“A Golden Age” by “Tahmima Anam” presents a plot constructed on the background of Bangladesh War of Independence 1971. The plot is plagued by numerous obvious effects of war of independence like loss of the dear ones, personality transformation of the affected ones, traumas and struggles of individuals in the shadow of war and revolution etc. The story is framed around the life of Rehana (protagonist of the story) and her family which is affected by the war. The narration is full of transformation in personalities of the characters of the story.

The story begins with a widowed women “Rehana” losing a court case thereby losing her daughter and son to her in-laws in Pakistan.  The instance of losing the case and losing her husband transforms Rehana to a mother whose sole aim is to get her son and daughter back. The story moves a bit faster till the point where the mother gets back her son and daughter and the country comes to the verge of war.

Maya (Rehana’s daughter) and Sohail (Rehana’s son) are highly involved in student politics and are enthusiastic about Bangladesh’s sovereignty. The environment of war enrages the spirit of patriotism in the two, but at the same mother is presented as a protectionist where her love for her children is greater than her love towards the nation. Her initial protectionist response is overcome and influenced by the love of her children towards the nation.  The transformation of Rehana from a protectionist mother to a patriotic citizen of the nation has been depicted in the novel in a beautiful way and in a fashion which is very natural to the Indian Subcontinent context, which can be easily accepted and understood by Indian Sub-Continent Readers.

The novel also offers glimpses of the poverty and the situation of refugee camp during the times of war. The situation and backdrop of the plot is very similar to the older Indian cinemas in which poverty were the main theme. The novel also brings about the rift between the Muslim and Hindu during the war times subtly.

The book is a good read for individuals who want to gain insights into Indian SubContinent culture, family life and a glimpse into the war of independence of Bangladesh.  The novel is unlike the novels written on backdrop of war of independences which present a deluge of historical facts and hence become boring to not very avid readers. The book has touched upon the historical facts and incidences  meagerly. On the contrary, the author has focussed on presenting the environment of war in  a much more interesting mode through the eyes of  characters of the novel.

Essar's Competitive Cost Advantage

Most of my recent blogs are inspired by the debates and discussions in my class and consequentially this article also has its roots from my class’s current discussion on how Supply Chain Management can become a competitive advantage for its owner. Various famous supply chain examples like MC Donald’s Cold Chain, ITC Choupal etc found their presence in the discussion.

The discussion left out of one of the latest logistic management employed by Essar Steel in transporting iron ore which brought down the cost of transportation of iron ore from Rs 550 per tonne to Rs 80 per tonne. The project is implemented at a small tribal area named Kirandul (a small town mainly houses NMDC colony and is situated in southern parts of Chattisgarh) hence not surprisingly the project is much talked about.

The project connects Bailadilla mines in Kirandul to Vishakhapatnam (a city with a sea port) steel plant of Essar with a 267 km pipeline. Iron Ore mined at the mines of Bailadilla is first crushed into smaller sizes and then is converted into slurry using water. This slurry is then pumped from the mine end of the pipeline which is intermittently re-pumped at three different spots between Kirandul and Vishkhapatnam in order to maintain the flow of the slurry. The slurry received at the other end is fed to a dryer plant and the iron ore is received. The water removed from the slurry is pumped back from Vishkhapatnam to Kirandul via the pipeline which is reused for the pumping and slurry making purpose near the mines.

The project has provided a competitive cost advantage to Essar Steel against its competitors like Tata Steel which still continue to use the normal mode of transportation trucks. The project has made the sourcing of iron ore from Kirandul more viable for Essar Steel operating at about 300 km far from raw material source as against Weber’s theory which suggests to setup manufacturing units near source of raw material for which the  total transportation cost is high.

You can visit my collection of pics illustrating the competitive advantage of Essar Steel Click Here .Read more about the project Here

A recent debate in the class was on the fact that majority of disruptive technologies are made by smaller companies than the bigger/blue chip companies. Incidentally the debate touched upon areas like Marketing Myopia, S-Curve dilemma OR Innovator’s dilemma and process versus agility. This article will web together all the above mentioned concepts and present my inference that marketing myopia is the underlying cause for process orientation and innovator’s dilemma and hence is the major reason for low innovation in the bigger organizations.

NOTE: Paragraphs in italics hence forth are intended as an explanation of concepts for readers non-acquainted with the concepts dealt in the article.

Marketing Myopia: Short sighted and inward looking approach to marketing that focuses on the needs of the firm instead of defining the firm and its products in terms of the customers’ needs and wants. Such self-centred firms fail to see and adjust to the rapid changes in their markets and, despite their previous eminence, falter, fall, and disappear.

Process Orientation & Innovation do not go together: Process Orientation is sometimes a resultant of Myopic View of companies.  Myopic Companies sometimes are so much in love with their products or services (Marketing Myopic Companies) that they design their process in and around for better performance of their product and loose sight of consumer needs especially latent needs which cannot be satisfied by the product in focus and hence we do not find path breaking innovations from these myopic companies. Their innovations are limited to processes and services around their current product only.

S-Curve Dilemma OR Innovators’ Dilemma: The curve is drawn between Growth Rate (Y Axis) and Time (X Axis) for innovations. Each S-Curve represents Growth Rate versus Time Graph for different innovations. It is observed and indicated in the graph after a period of time it is important for an organizations to move on to the newer innovations in order to reap a better ROI in the coming future. In the curve displayed, organization which has adopted innovation represented by Orange Curve should adopt newer innovation represented by Blue Curve. However larger organizations sometimes do not adopt newer innovations, this is called as S-Curve Dilemma or Innovator’s Dilemma.

Innovative companies also sometimes fall prey to marketing myopia. An innovative company which has put in lot of efforts to innovate a product/service and hence the organization’s image is based on that particular innovation would find it difficult to innovate a product/service which will make the earlier innovation non-useable (a disruptive innovation) i.e. becomes myopic with the earlier innovation. Therefore, these myopic companies sometimes either do not adopt or do not innovate newer disruptive technologies. For Example: Microsoft would not like to innovate a new platform which may put Windows into obsolesce as Microsoft’s image is based on Windows.

At the heart of low-innovation is excess of love with product (Marketing Myopia) which inturn causes Process Orientation and Innovator’s Dilemma and hence is termed as THE cause for low innovation in the article.

Kambakht Ishq Akshay Kareena

This is my first movie review. Though I am not a movie buff, but movie “Kambakht Ishq” evoked strong feelings in me to pen down my observations about the movie. Marketing of the movie combined with the fact that Kambhaqt Ishq was one among the few movies to be released after the strike caused more than normal turnout for the movie. Movie critics showed thumbs down to the movie and below are some of my observations which I feel justify the ratings:

1. The movie was a built on a plot which moved at a faster pace than at a pace at which the audience could grasp the emotion which the movie wanted to evoke and impress on the audience. Example: Akshay and Kareena’s love lasted only a song length which was followed by a sudden turn of events which puts Akshay into state of shock. I as an audience could not appreciate such a swift turn of events because the movie did not allow me sufficient time to fathom how love of Akshay and Kareena which is only a song’s length could become life turning event for Akshay.
2. Movie was based on an old cliché plot of war between the sexes and could not differentiate itself among the others in the same category.
3. Kareena could not do justice to the two contrasting characters viz 1.) Soft hearted loving woman fallen in love with a guy and 2) Woman filled with hatred for men. However, Akshay was value for money.

I would hence rate 1 out of 5 for Kambhakt Ishq.

B-School Networking

Networking, an intangible part of the MBA curriculum, is one of the most valued key take away from the B-School campus. Not surprisingly, most of the B-School alumni rate networking as the most useful “head fake” (head fake= indirect learning. Head Fake comes from the “Last Lecture Series of Randy Pausch”) in the MBA learning curve. This article covers is meant as an elementary write-up on networking skills especially for the B-School whiz kids covering benefits of networking, essentials and how of networking.

Why Networking? Benefits associated with networking vary from individual level to organizational level. Impact of individual benefits of networking like job referrals, tertiary referrals (a node in your network introduces you to a node in his network), information gathering about organization, business, profession, college etc are limited to an individual however organizational level benefits like business development, new recruit background checks, recruitments via social media etc have much wider impact especially in the times of recession.

B-School Networking: Today for MBA aspirants, networking with MBA students and B-School alumni goes beyond tips on how to prepare for admission to evaluation of college based on first hand information about the college from the concerned students which is generally not available on the information platter (website, brochure etc) provided by the college. No wonder B-Schools have recognized the modern mode of information gathering and many have appointed or volunteered admission counsellors and teams for MBA forums. For the first year students, the networking can form an influencing medium for deciding upon the internship organizations, the selection of specialization and for some in fact it forms a means to get an internship. In times of recession, especially for Investment Banking and Consulting aspirants networking becomes a very powerful tool for entry into the industry.

No wonder why organizations including B-Schools are emphasizing on building and maintaining relationships with their alumni network. Most of the B-Schools sent out SOS messages to their alumni network in assisting the institution in securing 100% placements and have made more than usual efforts in placing the interns in contact with the alumni in the organizations the first year students intern at.

Essentials of Networking: Even though the user base of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Orkut, Facebook etc have immensely increased in India over the period of time, but not all users of the social networking sites are able to leverage their networks. This can be attributed to some of the reasons like low awareness about networking benefits, low interpersonal cum communication skills and low activeness on online social forums. The last characteristic is not only applicable to less internet savvy individuals but also to high internet savvy students of B-Schools.

How do I Network? A few tips on how to build your network are:

1. Recognize a few friends of common interest even before you land up in your college. Make use of MBA forums for this. The exercise to this would indirectly help you know the common grounds you share with your prospective batch.
2. Try to be a member of various cells and special interest groups in your college especially the placement cell and alumni cells. These two cells present its members with large exposure to professionally managing relationships, improves communication cum interpersonal skills and most importantly helps you manage cold calls well which you shall be surely doing while building your network. Association with special interest groups like economics cell, finance cell, consulting cell etc will put you abreast to what your counterparts in the same arena are up to.
3. Be active on online social forums on networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Orkut etc. Note that just being a member of such forums will not serve the purpose; you need to be an active member for developing a rapport among the members of the forum.
4. Online Special interest group forums outside the campus like ConsultingNetwork, ZeneSys, Learn2consult etc help not only build the basic fundamentals required for entry into the industry but also help to develop networks within the group.
5. Always prefer telephonic conversations to emails. Emails are sometimes put to the backburner by the respondents.
6. As far as possible, with individuals with whom you have already established your connection, start conversation on topics away from their professional work life. Especially, investment bankers and consultants would not like to talk on economics, recessions etc as these are the daily chores for them. A small conversation on topic of their interest like movies, sports might help breaking the ice. In order to learn about interests and background of the individual do some homework. LinkedIn, Orkut, Facebook, individual’s blogs etc can be of good help in this regard. However, with individuals whom you are talking for the first time, directly addressing the purpose might be a better tactic.
7. Make a point that you freshen up your memory with the previous dialogue with the individual before you start your next conversation. It helps you develop grounds for talks.
8. Tertiary Referrals are preferred over direct contacts. It helps you convert a cold call into a warm call. For Example: If you are referred by Mr. X to Mr. Y and you make the first call to Mr. Y refer to the conversation where Mr. X referred you to Mr. Y, this helps to break the initial thaw.
9. For individuals networking for job referrals using an excel sheet to track your developments is heavily recommended else your work may go haphazard and this may not reflect well on your prospective employer and colleague. Also, keep an eye on Job Boards on networking sites like LinkedIn which has now being slowly accepted as a preferred means of recruitment to Middle levels and senior levels.

What measures should a company excercise in the time of recession? A few suggested measures for companies confronted with dire situations like now are cost savings, improving customer relations, product differentitation etc. Do recruitments from B-Schools figure directly or indirectly figure in the list of excercises mentioned? Prima Facie the response is NO. In this article I would try to validate my hypothesis “During recession, companies should hunt for good and cheap talent in B-Schools rather than in market” which perhaps is in complete contrast to what B-School fraternity is observing in the current placement season.

Cost Saving measures are survival measures not growth models. Hence, any company following a cost saving strategy for a long term in recession would soon see itself shrinking. Traditionally, it has been seen that many companies across the world adopt cost saving strategy in a straight jacket fashion. The companies need to revive their strategy of straight jacket cost saving and adopt a selective and intelligent cost saving models. 

Moreover, Cost Saving needs to be complimented with growth models/strategies like product differentiation, innovation etc for sustainable growth. One can easily differentiate between a growth oriented company and a survival oriented firm in times of recession by analysing their strategies. Contrary to the common perception of growth orientedeness of Indian firms, one can easily find majority of Indian companies adopting survival strategies rather than growth models.

Recruitment is one of the indicator of growth strategies. Recruitement numbers have gone down due to the fallout of the cost saving models.  Market recruitments are still prevalent but I personally do not consider market recruitments as an indicator of growth strategies. Populance of market recruitment over fresh recruits from B-schools is an indicator of adoption of cost saving strategy over growth models. Market recruits are seasoned and hence do not bring new and innovative perspectives with them to deliver growth strategies like product differenciation, increasing customer responsiveness etc.

A growth oriented firm should take advantage of this oppurtunity to attract fresh talents to the board at cheap prices (Fresh Talents are cheaper than Market Recruits) who would inturn would flower growth strategies for the company. One example of growth company is Directi  which has been hiring fresh talents from B-Schools. The blog intends to suggest that growth oriented companies should hire from B-Schools but with caution as the traditional mode of hiring would not be able to filter the appropriate talents that would be able to deliver required results in the time of recession. With the changing dynamics, the companies should adopt newer techniques to filter good talents.  Directi has adopted one of innovative ways of case studies to select candidates. View Directi’s Selection Process.

Changing dynamics of businesses combined with companies’ realisation of the importance of growth models, I believe we would observe change in the recruitment policies of the companies and selection processes at B-Schools.

Being an alumni of MBA entrance coaching classes and presently a fellow men of MBA student fraternity, I sometimes feel that majority of B-School aspirants and even B-School students are not aware of the reason to pursue an MBA? Cursory glance thrrough the following forum on PagalGuy To Hell with MBA will give you an insight into the veractiy of my statements. Applying 80:20 rule to the number of applicants in CAT, we derive that only 50,000 out of 2,50,000 applicants are aware of their reasons to do an MBA.

A step-wise approach is essential in any decision making procedure and the same implies to the decision making process of pursuing an MBA. The approach consists of three questions “YWH” which need to be asked in the same order as it is mentioned for an effective decision. In case of a decision of pursuing an MBA one needs to ask three questions viz “Why MBA?”,  ”When MBA?” and “How MBA?”. The first question shall answer the reason for one to do an MBA and which MBA will suit him the most, the second one answers the best time to do the MBA which he has zeroed in for and the third answers how to go about it.

Though “Why MBA?” is the first and the most important question to be answered, it is the least bothered element in decision making for majority of the MBAs as I have pointed out in the earlier section of the article. Even in a coaching institute, the faculty and students remain confined to the boundaries of how to crack an MBA entrance test and the discussion to answer “Why MBA?” remains at the back burner except during the preparation for GD/PI. The answers prepared during the GD/PI stage are mostly cosmetic and do not represent the real candidates views and thoughts.

Many B-School students pursuing MBA become aimless and hence are not able to reap the best out of MBA course. As per my opinion, this is one of the reason due to which Indian MBA courses create managers not leaders. A Harvard Professor once commented about Indian MBA - “Indian managers can keep a ship (business) afloat but cannot salvage out a sinking ship (business)”.

January, Febrauary and March are the seasons of final admission process for majority of B-Schools around India. And a huge chunk of students will be brainstorming on how to get through the last hurdle. Though answer to the question “Why MBA?” is not the sole criteria for ones admit to B-Schools but I would advocate every candidate to do a retrospection before he/she gets into the corridors of B-Schools to reap the best of your MBA. Better late than never!!!

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In this article, I will attempt to dissect the long term strategies adopted by Indian IT Industry and will try to connect the Practical Understanding of Strategy from the dissection with Strategy Lessons taught in the B-School class.

Some theory which will help you understand the article before I begin – A long sustainable growth is a product of long term sustainable strategy adopted  by the industry or the company. A sustainable strategy is one which is rare, unimitable or hard/costly to immitate. Strategy adopted by any player depends on its strengths & weakness and the opuurtinities and threats in the industry. 

For a long time since inception of Indian IT Industry, Indian IT industry has banked on “Low Cost Strategy” for its growth. “Lost Cost” is not a sustainable strategy as it is not a rare and costly strength to immitate. Russia, China and Malaysia are upcoming low cost centers and pose a great threat to the Indian IT Industry. Hence, there is a need to identify new strategies for growth and some of the leading Indian IT Firms have done so. The strategy is “Product Differentiation”.

In a highly competitive industry like IT industry, firms put efforts to differentiate products and offerings. Big 4 definitely have put special efforts to differentiate products/offerings and to serve niche markets. FOR EXAMPLE : Infosys has strength in BFSI, Satyam is well know for ERP and WIPRO is renowned for telecommunication.

Some of these firms even went ahead and tied their earnings and revenues to non-perishable activities (Tying your revenue to non perishable assests is another strategy which I have learnt in the Strategy Class). Non perishable activity in case of IT industry is support and maintainence for their own products. Indian IT companies have now entered into product development. Once a product is deployed, the firm enjoys long term maintainence and support revenues. Some of the firms that have entered Product development are Infosys-Finacle; TCS-Bancs; iFlex-FlexCube.

In the pursuit of Product Differentiation, IT firms have now ventured into quality service offerings like IT consulting which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 40% till 2010, banking on good brand recognition they enjoy among the clients.  Wipro Technologies bought U.S. consulting firm NerveWire Inc, Infosys set up its U.S. consulting unit, Satyam lapped up a U.S. consulting firm, Bridge Strategy Group – These are the indicators of the huge potential that Indian IT firms have indentified in product differentiation.

Furthermore, Indian IT Industry are exploring oppurtunities in Domestic sector which is expected to grow at good rates. Supplimenting this is the ability of Indian IT firms to crack into outsourcing averse nations like Denmark, France etc via business offerings like Sub-Contracting, Consolidation and Partner Strategy.

In the view of all this, I believe Indian IT industry has matured and has the ability to adopt new strategies easily and early. Hence, I infer we will observe few more changes in the strategies of Indian  IT in the years to come.

The recent terror attack on Mumbai sent nerve-wracking feelings into the Indian citizens. Outfall of the incident is a “mood of anger, agony and sadness”. A major fallout of the crisis is a turmoil in the sentiments of citizens which has lead to questioning of the governance system of India. A series of blame game has been started by the youths and the urban population of India on the governance in the forms of agitations, peace walks and rallies.

However, in a democratic setup of such a large scale, the blame game  completely violates the premises of the democracry because “In a democracry, the government  is of the people, by the people and for the people“. The abysmal working of the government needs to be attributed not only to the officials and the politicians of India but also to the people and the youth of India. Consider the facts below :

1. 35% of the Indian population is youth. However, a very few represent the population in Lok Sabha.
2. In India the poor, who comprise the majority of the demographic, are more likely to vote than the rich and the middle classes, and turnout is higher in rural areas than urban areas. Recently urban area population is the one which is carping about the failure of the system.
3. Around 10% of Mumbai Youths between 18 and 24 are voters. Think about – how many actually turn to vote on the D-Day !!!!

Has the urban population and the youth of India turned into individuals with external anchor? (An individual with external anchor blames the surrounding, the environment and the system for any fault of his own) Introspection is a must for urban and the youths of India. 

One of the first step for making a change in the governance is to be a part of the system and being among the decision makers. Participation of youth in Indian politcal system and bureaucracy is a must for bringing the change expected. It is necessary for the best and the brightest among the youth to join politics and serve the nation. Indian youths have to aspire for a political career path for bringing in a change.   

Leaders like APJ Abdul Kalam have constantly raised voice for involving youth in the governance system. He has set himself as a role model for youths who aspire to become a part of Indian democratic and  bureaucratic setup. Politicians like Advani (Youth can change the ugly image of Indian Politics)  and Rahul Gandhi(Rahul peps Youth) have also raised voices on the same line.Professional Party of India which has endeavored to alter the governance system of India by fighting all seats of the Lok Sabha and forming a Government with honest, patriotic and professional Indians, is one of the recent efforts indicating a change in the mindset of Indian Youths. However, we still need more leaders like Karkare and visionaries like APJ who can incite the desire in Indian youths to be a part of the INDIAN system.