Bhat's Notes

The only way to forge bonds between nations is through connected societies.

I studied under Peter Drucker. He reads back pages with sports on news first. I asked him why? He said back pages are about human success and front page is about human failures. 

How can you make that front page a human success? Individual can move mountains with clear objective.

Education and class rooms haven’t changed. I leveraged technology for education. Our pricing model is tied with PPP for the country. We have to get ROI for students. We want to build this university. It became a success and I moved on.

I have been changing the pedagogy of teaching. Made students as centre of the class room. I am here to connect largest and oldest democracies of the world. Last 70 years, relationship with USA is always in building phase. First time, India is in strong relationship with USA. This has to be nudged through civic society.

China will not tolerate India as equal partner, the way US looked at Mexico. India got no choice but it shall forge.

The two bring in more connections. This has been driven by civic society, 3.3 million Indians in USA. We made India as a major defense partner.

Individuals working with civic society can build relationships. Nations don’t have permanent friends and they only have permanent interests. Create such permanent interests.

I believe value systems of people on both countries will drive this. Each was a global learning experience as I navigated many countries.

Berut: Civil War was going on. Christian and Muslim sides. Brutal, that one day when I came to my room my roommate was blown up. It made me value relationship. It reminded me I was mortal.

Sweden: I have escaped to Sweden. I had the will to make myself successful. I was given a sales rep job. I didn’t know the language to begin with. Summer time I had one hour night and winter is one hour day light. While I was trying to understand and sunlight, language was a problem. I broke all sales records of that company In Sweden.

If you have the will, you can make the diffeence. Through the US firm, I went to Japan. They said they didn’t want to buy application software. They wanted customized software. I told them to think about apps for future. First 25 months in Tokyo and all the bars and meetings but I was a failure. Eventually, I started cracking international firms in Japan as they started to realize. Japan is the fastest growing application software market now.

Don’t take the way route. Be bull headed. Stay focused. 

I am a mountain climber. I decided to climb the mount Blanc, the highest in mountain. I got to be prepared for sudden changes in wind. 5 of us started climbing. As we reached 14,000 feet with the weather change wind started. It has lots of loose rocks on the top of the mountain. 100 people die an year. Temperature dropped and  wind chill made it worse. We just hunkered down and waited. Body and mind are playing at you. Mind is saying what am I doing here. Skin starts closing down to preserve the heat in cold conditions.

It was almost 12 hours and now it is midnight, when we got up it was all white. We couldn’t see the crevice or a mountain. We had to find a way back down the mountain. You have to learn to retreat and manage risk. Next year we climbed it again.

It is not about IT and H1B. It is more. Change the perception and take the lead.

India has 30% of the generic drug market in india. It brings savings of $20B to USA. Military strong India is good for regional stability.

I sincerely believe India got to take a strong military role in regional stability. That means we keep innovating and bring in broader defense technology. Bring production from US to India.  Better cost and improved product. Bring the drug and generic drug model to India for defense. Make and start exporting it.

Indians are small but big affluent group In USA. Use this to drive the connections.

I have done enough of corporates and Startups. I did 27 international marathons. Semblance of balance means have the balance on physical aspects of you and also the kind of legacy you leave behind.

My legacy is to impact the relation between USA and India. DO is about building that legacy wherever you are. Trying to drive that change itself in your environment very positive way.