It's so easy to publish your book today

In good old days it was only the 'chosen ones' who wrote and published books. When you submitted a manuscript for publishing, you would get a cold response - we will contact you after six months. Please do not contact us before that.

Today, anyone who choses to write and publish a book, he/ she can do it. I can tell this from my own experience.

I contacted the Amazon guys for their print on demand self publishing facility and they allocated me a publishing agent (John Rizzo); what followed was a step by step discipline.

Of course I have yet to see my 'baby' on Amazon; but I am sure it will appear on it one day.

The publicity description they wrote was wonderful (I am sure I would not be able to write it in similar finesse).

Just have a look how easy the flow of language is of what they created:

For every CEO and president who has ever wondered what can be done about employee attrition and dissatisfaction comes a not-so-implausible corporate tale of creative brainstorming and one CEO’s determination to effect change.

Can employee happiness be found on the way to Corporate Social Responsibility? Utilizing a John Galt-like character, author Prabodh Sirur gives us PN, a CEO who realizes that employee satisfaction is not linked to bonus programs or company picnics but is created by providing environments in which employees’ talents, skills, and passions can be discovered and unfolded.

In the Wonderland of Talent Management-A Corporate Fairy Tale is an innovative, inspirational work that puts forth the premise that employee self-fulfillment need not be a fantasy. It can, Sirur believes, be the key that leads to an increase in employee retention, improved community relations; and for a company, an increasingly positive image and improved bottom line.

My first attemp in writing a book

Friends,
It was a great feeling writing a book; Only about 50 pages, it gave me such a great feeling.


After my maiden experience, I can tell all that everyone can write and enjoy and share his/ her enjoyment with friends.


I am giving below links to each section of the book. The idea is utopian but am sure if implemented well, it will have far reaching positive impact.

Section 1: Introduction to a new concept - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/pn-ceo-creating-atlantis.html Section 2: Encouraging high performers to teach - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/06/docendo-discimus.html Section 3: Giving employees whacky ideas to work on - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/bodhi-shopping.html Section 4: Employees start their own restaurant - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/diy-restaurant.html Section 5: Employee earn accolades for their organisation using their passion in painting - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/reproduction-material.html Section 6: Employess and their new type of garden - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/12/do-pluck-leaves-and-flowers.html Section 7: Employees teach Yoga to clients - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/12/valuefacture.html Section 8: Employees create a global tourist centre out of an obscure neglected place - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/12/221b-baker-street-vs-mastani.html Section 9: Working on a new kind of org structure - http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/12/vibgyor-ministry.html

Would love to have your view on:
1. Do you think the time has come to implement this in the corporate world?
2. What best implementation approach/ steps would you suggest for a successful implementation?
3. Do you have any stories to share which are in line with what I have proposed?
4. Which discussion groups do you think will take up this topic for further discussion?

Thanks. Will wait for your comments.

Click this link to start: http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/pn-ceo-creating-atlantis.html

Regards,
Prabodh Sirur

221B Baker Street vs. Mastani

April 28, 2010: PN was traveling to a place called Pabal to attend a unique event, the inauguration of a tourist center created by his employees.

What had been a small hamlet three years ago, was now going to be a great tourist destination, the place where Mastani, the goddess of beauty and romance, was buried on that same day 270 years ago.

Around three hundred employees had worked on the project for the past three years creating awareness, weaving stories around the romance of Mastani and Baji Rao and setting up a center for global tourists. Today, the world was going to see the fruits of their efforts.

PN took a trip down memory lane and recalled how it all started. It was September 12, 2006. PN was traveling to Pune. He had taken a day out from his schedule to visit a village called Pabal, where there was a technical school run by his schoolmate’s parents.

The school was called Vigyan Ashram; it was an educational institution for technologies suitable to village economy. To be eligible for admission, a student had to be a school dropout.

PN had also heard that the school had a partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and the Indian Institute of Technology for creating some technology breakthroughs for rural India. It was interesting, but far away from the city.

The school was on a small piece of land, yet holding a whole world of progressive technology. Young rural students in a remote drought-prone village managed it all. There were many success stories from supposedly unsuccessful students. PN thought it was just amazing!

After having lunch at the hostel mess, PN took a tour of the village. It was like any other village in India. But what caught PN’s eye was the grave of Mastani.

Mastani, PN was told, was a dancer and singer and mistress of Baji Rao, prime minister of the Maratha Kingdom. Mastani, the villagers said, was a skilled horse-rider, skilled in spear throwing and swordsmanship. She accompanied Baji Rao on his military campaigns, inspiring him to extend the Maratha Empire in North India.

She was a renowned beauty. The local folklore said that she had such fair and translucent skin that when she swallowed the juice of her paan beeda (betel leaf with nuts and spices), the red color of the juice could be seen through the fair skin of her throat. It was a great, romantic story of the eighteenth century.

Her death too was equally fascinating. When Baji Rao died and was being cremated, Mastani walked into the flames of the pyre and ended her life alongside her lover.

Today, the grave of the beauty lay in a solitary and deserted place, which PN could not believe. PN could not believe that so few people knew about this story. He returned to his office promising himself to do something about it.

In a meeting with his management team, he told them about the Pabal school and asked how employees interested in public service could spend some time there to help students in their pursuit of technology.

Ganesh showed interest in the project. He was an MIT alumnus, so he could get access to MIT’s work in Vigyan Ashram. He knew that many of his techno-savvy team members also wouldn’t mind spending time there and contributing.

Then PN spoke about reviving the Mastani tomb. There was a general disapproval of this. Team members thought no one would visit such a place, and they felt there were better places for which they should provide sponsorship and seek publicity. Mastani’s tomb was not worth the effort.

PN let the matter lie. Some time later, he had a chance to meet some of his UK employees, an enthusiastic group interested in tourism. They had recently completed a European tour and were inspired by the great tourist attractions they saw.

They were impressed by the skills of those countries that were creating tourist interests and the innovative ways they promoted tourism.

An example they gave was Sherlock Holmes’ home, at 221B Baker Street in London. A tourist could visit the house, wear Holmes’ bowler hat, smoke his famous pipe, have a photograph taken as a souvenir, buy replicas of Holmes’ possessions, even read the same newspaper Holmes read. The tourist department had done a great job in creating this make-believe world.

“If other young people can take it as seriously as you have,” PN said to the group, “we could do similar wonders.” Then he told them the story of his visit to the Mastani grave. He explained that if they could get together and plan things, it would be possible to create a tourist center in Pabal. They knew PN well. Everything looked so simple to him. They also knew that they could trust PN to support them when they got stuck.

They put out feelers around the company and sought the support of a large number of people who were ready to be part of the project.

They had much to do. Some started doing research on Mastani’s life. Others began working out what it takes to set up a tourist center, and others started working out the costs. Some went to stay in Pune and in Pabal. They spoke to the local government body, called the Panchayat, to the tourist department, and to the villagers to fill them with the enthusiasm to create a venture from which everyone would benefit.

Some enthusiasts planned to create videos to recreate the history; others planned for the sound and light programs. Some groups created a sustainability plan so that the center could go on functioning even after they had handed over control to the locals.

The work created lot of curiosity and interest in PN’s company.

The plans were ready. Volunteers started coaching the villagers, creating local guides, helping them set up the essentials of a tourist center, including hygienic water, a clean environment, good food, clean toilets, and so on.

In the small village, all this built hope and enthusiasm to do something good. The news of what was happening in Pabal soon spread. Support for PN’s volunteers came from many quarters.

And he came back to the present. PN’s car neared the new tourist site. A huge crowd attended the launch. PN opened the tourist counter and handed over the key to the village head. The dream he had sold to his team three years ago had actually become a reality.

It was one more victory for John Galt!

Valufacture

December 12, 2007: PN received mail from Gyan, one of his project managers. Gyan’s mail said, “PN, I am coming back from the project after two years in Delaware. I have something interesting to share.”

An excited Gyan met PN and spoke about his experience on the project.

“PN, when I went there, I wondered how on earth I would spend my time after office hours. But as it turned out, I did meet some very interesting client employees. We would talk all about India—the snake charmers, and the elephants, and so on. They had all the usual questions. Many had the perception that snakes roam around everywhere in India, and that the place is full of elephants.

“During one of these discussions, I told them about yoga and that I am a certified yoga teacher. They asked me whether I could teach them yoga, and I was happy to do it. They did not have any yoga teachers around, and this was an opportunity for me to serve them.

“They took me to their HR people, and I gave them a presentation on yoga and its benefits to physical and mental health, showing how it helps improve relationships and productivity, and so on. I also told them that it had nothing to do with any religion; it was just a spiritual journey for a sound mind.

“They were happy with what they heard and asked me if I could teach yoga to any interested employees. They asked me how much I wanted to be paid for my time teaching. I told them this was my gift to our esteemed clients. Anyway, there was great enthusiasm and participation in the yoga sessions.”

He showed PN the testimonials from the company and individuals.

“The best part was that the employees and the head of HR fought for my extension so that I could be around longer. This was the best experience of my life. Not only did I get more business for the company, but I also have the personal satisfaction of knowing that I can use my passion to help someone else. I wouldn’t be surprised if the clients give us more projects, only because what we gave them was over and above their expectations of the contract.”

PN thanked Gyan for sharing this with him. He arranged Gyan’s meeting with Shoma, the company’s PR person, and asked Gyan to repeat the story to Shoma so she could include it in the house magazine.

PN remembered Edward De Bono, the champion of lateral thinking, who spoke about “valufacture.” He felt that what Gyan had created was an extra value to the project. What he had done had not been a contractual obligation but an unexpected offering to clients.

PN shared the Gyan story with his team members. They were proud. But they felt that this story was a success because Gyan had managed it in a mature manner. To make this a proposition that could be repeated, they wanted something formal to be drawn up.

Someone said, “PN, as you are aware, many of our people would give their right arms to stay on-site if they had to. If we tell them that one way to achieve this is to teach our clients what they themselves are good at, we could risk landing ourselves in all sorts of trouble.”

There was consensus that there must be a proper mechanism to handle this. PN agreed and asked them to come up with some solutions.

Some time later, the team members met to discuss this. The conversation was dynamic and spirited.

“Do we know how many people know yoga in our organization? And how many are certified?”

“There are many branches of yoga; which one do you want to teach?”

“Guys, I think we should leave how to deal with the client to the individual project manager.”

“Why do you want to stick to yoga alone? There are many things our people can teach.”

“Like what? Riding elephants? Snake charming?”

“Oh, come on. You know Indian cooking is all the rage. They could teach them cooking.”

“Forget it. I’ve seen westerners cooking better Indian food than any one of us in this room. Everything is available on the Internet, and everyone sells ready-to-cook Indian meals.”

“We don’t have information on our people’s capabilities; we don’t know whether our offering is going to be of value to clients, and we don’t know what kind of legal hassles we could land ourselves in. On top of all that, we are saying that this is a free service. I have never seen a better business proposition!”

“Great, you know, you actually stated all the pain statements. If we work on each of them, we’ll find a solution.”

“Fantastic! I agree with you that valufacture does not mean we should give it for free. But when we want to exchange something for money, it should be contractual.”

“So the question is, how do we contract? Are we going to say in the contract, ‘along with the software, we will also provide 250 man hours of yoga to the client organization?’ That looks a little silly. I hope the clients don’t cancel the whole contract because of it.”

“I think, at this moment the best we can do is to get together the senior people, the project managers, and tell them about the Gyan story and leave it at that.”

“Better still, we’ll ask Gyan to tell the story. He’ll feel happy sharing his experience. People can ask questions and get answers from the horse’s mouth.”

When the team next met PN, they told him what they thought—that the organization was not yet ready to institutionalize the Gyan experience. PN respected the team’s view. Everyone agreed that after a formal recognition of Gyan’s contribution at a meeting of senior managers the chapter would remain closed.

It was a very good meeting, and the managers asked Gyan useful questions. The meeting ended with everyone going away with different thoughts about Gyan’s experience. Some of them repeated the story to their juniors; some of the juniors repeated the Gyan story to their juniors. But nothing happened on the matter of valufacture.

After some days, there was repeat business from the Delaware clients, who requested Gyan for the project. Gyan joined the project, and he knew many of his old friends were waiting for him and for their yoga meetings.
John Galt shrugged! He was patient. He was prepared to wait.

Pluck the leaves and flowers

June 2, 2009: PN was looking at a letter from his key client. It was a request for help to create an Indian herbal garden in their office.

PN recalled the client’s visit when their team was taken for a tour of the Indian herbal garden created by his employees. They were impressed by the concept and even more so by the signs around the garden: “Please pluck the flowers and leaves.” It was not the usual, “Do Not Touch” sign one always saw in parks.

The garden consisted of a large number of Indian herbs and medicinal plants. Under each plant there was information on its medicinal properties, the names of the diseases that could be cured, the “leafage” (dosage) for each disease, and so on. The “gardeners” encouraged people to pluck the leaves and eat them.

This garden was the work of enthusiastic employees from the world environment group. They were passionate about the medicinal plants. They had done extensive research on each of the plants and collected useful information for the visitors.

The client wanted a similar garden on their campus. The request was just unbelievable, especially because the client was from the Netherlands, a country famous for flowers and gardens. The renowned Michael van Gessel had done their existing thematic landscaping. PN only hoped it was not a joke!

He recalled how it had all started. The company’s world environment group had wanted something more to do. A few of its members were already working on some secret tissue culture project, but the remaining members were looking for a new project.

Someone from the group found out about the herbal garden in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India and discovered that the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) had designed it. They wanted to build a similar garden enlisting NBRI’s help. They discussed the merits of the case among themselves.

The concept had a great unique selling proposition (USP) for their country. There was a growing awareness about Ayurveda (which is thought to have originated around 5000 B.C.). Many such herbal gardens were springing up all around the country. PN’s team wanted something that would distinguish their garden, something really unusual.

There was a brainstorm within the group. “Look, whichever park you go, you see signs forbidding people from touching leaves or flowers. Our garden will implore people to touch the flowers, beg them to pluck the leaves and eat them, because what they are eating is medicinal.”

People agreed that anyone who visited this garden would agree that it was certainly unusual to see such signs. “We should also have walking tracks around the plants so that people can eat these medicines as part of their morning walks.”

“How will they know what to eat and how much?”

“Well, needless to say, we’ll need to create small placards about each plant.”

The group could not wait any longer. They met PN and explained the idea. PN agreed to allocate a piece of the company campus garden to them.

The time went by swiftly for them. There were frustrations and moments of ecstasy. An acceptable landscape design was the subject of hot debate. Some wanted the landscaping on the basis of major ailments; some wanted the plants arranged according to the six Indian seasons; and still others wanted the plants to be based on the needs of people in different zodiac signs.

Other employees appreciated the garden. Many actually took morning walks just to read about the plants and which ailments they cured. The achievement was a hot topic. The India herbal landscaping was a success.

PN called a meeting to discuss the Dutch client’s request. But some members of the group were already in other projects, so only two members could join the Dutch project after a couple of weeks. The group was happy to take up the landscaping work as an additional responsibility, and those who were not in a position to travel pledged remote support.

PN was happy about this. But the group put forward a condition that the client’s employees had to be involved in the garden. They said, “When the garden is ready, they will have the satisfaction of creating something of value for their own colleagues. We know the kind of happiness we experienced when we created our garden. We want them to feel the same about their garden.”

The client agreed. They appreciated the viewpoint of PN’s people and the opportunity being given to their employees.

The two members joined the client project after a few weeks. In the meantime, they had studied which plants would survive in the Netherlands. Their landscape design was ready.

The client’s employees joined the gang. It was an enjoyable time for everyone involved. Soon a beautiful herbal landscape decorated the client’s building.

The client was happy and gave encouraging testimonials to PN’s people and to his company. The client used PN’s pet word, valufacture, in their testimonials. They found great value in what the two young members of PN’s company did for them, over and above the normal work of the project.

It was one of PN’s happiest moments. His employees loved being part of the revolution, and they were greatly excited about the stamp they were putting on the map of a foreign city.

The media splashed rave stories about PN and his organization’s contribution to society. They praised the employees’ pride and sense of satisfaction. Management experts praised the various ways the employees could be engaged for better employee satisfaction.

PN felt a deep satisfaction that he had been able to provide a platform for his people to express themselves and be happy. It was yet another victory for John Galt!

Did his people stop after this achievement? Not at all. Encouraged by what they had achieved in the Netherlands, many more joined the group of herbal landscapers. They approached their own city guardians and asked to convert some gardens into herbal landscapes. The local bodies agreed if someone would maintain the gardens for free.

The city had unusual gardens where children could pluck the leaves and flowers. The team taught farmers in the neighboring villages how to grow medicinal herbs and how to set up nurseries. Many other clients wanted to replicate the Netherlands’ experience. The list is endless.

A large number of employees of PN’s company now had a forum to embark on the kind of journey that would previously only have been a dream!

DIY Restaurant

16 Oct 2010; PN, CEO of a large IT company, was looking at an advertisement in the newspaper, with a sense of satisfaction.

The advertisement was about opening of a new kind of restaurant, called Do-IT-Yourself Restaurant. It was a special restaurant for PN because it was owned and run by his employees.

It was a state-of-the-art restaurant; its speciality was, that one could go there with mates and cook their own food under the guidance of the restaurant staff. Each cooking table was fitted with video screens and each and every step of cooking was instructed by the celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the most celebrated face of Indian cuisine.

PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution started in his organization.

It was 23 Oct 2007; PN was traveling from Mumbai to Bangalore, back to his office. He vaguely remembered that the person sitting on his left was some celebrity; Ah yes, he was Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrity chef who had become an icon. PN congratulated Sanjeev on his achievements and wished him well. They had a good chat on what PN should eat at his age and got a few tips.

PN suddenly remembered that his organisation was hosting the biggest corporate potluck-lunch the next day. It was a great opportunity to invite Sanjeev Kapoor for the event.

Sanjeev readily agreed to be there the next day. The potluck-lunch event was a great success; everyone had brought something for his/ her team. Some people had decorated their lunch tables using vegetables and fruits. It was a fun filled atmosphere. And Sanjeev’s presence added to the excitement.

Sanjeev appreciated the efforts by people. He said, “It is no surprise that you engineers cook so well because I always consider cooking as a science and the kitchen as a laboratory. No wonder you engineers are such good cooks.”

PN thanked the celebrity chef for giving his time to attend the event. Sanjeev, looking at the excited faces, said, “I too enjoyed it and had I known about this event earlier, I would have participated too!”

PN could not resist this opportunity; He responded, “Well Sanjeev; I will create some opportunity so our people can see you more closely.”

Soon after Sanjeev left, PN had a meeting with the team leaders of the Potluck Lunch event. He congratulated them for the excitement the event created, the togetherness he could sense in the teams. He told them what he had promised Sanjeev Kapoor and asked them to come out with ideas on how to make this happen.

A large number of PN’s young engineers worked onsite; a large number of his young engineers had relocated from far away places, away from their families. Learning to cook their food, therefore, was a basic survival skill for them. PN wanted to focus on this need taking help of Sanjeev Kapoor.

Some days later, the team met PN; people came up with something very novel. “We don’t think Sanjeev Kapoor is needed here to teach us cooking because every recipe is available on the internet. But what we want to do is set up a restaurant jointly with him; A do-it-yourself restaurant.”

PN was amused yet curious.

The team had a full plan with them including the funding side of it.

They were quite excited to talk about it.

“We will run regular classes ourselves on weekends for our people to learn cooking. For many of us, cooking is a passion and therefore we do not mind spending time to teach our colleagues.

What we really want to do is set up a restaurant.”

PN asked them, “But what do you know about running a restaurant?”

“That’s where we will need Sanjeev Kapoor’s help. His association will bring about lot of publicity and credibility and professional help.”

PN liked what they were saying.

“We will do our own funding; there are so many thousands of us in the company. People will definitely like to invest in this novel venture.”

PN did not want to dampen their spirits; he knew this excitement will pass once they got busy in their work. The only help they demanded from PN was the support from some of the company’s department so that all the legalities were taken care of.

PN said, “Well, ask them; if you “sell” well, they will help you in their personal time, I am sure. I do not want this venture to be part of our main business. But count me in as far as personal investment is concerned.”

The team went back full of anticipation.

They met with Sanjeev Kapoor and told him the idea; Sanjeev was happy to be part of this venture. This was one-of-a-kind restaurant and he knew it made lot of business sense in a city like Bangalore where the young crowd would love to experiment with cooking.

The teams started their internal publicity and gathered lot of people to learn cooking. In parallel, they started speaking about the DIY restaurant; there was a good response to an idea that all employees together could invest in this venture.

Also, they started producing the instructions videos for several types of combinations of meals, one for a set of two people and the other for a threesome. The instructions ensured that each person’s tasks, when cooking, were complementing the other/s. They included music and jokes in the videos to make cooking interesting. It was a huge task but then there were so many people involved in it and everyone loved what they were doing.

To cut the story short, there was a huge response when the ‘cooks’ invited all staff to invest in the venture. Sanjeev Kapoor invested his own stake in it; The ‘cooking stations’ looked sleek, each with a video screen and also equipped with a video camera, if the guests wanted their cooking to be captured in a video.

The site of the restaurant was finalized, the look and feel and the publicity campaign were finalized, the staff was recruited.

The stage was set for a grand opening.

It was one of the happiest moments for PN when the restaurant opened.

PN met the excited members at their restaurant.

The dream he sold to his team three years ago, actually became a reality.

His staff members loved being part of the revolution. There was great excitement about the stamp they were going to put on the map of their city.

The media splashed rave stories about the employees’ initiative of PN’s organization.

Management experts sang about the various ways the employees could be engaged for better employee satisfaction.

PN felt a deep sense of satisfaction that he could provide a platform for his people to express themselves and be happy. It was a small victory for John Galt[1]!

Did his people stop after this achievement? Of course not – they taught Indian cuisine to their clients’ employees, they taught hygiene and cooking to a lot of women folk from villages and created careers for them (the dial-a-cook project). Their three course meal videos became famous. Well, the list is endless. Suffice to say that a large number of employees of PN’s company got a forum to express themselves, to start a new journey which they only dreamt about.

Next: http://tenmg.blogspot.com/2007/11/reproduction-material.html

[1] John Galt is a key character in the magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) by Ayn Rand. “Atlas Shrugged” is about how John Galt creates an Atlantis, a place where the only moral purpose of life for people was to achieve their own happiness.

Reproduction Material

June 2, 2012: PN was looking at an invitation letter to be sent to M. F. Husain, the renowned painter. The invitation was for the inauguration of an art gallery owned by PN’s employees.

The gallery had a large number of paintings, mainly reproductions of paintings by the great masters. What was unique was that PN’s employees had created all the paintings. Each was accompanied by a write up explaining why the original was famous. It was a great collection and a great effort by his people to create an awareness of art appreciation.

PN’s thought back to five years ago, when this new revolution had started in his organization. It was November 2006. PN had been invited to the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a conference entitled The Emerging India. After the conference, someone mentioned M. F. Husain’s art exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. PN had not seen Husain before and did not want to miss this opportunity.

PN did not know much about art, but he was definitely fascinated by the artist. He was happy that he could actually meet the master himself, the great Husain, and spend some time with him.

Husain was curious to know what PN did for a living. PN told him about his organization and how it had become a matter of pride to the country, a feather in the cap of the emerging India.

Suddenly, Husain asked, “Could I visit your company?” PN could never say no to such requests.

Some weeks later, Husain visited PN’s company at its fascinating campus. He saw the pride in everyone’s eyes and was excited by what he saw. When he came back to PN’s office after the visit, he told him, “PN, I want to create a painting for your company—an emergent India.” It was one of PN’s the happiest moments.

After some pleasantries, PN went down with Husain to see him off. As soon as he returned, he called a meeting with his team members. Once they gathered, PN told them the whole story and asked how they could use this event for the benefit of the organization.

Shoma, the PR person, spoke first. “PN, Husain is a well-known name. And it is great news that such a celebrity regards us as the representative of the new India. We can capitalize on this to create a good PR campaign.”

“PN, a silly question.” said Sam, head of Business Process Outsourcing. “Will he teach painting to some of our people?”

“This looks to be a good idea,” said Suchitra, head of resourcing. “Some of our people would give their life to have Husain as their teacher.”

Pawan, head of compensation and benefits, was excited at what Suchitra said. “I don’t know if this will happen,” he said, “but if it does, it will be a greatest incentive to people. But only top performers should be included in this.”

There was a consensus that this was a very unusual reward and people would definitely love it. PN was aware that Sam was an amateur painter. So Sam was more than happy when PN asked him to manage the overall project.

He met Husain and got an amused Husain to agree to train about twenty people for a week. The grand day came when Husain’s painting, “The Emergent India” was unveiled with great publicity. The painting was a depiction of the emerging spirit of India, an empowering canvas, a poetry that captured the country’s new hope and confidence.

The names of the “trainees” to be taught by Husain were announced during the unveiling ceremony. The nominees were ecstatic about this new “reward.”

It was an experience for Husain to teach painting to PN’s people. Some of them knew little about painting. But at the end of the week, each of them had created a painting with a distinct Husain stamp of wild colors and heroic figures. The paintings were proudly displayed in a prominent place on the company premises.

This event created a new revolution within the company. Many people who were good at painting met Sam and coaxed him to start regular classes. They were ready to spend their weekends learning if the company would provide them with the space to work together. They were ready to pay tuition fees. And a new enterprise started with a lot of participation. Teachers from a local art school, Chitrakala Parishad, were happy to come and teach.

People came together on weekends, learned painting, learned about the great masters, and spent time together to share their happiness. They had never thought that it possible to complete their unfinished symphonies, their dreams of painting. For many, it was probably the best time of their lives.

During one such discussion, Sanjib, who loved to paint in an impressionist style, broached a topic. “Why don’t we paint the famous paintings of the masters and display them in our offices?” Many were happy to do this. Someone said, “Sanjib, we are happy to do this, but who will understand your impressionist paintings?”

“Well, I can create a detailed write-up on each of the paintings,” Sanjib said. “You all can create write-ups for your paintings. You can get help from many others in our organization.”

People liked the idea. Many came forward to do the research and wrote up their findings about the paintings. The theme agreed for the paintings was the Impressionist painters. Each group was assigned a master whose painting they could reproduce.

They planned to create a hundred reproductions in twelve months.

One by one, the paintings started adorning the walls of the company premises. Below each painting, there was a small booklet describing the work, discussing its nuances and meaning. Each was highly educational. The artists were proud that their photographs and names appeared in those booklets, and superiors were proud too when they showed visitors what their employees had created.

The initiative became the talk of the town. People absolutely loved it. Many sent thank-you notes to PN, and others sent requests asking, “Why do you favor the painters? There are many of us who have other skills, and you must do something to fulfill our dreams too!”

PN was pleased with what was happening. Many people came up with ideas on initiatives in other arts or sciences. They were happy that their organization could start something around each one’s unfinished dream.

PN visited the artists’ hall on a weekend. He could see the many happy faces engrossed in recreating the masters’ paintings. Each one of the paintings was a high quality job by the teachers and their students, PN thought. He was proud of his people.

Seeing PN walk around, many stopped their work and gathered around him. PN looked at his team with pride and said, “Great work, guys. I can clearly see the result of what you have created. Five hundred paintings are on display in an art gallery at the end of three years. Half of Bangalore’s population has visited your gallery, which has become a must-visit destination for the tourists.

“Congratulations. Your contributions are of great value, both to the organization and to the city. You should be very proud of yourselves.”

The dream he sold to his team three years earlier had actually became a reality.

His employees loved being part of this revolution. They raised funds internally to set up an art gallery and came up with an unusual name for it: Reproduction Material, because all the paintings on display were going to be the reproductions of the world’s greatest paintings. Some people objected to the name, but the artists went ahead with it. They wanted their venture to be bold, confident, and befitting the spirit of “the emergent India.”

PN returned to the present. His eyes rested on the invitation letter on the table. The result of the hard work of his people was in front of him—an art gallery they owned with the paintings they created.

The great Husain inaugurated the gallery on September 17, 2012, his ninety-seventh birthday. The opening was a major milestone on a journey that had started when M. F. Husain visited PN’s company and captured his people’s pride on canvas.

What followed the inauguration was exciting. The media covered the opening and visitors soon flocked to see great masters’ paintings. They brought guests to see and learn and enjoy.

It was one more victory for John Galt!