Collaborate, not just compete
WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL
B K Chaturvedi / New Delhi BUSINESS STANDARD October 2, 2007
While B-school education helped me realise some of my strengths as I stepped into the corporate world, I also felt somewhat inadequate.
It took some soul-searching to become aware of the areas where I was lacking. These areas had little to do with knowledge and more to do with skills and attitude.
This was many years ago, but I see B-school graduates still face such issues. It makes me feel that certain things are still not taught sufficiently at B-schools. Whether they can be taught or not is, of course, debatable. Let me share four gap areas:
Collaboration versus competition: Typically, management students are fiercely competitive and self-focused. But business organisations require a high degree of interdependence among workers.
Working in an organisation requires the willingness to help others to succeed, even without any tangible gain to oneself. However, the question “What is in it for me?” comes to most people’s minds. It took me time to get over this attitude.
Accepting uncertainties: Real life situations operate under higher uncertainty than what classroom discussions or cases can generate.
In times of uncertainty, I would look for perfect data to eliminate the uncertainty, but while I would be still searching, the situation would change, requiring new data. Such situations can be frustrating.
Often blame went to my superior for not giving me the complete picture. It was only later that I realised that business decision situations will always have uncertainties and there will be more variables around it than one can imagine, and that I need to accept them and do my best, rather than constantly fight them.
Living with ambiguities and organisational politics: Organisational politics and game-playing may sound unethical, but they are unavoidable. An “informational” organisation is always a part of a formal organisation.
Understanding informational organisation is important to influence the system. It is not sufficient to be right to get things done, it is also important to get to agreement on it, even if, at times, it means sub-optimisation. Consensus-building skills are not given much attention in B-schools.
B K Chaturvedi graduated from IIM, Ahmedabad, in 1971
If you don`t innovate, someone else will
`If you don`t innovate, someone else will`
Q&A/ Robert Tucker, President, The Innovation Resource
Govindkrishna Seshan / BUSINESS STANDARD Mumbai October 2, 2007
India is the 11th country on his agenda this year — and the diary’s still open. But Robert Tucker doesn’t find the constant travel exhausting. Instead, the corporate innovation guru uses the opportunity to study how innovation is being practised in different markets and then offers the examples as case studies.
A former professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and now the president of California-based consulting firm The Innovation Resource, Tucker is the author of several bestselling books on the subject, including Winning the Innovation Game, Managing the Future and Driving Growth Through Innovation.
Recently in India to conduct a seminar on corporate innovation, Tucker spoke with Govindkrishna Seshan on how Indian companies need to stay ahead in the global innovation race. Excerpts:
How would you define innovation?
To me, innovation is the process of coming up with ideas and bringing them to life. Any time you come up with an idea and implement it, you have essentially innovated. Not all ideas are commercially viable but, nevertheless, they are innovations.
In business, the commercial viability of an innovation is of supreme importance. Companies don’t just need ideas, they need ideas that can make people see value. The idea you implement must make the consumer want to open his wallet and spend his money on your product.
Hence, in a corporate scenario, innovation to me is essentially of three types. Product innovations, like the i-Pod or Post-It notes. Process innovation, when you come up with a new process that reduces time or cost or makes you reach from point A to point B faster: Toyota and Tata are continuously making process innovations.
Then there’s strategy innovation, when you find a better way of serving your customer — Air Deccan, for instance. A couple of years ago it looked at low-cost airlines across the world, picked some of the best practices, and then made itself. Now, that’s an excellent example of strategy innovation.
Remember what I said about commercial viability? A couple of months ago, people in the US queued up outside stores to buy the i-Phone. Now, that’s innovation.
Does innovation have a greater role to play now?
Innovation today is ranked among the top three priorities on every CEO and manager’s list. Today, you see people working with laptops and cellphones, which, in five years, will be obsolete.
Around the world innovation is happening and it is happening fast. I was in Tel Aviv recently, where managers can operate store cameras and keep a check on their employees through their cellphones.
Similarly, a refrigeration truck can call its driver when the temperature inside starts rising. Now, these technologies can be used anywhere; there’s a global innovation race on. So innovation needs to be taken a lot more seriously.
The good news, however, is that several Indian companies are responding well to this challenge. And this has helped India achieve greater prominence on the global economic stage. Companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, the Tata group and Ranbaxy, in particular, have done well. When I last visited India, in 2003, the Tata group was valued at $12 billion, I read today that its net worth now is $63 billion.
What are these companies doing differently? How important is innovation in India?
India is a very young country. Youngsters are open to trying new products and are ready to spend. They demand new and improved products that enhance their lifestyles. Hence, companies here need to be innovative to survive.
What Indian companies have done right is… First, these companies are thinking globally: they don’t want to be the best in the market or best in the country; they want to be the best globally.
Second, they are speaking to their consumers in a more organised fashion. And last, the leadership in these organisations is very serious about building a culture of innovation. How does an organisation build a culture of innovation?
A company is the result of its ideas. When the leadership shows serious intent for innovation, it percolates to all levels and you build a culture of innovation. Behaviour that gets rewarded gets repeated.
So your managers need to reward people who are taking risks, people who are experimenting with ideas, people who are being creative and are attempting to do things better. When you reward such behaviour you are sure to create a culture of innovation.
People by nature are creative, but you as an organisation need to be able to tap it. Employees are either being creative at their work place or are going home to their sports, passions, interests and spending their creativity there.
Companies need to ask people to be creative, and praise employees who try things differently, irrespective of the outcome. I spend most of my day asking managers to stroke their chin and ask their teams politely if there is a better way to do what they are doing. Most managers never ask this question, or they ask it in a very confrontational manner.
Innovation seems to be restricted to technology and IT companies. Do consumer goods companies also need to innovate?
FMCG, too, has seen its innovation but large companies here are fighting for shares rather than creating markets. Also, many companies are facing strategic convergence, making their strategies similar and, hence, difficult for consumers to differentiate.
But that does not stop innovation: if you don’t innovate, somebody else will. Take Coca-Cola and Pepsi. While these companies fought on marketshare, somebody else went ahead and launched Red Bull and Gatorade. Both were extremely innovative products that quickly made huge markets for themselves.
What is the lifecycle of an innovation? Does it cease to be innovative once others copy it?
The microwave and the computer are still relevant innovations. But yes, the day it is copied, a company loses the competitive edge an innovation provides. So the time between your implementing an idea and it being copied by competitors is the real life span of an innovation.
But companies cannot sit idle after completing an innovation because then they will let others catch up. The idea is to keep moving and keep innovating so that by the time others copy plan A you have already moved to plan B.
If there are “good” innovations, there must be bad ones as well…
Ideas can be implemented badly or they may be not be commercially viable, but there is nothing called “bad” innovation. Many times, an idea may be just ahead of its time.
For instance, DuPont invented Kevlar, which is 10 times stronger than steel, many, many years ago. At the time tyre manufacturers, who were approached with the product, were not very keen. The product was not used for many years, until the company found new uses for it.
Today, Kevlar is used by people who work with glass, oyster-opening gloves are made of Kevlar, armies and police personnel around the world use Kevlar vests, embassies of many nations have Kevlar curtains draped on their walls… So Kevlar was not a bad innovation. It was just not used correctly.
’10×10′ vision of 10 IIM grads
’10×10′ vision of 10 IIM grads
Pallavi Bisaria / New Delhi/ Lucknow BUSINESS STANDARD October 4, 2007
With a vision of “10 x 10”, a group of 10 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) alumni have come together with a view of making over 10, 000 Indians employable by 2010.
Conceptualised by Nishant Saxena, an IIM-Lucknow pass out, the group launched their first institute “Elements Akademia” in Lucknow today. ” The institute aims to groom the youths to make them employable.
“Despite being one of the fastest growing economies with over 8 per cent GDP growth, unemployment has still hovered around 7- 8 per cent for the last decade. Companies do want to hire and there is enough graduate talent, but sadly there is a mismatch between the requirement of the industry and the skills imparted by the education system. Our program aims to bridge this gap and make our youth employable,” Nishant Saxena, chief executive officer, Elements Akademia, told Business Standard.
Saxena, who is from Allahabad, said they had deliberately selected their homeland as their “karma bhumi” as they want to contribute to the state’s development.
“With a population of about 5 million youth in the state, about 800,000 graduates pass out every year. However, only 4 per cent of them are employed in organised sector. The state can become a service hub, provided we give the students specialised training. We aim to teach finer elements required to succeed,” added Saxena.
The flagship programme offered by the institute is aimed at graduates in the smaller cities. It is a six-month comprehensive part-time course encompassing business communication, managerial effectiveness, basic computer skills and other specialised domain knowledge in areas like insurance, inventory, management and accounting.
“Our lead corporate partner is Genpact, one of the top third-party BPO company in India. Our unique tie-up with them ensures reimbursement of the students’ course fee after a year of service. Moreover, if you don’t get selected, provide re-training and arrange for re-interviews (also with other partners),” Saxena said.
Genpact has assisted in the course design and delivery, and screening criteria.
“We conducted a survey among students from 25 colleges and multiple companies to understand what they are actually looking for in a candidate,” he said.
The Lucknow-city launch entails an investment of Rs 1 crore, and the firm plans to have 15 more such institutes across India in next few years.
The next institute is planned for Kanpur, to be operational in 3- 4 months’ time. Other cities identified in the state are Agra, Allahabad and Meerut.
On successful completion of the course, the students will receive certificates endorsed by KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, the academic partner for the venture.
Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre opened in Pune
Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre opened in Pune
5 Oct, 2007, 2240 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday inaugurated an innovation centre in Pune which would drive the company’s “innovation agenda”.
Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre, inaugurated by RIL’s Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, would be guided by an innovation council chaired by RIL board member R A Mashelkar.
The council would have global thinkers in the field of sicence, technology and innovation practioners as its members, RIL said in a statement.
The company also plans to set up a corporate research and technology centre in Navi Mumbai that would act as a hub for research centres operating at various manufacturing locations, it said.
Photo Speaks – City Image Monitoring
Abu Dhabi Municipality gives a lot of emphasise on keeping the city clean. As part of their new initiatives they have introduced several teams to monitor the environment. Here is one such unit in motion on the roads of Abu Dhabi.Keep a watch, spitting or throwing garbage on the road – a good amount of fine will be your call.
Act in haste, repent at leisure
Act in haste, repent at leisure
1 Oct, 2007, 0339 hrs IST,K VIJAYARAGHAVAN, TNN
The story of ‘Kuttathy sisters’ was often recounted by late Seetha Venkatachary, a very good narrator of didactic tales of ancient India. This story illustrates the axiom that one should think twice before acting harshly and that hasty actions would be followed by agonising repentance, which would be of no avail.
Taken from Kerala folklore, this story involves Valia (the elder) Kuttathy and the Kochu (the younger) Kuttathy, who were birds of a particular species, living in happy companionship. One day, Valia Kuttathy obtained from outside, some green gram. She entrusted the job of frying these to Kochu Kuttathy, as she went out.
On her return, she inspected the fried pulses and observed that the quantity had reduced. On being accused that she had eaten a portion of these, Kochu Kuttathy pleaded her innocence. Enraged at what she presumed was her sister’s cheating and lie, Valia Kuttathy attacked her younger sister and killed her.
Another day when Valia Kuttathy herself fried some newly obtained green gram, she found, to her dismay, that the quantity had reduced. On enquiry with others, she came to know that such pulses generally reduce in size on being fried.
In painful remorse, Valia Kuttathy spent the rest of her life, crying out to her dear sister, “Kochu Kuttathy, urr.. urr.. Kochu Kuttathy, urr.. urr..” Malayalam folklore has it that, to this day, the same painful cries can be heard at certain times, from an untraceable bird — possibly a descendant of Valia Kuttathy.
The need to be vigilant against impetuous actions is also underlined by another well known story of a lady, who once went out to fetch water, leaving her infant child to the care of her pet, a mongoose. On return, she observed that the mongoose had blood stains all over its mouth. Presuming that it had devoured her child, she threw the pot on it, instantly killing the creature. Screaming, she thereafter went to her child’s cradle, expecting to find the mangled remains. Surprised, she saw the child peacefully asleep, while a dead snake lay nearby, obviously killed by the mongoose which had intercepted this killer, while it had slithered up the cradle.
Hasty and ill considered actions and also such words, bring in their wake sufferings all over. A well known Tamil proverb observes, Kaanpathum poi, ketpathum poi, theera vicharipathe mei (even what we see and what we hear could be misleading; what is ideal is proper inquiry and analysis). Indeed these are words of great wisdom!
Dirham needs 35pc surge against dollar: experts
Dirham needs 35pc surge against dollar: experts
By Isaac John (Deputy Business Editor)KHALEEJ TIMES 6 October 2007
DUBAI — Predicting a 30 per cent possibility for an imminent revaluation of the UAE dirham, monetary experts said the UAE currency needed a significant appreciation of 35 per cent against dollar to regain its intrinsic strength in relation to other currencies.
Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer, Global Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch, told Khaleej Times that the GCC currencies needed to appreciate by around 35 per cent to reduce excessive savings. “In the shorter term, we expect the UAE or Qatar will move to peg versus a basket of currencies this year.”
According to Pradeep Unni from Vision Commodities Services, the UAE currency has lost 55.09 per cent against euro since 2001 — from Dh3.34, the euro is now selling at Dh5.18. Against, the British pound, dirham has lost 38 per cent in the same period, with the exchange rate surging from Dh5.41 in 2001 to Dh7.48, while against the Indian rupee, dirham has lost 24 per cent since May 2002 — dropping from Rs13.32 to Rs10.73 per dirham at present.
Despite UAE Central Bank’s insistence that it would neither opt for a revaluation of dirham nor move away from the US dollar peg, currency experts and economists believe that the likelihood of an imminent revaluation of the UAE dirham is 30 per cent.
Currency strategists said a revaluation of the dirham, which is currently estimated to 30 to 35 per cent undervalued against the US currency, could also provide investors a nice bonus on a property purchased in the UAE compared to parking that investment in a US dollar deposit account.
While affirming that an upward adjustment of dirham to the US dollar will be increasingly likely unless inflation begins to slow more noticeably next year, economists are of the view that there is increasing pressure on the UAE monetary authorities to drop dollar peg and switch to a basket of currencies as Kuwait and Syria have done. “Such a move will ward off any further inflationary trends by strengthening the dirham against other currencies,” they contend.
However, experts warn that the UAE has to undertake a series of currency realignments to ensure the true value of its currency. “While most of the UAE’s exports (oil and gas) are priced in dollars, the country’s biggest share of imports comes from non-dollar zone. A steadily falling US dollar is thus aggravating inflation which last year hovered above 10 per cent due to higher cost of imported goods, a steep surge in rents and other living expenses.”
Dugan said the dollar looked set for further weakness. “We believe that dollar weakness comes from both cyclical and structural factors. Cyclically the US economy is set to be one of the weakest in 2008. Structurally the US economy is still facing the twin deficits of a current account and fiscal deficit. Also the weakness of the dollar has gained some momentum that may extend through the fourth quarter of 2007.”
Danger on the roads
Gulf News conveys readers thoughts and fears on Road Safety
Politics hurts Kuwait’s progress to 2020 output goal
Politics hurts Kuwait’s progress to 2020 output goal
Reuters Published: October 05, 2007, 00:21
Kuwait City: A political standoff in Kuwait has delayed progress on projects to boost oil output and left the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter struggling to meet its 2020 output target of 4 million barrels per day (bpd).
The Opec member’s oil production capacity now stands at around 2.8 million bpd and is unlikely to be much more by the end of the next decade, analysts said.
“We are very pessimistic about their chances of hitting the 4 million bpd target – largely because political issues that have long dogged projects are going to continue to be major factors,” said David Kirsch, manager of market intelligence at Washington-based consultancy PFC Energy.
Kirsch expects Kuwait’s capacity to be just shy of 3 million bpd by 2017.
A key obstacle to expansion plans is winning approval from parliament for international oil companies to take a role in an $8.5 billion scheme to boost output from the country’s northern oilfields, known as Project Kuwait.
Despite having debated the plan for more than a decade, Project Kuwait has never gone beyond the committee stage to the floor of the house as some parliamentarians oppose the involvement of foreign companies.
Even with Project Kuwait, the 2020 target looks out of reach, said Colin Lothian, senior analyst for the Middle East at global consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
“They’d struggle even if the project went ahead,” he said. “To get to 4 million bpd from where they are now is an awfully big jump.”
Political standoff
Kuwait’s parliament has a history of challenging the government.
One of the latest victims of the political standoff between parliament and the government was Oil Minister Shaikh Ali Al Jarrah al-Sabah, who resigned in June and has yet to be replaced. He held the position for less than a year.
Lack of continuity in the post was impeding expansion plans, an official at a state oil firm said. “We need stability at the top of the oil sector,” the official said. “Nothing moves forward, a new minister always has to go back to the start. And the government fears any confrontation with parliament.”
Acting Oil Minister Mohammad Al Olaim, who is also in charge of the water and electricity ministry, has made few public comments about Kuwait’s oil policy.
During the summer, Olaim was kept busy averting blackouts as Kuwait’s power system ran close to maximum capacity.
Kuwaiti newspapers have reported that Finance Minister Badr Al Humadhi is most likely to become the new oil minister. No decision is expected until after Ramadan.
More trouble may lie ahead in parliament for a new minister as some deputies have submitted a motion to tie oil production to the country’s reserves in a bid to force the government to disclose reserves on a regular basis.
Doubts about the size of Kuwait’s proven oil reserves have persisted since industry newsletter Petro-leum Intelligence Weekly reported last year that it had seen internal records showing reserves were about 48 billion barrels, about half what was officially stated.
Olaim said in July the reserves stood at 100 billion barrels but did not say if these were proven or unproven reserves.
Both Kirsch and Lothian believe reserves are closer to the level that PIW reported.
Lower reserves would reduce how long Kuwait could sustain future output boosts.
Lothian forecast Kuwait’s output capacity at 2.8 million bpd in 2016, and to decline thereafter.
Pumping more of the country’s heavy oil was also key to boosting capacity, but for that, as for Project Kuwait, it would need the experience and technology of international oil firms, said Karmel Al Harmi, an independent Kuwaiti oil analyst.
Kuwait has said it wants to boost heavy oil output to 700,000 bpd by 2020.
Tehran to shut Bandar Abbas crude units
Tehran to shut Bandar Abbas crude units
Reuters Published: October 05, 2007, 00:21
Tehran: Iran will shut a crude unit at its Bandar Abbas refinery in January and a second in May to boost capacity by 40 per cent, part of its multi-billion dollar move to cut dependence on gasoline imports, a National Iranian Oil Co source said yesterday.
The source said the shutdowns at the 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) units, set to last for about 30 days each, would allow the state-run firm to boost the refinery’s capacity to 320,000 bpd.
“In January we will shut down one CDU to raise the capacity to 160,000 barrels per day, this one will last about a month and the refinery will be in full operation after,” the source said.
A second crude unit, of similar size, will be shut in May for the same operation, the source added.
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