W ith a few exceptions, I have
Secondly, he had the
enjoyed working for all my
bosses. The ones I did not
enjoy working with were good
people—but one cannot always have
the chemistry such that sparks fly. My
first boss was a man named Mahesh
Chand Bahree—the then "Works
Secretary" of DCM Cloth Mills. The
Works Secretary's office handled
godowns, transportation, insurance,
procurement of coal, and for some
strange reason, the comptist pool.
Presidents'
A Memoir by Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree Consulting
There were about two dozen unionized
data entry clerks whose job was to enter
worksheets into comptometers —
mechanical adding machines to verify
the payment of incentives to workers.
The factory was DCM's parent unit, and
no longer exists. It was a dirty, noisy,
largely unhealthy and generally poorly
run factory. Mahesh Bahree started his
life as a Spinning Master with the
company. Early in life, a shuttle flew into
one of his eyes, rendering him blind in
that eye. As a result, he was shifted to
this administrative job. As a
Management Trainee, I was allocated to
his department. He was a big man, with
a big heart. He used to call me "Sonny
Boy"— partly out of fondness, and partly
to let me know that in his eyes, I would
remain a kid for a long time to come. It was
my first big job and I did not mind his
tutelage. There was nothing glamorous
about the functions he led, but he always
pretended that he was running a
battleship and was the Commander-in-
Chief.
The people in the department were mostly
unionized clerks and half-naked loaders,
whose job was to move bales of cloth into
a godown, identify them for payment of
duty and destination, and load them on to
All the
Men
trucks to 450 places in the country. Every
month, towards the last few days, the
number of bales to be shipped peaked so
that higher sales could be shown. Due to
excise regulations, shipments had to go
out within a certain time of the day. To
ensure that his rag-tag army felt as if they
were going to war, Mahesh Bahree would
go to the loading bay, pick up a can of
marking ink, and write destination
markings on the bales himself. Along the
way, he was always shouting out abuses,
jokes, a word of cheer to his people. He
spoke to them in the local dialect and
would address the oldest loader—a
toothless bald man whose age no one
knew—as "Chacha,” often teasing him
about his "lugai." In all his actions, he
ensured three things: the first was that he
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enjoyed himself.
respect of his people. Finally, when the
excise officials used to see him marking
bales and standing next to the loading
bay, they never messed with him,
despite the fact that those were the days
of the license Raj, and even a lowly
government clerk used to behave like a
revered lord.
Mahesh Bahree taught me two things: a
job is never either dull or interesting.
People make it dull or interesting. A job
is never stupid or strategic—it is the
man who is stupid or strategic.
All was going well till one day, when the
textile workers went on a strike and sat
around the factory gates, stopping all
movement of goods. The entire
production was locked in. Huge export
consignments were locked in as well.
Days became weeks, and weeks
became months. Running out of funds,
the company moved the courts to allow
it to remove the finished goods and sell
them in the market. The courts gave a
favorable order but the police did not
want to forcibly evacuate the goods,
fearing a situation in which the workers
got violent. They said if there was some
way in which we could enter the factory
unnoticed and get the shipment ready to
go, they would allow us an hour to move

in the trucks, load them, take them out,
and give safe passage till the trucks hit
the Idgah Road in Delhi—barely 500
meters from the factory gate. It was felt
that striking workers, on seeing the
operation, would rush to the nearby
worker's colony, bring in women and
children and other co-workers, and
thereafter, anything could happen. The
single golden hour was all that the
police would give us to manage the
operation. They would give no
protection after that, as they did not
want to risk violence.
Mahesh Bahree decided to take the
chance, but he could not be seen
anywhere near the factory as every
picketing worker would recognize him. I
suggested that I could go in. I told him
that I could shave off my beard and go
in there, dressed as a Security Officer in
uniform. The law allowed full protection
to plant security people. It was at once a
daring and a juvenile plan. If the trick
failed, I could get lynched, and anything
could happen. Mahesh Bahree thought
for a while and gave my plan the okay.
The next day, dressed in khaki uniform,
I entered DCM's oldest mill, heavily
picketed by striking workers. As I briskly
alighted from a security vehicle, pulled
the beret over my sunglasses and
moved in through the small opening of a
padlocked gate, the strikers gave me
contemptuous looks and went about
their game of cards. Once inside, the
entire stage was set. On cue, trucks
escorted by the Police moved in and in
less than an hour, the entire shipment
was moved out before anyone could
gather their wits.
Mahesh Bahree's greatness was in
trusting a 22-year-old Management
Trainee with an operation whose
success was less than certain. Even
today, I wonder if I can ever match his
total faith in me. He taught me to take
risks. To allow people the freedom to try
things out without the fear of
consequences.
Many years after, I came across a
beautiful line from Mother Teresa. She
wrote, “God does not require us to
succeed. He only requires us to try.”
My experience at DCM was completed
through a difficult moment of truth.
Once, I had a showdown with the entire
system when the head of the comptist
pool, one of Mr. Bahree's trusted men,
locked horns with me. He had made a
disparaging statement about the
management, and I demanded that he
be transferred within twenty-four hours.
Looking back, it was an unreasonable
and immature demand. I also told my
boss and his boss that I would put in my
papers if the stipulated disciplinary
action was not taken. I waited for
twenty-four hours and put in my papers
because he was not transferred. At this
point, the Executive Director—a
respected and feared man named Mr.
B.D. Pathak—called me. He heard me
out as I told him how the man had
offended my self-respect, and that the
issue was about defiance and
insubordination. He told me to sit down
and then he told me a wonderful thing.
He said that when a seed is trying to
sprout from under a rock, the rock's
presence is all-powerful. It has the
power to obstruct, even to crush, the
sprouting seed. But as the seed sprouts
and a tiny, fragile sapling grows from
under, it softly circumvents the rock
above it. One day it becomes a large
tree. That day, the rock remains at its
feet. We have to have the tenacity of the
tree. I took my resignation back and
hugged the man who had offended me
with his comments and defiance.
After five years at DCM, I decided to
move on, and wanted to join the
nascent Indian IT industry. That
decision turned out to be the door to my
destiny. There weren't too many
companies around. Someone told me
that there was a maverick company
called HCL, where I could try for a job.
At two-thirds the salary and a step down
from my role at DCM, I joined HCL as an
entry-level salesperson. There, I met a
man named R.K. Gupta as my first
boss. He taught me something very
unusual on my very first day at work.
Coming from a smokestack, feudal,
textile mill to a computer company
where you could call your boss's boss
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All the Presidents’ Men
by the first name and bum cigarettes
from him was a huge culture shock for
me. Dressed up to create the right
impression on the first day, I entered
RK's cabin to get to know him. After the
very brief niceties, he asked me to sell
him a computer. I cleared my throat
and gave him a very sophisticated,
long-winded spiel, carefully listening to
my own voice all the time to make sure I
was sounding impressive enough. After
a couple of minutes of hearing me out,
he grimaced in pain and said in Hindi:
"Yaar Subroto, kuch aisi baat bol, jisko
sunke Customer kursi chhodke khada
ho jayega."
Translated into English, it would mean
something like, "Say something quickly
enough that makes the customer jump
out of his chair." This was my first
lesson in selling. Cut to the chase. In
the very first two minutes, say
something that hooks the customer. In
other words, it is not sophistication, it is
empathy, and it is memorability. You
have to say something that makes you
memorable. Makes you interesting.
Draws your customer into giving you
her complete, undivided attention.
People like Davenport, noted authority
on Knowledge Management and
author of the book "The Attention
Economy" will tell you how short
people's attention spans are. If you do
not get their attention, you do not get
their mindshare. The time you always
have is just two minutes. Every
dealmaker has to remember that the
first two minutes invariably decide
whether or not you will get the next two
hours.
I followed RK to the next company, a
fledgling computer company called PSI
that was always strapped for cash. We
worked together and I learnt many
things from him. When the imprest
money would arrive at the Delhi branch
Office, there were always the bills to be
paid, the travel accounts to be settled,
the salaries to be given out. All of these
used to be in backlogs for months. RK
had a simple rule. The secretary was
paid first, the salesmen's travel bills
were settled next, the junior-most
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engineer was given an advance against
his unpaid salary, then I was paid some
money and what was often left as a
pittance was all he would take home.
The routine remained constant for the
three years we worked together in PSI.
RK never complained, often running
into his fourth or fifth month of going
without his own salary. RK also taught
me complete transparency with
customers. He never bluffed his
customer—he was always ready to
break the bad news first. As a result, his
customers always loved him even
when the company could not deliver.
Working at PSI was not easy. After
month upon month with a cash crunch,
I finally decided to move out and
eventually ended up starting a
company called Project 21. The
company did well but could not get
financing from banks at that time and
after three years of hand-to-mouth
existence, I decided to return to the
industry. This time, I joined Wipro.
There, my most memorable manager
was a man called Dr. Sridhar Mitta. Dr.
Mitta was the first man Azim Premji had
hired when he and his Finance Chief
Ashok Narasimhan had decided to
move into the computer business. Dr.
Mitta was working with ECIL after
obtaining his PhD from the US. He was
brought in to start Wipro's R&D. I learnt
how to manage nerds from Dr. Mitta.
Wipro, in the nineties, was highly
respected for its indigenous R&D that
designed hardware, ported Operating
Systems and implemented network
protocols. The R&D consisted of 80
nerds who were a life form unto
themselves.
They were highly competent,
idiosyncratic people with contempt for
lower forms of intelligence in general
and business folks in particular. I was
the latter variety brought in to help
transform the inward-looking,
domestically-focused, cost center into
an international "lab-on-hire". Dr. Mitta
was my boss. From him I learnt that the
first step towards managing the so-
called "difficult people" is listening to
them. This may not sound like a big
deal. It becomes a big deal because
often, bosses do not know how to listen
to people by first suspending all pre-
conceived notions, biases and
judgment. The smallest nerd could walk
in, pull up a chair in front of Dr. Mitta and
tell him the most absurd technical idea
or a strange personal issue. Dr. Mitta
would first listen intently and
completely, and then say his piece.
Sometimes, the nerds would come out
with very bizarre ideas or worse, do
something bizarre. The range of such
things is very wide—from putting the
3
All the Presidents’ Men
wrong end of the connector into the
socket, to driving into stationary objects
in the middle of a deserted road, to
mixing up the flight number on the ticket
jacket with the gate number from where
an international flight was to take off.
From Dr. Mitta, I learnt that every nerd
was entitled to such two bizarre acts
every year. The key was not to react to
it, but instead, actually to enjoy it. In
fact, once an operating manager could
begin to accept and even celebrate
such things, he could even keep count
of unused entitlements and maintain a
carry-forward log. If you knew that,
managing the R&D types wasn't a big
deal.
I also learnt from Dr. Mitta the meaning
of humility. As Chief Technology Officer
of the corporation, he was the epitome
of accessibility and complete
egolessness. He taught me that
knowledge and arrogance are
antithetical. The littlest man on the
street could walk up to him and ask the
stupidest question, and Dr. Mitta would
respond by going to the whiteboard on
which the most complex issue would
soon be reduced to a set of three block
diagrams in which "open systems"
would solve all of life's problems. His
appearance was, and remains, so non-
descript that you have to pinch yourself
to believe that this is the man who laid
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the foundation for a vegetable oil
company to venture into building
complex computing systems.
When I returned to India, my challenge
was to make Wipro's R&D get a better
look and feel compared to its past. In all
those years, as a frugal corporation, the
place had a lower-middle class, poor-
Brahmin feel. As I went around my job,
managers from other divisions
developed the feeling that I was not
cost-conscious, and this was reflected
in my 360-degree feedback. I was very
upset and went to see Dr. Mitta about it.
In his characteristic style, he heard me
out. Then he told me that we live in a
world in which perception is the reality.
And, he told me that it takes time for
perception to get built up. So the
solution was to go back and do my
work, but to beware of my actions and
utterances. So I went back and did all of
that, taking absolute care. The next
year, the same feedback repeated itself
from some of the same peers. This time
I was devastated. I went back to Dr.
Mitta and expressed my frustrations.
He listened to me patiently and then
told me, "While it takes time to build
perceptions, it takes even longer for
perceptions to change." I was
dumbfounded by the Zen-like
statement.
Realizing how much truth was in it, I just
went back to my desk and focused on
doing the things correctly. In doing our
work, we need to be sensitive to
feedback and work to correct ourselves
but we should not expect drastic
changes in what people think of us. We
should not lose spirit because of
obstinate public opinion. Some of it has
a basis in truth, and we must have the
humility to accept it. Under Dr. Mitta's
sagely guidance, I flourished. I rose to
become the first Chief Executive of
Wipro's Global R&D. Over a period of
five years, the transformation was so
complete, it was amazing. It had to do
largely with the intrinsic quality of the
people who constituted the R&D. From
an inward-looking cost-center, it
became a solidly profitable lab-on-hire
in the corporation. The nerds had
become business people. In all this, I
realized that I was beginning to feel
restless—I was ready to do something
larger. Dr. Mitta and Ashok Soota, who
at that time was the Vice Chairman of
the IT Group, asked me to articulate
what I wanted to do. I remember telling
them to identify an area or thing that
kept Mr. Premji or Ashok awake at night.
I wanted to work on that one thing. I was
ready for a Mission.
In December of 1996, the call came
from Mr. Premji's office. He wanted a
line manager to come and set up a
corporate Quality initiative that would
bind all of Wipro's five disparate
businesses and make Wipro world-
class. I moved on from being the Chief
Executive of Global R&D to set up
Mission: Quality as part of Mr. Premji's
Office. In the process, I came to work for
and closely observe one of corporate
India's most celebrated men.
My first lesson from Mr. Premji took
place even before that. It was in 1988. I
had just joined Wipro. One day, he
walked in to my half-cabin and started
reviewing my work. He had obviously
come with an agenda. The debtor
situation had gone out of hand and he
needed it to be cleaned up. He wanted
me to handle the task. I told him that my
hands were already full. He asked me to
tell how I spent my time. I told him that I
was spending 40% of my time on sales
coordination, and 40% on customer
relations, and that 20% of my time was
going into training. He calmly replied,
"Continue to give 40% to sales
coordination, 40% to customer
relations, and 20% to training, and give
25% to debtor management." I was
puzzled with the maths. I told him, "Mr.
Premji, that does not add up." He said,
"No, it does. When leaders are loaded
125%, they are stretched. When they
are stretched, they deliver their best".
I took the additional 25% and delivered
one of my most remembered
assignments in Wipro. Now I was going
to work directly with the man.
While I joined Mr. Premji's Office as
Corporate Vice President, Mission:
Quality, and started getting used to
4
All the Presidents’ Men
seeing him frequently, I took time to
drop my awe of him as the Chairman of
Wipro. Later I realized that managers
who are required to work for very senior
people cannot be in awe of their bosses
if they want to be effective. However
much Mr. Premji tried to bridge the gap
and treat me as an equal, it was a while
before I was myself in his presence.
Early on in our interaction, we started
off on the wrong foot with each other.
Looking back, it was my immaturity that
was the problem. The backdrop of it
was like this. I had no previous
experience of handling Quality. When I
asked Mr. Premji, "Why me?”, he had
replied that he wanted a line manager
to handle the assignment, and not a
Quality expert. He said he wanted
someone with a "sense of history."
For jobs that need large-scale change-
management, you need people not just
competent in what they are supposed
to do, but people who have a sense of
history. They understand the existential
issues, the challenges, the larger
purpose—this, as a key job
requirement is seldom understood by
people who staff up assignments
needing large-scale change
management. “Sense of history”—
such a beautiful, powerful, uplifting
thought!
That uplifting thought apart, I had to
produce a roadmap within days of
taking charge. I was lost at sea because
I needed to understand what the
concept of Quality was all about before
drawing up a roadmap. Every week, Mr.
Premji started calling me and asking
me for the roadmap. Each time, I would
repeat the same story—that I would like
to understand from other companies
how they have done it, read books,
meet consultants in the field, get a feel
and then come out with a roadmap. I
could not predict how much time all that
would take, and he could not wait.
When Mr. Premji pushed me too hard, I
lost my cool one day, and told him that
he could either wait for me to create the
roadmap or, if he knew it himself, to give
it to me, so that I could run with one. I
was pleased with myself with that piece
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of bravery. He remained unruffled and
said," My job is to push you till you find
your own limit. When you do, you have
to push back."
The role of leadership is to create the
stretch and push people to find their
own limits.
From Mr. Premji, I learnt the power of
simplicity and forthrightness. His
simplicity comes out in the way he
writes, the way he speaks and dresses,
the food he eats and the way he
addresses issues. You do not ever have
to wonder what he has on his mind. He
speaks his mind without any fuzz factor.
Adopting simplicity in thinking,
communication and strategy is often
the most difficult task. Sometimes,
managers think that something overtly
simple is not impressive. The more we
dress up our thoughts and behavior, the
more we become difficult for people to
understand. The less the
understanding, the higher the inability
to follow a leader. Mr. Premji has a great
sense of humor. This is a very important
quality in a leader. Once, when I was
driving him to a meeting in California,
he had been bugging me about some
issue and had me miffed.
While we were driving on Highway 101,
my car made a rumbling sound over a
particular patch. I was familiar with the
road and knew that it was normal.
Responding to the sudden rumbling,
Mr. Premji asked me," Subroto, do you
have a flat?" I quipped, "No, I live in an
apartment."
He ignored the statement. Having
acted smart with him, I promptly lost my
way and somehow managed to get him
on time for a crucial meeting at the Sun
campus—I was overcome with
embarrassment. He said nothing. After
the meeting we drove to another
meeting at Tandem Computers.
When he arrived there, the President at
Tandem went on and on about the great
vision with which Mr. Premji was
building Wipro. Mr. Premji listened for a
while and then observed," Yes, we have
great vision, but sometimes lose our
way." I looked the other way.
The greatness of leadership is in
surrounding oneself with a top
performing team. The better the team,
the higher becomes the idiosyncrasy of
the people in it. Among the top
management of Wipro was a leader
whose pastime was to openly, often
virulently, criticize Mr. Premji. He did
that both in front of him and behind his
back. Sometimes this got out of hand,
but Mr. Premji used to be unruffled
about it. The simple reason was that the
leader consistently delivered what he
committed to. One day, I was quite
amazed with the man and asked Mr.
Premji why he had to put up with such
behavior. Mr. Premji told me that
leaders must be comfortable with
idiosyncratic people. Many high
performers have their own quirks. Our
job is to focus on what they deliver, not
what their quirks are.
Competence to do the job has to be far
ahead of personal reverence.
From him, I also learnt about how
business can be conducted with the
highest standards of integrity. When the
average Wipro person goes home at
night, he sleeps well because the
system does not expect him to do
anything unethical to source or execute
business. In fact, he can walk out of a
deal if it is contingent upon such
behavior. To Mr. Premji, black is black
and white is white. He does not go into
grey because he says that there are
many shades of grey.
My final lesson from him was on my last
day at Wipro. He wanted me to remain
at the company. I told him,"But Mr.
Premji, we are very different people, we
think very differently." He replied," That
is the reason we should work together."
When we look for people around us, we
invariably look for sameness. It is so
much more comfortable for us. But
progress requires intelligent friction:
constructive opposition, points and
healthy counterpoints. The job of
leaders is to build high personal comfort
with contrarians who think differently,
create alternative points of view, and
have the power to question the state of
things. In my ten years at Wipro, I had
never had the opportunity to work for
5
All the Presidents’ Men
Ashok Soota. Anyone who has worked
with Ashok will tell you that it is one of
life's gifts to have him as your boss.
When the time did come for me to get to
work for him, he sent me off to work for
Mr. Premji instead. The golden
opportunity came when we co-founded
MindTree and through it, I finally came
to report into Ashok Soota. The
relationship between Ashok and the
people who have worked for him is
difficult to describe. In business, you
come across leaders who are more left-
brained or more right-brained. Ashok is
the most balanced I have come across
between the two—he represents the
balance between process and
empathy. While data speaks to him, he
also listens to empathy.
My interactions with Ashok have taken
place through nearly two decades. Of
this, he has written my appraisal for the
last six years at MindTree. I have learnt
countless lessons from him in these
years, the first of which is about candor.
When I came back to India in 1993,
after a very successful stint in the US,
lots of things had changed. The market
had opened up and everyday a new
multi-national was opening shop. At
that time, I was blown away by a job
offer from an aircraft engine company
that offered me 9 times the money
Wipro was paying me. I told myself that
the money would be enough for me to
retire at 40 — a stupid goal everyone
sets when he is all of 36. So, I told Dr.
Mitta that I was going. He was sad
about this, and later, he asked me to
see Ashok for breakfast the next
morning.
I went to see Ashok. I had a well-
rehearsed set of answers to every
which question he could ask. I also felt
like a conqueror who would be
remembered for long but wore a
graceful politeness on my face. I waited
for Ashok in his drawing room thinking
of how he would open the conversation,
how he would want to retain me at any
cost. How he would sweet-talk me
because, I was, after all, a high
performer. Ashok walked in, shook
hands with me and as we sat down, told
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me in a very matter of fact tone that I
was getting enticed by a "stupid job".
My jaws fell. Here I was—the prima
donna with a potential salary cheque
higher than his—and the man does not
sweet-talk me into staying. He says I
have landed a stupid job! Er, is he
implying that I am stupid enough to
have landed a stupid job? If Ashok was
saying that, it had to have some truth in
it! I realized that I was making a
mistake. I was trying to be someone I
was not cut out to be. I was an IT
industry person who made a living by
selling software — the world of aircraft
engines involved dynamics that I had
no clue about. Eventually, after some
more reflection, I remained at Wipro.
Leadership is about personal
character. All too often, I see leaders
pussyfoot on issues, seek
compromises that are unnecessary
and say things they do not mean. A man
like Ashok needs to cultivate no
followers. They will simply go with him
because they know that the man
demonstrates character. The man is
real.
Ashok Soota is an interesting leader
from many different standpoints. A
Mechanical Engineer from Roorkee, he
started his life at Burma Shell in the
sixties and quickly moved from there to
become a Senior Management Trainee
at DCM. From there he went to do his
MBA at the Asian Institute of
Management at Manila and after
coming back to the Shriram Group,
moved on to take over as President of
Wipro's IT business when it was all of
$2 million in size. He grew that to a $500
million business before co-founding
MindTree with nine others. Ashok is a
case study of a leader who never chose
his team. At Shriram, he inherited the
business and its structure. At Wipro, he
inherited a top team, which was already
in place. At MindTree, out of the ten of
us, he was the ninth co-founder and by
the time he came on board, we had
progressed on many key issues. Out of
the eight co-founders already on-
board, Ashok did not know four of them
at all. His personal conviction has been
that there are only "A" type leaders or
"B" type leaders — there are no "A"
teams and "B" teams. I remember
clearly an occasion on which he was
being feted for some personal award he
had received. He went to deliver his
acceptance of the award by saying that
he thought his team was a "national
resource". He always places high
expectations on his team and minces
no words in calling a spade a spade but
try ever telling him that his people are
average — you will have earned a
permanent enemy. As a result, Ashok
has always delivered extraordinary
results with ordinary people.
From Ashok I learnt to value diversity,
and I learnt to prize people for what they
can do, not what they have done. Ashok
taught all of us complete egolessness.
When we started MindTree, Ashok was
already a national-level celebrity.
People thought he would be a high-
maintenance person in a start-up. To
the contrary, even today, Ashok carries
his own bag while traveling, and heats
and eats his own food while staying in a
$50 a day hotel overseas. Nobody
stands up when he enters a room and
people call him by his first name. The
smallest person can get a reply to an
email to him within twenty-four hours
and he reads it with the same attention
that he gives to a mail from a CIO of a
Fortune 500 client.
Ashok is the fairest man when it comes
to dealings internally and externally. No
one I have met has ever felt that he did
an unfair deal if Ashok Soota was on the
negotiating table.
Ashok taught me to look at data
whenever emotions run high.
Sometimes in points of crisis,
managers psych themselves into
believing that the end is near. They will
come and tell you why a decision has to
be taken only their way. "If we do not
release this ad today, we will lose to the
competition", "If we do not do a salary
revision now, we will not get anybody to
join us", "If we do not agree to his terms,
he will take us to court.” You could never
get Ashok to rush into a decision by
saying any of these things.
From him I learnt not to make a decision
if you sense that you are being put
6
All the Presidents’ Men
under any undue pressure. Let the
pressure move on and then take the
decision in a fair state of mind. Nothing
bad happens because you have to
weigh the pros and cons your way and
would rather have some more time.
Insist on that extra time. That way, you
take very few regrettable decisions.
There is an inherent risk in taking the
time, but it is our job to take that amount
of risk.
While Ashok epitomizes the rational, he
is at the same time, a deeply intuitive
person. He uses the power of intuition
to look for opportunities, create
alliances and sometimes, to gauge an
adversary's moves. But he would never
use his intuition without putting it to the
touchstone test with data, and
whenever he is surrounded with data,
he questions it from his intuition.
Adversity is another area in which I
learnt something very important from
Ashok. I saw him, on three different
occasions, coping with powerful
opponents who had the capability to
create significant damage. The first
time was at Wipro where one was still a
part of a sizable entity. The other two
times were at MindTree. In each
instance, we were threatened with legal
recourse. Ashok was fighting on
principles. He did not care a hoot about
the size of the adversary and the
potential negative fall-out for his
organization. He taught me that in a
battle of principles, it is not the size of
the adversary that matters. It is the size
of the principle that matters.
In the last 30 years of my work-life, I
have come across many people who
have left a lasting impression on me
and have impacted my work as well as
philosophy of life. Sometimes I wonder
where I would be today, had it not been
for the collective learning I got from all
of the people I've worked for. I would
certainly have been a different person
today! Since I cannot think of myself
being someone else, I must express my
gratitude to these outstanding people
through whom life has presented itself
to me. I also hope that they enjoyed me
as much as I enjoyed serving them.
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 EPGP at IIM Indore
Ravi Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Birla Sun Life Distribution Company Ltd. writes his thoughts.

I
t seems somewhat paradoxical to had the mastery in teaching fresher or added to challenges. All the batch mates
really write about EPGP. As a little experienced ones but a class that had to keep abreast with their
program participant the experience had a total experience of 300+ years of professional requirements, back in their
was atypical - from the unparalleled experience from various fields, was organizations. As a serving manager, one
hybrid of brilliant minds to the case study obviously a challenge. “It is the supreme can't just keep of the work.. That added
method of learning. art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative more challenge to the course which other
expression and knowledge.” Albert students may not have to face.
Everything about our course was really Einstein said, and the faculty was
unprecedented. It started with the precisely doing that. “Everything depends on the quality of
challenge of attending six or seven experience………..just as no man lives or
classes a day with no break in a fortnight, The case studies prepared by the class dies to himself , so no experience lives
with the surprise study group thrown at mates were latest and relevant to Indian and dies to itself.”
times. Once on the campus, we got into a environment. For example the batch
different subculture. prepared a set of HR case study one from I must say that it has been such a
each of the organizations, they came wonderful experience to go through the
When IIM Indore decided to introduce the from. Such case studies, I bet, cannot be EPGP program. The course not only
program for the first time, all who had available otherwise. Combining theory taught us about the world of
been actually contemplating to brush up with relevant current examples by the entrepreneurship and innovation, but
their existing skills and add more teeth to experienced participants meant benefit also made us think out of the box,
their existing career, got in (of course for whole class in terms of learning, balancing, prioritizing and so on. From
after the grill at the test n interview). getting to know to deal with unexpected. my own point of view, the way of thinking
Being a first mover is an advantage, as Where else would you find such a rich is more important than the real knowledge
the first batch participant, I tend to believe experience linking it with the theory and we learned from.
more of it. Most of who joined the batch willingness to share to maximize the
had worked for more than five years as a learning? Finally, I not only expanded my
manager, felt that they needed to go back knowledge in management but also
to school and get their professional These group sessions were paramount to learning about people, culture,
degree and enhance their knowledge. gaining clarity, particularly on cases that openness in discussion and mostly my
The batch had 52 people form different were not our forte. To me, the beauty of confidence in progress in my future
education streams and industries. the group was in knowing that at least one career.
person was specializing in the field of
As it was the first batch there was bound study that was your weakness. I heartily thank the Institute and the faculty
to be a lot of anxiety, besides none of us Sometimes, I can recall listening and who guided me to become a better
was used to going on and off to the being utterly amazed at the depth of manager and a leader and wish that
campus and work with our organizations insights and variance in responses Organizations benefit from the finely
simultaneously. We all had to acclimatize. regarding the same topic. refined management professionals.
This was true even for the faculty as they
could not distinguish between the regular Sudden quizzes, presenting projects, on
and EPGP student initially. The faculty time submissions on and off the campus

7
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It's a Digital
Are Agencies Ready?
Gaston Legorburu, Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Sapient
T
he online advertising industry is in
a frenzy with companies shifting
more and more of their advertising
dollars from traditional to interactive
media. The change has sparked
acquisitions with ridiculous valuations,
talent wars, agency consolidations and
agency transformations among the
service companies, media outlets and
technology vendors, all of which stand to
gain from this shift. What many don't
realize however, is that behind this online
pilgrimage rests a tsunami of work which
the interactive industry and infrastructure
is not prepared to handle.
Let's put this into perspective. Over the
past three years a company with an
annual media budget of $200m increased
its interactive advertising spend from 2%
to 4.5%. Now with good results pouring
in, they are debating whether it should
represent 11-13% of their budget in 2008.
For this company, this shift is not a big
deal as they are just moving 5% of their
budget to something that's proven and is
delivering valuable results. However
when you take into consideration that
hundreds of thousands of other
companies are undergoing this same
shift, the numbers become quite
staggering.
The initial reaction to agencies folks is
“hey, this is great news!” Not so fast, the
reality is that for many, when the tidal
wave hits, two things will happen. First,
you may drown. Second, you may float
and rise with the tide. The question you
Ts u n a m i . . . .’
have to ask is, “am I ready?”
Today's reality is that clients want more of
a digital focus and are looking to work
with the big agencies to get it done. Why?
First they don't want to manage multiple
interactive shops on top of already
managing traditional advertising
agencies, PR firms and specialty players.
Second, smaller shops don't have a "farm
system" in place to train young talent or
the management infrastructure,
methodologies and systems to drive
quality delivery.
So the answer to who survives is the big
firms right? Believe it or not, there will be a
huge amount of business than these big
players cannot handle, which will create
great opportunities for these second tier
of firms. The question is, can they handle
the load? In most cases the answer is no.
These companies have talented and
creative minds (i.e. the one dimensional
creative only folks) working but it might
not matter if they don't have the
manpower to handle their business.
These agencies need to fair well in the
talent wars while also perfecting and
automating the operational aspects of
online marketing. This means they will
need technology skills, delivery process
expertise, and global distributed delivery
capabilities and experience that they
simply don't have at this time.
So again, it comes back to size, with the
big business leads going to the big
players. However, if the top firms cannot
8
handle this entire wave of business and
the smaller firms are just too small, what
gives? The answer is scalability. The
smaller firms that are able to scale while
simultaneously continuing to evolve and
improve the level of creativity and
technical skills clients demand will make
the transition. Those firms which stand
pat will be squashed or gobbled up by
holding companies looking to “create” the
illusion of scale, the latter of which is
destined to happen and certain to fail.
For those which make the commitment to
scale and in their mind have taken the
needed steps, how do they know they are
ready to commit to big business
opportunity? Here is a quick test,
comprised of a few questions that the big
business will be asking.
? “ Those are very creative ideas, but
could you show me what you have
actually produced?”
? “ Did you do that yourself?”
? “ How long did it take, and how
much did it cost”
? “ Have you handled 20 or more of
those projects per month for any
one client, and can I talk to them to
see if they are happy with your
agency?”
The question for you will be, do you have
the right answers? For those that do, they
will be in a great position to take market
share from the remaining agencies that
show the slightest hint of hesitation.
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I
have always wondered whether
pursuit of material gain and
professional growth should gain
precedence over gains for the
personality, the spirit, the family
and the community. I come from a typical
middle class Tambram family where
Sometimes
Wo n d e r . . .
Krishna Gopal, VP Sales & GM Middle East, Tech Mahindra Ltd.
simplicity and frugality marry well with
hard work, sincerity and excellence in
academic pursuits.
My parents never pushed me hard to
study and do well, but study hard I did.
And I did fairly well too. I started out at
Godrej as a Management Trainee at a
princely stipend of Rs. 1700 per month in
1983. At that time this was considered a
decent enough pay, so much so, that
when my father, out of a sense of pride,
took my appointment letter to show it to
the proprietor of the company he worked
for, the sethji promptly raised my father's
own pay! I am quite certain that, that was
not my father's intention, though I have to
thank Godrej for this development in our
lives at that time.
Even in those days a Godrej job was not
considered to be very hip. After an MBA
9
one typically took up jobs with the likes of
Hindustan Lever or Johnson & Johnson
or Citibank or HSBC that gave both a
career and money. I somehow never
hankered after money but also felt that I
had reasonably enough to live the life I
wanted to. Looking back I also realize
that I wanted quite a simple life most of
I
the times…sumptuous food, decent
clothes, simple house and a job where I
felt wanted.
Many of my colleagues sky rocketed in
their careers within the first five years.
Pradeep Kar became a very successful
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IT entrepreneur with his Microland. C.P.
Tahiliani became the youngest General
Manager at J&J. Vijayan Subramani was
hand picked by Citicorp to be part of their
international cadre of management
trainees to be trained in Greece to
become a currency dealer and a treasury
professional eventually. And the list went
on. Batch mates zipped around the world
and came back with their stories. I
listened to their anecdotes and wished I
could get there someday too.
It was around this time that I adopted and
understood the phrase that I am about to
state. YOU ARE ALWAYS HAPPY IN
THE ABSOLUTE AND MISERABLE IN
COMPARISON.
But I have never been able to
successfully overcome the debate of “if I
don't compare how do I constantly
improve and if I do compare how do I
avoid being miserable”. One of the
methods was to try and be anchored in
something higher to avoid sinking into the
depths of the mundane. And that
“something” higher made me gravitate
sometimes I Wonder
towards spirituality at the great risk of character to be able to handle the
being tagged with the line that “folks who downturns and the tough times and be
can't make it in their careers take up humbly able to ride the crests. It's a tough
spirituality” ask because when the good times come
Many of my colleagues egged me on its difficult to give the credit to others and
saying I needed to get out of the well that to higher powers and still remain humble.
was Godrej and out into the big great And when the tough times hit you its
difficult to steer clear
of the negativity and
the waves of
pessimism and still
not do anything rash.
I wonder if there is a
case for writing a
book with the title
“Good times don't
last but Good people
do”.
I recently saw the
Hindi movie “Om
Shanti Om” and what
stayed in my mind
was the simple yet
profound speech
that the lead
character, played by
Shah Rukh Khan
gave on receiving
the Filmfare award.
Things always work
out in the end and if
for some reason it
has not worked out
for you, believe that it
world if I was to grow in my career. I never
is not yet The End!!
felt the need or the urge. May be I was
I am still not 100 % certain that one
risk averse or just plain lazy but I never
should pursue career growth at all costs. I
looked out of Godrej for 10 long years.
haven't seen very many successful
When I take a look at my class of '83 now
professionals who were also good
and do a rapid review I find that the
human beings. At least not till the last 4-5
position each person holds is no longer
years. These days I am more convinced
what it was when we started out. Big egos
than I ever was that being fundamentally
have got flattened, life priorities have
good pays off in the long run. I see lots of
changed, people who thought success
evidence around to support this
couldn't be theirs are indeed successful
hypothesis to convince me to pursue this
and so on and so forth. This brings me to
line of thought and behavior. And in case
another phrase that I adapted from a
you are still not convinced, go see “Om
book title that I browsed some years
Shanti Om”
back.
a n d g e t
TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST BUT
convinced by
TOUGH PEOPLE DO.
the King Khan
In one's career it's important to build
himself!! :-)
one's capabilities and develop strength of
10
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 Test Your Word Power

ACROSS DOWN
3 An membrane in the ear that vibrates to sound. 1 Extricate from entanglement.
5 Resistor for regulating current. 2 An iron that was heated by placing it on a stove.
9 Loss of willpower. 4 Legal right to use property belonging to someone else in a
10 Clothing wear for skiing. way that property is not injured.
11 Eurasian plant with pink to purple-red spice scented 6 Grow weak and thin or waste away physically.
usually double flowers; widely cultivated in many varieties and 7 Deficient in quality or quantity.
many colours. 8 With little or no forethought or preparation.
13 A hidden storage pace of money or weapons 12 Any of water soluble compound capable of turning litmus
16 An unchanging intonation. blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water.
18 Feeling of deep anger or ill will. 14 Encourage or assent to illegally or criminally.
20 Early ballroom dance precursor to fox-trot. 15 Having a desire for something or someone not present.
21 Blemish. 17 Abode of mortals in contract to heaven or hell.
19 Compelling immediate action.

11
i Canvas
 IT industry has its own
H i r a n y a k a s h y a p
to battle
Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman & MD, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
Nasscom Leadership Summit has always been a place for
good story-telling and provocative thoughts. This year,
the spark came not from a software veteran or a BPO
moghul, but a captain of an old economy industry. Anand
Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of
Mahindra & Mahindra drew from mythology to call for
game-changing innovation from the IT industry.
One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is
to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric
organization in India, and why not, in the World! In order to walk
the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have
made it a default option to ask what the audience--my
customers--might expect of me. And so I found myself
wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a
predominantly right-brained character like myself.
You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on
technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan
(Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais! Of course, I might
have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to
write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible
to you, but incomprehensible to me!
And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge
Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have
12
helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so
again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I
think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the
industry has to deal with at this point. So, I'm going to talk about
something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.
Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the
trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the
sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful
depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at
Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends
to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT
industry. Think of it.
You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you
created something out of nothing. You created a new and global
industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar
of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a
new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds. CK
Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today,
there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian
students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian
students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception.
And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed
us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that
Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape;
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you sowed the seeds of a new mental and
psychological landscape. In that sense,
you are truly the Brahmas of the age of
liberalisation.
But creation is only the first phase. You
then have to move on to the next phase of
sustaining that creation - to the realm of
Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-
time affair. Sustaining that creation is
obviously a longer haul, subject to many
attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why
Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten
incarnations. Every time there is a new
danger, he changes his avatar to a form
best suited to meet that danger. At
various times he has come as a fish, as a
tortoise, as a dwarf.
But his most interesting avatar came
when he had to fight the demon
Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a
bad guy, who had obtained an amazing
boon from the gods. Neither man nor
beast could kill him; he could not be killed
by daylight or at nighttime, within his
home or outside it, on the ground or in the
sky. All this made him pretty invincible –
he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu
could tackle him.
The IT industry today faces challenges
every bit as complex as those
Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit
by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse
currency changes, rapidly escalating
costs in both salaries and infrastructure
and inadequate talent pools below the
tier 1 and 2 institutions. At the Company
level, firms are beginning to feel the
penalties of poor differentiation and lack
of focus (trying to be all things to all
people); and an over-emphasis on high
volumes and price competition.
Suddenly, the industry seems to have
fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your
very own Hiranyakashyap.
It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt
with him. How do you destroy someone
who can't be killed by man or beast,
inside or outside, by day or night etc etc.
The demon pretty much had all bases
covered. So Vishnu took on the
Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon.
Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half
man half lion, and therefore neither man
IT industry has its own Hiranyakashyap to battle
nor beast. He killed Hiranyakashyap at
twilight, which is neither day nor night. He
killed him in the courtyard, which is
neither inside a house nor outside it. And
he killed the demon by placing him across
his knee and tearing him apart, thus
circumventing the terms of the boon that
he could not be killed either on the ground
or in the sky. Now that's what I call an
innovative algorithm!
So what are the lessons for the IT
industry in this story? Well, the first thing
Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was
not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu
who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the
fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu
reinvented himself to suit the
circumstances. The circumstances have
c h a n g e d d r a s t i c a l l y. R e i n v e n t
yourselves. Do I have all the answers on
the modes of re-invention? No, obviously
not, otherwise I'd be out there filing
patents, although I can suggest two
broad approaches.
First, why don't we design business
models that challenge traditional industry
approaches and then transform our
organizations, people and processes to
execute. If we simply keep knocking on
the doors of clients with our traditional
offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of
hearing aid salespersons: our best
customers won't hear the doorbell! For
example, software-on-demand and open
source models changed the rules of the
software game. Can we not try to change
the rules of the game this time around?
Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or
Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of
13
innovation has been identified with the IT
industry, but is it truly innovative. Is it
really game changing?
Ironically, you can now look to the old
smokestack industries for inspiration. A
few weeks ago, an Indian car company
made a game-changing move. Maybe
the Nano will ultimately not retail for a
hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't
have great margins, or replace as many
motorcycles as it would like to, but it was
a game changing move; it fired a shot that
was heard around the world.
Can the IT world make any such claim?
There was an old saying, apparently
adopted by the IT industry that the secret
of success is to jump every time
opportunity knocks. And how do you
know when opportunity knocks? You
don't, you just keep jumping! So when are
we going to stop simply jumping every
time a client seems to sneeze, and
actually create products and IP that
become their own opportunities? Let's
look at new areas where India may have
natural advantage.
I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we
didn't realize how important it was to
leverage emerging innovation
ecosystems in our country. He gave us
the example of how, due to a fortunate
coincidence, India's IT and automotive
industries were situated in roughly the
same geographic clusters. So why
wasn't, according to Michael Porter's
competitive theories, a world beating
automotive telematics industry taking
shape here. Why aren't IT companies
using the massive potential of India's soft
power, the film and TV business to exploit
technological dominance of what Telco's
call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first
mile' in the brave new interactive world?
Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a
vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or
horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain
management) selecting the key
dimensions of competitive differentiation
– product vs. service, breadth vs. depth,
speed of delivery, customer service
responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based
pricing, proprietary technology or
intellectual property, and so on. And let's
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be prepared to make hard decisions
along the way – change people who
don't fit, walk away from businesses that
doesn't fit.
It's essential, while attempting this,
however, to recognize that focus,
differentiation and brand building require
time and investment. Selling value or
doing business differently than the norm
tends to elongate sales cycles, which
tends to put pressure on cash flow and
we need to resist the temptation to
broaden our offerings or slash prices just
to win the business and keep people
busy. Along with re-invention, during the
course of reinventing himself, Vishnu
figured out the loopholes in the boon,
and regrouped his physical and mental
aspects to take advantage of these
loopholes. That's something the IT
industry can do as well.
It's often been pointed out that the
Chinese word for crisis is also the
Chinese word for opportunity. I love that
mindset. I truly believe that the adverse
rate of the dollar can be viewed as the
glass half empty or the glass half full.
Sure it affects margins. But it's also a
chance to take advantage of the
loophole and buy yourselves what you
don't have, so that you can regroup your
structure to meet the challenge. To me
the fact that our currency is more
valuable and our price earnings ratios
are still higher than average, means that
we can acquire the front-ends and the
large IT businesses that we never
thought we could before. And the bigger
the better. If people are egging us on to
leapfrog, then they should also cheer as
you bid for companies that seem bigger
fish than you.
It's happening all the time today in the
manufacturing sector—Tata Corus
being the stellar example—and we at
Mahindra, while starting from scratch,
have inorganically compiled together a
portfolio of acquisitions that make us the
fourth largest steel forging company in
the world today.
This is not without historical precedent. If
you look at Japan and South Korea, both
of them went through a phase of
IT industry has its own Hiranyakashyap to battle
enduring the worlds' skepticism, then plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of
painstakingly building strong and the pyramid is profitable today. But it
competent domestic businesses, and needs a creative destruction of the
then on the back of global liquidity current mindset and a re-think on many
support and strong price earnings ratios, of the assumptions we hold dear.
compressing time by acquiring global So, in conclusion, perhaps there really
firms and their customer credibility. In isn't that much distance between avatars
effect, by acquiring the strengths and in the mythological sense and avatars in
skill sets you need, you will regroup your the technology sense. Perhaps they are
profile and create a new entity, which can both symbolic expressions of the same
vanquish your challenges as effectively reality. In their different ways, they both
as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap. underline the same message – that it is
And finally, while reinventing yourselves, necessary in any situation to reinvent,
you will have to
bring in some of the
aspects of the third
element of the
Trimurti – that of
Shiva the destroyer.
Destroy for example
the premise that
cost arbitrage is the
w a y t o g o .
Recognize that the
low cost, high
volume offshore
outsourcing battle
has already been
fought and won.
Often, when
strategic frames
g r o w r i g i d ,
companies, like
countries, tend to
keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not regroup and re-think our way out of
already on the winners list, you need to whatever challenges confront us.
think of other ways to compete on value I'd like to close with one of my favourite
and differentiation, rather than price and quotes—such a favourite, that I can't
scale. even remember where I first read it:
Destroy the premise that success comes My father thought the world would be
only from size, and desist from same;
comparisons with other Indian My children, however, wake up EVERY
companies. There are still many IT day thinking the world will be different.
companies in India who define success
as "we want to be one of the top ten
Let's begin emulating our
Indian IT companies". Why not, for
example, "we want to be the world's #1 children. Time to wake up
banking back office solutions provider"? an d m ak e t h e w o r l d
And lastly, perhaps the time has come to
different.
destroy the notion that the world may be
your oyster but India is not. There is a
huge domestic market in middle class
and corporate India that has not been
14
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Mitigating Risk

By - Chandan Pal

15
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A B C Co r p o r at i o n
Per f o r m an c e A p p r ai s al
M r. Steven Grant, General Manager (Human Resources),
ABC Corporation receives a call one fine afternoon
from one of his Deputy General Manager complaining that his
Annual individual incentive is less than that of one of his
junior team member.
This was one of the feedbacks that he was receiving from
various sections of the organization. Some day back he
received a formal communication from the Divisional HRD
people that they are finding difficultly in promoting few good
executives as the recently implemented electronic Appraisal is
giving a score that is contradictory to the performance of the
officers.
Mr. Grant started to ponder about the effectiveness of the
strategic business decision taken a couple of years back and
the value addition from the new e-Performance Appraisal
System.
About ABC Corporation
Started way back in 1970 as a public sector enterprise, ABC
Corporation is a major player in the Oil and Gas industry in
South Asia with a turnover of over 50 billion $.ABC Corporation
has four Divisions namely Corporate Office, Refineries,
Marketing and Pipelines. Apart from the procurement of crude,
transporting and selling of finished products, the Corporation
has further diversified into Exploration & Production coupled
with Petrochemicals business, thereby completing the
integration.
The strength of executives of ABC Corporation exceeded
12,800. It had a typically pyramid structure with 9 executive
layers below board level. Total Number of executives was
around 12826. The remaining 22000 employees consisted of
non-executives.
It was becoming imperative for the corporation to reward and
differentiate outstanding performers in a much better way than it
had been doing in the past. This was mainly due to factors like
high attrition rate, increasing expectations of the workforce and
need for innovation to remain in the market. These challenges
were always there for the Corporation, but the magnitude was
never so severe.
When it came to came to rewarding the individual performers,
17
C a s e S t u d y
Abhishek Kumar, EPGP Participant
the organization started by looking at the existing appraisal
system and incentive schemes.
Legacy Appraisal System
Till a couple of years back, ABC Corporation followed a system
of pen and paper based Annual Performance and Appraisal.
The appraisal was divided into four sections namely
Performance Key Result Areas, Competency, Value and
Potential. The appraiser, reviewer and countersigning officer
evaluate it and finally one gets a rating of Outstanding, Good,
Fair and Satisfactory. However, based on final countersigning
officer (CSO) score, the percentage of Outstanding, Good, Fair
and Satisfactory was fixed for each CSO. These ratings were
collated for each year and at the time of promotion to a higher
grade, a review of these ratings was done and the senior
management committee then took a decision. The eligibility for
being considered for promotion, in turn depended on the
number of years in a current grade.
However, the existing appraisal system lacked on few things. To
begin with it was unable to measure the individual performance
objectively. A lot of subjectivity was involved in the management
decision to give a rating of Outstanding, Very Good etc. Often it
was observed that the ratings were based on preconceived
notion and impression about an executive.
The second problem with existing performance appraisal was
that it for not considered transparent. An executive was not
aware on the way he/she has been rated by the appraiser and
reviewer. An executive would guess about his probable ratings
when he/she is promoted/not promoted after putting the
required numbers of years at a particular grade.
Another major drawback of the existing appraisal system was
the need of Management Information System (MIS). Since all
the appraisal process was based on pen and paper, physical
handling and report generation was always a problem.
Existing Incentive Scheme
The incentive systems that the Corporation followed were
basically Overall Productivity Incentive and Team incentive
scheme. The Overall Productivity Incentive (OPI) was paid the
same to all the employees whereas the Team Incentive Scheme
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 ABC Corporation - Performance Appraisal

(TIS) was paid to teams based on the achievements of targets
fixed at the beginning of the year. In either scheme a percentage
was computed which formed the basis of calculation on the
current compensation of the executive. In both the schemes
individual contribution was not rewarded.
New Appraisal System
To counter the above problems a new appraisal system was
introduced. This appraisal system would be in electronic form
and a decision was made to discontinue the existing pen and
paper system. It was introduced as a tool to measure individual
performance. As Peter Drucker said “If you want it, measure it.
If you can't measure it, forget it.”
This performance management had the following salient
features
1. The entire appraisal would now be done in a paperless
way by using web based software.
2. The System has a provision for performance planning
at the beginning of the financial year, mid-year review during
October and the final performance appraisal during April-May.
3. The Performance planning consisted of defining the
Key Result Areas (KRAs), the five levels of target with each KRA
and defining stretch with level 3 targets. Example, KRA –
Growth in the Sales of Petrochemical products with Key
Performance Indicator (KPI) as Increase in Sales. The five level
of targets would be as follows
5. Each target has a built in component of stretch at the time of
performance planning which is the degree of difficulty built into a
target (Level 3 target as mentioned above). Its value would
ranges from 0.25 to 1. Its value would depend on the five factors
namely relative to previous achievements, degree of
dependence on uncontrollable factors, degree of complexity,
skill requirements and the need for innovations. Since those
doing challenging assignments have a higher built in
component of stretch, those executive are likely to gain the
advantage of this while computing the overall score. At the time
of approval of the performance plan approval, the stretch is also
approved.
6. The appraisal would consist of Key Result Areas (KRAs),
Competency, Values and Potential. Performance planning was
restricted to Key Result Areas.
This ratio of the various sections changed for different grades.
Higher grades were given more weight age to competency,
values and potential i.e. the subjective part.
For non executives, given the nature of the industry, it was
realized that team performance was prime. Hence initially the
new electronic Appraisal was implemented for executives only.
Appraisals at the end of the Appraisal year
At the end of appraisal year, the appraise need to submit the
performance appraisal by doing the self appraisal on the Key
Result Areas using the web based interface. An appraiser would
then complete the appraisal by rating an appraisee on Key

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Significantly Below Meets Above Significantly
Below Expectations Expectations Expectations Above
Expectations >= 120 Crores >=130 Crores >=145 Crores Expectations
<120 Crores and <130 Crores and <145 Crores and <155 Crores >=155 Crores

Stretch corresponding to Level 3 target -> 0.90(Range from 0.25
to 1)
4. The performance plan would be approved by the Appraiser
and then by Reviewer. An appraisee was entitled to a rating of 5
if he/she achieves a Level 5 target.
Result Areas, Competency, Value and Potential. Then Reviewer
would complete the same process followed by the
Countersigning officer.

Appraise

Appraiser

Performance Performance
Plan – Reviewer Appraisal-Submitted by
Appraisee-then Appraisee, then approved by
approved by Appraiser Appraiser, Reviewer and finally
& Reviewer by CSO

Countersigning Officer

18
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In each step in the hierarchy care is taken by the respective
Appraiser, Reviewer and CSO to rate the officer relatively so
that outstanding officers end up with a higher score. This would
enable relative ranking among the executives based on the
overall performance score.
Changes done in the Annual Incentive Scheme
The existing incentive of Overall Productivity Incentive (OPI)
was un-changed. However, the amount that was distributed in
Team Incentive Scheme (TIS) was split in the ratio of 70:30
between Team and Individual Component.
Implementation process of the new Appraisal system
The management lined up a Consultants and Software
developer for the development of the system. The functional
inputs were given by the Corporate Human Resources team.
A massive exercise of identifying the unique roles was done.
Across the organization some 500 unique roles were identified.
The role consisted of Key Results Areas (KRAs)
and Competencies (Both Behavioral and Functional). The
Values in the Corporation were one and same for all. The
Potential was mapped based on whether part of Junior
management, Middle management or Upper management.
Then each executive was mapped to one role to enable him to
start performance planning.
Across the locations for a smooth changeover Internal Change
Agents were appointed for conducting workshops and making a
smooth changeover.
ABC Corporation had an excellent computer network across its
various locations. This was primarily due to the fact that the
Corporation was already running ERP and had previously
invested in IT infrastructure in a big way.
The master data from SAP formed the basis of the master data
of this appraisal system. Daily data was transferred from SAP to
the database of the appraisal system.
Advantages gained from the new appraisal system
1. The new appraisal system brought in the performance score
for each executive. The company started by paying individual
incentive based on the performance score, a practice which
was happening in the organization for the first time since its
inception. In future the management planned to link many more
benefits and incentive based on this performance score.
2. The new appraisal system enabled the culture of
performance planning at the beginning of the year. Each
executive was committing a target at the beginning of the year
which was being agreed by his appraiser and reviewer. At the
end of the appraisal year the higher management had the moral
obligation to assess an executive based on the targets
achieved.
3. The Key Result Area score of the performance appraisal was
visible to the appraisee. Hence it brought about a culture of
19
ABC Corporation - Performance Appraisal
transparency.
4. The hierarchy of multiple reporting was reduced to three
levels only which are Appraiser, Reviewer and Counter Signing
Officer (CSO).
Problem being faced by the Organization
1. The stretch factor in the performance planning got started to
be misused. It was observed that even for easy jobs a high
stretch was taken. Unfortunately, the same is even approved by
the Appraiser and Reviewer. This lead to problem at the time of
performance appraisal, when the executives who managed to
approve a higher stretch, got away with the higher performance
score on KRA even when not deserving. The example below
shows how this happens(Assume a situation of only one KRA
and hence weightage 100)
a. Stretch 0.90 Wt. 100 Rating 5 So Score would be
0.90*1*5=4.5
b. Stretch 0.70 Wt. 100 Rating 5 So Score would be
0.70*1*5=3.5
So in this example, it can be seen that with the same rating of 5,
one with a higher stretch will get a higher performance score at
the time of appraisal. Often, some outstanding officers taking a
reasonable stretch ended up with a lower overall score vis-à-vis
average performers taking high stretch.
2. The executives delayed the performance planning. They
quickly understood that the delay in the committing of the
targets can make them comfortable as it can make the picture
more clear with respect to the targets they are likely to achieve.
3. Some executives deliberately kept lower targets at level 5
and managed to get it approved by the Appraiser and the
Reviewer. This actually helped them at the time of appraisal to
get a rating of 5 on that particular KRA.
4. Few executives even managed to avoid key activities in
performance planning, fearing they might have difficulty in
meets its target. Even if they included such activities in the
performance planning, they kept a small weight age.
5. After three appraisal cycles it was statistically observed that
the average stretch being taken by all executives was rising
although overall there was no change in the degree of difficulty
in the targets.
Mr. Grant had no doubt about the efficacy of the e Performance
management system over the legacy pen and paper based
appraisal. However, he was wondering on how to overcome the
difficulties mentioned in different feedbacks he received from
his employees. He was contemplating on both the short term
and long term strategies to be drawn so that the Appraisal
system becomes a true reflector of employee performance.
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 F inancial Supermarkets
Introduction
What does come to our mind, when we
think of a supermarket? Immediately, we
think of a place where variety of products
are being traded satisfying virtually the
entire household need of a person.
With the advent of organised retail sector,
we can see a big malls, where all types of
things of need are sold under one roof.
This type of market is generally termed as
supermarket. In these stores one can see
right from green groceries to laptops,
beverages to bed being sold in one and
the same shop. The main concept behind
these types of retail stores is to provide
all requirements at one point stop so that
the people have convenience in
purchasing and save their time and toil.
4 the emergence of these financial
In quite the same way a financial
supermarket has been devised by the
banks and financial institutions to serve
the financial needs of people. The
concept of the financial supermarket is to
provide the investors and financial
service seekers with all the financial
services that a person may require. In this
market, the Banking companies provide
the customers with banking, insurance,
broking, railway and flight tickets, etc.
services to the people.
F o r t h e c o n s u m e r, a f i n a n c i a l
supermarket can offer convenience and
efficiency, since his/her money is not
being continually shifted from one
Rajeev Nayan, EPGP Participant
institution to another. For the institution,
an all-encompassing relationship with the
consumer is more profitable than
handling just one aspect of a customer's
financial needs.
One reason for the growth of the financial
supermarket is the amendments in
various financial laws providing platform
for consolidation and collaboration of
financial services providers like
insurance, banking, broking etc. in the
liberalised economic environment.
Another reason is the large scale use,
growth and accessibility of internet and
cellular phones by the financial
institutions and the consumers. The
regulators like central banks (RBI in India)
and various governments are facilitating
supermarkets for better financial
innovation and consumer satisfaction.
Various service components of the
financial supermarket
There are various service components of
a financial supermarket as described
below:-
1) Retail Banking: - The retail banking is
the deposit and lending services provided
by the banks to individuals. There is
variety of financial products under retail
banking. The traditional banking products
under the category, which include
current, saving and term deposits of
maturities ranging from 7 days to 10 years
20
are still the most popular investment
avenues by the customers. These
products have maintained identity with
changing times due to their convenient
features, risk free returns and their
trusted use since a long time.
There are various credit facilities which
also fall under retail banking. These are
housing loans to individuals, educational
loan for study within the country and
abroad, loan for personal needs like
travel, marriage, medical expenses and
purchase of ornaments and consumer
durables. Financing to retail traders,
professionals including doctors,
architects, engineers, chartered
accountants are very effective for value
addition and quality of services to the
people in the society.
2) Insurance: - The banks are now
providing life and general insurance
services to people in various ways. Some
banks like SBI have opened a subsidiary
(SBI life) to provide Life insurance. Some
Banks like ICICI have made joint ventures
(ICICI-Prudential and ICICI-Lombard)
with established overseas brands to
provide life and general insurance. Some
banks like Central Bank of India has
made a tie-up arrangement with reputed
companies like Life Insurance
Corporation of India and New India
Assurance Co. Ltd. to sell their life and
no-life insurance products respectively
from its branches.
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3) Mutual Fund: - Due to its inherent
investment expertise and practices the
mutual fund investments are generally
considered a safe investment product
with moderate return on investment.
People having eagerness to earn with
rising SENSEX, but who do not want to
take a high risk or not having a demat
account generally choose to invest in the
mutual fund. The commercial banks have
entered the mutual fund business taking
various routes. Some banks like SBI and
HDFC have their own subsidiaries for the
mutual fund business. Banks like ICICI
have made a joint venture company like
ICICI-Prudential for the business. Some
banks like Central Bank of India have
made a tie-up arrangement with reputed
companies like UTI, TATA, Franklyn
Templeton, Reliance to sell their mutual
business from its branches
4) Depository Participant: - The banks
act as depository participant and keep
dem at accounts of the constituents for
their investment in equity stocks. Some
banks also provide online trading in
equity stocks to their customers by
providing them a saving account and
Demat account facilitating online transfer
of fund and equity stock for them. This
helps the customers to participate more
21
A Financial Supermarket
actively in the stock trade. ICICI provides
the facility through its subsidiary ICICI-
Direct.
5) Issue of IPO: - The banks facilitate to
the eligible companies to come out with
the Initial Public Offer to raise fund from
the public. In this business, they function
as lead managers, underwriters or book
builders to the issue for the company.
With the recent boom in share market we
have been able to see a lot IPO issues
successfully launched by the banks
which has helped the companies to raise
share capital as well as hefty share
premiums.
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6) Mergers and acquisitions: - In the
present era of globalisation and
liberalisation, the merger and acquisition
of the companies have become regular
phenomena for inorganic growth,
strategic positioning and scale of
economy in operations. The banks play
the role of facilitator and financer in these
activities.
7) Wealth Management:: - Wealth
management is classified as a type of
financial planning that provides high net
worth individuals with private banking,
estate planning, asset management, legal
resources and investment management
with a goal of sustaining and growing long
term wealth. HSBC Premier and
Citibank's Citigold provide wealth
management services.
8) Corporate Finance:-- The banks play a
major role in the growth and development
of the corporate sector by providing them
working capital finance for purchase and
processing of raw materials and term loan
for purchase of equipments and
machinery. The banks provide letter of
credit to the corporate sector to facilitate
import of equipments and raw materials.
They provide pre shipment and post
shipment export finance to export
oriented units to facilitate manufacture
and export the goods. They also facilitate
collection, negotiation and discounting of
trade export bills of the exporters. After the
promulgation of SEZ act the banks are
now playing a major role in facilitating and
financing for the establishment of the
industries.
9) Government business: - The banks
play a major role in facilitating
government businesses. It prepares and
disburses the pension of defence,
railways and other central and state
government retirees situated at various
locations across the country and ensure
timely payment to them. The banks collect
income tax, excise tax and other statutory
dues from the people to the government
and help facilitate both the people and the
A Financial Supermarket
government in easy compliance and telebanking etc. They provide Debit
collection of the statutory dues. clearing services for collection of
telephone electricity, etc. bills and credit
10) Booking of Air tickets: - The banks clearing services for payment of dividend
act as agent of the various passenger warrant, Income tax refund warrants.
airline services for booking of the tickets.
15) Safe deposit lockers and safety
11) Credit card services:-- We are very deposit of articles:: The banks provide
much aware of the power of plastic the customers with renting out of safe
money provided the banks as it has deposit lockers for safe keeping of
made our life much easy facilitating ornaments and valuables keeping the key
convenience in purchase of almost with them selves. The banks also keep
everything, right from railway tickets to under its safe custody the
fabrics, magazines to consumer
durables. Debit card and smart card are 16) Dealing in foreign exchange: - The
other variants that have specific features bank provides the much needed foreign
to suit the requirements of the exchange for remittances to abroad for
customers. medical, travel, and various other needs.
The banks provide derivative services in
12) Rural development: - The banks are foreign exchange to hedge against the
instrumental in providing mechanisation exchange risk of underlying foreign
and production needs of the farmers so currency.
the food grain and cash crop production
in country is facilitated and increased. Conclusion
The banks are facilitating the formation of Citibank, HSBC and some other
Self Help Groups (SHG) for poverty multinational banks have emerged as a
eradication in the rural and semi urban global financial supermarkets. In the same
areas through mutual cooperation and way, ICICI bank, HDFC bank, SBI and
synergy. Financial inclusion of each and some other banks have emerged as
every person is next of the banks. They Indian financial supermarkets. Unlike the
facilitate and finance artisans, cattle goods supermarket you may not even
farming, poultry farming, and formation require to physically visit the financial
of farmers' club in the villages. supermarkets. The services are generally
available at a click or a dial away.
13) Employment generation: - The
bank is able to provide credit linked So, next time when you go to a bank to
employment to jobless through various open a savings account or purchase a
schemes like PMRY, SGSY, SJSRY, DRI demand draft, don't get surprised if the
etc. The banks are providing venture banker asks you for your interest in share
capital to the entrepreneurs coming with market to open a demat account and
new ideas for setting up of their trading, or for your travel plan to sell air
entrepreneurial unit ticket, or for your life insurance plans. In
the same way he may make you aware
14) IT enabled services: - The banks about the benefits of investing in a mutual
are providing to its customers the fund. Nowadays, the bankers are ready to
information technology enabled services cater to virtually all your needs.
for secured, faster and reliable
transaction and easy access to their
account details. They are providing to its
customers anytime, anywhere banking
through various services like ATMs,
Internet banking, SMS banking,
22
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 Of fice - a place
t o wo r k o r …
Anupam Chakraborty, EPGP Participant
I t was late in the evening when Ms.
D'costa peeped in the chamber of the
Mr. Raghavan. The official duty hours
were long over and except the guard
perhaps all had called it a day. Mr.
Raghavan was deeply engrossed in the
month-end report and didn't even notice
her entry. He was extremely dissatisfied
with the collection reports of North region
and was trying to figure out what went
wrong.
Care for some coffee, Raghav?
Yeah Rosy, just at the right point of time…
her voice and the fragrance of fire and ice
was more than enough to drag Raghavan
out of his half hour long uninterrupted
analyses. Ms. D'costa is a non-
covenanted assistant (consumer care) in
the multinational that we are talking about
and Raghavan is the Manager
(commercial). Mrs D'Costa, a catholic
and mother of a child, is fighting her
divorce suit for the last seven years. She
can be rated as an average in beauty, a
little more than sensuous but shade less
than libidinous. Her dressing and make-
ups were such that every passer by would
be bound to give a look at least, which she
coveted dearly. Contrarily, Mr. Ragahvan,
a Tamil Brahmin, seems to be one of
those who after coming out of an
orthodox oriental family set-up is trying to
bridge up with the fast moving ever
changing world. He is married for the
about eight years and is blessed with a
girl of 4.
With two mugs of coffee from the vending
machine, Ms. Rosy D'Costa entered the
chamber and took her sit on the table on
which Raghav was working.
Rosy, behave yourself… sit on the chair
please.
O come on Raghav, there's no one now in
this floor.
But… suppose… anyone turns up? I
mean… if someone sees you in my
chamber this way.
Are you afraid?
No… but we work here…
So why don't you think the same way
when you take me out?
Oh Rosy, not again… I am very badly
stuck with this report… Don't know why
the hell North has featured so badly this
month.
I can help you out. It is due to the conflict
between the ground staffs and the senior
executive there. Your man is good in
processes but unable to handle people.
You recall that there was a little fiasco
about a month ago, wherein you had to
step in to control the situation.
Yes, of course, but that was a very stray
incident and moreover the staffs were at
fault. Even the union condemned their
actions.
The union people had no other
alternative. It was an open and shut case.
But since then the union should have
been dealt with very cautiously. They are
one down and want to have the scores
levelled. And that is perhaps reflected in
your north report. Ask your executive to
be a little more collaborative with the
ground staff.
Are you sure Rosy? How can you be so
very sure?
I work on the floor Raghav and you need
no rocket science to keep your eyes and
ears open. Now, will you please get up
23
and give me a lift back home? Francis is
perhaps waiting for her mother to return.
Now you are kidding. Francis never waits
for you. The 11 year child is more
comfortable with your mother, who never
lets him feel your deficiency.
Just upon uttering these Raghav realised
he unknowingly had hit below the belt.
Immediately, he tried to make up by
asking, how about dropping at the Baskin
Robbins outlet on our way back?
No I don't think I have that time, was the
curt reply. Raghav knew it would take a
little more time to help her recover, as she
was one of those who did never accept
bitter truths.
The above conversation might be an
imaginary one, but at some point, at some
place, people may find familiar
resemblances. The Rosys and Raghavs
are not so very Utopian. In the ever
changing scenario of the business
environment nowadays when people are
spending (or rather forced to spend) a
major part of their time in the office, it is
quite unlikely that personal relationships
won't grow. But, how far is this legitimate,
justified or acceptable?
Let us first try to analyse the reasons
behind it.
The need based theory of Maslow or an
added motivational factor in Herzburg's
Two Factor theory can give a potential
reason for those who are in need but void
of something in their personal life. They
dearth of some personal touches
perhaps lures them to set foot on a
socially tabooed untrodden path. Maybe
Sigmund Freud could have had better
answers even.
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But for some others, I would like to
propose a different philosophy. Some
needs are never felt until one sees the
scope of fulfilment of the need. In simpler
words, you feel hungry only if you see the
food. Well, I do not want to describe these
as latent needs because latent needs
need not necessarily be felt in the office
itself. Furthermore, the comfort level of a
person with his/her counterpart adds fuel
to the fire.
It is not uncommon in various instances
where managers have ended up tying
knots with their secretaries but has any
study been done as how many houses
did fall apart in this not so business like
game at office? Eventually the persons
who indulge are to be hold responsible
for the same and no one else. It can be
understood though not justified for the
persons who are devoid of family
touches in their life, but what about the
other group for whom only the basic
instinct counts?
Or is it so that spending a substantial
amount of time, which is perhaps much
more than that spent at home is forcing
people to this adaptability? Some even
go out to claim that it is due to the fact that
'men are polygamist by nature'. Well,
true, history certifies that but how does
that explain the female counterpart's
nature? In our anecdote, how did the
affair between Rosy and Raghav begin?
They did not fall for each other at the first
sight; neither the teenage infatuation
applies for them. Then?
It might have been so that when they met
each other, it was just another official
introduction. What could have brought
them in communicating terms? Work,
obviously and the little snippets between
the work. What could have brought them
closer? Could be some exchanges
beyond mere work related
conversations. Raghavan might have
developed a soft corner knowing Rosy's
bitter personal front. Rosy might have
found a receptive individual behind the
frames of the office master. Whatever the
case may be, the bottom-line is that two
individuals have set foot on a path that is
beyond official work.
Now, how is this viewed by the
management of the company? There can
be two distinct responses. There will a
group who will condemn this as an
extramarital affair. There will be a small
but existing group who will be indifferent
as long as the work is not hampered.
Well, I would like to go a step beyond.
People who are condemning are doing
24
Office - a Place to work or...
so mostly because they didn't get a
chance like this which they also are in
'need' of. People who are indifferent are
self-content and they do not feel such
need. As long as the official work and
decorum is not jeopardised, it's
immaterial what person is indulging
into.
Each and every individual has all the
virtues and vices that one can ever
imagine of – the proportion of the
ingredients only varying. It's the beauty
of the Creator that we do not get to read
the minds of an individual until he or she
wants us to and that to in the way that
they want. The world would have been
hell and there would be nothing left what
we call 'society' if anyone could read
anyone's mind. Sad, but true. Since
generations the cognitive approach of
learning is guided or channelized by our
predecessors. But, at some point of
time all individuals do think beyond the
taboos and restrictions imposed by the
society. Persons who vocalised their
challenges on the basis of their own
reasoning are reckoned either genius or
insane in history.
So, where do we land?
On one hand we have to accept that a
manager is unlikely to look at an
employee as a work cipher. He or she will
look at him or her first as a person and
then as a productive unit. Hence it's
important to socialise. But the million
dollar question is how far? Many
companies have explicitly laid down
policies and dictums about this issue.
Some even go up to the level of handing
pink slips. On the other hand, if two
employees are happy and morally
boosted at the work place, companies
reap dividends out of it.
It's quite impossible to evade cupid's
arrow when it strikes. But it's always
beneficial to have a balanced head over
the emotional heart. And that determines
the level of mingling with colleagues at
workplace. After at the end of the day, we
are living beings to be bound by the
guidelines of the society.
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i Canvas
 We Shall Overcome
Dr. Sanghamitra Mukherjee, Research Scientist ,Chemgen Pharma International
I
n today's world we always look at the
inventions and their effectiveness in
making our life easier, smoother,
smaller, cozier, faster and what not.
Ever-growing demand of mankind for
energy and raw materials has gradually
pushed natural resources to their limits,
giving rise to more and more
environmental problems. We do never
have time to think over the by-products
that are getting created in our never
ending endeavor to excel. Tragic, but
that's a fact. At best, we show concern on
the increasing pollution. But, there are
many a things to really worry about apart
from pollution. How many of us in our day
to day work do care about the dangers
that we are continuously creating in the
form of by-products that are getting
generated. To us, most of the time, it's a
waste to talk about waste.
In this regard, chemistry has played a
contradictory role, although it represents
one of the most successful and diverse
sectors of manufacturing industries. The
range of chemical products is enormous,
and they make invaluable contributions
to our quality of life. However, these
manufacturing processes also lead to
millions of tons of waste. As a
consequence, the role of chemistry is
controversial to the society. Thus to
expiate the burden of chemist a new
avenue of chemistry has been opened
known as green chemistry. Green
Chemistry can be defined as the practice
of chemical science and industry in the
direction of environmental friendliness
and resource sustainability. It is the
cultivating of chemistry in a manner that
maximizes its benefits while eliminating
or at least greatly reducing its adverse
impacts on environment thus taking an
oath to make the world green.
Presently people in the Green Chemistry
circle are making an effort to pursue
twelve principles of green chemistry
proposed by the fathers of green
26
chemistry Paul T Anastas and John C
Warner,
? Prevent waste
? Maximize atom economy
? Design safer chemicals and products
? Design less hazardous chemical
syntheses
? Use safer solvents and reaction
conditions
? Minimize the potential for accidents.
? Increase energy efficiency
? Use catalysts, not stoichiometric
reagents
? Avoid chemical derivatives
? Use renewable feedstocks
? Design chemicals and products to
degrade after use
? Analyze in real time to prevent
pollution
Coming to the first point – it is a well
known fact that prevention is always
better than cure. Thus, green chemistry
aims to prevent waste than to clean it up.
In earlier day's waste disposal was
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convenient as it was mostly discarded
into water, underground or released into
air. But presently, with enforcement of
environmental laws costs for waste
treatment increased progressively.
General Electric was compelled to spend
millions of dollars to remove PCBs from
Hudson River deposits that were
discarded to the river as wastes from the
company's manufacture of electrical
equipment. DuPont is paying more than
$600 million as agreement for the
environmental damage they caused by
the production of Teflon and Gore-Tex.
The cleanup of pollutants including
asbestos, dioxins, pesticide manufacture
residues and mercury are costing
various concerns hundreds and millions
of dollars. Pre tanning process of leather
industry was becoming a cause of alarm
for the leather industry as the process
caused a lot of pollution. Report says that
tanneries in the Dhaka's Hazaribagh
area discharge some 21,600 square
meters of liquid wastes everyday, which
includes harmful wastes, including
chromium, lead, sulphur, ammonium,
salt and other materials. So green
chemistry approach which will help to
avoid these costs will invariably cut the
total cost thus the elimination of costly
control measures can lower overall cost.
Prevention of waste can be made
possible by developing synthetic
methods, which will maximize the
incorporation of all materials used in the
process to the final product. That is the
amount of reactant used should be
balanced with the amount of required
product produced thus minimizing the
by-product formation, this is termed as
atom economy.
A major goal in the chemical production
and, indeed, in virtually all areas of
human venture, is the reduction of risk.
Risk is defined as a function of hazard
time's exposure.
Risk = f {hazard - exposure}
It shows that risk can be reduced by a
reduction of hazard or by reduction of
exposure, and various combinations of
both. There are various physical means
to protect one from exposure but here
also prevention of hazards are more
welcomed than to reduce the exposure
so designing safer chemicals and
products,using safer solvents and
reaction conditions will in turn minimize
risk and minimize the potential for
accidents.
Another very important factor is the
utilization of energy resources during
process of synthesis. Energy
consumption poses economic and
environmental costs in almost all
industrial manufacturing. Thus use of
catalyst is emphasized over using
stoichiometric reagents. As it is well
known that a catalyst provides an
alternative reaction route by lowering the
activation energy. The lower the
activation energy, the faster will be the
reaction rate. Thus in presence of
catalyst both time and energy
consumption is reduced.
On the other hand, earth's resources are
depleting day by day. Most of the raw
materials used in the manufacturing
process are presently at dearth. So it is
high time to learn the utilization of
renewable feedstock. Biomass, which
includes all living and non-living organic
material together with crops, animal,
agricultural and forestry waste, is a
renewable feedstock which is abundant,
chemically rich and presently under-
utilized. Moreover, the majority of
biomass comes from green plants, which
represents a carbon neutral resource
because it does not add to atmospheric
carbon-di-oxide but recycles it.
Utilization of biomass reduces fossil
carbon released to the atmosphere, and
provides additional social and economic
benefits to the environment. The
competition of the cultivation of food and
of feedstock for industrial use can be met
by a global program of reforestation of
areas wasted in historical time by human
activities. Most products obtainable from
renewable raw materials may at present
not be able to compete with the products
27
We shall overcome.
of the petrochemical industry, but slowly
the scenario will change as oil becomes
scarcer day by day and oil prices
inevitably rise. In the long run, renewable
resources have to replace fossil raw
materials.
At present we find quite a few numbers of
applications of green chemistry in many
manufacturing process. Huge resources
are used to popularize the concept of
green chemistry. A very well known
example is set by world renowned
chemical industries like Bayer, Dow,
BASF and many more and the
innovations are also effective in our own
country as we find that the leather
industries of the country got saved by the
use of microbial enzyme technology as
an alternative to that of the conventional
chemicals used in tanning process. We
also witness emphasis of green fuel
technology which certainly comes from
bioethanol as a gasoline replacement
and most of the bio-fuel manufacturing is
made possible from inedible vegetable
oils and other waste products. We find
extensive uses of different ranges of
catalyst in different industry. There are
innumerable numbers of catalyst used in
industry like zeolites for catalytic
cracking of hydrocarbon, solid acid
catalysts in oil refining process, which
makes the process less corrosive and
harmful. Similarly there are numerous
applications of biocatalyst in food and
pharmaceutical industries.
Green Chemistry is a revolutionary
science that seeks to merge
sustainability with innovation to create
harmless products for a secured future.
The encouragement of environmentally
sound and sustainable use of renewable
natural resources is one of the tenable
aims of green chemistry.
Reference
1. Green Chemistry: Theory and
Practice. Paul T. Anastas and John C.
Warner, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1998
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 The
RISE of Executive MBA in India!
Why MBA now? This is a typical question which is asked to
almost all aspirants to EX PG courses across the world
including India. I believe every aspirant is well versed to
answer such questions.
Let's see chronologically when the executive MBA has really
made its mark in India. Last few years have seen
phenomenal growth in executive MBA courses being offered
by leading B-Schools in India. This trend of accelerated MBA
targeting individuals with substantial work experience
actually started by the arrival of Indian School of Business at
Hyderabad, in India in the year 2001. In autumn of 2001, IIM
Indore launched its EXPGP program, the US version of Ex-
MBA in India, wherein working executives go to a B-School at
regular intervals and then go back at their workplace and
implement what they have learnt. Since then there is no
looking back. IIM Ahmedabd launched its version of PGPX in
2005; followed by IIM Calcutta in 2006 IIM Lucknow joined
the bandwagon in 2007 by launching its own version of EX-
MBA titled IPMX. The courses offered have different flavours
but one thing that is common to all courses is that, they all
target individuals with substantial work experience, ranging
from 2 plus years at ISB, 5 plus years at IIM Indore to 7 plus
years at IIM Ahmedabad. There is also an effort on the part of
institutes to give these courses international flavour - all of the
28
Deepak Chauhan, EPGP Participant
IIMs and ISB require GMAT score as one of the requirements
for getting admission
But the question still remains to be answered, why there's a
spurt in such courses, offered by leading B-Schools in India.
For us, who want to learn new skills to move to next level and
to increase market value, an IIM degree was a must. I have
observed the market scenario changing rapidly in last few
years. It has become imperative for the working managers to
change to this market needs drastically; lest they have a
chance of being left out. This factor becomes more crucial for
those in middle management positions. It's no secret that in
India and elsewhere, transition from lower level to middle
level is smooth, but growing beyond this gets tougher at every
step. The transformation from a Manager to a Leader takes
place from this middle level onwards. This is what many
participants I met felt. Says Mrinal Srivastava, an IIT Kanpur
alumni and a admit at ISB, having learnt so much after
spending considerable time in the Industry, I felt its time to
revalidate my learning and equip myself with necessary skills
so that my transformation to higher level becomes smooth
and fast. Similar sentiments were echoed by an EXPGP
participant at IIM Indore; he felt that this program helps him in
honing his abilities to identify and seize opportunities, foster
professional relationships across major industries and
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 The Rise of executive MBA in India

compete globally, may be even change his line of profession
from IT to finance or consulting. The reasons are various but
ultimate goal is the same. To learn, revalidate, equip and get
ready to face the rigors of rapidly changing market dynamics,
act as an agent of change and be a winner! Moreover, the
accelerated MBA format not only makes one more competitive
in the business world, but also gives one the confidence that
comes from possessing a broad business background having
excelled in a diverse team
environment at work.
write GMAT, do a MBA from abroad after 4-5 years of work
experience. These courses have opened another window for
such individuals. I have met some, who even after clocking
700+ in GMAT have chosen to do EPGP from IIM Indore
foregoing the lure of international universities. For those who
have contemplated coming back to India after MBA from foreign
universities, this is a golden chance.

The other factor that propelled the

growth is the rapidly growing Indian
economy. The Indian economy has
been growing at a consistent
staggering rate of over 8 % per
annum for the last five years. This has
fuelled the demand for change
managers. Managers who can act as
instrument of change and lead by
example. This demand has not only
being generated by Indian
companies but by many Multi
National Corporations who are
flocking to India in hordes and setting
up their operations for various
reasons. In spite of all the hoopla of
India having the largest trained
manpower in the world, its no secret
that quality of the workforce is a big
question mark. Talk to any HR
personnel and he can talk hours on
how they are unable to find the right
kind of talent in India. This reflects
that there is growing market for
management trainings, especially
world class trainings and who else is
The rise of middle class in India also contributes to popularity
equipped to train such people than the top B-Schools in India.
of such courses. There are many in jobs who just wanted to
Although the IIMs churn out excellent graduates but they are
do different and did not know how to do it. These courses
mostly freshers and there is time gap between where they are
also help such individuals and give them a chance of
required and what there skill levels are at the time of graduation.
choosing their desired profession, which was not possible
This gap has fueled the demand for PGPEX courses, wherein
earlier in India. For example these courses also help in
good managers go to the B school get trained in the world class
bringing out the cocooned entrepreneur sleeping within an
facility and come back to work in about a year. Needless to the
individual and help him chase his dream.
say, the managers who get admission to such courses have
great potential to be world-class and have demonstrated their
There may be many more reasons, but one thing is for sure,
talent at work place and that's the reason why they get chosen
the demand for such courses is growing exponentially. I am
through a stringent admission process.
sure that other IIM's and other institutes in India are also
eager to jump into fray and design their own version of
Another reason is that there is a class of Indians who always
EXPGP courses to cater to this growing market of executives
thought globally. I have many in my graduation class; bright
looking to go back to school!
people who did not wanted to write CAT but what wanted to

29
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comprehending what
data speaks! Making Better Decisions Faster
The primary goal of business intelligence is to help people
make decisions that improve a company's performance and
Navneet Gupta, Senior Consultant, HP
promote its competitive advantage in the
marketplace. In short, business intelligence
empowers organizations to make better
decisions faster.
In the best of all worlds, managers, from the
lowest lead supervisor to the CEO, make
decisions by considering their experiences, their
understanding of the business, their business
plan, and information. Often the experiences,
understandings, and strategies that go into
decision making are pretty static; that is, they
change very slowly. The information, however, is

always new, which means it is often changing

rapidly and in a big way. It is often difficult to get a
handle on these changes and understand their
significance. Making better decisions means

E ven though we live in the Information Age, where ever-

increasing masses of data are at our disposal, we often
improving any or all parts of the process; this also results in
fewer poor decisions and more superior ones. Better decisions
result in better achievement of corporate objectives, such as
struggle to understand what the data means. While
improving shareholder value.
advancements in the power of available technologies are never
Business intelligence aids better decision making by analyzing
ending, we need to recognize that technology alone cannot
whether actions are, in fact, resulting in progress toward
solve a business problem. To drive the business forward,
company objectives. Deciding what is a better decision for an
companies need people at the helm who can make effective
organization is best accomplished with a clearly stated set of
decisions. Business intelligence is the key to bringing together
objectives and a plan for achieving them. This relationship
information, people, and technology to successfully manage a
between a company's overall plan and business intelligence is
company or organization. Perhaps by explaining what
not a one-way street, with business intelligence simply
business intelligence has to offer a company, we can help you
receiving the plan and using it as the scale for measuring the
impact your business just as Lisa did.
quality of decisions. Business intelligence has a major role in
The term business intelligence, also known as BI, is relatively
creating those strategies and plans. It is about making better
new. The term is used by different pundits and software
decisions faster, and the most strategic decisions are the ones
vendors to characterize a broad range of technologies,
where business intelligence is the most indispensable.
software platforms, specific applications, and processes. Since
While having perfect information to support every decision is an
business intelligence is a multifaceted concept, we will
unobtainable goal, there is no doubt that making consistently
examine it from three different perspectives:
better decisions sooner will provide a competitive advantage.
?
Making better decisions faster
Converting Data into Information
?
Converting data into information To make better decisions faster, business executives and
?
Using a rational approach to management managers need relevant and useful facts at their fingertips. But
there is often a large gap between the information that decision
makers require and the mountains of data that businesses

30
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collect every day. We call this the analysis gap.
To bridge this analysis gap, organizations make significant
investments in the development of BI systems to convert raw
data into useful information. The most effective BI systems
access huge volumes of data (measured in gigabytes and even
terabytes) and deliver relevant subsets instantly to decision
makers in a form to which these people can easily relate
While technology is a significant part of this process, often the
hardest aspect of business intelligence is being able to define
what information is useful and relevant to a decision. BI
solutions at the enterprise level are charged with collecting and
reporting a company's most important metrics, sometimes
called key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs guide
businesses in making decisions that affect particular business
units as well as the company at large.
Using a Rational Approach to Management
Business intelligence can be described as an approach to
management, an organizational state of mind, a management
philosophy—in short, the BI attitude. People and organizations
adopt the BI attitude because of a belief that a fact-based,
rational approach to making decisions, to the extent this is
possible, is basically a good thing.
The BI attitude is characterized as follows:
? Seeking objective measurable quantitative facts (data)
about the business
? Using organized methods and technologies to analyze the
facts
? Inventing and sharing models that explain the cause and
effect relationships between operational actions and the
effects these have on reaching the goals of the business
? Experimenting with alternate approaches and monitoring
feedback on results
? Understanding that people are not always rational
The BI attitude of fact-based and analysis-based decision
making is influencing corporate cultures everywhere,
principally because we are living in a world that is becoming
increasingly rich in information; the technology is available, it is
getting cheaper and easier, and it is working.
Experience, gut feelings, and lightning bolts of intuition—all of
these will continue as an important basis for making decisions,
but more and more they are being supported by the foundation
of information that business intelligence delivers. In fact, gut
feelings and lightning bolts work better because they are
inspired by the hard facts of business intelligence. Armed with
the facts, you have excellent backup when you need to sell and
promote your ideas.
Challenges:
Identifying mission-critical information and enterprise
success factors
What data is vital to the health of the enterprise and is strategic
31
Comprehending What Data Speaks
and tactical to its business? These operational details can
affect strategic shifts such as realignment of profit goals;
investment in skills or technology; consideration of mergers,
acquisitions or partnering; repositioning of the company; or
targeting of a key segment.
Determining who needs access and essential criteria and
processes
The goals of your BI system are to help you maintain a
competitive edge, allowing you to respond in a timely manner to
competitive opportunities or threats. Your BI system should help
monitor the vital statistics of the enterprise in a real-time
environment and to mobilize team response as appropriate.
Determining who needs access, what criteria will govern that
access and what processes will be used to manage access will
influence networking, processing and analysis costs.
Calculating the costs
Several factors affect the cost of implementing a BI system,
such as how much information is gathered and analyzed and
how often the information will be refreshed. In addition, analysis
can become expensive, and the time spent modeling can be
lengthy. Cost decisions will influence the system design—the
choice of servers, storage and software,
Building the necessary skills and systems
After determining your options and the cost of installing or
updating an enterprise BI system, you need to decide what kind
of system to build. Can the current system deliver sufficient
results by upgrading some of the components? Will partial
upgrades be feasible in the future? Do you want the best-in-the-
industry components? What is the cost of installing new
systems versus performing upgrades of the current system?
Does the return on investment (ROI) incorporate post-
installation or post-migration maintenance and upgrade costs?
Summary
Business intelligence is best understood from several
perspectives: making better decisions faster, converting data
into information, and using a rational approach to management.
The analysis of business information leads to insights—many
small ones, and hopefully a few big ones. These insights
suggest ways to improve the business; when acted on, these
insights are then measured to see what is working. These
measurements provide more data for analysis, starting the
cycle anew. We call this progression—analysis to insight to
action to measurement—the BI cycle.
The enablers of the BI cycle are technology, people, and
organizational culture. To achieve and maintain excellent
business intelligence, these enablers require investment.
Superior business intelligence is a competitive advantage that
can have a huge impact on the success of an organization.
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W ho would have thought that
one day Mukesh Ambani,
Preity Zinta and Shahrukh
Khan will be opponents and compete in a
cricket field. Yes, the talk here too
revolves around the over hyped (is it?),
over priced (or is their true value?) and
over burdened (I shall explain this in due
course) Indian Premier League.
The brainchild of the BCCI and possibly
the turning point that modern day cricket
so much required. Let me take you
through a short story on sports the world
over. It is a known fact that cricket is not a
global sport rather it is more like a niche
C for Cricket,
C for Commerce
sport (using some management jargon
considering the audience of this article).
The truly global sports are football aka
soccer, track events, motorsports and
maybe hockey and basketball can scrape
into the list at the bottom. Let us look at
how the 20/20 format for cricket could
provide that vital boost and act as a
catalyst in launching the sport of cricket
globally.
To begin with none of the sports
mentioned above last for longer than 3
hours at a time. Cricket however went
from being a 6 day sport to a 1 day sport,
now how many people are interested in
&
C for …..
Pranav Aggarwal, PGP Participant
32
following a sport that is a day long when
they don't know the rules, they cant figure
out the players and they don't identify with
any of the teams playing. 20/20 however
will see the game reduced to a short 3
hours, one that can be watched by fans
over a few drinks at the bar.
Another important dimension brought in
by the IPL is the private ownership of
teams, till date cricket was played
between national teams with players
restricted to that nation. However
whether it is the EPL for football, NBA for
basketball, F1 for motorsports all have
teams that are privately owned and a free
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'trade' of talent is allowed. What reigns
supreme is talent, and the money one
has to source it. With the IPL , cricket may
soon get its own share of trades with
players being bought in multi million
dollar deals. Just as an Indian cheers
with all his heart and soul for a
Manchester United or a Ferrari, we may
well see Australians cheering a Mumbai
side or an American cheering for the
Kolkatta team.
What this also does is provide
entertainment value. Shahrukh Khan
already has a video for his side the
Kolkatta Knight riders. Teams have been
launched at impressive glitzy
ceremonies in their respective cities and
promoters have spared no tactic in the
book to attract publicity. Reams of press
space has gone into every leg of the IPL
right from the sale of broadcast rights to
auctioning of teams to bidding for
players.
Going back to the point I mentioned
earlier on the IPL being over burdened. I
say it is over burdened with the pressure
to do as expected, to generate the
interest, to ensure spends from fans,
spends on tickets to watch matches live,
spends to buy memorabilia and a million
more things which they might come up
with.
I cannot ignore and not mention the ICL
(Indian Cricket League) which is floated
by the Essel group. A major competitor to
the IPL, their 2nd season is on its way to
completion on the 7th of April. However it
has failed to generate the interest one
would have thought it to generate. Most
of its matches begin at 7 pm coinciding
with the prime time on television. The ICL
contest last year in its inaugural season
was won by the Chennai Superstars and
they are in the final 4 this year too.
It is a tough job for the BCCI and the
promoters of the IPL teams to ensure that
they spin the cycle so as to make their
venture profitable. After all it is only the
money that makes the world go around.
At business schools we are taught to
analyze business opportunities on
various parameters. It would be
interesting to see some of management's
fundamental tools applied to the IPL.
Let's look at the investments first. The
BCCI received almost $725 Million from
the sale of the 8 city franchisees. This
was a good 80% over the reserve price of
$50 Mn for each team. Television rights
sold for $918 Million and a $ 100 Million
commitment for promoting the league.
The BCCI has raised more than $1.5
Billion over the entire process and more
is to come once the tournament
progresses.
I personally feel that the cricketing
industry is now worth a lot more than it
ever was, whats important to see is how
corporate bigwigs like United Breweries,
Reliance and India Cements will make
money out of this and explain the
investment to shareholders. Would a
Reliance shareholder see the company
invest $ 100 Million (just the franchise
price) in expansion, or in a new venture
like a Twenty20 cricket franchise?
Another fundamental analysis we
business graduates always do is
customer analysis. Who is the customer
here? Who is the entertainer here? Is
Shahrukh Khan's new music video for his
team the only entertainment we can
expect from the IPL? The customer after
all is the man on the street, the man who
takes a sick leave to watch the finals of
the tri series in Australia, the man who
clings on to life in the local trains of
Mumbai but doesn't miss plugging his
earphones for commentary on the
match.
The IPL has already disappointed many,
to begin with there are just 8 city teams so
all of India is not represented. What is a
cricket fanatic from Indore to do? Cheer
for the Mumbai Indians cause he loves
Sachin or the Chennai Super Kings
cause he cant forget M S Dhoni and his
World Cup winning captaincy for India.
At the same time with matches restricted
to 8 cities a majority of Indians do not
have access to watch the matches live,
when its international cricket there is a
whole days cricket and one gets to see all
of the Indian team plus a foreign side
33
C for Cricket C for Commerce C for...
performing. Here one may see a max of
5-7 players that too for just 3 hours.
The other customers for the league are
the advertisers and sponsors. Without
the advertisers shelling out money the
entire proposition may fail, and the only
draw for these customers will be the man
on the street described above. Most
advertisers are using a 'wait and watch'
approach for now
The next hurdle before the IPL is
retention of talent, what if the icon players
like Sachin, Gangluy, Dravid and Kumble
retire from active cricket and don't play in
the tournament 2 years from now, worst
still the foreign players being unable to
play in the future due to clashes with
international series cannot be ruled out.
The entire premise of the IPL is based on
top international players performing for
franchise teams on Indian soil. It is heard
that the BCCI is in talks with associations
to hold exhibition matches at the Lord's
and Oval in England. England too is in
advanced stages of announcing its own
variant of domestic IPL style contests.
Another question mark lies with the
quality of games one will see as part of
the IPL. 'A' Rated international batsmen
facing India's domestic players and vice
versa may lead to lop sided contests with
little entertainment value for the viewer.
The whole world waits with bated breath,
some as fans, some as promoters, some
as investors; the only ones to laugh all
the way to the banks are the BCCI and
the players. They just realized that they
are worth a lot more and the IPL has used
the oldest trick in the book by luring top
national and international players with
big money for a small portion of their
time.
Interesting it is bound to be and well….
The last C stands for CONFUSION!!! The
state of mind I am in after trying to
unjumble the IPL
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O
f what good is Twittering or Microblogging? A few
months ago even I did not understand. Much the same
way as I did not "get" the concept of blogging six years
ago (I'm a slow learner, you see ;-)
What is Twitter, you ask?
Twitter is the tool that helps make this possible and people are
using it differently from what it was started for. In a very simple
form, it asks you to answer the question "What are you doing?"
in 140 characters or less. People can choose to follow your
updates, if they choose to become your "followers”.
The New Age of Blogging
Gautam Ghosh, Senior Consultant, Tvarita Consulting
Then like Technorati for blogs, there's a specific search engine
for Twitter called Terraminds. I am such a Twitter newbie that I
discovered it recently. I searched for HR and Human Resources
and found lots of people to follow.
The biggest advantage of twitter is that it enables you to get
away from the computer as you can choose to receive the
34
tweets on your cell phone. So imagine that you are doing an
informal salary survey for accounting professionals, and you
tweet your question to your followers if any of them know how
much accountants are making, you can receive real time data.
That's not all, tweeter tracking is another killer feature for you to
track specific phrases and have them delivered to your
phone/IM.
One of the driving philosophies behind Twitter has always been
to get away from the computer, get out there and do something,
and tell your friends about it in real-time. That's why Twitter
works over IM and text messaging—you can bring your phone
almost anywhere to interact and share.
So imagine you are hiring Strategy Consultants, you can set up
a track for "Strategy Consultant" and whenever anyone publicly
mentions that phrase in their Tweet, you get an update and can
contact the person directly. Adding an @ before the username
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of a person on Tweeter makes the person
see it as a reply.
Since Twitter has opened up their API - a
programming interface that enables
developers to create new services on top of
it - all sorts of new inventions are springing
up. Lots of applications are being built
around it. My personal favourite is
Twitterfox, a Firefox extension that enables
me to twitter without going to the website.
Then for the bloggers amongst you, there's
Twitterfeed that enables you to send a link
to your blog posts to your twitter followers.
The 6 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers are :
1. Research Tool
One of the things that
I've come to enjoy about
Twitter the most is the
way that it can be used
when you're researching
a post.
Stuck for inspiration?
Twitter and idea and see
what others add to it.
Need an example for a
point you're making?
Twitter it and you might
get some good ones.
Got a question that
you're stuck on? Ask it to
your followers to see
what they think.
Need to test a hypothesis? Do a straw poll
on your followers.
The beauty of Twitter is that it's quick, is
used by a wide variety of types of people
and because of the 140 character limit to
messages it keeps interactions concise,
manageable and productive (usually).
2.Reinforce (and expand) Your Personal
Brand
Whether it be social networking, blogging,
bookmarking, real life interactions etc - all
of these 'straws' when added together can
go a long way to building your own brand.
Twitter can be used to expand your brand
or to show a different side of you.
The New Age of Blogging, Twittering or Microblogging and HR
3. Promote Content
Twitter can potentially promote content
and drive traffic.
4. Extend Audience - Find NEW
Readers
One challenge that bloggers who've
been around for a while in their niche can
face is that they reach a saturation point.
They sometimes feel like everyone who
will hear about them has already heard
about them and they can see a plateau in
their stats. This often happens 6-12
months into a blog.
My encouragement to this type of
blogger is to think about where potential
readers might be gathering that they're
yet to tap into. I've found that this has
happened for me with Twitter.
5. Networking
Another obvious benefit of Twitter is the
ability that it gives you to network on a
different level with other bloggers,
readers and 'others'. I've lost count of the
direct messages and group
conversations that I've had with people
that I'd never have 'met' any other way.
Already this has opened up some
fascinating opportunities to work
together on promoting each other's
content, sharing advice etc. It's also
opened up 3-4 opportunities for me to
find new guest bloggers for my blogs.
35
6. Previews
Twitter allows me to create a private post
on my blog that I reveal only to Twitter
followers and to then post a draft there of
a post I'm working on to get feedback on
before publishing it publicly. This would
be an interesting exercise and explore
the idea of a more communal writing of a
post.
The latest is that Twitter is being used by
recruiters too.
All this springs from a deceptively simple
idea and tool. And that is what never
ceases to amaze me about the internet:
create a platform, make it open, and
people will do things with it that you
never could have imagined.
Considering that Twitter was
cofounded by Evan Williams, who
also cofounded the company that
created Blogger and popularised
personal publishing, I should have
seen it coming. I just forgot that, on
the web, big things often come in
small packages.
Anyway, if you are on twitter, or
have decided to convert to a
Twitterer (or is it Tweeter?) you can
find me at -
- http://twitter.com/gautamghosh.
Gautam Ghosh is a Senior Consultant at
Tvarita Consulting, based out of
Hyderabad, India. Prior to joining Tvarita
he had his own HR consulting practice
through which he helped organizations in
the areas of Organization and Strategic
HR and Learning and Development
consulting. His experience in the
corporate world was as a HR Manager at
Deloitte & Touche, and in organizations
like Dell, Hewlett Packard and Satyam
Computer Services.
He is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur,
specialisation in Human Resource
Management.
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S
ome of the reasons why companies
invest in IT, or rather why investors
invest in companies who have more
IT budgets? The answer is, maximizing
profits and return on investments. EAI
does give a one-time or short-term
solution to the problem of centralization
but it fails or requires another millions of
dollar investment to serve another
problem and that too, for a short term. To
help an organization in making a strategic
rather redundant investment, go with
Service enabled architecture. What does
it mean?
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a
design paradigm comprised of design
principles that shape solution logic into
Service Oriented Architecture
New Paradigm
Neeraj Jain, Sr. Consultant, Oracle Corporation
services with distinct design
characteristics that support the
realization of strategic goals associated
with service-oriented computing. Some of
the strategic benefits are as under,
Intrinsic Interoperability : One of the key
benefits of SOA is to establish native
interoperability by standardizing the
interfaces and the interaction of the IT
systems implemented across the
organization/s. In today's competitive
world, every organization is looking for
best-of-breed IT solutions to realize the
business problem. For example,
Accounting System (A) takes care of the
timesheet and invoicing the resources
effort and Human Resource System (B)
takes care of maintaining the resources
information. At the end of the year, I want
to develop an Appraisal System which
could talk to the System A and System B
to calculate the incentives to be awarded
without any modification to be done to
either System A or B.
SOA focuses on providing the
standardized interface to every business
solution (independent of technology) and
thus can be leveraged in realizing an all-
together different business problem.
Increased Confederation : SOA aims to
increase the federated perspective of an
organization through the standardized
(platform & technology independent) and
composable services (for example,
combining services implemented on
different specifications). Within the
context of SOA, each service establishes
standardized endpoints or official point of
contact and hence realizes the enterprise
solutions in a consistent manner. The
advantage is the unification of the
disparate environment to solve a
business problem while continuing to be
36
governed independently.
Inc r eas ed Vendor Di v er s i fi c ati on
Options : SOA design confirms the
abstraction of implementation details
(vendor specific) from the consumers by
positioning services as standardized
endpoints. This provides an organization
with the constant option of quick to adapt
with the best options available in the
market and in a cost effective manner. For
example, today Company A Order
Support System is implemented in SAP
that does not provide the feature of
automatic procurement order generation
after reaching a configurable level. Due to
absence of this feature, business would
like to go with another ERP system, which
is huge investment. SOA provides the
flexibility to just replace the inventory
module or even less to make for the
absent feature.
Increased Business and Technology
Domain Alignment : Designing SOA a
system is not only about abstraction but it
also promotes accurate encapsulation of
business logic by closely aligning the
business people and technology gurus.
Business Process Modeling (BPM) tools
are business-centric and focuses on
capturing the business needs and
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designed to be used by business domain
analysts. This allows the in-depth
participation of the business analysts in
the overall design of the system, rather
just a source-of-truth. The artifacts
generated in capturing the business
needs could be easily translated into
physical design of the system.
Increased ROI: SOA fosters the creation
of agnostic solution logic - a collection of
reusable and multipurpose services. By
implementing SOA solution, an
organization becomes more agile as it will
be able to compose new solutions from
existing logic and reduces the amount of
time spent on maintenance. The
segregation of a complex business
problem into smaller independent logical
units helps incorporating the
enhancements in a very cost effective
manner. The monitoring aspect of SOA
helps in identifying the bottlenecks and
widens the scope of improvement. prominent increase in responsiveness
Money, Money, Money! and cost-effectiveness.
Increased Organizational Agility : The
agnostic nature of the services gives the
flexibility of repeatedly orchestrating them
into different configurations. As a result,
the time and effort to fulfill new or changed
business requirements is significantly
reduced. The time and money required to
develop new business lines or to enhance
existing business is exponentially
reduced once the core services are in-
house.
Reduced IT Burden: Consistently
applying service-orientation results in an
organization with reduced redundancy;
reduced operational cost and
development team; reduced overhead
associated with governance and
evolution. An IT infrastructure, inline with
SOA benefits an organization through
37
SOA - New Paradigm
As many technologies in past, Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the most
recent buzzword in the IT world. From
past couple of years, I have been working
on SOA tools and concepts. I have been
trying to figure out why companies
(vendors and clients) are
making such huge
investments in this initiative?
What is the niche that is
attracting them? On my way, I
figured out that SOA has the
potential to revolutionize the
relevance of IT in business
decisions and thus, make a
direct and tangible impact on
the Share Holder's wealth.
Now what is SOA for a
layman?
SOA is an architectural style
for implementing and using the
business process as services.
The services are functional
building blocks accessible
over standard protocols that
are independent from the
platforms and programming
language.
Strategic Benefits of SOA
The biggest challenge of every
organization is to centralize
the information, stored in a
heterogeneous/distributed
environment. In business
terms, how to make systems
talk with each other running on
different platforms, implemented in
different technologies and serving
different needs? An obvious solution to
the problem is EAI (Enterprise Application
Integration), a high-ticket and tedious
way. EAI, as the name suggest integrates
the applications but does it cater to all the
needs, does it help in realizing your vision
to grow and faster and most importantly, is
it a need or a solution?
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Searching the God
Particle Physics & the LHC
Manpreet Singh, Principal Architect in a Product Development Company
It is said that the observer effects the
reality. Experiments done to find the
fundamental unit of light result in finding
the photons, changing the conditions of
experiment result in waves. The property
is referred to as wave-particle duality.
Though light has been defined with this
dichotomy there are considerable chunks
of missing information prohibiting from
defining the fundamental forces of this
universe.
Einstein said “God doesn't play dice” –
there are deterministic laws for
everything, Stephen Hawking contradicts
saying “God does play dice and
sometimes throws them where they
cannot be seen”. The quest to understand
these laws of universe is still ongoing.
Particle physics basics
Particle physics has put forward the
“Standard Model” which describes
elementary particles and the fundamental
forces (the mechanism by which the
elementary particles interact with each
other) of the universe.
According to Standard Model all matter is
made up of quarks and leptons. There are
fundamentally six quarks and six leptons
grouped into three families, each having
two quarks and two related leptons.
Richard Feynman suggested that forces
occur when two particles exchange a
boson or gauge particle. Bosons are the
force carriers. There are four known
bosons Gluons, W & Z, Photon and
Graviton (which has not yet been found).
The four fundamental forces - Gravitation,
Weak force, Strong force and the
Electromagnetic force, are the result of LHC (Large Hadron Collider). It is
these bosons. currently under construction and would
start working from mid June 2008. LHC
Electromagnetism defines how particles would help in confirming the predictions
interact with photons. about the elusive Higgs boson and
The strong force binds the elements of thereby provide the missing links in the
atomic nuclei together “Standard Model” of particle physics.
The weak force governs radioactivity and
hydrogen fusion (as in the energy from Particle accelerators are devices that use
sun). electric fields to push electrically charged
Gravitation is the result of messenger particles to high speeds and contains
particle called Graviton. them.
There is one very important difference Accelerators can charge only a few types
between Electromagnetism and Weak of particles as the particles need to exhibit
force: photons have no mass – they travel properties like charge (since the beam
at speed of light and operate over infinite has to be electromagnetically
distance, while W and Z are heavy manipulated) and that they need to be
particles. For mathematical reasons, the stable. LHC charges Hadrons, which are
masses of W and Z raise inconsistencies made up of quarks. The common
in the Standard Model. To address this, examples of hadrons are protons and
physicists postulate that there must be at neutrons.
least one other particle - the Higgs boson
or the God particle. The size of the accelerator relates to the
The mass of particles is assumed to come maximum energy that can be obtained.
from what is called a Higgs mechanism. It Also when a beam collides with a
postulates that all of space is filled with a stationary target, the energy produced is
quantum fluid (having countless Higgs square root of the energy of the particle
bosons) called the Higgs field, which hitting the target (E = Sqrt(Ebeam)).
prevents certain forces from propagating Whereas when the two beams collide the
over large distances. Disturbances in this energy produced is the sum of the
field as particles move through it cause energies of the two beams (E = Ebeam1 +
objects to have mass. Higgs boson may Ebeam2).
also define why gravitation is a weak as
compared to other forces. The large aspect of LHC comes from its
Higgs bosons have not yet been seen and circumference of 26.6 km. It is built
are assumed to occur at very high energy underground at depth varying between
levels not yet produced in the laboratory. 175m and 50m. LHC would have an
internal vacuum at pressure of 10-13 atm.
The Large Hadron Collider It has about 9300 magnets (dipoles,
quadrupoles, octupoles etc), which would
(LHC) help in controlling the particles trajectory.
On the border of France and Switzerland To optimize the performance of magnets
is the CERN's laboratory having the liquid Helium would be used to keep the
world's largest particle accelerator called
38
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temperatures low. LCH uses cavities to
keep protons bunched together for
maximum luminosity at collision points
and to maximize the collisions. Cavities
would also provide radio frequency
power to beam for accelerating to top
energy. There would eight cavities per
beam in the LHC.
Movement of particles in LHC would be
maintained using the electromagnetic
devices. Dipole magnets would keep the
particles in circular orbit, quadrupole
magnets focus the beam, and
accelerating cavities acting as
electromagnetic resonators would
accelerate particles and keep them at a
constant energy by compensating for
energy loss also called synchrotron
radiation (The loss in the energy when
particles move through the curved path is
emitted as radiation called synchrotron
radiation.)
LHC would accelerate two beams of
particles of same kind, either protons are
lead ions. Protons are chosen as they
are stable particles - around 2000 times
massive than electrons and have much
less energy loss per turn through
synchrotron radiation. The beams would
be transmitted in opposite directions.
In LHC protons would move
0.999997828 times the speed of light at
injection and 0.999999991 times the
speed of light at top energy completing
the circular orbit at about 11245 times
every second. Each beam would consist
of nearly 3000 bunches of particles and
each bunch would contain 100 billion
particles.
Each proton beam flying would have an
energy of 7TeV (1 TeV = 1012
electronVolt ), and as explained earlier,
the energy produced by collision would
be 14 TeV. Lead ions have many protons,
the collision of lead ion beams would
produce collision energy of 1150TeV,
39
would be highest ever produced in the
lab.
The energy concentration in the LHC
would be comparable to the energy
density just after the Big Bang. Such high
energy could create black holes, but they
would be very short lived to decay into
radiation.
Particles colliding at such high speeds
would annihilate into bursts of energy
that materialize as showers of new
particles recorded by waiting detectors.
There are 6 detectors in LHC – ATLAS,
ALICE, CMS, LHCb, LHCf, TOTEM,
each playing a specific role to identify the
secondary particles produced during
collision, measure their positions, their
charges and energy.
With about 600 million collisions per
second there would be lot of data
generated which needs to be recorded
and analyzed. Every eight-hour run of
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 Searching the God particle

the LHC will produce around 10
terabytes of data. LHC could produce
around 10 petabytes of useful data
each year.
To process all the data a worldwide grid
is been created – called the LHC
Computing Grid. It would support high
speed data transfer amongst
participating nodes. Currently the
fastest speed of transmission record is
at 9.08 Gigabits per second (IP v6
protocol). LHC grid would need such small & curled up.
transmission speeds to transfer data to
participating systems in the grid. LHC would take us to the new frontiers
of particle physics which would lead to
At the cost of about 4.7 billion Euros, main technical advancements unforeseen
objective of LHC is to find the Higgs boson, today.
which would be a major step in search of
Grand Unification Theory which seeks to
unify fundamental forces. Besides, it may
also help in finding new dimensions
(currently there are four dimension - three
spatial and one of time) believed to be very

Test Your Word Power - Answers

1.Unsnarl/Extricate from entanglement.
2.Flatiron/ An iron that was heated by placing it on a stove.
3.Eardrum/An membrane in the ear that vibrates to sound.
4.Usufruct/Legal right to use property belonging to someone else in a way that property is
not injured.
5.Rheostat/Resistor for regulating current.
6.Emaciate/Grow weak and thin or waste away physically.
7.Meagre/Deficient in quality or quantity.
8.Impromptu/With little or no forethought or preparation.
9.Abulia/Loss of willpower.
10.Skiwear/ Clothing wear for skiing.
11.Carnation/Eurasian plant with pink to purple-red spice scented usually double
flowers; widely cultivated in many varieties and many colours.
12.Base/ Any of water soluble compound capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with
an acid to form a salt and water.
13.Cache/A hidden storage space of money or weapons.
14.Connive/Encourage or assent to illegally or criminally.
15.Yenning/Having a desire for something or someone not present.
16.Monotone/An unchanging intonation.
17.Earth/Abode of mortals in contract to heaven or hell.
18.Rancour/Feeling of deep anger or ill will.
19.Urgent/ Compelling immediate action.
20.Onestep/Early ballroom dance precursor to fox-trot.

40
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 ModelingIdea
Abstract
Sonal Sareen, Business Consultant in a Product Development Company

Earlier organizations use to take

feedback from customers and analyze
them to find out any useful value from it.
Today organizations have realized that
the employees are good source of Ideas
and improvement suggestions. The
organizations have started framing up
structure for collecting ideas, collating
ideas and analyze them. But there is a
slight gap at point of identifying the
valuable ideas. Here in this article I have
tried to develop a Model to value the idea
and help management identify the
valuable ideas and compare them.
What is Idea management?
Every company has Ideas sparking
everyday in head of every employee.
These ideas can help company in
reducing cost, increasing productivity,
reducing turn around time and
contributes to the organizations goals in
numerous ways.
Each company is working hard to trap
these ideas and align with product life
cycle. There are various idea
management tools available in market
which capture the ideas, collate them,
compare them, prioritize them and help
in decision making.

Valuation engine

I
D
x x xxx
x x xx High
E
A x x
Value
Ideas
Leads to SSS
S
x
Low Value
Ideas
Saves

Resources
41
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Not every idea is a good idea and many
good ideas may not have value to the
company. The companies take very
much precaution while drafting the idea
management system, but still could not
identify it in early stages.
Why Valuation?
There is a big gap at point of capturing
the ideas. The ideas are not valued and
it's not possible to determine which Idea
is good or has higher dollar value or quick
Idea
• Medium Value Tactical
• Medium Volume
• Medium time Implementation
Modeling Idea
implementation. So it is very important to the effective decision.
understand financial possibilities of the
idea and help management to take Wh at i s the v al u at i o n
decision on how which idea to be
principle?
persuade first. Also it provides a base for
Value of an idea is the present value of all
evaluating and comparing the ideas
the future cash flows (expected) deriving
across organization on similar KPIs (Key
to the owners of the idea discounted at a
Performance Indicator).
rate of return (expected) commensurate
Here I have developed a model that will
with the riskiness of the future cash flows.
help in calculating the value of idea at
inception, help management to predict
the financial possibilities of idea and take
Idea
Financial Scale
• High Value
• Low Volume
Strategic • Slow implementation
IDEA
Operational • Low Value
• High Volume
• Easy/Quick Implementation
42
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A little about classification…
It's always wise to classify the target
(divide and rule); here I have aligned the
ideas according to organizations
structure and leadership. The ideas can
be operational – day to day activity,
tactical – about management of
operations and strategic – about
managing overall organization. Generally
the operational ideas are high in volume
but carry low values thus are ignored
because of absence of proper valuation
system. While, the strategic ideas
consume lots of resource; they are good
but of low value to organization.
Th e Mo d el (IVaM – Id ea
Valuation Model)
Unlike valuation of any tangible asset,
Modeling Idea
valuation of ideas is a bit more complex. detail:
In valuation of an asset whether tangible
or non tangible the usage, worth and
Contribution Breakdown
anticipation is available. Here we are
Every idea is taken up by the
assuming something in thought process,
management only if it adds value to the
making scenarios and analyzing
organizations goals. Through
feasibility and simultaneously trying to
contribution breakdown module we try to
predict the returns. I have developed a
bucket the idea in various value classes
Model that helps in valuation of idea. I call
and align with organization goals. The
this IVaM The model starts with:-
main goals of the organization can be
- Taking up an idea,
classified as follow:-
- Contribution breakdown,
More revenue
- Forecasting & projections,
Increased sale
- Simulating base value,
Increased production
- Creating various scenarios,
Increased Quality
-Risk exposure adjustment &
discounting.
Less Cost
Reduce waste
Discovering IVaM – modules in Increase productivity
Reduce turnaround time
43
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Apart from above classification this
module also supports classification idea
into operational, tactical and strategic
i d e a . I t b e c o m e s e a s y f o r th e
management to link the idea to
organization goals through this and
predict judgmental valuation of the idea.
Moreover, might be interested to pursue it
from here itself without further valuation
through model.
The classification and categorization
above is done studying the generic
organization. Each organization can
themselves go ahead and create there
own buckets and use advance statistical
classification techniques like CART, etc.
and come up more meaningful
classification for them.
Projections & sensitivity analysis
Next after classification of
the ideas the model
projects the value flow for
the idea. This activity
involves forecasting value
chain analysis and value
flow and predict some
funds flow. It takes the idea
and utilization and finally
rewards. It then does the
time series analysis for a
given life of idea and
calculates the value
across useful life of idea,
alike any loan or mortgage
product.
Valuation Engine
As discussed above,
valuation of Idea is unique as we not
always have sufficient information to
analysis like we have with other intangible
assets say goodwill. Thus the model has
two sections of valuation methodology
one, expert judgmental based on asset
prediction and second based on
probabilistic stochastic model.
Asset Led Valuation
This section deals with direct value
generation of idea. It evaluates the value
in form of Dollar, Time saving, resource
saving or productivity increase directly
associated with idea. The model takes
inputs from projections and sensitivity
analysis module and calculates the value.
This section is deterministic and
calculates the dollar saved throughout
time series and consolidates it.
Stochastic Model
This section of model helps predicting
any impact of Idea which is indirect or
requires probabilistic modeling. It uses
Monte Carlo simulation to predict
increase in sale, improved quality value,
etc. After that it uses the dollar multiple
assigned to each category and multiplies
to generate the indirect value.
The above two value sum up to provide us
the base value of an idea. Valuation
engine pushes this calculation to the next
module for risk assessment and
discounting.
Risk Exposure Management &
Discounting
Once we have base value for an idea, we
can use Risk exposure management.
This module helps in calculating VaR -
Value at Risk for the idea. Risk and
mitigation analysis is conducted; we
adjust the base value of idea to come with
risk adjusted value of Idea. This risk
adjusted value is than discounted for the
44
Modeling Idea
time series and present value of the idea
is calculated.
Scenario Creation
Using the risk adjusted value of idea, we
determine the scenarios. We develop
three scenarios - best case, most likely
and worst case scenarios.
The scenarios predict notional value
inflow and financial indicators of impact of
Idea on organization. It will help
management to manage Ideas as
portfolio of assets as they manage other
assets of the company.
Dashboard
The Reporting Dashboard can be
customized to fit individual management
KPI study and preferences. But ideally
the idea value in dollars is a good input for
taking decisions. The
Management can prefer
to develop a dashboard
showing impact on
individual goals as well.
Time series and
discounted value flow
can be of good use to
some decision makers.
So, the reporting is not
an issue anything from
start of model to end, the
dashboard can illustrate
any KPI as discussed
and evaluated through
this Model.
Summary
Through use of IVaM the
organizations can gain a lot through
ideas. They can predict the value of idea
at an early stage, a common dollar value
of idea for comparing ideas across the
organization. As it uses mathematical and
some statistical tools to evaluate the
value of an idea it has higher confidence
level and accuracy. It can be an excellent
tool for management to manage the ideas
just like portfolio of an asset. It also helps
identifying the best value ideas to invest
resources into and pace ahead of
competition.
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