editor from the
www.advancedge.com Editor-in-Chief Kamlesh Sajnani
Editor Aditya Prakash Iengar Sr. Correspondent: Alolika Banerjee
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In a conversation I had with the director of MDI Gurgaon, Prof C.P. Shrimali, he mentioned that a lot of management professionals treat their job as just another job, nothing more. There isn’t any zeal to actually add value to the organisation or to society, which is why these professionals never really go beyond a certain point of success in their lives.
You are currently preparing for your MBA entrance test. Soon you will have given the test and moved on to the GD-Essay-PI rounds. After that, you’ll be in some prestigious programme within the hallowed walls of a B-school, and a couple of years later, you’ll emerge a full-fledged MBA graduate, working in an organisation that has handpicked you out of thousands of others. The question is: How long will you stand out?
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What Prof Shrimali had alluded to is an issue that is a common one for organisations, and yet there really isn’t anything they can do about it. It has been said, not wrongly, that the greatest strength of an organisation is its people. When these people start treating their work as just part of a job, and the job as just a facet of their lives, and their lives as merely the time they have to live out and nothing more, the organisation suffers, the individual suffers (even if they don’t know or understand or acknowledge it), and ultimately, the society suffers, because there really isn’t any value that the individual brings to the table! The most common cause of such a scenario is that as a student, the individual didn’t make the right choices. And, my dear reader, now is the time that you have to make the right choice, one that will define your future. You must choose your career wisely, which means you must know which role to aim for, which organisation to join, and ultimately, if we work backwards, which institute can get you that role, company, career and future. Now I certainly don’t mean that you pinpoint EXACTLY what you want to do. But have a general idea. Are you a very creative, restless person? Look at a role in the marketing field. Are you a highly motivated, target-driven, deadlineoriented individual? What about sales? Do you like working with facts and figures, numbers and data? Try your hand at finance. Of course, these words are as general as they can be, but you get the idea, don’t you? Because only when you are doing what you really enjoy, can you actually make a difference to your organisation. And when you do, it’s success all the way.
Aditya Prakash Iengar Editor Advanc’edge MBA October 2012 3
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SNIPPETS
News in brief
Your B-school, and how to find it
DIRECTOR SPEAK
SUCCESS STREET
Networking to enhance your leadership strength
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CORPORATE WORLD Restructuring Google
29 Stumbling blocks in the road to policy reforms
32 The devaluation of the Chinese Yuan
B-SCHOOL VIBE
Your MBA is as much as you want it to be
COUNTDOWN
10 Best tech workplaces in India
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COVER STORY
PROF C.P. SHRIMALI, Director, MDI Gurgaon
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SEPTEMBER 2015
MUST READ
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Wings of Fire Leaders Eat Last Beloved
36 CORPORATE INTERVIEW SUJATA V KUMAR, Category Director (Marketing) Coca Cola
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Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
cover story
Your B-school, and how to find it Applying to numerous B-schools just because they are top-ranked is a pointless task especially if they are not suited to your needs. The appropriate way to go about it is to prioritise your parameters and narrow it down. In this article, we have provided the important parameters to consider. The Advanc’edge Team
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inally! You have decided to pursue an MBA and are almost at the end of your CAT preparations. You have registered for the CAT because almost all top schools accept it, save for a handful which conduct their own tests. Now, the foremost questions in your mind: Which is the right B-school for me? It’s not only about getting the right scores in the CAT, but also about building the correct profile that includes your previous academic scores and your extracurricular activities. So, now what? It’s safe to say that everyone’s list features the IIMs at the top, but it’s always prudent to have other choices as well. For instance, unlike earlier, now there are 19 IIMs to choose from. Of course, it’s a nobrainer that you can apply to all 19 IIMs with one application, so you should naturally apply to all of them. Never mind that you might choose later on which ones to reject! And then there are the other institutes apart from the IIMs to apply to, the XLRIs, SP Jains, NMIMSs, etc of the world, some of which will require that you take a test apart from the CAT.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
Not to worry. We have, in this article, provided you a list of parameters which you can use as a filter to find a number of schools that will fit you perfectly. Then you can register for their tests accordingly.
Ask yourself why you want to do an MBA First and most importantly, you need to ask yourself certain pertinent questions – Is the school you are trying for offering the specialisation you are interested in? Or is the institute known for placements in your chosen career field? Most of you are seeking an MBA for a specific purpose; whether this facilitates you to enter your chosen career or take up a completely new field, be it an entrepreneur or expanding an existing business, you will require a
particular skill-set that will help you achieve your goal. It is important to define your objectives clearly, according to your background and motivation. Always keep this firmly lodged at the back of your mind, as it will help you make the best choice for yourself.
Check the rankings Since rankings take into account many parameters like faculty, salary, placement, alumni feedback, etc, it is important to read a few ranking charts before making a list of your desired schools. MBA Rankings from top publications like Business Today, Economic Times, etc are great tools to compare business schools for placements, alumni satisfaction and value for money. However, do not base your decision completely on rankings,
Institutes like IIM-Ahmedabad are always on the top of the list.
cover story one’s entire life and career, and not just one particular job.
Profile and ability as the methodologies used in each of the rankings might be completely different
This is the most important filter. Check the eligibility and selection procedure for the top institutes you want to get into. Do you meet
Always choose the institute that will fit you best. these basic requirements? Do you think you can get the test score they require? Take simulated CATs, or SimCATs, to get a measure of your abilities. Analyse your tests and work out the average score that you could end up with. This will provide you with a basic level or grade of schools that you should be looking at, since test scores are the first selection criteria for most schools. If you have had previous work experience, it will also help in getting you a good placement. Most recruiters prefer employing students who have had some work experience, especially if it is in the same sector that they eventually want to be in. Get into extra-curricular activities. Be it in school, college or classes, make sure you have done other things besides academics. Though extra-curricular activities are not taken into account during the admission process, it makes you confident and gives an impression
Specialisation Decide on a specialisation. A school that does not offer the specialisation you want in its programme will be useless for you. Interest in a particular field or subject is a vital ingredient in the choice of a B-school. Some B-schools have become tantamount to the specialisation they offer. For instance, XLRI and TISS are well known for Human Resources, MICA for Advertising, IRMA for Rural Management and NITIE for Industrial Management. But there are other MBA programmes that are known for general management with a focus on finance or have excellent placements in consulting, etc. Nearly all general management programmes offer far more than the core management skills. IIMCalcutta, for example, is where you might apply if you want to work in finance. Therefore, it is important to know what field you want to be placed in. Once you know which skills you want to focus on, you are in a better position to consider which MBA is right for you. Be sure to research each school thoroughly by going through their curriculum and their placement data. The return on investment is only going to pay off if your school is known for being one of the best in your desired career field.
Placements After picking a specialisation, consider placements. Keeping your specialisation in mind, make a list of companies you would like to work
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and the percentage of responses might also differ. In some surveys, only 60-65 per cent of the alumni will respond. Moreover, some major rankings don’t feature all the top B-schools, either due to no response from the institute’s end or for some other reason. This results in a skewed and somewhat biased ranking. It is incorrect, therefore, to gauge the quality of an MBA programme only by their ranking, but it is a great tool to get an overview of the top MBA programmes. A factor that need not be specially emphasised is the reputation a given management institute commands and its brand image in the industry. While it is natural for older established institutes to have a better reputation, it is not always the case. Many students opt for the newer IIMs for their brand name, even though they might not be highly ranked. Ultimately, what matters is the impact the institute has over
of you having an all-round development. Check the institutes’ batch profiles and honestly see whether you will be a correct match for these schools. If yes, then continue on to the next filter. If not, then go back and get a new list of schools.
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cover story for. Check the placement records of the schools in your list and see whether these companies recruit from them. Placement details, which are generally available on the school’s website, provide placement information about the last batch in a comprehensive manner. You get to know how many students were placed, which companies came to recruit, how many offers were made per student, what was the highest and average salary offered, etc. Additionally, you will be able to see how many graduates obtain a position in your own field of choice in a given year, and thus adequately assess if that institute is the right fit for you. But to get the real picture, it is necessary to check placement reports of the last 3 years at least. Read the names of the companies that regularly recruit from them to see if any interest you. Another important detail to check is the number of offers per student. This signifies the amount of choice that a student has in terms of companies and the jobs they offer at the top B-schools. Post-MBA salary and increase in salary are two metrics that MBA aspirants should research. While doing your homework on increase in salary, look into the geographical location of the jobs. The salary pre-MBA and post-MBA should be calculated in one currency, taking into consideration the living expense of the city.
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Location This is important only if you have reservations about studying in a city or if you need to study in a particular city. The location of an institute is mostly not important for the premier institutes. Employers seek out the best institute irrespective of its location. However, for the others, it would be better if the location is near a commercial hub, so that even if employers do not
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Make sure you evaluate all options before selecting a B-school. visit the campus, the student has an opportunity to come in close contact with potential employers. If possible, talk to people who live in the cities that house your selected B-schools and ask about the things that matter to you – safety, transport, culture, etc.
Fees and ROI This filter could take precedence over others if you feel the fee is beyond your current means. Most MBA education can be funded by loans and scholarships. You also need to check the ROI on your selected schools. One of the most important factors to consider is the return on your investment. If you graduate from a top B-school, your salary post placement can take care of the loan amount easily. But there are some top schools that do not charge an exorbitant amount of fee. In this case, the loan can be paid off in half the time frame that it usually does. If you consider value for money, FMS-Delhi is ranked first by the BT Ranking among the top 100 B-schools in India, whereas the top ranking school overall — IIM-
Ahmedabad — is at number 12. So if you are going to take an education loan, researching on ROI will be helpful. You could also speak with the school’s alumni about ROI.
Faculty and Infrastructure A judicious mix of full-time and visiting faculty is crucial for any good institute. The full-time faculty is required to teach students the fundamentals of management and oversee development of their skills. The visiting faculty gives students the much needed industry exposure and valuable insights into the corporate world. The best way to know about an institute’s faculty is to get in touch with the students currently studying there. Infrastructure also plays a crucial part in this process. The presence of adequate and state-of-the-art infrastructure is an important determinant to judge whether the school offers qualitative environment conducive to learning. A fully residential programme fosters all-round development as peer-group and faculty interaction is not just restricted to the class hours but is a 24/7 process where the scope to learn is multiplied. A
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Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
director speak
Business is never in isolation, but in integration This is what PROF C.P. SHRIMALI, Director, MDI Gurgaon, firmly believes. In an interview with Aditya Prakash Iengar, Prof Shrimali talks about what makes an MBA course a good one, what a student needs to be successful, and how the quality of a student goes a long way in building a good management institute. Q. Would you say there is a big difference between management in India vis-à-vis the same abroad? At the moment, the economies are opening up, and the businesses are becoming more and more global in nature. I think in keeping with that pace, management as a subject is also becoming global. In fact, the entire curriculum and the subjects therein are designed in such a way that it helps the student – the future manager – develop a global mindset. Every business has to have global business practices. You see in this competitive market and environment, every organisation has to better than the best and better than the rest. If that is true, then management practices will also become global. But they would vary depending on the culture, environment and the social setup.
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Q. How do management courses in India hold up against those at international universities in such a scenario? Well, there are good courses and there are bad courses both in India and in other countries as well. I think this whole “good and bad” thing is completely in relation to the management graduate. If you think about it, these courses are “Masters” degree in management, so it all depends upon the kind of mastery that the student has been able to acquire, and how he has acquired it. It is a two process, both how the faculty is delivering the curriculum and the ability of the student to absorb it. Acquiring this mastery, this level of proficiency, depends upon a few key points, the most important of which is the kind of upgrade that is being constantly
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incorporated into the curriculum. If these requirements are undergoing change, the curriculum also has to be dynamic enough to be aligned with the changing needs.
Q. Do you think there is a lack of good faculty in B-schools in India? There is a challenge surrounding the competency levels of the faculty who deal with the curriculum — a major demand and supply gap between the right kind of faculty. You see, you might have a good curriculum, but your faculty may not have that understanding that is required to deliver that curriculum effectively. So if the faculty is not adequately equipped, you will end up delivering a curriculum that doesn’t match the requirements, no matter how good the curriculum itself is. In my view, this is a major challenge in India. We have created so many new IIMs and a large number of private institutions, and yet some of these institutes are managing their curriculum with only five or six faculty members. In fact, in some private institutes, the faculty may not even be qualified to deliver the curriculum, and even if they have it, it is just a paper qualification and has nothing to do with competencies! So if the faculty is not competent enough, imagine the quality of students they would be creating.
Q. How much of a role does the student have in this quality issue? A big role, certainly! The student is a major consideration. Before giving all these different entrance tests like CAT, XAT, MAT, etc, all these students have acquired a
director speak graduation degree. So what is the quality of the degree? The fact of the matter is that if you don’t have a strong foundation, you will have a lot of difficulty in absorbing the subjects that are being taught at the Master’s level. The likes of the IIMs and MDIs are at the top because of one major reason — that our students are the cream of the country. This issue has a link to management education in India mainly because there are a large number of new and private universities, and a student who isn’t getting an admission somewhere ends up at one of these institutes. Now here, everybody gets a pass in the examinations, the teachers are not around, buildings are lying empty since the teachers are not there and the students are not interested, the academic environment is missing. Finally they end up getting a degree, but when you have unwilling students, even if you have good faculty, there will be a question mark on the quality of the degree.
mindset to adapt to a situation. A lot of creativity and adaptability is required. This means that the institute must have a very good library, where the students read and reflect and think on the principles that have been documented and how and where they can be applied. Unfortunately, a lot of institutes don’t have a library that is adequately equipped, from electronic databases, e-libraries, books and journals, the latest research, etc. If these are not provided to the students, you can’t produce a good MBA graduate.
Q. Can you give us a glimpse into the academic life at MDI Gurgaon?
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In MBA, the learning environment is a very important aspect. It isn’t about just going to class and getting a degree. A lot of peer learning has to be involved. A golden rule that we’ve adopted at MDI is that if somebody is coming to the class for one hour, a minimum of two hours of preparatory work has to be done by Q. According to you, how important is the case- every student before the class. The student cannot come study approach, the practise oriented approach? to the class without being prepared for it. There are Well, I call it the teaching and around 200 examinations every learning process. In the subject now and then, there are several of management, there are a quizzes, extempore activities THE LEARNING number of things that are skill and assignments, presentations, ENVIRONMENT IS AN etc. This is we function at MDI related. For example, if someone has to sell a product, selling is a Gurgaon. Naturally, when they IMPORTANT ASPECT. skill. If someone has to evaluate a emerge from our institute, they PEER LEARNING TOO project, get approvals, prepare a are in a fighting fit condition to feasibility report, then economic respond quickly to any situation MUST BE INVOLVED. and financial analysis is a skill. So they are thrown into. in management, there is a large A lot of work happens after number of these skills, and therefore the process of the classes are over. Every teacher is required to devote learning has to be practice oriented. some time to every student for counselling, coaching, Unfortunately, in many Indian management schools, guiding and mentoring them. For instance, it is the a degree is being given away by a large number of way of life at MDI Gurgaon that in the late evening, our institutions where skill building remains non-existent. It teachers go and sit with the students in the dining hall becomes theory oriented, there are no practice sessions, for dinner. It isn’t a classroom session, but cases are there is no learning lab available. analysed, discussions go on about previous sessions and Any good institution that introduces a proper projects the students are working on. Teachers also give teaching-learning process will know that this process tutorials to the students. is a very extensive one. So in all big institutions, a huge amount of money is invested in using these processes to Q. Tell us about the connection with the industry. build capabilities and competencies in the student. Industry connect should be a continuous connect. Almost every week a CEO, president, vice president or a Q. What advice would you give to students of a functional head come to our campus to give talks. They management course? come at 7 in the evening, then join us for dinner and then I would say that a lot of reflection must happen in the leave. The entire thing is student-driven; the corporate minds of the students, because it isn’t about mugging up leaders come to our institute, give their talks, all while something in class and applying on the field. You need our regular academic schedule remains undisturbed. to develop an application orientation. Each situation will These speakers come and share with us the latest require a unique answer, and therefore, in addition to practices that are happening in the industry. In fact, it just mastering a skill, each student must have a reflective is not necessary that only industry professionals come
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director speak to give these talks. People from all walk of life come to our campus; we have musicians, painters and historians coming here to give talks. So it gives helps build an all round development for our students.
Q. How does this connection help? We take regular feedback from the industry about our students who go out and join various organisations. Are the students graduating from MDI Gurgaon meeting the requirements of the industry? We’re regularly in touch with the recruiters; after three months and six months of joining their company, we get a feedback about how our students are performing, and the deficiencies they have. This gives us a very good idea of the improvement we need to bring about in our curriculum design. You see, one of the reasons why MDI students enjoy such high salary packages is that we cut short their training period. They are ready, upon joining, to take up the responsibilities without needing extensive training input. So the company gets the advantage of saving the cost of training, and MDI gets the advantage of aligning our courses with the industry requirement.
Q. Recent reports say there is a massive talent shortage in India of 58 per cent, as opposed to the global average of 38 per cent. Your take on this?
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I completely agree with this. The issue is that we have the head count, but we don’t have the competency. Let me explain. In the corporate world, there are millions of management jobs and roles available. How many students are coming from A category business schools? Just few thousands. So when demand is more than a lakh, and supply is less than 10,000, there will naturally be a skill shortage.
Q. Today, a start-up’s chances of success are higher than earlier. What words would you have for a student who wants to become an entrepreneur?
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Your questions brings to my mind a few words from a teacher of mine Uday Parikh. I had sought his blessings,
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
and I’d asked him for any one lesson in management. He said that in a developing economy, many people have a lot of difficulties. And anybody having a difficulty is a business opportunity. So since there is an unresolved need, there is an opportunity for someone to initiate a business. And you should have an eye for what the customer is looking for, and what his unsatisfied need is. The other thing, also Uday Parikh’s words, is that you must remember that when you’re starting a business or an organisation, you are not an expert at everything. You have to identify your strengths and build your organisation around those strengths. If you don’t have a particular strength, you just have to identify a person who possesses it. So to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be able to identify an unfulfilled need, and create a setup with the right kind of talents and resources. I’d just like to add that real money, real success comes as a result of customer delight, and there will always be a demand for the best quality, even in a very competitive environment. This is what we teach at MDI as well. We’ve set up an incubation centre, and we encourage our students to set up enterprises.
Q. What do you expect from a student who wants to get admission to MDI Gurgaon? The first thing we look at very keenly is the value system of the student, because ultimately whatever skill sets you acquire, your qualification will not mean much if you’re not a good human being. The second quality we look for is the willingness to learn. The person should have a questioning mindset. We don’t want to impart knowledge just as part of the curriculum, we want the student to be able to question, understand, inculcate and apply that knowledge. Finally, we want to see strong analytical ability. The student should be able to analyse and connect two ends, because business is never in isolation, it is in integration.
Q. What advice would you have for MBA aspirants? Your life goal should be very clear. You must truly believe that you want to add value to society, and actually want to do it. You have to drive change, improve quality, have a mindset of development and improvement, find answers to problems rather than creating new ones. In short, you need to want to add value to the people around you, to the organisation where you work. You cannot think that you’ll find a job and that’ll be it. It’s all about wealth creation, both material and MDI Gurgaon intellectual. A
b-school vibe
Your MBA is as much as you want it to be There are many perceptions about what life is like at a B-school, and how killing the schedules are. While not denying the hectic lifestyle at a B-school, the learning experience is magnificent. Shankar Ananth
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The thought of catalysing my career with a degree in management education came to me after two years at work. As an engineer in a multinational corporation, I had the same clichéd problems as everyone else: my learning curve had plateaued, my job heralded no new spikes in the foreseeable future and the desperation to get out of prolonged monotony had finally got to me.
What research revealed
The real experience During my brief stay, I saw that the thrust was rather on knowledge sharing and mutual growth
THE THRUST WAS ON KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND GROWTH RATHER THAN POINTLESS INFUSION OF INFORMATION. rather than pointless infusion of information. Group activities, case study competitions, projects, assignments, all contributed immensely to how a student was groomed and how his personality evolved. The study of human psyche, encompassing customer psyche, employee psyche, and all other psyches affecting commerce demanded such training. The focus, unlike in graduation, was on evolving effective leaders who could
13 aspire to transform the economy. In addition, I came to know how important it was to know the need to study management before coming to a B-school. My experience had taught me the vitality of a strong manager at the perch, someone who could lead his team or his organisation out of predicaments and add necessary fuel during successful times. And learning why such skills are critical to a business is an absolute mandate. This, in essence, vindicates the burgeoning pay packages elite management schools have become so popular for, and seem to attract such attention from every sphere. I have firmly come to believe that a management degree is so much more than a piece of paper, but in the end, it is only as much as one wants it to be! A The author is a first year student (2015-17 batch) at MDI Gurgaon.
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Not surprisingly, when one day my mobile beeped and I found out that one of the most prestigious management institutes in the country had accepted me, I was elated. And during the brief span I had before I entered MDI, I researched on what an MBA was like. I got to know all the stereotypes, read about all the stringent timelines one has to meet and about the amount of toil that goes into succeeding, or perhaps even surviving in a B-school. I entered the campus mentally prepared for a notoriously gruelling routine I had heard so much about. But I what I ended up experiencing in the first few days of my MBA was so unconventionally… fun! Yes, the schedule would suck anyone dry. Sleep had become a luxury, and time, a diamondencrusted commodity. But it did not at all reflect the negativity that was
spilled over the blogs and forums I had come across. What I had read portrayed a curriculum that focused on stuffing the sharpest brains with mind-boggling amounts of information in the shortest time possible. I found that was never the case.
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Ranking: 4 | Overall rank: 7 Locations in India: Bengaluru Founded: 1983 Founded in: USA Interesting facts: Ÿ At Intuit, LGBT issues are at the forefront, with the company initiating dialogue through the Pride Network, launched in October 2014. Ÿ Employees are encouraged to innovate on new projects outside their own, as part of “unstructured time” or about 10 per cent of their working hours. These solutions can be turned into products during innovation jams and incubation weeks, and later tested on customers.
Ranking: 5 | Overall rank: 15 Locations in India: Gurgaon, Indore, Jaipur Founded: 1978 Founded in: France Interesting facts: Ÿ A company that prides itself on a democratic work culture, Teleperformance India comes up with an HR report, called the Voice of the Internal Customer, where views and feedback from employees on company issues are shared on the intranet. Ÿ This report is given its due importance and is sent to the senior management, including the CEO of the entire BPO and the employees can actually track the progress of their opinion in real time.
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Ranking: 6 | Overall rank: 19 Locations in India: New Delhi Founded: 1920 Founded in: USA Interesting facts: Ÿ Pitney Bowes has a Player Program, which comprises a group of high-performing employees entrusted with recommending outstanding candidates. Ÿ The company also organises regular sessions by experts from reputed hospitals to share advice and counsel on healthy living for employees.
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Source: Economic Times and Great Place to Work Institute. Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
corporate interview
‘Never lose your integrity and loyalty to work’ ...says SUJATA V KUMAR, Category Director (Marketing) Coca Cola, sharing her rich and insightful 20-year-old journey. In an interview with Alolika Banerjee, she talks about the integrity along with sheer hard work that she feels can ensure a smooth stroke on the corporate canvas. Q. Tell us about your journey from being an MBA aspirant to the Category Director (Marketing) of Coca Cola. (Smiles) Well, it’s been 20 years now. I had graduated in 1995, and I must say it has been a very interesting journey. My first job was with Procter and Gamble as an assistant brand manager, where I worked for a couple of years. P&G is one of the best training grounds for a career in marketing. Since then I have worked with many leading FMCG brands. As a young MBA aspirant, I remember that I was always keen to venture into marketing. I was pretty clear about my goal in life and my first year in MBA confirmed to me that I could venture into what I had aspired for so long. I was fortunate to get a very interesting and insightful summer placement with Gillette, and since my institute wasn’t far, the two month internship continued till the next term started! That training gave me a clearer glimpse into the world I actually wanted to venture into. I am still journeying and enjoying every moment.
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Q. Tell us about some exciting and challenging moments you experienced in your journey. Well, there have been many such moments in the 20 years of my career! And the fun part about marketing is that in spite of all hurdles, we have to keep doing new things and experiment with different strategies. When I was a young marketer with Gillette, I was handling the senior grooming category. Back then, shaving was only associated with males. Although the perspective is slowly changing now, the concept of women’s shaving was very new at that time, and I was primarily instrumental to induct this entire perception to the Indian consumers. Right from educating women on the benefits of shaving their hands and legs, the campaign needed to bring about a shift in the preconceived ideology that if women start shaving then their skin would also become like men. So shaping and conceptualising the campaign
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was very interesting as well as challenging. And that wasn’t all. I had to actually teach my sales guys about women’s shaving, right there in the market. They were extremely shy and often embarrassed. I too was much younger then, so you can well imagine how awkward and difficult it was for me to communicate with them. But then, it was our job and it had to be done. I also handled the sanitary napkin brand Whisper while working with P&G. The consumer perspective in the late 90s and early 2000s was far more reticent and conservative than what it is right now. Whether it was sanitary napkins or female shaving products, all these had their challenges. But overcoming these obstacles was the biggest achievement for me.
Q. How well do you think your alma mater IMT Ghaziabad has shaped you as a professional? If you had studied at a different institute, would you have been any different? My alma mater has helped me incredibly in shaping me as the professional I am today. The campus itself had a multi-faceted approach. It wasn’t just academics, which
corporate interview undoubtedly had a strong focus, but along with that we had case studies and industry interactions with corporate honchos. These industry professionals would visit us on Saturdays and Sundays and take a three to four-hourlong session regularly. These sessions helped us get a glimpse of the professional domain and to understand how corporate life actually functions. All this, along with various other activities, groomed each one of us in those two years to be all-rounders. I really can’t comment on other educational institutions because I haven’t been there. But after working for 20 years in the corporate field alongside colleagues who are from almost all the top B-schools in India, I feel that as long as institutes follow a basic premise of academics together with a lot of industry interactions, real life case studies as well as other activities, they are all on the right path.
negative comments. So it is important to be extremely alert and be completely responsible for a campaign. There is a shift in employee ideology as well. Earlier, when we joined a company, we never thought of changing as fast as the people of this generation do. These days, when I talk to young interns, none of them plans to stay in a company forever. Whether this is good or bad is just a matter perspective. How fast a person wants to change is also important. For example, in my company, there are people who have been working for the last 20 years without changing one single job and they are doing fantastically well and know the industry inside out. There are others who have changed jobs, like me, and that has benefitted me quite well. As long as you have a learning experience in a particular company, can absorb that learning and contribute in a positive way, it’s not a problem.
Q. You graduated from IMT Ghaziabad in 1995. How do you think the world and IMT Ghaziabad’s approach have changed since then?
Q. How important do you think is undertaking risks for a corporate profile?
There has been a significant change in perspectives in areas like marketing, media and others. Interaction with consumers used to be just a one way thing. Doordarshan was the only channel in the late 90s when I started working. Then there was the advent of cable TV, albeit with a few channels. You could put in an ad, keep it running for some time and let the consumer get an idea about your brand and products that you offer. But now the world has totally changed. There are hundreds of channels. Social media has come up in a big way. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram have taken over our imaginations and revamped the entire concept of conventional marketing. Everything is in real time now, what with so many social media platforms on offer. Consumers can interact with the marketer directly now and that makes it a two-way thing. It’s not like we put up something and the consumers accept it. If they don’t like it, they start responding immediately with
Well, obviously it is important to take crucial professionals risks. There is a saying: No risks, no returns. Some people have a higher risk taking ability than others. Many of these people get the entrepreneurial bug very soon in their career and open a start-up. Of course if the venture is successful the growth, financial gains are amazing in a very short time. However, if it doesn’t work out, the person can land up with nothing. In my time, only a handful of people went the entrepreneurial way after MBA. But now it’s extremely common. In fact, an article has said the largest recruiters are actually the start-ups and the number of people joining them is also the highest. This shows that the risk-taking ability has surged over the years. Youngsters today are willing to begin their career in a start-up. They hope that if things go right and the start-up becomes big, they would get to ride the high. But in our time, people wanted to get into the biggest and most well-paid jobs and stabilise their career from the very beginning.
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Q. Can you give us an idea of the shift in the types of decisions you’ve taken for your company from a management trainee till now?
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There has naturally been a major change over the years. When I joined as a management trainee, as the assistant brand manager, my role was more about executing the plans in the Sujata V Kumar performing with her band Midlife Crisis at Hard market. I had my understanding and learning of concepts through Rock Cafe, Cyber Hub in Gurgaon
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corporate interview implementation and execution. However, over the years as I gained seniority and started heading a category, I started taking onus of the entire campaign. So as one goes higher up it’s less of execution and more of planning.
Q. Do you think it is true that as a company becomes bigger, ‘intuition’ often dampens ‘inspiration’? No I don’t think so. The bigger a company is, it’s quite natural that it will function through more systems and security. However, there is also a lot of intuition and innovation happening. When a company stops innovating, it becomes stagnant. The world is changing fast and for any company to survive and keep pace with the changing times, it has to adapt.
Q. It is often said that today, MBA graduates are not completely employable. Would you agree?
I can’t really pinpoint one single person. I think all my bosses during the first five to eight years of my career had a very positive influence professionally. Having a good boss is the biggest boon anyone can have during the first few years, which are the formative period in a person’s career. During this phase it is quite natural for anyone to look for guidance, to learn. It is quite normal to need a person to tell you what to do right, what not to do, how to do things and how not to. And all that comes in the form of a great boss. Throughout the formative years of my career, I have worked under three to four good bosses who have led by example, been great team players, have shared the credit and worked as a team. So whatever I have achieved professionally, I would want to attribute that to these bosses.
Q. Among the three things, core values, mission and vision, what do you think is intrinsic to the growth of any organisation?
I think MBA grads are definitely very employable and they form the best pool of fresh talent for the professional Mission, vision and core values all have individual roles sector. Straight from B-schools they have a fresh appetite for the growth of any company. Vision is something to learn and perform. I have been that a company sees as its final seeing batches of management destination. Mission is how a trainees over the years bubbling person plans to do things and SUMMER with enthusiasm after they join a core values are how that person PLACEMENTS company. They are willing to learn, is going to achieve it and realise ready to take risks and work hard. the mission and vision. All three GIVE EXCELLENT Almost all companies hire their independently play a distinct role EXPOSURE TO THE management trainees from MBA so they are all important. institutes. So I definitely think they CORPORATE WORLD. are employable. Q. What are the things you
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Q. When faced with two equally qualified candidates, what do you think should be the determining element to select one among them? Well, it’s difficult to say, but personally I would give more importance to the candidate with greater integrity. Integrity, loyalty towards work, respect for colleagues are very important. These are factors that make a difference in the final decision. I would also see which candidate can be a better team player. The dynamics of the professional world is such that an employee has to be a good team player to sustain the corporate nuances.
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Q. In this era of start-ups, if you personally were to start a company of your own, what would you do? (Laughs) Honestly speaking, I never considered it. Maybe to think of it, I would perhaps venture into something in healthcare. Life is all about wellness, living to the fullest and being fit.
Q. Name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you professionally.
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think should be usually done to grow as a professional and climb up the corporate ladder?
I think two things are important for MBA graduates to make it big in the corporate sector. First, it is important to move from an individualistic perspective to a group focus. In school and college, they had to score and get the highest marks. So it was all a kind of “I, me, myself” approach. But when they start MBA and then later when they join an office, they have to do away with that focus and get a “we” or a more group related focus. Secondly, they have to take their summer placements very seriously. They get eight weeks to go out and meet industry people and so it’s an excellent exposure to the corporate world.
Q. Any words of advice for MBA aspirants? All I want to say is that MBA aspirants must be very serious about what they want to achieve in life and never lose focus, and above all, never lose integrity. But the most important element is to work hard, because there are no substitutes for sheer hard work. A
snippets
News in brief
ome H e re a re s i nt e re st i n g t it bit s f ro m st o ve r t h e l a m o nt h
India’s food regulator suffers a second judicial setback
Beauty and garment making skills find demand among rural job seekers
India’s food regulator suffered a judicial setback for the second time in less than a week. The blow came with the Supreme Court upholding the striking down of an advisory that asked manufacturers to get recipe-by-recipe clearance for products even if the ingredients were already approved or deemed safe. This ruling came less than two weeks ahead of the regulator’s August 31 deadline for final product approval and licensing.
Proficiency in beauty parlour work, hairdressing and garment making have emerged as some of the most sought-after skills among the beneficiaries of the government’s rural jobs programme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Although agriculture related activities remain the dominant choice among workers looking for wage employment, a large number of people are keen to explore many such alternative options.
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Malayalam gets a new global status in Germany Malayalam is set to get a global recognition soon. In October, the University of Tubingen in Germany will be setting up a chair dedicated to the teaching and research in Malayalam. It is being named after Hermann Gundert, a missionary scholar who lived and worked in Tellichery in the 19th century and did trailblazing work in codifying Malayalam grammar and writing its first dictionary. Gundert (1814-1893) was contemporary of Max Muller (1823-1900), the German Orientalist whose translations of the Upanishad and the Vedas led to the introduction of Indian culture to the West.
Puma emerges as top global lifestyle brand in India
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Great news for Puma loyalists! The German sporting lifestyle major Puma has become the top international brand in India by revenue, upstaging its direct rivals like Adidas and fashion apparel brands like Benetton and Zara, according to the regulatory filings. The local operations of Puma SE, reported domestic revenue of ` 766 crore during the calendar year 2014, showed the company’s filings with Registrar of Companies last week. This was ahead of Adidas (` 719 crore), Nike (` 624 crore), Benetton (` 594 crore), Levi’s (` 599 crore) and Zara (` 580 crore) in FY14.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
snippets Study shows e-commerce generates $1.2 mn revenue every 30 seconds A remarkable joint study by Assocham-Deloitte has shown that the global e-commerce industry generates over $1.2 million in revenue every 30 seconds with Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter contributing $5,483, $4,504 and $4,308 respectively. Social networks are contributing significantly to the growth of e-commerce business revenue. The maturity of social media and its reach across the masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales, said the study which was released in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Hackers of infidelity site Ashley Madison release database of 33m accounts Sensitive and confidential details of 33m user accounts on the infidelity site Ashley Madison have been released by hackers including names, addresses, emails and information about their sexual preferences. The hackers from the Impact Team cybergroup have let out the data from the website, whose tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair”. The hackers took the form of a 10GB database on the “dark web” that could be accessed through a specialised web browser called Tor.
Apple drops behind Xiaomi and Huawei in the smartphone market US technology giant Apple was pushed to the third place in the world’s market by two Chinese smartphone makers. Xiaomi, known for delivering high-performance products at reasonable prices, was the largest smartphone vendor in China based on shipments with a 15.9 per cent market share in the AprilJune period, Canalys said in a press release.
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Cognizant posted its best numbers in its 21-year history US-based Cognizant Technology Solutions continued its recent trend of overshadowing its India-based rival Tata Consultancy Services and reported the strongest quarterly numbers in its 21-year history. Cognizant’s figures galloped past market expectations very comfortably and also increased its yearly revenue guidance for the second time this year. This outstanding quarterly performance has delighted shareholders who added several hundreds of million dollars to Cognizant’s market capitalisation on Nasdaq on August 5.
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Google to restructure into new company named Alphabet Google announced on August 10th that it would be rebranding itself as Alphabet – a new holding company whose largest wholly owned subsidiary will be Google. In a surprise blog post that was made public, Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, announced a radical shake-up of the company’s corporate structure and management, and handed the control of its core search engine business to rising star Sundar Pichai. The new company, Alphabet, will preside over a collection of companies, the largest of which will be Google.
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Planning comeback, starts hiring tech experts
for
a Nokia
Nokia has already started the process of hiring software experts, testing of new products and seeking sales partners in a bid to return to the mobile phone and consumer tech arena next year. The company had left the tech arena with the sale of its handset business to Microsoft in late 2013. Ever since, Nokia has been focusing squarely on making telecoms network equipment Once the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, the Finnish firm suffered major losses by the rise of smartphones and eclipsed by Apple and Samsung.
snippets At $50bn, Uber is world’s highest valued start-up
Robert Downey Jr tops the list of Forbes’ highest paid actors
After its latest funding round, USbased ride-sharing service Uber has become the most valuable start-up in the world. Currently, after raising $1bn in the round backed by software giant Microsoft and Indian conglomerate Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, the company is currently valued at $50bn (£32.1bn, €45.7bn). Uber said it will use the funds to expand operations primarily in India, which is its second-largest market after the US. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is the secondbiggest on the list at a valuation of $46bn, followed by Airbnb at $25.5bn.
Robert Downey Jr has again topped this year’s Forbes magazine’s annual list of the highest paid actors with estimated earnings of $80m (£51m) over the past 12 months. He has been topping this list for three years in a row now. This year surprisingly, four out of the top 10 wealthiest male film stars are from film industries in Asia. China’s Jackie Chan and Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar all finished ahead of established American actors such as Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp.
Flipkart rolls out policies to allow greater flexibility for the employees Flipkart, India’s biggest ecommerce firm, has introduced employee-friendly initiatives that are targeted to help work-force to be most productive even as they encounter life’s crucial events. Under the new policy, employees working for the company for more than two years, will be able to take one to six months’ unpaid time away from work as a career break. These new additions to the leave policy are over and above the regular number of days allowed for casual/sick leave (12 days), annual leave (18 days), and declared holidays.
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Mumbai’s first heart transplant operation after 47 years Mumbai has recorded its first successful heart transplant after 47 years on August 3, when a donated organ flown in from Pune was rushed 20km to a Mulund hospital along a green corridor created during peak hours by the police in as little as one-fifth of the usual time. A 22-year-old graphic designer from Mumbai got this second chance to live with a heart from a 42-year-old Pune woman who died of brain stroke. In 1968, Dr P K Sen carried out India’s first heart transplant at KEM Hospital in Parel.
Govt lifts ban to block 857 pornographic sites The 857 porn sites blocked by the government of India in order to preserve “morality and decency” have been unblocked following a strong public backlash. India’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has decreed that Internet service providers would be asked not to block sites, with the exception of those that contained child sexual abuse.
Google is opening a YouTube Production Studio in Mumbai www.advancedge.com
Google has announced its first YouTube Space for the country. Located in Mumbai, the production facility — the second of its kind in Asia — will be hosted by the reputed Whistling Woods International film school. The first YouTube Spaces project started in 2012 and it is designed to give filmmakers (YouTube filmmakers, naturally) a place where they can access high-quality equipment, gain mentorship and, ultimately, produce quality content. Google said the Mumbai Space, which is its seventh worldwide, will be open to YouTube creators “soon.”
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
success street
Networking to enhance your leadership strength In today’s world, organisations are becoming increasingly more and more complex. In such a scenario, flexible, reactive and collective leadership will be highly rewarded.
T
Prof. Vikram S. Tyagi
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The author is the Chief Mentor of JK Business School (JKBS), Delhi’s top Industry anchored B-School (Emerging Management AICTE-CII Survey 2013). Prof. Vikram Singh Tyagi is a post graduate in management from IIM, with over 40 years of rich industry experience in India, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Russia. He has been designated as the General Manager, Managing Partner, Director and Chairman in the fields of manufacturing, Imports & Exports and Retail Distribution. An industryveteran-turned academician, with vast global business management experience, Prof Tyagi is widely regarded for his ability to bridge the industryacademia skill gap.
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he world has watched as Indian companies have grown by leaps and bounds to become world-class competitors in many industries. Network leaders and founders of networks often worry about the problem of succession. They identify that sooner or later the drive of some network leaders will wilt or they might leave the network for a variety of reasons, or it may be just as vital to get some fresh blood, new thoughts, and newer members into leadership positions. In many networks, however, leadership succession is treated as an evolution phenomenon — somehow it will happen and new leadership will become active.
Stages of development It’s significant to have a clear vision about what a “network leader” does. Often “leadership” is taken to imply being a part of network control, assessment process. That is only partially true. A network head is someone who does more than this. This could require not only playing a role in network decision-making, but it would also mean being willing to preside over a network working group, or advising on questions to ask for analysis of network members, or being component of a team that does a presentation to a budding founder. In each
of these cases, the member is providing value for the system as a whole. The network leadership would also require keeping an eye on network members who are engrossed in the challenges of leading the network, not just participating as members. Furthermore, inviting them into planning and other agendas so that they can witness what leading the network looks like. Also look for members who are natural weavers and are getting acquainted to well-connected hubs in the set of connections. If they move into leadership roles, they bring their weaving skills associated with them. Make sure that there are open leadership positions to offer opportunities for others to step in.
The need for the new Essential network components such as leadership roles steering committee membership, working group chairs should not be filled by the same people forever. Term limits generate opportunities for others in the business to get trained for taking up new roles. One can even think of a series of opportunities that give members a little taste of being a leader and then allow them to rise and shine into more important roles. As we move out of recession, many organisations are refocusing
success street their strategies around growth. Developing new leaders will be very essential to achieve sustainable growth in a competitive world.
Tackling situations
the
intricate
In order for organisations to become more efficient at using networks of leadership, there are several attributes that should be kept in mind. Primarily, at the combined level, the goal for an organisation will be to initiate smart leadership networks, which can unite and disperse in response to varied organisational challenges. These networks might include people from different geographies, functions, and specialisations, both within and external to the organisation. Just as intellect becomes “smarter” as the number of neural networks and connections are increased, organisations that interchange more parts of their social system to each other and build a culture of shared leadership will have greater adaptability and cooperative competence. Secondly, work stations will use their leadership
DEVELOPING NEW LEADERS WILL BE VERY ESSENTIAL TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE GROWTH TODAY. development programmes to facilitate people to be aware that leadership is not contained in job roles, but in the process that takes place across a network of people to continuously illuminate direction, set up alignment, and acquire commitment of stakeholders. While leadership may sometimes be enacted by an individual, progressively more of it will be a process that happens at the group level, by various individual’s contributions influencing the system of the collective decision making. As these changes go on, the difference between who is a leader and who is a follower becomes less obvious or relevant. Some of the most significant innovations of coming decades will not be new technologies, but new customs a n d
Leadership – the future Depending on the need of the area in which an increased capacity is desired, organisations will aim at having different group sizes and use subsequent development practices. It is clear from being in touch with the people engaged in building and backing these networks that building networks is a new and potentially useful path to having the exact kind of impact that they can’t get any other way. It’s a stepwise practice — first a perception, followed by experimentation, and eventually leading to proliferation. Not all types of organisations will need to adopt this new paradigm of thinking. Traditional companies’ environments requiring minute creativity from staff may well be more effective if they stick to traditional, distinctive domination and control management styles. Complex environments will reward flexible, reactive and collective leadership. The time is rapidly approaching for organisations to restore the imbalance that has been shaped by focusing exclusively on the individual leadership model. That is the only way to ensure sustainable growth of an organisation. A
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The wheels of an organisation must be well oiled by an active network of leaders.
traditions of working together that are made possible by these new technologies. In the near future, organisations could prefer to invest their leadership development efforts to create capability at one of five different levels: • Individual capacity • Team capacity • Organisational capacity • Network capacity • Systems capacity
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corporate world
Restructuring Google Aware of the challenges of technology, Google is set to realise more challenging initiatives under a common holding company called Alphabet. It’s crucial to see if Google stands the test of time and emerges as successful as some of its competitive peers. Dr Suresh Srinivasan
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oogle is listed on the Nasdaq exchange and is currently quoting at $612 a share. Its total market capitalisation is around $450 billion. Just to give a relative feel: this compares with Apple’s $642 billion, Microsoft’s $365 billion and General Electric’s $250 billion.
guarantee that they could become commercially viable and start earning serious revenue streams. Such investments in innovation are generally considered to be a drain on the otherwise profitable company and a successful advertisement business model.
Google revenue
For example, at least the driverless car project of Google, after years of research and experimentation, has now cleared a number of regulatory hurdles. It is now at an advanced stage with more than three states in the US having approved it for commercialisation. But projects like Nest, which is internet connected gadgets for home and domestic use, and projects like Calico that focuses on biology and controlling human lifespan still look extremely far fetched at this point in time, with very little probability of commercialisation in the near as
Google’s annual revenue is around $70 billion. The primary revenue is from advertising on its search engine business. A third of the revenue comes from personal computer search advertisements, around 40 per cent from search advertisements on mobile devices, around 20 per cent from YouTube and the balance 10 per cent from various other activities like Google phone, Orkut and Google applications. With advertisements being the primary revenue earner, Google has been spending money on a number of long term initiatives, many of which have been considered to be breakthrough innovations, but are yet to be commercialised and start earning revenue. These include the likes of driverless cars and floating balloons in the stratosphere to expand Internet connectivity across the globe. Investors have long been complaining that a lot has been spent on long term projects with no
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‘Far fetched’ projects?
well as long term. Competitors are also spending billions on the very same initiatives.
Google’s belief However, Google has all along strongly believed that these new initiatives are the ones that will chart a unique path for the company in the medium to long term future, and is in no mind to wind down on any of such investments. At this point in time, in the search engine space, Google is far ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing, which are a distant second and third. However, even after this, Google does not believe that its current lead in its search engine business is in any way an assurance of its longer term success. It totally understands that it does not take a long time for a disruptive innovation to throw Google off-balance with a business model that radically revamps the way internet users search the web.
Google founders Larry Page (left) and Sergio Brin will now shift to the parent company Alphabet.
corporate world The Alphabet approach However, the investor concerns are valid, and hence the promoters Larry Page and Sergey Brin have restructured the overall activities of the company in a way that all the activities that are focused towards the future in the long term are carved out of Google and will be structured as separate companies with appropriate leadership. All these initiatives will have a common holding company called Alphabet, which will also be the holding company of Google. Page and Brin will get out of all executive positions in the operating companies (after having handed over the helm to capable leaders like Sundar Pichai, Tony Fadell and Arthur Levinson) and move to Alphabet, with the main objective of ensuring that the money generated from Google’s operations is properly channelled into key innovation activities, so that Alphabet is successful in the long run.
Alphabet structure Google, as a subsidiary company of Alphabet, will continue to
have search engine activities, advertisements, maps, YouTube and Android, and will be led by Sundar Pichai. At least be six more companies will be created to host various activities that have a futuristic focus. Google X will be one such company that will focus on driverless cars and unmanned drones for product delivery. Google X will compete directly with Amazon’s initiatives of drones, as well as rival Apple in its endeavours of driverless cars. Another company, likely to be called Fiber, will focus on internet broadband and the cable TV business, and will compete with Apple directly, which is also having aspirations to enter
of Things”, and is working on connecting domestic appliances remotely via the internet.
Focusing on start-ups Two other companies will come into existence with a primary objective of financing Google’s own companies with such new initiatives as well as other startups in the area of technology and innovation. Google Capital and Google Ventures will be investing in these kind of start-ups. For example, Google Ventures invested close to a quarter of a billion dollars in a cab company called Uber, w a y
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this space. The biotech company Calico will focus on life sciences and work towards fighting ageing in human beings. Nest is the much talked about “Internet
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
INDIA INC: AT A GLANCE Thomas Cook acquires Kuoni’s India and Hong Kong operations The Thomas Cook group has acquired the Indian and Hong Kong’s operations of the tour operator Kuoni, from Switzerland. The transaction is being valued at `535 crore and will give Thomas Cook access to a larger inbound travel market into India. Thomas Cook also recently acquired Luxe Asia, a destination management company in Sri Lanka. With India’s GDP growth picking up and with the country slated to grow at double digits over the next couple of decades, tourism will be an important component that will grow along with the GDP. This is the reason tourism companies are getting themselves prepared to become bigger so that they can take advantage of such opportunities.
Chinese operations of Indian companies www.advancedge.com
Many of the Indian companies that had bet high on the Chinese markets and established companies in China are now facing the brunt of the Chinese slowdown. Tata motors for example had bet big time in China, where for the last few years, its JLR sales in China was helping the company report better top-line as well as profits. This has somehow vanished over the last few quarters and the Chinese sales of JLR have steeply eroded the Tata motors financials including its profits. Other companies like Bharath Forge, L&T and Mahindra and Mahindra that are facing similar problems are seriously contemplating their Chinese operations.
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corporate world promoters have in the overall structure, the initiatives and the individual leadership in each of these companies are extremely strong and one has to wait and watch to see how this spans out.
Google’s solid footing
back in 2013. Uber runs cabs (radio taxi) across the globe, including in India where it competes with companies like Meru and Fast Track. People wondered why Google should invest in a cab company, especially since it is no way related to Google’s high technology kind of operations. But Google had other ideas! Its long term interest is in driverless cars and once this initiative gets commercialised, Uber could be a seamless platform to transform into the driverless format.
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To boldly go where no man... Is it that what Google is doing, things that nobody has done before? Not really. Berkshire Hathaway, the Warren Buffet-led company, as well as companies like General Electric, have a similar
GOOGLE’S INNOVATIVE STREAK ENSURES THAT IT REMAINS ON A SOLID FOOTING. model that have a consortium of closely knit companies sharing a common capability platform and thriving. But the concern in the Alphabet group of companies (in which Google is one of the subsidiary companies) will be the disproportionate focus on futuristic businesses that will gobbe up investments, but the probability of success of many of them could be a question mark. However, the confidence the
Again, Google is not such an old company, in that it was started not more than 30 years ago. Successful companies like IBM and GE have lived on close to 100 years, and are continuing to be successful by reinventing themselves. So, we cannot take for granted that Google will continue to be successful on these lines, but the initiatives being engineered seem to be taking Google in the right direction and positioning it as a long haul player. During the 2000s, companies like Microsoft missed the bus in terms of innovation, under the leadership of Steve Ballmer, and is now trying to pull up its socks under Satya Nadella to gain a competitive positioning in enterprise solutions, mobility and cloud, but are, frankly, struggling. This means, when a company misses the opportunity to innovate on a timely manner, the probability of future success is quite remote, however big and successful the company is. So to that extent, Google seems to be on solid footing. A
INDIA INC: AT A GLANCE
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India Inc. debt reduction agenda The high debt problem of corporate India does not seem to die down so easily. High debt means high interest cost. This can be dangerous especially in times of economic slowdown. Many companies are continuing their efforts to reduce their overall debt component. GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd is in the process of bringing in new equity funds to reduce and payback debt to the tune of `4,000 crore and thereby reducing its total debt to around `20,000 crore. The ADAG group company Reliance Communications is focusing on substantially reducing debt by 2017; it is using internal accruals, sale of assets and real estate properties to generate cash that will go to reduce debt. Large construction companies like IVRCL and other companies like Reliance Capital, DLF are also taking the same path.
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corporate world
Stumbling blocks in the road to policy reforms The passing of the Land Acquisition Bill and the Goods and Services Tax Bill will spell good news for the Indian economy at a time when global crude oil prices are low and China is slightly slowing down in its pace. Dr Suresh Srinivasan
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he Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power with a promise that pending reforms would be cleared, these being vital for the country’s economic growth. However, even after close to 18 months since coming to power, two major reforms, the Land Acquisition Bill and the Goods and Services Tax (SGT) Bill, are still pending approval in Parliament. Let’s analyse the major stumbling blocks in these two main reform initiatives which the government is fighting out with the Opposition.
Land Acquisition Bill The golden rule in land acquisition is that the interests of both the land owners as well as the acquirers (private parties or government bodies) need to be carefully considered. The process has to be transparent with a fair
to ensure that the acquisition is, in fact, in public interest.
Social impact
Sore points
The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be done by an expert appointed by the relevant state government. That was intended to ensure that it would be in the public interest, where the benefit outweighs the cost and interests of all stakeholders are taken into account while approving the acquisition. A public hearing was also stipulated
The contentious issues include the dilution in clauses like consent, social impact assessment, compensation payable, return of land to farmers if not used within five years, providing power to state governments in case there are difficulties in giving effect to the provisions of the law. The Opposition sees these issues to be clearly not in the interest of
Opposition to the NDA’s Bill On the grounds that the above provisions in the 2013 Act were not acceptable to the industry and were major causes for delay in land acquisitions and in the progress of industrial projects leading to slower growth of the economy, the current NDA government brought in a number of amendments. The NDA wanted to dilute these clauses in order to make land acquisition easier and speedier. Most of these had been agreed upon by the Opposition, but a few of them were being vehemently contested by the Opposition on the grounds that such amendments would dilute the farmers’ interests and fail to protect them.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi
compensation, paid in a timely manner, and the process by itself should not drag along, delaying industrial projects. The Land Acquisition Act, 2013 was earlier passed during the previous UPA government under the Congress. The 2013 law was well conceived and had reasonably taken into account the interests of both the acquirers and the land owners. Land owner consent is an important component, and if not properly formulated, it could amount to grabbing of land. The 2013 Act stipulated that the consent of 70 per cent of farmers are required if land is being acquired for projects where the government is in partnership with private firms. For private projects, the consent of 80 per cent of farmers is required before the land can be acquired.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
corporate world the farmers, but favourable for the large industrial houses and business establishments. Amendment to the Act is not successful in spite of being passed by the Lok Sabha where the NDA has a clear majority, but is being struck down by Rajya Sabha where the government does not have the required numbers. Knowing the resistance, the NDA had substantially agreed to the demands of the Opposition by dropping many of the amendments it had proposed, but was still unable to get their concurrence in passing through the rest of the amendments. A joint parliamentary committee (20 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha) has also been constituted to iron out the differences, but in spite of more than 15 meetings, no consent has emerged. The NDA government has also tried the ordinance route thrice, but has again been unsuccessful; the third ordinance expired on August 31, 2015. It now looks like the bill will only come to Parliament during the winter session.
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Goods and Services Tax (GST) Compared to the Land Acquisition Bill, issues of contention
THE GOODS AND SERVICE TAX WILL UNIFY ALL THE NUMEROUS INDIRECT TAXES. with respect to GST are much more objective and hence easier to resolve. However, the government has failed to convince the state governments, which are major stakeholders in this bill.
India’s taxes Taxation in India is either direct taxes (like income tax and corporate tax, which are paid directly by taxpayers like individuals and companies) or indirect taxes (which are taxed indirectly like when you buy products like mobile phones or LCD TVs, the end consumer pays a component of sales tax or customs duty as a part of the price of such products). There are numerous taxes that comprise the indirect tax component like excise duty, customs duty, service tax, VAT, and so on. Some of the components of the indirect tax
go to the state government’s treasury, while only the remaining goes to the Centre.
Unifying taxes The objective of the GST bill is to unify all these numerous indirect taxes to one comprehensive indirect tax called the GST so that the collection becomes easier, and the end consumer is spared from duplication or double taxation which is intended to be eliminated in the GST. It is also estimated that the overall tax burden of the end customer will come down by around 25 per cent. This will also make our goods competitive in international markets. Experts believe implementing GST could result in a gain of around US$15 billion, year over year, for the Indian economy.
Allocation of GST In spite of such compelling reasons for implementing GST, the contentious issue is the allocation of the GST collected between the state and the central governments in such a way that the state government is not worse off as compared to the earlier indirect tax regime. An amicable formula is being worked out such that the state governments don’t stand to lose when the new GST is implemented.
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The stalemate
An amicable formula is being worked out so that the state governments don’t stand to lose when the GST is implemented.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
Currently the Central Government has agreed to compensate the state governments if their revenue from GST falls short at the rate of 100 per cent of such shortfall for the first three years, 75 per cent for the fourth year and 50 per cent for the fifth year. The state governments are demanding a compensation of 100 per cent of such shortfall for all the five years. The state governments are also demanding an additional 1
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The Opposition is alleging that the amended Land Acquisition Bill is not in the interests of the farmesrs. per cent to cover manufacturing infrastructure. With this remaining unresolved, passing of the GST Bill is undergoing the same fate as that of the land acquisition amendments.
The way forward All said and done, both the bills need to see light at the earliest if India needs to be considered favourably by investors. When
China is slowing down, along with low crude oil prices, now is when India needs to get its act together, and these reforms are key. It is now or never! The Opposition’s obstructionist politics has instigated a frustrated Finance Minister’s recent comment that the indirectly elected Rajya Sabha is blocking the directly elected Lok Sabha’s key reforms. One needs to understand that our constitutional and parliamentary process is difficult to change. The government is said to be seriously mulling calling a special joint session of Parliament to take up the pending bills for discussions and clearance. The President’s intervention is required for this. Hopefully, this can sort out the pending reforms, at least in the coming winter session of Parliament. A
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INDIA INC: AT A GLANCE Car sales in India picks up Car sales, a key indicator of consumer sentiment, grew by around 17 per cent in July. This has been the highest over the last four months. Car makers in India sold close to 1.6 cars which is around 15 per cent higher as compared to June sales. Companies have been launching new models to build up excitement in the market. A number of new models have been announced and bookings are already being made. This includes a new sports utility vehicle, Creta from Hyundai and the Maruti’s S-Cross that has garnered enormous consumer interest in the past few months. Ford is coming out with Aspire and its Figio is undergoing an upgrade. Mahindra will be adding a few more new models to its already broad spread.
Pearson sells The Economist Recently the British news and content major Pearson sold The Financial Times to Japan’s Nikkei for $1.3 billion. The company has also agreed to part with the Economist Group, which is now focusing to be a purely education-based company. The Economist Group includes the highly revered print and online editions of The Economist magazine, which has the legacy and is being held in the highest esteem by researchers, economists and business readers in terms of content. The research outfit Economist Intelligence Unit is also an important component of the business.
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More than a hundred Indian companies will showcase themselves in Africa as the part of a threeday road show in Lagos, Nigeria. The idea is to showcase the brand, explore opportunities for growth and identify local partners in Africa where they can do business. This may potentially result in business partnerships, joint ventures and technology transfer agreements and can also provide an important gateway for Indian companies into the growing African continent.
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The devaluation of the Chinese Yuan This is certainly not good news for the world economy. However, with Chinese economy under pressure, India can certainly capitalise on the situation and create a ground for investors to channel their funds in the country. Dr Suresh Srinivasan
T
he devaluation of the Chinese Yuan sent shock waves around the global markets. The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst loss in five years, losing 3 per cent. The Nasdaq fell by around 3.5 per cent, booking losses that have not been seen in the last four years. Markets around the world lost billions in market capitalisation.
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China’s Yuan tactics The Chinese Yuan depreciated by roughly 5 per cent around the world and reached a four-year low. This is a major development, as it is well known that China has
been famous for manipulating its currency. The Chinese government has been deliberately undervaluing the currency and has not allowed it to appreciate to market-based levels. For decades, there has been external pressure on China to increase the value of its currency, or to let it float in the open market. Appreciation of the Yuan would have depleted China’s export competitiveness. China is mostly an exportintensive economy, and so, any appreciation in its currency could have steeply impacted its manufacturing sector. Western economies, including the US,
that are major trade partners to China, have been shouting at the top of their voices for China to realistically peg its currency. Now, let alone appreciation, it has depreciated its currency by around 5 per cent, creating panic around the world.
Yuan trend: Background The Chinese economy has been steadily deteriorating over the last 12 months. The factory growth and retail sales have been weak and overall fiscal deficit has been deteriorating. Last month, the Chinese stock markets reacted sharply to the economic woes in the form of a crash, which again was averted by the Chinese government through systematic measures by various regulatory bodies. However, the message was loud and clear — that the economy is losing ground and the government is attempting to engineer a soft landing.
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Slowing growth rate
The Yuan devaluation on the agenda during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to the US next month.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
China’s economic growth this year is likely to hit a 20-year low. Although its official growth rate is around 7 per cent, analysts report that the actual growth rate figure could actually be around half of that.
corporate world Recently, Chinese exports fell by around 8 per cent. It is very clear that the current attempt to devalue the currency is to lift up the sagging exports by making the Chinese goods more competitive through the currency devaluation attempt.
Impact on economy
the
MANY GLOBAL ECONOMIES ARE CLAIMING THAT MORE DEVALUATION MIGHT BE IMMINENT.
global advantage in terms of exports as compared to regional peers. This is expected to be an important item on the agenda when the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits the US next month. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and US Federal Reserve were happy that China is becoming flexible to revalue its currency in line with market forces.
India and the impact on Rupee The Indian rupee lost around 3 per cent against the US dollar while currencies of most of its peers lost by around 20 per cent. While the countries whose currencies depreciated steeply managed to recover their export performance, countries like India more or less managed to keep their currencies intact with minimal devaluation seen on the exports front. This again underlies the
India: Import and export This also means that if India needs to catch up with its exports, a further possible devaluation of the Indian rupee is in the offing. However, it appears as if the RBI will not allow the rupee to drop substantially due to a number of reasons. India Inc’s corporate balance sheets do have high level of foreign currency borrowings. In such a situation, if the currency is devalued, it will steeply impact the payouts. Also imports can become very expensive. More importantly, if the US Federal Reserve increases interest rates, which it will anyway
Chinese stock markets crashed suddenly in July
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Global economies are already crying foul! Many expect that this is not an isolated devaluation and there could be more devaluation coming, even if in incremental dosages. Particularly with the Chinese economy in a very bad shape at the moment, this wouldn’t come as a surprise. Although the People’s Bank of China has given its assurance that this is an initiative to peg the currency to market based levels, it has been widely reported that there is a demand within the government to further devalue the currency. Central banks around the world are worried that other countries will follow suit in depreciating their currencies in order to position their exports more competitively. This would then eventually turn into a neverending game spiralling to the bottom. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has confirmed this, and stated that the first tranche of Chinese devaluation may not have a significant impact on the Indian rupee, but if further devaluations follow, that could turn out to be a major threat. Similar views on potential currency wars were expressed by the central banks of Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and many other Asian economies. The US strongly condemned the devaluation, if the sole purpose of this was to gain unfair
desperation for China to devalue the Yuan, and, possibly continue to further devalue from the current levels. In a number of Asia and Pacific Rim countries, the weakening of their local currencies is already evident; this will be vital if they have to remain competitive in their exports. It is widely believed that the Chinese devaluation of Yuan and rupee touching its alltime low in two years, is looking to be the beginning of currency wars across Asia and possibly Europe as well, which is struggling with slowing down exports.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
corporate world do sooner than later, there will be a substantial pressure on the Rupee. The weakening of the Chinese economy clubbed with a very sensitive global economy has taken the commodity prices to hit the rock bottom. For example China has half of the world’s steel capacity and what will it do if it is not able to consume that? Same is the case with aluminum. Lower Chinese consumption of crude means lower global demand and hence lower crude oil price. This is a big plus for India, especially it being one of the largest importers of crude oil in the world. Global crude oil price is now trading at less than $40 a barrel and this is happening for the first time in the last six years. With possibly Iran’s supply that will soon come into the global pipeline, and with the Chinese consumption drastically dropping, we are likely to see much lower commodity prices in the near future. Another way of looking at these developments is to see how India can capitalise on these. Especially with the Chinese economy’s growth coming under pressure and with the US increasing interest rates which will result in reduced investments, higher liquidity flow to India is a realistic assumption as very few countries in the world are capable of absorbing large inflows with vibrant economic activity. But China needs to get its act together very quickly through policy reforms and that will be conducive for investors to channel their funds into India as well. A
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Dr Suresh Srinivasan is a Chartered Accountant, has an MBA (Bradford UK) and a Doctorate in Strategy. He is a Professor of Strategy in Great Lakes Institute of Management and a management consultant.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
INDIA INC: AT A GLANCE Large IPOs in the offering Companies coming up with Initial Public Offering (IPO) are increasing day by day. More than 30 companies are now ready to hit the IPO market, with economic conditions now being more conducive for securing superior valuation for their shares. It is expected that these companies are likely to take out more than `15,000 crore from the market, which will go towards their expansion, growth and meeting their working capital requirements. Some of such funds will also go towards reducing their existing level of debt and loans to financial institutions. Most of them have cleared their IPO offering from the stock market regulator Sebi and some of them are in advanced stages of securing the approval
Investments in start-ups It has now become a ‘cool thing’ for retired corporate honchos to invest in start-ups. Ratan Tata for example has been extensively investing in various start-ups. He has recently invested in youstory.com, the news portal. Over the last two years, Tata has invested in over 10 start-ups in his personal capacity to encourage the start-up ecosystem, including Snapdeal and online furniture retailer Urban Ladder. Arun Sarin, the ex-Vodafone CEO has invested in Ola cabs and has also taken on a board seat in the fast growing company. Ratan Tata has also recently acquired a stake in this company. Tata Capital recently invested in Uber cabs.
Venture capital and private equity flows increase Sequoia Capital is investing in hyper local start-up business, taking large stakes in at least seven such start-ups. Hyper local businesses cater to grocery and perishable purchases by residents who are connected to larger e-commerce platforms along with their retail store neighbourhood. Japanese Soft Bank, part owners in Alibaba of China, has been extensively supporting start-ups and new ventures in India. Nexus venture partners, Kalaari Capital and Blume Ventures are also very active in supporting start-ups.
Sundar Pichai to lead Google Sundar Pichai, a Google veteran for more than 10 years, will lead the flagship company of the Alphabet Group, Google. Google will continue to be active in areas like search engine activities, advertisements, maps, YouTube and android operating system for mobile phones. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Stanford University and Wharton Business School. Sundar Pichai joins other illustrious Indian CEOs leading global corporations like Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Indra Nooyi (Pepsico Inc), Rajeev Suri (Nokia), Lakshmi Mittal (Arcelor Mittal) and Shantanu Narayen (Adobe).
must reads Since you’re planning on doing your MBA, you need to be well read, and not just on current affairs. In this section, we offer you some choices of books that will broaden your perspective, and you will find that you will never be at a loss in a discussion!
Wings of Fire Author – APJ Abdul Kalam Publisher – Universities Press Genre – Autobiography Price – ` 128
T
he son of a boat-owner in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam had an unprecedented career as a defence scientist, receiving the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna and finally becoming the President of India. Wings of Fire is the story of Kalam’s rise from darkness to glory. The book gives a vivid account of his personal and professional struggles, as well as the story of Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Nag – missiles that have raised India to the level of a missile power
of international reckoning. The book is also a saga of independent India’s struggle for technological selfsufficiency and defensive autonomy. Kalam in this book gives the readers a deeper understanding of India’s politics – domestic and international, along with delving deep into the world of science.
L
eaders Eat Last is a follow-up to Simon Sinek’s global bestseller Start with Why. The author is a visionary thinker, and can be attributed to bring about the cultural revolution WHY. This book is the natural extension of Start with Why, where the author expands his ideas at the organisational level. Sinek talks of the importance of determining a company’s WHY, but along with it speaks of the next crucial step of getting people on board with the WHY. The author cites the Marine Corps where men and women are willing to risk their lives, because they know others would do the same for them. He feels if businesses could adopt this supportive mentality, employees would be more motivated to take bigger risks, because they’d know their colleagues and company would back them up, no matter what.
Leaders Eat Last Author – Simon Sinek oks Ltd Publisher – Penguin Bo Genre – Non fiction Price – ` 559
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oni Morrison’s fifth novel Beloved is set in the Reconstruction period, post Civil War, when a great deal of random violence was let loose upon Beloved blacks, both the slaves freed by Emancipation and Author – Toni Morrison others who had been given or had bought their use Publisher – Random Ho freedom earlier. Genre – Fiction Beloved is Sethe’s story, who was born a slave Price – ` 320 and escaped to Ohio. But even after 18 years, she is still not free. Sethe keeps thinking about Sweet Home, the beautiful farm, which brings alive the many hideous things that happened there. She has a new home now. But it’s haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. The novel is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, where her versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
study hour
Are you a Brainiac? In this section, we shall explore several different types of questions from the various areas of entrance exams like the CAT, CET, GMAT, etc, and how to best solve them.
Quant 1. Zen is the currency of a country Zing. Zen notes are available in the denominations of 11, 13, 15 and 21 only. There are 4 banks each issuing only one type of these notes. Zang wants to withdraw a fixed amount ‘x’ from each of these banks. What is the minimum value of x? 1] 11025 zens 2] 15015 zens 3] 13015 zens 4] None of these Ans: LCM of 11, 13, 15 and 21 is the minimum amount each bank can issue. \ LCM = 11 × 13 × 3 × 5 × 7 = 15015. Hence, [2]. 2. If
(
1] 1,
36
)= 6x3y
2]
Ans:
(
= 27 × 3
(2
= 81
=(
=
. Find x and y.
(
4]
)
(2 )8 (
3]
+ 1)
+ 1) )(2
+ 1)
)7(2
+ 1)
,y=
. Hence, [2].
=
\x=
Alternatively,
27
(6
+3) = 27 × 3 ×
(2
+ 1)
If we compare this with the right hand side of the equation, then the power of 6 should be same as that of
2 which is
in 27 × 3 ×
.
Thus, options [1] and [3] can be eliminated easily. It is clear that the power of 3 is positive.
Thus, y = .
3. A sells an item to B with a profit of 25%, B sells the same item to C. If C buys the item for Rs.3600 with B suffering a loss of 10%, find the cost price of the item for A.
1] Rs.
2] Rs.4000
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Ans: Let the CP for A be x.
\ CP for B = 1.25x SP for B = Rs.3600
\
x = Rs.3200. Hence, [4].
=
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
3] Rs.
4] None of these
study hour 4. In the given figure, BC = 5 units, DE = 6
1] 10
units
units. If AD is the diameter, find AC.
2] 22 units
3] 11 units
4] 11
units
Ans: As AD is the diameter of circle, AED = 90° \ DAEC is 45°-45°-90° triangle. i.e., AE = EC Also, ABD = 90o. In DDBC, BD = BC [45°–45°–90° triangle] \BD = 5 units
\CD = 5
units \ CE = 11
Also, CD × CE = BC × AC
AC =
=
units
= 22 units.
Hence, [2]. Alternatively, AD is the diameter AED = \ DBC = 90° DDBC is 45°-45°-90° triangle. \ DC = 5 units EC = 6 + 5 =11 In DAEC, A = C = 45° AE = EC = 11 units \ AC = 22 units.
ABD = 90o
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Verbal Read the following passages given below and answer the questions that follow: 1.
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HR Manager: Employees in our organization who are assigned to projects for which they can work from home will not complete their project work on time. Even highly motivated employees will neglect their projects if they are not required to work from office. Therefore, if employees are given a project to work on and are not mandated to work from office, no employee involved in that project will perform satisfactorily or receive a high approval rating. The conclusion of the HR manager’s argument follows logically if which one of the following is assumed? a) Some highly motivated employees will receive a high approval rating in a project if they are required to work from office on their projects. b) Any employee who completes a project by working both from office as well as home will earn a high approval grade in that project. c) If highly motivated employees are required to work from office on their projects they will complete all their projects on time. d) All highly motivated employees who complete their projects by working from home will receive high approval grades for those projects. e) No employee who completes anything less than all the project work assigned to him for a project will
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
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2.
The number of seats for recognized business school programs in Indian institutes has more than doubled in the last five years. We can conclude from this that interest among Indians for business school programs has increased in the last five years. Each of the following, if true, weakens the argument EXCEPT? a) The number of Indian b-schools who opted to report data about applications for admission to business school has declined in each of the last five years. b) Most Indian business school programs have had their accreditations cancelled in the last five years for not maintaining the required academic standards. c) The number of Indian companies who are willing to hire Indian graduates without business school study has increased in the last five years. d) The number of errors in data about applications for admission to Indian business school programs by Indian citizens has increased substantially during the last five years. e) The percentage of applications for admission to business schools received from outside India by people who are not citizens of India has more than quadrupled in the last five years.
Answer: If the number of b-schools who opt to report data about admissions has declined then we cannot be sure that interest among Indians for b-school admissions is on the rise. Therefore, [a] weakens the argument. [b], too, weakens the argument. If the number of recognized b-schools is decreasing, it is likely that seats for b-school admissions are also decreasing. [c], too, weakens the argument by implying that there is no real reason for Indians to pursue business studies since companies are hiring graduates without business degrees. If there are a lot of errors in data about admissions to b-schools then we are not sure that more Indians are seeking admission to b-schools. Eliminate [d]. If non-Indians are showing more interest in Indian b-schools then it does not necessarily follow that interest among Indians for b-school admission is not increasing. [e] does not weaken the conclusion in any way. Hence, [e].
3.
Minister: The strong pace of economic growth over the last five years means that the economy is “overheating” leading to price inflation of goods and services. In order to control inflation I propose to formulate policies that will slow down the economic growth over the next fiscal year. Since high economic growth rates are inflationary and hurt the common people the most we should henceforth never strive for high economic growth. The reasoning in the Minister’s argument is flawed because this argument: a) Mistakes a purely positive occurrence to be a negative occurrence and tries to rectify it by proposing another negative occurrence. b) Confuses an adequate solution with being a required solution. c) Assumes that a particular cause can have only one effective solution d) Ignores the fact that the solution to the problem may be equally harmful as the problem itself. e) Deliberately employs language that is vague.
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receive a high approval rating for that project.
Answer: No employee working from home will receive a high approval rating. What is a high approval rating? Completing projects on time. Only option e has this connection – between completing projects on time and receiving high approval ratings. (a) And (c) talk about working from office – the passage is about receiving high approval ratings by working from home. It can be eliminated. (b) is working both from office and home – we are only concerned about working from home. It, too can be eliminated. (d) mentions a scenario which contradicts the passage. Hence, [e].
Answer: According to the argument a good occurrence – strong economic growth – and a bad occurrence – price inflation of goods – is taking place at the same time. The minister, in order to curb the influence of the negative occurrence is proposing to eliminate the good occurrence altogether. Therefore, the solution is harmful for society. Hence, [d]. [a] is incorrect. The occurrence is not purely positive but also has a negative factor to it. There is only one solution proposed by the minister. Eliminate [b] which has two solutions. [c] is incorrect because the argument does not imply that no other solution other than the one proposed by the minister is appropriate for this scenario. The argument is clearly understood. Eliminate [e].
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
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WORD DOSE
The first impression The apartment and furniture would have been nothing extraordinary as belonging to a homely, northern farmer, with a stubborn countenance, and stalwart limbs set out to advantage in knee-breeches and gaiters. Such an individual seated in his arm-chair, his mug of ale frothing on the round table before him, is to be seen in any circuit of five or six miles among these hills, if you go at the right time after dinner. But Mr. Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living. He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose. Possibly, some people might suspect him of a degree of under-bred pride; I have a sympathetic chord within that tells me it is nothing of the sort: I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling — to manifestations of mutual kindliness. He’ll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again. No, I’m running on too fast: I bestow my own attributes over-liberally on him. Mr. Heathcliff may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which actuate me. Excerpt from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
MAT CH T HE W O R D S W IT H T H E IR M EA NING S 1.
Countenance – (koun-tn-uh ns) (n)
7.
Abode – (uh-bohd) (n)
8.
2.
Stalwart – (stawl-wert) (adj)
Gypsy – (jip-see) (n)
9.
Squire – (skwahyuh r) (n)
3.
Breeches – (brich-iz) (n)
10. Slovenly – (sluhv-uh n-lee) (adj)
4.
Gaiters – (gey-ter) (n)
16. Impertinence – (im-pur-tn-uh ns) (n)
11. Amiss – (uh-mis) (adv)
5.
Ale – (eyl) (n)
17. Bestow – (bih-stoh) (v)
12. Morose – (muh-rohs) (adj)
18. Actuate – (ak-choo-eyt) (v)
6.
Froth – (frawth, froth) (n)
13. Reserve – (ree-surv) (n) underlying facts of a situation. Confer or present (an honour, right, or gift). g. Strongly built and sturdy. h. A man of high social standing who owns and lives on an estate in a rural area, especially the chief landowner in such an area. i. A mass of small bubbles in liquid caused by agitation, fermentation, or salivating. j. Sullen and ill-tempered. k. A person’s face or facial expression. l. Lack of respect; rudeness. f.
15. Manifestation – (man-uh-fuh-stey-shuh n) (n)
m. (Especially of a person or their appearance) untidy and dirty. n. Unwillingness to reveal one’s inner feelings. o. Short trousers fastened just below the knee, now chiefly worn for riding or as part of ceremonial dress. p. Make (someone) act in a particular way; motivate. q. Any beer other than lager, stout, or porter. r. Not quite right; inappropriate or out of place.
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a. A place of residence; a house or home. b. A strong dislike or disinclination. c. A protective covering of cloth or leather for the ankle and lower leg. d. A member of a travelling people traditionally living by itinerant trade and fortune telling. Gypsies speak a language (Romany) that is related to Hindi and are believed to have originated in South Asia. e. An event, action, or object that is a clear proof of the
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14. Aversion – (uh-vur-zhuh n, -shuh) (n)
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
study hour
A quiz to boost your General Knowledge 1. Name the city that has been selected to become the World Book Capital for 2017. a. Rome b. Melbourne c. Conakry d. London 2. Recently Indian pharmaceutical firm Lupin acquired an American generic company for $880 million to boost its presence in the United States of America market. Name the US firm. a. Gavis b. ZAO Bio Biocom c. Nanomi d. Medquimica
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3. According to the data provided by Women and Child Development Ministry of the Government of India, this country adopts most numbers of children from various orphanages in India. Name the country. a. United States of America b. United Kingdom c. Germany d. Australia
a. b. c. d.
Santosh Yadav Nalini Sengupta Krushnaa Patil Bachendri Pal
6. Who is the winner of 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix of Formula One? a. Lewis Hamilton b. Nico Rosberg c. Sebastian Vettel d. Nico Hulkenberg 7. Name the state government that has launched Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme for the development of villages around tiger reserves? a. Madhya Pradesh b. Maharashtra c. Rajasthan d. Andhra Pradesh 8. The Government of India has made the announcement to observe August 7th as: a. National Handloom Day b. National Gram Vikas Day c. National Women Liberation Day d. National Save Electricity Day
4. Name the country/territory where the population is entirely comprised of immigrants. a. Falkland Islands b. Monaco c. American Samoa d. Vatican City
9. Name the astronaut who holds the distinction of a Guinness World Record for spending the longest time in space. a. Sunita Williams b. Neil Armstrong c. Gennady Padalka d. Sergei Krikalev
5. The Himalayan peak 5260 has been renamed after a famous mountaineer thereby honouring the person. Who is this mountaineer?
10. The Indian government has signed a USD 300 million loan pact to support the National Urban Health Mission with an important bank. Name the bank.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
a. b. c. d.
Deutsche Bank World Bank Asian Development Bank Citi Bank
11. Recently a country was inducted into the World Trade Organisation as its 162nd member. Name the country. a. Papua New Guinea b. Ghana c. Brunei d. Kazakhstan 12. On this day in 1927, Indian Broadcasting Company began organised radio broadcasting from Bombay station and every year this day is celebrated as National Broadcasting Day. What date it is? a. July 23 b. June 9 c. August 8 d. January 2 13. He became the first Indian golfer to win a gold medal at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles. He was 14 at that time. Name him. a. Jyoti Randhawa b. Ranveer Singh Saini c. Shiv Kapur d. Anirban Lahiri 14. To commemorate the International Day of Yoga, the Reserve Bank of India announced to issue coins of a certain denomination. The coins will bear logos of the International Yoga Day and at the bottom the date June 21 will be inscribed. In which denomination will the coins be issued?
study hour
a. b. c. d.
Rs 10 Rs 20 Rs 50 Rs 100
15. Name the Indian state that has instituted a youth award in the name of former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and has also announced that his birthday October 15th will be celebrated as Youth Awakening Day. a. West Bengal b. Meghalaya c. Tamil Nadu d. Kerala 16. Government of India is planning to develop two immersed tunnels between Kakdwip and Sagar Island. Name the state in India where these two places are located. a. Mizoram b. Uttar Pradesh c. Arunachal Pradesh d. West Bengal 17. What is the approximate urban female work-force participation rate (WPR) in India? a. 55 per cent b. 47 per cent c. 5 per cent d. 15 per cent 18. This country is the biggest consumer of edible oils in the world. It imports most of its edible oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. Which country are we talking about? a. India b. China c. Japan d. Australia
20. This country became the first Asian country to get European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) membership. This will allow the nation to participate in the governance of CERN, by attending meetings of its council. Name the country. a. India b. Pakistan c. Sri Lanka d. Bangladesh 21. Name the automaker that recently launched the premium crossover “S-Cross” in India. a. Honda b. Volkswagen c. Nissan d. Maruti Suzuki 22. Among the following options, which group has tied with Snapdeal recently to retail their products online? a. Westside b. Shoppers Stop c. Max d. Pantaloons 23. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL) at IIT Kharagpur has signed an MoU with a foreign university for students and faculty exchange. Name the university. a. Cambridge b. Harvard c. George Washington University d. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 24. The Union Minority Affairs Minister Dr. Najma Heptullah
has launched an ambitious scheme for minorities. The scheme seeks to bridge the academic and skill development gaps between ‘madrassa pass outs’ and their mainstream counterparts. Name the scheme. a. Nai Manzil b. Nai Khoj c. Nai Roshni d. Nai Umang
25. Name the state assembly that recently passed the resolution on abolishing death penalty. a. Nagaland b. Assam c. Mizoram d. Tripura 26. This place became the first Indian city to be a member of Beijing-headquartered World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Council. Name the city. a. Kochi b. Jaipur c. Hyderabad d. Agra
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27. Name the country which is the world’s largest exporter of beef in the FY 2015. a. New Zealand b. India c. Pakistan d. United States of America 28. The Government of India has approved the setting up of All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) for imparting MD and Ph.D level education in the traditional medicine. Name the city where AIIA will be set up. a. Kottayam b. Thiruvananthapuram c. Nasik d. New Delhi 29. The government of a certain state in India has put a ban on
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19. Recently a bank has launched ‘Dhanchayat’, an educational film to raise awareness on the dangers of borrowing money
from unorganised sources? Name the bank. a. State Bank of India b. ICICI Bank c. HDFC Bank d. UCO Bank
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
study hour the sale of all blood-thinning medicines like aspirin and ibuprofen without prescription. Which state it is? a. Maharashtra b. Karnataka c. New Delhi d. West Bengal
a. South Korea and Taiwan b. China and Bhutan
c. Japan and Sri Lanka d. Bangladesh and Nepal
30. In which state of India is Netravali wildlife sanctuary located? a. Madhya Pradesh b. Goa c. Rajasthan d. Assam 31. India has signed MOU with a country recently for technical cooperation in Railway sector. The tenure of this MoU is two years and it will be automatically renewed for further successive period of two years at a time. Name the country. a. Slovak Republic b. Sri Lanka c. Denmark d. China
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32. Om Prakash Munjal, founder and chairman of a well-known company, passed away recently in Ludhiana. Name the company. a. Maruti Udyog b. Apollo Tyres c. Hero Cycles Limited d. Hindustan Motors
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33. Name the district in India that has the highest number of automated and self-cleaning e-toilets in its schools. a. Pratapgarh b. Balrampur c. Nellore d. Aurangabad 34. India has imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty for a period of five years on potassium carbonate imports from two countries. Name the countries.
Advanc’edge MBA September 2015
How to Play Fill in the grid so that every horizontal row, every vertical column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9, without repeating the numbers in the same row, column or box. You can’t change the digits already given in the grid. Every puzzle has one solution. Hint: Don’t fill in numbers at random. While filling a particular square, write numbers 1-9 on a pad and start eliminating those numbers that already appear in the same row, column or 3x3 box.
ANSWERS SuDoKu
GLOBESCAN 1. c
2. a
3. a
4. d
5. b
6. c
7. b
8. a
9. c
10. c
11. d
12. a
13. b
14. a
15. c
16. d
17. d
18. a
19. c
20. b
21. d
22. b
23. c
24. a
25. d
26. a
27. b
28. d
29. c
30. b
31. a
32. c
33. c
34. a
WORD DOSE
For more similar puzzles, visit: www.sudoku.com
1. k 6. i 11. r 16. l
2. g 7. a 12. j 17. f
3. o 8. d 13. n 18. p
4. c 9. h 14. b
5. q 10. m 15. e