Management Next

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Management Next

Volume 8 | Issue 12 | April 2012
How Ingersoll Rand is turning top
B-School grads into entrepreneurs
Why
Marketing
will run IT
Special Issue
Interview with
Shouvik Bhattacharyya,
presented by
CEO and MD, Valtech
US, MEA, Asia-Pacific
Kumar Malavalli
Rama Bijapurkar
Prof. Tarun Khanna
Secrets of
a Serial
Entrepreneur
Get Customers
into the
Boardroom
Succeeding
Despite
Constraints in India
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Letter from the editor
Volume 8 - Issue 12 | April 2012
Mission: To enable engaging conversations
through fresh insights and perspectives
Editor
Benedict Paramanand
[email protected]
Captain Gopinath as CEO of Kingfisher?
Benedict Paramanand
Publisher
Romi Malhotra
Contributing Editor
Sharmila Chand, Delhi
Editor - Sustainability
Sangeeta Mansur
Assistant Editor
Suchitra R. Panthalu
Contributing Writer
Suhruda Kulkarni, Pune
Support
Sanjeev Kumar, Delhi
Illustrator
Neetu Singh
Editorial Advisors
Ramesh Ramanathan, Founder, Janaagraha
Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults
Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Faculty, IIM, Bengaluru
Rajeev Gowda, Faculty, IIM, Bangalore
Jessie Paul, MD, Paul Writer
Advisor
Ranganath Iyengar,
Partner, Strategic Interventions
Letters and Article Submission
[email protected]
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Information in this publication is drawn from a variety of sources,
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given to authenticity.
Printed, published and owned ManagamentNext Media
& Publications LLP and printed at Rukmini Prakashana &
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www.managementnext.com
© ManagamentNext Media & Publication LLP
Captain Gopinath’s article in The
Economic Times on 5th March 2012
will make the heads of banks which lent
money to Kingfisher Airlines consider
offering the CEO/MD post to Captain
Gopinath if they decide to convert the
entire debt to equity. The article is well
argued and offers practical solution
for the current mess his former friend
Dr. Vijay Mallya has got himself into.
He takes a dig at his arrogance and
bashful lifestyle while thousands of
employees’ jobs are at stake and
prods him to adopt humble ways. It’s
like asking a Formula 1 driver to behave
like a chauffer.
What Captain Gopinath will bring to the
airline if he takes up the job can make
for a wonderful speculative story. With
the zest he has written the article, he
might not say no if asked. Knowing
him, he will first make austerity the
number one goal. He may not do an
Indigo with absolutely no frills though.
Keeping Kingfisher’s differentiation,
he might come up with more creative
ways of pampering the customer. One
thing he will surely do, perhaps after a
semblance of stability comes in, say
after a year of operation, is to introduce
or hive off an Air Deccan type airline,
similar to the failed attempt by Dr.
Mallya with Kingfisher Red. This way,
he will compete both with the types
of Indigo and Spicejet as well as Jet
Airways. His biggest grouse against Dr.
Mallya to whom he sold Air Deccan in
2007, is giving away what he created
with a lot of toil, on a platter to other
low-cost carriers.
One of the key factors that will help the
call for reviving Kingfisher, like the US
did with General Motors, is the growing
capacity in the Indian aviation market.
He mentions that to replace Kingfisher’s
peak capacity, it will take 4 to 5 years
and in the meantime the current airlines
will have a ball. Just to avoid such a
situation, the government might be
forced to take Captain Gopinath’s
suggestions seriously.
One other reason why Captain
Gopinath could do a damn good job
as CEO of Kingfisher is his learning
from his dismal performance of running
his cargo airline Deccan 360. One
stupendous success as the pioneer of
the budget airline and not so successful
entrepreneur of a cargo airline is a
great mix of experience which is rare
in India. It’s another matter whether Dr.
Mallya would like Captain Gopinath to
succeed him. As things stand, he may
have little say in the outcome.
Knowing Dr. Mallya he may still bring
in the two elusive Indian investors he
has mentioned to bail him out. It has
taken this long perhaps because of the
control issues. Dr. Mallya is not known
to play second fiddle.
If I was the aviation minister, I would seize
this opportunity to merge Kingfisher
with Air India. This idea, as one hears it,
might sound outrageous, but consider
the outcome. It could become a global
player with the size and expertise both
brands already posses. The crucial
factor of course is that the entity should
be privatized – publicly owned – and
run by a professional management.
This is a golden opportunity for some
big thinking and quicker execution.
The Satyam experience shows that the
government is capable of pulling off a
stunner once again. Captain Gopinath
can be to Kingfisher what Kiran Karnik
was to Satyam.
Inside
12
20-27
Cover Story
ThoughtLeadership
Write your own
obituary
How Ingersoll Rand is turning IIM grads
into entrepreneurs
Tenzin Priyadarshi,
founding director of the
Dalai Lama Centre for
Ethics and Transformative
Values, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
(MIT), recently spoke at the
ISB on the importance of
training leaders and MBA
students in ethical thinking
and behavior
The experiment is in its second year and the company is expecting it
to become a game changer
From how much
to HOW
8-11
Trends
Why Nokia is India’s best youth brand
Parliamentary Research Service
How a band of young professionals are engaging MPs
Imminent people crisis in
PSU banks this year
Dr. Anil Khandelwal,
former CMD of Bank of Baroda
Dov Seidman says
winning companies and
organizations will soon be
those that successfully
measure how they made
profits and not only
how much
Leaders
harmonize
others’ vision
John Knights
Co-founder,
LeaderShape
special issue
14-19
Agile Management
Why marketing will run IT
in the future
Interview with Shouvik Bhattacharyya,
CEO and MD, Valtech, US, MEA, Asia-Pacific
The Agile Manifesto
Indian companies are still
‘toying’ with Agile
Fundamental
drivers of value
have shifted
In the Age of Sustainability
businesses have to
embrace a new paradigm
with new definitions
of success, value and
purpose, says Tony
Manwaring, Chief
Executive of Tomorrow’s
Company
28-33
EntrepreneurTalk
Kalpana Heblekar,
SafeRWe
Prof. Tarun Khanna
Prof. Bala Balachandran
Kumar Malavalli
Leading India’s
Transformation
of Executive
Education
How to be a
successful serial
entrepreneur
36
37
40
42
TechTalk
ExecutiveHealth
AuthorSpeak
Case Study – ID Special
Ranganath Iyengar
Dr. Juvita Rasquinha
Rama Bijapurkar
P.C. Mustafa’s
Information
Fabric
Simple tips for
healthy skin
during summer
Strategy is
outside in,
not inside out
Big bet with
wet ready-mix
business
44
46
Spirituality
CaseStudy - Sponsored Feature
Regulars
Sanitary napkin
cheaper than a
pack of bidis
Bookshelf
Offbeat
Conference
updates
How to
overcome
fear of failure
Sadhguru
Growing Furniture
Business
Polishes its Act
with Business
Intelligence from
Tally.ERP 9
Success secrets
of Indian
entrepreneurs
Trends
Why Nokia is most trusted and most popular
A
nalysts who were
eager to write off
Nokia as the hasbeen mega brand in their
reports last two years have
got a tight slap from two
independent survey findings
in recent weeks. The first
national survey by the Trust
Research Advisory in January
2012 named Nokia as India’s
most trusted brand followed
by Tata, LG, Samsung and
Sony. The second by Nielsen
in February 2012 for The
Economic Times names
Nokia as the most popular
youth brand in India.
The survey findings seem
to be have surprised a lot
of industry watchers and
perhaps the competitors.
ManagementNext called two
of India’s prominent brand
commentators to comment
on the survey. Here they are:
Harish Bijoor,
CEO Harish Bijoor Consults
The reason why Nokia does
Ranking
8
get repeatedly listed in the
top ten is simply because
of what I call the "ubiquity
effect". Please do note
that the largest numbers of
mobile handsets in use as
of now in India is quite likely
to be the Nokia handset in
the middle and upper-end
segment. Add to it the fact
that the mobile phone is a 24
X 7 device that people do not
switch off and even sleep.
Mobile phones live closer
to people than their own
wives and husbands do.
This ubiquity gives a halo
effect to the brand that is
used by most.
Many swear by their mobile
phones . Many can't stay
away from them. Many
touch them a lot more than
Brand Trust Advisory
they touch their spouses.
This proximity adds to the
halo effect of the hand
phone brand. And Nokia
is a benefactor, as of now.
Give it five years more for the
Samsung effect to set in.
Shombit Sengupta,
CEO,
Shining Emotional Surplus
Nielsen Youth Rank
1
Nokia
Nokia
2
Tata
Coca-Cola
3
LG
7 UP
4
Samsung
Thums Up
5
Sony
Miranda
6
Maruti Suzuki
Maaza
7
Bajaj
Vodaphone
8
LIC
Frooti
9
Airtel
5 Star
10
Reliance
Cadbury Dairy Milk
If you look at Nokia, its
visibility and user interface
are still very high in the
country. The brand
continues to lead with
39% market share in India
and 27% globally. Not
everybody wants to have a
sophisticated mobile phone.
At the mass scale, Nokia
is a very solid phone, there’s
even a Rs. 2500.00 Nokia
handset that supports
32 GB.
I’ve never used Nokia, but
for any income group or any
socio-behavioral character,
Nokia’s robustness is very
high, as also its user friendly
quality even though it may
not have flamboyancy.
I use Samsung, and
that’s outstanding, but
it doesn’t mean it’s best
for everybody. Nokia has
mass appeal because of
its simplicity, being able to
support more GB, and its
durability is terrific.
It appears Nokia’s Asha
phones, launched late last
year for the youth, has
indeed brought ‘Asha’
to Nokia’s fortunes. Not
to forget the immense
popularity of the music store
OVI to the high ranking of
Nokia. Nokia’s next big
challenge will be how it
catches up with others on
smart phones.
Source: Brand Trust Report & The Economic Times. All are 2011 figures
ManagementNext | April 2012
How PRS helps MPs make
better decisions
A
midst gloom about corruption
and scams, a few people are
quietly making a significant
difference to how India functions. The
Parliament Research Services (PRS) is
run as a voluntary service to members
of Parliament by a bunch of highly
successful executives whose aim is to
contribute positively. Before every session
of Parliament PRS (www.prsindia.org)
gets to know the Bills that would come
up for discussion. PRS does extensive
research on the issues related to the Bill,
gets feedback from all stakeholders and
offers it free to all MPs.
PRS Legislative Research is the
only organization in the country that
tracks the functioning of Parliament. It
provides a comprehensive and credible
By February, 2012 PRS
developed professional
relationships with over
250 MPs from over 20
different political parties
resource base to access Parliamentspecific data, background information
and analysis of key issues. It is quite a
task because 790 MPs pass about 60
Bills a year.
By February 2012, PRS developed
professional relationships with over
250 MPs from over 20 different political
parties. A study by the Indian Institute of
Management (Ahmedabad) found that
over half the MPs surveyed were aware
of the work of PRS, and about a quarter
used its research material regularly.
C.V. Madhukar, one of the founders is a
student of Prof. Tarun Khanna, faculty
at Harvard Business School. On the
significance of PRS, Prof. Khanna said:
“It’s an example of real entrepreneurship
of the sort that you see in India. That’s
what makes me very optimistic despite
the lack of roads.”
Madhukar, an investment banker
worked in senior positions at Pratham
and Azim Premji Foundation, the World
Bank. He was Edward S. Mason
Fellow at Harvard University and holds
an MPA from the Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard, an MBA
from University of Houston and a BE
from Bangalore University. Madhukar
is an Echoing Green, Ashoka, and
Eisenhower Fellow. He was elected
Young Global Leader by the World
Economic Forum in 2008.
The other members of the core team
include M.R. Madhavan who was a
senior strategist for the Asia region
for Bank of America in Singapore. He
started his career with ICICI Securities in
Mumbai. He is a Fellow (doctorate) from
IIM Calcutta, MBA from IIM Calcutta
and holds a B. Tech degree from IIT
Madras. He was recently selected as
a Chevening Gurukul Scholar at the
London School of Economics.
The others who left distinguished
careers in their fields to join PRS are
Aditi Patel, Anil Nair, Chakshu Roy,
Devika Malik, Harsimran Kalra, Karan
Malik, Kaushiki Sanyal, Mandira Kala,
Pallavi Bedi, Priya Thachadi Soman,
Rohit Kumar, Sachin Dhawan, Sakshi
Balani, Sana Gangwani.
9
Trends
Imminent people crisis
in PSU banks
Unless major steps are taken, the Indian public sector
banks are likely to have a big managerial crisis on their
hands in 2012, says Dr. Anil Khandelwal
O
verall, the people processes
in public sector banks
appear to be inadequate
to meet the demands of new-age
banking. In fact, HR has become a
new risk - possibly the biggest in
the system, considering the new
challenges and opportunities of newage banking.
In the competitive environment,
issues of efficiency, productivity and
profitability have become very crucial
for all banks, even though they are
all part of public sector banking
fraternity enjoying sovereign support
and backing. Our policy framework is
not adequately geared to recognize
In the next 5 years,
80% of GMs, 65%
of DGMs, 58% of
AGMs and 44%
of CMs (circle
managers) would
be retiring. The pool
of these experienced
executives cannot
be replaced only
through promotions
10
and retain the talented work force with
their expertise and skills acquired over
years of long experience. PSBs lost
some of this talent to private banks
mainly on account of compensation
differential.
If Indian banking is to go global and
graduate to world class standards in
the matter of customer service, range
of products, use of technology and
provision of total financial solutions
along with maintaining and improving
operational efficiency, productivity and
profitability, can the present legacy
driven people management system
deliver? How long can we avoid the
inevitable?
Leadership
Development
PSBs are likely to face top management
crisis from 2012 onwards. The
leadership gap in PSBs is so severe
that in the next five years, 80% of GMs,
65% of DGMs, 58% of AGMs and 44%
of CMs (circle managers) would be
retiring. The pool of these experienced
executives cannot be replaced only
through promotions. Mere promotion
on accelerated basis without grooming
and advance planning would not solve
the problem. Apart from this, there
will be huge gaps arising in the middle
management levels too. PSBs would
need to identify and groom potential
successors for the vacant positions.
Planning is needed with projections for
the next five years at least.
PSBs now require tech- savvy,
customer savvy, execution-driven and
bold decision makers with global mindset and who are strongly focused on
people.
As per McKinsey’s study, PSBs, as
a group, will need to groom about
10,000 leaders over the next
five years:
500–600 Business and functional
leadership General Managers
1,500–2,000 Geographic
business leadership Regional
Managers
6,000–7,000 Branch leadership
Branch Managers
The Committee is of the considered
view that leadership development
has to occupy a centre stage agenda
for both the Government and the
individual banks. The Government
has a clear responsibility to
spearhead reforms in the processes
and introduce rigor in the selection
methodology of full time directors.
A leaf or two can be taken from
the experiences of private banks
where leaders for the future are
systematically groomed and prepared
well in advance for taking up the role.
Bankers Leadership
Development Institute
For an industry which is growing at
a rapid pace and which aspires to
become world class, learning and
PSBs now require
tech-savvy, customer
savvy, executiondriven and bold
decision makers with
global mind-set and
who are strongly
focused on people
development can no more be a matter
of choice but a matter of sheer survival.
There is a lot of leadership potential
among the current bank employees
but it is stagnating. There is an urgent
need to identify, spot, assess, nurture
and develop leadership competency at
operational as well as strategic levels.
Such spotting, nurturing and developing
need full-time attention of a group of
people who will undertake a variety of
exercises and activities towards the
same. This could be very appropriately
done in an institutional framework.
There is thus a need to establish a
full- fledged institution as a green
field project to develop leaders, on
the lines of Leadership Academy for
Defense Services, Civil Service, etc. The
Committee has, therefore, proposed
setting up of BLDI to develop world
class leadership talent.
The role of the current day CEOs of
PSBs has become vastly different in
both nature and scope from that in
the earlier era. Further, many PSBs
are aspiring and preparing to become
global banks, in terms of size, quality
and best practices. All this will call for a
very high order of strategic vision, risktaking and most of all, a global mind-set
on their part, much beyond traditional
banking and management skills.
11
CoverStory
Ingersoll Rand hires entrepreneurs
not MBAs at top B-Schools
L to R:
Ganesh Pawar,
Vincent Jyrwa,
Krishna RB,
Sandeep K Gupta,
Debasish Das and
Hanuman Kamma
V
enkatesh Valluri led Ingersoll
Rand boasts of a few
innovations and perhaps the
most innovative among them is the
Entrepreneur Creation Program (ECP).
After experimenting with it for a year,
the company’s HR heads are hitting
premium B-School campuses again
this year. Unlike others, they will recruit
entrepreneurs, not managers. Here’s
how the program works and feedback
from the entrepreneur recruits. Excerpts
from interview on ManagementNext
with Paparao Kodali, VP & GM,
Engineering and Technology Centers,
Ingersoll Rand India.
How does the ECP work?
ECP has been created to foster a
culture of innovation and develop skill
sets required for entrepreneurship
among young management students
and to create a business for
themselves. New hires or Entrepreneur
Partners are trained and mentored
by Ingersoll Rand India leaders and
placed on a fast track learning path
through diverse rotations across
multiple businesses, markets and
functions within the company.
This year the company hired six
students from the Indian Institute of
12
Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and
Bangalore who will be able to create
their own businesses at the end of a
two-year training program in Ingersoll
Rand products and solutions.
The future of business will be based on a
“Hub and Spoke” model. Organizational
hubs will own the brand, technology and
products; and the spokes will be driven by
Entrepreneurs who will create markets by
adopting an open innovation strategy (on
or using the platform) with organizational
support. Ingersoll Rand’s entrepreneurship
program has been conceptualized to
encourage and support ethical business
creation practices.
What do you look for in candidates
while hiring them for the program?
We are looking for young passionate
entrepreneurs who are ready to
innovate and take risks. Essentially,
candidates that demonstrate an
ability to discern opportunities to
create value in bottom of pyramid
markets in tier 2 and 3 cities would
fit the program. Candidates selected
to the ECP are expected to be agile,
innovative and enterprising with a
keen sense of identifying prospective
business opportunities that will add
value to the society, the economy and
the organization and to the individual.
How old is the program and what has
been its outcome so far.
The program is in its second year
and we are currently in the process
of hiring Entrepreneur Partners from
leading management institutes around
the country. With the success of
the program in its first year, we are
substantially increasing the intake of
Entrepreneur Partners this year.
Ingersoll Rand’s Entrepreneur Partners
who came on board last year are
now on a fast track learning path
through diverse rotations across
multiple businesses, markets and
functions within the company.
Once the entrepreneurs complete
their understanding of the various
businesses and industries the
company operates in, they will
start planning their ventures. These
ventures can be through providing
sales, solutions and distributorship for
Ingersoll Rand products and services
in tier 2 or tier 3 cities. At every stage,
the organization is assisting them
through training, access to technology
and other support services.
company. I am excited about the
opportunity that has been given to
me and at the same time enjoy the
company’s open culture. Ingersoll
Rand has given me a unique
opportunity which entrepreneurs of
my age can only dream of and I see
a bright future for myself and my
colleagues in this company.
Sandeep Gupta,
Entrepreneur Partner
What made you chose ECP
instead of a big salary job which
typically IIM grads get?
I wanted to start something of my
own and wanted a greater sense
of ownership in what I do. Once
that decision was made, a regular
job was out of question. But, as
is the case with people my age,
I did not have a clear idea on
how to get there. Additionally, my
knowledge about business was
quite limited. I was in the stage
of exploring opportunities when
Ingersoll Rand visited our campus.
With the understanding I gained on
the ECP and the vision behind this
program, I decided to set forth on
this journey.
What has been the learning
so far?
Since the program began, all the
EPs have been traveling throughout
the country, visiting Ingersoll
Rand manufacturing facilities and
engineering centers in order to learn
about the business and various
functions. The organization has
been very supportive in terms of
access to senior leadership who
mentor and collaborate with us.
This has instilled in me a sense of
belonging and loyalty towards the
I got a chance to work on several
projects that focused on marketing,
sales and distribution and the
product roadmap of the company’s
business verticals. These projects
helped me gain great insights about
businesses and the decision making
process.
Given Ingersoll Rand’s focus on
environment conservation and
sustainability, I had the privilege
to work on a project to measure
carbon emissions of industrial
products. The project has helped
bring awareness of the challenges
involved in the measurement of
Green House Gas (GHG) emission
during the life cycle of a product.
Learnings from this project will
be utilized by the organization
to reduce its carbon footprint
in manufacturing and other key
processes, as well as help me
make my business venture more
sustainable and environment
friendly.
Currently, I am in the planning
phase of my entrepreneurial venture
which will be associated with one
of Ingersoll Rand’s businesses.
The company will support me by
providing technology expertise as
well as give me a chance to work
and collaborate with the best talent
available at Ingersoll Rand globally.
Working with established Ingersoll
Rand global teams will help me tap
the right knowledge and standards
for my new venture. I look forward
to taking the Ingersoll Rand
advantage to newer markets and
with the avenues that the company
is providing me I am confident of
building a profitable and sustained
business.
Do the six of you collaborate or is
it an individual journey?
Though essentially it is an
individualistic journey because at
the end of the program we will
become entrepreneurs in our own
regions of choice, yet the program
is largely collaborative since the
learning process, projects and
systems are mostly common.
This collaborative phase is most
memorable as the EPs get together
to brainstorm innovative business
ideas constantly. This will be
followed by another exciting phase
when we will partner with the
organization more in the individual
capacity to develop our business
models.
What does it take for a company
to launch such an initiative?
The ECP at Ingersoll Rand is
an innovative one-of-a-kind
program in the country to develop
entrepreneurial spirit. In an
organization, it takes a strong
leadership - leadership that has the
capability to take innovative and
bold decisions, to launch such an
initiative. The leadership should also
have the capability to think through
the process and as well motivate
other employees to support such
a program. For the success of
such a program it is imperative that
there is a buy-in at all levels within a
company. Also, it makes immense
business sense for companies to
launch such initiatives because
at the end, this will bring about a
sense of entrepreneurship within the
company and help the organization
and its employees grow.
13
AgileManagement Special
Presented by
Shouvik Bhattacharyya,
CEO and MD, Valtech,
US, MEA, Asia-Pacific
Why Marketing will run
IT in the future
14
The word Agile is synonymous with the information technology folks who
are either in development of software products or the delivery function of
solutions. Not any more. The IT folk will soon have to make way for the
spooky marketing tribe that seems to know more about what customers
want and how to make customers buy faster. In an engaging conversation
with Benedict Paramanand, Shouvik Bhattacharyya, CEO and MD,
Valtech, US, MEA, Asia-Pacific, delved deep into the changing trends in
Agile and the many challenges it is facing, especially in India. Excerpts:
I
hear that aligning Agile IT and Agile
Marketing is the new mantra?
Yes, it’s a radical shift. I will tell
you why I feel that. A CEO of a very
large American company had given
business, a very large Agile project,
to a competitor. This was more than
a year ago. One day, I decided to
meet this CEO and asked him how
it was going. In the course of the
conversation I said that I heard that
your project has gone very well, and
he said, yes. He said, IT is extremely
happy, and then he told me, why
he took the meeting with me. Even
though nothing has changed, his
products were not going faster to the
market. So, he said, since Valtech
has a lot of expertise, tell us where
we went wrong? Through further
conversation I realized that the
problem was about his company not
aligning marketing with IT.
Heard you have the trademark on the
term Agile Marketing…
Yes. This year our major effort will
be to develop relationship with the
chief marketing officers (CMOs).
Some organizations like GE have
already placed marketing in charge of
technology. There is a best practice
that’s already there so that all other
industries can follow. That’s going
to be an interesting challenge for us
because we are actually creating a
market which doesn’t exist today. A
lot of investment has to be made in
education that’s why we have decided
to invest and become the industry
leader in that.
Tell me more on aligning challenges
that you expect when you align Agile
IT and Agile marketing?
We will start with the funding
aspect because there is a cost in
the transformation. The first thing
is, is marketing going to make that
investment or will IT do it, because at
the end of the day it finally boils down
to money. We have a very simple
approach to this problem, which is, if
your product is going to go out faster
to market, it’s the easiest way to justify
it, it may not happen the first time you
use this framework but it may happen
the second or the third time.
The second challenge is the process
alignment. We can say that every
morning we are going to have a scrum
session, but actually doing it and
having everybody’s full involvement,
engagement is not always the case.
Here is what happens, it goes actually
two ways. IT has obviously many
priorities, if marketing starts driving it,
it’s a different kind of a problem, if IT
starts driving it, very often, the product
goes to market but it may have a lot of
functionality issues.
The third challenge that I see is there
isn’t enough talent that can facilitate.
There isn’t enough of ecosystem.
How do you create it and who’s going
to invest in the ecosystem? We are
actually taking a lot of our coaches
and bringing them to India or taking
our Indian coaches and moving
them over there. And related to that
the challenge is that the more these
people become specialized they
become independent consultants.
Today I am having a leadership
workshop with about 9 of my global
customers in Bangalore and I was
trying to tap into the independent
consultants and I didn’t get good
talent. So I have virtually flown in four
of my biggest gurus from US and
Europe for this. It’s a big investment
but you have to do it. Otherwise, to
influence in a leadership workshop, if
15
“
And another thing that we are also
going to adopt and struggle with
a little bit is the premise that early
decisions are not necessarily the best
decisions.
The challenge
here is that
tremendous
investment has
to be made on
the employees
because they
have to be always
one step ahead
”
you have CIO, CMOs coming for that,
they want to see top quality talent and
we don’t have it in the market today.
The true talent in this is the people
who have been in business and IT and
that’s pretty rare. The ideal person
for this could be a marketing person
who spent 10 years in marketing
and then 10 years in IT and lived in
the intersection. They become Agile
coaches or scrum masters. Also, as
a guru, you have to earn the respect
from both sides.
Agile from the management
perspective, how is going to be
transformed?
We at Valtech have recently started
the journey with the premise that
companies who adopt Agile can
transform themselves very quickly. Our
emphasis on our regular meetings is
customer driven value versus earlier
meetings which were operational.
The bottom line benefit of this is
effective decision making and its quick
decision-making. In our framework we
also test our own selves and test our
decision making ability.
16
At the end of the day, successful Agile
adoption is if you believe you are at war.
In a war environment, things change all
the time and if you make a mistake you
are dead, there’s no second chance.
So the marriage between design and
technology is essentially a marketing
design. How quickly management can
take the decision is related to where
you can use Agile effectively. Lack
of management decision-making is
actually hurting companies and selfcentered decision-making even more.
Why is Valtech in the process of
re-branding?
Valtech is primarily a 1,600
people digital marketing and
technology agency with presence
in eight countries including the US,
Europe, India and Korea. Its other
competencies include customer
experience management, enterprise
technology and Agile transformation.
Agile is an approach to transform
business and IT and the reason
why Valtech is associated with it
is because three out of the ten
people who originally wrote the Agile
Manifesto actually came from Valtech.
The gurus were all there and most
of them are back now at Valtech.
They have written many books on the
subject and command an enormous
respect in the industry. That’s why we
are in the process of refocusing and
re-branding ourselves with Agile.
Most of Agile leaders have a very
strong connection with India and have
stayed in here for long periods of
time and have seen the IT industries
evolve. For us, as a global company,
that helps a lot because if you have
the key leaders who are very cross
border centric and worked in different
cultures, then you can actually help
global companies transform (better).
We have a very strong presence
in fashion brands, largely French
brands; we do everything for them
for their marketing initiatives. So
that’s one line of business that
extends into retail. The second is
enterprise services. Now, in order
to enable all the marketing and the
sales initiatives in the enterprise
platforms - the digital platforms that
are created for customer base, even
with large scale applications like
SAP, we have a strong expertise. We
just got awarded SAP’s Partner of
the Year in America.
The third one is actually the customer
experience because what’s happening
with mobile device today is that there
is a physical customer experience
when you go into a Louis Vuitton
store and then there is the digital
experience. Matching both the
physical and digital becomes very
important. In general, everybody
accessing a mobile device has a very
short attention span - there’s so many
different choices they can make. So
unless the user experience and the
customer experience are very strong
which will lead to buying behavior,
you are going to lose attention.
That’s another focus area for us. The
restaurant business is becoming very
interesting too.
Repeat customers for new projects
Repeat business from the same set
of customers for new and emerging
projects is very different and requires
a different set of a sales force and a
different kind of trust and relationship
with the client. The challenge here is
that tremendous investment has to be
made on the employees because they
have to be always one step ahead. The
sales and training cost is very high and
there’s also a lot of shared risk because
to the customers we are proposing a
new technology and approach. We are
also putting our reputation at stake. In a
lot of cases, what we offer may not be
really proven technology but if our end
client wants to be ahead of the game
they take the risk.
The Agile Manifesto
Here’s an interesting history about the Agile movement for non-IT readers since
Agile is relevant to business as a whole
O
n February 11-13, 2001, at The
Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in
the Wasatch mountains of Utah,
seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax,
and try to find common ground and of
course, to eat. What emerged was the
Agile Software Development Manifesto.
Representatives from Extreme
Programming, SCRUM, DSDM,
Adaptive Software Development,
Crystal, Feature-Driven Development,
Pragmatic Programming, and others
sympathetic to the need for an
alternative to documentation driven,
heavyweight software development
processes convened.
Now, a bigger gathering of
organizational anarchists would be
hard to find, so what emerged from
this meeting was symbolic Manifesto
for Agile Software Development signed
by all participants. The only concern
with the term agile came from Martin
Fowler (a Brit) who allowed that
most Americans didn’t know how to
pronounce the word ‘agile’.
Naming ourselves "The Agile Alliance,"
this group of independent thinkers
about software development, and
sometimes competitors to each other,
agreed on the Manifesto for Agile
Software Development.
But while the Manifesto provides some
specific ideas, there is a deeper theme
that drives many, but not all, to be sure,
members of the alliance. At the close
of the two-day meeting, Bob Martin
joked that he was about to make a
"mushy" statement. But while tinged
with humor, few disagreed with Bob’s
sentiments that we all felt privileged to
work with a group of people who held a
set of compatible values, a set of values
based on trust and respect for each
other and promoting organizational
models based on people, collaboration,
and building the types of organizational
communities in which we would want
to work.
The mushy stuff
“
At the core, I believe Agile
Methodologists are really about "mushy"
stuff, about delivering good products
to customers by operating in an
environment that does more than talk
about "people as our most important
asset" but actually "acts" as if people
were the most important, and lose the
word "asset". So in the final analysis,
the meteoric rise of interest in and
sometimes tremendous criticism of
Agile Methodologies is about the mushy
stuff of values and culture.
For example, I think that ultimately,
Extreme Programming has
mushroomed in use and interest,
not because of pair-programming or
re-factoring, but because, taken as a
whole, the practices define a developer
community freed from the baggage
At the core, I
believe Agile
Methodologists
are really about
“mushy” stuff,
about delivering
good products
to customers by
operating in an
environment
that does more
than talk about
“people as our
most important
asset” but actually
“acts” as if people
were the most
important, and lose
the word “asset”
of Dilbertesque corporations. Kent
Beck tells the story of an early job in
which he estimated a programming
effort of six weeks for two people.
After his manager reassigned the other
programmer at the beginning of the
project, he completed the project in
twelve weeks, and felt terrible about
himself! The boss, of course, harangued
Kent about how slow he was
throughout the second six weeks. Kent,
somewhat despondent because he
was such a "failure" as a programmer,
finally realized that his original estimate
of 6 weeks was extremely accurate for
2 people and that his "failure" was really
the manager’s failure, indeed, the failure
of the standard "fixed" process mindset
that so frequently plagues our industry.
“
In order to
succeed in the
new economy,
to move
aggressively
into the era
of e-business,
e-commerce,
and the web,
companies have
to rid themselves
of their Dilbert
manifestations of
make-work and
arcane policies
18
This type of situation goes on every day
in marketing, management, external
customers, internal customers, and
yes, even developers don’t want
to make hard trade-off decisions.
They impose irrational demands
through the imposition of corporate
power structures. This isn’t merely a
software development problem, it runs
throughout Dilbertesque organizations.
In order to succeed in the new
economy, to move aggressively into
the era of e-business, e-commerce,
and the web, companies have
to rid themselves of their Dilbert
manifestations of make-work and
arcane policies. This freedom from
the inanities of corporate life attracts
proponents of Agile Methodologies,
and scares the begeebers (you can’t
use the word ‘shit’ in a professional
paper) out of traditionalists. Quite
frankly, the Agile approaches scare
corporate bureaucrats, at least those
that are happy pushing process for
process sake versus trying to do the
best for the "customer" and deliver
something timely and tangible and "as
promised" because they run out of
places to hide.
Not
anti-methodology
The Agile movement is not antimethodology; in fact, many of us
want to restore credibility to the word
methodology. We want to restore a
balance. We embrace modeling, but
not in order to file some diagram in a
dusty corporate repository. We embrace
documentation, but not hundreds of
pages of never-maintained and rarelyused tomes. We plan, but recognize
the limits of planning in a turbulent
environment. Those who would brand
proponents of XP or SCRUM or any
of the other Agile Methodologies as
"hackers" are ignorant of both the
methodologies and the original definition
of the term hacker.
The meeting at Snowbird was incubated
at an earlier get together of Extreme
Programming proponents, and a few
"outsiders," organized by Kent Beck
at the Rogue River Lodge in Oregon in
the spring of 2000. At the Rogue River
meeting attendees voiced support for
a variety of "Light" Methodologies, but
nothing formal occurred. During 2000
a number of articles were written that
referenced the category of "Light" or
"Lightweight" processes. A number
of these articles referred to as "Light
Methodologies, such as Extreme
Programming, Adaptive Software
Development, Crystal, and SCRUM".
In conversations, no one really liked the
moniker "Light", but it seemed to stick
for the time being.
We hope that our work together as
the Agile Alliance helps others in our
profession to think about software
development, methodologies, and
organizations, in new, more agile ways.
If so, we’ve accomplished our goals.
Source - Jim Highsmith
for the Agile Alliance
Indian companies are
still ‘toying’ with Agile
Naresh Jain, founder of Agile Software Community of India
W
“
Going by the
response to the
Agile India 2012
conference held
in Bangalore in
February, where
more than 724
professionals and
140 odd speakers
turned up with
most of the
delegates paying
from their pockets,
it appears India
will catch up with
Agile soon
hile the IT world celebrated
the 10th anniversary of the
Agile Manifesto last year with
deep discussions about its maturity
and debates about which part of
the manifesto is working and which
needs to be tweaked, most Indian IT
companies were just a shade more than
spectators to the event. Like in most
other areas Indians are slow to adopt
globally tried and tested systems and
practices and one hopes we will do the
catch-up act pretty fast.
Naresh Jain, founder of Agile Software
Community of India told InfoQ recently:
“Today, I see 95 percent of software
companies in India toying with Agile. It’s
trendy these days to say we do Agile.
When I see companies going for Agile,
in some cases it’s due to desperation, in
some cases due to customer or onsite
pressure and in some, just a marketing
gimmick”.
“However I've been fortunate to have
worked with a few companies who
truly believe in the spirit of Agile. They
understand it’s not about "doing" Agile,
it’s about "being" agile. A very Zen thing
to say!
Naresh Jain, awarded the Gordon Pask
Award for contributions to the Agile
Community, further said that many
companies are gradually testing the
'Agile' waters and are beginning to
swim. A majority of the organizations
in India both large IT companies and
small boutique companies or mammoth
offshore R&D centers, they've all surely
been influenced by Agile methods.
The hurdles for adoption of Agile in India
could be the following: The outsourcing
nature of work, lack of understanding of
these methods, a hierarchical society.
In India the journey seems to have just
begun.
What does it take to succeed in Agile?
He told another interviewer that is takes
“bloody long time for people to invest time
in user groups and to value free peer-topeer community based learning.”
Agile in product
development
It appears Agile is working the best with
product development start-ups as they
have no need to unlearn. Answering a
question ‘Is the process creating growth
opportunities for my people’ at the
recent Agile conference in Bangalore,
Jain said: “I would like the process to
encourage growth in terms of them
becoming Generalizing Specialists
and not being corned into silos. And I
want my people to improve their overall
understanding and involvement in the
overall product development process
rather than just knowing or caring about
their little piece.
19
ThoughtLeadership Series
Write your own
obituary
Tenzin Priyadarshi,
founding
director of the
Dalai Lama Centre
for Ethics and
Transformative Values
at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
(MIT), recently spoke
at the Indian School of
Business (ISB) on the
importance of training
leaders and MBA
students in ethical
thinking and behavior.
Excerpts:
20
I
give my students an exercise to write
their own obituary. The second part
of the exercise is to right your own
epitaph. You have to write about the
things that you stood for in life, which
is important to you. You have finite time
in this world and once you realize that
you will constantly work to improve. Be
aware that all things come to an end
so enrich your life. It forces you to think
deeply about the things that matter. At
the end of the day ask yourself who
am I, what is it that I stand for, what are
my values. As a leader you need to ask
that question on a daily basis, it should
become a discipline.
To be a transformative leader you have
yourself whatever it is that I am doing
am I happy with it? Do I find a sense of
meaning, sense of purpose?
Happiness is your right but you won’t
get it unless and until you know what
you want. Ask yourself what is it that
will make me happy and content? Good
leadership is not always a peaceful
attitude, you still have to struggle, make
difficult decisions, make difficult choices
but you still have to live with it.
Another aspect of transformative
leadership has to do with managing
emotions. We live compartmentalized
lives, so we work and make decisions
in our work place and then we go
home and feel now I can be an ethical
father or mother. That’s how we
compartmentalize our lives, so we feel
that we can simply switch between our
different roles. The human brain does
function that way.
So emotional management is a very
important skill. We don’t pay enough
attention to it because we think we can
overcome it but we need to be trained
in this as well. Train yourself to balance
your life, train to be vigilant about
afflicted and negative emotions because
what it does is it makes the whole
society toxic. You cannot sustain your
life that way. Good leadership is looking
at your emotional wellbeing as well.
• Happiness is your
right but you won’t get
it unless and until you
know what you want
to transform yourself first. I can grow
in any direction but I need to grow in
the direction that I see is important and
valuable. And the more you follow that
sense of direction; you will get a sense
of clarity and confidence. This sense of
transformation has a very contagious
effect. People around you also begin
to see that change. Constantly ask
• Emotional
management is a very
important skill
• I believe that people
are good but they are
not very well trained
ethically
Compliance vs. Ethics
Compliance is generally taught in a way
that this is how things ought to be, this
is how you get around it. This is legal. If
you read it right, this is how you break
down the legal framework and that’s
precisely what happened with most
financial companies in 2008-9 and it
continues to go on.
Ethics on the other hand has to do with
other kinds of training mechanisms; it
has to do with individuals. It doesn’t
have to do with the idea that you do
wrong and you don’t get caught and
that’s what makes you small. It simply
had to do with the idea that as a leader
there are certain basic set of lines that
you should stand for, that you should
represent and under no circumstances
should you compromise those lines.
These are the values that make you
stand up as an individual in society, in
companies and perhaps these are the
values that ought to be reflected in the
management of your company.
I believe that people are good but they
are not very well trained ethically. And
this is the emphasis I want to make in
terms of this transformative leadership
or value-based leadership. What is it
that you represent, what is it you stand
for, as individuals or as companies
or management groups that you can
say that these are the values that I am
willing to defend, these are the values
that I am going to state while going
into a negotiation room, that I can say
no matter what goes on these are the
things that I will not compromise.
And again just like anything we are
creatures of habit, so just like anything,
ethics is not something that should be
left to chance. Meaning there are very
few avenues in society where people
are introduced to ethics. Family system
is one of them, but it’s a gamble to
simply rely on parents to teach about
ethics. Then there are the religious
institutions which are quite dangerous.
21
From How much
to HOW
Winning companies and organizations will
soon be those that successfully measure
how they made profits and not only how
much. Dov Seidman, the author of
“HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means
Everything” and CEO of LRN, a company
that helps businesses develop valuesbased corporate cultures, in conversation
with ManagementNext
W
hat stage are a majority of
companies in understanding
this transformative question?
In business, the old adage is that we
manage what we measure. Yet what
we measure is a window into what we
value and into our values. Companies
have been extraordinarily successful
at measuring “how much”, as in “how
much” revenue, profit, market share
and debt and how many page views
their website generates and how many
followers they attract via social media.
But while these measures remain
necessary, in today’s interconnected
and interdependent world, they are
no longer sufficient and competitive
advantage has shifted to how we do
what we do. Of course, how we do,
what we do has always mattered.
But today how we behave, lead, build
trust in our relationships and relate to
others matters more than ever and in
ways it never has before. The winning
companies and organizations will be
those that successfully measure how,
scale how and innovate in how.
22
What are the major hurdles that
evangelists of this paradigm face in
communicating the HOW of business?
The first major hurdle I would classify as
a thinking problem: we need to rethink,
not just seek to reset or reform, how
we look at the world, how we behave
and how our organizations conduct
business. The second major hurdle is
one of measurement and scale. Our
leaders not only need to be guided
by the right ideas and the right values
but they need to know how to scale
Self-governing
companies deliver
five times the level
of innovation, three
times more employee
loyalty and nine
times higher levels of
customer satisfaction
those ideas and values and measure
their progress on this journey in order
to achieve resilience and sustainable
growth in today’s challenging and
uncertain world.
There aren’t many examples to go
by to convince even the people
who are willing to listen. Then, isn’t
communication the biggest challenge?
The HOW Report, an independent
study of over 5,000 employees working
for US and global organizations that
was recently published by LRN, the
company I lead, demonstrated that
HOW can be measured to deliver
competitive advantage. The HOW
Report highlighted that self-governance
is rare among today’s businesses. Only
3% of respondents reported that they
work for organizations whose purpose
and values inform decision-making
and guide all employee and company
behavior. The HOW Report also found
that CEOs were six times more likely
than average workers to believe they
work in a company where people are
inspired. Furthermore, employees said
they were primarily coerced (84%) or
motivated (12%) by carrots and sticks
on the job rather than inspired by values
and a commitment to a mission and
purpose (4%).
Can you demonstrate that in the
foreseeable future companies can
make profits by adopting HOW?
The HOW Report demonstrated that it
is profitable to be principled. Companies
that exhibit self-governing behavior
experience significantly fewer risks
associated with employee misconduct.
Self-governing companies deliver five
times the level of innovation, three
times more employee loyalty and
nine times higher levels of customer
The HOW
Report Summary
The HOW Report, an
independent study of over 5,000
employees working for US and
global organizations that was
recently published by LRN, the
company I lead, demonstrated
that HOW can be measured to
deliver competitive advantage.
The HOW Report highlighted
that self-governance is rare
among today’s businesses.
Only 3% of respondents
reported that they work for
organizations whose purpose
and values inform decisionmaking and guide all employee
and company behavior. The
HOW Report also found that
CEOs were six times more
likely than average workers to
believe they work in a company
where people are inspired.
Furthermore, employees said
they were primarily coerced
(84%) or motivated (12%) by
carrots and sticks on the job
rather than inspired by values
and a commitment to a mission
and purpose (4%).
Human qualities like
creativity, helpfulness,
and hope cannot be
commanded, they can
only be inspired
in people
satisfaction than businesses that do not
have a culture characterized by selfgovernance. The four primary outcomes
of a self-governing organization - less
employee misconduct and greater
innovation, employee loyalty and
customer satisfaction - come together
to synergistically deliver superior
financial performance.
At the end of the day it a leadership
question. Not just the business owner,
but to change to HOW from How
much, he has to radically transform
the entire leadership. Is there enough
coaching and training bandwidth
available today?
Our leadership models must evolve
to meet our twenty-first century
realities. To thrive, our companies need
to burst with daily demonstrations
of inspiration by every employee,
regardless of his or her position. You
can’t order somebody to have a great
idea, for instance. Human qualities
like creativity, helpfulness, and hope
can’t be commanded, they can only be
inspired in people. The old system of
‘command and control’- using carrots
and sticks - to exert power over people
is fast being replaced by ‘connect
and collaborate’- to generate power
through people. Leadership needs to
shift from the coercive or motivational
styles that rely on incentives to extract
performance and allegiance out of
people to inspirational leadership that
inspires commitment, innovation and
hope in people.
Isn’t there a big lack of credibility
among most of the agencies that are
espousing this transformation?
It’s one thing to proclaim your
humanity and another thing to live
it. It’s one thing to confine it to your
marketing department and quite
another to successfully inspire
inspirational behaviours that map to
the world that we now inhabit. The
winning organizations will be those
that deeply understand the need to
place their humanity at the center of
how they operate, lead and govern,
not only at the center of a marketing
campaign.
What is your roadmap to achieve this
transformation – 20 or 30 or 50 years
from now?
There is no strictly defined time
period within which to achieve this
transformation. The companies and
leaders who pioneer and forge ahead
on a genuine journey of governance,
culture and leadership are the ones
who will be around in the 22nd-century.
Culture as a conscious, deliberate,
long-term strategy can be the key to
differentiation, success and significance
for companies in today’s world.
Therefore, the role of a company’s
purpose and core values in helping
define its unique corporate culture
and the journey that it undertakes
on a sustainable path of progress
matters more than any roadmap
predicting future dates for when this
transformation will occur.
What’s the special role played by
spiritual leaders in this journey? At
a time when the world is turning to
spirituality, perhaps it has a good
chance?
Spiritual leaders have a critical role to
play in helping forge an enduring path
and build endeavors of enduring value
in an ethically interdependent world.
The HOW philosophy is not limited
to the realm of spirituality. HOW is an
inspirational approach to leadership
rooted in sustainable values that literally
sustain relationships over the longterm. Sustainable values are those that
connect us deeply as humans. They
include integrity, honesty, humility, and
hope. Sustainable values are therefore
all about how, not how much.
23
Leaders
harmonize
others’ vision
John Knights is a recognized expert in Emotional
Intelligence and a thought leader in Spiritual /
Transpersonal Leadership and the relationship between
neuroscience and leadership. Sangeeta Mansur,
in conversation with John Knights who co-founded
LeaderShape, an organization that helps leaders
develop leadership excellence
M
anagement theory and
education have produced
excellent managers but not
very effective leaders. What’s been
the one big blind spot of management
education in this regard, in your view?
Understanding people. Processes,
structures, systems, skills and
knowledge are all there but the
people connect is the blind spot.
My work over 30 years has always
shown this to be true that the most
important issues are always around
people - not connecting, not relating
with them, while other things like
systems and processes are thought
out very well. Dealing with people
needs understanding them, and that
needs understanding ourselves first.
24
It was Goleman’s work on Emotional
Intelligence that inspired me to
develop my approach to leadership
development.
What do you draw from neuroscience
into leadership development?
Even after thousands of years, sadly,
our brains are the same as in the
Stone Age. By default, we do the
same things: in times of crisis, stress
or fear, we feel the same adrenaline
gush, and fight or flee for survival.
Even when we go beyond these
emotional hijacking patterns, when
faced with a stressful situation, we
resort to the stone-age styles, and our
leadership styles remain ‘knowing it all
and telling’ people what to do.
But brains perform best not when told
what to do but when we are provided
with an environment where we can learn
things. When information is thrown at
the brain, it takes too much energy for
A visionary leader
is not necessarily
a leader with a
vision. As a leader,
you collect visions
of people and
harmonize them and
inspire and lead
of fear but it’s possible to get this
message and work on it. This is the
first enlightenment that happens
where the jump beyond the ego
happens. You can provide an
environment where most people can
get it but you can’t predict it. This is
a plane where you move from your
earlier ‘survival’ mode into a realm of
an increased, inclusive awareness.
For a leader, developing your ‘whole
self’ is critical to be role model. It may
be difficult but it needs to be done.
Many senior leaders think they don’t
need to learn anything and have given
up learning and that’s really sad.
the brain to take it all, so it switches off,
whereas if you provide an environment,
adrenaline flows in a much different way,
allowing the neural cells to work longer
and more effectively. Coaching is a
powerful style of ensuring this - always
asking questions, never providing
answers.
Your work on leadership touches
upon spirituality. Corporate life often
places profession and spirituality in two
different compartments. By bringing
spirituality into leadership development,
are you trying to blur the line, break the
wall?
A bit of both. Let me first clarify that the
Western world likes to keep ‘spirituality’
a very personal, private subject. I try to
ground it in order to make it useful to
leaders. I call it ‘transpersonal’- in the
sense of ‘going beyond the ego’.
Our research supports the view that a
key thing for a leader is to go beyond
the ego and embrace things beyond
oneself.
Authenticity of the real self is important
too. You are unauthentic when you
leave your real self behind and go to
work and try to lead. A lot of stress
in business is when people are not
authentic. Willing to be yourself when
the work environment around is toxic
Even after thousands
of years, sadly, our
brains are the same
as in the Stone Age
is difficult no doubt but then that’s also
the challenge about spirituality, which is
about choices.
If management is about decision
making leadership is about choices.
How does this transition happen?
Yes, choice-making is decision making
with judgment, and there’s a journey
involved here, but the shift can’t be
predicted. For me, personally, when
I had to coach, having to understand
a person better and deeper was one
of the things that did it. Not having
done that before and not having
communicated what I’ve understood, I
now moved to another plane. We can’t
predict how and when the transition
happens in this journey.
Visionary leader is also not necessarily
a leader with a vision. As a leader, you
collect visions of people and harmonize
them and inspire and lead.
And that challenges all our assumptions
about leadership…
Absolutely. Some resist this because
Your approach and methods are
unconventional in that they talk about
significance of silence, questioning
with not providing answers, going
beyond the ego, developing a ‘whole
self’ and the like. Do you face the
challenge of validating your methods,
of proving ‘return on investment’ to
your clients?
We take responsibility for enabling an
environment to learn but can’t predict
what the person/group learns. But we
can measure the impact in some way for example, we’ve seen that in a high
attrition scenario, going through the
programs brings in an improvement in
the situation – since people leave mainly
because they’re not learning or they
don’t like the boss. With the program
intervention, bosses start coaching and
people start learning and both reasons
are taken care of.
Rather than looking at pure ROI, we
can identify KPIs, set them first and
then go through the program. Employee
turnover can be one such KPI.
What are your plans for India?
India is emerging in an interesting and
encouraging way, and we’ve had talks
here with business leaders who are
keen on working on our leadership
development programs. LeaderShape is
planning piloting a few projects in India
now before we set up a permanent
base here.
25
Fundamental drivers
of value have shifted
In the Age of Sustainability businesses have to embrace
a new paradigm with new definitions of success,
value and purpose
Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive of Tomorrow’s
Company, a not-for-profit organization enabling
businesses to be a force for good, chats with
Sangeeta Mansur on the sidelines of the Tatahosted conference on “Success through Corporate
Sustainability: Strategy, Leadership and Reporting –
Co-creating Tomorrow’s Agenda for Business Success”
in Mumbai recently
I
t’s great to see Tomorrow’s Company
being launched in India enabling
businesses to be a force for good.
Could you tell us how did the vision of
the organization come about?
Tomorrow’s Company is an NGO, a
community of businesses and business
leaders, which brings together business
leaders to think about new ways
of defining and achieving business
success. Two important questions
raised by Charles Handy at the Royal
Society of Arts way back in December
1990 led to the establishment of
Tomorrow’s Company. Handy asked what is a company for, and what is the
purpose of profit?
What’s been the evolution since then?
A decade from that time, by early 2000,
26
the business leaders had become senior
executives or CEOs in businesses which
by then had become large and global
with new challenges, and the questions
were revisited; an enquiry came about
focusing on tomorrow’s challenges.
Nandan Nilekani, the then Co-Chairman
of Infosys Technologies, was the
co-chair of the inquiry team which
produced the report Tomorrow’s Global
Company: Challenges and Choices.
Was this in any way different from the
original thought?
It was consistent in argument
throughout. Originally too, the thought
was about business being a force
for good, to bring about sustainable
outcomes. The ideology talks about
how business success depends upon
the ability to create conditions to do
business in the future in terms of
social stability, resource availability and
environmental wellbeing. Business can
create long-term sustainable value and
be a force for good when they recognize
the importance of operating from the
intersection of what we describe as
three great subsystems of the whole ‘the triple context’: Economic, Social
and Environmental.
The Triple Bottom Lines (TBL) approach
talks about the same dimensions. How
is the Triple Context different from TBL?
TBL was hugely transformative.
It’s different in the sense that it
was a bit disaggregated in nature
and encouraged a framework that
had a heavy emphasis on metrics,
measurement and data. Triple Context
is more systemic in its nature. The
central issue here is around the
mindset and paradigm of business and
business leaders in relationship with
society and environment, about (re-)
defining business success, purpose,
how you live your values, how to create
frameworks to deliver successful
models critical for tomorrow. It’s about
how to think about things in a new way.
In the new paradigm,
the purpose of a
company is to create
sustainable value.
Here, leadership
challenge is not
about skills but
about temperament,
inspiration and about
engaging people in
work communities
to create long-term
sustainable value
success. Economic value argument
alone drove the business understanding
earlier. Now two more dams - Social
and environmental - have burst and the
boat has to navigate in new ways. So
now, it’s about adapting to new ways
of thinking, new risks and resilience
possibilities.
How do you define success in this
new way?
One of the most persuasive ways
of defining success was developed
here in India by TCCI (Tata Council
for Community Initiatives) for the Tata
Group. Because it talks about long-term
sustainable value creation in the society
and for the environment, about behavior
and culture of business leaders, about
values and ethics, about value drivers
brought together to drive future value,
with a sense of stewardship of business
leaders, co-creating value that has an
enduring quality.
All around, businesses are becoming
pragmatic, innovations and technologies
are enabling new business models
of success to be embedded. Yes,
businesses are moving in this new
direction. Towards the tipping point for
sure, but they’re not quite there yet.
How are businesses moving towards
new ways of thinking about value
creation in a triple context?
We’re not talking about focusing on
Responsibility philosophy; but rather
about an understanding of future value
drivers and how they create business
The earlier economic value model
assumed resources were abundant and
talent was scarce. Both assumptions
have been turned on their head.
But because of financial crisis and
uncertainty, people are not seeing this
clearly, and are still operating within the
In your view, what are the key reasons
that are driving adoption of this new
direction?
One, fundamental drivers of success
have shifted. Argument based on
economic value is long past and we’ve
entered the age of sustainability.
same old paradigm. We are trapped
unconsciously in ways of thinking and
seeing value that condition how we act
and behave that are no longer fit for
purpose, with systemically dysfunctional
consequences.
In the new paradigm, the purpose of
a company is to create sustainable
value. Here, leadership challenge is not
about skills but about temperament,
inspiration and about engaging people
in work communities to create longterm sustainable value. So, the drivers
have shifted.
Two, some businesses- like the financial
service models, for instance - may
be staying with the old model , but
businesses which are betting big on the
changing future are not relying on the
old model: especially global businesses
with large markets and production
bases all over, huge infrastructure
companies, extraction industries etc.
will have to start thinking right now
about how to produce a lot more with a
lot less, in a less wasteful way.
A few words on the India experience
and India plans of Tomorrow’s
Company?
The collaborative work we did
earlier with Infosys and subsequent
discussions with the Mahindras,
ongoing dialogues with the Tatas and
other leading businesses in India have
provided us with a lot of encouragement
for our work in India in the future.
It has given us a sense of shared
understanding and values, and we now
have launched Tomorrow’s Company in
India as of November 2011. Our India
experience has been a positive one.
India is different in the way it views
business and society relationship: pride
and respect with business and business
leaders is critical here, businesses here
have innovated and contributed to
society and nation-building. Rather than
just being a part of society, businesses
here are a part of future success of
society. Makes absolute sense for us to
work with and from India.
27
EntrepreneurTalk
Producing
Masters of
Business
Readiness
By Benedict Paramanand
I
t’s rare to see chair professors with long
stints in prominent global universities
plunge into the uncertain and unforgiving
world of entrepreneurship and not get
tempted by cushy consulting roles. Among
the daring, only a handful of them end up
making both money and a difference to the
cause they set out to achieve. One of them
is Professor Bala V Balachandran, known
to his friends and associates as Uncle Bala.
At 74, Professor Balachandran is
enthusiastic like someone in their 40s, and
believes he can bring back the credibility
global management education enjoyed
by focusing on genuine profits and not
profiteering it has got into in recent years.
Prof. Bala Balachandran addressing students at
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
28
Prof. Bala, who is J. L. Kellogg
Distinguished Professor in Accounting,
Information and Management since
September 1984, says he discovered
his entrepreneurial instincts when he led
a Harvard Business School project titled
GAME – Global Alliance for Management
Education at MDI Gurgaon in 1991. His
next big opportunity came when he was
part of the founding team of the Indian
School of Business, Hyderabad, along
with Rajat Gupta of the McKinsey fame.
While both these experiences were
heady, they also threw up some stark
lessons in new venture management.
He was particularly dismayed by ISB’s
departure from its original mandate of
an affordable and world class business
school to an elitist institution.
After these experiences and egged on
by his network of top business leaders
and CEOs, Prof. Bala launched an
institution with Indian ethos, is notfor-profit, where passion is laced with
compassion and produces graduates
who would be Masters of Business
Readiness rather than masters of
business administration.
He sold his palatial house in Chennai
and from the Rs. 2.5 crore that he got
for it, he used it as seed capital for
starting his dream venture – the Great
Lakes Institute of Management near
Chennai on the Pondicherry highway
in 2004. It was like coming home
for someone who left Chennai four
decades ago to study master's degree
in Engineering from University of Dayton
and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University. His alma mater is Annamalai
University from where he did masters in
Applied Statistics.
After surviving a complex cardiac
surgery in 2002, Prof. Bala says he
felt he was reborn and was even more
eager to build his institution into a
world class centre for education. The
Platinum-certified Great Lakes Institute
came up with the support of several
top Indian business houses like Godrej,
on whose board Prof. Bala sits, TVS
Group, Murugappa Group, because,
he says, they believed in his vision. He
could make this happen, Prof. Bala
says, because he believes that Network
is Net worth. His friend, late Professor
C K Prahalad too was happy to support
by speaking at the institute a few times.
In seven years, Great Lakes appears
to have become a model for business
schools in design of courses, futuristic
approach to teaching management
and producing graduates who are
well groomed and grounded. The
graduates at Great Lakes, who appear
for placements every year, he says, are
trained not to ask how much money
they are worth but “what they can
contribute.”
Recognizing well that China is the
next frontier, learning Mandarin is
compulsory in Great Lakes. Serving
the 20-odd villages around the
campus in making them 100 percent
literate and teaching skills are part of
the student’s learning.
Being an entrepreneur has given
immense joy to Prof. Bala. He was
pleasantly surprised that his institute
was cash positive by about 20 percent
the first year itself. He likes money, he
says, but not more than what he needs,
at least to secure the future of people
close to him. That he has two sons and
both are doing very well for themselves
in the US was one factor that helped
him to go the whole hog in his ventures.
He says he counts himself to be lucky
too, which is another important factor
for doing well in business.
Succession Plan?
That’s a natural question anyone
would ask an enterprising professor
who is 74 and still has many plans to
execute. Although living in the US for
four decades and a US citizen, Prof.
Bala is still steeped in Indian traditions.
Since he does not have a daughter
he considers his business partner,
Shantanu Prakash, the promoter of
Educomp Solutions Limited, a globally
diversified education solutions provider
and the largest education company in
India, as his son-in-law, who he thinks
will take his vision forward. And future
leadership to his institutions would
come from his two sons and friends.
With Educomp as partner, Prof. Bala
has plans to take business education
to smaller towns. To him, this is
one way of democratizing business
education in India. He intends offering
MBA for Rs. One lakh by using smart
technology. A Great Lakes University
is coming up in a sprawling campus in
Bhuvaneshwar in two year’s time. The
University intends to be one of its kind
with multidisciplinary courses in arts and
sciences.
Already a Padma Shri award recipient
in 2001, Prof. Bala’s real reward will
be when he is recognized as a pioneer
in humanizing business and executive
education in India. Soon, he says, the
US will learn from India, not the other
way around.
29
EntrepreneurTalk
Success
Secrets of a
serial
entrepreneur
W
hat’s the secret of a serial
entrepreneur? What makes a
serial entrepreneur successful
because many a time people succeed
the first time and they fail in the second?
Kumar Malavalli is
one of the top Indian
serial technopreneurs to
have made it big in the
Bay Area in the US with
cutting edge technologies.
He is currently in the
mood for mentoring
other entrepreneurs,
which he says, is one
way of giving back to the
society. In a brief chat with
ManagementNext, he
talks about his success
secrets
30
The secret is to have passion. Just
because you succeeded the first time
you should not take it for granted.
And when you are going into the
second venture you have to ensure
that you do three things - one is you
should not make the same mistakes
even though you have succeeded,
fortunately it dint cause any damage,
so you should try to fix those things.
Second is if things don’t work and if
you find a big hurdle, then make a
course change right in the beginning
itself. The third thing is in every new
venture you have to understand
the market absolutely. You have to
understand that markets are different
and you got to understand the
timing of the market. And whether
you are in the first or the second,
you got to also have good talented
people.
You have achieved a lot in the last three
decades founding three successful
companies. What’s your current state of
mind?
I feel good and continue to do that not
because I am going to make money.
Now I’m focusing on how to give back
in my own way. There are a lot of
young entrepreneurs and if you work
with them and mentor them, that’s
very satisfying. And during mentoring,
I have also learnt a lot because certain
things if I were to do in Brocade or
in another company, like I did before,
probably I would do slightly differently.
We have learnt from our mistakes and
experiences.
So the big changers are storage
networking & business continuity
After the success of Brocade I am
now involved in another company as
a founder and a strategic investor. But
here in InMage, which is a into smart
data recovery solutions, I also run the
company as its CEO.
EntrepreneurTalk
Sanitary napkin
cheaper than a
pack of bidis
D
espite grinding poverty most Indian men somehow
manage to afford bidis and arrack while their
women folk do without basic hygiene products.
While affordability is one factor, it’s also largely to do with
ignorance.
A number of innovations on producing low-cost sanitary
products for women are in the non-formal markets but the
magnitude of the problem is such that they are just like the
proverbial drop in the ocean. Shocked by the low hygiene
standards in north Karnataka villages, Kalpana Heblekar’s
low cost sanitary pads appear the most innovative and
affordable. But it is yet to be mass produced. Her goal is to
price a packet of six pads lower than a pack of bidis.
The sanitary pad is essentially made of a combination of
bamboo pulp and cotton. This is the first time bamboo pulp
is being utilized and this is what makes it so cost effective.
She says they are hygienically manufactured and are totally
biodegradable as no plastic is used. By 2013, she plans
to make the pads available all over Karnataka. She is
currently running training programs for women in making
these sanitary pads in Bangalore. Once a core group gains
expertise, she believes the word will spread.
She is forming clusters of women groups to set up
small scale units to make these pads. She intends to
offer them through vending machines. Called SafeRWe
(Social Awareness for Empowering Rural/Urban Woman
Entrepreneurs), based on the name of her foundation, trial
launch in Karwar and Shimoga districts is underway. She has
sent samples to a few international organizations so that they
can be offered in poorer countries in Africa.
32
If she has to make this big, she has to get a patent and tie
up for bulk manufacturing companies that are in the bottomof-the-pyramid product business such as CavinCare – the
company that pioneered the sachet revolution in India.
For Kalpana Heblekar, the sanitary pad venture is one of her
many ventures involving women groups. She quit her career
as a banker in Bangalore to pursue her compelling desire to
work with women and help them earn a decent living. She
started handicrafts sourcing in 1995.
Handicrafts for the world
Kalpana’s inspiration was her artist mother. Initially when
she came to Bangalore in the early 90s, she started
teaching creative art to neighborhood women and gradually
realized that it was a perfect way to make them financially
independent. What started off as a small enterprise today
has spread across many states. Kalpana today has as many
as 25 clusters of women from the rural areas helping her
showcase India’s handicrafts to the world. These women
are the pillars of her business venture. She says she gets
immense satisfaction when she sees these women build
Kalpana Heblekar sharing her expertise with women artists
homes and educate their children from the money they earn
through her business venture.
It was real hard work. She started by going to the villages
and teaching them handicrafts based on the raw material
available in that area. Sometimes, when they had their own
indigenous handicrafts, she encouraged that too. Now, with
450 women working part time, she is happy that she’s able
to provide these women with a source of livelihood. She has
trouble keeping their men folk away from these businesses
as she wants to strictly keep it only for women.
Like the experience of many in the rural handicraft business,
Kalpana knew the domestic market would not offer the
premium she needs on her products. With the help of an
agent in Netherlands, Kalpana ships several cartons of
handicraft to international markets. This gave her immense
joy until one day she realized that the mark up on what she
sends was 300 percent. To get better value she is now
preparing to enter the global market through a network of
agents or wherever possible, directly.
Her product range is vast - handmade paper products,
brass items, cotton and jute products, wooden
handicrafts, silver idols and jewellery, bamboo items,
textiles, paintings, silk products. In addition, she also
manufactures herbal products such as herbal soaps,
moisturizer, floral perfumes & aloe vera gel.
Kalpana says she owes her success to quality as she uses
only the best raw materials available and makes sure that
standardization is achieved. Because of this, she says
she enjoys credibility in both the national as well as the
international markets.
After a few years as a woman entrepreneur she realized
that women have a lot of ideas but are discouraged to
start a venture. She encourages those who come to her
and takes the fear factor away. Kalpana has won many
prestigious national and global awards like the
‘Pride of India’ award in 2009 by the prime minister of
Thailand. Among the other awards is the Karnataka
State Women’s Excellence award-2011 by the Women’s
International Network. Some recognition for faith and toil is
indeed the motivation, women like Kalpana Heblekar need
to do more.
33
EntrepreneurTalk
Prof. Tarun Khanna,
Faculty, Harvard Business School
Entrepreneurship success mantra in India
Combine idealism with
contextual intelligence
I
t’s common to hear people complain
about impediments to starting or
doing business in countries like India.
But for people who want to do good
and have strong intelligence across
spectrum, it’s not that difficult, says
34
Prof. Tarun Khanna, faculty at Harvard
Business School and author of Billions
of Entrepreneurs: How China and
India are Reshaping Their Futures and
Yours during a lecture at IIM Bangalore
recently. He gave a few examples to
show how a few people are able to
do achieve extraordinary results in the
same system
Referring to Dr. Devi Shetty’s Narayana
Hrudalaya in Bangalore, Prof. Khanna
Move away from a
linear notion of
many strategic
scenarios and the
idea that you can
always find the
data to execute
anything
said: “For Dr. Shetty’s hospital to
exist, he not only had to be a healer,
doctor and a surgeon, he had to be
a financial market innovator, he had
to change the laws of the book, he
had to be a political economist, he
had to be a behavioral psychologist
to convince the poor people who
live across the street to come to his
hospital.” To come this far, Dr. Shetty
had to draw on his special skills and
less on the infrastructure support.
He said there are two features
that are really important in building
entrepreneurship
in
developing
countries – one is a degree of contextual
intelligence that goes beyond technical
skill and the other is the strong will
to do good. He said, “ I believe a
degree of idealism which turns out to
be going out there and serving a lot
of people, whether its finding jobs for
underappreciated talented people, or
doing heart surgery for free, it doesn’t
matter but idealism combined with
contextual intelligence I think ensures
100 percent success.”
Thinking of emerging markets means
problems, or difficult things to solve like
corruption. But there is an opportunities
side to it, too. “You can proactively
engage in decentralized private sector
activity whether for profit or not-for-profit
variety to create markets that are better
functioning. Move away from a linear
notion of many strategic scenarios and
the idea that you can always find the
data to execute anything. The biggest
missing intermediary is the generation
of data to support anything. So what
you have to do is engage in sustained
experimentation that generates the
data and that in turn informs the
formulation of whatever it is you want
to do. Thinking like that is a sea change
for large corporations, at least those in
the developed world.”
Prof. Khanna referred to Parliamentary
Research Services, in which he is
involved and was recently started by
C V Madhukar, one of his students at
Harvard Business School. PRS’ sole
purpose is to help Parliamentarians
make better and informed decisions
by providing them with free research
findings, stakeholder views and
background to issues in passing a
legislative bill. It is a non partisan
research briefing made available for
free in any number of languages,
to any number of devices, to any
member of the Parliament who wishes
to access the information. “It’s an
example of real entrepreneurship of
the sort that you see in India in the
last 10-15 years. That’s what makes
me very optimistic.”
The other example he cited is that
of Aspiring Minds, which through a
complex algorithm brings together
talent seekers and talent providers all
around India. The algorithm can sort
through tens of millions of people
with different skills and spoken ability,
logic, reasoning or very quantitative
reasoning, functional knowledge like
health care or accountancy. “We have
now placed 20,000 people from tier 2
and 3 cities. “Do you see the multiplier
effect? A poor family with 5-6 siblings,
we have already changed the lives of
50,000 people in a very short period of
time,” he said.
Incubator to promote hundreds
of businesses
Prof. Khanna is in the middle of setting
up an interesting incubator in Delhi.
“Instead of doing one-off ventures
that I have been trying to do, the idea
is to get 200-300 companies started
at any point of time in this venture
and encourage people to come from
all over and take small investments
of some Rs. 5 – 10 lakhs to try an
idea and eventually graduate it to
somebody to take care of it.”
The logic is, instead of four or five
ventures a year, it is possible to go
to 400-500 a year and replicate it
in different cities of the world. Just
as an indication of the hunger for
this model, the minute Prof. Khanna
began talking about this idea, other
cities in the emerging world like
Karachi, Jakarta, Colombo and Cairo
wanted it in their city. “It’s at a level of
an idea that we will open in a couple
of months, it may fail but we have to
try,” he said.
Through many books, Prof. Khanna
has communicated the spirit of
entrepreneurship that is spurring
economic development in the less
developed countries. To him, since he
grew up in Bombay, Bangalore and
Delhi, he said, “India is an absolute
laboratory. It’s easy for me to look at
different ideas and how they have
emerged relatively as a low cost
experimental sight and then try it in
different parts of the world.”
35
TechTalk
Information Fabric
By Ranganath Iyengar
Tim Berners-Lee stated in 1999 - "If HTML and the Web made all the
online documents look like one huge book, RDF, schema, and inference
languages will make all the data in the world look like one huge
database".To a user, however all the tools, gadgets and technologies
boil down to the quality, speed and accuracy of the data personalized
to your specific need. Here’s a look into the semantic web and the
emerging concept of ‘Information Fabric’.
W
e interact with computers
using meta-models. Simply
put, a meta model is a
framework of how gadgets, devices,
services and apps talk to us in our
language. So, when you ask a simple
question such as a search on a web
page, a maze of interconnected meta
models provides you answers.
As you read this, think about all the data
that you have on your computer and
somewhere online on the cloud and
the hundreds of web and mobile apps
around you. As a user, you want precise
information at blazing speeds, analyzed,
catalogued and served up as a focused
and often personalized service. Today’s
web and mobile apps are a major step
in that direction.
Data and semantic web
Syntax of a language defines the rules
for building language statements.
The semantic web describes things
in a way that computer applications
can understand it – a simple way to
experience this is to play with search
patterns around the same topic on a
search engine and come up with an
entirely different set of answers.
Data makes sense for us as patterns – a
good example is how we do secondary
research as we read and interpret
36
different documents and research
artefacts – in a real world sense it is the
human mind at work that is trained to
detect and connect patterns that are
useful to us – if you get together with a
friend and try to interpret abstract art,
you will see the analogy.
Resource description framework
To find information threads on the web,
we have the RDF which is a language
for describing information, resources
etc. on the web – putting information
into RDF files makes it possible for
computer programs (often called ‘web
spiders’ or ‘bots’) to search, discover,
collect, pick up, analyze and present
information / information patterns from
the web.RDF combines the power
of logic and artificial intelligence and
is often not easy for most people to
understand.
Simple everyday examples are searches
for travel, books, people, prices for
product comparison, dates of events
etc. Since we all have individual
personalities with our intelligence and
interpretation, we also wish that the web
is able to mimic our ‘personality’.
Information Fabric and data models
We understand different data sets
today as an information pattern,
which is a result of information being
aggregated /woven together into an
‘information fabric’ – a mobile or web
app that provides a focused service is
a good example of focus service that
provides the user with a specific piece
or group of information or a range of
choices.
Companies like Xurmo Technologies
are doing pioneering work in creating
‘Intelligent Information Fabrics’ using
technologies like Natural Language
processing, Machine learning and
Artificial intelligence to focus and create
Information Pattern repositories for
companies that have vast data and
probably already use analytics and
focused services. The business focus is
therefore to create a data model that is
able to detect and store natural patterns
that are able to provide of direct value
and user relevance that are extremely
personalized.
Information Fabric and Data
Virtualization
Companies like Cambridge Semantics
offer Information fabrics (called Anzo)
that can virtualize and assemble
data from any source – structured or
unstructured into a unified information
fabric, go beyond the firewall and
link information from the company’s
ecosystem, link data incrementally,
and maintain two way connectivity with
enterprise and personal data sources.
So at one level, you could collaborate
in Excel or you could be working on
building operational intelligence with
formal and informal workflows.
Is it a big deal? Well, look at this way;
we spend more time in searching data
and pulling information today across
personal, extended and enterprise
sources. It is also a challenge to use
hundreds of apps to do several things
– maybe a futuristic way of looking
at it is to create your own ‘intelligent
information fabric’ and make your
data and decision making faster,
better analyzed and more focused
and perhaps as efficient as you and
probably through a common web or
mobile app!
ExecutiveHealth
Simple tips for
healthy
skin
during summer
Dr. Juvita Rasquinha offers simple
yet effective tips for maintaining
healthy skin during summer.
She is a renowned dermatologist
and cosmetologist working at
N.M. Medicals, Diamond District,
Bangalore
T
he age-old adage of keeping
oneself happy and healthy from
within still applies. Most skin care
habits are simple yet most people tend
to ignore it until it is too late.
One of the most pressing skin
concerns that I encounter on an
almost daily basis in businessmen
and the general working population is
the development of rashes, allergies
or skin infections on specific areas
of the body. This could be due to the
extended hours that many of these
professionals put in at their workplace,
work related stress and also poor
personal hygiene. Many of them cite
work pressures or a lack of time as
a reason for their problem. Some
continue to ignore their problem even
when it has developed into a serious
skin concern.
One of the simplest ways that one
can prevent these work related skin
concerns is proper personal hygiene.
Following a simple routine of a daily
bath and a change of clothes for the
next working day can help keep away
infection.
Summer is very unforgiving on one's
skin especially in a tropical country like
ours. One needs to be more careful
given the higher degree of UV exposure
coupled with a dry climate. People with
light skin and women (with relatively
thinner skin as compared to men) are
especially at risk.
To start with, I strongly recommend
a good sunscreen with SPF 30 and
UVA protection preferably with light
moisturizing properties at least thrice a
day. This could be followed up with a
daily routine of cleansing and hydrating
one's skin at the end of the day. Also if
possible, limiting one's exposure to the
harsh mid-day sun or using an umbrella
when going out during this period is
an effective way of preventing the skin
damage.
Common summer
skin related ailments
There are a wide range of skin
conditions that get aggravated in
extremes of heat or cold. One of the
most common skin ailments faced by
many executives and especially those
people whose job involves travel or
field work is redness and sunburn
from prolonged and repeated sun
exposure. Usage of a moisturizing
sunscreen at least 20 minutes prior to
beginning their work day is a must for
these executives.
On the other hand, many executives
work in an AC environment that dries
out the skin and aggravates allergies
and conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis
etc. apart from causing general dryness
of the skin. Using a moisturizer is one of
the most effective methods to combat
dryness and keep the skin hydrated and
is highly recommended for individuals
working in an AC environment.
Top 5 tips to keep
your skin glowing
1) Eat healthy. Fruits and
vegetables contain
substances essential to
maintaining good skin. Eating
sprouts in the morning is very
good for your skin.
2) Drink up to 8 glasses of water
a day if possible or at least as
much as you feel is required
for you. Water helps to flush
out body toxins and toxins
that damage the skin.
3) Exercise a little if possible
each day. Daily exercise
increases blood circulation,
releases toxins through sweat
and delivers nourishment to
your skin (Do not forget to
shower and re-hydrate your
skin with a moisturizer after a
workout).
4) De-stress yourself through
yoga or your preferred hobby.
Reducing stress through
leisure is an effective way
to tackle stress related skin
ailments.
5) For those capable of following
a daily skin care regime,
start your day with a good
cleanser depending on your
skin type. Don’t forget to use
a toner to tone up your open
pores. Moisturize to hydrate
your skin. Skip the moisturizer
if you have oily skin. A
sunscreen is a must for all
skin types.
37
AuthorSpeak
Strategy is outside in,
not inside out, stupid!
38
Rama Bijapurkar is one of India’s respected thought
leaders on market strategy and is a keen commentator
on social and cultural changes impacting Indian
businesses. She describes her mission as bringing
marketing focus to business strategy. Excerpts from her
Q & A session, organized by Sage Publishing in Delhi
during the launch of her new book ‘Customer in the
Boardroom.’ Her other popular books are: ‘We are Like
That Only’ and ‘Winning in the Indian Market.’
H
ow and why did you embark on
a journey to write this book, it’s
quite expansive in its scope?
I am a management consultant and my
dharma is to think about customers.
I have spent all my life as a market
researcher and as a market strategy
consultant and I always feel that it is
a bit unfair that customers pay for a
business. Often, I tell my clients that
businesses can be so much fun if only
it weren’t for the customers but actually
those are the guys who are actually
paying for it. I think businesses exist
to serve customers, so this is a large
body of consulting work in the area
of making businesses focus on what
customers want and in creating wealth
for themselves by creating value for the
customer.
Marketing strategy as it is being
taught tends to derive heavily from
such thinkers as Michael Porter and
Mintsberg. Should we look at this work
as an improvisation of the existing
theory or does it make us look at a
Vinita Bali, the MD of
Britannia, writes that
customers are far too
important to be left to the
marketing department
completely different perspective?
As Mintsberg said, strategy is a bit like
the elephant. There are different schools
of strategy which think about strategy
differently. So, basically, in my consulting
work I urge companies to find their
strategy that works best for them. In this
book I have basically taken whatever
strategy approach anybody has chosen.
All I am saying is (let’s get) into the
fabric that you are already weaving, let’s
put the customer thread, so whatever
strategy you are using, you have one
more element to put through it.
You are in the board of several
companies and see companies quite
closely so how do you look at the
issue of corporate governance in
contemporary India?
I think we are learning. The more we
demand governance in public life, it
gets better. It’s a journey. But I think we
are getting there, better than where we
used to be before. Right now, in many
companies what we have achieved in
the last 10 years is at least compliance
- To make sure people are not cheating,
stealing family silver, nobody is taking
away property that belongs to the
minority shareholder. On that we have
achieved a lot.
With the ever growing middle class, how
do you foresee the consumer patterns
changing over the years, especially how
do you think the institutions are going to
strategize their future plans?
The customers are not in the boardroom
to answer the question more specifically.
They are not in the boardroom yet.
I think people are dazzled by the
opportunity of the market but the fact is
that the market is made of real people
and real people have real needs. I think
we are still struggling with it a little bit.
That’s another journey.
How do you help CEOs and managers
realize that the customer is actually
missing in the strategy framework?
At the back of my book, Vinita Bali,
the MD of Britannia, writes that
customers are far too important to be
left to the marketing department. First
and foremost, CEOs must realize that
revenue growth of companies, the top
line of companies is equal to how many
customers buy and how much they
spend and how often they come. CEOs
need to respect the fact that whoever
is paying for everybody’s salaries and
profits and dividends is the customer.
Once that realization comes that
markets are made of people, you don’t
sell tractors to hectares but you sell
them to farmers.
Don’t you think that the CEOs’ vision
of the customer is very narrow? Don’t
you think the customer is regarded as a
marginalized group?
Understanding customers is tough. It
takes a lot of time, effort and money
to do so, the science of that lies
somewhere else. This book is really
to say to CEOs and consultants
who are involved with strategy that
just don’t look at your neighbor,
don’t just look inside. It’s not about
inside-out to develop a strategy, it’s
about outside-in. Even more broadly
speaking, if you are a political party
and if you look at elections, the
customer is asking for A, B, and C
and the suppliers are talking about
E and F. The supplier says I will give
you more food but the customer
is saying I actually want a medical
college, I have got enough food. So
that’s the issue.
39
Case Study – ID Special
Fortune from the batter
This is a story of a village labourer’s son who did his engineering,
worked for two multinationals, quit his job to start an idli-dosa
ready-mix business. Today, he employs 120 people and has a
turnover of above Rs. 20 crore
W
hat were the chances that
P.C. Mustafa, the son of
a manual labourer from
Chennaloade village in Kalpetta, a
remote district in Kerala, would run his
own Rs. 25 crore ready-made food
business in India’s Silicon Valley in 5
years? Probably zero.
Born into poverty, Mustafa’s father, a
day labourer, could not afford his son’s
education. So Mustafa’s teacher paid
his school fees so that Mustafa could
complete his schooling. Mustafa did
not want to follow the life of his father
and others in the village – unskilled,
poor, and forgotten. He did not stop at
school.
With an education loan of Rs. 25,000,
he went to REC College in Calicut,
graduating in 1995 with a degree in
engineering. He was the first in the
village to get a college degree. He got
his first job in 1995 with Motorola in
Bangalore at a starting monthly salary of
Rs. 14,000. When he heard about this,
in complete and utter disbelief Mustafa’s
father insisted there must have been a
mistake. The salary should have been
40
INR 14,000 a year not per month! No
one in Chennalode, Kalpetta, had ever
earned that kind of money. When his
father realized that this was indeed true,
he cried.
Mustafa joined Motorola, another
regular city “techie” but he kept
thinking of his life back home and
the poverty he had left behind. He
worked with Motorola for a year and
the inevitable happened. It was time
for his sister to get married. Which
meant money was required. In 1996,
he switched to a job with Citibank in
Dubai. With a dollar salary, he cleared
his education loan, got his sister
married, built a good bank balance
and returned to India after seven years
and got a job with Intel.
Once again in Bangalore, he was still
haunted by his life in the village. He
decided to join IIM and get himself a
management degree. At that time, he
would often hang out with his cousin,
Nazir who worked in a typical small
neighborhood Kirana (GROCERY)
store. Wondering what business they
could start and yet help the people in
the village they had left behind, they
developed a checklist of business
opportunities.
It should be “profitable”.
They would start something where no
multinational had feared to tread.
The demand should be greater than
supply.
It had to be something of high quality.
Today, ID Special is a
highly profitable, zerodebt company with a
market share of 85% in
ready-made wet mixes
It had to employ unskilled workers from
their village.
Ideas came and went, and so did three
years. One day, Nazir complained that
the supply of ready - made mix was
erratic in quality and he was getting
complaints from customers. This was
the “Aha” moment. Why not make and
sell the product themselves?
No time was lost. A grinder was
purchased and in the storeroom of the
Kirana shop, Nazir started to learn how
to make the batter for the idli. Through
trial and error, after several weeks
Nazir finally got the batter mix right.
Once he was confident that he had the
right batter, he started delivering this
ready-made mix to other kirana stores
in the neighborhood. It was a hit. And
ID Special was born. Confident that
they had a good product, Nazir quit the
kirana store and Mustafa quit Intel. In
a very short time, their outlets zoomed
from 10 shops to 300.
Hoskote plant
In 2005, with his saving of about INR
15 lakhs, Mustafa set up ID Special.
With Nazir as his partner, they moved
to a slightly bigger space, hired three
unskilled men from their village that
would make the batter, and started
distributing the idli mix. The market
loved this - the processed food
industry was booming but this was the
best thing that happened to Bangalore
since sliced bread – home –made idlis
without going through the “grind”literally. They soon outgrew their
space and the small five-member
team. They went full steam and
applied for factory land in KSSIDC.
Like other entrepreneurs, they faced
all the bottlenecks and bureaucratic
process of applications, file
clearances, and frustration but eight
months later, Best Foods Factory
was inaugurated in Hoskote and
production got into full swing.
evening. Today the women have bank
accounts and debit cards, which they
have been trained to operate.
Very early, the cousins learned that
getting men to work in a kitchen was
not a great idea. So they decided to
employ women. The women would
prepare the mix and the men would
do the selling. And this has been the
model since.
In five years, the company had an
annual turnover of about Rs. 20 crore,
2,000% growth, and the product
portfolio has increased from the
ubiquitous idli to the ready-made dosa
mix, to Kerala parathas, and even rose
cookies! Today ID Special is a highly
profitable, zerodebt company with a
market share of 85% in ready-made
wet mixes.
Each of the sales staff was given a
bike to go around Bangalore asking
retailers to stock the product. The
company purchased the bikes on
loans, but the monthly repayment had
to be paid by the salesman, and after
three years and full repayment of the
loan, ownership transferred to him.
Working on commission was also an
incentive to the sales staff. This model
did wonders. Everyone in the sales
team is from Chennalode, Kalpetta
district - and all are unskilled. Today
they earn about Rs. 30,000 per month
and own a bike. The village women
employed in the Hoskote factory
are unskilled, with about a Class 7
education.
Women wore gloves and caps and
had an air of camaraderie as they
mixed and ground the idli batter. Each
has an hourly production target and
the batter is carefully measured to
a precise recipe. The women were
satisfied and proud to be working
in factory and above all earning an
income, something they had never
envisaged. Nazir mentions that they
initially paid the women in cash. It
was a disaster - come pay day, the
husbands would take the cash from
their wives and get drunk by the
Nazir is involved in the day-to day
operation of the factory and the
management is taken care of by
Mustafa. They now have measures of
productivity, efficiency, targets, and
performance. The dream is to make
the company one of the top 10 in the
ready-to-eat food market in India.
ID Special employs about 230
unskilled people, 120 of whom are
women. The company is ripe for a
takeover. While Mustafa toys with the
idea of selling up, he also has bigger
plans. ID Special now franchises
in Chennai and will soon enter the
Mumbai market .However, Mustafa
has some concerns about scaling upthe business is fairly Mustafa-Centric,
and most of the employees are known
in the village and this establishes a
feeling of trust. With scale, Mustafa
fears some of this may not be
possible, and may affect quality.
Mustafa has transformed himself from a
victim to a successful entrepreneur, not
allowing life’s vicissitudes to take over. He
chose education to empower himself,
took advantage of the market, and
changed not only his own life but also that
of his family and the community. This is
a true story- the stuff that entrepreneurial
dreams are made of.
Extract from Made in Bangalore- How
Social Enterprise is Transforming
Business-as-Usual.
www.csmworld.org | www.idspecial.com
41
Spirituality
How to overcome
fear of failure
By Sadhguru
O
nce there was a farmer who was tired of doesn’t matter what happens; even the most horrific
various natural factors ruling the quality of his event in your life can also be used for your growth
crop. So one day he called Shiva and said, and your well-being. The small events of your life ‘I am tired of all the natural nonsense happening; your business, your marriage, your children all these
obviously you are not a farmer. I know from history things are just a stepping stone. This is not new to
that you were a hunter. You don't know what it means you because in this culture they put this into you for
to farm so why don’t you leave nature in my hands? I millennia; they told you, ‘Your life is about mukthi.
am a farmer. I know when it should rain; I know when Your marriage, your business, your social life - these
there should be sunlight; I know when there should are all just the means to get there. Either you go with
be wind; I know everything. You don't know because it or you go without it but whether you are a sanyasi or
you are just a hunter and you are a crazy ascetic. you are in samsara, your only goal is mukthi.’
You are definitely not a good farmer. It’s raining at the
wrong times, everything is happening at the wrong There is no such thing as failure. Failure is an idea
times; you leave it to me.’ Shiva was in one of those because success is also a stupid idea. Instead of
moods; he said, ‘Okay, nature is in your hands.’ Then trying to change the world, change the idea. If you
the farmer planned his crop. So he calls out ‘Rain.’ just change that, everything is great. If you were a
He pokes the land with his finger and sees, ‘Okay it's beggar on the street, today if you could walk into
soaked up to six inches,’ ‘Stop.’ Then he ploughed the restaurant and eat a masala dosa, this would be
his field and planted maize seeds and waited for two the height of success, isn't it so? So you’ve gotten
trapped in social situations
days, ‘Rain,’ then ‘Sunlight.’
and this idea of success is
Today I’m working in the field
not even your idea, why am
so, ‘Cloud.’ So everything just
Success and failure is
I crediting you with this? It is
happened the way he wanted,
not in the volumes of
somebody else’s idea of what
a beautiful maize crop came.
success is, isn't it? Every idea,
money flowing into your
He was overjoyed. ‘See, it's
thought, emotion or value that
good; nature should be in a
life; success and failure
you have is picked up from
farmer’s hands.’
is not dependent upon
somewhere and it rules you
the recognition that you
from within. Your religion, your
And then when it was time for
society and your culture have
find in the world. You are
the harvest, he wanted to see
trained you to believe that this
that no birds come. He was
successful with life if you
is it. Don’t become a slave to
surprised about that because
know how to walk with
somebody’s idea; that is the
when he said, ‘No birds’ - no
joy even through hell
first and foremost success.
birds came. So he went down
Success and failure is not in
to his fields to harvest the
the volumes of money flowing
maize but when he looked at
the crop, there was no grain on the plants. Then he into your life; success and failure is not dependent
thought ‘What the hell is this? What did I do wrong?’ upon the recognition that you find in the world. You
He couldn’t figure it out because he had managed are successful with life if you know how to walk with
everything - rain, water and sunshine properly. Then joy even through hell.
he went back to Shiva and asked, ‘I did everything
right but there is no grain. Did you sabotage my For one who is seeing this life as a stepping stone for
crop?’ Shiva said, ‘I have been watching; you were a larger possibility, for him there is no failure. For one
in-charge so I didn’t want to interfere. The rain was who is looking at the simple events of this life itself as
great, the sunshine was great, everything was fine but the goal of life, for him there is failure and success. If
you stopped all the winds. I used to always send fierce you are just seeing this life as a stepping stone for a
winds which would threaten your crop but because larger possibility, whether you have a good deal or a
the plants felt pushed and threatened, they put their bad deal - whatever the situation is, it’s beautiful and
roots deeper into the earth and so grain happened. very useful; you use that for your well-being.
Now you have a great maize crop but no maize.’
Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and
So as the maize crop used the winds to strengthen a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and
themselves, various situations in your life can either be internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and
used to make yourself stronger and better or you can piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life.
sit and cry. This is the choice you have. Everything - it www.ishafoundation.org
CaseStudy
Sponsored Feature
Growing Furniture Business Polishes
its Act with Business Intelligence
from Tally.ERP 9
Customer Overview
Woodpecker Furniture - a furniture
retail company - had a humble
beginning in Besant Nagar, Chennai.
As the demands of the customers
grew, the showroom expanded
to 8000 square feet to house an
enviable range of cots, wardrobes,
dining tables and sofas.
The next expansion was an additional
20,000 Sq.Ft. modern showroom at
Nelson Manickam Road, Aminjikarai.
This showroom is designed in such
a way that it offers a great shopping
experience, right from the ample
parking space to the display of the
furniture.
Woodpecker has today become a
household name in Chennai as a
brand that offers aesthetic, practical
and appealing furniture at value-formoney pricing. Also, Woodpecker
Furniture has ensured that its
furniture is backed by customer
service support and warranty,
ensuring peace of mind to the
customer.
Woodpecker was founded by
Conduit Worldwide Pvt. Ltd. At the
helm are Mr. Swaminathan and
wife who steer the organisation to
face the challenges of the future.
Their international experience, deep
conviction and business ethics have
made the brand a real success.
“Inventory control,
discount, collection
reports generated by
Tally.ERP 9 have given us
an edge in our business.
We have lots of hopes
on Tally software to bring
out more features”
- Mr. S. Swaminathan,
Managing Director, Woodpecker Furniture
44
The showrooms are managed by welltrained sales professionals. In a short
span of 6 months, the staff size has
grown from 32 to 112 people.
Business Challenge
“We source from worldover and retail
it under our own brand name,” says
Mr. Swaminathan. He goes on to relate
the challenges he faced, “As long as it
was one store, it was not a challenge
to us. The moment we went with
the second store, the organisation
became more horizontal and difficult
to manage without software. Naturally,
even finding a suitable software posed
a problem; we started searching for
an ERP.” Being a small company,
Woodpecker did not want to spend
too much money, neither on the initial
outlay nor the fortune that some
AMCs demanded. Also, it preferred
not to have complicated software.
The ERP software originally deployed
proved useful as long as there was
only one store.
Swaminathans wanted a software
package to take care of both the
retail operations and accounts. The
company found it a real challenge as
two separate solutions would increase
the chances of mistakes if duplicate
entries needed to be made.
The solution
One of Mr. Swaminathan’s friends, an
IT consultant, recommended Tally.
ERP 9. The implementation was
executed by Mr. R. Nagarajhan of
Parakram Infotech Pvt. Ltd., - A Master
Tally Partner in
Chennai.
Woodpecker
operates as
follows – The
customer selects
the furniture
and pays a token
advance while
booking it. After a
Mr. R. Nagarajhan
Parakram Infotech Pvt. Ltd.,
week or ten days, the balance is paid
and the merchandise is delivered. A
close parallel to airline seat booking,
Woodpecker customers want their
products to be blocked, making the
tracking of blocked inventory critical.
In other words a sales order is raised.
Once the payment is completed, an
invoice is generated and the delivery
is made from the warehouse. Unless
the complete payment is received, the
invoice cannot be generated.
In very rare cases, i.e. less than 3%,
the delivery is made on credit at the
discretion of the Managing Director.
To govern the selling price, the
company authorised one person per
store to give discounts. This was not
possible in the previous software.
Mr. R. Nagarajhan gives his view
on the implementation done at
Woodpecker. “The main issue which
was addressed by us was to get the
real stock report at real-time from
both showrooms and warehouses
which would help the company to
take more orders from the customers.
Actual stock would help in promising
exact date of delivery. Apart from this,
we have provided Woodpecker with
many types of sales reports with userwise security control to manage the
discounts, other charges etc.”
1. Stock visibility across all five
locations, i.e. at the 2 retail stores
and 3 warehouses had been a big
advantage. When a customer pays
an advance it’s only on actual
availability of the stock at any one
of the 5 locations.
2. The entire POS operations and the
daily collection reports.
3. Discount management to
customers.
Following are the customisation
features developed and implemented
by Parakram Infotech.
1. A sale order gets automatically
converted to a receipt entry once
the advance is received
The business has grown from Re. 1
crore to Rs. 15 crores over the last
4 years. Three warehouses with a
combined area of 25,000 Sq. Ft. hold
3 months’ inventory. The company is
also working on introducing barcodes
by August 2011.
2. Automatic SMS/e-mail would be
sent when Sales Order / Invoice
raised from Tally.
Procurement is managed by Mr.
Swaminathan at the moment, based
on sales and inventory held. Once the
inventory dips below the critical order
quantity, the purchase order should
get generated.
4. Location-wise purchase cost would
be captured in cost-centre wise
Three critical pain points addressed
by Tally, include, from
Mr. Swaminathan’s viewpoint:
3. CEO’s dashboard would give all the
necessary MIS information as on
Date in Real Time
5. POS Sales - When the invoice raised
at the outlet, particular stock
Group item would be displayed
for easy selection + Credit card
service charge calculation would be
automatically done and payment
entry is auto generated helping
the company to reconcile its bank
book.
User based discount report, locationwise stock in single report, Purchase &
Sales Price in a single report, service
Order/Invoice and Security control
are customised to suit the company’s
requirement.
BENEFITS
• Stock visibility
• POS operations
• Daily collection reports
• Discount management
“I can see the payment made in realtime, in both the locations”, says a
relieved Swaminathan. The customer
is educated on maintenance of the
furniture even after the sale is made.
This way Wood Pecker has achieved
100% customer satisfaction.
“The current solution on Tally is
suitable for the next level of expansion
to 5-10 shops planned in thenext
two years. Tally is cost-effective and
robust, yet flexible. As we grow, we’ll
come up with new requirements and
I’m sure we can find the solution
working with Tally, we have lot of
hopes pinned on Tally”,
Mr. Swaminathan concluded.
Woodpecker is a value-driven,
ethical company. Tally helps them
stay that way.
45
BookShelf
mechanisms in the context of the institutional structure within
which Indian companies operate.
Customer in the
Boardroom?
Craft Customer-based Business
Strategy
By Rama Bijapurkar
Response Books, Feb 2012
The business strategies of most companies in India are marked
by the supply-sided, tunnel vision of the market and obsessively
competitor-centred approaches. The book highlights the need
for companies to embed customer centricity into the heart of
their business strategy development process, if they are to
continue to grow profitably and secure their future.
Rama Bijapurkar presents a compelling treatise on how to
develop business strategy around the world of customers
rather than the world of competitors. She draws a sharp
distinction between the ‘market = industry size’ and the ‘market
= customers with needs’ bases for developing business
strategy.
The book proposes Customer-Based Business Strategy
(CBBS), a lucid and simple framework for the successful
assimilation of customer-centricity in business strategy.
The framework provides a blueprint for defining and choosing
market segments, developing rivalry propositions, creating
value delivery systems, reading markets and gaining customer
insight, reading macro trends, strengthening strategy foundation
analyses, removing organizational roadblocks and more. The
book draws on the author’s vast experience in consulting and
teaching and places equal emphasis on both the theory and
the practice of bringing the customer into the boardroom.
Corporate Governance
in India
By Jayati Sarkar & Subrata Sarkar
Sage India, Jan 2012
Corporate Governance in India is an authoritative discourse on
the current state of corporate governance in India. Beginning
with an analysis of its evolution, the authors discuss the
effectiveness and applicability of corporate governance
46
In this volume, the authors take the readers through an in-depth
coverage of six important corporate governance mechanisms:
• Ownership structure
• Board of directors
• Executive compensation
• Auditor and the audit committee
• Market for corporate control
• Disclosure and enforcement
Years of extensive research combined with contemporary data
collected from various corporate governance reports from
across India makes this volume a priceless ready reckoner.
Along with a convenient logical structure, the book provides
a comprehensive coverage of the governance mechanisms
of Indian corporations, especially in light of the international
research in the area.
How Some Small
Businesses Get their
Ducks in a Row
and Grow While
Others Remain
Undistinguished
By Shil Niyogi
Sage India, Nov 2011
What do Jack Welch (GE), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and
Ray Kroc (McDonalds) have in common that made their firms
grow beyond excellence?
Is it their vision, their leadership styles, their peoplemanagement skills, or their industry insight? Perhaps the one
leading factor is their talent for transforming these enterprises
into star performers and brands to reckon with.
Designed as a boot-camp-style workbook, it puts forward a
three-pronged framework for success in business:
• Procedural: Follow the existing norms and introduce better
standards and more effective procedures within the firm.
• Behavioral: Attend to the human side of the enterprise and
the entrepreneur.
• Strategic: Develop long-term plans for the entrepreneur and
the enterprise.
Complex management issues, concepts and situations are
discussed in simple language, sprinkled with humorous
illustrations. Real-life examples of successful entrepreneurs
make this book a must-read for current and aspiring
entrepreneurs.
Darwin’s Brands
Adapting for Success
By Anand Halve
Chlorophyll brand & communications consultancy,
Mumbai, India
Sage India, Dec 2011
Darwin’s Brands traces the evolution of some of the most
notable brands in the Indian marketplace by looking at the
interplay of forces that created the environment in which they
operated and the strategies they adopted.
In a vibrant economy like India—where competition from novel
and captivating launches is relentless; where customers’
preferences change rapidly—these winning brands have shown
resilience and the ability to identify and seize opportunities. The
book proves the point that it is the capacity to adapt to changes
and formulate effective strategies that determines who survives
in the hyper-competitive marketplace of today.
Each of the stories in this book is unique but shares a common
thread running through the evolution of the brands’ strategies and
actions. These compelling stories will help brand practitioners,
students and business managers chart-out branding strategies
and action-plans that lead to business success.
Executive Coaching
A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating
Excellence
By Sunil Unny Guptan
Sage Publishing
Executive Coaching is a high-value learning and development
opportunity offered to critical senior executives. Its objective
is to help them make strategic shifts in their professions,
careers and lives. This book is an in-depth exploration of this
transformational practice.
The book discusses the process beginning from the initial
contact to building relationship and mutual understanding,
taking the required precautions and maximizing output. The
author has detailed the theoretical approaches to Executive
Coaching; the competencies, capabilities and skills required to
be an effective executive coach; and the tools and techniques
used in the process.
The book is an invitation to getting an inside look at Executive
Coaching. It will serve as a guide to building a positive coaching
culture in organizations and to help the top management in
getting the best out of their workforce.
You Don’t Need a
Godfather
Create Your Own Success
By Elango R
Tata Mcgrawhill
The work pressure can make one too many crumble; there
is a path to success above failure and disappointments. The
world doesn't stop at a yes or no; you have to learn to move
onward towards sanity and with all your dignity. Elango R. is
a columnist and a blogger apart from being an author; he is a
renowned expert who guides a lot of people resolve their crisis
and helps them develop themselves. The contents have been
directed to be concise, and they tackle the everyday issues
with unusual approaches. The chapters speak loudly through
various motivating phrases that are the quintessential attitudes
for one to possess.
The book prescribes best ways to deal with the insane
situations that propel themselves on people is to be in touch
with yourself and have an uncompromising will to rise. The
cornerstone on which your growth stands is nothing but your
willpower, this book teaches you valuable lessons through a
personal narration of events and incidences that will work to
elevate your awareness and regulate a proper exercise of will.
The author tries to explain the different ways of accepting things
through a balanced state of mind that reigns all your decision
making process. The book has practical inputs for people to
assimilate into their system, so to sketch a perfect picture of
achievements on the canvas of ambitions.
Strategic Thinking
Explorations around Conflict and
Cooperation
By Biswatosh Saha
Parthasarathi Banerjee
Ram Kumar Kakani
Sage India, Oct 2011
Strategic Thinking provides an interpretation of strategy around
an actor rather than an organization. It views strategic action as
being executed in a milieu populated by power holders, where
the individual strategist actor holds centre stage, and where
pursuits are obstructed by the countervailing threats of other
power holders. The authors explain that the strategic milieu is an
intensely governed set-up where the relations and transactions
between the power holders controlling key assets are under
the governance of the current set of rules and institutions.
47
OffBeat
Silicon Valley salaries still very high
A
verage yearly salaries for Silicon
Valley technology workers hit a
record high last year, at $104,195.
Start-ups and the success of firms
like Facebook, Zynga, and LinkedIn
have driven a hiring war for software
engineers and other skilled workers.
Message – whatever the highs and
lows of the economy, top talent will
earn top dollars.
Indian mall
management
W
Beijing 5th most
expensive
O
ffice space now costs more in
Beijing than it does in New York.
Rents have soared in Beijing over the
past two years, making it the fifth most
expensive city in the world for commercial
space, surpassing New York. Hong Kong
remains the most expensive, followed by
London, Tokyo, and Moscow. Is it one
of the signs of China entering the Super
Power league? Perhaps! This time for
the wrong reasons if you also consider
Beijing as one of the most polluted cities
in the world.
The Bangalore Express
A
lot of CXOs, VPs, entrepreneurs and venture
capitalists don’t mind shelling out that extra buck
to fly business class in long haul flights as they offer
excellent networking opportunities. The most popular one
between the US and India is perhaps the San Francisco –
Bangalore flight of Lufthansa. It has earned the nickname
‘The Bangalore Express’ as most of those in the business
class in the plane have to do with technology and are out
there to strike a deal or switch jobs.
Even though other airlines like Emirates, Singapore
Airlines and Cathay Pacific have flights between the two
cities, Lufthansa, although not as comfortable as the
others, is popular since it started the flight first and is
popular among the networking hungry customers. The
flight is said to be full most of the time, meaning that
the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Plateau still do brisk
business.
ith so many swanky malls springing
up in Indian cities at least one a
week, and are literally full most of the
time, it seems the mall owners are raking
in good money. Far from it! It’s a different
matter that malls have become more of
a hangout place rather than shopping
outlets for most consumers. While this is
one reason, the other is not-very-helpful
government policies. The larger reason
for 200 of the 250 malls losing money
as of January 2012 is poor management
practices of promoters.
It’s a typical landlord-tenant Indian
mentality where each one would love to
squeeze the other never mind if both sink.
A lot of maturity is needed for working
in tandem if organized retail is to go up
from the current 5 percent to 10 percent
in the next three to five years. The earlier
they realize it and come up with creative
solutions, the better. They can make a
beginning by not considering shopping
malls as real estate business but rather
as a retail business.
Clairvoyant
Artist
makes a
cool $200
million
I
n 2005, David Choe, a
graffiti artist, chose to take
Facebook shares, rather
than his usual fee, for painting
murals
at
Facebook’s
former headquarters in Palo
Alto, California. Now that
Facebook is going public,
those shares may soon be
worth $200 million. Creative
thinking indeed!
Seminar, Conference update
International Joint Conference on
Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical
Technology
15 April 2012, Pune
17th annual conference of Indian
Distance Education Association
17 to 19 April 2012, Nashik
Website : ycmou.digitaluniversity.ac
Great Indian Developer Summit
17 to 20 April 2012, Bangalore
Website : www.developermarch.com
Email : [email protected]
International Conference on Business
Intelligence, Analytics and Knowledge
9 to 20 April 2012, Hyderabad
Website : www.ibshyderabad.org
Multicon'12
20 to 21 April 2012, Rasipuram, TN
Website : www.mecmulticon.com
2nd Annual LTE Summit 2012
20 April 2012, Mumbai
Website : www.cerebralbusiness.com
Email: [email protected]
2nd ONE DAY NATIONAL HOMOEOPATHIC CONFERENCE
22 April 2012, Jabalpur
Email : amitpandey007@rediffmail.com
Aquatech India 2012
25 to 27 April 2012,New Delhi
Website :www.aquatechtrade.com
CAADRIA 2012
25 to 28 April 2012, Chennai
Website : http://caadria2012.org/
Private Equity Forum-2012
26 to 27 April 2012, Mumbai
Website : www.leprivateequity.com
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NANO
SCIENCE,NANO ENGINEERING & APPLICATIONS (NCONSEA-2012)
27 to 28 April 2012, Hyderabad
5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
MUSIC THERAPY
27 to 28 April 2012, bangalore
Website : http://nada.in
International Conference on Electronics
and Communication Engineering
28 to 29 April 2012, Vizag
Website: www.interscience.ac.in
2012 International Conference on Traffic
and Logistic Engineering ¨C ICTLE 2012
28 to 29 April 2012, Chennai
Website : www.ictle.org
World Congress on Biotechnology-2012
4 to 6 May 2012, Hyderabad
Website : www.brightice.org/
CMO CONCLAVE 2012
10 to 11 May 2012, Mumbai
Website: www.cmoconclave.com
Email: suheil@confianza-biz.com
International Conference on Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science 28 to
12 May 2012, Trivandrum, keralag
Website : www.interscience.ac.in
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION EXPO 2012
13 to 14 May 2012, JAIPUR
Website : www.walternbrukes.com
International Conference on Power
System Operation and Energy
Management
20 May 2012, Bangalore
HR Strategy Forum 2012
24 May 2012, Mumbai,
Website: www.hrsummit.in
E-mail: [email protected]
International Civil Engineering and
Sustainable Infrastructure Conference
24 to 26 May 2012, New Delhi
Website : www.aiesd.org
Workshop on HR Competencies
25 May 2012, Mumbai
Website: www.hrsummit.in
E-mail: [email protected]
The Fourth International workshop on
Grid Computing 2012
May 25-27, 2012. Delhi
Website : http://airccse.org
ConCon-2012
30 to 31 May 2012, Visakhapatnam
Website : www.andhrauniversity.info
For more event updates log on to visit www.meraevents.com
Phone : +91-40-40404160, Email : [email protected]
Workshops & EXPOS Update
North India International
Jewellery Show
12th to 15th Apri, Ludhiana
Website : http://www.niijs.com/
Steel Technology Conclave 2012
16th & 17th April, 2012, Gurgaon
Website:www.globalbusinessconnect.org
Email :[email protected]
India Knit Fair 2012
18h & 20th April, 2012, Tiruppur
Website : www.indiaknitfair.com
POWER-GEN India & Central Asia
19 - 21 April, 2012, New Delhi
Website : www.power-genindia.com
Diemould India 2012
19 - 22 April, 2012, Mumbai
Website : www.tagmaindia.org
Zak Hospital Design &
Management Expo
20 - 22 April, 2012, New Delhi
Website : www.zakhdm.com
International Industrial Expo
20 - 22 April, 2012, Pune
Website : www.industrialexpos.com
Education Worldwide India
25 April, 2012, Hyderabad
Website : www.eduworldwideindia.com
Third World Renewable Energy Technology Congress & Expo-2012
25 to 27 April 2012 , New Delhi
Website : http://wretc.in/
Chemspec India
25 to 27 April 2012 , Mumbai
Website: www.chemspecevents.com
India Warehousing Show 2012
26 to 28 April 2012 , Noida, UP
Website : www.indiawarehousingshow.com
Media Expo- Kolkata
27 to 29 April 2012 , Kolkata
Website : www.themediaexpo.com
Email : [email protected],
The India Water Expo 2012
27 to 29-APR-12
Website : www.indiawaterexpo.com/
Kisan Uphaar 2012
28th-30th April, 2012, Haryana
Website: www.kisanuphaar.in
Email :[email protected]
MARWAR SHOPPING FESTIVAL
30th April, 2012 - Bhatiawadi
Website : www.expovision.in
Mother Baby & Child Expo
4 - 6 May, 2012, Mumbai
Website : www.motherbabyexpo.com/
World Children Expo
4 - 6 May 2012, Gurgaon
Website : www.worldchildrenexpo.com
COMPOSITE INDIA EXPO (CIE'12)
4th to 6th May 2012, Chennai
Website : www.cieonline.in
India International Medical
Equipment Expo
4-6 May 2012, Hyderabad
www.medicalequipmentexpos.com
Global Gurukul
08 - 09 May 2012, Ranchi
Website : www.globalgurukul.in
Hospitality Business Fair 2012
10 - 12 May 2012, New Delhi
Website : www.hbf.co.in/
fMM&T 2011
12-14 May 2012., Greater Noida
Website: www.aplfindia.com
Email: info@aplfindia.com
11th Annual Greentech Safety Award &
Conference 2012
17th - 18th May 2012, Visakhapatna
Website :www.greentech.org
TraficInfraTech
May 17-19, 2012 , Mumbai
Website : www.trafficinfratechexpo.com
For more event updates log on to visit www.meraevents.com
Phone : +91-40-40404160, Email : [email protected]
ManagementNext English Monthly  April 2012  Regn. No. Mag (3) NPP/192/2004-05

Management Next

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