Leaders

 Motivations of a leader:

 A leader does not need a management degree or any other kind of a degree to be a leader.There is ample evidence pointing in this direction. People tend to cater to the notion that leaders are born or created. As usual the truth is usually a mixture of the two.

 

 The first and most important thing about a leader is that such an individual is self driven. By self driven I  mean that the person is necessarily not motivated by external agencies. 

 

 Human actions in general are driven by needs , starting from the need of food to going upto the need for love and entertainment. While it is obviously untrue that a leader is not motivated by his own needs but  it is true that for anyone to be a leader he/she has to be atleast partly motivated by the needs of others.

 So we have spiritual leaders catering to spiritual needs of the masses , business leaders catering to economic (the need for activity) needs , military leaders catering to their military needs and political leaders for diplomatic needs etc..... Clearly an ideal leader has to read the mind of the masses and must possess an innate sensitivity to make this happen.

 

 The leader among men is driven then by the selfless wish to either alleviate the suffering of the masses or to bestow something of value upon them. Outstanding examples of  leaders of the first kind are Gandhi,William Penn,George Washington.Examples of leaders who bestow something upon the masses are Bill William Gates ,Dhirubhai Ambani, J R D Tata . These men have faught long hard battles to get something for many others even when they already had for themselves much more than they would ever need. Most of these are selfless people. 

 

 Their have been many politicians and many wealthy businessmen but history remembers a few as truly remarkable leaders. They left their mark on society not because they wanted to but because they cared about something which they knew was much bigger than themselves.

 Birth of a Leader:

 A leader is always born , not necessarily of  the womb ,but mostly of circumstance. Leaders are not made. No one can be 'made' a leader. Someone may be 'made' a financial analyst . Someone may be taught 'history' and given hands on 'business experience'. Someone may be trained to be a 'manager' of a business but no one can be trained to be a 'Leader'.

 

 Leaders are born of circumstance . If Gandhi was living at Mumbai  in 2001 and did not travel much he would not have much of a motivation to free a nation .He would probably have done something to alleviate poverty. Similarly George Washington living in the America of today might have been a good businessman. 

 The more dire the circumstance the greater the potential for a great leader to emerge. Examples that verify this are ample throughout history.

 Life of a leader.

 Not many agree but for a mind that is not in control of itself , power is its own mortal enemy.

Hence in general a leader among men must possess a fair amount of self discipline. This is not to say that he/she should be an ascetic. A good leader must be able to control his/her passions

and emotions.  Anyone who gets too emotional or is too attached to the outcome of certain actions will end up losing his/her mind and eventually leadership appeal. Thus the worldly life of a leader is a hard one. A spiritual awakening goes a long way in becoming more effective as a person and a leader. 

 

 The spiritually enlightened thus will be the most influential leaders. Remember that millions of people follow Christ and Buddha to this day.They  have been bigger leaders than any of their contemporaries . On the other hand there have been many Generals and business people and freedom fighters through the ages. How many from before 1600 A.D. do you know?

 This clearly says something about qualities of an ideal leader. In the current business world(Dwapara Yuga) he/she should be able to chanellize (control) his/her passion(emotion)

towards achieving success for a large number of (his/her) people by the measure of monetary benefit (employee benefit).

 

 Consequently a good corporate leader (CEO/manager)  can adequately assign monetary benefits to his/her shareholders and employees alike while satisfying customers fully as well,while him/herself being passionately unattached to what he/she does at a personal level

 

Conclusion:

Leaders emerge . Leaders are niether born nor made . A good leader should be passionate about what he does for others (his aim) while being detached to (not thinking about) the possible outcomes of his effort other than his aim.       

  

 

Job-Loss Due to Outsourcing, Overhyped!

Everyone loves to talk about globalization it’s a favorite topic anywhere you go from coffee shops to business schools. Workers complain about how their jobs are shipped to lower-wage countries.CXO’s are always excited about new overseas markets. Activists & NPO’s of various types are concerned with environmental damage or suffering that it may cause or does cause in third world countries. This raises most important question: Is Globalization the most defining trend of this decade for the West?


If we try 7 see local news & event's tend to occupy more mindspace in our everyday life than a Global. If we go on asking people, most people have a view's on whether their Mayor is doing a good job, is the serial killer caught by the County Police or realty prices in a particular area. Very few people have a view on the United Nations Secretary-General's job performance, or know his name even for that matter.

Call-centers in India are maligned, as the developed-country jobs being shipped overseas. But the number of jobs at stake is small relative to the overall work force. And their importance is also overstated.

We must ask this to ourselves how many parents in the U.S. dream that their kids will grow up to work in a call center? Hardly any!

Sometimes we tend to miss the bigger picture...Americans are worried about their job being sent to China? A cheap worker working in a shady sweatshop in China isn't necessarily their biggest threat. It's more likely that an average American worker will be replaced by better technology or cut by management trying to use one less worker & time.

Examining detailed data on changes in the U.S. the authors Bruce C. Greenwald and Judd Kahn have shown that job losses due to higher productivity greatly outnumber those lost to globalization, meaning here shifting production from Country A to Country B and then shipping the product back. Think of the large number of secretaries and office workers eliminated by the desktop computer..
Globalization and trade have helped countries that have made the tough local decisions to liberalize markets and unleash the powerful incentives of capitalism.
If this sounds counterintuitive, it helps to remember that "globalization" is just today's catchword for a phenomenon we've seen before. Messrs. Greenwald and Kahn compare our age of expanding global trade to the early 20th century and find a similar picture. Trade as a share of global output rose until 1920 due to advances in shipping, which helped build global markets for commodities like grains and coal.
This expansion of trade proved only partial and cyclical, however. Commodities became cheaper and thus a smaller part of spending. Households began spending more on manufactured goods, such as washing machines and automobiles that at the time were harder to globalize because they depended on local sales networks and tastes. That caused global trade's importance to shrink.
This time it will be services, which are harder to transport across borders. The desire for services will drive demand for managers, teachers, builders and nurses. These are exactly the high-skilled professions that are hardest to replace with technology or offshore workers.

PS: This article is inspired by a blog on Outsourcing by Mr Carew who covers M&A for the Wall Street Journal Hongkong, i have tried to add some Indian Flavor to it

Sebi extends Insider Trading to Outsiders

Sebi twigs insider trading norms and almost makes them outsider trading norms…
Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recently amended the Insider trading regulations.
Amendment No 1: It amended the definition of insider trading almost to an extent where it can be termed as Outsider trading.
Amendment No 2: The second one creates a bar for insiders from trading in their companies for six months after execution of 1’st leg of trade. (After either buying or selling the insider can’t exit or enter the stock of his company in the next six months)
These both are extreme measures, nearly unrivalled in their scope anywhere in the world by any regulator. Especially the first one.
Insider trading as per the law existed last month penalized the misuse of non-public price-sensitive information by parties of interest in the company ( employees, promoters or directors) of the company, who have access to such information, and, in breach of their trust owed to the company, use it for private gain at the cost of other shareholders.
Economists call this simple thing as ‘exploitation of information asymmetry’. In simple trading language ‘Tippee giving a Tip’. Whatever be the name the recent Sebi’s amendment makes anyone liable who has received or has had access to such unpublished price-sensitive information even without having any connection with company. (Even the Thrash cleaner who might not even be on pay-role of the company) Previously, this class of persons was only limited to those connected with the company.
So, now anyone who chances across price-sensitive information can be liable for insider trading. Thus a person who recycles paper from the trash of a listed company, or a journalist who actively attempts to uncover fraud, also becomes an insider as opposed to only officer/directors/fiduciaries and their tippees as previously existed.
US. Dirks, an analyst and an (temporary) investigative journalist who actively uncovered a massive fraud in a company and communicated this fact to his clients, was alleged by the SEC for insider trading. The US Supreme Court had to finally rescue Dirks in a landmark case of Dirks vs SEC.

PS: This Blog is takes References From an Article published in ET by Prof Sandeep Parekh (IIM-A, Visiting faculty)

Optimisation Vs Perfection

There is always a trade-off associated between achieving 2 associated things. So is it in case of achieving Optimisation and Perfection at the same time.

Let us look at it from the managers perspective.

Managers need to make decisions day in and day out. Some decisions are very critical and some are not so. The criticality depends upon the impact of the outcome of the decision. So it the decision has a high bearing impact on the organisation it is a critical decision. Otherwise it is not a critical decision.

So needless to say that we have to trade-off in favour of perfection against optimisation (in terms of efficiency and productivity - after taking into account the time taken to arrive at the decision) for highly critical decision making. Hence for day to day decisions (low impact decisions) we should strive to be more optimum rather perfecting it.

This is nothing but a logical conclusion of the Pareto's 80-20 rule. The principle if applied to the decision making criteria would spell out that 20% of the decisions have upto 80% of the impact on the results (which means that they are critical) while the remaining 80% of the decisions have upto 20% of the impact on the results. So it is common sense to spend more time on the critical decisions vis-a-vis on other decisions.

As a manager spends more and more time in taking a decision, in all likelyhood he is moving towards perfecting the decision. We we speak about optimising in this context it means that a lot of decisions have to be taken in a lot of operating constraints. One constraint might be time. In the time context, combining the above two concepts managers would most likely spend only a limited amount of time on non-critical activities so that they can get the best but once the time at hand is exhausted they would simply move on to do other tasks as those activities even if left non-perfected would not have a much impact. The opposite holds true for the critical activities. It is not the constraint which determines the effort to be put in but the sheer magnitude of impact of the decision which determines the effort and subsequently the deadline (constraint).

But in most settings managers have to take a whole lot of decisions and most of them are of low impact and very few are of high impact. Hence managers in my opinion need to follow more of optimisation rather than perfection.

PS:
This content is taken from a co-blogger Anil Daga, Anil is a pass-out of the Prestigious Great Lakes Chennai, prior to which had a Career in Citigroup (IB division).

In Business We Think Big & Suceed Big

"Being different is what has made our country great. We have the freedom to think, believe and achieve whatever we set our minds to do. For that reason, we should set our sights on the big dreams we have for our careers.
With “golden parachutes” failing to open for much of corporate America these days, entrepreneurship remains a growing trend. It’s important that we keep finding ways to explore our ideas to the fullest and not dismiss them just because they may seem too grandiose.
Right now, the timing could be right for your brilliant idea and be just what your community, city, state or even nation needs. Google became a billion dollar business in just 6 years with just a very simplistic idea. Why not yours?
This is powerful confirmation; more millionaires were created immediately after the Great Depression in 1929 than in any other era in our nation’s history. If indeed history repeats itself, then we could be headed for another boom-time right around the corner. Keep your eyes open and your attitudes positive so you can recognize the next big opportunity that comes your way." - Donald Trump

PS: These are words of the Great management Guru Donald Trump. Their is no original contribution by the blogger in this post, its a privilege to have lessons in excellence given by Donald through this post.

Opportunity in Adversity

Opportunity lies in Adversity:
History has been testimonial to the fact that adverse times have been stepping stone to companies who have seized the moment and made it big. Economic turmoil creates more opportunities for companies to move into position of a leader from a laggard position. A study done by Bain & Company that analyzed the net profit margins and sales growth of more than 2,500 companies clearly indicated that 24% more firms moved from laggards to leaders in the 2001 downturn compared with the subsequent period of economic calm. Also around 20% of those in the top quartile of financial performance (based on Net Profit) in their sectors dropped to the bottom quartile during the period.
Corporate India has navigated through rough weather exceedingly well, and almost through an era where doing business was a crime, and when India had a more socialist outlook. In the year 1998-99 Cement Industry was going through some tough times, and Gujarat Ambuja cement was not immune from the crisis, instead of retreating into a shell, India’s then fifth-largest cement maker by sales acquired an ailing Modi Cement Ltd, taking advantage of the target’s low valuation. It then turned Modi Cement around. Today, Ambuja Cements is India’s second largest cement manufacturer by profits, and one of the country’s most efficient cement producers. Thus indicating the fact if calculated financial risks are taken one can get into leadership position.
Let consider the case of Intel, it was an organization built in a recession ( to the stature we see it at); Advanced Micro Devices Inc, its rival in the chip business, prior to the 2001 recession had made heavy investment in product design and this strategy was paying off, with AMD’s top-line growing three times faster than that of Intel’s. Then the recession hit, catching the entire industry with too much capacity. As AMD’s lack of profitability prevented it from investing in capex, Intel seized the advantage.
It invested in new facilities with state-of-the-art production capability and spent heavily to advertise its P4 processors. In coming years the cost proposition of Intel was much better than AMD, and AMD had to axe 15% of its workforce. The momentum AMD had built quickly vanished and Intel emerged as undisputed king of the Chipset business.
How can Indian companies take advantage of turbulence and a slowing economy, as Intel did? First, they need to realize that conventional approaches often don’t work. Many industry leaders fall from the top during downturns or turbulent times because they assume that a strong market position is an insurance policy against trouble. That approach breeds overconfidence.
The better approach: slow in, fast out — like a good driver heading into a sharp curve. Winners in turbulence tend to brake quickly heading into a downturn by managing costs carefully and consistently. They focus on what the company does best, reinforcing the core business and spending to gain share. That allows them to speed up at the top of the curve, when the economy starts to turn for the better.

PS:
This post is inspired from the research done by Bain & Company. I would personally like to thank Mr Vivek Gambhir and Darrell Rigby, a Bain partner in Boston and the head of Bain’s Global Retail Practice

Will BSE as an Exchange Die?

The new system of cross margining between the cash and the F&O (derivatives) segments that Sebi is putting in place *would impart all important liquidity for liquidity thirsty markets, and they are thirsty alright the combined daily trading volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have dropped at least 56% since the beginning of this year, this is a welcomed move as margin’s required for trading are calculated depending on volatility of an index and VIX, the Volatility Index has been very high, for instance earlier this year the margin requirement for trading in Nifty futures was 10-15% now it has gone up to 25%.
While this move of allowing cross margining** between the cash and the derivatives segments i.e. treating the risk margining on a basket basis rather than on a individual basis makes business and economic sense as its great news for brokers and traders, in terms of boosting the volumes. Some experts say the oldest bourse in Asia might be on verge of extinction. As the derivative segment of BSE is not as developed as NSE, and it’s clear NSE is the main beneficiary out of the two.
But BSE are prisoners of their own device, and the situation they are in place right now is due to their own lethargic (for lack of a better word) actions. For instance in 2007-08 the value of share delivered in BSE in cash segment was 476,196 Cr, and that on NSE was almost twice 970,618 Cr .Many examples can be cited where BSE never capitalized and seized the moment. The biggest issue which BSE faces is, lack of proper and deep derivatives market, as a result they not only loose revenues by not having strong F&O market, but also lose the arbitrageurs who bring in the volumes. The Oldest Asian bourse wanted to introduce currency derivatives, but got delayed, and NSE was first to jump on the button. The BSE has come out from the regime in which few brokers on Dalal Street controlled majority stake in the exchange, and were more keen on milking the fat cow for making their own cheese to taste sweet, but still can we say that Is BSE completely demutualized in true sense of the word. BSE has to dig deep within and get some answers and do it fast before it’s too late.


Information in detail :
*Previously it was allowed for Institutional Investors, now as on 2’nd Dec 2008 this facility is for all sets of Investors.
**Margin is the collateral a trader or an investor has to keep with the exchange while trading. At any point of time, the amount of margin depends on the trading value as well as several other factors associated with overall market risks. Margins could be kept in the form of cash, fixed deposits, bank guarantees, shares and other forms of assets as specified by the existing rules. Cross-margining, which is also known as “spread margin”, allows market participants to reduce the total margin payment required, if they are taking two mutually offsetting positions. This enables market participants to transfer excess margin from one account to another account.
Currently, the margin risk in the derivatives segment is calculated using the standardized portfolio analysis of risk software, developed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The software uses a set of algorithms that helps assess one-day risk for a trader

Who is More Powerful? Finance or Marketing Guys?

Before i write anything, i would like to make it clear that i am doing my majors In Banking & Finance. Now that should not make me bias towards a particular side.I strongly believe we as human beings do selling continuously in some way or the other sell, weather its HR manager selling a company to employee, or CEO selling it to investor, a top notch Investment banker pricing the issue and selling it to the Public.Selling may sound sad or to some of you harsh but then its an integral part of marketing. Now some of you may say, hey i want to get into Equity Research,i want to do Financial Modeling, why should i sell,if not that question then what should i sell; interesting my friend Abhishek Arora once said, Equity Research is of two types Buy side and sell side, one that you sell to management for proprietary trades executed by brokerage house and other either sold to your clients (generally Institutional)for the fees, and the other one which is made open to public through analyst upgrades/downgrades, bottom line is if you are an excellent analyst but you dont know how to put it in words and present it to clients,and pitch the report properly there will be no takers and all that excellence ,brilliance and exuberance with which you make the report goes in vain. See if you have good analytical skills you can have a nice job travel first class have a stiff life,but can u reach to the Top, my readers would have seen the 1985 flick WALLSTREET , Gordon Geckko was not an analyst but a great street smart marketer.we all know the Success story which Apple Inc. has crafted the person responsible for making Apple Steve Wozniac (hey who's this Guy a typing error ) no sir no typing error the Brain Behind apple was of Wozniac,still we say it was a brain child of Steve Jobs.Who took Wipro from $250 million Co. to a $1 billion Enterprise, it was Vivek Paul the most charismatic CEO. You might feel why this guy is writing this article many of you reading this feel that Marketing is for wimps no its not the case the most infuential and sucessful people born who have made History were /are good marketers .Another reason i am of this view point is that God is a smart kid sitting out there, we can improve our soft /negotiation skills to a large extent but not our analytical. And i belive the key to sucess in life is identify your weakness and play to your strengths !

You Can Overthrow these Politicians by refusing to vote!

Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section " 49-O" that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm her / his identity, get her/his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that she/he doesn't want to vote anyone!

Yes such a feature is available, but obviously these leaders have never disclosed it.

This is called "49-O".

Why should you go and say " I VOTE NOBODY"... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them.

This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way; of our whole political system.... it is seemingly surprising why the election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public....

Please spread this news to as many as you know...Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India ... show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting... so don't miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on...

Use your voting right for a better INDIA

Be Responsible and Share this with As many as U can.....

PS:
The campaign is to create awareness the above contents are inspired from Neha Chaturvedi, and there is no orignal contribution by the blogger( Author)

Death Of Stupid Common Man

We hear about bomb blast, we are petrified… we call our loved ones and once we get the assurance that everything is fine, we take a sigh of relief, and take the remote control and flip on news channel to see the best footage, trust me these news channels during such scenario are best source of entertainment, hey its original as real as a realty show, what’s more its “LIVE” and its “BREAKING NEWS”. No I am not trying to blame the media, they do this to get their “BITE”, and earn their bread, neither am i blaming the stupid common Man. What i don’t like is the memory of “stupid common man”.
This is not the first time that Mumbai is a hot spot on terror radar. I try and compare the London tube train blast, Madrid bombings and the 9/11 WTC attack, one thing that strikes out is that lightning never struck again. And if we talk about Mumbai, we are a soft spot very vulnerable target, we’ve been attacked three times successfully, and the cheery on the icing is that we as a country is resilient and we don’t retaliate, and that’s great. I totally believe an eye for eye will leave this world blind. The question here is valuing human life, if we ask a question to our bosses (politicians) do they really value our life or they believe in pricing it? A dead body at 100,000 Rs and an injured man who’s bread earning hand is amputated at 25,000 Rs. This has to stop and our leaders must focus on our security. To counter that argument security will always be an issue in a city having population as high as 19 million* and police force of 39,000 to serve, this means for every 487 people there is one COP.
The recent attack proved that it’s not the stupid common man who is hot favorite of terror groups, it can be the big elite, Rich & famous of South Mumbai. It’s a pity that son or daughter of any politician was not present as Taj Mahal Hotel, if they would have been this would have been a beginning of end of lethargic & myopic political games. We are a nation of thinkers, and always almost all of us have an opinion on anything be it Sachin’s 90’th ODI “FIFTY” or TATA NANO the 1 lakh ki “GADDI”. What we don’t want is bunch of classy people with their espionage and debate on ‘What we should do?’.
We as a country are in desperate need of doers and no thinkers to save this “DYEING BOMBAY”

*Including suburbs of Thane & Mumbai

Indian Textile Indst. to Benifit from Neighbors

Textiles and apparel account for around 13% of India’s exports. As per Assocham, an industry association, the sector employs about 35m people. According to a recent study by India Today, a weekly news magazine, 700,000 jobs have been shed in the sector, both by organized and unorganized players. But that’s not all we might be in for good times ahead, as we might profit from woes of Pakistan and China, as the later is seeing pressures on cost due to appreciation of RMB (Chinese Yuan) and wage increases in China, cost gaps with countries like India, Pakistan & Bangladesh have narrowed. India can be one of the largest beneficiaries.

Indian companies are gaining from lower volumes or stagnating volumes from Pakistan. Given the increased concerns on terrorism in Pakistan, almost no company wants to increase their volumes from Pakistan. Big ticket retailers mentioned of contingency plans to move orders out to other countries, including India, if the internal situation in Pakistan worsens.

India will also see incremental benefit if growth in China slows, cost pressures in China increase and Pakistan remains embroiled in social strife and tension. India is set to gain from the Rupee depreciation, but the fruits won’t come to the surface as many Indian companies have hedged their exposure when rupee was higher and the next couple of quarter’s forex losses are likely to be high. The relief from lower rupee will be visible primarily in FY10.
Having cited all the above mentioned factors there is a flip side, and certain roadblocks to India stamping its authority on global textile market. Cotton prices and raw material prices are up 30%-50%. At Rs47-48/ US$, we can absorb the cost increases. But we are hedged for the next two quarters and so will realize the benefits only after that.
Due to the current financial Tsunami whose effect is now seen on the main street, US retailers are reducing inventories and as a result we expect that Indian companies will see increase in inventories and also further pressure to reduce cycle times. The sourcing companies maintain that given the sharp slowdown in consumer sentiments in USA and Europe, the focus on costs is increasing by the day. All in all opportunities always come with some sort of risk’s , they have to be taken to seize the moment.


*The Source of data and information for the above article was from a report by CLSA.

Who Owns Mumbai ?

Land of million opportunities, where million dreams are buried and born every day, home to Bollywood testimonial to thousands of scripted success stories, witness to many, ‘Big Indian Dreams ‘ coming true…,Maximum City, City that never sleeps…it can be associated with many such adjectives.
The city is Jewel of all Metros , Mumbai contributes 10% of factory employment, 33% of income tax collections, 60% of customs duty collections, 20% of central excise tax collections, 40% of India's foreign trade and rupees 40,000 crore (US $9 billion) in corporate taxes.*
But the big question which we have is, who really owns Mumbai? Is it the Men who Rule it, or self proclaimed Political leaders, or‘We The People’, wait a minute who comes under the purview of so called as we the people, is it the ‘Marathi Manus’1 or North Indians . If we dig deep within ourselves the answer is as clear as a crystal ball, Mumbai belongs to men and women who build this great city. And who are they, they are no one but common men and women who had a dream in their eyes and worked hard and chased it, and even if they were light years from fulfillment of destiny, they had a smile on their face.
And this ‘Stupid Common Man’ is tired of ‘Raj-giri’, pardon me for my language and use of famous phrases from recent bollywood flicks. Common man is crushed between some myopic and petty political actions, and pressure of earning daily bread. These actions actually may not give great deal of political mileage to a nascent Political Party, only it would play in hands of the ruling party. Let me not get my hands dirty by writing about our Politicians.
Talking about Marathi Manus, is against North Indians , I do think so, any stupid common man in Mumbai is too busy to care about stuff like that , here everybody has to think about their daily bread and any man Marathi, Gujrati or Bengali, tries to keep away from the mess. I have a serious doubt, if our leaders say that Marathi Manus is not getting his rights and a place that he deserves, I will ask who is Marathi Manus? Is he Milkha Singh that speaks better Marathi than Punjabi and has been a domicile resident of the city for 25 years or Rambharose who prepares better Puranpoli’s2 than a Marathi brahmen cook, or is Sheikh Nadeem who dances in Ganpati procession of Lalbaugcha Raja3. Even I was at the receiving end of things a very good friend of mine from Jaipur commented on a discussion on a b-school in Nagpur “ Sir your home is getting all the big ticket intellectual Investment”, I replied “Sir my home is the same as yours and we call it India”. This may sound to dramatic but this was the only reply I could think at the point of time.
I am Gurathi, and speak fluent Marathi and proud of the same, and I don’t believe that since one man went against the non Maharashtian’s the entire Marathi community should not be blamed. ‘An Eye for Eye leave all the residents of Mumbai Blind!.... As I always say.Revenge is sweet , but unfortunately not Fruitful!
* Mc Kinsey Report Published in 2005 in association with NASSCOM. http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/india/mckinseyonindia/pdf/NASSCOM_McKinsey_Report_2005.pdf

1 The Common Maharashtrian Man.
2 A Sweet delicacy from Maharashtra.
3 Lalbaugcha Raja is the oldest (75 years) Ganesh Mandal in Mumbai, They say all your wishes are fulfilled by lord Ganesha. This Idol has a first right of visarjan . Muslims in Crafford Market area, during the last day do a complete Pooja and then lead the procession before the Idol is immersed in Girgaum Chowpati in Mumbai.

Innovation Liberates

Fiction liberates and Reality educates, and if we don't learn we don't evolve.. Innovation and adaptation and most importantly acceptance are the key to chest of Doom, in which we find ourselves locked. Jobs being slashed right , left and center uncertainty and hope lingering heavily in the Air, what should we do....Or What can we do...Are we responsible for Sins of few aspirational (for lack of a sophisticated word)Investment bankers...We ask ourselves why should we suffer?
But if we check the History one fact is accentuated... the entire community pays for actions of one Aspirational (Greedy/Maniac)Leader. We can cite millions of examples from Jangeis Khan to Adolf Hitler, to Osama- Bin laden and few bankers.I believe herd mentality to earn profits of few basis points and follow the leader spelt the dooms day.
Yes you may argue i don follow the herd.. i am different..I think differently.. But there lies the catch we as a human race are excellent thinkers and less of doers.. as it takes courage to swim against the tide.
But History has been testimonial to the fact that great leaders and Change agents who have the tenacity to seize the moment emerge as strong leaders.
And in the Indian context i appreciate the proactive measures taken by Dr Subarao to tackle the situation,some thing that was never done and was never thought of, reminded me of situation when Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister, and when he took decision to pledge Gold Reserves and Open the Economy. True these decisions are not taken by a single man, but men having vision can influence Bold decisions. Yes Call Money Rates were as high as 20%.. but taking action in all three fronts was a bold and appreciated move. Hard decisions seldom don't come with a pinch of a salt...
But these decision are key ingredients to as i said seizing the moment.
If India is able to weather his storm ( and this Sub-prime Crisis is one Perfect Storm seen once in Century)it is poised for emerging as a strong leader.

Take a Bow To Dow!....

We have seen financial panics before.
We have seen wealth erode before.
In, 1987,/, the Dow Jones , Industrial Average crashed from 2,641 on October 2nd to 1,739 on October 15th. That was a decline of -52%.In 2 weeks.
In 1998, the Dow Jones crashed from 9,338 on July 17th to 7,539 on August 31st.
That was a decline of -24%. In 6 weeks.
The current decline in the Dow is -49% from its peak of 14,093 established on October, 12, 2007. In 51 weeks.
If things are bad now, they were also pretty bad in 1987 and 1998 yet we survived as a species.


Source:
Equitymaster.com,

Financial Turmoil

A school boy doing his Physics assignment due to his curiosity and over influence of news Channels asked his father, “Dad what do you mean by Sensex ?” , father being aware of financial crisis replied , “ Son something that falls faster than 9.81 m/s2 “. This may sound dramatic, but in past few weeks we have seen this some chain of events in which big and Historic names from the Wall Street are getting wiped out, Investment banks are falling like Domino’s.
The Big American Investment Banks are changing their models, and turning into commercial banks, and as we sit on the couch and sip our cup of coffee, we tend to feel is this the failure of the Big American Capitalist Model?, or just the greed on side of Investment Banker’s, who for sake of few basis point profit took exposure in products having fancy names but high risk. As time passes by the speed of Write-off’s and big names going belly- up would stem. And then the ‘subprime crisis’ might spread its wings into the Real Economy.
But we are safe and sound 12,000 miles away in our living rooms watching Saas-Bahu Soaps, are we? The Decoupling theory was put to bin by the screen as, Dow had a great Bow to four digit figures and Sensex tested the 10K levels, which were seen two years ago. Initially when we saw a correction in the markets it was due to capital flight on behalf of FII’s due to high risk formation in Emerging Markets, and now the same FII’s are pulling back the capital employed in EM’s just to meet there obligations abroad.
So the big question here is that can Corporate India sustain is growth and help provide the fuel for India to keep shining? I have my reservations on this issue, and got reasons for the same. The Recent IIP (Industrial Index for Production) numbers don’t quite reflect it. Services Sector is major contributor to India’s growth, and IT & ITES sector has a lion’s share of it, major revenue for this Industry comes from the BFSI in USA and Europe, which has been hit badly, yes we can argue Rupee has depreciated a lot , boosting the bottom-line of IT companies, but there top-line will be affected as the IT spending( by the existing players who still survive) will reduce eventually. If we talk about manufacturing industries, they need fuel of capital to fire them, which they are finding it difficult to raise from the Equity markets as of now, and the cost of borrowing has also gone high , so debt funding goes out of the Window. The worst hit is real-estate and Infrastructure which are abandoned by all investor, once a darling of all had turned orphan. Textiles could have benefited, from the lows of the rupee but again the weak consumer spending in USA and Europe may not let that dream suffice.
The Analyst on D-Street are screaming about cheap valuations, we use PE multiples which in a way is a technique of Relative valuation, and we compare PE ratio of our scrip with Industry PE and that of market leader, but one thing we should take into the picture is the interest rate in the system.Historically PE ratio had a negative co-relation with the Interest rates in the system*. The ability of a firm to generate earnings is a function of interest rates. So when the interest rates in the system go high the earning expectations tend to go low, and on those expectations the share price, so investor should keep in mind as he PE falls the futuristic earning will also not grow at the same rate.
There are some positives to take as the Global cut in the Interest rates, and reduction in CRR by the Central bank, but these measures are temporary & inflatory in nature. The Big Bail out and provision of liquidity for banks in USA and Europe is a good news, but now after this subprime saga the banks would be very cautious (for lack of a better word) in lending, which again might be a roadblock on track to happy days.

*The following Study at NYU exibiting a strong negative co-relation between the two. http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pdfiles/pe.pdf

Leader......

Our biggest Strength lies in understanding and more importantly accepting our biggest weakness. We as individuals never do that, do we ever? . We all have limitations, limitations are nothing but caps on our abilities. Hey isn’t that negative putting Caps or limitations on yourself, yes true  its bad to put any blockages or hurdles, but trust me your ability can just take you to ¼’th to your destination, the rest is attitude , grit and determination, any of the word that is convenient to you. So what am I trying to say? , I believe you have that grit and street-fighter attitude, its great but at the same time know your limitations. The best success story that comes to my mind is that of Steve Waugh.

Steve & Mark Waugh were one of the very few twins who played together in a team sport. Cricket and especially batting came easily to Mark, he was a naturally gifted fielder, and one of the most attractive & stylish batsman of all times. Watching him you felt cricket is an easy game, on the contrary Steve struggled and fought his way through, he was technically not that superior, and was by no means a natural or gifted cricketer, still his track record is better than brother Mark, he had evident weakness like an ordinary player of short-pitch bowling, strong bottom hand player forced him to be more often than not on back-foot. Still he bailed out Aussies out of loosing situations the maximum number of times, due to sheer grit and will to win.

Steve had this unique ability to get the best out of his team mates, and he built the Australian team, which Ponting  just inherited. History has been testimonial to the fact that most of individuals with common abilities make extraordinary leaders. Daimen  Flemming once said, ” if Steve thinks I can walk on pile of broken Glass, then I can!”, this was the sort of faith players had on Steve. During 1999 World Cup Australia was on verge of elimination from tournament, and then Steve made the famous comments  to his mates“If not You, then Who? If not now, Then When?”… and as they say rest is history.

  And I have my assumptions for this, if you are supremely talented you are too focused on perfecting yourself, and in the process neglect the team. For instance, Tendulkar, Lara both living geniuses’ still didn’t proves their metal as a Captain. Moreover I you are a perfectionist you expect the entire team to do the same or be at the same level, whereas your team might have different styles or competencies which you might overlook.

Same is role of a Manager, his role in today’s environment has become much of a leader than, just another brain doing analysis. There are specialists for the same, there is always an upper limit on what you can achieve, but the realms of achievement for your team are infinite.

 

Its Different ! ! !

We always try to be different, at least try to be apart from crowd.
But why some of us do that, it was true in my case as I dint want to work with any IT major , as I will be sitting in the same old cubicle, I will be lost in the crowd.
Aaaahaana!!, so is it the fear of not being notice makes us this way, where we push ourselves to be different. This is for sure we all love to leave a mark, an impression in whatever we do.
And it takes courage not to follow the sheep herd mentality, yes we all think differently but very few have actually the courage to be different.
And those who try to be different have been successful, at least most of them , to name a few Warren Buffet, Georg Soros, and all most all the entrepreneurs have the ability to think differently and go against the God’s and the odds to convert the perceptions of vision into realm’s of reality.
Now thinking differently stems from two types of personalities, one of them are who have fear of being noticed, the inherent motivator for them is fear. And the other who try to stay away from limelight!
Lets not go too far the famous networking site, and one of my friend Kailash Bajaj ( poster boy of Dara Shaw & Co. and one of the most famous, admired, respected and celebrated (amongst students) student at IBS HYDERABAD ) has the words “less u knw me better is 4 u” on his orkut profile and is flocked by mob in IBS and everywhere he goes.( again he does not do this to garner attention.... he runs awy from lime light and still adulation follows him!)
The reason may the charisma that is created by being different, where people have their profiles overflowing with information and you write few words , it does creates that enigma which is inexplicable.
So being different does it work? Yes if you have the courage to create an identity for you apart from the crowd it can be a real plus.
This article is being inspired by an unknown female on orkut by the name of Bharvi Pandya.

Love Your Work!

Real motivation comes from within, real drive comes from within we always try to derive inspiration from others, we read success stories, all of us love a story of an outright underdog who pushes himself to glory.
The key for success actually lies within you, and it’s the journey and not the destination that is more important. “We all are looser in some way or the other”, is what one friend of mine use to say always, he was of the belief the coolest guy in the college is a looser at something or the other and that’s what pushes him to be cool. A nerd pushes himself towards books because he believes , books are the only thing that will make him successful, so is it fear what helps us to push ourselves, fear , fear of failure , fear of not being popular, fear plays a crucial role in motivating us.
Wait a minute is it right, should fear motivate me? Or passion motivates me?
I leave this question to you, but if one thing for sure if fear does motivate you, you don’t enjoy things, you don’t enjoy the journey called life, whatever you are is just because of that two letter word ‘what if?’
Man is a social animal, and trusts me you hate it or love it, deny it or accept it we have herd mentality, if someone says something is good and you just accept it “ hey is that good, good for me?” this is a question we seldom ask. To cite an example I don’t have to go too far away in my b-school every Tom Dick, Harry and Sally wants to be either an Investment Banker or wants to be an Equity Analyst. Without even knowing what it is all about?
It’s Innovation that liberates and not imitation, I came across another sect of people, who sincerely believe success is a function of GPA, and there is this elite class of people who walks with their head held high and are immortals in the campus. If we have to run a regression equation its simple one depended variable is their academics, on which their life depends. And these immortals also include list of people who have worked over the years in corporate, but I don’t blame them since they have been groomed in the similar environment. Then there is a breed of people like me who totally believe that formal education and set patterns can upset you, as you are caught up in Shackles’ which you can never really break, and stops you indulging in innovation. By saying that I am not advocating my beliefs and saying there should be no diligence and there should exist complete chaos. No method to the madness is must, but let’s has madness at the first place; I always say that there is a pleasure in being mad, pleasure which few big mad men know. And Madness stems from passion, passion to learn perform and innovate.
Coming back to drive and motivation I believe that one should do whatever he or she loves to do,” it’s easy to say that, stakes are high, I got liabilities up my sleeves and for me money is the key”, I totally agree but I propose a hypothesis that , hey if you are not good at something and if you don’t do something with passion you will never outperform in that field, in that job, rather you join a field which you love and are passionate about, your success probability increases. Myopia is a shortcut to disaster.

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Illusive Gold

I don't understand why people don't live each moment of their lives?
...they are never happy, they always crave for something and after getting their or getting that, they are not satisfied.
Life is that tunnel through which no one has escaped alive, if that's the case why we are unhappy?

One can argue if you are satisfied you will become stagnant, will not grow, yes desire and growth go hand in hand and i have no issues with that but after reaching their are we satisfied?

A gymnast pushes hard to get the Gold, once he gets their he feels he is unhappy because someone else has a better record and i should beat it, he himself invites dissatisfaction from life as he is living dogma(life on others expectations).

Don't get me wrong here i am not advocating that fact that one should not push for the gold the next time, i am saying why have attachment , if you fail in the process, fear of failure comes from attachment. You must learn to let go, we cant press the sand to hard in our palms, we know its gonna slip.

I believe in living in each moments , as their are no ordinary moments, their is always something going on, live in that moment, past is history don't it be a baggage or a advantage for you, its just past, don't think of future as your process of thinking about it wont change it. Just live in present and join each dot (moment);which on integrating(Engineer inside me cant Die) will give you the future.

कहावत.

गुजरती कहावत है !
लाखो का खेल ,
करोडो का बुल,
पन्ना पल्ताया तो,मुदल भी गुल!

Quotes!

Lance is Epitome of inspiration..

and i could not find a better fitting person.

ü start believing in yourself and you can stretch the realms of possibility to infinity”

ü “In a phase of adversity, its easy to be disheartened or devastated, but better be disappointed, because disappointment breeds champions”

ü “ If you don’t risk anything you are running the biggest risk of your life”

ü “ Vengeance is sweeter than honey!, but unfortunately not fruitful”

ü “ If your will is superior, destiny crumbles”

ü “Theirs a pleasure in being mad , Theirs a pleasure in being mad which few big mad men know”

ü “You are not given dreams just because you don’t have the power to fulfill them”

ü “No man is great,
the challenges that lie ahead of him are great, which in turn make him great”-inspired from movie VIRRUDH

ü “At times you might be too close to the trees,
to see the woods and at times you might be so far away from woods that you cant see the trees”

ü “ Average is equally near from the top as from the bottom
the choice is yours”