Category: Global challenges

Join, Lead, Start or Build Such Organisations

Social enterprises

Patagonia is a social enterprise. It’s in the business of saving the planet. With $1 billion in sales, they produce premium outdoor clothing in a highly sustainable way. Their products use nearly 90% recycled materials. To counter the waste generated by fast fashion, they produce long-lasting products and even offer a repair and reuse program. Their entire US business uses 100% renewable energy.

They are heavily into climate activism and give away 1% of their sales for preservation of natural environment. Their founder has decided to direct all future profits to protecting the global environment.

Organisations the world needs

Would you agree that the capitalistic business model that singularly aims to maximise shareholders’ returns is flawed and has run its course? That, single-minded pursuit of profits ignores social and environmental costs; relentless and high velocity action creates a stressful work environment; and lack of clarity of organisational purpose leaves employees unfulfilled.

On the other hand, the social-sector does hugely meaningful work but is constrained in many ways. Their dependence on external funding, inability to attract talent and often lack of efficient systems hampers their effectiveness and scalability.

What we need is a business model that focuses on solving social problems in a financially sustainable way. One that serves as a link between the efficiency and scale of market-based systems and the social impact of philanthropy. Where the financial goals are important, but do not in any way undermine societal goals. We need more social enterprises!

Social enterprises and the power of purpose

Social enterprises are deeply mission-driven organisations. Where the purpose of their existence is not an add-on objective, but is at the very heart of their everyday work. Where ‘doing well’ follows the pursuit of ‘doing good’.

Their sense of purpose is also more motivating and fulfilling for the employees. This matters even more to Millennials who make up nearly 50% of today’s workforce. They find their job more fulfilling when they have opportunities to make a positive impact on social and environmental issues. Many of them are…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership, Self-growth | Comments Off on Join, Lead, Start or Build Such Organisations

Two Questions Worth Asking Yourself This New Year

Who am I and What am I doing here

Hope you had a restful year-end break. As I enjoyed a relaxed time with family and friends, a few conversations did go past the usual reminiscing of pre-Covid life and how much the world has changed since. One thing became quite clear from that. While a lot has changed, at a deeper level we remain sorely stuck in old ways.

We have proven our resilience, but we still react only to short-term challenges. We just don’t seem to have the will to examine the fundamental and long-term issues. During the crisis, we discovered our ability to reflect and be purposeful. But we have quickly lost it in the rush to get back to the life as we knew it. Consumerism wins over conservation, convenience over what’s right, and instant gratification over mindful living. Again! Over the past two years, we resolved to be kinder, more empathetic and loving. But that resolve doesn’t seem to last against our strong wiring to be self-centred and egoistic.

All these are symptoms of a deeper illness. It’s our poor and deteriorating relationship with ourselves and by extension with others and our ecosystem. It is in this context, it’s worth asking the two age-old questions at this time. Who am I and What am I doing here.

Who am I?

Our superficial lives are an outcome of our superficial understanding of ourselves. When we relate to ourselves only as physical and emotional beings, we wish to satisfy only our physical and emotional needs. Who are you, really? Beyond the identity of your professional role, nationality, cultural values, religious beliefs, family and personal interests? Going past your age, education, intelligence level and personality traits? Beyond your physical body, unending thoughts and ever-changing emotions?

As we continue seeking and keep unpeeling the layers of our perception, we get to the truth of our existence. We are the everlasting Awareness. This Awareness is what lets us experience different thoughts and emotions. However, we…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Personal mastery, Self-growth, Spiritual | 14 Comments

This Season, Get a Dose of Emotional Vaccination Too

Emotional vaccination

I lost my dad two months ago. He was 89 and suffered a brain haemorrhage. As difficult as it was to lose him, the hardest part for me was not being able to be with him at that time. Attending his funeral over Zoom was a rude reminder of the times we are in. I could suddenly and intimately feel the pain of so many others.

The prolonged and seemingly unending nature of the disruption and losses make us routinely feel disoriented, anxious and exhausted. It is directly affecting many individuals’ mental and emotional well-being, a trend particularly accentuated among the young.

Like the virus, this heightened uncertainty doesn’t look like going away in a hurry. Like we need the vaccine as protection from the virus, we need to learn ways to immunise ourselves from our inner emotional turmoil. Here are three ideas you can consider.

Build equanimity

To protect ourselves from the emotional roller-coaster, we need to cultivate a sense of equanimity – an anchor of stillness within us so the changing external scenery doesn’t easily affect us. Like the vaccine, this stillness doesn’t mean that we are not affected at all. It’s just that the threshold at which we experience emotional hijack goes up.

To build such equanimity, we need to deepen our emotional self-awareness. We need to learn what makes us happy, sad, insecure and excited; how frequently we move from one emotional state to the other; and what triggers these shifts. Ordinarily, we are on an autopilot mode where certain triggers produce a predictable reaction within us time after time.

When we are in touch with our changing emotional states, we can quickly catch ourselves starting to feel anxious, envious or angry. We can then choose to acknowledge those emotions and without judging ourselves, explore  alternate ways to respond in the situation. That’s how we can break the pattern of our repetitive and volatile emotional reactions.

Equally, with greater self-awareness, you may observe how you typically react in an emotionally disturbed state….

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Personal mastery, Self-growth | 54 Comments

The Unexpected Positive Shifts Triggered By Covid Crisis


In my last post (Covid-19 is just the preview, beware of the real show), I talked about some of the disturbing themes, like income inequality and climate change, that might get exacerbated by Covid-19. While the health, economic and social challenges are still unfolding, there are some unexpected positive shifts arising from this tragedy.

Lockdown forces reflection

Crisis is an inflection point that simply draws us to reflect. Lockdown driven solitude is forcing everyone to look within. I am sure you’ve had some reflective moments of your own in recent weeks. You start to wonder what matters most in life – well-being, family, kindness, equanimity, resilience? Besides, witnessing the sacrifices made by health workers and the plight of millions of migrant workers in India has touched each one of us deeply.

It’s making us feel more grateful for the life we have and be empathetic towards the well-being of others. When we are grateful and empathetic, we are at our kindest. Many of the hundreds of individuals I have surveyed at the end of my webinars would like to commit to becoming a kinder, calmer and wiser person. It’s visible. While the current needs of NGOs are enormous, the kind of outpouring of support that’s coming though is heartening.

Hopefully, we continue to harness these precious emotions and not let them get buried when better times come around. What we need most in modern society is not rapid economic development, but greater empathy, sharing, kindness and compassion.

Future of work starts shifting to home

Lockdowns have created a significant unintended positive consequence. It’s the possibility of a large number of employees working from home in the future. WFH is now a real thing and WFA (A for anywhere) will follow.

74% of the companies surveyed by Gartner intend shifting at least some part of their workforce to work remotely permanently. Deloitte believes 50 million jobs in south east Asia could move to WFH. TCS announced that 75% of their employees will work from home within…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership | 2 Comments

Covid-19 Is Just The Preview, Beware Of The Real Show!


As a life coach, I am supposed to be positive and optimistic. And I am. However, sometimes naming the elephant in the room is the most positive thing you can do. Acknowledging a challenge squarely is a crucial first step towards working through it. Covid-19 is an unprecedented health, economic and humanitarian crisis. The scale of dislocation being created by this single event is staggering. It is affecting each of us in some way or another and we are quite far from being done with it.

While we are still jostling with this crisis, we should also take the time to reflect on what it’s trying to teach us. Moments of crisis usually bring into sharp focus what’s truly important in life. They also make us question the futility of many of our daily pursuits and things we usually stress about.

I believe this crisis is a reflection of our society’s deteriorating relationship with nature. How our unchecked thirst for growth forces animals away from their natural habitat and closer to humans. (Destruction of nature and Coronavirus) Besides, it’s a reminder of our inability to appreciate our interconnectedness and the need to nurture the whole not just our individual selves. While disproportionate rewards of individual success make us self-centered, this crisis is teaching us that eventually we all sink or swim together.

This crisis also serves as a warning sign from the universe of what lies ahead if we don’t change our ways. There are some sparks of positive change emerging from this tragic crisis, but more about that in my next post. First here are some thoughts on what can go wrong if we simply pursue the old normal.

There are four disruptive themes that are active and growing in our society – climate change, income inequality, parochial nationalism and rapid technological advancement. While any one of these has the potential to create a social tsunami, the prospect of some or all of these coming together at some point is…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Community, Global challenges | 12 Comments

Can’t Go Outside? Try Going Inside

Calm

My 87-years old dad went through the second world war, the India-Pakistan partition and even went to jail for Mahatma Gandhi’s Jail Bharo Andolan. Chatting with him on the current pandemic was insightful. Here are four key thoughts that arose from that discussion.

Calm amidst the panic

Fear levels around us are high and palpable. The reality is that our prehistoric brain is wired for survival – not peace and equanimity. We instinctively feel fearful with even the slightest of triggers affecting our survival. (Think stepping on a rope in the dark!) The current crisis is unprecedented and potentially devastating at multiple levels. It may turn out to be a generation-defining event. Fear is naturally turning to panic.

While fear and panic are totally understandable, we need to recognise the need to stay calm. Being calm and positive (while staying vigilant and following all the necessary guidelines) is the key to effectively working our way through any crisis. Listening to the horror stories of the partition from my dad, it is clear that if the health crisis continues, each of us will likely experience a roller coaster of emotions – from denial, anxiety, anger and panic to sadness and despair.

To build greater equanimity, it helps to switch off from the external world of news and social media and instead focus on our inner world. Simply sitting still and becoming an observer of our varying emotions helps. It is important that while observing our emotions, we remain focused only on observing, without judging them (or ourselves). With consistent practice, the volatility of our emotions does subside. (Read: Try mindfulness meditation and ABC of anxiety)

We along with I

With the virus spreading rapidly, protecting ourselves and our loved ones is important. However, if we are healthy, it is essential that we also pay attention to helping others in any way we can. Whether it is the frontline health workers, the daily wage earners or the families of our domestic helpers. Being helpful is…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Community, Global challenges, Leadership, Self-growth | 17 Comments

Will The Rich Change For The Sake Of The Climate?


“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” ~ Mark Twain.

I too have been guilty of this. I thought I was doing my bit by segregating waste, using more recycled products, buying more organic food, avoiding plastic, using energy saving devices and so forth. Clearly, I was lulled into a sense of complacency. However, triggered by the onslaught of adverse news, from Delhi pollution and the Venice flooding to forest fires in California and Australia, I decided to calculate my own annual carbon footprint.

It is roughly 11 tons. Just to put it in perspective, an average American’s annual carbon footprint is 16T, an average Indian is 1.8T and the global average is around 4.5T. If the world follows through on the Paris climate change accord, the global average would need to be below 2T by 2050. I guess that’s what my goal should be – progressively reducing my carbon footprint from 11T to 2T.

Looking through the data, what was apparent was that the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions for me are: a) use of my car, b) consumption of food and other household products, c) international travel, and d) use of electricity. Incidentally, I work from home and use my car only 3-4 times a week, I am not an extravagant spender and my international travel is limited to a couple of holidays and a few short work-related trips every year. If you are a business leader, I wonder what your carbon footprint might be?

As I analyse my options for the way forward, it is becoming quite evident that there aren’t many easy answers and that we would need more substantive shifts. I thought of sharing with you some of the views I have explored in case they are helpful in some way.

Calculate your carbon footprint

What gets measured gets done. If we don’t have a clear measure of our carbon footprint and its sources, we may remain ignorant of the personal efforts we need to make…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership, Self-growth | 6 Comments

The Bane Of Modern Society: Excessive Individualism


Individualism has been on the ascent across the world over the past few decades. Individualism per se is not necessarily bad. Individualism treats each individual as an independent entity and favours individual freedom over collective or state control. It encourages individuals to have a greater sense of self-responsibility and offers rewards more directly linked to their contributions. This empowering approach may well be responsible for some of the extraordinary achievements of individuals in the fields of business, science, technology and even sports.

However, I believe we have reached a stage where the balance between what’s good for the individual and what’s good for society may have tilted too much towards the individual. Fuelled by instant and disproportionate rewards for individual success in a capitalistic world, ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’ have taken centre-stage in our lives. The mantra of ‘winner takes all’ makes us self-centred. We instinctively perceive the world from a competitive lens rather than a collaborative one.

Books and media are a telling reflection of this cultural change. Scanning Google’s digitised database of over five million books, research has revealed that between 1960 and 2008, individualistic expressions like self, unique, all about me, I am special, and I’m the best have grown significantly. During that time, use of words like kindness, helpfulness, gratitude and modesty declined by over 70%. 

Effects of excessive individualism

Individualism becomes excessive when instead of acknowledging that Everyone is special, we emphasise on I am special. The ugly side of this shift is now on display in all aspects of our society. Excessive individualism divides society into winner and losers. As a result, depression is on the rise, particularly among the young. It only gets worse by spending time on social media where narcissism is on the up and respect for others on the down. Personal relationships are quick to fracture and marriages break routinely. With the intent to enhance…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership, Self-growth | 16 Comments

Needed In The Age of Artificial Intelligence: Real Wisdom


Your life is about to change dramatically, but your wisdom can shape its direction.

Ever wonder how Google maps instantly adjust your travel time in different traffic conditions; or how Facebook shows you hotel ads no sooner than you have searched online for a holiday destination; or how Siri recognises your voice? AI is present in our lives in a bigger way than we realise; and it’s growing rapidly.

Machine learning will change the future

All these developments seem benign for the most part, even helpful in many ways. However, machine learning, a recent breakthrough in the field of AI, has the potential to dramatically alter the scope and potential of AI in the foreseeable future. For better and for worse.

The first stage of AI is to program something to execute certain tasks based on predetermined commands. For example, a robot in a car factory. At the next level, a machine, armed with a framework of rules, is trained to work through large amounts of information to make the most optimal recommendation. For example, a supercomputer that checks through innumerable options and selects the best chess move.

Machine learning is changing all that. Advanced machine learning relies on algorithms that have the ability to self-learn by observing patterns from humungous amount of random data and making informed decisions by themselves. It’s equivalent to a computer learning to play chess by itself. Learning from the quality of its decisions and outcomes, the machine progressively gets better at the task. Facial and voice recognition and driverless-cars increasingly rely on this.

The real game changer

As AI machines or robots continue to improve on their decision-making and build stronger cognitive ability, it is envisageable that one day they would be more intelligent than humans. The AI world refers to this milestone as Singularity. This would be the tipping point of an exponential rise in the power of self-learning machines.

While there are varying views on how soon Singularity would be possible, Ray Kurzweil, a highly regarded futurist and director of engineering at Google,…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Global challenges, Leadership, Personal mastery | 11 Comments

Capitalism Needs A Soul


“We are not here to merely earn a living and to create value for our shareholders. We are here to enrich the world and make it a finer place to live. We will impoverish ourselves if we fail to do so.”  ~ Woodrow Wilson

Adam Smith, a pioneer of modern economics and author of Wealth of Nations (one of the foremost books on free market economics), wrote another book before that. The Theory of Moral Sentiments was based on the idea that intentional virtue and goodwill are the foundation of both an economic system of free enterprise and a political system of a representative democracy. He acknowledged that if individual virtue deteriorated, neither the free market nor a democracy could ultimately survive.

Capitalism refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned and operated for profit. Besides, all aspects of an enterprise are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and corporations to freely trade in good and services, labor and land.

Some of the defining features of capitalism are: high focus on individual (ownership and advancement), pursuit of profit (or wealth creation) and efficiency (determined by competition and free market dynamics). While this system has delivered enormous progress for the better part of last century, I believe it needs to evolve to better respond to the social challenges of our time. Here’s why.

Focus on individual progress

The sharp focus on individual economic progress, as one of the core elements of the system, has led to an all too familiar approach of ‘winner takes all’ – with disproportionate and instant rewards for individual success. According to a report published by AFL-CIO, an American labor organization, the top executives in America earned on average 354 times as much as the average worker. The similar figures for Denmark, Norway and Japan are 48, 58 and 67 times respectively. While this approach has produced some of the highest achievers in diverse…

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Posted by Rajiv Vij | Community, Global challenges, Leadership | 3 Comments