Attrition & its antidote in my realization

This blog has nothing new to the HR professionals, so HR professionals you may stay away from this article or you may read this article to argue or to criticize. This is a blog written for those who are indirectly or directly connected with the private organizations and its problem of retention. After spending a brief span in the field of HR, my important realization is that retention starts with the process of recruitment. And retention precisely depends upon the understanding of generation.

This is the first time in the history of employment organizations are experiencing all the generations to work together and naturally they are different from each other. They all have their own creed, own level of aspiration, own level of desire and own set of rules. Process of recruitment is not just pooling the talents, short listing them according to the requirement, conducting the interview and selecting them. It is more than just this mere process which is not written anywhere. There comes the HRs of the organizations who play the pivotal role to keep the talent in the organization for a longer period of time. From the maximum of 30 minutes of interaction with the candidate an HR needs to identify his compatibility in the organization keeping the things in mind whom he would report to, what are his aspirations and desires, what kind of job roles he would handle, which generation he belongs to, what motivates him, what de-motivates him, which category of personality he possesses etc. And mind it these are not measurable!! This has been clichéd in the industry that most of the time people don’t leave the organization, they leave their bosses.

This has emphasized me to think over and over on the relationship that the boss and his subordinates share (kindly do not consider me as a male chauvinist the male counterpart has been taken for the convenience of discussion, it holds true for the female counterparts as well). An HR should always give a special attention to the generations of both the boss and the candidate. He should understand the traits of both the generations and match their strengths & weaknesses and also their compatibility to each other. This better understanding will surely foster the relationship between the boss and the candidate. That’s how at the very first step one HR can create a harmony between the boss and the new joiner under him without the knowledge of both of them. Better understanding of the generation will give a scope to the HRs to device the antidote for the poison “attrition” which irrespective of the industry, more or less, is suffering from. The biggest challenge that today’s organizations and HRs are facing to retain the top talents and attracting the best suitable talent. The understanding of generation will facilitate the HRs to create Employee Value Proposition (EVP) by improving the existing HR policies and amending the policies according to the culture of the organization and its average age of the employees. These can help not only to retain the top talents but also can attract the best suitable talents through a positive EVP.

Better understanding of generation not only will help the HRs to select the right fit candidate but also will equip the HRs with the new employee engagement arrows in their quiver. HRs can’t make “one size fits all” kind of rewards & recognitions or employee engagement activities, otherwise it would not be a good exemplar for the organization and will experience high employee turnover rate. As earlier it is mentioned that first time in the history of employment organizations are experiencing all the generations to work together, so which motivates the “TRADITIONALIST” or “BABY BOOMERS”, will not motivate the “GEN X”, nor will they motivate “GEN Y or millennial” and things will be more arduous for HRs when in few years down the lane the “GEN A O” will join the workforce who will be more demanding, challenge seeking than its predecessors and very much creative. Therefore, all the employee engagement activities, employee relation activities HRs need to design in such a fashion that each of the generations gets its honey from these; nobody should feel deprived from his dues.

Understanding of generations will help the HRs to select the right fit candidate to arrest the attrition rate at the threshold of the employment life cycle and can bring break through result as a reply to the hackneyed phrase.

Commonwealth Games, 2010: A total mess!!

The day Indian markets hit psychological barriers at sensex and turning out to be the star performer in the global market, with Indian indices outpacing almost all the leading equity indices of the world and one more time roared to be one of the aspiring supreme economies of the world, same day in front of whole world India got insulted after an under-construction foot over bridge got collapsed outside the Jawaharlal Neheru Statdium, the main venue of the Commonwealth Games by injuring 26 innocent laborers. What a shame!! Because of some morons and their shameless vested interest, our nation today is looked down by other nations. One after other shocking news is coming and the whole world is observing us so neatly that inch of mismanagement also can be revealed, and then we are demonstrating our pathetic management in Commonwealth Games, 2010. The abysmal preparation of CWG is unwatchable and over enthusiast also will think twice before betting on the fate of CWG, 2010. Just 10 days before the games kick off what we see is just unimaginable. We thought to organize this game in order to showcase our great economy and management style; but in reality what we ended up with is simply mockery of ourselves. Just think, did we really need this? Had we not enough reasons to be embarrassed globally? Did we really need to be ridiculing ourselves in front of the international media? I guess no, when 33% of the population is below poverty line, where people are struggling to get four square meals in a day, where children are going to work as labors instead of going school, there spending the whooping budget on organizing a game is just ‘the fad of an aberrant son of a rich father’. Day before yesterday foot over bridge got collapsed; yesterday tiles of the false ceiling also came out, the sanitation of the games village is so poor that Australia has hired professional housekeeping service to clean the flats, the stadiums which were certified as waterproof now are experiencing of leaking water to the stadium after the flood of Delhi, other countries are now threatening to pull their name out of events or they will keep their athletes in the hotels. What a shame! Shame! Shame! Utter shame!! I do not see any scope of salvation. What if we could organize a successful game even after this debacle? Will we be able to save our face from corruption & forgery? No!!! Because it is like attending the funeral of a person and expecting him to be alive. It’s all over! Nothing can be done in the funeral! Just participate! But raise the question where did the money vanish? Because it is our money, it’s yours money, it’s my money, it’s the honest taxpayers’ money, we have all the rights to ask the questions in quest of honest answers. The so-called special organizing committee of CWG, 2010 is answerable to us. We are not ready to listen any bizarre explanation of CWG officials anymore. Ms. Dixit is frowning her eyebrows, questioning on patriotism of Indians because they are criticizing country’s poor management. But Ms. Dixit do you know the management rule? They say in management that “inspect what you expect”, which simply means if you expect any result out of anything then monitor it closely. Did your government inspect properly? Did you ask this so-called special organizing committee who had no specialty at all except eating up the money that had been allocated for the games that where the money is going? You cannot shrug off your responsibility after all you are the chief minister of Delhi. What pride are you talking about Ms. Dixit? This pathetic scene is not a matter of pride but its matter of shame. CWG scam is even bigger than the recent scam of IPL and Lalit Modi, just google it and browse internet sites, see how foreigners are writing blogs, giving interviews on recent mayhem. You will come to know why Indians are criticizing! Because it’s their money and if they do not raise their voice now, then the whole world will think that all Indians are corrupted and it will not be a good advertise for Indians in world arena. I will site few examples of expenditures. Here are some, where renovation of Feroz Shah Kotla costs Rs.85 crores, there renovation of JLN stadium costs Rs.961 crores; according to The Economic Times document when Harrods of London can sell exercise machine at Rs. 7 lacs, they are paying rent of Rs.9,75,000 just to hire it (note worthy that on rent, not buy); hiring a chair at Rs.8,378 (take a note just ‘hire’ that too just one); hiring of a refrigerator at Rs.42,202(notice again just ‘hire’ that too just ‘one’);no wonder that expenditure is about to exceed Rs.30,000 crores which is almost 3 times higher than the expected budget given by the central sports minister Mr. Gill in Rajya Sabha. Survey conducted by Times of India shows that 76% Delhiites feel CWG expense unjustified, 54% of younger generation feel that the two weeks of the sports extravanga will adversely affect country’s reputation due to corruption and messy preparation. Still Ms. Dixit would you question on patriotism and pride?
If we analyze the meaning of the word ‘commonwealth’ from dictionary we find ‘welfare of the people’ means greater good for the society, development of the livelihood of the common men, upliftment of the society’s infrastructures, and then if we look at the picture of our so-called Commonwealth Games, we see deprivation from development of common people. Thousands of money is spent on this games, where we need more schools, hospitals, infrastructures, we could have spent on these things; we could have spent on promoting sports, encouraged children to come forward to sports by making playgrounds, giving them healthy appetite. Instead of doing welfare of the common people of the country, we have done crime granting funds to this so-called special organizing committee and letting Mr. Dalbir singh, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Mr.Lalit Bhanot to inflate their own bank accounts. And these ‘shameless obnoxious weeds’ of the society are still enjoying life with taxpayers money and giving statement as if they are the most innocent people world could have ever produced. Even after athletes pulling out their name from the events due to security reason Mr. Lalit Bhanot is giving kiddish excuses and statement before media and blaming media for exaggeration of the real fact. What are you Mr. Bhanot? Are you OK? Or you have lost your senses? The world is observing you, show some maturity, and do not ridicule more! Please! You cannot build a house of forgery on the basement of the tears of hundreds of people, bloods of poor laborers; you can deserve only insult and abuse.
After reading this blog some might feel me as the anti-national creature but then I would ask a valid question if I am today is anti-national then the persons who have played with taxpayers’ money what are they? They I guess then criminals!!! Lies can be fabricated as much as somebody wants and spread it as if these were truth but truth cannot be fabricated and manufactured, truth is always bitter and here the truth is very little shine of hope we can see to make CWG 2010 a great success story in the history of games and sports. Forget to compete with the standards of China’s 2008 Olympic or South Africa’s FIFA World Cup 2010, try not to hurt any athlete in jeopardized CWG, 2010.

Soccer World Cup & India..Waka, waka this time for India!!

When today I sat down to write this blog the last whistle of Soccer World Cup 2010 had already been blown by the referee one week back!! One more World Cup has passed by!! One more month of sensation has finished!! Football fanatic of India, specially Bengal toiled a lot in the last month to sit in front of TV in the midnight depriving themselves from their well cushioned luxury beds; debated with colleagues on tea table over their favorite teams’ wins and losses; bus, train, tram, car, cab, office, school, auto regardless of the vehicles, regardless of their societal status people were chatting, gossiping about football; newspapers’ headlines were transformed from politics to football, our ministers, film stars all were outspaced by Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo, Diego, Eniesta, Via, et. al. Spain, who had won the EURO Cup 2008, won the first time World Cup in the history of 80 yrs of Soccer World Cup. But what about India? A country with 1.2 billion of population can’t produce 11 international class footballers, India is struggling to find a place in the FIFA ranking under 150 and country like Spain with 50 million of population is the world’s best football playing country. Utter shame for us!!!But why? Who is to be blamed? Government, poor infrastructure, physical fitness, lack of professionalism, media plethora of reasons can be listed down which is the proper reason?
But I feel the biggest problem we have with is our ATTITUDE. Attitude is something which differentiates a genius from an ordinary person and we lack in that. Personally, I believe, we have already believed that football world cup is not our cup of tea and we can’t play the way other football playing countries play. Japan, such a small country, with less population, has become one of the well known football playing nation of the world and they have produced world class footballer like Honda who is the Japanese flag bearer even in classical conservative European football and here in India we have Baichung Bhutia, who has played in some 2nd division football team of Europe and we worship him as the greatest player of football in India but we forget that our ancestors got a chance to play in soccer world cup in 1950 after 2nd World War. Since that time our players used to play football bare footed and were not comfortable in shoes with spikes, so, they were disqualified to kick the ball in that world cup. We even forget that during that time we had lot many good players who were comparable even with world class players. Now, India does foreign tours to play against some 2nd divisional club teams of various countries and there also they play not to score goal and beat them but to receive less goals and accept a defeat with pride with a consolation that they played hard but could not succeed. No wonder, we are at 132nd position! My point is not any comparison between Baichung and Honda, but my point of discussion is attitude. I guess attitude of our players, our football association and attitude of all the associates of football is not in place. Attitude is something which determines our altitude. If we under estimate our potential, who will value us!! Nobody!! And that is what is happening with India. Once in the year of 1996 we got ranking of 94, ironically that is the best ranking we have ever had in the FIFA ranking from when it has started to rank the football playing nations. After that in 2006, we got our ever lowest rating of 165!!!Shame!! Shame!! When other Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Iran, even China etc. has improved once they got their highest FIFA ranking ever, India degraded like anything and doing nothing productive which can make sure about their Soccer world Cup debut even after 20 years. This is what I call ‘the attitude problem’. We have legacy of procrastination, we are complacent with our little achievements, we are happy if we get a chance to play in some 2nd division club of Europe. Actually neither we dream big, nor our footballers. When we needed to improve a lot by doing hard work and proper nourishment of the football team in 1996, and took a vision of playing in world cup by 2018 or say by 2022, we ignored to do so. Why? Because of our myopia, we all ran after Cricket, sponsors ran after Cricket as it is always more profitable for them in country like India. We felt and still feel worthwhile to encourage our kids to play cricket than to play football, our media felt that Cricket news are more favorable and lucrative over football news and they started rat race in their media businesses. If we analyze the lives of great footballers, we will see one common thing in most of their lives that is poverty. Then how did they do it? Nothing!! In spite of their poverty, their respective governments and clubs took care of those rare talents and nurtured them and gifted them to their national teams. Talent is one thing which has never been in shortage in India say it education, say it football, say it cricket, say it anything you can imagine. We, Indians are always talented in every field, even Branco, one of the key member of Brazil football team, winner of Soccer world Cup, 1994, has already admitted that players are talented but physically unfit due to proper diet, their physical stamina is weaker compared to other nations due to lack of practice. Branco, who has come for a TV football reality show in Kolkata, is amazed after seeing the infrastructure of football stadium in Saltlake and he told the media that many front runner football playing countries do not have this much facilities and modern infrastructure that Saltlake stadium has. So this proves that lack of infrastructure is not the real issue, real issue is our attitude and here comes the responsibility of respective government and football clubs. If we analyze our football clubs, we will see that our football clubs are spending lakhs and even crores of rupees to hire a 3rd graded foreign footballer who are not getting chance to play football anywhere in the world and giving less opportunity and money to our own footballers who are even more talented than those 3rd graded foreigners just to win few national tournaments; even time and again we see that they are not allowing players from their teams to represent in international match for the national team and play for the pride of the country. By doing so we are sending our sub- standard football team, we are creating clear differentiation between foreign players and our players by paying less to our talented players than foreigners which is enough reason to demotivate players and the upcoming generation. They are not showing interest to play football. No wonder, we are at 132nd position in FIFA ranking list!! As sponsors are less interested to spend money on football teams, so footballers are less paid as compared to our cricketers. As I wrote already that footballers mainly come from poor families, so money is one and perhaps the biggest motivation for them to play football. Here comes the responsibility of clubs, government, IFA, sponsors and all associates of football including media. Clubs need to identify the proper talent and give them payment according to their potential, clubs should show less interest to such 3rd graded foreign footballers and give our own footballers more opportunity, nurture their talent under an efficient coach who can channelize them in a right manner and guide them in a right direction; government should intervene to nurture our footballers by allocating proper fund, IFA should organize or arrange international tournament for national team at regular intervals and give them chance to play against world’s best football playing nations or clubs, not with sub standard 2nd division or 3rd division European clubs, players should develop their attitude positively before playing against such teams, because they need to understand that fighting is not enough but winning is the only way to be remembered forever. But all these things are easy to say but difficult to do and obviously not impossible to do, for this, proper planning and strategy is needed to execute it. From now on IFA should take up a vision that 15 years down the line India would play in Soccer World Cup, to make the dream turn into a reality, they should start to identify the talents from now onwards aged between 7 to 10 years and they would be trained and nurtured by the world class coaches with proper financial and societal infrastructure and they would be exposed to international standard tournaments regularly and play against international class players which will give them both stamina and confidence to face world cup playing countries. If it is properly planned, done, monitored and maintained sustainably then it would not be a difficult task to find out not 11 but atleast 110 international class footballers who can rule the world and can be equally contender of national football jersey. Just we need to correct our attitude towards football. And then we also will be able to sing Waka, Waka, this time for India!!!

One more sacrificial lamb of politics!!!

I, today(01/06/2010), writing this blog because I just felt that yes, people like us, should now raise the voice against the political parties for whose vested interest few public are being sacrificed every now and then; actually this blog is not preplanned and I have no wish to write at this moment but still I have been triggered by my consciences after hearing the news which made me spell bound for few seconds, I could not believe my ears even after listening that Arabindo Dhar or Bapi Dhar has passed away today(01/06/10) morning because he was shot by Tripura Police on his leg, since, being a registered pharmacist of India I felt that how can a person die after being shot on his leg. I thought his leg might be amputated at maximum, because I had never listen that people die after getting shot on leg. I was educated by the news that Bapi Dhar actually died because of excessive bloodshed around 4 liters out of 5.5 liters blood that an adult carries in his body system. That time I understood the reason behind his untimely demise. With very little knowledge of medical science I still guess, had he been admitted to the hospital doctors would have saved his life. As far as my knowledge goes about the place, Patuli, where he was shot by Tripura police, Peerless Hospital where he was later admitted is just a five to seven minutes away. As I listened the news doctors are telling that he was admitted very lately which actually caused his death. Then, I guess it would not be emphatic if my mind or consciences raise a question that even though Bapi was very near to a well known hospital why he had been admitted lately. If we are prudent enough we can understand how political parties use these Tom, Dick & Harry who are actually treated by these political parties as sacrificial lambs. Just tell me one thing, whom do we blame for Bapi’s death? Mr. Chief Minister went to see him in the hospital and we can not forget Jadavpur area is actually Chief Minister’s own area, but did he ask anyone the reason why Bapi was taken to hospital so late? Why nobody came forward to take him to admit in the hospital? Who were busy in gathering public so that they can create a tumultuous environment? Answer is Big NO!!! Why would he ask? He has lot more important things to do. He needs to think of vote bank; how he can utilize this situation and take maximum advantage out of it, in what way he can blame opposition, how his party cadres are managing booth….and lot many!!! Ms. Rail Minister was blaming that the victim actually was creating chaos in booth and is a criminal and is an active CPI(M) member. But Ms. Rail Minister does not you think that this is the first time in your life (if I am not suffering from Alzheimer’s disease!!) when you are not pointing your figure towards the police? But again why Ms. Rail Minister? Everybody knows that you always stand by the side of public (atleast you portray yourself in this way to the West Bengal public), everybody knows you go against police; you raise your voice against public’s right. What went wrong with you this time? Do not you think that Bapi is also a human being, he has also got some human rights, he has also right to live, and he has also got some fundamental rights which he deserves even if he is a ‘criminal’ if I arguably consider your word? Or is it because this time you are not against police since Bapi is not a member of your party? I wrote ‘arguably’ because I personally do not know Bapi and what he was doing on Sunday in booth. Enough is enough now!!! Now we should take it seriously and act upon it, it can not be tolerated anymore that every time election comes and take away few lives which are used as just sacrificial lambs. We should straighten our spines and ask these politicians why do they let sacrifice others’ lives for their brazen political vested interests. If we consider Bapi’s incident then we would see that on that day after he shot by police, he was left on that place for long time because CPI(M) cadres were busy to call up all the medias to create a propaganda and chaotic situation depending upon which they thought they will influence voters’ minds and influence their votes, but they forgot or perhaps overlooked that by gaining sympathy they would not be able to save a life which was supposed to be the first responsibility at that point of time. Now fervently we have to stand against the dogma of political parties that public will be mum all the time and they will do whatever they feel like, otherwise our debility will become their reason of audacity and this kind of catastrophe will happen in every election and wives will lose their husbands, mothers will lose their sons, children will lose their fathers and saga will go on. It is a high time to give these politicians a congruous spat to their odious politics. Bapi’s death is a bell weathering for us that we should consolidate ourselves against all these politicians who do not even care for the people for whom they are so-called valuable persons. We, the youth of India, can give them an ardent example of protest so that they can understand that politics is not their fathers’ property and public lives are not their toys to play which they have started to believe as a gospel truth!! Lets unite together to burn the gimmick of the merchants of public lives, politicians!!!

Debacle of Gyaneshwari Express: who is guilty?

Today when I sat down to write this blog after listening the news that already 104 dead bodies had been discovered amongst the 137 victims in the train accident of 2102 UP Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneswari Super Deluxe Express bound to Kurla from Howrah, few questions jumbled into my mind that every time why some innocent people are being killed, who are these brutal Maoists, why political parties are so eager to take an advantage out of this accident, why every now and then Maoist attacks help one political party specifically, why these so-called Maoists has targeted Indian Railway etc.….Unfortunately, questions are more in my mind than answers. This recent catastrophe has made so many families ruined, so many mothers have lost their children, so many wives have lost their husbands, several children has lost their parents, number of priceless lives have come to an end. And in the midst of this crisis situation the main two political parties are trying their best to emulate each other to reach the people before the civic poll which is on 30th May. I do not know whether it is so-called Maoists or anybody behind this blatant attack to play with human lives, but it is a “politically motivated” preplanned full proof operation. If we peep into this matter deeply then we will find few interesting ‘coincidences’ (if at all we are ready to believe as coincidences!!) which will back my words-“politically motivated”. Firstly, I find how CPI(M) started to take full advantage of this accident immediately; secondly, state government of West Bengal asked CID to investigate in this matter by apprehending that opposition will blame them for this massacre (though generally Railway ministry is supposed to take step for any investigation for any accident in Rail); thirdly, as all political big honchos of oppositions are forced to be busy in development of the recovery of the accident just 72 hours before the civic polls; fourthly, how Railway Minister, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, Ms Mamata Banerjee rushed to the accident place at night and announced hefty compensation plans for all the victims and their families…these four reasons forced me to think it as “politically motivated”. Coincidentally (!!), every time Maoists do something it directly or indirectly helps CPI(M). Still I remember, before Parliament Election, Maoists announced to boycott casting vote in Junglemahal and that helped CPI(M) to win in that place though they were defeated by opposition in almost all the places, attacking rail by Maoists in near past has been raised as a sign of Maoists protests (coincidentally again the TMC supremo is the rail minister), and again this attack happened 72 hrs ahead of civic polls which take away the time from opposition from their last round of announcements in their favor before the public cast their valuable votes. What a coincident!!! That is why I wrote “politically motivated”, because coincident cannot happen so regularly. In Bengali there is an age old adage “Rajai rajai yuddha kore, oolookhagrai pran dei” which means battles between kings take lives of innocents. War between aberrant Maoists, TMC and CPI(M) has taken lots of innocents’ lives in recent past. Being a responsible common citizen of India nay Bengal, I have just few questions to Maoists, TMC and CPI(M) why the hell do you play politics with common persons’ lives? If you are eager to show your muscle power, why don’t you show your muscle power to each other? Why do you all keep common persons’ lives at stake for your culpable politics? Were you unaware of the fact that none of your so-called enemies would be in that train? You knew!! You enemies do not travel by some common trains; and your motive was to vent out your political frustration by killing innocent common people!! Because you know you can not do any harm to big honchos of your so-called enemies, and as they roam with their high profile security it is much more cumbersome than to take the lives of common people. Before and during the time of election all the politicians with their folded hands look like slaves or beggars and they are happy to pose in this manner but once the election gets over their folded hands open up and become their biggest power to do all kinds of nasty things possible and we, the voters, start to fold our hands like slaves in front of them with the quest of our security and justice. Utter shame!! With every such accident happens the ruling government blames opposition for the accidents to create adverse situation and opposition blames government for their inability; if one wants to assess both these parties then he will find only one commonality in thousands of un-commonalities between them that is “political motive”. All are busy to take the maximum advantage out of a heart breaking dire situation. My take in this point is neither ruling party can cajole nor opposition can blame. No one can refuse their duties and responsibilities. Mr. Chief Minister, do not you think that being the ruler of this state you have some responsibility beyond blaming opposition? You have responsibility to take care of the security of your state people, do not forget that these are those people who voted for you to rule this state for long 33 years, you just cannot try to take political advantage before the civic poll, you should take a strong step to stop this type of sabotage. Ms Rail Minister, you cannot ask public only to take care of their lives, its under your ministry you should investigate the reason and take care of the lives of the public who travel by your train from one corner to another corner of the country and these are those public who had voted you to sit in that chair in Delhi, these are those people whom you are asking to vote for you in civic polls so that you can become chief minister of this state in next year 2011 assembly election; you should take security measure to take care of thousands of lives otherwise hefty compensation packages or dry consolation will not work; do not think every time blaming CPI(M) will give oxygen to your existence. Being a citizen, it is my humble request to all you politicians please, do not play politics with innocent lives, you are supposed to take care of our lives, as we take care of your vote bank in the time of election, yes I know this is the world’s hypothesis “give and take” and you are no exception and we do not expect also. As we give our valuable votes to you with the hope of development and security, so you do your duties. If you do your own duties you will see vote bank will eventually swell up without even giving pose by folded hands. Keep your shameless politics aside, ignore your nasty blame game, plunge into the rescue operation and investigation to find out real convicts behind this tragedy and give a robust verdict to those convicts so that before committing such brutality they think twice, then you need not think about your vote banks, you will see those are already filled with blessings of people.

HI, CEOs!!!

Do you want to chat with your CEO? Do you want to share your business idea with your CEO? Do you want to talk with your CEO regarding the vision that he has for the future? Wanna be a part of strategic group of your company? Yes!!! Then log on to your CEO’s blog or your company forum. The day is not too far when your CEO will chat with you everyday and will communicate virtually and will share his visions and plans with the company for future steps!! Few examples are excerpted from The Economic Times:
Piramal Healthcare has started a daily employee newspaper where it shares latest company and industry developments. Forums on Twitter and blogs run by Chairman Ajay Piramal have met with some success.
ICICI Prudential has formed an internal CEO blog which has become an instant hit among employees.
Shoppers Stop has set up an IT platform Spandan, which allows employees to freely interact with the top management. Recently, its CEO Govind Shrikhande had to field a tough question on industry attrition, which helped employees to gain confidence.
Spencer’s Retail, Maruti Suzuki and JSW Steel have used employee feedback to save more. Spencer’s used suggestions to implement a near 30% cut in operating expenses. JSW Steel managed to save around Rs 100 crores.
But why these companies have started interacting with its internal stakeholders? Even few years back we used to think that the CEOs and Chairmen of companies are species of different planets. Then why this change has been initiated in today’s modern business world? The reason is very simple, companies are moving from Lawler’s Proposition of old logic to new logic, and companies are seriously pondering on the point of contribution of all the employees, they are no more dependent only on the top management and technical employees; everybody is encouraged to add value to organization. They do not believe that bureaucracy is the most effective source of control but they have started to believe involvement is the most effective source of control. Companies have realized that involvement of all the employees will define company’s prosperity and overall growth. Companies are using their employees as the sources of all the ideas, because there is a new concept of “Idea bank” that has been started to evolve in the modern business world, there are few companies already practicing that their employees have to give a new business ideas in a regular interval and upon successful implementation of those ideas will eventually benefit the idea generator both in monetary and non-monetary forms. One of them is Google, where every fortnight employees are asked to give new ideas and their ideas are stored in “idea bank” and upon requirement ideas are withdrawn and executed. Now, employees will be mesmerized when they will directly interact with the CEO or Chairman. When today businesses are trying to downsize their workforces and taking lots of measures for cost cutting after this awful recession that world had seen in last 2 years and companies are still crawling to get out of this trauma, it is a great opportunity for the employees to prove their worth in the company directly to the CEO or Chairman. In this way, employees can save their jobs and also help companies to grow with colors. It is a good sign for the business world to become transparent and leverage its resources in positive direction to prosper in this competitive market. The biggest reason of rejoice is that Indian companies are taking a positive stand towards globalization of dot com and becoming tech savvy to keep in touch with their employees. Cheers Indian CEOs!!!!

Match Fixing,IPL & Gentle men Game,Cricket

I still remember the day when players like Md. Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Hansie Cronje, Harsel Gibbs were caught for match fixing and then they were exposed publicly by media, which once made these cricketers God by their exaggeration, and we, the aam janta of India became perplexed by the down fall of these media proclaimed God, it was in 1999. From then much water has flown by the Ganges, many has come in Indian cricket and many has gone too, but the trust, that used to have on the cricketers, got a massive hit. Now, whenever, we see anything eerie in any cricket match, we start to doubt on the integrity of the cricketers. And I can’t blame anybody for doing so, because the game of match fixing is still on and lots of money flowing in illegal way is taking place in the game of cricket. The new saga of IPL has made us one more time aware of this thing. It is no doubt bigger than 1999, because it is a total package of politics, bollywood, money, glamour, sex, night parties, cheerleaders and cricket, one can think of why have I put cricket at the last of this package, it is simply because I found cricket is a very meager part of this prolific package, something bigger than cricket is prevailing. The very first day when IPL was conceptualized by the ex-czar of IPL, the blue eyed guy, the innovative marketer of Indian Cricket, ex-commissioner of IPL Mr. Lalit Modi, it was evident that this show would be one of the biggest successes of this century; and Modi made it a grand success story. The very first day of IPL, the day of opening ceremony, it was clear that IPL is not just a mere cricket tournament, but a tournament of both sensual & sensational package where money flows like water. It is the tournament of cricket which will manage its place in page 3 rather in the sports page of newspapers. The gossips, masala news started to proliferate as the tournament grew bigger. The latest scandal of IPL-3, started with the stupid twitting of the then IPL commissioner Mr. Lalit Modi and spreaded with our ex-external affair minister Mr. Sashi Tharoor’s external affair with the Kashmiri beautician, 40 years old, widow, Ms. Sunanda Pushkar and her ‘sweat equity’ in the newly auctioned team of Kochi, owned by Rendezvous Sports, which eventually has become mammoth scandal with the lots of money laundering, benami transactions and many more. The scandal has become such goliath that Rs.18, 000 crores IPL is now David in front of it. As I started with the incident of 1999, so I will concentrate now on that incident, what happened after they were caught? Md. Azharuddin got a life ban from his international and national cricket career. Md. Azharuddin, who was already an irregular player of Indian national team that time and on the verge of finishing his career, was not much affected by the verdict of BCCI. Ajay Jadeja got five years exile from cricket, Hansie Cronje, who died in a plane crash after few months, was also banned by South African cricket board and Harsel Gibbs was suspended for few years, unfortunately none of them were treated with the law of the lands, because their offences are not considered as criminal offences, since no one can punish a batsman for getting out intentionally earlier in an innings, no fielder can be punished by the law for dropping a catch, no bowler can be barred for giving too much runs in an over. The players are well known of this fact and so they take match fixing as granted. The irony in India is the person who was banned in cricket for his dishonesty; he sits in the parliament as the elected Member of Parliament. But if we drill down more to that incident, we would find out that these players were only few sacrificial lambs in this catastrophe of cricket, there were bigger brains that are still behind the curtain and waiting to be exposed. These sacrificial lambs were no doubt convicts and got some verdicts but their god fathers are still walking with their erect spine shamelessly in front of our eyes. The IPL spat is any way bigger issue than that of 1999 and obviously the god fathers are much bigger than that of 1999, here sacrificial lambs are Mr. Lalit Modi & Mr. Sashi Tharoor, but here is not the end the tail of this scandal, this is much bigger and deeper than the Pacific ocean. But again like before we will wait for the day when the bigger faces will be exposed publicly, and eventually the day will never come as we have seen earlier. CBI officials and politicians will come and will give some consolidate cajolery that they will not spare anybody. Again one more time it will be an ardent example of centralization of power and money which can make media, law & order futile and impotent with their ecstatic audacity and will create new bubble of hope where bribe becomes the way and forgery becomes the means, discrepancy keeps people mum, guile with spectators becomes gospels, still we, the flabbergasted audiences, keep attach our sentiment with cricket, worship cricketers like God, cry with their sorrows and laugh with their successes, forget that the results of these matches are fixed in somewhere exotic locations abroad between few jokers of the game!!!Still we believe cricket is a gentle men game!!!Alas!!!

CKP,The Legend of Management passed away

CKP, Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, the author of the “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, the most influential Indian management guru, the luminous intellect, is no more to give his intellectual thought to the top of the corporate pyramid. The strategic guru passed away in California after battling with lung disease. His demise has created a huge vacuum in the world of management & business. His contribution towards business-strategic intent, bottom of the pyramid and core competence has become the Bible to any business executive. Being a management student it is a small tribute to this great management guru. The inventor of the word “core competence” changed the conventional strategic management by implementing his theory of the bottom of the pyramid to bring a paradigm shift in the field of marketing strategy; he showed business leaders high volume-low cost model of business. The first management guru from India who paved the way for other Indian management gurus to establish their theories in the ocean of management theory.CKP is one of the optimists who have speculated India to be the world leader by 2022. He has termed India as the “laboratory of innovation”. He was one of the doctors of management who have simple treatment for a chronic disease. We, in management, always listen about out-of-the-box thinking, but we do not understand what the out-of-the-box thinking is all about, we can see Mr. Prahalad who was the out-of-the-box thinker; his thinking was the out-of-the-box thinking. Mr. Prahlad had shown in his book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” the weapon to fight poverty with profitability. Mr. Bill Gates said, “C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.”This shows how he had influenced the world’s top business leaders with his incredible uncommon management theories. His theories are very lucid but difficult to implement according to Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Health Care.

3 IDIOTS:REVOLUTIONARY HIT ON INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

AS THE FAMOUS CRICKET JOURNALIST PETER ROBBACK SAID THAT SCOREBOARD IS A DONKEY,IT NEVER SHOWS THE POTENTIALITY OF A BATSMAN,SO THE MARKSCARD IS.MARKSCARD NEVER SHOWS ACTUAL STRENGTH OF ANY STUDENT AND IRONICALY IT IS SEEN IN MOST OF THE CASES THAT THE STUDENTS WHO ARE VERY GOOD IN MUGGING UP AND PUKING OUT THE EXACT WORDS FROM THE BOOKS GET GOOD MARKS AND CONSIDERED TO BE THE BLUE STUDENTS OF ANY SCHOOL OR COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY.I TRULY BELIEVE THAT ONLY KNOWLEDGE IS NOT THE WEAPON BUT APPLICATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEST WEAPON TO FIGHT AND WITHSTAND IN THIS WORLD.THAT IS WHAT "3 IDIOTS" PROVES AND SHOWS,AND EVENTUALLY THIS IS THE BEST INDIAN MOVIE HAS EVER MADE ON INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.WHATSOEVER OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM TRIES TO SHOW THAT "ALL IS WELL" BUT IT IS ACTUALLY NOT,THE EDUCATION SYSTEM SHOULD BE CHANGED TO PRODUCE COMPETENT "IDIOT" (I=INTELLIGENT,D=DYNAMIC,I=INSPIRING,O=OPTIMISTIC,
T=TALENTED) NOT A STUPID.THE TEACHERS ALSO APPRECIATE STUDENTS TO MUG UP THE THINGS WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE ACTUAL MEANING OF THE CONTENT,BECAUSE FROM OUR CHILDHOOD WE ARE ADVISED TO RUN A RAT RACE,WHERE EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE THE FIRST,THAT IS WHY WE CAN SEE A DOCTOR OR A PHARMACIST DOES NOT KNOW THE ACTUAL MEANING "PHARMACOLOGY",DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE WORD "PHARMAKON",A DOCTOR OR A PHARMACIST KNOWS THE MEDICINE TO BE PRESCRIBED FOR A SPECIFIC DISEASE,BUT HOW DOES THE MEDICINE WORK,WHAT IS ITS BIOAVAILABILITY, UNFORTUNATELY, DOES NOT CARE!!!!THAT IS THE REASON WE SEE PATIENTS DYING FOR INAPPROPRIATE TREATMENTS.AN ENGINEER KNOWS ALL THE GIGANTIC EQUATIONS,BUT DOES NOT KNOW WHERE TO USE IT AND HOW TO USE IT!!!SO WE SEE BREAK DOWN OF BRIDGES,MULTISTORYED BUILDINGS!!!A CHARTER ACCOUNTANT KNOWS ALL THE LOGICS BEHIND PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT,BALANCE SHEETS BUT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE LOGIC FROM HIS HEART SO WE OBSERVE FINANCIAL SCANDALS IN BALANCE SHEETS,P/L ACCOUNT!!AND SAGAS GO ON!!!!THERE ARE PLETHORA OF EXAMPLES WHERE WE CAN BLAIM OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR NOT PRODUCING COMPETENT STUDENTS WHO CAN APPLY THE CLASS ROOM KNOWLEDGE IN REAL DAY TO DAY LIFE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD.BUT WE ALL ARE RUNNING FOR A RAT RACE WHICH NEVER ENDS,WE ARE TRYING TO PULL OUR ALL FINGERS TO MAKE EQUAL THE SIZE OF OUR MID FINGER.ALAS!!!THANKS TO RAJ KUMAR HIRANI AND AAMIR KHAN FOR MAKING SUCH A NICE MOVIE ON OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM WHICH CLEARLY SLAPS THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF INDIA.WHATEVER THE CONTROVERSIES BETWEEN CHETAN BHAGAT AND THE FILM MAKERS HAVE DO NOT MIND,THIS MOVIE BRINGS REVOLUTION IN INDIAN FILM HISTORY,IT IS ALREADY APPROACHING TO BREAK THE RECORD OF 35 YRS OLD MOVIE "SHOLAY"'S RECORD BY EARNING MORE THAN 200 CRORES RUPEES IN 2 WEEKS OF ITS RELEASE.

Bajaj Auto Ltd: Highest ever Q2 net profit

Thank God!!! Again economy is getting fresh oxygen and trying hard to get out of its comatose condition, recession is all set to be over and companies are taking breath of relax and Indian companies are also no longer exception in this list. But perhaps the biggest laugh has come on the face of Bajaj Auto Ltd, Pune based firm. Country’s second largest motorcycle makers has reported recently its highest ever net profit recorded in a quarter at Rs 402.83 crore. Total revenues grew 14.62%. Undoubtedly, the sales record is incredible success for the company. This auto behemoth has set a record of posting profit almost two fold compare to its last year sale at the same time. At the mayhem time of economy this type of balance sheet report will surely boost up company’s financial structure even though BAL is a cash rich firm. Many experts are proved to be wrong with this gargantuan profit figures. But what was the secret key to unlock the locker of Laxmi (the goddess of wealth)? Well, there was no such formula of Aladin. According to company’s spokesman this net profit was driven by good sales in the profitable bigger and sportier motorcycles category. The company's re-entry into the volume-driven 100cc segment with Discover DTS-Si has proved to be its one of the right strategy in this turmoil economic weather. It sold over one lakh units of the bike within the first 50 days of its launch. One has no scope to deny the fact that the entire range of Pulsar family has helped the company in pushing its sales in the high-end segment. New product launches, including upgrades of the Pulsar 150 and 180, along with Pulsar 220, helped the company sell over 56,000 units in September 2009. According to experts Bajaj Auto Ltd’s net profit more than doubled in the September quarter on the back of higher sales, helped by new launches, and lower raw material costs since the cost of raw material that went down from 77% last year to 69% this year. Domestic demand for Pulsar and Discover motorcycles and auto-rickshaws rose 7 per cent. Fortunately, this second quarter coincides with the monsoon season which caused the rise of demand from rural areas of the country and again this proves that India lives in village i.e. rural demand can always push any company’s balance sheet alike BAL, which makes lastly Mr. Rahul Bajaj to laugh the best.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Arcelor-Mittal company

Last three decades, we have seen an enormous change in the triangular relationship between corporate houses, society and the state; and we are observing now that companies are no longer an individual entity, they are now well encouraged by its stake holders; companies have started to realize the paramount importance of its stake holders and that is why they are now eagerly trying to make bridge between corporate , society and the state. Thus companies have started to develop Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) or it is also called as Corporate Citizenship.

First thing I would like to discuss what the Corporate Social Responsibilities is all about? Corporate Social Responsibilities can be defined as the concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large. World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines CSR as “The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.” The European Commission advocates CSR as “Being socially responsible means not only fulfilling legal expectations, but also going beyond compliance and investing more into human capital, the environment and relations with stakeholders.” Thus CSR exhorts corporate to diverge from their sole aim of maximizing profits and to lay more importance on improving the economic and social standards of the community in their countries of operation. CSR can be thus be simply defined as the additional commitment by businesses to improve the social and economic status of various stakeholders involved while complying with all legal and economic requirements.
The three major elements of CSR are product use which focuses on contribution of industrial products which help in well being and quality of life of the society, business practice which focuses on good corporate governance and gives high impetus for the environmental well being and equity which tries for distribution of profits equitably across different societies especially the host community.
Therefore, we will look at Arcelor-Mittal how they are operating their CSR through out the world or its community. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, one of the “100 Most Influential People” (Time Magazine, 2007) and the richest Indian in the world (Forbes, March, 2008), is known as the man behind Arcelor-Mittal for him good CSR is always strategic and he believes that a business has to create a win-win situation for all its stakeholders.
Arcelor-Mittal and CSR:
1. Arcelor-Mittal take a long view espouses in its brand promise of “Transforming Tomorrow”, a CSR mission in Brazil, of thinking not only of today but also the generations to come. Corporate Social Responsibility for Arcelor-Mittal, Brazil, means not only improving the qualifications of its own work force, but also investing in a junior company programme for high school students to better the quality of life for the people. Brazilian Quality of Life Association (ABQV) has given the award The Global Program Award in recognition of the “Pro-Quality of Life” program designed for improving the quality of life of employees and their dependents.

2. In Brazil itself more than $ 27 million invested over the year in community
social programs that reach more than two million people. Self-sufficient in the electricity used to produce flat steels with on-site thermoelectric generation of approximately 500 MW, and a world benchmark in recycling of waste and recirculation of fresh water are two most vital initiatives taken by Arcelor-Mittal in Brazil.

3. Arcelor-Mittal defines them as their commitment is reflected in their dedication to reduce carbon emissions (CO2) with the introduction of projects to support the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism (MDL).

4.. Arcelor-Mittal have started the programme on ecoefficiency in all their units in order to make a pollution free world, because pollution is one of the threats for the world which results in Global Warming.

5. Their corporate governance policy is one of the most noticeable CSR activity in which they are offering independent directors the equal authority as that of the company’s executive directors, and also they are providing equal rights to its all shareholders, their improvement of transparency and dialogue with its shareholders is really appreciable.

6. They are assuring to provide the best health and safety measures to its employees and also good working environment commitment to its well worthy employees.

7. Arcelor-Mittal renewed the tramways, power plants, the hotels, the stadiums, and developed social activities such as children camps in Kazakhstan before it own and operate its steel plant there, thus they are able to positively impact the livelihood of the community more broadly while continuing to improve the plant’s efficiency.

8. Arcelor-Mittal is also now taking a initiative role in promoting games, Mr.Abhinav Bindra, India’s first ever individual gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics in 2008,was awarded a Rs.1.5 crore cheque from Mittal Champion Trust(MCT), Mr. Virdhawal Khade ,a swimmer, representing India in Olympic 2008,Beijing,was sponsored by MCT too.

In the time of recession in EU and US, more and more shoppers seem to be switching from full service retailers to discount stores. Is it a threat to existing discount stores?

Concept of discount retailing:

A discount store is a type of department store, which sell products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Discount stores are not dollar stores, which sell goods at a dollar or less. Discount stores differ because they sell branded goods and prices vary widely between different products. Most discount department stores offer wide assortments of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances. Many of the major discounters are now opening "super centers", which add a full-service grocery store to the traditional format. . Although discount stores and department stores have different retailing goals and different markets, a recent development in retailing is the "discount department store".

Details about Wal-Mart:

Operational , supply chain and marketing strategies:

All successful retailers have identified their Unique Selling Proposition (USP), which is the aspect of their business that makes them different from their competitors , that USP drives marketing, merchandising and even the in-store customer experience. It is proved that without uniqueness no one can stay just with brand in this industry, and also shows that no brand is invulnerable and longevity does not guarantee a future for any discount retail store. An example of this fact is Exxon Mobil’s retail failure. And here only Wal-Mart beats its all competitors and I will now enlighten their all strategies involved in their superiority.
Wal-Mart's position starts at two ends of the spectrum - make as many things as widely available to as many people as possible with small margins. Wal-Mart’s business strategy we can classify into three main domains:
1.CustomerIntimacy
2.ProductLeadership
3. Operational Excellence

1. Customer Intimacy: Customers would be provided what they want, when they want it, all at a value. Wal-Mart strategy is from beginning customer friendly and they say,
“We do not sell articles to our customers, but instead, we buy articles for our customers”. Wal-Mart excels at operations and execution often by providing a reasonable quality at a very low price. The focus is on efficiency, streamlining operations, Supply Chain Management, no-frills, volume counts. The “10-Foot Attitude” was another customer service approaches Walton, owner and founder, encouraged. He asked associates to make a pledge, telling them, “I want you to promise that whenever you come within 10 feet of a customer, you will look him in the eye, greet him, and ask him if you can help him”. The “Buy American” program was a Wal-Mart retail strategy, which means average American can buy and use branded product from Wal-Mart.

2. Product leadership: Wal-Mart also maintains status quo with the other two disciplines by offering innovative (new to market products - walmart.com, now selling music on-line similar to itunes). Right now, one of their most talked about strategies has been their entrance into the online social space with Wal-Mart - The HUB (School Your Way). They want to become the next MySpace, but they seem to be a long way off Wal-Mart’s winning strategy in the U.S. was based on selling branded products at low cost. Wal-Mart is a one stop shop for average American families where they can get gas, a tune-up, new tires, groceries, apparel, electronics, pharmacy services, and basically everything they need for their daily lives. Wal-Mart enjoys a competitive advantage by offering those comprehensive products and services through everyday low prices.


3. Operational Excellence: For any firm employees are the most effective factor and backbone of any industry and there Wal-Mart shows its excellence which allows them to stay in competitive market for years together being the best. They explains, “Treating each other as we would hope to be treated acknowledging our total dependency on our associate – partners to sustain our success”. Employees are the basis for success of the company and drive the day-to-day operations. Wal-Mart’s employees, feeling like associate partners, gives them a feeling of empowerment and pride that drives the company’s culture. Every associate that had been with Wal-Mart for at least one year, and who worked at least 1,000 hours a year, was eligible for profit sharing of the company. Using a formula based on profit growth, Wal-Mart contributes a percentage of every eligible associate’s wages to his or her plan, which the associate can take when they leave the company, either in cash or in Wal-Mart stock. One of the significant costs for retailers was shoplifting, or pilferage. Wal-Mart addressed this issue by instituting a policy that shared 50 percent of the savings from decreases in a store’s pilferage among that store’s employees through store incentive plans. Wal-Mart also instituted several other policies and programs for its associates such as incentive bonuses, a discount stock purchase plan, promotion from within, pay rises based on performance not seniority, and an open-door policy.

Now it is a time to discuss how full service retailers can be a threat to discount retail service providers. In my eyes full service retailers can not be a threat to discount retailers because of following reasons:

1. First thing is the USP that drives the discount retail honchos far ahead of the full service retailers. Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart like discount honchos have their uniqueness in product service, product promotion, business strategy. It is true that many of the full service retailers are now becoming discount retailers in the time of recession to catch the average consumers’ eyes, but they are more prone to short time profitability rather looking for long term profitability. This is the area where discount retailers can easily beat the full service retailers.

2. Second thing is obvious the customer service, that is undoubtedly far better for the discount retailers than the full service retailers. Since the discount retailers are more looking forward to long term profitability, they are inventing lots of customer friendly services which can not be fetched by the full service retailers.

3. Discount honchos have already created a steady market for their own and they have unquestionably more wealth from the full service retailers and this in turn can beat the full service retailers, because these big fishes can withstand by getting less profit for sometimes but for the full service retailers it is a tough task, because it is necessary for them to compete with discount honchos to give quality product in low prices.

4. Discount retailers are now expanding their market through out the world and they are now going beyond to their own country border, which gives them wide range of market compare to full service retailers and there again they can take over the full service retailer and can hit them under the belt.

Ford India : Launches its small car in India, 2010

Stop lamenting Indians!!! US Auto major Ford is all set to join in the race with Hyundai i20 and the Suzuki Swift. US auto honcho Ford is the lone company which has not faced the heat of downturn. The mayhem of economic condition worldwide has made auto companies to think newer strategies to combat against the economic slowdown and turn around the business. Ford Motor Company is planning to integrate car designs globally and develop compact and mid-sized cars as part of a strategy to improve profitability and productivity. Ford is ready to implement ‘One Ford’ strategy across the markets. After the launch of Fiesta Sedan in the year 2005 in India by Bill Ford, Ford India has not had any new product launch. But unfortunately, in March 2010 Ford India will launch its small car code name B517. The car will be a four-door hatch back, powered by an indigenous diesel and petrol engine manufactured at its Chennai Plant. It is predicted that primary sales i.e. company to dealer sales will increase. Ford India is tuning in right direction to meet with the global demand of the customers. It keeps eye on the emerging markets of India & China to market its fuel-efficient small cars.

Salesman: Crucial Character in Business

Sale is a part of marketing, but marketing is a broader concept. But sales is a tiny part of marketing; still sales is the most significant part of any business. There are lot of pundits who have spoken about various theories, various formulas of selling goods to the customer. I will pen down just few very simple things that I have learnt in my life as a salesman. From my point of view marketing and sales is nothing more than relationship. It is all about relationship between a salesman and his customer. When people buy a product they actually want to satisfy their needs. People buy a product to solve a problem and a good salesman is always aware of his customer’s problem. People buy from salespeople not because they understand their products but because they feel that the salesperson understands their problems. When a salesperson starts asking questions to a buyer it is nothing but he is trying to make rapport with the buyer and the stronger the rapport is, more the chances to be successful in selling, because most of the buying happens unplanned. It is the salesperson who actually makes buyers to think about their problems. A salesperson can always do that buy asking such types of questions which will be directed to the problems of the customers. But questioning about problem of the customers needs to be very much planned because one wrong question may ends up with the closing of sales without anything being sold. Spin selling model always says that a salesperson should understand the problem of the customers. This is similar to the 5th habit from “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” by Steven Covey which says, “seek first to understand then to be understood”. Developing rapport is not a conscious thing; the irony is that the best sales rapport is developed at the unconscious level. There are several models which are used to make a successful sale such as SPIN, SPANCO models, but above all the relationship between buyer and seller is the most significant criteria that play the pivotal role in selling goods. Selling is not complete once the deal is closed but it is the initiation of the credibility of a seller, now he has to keep his promise always to his customer to maintain his goodwill and also the attributes of the product, which he has sold to his customer. He should solve the problem of the customer then only a successful sale can be performed. It is very much necessary to keep the promise to the customer every time, because failing once can lead to the switching over a customer from his product or company to another. Therefore salesman is a crucial character in business. He can make a business profitable and in other hand can ruin the market share of the company.

Reva Electric Car Company: shines in Automotive Industry

Global warming! Depletion of Ozone layer! Threat to the human life! Oooppppsss!!!! are lots of buzzing words around the world. Eco-friendly fuels, eco friendly clothes etc are the scientists’ oblations to the world. Now to these oblations one more item is added by the Reva Electric Car Company- Eco-friendly car. Reva Electric Car Company, a Bangalore based company, has managed to make its prominent footprints on the global automotive industry. Eco-conscious car users in Europe are surely going to enjoy the new experience of driving. This car company has switched on to two brand new battery powered electric cars which are destined to specially cater Europe and also in India if the authorities see the light of the day. It is the time first for an Indian built and designed vehicle to debut at the prestigious Frankfurt Motor Show 2009. It is quite obvious that Bangalore based company is now all set to explore the automotive sector, but it is not equipped enough for a neck to neck fight with the big honchos like Nissan Leaf or a GM volt or the Tesla sports car. These bigwigs are big in their market share and financial status as well, but this Bangalore based car company will surely bite in their market share in near future. The two new battery charged car are the Reva NXR (a four seater predominantly for India and emerging markets) and the Reva NXG (swelte two seater sports car) for Europe. The Reva NXG two seater coupe will also be available in an open topped cabrio version. The own proprietary technology of this company is creating niche for itself and boosting up its existing Reva G-Wiz. The NXR has added features in its working technology with both lead-acid batteries as well as the more powerful yet lighter but more expensive lithium ion batteries. The company has given edge over other electric cars by its patented the REVive Technology. This technology offers drivers to send a SMS whenever the batteries run out of juice while driving on the road. From the moment the SMS is received, the Reva boffins communicate with the car, wirelessly free up energy stored in various pockets in the drive system and help the vehicle home for recharging. The REVive tech is mostly algorithms which liberate ions and get the battery to reboot enough to get the car home. Reva expects to launch the Reva NXR on the domestic and international markets by January 2010 while the Reva NXG is being tooled up for series manufacture from January 2011.

CARBON FOOTPRINT: A GLOBAL ALARMING

CARBON FOOTPRINT: A GLOBAL ALARMING

Globalization is inevitable as we reside in a “Global village”. As the globalization progresses, it is becoming a threat to the society and its human life as well as all the living creatures including the green life. As the effect of globalization several technologies are begetting to make ease of life but there is nothing to be hilarious in this technological progress because this supplies lots of carbon-di-oxide in the society which is an obvious threat to the living life. Thus Environment protection, Global warming and Climate change are most priority to everybody----nations’, companies’, individuals’. The word that is becoming a giant to these all effects is “Carbon Foot print”. Therefore reduction of carbon foot prints is prime concern to media, government and business world especially, when we perceive global environment in the context of post-Kyoto scenario.

“Carbon footprints” can be defined as the measure of the impact of the human activities leave on the environment, directly and indirectly or is accumulated over the life stages of a product, in terms of the amount of the green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon-di-oxide. In other words ‘carbon footprints’ is the total amount of carbon-di-oxide and other green house gases, emitted over the full life cycle of a service or a product. It is expressed as the grams of carbon-di-oxide equivalents. This established method has been standardized under ISO 14044.

Carbon is the essential component of all the fossils fuels ------oil, petrol, gases, coal; and as we have become already dependent on these fuels, every time we are using these fuels carbon-di-oxide, a green house gas, is evolving and concentrating the percentage of carbon-di-oxide into the atmosphere which results the global warming and climate change in a jiffy manner. It is already now 370 ppm from its early 280 ppm after the industrial revolution. If we do not hold the rein of this prolific increase of carbon-di-oxide then it will grab the whole earth in ere long. Already experts say that if we use these fuels in this manner without modulating its behavioral then the concentration of this green house gas will exceed 700 ppm by this century ending. According to experts it would lead to increase in temperature by 1.4 to 5.80, which in turn will cause the frequent change in climate and weather.

The carbon foot prints can be effectively reduced by applying the following steps:
1. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to accurately determine the current carbon footprint
2. Identification of hot-spots in terms of energy consumption and carbon-di-oxide emissions
3. Energy and resources conservation is the major way to reduce carbon footprints. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle can be the best process to minimize the carbon foot prints.
4. Identification of the solutions that neutralize the emitted carbon-di-oxide thus carbon-di-oxide eliminated by any production process can be minimized.
5. Educated employees and general public must cultivated the habit of eco-friendly nature in their own day to day life so by this way carbon footprints can be lessened.
6. Last but not the least step includes carbon offsetting; this can be achieved by using bio-fuels and tree planting, tree planting is the best way to reduce carbon-di-oxide from the atmosphere since tree absorbs carbon-di-oxide and reuse and recycle it to produce oxygen and thereby all we can minimize our carbon foot prints by doing a project “one man, one plant” to save our earth and our own life.