Tuesday, April 30, 2013

"There is stalemate in dialogue with China"

Clad in an starched white Indian kurta-pyjama, speaking fluent Hindi, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Dr. Lobsang Sangay breaks his silence for the first time on several key issues. In an exclusive interview with B&E’s Aditya Raj Kaul, the Tibetan leader says that with likely changes in China’s top political leadership, the struggle for Free Tibet will reach a decisive stage next year.

B&E: Almost 40 Tibetans including monks have attempted self-immolation since 2009. Why this sudden increase in such desperate acts of protest? Have they lost hope for a free Tibet?
LS: [Brief silence] Yes, it has been really unfortunate. Question is why? The Chinese Government doesn’t allow any form of free speech like we see in India, here we can have dharnas, hunger strikes, and we can protest, and organise rallies. But in China, especially in Tibet, it is not so. You simply cannot participate in protests, even if it’s a gathering of three people, they get arrested and tortured. Tragically, Tibetans are taking to this rather drastic political act of self-immolation. But all the 40 self-immolators have only hurt themselves and not harmed others. Their demands are pretty clear – the return of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Free Tibet.

B&E: The 27-year-old Tibetan activist Jamphel Yeshi also self-immolated himself hours before Hu Jintao’s arrival in March this year. Is self-immolation the only way of being heard?
LS: We have told people not to indulge in self-immolation. A few days after Jamphel Yeshi’s self- immolation we in fact issued a very strongly worded letter asking Tibetans-in-exile particularly not to resort to self- immolations because we have freedom of speech in India. We can resort to and engage in many other forms of protests. Unfortunately, Tibetans inside Tibet don’t have any other option, but to commit self- immolations.

B&E: Have the concerns over Dalai Lama’s security intensified of late? The Dalai Lama himself recently said that a Tibetan may attack him?
LS: His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s security is of major concern to us. Threat perception always remains. The report (about a Tibetan attacking Dalai Lama) is reliable but not verified. Reports are that the Chinese Government at one time was training people like that, so we have to take all this under consideration.

B&E: Your views on Indo-Tibetan relations in the near future?
LS: Before 1959, India and Tibet had close relations. The 1914 Simla agreement makes it very clear. Tibet is of major interest for India from geo-political, environmental and cultural point-of-view. Culturally, because we follow Buddhism, which we adapted from India. Environmentally because Tibet’s Himalayan geography directly affects the region. And geo-politically because China is building a railway line all the way to India. The Indian government spends billions of dollars for border security. Before 1959, it was not necessary. Resolving the Tibet issue is in India’s interest.

B&E: Is there any ongoing back-channel dialogue with China or does a stalemate persist considering recent resignations of your two appointed emissaries?
LS: At the moment it is a stalemate, mainly because of the Chinese government. The relevant Chinese officials have not reciprocated positively to the memorandum that we submitted. That is why our two appointed envoys resigned. The environment is not conducive for dialogue. The situation inside Tibet is also getting worse. Having said that, we are ready to engage in dialogue with the Chinese government anytime. We seek autonomy within China and within the framework of the Chinese constitution. Most likely with the changes in leadership, by early next year there might be slight changes in the trend.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Saturday, April 27, 2013

What in heavens went wrong?

It was one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in the history of Wall Street. But despite all the hype and drumbeats, the Facebook stock has lost almost 25% of its value within the first month of trading and become the second worst listing in US history. Is this just a short term glitch or does it have long term implications for the social network?
Issue Date - 30/07/2012

From the days when his business card read “I’m CEO... Bitch” till today when it has become virtually impossible for him to justify the plummeting stocks of his company, Mark Zuckerberg has begun looking much older than his 28 years. And why not? The billionaire tycoon who was habitual of calling the shots from the confines of an insulated environment, now has to mingle with (and forcibly smile at) the perpetually hungry hounds of Wall Street after his botched IPO – an IPO which Dealogic (a specialist data research firm) calls the second worst listed in US history. The gloss of being the world’s youngest billionaire is swiftly being wiped away with class action lawsuits alleging blocking of revised information about the IPO’s prospects hours before its listing. And of course, there is now also the accompanying headache of having to create value for a lot more shareholders than he originally bargained for.

No matter how much one tries to justify the sequence of events, fact is that Facebook’s debut on the bourses has been a mess. The social network’s $104 billion valuation at the time of its offering was the largest ever by an American company. But then things went downhill. If General Motors’ announcement that it was pulling off all ads from Facebook because of low returns was not enough, lead underwriter Morgan Stanley let slip that it was lowering Facebook’s revenue forecast. A spooked Wall Street went into a tizzy and Facebook’s stock expectably nosedived from its $38 debut. The stock has lost almost 25% of its value within the first month of its stint at the bourses. So is this the end of the hugely successful saga of Facebook’s gravity-defying growth? To answer that, we need to look at issues much deeper than a depressing debut at the bourses. Read on...

The good...
There’s no denying the fact that Facebook will go down in history as a company that spearheaded and laid the foundation for a radical online advertising model of the future. Facebook has built a reach and target driven engagement platform with a user base that is just phenomenal. For the quarter ending March 2012, the social network – that is available globally in more than 70 languages – reported a monumental 901 million monthly users, an increase of 33% compared to the same period last year. Roughly 80% of these users are based out of the US and Canada. On any given month, an average of 526 million users are active on the website. During March 2012, on average 398 million users were active with Facebook on at least six out of seven days. Further, Facebook is home to more than 125 billion friend connections. Of late, Facebook has also seen extraordinary growth in terms of users accessing the social network on mobile. Ironically, Facebook was late to market with a dedicated mobile app. But its growing breed of 500 million plus mobile users speaks volumes for growth prospects. With this wealth of data, Facebook is in a unique position to collaborate with its partners by giving them access to demographic information based on login credentials. Chances are that Facebook might eventually succeed in creating an advertising network that is as deep rooted as present day television networks. But here’s the big question. Despite significant competitive advantage over off-line media, why has the Facebook IPO floundered?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Thursday, April 25, 2013

“We’re heavily involved with the app developer community”

Mike Bell, VP, Intel Architecture Group, discusses the global launch of Intel’s first mobile processor

B&E: You already have the largest share of the market in the PC segment. What have been the reasons to move into the smartphones and tablets category?
Mike Bell (MB): Computing is now moving onto a lot of other devices than just PCs. Smartphone and tablets lead the fray. We were instrumental in scripting the rise of the PC. And since then we have been all about the end user experience. So for us, moving onto smartphones and tablets was only a logical extension.

B&E: What would be the difference between the user experience when we talk about an ARM based processor and an Intel processor?
MB: Well you know it’s not just about the processer. Delivering an unparalleled user experience is about fine tuning the hardware along with the processor and the operating system. Only then do you get high performance coupled with low power consumption. So it’s about all the technologies at Intel that work together to bring about a seamless experience and not just the processor.

B&E: The smartphone revolution has been shaped by the kind of applications that the hardware can support. So how are you looking at the app community to push your processor?
MB: We are heavily involved with the app developer community. Again, we have have a group of people who have gone out in the past and worked with PC app developers to optimise applications. And now the same group is working with the mobile ecosystem as well. So we’re putting in significant resources in making sure that the Intel technology is 100% compatible with the entire mobile ecosystem.

B&E: Going forward, when can we expect to see Intel significantly dominating the smartphone market?
MB: Not soon enough! Well, I’m joking. Being ambitious is a part of our very nature and I think the XOLO X900 has been a great starting point. It will be easy to develop great products when we have a solid roadmap. We think we’re on the right path and I believe that people will appreciate and adopt our technology.

B&E: Since Paul Otellini had announced during the CES 2012 that Intel powered Lenovo and Motorola smartphone are being developed, we were expecting to see those hit the market. But eventually, you’ve chosen a lesser known brand like Lava which lacks global appeal to launch your first smartphone processor. Why?
MB: It’s about compatibility. For our first smartphone processor, we wanted to work with a partner who thought like we did. Someone who strived to deliver an exceptional end user experience. It’s not just about selling the device. It’s about educating the customer in store, the after sales service. And I think Lava does that pretty well. Right now, we’re very choosy about who we work with.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Infosys my experiment with entrepreneurship

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get richer. But there are many ways to get richer, and entrepreneurs must be able to choose the right one By N. R. Narayana Murthy Founder & Chairman Emeritus Infosys Ltd

For most people who are looking to take the entrepreneurial plunge, one of the greatest inhibitions is the loss of security that a job provides. Even in my personal case, it was not how I had planned things initially. I grew up in a middle class Kannada Madhava Brahman family, and the most critical learning that I imbibed from my family and environment was the uncompromising focus on education and respect; a learning that I have retained throughout my life.

My journey into entrepreneurship started out very differently, and a couple of defining moments come to mind. The first defining moment was a meeting with a famous American computer scientist when I was a graduate in Control Theory at IIT. He talked to me at length on the future of computer science; and his conviction and subject knowledge were so profound that I was hooked to the field for life. The second defining moment happened during my trip to Europe. It happened in the Sofia Express, in which I was travelling on my way to India. My co-passengers were a girl and a boy. I started a discussion with the young girl in French, who talked about the perils of life in an iron curtain country. To our astonishment, a few policemen came and arrested both of us, which, I believe, was because the young man had complained that we were perhaps criticising Bulgaria’s Communist government. They confiscated my belongings and dragged me along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in a corner as a toilet. I was made to stay there without food and water for 72 hours. Even after I was taken out, I was taken to Istanbul on a departing freight train, again without food and water, before finally being released; because I was “from a friendly country called India”, as per one of the guards. During the entire journey to Istanbul, I seriously rethought my views on communism. While I was quite a bit of a Leftist in my thought process earlier in life, my experiences in Europe started convincing me otherwise. Subsequently, over the coming years, I became more and more convinced that rather than communism, it was capitalism – and in essence the entrepreneurial spirit – that was the best way for countries like India to get rid of poverty. You can say that Infosys, in essence, was an experiment for me in entrepreneurship.

My first venture was Softronics, which only lasted for a year and a half (after which I joined Patni). I realised a few key lessons. Firstly, when you become an entrepreneur, the market has to be ready for your idea. The Indian market was certainly not ready, which is why with Infosys, I decided that we will explore the global market. Secondly, I learnt that it is important to have a team that has a common and enduring value system and the strengths of team members must be complementary and mutually exclusive. Again, these lessons came in handy when I set up Infosys. The idea of starting another software company started brewing in my mind when I was working as a lead engineer in Patni Computer Systems. I wanted to, as my upbringing had taught me, build a company that would earn the highest level of respect.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Monday, April 22, 2013

Can MoD ban Diageo?

Banning six defence suppliers is a good start; but why isn’t the Defence Ministry banning Diageo?

The recent allegations by outgoing Army Chief General V. K. Singh about an attempt to bribe him have unfortunately raised more questions than answers. Trace back just a few weeks and the can is open. In early March 2012, the defence ministry blacklisted six vendors that included four foreign defence contractors for their involvement in the 2009 Ordnance Factory Board scam.

That’s a good start. But what is mysteriously suspicious is that the Ministry has continued to deliberately ignore the clear case of liquor giant Diageo (owns Johnie Walker Scotch Whisky, Smirnoff Vodka and others).

In July 2011, the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapped fines of $16 million on Diageo convicting it for bribing government officials in India and other countries. The SEC further confirmed that $1.7 million worth bribes were paid in India. The SEC ruling that is available with B&E (Release No. 64978 / July 27, 2011) confirms, “In India, from 2003 through mid-2009 Diageo – through Diageo India Pvt Ltd – made over $1.7 million in illicit payments to hundreds of Indian government officials responsible for purchasing or authorizing the sale of its beverages.” Bribes were paid to Indian CSD (Ministry of Defence) canteen employees, Label Registration and Excise Officials across India. While the US government has convicted Diageo, why is it that the Indian Ministry of Defence continues to ignore the issue? Is it because Diageo’s India ‘advisory’ board consists of Naresh Chandra, a former cabinet secretary, defense secretary, advisor to PMO?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Friday, April 19, 2013

What’s Apple’s biggest challenge: replacing Steve or Wall Street?

Steve Jobs’ influence on Apple was pervasive – maybe too much. Prof. James L. Heskett of Harvard Business School questions in an HBS working knowledge paper on whether Apple faces an almost impossible task in replacing the visionary founder.

Discussions of management succession have been triggered once again in boardrooms around the world by Steve Jobs’ demise. Regarding Apple, of course, the question is what will the Jobs-loss mean for its future? If leaders often become “cult heroes,” to use a term coined by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steve Jobs was the cult hero’s cult hero. The assumption is that cult heroes are unique, one of a kind, impossible to replace, and that succession is the biggest challenge facing any company led by one. But is this the real problem confronting the company with the departure of a Steve Jobs?

Apple watchers cite several important contributors to the company’s success: 1) Its product development relies less on finding out what customers want than it does on what its employees think would be “cool”; 2) Its strategy is based on the introduction of a stream of thoroughly tested and proven products and new models, all based on a common platform, that often cannibalise each other, and that are simple, elegant, and easy to use; 3) It borrows good ideas from organisations such as Xerox and Gap but practices secrecy with its own ideas; 4) Its strengths and interests reflect its cofounder’s interest in hardware, not software. Possibly as a result, it relies heavily on partnering with others in the development of application software; 5) Its product development is organised around sometimes competing teams operating under a regime with the philosophy that “The system is, there is no system … (as opposed to discipline and) great processes,” as Jobs put it.

All of this occurred under the leadership of a person who practiced hands-on management, sometimes personally making detailed decisions. Jobs’ influence on Apple was pervasive. As one visitor observed, designers are the most respected people in the organisation at Apple, as opposed to Microsoft where the technical people rule.

In some respects, Apple’s experience with Jobs has parallels with Starbucks’ history with Howard Schultz, also a hands-on, detail-oriented leader who created the innovative concept of a “third place” outside the home and workplace where customers could enjoy an experience that included great coffee. However, after he stepped away from the CEO’s job (in 2000), Schultz watched apprehensively as new competitors entered the market and his successors succumbed to Wall Street’s expectations for even greater success than Starbucks’ had enjoyed under Schultz. Wall Street demanded increasing growth, internationalisation, better productivity, and new products. And Schultz’s successors responded by opening up to 5 new stores per day; extending business to new foreign markets; introducing a faster, higher capacity espresso machine that, because of its bulk, created a barrier between the barista and the customer; and offering new products. In 2008, Schultz had to step back in to save the company.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Still double digits

B&E: Passenger cars have seen negative growth over the past few months. Do you see a similar trend impacting the Indian two-wheeler industry as well?
AM: Challenges like rising fuel prices and interest rates are currently the main hurdles in the growth of the industry. As these two have a bigger effect on the passenger car buyer, the segment has not been able to grow as per initial estimates at the starting of the financial year. It is expected that the two-wheeler industry will also face tough times. In case of two-wheelers, there is a high chance that the growth will moderate but it will still be in double digits at the end of this financial year. As most purchases in the two-wheeler sector take place on cash, the rise in interest rates does not effect the growth of the two-wheeler sector to an extent.

B&E: India is currently the second largest market for two-wheelers across the globe. Do you believe that the relatively new entrants have a fair chance of making deep inroads in the coming few years?
AM: India is one of the most competitive markets when it comes to two-wheelers. Over the past one decade, many new names have entered the segment. But one needs to understand that for a new player, it is very tough to get the product strategy right in the first instance. Moreover, rural India has a lot of potential but to harness it optimally, one must create a strong distribution & service network.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
Posted by at 1:42 PM
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Monday, April 15, 2013

Inbox : This Fortnight

INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS, ECONOMY & FINANCE
Meg in, leo out!

When Leo Apotheker was named CEO of HP in October last year, there were doubts about whether a the former CEO of a software company (SAP) would ever be able to handle a mix of hardware and software at the world’s largest IT company (in terms of topline) as the CEO. After analysing the situation and his competencies, B&E did a story titled, “Wrong person. Wrong place” (issue dated November 11, 2010), in which we concluded that “The new CEO is a software guy and has prior experience only in enterprise sales – A clear mismatch with the current philosophy of HP – the largest IT company in the world”. When he announced his decision to sell off HP’s hardware division and buy out Autonomy for $11.69 billion in the last week of August 2011, we ran a follow-up story titled, “Is Apotheker destroying HP?” (issue dated September 15, 2011). This was our claim: “Apotheker, had little clue about what could potentially be done with a PC-plus-services portfolio. Post sell-off of the PSG unit, the company stands to lose $400.74 billion in expected revenue earnings over the next 20 years (arrived at using a binomial regression forecast model; R2=0.99; Eqn: y = -37.75x2 - 1395x + 42154).” The expected followed. Apotheker was booted out of the company. HP’s Board confirmed this publicly on September 22, 2011.

First question: Did he really deserve the bullet so soon? Actually, Apotheker has done enough in 9 months than what humans are usually capable of. Under him, HP’s m-cap shrunk to $47.52 billion – a fall of 51.52% since he took over!

Interestingly, the very moment the Board announced Apotheker’s exit, they pulled out another “typically-HP Board” trick. Former CEO of eBay Meg Whitman, with no prior experience in the field of hardware, was handed over the crown.

This brings us to the second question: Is a lady, who in the past four years was known only for two less-than-glorious acts – she resigned as eBay’s CEO in 2007 and then unsuccessfully ran for the office of the Governor of California (after spending $322.5 million in election campaigns) – fit to become the CEO of the world’s largest IT firm? Apparently, she is a fast learner. And what HP needs right now is someone with a vision. Remember, it was her vision that made eBay buy Skype for an inflated $4.1 billion in cash in 2005 (and which was later sold at $2.75 billion in 2009). But at least a move like this will keep HP’s hardware and software units going for some years! Apotheker destroyed more than 51% of HP’s m-cap in less than a year. How long will Whitman take to wipe out the rest? Difficult to say. But, if she manages to convince the HP Board to eat its own words and retain the hardware and mobility units (with webOS), she would have scored a one on ten to begin with in our books.

BNP Paribas’ $96 billion asset sale

BNP Paribas’ $96 billion asset sale In a move to insulate itself from the impact of the Greek debt crisis, BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, plans to sell $96 billion of risk-weighted assets to allay investor fears about the bank’s leverage and funding. The bank will also reduce its US dollar funding needs by $60 billion by the end of 2012. Unlike some of its main rivals like Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, BNP has been lucky to escape Moody’s Investors Service’s review without a change in rating. But that’s not a long-term remedy as the agency said it would extend its review for a possible downgrade of BNP’s long-term debt and deposit ratings. The bank in a statement on its website said the asset sales would reduce its balance sheet by around 10%. Of late, leading French banks have been fighting to restore confidence after suffering a summer of sell-off by investors, as they feared the banks are ill equipped to cope with the fallout from a Greek debt default. It’s not that BNP has been alone. Even smaller rival Société Générale unveiled a similar plan after post talks of a possible Moody’s downgrade. By selling assets, BNP will be in shape to reach a core Tier 1 ratio of 9% by Jan. 01, 2013, under the new Basel III regime, which calls for more stringent capital requirements.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
Posted by at 2:36 PM
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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Would you Send your Child to a Government School?

From Infrastructure to Accountability, Government Schools seem to be Perennially lagging behind. It’s high time The Government wakes up to the newer methods to force The Government-run schools to perform and deliver the best to Educate the future Citizens of this Country.

Mrs. and Mr. Khanna (Vasant Vihar, New Delhi) have been extremely worried since the last few months – the reason being their four-year-old daughter’s education. The major tussle was regarding the selection of a private school over a government one. “We just couldn’t risk a government school for our daughter,” is what they have to say. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones who have to go through this turmoil of parenting (deciding on the right school).

Even worse, this problem is not a recent development in the Indian education scenario in spite of the fact that the present government spend per child per month is more than the fees in 80% of the private schools. But still, the government schools in rural India are a pitiable sight. The scenario certainly differs a lot in the semi-urban and urban areas in terms of proper infrastructure, but the peril right now is that as much as 80% of the funds allotted to government schools is spent only on infrastructure and teacher’s pay and not on enriching the way education is imparted. Using it as an advantage, the private schools have managed to gain popularity among the parents.

Cut to the metros and there is a sea change in the way parents look at the type of schooling they want for their children. Most, if not all, believe that they should rather spend more and send their children to the nearest DPS (Delhi Public School) instead of a government-run school. As one of the parents points out, “I want my son to get educated in the new westernised method where there is much more than mere classes of English, History and Maths. Public schools have classes like mental maths, playing with ceramics, fashion and textile, and teachers are readily available for counselling to help build up the personality of a child.” In fact, these parents believe that the teachers in such schools are helpful and are willing to extend help even beyond class hours. But this is possible only for those who can afford such form of education. Thus, the question remains: What about the major part of the population that still can’t afford to send their children to these plush private schools?

Speaking from the point of view of the government schools, the Principal of a renowned government school in Salt Lake, Kolkata (name withheld on request) argues, “What people fail to realise is that government schools have a wider horizon to cater to. We might be lagging behind in updating our syllabus (which the government has started looking into), but apart from that in terms of other parameters, it’s because of the mass that we cater to, we cannot provide a different world to the students where they are kept inside plush centrally air-conditioned classrooms, served breakfast and transported in air-conditioned school buses.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 

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Monday, April 08, 2013

B&E This Fortnight

INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS, ECONOMY & FINANCE
Zero job growth!
America’s gold plated standards in political and economic leadership have become a laughing stock. And President Barack Obama – also being dubbed as “President Zero” by the Republicans is at the receiving end of this phenomenon which has engulfed America. In fact, the dust from the debt ceiling drama hadn’t even settled when the government report on jobs released on Friday became a more pressing concern for the Obama administration. Apart from narrating the pathetic state of unemployment, the report revealed that there was zero job growth in August – an indication that the economy has come to a halt and that further inaction by the administration might be lethal. As a result Obama has devised a $447 billion job growth package and the proposal has been sent to the Congress for approval. Half the budget comprises tax cuts. The rest would be allocated towards improving infrastructure to keep people on the job. Further, measures include easing stringent environmental emissions (which supposedly hamper employment). With elections round the corner and Obama’s approval rating dropping to an all time low, it is increasingly becoming difficult to imagine how the President who came into power with hopes and mass hysteria will repeat history once again.

Carol Bartz fired!
“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s chairman. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.” It didn’t take much time for Carol Bartz, the outspoken former CEO of Yahoo! to take out her iPad and write a mail to the company’s 13,000 employees informing them that she had been fired. Bartz’s two year tumultuous stint at the beleaguered web giant came to an end on September 07. One of the most celebrated entities of the Web 1.0 era, Yahoo! struggled to cope as Google took over the world wide web by storm. When Bartz took over as CEO, she had cut jobs, outsourced its loss making search business to Microsoft and attempted to streamline operation. She was partly successful in mobilising the stock at around $13, however, investors were uneasy and could not wait to see the impact of the fixtures Bartz had introduced. Moreover, she ended up publicly alienating Jack Ma, Group CEO, Alibaba (Yahoo’s key Japan ally) who in turn spun off the payment too, Alipay (one of the company’s most profitable asset) without compensating for Yahoo’s share. Further, the company missed second quarter revenue targets. Whatever the reasons were, investors didn’t like it and Bartz was fired. However, instead of cutting deadwood, Yahoo’s board should contemplate breaking down the business and selling it off. In fact, they goofed up when they turned down Microsoft’s acquisition offer three years back.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Posted by at 10:29 AM
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Tuesday, April 02, 2013

B&E Indicators

PE deal momentum continues in 2011
Although Indian PE activity got off to a slow start in 2011 (with only $800 million in recorded deals in the first two months of 2011), it picked up in March. In fact, the first quarter of 2011 ended with more than $1.5 billion in deal value. There were 95 PE deals in Q1 2011 against 64 deals in Q4 2010, representing a 53% growth in deal volume. Even on a y-o-y basis, the deal volume in Q1 2011 was about 50% higher than that in Q1 2010.

Small is beautiful
Fewer large deals (with deal value greater than $50 million) were recorded in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the previous quarters. In fact, only five large deals were announced during the first quarter of 2011 against an average of around eight deals recorded in the previous five quarters. Further, the share of such deals in the total deal volume dropped significantly from 10% in Q4 2010 to nearly 5% in Q1 2011.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist). For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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