Movie Review: After Earth

Sentimental sci-fi...

Despite being far from M. Night Shyamalan’s best work, After Earth is by far one of the better films he has directed. The father son duo of Will Smith and Jaden Smith crash land on Earth, 1000 years after humanity moved to Nova Prime, due to an environmental cataclysm.

Things didn’t go that well in Nova Prime either, where humanity had to deal with S’Krell, alien creatures who intended to conquer Nova Prime. General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) learnt to ghost his fears and in turn becomes a hero as he defeated the aliens who fed on fear.

After crash landing on Earth however, he takes to the sidelines with Kitai Range (Jaden Smith), his son does all the heavy lifting of running around Earth is search of their rescue beacon. Almost all the species on Earth are now lethal to humans and Kitai needs to prove his chops as a ranger and overcome all adversities to save his father.

If you think the movie has the classic Shyamalan twist at the end, then sorry to disappoint, for it ends exactly as you would imagine.

Even though the script could have been far better - with emotions, for one, keeping the fact in mind that father and son are together millions of miles from their home planet, the film does do a decent job.

Jaden Smith is the main character in this story and he does a far better job than many older actors. Will he grow up to be as charismatic and larger than life as his father? Only time would tell.

Even though After Earth is a bit slow and prodding at times, it is nothing you can’t sit through, and the overall wonder of the storyline makes up for any poor scripting or acting. Watch it this summer, it will definitely make you feel better.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Book Review: Big Data

A look at the larger picture

From the Stone to Digital age, human civilization has processed information and data. This is starting to change, observes Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University and Kenneth Cukier, Data Editor of the Economist and a prominent commentator, in their latest book, Big Data. They say that we now are entering the world of constant data-driven predictions.

The book begins by citing how Google, on its own initiative, devised means to track the spread and intensity of flu prior to the 2009 health season. Google’s methodology began by comparing 50 million of the most common American search terms with data available with Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, on the spread of seasonal flu between 2003 and 2008. Google’s software found a combination of search terms that, appropriately weighted, strongly correlated with official data. However, unlike the CDC, Google was able to make those assessments in real time, not a week or two later.

There is another interesting case of how Oren Etzioni, a leading US computer scientist was both infuriated and frustrated to learn that many passengers booking a flight after he had, were able to pay less - contrary to conventional wisdom. He then ‘scraped’ information from a travel website from a 41-day period to forecast whether a price was a good deal or not, founding Farecast to offer this new ability.

Etzioni next went on to improve the system by digesting data from a travel site that covered most American commercial routes for a year - nearly 200 billion flight-price records. Before expanding to hotel rooms, concert tickets and used cars, Microsoft snapped up his firm ($110 million) and incorporated it into it Bing.

Authors explain that ‘big data’ are things that can be done on a large scale that cannot be done on a smaller one, and see this offering as a major transformation.

To those who are not aware of the ever changing world of data mining, the duo cites how approximately 7 billion shares change hands every day in finance, two-thirds via computer model direction, Google processing over 24 petabytes of data/day, Facebook getting over 10 million new photos uploaded every hour.

In the age of big data we crunch an incomprehensible amount of information, providing us with invaluable insights about the whats rather than the whys. For those who are puzzled about the importance of big data, authors point out the scientific and societal importance of this data as well as the degree to which it can become a source of economic value. “The world of big data is poised to shake up everything from businesses and the sciences to healthcare, government, economics, the humanities, and every other aspect of society,” says the book. As a result the amount of data is not just growing fast but it is outstripping not just our machines but our imagaination as well.

A few initial chapters identifies and examines different shifts the way in which information is analysed, transformed and how we understand and organize society. This is followed by datification that refers to taking all the information under the Sun and transform it into a data format to make it quantified. Chapters Six and Seven, detail how big data changes the nature of business, markets, and society. Finally it concludes with the following observation. “It doesn’t negate the insights that big data offers, but it puts big data in its place  as a tool that doesn’t offer ultimate answers, just good-enough ones to help us now until better methods and hence better answers come along. It also suggests that we must use this tool with a generous degree of humility.....and humanity.

As every coin has two sides so does big data. The book points out how it erodes privacy and threaten individual freedom and warn us the numbers are more falliable than we think. It draws out a comparison how Apple founder Steve Jobs continually improved gadgets based on intution rather on data while Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense during Vietnam War, insisted on statistical rigours to arrive at a decision that led to the United States to escalate the war partly on basis on body counts, rather than to base decisions on more meaningful metrics.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

The Enterprise Returns

Every Star Trek has an older audience which waits with bated breath for the next film to come out and a younger one which either becomes part of the Star Trek pack or think it to be bollocks meant for nerds with glasses and acne.

Thankfully Star Trek Into Darkness is not just a film which happily converts a new generation of film goers but also makes the older bunch come out happy and satisfied.

J.J. Abrams, the director thankfully kept the spirit of the earlier films alive without being slavishly tied to it. With a slick style of direction and modern production values, audiences watching a Star Trek for the first time will enjoy its CGI.

Having said that, the most important factor which makes this film tick are the amazing performances by its lead actors. Chris Pine as Captain Kirk was excellent with a highly believable performance in a setting which can easily lose its human touch and look all futuristic and droid-like.

A special mention must be made for Benedict Cumberbatch as John Harrison, the main antagonist of the film. Every single word which comes out of his mouth is scary and without him, the film wouldn't have been so good. With his expressions and cool-gaze he might just be the most cold hearted super-villain you have ever seen.

The plot might not boldly take you to places you haven't gone before but wherever it does take you, is a wonderful place and it would be positively Vulcan to say otherwise.

Overall, it is a great action adventure for all cine-lovers, with slick production values, great special effects and quite a good story. A must watch...

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Smokers, cough up more

 The Saradha scam will further aggravate Bengal’s economic crisis

The unraveling of the Saradha scam in West Bengal could not have come at a more inopportune time for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It has only confirmed the growing perception that the state is in the throes of severe misrule and inept governance at the hands of Didi and her Trinamool Congress Party. Even if we ignore the obvious links between the TMC and Saradha supremo Sudipto Sen, Banerjee's actions in the wake of the scam have only earned her further ridicule and derision.

Even if there is nothing wrong in bailing out the financially-fleeced victims, why impose a tax burden on people who had nothing to do with Saradha's misdeeds? Banerjee plans to raise Rs.150 crore from imposing an additional levy on cigarettes (which seems to be sensible) and the remaining Rs.350 crore (of the Rs.500 crore liability incurred by depositors) from the raised petro-prices. These higher taxes come close on the heels of the recent hike in VAT slabs in the state. However, the additional levy on cigarettes is sure to pinch a lot of pockets considering that taxes were raised by 5 percent only a month ago. Even though Banerjee is well within her rights to increase taxes on items she feels merits such an imposition, she also has a moral responsibility to ensure that the money earned is well spent.

But that does not appear to be the case. Instead, Didi's populism has been a key factor in straining the government's budget to breaking point. The state's subsidy figure has already jumped to Rs.2171.56 crore in the current fiscal from Rs.1512.95 crore in 2012-13. Much of this is being squandered on populist programmes, ranging from extending dole for unemployed youths to compensating imams of the mosques (directly linked to vote bank appeasement).

Such spendthriftiness could have been condoned only if the state was not staring at bankruptcy – a distinct possibility given the debt figure of Rs.49366.65 crore and administration’s struggle to meet its wage liability of Rs.42,000 crore.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Sitting ducks in jails

Failure to protect the lives of prisoners is reprehensible.

The death of the Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore jail and the subsequent reactionary attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanauallah in KotBalwal jail in Jammu & Kashmir are the kind of grisly incidents that could easily have been prevented. Though there is no denying the fact that both India and Pakistan share a bitter history, a humane treatment of each other's nationals in custody is something that the two countries need to follow if only to meet the bare requirements of basic civilization norms and those of international jurisprudence, compassion and security. However, Pakistan's conduct in this matter has been particularly egregious.

Singh’s story bears out Pakistan's callousness in the way it treats Indian prisoners lodged in its jails. Given the fact that at the time of the attack Singh had already acquired the status of a high-profile prisoner, one would have expected the Pakistan government to have ensured that Singh was accorded maximum security so that an untoward incident damaging bilateral relations could have been avoided. Instead Pakistan chose to ignore the death threats and kept him in prison without the necessary security.

Though the subsequent retaliatory attack on Pak prisoner Sanauallah is no less regrettable, the attenuating feature is that it was at least not premeditated as in Singh's case. Prima facie, it appears to be a case more of personal acrimony, which went out of hand. But India has at least allowed officials from Pakistan to meet the injured prisoner. On the other hand, Sarabjit’s vital organs were found removed when his body was handed over to India.

As in the case of Sarabjit, Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails, of whom there are about 800 languishing, are allegedly subject to humiliation and third degree torture. The ones who are lucky to come out alive have gory tales of horror to relate. Quite a few of them, who have come out of incarceration, have been found to have gone soft in the head.

Islamabad and New Delhi need to learn lessons from Singh’s and Sanaullah's tragic saga and accord importance to an issue that both had been wishing away. Both sides need to evolve a prisoners’ policy, including consular access and a monitoring mechanism of their physical status and safety. It's unfortunate that India does not have this kind of bilateral agreement with many nations, including Pakistan.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Karin Cook to Her Mother

In 1989, 52-year-old Long Island resident Joan Cook Carpenter passed away after succumbing to breast cancer — a battle which she had chosen to keep from her loved ones until her final days. In 1999, a decade after Joan's death, her 29-year-old daughter, Karin, wrote her the following letter. Karin wrote an award-winning novel partly inspired by the experience, titled What Girls Learn, in 1998.

November, 1999

Dear Mom,

What time was I born?
When did I walk?
What was my first word?

My body has begun to look like yours. Suddenly I can see you in me. I have so many questions. I look for answers in the air. Listen for your voice. Anticipate. Find meaning in the example of your life. I imagine what you might have said or done. Sometimes I hear answers in the echo of your absence. The notion of mentor is always a little empty for me. Holding out for the hope of you. My identity has taken shape in spite of that absence. There are women I go to for advice. But advice comes from the outside. Knowing, from within. There is so much I don't know.

What were your secrets?
What was your greatest source of strength?
When did you know you were dying?

I wish I had paid closer attention. The things that really matter you gave me early on—a way of being and loving and imagining. It's the stuff of daily life that is often more challenging. I step unsure into a world of rules and etiquette, not knowing what is expected in many situations. I am lacking a certain kind of confidence. Decisions and departures are difficult. As are dinner parties. Celebrations and ceremony. Any kind of change. Small things become symbolic. Every object matters—that moth-eaten sweater, those photos. Suddenly I care about your silverware. My memory is an album of missed opportunities. The loss of you lingers.

Did you like yourself?
Who was your greatest love?
What did you fear most?

In the weeks before your death, I knew to ask questions. At nineteen, I needed to hear your hopes for me. On your deathbed, you said that you understood my love for women, just as you suggested you would have fought against it. In your absence, I have had to imagine your acceptance.


There are choices I have made that would not have been yours. Somehow that knowledge is harder for me than if I had you to fight with. My motions lack forcefulness. I back into decisions rather than forge ahead. This hesitancy leaves me wondering:


I search for information about your life. Each scrapbook, letter, anecdote I come across is crucial to my desire to understand you and the choices you made. I have learned about affairs, abuse, all things you would not have wanted me to know. Yet they explain the missing blanks in my memory bank and round out your humanity.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

365 Days of Solitude

Akhilesh Yadav is being written off as a failure by the Delhi media. What is the reality? Anil Pandey and Avinash Mishra look beyond the headlines 

Great expectations often lead to bitter disappointments. Contemporary political history in India is littered with examples. Back in 1977, when the badly underestimated and maligned Indian voter threw out Indira Gandhi in the aftermath of the Emergency, the new Janata Party government was expected to transform Indian politics, governance and India. Nothing of the sort happened. In 1985, a battered and bruised India looked up at Rajiv Gandhi as the new hope. Bofors killed those hopes and dreams. Then came the messiah V.P. Singh who was expected to clean up the

Augean stables and banish corruption. He turned out to be a false prophet.

Is something similar happening with Akhilesh Yadav? For most of 2011, when the mainstream media in Delhi was obsessed with Rahul Gandhi and his plans to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the 39 year old Akhilesh Yadav was touring the state on a bicycle and connecting with both party workers and voters at the grassroots level. His low profile and unsung travels were similar to what the late Y.S Rajasekhara Reddy did in Andhra Pradesh when the mainstream media was obsessed with Chandrababu Naidu and his computer gimmicks. When results of the assembly elections were announced in March 2012, both the mainstream media and Rahul Gandhi were stunned. Suddenly, hacks in Delhi "discovered" how Akhilesh Yadav promises to transform the rotten state of affairs in UP. He became Shiela Dixit, Narendra Modi, Shivraj Chauhan, Raman Singh and Naveen Patnaik rolled into one.

And now, the same set of Delhi hacks seem to have written off the man. His first year as Chief Minister has been projected as a year of communal malice, of the return off the goons, of lawlessness and of the worst kind of corruption and governance. Many think Akhilesh Yadav has missed his date with history; his ambitions and plans gobbled and crippled by contemporaries of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav who just won't allow him to deliver good governance.  But hold on, has he been a failure all the way? Is he reaping the curse of great expectations? And is he a victim of the Delhi media that applies different yardsticks to judge the Congress and other governments? As it happens, there is an element of truth in all three presumptions. How much importance you give to each presumption depends on your ideological prejudices.

In a gleaming white kurta and pyjama and his trademark black jacket and sneakers, Akhilesh Yadav greets us effusively at his home on March 15, at 10.30 AM. The walls are adorned with paintings of Lucknow chikan work and the room is very simple looking without any gaudy displays of power and wealth. That typically impish and charming smile is intact, though the eyes clearly reflect shadows of the weight of power. But even cynical journalists can see that his earnest manner and his passion for the state is not a made for camera cameo. This man is real and he means what he says.

Akhilesh is no doubt perturbed by the manner in which the Delhi media has slammed his performance as chief minister. He feels that even one law and order situation or event makes the media completely forget the intentions and achievements of his government. But in his quietly confident manner, the young leader says that the policies and steps he has initiated will have a transformative impact on the State in the long term.

Just a few days before Akhilesh met us for this story, he had unveiled one such transformative step. At a huge public function attended by thousands, he had distributed the first set of laptops to students who had finished their plus two studies. About 10,000 laptops were distributed that day. Akhilesh gets emotional when he describes to us how girls wept with joy after getting their laptops. He is hurt by media reports that highlight only things like his image on the screen savers and how some students are selling their laptops. He says, "I am convinced this step and the one to provide all class ten pass students with tablets, will bring about a massive change. But that change will not happen overnight. It will be a few years before the impact can be seen. Just imagine how the education and careers of an entire generation will be positively impacted. Not just that. The tablets and laptops will benefit entire families including poor farmers with weather forecasts." The Akhilesh government is committed to providing free tablets to all students clearing class 10th and free laptops to all students clearing class 12th. This year alone, his government will distribute 26 lakh tablets and 15 lakh laptops.

And this will happen year after year. One such beneficiary is Rambha Gupta, an 18 year-old physically challenged girl from Gorakhpur whose father Devi Prasad is a poor farmer. "I had never dreamt of ever owning a laptop," says Rambha who still cannot believe her luck. Akhilesh has a committed voter in Rambha who gushes about how the Chief Minister walked up to her and personally handed over the laptop. You can do your electoral math and figure out how educated and laptop cum Blackberry lugging aides of Akhilesh describe this as a game changer. More than 40 lakh beneficiaries a year becomes tens of millions of voters if family members are added. Seeing the passion and conviction with which Akhilesh talks about this scheme, we have to grudgingly agree that the Delhi media has only trivialized this policy.

Another game changer is something that Akhilesh seems to have borrowed from  Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar. And that is provision of cash incentives to girls for higher studies. One scheme is called Kanya Vidyadhan Yojana under which all girls from economically backward families will get a sum of Rs 30,000 on clearing plus-two. This is indeed a huge incentive. In the long run, tens of millions of young girls and their families will benefit from his scheme. According to aides of Akhilesh, Rs 30,000 may seem a small sum to Delhi media, but has the potential to transform lives in rural UP. Another scheme for the girl student called "Padhen bitiya, badhein bitiya"  will have an even bigger impact. All girls from poor families will get a cash scholarship of Rs 30,000 on making it to class 11. These two moves will have a tremendous impact on human development indicators in the long run.

Says Abhishek Mishra, former professor of IIM, Ahmedabad and a Cambridge University alumni who is now a minister in the Akhilesh government, "Parents used to traditionally stop the education of their daughters after class 7 or 8. This one scheme will transform an entire generation." According to Mishra, all poor girls getting admitted in engineering and medical colleges in UP will be exempt from fees, apart from getting cash scholarships. Quite clearly, this is a win-win situation for everyone and will definitely change the social structure of the State in about a decade. And of course, Akhilesh and his team are banking on the fact that like laptops and tablets, cash scholarships for girl students will create a constituency of committed voters.

Yet another potential game changer is the unemployment allowance that is being provided to the youth of the State. According to this scheme, all educated and unemployed youngsters are entitled to a Rs 900 per month allowance till they get a job. This will be applicable to all those who have registered themselves as unemployed with the State. There is little doubt that this is a populist move aimed at creating new vote banks for the Samajwadi Party.  Says Professor A. P. Tiwari, Dean Academics of Dr. Shakuntala Mishra Bishwavidyalaya, "The dole is a good idea. But in the long term, what will really matter is the creation of employment opportunities that can come manly in the farm sector." Many analysts think that this dole will reduce frustration and crime, and create a positive scenario for volatile youngsters.

Akhilesh, who is himself a computer and Internet buff who likes sending mails and Blackberry messages, seems to have learnt some historical lessons from the experience of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu whose political career seems to be in the doldrums. While emphasizing the importance of computers and e-governance and e-initiatives, Akhilesh seems to be betting on agriculture and the farm sector to boost the economy of the State. Says Akhilesh, "In our budget, we have allocated 74 percent of funds for poor farmers and villages." With this move, he seems to be taking a leaf out of the book of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh who has invested heavily in agriculture and reaped handsome electoral dividends. Also taking a leaf out of the UPA regime, the Akhilesh government has waived off farm loans worth about Rs 1000 crore.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Omar Abdullah ko gussa kyon aata hai?

By questioning his state’s accession to India, the Jammu and Kashmir CM is only continuing with a time-tested family formula, reports Haroon Reshi 

The Abdullahs of Kashmir have a long and distinguished history of issuing intriguing statements and adopt seemingly contradictory postures. The great Sheikh Abdullah, reigning Chief Minister Omar’s grandfather and the state’s first head of government, kept New Delhi guessing about his true intentions. A patriotic statement issued in the Indian capital, a not-too-subtle statement underlining the disputed status of Kashmir in the valley and at another time, an unilateral discussion with Chinese Premier Chou en Lai in a third country on an independent status for Kashmir. So which was the true Sheikh?

Farooq Abdullah toed his father’s line. Loyalty to India was balanced by some pretty anti-Indian statements when the need arose – and there were plenty of those occasions. Omar Abdullah, therefore, is just following a hoary family tradition. Two weeks after Parliament unanimously passed a resolution affirming Jammu and Kashmir, including Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), as an integral part of India, Omar Abdullah argued that the state's accession to India was conditional. On March 25, he told the state assembly said, “Those who repeatedly claim that Jammu and Kashmir is ‘atoot ang’ (integral part) of India forget that the accession was only on three subjects; communication/currency, defence and foreign affairs.” Without naming New Delhi, the young CM alleged that the state’s special status had been eroded by successive Indian governments.

Omar Abdullah’s assembly sermon was delivered in the backdrop of the controversial arrest of former Kashmiri militant Syed Liyaqat Ali by the Delhi Police, which claimed that Ali had hatched a conspiracy to carry out a suicide attack in Delhi on the eve of Holi to avenge the hanging Afzal Guru. Omar Abdullah’s government has refuted Delhi Police claims, saying that the former militant was living in POK for the last 16 years and he along with his wife and children were heading to his native place under the government-backed surrender and rehabilitation policy.

 Be that as it may, the CM has a track record of questioning the state’s accession to India – particularly when his chips are down. In 2010 when people were protesting alleged killings by security agencies, Omar told the state assembly that ``Kashmir acceded to India, unlike Hyderabad and Junagadh it did not merge with India.”  On March 5, when a youth was reportedly killed by the Army in north Kashmir’s Baramullah District, Omar hit back, ``What answer will I give to the people. Have we held the Indian flag in our hands for this?”

In his moment of agony, Omar uttered the ultimate truism:`` Somebody (Afzal Guru) is hanged somewhere. The decision is taken by someone else (Government of India) and the mercy petition is rejected somewhere else. And the incident comes knocking to my house as if I have hanged him.”

Why is Omar Abdullah getting desperate? Kashmir watchers believe it has deep roots. ``National Conference (NC) and the Abdullahs, unlike other mainstream parties, are deeply rooted in Kashmiri nationalism. It goes back to the Sheikh’s Quit Kashmir moment and the autonomy resolution passed by a two-third NC majority in the assembly in 2006,’’ Noor Baba, head of the Political Science department, Kashmir University, told TSI.

Baba’s argument seems legitimate. Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah, currently a union minister, is a former member of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation front (JKLF). Nearly 26 years after the accession, Farooq had formally joined the JKLF, when he had visited POK in 1973.

Mustufa Kamal, Sheikh Abdulla's nephew and Omar’s uncle, told TSI: ``You may or may not like it but Kashmir is an unsolved dispute. When Omar Abdullah says that Kashmir had acceded to India only on three counts, he is reminding you of an undeniable historical fact. What is wrong ? Truth should prevail. Kashmir is not an integral part of India like the other states.''

It would appear that public opinion is on his side. Says Sheikh Abdullah's biographer and well known scholar Muhammad Yusuf Teng, ``The NC has never accepted J&K as an integral part of India and I believe this is the only reason why it is the only grassroot-level cadre-based regional political party in the state. Omar wants to refresh the party’s basic position by challenging the ideology of the Indian state.''He should know.

However, some other political observers attribute more than just nationalism to this Abdullahspeak – more specifically the 2014 assembly elections. ``The fact is Omar Abdullah and his party are going to face a tough situation in the 2014 elections. To convince the people, NC seems to have nothing in its hand to sell. It has lost its ground in Jammu to the BJP and in Kashmir to the PDP. Now their leaders are trying to allure Kashmir’s Muslim sentiment by questioning the accession to India,” Zareef Ahmad Zareef, author and President, Valley Citizens Council, told TSI, adding, ``The ground reality is that Omar Abdullah has failed to deliver. He could not even fulfill the promises he had made to the people in terms of the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the implementation of the recommendations of the working group on centre-state relation headed by Justice (retd) Sagir Ahmed, who has recommended more autonomy for the state.”

Apart from the mysterious deaths at Shopian in 2009 and the killing of 100 people during the stone pelting agitation next year, Omar's tenure has been marked by relative calm until the Afzal Guru hanging this year. That has been a signal for another round of curfews, arrests, an unofficial media gag and detention of popular separatists. Concurrently, militants appeared to be beginning to reassert. Half-a-dozen panchayat members have been killed in the past six months. There have been frequent skirmishes and casualties between militants and Indian security forces.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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Book Review: Ash in the Belly: India's Unfinished Battle against Hunger

Silent suffering

India in the 21st century surges ahead, impatient to claim its long-sought status as an economic giant, with a burgeoning middle class. Confident and predatory, Indian business leaders stalk the world for new corporate acquisitions. According to Forbes, the combined wealth of India’s fifty-five wealthiest people was $ 246.5 billion in 2011. Between 1996 and 2008, wealth holdings of Indian billionaires are estimated to have risen from 0.8 per cent of GDP to 23 per cent. Yet it is an irony that India is also home to the largest number of impoverished people who sleep on an empty stomach in the world’s largest producer of milk and the second-largest wheat grower.

Often neglected by the government and dismissed by the middle class, 360 million poor people estimated by Planning Commission are around us in our films, literature, poetry and find a mention in  election manifestos and budget speeches at regular intervals. Even now our attention is diverted when 24x7 electronic media invades the countryside with their intrusive cameras and accusatory interrogation to break exclusive stories of starvation deaths.

Harsh Mander, the author of Ash in the Belly, has fought a long battle to put an end to hunger – as a former bureaucrat in districts of central India, a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and as a food security campaigner along with noted activists like Kavita Srivatsava, Jean Dreze, Colin Gonsalves and Biraj Patnaik, among many others.
Alternating between analyses and harrowing life-cycle tales of hunger narrated by destitutes from intensely food-insecure social groups in eight villages in Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, Mander, in his book, attempts to uncover the political economy of hunger in India, its sociology and psychology and the achievements and failures of public policy in battling its occurrence.
 
The book moves the reader enough even before one embarks on the first chapter as the author’s note and prologue establishes how hunger, reality of millions of Indians, is insufficiently acknowledged except by those who are condemned to live with it.
Gajalachmi, 32, a widow from dalit Madiga caste of Andhra Pradesh in Medak district, died of hunger and caught in the vicious cycle of debt. In death, she had to be buried as she had lived without solace and dignity. “And without even a fistful of rice,” notes the author.

Though hunger is an unremitting way of life in India, Mander warns us not to reduce people living with hunger to statistical ammunition, subjecting their suffering and valiant resistance only to cold economics of costs and benefits, and calculus of calories.

A group of women of the Musahar community in Uttar Pradesh, Mander recalls in their conversation that the most terrible of lessons that each one has to teach her children is the lesson about how to sleep hungry. “If they are small, we sometimes beat them until they sleep. But as they grow older, we try to teach them how to live with hunger. This lesson will equip them for a lifetime. It will be their companion for the rest of their lives”.

Similarly Antamma in Andhra Pradesh, widowed early, only begged once for the leftovers from the government-funded school meal for children. Soon she was torn by guilt afterwards that she had eaten the children’s share.

One wonders how India could be on a trajectory of higher growth often highlighted by policy-makers when millions of children, women and men go to sleep hungry every night. Anyone complacent about the development that India has achieved should read this compelling and insightful book that reminds us that the right to food with dignity is indeed the right to life.
Though these tales may evoke sympathy, they equally reminds us that a much larger population who struggle daily to feed their families and themselves co-exist with readers and policy makers who gloat over shining India or high growth story.
“People living with hunger are not helpless – pitiable and passive receptacles of charity agents and state largesse – but are active agents with often sturdy spirit and humanity, who stoically endure want and oppression,” Mander writes, while passionately arguing for the passage of a universal right to food law which guarantees food to all persons not as State benevolence but as a legal entitlement.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Movie Review: ABCD

Anyone can make a film

If you put your heart into dance, dance will never leave your heart – that is the profound aphorism that the plot of ABCD – Anybody Can Dance is predicated on. It is a film that wants you to leave the auditorium with a spring in your steps and a sparkle in your eyes, even if you are not much of a dance freak.


Nothing wrong with that per se. ABCD – Anybody Can Dance is a rather well-meaning entertainer that showcases plenty of nimble-footed, high-spirited dancing talent. It is the overall impact of the film that comes up woefully short for want of genuine emotional force.


As you get into the swing of things, you certainly want the underdogs to come out on top. But their struggles with themselves and the world at large do not add up to much simply because the antagonists are poorly etched, shadowy figures sans the malefic drive that would make the audience want to hate them with all their hearts.   
For all its energy and style, choreographer Remo D’Souza’s 3-D dance film suffers from the lack of a screenplay good enough to catapult all the youthful hype and hoopla beyond the surface level and make this the ultimate tribute to the joys of choreography.


ABCD – Anybody Can Dance holds its own only when the actors are engaged in what they are good at – swaying to the beats of foot-tapping music. Besides Prabhu Deva and Ganesh Acharya, the cast includes Dance India Dance participants like Dharmesh Yelande and Salman Yusuff Khan, among others.


They are all wonderful dancers no doubt, and their acts do exude infectious verve and vigour. Unfortunately, the narrative is too whimsical and jerky to allow the string of robust dance performances to come together as a cohesive, euphoric whole.


The film is understandably replete with dance routines, and some of the set pieces are nothing short of spectacular. Sadly, the newcomers in the cast are infinitely more comfortable with calisthenics than histrionics.
But then ABCD also has Kay Kay Menon in a pivotal role. As always, he is a delight even when he resorts to over-the-top methods in order to be heard above the din.


Menon is the only major member of the cast who isn’t required to break into a jig on the slightest provocation. Yet he brings a certain rhythm to bear upon his performance as the cynical owner of a hip and happening dance troupe who is willing to stoop to any level to win a television reality show.


Pitted against him and his troupe is a livewire Prabhu Deva as a dance teacher who loses his job in the aforementioned company because he does not see eye to eye with the proprietor.


With the help of a friend (Ganesh Acharya), the slighted protagonist cobbles together his own team of dancers, boys and girls from a disadvantaged background.


The rich kids-poor kids divide isn’t the only classic cliché in the screenplay. There are subplots galore and love, friendship, heartbreak, parental opposition, drug addiction, jealousy, betrayal, tragedy and eventual triumph are all thrown into the cauldron for good measure.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Goodies and not-so-goodies

the sixth edition of the DSC Jaipur literature Festival had, as always, much going for it, with many sessions leaving the audience asking for more. But there were moments during the event that one had a nagging feeling that it was probably beginning to bite off more than the organisers could chew
 
Merely six years or so ago, when the inaugural edition of Jaipur Literature Festival was held, no one, not even the optimistic organisers, would have thought that it would go on to become arguably the biggest literature event in Asia, if not the most serious one. And it is in its sheer size that lies both its attraction and repulsion. The sixth annual DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, in more ways than one, has added up on that reputation.

The 2013 edition of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival was launched with a keynote speech by celebrated author and activist Mahasweta Devi. In her speech, she reflected upon her long career as an author and described how regional writing draws its inspiration from the rich world of ideas and incidents that mean so much to people who are not in the limelight. "The air I breathe is full of words," she reflected, and I am sure no one in the crowd would have disagreed.

Speaking about thetribal and rural cultures from which she draws the inspiration of her writing, she maintained that a writer must deal with the “culture of the downtrodden” to get a proper grounding in literature. In fact, she proposed that the “right to dream” should be made the foremost fundamental right for all human beings.

In the keynote address, titled O to Live Again, Mahasweta Devi revealed, “My early years proved to be formative for my future work as a writer and activist. I also have a different approach to my writing process and I mull over the subjects in depth before setting out..."

The festival, down the years, has developed a clear pattern on which it pushes itself beyond the limit. There is a potent mixture of debates, readings, recitation and exchange of ideas. Normally, a topic is proposed and writers whose works have revolved around these topics are asked to strike a conversation, quite often, but not always, through a moderator.
The festival has the distinction of bringing together people with extreme and contrasting ideologies on a single stage to explore new ideas. And it has served the festival and the audience well in all these years. So you have “Godless Commies” rubbing shoulders with religious gurus and thinkers, and the spirited proponents of free market capitalism taking on leftists on a single stage.

This year, the festival explored themes as distinct as the history of miniature painting and war reporting, Sharia law and LGBT literature, the art and state of the Jewish novel, the 18th century sexual revolution, and the literature of 9/11.

Seperate sessions also focussed on the new writings in Latin America and among both Iranians in exile and the domestic Iranian readership. Domestically speaking, sessions focusing and critically analysing the economic prospects of India as well as on an exploration of the mixed legacy of the British Empire drew the biggest crowds. And, like most literature festivals worldwide these days, it had something to add to the much explored theme of the decline of America and the rise of China.

Some of the writers that attracted massive viewership included Commonwealth Prize winner Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone, Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson, and two Orange Prize winners Linda Grant and Madeline Miller. It also saw some of the most respected novelists in the Arab world, including Ahdaf Soueif and Tahar Ben Jalloun.

In spite of the threats from the Hindu right wing, quite a few Pakistani writers managed to attend and enthrall the audience, including Nadeem Aslam and Jamil Ahmad. From Latin America, Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman, the playwright known for the much appreciated work Death and the Maiden, carried the flag. No literature festival can function without some quintessential Brits. Here too, the audience got the taste of celebrated historical novelist Lawrence Norfolk, as well as three of Britain’s arguably most popular literary writers, Sebastian Faulks, Deborah Moggach and Zoe Heller, whose award-winning books have been mounted into critically acclaimed and intellectually layered cinematic adaptations such as Birdsong, The Exotic Marigold Hotel and Notes on a Scandal. On the poetry front, the audience had the chance to listen to some of the most prominent poets from Europe, including the highly acclaimed Simon Armitage and John Burnside. The session featuring Armitage drew an unparalleled crowd.

If the sessions on fiction writers and poets drew huge crowds, the sessions featuring the non-fiction writers and writings saw even bigger ones. And why shouldn't it,considering this year's edition featured as many as three winners of the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction, Frank Dikkoter on Mao, Wade Davis on Everest and Orlando Figes on Stalin’s purges? On the other hand, Pulitzer winner Andrew Solomon enthralled the audience on his acclaimed new book, Far From the Tree.

For public consumption, the festival had Diana Eck from Harvard, whose book India: A Sacred Geography has caught the nation's imagination. On the other hand, philosopher Michael Sandel brought his immensely popular BBC Radio 4 series, The Public Philosopher.

If Harvard sent its best bet forward, then Columbia was not far behind. The audience enjoyed the session of the much-appreciated post-colonial and post-modern literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Rivals Oxford too sent one of the most potent weapon from its arsenal; acclaimed authority on Eastern Europe, Timothy Garton Ash and the Shakesperean Christopher Ricks. On the arts front, the conversation between Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn and William Kentridge left the audience clamouring for more.

The more nuanced among the readers particularly loved the sessions by Elif Batuman of the New Yorker and Ian Buruma of the New York Review of Books.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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Mind your Language

Even police should be made accountable for their sweeping remarks

Controversial remarks from responsible citizens are not something very new to the society. However, a big question today is, do we also hold police officials accountable for their sweeping statements that malign individuals. Although the Indian Constitution clearly allows a citizen to seek punishment on anyone who shows the citizen disrespect “on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever”, sweeping remarks are still not considered as a part of hate speech and, thus, go unprosecuted – and more so if the commenter belonged to the police.

The country was furious when Asaram Bapu, a self-proclaimed Godman  blamed the recent rape victim herself for her plight; and a case was registered against him in Bihar. All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM or MIM) MLA, Akbarrudin Owaisi was sent recently to Adilabad district jail for spreading communal hatred. Very recently, Swami Kamlananda Bharati was arrested on January 14 in Hyderabad for making a hate speech against Muslims. In 2007, the authorities had charged the late Maqbool Fida Husain for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus when he had painted Mother India as a nude woman. Likewise, in 2007, Pune police arrested four software-engineers for posting an obscene profile on the Internet.

In this context, an example is the recent remark of the Thane Police Commissioner that women should keep red chilli powder and should not venture out late night to avoid rape. Another example is when in January 2013, the Punjab police heartlessly revealed the name of a gang rape victim. The contentious statements coming from persons who upon joining their service pledge to keep the nation and its citizens safe has outraged many. But the moot point is, when all of the above instances against citizens ended up in the police taking action, then why not hold police officials also accountable and responsible for their inept comments. In a sting operation conducted by Tehelka across 23 police stations of NCR, the shallow attitude of police officers and their stance on rapes in the city was revealed. The investigation exposed how certain police officers blame women equally if not more for the crime and concluded that some police officials think that “almost all women deserve to be raped.” Such a comment shows abysmal lack of thoughtfulness on the part of police officials. The situation is somewhat similar in the US where NYPD warned women not to wear short skirts because they could get raped.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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

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The Perils of Bodo Anger

THIS WAS PERHAPS THE DEFINING ANGER OF THE YEAR. MONALISA GOGOI GOES DEEPER INSIDE THE PSYCHE OF THE BODOS TO FIND OUT WHY THEY ARE UP IN ARMS AND ARE WILLING TO FIGHT EVEN A DE FACTO CIVIL WAR
assam violenceThe 2012 ethnic violence in Assam that claimed more than 100 lives has been interpreted in many different ways. For local Bodos, it was entirely a clash between indigenous people and illegal migrants. Politicians who use communalism to make a point have given it the spin potraying it as a clash between local Hindus and Muslim migrants from Bangladesh and elsewhere. Most familiar with the region agree that illegal migration has encroached upon tribal area and space, creating a sense of identity crisis for the indigenous people. Though the violence has come to an end, the question on everyones' lips is this: why do Bodos become angry from time to time? What are their principal grievances? Is it only related to illegal migration?

Prabhakar Bodo, spokesperson of the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) and former president of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), says the BTAD clash between migrants and the indigenous people is an old point of discord dating back to the 1970s. "There was a time when Bodos introduced themselves as a part of the Assamese people but the state's high castes refused to grant them their due. When the Bodos began their movement, the Asom Sahitya Sabha had protested. In 1983 when they demanded the introduction of Bodo as the official associate language, there were loud protests. So Bodo leaders were compelled to withdraw their moral support to the Assam agitation,'' he said.

According to him, Bodos regard themselves as part of the Assamese society but oppose the claims of those who now claim to be representatives of that society, namely the Assam Sahitya Sabha and AASU, who have consistently ignored their sentiments. "They have not planned any developmental activities for the Bodos, who are now convinced that a merger with the Assamese society would endanger their identity. Most intellectualls here do not want to see Bodos grow,'' he alleges.  Bodos, one of the oldest ethnic groups in Assam who also claim  son of the soil status, feel they have been left out of the power stakes. They were also the first to demand a separate homeland. According to senior advocate and former Assam Agitation leader Nekibur Zaman, "The Bodo community is one of the oldest ethnic groups in the state and feel they have traditionally been exploited. At different times during their agitations, they have not got the support of local organisations and have operated in isolsation. The government had suppressed their movements using undemocratic means. Their women were raped and many Bodo youth lost their lives. The security forces tried to suppress their demand with the help of armed forces. The sense of insecurity and dissatisfaction among them led to an armed struggle. And this is how their ethnic militant groups NDFB and BLT came into existence. Because of their armed struggle, Adivasi, non-Bodos and caste Hindus were compelled to leave Bodo-dominated areas, ’’ he points out.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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

BBA Institute

Parties Play The Caste Trump Card

With national political parties finding themselves out on a limb in Karnataka, it’s the caste-based regional outfits that are calling the shots. Will the political cookie in this southern state crumble the way of Uttar Pradesh?

Karnataka is gearing up for Assembly elections in April. With the fortunes of the ruling BJP and the Congress hitting the skids in the state, caste-based regional formations are likely to gain in the post-poll scenario.

Karnataka is set to go the Uttar Pradesh way. UP is India’s largest state and is accustomed to electoral fragmentation on caste and community lines. Karnataka, only one third the size of UP, is not. So, if a hung Assembly is what the April elections yield, the development would mark a paradigm shift in Karnataka politics. Congress, BJP and Janata Dal are the three parties that have traditionally jostled for seats in the Vidhana Soudha. Two new forces have lately jumped into the fray. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and Badava Shramika Raitha Congress (BSR Congress), led by B Shriramulu, the right hand man of jailed mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, are likely to queer the pitch for the national parties by taking away a chunk of their votes.

While none of the five contenders are in a position to sweep the polls, KJP and BSR Congress could both wrest enough seats to give the principal parties a run for their money. But in the run-up to the elections, none of the political formations is keen to get into any alliances, preferring to wait and watch the for eventual outcome. For Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), the April polls could be just another electoral battle. But for BJP and KJP, it would be an acid test. The BJP would be out to demonstrate that it has the strength to live down Yeddyurappa’s exit. For the party leaders who have been instrumental in pushing Yeddy out of the BJP, the likes of KS Eeshwarappa, Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar, the upcoming election would be an opportunity to prove a point.

Yeddy too, would be determined to make the BJP, a party he served for four decades, pay for the folly of neglecting a regional mass leader with the backing of the dominant Lingayat community.

The BJP will also have to contend with the BSR Congress. Yeddy’s mass support and the Reddy’s money power had catapulted BJP to power in Karnataka in 2008. With both now gone, it would be an uphill task for the party to retain power. BJP is unlikely to win more than 50 to 60 seats. In that eventuality, it would be back on the Opposition benches.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

The seven things that surprise new Chief Executives

Harvard Business School professors Michael E. Porter, Nitin Nohria and Jay W. Lorsch, write on surprises that new CEOs get at the workplace

Most new chief executives are taken aback by the unexpected and unfamiliar new roles, the time and information limitations, and the altered professional relationships they run up against. Here are the common surprises new CEOs face, and here’s how to tell when adjustments are necessary.

Surprise One: You Can’t Run the Company

Warning signs: You are in too many meetings and involved in too many tactical discussions. There are too many days when you feel as though you have lost control over your time.

Surprise Two: Giving Orders is Very Costly

Warning signs: You have become the bottleneck. Employees are overly inclined to consult you before they act. People start using your name to endorse things, as in “Frank says…”

Surprise Three: It Is Hard To Know What Is Really Going On Warning signs: You keep hearing things that surprise you. You learn about events after the fact. You hear concerns and dissenting views through the grapevine rather than directly. Surprise Four: You Are Always Sending A Message

Warning signs: Employees circulate stories about your behaviour that magnify or distort reality. People around you act in ways that indicate they’re trying to anticipate your likes and dislikes.

Surprise Five: You Are Not The Boss

Warning signs: You don’t know where you stand with board members. Roles and responsibilities of the board members and of management are not clear. The discussions in board meetings are limited mostly to reporting on results and management’s decisions.

Surprise Six: Pleasing Shareholders Is Not The Goal

Warning signs: Executives and board members judge actions by their effect on stock price. Analysts who don’t understand the business push for decisions that risk the health of the company. Management incentives are disproportionately tied to stock price.

Surprise SEven: You are still only human

Warning signs: You give interviews about you rather than about the company. Your lifestyle is more lavish or privileged than that of other top executives in the company. You have few – if any – activities not connected to the company.

Implications for CEO Leadership

Taken together, the seven surprises carry some important and subtle implications for how a new CEO should define his job.

First, the CEO must learn to manage organisational context rather than focus on daily operations. Providing leadership in this way – and not diving into the details – can be a jarring transition. One CEO said that he initially felt like the company’s “most useless executive,” despite the power inherent in the job. The CEO needs to learn how to act in indirect ways – setting and communicating strategy, putting sound processes in place, selecting and mentoring key people – to create the conditions that will help others make the right choices. At the same time, he must set the tone and define the organisation’s culture and values through words and actions – in other words, demonstrate how employees should behave.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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

BBA Institute