The online MBA. Yawn. Can’t be done. No value. Wait a minute. How would you like it if you could say you are a MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute ? Sitting up ? What if it was 20% of the cost of a regular MBA. And what if you don’t have to leave your job for 2 years to do this. Interested ? Read on.Jack Welch is taking a 12% stake in a company called Chancellor University System LLC, whose...
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Monday, 29 June 2009
Thanks, but no thanks, Oprah
Oprah Winfrey is taking all her staff and their families on an all expenses paid Mediterranean cruise. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it. Actually not. I am not privileged to work for you, but if I did, I would say thanks, but no thanks.For a semi serious look at why this is not a good idea, click here to read Stuart Jeffries' take.I am adding my own two penny bit.Company socials, especially with spouses,...
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Dead Right Carol - but you could have put it better
Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo, said a few days ago, that it was “not our job to fix the Chinese government". She was responding to a question from somebody from Amnesty International who asked a question at the company’s AGM about filtering of internet information in China. She’s dead right. It is not the job of companies to advance political or social causes. That’s the job of governments, the United...
Friday, 26 June 2009
No bailout for Air India
Air India is lobbying furiously for a massive bailout. Most airlines around the world are sick; so its no surprise that Air India, which is a particularly badly run airline, is in deep trouble. The mood these days is in favour of bailouts of whoever shouts loudest or scares the most. But look at what Air India is reported to be asking- They want Rs 15,000 crores ($ 3bn plus)- They want foreign airlines’...
Thursday, 25 June 2009
China vs Google
There’s a battle going on between China and Google. Google can’t win and China can only lose. Just for the record, its China who started this battle .The stakes were upped yesterday night, when the Net Nanny blocked Google. Yes b-l-o-c-k-e-d Google. Google everything – Search, Gmail, the works ! I’m gob smacked. What are they thinking ?For some weeks China has been demanding that Google block searches...
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Traveller's Tales
Business travel can be just as amusing, interesting, scary, hilarious, as leisure travel. Having unfortunately travelled too much on business, I’ve accumulated a few traveller’s tales. Here are two of them.1. There was this good British gentleman who was 6ft 6in tall and built of substantial proportions. He was a very senior director in a global company and had the air of the Lord of the World. He...
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Et tu Tom ?
Tom Peters is a legend in the business world. He's such a legend that this doesn't even have to be said.But that doesn’t make him always right. Occasionally, he can be wrong, for he is after all, human. In this instance, I think he is dead wrong.I refer to his blog post – “I do not wish you harm”. He rails and rants against Robert Diamond, the President of Barclays plc for his “earning” $36.5m consequent...
Monday, 22 June 2009
The unfortunate PWC partners
Is there a justice system in India ? Does it really work ? I’m not so sure. These plaintive questions are in response to the continued detention of S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, the PWC partners who had certified the accounts of Satyam Computers. I argued that their detention is completely unwarranted here.They continue to be behind bars. One after another, their bail petitions are rejected....
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Confession
I dropped a tag. That too from one of the nicest of bloggers, a writer par excellence, a warm human being and now a dear online friend. How could I drop a tag from A Journey called Life. Shame on me. With a very contrite expression, I make delayed amends.I was tagged for the Honest Scrap award. The tag requires a post listing ten honest things about you. As I do with all tags, I’ll do so in the business...
Friday, 19 June 2009
Those were the days
Another tag post. This time on the 'Good old days".I've been tagged by Preeti Shenoy. She's one of the "Le blogueur éminent" of India. A poet, an artist and a superb writer - her book 34 Bubblegums and Candies, which was published last year, is a very nice read. I love cheating a little bit when she asks something, so here's some cheeky doing on the tag.The tag is to write on the good old days and...
Tagged
I’ve been the recipient of two tags – and it’s a sort of code of honour amongst bloggers that you pick up the tag. So today and tomorrow are tag honouring days.The Thoughtful Train, a lovely blogger and a poet rolled into one, has tagged me on 10 things that send me “boiling crazy”. Well, lots of things send me boiling crazy, but since this is a business blog, I’ll list down 10 things at the workplace...
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Get used to oil price in three digits
The price of crude oil has climbed steadily to $70 a barrel. Its of course, way off, from the peak of $147 it touched in July ’08. But its been climbing steadily over the last couple of months. Two major events await us in the near future.The first is inflation. Its already a big risk because of the massive amounts of money governments, the world over, have been pumping in to ward off the recession....
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Knowing when and how to go
Timing is everything in life. The same act at one point in time is glorious; at another shameful. Leaving or retiring from a company or a job, is all about timing. Get it right and you can be remembered with fondness and respect. Get it wrong and all the good things you have done are forgotten and you are vilified.I was prompted to write this post seeing the messy saga of the lawsuit by AIG against...
Monday, 15 June 2009
The Swine Flu vaccine dilemma
Novartis claimed last week that had made the first batch of the vaccine for the H1N1 virus that is the cause for swine flu. What caught my attention was Novartis refusing the call of the World Health Organisation to give the vaccine free to poor countries. Novartis says whoever buys, must at least cover costs. Click here for FT’s reporting of the story.The issue raises a dilemma for which there are...
Sunday, 14 June 2009
The VIP Visit
Some light reading for a Sunday. I wrote a while ago, on how we, in India, sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to receive a VIP. Click here for a chuckle.Here’s another instance. We were receiving a potential customer group from overseas and our sales guys were going bonkers. Part of the visit preparations was to choreograph their return drive from our office back to their hotel. This was in this wonderful...
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Astronomical Pay
How would you like a job offer somewhat like this- guaranteed 5 year contract – you cannot be sacked- first year wages $ 15.5 m, or $ 43000 every day - automatic wage increases every year so that the fifth year wages is tripled at $ 48m. That’s a pay hike of 25% per year- all these wages are irrespective of performance. Doesn’t matter at all how you perform- you really have to work only 100 days...
Friday, 12 June 2009
The Pay Czar
Kenneth Feinberg would rather be called anything else. But the name that is sticking is “the pay czar”. He’s the guy appointed by the Obama administration to oversee pay for the top executives in companies that have received US government bailouts. While his remit is only the companies that have been bailed out, his framework will, no doubt, receive wider consideration amongst all American corporates.In...
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Do you know what goes on in your company ?
Here’s something to provoke you. The more senior you are, the less you know your own company.You spend a lifetime slogging away to do what ? Reach the corner office. Shut yourself in a huge cabin. Place two pretty secretaries between you and anybody who wants to reach you. Hear what you want to hear. Be told what others think you want to listen to. Do you know your company any more ??Communication...
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
The Hummer Deal
On a clear day, you won’t see General Motors any more. At least the GM of yore. GM is being cut apart and fed to any meat eater in the vicinity. One titbit, Hummer, is going to an unexpected place.Hummer, for the auto uninitiated, is a gas guzzling Sport Utility Vehicle, particularly loved by the Americans. It was very popular, but is no longer so – its global sales declined by 62% in Q1. A few days...
Monday, 8 June 2009
The moral dimension of the stock market
There’s something immoral about sitting on your butt and making a lot of money as against working your socks off and making less money. I find it difficult to reconcile to this.The Indian stock market has exploded in the last five months. Its gone up by 50%. Popular perception is that its because of the euphoria of the elections throwing up a stable government, which was unexpected. But as Swaminathan...
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Done with learnings for India and China
The last ten posts were on things India and China can learn from each other. I had expected a lot more brickbats but was pleasantly surprised by the rather kind words. Of course, some of the brickbats were saved as many of my Chinese friends cannot access Blogspot. But more than differences between the two countries, I am amazed by how much is the same – for after all, we are both Asian cultures and...
Friday, 5 June 2009
One last learning for China - 5. Too many laowai is not good
Laowai in Chinese is the same as firanghi in Hindi – a slightly condescending word for a foreigner.Look around most of the multinationals in China – the CEO is likely to be a laowai. Too many laowais inhabit the senior corridors in companies here. It is well tolerated, and many a time even welcomed, by the Chinese. I think Chinese should be less tolerant of laowais running their companies.That used...
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Please learn from the rest of the world - Don't block the Internet
Today they blocked Hotmail, Twitter and Flickr. As Thursday draws near (don't ask me what Thursday is - google the date) its getting worse and worse.The current blocked sites are1. Hotmail2. Twitter3. YouTube4. Blogspot5. WordPress6. Flickr7. MSN Spaces8. Bing9. Most of BBC10. Most of CNN11. A few thousand other sitesWe can manage without most of the sites, but Hotmail !! Its my main e mail tool,...
One last learning for India - 5. Agriculture is not holy
In India, agriculture is a “saintly” profession, from a public policy perspective. It is mollycoddled worse than even the French farming industry. Income from agriculture is completely tax exempt. Food and fertilizer subsidy eat an enormous proportion of the government’s budget. Power (when it comes) is free for farmers in most states. Loans are often waived for farmers, especially at election times,...
Monday, 1 June 2009
What China can learn from India - 4. Marketing
China is a producer’s economy. The marketer seems slightly out of place in the factory to the world. This post is completely from my perceptions, with no research and I could be dead wrong. But I think, China could learn marketing from India.In my local supermarket, their pricing astounds me. An veritable mountain of stock of say white T shirts arrive. Dead cheap today. Tomorrow more expensive. One...
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