Reflections: the stoic way!

You can't buy culture by paying obscene salaries to HR folks.... They can't alter or even influence your culture if you have firewalled legacy artifacts and operating principles of management!  ...these poor or opportunist folks just end up being the euphemistic trophy wives that Habibi doesn't have any real value for!  Why does talent fail at work? What we don't see is culture!  If you don't see a culture that inspires and that is an integral entity of everyday life and decision-making at work, you must be under a mafia regime! Mafia management is just a fake facade of benevolent management!  On the surface everything looks fair and square, but in hindsight, the strings are in the hands of the few, who operate in the dark!  Some cultures are "opaque"! You only experience it after some shocking encounters! They are like the Khanani brothers and ISI-kind of networks, as you noticed in the movie Dhurandhar! What a treat to the eyes and soul!  The Khanani bro...

SITUATIONSHIP VS A RELATIONSHIP AT THE WORKPLACE—Forgotten JDs and Resumes!  Appraise an employee, but never forget what it tells you about your hiring decision, the JD that you crafted, the resume that you fell for, the goals that were set, the stage and state of the function/department, and the leadership that was in place! We met the person's business goals and targets, but how did the leadership equity contribute to it, and how did the function's programs add to this success? Did the JD find its full worth? Did it add significant value to the person's resume?  Did it even do a better job than the person was already doing in her previous job? What happened to those promises and the potential for growth of the person?  Resume loved and forgotten, interview feedback collected and forgotten, and the job description crafted and gutted! Why does all this happen when we review an employee's performance for the first time! What if we brought into the review discussion al...

  Dear Vijai Pandey , You made my day with such a powerful recognition of my skills and personality... It all started when this morning, I was out for errands and saw on LinkedIn you tagged me on a job-related post. @helthifyme -Link below-- Post | Feed | LinkedIn Then I saw the JD and people's profiles (JD as can be seen here- Human Resources Director | Healthify | LinkedIn First I checked the JD, and it looked like a CHRO role for Healthifyme...  Healthify FIRST IMPRESSION: Interestingly, in the About the Company" section, it's not about the company but the role (HR Director). OK , happens... SECOND IMPRESSION: Checked the job poster's profile: "HR Pro at the Helm"..Ms. Prerna T. (Here T stands for Tandon, having origin in Punjab.) Scroll down to check the screenshot!  Then I checked, how she had shared the job post from her own LinkedIn profile...and here THE THIRD IMPRESSION: Nothing to write about the role, firm, culture, people, vision, or leadership; n...

Vijai is a great friend, and he is looking for a co-author for his upcoming article (title around the topic-Meaning in the workplace), to be published by Springer in 2026!  Finding "meaning in life" is a common subject of spiritual discourse and many a times life coaches run workshops on this subject!  Just to cite an example: When Andy Jassy of Amazon fiat asked all staff to RTO from Jan of 2025, 68% said to a survey platform, that they will actively look for new job!  Gallup surveys say, 60% are disengaged at work!   Elon fired 90% of twitter staff in one day and noting snapped!   Cognizant fired 12000 mid-level managers in one year and nothing fell out!   Tata Motors fired 8000 mid-level managers and they got profitable.  Deloitte India sent 35 of their Senior Partners on Garden-leave (read fired), no one sobbed for them!  With selfish staff and self-serving leadership, how would we find "meaning" for topics like; "finding meani...

I asked ChatGPT for a go-to-market strategy for Akshayakalpa Organic's High Protein Milk, which launched this month (Nov 2025)! And look at the prolific details it has given within seconds on every key aspect of the GTM... Mind-boggling, isn't it?  Being a non-marketing and branding guy myself, I could not have expected any better levels of detail than ChatGPT produced.... Just not that...towards the end it offers all the next best things it can go to execute the GTM. With AI, life is already in the fast lane! Easy-breezy and lovely!   Arizona State University President Michael Crow, who stated that  AI could accelerate research to the point where  "20 PhDs" could be completed in the time it currently takes for one , though this is a metaphorical and not literal statement. He highlighted that AI can significantly speed up research processes, and some individuals are using AI tools to help with their research, with the ultimate goal of universities raising their ...

  Mrinal Krant Mrinal Krant   • You Premium • You Hiring Strategist | HR Renegade | OD Leader Hiring Strategist | HR Renegade | OD Leader 47m • Edited • 47 minutes ago • Edited • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn Pidilite Industries Limited brings back a business leader, Ashish Prasad , back into the CHRO role. Last time this was held by an IIM A grad, Rahul Sinha , and now an IIM C grad takes over from Rahul Gama ... This is not a coincidence or a random event; it's strategy... Richard Rekhy experimented with this belief at KPMG India , and Shalini Pillay , a CA and celebrated business leader, was made CHRO for 5 years. Gama is an HR veteran and global HR leader and also comes from SIBM Pune, where I went later to do my MBA in HR. Gama had a very short stint at Pidilite (June 2024 to Nov 2025, when he resigned). Though Samriddhi Srivastava , in her People Matters article ( https://lnkd.in/gKy8KHYU ), says it was a "long" association! What intrigues me i...