Financial year closing

This one is dedicated to all my friends who slog away in the last week of March because some accountants need to know what is (+) or (–) in a report called the P&L statement. The joke here is - they’ve probably already decided how it will read beforehand. We are all just doing the grunt back-work to make sure their ‘predictions’ look correct.

For the less familiar and the more lucky souls, there are a lot of interesting activities that happen with this financial or fiscal year ‘closing’.
Firstly, audits galore - of stocks, of claims, of expenses, etc etc. It’s like a field day for auditors and that one time in the year when they call all the shots. You can put forth your logics and all, but there always a ready response “Huh? What are you saying? Close to karna hai na! Why are you bringing this up at this eleventh hour?” Because my dear friend, this is the only time I can get your kind attention.
Secondly, this is when the finance guys are at their efficient best, and everyone else at their wits end. The two does not make a fruitful combination for work to happen.

I remember my colleagues in a previous job assignment, R and T, who despised this time of the year. We dreaded the three words “Sanctioned vs. Released vs. Spent”. Budgets under these three heads never seemed to match! We had the most elaborate SAP reports and Excel trackers (greater than 5 colours used per worksheet and tons of cross-linked formulae) but we were still cursing when we sat down to close the fiscal year.

By the way, in India, financial years are from 1st April to 31st March of every year, but it’s not the same across the world. Here are some examples.
· US : October 1st to September 30th
· Australia : July 1st to June 30th
· UAE : Jan 1st to Dec 31st
Now, I don’t think the job market is that good nowadays or too many companies would want my kind of talent, but a good way to avoid financial year closings will be this: Work in Dubai from Jan to March, in India from April to June, in Australia from July to September and finish up in US from October to December. That way, you experience the best part of the fiscal year where you get to make grand plans but are in no pressure to implement them yet (“C’mon boss, the year’s just begun, the next 3 quarters will be great, I tell you”).

The other more personal twist with fiscal year closing, that sales managers particularly experience, is that it is usually the end of the appraisal year also. This means you will literally DIE to deliver that one extra shipment, coax customers to buy that one last goods carton, and find someone, someone who hasn’t yet purchased your insurance policy or credit card. It’s akin to the final desperate stretch the 100 metre athlete makes before the finish line. Of course, his agony lasted 10 seconds, yours 365 days.

Think about it like this...As the clock ticks over from 31st March to the next day, it greets you saying “April Fool! Gotcha again this year! ”... Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t rub it in. I fall for the same thing every single year.

P.S.: I have a lot of respect for Finance professionals. Without them, us marketing guys will probably have one fantastic never-ending party and completely waste ourselves. So, thanks guys, for keeping us grounded within the columns of your balance sheets :)

“Phir dil diya Hockey ko”

Over the past few days, I’ve been watching the FIH Hockey World Cup on TV. Although India had a dream start (the 4-1 drubbing of Pakistan), it was all downhill after that. When we finally lost to Argentina and ended 8th out of 12 participating teams, it wasn’t a great feeling.

That said, I couldn’t help but get attracted to this game. I don’t watch hockey too often (loyalties lie with football, cricket and tennis sometimes), but as I saw the best teams in the world playing against each other, I felt hockey too was every bit if not more exciting than the other more popular sports.

Consider for example, the pace of the game. An average hockey game has about 4 goals whereas an average football game has only 2, that when the duration of a hockey game is 20 minutes lesser. The game in hockey moves from one half to the other extremely fast, and the attacks at goal can be quite sudden at times. Remember the game between India and Spain? There were 4 goals scored within 4 minutes!
The game is also quite literally non-stop. There are no time gaps between bowling overs or rest breaks between games and sets, where advertisers can squeeze in their 10-seconder. You play for a fast uninterrupted 35 minutes, take a short break and then go again. Free hits are taken quickly, and every member on the field is always on the run.

Then, let us look at the skill level required in this game. Admittedly, skill is something all great players of all sports must possess. Similarly, the hockey skills of some great players bewilder you too. I remember a particular Arjun Halappa dribble on the right flank in the match against Australia where he manoeuvred through three defenders to set up a crucial goal. “Wow!” was my reaction. And then there are the drag flickers (or penalty corner specialists for the less initiated) – every good team has one. Their sharp judgement and accurate hits change the course of the game. Little wonder then, that penalty corners are so sought after. The chances of converting one into a goal are high if you have an ace drag flicker in your team.

So, I guess what I’m finally trying to say is – Hockey IS an absorbing, exciting game. It is our national sport and somewhere as Indians, we’ve lost faith in it. It was our national pride when we were winning Olympic golds one after the other, but as the Westerners introduced astro-turf and our team’s fortunes turned topsy-turvy, we too switched off. Meanwhile, Kapil and his devils won 1983, and a man called Sachin Tendulkar started rewriting record books. It was convenient to shift focus as Indians to a new sport and worship new heroes. It was also convenient for sponsors to back the new poster boys and put in all the moolah to create one of the world’s richest sporting bodies. Meanwhile, the managing body of the national sport did not even have enough money to pay the players their modest salaries.

For me, Sachin’s 200 moment is still my YouTube favourite. But the sight of a blue-jersey clad Indian hockey player dribbling away and giving his everything to a sport and a nation that gave up on him, is equally endearing.
As the latest Hero Honda ad appeals, “Phir dil do hockey ko”. Maine to de diya.

Multi-eight

Have you ever played Multi-eight on eastoftheweb.com?
This multi-player word game is one of my favourites. My close friend and ex-flat mate, R and I used to completely freak over it, and it was a daily night-time ritual once we had said our good-nights to our respective girlfriends.

Anyway, I was recently told by a fresh MBA passout that the game is quite the rage in campuses now. I’m not surprised. Here’s why I think Multi-Eight is one of the best online word games:

• It’s a forum for serious word gamers – no social chatting, no “ASL?” or “gg” after every round
• Neat clean, uncluttered, ad-free gaming interface
• Anonymity – the only thing that matters is your username which you can change
• Intensely competitive with multiple game rooms to suit your expertise level. Some great regular players who really up the ante.
• Ups and downs – Ten rounds of fast paced action. You screw up in one round and you will probably lose overall cumulative standings that you might never catch up; At the same time some rounds where you beat the field by a big margin might just become the overall game-changers. Not dips in concentration tolerated here.

R and I have since relocated to different cities. But when we do land up in the same city, the game is once again renewed. We’ve also introduced many of our friends and colleagues to the game, for some of whom it’s become a distraction to work :)

Cheers to Multieight and eastoftheweb. Great stuff!