There are moments in life when we introspect and ask some basic questions to ourselves: The book "How Will You Measure Your Life?" provides incredible solutions to basic problems of our life.Read the book summary prepared by Prof. Sameer Mathur.

1. HOW WILL YOU MEASURE
YOUR LIFE
Finding fulfilment using lessons from some of the world’s greatest
businesses
1
CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN
Book Summary

2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"One of the more surprisingly powerful books o
personal philosophy of the 21st century."
Forbes
Clayton Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor
of Business Administration at the Harvard Business
School, where he teaches one of the most popular
elective classes for second year students, Building
and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise. He is
regarded as one of the world’s top experts on
innovation and growth and his ideas have been
widely used in industries and organizations
throughout the world.
Source:
http://www.claytonchristensen.com/biography/#sthash.c8NTxmhF.dpuf
Clay is the best-selling author of nine books
and more than a hundred articles. His first
book, The Innovator’s Dilemma received the
Global Business Book Award as the best
business book of the year (1997); and in 2011
The Economist named it as one of the six most
important books about business ever written.
He received the Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Tribeca Films Festival (2010).

3. PROLOGUE (1/2)
3
At HBS reunion,
more and more of
the students come
as unhappy,
divorced and
alienated from
their children
Purpose of the life
was not kept at
centre as it was
decided how to
spend their time,
talent & energy
It was thought
that in future they
may find out
some time to
pursue what they
actually liked
Little thought was
given to what is
the purpose of
their lives

4. PROLOGUE (2/2)
4
How can I be sure that I will be
successful and happy in my
career?
How can I be sure that my
relationship with my family,
spouse, extended family and
close friends become an
enduring source of happiness?
How can I be sure that I live a life
of integrity
3 Questions you should
ask yourself at the end of
this course

5. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE
FEATHERS
Chapter 1
5

6. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT TO
THINK & HOW TO THINK
6
•Offer quick fixes to life’s hard
problems
•Tell what to think
Traditional
Self-help
Books
•Offers theories which will help
in making good choices
•Preaches how to think
How Will You
Measure
Your Life

7. I DON’T HAVE AN OPINION, THE
THEORY HAS AN OPINION
7
Generality
A good theory
doesn’t
change its
mind; it is a
general
statement of
what causes
what and why
Prediction
A good theory
can help us
categorize,
explain and
predict
different
situations in our
life
Valuable
A good theory
is much more
valuable than
experiences
and information
as it can
explain what
will happen
before you
experience
Reliability
Moving from
correlation to
causality, a
good theory
dispenses its
advice in “if-
then”
statements
Characteristics of a good theory

8. THE POWER OF THEORY IN OUR LIVES
8
Basis of the “Theories” in the book
Based on research done at HBS
and other leading universities
Based on deep understanding of
human endeavor – what causes
what to happen and why
Can help all of us with decisions
that we make every day in our lives
and business

9. FINDING HAPPINESS IN YOUR CAREER
SECTION I
9

10. STRATEGY TO MAKE YOU LOVE WHAT
YOU DO
10
How to balance
the plans to find
what you love
doing along with
unexpected
challenges
Discussion
of
priorities
Allocating
your
resources

11. WHAT MAKES US TICK
Chapter 2
11

12. THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING
MOTIVATION RIGHT
12
Anecdote
about Diana, a
scientist at CPS
Technologies
Her work
involved long
wait for results,
leading to
frustration
The way her
day went at
work
tremendously
influences her
motivation

13. DO INCENTIVES MAKE THE WORLD GO
ROUND?
13
Case study session at HBS
where a student offered a
solution of providing incentive
to a key efficient engineer,
who is over burdened with
projects, so that he takes on
another crucial project as well
Another student counter-reacted
by arguing that incentives are
meant only for managers and not
engineers
Broadening rift between the
author’s world and that of his
students

14. A BETTER THEORY OF MOTIVATION
14
Agency
Theory
People work in
accordance with
how you pay them
Align the interests of
shareholders with that
of the executives
Application
When you need to
convince others that
they should do one
thing and not
another, just pay
them to do what you
want them to do
Problem
Unexplained powerful
anomalies – Hardest
working people
employed in NGOs
Rare to hear
managers at such
places complaining
about low motivation
Motivation
Theory
True motivation is
getting people to do
something because
they want to do it
Job satisfaction is
not considered as a
continuous spectrum
by mind
Hygiene
Factors
Status,
compensation, job
security, work
conditions,
company policies,
supervisory practices
Motivators
Challenging work,
recognition,
responsibility,
personal growth

15. THE BALANCE OF MOTIVATORS AND
HYGIENE FACTORS
15
• Motivators cause you to love what you are doing
• Choose a career based on motivators and not hygiene
factors
• Compromise with passion results in deference of the
pledge to return to the real passion after a couple of
years
• Money is the root cause of professional unhappiness
• If you get motivators at work, you are going to love your
job

16. IF YOU FIND A JOB YOU LOVE…
16
Manager
Most noble profession
Opportunity to frame each
person’s work
Make sure they have motivators
too
Money
Pursuit of money is not a motivator
Look for meaningful opportunities
Find a job you love and you will
never work
Hygiene factors such as money are a by-product of being happy with a job rather than the cause of it

17. THE BALANCE OF CALCULATION
AND SERENDIPITY
Chapter 3
17

18. HONDA TAKES AMERICA…BY ACCIDENT
18
US market
dominated by
powerhouse brands
like Harley
Honda’s strategy –
to make
comparable bikes
at low prices
Backfired due to
increased
overheads and
defective pieces
“Super Cub” now
being used by
Honda employees
to run errands
Sears spotted
Honda employees
having fun on the
hills by riding Super
Cub
Sears started selling
it through its
catalogue
Emergent
Strategy
Deliberate
Strategy

19. BALANCING EMERGENT AND DELIBERATE
19
Your strategy is made up of both
emergent and deliberate elements.
However the circumstances dictate
which approach is best

20. WHEN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DIDN’T RESPOND
20
To
become
the editor
of the Wall
Street
Journal
Joined a
consulting
firm with a
view to
keep
learning
about
business
Deliberate
Strategy
Emergent
Strategy
From joining a consulting firm to starting his own company to
getting fired to landing as a professor, we see a shift from
emergent to deliberate based on circumstances

21. WHAT HAS TO PROVE TRUE FOR THIS TO WORK?
21
Why do projects fail?
Due to
mistakes
made in
critical
assumptions
in the
beginning
What can be done?
Ask the project team to make a list of assumptions based on
importance and uncertainty for initial projections and ask the
question
“Which of these needs to prove true in order to realistically
expect these projections to materialize?”

22. THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTING
ASSUMPTIONS
22
What
assumptions
have to be
true for you to
be happy
What are the
assumptions
that have to
prove true for
success
What are the
things you
need to
deliver what
you hope to
do

23. YOUR STRATEGY IS NOT WHAT
YOU SAY IT IS
Chapter 4
23

24. REAL STRATEGY
How you allocate your resources is where the rubber meets the
road
24
Time
Money
Energy
Real
Strategy
Watch where
resources
flow

25. GETTING THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS WRONG
Sonosite
Titan
(Will be outdated)
Size of laptop,
Sophisticated &
pricey
More price hence
value of sale
higher
iLook
(disruptive – High
market potential)
Less
sophisticated, half
the size, 1/3rd the
price
Need to sell 5 to
get similar margin
on sale as 1 Titan
25

26. GETTING THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS WRONG
Sell iLook - as it is
disruptive technology – If
you don’t competitors will
Sell Titan – More the
Volume of the sale more
commissions you get
26
Measure of
Success for
employees
What will make
company
successful

27. THE PARADOX OF RESOURCE
ALLOCATION
Conflicts
in a
company
Engineer’s
Perspective
CEO’s
perspective
Salesman’s
perspective
27
Engineer -> Pushing the frontier
of performance in next
products ; regardless of
expense
Company -> Make iLook smaller
& more affordable
Salesman -> Sell product with
highest margin

28. THE PARADOX OF RESOURCE
ALLOCATION
Conflicts in
the mind
of a single
person
Right decision
for Long term
makes no sense
in the Short term
Wrong customer
to call on is
actually the
right customer
to call on
Most important
product makes
little sense to sell
28
Resource allocation
determines which
initiatives get funded
and which are
denied resources
Everything related to
strategy of company
is an “intent” until it
gets to resource
allocation

29. THE PARADOX OF RESOURCE
ALLOCATION
Actual
Strategy
of
company
Company’s
Vision
Company’s
Plans
Company’s
Opportunities
Company’s
Threats
Company’s
Problems
29

30. WHEN INDIVIDUALS CAUSE THE PROBLEMS
Individual
Priorities
Company
Priorities
30
Individual
vs
Company
priorities ->
Fatal
 Job’s Fixed the underlying resource
allocation problem
 Anything not aligned with the
company’s goal got scrapped
 People who did not agree were fired
 Job’s prioritized what is the focus of the
company and it was implemented

31. THE DANGERS OF GETTING THE TIME FRAME WRONG
•Senior executives identify next gen leaders – High potential leaders
•18 month projects across functions are gauged for success
•Series of successful assignments earn best subsequent projects
•Hence young managers focus on projects which give results in 18 months
Singles & bunts
(Focus on short term projects)
•Long term view always helps the company achieve its goals, but these give fruits after 5 years
•Managers are judged based on immediate results, hence long term view is not addressed
•Misaligned timelines for incentive and company’s goals cause the managers choose shortterm
gains
Home Runs
(Focus on long run projects)
31
Short term
success (Singles
& bunts) Long term success
(home runs)
-> Unilever very innovative
company – invested billions to
create breakthrough innovations
But Singles & bunts better than
exciting new “home run”
products
Misaligned incentives -
system rewards
tomorrow…
company’s goals
need long term

32. THE DANGERS OF GETTING THE TIME FRAME WRONG
Change
Change the Social
security, Medicare
etc & save country
from bankruptcy
Everyone in house of
representatives
knows how to
change
Re-
elected
These programs
benefit lot of
people, if changed
their benefits go
away
They have the right
to vote and will
remove anyone
who changes these
programs
32
Getting
country out of
bankruptcy Getting re-
elected

33. ALLOCATION RESOURCES AMONG YOUR
“BUSINESSES”
-> Have a rewarding
relationship with
spouse
-> Raising great
children
->Contributing to
church or community
-> Have a successful
career
-> Get a promotion,
raise or bonus
-> Have high flying
lifestyle
->Hence more time for
career since I need
promotion
PersonalLife
Career
33
To understand a
company’s
strategy, look at
what they actually
do rather than what
they say – Andy
Grove
Resources like personal time,
energy, talent & wealth need
to be allocated

34. ALLOCATION RESOURCES AMONG YOUR
“BUSINESSES”
What has to be prioritized, since resources are limited?
Where to spend the extra time you get or the extra ounce of energy?
Even if you are focussed. What are the right choices?
Danger of high achieving people is to allocate resources that yield the most
immediate & tangible results
Immediate results can be seen in career but not in personal lives
Things in personal life deteriorate slowly - only after 20yrs you can say we raised good
kids
34

35. ALLOCATION RESOURCES AMONG YOUR
“BUSINESSES”Strategy
• You can talk about your strategy all you want – strategy
is nothing but good intentions unless effectively
implemented
Actions •See how your resources flow and check whether
your priority is getting the maximum resources
Consistency
•Decisions you make about where you invest your
blood, sweat and tears should be consistent with
the person you aspire to be, otherwise you will
never be that person
35

36. FINDING HAPPINESS IN YOUR
RELATIONSHIPS
SECTION II
36

37. FINDING HAPPINESS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Career
you
love
What truly
motivates
us?
How to
balance?
How to
allocate
resources? 37

38. FINDING HAPPINESS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Career
•High need for achievement – career gives the best results
•Highly tempting to invest every hour & energy in career because it gives clear & immediate
evidence of achievement
•High achievers focus on the person you are at work & neglect person you are at home
•Focussing more on career is the result of short term planning
Personal
Life
•There is much more to life than career
•Investing time & energy in raising children and deepening love with spouse yield long term happiness
•How do you decide what gets most attentions? The one which shouts and pulls you more?
•You need to fight to uphold your priorities in your mind everyday
•Work can bring you a sense of fulfilment but it pales in comparison to enduring happiness you find in
relationships
38

39. FINDING HAPPINESS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships
Never
under
control
Relationship
with kids in
unpredicta
ble
Each
person is
different –
hence your
relationship
should be
different
Getting
something
wrong is not
failure – it’s a
learning on
what doesn’t
work
You cant
hire & fire
people from
your life –
like in a
company
Relationshi
ps are
sources of
deepest
joys
39

40. The Ticking Clock
Chapter 5
40

41. THE TICKING CLOCK
41
Paradoxically, the time when it
is important to invest in building
strong families and close
friendships is when it appears,
at the surface, as if it’s not
necessary

42. A SPECTACULARLY BIG FAILURE
•Iridium satellite network phone to call people from literally
anywhere on the planet
•Iridium would revolutionize mobile communications,
attracting millions of users
•Defied odds & managed govt’s to allocate spectrum to the
signals
Innovation
•Send call to satellite and relay to the receiver – need
not worry about if there is a tower
•Call from mount Everest to Baltimore possible
Advantages
•Customer needed to carry the phone in a briefcase & it
weighs a pound
•Phone doesn’t work if you are indoors
•Huge investment without proper analysis – 6$billion
•Theory of “ good money & bad money” explains this risky
investment
Flaws & Failure
42

43. A THEORY OF GOOD AND BAD
CAPITAL
Initial Phase
• When winning strategy not clear –
good money should be impatient
for profit but patient for growth
• Figure out a viable strategy as fast
as possible & with little investment
possible
• 93% of successful companies
changed their initial strategy
• Do not become big when strategy
is not established to be viable
Final phase
• Once a viable strategy is
established good money becomes
impatient for growth and patient
for profitability
• After viable way forward is
discovered, success not depends
on scaling out the model
• Hence the capital has different
uses at different stages of the
strategy
43
Two goals of an
investor – Growth
& Profitability
Companies succeed, not
because they have right
strategy, but rather, they
have money left after
original strategy fails, to
try another approach

44. PLANTING SAMPLINGS WHEN YOU
DECIDE YOU NEED SHADE
•Because the probability is so high that the initial plan isn’t viable, investor needs to invest in next
wave of growth
•Even while the original business is going strong, invest in new business , so as to give it time to
figure out a viable strategy
•Despite this owner of capital postpones the investment because today it seems unwarranted
Step1
•The original core business has become mature & stops growing
•The owner of the capital realises he should have invested several years earlier in the
next growth business
•So that the new business would have taken over as the growth business
Step2
• The owner of capital demands that the businesses he invested in must
become very big very fast
• To accelerate growth, shareholders pour lots of capital in to these
initiatives, this abundant capital gives entrepreneurs chance to
recklessly pursue wrong strategy
Step3 44

45. HONDA VS MOTOROLLA
Honda
Honda was financially
constrained in its initial
days, hence was
forced to be patient
for growth
If it had cash and
infused it to pursue
growth then it
would be bad
money
Was forced to
follow the theory
of good money –
hence succeeded
Motorolla
Infused large
money in to
iridium project
without a viable
strategy
Invest to see
business grow
quickly & figure
out how to be
successful down
the line
Bad money
resulted in failure
45

46. INVESTING FOR FUTURE HAPPINESS
Happiness
Do not give
all the
attention to
your job
Do not
identify
yourself with
your work
alone
Do not
expect
people who
are closest to
us to accept
our
demanding
schedule
Do not
neglect
friends &
personal
events like
birthdays
etc
Implement
your
strategy of
creating
deep love
filled
relationships
46

47. THE RISK OF SEQUENCING LIFE INVESTMENTS
47
The logic “I can invest in my career during the early
years when our children are small and parenting isn’t
critical. When out children are a bit older and begin to
be interested in things that adults are interested in, then
I can lift my foot off my career accelerator. That’s when
I will focus on my family” is flawed

48. THE RISK OF SEQUENCING LIFE INVESTMENTS
The first year of a child’s life is most important in terms of listening to words
The number of words child listens to in first 30 months has a strong correlation with their
performance on vocabulary & reading tests
Types of conversation parents have with kids has an impact on cognitive development of
the child
Business language vs Language dancing
Language dancing helps child think about surroundings and understand
The children who were exposed to extra talk have an incalculable cognitive advantage
Invest long in your relationships, it takes a long time to see results
48

49. WHAT JOB DID YOU HIRE
THAT MILKSHAKE FOR?
Chapter 6
49

50. WHAT DOES THIS CHAPTER DEAL WITH?
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANGING
PERCEPTION – AN UNDERSTANDING
OF WHAT THE OTHER WANTS AS
OPPOSED TO WHAT WE CAN OFFER
50

51. DOING THE JOB RIGHT
 Nobody has copied IKEAs business model
 WHY?
 Different business approach: Model structured around job rather than product
or customer demographics. Caters to consumer’s “I’ve got to get this place
furnished by tomorrow” dilemma
 Competitors may reverse engineer your products and copy the catalog, but
business approach and culture cannot be copied
 When a company understands the job, consumers ‘pull’ its products
into their lives
51

52. CHEAPER? CHOCOLATIER? CHUNKIER?
 Morning milkshakes: Chunkier, helps people pass time
during their commute to office
 Afternoon milkshakes: Simpler, smaller, for parents who
want to feel good that they don’t deny their kid every
pleasure
52
A single product may serve multiple needs to the same or
different customers at different points in time

53. THE JOB OF KEEPING MOM AND DAD HAPPY
 Examples of products which were structured around ‘jobs’ and not
products and which did well in markets and kept ‘parents happy’
53
For parents who want to spend
some time with their kids but who
are very tired after a long days work
For young adults. “I can drink a V8 and
get the nutrition that I’d promised
Mom I’d get, but with a fraction of
effort and time”

54. HIRING SCHOOL FOR A JOB
 State brings improvements to education system that seems to make little
improvements in performance or dropout rates
 WHY? Because schools are designed to make students feel like failures –
Result: Dropouts, and barring some, poor performance in academics
 Schools job: To make students feel successful, to help students make friends
54

55. WHAT JOB ARE YOU BEING HIRED FOR?
Understand the job you are being hired for – both professionally
and personally
You may be capable of doing a 100 different kinds of jobs, but if
you don’t do the one that is actually required by your loved one
or your job specs, you will reap frustration and confusion
In marriages, people who are most loyal are the ones who have
figured out what the other party wants 55

56. SACRIFICE AND COMMITMENT
What is happiness in a relationship
about?
 Finding someone who makes you happy
 Finding someone who you want to make
happy, whose happiness is worth
devoting yourself to
Sacrifice deepens commitment 56
One is at his happiest when one
puts his whole life on hold for
something worth fighting for

57. SAILING YOUR KIDS ON
THESUS’S SHIP
Chapter 7
57

58. WHAT DOES THE CHAPTER TEACH US?
OUTSOURCING IS NOT ALWAYS THE
CORRECT SOLUTION – PEOPLE AND
BUSINESSES LEARN WHEN THEY ARE
CHALLENGED
58

59. THE GREEK TRAGEDY OF OUTSOURCING
 In the beginning (Dell’s case):
 Disruptive Business model
 Modular Designing of computers
 Efficient capital usage
 Later:
 To increase RONA (Return on Net Assets), Dell started
outsourcing to Asus
 Outsourcing started with low end circuits, moved to
motherboards, then to assembly to a point where Dell
had outsourced everything instead of its brand.
 Asus now knew what to do, and announced its
own line of computers
59
V/S

60. UNDERSTAND YOUR CAPABILITIES
 Understand what capabilities might be critical to you in the future
 Capabilities are of 3 kinds:
60
Priorities
Most important
Defines how the
decisions are made
Processes
Interaction, coordination,
communication
Decision making
Can’t be seen on a
balance sheet
Resources
Tangible
Are people or things
Can be hired or
fired, bought or sold

61. NEVER OUTSOURCE THE FUTURE
It always begins with outsourcing the simplest of things
But then, a phase arrives when you no longer can do the
complex things because you haven’t mastered the simple
things, because they were outsourced.
Solution to the problem:
 Take a dynamic view of your capabilities assuming that condition can
and will change in the future
 Figure out what capabilities are needed in the future – those must
stay in-house 61

62. WHAT YOUR CHILD CAN AND CANNOT DO
 A child’s resources: financial and material resources, abilities, talents,
relationships, learnings from the past
 A child’s processes: What the child does with the resources he/she has –
thinking, asking question, solving problems
 A child’s priorities: What the child considers important in his/her life – what tasks
are at the top of the list, what tasks can be procrastinated, what need not be
done at all
 These are the WHAT, HOW and WHY (in order) and these determine what a
child can/can’t do
62

63. THE GREEK TRAGEDY – INSIDE OUR FAMILIES
 In olden times, children used to help parents around the house:
cleaning, gardening, sewing
 Nowadays, it is cheaper and easier to outsource this work to
professionals
 In absence of these activities, parents send their kids to soccer,
lacrosse, Chinese lessons and so on.
 Impetus for parents: They want to feel that they are doing good as parents
 Result: Kids, today, have ample resources. But the process and
priority remains relatively under developed 63

64. WHAT MY PARENTS DIDN’T DO FOR ME
 The authors mother never spoon fed her children.
 If their socks are torn, she taught them how to sew and let them sew it
themselves and if their jeans got torn, she taught them how to patch
them
 This in turn
 Helped them learn how to solve their own problems
 Gave them confidence that they could solve their own problems
 Gave them immense pride when they mended/tacked a problem on their own
 Made them SELF RELIANT 64

65. CHILDREN LEARN WHEN THEY ARE READY TO
LEARN Children learn when they want to learn, not when one
wants to teach them
 It is important to be with them as they face challenges
– that is an opportunity to shape their priorities
 If these ‘problems’ are outsourced to be solved,
possible points when the parent and the child can
connect, is gone forever.
65

66. THE SCHOOLS OF
EXPERIENCE
Chapter 8
66

67. WHAT DOES THIS CHAPTER SAY?
FAILURE HAPPENS NOT BECAUSE
OF INCAPABILITY, BUT BECAUSE
OF INEXPERIENCE – AND
EXPERIENCES CAN BE
COLLECTED
67

68. IS IT REALLY THE RIGHT STUFF?
 A resume is not always the correct measure as to whether a
particular candidate is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ for the job
 Copying processes of successful companies may not be the solution
for everyone
 The right people and the right company hone themselves, and they
have experiences that taught them how to deal with setbacks
68

69. THE RIGHT STUFF ISN’T RIGHT AT ALL
 The author gives an example of how for
scaling up his company, he hired a person
based on his resume and not on his
experiences and learnings and eventually had
to let him go because he was not the right fit
69
 Similarly, how Pandesic, a JV between Intel
and SAP became a colossal failure because
they hired a VP-Operations just based on his
resume.

70. PLANNING YOUR COURSES AT THE SCHOOL OF
EXPERIENCE
 Instead of taking the universally accepted ‘right’ steps, ask
“What are all the experiences and problems that I
have to learn and master so that what comes out at
the other end is someone who is ready and capable
of becoming successful?”
70

71. A COURSE FOR JUST FIVE PLAYERS
 In a start-up company where there are no processes in place
and everything has to be done by individual then a experienced
person should be selected to do the job
 In a established company, where processes are in place then
someone who needs to learn from hand-on experience should
be selected
71

72. SENDING YOUR KIDS TO THE RIGHT SCHOOL
 As a parent , encourage children to aim higher goals
 If children fail , parents should be there to help them from the
mistakes
 Parents should encourage children “ If they are not failing
occasionally, they are not aiming high”
 Parents should allow kids to take responsibility of handling tasks
72

73. ENGINEERING COURSES
 If children do not face difficult challenges and hardly fail along the
way , they will not build the resilience they need throughout the life
 Parents should consciously think about what abilities you want your
children to develop and what experience is likely to help them
 Creating experience is not enough but to help your children to get
right experience
73

74. THE INVISIBLE HAND INSIDE
YOUR FAMILY
Chapter 9
74

75. 75
What does this chapter say?
Most of us have idyllic image of families ,
children well behaved and make us proud by
their actions
But there is a difference between idyllic family
and actual family we have

76. WHEN THE CHARIOT GOES OVER THE HILL
 How to raise our children, so that they themselves take the right
conclusion
 For this to happen, children priority should be set correctly, so that
they know how to evaluate their options and make a good
choice
 The best tool is the culture we build in our families
76

77. HOW DOES CULTURE FORM IN A COMPANY?
 Culture is a way of working together towards common goals that
have been followed so frequently that people do not even think
about trying to do things in different way
 Culture is about learning the things by flawless repetition
 Culture is the unique combination of processes and priorities
77
Culture
Building
Define a
problem
Ask a group
to find
solution
If group fails
,ask them
again to
find solution
Ask the
team to
implement
the same
solution
again

78. THIS IS THE WAY OUR FAMILY BEHAVES
 For a family to have clear set of priorities , then those priorities
needs to be proactively designed into the culture
 Choose the culture that best suits to your family and engineer the
culture to reinforce it
 A culture always exists , what matters is how hard are you trying
to influence it
78

79. THIS IS THE WAY OUR FAMILY BEHAVES
 The professional pursuit and interest of children need to emerge , and there is
every chance they will be very different
 The culture of your family should welcome diversity
79

80. JUST THIS ONCE….
Chapter 10
80

81. 81
What does this chapter say?
The author answers the question “ how can I be
sure I live a life of Integrity ? “
Author uses the theory of “full versus marginal
thinking” to answer this question
Many a times we face a series of ethical
questions that rarely seems to have high stakes,
but over time they turn out to be really
important

82. THE TRAP OF MARGINAL THINKING
 Taking decisions on the parameters which led to the success in past may
led to failure in future
 The decisions should be based on the parameters which will lead to
success in future
 Short term marginal benefits is a “myopic” approach , may lead to loss in
future
Refer the ted talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_lead
er?language=en
82

83. YOU END UP PAYING THE FULL PRICE ANYWAY
 The big established players have so much cash then also they
find capital investment in future technology very difficult
 The answer is “Theory of marginal verses full cost”
 In established companies marginal cost overwhelms full cost, as
companies think they already have underutilized capacity, this
leads decline of the firm
 Start ups have only option of full cost as they are new to the
scene and invest in new technology
83
Established firms v/s Start ups
Established
Firm
Start ups

84. AN UNENDING STREAM OF EXTENUATING
CIRCUMSTANCES
 Marginal cost of doing “just this once” always seems to be
negligible but the full cost will be typically higher
 The price of doing “Just this once” wrong seems to be very low
 Short term gain seems to be alluring but can have negative
consequences in future
84
Lance Armstrong caught in “just this
once” phobia and doped
Led to loss of glory made in several
years

85. 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME IS EASIER THAN 98
PERCENT OF THE TIME
 Most of us know we are breaking our personal rules by “just this once” decision
, but in our mind we justify them as small choices
 These small choices never feels like a life-changing direction
 But each of these decisions can roll up into a bigger picture , turning you into
a person you never wanted to be
85

86. Thank You
86