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).

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

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

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

The worst ceos of 2012 and why smart ceos make bad decisions

CEOs today face far greater challenges than just perfecting the art of outperforming bottomline target estimates quarter after quarter. From keeping activist shareholders at bay, to satisfying consumers who demand innovation at the blink of an eye, today’s Chief Executives have their hands full. Not surprisingly, many of these highly-regarded strategists stumble. Prof. Sydney Finkelstein, Steven Roth Professor of Management, Tuck School of Business, writes on why such business leaders fail

2012 has been an eventful year as far as business is concerned. The global economy was stuck somewhere in between managing a full blow financial crisis on one hand and dealing with its after-effects on the other. However, this year did give CEOs an opportunity to reconsider changes that had been impacting their businesses and reinvent in response. And I would say that this is one area where business leaders have faced a great deal of trouble.

For many CEOs, adapting to change – especially dramatic and technological change – is disturbing. Companies like Motorola, Research in Motion and Kodak had to deal with big changes in the recent past mostly due to technological shifts in the economy and their respective industries. What they’d been doing effortlessly in the past stopped working. And unfortunately, they continued doing what made them successful in the first place. Business model innovation is a tricky proposition because even from a psychological point-of-view, it’s difficult to stop doing something for which one has been amply rewarded – and consistently so – in the past. However, the repercussions of not adapting are evident. Motorola was acquired by Google (not for a great line-up of products but more so for the patents), Kodak filed for bankruptcy and Research in Motion is struggling to sustain operations.

Nevertheless, there have been two chief executives in particular who, despite their short tenures, have demonstrated phenomenal leadership and a strong strategic outlook. Marissa Ann Mayer of Yahoo! and Tim Cook of Apple definitely stand out this year.

If you consider Meyer, she’s really given Yahoo!! a shot in the arm. She’s given the company a sense of purpose and if you ask employees and shareholders at Yahoo! today, they’ll tell you that they have much more confidence in the future direction of the company. In recent past, she has proved herself a leader at one of the most successful Internet businesses of our times – Google. And currently, that shows in her understanding of strategy. There is clear consensus now that Yahoo! is a media company – something which previous CEOs could not clearly establish. Further, Meyer has started unlocking some value that lay dormant in Yahoo!’s assets.

On the other hand we have Tim Cook, who has put up a commendable performance at Jobs’ exit. He launched the iPad Mini (despite Steve Jobs’ belief that the market wouldn’t like a small tablet) demonstrating that he is ready to adapt and change. He also had the courage and honesty to accept that Apple Maps was a mess. Some critics have been blaming him for the loss in the stock value of the company. But I don’t see how he’s responsible for any of that. Agreed that Apple didn’t launch a freakishly great product, but the iPhone 5 still sold record units. Apple’s market capitalisation is a case study in itself. To justify such high valuations, you literally need to reinvent the world. And I think Cook has done a fairly decent job till now. He deserves a little more time to demonstrate something even 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

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year

BBA Management Education

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently celebrated its 100th mission with a flawless launch of a PSLV from Sriharikota. No mean feat, as for ISRO it all began just 37 years ago when, in 1975, it launched India’s first experimental satellite – Aryabhata. In an exclusive conversation with B&E’s Kumar Buradikatti, Prof. U. R. Rao, Former Chairman of ISRO and the man behind Aryabhata, recalls how he led his team and heralded India into space age
 

B&E: Who all were there in the Aryabhata team?
URR: In Aryabhata team we had about 250 engineers and scientists. But it all started with a small group in Ahmedabad and Dr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, Former Chairman of ISRO and the Space Commission, was one of them. In fact, many of them were my students. I also had a small group in Trivandrum. They all came. They just said, “We are coming with you.” Then we recruited. Everyday, we conducted six interviews. I even wrote to some institutions and requested them to send two of their best students to us. Many young students came. Some would see the place – an area without proper infrastructure in place – and ask, “Sir, are you going to build it in this shed?” I would simply reply, “Look, if you believe me, you can join me. Otherwise, go back and don’t waste my time. I only have two and a half years to build the satellite and I am bent on meeting it.” I was really changing my life. That’s why I took two years to accept Dr. Sarabhai’s proposal. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was not only my professor, my guru, but also a wonderful person. We started building Aryabhata in August-September 1972 and had launched it by April 1975. At the time the satellite was being made, the average age of the team was 25 years, and I was the eldest at 40!

B&E: What type of support did the Aryabhata team received from the Russians and others?
URR: As far as Russians are concerned, they gave us a free launch, which was the most important thing at that time. We didn’t pay anything at all. In fact, they even launched Bhaskar-1 and Bhaskara-2 for free. Then, IRS onwards, they started charging us. But a nominal fee, much lesser than what others normally charged. Similarly, for the first experimental communication satellite, Apple, we got free launch from European Space Agency. Second time onwards, we had to pay. These free launches certainly helped us a lot.

B&E: How did you execute the project?
URR: We made a team of three, me being the Chairman. T. N. Seshan, who was the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Space at that time, was one of the members. We were completely armed and decisive. We would just discuss and place the orders. Since we had nothing, we would buy everything, from furniture to expensive machinery. However, within three months we had set up a wonderful laboratory! Everyone said that it was wonderful and they wanted to come and see the place. In fact, many internationally renowned personalities, including heads of all space agencies, visited it. Even all Prime Ministers, from Morarji Desai to Indira Gandhi, and Presidents visited the laboratory. Everybody thought that something strange is going to happen and cooperated wonderfully. I also gave a list to MIT and NASA headquarters and said, “These are the things I need and it’s up to you figure out how you can help me. But I don’t have much time.” Every evening, I would get a box! Seeing this, some would ask as to how I was going to pay them. I would simply reply, “I won’t pay them. I have friends across the globe and they are helping me.” Everything went like this.

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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

"Our competitors are... good people!"

Life for S. D. Shibulal, CEO & MD, Infosys Ltd., hasn’t been particularly smooth since he took over the helm. With volatility in the environment persisting and Infosys’ growth engine hitting a speed bump, Shibulal is under severe pressure to bring in numbers that cheer the market in the short term. However, as he reveals to Virat Bahri, Editor, B&E, these pressures aren’t on his priority list

B&E: The Infosys 3.0 transformation was launched some time back. Where do you stand with respect to its impact on your numbers?
S. D. Shibulal (SS): We have completed our strategic transformation. ‘Building tomorrow’s enterprise’ is a framework for innovation and co-creation. We organised ourselves completely into global industry verticals with new leadership in place. The strategy is in place, and we have a new structure and new leadership in place. We are purely in the execution mode. At the same time, where we started the transformation, we were coming out of the high of 2009; the environment was much more stable. Today, it is much more volatile. So actually, there are some delays in realising the benefits of the transformation; but we are confident that in the medium to long term, we should be fine. In any kind of transformation, you look at early indicators, but receipts are getting delayed. So we look at other early indicators. Traction is excellent with respect to our clients. We have conducted 50 plus workshops on building tomorrow’s enterprise with CXOs. Look at some of the wins we have announced like Atlas Copco & United Laboratories – some of them are driven by our workshops. Airtel and India Post are also driven through our innovation process. We have built a $380 million TCB on our products and platforms, which is a very strong booking. It is a new and different business. In a KPMG survey, we were ranked the most innovative in India. A recent Forrester report has also completely endorsed our strategy on IP & asset-based service portfolio.

B&E: There are challenges in the short term in your key verticals. What is your outlook?
SS: Retail is doing well for us. We are very well recognised in the digital market – digital commerce & social commerce. We have a SocialEdge platform for social commerce, a BrandEdge platform for marketing solutions and a TradeEdge platform for international business. We have strong service as well as IP capability in that space. Retail is growing above company average. Manufacturing is another industry where we are seeing very good traction and mostly in the business and IT operations space. Harley is a good example of that and so is Syngenta. In manufacturing, our wins are driven by the drive for efficiency in operations as well as IT. Financial services remains an area of challenge, especially capital markets. We have a higher dependence on financial services, where revenues are not going up. There are regulatory problems in a volatile situation and there is an enormous amount of focus on cost. So we continue to be challenged. In the Energy and Utility Communications Services provider space – there the segment in communication services has been an issue for us. Now we are increasing our investments in wireless and cable, where the spend is happening. So we expect medium term gains.

B&E: Critics lament your focus on margins, which make it hard to grow. How relevant is that?
SS: One thing you must remember. People link price and margin directly. Margin is a reflection of the company’s aspirations, philosophy, efficiency in operations, how do you manage, et al. So onsite-offshore ratio will impact margins. Utilisation will impact margins; the pyramid structure will impact margins. Currency will impact margins and so will portfolio. Some services have higher margins. Even client choices impact margins. We should delink the two. Everything that we do is to meet our aspirations. Our aspirations are to have above industry average growth and to have leading margins. I am having this margin conversation for the last ten years, or even longer. There is no guarantee for the future. But with our new focus areas – building tomorrow’s enterprise, balanced portfolio, global verticals, increasing consulting and system integration, products and platform strategy – it’s all going to meet our aspirations for the future.

On the price front, we are quite flexible. You have to look at your portfolio and your strategic clients. You don’t walk out of a deal with a strategic client because price does not meet by say 50 cents. Today our industry verticals have full flexibility with respect to pricing decisions.

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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

“There are certainly more drivers apart from price”

Dr. Manish Gupta, Director – IBM Research, India asserts that innovations for the Indian market aren’t only about bringing down the price points

B&E: IBM has been driving a lot of R&D activity from India. What is your view on reverse innovation potential from this market?
Dr. Manish Gupta (MG): I am not parochial in this regard. I am not claiming that innovation will only happen here, it will happen in all parts. I feel that cost is just one aspect, and we in India often make the mistake of equating innovation with low cost. A lot of times, people talk about how can you bring down the cost. That’s only one form. In our work, we have seen several different drivers for ‘reverse innovation’. They can be related to the scale and price point, and they may simply be linked to different needs unique to the Indian market, which does not mean they are necessarily low cost. I prefer to use the term leapfrog innovation for this kind of innovation, where you have to rethink a solution, take a different approach to solving a problem, and then you can apply the same ideas to other markets.

B&E: What drivers do you see that will enable more of such innovation coming from India?
One driver is often scale, which many other people have pointed out. Often, the scale of what you see in a country like India and China is much higher as compared to the US. One example is what our own lab colleagues have done in the context of telecom accounts. As you know, IBM provides the entire IT infrastructure for telecom companies like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. We deployed a solution in one of the telecom accounts in India I cannot name. We developed a first of a kind solution where instead of having different kinds of analytics applications working on their own copy, of what is call detail record data, we have brought in a streaming data solution. As the data gets generated, even when the data is new, different apps start their own processing. You have the data flow through different applications. While it was driven initially by scale & price point, it delivered some real business value, as the company can now access the same day’s data rather than the four days old data it accessed earlier. It has been pitched to the likes of AT&T, et al.

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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

HPV; worse than HIV!

If you’re reading this, there is an 80% possibility that you may have already contracted or will contract the deadly Human Papilloma Virus, which is the root cause for many fatal cancers in both sexes. Spreading awareness should be the top priority in the HPV saga!

In the mainstream medical fraternity, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) is widely considered as the most threatening among all Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs); as a consequence, there’s little dramatics given to the alarming rise in incidence of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which can match the former in scale, intensity and fatality.

Gabrielle Doewney, a consultant gynecologist at BMI, the Priory Hospital in US, opined, “Around 30% of the female population is HPV positive at any one time, and 80% of all women will contract strains 16 or 18 (the ones that can/lead to cervical cancer) at some point over their sexual life.” In 90% of the cases, the immune system fights off the fatal strains of the virus naturally and normalises its effect in around two years. However, in cases when the immune system fails to clear the virus naturally – mostly due to continued exposure to HPV – the same can then lead to diseases like genital warts and more alarmingly, cervical and some other types of cancer.

A general estimate is that a woman can be infected seven times in her lifetime starting from the year after she starts to have sex. Prof. Sean Kehoe, gynecological cancer specialist for UK Charity Well being of Women, has stated that HPV infects men as well and “[the infection rate] is more than likely equivalent between the genders.” There are over 100 subtypes of HPV, but the ones that are causes for concern are subtypes 6 and 11 that cause genital lumps and 16 and 18 that cause cervical cancer in women and many other types of cancer in both sexes.

Unlike HIV or Syphilis, HPV can be contracted even with the use of condoms as it spreads through any form of genital skin-to-skin contact! Even though it has not yet been accorded epidemic stature, certain estimates say that around 288,000 women are likely to die because of the disease by this year end. As per Center for Disease Control and Prevention figures, around 20 million people in America carry this virus (2005 figures) with another 6 million people getting infected each year. The incubation period for HPV ranges from a few weeks to a full year. What is even more ominous is that the strains of HPV that cause cancer do not get detected early, as the symptoms are not visible until advanced stages. Worse, there is no general test for men or women to check their ‘HPV status’. This fact makes HPV even deadlier than perceived.

According to the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, more than 5,000 women in US die due to HPV infection every year. Further, HPV is the cause for not just almost all kinds of cervical cancers, but also an overwhelming majority (80%) of vaginal cancers and anal cancers. And that’s not all. Dr. Nigel Carter from the British Dental Health Foundation opines that HPV will cause more oral cancer deaths than smoking in the next decade!

A vaccine has been developed for girls and medical practitioners are extensively advising boys to also take the shot too, as one of the main reasons women contract HPV is because men living with HPV have no qualms in having unprotected sex.
 

Read more....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Classifications

Business & Economy presents an in-depth analysis of India’s 100 most profitable companies for the financial year 2012

The ruling trio
Combined together, three sectors – BFSI, Metal & Mining and Engineering – represent 60% of India’s most profitable companies in FY2012. Engineering corporations have made the most of growth opportunities. Their sectoral share increased from a paltry 3% to a substantial 14% within just one financial year.

Changing equations
As of now, the Indian economy is experiencing significant pressure. But with last year’s recovery, the B&E Power 100 list has seen some change, and most of it for the better. As compared to 30 companies last year, 58 companies have moved up in the list during FY2012, while only 27 have gone down compared to 49 last year.

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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

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

India’s sorrow: Crony socialism & crony secularism

There is a chilling story in our sister publication The Sunday Indian from Srinagar that tells a lot about how Indian intellectuals, journalists and pundits practice secularism. Kaiser Bhatt runs a school for kids called Orange International Playschool in the outskirts of Srinagar. In April, 2012, he invited some Muslim friends from Malaysia to visit his school. They sipped tea, exchanged pleasantries and soon left. Within minutes, the playschool was surrounded by an angry mob that had gathered in response to a rumour that the playschool was actually a ‘Christian’ outfit and that the visiting Malaysians were Christian missionaries. Scared stiff, Kaiser desperately pleaded with his Malaysian friends to come back to scotch the rumours. The Malaysians returned and were forced by the mob to ‘prove’ that they were Muslims. Only then did the violent mob disperse. But Kaiser’s troubles were not over as worried parents wanted to withdraw their kids. Worse, school staff were reluctant to come to the school since they were scared a mob will pounce on them.

Sensing financial ruin, Kaiser pleaded with Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to come to his rescue. The separatist leader ‘pronounced’ that the playschool is Muslim enough for parents and the staff not to be worried. After assuring angry Muslims of the neighbourhood that Orange International Playschool (meanwhile, the playschool plastered its walls with Quranic verses) was not a Christian conspiracy, the ‘separatist’ and ‘spiritual’ leader told The Sunday Indian, “We have strong evidence to suggest that Christian missionaries are working to convert Kashmiri Muslims using unfair means”. In November, 2011, a Christian priest Chandar Mani Khanna was accused of proselytizing. Someone called the Grand Mufti of Kashmir ‘summoned’ the priest for interrogation and ordered him to cease and desist. The priest was arrested and allegedly beaten up and tortured and remained locked up for about 20 days. Of course, he was then ‘banished’ from the valley. The so-called Grand Mufti now routinely ‘summons’ alleged offenders to his Sharia court.

In case you don’t know or have deliberately chosen to forget, the Kashmir valley is overwhelmingly Muslim majority (most Kashmiri Hindus were forced out of the valley in the 1990s and now live in wretched refugee camps) with Hindus, Christians and Sikhs being insignificant minorities. In case you have chosen to forget, India’s secular warriors ceaselessly cry themselves hoarse – while raving and ranting against all things and symbols Hindu – that it is the duty of the majority Hindus of India to protect its secular identity and Constitution. Very unpalatable question that even those who have not been blinded by Marxism and secular fundamentalism feel uncomfortable about asking: where are the loud ‘secular’ voices when Christians are being so ruthlessly targeted in the only Muslim majority state in India? What happened to the vocal chords of Jholawala Leftists who never give up an opportunity of pointing out how intolerant, obscurantist and ‘fascist’ Hindus are when it comes to dealing with minorities? Would they have adopted a self imposed vow of silence if Christian priests were similarly harassed in Gujarat?
 

Read more.....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

 

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

“India is the single-most important defence partner for US”

William H. Avery, who served in the US diplomatic service as an Economic Officer, is a master at trade development and commercial advocacy, and is a three-time recipient of the US State Department's Meritorious Honour Award. A prolific writer on international affairs, Avery tells Mayank Singh how India needs to start thinking beyond just Pakistan and China and take interest in building a strong military base in the Asian region. India has the potential, he says!

B&E: Asia is constantly represented on the international fora and its position is factored-in by different countries in their policy making. Your assessment?
William H. Avery (WAH): All the action is in this part of the World. We are seeing a shift of economic activity, which will be followed by military activity and military strength from the trans-Atlantic to the Pacific region, including China and India and all the regions that fall in-between. With regard to the subcontinent, principally, India and China are the places that are going to be significant. US also because it is a continent with 300 million people. So I think a new structure is emerging where there are three potential centres of power – US, India and China.

B&E: You have been talking of India becoming a superpower. Yet, you say that it will have to ‘achieve’ this position. What shortcomings on India’s part do you observe here?
WAH: I think India has many natural advantages. It has a demographic advantage. It has skill base, which is not just a technological skill base. What is missing in India is a recognition of how you build power in this World which requires military and economic strength, not just at home but overseas. And it requires a willingness to use power. If you look at India’s experience with Sri Lanka, it is very instructive. I think Rajiv Gandhi knew that for India to get to the next level, it had to be willing to play a strong regional role. But the problem is that when the LTTE assassinated Rajiv, India withdrew. So what you had for the past 20 years was not only India not becoming a global power but also failing to become a regional power! Another element is a kind of obsession with Pakistan. Pakistan, a barely functioning State, is quite clever in a way to bring India down to its level. India fell into that trap. And it was with the advent of the Indo-US Nuclear deal that India began to rise above it and perhaps only because of India’s economic growth was it was able to pull away from Pakistan. So some things are beginning to happen. But India needs to take a more activist approach to becoming a strong military power.

B&E: You have called the withdrawl of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) from Sri Lanka as India's mistake. Also, you say that it should have been redeployed after the unfortunate assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Your thoughts...
WAH: I do feel it was a mistake. I understand why it was made. And it is always easy to go back 20 years and look at it in retrospect, but the fact that a country allowed a former prime minister to be assassinated on its own soil and then nearly asked for the extradition of the assassins is pretty amateurish. And there’s nothing we can do to change that. However, it should serve a lesson. We should look at it critically and make sure that India does not make the same mistake again. I think the IPKF episode was one that pushed back India’s emergence as a global power by many years. However, it should be acknowledged that India did recover by 1998 – the series of nuclear tests was a huge step forward. So where India has been conventional in defence matters or rather meek, its nuclear diplomacy and its nuclear policy have been much stronger.

B&E: Do you see a bigger ploy of China in keeping India busy with Pakistan while increasing its arsenal and technological knowhow and economic opportunities, and then using them as pressure tactics?
WAH: It could be a Chinese strategy. I don’t know whether it is a conscious strategy or not. Having said this, I believe that India should not remain busy with Pakistan because there is a much wider world out there. The cross-border terrorism issue is significant and has to be monitored by India. At the same time however, India’s emergence as a global power will not come true if the Indo-Pak equation remains the key agenda on the diaries of India’s foreign policy agents for ever.

Read more....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Where’s your online arm?

The growth of online business is ushering in a quiet revolution in the retail industry in India as young consumers are adopting it in large numbers, drawn by the convenience and other advantages it offers.

Even as India Inc. keeps its fingers crossed on the eventual outcome of foreign direct investment in retail, a quiet revolution is already brewing in the sector. With FDI in retail still on tenterhooks, foreign mega retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour are still waiting in the wings. On the other hand, things aren’t exactly hunky-dory for domestic retail giants like Future Group, Spencer’s and Shoppers Stop. Other than having to constantly juggle around to maintain healthy bottom lines, these players are also beset with rising commodity costs, high rentals and squeezed profit margins. But away from the glare and glitz of Big Retail, the likes of Ebay, GroupOn and Amazon, not to mention a host of homegrown online shopping portals like Flipkart and Snapdeal, have been slowly and steadily upping their business stakes in the flourishing Indian Retail Bazaar.

Desi e-commerce sites like homeshop18.com, snapdeal.com, Mydala & futurebazaar.com are all mopping up significant growth in sync with the growing trend towards online retail in India, which is clocking over 40% growth yoy. Already, flipkart.com has achieved a billion dollar valuation, and is registering 15,000 units in daily sales. In fact, the popularity of online shopping sites in India reflects international trends. In America, during the annual shopping spree prior to the Thanksgiving season in November, a study revealed that 39% of consumers bought goods online compared with 44% who visited local stores and hypermarkets. Clearly, online retail has emerged as a huge disruptive force for retail worldwide.

According to various reports by industry bodies like Assocham and IAMAI, the market size of the Indian e-commerce industry is expected to be around $10.3 billion by December 2011 (of this online retail is still a small part at around $800 million, and predicted to reach roughly $1.5 billion by 2015). The size of e-commerce globally is well over $700 billion. The online retail market is worth over $240 billion in Europe, over $170 billion in the US (expected to touch $250 billion by 2014), and roughly around $76 billion in China.

In India, the share of online retail is currently modest in comparison to the roughly $520 billion Indian retail space - the largest contributing sector to the Indian GDP with over 15% share. But as 3G mobile and broadband penetration grows, and people’s (especially youths) shopping behaviour evolves, consumers will increasingly opt for online shopping to save time and convenience. A further allure in the form of good discounts adds to the attraction. Already India’s internet penetration has crossed 120 million or about 10% of the population, though in-home Internet usage is still low.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

 

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face