Jonar Nadar (Chairman, Logictivity Pty Ltd.) keeps the concept of teamwork aside and focuses on building the teams that work , in conversation with Sushmita Yadav

Q. You have conducted courses on technology, leadership, management, thinking skills, employee engagement, teamwork, advertising, change, fraud, terrorism and politics. What is the mantra behind managing so many diverse roles? What do you enjoy the most?

A. At the conclusion of my lectures, some people ask questions like, ‘Where do you get your material from?’, ‘Which books do you read?’ This points to a common problem: people presume that the answers lie in source material. Where have all the thinkers gone? I never read books to bolster the content for my lectures. The mantra behind my work is, ‘Know it first-hand’. I go out and enquire, probe, seek, investigate, research – first-hand. When I speak about a topic, it would be only after I have understood it for myself from the point of pain – meaning I go to where the pain (or opportunity) lies, and I make contact with the people at that front line. As for which I enjoy the most; I dare say that I cannot isolate my life. I am in a constant state of appreciation. When I fall or stumble, I am appreciative of the energy to pick myself up and try again. When I hit a brick wall and can see no immediate way out, I am grateful for the fighting spirit within me that spurs me to keep trying. I am glad that I have the skills to work independently, so that no one can ever hijack my success by saying something daft like, ‘Sorry, this cannot be done.’

Q. What do you consider as a leader’s most challenging job?

A. On the modern stage, leaders are constantly judged and misjudged. The hardest of all is to resist the temptation which says, ‘Given that I cannot please everyone, maybe I ought to please myself and make a decision that secures my position.’ It is at this point of ‘selfishness’ that the leader fails. To remove self-interest must be the toughest of all the tasks. Teaching about the duty of the leader, I implore young people to understand the seemingly inconsequential actions that compromise them – whether a free dinner hosted by a lobbyist, or a free gift disguised as a token of appreciation. All these things grow until the dinner becomes a large reception in their honour; and the token becomes a major stipend for services rendered. Such are the foundations of corruption. Corruption of the soul, in incremental, imperceptible steps, damages the leader’s independence. Click here to read more...

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The biggest tool, is in the form of an open and transparent communication to all concerned regarding the plans, including sharing of vision, mission and desired business objectives.

Q. How do HR priorities undergo a change to support the turnaround?
A. HR has to act as a facilitator, guide, mentor, communicator, strategist, path- breaker, and torchbearer. HR should play this role during the various facets of a turnaround plan, strategy and even at the execution stage of turnaround blueprint, including implementation of the 3R turnaround strategy, retrenchment, repositioning and reorganisation.

Q. Is there a turnaround story that has inspired you? Please share with us.
A. The turnaround story that really inspires me even today is that of Indian Bank. This happened close to late 1990s, and it was undertaken in a well-planned and systematic manner. The result of the same is in front of us; Indian Bank continues to operate successfully as a nationalised bank with branches all over the country. Several case studies have been done and written over the turnaround of Indian Bank.

Q. What are the employee issues that are unique to the Indian corporate set up when an organisation undergoes this change?
A. Typical employee issues that may be unique to the Indian set-up are many. The first in this list is job stability, including retrenchment and repositioning. Other issues of importance are: changed culture, new management introduced, new leadership team, new processes and systems, financial stability, dislocation, career progression, re-engineered HR policies and processes, reorganisation and changed organisational design, talent management, and decision making to name some. Read more..

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Human Resource department needs to monitor and follow up to ensure employee morale does not take a beating, messages and policies are properly communicated and implemented.

Q. Discuss HR’s vital participation in the strategic and administrative “treatment” of a company during hard times.
A. HR needs to be truthful when announcing difficult decisions such as downsizing. The HR department needs to work closely with the CEO to ensure that the restructuring exercise is properly carried out and with the support of the staff. The companies will then know that people are not against bad news but they want to see quick and effective results.

Q. Have you come across some common employee expectations during turnaround?
A. Employees hate uncertainty. Therefore, it is important that the turnaround or restructuring plan should be shared with the staff to get their support. The management should treat the staff, who are retrenched, with respect as the remaining people are watching closely how their former colleagues are being treated.

The management should also direct the focus of the staff on the future and financial rewards when the company does a turnaround. It is important to turn the negative energy in to positive during the turnaround as negative energy impacts employees’ morale, hard work, and hope.

Q. Please elaborate on your principle: “Manage yourself with the head and others with the heart”.
A. The prime weakness of the external CEOs is that they do not know the existing team and the trend. This leads them to make decisions based on their own reasoning and without understanding the sentiments and background of the employees. In a restructuring exercise, one should use his head to plan and analyse, and the heart to energise and empathise with others. For example, a plan on the cost-cutting exercises with the head. However, when one implements it one needs to win the hearts to get the support of the people. Also, there arises the need to energise and motivate the workforce. Reda more...

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Not restricted to traditional practices alone, HR today seeks support and recognition from the CEO in driving change. - by IIPM Think Tank

In a CEO’s opinion the ‘real’ HR professional should have a profile matching the following: brain of Albert Einstein, charisma of J.F. Kennedy, negotiating skills of Henry Kissinger, marketing skills of Iacocca, hide of a rhinoceros, the soul of Mother Teresa, and stamina of Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

CEOs need credible HR partners who know the dynamic intersection of business results, customer expectations and people performance. By expecting more business acumen than ever from the HR function, CEOs have challenged HR leaders to redefine their roles and contribution. They feel HR executives have the capability to build trust, communicate and collaborate with others with professional compatibility, diplomacy and discretion.

A section of senior managers believe HR is a corporate Siberia with no visibility and accountability. They are perceived as being only able to deal with the softer side of business because they are diplomatic, typically positive in outlook and gracious. But the CEO, by contrast, requires an advisor who tells him or her what the key people issues are, and who rigorously influences him or her about the solutions.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey has rightly said “Management works in the system, leadership works on the system.” This clearly highlights one of the biggest expectations of a CEO from his HR manager. The emphasis is on the need of leadership that is skilled in identifying and developing talent.

A CEO expects the HR to identify the behaviours and skills that drive the organisation’s productivity and success. Senior HR executives are expected to be savvy interpreters of trends, with the ability to translate trends into valuable opportunities for the company, preparing the workforce to drive more productivity in the business. Read more...

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SARAH CORNALLY FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, CORNALLY ENTERPRISES Learning lingua franca of the boardroom

With over 25 years as a leadership and management consultant, Ms. Sarah Cornally specialises in developing leaders to create culture that enables organisations to thrive. Ms. Cornally is a leading expert in organisational dynamics, examining culture and strategy of senior executives and leadership at the boardroom level. She has co-authored several books such as ‘Turning Strategic Intent into Real Results’.

Q. How do you see HR’s role as a strategic business partner?
A. Strategy is how you go about bringing a vision from an idea into existence. In business, it requires understanding all the forces at play in the marketplace, deciding how you will create value by mobilising resources that fulfill the purpose of an organisation. Consulting with organisations where there are co-creative relationships between the CEO, CFO, COO, CIO and CHRO gives a clear line of sight to the contribution each function plays in bringing the vision into being.

This requires the CHRO to understand the business strategy from a commercial perspective and all its implications for the organisational design, development and culture – both short and long term. CHRO should be able to demonstrate credible knowledge in understanding what the business strategy demands from various functions of the business and how HR can be a partner to enable this to work effectively.

Q. What does the leadership expect from HR?
A. The leadership needs a well-designed organisation that functions effectively to enable the business strategy to be implemented in the most effective and well-leveraged way that embodies their brand and strengthens their reputation. They need to be attractive to the kind of talent they need, recruit them well and be able to align them to deliver the results and retain them, while optimising their levels of engagement and contribution. They need to grow their future leaders to ensure continuity and evolution consistent with their long-term vision. Creating systems and processes which make sure that they meet all their responsibilities towards the employees and other stakeholder obligations is essential.

The board is concerned about organisational effectiveness and their stewardship responsibility regarding the health of the organisation and factors that impact on organisational performance. The directors need to have accurate picture of the organisation to exercise their responsibilities and work with management. The HR executives need to build understanding in the boardroom by speaking boardroom language and framing messages in meaningful ways. Click here to read full interview...

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Mahesh Gupta (Founder and Chairman, Kent RO Systems ltd.) tells Schweta Chaturvedi about The Voyage of Discovery That Enabled him to Touch Unexplored Shores

Asked to what extent rewards play a role in motivating people, he avers that “motivation to my mind is a very negative term. Whatever motivation you give today becomes a demotivation tomorrow. Bring in belongingness instead of motivation.” If you succeed in doing that, he is your person. Though, the challenge is to implement it in big organisations, he points out.

Highlighting the future path, he says much needs to be done as penetration of water purifier is only four per cent in India at present. More such appliances are required. Kent strives to provide people quality water, air and fuel and its future endeavours will be towards innovating, evolving and producing better products.

Mr. Gupta, however, feels that family should not be neglected in this process. “I still need to achieve a balance between my work and personal life. Though I often get away by saying I am a workaholic and at least not an alcoholic,” his prompt reply left us in splits as we took his leave. Read More..

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A Report on Endeavour 2011, an Initiative by The Students of IIPM-Bangalore in Association with Industry Experts to bring to light The Formula to Acquire The Right Talent for an Organisation

The emphasis was on the need for change in nomenclature of recruitment and staffing, which can be replaced by ‘strategic talent management’, because an organisation has to be very strategic in its approach for attracting the right candidates. Mr. Arjun said, “48% of social media users update their facebook or twitter at bedtime or when they get up in the morning. You get access to talent at just anytime.”

Another point of focus was that it must also be people centric in understanding the aspirations of the Y generation. On this Ms. Deepa said, “It does not matter what jobs we have, you tell us what you are interested in and we will find you a job with us.” The topics under the spotlight at the seminar were: Becoming a Talent Magnet: To ensure that you get the right mix of candidate types, study workforce demographics and adapt to the labour pool’s evolving perceptions of career types.

Leveraging Technology & Social Media: The social networking sites mostly used by companies for recruiting is LinkedIn, followed by Facebook. Recruiters have embraced the power of their Applicant Tracking Systems.

Evaluation of the Strategic Impact of the Success of Talent Acquisition: A good TA process could always help an organisation to hire better employees and improve the recruitment ROI. Read more...

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PotpouHRri for Management’s soul!

Bernice Johnson Reagon had said: ‘Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyse you. They’re supposed to help you discover who you are.’ B. Muthuraman, Vice Chairman of Tata Steel and Presidentof CII, has discovered that being true to oneself is most important when facing life’s challenges. With an association of close to half a decade with Tata Steel, Mr. Muthuraman, who joined as a Graduate Trainee, has been the cornerstone of success for Tata Steel. Under his leadership, the century-old steel maker went global, through plant acquisitions in plants at England, Thailand, and Singapore. With Mr. Muthuraman having spearheaded Tata Steel’s major diversification projects, the organisation is now recognised as amongst the top 10 in the world, and has established its commercial presence in 50 countries. Along the momentous journey, Mr. Muthuraman was recognised by Ratan Tata with the Jamsetji Tata Award for Lifetime Achievement for Quality in 2008. This veteran took his first steps into the corporate world after studying English Literature from Madras Christian College and Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Madras. Soon after, he joined Tata Steel, working with the manufacturing of iron and steel, before he moved into Marketing. By 1975, he felt a need to broaden his learning horizon, and reach out to further opportunities in Tata Steel. This guided him towards his MBA from XLRI’s Business Management (Evening) Programme, even as he continued to work during the day. Click here to continue...

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Assocham Organised a National Seminar on Corporate Social Responsibilities for Sustainable Business

Continued...He said that these measures need to be sustained and pursued to their logical end so that they bear the desired fruit. He added that the global financial meltdown exposed the inherent weaknesses of financial structures that were once considered strong and healthy and considerably altered the focus of policy discourse in the world. He commended the fact that India has recovered its growth momentum much faster than most others.

While on the one hand he expressed happiness about the fact that the deposit rate and credit growth in the banking sector have recorded growths of 15 and 21 per cent respectively, he also made known his concern about the issue of asset quality. He told the gathering that NPAs during the year 2010-11 had increased as against the previous year.

Mr. RN Dhoot, MP, Rajya Sabha and SVP, ASSOCHAM said that India will cross the magic milestone of three trillion dollars by 2020. This will happen because of a strong banking system, and assured the audience that ASSOCHAM will carry a lion’s share in making inclusive growth a reality.

Speaking about the challenges being faced by public sector banks, Mr. J. M. Garg, Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission said that because fresh recruitment was banned, banks are not able to find enough talent at the middle level. He suggested that banks should recruit young people and train them in the next four or five years, so that they can be placed at various levels to overcome the gap.

The session was also addressed by Mr. Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, who said that banks will have to play a crucial role in the 12th Five Year Plan to be centered on the social sector, particularly on health, education and skill development. For these, a significant amount of credit support would be needed. Continue..

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ISRAEL-RUSSIA WAR OF WORDS: SPAWNS GENERATIONS... LITERALLY

And on why mothers and grandmothers of this great nation play a critical role in the Israeli-Russia spar

Is it religious proximity? That doesn’t seem to be the case as Georgia is a certified orthodox Christian state compared to the predominantly Jewish Israel. While one can easily trace deep relations between Israel and Georgia – be their arms trade or the presence of Georgian Jews in Israel – what slips under the carpet magnanimously is the fact that important political leaders of Israel and Georgia are actually blood relatives. For information, the chairman of the Georgian parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee Lasha Zhvania has an Israeli Jewish mother. God rest her soul, the grandmother of scam-fam Israeli Ariel Sharon is buried in Georgia. The ubiquitously sweet Georgian defence minister Davit Kezerashvili, holds the citizenship of, god rest our souls, Israel!!!

Strangely, despite its Pravda-driven spiel [Pravda skims close to being certified a lunatic bandwagon, with the past month’s chief story, for example, being Condoleezza Rice’s Sexual Worries], the Russian political powerhouse actually is still a big supporter of Israel. It’s not just about the recent acceptance of a visa free regime between Israel and Russia, even Russia’s nuclear fuel supply to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant – despite US rhetoric – is in fact an extremely clever move to dissuade Teheran from enriching its own fuel.

But as they say, there’s only this much that Putin can take, and there’s only that much that Israel can flirt with. Till the time Israel looks beyond US influence – and dare we say, even their mothers and grandmothers – and realises that Russia is actually on their side, this great nation might actually end up in creating their biggest foe in history! For hell hath no fury as Putin scorned, and it doesn’t require Einstein to know that!

Read more.......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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EU DEBT CRISIS: WHO’S NEXT?

Ireland’s Rescue has Failed to Stem off Market Tensions from Euro Zone. B&E talks to Experts, Including the European Central Bank, to Analyse who will be the next Victim of Sovereign Debt Crisis. 

While Portugal is likely to be forced to go for a bailout, Spain still stands a fighting chance of avoiding the same fate, given that its current trends in bond yields come to an end soon. But then, things don’t look good here too. Ten-year bond yields on Spain have already jumped above 5.5% and are at the record high of 260 basis points just behind spreads of 400 basis points for Portuguese debt, 620 for Ireland, and 890 for Greece. What’s more? Spain’s gross debt will be over 60% of GDP this year (at 63.5% of GDP), which is the EU threshold under the Stability and Debt Growth Pact. In fact, with unemployment rate hovering over 20% and the budget deficit at 11.2%, possibility of Spain’s being the next epicenter can’t be undermined, particularly if Portugal asks for a bailout.

This is surely a big concern for European policymakers as it not only poses a threat of a much deeper recession than one recently experienced (when euro zone total output fell more than 5% peak to trough), but also raises questions about the survival of the single currency area. Raison d’être: The fourth largest economy in the euro zone would require more than $535 billion in bailout (way above the bailout packages of Greece, Ireland and Portugal put together) to see it through the next few years. This eats up more than half of the $1 trillion combined EU-IMF rescue fund, with only a little left over after the other three take their share. Not to say what will happen if another nation joins the beleaguered bandwagon (which has the highest probability). This certainly calls for an immediate action, both by the respective national governments as well as EU. Though both the nations have decided to cut upon their spending to bring down spiralling budget deficits (while Spain plans to cut its budget deficit to 9.3% of GDP this year from 11.2% in 2009, Portugal plans to slash it to 7.3% of GDP, from 9.4% in 2009), it will take them years before that actually happens (interestingly, EU’s threshold limit for fiscal deficits is 3%). Thus, as of now, a bailout seems to be the only possible answer to their miseries.

But then, bailouts too, in any case, are not the permanent solution since they only kick the ball down the road. The only stable remedy to Euro zone’s fiscal woes is a structural reform with national governments showing steadfast commitment to reducing budget deficits. It’s not as if the ECB doesn’t realise the magnitude of the fiscal troubles in Euro zone. In fact, Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB, tells in a communiqué to B&E, “I would say that, for all countries, it is extremely important to substantiate the decisions that would allow the goals for fiscal deficit next year, i.e. 2011, to be attained, also taking into account what is going on this year, of course. But I am concentrating on next year. This is the very, very firm message that we have for all countries, including Portugal and Spain.”

No doubt, EU has proposed the swift implementation of comprehensive consolidation plans, focusing on the expenditure side and combined with structural reforms, which will strengthen public confidence in the capacity of governments to regain sustainability of public finances, reduce risk premia in interest rates and thus support sustainable growth over the medium term, but then isn’t EU a little late in proposing these measures? Well, we would say … S#!t happens, when PIGS come out in the open!

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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SUPERBIKES IN INDIA: GROWTH TREND

The Superbike Segment in India is beginning to open up as Incumbents and New Entrants fill up gaps in The Market. B&E’s Sanchit Verma does a Quick Stopgap Review before the Number Game Begins

 

“There were around 1000 super premium bikes sold in 2009 and 2009-10 is going above at the rate of 20% and the reason for it is that the GDP growth rate is about 9% for the youth population and that too, a well earning youth population,” says Sanjay Tripathi, Director of Marketing, Harley-Davidson India. The latest buzz is that BMW would be announcing their motorrad luxury bikes by the end of the year, which will start with a price tag of whopping Rs.1.8 million. Hendrik von Kuenheim, General Director, BMW Motorrad, commented, “We are confident that our motorcycles and will swiftly become established in timely preparation for the growing market.” BMW, which made its successful entry into the Indian market with its luxury cars, seems confident about their reentry into the the luxury bike market after the failed launch of BMW Fundaro 650. The luxury market currently stands at 1% of the overall market. A spokesperson from Honda 2 wheelers comments, “Last year, we sold around 70 units across India with only two operational setups in Delhi & Mumbai. This year, we plan to sell 100 units.”

Most of these superbikes are at such hefty prices that the rational minded would prefer buying quality four wheelers for that kind of money. But superbikes are not expected to sell on the rational appeal in India as much as they would for the thrill and the oomph factor, to those with huge disposable incomes. Globally, the scenario is different as bikes are only used for special occasions or sports. But in India, motorcycles have become a regular mode of commuting. One would doubt that the masses would actually be able to enjoy the experience of these bikes on Indian roads. But fanatics have gone through thick and thin to get them nevertheless – be it by paying heavy import duties of about 113% for unregistered bikes and about 153% for registered vehicles – facing government issues like getting it passed through ARAI and also attaching a ‘Sarre guard’ and ‘front plate no.’ to make it legal.

On another front, while traditionally, Indian players have offered bikes in the 90cc to 250cc range (with Enfield the exception with a 500cc offering), the next level starts only with an 883cc Harley-Davidson or a 1000cc CBR. Recently, the gap has been filled by Garware Motors, which announced Hyosung’s re-entry in India with a 650 cc superbike, which is currently under Homologation process. “Beyond the 250cc segment, only the Royal Enfield was available with 350cc and 500cc and after that, the only models available are 1 ltr plus. So we thought we would fill in the gap,” predictably accepts Diya Garware, MD, Garware Motors.

With Aprilla, MV Augusta and BMW Motorrad currently in talks with a local importers and companies like Harley and Hyosung planning their CKD units, it seems that the sector is well on its way to opening up and more such gaps should be filled, taking the superbike exhilaration to a larger audience. Like other sectors, players would ultimately learn to adapt to Indian price sensitivities and penetrate deeper in the market. And then the next big demand from this growing superbike community could well be relaxation of speed limits on Indian roads. That may take quite a while though.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

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IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

AOL: THE HOUSE THAT TIM IS BUILDING

Former Google key man Tim Armstrong is cutting deadwood, exploring new businesses and being trigger happy like how. But his current assignment at AOL could prove to be a career killer. 

But when on September 29, 2010, AOL acquired three Internet startups – namely TechCrunch Inc., 5Min and Thing Labs – reportedly for an amount of over $100 million, it had even the most supportive analysts questioning Tim’s logic in the acquisition. Apparently, this is a move on the part of AOL to become a pure content based entity. According to Armstrong, even though the subscription business still generates a major chunk of their revenue, it is mostly on a decline. As the new content strategy is supposed to work on the mechanism of affiliating advertisers to the content, AOL is planning to invite marketers to work with its editorial team and produce customised content. With this, Tim hopes that ad money will follow suit.

Unfortunately, even if this does work, the fact is that Tim is relocating resources in a suspiciously unproductive manner, and even a seat-of-the-pants analysis is enough to give the reasoning.

After the Time de-merger, AOL was and is basically left with two businesses – subscription and advertising. Subscription, the business responsible for generating almost all of the company’s profits (as per the latest SEC filings by AOL) is alarmingly declining by 30% per annum. It constitutes almost 25-50% of AOL’s web traffic. The advertising business, which consists of a $600 million deal with Google and is powered by the subscription business (due to w

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

For the win!

This one, to the mother of all Blah-Blah forums: Twitter! The microblogging service that reminded us of brevity being the soul of wit, with its 140-character limit on messages, is where you get to witness ‘change’, in real time. Recently Twitter got itself a new CEO, Dick Costolo, and even primped up its interface to make for a richer media experience. #CheckItOut!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

This Have-a-Cake Government!

The pink papers have been going ga ga over the spanking new Wholesale Price Index (WPI). First, the new index shows that the rate of inflation is 8.5% while the old index would have it at about 9.5%. Conjure and juggle numbers and voila, you have taken care of the aam aadmi! Second, the new index (admittedly) better reflects the changing structure of the Indian economy where citizens now consume a larger basket of products and services. More than 220 new product and service categories have been added to make the index more representative. That’s compelling logic no doubt.

But take a quick look at the kind of new product and service categories added and you will immediately realize how this government – thanks to a hopelessly ineffective opposition and a virtually supine and servile media – is getting away by fooling all the people almost all the time. Some of the new products that are part of this ‘more representative’ index are beer (a weight of 0.155), ice cream, mineral water (I am sure distressed farmers rush off to buy a bottle of Bisleri along with pesticides when they see suicide as the only option), blended liquor, gold (a weight of 0.364), computers, washing machines and refrigerators (a weight of 0.194). How many of the 500 odd million Indians who live in abject and degrading poverty drink beer & mineral water and go to swanky malls to buy computers and refrigerators?

Sure, some might argue that the presence of 500 million poor Indians does not mean that we don’t need a ‘better’ and ‘bigger’ WPI. After all, the consuming classes too are Indian citizens. Fair enough. But how about an honest attempt to create a new consumer price index that reflects the consumption patterns of the really poor and of families hovering on the edges of poverty? Of course, we have consumer price indices of various kinds – for industrial workers and even for agricultural workers. But when was the last time you heard about this government spending time, money and energy on committees to upgrade those indices? The point is simple: for the really poor, more than 80% of income is spent on food. And with rampaging food inflation, you can well imagine their plight. Nobody talks about it anymore because the vocal middle class which also consumes the media has been virtually insulated against inflation because of a rapid rise in family incomes – both in the private and the government sector. And yet, imagine the hungama that is created when the price of LPG cylinders is raised by a relatively meager amount. Really, this is unparalleled hypocrisy for a society that claims to be democratic and a government that claims to think mainly of the aam aadmi.

Food-grains rotting while the poor are starving? This government ticks off the Supreme Court for interfering in policy matters. Vocal and politically powerful groups demand more reservations? Give it to them: most of them will not go to a college anyway. The poor dying of malaria and tuberculosis by the tens of thousands and their families going bankrupt due to medical expenses? Give more ‘subsidised’ land for corporate hospitals.

 

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

UTV’s Global Broadcasting

UTV’s Global Broadcasting division posted a remarkable turnaround in the last year. CEO M. K. Anand speaks to B&E on the favouring factors and future expansion

B&E: UTV Entertainment Ltd. (a part of UTV Global Broadcasting) posted a profit of approx `355 million as opposed to last year’s loss of `820 million. How did you manage the turnaround?
MK: There has been a big write down that has happened on the inventory side, there has been some consolidation and all movies in the movie library have been taken in and written off. Right now we are sitting on a library which has zero cost on our profit and loss account. So our programming cost has significantly reduced because of that. In general, there has been an operational efficiency improvement between Q3 last year and Q1 this year by absolutely 100%. We were operating at `110 crore; this year our target was `220 crore. In order to achieve those numbers we needed to get `55 crore of revenue. In the year which ended at `110 crore, you would expect that the quarter would have made 27 crore, so the one ending at `220 crore should make somewhere about `35 crore in Q1 but we actually did around `50 crore. So we have already set the run rate for Q4 in Q1 and that’s how we move forward. The GRP increase happened in Q3 last year after a lag of 3 months. We were anyway planning to monetize. In Q4 we did significant marketing; we became sponsors of Goafest, which is the biggest ad event for the advertising fraternity and our ad rates have substantially increased over the last year after that. Also, all the channels were operating at 50% inventory utilization and right now we are operating at 100%.

B&E: UTV has been toying with various genres with Bindass, 3 movie channels and a news channel. What further expansions are expected now?
MK: A movie business is required as a portfolio player. It is better to have flanking businesses, like a movie business, which are bulk driven in nature so that it becomes easier for you to negotiate business with distributors and advertisers, as long as they are profitable, obviously. But our network will concentrate on the 15-24 target group and we will not push ourselves into the GEC (General Entertainment Channels) business. We are at a life-cycle where the GEC business will go lower. It’s like the mainframe business of the 1990s. If you already had it, it was good; but if you didn’t, it was better to have a desktop business rather then a mainframe one.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

The company saw sales & profits surge phenomenally

It was a stellar year for M&M, as the company saw sales & profits surge phenomenally. But M&M is now equally concerned about where its numbers come from, as it diversifies into new segments & geographies via M&As and alliances. by Pawan Chabra

Cash-strapped c auto major SsangYong Motors has provided the company a lucrative opportunity to enter the global SUV market. Besides acquisitions, the deal with Renault for Logan and the JV with Navistar for its commercial vehicle ventures are noteworthy. For the record, while the partnership with Renault wasn’t that fruitful as initially predicted by M&M, the company now has a 100% sake in the JV and is now planning to relaunch the model in the small-car segment.

Anand Mahindra recently said at the 50th annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, “The comics and novels that I used to read in the 1960-70s surely showed the use of mobile phones as a technology & laptops as devices, but the girls in the pictures were still blondes and men were still the same old gentlemen. The imagination of the author never had guys with pierced ears or girls with tattoos.”

Indeed, it’s a mantra he lives by now – that one has to be visionary enough to look at future possibilities and enterprising enough to place a bet on them. The investments being made and their possible impact on profitability do raise the question of whether M&M will be able to raise its position even further on the B&E Power 100 next year. But from the perspective of Mahindra’s vision to be a larger player on the global platform and to have a strong play in green vehicles, the course correction is unavoidable.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

IT IS NOW FOOLISH TO COMPARE INDIA TO CHINA. RATHER, IT WOULD BE MORE SENSIBLE TO LEARN A LESSON OR TWO FROM THE CHINESE!

 Recently, in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), China toppled Japan to secure the second position globally, after US. In fact, China was very close to achieving this feat the last year itself, but fell short at the last moment. As per reports, if China keeps growing at its current pace, then by 2025, it should topple the US to become the largest economy of the world. Who could have imagined that an economy, which was languishing till about three decades back, has put itself in such formidable position? What is even more amazing is the fact that at a point in time when the world economy is still recovering from the global recession, China kept on growing. The growth has been such that in 2005, it first overtook Britain and France; then in 2007, it surpassed Germany to secure the position of the third largest economy of the world. It is not that the growth did not bring in iniquitous distribution of wealth; but then, at the same time, China has managed to pull out a staggering 600 million people out of poverty – a record which no other country has achieved so far.

Going by media reports, it doesn’t seem that many experts are appreciative of the Chinese growth. In fact even now, most in the developed world still cannot fathom the fact that China can be a serious contender in the new economic order. Much of this is owing to the fact that irrespective of its number 2 position, China still remains a developing country, as its current per capita is still 10 times lesser of that of Japan. But then, what most miss out on is the fact that China is in no hurry to prove itself. China has moved step by step in terms of consolidating its position. They have never bothered about the criticisms that they faced on humanitarian issues, or the kind of global cynicism that they faced by keeping their currency purposefully undervalued. Their objective has been very clear – which gets reflected in the manner in which they have planned every step. From the very beginning, China has been extremely scientific and systematic in its approach. And more than that, the growth has come out of great sacrifice collectively made by the Chinese citizens. China has systematically moved people into manufacturing and today China manufactures almost half of the global produce. Thus today, a Walmart retains the topmost position in the Fortune list by selling goods that are being made in China. And all this has not come in a day. It has been an outcome of years of planning. China today boasts of an investment which is a mind numbing 40% of GDP! Even at its peak, the US managed around 18%. Even countries like ours are managing 18%. Additionally, the Chinese investment mobilization has been far more prudent than any other country’s efforts. They have systematically invested in infrastructure, which not only created jobs, but also helped in creating a world class environment for trade. But then, their biggest credit has been in terms of the investments that they made in education. As per reports in 1998, around 3 million students were undertaking Chinese higher education; this increased to around 8 million in a matter of just 4 years. And investments have just not been in higher education – starting from English training, to vocational training to the investments that they made in science and technology. Such has been the outcome that their investments in education alone add up to almost 6% to their growth; and this would be sustained over a period of time. Today, China produces patents, the number of which is only second to the US! Not just this, they received severe criticism from all quarters when they pro-actively went ahead with their engagement with Iran. They did so not just with Iran to but with Sudan as well, for they knew that energy security is key to their dominance in global trade.

In order to have a better understanding of what the Chinese have achieved in the last two decades, one needs to compare it with India. The Indian economy, which used to be almost 80% of that of Chinese economy as recent as two decades back, now remains a menial 25%! While the Chinese feel underachieved at a staggering $4 trillion plus economy, we celebrated our $1 trillion mark! While sometime back there, China created history by hosting the greatest sporting spectacle, Olympics, we all know what we are doing to the Commonwealth games! Increasingly, any comparison between India and China is getting banal! It is not that we do not have our own advantages, but the Chinese have gone far ahead and are increasingly going farther. If reports are to be believed, we too would reach the number 2 position economically by 2040; but that too, if we keep growing between 8 to 9% year on year, which in itself is a huge challenge.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links

What, how and why of GPM!

A benchmark index to measure relative well being of income classes
 Wish to know where you stand in your profession with respect to your global peers? Global Poverty Multiple (GPM, visit www.globalpovertymultiple.org) is an internationally comparable ratio developed by IIPM Think Tank in collaboration with B&E presents a comparative picture of the standing of various income receiving classes of a nation against the poverty line income (the latter decided by the nation and/or by international organisations).

GPM is a globally portable ratio that, on one hand, is easy to calculate, and on the other hand, presents a very clear and comprehensive comparative picture of economic well being of various income-receiving classes of countries across the globe. There are many globally accepted indices with a similar intention. GPM does not take life expectancy or literacy rate into consideration. It divides the population into various income-receiving classes and compares their annual per-capita income with the standard poverty line income. Since GPM is a ratio (per capita income/poverty line income), a GPM of “1” of an income receiving class indicates that his income is just on the poverty line, he is neither better off nor worse off. The higher the multiple, the better the economic well being of the particular income receiving class. GPM therefore further allows an inter-country comparison of economic well being of people in different professions by using the poverty line income as the base for comparison. Comparably, the PPP method and the GPM method are quite similar due to the fact that inter-country comparisons become easier.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links