Business Mandate (June 2023)

A new beginning...

While inaugurating the new Parliament building, the Prime Minister delivered an inspiring address that emphasized the need to forge a developed India during the auspicious Amrit Kaal. He aptly described the new Parliament building as a link between resolution and accomplishment.

The inauguration ceremony marked a milestone in our nation's journey towards progress, development, and strong democratic principles. The new Parliament stands as a symbol of our collective aspirations, where every citizen is represented and every voice heard, thereby fostering an inclusive and participatory democracy It is not merely a physical structure, but a testament to our democratic values, where ideas are exchanged, debates held, and decisions made for the betterment of our great nation. It has been meticulously designed to accommodate the evolving needs of a dynamic democracy and to provide a conducive environment for meaningful deliberations.

We convey our heartfelt gratitude to all those who

 The concept behind ONDC is commendable; it aims to bring about positive changes in the e‐commerce landscape.

have contributed to the construction of the new Parliament Their unwavering commitment and passion have resulted in a structure that will serve as a beacon of democracy and a testament to India's aspirations for years to come.

Open Network for Digital Commerce ﴾ONDC﴿ a Game Changer in Digital Commerce!

The concept behind ONDC is commendable; it aims to bring about positive changes in the e-commerce landscape However, it is essential to evaluate whether

Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM

it has actually made the intended impact on businesses

The ONDC website presents itself as "Everyone's Commerce" and promises to deliver an e-commerce revolution in India. Its objective is to provide an alternative to large platforms with monopolistic powers by establishing an interoperable decentralized network that empowers small sellers and offers customers better choices. Meanwhile, numerous start-ups, often labelled as monopolistic, such as Swiggy and Zomato, are facing significant challenges in maintaining profitability It remains uncertain whether these companies will ever become highly profitable businesses. While the intent behind ONDC is laudable, the game-changing elements of its business model are not clearly apparent. It will be intriguing to observe how this idea unfolds and whether it can truly bring about the envisioned transformation in the industry.

The Journey of a Champion

I am delighted to share about a unique, upcoming event that celebrates the journey of champions. It features three outstanding sports personalities: Mr. Geet Sethi, Mr. Viswanathan Anand, and Mr. Viren Rasquinha. This event will take place on June 15, 2023, at the MMA Management Center.

This event will provide a platform for the exchange of views, knowledge, and inspiration Participants will have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of the challenges faced and lessons learned by these champions. Whether you are a sports enthusiast, aspiring athlete, or simply seeking inspiration, this event promises to be a memorable experience

Mark your calendars for June 15, 2023, and join us at the MMA Management Center to witness the journey of champions unfold before your eyes or watch it live on YouTube

The Real Estate – AGILE

The Society of Auditors in association with MMA and with the support of KAS is organizing a one day

seminar on 23 June 2023 at MMA Management Center.

Real estate is the second-highest employment generating sector, and India is poised to become the third-largest construction market in the world. However, despite its potential, this sector faces numerous challenges This program aims to provide an excellent platform for the exchange of views and knowledge regarding various aspects of the real estate industry

In this context, some of the topics covered during the seminar will include the challenges in plot development, property redevelopment, joint property development, leasing of unsold inventory, valuation of closing stock, accounting methods and much more. Additionally, leading advocates and chartered accountants will shed light on the trending tax disputes and provide approaches to prevent, manage, and resolve such disputes Kindly join us in person or watch it live

Generative AI: Embracing the Future of Productivity

Generative AI when viewed as a new tool for routine and repetitive tasks, has the potential to revolutionize the way we work, allowing us to focus our efforts on core responsibilities and thereby enhancing productivity. While it's true that elementary jobs may face potential risks, we can mitigate the impact of AI by adapting to this transformative technology, just as we have done in the past with the emergence of new tools AI can take care of mundane tasks, freeing up our time to concentrate on activities that truly add value. It's important to recognize that it is not AI itself that takes away our jobs, but rather how we choose to utilize AI as a tool We have the power to shape our future by making informed decisions about how we leverage these technologies. We must recalibrate our skills and strategies to ensure success in an AI-driven world.

In light of this, MMA, in collaboration with E&Y and KAS, is organizing a one-day seminar titled "Generative AI: The Future is Here" on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at the MMA Management Center. The aim of this

seminar is to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of Generative AI's business applications, limitations, regulatory considerations, and the effective utilization of these tools Whether you join us in person or choose to watch the seminar live, this event promises valuable insights into harnessing the power of Generative AI for future endeavors. Let's embrace the possibilities and prepare ourselves to navigate the exciting future that lies ahead with Generative AI

Brand IPL – Congratulations CSK!

Rains forced the IPL 2023 final into the reserve day for the first time It was worth the wait for CSK fans: Ravindra Jadeja emerged as the hero, leading CSK to a dramatic last-ball victory against the Gujarat Titans and securing their fifth IPL title In this context, it is worth reflecting on the remarkable journey of the IPL since its inception in 2008 The league has evolved into a powerhouse brand, currently valued at close to $11 billion, making it one of the most valuable sporting leagues in the world The IPL has been a game-changer for cricket, providing a solid foundation for professional cricket and generating significant revenue for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to foster the growth of the sport. The IPL's success also attests to the strength of India's robust consumer economy

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

~ Peter Drucker

This issue's cover story revolves around the theme "The Company We Keep: Insights into India's Corporate Culture " The discussion sheds light on the emotional dilemmas, the challenges of aspiration, and the everyday battles that shape a successful career. Introspection should not solely focus on discovering flaws but equally on recognizing one's strengths and true potential It is often simpler to build upon existing strengths rather than creating entirely new capabilities We invite you to read this insightful article, which includes an embedded video for your viewing pleasure!

MMA AGM 2023

I am pleased to share that the 67th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Madras Management Association is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 7th, 2023, at the MMA Management Center During the AGM, we will be presenting the prestigious Award for Managerial Excellence. The recipients of this esteemed award will also share their remarkable journeys that led them to receive this coveted recognition

We are honored to have Mr Shrinivas V Dempo, Chairman, Dempo Group of Companies, and Mr. Shenu Agarwal, MD & CEO, Ashok Leyland as our esteemed guests They have graciously accepted our invitation to present the award and address our members during the AGM. Their valuable insights and experiences are sure to inspire and motivate everyone participating in the AGM.

We eagerly anticipate your participation at the AGM, the Awards function, and the dinner that follows It promises to be a remarkable event filled with knowledge sharing, networking opportunities, and celebration. Let us come together as a community to recognize excellence and reinforce the spirit of growth and progress of MMA

Thank you, and we look forward to your enthusiastic participation at the AGM.

Ms Divya Khanna: In 2017, I was burning out I was overstretched and overworked When you work too much, your work can suffer and that's extremely demotivating. My health was suffering and I didn't have much of a personal life I took a break and started focusing on my health I started realizing that everything didn't happen to me. Maybe I made some of those things happen. We're a very diverse country Some of the unifying things are that as Indians, we feel we are very hardworking. We need a purpose. We need to be doing something. I felt I needed to get the answers to my problems because I didn't want to make the same mistakes again

I started researching the corporate world and came out with my findings, essentially in four parts. The first part is about cultural conditioning Not just the corporate world, every one of us has deep cultural conditioning. We all grow up with a certain competitiveness within us. We have a lot of status consciousness The second part gets into the corporate lifestyle What are the attractions of the corporate

The book, The Company We Keep, is a market research‐based exploration of Indian corporate culture It looks beyond the glamour and jargon of the business world to individual stories.

Ms Divya Khanna, the author, in conversation with Mr. C Siva Kumar, Director, Roots Industries India Ltd., Mr G Giridhara Gopal, Director & CEO, Addison & Co Ltd , and Mr. Vinay Kamath, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu BusinessLine

lifestyle, why do we want corporate careers and what are the compromises that we have to make to get our careers going? The third part looks at different stages of the corporate life cycle. There are freshers, people who are in their first job and people in the middle and senior management I also studied the retired cohort Today, health is such that people can retire but they're still perfectly capable of contributing. My father has officially retired but he works three times harder than I do In the fourth part, I sought expert opinions on topics such as neuroscience and its role in the corporate life, leadership, HR aspects, collective collusion, workspace design, etc

Mr C Sivakumar: Not only companies, cricket teams have a culture. The IPL team, CSK has a culture and it explains how they handle every situation. The new generation earns a hefty salary and a lot of perks People skip jobs once in two years and try to adjust to the culture without losing their job. The new culture, new salary, new ways of living and the lifestyle changes come with a challenge By chasing only wealth, we soon

realise that it's a wrong desire and we are in the wrong path. You have deadlines to meet and unrealistic targets set by your boss There is a lot of pressure from your peers You need to say ‘yes’ to your boss very often if you have to climb the ladder. You need that big salary as well as the negative ones that come up with it. You have to do a fine balancing act For people like MS Dhoni, the CSK captain, every pressure is a pleasure

HR has a big role to play. The HR job is just not about motivation, recruitment or retainment. It must bridge the gap between boss and the subordinates, understand the employees and give them breaks and the right experiences. It should give them a feeling that there is a social care for anyone working in the organization HR has to lay stress on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being of the employees.

Mr Giridhara Gopal: I've been in the manufacturing sector for last 30 years Stress affects every human being in this world, not just the people who are

employed in corporates Work has life in it and life has work in it. It is no more a work-life balance. One must know how to integrate work and life. Our parents never talked about work life balance or stress and they all lived happily. The generation next talks to us nothing other than the work-life balance. The status of an individual becomes his/her identity today The path that you took to make the wealth is forgotten

Those days, the companies were valued based on what they were contributing to the society, to the country. Today, the identity of companies is based on what revenue and profit they make, how much dividend they pay and what the stakeholder wants. In this situation, changing the corporate culture is a challenge. The individuals have to change to have a societal change The entire mindset of the society should change.

Another challenge for companies is if they should make the shareholders happy or their employees happy? You have to take care of both Eventually, the

customers are the ones who make a company The CEO must balance these needs

Today, ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance norms) has become very important. It is no more the profits that you make It is also an interesting revelation to know about neuroscience and its role in influencing and understanding the employees, especially the role of body chemicals like oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine

Mr Vinay Kamath: All of us have worked in traditional companies and but increasingly, we now see now the gig economy where the employees relate to companies in a contractual role What does that do to their attitude and their understanding of the company? How does the company deal with these people and try to develop a corporate culture?

Ms Khanna: I have not researched the gig economy But in the last few years, I have been part of the gig economy. I don't know if it's true for everybody but for me, wanting to be part of the gig economy was a reaction to the corporate culture that I couldn't deal with. As a contract worker, I can say ‘no,’ much more easily, because there's a contract that says what I will do and what I won't do and how much I will be paid for it When I was an employee, my contract didn't say any such thing.

The other part depends on HOW the company treats the contract workers For example, in advertising, we had certain people, especially in the creative team, who were technically contract workers. They were on contract, so that they could be paid a higher salary. They functioned pretty much like regular employees of the company and were very much integrated. There are also cases where the contract workers don't ever come into the office They're just a face, perhaps on a zoom

conference. It depends on companies on how they're treating the contract workers and how they're integrating. It also depends on how much the worker wants to be part of the corporate culture.

Mr Kamath: What would be the company's relationship with the person who does contract work? If they treat them as a regular employee, what happens to the dynamics between the contract worker and the rest of the employees? I'm sure companies are going to face this scenario increasingly

Ms Khanna: That depends on the employer and their policy regarding contract workers. Why do they have contract workers in the first place? In the advertising example that I gave, the only reason those creative people were contract workers was that as an employee of the company, they could not be paid a higher salary. The company wanted to hold on to the creative talent and give them what they felt they deserved On paper, they made them contract employees. So, you must know the reason for having a contract employee. Then, is it a short-term project? Is it something that you don't have it in house? It depends on a lot of factors

Mr Sivakumar: Today, every organisation has a set of people who are contracted and a set of people who are direct employees I will answer this question from two parts from my manufacturing experience and also as a retailer with Titan. Titan as a brand has taught us about a culture that they maintained within the

 As a contract worker, I can say ‘no,’ much more easily, because there's a contract that says what I will do and what I won't do and how much I will be paid for it.

~ Ms Khanna

How effective is grapevine communication in organisations?

Bosses sometimes use this to their advantage. Won’t it impact the corporate culture?

Mr Khanna: Grapevine communica on is not within the management's control It is organic. You can do things that will s mulate that. If the company does that to promote the good things they did, so people should talk about that, it’s fine But equally, if they do something bad, which

they want to hide, they may not be able to do that It's very much like the word of mouth. You can treat it like PR and do li le things that will generate more posi ve conversa ons

Mr Sivakumar mentioned that there was no strike or layoff in their organization. What is one major factor that contributed to that success? Did the organizational culture help to achieve this?

Mr Sivakumar: Hosur has a very turbulent atmosphere. Every organiza on has different unions Mine was making loss and no union wanted to enter a loss‐ making

organization. It was the first CEO Mr Xerxes Desai who paved the way for that culture He said that, first, we need to provide service to a customer, whether he bought from a franchised outlet or a company outlet. His emphasis was on building a culture where all belong to a single family In that culture, you can be frank enough and accept your mistakes.

Though we are franchisees, he made us travel across Europe, Australia, New Zealand and many places to understand the global trends, which he could have done only for the company employees. That's the importance he gave to contracted franchisees and it has made us to be in the front end of the brand to the customer My own employee at the franchisee outlet will carry a Tanishq card and he won't say I am contracted. We are a part Titan and there is no differentiation From a manufacturing side, I do a lot of work for Leyland for tipper and haulage bodies, in Hosur. I have engaged a lot of contract people. Hosur

company That is when I went into some research with a lot of workers I visited their house. I had dinner with them and asked them, “Why is it that many of you resort to strike?” A er going deep in the conversa on, most of them said, “Sir, I am a welder. My son will become a welder and my grandson will become a welder But in your case, you're a managing director Your son will become a super Managing Director and therefore there's a divide. The only way for us to get what we want is to rebel And that's why we have the labour unions and the strikes.” That brought deeper thoughts in me and I thought the only way

is a place which is highly unionized I have about 1000 people for over 30 years and there has not been a single strike, layoff, lockout, suspension or dismissal. We won the national award. Even during the Covid, we paid our contracted employees and made sure our north Indian workers stayed back, for which, we were featured in the newspaper. There is no difference that we have created between the contracted employee and our own employees Education is one area that can transform their family. Even for a contracted employee, we're looking at education to be provided in order that they grow in their life In fact, we are tying up with some colleges to help them seek further education

Mr Kamath: The aspirations of the young people who join companies are quite different. When we were young, it was very important to earn a good salary, then to buy our first car and our first home But I find these youngsters want to soak in experiences and not so much into buying or holding assets. They want to go on

~ Mr Sivakumar

to make my company different from the other companies is to look at educa on for the employees’ children. I brought about a new scheme called ‘GenNext,’ where the children were a ached to people in Chennai lawyers, doctors and sportsmen. The professionals were told to just guide the children and advised not to give them money but only their mind space. Many of the children took the messages and started transforming The workers said, “Look, my

son is doing be er,” or “My son is equal to my supervisor’s child / my manager’s child.” Then they found a big difference in the way our company was run. So, the one single factor for our success is educa on for employees’ children

Are there any limitations on relying on jugaad, which is typical of Indian culture?

Mr Khanna: In the short term, when you

a holiday or take some courses How can companies deal with aspirations of this kind? How does this impact a company's culture?

are worried and you need to do something to make it work, it's okay to use jugaad But it's also be er in the long term to think of a long‐term solu on For example, you have a small one‐city startup and there is some transport problem on the ground. You solve it by doing jugaad with some local transporter That is great It will work as long as you are only limited to one place but when you scale it up na onally, you may not be able to use that technique in every city that you go to You also do need the long‐term thing The other thing is to ensure that there is no ethical breach in your jugaad If I'm driving late in the night

to worry about parking or if the road is good or bad, for you to drive The context has changed The right experience is very important to them.

The HR departments need to think about this change. Work is a very important part and I think every generation, including Gen Z, wants to feel that they're making a contribution and that they are doing something worthy of vindicating for themselves. The social purpose behind what you do, the environmental issues like sustainability have now become important It is not just about the absolute amount of money. Companies must create community outreach, so that, these people can be a part of something bigger than themselves

Ms Khanna: I think that applies specifically to Gen Z When we were young, there was no Ola or Uber There was either public transport or you had to have your own car. Therefore, the car was a great aspiration. Today, you have a fantastic cab service. You don't have

Mr Gopal: When we talk about the gender bias, we read about two or three things. We say that India's GDP has not gone up over the years, because we haven't used the potential of women, whereas China has used it My

 It is not just about the absolute amount of money. Companies must create community outreach, so that, these people can be a part of something bigger than themselves.

~ Ms Khanna

 I thought the only way to make my company different from the other companies is to look at the education of the employees' children...

and I'm desperate to get home, there's a one‐way street, which I take As a woman driving alone in the night, I'm doing this jugaad just for my safety But it is an ethical breach and I'm going to create a problem for somebody else. We have to be careful in how and when we use jugaad. We need be er, long‐las ng and sustainable solu ons

How can companies build a deeprooted culture over a number of years that is different from foreign companies?

Mr Gopal: Most of the companies are

valued by revenue and profits But for us, profit is not the only reason for running the company. There are many other things that a company is supposed to contribute to the society The company that I represent is 150‐year‐old. We have gone through a lot of ups and downs. But we have stuck to the culture that we wanted to bring in‐that is being ethical and being honest to the society, employees and to every stakeholder. We haven't made the best of the money that we can make in the industry But we s ck to the fundamentals and value systems that has been taught to us by the culture and systems of India

point is India is not a monolithic country. We have different culture, different kinds of background- urban, rural and a lot of value systems. There are certain things which are inevitable for women, even if they don't wish to, like going on leave during maternity period We say they have to be treated on par but when she's on leave and somebody else is promoted, she feels humiliated. In the first 25 years, we train a girl saying that she has to compete with a boy to be a first rank holder and when they get married, we say that she has change her culture. There's a complete conflict of interest, a conflict of ideas. How do we deal with this?

Ms Khanna: Going into my research, my hypothesis was that corporate culture is something separate and Indian culture is something separate. I was wrong. Our attitudes as a society get into the corporate culture. For us, patriarchy is a very benevolent protectionism Sometimes that comes in our way When you say women can have maternity leave, then men may

The HR people are getting younger. They might have come from great institutions but may lack expertise. Do you think that the companies getting younger are good for organizations?

Mr Kamath: I wrote an ar cle in The BusinessLine cap oned, “Indian CEOs hail from Youngistaan,” taking a line from Pepsi's ad In that, I did a dips ck study of Indian CEOs of professionally run companies and not family run business who had to anyway make their son or daughter a CEO at 27 I found these CEOs were in their 40s, unlike a genera on earlier, where perhaps the CEOs were in their 50s. Some of the HR people I spoke

complain. Either way, somebody is going to feel that it's not fair That creates extra competitiveness from a gender perspective in the company. I feel, today there are opportunities for fathers to take paternity leave. The opportunities and benefits should be equal to both genders

A lot of young men who work in call centers in shifts complain that the girls have transportation but they don't have and it's not fair. They have a point. I also feel that there is this flexibility stigma When a woman is having a baby, she has no choice. Even if she doesn't want to take maternity leave, she will have to.

It's not that she didn't choose to have the child She did choose to have the child and she knows that this is something that she has to do. For a father, it's still a choice. Not everybody can be like Virat Kohli who took leave for his baby and was celebrated on social media for it There are men who would genuinely feel that, if they took paternity leave, it would affect their

to said that younger people are ge ng more varied experiences at a very young age. They come up with the skillsets that the contemporary jobs require and that's why they're coming into these senior roles at a very young age. I am not talking about startups, which anyway, will have young CEOs

Mr Gopal: I don't think that the age alone is an issue. How many CEOs who are in their 60 react weirdly? How many of them are seasoned enough?

How is the concept of carrot and stick applied in Indian corporate culture?

Ms Khanna: Carrot and s ck is not only specific to Indian corporate culture. There a lot of things we do because we see a carrot at the end of it And if the carrot is a rac ve enough, then we will endure some of the s cks. If I am on my weight loss journey, being healthy is a carrot for me The s ck would be the diet or the exercise I would have to do. But in the corporate context, many mes I have been feeling that the s ck is too much and you feel that the carrot is not worth it It depends on your personal level of mo va on and what mo vates you We are in an age of personaliza on and

customiza on As an employee, I may not really care with great policies, because these policies may not apply to me or I may not want them. I may need a specific flexibility or a specific kind of solu on from my workstyle perspec ve If the company is willing to make that, it can make me feel mo vated and commi ed to the organiza on 

camaraderie with the team, if nothing else and that people would make fun of them We have to encourage making it fair. If a woman cuts short her maternity leave and says, ‘my husband will take care of the baby and I want to go to work,’ that should be acceptable That should be some choice that a young couple should have both the man and the woman.

Mr Sivakumar: On the four pillars that the HR must take care in the employees namely, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sides, I'm sure a lot of organizations have worked to improve the employees’ morale and happiness How can companies focus on the spiritual side?

Ms Khanna: When I was doing my management trainee program, we had a course on transcendental meditation. The HR can organise celebration of festivals. They can have a competition for the best Christmas tree or something like that, which can bring the spiritual dimension in.

Encourage people to be part of their communities in whatever religion or faith that they follow The organization can’t take the complete responsibility for the spirituality like they do for the health. The individual has to be participative and willing 

 We are in an age of personalization and cus‐tomization. As an employee, I may not really care with great policies...

~ Ms Khanna

 My hypothesis was that corporate culture is something separate and Indian culture is something separate. I was wrong.

~ Ms Khanna

Ms Aarti Kelshikar: For my research on how women work in leadership roles and succeed in Asia, I chose six countries: India, Singapore, Philippines, China, Japan, and Thailand, because they are reasonably diverse Also, I had some familiarity and some access to people there I started in 2020 and interviewed 61 women across different industries and functions, largely in the corporate space; and some entrepreneurs I also interviewed men I asked people for their leadership inputs and cultural inputs and sometimes for both.

My basic premise or hypothesis is that leadership at a broad level is gender agnostic But I do think that women have to encounter a second layer, which is navigating socio-cultural perceptions, biases, expectations of society, etc I thought it would be interesting to see how they navigate the second layer and build trust and credibility. What's their style of leadership? How do they communicate? How do they

Ms Aarti Kelshikar, Intercultural Coach & Author Founder, 3A Consulting in coversation with Mr Ninad Gadgil, President‐Abrasives, Carborundum Universal Ltd; Ms Devasena Ravisankar, Global Head‐ Innovation Ecosystem, Cognitive Business Operations, TCS and Ms Mythili Chandrasekar, Consumer Behaviour and Brand Strategy Enthusiast

influence in organizations? What are their blind spots and pitfalls? What are some of the strategies to work effectively across Asia? I will share a few insights from the study.

If you look at women in senior management positions in emerging Asia Pacific, the figure is about 37% whereas it is 30% in the developed countries of Asia Pacific. It is a bit interesting, because we would assume that developed countries would have more women in the workforce One explanation for this divergence is that Japan is included in the developed Asia Pacific category. Japan is an outlier in terms of women's participation and empowerment As someone told me, they really came late to the DNI party and they have a long way to go.

In Thailand, women lead with their head, heart and humility In Singapore, it's a very result driven approach They focus on efficiency and bottom line and

it's not so much on relationships or the softer aspects

In China, women have to be visionaries to succeed I don't know whether it's because of their legacy of having emperors and kings. It's very important there for a leader to envision goals and to be agile, because things keep changing as they change in the rest of the world as well. In Japan, it is very, very nuanced. You have to read between the lines on what is said and what is not said It's very patriarchal and hierarchical

In Philippines, they focus on relationships When my husband was working there, he would share that sometimes women would start crying in the workplace and he didn't know what was happening It's a very sensitive, emotional kind of a place. I'm not trying to say if it's bad or good. It's just the way it was.

The other insight is that culture is an enabler for Leadership and Success A lot of women prefer to work in MNCs because they felt that MNCs gave them the freedom and space to be, to think, to express themselves, to take decisions, to be supported and to

be called for crucial conversations I think when women are in less hierarchical and more inclusive setups, they really flourish. They thrive in a place where they are respected and there's a lot of collaboration.

In some places, women are expected not to rock the boat They shouldn’t make too much noise Don't draw attention to yourself. Disrupt, but disrupt gently. It is like, somebody's asked to make an omelette without breaking eggs Let me share an anecdote

There was this lady, one of my interviewees She is incredibly talented and she used to work with Unilever seven years ago. She talked about her time when she was in a board meeting in London All the top people from Unilever, across the world had come here for this meeting, to discuss strategies for haircare products. She said, “I was sitting at the table and looking at everybody around All the men around me were older, white men with little or no hair and they were talking about strategies for Asian women’s hair. I just felt that as the only Asian woman there, I was perhaps the only person

who had some real insight on the topic that they were discussing Unilever's top team at that time was a big boys club. Initially, I tried hard to fit in, as a Thai lady in London. But over time, my learning was that it is less about fitting in and being accepted and more about feeling confident and comfortable in my own skin.” It is interesting to learn about how people navigate the cultural expectations and yet retain their individuality

A lot of women I noticed didn't make some bold splash or declaration. They came in quietly and observed the cultural cues. They didn't try and act like a man But they focused on adding value to themselves and to the teams Once they built their cache of trust and credibility, they tried to make their presence felt and created impact through various ways collaboration, communication and connection They chose how they wanted to fit in and when they wanted to stand out. It's an amazing, unique skill that women bring to the table. We don't really talk much about it and it is seldom recognized as much and it needs to be showcased. We need to have more inclusiveness in conversations and cultures. It's not us versus them but we must have a win-win

Ms Devasena Ravisankar: I started my career eight years ago. I was an engineer back then. Unlike most women those days who did coding and application development, I chose to do hardware assembling of PCs, networking and all of that It was all men everywhere. I was the only one woman there. At that level, you need to have depth, passion and substance. But once you become a leader, people start expecting more That is where you want to put in extra effort to say that you will be able to deliver it. The trust comes by leading from the front, by nurturing the team and ensuring that the team also trusts us Trust is built by having empathy. I have had a lot of challenges in

complex implementation of projects and technology implementations. We used to have customers across the globe You must stand for your team and be transparent in whatever you are dealing with This is how, I've thus far been successful in my career.

Mr Ninad Gadgil: In hard core industrial sectors like manufacturing, there is a much higher percentage of men But in fields like health care, banking, finance and R&D, we see a lot of successful women leaders. The situation is definitely changing rapidly. We have heard of Titan now coming up with an all women crew and plant. In our own company, we see a lot of women in functions like quality assurance and customer service, but it's still very difficult in manufacturing, partly because of cultural issues and partly because of infrastructure issues. Sometimes, men do not want to take the extra effort to make women comfortable, like providing safe transportation when women work in second shift In many of our industrial cluster areas, you do not have yet safe residential places for women. Those are areas that we definitely need to move the needle because we have all seen the great qualities and competency that women bring to the workforce, across all functions. I've seen that women not only succeed in areas where detail- orientation is required, but also in areas where you need a strategic mindset and out of the box thinking.

 I was the only one woman there. At that level, you need to have depth, passion and substance

~ Ms Devasena

~

Ms Aarti: There is a corporate leader based in Singapore who says that she operates with an 80-20 mindset. It means that if I have 80% of the correct data, I will go forward Singapore is a country where you need to be 100% correct, before you commit. A waiter in a restaurant will not give you something if he's not sure of what you want She said that, in her experience, men tend to operate from the big picture or strategic level and many times, they don't get into the details. Whereas women love to hang on to the details and they probably get lost in those The ideal formula is to be able to do the details, because that's important and at the same time, zoom out and look at the macro bigger picture. It's not about having one or the other, it's having both and you must know when to zoom in and when to zoom out. Somebody told me that you must know when to be on the dance floor and when to be in the balcony. This combination of skills is important and women seem to be doing that well and better than most others

Ms Devasena: We view that women coming to work is something great. But do women really aspire to become CXOs? Maybe not, because, there was no urge from a society perspective and nobody expected them And second, they had to do the work life balance. But of late, I'm seeing even within TCS, more women are willing to do big and aspire for senior management roles We have more programs which enable and

nurture women workforce and we ensure that they are given a platform Of course, it's all going to be performance based at the end of the day. The millennial women have this hunger to aspire for more.

Ms Aarti: My advice for the younger generation would be two things One is, developing an authentic personal brand. Gone are the days when HR departments and companies were looking after their employees for the next 20 to 30 years Everybody has to look after themselves You have a world where AI is coming in and commoditizing jobs. So, it's really important to hone and develop a personal brand. What do I mean by that? Identify your strengths and what you stand for I was recently talking to somebody in Morgan Stanley in the US. She told me that when she started as a part of a team of 10 or 12 people, she told herself that she would do the best research for her team. Today, if they need macro- economic research, she's the ‘go-to person,’ because she has consistently delivered and done a great job That's her strength Today, you have social media and all the tools but building an authentic brand is important, because people can see through it.

The other piece would be related to thinking strategically or thinking big Women want their child to do well, have a great education, etc. But they don't really think big when it comes to themselves. It's important to start doing that, not in a very aggressive, competitive way but in your own way A lot of women think about their job and they don't think about their career. Also, they must think wider and broader in what they want to aspire, to be ahead of the curve Networking is important but it has to be done strategically.

Mr Ninad Gadgil: We have to create platforms for women to speak up. Some of them have very challenging assignments where the intensity of

 You have a world where AI is coming in and commoditizing jobs. So, it's really important to hone and develop a personal brand.

Ms Aarti

competition is very high They are not going to get all the answers on their own and they need to seek out help. People say that that it's okay to be vulnerable. You can’t take it at its face value and show your vulnerability at the wrong moments Showing vulnerability in the right context is important. Once you show your competence and warmth, you're getting that credibility Then you become a confident leader that is accepted by many With that level of confidence, perhaps it's okay to show vulnerability. This is equally true for men and for women.

Ms Mythili: There is data that the country's productivity will go up with more women in the workforce. Is there any study or data on a company’s actual results coming from women employment, both at leadership levels and at workforce levels?

Mr Gadgil: I think it's a very straight correlation, because you can clearly see that a lot of users and customers are women. That's why a lot of food companies and cosmetic companies have hired women in marketing roles and they've clearly seen business success. In the industrial sector, we now see women in purchasing, commercial and supply chain roles. I see a strong need for industrial companies to have women in the sales force and in customer service and definitely in product management because, women can see patterns that are missed out by men

Ms Mythili: Between the East and the West, do you see differences in how women work?

Ms Devasena: Women here are committed and are ready to go beyond the call of duty to deliver anything. But if they want to show and exhibit and become that leader, then that is where an extra bit of pushing is required. This comes naturally to those in the Western world

Ms Aarti: Women are different in Europe and Asia There are some broad cultural differences in leadership and management. For example, hierarchy tends to be a bigger value in Asia. It comes in the use of titles, a sense of identity and the respect that you have for the boss Second is the confidence and control In much of Asia or in Singapore, people don't have that confidence unless they have all the data. Whereas in the west, they can take decisions, without getting bogged down by some of the cultural aspects. In the West, assertiveness looks different because people are more vocal. Here, we are slightly more nuanced and we have a different way of exhibiting it People say that we are not aggressive enough or assertive enough. These are very real value judgments that are made about people and situations.

Ms Devasena: I don't think there is anything that stops women from claiming their rightful position, if they actually performed and they are fit for that. We need to coach our women and give them the platform where they can voice out

Ms Aarti: It's one thing to have more women and to tick the diversity box. But it's very important as an organization to have that culture in place. And culture takes a long time and it is led from the top People have to create that culture where everybody would like to work.

Ms Devasena: Women should not shy away from taking help, especially from husbands and their in-laws

Definitely, you need a mentor in the workplace I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who really cared to know my strengths and weaknesses. I'm sure each one of us, when we get into a workplace, should be able to find a suitable mentor It can be a male or female, but get that person right. That is the one who's going to push you and pull you through your career. 

Mr Vasu Krishnan: Most organizations have a process approach but it's a question of how effective they are in identifying the measures of process performance. 30 years ago, there used to be a concept of sales returns and it would be roughly 1 5% That works out to 10,000 to 15,000 PPM defective products. If a tier one or tier two supplier does that, he will be out of business, as it's not acceptable.

In this entire business of organisational growth, unfortunately, financial performance is considered as the gold standard. They think that if the performance with respect to other critical process parameters such as quality or delivery is lacking, as long as one could get away with it, so much the better.

A very clear understanding of the customer requirements, not only stated but unstated too, is needed to prevent potential failures In the process of organizational growth, we must retain the lessons

Mr Vasu Krishnan, author, in discussion with Dr K C John, Director, Faculty of Management, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education & Research; Mr George Suresh, Managing Partner, Vasanth Products; Cmdr M D Menon ﴾Retd﴿, Indian Navy; and Dr N Ravichandran, Distinguished Professor of Management ﴾Part‐time﴿, IIT Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

learned to ensure that they are not forgotten when individuals leave Clause 7 1 4 of ISO 9001: 2015 refers to organizational knowledge and the necessity for retaining it in the organisation. If there's something in the process that is not delivering, change the process and make sure it delivers on measures of performance, pertaining to quality and delivery.

When Competitors Collaborated

In 1994, the Automotive Industry Action Group comprising representatives of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler Corporation decided to collaborate, even though they were competitors, to come up with common customer requirements, because their common suppliers informed them that it was too difficult to deal with three people having three different requirements. So, they came up with their own publications or reference manuals covering advanced product quality planning and control plan, FMEA (Failure mode effects

analysis), Production Part Approval Process, Fundamental SPC and measurement system analysis. These have been revised over a period of time and are being followed for more than 25 years by Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers and serve as a gold standard on this subject.

The Process Approach

There is a fundamental assumption that organizations like individuals would like to present the best version of themselves A process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve an end The PDCA cycle is a Plan, Do, Check and Act. More often than not, the ‘C’ is neglected. A process is a set of interconnected activities, having an impact on corresponding measures of performance.

When we talk of measures of performance, we don't rule out other things like business process reengineering to cut out the non-value-added activities or benchmarking. According to automotive standard, special characteristics are those characteristics,

attributes or variables of products and processes affecting fit, form, function, statutory and regulatory requirements. Corresponding organizations could either be design responsible or not

Struggling with a Sachet

Forget about engineering products, where there are so many requirements affecting performance Take a simple thing like a sachet of pickle served in trains How many of us can open the sachet with our fingers? We have to use our teeth or look for a pair of scissors. Opening the sachet with our fingers is a special characteristic. If you apply this concept to your own product, you will find there are a lot of failure modes, which could be improved upon The product and its packaging itself can lead to so many problems

The PDCA cycle can be applied in process and discrete manufacturing organizations such as engineering, consumer durables, construction, automotive, aviation and pharma Leadership styles can impact process measures of performance. This is really

important In one of the few organizations I had worked, people worked exactly eight hours They didn't spend an hour of overtime work and they were very relaxed, because the bosses were relaxed. The ability to communicate a certain degree of confidence to the people that report to you, in turn drives their performance.

Need for Review

When we discuss continuous and continual improvement, educational institutions must also be included. A lot of things are still lacking there including fundamental understanding of certain words like review, verification and validation An example of review is the computer-generated document. It says that it does not require any signature. If a document has been generated, someone must take responsibility for it. If there is an error in it, change the document and accept responsibility. A trading organization is the subject of service quality Service quality is not something related only to banks, logistic organizations and other organizations supplying services. In the business of offering services, it also includes things like warranty and warranty service Any organization which is involved in the process of improvement and organizational transformation can apply the process approach. It is just a question of asking some very simple questions, bordering on 5Ws and 1H

Structured Growth

When we want structured growth, we must consider the context of the organization and the relevant needs and expectations of stakeholders, not limited to financial stakeholders. The context of the organization is the industry It includes the needs and expectations of interested parties- what and how and therefore, what will be their strategy in meeting those needs. Leadership

and leadership styles impact organizational effectiveness. In the ‘mirasdar’ leadership style, the person is not bothered about delegation. He thinks he is the big man and nobody should ask him questions, Here the leader cannot be bothered with the details of process effectiveness and it is a sure recipe for ultimate failure. Implementation of a structured approach is paramount Recognition and certification are natural corollaries. Process measures of performance consider measures of effective performance, considering quality and delivery, instead of only financial result There must be a clear emphasis on knowledge as an enabler and the award process as differentiator in the organisations’ business and competitive strategy.

Quality Hierarchy

There are six categories in the quality hierarchy and they are:

• Uncommitted

• Drifters

• Tool pushers

• Improvers

• Award winners

• World Class

Uncommitted organizations are the dinosaurs and will not last long. Going up the hierarchy, we have drifters, who are the organizations who drift from one

 There must be a clear emphasis on knowledge as an enabler and the award process as differentiator in the organisations’ business and competitive strategy.

~ Mr Krishnan

concept to another Today, it's ISO 9001 Tomorrow, it may be something else Tool pushers are committed to the task and will complete them Improvers are the ones who are one step ahead, like the organizations which are on the transformation route Award winners focus on TPM, Deming and other awards. The best are world class organisations who can bag the Japan Quality Award.

The basic assumption of FMEA (Failure Mode Effects Analysis) is Murphy's Law, which is a reality Anything that can go wrong, can go wrong, irrespective of all the people who believe in positive thinking. Life on Earth is part of it. FMEA comprises DFMEA and PFMEA, addressing failure modes in design and process

The 7 Step Process

In 2019, AIAG collaborated with VDA to bring out the combined AIAG-VDA FMEA Handbook First Edition, the main feature of which is the 7-step process of FMEA, as follows:

1. Planning & preparation / Project identification

2. Structure analysis / Visualisation of the scope of analysis

3 Function analysis / Visualisation of functions

4. Failure analysis / establishment of the failure chain of events (covering DFMEA, FMEA and Monitoring System Response (MSR)

5 Risk analysis /alignment of controls and rating of failures

6. Optimisation / identification of brisk reduction actions

7 Results documentation

Automotive organisations (Tier 1 and 2) transiting from AIAG’s 4th edition of FMEA must ensure their

cross functional teams are trained to understand the above requirements as part of their new product development process. Normally, a period of three years is given for organizations who are Tier 1 or 2 to migrate to the next standard

Mr George Suresh: We started off with the manufacturing components for the Ministry of Defence, where the volumes are low and repeatability was a challenge We moved to the auto sector, adding technology and with the expertise gained from the defence supplies. But the challenge came in following a process approach. We were asked to get 100 PPM certification from Hyundai if we were to continue production and supply to their Tier-1 vendors Mr Vasu Krishnan chipped in and we brought in a very effective FIFO for the raw material and single line flow for our product We were making five varieties of flanges The first off, middle off and last off inspections were taken care of and made very stringent.

Initially, the products were measured and checked using verniers and micrometers, wherein a lot of components would end up with the customer with quality issues. Then we went for fixtures and gauges for all the end products and we were able to give the customer perfect confidence We were awarded the 100 PPM certification. This 100 PPM again has helped us a lot in supplying to Tier 1 and OEMs. We also went into automation like turning centers and CNC milling centers We are now robotizing the machining centers too. Technology has helped us achieve the qualities required in today's competitive world.

Commodore Menon: Deming propounded the PDCA Cycle He also said, “Never blame the worker; People should not feel threatened at their workplace. They should not have fear in their minds.” If people are afraid, they tend to be tensed up At the same time, it

doesn't mean they should be casual about work Nobody comes to office with an idea of making mistakes Everyone wants to come to work and do a good job but mistakes do occur. The good thing about system-basedapproach is to learn from the mistakes and ensure that they do not recur. Efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things. To be effective, you must have written down system procedures, work instructions, etc The people should know their job and they should be skilled at it. They should be trained. They should be very clear of their role in a particular process Next is the commitment of the person involved in the job Culture is brought in by the top management.

When mistakes happen, we can repair or rework. When we rework, we can get back to the original quality When we repair, the product can be put for alternate uses. It can be downgraded and sold. With PDCA, the whole idea is to prevent recurrence of defects. Corrective action is taken once a mistake has occurred Preventive action leads to preventing recurrence of defects. If the same defects recur, then there is something fundamentally wrong We also must have an eye for details This doesn't mean we should be nitpicking and going around over-supervising or micromanaging.

The Defence and the Corporate World

In defence forces also, like the corporate world, the systems are not static. They change and we have to follow the procedure and process very meticulously Otherwise, it can lead to fatal results In the corporate sector, if you want to survive the competitive business environment, you should not produce a single bad item. If you produce a bad item, it means you're running an underground factory producing bad items and an overground factory, which is reflected in your books of

accounts The entire aim of a good organization is to shut down the underground factory which runs parallel without anybody's knowledge, creating problems and losses to the company. Just imagine if there is a bad product or there's an accident You may lose 10 customers and to win one lost customer, you have to spend four times the money, 10 times a month. With the current level of communication, the risk is very high.

In the defence forces, we don't have runners up In the industry perhaps, we can say the top player, the second-best player and so on. In the Armed Forces, it's a do or die. In the business process, you may be able to survive when the market is large, with a dominant player and couple of not-so-dominant players but everyone has to run. Lots of lessons have been learned from the defence services and used in the corporate world For example, the quality management system itself has come from a NATO document. The term logistics comes from the armed forces.

Prof Ravichandran: According to the author, an organisation can attain leadership position by using the manufacturing systems and processes. It can add value to the consumers by an appropriate product design and execution of the value chain, so that the cost of the product is lower and it can be sold at a competitive price. This is what is meant by leadership through a process-oriented approach.

Lean management, Manufacturing strategy, Project management in the context of manufacturing organisations. critical chain which is the cousin of the theory of constraints, TPM, PPC, Business Process Reengineering, Quality systems and standards, how one designs manufacturing systems, design responsibility and design capability and future of manufacturing, covered by the author, are very relevant to today’s manufacturing context 

Ms Sangeeta Shankaran Sumesh: The crux of the book is about three things: Understanding the building blocks of money-making; where should one focus for business growth; and how can one contribute to the business growth, irrespective of the department or function that one is in? According to the author, the most successful business leaders never lose sight of the basics. The ability to apply the universal laws of business is business acumen

Money making has three parts: Cash Generation, return on assets (ROA) and growth. ROA is the combination of velocity and margin. To these three, add the customers and that becomes the core of any business Velocity describes the speed, the turnover or the movement. When a company can't generate enough cash, it tends to borrow, but if they borrow heavily and do not correct the problem, they have trouble in repaying the loans and can become bankrupt Companies must focus more on productivity. CEOs with

good business acumen have a close connection with their customers

Customer vs. Consumer

There is a difference between consumer and customer The CEO must try to understand the needs and the wants of the consumer because they are the ones who consume the product or service. Many of the processes like logistics, discounts, merchandising, shelving are geared towards customers, who are the intermediaries. When you don't get the margins that you want, talk to your customers and understand what is missing and work on it

Growth of a company has to be profitable and sustainable. A company may be growing in sales, which is great but if the margins are dipping, then it is not good So, leaders need to be focused on consistent, predictable and profitable growth. Companies must also focus on adjacencies. Nike sell shoes, which is what

Ms Sangeeta Shankaran Sumesh, Business & Leadership Coach; Mr Mukund Kasthuri, Regional Director‐Asia, Flexco; and Mr Senthilkumar Sivaswamy, MD, Benteler Automotive, discuss Ram Charan's book.

they're known for. They also sell athletic apparel. This is an example for adjacencies It's important for a CEO to understand the company's total business and get a holistic picture of the company. A smart CEO always has three to five top business priorities, which helps in money making

More than money making, the leader must look at the P/E ratio (price earnings ratio). It is the ratio of the share price of the company to company’s earnings per share Higher the ratio, the more wealth you can create for your shareholders. By creating wealth, it's not just the shareholders but also the employees get benefited.

A leader must harness the efforts of the people, expands their personal capacity and synchronise them, so the business gets the desired results. It's important to have the right people in the right job. When there are differences of opinion, go ahead and confront people People who do well in a job also need attention We think that the people who are star performers don't need coaching. But it is the other way around.

By coaching your team members, you help them to identify their blind spots and do things better Feedback needs to be honest and direct. Coach people on the behavioral skills and also about the business aspect. To give the example of Walmart, Sam Walton, the founder, introduced a social operating mechanism (SOM) They would meet regularly and discuss, compare with competitors their pricing strategy, merchandising, consumer behavior and trends and talk about the best practices. If CEOs have to deliver, they have to master both the business side and managing the people.

Mr Mukund Kasthuri: Fifty percent of my time goes in talent management It starts with having the right people on the bus. Then we need to ensure they have the behavioral capabilities related to that job and the right attitude They must have initiative, hunger and passion for growth Passion, focus and clear communication are the three aspects which will help one grow in an organization and not politics. Understanding the expectations of the job, clarifying beforehand, then going after those things and getting

feedback at a regular frequency will help them to develop management or business acumen

The customer is the one around which everything is centered. You have to create value for the customer. I can relate velocity to inventory turnover ratio in our business We must have a ratio of 3 to 3 5, so we don't have non-moving stock. What stock to keep is the biggest challenge most of the CEOs face. The business model has changed slightly from B2B to B2C The CEOs need to be abreast with technology They have to make the right investments to make sure that the return comes faster.

Mr Senthilkumar Sivaswamy: In our automotive industry also, velocity is the inventory turnover We need working capital to run our business. For each product, parts or the models that we are manufacturing worldwide, we need working capital Before starting the project, we have to look at our suppliers and their payment term. We need to decide the inventory and come up with the budget for the working capital. We need to optimize the inventory turnover, for the for the whole lifetime of the product. Last week, I was in our Jeep plant in Portugal where we use Just In Time (JIT) concept Normally, our product involves 10 parts But in the jeep plant, we're doing the complete model and it involves nearly 200 to 300 parts. Some parts we do and some parts we buy. We have to optimize the flow of the material, so that we keep the inventory low, so our gross margin will increase The gross margin is very important in keeping the profitability or the earnings of the company.

Ms Sangeetha: In a company that's not asset heavy, how will you work on Return on Assets?

Mr Mukund: We set up a company in Dubai. We did not want to make heavy investments. So, we went with

the lease model. We went for third party logistics, rented office space and wanted to keep everything on a very low variable rather than have a fixed cost model We invested on people People are also an asset and an investment. Coaching helps people to increase their capability. We must try to work on the strengths of the people, rather than trying to change them In all the IT companies, people are the assets. To retain people, we must provide a very good workplace culture, give them the freedom to operate and remuneration, which is in line with market trends

What are your thoughts on managing the working capital?

The best is to have negative working capital. We followed that model in India when we started the company We get maximum credit from our suppliers and take advance from our customers. This is the best mechanism to operate on negative working capital, because cash is king

What are some of the good initiatives for maximizing the shareholders’ value?

Mr Senthil: We manufacture automotive parts which are relevant for both IC engines as well as e-mobility We see a jump in the sales of electric vehicles compared to last year in India. By 2030, there is a prediction that 80% of two wheelers and 30% of cars will be e-vehicles. In Europe also, it's growing faster In India, we need to

 Passion, focus and clear communication are the three aspects which will help one grow in an organization and not politics

~ Mr Mukund Kasthuri

~ Mr Mukund Kasthuri

develop the infrastructure We now have a gap from our products So, we need to find alternative products We need to move from the IC engine parts to e-mobility. For example, we are now offering rotor shaft and the cooling plate for the battery Since 2017, we are into emobility in a big way. We have also formed a separate company where we develop the autonomous vehicle. Benteler will release soon the autonomous vehicle called ‘People Mover ’ We have got the order and we are working with more than 100 suppliers. We will be releasing the prototype in the US. We'll be releasing it in the market in 2025 I mean to say that if there is a gap in our earnings, we need to stay relevant in the market and be customer centric. If there are no customers, we don't get any revenue. We have to see the trend in the market Everyone wants to join a company or be in a company which is growing. That gives them energy and it's also a psychological thing. That is how we

can really increase the shareholder value

A smart CEO is always in touch with the customer. How different is it for a B2B business and a B2C business, being in touch with the customer, knowing their behavior, patterns and the trends?

Mr Mukund: We are in B2B segment. Our customers are our dealers and distributors. Our consumers are steel plants, power plants, cement plants or whoever is using the product The CEO will not be successful, if he (she) sits in a boardroom. He must lead from the front and must have a plan to visit the actual users and find out what exactly they are looking for If he understands

that, he can go back to his engineering, tweak the product or go for new product development to retain the existing customers, before going after new customers. It's far easier and cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new customers Being in touch with the customer is basically the same, whether it is B2B or B2C.

How should a CEO educate his team on the importance of price earnings ratio?

Mr Senthil: Everyone in the company should know about their price earnings ratio. The team has to understand that the PE ratio is a combination of the profit margin that they are getting on the investment and the velocity. They must know how to increase the velocity, the gross margin and the return on investment. Otherwise, PE ratio will come down and eradicate the shareholder value

What are some effective ways to design the priorities for the business?

Mr Mukund: The first thing we look at is profitable sales growth It has to be sustainable and consistent This is a must, whether you operate in an existing market or go into a new market. The next priority is to reduce expenses, so that the margins and operating income increase The priority of the business is to retain customers who are giving a higher value. Ensure that you have the right people who can delegate and execute, depending on which position they are in, to drive the business Inventory turns ratio is an enabler for increasing the margin. Each CEO has to break down a problem into smaller bits and then attack those smaller bits, rather than looking at the whole problem as a big one and getting overwhelmed. A CEO cannot do everything on his own. He needs the right team. Collaboration among people is a basis of business 

 Ensure that you have the right people who can delegate and execute...

How can organisations match the skills with the roles and how can they improve that?

Ms Sangeetha: It's important to leverage on the strengths of the people. You don't expect a fish to fly. We must find out whatever each person is capable of, their natural talent and the skill It's important to make use of that. The person is also happy and passionate doing it and you get the most out of your people It creates a win‐win Even the best people need to be coached. When somebody is doing well, we don't pay much a en on to them Coaching is not just performance review, but helping them people to scale up to the next level, iden fy their blind spots, encouraging them to deliver their best and maximise their poten al In maximiza on of profit, in a scenario where there is one customer who is willing to pay 100 and a repeat customer who's willing to pay only 80, what will be the recommended op on?

Mr Mukund: It's cheaper to retain an exis ng customer than to acquire a new one I would go with the repeat customer Of course, I would love to have a combina on of 100 from a new customer and 80 from a repeat customer The overall mix has to be profitable If not, you need to learn how to exit.

What should the CEO focus on: Profit, process, people or product?

Mr Senthil: It should be all. First of all, it is profit. To increase that, he must increase the velocity and gross margin using the people The CEO should be the leader of business and also the leader of people.

In spite of ensuring all the KPIs, employees face increasing demands from CEOs. How can the employee meet these expectations?

Mr Mukund: The biggest problem, I believe, is matching KRA (Key Result Areas) and KPI (Key Performance Indicator) It is in the job descrip on where most companies go wrong.

When employees don’t get recognised when they meet the KPIs, they get upset It's a ques on of balancing aspira on and reality. I think, the right feedback is not being given throughout the year for the employee to change If he/she can course‐correct, it should not happen just at the end of the year appraisal. Feedback is supposed to be a con nuous process. The employee must touch base with the manager at least three, four mes in a year, so that he has enough me to course correct

Who is important--the customer or the consumer?

Ms Sangeetha: The CEO or the business has to cater to the needs of both. The consumers tell you what they want You can know their behaviours and the trends in your business through the customers. So, both are important

Mr Mukund: In America, the distribu on is the key So, the customer is more important there. In every other country, I would go with the consumer, because I can create the customer who is the middleman who takes it to the consumer. It depends on where you're opera ng.

What makes a salesman to achieve the targets on a regular basis?

Ms Sangeetha: Whatever your customer needs, you must address that in your selling process. Then you can become a winning salesman

Mr Senthil: The CEO must give incen ves to the salesman who aligns with the priority of the company. If the salesperson is selling with a low margin and if it is not aligning with the priority of the company, it's not good. If we increase the top line, the revenue is increasing But we should

see the bo om line as well Some mes if we increase the top line, then we tend to reward the sales team. If the sales is not genera ng cash, it's not good for the company

Mr Mukund: A successful salesperson must have focus and passion and must connect with the customer. If you want to be con nuously successful, you have to go in front of the customers, engage with them and understand them. You're the only person standing in front of the customers who shoot bullets at you You

must know how to protect yourself and convince them that you have the best product. Which is the best approach for a CEO to choose a successor--from within the organization or from outside?

Ms Sangeetha: Ssuccession planning is very important and essen al There is no hard and fast rule It can be internal or external, but the most important thing is having the right person in the right job with

the right capabili es and business acumen He must know the business priori es and have the right skills. That's what ma ers.

Will there be a difference in the expectation from a CEO depending upon whether it's a pyramid or flat organization?

Mr Mukund: I don't think so The business priori es and the requirements of the owners and the stakeholders are the same, irrespec ve of whether there is a pyramid structure or a flat structure 

Mr N Sathiya Moorthy

Convener, Policy Matters

When we talk of trading in Indian rupees, many questions arise. How good is it as a policy? Are we ready for it? About 30-40 years back, the rupee global trade collapsed for various reasons. There is a news report that says that the BRICS currency is being revived. Will it work and where does it fit into our idea of trading in rupee? Occasionally, there is also the realisation of India having to trade with our neighbours in a common currency and it could be rupee. For instance, Sri Lanka because of their current economic crisis, have said that they want to trade in Indian rupee. They have allowed Indian travellers to go there and do business locally in Indian rupee. But this is only at the individual level In trade terms, there is a totally different picture 15 years back, the Sri Lankan

Trading in rupees has a wider reach and has triggered expectations India has begun working out arrangements for this purpose, with close to 50 nations Will this lead to a clash of currencies in Asia, and what could be the consequences, especially for India and Indian businesses?

President of the day said, “Let us have a common currency or let us do business in Indian currency.”

Around that time, Maldivian President also agreed to that I read that Bangladesh was also not unwilling to consider it, if we could evolve something Indian currency is acceptable in both Bhutan and Nepal. But we wanted to wait, watch and proceed.

Mr M R Sivaraman

Former Revenue Secretary, Govt of India & Former Executive Director, IMF

There was a trade agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the then Soviet Union in 1953 It led to the establishment of the rupee-ruble trade with India Article 6 of that agreement states that all payments between India and the USSR described in Article 7 may

be made in Indian Rupees. Article 7 states that all payments of trading goods and other transactions will be carried out in Indian rupees This was there with all the Soviet Union Bloc countries like Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. The rupee-ruble rate was then fixed at 34 rupees to a ruble, which was at least three times more than the market exchange rate In this agreement, there was an article 8 which said that any balances in the rupee accounts maintained by the State of Bank of USSR with the RBI or with authorised commercial banks will be convertible on demand into Sterling That was the initial position. But thereafter it also changed because we didn't have enough dollars or sterlings. Then started all the problems

We started buying a lot of equipment from Russiamostly military equipment, heavy earthmoving equipment and various kinds of machinery. Russia used to buy detergents, soaps, pharmaceuticals, some chemicals and consumer items The rupee balances with Russia started mounting and it reached a stage when Russia did not know what to do with the rupees. After

the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia said that we'll go back to normal foreign exchange hard currency transactions.

Now we import a lot of oil We very quickly entered into the rupee trade agreement Russians also wanted to show they have some friends in the Ukraine war. But then they realized that all these billions of barrels of oil which we import, get paid in rupees and they wonder what to do with the rupees The talks have stalled and are not progressing anywhere. Because of sanctions, we can't send to Russia anything except engineering goods which are manufactured in India and Russians don't want that from us.

When Nehru turned down a request

Sri Lanka or Bangladesh is slightly different where we have a huge trade surplus with them. Bangladesh exports over $2 billion a year to India and we export about 10 to $12 billion How will the Bangladesh find the rupees? These are complicated issues I get the feeling that Reserve Bank of India was pushed into it.

If you look at the history of the Reserve Bank of India, in 1961, H V R Iyengar was the RBI Governor and he wrote to Mr. Nehru that the rupee trading arrangement was going to fail and requested not to push it. When confronted with his letter by the Department of Economic Affairs, Mr Nehru turned it down, saying it was a political decision. There are 18 currencies in the world, which are freely convertible. A freely convertible currency means that there are absolutely no restrictions by anybody on the use of that currency. Australian dollars, New Zealand pounds, Singapore dollars, Kuwaiti dinar, UAE dirhams are all convertible currencies Interestingly, Kenyan shilling is also a convertible currency. I spent 40 years in finance. From my experience, if we are going to do something, we must do it the whole hog Don't leave it for any interpretation by any clerk or undersecretary or somebody sitting there, because then the entire scheme will collapse.

SDR: A Basket of Five

The International Monetary Fund has got a unit of account known as the SDR. Its value is based on a basket of five currencies. The Chinese renminbi was added in 2016 The US dollar, euro, British pound sterling and Japanese yen are the other currencies. The SDR or special drawing right is a unit of account in which the International Monetary Fund carries out transactions There is a formula by which these currencies are put into the basket and their exchange

rates are also fixed Although renminbi is not a freely convertible or a freely usable currency, it is still a part of the SDR and it can be given only for capital account transactions. The Central Bank of China has put some restrictions In the years 1940-42, John Maynard Keynes, the father of modern economics suggested the creation of a currency known as bancor for use in all international transactions but the proposal was not accepted

If our currency has to become global, we must be a very big trading nation. The United States does international trade of about $6.6 trillion; China does $7 4 trillion In the case of India, last year, we touched $1 4 to $1 5 trillion It's not a small amount We are a large trading nation if imports and exports are taken together. But our merchandise trade gap is huge. We export $460 billion and import around $700 billion The countries whose currencies are freely tradable, more or less balance their merchandise trade.

AI Threats for Software

Mr Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor has suggested that India should focus its attention on exporting services In the case of services exports, there is a problem Right now, we have been doing software services and we are slowly advancing into other areas, but the entire software area is getting transformed to artificial intelligence and quantum computing is coming in We have to do a tremendous amount of research in artificial intelligence to be relevant. China is spending on developing a high-grade chip to two nanometers. India has already designed 5 nanometer chips in Hyderabad and it has gone to TSMC for manufacture in its current design but we have no manufacturing facility yet Indian rupee has been depreciating in the last few years Other global currencies have not depreciated to that extent. The exchange rate has to be stable and there

 There are 18 currencies in the world, which are freely convertible. A freely convertible currency means that there are absolutely no restrictions by anybody on the use of that currency.

should not be any restrictions on the movement or use of currency anywhere Our merchandise trade also has to improve. Then only, we can attempt to make Indian rupee global, but unfortunately, we have not done it so far

Dr Sanjay Kumar Partner ‐ Public Policy & Tax, Deloitte

In the world, you will find that there is a complete dominance of the US dollar. 90% of all foreign transactions are done in the US dollar; 50% of the global trading invoice happens in dollars; 60% of the global reserves are in dollars So, whatever others do, the dollar still remains as strong as ever. The next one in row is the Chinese currency. Their economy moved to $17 trillion and there was a larger trade The space occupied by the Chinese renminbi has moved from 2 2% to almost 7%. European Euro has been on a decline, though very marginally. Indian rupee is on the ascendance from 1% to almost 1 6% But it's not yet there. Brazilian real is almost the same. To think of a Euro or US Dollar decline in the recent future seems tough at the moment, based on the numbers that is coming through

India’s Journey in Promoting Rupee

Look at India’s journey from 1950s to 2022. In the 50s, India traded oil from Iran and that was in rupee In the 60-70s, India signed several trade agreements

with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to trade in rupee. In 71, India signed a bilateral trade agreement with Nepal In 2000, India signed an FTA with Sri Lanka In 2012, India again signed an agreement with Iran to conduct oil trade in rupee, bypassing the US dollar and US sanctions. In 2017, we signed an agreement with Bhutan and in 2022, RBI has permitted banks from 18 countries to open Special Vostro Rupee Accounts to permit rupee trade. Each of these things have happened in bits and pieces and not in a very continuous manner There has not been a thrust towards the rupee trade. And largely one of the reasons is the difference in value between what we export and import Only 5% of India’s imports originate from the US and 15% of our exports go to the US and that is largely in the services sector.

Singapore and UAE Reap it All

India gets only about 10 to 15% on the cost from the GICs (Global in-house companies or back offices as we normally call them) though, in terms of numbers, 54% of the GICs exist in India What is holding it? Do they not consider us as important players in the economy? Do they think that we are not capable? The answer is they can't take whatever money that they receive here If they want to take it, there's a lot more restriction and the two island nations on either side of the Indian peninsula-Singapore and UAE are getting benefitted out of it, as they have such a free economy You can move out and can come in and they offer a lot more protection. They have no taxes or reduced taxes.

 There has not been a thrust towards the rupee trade. And largely one of the reasons is the difference in value between what we export and import.

Most of the global companies have the second layer or intermediate level layer in those places The work of the GICs will happen here. The IPR will all be sitting in those places largely in Singapore and not in India. They fear that our patent offices are leaky and therefore move everything to Singapore

Russia recently suspended rupee trade negotiation because they have 40-billion-rupee reserves. They are pressurizing us to pay for oil in Renminbi The world needs to have more confidence in our economy We need to have a lot more trade going from us and a lot more economic growth. We have not been able to breach 7% for a really long time That remains one of our major concerns

international market, because of the constant threat of global economic slowdown Our game plan is to try and turn this into an opportunity. What the Chinese did some time back, we are trying to do it in a different way. This is the background in which we started this exercise As there has been a strengthening of the dollar over time, imports have become expensive for many countries in the world. So, there could be an incentive for some of these countries to de-dollarise and we want to entice them with rupees. We are not making it as an alternative to dollar.

Dr Suresh Babu

Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras & Adviser to Economic Advisory Council of Prime Minister

We started RBI’s trade settlement mechanism in July 2022 and by December 2022, we saw the first settlement of foreign trade in rupee with Russia These are baby steps and over a period of time, we want to have the rupee as a global currency That 18 countries have agreed to trade in rupee-some big and some not very big ones- is a good first step for us

Towards De‐Dollarising

There is a kind of thinking to de-dollarise the

The idea is that a reliance on Indian rupee, away from US dollar, could mean some respite for some of these countries and if not now, over a slightly longer horizon of time. The immediate decision on rupee trade settlement was taken in the backdrop of the geopolitical tensions and the current global economic currents, including the US sanctions on the use of dollar for transactions with both Iran and Russia, who are very important trading partners of India There is also a continuous weakening of Indian rupee The move was expected to reduce the pressures of India on our foreign exchange reserves. That's the broad macroeconomic objective which we had

Arresting Rupee Decline

India is a net importer, especially in terms of manufactured goods The rupee was one of the worst performing Asian currencies in 2022, that had a fall of around 10%. By using rupee for international trade sanctions, it was anticipated that it would help protect the flow of dollars out of India and also slow down the depreciation of the currency. We don't have tall claims for that and the idea was to have some intervention. There was also the crude oil import from Russia, which we are capitalizing on The idea was that if we can have a rupee settlement mechanism, then we could actually

save around $30 billion outflows, even if there is a partial rupee settlement and it would help our foreign exchange reserves. When we went into this decision, there was a 17% drop in the exports to Russia. The trade deficit with Russia was widening and we had to do something The widening of trade deficit was because there was a delay in the payments that we were receiving from them because of the international sanctions against Russia In this backdrop, we thought we can have this settlement mechanism, which will be beneficial to both the countries.

18 Countries Given the Nod

Now 18 countries have been permitted by the RBI to open Special Vostro Rupee (SVR) accounts. The bank of a partner country may approach an AD (Authorised Dealer) bank in India This AD bank will then seek the approval from RBI with the details of the arrangement and subsequently approval from the RBI is granted to this bank Trade settlement will happen in Indian rupee The best definition of an international currency has been given by Chinn and Frankel in a fantastic paper published in 2008.

The function of an international currency is in terms of the store of value; medium of exchange and a unit of account. We know that any currency has these functions but governments as well as private actors should be able to use this international currency for all transactions It should also become a kind of local currency. Our wish or dream, in the years to come, is to make rupee as an international currency.

There are some benefits in rupee invoicing with some trade partners such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, UAE where India is a larger importer. There is potential for exports as well. There is a possibility for India to enter into contracts with these countries

 There are some benefits in rupee invoicing with some trade partners such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, UAE where India is a larger importer.

because we have an unfavourable trade balance with them If we can settle it in rupees, there is a possibility that India might benefit and that is the idea that we are pursuing this.

In a very short span of seven months, we have 60 Special Rupee Vostro (SRV) accounts, which is not a very small number India has a large trade deficit with eight countries: Botswana, Germany, Guyana, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Russia and Singapore. With all of them, we look at how we can push our rupee trading and it could be mutually beneficial

A very interesting research was done by the State Bank of India research group and it showed that there is a change happening globally in the trade of oil and commodities Some countries are in favour of settling in Hong Kong dollar or UAE dhiram. If we can get somewhere close to that, there is a possibility that Indian rupee might also be accepted globally for settlements The BRICS countries tried to de-dollarise It gave an opportunity for China to push its agenda. It could also be an opportune moment for India to encash. But we have a long way to go

The Challenges

When our trading partners have depreciation of their currency against dollar, it might not be appealing for them to do rupee trading. Bangladesh, Turkey and UK have depreciated against dollar by more than 10%.

Turkish Lira depreciated almost 94% against the dollar

There is also a need for a much more sophisticated financial system in India, if we want to push for a global currency. We have to develop both regulatory mechanisms as well as depth in our financial markets

Finally, when we look at this whole effort to internationalize currency, we find that it could affect the service sectors, because if we try to push this agenda of de-dollarization beyond a point, the US might not be very happy with that and might retaliate. Then the first hit for us would be service exports. We have to be extremely careful in pushing this agenda

Taking Care of 3 Issues

Three issues have to be kept in mind in taking up rupee trading mechanism:

• Bilateral trade equilibrium

• There is a possibility that it could lead to macroeconomic imbalance and lead to a situation where India's trade deficit is financed with surplus investments of trading partners, which might go to government securities and treasury bills. Inflationary tendencies might push us into a very difficult situation, if we don't have a comfortable exchange rate management policy.

• We are fighting in an era of global trade protectionism and geopolitical rivalries It is very difficult to push rupee further in a situation in which every country is trying for a protectionist trade policy. That puts a limit on us

When you talk about an industrialised state, immediately what comes to our mind is either Maharashtra or Gujarat. But Tamil Nadu is the most industrialised state in the entire country and we beat Maharashtra by 10,000 industries

• 17% of factories of the entire India are in Tamil Nadu.

• 16% of the workforce of the entire country are in Tamil Nadu

• 50% of the leather production of the country and 30% of the automobile production of India are from Tamil Nadu

• The state contributes to 19% of India’s textiles, 18% of electronics and 15% of heavy machinery.

In GSDP terms, Tamil Nadu is number two and Maharashtra is number one The headquarters of most of the companies are located in Mumbai. So, everything gets aggregated there. The stocks of companies of all the 30 states are centrally traded in Bombay Stock

Exchange. If you reapportion all of those values back to respective states, we will actually be number one

GER, the Real Measure

Most of the time, people look at education in terms of literacy rate But the real measure for education is not literacy rate but the gross enrolment ratio (GER) for higher education. Here, Tamil Nadu does two times better than the Indian average. Tamil Nadu’s population has equal percentage of men and women The higher education enrolment number in Tamil Nadu for women and men are exactly the same. In two years, women will outdo men. It has not happened in any other state. It's a phenomenal milestone Without taking women to the next level, no society can grow up.

When it comes to healthcare, the World Health Organization says for every 1000 people, you need a doctor American standard is 500 to one but in Tamil Nadu, we have 250 to one, which is four times better than the WHO norms and two times better than the

Mr Suresh Sambandam, Founder & CEO, Kissflow, discusses the Trillion‐Dollar Dream for Tamil Nadu with Ms Yagna Balaji, Former CEO, DT Next, Daily Thanthi Group

American data Tamil Nadu is the healthcare capital for not just India, but Southeast Asia.

Equitable Distribution

There is no point in developing GDP if the wealth is not distributed. To find wealth distribution, there is a metric called household income. If there is more middle class in a society than the rich and the poor, that indicates equitable wealth distribution of the society Tamil Nadu is number one in that. We have 60% middle class. Tamil Nadu is not living in villages anymore, because 60% are already living in urban centers and this number is going to grow only more. The other thing that I'm most proud of Tamil Nadu is we don't have caste surnames It is the only state which doesn't have caste surnames It is impossible to do economic revolution without the foundation of social revolution.

In 2022, Government of India published (SDG) Sustainable Development Goals Out of 16 SDG goals, we are 12 green, three yellow and one red Andhra comes second, Karnataka third, Maharashtra is fourth

 We need a balanced approach of socialism and capitalism. Otherwise, we will ruin the state.

 We need to move away from just a service provider economy to a brand owner economy and that will be a paradigm shift.

and Gujarat is at five If you look at Gujarat or Maharashtra, they are more focused on economic growth and not so much focused on social growth. West Bengal and Kerala are more focused on social growth We need a balanced approach of socialism and capitalism. Otherwise, we will ruin the state. That is the model that has taken Tamil Nadu to the north star position and driven us to where we are right now

The Four Master Strokes of Tamil Nadu

• There were only 6000 schools after independence. In one stroke, Kamaraj, then CM of Tamil Nadu added 22,000 schools in just a 10-year period Only 40% of the students were going to school He could double that over 10 years.

• We look at a generation as 25 years. When a generation finishes school, we want them to finish their college education also. From only 40 engineering colleges, in another 20 years, we reached 550 engineering colleges That's a phenomenal milestone 37 of the top 100 colleges in India are in Tamil Nadu. One of the differentiating factors for Tamil Nadu is we focussed on social justice which none of the other states did Everybody got the opportunity, both in jobs and education.

• As Tamil Nadu adopted a two-language policy, English became more prominent So, people

from Tamil Nadu do not go to jobs for Mumbai or Delhi They go to San Francisco, London, New York or places in Europe, as our youth got the space to learn English. I truly believe that nobody should discard their mother tongue, but they should learn English.

•Tamil Nadu has been growing only at 10%. To get to a trillion dollar, we need 40% increase on compounded aggregated growth rate (CAGR), which is not at all easy. Now, this year, we are pretty close to 15% growth

Entrepreneurship and Branding

As a fifth master stroke, we must focus on entrepreneurship. Governments don't create jobs. They just govern The jobs are created by startups, companies and businesses More importantly, we need women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship means brands. If you have a brand or an IP, it will work for you even when you sleep We need to move away from just a service provider economy to a brand owner economy and that will be a paradigm shift. That's when you will get to a trillion dollar dream. We need to inclusively grow Tamil Nadu state and not just Chennai or Coimbatore or Madurai. We need to have this growth in every city.

Ideas for Each Region

In Ramanathapuram, there are one crore palm trees. We just sell palm by the road side. We should do branded palm juice which is tastier and healthier We make palm candy and sell it Combined with cocoa, we can make palm chocolate. About 12,000 tons of chili powder is harvested every year. We just grind this and sell it as chilli powder or masala We know of Tabasco sauce A small bottle with quantity around 50 ml costs

200 rupees This company makes 12,000 crores business The opportunities are right in front of us but we do not know how to transform them to great opportunities.

In Krishnagiri, we have mango production The pulp industries extract the pulp and throw the outer skin We can use this skin, make vegan leather and build branded products. 90,000 tons of vegetables are manufactured in Dharmapuri They go all the way in trucks to Bangalore and then get sold there, because the market is there. It then comes back to us for sale in Tamil Nadu But the scary thing is they go with all the junk For example, if you take a cauliflower, the edible portion is only 50% and the non-edible portion is the remaining 50%. We can use the non-edible portion as manure in the fields Also, we can sell cut, packaged and branded vegetables They can be preserved five times higher than the regular vegetables. We can use the straw from paddy fields and make compressed straw boards All you need to put is veneer on top of it, so it looks beautiful. From Hogenekal, we get our sea food. We must sell them as branded sea food instead.

Make Hosur a Sejong

Between Krishnagiri and Bangalore, there is 100 kilometer of highway and we can put wind turbines right in the middle along the divider and each one of the wind turbines can produce electricity out of the moving buses. In Villupuram, we grow ground nuts. We take the kernel and the husk is thrown away. The fact is that the husk has 6% hydrogen and there is a process to extract hydrogen from that From green gram, we can make healthy waffles.

For Hosur, we have come up with a different idea. Hosur should be a self- governed state like Sejong in South Korea The reason is, Hosur along with Bengaluru

 The goal for trillion dollar dream is to build these brands. There are at least 10 or 15 brands which are doing really well now.

has the potential to become a twin city like San Francisco and San Jose Hosur has the entire manufacturing infrastructure for EVs, AI and Robotics.

In Tirunelveli, we have lot of wind mills and also Koodangulam nuclear plant. We can use this clean power for data centres through cables We have a lot of windmills but there is no component manufacturing infrastructure for windmill manufacturers. Tirunelveli is where all the cooker industries are located They make traditional cookers But they can move to smart cookers which can be operated on internet. From millets, we should make branded batter like ID.

In Thiruvannamalai, there is a mountain and there are a lot of herbs that grow there We can make tablets from them to cure liver diseases. In Cuddalore, we have jackfruits and cashew plantation. Nothing stops us from making a Tropicana like product from jackfruit Cuddalore is the cashew hub of the state We make all the cashews and export. But after taking the nut, we throw away all the fruits as useless. We can make export quality liquor from these fruits

The goal for trillion dollar dream is to build these brands. There are at least 10 or 15 brands which are doing really well now. To grow the economy from 300 billion to 1 trillion, all we need is to build 150 brands That will automatically create at least 10 lakh jobs. 