Singularity
Outside a pretty little café in Amsterdam Oost.
“Taking a break helped you, Sushrut.”
“Yes, it certainly did calm me down.”
It was a brief conversation with an old acquaintance, who has been doing spectacularly well in the field of education and skill development pan India - soon headed to a premier research university in London to study organisational behaviour.
“I’m keen to understand the factors that allow diversity to thrive in a business environment,” he added, “and even what restrains its further development. How inherent are our personal biases? How do we win over these limitations to ensure equal opportunities across stakeholders - irrespective of race, gender and sexual orientation?”
His was a pertinent question. I shared my passion to study organisational effectiveness, and to discover metrics showing an immediate impact of human resource management policies on the financial fortunes of businesses. We discussed how we saw organisations in the same light, wanting to help enable a step change in how they are managed.
It was one of the many enriching conversations I have had in the past few months.
In 2020, I complete two years in Amsterdam.
My economics and business academic journey has involved (interdisciplinary electives) the study of Dutch slave trade, followed by a course on Big History (an integrated study of the past - from the hypothetical Big Bang to the Anthropocene - understanding each age through time span proportions and analogies). My honours program has just begun, which allows for five more courses in addition to the main curriculum. There is an academic minor in communication science to look forward to. The University of Amsterdam has been an enjoyable, eye opening journey sprinkled with idiosyncratic episodes - characteristic of this eccentric and a loveable city.
A study of nationalist narratives, colonial past and intergenerational trauma has led to a newfound perspective on international relations, workforce migration and work culture tendencies. This, coupled with my work experience as an employer and an employee, is leading to validations from my past projects and new theories in organisational management during the times of crisis i.e. the times when a step change is essential.
Geographical boundaries will continue blurring, HRM will face increasing (welcome) complications due to mobile and remote talent, customers would expect an increasing amount of empathy and convenience and the management would face lessons in a culture of trust and agility.
The solution includes creation of nodal teams to cooperate between departments, generation of marketing content across horizontal and vertical levels, ability to imagine and implement transorganisational insights/marketing factories, identification of intersecting (and not) metrics allowing teams to fulfil each other’s objectives without extra resources being spent, identification of lost sales opportunities along the customer journey without extra resources being spent, and the maturity and an ability to continue non sales communication with customers. The changes required are so simple, they are difficult. What is required is simply the courage of a Hobbit.
This year also marks the beginning of frankaffe.
Both me and Nikita have always enjoyed intimate conversations with folks who build. Through this exercise, we institutionalise the activity. We would like it to be a defining chapter for years to come — a mastermind group that connects people across the world, connects people who believe in the work that they do, and the change they lead.
Why does a perspective matter? It matters because it makes you unique. No matter what opinion you hold, regarding what issue you have in mind - your point of view is yours alone. Now if you happen to be a business leader, or an academic, or a scientist, or a journalist, or an artist, or a wee child who is fumbling with a computer for the first time ever - your perspective is what leads you to build something that the world admires. Your perspective is your impact, your imprint on the world around you. It is not about what you speak, it is about what you chose to speak about, and how you delivered your message.
As a self taught business person, I have admired how powerful individuals could be vocal about their unique perspective on the same issue - which has always led to an enriching conversation and learning lessons all around. Everyone has something to learn from the other. What is red for you, may be blue for the other, and thus we learn to see both, or at least try to.
And we thought - what if we initiate a steadfast exercise to document these world-views, of individuals who are helping build the future? The process would benefit those interviewing, and those being interviewed. This is how frankaffe was born.
And it all comes together at a single point.
frankaffe, serving as a vanguard, now represents an effort to document and expand our knowledge base, along with that of our resource persons who are so generously contributing to the ‘Conversations’ project. Our editors document their personal work journeys and insights at the ‘Soliloquy’ project, allowing for reflection and a doubling down on self learning. Through ‘Editorials’ and other content formats that are in the pipeline, we share information and an introspection on current affairs. We believe in looking within, observing our own tumultuous emotions, dissecting facts and opinions.
Thus, my ever-entwined personal and work lives have further integrated to be one. I am listening to and learning from inspiring individuals, and I’m focused on how measured my next steps would be. There is a distinct desire to contribute to an ever-evolving business environment.
All in good time.
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Words: Sushrut Munje