Value-based Leadership

Can we live with values in today's world?
What is value-based leadership? Is it mere theory?
How does it help an organisation? 
Can we develop business leaders who practice the values?
Are values only for the website of a company?

All this and much more.
Ghumakkad had the privilege to interact with senior technology leaders of an MNC ranked 5th in Fortune-500. It was most satisfying to share some real-life experiences to bring out the power of values. People like Dr Abdul Kalam who lived by his values, came to mind. You may browse 'The Missile Goes Silent'- my tribute to this great son of India. It brings out some of the values which he practiced. 
Some of you may say 'But everyone is not Dr Abdul Kalam'! Agreed. There are countless others who have excelled in their lives and retained their values. A sample of 50 such 'commoners' can be browsed in our book a preview of which appeared in an earlier story 'BITS of Success is Released'.

The discussions covered a wide spectrum with participants sharing their challenges. Am happy that we could address their real-life issues. An enriching workshop for me indeed! 

Unlike other posts, this time no pictures.

Would like to end with a quote by Thomas Jefferson who said, 'In matters of style swim with the current, but in matters of principle, stand like a rock'. You may browse this PQ- Picturesque Quote- in our earlier post 'River and Rocks'.



You are welcome to post your comments and experiences on this very apt topic.
Thanks for browsing.

      - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 30th May 2018

#Values #ValueBasedLeadership #Fortune500 #ThomasJefferson #StandLikeARock #GhumakkadHB #GhumakkadHarsh

Ghumakkad Turns Six

Hurray, your own blog turns Six today!

Time for gratitude to each one of you for browsing our posts.

Time to look back.

And time to chart the course ahead.

The year that was

Highlight of the year ending 25th May 2018 was a series of stories under the banner 'Proof of the Pudding'. It showcased Ghumakkad's former students who have now become entrepreneurs.They have chosen diverse fields and their stories are inspiring indeed. These stories have collectively logged more than 8000 page views.

Name	MBA Graduation	Business Area	Venture Name & Location
Prabudha Saurabh	MBA(HR) IBS(2010)	Career Coaching	HRscope Consultants, Patna
Prashant Jadenavar	MBA(HR) IBS (2010)	Entertainment/ Theatre and Performing Arts	XpressionZ, Bangalore
Kirti Sharma	MBA(Mktg) IBS (2012)	Image Consultant, Corporate Trainer	Tualmagis, Mumbai
Aayushi Kasliwal	MBA(Fin) IBS (2012)	Designer Soaps- manufacture and supply	Soapatite, Indore
Preksha Jain	MBA(Mktg) IBS(2013)	Designer Apparels and Accessories	Preksha Jain – The Fashionate, Kolkata
Anjali Raj	BBA IBS(2013)	Healthy Mother, Healthy Baby	ILove9Months, Kochi
Ishita Raksha and Nidhi Upadhyay	BBA IBS(2013)	A Gourmet Dessert Studio	17 Sugar Street, Hyderabad
Sriram Gundepudi	MBA(HR) VVISM(2016)	Employability Skills Training	Digi Freaks,Hyderabad
Amruth Charan	PGDM(Fin) VVISM (2016)	Digital Marketing, Web/App Development	Aresol India, Visakhapatnam

During this period we also posted two guest stories which were appreciated by the readers. The first guest story titled 'Fallen but not Forgotten' was contributed by Trixie Asirvatham from Bangalore. It was a vivid account of a memorial service for WW-I martyrs.

The second guest story titled 'Male Showstopper' by Koushik Gopinath from Mumbai brought alive his brush with the tigers of Ranthambore in Rajasthan.

Another story which caught the fancy of the readers was 'Hand-me-Ups'. Ghumakkad shared his joy of wearing the shoes handed-me-Up by his grandson. Have you received any hand-me-up so far?

The joy of giving-- has been the theme of the alumni of BITS Pilani 1970-75 batch. Their noble act of  Guru Dakshina गुरु दक्षिणा - honouring and felicitating their former teachers even after 42 years, is noteworthy. Their story crossed 1000 page views. BITS Pilani is Ghumakkad's alma-mater.

In the travel section, our story 'Marvel in Marble' had 700 readers browsing it. It brought out the glory of Ranakpur temple in Rajasthan.

Which is the other marble structure known world over? Yes, the Taj Mahal in Agra! Our story 'Taj@Dawn' was appreciated by many readers.


Ghumakkad is also a teacher. 'Who Inspires a Teacher'- this story on Teacher's Day 2017 touched the hearts of another 600 readers- fellow teachers, students and former students alike!


All of us love our old school, college or the university. 'What has Changed in Pilani'- Ghumakkad's story brought nostalgia to 2600 readers-- mostly BITSians perhaps!

The Picturesque Quotes- PQ series continue to ignite the readers. One of the PQs posted during last 12 months:

No one likes to write an obituary. But we keep losing people in our lives. India lost its eminent scientist, thinker and institution builder Dr PM Bhargava on 1st August 2017. You may browse Ghumakkad's tribute to him  'World of Science loses a Crusader'.


When Ghumakkad turned Five 
For those who missed browsing, we reproduce below the story when we turned five last year on 25th May 2017. It gives a snapshot of each of the sections of our blog namely Travel, Wildlife, Environment, Teaching, PQs, Obituaries, Books, Reunions, Fitness and Poems during 2012 to 2017.

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Ghumakkad turns Five

Ghumakkad's blog-- your own blog-- completes five years on 25th May 2017. It is each one of you who has helped us sustain this exciting journey. A journey of exploration, adventure, thrill and discovery. When we started off, we never knew we would reach out to so many netizens. With just 234 page views in first 12 months in 2012-13, your blog has now crossed 92,500 page views. 

It took three years when 'Ghumakkad crossed 25,000 mark'.
But it took just one more year to reach the 50,000 milestone. And the next 42,5000 page views came in this year taking the count to 92,500! Credit for achieving this landmark goes to each of you.

Numbers don't matter. What gives us a kick is when someone travels all the way to Port Blair or Africa based on our picture stories and gives us a pat on our back! We feel humbled in adding happiness to your lives.

Over last five years, you have liked and appreciated more than 6000 photographs in this blog taken around the world--spread over 230 posts with 30 embedded videos.

Of course, the journey continues. As we said earlier, 92K page views in cyber world is no big deal. But for a non-commercial, non-political, non-religious and non-celebrity blog it means a lot. It is truly a humbling experience for me. 

Credits: Many readers have given regular feedback to enrich the blog. Please allow Ghumakkad to mention few regular readers (please pardon us for omissions if any!):

(Late)Manorama Bhargava	PSP Sarma (Octogenarian)	Trixie Asirvatham
BD Bhargava(Octogenarian)	N Sridhar	Pramod-Helga Lakhotia
Umesh Dhyani	Pramila and Mani Thomas	Rajendra Singh
Sunil Sud	M Sitaram	Manasi Panigrahi
Aditya Jain	R Raghuram	MV Vasudevan
Suchitra Chowdhury	Raj K Mehta	Vinod Dhanuka
Avinash Tiwari	Supradeep Sen	Pradeep Mohan
Ashok Kota	Masthanaiah Aluru	Arun Dhupar
A Ramnath	Vivek Chawla	TJ Master
BU Vuppala	Lakshmi and NR Ravi	RB Dhavare
Vinay Prasad	PG Bhat	K Gopu
Parag Sharma	Anand and Farida Jain	Kirti Sharma
JA Rama Moorty	Kingshuk Nag	Brijesh Kalra
GR Nair	Swati-Swayam Mishra	Vasu Iyer
BK Nagaraj	Pradeep Siwach	C Raghuram and many more

Credits are also due to: CD Sawant,  RRN Chowdary, Deepti Thakur, A Mohandas, S Rammohan, LV Mohandas, S Santhanam, AVS Madhav Rao, S Raghavan, Sangeeta Agarwal, V Ramachandran, Chaitanya Shiroor, Vijay Bal, Umesh Kumar and the entire Bhargava clan spread  around the world. 

Time for a quick recap. Our first story five years ago was titled 'Exploring Bhutan Part-1: The Team'. 

We started off as a travelogue. Change is part of our life and soon other subjects got added. The flavour of the blog has thus changed. We invite you to sample some of the stories spanning various aspects of our life. You may click to browse any of the posts hyper-linked in parenthesis:

• Travel (Bhutan-Thimpu and beyond, Munnar-Kerala, What's new in Goa, Changing face of Jaipur, USA-Casinos, USA-Camping)

• Wildlife (Africa- The Big Five, Tigress of Tadoba, Birds of Ranganathittu, Ranthambhor Tigers)

• Environment (Port Blair Flora and fauna, Friendly Munias,Rescuing an injured Bat, Learning from Caterpillars)

• Learning and teaching (Plants and Leadership, Bringing realism in the classroom, Social Entrepreneurship, Learning from students, Life beyond an ECG)

• Picturesque Quotes (PQs) (Rose petals and Life, Nature,Darkness, Patience)

• Obituaries (Dr Abdul Kalam, Kushwant Singh, Elfo our dog)

• Books by Ghumakkad (BITS of Success)

• Reunions (Navy, College-BITS, Campus BITS Goa)

• Fitness (Yoga and life partner, Grandpa's Gym, Why Golf,Hiking, Scuba Diving at 65)

• Poems (Ansh enters the Teens, So what if I can not see, Our Little Princess is three)

You can also search within the blog for any topic of your interest.

Once again we would like to thank each one of you for your continued support  and encouragement. Ghumakkad hopes to bring you more pictures, more stories and more insights into our life.

Hope you enjoy the blog as much as we do creating the stories for you.

Thanks for browsing and being part of our exciting journey.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 25th May 2017/ hbindia@gmail.com 

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 As we have always said, for a non-political, non-religious, non-commercial and non-celebrity blog like ours, every reader counts. Numbers like 135,000 page views (our current count) are minuscule in the web world. What matters is bringing joy to your life. After reading the obituary of our dog Elfo, so many readers shared their own grief when they had lost their dog. Similarly, after reading the entrepreneurial journey of ten of my students, many readers felt inspired. Numbers don't matter, your smiles and appreciation do. 

Is it a coincidence that we had exactly 42,500 page views during each of the two preceding years? Talk of consistency! Or is it the theory of marginal utility showing up? Again, for us numbers don't matter, your connection does! Stay connected.

Once again, thank you for being part of this exciting journey. You have made Ghumakkad what it is today!

     -Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 25th May 2018

#GhumakkadHarsh #GhumakkadHB #SixthAnniversary #BlogAnniversary #HarshBhargava #ThrillOfWriting #JourneyOfLife #BringingSmiles