Thursday, October 11, 2012

Are you doing your ‘job’ well?

If you’re not the apple of your boss’s eye, don’t sulk! Ask the right questions, of yourself!

Chances are high, that, in this world of contradictions, you find a boss who’s not worthy of being a boss. Considering, www.badbossology.com is the very first search result of the keyword ‘bosses’ on Google, it is proof enough of the high incidence of this contradiction. So what should one do when the boss is somewhat like Dilbert’s pointy haired boss – ‘childish, immature, ignorant, and rude, yet also annoyingly cheerful and oblivious to his own actions?’ Quitting would be a bad option in these times of recession, but dealing with it certainly offers hope!

Such a challenging boss either doesn’t divide the work appropriately or favours certain employees (knowingly or unknowingly) or keeps developing new rules and policies for the employees or simply just doesn’t play fair. Though, earlier, such bosses were declared jerks outright, diplomatically speaking, they’re called bosses with low emotional intelligence.

Well, to deal with one of the most popular traits – favouritism – of such bosses, one needs to have three basic qualities; namely, patience, work ethic and a good sense of humour! The first thing is to be realistic; your boss is only human, so it is very normal for him to enjoy the company of some people better than others. If his preference is overtly visible, you can only forgive him for not being sharp enough. Of course, you must recognise if the favouritism is real or is just attachment with an employee due to longer association with him. If it’s the latter, solution could be simply trying to know your boss better and show some friendliness (not to be mistaken as sucking up). And, if it’s for real, then you need some introspection before reaction! “If someone comes to me with a problem, I always first tell him to introspect and see if the boss is really prejudiced or is there a method in the madness i.e. the person he favours actually has certain admirable strengths,” says B. Shankar, GM-HR, BHEL. It’s perhaps time to examine your own efforts (Are you as good as you think you are?!).


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face


 
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

USA: OBAMA'S NEW TEAM

Obama's brigade promises a fresh perspective to the Middle East issue, but is treading on a difficult terrain 

Clinton also named former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who negotiated the Dayton Accords to end Balkan Wars. Mitchell has been nominated as “special envoy”, while Holbrook bears the label “special representative”.

Even though Obama seems to have fallen very much to the contour held by the Bush government (considered pro-Israel) on the Palestinian issue, he appeared to demonstrate a better understanding for the predicament of the Palestinians and presented an uncommonly comprehensive sketch for securing the current Gaza armistice. Obama also expressed concerns over the widespread belief in US that only taking a “pro-Likud” approach can assure peace in west-Asia. Obama added, “One of the things that struck me when I went to Israel was how much more open the debate was around these issues in Israel than they are sometimes here in the US.” The choice of Mitchell conveys that US will be back as an honest negotiator in the Middle East conflict. But that does not necessarily mean that US will be an effective mediator, after all, soft power has its limits.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Girls of today don’t wanna play ball no more... Here’s all the dope!

“My daughters are six years apart. My elder daughter was a tomboy but the younger one is the extreme opposite. The reason might be exposure to western television where girls are depicted as typically feminine; they talk about clothes, shoes, boys etc al. My daughter has also emulated her fashion sense by watching such programmes.” Albeit Reena’s elder daughter is now her girly self but there was a time when her tomboyish behaviour had once perturbed Reena. “Now, I think it’s just a phase that girls, who would spent more time outdoors, went through. And I see this ‘tomboy’ display fast disappearing. Girls, increasingly put in their best efforts to be prim and pretty rather than casual,” she adds.

It was very late in life that I introduced myself to my girly side. Donning those dresses and wearing make-up still does not come too easy to me… I’m learning it and enjoying it, but I often miss my tomboy days which gave me a taste of the other world – the world of boys. After all it had it’s rewards in exposing me to different sports and taught me to be strong, helped me make some adorable guy friends, sans strings attached, and also gave me a peek into how boys think! Although, ‘girls ought to be feminine’ is what the world demands now, but if there’s any tomboy out there reading this, don’t succumb to this pressure. Just remember to relish the phase for there are very few who get to live that other side as well!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Sunday, October 7, 2012

"It’s Totally Ethical of Media Houses and Journal ists to Lobby"

When Barack Obama was running for the US presidency, the common joke in America was that win or lose, Obama was sure to get a job with MSNBC! And when he won, the joke was that “all the channels declared Barack Obama as the US President at 11 in the night; MSNBC declared him the winner six months back.” That’s representative of how blatantly MSNBC had lobbied to make Obama the US President. And every media house with an ideology and conviction does so. Yes, that’s the job of media houses and of journalists with character, ideology and convictions.

Wake up to reality, my friends! In UK and USA elections, newspapers rally behind individual parties till the very end – openly. And it’s not because the party owns the media house. During the very next elections, the media houses could support the opposition. That’s how it is in all true democracies where media doesn’t fear a backlash if the party they don’t support comes to power. India is, of course, not a democracy. Behind the illusion of democracy, demons – almost one and all – rule this country, making it a unique “demonocracy”. What the government of India does is that they create cases similar to what they did with Tehelka, and makes it clear that if you try to expose the government, they will get back at you. So, before elections, Indian media – one and all (unless in regional cases where parties themselves own media) – is always polite about the ruling party even if they per se support the opposition. And this, because they fear that in case the ruling party returns post elections, they’ll have to face the music! Even the largest media house, the Times of India, has not been spared in the past, with Ashok Jain being harassed to his literal death with cases being fabricated against him for trying to act smart with the government! Compare this with the nine page special feature that The Sun ran in 1992 on the day of the UK elections with the headlines commenting, “If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights?”

In 2010, while the Daily Mirror remained loyal to the Labour Party, The Sun withdrew its support for Labour – and Labour lost the elections. When Gordon Brown had shrugged off The Sun’s decision saying that The Sun doesn’t decide who wins the elections but voters do, the front page of The Sun next day read, “Labour’s lost it!” The Guardian and its Sunday sister paper, The Observer, were backing the Liberal Democrats, with the former saying it supported their stance on electoral reform. The Times and The Sunday Times had switched support to the Conservatives, and had said that David Cameron was ready to govern. That’s how Western media lobbies.

And it’s not just media houses, even individual journalists lobby depending on their convictions. Whether they are right or wrong is a totally different story – and that’s why different media houses exist, so that the public gets both sides of the story. For instance, Glenn Beck, the maverick rightwing superstar of Fox News, has even compared the Republicans’ difficulties with their own disaffected core supporters by comparing the party to a recovering alcoholic.

Before I come back to media and journalists, let’s talk about lobbying as an industry and worldwide practices!

When US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton introduced Richard Holbrooke as the special envoy for South Asia, both were expected to spout fire on Pakistan on the terrorism issue, and consequently, also were necessarily supposed to mention India and the Kashmir issue in their most important introductory press briefs in 2009. But India didn’t want the Kashmir issue to be discussed by Holbrooke, especially on the same platform as a discussion on Pakistan. Clearly, Indian government’s lobbying prowess won that day as India and Kashmir were as absent from Hillary and Holbrooke’s well decorated press briefs as a live turkey from the White House. According to Center for Congressional and Presidential studies, America spent around $2.13 billion on lobbying in 2004 alone; there currently are as many as 150,000 people involved in the industry. And the characteristic, if you can call it that, is not limited to corporations. The Center for Public Integrity reveals that over 300 universities have spent over $132 million in the last 6 years while 1,400 local governments have spent $357 million to seek favours from the government. Europe witnessed the emergence of lobbying as early as 1979 during the first European parliamentary election. In Brussels alone, there are 1,400 lobbyists and over 2,600 ‘special interest groups’.

In no unclear terms, lobbying is a legal and ethical business. The legal lobbying industry in UK is estimated to be worth $1.9 billion, employing over 14,000 people – in fact, a few MPs are often approached (read ‘physically spammed’) more than a hundred times per week by lobbyists. Researches show that Israel obtained popular US support in over 55% of ‘issues’ while Arabs or Palestinians have achieved support in less than 10% in the last 40 years, especially due to strong lobbying by Israeli think-tanks, activist organisations etc.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Friday, October 5, 2012

Make CBI a Constitutional Body

CBI has Recorded its Lowest Conviction Rate in 2009; What’s the Way Forward?

That the CBI is India’s top investigation agency is a fact beyond dispute. That it has clocked up the lowest conviction rate in its history in the year 2009, also similarly so. That approximately 1770 of the total 5900 staff of CBI has still not been recruited, equally so. And that there are 1,389 cases of CBI pending in courts more so. That 171 cases have been pending for eight years and more, 51 cases for 15 years and 39 cases for 20 years and above, the most undisputed of them all.

Evidently, the main reason for many of the cases getting elongated – and in some, even the chargesheet not getting filed (119 cases) – is political pressure. The noted Joginder Singh rights in the Daily Pioneer that as the CBI is not a Constitutional body (like the Election Commission is), it cannot “draw its own road map,” and would have to adhere to each and every political push as “the CBI cannot either investigate a case or function in any State without the consent of the State Government.” The logic in Joginder Singh’s argument is brilliant and perchance one that the forward looking Central government should immediately undertake, if it is really committed to maintaining a clean record, post the huge imbroglios of Commonwealth Games and telecom bidding.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Nokia; Now Last in Customer Satisfaction

Bloodied by Market Losses in the Smartphone Category and Hit by Scathing Critique on its latest N8 Launch, Nokia’s Leadership Position is under Serious threat. Given its Reticent Posture, The Worst could come This Year.

They say that the customer is king. However, understanding the Indian customer has always been a tough task for business houses and corporations, especially for those who believed in legacy leaderships. The Indian telecom handsets category is a scathing eulogy, where the once quasi-monopoly Nokia has not only seen massive hits on its market share, it has also started floundering on the customer experience. As Gareth Halfacree writes in Enterprise Reviews on November 10, 2010, “With Apple’s iPhone Operating System and Google’s Android Platform cornering the market, interest in Symbian has been waning in recent years, and many believe that the N8 represents Nokia’s final attempt... If the N8 fails, so does Symbian as a viable platform.” And that’s where Nokia’s started getting the nervous shakes, as the N8 has already started getting calls of being hit with glitches.

Nokia is today struggling to maintain its market share. One of the key reasons for Nokia losing steam in the Indian market has its ongoing failure to catch the nerve of handset users. Telecom growth today is fast reaching people at the lower rungs of the pyramid, who have started looking for low priced and yet, feature rich phones. That is where the Indian branded handsets – with a simple business model of importing handsets on zero duty and selling them with an aggressive marketing strategy – now pose a serious threat to Nokia, which faces an equally daunting challenge on the high end from players like RIM and Apple.

Years 2009 and 2010 have been revealing. Only Samsung managed to retain its position. Korean giant LG and Sony Ericsson were thrown out of the top five chart. As per IDC, LG was the number two player in the quarter ending June 2008. The biggest setback was however to Nokia. Its share continued to fall and by the end of June, it constituted only 36.3% of the market as per IDC. This is the lowest ever since its entry into the Indian handset market. The handset manufacturer’s share by the end of Q4 of FY 2009-10 was pegged at 52%. When contacted, Nokia refrained for making any comment on the issue. An email sent to the company spokesperson remained unanswered till the filing of the report.

The Finnish giant, which commanded around 80% of the market share at one point, failed to understand the changing dynamics of the market in time. Nokia’s entry into the dual SIM segment was almost two years late. It continued to employ traditional QWERTY handsets with the business users. On the other hand, the competition redefined QWERTY key pad handset with social network functions to cater to multimedia users. Naveen Mishra, Lead Analyst - Telecom, IDC India opines, “In the last few quarters, shipments of mobile phones in the country have been growing, especially for models with features like long battery life, dual mode handsets (GSM & CDMA), QWERTY keypad, multimedia enabled (FM radio & MP3 player) handsets & phones with expandable memory slots.” The emerging players have brought such features at competitive prices. Nokia realised its mistake pretty late, and has only recently joined the multimedia QWERTY bandwagon with the launch of Nokia C3.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Monday, September 10, 2012

MOBILE MANUFACTURING: CRITICAL MASS

Mobile handset production in India has seriously lagged the Telecom Services Revolution. Current trends provide an opportunity to rectify this anomaly. Can India take it up when it matters? 

They are likely to follow the trail of the MNC giants before them and get into full fledged manufacturing. Sure enough, Micromax is expected to invest half of the money raised through its upcoming IPO to set up manufacturing in Chennai. Other players like Videocon, Lava, Wyncomm and Karbonn are planning to start manufacturing operations, while Spice has commenced trial production. In fact, even Chinese players like ZTE and Huawei feel that the 5-10% of benefit on shipping from China is attractive enough to set up operations here. “With most local companies including ourselves seriously considering manufacturing in India, the country seems to be emerging not only as the second biggest EMS location but also a mobile manufacturing hub,” says Arvind Vohra, Co-Founder & MD, Wynn Telecom Ltd.

There are major reasons for visualising India as a global manufacturing hub or production factory. Firstly, the cost effectiveness of manufacturing in India. Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Analyst, Gartner, states, “The opportunity is very high to set up manufacturing base in india. Two factors are involved for decision (to manufacture) – volume targetted by companies and business model used.” Mobile connections in India will grow by 27.3% in 2010 to reach above 660 million with revenue of $19.8 billion to be generated (mobile services). Along with this, mobile penetration for 2010 is projected at 55.9%, which is expected to reach 82% by 2014. Mobile production revenue in India is expected to grow from $10.14 billion to $28 billion at a CAGR of 18.1% (Gartner). According to Pankaj Mohindroo, President, ICA, “Around 135 million phones were manufactured in India last year, which is 11% of total global manufacturing. Out of this number, around 70 million were exported.” The plan is to take the share to 20%. There are people who contest these figures, saying that manufacturing in India is actually more of assembling.

S. N. Rai, Co-founder & Director, Lava International Ltd. admits, “In the long-run China will not be too competitive as compared to India. In order to get the ball rolling for manufacturing in India the players need to achieve a ‘Critical Mass Production and Market Base’ which will make manufacturing here profitable.” Now it’s up to the government to seize the opportunity and ensure that the local handset industry gets the required force and capability to meet the demands in future. One of the key demands of the industry is to be provided STPI as was done for the IT industry. For a manufacturing sector to grow, the most vital aspect is the ecosystem and supply chain, where China has a huge advantage. Presently, very little component sourcing is happening in India. Only electrical and mechanical parts are made here whereas electronic components are all imported. Just as handset manufacturers are showing interest, the government needs to attract component vendors to set up production here, which will help keep the handsets competitive. A thrust at this critical time can do wonders for mobile handset manufacturing in India. It is a bus we can ill afford to miss.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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