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)