Stop the Press !
Fast Company Now notices Me !:
"In response to an entry yesterday, FC Now reader Gautam cites some research done by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop. While Fast Company explored barriers to success with Butler and Waldroop several years ago, their earlier work on 'job sculpting' might be a useful parallel read to George Erman's thoughts on motivation."
Feb 27, 2004
Leading corporations will be increasing their investment over the next three years to measure how people practices such as low turnover, diversity and the engagement of their employees contribute to the bottom line, concludes a report from The Conference Board released today.
The report is the result of a working group of leading companies and is co-sponsored by PeopleSoft, a leading provider of application software for business. It is based on a survey of 110 human resource managers in major companies based in the United States and Europe.
While 40 percent of survey participants consider senior management support to have been high for human capital measures during the past three years, 76 percent predict an increase in top-level backing during the next three
years.
The report defines human capital measures as including employee engagement, turnover, diversity, leadership, and productivity among others.
FOCUS ON LOWERING COSTS AND BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY
"The major reason that management lends increasing support to people metrics projects is that they help lower costs and improve the return on people investments while helping align these investments with business strategy," says Dr. Stephen Gates, author of the report and principal researcher at The Conference Board. "Human resources leaders need to determine how to link people measures to business processes. They should involve line managers at all stages of the
human capital metrics process, seek advice and input from finance and strategy colleagues, and eventually embed people metrics in managers' bonus plans."
"This study illustrates the importance of human capital management to every business' bottom line," said Mark Frost, General Manager of the Human Capital Management division of PeopleSoft. "As the service-based economy
continues to grow, companies must be more rigorous in how they measure and engage with their employees. PeopleSoft continues to lead the market in providing solutions that leverage these kinds of employee metrics to increase employee productivity and overall performance."
LINKING PEOPLE METRICS TO STRATEGY
To gain their support from top executives, HR specialists must demonstrate that people metrics can be successfully aligned with business strategy. According to the results of a recent exercise by The Conference Board's Human Capital Measurement Working Group, this process is still in its earliest stages at many companies. Although many people measures are cited as currently being used by working group companies, few firms feel confident about how metrics relate directly to business strategy.
Human resource directors are still the primary sponsors of people metrics in most organizations, although 36% of surveyed companies report that business unit leaders are also involved.
Other study findings:
* Survey data suggest that managers become less involved in the selection and execution of people measures as the size of a company grows.
* Utilizing metrics in bonus plans is growing, but is still a minority practice. Only 39% of surveyed companies reward managers based on people measures.
* The financial measures of cost reduction and revenue growth are more commonly linked to people metrics than intermediate performance drivers such as process and product innovation and globalization. However, the
survey results suggest that people measures are more successfully linked with intermediate performance drivers than financial measures.
TOP LESSONS FOR MANAGERS
The study cites the following top lessons for managers:
* Involve HR professionals in the development of overall business strategy.
* Enlist leaders from outside the HR department to help develop and back human capital metrics.
* Collaborate with business managers to ensure that people measures link to the strategic goals of business units.
* Focus more attention on the links between people measures and major performance drivers (customer satisfaction, innovation, etc.) and place less emphasis on their connection to cost reduction, revenue growth, and other financial outcomes.
* Include human capital metrics in bonus plans.
* Audit metrics (internally and externally).
* Develop ad hoc analytical reports that detail how people investments can deliver business results.
Gautam's Views:
I think the better way to go forward is to utilise the HR Scorecard that Ulrich et al have tried to evolve.
I think it encompasses the best way to go forward.
Measures need to be chosen very carefully, and that has to be done by senior management, not functional HR...!
The report is the result of a working group of leading companies and is co-sponsored by PeopleSoft, a leading provider of application software for business. It is based on a survey of 110 human resource managers in major companies based in the United States and Europe.
While 40 percent of survey participants consider senior management support to have been high for human capital measures during the past three years, 76 percent predict an increase in top-level backing during the next three
years.
The report defines human capital measures as including employee engagement, turnover, diversity, leadership, and productivity among others.
FOCUS ON LOWERING COSTS AND BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY
"The major reason that management lends increasing support to people metrics projects is that they help lower costs and improve the return on people investments while helping align these investments with business strategy," says Dr. Stephen Gates, author of the report and principal researcher at The Conference Board. "Human resources leaders need to determine how to link people measures to business processes. They should involve line managers at all stages of the
human capital metrics process, seek advice and input from finance and strategy colleagues, and eventually embed people metrics in managers' bonus plans."
"This study illustrates the importance of human capital management to every business' bottom line," said Mark Frost, General Manager of the Human Capital Management division of PeopleSoft. "As the service-based economy
continues to grow, companies must be more rigorous in how they measure and engage with their employees. PeopleSoft continues to lead the market in providing solutions that leverage these kinds of employee metrics to increase employee productivity and overall performance."
LINKING PEOPLE METRICS TO STRATEGY
To gain their support from top executives, HR specialists must demonstrate that people metrics can be successfully aligned with business strategy. According to the results of a recent exercise by The Conference Board's Human Capital Measurement Working Group, this process is still in its earliest stages at many companies. Although many people measures are cited as currently being used by working group companies, few firms feel confident about how metrics relate directly to business strategy.
Human resource directors are still the primary sponsors of people metrics in most organizations, although 36% of surveyed companies report that business unit leaders are also involved.
Other study findings:
* Survey data suggest that managers become less involved in the selection and execution of people measures as the size of a company grows.
* Utilizing metrics in bonus plans is growing, but is still a minority practice. Only 39% of surveyed companies reward managers based on people measures.
* The financial measures of cost reduction and revenue growth are more commonly linked to people metrics than intermediate performance drivers such as process and product innovation and globalization. However, the
survey results suggest that people measures are more successfully linked with intermediate performance drivers than financial measures.
TOP LESSONS FOR MANAGERS
The study cites the following top lessons for managers:
* Involve HR professionals in the development of overall business strategy.
* Enlist leaders from outside the HR department to help develop and back human capital metrics.
* Collaborate with business managers to ensure that people measures link to the strategic goals of business units.
* Focus more attention on the links between people measures and major performance drivers (customer satisfaction, innovation, etc.) and place less emphasis on their connection to cost reduction, revenue growth, and other financial outcomes.
* Include human capital metrics in bonus plans.
* Audit metrics (internally and externally).
* Develop ad hoc analytical reports that detail how people investments can deliver business results.
Gautam's Views:
I think the better way to go forward is to utilise the HR Scorecard that Ulrich et al have tried to evolve.
I think it encompasses the best way to go forward.
Measures need to be chosen very carefully, and that has to be done by senior management, not functional HR...!
Feb 26, 2004
mail.com
From Dr. Madhukar Shukla's Alternative Perspective Blog:
"The Fiction of Numerical Growth
What you measure is what you get... and we measure that which is easier to measure. So, we are sort of stuck/ fixated with measuring GDP as an indicator of human happiness - surprisingly, against much evidence of an increasingly negative correlation between GDP and Happiness of a society. Just think of this irony: the cost of cleaning up the environment from a man-made or natural disaster gets added up in GDP, and not deducted from it!!! - e.g., yesterday, Morocco had an earthquake killing around 500 people. In the economics of the day, this will lead to more business for the insurance, heavy excavating equipments, coffin-makers, hospitals, etc., each adding to GDP... it is a topsy-turvy world.
Conservation Economy
Perhaps one of the fallacy of present-day economic measures is their narrow focus on consumption. So here is a framework to look at an economy, beyond the consumer economics paradigm. It is actually common sense, which we have sort of abondoned: a happy contented life, of course, is based on buying/possessing items of convenience. But happiness and well-being of a society/nation also depends on a clean environment, and a healthy, social life of its people.... sometime, it seems surrealistic that people have forgotten this simple fact of a happy life - that conservation and maintenance of things we have is as much important to our well-being, as consuming them!!!... Do explore this site."
"The Fiction of Numerical Growth
What you measure is what you get... and we measure that which is easier to measure. So, we are sort of stuck/ fixated with measuring GDP as an indicator of human happiness - surprisingly, against much evidence of an increasingly negative correlation between GDP and Happiness of a society. Just think of this irony: the cost of cleaning up the environment from a man-made or natural disaster gets added up in GDP, and not deducted from it!!! - e.g., yesterday, Morocco had an earthquake killing around 500 people. In the economics of the day, this will lead to more business for the insurance, heavy excavating equipments, coffin-makers, hospitals, etc., each adding to GDP... it is a topsy-turvy world.
Conservation Economy
Perhaps one of the fallacy of present-day economic measures is their narrow focus on consumption. So here is a framework to look at an economy, beyond the consumer economics paradigm. It is actually common sense, which we have sort of abondoned: a happy contented life, of course, is based on buying/possessing items of convenience. But happiness and well-being of a society/nation also depends on a clean environment, and a healthy, social life of its people.... sometime, it seems surrealistic that people have forgotten this simple fact of a happy life - that conservation and maintenance of things we have is as much important to our well-being, as consuming them!!!... Do explore this site."
Feb 25, 2004
Partners Part at Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins is the ever-hot VC of Sand Hill Road, the most-desired venture capital firm around.
So it's big news when partners leave. Private Equity Week reports that Vinod Khosla has gone part-time, and that Tom "T. J." Jermoluk left last year.
Khosla plans to spend more time encouraging entrepeneurs in his homeland of India, where he's currently is travelling.
I picked up this nugget of information from Business 2.0 blog
Khosla on CNBC the other day was talking about not IT services or ITES but bio-informatics and genomics that have caught his fancy in India
Another area that he touched upon was making the IITs/IIMs/and other educational centres in India the breeding ground of hot startups.
Kleiner Perkins is the ever-hot VC of Sand Hill Road, the most-desired venture capital firm around.
So it's big news when partners leave. Private Equity Week reports that Vinod Khosla has gone part-time, and that Tom "T. J." Jermoluk left last year.
Khosla plans to spend more time encouraging entrepeneurs in his homeland of India, where he's currently is travelling.
I picked up this nugget of information from Business 2.0 blog
Khosla on CNBC the other day was talking about not IT services or ITES but bio-informatics and genomics that have caught his fancy in India
Another area that he touched upon was making the IITs/IIMs/and other educational centres in India the breeding ground of hot startups.
fast company on why Size is not Strategy
The faster big business cleans up its ethical mess, the sooner we can address the real crisis of capitalism. Giant companies dominate the landscape -- from media to medicine, banking to broadband. But talented people don't want to work for them, customers hate doing business with them, and Wall Street doesn't want to invest in them. A candid appraisal of why so many big companies (even the honest ones) don't work -- and some radical ideas for reform.
The faster big business cleans up its ethical mess, the sooner we can address the real crisis of capitalism. Giant companies dominate the landscape -- from media to medicine, banking to broadband. But talented people don't want to work for them, customers hate doing business with them, and Wall Street doesn't want to invest in them. A candid appraisal of why so many big companies (even the honest ones) don't work -- and some radical ideas for reform.
BLT gets nominated as the UK's most preferred recruitment agency for Management Consultancy jobs
Beament Leslie Thomas got nominated as the preferred recruitment agency for Management Consultancy jobs for an unprecendented 3rd year, in a survey carried out by Top Consultant.com People surveyed were job hunters.
Beament Leslie Thomas got nominated as the preferred recruitment agency for Management Consultancy jobs for an unprecendented 3rd year, in a survey carried out by Top Consultant.com People surveyed were job hunters.
Feb 24, 2004
Observations
Tom Peters joins the Outsourcing Debate !
Sixteen Hard Truths
1. 'Off-shoring' will continue; the tide cannot be reversed.
2. Service jobs are a bigger issue than manufacturing jobs, by an order of magnitude.
3. The automation of business processes is as big a phenomenon in job shrinkage as off-shoring.
4. We are in the middle of a once every hundred years' (or so) productivity burst -- which is good for us in the long haul.
5. Job churn is normal and necessary: The more the better ... long haul.
6. Americans' 'unearned wage advantage' could be erased permanently. ('There is no job which is America's God-given right anymore.' -- Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard)
7. The wholesale, upscale entry of 2.5 billion people (China, India) into the global economy at an accelerating rate is almost unfathomable.
8. Big Companies are off-shoring/automating almost exclusively in pursuit of efficiency and shareholder value enhancement. (This is not new or news.)
9. Big companies do not create jobs, and historically have not. (Big companies are not 'built to last;' they almost inexorably are 'built to decline.')
10. Job creation is entrepreneurially led, especially by a small number of 'start-ups' that become growth companies (Microsoft, Amgen et al.); hence entrepreneurial incentives including low capital gains taxes, high R&D supports are a top priority.
11. Primary and secondary education must be reformed, in particular to underscore creativity and innovation -- the mainstays of high-value added products and services. Children should be nurtured on risk-taking, with a low expectation of corporate cosseting.
12. Research universities must be vigorously supported.
13. National/global protection of intellectual capital is imperative.
14. All economic progression is a matter of moving up the "value-added chain." (This is not "management speak": Think farm to factory to R&D lab.)
15. Worker benefits (health care, re-training credits, pensions) should be portable, to induce rather than impede labor mobility.
16. Workers have the ultimate stake. They must "re-imagine" themselves -- take the initiative to create useful global skills, not imagine that large employers or powerful nations will protect them from the current (and future!) labor market upheavals.
Sixteen Hard Truths
1. 'Off-shoring' will continue; the tide cannot be reversed.
2. Service jobs are a bigger issue than manufacturing jobs, by an order of magnitude.
3. The automation of business processes is as big a phenomenon in job shrinkage as off-shoring.
4. We are in the middle of a once every hundred years' (or so) productivity burst -- which is good for us in the long haul.
5. Job churn is normal and necessary: The more the better ... long haul.
6. Americans' 'unearned wage advantage' could be erased permanently. ('There is no job which is America's God-given right anymore.' -- Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard)
7. The wholesale, upscale entry of 2.5 billion people (China, India) into the global economy at an accelerating rate is almost unfathomable.
8. Big Companies are off-shoring/automating almost exclusively in pursuit of efficiency and shareholder value enhancement. (This is not new or news.)
9. Big companies do not create jobs, and historically have not. (Big companies are not 'built to last;' they almost inexorably are 'built to decline.')
10. Job creation is entrepreneurially led, especially by a small number of 'start-ups' that become growth companies (Microsoft, Amgen et al.); hence entrepreneurial incentives including low capital gains taxes, high R&D supports are a top priority.
11. Primary and secondary education must be reformed, in particular to underscore creativity and innovation -- the mainstays of high-value added products and services. Children should be nurtured on risk-taking, with a low expectation of corporate cosseting.
12. Research universities must be vigorously supported.
13. National/global protection of intellectual capital is imperative.
14. All economic progression is a matter of moving up the "value-added chain." (This is not "management speak": Think farm to factory to R&D lab.)
15. Worker benefits (health care, re-training credits, pensions) should be portable, to induce rather than impede labor mobility.
16. Workers have the ultimate stake. They must "re-imagine" themselves -- take the initiative to create useful global skills, not imagine that large employers or powerful nations will protect them from the current (and future!) labor market upheavals.
Half of IT workforce may quit in 2 years: Hewitt
Half of IT workforce may quit in 2 years: Hewitt Associates:
"Half of IT workforce may quit in 2 years
A rediff.com report : Indicating that a high attrition rate in the software and IT-enabled services industry could rise further, HR research firm Hewitt on Tuesday said half of the IT workforce is planning to resign in the next two years, with 45 per cent of the surveyed employees willing to consider a switch over for 20 per cent higher compensation.
'Forty-five per cent of the employees surveyed indicated that they would seriously consider a switch for a 20 per cent higher compensation and half of your IT work force is planning to resign in the next two years,' Aditya Kohli, head, Hewitt Associates said in New Delhi at a Nasscom event on HR networking while disclosing the findings of a research by Hewitt.
With average engagement levels in the industry at just about 50 per cent, Kohli said 74 per cent of Indian IT professionals surveyed indicated that they would stay at the current job because of the opportunity to learn and use new skills technology.
He said the retention strategies could be in the form of establishment of high performance culture, rewards for performance, competitive, differentiated and individualised fixed pay.
'Individual wealth creation and rapid reassessment would also be the key to retention strategies,' Kohli said."
I personally think that this is usual consulting approach of making a 'scare 'em silly' pitch !
The survey apparently never focussed on actual reality....the easy availability of skilled manpower and easy replacibility by freshers.
These two factors alone will ensure that 20% compensation might not happen !
The BT-Omam study which I posted earlier itself talks of 15% salary growth - and that is more or less across the board, negating the advantage for individual firms and actually will push up the cost of living !
Sure, people who work in "hot skills" areas like ERP, transition management etc will get disproportionate increments but the facts that will hold them back would be rarity of such work being done !
I mean to take an example, how many people know ethernet router and switching in telecom kind of skills?
And how many firms actually need such skills with your level of experience ?
Don't worry, your paychecks are not headed north yet ! :-((
"Half of IT workforce may quit in 2 years
A rediff.com report : Indicating that a high attrition rate in the software and IT-enabled services industry could rise further, HR research firm Hewitt on Tuesday said half of the IT workforce is planning to resign in the next two years, with 45 per cent of the surveyed employees willing to consider a switch over for 20 per cent higher compensation.
'Forty-five per cent of the employees surveyed indicated that they would seriously consider a switch for a 20 per cent higher compensation and half of your IT work force is planning to resign in the next two years,' Aditya Kohli, head, Hewitt Associates said in New Delhi at a Nasscom event on HR networking while disclosing the findings of a research by Hewitt.
With average engagement levels in the industry at just about 50 per cent, Kohli said 74 per cent of Indian IT professionals surveyed indicated that they would stay at the current job because of the opportunity to learn and use new skills technology.
He said the retention strategies could be in the form of establishment of high performance culture, rewards for performance, competitive, differentiated and individualised fixed pay.
'Individual wealth creation and rapid reassessment would also be the key to retention strategies,' Kohli said."
I personally think that this is usual consulting approach of making a 'scare 'em silly' pitch !
The survey apparently never focussed on actual reality....the easy availability of skilled manpower and easy replacibility by freshers.
These two factors alone will ensure that 20% compensation might not happen !
The BT-Omam study which I posted earlier itself talks of 15% salary growth - and that is more or less across the board, negating the advantage for individual firms and actually will push up the cost of living !
Sure, people who work in "hot skills" areas like ERP, transition management etc will get disproportionate increments but the facts that will hold them back would be rarity of such work being done !
I mean to take an example, how many people know ethernet router and switching in telecom kind of skills?
And how many firms actually need such skills with your level of experience ?
Don't worry, your paychecks are not headed north yet ! :-((
B-school grads' entry-level pay goes up 15% - The Economic Times
Indian B School Graduates' entry level pay goes up 15%
The Business Today -Omam Management Trainee Salary Survey (which considered pays across 100 companies in 17 sectors) says:
"salaries are going up, across all the 17 sectors of the Indian economy, says the highest projected hikes this year will be in the BPO , IT and consulting sectors.
But the hikes will be no more than 10 to 15 per cent. In fact, the survey warns that in tier II business schools, the hike may be static.
Here is a look at the top paymasters' sectors that offer Rs 5-6 lakh-plus per annum which include the FMCG , IT, consulting and the banking sectors. The survey finds the FMCG sector to be the best paymaster, a management trainee taking home up to at Rs 6,06,624 per annum. On an average, pay cheques in this sector range between Rs 3 and 6 lakh-plus.
The infotech sector with salary packets of Rs 2-5 lakh-plus comes in the second place with a top salary of Rs 5,79,000 per annum."
The Business Today -Omam Management Trainee Salary Survey (which considered pays across 100 companies in 17 sectors) says:
"salaries are going up, across all the 17 sectors of the Indian economy, says the highest projected hikes this year will be in the BPO , IT and consulting sectors.
But the hikes will be no more than 10 to 15 per cent. In fact, the survey warns that in tier II business schools, the hike may be static.
Here is a look at the top paymasters' sectors that offer Rs 5-6 lakh-plus per annum which include the FMCG , IT, consulting and the banking sectors. The survey finds the FMCG sector to be the best paymaster, a management trainee taking home up to at Rs 6,06,624 per annum. On an average, pay cheques in this sector range between Rs 3 and 6 lakh-plus.
The infotech sector with salary packets of Rs 2-5 lakh-plus comes in the second place with a top salary of Rs 5,79,000 per annum."
Creating a culture of learning.
Creating a culture of learning.
John Seely Brown on the above topic!
JSB has been one of my favorite thinkers ! I specially loved his thoughts on "The Social Life of Information"
Here he talks about my favourite topics :)) Bliss !
Knowledge Dyamics In Silicon Valley
Innovation in the Internet Age A pdf file
Creativity versus Structure: A Useful Tension
How to Capture Knowledge without Killing It also a Pdf document
Knowledge and Organization: A Social Perspective
Sustaining the Ecology of Knowledge (pdf)
Innovating Innovation
IF YOU are a KM enthusiast, interested in Knowledge, Learning, Innovation and Performance..then read the above articles. They come from one of the most original thinkers IMHO !
John Seely Brown on the above topic!
JSB has been one of my favorite thinkers ! I specially loved his thoughts on "The Social Life of Information"
Here he talks about my favourite topics :)) Bliss !
Knowledge Dyamics In Silicon Valley
Innovation in the Internet Age A pdf file
Creativity versus Structure: A Useful Tension
How to Capture Knowledge without Killing It also a Pdf document
Knowledge and Organization: A Social Perspective
Sustaining the Ecology of Knowledge (pdf)
Innovating Innovation
IF YOU are a KM enthusiast, interested in Knowledge, Learning, Innovation and Performance..then read the above articles. They come from one of the most original thinkers IMHO !
Feb 23, 2004
The Eight Life Interests
According to the Harvard psychologists, there are eight life interests that they have been able to identify, with each person having from one to three of them that would qualify as motivators in a work environment. They say that these are better motivators than innate abilities or values in leading to total job satisfaction. Here they are:
Application of Technology....How many times have I heard software companies tell me that they can’t keep technicians unless they regularly have new toys to play with? These people love the inner workings of things.
Quantitative Analysis....These people gravitate toward the numbers and use them creatively to analyze data. They excel at analyzing ratios, customer research data, etc.
Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking....These people love nothing better than relating concepts to pursue higher levels of understanding. I should know.
Creative Production....These imaginative, out-of-the-box thinkers love to start things when there are lots of unknowns and they can make something out of nothing. They thrive on newness, whether it’s a product or a process.
Counseling and Mentoring....For some, nothing is more enjoyable than teaching. Whether they do it because they enjoy watching others succeed, or because they want to be appreciated, they see social value in their cause.
Managing People and Relationships....Wanting to manage people is different than wanting to counsel and mentor. The focus here is on outcomes, and these people enjoy working day-to-day with others. They like to motivate, organize and direct.
Enterprise Control....These are the go-to people who love being responsible for the direction of a team or project. They specifically like being in charge, although they may not like managing people. Their main thrill is in "owning" the transaction (i.e. being accountable).
Influence Through Language and Ideas....These people enjoy storytelling, negotiating and persuading just for the sake of it. They are most fulfilled when they are communicating (speaking or writing). Even if no one is listening, they are practicing their skills through self-talk.
So what do you think is your life interest???
According to the Harvard psychologists, there are eight life interests that they have been able to identify, with each person having from one to three of them that would qualify as motivators in a work environment. They say that these are better motivators than innate abilities or values in leading to total job satisfaction. Here they are:
Application of Technology....How many times have I heard software companies tell me that they can’t keep technicians unless they regularly have new toys to play with? These people love the inner workings of things.
Quantitative Analysis....These people gravitate toward the numbers and use them creatively to analyze data. They excel at analyzing ratios, customer research data, etc.
Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking....These people love nothing better than relating concepts to pursue higher levels of understanding. I should know.
Creative Production....These imaginative, out-of-the-box thinkers love to start things when there are lots of unknowns and they can make something out of nothing. They thrive on newness, whether it’s a product or a process.
Counseling and Mentoring....For some, nothing is more enjoyable than teaching. Whether they do it because they enjoy watching others succeed, or because they want to be appreciated, they see social value in their cause.
Managing People and Relationships....Wanting to manage people is different than wanting to counsel and mentor. The focus here is on outcomes, and these people enjoy working day-to-day with others. They like to motivate, organize and direct.
Enterprise Control....These are the go-to people who love being responsible for the direction of a team or project. They specifically like being in charge, although they may not like managing people. Their main thrill is in "owning" the transaction (i.e. being accountable).
Influence Through Language and Ideas....These people enjoy storytelling, negotiating and persuading just for the sake of it. They are most fulfilled when they are communicating (speaking or writing). Even if no one is listening, they are practicing their skills through self-talk.
So what do you think is your life interest???
Feb 21, 2004
Executive movements in India Inc.
KPMG execs leave for PWC
In a case of mass exodus, over 25 (!!) executives of KPMG’s infrastructure consulting division have quit the company in the last three months and joined Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). The first executive to leave KPMG’s infrastructure consulting division was Mr Amrit Pandurangi who joined PwC as its Executive Director. PwC has four executive directors focusing on infrastructure. While Mr V Namashivayam and Mr Kameshwar Rao handle the power and energy sectors, Ms Latha Ramanathan and Mr Pandurangi deal with the other areas, including transport, ports, shipping, aviation and water.
while Mr C Srinivasan And Mr Devinder Chawla Resign From AT Kearney
Mr C Srinivasan, Chairman and Mr Devinder Chawla, Vice-President with AT Kearney have resigned from the company. While an immediate appointment of a new Chairman is not expected, Vice-President Mr Ravi Kushan will take over as managing director of AT Kearney India.
In the FMCG segment XLer replaces XLer as HR honcho at Pepsi India
Pavan Bhatia (XLRI batch of 1991), currently organisation capability director (Asia Region), PepsiCo International, has been appointed as executive director (HR), Pepsi India . He will take over on March 1 and will report to Rajeev Bakshi, chairman, PepsiCo India . Mr Bhatia replaces Jeswant Nair (XLRI batch of 1978), and will be one of the youngest functional heads at Pepsi.
In a case of mass exodus, over 25 (!!) executives of KPMG’s infrastructure consulting division have quit the company in the last three months and joined Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). The first executive to leave KPMG’s infrastructure consulting division was Mr Amrit Pandurangi who joined PwC as its Executive Director. PwC has four executive directors focusing on infrastructure. While Mr V Namashivayam and Mr Kameshwar Rao handle the power and energy sectors, Ms Latha Ramanathan and Mr Pandurangi deal with the other areas, including transport, ports, shipping, aviation and water.
while Mr C Srinivasan And Mr Devinder Chawla Resign From AT Kearney
Mr C Srinivasan, Chairman and Mr Devinder Chawla, Vice-President with AT Kearney have resigned from the company. While an immediate appointment of a new Chairman is not expected, Vice-President Mr Ravi Kushan will take over as managing director of AT Kearney India.
In the FMCG segment XLer replaces XLer as HR honcho at Pepsi India
Pavan Bhatia (XLRI batch of 1991), currently organisation capability director (Asia Region), PepsiCo International, has been appointed as executive director (HR), Pepsi India . He will take over on March 1 and will report to Rajeev Bakshi, chairman, PepsiCo India . Mr Bhatia replaces Jeswant Nair (XLRI batch of 1978), and will be one of the youngest functional heads at Pepsi.
Feb 20, 2004
Management Issues Blog tells us that there is now More money for IT freelancers in the UK
Par rates for IT freelancers working in the UK financial services sector are on the rise, according to the Association of Technology Staffing Companies.
Average pay rises in the second half of last year were 2 per cent, reversing four years of falling wages. Unemployment also fell by a third.
Data warehouse specialists bucked the trend however, with their hourly rates shooting up by more than a third to £54.
Par rates for IT freelancers working in the UK financial services sector are on the rise, according to the Association of Technology Staffing Companies.
Average pay rises in the second half of last year were 2 per cent, reversing four years of falling wages. Unemployment also fell by a third.
Data warehouse specialists bucked the trend however, with their hourly rates shooting up by more than a third to £54.
PeopleSoft , the Nasdaq-listed leading provider of enterprise application software is tripling its headcount in India.
Its Bangalore-based India Services Centre (ISC) and India Development Center (IDC) will together add 1,000 people by the end of this year. PeopleSoft has partnered with Hexaware and Covansys to set up ISC and IDC under the BOT (build, operate and transfer) model.
The present headcount at ISC and IDC is 360. Both the ISC and IDC will continue to focus on development, implementation and support of PeopleSoft's Enterprise, EnterpriseOne and World product families, for customers worldwide, said Ram Gupta, executive vice-president products and technology, PeopleSoft.
Besides application development, both the centres will also provide software support and implementation services.
Hmm, ERP skills will find more takers after SAP and Oracle? PeopleSoft would love to poach from Oracle...after the takeover bid by Ellison some time back...
Its Bangalore-based India Services Centre (ISC) and India Development Center (IDC) will together add 1,000 people by the end of this year. PeopleSoft has partnered with Hexaware and Covansys to set up ISC and IDC under the BOT (build, operate and transfer) model.
The present headcount at ISC and IDC is 360. Both the ISC and IDC will continue to focus on development, implementation and support of PeopleSoft's Enterprise, EnterpriseOne and World product families, for customers worldwide, said Ram Gupta, executive vice-president products and technology, PeopleSoft.
Besides application development, both the centres will also provide software support and implementation services.
Hmm, ERP skills will find more takers after SAP and Oracle? PeopleSoft would love to poach from Oracle...after the takeover bid by Ellison some time back...
Feb 19, 2004
Announcements News
tata Motors goes global after making Indica the City Rover ! Taking over Daewoo !
Tata Motors and Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co sign Investment Agreement: "Tata Motors Ltd has announced the signing of the Investment Agreement for the acquisition of DWCV for a total price of KRW 120 billion (approximately US$ 102 million or Rs.4,650 million) which is being financed equally through Tata Motors' equity in DWCV and direct lending facilities to DWCV. The price includes the perpetual and exclusive right to use Daewoo trademarks in Korea and overseas markets for the product range of DWCV.
The Agreement follows the completion of due diligence by Tata Motors as per the binding Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two companies on November 5, 2003 and the culmination of a successful Special Collective Bargaining Agreement between the management and the union of DWCV, recognizing the change in ownership of the company.
Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Group, said, 'This is indeed a major step for Tata Motors and a milestone for the Group in its quest for globalization. I am confident that both companies will derive considerable benefits from this Agreement'.
Both Tata Motors and DWCV believe that they can extract significant synergies in several areas such as marketing, research and product development and other operational areas."
Tata Motors and Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co sign Investment Agreement: "Tata Motors Ltd has announced the signing of the Investment Agreement for the acquisition of DWCV for a total price of KRW 120 billion (approximately US$ 102 million or Rs.4,650 million) which is being financed equally through Tata Motors' equity in DWCV and direct lending facilities to DWCV. The price includes the perpetual and exclusive right to use Daewoo trademarks in Korea and overseas markets for the product range of DWCV.
The Agreement follows the completion of due diligence by Tata Motors as per the binding Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two companies on November 5, 2003 and the culmination of a successful Special Collective Bargaining Agreement between the management and the union of DWCV, recognizing the change in ownership of the company.
Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Group, said, 'This is indeed a major step for Tata Motors and a milestone for the Group in its quest for globalization. I am confident that both companies will derive considerable benefits from this Agreement'.
Both Tata Motors and DWCV believe that they can extract significant synergies in several areas such as marketing, research and product development and other operational areas."
Day Zero: 124 XLRItes Lapped Up In 9 Hrs
XLRI placement News
Day Zero: 124 XLRItes Lapped Up In 9 Hrs: "Day Zero: 124
Forty-five recruiting companies snapped up all the 124 candidates from XLRI this year in a record time of nine hours on ?Day Zero? on Tuesday, making the rest 22 corporates, enlisted for the campus recruitment process (CRP), return empty-handed.
The mood is very upbeat and the quality of placements was beyond the expectation of all of us, summed up Father PD Thomas, director, XLRI, at a press conference here on Tuesday.
This was the second time, 'after a couple of years' that placements at the XLRI were completed on Day Zero.
"The XLRI's online process, started some time ago, helped streamline the entire process, making it more efficient for the companies and making it less cumbersome for students," said Mr Harshwardhan Singh, placement secretary for campus recruitment process 2004.
Asked about the overriding trend noticed at the campus recruitment process this year, the placement secretary said: "A lot of companies had requirements of 10-12 candidates each, but those requirements could not be satisfied with the constraint of the total availability of only 124 candidates."
Of the sectors that came for campus recruitment process, Mr Singh said: "The information technology-enabled services (ITES) sector including business process outsourcing (BPO), insurance and the pharmaceutical sectors haven't been recruiting as much as they did this year,? adding that ?nationalised banks, including State Bank of India, too were interested in heavy recruitment this year".
Coming to statistics, it was the IT and FMCG sectors that picked up 26 per cent each of the total available candidates, followed by 13 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent recruitments, respectively by banks & financial institutions, Business Process Outsoutrcings and core sector companies.
Also around 8 per cent and 4 per cent of the candidates each, went to consulting firms and insurance/ pharma/ telecom companies.
In real terms, both the IT and FMCG sectors picked up 32 candidates each from the campus this year. The IT/ITES sector comprising companies like Wipro, Infosys, HCL, TCS, IBM, Cognizant Technologies Solutions and vCustomer among themselves recruited 47 candidates.
As an individual company, it was Wipro which recruited the highest number of 10 candidates. Consulting firms, which included PwC, Ernst & Young, Ma Foi and Hewitt Associates made over 20 offers.
The highest offer this year, a lateral one, came from Coke, which picked up one of the B-School’s candidates with a five-year work exposure behind him for an annual pay packet of Rs 8.78 lakh.
Last year, the distinction lay with McKinsey which had offered the highest salary of Rs 14 lakh to one of XLRI’s candidates.
The average salary figure of the batch of 2004 worked out to Rs 7.14 lakh (US $ 16000 approx). The standard deviation for the compensation figure is Rs 0.85 lakh, with the lowest salary figure being Rs 4.2 lakh.
Altogether 162 offers came the students’ way, showing that the candidates had multiple offers to choose from.
Banks and financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered, Citibank, ICICI, ABN Amro, State Bank of India, SBI Caps, UTI Bank, ICICI PruLife, AIG, picked up among themselves 18 candidates, while the FMCG sector represented by Hindustan Lever Limited, ITC, Colgate-Palmolive, Reckitt Benckier, GSK, Coke and Pepsi recruited 32.
Among the major core sector companies which picked up candidates from the B-school were Murugappa, TAS and the Aditya Birla group.
Day Zero: 124 XLRItes Lapped Up In 9 Hrs: "Day Zero: 124
Forty-five recruiting companies snapped up all the 124 candidates from XLRI this year in a record time of nine hours on ?Day Zero? on Tuesday, making the rest 22 corporates, enlisted for the campus recruitment process (CRP), return empty-handed.
The mood is very upbeat and the quality of placements was beyond the expectation of all of us, summed up Father PD Thomas, director, XLRI, at a press conference here on Tuesday.
This was the second time, 'after a couple of years' that placements at the XLRI were completed on Day Zero.
"The XLRI's online process, started some time ago, helped streamline the entire process, making it more efficient for the companies and making it less cumbersome for students," said Mr Harshwardhan Singh, placement secretary for campus recruitment process 2004.
Asked about the overriding trend noticed at the campus recruitment process this year, the placement secretary said: "A lot of companies had requirements of 10-12 candidates each, but those requirements could not be satisfied with the constraint of the total availability of only 124 candidates."
Of the sectors that came for campus recruitment process, Mr Singh said: "The information technology-enabled services (ITES) sector including business process outsourcing (BPO), insurance and the pharmaceutical sectors haven't been recruiting as much as they did this year,? adding that ?nationalised banks, including State Bank of India, too were interested in heavy recruitment this year".
Coming to statistics, it was the IT and FMCG sectors that picked up 26 per cent each of the total available candidates, followed by 13 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent recruitments, respectively by banks & financial institutions, Business Process Outsoutrcings and core sector companies.
Also around 8 per cent and 4 per cent of the candidates each, went to consulting firms and insurance/ pharma/ telecom companies.
In real terms, both the IT and FMCG sectors picked up 32 candidates each from the campus this year. The IT/ITES sector comprising companies like Wipro, Infosys, HCL, TCS, IBM, Cognizant Technologies Solutions and vCustomer among themselves recruited 47 candidates.
As an individual company, it was Wipro which recruited the highest number of 10 candidates. Consulting firms, which included PwC, Ernst & Young, Ma Foi and Hewitt Associates made over 20 offers.
The highest offer this year, a lateral one, came from Coke, which picked up one of the B-School’s candidates with a five-year work exposure behind him for an annual pay packet of Rs 8.78 lakh.
Last year, the distinction lay with McKinsey which had offered the highest salary of Rs 14 lakh to one of XLRI’s candidates.
The average salary figure of the batch of 2004 worked out to Rs 7.14 lakh (US $ 16000 approx). The standard deviation for the compensation figure is Rs 0.85 lakh, with the lowest salary figure being Rs 4.2 lakh.
Altogether 162 offers came the students’ way, showing that the candidates had multiple offers to choose from.
Banks and financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered, Citibank, ICICI, ABN Amro, State Bank of India, SBI Caps, UTI Bank, ICICI PruLife, AIG, picked up among themselves 18 candidates, while the FMCG sector represented by Hindustan Lever Limited, ITC, Colgate-Palmolive, Reckitt Benckier, GSK, Coke and Pepsi recruited 32.
Among the major core sector companies which picked up candidates from the B-school were Murugappa, TAS and the Aditya Birla group.
Feb 17, 2004
Thinkers 50
Did you know that there exists a firm whose sole purpose is to rank the top 50 thinkers each year?
And quite unimaginatively they are called Thinkers 50 ! This is what their website says!
The Thinkers 50 2003 provides a completely new ranking, the definitive guide to which thinkers and ideas are in - and which have been consigned to business history. More than that, it offers a unique snapshot of the practices and personalities shaping the world of work and the way we do our jobs.
In the fickle world of business thought-leadership, a lot can change in two years. When we created the Thinkers 50, it was the only global ranking of business luminaries. Since 2001, imitators have appeared. For example, the consulting firm Accenture has its own guru ranking. Imitation, it is said, is a form of flattery as much as a sign of a lack of originality. The Thinkers 50 is independent. Our only agenda is to find the answer to a simple question:
Who is the most important living management thinker?
So dear reader who do you think is the most influential management thinker? Check your answer with the Thinker 50 site ;-)
Yeah with no.1 you can't go wrong....the superstar is ....Peter Drucker !
The one surprising omission for me is Ram Charan...hell, I thought the guy was a real dude !
But these guys say they rank folks on this methodology ....!
And quite unimaginatively they are called Thinkers 50 ! This is what their website says!
The Thinkers 50 2003 provides a completely new ranking, the definitive guide to which thinkers and ideas are in - and which have been consigned to business history. More than that, it offers a unique snapshot of the practices and personalities shaping the world of work and the way we do our jobs.
In the fickle world of business thought-leadership, a lot can change in two years. When we created the Thinkers 50, it was the only global ranking of business luminaries. Since 2001, imitators have appeared. For example, the consulting firm Accenture has its own guru ranking. Imitation, it is said, is a form of flattery as much as a sign of a lack of originality. The Thinkers 50 is independent. Our only agenda is to find the answer to a simple question:
Who is the most important living management thinker?
So dear reader who do you think is the most influential management thinker? Check your answer with the Thinker 50 site ;-)
Yeah with no.1 you can't go wrong....the superstar is ....Peter Drucker !
The one surprising omission for me is Ram Charan...hell, I thought the guy was a real dude !
But these guys say they rank folks on this methodology ....!
HR.com Human Resources Management, Training, Jobs, Information
HR.com talks about the Predictions for HR in 2004:
"The performance management vertical will finally gain the traction it deserves. Who wins the space is yet to be determined. The winners could be those selling compensation software, stand alone performance software, the ERP players, or the various solution providers like the LMS vendors and TMS vendors who will integrate with it.
Measurements and metrics will become a reality. With the hard work PWC/Saratoga and Doublestar are doing, expect to see a few major clients set the standard for all of us to follow. Also PWC’s work in establishing a Human Capital “income statement” is well underway, which will legitimize the need for metrics and measuring the most sustainable asset that companies have -- their people.
Retention, retention, retention. As we continue to see signs of improvement in the economy, look for companies like Career Systems International, Center for Talent Retention and Talent Keepers.
Welcome Back VCs . We anticipate venture capital firms to re-enter the HCM market with a vengeance. This is because of the low rate of adoption of technology across corporations. Too much of the previous funding was wasted in the dot-com days on marketing and mergers. Keep a look out for investments in the HR outsourcing, performance management, employee portals and let us not forget about content.
Leadership training will come back with full force. Mostly in an effort to control retention.
Look for a wider adoption of Consumer Driven Health Care Plans. The estimated two million employees on these plans is expected to grow exponentially.
We expect an additional 35 major HRO deals to be signed in 2004.
The purse strings for technology spending will open moderately in the first quarter of this year and significantly in the last"
"The performance management vertical will finally gain the traction it deserves. Who wins the space is yet to be determined. The winners could be those selling compensation software, stand alone performance software, the ERP players, or the various solution providers like the LMS vendors and TMS vendors who will integrate with it.
Measurements and metrics will become a reality. With the hard work PWC/Saratoga and Doublestar are doing, expect to see a few major clients set the standard for all of us to follow. Also PWC’s work in establishing a Human Capital “income statement” is well underway, which will legitimize the need for metrics and measuring the most sustainable asset that companies have -- their people.
Retention, retention, retention. As we continue to see signs of improvement in the economy, look for companies like Career Systems International, Center for Talent Retention and Talent Keepers.
Welcome Back VCs . We anticipate venture capital firms to re-enter the HCM market with a vengeance. This is because of the low rate of adoption of technology across corporations. Too much of the previous funding was wasted in the dot-com days on marketing and mergers. Keep a look out for investments in the HR outsourcing, performance management, employee portals and let us not forget about content.
Leadership training will come back with full force. Mostly in an effort to control retention.
Look for a wider adoption of Consumer Driven Health Care Plans. The estimated two million employees on these plans is expected to grow exponentially.
We expect an additional 35 major HRO deals to be signed in 2004.
The purse strings for technology spending will open moderately in the first quarter of this year and significantly in the last"
Replacing that film camera means knowing your pixels
Seattle PI says Replacing that film camera means knowing your pixels:
"The storied history of photography will reach another turning point next year, if you believe the worldwide consumer forecast. Digital cameras are expected to outsell film cameras in 2004, a surprising development for those of us still warming up to the notion of memory sticks and megapixels.
Digital cameras allow you to see pictures immediately on the camera's preview screen, so you know right away if you got the shot or not.
You can present slide shows on your TV, or you can print the images you want on your home printer. Forget those days of paying to process film without even knowing if the shots are worth keeping.
The digital camera was an alluring gadget from the get-go, but until recently prices kept it beyond the reach of most amateur photographers. Now, many cameras that sell for less than $250 are better than models that once sold for $800. As prices continue to drop, even the most casual snapshot shooters are taking the digital plunge."
"The storied history of photography will reach another turning point next year, if you believe the worldwide consumer forecast. Digital cameras are expected to outsell film cameras in 2004, a surprising development for those of us still warming up to the notion of memory sticks and megapixels.
Digital cameras allow you to see pictures immediately on the camera's preview screen, so you know right away if you got the shot or not.
You can present slide shows on your TV, or you can print the images you want on your home printer. Forget those days of paying to process film without even knowing if the shots are worth keeping.
The digital camera was an alluring gadget from the get-go, but until recently prices kept it beyond the reach of most amateur photographers. Now, many cameras that sell for less than $250 are better than models that once sold for $800. As prices continue to drop, even the most casual snapshot shooters are taking the digital plunge."
business2blog
Found this on the business2blog (blog run by Business 2.0 the magazine):
"With an estimated 25 to 35 million potential customers, the U.S. youth market could represent an extremely lucrative opportunity for the wireless industry. 'To successfully tap this customer segment, the wireless industry will need to focus on developing innovative services that appeal to youth, but that also fit parent's buying habits,' says Ken Hyers, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR. In a recent survey of both parents and young adults, In-Stat/MDR found the following:
* The average age of a child whose parent supplied the mobile phone was most likely to be 19 or above, indicating that parents provide their children with their own phones as a safety tool when the children begin to move out of the house for the first time.
* Youths were, by a substantial margin, more likely to be customers of Verizon Wireless than any other carrier.
* Youths, particularly young adults, were highly likely to regularly use wireless data services."
"With an estimated 25 to 35 million potential customers, the U.S. youth market could represent an extremely lucrative opportunity for the wireless industry. 'To successfully tap this customer segment, the wireless industry will need to focus on developing innovative services that appeal to youth, but that also fit parent's buying habits,' says Ken Hyers, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR. In a recent survey of both parents and young adults, In-Stat/MDR found the following:
* The average age of a child whose parent supplied the mobile phone was most likely to be 19 or above, indicating that parents provide their children with their own phones as a safety tool when the children begin to move out of the house for the first time.
* Youths were, by a substantial margin, more likely to be customers of Verizon Wireless than any other carrier.
* Youths, particularly young adults, were highly likely to regularly use wireless data services."
Booz Allen Hamilton's new research on Organizational DNA says:
“Execution” has become the new watchword in board rooms around the globe, as CEOs and
directors watch sound strategies fail at the hands of organizations that cannot or will not effectively
implement them. The ability to execute is not something you can recruit or mandate. It is inherent—
embedded in the management processes, relationships, measurements, and beliefs that
constitute an organization’s DNA. Like the DNA of living organisms, the DNA of living organizations
consists of four building blocks, which combine and recombine to express distinct identities,
or personalities. These organizational building blocks—decision rights, information, motivators, and structure—largely determine how a firm looks and behaves, internally and externally. Unlike
humans and other organisms, however, organizations have the ability to change their DNA by
adjusting and adapting these building blocks.
“Execution” has become the new watchword in board rooms around the globe, as CEOs and
directors watch sound strategies fail at the hands of organizations that cannot or will not effectively
implement them. The ability to execute is not something you can recruit or mandate. It is inherent—
embedded in the management processes, relationships, measurements, and beliefs that
constitute an organization’s DNA. Like the DNA of living organisms, the DNA of living organizations
consists of four building blocks, which combine and recombine to express distinct identities,
or personalities. These organizational building blocks—decision rights, information, motivators, and structure—largely determine how a firm looks and behaves, internally and externally. Unlike
humans and other organisms, however, organizations have the ability to change their DNA by
adjusting and adapting these building blocks.
The Hindu Business Line : US seeks enhanced trade as India raises BPO issue
The Hindu Business Line :
US seeks enhanced trade as India raises BPO issue:
"INDIA has voiced its concerns over the backlash in the US on the issue of business process outsourcing (BPO) even as it reiterated its readiness to engage constructively with countries such as the US for bringing the failed multilateral trade talks back on rail.
'It is strange that on the one hand people are talking about opening of market, and on the other hand, banning Business Process Outsourcing. Our agriculture is fragile as it is not subsidised like in the US,' Mr Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister, told newspersons after a meeting with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Mr Robert Zoellick, here today. "
US seeks enhanced trade as India raises BPO issue:
"INDIA has voiced its concerns over the backlash in the US on the issue of business process outsourcing (BPO) even as it reiterated its readiness to engage constructively with countries such as the US for bringing the failed multilateral trade talks back on rail.
'It is strange that on the one hand people are talking about opening of market, and on the other hand, banning Business Process Outsourcing. Our agriculture is fragile as it is not subsidised like in the US,' Mr Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister, told newspersons after a meeting with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Mr Robert Zoellick, here today. "
IT majors losing staff to smaller players - The Economic Times
The Economic Times says: IT majors losing staff to smaller players
"MUMBAI: A sharp rise in the demand for employees has resulted in wage bills of leading software companies rising sharply.
Analysts say that Indian companies like Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer, HCL Technologies, among others, are losing experienced staff to new players.
A significant ramp up in operations from global giants like Accenture, IBM Consulting, EDS, among others is slowly affecting Indian vendors as they lose senior and junior level staff .
The implication of such a move is likely to hit the quality of work of Indian vendors, say analysts.
According to a Nasscom Hewitt Total Rewards Survey 2003, the entry level salary (junior software engineer) is up an average 24% to Rs 267,000 from 217,000 in 2002.
The average top management (head of business unit or software development) level salary is up by as high as 58% to Rs 26,70,000 in 2003 from Rs 16,86,000. The middle management level (Project manager) is up 50% to Rs 11,78,000 against Rs 7,84,000 in 2002.
Pratik Kumar, vice president for human resources at Wipro, believes that the rising demand has put pressure on the availability of experienced professionals and in-turn their compensation structure.
"Hike in salaries is not a knee-jerk reaction. Employee salaries remained consistent for two years in a row during the downturn and therefore in the normal course an increase was due anytime last year. An increase in the demand was reason enough for companies to go all out to retain experienced manpower,” Mr Kumar said.
Many say that its not just top rung software companies that are affected by rising wage costs, but even the mid-sized firms have been severely hit.
According to Ravi Ramu, CFO at Mphasis, multinational companies are taking away middle and senior level management.
“This has had an impact on wage costs in the past one year. Indian companies have reacted by increasing existing wage structures. Services such as application lifecycle management, legacy and maintenance have always remained a staple diet for both large and mid-sized firms,” Mr Ramu told ET.
Analyst at brokerage ABN Amro Securities do not see this move positively.
“This clearly has cost implications and also the delivery quality could suffer in the short term in our view. In the long term, scaleability may be impacted due to an ineffective staff mix,” a note by brokerage ABN Amro Securities said.
Higher attrition rates experienced during the first half of the current fiscal is one reason that has led to wage inflation.
Moreover, new services that companies launched during the year did not take off as expected. In some cases, new service offerings have been withdrawn."
"MUMBAI: A sharp rise in the demand for employees has resulted in wage bills of leading software companies rising sharply.
Analysts say that Indian companies like Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer, HCL Technologies, among others, are losing experienced staff to new players.
A significant ramp up in operations from global giants like Accenture, IBM Consulting, EDS, among others is slowly affecting Indian vendors as they lose senior and junior level staff .
The implication of such a move is likely to hit the quality of work of Indian vendors, say analysts.
According to a Nasscom Hewitt Total Rewards Survey 2003, the entry level salary (junior software engineer) is up an average 24% to Rs 267,000 from 217,000 in 2002.
The average top management (head of business unit or software development) level salary is up by as high as 58% to Rs 26,70,000 in 2003 from Rs 16,86,000. The middle management level (Project manager) is up 50% to Rs 11,78,000 against Rs 7,84,000 in 2002.
Pratik Kumar, vice president for human resources at Wipro, believes that the rising demand has put pressure on the availability of experienced professionals and in-turn their compensation structure.
"Hike in salaries is not a knee-jerk reaction. Employee salaries remained consistent for two years in a row during the downturn and therefore in the normal course an increase was due anytime last year. An increase in the demand was reason enough for companies to go all out to retain experienced manpower,” Mr Kumar said.
Many say that its not just top rung software companies that are affected by rising wage costs, but even the mid-sized firms have been severely hit.
According to Ravi Ramu, CFO at Mphasis, multinational companies are taking away middle and senior level management.
“This has had an impact on wage costs in the past one year. Indian companies have reacted by increasing existing wage structures. Services such as application lifecycle management, legacy and maintenance have always remained a staple diet for both large and mid-sized firms,” Mr Ramu told ET.
Analyst at brokerage ABN Amro Securities do not see this move positively.
“This clearly has cost implications and also the delivery quality could suffer in the short term in our view. In the long term, scaleability may be impacted due to an ineffective staff mix,” a note by brokerage ABN Amro Securities said.
Higher attrition rates experienced during the first half of the current fiscal is one reason that has led to wage inflation.
Moreover, new services that companies launched during the year did not take off as expected. In some cases, new service offerings have been withdrawn."
Feb 16, 2004
On Cross Functional Teams
On Cross Functional Teams
A Cross-Functional Team is usually called on when there exists a business problem that requires the combined effort of experts and when it is recognised that the resulting solution would need to span a range of functions.
Increasingly businesses face problems which are not pliable to 'simple' solutions. One factor is that businesses themselves see opportunities not in silos but in systems thinking. So a recruitment ad, is not just a recruitment ad anymore- it is also an opportunity to build the organization's brand ! Therefore it becomes imperative for the recruitment team to link up with the branding/mktg team and the corporate communications team.
In fact, I feel that going forward we will see a whole lot of cross-functional work being done by people.
In HR we already interact with other organizations like corp communications, mktg, IT to deliver our services to the employee. And therefore there are no 'pure' HR people anymore.
The issues with cross-functional teams are that the barriers are built over time. We study in MBA that the functions are 'silos' but the reality does not sink in for a long time. We continue looking at imaginary barriers like 'us' and 'them' and I think that a 'silo-mentality' is the greatest barrier to the success of a cross functional team. Throw in the complexity of people working from across cultures in a globalised world under stringent deadlines - the challenges could not be greater.
As managers and HR people the focus should be on breaking down our artificial barriers and 'turf-protecting' mentality. And telling people that all our actions should be directed so that the customer out there who buys our products and services.
A Cross-Functional Team is usually called on when there exists a business problem that requires the combined effort of experts and when it is recognised that the resulting solution would need to span a range of functions.
Increasingly businesses face problems which are not pliable to 'simple' solutions. One factor is that businesses themselves see opportunities not in silos but in systems thinking. So a recruitment ad, is not just a recruitment ad anymore- it is also an opportunity to build the organization's brand ! Therefore it becomes imperative for the recruitment team to link up with the branding/mktg team and the corporate communications team.
In fact, I feel that going forward we will see a whole lot of cross-functional work being done by people.
In HR we already interact with other organizations like corp communications, mktg, IT to deliver our services to the employee. And therefore there are no 'pure' HR people anymore.
The issues with cross-functional teams are that the barriers are built over time. We study in MBA that the functions are 'silos' but the reality does not sink in for a long time. We continue looking at imaginary barriers like 'us' and 'them' and I think that a 'silo-mentality' is the greatest barrier to the success of a cross functional team. Throw in the complexity of people working from across cultures in a globalised world under stringent deadlines - the challenges could not be greater.
As managers and HR people the focus should be on breaking down our artificial barriers and 'turf-protecting' mentality. And telling people that all our actions should be directed so that the customer out there who buys our products and services.
On KM adoption in Organizations - My post on K-Logs egroup
I figure a very small percentage of people are actually "courageous" enough to say what they do, in public. And to put it in black and white on a website when umpteen number of people can criticise and critique it reduces that percentage further.
But in a way, it mirrors the typical marketing cycle.
Any new technology (and I mean technology in a broad sense!) comes up against the status quo with only a few enthusiasts willing to try it out !
When the odds are against the technology spreading from the enthusiasts to the majority of early adopters they require a reassurance from sources other than the early innovators.
But when we hype/publicise any new method/technology we target it only at the early enthusiasts and run the risk of the possible early adopters to label it as "yet another fad"
What becomes imperative is that both the groups see each others views as credible and not reject them outright.
I suspect that as businesses get more integrated and departmental silos are crushed down we will see more and more initiatives to address the whole organization. KM is only the first in a long new line !
I figure a very small percentage of people are actually "courageous" enough to say what they do, in public. And to put it in black and white on a website when umpteen number of people can criticise and critique it reduces that percentage further.
But in a way, it mirrors the typical marketing cycle.
Any new technology (and I mean technology in a broad sense!) comes up against the status quo with only a few enthusiasts willing to try it out !
When the odds are against the technology spreading from the enthusiasts to the majority of early adopters they require a reassurance from sources other than the early innovators.
But when we hype/publicise any new method/technology we target it only at the early enthusiasts and run the risk of the possible early adopters to label it as "yet another fad"
What becomes imperative is that both the groups see each others views as credible and not reject them outright.
I suspect that as businesses get more integrated and departmental silos are crushed down we will see more and more initiatives to address the whole organization. KM is only the first in a long new line !
Fast Company Now
My post on Follow the Leader issue at Fast Company Now:
"the balance is in drawing the line between comfort and status quo
There might be certain leaders who like dealing with a certain team, and god knows the hit-the-ground-running pressure leaders are in, when they switch jobs, I don't blame them when they take their lieutenants with them..
But herein lies the danger, of making the mistake between judging the 'fit' with yourself and the 'fit' with your organization...
What if the business context gets re-drawn? Who stands to gain or lose? Obviously, the lieutenant !"
"the balance is in drawing the line between comfort and status quo
There might be certain leaders who like dealing with a certain team, and god knows the hit-the-ground-running pressure leaders are in, when they switch jobs, I don't blame them when they take their lieutenants with them..
But herein lies the danger, of making the mistake between judging the 'fit' with yourself and the 'fit' with your organization...
What if the business context gets re-drawn? Who stands to gain or lose? Obviously, the lieutenant !"
Great Business Blogs
You folks should check out these Cool New Blogs I discovered !
How to Save the World
FC Now - The fast company Blog
and, Seth Godin's Blog
The Online Business Networking Blog
Common Craft Blog - It talks about Online Community Strategies
Focused Performance Business Blog - focussed on Theory of Constraints
Adrants - The Advertising and Media News
How to Save the World
FC Now - The fast company Blog
and, Seth Godin's Blog
The Online Business Networking Blog
Common Craft Blog - It talks about Online Community Strategies
Focused Performance Business Blog - focussed on Theory of Constraints
Adrants - The Advertising and Media News
Feb 13, 2004
excited utterances
Picked this up from excited utterances:
"Davenport and Prusak Launch New KM Research Program"
"In a press release issued on January 5th, Babson's School of Executive Education announced the launch of its new Working Knowledge Research Program to address the role of knowledge and learning in organizations, and how companies can use them to compete more effectively.
Thomas Davenport and Larry Prusak will act as the primary researchers, who along with other research partners from Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia (Dorothy Leonard and Rob Cross), will examine four to five research topics each year. The topics for this year include:
* The Environments of High-Performing Knowledge Workers
* The Lifecycle for Tacit Knowledge Transfer Researchers
* Leading Practices in Blended Learning
* Knowledge Representation
For each topic, one or more organizations will sponsor a topic of interest. Deliverables will include short research notes, case studies, and a final report."
"Davenport and Prusak Launch New KM Research Program"
"In a press release issued on January 5th, Babson's School of Executive Education announced the launch of its new Working Knowledge Research Program to address the role of knowledge and learning in organizations, and how companies can use them to compete more effectively.
Thomas Davenport and Larry Prusak will act as the primary researchers, who along with other research partners from Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia (Dorothy Leonard and Rob Cross), will examine four to five research topics each year. The topics for this year include:
* The Environments of High-Performing Knowledge Workers
* The Lifecycle for Tacit Knowledge Transfer Researchers
* Leading Practices in Blended Learning
* Knowledge Representation
For each topic, one or more organizations will sponsor a topic of interest. Deliverables will include short research notes, case studies, and a final report."
Got two Y Chromosomes, an advanced IT degree and a H1-B or a Green Card? Didn't make $68,000 last year? Maybe you're being being short-changed on your pay-packet.
Whoa! It's not that simple, actually, according to data released by IT job researchers Dice. For that figure is just the average salary of IT pros across age-groups, specialisation baskets and geographies.
The same figure for women, predictably, is lower - at $62,000.
Actually, sex and age have a lot more influence on tech salaries in the US -- the source of sustenance for the majority of Indian H1-B and L-1 pros --than you'd imagine. While the difference between average salaries for men and women is, as we saw, $6,000, the disparity when it comes to consultant pay is much more.
The average compensation for male consultants is about $96,000 - versus $82,000 for women. As for why consultant salaries are higher, well, remember these assignments needn't be permanent, and usually don't offer the benefits that being part of the payroll does.
Whoa! It's not that simple, actually, according to data released by IT job researchers Dice. For that figure is just the average salary of IT pros across age-groups, specialisation baskets and geographies.
The same figure for women, predictably, is lower - at $62,000.
Actually, sex and age have a lot more influence on tech salaries in the US -- the source of sustenance for the majority of Indian H1-B and L-1 pros --than you'd imagine. While the difference between average salaries for men and women is, as we saw, $6,000, the disparity when it comes to consultant pay is much more.
The average compensation for male consultants is about $96,000 - versus $82,000 for women. As for why consultant salaries are higher, well, remember these assignments needn't be permanent, and usually don't offer the benefits that being part of the payroll does.
Yahoo! Groups : IndiaStrategy-ThinkTank Messages : Message 1719 of 1723
In ISTT I talked about the Nature of the Creative Organization :
"Organizations can be creative in two ways...! maybe three!
One, consider the case of a traditional Indian licence raj
conglomerate that seeks to be 'creative/innovative' in the new age...
It's better off trying to replicate the 'skunkworks' analogy and
isolate the creative group (with high business outcomes) from the
existing culture and help them flourish ...! Lots of organizations
have tried this approach and succeeded ! Think Indian automobile
manufactures !
This is the structural solution...easy to do...but the cons come in
the integration part...the 'skunkworks' will never truly be 'a part
of the company'...always be considered the 'geeks' amongst
the 'suits' etc etc.
And eventually most of them will leave...(aha! the movie unit! or
commando team) and the business would have lost the lessons they had
learnt...unless the business tries to take on the culture
That's when we go to approach two !
Approach two is to embed creative thinking into the organization,
have dedicated champions who understand benefits...strive and keep at
it ...and nine times out of ten this won't succeed...and the
companies will have obits written about them..
But for the one in ten who succeeds, well you can be sure that HBR
will write a case study !
And approach three ?
Well you can begin a creative company to start with !"
"Organizations can be creative in two ways...! maybe three!
One, consider the case of a traditional Indian licence raj
conglomerate that seeks to be 'creative/innovative' in the new age...
It's better off trying to replicate the 'skunkworks' analogy and
isolate the creative group (with high business outcomes) from the
existing culture and help them flourish ...! Lots of organizations
have tried this approach and succeeded ! Think Indian automobile
manufactures !
This is the structural solution...easy to do...but the cons come in
the integration part...the 'skunkworks' will never truly be 'a part
of the company'...always be considered the 'geeks' amongst
the 'suits' etc etc.
And eventually most of them will leave...(aha! the movie unit! or
commando team) and the business would have lost the lessons they had
learnt...unless the business tries to take on the culture
That's when we go to approach two !
Approach two is to embed creative thinking into the organization,
have dedicated champions who understand benefits...strive and keep at
it ...and nine times out of ten this won't succeed...and the
companies will have obits written about them..
But for the one in ten who succeeds, well you can be sure that HBR
will write a case study !
And approach three ?
Well you can begin a creative company to start with !"
Feb 12, 2004
BusinessPundit
Ram Charan
Fast Company has a great story about Ram Charan, possibly the most influential business consultant in the world. He lives nowhere, works every day, and rarely give interviews or insights into his personal life.
Ram Charan is a knight errant of the 21st century, choosing to live nowhere and go everywhere in his quest to help businesses solve their thorniest conundrums. He does not own a home--or even rent one--has no nuclear family or significant material possessions, and he has his assistants FedEx his clean clothes to him. He doesn't play golf or vie for the best tables at power lunch spots. Irresistibly drawn to the corporate world's danger zones, he is in perpetual motion, working for the largest and most powerful companies seven days a week, 365 days a year. Most people would call such an existence bizarre, but for Charan, it's the ideal life. 'I tell you, I am a lucky man,' he says, brown eyes sparkling like his ever-present cuff links. 'I get to do what I love to do.'"
Fast Company has a great story about Ram Charan, possibly the most influential business consultant in the world. He lives nowhere, works every day, and rarely give interviews or insights into his personal life.
Ram Charan is a knight errant of the 21st century, choosing to live nowhere and go everywhere in his quest to help businesses solve their thorniest conundrums. He does not own a home--or even rent one--has no nuclear family or significant material possessions, and he has his assistants FedEx his clean clothes to him. He doesn't play golf or vie for the best tables at power lunch spots. Irresistibly drawn to the corporate world's danger zones, he is in perpetual motion, working for the largest and most powerful companies seven days a week, 365 days a year. Most people would call such an existence bizarre, but for Charan, it's the ideal life. 'I tell you, I am a lucky man,' he says, brown eyes sparkling like his ever-present cuff links. 'I get to do what I love to do.'"
BusinessPundit
My better late than never finance education ;-)
I picked this up from BusinessPundit: "The whole point of investing in a business is to get more money out than you put in. That basic tenet is sometimes lost on investors and corporate managers obsessed with growth. Businesses need cash to grow. They also need cash to pay salaries, research costs and dividends. As an investor, you want to know whether your company can afford to do all these things. Net income may not tell you this, but free cash flow will.
When it comes to cash, which companies actually use to meet their obligations, net income is not really the bottom line. Net income can be skewed by non-cash gains or charges. Cash provided by operations (CPO) provides a good check on reported earnings, since it involves fewer assumptions."
I picked this up from BusinessPundit: "The whole point of investing in a business is to get more money out than you put in. That basic tenet is sometimes lost on investors and corporate managers obsessed with growth. Businesses need cash to grow. They also need cash to pay salaries, research costs and dividends. As an investor, you want to know whether your company can afford to do all these things. Net income may not tell you this, but free cash flow will.
When it comes to cash, which companies actually use to meet their obligations, net income is not really the bottom line. Net income can be skewed by non-cash gains or charges. Cash provided by operations (CPO) provides a good check on reported earnings, since it involves fewer assumptions."
The Hindu Business Line : Women in power
The Hindu Business Line focusses on the Question : Women in power:"Studies have shown that while men take promotions, increments, incentives etc; in their stride as though they were long overdue, women tend to be more self-effacing or circumspect on whether they really deserve such recognition.
The Fortune 2003 list of the 50 most powerful women in international business has an interesting section called: 'Power: Do women really want it?'
It comes as no surprise that this article is accompanied by a full-page picture of the US National Security advisor Condoleeza Rice - who has nothing to do with international business, at least not directly, with the Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who has topped successive issues of Fortune featuring America's most powerful women in business.
The underlying message in bringing together `private sector power' and `public sector power' comes through... err... rather powerfully. Big bucks do matter, but so does clout in the government. And power comes from both. As far as women politicians are concerned, after the exit of the former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Condoleeza is considered to be the most important symbol of power in the US. Not too far behind is the New York Senator Hillary Rhodam Clinton. The magazine quotes her saying that she is no longer surprised when told by women that they were getting out of politics or corporate life because they were not willing to pay the price in personal relationships. 'I don't think it's a good thing - but I don't want a society where people are turning their backs on the fundamental requirements for personal relationships. The economy is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end - so people can have better lives.'
Reminds one of the famous words of Gloria Steinem, one of the most radical feminists of our times: "I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career." And also the wonderful book by Terri Apter titled, `Working women don't have wives', in which the author says that the primary reason for women's tardy progress in their careers is that they don't have wives to take charge of domestic details! Even though that book was based on studies done between 1982 and 1992, one wonders if anything has changed at all after a whole decade. Women, particularly in India, continue to be largely responsible for the nitty-gritty of running a home, bringing up children, and ensuring that not only nutritious but also interesting fare is put up on the table day after day.
Reverting to how women handle power, the question needs to be examined from a deeper perspective. Or, perhaps, we need a new definition of "power" as several top professional women pointed out in the Fortune issue. Should a powerful woman be determined by the billions of dollars she manages in a company, like Carly Fiorina; the political clout she wields, like female heads of state; or the massive, and often hysterical, following they have across countries and communities, like entertainment icons? Or should other criteria, very different from those mentioned above, be applied to define `power'? "
The Fortune 2003 list of the 50 most powerful women in international business has an interesting section called: 'Power: Do women really want it?'
It comes as no surprise that this article is accompanied by a full-page picture of the US National Security advisor Condoleeza Rice - who has nothing to do with international business, at least not directly, with the Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who has topped successive issues of Fortune featuring America's most powerful women in business.
The underlying message in bringing together `private sector power' and `public sector power' comes through... err... rather powerfully. Big bucks do matter, but so does clout in the government. And power comes from both. As far as women politicians are concerned, after the exit of the former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Condoleeza is considered to be the most important symbol of power in the US. Not too far behind is the New York Senator Hillary Rhodam Clinton. The magazine quotes her saying that she is no longer surprised when told by women that they were getting out of politics or corporate life because they were not willing to pay the price in personal relationships. 'I don't think it's a good thing - but I don't want a society where people are turning their backs on the fundamental requirements for personal relationships. The economy is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end - so people can have better lives.'
Reminds one of the famous words of Gloria Steinem, one of the most radical feminists of our times: "I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career." And also the wonderful book by Terri Apter titled, `Working women don't have wives', in which the author says that the primary reason for women's tardy progress in their careers is that they don't have wives to take charge of domestic details! Even though that book was based on studies done between 1982 and 1992, one wonders if anything has changed at all after a whole decade. Women, particularly in India, continue to be largely responsible for the nitty-gritty of running a home, bringing up children, and ensuring that not only nutritious but also interesting fare is put up on the table day after day.
Reverting to how women handle power, the question needs to be examined from a deeper perspective. Or, perhaps, we need a new definition of "power" as several top professional women pointed out in the Fortune issue. Should a powerful woman be determined by the billions of dollars she manages in a company, like Carly Fiorina; the political clout she wields, like female heads of state; or the massive, and often hysterical, following they have across countries and communities, like entertainment icons? Or should other criteria, very different from those mentioned above, be applied to define `power'? "
Feb 11, 2004
Moneycontrol.com - Personal finance vortal for news, markets, shares, mutual funds, debt & money, loans, credit cards, insurance, planning desk, stock tick
Moneycontrol.com reports
Corporates have been voicing their protest against the government's decision to slash the Indian Institutes of Management, IIM, fees. The protest is now taking an organised form. CNBC-TV18 reports that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI, is making a strong case against the fee cut.
Secretary-general Amit Mitra is not supportive of the government slashing IIM fees to Rs 30,000. He is backed by a strong lobby of corporates who are gearing up with research documents to be presented to the Human Resources Development Ministry in a weeks' time which details why IIM fees should be increased and not slashed.
FICCI has suggested that the government should concentrate on providing cheaper and easier loans to students. The chamber feels that the HRD ministry may reconsider its ruling.
Corporates hiring students from these IIMs feel that the quality may go down, once the fees are slashed.
Corporates have been voicing their protest against the government's decision to slash the Indian Institutes of Management, IIM, fees. The protest is now taking an organised form. CNBC-TV18 reports that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI, is making a strong case against the fee cut.
Secretary-general Amit Mitra is not supportive of the government slashing IIM fees to Rs 30,000. He is backed by a strong lobby of corporates who are gearing up with research documents to be presented to the Human Resources Development Ministry in a weeks' time which details why IIM fees should be increased and not slashed.
FICCI has suggested that the government should concentrate on providing cheaper and easier loans to students. The chamber feels that the HRD ministry may reconsider its ruling.
Corporates hiring students from these IIMs feel that the quality may go down, once the fees are slashed.
World of Ends
Doc Searls and David Weinberger write on World of Ends: "What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else."
Perspectives on Consulting
Arun Maira's Perspectives on : "'Change management consulting is one of the most important, and one of the least understood, services provided by management consultancies. Almost everything that a consultant does for a client, whether creating a new strategy or reengineering a process, requires the client's organization to make some kind of change. I will illustrate...'
''Why does change have to take so long?' This question came from a chief executive of a successful company in North America that was faced with new, low-cost competition from international companies. He had sought help in improving his organization's production and distribution capabilities, and he had heard presentations by eight consulting companies. The consultants all agreed that trying to introduce new ways of working would inevitably meet with resistance to change. They said the culture of the company would have to be changed - a complex time-consulting process.'
'We worked with our client on the business challenge of improving operating performance and changing the culture. At the same time, we examined the change models of all the leading academics and consultants and delved into the experience of our own firm with clients all over the world. Together with our client, we developed new thinking, and we customized approaches for their organization. They achieved what they needed: faster change than they had imagined, and sustainable change. They have used their knowledge about creating faster change to improve the performance of several companies they have acquired around the world.'"
''Why does change have to take so long?' This question came from a chief executive of a successful company in North America that was faced with new, low-cost competition from international companies. He had sought help in improving his organization's production and distribution capabilities, and he had heard presentations by eight consulting companies. The consultants all agreed that trying to introduce new ways of working would inevitably meet with resistance to change. They said the culture of the company would have to be changed - a complex time-consulting process.'
'We worked with our client on the business challenge of improving operating performance and changing the culture. At the same time, we examined the change models of all the leading academics and consultants and delved into the experience of our own firm with clients all over the world. Together with our client, we developed new thinking, and we customized approaches for their organization. They achieved what they needed: faster change than they had imagined, and sustainable change. They have used their knowledge about creating faster change to improve the performance of several companies they have acquired around the world.'"
Foreign professionals seek jobs in India - The Economic Times
Foreign professionals seek jobs in India :
"As an effect of outsourcing and job cut in countries like the USA and UK, experts here say that skilled foreign workers from these countries are now exploring opportunities elsewhere and India for several reasons is fast emerging as one of the most favoured destination for these professionals.
'Contrary to what has been happening so far, Indian job market is witnessing reverse migration with lot of foreigners now looking for jobs in India. Although at present, the number of such cases is not very large but the process has started,' says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder CEO and Managing Director of Head Hunters (India), a recruiting firm.
'As several foreign firms are setting up their offices here in India, experienced professionals from these countries are also on the lookout for jobs here and the trend is being witnessed by the top tier recruitment firms,' Lakshmikanth adds.
'Until sometime back it was only expatriate Indians who were shifting to places like Bangalore, Mumbai or New Delhi. However, for last few months overseas workers have also started showing interest in India and every week the number of queries from foreign professionals are increasing and it is not just because of feel-good factor', says Anil Mahajan, executive director Talent Hunt Private Ltd., a leading HR firm in the country. "
"As an effect of outsourcing and job cut in countries like the USA and UK, experts here say that skilled foreign workers from these countries are now exploring opportunities elsewhere and India for several reasons is fast emerging as one of the most favoured destination for these professionals.
'Contrary to what has been happening so far, Indian job market is witnessing reverse migration with lot of foreigners now looking for jobs in India. Although at present, the number of such cases is not very large but the process has started,' says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder CEO and Managing Director of Head Hunters (India), a recruiting firm.
'As several foreign firms are setting up their offices here in India, experienced professionals from these countries are also on the lookout for jobs here and the trend is being witnessed by the top tier recruitment firms,' Lakshmikanth adds.
'Until sometime back it was only expatriate Indians who were shifting to places like Bangalore, Mumbai or New Delhi. However, for last few months overseas workers have also started showing interest in India and every week the number of queries from foreign professionals are increasing and it is not just because of feel-good factor', says Anil Mahajan, executive director Talent Hunt Private Ltd., a leading HR firm in the country. "
Feb 10, 2004
Reebok's Muktesh Pant quits to start yoga biz - The Economic Times
The Economic Times reports Reebok's Marketing Whiz quits to start yoga biz :
"Athletic shoe and clothing maker Reebok International Ltd. said on Monday that its chief marketing officer Muktesh 'Micky' Pant had resigned in order to start a yoga-related business in India and the United States .
Pant, 49, had steered Reebok's marketing since November 2001, during a period when the company launched a hit line of sneakers endorsed by hip-hop star Jay-Z and waged a high-profile ad campaign against industry leader Nike Inc.
Pant will be replaced by Dennis Baldwin, 35, the Canton, Massachusetts-based company's senior vice president of global footwear who joined Reebok in 1995, the company said.
The company said Pant had decided 'to pursue his life-long dream of establishing a business that connects him to his roots in India , a country where wellness of the mind, body and spirit is held in high regard and serves as the very essence of the Indian culture.'
Pant told Reuters that he would return to India to start his new venture, which would be built around yoga.
'Because of the growth of e-mail and voicemail and instant communications, there's a lot of growth in stress,' Pant said, 'Deadlines have shortened. People are moving faster in a direction that they don't pause to think about.'
'I always wanted to start a concept where you could package and teach yoga,' he said. "
"Athletic shoe and clothing maker Reebok International Ltd. said on Monday that its chief marketing officer Muktesh 'Micky' Pant had resigned in order to start a yoga-related business in India and the United States .
Pant, 49, had steered Reebok's marketing since November 2001, during a period when the company launched a hit line of sneakers endorsed by hip-hop star Jay-Z and waged a high-profile ad campaign against industry leader Nike Inc.
Pant will be replaced by Dennis Baldwin, 35, the Canton, Massachusetts-based company's senior vice president of global footwear who joined Reebok in 1995, the company said.
The company said Pant had decided 'to pursue his life-long dream of establishing a business that connects him to his roots in India , a country where wellness of the mind, body and spirit is held in high regard and serves as the very essence of the Indian culture.'
Pant told Reuters that he would return to India to start his new venture, which would be built around yoga.
'Because of the growth of e-mail and voicemail and instant communications, there's a lot of growth in stress,' Pant said, 'Deadlines have shortened. People are moving faster in a direction that they don't pause to think about.'
'I always wanted to start a concept where you could package and teach yoga,' he said. "
Yahoo! Groups : grax Post Message
from Indiatimes
XLRI Dean (Academics) threatens to sue Dr. MM Joshi - HRD minister !!
The authorities at XLRI are also in no mood to oblige. According to Dr E.M. Rao, the dean of the institute, the HR ministry doesn't have any right to recommend any fee structure for their institute.
"For the last 54 years, XLRI hasn't taken a single penny from the government coffers. Even when we ran into some financial trouble 10 years ago, we sought help from our alumni. We earn enough money through company training programmes, educational programmes and consultancy," Rao said. According to Rao, XLRI has already refused the deemed university status because it feared that it might mean a fall in the standard of education. "If Joshi has a point to make about our fee structure, I will meet him in court," Rao added.
XLRI Dean (Academics) threatens to sue Dr. MM Joshi - HRD minister !!
The authorities at XLRI are also in no mood to oblige. According to Dr E.M. Rao, the dean of the institute, the HR ministry doesn't have any right to recommend any fee structure for their institute.
"For the last 54 years, XLRI hasn't taken a single penny from the government coffers. Even when we ran into some financial trouble 10 years ago, we sought help from our alumni. We earn enough money through company training programmes, educational programmes and consultancy," Rao said. According to Rao, XLRI has already refused the deemed university status because it feared that it might mean a fall in the standard of education. "If Joshi has a point to make about our fee structure, I will meet him in court," Rao added.
The Hindu : MNCs snap up sixth batch of IIM-K students
The Hindu reports : :
MNCs snap up sixth batch of IIM-K students
Several multi-national companies (MNCs), Indian companies and blue chip firms have offered jobs to all the 59 final-year students of the two-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K), even as a week remains for the completion of the placement programme.
Forty to 45 companies, including MNCs and blue chip companies participated in the placement process in the IIM-K to hunt for 'future managers''. "
MNCs snap up sixth batch of IIM-K students
Several multi-national companies (MNCs), Indian companies and blue chip firms have offered jobs to all the 59 final-year students of the two-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K), even as a week remains for the completion of the placement programme.
Forty to 45 companies, including MNCs and blue chip companies participated in the placement process in the IIM-K to hunt for 'future managers''. "
The Changing Nature of the Organization
from my post on ISTT
In fact, taking the trends of how organizations develop, maybe it won't take long for organizations to not even attempt at being 'long-life' entities.
Maybe, just maybe (hear me out, all ye, before you rain brickbats on me ;-))!) organizations should eventually become that ultimate knowledge organization - A movie unit !
Ok...so what do I mean by that...?
Well, essentially that a movie unit is driven by both a creative and a commercial compulsion. It is initiated by a group to maximise RoI, taps into the skills of several talented individuals, brings out a product, and then disbands...
While it may be fearful to think of ourselves as technicians in a film crew, I wonder if the current business climate will not see us land at that eventuality in 10 years (considering also the fact that salaried people get taxed much heavily than freelance professionals- maybe the government is a party to that !)
Of course, then organizations will no longer extend for a half-life of more than a couple of years (radioactive metaphor not intentional ;-)
the pros and cons:
1. differentiating work/life will be diffucult
2. Each one for him/herself would be the norm
3. In-demand skill sets would change from project to project
4. The superstars would command huge hefty salaries
5. The rest of us would have to live hand-to-mouth existences ..while trying to be a superstar or coming to terms with our inability!
6. The 'producer' would continue raking in the moolah with continuing IP sales beyond the life of the organization
Scary?
very !
Far-fetched?
I hope so...!
from my post on ISTT
In fact, taking the trends of how organizations develop, maybe it won't take long for organizations to not even attempt at being 'long-life' entities.
Maybe, just maybe (hear me out, all ye, before you rain brickbats on me ;-))!) organizations should eventually become that ultimate knowledge organization - A movie unit !
Ok...so what do I mean by that...?
Well, essentially that a movie unit is driven by both a creative and a commercial compulsion. It is initiated by a group to maximise RoI, taps into the skills of several talented individuals, brings out a product, and then disbands...
While it may be fearful to think of ourselves as technicians in a film crew, I wonder if the current business climate will not see us land at that eventuality in 10 years (considering also the fact that salaried people get taxed much heavily than freelance professionals- maybe the government is a party to that !)
Of course, then organizations will no longer extend for a half-life of more than a couple of years (radioactive metaphor not intentional ;-)
the pros and cons:
1. differentiating work/life will be diffucult
2. Each one for him/herself would be the norm
3. In-demand skill sets would change from project to project
4. The superstars would command huge hefty salaries
5. The rest of us would have to live hand-to-mouth existences ..while trying to be a superstar or coming to terms with our inability!
6. The 'producer' would continue raking in the moolah with continuing IP sales beyond the life of the organization
Scary?
very !
Far-fetched?
I hope so...!
Corporates pamper staff to keep them happy - The Economic Times
ET says:
Corporates pamper staff to keep them happy
In Dilbert's cubicle world, engineers pull their hair out because of overwork while managers cook up evil designs to cut costs.
Real life, though, is thankfully far away from that imaginary cartoon world. Employees suddenly are prized possessions of companies, just like customers. And MNCs are pulling out all stops to make them and their families happy. (Makes me wonder if these things will see a U turn if demand for talent falls much below the supply ! - G)
Workers are being pampered big time and official visits to a pub or a disco are part of the flow chart these days. "It's the company's responsibility to take care of the staff and their families," says Suman Sanghi, manager, operations, HSBC bank.
"It is mandatory for every staff member to take 10 days off in a year so that they unwind, chill and come back to work with vigour."
Not just employees, even their children are getting their share of spoils.
"We chalk out a visit to a resort or an amusement park so that our employees can spend quality time with their families. That apart, every department is allocated a certain budget with which they can party at a disco or go for a movie," says Sanghi.
So even as comic strip heroes run scared of human resource personnel, the city?s corporate circle takes a well-deserved break with the blessings of the management. "We believe our employees are the pillars of our establishment," explains Kamlesh Rangan principal banker, Kotak Mahindra.
The work environment, therefore, is made as amicable as possible. They don't believe in snatching the precious time that employees have with their families on weekends. "We book a resort, beyond the city limits, so that the drive down to the resort unwinds "
Corporates pamper staff to keep them happy
In Dilbert's cubicle world, engineers pull their hair out because of overwork while managers cook up evil designs to cut costs.
Real life, though, is thankfully far away from that imaginary cartoon world. Employees suddenly are prized possessions of companies, just like customers. And MNCs are pulling out all stops to make them and their families happy. (Makes me wonder if these things will see a U turn if demand for talent falls much below the supply ! - G)
Workers are being pampered big time and official visits to a pub or a disco are part of the flow chart these days. "It's the company's responsibility to take care of the staff and their families," says Suman Sanghi, manager, operations, HSBC bank.
"It is mandatory for every staff member to take 10 days off in a year so that they unwind, chill and come back to work with vigour."
Not just employees, even their children are getting their share of spoils.
"We chalk out a visit to a resort or an amusement park so that our employees can spend quality time with their families. That apart, every department is allocated a certain budget with which they can party at a disco or go for a movie," says Sanghi.
So even as comic strip heroes run scared of human resource personnel, the city?s corporate circle takes a well-deserved break with the blessings of the management. "We believe our employees are the pillars of our establishment," explains Kamlesh Rangan principal banker, Kotak Mahindra.
The work environment, therefore, is made as amicable as possible. They don't believe in snatching the precious time that employees have with their families on weekends. "We book a resort, beyond the city limits, so that the drive down to the resort unwinds "
Hiring spree: jobs for all on Day One - The Economic Times
Mumbai B Schools' placement season off to a flying start !
The Economic Times reports:
"It was a history of sorts. Most B-schools in Mumbai placed all candidates on the first day of placements with many companies not getting to see a single student. This wiped out the painful memories of '02 and set the tone for IIM placements. While about 37 companies had to return from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, 43 couldn?t get a chance at the SP Jain Institute. The batch of 48 at the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay , (SoM) got 71 offers. This works out to approximately 1.5 offer per student. Other top B-schools in the City such as NITIE, NMIMS, Sydenham and Welingkar also recorded a higher turnout of recruiters this year compared to last year. Clearly, it's advantage students. "
The Economic Times reports:
"It was a history of sorts. Most B-schools in Mumbai placed all candidates on the first day of placements with many companies not getting to see a single student. This wiped out the painful memories of '02 and set the tone for IIM placements. While about 37 companies had to return from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, 43 couldn?t get a chance at the SP Jain Institute. The batch of 48 at the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay , (SoM) got 71 offers. This works out to approximately 1.5 offer per student. Other top B-schools in the City such as NITIE, NMIMS, Sydenham and Welingkar also recorded a higher turnout of recruiters this year compared to last year. Clearly, it's advantage students. "
Feb 9, 2004
Yahoo! Groups : IndiaStrategy-ThinkTank Post Message
In of his recent interviews on Hr.com Arie de Geus was asked that if shareholders, managers, CEOs, Leaders etc all see themselves as short term participants in the organization...what does that mean for the 'living' company?
And this is what he had to say:
'This poses the question, What is the nature of an organization? If the CEO doesn't belong to the company anymore and if the people who man it are only bundles of skills being bought for a limited purpose before being disposed of, what then is the essence of the organization? Are shareholders the essence? Or, are managers the essence? Which can't be, if even the CEO is short-term. Is an organization the abstract transactional entries on the register of a chamber of commerce? I can't tie that up with the reality of companies I know.
The alternative view is that companies are communities of human beings that come together to produce goods and services. If this is so, the question becomes, Who are the members of this community? If employees don't consider themselves to be members, and shareholders tell management they are not necessarily long-term members either, then we see a hollowing out of companies, which is the source of my concern.
This hollowing out is one reason why I think we are seeing a shortening in the life expectancy of companies. As you probably know, at Shell I looked at the average life expectancy of companies in North America, Europe and Japan, and it was then below 20 years. Since then I've done a partial re-visit of that research and found that for Europe and Japan the average life expectancy is down to 12.5 years. I think we are killing off companies at a very fast rate.
This transactional attitude, whether it be shareholders, the employees, or management, leads to an exploitation of companies, almost a rape of the commons.
That is especially worrying because we now live in a situation in which human talent has become the critical element of commercial success. It's clear in your industry that it's not the quality of the printing press or the computers that make a publication a success but rather the quality of the human talent. Even in capital-asset-based industries like the oil industry or automobile industry, success is largely dependent on the human talent.
A beautiful example is that the company to beat in the automobile industry is Toyota. Why is it Toyota? It's because consistently over the decades Toyota has been at the forefront in the design of the cars, the design of the manufacturing processes and the design of the marketing. Basically, Toyota gets more out of the talent working for it than other automobile companies.
Human talent works better in teams and these teams get better if they stay together over time. I believe that organizations, just like humans, learn over time. There is an accumulation of experience and companies know more when they get older.
In this world where companies treat people just as a bundle of skills to be hired for a limited period of time we don't create loyalty and we don’t create enduring teams. If human talent is a commodity you buy off the shelf then you run it as efficiently as possible until it wears out. Behind this sort of thinking is the use of the word "efficiency" as if the essence of business is simply being efficient. That may have been the case when businesses relied mainly on capital; however, when business relies mainly on human talent the key word is not efficiency, but effectiveness. By that I mean you have to run business in a way that gets the most out of the human talent that you have been able to attract into your business.
And this is what he had to say:
'This poses the question, What is the nature of an organization? If the CEO doesn't belong to the company anymore and if the people who man it are only bundles of skills being bought for a limited purpose before being disposed of, what then is the essence of the organization? Are shareholders the essence? Or, are managers the essence? Which can't be, if even the CEO is short-term. Is an organization the abstract transactional entries on the register of a chamber of commerce? I can't tie that up with the reality of companies I know.
The alternative view is that companies are communities of human beings that come together to produce goods and services. If this is so, the question becomes, Who are the members of this community? If employees don't consider themselves to be members, and shareholders tell management they are not necessarily long-term members either, then we see a hollowing out of companies, which is the source of my concern.
This hollowing out is one reason why I think we are seeing a shortening in the life expectancy of companies. As you probably know, at Shell I looked at the average life expectancy of companies in North America, Europe and Japan, and it was then below 20 years. Since then I've done a partial re-visit of that research and found that for Europe and Japan the average life expectancy is down to 12.5 years. I think we are killing off companies at a very fast rate.
This transactional attitude, whether it be shareholders, the employees, or management, leads to an exploitation of companies, almost a rape of the commons.
That is especially worrying because we now live in a situation in which human talent has become the critical element of commercial success. It's clear in your industry that it's not the quality of the printing press or the computers that make a publication a success but rather the quality of the human talent. Even in capital-asset-based industries like the oil industry or automobile industry, success is largely dependent on the human talent.
A beautiful example is that the company to beat in the automobile industry is Toyota. Why is it Toyota? It's because consistently over the decades Toyota has been at the forefront in the design of the cars, the design of the manufacturing processes and the design of the marketing. Basically, Toyota gets more out of the talent working for it than other automobile companies.
Human talent works better in teams and these teams get better if they stay together over time. I believe that organizations, just like humans, learn over time. There is an accumulation of experience and companies know more when they get older.
In this world where companies treat people just as a bundle of skills to be hired for a limited period of time we don't create loyalty and we don’t create enduring teams. If human talent is a commodity you buy off the shelf then you run it as efficiently as possible until it wears out. Behind this sort of thinking is the use of the word "efficiency" as if the essence of business is simply being efficient. That may have been the case when businesses relied mainly on capital; however, when business relies mainly on human talent the key word is not efficiency, but effectiveness. By that I mean you have to run business in a way that gets the most out of the human talent that you have been able to attract into your business.
Industrial consultancy, key revenue earner for XLRI Jamshedpur
Article from Business Line
INDUSTRIAL consultancy is increasingly emerging as a major source of revenue for XLRI Jamshedpur. The leading B-School, whose strength lies in personnel management & industrial relations and business management education, takes up between 85 and 90 consultancy projects every year, according to Father Thomas P.D., Director of XLRI Jamshedpur.
Speaking to Business Line, Father Thomas said that, at any given point in time, work on around a dozen projects is on. The average duration of a project is between two and six months. "We do not take up very small consultancy projects. The projects we take up must benefit XLRI and be a learning experience for the faculty as well. Besides, the consultancy work must also translate into written or teaching content for our students," Father Thomas said.
Last fiscal, XLRI Jamshedpur earned Rs 1.5 crore from industrial consultancy. Earnings from consultancy are expected to double in the current fiscal and, subsequently, double every year thereafter as well. Sixty per cent of the earnings from consultancy go to the faculty while the balance is retained by the institute.
According to Father Thomas, XLRI Jamshedpur's strengths in consultancy lie in specialised areas such as organisational restructuring, finance, marketing and operations management. Regular interaction with industry is facilitated by the fact that the members of the governing board of the institute include several eminent people from industry - such as the Chairmen of ITC Ltd, State Bank of India and Nicco group, the Managing Directors of Tata Steel and Tinplate Co. and the CEO of the Boston Consulting Group, among others.
Among the major consultancy projects on hand at XLRI include one on human resources for the provident fund department, a blueprint action plant for the Government of Jharkhand and one on the human resources policies of the State Electricity Board of Chhattisgarh.
Father Thomas said that, besides focusing on consultancy for augmenting revenue generation, the institute had formed several tie-ups with prominent companies, including some IT majors. Navision India has set up a Centre of Excellence wherein a course on Integrated Business Solutions would be part of the XLRI curriculum. Microsoft India, Novell and Pramati Technologies have unfolded plans veering round their association with XLRI Jamshedpur.
Empower Works, founded in 1999 as a strategic business unit of Polaris Software Lab, is geared to set up a `XLRI Adrenalin Centre of Excellence'. The Centre will provide students of XLRI, faculty and administrative staff high-value functional software for strategic and functional human resources, self-service, analytical reports and university work process automation.
Article from Business Line
INDUSTRIAL consultancy is increasingly emerging as a major source of revenue for XLRI Jamshedpur. The leading B-School, whose strength lies in personnel management & industrial relations and business management education, takes up between 85 and 90 consultancy projects every year, according to Father Thomas P.D., Director of XLRI Jamshedpur.
Speaking to Business Line, Father Thomas said that, at any given point in time, work on around a dozen projects is on. The average duration of a project is between two and six months. "We do not take up very small consultancy projects. The projects we take up must benefit XLRI and be a learning experience for the faculty as well. Besides, the consultancy work must also translate into written or teaching content for our students," Father Thomas said.
Last fiscal, XLRI Jamshedpur earned Rs 1.5 crore from industrial consultancy. Earnings from consultancy are expected to double in the current fiscal and, subsequently, double every year thereafter as well. Sixty per cent of the earnings from consultancy go to the faculty while the balance is retained by the institute.
According to Father Thomas, XLRI Jamshedpur's strengths in consultancy lie in specialised areas such as organisational restructuring, finance, marketing and operations management. Regular interaction with industry is facilitated by the fact that the members of the governing board of the institute include several eminent people from industry - such as the Chairmen of ITC Ltd, State Bank of India and Nicco group, the Managing Directors of Tata Steel and Tinplate Co. and the CEO of the Boston Consulting Group, among others.
Among the major consultancy projects on hand at XLRI include one on human resources for the provident fund department, a blueprint action plant for the Government of Jharkhand and one on the human resources policies of the State Electricity Board of Chhattisgarh.
Father Thomas said that, besides focusing on consultancy for augmenting revenue generation, the institute had formed several tie-ups with prominent companies, including some IT majors. Navision India has set up a Centre of Excellence wherein a course on Integrated Business Solutions would be part of the XLRI curriculum. Microsoft India, Novell and Pramati Technologies have unfolded plans veering round their association with XLRI Jamshedpur.
Empower Works, founded in 1999 as a strategic business unit of Polaris Software Lab, is geared to set up a `XLRI Adrenalin Centre of Excellence'. The Centre will provide students of XLRI, faculty and administrative staff high-value functional software for strategic and functional human resources, self-service, analytical reports and university work process automation.
Feb 6, 2004
Check out Sonia's (she's studying Business Mgmt at XLRI) attempts to play the investment advisor :-)
She ends her comments with:
"But moral of the story there are a lot of things I need to learn & understand. Apparently as Prof. Mohanty said, there are a little too many things at play there. Finanacial Management after all deals only with expected price of a share.The road from Finance Concepts to Stock Markets is tougher than I thought."
That is something that one realises does not just hold true in B School but even afterward. Even 5 years passing out of XL I sometimes (and increasingly so!) get that feeling. Maybe Mintzberg is right after all !
She ends her comments with:
"But moral of the story there are a lot of things I need to learn & understand. Apparently as Prof. Mohanty said, there are a little too many things at play there. Finanacial Management after all deals only with expected price of a share.The road from Finance Concepts to Stock Markets is tougher than I thought."
That is something that one realises does not just hold true in B School but even afterward. Even 5 years passing out of XL I sometimes (and increasingly so!) get that feeling. Maybe Mintzberg is right after all !
IIM fees cut to Rs 30,000 per year - The Economic Times
Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) fees cut by 80% !
Economic Times says: It's a classic case of what's good for the student is harmful for the institution. On Thursday, the Human Resources Development Ministry slashed IIM yearly fees by 80 per cent to Rs 30,000, as against the current annual fee of Rs 1.5 lakh.
This means a substantial decline in the income of the IIMs, jeopardising the viability of the newer IIMs at Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore.
There is also the possibility of a caste system emerging among the six IIMs, with the big three - Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore - emerging as the superior ones.
The drastic cut in student fee comes on top of a 40 per cent reduction in government support to the institutes. While HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi had assured that the IIMs will never be starved of funds - provided they carry on with their 'good work' - things look rather bleak for them within the span of three days"
The whole approach is so stupid ! I don't think any student has needed to drop out of the IIMs because of the fees issue...if one has a letter from any of the top 10 Indian institutes banks line up to give student loans which can be paid very easily. I availed of such a loan from Canara Bank to see me through 50% of XLRI's fees in 1999. And after that things have just got better.
Check out the following related news stories:
Joshi fee cut jolts students
IIM ready for a foolproof CAT rerun
Economic Times says: It's a classic case of what's good for the student is harmful for the institution. On Thursday, the Human Resources Development Ministry slashed IIM yearly fees by 80 per cent to Rs 30,000, as against the current annual fee of Rs 1.5 lakh.
This means a substantial decline in the income of the IIMs, jeopardising the viability of the newer IIMs at Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore.
There is also the possibility of a caste system emerging among the six IIMs, with the big three - Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore - emerging as the superior ones.
The drastic cut in student fee comes on top of a 40 per cent reduction in government support to the institutes. While HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi had assured that the IIMs will never be starved of funds - provided they carry on with their 'good work' - things look rather bleak for them within the span of three days"
The whole approach is so stupid ! I don't think any student has needed to drop out of the IIMs because of the fees issue...if one has a letter from any of the top 10 Indian institutes banks line up to give student loans which can be paid very easily. I availed of such a loan from Canara Bank to see me through 50% of XLRI's fees in 1999. And after that things have just got better.
Check out the following related news stories:
Joshi fee cut jolts students
IIM ready for a foolproof CAT rerun
Wired 12.02: The New Face of the Silicon Age
The Outsourcing Consultant
As part of its cover story the new face of the Silicon Age, Wired profiled a consultant who midwifes an outsourcing deal:
"For an inside take on the consultant's role in pushing jobs overseas, listen to Mark Gottfredson. As cohead of outsourcing strategy at Bain & Company, Gottfredson tells the tale of a recent client, a CEO who was brought back from retirement to save the struggling West Coast hardware firm he started many years ago. A pillar of the community for having created thousands of local jobs, the CEO originally resisted outsourcing. But as his stock price and market share plummeted, he became desperate, and agreed to take a meeting with Gottfredson.
Gottfredson's team paraded out a variety of charts and graphs that all boiled down two simple options:
a) become competitive again by sending jobs someplace they could be done better and cheaper, or
b) face a slow death.
The CEO ordered a complete efficiency audit, at the end of which Gottfredson recommended outsourcing all call centers, manufacturing, HR, IT, and back-office operations."
As part of its cover story the new face of the Silicon Age, Wired profiled a consultant who midwifes an outsourcing deal:
"For an inside take on the consultant's role in pushing jobs overseas, listen to Mark Gottfredson. As cohead of outsourcing strategy at Bain & Company, Gottfredson tells the tale of a recent client, a CEO who was brought back from retirement to save the struggling West Coast hardware firm he started many years ago. A pillar of the community for having created thousands of local jobs, the CEO originally resisted outsourcing. But as his stock price and market share plummeted, he became desperate, and agreed to take a meeting with Gottfredson.
Gottfredson's team paraded out a variety of charts and graphs that all boiled down two simple options:
a) become competitive again by sending jobs someplace they could be done better and cheaper, or
b) face a slow death.
The CEO ordered a complete efficiency audit, at the end of which Gottfredson recommended outsourcing all call centers, manufacturing, HR, IT, and back-office operations."
Top-Consultant.com AP Newsletter
Also from top Consultant -
"Infosys plans to open a 300-person development centre near Toronto to serve US clients within the same time zone but at a lower salary cost. Infosys believes Canada offers an attractive and stable location for some of its US clients.
Outsourcing companies has been expanding their offshore, nearshore and onshore capabilities to provide clients with the right mix of services. However, India's inevitable growth in salary rates is also a contributing factor in Infosys's decision, according to an Infosys spokesperson"
Read more here
So is it finally happening? The closure of India's labor arbitrage? maybe its too early to tell...but this Infy statement on growth in salary rates is surely significant !
"Infosys plans to open a 300-person development centre near Toronto to serve US clients within the same time zone but at a lower salary cost. Infosys believes Canada offers an attractive and stable location for some of its US clients.
Outsourcing companies has been expanding their offshore, nearshore and onshore capabilities to provide clients with the right mix of services. However, India's inevitable growth in salary rates is also a contributing factor in Infosys's decision, according to an Infosys spokesperson"
Read more here
So is it finally happening? The closure of India's labor arbitrage? maybe its too early to tell...but this Infy statement on growth in salary rates is surely significant !
Top-Consultant.com AP Newsletter
EDS' new Strategy
Top-Consultant.com reports: "Electronic Data Systems is repositioning itself to compete with industry rivals and will be focusing on offering business transformation services, top company executives told analysts and reporters last Tuesday at the company's Plano headquarters. Chairman and chief executive Michael H. Jordan said that in a 'fundamental shift' in EDS' approach, the company will help clients 'transform' their businesses, in part by providing more consulting services"
If EDS can pull this off it'll succeed in upsetting the applecart of IBM GS and Accenture. What needs to be seen is how will EDS provide more consulting services? Inorganic growth (e.g. IBM GS took over PwC)? hmm...interesting times ahead ;-)
Top-Consultant.com reports: "Electronic Data Systems is repositioning itself to compete with industry rivals and will be focusing on offering business transformation services, top company executives told analysts and reporters last Tuesday at the company's Plano headquarters. Chairman and chief executive Michael H. Jordan said that in a 'fundamental shift' in EDS' approach, the company will help clients 'transform' their businesses, in part by providing more consulting services"
If EDS can pull this off it'll succeed in upsetting the applecart of IBM GS and Accenture. What needs to be seen is how will EDS provide more consulting services? Inorganic growth (e.g. IBM GS took over PwC)? hmm...interesting times ahead ;-)
Feb 3, 2004
HR.com Human Resources Management, Training, Jobs, Information
Henry Mintzberg's advice to HR leaders on HR.com talking about Why MBAs make lousy Managers :
"MBA programs attract the wrong people and teach them the wrong things. These are not the right people to hire to be your managers. If you want to develop your existing managers, don't send them to traditional MBA programs. Send them someplace that will draw on their experience and help them address the real issues they face."
On Consulting firms hiring MBAs he says:
The consultants are hiring all sorts of people: everyone from physicists, PhDs to lawyers. They put them through three-week programs in basic management to get grounding in the business disciplines. Consulting firms are finding they can hire people who are just as smart as, or smarter than, business school graduates and ones who are not on that mindless kick that ‘I'm going to succeed because I have an MBA.’
On what is wrong with MBAs
The people skills of MBAs are often very weak. This is because the kind of people an MBA program appeals to tend to be strong on analysis and weak on people. Secondly, MBA programs are notoriously poor at developing people skills. They may teach human resources, but even the term human resources is problematic. It was about the time we started using this term that we started firing people rather casually because you can fire resources. I'd rather your website was called HB.com – human beings.com.
"MBA programs attract the wrong people and teach them the wrong things. These are not the right people to hire to be your managers. If you want to develop your existing managers, don't send them to traditional MBA programs. Send them someplace that will draw on their experience and help them address the real issues they face."
On Consulting firms hiring MBAs he says:
The consultants are hiring all sorts of people: everyone from physicists, PhDs to lawyers. They put them through three-week programs in basic management to get grounding in the business disciplines. Consulting firms are finding they can hire people who are just as smart as, or smarter than, business school graduates and ones who are not on that mindless kick that ‘I'm going to succeed because I have an MBA.’
On what is wrong with MBAs
The people skills of MBAs are often very weak. This is because the kind of people an MBA program appeals to tend to be strong on analysis and weak on people. Secondly, MBA programs are notoriously poor at developing people skills. They may teach human resources, but even the term human resources is problematic. It was about the time we started using this term that we started firing people rather casually because you can fire resources. I'd rather your website was called HB.com – human beings.com.
KM by the Singapore police !
In Businessworld Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree says:
"an officer from Singapore Police Force explained how Singapore Police is reinventing itself, using the core principles of KM. The traditional police organisations are based on command and control. But the evolving nature of law and order management requires them to deconstruct hierarchy. Faced with the need to make the beat policeman effective, the Singapore Police is embracing concepts like 'servant leadership' and 'communities and systems think'. I fell off my chair. The presenter went on to offer three memorable case studies."
Read the full article : here
"an officer from Singapore Police Force explained how Singapore Police is reinventing itself, using the core principles of KM. The traditional police organisations are based on command and control. But the evolving nature of law and order management requires them to deconstruct hierarchy. Faced with the need to make the beat policeman effective, the Singapore Police is embracing concepts like 'servant leadership' and 'communities and systems think'. I fell off my chair. The presenter went on to offer three memorable case studies."
Read the full article : here
Feb 2, 2004
HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation
HBS Working Knowledge prints an article on What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation:
"Over the past several years, we have identified and studied companies from developing countries that have overcome these formidable obstacles to become some of the most innovative in the world. Among them are CEMEX (Cementos Mexicanos), the Mexican cement giant; Natura, a leader in Brazil's cosmetics arena; and China's Haier, which sells appliances in one of the world's most demanding markets."
Some excerpts:
Know your customers' mindsets—intimately
Innovation comes in two varieties: technology-push and customer-pull. Technology-push—introducing new products based on cutting-edge research—is not an option for most companies in developing countries. As a result, they must rely on the customer-pull approach: finding ways to solve customers' dilemmas without relying on novel science.
Many multinationals entering developing countries pay lip service to serving less-affluent customers but then supply only slightly scaled-down versions of products originally designed for wealthier markets. This approach rarely succeeds. But some companies have committed themselves to understanding the needs of less-affluent customers and using this knowledge to devise creative solutions to customer problems.
Innovate around—rather than through—the technology
Companies such as Samsung or Novartis can drive innovation from their R&D labs, continually translating scientific breakthroughs into new products. In contrast, innovation by developing-country businesses looks very different. In general, the innovations come not from product technology but from all the elements of the business model that surround the product technology, including manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and finance.
Scour the globe for good ideas
One distinctive aspect of the companies we studied was their eagerness to travel around the world to find ideas. This isn't traditional benchmarking, since managers don't simply copy something they see elsewhere. Rather, they take pieces of practice or technology that they find and recombine them in novel ways to solve customer problems. The CEMEX team that developed the GPS system got the idea from a 911 call center they saw in Houston. Having identified contractors' need for just-in-time delivery, the team reasoned by analogy that emergency response teams faced a similar problem of quickly reacting to urgent requests from unpredictable sources. Based on this insight, they studied how the call center dispatched paramedics within ten minutes despite traffic congestion and unpredictable call patterns.
"Over the past several years, we have identified and studied companies from developing countries that have overcome these formidable obstacles to become some of the most innovative in the world. Among them are CEMEX (Cementos Mexicanos), the Mexican cement giant; Natura, a leader in Brazil's cosmetics arena; and China's Haier, which sells appliances in one of the world's most demanding markets."
Some excerpts:
Know your customers' mindsets—intimately
Innovation comes in two varieties: technology-push and customer-pull. Technology-push—introducing new products based on cutting-edge research—is not an option for most companies in developing countries. As a result, they must rely on the customer-pull approach: finding ways to solve customers' dilemmas without relying on novel science.
Many multinationals entering developing countries pay lip service to serving less-affluent customers but then supply only slightly scaled-down versions of products originally designed for wealthier markets. This approach rarely succeeds. But some companies have committed themselves to understanding the needs of less-affluent customers and using this knowledge to devise creative solutions to customer problems.
Innovate around—rather than through—the technology
Companies such as Samsung or Novartis can drive innovation from their R&D labs, continually translating scientific breakthroughs into new products. In contrast, innovation by developing-country businesses looks very different. In general, the innovations come not from product technology but from all the elements of the business model that surround the product technology, including manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and finance.
Scour the globe for good ideas
One distinctive aspect of the companies we studied was their eagerness to travel around the world to find ideas. This isn't traditional benchmarking, since managers don't simply copy something they see elsewhere. Rather, they take pieces of practice or technology that they find and recombine them in novel ways to solve customer problems. The CEMEX team that developed the GPS system got the idea from a 911 call center they saw in Houston. Having identified contractors' need for just-in-time delivery, the team reasoned by analogy that emergency response teams faced a similar problem of quickly reacting to urgent requests from unpredictable sources. Based on this insight, they studied how the call center dispatched paramedics within ten minutes despite traffic congestion and unpredictable call patterns.
25 most influential people in business
The 25 Most Influential Business Persons of the Past 25 Years (in alphabetical order)
Here is the list from the Nightly Business Report & Wharton School of Business . This was done to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of NBR . Andy Grove of Intel was voted as No.1 from this list.
What was interesting was that the person who founded Bangladesh's Grameen Bank - Mohammed Yunus was also on top there ! That means that even the B Schools in the US recognise and mention thought leadership that emerge in the third world !
Mary Kay Ash (Entrepreneur)
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) - A person who pioneered e-comm and is still going strong ! - gautam
John Bogle (Vanguard)
Richard Branson (Virgin) - Another person who breaks rules as a matter of habit ! - Gautam
Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathway) - We have to learn from him the lesson of thinking long term ! - Gautam
James Burke (J&J)
Michael Dell (Dell) - How many people can make their student businesses grow into a multibillion $ enterprise ?? Dell has ! - Gautam
Peter Drucker (Management Guru) - The person who made businesses into an academic discipline ! Whatever has to be written was told by him! He's the Moses of the b world ! - Gautam
Bill Gates (Microsoft)
William George (Medtronic)
Louis Gerstner (IBM) - He made the 'elephant dance' - gautam
Alan Greenspan (Fed Reserve)
Andy Grove (Intel)
Lee Iacocca (Chrysler)
Steve Jobs (Apple) - Sheer product brilliance ! - Gautam
Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines) - challenged and broke aviation rules, and then ruled the industry !
Peter Lynch (Fidelty)
Charles Schwab (Charles Schwab)
Frederick Smith (FedEx)
George Soros (Investor)
Ted Turner (Media Moghul)
Sam Walton (Walmart)
Jack Welch (GE)-
Oprah Winfrey (Media Queen)
Mohammed Yunus (Banker)
Here is the list from the Nightly Business Report & Wharton School of Business . This was done to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of NBR . Andy Grove of Intel was voted as No.1 from this list.
What was interesting was that the person who founded Bangladesh's Grameen Bank - Mohammed Yunus was also on top there ! That means that even the B Schools in the US recognise and mention thought leadership that emerge in the third world !
Mary Kay Ash (Entrepreneur)
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) - A person who pioneered e-comm and is still going strong ! - gautam
John Bogle (Vanguard)
Richard Branson (Virgin) - Another person who breaks rules as a matter of habit ! - Gautam
Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathway) - We have to learn from him the lesson of thinking long term ! - Gautam
James Burke (J&J)
Michael Dell (Dell) - How many people can make their student businesses grow into a multibillion $ enterprise ?? Dell has ! - Gautam
Peter Drucker (Management Guru) - The person who made businesses into an academic discipline ! Whatever has to be written was told by him! He's the Moses of the b world ! - Gautam
Bill Gates (Microsoft)
William George (Medtronic)
Louis Gerstner (IBM) - He made the 'elephant dance' - gautam
Alan Greenspan (Fed Reserve)
Andy Grove (Intel)
Lee Iacocca (Chrysler)
Steve Jobs (Apple) - Sheer product brilliance ! - Gautam
Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines) - challenged and broke aviation rules, and then ruled the industry !
Peter Lynch (Fidelty)
Charles Schwab (Charles Schwab)
Frederick Smith (FedEx)
George Soros (Investor)
Ted Turner (Media Moghul)
Sam Walton (Walmart)
Jack Welch (GE)-
Oprah Winfrey (Media Queen)
Mohammed Yunus (Banker)
new innovation consulting firm
Came across a new innovation/idea consulting firm based out of India called Ideas-RS , the firm of R Sridhar of Ogilvy who was compering the show "the power of an Idea" on CNBC
Seems to have drawn up an impressive client roster already :-)
Seems to have drawn up an impressive client roster already :-)
Tommy Hilfiger ties up with Tirupur co for innerwear
check this out !
Desi clothes going hi-fashion !
ET says:
Tommy Hilfiger, the $6-billion American apparel brand, is set to break into the Rs 1,500-crore branded domestic innerwear market this summer. Servicing the foray through an exclusive licensee agreement is Eastman Clothing Company, domestic arm of the Rs 400-crore Tirupur based Eastman Export group.
Desi clothes going hi-fashion !
ET says:
Tommy Hilfiger, the $6-billion American apparel brand, is set to break into the Rs 1,500-crore branded domestic innerwear market this summer. Servicing the foray through an exclusive licensee agreement is Eastman Clothing Company, domestic arm of the Rs 400-crore Tirupur based Eastman Export group.
Of headhunters
Headhunters (search consultants/recruiters) are such an amazing set of people :-) I wonder if people have studied them and their ways of building and fostering networks...
I'm sure that they can give any other professional a run for their money for knowledge and (human) network usage :-)
The other day a lady called me and managed to get the contact details of my total Jalebi batch IRers from me !
That was really impressive :-))
I'm sure that they can give any other professional a run for their money for knowledge and (human) network usage :-)
The other day a lady called me and managed to get the contact details of my total Jalebi batch IRers from me !
That was really impressive :-))
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