The Next Billion

In our Corporate Strategy project on Nokia India, we saw how Nokia could foresee in early nineties the forthcoming telecom revolution in India. Most of the other companies then would have found the idea of the illiterate villagers evolving in mobile technology users as amusing. Today, Nokia India is an important unit of the parent company, to the extent it even makes up for the lost sales in some other parts of the world.

There are a number of similar revolutions which have only started to unfold and their real impact will be visible in a few years from now. One of them is in the field of Agriculture i.e. in the procurement and marketing of the food grains. Some years back we were learning the ways to protect the small and marginal farmers, from distress sale of their crops, through the intervention of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). Today in parts of the country, FCI faces problem in meeting its procurement targets as market forces are paying more for the farm produce. ITC’s chaupals signify the tip of the iceberg.

In the field of Agricultural Commodities exchange, a lot of changes in the legislation along with the ways and means of food grain procurement could be expected in days to come. And to make the field more exciting, trade based upon the expected future prices of the grains could be common. And the prices could be governed by the global market prices instead of those dictated by the local trader in local ‘haat’ or ‘mandi’.

Beyond trade when we talk of services- ask the experts and they will enlighten you that in the days to come Government will be mainly involved in Health, Primary education, and infrastructure and defense sectors. But that is similar to the oversight of the basic facts about the telecom sector many years back; but which revolutionized the sector i.e. the importance of communications for millions of out migrating rural people.

So as long as the poorest of the poor rural people continue to pay more than the people in cities to the ‘quack doctors’, there will be necessity of organized industry intervention. And as long as untrained individuals continue to flourish with their ‘Montessori’ schools on Bangladesh border, there will be requirement for organized teaching institutions. This coupled with the fact that most Government employees have ‘permanent’ postings and politicians need re-election every five years, the delivery of the ‘official mechanism’ can be improved but at most ‘little’.

And it doesn’t take a genius to guess the magnitude of the ‘industry’ which is waiting to be organized by proper ideas and the knowledge of the grass roots; and about the size of the market, may be the ‘next billion’ for the first step.

The Third Term begins

We are into the third term at ISB. The last two weeks were completely devoted for the studies for the end term examination. And then a five day break in a 1 year MBA programme is a privilege that permits a quick 3-4 day home visit.

Many of us landed late last night and today morning at Hyderabad only to realize that there is an assignment waiting for a 6 am submission for the course in Entrepreneurship.

About the third term, we have Corporate Finance taken by Professor Bhagwan Chowdhry of UCLA and his reputation had traveled to this place before he arrived. And today’s lecture was a confirmation of his excellence, though we wait for more to learn from him. We will also have courses in Operations Management, Managerial Accounting and Entrepreneurship along with ELP and the continuing Leadership Development Programme.

And for a friend who asked to post more photographs, here are a few: One from the LDP session, another of the drawing room in our ‘Quad’ and another of the view from our ‘Quad’.

Another hectic weekend

This weekend was more hectic than I had expected. We had almost a full class day on Saturday. And Sunday was the French language class. In the mean time, there were two Modeling and Optimization assignments.

Amidst this I called on one of the seniors from the service. He had resigned from the service last year and is presently working as a Managing Director in a Private Sector company. Luckily his office is in Hyderabad and I wanted to learn about his experience of switching career.

There were two very useful talks in this week and three major consultancy companies have made an introductory round at the ISB.

Today I also participated in a Quiz of Marketing club. I got all the answers right but there were 5 other people who had right answers as learnt from the coordinators mail, and I was not lucky enough to get the chocolates. Chalo, better luck next time.

With Raikkonen making two back to back wins in F-1, life is becoming better every Sunday. Backlog includes an article that I have to write and a lot of studies. So let me try to catch up with the latter for the time being.

News Update: Entrepreneurs and Marketers

Last one week was intense for the budding entrepreneurs. There was a lot of brain storming for the Entrepreneurship course and the topics which the groups would like to take for their studies. The concerned club also organized a discussion forum where people seeking new ideas for opening enterprises could meet people who already have plans for future.

In Markstrat our team is now second amongst the 18 teams in Industry I, courtesy the failure of our most ambitious plan. As a group we are sad on the failure of our attempt to beat the much larger and resourceful industries 'E' and 'O'. But at least we are happy that we tried to win with a budget of 8000 against the teams with a budget of 25000. Yes, we couldn't do that and lost our first position in Industry 'I' in the process, though no regrets for the same.

The classes for foreign languages have also started and I am enrolled in French class. At the moment we are translating the instructions in English and Hindi scripts to make those understandable later.

Next week we will have the trial bidding for the electives in fifth term and the end terms are also approaching (OK, I shouldn't have said that as still over 10 days to go). But before that a lot of things are expected during and around this weekend and I will be back with those.

For there are no free lunches

Last year when I had heard this sentence for the first time in a Management Institute, I was actually taken aback. Our Economics Professor explained it as the (invisible) costs attached to the (visible) benefits. But the million dollar question was whether the free lunches are good to offer or receive. What intentions will the other person perceive in your offer of lunch? And I had no answer to it until recently.

In contrast to the business world, when we had joined as trainees in the Civil service we were expected to visit the house of the training District Magistrate, any number of times for any number of meals. We were told to not push our hands in the pocket whenever we had a cup of tea or coffee outside with a senior officer. Almost as an unwritten rule, the most senior officer would bear the bill. And then as I grew in the service, it was a wonderful feeling inviting the probationers over dinner and loading them with ‘pearls of wisdom’.

However, in last one year as I saw the repeated use of this sentence by leaders from industry and management academia; my confusion and interest over the issue continued to grow.

So when Sheshadri, Joint Collector of this district asked me to visit his home for dinner, I found my management training put to test. During dinner Sheshadri was trying to push some more rice and chapatis on my plate at every opportunity he could create. The other senior official who had joined for the dinner was equally friendly despite his seniority. By the end of the dinner Sheshadri had again started asking, when I was visiting his home next.

I had my doubts cleared that evening. In life people just don’t meet other people to maximize profits. Dinners are not meant to discuss business deals alone. Human beings being the social animal they are, feel happy with their friends. Most Indian dinners have no costs attached to them.

May be management, the way it is being taught and perceived, is a foreign concept. And these new ideas from other cultures also test our traditions and values at times. Luckily, by a large majority- we continue to believe in out traditions and are unadulterated by diffusion of these foreign ideas. At a different horizon, the width between the middle class Indian society and the U.S. return (elite?) Indians continues to widen.

And I don’t want to change myself from what I am. So rest assured, the lunch stays; if we ever meet- I will take you for a lunch.