20th issue all pages for website

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP:

Dr R Nandagopal, Director, PSG Institute of Management (PSGIM), Coimbatore

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Volume 1, Issue No. 20 Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

December 16-31, 2015 / `50

Survey

An in-depth survey on work-life balance for women Loved and Married too

Commodore Dilip Mohapatra

COMMANDING POSITION

Amit Ranjan and Shweta Kumari on love and commitment

Dynamic Duo 20 NAYANTARA & DILIP MOHAPATRA

Life is a song

Tête-à-tête

A candid conversation with Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, E-Commerce, Google India

cover inner

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Tel. : 020-66741235/36, 30631235/36, Telefax : 66741234 Mobile : 09673338787 Email : admissions@balajisociety.org Website : www.balajisociety.org

BIMM

BALAJI INSTITUTE OF MODERN MANAGEMENT

2 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

BITM

BALAJI INSTITUTE OF TELECOM MANAGEMENT

BIIB

BALAJI INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

BIMHRD BALAJI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & HRD

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SIGNS OF GREATNESS

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illiam Shakespeare has said, “some are born great; some achieve greatness and; some have greatness thrust upon them.’’

Here, I am narrating an incident pertaining to a renowned scientist, who has achieved greatness and yet lends his ear intently to the views of the other person who may not have achieved his level of success; who is none in front of him.

This incident took place more than a decade ago but keeps guiding me even today. I was returning from Chennai to Pune by an evening flight. Before checking in, I had a get together with my old friends and had consumed two big bottles of beer. As I entered the flight and began walking the aisle, I saw a renowned scientist seated in the business class section which I had to pass through. He wished me as I went past him. I continued and moved to the Economy Class. Until then I had not met him.

The flight took off. Soon thereafter, the airhostess requested me to move to the business class section as the gentleman had requested that I sit next to him as he wanted to talk to me. I promptly got up and sat next to him.

He started the discussion by saying, “Bala, you succeed in whatever you start and interestingly, that too even without any infrastructure or any other support. I am part of a big education establishment, like you. But, I have not been able to succeed. What is the secret of your success?”

Unaware that he was heading any institute, I asked him, “Sir, who is the director of the institute?”

He said, “Me Sir,” On this came my reaction, Phir toh Bhatta baith gaya’ (then you are doomed). I cursed myself for this slip of the

tongue and did not know how to make up for it. When we say something which may convey a perception of being derogatory to someone, it is quite natural for that person to go into an offensive mode; it may also trigger violent reaction from him. Alternatively, even if the person does not instantly react at that moment, he would take it to heart and politely end the dialogue. (On hindsight, I realise, it was absolutely incorrect on my part to use such un-parliamentary words. Such kind of reaction between two equals/buddies could go off as a fun dialogue. In this case though, he was a top notch scientist and I was nowhere near to his status).

However, I could see an expression of calmness peppered with curiosity on his face as he coolly asked me, “Why do you say so? Are you saying that I am not a qualified person?”

I told him, “Sir, you are highly qualified, but I don’t think you are fit to be in this position.

Because there are three attributes required for the director of a private business school, if you want to take it to greater height at short duration.

A scholarly scientist is unlikely to possess, or is capable of possessing those attributes”

He asked me, with a frown on his face, “What are they?”

I told him candidly, “The first qualification is that a director should have the attribute of shamelessness (besharam).”

He was shocked. He asked me, “How can you say that?”

I told him, “Sir, I am saying this and very confidently, based on my experience. The people who glorify you may treat you like dirt also and you should have the capability of withstanding that.” He asked me to elaborate.

I decided to narrate an episode pertaining to job placement of students. I said to him, “For example, I visited a particular company with a lot of hope and happiness in my mind, as one of my alumni was a senior corporate manager there.

So, I took it for granted that she would give me royal treatment when I visited her. Ordinarily also, most of the corporate professionals with whom I fix appointments, try to accommodate me as quickly as possible, not only because they know me but also because physically I am not in the pinkest of health.

“So, in this case, the professional happened to

I told him, Sir, you are highly qualified, but I don’t think you are fit to be in this position. Because there are three attributes required for the director of a private business school, if you want to take it to greater height at short duration. A scholarly scientist is unlikely to possess, or is capable of possessing those attributes. The first qualification is that a director should have the attribute of shamelessness (besharam) December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 3

BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET

be our own alumni, so I went there with a relaxed mind. However, when I reached this particular company, she made me wait for a full two hours.

Having had expectations in my mind of a quick appointment, every minute that I had to wait there made me claustrophobic and agitated, but I had to quietly bear it. Then after two hours, when I was called by the peon, I went in, hoping to get a warm reception in her cabin. Instead, She was very cold and asked me, “What can I do for you professor?” Earlier she would call me “Bala Sir.” I don’t go to any company for anything, except for inviting them to participate in our campus placement programme, a routine that I have been following for the last three decades.

However, she asked me to make a professional presentation, which took me by surprise, but I did so. Then came her cold response, stating that her company only visits prestigious institutes like IIMs and XLRI. “She was placed in that company from the campus of a college that was neither an IIM or a XLRI. (please note, the story is not related to Sri Balaji Society). Swallowing all the humiliation, I continued to plead with her to consider our campus for placements. She said flatly that she couldn’t help me.

As I came out of her cabin, her director was entering the office. On seeing me he warmly wished me and said, “Hi Bala, how are you?” We exchanged pleasantries and then he invited me to his cabin and offered a cup of coffee and also called her in. He proudly told me she was our student. I smiled and said that she was one of the best students and we all were proud of her. After some time I left, as I had to go to many other companies. However, because she had kept me waiting for two hours, I had to miss two other company appointments.

Then, I asked the scientist, “My question is, will anybody like to be in this kind of situation?

We all have our own egos, related to our position.

When we all are standing, sometimes we have to bend and sometimes we have to stand straight.

But, many will not bend.”

What is your second point, the scientist asked?

I said, “The second point is, like Plato who said that a philosopher king should not have a family -- directors of business schools also should not have a family if they really want to look after their children. Every employee has his or her own family. They have a duty for fixed hours. The director, or for that matter anyone in this country suffers from the mentality of being an employee. However, parents send their children to us from across the country, hoping that the institute will take care of them. The full time faculty are of course there to guide students when the classes are in progress. These young

children cannot miss a lecture or training and as they are mentally occupied they forget their problems during class hours.

“But the moment the classes are over, and the faculty go home, the students get conscious about their problems, which are mostly emotional.

Where will they go during the odd hours? You can appoint a qualified counsellor, but he too will be time bound. Also, students hesitate to go to a counsellor, because of the social stigma. Here confidentiality and trust factors are involved.

Ideally, the director’s mobile should be on for 24 hours and his physical presence in the campus can prevent a lot of calamities. Delegation of duties is alright, but delegation does not mean abdication of responsibilities. If you call an institute a family, then the director should be the head and he should live with that family. In a residential campus, the directors and faculty live on the campus, but how about the rest of them? You are in this category of other such institutions, which do not have such facilities.”

To this he was frank enough to tell me, he couldn’t give more than three to four hours in a

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day, that too for a few days in a week.

Then, he asked, so what is the third condition?

I explained, “The third condition is that you should be married to one institute; you cannot dabble your fingers in many pies. Because the students put their life, their money and their future in our hands and hence, you cannot focus on anything except the students. You should also do the marketing function for your students.’’

“But,’’ I told him, ``you are a member at several companies, on boards and government bodies.”

He looked at me very patiently, his hands folded like a student, and in a contemplative mood. As the flight landed in Pune, he asked me, what he should do. I diplomatically suggested to him that maybe he should not continue to take up the responsibility of the institute.

We walked our ways.

Incidentally, the name of the stalwart scientist is the genius, Padmabhushan Dr. Vijay Bhatkar.

Note the tragedy of this country. Dr. Bhatkar was heading the The International Institute of Information Technology (pronounced I square IT) rated amongst the top Technology schools

But the moment the classes are over, and the faculty go home, the students get conscious about their problems, which are mostly emotional. Where will they go during the odd hours? You can appoint a qualified counsellor, but he too will be time bound.

Also, students hesitate to go to a counsellor, because of the social stigma. Here confidentiality and trust factors are involved. Ideally, the director’s mobile should be on for 24 hours; his physical presence in the campus can prevent a lot of calamities

PIC CREDIT: WWW.NEWS4EDUCATION.COM

in India (NASSCOM-IDC-Dataquest May ‘05).

Situated amongst IT leaders such as Infosys, Wipro, Tata Technologies and Cognizant at the Infotech Park, Hinjewadi, in Pune, Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, on the 28th of May 2003 dedicated I²IT to the nation. With a curriculum developed and delivered by leading academicians and industry professionals, I²IT provides aspirants full residential MS and MA Programs in Advanced Technology. It was the dream child of leading industrialist, P P Chhabria.

However, the institute was not recognised

by AICTE, on some flimsy ground. The then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, himself wrote a letter to the Union HRD Ministry stating that the institution in question shall be treated as the State’s IIT as the union government was opening more number of these premier institutes, in different parts of the country. However, the bureaucracy killed the institute as it refused to accede to accept the request.

So, in the end, the State Government

stretched its hand to own the institute; the industrialist pumped in a lot of money to create one of the best technology-driven infrastructure in a premier industrial belt – all it required was a signature on a sheet of paper for the bureaucracy to endorse it - but the recognition was denied!

After a few years, I decided to invite Dr Bhatkar to address the students of Balaji Institute of Telecom Management (BITM). I called him up with some trepidation.

He remembered our meeting in the plane, for, when I called him up for the invitation, he said, ``Bala, do you think I am fit to address the students?’’

I told him, ``Sir, you are the most eligible to do so, as BITM is a technologically-driven institute and you are the best technocrat to interact with the students.’’

He answered, ``thank you for the recognition, I will certainly be there.’’

What I admired about him is that, he did not carry the baggage of grudge and was gracious enough to forgive and forget. ...

Hence, I still remember this episode as clear as crystal because, what was important is not what I said, but despite being an internationally acclaimed scientist, he listened to what I said with intense concentration, despite me being nowhere close to his level of achievement.

Dr Bhatkar, as most are aware, is an internationally acclaimed scientist and one of the premier IT leaders of India. He is best known as the architect of India’s first supercomputer and as the founder Executive Director of C-DAC, India’s national initiative in supercomputing.

He is credited with the creation of several national institutions, notably C-DAC, ER&DC Institute of Technology which is the Academic Wing of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K), ETH Research Lab, MKCL and India International Multiversity.

He has been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cabinet of the Government of India, Governing Council Member of CSIR, India and e-Governace Committee Chairman of the governments of Maharashtra and Goa. A Fellow of IEEE, ACM, CSI, INAE and leading scientific, engineering and professional societies of India, he has been honoured with the Padmashri, Padmabhushan and Maharashtra Bhushan awards. His other recognitions include Saint Dnyaneshwar World Peace Prize, Lokmanya Tilak Award, HK Firodia Award and Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award, amongst many others. He was a nominee for the Petersburg Prize and is a Distinguished Alumni of IIT, Delhi.

Despite being such a genius, he intently listened. Young corporate managers should develop the art of listening. This requires shedding off your ego and having the yearning to learn from others, no matter how small they are.

Like it is said, listening is not a passive activity; it is not the ‘unexciting’ or ‘un-flamboyant’ part of the conversation; listening well is the vital ingredient in a successful, productive and interesting conversation.

As for humility, Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu has aptly said, ``I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”

DR (COL.) A. BALASUBRAMANIAN editor-in-chief

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 5

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Contents COVER STORY

COMMANDING POSITION Meet Commodore Dilip Mohapatra, VSM, who has navigated from the robust discipline of the Navy to the chequered maze of the corporate, with aplomb, applying lessons learnt in one field to overcome and ride over the challenges of another. And now in the third innings as coach, mentor and poet, he carries it out with equal panache and elan...

ALSO...

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Dynamic Duo 20

Life is a Song An in-depth and insightful interview with Commodore Dilip Mohapatra and Nayantara on what makes their marraige work

09

COLLYWOOD

Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 6 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Volume 1 Issue No. 20 December 16-31, 2015 www.corporatecitizen.in

13

MANAGE MONEY

Dr Anil Lamba on Trading on Equity: How to use Fixed-Cost Assets/Funds to Magnify Returns

14

WAX ELOQUENT

Who said what and why

16

Tête-à-Tête

A candid conversation with Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director- ECommerce, Retail, Online Classifieds, Technology, Education and Government, Google India

16

9

18

ISTD CHENNAI SEMINAR

A panel discussion, at the ISTD Chennai Seminar Session, by leading corporates on building leadership pipleline

22

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

An in-depth interview with Dr R Nandagopal, Director, PSG Institute of Management (PSGIM), Coimbatore

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CHANGING ROLES

Winds of change: Changing face of the role of a CFO in an organisation

40

LOVED AND MARRIED TOO

Amit Ranjan and Shweta Kumari on why they don’t ever feel like having committed too early

42

INTERVIEW

58

An exclusive with Prof Peter Cappelli, the George W Taylor Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

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THE TAX-MAN COMETH-6

“Treasures in the Rice Pot” by S K Jha, (IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

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40 December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 7

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian

46 48

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty

50

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand

HEALTH

India has highest rate of antibiotic resistance

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

52

SURVEY

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MOBILE APPS

56

Best car shopping apps!

Be responsible to yourself

FEATHERLITE

58

Tweets from the corporate world

Desi brands ride on Pardesi names--Argentine footballer Lionel Messi joins the elite group as Tata’s global brand ambassador

ASTROTURF

PEARLS OF WISDOM

SPORTS BIZ

60-61

CITIZEN CLAPS

Chennai rains brought out the best in humanity

Assistant Editor Joe Williams Senior Business Writers Mahalakshmi Hariharan Rajesh Rao

Paremvir Malik, Founder, Sequence Business HR solutions, talks about his journey from college to starting his own venture

An in-depth survey by Thomson Reuters Foundation, supported

by The Rockefeller Foundation, on concerns faced by women in maintaining a work-life balance

Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh

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Fortune favours the bold & lucky

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THE LAST WORD

Where the mind is without fear!

by Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO at Zensar Technologies

BE A CORPORATE CITIZEN

How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business?

Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com We would love to hear from you!

8 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Pune Bureau Dinesh Kulkarni / Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560 Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389 Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke Graphic Designer Anil Walunj On Cover Page Commodore Dilip Mohapatra with wife, Nayantara and daughters, Madhumita, Pratichee and Sona Photographers Shantanu Relekar Website www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising and Marketing queries Email: MANSHA.VIRADIA@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage) Tel. (020) 69000677 / 69000672

COLLYWOOD

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Billionaire Bhargava pedals to generate electricity Free Electric, a bicycle that produces electricity was unveiled by billionaire philanthropist Manoj Bhargava recently. This product aims to help solve the problem of electricity shortage in the country, particularly rural areas.

The US-based Bhargava plans to make 10,000 bicycles, expected to be priced in the ₹12,000 to ₹15,000 range in India by March 2016. The design and manufacturing of the product will be done in the States, and later he intends to start manufacturing the bicycle in India to reduce the final price. Free Electric works by converting Kinetic energy into electric energy. As the user pedals the flywheel it spins a generator which in turn charges the attached battery. One hour of pedalling can meet a rural household’s electricity needs for 24 hours, he said. As of now the bicycle will be able to light up 24 bulbs, power an electric fan and charge a mobile device simultaneously.

Neerja Bhanot, flight attendant of hijacked plane acknowledged Neerja Bhanot’s Indian biographical film directed by Ram Madhvani starring Sonam Kapoor is a film about how a young flight attendant fought for the lives of her passengers. Neerja is a biopic on the life of 23-year-old Neerja Bhanot who gave up her life trying to save the lives of hijacked passengers on PanAm flight in Karachi in 1986.

Neerja posthumously became the youngest recipient of India’s highest civilian award for bravery, The Ashok Chakra, while Pakistan also bestowed the prestigious Tamgha-e-Insaaniyat Award on her for showing incredible human kindness during the

hijack. “Neerja is one of the unsung heroes of India whose story should bee an inspiration for everyone. one.

We will be releasing the he film on Feb 19 for thee people the world overr to know and celebrate the he story of a 23-year-old girl who found courage and nd self-sacrifice in an extraorditraordinary moment in her life, ife,” said Vijay Singh, CEO, Foxx Star Studios.

Directed by Ram Madhvani, the upcoming ming film will also feature Shabana Azmi, who will portray ortray the role of Neerja’s mother in the flick.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 9

Ola hires former Infosys CFO Bansal

Former Infosys Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal will take over as the head, finance operations of Taxi aggregator Ola, as its part of expansion drive in the country. Bansal, who announced his resignation from the country’s second largest software services firm in October this year, will join the Softbank-backed Ola in January 2016. “Rajiv brings close to 21 years of experience in finance with over 16 years at Infosys, where he was the CFO and recently transitioned to being an advisor to the CEO. Rajiv will be part of Ola’s core leadership team,” Ola said in a statement.

Mitesh Shah, who is currently the CFO, will lead strategic finance initiatives as part of Bansal’s team, it added. “We are thrilled to welcome Rajiv on board. He brings with him a wealth of experience from his long tenure at Infosys. Rajiv’s expertise in the finance domain is extremely valuable for us at this juncture of growth,” Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said. His experience of being at the helm of finance for one of India’s most respected companies will help Ola in adopting best practices, he added. Before joining Infosys, Bansal has worked in different capacities.

Bill Gates to open gates for clean tech Bill Gates announced one of the largest clean-energy partnerships in history, according to a new report in ClimateWire. The partnership will be focused on researching and deploying new sources of carbon-free energy, funded by billions of dollars from Gates and other philanthropists. “This is the single biggest co-operative research and development partnership in history,” according to sources. The Gates Foundation doesn’t invest in energy technology, focusing instead on anti-poverty work that’s unlikely to yield a return. Still, Gates has recently hinted at plans to invest as much as $2 billion of his personal fortune in zero-carbon energy technologies. His goal, as laid out in a 2010 TED talk, is to allow humanity to reach zero global carbon emissions in the next 35 years, a

goal that will require huge advances in nuclear, solar, and wind power. “Right now, the world spends only a few billion dollars a year on researching early-stage ideas for zero-carbon energy,” Gates wrote after the earlier announcement. “It should be investing two or three times that much.” In an interview with The Atlantic earlier this month, Gates laid out a mix of ambitious ideas as his ideal approach. “We want to give a little bit of money to the guy who thinks that high wind will work; we want to give a little bit of money to the guy who thinks that taking sunlight and making oil directly out of sunlight will work,” Gates said. “There’re dozens of those ideas, and enabling technologies for those ideas. That’s the kind of thing that we should be funding more of.”

GroupM CEO Srinivas appointed RSCI chairman The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), which brings out the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) for the print media, has appointed CVL Srinivas, chief executive of GroupM-South Asia, as its chairman for a period of two years with immediate effect. Srinivas takes over from Hormusji Cama, who was RSCI chairman for the last two years. RSCI, along with the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), brings out IRS, which captures print consumption patterns for use by advertising agencies and advertisers on the basis of which newspapers sell their advertising inventory. RSCI

10 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

was set up when the Audit Bureau of Circulations and MRUC agreed to undertake joint readership studies as equal partners.

RSCI is governed by a 20-member managing committee consisting of publishers representing the print media, advertising agencies’ representatives and advertisers. The managing committee of RSCI sets up the technical committee to work on IRS. In a recent development, NP Sathyamurthy was made the head of the technical committee to work on the new IRS.

COLLYWOOD A whopping ₹55-crore wedding!

Flipkart hires ex-Twitter executive Tarun Jain

Ravi Pillai, NRI businessmen from Kerala spent ₹55 crore for his daughter’s wedding which took place in Kerala. In an extravagant display of wealth, Pillai married off his daughter, Dr Arathy to Dr Adithya Vishnu of Kochi, at the famous Asramam ground in Kollam. The wedding was organised by none other than the production designer who lent his capabilities to the blockbuster film, Bahubali. The musical fiesta was organised by Stephen Devassy to entertain 30,000 guests. The wedding pandal was constructed on a 3,50,000 sq ft expanse and was modelled after the royal palaces of Rajasthan

by Sabu Cyril, the famous movie art director. It took nearly 75 days for Cyril to create the pandal.

The entire wedding set itself cost around ₹20 crore.

“Various parts for this set were first moulded in clay in Mumbai, and then it was cast in plaster of Paris.

It took us about 40 days to assemble the pre-fabricated structures here,” said Cyril. The festivities were kick-started by singer Gayathri who sang bhajans, followed by a Kuchipudi performance by Manju Warrier, a Bharatanatyam dance by Sobhana, and a musical treat played out by Stephen Devassy. As far as the guest list goes, some of the most well-known names graced the occasion with their presence such as CEOs of Japan Gas Corporation, family members from royal lineages of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, and movie stars Mohanlal and Mammootty. Chartered flights were arranged for Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and the royal family of Bahrain who flew in on Wednesday. The security detail at the wedding included around 250 policemen and 350 private cops.

ICICI Venture elevates Purker ICICI Venture, the private equity arm of ICICI Bank, on Tuesday said it has elevated Prashant Purker as managing director and chief executive with immediate effect. The appointment comes following elevation of the incumbent Vishakha Mulye as executive director on the board of the bank, ICICI Venture Funds Management Company (ICICI Venture) said. Purker has over 25 years of experience in global mar-

kets, across both equity and debt.

He joined ICICI Venture in August 2009 and has been a member of the leadership team since then. He has been co-heading the private equity practice of the company and has been serving as an executive director on the board of ICICI Venture.

Prior to joining ICICI Venture, he worked with Nomura India, Lehman Brothers India, Citibank and BNP, among others.

Flipkart appointed former Twitter executive Tarun Jain to the position of Head of Product of its online advertising division as the online e-commerce marketplace looks at alternate income streams to boost its revenues. Jain will be responsible for driving business strategy, product vision, product roadmap, execution, partnerships and customer adoption with Flipkart. He will report directly to Ravi Garikipati, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Flipkart who is helping the company build out its online ad business.

“Tarun comes with an accomplished track record of building highly successful products and platforms in some of the leading tech companies in the world. He possesses deep understanding of digital advertising solutions and we believe that his leadership will bring invaluable insights and contribute to the growth the of ads group at Flipkart,” said Ravi Garikipati, entrepreneur-in-residence at Flipkart, in a statement. Prior to joining Flipkart, Jain worked with Twitter in San Francisco where he led the product strategy for advertising and commerce products for the social network. He also served a stint with Google, building products like AdWords Express, Dynamic Ads and products around offers and online shopping.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 11

Inspiration by birth Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s announced that they would give away 99 percent of their personal shares of the company to philanthropic initiative, recently. This was announced after the birth of their daughter, Max. Currently the shares which are valued at $45 billion, would be used to fund charitable causes via the initiative Chan Zuckerberg LLC. The pledged money would be used to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. The announcement was made through a letter to Max, which Zuckerberg posted on Facebook. However, the pledge garnered an incredible amount of attention which was primarily owing to the CEO’s net worth. Zuckerberg received both bouquets and brickbats for his generosity. While some like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg lauded his generosity, several others questioned his motives and even called it a tax evasion ploy. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg said, he and his wife would receive no tax benefit from setting

up their new philanthropic endeavor as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and hinted at the types of efforts it would support. In a post on his Facebook page, he wrote that `just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC.’

Paytm’s Sharma, Saif Partners’ Goel in new role Paytm co-founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Saif Partners’ Alok Goel have joined on the board hyperlocal deal discovery app Little as directors.

The development comes a few months after Paytm, SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management invested $50 million in the mobile-only app.

“Vijay and Alok are on our board, they will help immensely in taking the next leap,” said Manish Chopra, CEO of Little. The company which started operations three months ago offers 30,000 deals from over 10,000 merchants. More than 5,00,000 users on the app get access to last minute inventory deals on restaurants, movies, hotels and salons among others, on a real-time hyperlocal basis at heavy discounts across 11 cities. This model Chopra believes would continue to draw customers to its platform and help it achieve $170 million gross merchandise value (GMV) by March next year. The company plans to expand to 1000 people from 400 at present, and add more cities over the next four months. The company aims to offer 50,000 deals, which will drive in the business and scale up number of daily transactions from 15,000.

Paytm’s capability and consumer base becomes an advantage for Little, Sharma said. “Paytm will help Little acquire customers faster, sort out payment and the preference level, and we’re able to bring these differentiators,” he added. The app has a close working relation with Paytm, the country’s largest mobile wallet, and offers its deals on the app after the recharge is done. With Paytm’s own

focus on creating online-to-offline models, partnering with Little fitted perfectly in the payments provider’s game plan. “We will help the team Alok Goel in the strategic thinking process.

Online to offline is a huge area but extremely difficult to crack. The ones who do will become the most valuable companies,” said Goel, who was former er head of Freecharge.

Little Internet Pvt Ltd is run

by Manish anish Chopra and Satish h Mani, both of whom co-founded unded online fashion brand d Zovi. Both Chopra and Mani continue to run Zovi, which is also backed

by SAIF IF and Tiger Global.

Chopra ra added that the company any will expand the board oard in the future, e, by adding independent endent members. bers.

12 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Infosys board member Browner steps down

Carol M Browner, a board member of the Infosys Ltd and an independent director, has stepped down from the company with immediate effect due to personal reasons. The company didn’t immediately give any other details about Browner’s resignation and who her replacement will be. Browner, a former White House energy and climate change director as well as a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, was appointed additional director on the Infosys board in April 2014.

She was also part of the company’s nomination and remuneration committee that oversees the nomination process and the incentives and pay offered to its top level executives, including the chief executive and other directors.

The Infosys board, which has eight members, including five independent directors and two executive directors, has two women board members, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, managing director of pharmaceutical company Biocon Ltd, and Roopa Kudva, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of rating agency Crisil. Browner came on the Infosys board after Ann Fudge, a long-serving independent director, announced her retirement.

Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

MANAGE MONEY DR ANIL LAMBA

Trading on Equity:

How to use Fixed-Cost Assets/ Funds to Magnify Returns

I

n the previous issue, we had considered two organisations, A and B, doing identical businesses and having similar investment outlays.

They were alike in respects but one, viz. their approach towards how to finance their businesses. ‘A’ had raised 75 percent of the required funds from Equity and the balance 25 percent from Debt. B had taken 25 percent from Equity and the rest from Debt. (See the table below) They made and sold similar products, at the same selling prices, with costs of manufacturing, selling and administration which were also the same. But the owners of one was earning 150 percent higher return than the owners of the other business? I had concluded by saying that there were three reasons for this. Today let’s discuss these reasons.

tax-deductible item and dividends are paid out of after tax profits.

Sales (-) Direct Expenses Gross Profit (-) Indirect Expensed PBIT (or Operating Profit) (-) Interest PBT (-) Income Tax PAT

STATEMENT SHOWING CALCULATION OF PAT Equity shares of 100 each 10% Loan = Capital Employed PBIT (@30%) (-) Interest = PBT (-) Income Tax (assurned @40%) = PAT

A

B

1500,000 500,000 2000,000 600,000 50,000 550,000 220,000 330,000

500,000 1500,000 2000,000 600,000 150,000 450,000 180,000 270,000

The first reason The first reason is one that we have discussed at length while explaining Rule I of good financial management. A and B are identical as far as costs of manufacture, sales, and administration are concerned. The difference lies in the cost of funding. A’s business is funded primarily using owners’ money. B, on the other hand, has taken a substantial portion of the required funds from borrowed sources. As we saw during our discussion of Rule I, owners’ money is the most expensive source of money. Borrowed funds are relatively cheaper. In the case of A, 75 percent of the total funds have come from shareholders or owners, while B has taken only 25 percent from this expensive source, and 75 percent has come from a cheaper source.

This makes B’s average cost of capital substantially lower than A’s.

The PBIT generated is at the rate of 30 percent. In B’s case this means that B earns 30 percent on 5,00,000 raised from shareholders, but it also earns 30 percent on the borrowed 1,500,000, on which it is obliged to pay just 10 percent. This difference of 20 percent also goes straight into B’s pocket. B therefore earns for its shareholders 30 percent on 500,000 (shareholders’ contribution) as well as 20 percent on 1500,000 (the borrowed investment), taking, in the process, the return on shareholders’ funds substantially higher.

The second reason To understand the second reason, let’s understand the difference between the costs of borrowing and owners’ funds. If you look at the profitability statement in the example we discussed, and observe the order in which the costs of borrowed funds and owners’ funds appear, you will see that the interest (cost of borrowing) appears first, before the payment of tax, & the dividends (cost of owners’ money), are paid from profits after tax.

This means, interest is pre-tax but dividends are post-tax. Interest is a

DIVIDENDS

RESERVES

So what impact does this have?

Here, if B did not have to pay 1,50,000 towards interest, do you think the take-home profit for the shareholders would be higher by 150,000?

No. This would not happen because if B did not pay the interest, the Profit Before Tax (PBT) figure would be higher by 1,50,000. In that case B would have to pay higher income tax to the tune of 40 percent of this amount, and the take-home profit for B’s shareholders would be higher only to the extent of 60 percent of 1,50,000. Which means, whenever an organization resorts to cost-cutting or economising and manages to spend, say, 100 less on any item that is tax deductible (such as salary, raw materials, business overheads or interest), the result is that the PBT increases by 100. As a result, tax liability increases by 40, and the bottom line gets positively impacted only to the extent of 60. By saving 100, the company gains only an additional 60. Conversely, by spending 100 extra, the company pays, out of its own pocket, only 60. Who pays the remaining 40?

The Government Whenever the government permits an item to be tax-deductible, it is effectively saying, “Go ahead & spend liberally. For every 100 that you spend, you put in 60 and we will contribute 40” assuming a tax rate of 40 percent. If the tax rate was higher or lower, the government’s contribution would be correspondingly higher or lower. Interest is tax-deductible, dividend is not. We know that at 10 percent, interest is substantially cheaper than owners’ capital. What we now realize is that interest is not only cheap but also tax deductible, which makes it even cheaper! The effective rate of interest works out to 6 percent (60 percent of 10 percent). B has earned a PBIT at the rate of 30 percent not only on its investment of 5,00,000 but also on the borrowed component of 1,500,000, on which it is obliged to pay an effective rate of 6 percent. B consequently earns for itself 30 percent of 5,00,000 and 24 percent (30 – 6) of 1,500,000 too, taking, in the process, the return on shareholders’ funds shooting skywards! ...to be continued Dr Anil Lamba is a corporate trainer of international repute on finance management. He has several hundred large & medium sized corporations, as his clients, across the globe. He is the author of the bestselling book Romancing the Balance Sheet. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 13

WAX ELOQUENT

INCREDIBLY VIBRANT AND EX C I am on the side of India!

“India is incredibly vibrant and exciting with endless possibilities but economically, at least, has always performed well below her potential. I am on the side of India. I don’t really care who is getting the work done so long as the cost is not too high.”

Entrepreneurship is like swimming up stream

Nicolas Berggruen, Philanthropist and Investor Courtesy: Times of India

We are moving to a new business model “We are in an environment where everything is moving to a new business model; and if you look at the world’s largest taxi company, it doesn’t own a single taxi. The world’s largest hotel company doesn’t own a single hotel room. There is this decoupling that is happening between the people who own the asset and the people who are owning the information that manages the asset.

And therefore we have no playbook to go by. We are trying to apply an industrial model of valuation based on cash flow to an entirely new business model.”

Jeby Cherian, former managing partner, IBM Global Business Services- India and South Asia Courtesy: www.livemint.com

To scale up business

Market potential is not a problem for Indian entrepreneurs. How to scale is. How to scale the abilities of the people they work with is. How do you develop leadership and talent; how do you build structures and processes that is sustainable and scalable; then technology, which can make a big difference.

“Managing the ups and downs of a business requires large dollops of perennial optimism, steely resolve and Zen-like equanimity, all the while running as fast as possible.

Entrepreneurship is like swimming up stream.

You must continuously swim, eight days a week.”

Satya Prabhakar, founder and CEO, Sulekha.com Courtesy: Financial Express

More power for the young “As a society, we must put more power in the hands of the young. The experience of our elders is valuable because it helps us get on the right track, but the energy and impatience of the young gets things done.”

Dheeraj Sinha, chief strategy officer, South & South East Asia, Grey Courtesy: Financial Express

Fingerprints of a mature democracy “We as a nation are caught in a transition from a feudal society to being a pluralistic democracy. Distance from power, masculinity and normative behaviour are the fingerprints of feudal culture. Egalitarianism, human rights and pluralism are the fingerprints of a mature democracy. Like our socio-political system, a dominant part of our economic system is transitioning from proprietary mindset to custodial mindset.”

Shankar Annaswamy, former managing director, IBM India Pvt Ltd Courtesy: www.livemint.com

K. Ramkumar, executive director, ICICI Bank

Courtesy: www.livemit.com

Attracting and driving investments “You need to create clusters, ecosystems to really drive investments. We just did a big investment in steel, in that the point was very simple- the client needed to know where is the ecosystem, where are the customers. These are very important criteria when you set up and drive investment and further investment.”

Wilfred Aulbur, Chairman, India Council of Competitiveness and CEO, Roland Berger Courtesy: www.livemint.com

14 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Accept women as an equal in the workplace

“Now we have got to the point that people are recognizing having balance in your workforce, having men and women, you get different perspectives and you could actually have a richer decision coming through.”

Shikha Sharma, CEO, Axis Bank Courtesy: www.dnaindia.com

CITING INDIA

A look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in business world Earnings growth in India better than most emerging markets “We are overweight on India, as it is one of the best in emerging markets (EMs). That, to be fair, is partly because we don’t see a lot of attractive markets out there.

In India, earnings growth is better than in most EMs. By 2017, China will be growing at 5.8 per cent (annually) and India at 7.8 per cent.”

Geoffrey Dennis, Head of global emerging market strategy, UBS Investment Bank Courtesy: Business Standard

Engagement with society essential for business “Business can progress only when it embeds itself into the value of society and indulge in a form of engagement so that both can gain. Our own market capitalization has increased over 30 times in the last 20 years, and it has all happened because of efforts being put in not only the commercial areas of the operation but also because our partnership with society has evolved across all the countries that we are present in.”

Suresh Narayanan, CEO, Nestle India Courtesy: www.businessinsider.in

Discouraging people from buying cars “The vision is to provide transportation as reliable as running water. Our biggest mission is targeting personal car ownership, so that people don’t buy their second car and gradually not even the first car. The trend is reduction in purchase of the second car and in case of many youngsters; they are not buying the first car either.”

Amit Jain, Country Head, Uber Courtesy: Business Standard

Simplifying businesses “I understand businesses as input/output machines.

You might call it the cement or telecom business, or brand franchise, or whatever. But basically businesses are capital input/output machines, if you simplify at one level. So, it doesn’t mean that we have to be experts.”

Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

“If we want to be successful, we need to prepare for manufacturing as it will be five years from now, not the way it was five years ago. Given the rapid changes happening in manufacturing, we should be cognizant that manufacturing by itself is no panacea for our challenges of economic and job market growth.

‘The Rise of the Robots’ should be essential reading for every policy maker, economist and CXO in the country.”

Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore Courtesy: www.livemint.com

Courtesy: http://www.morningstar.in/posts/34893/raamdeo-agrawal-on-how-hepicks-stocks.aspx

Build a good product than be valuation-driven

50% of your board has to be women

“I am not a big fan of investors asking for revenues upfront.

Investors seeking numbers are being too myopic. However, I personally believe in creating a product with clarity in mind on how one thinks revenues can trickle in.”

“The government did bring up that one person on the board policy, and did get people thinking about it but that’s just not enough. It has to be a bizarre number…it can’t be at least one person, it has to be like 50% of your board has to be women. Then, they will have to look for professional women.”

Geetha Kannan, Managing Director, ABI India Courtesy: www.livemint .com

India, an interesting market globally

“India is one of the most interesting markets globally when it comes to Fortune 500, not just for portfolio capital but for direct investment as well. The government is committed through the reform agenda, development agenda, growth agenda, and job agenda.”

Gunit Chadha, chief executive officer, Asia-Pacific, Deutsche Bank Courtesy: http://www.moneycontrol.com/

Manufacturing by itself is no panacea

Naveen Tewari, co-founder and CEO, InMobi and angel investor Courtesy: Business Standard

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 15

TÊTE-À-TÊTE Nitin Bawankule , Industry Director, E-commerce, Google India

“We don’t o online anymore, we live online”

The speed at which new technology is being adopted is literally doubling with every wave. We at Google feel that the next wave of technology or mass technology will be one that touches one billion users in less than five years

BY PRANAV ALAT

N

itin Bawankule, Industry DirectorE-Commerce, Retail, Online Classifieds, Technology, Education and Government - Google India, is one busy man. He is responsible for driving Google’s advertising business for his set of verticals, focusing on acquisition, retention and partnerships.

Working closely with other players to grow the Indian online ecosystem, Nitin is working on initiatives like the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) to make e-commerce accessible to millions. An alumni of IIM Bangalore and having worked with technology giants like Dell, Whirlpool and Godrej, Nitin is just the man for the job In an interview with Corporate Citizen, Nitin Bawankule talked at length about rapid digitisation and e-Commerce in India and shared Google’s perspective on several topics. He also touched upon his personal and professional life, Google’s partnership with the Government of India, and a whole lot more.

What will be the impact of digitisation in the future?

The impact of digitisation is so high that literally everything you do or you can think of doing can be done through one of the devices you will be wearing in the future.

You’ll be able to open the garage just by telling your watch to; you’ll be able to reheat your coffee or tea while you are driving back home. Most of these things will happen in the next few years.

All the things are either in the market or in the Google labs being tested rapidly.

PICS: AHMED SHEIKH

16 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

How do you see the internet users growth in India?

The longest time to touch the one billion user mark for land line telephone was 110 years. The same mark, took 49 years for the television; 22

years for mobile phones; 14 years for internet; eight years for smart phones. The speed at which new technology is being adopted is literally doubling with every wave. We at Google feel that the next wave of technology or mass technology will be one that touches one billion users in less than five years.

One billion internet users were touched by 2008, i.e. over a period of 18 years, from 19902008, post that it has tripled in the last seven years. By 2020 it will be close to five billion. This is driven by China and India. One billion of the three billion comes from China and India.

Are smartphones changing the way we access internet?

Only about 100 million people in India access internet from both a PC and a smart phone.

There are only 50 million personal computers.

(Which include both desktops and laptops) in India and the number isn’t growing.

Sixty five percent of internet users access internet through smart phone in India.

Sixty percent of Google queries this year are from mobile devices, compared to 30 percent, just three years ago. Our estimate is that 90 percent of the search queries on Google, in India, will be through mobile devices.

On a personal computer, one would access internet i.e. ‘go online’ for about an hour or two, in a day but with the smart phones, people are online 24 hours.

Tell us something about your education, career and the primary turning point in your life...

After graduating as electronics engineers from VNIT, Nagpur most of my colleagues took up engineering jobs in and around Nagpur, but I was clear, right at the start, that I didn’t want to settle with just that... Of course, not taking up an engineering job was the first amongst a lot of turning points in my life, after which, I completed PGDM, Marketing and Finance, at IIM, Bangalore and took my first job in Godrej GE Appliances, as Area Manager.

What do you think about job hopping?

It is a part of how the industry works and a necessary evil. However, I don’t think one should switch just for a higher package. I was comfortably settled in my first job, the reason that I switched was just that, ‘I had settled down and stopped feeling challenged. My next job with Whirlpool India, was like being thrown into hot burning fire. Working with Motorola and Dell, I was at a stage where, I had been there, done almost everything there was to do in the hardware- IT industry and then Google happened. The digital industry was a new challenge and I jumped the boat. I have only

switched jobs to stretch my capabilities to the next notch.

What do you think about the incessant invasion of privacy and personal space?

There are pros and cons to everything, every person has to analyse the benefits and short comings for his or her own self and decide whether to use it or not. If someone is going to take selfies when they’re out vacationing, and share them on Facebook broadcasting to the world that they are not home; it’s no wonder their homes get robbed while they’re out having fun.

What is Google doing about the uncontrolled and unrestricted access?

Our only media content vertical is YouTube and we have created a special app for kids ‘YouTube Kids’ that provides relevant data exclusively for

Are you involved in any other projects with the government of India?

Of course, we are also working with the PMs Office to get the PMO’s office app designed.

What is your take on hectic workaholic culture in today’s industry?

One has to be mentally ready for it, if one wants to survive in the industry, today. That has to be your frame of mind. I do reach the office at 8:00am every day, while the rest of them may arrive by 10:30am. This is the time where I plan and get ready for the day’s work.

How do you balance your professional and personal life?

My family is very supportive, I have two daughters. The evenings are family time. My phone is switched off between 6:30pm and 10:00pm, no official work then...

If someone is going to take selfies when they’re out vacationing, and share them on Facebook, broadcasting to the world that they are not home; it’s no wonder their homes get robbed while they’re out having fun kids. We also do try to keep track of and ban a lot of such chat and game apps but we can never control all of them.

Tell us something about the Wi-Fi railway stations project?

The target is to install high-speed Wi-Fi access points at 400 railway stations in India, which will provide free internet access to nearly one billion Indians, who have no access. We plan to get the project functional in 100 railway stations by the end of 2016. We are not ready for Google Cables yet in India, it’s not cost effective enough.

However, India has an optic fiber network that lies along the railway lines, which we will be using .

Do you think ‘Project Loon’ would be an effective alternative if not Google Cables?

It could very well be the most effective way to take internet to the interiors and the far flung rural populations in India. We are doing some pilot projects in countries like New Zealand, Brazil, etc… and let’s see how that unfolds.

Tell us something about your hobbies?

I like reading books and listening to music.

I do read virtual books but I prefer the physical ones, the fragrance of a new book is refreshing. Long walks and jogging every evening, whenever I’m home is my ‘stay fit and rejuvenated’ mantra. pravan.alat@yahoo.com

CC

tadka

Population explosion One Indian state alone – Uttar Pradesh – now has a population of 199,500,000 people, just under that of Britain, France and Germany combined. The population of Maharashtra and UP combined is more than the entire population of Europe.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 17

ISTD CHENNAI SEMINAR x BUILDING LEADERSHIP PIPELINE: THE INNER AGENDA

Leading to develop or developing to lead?

Leadership and leaders are a revered lot in all walks of life and corporate life is no different. But, astute corporate leaders no longer speak on born leadership-a trait nevertheless, but focus has now shifted in the form of leadership development and building of leadership pipelines within organisations. The recently held seminar on ‘Leadership Insights’ organised by the Indian Society for Training & Development (ISTD), Chennai Chapter offered a platform for key industry speakers to express their insights on balancing inborn leadership personality traits but, with a greater emphasis on leadership development at almost all stages within organisational charts. The talks revolved around leadership development as a compulsory ‘hygiene factor’ if organizations need to stay in the fray for at least a decade or more. Bridging the global leadership agenda were Jorn Hammer, Head Of India, Vestas Wind Technology India Private Limited, Dr C B Rao, Former Executive Chairman, Hospira (a Pfizer Company) and Raghavendra Tripathi, Chief Performance Officer, Ramco Systems. The diverse and multinational aspect of the ‘Leadership Development’ concept ignited thought leadership on – ‘Lead to Develop and Develop to Lead.’ By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

18 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

T

here are many different definitions of leadership”, said Jorn Hammer, Head of India, Vestas Wind Technology India Private Limited. In an interesting narrative, he shared his own experience during his days as marine engineer who had his first lessons on leadership in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

“One of the key leadership learning I had was when I was in deep waters literally and encountered a problem with the ship’s engine. I was a third engineer then and was calling out to the chief engineer; crying my heart out and said this is difficult. Well, he had this phone book with him (at that time, we still had phone books and not Smart phones) and threw his phone book at me and said, “Whom are you going to call?” We were in the middle of the Pacific and the closest harbour was some 4000 Kms away. So, there was no one to call and that is when the realisation dawned on me – that here was a guy in a very seLeft to right - Raghavendra Tripathi, Session host Uday Kumar, Jorn Hammer and Dr C B Rao at the ISTD Annual Conference in Chennai

nior role that actually trusted my abilities to find a solution. So, instead of taking over the problem, he had rather challenged me to say that you have to find a solution and there is no one to come and help you but, go over the issue and you will solve it. As a senior in a small organisation whether on a ship or a global organisation like Vestas, what is important is that you trust your employees and their abilities. You took them on board for a reason, for their qualifications and you ought to trust that qualification during their journey in the company with full involvement,” said Hammer.

He also shared Vesta’s talent pool management strategy when the company went through some hard times as with other global companies during the 2008 global financial crisis to finally turn around the company in recent times. He spoke on his India experiences, role of leadership tactics and the need for company leaders to walk out of their ivory towers and get their hands dirty to bring on accountability at all levels of the organisation, to work in collaboration with the workforce and evoke simplicity in work cultures.

Striding through Global Economic Crisis “When I started in 2000, I was employee No. 2023 and we were big outfit with 24,000-25,000 employees; then, we had a turn down in 20122013, and had to scale back our global organisation. We went all the way down to 16,000 employees and are now back to 20,000 employees

PICS: RA CHANDROO

around the globe. Part of the learning here was how you manage your leadership potential when you are going through so many cycles in so few years, ” said Hammer.

“When I look at Vestas as a company, I will be looking at three different turnarounds in the company. I was sent o Australia after I started with Vestas, some 15 years ago as a project manager where I quickly rose to become operational manager and served in this position for 5-6 years before I took over as Managing Director in Australia in 2006. The first challenge I met was in Australia, post-2008 global financial crisis.

It was a huge problem and the world economy was badly hit. But, Vestas did not see the global financial crisis before 2010 -2011. In Australia, it was 2-3 years ahead of the global company that put Vestas in strange position as we suddenly had to convince our headquarter that we had to do something totally different. When they were increasing the number of head-counts globally, we in Australia were talking about sacking 30 percent of our Australian employees. So, there was a huge dynamics between us and headquarters. While globally Vestas was growing 15-20 percent every year, in Australia, we were scaling down workforce by 30 percent. It was mainly about managing people expectations and it was important that you did this the right way. We spent a lot of time before we did the downsizing. ...With downsizing, our CEO and the company also started to make some money. It was my responsibility to go and get these people from around the globe that could pull us through the crisis; not to bring them to the headquarter and make big plans but help daily execution of operations. It was equally important that we also retained them effectively...”

Today from a company that almost went bankrupt in 2012, to becoming the best performer in the wind industry in the last one and a half years, it was a phenomenal turnaround and we were purely driven by our talent mass that was sitting around the globe. Even when we had to cut so many people, our senior managers worked with the talent in the organisation by taking on the responsibility at each stage. So instead of staying in your ivory tower waiting for reports to come, get out and get your hands

Leadership is everywhere. A functional leader can be a legend by himself. Legendary leadership is becoming a legend in his or her chosen profession and doing that with passion. ...Leadership is not an ending by itself. We have to rediscover ourselves...It is not a lesson just for young people who are fresh from institutions but, a lesson for all of us on how we re-tool ourselves, reconnect with our peers and subordinates that determines how good or legendary we make ourselves as leaders...

- Dr C B Rao, Former Executive Chairman, Hospira December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 19

ISTD CHENNAI SEMINAR Coming to India, we have been here one and a half years... and have a few challenges. India is still very hierarchical and people still believe in the hierarchy. In Denmark, that is a little bit different, we talk very straight to all levels of the organisation. So, it does not matter how deep the organisation is because here everyone can talk to everyone at all levels and you don’t get these barriers. I found that if I am extremely firm minded in a culture like India then people will shut up and they won’t argue with me. That also means that when I am wrong, the whole organisation will be wrong... That is the learning I will have to go through to be successful in India. You really have to accept the situation that you are in and have to invite people in to have conversation with you and then you can see the talent mass improving.

- Jorn Hammer, Head of India, Vestas Wind Technology India Private Limited

dirty - I think that was really what gave us the turnaround in the global level.”

Shifting Leadership Focus to the Millennial Generation In the traditional world, detailed leadership programe worked well where people joined and stayed within companies for say 20 years. Based on observations by Raghavendra Tripathi, Chief Performance Officer, Ramco Systems, “A case in point is GE, perhaps the only legendary company that has survived almost 2 centuries. But, what has happened is that despite Jeff Immelt, chairman of the board and chief executive officer who has been at the helm of affairs, GE’s market cap is down by almost $ 154 billion. GE could attract the best talents from Harvard and Stanford some 20 years ago but can they get the same talent pool now? The best talent is not coming to them but moving to Apple Inc. et al. The same old leadership programme perhaps might not work for them.”

Companies will now need to work around the millennial generation. “But, who are they?”

Asked Tripathi. He said that these are free agents who do not believe in money alone and want to do some meaningful work. “The challenge is first to get the best talent amongst them and make it attractive to retain them - is the agenda for developing leadership thresholds,” he said. “In the new world, there will be no e-mails and only SMses. That is the expectation and they don’t want policies but only value added business processes. So, if the learning and development process does not nurture the right work culture, everything else will fall flat,” Tripathi added.

Ramco Systems has built a self-managed non-hierarchical team where people move from one team to the other. Extra care is taken of top performers in performance management systems where budding talents have the opportunity to strike even 20 percent to 40 percent hike rates that goes way beyond the 6 percent to 10 percent. This can be achieved by investing in a leadership programme that offers a lot of challenge environment and treats them differently. In 10 years, they can become GMs. “We don’t think that there is one universal formula for leadership development but emphasis has to be given to such development programs. But, it cannot by itself be the only way of leadership development. Companies need to constantly scan the environment around them, alter and adjust to the changing realities of modern times”, concluded Tripathi.

Leadership Development across Sectors Dr C B Rao, former executive Chairman, Hospira – a Pfizer group company, based his talk on three approaches to leadership – on trait and compe20 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Movers and shakers of today are new tech companies, the mavericks when compared to the old world brick and mortar companies.

Despite being a brick and mortar company, GE stands out even today as GE is now moving towards digitization and much closer to the new age companies. Whether you are new age, traditional or a maverick company, decent investment is required to build and develop leadership as part of growth in the company’s DNA...

- Raghavendra Tripathi, Chief Performance Officer, Ramco Systems tency approach, the outcome of the company approach and the legacy a leader leaves behind in an organisation. For someone who has had stints in the automotive sector too, Dr Rao pinpointed five traits that one needs to inculcate if we wish to be leaders in our own streams. The need is to work around good conceptual and analytical skills, on being a little visionary and strategic in approach, in one’s ability to network interpersonally with various people, to focus on being goal and result oriented and develop and value performance qualities .

“What you will see as common thread is that leaders have been able to establish a pioneering dominating status in their respective industries.

How have they been able to do it? All by themselves or having a good culture in the company or working around or towards good product market choice. Look at great leaders who have perpetuated a legacy which continues to roll on.

Look at Apple, (Steve Jobs) he drove leadership through innovation and customer delight. Tata’s are known to turnaround transnational leaders cross-culturally... It is the kind of adaptation that is required...Leadership development essentials is a creative journey of self discovery, competency building, setting our aspirations and the final delivery...”

He emphasised on the E2 and I2 Models and explained the four aspects of education, reasoning power, our ability to spread our knowledge and personal experiences to develop leader-

ship capabilities. “Personal experiences that reinforce our education are essential but more importantly we need instinct and intuition. Instinct is a human trait but if blessed with good Intuition, I think we could make good leaders.”

Dr Rao focused on the eternal dilemma faced by global manufacturing entities on the aspect of developing hard versus soft skills. “In a manufacturing plant, people say that hard skills are extremely important and soft skills are not.

But when you go to a corporate office, a lot of emphasis is given on time management, communication and collaboration. On the dilemma that leadership is hard oriented or soft oriented, there is no such debate- we need hard skills with the soft because without collaboration, I think you can’t really learn any hard skills. And, soft skills by themselves are up to nowhere. We need technologically straight people but also behaviourally soft people.”

Dr Rao explained that there are four competent traits that deliver a leader which include openness. It is a consciousness for carefulness in what we finally deliver. “Be extroverted (not necessarily personality type) but, the core responsibility should be agreeable. One has to have neurotic consciousness (not as a mental hazard though). Say, a pharmaceutical company might face a series of drug related warning letters and the quality manager might generate stress within himself or the organisation in retaliation to this situation. We need to identify such as neurotic

behaviour so as to minimise the negative fallout of such behaviour and increase our positive tendency–we will definitely be a good leaders.” He emphasised on the need to strike a balance between changes with continuity. “Indian leaders at any point in time are a class above as per my interaction with leaders in my 40+ years of experience. It is like Indian movies as many are not familiar with them on the Oscar platform as not all Indian leaders are known or famous globally.”

“What I found was of all the great leaders they are all stature driven or title driven or the ones who are pretty much focused on what they want to purse like N R Narayanamurthy - on ethics and globalisation. They are inspirational and walk the talk.” His advice to young people wanting to go up the leadership pipeline is that they should not merely think of seeking title as Sr. VP , Executive VP etc. “I would humbly suggest that title is necessary but not a sufficient condition –stature is one which will keep the leader buoyant,” said Rao. Speaking on the pharmaceutical industry which is viable for product export to the tune of 50 percent of the industry turnover, Dr Rao said that the automotive industry too is a huge revenue and employment generator. But, in each of these sectors, he said one will witness a very peculiar and challenging requirement. The pharmaceutical industry with its strict guidelines on regulation, compliance, quality, export orientation and good manufacturing practices will have to harness a readily deployable talent pool, which is not the case at the moment. “So such industry sectors that will be seeing such transformative times, will not only need to re-tool the manufacturing lines but we might have to re-tool our mindsets too. Because, making automotives is not always a mechanical activity but will be more driven by electronics and higher technology that need to develop a flexibility on a larger scale which he said can be worked in conjunction with constant nurturing, buddy systems and effective learning and development programmes. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Make in India – the ground reality In the 6 months following the launch of the ‘Make in India’ campaign in September last year, foreign direct investments (FDI) into India has surged by 56%. India received $21.2 billion in inflows overall during the five-month period, against $13.5 billion in the same period last year.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 21

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

Building excellence in teaching “Let there be charity, so that other people can share my family’s prosperity,” these were some inspiring words from P S Govindaswamy Naidu, Founder of the prestigious PSG Institutions. To take one back into history, nine years before an independent India emerged, this thought-seed was planted to further the cause of education and the first polytechnic was started. That was the beginning and the acorn today is a magnificent oak tree of excellence in learning.

PSG’s Philosophy: Misery shared is misery halved. Joy shared is joy doubled. But knowledge shared is knowledge trebled.

PSG Institute of Management or PSGIM is a valuable member of the PSG family of institutions. PSGIM in its earliest avatar was a department and part of the PSG College of Technology. Its genesis was in 1965, and it later metamorphosed into a full-fledged institute in 1994. The 50-year pedigree makes it one of the pioneering management education initiatives in the southern part of India. Coimbatore city, which is often referred to as the “Manchester of South India” due to its cotton production and textile industries, provides a great environment for PSGIM to nurture its status and stature. The entrepreneurial buzz has truly made the city amongst the fastest growing in India. Apart from the strengths of the pump and textile sectors which the city traditionally has had, Coimbatore is also emerging as an educational and medical hub of India.

Corporate Citizen caught up with the Dr R Nandagopal, Director of this prestigious institute, who took us through the rich history of this institute, its students, the institute’s prestigious accreditation, vision, while also touching upon his personal space. Dr R Nandagopal, Director, PSG Institute of Management (PSGIM) has over 30 years of experience in academics, consulting for governments and policy making. He has been the Director of PSGIM for the past 15 years and was instrumental in making the PSGIM brand a global and vibrant one. An avid researcher and an author, he has over 70 papers to his name in nationally and internationally acclaimed publications and has authored 12 books on finance, management and allied subjects. A passionate teacher, an active participant and a contributor in academic and policy initiatives, Dr Nandagopal is currently Chairman of the South Asian Council of Accreditation for Business Schools and Program, one of the many prestigious positions he has held over time. He has held various positions as President, Secretary and Chairman for various management institutions of repute like the Coimbatore Management Association and Coimbatore Productivity Council.

His works have received global recognition and he has many awards to his name. Some of them include ‘The Best Management Teacher Award’ in Strategic Management in the year 2009. He has been awarded Fellow Membership

by All India Management Association in 2007. He won the British Council Fellowship to attend the Advanced Management Program at University of Leeds, UK in 1988 and earlier was awarded the UGC Research Fellowship for his PhD at the University of Madras in 1981.

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan

22 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Take us through the history of this institution.

The PSG Institute (PSG and Sons’ Charities) started in the year 1926, but the Sarvajana School was started in the year 1924. In those days, Peelamedu village was situated outside Coimbatore city and local children had to travel eight-nine km daily to reach the closest educational institution. Due to lack of transport they had to walk all the way to reach the college. There were Christian Missionary schools in which it was difficult for students to get admission. There were four-five elite schools in Coimbatore then, and in those schools, poor children who belonged to the lower strata of the society were not given preference. Hence, the elders of the village decided to come together, on Deepavali day and decided to start a school for themselves, with the view that the school would not cater or restrict admissions to any caste or creed or anything of that sort.

They named this school as “Sarvajana School.”

In 1924, the construction of the school began.

The leading family of the area, called the PSG family, came forward and contributed money and some land. Other villagers also chipped in with some money. In 1924-25, the construction was completed and the school was started. The people requested the PSG family to take over the management of the school. Thus, on 25th January 1926, the Sarvajana School came under the PSG Charitable Trust. The uniqueness of this trust was that they divided the property into four brothers and all of them said they will contribute one-fifth of the share, which was about ₹2, 01,116, then. Later on, the ₹2, 01,116 was not given as cash or land, but was given as a commercial property, in the form of manufacturing equipment. Coimbatore, the Cotton City, had rich soil, but there was no water. Hence, they had to dig down to draw water. Thus, it was taking a lot of time and money in developing agricultural motor and implements. They also had a small textile workshop to maintain agricultural and textile implements. That property was given to the Trust. On that day itself they wanted sustainability of the Trust so that the money generated can be contributed to the school. Thus the industrial institute was started.

PICS: ALIASGAR KHAN

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 23

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP So which were the courses that were started then?

The institute then started diploma certificate courses in certain areas such as electrical, carpentry and so on. During the Second World War, there was a lot of demand for the electrical and technical requirements. The Government then came forward to fund the institutions. The funding was used to establish a polytechnic institute.

Thus courses in electrical and textile were started. They developed the manpower and started using it. On the day of Independence, they decided to start an Arts and Science College. Thus, from technical to polytechnic, they went to start Arts and Science College. At that point there was no Arts college in the entire Kongu region at Coimbatore. The family also decided to upgrade technology, and so sent their sons to UK for higher studies. At that time they also owned a textile mill. So they sent one son to major in textile and the other to manage the industry institute, to study electrical. Prof Damodaran, his son, who went to study electrical engineering to the UK, got stuck due to the Second World War then, and hence couldn’t return immediately. He came back to India after pursuing his mechanical and electrical engineering. He was keen on developing the technological industry here, but more than that he wanted to develop manpower for the industry, who are technically trained, and was very clear in starting an engineering college. In 1951, they started the engineering college and G R Damodaran, founder of PSG College of Technology, became the first principal of the college.

He is one of the celebrated educationists of Tamil Nadu, who has contributed a lot to the education sector. He was also the Member of Parliament.

Having studied six years in UK, all his knowledge and experience of the UK education system was introduced here, and the students who belonged to the weaker section of the society got educa-

“Since day one, our philosophy has been to give education to a lot of students. We’ve always believed in giving an opportunity to a lot of students.

About 70-80 percent of the students are from Coimbatore itself.

At the beginning of every year, we do a puja just for students to understand the purpose of rituals”

tion here. As we all know, Coimbatore is a city of entrepreneurs. In those days, PSG was manufacturing lathes. As one completes the course, the student was given a lathe machine, and he would repay an installment and start his own business.

This is how he encouraged entrepreneurship and small and medium business (SME) began. Small went to become medium and they all started doing well. But then they came back saying they didn’t know other areas of management such as finance, marketing and needed help in those fields. Thus in 1965, PSG started a management programme, with the help of the Government of India and started giving out a diploma certificate for working professionals, who would come and study here. From 1971 onwards, we started a fulltime MBA programme. Recently we completed our 50th year in management education.

Congratulations! So what is the background of the students who come to study at PSGIM? We get students from all over the country, but mainly from Southern India. I would say 90 per cent of our students are South Indians. Since day

one, our philosophy has been to give education to a lot of students. We’ve always believed in giving an opportunity to a lot of students. About 70-80 percent of the students are from Coimbatore itself.

In the last ten years, things have changed, but if you see still not many of them get an opportunity to go outside India and study, since affordability is an issue. For instance, it is difficult for a textile mill worker’s child to purse education. About 3040 years ago, we’ve given students of the weaker section of the society a lot of concession and consideration, even in the marking system, but now even in the engineering college it has become mandatory that the Government admits. So they have State counselling system, where we don’t have a say in admission process, but even then a lot of weaker sections of the society come and join us.

At the beginning of every year, we do a puja just for the students to understand the purpose of rituals. The college schedule is pretty tight for the students. There are students who come from very poor families, where the parents are working as coolies earning about ₹ 200-250 a day. The students’ lifestyle is such that they start their day with just a cup of tea and a bun from a small shop and

Amphitheatre at the college campus

Dr R Nandagopal, Director, PSGIM with students of the institute

24 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

go to work. For lunch, they buy something little, and in the night they cook. If you look at them, they actually get only one full meal a day. When there is leftover food at night, they add a little water and buttermilk to it and have it in the morning.

Some of them don’t even have that in the morning.

When we found that the students are not having breakfast, which is very essential for their health, we decided to come up with a breakfast scheme.

This scheme is funded by the management and MBA students. About 100 students have breakfast in the morning at the institute. The breakfast scheme is for Saravajana students.

Tell us about the placements… which are the companies coming forward?

A lot of companies from the manufacturing sector, banking, IT, telecom are coming forward for placements. Companies like TCS, HCL, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Coca-Cola, ITC Ltd, Airtel, Vodafone, L&T Infotech, Idea, Wipro, Nestle, SAP, and a lot of local banks such as Karur Vysya Bank come over to the campus to recruit students. Some of the leading auto companies also come over. We have 100 percent campus

“We were the first college in India to get an accreditation from ACBSP, in 2010. Because of the accreditation, we have about 30 members in India and neighbouring countries, so we formed an association, which has different regions like Asia, South-East Asia and so on. We formed the tenth region, where India is active” placements, but not 100 percent of students are placed, because 50 percent of the students are from family businesses. So we give placements to only those students who need it. Not all students opt for it. Again, in Tamil Nadu, most of them are entrepreneurs--so some of them start a cake-making business, open a website, hire twothree people and carry out the business, in the first year of the programme itself. Meanwhile, if someone who is interested in running a small canteen, from the college premises itself, starts off and eventually hands over the canteen to his juniors. For instance, if the canteen is being auctioned, at the end of the year, for ₹one lakh and there is a bid for ₹1, 25,000, the senior student makes a profit of ₹25,000. Thus entrepreneurship is encouraged in a big way.

And what is the average package like?

The average package is about ₹6.5 lakh per annum, highest being about ₹12 lakh per annum.

College Canteen

Gymnasium at the campus

Do you also carry out international exchange programmes?

Yes, there are opportunities for students to go abroad. Some of them go to the US and UK for a summer exchange programme. Some of our students have also got job opportunities abroad, in automobile companies. In fact we have a strong collaboration with the Hof University in Germany.

Overall, too, a lot of investments are happening by collaborating with universities abroad, as ‘Make In India’ project is happening in full swing. Germany is also an important territory after our Prime Minister visited Germany last year, as a result of which a lot of MOUs are also being signed. About 27 students go to Germany, study there, since they get an exposure to the language, culture, come back and take up jobs in German companies. So this is an exchange programme where students get to go to Germany for a semester.

How do you select students who would go?

Students will have to apply. We prefer those who know German language. Our German counterparts also play a role in the selection. About 27 students go to Germany and 10-15 go to the US. Thus 30-35 students get an opportunity, out of which about 20 get placed in companies in Germany or in German companies in India. Thus, job opportunities are really good.

Tell us about the institute’s prestigious international accreditation.

Management programmes are globally accredited by any of the five respectable accreditation agencies in the world, namely, EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development), AMBA (The Association of MBAs), AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and ACBSP (Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs). All top business schools are accredited by AACSB. AACSB, AMBA, ACBSP and EQUIS or EFMD are the most prestigious ones. In India, today about 30 schools are globally accredited by either ACBSP, or AACSB. Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal are accredited by the AACSB. We are also in the race, working for the past eight years on AACSB. This is one of the most prestigious accreditations.

We were the first college in India to get an accreditation from ACBSP, which is also another prestigious accreditation. So currently about ten schools are globally accredited from India. These include XIME, Bengaluru, Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai and so on. Our institute, PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore, got the first accreditation in 2010. Because of the accreditation, we have about 30 members in India and neighbouring countries, so we formed an association/region, where the association has different regions like Asia, South-East Asia and so on. We formed the tenth region, where India is active. I was representing the tenth region called ‘South Asian Council of Accreditation for Business Schools and Program’ and was the Founder President. Because of all these accreditations, the PhD faculty is very important. Almost all the accreditation agencies insist on the quality of research. That’s the reason why we encourage more PhDs.

Take us through the curriculum. Is the MBA programme affiliated to Anna University?

Unlike other institutions like Arts and Science or Medical, the students for the management programme or the MBA programme, are diversified.

A good learning environment depends on how diversified the students are. Hence we encourage students to come from regions beyond Coim-

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 25

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP “We would like to be a global player. Sadly I feel that in India, family businesses are not given much importance. We must look at how to manage family businesses in India, build professionalism, overcome the problems of property divides, and keep family relationships strong. Keeping that in mind, we would like to develop more and better courses for family businesses to grow� batore. The MBA programme is affiliated to Anna University. We also carry out the Post-Graduation Diploma certificate or the PGDM programme, given by the University, approved by AICTE.

Tell us about the courses offered by the management institute.

We carry out an MBA, PGDM and a part-time MBA programme. In 1965, we had started the part-time MBA programme which is still continuing. This is a three-year programme, which is conducted in the evenings. This programme is for working professionals, who do not get placements. Most of the professionals come through the company they work for, where the company sponsors them. Hence we cannot place them.

Different streams offered in the management programme include finance, marketing, human resource development, operations, systems and international business. The other stream which is unique is a specialisation in family business.

Coimbatore being a hub for small and medium enterprises, a lot of family businesses are here.

About 25-30 per cent of our students come from family businesses, for instance, owners of some of the big brands in Coimbatore, such as Sri Krishna Sweets or Annapurna, studied in our college. The second and third generation children, from the family business, study in our institute, go back and carry on with their family business. Hence, we place more emphasis on family businesses, like we teach them various aspects of how to structure the family business and how to run it professionally. We also have a research centre on entrepreneurship and workshops on family business on how these family businesses are run.

One unique thing is that we have a mentoring

Trading lab at PSGIM, where students get live experience of trading in the stock market

outside the classroom, to get industry perspecsystem. Our strength is our alumni. Since we are tive, is very important. an old institution, a lot of our alumni have become mentors to our students. At the beginning of the year, a panel of alumni come forward to Take us through your faculty. Will you mentor the current students. The alumni meet add more staff this year? the students once every 15 days, give them counWe have 35 full-time faculty members who are selling, confidence and more knowledge and on the rolls of PSG. About 25 of them are PhDs exposure. Some of our alumni are associated and remaining 10 are pursuing their PhDs. We with the Rotary Club and other industry bodalways try to get PhDs at the entry level but we ies. They often take our students also take some good practising there to help them network which, managers. Out of 35 full-time STARS in turn, gives them more expofaculty members, 20 of them have OF PSGIM sure, professionally. This also gives industry experience ranging from them good experience and confi5-15 years. They are academically V K Jaychandran, dence. Eventually, these mentors very strong. Out of the 35 again, 15 Executive Director, and students come close and more of them are recognised PhD guides, Indian Oil Corporation than mentor-mentee, they become who also guide PhD students. We Venkatesh S family friends. Thus good relations have about 45-50 students who are Mysore, are maintained. We do mentoring pursuing their PhDs. We will add Chief Executive at three stages—alumni mentormore faculty as and when needed, Officer, Red Chillies ing, senior mentoring and faculty this year and will mostly prefer Entertainment Pvt Ltd mentoring. We try to attach a partaking PhDs only. The PhDs at our Vivek Srinivasan, ticular mentor to the roll numbers institute are involved in teaching Executive Director, and the interaction begins. Today and conducting research. During Sree Annapoorna with technology advancement, our faculty forum evaluation, we Hotels Pvt Ltd with emails and WhatsApp, they tell them that every faculty should Rekha C Babu, are able to coordinate, connect teach certain number of courses, Chief Executive and communicate better. Similaras in, every professor has to teach Officer, BCG Group ly, faculty mentoring is also given four courses, associate professors a lot of importance. Thus mentohave to teach five courses, assistant Rasagjna ring plays a very important role in professors have to teach six courses, Prayaga, shaping the future of the students. a year. While the professor is only Unit HR Head, Talent Classroom sessions are just about given four subjects, but he/she also Engagement, Tata Consultancy Services 20-25 percent but shaping students has to contribute to research by takto give them more exposure from ing up a research project.

26 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

PSGIM campus

What is the strength of the class? How competitive is it to get into the institute?

Tell us about the selection criteria. How many applications do you get and how many students get in?

We have about 45 students (per section) doing their MBA at PSGIM. AICTE permits 60 students, but we prefer having 45 students, so that we can give them individual attention. Today, the management quota will go through the Management Aptitude Test (MAT) and other tests. In the case of Government quota, about 20,000 students appear in state and their first choice is PSG. In the last 10 years, out of top ten, seven-eight students get to come to PSG, not just in open category but all other categories as well. When counselling starts, we first complete admissions of most backward category and schedule class category such as SC/ST. By the end of the afternoon, we complete the entire admission process. Out of about 20,000 applications, the best 90 are selected, under government admissions. We get about 800-1000 applications for the PGDM course, for whom we conduct group discussions and personal interviews.

When did you take over as the Director of the institute? What are the changes that you’ve about after taking over?

I took over as the Director of the institute in the year 2000. After I took over, first we decided to go for international accreditation. We are one of the first few institutions in India to think about international accreditation. Next, we went for a different methodology in teaching. We now carry

“We have about 45 students (per section) doing their MBA at PSGIM. AICTE permits 60 students, but we prefer having 45 students, so that we can give them individual attention.

Out of about 20,000 applications, the best 90 are selected, under government admissions. We get about 800-1000 applications for the PGDM course” out an ALPS (Active Learning Program Service) programme, where we take the students to the foothills of Western Ghats where we have 25 acres of land. The ALPS programme is located at Annaikatti, in a green serene location, which is pollution free. The place is 30 km away from the city and exclusively used for the outbound training for the students of the institute. We have physically created an infrastructure basically to give them a learning environment, more like military training, where different games and activities like

climbing the wall, or mountain climbing, river crossing basically is done to initiate teamwork amongst students. There are a lot of simulative management games there. Every weekend, students in batches are taken. So in every semester, for about 30 hours, students have to go through this exercise, reason being, they get hands on experience and this is also treated like a course.

For instance, there are activities like crossing over from one area to the other, where they are given few types of equipment, and without touching the ground, they’ll have to cross over. These exercises are similar to the offsite activities. These activities involve a lot of teamwork, where they discuss on how they can do the task in that particular time frame. This programme focuses on modifying the behaviour of the participants with hands on experiential activities, practising which in the formal classroom arrangement is difficult and may also be less efficient. In ALPS, the students are more in an informal setup which allows them to interact freely with the facilitator and their colleagues. They explore themselves with the experience of their own activity. ALPS facilitate to identify the qualities of themselves that stays with them for a long time than what has been said by others about them. We have about 30-40 games like these. Since it is located at the foothills of the Western Ghats, they go for trekking, morning walks, which make them physically fit.

Our faculty is also trained for this purpose. We also have yoga for the students in the institute. In the last four years, we have won the Innovation in Teaching Award, from the Association of Indian Management Schools, for carrying out the ALPS and other programmes. Since the past five years, we are continuously getting the gold medal. Also, we make the students realise the importance of money by giving each of them ₹30 for two days and we see how they manage with this money.

The students take up different jobs like a driver, to earn money, while also studying. We encourage them to earn money so that they get an experience. We also encourage students to go to an international school in US, Europe or Germany for better exposure. Every student doing an MBA or PGDM undergoes three-week training in any one of the universities. That apart, we introduced the MOODLE software, 15 years ago, where the entire learning management system can be used, starting from giving assignments. After we introduced it, we also encouraged and helped other institutions to adopt it. Today, most of the other institutions are also using this software.

Tell us about your CSR activity.

We strongly believe in sharing with the society and so have introduced a course on CSR. In the PGDM curriculum, there are four modules, where the first module is to make them understand on what is sharing, collecting books for the poor children and donating blood, so that they

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 27

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP understand basic values. In the second module, the student organises programmes like forming teams and conducting CSR activities. In the third module, he works with an NGO. Thus, at each level, there is a CSR initiative. In the last five years, we’ve also got an award for the best CSR institute

by Association of Indian Management Schools.

We started a faculty forum, 15 years ago, where all our faculty members sit together three days in a year, somewhere outside the campus, and discuss about our strategic plan and evaluate the past year. That’s how we actively involve our faculty members. We also have a trading lab where the MBA students get live experience of trading in the stock market. We have 40 terminals where they can trade. The huge boards display the price movement of the stocks, where they carry out mock trading sessions.

How about your funding requirements?

Does the Government support you?

No, the Government doesn’t support us. We are self-sufficient or I would say more than sufficient.

Tell us about the fee structure.

The fee for the MBA programme is prescribed by the Government. The fees for the PGDM course would be about ₹4.5 lakh, for two years, which doesn’t include boarding. So these are only the tuition charges.

Are there any challenges faced by the institute in terms of gender diversity?

Yes, the problem is that most of the girls in Tamil Nadu are married off immediately after their graduation. I would like to have more and more girls come to the institute and study for a bright career since they are highly competent and intelligent. In our institute, luckily the ratio between girls and boys, this year, is 50:50. From 10 percent, we have come to 50 percent, over the years. I would like parents of the girl students to encourage them to come forward and study and have a bright career.

If the girls belong to a business family, let them study here, so that I can train them to do well in the family business. Parents should understand that girls can become independent only if they are educated.

Tell us about your background, education and family.

I hail from a typical middle-class family. My father was an accountant in a textile mill. We are four brothers. My elder brother is in Detroit, a PhD from IIT Delhi, while I am the second brother. My younger brother, who is the third one, is an entrepreneur and has his own industry. My fourth brother is a mechanical engineer, lives in Dallas.

I did my schooling and college from Coimbatore and later pursued my M.Com. Later, I did my PhD from Madras University. After my PhD, I joined Loyola College, Chennai, for about six to

“At the beginning of the year, a panel of alumni come forward to mentor the current students. The alumni meet the students once every 15 days, give them counselling, confidence, knowledge and exposure” eight months and joined the Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE) in Hyderabad, mainly a research institute, as Assistant Professor and Program Director for MBA. After joining the institute, I became the Program Director in six months of joining the institute. I was there for seven years.

I then moved back to Coimbatore, joined here as faculty. At that time, the MBA programme in PSG was offered by the department of Arts and Science. So the management felt there should be a separate institution giving certain freedom to develop itself. So I joined the college and one of my seniors from IPE, named Balaguruswamy, joined as the Director. We started as the institute of management in 1994. When Balaguruswamy left, I took over in 2000 as the Director. I was very active in social service since a long time. My brother was my inspiration, from whom I decided to pursue PhD. Later on, I was trying to get a job but that was getting delayed. I then decided to do MPhil and was employed at Madras University. Because I was from PSG, the professor was very impressed with my academics. In those days, MPhil was a big degree. Luckily I got UGC

28 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

fellowship. In those days, someone from UGC would draw about ₹600 per month, with other facilities, so it was a big attraction for me. My wife, who is a senior doctor, wanted me to come back so I decided to return to Coimbatore. She did her medical education from Coimbatore Medical College and got a Diploma in child care from Stanley Medical College, Chennai. At that time, I was in IPE, so she came to Hyderabad to join me, but somehow wasn’t too comfortable there. Hence we decided to move back to Coimbatore. At that point of time, PSG was also looking for someone.

Subsequently, she went for MD in Pediatrics to Madurai Medical College and joined as faculty at Coimbatore Medical College. Currently, she is Head of the department of Pediatrics. We have only one son, who is pursuing a five-year Integrated Management Programme in IIM Indore.

What is your vision for the institute?

We would like to be a global player. Sadly, I feel in India, family businesses are not given too much importance. If you see, more than 80 percent of our industries in India are family run. Industries like Reliance Ltd are family run. If you look at Coimbatore itself, leading entrepreneurs have split due to property reasons. Hence I feel we need more professionalism in managing family business. When there is a partition in the family, there is an issue. So we must look at how to manage family businesses in India, build professionalism, overcome the problems of property divides, and keep family relationships strong. If we do all these, our Indian industry will grow. Keeping that in mind, we would like to develop more and better courses for family businesses to grow. In the future, I feel that PhDs should become the centre for family business.

Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

CHANGING ROLES

WINDS OF CHANGE:

The Changing Face of a CFO

The role of a CFO has transformed from someone who was a mere accountant about two or three decades ago, to someone who strategically plans and executes business today, along with the CEO of the company

I

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan

n the wake of the global economic crisis, India has certainly emerged as one of the best nations with some of the best corporate and accounting practices. Today, Indian companies are expanding at a very fast pace.

In such times, the role of a CFO or a Chief Financial Officer too has metamorphosed from someone who was a mere accountant, about two or three decades ago, to someone who strategically plans and executes business, along with the CEO of the company.

Today, the role of a CFO is no longer restricted to an enabler for the finance function, but is accentuated by technology, be it cloud computing, or even mobile computing. The role of a CFO has become strategic and absolutely critical in today’s world. Most CFOs of large multinational companies are of the view that the role has become extremely challenging today, given the global economic factors that undergo frequent

changes, especially after the 2008-09 economic crisis. Says Anil Patwardhan, Global Head Corporate Finance & Governance at KPIT Technologies, “Currency movements and global interest rate changes do impact margins domestically.

Currency risk is an ongoing challenge most of the time. Company margins can get eroded if a CFO is not proactive enough in dealing with the crisis and taking suitable action at the right time.

Most decisions have to be prompt and relooked at immediately for the next six months to a year.”

CFOs also note that compliances too have

become difficult today. “There are regular changes in sections of the Law and if you’ve missed any, it’s an issue. Company Law is very stringent. People are still gearing up to the changes that came about with the new Company Law in 2013. Maybe it will be easier after three to four years, because by then you would have understood the norms, rules and regulations,” says Animish Bagchi, a Chartered Accountant by profession, also Senior Vice President - Finance at EagleBurgmann Ltd. He is of the view that today’s CFO serves as the chief compliance officer and chief strategist, while also liaising with the investor community at large. In order to keep up with the changes in laws and regulations, CFOs will have to streamline their activities, and invest continuously in new technologies to fulfill their financial and accounting reporting functions. As companies expand domestically as well as internationally, CFOs will also have to adapt a more global mindset and may have to be located, more often than not, outside their native country.

The role of a CFO has become multifarious, as he is now someone who is constantly recasting the business model in line with capacity constraints, inventory, and managing costs in line with demand and supply projections. Ultimately, managing revenue and expenses to optimise financial performance is crucial. A CFO today is required to take higher-level decisions, which never happened a few years ago.

With the business approach changing with the changing environment, CFOs do need to spend a lot of time managing the company finances.

Explaining the business model and financials to both internal and external stakeholders is also an important task today.

At the same time, sharp focus on numbers and a strategic vision is extremely important for the CFO of any company. With businesses undergoing transformation, CFOs believe that finance will have to aid this transformation through the use of future generation processes, alternative delivery models, technology, and the creation of new skills in people and leadership capabilities.

Meanwhile, talking about hiring employees for the role, most of the companies today prefer hiring students from B-schools who have a master’s degree in finance, or someone who is a Chartered Accountant, than someone who is only a graduate.

Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

Today, the role of a CFO is no longer restricted to an enabler for the finance function, but is accentuated by technology, be it cloud computing, or even mobile computing. The role of a CFO has become strategic and absolutely critical in today’s world December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 29

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EW DYNA AN M

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BEGINN IN

COVER STORY

COMMANDING POSITION FROM THE ROBUST DISCIPLINE OF THE NAVY TO THE CHEQUERED MAZE OF THE CORPORATE, COMMODORE DILIP MOHAPATRA, VSM HAS NAVIGATED WITH APLOMB, APPLYING LESSONS LEARNT IN ONE FIELD TO OVERCOME AND RIDE OVER THE CHALLENGES OF ANOTHER. AND NOW IN THE THIRD INNINGS AS COACH, MENTOR AND POET, HE CARRIES IT OUT WITH EQUAL PANACHE AND ELAN.....

BY VINITA DESHMUKH

30 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

PICS: YUSUF KHAN

C

ommodore Dilip Mohapatra is a poet at heart, which belies his tough exterior. With over two decades of action-packed experience as a Naval Officer and then another two decades as a top Corporate leader, Mohapatra skilfully brought to play sharp organisational skills learnt in the Navy to suit the corporate environment.

He joined the Indian Navy as a commissioned officer and served for 28 years in various leadership capacities ashore and afloat. He rose to the rank of Commodore and in 2000 hung up his boots seeking premature retirement. He was decorated with the President’s Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) in 1997, for distinguished service rendered. This medal is considered equivalent to the civilian National Award Padmashri.

He pursued a corporate career with the Tatas and the Suzlon group of companies in various leadership positions till 2011, and then decided to free himself from active professional life. He, however continues to contribute as a catalyst for organisational transformation on demand, and engages himself in high end coaching, mentoring and leadership training. He is currently the Chief Mentor and Strategic Advisor to KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar and acts as a catalyst for organisational transformation.

His poetic journey began way back in the seventies , inspired by his Physics professor Jayanta Mahapatra, who has carved a niche for himself as a renowned bilingual poet of national and international repute. A few of his earlier poems appeared in magazines like the good old Illustrated Weekly of India, The Quest, The Mirror and The Grey Book, edited by Jayanta Mahapatra.

Compared against four factors—vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, the Navy and Corporate—both have similar challenges, but the exact contextual manifestations for both are different...the attitude to cope with that, or competence required to cope with that becomes different

PICS: YUSUF KHAN

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 31

COVER STORY His engagement with the Navy however did not permit him to pursue his poetic interests with the fervour he started with, and he went into a sort of hibernation. However he continued to write professional articles for Defence Management and some HR & Leadership journals worldwide.

He also edited a few in-house magazines for the Navy and the companies in which he served. From 2014, he reverted passionately to writing poetry, extensively published in many national and international literary journals of repute. So far, he has three poetry collections and a book on management thoughts, to his credit, published by Authorspress, New Delhi.

Corporate Citizen talks at length with the man who designed and deployed effective systems in the Navy as well as in the companies he worked for and made a mark, wherever he went.

Corporate Citizen: Was it your childhood dream to join the armed forces? And how did it come about?

Commodore Dilip Mohapatra: Well, it was a boyhood dream. I was attracted to the uniform when I joined the junior Air Force wing of the NCC in school. I also got selected for the Republic Day Contingent Parade at Delhi.

Having seen the armed forces people proudly moving about in uniform at the parade, I thought about making a career in the armed forces. That was in 1964.

I joined the Armoured Corps NCC in Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, where I passed my B and C certificates. I had already done my A certificate in the junior wing in school. During my college NCC days, I had the opportunity to attend a naval camp in Bengaluru and it was then that I found the Navy most attractive amongst the three wings of the Armed Forces. However, at that point of time, I was thinking of pursuing an academic career as a professor with a PhD, while my father desired that I become an IAS officer. His was a typical Oriya dream. I lost my father when I was pursuing my graduation The first thing that struck with Physics Honours. A veterinary surgeon, he rose to the position of a Joint Director of me was the mindset of the Animal Husbandry and Poultry Developcommand structure that ment. Later I did my Master’s in Physics. we develop in the Armed Forces.

I had to forgo my dream of pursuing my In the defence forces, it is very PhD as I was looking for an immediate placement in an honourable job after my MSc. I rare that you would be serving realised that if I opted to be a lecturer, I would under somebody who is junior get stagnated in Odisha. Narayan Mishra, one to you by age and experience. batch senior to me, who had joined the Navy, inspired me to toe his line. I went through the Also, in the Navy, you don’t have a Services Selection Board (SSB), and got selectmatrix organisation. There is only ed at the SSB, Roorkee in the first attempt. So one boss. What I had to overcome it was partly by chance and partly by choice.

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Commodore Mohapatra receiving VSM medal from the then CNS at an investiture parade at INS Kunjali, Mumbai

which was focussed on basics like drills and limited weapon training. Here, you have to learn about the entire naval organisational structure, the basics of how the Navy functions, from the headquarters down to the ships and establishments. You also learn the different disciplines in a ship; the role of a captain, the engineer officer, electrical officer, deck officers, leadership training, command and control of sailors. Also, a broad brush view of all the functional training of the Navy like gunnery, navigation, communication, torpedo, anti-submarine knowhow.

There are different specialist schools in Coin the corporate world was how do chin which taught us these varied aspects and thus we were exposed to various disciplines What was your naval training like?

I report to a chap who is 15 years of the Navy. They also put us on sea training Those days, the initial naval training was at younger than me? It was not a to understand how a ship works. Then they Kochi. The nine week training consisted of dilemma, but a hard realisation took us to the naval dockyard at Mumbai an intensive orientation programme and to get us to understand the maintenance of initiation into various sub-disciplines of the ships. But it was only an exposure, not inNavy, aimed at complete transformation of depth training. Subsequently, we learn it on the job. And later on, with the individual from the civvy street to become an officer and gentleman. about four years of experience , by a stringent selection process, I got seThereafter, we were exposed to all the naval specialisations because we lected for Navigation-Direction specialist’s course, which comprises marine were all direct entry officers. Our training as direct entry officers went on navigation and aircraft direction. In the Navy, training never ends; you are for about 15 weeks. After that, we were put through on-the-job training. My continually trained till you retire. first appointment was at the Vizag Boys’ Training Establishment. We started taking charge of divisions, young sailor recruits, while learning the ropes of the total rigmarole of the Navy.

What was your first lesson in leadership?

My first lesson in leadership – ‘own up your mistake’. Let me recount how I learnt it.

Since you were in the NCC, was this fifteen-week training someAs a young naval officer, I remember, we underwent training for a kind what familiar and as exciting? of war exercise in Vizag in 1972. In that exercise, I was part of a team to Yes, it was exciting alright, but definitely different from the NCC training 32 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

assist the Operation Rooms officer. This was basically a harbour defence You have been awarded the prestigious Vishisht Seva Medal exercise. I was given the job to log the incoming signals and report them to (VSM). What brought you this honour? the officer of the day. Now, a signal received said that Alert State 3 should It is actually not for one particular incident; your continued and consistently be enhanced to State 1. So I went and reported to the Lieutenant. The usual good performance is generally considered. process is that the states go up sequentially from 3 to 1 through 2 unless When I was posted in an inter-service organisation, the College of Dethere is a real emergency. When State 1 is announced, a lot of action has fence Management (CDM), to teach Management as a faculty, my specialto be initiated—lights are to be hoisted, sirens are to be sounded and so isation was ‘Decision Analysis’. Under Decision Analysis, we had Statistics, on. So that there is extra vigil and you look for mock divers coming and Operations Research and Systems Analysis, and I am a Systems expert. attacking the ships.

During those days, I found that although the Air Force and Army had Suddenly, within 10 minutes, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief a lot of case studies, there were practically negligible Naval case studies. So Admiral Ronnie Pereira, (who later became Chief of the Naval Staff ) - a I took it upon me to work hard to design a large number of Systems case terror to the juniors, very tall, handsome and with a stately disposition studies concerning the Navy, as applicable to practical submarine search - stormed into the Operations room and roared, “Who is the OOW situations or practical situations in air search by naval reconnaissance air(Officer of the Watch)?” The OOW, knowing he was going to get the fircraft, choice of ships and naval equipment, fleet structuring and so on. For ing, stood in a corner and I was the fall guy.

I was a Sub-Lieutenant, a poor one-striper dwarfed by the imposing Admiral.

The Admiral quizzed, “What are you doing here?”

I said, “Sir, I am the Sub-Lieutenant of the watch.”

He said, “Alright, and who told you to take it to State 1?”

I should have kept quiet. As a Sub-Lieutenant, you are only supposed to be seen, not heard, that’s what they say. Instead, I pulled out that signal and showed it to the Admiral. He didn’t read it but threw it away and shouted, “You are supposed to be on State 2 and not State 1!.”

I said, “Sir but...”

He snapped, “Are you a clerk, have you got gobar (cow dung) in your head? Who made you an officer?”

A smooth sailing family life: With wife, Nayantara and daughters, Madhumita, Pratichee and Sona I tried to say something again but he cut me short and blasted me, left, right and centre, and told me to bring it down to State 2 and walked out. Now, after that, example, while selecting radars in the foreign markets, there were no clearI didn’t know what to do. I was feeling very bad. cut applicability scenarios. So I created, simulated, ran those cases and then Then a senior Lieutenant came to me and said, “You fool! Why did you based on those cases, created a system of actual methodology for the Navy talk back to the Admiral? If you would have just quietly said, ‘I am sorry Sir’, for subsequent utilisation for the selection of weapon and sensor systems he would have walked out.”

- something quite useful whenever we planned to select and buy things I said, “But he was talking to me, and I had to reply.” However, look at the from abroad. magnanimity of the Admiral. The next morning, at 9 O’clock, I got a message The value-add, which is not confined only to teaching but to real time apfrom my CO that the Admiral wanted to see plications was recognised by the Commanme. I was again scared, thinking something dant of CDM, who thought that I deserved IT industry is HR interrible had happened. He might tell me to to be commended. So he recommended me go home. So I went and he said, “Son, I am for the VSM for my contribution to the intensive. Profits of the sorry, it is not your mistake. I have checked ter-services organisation, basically as a Mancompany are solely driven up. The signal was wrongly decoded. And the agement faculty member, and especially for by the conversion of human comsignal operator had put 1 in place of 2. And creating the new cases which had not existed petencies into client deliverables. you have the done the right thing because until now, and which later found their use you acted on the signal as received.” for the Navy.

Unless the business units and HR So I saluted him and thanked him and professionals work hand in hand walked away.

As a young naval officer, what were with complete understanding of That incident taught me that as a leader, your thoughts on INS Khukri, the ship each other’s profession and do your respect goes up if you own up to your that went down in the 1971 War? mistake, even to your subordinate. He could At that time, I was just about to join. That the right procurements, business have just forgotten about the whole thing as I incident was unfortunate and somewhat dewould grossly suffer. So I wanted was just a nobody at that time, and he was an moralising for us. But the positive lesson that to treat recruitment not as an HR Admiral. But the very fact that he called me remains fresh in my mind till to date is the to apologize to me the next day was a great function but as a business function kind of leadership that Captain M N Mulla lesson for me. exhibited by standing steadfast on the bridge

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December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 33

COVER STORY and barking orders to ensure that every junior officer and every sailor abandoned the ship first, while he himself put his own safety to the last. The ship was badly damaged and Captain Mulla went down with the ship. It was not only an act of valour and sacrifice, but the leader’s concern and responsibility for the safety of his subordinates first, even at the cost of one’s own life.

Captain Mulla’s nobility, had been a great source of inspiration for us and he left an indelible impression in our minds.

Do you think the Indian Navy is less glamorous than the Indian Air Force or the Army?

No, if you ask me, it’s the other way around. The Indian Navy is the most glamorous of the three, although life on a ship or a submarine is not easy.

Our shore stations are all metro cities. The naval officers get more opportunities to enjoy city life and when they sail out, they visit the best of places, mingle with the international crowd, international navies, and they have the best of the uniforms— and for your information, the Navy has got a total of ten types of uniform! We were made to believe that women go weak on their knees at the sight of the naval uniform!!

So you took premature retirement from the Navy – when and why?

After 28 years of service I decided to shed my uniform. In the Armed Forces, this PMR (Premature Retirement) is a deliberate organisational intervention, which is encouraged because it keeps the Forces at a younger profile and creates better promotional opportunities for the juniors in an otherwise steep pyramidal structure. In 2000, I found that the chances of my becoming a Rear Admiral were very dim because there was hardly any chance for the next rank getting vacated in the normal course. I When I joined, the male to said to myself that I was only 50 years of age female ratio in TCS and the and could look for a second career outside; industry per se, was very utilise my experience and expertise from all poor.

Th ere were only 12 percent that I learnt in the Navy, and contribute to the country in another way, in another space. women in TCS at that time. I set

STRATEGY

NO.3

a target of taking it to at least 25

search firm and they called me for an interHow did you make it to the Corporate percent and in fact we achieved 31 view. Meanwhile, I had made up my mind to World? percent in four years. And because seek PMR from the Navy and had started the I never wanted to be a typical ex-armed process with the hope that I will get through forces guy taking care of industrial security. of that decision, a lot of women emTCS. Little risk with little confidence makes a I chose HR as my second profession, since, ployees got promoted with visible heady combination. After three months, I got in my reckoning, Human Resources was the changes in TCS demography and its an appointment letter from TCS. I officially most important component of the industry quit the Navy on April 30th, 2000. May 1st and handling peoples’ matters and issues peremployment brand was Labour Day, and on May 2nd, I joined haps could pose me the real challenge. In the the TCS. That’s how I entered the corporate Navy, when you are in command, you work world - my first entry as Head, HR at Tata Consultancy Services, Hyderabad in cohesive teams and control so many people to fight and win wars; so you branch. In TCS, I worked till 2007. learn HR through the hard way, not through the book—so I thought, could I use the experience and the expertise, the value systems that we developed in the defence forces, in the corporate? So maybe HR could be a good idea.

How did you adapt to the corporate world? And what were the That was my decision no. 1. changes that you made, based on your leadership experience My decision no. 2 was to decide which company to join, and how to go in the Navy? about it. I found out that the IT sector was doing well. And as head of the IT The first thing that struck me was the mindset of the command structure department of the Naval Dockyard, Bombay I also had sufficient IT knowlthat we develop in the Armed Forces. In the defence forces, it is very rare edge—so IT or OR (Operations Research, a term from systems analysis) that you would be serving under somebody who is junior to you by age and were my strengths. IT, OR and HR could be a good combination for me to experience. Also, in the Navy, you don’t have a matrix organisation. There look for a job in an IT company like TCS. The first company that I explored is only one boss. You don’t have dual reporting unlike in the corporate. The for a possible absorption was Sierra Atlantic at Hyderabad. But I found that first discomfort I had to overcome was how do I report to a chap who is 15 they wanted somebody who could implement PCMM (People Capability years younger than me? It was not a dilemma, but a hard realisation. I was Maturity Model) in the company, that too, immediately, for which I did not aware that by accepting this corporate responsibility, such a problem might have any practical experience at that time. So it didn’t work out. occur. Therefore I was mentally prepared to accept that and to create a situMy elder daughter suggested then that I try TCS, which was looking for ation that although theoretically I would be reporting to him, intellectually I heading their HR function at Hyderabad. So my CV was sent through a would ensure that he would have respect for me and for my age, experience 34 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

and for what I am. And for what value I bring to the organisation.

So the strategy I employed there was to prove I was a better professional than my predecessor. Here my empowerment would come through my own actions, through my demonstrated character, my decision making ability, and the value that I may add to the organisation, to earn my respect and build my credibility.

STRATEGY I called, one of my sourc-

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ing strategies as ‘Stinger’ named after a missile of the same name. A Stinger is a missile that selects a small, a point target from a larger area. So under the ‘Stinger missile’ concept, I used to tell my smart colleague to identify a good group or project leader working in another company. If he joins us, it is under the condition that if he had 20 people reporting to him, then it was his job to get us his entire team

Why do you view recruitment as business function, not mere HR function?

At TCS, after one year, I got an opportunity to do something both strategically and operationally and make a big difference. I was offered to head the recruitment function for the entire TCS as Global Head, HR Sourcing from the corporate office in Mumbai. I came to Mumbai to take up the new responsibility with no idea of the recruitment function especially in the IT industry. The total strength of TCS, in 2001, was only 14,000. When I took over, I was told that TCS was on an accelerated growing spree, and I would have to manage the massive recruitment drive for the next three to four years. But I didn’t have any clear-cut and detailed instructions.

Now I wanted total clarity for my function. Because if I didn’t get the right person for the right job at the right time, we would lose a huge amount of business. Any wrong or delayed decision would be counter-productive.

IT industry is HR intensive and the core of the value chain remains human capability and human commitment. The prime raw material happens to be human resources. The profits of the company are solely driven by the conversion of human competencies into client deliverables. Unless the business units and HR professionals work hand in hand with complete understanding of each other’s profession and do the right procurements, business would grossly suffer. So I wanted to treat recruitment not as an HR function but as a business function and convinced the top leadership as such. I needed the support of my CEO to bring into the company a robust and scientific process driven strategy that encompasses inclusive recruitment plans intrinsically linked with the dynamics of business and is based on accurate demand and availability forecasting. And I got the full support of my CEO to go ahead.

outside, wherever we have to take non-Indians. We kept on improving the system; it took about a year, and today this e-recruitment portal, which was pioneered by my function, is being sold as a tool by TCS to other clients.

And TCS was the first-ever IT company to have an e-recruitment portal of its own.

Did your tenure at the College of Defence Management help you in putting systems in place at TCS? I was teaching manpower planning at the College of Defence Management, so I had the knowledge of the techniques of manpower planning, forecasting methods for demand and availability and matching them together dynamically for complex organisations.

Now after the main strategy was on an even keel, I employed other tactical measures. I understood that HR Sourcing in the IT industry was fighting and winning the Talent War and one has to be relentless in achieving the targets.

Let me give one example: I called one of my sourcing strategies as ‘Stinger’ named after a missile of the same name. A Stinger is a missile that selects a small, a point target from a larger area. I found that whenever we do experience professional hiring, we have to churn a lot of unsolicited and inappropriate resumes. Out of 100 recruits, our hit was only two or three.

Creating the first ever recruitment e-portal Then I created a system to gather information from various business unit heads, to collate, consolidate and capture their requirements. After having met that requirement, I made a system to classify them into various competency stacks, create a basket of demands, and modify this basket of demands dynamically over a period of time. I trained my staff in the new approach.

The next step was to design and develop a portal that would support the entire work flow. TCS has the ability to design IT solutions for its customers. I intimated my requirements as an internal customer and a small team of developers worked with me to come up with an e-recruitment portal that computerised the entire system of demand prediction and availability, mapped it and created a complete work flow from where the jobs are advertised through different methods of advertisement, putting the resumes into the work flow, shortlisting the resumes, keeping track of progress and so on – just about everything about recruitment was computerised.

Our strategies were put into practice effectively in a very systematic way.

Systems-thinking and IT applications that I learnt in the Navy was in fact very useful for bringing in processes and in digitising the same for recruitment at TCS. Once the portal was created, the volume was easy to handle all around the country, and globally as well, like in the United States and elsewhere December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 35

COVER STORY Just imagine, at a success rate of only 2% or 3%, how much of effort gets wasted!

So under the ‘Stinger missile’ concept, I used to tell my smart colleague who worked directly under me to identify a good group or project leader kind of a guy working in another company and who could be prospective candidate for us. We would offer him an attractive package, and he would agree to join us, under the condition that if he had 20 people reporting to him, then it was his job to get us his entire team. Even if we got 10 or 15 out of the 20, that would save us a lot in terms of time and effort.

Would you like to mention any other significant change that you brought about in HR Sourcing at TCS? When I took over as the head of recruitment, I found that the male to female ratio, in TCS and the industry per se, was very poor. There were only 12 percent women in TCS at that time. I set a target of taking it to at least 25% and in fact we achieved 31% in four years.

And because of that decision, a lot of women employees got promoted with visible changes in TCS demography and its employment brand.

Besides e-recruitment portal and use of technology, I introduced and revised different strategies like better management of referral cases, which I changed to a ‘buddy’ scheme. We put up a poster from the film Sholay on everybody’s computer that said, ye dosti hum nahin chhodenge. In that, I said, get me three possible candidates; if selected, for each candidate, I will pay you the compensation I was paying to the placement agencies.

That proved quite cost-effective.

With all strategies in place, we could increase our strength from 14,000 to 1,35,000 in four years, almost 10-fold.

Also, as a leader, I groomed my successor to grow up and take up my job. In the armed forces, grooming up your next leader is the responsibility of a leader. So I brought it here too.

STRATEGY We took about six months

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to design an e-recruitment portal. Once the portal was created, the volume was easy to handle all around the country,and globally. We kept on improving the system, it took about a year, and today this e-recruitment portal, which was pioneered by my function, is being sold as a tool by TCS to other clients. And TCS was the first-ever IT company to have an e-recruitment portal of its own

How was your pay package as compared to the Navy?

When Officers retire from the Armed Forces and take up a job in civil life, they don’t know how to negotiate a salary. The same thing happened to me when I joined TCS. They offered me a package that sounded very satisfying to me when I compared that to my last take-home-salary in the Navy. I did not have any idea of what CTC (cost to company) was. I did not factor in the perks that I used to get in the Navy as a Commodore and hence my comparisons were like comparing apples with oranges. In reality, I started with a salary much lower than that of my counterparts in the company. It’s another thing that as I grew in my career at TCS, the anomalies were corrected and my salary was at par with my counterparts as a Vice President.

36 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

When I left TCS and went to other organisations, I was always given the package that I deserved.

After TCS, how many companies did you work with?

After TCS, I moved over to the Tata Group, as the Group Vice President. At TCS, after handling recruitment for about four years, I wanted a change. Then they realised I had a very good academic background in addition to the operational work I did for recruitment. They offered me to take over the global Learning and Development (L&D) function at TCS. I handled L&D at TCS till 2007. Though the tenure was quite satisfying and things were pretty much on the rails, I had reached saturation point and was looking for a new role.

Then I learnt that at the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC), Pune, which takes care of senior leadership training for the Tata Group of companies - a total of 93 companies - the position of Director was vacant. So I approached the Tata Group HR head. He agreed and with TCS’s consent, I took over as Group Vice President and Director of Tata Management Training Centre. It was an internal, inter-departmental transfer, from TCS to Tata Group, hence it was not really leaving the organisation. I was there for exactly one year. I brought about few changes to TAS (Tata Administrative Services) training, I opened up certain new vistas

STRATEGY Discipline is much higher

NO.6

in the armed forces. In the corporate, it is more client- and profit-centric. And there is an organisational difference from company to company.

Their ethics are also different.

Sometimes, theoretically, they propound very good values, but the question is, do they really practise them?

of leadership and functional training for the group companies. I improved, almost doubled the revenue of the TMTC, with reduced staff in one year. But then I decided to quit because I found little scope for any radical and episodic changes in this well set and traditional organisation.

That was in 2008.

After that, there was a requirement by the Suzlon group of companies. They were looking for somebody who could start something for them like the TMTC. So I joined the group and established the Suzlon Excellence Academy (SEA)—it is opposite Magarpatta, at the Suzlon headquarters, One Earth, Pune.

After working for Suzlon for the next four years, one day I decided to give myself retirement—to do something I had never done—writing books, doing some consulting and coaching work, and not to do a nine-to-five job.

So in December 2011, I left Suzlon and from then onwards, I have been on the Board of Studies and Advisory Boards of the KIIT Group of institutes at Bhubaneswar. I hold the position of Chief Mentor and Strategic Advisor, on an honorary basis and drive some value adding interventions.

Having seen young corporate managers and young naval officers, what difference do you find between the two, and what do you think of the attitude of new, young corporate managers?

As for young naval officers, the naval culture is very much embedded into their blood -- that of being an officer and gentleman, which is more or less universal. There is a similarity between a naval officer in India, UK or Japan.

In the corporate sector, although there is a common thread of their being corporate citizens, there is a lot of difference in the nature of the companies they are serving in. For example, an IT professional will have a different attitude and temperament than the one from the manufacturing industry.

And discipline is much higher in the armed forces. In the corporate, it is more client- and profit-centric. And there is an organisational difference from company to company. Their ethics are also different. Sometimes, theoretically, they propound very good values, but the question is, do they really practise the values? The answer is, not always. In fact, sometimes they don’t even remember those values; forget about applying them. So one of the challenges for me was, how do I really train people in practising those values which the company claims to espouse?

We don’t have these kind of problems in the defence forces because it is the basic foundation there and everybody knows that. A certain degree

of flexibility that is there in the corporate may be useful to them because they are in a peculiar environment, not quite similar to the defence forces. Compared against four factors—vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, the Navy and corporate—both have similar challenges, but the exact contextual manifestations for both are different. And since the natures of these entities are different, the attitude to cope with that, or competence required to cope with that becomes different. So as an HR person, if you are taking care of training and development, or the recruitment, etc., you have to understand these differences and accordingly create the strategies and operations to suit to the environment and contexts.

What is your advice to Armed Forces personnel who would like to seek a second career? How should they prepare for it?

First of all, assess how many more productive years you have ahead of you. Are you looking for a second career or trying to find a second engagement just to keep you occupied and earn some money to supplement your pension? If it’s for a second career, assess your strengths in relation to the chosen field in the corporate world and ensure that there is a good match.

Then select the right industry sector and company that would give you ample scope to contribute and grow. Never undersell or oversell yourself.

Learn how to make the right resume and approach the right search firms to facilitate your positioning. Never settle for anything less than you deserve.

Learn the survival techniques like adaptability, flexibility, develop quick learning ability, understand the environment and free yourself from a rigid hierarchical, command & control mindset. Last but not the least, learn how to translate your capabilities and attitudes to a corporate environment and contextualise. Your success will depend on what value you bring to the new organisation.

What is your success mantra to climb up the corporate ladder?

The Navy taught me that, to get success, you got to Float, Move and Fight. I translated these three stages into a five stage strategy for corporate success.

These are : Survive, Drive, Strive, Thrive and Arrive.

First, you must adapt to the environment, know the organisation and learn the tricks to Survive.

Then you got to gather momentum, deliver quality and move. That is Drive. Then you got to accelerate, that is Strive and be ahead of others; Then you got to Thrive, showing excellence in multiple directions and add value to the organisation in multiple dimensions.

Then you Arrive.

And again the cycle repeats to take you to the next plane.

How did you turn to poetry?

My real journey started in 2014 after my retirement. I wrote very prolifically during the last two years and contributed to many literary journals world-wide. When some of them were accepted and published I was encouraged to write more. During these two years I have three books of Poetry published by Authorspress, New Delhi. My poems have also appeared in the World Poetry Yearbooks 2013 and 2014 along with the works of many contemporary international poets of repute.

What is the philosophy of life that you live by?

Having seen life and having reached a certain height, I would say use that to your advantage to expand your horizon. Don’t worry whether you are being seen by any one or not. The more you see, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you live your life. vinita.deshmukh@corporatecitizen.in (With Dinesh Kulkarni) December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 37

COVER STORY Dynamic Duo 20

Nayantara & Dilip Mohapatra

LIFE IS A SONG

Nayantara is the quiet one; she has been the pillar of the family – seeing her husband, Commodore Dilip Mohapatra rise to great heights from the Navy to the corporate world and instrumental in inspiring her three daughters – Madhumita, Sona and Pratichee to blossom in their professional careers and become singing sensations. Commodore Mohapatra defines a successful marriage in three words – Affection, Respect, Trust (ART). A take on their concept of a successful marriage

BY VINITA DESHMUKH

T

hey say opposites attract, and with Nayantara and Commodore Dilip Mohapatra, it is starkly evident. She coyly and in very plain terms, tells you that it was a love-cum-arranged marriage and narrates, ``we were pursuing graduation in Physics in Ravenshaw College in Cuttack.

He was one year senior to me. After that he joined the Navy and I finished my studies. During the college days, although he was more expressive about his feelings about me, I was quite shy and we hardly talked to each other at that time. After my graduation, I shifted to Bhubaneswar to do my Post-Graduation in Physics. Then he proposed and my parents accepted.

We got married in 1973.’’ So, simply said and with lucid straightforwardness.

Commodore Dilip is more vocal about the birth of their love relationship when he elaborates, ``yes, we were in the same Physics department; she was one year junior to me and the similarity ends there.One of the laws of Physics is that opposites attract, which is so true; it is her quiet and calm nature that attracted me towards her.

In sharp contrast, I am rather outspoken and flamboyant. On the other hand, if you ask her a question, her answers will be in monosyllables. While I would flaunt my clothes and ties borrowed from my father, she exuded simplicity.

Incidentally, it was a box camera, during a college picnic that triggered off the romance. Dilip reminisces, ``though I used to see her every day, I really noticed her first, during a department picnic. She was carrying a camera and on the insistence of the girl students of my class who wanted me to click their group photo, I borrowed it from her. The reel was wrongly loaded and I had to cover it under my jacket to reload it. So, you can say my

38 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

PICS: YUSUF KHAN

first interaction was through the lens of the camera!’’

However, he was hesitant to propose, as he was not too sure whether she would accept. He says honestly, ``I took some time to propose as I did have a non-conservative reputation at college, due to my familiarity and ways with the opposite gender. She was a bit cautious and hesitant to talk to me. So it took me some time to approach her and she didn’t immediately say yes to me. But the only positive indication that I got was when I was hospitalised for a minor surgery and she visited me there with a friend of hers and with a packet of grapes. I took that as an indication of her interest in me, but she never expressed it in words. So, the grapes after all didn’t turn out to be sour, but sweet, as they are meant to be!’’

What is it that attracted her to him? ``He is quite an open-minded

and diligent person and was good at studies.

He started writing to me only when he joined the Navy. By the time, of course, he had met my parents and won their consent.’’

What is the role that she has played in his life? Says Dilip, ``She has played a very pivotal role in my achievements and success. She was always there, providing complete support, never questioning my decisions, not because of fear but because of her faith in me. She stood by me all the time, be it my decision to retire from the Navy to enter the corporate world, or to leave active professional life before time. ``Secondly, her contribution in bringing up our children is immense. She took complete responsibility of their education, leaving me free to pursue my career. She also willingly accepted all familial responsibilities esp. taking care of my aged mother.

Their three daughters, Sona, Madhumita and Pratichee are as gorgeous as much as they are brilliant in academics and singing. All of I wouldn’t use the word ‘love’ because that word is very fuzzy— them are well-acclaimed singers. Sona is married to music director Ram Sampath and as her mom misinterpreted and reinterpreted by people in many ways. I am proudly says, ``she has a voice of a Sufi singer; she being very, very focused, so I would say the ART of marriage, lies in goes into a trance when she sings.’’ Anyone who three words, A for affection, R for respect and T for trust has heard her song `Rupaiya’ in Aamir Khan’s SatymevaJayate TV serial, or the Punjabi folk song ‘love’ because that word is very fuzzy—misinterpreted and reinterpreted by Ambarsariya, amongst scores of others she has sung, would surely agree. people in many ways. I am being very, very focused, so I would say the ART Pratichee was one of the five Viva girls, India’s first ever all-girls Pop music of marriage, lies in three words, A for affection, R for respect and T for trust.’’ group.

He also believes that, like any relationship, marriage also works on unWhen asked how come music is an integral part of the family, says Dilip derstanding the touchpoints that are necessary to keep your marriage toproudly ``both, me and my wife are fond of music. My daughters started gether. He elaborates, ``Touch points are like a glue that keeps things stick learning Hindustani vocal music at an early age and are trained classical singtogether. After a few years of marriage—initially you have plenty of touch ers under Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. Though they pursued their higher points, like doing so many things together—later on you tend to drift apart,education to be professionals, they continued their musical journey on the side due to your progressing career, or your increasing responsibilities as a mothand excelled in many competitions. While Sona and Pratichee finally changed er, a wife, or perhaps due to family or societal pressures. So even without track to become performing artistes in entertainment industry, Madhumita realising, your touch points start getting diminished. If you don’t endeavour still pursues her professional career in IT industry but keeps her interests alive. to renew these or create new touch points, then your relationship can drift Sona was nominated for Filmfare Awards for playback singing in Hindi Movie apart. For example, at our age we may not like to go for a movie together Khoobsurat. Madhumita sings for Telugu movies occasionally and was nomievery other day, but we may go to a spiritual discourse or a poetry session nated for Filmfare Awards for playback singing in South Indian Films in 2008.’’ together - these could be new touch points. So my advice is take stock of Adds Nayantara, ``honestly speaking, like any other middle-class family, your touch points periodically, don’t allow old touch points to completely I thought my children should excel in studies and become successful profesvanish from your life. Renew them in intervals, if necessary, create new sionals. And for that, I should not let my career coming in the way, which is touch points, with your partner. And these touch points are the real glue. If why did not pursue it. I chose to devote my entire time to them. My daughyou maintain and nurture these touch points, you will never be separated.’’ ters too responded well to it by doing well in their studies as well as in their Adds Nayantara demurely, `` nowadays, youngsters never think about chosen fields. I always wanted them to pursue a hobby and be achievers.’’ compromise, adjustment and sacrifice. Commitment and adjustment are What role did they play in the upbringing of daughters? Says Dilip, ``we very important in marriage and it perhaps rests more on the woman’s wanted them to grow naturally with us. We didn’t want to impose anything shoulder. Also, young couples or parents today are too stressed; they worry on them. They being girls, we were sometimes a bit protective and had too much about the future, for which they lose their peace of mind in the some restrictions as concerned parents—the kind of company they keep, the present. We never worried about materialistic things. I feel, what the young routine and discipline they maintain, which was for their own good. Within couples are missing is a sense of contentment, patience and also an ability that, they had the freedom to do what they liked. In education or career, we to live in the present moment.’’ gave them freedom to pursue as per their wish. We expected them to be reShe further adds, ``since young men and women are more forthright sponsible for their own actions. We also told them: never compromise your about their needs and also the financial independence that they want, there dignity for anything in life; never keep quiet if you are right - fight for your should be more discussion between them about their expectations about right; don’t get intimidated just because you are a girl.So this self-confidence each other. That will make their life better.’’ we instilled in them from the very start.

Indeed for the Mohapatra family, Life is a Song, as harmony and peace What is it that keeps a marriage going? Says Dilip, ``First and foremost, dwell in it. it is, understanding a relationship; understanding your respective responsivinita.deshmukh@corporatecitizen.in bilities, mutual respect, mutual trust, and affection. I wouldn’t use the word December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 39

LOVED & MARRIED TOO

It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into a wedlock.

Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real life romances that got sealed in marriage.

Childhood sweethearts AMIT RANJAN and SHWETA KUMARI on why they don’t ever feel the pressure of having committed too early

Together &tested I

By Kalyani Sardesai

n a world where commitment phobia rules supreme, this is a sweet and simple testimony to the power of love. The kind that stands the test of time, distance and work pressure. The kind that does not believe a proposal in high school was way too early--or that a wedding that took its own time happening, a tad too late.

For as far as they are concerned, they’re together-and perfectly content.

“Not for a moment did it ever strike me that I chose my partner too early in life,” says Shweta Kumari. “Or that the commitment was a burden in any way. You adjust with anyone you choose to spend your life with; in fact the journey has been far smoother with a childhood friend.”

Both 30, Amit Ranjan and Shweta Kumari have known each other for as many as 17 years, going as far back as the time when they were class VII batch mates studying together in their home town of Jamshedpur. Now well-qualified professionals both---he’s Business Partner (HR& IR) with EternisFine Chemicals Ltd., a Mariwala Group Company (Marico Ltd.)--while she’s a SAP HCM consultant with Capgemini.

Married and settled for around three years in Mumbai, both nevertheless, share the comfort of a relationship that has blossomed over time.

And to think, it all started at an early age, when Amit--a determined teenager--decided it was time to express his feelings for his buddy since Std VII. The very same girl whose sense of responsibility and intelligence had left a deep impression on him. Please do keep in mind the conservative backdrop of prim and propah Jamshedpur--so feelings had to be expressed through a card. “There was a tacit understanding,

40 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

though both of us had lots to achieve before anything else,” says Shweta.

Both went their own separate ways. Shweta completed her engineering from Allahabad, while Amit did his B Com and Law from Pune.

But despite their different worlds and academic schedule, they hung onto each other tenaciously.

“We’d make it a point to meet up every few months,” says Amit.

Their paths once again converged in Pune for their MBA HR. Luckily both made it to the rolls of the batch of 2009-11.

Over the next two years, both were active and energetic students on campus. While he was cultural coordinator, she was someone who took part in every dance and sporting activity under the sun. “Everyone knew we were a pair,” shares Amit.

There wasn’t much opposition from either family, given their common educational and cultural backgrounds, but for some concerns raised by Shweta’s parents about the fact that both were exactly the same age. “They would have preferred it if I were slightly older, and hence, better and settled,” shares Amit.

“Luckily, both of us found good placements and packages with good and reputed MNCs, thanks to the guidance of our faculty and college, and hence were in a strong position to plead our case.”

It took some convincing but, finally wed in 2013 - with both sets of parents in absolute agreement that their children had chosen their partner well.

Complementarily yours As in the case of every stable relationship, both Amit and Shweta are a foil to each other. Some steps match, others don’t, but it all works to their advantage. “ I am patient, while she has a bit of a temper,” smiles Amit. “On the other hand, I admire the fact that she is practical and flexible to the demands of the occasion. We have known each other for so long, people and contexts change

Decoding the magic of marriage Give some, get a whole lot back Help out at home, especially when the other partner is held up at work Respect each other’s parents Take pride in each other’s achievements and give enough space for each others’ professional & personal dreams.

If one person is in a bad mood, take a step back, and listen. Give them time to cool down

Despite the pace of their work days, they make it a point to ear-mark quality time together. “We take crazy vacations together and have gone on a biking/driving expedition to Leh-Ladakh from New Delhi. Both of us are sporty and adventure loving, and have tried out the wackiest activities ranging from river rafting to rappelling to trekking to scuba diving and looking forward to try out many more,” grins Amit.

Careers in the corporate world require you to travel, attend official parties. Trust your partner and believe in your relationship-any kind of negativity is a waste of time, apart from being utterly harmful dramatically in this interlude, but thankfully, her sense of logic and reason, remain the same. She always supported me to achieve my goals and targets and as result, it has been great going.”

A man secure in his own skin, Amit is proud of Shweta’s achievements. “She has always shone brightly in the field of academics. A topper and gold medalist right through her educational career, she has always aspired high.” he narrates.

On her part, Shweta is hugely appreciative of his understanding and supportive ways. “Even if I am delayed or held back at work, I will find a hot meal waiting for me. He is very handy around the house-be it setting up the washing machine or supervising the maid. Also, no matter how tough a day has been I look forward to sharing the events with him, knowing how patient and wise he is. His people management skills are a huge moral support, and I manage to find solutions to most office conflicts,” she says.

Apart from this, both love to check out the latest musical concerts, movies and eating joints in town. “In short, we both believe in living life to the fullest, and giving each day our all,” says Amit.

It’s all about family So what keeps them going in the rough and relentless arena of the corporate world, where live-ins and short term relationships are quite the norm?

“I believe it’s all about defining your priorities.

A lot of people are way too focused on their careers to take along a partner. Each to their own. But while both Shweta and I are highly ambitious--we believe that the sky is the limit for anyone who enjoys the strong and sure ground of a happy family life,” says Amit.

Trust is another indispensable pillar in any marriage, old and new. “Careers in the corporate world require you to travel, attend official parties

and so on. Meeting new people is a given. Trust your partner and believe in your relationship-any kind of negativity is a waste of time, apart from being utterly harmful” says Shweta.

Both go all out to take care of each other’s’ parents when they are visiting from Jharkhand.

“For the most part, we live by ourselves in Chembur. But when parents visit, we make it a point to make them feel comfortable and wanted,” says Shweta.

And while career graphs continue upwards and onwards, they have discussed having a family together--eventually. “Giving up work isn’t an option for either of us. At the same time, it’s crucial to give the baby due time and care.

We are lucky to have educated and involved parents--who would be happy to help out, if called upon to do so. And even when they can’t, finding responsible day care in Mumbai wouldn’t be difficult,” says Shweta. “At the end of the day, though it’s all about balancing work and family.

When you fill in the blanks for each other, and support each other, through thick and thin, you can realise every single dream you had.” kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Indians rule in US Around 42 percent of doctors who work in the United States of America are Indians!

This percentage is closely followed by NASA scientists – around 40 percent Indians!

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 41

INTERVIEW

IN DUBAI Prof Peter e Cappelli at th D R H ia s A 5 Awards 201

Art & Science of Talent on Demand

In today’s uncertain world, managers can’t forecast their business needs accurately.

In such a scenario, talent management becomes a problem but Prof Peter Cappelli offers ideas and tools you’ll need, to match the supply of talent to your demand for it—today and tomorrow

BY PRADEEP MATHUR

I

s finding (and retaining) talent a challenge for your company? If so, you’re not alone.

In fact, if recent corporate surveys are any indicators, “skills shortage and talent loss” have been listed among the biggest concerns of the top Indian CEOs for 2016, the year which, they feel, might “just make or break” their businesses. However, while acknowledging it to be an “extraordinary challenge,” they’re also admitting that, so far, they haven’t taken any steps to address this issue.

To know how really difficult is the future talent management scenario and what are the solutions, if any, Corporate Citizen spoke to Prof Peter Cappelli, the George W Taylor Professor of Management and director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who is also recognised the world over as an authority on human capital. Having conducted a day-long Masterclass Workshop in Dubai for over 200 delegates at the recently concluded Asia HRD Congress 2015 on Talent on Demand in Asia: Building Capability Quickly, he spoke candidly about why finding, retaining and developing talent is one of the toughest challenges HR leaders face in the New Year. Excerpts:

What is talent in your terminology?

Most people think of talent as something referred for managerial jobs only. But that is not correct.

Any positions that are hard to fill or crucial to the growth of an organisation should be counted as talent.

But don’t you think talent is very subjective?

No, it is not. A company says, here is what we need. Here are the kind of things we think we need and that’s what we are interested in. We are not interested in whether you can paint or whether you can do sculpting or stuff like that.

We are interested in C++ programming; we are interested in your ability to manage people. These are specific things that they need. So, it is not subjective at all. You may talk differently about talent or other aspects of talent, that’s fine, but in the context of business, it has a definite meaning.

Every company clearly says here is what we mean by that.

So, what is talent management?

In simple terms, it means, anticipating what your needs for talent are going to be and setting out some plan to make sure that you meet those demands. Getting the right people with the right skills into the right jobs—is the basic people management challenge in any organisation.

But can you really manage talent?

Yes, provided you understand how to explore the economic case for careful talent management. It means taking a sensible decision when you don’t have too much or too little talent and you don’t spend too much on it. So, that’s the challenge and the problem is the uncertainty.

What is that?

See, it’s relatively easy to manage talent if you have complete certainty about your needs. For example, if you could say, in five years from now, I’ll need exactly 100 people with exactly these skills; it’s easy to manage things because you know what you want and how can you get it. But the problem is that in today’s extremely uncertain business environment, you can’t predict anything.

You won’t know what your needs would be until five years from now. Today there is no job security and the likelihood of lifetime employment with one company is a thing of the past. Moreover, in open market economies, why would you be investing in talented people who, you know, will soon leave your firm for a competitor? So, the

42 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

challenge is how to be adaptable? How to manage this uncertainty? That’s what really the story is all about: How to manage this uncertainty not only in demand but also on the supply side?

What are the changes in the last 20 years?

A generation ago, companies would hire very carefully, keeping in mind your long-term value to the company. But today, they think of you for a short term only. They know you’ll leave them, sooner or later. So, that’s the first thing. Secondly, they would provide you all the fundamental skills you would need for your career going forward in that company. So that is become history.

What do they do now?

They no longer do any talent management. Very few try to plan for internal succession, which means let’s try to anticipate who will fill each of our jobs in ten years from now. But that’s also attempted rarely.

So, where are they going wrong?

Interestingly, while most CEOs acknowledge that finding and retaining talent is becoming a big business challenge for them, yet, to address this concern, most of them are ironically turning to talent management practices that no longer work. As I said earlier, the environment they were tailored to no longer exists. Yet they keep trying those very methods that were practiced in an era when business was very certain, industries were regulated, markets were not very competitive, international competition was practically nil, business demand was very predictable and all talent was internal. But situations have changed now. In today’s uncertain business world, they just can’t forecast their talent needs accurately because there are inevitable leaks in their talent pipeline. Moreover, because of intense competition, there is an obsessive focus also on

PICS: YUSUF KHAN

Today there is no job security and the likelihood of lifetime employment with one company is a thing of the past.

Moreover, in open market economies, why would you be investing in talented people who, you know, will soon leave your firm for a competitor December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 43

INTERVIEW costs. So, they are going wrong in their strategy, especially when employees they had carefully cultivated over a period of time are leaving their firms openly for a rival. Their internal pipelines for talent are proving misleading because of unpredictable attrition and hence all their talent plans are turning out utterly wrong.

What is the way out of this crisis?

I think a new approach to talent management is needed for two key reasons. On the public policy side, companies are not developing the talent the country needs to stay competitive. On the employer side, they aren’t doing any talent planning, or their planning is wrong, even as their ability to hire on a just-in-time basis is eroding.

Employers can’t easily find people out there to poach; it’s an expensive and time-consuming process to even look at.

What is the new approach you’re talking about?

Right now, most companies are still trying to do some of those things of the past and they’re failing at them, like succession planning, because they plan and then it turns out that their plan goes wrong and it was all waste. Or they are simply relying on hiring. So, whenever someone quits, they run outside and hire somebody to replace him because they have nobody available internally. If they get a new project, they go outside and hire people because they have no other way to do it. They simply hire and so what I’m suggesting is a third way.

Which is that?

The third way is to use techniques that manage uncertainty rather than assuming that you don’t have any which is the old model. Or just raise your hands and react at the last minute every time which is what, at least in the US, most companies are doing. So, what I’m saying is that there is the third way in between. It argues that talent can and should be managed the way the supply chain of raw goods and materials is managed (i.e., managing for

both need and uncertainty). It offers three options to the companies —Build, Buy and Borrow-- for getting the talent they require. Build means getting talent through internal development which involves taking a risk. Buy means you hire talent from the outside by paying a premium to reduce the risk and Borrow is nothing but taking the help of contractors and staffing firms. It is truly just-intime and there is even less uncertainty, even bigger premium.

people. They pay more attention to empowering people. Most of them see their employees as assets and not costs to be cut. They think about the psychology of their workers more and they create a sense of meaning for the organization, not just try to make money. Some of them are also trying to achieve some bigger goals and all those things matter a lot. So, I would say they are pretty sophisticated.

How can one choose among the three options?

The companies of the Tata Group have been particularly good at creating a sense of social purpose in their employees. They also spend a lot of money on the training of their manpower.

In the banking sector, companies like the ICICI Bank have been working with a missionary zeal and trying to bank the unbanked. On the strength of their quality manpower, a lot of the tech companies are also trying to prove that Indian firms could succeed on the world stage, like the HCL and Infosys, which are competing internationally. In fact, the HCL has as its mantra with the tag line, “employees first, customer second.” It’s an eye catcher. There are many with a specific social purpose ranging from improving healthcare to getting cell phones to people who don’t have access to latest communication tools, and proving to the international community that Indian companies can lead in IT and telecommunications. I think Indian business leaders must be appreciated because they lead with a sense of social purpose. They are not just after money. In this respect, I think, the CEOs of the Western world can learn some lessons from their Indian counterparts. With the Indian economy all set to grow by 7.5 per cent as it is on the way to even higher growth trajectory, heads of India’s biggest companies have shown that they have a different approach to leadership as compared to their Western counterparts. They seriously invest in their employees’ training & development and having a social purpose also helps them in motivating their workers in achieving the goals of the organization.

It depends on how accurate is your forecast of demand. Say, if your forecast is very accurate, then it is better to Build talent internally.

However, if it is not, then it is better to Buy or hire talent from the outside and Borrow more.

Similarly, if you know, how long the talent will be needed, then Build talent internally more, but if you’re not sure, then Buy and Borrow more.

So, depending upon situation, you can use a mix of the three options to manage your uncertainty and costs.

What are the Asian realities?

I would say a common theme runs across many Asian countries but it’s not true for all. Most Asian countries are experiencing pretty fast growth rates and relative shortage of educated and trained workers. Now, that again is not true for every country. If you go to China, for example, they have a surplus of college graduates, now a big one, and in other parts of Asia, they might have higher levels of unemployment. But it is different from what exists in the Europe or the United States which have a surplus of educated and trained people but relatively low growth rate.

What are your observations about the Indian companies?

The big companies in India take their human resources very seriously. So, compared to the US companies, they measure more aspects of human resources. They spend more money on training

On the strength of their quality manpower, a lot of the tech companies are also trying to prove that Indian firms could succeed on the world stage, like the HCL and Infosys. In fact, the HCL has as its mantra with the tag line, “employees first, customer second 44 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Can you mention some of them?

Would you like to say something about the new political leadership in India?

No. I don’t know enough about it. I’m not well informed about the Prime Minister Modi but I think the Indian economy is doing very well under his leadership.

What is your take on the talent management practices of the Asian companies?

Things differ from country to country. While big companies in India seem very sophisticated in this area, their Chinese counterparts, even the larger ones, are not. In the developing countries, which are all over the place, countries with multinational connections have copied a lot from the Western and US models. However, most of

So an individual can apply over thousands of jobs. As a result, companies are finding that they have a thousand applicants for every job and they have to process them. Most of the time, they don’t do it very well. They make lots of mistakes on the way and for individuals; they may apply for a thousand of jobs and yet may hear nothing from any one of them. So, the new technologies have complicated the scenario. I don’t think it has made it necessarily any better now.

A generation ago, companies would hire very carefully, keeping in mind, your long-term value to the company. But today, they think of you for a short term only. They know you’ll leave them, sooner or later

In the Middle East, most companies don’t have any formal HR department. What’s your take?

their companies are still not very sophisticated. Their HR practices are very administrative and legal.

So, it varies country by country and within countries too, they vary a lot.

Do you think that we have some benchmarks of excellence?

Yeah, I would say some Indian companies that I mentioned are very good role models and they command respect in their people management, particularly in their training and development which they take very seriously.

What are the solutions for those involved with talent management tasks in Asia?

How to develop talent cheaply is not easy.

Similarly developing quality at low costs is also a pretty huge challenge because everything boils down to money and trying to figure out how to do this cheaply is a tricky job. I think if you go a little deeper, it turns out to be a supplychain problem. If you go for building talented manpower internally, it looks good because it has the advantage of being cost effective, cheaper, better quality and with a consistent culture. Other option is to buy talent from outside. How much of that should you be buying from the outside which is expensive but fast and how much you will be developing internally? So, you can use these in combinations.

Your take on companies invest huge amounts in training employees...

They shouldn’t. In fact, if you think about the consulting firms, they are not spending money on training. They are training people for being trained but not by sitting in a class for doing work. Rather than letting them sit in a classroom for training, they are giving them assignments to go and do the task and learn in the process. So, companies have to devise their own methods to get the work done.

How can companies manage their talent assets internally?

They have to figure out how to put people of the right skills into the right jobs while giving them a say. They also have to put them into jobs where they can easily learn new skills without a lot of training, additional costs and without spending a lot of time. So, figuring all that out would matter a lot in this respect.

How do you see the American job market?

It is losing its dynamism. Even after some strong hiring in the last few months and a sinking unemployment rate, the US job market is just not what it used to be.

So how does it look like at the end of 2015?

Job market has improved but only partially. So, if you are looking for jobs in the US, it’s a pretty difficult scenario. If somebody is leaving school and trying for a skilled kind of job, it’s very difficult. If somebody has very specific skills and they’re highly developed, it’s fine. So, it depends, who you are. If you are an investor, it’s terrific.

If you’re a manager with specific skills, you’ll be doing fabulous. But if you’re a college graduate trying to find a job, it is terrible.

How has the social media affected the talent management scenario?

It has affected in a lot of ways. One of them is that it has overwhelmed companies. Because of Internet, companies have made it easy to apply.

I think we probably have to remember that in the post-colonial era, these countries were heavily influenced by the socialist philosophy of the Soviet era. So, compared to where they were twenty years ago, they have witnessed an enormous change. I think the big problem in these countries is, they really don’t have much of a private sector. They have got multinational companies who are conducting business directly with their governments or government-owned firms. The rest of the family-owned companies are not very sophisticated but the big ones among them do have very sophisticated HR departments.

Economic liberalization has failed in the Arab World; consequently, they don’t have very sophisticated capitalism here. Instead of ushering in economic dynamism, they are still governed by family-owned business empires.

But they are slowly changing their practices and moving towards gradual democratic reforms.

Where do you think the Indians lack?

I think big Indian companies are very much like the big US companies in managing people and human resources. They are very sophisticated and knowledge-based. Their HR practices are also highly professional and quality-driven.

What India lacks is infrastructure. Though the government is implementing various infrastructure projects with renewed zeal lately, there are issues of co-ordination between the Centre and the States. Spending on things like education, and health also needs to go up substantially and government must go for a robust skill-development and vocational training program and provide support systems to the individuals. So, till such times, the Indian companies have to swallow a whole lot of it which they wouldn’t have to do in the West. But the good thing is that Indian corporate leaders are quite capable, sensitive and very nationalist in their approach, so they can take any risk and face any challenge to succeed and contribute in the nation-building. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 45

THE TAX MAN COMETH-6

BY S K JHA (IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

TREASURES IN THE RICE POT

Unlike the regular tax desk which is manned by a tax officer whose job is to levy tax on you, this desk is manned by a non-serving tax officer who wishes to share his experience of 35 years in the Income Tax department, while discussing tax provisions.

It is advantageous to know how the tax department thinks and acts when, as said by Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes”

G

reenland is covered with perpetual snow and at no time of the year does the snow melt away or disappear completely. No wood or other material is available for the construction of a house but still the people there have built houses with solid masses of snow and live comfortably in them.

It is the dire necessity of protecting themselves against the intense cold outside that has led them to build houses with ice. The bottom line is the old proverb, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’

I have not seen Greenland, nor the houses made of ice but I have seen innovative designs and architecture for the safekeeping of cool wealth generated out of black money. Most of the custodians of such assets were not well-educated. They had not gone to professional colleges to sharpen their skills but they had incredible ideas born out of the desire to keep their wealth unnoticed.

I met one such person with innovative ideas when I was conducting a search action at a posh residence in Mumbai. I had reliable information that the family residing there was in possession of a big stock of precious stones and valuable jewellery. The search had to be authorised as the family had been declaring modest income which was not commensurate with the alleged

possession of valuables worth several crore. We, a team of ten officers, started the search at eight in the morning.

We searched each bedroom, drawing room, puja room, study room, store room and even the kitchen. We did not find the stock of valuables for which the search was authorised. It was already evening and I began to believe that the information given to us was wrong. I thought it appropriate to come out of the place of search, leaving my team behind and to talk to the informant. The informant insisted that information given was

‘I have not seen Greenland, nor the houses made of ice but I have seen innovative designs and architecture for the safekeeping of cool wealth generated out of black money.’

46 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Many are the ingenious hideouts of unaccounted wealth designed by those who wish to stash way black money .. as some of these examples show!

correct. He advised me to search each corner of the house more minutely. He gave an additional tip to keep a tab on the old lady of the family who was the real queen bee.

We started searching again, keeping an eye on the movement of the old lady. It was midnight and yet there was no success. However, the conduct of the old matriarch of the family aroused some suspicion. It was midnight by now when the kitchen should have been closed, but she was going to kitchen too often. The kitchen was searched by us earlier but we decided to search it

again. I found it curious to see a big rice pot on the gas stove with the burner switched on. It was definitely not the time to cook rice. The same rice pot was on the stove when we searched the kitchen during the daytime. My sixth sense urged me to check the rice pot. The hot pot was taken out from the gas stove and we started searching. To our surprise and excitement, we found a packet of cloth in the boiling water coloured with turmeric powder. The packet contained a huge stock of precious stones and jewellery. The rice pot on fire contained the treasure we were looking for.

During the day, the old illiterate lady had been successful in hoodwinking the search team and putting the bundle of valuables in the burning pot. She admitted that it was her idea and that she was frequently going to the kitchen to switch the burner on or off, depending upon the movement of the search team in the house. I always thought I was a clever investigator for which I had been felicitated by the then Honourable Finance Minister of the country, but the old, illiterate lady proved to be more intelligent than me.

I had never experienced it earlier that treasure such as this can be safely preserved, literally on the fire. It was a real on-the-job training for me.

I chance-met another outstanding lady with

‘While I was holding the heel of one sandal, I discovered that it was not closely fixed. I rotated the heel and found that there was a cavity inside the heel from where I recovered a locker key.’

innovative ideas when I was conducting a search at a Juhu bungalow of a wealthy business family. The lady of the house was a well-known person from the glamour industry, while the rest of the family was engaged in the old traditional business.

The search continued for the whole of the day with little result. The two lockers disclosed during the search in the neighbourhood bank were also searched with no seizure as they contained disclosed jewellery and title documents of disclosed properties. We were getting quite disappointed with the failure of the search when suddenly the situation changed. We were searching a separately-created wardrobe room of the lady where costly designer dresses, saris and sandals were kept in a proper manner.

There were wall-to-wall in-built almirahs for dresses and saris and racks for keeping sandals.

While making an inventory of the dresses and saris we found that two sandals in packets were kept in the dress section. They were odd men out as they were not kept along with other sandals.

In reply to our query about the two sandals, the lady said that the two sandals were designer sandals and they were kept just like that after purchasing from Italy and that they were not used. I opened the packet to see the designer sandals out of curiosity. The sandals were really eye-catching and I took them in my hand to appreciate their design. While I was holding the heel of one sandal, I discovered that it was not closely fixed. I rotated the heel and found that there was a cavity inside the heel from where I recovered a locker key. I got each heel of the two pairs of sandals opened, and in total recovered four locker keys. The locker keys were identified and the lockers searched. This resulted in a huge seizure of valuables and ownership papers of undisclosed properties in fictitious names. The sandals meant to cover the feet were used to give a cover to concealed wealth. The lady admitted that it was her idea.

In yet another case, the key of the locker was recovered from inside a soap. The search had just started at a residence. The lady of the house was seen going to the washroom. She remained in the washroom for a considerable time and this evoked suspicion in us. Normally, the inmates of a house where a search is conducted remain worried and scared at least in the initial hour of search and in such a situation, the lady spending a lot of time in the restroom did not appear logical. We searched the washroom minutely but at first failed to get anything. Suddenly, a bath soap wrapped in foam attracted our attention. The

nature of the foam appeared as if it was intentionally created, and that it was not out of normal use. We washed the soap and on closer examination found that there was a mark on it of being pierced.

The soap was cut into pieces by us and to our surprise, we recovered a locker key. This key helped us detect the hidden wealth of the family. The lady who had used the soap to hide the key was not an educated lady, and it was our sheer luck and some common sense which helped us.

The incidents discussed above give an insight into our fertile minds that generate ideas for keeping unaccounted assets unnoticed. These incidents are not isolated. There have been cases when the income-tax department recovered assets from under the tiles in bedrooms, from beneath the statue of god in the puja room, from false ceilings and from the cushions of sofa sets. Such hidden wealth is dead wealth for the country. It does not participate in the economic activity of the country. It is a worrisome phenomenon as firstly, the revenue is lost in earning, it being unaccounted wealth and secondly, it evaporates from the system of moneymaking and income-earning. I wondered what could be the solution.

I believe that we can use our fertile mind more for earning income than on how to keep it unnoticed. We should at least work that extra hard to pay taxes so that there is no need to hide the earned wealth. We should also ponder over making investments so that our wealth gets multiplied as against the dead hidden wealth, which keeps on shrinking with rising inflation. Tax-paid wealth can multiply while hidden wealth keeps reducing in value, besides giving rise to tension on its safekeeping. We have to make our considered decision. The first step is to take an honest decision and then things will follow for our betterment.

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Lunar Achievement India’s first moon satellite Chandrayaan-1 was the first one in the world to detect water on moon, in the year 2008. It was a significant achievement lauded by whole world. Chandrayaan-1 also made India the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the moon.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 47

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Good professionals can make good entrepreneurs Meet Paremvir Malik, Founder, Sequence Business HR Solutions, who completed his post-graduation from a leading management college, talks about his journey from college to starting his own venture. He’s someone who strongly believes in taking risks, thinking out-of-the-box to nurture the entrepreneur in each one of us

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan & Kalyani Sardesai

PIC: YUSUF KHAN

N

ot content with a nine-to-five job, Paremvir Malik decided to work for himself—even though he had a perfectly successful innings as a salaried professional for over 12 years. He says, “Even so, my time was someone else’s; I thought if I took the risk and rid myself of the fear of failure, I could be my own man.”

Campus placement Paremvir was initially placed with The Assam Tea Company Limited as an Assistant Tea Estate Manager but unfortunately could not join them. “Even though things did not go the way I had expected, I wasn’t disappointed. I firmly believe that whatever happens, happens for the best and some things are just not meant to be,” he says. After completing his post-graduation from a leading management college, Paremvir took up

marketing assignments with a few of the IT, real estate and FMCG companies which helped him get hold of his fundamentals and groomed him to become a better HR professional, and eventually an entrepreneur.

“In 2003, I got my first HR assignment with V-Trans India Limited, a logistics major, where my job was to create HR systems and processes for the organisation, similar to that of an Organisation Development Consulting, where I performed well. In 2004, I joined a Tata Group company, TRENT, as Human Resource Business Professional (HRBP) for Hyper Market Stores, and once again my job was to create and establish systems for the new-format business. In 2005, I joined Crompton Greaves Ltd, and worked with them for five years, until 2010, where I successfully contributed to various segments such as Industrial Relations, Human Resource Informa-

48 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

tion Systems, Values & Ethics Training and Business HR Head, and won awards like best score for employee engagement by Gallup Inc. across Crompton Greaves,” recalls Paremvir. Paremvir also worked for other leading companies such as Jet Airways, Dana Spicer, Birla Surya Ltd, ACG Worldwide as Business HR. Jumping ship After having spent a lot a years studying the industry and honing his skills and learning on the job, Paremvir thought that now it was time to fly.

“And… that’s how Sequence Business HR Solutions was born. There are lots of fine professionals who can make good entrepreneurs, if only they decide to,” he says.

In September 2013, Paremvir ventured into his own start-up called Sequence Business HR Solutions which provides Business HR Solutions in terms of HRPO, L&D, OD and advisory services. Some of his clients include HB Fuller Inc., USA and Godrej & Boyce Industries.

So what kind of professionals does he employ? “People who are serious about their work and time; people who value both their personal and professional lives; those are the sort of peo-

Family time: Paremvir with his wife, Shilpi, and daughters, Shaurya and Aishwarya

inspiration and role model. I owe my success to my family, friends and teachers who have stood by me always,” smiles Paremvir.

Paremvir with his colleagues at a training programme

ple I would choose,” he says. A close observer of human behaviour, Paremvir also likes to invest time and effort in understanding its dynamics and changing nature.

In response to the perennial question of worklife balance, he calls it ‘important’ considering that his work requires him to be well-rested in order to be creative. Keeping that in mind, Paremvir works on a 10:10:10 work model. “In a month, I look forward to about ten days of very high quality work and client meets; 10 days of home work and preparation. Given that I spend 70 per cent of my time like this, I then look to spend the remaining 30 per cent or 10 days with my young family,” he says. Speaking of which, how does he unwind at the end of a stressful work day? “I like listening to music and spending time with my daughters,” he says. How does he deal with the pressing issue of payments—a bugbear, particularly for first generation entrepreneurs like himself? “We work with clear contracts and good clients whose image and reputation matters to them. By and large, if terms and conditions are spelt out clearly, there’s little room for ambiguity,” he notes.

Hobbies “I have a very typical hobby of observing human behaviour. I love to understand them, their thoughts and actions. Humans are the most amazing creation of God and worth learning from. I love to spend my time with students as they are full of dreams, passion & positivity,” says Paremvir. He regularly writes articles on this subject in LinkedIn Pulse and shares his thoughts on the YouTube channel.

Family and Education Paremvir completed his schooling from GES HAL High School, Nashik, and his HSC from HPT Arts College, Nashik. Life took a turn when he decided to join the Bhonsala Military College,

In September 2013, Paremvir ventured into his own startup called Sequence Business HR Solutions which provides Business HR Solutions in terms of HRPO, L&D, OD and Advisory services. Some of his clients include HB Fuller Inc., USA and Godrej & Boyce Industries. “There are lots of fine professionals who can make good entrepreneurs, if only they decide to,” he says Nashik, and completed his graduation in Defence & Strategic Studies. He then pursued his PG from one of the leading colleges & went on to obtain a second PG degree in Labour Laws and Welfare from Symbiosis Law College in 2003.

Paremvir was born in Delhi to the late Phoolwati and Lakhiram Malik, a farmer, but unfortunately lost his mother when he was a child.

“My eldest sister, Rammurti, and her husband, Jaibir Singh Khatri, decided to raise me as their own child though they were just married;so in a way they are my parents. I was brought up in the midst of fighter aircraft at Nashik at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, along with their children, Pranjal, Binat and Tanvir,” he recalls. Paremvir’s eldest brothers, Yudhvir and the late Udayvir Malik, supported his higher education. They always ensured that Paremvir was moulded into a successful human being.

Today, Paremvir is blessed with a family, with his wife, Shilpi, and little twin daughters, Shaurya and Aishwarya. “Shilpi is a healthcare professional with the Aditya Birla Group. She is my strength,

Life at the campus “I do miss my college days. While the schedule was hectic, frankly I never bothered about it. I have always believed that fear does no good; if you are good, you need not fear,” he says. Paremvir made some wonderful friends at the campus.

“They are like angels…you don’t find them but they find and bless you. As I was pursuing my higher studies, I also found my soulmate, Shilpi, who is incidentally my wife today. I met her during a debate competition, and must say she’s accepted me as who I am and gradually helped transform me into what I am today,” he adds.

Paremvir’s friends and batchmates have always helped him to overcome challenges, be practical and cheerful always. They have always been family to him. “We did all sorts of crazy and fun things. Despite our hectic schedules, we had our regular outings and coffee meets,” recalls Paremvir.

Paremvir’s Dean taught him how to excel under adverse circumstances, how to fight back against all odds and be unconventional in his approach. “Believe me, it really makes you a winner and makes you stand out,” notes Paremvir.

Piece of advice to youngsters “Fear is not good, and if you are good, don’t fear.

Einstein never went to a B-school but is still remembered as a legend. So follow your inner voice when faced by chaos around,” he signs off.

Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

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‘Import’ant fact Crude petroleum is India’s biggest import with $155 bn spent on it in 2014. Imports of gold and silver are close behind, amounting to $62 bn.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 49

HEALTH

India has highest rate of antibiotic resistance The study, conducted by Delhi-based research organisation CDDEP, says India’s per capita consumption of antibiotics has increased by more than 40 percent in the last decade

I

By Jyotsna Singh

n worrying signs for Indians battling failure of treatments, a study has shown that India has the highest rate of antibiotic resistance, with resistance to some medicines touching almost 50 percent.

India was also the largest consumer of antibiotics, followed by China and the US, from 2000 till 2010.

The study, conducted by Delhi-based research organisation Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), says India’s per capita consumption of antibiotics has increased by more than 40 percent in the last decade.

Titled ‘The State of the World’s Antibiotics 2015’, the study analysed data from across the world. Forty-eight percent of bacterium staphylococcus aureus, responsible for skin and respiratory tract infections, has become resistant to antibiotic methicillin, the study notes.

The demand for antibiotics continues to rise, particularly to treat children with blood infection and pneumonia. The report revealed that between 2000 and 2010, total global antibiotic consumption grew by more than 30 percent. Per capita consumption is generally

and lead author of the study.

The most dangerous and difficult-totreat infections are reported in hospitals, the study says, especially because of heavy use of antibiotics, immune-compromised and elderly patients, and overcrowding.

“Now that we have the data and the trends, people should start to come up with ideas to contain antibiotic resistance,” said N K Ganguly, a leading microbiologist and former head of Indian Council of Medical Research.

WHO URGES ACTION AGAINST ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE Experts warn that without effective medicines, infections such as hospital-acquired ventilatorassociated pneumonias, urinary tract infections and diarrhoea are becoming difficult to treat.

Cautioning against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and other drugs which leads to resistance to medicines and treatment failure, the World Health Organisation has urged member countries in Southeast Asia to address this public health threat urgently.

“Immediate action is needed to stop the

The report revealed that between 2000 and 2010, total global antibiotic consumption grew by more than 30 percent. Per capita consumption is generally high in high-income countries. But the greatest increase in antibiotic use during the period was in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) high in high-income countries. But the greatest increase in antibiotic use during the period was in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

In most countries, about 20 percent of antibiotics are used in hospitals. The rest 80 percent are either prescribed by healthcare providers or purchased directly by consumers.

“This over-the-counter sale, even of high dosage of antibiotics, is the biggest threat,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of CDDEP

world from heading towards pre-antibiotic era in which all achievements made in prevention and control of communicable diseases will be reversed. Common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades may once again kill millions. Resistance to antibiotics will make complex surgeries and management of several chronic illnesses like cancer, extremely difficult,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO Southeast Asia

50 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

Region, said at a regional meeting in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste.

Without effective antimicrobial medicines, a number of common infections such as hospitalacquired ventilator-associated pneumonias, urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, gonorrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria are becoming harder to treat, she added. Khetrapal Singh was addressing health ministers and senior health ministry officials from 11 member countries of

Cautioning against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and other drugs which leads to resistance to medicines and treatment failure, the World Health Organization has urged member countries in Southeast Asia to address this public health threat urgently

WHO Southeast Asia Region, at the sixty-eighth annual meeting of the Regional Committee.

According to estimates released by the British government in December 2014, antibiotic resistance will be responsible for 10 million deaths annually by 2050. It is economic cost will result in a 2 to 3.5 percent decrease in global gross domestic product by the same year, if antimicrobial resistance goes unchecked.

Reduced productivity from persisting illness, and its cost of treatment, will add to the economic loss.

Khetrapal Singh said comprehensive and integrated national action plans are needed to respond to antimicrobial resistance. Countries need to strengthen monitoring of the extent and cause of antibiotic resistance, improve infection

control in hospitals and regulate and promote appropriate use of medicines.

She urged that WHO Southeast Asia regional strategy, the Jaipur Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2011, and the recent Global Action Plan need to be implemented in totality, keeping in mind national priorities and context.

Antibiotic resistance is growing due to injudicious use of antibiotics by prescribers, patients not completing full treatment courses, overuse of antibiotics in livestock and fish farming, poor control of infections in healthcare settings and poor hygiene. There are only a few new antibiotics available to replace the resistant and ineffective ones.

(Article courtesy: www.downtoearth.org)

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Re-forestation required!

According to the U.N. FAO, 23.0 percent or about 68,434,000 hectares of India is forested, according to FAO. Of this 22.9 percent (1,57,01,000 ) is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest. India had 1,02,11,000 hectares of planted forest.

However, between 1990 and 2010, India lost an average of 2,24,750 hectares, which is a very alarming rate.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 51

WORLD SURVEY

WORK-LIFE BALANCE CONCERNS WOMEN, MOST

Women are standing shoulder to shoulder with men in every possible field all around the world. Their success is well documented, yet we still don’t have the whole picture. Statistics track the number of women working, their educational qualifications and salaries. But the data is still incomplete. It doesn’t tell us how women feel, and how they fare day-to-day in the workplace. With a major drive to get more women into the workforce, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, embarked on a global undertaking to shed light on this increasingly critical issue, asking women across the G20 countries to name the five key challenges they face at work. Corporate Citizen presents the compelling findings. By Neeraj Varty

W

hat are the top challenges women face at work?

This question was put to more than 9,500 women across the G20 countries in a survey conducted by international pollster Ipsos MORI, sponsored by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It emerged that work-life balance is the issue that concerns women most. This is followed by equal pay as women are increasingly aware that on a global scale they earn less than men working in the same jobs and are often denied the same job and

52 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

career opportunities. Harassment in the workplace was the third most flagged issue. The poll finds nearly one third of G20 women say they have been harassed at work but more than 60 percent do not report this.

But the poll also uncovers some positive trends. Women, particularly younger women in the so-called millennial generation, are more upbeat when it comes to their role in the workplace. More younger women feel that they can have children without damaging their career and more are confident that they have the same chance of success as men in starting their own business.

DO MEN HAVE BETTER ACCESS TO JOBS THAN WOMEN ?

Almost half of the women questioned, or 48 percent, said men had better access to jobs than they did while only 21 percent did not think this was the case. The poll found that women in Saudi Arabia in particular were concerned about equal access to jobs with 61 percent agreeing or strongly agreeing that men had an advantage.

01 SAUDI ARABIA

(61%)

11 GERMANY

(46%)

02 SOUTH KOREA

(58%)

12 SOUTH AFRICA

(46%)

03 ITALY

(57%)

13 ARGENTINA

(42%)

04 FRANCE

(55%)

14 CANADA

(42%)

05 INDONESIA

(55%)

15 INDIA

(40%)

06 BRAZIL

(52%)

16 MEXICO

(40%)

07 RUSSIA

(52%)

17 BRITAIN

(40%)

08 CHINA

(51%)

18 JAPAN

(38%)

09 UNITED STATES

(48%)

19 TUREKY

(34%)

WHERE INDIA STANDS

Said they have the same access to business networks as men. Women in India feel that they are no less than men when it comes to procuring jobs than men, and in some cases, they felt they had a better chance than men to get those jobs.

53%

ARE WOMEN CONFIDENT THAT THEY EARN AT LEAST THE SAME SALARY AS MEN, DOING THE SAME JOB? Only four in every 10 women polled, 40 percent, were confident that they were earning the same salary as a man doing the same job. Women in Japan, Germany and France were the least confident that they were paid equally to men. Women in India and Saudi Arabia were most confident about earning the same as their male peers even though World Economic Forum data showed these two countries came last in the G20 on a female to male ratio on earned income.

01 INDIA

(61%)

11 CANADA

(38%)

02 SAUDI ARABIA

(58%)

12 ITALY

(33%)

03 CHINA

(53%)

13 AUSTRALIA

(31%)

04 SOUTH AFRICA

(51%)

14 BRITAIN

(30%)

05 TURKEY

(49%)

15 UNITED STATES

(28%)

06 RUSSIA

(48%)

16 SOUTH KOREA

(28%)

07 INDONESIA

(48%)

17 FRANCE

(24%)

08 MEXICO

(48%)

18 GERMANY

(21%)

09 BRAZIL

(46%)

19 JAPAN

(19%)

WHERE INDIA STANDS Contrary to data showing the gender pay gap in India was one of the largest in the G20, over six in 10 Indian women, or 61 percent, said they were confident they were earning the same as men doing the same job.

61%

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 53

WORLD SURVEY

CAN WOMEN START A FAMILY WITHOUT DAMAGING THIER CAREER? Nearly half of the women polled, or 47 percent, said they could have children without damaging their career while 23 percent disagreed. The women most confident about having a family alongside a career were in Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa while those who were least confident were in Japan, Germany and Britain.

01 BRAZIL

WHERE INDIA STANDS

(74%)

11 UNITED STATES

(43%)

02 INDONESIA

(63%)

12 CANADA

(40%)

03 SOUTH AFRICA

(63%)

13 SOUTH KOREA

(37%)

04 TURKEY

(63%)

14 FRANCE

(32%)

05 INDIA

(61%)

15 AUSTRALIA

(33%)

06 SAUDI ARABIA

(57%)

16 ITALY

(32%)

07 CHINA

(57%)

17 BRITAIN

(29%)

08 MEXCO

(56%)

18 GERMANY

(21%)

09 RUSSIA

(56%)

19 JAPAN

(17%)

Sixty-one percent of Indian women felt they could start a family without damaging their careers. This opinion, again, is in contrast to attrition rates seen in companies across India, which could perhaps be attributed to other reasons.

61%

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES WOMEN FACE IN THE WORKPLACE? Juggling work and home is the most critical issue for G20 women, especially in Asia. Women in Russia and four of five Asian countries in the G20 - South Korea, India, China and Japan - said it was the most challenging issue they faced in the workplace. This is possibly because of the prevalence of gender specific stereotypes in the continent, which emphasize on the need for women to do household chores in addition to work. India, South Korea, China and Indonesia - each country has high expectation s of women even if they’re working women or women running a business

WHERE INDIA STANDS Stated work-home life balance was the key issue for women. Work-life balance topped the list of the most important challenges Indian women face in the workplace, more than any other country surveyed.

44% 57% Women in the G20 say work-life balance is toughest challenge in workplace 54 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

JUGGLING WORK AND HOME IS THE MOST CRITICAL ISSUE FOR G20 WOMEN, ESPECIALLY IN ASIA. WOMEN IN RUSSIA AND FOUR OF FIVE ASIAN COUNTRIES IN THE G20 - SOUTH KOREA, INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN - SAID IT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING ISSUE THEY FACED IN THE WORKPLACE HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SUBJECTED TO HARASSMENT AT THE WORKPLACE? Nearly one third of women in G20 countries have faced harassment at work but the majority suffer in silence, although Indian women are most likely to report it.

Women in G20 countries found harassment as the third most challenging issue in the workplace after work-life balance and gender pay gap.

29%

WHERE INDIA STANDS Of Indian women should report harassment.

This is the highest percentage, amongst any G20 country. Indian women are fighting patriarchal norms and age-old impositions by speaking out , which highlights the increasing empowerment of Indian women.

61%

53% Women in the G20 who have faced harassment at work, but of these 61 percent, said they never or rarely reported this. Women in India were most likely to speak out, with 53 percent saying they always or most often reported harassment. India was followed by the United States, Canada and Mexico. By contrast, women in Russia, South Korea, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia were most likely to never or rarely report harassment.

neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 55

PEARLS OF WISDOM

By Osho

Be responsible to yourself When I use the word “responsibility� I mean your aliveness, responding aliveness. You are not responsible to anybody else except your own being, this moment. You are responsible to be responsible

56 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

You will always feel confused if you lean on somebody else because then the understanding will not be yours, and understanding cannot be borrowed. So you can befool yourself a little while. Again and again the reality will erupt and you will feel confused. So the only way to avoid confusion is not-rationalisation. The only way to avoid confusion is to stand on your own feet, to be alert, to be aware.

Whenever you start leaning on somebody, you are avoiding awareness and you have been taught and conditioned for it from the very beginning. The parents, the peers, the society, the educationists, the politicians, they all go on trying to condition you in such a way that you always depend on others. Then you can be manipulated, then you can be dominated. Then you can be exploited and oppressed, then you can be reduced to being a slave. You lose your freedom.

Confusion comes in.. I say something to you, you start believing in it -- but it is not your vision, it is not your perception.

Tomorrow in life something happens and you are in a difficulty. The difficulty arises because you have learned by rote -- you have memorised me. Now you will try to respond through this borrowed understanding. Life changes every moment.

My understanding of this moment will not be of any help to you the next moment. My understanding of this moment cannot be made a permanent reference. And if you take it verbally, intellectually, mentally, and you carry it with you, you will again and again be confused; because life will always sabotage your so-called understanding.

Life trusts only real understanding. Real means your own, authentic, that arises from you. I am not here to give you knowledge, I am not here to give you theories. That’s what has been done for centuries, and man has remained as ignorant as ever. I am here to make you alert to the fact that hidden behind you, within you, is a source of light.

Tap that source. Let that light burn bright within you. And then you have something alive. Then whatsoever problems come in life, you will not tackle them from your past knowledge. You will tackle them in the present. You will face them with your present understanding. Whatsoever I say will always become past. The moment I have said, the moment you have heard, it has already gone into the past. And life goes on changing; it is a constant movement. It knows no stopping, it knows no rest.

My meaning of the word “responsibility” is totally different from the dictionary meaning. In the dictionary responsibility

seems something like a duty, a commitment, as if you are responsible to somebody else.

The word is almost dirty. The mother goes on saying to the child, “You are responsible to me, remember.” The father goes on saying to the son, “You are responsible to me, remember.” The society goes on saying to the individuals, “You are responsible to us, to the society, remember.” And your socalled images of God, they also go on telling people, “You are responsible to us... to me.”

When I use the word “responsibility” I mean your aliveness, responding aliveness.

You are not responsible to anybody else except your own being, this moment. You are responsible to be responsible. To respond with an open heart, with vulnerability. Not with closed fists but with open hands. Not hiding and holding something. Opening yourself completely, in deep trust with life.

Not trying to be clever and cunning. Then

My understanding of this moment will not be of any help to you the next moment. My understanding of this moment cannot be made a permanent reference. And if you take it verbally, intellectually, mentally, and you will again and again be confused; because life will always sabotage your so-called understanding you float with life moment to moment... your response will change because life is changing.

Sometimes it is hot and you cannot sit outside in the sun and you would need a shelter. Sometimes it is too cold and you cannot sit under the shelter and you would like to sit under the sun. But nobody is going to say to you that you look very inconsistent: “The other day you were sitting in the shelter, and now you are sitting under the sun? Choose!

If you want to sit in the sun, then sit consistently in the sun.” You will laugh at this absurdity, but this is what people have expected of you in life. Everything is changing around you. Don’t get fixed ideas; otherwise you will be confused. And don’t listen to what others say; listen to your own heart.

(Extracted from Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 9 Osho)

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 57

SPORTS BIZ

Desi brands ride on Pardesi names Argentine footballer Lionel Messi joins the elite group as Tata’s global brandd ambassador

By Joe Williams

I

ndia is ranked 172nd in the FIFA world ranking in football. But that does not matter as Tata Motors Ltd have roped in Argentine footballer Lionel Messi as its global brand ambassador for its passenger vehicles, which proves that this beautiful game’s celebrities are more acknowledged in India.

Tata Motors Passenger President (passenger vehicle business unit) Mayank Pareek said, “We are very excited to have Lionel Messi on board.

As we look to expand our footprint across the globe, Messi’s unique ability to appeal globally, transcending geographies, makes him the ideal person to represent our brand internationally.”

Lionel will star in the campaign, ‘What drives us from within is what makes us great’ to be followed by several others. “Messi’s determination on the field is awe-inspiring.

He is a winner who is trustworthy, reliable, pioneering, simple and driven by self-belief, which is the core idea of this campaign. Tata Motors is driven by design, technology and strives towards excellence. Through this powerful campaign we will communicate the values and ethos of the passenger vehicle business. Many more campaigns will unfold as we move on in this long-term association,” Pareek added.

Messi is endorsing an Indian brand for the first time.“I am thrilled to be part of the Tata Motors family. Namaste, India. I am very excited about

my first association with an Indian brand. I have always been fascinated by India and have heard such great things about this diverse country. I was once in India with Argentina National Team and I hope to visit it again,” said the magician of football referring to the Argentina vs Venezuela friendly match he played at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata four years ago.

Messi’s deal could be between ₹12-15 crore, marginally higher than that charged by Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, according to pundits in the market.

Tata Motors said it has signed up Messi in a long-term association as its global brand ambassador to promote and endorse its passenger vehicles globally. This is the first time ever that the passenger vehicle business will be undertaking an

I am very excited about my first association with an Indian brand. I have always been fascinated by India and have heard such great things about this diverse country. I was once in India with Argentina National Team and I hope to visit it again: Messi 58 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

(L-R) Lionel Messi (Tata Motors) Hugh Jackman (Micromax), Tiger Woods (Hero Motocorp) and and Brian Lara (MRF)

Some brands and sports ambassadors: Lionel Messi, TATA MOTORS Tiger Woods, HERO MOTOCORP Hugh Jackman, MICROMAX Steve Waugh, Brian Lara, MRF

Robin van Persie, David de Gea, APOLLO TYRES

Sir Vivian Richards, Allan Border, VIMAL

Chris Gayle, Dale Steyn KINGFISHER

Sir Ben Kingsley, JAGUAR Brett Lee, VENKY’S

It was Vimal, the queen of textiles in the early, 90s who roped in cricketers, Sir Vivian Richards of West Indies and Allan Border of Australia, in their advertisement campaigns, ‘Only Vimal’ overall brand association campaign with a brand ambassador.

Messi is no stranger in India, and his unique ability to appeal globally, transcending geographies, has made him an ideal person not just on the field but also in the corporate world.

Messi also noted Tata Motors “is a true representation of India and a well-established brand, globally”.

“It is important to believe in you and keep pushing to achieve success and that is what the first campaign stands for. I hope together we are able to inspire many more,” he said.

It is not the first time foreign sports personnel have been tagged as brand ambassadors. It was Vimal, the queen of textiles in the early `90s who roped in cricketers, Sir Vivian Richards of West Indies and Allan Border of Australia. They used these cricketers in their advertisement campaigns, which kick-started the fortunes of

an advertising company, kept people across the country humming its ad jingle ‘Only Vimal’, and basically set a very high bar for what any successful brand would want to achieve. By the early 1990s, Vimal became a formidable player in suiting, shirting, sarees, dress materials and home textiles.

The world’s best known golfer Tiger Woods struck a four-year deal with India’s largest twowheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp landing a ₹ 200 crore endorsement fee in late 2014. Tennis star Maria Sharapova and Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman were roped in by real estate company Homestead and handset maker Micromax for around a ₹ 9-10 crore deal, respectively.

Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp which had golfer Tiger Woods as its global brand ambassador on a four-year deal, are looking to sign up young prodigy and World Cup 2014 star James Rodriguez of Colombia. The 23-year-old

Rodriguez came into focus at the FIFA World CUP 2014 where he ended with six goals and two assists and instantly became a overnight sensation, winning the Golden Boot award. It’s been reported that Hero MotoCorp is setting up its first manufacturing plant outside India in Colombia, and they want to tap Rodriguez’s popularity in Latin America. joe78662@gmail.com

CC

tadka

‘Freight’ full The Indian Railways runs 21,000 trains that carry 8.4 billion passengers and over a billion tonnes of freight every year. How well does it do? Operations cost 93 paise of every rupee earned. Passengers pay an average of 31.5 paise per km — and contribute just 25 per cent of income — while freight pays 137.5 paise per km.

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 59

CITIZEN CLAPS

Chennai rain brought out the best in humanity Waterlogged streets, flooded houses, stranded transportation – all this and more defined the grim situation in Chennai. The city went through a very challenging time, facing its highest rainfall in 10 years and the floods that followed. A heavy 246.5 mm rainfall was recoded in 24 hours on November 17, which broke the record of 142.4 mm in November 2005. Schools, colleges and offices remained shut, train and air services cancelled, telephone connectivity was lost, the city basically came to a standstill. In such a situation, it is very important for people to help each other. And they are doing so in some amazing ways. Standing strong against the heavy downpour, these Good Samaritans did not miss out on any opportunities to assist. This is our chance to thank and salute the selfless people who are doing their best for their fellow beings, while being in the middle of a crisis themselves. Like:

All the three armed forces spearheaded rescue operations in challenging circumstances. Here some people are ferried to a safer place

These angels who launched a Facebook page to help out Some Chennaites got together to launch a Facebook page – ‘Chennai Rain Relief 2015,’ calling out for contributions to carry out relief efforts across the city. The page has been started by Iyyappan Subramaniam and volunteers at the Arunodayam Trust. The aim is to collect things like grocery, vegetables and cooking oil and provide food to people who have been displaced. The group distributed sambar rice to 600-700 marooned slum residents of Kolathur during those days. Volunteers who are willing to help can contact Iyyappan at 9444915803.

This man who was ensuring that rainwater does not clog the street drains

Facebook activates ‘Safety’ button for Chennai floods Social networking giant Facebook activated its Safety Check feature in Chennai that has witnessed the heaviest rainfall seen in the century.

Facebook, which has its second largest userbase in India, activated the feature to allow people mark themselves as “safe” from the floods.

Once the user clicks “Yes, let my friends 60 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

know”, the tool automatically notifies his/her Facebook friends.

Google has also posted a link on its homepage called ’Resources for the Chennai floods’, which provides details about relief camps and updates people about the situation in the city.

CITIZEN CLAPS Doctors and nurses who served the patients despite the deluge

These three policemen who went beyond their call of duty When streets in the city got severely damaged by the rain, three policemen decided to take it upon themselves to mend the potholes as best as they could. So they went out with bricks on the stretch near Phoenix Mall in Velachery area of South Chennai. Using an iron bar to break the bricks, they made the surface smooth for commuters to pass without any difficulty.

(Courtesy: www.thebetterindia.com)

As questions hang about the role of doctors and staff at Chennai’s MIOT Hospital, a patient who was in the cardiac ICU when the waters came rushing in, tells a story of the hardship suffered by both patients and some of the nurses and doctors who moved patients to safety.

Senthalir (name changed on request), a patient at the hospital, posted on social media about her ordeal, and said that while the hospital took no responsibility, some of the doctors and the nurses who were posted to the cardiac ICU worked tirelessly without food and water and stood by the patients.

After undergoing a bypass surgery, Senthalir was recuperating in the ICU on the third floor. However, when the hospital began to flood, things started to go wrong.

Around 3 am on Wednesday, the power went off, recalls Sujata (name changed on request), who was with her mother-in-law in the hospital. She told The News Minute that Senthalir’s surgeon Dr Bashi and his wife Dr Vijaya managed to get to the hospital.

“They too were stranded, but they managed to get down with a rope and got a boat to the hospital. After he came, he consoled us. There are no ramps in the hospital. He and some others carried my mother-in-law down three floors,” Sujata said.

She says Senthalir was shifted to Venkateshwara Hospital in Nandanam. Earlier that morning, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishna had told the media that all the patients from MIOT Hospital had already been shifted.

Although Sethalir had been advised complete rest by the doctors and did not speak to The News Minute over the phone, Sujata said, “She says that the six nurses who were at the

ICU were exceptional. For so many days, they worked without food or water. I happened to have some biscuits and nuts with me, so we had those. But MIOT does not allow outside food, the nurses had nothing.”

Five days in the hospital without food and water had been a tough ordeal. “At one point, we drank rainwater. There were no medicines.

The pharmacy in the basement was flooded and the other one was locked, so people had to go outside to get medicines,” Sujata added.

Asked about reports that doctors had abandoned the patients, Sujata said that when she came down one morning, she could identify only Dr Bashi and the doctors and nurses who were with him. She says she cannot comment on the rest of the hospital.

“One of the mornings, some nurses told me that when they tried to enter the hospital for their shifts, the security told them that the hospital was shut and that there were no patients. But we were there, six patients (in the cardiac ICU). The nurses told the security that they knew of patients inside the hospital and came in,” Sujata says.

Soon, she says, word had spread that the hospital was going to be shut and based on that, people had already begun to make arrangements to go home.

In her Facebook post, Senthalir had said of the hospital, “Lots to write about their negatives and yet a positive story of only the cardiac ICU unit staff and doctors under Dr Bashi. We went without even water or candle light. But Dr Bashi and team personally came and managed us and have moved us to Venkateshwara Hospital in Nandanam. The nurses who worked for three days without food was remarkable…”

(Courtesy:www.thenewsminute.com)

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 61

MOBILE APPS

BEST CAR SHOPPING APPS! Buying a car can be tough and expensive, whether it is a new or used car. At Corporate Citizen, we feel your pain and we thought you would like a helpful nudge to assist you in buying your future car.

Without further ado, here are the best apps for your car shopping needs

BY NEERAJ VARTY

Rating:

Rating:

Rating:

Rating:

Whether you are in the market for a new car or a used one, the CarWale app, answers all your automobile related queries online. The app has an exhaustive coverage of current on-road prices of cars and expert and user reviews complete with detailed photos. The app also has hundreds of video reviews of cars.

You can buy or sell used cars and also get instant quotes for the latest cars in the market. You can get an accurate ex-showroom and onroad price in any city across India.

Cars.com is an application that really combines everything we’ve mentioned above into one, well designed app. It allows you to search for cars by make, model, year, mileage, and more. One thing we like about cars.com is that it lets you compare cars side-by-side, making it easy to compare mileage and the physical appearance of each. Should you be buying your car on a loan, the app has a built-in loan calculator that will tell you how much your monthly payments would be for a specific car. Finally, it allows you to save certain cars to look at later.

CarDekho makes it very easy for you to find the right car for you to purchase. The app allows you to search for any brand or model, and you get details like on-road price in your city, dealer details, expert reviews, full specs, pictures and videos! The best part of the app is that it arranges test drives from the dealer nearest to you, who come to your house with the car to give you a test drive. You can even call them to your office address, where you can take a quick spin during your lunch break. Nothing can be more convenient than that!

CarTrade.com is an app which not only helps you hunt for new and used cars, it also certifies pre-owned cars. All pre-owned cars you buy from the app will have gone through a 139 point inspection process by their engineers, and will come with a detailed inspection report. When buying used cars, the app also has a built in calculator where you enter the car make, model, year, and city, and the app generates the approximate amount the car should be worth, so that you don’t get cheated.

neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com Disclaimer -Corporate Citizen isn’t affiliated with any of the apps mentioned above.

Please exercise your judgement before buying your new car. Happy Shopping!

62 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

FEATHERLITE

CORPORATE TWITTERATI With all the hullabaloo over the Goods and Service tax bill debate in parliament, twitter has been going wild on the subject. There are opinions galore for and against the bill. Corporate Citizen brings you the choicest tweets on #GST trending nationwide Doordarshan NewsVerified account@DDNewsLive Panel on #GST submits report| Proposes Standard Rate of GST rate in 17-18% range|Recommends GST rate be not included in Constitution Bill Hindustan TimesVerified account@htTweets #HTLS2015 | There needs to be a dialogue which has been lacking for the past 18 months: Jyotiraditya Scindia #GST Ministry of FinanceVerified account@FinMinIndia CEA @arvindsubraman :This is a historic opportunity for India to implement a game changing tax reform. #GST @ arunjaitley ANIVerified account@ANI_news We hope they(Congress) are willing to discuss &in the interest of the nation pass the #GST bill: Nirmala Sitharaman

LAUGH ALOUD Sir you have got to help!” said the tearful man at the door.

“There is a family that I know very well that is in desperate need of money. The father has been out of a job for over a year, they have five kids at home with barely a bit of food to eat. The worst part is, that they are about to kicked out of the house and they will be left on the streets without a roof over their heads!” The man concluded with one last heart wrenching sob. “Well,” said the man at the door, “that really is a sad story. Why don’t you come inside and we’ll talk about it a little more.” “So how much money is needed exactly?”

Asked the man when they were both seated. “Oh it’s really terrible”, said the man starting up again, “why just for the rent $3000 is needed by tomorrow otherwise they’ll be kicked out onto the streets.” “How do you know so much about this situation?” Asked the man as he reached for his check book.

“Well,” said the man breaking down once more “they are my tenants.”

Jim’s car is swerving all over the road so a cop pulls him over, “Step out of the car” says the cop, “I am going to need you to take a breathalyser test.” “I can’t”, Jim responds “You see I have very bad asthma, that can set off an attack.” “Alright,” says the cop, “then you’re going to have to take a blood test.”

“Can’t do that either,” Jim responds, “I am a hemophiliac, if a wound is opened, I won’t stop bleeding, and I could bleed to death.” “Ok,” the cop answers “then I will need a urine sample.” “Sorry,” says Jim “I also have diabetes, that could push my sugar count really low.” “Fine, so just come on out, and walk a straight line for me.” “Can’t do that either” responds Jim. “Why not?” Demanded the exasperated cop.

“Well, because I’m drunk!”

A math professor, John, is having problems with his sink so he calls a plumber. The plumber comes over and quickly fixes the sink. The professor is happy until he gets the bill. He tells the plumber, “How can you charge this much? This is half of my pay cheque.” But he pays it anyways.

The plumber tells him, “Hey, we are looking for more plumbers. You could become a plumber and triple your salary. Just make sure you say you only made it to 6th grade, they don’t like educated people.”

Kevin@Flyin_Kevin #GST increase equals “taxtortion”. You can dress it up with reduction in income tax rates but we will all still pay more tax Vandana Saxena Poria@Vporia Vandana Saxena Poria Retweeted Vivek Dehejia #GST is the best way to root out any corruption in the processing & selling of goods. #India needs it

John walks up to the board and is about to write the formula when he realises he has forgotten it. So he begins to attempt to derive the formula, filling the board with complicated mathematics. He ends up figuring out it is negative pi times radius squared. He thinks the minus doesn’t belong so he starts over, but again he comes up with the same equation.

After staring at the board for a minute he looks out at the other plumbers and sees that they are all whispering, “Switch the limits on the integral!”

December 16-31, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 63

ASTROTURF ARIES

SAGITTARIUS

Mar 21- April 20

You will achieve the totality of your career goals, career is a longterm project that requires much time. Do not be impulsive or hasty in your conclusions avoid any kind of risky activities. Your financial planet is moving ahead with speed. Get rid off all the waste matter in your life, things that you do not need should be given away.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20 Optimism will remain high. Your career planet also starts to move forward, giving you more mental clarity and much progress is seen happening in the coming months.

Putting others before you always brings in good and happy unions.

You will be able to go after what you want and desire and achieve your dreams.

GEMINI May 21 - June 21 Do your best to maintain good levels of energy. Those involved in sports could experience a drop in their performance. Do not over react to people or situations. Take second opinions if a surgery a recommended for you. Make sure your files are backed up and your antivirus software updated. Be prepared for all kind of dramatic events happening to you or around you with family or friends.

CANCER

Jun 22 - July 23

Finances look promising. Money could be coming in from foreign resources. Spend freely and you will see rise in income too. Money comes regularly through work and also from side business if you indulge in. Socially connections become more important as they would indirectly benefit your finances. Hone your social skills and network more.

Nov 23 - Dec 22

www.dollymangat.com

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BOLD AND THE LUCKY

Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Mangat, our renowned Astrological Expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23

Initiate health regimes and diets during this period focus on prevention better than cure. Your expenditure on the needs of family and home could be important.

Any disagreements with the elders of the family should be sorted out amicably. This period is good if you want to lend or borrow money to fulfill certain obligations. Love remains good through out the year. Your love planet Uranus has been retrograde for many months, however, it starts moving forward again bringing more clarity in love.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23 It is a period when we can come to terms with the past. Review our past and move on old memories arise this month for us to give it a closure or take confidence from it. You are required to look into the past, learn or unlearn, forgive or forget and move on life with confidence. If you do this you will experience psychological breakthroughs. Health needs watching, make sure you get enough rest and sleep and you will find an improvement in your health. Get Rid yourself of material that obstructs the financial life.

Keep the financial interests of others the foremost in your mind.

64 / Corporate Citizen / December 16-31, 2015

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

Period does look prosperous on your money. Gain mental clarity and give vent to your ideas. Get yourself up to date by attending seminars or reading materials regarding your profession or business. Taking up courses that interest you also feeds the mind.

The period is extremely good for students or those connected with education. Health needs more attention. A break or a holiday pursuing your interests in life can actually rejuvenate you.

You can have things done you’re the way you wish them to be.

Good health this period is about getting organised in your diet and exercise regimes. Spiritual healing is very powerful during the present aspects, so if you are feeling under weather, you should try meditation and yoga.

CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

Finances look good and on the upswing. You may receive money from abroad as your business flourishes. Social connections is important. Your financial goals will be met more because you would be able to impress others with your skills.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

Start taking responsibility of your own happiness, you do not have to adapt to situations, while doing your own things sensibly others may adapt to your style and way of thinking. Health and energy remain good. Good month if you are scheduling your appointments with your medical consultant.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

Many of the trends, which were there last month, will prevail.

Put in that extra work required and be willing to overcome all challenges. Health and energy will reamin good. You could further enhance your mental and physical energies by indulging in holistic therapies like Yoga or meditation. You need to keep your calm and avoid any kind of provocation. Career goals have more or less been achieved and you can expect progress towards your targets. This is also the time now to take care of your inner needs- the emotional and family needs. Without abandoning your career you could progress.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20 Health and energy will improve.

Your career social skills come into play as social connections help you bring in opportunities that you are seeking. The past year though has been kind of slow professionally but this coming year you will see a changes. Finances remain good and you will need to work harder and over come obstacles.

Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013.

Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com

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THE LAST WORD

WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR! Ganesh Natarajan

For many Indians who have been born into an era where freedom of speech is taken for granted, any adverse remark is easy meat to be pounced on, coloured by the pigments of one’s own beliefs and biases and presented to the world as a researched altruism rather than an opinion

T

wo seemingly unrelated comments on social media recently set off a chain of reflections that I will try and articulate here, hopefully to provoke some thoughts and responses from readers of this column. The first was a rather poignant comment by a wellknown thespian of Indian cinema who felt saddened that any concern expressed by a member of the minority committee about security in the country should be immediately viewed as an act of sedition. The second was a somewhat tonguein-cheek Facebook comment on the response to the Chennai floods.

The person wondered that the “socalled intolerant RSS” were out in force helping flood victims while the award wapsi gang and the general commentators on everything that is going wrong in the country were conspicuous by their absence.

What connects the two? The very fact that we are able to sense the nuances in our own responses to situations and reflect on the appropriateness or otherwise of our responses to anything that happens around us. For many Indians who have been born into an era where freedom of speech is taken for granted, any adverse remark is easy meat to be pounced on, coloured by the pigments of one’s own beliefs and biases and presented to the world as a researched altruism rather than an opinion. Why should we not consider that there are a hundred (yes not just fifty!) shades of grey between white and black? An Aamir Khan may have over reached himself just a little when he spoke about his wife’s query if they should leave the country, but surely a thinking citizen of the country can express a view without being accused of all kinds of

Can’t we simply stand and applaud the extraordinary acts of heroism by ordinary people when they rise above their own limitations to help our countrymen in a time of crisis? Do we still need to find motives and reasons for action or the lack of it beyond the normal impulses of human nature? motives and if at all a rap on the knuckles is needed, can’t it be done to a person as an Indian and not a member of a specific community?

Similarly, can’t we simply stand and applaud the extraordinary acts of heroism by ordinary people when they rise above their own limitations to help our countrymen in a time of crisis? Do we still need to find motives and reasons for action or the lack of it beyond the normal impulses of human nature?

Amartya Sen in his brilliant thesis on “The Argumentative Indian” sought to delve into the

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predilections of our country and many of its 125-million inhabitants to develop strong opinions and stick to them irrespective of evidence that may be presented to the contrary.

To my mind, there may be an element of intolerance bred in all of us by some very similar backgrounds that of a middle-class insecurity and an intense competitive spirit to gain more than our fair share of what is available by stealing a march over contenders for the same resource.

But does that really justify the rants that one so often sees on prime time debate on national television or even the insensitive comments, sometimes bordering on being ludicrous or even vituperative as people and personalities are attacked with no sense of balance or dignity?

In an e-mail discussion on the topic of intolerance (one of millions). I am sure that have been heating up the devices of all of us in the past fortnight and more), where the decibel level was loudest from undoubtedly well-meaning people of Indian origin who had been away from their country and changed their passports a decade or more ago, I was tempted to play my “India card” and flaunt the privileges of having grown up in rural

India and spent all but one year of my career living and working in the country. What that experience has made me conscious of and which is something most Indians recognise, at least sub-consciously is that there is a strange co-existence of tolerance and intolerance in almost every part of Indian society. I have myself as a child witnessed some of the worst communal riots in the little town where I was raised and trembled with a family of six who took refuge in our house when there were ugly mobs of marauders outside baying for their blood. And a few weeks later seen the very same people working together for the common cause of building a new wall in a school compound to keep the children of all communities safe. The moral of this piece is that India operates at too many levels for anybody, within or outside the country to make sweeping generalisations. While the tolerance debates rage on, in Parliament, in conference centres, classrooms and social media, let us not jump to branding any one segment of society, political party or individual as unpatriotic or intolerant. Let us instead peer into our own souls and catch the reasons that make us jump to a certain point of view. And if our points of view are tending to the negative, let us look, not for reinforcements of that angst but positive signals that negate our doomsday hypotheses and give us a more positive view, not just of the present but also the future of our country. As Tagore said, let us work towards an India “where the mind is without fear” not just for us but for every Indian!

Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Vice Chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies and Chairman of NASSCOM Foundation and Pune City Connect.

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