12 AM, Feb 2007

Mumbai, India.

Location: The docks of INS Vikrant (1961) (A legendary aircraft carrier ship of the Indian Navy)

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I was standing at the dock with my Event Lead, Event Agency team, and we were excitedly waiting to board the ship which was the venue of the new Microsoft Windows & Office launch event for the Chief Technology Officers (CTO) the following evening. 

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‘You cannot enter the ship. I have my orders from the Indian Naval Chief, Western Command, in Mumbai’. This is what we heard, totally shell-shocked, from the Captain of this legendary carrier.

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These were the most deafening words that I had ever heard in my life. You have something that gives you a huge sinking feeling. I was unprepared for this completely. 

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So, I joined Microsoft in late 2005 in the Central Marketing Group and this was my first landmark launch event. Launch events are of a global scale and play a significant role in the marketing mix of Microsoft worldwide. This launch in early Feb 2007, was even more landmark as It was after many years that two great products Windows and Office 2007 were being launched together. It was my first launch in Microsoft. 

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Now, as you can imagine this would involve many teams across the globe to collaborate and also have a huge Core team in the subsidiary, India. And in marketing, I was driving this CTO event. As the launch was a landmark all the creative juices of the agencies and teams, including me, were running overtime. The planning started almost 9 months in advance and with a deluge of meetings and tasks. We wanted to do something different. The theme was also ‘New Day’. So suddenly while the whole initial planning was going on, we got an opportunity to do this on a stationed legacy aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy - INS Vikrant. 

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We were super excited. We contemplated and then were overjoyed to do this launch in a unique way and fashion on board this legendary aircraft carrier. We discussed with all and all got excited about the potential of this unique style of the launch. All teams now had a raised bar for the event. We started the task. Planned everything and worked every bit of the checklist that one normally does. And all was to the ’T’ with double checks by three sets of people. Flow, Content, What ifs, etc for all the events from the welcome to the thank you. 

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I was anxious and super excited to see the results as this was my first in Microsoft and it meant a lot for me for my career in Microsoft. In the initial days at Microsoft, you needed to adapt to the culture of the organization, it was either in or out. So, this was my statement to make to the leadership that here I am and a fit to make an impact for Microsoft for a long time to come.

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Now, the most unimaginable had happened, the thing that one can never plan for, the thing which makes no sense, the thing which does not ever happen, the thing that can never be anticipated. Less than 18 hours before the event we heard that we did not have the venue. We did not have a place to do the landmark event of the decade. We were speechless. We went to the commander of the ship and in all decorum asked what possibly was the reason. He straight ahead said “we don’t have the orders, I cannot give you the possession. And you don’t have the permission.” We said, “But we have had it since September 2006”. He said to show it. We looked at him blankly. 

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We always had ‘verbal consent’ permission since this was the time of the famous festival in Mumbai Kala Ghoda the permission was under the aegis of the festival which is how it normally happens. They had the permission on our behalf. It was like a quicksand feeling. 

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At that moment it struck me, that it was the ‘FUCKUP’. It felt like all had ended. Here at that moment, I made the decision, that no matter what, we would do this launch on this legendary ship only. I put my neck on the block, did what it took to figure out the cause from wherever, and took the risk of waiting till the end. In a few hours, we did figure out the real cause, we took some landmark actions full of risk and fearlessly we went and sorted the protocol.

I had one of the most memorable and impactful launches of my marketing lifetime and that too on INS Vikrant. 

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How and what happened is to follow, but before that what I have here is a set of lessons that I learned that day, that have remained with me until now so many years later in my career as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a storyteller, as a coach, as a practitioner. Here are my top ones:

1) Failures will happen. No matter how hard you try to avoid, you can only strategically manage errors but the failures can and will happen. They come unexpectedly no matter how hard you plan or try.

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2) You have to be ready for the failures and have the grit to take it and further build an environment around you that takes risks so that creativity is unleashed and not constrained. Creativity and Innovation can survive only if you have no fear of failure and you are willing to put your neck on the block

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3) You cannot do it alone, you will need your team, your mates, your confidants, your mentors, your peers, and your friends to help you. You need to collaborate and collaborate well.

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4) You need to learn to be vulnerable and not shy from asking for help

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5) You need to create and be in a safe space so that your culture and the culture around you are respectful towards your failures and be ready to pitch in

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Organizations such as Microsoft have this streak and very dynamic culture of achievement that they build up for failures by encouraging cross-teaming, collaboration, active mentoring, creating enough risk appetite to make space for failures, learning from failures, and ensuring that it is one for all and all for one. They just know how to do it and, that is how I got trained in 2007.

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Well, now to tell you how the launch turned out. First, we all agreed that the launch would happen on the landmark ship only. Then got the leaders on our side and I explained the risk I was taking and why I was ready to put my next on the block. I had my immediate senior and also our Subsidiary lead on our side to give it the best. The collaboration started to work their engines to figure out what actually happened. Plus, as a backup immediately a simple event space for booked at the last minute. The tele teams were on standby to support communicating the venue change too. The teams even started to create the event structures at the dock while we were figuring it out. So we got prepared to do the event either on INS Vikrant if we got the permission at the last minute and if not then at the simple venue.

We did figure out the mismatch in the protocol, a simple protocol we missed (which was no one’s fault nor an oversight, it was a completely unexpected issue). We sorted it out at 9 AM on the day of the event. We successfully got the permission around 11 AM. We started the setup at noon and completed it at 4:30 PM and the event with guests started at 5 PM. We had the most splendid launch and the most memorable one. I attended the event in shorts, unlike all others who were in their best formal. 

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I was applauded for my efforts in a room full of the whole of Microsoft India the next day in the internal meeting post the launch, and even won a Chairman’s award that year. 

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And today some 17 years later I run a community in Portugal celebrating failures, actually feeling why they need to be celebrated. I am a strong front-runner of a new organizational culture, which not only accepts failure but also builds a safe space for collaboration and co-creation harnessing the power of stories and in it failure stories. 

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