MBA Industry Integrated (MBA II). MBA II program is affiliated to MD University Rohtak & approved by UGC, Ministry of HRD. It is more application oriented and provides practical exposure to the students with classroom theoretical knowledge of business and industry. The program methodology significantly differs from the traditional course method. The program blends ‘Industry Exposure’ with ‘Academic Knowledge’.
30 November 2011
29 November 2011
Premji, Hazare in FP's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers
Software czar Azim Premji and anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare are among five Indians who figure in the Foreign Policy magazine's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, that is dominated by revolutionaries who have been the driving force behind the Arab Spring.
The list features US President Barack Obama, who is ranked 11th among the top 100 global thinkers, and also includes writer-activist Arundhati Roy, poverty researcher Deepa Narayan and economist Arvind Subramanian.
It includes the likes of Egyptian dentist-turned-author Alaa Al Aswany, former IAEA chief and activist Mohamed Elbaradei, and Google marketing guru Wael Ghonim.
Identified as India's Bill Gates, Azim Premji is ranked 14th, just below Bill and Melinda Gates.
"It's not just because of Azim Premji's enormous wealth that he is compared to the American technologist turned philanthropist," the Foreign Policy magazine says.
It is Premji's unprecedented philanthropy, that recently has borne out the Gates comparison, it adds.
"Through his contributions, Premji is at the forefront of a rising tide of Indian philanthropy, with billionaire executives such as Shiv Nadar, founder of the technology company HCL, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, of the business conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, often listed in the same cohort," it writes.
However, making a surprise entry into this list of top 100 global thinkers is Anna Hazare who has been placed at the 37th position for his anti-corruption crusade in the country.
25 November 2011
Top 12 entrance exams beyond the CAT
With over 8,000 seats IIMs can only satisfy about three percent of the total aspirants for the elusive business degree. But over the years a host of other institutions have come into being, which are as good as IIMs. Read on to find out more.
Many of you may not know that one of best colleges in the country, JBIMS, is a state-level B-School. In other words it is a constituent department of Mumbai Univeristy and admits students through The Maharashtra State Entrance Test.
Nearly 85 percent of the seats in JBIMS is reserved for students of Maharashtra. So all is not lost when one could not crack the CAT and get admission into the coveted IIMs.
In fact, some the new IIMs are no match for established institutes like the TISS, XLRI, FMS and IIFT. So read on to find what other entrances you need to appear to get into these coveted institutions.
Some of them like TISS conduct their own admission tests. Some like XLRI accept GMAT and have their own group admission tests.
Most others accept scores from common entrances like the MAT, ATMA and GMAT. Most of the states also conduct State-level entrance exams for institutes within the State, and are affiliated to relevant State universities. Most of the State colleges though require that the aspirant or his parent lives within the state.
How to write an impressive resume
A good CV, sharp covering letter and focused presentation in the interview are the keys to land the right job says Stephen R Covey and Jennifer Colosimo.
What should I exactly put in a cover letter?
In your cover letter, introduce yourself and your resume, tell why you're applying for the job, and ask for an
interview. Many employers are more interested in your cover letter than your resume because it tells them why you're applying and gives insight into your personality.
interview. Many employers are more interested in your cover letter than your resume because it tells them why you're applying and gives insight into your personality.
As we've said, the purpose of a resume is to obtain an interview, to start a conversation with the employer. Your cover letter is your opportunity to get that conversation under way -- so we can't overemphasise the importance of
the cover letter. The worst thing you can do is write an offhand or "one size fits all" cover letter. You must target your cover letter to the specific needs and values of the prospective employer.
the cover letter. The worst thing you can do is write an offhand or "one size fits all" cover letter. You must target your cover letter to the specific needs and values of the prospective employer.
Ideally, your cover letter is a one-page proposal to fill an important business need you've identified in your research.
Here is a basic format to follow:
Start by summing up the problem or opportunity your prospect faces and describe how you plan to help solve it.
Use numbers that are meaningful to the prospect. Give evidence that you can solve the problem and, if applicable, that you have solved one like it in the past. Evidence includes work and educational accomplishments that would lead your prospect to conclude you're right for the challenge. Provide contact information and request a meeting.
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-foolproof-steps-to-get-your-dream-job/20111122.htm
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-foolproof-steps-to-get-your-dream-job/20111122.htm
'Annual placements at B-schools like cattle fair'
The annual placements at B-schools like Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad [ Images ] (IIM-A) and others are like a 'cattle fair' held in Pushkar, Rajasthan [ Images ], every year, said Tata Sons' Chief Group HR Satish Pradhan.
Speaking at the 13th Annual Confluence at the IIM-A, Pradhan said, "the placements held annually (at B-schools) are like the annual cattle fair held in Pushkar, Rajasthan, where every cattle which is to be sold, is paraded before its potential buyer."
Pradhan said that first everybody competes hard to get into August institutes like the IIM-A and then after getting in, compete harder to get ahead.
"By and large for me, the pinnacle of getting ahead is the cattle auction. When the highest price tag symbolises the highest accomplishment of two years," he said.
Pradhan apologised for being very negatively biased but said that he was teasing at this point as he wanted to answer the question how does one compete.
"Is it a zero sum game (where one gains at the cost of other) in our mind that we will compete and will continue to compete as we become leaders of industry, institutions, organisation, multilateral agencies, government," he said.
"Will we compete with the sense of zero sum game or is there something that we will bring to the perspective of pursuing excellence and to make things different," he added.
Students from two IIMs & ISB receive five offers of over Rs 1 crore
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Crore-plus salaries have kept their date with B-school campuses, allaying apprehensions that a worsening global economy will keep multinational recruiters away this academic year. So far, two Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) have received at least five offers of over Rs 1 crore, raising confidence levels, two people associated with foreign recruitment said.
The number of crore-plus offers is expected to remain the same this year because the IIMs have seen a healthy rush of companies queuing up for summer internships. "Recruiters will not stop hiring nor will they cut salaries and take a hit on their brand image. We expect an 8-10% increase in salary for roles in India," says T Muralidharan, IIM-A alumnus and chairman of TMI Group, an HR firm.
The top recruiters will maintain their salary packages for foreign locations. "Global economies are passing through a tough phase and companies do not offer increments abroad, but they will continue to lure candidates with an attractive starting salary," he added.
Deutsche Bank has given pre-placement offers to three IIM students so far, one more than the number it recruited last year. Swiss pharma multinationalNovartis has hired two students from ISB this year, paying them dollar salaries which cross Rs 1 crore. Novartis, an ISB regular, is learnt to have offered $120,000 as salary and $70,000 as bonus to the two ISB students, who will be hired as financial analysts attached to the CFO's office in Basel.
ISB did not confirm the offers. The institute said in an email response that it was too early to talk about any kind of salary figures as the rolling placements process has just commenced.
"Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, Mckinsey and Cargill Foods too are in the process of hiring," said one person in the know of ISB placements. Parthenon Group, a global strategic advisory boutique, which made highest domestic offer of Rs 32 lakh at ISB last year for its Mumbai office, is likely to make a Rs 1 crore-plus offer to an ISB student for its London office, he said. Final placements begin in the third week of January.
The number of crore-plus offers is expected to remain the same this year because the IIMs have seen a healthy rush of companies queuing up for summer internships. "Recruiters will not stop hiring nor will they cut salaries and take a hit on their brand image. We expect an 8-10% increase in salary for roles in India," says T Muralidharan, IIM-A alumnus and chairman of TMI Group, an HR firm.
The top recruiters will maintain their salary packages for foreign locations. "Global economies are passing through a tough phase and companies do not offer increments abroad, but they will continue to lure candidates with an attractive starting salary," he added.
Deutsche Bank has given pre-placement offers to three IIM students so far, one more than the number it recruited last year. Swiss pharma multinationalNovartis has hired two students from ISB this year, paying them dollar salaries which cross Rs 1 crore. Novartis, an ISB regular, is learnt to have offered $120,000 as salary and $70,000 as bonus to the two ISB students, who will be hired as financial analysts attached to the CFO's office in Basel.
ISB did not confirm the offers. The institute said in an email response that it was too early to talk about any kind of salary figures as the rolling placements process has just commenced.
"Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, Mckinsey and Cargill Foods too are in the process of hiring," said one person in the know of ISB placements. Parthenon Group, a global strategic advisory boutique, which made highest domestic offer of Rs 32 lakh at ISB last year for its Mumbai office, is likely to make a Rs 1 crore-plus offer to an ISB student for its London office, he said. Final placements begin in the third week of January.
Campus salaries are considered to be the main differentiator while deciding the B-school pecking order. Most institutions underplay top salaries and highlight their pedagogy. IIMs and top BSchools do not give out individual salary details. Though IIM Ahmedabad has started giving out audited salary data, top recruiters have refused to disclose pay offerings to the institute, citing confidentiality norms. IIM Calcutta gives out the average salary offered to the batch, but IIM Bangalore does not share any salary figures.
The placement season is still two months away, but a few foreign recruiters prefer to hire towards the year-end. Hiring of fresh MBAs suffered in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, when investment banks known for top-order salaries kept off B-schools.
23 November 2011
Logical thinking and intuition makes a smart leader
was a boxer in my college days. Even though discipline, speed and technique are critical, one concept you pick up early is reading body energy. You see your opponent , respond to his footwork, anticipate his striking combinations... you sense most things. Importantly, there is something else you do not see and yet have to learn to read in your opponent: His breathing , energy and body signals. And by beginning to initially observe and intuitively read that critical aspect, you gain a competitive advantage over your opponent. Volatile, turbulent times are a reality.
An enterprise capable of reading market signals ahead of time is able to make provisions and garner its reserves to face a storm well before it hits the shore. Unfortunately , only a few are able to anticipate and read these signals. Business school education and nourishment on a staple diet of management literature has created managers, a certain sense of comfort with the notion of seizing opportunities. They understand that they need to be proactive rather than reactive if they wish to emerge unscathed through violent market shifts. However, the problem is that they can't necessarily see the window of opportunity ahead of time to be able to take advantage of it. Stunned like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic, these professionals get paralysed when they are expected to anticipate and react at lightening speed!
The corporate coping mechanism should have a two-pronged focus: building a 'scan and trend' capability and facilitating 'intuition' as a new world competency at the future-smart leadership levels. Market-agile organisations run a constant radar sweep to detect trends and situations with an idea to plan for contingencies and alter their course as the environment indicates changing patterns. Scenario planning helps. Corporates that are stodgy, respond to situations when they are not left with a range of positive alternatives. Being overwhelmed, they may collapse. Ability to study the landscape and intuitively read signals which predict future fires is important to you, as a futuresmart competent manager. Sharpen your intuitive prompts, encourage them to tell you a story. Leaders in traditional wars did it. The contemporary corporate world is no different.
Bill Gates said: "Often you have to rely only on intuition." Being present in professional circuits, keeping your human antenna alert for market signals and being sensitive to what is going around, should prompt you to develop your mental hypothesis. Logic is a rational outcome of the learning process. But intuition is the quality of thinking we cannot explain rationally. We tend to rely more on logic because of our familiarity by experience with certain patterns and our ability to match patterns by association. To that extent, intuition is an asymmetric pattern. Takami Takami, founder of Minebea (the world's largest makers of precision ball bearings), said: "Successful people surprise the world by doing things that logical people think are stupid.
If I listened to logical people, I would never have succeeded." Reading signals is critical for leaders. Future-smart managers do not let their intuition go untested. Nerds are those who have a very high dependence on logic or hard sensory data and end up creating intellectual indifference. Mavericks are those who excessively use intuition and ignore logic. This could lead to idiosyncratic and arbitrary thinking. Taken together, logic and intuition enable the future-smart leader to command a wider perceptual response range to meet challenges of these vibrant and turbulent times.
An enterprise capable of reading market signals ahead of time is able to make provisions and garner its reserves to face a storm well before it hits the shore. Unfortunately , only a few are able to anticipate and read these signals. Business school education and nourishment on a staple diet of management literature has created managers, a certain sense of comfort with the notion of seizing opportunities. They understand that they need to be proactive rather than reactive if they wish to emerge unscathed through violent market shifts. However, the problem is that they can't necessarily see the window of opportunity ahead of time to be able to take advantage of it. Stunned like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic, these professionals get paralysed when they are expected to anticipate and react at lightening speed!
The corporate coping mechanism should have a two-pronged focus: building a 'scan and trend' capability and facilitating 'intuition' as a new world competency at the future-smart leadership levels. Market-agile organisations run a constant radar sweep to detect trends and situations with an idea to plan for contingencies and alter their course as the environment indicates changing patterns. Scenario planning helps. Corporates that are stodgy, respond to situations when they are not left with a range of positive alternatives. Being overwhelmed, they may collapse. Ability to study the landscape and intuitively read signals which predict future fires is important to you, as a futuresmart competent manager. Sharpen your intuitive prompts, encourage them to tell you a story. Leaders in traditional wars did it. The contemporary corporate world is no different.
Bill Gates said: "Often you have to rely only on intuition." Being present in professional circuits, keeping your human antenna alert for market signals and being sensitive to what is going around, should prompt you to develop your mental hypothesis. Logic is a rational outcome of the learning process. But intuition is the quality of thinking we cannot explain rationally. We tend to rely more on logic because of our familiarity by experience with certain patterns and our ability to match patterns by association. To that extent, intuition is an asymmetric pattern. Takami Takami, founder of Minebea (the world's largest makers of precision ball bearings), said: "Successful people surprise the world by doing things that logical people think are stupid.
If I listened to logical people, I would never have succeeded." Reading signals is critical for leaders. Future-smart managers do not let their intuition go untested. Nerds are those who have a very high dependence on logic or hard sensory data and end up creating intellectual indifference. Mavericks are those who excessively use intuition and ignore logic. This could lead to idiosyncratic and arbitrary thinking. Taken together, logic and intuition enable the future-smart leader to command a wider perceptual response range to meet challenges of these vibrant and turbulent times.
Real PE factor for any firm is people
While investment bankers have inducted 'PE' factor - the price-earnings ratio, which helps determine the valuation of an enterprise - into contemporary management lexicon, the real PE factor in the value journey of any enterprise from a leadership perspective continues to be its 'people' factor.
'People' is the only PE factor capable of creating value for itself and unleashing value from the other factors.
Unleashing the 'low cost: high value' potential of the people factor in these volatile and challenging market conditions calls for special attention.
Future-smart CEOs- the corporate skippers and proactive leaders who plan and insulate their enterprise against unpredictable future volatility - will have to evolve and take personal responsibility for their workforce strategies. They will need to develop a navigational map that will help them traverse a unique 'value-to-value' journey.
The HR department-led general people programmes barely succeed in exploiting more than the surface capabilities of these high-potential resources. Unless the CEO leads from the front and sponsors generating value from people resources, chances are that the enterprise will under-utilise these precious resources.
The 'value-to-value' journey encompasses four critical value domains, and is linked to the CEO's performance contract: create occasions to offer unique value propositions, nurture critical values to evolve a genuine and flexible culture, energise the system to deliver value to customers and engage the system with relevant drivers to enhance its 'enterprise value'.
Every organisation needs to have eight capabilities to thrive: a competitive landscape analysis and market intelligence, demand creation, demand fulfillment, going to market, supply chain, an order-to-remittances cycle, new product innovation and talent engagement and development.
Future-smart strategic leaders build their organisation structures around these. They do not go the classical way of building their structures around power centres in their enterprise.
A firm's reputation is embedded in its capabilities, not in its structure. The value propositions that make a difference and attract talent to join and stay need to be developed around experiences and opportunities built around these capabilities and knowledge. Hence, key success factor No. 1 for the future-smart leader is offering unique value propositions and a market-competitive total rewards package to 'get' the best talent. However, the greater challenge is to ensure final delivery of this promise.
Key success factor No. 2 is to build a flexible culture with non-negotiable ethical values within the enterprise to maximise business opportunities. Future-smart leaders will never shift their eyes from markets, customer insights and customer realities as defined by market conditions. The entire system needs to harmonise to deliver 'value-for-money' to customers.
Key success factor No. 3 would be to build a delivery system within the enterprise that gives customers their desired value for money with an 'aha'. The purpose of business is value creation.
Key success factor No. 4 is to ensure that focus on short-term profits does not make the enterprise lose long-term focus on its value creation, and that the people resources are fully engaged in this.
The volatile markets have covertly indicated their preference. Enterprises that have their profit earning ratios backed by competent PEople and strong people engagement succeed in sustaining and realising their long-term projected valuations. Others perish and peter out into obscurity.
'People' is the only PE factor capable of creating value for itself and unleashing value from the other factors.
Unleashing the 'low cost: high value' potential of the people factor in these volatile and challenging market conditions calls for special attention.
Future-smart CEOs- the corporate skippers and proactive leaders who plan and insulate their enterprise against unpredictable future volatility - will have to evolve and take personal responsibility for their workforce strategies. They will need to develop a navigational map that will help them traverse a unique 'value-to-value' journey.
The HR department-led general people programmes barely succeed in exploiting more than the surface capabilities of these high-potential resources. Unless the CEO leads from the front and sponsors generating value from people resources, chances are that the enterprise will under-utilise these precious resources.
The 'value-to-value' journey encompasses four critical value domains, and is linked to the CEO's performance contract: create occasions to offer unique value propositions, nurture critical values to evolve a genuine and flexible culture, energise the system to deliver value to customers and engage the system with relevant drivers to enhance its 'enterprise value'.
Every organisation needs to have eight capabilities to thrive: a competitive landscape analysis and market intelligence, demand creation, demand fulfillment, going to market, supply chain, an order-to-remittances cycle, new product innovation and talent engagement and development.
Future-smart strategic leaders build their organisation structures around these. They do not go the classical way of building their structures around power centres in their enterprise.
A firm's reputation is embedded in its capabilities, not in its structure. The value propositions that make a difference and attract talent to join and stay need to be developed around experiences and opportunities built around these capabilities and knowledge. Hence, key success factor No. 1 for the future-smart leader is offering unique value propositions and a market-competitive total rewards package to 'get' the best talent. However, the greater challenge is to ensure final delivery of this promise.
Key success factor No. 2 is to build a flexible culture with non-negotiable ethical values within the enterprise to maximise business opportunities. Future-smart leaders will never shift their eyes from markets, customer insights and customer realities as defined by market conditions. The entire system needs to harmonise to deliver 'value-for-money' to customers.
Key success factor No. 3 would be to build a delivery system within the enterprise that gives customers their desired value for money with an 'aha'. The purpose of business is value creation.
Key success factor No. 4 is to ensure that focus on short-term profits does not make the enterprise lose long-term focus on its value creation, and that the people resources are fully engaged in this.
The volatile markets have covertly indicated their preference. Enterprises that have their profit earning ratios backed by competent PEople and strong people engagement succeed in sustaining and realising their long-term projected valuations. Others perish and peter out into obscurity.
The CEO is also a part-time HR manager
wenty-five years of global consulting experience can get you a lot of grey hair besides frequent flyer miles. And the grey hair comes from trying to help CEOs better manage their people to drive enterprise and individual performance to ultimately deliver shareholder value.
Most CEOs detest this role. They often believe they have turned into part-time HR managers. They believe the HR guys could have done a better job so they can spend less time on this issue, and more time on what is strategic to the organisation - for example, managing customer relationships. Unfortunately, I don't think they have a choice. So the only solution is to determine what HR areas should they really get involved in to add value.
At the strategic level, the key areas to worry about are the areas the CEO and board should focus on, organisational structure, compensation, taking care of star performers, setting up a strategy management office, and typical challenges in a family-owned business. Let's pick up on a couple of themes - key areas for the CEO to personally focus on.
The first one is organisational structure. Putting great guys in the wrong structure is like having a Formula 1 driver sit at the wheel in a bus - it won't get you anywhere.
Structure must always be aligned to strategy. The CEO has the best idea of where he wants to go. You should lay out a structure aligned to strategy and then run it past your HR team to ensure the design is compliant with HR best practices, such as span of control, etc. Generally, CEOs follow this process the other way around.
The second area is compensation. In emerging market, unfortunately, "show me the money" seems to be a common employee mantra. Of course, have HR determine the appropriate compensation for the organisation, but at the end of the day, there will be people who are key; where compensation will have to be determined on what needs to be done to retain them beyond the standard compensation framework within the organisation. Most CEOs, unfortunately, get boxed into a compensation structure HR tells them to follow.
Another area of CEO focus is the area of creating the organisation's culture. Culture is a fluffy thing, but it's the oxygen a company breathes. The richer it is, the better people will perform. If you ask a CEO, what's the culture he or she wants to create, the answer often is "sales-oriented" or "performance-oriented" . Sometimes it's "innovation" or "entrepreneurial". Pick one that is right for the organisation, the strategy, and one that is aligned most with your leadership style. Remember, cultural change does not happen overnight.
It's like steering a ship, and there is a way to going about doing it. For one, don't ever create a fear-oriented culture, where people fear termination due to failure. That shuts everything down. Lastly, I want to talk about a "hit by the bus list".
This list must be in every CEO's drawer. It's the list that clearly identifies who will cover the position of a key person if he quits unexpectedly or "gets hit by the bus". It is the core of a succession planning strategy. Ensure that for all key positions, somebody has been recruited or groomed within the organisation to take over at short notice.
The bottom line on all of this is the fact that people are key to an organisation's success and growth, and that ensuring the organisation delivers cannot be outsourced 100% to HR. Guess what, the CEO was meant to be a part-time HR manager!
Most CEOs detest this role. They often believe they have turned into part-time HR managers. They believe the HR guys could have done a better job so they can spend less time on this issue, and more time on what is strategic to the organisation - for example, managing customer relationships. Unfortunately, I don't think they have a choice. So the only solution is to determine what HR areas should they really get involved in to add value.
At the strategic level, the key areas to worry about are the areas the CEO and board should focus on, organisational structure, compensation, taking care of star performers, setting up a strategy management office, and typical challenges in a family-owned business. Let's pick up on a couple of themes - key areas for the CEO to personally focus on.
The first one is organisational structure. Putting great guys in the wrong structure is like having a Formula 1 driver sit at the wheel in a bus - it won't get you anywhere.
Structure must always be aligned to strategy. The CEO has the best idea of where he wants to go. You should lay out a structure aligned to strategy and then run it past your HR team to ensure the design is compliant with HR best practices, such as span of control, etc. Generally, CEOs follow this process the other way around.
The second area is compensation. In emerging market, unfortunately, "show me the money" seems to be a common employee mantra. Of course, have HR determine the appropriate compensation for the organisation, but at the end of the day, there will be people who are key; where compensation will have to be determined on what needs to be done to retain them beyond the standard compensation framework within the organisation. Most CEOs, unfortunately, get boxed into a compensation structure HR tells them to follow.
Another area of CEO focus is the area of creating the organisation's culture. Culture is a fluffy thing, but it's the oxygen a company breathes. The richer it is, the better people will perform. If you ask a CEO, what's the culture he or she wants to create, the answer often is "sales-oriented" or "performance-oriented" . Sometimes it's "innovation" or "entrepreneurial". Pick one that is right for the organisation, the strategy, and one that is aligned most with your leadership style. Remember, cultural change does not happen overnight.
It's like steering a ship, and there is a way to going about doing it. For one, don't ever create a fear-oriented culture, where people fear termination due to failure. That shuts everything down. Lastly, I want to talk about a "hit by the bus list".
This list must be in every CEO's drawer. It's the list that clearly identifies who will cover the position of a key person if he quits unexpectedly or "gets hit by the bus". It is the core of a succession planning strategy. Ensure that for all key positions, somebody has been recruited or groomed within the organisation to take over at short notice.
The bottom line on all of this is the fact that people are key to an organisation's success and growth, and that ensuring the organisation delivers cannot be outsourced 100% to HR. Guess what, the CEO was meant to be a part-time HR manager!
Sabeer Bhatia's JaxtrSMS to allow free SMSes
Jaxtr Inc, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Yogesh Patel, on Wednesday launched JaxtrSMS, a cross-platform open texting application to send SMSes to anyone in the world for free.
"We have developed this application that runs on all mobile applications in the world, including iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys, J2MEs, where one can send unlimited free text messages from his phone to any mobile phone in the world," Jaxtr Inc CEO and co-founder and co-founder of Hotmail Sabeer Bhatia told reporters here.
At present it is very expensive for sending international SMSes costing Rs 5 per message, he said.
JaxtrSMS, which was developed in the country, is expecting at least 100 million subscriber base globally, he added.
"We witnessed tremendous response to this application during the soft launch where users across 197 countries downloaded it in a few weeks and expect 100 million subscribers by end of next year," Bhatia said.
The company will generate revenue through advertisements and premium services like archiving texts, multimedia, video etc, which will be available by mid next year, he said.
The premium services will be available for the subscribers at a very nominal cost, Bhatt said.
"We are talking with advertisers," he said. The US-based company is looking at USD 10-15 million investment in JaxtrSMS in another couple of months. "We are in talks with a few investors and are looking at investing USD 10-15 million in a couple of months time," he added.
Bhatia said this application would be in accordance with the regulatory provisions of the country. Globally, there are 4.2 billion texters worldwide and it is expected to reach 12 trillion by 2015.
"We have developed this application that runs on all mobile applications in the world, including iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys, J2MEs, where one can send unlimited free text messages from his phone to any mobile phone in the world," Jaxtr Inc CEO and co-founder and co-founder of Hotmail Sabeer Bhatia told reporters here.
At present it is very expensive for sending international SMSes costing Rs 5 per message, he said.
JaxtrSMS, which was developed in the country, is expecting at least 100 million subscriber base globally, he added.
"We witnessed tremendous response to this application during the soft launch where users across 197 countries downloaded it in a few weeks and expect 100 million subscribers by end of next year," Bhatia said.
The company will generate revenue through advertisements and premium services like archiving texts, multimedia, video etc, which will be available by mid next year, he said.
The premium services will be available for the subscribers at a very nominal cost, Bhatt said.
"We are talking with advertisers," he said. The US-based company is looking at USD 10-15 million investment in JaxtrSMS in another couple of months. "We are in talks with a few investors and are looking at investing USD 10-15 million in a couple of months time," he added.
Bhatia said this application would be in accordance with the regulatory provisions of the country. Globally, there are 4.2 billion texters worldwide and it is expected to reach 12 trillion by 2015.
Tamil Nadu engineering students design 'nano bike'
NAGAPATTINAM: A group of final year mechanical engineering students of a private university in Tamil Nadu claimed to have designed a 25-kg single-seater 'nano'motorcycle that could give a mileage of 97 km per litre of petrol.
The students of PRIST University, Thanjavur, have designed the motorcycle under the guidance of their professors and in collaboration with Hi-Tech Project Industries, a private engineering services company at Porayar in the district.
Demonstrating the motorcycle, named 'Nano Bike' at the Hi-Tech Project Industries campus yesterday in the presence of the company's research wing staff, the students claimed the vehicle can touch a maximum speed of 45 kmph and carry one person.
The main frame of the motorbike is made of steel while the wheels are made of aluminium alloy and the petrol tank is made of plastic. To reduce noise, belt drive has been used instead of the traditional chain drive mechanism, the students said.
The students claimed that commercial production of the motorcycle was viable and would cost only about Rs 8,000 per unit.
The students of PRIST University, Thanjavur, have designed the motorcycle under the guidance of their professors and in collaboration with Hi-Tech Project Industries, a private engineering services company at Porayar in the district.
Demonstrating the motorcycle, named 'Nano Bike' at the Hi-Tech Project Industries campus yesterday in the presence of the company's research wing staff, the students claimed the vehicle can touch a maximum speed of 45 kmph and carry one person.
The main frame of the motorbike is made of steel while the wheels are made of aluminium alloy and the petrol tank is made of plastic. To reduce noise, belt drive has been used instead of the traditional chain drive mechanism, the students said.
The students claimed that commercial production of the motorcycle was viable and would cost only about Rs 8,000 per unit.
21 November 2011
मोजे के भाव जूते बेच रही है एडिडास, कीमत ऐसी जिसे सुन चौंक जाएंगे आप !
जर्मनी की प्रसिद्ध स्पोर्ट्स वियर कंपनी एडिडास ने भारत में धमाका करने की घोषणा की है। कंपनी यहां सिर्फ एक डॉलर (50 रुपए) में अपने जूते बेचेगी।
कंपनी के प्रमुख हर्बर्ट हेनर ने यह जानकारी दी। उन्होंने कहा कि कंपनी अपने डिस्ट्रिब्यूशन चैनल के जरिये ये जूते गांवों में बेचेगी। उन्होंने कहा कि बांग्लादेश मे भी हमने ऐसे जूते बेचे थे लेकिन वहां हमें घाटा हुआ था लेकिन यहां हम कोशिश करेंगे कि घाटा न हो।
एडिडास ने बांग्लादेश में यह स्कीम चलाई थी लेकिन कंपनी को वहां घाटा हुआ। वहां जूतों की लागत आई तीन डॉलर (लगभग 150 रुपए) और उन पर हमें साढे तीन डॉलर इम्पोर्ट ड्यूटी देनी पड़ी। इससे हमें काफी घाटा हुआ। लेकिन भारत में ऐसा होने की उम्मीद नहीं है।
इस साल के पहले नौ महीनों में एडिडास को जबर्दस्त लाभ हुआ है और उसके राजस्व में काफी वृद्धि हुई है। उसके ईपीएस में तो 16 प्रतिशत की बढ़ोतरी हुई है
Maya gets 'split UP resolution' passed without debate
Amidst din, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a controversial resolution on splitting the state into four parts by voice vote minutes after which the lower house was adjourned sine die. Chief minister Mayawati, who had announced the proposal recently to split the
As soon as the proposal was passed by voice vote amidst noisy scenes, Speaker Rajbhar adjourned the House sine-die.
The Opposition, which wanted to bring no confidence motion against the state government, criticised the move to pass the resolution by voice vote and then adjourning the Assembly.
Alleging that BSP government ignored Baba Saheb's (Bhim Rao Ambedkar) Constitution and adjourned the House sine-die, Leader of Opposition Shivpal Singh Yadav told reporters that "The government should have discussed the no-confidence motion and go for voting".
He also accused the Speaker of acting as a BSP member.
About state's reorganisation, SP said that people of the state were against splitting the state.
CLP leader Pramod Tiwari said his party favoured constitution of state reorganisation commission before taking the decision to split the state so that resources division and other issues could be considered.
In the House of 403, BSP had 220 members (after six of its members have been disqualified recently), SP had 89, BJP 48, Cong 20, RLD 10, independent 9, RSP one.
Earlier, the Winter Session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly started on a stormy noted with BJP members jumping into the well of the House while SP members started slogan shouting against the government and waved placards.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma said the BSP government had full majority in the House but opposition members did pay heed to him.
Amidst din, Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar adjourned the question hour till 12.20 pm.
When the House met again, in the presence of Mayawati, who was not present during question hour, the SP and BJP members jumped into the well demanding discussion on no-confidence motion.
Amidst din, hurling of paper balls on the Speaker and alert marshalls trying to catch them, vote on account for the first four months of 2012-13 was passed by the House.
Tiwari alleged that BSP government acted against democracy and SP and BJP had helped the party in the job.
"Both SP and BJP jumped into the well. No confidence motion could not be brought from the well. They should have stood in their place for discussion on the motion", Tiwari said.
Terming proposal of division of state as mere "election stunt", BJP Leader Om Prakash Singh said that Centre should not accept the proposal.
Advocating for a reorganisation commission, Singh said that as UP's proposal was passed without discussion and debate it should not be accepted at any cost.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Kokab Hamid said the state government was not serious about splitting the state and the way the proposal was passed showed the same.
SP and BJP will be meeting Governor BL Joshi later in the day to register their protest against the BSP government.
In a bid to outsmart rivals ahead of the Assembly elections, Mayawati had last week announced her plans to bring a resolution in the House for carving out four new states.
The Chief Minister, who had earlier written a letter for reorganisation of the state to the Prime Minister maintaining that it was not in the jurisdiction of the state, had said that the decision has been taken after proper consideration to mount pressure on the Centre.
This demand is also in keeping with the aspirations and ambitions of these regions, she had claimed.
Mayawati's move is seen as an attempt by her to cash in on the sentiments in favour of small states in the western and eastern regions and the Bundelkhand area of the state during the Assembly elections.
20 November 2011
BJP will oppose FDI in retail, says Murli Manohar Joshi
Terming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s move to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector as a tool to kill domestic industry, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi today said his party would oppose the Bill, if it is tabled in the winter session of Parliament.
“If FDI in retail sector is allowed, small traders will lose their jobs, as their products or services will not be able to compete with foreign traders’. BJP will oppose such a move in and outside Parliament,” Joshi said at a press meet here.
It is also said to be planning to permit 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, with conditions including the purchase of at least a third of goods from local companies.
Joshi said he had opposed the government’s proposal to allow FDI in vegetable and fruit trade as the chairman of Parliament’s standing committee, on the subject, saying it would take away jobs of small traders and lead to a rise in unemployment.
Joshi also criticised the government’s lax attitude towards an increasing Chinese presence the in Bay of Bengal.
“China’s presence in Bay of Bengal is a threat to the international trade of Orissa and other states that depend on Orissa ports,” Joshi warned.
The state has one major port and two minor ports in operation and has proposed six small ports along its 500-km coast.
The new rules of the marketing game
There are enough challenges to surmount when it comes to marketing in this digital age. And marketers seem to be struggling to keep pace, says this study by the Global Business Service division of IBM.
No conference on marketing today goes without a discussion dedicated to social media. But have these left the custodians of marketing any wiser? The chief marketing officers are still not too comfortable with the medium, says the Global Business Service division of IBM which recently concluded a study with 88 CMOs in India, who were among a total of 1,700 CMOs surveyed around the world. Shared exclusively with the strategist, the findings, one of IBM’s CxO studies, were based on hour-long, one-on-one interviews, unlike the usual emailed or phone correspondence in such studies.
The conversations revealed not just social media as their concern but also nailed others in their priority list. Katharyn M White, vice-president, marketing, Global Business Services, IBM, who oversaw the study globally, says, “The overall study showed that the market was changing faster than CMOs felt prepared for. The factors that they said were the most important ones were surprisingly the ones they felt least prepared for. The order of those changes from market to market. But the over-riding ones are making sense of the volume, variety and velocity of data which now comes in, social media, changing consumer demographics, and device and channel choices.”
When asked how prepared they were to manage the critical agents of change, 78 per cent of the Indian-South Asian CEOs said social media was critical but they were unprepared for it (globally, 68 per cent said so). Around 66 per cent of the Indian CMOs were wary of the data explosion (71 per cent globally). Shifting consumer demographics (new consumer segments that influenced strategy) and growth of device choices and distribution channels came next, similar to global CMOs’ concerns. We find out how they play out for the Indian CMO.(Figure 1)
Surprise, surprise
As much as 52 per cent of the Indian CMOs considered the social media as a key engagement channel and 49 per cent wanted to monitor their brands through the medium, a function that marketers call social listening. Virginia Sharma, vice-president, marketing & communications, IBM India and South Asia, who conducted the study’s Indian and Sri Lankan phases, notes, “Despite the high regard for social media, my Indian counterparts feel more unprepared than CMOs anywhere else. This is unexpected because at any marketing forum, we talk about social media all the time.”
Tata Teleservices Senior Vice-President and National Business Marketing Head Abdul Khan feels, “The anxiety of most CMOs stem from the fear of retaliation on social media. While many use it personally, they can’t figure out how to apply it to their businesses. They just need to learn to converse with the audience.”
Marketers are finding their own ways to deal with the medium. Research In Motion Director Krishnadeep Baruah says, “Even a year ago, my feedback on social media would have been different. Social media itself had not come of age. A year and a half ago we formalised a way of approaching social media in Asia-Pacific because our user is primarily a data user and hence the internet was critical. We were not going to use the social networks for sporadic campaigns but for continuous interaction with the consumers. I have also found that giving the consumer on the internet a heads-up on our products a few days before an ATL campaign fosters a lot of loyalty. We have even roped in our consumers as advocates for the brand to pitch in troubleshooting on these networks.”
Customer relationship management (CRM) threw up another surprise. Sharma says, “Eighty seven per cent of the Indian-South Asian CMOs plan to increase the use of CRM technologies which is surprising, given that we tend to think that CRM has matured in its use of technology. But the CMOs are not satisfied.” White explains, “It is higher in the investment priority list than other global CMOs. That is because the idea of providing a single view of the customer is still very new in this region.”
Even the largest retailer in the country, Future Group, is rolling out its loyalty programme now in a sector which is supposed to put a high premium on CRM. Group Strategy and Consumer Director of Future Group, Vibha Rishi, who leads marketing and customer strategy there, says it will span seven of its formats. “It will open a direct line to the consumer to communicate. We could later collaborate with brands,” she adds.
The study revealed that marketers are becoming more curious about technology such as dashboards and analytics that will make their work easier; till now the IT transformations of other departments had put them off. But changes are in the offing. RIM’s Baruah points out, “The marketing and sales at RIM have a common software at the stores which shows what kind of customers bought which handsets, keyed in by our sales promoters.
There is also our telecom partners who let us reach audiences of specific handsets for promotions targeted at them. We don’t have to depend on mainstream ads for that.”
Essar Group President, Corporate Branding & Strategic Initiatives, Shivnath Thukral says, “We have software to track which programmes are popular on our internal TV network so we can re-engineer the laggards to be more effective. A dashboard tells us how we are perceived on the social media every week.”
In the use of technology, after CRM, the Indian and Sri Lankan CMOs (11 in number, the other voice in the study’s India-South Asia statistics) held customer analytics (86 per cent), mobile applications (83 per cent), social media technology (80 per cent) and predictive analytics (76 per cent) as important.
While technology for social media and data analytics has been top of the CMOs’ minds, they still held these skills less important than the traditional ones of leadership qualities, competitive trends insight and creative thinking. White says, “Their biggest concerns — social media, data analytics, financial skills — are the ones they think are least important for them to personally have versus more traditional marketing skills. But CMOs who will also embody these new trends would lead the transformation that is happening in the market.”
The intent to outsource more of their marketing portfolio could be a reason for such a trend. Sharma says, “This could be related to the tendency we saw of CMOs looking at outsourcing more of their marketing portfolio. So you see a huge amount of reliance on the agencies.” White adds, “Design, market research, analytics and even strategy work would likely be outsourced in the next three-five years according to CMOs.”
Baruah says, “Outsourcing is necessary once you reach a certain scale for effective management.” Sandeep Singh Arora, executive vice-president, PepsiCo India, says, “Marketing trends change every three-four months. Outsourcing is needed for the right capability.” Adds Rishi of Future Group, “If we had not outsourced our loyalty programme to Payback, we would have had to reinvent the wheel. This will also allow us to access insights from other customer bases as offered by Payback since modern trade reach is still limited.”
There are pitfalls in outsourcing. Sharma points out, “Take social media. Some agencies can’t bring the broader business context for an integrated plan and treat social media as a standalone engine, distorting the relevance of such a medium.” That is why most marketers have tight in-house teams for new tools like social media to oversee agencies. “With advocacy involved in the medium, it is risky to outsource it completely,” points out White.
Building advocates
CMOs realise the use of digital technology as ways of increasing customer advocacy or loyalty. But White says they should not forget the customer within the company. “Defining the corporate character is what brings out loyalty among customers. But it is not just for the CMO to define it. The CMO has to ensure that the employees are living it as well. The social spheres of the employees will further increase the reach of such branding. Above the line and digital branding are no more enough.”
CMOs realise the use of digital technology as ways of increasing customer advocacy or loyalty. But White says they should not forget the customer within the company. “Defining the corporate character is what brings out loyalty among customers. But it is not just for the CMO to define it. The CMO has to ensure that the employees are living it as well. The social spheres of the employees will further increase the reach of such branding. Above the line and digital branding are no more enough.”
Sharma sheds light on the CMOs’ mindset, “A lot of our community comes from the agency background; as a result outbound communication takes precedence over making brand advocates out of employees.” Some CMOs ensure that their employees get to try the products they launch while others build attention-grabbing mediums to communicate. While Garnier and RIM for example, give out their products to employees (Garnier even to dealers), Essar built a TV channel called e-view for employees. Plans are on to take it on its website for outsiders to watch as well.
However, when dealing with employees, the CMO would have no choice but to work with the chief human resource officer. And they seem to be doing just that, apart from working more closely with the CxOs within the company. Max Bupa Marketing Director Shefali Chhachhi says, “CMOs should also be chief motivating officers. We run the internal communication with our HRO.” Arora of PepsiCo has worked with the CIO on data warehousing for his retail audits. Thukral says, “In corporate branding, I have to work with our many company CEOs and the product CMOs for understanding the products because I understand corporate branding and they, products.”
Collaborating with the other chiefs is a result of not only corporate branding efforts. It is a result of what the study shows as the CMO’s growing share of voice in the 4Ps of traditional marketing. While ‘promotion’ is what had been her traditional role, the influence on ‘product’ development and supply chain, ‘place’ or distribution channels and ‘pricing’ is on the rise. Nearly 50 per cent of the India-South Asia CMOs cite influence over all the 4 Ps. While aligning internal and external communication is paramount in promotion (86 per cent say so), product service portfolio is second-most important for them in ‘product’ (59 per cent), after researching consumer needs (69 per cent).
In ‘place’, managing the customer experience at multiple touch-points (62 per cent) and selecting channels (51 per cent) were areas of influence. ‘Pricing’ saw 52 per cent of the CMOs assert they had a say in competitive pricing assessment and 41 per cent even understood cross-company pricing policy. Customer servicing after sales is another area on which CMOs have begun to keep tabs. Sharma says, “Marketing is no more only about awareness. It is about managing the full lifecycle of the customer experience.”
Return on investments (RoI) for the CMO is still being measured in traditional metrics such as GRPs (gross rating points) for a television campaign. Sixty-nine per cent of the India-South Asia CMOs feel marketing RoI will be the most important measuring tool for success by 2015. However, like their global counterparts, proving its value in numbers is a challenge. In India, customer experience and customer acquisitions are being viewed as equally important metrics to define the CMO’s success. The agencies that aid the CMO in her work are also feeling some of the brunt in this drive for clear RoIs. The tussle between traditional retainer fees and outcome-based payment goes on. Khan of Tata Tele says, “The shift from awareness metrics to financial measures in marketing is still some time away.”
Boardroom discussions on marketing RoI at RIM are around traditional pre- and post-campaign metrics. But Baruah notes that there is a new acceptance in other functions such as sales to understand these awareness metrics. He is not worried because media metrics are the same for everyone in the market. “The cross-function collaboration has helped. So, if we find that awareness after a campaign was high but it did not translate into sales, we go back the brand funnel and see what hampered the purchase decision. It could be product features or place of purchase, for example.”
Arora of PepsiCo says, “RoI metrics have not changed for marketing. But the ability to get data on those has improved significantly. Awareness and trials generated, repeat purchases, amount of social media conversations can all be calculated.” At times, the company culture also modifies the metrics. Richa Singh, general manager, Matrix (the salon brand of L’Oreal), who was earlier chief marketing officer of Garnier, says, “As a company (Garnier), we balance the qualitative with the quantitative in our marketing RoI. We would even look at the kind of programmes that media planners put our ads into rather than just a certain number of GRPs.”
White says, “In the debriefs that we give to the CMOs who have participated, cross CxO collaboration is finding a lot of favour. It also ranks high in the personal skills that they want to hone.”
The IBM duo suggests setting up small action teams comprising top young talent to work on the biggest concern of the CMO in their debriefing sessions. Else, book that meeting with the other CxO — discuss key measures for marketing with the CFO (chief financial officer), the corporate character with the CHRO and data analytics with the CIO (chief information officer). That should, feel the duo, keep the CMO’s worries at bay for now.
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