Book Summary : The Catalyst
The Catalyst, book written by Chandramouli Venkatesan, is a classic guide on how to navigate a typical corporate career. The book offers guidelines to avoid some commonly committed mistakes and advice on how to make it big in the corporate circuit. The author, a product of the corporate world of India, has worked for companies like Asian Paints and Cadbury and brings to the table over 40 years of experience (a word whose definition has been made very lucid in the book).
Being a concise yet information rich book, the author discusses a plethora of techniques and practices for a successful corporate career and commentaries and discussions on some frequently made mistakes. I shall be discussing the ones that stood out for me during my read.
ON EXPERIENCE
We all have acquaintances who have been working in a particular business or industry for a long period of time, who we say have a lot of experience in the field. But is it so ? The author says NO. The author gets right to the point by busting a commonly prevalent myth about ‘experience’. Not all time spent at work gets converted into experience. As an example, think of the time we spend walking. We never find anyone saying that they have 20 years experience in walking, do we ? No. There must be some reason why some activities do get counted as experience while others don’t. What the author explains in the book is that only if we are constantly learning at a significant rate from an event, can we call the time spent on that activity — experience.
TMRR — The Catalyst for Converting Time into Experience
Although the activity of walking that most of us do is not considered an experience building activity, let’s consider the participants of walking events in the Olympics. In their case, the time spent practicing the activity of walking does count as experience. These people set targets, of speed, distance and stamina and consistently review and improve on these parameters.
This process is called TMRR -Target, Measure, Review and Reflect, and is an effective tool to convert time into experience more effectively. Spending time on a daily basis on an individual level, reflecting on our day’s activities catalyses the conversion of time into experience.
The book talks about the algorithm that everyone possesses and applies to their professional lives. We have this engrained in our minds. This algorithm changes during the course of our careers as we grow and learn more. The experience we gain at work is reflected here, as we develop this algorithm. The author emphasizes on how it is essential that our decisions, especially in the first half of our career, be based on our real individual growth and the development of our algorithm.
PRODUCTIVITY
Along with developing our algorithm, developing our productivity is also essential. It often so happens that as people progress in their careers, they may gain a lot of experience to refine their algorithms, but fall short on productivity. Both, our growth algorithm and productivity must grow commensurately in order to achieve greater success in our careers.
Some tools to drive productivity as mentioned in the book are as follows.
- Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence
This is a very effective method to channel our energies effectively to our work and improve productivity. All our goals and challenges can be divided into two categories, those we can influence and those that concern us, but we cannot change.
According to this method, two concentric circles are to be drawn, with the inner circle being the circle of influence and the outer circle being the circle of concern. Within this large circle, lies all that we occupy our mind with. Doing this exercise regularly, one would notice that their energies get drained at an enormous rate when we tackle problems in our circle of concern, outside the circle of influence, and not much gets done. These are issues that we cannot do anything about and are out of our control. Therefore, it is definitely much more fruitful to focus on the things that we can impact, for which, this method is useful.
Also, the author does not prescribe neglecting events in the circle of concern. To deal with those issues, the way forward is to work our way out of the circle of influence or use our network. It may so happen that the things that lie in our circle of concern may lie in someone else’s circle of influence.
2. Rocks first method
This method uses the analogy of how the more effective way to fit sand and rocks in a jar is to put in the rocks first and then the sand over it, so that it occupies the little areas between the rocks as well, along with the area above them. If we fit sand into a jar and then put the rocks, we are not able to accommodate many rocks.
Correspondingly, the jar is like our mind and the sand and the rocks are the concerns and problems we have. The rocks are the major challenges we face in our work, relationships and finances.The sand is the minor issues we have. If we get to the smaller issues first ad let them consume a majority of our energy, we are unable to conserve energy for the bigger issues, just like the rocks are not able to fit the container if the sand goes first.
This goes to illustrate that the major issues are to be tackled first and then the minor ones so as to maximize or productivity. We cannot let the smaller issues drain our energies so much that we cannot work on the bigger things that actually matter.
SUCCESS IN THE SECOND HALF
Success in ones career is usually measured by the winnings in the second half, but a lot of us do not realize that until it is too late. Amateurs usually fall into the rat race of looking more successful early on in their careers and are unable to delay gratification. Instead of laying a foundation for victory in the second halves of our career, they go on chasing the low hanging fruit which is choosing width over depth, changing jobs over higher remuneration etc. The book talks about how it is essential to make all decisions, in the first half of our career especially, keeping real individual growth at the center. Only by doing that consistently will we have the sufficient knowledge and skill to win where it matters, when it matters.
MENTOR
It is very important to have a good mentor for ones journey in the corporate arena, especially in the first half, when the foundation for the second half is being built. But is getting a good boss in ones own control ? The author tells us how one can enhance the probabilities of getting a good boss. Firstly, joining a company that usually has good bosses is essential. This can be judged by the human resource of the company/where they hire their managers from.
Secondly, remember the saying — what you seek is seeking you
Good managers are those who have good subordinates working for them. Therefore, it is important that no matter who your current boss is, one must be a good subordinate and do their best at work. Such conviction and zeal has a way of showing itself and such people usually get spotted and picked by the good managers in any company.
THE SECRET BEHIND HOBBIES
Senior corporate leaders engage in sports such as marathons, golf and cycling where the competition is not against an external competitor, but against their own previous bests. Striving passionately to be better at these and achieving their targets fulfills the need for high achievement which they have developed over the years. It is a quality of a good manager that he/she does not engage in a blind pursuit for results but also accounts for other factors like the development of each team member and setting a vision. So as to execute this effectively and not be swayed by the desire for high achievement which they have had for a majority of their career, such hobbies come in handy.
CONCLUSION
The piece above provides only a glimpse into the insight The Catalyst has to offer. At the end of the book, the author advises the readers to revisit certain sections of the book so as to understand and engrain them better. For a reader new to the corporate world, like me, this was a highly engaging read with some fascinating insights into the world and workings of the corporate arena.