Saturday, December 17, 2011

Building Sustainable Organisation: Lessons from Indian Caste System

Can we learn from negatives? Recently an article was published on HBR describing what business can learn from Organized Crime?

http://hbr.org/2011/11/what-business-can-learn-from-organized-crime/ar/1

In similar context, Can we learn from Indian Caste System?

Indian caste system despite its draw backs is surviving from more than 3000 years. One may well ask why such a system has remained intact for so long? What were the qualities which made it sustainable? Can we look at it and draw lessons how to build a large, successful and sustainable organisation? This article looks at features of caste system and obtains eight management insights for building large, successful and sustainable organisations.

Caste System

In India, Hindu society is divided in four castes ("varna" from the Sanskrit word for "colour") and the outcastes. In order from highest to lowest are: (1) the Brahmin (priestly and intellectual caste); (2) the Kshatriya (warrior and administrative caste); (3) the Vaisiya (merchant and skilled artisan caste); (4) the Sudra (common labour, farming caste).

These Varnas were broad classifications only; within each classification would exist hundreds, if not thousands, of subtle caste and sub caste variations (jatis). These "jatis" are sub-divisions which indicate specific professions or occupations as well as geographical, physical and genealogical differences between jatis. Although a person born into a particular jati is supposed to perform a certain occupation, economic realities might force an individual to choose some other profession. He will still refer himself as being his traditional jati. In this system, the jati member is required to marry someone from the same jati through a pre-arranged system. Women are supposed to provide people (children) for the jati and to train these people in correct jati traditions. It is primarily a Hindu-based system, but aspects of this system have infiltrated other religions (e.g. Christianity and Islam) as well.

Eight Management Insights from Indian Caste System

1. Core Belief

Majority of Indians believe in caste system. They believe that caste hierarchy is based on the basis of their action in their previous life. The quality of their work and actions in this life will determine their caste in their next life. If in one's past life one had performed the functions of one's caste and jati correctly, one can hope to be promoted to a higher status in next life. If the opposite were true, one can expect to be demoted too. In order to advance in the next life, one must perform all that is required by one's jati. They also believe that it is their religious duty to respect and follow the caste system. Even the people who don’t have belief in caste system don’t do anything to denounce it and prefer the status quo instead of questioning it.

This gives us the management insight of having the core belief of the organisation. Why the organization is in business? What are the organization’s core believes? If the majority of the employees understand core belief of the organization then organisation can withstand any changes and crisis. The core value remains same which does not change with external environment.

In the last 3000 years Indians still hold this belief. Even if some people do not have that strong belief they prefer the status quo and go with the majority. The concept of the core value is found in most successful companies around the world and is documented in book “Built to last”.

2. Hierarchy but mobility

There were four layer clear hierarchies in the caste system. The hierarchy was role based and it provided clear stability to this system for last 3000 years.

The people can however improve their hierarchy by adopting ways and means of upper hierarchies. Involved in this concept of Sankritization is the adherence to certain forms of traditional behaviour epitomized in the Sanskrit language, its hieratic literature, and the centuries old practices associated with it. Like sanskritization etc person can adopt ways and means of upper caste and in coming generations can improve their hierarchy.

This gives us management insight that if a large organisation is to be built which could withstand test of times, there should be clear cut hierarchy. But at the same time, there should be some mobility and the individual who works hard towards it can improve his hierarchy. It should be skill based. The individual with capabilities could rise.

This comes in contrast with new fad of flat based, non hierarchical organisation. These might work for relatively smaller organisation but if organisation is big and has to survive long it should be hierarchical, but having scope for mobility.

3. Culture

The culture played a significant role in sustainability of caste system. It consists of a set of values, guiding beliefs, understandings, and ways of thinking that is shared by the members of an organisation and are taught to new members as standards. The artefacts like rites, ceremonies, stories, symbols, language, dress, behaviours reinforced the spirit of caste system.

This gives us the management insight about the importance of the culture and artefacts in the organisation. Even if the organisation is bureaucratic, the culture ensures commitment of the individuals towards the goals and values of the organisations. The organization culture is one of the hygiene factors which makes the employees feel part of the big organization and control employee attrition.

4. Employee Security & Welfare

The caste system ensured the welfare of its members as joint responsibility of its jati members. This made ties stronger and enabled caste system to thrive on sustaining basis.

This gives us management insight about giving employee security and taking care of its welfare will improve bonding and ties. So employees will become more productive and responsible.

These examples are found in Asian management context like companies in Japan, Korea where organization show paternalist approach towards their employees and that enables them to increase their productivity.

5. Knowledge given higher status

The knowledge was given higher status then work in caste hierarchy. The upper castes Brahmins were supposed to be learned and knowledgeable person and perform all sacred functions. The other castes had different work responsibilities like Ksatriyas in military, Vaishyas in trade and Shudras in manual labour. Brahmins command respect for having knowledge and access to knowledge was taken as step to move up in caste hierarchy.

This gives us management insight about importance of knowledge in the company. It is not surprising that every good company is talking about knowledge management today. But the success of knowledge management will depend upon the status given to knowledge vis-à-vis actual work. One of the world’s leading consulting company, when started implementing knowledge management practices, it made one of their star directors as its head to give knowledge management credibility and status vis-à-vis actual client consulting work. This made the knowledge management initiative at the consulting company successful.

6. Scope for entrepreneurship

Few leaders who were not satisfied by caste system and believed things should be done in different way tried to break away from these and formed new religions/sects with out caste hierarchy. These were joined by many followers. But over the time they also got themselves placed in broad caste hierarchy. The examples include Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.

This gives us management insight about giving space and building systems to encourage and accommodate the entrepreneurship in the organisation. If somebody comes with any idea with conviction, organisation could encourage him to start on his own and become investor in that venture. In this way the star employee will be part of the extended family.

Many companies encourage employees to spend some of their time in projects on their choice and if any new idea comes up, then company funds it. Also few big companies have venture capital funds and invest in companies started by their ex employees if they find their venture a viable business proposition. These are good strategies for encouraging employees to try out new things, accommodating dissent and creating win-win situation for all.

7. Silent leadership

There were no great visible leaders championing caste system. However there might be many leaders who must be working silently for strengthening this system but no where we come across any charismatic leaders leading caste system.

This gives us management insight that charismatic leaders are not a necessity for building sustainable organisations. The silent leaders who work to strengthen the system without coming in the lime light can contribute more in building the organisations. This analogy is some what similar to Level 5 leadership advocated by Jim Collins in Good to Great.

8. Small Ecosystems

The four castes were broad but every caste had thousands of small subcastes called jatis and for all practical purposes that was the identity of the group. The marriages were usually within the jatis and each jati has some difference in culture and rituals. The jati acts as a corporation and the members are its "agents." Thus, the jati member is a fiduciary member who is required to do whatever is in the best interest of his jati, not exclusively his or her own interest.

This gives management insight to bring small ecosystems in big companies. The company should be divided into small units eg. 300 to 1000 people and for all practical purposes day to day interaction should be within this small group. This helps in fostering better ties and increase productivity. Interestingly some of India’s leading software companies follow this practice of building small units of few hundred people each within the big software centre.

Conclusion

The caste system has survived for long and has worked very well for the past 3000 years, primarily because it served the needs of the society. Everyone knew his place, occupation, societal expectations and marriage bounds and choices in society. One knew what one had to do to advance. Jati was the best protection one had in the society. People knew that by being disowned by a jati, they would lose their status in the society. One also expected that whatever one's status in life, it was deserved.

If we can understand these eight principles of core belief, culture, hierarchy with mobility, employee security and welfare, higher status of knowledge, entrepreneurship scope, silent leadership and small ecosystems, we can increase the chances of sustainability of the large organisations.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Best Sellers (Books) in India in 2011 and Publishing Trends



Which books are best sellers in India? I couldn't find any best sellers list in India substantiated with data such as number of books sold.

Every book website or book store develops its own list without any data points. I decided to check out four leading sources ( 2 websites and 2 book stores) and tried to develop a common list.

The sources I referred to are Flipkart, Infibeam, Crossword and Landmark bestsellers list. (Data retrieved on Oct 5).

My hypothesis is that if a book appears in more than one bestseller list then it is likely to be a best seller. Out of 200 + book list with this criteria , I narrowed down to 56 best sellers book list. ( excluding academics books )

I further classified these 56 best sellers among 3 categories -

Gold Best Sellers - Books which are present in all 4 lists
Silver Best Sellers - Books which are present in any 3 lists
Bronze Best Sellers - Books which are present in any 2 lists

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before best seller list, little bit of information of my new book:

"WHO IS THAT LADY?




Website/ Where to buyhttp://www.whoisthatlady.com

Facebook Pagehttp://www.facebook.com/WhoIsThatLady

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"


The book is about an idea that is converted into a billion dollar business, about a belief that an idea can be implemented and about formulating right strategy for converting an idea into a business. The plot harmoniously weaves around complex business fundamentals, required to set up, run and make a business successful, presented in lucid, easy to understand style. The novel is about implementation, about challenges that can be overcome, about success, about friendship, about passion, and about fun above all! All in all a hilarious and inspiring story on entrepreneurship and idea possibilities!

The book has got good and encouraging reviews from readers so far.

Dr. T. R. Madanmohan ( Ex Associate Professor IIM Bangalore ) says, “Reading ‘Who is that lady?’ brought vividly the moments of celebration and anguish of "identification of business opportunity", validation and construction of business model and implementation. A wonderful, written as a novel, that should be read by all current and future business leaders. Wish the book was available around 2005 for my class of Managing Technology led business at IIM Bangalore. I am sure the class would have devoured and gained much more from the book.” 

Sathish Sheshadri ( Management Consultant at IBM) says, “India is renowned for using stories to convey great life lessons. Who is that Lady could well become such a legendary story on the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Everyone from students to CEOs will find a lot to reflect on, from the pearls of wisdom that the authors have shared through the protagonist, Pratik.”

Major Pooja Gupta says, “The book makes you think... if there is anything in this world which is impossible.”

Subir Dhar (Principal Consultant at Infosys) says, “This book will inspire India’s restless youth to take up entrepreneurship.”

Neerav Nimesh (Entrepreneur) says, “An entertaining book, which is not only a good novel but also a very good book on management. The author has been able to explain the fundamentals of every aspect of business whether marketing, planning, strategy, organizational structure, H.R., lines of communication, team work, goal setting etc and has done so without appearing to dispense "gyan".


Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuing Best Sellers List ...

There are 5 Books in Gold Best Sellers

2 States by Chetan Bhagat
Connect The Dots by Rashmi Bansal
Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Women & The Weight Loss Tamasha byRujuta Diwekar

There are 15 Books in Silver Best Sellers

Don't Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar
Fault Lines by Raghuram G Rajan
Highway On My Plate by Rocky Singh, Mayur Sharma
I Have A Dream by Rashmi Bansal
Life Is What You Make It by Preeti Shenoy
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal
The 3 Mistakes Of My Life by Chetan Bhagat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective by Stephen R Covey
The Emperor Of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The Power by Rhonda Byrne
Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham




There are 36 Books in Bronze Best Sellers List

Aleph by Paulo Coelho
Big Girl by Danielle Steel
Bombay Duck is a fish by Kanika Dhillon
Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Corporate Chanakya by Radhakrishnan Pallai
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
Dork by Sidin Vadukut
Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford
Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayar
Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat
Geek Nation by Angela Saini
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Growing Up Bin Laden by Jean P Sasson
India : A Portrait by Patrick French
India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
Johnny Gone Down by Karan Bajaj
Mafia Queens Of Mumbai by Hussain Zaidi
Mini Shopoholic by Sophie Kinsella
Mother Pious Lady by Santosh Desai
Ohh Yes, I Am Single by Durjoy Datta, Neeti Rustagi
One Night At The Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
Sachin: 501 Things You Didn’t know by Suvam Pal
Superfreakonomics by Levitt Steven
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The Girl who kicked the hornets nest by Stieg Larsson
The Immortals Of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
The Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Sixth Man by David Baldacci
The Steve Jobs Way by Jay Elliot, William Simon
The Winning Way by Harsha Bhogle, Anita Bhogle
Those in Peril by Wilbur Smith
Tinderbox by M J Akbar




Since I had the best sellers data, the Analyst in me couldn't stop analyzing Publishing Trends

Authors

Indian Authors are more than foreign authors in the best sellers list, though difference is narrower than I expected...

Publishers

Leading Publishers for Indian Authors are Westland, Harpercollins, Rupa, Penguin, Shristi and Random House which all have more than one publication in best seller list. The list was on expected lines but I am surprised by the relative ranking.

Pricing

Contrary to my earlier perception that success of best sellers is because of low pricing , the two third of best sellers are not low priced.


Pages

Contrary to my earlier perception, in the twitter age, the necessary condition for best seller is not crisp content or less pages. The two thirds of best sellers are with heavy content.



Popular vs Classics

Any book which is among best sellers list even after 5 years of its publication is more than popular and can be called as classic ( irrespective of the critique) . I found 6 books in the list which are published before 2006

The Fountainhead
Good to Great
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
Five Point Someone
The Alchemist

Next few years will tell whether few of the popular books will move to classic status ( Contender are books by Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar and Stieg Larsson among others)

For 2012 Best Sellers List

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Telecom Strategy: Sourcing as a Differentiator



Can Sourcing Strategy be a competitive advantage for Telecom Operators?


Bharti Airtel has build its leadership position in India with innovating sourcing approach. First with IT and Network Outsourcing and later with Tower Outsourcing. They were among first few operators in Asia to debundle the products sourcing for eg. first debundle Power system from BTS and then debundle Battery from Power Systems to avoid vendor markups. Now Bharti is following similar approach in Africa too!

Will other operators follow the suit?

Telenor Group has learned a trick or two from Bharti in India to concentrate on sourcing.

What about Customer Service as a differentiator?


As Telecom sector is consolidating and approaching "Rule of Three", the customer satisfaction is becoming less as a differentiator ( Subscribers are finding that all operators are equally pathetic!). In one of research, I observed Churn correlated to number of players in the country !

What about innovation?

Innovation in pricing, services , marketing can easily be copied in Telecom. So not a differentiator.


Sourcing Strategy even if not a major differentiator it is necessary for survival. "Survival of Cheapest !"


Related articles:



50 Energy Opex Saving Strategies for Telecom Operators


Friday, September 23, 2011

Telecom Gear Virtualization and Spectrum Outsourcing

I wrote last year about possibility of Telecom Spectrum outsourcing. My hypothesis was that Spectrum is scarce in congested area but easily available in country side. Can future technologies utilize this spectrum imbalance and facilitate spectrum outsourcing ?


I got feedback that I am sounding crazy.

Now Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) has introduced a new technology which will enable Telecom Gear (BTS) Virtualization similar to cloud computing paradigm in IT.


This is in a way vindicating my earlier thinking. (Though not in the way I imagined !)

Telecom transmission is function of BTS Power and Spectrum availability. If BTS power is centralized then as a proxy, the spectrum is also centralized . The idle spectrum in country side can indeed help balance the scarce spectrum in congested area !

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Angola : A country whose time has come ?

I read two news items about Angola, a small country in south central Africa, recently.

First news is about crowning of Liela Lopes as Miss Universe 2011

Other news is that IBM is opening its new center in Luanda, Angola


That makes me think whether Angola's time has come on world stage?

Does Miss Universe results indicate future possibilities ?

I remember crowning of Sushmita Sen as Miss Universe ( First from India) in 1994. Around same time India started making its mark globally in IT industry.

To validate this further, the first Miss Universe from China should be in mid 1980's. I checked the Miss Universe list and to my surprise there is no Miss Universe from China yet.


Further many Venezeulan and Peurto Rican ladies have won Miss Universe competitions. ( Countries whose time has not come yet...)

So this is inconclusive. So what about Angola ? Investigation continues ...


Friday, September 16, 2011

How to create Jobs in US?

Technology which is responsible for loss of jobs can get the job back:

1. Use of Technology such as video phone can reverse the outsourcing trend. For e.g. In telemarketing calls, an Indian male face will get better response or a beautiful female face from California?

http://pareekhjain.blogspot.com/2007/06/marketing-myopia-ites-sector.html

2. Invest in Technology R&D

The problem of Job creation needs to be analyzed from the global perspective. Global Solution may be creation of additional new jobs for all abilities in all countries. Countries should not fight for local maxima optimizing their job at cost of other countries.

I believe, the long term solution is to create large R&D in further new areas and increase share of R&D employment in total global employment. Once new technologies become viable, market will take care of creating additional jobs in downstream- manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure and services.

http://pareekhjain.blogspot.com/2009/03/obama-ban-on-outsourcing-and-h1-visas.html


3. Technology companies like Apple who have gained from globalization and have more cash than US Government should invest in local job creation

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Inspiring Leadership: President and Governors in India

President and Governors in India are not elected people but ceremonial heads nominated by political parties. ( President is elected by electoral college of elected representatives but Ruling party can nominate and get their candidate elected). Governors are political appointees. Looking through current list of Governors, it looks like that this post has become a retiring option for the politicians.

When trust in politicians is all time low in India, Should our ceremonial heads at least be inspiring personalities?

One current leader In India who inspired billions is Kalam, ex President . Apart from his many achievement he was awarded Bharat Ratna , highest civilian award in India.

Should future Presidents of India be Bharat Ratnas? There are only 4 living Bharat Ratna recepients in India : Kalam, Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar & Amartya Sen

Wouldn't any of above four will be more inspiring than current set of political leaders aspiring to be President of India?

Shouldn't highest civilian award is a good eligibility criteria for nominating candidates for President by Political parties

Taking the reasoning further, should other civilian awards such as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri etc be made eligibility criteria for other political nominations such as Governors.

Should Governor position move away from being a retiring post for political leaders and bureaucrats and instead be given to inspiring people.

Skeptics will ask whether this will increase quality of leadership or lower the standards of civilian awards?

Friday, September 2, 2011

Strategy for Promoting Gujarat as IT/ITES Center of Excellence

Ten Point Strategy for Promoting Gujarat as IT/ITES Center of Excellence

  1. 1.Set Aspiring Goals for Gujarat IT/ ITES Every plan starts from an aspiring goal. Indian IT industry had goal of $50 Billion exports by 2010. Gujarat Government should set up a similar goal for the state also say $10 Billion IT/ITES Revenue by 2020.

  1. 2.Promote Local Entrepreneurs and Local Firm to Achieve Global Scale – What current IT/ITES centers of excellence such as Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Noida and Gurgaon have in common? They all have at least one of the Top 10 IT/ITES Company headquartered in their region. Bangalore has Infosys, Wipro; Chennai has Cognizant; Hyderabad has Satyam; Pune has Tech Mahindra; Mumbai has TCS; Noida has HCL and Gurgaon has Genpact.

Investment by big companies only would not make a region as center of excellence unless a local firm has scaled up. The case in point is of Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Trivandrum, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mysore, etc where big firms like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Genpact have invested but no local company has been able to build a scale.

Government should indentify few local firms which can scale up and give these local firms preference for government work and local industry work, to help these local firms achieve the initial economics of scale.

There are companies which have centres in Gujarat but they are Head Quartered in other places. Government can request these firms to relocate HQ back in Gujarat.

  1. 3.Encourage Rivarly and Cooperation between firms - Why Bangalore has emerged as leaders among other IT/ ITES centers of excellence? One of the reasons is the rivalry between two big firms Infosys and Wipro. The management literature has examples that when firms vigorously compete with each other for work and talent but share other location dependent resources, the centers of excellence are created. Gujarat government should promote healthy competition and rivalry among local firms like it is doing in auto sector.

  1. 4.Prepare Master Plan for Infrastructure, Manpower Supporting Industries and Other Catalyst factors - What kind of resources will be required for $10 Billion IT/ITES business? Office space, residential space, manpower, transportation, entertainment among others things. What kind of factors do the companies consider when they decide their IT/ITES location strategy?

There is no need to reinvent the wheel as some success has already been achieved. Here the best feedback the Government can get is from local entrepreneurs and companies, who have opened their centers, about their concerns and frustration points. Remove their frustration points and wheel can be accelerated.

Backpaper calculation says , $10 Billion revenue can give employment to 5 lakh employees , utilize space of 50 million square feet etc

  1. 5.Promote Gujarat as Center of Excellence for Public Sector and Analytics – Every center of excellence have achieved some specialization because of manpower and supporting industries. Gurgaon is known for the call centers, Bangalore is known for IT and product development, Mumbai is for known for Financial captives, Hyderabad is for known for Pharma Services etc.

What should Gujarat concentrate on? Historically Gujarat’s strength lies in large scale activities such as cooperative movements like Anand etc . In current times Gujarat has established itself as manufacturing and Auto hub. In IT/ITes sector this historical strength can be translated into Public Sector and Engineering Services space.

How can Government promote Gujarat as Public sector and Engineering Services hub? Public sector and Engineering services need specialized manpower. Gujarat has nation’s renowned rural management institute IRMA and IIM Ahmedabad . Government can think of establishing another technical institute focusing on Automobiles and Engineering Services With these institutes involvement, Government can train human resources for Engineering Services and Public sector.

  1. 6.Promote Gujarat as an Emerging Center for Cloud Computing – Getting a pie of new work is easy than fighting for existing work. So Government should also concentrate on developing expertise and manpower in upcoming technologies such as Cloud Computing. Government can setup center of excellence in Cloud Computing at IIM Ahmedabad.

  1. 7.Promote Gujarat as Captive Centers Destination – Every other IT/ITES Center of Excellence has captive center of few fortune 500 firms. Government should identify few Fortune 500 firms (Automobile Firms) who do good business in Gujarat state and request these firms to open their one of captive centers in the state.

  1. 8.Establish a Venture Capital Fund – Establish a Venture Capital Fund in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad to promote young technology entrepreneurs to start and grow their firms in Gujarat

  1. 9.Reach out to Gujarati Diaspora – Gujarati Diaspora is employed in technology companies world wide. In India also because of lack of opportunities, many Gujarati engineers have moved out to other locations. Government should reach out to them for two reasons. The first reason is to encourage them to come back and improve the competiveness of Gujarat state. The second reason is to seek their help in marketing attractiveness of Gujarat to the firms, who want to outsource their work or who want to set up captive centers. This is similar to the role played by the NRI’s in the initial days of India’s outsourcing revolution.

  1. 10.Aggressive Marketing to Promote Gujarat as IT and ITES Destination– What good the policy and attractiveness of state is if it is not marketed to decision makers? Employ aggressive marketing similar to Vibrant Gujarat as “Great Gujarat: Preferred IT and ITES Destination”

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

UPS Market Landscape in 2015


How will the UPS ( Uninterrupted Power Supply) market shape up by 2015?

  • Top 3 Players will increase their share
  • New Global players will come
  • Focused M&A : Geographically or Product Line base



    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Little bit of information of my new book:

    "WHO IS THAT LADY?




    Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com

    Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/WhoIsThatLady

    A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"


    The book is about an idea that is converted into a billion dollar business, about a belief that an idea can be implemented and about formulating right strategy for converting an idea into a business. The plot harmoniously weaves around complex business fundamentals, required to set up, run and make a business successful, presented in lucid, easy to understand style. The novel is about implementation, about challenges that can be overcome, about success, about friendship, about passion, and about fun above all! All in all a hilarious and inspiring story on entrepreneurship and idea possibilities!

    The book has got good and encouraging reviews from readers so far.

    Dr. T. R. Madanmohan ( Ex Associate Professor IIM Bangalore ) says, “Reading ‘Who is that lady?’ brought vividly the moments of celebration and anguish of "identification of business opportunity", validation and construction of business model and implementation. A wonderful, written as a novel, that should be read by all current and future business leaders. Wish the book was available around 2005 for my class of Managing Technology led business at IIM Bangalore. I am sure the class would have devoured and gained much more from the book.” 

    Sathish Sheshadri ( Management Consultant at IBM) says, “India is renowned for using stories to convey great life lessons. Who is that Lady could well become such a legendary story on the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Everyone from students to CEOs will find a lot to reflect on, from the pearls of wisdom that the authors have shared through the protagonist, Pratik.”

    Major Pooja Gupta says, “The book makes you think... if there is anything in this world which is impossible.”

    Subir Dhar (Principal Consultant at Infosys) says, “This book will inspire India’s restless youth to take up entrepreneurship.”

    Neerav Nimesh (Entrepreneur) says, “An entertaining book, which is not only a good novel but also a very good book on management. The author has been able to explain the fundamentals of every aspect of business whether marketing, planning, strategy, organizational structure, H.R., lines of communication, team work, goal setting etc and has done so without appearing to dispense "gyan".


    Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Data or Analysis or Innovation : Which is competitive advantage?

HBR blog has an interesting post arguing the case that competitive advantage comes from better data and not from analysis


Here assumption is that analysis has become commodity and data is scarce. This is an interesting U turn from earlier common belief that data is commodity and analysis is scarce.

The reasons are understandable. The MBA has now slowly become as Master of Business Analysis and as MBA factories generate more and more Analysts, and technology is automating analysis functions the Analysis is tending towards commodity. Point well taken!

One thing I am finding missing in this data and analysis discussion is Innovation. What kind of data will be scarce and give competitive advantage is as much function of innovative thinking as what kind of new analysis will give competitive advantage.

"Does wearing a red wristband on Tuesday gives one a competitive advantage?" is innovative hypothesis and to prove or discard this will require a database of color of wristbands of players on various days. If teams already have this database but has been overlooked then only analysis can give competitive advantage, otherwise generating a new database of color wrist bands will give one a competitive advantage.

So innovative thinking gives competitive advantage but it often gets lost in discussion between data and analysis ( where both sides are true depending upon circumstances)

Btw, Tuesday is the day of Mars and Red is the color of Mars so according to astrology, wearing red on Tuesday should give one a competitive advantage but I don't have data set to prove or discard this !!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Why SME’s have poor quality and MNC’s have poor services? Game theory analysis

The quality and service dilemmas of SME’s and MNC’s can be analyzed from the game theory.


Quality

Assume

The quality of finished product is dependent on quality of input components.

Both SME and MNC buy input component from a same vendor.

If the vendor has some defected lot, the vendor has three choices –

  • Choice 1: Discard defected lot
  • Choice 2: Supply the defected lot to SME
  • Choice 3: Supply the defected lot to MNC

Assume price of the component is 5 units and profit is 1 unit. If vendor discards than he will feel loss of 4 units. So present pay off for choices are:

  • Choice 1: (-4 Units)
  • Choice 2: (1 Unit)
  • Choice 3: (1 Unit)

But there are future consequences and payoffs also

For choice 1, if the vendor discard defected lot , he would not be able to fulfill his supply obligations and face additional penalty. In addition the vendor would face short term loss in his books, and face negative corporate or investor pressure. Quantifying additional supply penalty of 1 Units and corporate and investor pressure as loss of 2 Units, the total future loss is 3 units

For choice 2, SME will not give next 3 year business to the vendor; assume the loss is 6 Units

For choice 3, MNC will not give next 3 year business to vendor, MNC business is much larger value, so assume the loss is 12 Units

So future pay off for choices are:

  • Choice 1: (-3 Units)
  • Choice 2: (-6 Units)
  • Choice 3: (-12 Units)

Combining present and future pay off for choices:

  • Choice 1: (-4-3 = -7 Units)
  • Choice2: (1-6 = -5 Units)
  • Choice3: (1-12 = -11Units)

Out of above 3 choices, the choice 2 of sending defective input lot to SME’s will be the best rational choice for the vendor

This game can be modeled on different payoff choices and assumptions but more often than not ditching SME’s is rational choice for vendors and that explains why SME’s often have poor quality.


Service

Similarly for service, when an organization has limited service resources, it has to look for best rational choice on how to deploy them.

Assume a small customer has both option either to buy from a MNC or from a SME.

While present value of the customer is same for both SME and MNC, the relative future value of the small customer will be less for a MNC compare to the relative value of same customer for a SME.

In case of any service resource constraint, the rational choice for SME’s and MNC’s will be to give importance according to customer’s relative future value. So MNC’s are more likely to give less importance to small customers in comparison to SME’s.


Inference

SME’s need to look for service edge to beat MNC’s

SME’s need to watch out for the quality of their inputs from the vendors. They can sort out this quality dilemma by uniting with other SME’s for procurement and other areas.

For consumers, where service is not of much importance (such as FMCG goods) MNC’s are best choice. Where service is important, SME’s are better option. However exceptions will always be there!!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Apple should invest money in the US economy

Apple now has more cash than the US Government!

This sums up the problem in US or Global economy and missing point in immigration and outsourcing debate.

Outsourcing has moved many jobs abroad and immigration is challenging the remaining jobs . While this is happening, only top companies and top 1% of the population is making money.


See this video


Since 1980 US economy has doubled in size but average wages have remain flat.

All the gains have gone to super riches
  • Top 1% used to have 10 % share in income in 1980 which has now grown to 20% income.
  • Now super riches have share of 20% income but 40% share of wealth.

Thats the twin effect of outsourcing and immigration.

Its time the top 1% of the companies and individuals give it back to society and invest in new jobs in their countries.

What kind of jobs is the question of another debate !

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Will Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia emerge as data center outsourcing locations?

The two mega trends this decade are cloud computing and mobile broadband. Both will generate vast amount of data and will require out of box data center solutions.

The biggest component of data center cost is energy head and in energy cost the biggest component is the cooling.

The race to green and economical data center solutions is driving companies to solve cooling problem in the innovative ways.

There is an emerging trend to locate data centers in cool climates like Scandinavian countries for non critical application and hence decrease the cooling requirements and save cost.

If data centers can be located in cool European countries then why not in Asia ?

Apart from cooling savings, Real estate and labor cost will be cheap in Asia ( Though that is not significant cost for data center and cannot be a major factor in location choice but every dollar counts !)

Which are cool ( cold) countries in Asia which will be willing to promote themselves as attractive data center locations?

West Asia ( Afghanistan, Pakistan) and Kashmir in India are out of question because of security and geopolitics.

The other cold countries in Asia are China, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia.

China, Korea, Japan - Already lot is going on there in terms of opportunities and they might not be interested in promoting them selves as Data Center location

Will Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia be interested?

The above three are landlocked countries surrounded by big Asian powers such as India and China. As these countries were landlocked they were not able to develop themselves as trading destinations and economic boom has eluded them so far.

Will their cold weather help them now?

Interestingly middle east had no economic development till the oil was discovered . Will mother nature contribute similarly to development of Nepal , Bhutan and Mongolia ?


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Little bit of information of my new book:

"WHO IS THAT LADY?




Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com

Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/WhoIsThatLady

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"


The book is about an idea that is converted into a billion dollar business, about a belief that an idea can be implemented and about formulating right strategy for converting an idea into a business. The plot harmoniously weaves around complex business fundamentals, required to set up, run and make a business successful, presented in lucid, easy to understand style. The novel is about implementation, about challenges that can be overcome, about success, about friendship, about passion, and about fun above all! All in all a hilarious and inspiring story on entrepreneurship and idea possibilities!

The book has got good and encouraging reviews from readers so far.

Dr. T. R. Madanmohan ( Ex Associate Professor IIM Bangalore ) says, “Reading ‘Who is that lady?’ brought vividly the moments of celebration and anguish of "identification of business opportunity", validation and construction of business model and implementation. A wonderful, written as a novel, that should be read by all current and future business leaders. Wish the book was available around 2005 for my class of Managing Technology led business at IIM Bangalore. I am sure the class would have devoured and gained much more from the book.” 

Sathish Sheshadri ( Management Consultant at IBM) says, “India is renowned for using stories to convey great life lessons. Who is that Lady could well become such a legendary story on the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Everyone from students to CEOs will find a lot to reflect on, from the pearls of wisdom that the authors have shared through the protagonist, Pratik.”

Major Pooja Gupta says, “The book makes you think... if there is anything in this world which is impossible.”

Subir Dhar (Principal Consultant at Infosys) says, “This book will inspire India’s restless youth to take up entrepreneurship.”

Neerav Nimesh (Entrepreneur) says, “An entertaining book, which is not only a good novel but also a very good book on management. The author has been able to explain the fundamentals of every aspect of business whether marketing, planning, strategy, organizational structure, H.R., lines of communication, team work, goal setting etc and has done so without appearing to dispense "gyan".


Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
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