interview with Girija Pande, of TCS. Wharton school.
--------------------------------------------
"I said inside large corporations you can be an entrepreneur. There is an entrepreneurial streak of just doing things and being sometimes a little more radical than others. Asking questions, which [other] people don't ask. " Girija Pande, TCS.
------
I used to go and tell all my people when I used to run treasury in the bank, "If you get it 75% of the time right you have done very well." That is a very powerful statement to your team -- that you will tolerate failures, you will allow them to innovate. Otherwise, they will wait for you for an answer.
-----------------------------
So clearly I act as a coach to my team. If you are going fast they will ask you, "You tell us and we'll do it." The minute that happens you are in a prescriptive mode. You want to say, "What do we think? This is the challenge." And there are ideas bubbling forth. You will moderate it with your experience. You will finally have the stamp on it. They understand that. But that is the open coach that you need to [be] to bring this team its best.
-------------------------------
Second, Confucian thinking, which dominates the Chinese mindset in everything they do, has a lot of respect for authority and a lot of respect for a certain restraint on leadership. It is a very top-down driven issue. There are no arguments. I always have a challenge when I am with our Chinese team. I want them to argue. I encourage them to argue. I say to them, "All knowledge does not reside in me. In fact, the least resides in me. I am here to listen and hear from you." It is difficult. In India, you open a room full of young people and you don't have a chance to talk.'
-------------------------------------
Third, over the years the Chinese have realized the value of delivering on time. In that country it is sacrosanct. You don't miss deadlines whether they are building a bridge or they are building an IT system. Customers expect it.
That is how they build bridges. That's how they build large organizations and cities -- with an amazing amount of military precision. Indian organizations don't yet know the value of that. I think they are learning. But if you ask me the difference -- the execution capability in China is absolutely outstanding.
---------------------------------------
Sometimes there are losses, especially in China, because many of their companies are not driven by the stock market. So large investments are made, which are sometimes wasteful. I think they are struggling with that.
--------------------------
many of them were in this country (the United States). I have seen some very good talent that is coming back to China. Then they have a pool of talent around Hong Kong or Taiwan and some of the Southeast Asian countries which have ethnic Chinese. So they have that big pool to draw from -- that's about 50 million. India has a pool of 20 million people outside India. Many of them in [the United States] are doing well. We have to start using that pool better, especially in global affairs.
----------------------------------
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4500
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
interview with Shankar Mahadevan
Musician Shankar Mahadevan: Creating Means Taking Risks in 'Untapped Territory'
Published: June 03, 2010 in India Knowledge@Wharton
Shankar Mahadevan views music as a friend. "When you have music in your life," he says, "you can never be lonely." Having been trained since boyhood in the Carnatic classical tradition, Mahadevan today ranks among India's top tier of young musicians. His blockbuster hit, "Breathless," was a four-minute melody sung seemingly in a single breath. How does artistic risk compare with business risk? What can corporate teams learn from the way musicians collaborate? In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton during the recent Wharton I
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a difference between learning music the way you did almost like a vocation? And then turning it into a profession? What's the difference?
Mahadevan: You can definitely become a professional. You can definitely become successful. And you can become extremely popular even without learning music. But it all depends on what you want to do. How do you want to perform this art form of music: whether you want to approach it the real hard way by knowing every single technical [element] that is involved in a song? Why get into all that? Or you can just learn a few songs. If people are talented, they can just sing. But I feel that if you learn music the hard way and you know what you are doing [at] every step, you are a confident person. And you are able to face any circumstances, any situation, any form of music. You are able to absorb easily. And you will somehow stay on for a longer time because it is not superficial. You are a learned [person]. It is like any art form. It is like literature, for example. If you are well-read and you write something, there is a difference. There is an easy way out, too. But I think it always helps if you follow the path the correct way.
----------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
India Knowledge@Wharton: What I wonder is what can business people learn from the creativity that a musician has? Because there is a creative side to business as well.
Mahadevan: Yes. There is a creative side to anything. I feel that one thing that a businessman can learn is: do not follow a path that has already been successful. You will never be a path-breaker then. I would never want to create a Breathless [the album that gave him fame] again, because it will always be compared to my first Breathless. That's over. Every time you want to create something, you should look at a new or untapped territory. I'm sure there are untapped territories in music, in business, in arts, in painting, in dancing. Melodically, I am talking from a musician's point of view, you can go and compose something in untapped territories. The risk is very high of falling flat on your face. Like when I composed Breathless I could have just thrown the whole thing out saying, "What is this nonsense? How can anybody sing this song?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India Knowledge@Wharton: That is a great piece of advice. One last question for you. Based on everything you have said, music is, of course, an art. It is a vocation. But it is also a global business. And it is a global business that has been dramatically disrupted by technology. How do you see the future of a business in which intellectual property may be very hard to protect? How do you see sources of success in the music industry going forward?
Mahadevan: Since you have talked about intellectual property, I would like to talk about the scenario in our country so that people over here (US) also realize what is happening. It is a very sad situation as far as intellectual property is concerned in our country where the composers -- that is the authors and the songwriters -- don't own any of the works. You must be surprised by this. None of the works, which are created by not only us but also the great masters [are owned by us]. This is a very sad situation. It has happened because of ignorance to a certain extent and because of the music companies and the people who are managing the music taking advantage of the situation and writing agreements where you sign off all your rights. Now the government of India is bringing out an amendment in the law and they are giving ownership of the rights to the artists, which is going to be fantastic. If the law gets passed, which we pray it will, and I'm sure it will, I think a lot is going to change. My rights are [now] gone. I am worried about piracy but it doesn't affect me. It is not the money that I am supposed to earn. I feel anyway cheated and exploited because my rights have been taken away.
India Knowledge@Wharton: Are you using technology to reach your audience directly like through your own website and things like that?
Mahadevan: Yes. We have our websites and stuff like that, of course. But I feel that once this law comes into place the authors and writers will be able to retain their own rights and quality will improve. Quality will improve because it will directly affect income. It is not like you just write anything and you get paid the same amount. So things are happening.
Published: June 03, 2010 in India Knowledge@Wharton
Shankar Mahadevan views music as a friend. "When you have music in your life," he says, "you can never be lonely." Having been trained since boyhood in the Carnatic classical tradition, Mahadevan today ranks among India's top tier of young musicians. His blockbuster hit, "Breathless," was a four-minute melody sung seemingly in a single breath. How does artistic risk compare with business risk? What can corporate teams learn from the way musicians collaborate? In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton during the recent Wharton I
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a difference between learning music the way you did almost like a vocation? And then turning it into a profession? What's the difference?
Mahadevan: You can definitely become a professional. You can definitely become successful. And you can become extremely popular even without learning music. But it all depends on what you want to do. How do you want to perform this art form of music: whether you want to approach it the real hard way by knowing every single technical [element] that is involved in a song? Why get into all that? Or you can just learn a few songs. If people are talented, they can just sing. But I feel that if you learn music the hard way and you know what you are doing [at] every step, you are a confident person. And you are able to face any circumstances, any situation, any form of music. You are able to absorb easily. And you will somehow stay on for a longer time because it is not superficial. You are a learned [person]. It is like any art form. It is like literature, for example. If you are well-read and you write something, there is a difference. There is an easy way out, too. But I think it always helps if you follow the path the correct way.
----------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
India Knowledge@Wharton: What I wonder is what can business people learn from the creativity that a musician has? Because there is a creative side to business as well.
Mahadevan: Yes. There is a creative side to anything. I feel that one thing that a businessman can learn is: do not follow a path that has already been successful. You will never be a path-breaker then. I would never want to create a Breathless [the album that gave him fame] again, because it will always be compared to my first Breathless. That's over. Every time you want to create something, you should look at a new or untapped territory. I'm sure there are untapped territories in music, in business, in arts, in painting, in dancing. Melodically, I am talking from a musician's point of view, you can go and compose something in untapped territories. The risk is very high of falling flat on your face. Like when I composed Breathless I could have just thrown the whole thing out saying, "What is this nonsense? How can anybody sing this song?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
India Knowledge@Wharton: That is a great piece of advice. One last question for you. Based on everything you have said, music is, of course, an art. It is a vocation. But it is also a global business. And it is a global business that has been dramatically disrupted by technology. How do you see the future of a business in which intellectual property may be very hard to protect? How do you see sources of success in the music industry going forward?
Mahadevan: Since you have talked about intellectual property, I would like to talk about the scenario in our country so that people over here (US) also realize what is happening. It is a very sad situation as far as intellectual property is concerned in our country where the composers -- that is the authors and the songwriters -- don't own any of the works. You must be surprised by this. None of the works, which are created by not only us but also the great masters [are owned by us]. This is a very sad situation. It has happened because of ignorance to a certain extent and because of the music companies and the people who are managing the music taking advantage of the situation and writing agreements where you sign off all your rights. Now the government of India is bringing out an amendment in the law and they are giving ownership of the rights to the artists, which is going to be fantastic. If the law gets passed, which we pray it will, and I'm sure it will, I think a lot is going to change. My rights are [now] gone. I am worried about piracy but it doesn't affect me. It is not the money that I am supposed to earn. I feel anyway cheated and exploited because my rights have been taken away.
India Knowledge@Wharton: Are you using technology to reach your audience directly like through your own website and things like that?
Mahadevan: Yes. We have our websites and stuff like that, of course. But I feel that once this law comes into place the authors and writers will be able to retain their own rights and quality will improve. Quality will improve because it will directly affect income. It is not like you just write anything and you get paid the same amount. So things are happening.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Juggernaut called Indian Edu system !
Kapil Sibal, India's minister for human resource development, reported that by 2050, the percentage of people above the age of 65 will be 39% in the U.S., 53% in Germany and 67% in Japan. India, by contrast will have only 19% above age 60, according to an International Labor Organization paper.
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Sibal's goal is to get at least 30% of India's 240 million schoolchildren into higher education over the next decade, up from the 12.4% currently. "Any nation must ensure that a critical mass of people move into the university system -- not less than 30-40%. [Otherwise], it cannot build wealth," he noted.
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Sibal moves to the next lap of creating an infrastructure for higher education to meet his 30% enrolment target. India currently has 480 universities and 22,000 colleges. In the next 10 years, it will need 700 new universities and 35,000 new colleges, according to Sibal.
---------------------------------
"No society worked itself out of poverty relying on foreign aid; education is the only proven long-term solution."
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"As capitalists we realize that if you pick up 300 million people from illiteracy, that is a burgeoning middle class ... and every product or service represented in this room is much more relevant when you have that middle class."
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But India could learn from the U.S. in financing educational infrastructure with endowments from wealthy individuals. "Besides the Tata group and a few exceptions, Indians don't give money for philanthropic contributions, particularly for education and health," Kumar said. Private initiatives in education in India have been largely "commercial and mediocre, and have never reached high academic standards," he added.
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http://www.mytoday.com/u/823
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Sibal's goal is to get at least 30% of India's 240 million schoolchildren into higher education over the next decade, up from the 12.4% currently. "Any nation must ensure that a critical mass of people move into the university system -- not less than 30-40%. [Otherwise], it cannot build wealth," he noted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sibal moves to the next lap of creating an infrastructure for higher education to meet his 30% enrolment target. India currently has 480 universities and 22,000 colleges. In the next 10 years, it will need 700 new universities and 35,000 new colleges, according to Sibal.
---------------------------------
"No society worked itself out of poverty relying on foreign aid; education is the only proven long-term solution."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"As capitalists we realize that if you pick up 300 million people from illiteracy, that is a burgeoning middle class ... and every product or service represented in this room is much more relevant when you have that middle class."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But India could learn from the U.S. in financing educational infrastructure with endowments from wealthy individuals. "Besides the Tata group and a few exceptions, Indians don't give money for philanthropic contributions, particularly for education and health," Kumar said. Private initiatives in education in India have been largely "commercial and mediocre, and have never reached high academic standards," he added.
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mytoday.com/u/823
Labels: Knowledge at Wharton
India & Entrepreneurship : a Debate
In his own experience as an entrepreneur, Hosanagar found distribution to be the biggest obstacle in India.
-----------------------
Sudhir Syal, a producer of a show on entrepreneurship called "Starting Up" on ET Now, an Indian television channel, recalled his experience at Sulekha.com, an Internet portal for classified advertisements. "In the U.S. to book an ad, you log on and punch in your credit card details -- there is no sales force at all," he said. "In India, there is a sales force that only exists" because customers come personally to offices to buy advertising space. That increases distribution, employee and infrastructure costs "and makes it extremely difficult for an entrepreneur to grow," he added.
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India's IT services industry has led the country's growth since the 1990s precisely because it was largely free of government regulation and did not need too much capital, Malik said. "In the businesses that need external capital, you are competing with guys who are very well entrenched, have access to capital, connections. In the industries where you do well, you don't have such a need for capital, or some of that has changed with deregulation."
-------------------------------------------
That may be so, said Goel, but pointed out that he comes up against cultural barriers when he goes campus recruiting. Students in U.S. university campuses say, "It's cool to work at a startup," he said, but not so in India. "In India I have spent hours with many smart kids who say they have to check with their parents," Goel said. "Some of them say, 'My dad says I won't get married if I work at a startup because the bride's family will say he works at a little company. Why can't he work at Infosys or Microsoft?'" Goel described those mindsets as "a real issue... there is little entrepreneurship by choice."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the same, cultivating relationships with the government is not unique to India. "Which large corporation in the U.S. does not have contacts with senators or other politicians?" he asked.
----------------------------------------------------
Patil said he sees opportunities in the educational sector for his business of taking classic Indian comics based on folk tales to digital and animation formats. But he wants to stick to services and avoid products or rely purely on online channels. "I'd be skeptical of any Internet-alone opportunities; also, products are inherently harder to sell than services in India," he said. He found services an easier market to enter, especially for startups, "because cash flow problems are fewer, you get your money upfront and you have a direct relationship with the customer."
--------------------------------------
Wharton Link :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4499
-----------------------
Sudhir Syal, a producer of a show on entrepreneurship called "Starting Up" on ET Now, an Indian television channel, recalled his experience at Sulekha.com, an Internet portal for classified advertisements. "In the U.S. to book an ad, you log on and punch in your credit card details -- there is no sales force at all," he said. "In India, there is a sales force that only exists" because customers come personally to offices to buy advertising space. That increases distribution, employee and infrastructure costs "and makes it extremely difficult for an entrepreneur to grow," he added.
----------------------------------------------------------------
India's IT services industry has led the country's growth since the 1990s precisely because it was largely free of government regulation and did not need too much capital, Malik said. "In the businesses that need external capital, you are competing with guys who are very well entrenched, have access to capital, connections. In the industries where you do well, you don't have such a need for capital, or some of that has changed with deregulation."
-------------------------------------------
That may be so, said Goel, but pointed out that he comes up against cultural barriers when he goes campus recruiting. Students in U.S. university campuses say, "It's cool to work at a startup," he said, but not so in India. "In India I have spent hours with many smart kids who say they have to check with their parents," Goel said. "Some of them say, 'My dad says I won't get married if I work at a startup because the bride's family will say he works at a little company. Why can't he work at Infosys or Microsoft?'" Goel described those mindsets as "a real issue... there is little entrepreneurship by choice."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the same, cultivating relationships with the government is not unique to India. "Which large corporation in the U.S. does not have contacts with senators or other politicians?" he asked.
----------------------------------------------------
Patil said he sees opportunities in the educational sector for his business of taking classic Indian comics based on folk tales to digital and animation formats. But he wants to stick to services and avoid products or rely purely on online channels. "I'd be skeptical of any Internet-alone opportunities; also, products are inherently harder to sell than services in India," he said. He found services an easier market to enter, especially for startups, "because cash flow problems are fewer, you get your money upfront and you have a direct relationship with the customer."
--------------------------------------
Wharton Link :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4499
Labels: Knowledge at Wharton
Saturday, July 24, 2010
From Wharton Biz school
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Microfinance & Mary Ellen Iskenderian
"When someone trusts low-income women with capital, often for the first time, they can become agents of their own change."
Mary Ellen Iskenderian
-----------------------------
The debate over microfinance and mission drift has intensified as some researchers maintain that there is more to developing an entrepreneur than providing credit. "Credit alone is not a panacea," notes Jonathan Morduch, a professor of public policy and economics at New York University. "The boldest claim for microfinance -- that it can single-handedly eliminate a large share of world poverty -- outpaces, by a long distance, the evidence accumulated to date." At the same time, however, analysts like Morduch emphasize the success of microfinance groups that combine lending with other initiatives, such as education and health care
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Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and Nobel Peace Prize winner whom many experts regard as the founder of microfinance, has said that interest rates should be 10% to 15% above the cost of raising money, with anything beyond that range amounting to a "red zone" of loan sharking. Yet by that measure, 75% of microfinance institutions would fall into the red zone, according to a March 2010 analysis of 1,008 micro-lenders by the MIX, a website where more than 1,000 microfinance companies worldwide report their own numbers. Many experts label Yunus's formula as overly simplistic and too low, and fear that a pronounced backlash against high interest rates will prompt lenders to retreat from the poorest customers.
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As another example, poor women have traditionally managed risk in very risky ways: by relying on their husbands, pulling children out of school to work, or selling productive assets such as livestock or equipment. WWB has published a paper highlighting alternative ways for women to manage such gambles using gender-sensitive micro-insurance. For instance, women can choose another beneficiary if they don't think their husbands will protect the children properly after the woman's death. In Colombia, the life insurance offered by one company pays monthly benefits that can only be used for the purpose of educating the children for two years after the death of a parent, in order to reduce the pressure on the surviving parent to pull children out of school.
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"It's not always size that makes the difference in [microfinance]," Iskenderian said. "People make the difference with their energy and their resolve.... Single individuals and the choices they make have a tremendous impact on the world." - Mary Ellen Iskenderian.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2540
Mary Ellen Iskenderian
-----------------------------
The debate over microfinance and mission drift has intensified as some researchers maintain that there is more to developing an entrepreneur than providing credit. "Credit alone is not a panacea," notes Jonathan Morduch, a professor of public policy and economics at New York University. "The boldest claim for microfinance -- that it can single-handedly eliminate a large share of world poverty -- outpaces, by a long distance, the evidence accumulated to date." At the same time, however, analysts like Morduch emphasize the success of microfinance groups that combine lending with other initiatives, such as education and health care
------------------------------------------------------------
Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and Nobel Peace Prize winner whom many experts regard as the founder of microfinance, has said that interest rates should be 10% to 15% above the cost of raising money, with anything beyond that range amounting to a "red zone" of loan sharking. Yet by that measure, 75% of microfinance institutions would fall into the red zone, according to a March 2010 analysis of 1,008 micro-lenders by the MIX, a website where more than 1,000 microfinance companies worldwide report their own numbers. Many experts label Yunus's formula as overly simplistic and too low, and fear that a pronounced backlash against high interest rates will prompt lenders to retreat from the poorest customers.
--------------------------------------------------------
As another example, poor women have traditionally managed risk in very risky ways: by relying on their husbands, pulling children out of school to work, or selling productive assets such as livestock or equipment. WWB has published a paper highlighting alternative ways for women to manage such gambles using gender-sensitive micro-insurance. For instance, women can choose another beneficiary if they don't think their husbands will protect the children properly after the woman's death. In Colombia, the life insurance offered by one company pays monthly benefits that can only be used for the purpose of educating the children for two years after the death of a parent, in order to reduce the pressure on the surviving parent to pull children out of school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's not always size that makes the difference in [microfinance]," Iskenderian said. "People make the difference with their energy and their resolve.... Single individuals and the choices they make have a tremendous impact on the world." - Mary Ellen Iskenderian.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2540
Wharton on Cyber Attacks, Hacking & Data Security
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From a corporate perspective, experts say the required response to these threats has two sides. The first is protecting IT infrastructure, meaning the systems, hardware, software and networks used by an organization. The second involves protecting the actual information or data that is supported by that infrastructure, whether the information is in motion, in use or in storage. Complicating those efforts, however, is the need to protect the business environment while ensuring that employees have access to the information and services they need to do their jobs.
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"We have witnessed companies going under, or being severely hit, due to a single untoward event. As a result, how to better manage and finance extreme events is now a question discussed by many more board of directors than five or 10 years ago."
( reminded me of ' Black Swan' by Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
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"What has changed is that both companies and hackers have grown sophisticated. So the good news is that most security software will protect us from the most basic threats, which was not the case in the past. But the bad news is that malware and viruses have become more sophisticated, so even advanced users can fall prey to them."
----------------------------------
Experts say that the recent attacks on information security suggest at least three things: First, that hackers increasingly know exactly what they want, while their targets often struggle to understand the threat or where it is coming from. Second, that attackers continue to rapidly develop new ways to access what they want, and as a result, the threats can come from anywhere. (For example, The New York Times disclosed this year that hackers were trying to use online advertising on the newspaper's own website to disseminate malware.) Finally, observers believe that almost everyone and every company ultimately is at risk, a result of today's highly networked global economy and communications infrastructure
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Here, monitoring and controlling access to information become even more challenging, as systems must be able to work both in-house and virtually, especially in cases of multi-tenant systems, where several companies or accounts may have sensitive information managed by a single server. CIO magazine recently reported that 51% of CIOs cited security as the greatest concern surrounding cloud computing.
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One approach often used in military scenario-planning exercises, for example, is to split key participants into two teams and run a one-day exercise where one team cooks up potential cyberattacks while the other team designs a response. "You will be surprised by how imaginative your employees can be about what is your true weak link," Michel-Kerjan points out. "Keep in mind here that what can seriously hurt you will not be a 'usual' scenario."
-------------------------------------------------------
From :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2535
Labels: Knowledge at Wharton
IT industry & HR strategy : circa 2010
Last month, the company released newspaper advertisements wooing back former Infoscions through what it has called a "green channel" approach, promising a smooth and hassle-free re-entry. (Incidentally, earlier this year Mphasis, the HP-owned IT services company, launched a similar initiative called "Homecoming" to attract its ex-staffers.) "We believe that the Infosys experience lasts beyond one career step, and there is value to both the individual and organization through a second innings," says Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and group head, human resources, at Infosy.
-----------------------------------------
"All the noise over iRace is because, in effect, we have told the employees that growth will be slower, promotions will be restricted, there will be lower salary hikes and fewer onsite assignments. But employees need to be aware that the days of 50%-plus growth rate for the industry are over and that this is the new reality," says Gurjar.
------------------------------------------------
The economic downturn saw customers slashing their IT budgets and also becoming more demanding of their IT vendors. Cost optimization became the new mantra. This meant that IT vendors, in turn, have had to run their operations more tightly. With employee costs accounting for the biggest chunk (around 60%) of an IT company's total costs, much of the onus has naturally fallen on the HR teams
--------------------------------------------------------
If they want to remain ahead in the game, they have to become more relevant to their customers. "The offerings are getting increasingly commoditized, and we can ensure stickiness with our customers only by having a deep understanding of their organization and impacting their bottom line," says Pratik Kumar, corporate vice president, human resources at Wipro Technologies. "In order to do this we need to have a domain and solutions led consulting approach. This requires a different level of skill-set and understanding."
---------------------------------------------------------
According to Wipro's Kumar, with the basic model for creating a large number of warriors and troops in place at most of the Indian IT companies, the differentiator for organizations now will be prime talent. "Prime talent does not mean senior talent. It means people who are relevant to the organization," he says. "There is a now a need and expectation from organizations that employees will invest in learning new competencies and skills." Eighteen months ago, Wipro made it mandatory for employees to take certification tests in order to be eligible for further promotions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Companies will now move away from being the best employer for all employees to being a better employer for better performers. You cannot have the same policy for everyone.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Srinivasan of IIM-B sees another challenge. Pointing to the 2002 recession, she notes that IT organizations tend to treat employees as "assets" during the growth phase and as "cost" during a slowdown. Many of the internal measures taken during the downturn are quickly forgotten once the external environment improves
-------------------------------------------------
Link :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4496
-----------------------------------------
"All the noise over iRace is because, in effect, we have told the employees that growth will be slower, promotions will be restricted, there will be lower salary hikes and fewer onsite assignments. But employees need to be aware that the days of 50%-plus growth rate for the industry are over and that this is the new reality," says Gurjar.
------------------------------------------------
The economic downturn saw customers slashing their IT budgets and also becoming more demanding of their IT vendors. Cost optimization became the new mantra. This meant that IT vendors, in turn, have had to run their operations more tightly. With employee costs accounting for the biggest chunk (around 60%) of an IT company's total costs, much of the onus has naturally fallen on the HR teams
--------------------------------------------------------
If they want to remain ahead in the game, they have to become more relevant to their customers. "The offerings are getting increasingly commoditized, and we can ensure stickiness with our customers only by having a deep understanding of their organization and impacting their bottom line," says Pratik Kumar, corporate vice president, human resources at Wipro Technologies. "In order to do this we need to have a domain and solutions led consulting approach. This requires a different level of skill-set and understanding."
---------------------------------------------------------
According to Wipro's Kumar, with the basic model for creating a large number of warriors and troops in place at most of the Indian IT companies, the differentiator for organizations now will be prime talent. "Prime talent does not mean senior talent. It means people who are relevant to the organization," he says. "There is a now a need and expectation from organizations that employees will invest in learning new competencies and skills." Eighteen months ago, Wipro made it mandatory for employees to take certification tests in order to be eligible for further promotions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Companies will now move away from being the best employer for all employees to being a better employer for better performers. You cannot have the same policy for everyone.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Srinivasan of IIM-B sees another challenge. Pointing to the 2002 recession, she notes that IT organizations tend to treat employees as "assets" during the growth phase and as "cost" during a slowdown. Many of the internal measures taken during the downturn are quickly forgotten once the external environment improves
-------------------------------------------------
Link :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4496
Friday, July 09, 2010
Full Catastrophe Living - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Full catastrophe living
Author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
There are many ways of looking at any thing or event or process. When your mind changes, new possibilities tend to arise.
In fact, everything changes when you can see things on different levels simultaneously, when you can see fullness and connectedness as well as individuality and separateness.
Your thinking expands in scope. This can be a profoundly liberating experience.
It can take you beyond your limited preoccupations with yourself. It can put things in a larger perspective…
When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view. This transformation of view creates an entirely different context within which we can see and work with our problems, however serious they may be.
It is a perceptual shift away from fragmentation and isolation toward wholeness and connectedness. With this change of perspective comes a shift from feeling out of control and beyond help (helpless and pessimistic) to a sense of the possible, a sense of acceptance and control.
Healing always involves an attitudinal and emotional transformation. Sometimes, but not always, it is also accompanied by a major reduction in physical symptoms and by improvement in a person’s physical condition.
Dramatic or subtle, such shifts in perspective are signs of seeing with eyes of wholeness. Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance, especially when encountering stress or pain.
Amazon link to this book review :
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Wisdom-Illness/dp/0385303122/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1278680345&sr=1-1
Author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
There are many ways of looking at any thing or event or process. When your mind changes, new possibilities tend to arise.
In fact, everything changes when you can see things on different levels simultaneously, when you can see fullness and connectedness as well as individuality and separateness.
Your thinking expands in scope. This can be a profoundly liberating experience.
It can take you beyond your limited preoccupations with yourself. It can put things in a larger perspective…
When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view. This transformation of view creates an entirely different context within which we can see and work with our problems, however serious they may be.
It is a perceptual shift away from fragmentation and isolation toward wholeness and connectedness. With this change of perspective comes a shift from feeling out of control and beyond help (helpless and pessimistic) to a sense of the possible, a sense of acceptance and control.
Healing always involves an attitudinal and emotional transformation. Sometimes, but not always, it is also accompanied by a major reduction in physical symptoms and by improvement in a person’s physical condition.
Dramatic or subtle, such shifts in perspective are signs of seeing with eyes of wholeness. Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance, especially when encountering stress or pain.
Amazon link to this book review :
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Wisdom-Illness/dp/0385303122/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1278680345&sr=1-1
