Showing posts with label IIPM SATBARI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM SATBARI. 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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Monday, September 10, 2012

Wrong person, Wrong place?

The New CEO is a Software guy and has Prior Experience only in Enterprise Sales – A clear mismatch with the current philosophy of HP – The largest IT company in the World. Is he the right choice?

On a cold Sunday afternoon of February 2009, Leo Apotheker, who had moved into the CEO chamber at the $46 billion technology giant SAP’s Waldorf headquarters barely seven months back, shot across a sorrow-laden email to his employees. It read thus: “The pace of change was probably too rapid. My communication toward you was not always optimal. I regret that I wasn’t able to earn the support of each and every one of you...” So what forced him to wear the cloak of humility? The Board of Directors at SAP had refused to renew his contract following his underperformance. The financials had turned turbid, as SAP recorded the first fall in top & bottomlines in 7 years, which plummeted by 8% to $14.6 billion and 7% to $2.48 billion respectively in FY2009. Other matters disappointed the shareholders further, which included the withdrawl of SAP from the Sun acquisition talk (which Oracle finally bought, killing chances of SAP becoming invulnerable), the failure to get on board 10,000 customers for his expensive service software project Business By Design by 2010 (which never saw the light of the day during his tenure), his inability to get SAP’s products in-line with the changing trends in enterprise software, et al. His fate was sealed.

But just as surprised as the world was when he was offloaded by SAP’s Board even as his 75 minute-long debut CEO keynote at Orlando was being forgotten, the $98 billion tech-giant Hewlett-Packard proved yet again (after Hurd’s unceremonious exit on August 6, 2010) why it is good at making news. Apotheker had just been announced the scandal-marred HP’s new blue-eyed boy. As for the shareholders, their grief was visible as the HP stock fell by 4.32% on the first trading day following this announcement on September 30, 2010 – wiping away $4.2 billion of value. Rick Sturm, CEO, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), while speaking to B&E from Colorado, says, “Investors have indicated that they doubt Apotheker’s ability to lead HP. This choice by the HP board is likely to end up being seen as an unbelievable act of stupidity.”

Of what can be observed from Apotheker’s past, seems unsettling. In recent times, HP has been plagued by unethical issues leading to high-profile exits. With Apotheker, it appears that this corporate legacy will live on. The German is currently involved in a courtroom dust-fight, where Ellison-led Oracle is claiming more than $2 billion in damages from SAP. Oracle claims that Apotheker was at the centre of an illicit activity four years back, which saw workers at SAP’s TomorrowNow subsidiary steal copies of Oracle’s maintenance services software. HP’s honour will therefore again receive some clubbing on November 1, 2010 – officially Apotheker’s first day as HP’s CEO – when he presents himself before court to defend SAP’s case, as Massachusetts-based Charles King, President, Mindspring Research tells B&E, “Apotheker could leave HP with eggs on its face. Oracle never bothered listing Apotheker as a witness for its trial with SAP.” What a way to kickstart your tenure as HP’s CEO!


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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Monday, September 03, 2012

"I AM A VERY STRONG SELF-CRITIC"

Some say he can handle numbers pretty well; others argue he’s more of a creative guy. Some say he’s a cut-throat businessman, others reiterate his only passion is work. To the media world, he’s a true recluse, refusing any and every media exposure. He rarely talks, leave alone provide insightful descriptions on his follies, mistakes and achievements. Ronnie Screwvala, UTV founder, in exclusive conversation with B&E’s Shephali Bhatt



B&E: What geared you to be in the business of media and entertainment?
Ronnie Screwvala (RS): I think it is one of the few industries where you are looking at the creative aspect and the business aspect. In Media and Entertainment, if you can find the rare combination of creativity and commerce, it is a strong formula for success, whereas in other businesses that are non-creative, you can have a strong commercial background; you do not have to be marketing clever. Here if you have that and if the combination works it is much more fun.

B&E: From the first cable TV venture in Mumbai, you have grown to sign deals with global biggies like Walt Disney, Fox Searchlight, Sony & Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. Where do you see all this leading to?
RS: The Indian market has positioned itself as one of the most interesting markets in the media and entertainment field in the world… I think everyone thought so five years back, but now it is more so because of the rest of the world, if you look at it in terms of comparison. It’s not just that everyone would like to view India as the destination but more so that the rest of the world is actually slowing down. If you look at the west, its growth in media and entertainment has come down to zero or is absolutely flat. If you look at Japan it is an insulated market; if you look at China, it is a closed market; if you look at South –East Asia, there is no real scale level play. So it is not that India has to be one of the quarter calls, it seems to be the most critical quarter call, maybe with the sole exception of South American countries. So, for media companies in India today, it is important to look at the home market and the diasporas’ market overseas.

B&E: How strong is your industry in the diaspora market?
RS: I think we in media and entertainment industry have substantially ignored the 30-35 million diaspora market of South Asians and that is something that also needs to be looked at. We should look at the 1 billion people here and 35 million outside. The latter is a unique market because it is the second largest migrant population of the world after the Chinese; so that is large and comes with a higher propensity to spend and consume. So even if it is 1 billion versus the 35 million, it could be ten times of 35, it could represent an equivalent of 300 million just by their spending power.

B&E: Then how do you explain all those international tie-ups that you have been entering into?
RS: I believe that our tie ups with international companies are more because that is where we believe that we can work together to see how we can meet this diaspora, rather than going out and frittering our energies to build an international story. I think India in itself is a strong international story and that is where our focus lies right now. So if we have done deals with FOX and Overbrook Entertainment in the recent past, they were just deals done by our movies division. So it wasn’t really part of an overall organization thrust.


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Saturday, September 01, 2012

SETTING ‘THE’ BENCHMARK!

O. P. Bhatt took over the reins of sbi when private players were catching up. He decided to go slow and his strategy seemed to have paid off. With SBI’s profits two times that of its closest rival ICICI Bank, sbi is far ahead of its competitors by any means

B&E: SBI’s NIM (net interest margin) has improved significantly from 2.30% in June 2009 to 3.18% in June 2010. Where do you see it going forward?
O. P. Bhatt (OPB): We certainly want to increase it further, but we would be happy if we maintain it at the current levels for now. Though there is a healthy possibility of an increase in NIM in the near future, our priority is to maintain it at the current levels, which is quiet good.

B&E: Credit growth in the banking sector seems to have picked up much faster than the usual pace. So, what kind of numbers are you looking at?
OPB: We are really optimistic about the credit growth and as such are looking forward to achieve a 20-22% growth rate in the near future.

B&E: Will the demand continue to come from infrastucture and allied sectors or will we some more sectors playing a significant role in driving the demand for credit?
OPB: If you look at the big loans, the maximum demand, as of now, is coming from the infrastructure space. In fact, it willl continue to come from here in the near future as well. However, sectors, which include retail, education, auto and real estate, will too drive the demand for loans. We have seen some good credit growth flowing in from these sectors in the recent past and as such are really optimistic about the contribution they can make to the credit growth.

B&E: Going forward what is the outlook for interest rates?
OPB: We are definitely reviewing the interest rates. We have an upward bias for the interest rate in the coming quarters. The interest rates for both, deposits and loans will go up. Deposit rates have already bottomed and the era of cheaper interest rates is over.

B&E: SBI has reported an increase in NPAs (non-performing assets). Which are the sectors that are putting pressure on the bank’s balance sheet?
OPB: NPAs have increased for sure but if you look at the figure it is more in terms of percentage than the value. On a sectoral basis, the agriculture sector is the biggest contributor to our NPAs, almost 50% of the total NPAs of the bank. The other sector that’s putting pressure is the SME sector.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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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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Friday, August 24, 2012

Soaring popularity meter

In a recent exercise by Twitter authorities to ascertain personalities with maximum number of followers on the website, Genelia D’souza featured in the top 20, beating several celebrities from various walks of life. Though a curious feat, she is very happy about it and wishes to thank all responsible for it! Considering that Twitter is seen as a popularity barometer these days, our hearty congratulations to Genelia!


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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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Friday, August 10, 2012

“A Budget for Three Idiots”

A radical way to combine NREGA with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and create history

 “History is a race between education and catastrophe.” - H G Wells

“All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” - Aristotle



I think this is the first time I have started a write-up with quotes from famous people. I normally do not do that, because I usually feel so strongly and passionately about issues that I simply start writing and words just flow out in a torrent. But I am making an exception this time. And I have strong reasons for doing so.

Let me digress a little before stating them. This will be the 10th consecutive year that I have written and presented an ‘Alternative Budget’. This will be the 5th consecutive year that the ‘Alternative Budget’ appears in Business & Economy (Yes, your favourite magazine – when it comes to sharp, incisive and thought-provoking intellectual analysis – is about to complete 5 years!). For close to 10 years, I have been repeating ad nauseam that India can never hope to be a country that is respected in the 21st century unless there is a drastic and dramatic overhaul of social infrastructure. Apart from occasional good news on that front, budgets over the last decade have been largely disappointing when it comes to dealing with social infrastructure. Of course, lip service and wise quotes from historical personalities have always been offered by successive finance ministers. Of course, ambitious schemes with thousands of crores of budgetary allocations have been launched. Of course, well meaning policies have been designed and implemented. But has there been a really substantive improvement in outcomes? Do poor Indians actually have better access to healthcare now than they had when the 21st century began? Do they actually have better access to education? You know the answers as well as I do.

I have often been frustrated and dismayed by the answers. This prompted me to present an Alternative Budget in 2008 with a headline Ban the Budget. My logic was that too much needless attention was lavished on the Union Budget. My suggestion to the Finance Minister was to use the Union Budget to launch some path-breaking policies for the social infrastructure sector and let nitty gritty issues be handled through the year during the normal course. In 2009, I went a step ahead and presented an Alternative Budget with a headline Khao aur Khilao Budget. My logic was simple. I raised a fundamental question: How come China and South Korea with levels of corruption as deep and endemic as India have delivered fantastic outcomes in social infrastructure while India has failed to do so? I also argued that economics was all about incentives and if a Union Budget offered the right kind of incentives, stakeholders in India, too, could dramatically improve social infrastructure. Just in case you are interested in what the Khao aur Khilao Budget suggested, please visit www.businessandeconomy.org/09072009/storyd.asp?sid=4485&pageno=1.

Having digressed a little, let me come now to the theme and headline of my Alternative Budget this year. It is called A Budget for Three Idiots. You guessed it. It has been inspired by the iconoclastic movie that revealed how hollow our education system is. It also offered us hope and redemption. And it told us poignantly that the biggest challenge for India in the 21st century is to transform its education system. The quotes that appear right at the top of this write-up tell me that thinkers and philosophers throughout history have consistently argued that a society, a nation or a civilization simply cannot survive – far from flourish – without the right kind of education. Aristotle mused about the power of education to sustain an Empire more than 2,000 years ago. And in the 20th century, H.G Wells, the author of timeless classics like Animal Farm and 1984 highlighted the importance of education in an equally compelling manner.


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Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Desperados... no more!

Year 2009: the year many textile majors would prefer to let go. Year 2010: the year many thought would never come... and it did! a future check of a sector that has started showing clear signs of a strong revival... by Angshuman Paul

Desperados – that’s what you’d call players in the Indian textile industry, whose lot has stood witnessed to an extremely disappointing three-year period leading to 2008-09, post a scintillating 10.9% growth in 2006-07. When asked about the reasons behind this sad tale, industry experts have one word on their lips – slowdown! With exports dwindling and consumer spending falling, the textile giants have indeed felt the poisonous sting of the global slowdown. To give you one particular example, on our visit to the Bangalore campus of the country’s largest wholesale supplier of garments, the Blackstone Group-controlled Gokaldas Exports Ltd (GEL), during a recession-struck July 2009, we could clearly see signs of slowdown painted across the lush green landscape spread across two acres. The stretch looked more like a sylvan oasis of tranquillity, with people moving about in a sloth-embarrasing & mystifyingly unhurried pace; a sight which stood in great contrast to the maddening mid-city rush in the metropolitan. And not to forget, three of their manufacturing plants were peacefully taking a nap... That was then.

Today, five months later, as 2010 kicks off with high expectations and great optimism prevails, with Indian exports hitting a 15-month high in December 2009, the still-sprawling location seems to have been caught in the throes of a ‘wake-up’ metamorphosis. As far as developments in the boardroom is concerned, today, the company is quickly ramping up its act and crafting bold strategies to meet the rising demand of the global apparel market, which seems to have retraced the right road to prosperity. In fact, this exporter is all set to increase its production capacity to three million garments per month with plans to invest more than Rs.1 billion by 2010.

“The global market for Indian textile has started changing and matters are definitely improving now. We anticipate a rise in orders by atleast 20% during the first quarter of 2010,” explains Rajendra J. Hinduja, MD, Gokaldas Exports Ltd. However, this export house is not the only one celebrating the homecoming of overseas demand, for there are many like the Ludhiana-based Nahar Group and other leading apparel exporters and manufacturers in the country, who are also gearing up for a busier tomorrow, with recovery and better opportunities blipping on their radar.

Some industry watchers may judge the situation sceptically, labelling all hopefuls as ‘over-optimistic’, but the truth remains – currently, with demand from key export markets like US & EU having fallen to alarming levels, there is only ‘rich’ growth likely to happen over the next 3-4 quarters! Talking about one such market, US, a hopeful D. K. Nair, Secretary General, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) exclaims, “The rise in demand will mainly come from US (and it has already started), which is still the largest apparel market for India. And even over the coming few months, we will be controlling this market like we have been doing it in the pre-recession days...” About three years back, this industry, which had generated a mind-boggling $19 billion in revenues, had persuaded rating agencies like CRISIL to project a terrific $110 billion in revenues by 2012 – a dazzling absolute growth of 479% compared to the present figure. On the other hand, precisely a year back, CITI had estimated the exports to escalate to a breathtaking $50 billion by 2010. The question therefore is – will projections be met, considering that the wounds inflicted by the slowdown have still not healed completely? When asked, Nair shoots back: “We might not achieve this target as the slowdown affected exports in a big way. But going by the growth that we achieved by the end of 2009, we can surely achieve at least 60% of the export figures forecasted for 2010.” Sounds great, but it is also not to be forgotten that there are many in the name of global competition that will scramble to capture precious parts of this pie...

Then there is another part to the tale – the slowdown has also taken its toll on India’s arch rival in the trade, China, which also registered a dip of 20% in the annual growth rate of apparel export (as per CII). But that is where the similarity ends. Unlike China, which trade analysts feel has substiantial amount of funds in its kitty to increase production capacity to fill any form of backlog, India as per CITI, falls short by around Rs.15 billion to even meet the backlogs accumulated during July-December 2009 backlog. Worse, in order to be able to comfortably meet export requirements for 2010 , the country needs an additional Rs.30 billion – in all Rs.45 billion too short of being in the comfort zone...




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