Showing posts with label IIPM Admission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM Admission. Show all posts

Saturday, October 06, 2012

INDIA: ORGAN DONATION

Gap Between Demand and Supply

At present, out of the 1,50,000 patients requiring kidney transplants, only 200 get kidneys by way of donations from the deceased. As per Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation in Chennai, efforts by the states of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka have increased the rate of cadaveric donation from 0.08 per million in 2008 to 0.1 in 2010. In most developed nations, the cadavers conversion is around 25% to 30%. Yet, a 2007 WHO estimate reveals that 10% of all transplants involved patients from developed countries going to poor countries to buy organs.

India for that matter neither has clear laws not a central information agency for organ database, thus increasing the chances of buying and selling organs. It leaves the patients on the mercy of the hospitals for organs. Most of the time, registered patients do not get the organs, as these are bought by rich patients directly from the hospitals. What should we do?

Copy the US blatantly. Many states in US encourage organ donations by writing down the consent while granting the driver’s license itself, thus allowing a central information database of donors and receivers. A total of 28,000 transplants took place in US in 2008 alone! Obviously, they must be doing something right!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Saturday, September 08, 2012

Once a star, always a star

Back in the 70s, Neetu Kapoor nee Singh made ‘coy’ passé; the new leading lady was spunky, even brattish, yet eminently loveable. After a gap of nearly 25 years, she faced the camera for Do Dooni Char, wowing one and all with her middle-class budget-conscious housewife act. We can’t wait for more; how’s that for some khullam khulla declaration of love?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Friday, August 31, 2012

FOUR DIMENSIONS OF PROFIT-MAKING!

Competition today has forced organisations to overlook the importance of values, ethics, credible leadership and corporate governance. they simply hinge their hopes on luck. wrong. Dr. Jamshed Jiji Irani, Director of Tata Sons and Chairman of the Board of Governors, IIM-Lucknow, writes about those elements, which if considered first, would result in fair profits.

From the dawn of civilisation, societies and cultures have been impacted by a numerically minute group of men and women who, because of their vision and their willpower, have swayed and changed the course of history; and they have significantly impacted the lives of their fellow human beings. Such persons have not just happened, they have been trained to grasp their moment of history. They have lived by the adage – “God give me the strength to change what I can, the humility to accept what I cannot and the wisdom to differentiate between the two”.

Profit is about “Values”
The one common thread that joins all successful leaders, is that they have seized the opportunity that came their way. Some say that to be successful, you must be lucky. In my opinion, there is no luck involved in building a successful career or a happy family life. I would rather say that good luck comes as a result of “preparation” meeting “opportunity”. Another very important subject is of “values”. In some quarters, particularly amongst young executives, “values” are looked upon as old fashioned and, may be even considered as being out of sync with the demands of the current competitive scenario. But let me assure you that it is not so.

Today, society is once again recognising the merits of value-based decisions. Please be assured that society is demanding that businesses get cleaned up; and this movement is going to accelerate in the future. I would like to quote J. R. D. Tata here: “No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile, unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means.”

Profit is about “Ethics in Business”
What is Ethics in Business? It devolves into playing the game of business according to rules, even if your competitor does not. Some critics might argue that in the prevalent environment, this philosophy would not be acceptable, as “ethics” might result in a disadvantageous situation in the business arena. But, being “ethical” does not mean that one cannot also be “profitable”. It is most important to make profits and to generate wealth; because only then can one have the resources to do good in the community. That differentiates between ‘good’ and bad’ business practices, and decides what happens to the wealth after it has been generated. I would once again like to quote J. R. D. Tata here. He said, “Every company has a special continuing responsibility towards the people of the area in which it is located and in which its employees and their families live. In every city, town or village, large or small, there is always a need for improvement, for help, for relief, for leadership and for guidance.

I suggest that the most significant contribution that an organised industry can make is to identify itself with the lives and problems of the people of the community, to which it belongs and by applying its resource, skills and talents, to the extent that it can reasonably spare them to serve and help them.”



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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Shinzo Nakanishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki India

Maruti’s market share and stock price has taken a beating in the recent past; blame competition for it. Shinzo Nakanishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki India, explains the comeback plan of the company to B&E.

B&E: The company has capacity expansion plans for 2012. How do you plan to manage till then, as the company is selling whatever it can produce?
SN: The company was working on ways to bring that to an earlier date and I am pushing my engineers very hard to ensure that Maruti is able to start the additional 250,000 units production as soon as possible. However, as of now, I will not be able tell you by when we will be able to start our new assembly line. But till then, we will have to manage with out existing capacity, and look at options by which we can maximise our production.

B&E: What about the developments on Suzuki Motor Corporation’s alliance with Volkswagen?
SN: The talks with Volkswagen are going on at a global level but there is still no clear picture as of now. However, there is very much a possibility of an OEM (original equipment manufacturing) supply contract with Volkswagen, which will be similar to what Maruti has with Nissan. But there is no possibility of sharing a common production platform with Volkswagen. Keeping in mind the fact that the German company’s production and product development costs are very high, it could make our business model unfit for India.

B&E: What prompted you to launch a five CNG models, even before a proper infrastructure was available for usage?
SN: We had two very radically different options in front of us regarding this – either we could wait till the point when the infrastructure got ready and then launch our products or being a market leader, we act first and allow competitors to follow us. We chose the second option!


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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Is legislation the only way out?

There’s a silent epidemic of workplace bullying... Is legislation the only way out?

Not all measures need to be so drastic though, as Dr. Mallary Tytel, President of Healthy Workplaces, shares, “As an employee, you can document occurrences in detail with dates, times, places, what was said or done and who was present at the time, and then work with the employer or a trusted advocate to solve the problem. One must understand that bullying is about control and power, not performance.” Research by Nathanael Fast, Assistant Professor of Management & Organisation from University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, affirms, “It was those individuals who had power and also felt incompetent who were most likely to treat others badly. It does appear that bullying could be a sign of inner weakness.” Thus he validates what many of us already suspected to be true – bullies are just insecure about themselves.

The job of senior management is to pluck out such elements from the system and ensure that the top leadership sets an example for others to follow. S.Y. Siddiqui, MEO – Administration (HR, IT & Finance) at Maruti Suzuki India, is a believer in the zero-tolerance policy, and says that a clear code of conduct needs to be set by the company. Garry Mathiason of the employment and labour law solutions firm Littler Mendelson seconds this view, stating that the best solution is to prohibit bullying as a company policy. He clarifies, “A ‘policy’ is very different from a ‘law’. View it as a yellow light highlighting conduct that the employer wishes to eliminate, as it violates employer policies, but is not yet illegal.”

It is not likely that such legislation will hit Indian shores soon, but this does serve as a reminder to companies operating here. Employers must demonstrate their commitment by equipping their employees with tools like awareness sessions, open-door policies, and speedy redressal of grievances to tackle such issues even without talk of a law. Prevention, really, is better than cure.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

SUBHIKSHA: FAILURE

Subhiksha was a dream flight, which crash-landed as soon as it took off; B&E presents a decisive story covering a summary of its flawed strategies and the way forward. by Pawan Chabra

A former senior employee tells us, “Subhiksha’s debt-equity ratio was always wrong since the expansion began. The company pushed the accelerator simply depending on debt. Even as the company was not able to pay its existing employees properly, it still kept on hiring more till the recession started.”

Both Satyam and Subhiksha, coincidentally, have been cases of investor activism, where shareholders, sniffing something out of the ordinary, have demanded deeper investigation. This has specifically re-ignited the debate on the relevance of independent directors on the board. According to a report by KPMG titled ‘India Fraud Survey Report 2010’, almost 40% of the frauds committed in India Inc. are because of the failure on the part of line managers/departmental heads to act against deviations from established policies, and only 10% are because of inadequate oversight by the Board/Audit Committee. But they add that bribery and corruption are now considered to be an inevitable aspect of doing business in India by many Indian companies, with fudging of financial statements perceived to be the most rampant corporate fraud within India.

Practitioners like Susil Dungarwal, MD, Square Feet Management feel that though Satyam and Subhiksha may look similar, there are differences, "especially in the intentions; while Raju wanted to take the money home, Subramanian still wanted to put the money attracted by the falsified documents back into the company.” According to a report by KSA Technopak, the share of organised retail in the Indian retail industry will reach 12%; standing at $67 billion out of the total $587 billion of the total retail industry by 2015, which is expected to close with a 5% share in 2010 with the organised retail industry contributing $21 billion out of the total $435 billion of business. "But if cases like Subhiksha get repeated, the projection may be revised soon; and the biggest hit would be in the PE investments that were coming into this sector," says Prasoon Majumdar, President, Global Strategy and Investment Consulting.

That the Indian retail industry – like the airlines sector – is going through a bloodbath is no secret. Vishal Retail was another firm which almost reached a collapse point – but the company was saved by the US-based PE firm TPG Capital. Even Satyam got taken over by the IT arm of M&M Group Company Tech Mahindra, and the conglomerate has since been trying to get the IT major back on track. A saviour for Subhiksha, unfortunately, is still not in picture. Sources familiar with the matter confirm that ICICI Ventures has now even approached many strategic buyers; but so far, nothing has worked out as the prospective acquirers don't see much value in the retail chain. Even Premji is said to be suffering from the same predicament, with the investment value plummeting post the scandal and collapse.

So where to from here for Subhikhsa? Clearly, wherever it is, would be only downhill. The chances of Subhiksha being sold lock, stock, and barrel are extremely low. But a higher probability exists for a part by part sell off of Subhiksha's various business units – but there would be very less assets to speak off once all claims are settled. Depressed about that? Well, read the book...




 
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Monday, August 13, 2012

Living its millionth life, king size!

Maruti Suzuki is well on its way to hit one million unit sales in this fiscal. But how does the market leader plan to prepare itself for the rougher road ahead?

It was back in 2004 that during a cross-functional team meeting at Maruti Suzuki, the officials derived a slogan for 2010 - ‘Ten Ten Ten’, wherein the first ten stood for 2010, the second referred to the targeted 10 lakh unit sales in the 2009-10 fiscal and the third referred to the 10% operating margin which the company would like to maintain in the process. “Few in the meeting were still not in favour; thinking we had gone crazy, but many supported the goal and designed the way forward,” recalls Shashank Srivastava, CGM – Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India.

While the arrival of the first Ten was inevitable, the third one looked hugely daunting; as the company was striving hard to maintain its margins under the intense competition in which the industry is operating. But the company has proved more than equal to the challenge as it rapidly continued to expand and strengthen its market position. However, the second Ten was what was bothering Maruti the most. It is indeed ironic that at the start of the financial year of 2009, Maruti Suzuki had clocked total sales of over seven lakh units and no one thought that the company is going to cross one million by any chance and hence will not be able to transform its ‘Ten Ten Ten’ slogan into reality. And here we are today – Maruti Suzuki’s total sales are now standing at 9,23,242 units (7,06,498 units in the corresponding period a year ago!) by the end of February 2010. And going by the calculations made by the company, Maruti Suzuki should cross the one million mark on March 23 (co-incidentally on the same date that Tata Motors launched its much-hyped Nano a year ago). Maruti’s MD Shinzo Nakanishi said at the 10th Auto Expo in the capital, “For the first time in 26 years, we hope to sell one million vehicles in one year. The one million sales mark is a landmark, not just for Maruti Suzuki. It is an important threshold for the Indian passenger vehicle industry. But we are finding solutions to reach the next million in ways that are sustainable and mutually beneficial.” Even Osamu Suzuki, Chairman, Suzuki Motor Corporation has expressed his contentment on such a huge achievement. So much so that Suzuki is also expected to take part in a special ceremony on March 23 in the capital.

The Indian journey of Maruti Udyog Limited started with the first unit of the Maruti 800 being delivered by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; and since then, there’s been no looking back for this automaker in the country. Apart from the changes in the shareholding patterns, which transformed a public sector unit into a subsidiary of the Indian automaker (Maruti Udyog Limited to Maruti Suzuki India), the company has even transformed its small-car maker image over the years gone by and will soon be stepping into the Honda and Toyota’s playfield with the launch of Kizashi well slated to take place by the end of the calendar year. “Maruti not only provided India with efficient wheels but also brought a work culture not only in the automobile industry but also the Industry as general. They brought in a culture in the industry where not only the workers and other staff was treated as equal but the big bosses and owners were also made to mix with the staff and workers,” exclaims auto expert Tutu Dhawan. The company attributes the credit of its one-million unit sales tag to the aggressive growth that the industry is enjoying and increasing exports. Now with one million in reach, the company is gearing up to march for the next one million. Notably, Business & Economy did a cover story last year on ‘Who Will reach the Two million mark first?’ in the Auto Special issue dated 29/10/2009 wherein Maruti Suzuki was obviously the front runner in the unit sales war in the Indian automotive market followed by players like Tata Motors (taking cue from Nano) and Hyundai Motors India (with mind-boggling export figures). But the way forward isn’t that smooth for the company as the competitors are increasingly eyeing its bread-and-butter hatchback segment to enhance their own prospects in the Indian market.

Be it Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford or General Motors, the automakers have decided to jump into Maruti’s playfield with the launch of their respective small cars. With Chevrolet Spark and Beat already running on the roads, accompanied by Volkswagen Polo and Ford Figo, other automakers are also scaling up their pace to transform their small car dreams into reality.

On the contrary, Maruti Suzuki has decided to move into segments that were still out of its reach in the Indian market. Be it the rising exports figures or the launch of new products, the efforts are clearly going in the direction of making the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese automaker more competent in the Indian market. Notably, Maruti Suzuki accounts for 80% of Suzuki’s profits and the Indian arm even out tipped the unit production figure of the parent company. With a three-year export contract with Nissan and its products reaching destinations like Europe, Sri Lanka, China and other countries; the company has scaled up its exports to 70,023 units for the 2008-09 fiscal from a mere 12,233 units in 2001-02. In fact, the Made-in-India car (made from scratch including conceptualisation, design and R&D in the country) from Maruti’s stable is expected to be out in the next 18-24 months; clearly depicting the transformation in the R&D ability of India in the sector. 

Read more.....

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

JW Marriott Hotel, Quito (Ecuador)

Make each moment you spend at Quito even more special, with your stay at the JW Marriott, which offers amenities as beautiful as the vitality and charm of the city. Get the perfect holiday tan in the hotel’s tropical gardens... Zumay gym and Spa promise a whole new experience of tranquillity and total wellness. Indulge in some of the finest cuisines at the hotel’s restaurant or splash into the resort style pool. The hotel offers recreational activities like golf, biking, table tennis and volley ball. With all this and more, no wonder the hotel has been ranked as the numero uno in Ecuador by Frommers and Tripadvisor.

The view: Situated in the heart of the city, from the hotel terrace, one is greeted with a panoramic view of the entire city. Each room of the hotel offers a spectacular view of the mountain peaks and the famous Cotopaxi Volcano.

Archi Type: The hotel welcomes one with a huge atrium lobby, which is the hotel’s hallmark. The rooms have heavy wooden doors and are decked with wooden furniture and pastel-coloured spreads, a combination that never ceases to impress.

Bon apétit: Luxurious living and fine dining find common ground as one indulges in the delicacies at the hotels restaurants. The various in-house restaurants serve innovative Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Mediterranean, Japanese and international cuisines.

Around the corner: Thanks to its centralised location, the hotel offers a perfect base for visitors to explore the rich heritage of the colonial city. The hotel is located just a short walk away from the old city of Quito, and the famous craft market Otavalo is only a two-hour drive from the hotel.

Under the carpet: Language creates a barrier while communicating with some of the hotel staff. The suites are thin-walled and noises from the adjoining rooms can be a bit of a bother.

Read more.....

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Thursday, August 09, 2012

Green and guilt-free mobility

When it comes to mass transportation, green options are being developed aplenty, but almost all are failing the economic viability test. The IIPM Think Tank analyses the economic and social benefit of contemporary machines that will be green, clean and fast – but not necessarily in the same order of priority!

Ice Age, Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age... one would think that we should have come of age after going through these multiple bouts of evolution. But then, mankind has had the penchant for reinventing itself every now and then.

We have displayed that ability exceptionally well with respect to our transport system. The invention of the wheel started it all. Evolution kept ‘happening’, till the time when the entire connotation of transport took a whole new meaning with the invention of the internal combustion engine (that used petrol and petroleum by-products), which laid the foundation stone of modern transportation and gave birth to a huge population of fuel-guzzlers and carbon-emitting machines. It also gave us the concept of black gold; for which many wars have been fought, apart from the spectre of pollution – that has not only contributed to global warming, but also has been the leading reason for cancer.

In the late 20th century, countries started to re-calculate the negative effect of mass transportation on the environment. The focus on power and speed started getting replaced with a focus on green transportation, at least in policy circles, to an extent that the vision of having green transport systems became no longer confined to a few developed countries (In most developed countries, on an average, transport systems consume between 20-25% of total energy – an issue that is motivating the developed nations faster towards alternative less energy consuming systems). Despite all the hullaballoo about the ecological benefits, the clear fact is that the economic benefits of the so called ‘green’ alternatives are absent, and in many cases, too prohibitive for Third World nations (the costs to implement such eco-friendly systems is beyond logical levels and extraordinarily huge – this is an insurmountable impediment considering that even at the current level, almost all public transport systems, irrespective of which nations we consider, are more or less running on losses).


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