It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on...
PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing..
And who's at work? Most of them ??? Take a closer look...
All or most specimens are ??
Something male species of the human race...
Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...
And why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let's ask one of them...
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home...Here we
get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee that is why I am working late...Importantly no bossssssss!! !!!!!!!!!"
This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices.
Bachelors "Time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...
Now what r the consequences. ..
"Working" (for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.
With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback, (oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).
They aren't helping things too...
To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!
Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.
So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is... and
That's when the problem starts... b'coz u start having commitments at home too.
For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regular time... after doing the same amount of work.
People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labeled as work-shirkers. ..
Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labeled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they are spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they would have to regret at one point of time.
*So what's the moral of the story?? *
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time " *unless really needed *"
* Don't stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture
which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.
There are hundred other things to do in the evening..
Learn music...
Learn a foreign language...
Try a sport... TT, cricket..... ....
Importantly Get a girl friend or boy friend, take him/her around town...
* And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.
Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"*
Please pass on this message to all those colleagues And please do it before leaving time, don't stay back till midnight to forward this!!!
IT'S A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC.
PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DON'T KNOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME.
SIMPLE!!!!
Regards,
NARAYAN MURTHY.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
New rules treat GDRs/ADRs on par with shares
Do Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) currently have voting rights?
The GDRs and ADRs in themselves do not have voting rights, but the underlying equity shares do. These shares are held by a depository, which then issues the corresponding receipts (GDRs/ADRs) to investors looking to buy such instruments. So it is the depository that has the voting rights. Whether the holders of the GDRs/ADRs can vote or not depends on the depository agreement between the company issuing the GDRs/ADRs and the depository. During the initial years when GDRs and ADRs came into vogue, the agreement mandated depositories to vote on behalf of the management. But later, the depository agreements were changed so as to allow the GDR/ADR holders to instruct the depository to vote on their behalf.
How do ADRs/GDRs work?
ADRs/GDRs are issued by companies looking to raise funds overseas. These instruments may represent one, multiple or a fraction of the underlying shares. For instance, if an Indian company wants to issue ADRs, it will deliver the corresponding number of shares to the US depository bank. The depository will then issue receipts to investors who have subscribed to the issue. Depository receipts are transferable instruments, so they can be freely traded on the exchange on which they are listed. They are also fungible, which means the holder of ADRs can instruct the depository to convert them into underlying shares and offload them in the local market (in this case India).
What did Sebi say about GDRs/ADRs on Tuesday?
Till now, purchases made through GDRs/ADRs did not trigger an open offer by the acquirer even if the 15% threshold was crossed so long as the depository receipts had not been converted into underlying shares. But on Tuesday, the regulator amended this rule. Anyone now holding ADRs/GDRs with voting rights will have to make an open offer to minority shareholders if his holding touches the 15% limit.
Why did the regulator have to make this amendment?
Securities lawyers and merchant bankers say the Takeover Regulations relating to ADRs/GDRs were drafted at a time when the depositories always voted on behalf of the management. Now that depository receipt holders have the right to vote, it makes little sense to keep ADR/GDR holdings outside the purview of the Takeover Regulations.
How does this amendment affect the Bharti-MTN deal?
Bharti’s proposed takeover of MTN involved issuing GDRs to the South African telecom firm and its shareholders, which would add up to 27% of Bharti’s equity base. In an informal guidance to Bharti in July, the regulator had said that purchases through the GDR route would not trigger an open offer unless the GDRs were converted into shares. But under the new rule, MTN will have to make an open offer for an additional 20% in Bharti. This would make the deal expensive for MTN and also for Bharti, if it wants to get around the new rule.
Can Bharti still go ahead with its deal with MTN?
It can. For instance, the depository agreement can stipulate that the GDRs will not have any voting rights. This is the most inexpensive way of getting around the new rule. But the key question here is whether MTN shareholders will agree to such an arrangement. The other option for Bharti is to cut down the issuance of GDRs to below 15% and pay more cash to MTN. But that could increase the cost significantly for Bharti.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Markets/Analysis/ET-in-the-classroom-New-rules-treat-GDRs/ADRs-on-par-with-shares/articleshow/5049080.cms
The GDRs and ADRs in themselves do not have voting rights, but the underlying equity shares do. These shares are held by a depository, which then issues the corresponding receipts (GDRs/ADRs) to investors looking to buy such instruments. So it is the depository that has the voting rights. Whether the holders of the GDRs/ADRs can vote or not depends on the depository agreement between the company issuing the GDRs/ADRs and the depository. During the initial years when GDRs and ADRs came into vogue, the agreement mandated depositories to vote on behalf of the management. But later, the depository agreements were changed so as to allow the GDR/ADR holders to instruct the depository to vote on their behalf.
How do ADRs/GDRs work?
ADRs/GDRs are issued by companies looking to raise funds overseas. These instruments may represent one, multiple or a fraction of the underlying shares. For instance, if an Indian company wants to issue ADRs, it will deliver the corresponding number of shares to the US depository bank. The depository will then issue receipts to investors who have subscribed to the issue. Depository receipts are transferable instruments, so they can be freely traded on the exchange on which they are listed. They are also fungible, which means the holder of ADRs can instruct the depository to convert them into underlying shares and offload them in the local market (in this case India).
What did Sebi say about GDRs/ADRs on Tuesday?
Till now, purchases made through GDRs/ADRs did not trigger an open offer by the acquirer even if the 15% threshold was crossed so long as the depository receipts had not been converted into underlying shares. But on Tuesday, the regulator amended this rule. Anyone now holding ADRs/GDRs with voting rights will have to make an open offer to minority shareholders if his holding touches the 15% limit.
Why did the regulator have to make this amendment?
Securities lawyers and merchant bankers say the Takeover Regulations relating to ADRs/GDRs were drafted at a time when the depositories always voted on behalf of the management. Now that depository receipt holders have the right to vote, it makes little sense to keep ADR/GDR holdings outside the purview of the Takeover Regulations.
How does this amendment affect the Bharti-MTN deal?
Bharti’s proposed takeover of MTN involved issuing GDRs to the South African telecom firm and its shareholders, which would add up to 27% of Bharti’s equity base. In an informal guidance to Bharti in July, the regulator had said that purchases through the GDR route would not trigger an open offer unless the GDRs were converted into shares. But under the new rule, MTN will have to make an open offer for an additional 20% in Bharti. This would make the deal expensive for MTN and also for Bharti, if it wants to get around the new rule.
Can Bharti still go ahead with its deal with MTN?
It can. For instance, the depository agreement can stipulate that the GDRs will not have any voting rights. This is the most inexpensive way of getting around the new rule. But the key question here is whether MTN shareholders will agree to such an arrangement. The other option for Bharti is to cut down the issuance of GDRs to below 15% and pay more cash to MTN. But that could increase the cost significantly for Bharti.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Markets/Analysis/ET-in-the-classroom-New-rules-treat-GDRs/ADRs-on-par-with-shares/articleshow/5049080.cms
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Policy design as fine balance
The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all, noted Nehru tentatively contemplating policy reform in the early years of Independence. That was then when globalisation, trade and development were routinely hampered by a panoply of distortions in the economic environment.
Fast forward to the here and now, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be expected to make a strong pitch for a much larger role for fast-growing, high-growth potential economies like India in global financial governance, at the latest G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, in the US. But while we get to think increasingly global, we must also act local and be proactive in the policy domain as well.
The past year has seen truly unprecedented use of fiscal and monetary policy instruments to rev up enterprise, markets and growth, the world over. In the mature markets where financial excesses were clearly committed with massive resort to securitisation and structured products, there's economic contraction still underway, although the mavens are now on record that the Great Recession is all but over and growth is around the corner.
Here in India, the global financial crisis did also affect growth, although more in a relative sense, and led to considerable deceleration in the trend rate. The policy response was a combination of loose fiscal policy — lowering of taxes and higher budgetary outlays — followed by accommodative monetary policy — lower benchmark interest rates, easier mandated cash reserve ratio for the banks, albeit after a lag.
Following the lowering of indirect taxes in the last two Union budgets, it is notable that that the Direct Tax Code also calls for considerable reduction in the rates. Such a tax design appears, by and large, to be in the right direction although the fine print — such as the move to tax long-term savings on withdrawal — does call for several modifications in the draft.
It is possible that there’s much buoyancy in taxes, on the back of lower rates. But the immediate policy impetus is likely to be due to increased consumption, with the likely tax savings being seen as an added bonus. And heightened consumption expenditure can be willy-nilly expected to boost investment, and hence spur on growth.
The way ahead, in policy terms, is to have a suitably accommodative monetary policy, including proactivity on the exchange rate front. Now the recent policy decision of the Reserve Bank of India to allow the rupee to depreciate following the relative hardening of the dollar has paid rich dividends, quite across the board.
However, now that stepped up capital inflows are on the cards, yet again, the RBI ought not to allow the rupee to appreciate in tandem, certainly not right away. The purpose of economic reform is, of course, to reduce distortions and enhance efficiency. But decreasing policy distortions does not really have an equal effect on growth in all and sundry circumstances.
So while, for instance, a more 'market-determined’ exchange rate — in the face of increased capital inflows and the like — may seem in order, the move may well turn out to be thoroughly sub-optimal given the distortions and inefficiencies rife in the real economy for goods and services.
The point about reducing distortions via a particular policy move — say the lack of RBI intervention in the forex market so as to make way for the exchange rate to be determined by way of supply and demand — is that the effect depends on how flexible the economy actually is, how large is the share of the parameter being supposedly corrected in the policy process, and the how high the general distortions are to begin with.
And there is low elasticity of substitution available for Indian goods and services in the export market. Also, trade in goods and services now accounts for a substantial share of economic activity. Further, there are glaring distortions economy-wide — of shortages, poor quality and high costs. All this calls for under-valued exchange rates to be suitably policy-engineered through central bank currency intervention.
The empirical evidence is that when there are 'n' number of distortions in the economic domain, a policy move that does not allow for n+1 distortion — for example, a more 'managed' exchange rate — may actually be regressive. Now the policy maker ought certainly to essay removing distortions when the payoff from such reduction is high, such as when bridging the yawing infrastructure deficit.
But a more market-determined exchange rate at this juncture, when there's been much slowdown on the growth front, seems wholly unwarranted. Also, greater co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy would be better. Hence the need for the monetary authority not to revise upwards its policy interest rates in the next quarter, and perhaps further tweak the CRR lower.
In a similar vein, while the move to set up a debt management office separate from the RBI — so that the latter does not both manage government debt and the banks — would be logical in the medium term and beyond, doing so in the midst of a quantum increase in borrowings by the Centre is inadvisable.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5044718.cms
Fast forward to the here and now, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be expected to make a strong pitch for a much larger role for fast-growing, high-growth potential economies like India in global financial governance, at the latest G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, in the US. But while we get to think increasingly global, we must also act local and be proactive in the policy domain as well.
The past year has seen truly unprecedented use of fiscal and monetary policy instruments to rev up enterprise, markets and growth, the world over. In the mature markets where financial excesses were clearly committed with massive resort to securitisation and structured products, there's economic contraction still underway, although the mavens are now on record that the Great Recession is all but over and growth is around the corner.
Here in India, the global financial crisis did also affect growth, although more in a relative sense, and led to considerable deceleration in the trend rate. The policy response was a combination of loose fiscal policy — lowering of taxes and higher budgetary outlays — followed by accommodative monetary policy — lower benchmark interest rates, easier mandated cash reserve ratio for the banks, albeit after a lag.
Following the lowering of indirect taxes in the last two Union budgets, it is notable that that the Direct Tax Code also calls for considerable reduction in the rates. Such a tax design appears, by and large, to be in the right direction although the fine print — such as the move to tax long-term savings on withdrawal — does call for several modifications in the draft.
It is possible that there’s much buoyancy in taxes, on the back of lower rates. But the immediate policy impetus is likely to be due to increased consumption, with the likely tax savings being seen as an added bonus. And heightened consumption expenditure can be willy-nilly expected to boost investment, and hence spur on growth.
The way ahead, in policy terms, is to have a suitably accommodative monetary policy, including proactivity on the exchange rate front. Now the recent policy decision of the Reserve Bank of India to allow the rupee to depreciate following the relative hardening of the dollar has paid rich dividends, quite across the board.
However, now that stepped up capital inflows are on the cards, yet again, the RBI ought not to allow the rupee to appreciate in tandem, certainly not right away. The purpose of economic reform is, of course, to reduce distortions and enhance efficiency. But decreasing policy distortions does not really have an equal effect on growth in all and sundry circumstances.
So while, for instance, a more 'market-determined’ exchange rate — in the face of increased capital inflows and the like — may seem in order, the move may well turn out to be thoroughly sub-optimal given the distortions and inefficiencies rife in the real economy for goods and services.
The point about reducing distortions via a particular policy move — say the lack of RBI intervention in the forex market so as to make way for the exchange rate to be determined by way of supply and demand — is that the effect depends on how flexible the economy actually is, how large is the share of the parameter being supposedly corrected in the policy process, and the how high the general distortions are to begin with.
And there is low elasticity of substitution available for Indian goods and services in the export market. Also, trade in goods and services now accounts for a substantial share of economic activity. Further, there are glaring distortions economy-wide — of shortages, poor quality and high costs. All this calls for under-valued exchange rates to be suitably policy-engineered through central bank currency intervention.
The empirical evidence is that when there are 'n' number of distortions in the economic domain, a policy move that does not allow for n+1 distortion — for example, a more 'managed' exchange rate — may actually be regressive. Now the policy maker ought certainly to essay removing distortions when the payoff from such reduction is high, such as when bridging the yawing infrastructure deficit.
But a more market-determined exchange rate at this juncture, when there's been much slowdown on the growth front, seems wholly unwarranted. Also, greater co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy would be better. Hence the need for the monetary authority not to revise upwards its policy interest rates in the next quarter, and perhaps further tweak the CRR lower.
In a similar vein, while the move to set up a debt management office separate from the RBI — so that the latter does not both manage government debt and the banks — would be logical in the medium term and beyond, doing so in the midst of a quantum increase in borrowings by the Centre is inadvisable.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5044718.cms
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
High growth to counter corruption
Received wisdom (backed by academic research and intuitive reasoning) has it that corruption harms economic growth. Paulo Mauro writing in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (1995) argued that corruption acts as a disincentive for investment and impacts growth negatively over the long run. This is true even in countries where bureaucratic regulation is very cumbersome and corruption could be viewed as a means to cut through bureaucratic red tape and thereby speed up economic activity.
But could causality run the other way round? Could economic growth impact corruption? In a paper ('Economic growth, law and corruption: Evidence from India', ASARC Working Paper 2009/15) presented at the Indian Economy and Business Update conference in Canberra recently, Sambit Bhattacharyya and Raghbendra Jha (hereafter referred to as B&J) of the Australia South Asia Research Centre at the Australian National University examine the impact of economic growth on corruption in Indian states during the period 2005-2008.
Since there are wide variations in both rates of economic growth and in levels of corruption between different states, India, say the authors, is an ideal testing ground to examine the link between growth and corruption. Using forest cover as a proxy for economic growth, (a somewhat surprising and highly debatable choice) B&J look at a data set of 20 Indian states during the three year period after the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and find that faster growing states do indeed have lower levels of corruption suggesting that growth does reduce overall corruption.
In itself this is not very surprising. Intuitively, faster economic growth would normally (though not always) lead to improvement in human development indicators, better access to education, awareness of rights and greater empowerment of citizens, all of which would keep a check on corrupt practices. But Bhattacharyya and Jha have a different take on this. They argue that economic growth combats corruption by providing the state with additional resources to fight corruption.
Some might dispute the reason advanced by B&J (it is not clear the fight against corruption in India is hampered by want of resources as much as by want of will!). The choice of forest share to total land area as a proxy for economic growth is even harder to accept. The authors' plea that the choice has been dictated by the need to tackle endogeneity concerns (concerns about growth itself being affected by corruption) cannot be not reason enough to justify use of such a weak proxy.
With that qualification in mind, what is indisputable is that to the extent additional resources make it possible for the state to go in for,
say, mass computerisation, it could have a salutary effect in reducing petty corruption of the every day kind that is a thorn in the flesh of ordinary citizens/small businesses, etc.
Typically, it is such corruption - in getting electricity connection (though thankfully no longer in getting a telephone connection), driving licences, passports, building clearances, environmental clearances and so on - that raises transactions costs in India and ensures we remain at the bottom of the league tables, both of Transparency International and the World Bank's 'Doing Business' Reports.
As Jha pointed out in the discussions that followed, the rampant corruption associated with booking of railway tickets back in the 1970s and 80s disappeared almost magically following computerisation of railway reservations in the 1990s. That kind of transformation hasn't happened as yet with e-filing of sales tax documents, export documents and numerous other such documents. But as more and more governmental dealing goes on-line and e-governance becomes the norm rather than exception, opportunities for corruption will come down.
Changes in systems and procedures that compel greater transparency can also go a long way to tackle corruption. The best example of this is the reduced scope for corruption following the transition to Vat (Value-added tax) that has spurred computerisation in a big way. Admittedly there is much misuse of Vat credit, but hopefully, these are teething troubles in transiting to an entirely different tax system. The reality is businesses can avail input tax credit only where they are able to back their claims with proper invoices. Consequently, not only is there much less scope for tax evasion, the built-in audit trail inherent in a Vat regime makes it easier for the authorities to nab offenders.
The good thing, as B&J point out, is that their study suggests macro policies to promote growth will not only improve living standards but will also improve the quality of public goods and service delivery by reducing corruption. Of course, these are preliminary results and will need to be fine-tuned, especially with regard to the proxy variable and put through more rigorous tests. But with India slated to return to a high growth path by 2010, we have one more reason for ordinary Indians to cheer the return to a high growth path.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/High-growth-to-counter-corruption/articleshow/5035794.cms
But could causality run the other way round? Could economic growth impact corruption? In a paper ('Economic growth, law and corruption: Evidence from India', ASARC Working Paper 2009/15) presented at the Indian Economy and Business Update conference in Canberra recently, Sambit Bhattacharyya and Raghbendra Jha (hereafter referred to as B&J) of the Australia South Asia Research Centre at the Australian National University examine the impact of economic growth on corruption in Indian states during the period 2005-2008.
Since there are wide variations in both rates of economic growth and in levels of corruption between different states, India, say the authors, is an ideal testing ground to examine the link between growth and corruption. Using forest cover as a proxy for economic growth, (a somewhat surprising and highly debatable choice) B&J look at a data set of 20 Indian states during the three year period after the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and find that faster growing states do indeed have lower levels of corruption suggesting that growth does reduce overall corruption.
In itself this is not very surprising. Intuitively, faster economic growth would normally (though not always) lead to improvement in human development indicators, better access to education, awareness of rights and greater empowerment of citizens, all of which would keep a check on corrupt practices. But Bhattacharyya and Jha have a different take on this. They argue that economic growth combats corruption by providing the state with additional resources to fight corruption.
Some might dispute the reason advanced by B&J (it is not clear the fight against corruption in India is hampered by want of resources as much as by want of will!). The choice of forest share to total land area as a proxy for economic growth is even harder to accept. The authors' plea that the choice has been dictated by the need to tackle endogeneity concerns (concerns about growth itself being affected by corruption) cannot be not reason enough to justify use of such a weak proxy.
With that qualification in mind, what is indisputable is that to the extent additional resources make it possible for the state to go in for,
say, mass computerisation, it could have a salutary effect in reducing petty corruption of the every day kind that is a thorn in the flesh of ordinary citizens/small businesses, etc.
Typically, it is such corruption - in getting electricity connection (though thankfully no longer in getting a telephone connection), driving licences, passports, building clearances, environmental clearances and so on - that raises transactions costs in India and ensures we remain at the bottom of the league tables, both of Transparency International and the World Bank's 'Doing Business' Reports.
As Jha pointed out in the discussions that followed, the rampant corruption associated with booking of railway tickets back in the 1970s and 80s disappeared almost magically following computerisation of railway reservations in the 1990s. That kind of transformation hasn't happened as yet with e-filing of sales tax documents, export documents and numerous other such documents. But as more and more governmental dealing goes on-line and e-governance becomes the norm rather than exception, opportunities for corruption will come down.
Changes in systems and procedures that compel greater transparency can also go a long way to tackle corruption. The best example of this is the reduced scope for corruption following the transition to Vat (Value-added tax) that has spurred computerisation in a big way. Admittedly there is much misuse of Vat credit, but hopefully, these are teething troubles in transiting to an entirely different tax system. The reality is businesses can avail input tax credit only where they are able to back their claims with proper invoices. Consequently, not only is there much less scope for tax evasion, the built-in audit trail inherent in a Vat regime makes it easier for the authorities to nab offenders.
The good thing, as B&J point out, is that their study suggests macro policies to promote growth will not only improve living standards but will also improve the quality of public goods and service delivery by reducing corruption. Of course, these are preliminary results and will need to be fine-tuned, especially with regard to the proxy variable and put through more rigorous tests. But with India slated to return to a high growth path by 2010, we have one more reason for ordinary Indians to cheer the return to a high growth path.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/High-growth-to-counter-corruption/articleshow/5035794.cms
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Professional worth helps scale peaks : V R Ferose
Ever wondered why people often complain that their bosses are not good, yet, the bosses continue to retain their position and even grow? Ever encountered situations where a technically brilliant colleague of yours was denied a promotion and some mediocre executive scored over again? Ever contemplated as to why experience often becomes the first deciding factor before assigning new responsibilities? Well, if you have ever said to yourself that the system is not fair and it cannot be ever set right, read on.
Let us quickly introduce a specific term — professional worth. All of us have certain professional worth, but it is not to be equated with the salary that we draw, though many of us might be tempted to measure the professional worth this way — that will be incorrect. Choosing to be a bit insensitive here, worth can be equated to the timelessness of Taj Mahal, and remuneration is equivalent to the fee collected from gate passes annually.
My proposition is that people with higher professional worth should do better in their careers, than those with lesser worth. Now this would be a pretty simple theory to accept if there was an efficient way of measuring professional worth. So instead of rushing to go through the hundred-odd self help books in your neighbourhood bookstores, why don’t you decide your professional worth yourself? It could be a straight forward assessment, if you could channelise your thoughts this way: Professional Worth = function of Knowledge in (Subject, Ecosystem, Cultures)
The easiest to understand of the three, ‘knowledge of subject’ refers to knowing your trade well, the tools, the practices, and the natural aptitude, both inborn and acquired skills. So, for a software developer, it would be his analytical skills, problem solving capabilities, knowledge of algorithms, familiarity with programming languages and ability to learn to work on the new advanced platforms. For a cricketer, it would be his technique, his understanding of the conditions, his ability to adapt to different pitches, his temperament, to name a few.
Everybody recognises these skills instantly and in many circumstances, they play a key role in establishing your professional worth and the rewards that come along with it. A subject matter expert after all is what enables the organisation to keep its products or services ticking consistently.
Understanding of the ecosystem is as important as it could ever get. Effects of globalisation do not keep us insulated — the ripple effects impact us considerably and we need to identify the impact hits carefully. Very often talented individuals don’t seem to make the cut and it is blamed on destiny. Do we know what is happening in the world that will influence our work tomorrow ? Do we know what skills will remain relevant in the foreseeable future? Do we understand our customers’ pain points that may not be easily identified?
Do we have time to think of disrupters that will change the entire game, if not the rules of the game? This clairvoyance helps us to preempt and prepare ourselves for the surprises that we could encounter. You would not want to be the one who has laid miles and miles of telephone cables, while the cellular mobile companies multiply their reach just setting up with signal towers.
History is rife with cases where trendspotters have cashed-in on opportunities that were missed by well-established and often complacent firms and individuals. In India itself, our generation saw the switch from regular cameras to digital cameras, from PCOs to mobile recharge counters, from stationery stores to computer accessory shops. Just look around — it is not about size and strength alone; it is about flexibility and nimbleness as well. And who better to acquire these traits than the ones who proactively look out for developments and changes around them.
And finally, the one factor which takes longest to appreciate, though it is the strongest of influencers, especially when difference between individual skills is so little, is knowledge of culture. People work with people. Organisations thrive if people are compatible with each other and fail when there is disconnect. The world is full of examples of leaders who compensated for their lack of understanding of the first two elements by surrounding themselves with very smart people.
Coming back to the example of cricket, it is popular knowledge as to why Mr Greg Chappell remained under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons for most of his tenure as coach of the Indian cricket team. A cricketing legend himself, and a respected icon, Greg Chappell should have come out trumps instead.
In spite of all the knowledge of the subject and that of the ecosystem, something seemed to have been amiss in his approach and style for Indian cricket. He couldn’t seem to convince our ‘stroke-makers’ to take singles. Players cringed when asked to get to the ball in the outfield faster, and selectors banked on past glory for team selections instead of form and performance. Perhaps, the Indian way of approaching cricket was different from the way Australians approached and hence the clash of cultures was evident.
The requirement on all of us as a professional is not an easy one, especially when the common notion is that being professional implies having no personality variations. It is about being sensitive and staying intuitive without typecasting a person or a group, and that is an art that can only be developed with much effort and time.
Now let’s look at where we began from.
Your superior scores because he has effectively utilised his knowledge about the ecosystem, thanks to people he interacts with. Your technically gifted colleague is perhaps going to lose out because his unidimensional knowledge of technology, lacking completely on the cultural sensitivity is working against him. People continue to put a premium on experience, simply because the knowledge of culture is an invaluable asset to have, and there is enough reason to believe that this cultural understanding grows with time.
The basics of being successful have not changed; the ingredients of ensuring success have evolved. As the world gets flatter , organisational hierarchies get flatter — it is important for you as an individual to start displaying the right skill sets to competence, foresight and compassion. Your professional world could be a lot fairer to you, just that you need to identify your worth. It can help you scale new peaks, conquer new vistas and establish yourself as a leader to reckon with.
(The author is MD, SAP Labs India)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/Professional-worth-helps-scale-peaks/articleshow/5029557.cms
Let us quickly introduce a specific term — professional worth. All of us have certain professional worth, but it is not to be equated with the salary that we draw, though many of us might be tempted to measure the professional worth this way — that will be incorrect. Choosing to be a bit insensitive here, worth can be equated to the timelessness of Taj Mahal, and remuneration is equivalent to the fee collected from gate passes annually.
My proposition is that people with higher professional worth should do better in their careers, than those with lesser worth. Now this would be a pretty simple theory to accept if there was an efficient way of measuring professional worth. So instead of rushing to go through the hundred-odd self help books in your neighbourhood bookstores, why don’t you decide your professional worth yourself? It could be a straight forward assessment, if you could channelise your thoughts this way: Professional Worth = function of Knowledge in (Subject, Ecosystem, Cultures)
The easiest to understand of the three, ‘knowledge of subject’ refers to knowing your trade well, the tools, the practices, and the natural aptitude, both inborn and acquired skills. So, for a software developer, it would be his analytical skills, problem solving capabilities, knowledge of algorithms, familiarity with programming languages and ability to learn to work on the new advanced platforms. For a cricketer, it would be his technique, his understanding of the conditions, his ability to adapt to different pitches, his temperament, to name a few.
Everybody recognises these skills instantly and in many circumstances, they play a key role in establishing your professional worth and the rewards that come along with it. A subject matter expert after all is what enables the organisation to keep its products or services ticking consistently.
Understanding of the ecosystem is as important as it could ever get. Effects of globalisation do not keep us insulated — the ripple effects impact us considerably and we need to identify the impact hits carefully. Very often talented individuals don’t seem to make the cut and it is blamed on destiny. Do we know what is happening in the world that will influence our work tomorrow ? Do we know what skills will remain relevant in the foreseeable future? Do we understand our customers’ pain points that may not be easily identified?
Do we have time to think of disrupters that will change the entire game, if not the rules of the game? This clairvoyance helps us to preempt and prepare ourselves for the surprises that we could encounter. You would not want to be the one who has laid miles and miles of telephone cables, while the cellular mobile companies multiply their reach just setting up with signal towers.
History is rife with cases where trendspotters have cashed-in on opportunities that were missed by well-established and often complacent firms and individuals. In India itself, our generation saw the switch from regular cameras to digital cameras, from PCOs to mobile recharge counters, from stationery stores to computer accessory shops. Just look around — it is not about size and strength alone; it is about flexibility and nimbleness as well. And who better to acquire these traits than the ones who proactively look out for developments and changes around them.
And finally, the one factor which takes longest to appreciate, though it is the strongest of influencers, especially when difference between individual skills is so little, is knowledge of culture. People work with people. Organisations thrive if people are compatible with each other and fail when there is disconnect. The world is full of examples of leaders who compensated for their lack of understanding of the first two elements by surrounding themselves with very smart people.
Coming back to the example of cricket, it is popular knowledge as to why Mr Greg Chappell remained under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons for most of his tenure as coach of the Indian cricket team. A cricketing legend himself, and a respected icon, Greg Chappell should have come out trumps instead.
In spite of all the knowledge of the subject and that of the ecosystem, something seemed to have been amiss in his approach and style for Indian cricket. He couldn’t seem to convince our ‘stroke-makers’ to take singles. Players cringed when asked to get to the ball in the outfield faster, and selectors banked on past glory for team selections instead of form and performance. Perhaps, the Indian way of approaching cricket was different from the way Australians approached and hence the clash of cultures was evident.
The requirement on all of us as a professional is not an easy one, especially when the common notion is that being professional implies having no personality variations. It is about being sensitive and staying intuitive without typecasting a person or a group, and that is an art that can only be developed with much effort and time.
Now let’s look at where we began from.
Your superior scores because he has effectively utilised his knowledge about the ecosystem, thanks to people he interacts with. Your technically gifted colleague is perhaps going to lose out because his unidimensional knowledge of technology, lacking completely on the cultural sensitivity is working against him. People continue to put a premium on experience, simply because the knowledge of culture is an invaluable asset to have, and there is enough reason to believe that this cultural understanding grows with time.
The basics of being successful have not changed; the ingredients of ensuring success have evolved. As the world gets flatter , organisational hierarchies get flatter — it is important for you as an individual to start displaying the right skill sets to competence, foresight and compassion. Your professional world could be a lot fairer to you, just that you need to identify your worth. It can help you scale new peaks, conquer new vistas and establish yourself as a leader to reckon with.
(The author is MD, SAP Labs India)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/Professional-worth-helps-scale-peaks/articleshow/5029557.cms
'Six Sigma could change the world' : Pradeep Deshpande
It’s not everyday that you can take a statistical methodology used for continuous improvement and apply it to solve an unwieldy 60 year-old political conflict. But if Pradeep Deshpande, president Six Sigma & Advanced Control, had his way, he’d use Six Sigma to resolve the Kashmir conflict and bring about regional prosperity. He’s even mailed a proposal to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlining a formal methodology, and is confident she will express interest sooner than later.
That isn’t the only seemingly unconventional use of Six Sigma, according to Deshpande who is also Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at University of Louisville. His ‘theory of national competitiveness’ using Six Sigma, he says, predicted India’s rise as far back as 1990. “I made a few presentations to that effect in Pune in 1993, and people said, “You must be joking. India has all kinds of problems’. But nobody is laughing now,” he says. His theory of rise and decline proposes that rise and decline are natural phenomena, but one can apply the Six Sigma approach to cultures by using lessons learned from the rise and fall of past cultures. “I project that the candidates for the next rise after the decline of China and India are Greece, Egypt, and Iran,” he adds.
Six Sigma, as pioneered by Motorola, states that all activities must be operated in the best possible manner, generating the least possible defects reflective of customer dissatisfaction. In the late nineties though, Deshpande articulated three natural laws that offered clarity to the explanation of Six Sigma without using any equations, and with very little jargon. Also, being a chemical engineer, he’s constantly working on extending its applicability beyond static business processes to dynamic and non-linear systems. When his ideas are combined with those developed at Motorola, it becomes possible to apply Six Sigma to any repetitive activity. “Six Sigma is really for life itself,” he says.
Deshpande founded SAC in the early nineties to offer Six Sigma and advanced process control training and consulting services. He also believes he might be the first educator to introduce Six Sigma modules in engineering and MBA programs. An author of six books and currently working on his new text Six Sigma for Karma Capitalism, he is never short of ideas. He recently guided a group of doctors, professors, and others in a study on how Six Sigma could be applied to the yogic system of Pranayam.
The most interesting case study Deshpande offers though is his study of the Gamarra community in the La Victoria township of Lima, Peru, a semi-literate textile and tailoring conglomerate. Gamarra has 25,000 businesses that employ 100,000 workers, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. These businesses import fabric from several countries and produce textile products for sale nationally and abroad. Just like Mumbai’s dabbawalas, many of the folks at Gamarra are semi-literate and do not know what Six Sigma is, but they are extremely passionate and committed to customer satisfaction. “Dabbawalas have been operating their processes for over one hundred years and it has taken them decades, and a considerable amount of trial and error, to deliver such high performance levels. Similarly, it has taken Gamarra several decades to come to where they are today in terms of performance,” says Deshpande.
Gamarra entrepreneurs are renowned and widely respected among both business customers and end-use consumers. Their text are know quality and low
cost. They are also widely respected for ontime delivery. The entrepreneurs compete fiercely among themselves but they also cooperate when they need to. Each business is set up to fulfil a certain minimum number of orders but through agreements with other businesses in Gamarra, they have the capacity to solicit and execute orders virtually of any size within the overall capacity constraints of the total workforce. This arrangement assures B-to-B customers of not only high quality but also a quick turnaround. “When a business is found to be delivering very high levels of customer satisfaction, they are necessarily following Six Sigma,” explains Deshpande.
For Deshpande, Six Sigma has its roots in Motorolas’s operational initiatives but it also converges with the metaphysical and the spiritual. His journey has taken him through the work of Stephen Hawkins and the wisdom of Swami Ramdev, the founder of pranayam (his book A Small Step For Man is dedicated to them) to create a process for organisational and personal development. “Isn’t that funny because one is devoted to the search for zero and the other the search for infinity,” he laughs.
Deshpande, like his hero Jack Welch, is a Six Sigma evangelist, but admits that quality movements come and go. They were all borne out of the statistical process control idea as imparted by Edward Deming, he says, so whether it’s the Toyota Way or Kaizen, it’s all pretty much the same — a drive for business excellence. “As the Rig Veda says: reality is one, the wise call it many names,” he explains.
He talks of companies that have made Six Sigma an unwavering part of their business culture. “I have two Lexus, and I didn’t take either for a test drive because there is no question of defects,” he says. The Toyota luxury car famously stands head and shoulders above other car manufacturers in customer satisfaction and retention. Plus, it accounts for 2% of Toyota’s sales but 33% of its profits. “In the old days people were content with average performance. In the new era companies must focus on low variability,” he says. And then he adds quickly, “Why limit it to companies, why not yoga, ayurveda, even homeopathy? Anything is possible.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/corporate-dossier/Six-Sigma-could-change-the-world/articleshow/5025030.cms
Friday, September 11, 2009
Managers should indulge in thinking & knowledge : R Gopalkrishnan
By its very nature, truth is contradictory. After Lord Krishna ‘clarified’ everything to Arjuna through eighteen chapters, Arjuna was confused by the contradictions. Krishna’s final advice was, “Reflect on all that I have said and do whatever is best.” In other words, use your intuition!
As the global economy hesitantly bids farewell to the bottom of markets, it finds it is unclear whether to say welcome to an upturn. At such inflection points, managers seek quick fixes for their daily contradictions by emulating well-publicised success stories. The truth is that each success story has a context: a unique background, employees’ motivations, and many other ‘surround factors’ that deeply influence the outcomes. For sure, some factors are correlated with the success. The causality (one causing the other) cannot be assumed .
Transplanting theories from one situation to another leads to a McDonaldisation of management. Stanford professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, were convinced that managers can practise their craft more effectively if they “relentlessly seek new knowledge and insight.” Two years ago, they had advocated the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions. They advised , “It’s time to start an evidencebased movement in the ranks of managers ..... If doctors practiced medicine like many companies practice management, there would be more unnecessarily sick or dead patients ....”.
So does seeking evidence and new knowledge contradict reliance on one’s experience and intuition? Top managers rely on analysis and data, but ultimately, they are guided by their intuition. Beyond a point, due to constraints of time, cost or technique, the leader has to take a final call intuitively . A survey points out that almost half of corporate executives were found to use intuition more than formal analysis to run their companies!
There are over 200,000 business books in print and another 10,000 are added each year. That is a lot of business books. For sure, all of them cannot have something new to say! That is why operating managers are wary of business books and many feel that they are not useful. Many successful managers have no inclination to read management books; indeed they feel that books purvey fads.
Managerial intuition is not about to be discarded. But how is intuition to be developed by the practising manager? The answer: reading causes immersion and openness, which can lead to contemplation and reflection; it is these that develop managerial intuition.
Knowledge is what you know you know. Knowledge can be taught, you can acquire it from external sources. Intuition is what you do not know you know. Intuition is what cannot be taught, you learn it on your own. process. People think of analysis and intuition to be polar opposites. Analysis is not an alternative to intuition ; rather the two work well together.
ImOpCoRe
The word ‘intuition’ stems from the Latin word, in-tuir , which means ‘looking , regarding or knowing from within.’
The concept of ‘practical intelligence’ has been written about by three academics , R.J.Steinberg, R.K.Wagner and W.M. Williams. Practical Intelligence is the ability to be ‘street smart’ and refers to being able to understand and deal with judgmental tasks in the real and complex world. The authors also state that ‘psychological literature has lacked a coherent overarching conceptual framework in which to place intuition.’
These ideas appeal to me. Intuition is enhanced through Immersion, Openness , Contemplation and Reflection (ImOpCoRe, for short). These ideas are supported by research that there are some things that are difficult to teach and that have to be learnt by the person through ImOpCoRe.
A notional part of the brain is called the brain’s remote implicit memory. Deeply emotional experiences get stored there automatically, irrespective of whether they were positive or negative emotional experiences. These would be available to call up whenever the brain saw any pattern for which it considered such an experience relevant.
The Economist of 4th August, 2007 reported research findings about the secretion of an adrenaline whenever a person experienced deeply emotional events.
This adrenaline stimulates another ‘juice’ (called by the t e c h n i c a l people as 2B adrenoceptor ). This ‘juice’ provides the episode ‘a fast lane into the memory bank.’ For managers, analysis and contemplation are both important. How can managers contemplate? Contemplate on the ‘surrounds .’ While reading, our natural tendency is to focus on the subject, to absorb and analyse it, but not what surrounds it.
For example, those of us who have read War and Peace remember clearly the lives of the five featured families, who go through birth, childhood, marriage and so on. Less clear in the memory would be the backdrop of events, which was set in the Europe of 1805 to 1820. That is why the surrounds are what the contemplation should be about. Expressed differently, the contemplation should be not just about the rose, but its soil-bed as well.
In this manner, true value is extracted out of the act of reflecting on how the success or failure happened, and becoming sensitive to the context in which things worked or did not. Often leaders and managers fail to do this. If they could do so consciously, then the value from the reading and contemplation will enter their implicit memory, sharpening their intuition. Surely that has a value. Increasingly management is becoming an attractive career. There is a bewildering amount of knowledge available through seminars, magazines and books, as also an expanding tribe of gurus.
As managers adjust to the volatility of market swings and uncertainties, it is more important than ever to immerse themselves in management thinking and knowledge. Managers intuitively sift the bad out from the good by conscious contemplation on the ‘surrounds’ of events, both successful and unsuccessful. In doing so, they will find themselves not only more sophisticated consumers of management literature, but also at the forefront of integrating theory with practice.
The author is executive director, Tata Sons. Some of these ideas appear in the latest 2009 edition of his book, The Case of the Bonsai Manager
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Managers-should-indulge-in-thinking-knowledge/articleshow/4966297.cms
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