24th issue all pages for website

INTERVIEW: ANIL PATWARDHAN, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, KPIT TECHNOLOGIES LTD Volume 1, Issue No. 24 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT

Leading corporates discuss the ‘Innovation in Indian manufacturing’ LOVED AND MARRIED

Neha and Vivek on love and commitment

DYNAMIC DUO: 24 Sandhya and Dr Yasho Verma

Power of patience

February 16-29, 2016 / `50

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Faith Empowers

ILLUSTRATIONS BY DEEPAK SANKPAL

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t is said, faith moves mountains. In this case, the faith shown in me empowered me to give my best administrative performance.

It reminds me of an article that I had read sometime back in the Forbes business magazine which stated, “Trustworthy leaders want you to succeed. They empower people to take action and to be themselves.

They encourage their employees to take risks…

Trustworthy leaders want you to develop your own identity. While they will ‘coach you up’, they will not expect you to emulate them.”

I was fortunate to have had such a leader in Dr S B Mujumdar, the educationist who has created Symbiosis, the internationally acclaimed educational conglomerate.

When I took over as a lecturer in Symbiosis, I used to reside in a lodge close to the college where I shared a room with another person.

However, I used to do a lot of important work for my director, Dr George Judah, which required deep concentration and involved typing work.

Realising my need to have a room for myself, Dr Judah suggested that since a room was vacant in the Symbiosis International Hostel, I should move into it. I happily did so.

However, much to my consternation, I found that noise pollution was at its worst – with loud music blaring through the students’ rooms way past midnight - in fact, until the break of dawn. Like any other hostel of an educational institution, Symbiosis too had strict regulations which stated, “Strict silence shall be observed in the hostel from midnight to 6.00 am. Care shall be taken at all times to ensure that music/ loud talking is NOT audible outside the room.

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Much to my consternation, I found that noise pollution was at its worst – with loud music blaring through the students’ rooms way past midnight – in fact, until the break of dawn... Being an international hostel, foreigners, particularly those from African countries were in the majority. Each one had a transistor, which blared through the night and it seemed as if the students never slept Any manner of festivities and noise making/ celebrations which may cause disturbance to other inmates in the hostel premises will not be allowed. Recreational facilities will be turned off at 10.30 pm.”

Despite this, there seemed to be no discipline.

Being an international hostel, foreigners, particularly those from African countries were in the majority. Each one had a transistor, the most popular audio medium, in those days, which they used to put on full volume. The transistors blared through the night and it seemed as if the students never slept. Our side of the hostel was meant for girls and the other side was meant for boys.

Being a military man, this undisciplined behaviour was unacceptable to me. So I wrote a note to Dr Mujumdar, who was the Director then, stating, “The hostel atmosphere is not okay. Therefore, by virtue of my presence here, I am assuming the situational command as the Rector. If you have any objection, please let me know.”

The next day, Dr Mujumdar called me to his office, looked at me deeply and asked me, “Are you really keen? I have been searching for someone who can be the Rector for the past 20 years. People join but run away after a brief period. But I would like to ask - Why would you be interested in taking up this tough responsibility?”

I told him, “Sir, wherever I am, I believe in putting the system straight and in order. The fauji in me dictates so; the inbuilt system within me demands that. It is in my nature that I don’t have to be told by anyone, I just do it. I have only informed you because you are the higher authority. As long as I am there, I will follow the norms expected in your hostel.” Dr Mujumdar

then shook hands with me. He himself used to sit in the guest house every day from 11 pm to midnight. That was hard on him.

Having assumed the responsibility, getting the hostel under grip was a very tough job. No one was willing to listen, as these students were not used to any restriction on their freedom. All that I asked them to do was to stop the music by 10 pm and not to delay it by even a single minute. To make this command more effective, I called the security person who turned out to be useless and also corrupt - in fact he was handin-glove with the notorious students.

In those days, Ethiopia was going through a civil war. Therefore, money was not sent to the children here by their parents. Some poor girls, therefore, had fallen prey to vultures, to earn their bread. Every night, a car used to come outside the hostel premises and park, waiting for the girls. Alarmed, I immediately stopped the car from parking there. This frustrated the students. They came together on the ground floor and put their transistor on full volume at 10 pm. I was on the first floor. I could gauge that they were inviting me to take disciplinary action against them. I decided not to act in a hurry. My aim was to frustrate them by not responding to their provocation. Predictably, my silence frustrated the students who then started shouting, “Bala, are you dumb?” I let this shouting go on for some time. I kept quiet.

Generally, at this time, I used to be up with one or two whiskey inside me.

Finally, I could take it no more. I jumped from the first floor to the ground floor, like a Bollywood hero, got hold of the transistor and like a giant, broke it into pieces and started to catch hold of them one by one, slapping and beating each one of them.

4 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

The next day, all these students boycotted the classes and went on a protest march to Dr S B Mujumdar’s office. Dr Mujumdar called a meeting of all the students and also invited me. I was sure I would be asked to tender my resignation. I decided to pack up all my belongings before I went for the meeting. I was greatly worried because if I lost this job, I would lose my accommodation too and there would be no place for me to go.

Dr Mujumdar came, he checked if I was there and said, “Friends, I am glad at last someone is working in the hostel. From today, I am increasing the honorarium being paid to

Professor Bala! If you don’t want to stay there, you are welcome to vacate.” The students were stunned and looked at each other in shock and helplessness.

Then Dr Mujumdar gave a long and powerful speech. The essence of it was – education here was not only about obtaining a degree but it was about blending with the social culture of Pune; why it was important for them to respect the cultural heritage of the city and abide by the local traditions of the people and society.

That they had come there, not only to study but also to learn about the Indian culture. He emphasised the importance of the institution’s

motto Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (which means, World is a Family). He said, “You are all here; we are hosting you so that you will become our ambassadors when you go back to your country.”

I was overwhelmed by Dr Mujumdar’s understanding of the need for taking stern action against the students. Thanks to his unflinching support, the hostel discipline improved as the students fell in line.

I recall another incident as Rector of the hostel.

Personal belongings of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar were donated to Symbiosis by Mai Ambedkar and these were preserved in the basement of the hostel.

One Sunday, it rained so heavily that water seeped

into the basement where the precious belongings were kept. I volunteered and broke the lock open and went inside. With the help of the students and the watchman, I started carrying all those items, tables and all, on my head. Meanwhile, Dr Mujumdar also came there and was surprised to see me carrying the table on my head. He was very touched. He said, “Professor, what are you doing?” “Sir, these are precious possessions of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar which might get damaged by the rainwater. So I broke the lock to take them out to a safer place.”

Dr Mujumdar asked me if he could have a cup of tea with me. I said, “Sure,” and asked him to come to my hostel room. When he came up, he saw me, my wife and our two sons living in only one room. We had converted the toilet into a kitchen. My wife brought him a cup of tea.

Dr Mujumdar seemed very uncomfortable, looking at our congested living space. He told me, “Professor, what kind of uncomfortable life are you living? Get the two adjacent rooms vacated and move in as quickly as possible.” A leader who can understand the plight of the people working for him through observation and sensitivity is indeed a great leader. I owe a lot to Dr Mujumdar, from whom I have silently imbibed leadership qualities with a human touch.

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

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 30

COVER STORY Dynamic Duo 24

Power of Patience An in-depth interview with Dr Yasho Verma, formerly with LG Electronics and Tata Steel, now consulting for the World Bank, and his wife Sandhya, who entered the world of IT in its halcyon days with the Tatas, on what makes their marriage work

9

COLLYWOOD

Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World

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

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with Anil Patwardhan, Chief Financial Officer at KPIT Technologies Ltd 6 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Volume 1 Issue No. 24 February 16-29, 2016 www.corporatecitizen.in

22

THE TAX MAN COMETH-9 See how they tumble, column on capital markets, by S K Jha {IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax}

24

9

24

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015

Leading corporates debate on the Innovation in Indian manufacturing

38

CORPORATE HISTORY

Philips: ’coz simplicity is sophistication

22

16

40

LOVED AND MARRIED TOO

Neha Gunthey and Vivek Singh Negi on love and commitment

42

SURVEY

Corporate India’s Risk Analysis—An in-depth survey by Pinkerton, international leader in operational risk management services and security, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), on the biggest risks faced by the Government and Corporate India today

38

54

48

48

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Deepak Bhagtani on his first break into the corporate world

50

BOLLYWOOD BIZ

50

A look at the Sequel Bonanza 2016

52

58

SPORTS BIZ

Richie rich BCCI, all set for yet another big show

54

PEARLS OF WISDOM

Delicate art of motherhood by Osho

56

HEALTH

Matters of the Heart

52 February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 7

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh

56

58

TRAVEL

Rahul Jalan, Director, Indiaonline Network talks about Koh Samui in Thailand, his favourite holiday destination

Senior Business Writers Mahalakshmi Hariharan Rajesh Rao Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty

60

40

CLAPS & SLAPS

Our bouquets and brickbats for the fortnight!

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61

STRAIGHT TALK

A chat with SK Dutt, President & Head Corporate HR, Praj Industries

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar Pune Bureau Dinesh Kulkarni / Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389

62

MOBILE APPS

From ‘DUMB’ TV to ‘SMART’ TV

63

Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560

FEATHERLITE

Tweets from the Corporate World!

Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke

66

THE LAST WORD

Start-Ups – can they make a real difference? by Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO at Zensar Technologies

Assistant Editor Joe Williams

Graphic Designer Anil Walunj

62

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 / February 16-29, 2016

On Cover Page Sandhya and Dr Yasho Verma Photographers Yusuf Khan, Shantanu Relekar Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@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

Nitin Karkare is FCB Ulka’s CEO Nitin Karkare has been promoted as the chief executive officer of FCB Ulka Advertising, according to FCB Ulka Group. Prior to this, Karkare was the chief operating officer of the agency. Karkare has been with FCB Ulka since 1986. He had joined the agency as a management trainee. Over the years at FCB Ulka, Karkare has worked on big brands like Amul, Zee, Tata Motors, Wipro, ITC, Zodiac, Nerolac and others. Commenting on the development, Shashi Sinha, CEO - IPG Media Brands India, said, “I have worked with Nitin from 1986 and thrilled that he will lead FCB Ulka Advertising. He knows the clients, the people and more importantly, the culture. This is true testimony to growth from within.” Nitin’s passion for advertising, his love for the Company, his deep bonds with our clients and, of course, his charming, and affable work style make him the right person for the position of CEO, FCB Ulka Advertising. “He has an impressive track record of building some of India’s most loved brands. His commitment to our clients is

Bill Gates back on top; richest man on earth

true testimony to FCB’s spirit of partnership.

I’m confident that Nitin will lead FCB Ulka Advertising to new heights and will be a great partner to me in realising our vision for the Group,” said Rohit Ohri, FCB Ulka Group chairman and CEO.

Alice Vaidyan, CMD of GIC Re

Alice Vaidyan has been appointed as the chairman and managing director of the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re).

She would hold the office till July 31, 2019. She is the first woman to be appointed in such post not only in the GIC Re, but the first in the Indian insurance sector. The GIC Re is the 14th largest insurance company globally and is the only reinsurance company in India. Vaidyan belongs to 1983 batch of the direct recruit officers of general insurance industry and has been the general manager and chief

financial officer of the GIC Re from October 2012. The firm, in a statement, said it would now have to play a responsible and mature role in developing the reinsurance market in India in collaboration and cooperation with new entities. Vaidyan began her career with New India Assurance Company in 1983. She moved to GIC Re in 2008 as deputy general manager (reinsurance). She is also a director on the Board of GIC Bhutan Re Ltd., a joint venture reinsurance firm established by GIC Re in Bhutan. Vaidyan would also be the chairman of GIC South Africa Re Ltd, Kenindia Insurance Company Limited, Kenya and GIC Housing Finance Company.

Bill Gates, Microsoft cofounder and one the richest people in human history, once again comes out on top, with a net worth of $87.4 billion. Wealth-X, a wealthtracking website, provided Business Insider with its newest figures on the assets of the ultra-rich. Wealth-X collects information on more than 1,10,000 ultrahigh-net-worth people, according to BI, tracking each person’s assets and adjusting to account for currency-exchange rates, local taxes, savings rates, investment performance, and other factors. Gates crushes the second place finisher, Spain’s Amancio Ortega, by more than $20 billion.

Ortega, founding chairman of clothing retailer Inditex, is pegged at a net worth of $66.8 billion (though forgive us for not feeling more sympathetic). Potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg ranks 9th wealthiest person on earth, with a net worth north of $42 billion. Donald Trump doesn’t make it to the list. Alice Walton, Walmart heiress, is the wealthiest woman, ranking 15 overall with a net worth of $33.2 billion.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 9

COLLYWOOD Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra replace Aamir Khan After about a month of speculation, actors Amitabh Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra have been chosen as the brand ambassadors for the government’s governments ‘Incredible Incredible India’ campaign. The selection of the two actors follows the Centre’s decision to discontinue inue the contract of actor Aamir Khan, who had angered the BJP-led government with his remarks on perceived intolerance in the country. urism for a decade as Khan had promoted Indian tourism ber of multidisciplinary the brand ambassador. A number icons, including famous sports personalities, were istry to be the face of the shortlisted by the tourism ministry her suggestions being ‘Incredible India’ campaign. Other considered include choosing a female personality as the mascot for the ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ series which is mpaign to attract foreign part of the ‘Incredible India’ campaign r, stirred a controversy tourists. Khan had, late last year, espondency over rising after he expressed alarm and despondency instances of intolerance in the country in the past ife (Kiran Rao) few months and said that his wife even asked if they should movee out of India as she feared for the safety of theirr children.

10 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Rostow Ravanan chief of Mindtree Mid-sized IT firm Mindtree announced a top-management reshuffle, naming Rostow Ravanan as its CEO and managing director. Effective April 1, the move will see current chief Krishnakumar Natarajan moving on to the role of executive chairman with co-founder Subroto Bagchi stepping down from the position. Bagchi will continue on the Board as a non-executive director. “This is the culmination of a year-long succession planning exercise that the Board had undertaken after carefully considering several candidates,” said Natarajan.

He added that both internal and external candidates were considered for the positions.

“We believe that Mindtree with a stellar management team is fully ready for the opportunities and the challenges ahead,” he said. Earlier this month, Mindtree’s larger rival Wipro had also announced a senior-level rejig appointing Abidali Neemuchwala in place of T K Kurien. IT services firms are looking at leveraging the latest technologies including digital and automation to help clients and these restructuring moves are part of the effort to stay ahead of competitors.

Ravanan, 44, has been serving as the Head for Europe, Service Lines and Key Accounts since April 2014. He was previously the chief financial officer of Mindtree.

Sachin Tendulkar named brand ambassador of pleasure cruise Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has been named as the brand ambassador of a newly-launched pleasure cruise. Also joining the the crew are former Australian opponents, Shane Warne and Brett Lee. The cruise journey, starting in March, will include trips to destinations in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, apart from India. It is a new initiative undertaken by CEO Somesh Jagga and vice-chairman Josh Hill of Monarch Cruise.The 40-year-old icon said that the

idea to join the cruise was floated to him when he met former Australia tearaway fast bowler Lee in London.“Brett Lee contacted me first in London and we started discussing the cruise slowly. The idea was to create a special and memorable trip. Cricketers will come and do the master class.

Brett Lee is going to bowl in the nets and Shane Warne may also roll his arm over,” said Tendulkar.

“I feel it is a great opportunity for Indians who love travelling and it’s money worth spending.

When the cruise is in Mumbai I will spend an evening there,” said Tendulkar. “Here’s an opportunity for 2,200 people (passengers) to make new friends when travelling around. It will be a special treat for everyone,” he added. The cruise offers four seven-day legs, two 13-day trips and one 26-day travelling experience. The cabins on the cruise are available from ₹79,000 per person going up to ₹8.4 lakh (twin pricing) for a 13-day travel, as per the brochure released to the media.

Benetton India promotes Sundeep Chugh to Chief Executive Officer Sundeep Chugh who was commercial director of Benetton India since 2011 has been promoted as the chief executive officer of Benetton India Pvt. Ltd. Chugh has contributed to the growth of the United Colors of Benetton, Sisley and Undercolors brands through a selective network expansion process.

Prior to joining Benetton, Chugh held various high-level managerial positions, always in India, working for multinational companies. In Adidas, he was sales director and, over a three-year period, he established Adidas as one of the leading sports brands in the country.

In LG Electronics, where he worked from 1997 to 2008, he focused on developing the Indian sales network. The appointment of Chugh as chief executive officer of Benetton

India is a demonstration of ‘believing in and investing in,’ one of Benetton’s key values and the move comes at an important moment for the company, according to a press release issued by the company. Benetton Group, the Italian fashion clothing company, has some 5,000 stores around the world. This move came in after previous CEO for the Indian market, Sanjeev Mohanty, who had been with the company since November 2004, left in November last year to join online fashion retailer Jabong as chief executive. Benetton’s international business director Michel Lhoste had been acting as interim CEO for India since then. During Mohanty’s tenure, sales at Benetton India jumped 64 percent to ₹596.49 crore in the year ended March 2014 from ₹363.48 crore in 2010, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies. This was at a time when many apparel brands struggled amidst an economic slowdown and high inflation.

Leslie takes over as Twitter’s new chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, who served as American Express’s executive vice president of global advertising, marketing and digital partnerships, joins as the chief marketing officer of Twitter. Berland started working at American Express in 2005 as the company’s vice president of corporate communications. Berland previously worked for public relations agencies GCI Group and Ketchum. Prior to Berland, Twitter CFO Anthony Noto had served as CMO since May of last year.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 11

COLLYWOOD Vishal Maheshwari to manage Vuclip in India Vuclip, announced the appointment of Vishal Maheshwari as the country manager in India.

This development comes at a time when Vuclip is on course to launch its new over-thetop (OTT) video streaming service in India. Maheshwari joins Vuclip with over 15 years of leadership experience in the telecom and mobile internet space with organisations such as Yahoo!

India and BPL Mobile, and 10 years of product and brand management experience at Parle, Warner Lambert and SBI Cards. “We are excited for Indian consumers in 2016 to experience a whole new way of entertainment on the go and pleased to have Vishal come on board to lead our OTT service in India,” said Arun Prakash, COO, Vuclip. “With India in digital overdrive,

creative thinking and focused execution are required to win over consumers’ hearts, minds and devices. Vishal’s leadership, consumer-centric thought process, passion for product and brand, and value creation for partners will lead Vuclip and this entire industry in India,” he said.

Maheshwari’s responsibilities will include driving consumer adoption, engagement and monetisation for this service in India through strategic partnerships, service innovation and consumer insights. “The ever-evolving video space in India offers the thrill of a challenge,” said Maheshwari. “It is my endeavour to make 2016 a year of delight for the Indian audience in the entertainment and OTT space. I believe Vuclip is best positioned to make that happen.”

Tata Motors appoints Guenter Butschek as CEO & MD Homegrown auto major Tata Motors announced the appointment of exAirbus COO Guenter Butschek as its Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, two years after the death of its former MD Karl Slym. “Tata Motors has appointed Guenter Butschek as Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director. Butschek will lead all operations of Tata Motors in India and in international markets, including South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa,” the company said in a statement. Jaguar Land Rover would continue to be managed by its Chief Executive Officer and Director, Ralf Speth, who is also on the Board of Tata Motors, it added. Commenting on the appointment, Tata Motors Chairman Cyrus P Mistry said, “Tata Motors is going through an exciting, yet challenging phase and Butschek’s

appointment comes at an opportune pportune moment. He brings with him m rich global experience of growing owing organisations and developing ng new markets.” Butschek’s ability to lead high-performing teams will enable the company to achieve sustainable, tainable, profitable growth, Mistry added. dded. The post of managing director off Tata Motors has been vacant since ce the death of Karl Slym on January ary 26, 2014 after falling from a hotel building in Bangkok.

Later, Thailand Police had said he had committed suicide. Butschek joins Tata Motors after his last assignment at Airbus Group p where he served as Chief Operating Officer at Airbus and Member of the Group Executive Committee, the company said.

12 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

SBI’s chief Arundhati is IIM Sambalpur chairperson SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya has been appointed as the chairperson of the Society and Board of Governors of IIM Sambalpur, according to an official release. Bhattacharya has been named the chairperson of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Sambalpur for the next five years starting January 15. She is the first woman to lead an India-based Fortune-500 company and joined the SBI in 1977 as a probationary officer and held several positions during her long career at the largest bank of the country. Mentored by IIM Indore, IIM Sambalpur is among the six new IIMs which got approval of the government in the 2014-15 Budget, the release said.

Other new IIMs are IIM Vishakhapatanam (Andhra Pradesh), IIM Bodh Gaya (Bihar), IIM Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), IIM Nagpur (Maharastra) and IIM Amritsar (Punjab).

MANAGE MONEY DR ANIL LAMBA

Trading on Equity:

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

I

n the previous article, we had considered five cases, A, B, C, D & E, all of which had a sales turnover of 100, expenses of 80 and profit of 20. The difference between the five was the break-up of the expenses into variable and fixed. We had observed that in the case of A the entire cost was variable in nature; in cases B, C and D the break-up between variable and fixed was 20-60, 4040 and 60-20 respectively and in the case of E the cost was entirely fixed in nature. On a doubling of the turnover from 100 to 200, the profit in the case of A had doubled, it had trebled, quadrupled and quintupled in cases B, C and D and in the case of E the profit had increased 6 times to 120. E had the highest fixed expenses and its profit also had increased the most. That led us to the knee-jerk conclusion that the higher the fixed costs that an organisation has, the greater the positive impact it has on its profit. However this conclusion needed to be tempered a bit, else it would appear that an organisation should unilaterally raise employee salaries or offer to higher rents and so on. Such actions would actually lead to a reduction in profits. And then I had pointed out, that while it was true the fixed cost was the highest in the case of E and the growth in profit was also the highest, however the total cost in all five cases was the same, which was 80. E did not have a higher cost, but a higher fixed cost and consequently a lower variable cost. So the question was, how could an organisation increase its fixed cost without increasing the overall cost. That would be possible only if a variable expense was swapped with a fixed one.

Let us now continue this discussion further.

Which variable costs can be replaced with fixed costs?

All variable costs, obviously, cannot be exchanged with fixed costs.

Some costs, such as the cost of raw material, will usually continue to remain variable.

But consider the following situations: The next time your organisation plans to recruit sales and marketing personnel, and is trying to figure out the compensation structure, should it offer a smaller fixed salary and a higher incentive or vice versa?

You must understand that salary is a fixed cost while incentive is variable.

Maybe, as a strategy, you would want to study the industry standards and then announce a salary which is 50 percent higher than the highest in your industry, but without, or with very low, incentives.

When you offer such a high salary, you will attract the best talent.

This talent will have a positive impact on your top line. This increase in top line has come accompanied by a fixed cost. This will lead to a disproportionate increase in the bottom line.

We should focus on increasing only those fixed costs which can also positively impact the top line. Only when the increased fixed costs lead to an increase in the sales figure will the profit increase disproportionately.

If you are trying to decide whether the new product should be made in-house or whether you should outsource the job,one of the factors to be taken into account is that outsourcing involves mainly variable costs, whereas in-house manufacture will contain elements of fixed costs.

To fund your expansion you need to decide whether to raise resources from lenders or whether to make a fresh issue of equity.

You must remember that the cost of borrowing (interest) is a fixed cost whereas the cost of owners’ money (dividend) is variable.

This, therefore, gives us the third reason why B generates a substantially higher EPS than A. Take a look at this table again.

Equity Shares of 100 each 10% Loan = Capital Employed PBIT (@30%)

A

B

1,500,000

500,000

500,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,000,000

600,000

600,000

(-) Interest

50,000

150,000

= PBT

550,000

450,000

(-) Income Tax (assumed@40%)

220,000

180,000

= PAT PAT Number of Shares = EPS

330,000

270,000

330,000 15,000

270,000 5,000

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Between A and B, who has borrowed more? – B Who pays more interest? – B Whose fixed-cost commitment is higher? – B’s Therefore whose EPS is more? – B’s B earns a substantially higher rate of return because of a higher fixed cost in its costing structure. B is committed to pay an annual interest of 1,50,000 as compared to 50,000 in the case of A, which, at first glance, is horrifying. However this fact has resulted in B having an EPS or Return on Investment (ROI) which is two-and-a-half times that of A. I must, however, warn you that the strategy of increasing fixed costs to increase profits is only recommended for good times, when markets are booming and the sales graph seems to be moving consistently upward.

When recession sets in, it is time to begin swapping the fixed costs with variable costs wherever possible. This is because when sales drop, the variable costs will also decrease, but the fixed costs will remain fixed. And if the fixed cost component is high it can lead to a drastic and disproportionate fall in profit. (concluded)

Dr Anil Lamba is a corporate trainer of international repute on finance management. His clients comprise several hundred large and medium sized corporations across different countries of the world. He is the author of the bestselling book Romancing the Balance Sheet. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 13

WAX ELOQUENT

EVERYTHING IS IN INDIA’S Don’t flaunt if you owe a lot

“If you flaunt your yacht, massive birthday bashes, etc. even while owing the system a lot of money… it seems to suggest that you don’t care.

I think that is the wrong message to send out. If you are in trouble, you should show that you care by cutting down your expenses.”

Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India Courtesy: Business Standard

By far, the fastest-growing economy “We have lost several decades, but now is the time to make up for it. Everything is in India’s favour now. We are already the fastest-growing economy. Nothing can stop us from becoming ‘by far, the fastest-growing economy’.”

Making people put off plans to buy cars

“Until last year, we saw many people holding decisions of not buying a second car. Now, it has gone to the next stage where people prefer not buying one.

What I personally aspire to see? My friends, who have a car, saying: I want to sell my car.”

Pranay Jivrajka, Chief Operating Officer, Ola Courtesy: Business Standard

Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group Courtesy: Economic Times

India is doing great

Without manufacturing no country will survive

“An idea like ‘Make in India’ needs ambition.

This is not a road show or a campaign to get some foreign investment. Here we are trying to start a different mind-set altogether. We are trying to start a manufacturing mindset and at that scale.

Without manufacturing no country will survive, especially a country like India.”

V Sunil, former executive creative director, Wieden+Kennedy India Courtesy: Economic Times

“All of a sudden, people are talking about China and India and other places, even from an economic standpoint.

India is doing great. Nobody talks about it. And I have big jobs going up in India.”

Donald Trump, Republican presidential frontrunner from the US Courtesy: Times of India

Failure is not an option “I want to leave behind a legacy. I believe in working very hard. I want to be bloody good at every opportunity life offers to me. Failure is not an option. As a child I had an acute fear of failure. Call it that or an addiction to hard work.”

Priyanka Chopra, Actor Courtesy: www.livemint.com

Start-ups are giving a tough time to the big players There are about 4000+ starts-ups in India offering huge starting salaries to the jobseekers in the market. Startups are giving a tough time to the big players in the market from the talent attraction perspective. Very lucrative compensation packages including stocks and RSUs from these start-ups have skewed the compensation ratios.

Savneet Shergill, Talent Acquisition Director, Dell India Courtesy: http://techstory.in/ women-in-tech-dell-1/

14 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Disruptions in computing will come from…

“I strongly believe that some of the disruptions in computing will come from our understanding of how the brain works. By studying the brain we can improve the computational efficiency of humanlike tasks.”

Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder, Infosys Courtesy: Economic Times

FAVOUR NOW

Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in business world

India, capable of influencing global growth rate

No place for compassion “Taxes which are payable are certainly payable and taxes which are not payable can never be levied. Nobody can come up and say that on grounds of compassion, exempt or liberate me from the responsibility of paying taxes. There is no place for compassion.”

Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister Courtesy: Economic Times

“Like everybody else, global slowdowns affect us. But what we have going for us is a large domestic economy and internal market with huge potential to address our market from internal resources. India is a large economy and our demand is not only capable of changing our own growth rates, but also influencing global growth rate. To take a line that the global economy is poor and slowing and therefore, India doesn’t have a choice or chance—is simply not possible. Our own internal growth potential is very strong.”

T.C.A Anant, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/

Innovation driving Indian companies “The stars are clearly aligning for India. The country recently added its billionth mobile customer, and the manner in which mobile technology has overtaken traditional fixed-line technology illustrates the innovation driving Indian companies to leapfrog generations.”

Mukund Govind Rajan, Member - Group Executive Council, Brand Custodian and Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Sons Courtesy: Economic Times

Lot of interesting disruption happening in India

“A lot of 21st century behaviour is happening here in India and it’s important that we are able to tap into what’s happening in this culture.

India is at a point of time where its culture and business community are being disrupted and so it’s a very interesting time for us as an agency.”

Troy Ruhanen, Global President and Chief Executive Officer, TBWA Worldwide Courtesy: Economic Times

India is a laboratory for innovation

Kabbadi sportsmanship worth emulating “They have an amazing honour code in terms of sportsmanship and the respect they have for each other is worth emulating. Even if you remove the referee the game will go on; that’s how honest they are.

They’re always on the mat but after the final whistle goes off they are like family again.”

Abhishek Bachchan, Owner, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Kabbadi Team

“India is a laboratory for innovation, because you’re operating under so many constraints… How do you take stuff to mobile when the broadband is not too strong?

How do you produce interesting solutions—the idea of a hundred-dollar laptop, a hundred-dollar tablet? The Indian experience would help, not just to developing countries, but also to the developed world.”

Raja Mohan, foreign policy analyst Courtesy: https://www.devex.com/news/india-s-newest-think-tank-chief-talksglobal-leadership-87647

External factors are making the country lucky India is doing a number of things well. I would like them to do more macro adjustment, to do faster structural reform but at least it is going in the right direction. The fiscal situation is better, the external situation is better.

So macroeconomic improvements are there even if some of them are driven by external factors that are making the country lucky.

Optimistic about India

“In Davos last week, there was little bit of pessimism but there was lot of optimism about India. And there are questions, ‘could India be as good as it looked from the outside?’ My answer is ‘yes’.”

Nouriel Roubini, economist

John Rice, Vice Chairman, General Electric

Courtesy: Times of India

Courtesy: Economic Times

Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 15

INTERVIEW

A CFO’S ROLE IN STEERING STRATEGIC CHANGE With businesses more entwined globally, events happening worldwide can buffet the fortunes of companies ever more, and a CFO’s role in helping to steer the direction of organisations through a vigilant and proactive approach is imperative, says Anil Patwardhan, Chief Financial Officer at KPIT Technologies Ltd. Having worked with the Raymond Group, Praj Industries and the Kirloskar Group earlier, he speaks from a vast and varied experience of working in industries across sectors

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan

W

ith over 25 years of rich experience in leading companies such as the Raymond Group, Praj Industries and the Kirloskar Group, Anil Patwardhan, a qualified Chartered Accountant, is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at KPIT Technologies Ltd. As part of the leadership team, Patwardhan is responsible for various functions of KPIT such as Accounts & Finance, Legal & Secretarial, Investor relations, Mergers & Acquisitions and Commercial and includes the deliverables--Financial Performance, Reporting and Governance. Over the years, Anil has contributed towards improving fiscal discipline within KPIT by establishing global budgetary processes, improving the control environment, initiating tax planning measures, and driving effective treasury and forex management.

Anil has been recognised for his contribution to the Corporate Finance & Accounting fraternity and has been awarded with the Best CFO award 2010 in the Information Technology Sector by ICAI New Delhi for 2010. He has also been conferred with the ‘Recognition of Excellence’ at CFO India’s 2nd Annual CFO 100 Roll of Honor 2012 for “Winning Edge -

in Mergers & Acquisitions” and also received the Chairman’s Award as well for Best Enabling Function of the Company in 2008.

In an in-depth and insightful interview with Corporate Citizen, Patwardhan spoke on how the dynamics and business complexities are changing the role of a chief financial officer in today’s times, while also touching upon his professional life, personal world, and offering few tips to the younger generation. Excerpts: Take us through your career so far.

I did my schooling from Sakharwadi Vidyalaya, in district Satara and did my Bachelors in Commerce from BMCC College in Pune. Thereafter, I completed my Chartered Accountancy in 1983 while working with a CA firm. Here is where I built my foundation. The first job I picked up was with the Kirloskar Group as a Finance Manager. Since I was very young then, I used this opportunity to build a strong domain knowledge of Finance and grow. In 1986, I moved on to join a larger organisation, the Raymond Group and worked there for ten years, in the area of Accounts & Finance. My role there was challenging, as the objective was to decentralise the Accounts of all the divisions and drive the consolidation process at the corporate office.

This required deep knowledge of the entire

16 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Accounting process, and some planning and execution skills. Post decentralization of the Accounts we (my colleague and I) worked at 24-hour stretches to complete the consolidation of the Accounts of 18 divisions and tallied the financial statements in the first attempt! In 1995, when I joined Praj Industries, the Group was going through tough times due to very high interest rates and recession in the manufacturing industry. There were business challenges and in order to exercise controls over Business Operations and Stores & Purchases, computerisation was the need of the hour and we streamlined the Finance, Commercial and Purchase functions through computerisation, under my leadership.

After spending four years in Praj Industries, I decided to move on to KPIT Technologies and have been associated with them since the past 17 years.

Tell us about your journey at KPIT so far.

It’s been a very exciting journey in KPIT and I’ve been very happy to be part of it. When I joined KPIT Technologies back in 1998, the company was then coming up with an IPO (Initial Public Offer). This IPO got oversubscribed by 42 times and changed the market sentiment then. There were about 250 employees and the turnover of the company stood at Rs 16 crore then. Today,

PICS: SHANTANU RELEKAR

‘As a CFO, one must be very proactive and quick to respond to the macro parameter changes in the global economy, try and protect the operating margin of the company and secure its cash flows’

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 17

INTERVIEW the company has close to 11,000 employees and the turnover is over Rs 3,300 crore. I feel fortunate and lucky to have got a chance to work with some of the leading corporate honchos such as Ravi Pandit and Kishor Patil, founding directors of KPIT, Pramod Chaudhary and Shashank Inamdar of Praj Industries and Gautam Singhania and Aniruddha Deshmukh from Raymond.

These gentlemen have helped in shaping my career and I must say they are my ‘management gurus.’ At the same time, I have also shown a willingness to learn and kept a positive attitude all the time. That apart, I also owe my success to my family as well, for all their help and support.

In KPIT, I gained varied experience of heading Accounts & Finance, Legal & Secretarial, IR and M&A of a global IT company.

day. Hence you need the right resources, right compliance processes and the right professional consultants to help you remain compliant. For instance, foreign currency transactions need to comply with FEMA regulations and therefore you need a competent team in Treasury & Compliance to execute all foreign currency transactions and implement a foreign exchange risk management policy to safeguard the margins of the company. Risk identification, risk measurement and risk mitigation is the most important dimension of the compliance process.

Entwining Indian economy with the globe

How proactive should a CFO get in these times when there is so much of global turmoil, domestically and globally?

As a CFO, one must be very proactive and quick to respond to the macro parameter changes in the global economy, try and protect the operating margin of the company and secure its cash flows. Firstly, he should hire the right talent and build a competent team and train his existing workforce well. It is important to identify the right avenues for investments and set the target ROI to drive the margins of the company, comparable with the best in the industry.

How has the role of a CFO changed in the last few years?

In the last five years, particularly post the global meltdown in 2008-09, the business dynamics of global operations have undergone a significant change. Business complexities are ever increasing and there are macro and micro economic factors that need to be monitored closely to understand their adverse impact on business operations. Currency risks, slowdown of the Chinese economy and devaluation if its currency, the Eurozone crisis, oil prices, terrorist threats are posing serious ongoing challenges for the stability and growth of the global economy. A CFO’s proactive approach and diligent response is needed to help the company absorb the shocks and come through the turbulent business environment.

Anil Patwardhan presented some wonderful insights at a recent conclave and spoke in depth on some of the crucial topics in today’s times such as the role of finance professionals in dealing with the dynamic business world, macro and micro factors that impact the business, global events that are putting pressure on the GDP growth of India, the importance of Enterprise Risk Management, hedging policy for managing foreign currency exchange rate movements and investment policies of companies.

How about compliance?

One has to be well versed with compliance for doing business in both the domestic and international markets. Handling compliance is a tough job because of the business presence across geographies and ever increasing regulatory requirements. Under the new Companies Act 2013, the Board of directors and the management team (the key managerial personnel, or KMP) are responsible for the design and operating effectiveness of internal financial controls over the business operations of the company.

Corporate laws have become very stringent to-

How has it changed post the 2008 Lehman crisis?

The role of a CFO has got even more complex after the 2008-09 Lehman crisis. It did create an adverse impact on all the economies globally.

The response time to global events became very critical for companies with a global presence, and the lead role was with the CFO to drive the change. Implementation of short and medium term strategies became extremely important for the survival of the organisation. The role of a CFO is not just confined to that of a book keeper and releasing financial statements – there is

Macro environment:

‘A leader has to demonstrate a strong value system and the ability to walk the talk.

Personal and professional priorities should be clearly stated and the leader needs to be a good human being. He needs to be clear on what he wants to achieve as his professional goal. As long as you have clarity in your thought process, and you are enjoying your work with passion, it will not create stress’ 18 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

The global economy is going through a dynamic phase and hence the macroeconomic environment is becoming more challenging and complex. The European (EU) countries are still facing tough economic challenges and time and again the European Central Bank (ECB) has been supporting the affected countries (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, or PIGS) by providing them financial assistance.

Greece was on the verge of collapse but with the help of $25 billion bailout from eurozone funds, they manage to survive.

The economic situation in emerging countries is equally challenging and they are struggling to get the desired growth.

China is playing a very vital role in the world’s economy, but recently we witnessed a major fall in China’s equity market arising out of the decline of its GDP, and the world’s financial community is not sure of its data integrity and expect that the worst is not yet over in China. This has created a significant adverse impact on the global economy. In a desperate move, China’s central bank came out with the decision of devaluing its own currency. This has put pressure on the Indian rupee and

other Asean currencies. On the other hand, the United States is the powerhouse of all the economies and can drive the currency and financial markets in any direction.

India’s economy got more connected with the world, post liberalisation. It started in 1991 with Dr Manmohan Singh, then Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, who triggered the liberalisation process, which was a landmark step. After 20 years, we are getting into the process of liberalisation once again. We need certain policies that are globally connected, so that we are able to drive business in India in a competitive manner on a global platform. We’ve seen the biggest slump in the Chinese equity market, where they had to suspend equity trading for some time, recently. They had to revisit their currency and their currency strategy. The Chinese currency is a pegged currency; after evaluation they found that theirr exporters were not competitive and were not able to sustain, and hence the devaluation on decision was taken, which I think was unique. ue.

If you see the macroeconomic ic environment today, the GDP growth rate, e, inflation, foreign currency inflows through capital markets or FDIs, the way interest rates es are moving, unemployment, current account ount deficit and balance of payments, foreign n currency reserves, in India—the steps triggered ered by the government in the last few years have given a very strong message to the world rld that we are committed to the development ent of the country and hence there’s no going ng back on the development agenda. Our policies olicies have been made visible to investors today, oday, more and more processes are getting online, thus reducing the kind of permissions needed to trigger any business venture today ay in India.

We are sending out the right signals nals to the business world globally, which is helping and will help in driving economic growth. th.

Brazil, Mexico, Canada, next is Europe, then Asia Pacific and India. When we do business, we need to spread our business risk. In case there is an adverse impact in one of the geographies stated above, it should not impact our entire business and growth opportunities. Thus, if your business is concentrated in one particular geography and there comes a turmoil, it will impact your business significantly. We need to work on an enterprise risk management framework which will help the organisation to identify the risk, measure the impact and come out with a mitigation plan.

Later, we should create the risk indices and do the trend analysis on an ongoing basis.

Risk Management Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is the responsibility of the Board and the executive management of the company. An ERM framework will enable the top management team to overcome the challenges arising out of a dynamic business world. The executive man-

agement team has to review the ERM and the top ten to 12 business risks at regular intervals of say 18 to 24 months. Post the global meltdown of 2008-09, most large and medium corporates cut down their IT spend by more than 50 percent in a span of two to three months as a response to the financial crisis. From the perspective of businesses in India, most of the players could handle this situation reasonably well due to their ERM framework and the conservative economic policies of the central bank of India (RBI). Thus, the variable cost in the business was immediately bought under control and most of the companies used innovative ways of addressing this issue. What IT companies did during this period was that they moved onsite business activities to the offshore region in India and delivered business result to its customers by spending less -- by almost one-third. Thus, a business problem was converted into an opportunity and it

‘When we do business, we need to spread our business risk. In case there is an adverse impact in one of the geographies, it should not impact our entire business and growth opportunities’

Indian economy and the globe be If China is devaluing its currency, why do you think the Indian rupee is suddenly impacted?

If we have to stay competitive in the global world, we have to take cognizance e of all the economic events that are happening ng globally.

If China is getting more and more e competitive in its export business, India cannot stay behind. Hence, we’ve seen a depreciation epreciation in the Indian rupee. Again, when n you drive a business, you must take into account ccount the markets you are operating in and the dynamics of those markets. Largely, the markets are divided into four different buckets—America s—America is one market which includes North th America,

Fe F February eb brru ua ary ry 1 16-29, 6--2 6 29 9, 2016 2016 20 6 / Corporate Corp Co rpo orrat a e Ci Citizen iti tize zen ze n / 19 9

INTERVIEW

provided a win-win solution to the customer.

We were also able to win the confidence of the customers that even in difficult times we were with them, providing the right support and solution, despite reduction in their IT budgets. It is important that the company’s business model should be capable of absorbing all such shocks and still deliver business results and help achieve its objectives.

Foreign currency fluctuations This is another important area in risk management. Most Indian companies have global business presence, and deal with multi-currencies. We are getting into long-term commercial contracts with our customers where the revenue is frozen upfront. This will define the customer’s spend well in advance, say three years, whereas you are managing your cost for the entire period of execution under inflationary pressures, in this case, for three years. In India, due to inflation, the costs go up by almost 8-10 percent year-on-year. So when revenues are frozen but costs are variable, protecting margins is the most difficult job. In order to protect realisation from US dollar denominated contracts, the executive manage-

ment and the Board need to approve a foreign currency exchange risk management policy and trigger hedging activity under the said policy. Your foreign currency hedging policy has to reflect the management thought process which will safeguard the top-line and bottom line of the company. This policy should allow the company to participate in the market, say, to the extent of 25 percent of inflows, and balance 75 percent to hedge to reduce the volatility in foreign currency realisation. We need to insulate the company from foreign currency exchange rate shocks.

Investment Policy

marketplace? Why would customers come to you over the competition, and what are the differentiating factors compared with competition? What is the value you bring to the table for the customer? All of these should get translated into a vision statement of the company. In order to drive this vision, you also have to create a mission statement, which is an execution plan. Only having a vision will not help. It will then only be a wishful statement. A mission is a roadmap to travel along the path of the vision. That is how you will address the challenges coming out of the dynamic business world. Today, India is connected globally and therefore the vision and mission statements need to be relevant for global business. Both organic and inorganic growth is necessary to drive the vision and mission of the business.

This policy will help the company define its major capital expenditure (capex) and the investment of its surplus cash reserves. The capex needs to be planned based on the medium-term business plan of the company for capacity creation. One has to commit the capex proactively and incur the actual cost before the growth is realised. Therefore the executive management team has to ensure capacity creation and chart out the capacity utilisation plan at the same time and reduce the gap between the two without hampering growth opportunities. The cash reserves of the company need to be invested following the principles of safety, liquidity, and return in the same order. Stakeholders’ money can’t be subjected to market risk and the principal amount has to remain safe while liquidity should be available based on the business needs. The return on investment should help realise additional income without compromising business needs. The investment policy of the company should be part of the overall risk management policy.

‘The steps triggered by the Government in the last few years have given a very strong message to the world that we are committed to the development of the country and hence there’s no going back on the development agenda. We are sending out the right signals to the business world, globally, which is helping in driving economic growth’

Vision and Mission

Role of fin nance professionals

Every corporate has to have a vision. Vision is the long-term direction of the company in which you want to drive the performance of your business—say in the next five or ten years from now. Do you believe that the business strategy followed by the company would remain relevant three years down the line? Or would you have to revisit some of the components of your strategy? How would you pick up the thread and the pulse from the marketplace? How do you ensure that the company remains competitive in the

Finance prof professionals are considered as the most trusted members of the management integrity and commitment have to team. Our in highest level. We get into a trusteebe at the hig with the company. So every dollar ship role wit earned and spent by the company should judiciously managed in the interest of the be judicious and all its stakeholders. Stakeholdcompany an ers include the customers of the company, shareholders and investors, vendors and shareholder employees of the company. It is important company to build a long-term relationfor the comp these stakeholders. The fourth set ship with the is your employees. They are of stakeholders stakehold your assets and an important set of stakeholders. All government agencies with the whom we run the business are also help of who important stakeholders for the comvery import

20 / C 20 Co Corporate orrp po orra atte Ci C Citizen iti tize en / F February ebru eb ruar ary 16 1 16-29, 6-2 -2 29, 9, 2 9, 2016 016 01 6

pany. As finance professionals, we have to work towards wealth creation for the company on a sustainable basis which will meet and exceed the expectations of all the stakeholders. Every stakeholder does have his own set of expectations.

We need to articulate and understand those expectations and continue to deliver on the lines of these expectations.

A finance professional should create an internal mechanism to show the mirror to the executive management and the business leader at all times, and also directly participate in improving the experience of all its stakeholders. As a finance professional, you should be able to see much ahead of the time as compared with any other business leader. You should try to predict the short and medium-term business trend for the company, and trigger corrective actions proactively. As a finance professional, if you are not able to figure out macro trends in the economy or didn’t predict them, you have failed in your duty. Despite all the challenges and triggers in the marketplace, which are not directly under our control, the impact on the company and its business should be handled well by the finance professional.

Once you identify this link, you can get into a more meaningful role as a finance professional. You should drive deeper into analysing the data and transforming all the information into the MIS (Management Information System or Meaningful Information System). One of the important objectives of the corporate finance function is to drive transaction processing online, improve business processes and controls, and demonstrate thought leadership. Despite an increase in the business volumes and complexities, a finance professional should demonstrate confidence and conviction in his/her actions and adopt a continuous learning approach, to move up the knowledge curve. The day you believe that you know everything, your career progress will get impacted. There is so much happening in the capital market and Corporate Laws-- new regulations such as Companies Act 2013, IFCOR, Ind AS, IFRS, ICDS, SEBI Regulation Act 2015 and now GST that finance professionals have always got to be ahead of the learning curve to sustain in this demanding role.

So, one has to give his/her 100 percent every time to remain on top of the learning curve and career path, and stand ethically committed to its professional standards.

‘Post the global meltdown in 2008-09, the business dynamics of global operations have undergone a significant change. Business complexities are ever increasing and there are macro and micro economic factors that need to be monitored closely to understand their adverse impact on business operations’

more to it… to participate in setting the strategic direction of the company with focus on margin improvement. CFOs need to focus on team building, particularly training and development of leaders so that this team remains agile and develops a strong domain knowledge of finance.

What are the qualities you look for while hiring professionals?

If he is a team member, he has to possess strong domain knowledge and is aligned with the job description, demonstrates leadership qualities, is able to take tough decisions, energise the team members, and have an edge in the core knowledge. A leader has to demonstrate a strong value system and the ability to walk the talk. Personal and professional priorities should be clearly stated and the leader needs to be good human being. He needs to be clear on what he wants to achieve as his professional goal. As long as you have clarity in your thought process, and you are enjoying your work with passion, it will not create stress, and will not keep you awake at night.

How do you achieve work-life balance for yourself?

Well, having a work-life balance is easier said than done. One has to decide his/her priorities in life. At every stage in life – the first ten years of your career, the next 15 years, followed by the remaining 15 years (assuming an overall 40 years of professional career), one has to drive changes in the thought process and priorities in life. There will be changes in your priorities and lifestyle at every stage. Most importantly, give 100 percent every time in whatever you do—whether you are investing time with colleagues, at work, with family, with friends, on professional forums and so on. When I am at home, I only focus on investing time with my family and deliver the best value as a family member, and when I am at work I only focus on my deliverables as a professional and try and achieve my professional goals.

Tell us something about your family.

I am blessed with a wife and two sons. My wife, Sandhya, is a diligent homemaker, and my sons, Shreyas and Anurag are well educated,

have now started working. Shreyas, my elder son, completed his MBA in Finance and pursued a Functional Consultant course in SAP. He is German-language literate, and working as an Associate Consultant in the SAP business unit of KPIT, while Anurag has completed his Inter-CA and ICWA, completed his articleship with Deloitte and is preparing himself for the final CA exams. My wife has truly been my pillar of strength. She’s the one who has stood by me at all times, devoted all her time with commitment for the well-being of our family and helped me in shaping my career path. I still continue to invest 12 to 14 hours a day to my professional work; she takes care of the responsibilities on the family front and keeps the atmosphere at home very healthy and friendly.

How do you see youngsters today?

What is your advice to them?

Youngsters today are extremely ambitious and talented. While it is difficult to plan one’s entire career graph, I think a youngster must try and look at the career in three broad buckets of ten years each. The focus needs to be on building domain knowledge, managerial skills, leadership skills, global outlook with a continuous learning attitude. Focus on learning soft skills such as writing, reading, communication, interpersonal skills is important, they should be treated as hygiene factors. Keep revisiting your plan, be ready to take up the newer challenges.

How do you see the IT industry over the next two years?

The IT industry will continue to be on a moderate growth path and those companies who have built niche skills and have strong value propositions for customers will survive and grow. Investment in the right areas is the key for driving growth.

What are your overseas expansion plans for the year?

KPIT has presence across 15 countries globally and we will continue to invest on the front end team in the key markets for our growth.

Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 21

THE TAX MAN COMETH-9

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

See how they tumble

Stringent laws and even more stringent implementation deter capital market fraud in the US – as recent convictions show – but these are woefully lacking in India. Malpractices like insider trading, accounting frauds, Ponzi schemes, demat and IPO frauds, market manipulations, corrode the capital market, discouraging genuine funds coming in, impeding growth

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 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”

S

ometime back, the name of Rajat Gupta was in the news, for the wrong reasons. Rajat Gupta is an Indian American who has been a distinguished corporate citizen. He studied at IIT, Delhi and Harvard Business School and at a young age became the managing director of the leading consulting firm, McKinsey & Company where he worked from 1994 to 2003 in this position. He also worked as Board Member of Goldman Sachs, Proctor & Gamble and American Airlines, besides being advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He was the co-founder of the Indian School of Business.

In news for the wrong reason The wrong reason for which he was in the news was that he was convicted for insider trading.

His conviction for two years was finally upheld by the US Supreme Court and at the moment he is in jail in the US. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had filed a complaint of insider trading against him, that he used confidential information as Board Member of Goldman Sachs for the pecuniary benefit of his billionaire friend Raj Ratnam who was the founder of the Galleon Group Hedge Fund.

This was the sad end of the career of one of the brightest professionals. Have we heard such stories in India? The answer is, no. Are there no cases of insider trading in India? The answer is yes, but proceedings against them have not resulted in conviction because of the lack of prosecutable evidence.

To have an insight into such corporate conspiracy and fraud on investors, I wish to share my experience, when, from an income-tax perspective, I had conducted raids over three decades ago. The raids were conducted against the managing director of a leading company along with his friends and associates. The enquiry also included a leading Non-Resident Indian

and some bankers. It was found that the NRI had borrowed money from a bank in London and transferred the money to India to his bank account in the name of his HUF. This money was used to buy a sizeable shareholding in a well-known company. The NRI investor sold his entire purchase in a short span of two months.

The enquiry revealed that the purchase of shares was made when the price was low and the sale was made when the price was very high. Immediately after the purchase of the shares at the low price, the price peaked, based on the news that the company was going to issue bonus shares.

The issue of bonus shares did not happen and the share prices crashed - but before this happened, the NRI investor had already sold his shares. It was apparent that he was privy to privileged information in the company.

The needle of suspicion fell on the managing director. The tax implication was examined and taxes were collected. The managing director died a few years back. It was a well-publicised case of that time, and a case was also filed in the High Court by some investors. This is one illustration of an insider trading case. For another illustration, I share the facts where SEBI had a filed case against the managing director of a leading multinational company. The managing director, through the help of his brother-in-law, had purchased the shares of his own company when the price was low as he knew that the price would pick up after the news went in the market that his company, of which he was the managing director, was in the process of getting acquired by another well-known multinational company.

SEBI considered the transaction as one of insider trading and penalty was levied on the managing director.

Insider trading is unfair to investors Insider trading is

22 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

defined as a malpractice wherein the trade of a company’s securities is undertaken by people, who by virtue of their work, have access to otherwise non-public information, which can be crucial for making investment decisions. It is an unfair practice which results in great disadvantage to genuine stockholders. The United States of America was the first country to perceive this and enact laws to deal with this problem. Following the market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression, investors in the US had lost confi-

dence in the stock market. To bring the capital market back to good health, the government in the US enacted the Security Exchange Acts of 1933 and 1934 to protect price-sensitive information and thus to nip in the bud the malaise of insider trading. The law in the US today is strict and severe, and as a result many operators have been convicted, including Rajat Gupta.

In India, the law on insider trading is in a developing stage. First, based on the Thomas Committee Report, Sections 307 and 308 were incorporated in the Companies Act, 1956. Next, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulation Act, 1992 was enacted and further to give more teeth to this Act, an amended Act was enacted in 2015. Cases have been filed under these Acts but there has been no prosecution so far, although penalties have been levied. In terms of market capitalisation, India is the world’s ninth largest economy. In 2014, India’s market capitalisation crossed USD 1.6 trillion. If India has to grow at a faster pace, then it is all the more essential to showcase to the world that the country has strict legislation in place to curb problems such as that of insider trading. The problem of insider trading is not the only problem faced by the capital market in India. There are other malpractices like accounting frauds, broker-operator-promoter nexus, demat scams, GDR frauds, IPO

frauds, market manipulation, mis-selling ULIPs, Ponzi schemes, unfair buybacks and violation of takeover rules. The genesis of all these problems lie in the greed for easy money over hard work.

Market participants normally get lured by easy money and they keep on inventing fraudulent schemes. For the sake of brevity, I proceed to give an outline of a few of the fraudulent devices:

Fraud has many faces The Satyam scam is an illustration of an accounting fraud. Here, the promoters, along with their auditors, gave inflated imaginary figures of income to present a rosy picture to shareholders and financial institutions when

demat and IPO scam. Demat accounts are opened by the agents in the names of sham investors and applications for IPO are made by the agents in the names of these sham names out of finance received from the financier of the scam. These applications are made in the reserved category for small investors. Once the allotment is received, the shares allotted are transferred to the financier by the agents after deducting their commission. In this category of fraud falls the IPO scam which took place some ten years back in the case of some well-known public issues of a bank and a finance company.

Even in the commodity market there has been a recent scam when NSEL was in the news. To

‘If India has to grow at a faster pace, then it is all the more essential to showcase to the world that the country has strict legislation in place to curb problems such as that of insider trading’ at the same time money was being siphoned off for the benefit of the promoters. When the fraud was detected, there was no other way but to admit the crime and the promoters and auditors were arrested.

These days Ponzi schemes are very much in the news. The CBI has arrested one Bhangoo, the owner of PACL, of the Pearls group of enterprises. The charge against PACL is that it cheated crore of investors and the alleged amount involved is ₹47,000 crore. A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud in which a belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by payment of quick returns to the first investors from the money invested by later investors. A pyramid-like structure is created. Once the planned number of new investors do not join, the bubble bursts. Another Ponzi scheme in the news is of the Sardha Group in West Bengal in which several high-profile politicians have been arrested.

SEBI has been authorised to make enquiry into Ponzi schemes and then the cases are given to the CBI for criminal investigation.

The capital market in India has been the victim of serious frauds and market manipulation in the past, notable among them being the Harshad Mehta scam and the Ketan Parekh scam.

The crude method adopted for market manipulation is forming a club by some promoters with brokers and operators. Transactions in the secondary market are so arranged between them that the price of shares is rigged for the mutual benefit of the participants in the fraud.

In the bull market, one popular fraud is

curb such scams, the Forward Market Commission (FMC) has been merged with SEBI.

Too many cooks?

To supervise financial transactions, which, in some cases lead to fraud, there are several government agencies like SEBI, RBI, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SFIO under it, IRDA, pension regulator and the economic branch of the CBI. The problem sometimes is that there are too many cooks who spoil the broth. What do we need? We need clarity on whom to talk to. We need increased coordination between the various regulators and effective implementation of the existing laws.

We have to keep our capital market in the best of health and for that it should be far away from malpractices. A healthy capital market is needed to attract both domestic and global funds for companies which in the long run will give more GDP for the country and more jobs for our youth. For those who get tempted to make easy money from the market, which gives rise to malpractices, I wish to quote Henry Ford, who said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”

CC

tadka

Fast food trivia

India’s fast food industry is expected to double in size between 2013 and 2016, to $1.12 billion, yet it will still be only one-tenth the size of China’s fast food industry.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 23

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015

Innovation in Indian manufacturing Indian manufacturing and business operations have always been known for short-term, frugal innovations and improvements. Questions remain on whether a short-term frugal approach is really helpful at all in the long run.

At the 14th Manufacturing Summit 2015, by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Western Region, recently held at Trident Hotel in Mumbai, various sessions discussed the future of Indian manufacturing.

Corporate Citizen brings to you the session-1 discussion on the topic of ‘Innovation in Indian Manufacturing’ featuring practitioners of innovation in India and their experiences on how to make Indian companies more innovative in a sustainable manner.

The panellists for the session were, Satendra Singh, Director and Head - Manufacturing Ops (India), Nokia Solutions & Network Pvt. Ltd.; John Edwin, Senior Vice President and CO Manufacturing Excellence and Supply Chain, Tractor and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE); Rakesh S, Director, ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director and Professor of Strategic Management, Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIMI); Amar Kaul, Territory Vice President and Business Head - India, Middle East and South Africa, Ingersoll Rand and it was moderated by Samir Agrawal, Principal, BCG India.

BY RAJESH RAO 24 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Panellists for Session-I (L-R) - Samir Agrawal, Amar Kaul, Rishikesha T Krishnan, Rakesh S, John Edwin and Satendra Singh PICS: YUSUF KHAN

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 25

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015 Q: To help put innovation in perspective, Samir Agarwal, started the session, asking Krishnan, what does innovation mean and when you say go from jugaad to innovation, where is the line and what’s the importance of crossing that line?

Krishnan: When any company faces a problem or a challenge, it might be to increase market share, meet a new customer need, or address a competitiveness challenge. If its existing commonplace solutions don’t work, it’s time for it to come up with some new ideas, put them into practice and create value either for the company, consumers and other users. The way I look at innovation is very simple—it is applying new ideas to solve problems or challenges in such a way that creates value for stakeholders. This could be ranging from all incremental improvements from the shop floor, right to very big fundamental changes like a new product, new manufacturing system, etc. In India, we have our own traditional ways of doing these kinds of improvements. One approach has typically been to find very creative solutions in the limited resources we have and what has traditionally been called as jugaad. Now the challenge with jugaad is actually two-fold. On

and pick them out with forceps. It was becoming one of the biggest bottlenecks in their entire jewellery manufacturing process. To simplify and automate the process they came up with a world’s first diamond bagging machine, a robot they created internally that could replace the manual operation. The machine is now covered by a US patent and in that year it also got the Tata Innovista Award, for the best innovation in the Tata Group. So, here is a simple innovation which came up with the objective of addressing a challenge which the company faced. It was something which resulted in huge growth and productivity and debottlenecking the entire manufacturing process. This is what I believe innovation is all about, particularly in the manufacturing context.

Q: We would like to hear about examples of innovations from the different domains our panellists are operating in.

Kaul: Indian manufacturing industry has come a long way. When I started my career, I was was sent to UK to one of the customers, because the samples were sent there. The first lot was sent and got rejected. Everyone was amazed that by jugaad

“We had a problem and we solve it, so it comes back and we have solved the problem again.

But, do we, as leaders, go back and say, what methodology did we use to solve this problem, so it doesn’t happen again” - AMAR KAUL, Territory VP and Business Head - India, Middle East and South Africa, Ingersoll Rand the one hand, off course jugaad kind of approach is very creative. It helps you find solutions within limited resources that you have. But on the other hand, it often poses another challenge— sometimes it is not scalable, not repeatable, and not something which is embedded in the process of the organisation. For many of our organisations the challenge is how to embrace innovations that creates value for the company and stakeholders, but at the same time will continue to be usable. The reason it has become so important today, is that the expectations of customers have risen tremendously. People today are very clear that they expect reliability and consistent functionality from any product they buy. Any innovation today has to have that ability to be scaled, repeated and every user experience has to be the same as you go forward.

We were doing a study on Titan few years ago.

Titan’s manufacturing is very labour -intensive process. One of their big challenges was how to put together the precious stones and diamonds, which have to go into a complex piece of jewellery. Traditionally this was done manually, herein a person would sit with a box of stones

somehow we had made a good sample and on the first supply itself we had challenges. From there when we resolved that concept to where we are today, it has been a great journey. Now coming back to innovation, to make the dream of having 20-30 percent GDP from manufacturing by 2022… we had to first look at the sustainability and how do we sustain it. By sustainability I mean, how to engage our employees, to the last person in the organisation. Do we have that cultural change? Where does jugaad come in? We had a problem and we solve it, so it comes back and we have solved the problem again. But, do we as leaders go back and say, what methodology did

26 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

we use to solve this problem, so it doesn’t happen again.

We could have fantastic innovation, create a golden product, but do you have the market for that. You start with Reason for Action—as to why are you doing something. For example, if I want to improve on quality, want to reduce the defect percentage, increase the production… why? What is the reason for action? Is it going to help me in the market to increase my market share? Is it going to increase my growth prospect from 20% to 30/40 percent? And then you go back and get product, marketing, manufacturing, procurement management, everybody involved and do it together. Those are the tools that I would strongly recommend that the industry needs today. This is a journey which would not give results today or tomorrow, but is surely the way to sustain in future.

Rakesh: Space industry is not like other industries, in the sense we have a very large variety and high quality requirements. This two put together makes manufacturing extremely difficult in our sector. When we started our programmes, we found that many of our designs are very difficult to manufacture, capital equipment-intensive and time-consuming. We did lot of innovation when we encouraged shop floor innovation to make these products, integrate them and also test them.

We also had a robust programme of analysing the dispersion, because our manufacturing of whatever we were practising is unlike the large scale manufacturing. We had dispersion because it was a piece-based manufacturing and not a large production set-up. We didn’t have a statistically stable manufacturing at all. What we did is that we looked at different quality requirements of our products. We did many small innovations in our processes. In our industry, innovation does not stop at manufacturing. We have innovation right through, from materials, manufacturing, quality, system design, as well as the mission, like the Mars orbital mission.

Edwin: We are a hardcore brick-and-mortar company. About four-five years ago we decided to embark on a mission of catering to the world market. We wanted to look at 80 countries, where we wanted to sell our products. Naturally, the manufacturing challenge was that the variety of models of tractors that we were going to make, was really going to rise. So, we knew

“My job in India is to ensure they don’t do jugaad all the time. They do jugaad which is sustainable, hence, jugaad becomes innovation. Over the last seven years of existence of my facility, we have got largest mileage out of management innovation and the process innovation” - SATENDRA SINGH, Director and Head - Manufacturing Ops (India), Nokia Solutions & Network Pvt. Ltd.

in manufacturing that something is going to challenge us. With the great variety which is going to come in, the challenge which would be there is that you have to deliver the right products at right time and also that the products will look very similar. Our variety in the five years has gone up somewhere from 40 models to around 400 models. So, we knew this is going to be a challenge and we adapted some new systems on the shop floor, where we manage things.

can just put the product through the assembly facilities and check whether there will be any problems or issues that will arise and they give back their feedback to the design people. Before the products are released, they are released in a fashion that they are completely manufacturable.

This is one very important area where we had done a lot of good work.

The second area is that when the variety was coming inside the shop floor, for information

“Space industry is not like other industries, in the sense we have a very large variety and high quality requirements. This two put together makes manufacturing extremely difficult in our sector.

We have innovation right through, from materials, manufacturing, quality, system design, as well as the mission, like the Mars orbital mission.”

- RAKESH S, Director, ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

We have multiple manufacturing plants both in India and abroad. We have distinct plants doing just the assembly work of the tractors and doing machining of the components which go into making the tractors. In the machining side there were lot of innovations done and they are highly technical in nature. However, today we can assure, if a similar component can be made by anybody in the world, we can make it at 20% lower machining time than anybody else. That is the level of innovation we have employed into our machining activities.

Secondly, when we go into the assembly plants, the information of design has to flow into the assembly lines, to the feeding of the parts and into the supplier chain. Even though we are a manufacturing plant and we always think that there is only material that is moving in the plant, we have recognised that there is a huge amount of information which is flowing.

In order to manage this variety, we realised that unless we manage the information in an efficient, correct and quick way, we will not be able to manage this variety and give products quick enough to the marketplace. So, when I knew when a tractor gets designed, that design information has to go to our multiple plants and then the plants have to tool up or change their assembly lines or machining areas to suit the new product. Then the material information has to go to the suppliers and when the materials come inside the factory, they have to flow into the assembly lines. There was huge information flow that was taking place and we did lot of work, integrating it. Today, if a product is made, the 3-D model of the product can be seen by people in manufacturing, before the product design is released. All our plants are on 3-D, so our people

to flow to various places, we had developed a software system with the help of external agencies. A standard package would have costed us about 40 times more than what we invested and we were able to get almost similar level of functionalities. We first implemented it in one factory and we have been able to not only scale up what we had implemented but we were also

negotiated a German product to an Indian cost and came out with a 60% cheaper price. Recently they have demonstrated to me a technology, which would probably cost one fourth of that 60% cost. So, there is tremendous scope for innovation and creativity in our engineers, the only thing is we need to direct them correctly.

Satendra: We deal with communication and make equipment for communication. We deal with equipment which are called base stations, it consists of many different parts. A base station is an equipment, something like an old-time computer CPU size. It is lot more complex, with about ten thousand parts in it. If you look at soldering these parts, one typical unit would have 20-30 thousand joints. We are talking about geometries which are of size 45x45 microns (one micron is one millionth of a metre). We have 10,000 such parts in one unit and we need to make it. We need to make it in such a way that when you talk to somebody, on an important phone call, the connection stays as far as possible.

At least it doesn’t drop because of the equipment.

So we need to make it work 100 percent all the time. We are at the cutting edge of technology and quality. My job in India is to ensure they don’t do jugaad all the time. They do jugaad which is sustainable, hence, jugaad becomes innovation.

We look at three-four dimensions of innovationmanagement innovation, management practices, process innovation, technology innovation and also in the people’s side. Over the last seven years

“If there are lot of innovation projects going on and there is no impact, soon people will start losing faith in the entire innovation process. To address these three problems the first important thing for the top management is to be very clear of what are the innovation priorities, and identify where the impact of innovation is going to be maximum” - PROF. RISHIKESHA T KRISHNAN, Director and Professor of Strategic Management, Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIMI)

able to replicate it into five of our plants.

We have done lot of 3-D printing exercise and are also working on some more exercises. We are just about to launch our major programme, to integrate many of our suppliers who are making very critical components. As the parts are getting made on their shop floor, we will be able sit in our factory and see the exact quality level of the components on real-time basis. The initial solution which we came out with was extremely expensive. It was running into almost about ` 400 crore, which for a tractor industry is a very high investment and not affordable. So we challenged some of our engineers to work at it and they identified a different technology, using certain equipment procured from Germany. They

of existence of my facility, we have got largest mileage out of management innovation and the process innovation.

In 2013, we typically produced 3,000 units per day and it is quite a complex manufacturing.

So, we said we need to work on quality and we need to get on something which is like eyepopping. We decided to look into something which is one PPM process. We were not convinced that we would do it, but we took it as a target and wanted to see where we get to.

Eventually we achieved one PPM, on the lines which we wanted. We have achieved one PPM across all our assembly lines, which is surfacemount process. We are in a process of rolling out this one PPM process, across our processes

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 27

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015 worldwide. So, how did we do it? We broke it down to different areas and we looked at machine to machine. When you look at 10,000 parts to be soldered, most of them are not inspectable.

Joints are below the surface and there is no way you can see below. You just got to make it right. The critical part for us is the pasteprinting process, wherein we print the paste on to the board and the inspection comes immediately after. We let the engineers and use their ideas, they optimized the process and the heart of the manufacturing and we got it right.

Then we moved on to the placements, where you place the components. We went into details of each and every component and we worked with the vendors, at least 30 of them, to optimise certain parameters on the part side. They also benefitted because they were able to pass on the benefit to their other customers.

Q: One of your (Krishnan) project has been to distil insights about what makes the machines innovative and companies innovative. What is the recipe for companies to become really innovative?

Krishnan: When we did our research on how to build innovation capabilities, we found that there were three challenges that companies are facing. The first one was on building an innovation pipeline. Coming up with creative ideas is very fundamental to the entire innovation process. To create an environment where people are willing to share their ideas and the company is able to capture those ideas, is the first challenge that we identify. But in many organisations we also found that while ideas were generated sometimes they stopped at the idea stage, in the sense that they did not get translated into practice. Therefore, we also found that there was a velocity problem.

Somehow, the ideas were not moving forward and this was the second challenge we identified.

The third challenge we found was going to the next step that is actually converting those tested ideas into real innovations and started delivering value and impact to the company. If there are lot of innovation projects going on and there is no impact, soon people will start losing faith in the entire innovation process. To address these three problems the first important thing for the top management is to be very clear of what are the innovation priorities, and identify where the impact of innovation is going to be maximum. The second important thing we believe is to ensure participation. Traditionally people thought that ideas would come from R&D department. The understanding today is that good ideas can come from anybody, could come from people on the shop floor, people in sales, people in support, in fact, people across the organisation. Do you have the mechanism 28 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

PRADEEP BHARGAVA,

Co-Chair, CII National Committee on Industrial Relations & Director, Cummins India Ltd 14th Manufacturing Summit 2015 - Inaugural address

We make in India, we will make for the world Excellence is important, it is international… we make in India, we will make for the world. So, it has to be international in its complexion. It has to have development orientation because we need to evolve, engineer ourselves, which is what it is all about. We certainly need to recognise, we are talking about brick and mortar in this country.

We are not talking about something esoteric, we are not talking about creating values. We want to create jobs, we want to create manufacturing, we want to value-add. If I look at this fundamentally, we want to go beyond practical things. Skill development—yes there is a whole agenda of Skill India, there is whole agenda of what people are trying to do. There is a very close linkage between industry and academia at CII. Our objective here is clear that our manufacturing base has to go up.

Through our training programmes at CII Centre of Excellence, we are

really trying to make our manufacturing leaders understand regulation, finance, and other aspects of the business because otherwise if he views himself jacketed as a manufacturing person then I don’t think we are creating a leader. Today’s leaders need to understand wider perspective. These are the champions and we want to create many more such champions. They need to be talking about disruptive technologies, flexible manufacturing, digital manufacturing and technologies way ahead. We are looking at these programmes of excellence, as something which will facilitate, catalyse, enable the industry, because if all of us take what we say seriously, we are going to have a fairly vibrant manufacturing sector. If some more centres of excellence like this were to come up we will support, because the nation needs not just one centre, nation needs many more centres.

to ensure participation of people across the organisation in the innovation process? The third thing to ensure the pipeline is that do you have the process for collecting those ideas? Do you have an easy mechanism through which people can share the ideas and that good ideas are rewarded? That’s as far as the pipeline problem is concerned.

In the velocity challenge—how do you make sure the ideas move forward. There are

these recipes going to work? Do you have anything else which can be tried across industries on how to make work on the shop floor, in the operating environment, replicable?

Kaul: Last year we announced that we were making about 100 crore investment in our manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad. It was also to make it stay ahead of the curve. We hired one of the leading consultancies who helped us

“We have multiple manufacturing plants both in India and abroad. We have distinct plants doing just the assembly work of the tractors and doing machining of the components which go into making the tractors” - JOHN EDWIN, Senior Vice President and CO– Manufacturing Excellence and Supply Chain, Tractor and Farm Equipments Ltd (TAFE) two important things, one is encouraging experimentation. Creating an environment where people will not be penalized in case their idea doesn’t work. Without creating that environment, you will soon find that nobody is willing to try out something new. Also creating the infrastructure which allows people to try out ideas, so you probably need some machine time, some facilities where people can put those ideas into practice. So, you really need to create an environment where the ideas can move forward. Another important helpful practice is the review process, which can create that acceleration, that momentum which makes sure that these good ideas go forward. Frequent, periodic reviews of what is the status of different innovation projects, can provide that little bit of extra momentum.

Finally, as far as the impact is concerned, we found that there are a few practices that are very helpful. One important practice is to use what we call as sandbox. That is do intensive experimentation, within well-defined constraints. The constraints of what are the requirements and what is the definition of the product. Do a lot of experimentation within that particular context. Second is to use platforms, innovations which can be applied across domains, across customer segments that you get more bang for the buck put into the innovation investment. The third thing is to use open innovation. Many times there are lots of ideas available outside the organisation, which we are not aware of. These can compliment and help the ideas that we have. Last but not the least, as far as impact is concerned, managing risk is extremely important. There are number of techniques which can help you manage the risks inherent in the innovation process.

Q: In your (Kaul) experience are any of

to think out of the box, in terms of how to design a process, which they called PPP (Production Preparation Process). It’s nothing but simulation of how your factory is going to run. Phase one is over and phase two is in progress right now. In phase one, they made a room the size of 15x15 space, they made a model right from the truck entering into the factory with the raw material from the suppliers till where it goes, where it is stacked, how it’s going to move, where the assembly is going to happen, where the testing

everywhere in manufacturing. You have got to harness the brain power of every one of the 100/1000 individuals you have in your manufacturing site. We have a very unique way of running our kaizen programme. We have kaizen champions, wherein every zone has some people who are helping harness those ideas, channelise them into the system. These are enablers in the process which are called ‘kaizen champions’. Anything which gives us an improvement we take. It could be a shortterm project, it could be a project which could translate into a big project for us. We classify these ideas into three levels. First is something which can be done on the floor, second is what we call it as ‘I Own Quality’ (IOQ) projects and then we have the strategy projects. Anything we pick from anywhere, we pull it into the system, with the help of these enablers and we don’t let it lose. We keep it open. This ensures the velocity and ideas are taken care of and they are addressed. One way or the other they are implemented or explained that it doesn’t make sense.

Q: Where are the opportunities of government-institution partnership and how industries can benefit from these partnerships?

Rakesh: We have a well-defined technology transfer system in place, in each centre. ISRO has got many such centres. Technologies which are

‘‘The challenge with jugaad is actually two-fold. On the one hand of course jugaad kind of approach is very creative. It helps you find solutions within limited resources that you have. But on the other hand it often poses another challenge - sometimes it is not scalable, not repeatable, and not something which is embedded in the process of the organisation’’ - PROF. RISHIKESHA T KRISHNAN is going to happen and how it is going to be shipped out from the factory. So you simulate, work on those lines and identify kaizen out of it.

Here the payback is something like almost 3035 percent compression on the lead time. The compression on the lead time is the time we use to take to manufacture one of the equipment, one of the machines, as we reduce by 30 percent.

So, what does it mean by company financials?

It means that you are faster to the market, so you can serve the customer faster. With that compression lead time you have less inventory, resulting into better cash flow.

Q: From your (Satendra) experience, how does one make sure that innovation actually happens, from a culture point of view, from the companies’ point of view?

Satendra: Innovation doesn’t happen in the corner room alone. Innovation happens

well documented and which can be given to the industry, have been put on the website. Regular transfer of technology does take place and we have so far transferred around 300 technologies to industries. Another 130 technologies are in the offing. More than that, space is a warehouse of technologies. Unlike other industries, this is a way of our survival. Innovation happens all the time and when each mission or project comes up, variety of technologies which are available and developed, many of that will be offered to the industry as well. More than that, if space can be seen as a business opportunity, then ISRO has already come out with an intention that we will share our technologies even in the bigger arena of making the rocket systems or rocket itself, if industries come forward. We can share the rich technology heritage that we have, for the benefit of the industry. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 29

COVER STORY Dynamic Duo: 24

SANDHYA AND DR YASHO VERMA

Power of Patience

Dr Yasho Verma, formerly with LG Electronics and Tata Steel over long periods, who now consults for the World Bank and participates on the board of several companies believes there is strategy to good HR, and stands by a life led by ethics.

His wife Sandhya, who entered the working world of computers in its halcyon days with the Tatas and experienced first-hand its evolution over the years as she worked with several leading IT and software companies, endorses the virtues of patience and magnanimity—both at home and the workplace

BY VINITA DESHMUKH

The job of handling labour unrest is no joke. But my young age, and lack of knowledge of the dangers of dealing with these things helped me go ahead with the task, undeterred -Yasho Verma

D

r Yasho Verma was in the global hierarchy of LG Electronics Inc. since 2008. He has rich experience of over 34 years in the corporate sector. He served as Chief Operating Officer / Director of LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd. from 2010 to June 2013. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of MIRC Electronics Limited from July 2013 to January 2014.

Dr Verma was associated with LG Electronics from 1997 since its inception in India. He was head of Human Resource until November 2009, after which he spearheaded LG operations in India as COO, and later in sales and marketing and related functions.

Dr Verma started his career with Tata Steel 1981 and continued to be associated with them for about 15 years.

He is now consulting with the World Bank. He is on the Board of Dena Bank since March 2015. He is also on the Board of a few corporates and reputed management institutes. He is adviser to Videocon and some other corporates. He writes regularly for Business World Online, Exhibit and others on topics related to management and innovation etc.

He has given guest lectures at the London Business

30 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

School, Seoul University, and Wharton Management School, Philadelphia besides other premier management institutes in India. He has also authored a popular book, ‘Passion: The Untold story of LG in India’ which emphasises individual excellence for a growing organisation, customisation of values for employees and empowerment to individuals.

He was awarded the ‘HERETIC’ and ‘GALLUP’ awards by Business Today in 1999 and was featured on its front page. He has been conferred with an Honorary Fellowship by the All India Management Association for his significant contribution to professional management. He was also the winner of the ‘Exemplary Leader Award’ at the World HRD Congress 2009. He has delivered several lectures in India and abroad and has addressed Boards of prestigious companies in India and abroad viz., ITC, HLL, JK Group, Ispat Group and others. He has received various prestigious awards for his outstanding work in the field of HR. Sandhya Verma did her graduation and then Master's in Physics in 1982 from Banaras Hindu University. She has over 33 years of IT Industry experience in various roles including IT Operations and Delivery, IT Consultancy and

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 31

COVER STORY Training. She has experience of working with leading IT services and product development companies like NIIT (Factory Head), Nucleus Software Exports (Vice President), Velocient Technologies (Vice President Operations), Tata Steel (Manager) and Institutes like IMI, Delhi (Adjunct Professor). She has built and led highly successful businesses that implemented multimillion dollar projects globally for various industries and business verticals including Banking, Manufacturing, HR, Government, CRM, etc. She is also an entrepreneur who has set up a software consultancy providing project management, software services and IT training and HR consultancy providing HR solutions.

Corporate Citizen spoke to the dynamic couple, who with extreme patience, maturity, mutual understanding and peace, have made a success of their marriage and career. Truly Inspiring…

Jab we met You have just got into your bed to sleep at your usual time of 9.30 pm and are suddenly woken up and told that your engagement ceremony is RIGHT NOW. What would you do? Just get up, get dressed and get engaged! Sandhya and Yasho Verma, leading corporate leaders, began their life’s journey together, precisely this way. Yasho, who hails from Lucknow, had joined Tata Steel in Jamshedpur. His parents had come on a visit to Jamshedpur to meet her family and her of course, but it was to be just an introductory visit.

However, the elders of both the families decided – why just meet and go? The day being Dassera, the most auspicious muhurat in a Hindu calendar, they decided not to let go.

Here’s how it happened yasho: Actually, I belong to Lucknow, so my parents came to visit me in Jamshedpur and they met her parents too. Later in the evening, the elders decided that we should get engaged that night itself. There were no mobile phones at that time. It was about 8 or 9 pm. They started looking for me but I was out of the house. At

around 10.30 pm when I got back home, my landlord—since he was informed about this development on the landline—told me to go to Sandhya’s house, as they wanted to talk to me.

So I went there. They announced the engagement ceremony right away.They had already contacted a Panditji, who also confirmed that it was very auspicious and I was asked to get ready. sandhya: Since I used to sleep early, I was woken up at 9.30 pm; he was located by 10.30

Frankly, in those days we didn’t think much about judging a person, or the future prospects of the prospective groom. It was more a matter for parental consideration on such issues -Sandhya Verma Yasho Verma: He came, he saw, he conquered

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pm. In the meanwhile, a ginni (a gold coin) and rings were required for the engagement ceremony. Since the shops were closed, my parents went to the house of the jeweller and procured them. The photographer was also located, but he only had a black and white roll, so we had to make do with that. So, finally we got engaged by around 11 pm that night. My parents, brother and bhabhi, his parents and his friend were present for the ceremony. We were engaged in October 1982 and got married two months later in December.

Parental consideration Adds Sandhya, “We probably met only once before all this. The prospect was discussed between the elders of the family and after that they asked us for our approval. Frankly, in those days we didn’t think much about judging a person, or the future prospects of the prospective groom.

It was more a matter for parental consideration on such issues. Incidentally, for me, it was the first proposal and I simply went ahead with what my

Happiness is all in the family: (From left): Younger son Akshil;,elder son Kushagra and his wife Shreya; with Sandhya and Yasho Verma

parents suggested.” yasho: My first job was with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, which I joined in 1981. I used to visit her place as our families were known to each other. She was studying at Banaras Hindu University at that time. She then began working for the Tatas in 1982. We met once or twice in the office as well. However, the matter of an alliance was something that was to be strictly discussed between the parents from both sides.

What do they like about each other? sandhya: He never wears his designation on his sleeve when he is at home. I have never seen him behave like a corporate bigwig in the house. He is humble and unassuming. I am the one who decides which clothes he should wear and so on.

I was the one who would talk a lot; he was the quieter one. I would lose my temper but he would not. And we never ever had any fights. If I was arguing, he would keep quiet. And in all these years, I too learned this trait from him. If he lost his temper, which was rare, I would keep quiet.

We never had any full-fledged argument or experienced any disharmony. He taught me how to be patient and listen to others’ viewpoints. He is

We never ever had any fights. If I was arguing, he would keep quiet. And in all these years, I too learned this trait from him. If he lost his temper, which was rare, I would keep quiet. We never had any full-fledged argument or experienced any disharmony. He taught me how to be patient and listen to others’ viewpoints -Yasho Verma

very good with children too; playing with them, he would forget everything else. yasho: She is bubbly, socially very smart, much smarter than me, also very sharp. She is very good at creative things like painting, and she keeps herself very busy with such hobbies.

Workplace Yasho did his mechanical engineering followed by an MBA with specialisation in HR. Later, he also did his PhD from IIT, Kharagpur in 1991.

After her post-graduation in Physics, Sand-

hya joined Tata Steel in 1982 as an assistant engineer, i.e. a software programmer. In those early days of the computer, she started working on mainframe and used COBOL. Says Sandhya, “The company was looking for candidates with a background in Mathematics, Physics or Statistics. Mathematics and Statistics being my graduation subjects also helped. So after qualifying in the written and aptitude tests, I joined there.”

CC: How was it when you started in IT, which was totally new at that time? sandhya: Yes it was a completely new experience and it was very interesting. I had only theoretical knowledge of computers as Electronics was my major subject for MSc Physics. I had never operated a computer. The first day when I walked in, there was this big, huge mainframe.

I went in and looked at things and somebody asked me to do something. I had no clue, what it was. There were two other girls, who were already working there. I was the new entrant.

So they nicknamed me ‘Alice in Wonderland’ because it took me a couple of days to get accustomed to the department and the small team.

The good thing was that the Tatas put a lot of emphasis on training. We had very interesting experiences. At that time, we had mainframe, which had green terminals, through which you could log in to get access to the computer. You needed to type ‘hello’ and it would then start.

A newcomer joined six months later. A senior person told him to say ‘hello’ (he actually meant, type the word) to the machine. But he stood near the terminal and began saying “Hello, hello,” hoping it would get started.

The complete evolution of computers to this day - I can say I have seen that.

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COVER STORY

What is the life of a software person like—the challenges or advantages? sandhya: Nowadays, some prior experience or learning in computer is a must. The good part about us was we were like a clean slate, grasping and following all that was taught to us, on the job. But now you are required to have a very formal background. There are so many specialisations now and people have to decide early on where they want to go. As technology keeps progressing, so does specialisation, which is very, very keen now.

Is that good or bad? sandhya: Like in any other field, specialisation is required, so it is good. However, for us, because we didn’t have the luxury of owning computers— it was all rationed with time slots. So whatever little time that we got, we had to make the best of it. Now, things have changed for the better.

However, the young generation today needs to be more organised in putting their thoughts together and deciding what they want to do, rather than hitting the keyboard and thinking on the fly.

How did you manage to keep abreast of all the developments? sandhya: I was lucky that the organisations I worked for put a lot of effort in training. When I joined NIIT, Delhi in 1994, I got the oppor-

At office, even with your boss, you have to be patient, otherwise the only option is to exit.

You can process your thoughts, and try to explain to your boss. Then he too will listen, instead of saying something at the heat of the moment.

The same thing applies at home. We also realised, both of us couldn’t be running after our jobs.

One has to take the back seat for the family, at some point of time -Sandhya Verma

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tunity to learn emerging technologies there.

The period 1997-1998 was when the Internet technology was just coming. Some of my clients were government organisations of Singapore like their Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Defence and so on. They wanted to know how to work with Internet technologies. So I took that as an opportunity and got into the centre of competence for Internet technologies that was being set up at NIIT. It was an important turning point of my career. Because the world was moving towards the Internet and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Thereafter I was headhunted by other companies and then kept abreast with the technology on my own because once you start, you keep learning and updating yourself. That’s what I kept doing.

Encounter with Russi Mody sandhya: This is an interesting episode to narrate. Soon after our marriage, I had also learnt to drive the car and used to drive for work. I was relatively new to driving. I used to look methodically, first to the left, then right, while moving out of the parking. Russi Mody loved cars as well as speed. At that time, he had a Toyota. He came to the exit gate, near where my car was usually parked. I had just moved about a foot from the parking area and the next thing I knew was that

my car had hit some car and my car was pushed back into the parking slot. And to my horror, I saw it was Russi Mody’s car. Thankfully, my car had hit near the rear door of his car, not the front. Russi Mody was in the driver’s seat. The rear door had a big dent. Jacob, his co-passenger, who was sitting next to him and who knew me, jumped out and came running towards my car. He told me to keep sitting in the car, so as not to be seen by the enraged Mody.

Meanwhile, Mody got out of the car, in allwhite clothes, and red with anger. Looking at me he shouted, “Who are you? What’s your name?

What are you doing here?”

I said I worked there.

“Which department?” he roared.

I told him everything and I thought my job was gone since he took all the details from me.

Then he got into his car and was gone.

Mr Mody was going to the airport, before which he also had lunch with Yasho’s boss, the director, who thankfully knew me. Mr Mody said, “Who is this Sandhya Verma? How dare she hit my car?”

The director said, “As far as I know her, I am quite sure that was not on purpose. And definitely it would be your fault.” This angered Mr Mody. “I say this because you have been driving for longer than her age, so given your experience, it must be your fault.”

As for me, I was quite shaken, and didn’t know what to do. I called one of my friends, a colleague. She told me not to worry, they would see what could be done. She talked to Jacob, a senior. Both of them advised me to write a letter of apology to Mr Mody. I still have his reply in which he said, “Don’t worry. Such things happen in life.”

But that incident made me famous—for days on end people, both staff and workers, would come up and say “How dare you hit sahib’s car”.

Even after months and years, people would ask me, how I could hit his car!

CC to Yasho Verma: You are a people’s person, having looked after thousands of people through your role in HR in LG. Please give us an insight into your decades of experience yasho: Actually it is your first or second boss with whom you spend a lot of time, who is the one who makes or kills your career. In my case, when I started my career, the boss, the Director on the Board, Dr. S N Pandey, to whom I was reporting to, was a tough one but he made me learn a lot of things. I was associated with him for eight years at Tatas.

He would leave me to handle any problem or situation entirely on my own, that’s how he made me learn through first-hand experience.

And I was quite young, say about 22-23 then, with little experience. I remember, in those early

I told them that as a strategy, there won’t be any union in LG. Their mind-set was such that they could not think of such a situation. We did some homework and found out that in that region, those who completed their graduation, i.e. 12+3, wouldn’t want to form a union. They might quit for reasons of ego, pride or similar things, but they would not join a union -Yasho Verma

days he told me to handle the wage negotiations of the coal industry, where the union presidents of different coal industries used to be negotiating and political leaders would be backing them.

I would be representing the management, the political leaders would be fielding for the workers and there would be strong gangs of musclemen, like in the Bollywood movie ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.

The job of handling such matters is no joke.

But my young age, and lack of knowledge of the dangers of dealing with these things helped me go ahead with the task undeterred. Knowledge can make you drag your feet because you know the scale and complexity of the dangers and risks involved. Then TISCO was in the process of taking over 18 sick companies all over the country. Dr Pandey was the IR (Industrial Relations) and HR person in the team to revive these and I was working on his behalf. The moment TISCO took over, the first issue was union resistance. So how to calm them down was the first big concern.

Tryst with the private sector One of the biggest challenges I faced was in 1992. There was a huge strike by tribal workers against TISCO led by the political parties of Jharkhand. There were about 70,000-75,000 permanent workers and about 40,000 to 50,000 contractual workers employed with Tata Steel.

Some of the tribal leaders who led the agitation in 1992, later became chief ministers of Jharkhand and central ministers. They wanted the tribal workers to be made permanent. That time Laloo Yadav and Mr Mody had a disagreement and the state administration had stopped cooperating with TISCO. So there was huge

pressure and processions. I was No. 2 in the factory HR and Personnel. Mr. Mody decided to make some 10,000 workers permanent. That, I think, opened the floodgates; the agitation intensified as the rest of the contractual workers wanted to be made permanent as well.

One morning when I entered the office, I saw that thousands of people were gathered outside the gate of Tata Steel. They were surrounding the very high gate and were armed with bows and

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 35

COVER STORY arrows. They were trying to break open the multiple gates. Finally, they broke the power engineering gate and kept on walking. We were sitting in the middle of the factory, at the General Superintendent’s Office. We all came out. They were going to the blast furnace. In the blast furnace, you have to feed coal every four hours through trains. Wagons and bogies full of coal go towards the furnaces, to feed it. The Hiline is 60 feet high where the track goes and there were no railings on the stairs leading to the Hiline. The mob started going up through the stairs on the Hiline and blocked it, not allowing the bogies to reach the blast furnace. It was a dangerous situation. If the coke is not fed every four hours, there would have been a bigger disaster than that of Union Carbide.

We didn’t know what to do. We called the union people; we arranged 50-60 trucks—TISCO had this infrastructure. The trucks arrived. Suddenly someone from us got up, acting on instinct, went to that Hiline and grabbed one worker and brought him down. That worker came down quietly. Similarly, another man was brought down.

This way, the men were put in the trucks and sent away safely, thankfully relieving us from the fear that dozens of people might have died from the fall in the hustle.

After TISCO? I left TISCO in 1993, and became Vice President, HR and Administration at Usha India.

Then I went to the Jindal Group. I was there for about two years. Then I joined LG in 1997.

How did you like the switchover to the consumer goods industry? yasho: It was an absolutely different culture and I became a part of that. At Tatas, decision making is slow and more centralised. Back then, you had to write notes and send a letter to your boss, before a decision would be made. Here, you had to decide immediately. I would say it was like a river flowing on a plain at Tata Steel, and at LG it was like a river coming down from a mountain, rushing, forcing its way, colliding.

But you said at LG there was no union, which is quite a history of sorts, how did you manage that? yasho: There were different strategies. For the LG Pune unit we recruited Sachin Saxena and Shyam Khonde as the factory head and HR head respectively, in 2002-2003. Union leaders are professionals, with all the connotations of the word. I knew that the strategy that worked for LG Noida would not work here. We had begun recruiting seven or eight months before the construction of the factory had started at Ranjangaon. I told them that as a strategy, there won’t be any union in LG. Their mindset was such that they could not think of such a situation. We did some homework and found out that in that

''We like to go to places we have not yet visited in India and abroad''

Like all parents, we wanted our children to do well. But one thing we were very careful about was not to pressurise them to become high rankers and achievers at the cost of developing balanced personalities -Sandhya and Yasho Verma

region, those who completed their graduation, i.e. 12+3, wouldn’t want to form a union. They might quit for reasons of ego, pride or similar things, but they would not join a union.

How did you find that out? yasho: We did a survey and came to this conclusion. Then I called Sachin and Shyam and said we will only have graduates and even for unskilled workers we would get graduates with ITI training. They said we won’t get any at all.

But they were able to find such persons, after we advertised in newspapers and from online

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job sites. We also took people from different regions – from Southern Maharashtra, some from Gujarat, to ensure diversity of culture.

The other strategy was, we promoted those who were sharp and had leadership skills and made them supervisors. And I personally sat at every worker’s interview. We took only the extremely needy ones so that they would only focus on work. These were tactical considerations.

It’s so impressive, but weren’t you threatened, given the way people here think and act?

No, we were very careful. We used to conduct interviews outside the factory, somewhere in Pune city. The factory HR head and his team would go to different states and recruit. And we fulfilled the legal liabilities. If it is mandatory to recruit certain percent from Maharashtra, then we would take people from different parts of Maharashtra. There might have been some incidents involving some local guys, under the guise of upholding the interests of the ruling community there, creating trouble in the process. However, these would have been sorted out at the level of the factory HR head.

So how many workers were there before you came to Noida?

LG’s first factory was set up in Noida. There were about 5,000 to 6,000 workers. Pune and Noida were completely different. I had about

often entertained guests at our place, he would suggest we ordered food from outside so as not make me buckle under the extra work load. yasho: Patience, space and understanding and trying to make the other person happy is the key to a happy marriage.

I would say, decision making was like a river flowing on a plain at Tata Steel, and at LG it was like a river coming down from a mountain, rushing, forcing its way, colliding -Yasho Verma about office politics at home was unheard-of. So I was used to that. And we continue the same here as well.

nine months to set up branches all over the country. I had eight months to observe Daewoo (the competitors). Here my strategy was absolutely different. LG was a new entrant. I spread the word that I was close to the top leaders in the central government and that I met them over a cup of tea every fortnight. This was far from true. In fact, some politicians used to ring me up, requesting me to help make them ministers!

Secondly, with any issue which started with the locals, if I knew at the beginning that I would win, would fight it out and publicise it, however insignificant it was. We gave the impression that LG could not be beaten. If I knew we would lose with the locals, that they would remain united against us, then even if it was an issue involving a crore of rupees, we gave the impression initially that ours was a large-hearted company. So the impression created was that if you want to get something good from LG, become a friend of LG, don’t fight with it.

Family vs work life sandhya: We had, from beginning, decided that there would be no talking shop after coming home from work. I didn’t find it odd because I had seen the same in my family. My father, SL Srivastava was a senior GM at Tata. He was in charge of modernising the Tata plants. My father once completed a ₹12,000-crore project a good six months ahead of schedule, but never did he talk about it at home. And yes, talking

Bringing up children yasho: Ours is a freedom fighters’ family. We lived in a joint family. My uncles were freedom fighters, served different terms in jail, even in the Andamans. If you have watched the movie, ‘Shaheed’, many of the characters of the film were alive when I was born, I have seen them in my house when I was a child. My uncle was a minister. My father, Umendra Verma was the permanent secretary to the UP Congress party legislature. sandhya: Jamshedpur was a nice place to bring up children. I used to drop our sons Kushagra and Akshil, at my parents’ on my way to work.

Thankfully, the schools were quite close by. Staggered lunch break timings (fortunately one and a half hour for my department) and our different work timings also helped in taking care of our children. So that was a huge support.

Like all parents, we wanted our children to do well. But one thing we were very careful about was not to pressurise them to become high rankers and achievers at the cost of developing balanced personalities. However, we did tell them that if they did not study well, they would have problems in the future. We made them sensitive towards that. We also made them take their decisions. They grew up to become responsible and independent individuals. Both our sons are working in the IT industry. Our elder son is with HPCL-Mittal. The younger son is a software engineer at Infinite Computer.

Secret of a successful marriage sandhya: You have to give time and be open to give in. You should be able to talk, open up and share, discuss and of course, give space. I would like to give you an example. He was aware that I too was working, so when I came home after working, driving an hour and a half through Delhi traffic, I would be tired. Even though we

Advice to youngsters yasho: Whatever position I reached, I was never aspirational. And I always believed in process and ethics. I never thought of achieving success at somebody else’s expense. Patience is what the younger generation lacks. They are under stress because the demands are very high. And they want to reach much higher than their competence. This is the dilemma. I never thought that I would be a CEO one day. For me, it was always, do whatever you are doing wholeheartedly. Because when you are into it, you will do a good job. And don’t get into politics. I never indulge in that. Do your job in the best possible manner, give results and then think about it no more, has been my way. I might have suffered too, but that’s it. sandhya: I agree with what he has just said.

At office, even with your boss, you have to be patient, otherwise the only option is to exit. But you can take time, process your thoughts, and try to explain to your boss. Then your boss too will listen, instead of saying something at the heat of the moment. The same thing applies at home. If you are being patient there, be patient here as well. As a couple, between the two of us, we decided that both of us couldn’t be running after our jobs. One has to take the back seat for the family, which, in most marriages nowadays, doesn’t happen. You have time, later on, to catch up. Give some time, people do understand that you have family commitments. And if you are good, people are sure to co-operate.

What is the philosophy of life that both of you live by? sandhya: For me, it is, be happy. Don’t hold grudges about what one said, what one did. yasho: I live by values. I might be a corporate manager, but basically I am a philosopher and a spiritual man. Till class XII, I even used to write stories which would get published in Dharmayug. I read non-fiction, whereas she reads fiction. In our library, we have thousands of books.

Every Diwali, we used to buy books worth about ₹1 0,000 to ₹15,000, which we would read over time.

What do you do for leisure? sandhya: Books, music, movies, theatre and holidays! We like to go to places we have not visited, in India and abroad. yasho: I like to see movies and theatre, read books and spend time with the family. vinita.deshmukh@corporatecitizen.in

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 37

CORPORATE HISTORY

’coz simplicity is sophistication Their vision is to put the customer first. From healthlthcare to consumer lifestyle and lighting, the company’s ny’s outstanding brand resonance is proof of the powerr of simplicity. A closer look at its history

By Kalyani Sardesai Let’s make things better Sense and simplicity Innovation and You Like the tag lines employed by the ads for Philips products indicate, this is one company that has succeeded in carving an indelible niche in the minds of its customers, with the simple but effective strategy of demystifying technology--and putting the customer at the centre of each experience. Uncluttered, comfortable and straightforward, the Philips ads are effective, modern and to the point. Usually with a young and happening brand ambassador (like Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in recent years) demonstrating how its products _ be they modular switches, hair straighteners or electronic hair removers - have made their lives easier and better. No fuss, no muss. Research shows that while everyone wants cutting edge technology to be part of their lives, no one wants to go read long winded journals. But as the ads prove - it does not have to be that way. Not if it’s Philips.

As per reports, Philips India chief marketing officer Vivek Sharma said the company, along with its agency Ogilvy & Mather, had undertaken extensive research with consumers in order to help understand their needs and culture. “That’s how we arrived at the latest brand positioning: Innovation and You.” Not that the previous slogans were less effective, but they were true to the demands of the era.

“In keeping with today’s needs, the company would go all out to tap the potential of social media like Facebook and Twitter in order to better understand their needs,” Sharma said.

The other markets it did similar research included the US, China, Europe and Brazil. India is currently the sixth largest market for Philips.

But then, Philips wears its awesome history with ease - and ensures its products keep pace

with cultural and lifestyle requirements.

If that’s not ot technology wed to tradition, on, what is?

THE DUTCH H CONNECTION ON The Philips story dates back to 1891, Eindhoven (the Netherlands) lands) where it was set up by Gerard rd Philips and his is father Frederrick who helped d finance the pururchase and sett up of a simple and nd empty factory building. ding. The company started with making electro-technical products, ts, especially carbon filament lamps. s. (This first factory is now a museum m - a must visit for all industrial history ory buffs). The initial years were rather her difficult, but the arrival of Anton, n, Gerard’s younger brother changed ged everything. He was an engineer er who combined his technical knowledge with an understanding nding of sales, and soon the business began to gain ground. d. The Philips Metal Filament ment Lamp Factory Ltd was set up in 1908, followed d in 1912 by the foundation n of Philips Light bulb Factories ctories Ltd. Soon both brothers changed their ir family business by founding unding the

38 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Philips Corporation, thereby laying the foundation for the later electronics multinational. Right through the 20s and 30s the company continued to add newer and newer products to its range: from vacuum tubes to electric razors and their iconic radios, Philips made inroads into the lives of the common people.

WORLD WAR II Even as several corporates have made their fortune off war crimes (or dealings that cannot withstand closer scrutiny), this is one company that stood apart thanks to the efforts of Frits Philips, Anton’s son - the only member of the family to remain behind in the Netherlands, post German invasion of the country in World War II. Heavily dependent on technology to sustain the

dustrial development of emerging economies, Philips India set up its first Indian lamp-manufacturing factory in 1938 in Calcutta (Kolkata). Subsequently, Philips decided to produce radio receivers in India to make this product readily available. In 1948, Philips started manufacturing radios in Kolkata. In keeping with the establishment of Doordarshan and All India Radio, independent India’s first mass-media - to say nothing of a relatively more relaxed postwar, post-independence generation, the first valve-based Philips set was well received by the consumers. This was a major turning point for Philips India, and marked the beginning of the company’s subsequent growth in the world of electronics. In 1957, the company was converted into a public limited company, and the rest

The Philips story dates back to 1891, Eindhoven (the Netherlands) where it was set up

by Gerard Philips and his father Frederick who helped finance the purchase and set up of a simple and empty factory building war effort, the Nazis let the factory function - on their terms, of course. They had no problems with Frits, as long as he toed their line. But the brave and humane Frits saved the lives of almost 400 Jews by convincing the evil Nazi regime that they were absolutely necessary for the production at Philips. He did this at considerable risk to himself - and was honoured for his war time contribution later.

PHILIPS INDIA It was in 1930 that Philips started operations in India at Calcutta (now Kolkata). The company comprised a staff of 75 and was a sales outlet for Philips lamps imported from Europe. As per the company ideology of promoting the in-

as they say, is history. As per statistics, company has around 9,500 employees in India, of which 4,500 are in manufacturing and 3,000 in research and development while some 2,000odd are part of the commercial division. Philips India reported a turnover of around ₹6,000 crore last fiscal with the lighting and healthcare divisions each contributing around 50 percent to the revenue.

It has four manufacturing (Mohali, Baroda, Chennai and Pune) facilities and four R&D units (Bangalore, Noida, Pune and Chennai) in the country. Philips in last two years has invested more than $15 million, or about ₹95 crore, in its Noida R&D centre that helped it launch more than 150 LED light products.

TURNOVER AND GROWTH As per the company’s annual reports, all three key sectors of the company lighting, healthcare and consumer lifestyle posted robust top line growth and a definite increase in their respective market shares. The lighting sector of the company grew by 7.2 percent (₹34,488 crore) for the financial year ended March 31, 2015, over the corresponding period of the previous financial year, mainly driven by strong growth in professional lighting solutions. Meanwhile, the healthcare sector of the company, grew at 9.3 percent (₹12.922 crore).

The company maintained its market share, despite continued pressure on costs, fluctuating currency and high interest costs, the reports said.

Besides, the company strengthened its market leadership position in India in cardiology and MRI, while maintaining its leadership position in patient monitoring and non-invasive ventilators for respiratory care.

Even the Consumer Lifestyle Sector continued to gain modestly (₹9,247 crore as opposed to ₹ 8, 577 crores in 2013-14), and strengthened its market share by introduction of categories such as Air purifier, high end steam irons and Kerashine range of hair products. In the domestic appliances business, Air fryer, a new product introduced last year, continued to perform well.

Apart from all this, the company continued to build share in the personal care business in India, led by male grooming and beauty products.

ADVERTISING THAT STRIKES ‘Love is in your milk. Express it with the Comfort Electric Breast Pump’ (for Philips breast pumps) Or Fry, break, grill without oil (Philips air fryer) or even ‘An experience beyond the ordinary’ (for the Philips’ unique Ambilight that makes your screen seem much wider) Each ad weds emotion to reason - and explains why the product is for you. It also helps that Fast Company recognised Philips on its influential ‘50 Most Innovative Companies for 2014 list, as well as naming Philips in the top 10, of the Energy and Internet of Things subcategories. “To win in such a fast-changing environment requires a new kind of business agility,” explains Fast Company editor Robert Safian. The listing was based on not only traditional markers but also “progressive, sustainable business models and an ethos of creativity”.

THE ROAD AHEAD While other industrial giants, both Indian and MNC continue to up the ante - with strong products and visible advertising, Philips is in a league of its own, perceived to be equipped with old roots, wed to new wings - and an enthusiastic R & D department.

(Reference sources: assorted news clippings and official web site and company reports) kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

February 16-29, 2016 / 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

Love, demystified Married for over five years now, Neha Gunthey and Vivek Singh Negi are of the opinion that a steady relationship is all about simplicity, support and respect

By Kalyani Sardesai

I

f you want someone in your life sincerely enough you will find a way to keep them, simple but abiding belief that works beautifully for Neha Gunthey (31) and Vivek Singh Negi (32). It matters little, therefore ,that she’s a Maharashtrian from UP, and he a Garwhali from MP. “Everything depends on your mutual understanding, or the lack of it,” says Neha. “When a romance does not culminate into marriage, people tend to blame parents and cultural differences. But all of this is superfluous. If you honestly care for someone, you will find a way to make it come true.”

Married for all of five years, it’s been a fun and rewarding journey-based on the foundation of a relationship that commenced during their student days at BITM. Both hold an MBA in marketing, and are

well-placed in their respective careers: while Neha’s an analyst with Crisil, Vivek’s a manager with Ericsson India.

Despite the demands of their careers and living in a city far from both sides of the family, neither is fazed by the pressure of work or life.

“If you respect and understand each other, everything falls into place,” says Vivek.

So whether it is household chores or money management, spending quality time with each other or keeping that crucial work-life balance, it’s all about letting the situation decide what should be more important. “For instance, he would prefer me to spend my time reading or studying instead of housework. If I am tired, he’s the last one to insist I cook, and will smilingly ask for a takeaway. It is this practical show of support that makes life with him so easy,” expresses Neha.

No surprises here though-given that their

40 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

relationship is grounded in good old friendship.

Jab we met It all started with a fashion show as part of the students’ cultural programme at BITM in 2006.

“We were part of the same sequence. As you know, fashion shows are all about coordination and timing. Amidst the laughter and bonhomie, we gradually began opening up to each other,” reminisces Neha.

From the outset there was mutual attraction and interest in each other. “I loved her positivity and smiling visage. It’s very engaging,” says Vivek. “Besides, she’s a go-getter and full of drive. That adds to the appeal.”

On her part, Neha appreciated his fun-loving, hassle-free manner. Gradually they began to hang out together and know each other better. “We did not get much time together in college, as the schedule was both packed and strict,” recollects Neha. “But I remember this wonderful bike ride once, wherein we really got talking.

Slowly and surely, it began to dawn on us that it would be nice to spend our lives together.”

Even so, family approval was not forthcoming. “My parents were fine with it; his were not, especially due to differences in caste. But he persisted in pressing our case, with every-

one-though he’s essentially this peace-loving soul, who does not care for conflict of any sort.”

Come Saturday morning, Vivek would be up early to leave his Gurgaon home to meet his sister and brother-in-law in Delhi to convince them that Neha was the girl for him. “It was really quite an eye-opener for me, the way he fought to make sure I was part of his life,” says Neha.

“A lot of couples submit way too easily saying, “we can’t go against our parents! I don’t buy the argument! Who’s asking you to go against your parents? Win them over!”

Finally, in 2010, Vivek’s family gave their blessings and the couple was duly wed in November 2010.

The sweet and sour of it “Honestly, it’s not been that tough. Sure there was a difference in rituals, but my mother-inlaw gently showed me how things are done in their home. As for me, I have tried to remain as receptive and open as possible,” says Neha.

Simple North Indian fare is cooked at home, and both savour on their favourite daal baati with plenty of hot ghee each chance they get. “I am a good cook that way,” smiles Neha.

While Vivek is not very handy around the house, he does not make an issue of having things in a particular manner only. “He does not insist on everything being museum perfect. Besides, he’s very encouraging of my career plans and growth,” she says.

Like the tough time in the recession of 2009 when Neha gave up her sales job because the profile and work did not suit her. Looking back, it was absolutely the wrong time to give up work. “The US crisis had hit hard. Jobs were tough to come by. This was just before our wedding. But Vivek was very positive and helpful, often accompanying me to meet different people,” she recollects.

That was the time she considered taking a break from work and staying home. But he said “No, you should work. You won’t be the same confident person you are today, and will regret it later on,” she recalls. “He’s very progressive in his thoughts, and I really appreciate that.”

As of today, the couple stays at Kandivali, Mumbai.

“We make it a point to spend quality time together,” says Vivek. “Everyone must know what their priorities are, be it at work or home.”

Weekends are fun affairs with short trips to Pune and Lonavala, to say nothing of get togethers with friends, and restaurant hopping.

“We are both big time foodies and love trying out different stuff,” grins Neha.

Supportively yours Despite the rough and tumble of the corporate world, both Neha and Vivek are firm that ultimately, it’s only the two people at the heart of the

The mainstay of marriage Respect over and above all else.

Everything follows from there If you love each other, fight for each other. Cultural differences can be worked through

Don’t let money and ego get in the way.

Everything depends on your mutual understanding, or the lack of it. When a romance does not culminate into marriage, people tend to blame parents and cultural differences. But all of this is superfluous. If you honestly care for someone, you will find a way to make it come true relationship who are responsible for its welfare.

“It took time but without ruffling feathers, we managed to persuade our elders to accept us,” says Vivek. “Every situation has a resolution if you look for it.”

Similarly, ego and money are the biggest deal-breakers in the corporate set-up. “Neither of us understands couples fighting over ‘your’ money and ‘my money,” Neha shakes her head.

“It’s absurd to fight over such things. Also, with time, certain gender roles have blurred. Whosoever understands finance better-be it husband or wife-ought to take care of them. “It does not

help when either one becomes egotistic over success and belittles the partner. “Both men and women are guilty of it... and it’s not right,” says Neha. “Respect at all times is crucial. Both partners have equal rights in a marriage, and each one is entitled to their opinion. It’s OK to have differences, but one must live and let live.”

While the couple does not have kids yet, they have discussed the same. Ever the supportive husband, Vivek feels she ought to get back to work post the maternity leave. “My parents have agreed to help out, so Neha can work. The corporate world is quite competitive and breaks cost your career. I would not want her to lose out in any way and will help however I can,” he rounds off. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

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tadka

This Indian invented the e-mail Everyone uses e-mail. Did you know that it was actually invented by the then 14-year-old boy named VA Shiva Ayyadurai in 1978, who also owns a patent for the word EMAIL.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 41

INDIA RISK SURVEY-2015

INDIA RISK SURVEY-2015

CORPORATE INDIA’S RISK ANALYSIS

If a country could be a “buzz-word” then it is India at present, with its tremendous potential for economic growth in the coming years.

However, this opportunity is not without risks. Both the government and private sectors face serious obstacles that pose a serious challenge to their growth. In order to identify these risks, Pinkerton, the international leader in operational risk management services and security, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) together have conducted an in depth survey to access the biggest risks that the Government and Corporate India face today. Corporate Citizen presents the findings.

BY NEERAJ VARTY

42 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

O

ver the past decade, India has become one of the fastest growing economies of the world, as well as a very attractive destination for foreign companies looking to expand their business overseas. Just as India presents growth opportunities like no other market in the world, it also presents a unique set of challenges which are much different than those seen in other parts of the world. While recession, market saturation and intense competition are the risks most commonly seen in developed markets like the US and Europe, government red tape, corruption, information security and terrorism are the major maladies of businesses in India.

In this article, we shall highlight the most significant risks and analyze them in detail. As the saying goes – “Only by understanding the enemy, can we hope to defeat it”. Similarly, by looking at Corporate India’s biggest risks in detail, we can find a way to mitigate them.

Let us start with an overview of the most imposing challenges.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 43

INDIA RISK SURVEY-2015

OVERALL RISK RANKING (FIGURES IN PERCENTAGE)

15.00

10.00

10.26

9.47

9.24

9.23

9.03

8.87

8.32

7.93

7.70

7.54

6.85 5.54

5.00

0.00

e & ag sm y ion y i y t n r r a s o o c i e d it rib au orm ur Terr rgen Esp s ,n B e Fr Inf Insec u s Ins sine tio orat er p b & u u p y B rr r C & Co Co

s l ts en ure st tua ft d s c i lle he Clo nre Acc s, & U nte rty T I e rik pe St Pro e

im Cr

rds ce ce t a n n z y a e l a n n it Vio sme over tabil al H e s r c a G Ins tu pla Har l & Na ork ual tica W ex li Po S & e

Fir

As evident from the figure, there are 12 biggest risks associated with Indian businesses. Due to the ‘babu’ culture in India, unfortunately corruption is rampant, and it remains the biggest risk. Corruption is actually not isolated to India. It remains the biggest concern for all BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India China) nations. The no. 2 risk is information security, as the Intellectual property laws in India are not the strongest. This concern is more or less seen all around the globe. Coming to the No. 3 risk, ie terrorism, this is a concern that is paramount in india after the horrific attacks in Mumbai on 26/11.

Let us now look at the biggest risks by region.

The political heavyweight that is North India is most concerned about corruption. With a spate of incidents such as the 2g scam and palm greasing in the news in and around the capital region, it is no wonder that bribery and corporate frauds are chief causes of concern.

South India has a strong, organized worker union culture, which is why strikes and employee unrest remains the biggest concern of the region.

East India has an alarming history of Naxalism and illegal immigration, which is the biggest concern from an economic perspective as well as a social one.

West India, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, is rightfully most concerned about corruption as well as bribery and corporate frauds, due to a history of such events in the past.

44 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

NORTH

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Information and Cyber Crime Insecurity

Crime

SOUTH

Strikes, Closures and Unrest

Information and Cyber Insecurity

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

EAST

Terrorism and Insurgency

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Crime

WEST

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Information and Cyber Insecurity

Business Espionage

RISK RANKING - GOVT./PSU VS PRIVATE SECTOR 1

0 2

2

3

4

4

(RISK RANK)

1

2

4

5

5

6 6

7

6

3 7

8

9

8

9

10

8 10

10

11

11

12

12

12

14

& m cy ris en rro surg e T In

ci Ac

nts

& s ery ud rib Fra ,n B rate tio o up orp orr C

de C

me

Cri

&

on ty res t ati curi su nres o m l r e C U o s s, & Inf er In ike b Str Cy Govt/PSU

s e e al ft ds es ge nc nt nc ity ctu The zar sin iona ole sme rna tabil e i a l u e l V B sp v H s e ty ce ra Go Ins E Int oper ral pla l Ha l& atu Pr a N ork xua c W Se liti Po &

e Fir

Private Sector

The analysis of the risks as perceived by Government sector companies vis-à-vis the private companies reveals that Terrorism and Insurgency is perceived as the No. 1 risk by Government sector considering that Government infrastructure is often perceived as the prime target of terror attacks. The risk of ‘Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds’ remains the highest concern for the Government as a whole where as corporate espionage is a major problem for the corporate sector.. Amongst the larger companies, risks of ‘Information and Cyber Insecurity’, ‘Strikes, Closures and Unrest’ and ‘Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds’ are top on the list as compared to smaller companies, who view the risks of ‘Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds’, ‘Crime’ and ‘Terrorism and Insurgency’ as the priority risks.

RISK RANKING - SMALL SCALE VS LARGE SCALE INDUSTRIES 0

1 1

2

(RISK RANK)

2

3

2

5

4 6

4 4

5

3 6

6

7

8

9

8

8

9 11

10

7 10

11

10 12 12

12 14

C

& ry ds ibe Frau r B n, te tio pora p r u orr Co

e

m ris rro Te

s r e ure st be ity ag los Unre C y ecur ion C p & s, & Es on Ins ke ss ati tri m S is ne r o Bu Inf y

im

Cr

rg su

&

In

c en

Turnover Less than INR 100 crores (USD 16.66 million)

ce t eft en en Th iol ssm y t V r pe ce ara Pro pla al H k l r a o u W Sex ctu lle & e t In

c Ac

ide

nts

s e nc ity ard az rna abil e H v t ral Go Ins atu l& N a c e

Fir

liti

Po

Turnover Above INR 100 Crores (USD 16.66 million)

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 45

INDIA RISK SURVEY-2015

TOP THREE RISKS ACROSS INDUSTRIAL SECTORS SECTOR

NO. 1 RISK

NO. 2 RISK

NO. 3 RISK

Manufacturing

Strikes, Closures and Unrest

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Intellectual Property Theft

IT/ ITES

Information and Cyber Insecurity

Business Espionage

Workplace Violence and Sexual Harassment

Security Services

Information and Cyber Insecurity

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Terrorism and Insurgency

Education

Terrorism and Insurgency

Crime

Workplace Violence and Sexual Harassment

Financial Services

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Information and Cyber Insecurity

Business Espionage

Government / PSU

Terrorism and Insurgency

Accidents

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Infrastructure

Crime

Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds

Strikes, Closures and Unrest

If we look at the sector wise concern of the risk spectrum, we can see that Information and cyber insecurity poses as the No 1 threat, followed by corruption and bribery incidents. PSU’s and Infra companies are most concerned about terrorism and theft as materials are often accessible to criminals.

(Risk Ranking over the Years)

OVERALL RISK RANKING - YEARLY TRENDS 0

1 1

2 4

3

2

3

4

5

5

5

7 9

10

10

1 3

4 6

6

8

5

6

7 7 9

2

8 10

8

9

10

11

12

12

12

11 11

15 Corruption, Bribery & Corporate Frauds

Information & Cyber Insecurity

Terrorism & Insurgency

Business Espionage

Crime

Strikes, Closures & Unrest

Accidents

Intellectual Property Theft

Fire

Workplace Violence & Sexual Harassment

Political & Governance Instability

Natural Hazards

2015 Rank

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

2014 Rank

1

5

10

9

4

2

7

6

12

8

3

11

2013 Rank

4

3

7

8

6

1

9

10

5

12

2

11

The analysis of the above illustration does indicate that the top five risks that impact Indian business environment include ‘Corruption, Bribery and Corporate Frauds’, ‘Information and Cyber Insecurity’, ‘Terrorism and Insurgency’, ‘Business Espionage’ and ‘Crime’. The risks of ‘Strikes, Closures and Unrest’ and ‘Political and Governance Instability’, which were earlier in the top five risk brackets have dropped in the rankings from No. 2 and No. 3 positions to No. 6 and No. 11 respectively. This is a major shift in the yearly trends primarily due to the positive impact caused by a perceived stable Government coming to power at the Centre post the 2014 general elections.

46 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

As we can see, India has a lot on its plate that it must address in order to provide small and large business a safe and conducive environment to flourish. Let us take a look at each one of these risks in detail and the immediate threats they pose, which India must overcome on a priority basis

CORRUPTION, BRIBERY & CORPORATE FRAUDS: CONTINUES TO BE RECOGNIZED AS THE TOP RISK

Despite infrequent reporting, corporate India waking up to the threat - voted as No. 1 Risk twice in a row.

Over the last few years this risk continues to affect the Indian business tapestry.

‘Corruption, Bribery & Corporate Frauds’ - for the consecutive second year ranked as No. 1 risk by corporate India, reflecting continuing concerns of businesses affected by scams and unethical practices.

TERRORISM AND INSURGENCY: FINDS ITSELF AMONGST THE TOP THREE RISKS Over the last few years this risk continues to affect the Indian business tapestry.

‘Terrorism & Insurgency’ - moved to 2nd position of ranking, highlighting the need to re-align security standards & measures.

INFORMATION AND CYBER INSECURITY: CONTINUES TO BE AMONGST THE TOP RISKS

Over the last few years this risk continues to affect the Indian business tapestry.

‘Information & Cyber Insecurity’ and ‘Business Espionage’ - being ranked amongst top 5 risks indicate the growing concerns of the corporate sector on the increasing incidents of frauds and loss of confidential information / data.

Sense of prevailing hope in newer Government initiatives to help reflect a downward trend in the near future.

CORRUPTION, BRIBERY & CORPORATE FRAUDS

Despite infrequent reporting, corporate India waking up to the threat - voted as No. 1 Risk twice in a row.

Sense of prevailing hope in newer Government initiatives to help reflect a downward trend in the near future.

CORRUPTION, BRIBERY & CORPORATE FRAUDS

Despite infrequent reporting, corporate India waking up to the threat - voted as No. 1 Risk twice in a row.

Sense of prevailing hope in newer Government initiatives to help reflect a downward trend in the near future.

CORRUPTION, BRIBERY & CORPORATE FRAUDS

Survey Credit – Pinkerton & FICCI

neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 47

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

There is no substitute to hardwork

Deepak Bhagtani, who completed his post-graduation from a leading management college, is today placed with Tech Mahindra Ltd. Deepak talks to Corporate Citizen about his first break into the corporate world

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan

T

oday, Deepak is placed with the IT division of one of the leading IT giants of the country, Tech Mahindra Ltd. There were companies coming over to the campus on a daily basis, but unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, Deepak wasn’t able to get through to any of them. However, he did not lose hope. Let’s hear his story

Campus Placement “Since our placement season began, I was in-

terviewed by various companies, but somehow I was unable to crack any of them. I decided not to give up. Instead, I would write about every company process that I sat for and would analyse the reason for my failure. I had decided to work on my mistakes instead of repeating them,” says Deepak.

Deepak regularly stayed in touch with the college alumni, through the social media platform, and would ask them for guidance as to how he should go about preparing for the interview process. This helped him to understand the

48 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

interview process in detail, the kind of questions asked and so on.

The interview process at Tech Mahindra started with an aptitude round, followed by the psychometric test, which was followed by group discussion (GD).

“My topic for the group discussion was on the current topic of smart cities - good idea or bad idea. We were given some time to write down our points and later talk about it. I was the only one in the group who spoke about both its pros and cons, highlighting the same.

Deepak with his batchmates

I got through. After clearing my GD round, we had two personal interview rounds. In the first round, the interviewer asked me about my family background, my course, my internship project and so on. Soon after, they gave me a real-life scenario to solve. The second round was purely technical where they asked me some questions on project management. They also gave me various scenarios relating to the profile offered to me and questioned me on the same. They also asked me about some of the latest Modi start-up policies announced recently,” he detailed about the interview process.

Life at the campus “It was just the third day of college, we had a workshop or rather an ice-breaker session where we were asked to introduce ourselves and know more about our group members.

After two months of induction, we were sent to our respective sections, as per our chosen specialisations. Although we had a very hectic schedule, starting 8 am in the morning till 6.30 pm, sometimes extended till 8 pm in the night, with more than ten subjects per semester, I believe, it was all part of the training given to us, so that we could learn to handle stress and be more flexible at our workplace, which is extremely essential for surviving in today’s corporate world,” recalls Deepak.

Since Deepak was majoring in Systems, the batch was given an exposure to many technical subjects, along with other management subjects. “Initially, I found it difficult to manage all of them at one go, but eventually we learnt to cope up with the pressure and the tight schedule. It taught us ways to manage our professional and personal life efficiently,” he added.

“Our college has tied up with SAP India and

“Initially, I found it difficult to manage all of them at one go, but eventually we learnt to cope up with the pressure and the tight schedule. It taught us ways to manage our professional and personal life, efficiently” we are supposed to complete 200 hours of SAP e-learning in SD module, after which we can go in for a global certification. Fortunately, I was able to maintain 100 percent attendance here and was awarded with 100 percent Learning Hour Record and thereafter were sent to Dubai, UAE to attend the Asia HRD meet that took place in June 2015. Our college strongly believes that apart from studies, we should also be involved in extra curricular for our overall development.

I was the cultural coordinator for various events in my college and also volunteered for the blood donation camp that takes place every year, at the campus. That apart, I also got a chance to attend various informative seminars held in Mumbai and Pune and meet up with a lot of corporate stalwarts from the industry,” noted Deepak.

At the global Asia HRD meet in Dubai, Deepak got a chance to network and interact with the corporate stalwarts from all over the world and gain knowledge about the their corporate culture. Since he was part of the volunteering team, he also learnt to manage this kind of global event.

Family background and early life Deepak hails from Ajmer, Rajasthan, where he did his schooling from. “I did my secondary and higher secondary from St. Stephen’s School, Ajmer. My father always believed that I should be independent and move out of home, as staying away from home will teach me a lot.

That’s how I moved out of Ajmer to pursue my engineering. I relocated to Jaipur, Rajasthan to complete my B.Tech in Electronics and Communications. Initially, I was confused if I should take up a job or go in for higher studies; however my family helped me take a decision and I decided to pursue my post-graduation, specialising in Systems,” reminisces Deepak.

Deepak’s father is a retired assistant accounts officer from State Government and mother, a homemaker. His elder sisters are married, one is employed with the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, while the other one is a teacher in a private school.

Hobbies “I like to travel, play basketball, manage events, plan a trip, plan parties, hangout with friends and so on,” says Deepak. An avid traveller, he has visited a lot of forts, historic monuments in and around Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaigarh and Nahargarh. His favourite cities include Pune, Chandigarh and Surat. “My friends sometimes term me as the ‘guide’ on the tour,” laughs Deepak, adding, “I am keen on visiting the eastern part of the country in the near future.”

Piece of advice to the juniors z Read the newspaper daily and be aware of the things happening around you. As you can’t prepare for these things in a single day so start reading from today itself z Have confidence in yourself as the interviewer also wants to see how confident you are. z Be regular to college so that you have good command over your subjects. This will help you have sound technical knowledge which will show up in the interview.

“Don’t regret for what is gone; instead prepare for things which are yet to come,” he signs off.

Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

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tadka

India ahead of the US

India has surpassed the United States to becomes the second largest smartphone market in the world, on the 1st of February 2016.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 49

BOLLYWOOD BIZ

SEQUEL Bonanza 2016

If 2015 201 0155 was waas the thhe year yeaar of ye of the the blockbustbllockbuster ers ers, s, 2016 201 0166 iss all all set set to to be the the year yea ear of the sequ se sequels. quel elss. Sequels Seque eq els make make huge huge money, andd some an some off the th biggest bigggestt box bi box office hitss in Hindi Hin indi di cinema cinem ma (Dhoom (D Dhoom 3, 3, Tanu wedss Manuu returns, ret etuurnss, Krrish Krrirish Kr sh 3 etc) have been bee een to cash sequels, s, and and 2016 201 016 promises pr caash in on the fact. fac actt. With Witth that th in mind, Corporate Coorporate Citizen C itizenn brings brin br ings you the most awaited aw Neeraj sequels in 2016. By Neera raj Varty

Budget of original film

`7crore Box office collection

Jai Gangaajal

`15crore

(Sequel to – Gangaajal)

Thirteen years later, Ajay Devgan set the box office on fire in Gangaajal. Prakash Jha is back with Jai Gangaajal. What makes this sequel different is that unlike the original, this movie will be a woman-centric film with Priyanka Chopra in the lead role as the tough cop. This is a testament to the rise of women as box office draws, but also the first example of a male centric action movie sequel having a woman as the lead star. Let’s hope the experiment is successful and we see many such movies in the future.

50 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

Bahubali: The Conclusion (Sequel to – Bahubali: The Beginning)

BAHUBALI: The beginning was one of the biggest hits not just of the year, but of Indian cinema. Such was its impact, that Corporate Citizen had dedicated an entire article to the making of the movie and its impact. This year, we shall witness the much awaited conclusion to the biggest multi-lingual crossover hit of Indian cinema. December 16 can’t come soon enough.

Budget of original film

`120crore Box office collection

`600crore

Budget of original film

Apart from these, there are several high profile sequels in various stages of completion, such as

Box office collection

DON 3, ROCK ON 2, SINGHAM 3, AASHIQUI 2, DABANGG 3

`45crore `115crore Houseful 3 (Sequel to – Houseful, Houseful 2)

Houseful 3 is the third installment in the superhit comedy series. The first and the second films were superhits, but Akshay Kumar reportedly refused to work with director Sajid Khan again, so this time we have Sajid Nadiadwala at the helm.

Starring Akshay Kumar, Abhishek bacchan and Ritesh Deshmukh, Houseful 3 is guaranteed to be a fun outing when it hits the screens in October.

Budget of original film

`1.5crore

Ghayal Once Again (Sequel to – Ghayal)

Box office collection

`20crore

Sequels are sometimes unevenly spaced, but this one takes the cake.

The original Sunny Deol starring blockbuster Ghayal was a momentous blockbuster in 1990. Now, 26 years after the event, Sunny Deol is back to don the gloves of boxer Ajay Mehra. This time, Sunny is also behind the camera directing the movie along with acting in it. At nearly 60 years of age, if Sunny can pull off Ghayal Once Again, his movie career will get a much needed shot in the arm. Only time will tell if he manages to recreate the magic of his glory days or not. neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com

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Budget of original film

Hera Pheri 3 (Sequel to – Hera Pheri, Phir hera Pheri)

`4crore Box office collection

`18crore When Hera Pheri released in 2000, it became a sleeper hit and struck box office gold. It inspired the makers to release a sequel in 2006, which did even more business. The talks of a third sequel have been on since then, but the project was delayed due to some conflict between the film’s producer Sajid Nadiadwala and Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty. Finally, the lead pair was replaced by John Abraham and Abhishek Bachhan , and the movie is all set to hit the theatres in August. The Hera Pheri brand is very strong, but will the movie have the same impact without its charismatic lead pair? We’ll soon find out.

tadka

India drinks 1/2 of the world’s whisky It might be hard to believe for the planet however, whisky consumption in India is lower than many other countries though, about half of the world’s whisky consumption happens in India which is around about 1.2 million liters.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 51

SPORTS

Richie Rich BCCI, all set for another big show Richie rich BCCI is all set for yet another big show, with the jewel of its crown, the famed Indian Premier League (IPL), set to play its ninth season. Just as the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals threatened to dent, the entry of Pune and Rajkot made up for the loss, promising a full-throttled push to the series, as well as the coffers of the BCCI. A financial heavyweight in world cricket, it can even influence the fortunes of global cricket. By Joe Williams

C

ricket, like other major sports, is evolving big time. With the introduction of the Twenty20 format not only has interest spread in different regions but it also brings in a lot of money for top cricket boards.

Twenty20 has revolutionised cricket in India in the last five to seven years. India’s domestic T20 Premier League is one of the most lucrative sports leagues around the world and teams from IPL are spending big money to bring in talented players to boost their squads. And ₹528 crores speaks for itself -- that this sport, this gentleman’s game, has joined the big league of lucrative sports like tennis, football and golf. Come April-May spectators will throng the stadiums all across the

country to glimpse their star players in action.

The 2016 season of the IPL, also known as IPL 9 or Vivo IPL 2016, will be the ninth season of IPL, a Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament is scheduled to be played between 8 April and 29 May 2016.

The season will have two new teams who replace Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals who have been suspended for two years, up to 2017.

These two new franchise-based teams have been added for two years, and will feature this season, representing the cities of Pune and Rajkot.

It’s all due to the fans What is it that makes this game so popular in

52 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

India? It is the die-hard fans who make the difference. However volatile or extreme emotions they display, you can bet that every time there is an India match, getting viewership won’t be an issue. Australia and England are pretty much accustomed to witnessing more Indian fans in the stands than native supporters during a foreign game for India. In India there is simply no match. These fans account for a major portion of the BCCI’s balance sheets and also contribute to maintaining the brand image of the board in the advertising world. Cricketers like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni charge ₹eight-10 crore a year for endorsements, which is largely due to the fact that cricket means eyeballs. This ecosystem brings money pouring in and the result is the BCCI’s numero uno status amongst the boards of cricket-playing nations.

A great degree of commerce also results from the fact that BCCI faces no competition with other market forces. In a country where most other sports struggle to make ends meet, the BCCI needs to be applauded for not only being self-sufficient but also for being one of the richest sports associations in the world. The BCCI helps the ICC get lucrative sponsorship deals for global

contribute to almost 80 percent of cricket’s global income. It seems that the BCCI has a Midas touch because whatever they do (or don’t do in a few cases) they make huge money.

It is difficult to accept that there was a period when the Indian board was not even able to pay their cricketers on time. But how did that revolution come about and what are the factors that contributed to such financial prowess for the BCCI?

events, all credit going to its clout and influence over the market. None of the players around the world have a brand value comparable to the Indian heavyweights. That helps the BCCI maintain its financial position in the world of advertising.

TV rights Over a period of 40 days from Oct 1 to Nov 10, 2014, Pakistan played Australia in a cricket series in different cities in the Persian Gulf. These are two of the top teams in world cricket. The TV sponsorship that the PCB was able to negotiate for the entire 40-day tour was around US$ three million (₹18.9 crore). Sony’s TV sponsorship for an IPL season which includes around 60 matches is roughly US$ 180 million (₹1134 crore), i e, each match goes for about US$ three million (₹18.9 crore). Star India’s TV sponsorship onsorship deal for international cricket matches involving India and played in India works out to about US$ eight million per match (₹50.4 crore). Look at that once again, a 40 day tour is worth the same as one match which lasts about four hours and is about 2/5th of one international national match involving India.

As much you try and criticise se the BCCI, the bottom line is they ey have the might and also the money. ey.

Or shall we say the might is due to the money.

The truth today is that at international cricket cannot ot survive on the financial frontt without BCCI’s help. Theyy

However volatile or extreme emotions they display, you can bet that every time there is an India match, getting viewership won’t be an issue. These fans account for a major portion of the BCCI’s balance sheets and also contribute to maintaining the brand image of the board in the advertising world

The IPL big leap The big moment came when in 2008 the Indian Premier League or IPL started and the BCCI started to mint huge chunks of money.

It was not as if the Indian board was any less a financial force before, but IPL changed the power equations in world cricket as well. The blend of Bollywood and cricket was accepted with open arms by the Indian public which meant stadiums going full and television sponsorship taking off in a substantial manner. The IPL also brought about a greater scope for corporate money flow and business giants taking interest in cricket far more than they did earlier.

After seven successful years the lucrative cash rich league has ensured that India is a commercial superpower in world cricket.

Virat Kohli is also one of the highest paid player overall in the cricket world, just short of Mahinder Singh Dhoni in the top spot. Dhoni holds the top spot in terms of highest yearly income for the best part of the last nine years, largely because of the highly lucrative domestic endorsement deals.

Indian captain Mahinder Singh Dhoni is not only the highest paid player in the world but also the richest cricketer of the last couple of decades.

When India won the 2011 World Cup MS Dhoni was placed at number 23 in the Forbes athletes’ rich list with a yearly income of around US$28 million (₹154.84 crore) making him by far the richest player in cricket. Most of his money comes from domestic sponsorship deals, around million (₹127.19 crore) a year, while US $23 m his yyearly contract with the BCCI (Indian cricket board) earns him around US$3.5 cr million (₹19.35 crore) a year plus his IPL m contract earning him a further US$2 million (₹11.06 crore) a year.

Ahead of the new season in 2016, the Indian cricket board, on its website, listed out how much money is paid to some of the leading cricketers retained by the IPL franchises. re Kohli is the highest paid (IPL) Indian player with a pay cheque of ₹15 crore.

Kohli, India’s Test skipper, leads cr Royal Roya Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL. IPL Dhoni, who will play for Pune this year, ye gets ₹12.5 crore. joe78662@gmail.com

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 53

PEARLS OF WISDOM

By Osho

Delicate art of

motherhood We don’t think about mothers as the greatest creative people on the earth. That is one of the reasons why women are not great painters and great poets – they need not be: they can be great mothers

J

“

ust to give birth to a child is one thing – to be a mother is totally different. Any woman can give birth to a child; that’s a very simple phenomenon.

But to be a mother needs great art, needs great understanding.

You are creating a human being – that is the greatest creation! A painter paints a picture; we call it great art. Picasso – we call him a great artist.

But what about the mother who created Picasso?

A poet writes beautiful poems, but what about the mother who created Shakespeare?

We don’t think about mothers as the greatest creative people on the earth. That is one of the reasons why women are not great painters and great poets – they need not be: they can be great mothers. Why does man try to become a great scientist, poet, painter, this and that? – he is jealous of women: he cannot create children. He feels impotent. Sigmund Freud has talked much about phallic jealousy – that women suffer from a jealousy because they don’t have penises. Now this

54 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

is utterly meaningless, absurd. It is as if a woman Sigmund Freud is born and starts talking about men suffering from breast-jealousy because they don’t have breasts. But, one thing is certain: deep down man always feels jealous that he cannot mother, that he cannot carry an alive life in him, that he cannot reproduce life. To substitute it he paints, he sculpts, he writes poetry, he composes music; he goes to the moon, he goes to Everest.

He wants to prove at least to his woman that “I can also do something,” otherwise he feels impotent. Compared to woman’s capacity, he looks like a child, looks almost accidental. His work is not much: giving birth to a child, he simply triggers the process. A small injection can do that; that is not much of a work.

Play carefully but play playfully. If you become serious, then the the child will start feeling your seriousness and a the child will be crushed and crippled. D Don’t burden the child; don’t start feeling that y you are doing something great to the child. Whe When I say you are doing something great, you are do doing something great to yourself

And the child brings again a fresh quality to life. Every child is primitive, a barbarian; now the mother has to civilise. Every child is a barbarian, remember he is an animal, wild. And the mother has to give him culture, has to teach him the ways of life, the ways of man. It is a great work.You have to remember that – that your work has not finished, it has started. Take it joyously!

The work is such that no sacrifice is great enough for it – any sacrifice can and should be made. One thing. Second thing: don’t take it too seriously, otherwise you will destroy the child.

Your seriousness will become destructive. Take it playfully. The responsibility is there! but it has to be taken very playfully. Play upon the child as one plays upon a musical instrument – and she

knows how to play on musical instruments. Let the child be your instrument now. Play carefully but play playfully. If you become serious, then the child will start feeling your seriousness and the child will be crushed and crippled. Don’t burden the child; don’t start feeling that you are doing something great to the child. When I say you are doing something great, you are doing something great to yourself.

By helping this child to grow into a beautiful human being, into a Buddha, you will be becoming the mother of a Buddha. You will not be obliging the child: you will be simply enjoying your own life; your own life will become a fragrance through the child.This is an opportunity, a god-given opportunity.

Help the child – but for the sheer joy of it.

And never feel that he owes any debt to you. On the contrary, feel thankful that he has chosen you to be his mother. Let your motherhood bloom through him. If you can bloom into your moth-

erhood, you will feel thankful to the child forever.

And, naturally, there will be sacrifices, but they have to be made…joyously. Only then is it a sacrifice! If you do it without joy it is not sacrifice.

Sacrifice comes from the word sacred. When you do it joyfully, it is sacred.

When you don’t do it joyfully, then you are just fulfilling a duty – and all duties are ugly, they are not sacred. This is a great opportunity. Meditate over it, go into it deeply.

You will never find such a deep involvement – in fact, there is none as it is between a child and the mother. Not even between the husband and the wife, the lover and the beloved – the involvement is not so deep as it is between the mother and the child. It cannot be so deep with anybody ever – because the child has lived in you for nine months as you; nobody else can live in you for nine months as you.

And the child will become a separate individual sooner or later, but somewhere deep down in the unconscious the mother and the child remain linked.If your child can become a Buddha, you will be benefited by it; if your child grows and becomes a beautiful human being, you will be benefited by it – because the child will always remain connected with you. Only the physical connection has been disconnected; the spiritual connection is never disconnected.

Thank God! Motherhood is a blessing.

(Article sourced from http://oshotimes.blog.osho.com/)

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tadka

e-losses widen The combined losses of the ‘Big 3’ e-commerce firms including Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal amounted to ` 5,052 crore in 2015. None of these companies have registered a profit in India so far, yet they remain the most popular avenues to shop.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 55

HEALTH

A

ccording to The American Heart Association, even if you’re not an athlete, knowledge about your heart rate can help you monitor your fitness level — and it might even help you spot developing health problems.

Your heart rate, or pulse, is the number of times your heart beats per minute. Normal heart rate varies from person to person. Knowing yours can be an important heart-health gauge.

How do you get your heart rate on target?

When you work out, are you doing too much or not enough? There’s a simple way to know: Your target heart rate helps you hit the bull’s eye. “We don’t want people to over-exercise, and the other extreme is not getting enough exercise,” says Gerald Fletcher, M.D., a cardiologist and professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Fla. First Things First Before you learn how to calculttate and monitor your target training heart rate, you have to know your resting heart rate. Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute while it’s at rest. You can check it in the morning after you’ve had a good night’s sleep and before you get out of bed.

According to the National Institute of Health, the average resting heart rate: z For children 10 years and older, and adults (including seniors) is 60 - 100 beats per minute z For well-trained athletes is 40 - 60 beats per minute.

Hittin’ the Target Now you’re ready to determine your target training heart rate. As you exercise, periodically: z Take your pulse on the inside of your wrist, on the thumb side. z Use the tips of your first two fingers (not your thumb) to press lightly over the blood vessels on your wrist. z Count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by six to find your beats per minute. You want to stay between 50 percent to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. This range is your target heart rate.

Know Your Numbers The table shows estimated target heart rates for different ages. Your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age.

In the age category closest to yours, read across to find your target heart rate. Heart rate during moderately intense activities is about 5069 percent of your maximum heart rate, whereas heart rate during hard physical activity is about 70 percent to less than 90 percent of the maximum heart rate.

Matters of the Heart

If your heart rate is too high, you’re straining. So slow down. If it’s too low, and the intensity feels “light” or “moderate/brisk,” you may want to push yourself to exercise a little harder. Know all about your heart rate through guidelines from the experts of The American Heart Association So what’s in a number?

If your heart rate is too high, you’re straining. So slow down. If it’s too low, and the intensity feels “light” or “moderate/brisk,” you may want to push yourself to exercise a little harder.

During the first few weeks of working out, aim for the lower ranger of your target zone (50 percent) and gradually build up to the higher range (85 percent). After six months or more, you may be able to exercise comfortably at up to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.

“It’s not an absolute, but it’s a good tool to have,” says Fletcher, who is also an American Heart Association volunteer. “And if you don’t know it, remember, if you’re not able to carry on a conversation (while exercising), that may be a bit too much.”

What should you know about your heart rate?

Even if you’re not an athlete, knowledge about your heart rate can help you monitor your fitness level — and it might even help you spot developing health problems.

Your heart rate, or pulse, is the number of times your heart beats per minute. Normal heart rate varies from person to person. Knowing yours can be an important heart-health gauge.

“As you age, changes in the rate and regularity of your pulse can change and may signify a heart condition or other condition that needs to be addressed,” said Richard Stein, M.D., professor of medicine and cardiology at the New York University School of Medicine in New York City and a volunteer for the American Heart Association.

Your resting heart rate is the heart pumping the lowest amount of blood you need because you’re not exercising. If you’re sitting or lying and you’re calm, relaxed and aren’t ill, your heart rate is normally between 60 (beats per minute) and 100 (beats per minute)

56 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

laxed and aren’t ill, your heart rate is normally between 60 (beats per minute) and 100 (beats per minute), Stein said.

But a heart rate lower than 60 doesn’t necessarily signal a medical problem. It could be the result of taking a drug such as a beta blocker. A lower heart rate is also common for people who get a lot of physical activity or are very athletic, Stein said.

Active people often have lower heart rates because their heart muscle is in better condition and doesn’t need to work as hard to maintain a steady beat. “Moderate physical activity doesn’t usually change the resting pulse much,” Stein said.

“If you’re very fit, it could change to 40. A less active person might have a heart rate between 60 and 100,” he added. That’s because the heart muscle has to work harder to maintain bodily functions, making it higher.

How Other Factors Affect Heart Rate z Air temperature: When temperatures (and the humidity) soar, the heart pumps a little more blood, so your pulse rate may increase, but usually no more than five to 10 beats a minute. z Body position: Resting, sitting or standing, your pulse is usually the same. Sometimes as you stand for the first 15 to 20 seconds, your pulse may go up a little bit, but after a couple of minutes it should settle down. z Emotions: If you’re stressed, anxious or “extraordinarily happy or sad” your emotions can raise your pulse. z Body size: Body size usually doesn’t usually change pulse. If you’re very obese, you might see a higher resting pulse than normal, but usually not more than 100. z Medication use: Meds that block your adrenaline (beta blockers) tend to slow your pulse, while too much thyroid medication or too high of a dosage will raise it.

The figures are averages, so use them as general guidelines Age

Target HR Zone 50-85%

Average Maximum Heart Rate, 100%

20 years

100-170 beats per minute

200 beats per minute

30 years

95-162 beats per minute

190 beats per minute

35 years

93-157 beats per minute

185 beats per minute

40 years

90-153 beats per minute

180 beats per minute

45 years

88-149 beats per minute

175 beats per minute

50 years

85-145 beats per minute

170 beats per minute

55 years

83-140 beats per minute

165 beats per minute

60 years

80-136 beats per minute

160 beats per minute

65 years

78-132 beats per minute

155 beats per minute

70 years

75-128 beats per minute

150 beats per minute

(This article has been sourced from http://www. heart.org/, the website of The American Heart Association which is USA’s oldest and largest voluntary organisation dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke)

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Important Note: A few high blood pressure medications lower the maximum heart rate and thus the target zone rate. If you’re taking such medicine, call your physician to find out if you need to use a lower target heart rate.

Where is it and what is a normal heart rate?

The best places to find your pulse are the: z Wrists z Inside of your elbow z Side of your neck z Top of the foot

To get the most accurate reading, put your finger over your pulse and count the number of beats in 60 seconds, Stein said.

Your resting heart rate is the heart pumping the lowest amount of blood you need because you’re not exercising.

If you’re sitting or lying and you’re calm, re-

tadka

Tobacco is destroying India

According to a report by the health ministry, India is the second largest consumer of tobacco after China. Around 8-9 lakh deaths can be attributed to it each year in the country.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 57

TRAVEL

Rahul Jalan Director, Indiaonline Network

KOH SAMUI, a place closer to nature Rahul Jalan is a commerce graduate from Delhi University who has a vision of making www.indiaonline. in a one-stop destination for all the basic services and facilities one needs in India.

With the India Online Network, he is planning to create a vibrant network of 500+ franchises and more than 5,000 business associates for Pan India in the next two years.

Besides, he is determined to achieve a turnover of ₹100 crore and foresee a client-base of more than 5 lakh small businesses five years down the line.

Here he talks about his favourite destination, Koh Samui in Thailand

By Sharmila Chand

On our way to the zoo

Your favourite holiday destination ?

What do you like about the place?

Your take on the Koh Samui?

I prefer any good beach destination like Mauritius, Koh Samui in Thailand, etc. Beach destinations serve as a good getaway from the hustle and bustle of a busy city life. I feel closer to nature at such places.

Koh Samui is my favourite place for this reason. The lush greenery, fresh air, amazing resorts and, of course, the pristine water is what keeps taking me back. Last time I visited Thailand in March. And now I am planning for my next trip. This time, I might explore a new beach destination.

What attracts me the most about beach destinations like Koh Samui is the relaxed and easy going atmosphere. It’s just a different feeling to see so many trees and greenery, and the beautiful ocean from the window of the resort. Only a person living in urban cities will understand what it would like to be in such a place. A three to four days break and a quiet walk every evening on the beach with my better half is the best feeling that rejuvenates me for the next 12 months. That’s why I try to visit at least once a year such beach destination.

Koh Samui is a quiet and serene beach destination. Until two-three years back, it was quite unexplored and new destination known only to a few. It’s not a very big town but offers quite a lot in terms of beautiful memories. The water sports on the beaches are must-do for every traveller. One should not miss the Koh Tao that offers the best scuba diving in the Thailand and is just two hours away from Koh Samui via ferry. Even non-divers will also love this outstandingly miraculous island, with its eye-catching long sandy beaches that are nearly

58 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

isolated during the day as divers head to sea.

Koh Samui is a wonderful destination for nature lovers, which offers superbly amazing sights to explore. There are so many islands, breathtaking lush jungles, amazing beaches, safari parks and restaurants. Each island of this place has its own unique quirks and customs, but the thing that mesmerised me was the incredible snorkelling and scuba environments it offers. This is the place where you can watch abundance of beautiful and brightly coloured fish, starfish and coral reefs surrounding its coastlines. From markets to malls, Koh Samui has everything for die hard shopaholics. Those who want to take a break from the bustle of the city would definitely love to be in this place.

You may choose any resort as almost all of them are located on the beach. Even for the party seekers, there is a lively night life, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. You can also book the daytours offered by almost all the hotels through their travel counter which is an excellent way to see the entire island. And yes, do not miss the chance to take a scooter available on rent and explore the island on your own.

Enjoying water sports

Tips to fellow travellers before starting their trip

On restaurants...

The food offered in all resorts is great but if you miss Indian food in particular, Noori India Restaurant on the Chaweng beach is simply fantastic.

On hotels one would love to stay...

I stayed in the Imperial Boat House Hotel located on the Choeng Mon Beach which is a little far from the main Chaweng beach. I choose to stay from the crowded areas. The Choeng Mon Beach is much cleaner and quieter. The Amari Resort is also another great choice.

Rahul Jalan on the Koh Samui beach

› Carry an umbrella whenever you step out of your hotel as it can rain any time. › Spend at least three days in Koh Samui to get a complete feel of the place (trust me after three days, you would not want to come back easily). › Take the local Bangkok Airways flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui as they have smaller aircrafts and is a phenomenal once-in-alifetime experience to travel in that aircraft.

Koh Samui is a wonderful destination for nature lovers, which offers superbly amazing sights to explore. Breathtaking lush jungles, amazing beaches. You can watch abundance of beautiful and brightly coloured fish, starfish and coral reefs surrounding its coastlines What can other destinations learn from Koh Samui?

Just the hospitality of the people of Koh Samui is something everyplace in the world can learn.

People here come forward in helping anyone who approaches them. Which makes this place different from other tourist places

Can you share with our readers the most memorial incident...

There are many, but the vist to zoo was

something that was amazing.

Squattted on top of the jeep and zooming to zoo was something which is not done in tourist Enjoying the sound of water hitting the shores places likes this one. This feel good factor makes you feel at home and giving a What is on top of your mind while travelling, visitor ample space to make the most of it. sightseeing, food, shopping or anything else?

Getting back my share of sleep and exploring Tells us about as a traveler, planning well or the place casually. I like to be more of a traveler than a tourist. more impulsive? chand.sharmila@gmail.com I like to plan well for my trip.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 59

CLAPS & SLAPS

Corporate Citizen applauds the move taken by Dr Ganesh Rakh, running Medicare Hospital Foundation Trust in Maharashtra who does not charge any fee if the infant delivered is a baby girl

Corporate Citizen slaps the continuing trend of celebrities continuing to promote tobacco through advertisements, except for Sunny Leone who backed off after Delhi Government’s appeal not to promote them

Son of a labourer, Dr Rakh was a lone ranger when he started on this mission on January 3, 2012, to waive off complete delivery charges if a girl child is born, and today there are over 3,000 from his profession who have taken up this issue, are with him fighting social biases and prejudices against the girl child.

Till date, in over 144 deliveries, both normal and caesarean, maternity charges were not only waived off but the entire hospital celebrates the birth of the girl child by distributing sweets in the hospital.

It was this mental trauma of the mother and the bias that a girl child faces even as she opens her eyes in the world that made him take a decision to waive off all maternity fees if the child born was a female.

In a bid to help the poorer sections of society, he set up a 25-bed Medicare General and Maternity Hospital in the year 2007. Initially he received a lukewarm response from his gynaecologists and paediatricians. “I told them the hospital will bear the expenses of neonatal care. And they were quite sceptical whether I would be able to run the hospital in such a manner,” said Dr Rakh while talking to a section of the media.

But the impact of the emotional trauma of the about-to-deliver woman was too deep on his psyche. It is a common sight on the day when woman delivers, relatives throng the hospital, hug each other when a boy is born, and ironically disappear when a girl is born.

The tension on the pregnant woman for nine months is so severe and acute that you can actually see it in the fluctuations of her haemoglobin and blood pressure.

Dr Rakh’s silent efforts and persistence towards altruistic goals won over other doctors and soon they also decided to join hands with him.

And it was his batchmates and doctors working in districts like Beed, Ahmednagar, Solapur and other interiors approached Dr Rakh saying that they will stop carrying out procedures like indiscriminate sexdetermination tests or unwarranted medical termination of pregnancy.

Top film-stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Govinda, Arbaaz Khan and Govinda continue to model for advertisements of paan masala.

A report by www.thenewsminute.in states that, ``Ironically, action taken against the tobacco lobby, the state or the central government, has been negligible. The Government of India shot itself in the foot when it stated that there was no India-specific data to establish that tobacco, chewing tobacco and paan masala causes cancer in response to calls for larger warnings including pictorial warnings on the products. It has everything to do with revenue. The jury and scientific evidence on the direct cause and effect link between intake of tobacco, smoking, chewing, snuff etc. and cancers has been in for at least six decades. ``In the case of areca nuts, the main ingredient in paan masala, submucous fibrosis leading to cancer is a medical fact. Between evidence and disease comes the powerful pan masala industry in search of newer and younger consumer and future addicts. ``The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COPTA) is India’ main law governing tobacco control. It is a floor, leaving states to write in stricter laws if they want. ``India adds 5,700 new addicts a day and tobacco and paan masala kills 3,300 people daily, the new recruits largely compensating for the deaths in the country and worldwide. These are the only freely available consumer products that kill one in two regular users. India counts 30 crore people addicted to one or other form of tobacco – from paan masala to gutka to cigarettes. Stacked against the almost one million annual deaths in India is 70 lakh jobs. Tobacco and its killer cousins are legal products and till such time they remain so, they cannot be banned.

It is not uncommon for film stars to perform at weddings and private functions of ministers and other functionaries, courtesy paan masala companies.’’

60 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

STRAIGHT TALK

‘Spirituality the need of hour, more than ever before’ In the quest for organisational excellence, willpower, spirituality and ethical behaviour play a massive role, says SK Dutt, President & Head Corporate HR, Praj Industries. He also spoke on the challenges of a dynamic business environment

BY KALYANI SARDESAI PIC: YUSUF KHAN

There’s a lot of talk about work-life balance and how it is important to the younger generation. How do you address this?

A I would quote the book ‘In search of Excellence’ by Waterman and Tom Peters. The highlight of the book was, while explaining organisational excellence, what struck the authors as significant was the ability of some organisations to harmonise apparently contradictory and conflicting issues within the organisation. The issue of work-life balance is a similar contradiction, and each context is different. Anna Huffington of the Huffington Post made a wry observation lately that it is considered a hallmark of machismo to say one has slept for no more than three or four hours the previous night, and that the resulting physical problems from such a lifestyle have acquired a glamour about them!

This is absurd, because we have certain physiological limitations, and we can only stretch ourselves within a certain logic—and not beyond. When you are overstretched, naturally your decision making ability would suffer.

Also, while some fatigue is apparent, the other kind is fatal. A case in point being that of the Wall Street whizz-kid who died of overwork at 22! The challenge is to find an optimum point between work-life balance.

You spoke of spirituality. How relevant is this question given the competitive and unstable business environment of Volatility, uncertainity, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA)?

Jack Welch once said: “I may tolerate low performers who are in sync with the values at General Electric (GE) and give them time to come up to speed; but I will extend no such benefit to a high performer whose values are questionable.”

Today, the emphasis on spirituality and correct behaviour, in management training programmes is more than ever before. I do believe that if the younger generation is trained from the outset to believe in the right way of doing things, it will stay with them. I cite the example of a parent who would hire private detectives to keep an eye on his son during the garba season of Gujarat.

With each report, he grew more and more worried about what his child was up to. When he shared this with a friend and asked him how he kept a watch on his child’s behaviour, his friend averred that he needed to do no such thing, as he had brought up his son with the right values and now trusted him to do the right thing.

Sure, we are living in very technologically advanced times. But let me add that even cutting edge physicists at NASA have acknowledged the presence of a higher power that keeps the world in balance. Spirituality, to my mind, has little to do with religion, but that is another story. Let me just say that in our HR practices today humanitarianism plays a huge role.

Given that talent retention and attrition rates are a major concern for industries across the board, what do you think should be the approach to the challenge?

You need to create an Employee Value Proposition within the context of your own organisation—one that is in sync with your corporate values both mid-term and long-term. Do a reality check to see how it compares with what others are doing--and then communicate the same effectively to everyone. Once you have the EVP in place, you need to develop an internal value system. There’s no harm in doing things differently from your competitors. As long as your plans are realistic, fair and sensible, they should work.

Personally speaking, how do you destress?

Well, I am an avid reader. I would like to once again emphasise the importance of reading and knowledge, as there is a tendency to dismiss theory in favour of practice. You need a balance of both. You cannot be too colloquial and expect to succeed. Apart from reading, I love to listen to country music and blues and RD Burman.

People also say I sing well. In any case, it helps me unwind.

In the hiring process, what do you look for in a candidate?

To begin with are the general qualities of the person—and whether or not they are in sync with organisational values. Their level of learnability and adaptability and achievement orientation are important. The second important criterion is whether they match the specific requirements of the job. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com.

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 61

MOBILE APPS

APPLE TV `5,900

The Apple TV is a network media player that can be used to stream videos, pictures and music from your iOS or Android device. While you can subscribe to channels, buy or rent movies on iTunes via this player, you cannot store anything on it. Like the Chromecast, it doesn’t include a USB port either, in case you would like to play a movie off a pen drive. However, the advantage of the Apple TV is the fluid iOS like experience provided by Apple as well as the the ability to make your TV an extension of your iPhone or iPad, letting you do all your work on the TV itself, essentially converting it into a makeshift computer.

From ‘DUMB’ TV to ‘SMART’ TV Smart TVs are the latest electronic rage.

These TVs have full internet connectivity, and can run android apps and games, making them irresistible. However, you have to shell out a pretty penny to get one, as a Smart TVs usually costs between ₹1-4 lakh. But what if you could convert your existing TV into a web-entertainment powerhouse for cheap?

Is that really possible? Yes, it is. Corporate Citizen brings you the best ways to convert your existing ‘Dumb’ TV into a Smart TV

By Neeraj Varty

GOOGLE’S CHROMECAST `2,849

Google’s Chromecast is available online and it’s also easy to use. Simply plug in the device into the free HDMI port on your television, and connect it to WiFi. Now install the Chromecast app on your mobile device or PC/laptop and connect to the same wireless network.

Once the process is complete, you will be able to ‘throw’ Full HD videos from YouTube onto your television screen, as well as play android games and browse the web using chrome or any browser app of your choice. If you have subscribed to video streaming apps like Netflix, then you can watch your TV shows and movies directly on the TV.

BOX-TYPE MEDIA PLAYERS `12,500

While Chromecast is the simplest and the cheapest way to Wi-Fi-enable your television, it does not come with any internal memory or expandable memory slot to store any data. For a complete solution, you can opt for a settop box media player. All you need is a TV with a free HDMI port and an active internet connection to tap into. Such media players support Full HD content from a variety of sources on the internet.

Also, these boxes sport USB ports for your flash drives and external hard disks - and a memory card slot for SD cards, letting you view the content you have stored on them. You can consider the one-terabyte WD TV Live Hub (₹2,500) and iOmega ScreenPlay DX HD (₹12,000) media players. These use a proprietary interface and come with a built-in hard drive. The former is ideal for playing personal content and to access pre-loaded web services like YouTube, Flickr and TuneIn. The iOmega player also includes a browser to surf the web and a miniature keyboard to make typing a little easier. neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com

62 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

FEATHERLITE

CORPORATE TWITTERATI Recently, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Pvt. Ltd has unveiled two vaccine candidates to protect humans against the outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus that may cause birth defects when pregnant women are infected.

Sadly, the virus has already spread to 22 countries. Here’s what industry experts have to say #Zika

Quartz IndiaVerified account@qzindia: This Indian biotech firm is the world’s first to ready a Zika vaccine for testing http:// qz.com/609291 LivemintVerified account@livemint: Indian vaccine-maker Bharat Biotech unveils Zika vaccine candidates Pharma Industry News@PharmaNewsDaily Pharma News: Indian firm unveils Zika vaccine candidates: Indian firm Bharat Biotech has unveiled two vaccine Hindustan TimesVerified account@htTweets Hyderabad pharma has 2 variants of #Zika vaccine ready for testing, reports @ RamblingBrook Galaxy Reporter@GaalaxyReporter World’s first vaccine for Zika Virus is made in India, Claims Hyderabad Scientists Deccan ChronicleVerified account@ DeccanChronicle ‘We are probably the first in the world to file for global patent for Zika vaccine candidates’ Pallava Bagla@pallavabagla A possible #Zika Virus Vaccine developed in India by Krishna Ella an industrialist with a heart.

Venkat Dhattareyan@dvenka World’s First #Zika #Virus #Vaccine Made in #India, Claim Scientists

MFS - The Other News@MFS001 Scientists in #India claim to have made the World’s First #Zika Virus Vaccine.

LAUGH ALOUD ` The Mafia was looking for a new man to make weekly collections from all the small private businesses that they were protecting.

Feeling the heat from the police force, they decided to use a deaf person for this job.

If he were to get caught, he wouldn’t be able to communicate to the police what he was doing.

Well, on his first week, the deaf collector picks up over $50,000.

He gets greedy, decides to keep the money and stashes it in a safe place.

The Mafia soon realises that their collection is late, and sends some of their hoods after the deaf collector.

The hoods find the deaf collector and ask him where the money is.

The deaf collector can’t communicate with them, so the Mafia drags the guy to an interpreter.

The Mafia hood says to the interpreter, “Ask him where the money is.”

The interpreter signs, “Where’s the money?”

The deaf replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The interpreter tells the hood, “He says he doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”

The hood pulls out a large gun and places it in the ear of the deaf collector.

“NOW ask him where the money is.”

The interpreter signs, “Where is the money?”

The deaf man replies, “The $50,000 is in Central Park, hidden in the third tree stump on the left from the West 78th Street gate.”

The interpreter says to the hood, “He says he still doesn’t know what you’re talking about, and doesn’t think you have the guts to pull the trigger.” ` Four corporate presidents, one English, one French, one Japanese and one American, were on their way to an international business conference when they were kidnapped by terrorists and taken to a secret hideout.

“You, your companies, and you countries are enemies of the Revolution,” screamed the terrorist leader, “and you’re going to be executed! Do you have any last requests?”

The Englishman spoke first. “Before I die, I want to honor my country and protest this barbaric act by singing “God Save The Queen” to all you men.”

“That can be arranged,” said the terrorist.

The Frenchman said, “And I want to honor my country before I die by singing “The Marseilles” to your men.”

The Japanese said, “Before I die, I wish to honor my country by giving the lecture I was going to present on the Japanese style of industrial management.”

The terrorist turned finally to the American.

“What is your last request?” The American replied, “I want you to kill me right now so I don’t have to listen to another lecture on the Japanese style of industrial management!”

February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 63

ASTROTURF CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

ARIES

Mar 21- April 20 Your health sees an improvement and you feel a sense of joy in whatever you do. Career remains good.

This is the time to remain alert and showcase your talents. Being involved in your partner’s financial life will help you get your budget in the right perspective.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20 Take care of your diet and exercise regime will help you tide over most of the problems.

Foreign travel needs to be avoided. Finances will be much better.

You may receive a financial opportunity in foreign lands and with foreign companies. Pay rises are likely.

GEMINI May 21 - June 21 You will feel more energetic and happy. Career looks happy and successful. Good opportunities for singles, family & family connections play a great role here.

You are in your yearly peak of career. Those in authority and your superiors will be impressed by your work, verbal & communication skills and will be receptive to your ideas. Progress is seen towards your goals.

CANCER

Jun 22 - July 23

Money comes to you through various ways and means, so you need to garner support of your partner into reinvesting wisely. Those of you of appropriate age should do your estate & tax planning now. This is an excellent period to pay down your debts and making good planning for the future even if you have to take loans by all means do so. You need to know the difference between constructive and destructive debts. Good time to meet investment bankers.

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

This is an good period for starting or re-launching new projects. You are at your social peak and at the height of your personal popularity. Finances are much improved.

There is luck in speculations under sound financial judgment.

Your generosity pays off in love relationships and family bandings. A good period to spend on your luxuries, which make life comfortable.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23 You will experience a fast progress towards your goals. Aviod stressful activities. If you are seeking a job or one of those who employs people then you are in a blessed period when you are successful in all your missions. Finance does not show any major moves this month.

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

A very prosperous period. A good time to start any of your favourite projects. Giving and receiving gifts from loved ones helps you showcase your love and feel loved.

Give vent to your creativity and indulge in your favorite hobbies.

64 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

SCORPIO

This month turns out to be an exciting period for you when situations are going the right way for you. Finance is still an important factor, and you are in the midst of your yearly financial peak. Concentrate on your emotional. The money rolls in as happy job opportunities are coming your way.

You could be travelling to far off places. Money comes through unexpected sources like financial insurances etc. Health and energy remain good and you could enhance it further through holistic ways. Love remains stable it doesn’t seem much of a priority and you will be satisfied with the status quo.

Oct 23 - Nov 22

A excellent month for starting all what you have set your heart and mind on. New business or new project whatever you wish to launch should be done right on. It is time to focus more on the needs of others than self. This month you are building firm foundations for your future success. Romance looks positive and happens closer to home.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov 23 - Dec 22

Time to take personal responsibility for your own happiness and conditions in your life. Seeking appreciations or endorsement from others will be a waste of time. Just make the changes that you are sincerely feeling need the change. Wealth seems important when love life gets a turn on. Health remains basically good Finances remain good but there could be a slight disturbance around later in the month. Wealth seems important when love life gets a turn on. You love to experience the raw and unconventional, and you may find future prospects in educational environs. Make sure you get enough rest so pace yourself between work and relaxation. Job seekers will benefit

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

You could be experiencing much conflict in regards to your career or the demands of your career could be much more than anticipated. Just be patient and you will sail through the entire rigmarole successfully. Even though you cannot ignore your career completely but you can learn to downplay a bit and balance both your personal and professional life. Most of the time you will find yourself in a happy and prosperous space.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20 Prosperity is strong this month and basically happy. Happy job opportunities are coming your way. Do not panic even situations are slow, just remember slow and steady will eventually win the race.Be methodical in whatever you do. Love will still be required to do the balancing act.

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CORPORATE CULTURE

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power

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February 16-29, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 65

THE LAST WORD

Start-ups: Can they make a real difference?

Ganesh Natarajan

T

here is a buzz in the air today – in the corridors of corporate India, in the hallowed halls of premier academic institutions and sadly also in the cafeterias of dubious engineering and management colleges everywhere. There is a refrain that emanates from politicians, institute directors and even parents which goes “don’t be a jobseeker, be a job creator.”

If one were to believe all the hype it would appear that the environment is right for every twenty-something person to abandon their ambitions to work for a Citi or BCG or Bajaj and embark on a start-up that promises to address some perceived discontinuity in the marketplace, visuals of the recent NDTV Awards where the pretty and vivacious Deepika Padukone presented the ‘Indian of the Year’ award to a group of seven unicorns (billion-dollar valuation), exhortations at the highest level to go forth and conquer the entrepreneurial world and the urge among young Indians to “get rich quick” are creating a buzz about start-ups everywhere.

A word of caution that the startups everywhere flies in the face of conventional economic logic which says that for every successful entrepreneur, there would be twenty or more loyal employees hired to make the entrepreneur’s dream come true and in the process build success and prosperity for themselves.

Many of us in corporate India have built successful careers around this logic, helped in many ways by the generosity of our employers and good stock options which bear fruit over a period of time. I remember getting my first CEO role in my early thirties to lead a start-up training outfit APTECH and had the good fortune to see great success during the boom years of the computer

Many of us in corporate India have built successful careers around this logic, helped in many ways by employers’ generosity and good stock options which bear fruit over a period of time

There will always be opportunities in the marketplace, which visionary young men and women can tap and equally more opportunities for seasoned professionals to build new business education industry and reasonable wealth creation as a reward for my efforts. The 15-year stint at Zensar that has followed, which is eloquently captured in the Sage Publications book ‘From Start-Up to Global Success’ has seen unprecedented wealth creation for many shareholders and also excellent livelihoods and careers for over 10,000 Zensarians who have been part of this journey. One data point that illustrates our success is that in the five-year period from January 2010 to December 2015, the company reported a 44 percent compounded annual growth rate in market value, which is higher than all firms in our sector and orders of magnitude better than most firms in any industry anywhere in the world.

While we have to thank loyal and committed people who have been employed and stayed employed with us through the years and who con-

66 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016

tinue to aspire to take Zensar to the billion dollar club and beyond, there has been no shortage of intrapreneurs within the firm who have presented a great idea and built it within the organisation.

There will always be opportunities in the marketplace which visionary young men and women can tap and equally more opportunities for seasoned professionals to build new business that can scale and address the real needs of society and the country. I must confess to being a little partial to ideas that are not just copycats of a start-up that succeeded elsewhere. As my friend, the irrepressible Sharad Sharma of iSpirt said at our Bengaluru book launch event, anybody who sets out to be the Amazon or Uber of India must remember that there is always the threat the Amazon themselves may decide to be the Amazon of India. The argument being made here is that when there are real problems to be solved and businesses to be built like APTECH and Zensar addressing real needs of local and global customers, would we be better served building companies for that.

Of course, there will ultimately a coexistence of both heady new ideas that create new market opportunities and scaling start-ups that solve the problems of the world because the steak and the sizzle have the potential to co-exist and build value

for customers as well as shareholders. However the start-up ecosystem would have been truly successful if in 2020 we can look back and say “here are four or five world-beating multi-billion dollar revenue companies that emerged from the 10,000 start-ups initiative of NASSCOM or the New Venture Competitions of the HBS Club or indeed because of the Prime Minister’s inspiring speech when he launched the StartUp India mission. But the road will not be easy and for every national or global success story, there will be 20 which make some money and create some value and probably 80 which will fall by the wayside. Never mind, it is a new world full of new opportunities and it would be good to remember what none other than Albert Einstein said.

“The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems that we cannot solve at the same level at which we have created them... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is to survive.”

Let us build a new world… together!

Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of NASSCOM Foundation and Vice Chairman of Zensar Technologies

Printed and published by Suresh Chandra Padhy on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Suresh Chandra Padhy.

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68 / Corporate Citizen / February 16-29, 2016