IIPM-Students: IIPM Editorial

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Deaths behind bars

Rise in custodial deaths besmirches India's human rights record

It is sometimes hard to digest the fact that a peace-loving nation like India can be so unkind and cruel to its own prison population. It is indeed hypocritical for a nation to espouse the virtues of being kind and forgiving and yet mete out the exact opposite qualities to those spending time in its prison cells. Statistics bear out this grim reality. In the decade during 2000-2010, more than 14,000 deaths in police custody and in prisons have been reported, according to the National Human Rights Commission. The NHRC records further reveal of 417 casualties in police custody and 4,285 casualties in judicial custody over the last 3 years. Also, the NHRC has recorded endless cases of torture and sexual harassment – 1,899 torture and sexual harassment cases in police custody and 75 alleged cases of rape by police personnel over the past 3 years. Among Indian states, Assam tops the list of being home to such alleged mishandlings and custodial deaths, a fact that has been admitted even by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its official statement.

The shielding of errant policemen by their political masters is one of the reasons encouraging this trend of rising police atrocity towards prisoners. To prevent this malignancy from spreading further India should not only ratify the UN convention against torture it should also become a signatory to the treaty. Being clubbed with the violent autocratic states of sub-Saharan Africa, like Comoros and Guinea-Bissau, which too have not ratified the UN convention, damages India's reputation of being a nation that cherishes the civic freedom of its citizens. The reason for India's recalcitrance in signing the convention is hard to comprehend, but it's probably due to the reservation of state governments, especially in strife torn areas, that has inhibited India from giving its assent.

But the lack of a substantial anti-torture law allows the misuse of state machinery and violates the rights of victims. A strong reform against human rights violation, complying with UN guidelines, must oversee government functioning over prisons.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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

ExecutiveMBA

Some Like It...Chilled!!

Monojit Lahiri examines the reason behind Bollywood’s – and audiences – new fascination for the Horror Film!
MONOJIT LAHIRI | Issue Dated: June 21, 2013, New Delhi
Tags : Bollywood | Horror films | Bees Saal Baad | Gumnaan | Ramsay Brothers | Raaz | Darna Zaroori Hai |

Close your eyes and go back to your childhood – a winter night securely tucked in bed with cuddly warm blankets, one small bed lamp and your favourite grandmom narrating a ghost story that sent shivers of excitement and fear of the unknown that still stays with you! Why? What is it about the ghost story, the paranormal and the horror tale that is so seductive, enticing and thrillingly scary that its an all-consuming virus? Irrespective of age, gender or social strata, this brand remains a matchless, unbeatable must-hear/read/watch!

In Bollywood, the horror film has mostly been a sub-brand/genre, receiving neither the attention nor the respect given to other mainstream fare. It was a niche category for a niche audience, sometimes cutting loose to register a big success. Film historians believe that the 1949 Ashok Kumar-Madhubala starrer Mahal was the first really scary movie emerging from Bollywood. Other super-duper successes between the 40’s and the 60’s include Bees Saal Baad, Gumnaam and Bhoot Bangla. In the 70’s Ramsay Brothers – who were to own this space – unleashed Do Guz Zameen Ke Neeche. Raj Kumar Kohli swooped in, blending horror with fantasy with Nagin and later Jaani Dushman. Darwaza, Jaadu Tona, Aur Kaun, Saboot, Gehraiyee, Red Rose, Guest House followed. The 80’s came with their own horror stories – Ramsay Brothers’ Puraana, Saamri, Veerana, Tahkhana, Dak Bangla, Puraani Haveli, Shaitan Ilaaka, Bandh Darwaza. Interestingly the products of the 80’s relied less on ghosts and more on titillating/sex scenes.

In Hollywood, Psycho, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Shining were big-time chiller-thrillers along with hit TV American shows like The Vampire Dairies, True Blood, Fear Files and Haunted Nights, categorically proving that there is a huge vacant spot in our psyche that is reserved for cinematic encounters of the spooky kind! In other words, paying money to be terrified is the name of the game!

What do these movies – and genre – offer that is so special and unique? Psychologists insist that it has to do largely with the aphrodisiac called fear! They believe it is about making forays into our curiosity about the unknown which has always been a territory where trespassers can enter only at their own risk. This fear makes them uneasy and on the edge and this sparks the excitement! Its like a roller-coaster ride, a terrifying scream-fest that you wouldn’t miss for anything, right? Its like that indescribable anticipatory build-up to that ‘bang’ moment that you are so desperate to experience, when buying the ticket to the film. Iconic storyteller of this genre, Stephen King, believes that “horror movies provide psychic relief because outright madness is extended so rarely to us.” Closer home, psychiatrist Dr. Harish Shetty reckons “the grotesque fantasy of a human being is entwined with his vicarious pleasures and then the visuals and sound effects all put together results in a heart-pounding suspense that is irresistible – be it a TV show or movie.”

In year 2013, while we are continents away from the Ramsay brand – dilapidated, haunted mansions, creaking doors, spider webs and eerie background score –sophisticated and new-age updates in this genre keep haunting us! Some recent examples are Ragini MMS (inspired by the 2007 American supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity) which went down so well with audiences that it reportedly recovered its costs within two days of its release! Haunted (a 3D horror film), Ram Gopal Verma’s Bhoot, Kaal, 13B, Bipasha-starrer Raaz, Verma’s Darna Zaroori Hai and later Darling followed. Very recently, the Nitin Mukesh-Sonal Chauhan starrer 3G, Bipasha-Nawaz Siddiqui starrer Aatma and Ek Thi Daayan have joined the list.

When you pull back and see the big picture, you realise that this genre is definitely an idea whose time has come. Bollywood is forever looking for new buttons to push, cash cows to milk and themes to invade that get the moolah.

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

ExecutiveMBA

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Book Review: Ghana Must Go

‘Afropolitan’ triumph

If one looks at the trends in the last few years, Taiye Selasi probably had the biggest hype surrounding a new unpublished author. Biggest, if you discount the brief debacle that happened with Kaavya Viswanathan and her How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

Some time in 2005, this British born, half-Ghanian half-Nigerian caught the attention of American literature circles when she came out with her stunning essay, “What Is An Afropolitan?”. Not now, but in years to come, this essay of hers that breaks the stereotype of African immigrants and breaks open a hitherto less known world of educated, sophisticated and upwardly mobile Africans, will be considered a definitive piece of writing on the topic. She followed this with an equally impressive short fiction, The Sex Lives of African Girls, that made it to The Best American Short Stories last year.

Considering this, it was not surprising that Selasi managed to bag the kind of hype that she got. Mentored by none other than Toni Morrison herself, she also managed to get an advance approval by Salman Rushdie and cover blurbs by Teju Cole and Penelope Lively. Add to this the overlaying themes of immigration, sexual awakening, death and bigotry. Therefore, when the novel actually came for review, there was a certain level of expectation that preceded it. And let me add here that debut writers often get crushed by such expectations. But not Selasi.

Named after the Nigerian rhetoric directed at Ghanaian refugees during the upheaval years of the 80s, Ghana Must Go is the story of an American doctor of Ghanian origin and his family. Or rather, the disintegration of his family.

The book opens with readers suddenly thrown into the scene where gifted surgeon Kweku Sai drops dead in his lawn in Accra. What we know at this point of time is that Kweku Sai is married twice and is living with his second wife when he drops dead. We also know that the house inside which he drops dead has been designed by him after he left America in shame. Everything else has been left open. And that’s quite a wholesome.

The major portion of the narrative is shaped up through the preparations for Kweku’s funeral. One by one, his progeny, four of them and all grown-up, receive the news of his death and so does his first wife, his love. The family is exceptionally talented but almost dysfunctional with kids spread over both the sides of the Atlantic and hardly talking to each other. However, for once, they decide to gather in Accra for the surgeon’s funeral. After this, the novel works in a flashback where every character is revealed through its strengths and vulnerabilities. It is at this point that different themes come into play.

Selasi successfully plays with the sense organs and uses vivid imagery to arrest the readers. It leaves a stunning impact initially but starts to drag halfway through the novel. Too much time is spent on every character and its thought process. That is not to suggest that the characters are weak. But beyond a point, it starts to appear a tad stretched. Alliteration has been used liberally. The style was apt for poetry, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century. But its use in prose has remained limited and at the sidelines. The readers here will have a taxing time going through this. Especially when one starts feeling that the narrative has suddenly dried up somewhere. The story not only lose coherence but does so rather badly.

But it is at this point that Selasi regains her composure and so do the readers. In an intervention that appears sudden yet not jarring, Selasi uses the gift of her skills to bring the story back to track. And by the time the story ends, the readers inadvertently make themselves part of that dysfunctional family. And the best part is, Selasi does not use cheap stunts to achieve this. There is no jarring climax. No revelation that shakes things up. Years of restricted emotions flow freely. But it has been handled tactfully, and more importantly tastefully.

In fact, it is the final 30 pages of Ghana Must Go that firmly separate this novel from the usual mom-daddy-cousin kinds of novel that debutant Indian writers, mostly of the Ivy League make, come up with these days. Selasi’s story is also about a family. But it is in her treatment of the content that the strength of this novel lies.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

BBA Management Education

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Vulnerable India!

India needs to act decisively to save its tourism industry

The “Incredible India” campaign did a magnificent job of making India the cynosure of global tourists' eyes. India became a hot destination for foreign tourists over the last decade. As per India's Tourism Ministry, the country attracted a record number of overseas visitors, around 6.6 million in 2012. The footfalls helped the country earn $17.74 billion in foreign exchange. However, the increasing number of sexual crimes against women have adversely affected the country's tourism potential. Many countries have issued advisories, warning their citizens against visiting India. The Indian government has dismissed such warnings as knee-jerk reactions but the number of visitors have been going down.

India’s tourism took a heavy knock when a young woman was brutally gang raped in the capital in December last year. The incident ignited national outrage and hogged media limelight worldwide. Even before the dust had settled down, a Swiss tourist, who was on a cycling trip to India along with her husband, was waylaid and raped in Madhya Pradesh on March 15. Another British tourist jumped out of her hotel room window to escape sexual harassment in Agra. Consequently, the number of foreigners travelling to India has dropped significantly. A study conducted by ASSOCHAM has found that foreign tourist arrivals plunged by 25 per cent between January and March. The number of women tourists has shown a significant dip, declining 35 per cent since the Delhi incident was reported.

The government has sorely been found wanting in correcting India's perceptions abroad in the aftermath of such incidents. This kind of cavalier attitude could cost India's tourism industry dearly. The travel and tourism sector alone contributed 6.4 per cent to India’s GDP in 2011 (amounting to Rs. 6.7 billion) as per the World Travel & Tourism Council.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

BBA Management Education

Monday, June 3, 2013

Where are 'organised' helps?

Housemaids should come under an organised workforce

Housemaids are in demand everywhere. Supply has also grown at a fast clip, keeping up with rapid urbanisation and migration. However, despite domestic help service being a vital part of ‘home-economics’, no much heed has been paid to organise this sector and safeguard the interests of workers.

Countries in Latin America, the Caribbeans and Africa have included domestic workers under ‘general workers’ category. This way they have brought them under legislation that promises equal rights, bonuses, weekly-offs, and minimum wage rates. For instance, in Brazil, domestic workers are hired through registered contracts and enjoy minimum wages, paid-leaves, weekly offs and come under the purview of legislation meant for conventional workers. However, such a move is still due in India. They are still not considered as ‘waged workers’; in fact, they are degraded as mere servants (read: slaves). In Hong Kong, Fei Yeung is the term used to represent this particular class of workers.

Leave aside providing these workers with legislation that would make their life easier and recognise the value of their work in National Accounting, domestic workers are not even covered for prevention of exploitation of migrant workers and under the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010! However, a few states (like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu) have framed policies to address the grievances of housemaids, but no such laws are available at the national level. Some other states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan have enacted the Minimum Wage Act For Domestic Workers to protect their rights for a minimum pay and for maintaining their dignity.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

BBA Management Education

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Skimming the surface

In 2009, all hell broke loose with a simple confession from Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman of Satyam Computers, the fourth largest IT company in India with over 50,000 employees and business in more than 66 countries. He admitted that the company’s balancesheet carried inflated cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore and non-existent interest income of Rs 376 crore as on September, 30, 2008. Raju also admitted that there was an understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore on account of money that he himself had arranged.

It was a nightmare not only for Satyamites but the entire nation. It was the biggest corporate fraud India had known so far. One difference between this fraud and others was that the Satyam scandal was disclosed by its founder while other scams were busted.

The author of The Resurgence of Satyam Zafar Anjum raises key questions. Why would an iconic entrepreneur like Ramalinga Raju do something like this, and then admit his crime? What forced him into confessing at that particular time or was it to hide something even bigger? Despite close contacts with top corporate honchos in Satyam, Anjum has no answer.

Heavily drawing on the vast existing literature by Indian media, blogs as well as a book produced by Business Standard, The Satyam Saga, Anjum tries to reconstruct a narrative.

Scattered references to Satyamites who put up stiff resistance after the scam broke finds a mention in the book. Anjum quotes Mirzan Faizan, a Satyam engineer who had earlier worked in DRDO, as saying: “When one man created Satyam as an organisation of 53,000 people, why can’t 53,000 committed people rebuild one Satyam?” Had Anjum narrated more stories of such courage and defiance, the book would have been a better read.
However, for posterity, Anjum does record how Satyam recovered from the crisis. It narrates how people in Satyam, the government and regulatory bodies reacted to the fraud and took measures to salvage not only the company but also India Inc’s image. But it would have been more realistic if author had engaged people at the bottom of the ladder.

In the epilogue, Ramalinga Raju is mentioned as being a shrewd man who knew by confessing to a crime he would escape harsher punishment. Raju leads a normal life in Hyderabad after spending two years and eight months in jail. Charges had not been filed against the co-accused.

As much as everyone, the author too wonders about the persona of Raju and seeks answers in management guru, Tom Peters. “Successful performers, for good and sometimes for ill, know how to play a role. They don a persona – a mask of leadership that command others to follow,” Peters is quoted from The Little Big Things.
Peters gives three examples: George Washington, Barack Obama and Bernard Madoff – who weaved the mother of all frauds in modern financial history. “I think Raju’s case is similar to that of Madoff’s,” sums up Anjum.
On Madoff, Peters says, “It was a product of a very carefully concocted persona acted out without let-up or slip-up for decades.” It sounds true in Raju’s case too.

However, The Resurgence of Satyam brings out the communication strategy devised by its team to keep afloat and rise from the ashes and how the team was engaged in segregating and classifying news in the media as truth, half truth and rumours.

The other important issue is that one would have expected Anjum to question how the Mahindras went on to acquire a stake in a company that was opaque and fraught with fraud, listed on Nasdaq and was facing class-action suits in the US?

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

BBA Management Education

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Shifting your focus to match customer needs

It is critical for organisations to adopt a scientific approach to understanding how they can meet customer needs, and to firmly ingrain a customer-focused culture throughout the organisation

We have often heard the phrase, “Customer is king”. While it is self-evident that higher satisfaction levels give a company an edge over sales, company growth and reputation, what it really does in the long term is to ensure that existing customers stay happy, resulting in better relationships and happier employees. Customer-focused companies are more attuned to the market and better able to stay ahead.

I refer to Harley-Davidson’s customer focused culture as one of the best in the world. It is the longest, continuous manufacturer of motorcycles in the US and has outlived nearly all of its competitors. In the twenty short years since Harley-Davidson started its Owners Group programs, it has grown to over 500,000 members & each of them own at least one motorcycle. The question to ask is: Is there any other consumer product in the world that will prompt customers to travel over several continents to be part of a group experience? Customers and employees alike take great pride in their affiliation with the company and this continues to make Harley-Davidson one of the great success stories of our time.

There is simply nothing – nothing – more important than getting to know the needs of your customer in a detailed and scientific manner. In the words of Michael Dell, “By spending time with your customers where they do business, you can learn more than by bringing them to where you do business”.

80% of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience; however, only 8% of their customers agree. Why? Your customers are looking for maximum value when spending their hard-earned cash, particularly in this economy. The customer experience requires the active participation of everyone in your organization. This is where the word “Satisfy” comes into play. What it means is that your company is providing nothing more or less than what the customer expects. Creating a customer-focused culture is a proven strategy for both short-term success and long-term growth.

Going by the industry’s best practices, let me share with you some key insights into what will really work for you or your company.

1. Make a list of the values you’d like your company to exemplify. Then, examine your current culture, and ask yourself if those values are apparent in your company and driving your everyday efforts. 2. Before you can convince your company’s end customers of your focus on satisfaction and service, you need to convince an even more important customer audience – your internal customers – the employees who represent your company to the world. Talk with all your employees about corporate values and ask for input and suggestions. 3. Customer focused companies constantly seek and document feedback. They have a system to analyze and feed this information back into the loop so that response is immediate and not an annual feat 4. A strong customer orientation also demands that the company treats customer complaints positively. They not only make toll-free numbers and helpdesks available, but also staff it with knowledgeable people to work on them. 5. This means that they get back to these customers within an acceptable time frame So how does one tell if the customer is truly on your side? Most companies survey their customers in some way, shape or form – formally or informally. After decades of forms, interviews and focus groups, studies have shown that in gauging a particular customer’s overall satisfaction, a single question is needed to provide a fairly accurate answer: “Would you recommend us to your family, friends and colleagues?” If the answer is “Yes,” you are meeting or exceeding that customer’s expectations; if it’s “No”, it’s time to get to work.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

BBA Institute

Friday, May 3, 2013

29 suitors, 1 tuxedo

RBI should have 29 different interest rates for 29 different states based on their growth patterns and the globally-practised Taylor’s law

The RBI’s interest rate fixing in India is a scattershot approach, which assumes that the country is uniform, which is not the case in reality. A uniform interest rate, therefore, is a wasteful proposition in a country that varies from the prosperity of Punjab to the utter neglect and backwardness of Tripura – both economically and socially. Progressive states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have high per capita income, low level of hunger, better infrastructure and low poverty rate, thus inspiring confidence in the minds of investors. On the other hand, states like Orissa, Rajasthan, Bihar, et al find it difficult to attract investment. In this light, the current system of blanket interest rate/lending rate is clearly out of sync.

Instead of implementing a uniform pan-India interest rate, the RBI must impose higher interest rates in states that offer business opportunities to investors on a platter and offer discounted rates for investors opting to invest in regions that are still not progressive. Gujarat is another manufacturing power house, but unlike Punjab, it is an industrialized economy with a very high growth rate and should attract higher interest rate from RBI. If we focus on the growth trend line among these states, we figure out that between 2006-07 and 2011-12, Haryana (growth rate between 17.1% and 21.66%), Tamil Nadu (growth rate between 12.98% and 20.44%), and Maharashtra (growth rate between 11.39% and 20.38%) are among the forerunners of the country’s growth trajectory. Thus, RBI should push up the lending rates in proportion to the growth pattern in these states.

On the other side are middle income states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal. Andhra Pradesh is mainly driven by agriculture (even though there is a considerable concentration of IT and manufacturing units in and around Hyderabad), Kerala is driven by agriculture and tourism, while West Bengal is languishing with hundreds of sick manufacturing units. These states are mainly agriculture-based, where high interest rates can further exacerbate the problems that they face. Even though Andhra Pradesh and Kerala had a decent run in growth with 2011-12 growth rates being 14.82% and 17.94% respectively, they have some distance to go to catch up with more advanced states. West Bengal, on the other hand, has had a middle-of-the-road growth projection between 13.65% and 18.6% in the last 6 years.

The laggards are the BIMARU states and North East with low per capita SDP and low growth rate. The longer this impasse endures, the harder it will be to recover. Bihar (which is at the bottom of the table), however, has started a recovery of sorts, clocking 20.39% growth in 2011-12. However, it is on small base that can wither away as the base expands. Orissa, with 8.49% growth (2011-12), Jharkhand with 11.89% and North East with a consistently depressed growth rate of below 10% are consistent bugbears for our policy makers. Needless to add, interest rates must be lowest in these zones that badly need a breath of fresh air on structural reforms.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

ExecutiveMBA

Thursday, May 2, 2013

“Let us do something big first!”

He makes an energy drink named ‘Five Hour Energy’, and his company Living Essentials has a current annual turnover of around US $1.3 billion. Forbes magazine has named him amongst the richest Indian billionaires in the US. In this interaction with B&E’s Onkareshwar Pandey, Manoj Bhargava talks about Indian and US politics and his decision to donate most of his wealth to charity.

B&E: You basically hail from Lucknow. Tell us more about your life’s journey from Lucknow to the US?
Manoj Bhargava (MB): I would prefer to say little because I have had little attachment to my personal life. I was born in Lucknow and studied at the Mayanagar School till class 6. After that, my father decided to send me abroad. So for preparations, I spent three years in Mussoorie, while my Dad went there in 1967 only. My father had a big publishing business there. It was called Upper India Publishing House, which published books taught in various colleges. My father had written many books under the Bhargava De name. But with time, everything went downhill, though he was still among the top people in Lucknow. Our grandfather was a leader from the Awadh region. He used to get many hand-written letters from Mahatma Gandhi, who had also sought the help of our grandfather in those days. Even after out grandfather’s demise, many leaders from various political parties used to come home. Even Chief Ministers and Ministers used to frequent our house before and after being sworn in for support. That’s all more or less how it was. Afterwards, we moved to Philadelphia in the US, and I finished my education from there.

B&E: Tell us more about your initial days in US. Were things smooth from the beginning?
MB: In those days, you could not take money abroad. We had nothing when we reached there, but we were very happy and made up our mind to work hard. A new beginning had to be made all over again. We started from zero again. Everyone finished their education there, and except me, everybody had a graduate degree. There too, illiteracy is not considered good. I think that there are two types of education. One is just to take a degree. And then begins the second type of study – the study of life. Bookish studies do not pay much, they act as only a base in life. Then you have to build your own house on that. If you study at Doon, IIT, and IIMs and still don’t know much about life, what is the use of such an education.

B&E: Today, you are the richest Indian in America. How did this success come about?
MB: We create an energy drink, which we call 5-Hour Energy. If you’re tired, you can take it and your exhaustion will disappear. It works for five hours, and after that you will return to your normal state. Last year, in the US, we sold 50 Million bottles of this drink. It costs $3 per bottle, or nearly Rs.165. I thought that if I am doing something, it has to be special. To make something new and special, you have to invest a lot of time and energy. So after talking to nearly two thousand people, we decided to start the business. Initially, the company manufactured the drink in big bottles. Later on, I thought that it’s a headache to buy the big bottles, so we created a smaller bottle. We kept on improving it. Today, the sixth generation of ‘5-Hour Energy’ is out in the market. The retail turnover of our business today is around a quarter of a billion dollars.

B&E: You came from a well to do family and there was no shortage of material possessions. Can handling this kind of wealth be difficult for people at times?
MB: I studied for nearly 12 years. After school I thought about the reasons why one needs to earn money. What should one do with it? That thought kept me occupied for a long time. Everyone has different kind of goals. I am not a show off and I do not have a thing for too many material possessions. There’s a saying in our land, that we don’t spend time, time spends us. We don’t indulge, indulgence indulges us. Still, if someone doesn’t learn and isn’t careful, he can’t be called intelligent.

B&E: Being a non-US trader, did you face any challenges there? If so, how did they impact your business?
MB: (Smiling) When you get down to wrestling, you have to do it with someone else. You can’t do it alone. I just thought that we have to do this and just started. We didn’t care about what will happen ahead.

Read more...

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
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

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The alphabet of 2014

With the 2014 general elections looming large, the BJP has managed to quell an attempted revolt in the party ranks. But the collateral damage could have far-reaching repercussions

Let’s say she is a brilliant young political writer who thinks alliterations, symbols, analogies, synonyms, antonyms and metaphors are passé when it comes to analysing the far-in the-horizon Lok Sabha elections of 2014. What choice does she have? Let us say she decides to use English alphabets to forecast who would be the next PM in 2014. Let us hope that, unlike many political journalists today, she knows her alphabets.

She would have a tough time choosing between N and M. And she would, of course, know that there is another N that looms like a mythological warrior. She won’t be able to guess – despite her best efforts and lots of advice from television anchors – as to how another M would behave. People in WB have figured out that this M sometimes herself doesn’t know how she will act. She does know that another N who represents a state called O will not bother if M or N wins the race as long as he remains THE N in his state. And let us spare her and you the agony of other alphabets like J of TN, O of J&K, Y of AP and the original M of UP.

Confused? Actually, so are we. We – like you – know that voters like us are so mad at this so-called government being run by the UPA that we would love to vote against it in 2014. But which alphabet or set of alphabets do we vote for? The logical choice would be NDA, but the possible candidature of an N called Modi has already generated so many abusive and counter-abusive ‘expert opinions’ that we will let this N be; at least for now. That brings us back to that other N and that other M. If not Modi, N can only mean Nitish Kumar, CM of Bihar and the only true ‘secular warrior’ within the NDA fold. And if not Mamata/Mayawati, the M can only mean Mulayam Singh Yadav, the survivor who can teach a lesson or two to another cow belt chieftain called Lalu Yadav. There is a reason why M and N (Mulayam Singh & Nitish Kumar) have already started plotting their moves. Ask any Indian with even a little bit of common sense and it is doubtful if either would be their first choice as PM. But both M and N – like the one and only one heir apparent R – have history on their side. Our political journalist asks you with a wimpish smile – cross your hearts and admit it if you are old enough to remember. Did you, in your wildest dreams or never-ending nightmares, vote in 1996 for a prime minister called HDDG (software geeks, that is not hard drive... it is His Excellency HD Deve Gowda)? Even more bizarre, Indians actually did not vote for a do-gooder with a strange set of alphabets IKG. Our lady reporter was confused when she was told that IKG stands for a great pacifist called Inder Kumar Gujral, who was willing to sell India down the tube for the sake of peace with Pakistan. Did we hear Balle Balle? She was confused because sycophants who write about Congress told her that they had just played an alphabetic trick. First, they yanked the alphabet K from IKG and arrived at IG. They had to remove K because of someone called Sitaram “Kesari”. Then they realised that IG had long passed away. About a few million sycophants started looking for a simple replacement for I. They wanted something simple, which even political journalists could understand. So they settled on S and IG was replaced by SG. Of course, we must apologise on behalf of the lady reporter who appears a little overwhelmed with all these alphabets. We told her that SG has anointed another M. She promptly came back with some alphabets and epithets till we told her that this M is special because he is the only leader in the history of the world who leads without any ability or willingness to lead. Our reporter was thrilled and announced she is taking her poodle for a walk.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Revisiting IT - beyond the street

Results of top Indian IT companies, with the exception of TCS, have sent shock waves across markets. But rather than worry about them, Indian IT companies must focus on structural reforms for long term advantage

There is a paradoxical advantage that Indian IT firms enjoy in the current situation due to their reliance on overseas (especially developed) markets rather than the domestic economy. They have been through one major crisis in 2008, when most of the domestic demand-dependent India Inc. was rejoicing in our economy’s prized ‘fundamentals’. This time, when the crisis shifts to the EU, one can expect that they are better prepared.

Did they manage to take advantage of precedent? Or have they wasted a good crisis, as the saying goes? Let us first look into the final results of the three IT companies that are a part of the B&E Power 100. TCS, of course, is a clear winner with revenues of $10.17 billion (growth of 24% yoy) and net profits of $2.2 billion (growth of 16% yoy); which places it at 4 in the B&E Power 100 list compared to 7 last year. Infosys reported slower growth with revenues at $6.99 billion (a growth of 15.77% % yoy) and profits at $1.72 billion (a growth of 12.64% yoy; ranked 6 in the B&E Power 100 compared to 11 last year). Wipro’s results were even more modest, as it posted revenues of $5.92 billion (a growth of 13.4% yoy) and net profit of $1.1 billion (a growth of 5% yoy, rank dropped to 18 in the B&E Power 100 from 17 last year).

The real investor challenge these players face is the burden of expectations. Infosys, in particular, is facing the brunt, since its Q4 results showed revenues of $1.77 billion (yoy growth of 10.5%) and a decline of 2% qoq. Furthermore, it gave a very modest guidance of 8-10% revenue growth for the current fiscal, which would underperform

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Friday, April 19, 2013

“The opportunities for sustainability are immense”

Prof. Anant K. Sundaram, Faculty of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business works with Senior Managers of companies on how their financial fundamentals and performance metrics drive market values and P/E ratios. In an exclusive conversation with B&E’s Amir Moin, Prof. Sundaram discusses the issue of sustainability and how companies can effectively implement it.

We live in a world that is undergoing rapid transition. For now, our setbacks are more or less financial and economic in nature. But as we further globalise amidst an explosion in population, the world that we know of will find itself encountering a completely different set of problems. It is therefore imperative that corporations around the world take up the issue of sustainability with urgency. In this exclusive conversation, Anant K. Sundaram, Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business, tells B&E, how companies should perceive sustainability and what they can do do make it an integral part of their business model.

B&E: Sustainability is something which a lot of companies promote now a days. While some are actually pursuing strategies that make sustainability a reality not just in terms of application but also profitability, others use it as a mask to look good. What is your view of sustainability and how is it helping the company’s bottom line?

Anant Sundaram (AS): Step back for a moment and think about what ‘sustainability’ means, since it is misused a lot. In a literal sense, it means ‘making something live forever.’ This, of course, is plainly impossible to do and hence not a terribly useful definition. The definition used in policy and NGO circles goes something like ‘meeting society’s needs today without compromising the needs of future generations.’ This, in turn, is a highly loaded definition: Who is to judge what anyone’s needs are? How can we know what future generations might need relative to today’s? The bottom line is, these traditional definitions of sustainability have a condescending, and frankly, impractical view about the world as it is and what people’s wants are. Corporations live in a practical world. They manage scarce resources and juggle the conflicting needs and imperatives of multiple constituencies, all with a view to create value. From their point of view, sustainability is fundamentally about meeting people’s wants for goods and services by consuming as limited a set of resources as possible, keeping their footprint associated with the side effects of such use minimal.

This means efficiently using air, water, minerals, metals, fossil fuels, and other natural (including biodiversity) resources, in a manner that mitigates – or even zeroes out – the footprint associated with pollution, waste, and emissions. Hundreds of good companies – whether it’s a Walmart trying to drive efficiencies in its supply chain, an Apple in its product design that emphasizes conservation, or an Infosys in its building and data center processes that obsesses over energy efficiency – adopt this view. Surely, there are some that will try to use it “as a mask” to look good. However, those will be short-lived efforts, perhaps even short-lived companies. At the end of the day, the ones that do not see the links between sustainability and efficiency will leave value-creation opportunities on the table, thereby not being able to compete against their more efficient peers. In the process, they will be the first to fall by the wayside.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

“I’m not going away anytime soon”

When 2007 began, Ford Motor Company was in one of the worst shapes amongst automakers. Then Alan Mulally walked in, conceptualised his ‘One-Ford’ strategy and even today, is working hard to implement his masterplan to earn maximum dollars in fast-growth markets. mulally in a conversation with B&E’s Pawan Chabra

After working at Boeing for over 26 years, Alan Roger Mulally took charge as the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company in September 2006. While he wasn’t the first choice for the top job at the auto major, under him the company managed a remarkable turnaround. Today, with less than two years left at the automaker, all eyes are on Mulally’s ‘One Ford’ strategy, and what more he can achieve with his plan in the days to come, especially in fast-growth markets. In an exclusive interview with B&E, Mulally shares his thoughts on the road ahead of Ford in India and his retirement & new launch plans.

B&E: You have unveiled the EcoSport in India, making it the second product to be launched in India under the ‘One Ford’ strategy. When can Indian consumers expect to buy it and what expectations do you have from the product?
Alan Mulally (AM): We chose India for the global premiere of the EcoSport, our compact SUV, because this market is very important for Ford Motor Company. We believe that it will become one of the three largest automobile markets across the globe by the end of this decade. The EcoSport will be sold in the Indian market during the later half of 2012 and it will also be exported to 30 different markets worldwide from India. To start with, it will be produced in India and Brazil. In total, the EcoSport will be sold in over 100 markets and it will be powered by the Ford’s revolutionary 1-litre ecoboost petrol engine. It will be available in both the petrol and diesel variants. We believe it will create a new segment in India as it has the flexibility of an SUV with the fuel efficiency that the modern consumer is looking for. Obviously, it marks the start of the implementation of our SUV plan for the Indian market.

B&E: The ‘One Ford’ strategy has been key to the turnaround tale of Ford Motor Company. Does the plan only help you cut costs by delivering economies of scale or is there much more to it?
AM: ‘One Ford’ is all about making one product for all the markets that we operate in. For instance, a Fiesta sold in Chennai will be made exactly the same way as the one that is sold in the US market. This strategy not only helps us gain economies of scale on the end of the suppliers, but also empowers us to bring more affordable products to the market. This is a very important strategy for Ford as the consumer today is looking for vehicles that are best in safety, quality and fuel efficiency at an affordable price. Roughly, today by using the One-Ford plan, what we have achieved is that over 60-80% of our global platforms are the same for producing vehicles across markets. As far as launches are concerned, under the One-Ford plan, we started with the Figo in 2010 and including the Figo and the EcoSport, we plan to launch eight new models in India by 2015.

B&E: The US auto market has almost recovered from what we saw during the days of recession, But EU is still a big concern. On the other hand, almost all automakers are bullish on the future of India and China. How will the coming years turn out for the auto industry?
AM: Europe is still a concern, but the governments there are making constant efforts to improve the situation. As a company, we expect the global automotive sales to increase by 5% a year at least for the next two years. The driver to this growth will be the Asia-Pacific region and mainly markets like India and China. At the end of 2010, close to 74 million vehicles were sold across the globe. It is expected that this number will go up to 100 million vehicles by the end of 2015. As far as India is concerned, it is one of the most important markets for Ford. The consumer is terrific. He is looking for value and fun to drive vehicles.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
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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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Do you trust your health insurer?

Many still do not, due to the prevailing high claim rejection rates in the industry. For a greater benefit, it’s high time insurers wake up to the fact and overcome the shortcomings present in their own processes.

When a medical insurance policyholder (the insured) enters into a contract with an insurer, it is primarily with an anticipation that eventually when the moment of truth (settlement of claims) comes, s/he would not be constrained by any problem; at least, not regarding the medical bills. This, in simple terms, explains the very concept of Uberrimae fidei or utmost good faith – the guiding principle of the contracts in insurance. But does this really happen?

Well, consider the following cases. Laxmi Subramanyam (based out of Mumbai) had carcinoma of her left breast; she got treated. She and her husband took a Mediclaim policy with New India Assurance. The policy excluded carcinoma of left breast, because it was pre-existing. Later, she was diagnosed with carcinoma of the right breast, which was not a recurrence according to the doctors but a new case. Despite that, when Subramnyam submitted her claim of Rs.80,000 to the Third Party Administrator (TPA) of New India Assurance Co. Ltd. (Raksha TPA Private Ltd.), they rejected the claim on the grounds that this was not included in the policy. Finally, Subramanyam had to take the help of a consumer forum to contest the claim.

Reshma Trivedi (Ahmedabad) had taken a Mediclaim policy of United India Insurance Company (UIIC). She had undergone a hernia operation for the second time, for which she filed a claim of Rs.27,500. But the insurer rejected the claim reasoning that Reshma had undergone caesarean hysterectomy, due to which she suffered from hernia for the first time, and subsequently for the second time too. The hernia, for which she was operated, apparently was existing while she took the Mediclaim and she had not specified the information under the pre-existing clause. However, hearing Reshma’s petition, the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ahmedabad (Rural), contended that the occurrence of hernia had no relation with her caesarean hysterectomy. The forum ordered the company to pay her Rs.30,000 towards her policy with 9% compound interest from the date of the complaint till realisation and Rs.5,000 towards cost.

Interestingly, these names are real, and so are the cases mentioned. Such cases are not rare occurrences and happen by the hundreds. There is no doubt that India – where barely 5% of the population have some sort of medical insurance, and where 80% of all health expenditure is from personal sources – offers huge potential to the providers of health insurance and allows them to grow at a mind boggling rate of 21% per annum (from Rs.66.25 billion in 2008-09 to Rs.80 billion 2009-10 in terms of premium collected). But keeping pace with the growth, cases of claim rejection and repudiation are also increasing causing higher grievances. As the IRDA annual report for 2009-10 reveals, while there were 4,525 grievances reported in FY 2009-10 (both life and non-life), the number of cases witnessed in Q1 FY2010-11 was 1,600. And going by settlement of claims, the most important factor for customer satisfaction, well, it’s a despicable sorrow state of affairs. While the best, LIC, is pegged at 96.54%, the same for the best private player, HDFC Standard Life, is only 91.14%. The situation for insurers like Canara HSBC and Future Generali, is as pathetic as possible, with only 38.71% and 38.85% of claims being settled respectively.

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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