July : The Longest Month Of The Year
“Geo”-logically July is the Longest Month of the Year
There is a simple “geo”-logical answer to this. Summer solstice in end June marks the longest day of the year. However, June has only 30 days compared to 31 in July. With relatively longer days compared to other months with 31 days, July definitely takes the cake for the maximum daylight, at least in the northern hemisphere. This “geo”-logic makes it the longest month of the year.
Five Reasons July is the Longest Month of the Year
However, that is only one reason why July is the longest month of the year. This year, July provided many exciting reasons to be remembered as a long month. Here is a list of the Top 5 reasons July made it as the longest month of the year.
1. Digital India Week
The first week of July was celebrated as Digital India week : Power to Empower. A long list of digital initiatives were launched at a national level. This provided a perfect backdrop to introspect and distill the elements of running a truly Digital Corporation. Just as the nine pillars of Digital India were defined by the Government, the nine pillars of a digital enterprise indicate “Carpe Diem” – The time to seize the opportunity is right now, since tomorrow may just not be the same!
These nine pillars will be explained in a later post, but here is a quick snapshot:
- C – Convergence
- A – Automation
- R – Risk Management
- P – Platform for digital interface
- E – E-Governance
- D – Data driven
- I – Infrastructure
- E – Electronic Communication
- M – Mobility
2. IIM Bill
Sanity seemed to have prevailed after the furore over the IIM Bill 2015 that appeared to be a bitter pill to make the IIMs ill. The Change.org petition that some of our batchmates of the Class of 2000 of IIM Bangalore had initiated was closed after the Government decided to hear the views of various stakeholders. A good example of e-governance and digitally enabled public discourse yielding better results – Digital India already at work !
3. IIMnetWORK – A Tale of Two Cities
The first series of pan-IIM networking events across multiple cities in India was conducted in July 2015 by IIMnetWORK. The events were conducted at Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon.
The inaugural event was held at Mumbai on 12th July 2015 and witnessed inspiring keynote and panel discussions, including a particularly inspiring keynote address by the CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange. It was a privilege to moderate a session on Serial Funding for Sustainable Growth that got some attention on social media as well, that was captured in a Short and Tweet Story.
This was followed by another interesting session at Gurgaon that I had the privilege of moderating. The discussion on What to Look for Before You Invest (in a startup) was illuminating as it brought out the typical misalignment of objectives and priorities inter-se investors and entrepreneurs.
4. Big V of Big Data finished its first full month
The article that I had written on the 7V’s of Big Data in June made it amply clear that the Big V i.e the Value of Big Data has not been given the focus that it rightly deserves.
Consequently, I started a daily newsletter “Big V of Big Data – Big Value : The Value of Big Data and Analytics”. The e-newspaper completed one month of publication in July 2015 and featured very interesting perspectives across industries on leveraging Big Data to create and appropriate value.
5. First MOOC certificate ceremony
It is my strong belief that only autodidcats (self-taught) will thrive in this VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. A lot of people that have realized this and made MOOCs (massively open online courses) one of the most popular vehicles to learn on their own and keep themselves relevant.
I am lucky to keep company with a few colleagues who have been able to cultivate a culture of continuing self-learning. We celebrated this movement in a little “ceremony” where I distributed the certificates to all people who successfully completed a 10 week MOOC to enhance their skill-sets. Since I live this belief, I received a certificate for my 10-week effort as well !
Efforts put in over a long duration yielded results in arguably the longest month of the year.
The Challenge – Are We In “August” Company?
The challenge is now for all the other months to dislodge July as the longest month of the year. Shall we just say that in the current month we aspire to be in “August” company?
