Do you have a coach for the captain’s job?

Q: What’s the biggest hiring mistake you have ever made? (Stephan Klapproth, Zurich, Switzerland)

Ans: Would you believe that with about 60 years of combined experience, we’ve made too many hiring mistakes to name just one? It’s true. Now, many occurred when we were newer at this game, but picking the right people never gets easy. Just last month, we almost blew it twice, saved only by a last-minute eureka in both cases. Incidentally, even as we were in the midst of making these almost-mistakes, we were cringing a bit, concerned we were off-track. And yet we forged ahead, feeling simultaneously hopeful and helpless. Our candidates seemed bright and shiny enough, and we were just so tired of interviewing when there was real work to be done. Of course, hiring is real work. Given the central importance of your people, it’s as fundamental as work gets. Yet too often we rush headlong into its painfully common pitfalls.

Take our first near-miss last month, when we almost gave into the universal impulse to hire a person who looked too good to be true. There she was with an Ivy League degree, several technology jobs at solid companies and exactly the skills we needed. Well dressed, well spoken, charming, eager – the works. Even her salary requirement was in the low range....Continue

As Toyota crosses the one million mark in hybrid sales, other car firms scramble

Given the market potential, even Toyota’s rival counterparts like Honda and Ford have hit the ground running. Ford sold more than 3,000 hybrids in the same time period, reaping benefits from the popular Escape (Ford’s hybrid), while Honda accepted payment checks for close to 5,000 hybrid units. GM, which may not have a significant proportion in these figures, is a major pioneer as well. The company is responsible for spearheading hybrid truck sales in America.

Even though hybrids are now becoming increasingly popular, analysts believe that a majority of consumers still prefer old fashioned technology under their bonnets. The main reason sighted for this anomaly has been the lower penetration of hybrid technology. Apart from select areas in a couple of developed markets, hybrids are virtually non-existent in most of the world. Despite the fact that developing markets like India and China are beginning to be visible on the hybrid map, there still are uncertainties.

So where lies the answer to this hybrid’dle? Despite clearly having efficiency advantages, the hybrid concept stands a chance of succeeding in the world’s fastest growing developing markets if and only if further price reductions are brought about, as these markets have very high price elasticities. Until then, a lot more has to be achieved than simply merging two engines.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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The Sunday Indian

A toast to Bud

The buzz in the liquor circles is that Budweiser – better known as Bud in pubs and bars all over the world – is all set to give India a high! The brand, a pale lager owned by the US-based Anheuser-Busch (which is the world’s largest brewer) is going about its business of setting shop in the country. It has already dispatched stocks to Hyderabad; Mumbai is the next stop – the city will receive bottles of Bud in July. Goa and Karnataka are next in the pipeline. Anheuser-Busch domestic partner Crown Beer Pvt. Ltd., reportedly, has even planned out the pricing: an average national price of Rs.68 for the 650 ml bottle and Rs.38 for the pint bottle (the rates may vary from state to state, of course, depending on duties and taxes). Shall we raise a toast to Bud then?

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

IIPM Arindam Chaudhuri 4Ps Business & Marketing Business & Economy Kkoooljobs Planman Media Planman Consulting Planman Marcom Planman Technologies Planman Financial Planman Motion Pictures GIDF The Daily Indian IIPM Think Tank
The Sunday Indian

What happens to the huge amount of development being undertaken by property investors?

According to an article by Bundeep Singh Rangar, Chairman, IndusView, in FDI Magazine, retail will also be a key driver, with over 200 malls expected to be set up by 2008, which means 20 million sq. metres of retail space in India. Demand for commercial space will approach 112 million sq. metres by 2012- 13. Interestingly, even in the residential segment in urban India, the housing shortage is expected to touch 22 million units by year 2008.

Try saying that to a retail investor like Ram Chander Aggarwal, Chairman & Managing Director of Vishal Megamart, who assiduously argues against the real estate sector’s growth to us, saying out of 52 total Megamarts across India, he has only 4 in New Delhi and doesn’t plan even one more (not even in some other top line metros) because of the unbelievably high realty prices. That is a thought mirrored point by point by almost all other retail giants we talked to. Then what happens to the huge amount of development being undertaken by property investors?

Almost none of them is ready to even accept our take on the dastardly falling stock prices. The share prices of all realty majors have gone for a beating and are down to as much as 55% of their values over the last six months (see Finance National story); and this at a time when the Sensex has grown by historical benchmarks and is now fighting just 200 points shy of the 16,000 mark.


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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Cutting the umbilical cord!

Ever since Gordon Brown took over as the British Prime Minister, a conspicuous shift in the English approach vis-à-vis the US is discernible. The difference was apparent recently, when the International Development Secretary in Brown’s cabinet, Douglas Alexander, told the US to reconsider its priorities, subtly criticising American foreign policy. Taking a dig at US, he stated that a nation’s strength must no longer be identified by its destructive power, pointing out instead that it “should be measured by what we can build together.”

Advocating the importance of multilateralism in Brown’s foreign policy agenda, Douglas Alexander added that UK will form “new alliances, based on common values,” that will help her reach out to the world. In as much, UK has been successful in sending the message to the US, loud and clear that, while Britain stood beside the US in countering terrorism, isolation does not work in an interdependent world.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

IIPM Arindam Chaudhuri 4Ps Business & Marketing Business & Economy Kkoooljobs Planman Media Planman Consulting Planman Marcom Planman Technologies Planman Financial Planman Motion Pictures GIDF The Daily Indian IIPM Think Tank The Sunday Indian

Don’t tell us you didn’t see the movie Wild Hogs!

Still, let’s give the necessary quick run up to how the Wild ended up in Hogs-II. What was started as a trading company by Rahul’s grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj, sometime in early 1900s, is today an estimated $3 billion group comprising no less then 29 companies in its manifold spread across automotive, industrial manufacturing, sugar, ethanol, electronics and insurance businesses. Bajaj Group’s flagship company, Bajaj Auto Ltd (with sales of $1.32 billion), followed by companies like Mukand Industries ($0.46 billion sales – managed along with the Shah brothers, focusing on steel and heavy industrial equipment), Bajaj Hindustan ($0.33 billion – one of India’s largest sugar and ethanol makers) and Bajaj Electrical ($0.20 billion – electronics and allied services) form the pillars of the group. But even though the ownership and management structures were clearly demarcated among the five Bajaj brothers, the once almost ‘invincibly united’ brothers have started playing truant!

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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The IAF has finally got a nod from the MoD to replace its obsolete fleet of combat aircraft

The MIG 21 procurement programme, which began in the 1960s, continued to the late 1980s (a vast majority was produced under licence by HAL), adding almost 1000 flying machines in the arsenal of the IAF. The situation began to change, when the ‘revolution in military affairs’ (RMA) was triggered by stupendous strides made by information and communication technologies. “Quality began to replace quantity as the concepts shift - ed from ‘platform centric’ to ‘network centric’ warfare. The Indian defence establishment was concerned with the poor quality of the avionics of the Soviet-era machines and the acquisition of F-16s by Pakistan (1983) made the defence establishment think afresh,” said Group Captain (Retd) Sukumaran, while talking to B&E. Although some inductions were made in the form of MiG 29s from Russia and Mirage 2000 from France, the numbers were too small to make any substantial difference. The purchase of Su-30 MKI was the only comprehensive acquisition since 1988. Furthermore, inordinate delays in procurement process coupled with political & economic hassles (during the Prime Ministership of Narasimha Rao in the early 1990s) prevented the IAF from upgrading its fleet. The old & obsolete MiG 21s (125 MiG 21s have been upgraded to Bison standard as a stop gap arrangement) still continue to be the mainstay of Indian air power, bearing testimony that the recent acquisition proposal announced by the Defence Minister is too little and too late.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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Ford Motor’s unending odyssey?

Ford said that about 27,000 of the union workers who acknowledged the buyout offers have gone away from the company, till now. Nearly 37,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) union employees had accepted Ford’s offer as part of the company’s ongoing reformation process. The automaker, which recorded a record loss of $12.7 billion in 2006 and a loss of $282 million for the 2007 first quarter, is planning to bring about an immense change. For this, Ford is in a four-year turnaround plan aiming to slash 16 plants and up to 45,000 jobs. Ford has however revealed that it has about 700 workers assured of nearly full wages and benefits when the automaker eradicates work or closes factories.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Home Campus Tour Contact Us Sitemap IIPM Think Tank IIPM National Brochure IIPM in Media India Today & Tomorrow
Strategic Alliance / Consulting / Intellectual Tic-up Partners Arindam chaudhuri GIDF Planman Consulting Business & Economy 4Ps Business & Marketing The Sunday Indian The Daily Indian Kkoooljobs.com