How Ingersoll Rand is turning top B-School grads into … · 2012-05-16 · Jessie Paul, MD, Paul Writer Volume 8 - Issue 12 | April 2012 Mission: To enable engaging conversations

Volume 8 | Issue 12 | April 2012

Kumar Malavalli

Secrets ofa SerialEntrepreneur

Rama Bijapurkar

Get Customers into the Boardroom

Prof. Tarun Khanna

SucceedingDespiteConstraints in India

Interview withShouvik Bhattacharyya,CEO and MD, ValtechUS, MEA, Asia-Pacific

Special Issue

presented by

How Ingersoll Rand is turning top B-School grads into entrepreneurs

WhyMarketingwill run IT

www.managementnext.com

Information in this publication is drawn from a variety of sources, including published reports, interviews with practicing managers, academia and consultants. While doing so utmost importance is given to authenticity.

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Editorial Advisors

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Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Faculty, IIM, Bengaluru

Rajeev Gowda, Faculty, IIM, Bangalore

Jessie Paul, MD, Paul Writer

Volume 8 - Issue 12 | April 2012

Mission: To enable engaging conversations through fresh insights and perspectives

www.efilos.com

Letter from the editor

Benedict [email protected]

Captain Gopinath as CEO of Kingfisher?Captain Gopinath’s article in The Economic Times on 5th March 2012 will make the heads of banks which lent money to Kingfisher Airlines consider offering the CEO/MD post to Captain Gopinath if they decide to convert the entire debt to equity. The article is well argued and offers practical solution for the current mess his former friend Dr. Vijay Mallya has got himself into. He takes a dig at his arrogance and bashful lifestyle while thousands of employees’ jobs are at stake and prods him to adopt humble ways. It’s like asking a Formula 1 driver to behave like a chauffer.

What Captain Gopinath will bring to the airline if he takes up the job can make for a wonderful speculative story. With the zest he has written the article, he might not say no if asked. Knowing him, he will first make austerity the number one goal. He may not do an Indigo with absolutely no frills though. Keeping Kingfisher’s differentiation, he might come up with more creative ways of pampering the customer. One thing he will surely do, perhaps after a semblance of stability comes in, say after a year of operation, is to introduce or hive off an Air Deccan type airline, similar to the failed attempt by Dr. Mallya with Kingfisher Red. This way, he will compete both with the types of Indigo and Spicejet as well as Jet Airways. His biggest grouse against Dr. Mallya to whom he sold Air Deccan in 2007, is giving away what he created with a lot of toil, on a platter to other low-cost carriers.

One of the key factors that will help the call for reviving Kingfisher, like the US did with General Motors, is the growing capacity in the Indian aviation market.

He mentions that to replace Kingfisher’s peak capacity, it will take 4 to 5 years and in the meantime the current airlines will have a ball. Just to avoid such a situation, the government might be forced to take Captain Gopinath’s suggestions seriously.

One other reason why Captain Gopinath could do a damn good job as CEO of Kingfisher is his learning from his dismal performance of running his cargo airline Deccan 360. One stupendous success as the pioneer of the budget airline and not so successful entrepreneur of a cargo airline is a great mix of experience which is rare in India. It’s another matter whether Dr. Mallya would like Captain Gopinath to succeed him. As things stand, he may have little say in the outcome.

Knowing Dr. Mallya he may still bring in the two elusive Indian investors he has mentioned to bail him out. It has taken this long perhaps because of the control issues. Dr. Mallya is not known to play second fiddle.

If I was the aviation minister, I would seize this opportunity to merge Kingfisher with Air India. This idea, as one hears it, might sound outrageous, but consider the outcome. It could become a global player with the size and expertise both brands already posses. The crucial factor of course is that the entity should be privatized – publicly owned – and run by a professional management. This is a golden opportunity for some big thinking and quicker execution. The Satyam experience shows that the government is capable of pulling off a stunner once again. Captain Gopinath can be to Kingfisher what Kiran Karnik was to Satyam.© ManagamentNext Media & Publication LLP

EditorBenedict Paramanand

PublisherRomi Malhotra

Contributing EditorSharmila Chand, Delhi

Editor - SustainabilitySangeeta Mansur

Assistant EditorSuchitra R. Panthalu

Contributing WriterSuhruda Kulkarni, Pune

SupportSanjeev Kumar, Delhi

IllustratorNeetu Singh

20-27ThoughtLeadership

Write your own obituaryTenzin Priyadarshi, founding director of the Dalai Lama Centre for Ethics and Transformative Values, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recently spoke at the ISB on the importance of training leaders and MBA students in ethical thinking and behavior

Leaders harmonize others’ visionJohn KnightsCo-founder,LeaderShape

From how much to HOW Dov Seidman says winning companies and organizations will soon be those that successfully measure how they made profits and not onlyhow much

Fundamental drivers of value have shiftedIn the Age of Sustainability businesses have to embrace a new paradigm with new definitions of success, value and purpose, says Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive of Tomorrow’s Company

Inside

12Cover Story

How Ingersoll Rand is turning IIM gradsinto entrepreneursThe experiment is in its second year and the company is expecting it to become a game changer

Why Nokia is India’s best youth brand

8-11 Trends

Parliamentary Research ServiceHow a band of young professionals are engaging MPs

Imminent people crisis inPSU banks this yearDr. Anil Khandelwal,former CMD of Bank of Baroda

special issue

Indian companies are still‘toying’ with Agile

14-19

Agile ManagementWhy marketing will run ITin the futureInterview with Shouvik Bhattacharyya,CEO and MD, Valtech, US, MEA, Asia-Pacific

The Agile Manifesto

28-33EntrepreneurTalk

Prof. Tarun Khanna

Success secrets of Indian entrepreneurs

Kalpana Heblekar, SafeRWe

Sanitary napkin cheaper than a pack of bidis

Kumar Malavalli

How to be a successful serial entrepreneur

Prof. Bala Balachandran

Leading India’s Transformation of Executive Education

44Spirituality

How toovercomefear of failureSadhguru

46CaseStudy - Sponsored Feature

Growing Furniture Business Polishes its Act with Business Intelligence from Tally.ERP 9

36TechTalk

Ranganath Iyengar

Information Fabric

37ExecutiveHealth

Dr. Juvita Rasquinha

Simple tips forhealthy skin during summer

Rama Bijapurkar

Strategy is outside in,not inside out

40AuthorSpeak

P.C. Mustafa’s

Big bet with wet ready-mix business

42Case Study – ID Special

Bookshelf

Offbeat

Conference updates

Regulars

Trends

Analysts who were eager to write off Nokia as the has-

been mega brand in their reports last two years have got a tight slap from two independent survey findings in recent weeks. The first national survey by the Trust Research Advisory in January 2012 named Nokia as India’s most trusted brand followed by Tata, LG, Samsung and Sony. The second by Nielsen in February 2012 for The Economic Times names Nokia as the most popular youth brand in India.

The survey findings seem to be have surprised a lot of industry watchers and perhaps the competitors. ManagementNext called two of India’s prominent brand commentators to comment on the survey. Here they are:

Harish Bijoor,CEO Harish Bijoor ConsultsThe reason why Nokia does

Why Nokia is most trusted and most popular

get repeatedly listed in the top ten is simply because of what I call the "ubiquity effect". Please do note that the largest numbers of mobile handsets in use as of now in India is quite likely to be the Nokia handset in the middle and upper-end segment. Add to it the fact that the mobile phone is a 24 X 7 device that people do not switch off and even sleep. Mobile phones live closerto people than their own wives and husbands do.This ubiquity gives a halo effect to the brand that is used by most.

Many swear by their mobile phones . Many can't stay away from them. Many touch them a lot more than

they touch their spouses. This proximity adds to the halo effect of the hand phone brand. And Nokia is a benefactor, as of now. Give it five years more for the Samsung effect to set in.

Shombit Sengupta,CEO,Shining Emotional Surplus

handset that supports32 GB.

I’ve never used Nokia, but for any income group or any socio-behavioral character, Nokia’s robustness is very high, as also its user friendly quality even though it may not have flamboyancy. I use Samsung, and that’s outstanding, but it doesn’t mean it’s best for everybody. Nokia has mass appeal because of its simplicity, being able to support more GB, and its durability is terrific.

It appears Nokia’s Asha phones, launched late last year for the youth, has indeed brought ‘Asha’ to Nokia’s fortunes. Not to forget the immense popularity of the music store OVI to the high ranking of Nokia. Nokia’s next big challenge will be how it catches up with others on smart phones.

If you look at Nokia, its visibility and user interface are still very high in the country. The brand continues to lead with 39% market share in India and 27% globally. Not everybody wants to have a sophisticated mobile phone. At the mass scale, Nokiais a very solid phone, there’s even a Rs. 2500.00 Nokia

Nokia

Coca-Cola

7 UP

Thums Up

Miranda

Maaza

Vodaphone

Frooti

5 Star

Cadbury Dairy Milk

Nokia

Tata

LG

Samsung

Sony

Maruti Suzuki

Bajaj

LIC

Airtel

Reliance

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Ranking Brand Trust Advisory Nielsen Youth Rank

Source: Brand Trust Report & The Economic Times. All are 2011 figures

ManagementNext | April 20128

How PRS helps MPs makebetter decisions

Amidst gloom about corruption and scams, a few people are quietly making a significant

difference to how India functions. The Parliament Research Services (PRS) is run as a voluntary service to members of Parliament by a bunch of highly successful executives whose aim is to contribute positively. Before every session of Parliament PRS (www.prsindia.org) gets to know the Bills that would come up for discussion. PRS does extensive research on the issues related to the Bill, gets feedback from all stakeholders and offers it free to all MPs.

PRS Legislative Research is the only organization in the country that tracks the functioning of Parliament. It provides a comprehensive and credible

resource base to access Parliament-specific data, background information and analysis of key issues. It is quite a task because 790 MPs pass about 60 Bills a year.

By February 2012, PRS developed professional relationships with over 250 MPs from over 20 different political parties. A study by the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) found that over half the MPs surveyed were aware of the work of PRS, and about a quarter used its research material regularly.

C.V. Madhukar, one of the founders is a student of Prof. Tarun Khanna, faculty at Harvard Business School. On the significance of PRS, Prof. Khanna said: “It’s an example of real entrepreneurship of the sort that you see in India. That’s what makes me very optimistic despite the lack of roads.”

Madhukar, an investment banker worked in senior positions at Pratham and Azim Premji Foundation, the World Bank. He was Edward S. Mason Fellow at Harvard University and holds

an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, an MBA from University of Houston and a BE from Bangalore University. Madhukar is an Echoing Green, Ashoka, and Eisenhower Fellow. He was elected Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008.

The other members of the core team include M.R. Madhavan who was a senior strategist for the Asia region for Bank of America in Singapore. He started his career with ICICI Securities in Mumbai. He is a Fellow (doctorate) from IIM Calcutta, MBA from IIM Calcutta and holds a B. Tech degree from IIT Madras. He was recently selected as a Chevening Gurukul Scholar at the London School of Economics.

The others who left distinguished careers in their fields to join PRS are Aditi Patel, Anil Nair, Chakshu Roy, Devika Malik, Harsimran Kalra, Karan Malik, Kaushiki Sanyal, Mandira Kala, Pallavi Bedi, Priya Thachadi Soman, Rohit Kumar, Sachin Dhawan, Sakshi Balani, Sana Gangwani.

By February, 2012 PRS developed professional relationships with over 250 MPs from over 20 different political parties

ManagementNext | April 2012 9

Trends

In the next 5 years, 80% of GMs, 65% of DGMs, 58% of AGMs and 44% of CMs (circle managers) would be retiring. The pool of these experienced executives cannot be replaced only through promotions

imminent people crisisin psu banksUnless major steps are taken, the Indian public sector banks are likely to have a big managerial crisis on their hands in 2012, says Dr. Anil Khandelwal

Overall, the people processes in public sector banks appear to be inadequate

to meet the demands of new-age banking. In fact, HR has become a new risk - possibly the biggest in the system, considering the new challenges and opportunities of new-age banking.

In the competitive environment, issues of efficiency, productivity and profitability have become very crucial for all banks, even though they are all part of public sector banking fraternity enjoying sovereign support and backing. Our policy framework is not adequately geared to recognize

and retain the talented work force with their expertise and skills acquired over years of long experience. PSBs lost some of this talent to private banks mainly on account of compensation differential.

If Indian banking is to go global and graduate to world class standards in the matter of customer service, range of products, use of technology and provision of total financial solutions along with maintaining and improving operational efficiency, productivity and profitability, can the present legacy driven people management system deliver? How long can we avoid the inevitable?

Leadership

Development

PSBs are likely to face top management crisis from 2012 onwards. The leadership gap in PSBs is so severe that in the next five years, 80% of GMs, 65% of DGMs, 58% of AGMs and 44% of CMs (circle managers) would be retiring. The pool of these experienced executives cannot be replaced only through promotions. Mere promotion on accelerated basis without grooming and advance planning would not solve the problem. Apart from this, there will be huge gaps arising in the middle


PSBs now require tech-savvy, customer savvy, execution-driven and bold decision makers with global mind-set and who are strongly focused on people

management levels too. PSBs would need to identify and groom potential successors for the vacant positions. Planning is needed with projections for the next five years at least.

PSBs now require tech- savvy, customer savvy, execution-driven and bold decision makers with global mind-set and who are strongly focused on people.

development can no more be a matter of choice but a matter of sheer survival. There is a lot of leadership potential among the current bank employees but it is stagnating. There is an urgent need to identify, spot, assess, nurture and develop leadership competency at operational as well as strategic levels. Such spotting, nurturing and developing need full-time attention of a group of people who will undertake a variety of exercises and activities towards the same. This could be very appropriately done in an institutional framework.

There is thus a need to establish a full- fledged institution as a green field project to develop leaders, on the lines of Leadership Academy for Defense Services, Civil Service, etc. The Committee has, therefore, proposed setting up of BLDI to develop world class leadership talent.

The role of the current day CEOs of PSBs has become vastly different in both nature and scope from that in the earlier era. Further, many PSBs are aspiring and preparing to become global banks, in terms of size, quality and best practices. All this will call for a very high order of strategic vision, risk- taking and most of all, a global mind-set on their part, much beyond traditional banking and management skills.

As per McKinsey’s study, PSBs, as a group, will need to groom about 10,000 leaders over the nextfive years:

500–600 Business and functional leadership General Managers

1,500–2,000 Geographic business leadership Regional Managers

6,000–7,000 Branch leadership Branch Managers

The Committee is of the considered view that leadership development has to occupy a centre stage agenda for both the Government and the individual banks. The Government has a clear responsibility to spearhead reforms in the processes and introduce rigor in the selection methodology of full time directors. A leaf or two can be taken from the experiences of private banks where leaders for the future are systematically groomed and prepared well in advance for taking up the role.

Bankers Leadership

Development Institute

For an industry which is growing at a rapid pace and which aspires to become world class, learning and


CoverStory

Venkatesh Valluri led Ingersoll Rand boasts of a few innovations and perhaps the

most innovative among them is the Entrepreneur Creation Program (ECP). After experimenting with it for a year, the company’s HR heads are hitting premium B-School campuses again this year. Unlike others, they will recruit entrepreneurs, not managers. Here’s how the program works and feedback from the entrepreneur recruits. Excerpts from interview on ManagementNext with Paparao Kodali, VP & GM, Engineering and Technology Centers, Ingersoll Rand India.

How does the ECP work?ECP has been created to foster a culture of innovation and develop skill sets required for entrepreneurship among young management students and to create a business for themselves. New hires or Entrepreneur Partners are trained and mentored by Ingersoll Rand India leaders and placed on a fast track learning path through diverse rotations across multiple businesses, markets and functions within the company. This year the company hired six students from the Indian Institute of

Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and Bangalore who will be able to create their own businesses at the end of a two-year training program in Ingersoll Rand products and solutions.

The future of business will be based on a “Hub and Spoke” model. Organizational hubs will own the brand, technology and products; and the spokes will be driven by Entrepreneurs who will create markets by adopting an open innovation strategy (on or using the platform) with organizational support. Ingersoll Rand’s entrepreneurship program has been conceptualized to encourage and support ethical business creation practices.

What do you look for in candidates while hiring them for the program?We are looking for young passionate entrepreneurs who are ready to innovate and take risks. Essentially, candidates that demonstrate an ability to discern opportunities to create value in bottom of pyramid markets in tier 2 and 3 cities would fit the program. Candidates selected to the ECP are expected to be agile, innovative and enterprising with a keen sense of identifying prospective business opportunities that will add

value to the society, the economy and the organization and to the individual.

How old is the program and what has been its outcome so far.The program is in its second year and we are currently in the process of hiring Entrepreneur Partners from leading management institutes around the country. With the success of the program in its first year, we are substantially increasing the intake of Entrepreneur Partners this year.

Ingersoll Rand’s Entrepreneur Partners who came on board last year are now on a fast track learning path through diverse rotations across multiple businesses, markets and functions within the company. Once the entrepreneurs complete their understanding of the various businesses and industries the company operates in, they will start planning their ventures. These ventures can be through providing sales, solutions and distributorship for Ingersoll Rand products and services in tier 2 or tier 3 cities. At every stage, the organization is assisting them through training, access to technology and other support services.

Ingersoll Rand hires entrepreneurs not MBAs at top B-Schools

L to R:Ganesh Pawar,Vincent Jyrwa,Krishna RB,Sandeep K Gupta,Debasish Das andHanuman Kamma


What made you chose ECP instead of a big salary job which typically IIM grads get?

I wanted to start something of my own and wanted a greater sense of ownership in what I do. Once that decision was made, a regular job was out of question. But, as is the case with people my age, I did not have a clear idea on how to get there. Additionally, my knowledge about business was quite limited. I was in the stage of exploring opportunities when Ingersoll Rand visited our campus. With the understanding I gained on the ECP and the vision behind this program, I decided to set forth on this journey.

What has been the learningso far?

Since the program began, all the EPs have been traveling throughout the country, visiting Ingersoll Rand manufacturing facilities and engineering centers in order to learn about the business and various functions. The organization has been very supportive in terms of access to senior leadership who mentor and collaborate with us. This has instilled in me a sense of belonging and loyalty towards the

company. I am excited about the opportunity that has been given to me and at the same time enjoy the company’s open culture. Ingersoll Rand has given me a unique opportunity which entrepreneurs of my age can only dream of and I see a bright future for myself and my colleagues in this company.

I got a chance to work on several projects that focused on marketing, sales and distribution and the product roadmap of the company’s business verticals. These projects helped me gain great insights about businesses and the decision making process.

Given Ingersoll Rand’s focus on environment conservation and sustainability, I had the privilege to work on a project to measure carbon emissions of industrial products. The project has helped bring awareness of the challenges involved in the measurement of Green House Gas (GHG) emission during the life cycle of a product. Learnings from this project will be utilized by the organization to reduce its carbon footprint in manufacturing and other key processes, as well as help me make my business venture more sustainable and environment friendly.

Currently, I am in the planning phase of my entrepreneurial venture which will be associated with one of Ingersoll Rand’s businesses. The company will support me by providing technology expertise as well as give me a chance to work and collaborate with the best talent available at Ingersoll Rand globally. Working with established Ingersoll Rand global teams will help me tap the right knowledge and standards for my new venture. I look forward to taking the Ingersoll Rand

advantage to newer markets and with the avenues that the company is providing me I am confident of building a profitable and sustained business.

Do the six of you collaborate or is it an individual journey?

Though essentially it is an individualistic journey because at the end of the program we will become entrepreneurs in our own regions of choice, yet the program is largely collaborative since the learning process, projects and systems are mostly common. This collaborative phase is most memorable as the EPs get together to brainstorm innovative business ideas constantly. This will be followed by another exciting phase when we will partner with the organization more in the individual capacity to develop our business models.

What does it take for a company to launch such an initiative?

The ECP at Ingersoll Rand is an innovative one-of-a-kind program in the country to develop entrepreneurial spirit. In an organization, it takes a strong leadership - leadership that has the capability to take innovative and bold decisions, to launch such an initiative. The leadership should also have the capability to think through the process and as well motivate other employees to support such a program. For the success of such a program it is imperative that there is a buy-in at all levels within a company. Also, it makes immense business sense for companies to launch such initiatives because at the end, this will bring about a sense of entrepreneurship within the company and help the organization and its employees grow.

Sandeep Gupta,Entrepreneur Partner


AgileManagement Special

Why Marketing will runIT in the future

Shouvik Bhattacharyya,CEO and MD, Valtech,US, MEA, Asia-Pacific

Presented by


The word Agile is synonymous with the information technology folks who are either in development of software products or the delivery function of solutions. Not any more. The IT folk will soon have to make way for the spooky marketing tribe that seems to know more about what customers want and how to make customers buy faster. In an engaging conversation with Benedict Paramanand, Shouvik Bhattacharyya, CEO and MD, Valtech, US, MEA, Asia-Pacific, delved deep into the changing trends in Agile and the many challenges it is facing, especially in India. Excerpts:

I hear that aligning Agile IT and Agile Marketing is the new mantra?Yes, it’s a radical shift. I will tell

you why I feel that. A CEO of a very large American company had given business, a very large Agile project, to a competitor. This was more than a year ago. One day, I decided to meet this CEO and asked him how it was going. In the course of the conversation I said that I heard that your project has gone very well, and he said, yes. He said, IT is extremely happy, and then he told me, why he took the meeting with me. Even though nothing has changed, his products were not going faster to the market. So, he said, since Valtech has a lot of expertise, tell us where we went wrong? Through further conversation I realized that the problem was about his company not aligning marketing with IT.

Heard you have the trademark on the term Agile Marketing…Yes. This year our major effort will be to develop relationship with the chief marketing officers (CMOs). Some organizations like GE have already placed marketing in charge of technology. There is a best practice

that’s already there so that all other industries can follow. That’s going to be an interesting challenge for us because we are actually creating a market which doesn’t exist today. A lot of investment has to be made in education that’s why we have decided to invest and become the industry leader in that.

Tell me more on aligning challenges that you expect when you align Agile IT and Agile marketing?We will start with the funding aspect because there is a cost in the transformation. The first thing is, is marketing going to make that investment or will IT do it, because at the end of the day it finally boils down to money. We have a very simple approach to this problem, which is, if your product is going to go out faster to market, it’s the easiest way to justify it, it may not happen the first time you use this framework but it may happen the second or the third time.

The second challenge is the process alignment. We can say that every morning we are going to have a scrum session, but actually doing it and having everybody’s full involvement,

engagement is not always the case. Here is what happens, it goes actually two ways. IT has obviously many priorities, if marketing starts driving it, it’s a different kind of a problem, if IT starts driving it, very often, the product goes to market but it may have a lot of functionality issues.

The third challenge that I see is there isn’t enough talent that can facilitate. There isn’t enough of ecosystem. How do you create it and who’s going to invest in the ecosystem? We are actually taking a lot of our coaches and bringing them to India or taking our Indian coaches and moving them over there. And related to that the challenge is that the more these people become specialized they become independent consultants.

Today I am having a leadership workshop with about 9 of my global customers in Bangalore and I was trying to tap into the independent consultants and I didn’t get good talent. So I have virtually flown in four of my biggest gurus from US and Europe for this. It’s a big investment but you have to do it. Otherwise, to influence in a leadership workshop, if


you have CIO, CMOs coming for that, they want to see top quality talent and we don’t have it in the market today.

The true talent in this is the people who have been in business and IT and that’s pretty rare. The ideal person for this could be a marketing person who spent 10 years in marketing and then 10 years in IT and lived in the intersection. They become Agile coaches or scrum masters. Also, as a guru, you have to earn the respect from both sides.

Agile from the management perspective, how is going to be transformed?We at Valtech have recently started the journey with the premise that companies who adopt Agile can transform themselves very quickly. Our emphasis on our regular meetings is customer driven value versus earlier meetings which were operational. The bottom line benefit of this is effective decision making and its quick decision-making. In our framework we also test our own selves and test our decision making ability.

And another thing that we are also going to adopt and struggle with a little bit is the premise that early decisions are not necessarily the best decisions.

At the end of the day, successful Agile adoption is if you believe you are at war. In a war environment, things change all the time and if you make a mistake you are dead, there’s no second chance. So the marriage between design and technology is essentially a marketing design. How quickly management can take the decision is related to where you can use Agile effectively. Lack of management decision-making is actually hurting companies and self- centered decision-making even more.

Why is Valtech in the process ofre-branding?Valtech is primarily a 1,600 people digital marketing and technology agency with presence in eight countries including the US, Europe, India and Korea. Its other competencies include customer experience management, enterprise technology and Agile transformation.

Agile is an approach to transform business and IT and the reason why Valtech is associated with it is because three out of the ten people who originally wrote the Agile Manifesto actually came from Valtech. The gurus were all there and most of them are back now at Valtech. They have written many books on the subject and command an enormous respect in the industry. That’s why we are in the process of refocusing and re-branding ourselves with Agile.

Most of Agile leaders have a very strong connection with India and have stayed in here for long periods of time and have seen the IT industries evolve. For us, as a global company, that helps a lot because if you have the key leaders who are very cross border centric and worked in different cultures, then you can actually help global companies transform (better).

We have a very strong presence in fashion brands, largely French brands; we do everything for them for their marketing initiatives. So that’s one line of business that extends into retail. The second is enterprise services. Now, in order to enable all the marketing and the sales initiatives in the enterprise platforms - the digital platforms that are created for customer base, even with large scale applications like SAP, we have a strong expertise. We just got awarded SAP’s Partner of the Year in America.

The third one is actually the customer experience because what’s happening with mobile device today is that there is a physical customer experience when you go into a Louis Vuitton store and then there is the digital experience. Matching both the physical and digital becomes very important. In general, everybody accessing a mobile device has a very short attention span - there’s so many different choices they can make. So unless the user experience and the customer experience are very strong which will lead to buying behavior, you are going to lose attention. That’s another focus area for us. The restaurant business is becoming very interesting too.

Repeat customers for new projectsRepeat business from the same set of customers for new and emerging projects is very different and requires a different set of a sales force and a different kind of trust and relationship with the client. The challenge here is that tremendous investment has to be made on the employees because they have to be always one step ahead. The sales and training cost is very high and there’s also a lot of shared risk because to the customers we are proposing a new technology and approach. We are also putting our reputation at stake. In a lot of cases, what we offer may not be really proven technology but if our end client wants to be ahead of the game they take the risk.

”“The challenge

here is that tremendous

investment has to be made on the employees

because they have to be always

one step ahead


”

“

The Agile Manifesto

At the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are really about “mushy” stuff, about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about “people as our most important asset” but actually “acts” as if people were the most important, and lose the word “asset”

On February 11-13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah,

seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground and of course, to eat. What emerged was the Agile Software Development Manifesto.

Representatives from Extreme Programming, SCRUM, DSDM, Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature-Driven Development, Pragmatic Programming, and others sympathetic to the need for an alternative to documentation driven, heavyweight software development processes convened.

Now, a bigger gathering of organizational anarchists would be hard to find, so what emerged from this meeting was symbolic Manifesto for Agile Software Development signed by all participants. The only concern with the term agile came from Martin Fowler (a Brit) who allowed that most Americans didn’t know how to pronounce the word ‘agile’.

Naming ourselves "The Agile Alliance," this group of independent thinkers about software development, and sometimes competitors to each other, agreed on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

But while the Manifesto provides some specific ideas, there is a deeper theme that drives many, but not all, to be sure,

members of the alliance. At the close of the two-day meeting, Bob Martin joked that he was about to make a "mushy" statement. But while tinged with humor, few disagreed with Bob’s sentiments that we all felt privileged to work with a group of people who held a set of compatible values, a set of values based on trust and respect for each other and promoting organizational models based on people, collaboration, and building the types of organizational communities in which we would want to work.

The mushy stuffAt the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are really about "mushy" stuff, about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset" but actually "acts" as if people were the most important, and lose the word "asset". So in the final analysis, the meteoric rise of interest in and sometimes tremendous criticism of Agile Methodologies is about the mushy stuff of values and culture.

For example, I think that ultimately, Extreme Programming has mushroomed in use and interest, not because of pair-programming or re-factoring, but because, taken as a whole, the practices define a developer community freed from the baggage

Here’s an interesting history about the Agile movement for non-IT readers sinceAgile is relevant to business as a whole

”“ In order to

succeed in the new economy,

to move aggressively

into the era of e-business, e-commerce, and the web,

companies have to rid themselves

of their Dilbert manifestations of

make-work and arcane policies

of Dilbertesque corporations. Kent Beck tells the story of an early job in which he estimated a programming effort of six weeks for two people. After his manager reassigned the other programmer at the beginning of the project, he completed the project in twelve weeks, and felt terrible about himself! The boss, of course, harangued Kent about how slow he was throughout the second six weeks. Kent, somewhat despondent because he was such a "failure" as a programmer, finally realized that his original estimate of 6 weeks was extremely accurate for 2 people and that his "failure" was really the manager’s failure, indeed, the failure of the standard "fixed" process mindset that so frequently plagues our industry.

This type of situation goes on every day in marketing, management, external customers, internal customers, and yes, even developers don’t want to make hard trade-off decisions. They impose irrational demands through the imposition of corporate power structures. This isn’t merely a software development problem, it runs throughout Dilbertesque organizations.

In order to succeed in the new economy, to move aggressively into the era of e-business, e-commerce, and the web, companies have to rid themselves of their Dilbert manifestations of make-work and arcane policies. This freedom from the inanities of corporate life attracts proponents of Agile Methodologies, and scares the begeebers (you can’t use the word ‘shit’ in a professional paper) out of traditionalists. Quite frankly, the Agile approaches scare corporate bureaucrats, at least those that are happy pushing process for process sake versus trying to do the best for the "customer" and deliver something timely and tangible and "as promised" because they run out of places to hide.

Notanti-methodologyThe Agile movement is not anti-methodology; in fact, many of us want to restore credibility to the word methodology. We want to restore a balance. We embrace modeling, but not in order to file some diagram in a dusty corporate repository. We embrace documentation, but not hundreds of pages of never-maintained and rarely-used tomes. We plan, but recognize the limits of planning in a turbulent environment. Those who would brand proponents of XP or SCRUM or any of the other Agile Methodologies as "hackers" are ignorant of both the methodologies and the original definition of the term hacker.

The meeting at Snowbird was incubated at an earlier get together of Extreme Programming proponents, and a few "outsiders," organized by Kent Beck at the Rogue River Lodge in Oregon in the spring of 2000. At the Rogue River meeting attendees voiced support for a variety of "Light" Methodologies, but nothing formal occurred. During 2000 a number of articles were written that referenced the category of "Light" or "Lightweight" processes. A number of these articles referred to as "Light Methodologies, such as Extreme Programming, Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, and SCRUM". In conversations, no one really liked the moniker "Light", but it seemed to stick for the time being.

We hope that our work together as the Agile Alliance helps others in our profession to think about software development, methodologies, and organizations, in new, more agile ways. If so, we’ve accomplished our goals.

Source - Jim Highsmithfor the Agile Alliance


”“

Indian companies are still ‘toying’ with Agile

Going by the response to the

Agile India 2012 conference held in Bangalore in

February, where more than 724

professionals and 140 odd speakers

turned up with most of the

delegates paying from their pockets,

it appears India will catch up with

Agile soon

While the IT world celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto last year with

deep discussions about its maturity and debates about which part of the manifesto is working and which needs to be tweaked, most Indian IT companies were just a shade more than spectators to the event. Like in most other areas Indians are slow to adopt globally tried and tested systems and practices and one hopes we will do the catch-up act pretty fast.

Naresh Jain, founder of Agile Software Community of India told InfoQ recently: “Today, I see 95 percent of software companies in India toying with Agile. It’s trendy these days to say we do Agile. When I see companies going for Agile, in some cases it’s due to desperation, in some cases due to customer or onsite pressure and in some, just a marketing gimmick”.

“However I've been fortunate to have worked with a few companies who truly believe in the spirit of Agile. They understand it’s not about "doing" Agile, it’s about "being" agile. A very Zen thing to say!

Naresh Jain, awarded the Gordon Pask Award for contributions to the Agile Community, further said that many companies are gradually testing the 'Agile' waters and are beginning to swim. A majority of the organizations

in India both large IT companies and small boutique companies or mammoth offshore R&D centers, they've all surely been influenced by Agile methods.

The hurdles for adoption of Agile in India could be the following: The outsourcing nature of work, lack of understanding of these methods, a hierarchical society. In India the journey seems to have just begun.

What does it take to succeed in Agile? He told another interviewer that is takes “bloody long time for people to invest time in user groups and to value free peer-to-peer community based learning.”

Agile in product developmentIt appears Agile is working the best with product development start-ups as they have no need to unlearn. Answering a question ‘Is the process creating growth opportunities for my people’ at the recent Agile conference in Bangalore, Jain said: “I would like the process to encourage growth in terms of them becoming Generalizing Specialists and not being corned into silos. And I want my people to improve their overall understanding and involvement in the overall product development process rather than just knowing or caring about their little piece.

Naresh Jain, founder of Agile Software Community of India


so enrich your life. It forces you to think deeply about the things that matter. At the end of the day ask yourself who am I, what is it that I stand for, what are my values. As a leader you need to ask that question on a daily basis, it should become a discipline.

To be a transformative leader you have

I give my students an exercise to write their own obituary. The second part of the exercise is to right your own

epitaph. You have to write about the things that you stood for in life, which is important to you. You have finite time in this world and once you realize that you will constantly work to improve. Be aware that all things come to an end

Write your own obituary

ThoughtLeadership Series

Tenzin Priyadarshi, foundingdirector of theDalai Lama Centre for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recently spoke at the Indian School of Business (ISB) on the importance of training leaders and MBA students in ethical thinking and behavior. Excerpts:


yourself whatever it is that I am doing am I happy with it? Do I find a sense of meaning, sense of purpose?

Happiness is your right but you won’t get it unless and until you know what you want. Ask yourself what is it that will make me happy and content? Good leadership is not always a peaceful attitude, you still have to struggle, make difficult decisions, make difficult choices but you still have to live with it.

Another aspect of transformative leadership has to do with managing emotions. We live compartmentalized lives, so we work and make decisions in our work place and then we go home and feel now I can be an ethical father or mother. That’s how we compartmentalize our lives, so we feel that we can simply switch between our different roles. The human brain does function that way.

So emotional management is a very important skill. We don’t pay enough attention to it because we think we can overcome it but we need to be trained in this as well. Train yourself to balance your life, train to be vigilant about afflicted and negative emotions because what it does is it makes the whole society toxic. You cannot sustain your life that way. Good leadership is looking at your emotional wellbeing as well.

• Happinessisyourright but you won’t get it unless and until you know what you want

• Emotionalmanagement is a very important skill

• Ibelievethatpeopleare good but they are not very well trained ethically

Compliance vs. Ethics

Compliance is generally taught in a way that this is how things ought to be, this is how you get around it. This is legal. If you read it right, this is how you break down the legal framework and that’s precisely what happened with most financial companies in 2008-9 and it continues to go on.

Ethics on the other hand has to do with other kinds of training mechanisms; it has to do with individuals. It doesn’t have to do with the idea that you do wrong and you don’t get caught and that’s what makes you small. It simply had to do with the idea that as a leader there are certain basic set of lines that you should stand for, that you should represent and under no circumstances should you compromise those lines. These are the values that make you stand up as an individual in society, in companies and perhaps these are the values that ought to be reflected in the management of your company.

I believe that people are good but they are not very well trained ethically. And this is the emphasis I want to make in terms of this transformative leadership or value-based leadership. What is it that you represent, what is it you stand for, as individuals or as companies or management groups that you can say that these are the values that I am willing to defend, these are the values that I am going to state while going into a negotiation room, that I can say no matter what goes on these are the things that I will not compromise.

And again just like anything we are creatures of habit, so just like anything, ethics is not something that should be left to chance. Meaning there are very few avenues in society where people are introduced to ethics. Family system is one of them, but it’s a gamble to simply rely on parents to teach about ethics. Then there are the religious institutions which are quite dangerous.

to transform yourself first. I can grow in any direction but I need to grow in the direction that I see is important and valuable. And the more you follow that sense of direction; you will get a sense of clarity and confidence. This sense of transformation has a very contagious effect. People around you also begin to see that change. Constantly ask



What stage are a majority of companies in understanding this transformative question?

In business, the old adage is that we manage what we measure. Yet what we measure is a window into what we value and into our values. Companies have been extraordinarily successful at measuring “how much”, as in “how much” revenue, profit, market share and debt and how many page views their website generates and how many followers they attract via social media. But while these measures remain necessary, in today’s interconnected and interdependent world, they are no longer sufficient and competitive advantage has shifted to how we do what we do. Of course, how we do, what we do has always mattered. But today how we behave, lead, build trust in our relationships and relate to others matters more than ever and in ways it never has before. The winning companies and organizations will be those that successfully measure how, scale how and innovate in how.

Self-governing companies deliver fivetimesthelevelof innovation, three times more employee loyalty and nine times higher levels of customer satisfaction

What are the major hurdles that evangelists of this paradigm face in communicating the HOW of business?The first major hurdle I would classify as a thinking problem: we need to rethink, not just seek to reset or reform, how we look at the world, how we behave and how our organizations conduct business. The second major hurdle is one of measurement and scale. Our leaders not only need to be guided by the right ideas and the right values but they need to know how to scale

those ideas and values and measure their progress on this journey in order to achieve resilience and sustainable growth in today’s challenging and uncertain world.

There aren’t many examples to go by to convince even the people who are willing to listen. Then, isn’t communication the biggest challenge?The HOW Report, an independent study of over 5,000 employees working for US and global organizations that was recently published by LRN, the company I lead, demonstrated that HOW can be measured to deliver competitive advantage. The HOW Report highlighted that self-governance is rare among today’s businesses. Only 3% of respondents reported that they work for organizations whose purpose and values inform decision-making and guide all employee and company behavior. The HOW Report also found that CEOs were six times more likely than average workers to believe they work in a company where people are

Winning companies and organizations will soon be those that successfully measure how they made profits and not only how much. Dov Seidman, the author of “HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything” and CEO of LRN, a company that helps businesses develop values-based corporate cultures, in conversation with ManagementNext

From How muchto HOW


The HOWReport SummaryThe HOW Report, an independent study of over 5,000 employees working for US and global organizations that was recently published by LRN, the company I lead, demonstrated that HOW can be measured to deliver competitive advantage. The HOW Report highlighted that self-governance is rare among today’s businesses. Only 3% of respondents reported that they work for organizations whose purpose and values inform decision-making and guide all employee and company behavior. The HOW Report also found that CEOs were six times more likely than average workers to believe they work in a company where people are inspired. Furthermore, employees said they were primarily coerced (84%) or motivated (12%) by carrots and sticks on the job rather than inspired by values and a commitment to a mission and purpose (4%).

inspired. Furthermore, employees said they were primarily coerced (84%) or motivated (12%) by carrots and sticks on the job rather than inspired by values and a commitment to a mission and purpose (4%).

Can you demonstrate that in the foreseeable future companies can make profits by adopting HOW?The HOW Report demonstrated that it is profitable to be principled. Companies that exhibit self-governing behavior experience significantly fewer risks associated with employee misconduct. Self-governing companies deliver five times the level of innovation, three times more employee loyalty and nine times higher levels of customer

satisfaction than businesses that do not have a culture characterized by self-governance. The four primary outcomes of a self-governing organization - less employee misconduct and greater innovation, employee loyalty and customer satisfaction - come together to synergistically deliver superior financial performance.

At the end of the day it a leadership question. Not just the business owner, but to change to HOW from How much, he has to radically transform the entire leadership. Is there enough coaching and training bandwidth available today?Our leadership models must evolve to meet our twenty-first century realities. To thrive, our companies need to burst with daily demonstrations of inspiration by every employee, regardless of his or her position. You can’t order somebody to have a great idea, for instance. Human qualities like creativity, helpfulness, and hope can’t be commanded, they can only be inspired in people. The old system of ‘command and control’- using carrots and sticks - to exert power over people is fast being replaced by ‘connect and collaborate’- to generate power through people. Leadership needs to shift from the coercive or motivational styles that rely on incentives to extract performance and allegiance out of people to inspirational leadership that inspires commitment, innovation and hope in people.

Isn’t there a big lack of credibility among most of the agencies that are espousing this transformation?It’s one thing to proclaim your

humanity and another thing to live it. It’s one thing to confine it to your marketing department and quite another to successfully inspire inspirational behaviours that map to the world that we now inhabit. The winning organizations will be those that deeply understand the need to place their humanity at the center of how they operate, lead and govern, not only at the center of a marketing campaign.

What is your roadmap to achieve this transformation – 20 or 30 or 50 years from now?There is no strictly defined time period within which to achieve this transformation. The companies and leaders who pioneer and forge ahead on a genuine journey of governance, culture and leadership are the ones who will be around in the 22nd-century. Culture as a conscious, deliberate, long-term strategy can be the key to differentiation, success and significance for companies in today’s world. Therefore, the role of a company’s purpose and core values in helping define its unique corporate culture and the journey that it undertakes on a sustainable path of progress matters more than any roadmap predicting future dates for when this transformation will occur.

What’s the special role played by spiritual leaders in this journey? At a time when the world is turning to spirituality, perhaps it has a good chance?Spiritual leaders have a critical role to play in helping forge an enduring path and build endeavors of enduring value in an ethically interdependent world. The HOW philosophy is not limited to the realm of spirituality. HOW is an inspirational approach to leadership rooted in sustainable values that literally sustain relationships over the long-term. Sustainable values are those that connect us deeply as humans. They include integrity, honesty, humility, and hope. Sustainable values are therefore all about how, not how much.

Humanqualitieslikecreativity, helpfulness, and hope cannot be commanded, they can only be inspiredin people


John Knights is a recognized expert in Emotional Intelligence and a thought leader in Spiritual / Transpersonal Leadership and the relationship between neuroscience and leadership. Sangeeta Mansur, in conversation with John Knights who co-founded LeaderShape, an organization that helps leaders develop leadership excellence


Leaders harmonize

others’ vision

But brains perform best not when told what to do but when we are provided with an environment where we can learn things. When information is thrown at the brain, it takes too much energy for

A visionary leader is not necessarily a leader with a vision. As a leader, you collect visions of people and harmonize them and inspire and lead

Management theory and education have produced excellent managers but not

very effective leaders. What’s been the one big blind spot of management education in this regard, in your view?Understanding people. Processes, structures, systems, skills and knowledge are all there but the people connect is the blind spot. My work over 30 years has always shown this to be true that the most important issues are always around people - not connecting, not relating with them, while other things like systems and processes are thought out very well. Dealing with people needs understanding them, and that needs understanding ourselves first.

It was Goleman’s work on Emotional Intelligence that inspired me to develop my approach to leadership development.

What do you draw from neuroscience into leadership development?Even after thousands of years, sadly, our brains are the same as in the Stone Age. By default, we do the same things: in times of crisis, stress or fear, we feel the same adrenaline gush, and fight or flee for survival. Even when we go beyond these emotional hijacking patterns, when faced with a stressful situation, we resort to the stone-age styles, and our leadership styles remain ‘knowing it all and telling’ people what to do.


the brain to take it all, so it switches off, whereas if you provide an environment, adrenaline flows in a much different way, allowing the neural cells to work longer and more effectively. Coaching is a powerful style of ensuring this - always asking questions, never providing answers.

Your work on leadership touches upon spirituality. Corporate life often places profession and spirituality in two different compartments. By bringing spirituality into leadership development, are you trying to blur the line, break the wall?A bit of both. Let me first clarify that the Western world likes to keep ‘spirituality’ a very personal, private subject. I try to ground it in order to make it useful to leaders. I call it ‘transpersonal’- in the sense of ‘going beyond the ego’.

Our research supports the view that a key thing for a leader is to go beyond the ego and embrace things beyond oneself.

Authenticity of the real self is important too. You are unauthentic when you leave your real self behind and go to work and try to lead. A lot of stress in business is when people are not authentic. Willing to be yourself when the work environment around is toxic

is difficult no doubt but then that’s also the challenge about spirituality, which is about choices.

If management is about decision making leadership is about choices. How does this transition happen?Yes, choice-making is decision making with judgment, and there’s a journey involved here, but the shift can’t be predicted. For me, personally, when I had to coach, having to understand a person better and deeper was one of the things that did it. Not having done that before and not having communicated what I’ve understood, I now moved to another plane. We can’t predict how and when the transition happens in this journey.

Visionary leader is also not necessarily a leader with a vision. As a leader, you collect visions of people and harmonize them and inspire and lead.

And that challenges all our assumptions about leadership…Absolutely. Some resist this because

Evenafterthousandsof years, sadly, our brains are the same as in the Stone Age

of fear but it’s possible to get this message and work on it. This is the first enlightenment that happens where the jump beyond the ego happens. You can provide an environment where most people can get it but you can’t predict it. This is a plane where you move from your earlier ‘survival’ mode into a realm of an increased, inclusive awareness.

For a leader, developing your ‘whole self’ is critical to be role model. It may be difficult but it needs to be done. Many senior leaders think they don’t need to learn anything and have given up learning and that’s really sad.

Your approach and methods are unconventional in that they talk about significance of silence, questioning with not providing answers, going beyond the ego, developing a ‘whole self’ and the like. Do you face the challenge of validating your methods, of proving ‘return on investment’ to your clients?We take responsibility for enabling an environment to learn but can’t predict what the person/group learns. But we can measure the impact in some way - for example, we’ve seen that in a high attrition scenario, going through the programs brings in an improvement in the situation – since people leave mainly because they’re not learning or they don’t like the boss. With the program intervention, bosses start coaching and people start learning and both reasons are taken care of.

Rather than looking at pure ROI, we can identify KPIs, set them first and then go through the program. Employee turnover can be one such KPI.

What are your plans for India?India is emerging in an interesting and encouraging way, and we’ve had talks here with business leaders who are keen on working on our leadership development programs. LeaderShape is planning piloting a few projects in India now before we set up a permanent base here.



Fundamental drivers of value have shifted

It’s great to see Tomorrow’s Company being launched in India enabling businesses to be a force for good.

Could you tell us how did the vision of the organization come about?Tomorrow’s Company is an NGO, a community of businesses and business leaders, which brings together business leaders to think about new ways of defining and achieving business success. Two important questions raised by Charles Handy at the Royal Society of Arts way back in December 1990 led to the establishment of Tomorrow’s Company. Handy asked - what is a company for, and what is the purpose of profit?

What’s been the evolution since then?A decade from that time, by early 2000,

the business leaders had become senior executives or CEOs in businesses which by then had become large and global with new challenges, and the questions were revisited; an enquiry came about focusing on tomorrow’s challenges. Nandan Nilekani, the then Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies, was the co-chair of the inquiry team which produced the report Tomorrow’s Global Company: Challenges and Choices.

Was this in any way different from the original thought?It was consistent in argument throughout. Originally too, the thought was about business being a force for good, to bring about sustainable outcomes. The ideology talks about how business success depends upon

In the Age of Sustainability businesses have to embrace a new paradigm with new definitions of success,value and purpose

Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive of Tomorrow’s Company, a not-for-profit organization enabling businesses to be a force for good, chats with Sangeeta Mansur on the sidelines of the Tata-hosted conference on “Success through Corporate Sustainability: Strategy, Leadership and Reporting – Co-creating Tomorrow’s Agenda for Business Success” in Mumbai recently


the ability to create conditions to do business in the future in terms of social stability, resource availability and environmental wellbeing. Business can create long-term sustainable value and be a force for good when they recognize the importance of operating from the intersection of what we describe as three great subsystems of the whole - ‘the triple context’: Economic, Social and Environmental.

The Triple Bottom Lines (TBL) approach talks about the same dimensions. How is the Triple Context different from TBL?TBL was hugely transformative. It’s different in the sense that it was a bit disaggregated in nature and encouraged a framework that had a heavy emphasis on metrics, measurement and data. Triple Context is more systemic in its nature. The central issue here is around the mindset and paradigm of business and business leaders in relationship with society and environment, about (re-)defining business success, purpose, how you live your values, how to create frameworks to deliver successful models critical for tomorrow. It’s about how to think about things in a new way.

How do you define success in thisnew way?One of the most persuasive ways of defining success was developed here in India by TCCI (Tata Council for Community Initiatives) for the Tata Group. Because it talks about long-term sustainable value creation in the society and for the environment, about behavior and culture of business leaders, about values and ethics, about value drivers brought together to drive future value, with a sense of stewardship of business leaders, co-creating value that has an enduring quality.

How are businesses moving towards new ways of thinking about value creation in a triple context?We’re not talking about focusing on Responsibility philosophy; but rather about an understanding of future value drivers and how they create business

success. Economic value argument alone drove the business understanding earlier. Now two more dams - Social and environmental - have burst and the boat has to navigate in new ways. So now, it’s about adapting to new ways of thinking, new risks and resilience possibilities.

All around, businesses are becoming pragmatic, innovations and technologies are enabling new business models of success to be embedded. Yes, businesses are moving in this new direction. Towards the tipping point for sure, but they’re not quite there yet.

In your view, what are the key reasons that are driving adoption of this new direction?One, fundamental drivers of success have shifted. Argument based on economic value is long past and we’ve entered the age of sustainability.

The earlier economic value model assumed resources were abundant and talent was scarce. Both assumptions have been turned on their head. But because of financial crisis and uncertainty, people are not seeing this clearly, and are still operating within the

same old paradigm. We are trapped unconsciously in ways of thinking and seeing value that condition how we act and behave that are no longer fit for purpose, with systemically dysfunctional consequences.

In the new paradigm, the purpose of a company is to create sustainable value. Here, leadership challenge is not about skills but about temperament, inspiration and about engaging people in work communities to create long-term sustainable value. So, the drivers have shifted.

Two, some businesses- like the financial service models, for instance - may be staying with the old model , but businesses which are betting big on the changing future are not relying on the old model: especially global businesses with large markets and production bases all over, huge infrastructure companies, extraction industries etc. will have to start thinking right now about how to produce a lot more with a lot less, in a less wasteful way.

A few words on the India experience and India plans of Tomorrow’s Company?The collaborative work we did earlier with Infosys and subsequent discussions with the Mahindras, ongoing dialogues with the Tatas and other leading businesses in India have provided us with a lot of encouragement for our work in India in the future. It has given us a sense of shared understanding and values, and we now have launched Tomorrow’s Company in India as of November 2011. Our India experience has been a positive one.

India is different in the way it views business and society relationship: pride and respect with business and business leaders is critical here, businesses here have innovated and contributed to society and nation-building. Rather than just being a part of society, businesses here are a part of future success of society. Makes absolute sense for us to work with and from India.

In the new paradigm, the purpose of a company is to create sustainable value. Here,leadershipchallenge is not about skills but about temperament, inspiration and about engaging people in work communities to create long-term sustainable value


EntrepreneurTalk

Producing Masters of Business ReadinessBy Benedict Paramanand

It’s rare to see chair professors with long stints in prominent global universities plunge into the uncertain and unforgiving

world of entrepreneurship and not get tempted by cushy consulting roles. Among the daring, only a handful of them end up making both money and a difference to the cause they set out to achieve. One of them is Professor Bala V Balachandran, known to his friends and associates as Uncle Bala.

At 74, Professor Balachandran is enthusiastic like someone in their 40s, and believes he can bring back the credibility global management education enjoyed by focusing on genuine profits and not profiteering it has got into in recent years.

Prof. Bala, who is J. L. Kellogg Distinguished Professor in Accounting, Information and Management since September 1984, says he discovered his entrepreneurial instincts when he led a Harvard Business School project titled GAME – Global Alliance for Management Education at MDI Gurgaon in 1991. His

Prof. Bala Balachandran addressing students atGreat Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai


next big opportunity came when he was part of the founding team of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, along with Rajat Gupta of the McKinsey fame. While both these experiences were heady, they also threw up some stark lessons in new venture management. He was particularly dismayed by ISB’s departure from its original mandate of an affordable and world class business school to an elitist institution.

After these experiences and egged on by his network of top business leaders and CEOs, Prof. Bala launched an institution with Indian ethos, is not-for-profit, where passion is laced with compassion and produces graduates who would be Masters of Business Readiness rather than masters of business administration.

He sold his palatial house in Chennai and from the Rs. 2.5 crore that he got for it, he used it as seed capital for starting his dream venture – the Great Lakes Institute of Management near Chennai on the Pondicherry highway in 2004. It was like coming home for someone who left Chennai four decades ago to study master's degree in Engineering from University of Dayton and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. His alma mater is Annamalai University from where he did masters in Applied Statistics.

After surviving a complex cardiac surgery in 2002, Prof. Bala says he felt he was reborn and was even more eager to build his institution into a world class centre for education. The Platinum-certified Great Lakes Institute

came up with the support of several top Indian business houses like Godrej, on whose board Prof. Bala sits, TVS Group, Murugappa Group, because, he says, they believed in his vision. He could make this happen, Prof. Bala says, because he believes that Network is Net worth. His friend, late Professor C K Prahalad too was happy to support by speaking at the institute a few times.

In seven years, Great Lakes appears to have become a model for business schools in design of courses, futuristic approach to teaching management and producing graduates who are well groomed and grounded. The graduates at Great Lakes, who appear for placements every year, he says, are trained not to ask how much money they are worth but “what they can contribute.”

Recognizing well that China is the next frontier, learning Mandarin is compulsory in Great Lakes. Serving the 20-odd villages around the campus in making them 100 percent literate and teaching skills are part of the student’s learning.

Being an entrepreneur has given immense joy to Prof. Bala. He was pleasantly surprised that his institute was cash positive by about 20 percent the first year itself. He likes money, he says, but not more than what he needs, at least to secure the future of people close to him. That he has two sons and both are doing very well for themselves in the US was one factor that helped him to go the whole hog in his ventures. He says he counts himself to be lucky

too, which is another important factor for doing well in business.

Succession Plan?That’s a natural question anyone would ask an enterprising professor who is 74 and still has many plans to execute. Although living in the US for four decades and a US citizen, Prof. Bala is still steeped in Indian traditions. Since he does not have a daughter he considers his business partner, Shantanu Prakash, the promoter of Educomp Solutions Limited, a globally diversified education solutions provider and the largest education company in India, as his son-in-law, who he thinks will take his vision forward. And future leadership to his institutions would come from his two sons and friends.

With Educomp as partner, Prof. Bala has plans to take business education to smaller towns. To him, this is one way of democratizing business education in India. He intends offering MBA for Rs. One lakh by using smart technology. A Great Lakes University is coming up in a sprawling campus in Bhuvaneshwar in two year’s time. The University intends to be one of its kind with multidisciplinary courses in arts and sciences.

Already a Padma Shri award recipient in 2001, Prof. Bala’s real reward will be when he is recognized as a pioneer in humanizing business and executive education in India. Soon, he says, the US will learn from India, not the other way around.


Kumar Malavalli is one of the top Indian serial technopreneurs to have made it big in the Bay Area in the US with cutting edge technologies. He is currently in the mood for mentoring other entrepreneurs, which he says, is one way of giving back to the society. In a brief chat with ManagementNext, he talks about his success secrets

What’s the secret of a serial entrepreneur? What makes a serial entrepreneur successful

because many a time people succeed the first time and they fail in the second?

The secret is to have passion. Just because you succeeded the first time you should not take it for granted.And when you are going into the second venture you have to ensurethat you do three things - one is you should not make the same mistakes even though you have succeeded, fortunately it dint cause any damage, so you should try to fix those things. Second is if things don’t work and ifyou find a big hurdle, then make a course change right in the beginning itself. The third thing is in every new venture you have to understand the market absolutely. You have to understand that markets are different and you got to understand thetiming of the market. And whetheryou are in the first or the second,you got to also have good talented people.

You have achieved a lot in the last three decades founding three successful companies. What’s your current state of mind?

I feel good and continue to do that not because I am going to make money. Now I’m focusing on how to give back in my own way. There are a lot of young entrepreneurs and if you work with them and mentor them, that’s very satisfying. And during mentoring, I have also learnt a lot because certain things if I were to do in Brocade or in another company, like I did before, probably I would do slightly differently. We have learnt from our mistakes and experiences.

So the big changers are storage networking & business continuity

After the success of Brocade I am now involved in another company as a founder and a strategic investor. But here in InMage, which is a into smart data recovery solutions, I also run the company as its CEO.

EntrepreneurTalk

Success Secrets of aserial entrepreneur


Despite grinding poverty most Indian men somehow manage to afford bidis and arrack while their women folk do without basic hygiene products.

While affordability is one factor, it’s also largely to do with ignorance.

A number of innovations on producing low-cost sanitary products for women are in the non-formal markets but the magnitude of the problem is such that they are just like the proverbial drop in the ocean. Shocked by the low hygiene standards in north Karnataka villages, Kalpana Heblekar’s low cost sanitary pads appear the most innovative and affordable. But it is yet to be mass produced. Her goal is to price a packet of six pads lower than a pack of bidis.

The sanitary pad is essentially made of a combination of bamboo pulp and cotton. This is the first time bamboo pulp is being utilized and this is what makes it so cost effective. She says they are hygienically manufactured and are totally biodegradable as no plastic is used. By 2013, she plans to make the pads available all over Karnataka. She is currently running training programs for women in making these sanitary pads in Bangalore. Once a core group gains expertise, she believes the word will spread.

She is forming clusters of women groups to set up small scale units to make these pads. She intends to offer them through vending machines. Called SafeRWe (Social Awareness for Empowering Rural/Urban Woman Entrepreneurs), based on the name of her foundation, trial launch in Karwar and Shimoga districts is underway. She has sent samples to a few international organizations so that they can be offered in poorer countries in Africa.

EntrepreneurTalk

If she has to make this big, she has to get a patent and tie up for bulk manufacturing companies that are in the bottom-of-the-pyramid product business such as CavinCare – the company that pioneered the sachet revolution in India.For Kalpana Heblekar, the sanitary pad venture is one of her many ventures involving women groups. She quit her career as a banker in Bangalore to pursue her compelling desire to work with women and help them earn a decent living. She started handicrafts sourcing in 1995.

Handicrafts for the worldKalpana’s inspiration was her artist mother. Initially when she came to Bangalore in the early 90s, she started teaching creative art to neighborhood women and gradually realized that it was a perfect way to make them financially independent. What started off as a small enterprise today has spread across many states. Kalpana today has as many as 25 clusters of women from the rural areas helping her showcase India’s handicrafts to the world. These women are the pillars of her business venture. She says she gets immense satisfaction when she sees these women build

Sanitary napkin cheaper than a pack of bidis


homes and educate their children from the money they earn through her business venture.

It was real hard work. She started by going to the villages and teaching them handicrafts based on the raw material available in that area. Sometimes, when they had their own indigenous handicrafts, she encouraged that too. Now, with 450 women working part time, she is happy that she’s able to provide these women with a source of livelihood. She has trouble keeping their men folk away from these businesses as she wants to strictly keep it only for women.

Like the experience of many in the rural handicraft business, Kalpana knew the domestic market would not offer the premium she needs on her products. With the help of an agent in Netherlands, Kalpana ships several cartons of handicraft to international markets. This gave her immense joy until one day she realized that the mark up on what she sends was 300 percent. To get better value she is now preparing to enter the global market through a network of agents or wherever possible, directly.

Her product range is vast - handmade paper products,

brass items, cotton and jute products, wooden handicrafts, silver idols and jewellery, bamboo items, textiles, paintings, silk products. In addition, she also manufactures herbal products such as herbal soaps, moisturizer, floral perfumes & aloe vera gel.

Kalpana says she owes her success to quality as she uses only the best raw materials available and makes sure that standardization is achieved. Because of this, she says she enjoys credibility in both the national as well as the international markets.

After a few years as a woman entrepreneur she realized that women have a lot of ideas but are discouraged to start a venture. She encourages those who come to her and takes the fear factor away. Kalpana has won many prestigious national and global awards like the‘Pride of India’ award in 2009 by the prime minister of Thailand. Among the other awards is the Karnataka State Women’s Excellence award-2011 by the Women’s International Network. Some recognition for faith and toil is indeed the motivation, women like Kalpana Heblekar need to do more.

Kalpana Heblekar sharing her expertise with women artists


Entrepreneurship success mantra in India

Combine idealism with contextual intelligence

EntrepreneurTalk

Prof. Tarun Khanna,Faculty, Harvard Business School

I t’s common to hear people complain about impediments to starting or doing business in countries like India.

But for people who want to do good and have strong intelligence across spectrum, it’s not that difficult, says

Prof. Tarun Khanna, faculty at Harvard Business School and author of Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours during a lecture at IIM Bangalore recently. He gave a few examples to

show how a few people are able to do achieve extraordinary results in the same system

Referring to Dr. Devi Shetty’s Narayana Hrudalaya in Bangalore, Prof. Khanna


skill and the other is the strong will to do good. He said, “ I believe a degree of idealism which turns out to be going out there and serving a lot of people, whether its finding jobs for underappreciated talented people, or doing heart surgery for free, it doesn’t matter but idealism combined with contextual intelligence I think ensures 100 percent success.”

Thinking of emerging markets means problems, or difficult things to solve like corruption. But there is an opportunities side to it, too. “You can proactively engage in decentralized private sector activity whether for profit or not-for-profit variety to create markets that are better functioning. Move away from a linear notion of many strategic scenarios and the idea that you can always find the data to execute anything. The biggest missing intermediary is the generation of data to support anything. So what you have to do is engage in sustained experimentation that generates the data and that in turn informs the formulation of whatever it is you want to do. Thinking like that is a sea change for large corporations, at least those in the developed world.”

Prof. Khanna referred to Parliamentary Research Services, in which he is involved and was recently started by C V Madhukar, one of his students at Harvard Business School. PRS’ sole purpose is to help Parliamentarians make better and informed decisions by providing them with free research findings, stakeholder views and background to issues in passing a legislative bill. It is a non partisan research briefing made available for free in any number of languages, to any number of devices, to any member of the Parliament who wishes to access the information. “It’s an example of real entrepreneurship of the sort that you see in India in the last 10-15 years. That’s what makes me very optimistic.”

The other example he cited is that of Aspiring Minds, which through a

complex algorithm brings together talent seekers and talent providers all around India. The algorithm can sort through tens of millions of people with different skills and spoken ability, logic, reasoning or very quantitative reasoning, functional knowledge like health care or accountancy. “We have now placed 20,000 people from tier 2 and 3 cities. “Do you see the multiplier effect? A poor family with 5-6 siblings, we have already changed the lives of 50,000 people in a very short period of time,” he said.

Incubator to promote hundredsof businessesProf. Khanna is in the middle of setting up an interesting incubator in Delhi. “Instead of doing one-off ventures that I have been trying to do, the idea is to get 200-300 companies started at any point of time in this venture and encourage people to come from all over and take small investments of some Rs. 5 – 10 lakhs to try an idea and eventually graduate it to somebody to take care of it.”

The logic is, instead of four or five ventures a year, it is possible to go to 400-500 a year and replicate it in different cities of the world. Just as an indication of the hunger for this model, the minute Prof. Khanna began talking about this idea, other cities in the emerging world like Karachi, Jakarta, Colombo and Cairo wanted it in their city. “It’s at a level of an idea that we will open in a couple of months, it may fail but we have to try,” he said.

Through many books, Prof. Khanna has communicated the spirit of entrepreneurship that is spurring economic development in the less developed countries. To him, since he grew up in Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi, he said, “India is an absolute laboratory. It’s easy for me to look at different ideas and how they have emerged relatively as a low cost experimental sight and then try it in different parts of the world.”

Move away from alinear notion ofmany strategicscenarios and theidea that you canalwaysfindthedata to executeanything

said: “For Dr. Shetty’s hospital to exist, he not only had to be a healer, doctor and a surgeon, he had to be a financial market innovator, he had to change the laws of the book, he had to be a political economist, he had to be a behavioral psychologist to convince the poor people who live across the street to come to his hospital.” To come this far, Dr. Shetty had to draw on his special skills and less on the infrastructure support.

He said there are two features that are really important in building entrepreneurship in developing countries – one is a degree of contextual intelligence that goes beyond technical


TechTalk

Information FabricBy Ranganath Iyengar

Tim Berners-Lee stated in 1999 - "If HTML and the Web made all the online documents look like one huge book, RDF, schema, and inference languages will make all the data in the world look like one huge database".To a user, however all the tools, gadgets and technologies boil down to the quality, speed and accuracy of the data personalized to your specific need. Here’s a look into the semantic web and the emerging concept of ‘Information Fabric’.

We interact with computers using meta-models. Simply put, a meta model is a

framework of how gadgets, devices, services and apps talk to us in our language. So, when you ask a simple question such as a search on a web page, a maze of interconnected meta models provides you answers.

As you read this, think about all the data that you have on your computer and somewhere online on the cloud and the hundreds of web and mobile apps around you. As a user, you want precise information at blazing speeds, analyzed, catalogued and served up as a focused and often personalized service. Today’s web and mobile apps are a major step in that direction.

Data and semantic webSyntax of a language defines the rules for building language statements. The semantic web describes things in a way that computer applications can understand it – a simple way to experience this is to play with search patterns around the same topic on a search engine and come up with an entirely different set of answers.

Data makes sense for us as patterns – a good example is how we do secondary research as we read and interpret

different documents and research artefacts – in a real world sense it is the human mind at work that is trained to detect and connect patterns that are useful to us – if you get together with a friend and try to interpret abstract art, you will see the analogy.

Resource description frameworkTo find information threads on the web, we have the RDF which is a language for describing information, resources etc. on the web – putting information into RDF files makes it possible for computer programs (often called ‘web spiders’ or ‘bots’) to search, discover, collect, pick up, analyze and present information / information patterns from the web.RDF combines the power of logic and artificial intelligence and is often not easy for most people to understand.

Simple everyday examples are searches for travel, books, people, prices for product comparison, dates of events etc. Since we all have individual personalities with our intelligence and interpretation, we also wish that the web is able to mimic our ‘personality’.

Information Fabric and data modelsWe understand different data sets today as an information pattern, which is a result of information being

aggregated /woven together into an ‘information fabric’ – a mobile or web app that provides a focused service is a good example of focus service that provides the user with a specific piece or group of information or a range of choices.

Companies like Xurmo Technologies are doing pioneering work in creating ‘Intelligent Information Fabrics’ using technologies like Natural Language processing, Machine learning and Artificial intelligence to focus and create Information Pattern repositories for companies that have vast data and probably already use analytics and focused services. The business focus is therefore to create a data model that is able to detect and store natural patterns that are able to provide of direct value and user relevance that are extremely personalized.

Information Fabric and Data VirtualizationCompanies like Cambridge Semantics offer Information fabrics (called Anzo) that can virtualize and assemble data from any source – structured or unstructured into a unified information fabric, go beyond the firewall and link information from the company’s ecosystem, link data incrementally, and maintain two way connectivity with enterprise and personal data sources. So at one level, you could collaborate in Excel or you could be working on building operational intelligence with formal and informal workflows.

Is it a big deal? Well, look at this way; we spend more time in searching data and pulling information today across personal, extended and enterprise sources. It is also a challenge to use hundreds of apps to do several things – maybe a futuristic way of looking at it is to create your own ‘intelligent information fabric’ and make your data and decision making faster, better analyzed and more focused and perhaps as efficient as you and probably through a common web or mobile app!


ExecutiveHealth

Top 5 tips to keep your skin glowing

1) Eat healthy. Fruits and vegetables contain substances essential to maintaining good skin. Eating sprouts in the morning is very good for your skin.

2) Drink up to 8 glasses of water a day if possible or at least as much as you feel is required for you. Water helps to flush out body toxins and toxins that damage the skin.

3) Exercise a little if possible each day. Daily exercise increases blood circulation, releases toxins through sweat and delivers nourishment to your skin (Do not forget to shower and re-hydrate your skin with a moisturizer after a workout).

4) De-stress yourself through yoga or your preferred hobby. Reducing stress through leisure is an effective way to tackle stress related skin ailments.

5) For those capable of following a daily skin care regime, start your day with a good cleanser depending on your skin type. Don’t forget to use a toner to tone up your open pores. Moisturize to hydrate your skin. Skip the moisturizer if you have oily skin. A sunscreen is a must for all skin types.

when it has developed into a serious skin concern.

One of the simplest ways that one can prevent these work related skin concerns is proper personal hygiene. Following a simple routine of a daily bath and a change of clothes for the next working day can help keep away infection.

Summer is very unforgiving on one's skin especially in a tropical country like ours. One needs to be more careful given the higher degree of UV exposure coupled with a dry climate. People with light skin and women (with relatively thinner skin as compared to men) are especially at risk.

To start with, I strongly recommend a good sunscreen with SPF 30 and UVA protection preferably with light moisturizing properties at least thrice a day. This could be followed up with a daily routine of cleansing and hydrating one's skin at the end of the day. Also if possible, limiting one's exposure to the harsh mid-day sun or using an umbrella when going out during this period is an effective way of preventing the skin damage.

Common summer skin related ailmentsThere are a wide range of skin conditions that get aggravated in extremes of heat or cold. One of the most common skin ailments faced by many executives and especially those people whose job involves travel or field work is redness and sunburn from prolonged and repeated sun exposure. Usage of a moisturizing sunscreen at least 20 minutes prior to beginning their work day is a must for these executives.

On the other hand, many executives work in an AC environment that dries out the skin and aggravates allergies and conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis

T he age-old adage of keeping oneself happy and healthy from within still applies. Most skin care

habits are simple yet most people tend to ignore it until it is too late.

One of the most pressing skin concerns that I encounter on an almost daily basis in businessmen and the general working population is the development of rashes, allergies or skin infections on specific areas of the body. This could be due to the extended hours that many of these professionals put in at their workplace, work related stress and also poor personal hygiene. Many of them cite work pressures or a lack of time as a reason for their problem. Some continue to ignore their problem even

etc. apart from causing general dryness of the skin. Using a moisturizer is one of the most effective methods to combat dryness and keep the skin hydrated and is highly recommended for individuals working in an AC environment.

Dr. Juvita Rasquinha offers simpleyet effective tips for maintaininghealthy skin during summer.She is a renowned dermatologistand cosmetologist working atN.M. Medicals, Diamond District,Bangalore

Simple tips for

healthyskinduring summer


Strategy is outside in,not inside out, stupid!

AuthorSpeak


Rama Bijapurkar is one of India’s respected thought leaders on market strategy and is a keen commentator on social and cultural changes impacting Indian businesses. She describes her mission as bringing marketing focus to business strategy. Excerpts from her Q & A session, organized by Sage Publishing in Delhi during the launch of her new book ‘Customer in the Boardroom.’ Her other popular books are: ‘We are Like That Only’ and ‘Winning in the Indian Market.’

How and why did you embark on a journey to write this book, it’s quite expansive in its scope?

I am a management consultant and my dharma is to think about customers. I have spent all my life as a market researcher and as a market strategy consultant and I always feel that it is a bit unfair that customers pay for a business. Often, I tell my clients that businesses can be so much fun if only it weren’t for the customers but actually those are the guys who are actually paying for it. I think businesses exist to serve customers, so this is a large body of consulting work in the area of making businesses focus on what customers want and in creating wealth for themselves by creating value for the customer.

Marketing strategy as it is being taught tends to derive heavily from such thinkers as Michael Porter and Mintsberg. Should we look at this work as an improvisation of the existing theory or does it make us look at a

completely different perspective?As Mintsberg said, strategy is a bit like the elephant. There are different schools of strategy which think about strategy differently. So, basically, in my consulting work I urge companies to find their strategy that works best for them. In this book I have basically taken whatever strategy approach anybody has chosen. All I am saying is (let’s get) into the fabric that you are already weaving, let’s put the customer thread, so whatever strategy you are using, you have one more element to put through it.

You are in the board of several companies and see companies quite closely so how do you look at the issue of corporate governance in contemporary India?I think we are learning. The more we demand governance in public life, it gets better. It’s a journey. But I think we are getting there, better than where we used to be before. Right now, in many companies what we have achieved in the last 10 years is at least compliance - To make sure people are not cheating, stealing family silver, nobody is taking away property that belongs to the minority shareholder. On that we have achieved a lot.

With the ever growing middle class, how do you foresee the consumer patterns changing over the years, especially how

do you think the institutions are going to strategize their future plans?The customers are not in the boardroom to answer the question more specifically. They are not in the boardroom yet. I think people are dazzled by the opportunity of the market but the fact is that the market is made of real people and real people have real needs. I think we are still struggling with it a little bit. That’s another journey.

How do you help CEOs and managers realize that the customer is actually missing in the strategy framework?At the back of my book, Vinita Bali, the MD of Britannia, writes that customers are far too important to be left to the marketing department. First and foremost, CEOs must realize that revenue growth of companies, the top line of companies is equal to how many customers buy and how much they spend and how often they come. CEOs need to respect the fact that whoever is paying for everybody’s salaries and profits and dividends is the customer. Once that realization comes that markets are made of people, you don’t sell tractors to hectares but you sell them to farmers.

Don’t you think that the CEOs’ vision of the customer is very narrow? Don’t you think the customer is regarded as a marginalized group?Understanding customers is tough. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to do so, the science of that lies somewhere else. This book is really to say to CEOs and consultants who are involved with strategy that just don’t look at your neighbor, don’t just look inside. It’s not about inside-out to develop a strategy, it’s about outside-in. Even more broadly speaking, if you are a political party and if you look at elections, the customer is asking for A, B, and C and the suppliers are talking about E and F. The supplier says I will give you more food but the customer is saying I actually want a medical college, I have got enough food. So that’s the issue.

Vinita Bali, the MD of Britannia, writes that customers are far too important to be left to the marketing department


Case Study – ID Special

Fortune from the batter

Today, ID Special is a highly profitable, zero- debt company with a market share of 85% in ready-made wet mixes

What were the chances that P.C. Mustafa, the son of a manual labourer from

Chennaloade village in Kalpetta, a remote district in Kerala, would run his own Rs. 25 crore ready-made food business in India’s Silicon Valley in 5 years? Probably zero.

Born into poverty, Mustafa’s father, a day labourer, could not afford his son’s education. So Mustafa’s teacher paid his school fees so that Mustafa could complete his schooling. Mustafa did not want to follow the life of his father and others in the village – unskilled, poor, and forgotten. He did not stop at school.

With an education loan of Rs. 25,000, he went to REC College in Calicut, graduating in 1995 with a degree in engineering. He was the first in the village to get a college degree. He got his first job in 1995 with Motorola in Bangalore at a starting monthly salary of Rs. 14,000. When he heard about this, in complete and utter disbelief Mustafa’s father insisted there must have been a mistake. The salary should have been

INR 14,000 a year not per month! No one in Chennalode, Kalpetta, had ever earned that kind of money. When his father realized that this was indeed true, he cried.

Mustafa joined Motorola, another regular city “techie” but he kept thinking of his life back home and the poverty he had left behind. He worked with Motorola for a year and the inevitable happened. It was time for his sister to get married. Which meant money was required. In 1996, he switched to a job with Citibank in Dubai. With a dollar salary, he cleared his education loan, got his sister married, built a good bank balance and returned to India after seven years and got a job with Intel.

Once again in Bangalore, he was still haunted by his life in the village. He decided to join IIM and get himself a management degree. At that time, he would often hang out with his cousin, Nazir who worked in a typical small neighborhood Kirana (GROCERY) store. Wondering what business they could start and yet help the people in the village they had left behind, they developed a checklist of business opportunities.

It should be “profitable”.

They would start something where no multinational had feared to tread.

The demand should be greater than supply.

It had to be something of high quality.

It had to employ unskilled workers from their village.

Ideas came and went, and so did three years. One day, Nazir complained that the supply of ready - made mix was erratic in quality and he was getting

This is a story of a village labourer’s son who did his engineering, worked for two multinationals, quit his job to start an idli-dosa ready-mix business. Today, he employs 120 people and has a turnover of above Rs. 20 crore


complaints from customers. This was the “Aha” moment. Why not make and sell the product themselves?

No time was lost. A grinder was purchased and in the storeroom of the Kirana shop, Nazir started to learn how to make the batter for the idli. Through trial and error, after several weeks Nazir finally got the batter mix right. Once he was confident that he had the right batter, he started delivering this ready-made mix to other kirana stores in the neighborhood. It was a hit. And ID Special was born. Confident that they had a good product, Nazir quit the kirana store and Mustafa quit Intel. In a very short time, their outlets zoomed from 10 shops to 300.

Hoskote plantIn 2005, with his saving of about INR 15 lakhs, Mustafa set up ID Special. With Nazir as his partner, they moved to a slightly bigger space, hired three unskilled men from their village that would make the batter, and started distributing the idli mix. The market loved this - the processed food industry was booming but this was the best thing that happened to Bangalore since sliced bread – home –made idlis

without going through the “grind”- literally. They soon outgrew theirspace and the small five-member team. They went full steam and applied for factory land in KSSIDC. Like other entrepreneurs, they faced all the bottlenecks and bureaucratic process of applications, file clearances, and frustration but eight months later, Best Foods Factory was inaugurated in Hoskote and production got into full swing.

Very early, the cousins learned that getting men to work in a kitchen was not a great idea. So they decided to employ women. The women would prepare the mix and the men woulddo the selling. And this has been the model since.

Each of the sales staff was given a bike to go around Bangalore asking retailers to stock the product. The company purchased the bikes on loans, but the monthly repayment had to be paid by the salesman, and after three years and full repayment of the loan, ownership transferred to him. Working on commission was also an incentive to the sales staff. This model did wonders. Everyone in the sales team is from Chennalode, Kalpetta district - and all are unskilled. Today they earn about Rs. 30,000 per month and own a bike. The village women employed in the Hoskote factory are unskilled, with about a Class 7 education.

Women wore gloves and caps and had an air of camaraderie as they mixed and ground the idli batter. Each has an hourly production target and the batter is carefully measured to a precise recipe. The women were satisfied and proud to be working in factory and above all earning an income, something they had never envisaged. Nazir mentions that they initially paid the women in cash. It was a disaster - come pay day, the husbands would take the cash from their wives and get drunk by the

evening. Today the women have bank accounts and debit cards, which they have been trained to operate.

Nazir is involved in the day-to day operation of the factory and the management is taken care of by Mustafa. They now have measures of productivity, efficiency, targets, and performance. The dream is to make the company one of the top 10 in the ready-to-eat food market in India.

In five years, the company had an annual turnover of about Rs. 20 crore, 2,000% growth, and the product portfolio has increased from the ubiquitous idli to the ready-made dosa mix, to Kerala parathas, and even rose cookies! Today ID Special is a highly profitable, zero- debt company with a market share of 85% in ready-madewet mixes.

ID Special employs about 230 unskilled people, 120 of whom are women. The company is ripe for a takeover. While Mustafa toys with the idea of selling up, he also has bigger plans. ID Special now franchises in Chennai and will soon enter the Mumbai market .However, Mustafa has some concerns about scaling up- the business is fairly Mustafa-Centric, and most of the employees are known in the village and this establishes a feeling of trust. With scale, Mustafa fears some of this may not be possible, and may affect quality.

Mustafa has transformed himself from a victim to a successful entrepreneur, not allowing life’s vicissitudes to take over. He chose education to empower himself, took advantage of the market, and changed not only his own life but also that of his family and the community. This is a true story- the stuff that entrepreneurial dreams are made of.

Extract from Made in Bangalore- How Social Enterprise is Transforming Business-as-Usual.www.csmworld.org | www.idspecial.com


Spirituality

How to overcome fear of failureBy Sadhguru

Once there was a farmer who was tired of various natural factors ruling the quality of his crop. So one day he called Shiva and said,

‘I am tired of all the natural nonsense happening; obviously you are not a farmer. I know from history that you were a hunter. You don't know what it means to farm so why don’t you leave nature in my hands? I am a farmer. I know when it should rain; I know when there should be sunlight; I know when there should be wind; I know everything. You don't know because you are just a hunter and you are a crazy ascetic. You are definitely not a good farmer. It’s raining at the wrong times, everything is happening at the wrong times; you leave it to me.’ Shiva was in one of those moods; he said, ‘Okay, nature is in your hands.’ Then the farmer planned his crop. So he calls out ‘Rain.’ He pokes the land with his finger and sees, ‘Okay it's soaked up to six inches,’ ‘Stop.’ Then he ploughed his field and planted maize seeds and waited for two days, ‘Rain,’ then ‘Sunlight.’ Today I’m working in the field so, ‘Cloud.’ So everything just happened the way he wanted, a beautiful maize crop came. He was overjoyed. ‘See, it's good; nature should be in a farmer’s hands.’

And then when it was time for the harvest, he wanted to see that no birds come. He was surprised about that because when he said, ‘No birds’ - no birds came. So he went down to his fields to harvest the maize but when he looked at the crop, there was no grain on the plants. Then he thought ‘What the hell is this? What did I do wrong?’ He couldn’t figure it out because he had managed everything - rain, water and sunshine properly. Then he went back to Shiva and asked, ‘I did everything right but there is no grain. Did you sabotage my crop?’ Shiva said, ‘I have been watching; you were in-charge so I didn’t want to interfere. The rain was great, the sunshine was great, everything was fine but you stopped all the winds. I used to always send fierce winds which would threaten your crop but because the plants felt pushed and threatened, they put their roots deeper into the earth and so grain happened. Now you have a great maize crop but no maize.’

So as the maize crop used the winds to strengthen themselves, various situations in your life can either be used to make yourself stronger and better or you can sit and cry. This is the choice you have. Everything - it

doesn’t matter what happens; even the most horrific event in your life can also be used for your growth and your well-being. The small events of your life - your business, your marriage, your children all these things are just a stepping stone. This is not new to you because in this culture they put this into you for millennia; they told you, ‘Your life is about mukthi. Your marriage, your business, your social life - these are all just the means to get there. Either you go with it or you go without it but whether you are a sanyasi or you are in samsara, your only goal is mukthi.’

There is no such thing as failure. Failure is an idea because success is also a stupid idea. Instead of trying to change the world, change the idea. If you just change that, everything is great. If you were a beggar on the street, today if you could walk into the restaurant and eat a masala dosa, this would be the height of success, isn't it so? So you’ve gotten

trapped in social situations and this idea of success is not even your idea, why am I crediting you with this? It is somebody else’s idea of what success is, isn't it? Every idea, thought, emotion or value that you have is picked up from somewhere and it rules you from within. Your religion, your society and your culture have trained you to believe that this is it. Don’t become a slave to somebody’s idea; that is the first and foremost success. Success and failure is not in the volumes of money flowing

into your life; success and failure is not dependent upon the recognition that you find in the world. You are successful with life if you know how to walk with joy even through hell.

For one who is seeing this life as a stepping stone for a larger possibility, for him there is no failure. For one who is looking at the simple events of this life itself as the goal of life, for him there is failure and success. If you are just seeing this life as a stepping stone for a larger possibility, whether you have a good deal or a bad deal - whatever the situation is, it’s beautiful and very useful; you use that for your well-being.

Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. www.ishafoundation.org

Success and failure is not in the volumes of money flowing into your life; success and failure is not dependent upon the recognition that you find in the world. You are successful with life if you know how to walk with joy even through hell

Mr. R. NagarajhanParakram Infotech Pvt. Ltd.,

became more horizontal and difficult to manage without software. Naturally, even finding a suitable software posed a problem; we started searching for an ERP.” Being a small company, Woodpecker did not want to spend too much money, neither on the initial outlay nor the fortune that some AMCs demanded. Also, it preferred not to have complicated software. The ERP software originally deployed proved useful as long as there was only one store.

Swaminathans wanted a software package to take care of both the retail operations and accounts. The company found it a real challenge as two separate solutions would increase the chances of mistakes if duplicate entries needed to be made.

The solutionOne of Mr. Swaminathan’s friends, an IT consultant, recommended Tally.ERP 9. The implementation was executed by Mr. R. Nagarajhan of Parakram Infotech Pvt. Ltd., - A Master Tally Partner in Chennai.

Woodpecker operates as follows – The customer selects the furniture and pays a token advance while booking it. After a

CaseStudy Sponsored Feature

Growing Furniture Business Polishesits Act with Business Intelligencefrom Tally.ERP 9

“Inventory control, discount, collection reports generated by Tally.ERP 9 have given us an edge in our business. We have lots of hopes on Tally software to bring out more features”

- Mr. S. Swaminathan,Managing Director, Woodpecker Furniture

Customer OverviewWoodpecker Furniture - a furniture retail company - had a humble beginning in Besant Nagar, Chennai. As the demands of the customers grew, the showroom expanded to 8000 square feet to house an enviable range of cots, wardrobes, dining tables and sofas.

The next expansion was an additional 20,000 Sq.Ft. modern showroom at Nelson Manickam Road, Aminjikarai.

This showroom is designed in such a way that it offers a great shopping experience, right from the ample parking space to the display of the furniture.

Woodpecker has today become a household name in Chennai as a brand that offers aesthetic, practical and appealing furniture at value-for-money pricing. Also, Woodpecker Furniture has ensured that its furniture is backed by customer service support and warranty, ensuring peace of mind to the customer.

Woodpecker was founded by Conduit Worldwide Pvt. Ltd. At the helm are Mr. Swaminathan and wife who steer the organisation to face the challenges of the future.Their international experience, deep conviction and business ethics have made the brand a real success.

The showrooms are managed by well-trained sales professionals. In a short span of 6 months, the staff size has grown from 32 to 112 people.

Business Challenge“We source from worldover and retail it under our own brand name,” says Mr. Swaminathan. He goes on to relate the challenges he faced, “As long as it was one store, it was not a challenge to us. The moment we went with the second store, the organisation


week or ten days, the balance is paid and the merchandise is delivered. A close parallel to airline seat booking, Woodpecker customers want their products to be blocked, making the tracking of blocked inventory critical. In other words a sales order is raised. Once the payment is completed, an invoice is generated and the delivery is made from the warehouse. Unless the complete payment is received, the invoice cannot be generated.

In very rare cases, i.e. less than 3%, the delivery is made on credit at the discretion of the Managing Director.

To govern the selling price, the company authorised one person per store to give discounts. This was not possible in the previous software.

Mr. R. Nagarajhan gives his view on the implementation done at Woodpecker. “The main issue which was addressed by us was to get the real stock report at real-time from both showrooms and warehouses which would help the company to take more orders from the customers. Actual stock would help in promising exact date of delivery. Apart from this, we have provided Woodpecker with many types of sales reports with user-wise security control to manage the discounts, other charges etc.”

The business has grown from Re. 1 crore to Rs. 15 crores over the last 4 years. Three warehouses with a combined area of 25,000 Sq. Ft. hold 3 months’ inventory. The company is also working on introducing barcodes by August 2011.

Procurement is managed by Mr. Swaminathan at the moment, based on sales and inventory held. Once the inventory dips below the critical order quantity, the purchase order should get generated.

Three critical pain points addressedby Tally, include, fromMr. Swaminathan’s viewpoint:

1. Stock visibility across all five locations, i.e. at the 2 retail stores and 3 warehouses had been a big advantage. When a customer pays an advance it’s only on actual availability of the stock at any one of the 5 locations.

2. The entire POS operations and the daily collection reports.

3. Discount management to customers.

Following are the customisation features developed and implemented by Parakram Infotech.

1. A sale order gets automatically converted to a receipt entry once the advance is received

2. Automatic SMS/e-mail would be sent when Sales Order / Invoice raised from Tally.

3. CEO’s dashboard would give all the necessary MIS information as on Date in Real Time

4. Location-wise purchase cost would be captured in cost-centre wise

5. POS Sales - When the invoice raised at the outlet, particular stock Group item would be displayed for easy selection + Credit card service charge calculation would be automatically done and payment entry is auto generated helping

the company to reconcile its bank book.

User based discount report, location-wise stock in single report, Purchase & Sales Price in a single report, service Order/Invoice and Security control are customised to suit the company’s requirement.

“I can see the payment made in real-time, in both the locations”, says a relieved Swaminathan. The customer is educated on maintenance of the furniture even after the sale is made. This way Wood Pecker has achieved 100% customer satisfaction.

“The current solution on Tally is suitable for the next level of expansion to 5-10 shops planned in thenext two years. Tally is cost-effective and robust, yet flexible. As we grow, we’ll come up with new requirements and I’m sure we can find the solution working with Tally, we have lot of hopes pinned on Tally”,Mr. Swaminathan concluded.

Woodpecker is a value-driven,ethical company. Tally helps themstay that way.

BENEFITS• Stock visibility

• POS operations

• Daily collection reports

• Discount management


BookShelf

Customer in the Boardroom?Craft Customer-based Business StrategyBy Rama BijapurkarResponse Books, Feb 2012

The business strategies of most companies in India are marked by the supply-sided, tunnel vision of the market and obsessively competitor-centred approaches. The book highlights the need for companies to embed customer centricity into the heart of their business strategy development process, if they are to continue to grow profitably and secure their future.

Rama Bijapurkar presents a compelling treatise on how to develop business strategy around the world of customers rather than the world of competitors. She draws a sharp distinction between the ‘market = industry size’ and the ‘market = customers with needs’ bases for developing business strategy.

The book proposes Customer-Based Business Strategy (CBBS), a lucid and simple framework for the successful assimilation of customer-centricity in business strategy.

The framework provides a blueprint for defining and choosing market segments, developing rivalry propositions, creating value delivery systems, reading markets and gaining customer insight, reading macro trends, strengthening strategy foundation analyses, removing organizational roadblocks and more. The book draws on the author’s vast experience in consulting and teaching and places equal emphasis on both the theory and the practice of bringing the customer into the boardroom.

Corporate Governance in India is an authoritative discourse on the current state of corporate governance in India. Beginning with an analysis of its evolution, the authors discuss the effectiveness and applicability of corporate governance

Corporate Governance in IndiaBy Jayati Sarkar & Subrata SarkarSage India, Jan 2012

What do Jack Welch (GE), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and Ray Kroc (McDonalds) have in common that made their firms grow beyond excellence?

Is it their vision, their leadership styles, their people-management skills, or their industry insight? Perhaps the one leading factor is their talent for transforming these enterprises into star performers and brands to reckon with.

Designed as a boot-camp-style workbook, it puts forward a three-pronged framework for success in business:• Procedural:Followtheexistingnormsandintroducebetter

standards and more effective procedures within the firm.• Behavioral:Attendtothehumansideoftheenterpriseand

the entrepreneur. • Strategic:Developlong-termplansfortheentrepreneurand

the enterprise.

Complex management issues, concepts and situations are discussed in simple language, sprinkled with humorous illustrations. Real-life examples of successful entrepreneurs make this book a must-read for current and aspiring entrepreneurs.

How Some Small Businesses Get their Ducks in a Row and Grow While Others Remain UndistinguishedBy Shil NiyogiSage India, Nov 2011

mechanisms in the context of the institutional structure within which Indian companies operate.

In this volume, the authors take the readers through an in-depth coverage of six important corporate governance mechanisms:• Ownershipstructure• Boardofdirectors• Executivecompensation• Auditorandtheauditcommittee• Marketforcorporatecontrol• Disclosureandenforcement

Years of extensive research combined with contemporary data collected from various corporate governance reports from across India makes this volume a priceless ready reckoner. Along with a convenient logical structure, the book provides a comprehensive coverage of the governance mechanisms of Indian corporations, especially in light of the international research in the area.


Executive Coaching is a high-value learning and development opportunity offered to critical senior executives. Its objective is to help them make strategic shifts in their professions, careers and lives. This book is an in-depth exploration of this transformational practice.

The book discusses the process beginning from the initial contact to building relationship and mutual understanding, taking the required precautions and maximizing output. The author has detailed the theoretical approaches to Executive Coaching; the competencies, capabilities and skills required to be an effective executive coach; and the tools and techniques used in the process.

The book is an invitation to getting an inside look at Executive Coaching. It will serve as a guide to building a positive coaching culture in organizations and to help the top management in getting the best out of their workforce.

Executive CoachingA Practitioner’s Guide to Creating ExcellenceBy Sunil Unny GuptanSage Publishing

Darwin’s Brands traces the evolution of some of the most notable brands in the Indian marketplace by looking at the interplay of forces that created the environment in which they operated and the strategies they adopted.

In a vibrant economy like India—where competition from novel and captivating launches is relentless; where customers’ preferences change rapidly—these winning brands have shown resilience and the ability to identify and seize opportunities. The book proves the point that it is the capacity to adapt to changes and formulate effective strategies that determines who survives in the hyper-competitive marketplace of today.

Each of the stories in this book is unique but shares a common thread running through the evolution of the brands’ strategies and actions. These compelling stories will help brand practitioners, students and business managers chart-out branding strategies and action-plans that lead to business success.

Darwin’s BrandsAdapting for SuccessBy Anand HalveChlorophyll brand & communications consultancy, Mumbai, India

Sage India, Dec 2011

You Don’t Need a GodfatherCreate Your Own SuccessBy Elango RTata Mcgrawhill

The work pressure can make one too many crumble; there is a path to success above failure and disappointments. The world doesn't stop at a yes or no; you have to learn to move onward towards sanity and with all your dignity. Elango R. is a columnist and a blogger apart from being an author; he is a renowned expert who guides a lot of people resolve their crisis and helps them develop themselves. The contents have been directed to be concise, and they tackle the everyday issues with unusual approaches. The chapters speak loudly through various motivating phrases that are the quintessential attitudes for one to possess.

The book prescribes best ways to deal with the insane situations that propel themselves on people is to be in touch with yourself and have an uncompromising will to rise. The cornerstone on which your growth stands is nothing but your willpower, this book teaches you valuable lessons through a personal narration of events and incidences that will work to elevate your awareness and regulate a proper exercise of will. The author tries to explain the different ways of accepting things through a balanced state of mind that reigns all your decision making process. The book has practical inputs for people to assimilate into their system, so to sketch a perfect picture of achievements on the canvas of ambitions.

Strategic Thinking provides an interpretation of strategy around an actor rather than an organization. It views strategic action as being executed in a milieu populated by power holders, where the individual strategist actor holds centre stage, and where pursuits are obstructed by the countervailing threats of other power holders. The authors explain that the strategic milieu is an intensely governed set-up where the relations and transactions between the power holders controlling key assets are under the governance of the current set of rules and institutions.

Strategic ThinkingExplorations around Conflict and CooperationBy Biswatosh SahaParthasarathi BanerjeeRam Kumar KakaniSage India, Oct 2011


Silicon Valley salaries still very high

Average yearly salaries for Silicon Valley technology workers hit a

record high last year, at $104,195. Start-ups and the success of firms like Facebook, Zynga, and LinkedIn have driven a hiring war for software engineers and other skilled workers. Message – whatever the highs and lows of the economy, top talent will earn top dollars.

Office space now costs more in Beijing than it does in New York.

Rents have soared in Beijing over the past two years, making it the fifth most expensive city in the world for commercial space, surpassing New York. Hong Kong remains the most expensive, followed by London, Tokyo, and Moscow. Is it one of the signs of China entering the Super Power league? Perhaps! This time for the wrong reasons if you also consider Beijing as one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Beijing 5th most expensive

Indian mall management

With so many swanky malls springing up in Indian cities at least one a

week, and are literally full most of the time, it seems the mall owners are raking in good money. Far from it! It’s a different matter that malls have become more of a hangout place rather than shopping outlets for most consumers. While this is one reason, the other is not-very-helpful government policies. The larger reason for 200 of the 250 malls losing money as of January 2012 is poor management practices of promoters.

It’s a typical landlord-tenant Indian mentality where each one would love to squeeze the other never mind if both sink. A lot of maturity is needed for working in tandem if organized retail is to go up from the current 5 percent to 10 percent in the next three to five years. The earlier they realize it and come up with creative solutions, the better. They can make a beginning by not considering shopping malls as real estate business but rather as a retail business.

OffBeat

Clairvoyant Artist makes a cool $200 million

In 2005, David Choe, a graffiti artist, chose to take

Facebook shares, rather than his usual fee, for painting murals at Facebook’s former headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Now that Facebook is going public, those shares may soon be worth $200 million. Creative thinking indeed!

The Bangalore Express

A lot of CXOs, VPs, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists don’t mind shelling out that extra buck

to fly business class in long haul flights as they offer excellent networking opportunities. The most popular one between the US and India is perhaps the San Francisco – Bangalore flight of Lufthansa. It has earned the nickname ‘The Bangalore Express’ as most of those in the business class in the plane have to do with technology and are out there to strike a deal or switch jobs.

Even though other airlines like Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific have flights between the two cities, Lufthansa, although not as comfortable as the others, is popular since it started the flight first and is popular among the networking hungry customers. The flight is said to be full most of the time, meaning that the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Plateau still do brisk business.

For more event updates log on to visit www.meraevents.comPhone : +91-40-40404160, Email : [email protected]

International Joint Conference on Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Technology 15 April 2012, Pune

17th annual conference of Indian Distance Education Association17 to 19 April 2012, NashikWebsite : ycmou.digitaluniversity.ac

Great Indian Developer Summit17 to 20 April 2012, BangaloreWebsite : www.developermarch.comEmail : [email protected]

International Conference on Business Intelligence, Analytics and Knowledge 9 to 20 April 2012, HyderabadWebsite : www.ibshyderabad.org

Multicon'12 20 to 21 April 2012, Rasipuram, TNWebsite : www.mecmulticon.comEmail : [email protected]

2nd Annual LTE Summit 201220 April 2012, MumbaiWebsite : www.cerebralbusiness.comEmail: [email protected]

2nd ONE DAY NATIONAL HOMOEO-PATHIC CONFERENCE 22 April 2012, JabalpurEmail : [email protected]

Aquatech India 2012 25 to 27 April 2012,New DelhiWebsite :www.aquatechtrade.comEmail : [email protected]

CAADRIA 2012 25 to 28 April 2012, ChennaiWebsite : http://caadria2012.org/Email: [email protected]

Private Equity Forum-2012 26 to 27 April 2012, MumbaiWebsite : www.leprivateequity.comEmail: [email protected]

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NANO SCIENCE,NANO ENGINEERING & APPLI-CATIONS (NCONSEA-2012) 27 to 28 April 2012, Hyderabad

5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MUSIC THERAPY 27 to 28 April 2012, bangaloreWebsite : http://nada.in

International Conference on Electronics and Communication Engineering 28 to 29 April 2012, VizagWebsite: www.interscience.ac.in

CMO CONCLAVE 201210 to 11 May 2012, MumbaiWebsite: www.cmoconclave.comEmail: [email protected]

International Conference on Power System Operation and EnergyManagement 20 May 2012, Bangalore

HR Strategy Forum 2012 24 May 2012, Mumbai,Website: www.hrsummit.inE-mail: [email protected]

2012 International Conference on Traffic and Logistic Engineering ¨C ICTLE 2012 28 to 29 April 2012, ChennaiWebsite : www.ictle.org

International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 28 to 12 May 2012, Trivandrum, keralagWebsite : www.interscience.ac.in

World Congress on Biotechnology-2012 4 to 6 May 2012, HyderabadWebsite : www.brightice.org/Email : [email protected]

Workshop on HR Competencies 25 May 2012, MumbaiWebsite: www.hrsummit.inE-mail: [email protected]

The Fourth International workshop on Grid Computing 2012May 25-27, 2012. DelhiWebsite : http://airccse.org

ConCon-201230 to 31 May 2012, VisakhapatnamWebsite : www.andhrauniversity.infoEmail : [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION EXPO 2012 13 to 14 May 2012, JAIPURWebsite : www.walternbrukes.comEmail : [email protected]

International Civil Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure Conference 24 to 26 May 2012, New DelhiWebsite : www.aiesd.org

Seminar, Conference update

For more event updates log on to visit www.meraevents.comPhone : +91-40-40404160, Email : [email protected]

Mother Baby & Child Expo 4 - 6 May, 2012, MumbaiWebsite : www.motherbabyexpo.com/Email : [email protected]

World Children Expo4 - 6 May 2012, GurgaonWebsite : www.worldchildrenexpo.comEmail : [email protected]

COMPOSITE INDIA EXPO (CIE'12) 4th to 6th May 2012, ChennaiWebsite : www.cieonline.inEmail : [email protected]

Zak Hospital Design & Management Expo20 - 22 April, 2012, New DelhiWebsite : www.zakhdm.com

The India Water Expo 201227 to 29-APR-12Website : www.indiawaterexpo.com/Email : [email protected]

Kisan Uphaar 201228th-30th April, 2012, Haryana Website: www.kisanuphaar.inEmail :[email protected]

MARWAR SHOPPING FESTIVAL 30th April, 2012 - BhatiawadiWebsite : www.expovision.inEmail : [email protected]

India International Medical Equipment Expo 4-6 May 2012, Hyderabad www.medicalequipmentexpos.com

Global Gurukul08 - 09 May 2012, RanchiWebsite : www.globalgurukul.inEmail : [email protected]

Hospitality Business Fair 201210 - 12 May 2012, New DelhiWebsite : www.hbf.co.in/Email : [email protected]

fMM&T 201112-14 May 2012., Greater NoidaWebsite: www.aplfindia.comEmail: [email protected]

11th Annual Greentech Safety Award & Conference 201217th - 18th May 2012, VisakhapatnaWebsite :www.greentech.org

TraficInfraTechMay 17-19, 2012 , MumbaiWebsite : www.trafficinfratechexpo.comEmail : [email protected]

POWER-GEN India & Central Asia19 - 21 April, 2012, New DelhiWebsite : www.power-genindia.comEmail : [email protected]

Diemould India 2012 19 - 22 April, 2012, MumbaiWebsite : www.tagmaindia.orgEmail : [email protected]

North India InternationalJewellery Show12th to 15th Apri, LudhianaWebsite : http://www.niijs.com/

Steel Technology Conclave 201216th & 17th April, 2012, Gurgaon Website:www.globalbusinessconnect.orgEmail :[email protected]

India Knit Fair 201218h & 20th April, 2012, TiruppurWebsite : www.indiaknitfair.comEmail : [email protected]

International Industrial Expo20 - 22 April, 2012, PuneWebsite : www.industrialexpos.comEmail: [email protected]

Education Worldwide India25 April, 2012, HyderabadWebsite : www.eduworldwideindia.comEmail : [email protected]

Third World Renewable Energy Technol-ogy Congress & Expo-201225 to 27 April 2012 , New DelhiWebsite : http://wretc.in/

Chemspec India25 to 27 April 2012 , MumbaiWebsite: www.chemspecevents.comEmail: [email protected]

India Warehousing Show 201226 to 28 April 2012 , Noida, UPWebsite : www.indiawarehousingshow.comEmail : [email protected]

Media Expo- Kolkata27 to 29 April 2012 , KolkataWebsite : www.themediaexpo.comEmail : [email protected],

Workshops & EXPOS Update

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How Ingersoll Rand is turning top B-School grads into … · 2012-05-16 · Jessie Paul, MD, Paul Writer Volume 8 - Issue 12 | April 2012 Mission: To enable engaging conversations