Cloud and Virtualization

Elegant way of explaining benefits of Cloud and Virtualization

Why HUL's illustrious days are over?

Recently, glanced over Hindustan Unilever (HUL’s ) full page chairman’s annual statement; I wondered why HUL and ITC unlike other companies need to publish a full page chairman’s AGM speech/annual statement. This year, HUL’s chairman talked about HUL’s contribution in grooming managers and producing leaders out of them. As a Bschooler, it was enough to attract my attention and write this post which is highly critical perhaps one sided but definitely food for thought.

I somehow think days for HUL as a supreme brand which commands awe in all respects are over. Here is why I think so.

Poor financial performance: HUL’s topline and bottomline are stagnant since last few years. In recent past, There has not been any innovation in an emerging country like India which is full of innovation for masses. There have not been any revolutionary product launches in recent years which would have enhanced lives of consumers.

HUL has become a reactive competitor. Which products/brands have they brought and sustained after the success of Wheel? Does it not seem that they are consciously ignoring bottom of pyramid markets?

Has Power brands strategy worked? HUL management seems to be driven by what bosses say in Unilever. Do HUL board and executive have mind of their own? Why do they follow strategy of premium brand, high margin business in a country which is full of opportunities in low margin, mass market? In fact it seems in implementing this strategy; HUL managers have killed many promising brands.

Shareholder returns: Why HUL doesn’t talk about Shareholder returns? Shareholders have not gained much in terms of stock appreciation. With average financial performance, the stock has languished for past 10-12 years. Why does the board not wake up and think seriously for creating wealth for stockholders as many other companies consciously do?

Poor Top of mind recall- Think of Tea, you think of Tata tea, Think of milk, you think of Amul, Nestle or Britannia, Salt – you think of Tata salt and list goes on. Despite huge spending on advertisements, many brands of HUL don’t even figure in the consideration set of consumers.

Overpaid management: It is said that HLL managers are paid through nose and yet such conventional and poor performance?? Performance to payment ratio seems to be definitely better for companies such as Dabur, Future group, Tata group etc.

CSR: HUL never shies away from bragging about Shakti amma project. But are they really serious? If yes, then why is it restricted primarily in South India? India has 600,000 villages. Why don’t they become aggressive through out India in such well meaning project as they are in fighting Pantene over billboards?

HUL gives impression of an arrogant MNC which has lost its way. Serious rethinking is needed to mend old ways of doing business. HUL is full of excellent professionals who just need to take control of situation and put pressure on their top leadership to act sensibly and do things out of box.

image http://www.hul.co.in/

XLRI GMP 2010 Batch's Placment Summary

Here's XLRI GMP 2010 Batch's Placment Summary as covered in Media


Yahoo News

Financial Express

CoolAvenues

Project Managers: Can they live up to the expectation?

With so many young people working in Indian IT industry, there is huge challenge to manage the staff in unique ways so as to keep them motivated and guide them. I have been huge fan of Mr. NRN Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys and Mr. Subroto Bagchi, Chief Gardner, Mindtree. These great men spend considerable in mentoring, helping employees become true professionals. Mr. Bagchi mentions need for mentorship in his fabulous book, Go kiss the world. It is a must read for all young professionals.

Sadly, employees don’t realize the value of a guide or a mentor, and even if they do, they don’t find mentors because of their acute shortage. A mentor is one who can bring you out of all disillusions and confusions; He is the one who shapes the young mind to do the best. He understands and helps you with lessons on career and industry; He nurtures your ambitions, aspirations and goals. Most importantly, he is the one whom you look up to and get inspired.
In IT industry, this mentor role can be beautifully played by Project Managers who closely work with team members, especially with those who are new in their careers and can play a vital role in mentoring them. Unfortunately, neither Project managers nor employees seek such a kind of role modeling.

In one his articles in The Economic Times dated 5th July 2010, Mr. R Gopalakrishnan, ED Tata Sons suggests “To be successful it is important that a manager is perceived as authentic and genuine.” It is in this context, I have seen that expectation of mentorship is a far cry if managers don’t even match up to such basic qualities.

But why does it happen?
In IT Industry, Project managers manage projects of team size ranging from 5 to 100. Their primary job is to successfully deliver projects within boundaries of scope, cost and time. Fortunately, projects get delivered without much value-add from Project managers. These managers don’t even focus on upgrading their skills, finding scope of doing things better and most importantly setting the benchmarks for other team members to follow. Many of them can’t imagine the scope and challenges of project management involved in building dams, highways, refineries etc. wherein millions of dollars is at stake, work environment is harsh, where project managers need to deal with an unskilled laborer to a highly skilled engineering staff.
How do they survive then?
Without value addition, they are able to survive because of their low cost in dollar terms. A number of clients don’t bother not to pay for a project manager for even small team sizes because in dollar terms, perhaps they get a project manager for the cost of a software engineer.

But how long these so called not performing project mangers survive? Until the cost arbitrage is reduced or IT budgets are severely cut, the breed of underperforming managers will continue to be on board.

It is not that managers are not capable. Many have illustrious pedigree. Just that over the years, the fire in their belly is doused. They have become complacent and habituated of easy money.
In such a scenario, how will they add value to customers and focus on employees’ careers?
If go you around the campuses of IT companies and interview employees, they would grossly crib about their managers. They perceive them as overhead to a project, who does some talking, prepares some reports in excel or doc. Some won’t even have soft skills to deal with human resources because of their rise from technical roles and lack of exposure to human resource perspectives.

It is not that I have come across only such project managers. I have been fortunate to work with one of the best project managers in the industry and have got mentored by them but this post just happens to be an output of series of observations that had been troubling me for a long time.

Image source http://mohannadtayeb.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/proj_mng.jpg

Linking Penalties to Inflation

Government of India seems to be very active in annulling dead laws and reframing them in order to keep them meaningful. There are hundreds of laws which need much amended and reviewed .Laws need to be modernized and made relevant for time we are living. To give an example, Under the Aircraft Act, 1934, the Government can control "manufacture, possession, use, sale of aircraft". And ‘aircraft’ includes balloons and kites. This is so ludicrous and in a way symbolizes our archaic laws
We all must have read the warning or ignored it after reading. Laws are made as if they are to be broken. Law says that “smoking is punishable”. We can’t even communicate certainty of punishment. It is just another example of how communications are loosely done.
Another thing noticeable is that in most cases, a paltry sum of penalty is imposed. Is it strong enough to detract? Everybody knows it is not then why do we set them so low they become meaningless. How come Lawmakers arrive at such figures defying all the logic? Even if we set them high while framing laws, over the period of time, they are not revised and hence lose their significance.
Rents increase annually, DAs are linked to Inflation, and almost all costs gets a periodic revision but why can’t we link penalties for committed crime to average inflation growth rate so as to keep them stringent and deterrent enough for offenders of law?

Have you tried Slideshare?

Samsung And The Theme Park Industry

View more presentations from Anshuman, XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Recently I received below comments on the analysis of a case study.
"actually, i want to thank you ,your presentation was extremely mind storming ... you are a great team work ... my professor asked me to make my analysis within more than 2 months but believe me i was surrounded by hundreds of question marks till i found your presentation my papers became in order and actually i believe my analysis will be the best over my colleagues i gonna deliver my presentation next Thursday 'if my god wishes' and i will upload it and i wish to receive comments from you... thanx again. "

I uploaded the presentation to share the learnings to the world. During MBA, I can't remember when did I not use Google for references for various assignments and submissions. Hence, thought of sharing some ppts on slideshare. Slideshare is an incredible tool with plethora of information in a concise format as mostly ppts are uploaded. Hence, getting information in capsule format has been made easy by Slideshare. Ppts,Pdfs are uploaded in no time ,hence as a user you don't waste time in waiting for uploads to complete.

If you have not tried slideshare, give it a try and give back to the world!

XLRI GMP Graduation speech

Finally my tryst with MBA is over. A sense of pride, nostalgia for missing XLRI and wonderful batchmates and anxiety for new life is setting in. Here is the speech that I delivered on behalf of batch in Graduation Ceremony, May 12, 2010 @ XLRI Jamshedpur.

Good after noon Respected Director, Dean, distinguished Guest of ceremony, Faculty, Staff, Families and GMP Class of 2010. I am honored to deliver this graduation speech on behalf of the whole GMP class, A class coming from different parts of India, which has worked around the globe, which comes from diverse sectors from Steel to Education to Hospital, a class consisting of Bankers, doctors, defense personal and technology geeks, a class with work experience ranging from 5 years to 16 years. It has been a wonderful year with memories that we will cherish forever.

Before I speak further, I would like the graduating class to applaud for our families because without their support and sacrifice; we would not have been here.

I remember the day when we 96 of us came to Jamshedpur. Some of us were anxious, some were nervous; after all we were going back to school after so many years of working in the industry. It is said that Gold becomes finest only when it goes through hottest fire. After having gone through 32 courses, numerous mid terms, end terms, quizzes, term papers, assignments, group projects, presentations, we are here in the Graduation ceremony. The XL academic rigor has sharpened and molded us into competent managers.

We are indebted to our esteemed faculty for shaping our minds and guiding us at every juncture of our stint here @ XL. We will remember Fr Jesurajan’s invitation for 7 course meal, Prof Gangopadhyay spine chilling lectures( Like many of you, I remember running without a break from Hostel to class to avoid being late), STP lessons from Marketing gurus, different forms of demand supply curves from Economics Professors, Accounting lesson that Prof Sengupta drilled in us – Profit is different from cash.

How can we forget the strikes and lockout lessons from Prof Sarkar, classes on complex and perplexing organization behavior, the basics of human resource management from our Dean, Mind scratching Anecdotes from Prof TAS Vijayaraghavan, International finance classes from truly Intl professor and realization after every class of Prof Uday Damodaran that how little we know of Fin world. The list goes on….

Inspired by the Jesuit spirit of ‘Magis’, XLRI stands for Excellence and Integrity. It has allowed us to stretch our thinking and imagination. XLRI is known for developing social conscience and beyond doubt; we have not only learnt hardcore management techniques but also have grown emotionally to develop a conscience that extends beyond companies and corporations.

It is not that we just restricted ourselves to academics; we dared to compete in every aspect of B school life. Few of us cleared CFA level 1, A team of three reached the Asia Regional finals of Global Social Venture Competition organized by Haas School of Business, Berkeley University, one of our Sports fanatics reached Badminton Finals in IIM Lucknow’s Annual Sports and cultural competition, Bloggers from the batch emerged XL winners in a Blogging competition organized by Directi and a clear GMP dominance was witnessed in Tata Steel XLRI Peace marathon.

XLRI unlike its peers has always been focused on grass root development. In this context, we were exposed to remotest Naxal inflicted tribal villages in Jharkhand. Harsh realities of tribal villages have had profound influence on our thinking and I am sure we would actively work towards making lives of our people better.

As we move out of XL today, we will miss 2 am Bishuda’s aloo paratha with loads of butter, Chai breaks at Dadus, a sylvan and serene campus, diamond jubilee park that is host to number of gossips as well as serious discussions, our excellent Dining and accommodation facilities and fiercely fought cricket and football matches.

We are thankful to ever cheerful Rani Mam, ever helpful Freddie, Lazarus, Rashmi, Roshan and Sandra Mam, and numerous XL Staff for making our lives easier.

As we graduate today and join companies in middle and senior management positions, our future will be guided by XL’s core values and teachings. This is momentous occasion for all of us as we ready to shape destinies of companies and enterprises. We have task cut out for ourselves as these are most exciting times and we are fortunate to be active participants in this Indian Growth story. In decades to come, we need to evolve as leaders with highest ethical standards, we need to set new benchmarks and beat old records to create organizations which will be world leaders in terms of financial numbers as well sustainable practices.

Thank you

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NHAI: Is it IT oriented?

The latest annual report of NHAI http://nhai.org/Audit.htm on their website is for year 2005-2006. No wonder the progress of GQ and East-West Corridor has slowed down.

Governments, PSUs and Central and state agencies , academic institutions are notorious in providing in old, outdated information to public. Their orientation towards Information technology is only on paper.

Consumers, public at large are also to be blamed for not raising the issues of poor interfaces and lack of availability of proper information.

Mr. Kamal Nath, It is high time, Please take out some time, visit the site and get it updated.

Find out the difference?

The Learning Center

An ideal Parivaar

As part of Entrepreneurship course, Prof. Munish Thakur invited Mr. Vinayak Lohani,founder of Parivaar. http://www.parivaar.org/

He is IIT kharagpur, IIM calcutta, Infosys alumni and hails from MP. It was 8:00PM, after 9-10 hours(with breaks) of classes, It was a guest lecture for which our brain could not resist to imbibe more. I had heard of him before that he was the first student in IIMC's history to withdraw from placement process, a full 1 year ahead of placement season. His simplicity and humbleness was visible in his attire. Some times it is hard to imagine a B School alumni in Kurta Pyjama, One of the many stereotypes that we associate with B-Schoolers.

Coming back to the lecture, He told chilling stories of prostitution, migration of workers and malnutrition in WestBengal. He reminisced how he thought of starting some thing of this sort. He enumerated difficulties that he had to face while starting the venture.

It was his motivation and internal capabilities that led to his birth of successful venture for a residential school for poor and orphan children.

Mentioning about conditioning of society, He talked about Singur case and quoted Amartya Sen,that " If Tatas believed in Market forces, why did not they deal with markets (farmers) for acquiring land for Nano project". He was critical of people like us who are getting conditioned to work only in certain kinds of environment.

It was a nice break from daily pressure of cases, readings, resume and placements and hearing a sage like him.

Results of 2009 Directi Case Study Competition are out

Results of 2009 Directi Case Study Competition are out. http://xlrigmp2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-of-2009-directi-case-study.html

GMP,XLRI student needs help and support

My batchmate, Vidya Sagar, GMP,XLRI student needs help and support.

Please follow the link for more details

http://kimelody.blogspot.com/2009/11/xlri-student-appeals-to-conscience-of.html

From State Owned firms to world class competitors

We group of 10 students from XLRI GMP attended a high profile Forum and Round Table Discussion on State Owned Enterprises(SOE) or Public Sector enterprises as we call in India. The forum attracted esteemed leaders and CEOs from Asia Pacific. Apart from listening to insightful experiences of these leaders, the interesting aspect was having a personal interaction with Ms. Ranjana Kumar Former Chairwoman, NABARD, and Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission

In fact, She accepted our request of coming to XLRI for sharing her experiences in turning around Indian Bank.
http://www.aim.edu.ph/events.aspx?id=349

Mr. Brian Keegan, MD for Capital Structure Advisory and Solutions, JP Morgan Securities laid emphasis on why Optimal Capital Structure is required for State owned enterprises.
Apart from explaining WACC and peer models, He explained Dynamic Model which measures value of future operations as well as current operations.
His mantra for SOEs was
1)raising equity is good
2)Good governance is must
3)Balance sheet integrity is important
4)reduce relaince on Govt support
5)Optimize Capital Structure

Ms. Corazon De La PazBernardo explained how SSS, Philippines has come into blue as far as contributions and payments are concerned.

It was
astonishing to know that 22% of Filipino workforce(8.7 mn workers) work outside the country.
Mr. Tanri Abeng, President Commissioner, PT Telkom Indonesia shared his experiences candidly with the audience. Pointing at bloated staff at SOEs, He jokingly said that , " you will find too many people in SOEs but not enough". He reiterated that balance between entreprenuial drive and management discipline is essential for success of any company.

He introduced how 2 tier corporate board works efficiently in Indonesia.
Panelists for 2nd RoundTable discussion were Dr. Gu Shu, Board Secretary, ICBC, China and Dr. Pallapa Ruangrong, Commissioner, Thailand's Energy Regulatory commission.

It was insightful to know that Industrial and Commerce Bank of China is world's largest Bank in terms of deposits and M-Cap.

The last panel was addressed by Ms Ranjana Kumar and Mr. Jose Rene D. Almendras, President Manila Water Co. Philippines.

It was interesting to know that Indian Bank had -12% Capital Addequcy Ratio during bad times. It was interesting to hear the turnaround story of Indian Bank.

Mr. Almendras gave a lucid presentation on commendable work done by Manila Water Co in Philippines and other countries including India. He explained why people don't trust private companies supplying water, which is a universal commodity.

Overall, The conference gave an interesting,enriching insight into economic complexities of the Asia pacific region. It was a treat to hear dignitaries from around the region. I hope we can apply this improved understanding of Asia's commercial and economic challenges in near future.

Asian Institute of Managment, Manila did an incredible work in organizing the event and inviting GMP students from XLRI to be part of it

Day 4@AIM,Manila

It was Day 4 today @ AIM,Manila. After having sumptuous American breakfast, I joined other participants on Balance Score Card Strategy as part of Human Capital Management program conducted by Prof. Tony Perez http://www.aim.edu.ph/faculty2.aspx?id=43&cat=fulltime .

It was very interesting session. He built core concepts of BSC strategy from scratch. He explained the whole model in simple manner that we never realized that he is teaching a Strategy class that we are so used to. He built all the concepts using a simple case of Ming Hua, a Chinese rice farmer. The class was very interesting as particpiant came from various companies based in Indonesia,Philippines etc.
Few excerpts from his class
1)We were surprised when he asked our permission to rub the class board. He said, Writings on the board is product of case discussion. Hence, he needs to do so as part of case teaching methodology.

2)He told how important it is to have right measures while explaining that the yesteryear's flawed measurement of number of baskets in the game of Basketball.

3)He gave an example of Indonesian Toyota Car Dealer, while teaching concept of Lifetime cost of a customer.

4)He shared an astonishing figure of 40,000, which is the number of sales people who were recruited by Pfizer at launch of Viagra. They were trained in an elevator so that they learn the skill of making quick presentations.

Looking forward to rest of his tomorrow's class.

Diwali @ XLRI

GMP Hostel

Teacher's Nite@ GMP, XLRI

Some snaps from Teacher's Nite

Ravana burnt elsewhere, worshipped in parts of Madhya Pradesh

Ravana burnt elsewhere, worshipped in parts of Madhya Pradesh

Finance Guru in making ?

Economic Times’s supplement, Brand Equity used to carry a critique section on Ads - Ads which didn’t create the buzz or could not achieve the stated objective or simply were waste of resources and generated confusion among consumers. This Ad of Aegon Religare Star Child Plan appeared last week in ET, and I believe this Ad deserves a critique.


Firstly, when you start reading the Ad, you don’t have any clue of why we are finding out whether your child is Finance guru in making or why those 7 symptoms are being written?


Secondly, even if we assume that Ad tells you to find out financial genius of child, questions remain unanswered - how scientific are these 7 questions and whether these questions are true indicators of a potential to do good in Finance. If these 7 questions are not scientific, then should these questions be used in such an ad in which the advertiser is playing with emotions and setting wrong benchmarks in minds of consumers?

Isn’t it a cheap way of satisfying egos of parents and trapping them in an emotional trap. I am not saying that marketers and advertisers should not leverage on the emotional fear of consumers instead their promotions should make sense and not make fool of consumer’s intelligence.

Doesn’t this Ad show creative bankruptcy of advertiser because mere answers to so called symptoms are not good enough reason for parents to buy a Children education policy and lastly, Why Finance? Why not any other profession or fields of study? It is universally accepted that finance is no longer a coveted profession as it used to be before current slowdown. Then, Will target consumers really be fancied by such an Ad during current scenario?

Tata,Jamshedpur and XLRI

“Tata” name is ubiquitous in XLRI as if XLRI is run by Tata Sons. Every class gets mention of “Tata word”. Almost very professor has given examples from various Tata Companies. Prof. Jittu Singh has worked in Tata Steel. Prof. A Gangopdhyay is currently doing an assignment for Tata’s in South Africa.

Jamshedpur is full of Tata companies. Local people and institutions have grown with the growth of Tata. It is incredible to know that there has never been a problem in Jamshedpur with regard to pollution or labor unions. While teaching Financial Leverage, Prof. Sengupta gave Tata steel’s example to explain the concept.

We never have to think very far. We get all kinds of example from Tata Group of companies. MIS and Strategy class found mention of TCS’s Global Delivery Model. Prof. Sarosh Gandhy, who is former Tata employee and proud Jamshedpur denizen, shared interesting stories from Tata Steel. My Marketing group gave presentation on Tata Nano case. Not only did we discuss Tata motors in class, but also got chance to visit Tata Motors’s Jamshedpur factory. It was a rare occasion to see “The World Truck” getting assembled.

Adventure trip, the unique aspect of GMP program was organized by TSAF, Tata Steel Adventure Foundation. In a guest lecture arranged by Prof. Smitu Malhotra, Mr. N.K Sharan taught us how commodity like Steel Rebars was branded as Tata Tiscon Rebar.

With Ranjay and Sudesh in class, understanding perspectives on Quality and Operations in Tata Steel is never an issue. In fact, I got chance to see LD shop in Tata Steel where Ranjay worked before. Few days back, Mr. M H Patel from TRF enlightened us on TQM.

I feel this symbiotic relationship of Tatas with XLRI is beautiful with no parallels in India.

Today’s MBAs should be the conscience keeper of the company: LK Gupta, CMO LG Electronics India

Today’s MBAs should be the conscience keeper of the company: LK Gupta, CMO LG Electronics India

So How is Wordpress Going to Make Money, Matt? | Mark Evans Tech

So How is Wordpress Going to Make Money, Matt? Mark Evans Tech

An Open Letter to Paul Krugman

Interesting article, An Open Letter to Paul Krugman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-k-levine/an-open-letter-to-paul-kr_b_289768.html

COAI- Need to be aloud again

Lately COAI- Cellular Operators Association of India, the lobbying organization has been quiet.It is not as loud as it used to be few years ago. The quietness has even entrenched into there website. Look at the picture on the left with garbage data "ddddd" appearing on left pane. This is not the only example of how organization's don't keep their website up to date. Many Government websites are full of incomplete and incorrect information. Websites are interface to the external world. They promote brand equity of organizations. This example among numerous others just shows how little companies/organizations understand Information Technology and its impact on their brand.
Mr. T.V. Rama Chandran, please visit your organization's website to make sure that you show to the world how committed and serious your organization is about IT and its benefits.

The Term 1 that was!

Term 1 of my GMP@XLRI has come to an end. What an eventful 3 months it has been. I have never been this much stretched and sleep deprived as I have been in last 3 months. Jumping from one assignment to the other, running for marketing project meeting to ELCC ,MANAC, Macro,Micro Economics group meeting, it has been a true roller coaster ride with surprise element built in every moment.

Classes/Studies: On an average we had 3-4 classes of 1.5 hours each. Sometimes it felt it is too much to do with case reading for marketing, Ethical leadership, management accounting practice and of course revision of dreaded classes of Quantitative techniques for Managerial Decisions to complete. Some subjects were taught by multiple professors, hence multiple midterm exams along with end term exams. With a day’s break, term 2 has begun and it seems it is going to be lot more hectic than the 1st term.

Exams: XLRI is very academic oriented Business school but focus remains on basics and applications. The biggest surprise element of XLRI is marquee list of Professors. Profs Make sure students read come prepared and perform at the highest level in various exams and quizzes. Lately, competitive spirit has taken front seat and everyone is talking about grades, marks etc. People say it is all only about leaning and not grades but culture of marks, grades, academic orientation builds in when Professors force you to study hard and remind you of exams in every class. Every exam is different; Standard of exam papers was very high in most of the courses in Term 1. Some exams were open book and some were closed book. Don’t ask for performance in open book. Open book doesn’t mean you will sail through instead you will struggle more than the other format. Only one professor, Prof. Sarosh Ghandy didn’t take any formal exam but he had his unique ways of asking us to submit answers to various questions on Ethics and Leadership on A4 sheets of paper.

Myth: B-school is all about partying, extra circulars: this myth was broken in first fifteen days when I started to realize that I don’t have time for any other activity other than studies. One needs to be incredibly good at time management to manage academic and non academic studies.

The CR factor
I have always been on the opinion that Bschools are perfect ground for networking, peer learning, managing conflict view points and learning prioritization. I have been fortunate that class reposed faith in me in selecting me as Class Representative. I am not sure how class evaluates me but I have tried to do justice to the job. Class Rep is a bridge between professors and students. There have been moment of high adrenaline, excitement, anxiety, frustration, dissatisfaction but overall it has been marvelous experience to manage 48 (strength of my section) of different opinions. Sometimes it becomes huge distraction, many a times you can’t concentrate on your individual priorities but it has made me realize why things move slowly in a democratic setup. Hats off to Indian growth despite Indian plurality and democracy.

CEO visits, guest lecture:
I had opportunity to attend gyan sessions of CEO of Airtel, Bihar and Jharkhand, CEO of SELCO, Dr Harish Hande, CEO of Goonj, Anshu Gupta and TATA Tiscon Branding guest lecture by Mr. Sharan from TQMS. One of the professors even humorously pointed me that I skipped his class to attend these CEO visits. It has been inspiring to know the exemplary work done by Dr. Hande and his team in areas of solar powering of Rural Karnataka and Anshu Gupta’s team. I remember his chilling narration left the whole CII YI team, (which I am part of) in pin drop silence. His words were of utmost disbelief to us.

CII-YI: Four GMPians got chance and were selected in CII Young Indians society of XLRI. We have already organized Kshitij, a one day event for underprivileged school children. I am not very satisfied with my involvement till date as it has been limited because of academics and exam. I hope to compensate for the same in Term 2.
Online group: I am part of the Online group which handles online branding –Blogging, Newsletters, marketing GMP in online space, connecting with prospective students etc. So far the groups’ performance has been satisfactory and but we need to speed up the activities.

Accommodation:
The first welcome surprise was Accommodation. Hostel accommodations are very comfortable with AC, phones etc. The housekeeping staff is excellent. Although people have varying opinions about our mess food, but I have liked it very much and no complains at all. In fact, our GMP Mess committee members are doing a commendable job by keeping tab on quality, menu etc.

Parties
The academic pressure has not made us drab personalities, in fact we have had 2-3 parties, Thanks to our Party/Admin committee members.

Village Trip
XLRI’s focus on social entrepreneurship is commendable. A 3 day trip to villages is mandatory for all flagship programs. I along with my group happened to go to three tribal villages and was awestruck with grim realities of rural India. We had to walk for an hour to cross a mountain to reach the one of the villages. The village didn’t have electricity, road, school, primary health care centre but had lots of hope that things will improve for them one day.

Adventure Trip
The Adventure trip organized by Tata steel Adventure foundation was life time experience. Various Team building exercises such as Rock Climbing, Caving, self made rafting on Dimna Lake was truly amazing experience. These events not only helped us understand each other better but also helped us explore our limits.

Today was the first day of Term 2. Human resource management case writing projects need to be formed; I need to read about HUL’s Sangam initiative and solve a question in Optimization in Managerial decision making for tomorrow’s class. I hope term 2 to be as exciting and promising as term 1 and to get some time to scribble few lines on the blog…….

Term 1 Completion

I was laughing out loud after receiving this Term 1 completion surprise from my most humorous and fun loving batch mate, Kaushik Chakraborty.
I am not sure how and what similarity he saw between me and Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana,US. I am still puzzled. By the way, Thanks Kaushik

If you are reading, let me know what you think on this look alike puzzle?

SEBI might destory the industry

I have been following growth of mutual fund Industry for last 10 years. It has grown to huge proportion to what it was 10 years back; days when UTI dominated the MF category, few PSU mfs such as BOB, CanBank, SBI mfs operated and very few good quality private mfs such Templeton Franklin existed.
What makes me write this post is the fact that MF industry is on verge of destruction imposed by the none other than the regulator, SEBI, as clearly pointed by http://www.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=409014
Over the years, numerous regulations such as PAN quotation, KYC etc have been introduced for better identification of investors. AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India), an SRO (self regulatory organization ) and SEBI have played crucial role in growth of regulations. But are we not over regulating the industry as pointed out in the article? Are we not killing the MF industry in the name of enhancing investor interest? Is SEBI not crossing the limits by dictating what and how the distribution costs should be managed by mutual funds in India?
While you are forcing mutual fund advisors and agents to charge the clients for services provided to them, same is not true for other financial instruments such as Insurance and Post Office deposits. Why doesn't IRDA also follow the same principle and ask millions of Insurance advisors to charge their customers instead of them being paid by insurance companies?
Moreover, is the investor knowledgeable enough to decide how much should be paid for the service? If yes, Has SEBI identified service charges that need to be paid by customers?
Are we not doing too much too soon? Are not discouraging and dismantling a distribution channel, which is already very fragile?
SEBI seems to be playing an unjust role with AMFI and MFs playing the role of mute spectators. We have been clamoring about the need to grow mutual fund industry and its penetration in India. Instead of spreading the industry, the regulator, AMFI and Mutual funds are eager to put the last nail in its coffin.

Some thoughts on Layoffs

Life is hectic in XLRI and no time to do any thing extra other than finishing assignments, projects and meeting various deadlines. We are having regular classes on Human Behaviour and Organizational Structure by one of the world class Professors, Mr. Jittu Singh . Here are some of my thoughts on "layoffs" which had been a buzz word since year and half.

What are Layoffs?
As per Wikipedia, Until 80s, the term Layoff was used for temporary interruption in work when factory work cyclically fell off. In modern context, it is considered as permanent termination or elimination of jobs. The phenomenon has grown since 1980s. Various researches have been conducted to find the effectiveness of layoffs. Most of them have suggested potential gains to corporations and organizations. It is considered as the best tool for turning around declining organizations, cutting cost and improving organizational performance.
How layoffs are made to work?
Whenever organizations find themselves under stress of poor revenue/profits growth or falling revenues/profits or sustaining losses or turning around themselves from loss making entities to profit generating organizations, layoffs are considered. Some companies are conservative but most of them are very aggressive in laying off people. The stance- Aggressive or conservative depends on geography, socio-economic context and local laws. Generally American companies are aggressive and they go for blatant, open job cuts while Indian companies are considered to be conservative as they always adopt layoffs as a last measure to full fill their objectives.
The general approach to layoffs is find non-required job posts, non-performing or non needed employees. Once companies have list of employees, they try to find out cost savings, factoring in onetime expenditure on severance package etc. Generally, American companies tie this list of layoff with potential cost savings in dollar terms which they present to share holders. This is where Indian companies differ. Generally, In Indian companies, layoffs are kept confidential (in fact they make them as non transparent as possible), no cost savings are presented to shareholders. Thousands of jobs are lost in services and manufacturing companies both in urban and rural India but none are reported in media as these companies are either not high profile or Government undertakings.
During current recession or slowdown, Drivers, waiters, construction workers have lost jobs in urban cities and have returned back to their homes in UP, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. These job losses are not even reported, forget about someone being worried about them.
Need for layoffs?
Layoffs are generally considered as a cost saving measure. During late 90s and early 2000, many PSUs were restructured and lakhs of employees were given VRS. The whole idea was to bring efficiency in system to weed out low performers, less productive workers in age group 50-60. The whole process was well orchestrated as PSUs had to be accountable to Govt, shareholders and powerful unions. Hence, good severance packages were given in the form of golden handshakes.
Let’s look at slip side of layoffs
· Money lost on training employees
· Low morale of rest of staff members affecting their productivity and leading to poor customer satisfaction
· Fearful and shortsighted employees.
Challenges
Committed and motivated employees are most productive and lead to higher customer satisfaction. While layoffs bring immediate cost savings but they lead to low morale among employees. Employees are strained to work more and share a greater work load which can lead to degradation of customer service ultimately leading to customers leaving for other competitors.
Experts have suggested to layoff during good as well as bad times. This makes the policy well accepted among employees; it looks fair from employees and well as from employer point of view. But companies never consider layoffs in good times. They need those employees during good times and when they are in trouble, they lay them off adding to difficulties of employees in finding suitable jobs in downturn.
Researchers have agreed on prompt, proactive communication of such important policies but barring few exceptions, companies seldom give warnings to those employees, make any statement in the company or outside to suggest such an action and when they do act, it turns out to be a bitter surprise for employees.
Employee morale definitely gets hit by dissonance in sayings and doings. People become angry and fearful. If companies claim themselves to be transparent and benchmarks setters, then they should assess and address these issues. This would clarify doubts among employees and would not give scope of gossip mongering.
"Loyalty doesn't mean taking care of an employee who does not produce value”. But well defined policies and procedures are very much required. Indian Companies have been blindly following American model of organizational restructuring. They can’t forget that each job loss in America is tracked and employees have unemployment insurance to fall back on. Also, since layoff is natural consequence of profit orientation, it is well accepted in American society not like here in India where there is no job loss tracker, no unemployment insurance and where layoffs are considered a social stigma.
Laid off Employees are given 3-6 months’ salary along with gratuity. Is it enough for those employees who have built liabilities over the years, who are paying home, car loans and sending kids to schools and colleges? This is where private companies have to learn from their government counterparts. PSU Employees happily parted away from their organizations unlike in private companies where they leave with tears in their eyes and deep agony in their hearts. It's not inherently disloyal to let employees go during tough times, but experts suggest doing so only after other avenues have been fully explored such as salary cut of those identified employees. Companies suffer in long term if they are not imaginative and simply go by rule book.
According to http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hmu/2009/03/dont-let-layoffs-ruin-customer.php , “The smartest companies today, even when they're in trouble, are moving employees around, having them share jobs, having them work reduced hours so the company can preserve jobs. Although the jobs may be different and may not add up to the same number of hours or amount of compensation employees enjoyed during the best of times, at least these people are still working. That creates trust between employees and management, and that's going to affect how these employees deal with customers.”
For those who must go, the best procedure is to "lay off people as if they were future customers”. When you let someone go, try to put together a safety net, do the best you can do, provide relocation support. Treat these people as potential future customers and potential future employees — as if they will one day is in a position to send business to your company."
I believe, the real test of an organization is in tough times and seemingly, many Indian companies are trailing by a big margin.

My MBA Admissions journey

XLRI, ya this is name that I talk, hear and write about these days. I am going to soon join XLRI’s General management Program (GMP), Executive Postgraduate Diploma In General Management. It is one the three flagship programs apart from other two - much famed PMIR and BM. It is a one year full time residential program catering to students who come with significant work experience ( Avg 7-8 years)
While I was applying to various B-schools, XLRI was always on top of my list because of following reasons:
· XLRI’s brand name. It is one of the top 5 http://www.careerlauncher.com/mba/about_mba/top_b_schools_in_India.html B schools in India. It is one of the oldest institutions offering Business education since 1949.
· GMP program is oldest 1 year program. I was nicely surprised with the fact that 1 year XLRI MBA program was started much before ISB’s which is highly recognized for creating and establishing the acceptability of 1 year program among Indian recruiters.
· Indisputably very strong profiles of 2008-2009 batch, http://xlri.ac.in/downloads/xlri_gmp_2009.pdf . The batch had people from diverse sectors – Auto, Shipping, PSU, Manufacturing, IT, Steel, Power, Energy etc.
· Mature Batch in terms of age.
· Marquee list of top notch faculty.
I was in US when I applied for the program. It was the simplest application that I had written - Paper application with a Short note on my current roles and responsibility. When you are writing unending lengthy applications, XLRI’s application comes as a welcome relief. One more visit to USPS, Eden prairie from where I sent the filled in application along with Bankers check for $50.

The journey to B-school is very interesting. You come across students, alumni and tons of data on internet. In order to understand the program better, I wanted to hear from current students. My conversations began with Manish Ballal, who was then studying in GMP. You need some overlap to begin a conversation. I noticed Manish and I shared same level of prior work experience and same employer, Infosys. Since then he has always been very helpful in answering my queries and clarifying doubts.
While in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, I had small group of friends. Prasad and Urvi were part of this group. They were from XLRI and so were natural attractions to me. See, Man is so selfish; he discovers all the overlaps similar to ants finding out their source of food. Those were the days when I was readying to fly back to India as my US assignment was coming to a logical end. Urvi introduced me to Rajesh and Niti Singh, both were XLRI alumni. In fact Rajesh belongs to first batch of GMP.

During this application process, I have been very fortunate of getting attention from people whom I didn’t know before. I had privilege of having long, insightful and interesting conversations. I set an appointment with Rajesh. I called him and soon discovered that he is at Airport heading for a vacation along with his family. I was surprised with the fact how deftly he was conversing with me and doing airport boarding procedures at the same time.
He said, “Anshuman, MBA is for starting a business. Creating Entrepreneurs is what B-Schools are for”. This was the most striking line that I remember till date which has caught my imagination since then. I hope I can work on some ideas and craft concrete business plans.
My wait for result had begun. I was hopeful of getting shortlisted for interview but you never know what is in store for you considering the high level of competition in India.

Jan 23 2009- I was very happy at receiving Interview shortlist and nervous too as the real task of preparing my strategy for interview began.
I flew back to Bhubaneswar with cherished memories of my two year of stay in Minnesota. I was staying in Infy guesthouse, disconnected from world. With no Gmail access for a week, I was going crazy.
Feb 05 2009 - I happened to check my emails and not so nice surprise was in store for me. “You are expected to answer 6 questions/essays. Answer to these questions can be provided by 15th February 2009, preferably by logging in only once.” What??? My not so smooth US to India transition was not yet over and I am expected to write 6 essays in 10 days... XLRI never stops surprising you. This also showed its commitment for innovating new things.
I got to know that record number of applications have poured in this time and essays will help adcom in better evaluating candidates.
I was tensed, frustrated of not getting enough time to concentrate, was looking for accommodation as my guest house stay was getting over and worrying about trivial and not so trivial things but I was determined to give best shot at essays and submit them on time. Essay topics were on long term goals, conflicts and crisis at workplace, creative solutions that didn’t work, risks taken, collaboration and diversity.
Essay topics were unique and interesting. I had to really apply lot of brain to come up with well crafted and logical essays. I submitted essays on time. Thereafter, I shifted my attention back to Interview preparation. Interviewing in an Indian B-School is very different from an American B-school. B-school Interviews in India are full of cross questioning, grilling, intimidation and putting candidate at unease unlike US B-School interviews where candidates are very much at ease and interviewers follow a set pattern.

I was fortunate to attend a seminar on MBA Interviews at IMS, Bhubaneswar by Mr. Srijat MishraChief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Kalingasoft. It was very helpful and insightful talk. Being alumnus from IIM-C, his words carried credence. I built the question tree strategy that he suggested and was confidently prepared for the D-Day.
4th Mar 2009 - I was in Jamshedpur; getting ready for the final strike. I had plenty of time as I my interview was scheduled at the end of day. I confirmed plans with Manish for a lunch meeting at XLRI campus. I reached XL campus and was looking for directions for GMP hostels. I saw three mid age guys coming. I asked them for directions and reached Hostels. It was already way past 12pm. I was hungry. Immediately I accompanied Manish to Dining hall which was buzzing with GMP students talking about classes and placements.
Soon I was surrounded by other students and to my surprise; I was sitting among ex infoscions - Sandeep Vadnere, Sairam Iyer and Niraj. They gave me some tips about interview and talked about happenings @ XL and Infosys.
Loaded with a feel of XL, I came back to hotel where I was staying, was feeling uneasy as time for interview was not very far. I dressed up in Business formals, came out of hotel and looked around for auto in hot and scorching heat.
Here comes an Auto, one other guy and I stopped the same auto. He asked, - going for XLRI interview??. I said yes. There I met Saikat who had just finished his interview and saw going to see nearby attractions in city.
We decided to take the same auto and he shared his interview experience with me. In no time I was in front of MDP residence e block, got down from auto and went towards the building where GMP interviews were going on. To my surprise, I was the last candidate on the last day of GMP Interviews.
My mind was going blank as I was finally ready for the last step towards admission.
Interview panel had 3 Profs and to my utter surprise they were same folks who directed me to GMP Hostel when I came to meet students in the afternoon.
Interview lasted for 30 mins without tinge of ennui on their faces, although they were interviewing since morning.
Since I could answer all the questions very well, was very confident with the interview performance.
Now wait for final results began…
Last week of March 2009, someone sends me an email that XLRI results are out. I clicked GMP results link and closed my eyes for a moment before a “Congratulations” message appeared. I checked results one more time to verify that that I am finally in.
That evening, I was ecstatic, laughing from within and felt satisfied with outcome of a long drawn admission process.