a long-last friend, or watch a horror movie. Do something that shifts the context completely."

Once context switches become a part of your life, you will adapt to new situations more easily, explains the author in a chapter on `learn', which is the first of `9 simple steps' to help you distinguish yourself.

Setty is the chairman of Cignex, a company that promotes open source in business. "When hiring new team members, we should check how comfortable they are about talking about their failures," he advises in the second L, `laugh'.

It is okay to let your guard down at times, says Setty. "When we are sent on a project as an expert, the temptation is to don a `Superman' garb and to be at our best at all times. We all know how artificial this can be; there is no way anyone can know everything about everything. Relax and drop that Superman cape. When we are relaxed and approachable, people around us will respond accordingly."

The third step is to look. That is, look for associations, look at your circle of possible influence, look for simplicity and clarity. Also, look for disproportionate returns, exhorts Setty. "The hourly rate fee structure is the biggest joke in the consulting industry," he says.

"Instead of working at increasing the hours we bill, we should look for ways of increasing the value we pack in an hour - the hourly rate will automatically go up."

Step four is about `lasting impressions'. An anecdote that the author narrates is about a client who wanted `inbound fax integration'. A star consultant who discussed with the client discovered that the requirement was for `a simpler way for customers to order their products'.

In the prevailing system, orders flowed in via fax, and someone fed these orders into the computer. The client had translated this into the phrase `inbound fax integration'! The consultant could achieve lasting impression on the client by installing `an online ordering system', and saving time and money, rather than working to fructify a white elephant.

Love comes next. "You don't need to solve your problems to love your job," counsels Setty. "In fact, if you want to enrich your job, you need to ask for bigger problems and go after solving them." Find and engage with one or more mentors, suggests Setty, because `work pressures are intense'.

Good coaches can help you look beyond your immediate situation and help you uncover the right questions about your work and your life, explains Setty. "Asking the right question is more important than getting the right answers."

These five steps constitute the `inner game' section of the book. "The outer game is a contact sport. Winning in this game involves people other than you. The key to winning the outer game is in mastering the relationship with the external world."

That's done through four steps, viz. leverage, likeability, listen, and lead.

Crisp read.

IPRs are `information monopolies'

"Digital technology, with its unique capability to copy or transfer information without degradation, is the key that opened up the development of the information sector into a full-blown economic sector."

Thus writes Roberto Verzola in one of the chapters included in Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia: Conflicting Traditions, edited by Pradip Ninan Thomas and Jan Servaes, from Sage (www.indiasage.com) .

According to Verzola, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are `information monopolies', that are assured of high profit margins. "The most important property owners of the information sector are rent-seekers," says the author in a section titled `cyberlords: the rent-seeking class of the information sector'.

These rent-seekers "control or own an information resource or infrastructure (such as software or hardware) and get their regular income from charging rents for its use."

Cyberspace rentiers or cyberlords collect rent in many forms - such as "patent and copyright royalties, licence fees, subscription fees, entrance fees, usage charges, technology charges and so on."

A different chapter on `indigenous knowledge in the age of new technologies' by Levi Obijiofor examines if "new communication technologies such as the Internet threaten community identities and the social values of indigenous people."

Previous research on the topic seems to offer conflicting evidence. For instance, according to some, the Net does not pose any threat to aboriginal traditional practices. But there are also studies that conclude that new technologies can harm traditional cultures `if introduced in an improper context and by an inappropriate agent.'

An appropriate fear, that is, because democratisation of information on the Web implies `the availability of both profane and sacred information.' Community elders get displaced as `information elites', who were once regulating the knowledge of `traditional ceremonies and other sacred practices'.

Obijiofor postulates the gradual vanishing of respect for community elders if access to information about traditional practices is available to all. Such information published on the Web can disrupt `community cohesion, and impair social values and identities of indigenous people.'

Sporting events can be commercialised and turned into information monopolies, writes Rhonda Breit in a chapter on Australian sport that examines if public interest is served in the process of such protection.

"The public's demand for sport means the media also have interests in sport, which can be classified as secondary interests. However, ICTs (information and communication technologies) have now made the media participants in the sporting process as sport and other public spectacles assume both a real and `virtual' reality. Thus the media are now primary stakeholders in the production and commercialisation of sport."

As people who have suffered from the ill effects of CAS (conditional access system) would affirm, sporting events are often a luxury for the common public, even on the small screen.

Brian Fitzgerald also takes up the case of the general public. His essay is on `Creative Commons' - a worldwide project aimed at making copyright material more accessible and negotiable in the digital environment.

"In a world where the digital generation feeds off a culture of cut and paste, remix and instant Internet access, Creative Commons will provide a virtually important facility for sharing knowledge in the name of culture and innovation," argues Fitzgerald.

Useful collection, especially for those who would like to go beyond the usual notions of binary thinking such as `right-wrong and legal-illegal'.

Tailpiece

"Since our programmers are so bad at writing even a leave letter... "

"You don't give them leave?"

"Not that. We allow them to SMS their requests!"

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