The LighthouseBulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras 2015-2016 • Edition No.28 • January 19, 2016 • 4 Pages

PRESIDENT Rtn. A S Venkhat Ramani

HoNoRaRy SECRETARY Rtn. Rajasekar Gorantla

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Rtn. S N Srikanth

PRESIDENT ELECT Rtn. Dr N V Arulmozhi Varman

PRESIDENT NOMINEE Rtn. P N Mohan

Asst. SECRETARY / BULLETIN EDITOR Rtn. Sunita Suresh

DIRECTOR CLUB ADMINISTRATION Rtn. Vidya Amarnath

DIRECTOR YOUTH SERVICE Rtn. M Sesha Sai

DIRECTOR PUBLIC IMAGE AND FUND RAISING Rtn. Dr. Srinath Yeshwanth

DIRECTOR ROTARY FOUNDATION & INTERNATIONAL SERVICES Rtn. S. Ravi

DIRECTOR SERVICE PROJECT 1 Rtn. Dr. Chandrashekar

DIRECTOR SERVICE PROJECT 2 Rtn. Nimish C Tolia

TREASURER (CLUB FUNDS) Rtn. Aditya Agarwal

TREASURER (CHARITABLE TRUST) Rtn. R. Ravishankar

TREASURER (SPECIAL PROJECTS) Rtn. Kishor Dandeker

Genpact: Lessons for SuccessThis week was another extraordinary talk - by the

‘Poster boy of the Indian BPO industry’: Mr.Pramod Bhasin.

A Chartered Accountant from Mc Lintock & Co, London, Bhasin spent 25 years with GE across the US, Europe and Asia. He was the head of GE Capital in India and in Asia.

What he builtThe foundation for his idea of Genpact was

actually here in Chennai. He was walking around in Cholamandalam Finance and it struck him that he could do this routine work for others around the world! He asked ten close colleagues for their views. They all said this would never work. Then he knew for sure that they should start!

Consequently, starting with an office divided into cubicles by saris, he eventually became the founder of the Business Process Outsourcing industry. Today the company has 5000 MBAs and 3000 CAs. They have moved away from cold calling to doing accounts for companies located all over the world.

They are the Industry Pioneers – First in Voice, Treasury, and Knowledge Process Outsourcing. They created toolkits, training, and capability. They are the only ones with process heritage - a six sigma company. They had to build an entire ecosystem including power, technology, facilities, security, and transport. They knew that key attributes to success in this field were execution, speed, and process knowledge. In other words, they were a team of Operators in what was a people business. They needed to (and did) build Hiring and Training as a core competence, and set up delivery centers in places well before others.

This led to today’s unparalleled diversity and depth of services with over 4,500 processes managed, serving 600+ clients representing 40+ industries across 17 countries– doing everything from simple invoice processing to complex statistical modelling.

Lessons learnt along the wayThis has been a journey of innovation and risk taking.

They have found that niche sectors are more rewarding. Niche needs to be something where the pain points are still not digitized. Big data is the next major area that Indian brains could excel at.

The margins are 19-25% - this is a very big business. Re-engineering of processes is what we could be good at.

Revenue productivity differences are enormous.

Take home points:1. Get to Know what you do – know it deeply/thoroughly.2. Believe – and know how to tell your story3. Sales is a team sport - know who your winners are.4. Network across locations and verticals - get to know

people.5. Do not be ‘Gun-Shy’ – pull in whoever you need to win.6. Speed of action and closure is highly valued.7. Thrive on change.8. There is a huge premium on Boundary-less behavior.9. Be assertive, straightforward and explicit.”Tell it like it

is”.10. Unyielding Integrity is essential. There is only one way

- the straight way!

The Present and the Future:

Mr.Bhasin is currently serving as President at TiE Delhi-NCR, whilst working towards building a ‘Skills Academy’.

He reiterated that penetration of back offices worldwide is only 5% so he would advise others to get into it if at all possible!

He wants to build a virtual investment bank in India wherein 15 marketing people will be based out of the United States. Global experts can be asked a question crossing all boundaries. I found this concept remarkable. The idea that one could virtually tap into talent in specific verticals across the globe was brilliant.

This talk, rather like the one we had by Shiv Nadar, truly boggled the mind. Whilst one is accustomed to second / third / fourth generation mammoth organizations, the idea of one man having the vision and the drive to make it happen to this extent in a matter of a decade is awe-inspiring. May there be many more of his kind, growing and training and taking fellow people up with him.

- Rtn Maithili Shaan Katari Libby

2 Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • Edition 28 • January 19, 2016

Sgt-at-arms Rtn M Srinivasan collared President Rtn A S Venkhat Ramani, who called the 28th meeting of RCM

to order, followed by a silent invocation.The minutes of the 12th Jan’16 meeting

was duly confirmed.

President welcomed• The guest speaker Mr Pramod Bhasin,

District Governor Rtn C R Raju• Mr. Nitin Seth, President, Ashok Leyland

(bouquet presented by Rtn Antony Lobo)• Ms. Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman &

CEO – TAFE (bouquet presented by PP Nandita Krishnan)

• Ms. Preethi Srinivasan, Soulfree (bouquet presented by Rtn Dr Anuradha Ganesan)

• Mr. Yogesh, High Commissioner, Fiji (bouquet presented by PP George B Cherian)

• Visiting Rtn PP Francis Levy, RC Cannes, France

• Mr.Kyung Soo Kim, Consul Gen Republic Korea

MINUTES

NeW member iNducTioN

President invited PDG Benjamin Cherian to introduce Mr.Kyung Soo Kim, Consul Gen Republic Korea.

President inducted him into the club by pinning the lapel pin, after apprising him about Rotary, its activities and its ideals.

All members rose and greeted Rtn Kim amidst a round of applause

President thanked him for the donation of Rs 25,000 towards RCMCT and presented a bouquet

President said that Preeti Srinivasan of soulfree was our guest speaker a couple of years ago. RCM has been actively helping her and complimented her achievements despite being quadriplegic.1. Nominated by Times Now group as “An

Amazing Indian”2. Featured by TEN CRICKET in the ICC

360 degrees programme.3. Given Motivational talks at prestigious

Companies like Goldman Sachs, VMWARE, TVS credit services etc.

4. Founder of Soulfree a Public Charitable Trust that is working towards spreading

awareness about Spinal Cord Injury in India and improving the quality of life of persons with severe disabilities, especially women through improved education, employment and entrepreneurial opportunity. She is well on her way towards creating India’s first ever Rehabilitation centre for women with Spinal Cord Injury. He thanked Rtn A Sankara Narayanan

& Mr R. Seshasayee, Ashok Leyland, currently with Infosys for supporting her with the stile vehicle car for comfortable travelling and be a service to the society.

President thanked Ashok Leyland for their large-heartedness by donating the car free to Preethi. Mr.Nitin Seth, President, Ashok Leyland handed over the keys to Ms Preethi amidst applause

President also acknowledged the great efforts of Secy Rajasekar for getting funds (Rs 5.25 lacs) from his Dubai friends needed for the modification of the car.

Preethi Srinivasan thanked RCM and

President, with deeper gratitude said that the kindness shown is incredible and definitely this will improve her quality of life and continue her service in transforming lives of persons with disabilities thru her social initiatives. She requested all to visit her web-site.

Preethi Srinivasan was a former cricketer and was also an accomplished swimmer.

Stile car presented to Ms Preethi Srinivasan

3 Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • Edition 28 • January 19, 2016

• Preethi’s mother Vijayalakshmi & friend Hema

Birthday & wedding anniversary wishes were extended by President to the respective Rotarians/spouses who celebrate that week and thanked for their sunshine.

Rtn Harish K Murthi, Chair, Golf reminded members that only 10 days to go for the major fund raiser of RCM Golf tournament to be held at Prestige Golfshire on 29th/30th of January 2016. He said that so far Rs 64 lacs have been committed against our target of Rs 1 crore. He appealed members for sponsors for banners and support in whatever way they can. President requested members to pitch in for tee-boxes as the event proceeds are required for our existing projects

Rtn Dr R Chandrasekar, Director, Community Service informed and invited members to participate in the flag hoisting function at 11 am @ Rotary Nagar on 26th Jan’16. On the skilled development program, Tailoring courses will be launched on that day.

Rtn Linesh Sanatkumar said that 120 ‘Aqua Box ‘ kits from Australia has arrived for the flood relief. This is mainly for using potable water after purification process. He acknowledged the support of Red cross for getting it duty free and Rtns Josh/Siva of RC Egmore. He thanked Rtn Abdul Kareem Sait for stocking the kits at his place for distribution. President specially thanked PP N K Gopinath & Rtn Linesh for their follow-up and RC Eltham, Australia (Rtn Ian) Mr Harish Netha of the Indian Red Cross Society for these water purification kits.

Rtn Linesh thanked Rtn Ranjit Pratap & Ann Uma for having a great spectacular Pongal Vizha at his Villa. Thanked PP Gunashekar & Rtn M Srinivasan for organizing interesting entertainment with fun.

He said that the outstation fellowship trip to Cochin, Kerala will be starting 19th February to 21st February, 2016.Members interested can contact PP Paul K Jacob.

Secretary’s announced that there will

be No regular weekly meeting on Jan 26, 2016, Tuesday, owing to Republic day

The next meeting is on 2/2/2016. Speaker: Former Foreign Secretary Mr. Ganapathy

Rtn Madhav Sehgal introduced the speaker Mr Pramod Bhasin, Founder Genpact who spoke on “Leadership and taking risks”, with a help of a PPT, followed by an interactive session.

President appreciated Mr Pramod for his scintillating talk and presented a memento and our clubs 80 year history book to Mr Pramod, on behalf of RCM. President thanked Rtn Rajiv Khanna for making this to happen.

Rtn Asha Mathen thanked Mr Pramod for his enlightening, energizing session, sharing his amazing journey and dymystifying the word process management.

The meeting was then adjourned.

• District Governor Rtn C R Raju requested members to register and attend the District Conference on the 6& the Feb’16 at the Chennai Trade Centre. Our PP George Cherian being the Dist Chair has organized lot of interesting programs and also parallel an Exhibition of ‘Expo’ which will display products & services on education, health, environment & lifestyle. Requested all to come, enjoy & participate in the house of friendship and be a part of the Conference.

DG also invited members for the fund raiser on 14th Feb’16 at the University Centenary Auditorium, where singer Adnan Sami will perform. DG said that our Rtn Nalini & PP S Gunashekar are in the organizing team.

iNducTioN oF HoNorary member To rcm

Rtn A Sankara Narayanan introduced Mrs Mallika Srinivasan by reading out her profile

President inducted her into the club by pinning the lapel pin, after apprising

her about Rotary, its activities and its ideals.

All members rose and greeted Honorary Rtn Mallika Srinivasan amidst a round of applause

In her acceptance speech, Rtn Mallika applauded the intrinsic role of RCM which cultivates & spreads the core values of friendship, fellowship & service. She said that many CSR activities are carried out and assured that there will be a whole-hearted support to RCM’s social objectives.

IPP Rtn S N Srikanth is being appointed Honorary Consul of the Republic of Fiji in Chennai. His Excellency Dr Karan Yogesh made an

official visit to the city during which he made the announcement to the media. Fiji is renowned as a tropical paradise with some of the finest resorts in the world. President congratulated & wished him the best.

4 Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • Edition 28 • January 19, 2016

PONGALKONDATTAM

Dear Fellow Members,On behalf of Rtn Ranjit and the

Fellowship Committee, we thank you’ll for an overwhelming attendance, dressed aptly at

the PONGAL VIZHA.Rtn Guna and Rtn Srini have ensured we had the

traditional entertainment and trust the ‘Killi Joshiam’ has turned the fortune of many, for the better J. The taste of

‘chakkarai’ Pongal is still lingering in our mouth. Kudos! to the Duo and Uma.

Thanks to our action man, Rtn.Gopal Ratnam, who made the festivity better by having most of you’ll dance to the “thappattam” beat.

Thank you & Uma for continuing to be such wonderful hosts!! You have excelled in your arrangements and

taking care of minute details.Annual Pongal Vizha at Villa Enchantress offers the best of fellowship for the entire family.

- Rtn. Linesh & Rtn. PP Gunashekar

5 Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • Edition 28 • January 19, 2016

Christmas & New YearCelebration At Madras Club

Medical Camp

The Full club Fellowship at madras club has become a ritual as part of our annual rcm Fellowship plan of events.This year, the

date was fixed on Sunday, 27th Dec’15 so that we could cherish the festivity of Christmas and also ring in the New year with all prosperity and good health.

Keeping the sentiments of flood disaster that virtually affected all of us and the neighbouring community, it was decided that we will have a pleasant evening of relaxation and celebration.

The evening started with soft music from the keyboard of antony Karuna. There was a sudden upswing in the general mood, thanks to our rtn. Anil Srinivasan, who melodiously played the piano at the ball room. rtn. mohindra V.V was lucky to have rtn. anil play the birthday jingle for him.

To keep the Christmas festivity on, we had a few of our fellow Rotarians and Ann’s who belted out beautiful Christmas Carols. The food was exceptionally good, thanks to Chef chandrasekhar, and familiar to all of us. madras club has yet another aspect to be applauded for.Smoked Ham Leg, Baked Crab and the traditional roast Turkey were the best. The Flambéed christmas Pudding was yummy!

Parties at Madras Club have also been suave and classy, thanks to the exclusive list of hosts and Rotary members of the Madras Club. Special appreciation to Rtn. VKCK, Raj Saba, Jakes, Ravi Katari, alok & biswajit, who helped with the organising of the event.

The next community health care program will be a medical and dental screening camp proposed

to be conducted on 26.1.2016 at Rotary Center, Gummidipoondi between 9.00am to 2.00pm. Around 300 people of Gummidipoondi will be benefited by this

program and the following organizations are participating in this program:1. Eye check up by Uma Eye Clinic (Rtn Dr.

N. Arulmozhi Varman)2. General health screening by doctors

from Sundaram Medical Foundation (Rtn Dr Vijayabarathy)

3. Dental screening by Ragas Dental College (Rtn Dr S Ramachandran)Special thanks to Rtn Ravi for organizing

this program. I request the support and participation of all our members to make this event a success.

- Rtn Dr S Ramachandran

6 Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Madras • Edition 28 • January 19, 2016

3rd Feb – rtn Vijay dugar4th Feb – Spouse: Madhu C Mathen (rtn asha mathen)7th Feb – Ann Bharti (rtn bharat m Pujara)

birthday

2nd Feb – Rtn Kapil Chitale ann. Kashmira5th Feb – Rtn Hemu Ramaiah Ann. Jai Subramaniam5th Feb – Rtn Jawahar Vadivelu ann. abirami6th Feb – rtn alok bhargava Ann. Seema6th Feb – Rtn Sunil Kumar ann. Nira6th Feb – rtn c r Vaitheeswaran ann. chandra7th Feb – Rtn Harbinder Singh Rattha Ann. Komal Singh7th Feb – Rtn P B Prasad Ann. Saloni8th Feb – Rtn P Suresh Ann.Shanthi

WEddiNG

ann. Vinolia Lobo,Spouse of Antony Lobo `1,000Rtn. Jagdish P. S. `2,000Ann. Prerna, Spouse ofSumit Kumar Kalra `1,000Rtn. Sankara Narayanan A. `2,000rtn. Hemant P. chordia `1000rtn. ramji N. `2000Rtn. IPP Srikanth S.N. `5000

suNshiNE

EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY: Rtn. Asst. Secretary, Rotary Club of Madras, ‘Rayala Towers’, 2nd Mezzanine Floor, 158, Anna Salai, Chennai - 2, Ph: 28591020.Contact the editor at: lighthouse201516@gmail.com. Design: www.studiodescience.com

Visit: www.rotarymadras.in Contact club secretariat at: office@rotarymadras.in

Next week…NO MEETING ON 26th ON ACCOUNT oF rePubLic day.The next meeting is on 2/2/2016. Speaker: Former Foreign Secretary Mr. Ganapathy

When sprucing up your front or backyard, considering xeriscaping. This landscaping method uses low-water-use plants to limit your water use.

Water Tip

Polio campaign on 17th Jan’16

Heart Warming Gesture by 9th Std. Students from BarodaSwara Bhatt and her friends from

class IX of Narvachana School, Baroda, have raised funds and sent a DD for Rs. 12,000 to the Rotary Club of Madras Charitable Trust. This is a rare display of caring and sharing from miles away. They proved what Albert Einstein had said many years ago “Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living”. They wanted the money raised by them to be used in a suitable manner for the flood affected people of Chennai.

Swara and four friends baked Brownies for 3 days and sold them to raise money. Each

brownie carried a flagged message on “How a disaster can and should be averted”, which was a part of Awareness Campaign for Disaster Management done by their School.

The total amount that was collected was sent to RCM.

Swara is an Annet of Rotary Club of Baroda, Sayaji Nagari, District 3060. President A.S. Venkhat Ramani and other members lauded Swara and her friends and wished them good luck and success in their future endeavors.

- Rtn. PP Satyan Bhatt

The penultimate session of the pulse polio was done with lot of enthusiasm. President Rtn A S Venkhat Ramani with other Rotarians visited the polio booths. 20 interactors/rotaractors/coordinators participated with interest. We thank Rtn Anand Rengaswamy for providing sumptuous breakfast for all.

ADNAN SAMI LIVELocation : Our District Is Organising A Fund Raiser “Adnan Sami Live” On 14Th Febraury

2016 At University Centenary Autitorium At 7 Pm. The Proceeds Of This Fund Raiser Shall Go For The Rehablitation Of Flood Victims And Community Service Projects. Request Your Support For Sponsorship / Donor Passes. Date Time: 14-01-16 06:15 Pm To 14-02-16 07:15 Pm Organizer: Madras Down Town.