Business Mandate

BUSINESS MANDATE

THE MAGAZINE FROM MMA JULY 2020

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

An excerpt from Under the Bonnet

THE MAKING OF HERO: A SAGA THAT CONTINUES

Sunil Kant Munjal shares insight and views on how vision shaped Hero Motors

EXCLUSIVE! The Uncommon Leader by

AVIS Viswanathan

CONTENTS 18 The Wonder of Coming of Age Novels

12 EXCERPT: You Had Me at Goodbye

Jessica Wilde shares how to overcome writer's block.

Story on p. 20

9 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Katherine Weiss

2 Editor's Note 7 New Releases 20 8 Young Emerging Writers This year's promising young writers are about to shine 23 INDIE INSIDER: Hidden Bookshops Hole in the wall bookshops are popping all over the Metro 30 NEW BLOOD: Christina Adams Explore Christina's world of magical realism 32 REVIEW: Flesh and Blood This year's most-awaited thriller 40 SHORT STORY: The Buried Key

by Alexander Wyeth 43 POETRY: Sweet Serenity

by Samantha Adams

20 8 Young Emerging Writers

52 COMICS CORNER: Incidental Ideas

Get to know eight twenty-something writers who will capture our literary hearts BUSINESS MANDATE | 2

EDITOR'S DESK

THEY ARE THE HOPE OF TOMORROW...

Get to know the change ushered in and inspired by women business leaders

by Capt. Vijayakumar

20-year-old Marianne Teigen recently published her first young adult novel, and in only a month, it has reached the New York Times Bestsellers list.

M

agazines, according to Wikipedia, are publications, usually periodical publications, that are printed or published electronically. The online versions are called online magazines. They are generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content.

The oldest consumer magazine still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken that claim.

Magazines are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by prepaid subscriptions, or a combination of the three. The earliest example of magazines was Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen launched in 1663 in Germany.

Magazines can be distributed through the mail, through sales by newsstands, bookstores, or other vendors, or through free distribution at selected pick-up locations.

Magazine Distribution

The subscription business models for distribution fall into three main categories.

In the case of written publication, it is a collection of written articles.

This explains why magazine publications share the word root with gunpowder magazines, artillery magazines, firearms magazines, and, in various languages although not English, retail stores such as department stores.

Once written you have to stand by it.

You may have said it to see whether you believed it or not.

BUSINESS MANDATE | 8

MMA FEATURE

LEADERS SPEAK

PANEL DISCUSSION

INTERVIEW

Interactive discussion on leadership by by Pond’s Veterans. Moderated by Mr Tiger Tyagarajan, President and CEO, GENPACT LLC

Talk on “Creating Winning Relationship through conversation with self” by Mr. First Name Second Name. It was live streamed on 10 May 2020.

“Covid: Lessons learnt for the future” by Mr M R Sivaraman, IAS. Hosted in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Play time: 10 mins

Play time: 15 mins

Play time: 15 mins

“

Once written you have to stand by it. You may have said it to see whether you believed it or not.

Q&A: S.SANGITA Sangita Suresh opens up about her writing process, writing tips, and more.

ON HER WRITING PROCESS “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

HER TOP TIP FOR ASPIRING WRITERS

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

HER FAVORITE SUMMER READ Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Her writing is phenomenal.

ON HER FAVORITE WRITERS

Haruki Murakami, Jodi Picoult, and Michael Cunningham, most definitely.

9 | BUSINESS MANDATE

”

Ideas for the future: where do they come from?

Living in the post-modern times is such a crisis. Individuals are able to deal with hard disk breakdowns, not human relationships; new nations have risen and fought (Bosnia, Chechnya, Croatia…) on the wrongs that had happened more than half a millennia ago; overnight corporates have come and gone, and so did governments, leaders, and ideas. And if ideas do come in the future, what should they be like? What should be their criteria? What should it focus on? How should these be nurtured? There are more questions than answers.Susan Susan V. Berresford, President, Ford Foundation (Pix courtesy: Global Philanthropy Forum)A large audience gathered in Chennai to hear the views of Susan Berresford, president, The Ford Foundation, New York, at ‘The Millennium Lecture’ organised by The Hindu Media Resource Centre for Sustainable Development, MSSRF.“In India, like rest of the world, there can be no certainty that the challenges of the future will be solved by relying on existing sources of talent,” she began. “It is increasingly clear that every society has defined ways and attitudes. And unfortunately, people living near pressing problems are outside the institutions and circles to which societies naturally turn for ideas.”

Berresford continued: “if we search our histories, I think that ideas have come from a wider number of players — from outside.

Lessons from the making of a smart city in India Fixing an existing city by bolstering its technological preparedness does not necessarily make it a smart city; a lot more intangibles are present.

This article will address the question of how developmental activities in old cities may not augur well for their transformation. This article will look at alternates in India that are setting a trend—Palava City, Mohali, Mahindra World City, etc. Some insights on the future from industry commenters (JLL India, McKinsey) will also add value to the article.

Fixing an existing city by bolstering its technological preparedness does not necessarily make it a smart city; a lot more intangibles are present.

This article will address the question of how developmental activities in old cities may not augur well for their transformation. This article will look at alternates in India that are setting a trend—Palava City, Mohali, Mahindra World City, etc. Some insights on the future from industry commenters (JLL India, McKinsey) will also add value to the article.

Sometime these people remain outsiders, even if they bring great fruits (of wisdom); others get into institutions, bringing fresh perspectives. But in the beginning, many outsiders have difficulty in getting their ideas to the mainstream.Often their ideas are trivialised, ignored, or even parodied.”“I believe that further in the 21st Century, our success will increasingly depend on how skilled our people are in bringing fresh perspectives to their problems,” observed Berresford.

“Everywhere there are barriers of class, caste, race and gender that prevent us from identifying talented people. This is a disgrace, and a dangerous reality,” she said.Coming to India, the problems are rooted — like elsewhere — in the consciousness. It requires a gradual orientation — no education can provide this (most trouble-makers, in such societies, were usually from the educated class).

The trouble is so vast that mere education would not suffice.

It is perhaps this she meant when she observed on the need to grow special expertise in each country. “Most international programmes here failed to reach the disadvantaged people,” she remarked.Over the past ten years, The Ford Foundation has provided 3500-graduate fellowships for academically challenged men and women in India. And during this half century the Foundation has made grants totaling approximately $450 million.