Book Review…
We are supposed to submit the book review of one of the three listed here. Who says Elephant can’t dance , The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid and Good to Great . I selected the first one because to know how a almost dead company was really put back to life and what would have been the mind set of the person who took the challenge to turn it over and to note that he stepped in knowing that it is not performing well. I have worked for few companies which were are not performing well and observed that lot of people proactively moving out of that company. But in this case the scenario was entirely different. I haven’t completed the book yet. But surely a must read one. Louis V Gernster have lucidly expressed the stages he went through right from the day one he got the offer to lead the IBM. He also narrates the things he analyzed to take up that position.
Perfect. This is what I was searching for quite some time. This book says what he was, how he reached there and what he did to bring it up.
In coincidence to this we had two guests lecture’s one from Mr. KB Chandrasekhar (Founder of JamCracker Inc) and Mr. TT Dorai (CEO of National Kidney Foundation NKF). They shared their experience where both of them have started their life in a small place and have come to this extent. When these people walked inside the hall the entire environment was energized. They are very enthusiastic and passionate about what they have created.
Now lots of things are started happening here but I am not finding time to really put them all. Hope I will cover the most…
Yesterday we met the person we all want to be in one or another way in our life. It is none other than Mr. Vivek Paul (x CEO Wipro). My pioneer batch, my current batch, E-MBA students, press and outsiders are all present and well settled by 5.30 pm for the 6.00 o clock session. Entire Great Laker’s were in complete, perfect formals. Vivek walked in by 5.50 in a checked shirt and a half white trouser. Very simple and down to earth. No one believed it on the first sight as every one was imagining him in a blazer. Vivek straight away walked towards the computer which was placed on the corner of the auditorium and changed some slides in his power point presentation. The way he presented showed that no wonder how he was able to achieve to this extent. Very casual and he was there in the stage as if he lived there for a long time. He sketched the map he traveled in last six years at WIPRO. Session was ended with questions and photographs.
Uncle Bala has come down to chennai (founder of Great Lakes and also ISB Hyd). He will be taking a course on Managerial Accounting. He is a distinguished professor of Accounting at Kellogg’s. He will be here for nearly a month. He will be meeting lot of corporate heads (placement placement…) all over India. Yesterday we had a guest lecture on “RULE OF THREE” from Jagdish Seth. Every one either in the corporate world or educational side will surely know him. He has written more than 200 books and articles on Marketing and Business Strategy. Jagdish Seth is also coming up with a Business School in Banglore (Banglore School 0f Business BSB) by next year. Similar type of one like Great Lakes and ISB a one year one. Visit (http://www.jagsheth.net) to know more about him. In the photograph from left to right Mr. Rakesh Singh (Executive Director E-MBA), Bala V Balachandran (Founder Great Lakes), Jagdish Seth (Chief Guest), Mr. Narasimhan (Dean), Mr. Sriram (Director) and corporate relationship managers.
Amazing Concept. We have a course “Management through Movies”. It is actually a great idea and we are not the first institute to implement this. But in other institutes they use to run the movies which are either documentary based or the ones which are specifically taken for this purpose. But here it is planned to run the real time movies which are played in the theatres. 10 movies are in the row and on Saturday had our first session on it. “THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION”. This Excellent Movie implants the importance of strategy and hope in one person’s life. If given a chance to watch that again, even in this busy schedule, I may nod to it. Movie for 2 ½ hours and case study on it for another 2 ½ hours. A five hour session with only 10 minutes break in between. But very interesting and knowledgeable one…
Case Study was given by Economics Prof Rakesh Singh, I have spoken about him before in my blog. Again an outstanding / mind boggling case study from him. Is it Cigarette over taxed?. Out of total production of tobacco only 16% is used for cigarettes. And this 16% of tobacco consumers are paying the 80% of the tax. All the other forms of tobacco output are not regularized and are not getting taxed. Like the Bedi industry where it is small scale one and it is widely spread whereas on the cigar side only very few major players and they are getting completely taxed. In this scenario the amount of tobacco consumed on cigarette is drastically coming down. On the other hand Country is reaping huge revenue on this industry. If it continues there is a great danger for the cigar industry which might even totally go out of the market. This also doesn’t promises the good health for citizens because of industry is not there. It leads to alternate products to gain importance and might also increase our imports in cigarettes. Apart from all of that more than 26 million people are employed either directly or indirectly. This is the current scenario that is prevailing in India; at this time what should be the price that the government should decide in order to have a equilibrium level maintained which will save the industry as well…
Very Excited. The man who controls the entire banking system of India Dr. Y V Reddy is coming down to my institute for a Guest Lecture. Just some known facts about YVR and RBI: Yaga Venugopal Reddy (Y V Reddy) is the governor of RBI and a well known strategist. He is the 21st governor of RBI and the first governor to get a five year stint since it’s inception in 1935. He Passed out of 1964 batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS). His autograph appears in the currency and he controls and decides the Bank Rate (BR), Interest Rate, Lending Rate, Cash Reserve Ration (CRR), Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), Open Market Operations and lot more. Before Joining RBI as governor, he was in International Monetary Fund (IMF) as executive director and before that he was in RBI as deputy governor.By his outstanding performance we are now having a stable economy and a controlled money market…
My first day on Market Research down the street… Great Experience … Less FUN. I realized it’s not that easy to approach the people who walks with their kids, get the information about how their kids influence them in buying the white goods… that too on a Sunday evening. Initially I found it difficult to approach them and also had problems in holding them for 3 to 5 minutes. Some of them started well but doesn’t have patience to take the complete questionnaire. Started outside the Saligramam food world and then moved to Anna Nagar where I got nearly 10 entries. They are getting more interested when I ask about their kids extra curricular activities and their interest.. There I got the point and after that avoided giving the questionnaire first. It is more important to go on with a conversation and then put our questions. But there is also a very wrong perception prevailing about Market Research. People think it sucks their time but actually it helps them in a long run. Only after knowing what’s their in the mind, Companies can come out with right product. I think people perception on this need to be changed first. I still wonder why none of the Marketing Research companies are coming out with such ads expressing the importance of research and people’s co-operation to that. Else atleast government should emphasize the importance of it. What do you feel ?
Had a good time watching 
This one month old babe (DELL D610) is giving lot of problems. Since we bought around 50 laptops, got this at 70 K. Market price of the same will be around 1 lakh. Problem is that it is getting damn hot within half an hour of usage. Called the Dell people couple of times. Motherboard was replaced immediately, but still the problem persist.