Category Archives: Get ready for corporate world

Proactive Mentorship in Management Education

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The art of mentorship is yet to be fully tapped into and explored by the present system of management education in India. Post-Graduate programs are the penultimate stepping stones for students entering the ever evolving corporate world. The importance of mentoring at this crucial stage has been downplayed, if not ignored, by the system at large.

After 15+ years of formal education, students are thrown into the workspace to explore and fight their way towards a successful career. At this juncture it becomes imperative to have some sort of guidance from experienced seniors.

Management programs today focus on most aspects of holistic development for students, but proactive mentorship seems to be missing.

What is proactive mentorship?

I consider proactive mentorship as the style of mentoring, wherein the mentor constantly tries to engage the mentees into communicating their goals and desires, to subsequently provide meaningful advice aimed at helping the mentee.

The keywords being: Constantly, Engage and Communication.

As someone who has not yet completed 1 full year of working, I believe I’m still a student at heart. With this knowledge I understand that students as a group are quite a tricky bunch of people. The general method of imparting knowledge (Read: Lecture based classroom learning culminating in a 3 hour exam) has sensitized students and each and every student develops a unique coping mechanism. Some may use cellphones during the class, some might doodle out their elaborate fantasies and some just wait to enjoy their class-nap. The point I’m trying to make is that students can’t be force-fed information. It’s futile to assume that when students reach the level of post graduation they will suddenly change their behavior.

Keeping this in mind, it is of utmost importance for the mentor to constantly try and guide the students. Most mentors have an understanding that students will approach them during crisis’ (Placements, choosing specialization, Internship, etc) and they will help them then. However, this approach is not fail-proof. Some students might not approach anyone just because they have not been doing it since the start.

To avoid this conundrum, a proactive mentor will constantly speak and guide the students from the start. It should be communicated to the students that the mentor is always available and can be reached through email, facebook, sms etc at any time. In an era where boundaries are irrelevant due to the social media boom, mentors must exploit this opportunity to be present for their mentees whenever required.

Another important quality of a proactive mentor is his/her ability to engage with the students. Since their schooling days, students in India are expected to respect their teachers/elders and maintain discipline in their presence. When working in a company, this behavior is translated to include the manager/boss. So, a level of apprehension will always be present with students while interacting with mentors. A proactive mentor has to understand this and constantly engage his students. He can do so with funny stories, incredible insights, personal experience and almost anything which will put the students at ease and make the mentor more approachable.

Finally, a proactive mentor has to learn to effectively communicate with his students. Unless he/she can do this, students will not be able to express their goals/desires clearly enough to enable guiding them. Effective communication is more difficult than it may sound. As most students and mentors have completely different fields of experiences’, the onus is on the mentor to understand what exactly the student is trying to communicate.

Having listed out the prerequisites of proactive mentorship; let me now dwell on some of the benefits:

  • Students will develop a fair idea of mapping their interests/skills to industry/profile they could start their career with.
  • Students will be better prepared to deal with the corporate lifestyle and the level of commitment and accountability required.
  • Proactive mentorship will create an environment of knowledge sharing in the campus.
  • Attrition rate of companies would come down as students are bound to take better informed decisions.

Corruption in India v/s Gandhian ANNA- Part 3

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This post is No.3 in a 3 part series:

Read Part 1, Part 2.

The Way Ahead (Anna’s Way)

“I want to tell the youth of this country that this fight should not be stopped with Lokpal alone. We have to fight for removing the faults of the present electoral reforms. Because of the fault in electoral system, 150 criminals have reached Parliament.”

- Anna Hazare[1]

 

Anna Hazare, a of 74 years old Indian social activist[2] and former Indian army soldier from Maharashtra has showcased implacability of some valuable principles of non-violence by adopting simplicity of Gandhi to the world following which India can get rid of the repercussions arising out of corruption and its supplements. Widely recognized Anna Hazare has become a youth icon since he sat on 12-day fast in the year 2011 in order to persuade government of India to pass a stringent Lokpal Bill in both houses of parliament.[3] The government could somehow manage to bring a resolution in the parliament on the same to ensure that Anna’s efforts do not go in vain[4]. This success of Anna has brought considerable impact on the mindsets of millions of young Indians who directly or indirectly supported his efforts. He has become the only antonym against all the synonyms of corruption.

Mere generalization of the issue by saying that responsibility of combating corruption lies on all of us will not suffice. Attitude of challenging the wrong will only work. The time is to take some concrete steps in addition to the ways suggested by Anna. Firstly, it should be made compulsory for all the law students to do their final internship with any of the anticorruption body. It will be a win-win situation for both of them as law students will gain valuable experience and at the same time entry of young professionals in these organizations will improve their efficiency resulting in better performance. Secondly, inclusion of law as a compulsory subject at higher secondary level of school can serve the purpose of increasing awareness among the next generation. Thirdly, passing a strong Lok Pal bill can assure a proper and timely punishment to the guilty of taking bribe. Fourthly, there should be an incentive system in place to encourage whistle blowers in an organization. Their identity should be kept confidential and their efforts should be rewarded suitably in monetary terms. Lastly but most importantly, it is to understand that the people involved in corruption are not fools. They are clever enough to take undue advantage of the loopholes of a typical bureaucratic system. Therefore, mapping their brains can help in reducing bottlenecks of such other systems as well. It goes in line with the view which argues that diamond cuts diamond. In parallel, use of modern technology by making most of the processes online, proper utilization of Right to Information Act, active participation of youth in social activities, awareness among the youngsters towards not taking things for granted can act as a catalyst to the reforms.

Conclusion

It is to conclude that corruption itself is not a cause but an effect of indiscipline. The recommendations suggested might not be the only ways to take up the challenge. Anna’s philosophy and principles might not be the ultimate answer to it either. But such experiments are bound to increase the participation of youth in the subject of national interest. Above all, young blood of India can no longer afford to negate the severe consequences of corruption and in particular its own future thereof.

Corruption in India v/s Gandhian ANNA- Part 2

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This post is No.2 in a 3 part series:

Read Part 1

Scenario in India (Major Scams so far)

The problem of corruption in India is so deep rooted that sometimes it becomes difficult to even identify when and where one gets involved in it. Below examples of mammoth corruption incidents in the recent years are sufficient enough to aggrieve an Indian patriot:

  • 2G-Spectrum Scam (Rs. 1.7 lakh crore)[1]: Telecom companies were offered 2G spectrum band at nominal charges within a few minutes by A. Raja – the then telecom minister of India. This resulted in a huge loss of revenue amounting to lakhs of crores of rupees to the government.
  • Cash for Vote Scam (Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore)[2]: It was alleged that the ruling party bribed members of parliament in order to survive a confidence vote in the year 2008.
  • 11th Commonwealth Games Scam[3] (Rs. 8000 crore)[4]: The games ran into controversies when Indian media covered various game venues where the work had been running with snail’s pace and the quality was poor. Such irregularities were shown as breaking news in the electronic media and as front page headline in the national newspapers which attracted immediate attention of government officials. Later, doubts were also raised on the unexpected increase in the budget of the games within a small period of time and Prime Minister had to intervene to make sure that the preparations get completed in time. Finally, a performance audit done by the CAG who found numerous irregularities like manipulation of prices, contracts with incompetent companies, unnecessary delays causing effect of inflation, use of poor quality material, over and above payments for products and services consumed etc.

Above are the examples to name a few. These depict the intensity of unjust competition prevailing in the country causing opportunity cost to those companies which are capable of doing a job but couldn’t get chance because of nepotism. Mention of corruption in the speech of the Indian Prime Minister while addressing people of India on Independence Day again evidences that the problem is far more serious than that of any other country.[5]

Many Bollywood movies like “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”, “Chala Mussadi Office Office”, “Corporate”, “Aarakshan”, etc., have already outlined the various aspects of the issue. Even advertisements like that of tata tea with slogan “jaago re” are constantly spreading awareness among the youth to bring a change in the system.

Present system to deal with Corruption

From the point of view of law, there are mainly two acts at present in India which shoulder the responsibility of exposing unfair practices going on in a concerned organization. One is Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988[6] and the other is Right to Information Acts 2005.[7]

Plenty of regulatory and surveillance authorities like ACB[8], CVC[9], CAG[10], CBI[11], ICAI[12], Income tax department[13], Central Board of Excise and Customs[14] etc., have been working as either an independent body or a government body. Unfortunately, independent authorities have not been given the power of arresting a guilty. They are hence toothless. Contrary to this, government agencies are extremely powerful in this regard but are indirectly driven by political interests.

Causes and Effects of Corruption on Young Entrepreneurs and on Economy

With one third of the total population being youth, India is certainly the youngest country in the world[15]. Many of these youngsters are either doing their own business or are on the verge of becoming future entrepreneurs. During this phase they encounter various legal formalities to be met with like filing of proposed name of company for approval of ROC, getting MOA vetted by the ROC and its stamping from superintendent of stamps, AOA, getting company seal, paying registration fee, obtaining PAN and TDS account numbers, following rules of taxation, complying with Shops and Establishment Act, taking care of various laws pertaining to employees etc.[16]

Amid utmost chaos in completing ‘n’ number of formalities, instances of demanding bribery surge. The more a procedure becomes complex and lengthy, the more cases of personal greed are likely to arise. It only furthers the sufferings of a common man. The attitude of compromise and adjustment is probably the first and biggest reason for the same. Weak laws, time consuming judicial procedure, inherent supremacy of politicians and lack of public awareness add fuel to the fire. Existence of such a system in India is a major cause of anger to the next generation.

“Baboos” have become a synonym of corruption for an “aam aadmi” who has to bear heavy fees of “dalals” to make them work on their requests. This black money is exported to tax heaven countries. According to the data provided by the Swiss bank, India has more black money than rest of the world combined. India topping the list with almost $1500 Billion black money.  It’s embarrassing for any country to top the list of black money holders. The money which belongs to the nation and its citizens is stashed in the illegal personal accounts of corrupt politicians, IRS, IPS officers and industrialists. Every year this amount is increasing at a rapid speed but the Indian government seems to be silent over this matter from a very long time. The total black money accounts for 40% of GDP of India, if all the money comes back to India then that could result in huge growth burst for India.[17] What can be a better example of tax appropriation than this? Another surprising fact is that at one end, India ranks at 65th poor country in the world with an alarming global hunger index score of 23.9[18] and at the other end, it ranks 4th with 55 billionaires in the list of countries with highest number of billionaires.[19] This proves that the there is a wide gap in between rich and poor people of the same society. It is both surprising and unfortunate.

Nepotism is yet another form of corruption which hampers job prospects for the right candidates and leads to unhealthy competition. It is also called as favoritism. It is well established in India. Examples of nepotism are visible in politics (Nehru-Gandhi family), in business (Reliance), in arts (Kapoor Family)[20] and in education (management quota). These all gather together to bring India at 87th place in the Transparency International World Corruption Index.[21]

Nevertheless, Mr. Suhas Gopinath who was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India and launched a web site at the age of 14, and incorporated his company at the age of 14, making him the world’s youngest CEO[22] has set an example for the upcoming entrepreneurs who are willing to make their dreams come true.

[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suhas_Gopinath

Contributed by Manish Gupta(Batch 2010, IBS Jaipur)

Corruption in India v/s Gandhian ANNA- Part 1

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This post is No.1 in a 3 part series:

“Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today”

-Mahatma Gandhi[1]

Aug 28, 2011: Who better than an Indian can state the significance of this date in his life? It was not the day of Diwali! India didn’t win any Cricket World Cup on that day! Yet the celebration was huge. After all, a 12-day long fast of Anna Hazare came to an end when parliament of India agreed to pass a resolution in favor of a stringent “Lok-Pal Bill” against corruption. Indeed, a history was written on the “paper of democracy” with the “quill of protest” inked in “non-violence” indicating that countdown to a corruption free democracy has finally begun.

 Background

 Today, when corruption has been gulping plethora of liquidity from the markets across the globe, economists are scratching their heads hard for unearthing new ways and means to combat the severe outcomes of black money. India is no exception to it. Government agencies, politicians, public companies, private companies, NGOs, trusts, judiciary and media related scams are too many in number to count and too much in monetary terms to summarize in the units available causing dent to its image of being the fastest growing biggest democracy in the world. A 74 year old person “Anna Hazare” has however lightened the torch of anti-corruption the way Gandhi did for the freedom of India in the year 1947. Their objectives might differ but the way to achieve them is one or the same i.e., “non-violence”. Its immense influence particularly on the youth has been energizing them to struggle for the good cause. It will therefore be interesting to discover how this age old remedy can cure the long lasting diseases of unfair practices noticed at every level of Indian society.

Understanding Terminologies Involved in Unfair Practices

“Corruption” can be defined as a wrongdoing on the part of an authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. Corruption often results from patronage and is associated with bribery.[2] It can also be defined as a type of strategic action in which two or more actors undertake an exchange relation by way of a successful transfer of money (material) or power (political or status) or promoting of gene (genetic), which sidesteps legality or morality or civility to regulate the relation. It is a strategic interaction or an art of nonviolent negotiation. As mentioned before, social action is strategic when it is aimed at the successful realization of personally defined goals. It makes distinction between “need driven” and “greed driven” necessity harder.[3]

“Nepotism” can be described as a practice of appointing relatives and friends in one’s organization to positions for which outsiders might be better qualified. Despite its negative connotations, nepotism (if applied sensibly) is an important and positive practice in the startup and formative years of a firm where complete trust and willingness to work hard (for little or no immediate reward) are critical for its survival.[4]

 

How to be a Faster Programmer

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Note: This is not targeted at seasoned professionals who would find most of the stuff mentioned here very basic. Instead this is for beginners who unfortunately do not have good mentors.

Know your tools

To start of, there is nothing more important than knowing all the capabilities of your tools, be it an IDE, a report generator, database, text editor or the operating system itself. This will help to:

  • Know what is possible, thus saving time wondering how to do something
  • Know what is the best tool to do something

Know yourself

Know your most productive times and plan your day around that. Avoid any disturbances, meetings etc. during your peak times. Get other things, like documentation or responding to mails etc., done during non peak time.

Learn something new

You are proficient in that language of your choice, great! But there are several others out there. Learn about them, it helps. Every language has it set of specialties, which is the reason it is surviving. But how does that help?

  • It introduces a new way of thinking
  • Make you explore the limits of the language of your choice
  • You know which is the best tool (language) for a task

Organize

Organize your desk and your disk. Keep thing that you need often in easy to reach locations, and remove all unnecessary things from there. This will reduce the clutter and make things easier to find. Include your mail box in this exercise. Organize your browser favorites so that the list of resources that you use often are easily available.

Automate

Great, following the advice above, you have a shortcut to your IDE, your folder containing the specs etc on your desktop or a panel. But these things are used only once a while. Think of the task you do over and over again and which take lot more that just double clicking. Here are a few things that help you save time

CODE COMPLETION: Any IDE worth its salt has a code completion feature. Learn the shortcuts, as well create your own. If your IDE does not have it either get a plug-in that provides it or ditch the IDE.

CODE GENERATION: Again lot of IDEs have it, learn it and customize it. There are other ways of code generation as well. My favorite is test manipulation is a editor that can do ‘regular expression’ search-replace. And if you do not know how to use regex, learn it now!

SNIPPETS: Keep a handy list of snippets that you use regularly, be it SQL queries you run often, or those 4 lines of code that is needed to integrate your application with something else.

SCRIPTS: Doing the same thing over and over again? Consider writing a script to do it. For e.g.
Unit test scripts, batch scripts to check in , check out, build, backup etc. And if you take my advice of learning about a few more languages, you’d agree that a few languages are better suited for such adhoc scripts.

Get a faster computer

Well there is nothing like a faster computer with loads of RAM to make you faster. This will reduce the build time significantly. And while you are it, add another monitor to it. But that’s easier said than done. So the second best approach is to make your computer faster.

There are several utilities that help you do that, so I will provide a few pointer only

  • Close unused applications
  • Disable unused features of your IDE / OS
  • Make sure your PC is spyware / virus free (or switch to Linux)

Learn to use the keyboard

There is no bigger time waster that using the mouse where handy keyboard shortcuts are available. Print the key combination of the tool you use most often and stick it right next to your monitor. Try to give up your mouse addiction. And if you can’t then there is no better cure that to unplug the mouse for a day!

Get help

Stuck with a problem that you just can’t figure out. Seek help. But know who is the right person to ask. Know the strength of your colleagues and leverage them. Don’t go ask someone just because he is your buddy, but because he has a much better chance of knowing the solution. Keep your questions succinct and to the point, so that you don’t waste a lot of time explaining the problem. And in the bargain diminish your chances of getting help the next time.

Work 8 hours a day

There is nothing you can’t do in 8 hours that you can in 10. So avoid long days, they will only reduce your productivity. Its a different matter to do long hours for a couple of weeks for an impending deadline, but making it an habit is a strict no. If you find yourself sitting until late everyday, step back and think of the reasons.

Are you wasting a lot of time in the morning because you don’t feel productive?

Talk to your manager if it OK that you come in late. And as mentioned above try to get not critical thing done when you do not feel productive.

Are you being over burdened?

If this is a constant thing, talk to your manager about it. If all fails get a new job.

Do you routinely under estimate the effort?

Learn from your past experiences. Get help while estimating. If all else fails, start multiplying the effort with a factor you think you normally underestimate by.

Do you have a lot of distractions?

Get rid of the instant messenger, the mail notification and buddies who have nothing better to do. Do not entertain personal calls. Save up all this time and leave office early. You will have enough time to do all social interaction after office hours, especially since you are able to leave office early.

And finally.. think!

I saved the most important bit for the last. Understand the requirements, think through the solution. Scribble on paper. And write code only when you have the complete idea of what you have to do. There isn’t a bigger waste of time than writing code for hours and finally scrapping it because the requirement understanding / design / approach was wrong.

So what do you think? Leave your tips below.

Contributed by Hitesh Sarda (Batch 2001, IBS Hyderabad). Find out more about him on Linkedin.

THE SECRET for success: “Chase your dreams and make it a Reality”

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Friends my story might motivate young aspirants like you who come with a belief that by having an MBA degree we can end up with a good job.

First of all let me start with a negative approach, so that I kill all the optimism inside a young charismatic mind who thinks with MBA degree he will have all the success and with thousands of thoughts we are unstoppable. It’s true only in special cases but more often than not…….

MBA is an opportunity to interact with fresh minds, it has nothing to do with a guarantee of ending up with a monthly salary of 6 figures, at-least not when you are competing with 900 people for campus placements. The college needs to place 900 students so even they can’t find you better jobs and are in no position to bargain. So what happens is that when the companies come for placement there is a mismatch between your dreams and the offer. You always wanted a Branding Co. to pick you up or an Investment banking team to give you responsibility which you can boast about or you end up with some FMCG major as a manager, but the truth is you start as a Sales team manager or a branch executive of a bank or as an associate in the I-Bank firm and the day comes when you curse the reality because it missed your expectation.

What happens then?  20% look for switches in the very first month. 30% within a year, 75% crib about their job. There were at-least 50 people that I can recall who are doing great in their field now in terms of package and only 20 who are satisfied with their job ,but I can bet they would have done much better if they would have chased their dreams. They had brilliant ideas, brilliant thoughts, out of the box concepts, but they were scared what if it does not happen. When reality doesn’t meet expectation we are afraid of losing what we have and we accept the life as it is, that’s why we burden ourselves with the current job but we don’t like it. But all of us are special, all of us are talented and it takes some toll on character to believe what you are.

“A human aspiration is like a bird, risk is the reason, and how we know we have wings to fly and career is where we go down and take a leap to go near the sky and it’s our aspiration that inspires us to see the world from top :) Aspire and work for it we will one day be what we deserve”

I ended up with a good job, a PPO, perhaps amongst the best what they can offer but I had my own dream and I had my own expectations. We all have watched 3 idiots, when at the start of the movie it resembled me when I used to tell my friends, don’t run for marks run for knowledge, but still I realized something is incomplete though mentally I should be satisfied. The question worried me a lot and I realized I was not following my dream and it changed my life after that. I decided to risk it all and follow my passion, I chalked out my career plan and made all the calculations both on negative and positive side. What is the worse thing that can happen? One question will always haunt you when you take such impulsive decision but eventually I risked it all.

The difference between the degree of success is a trump card called “Willingness” and the Trump card comes to you with an addition to your attitude, its “Daring” . Incidentally people think it’s risking your career but its simply accepting the “Challenge” from Life. GO ahead with what you wanted because if your heart says this is not what you want to do it means you have to do what you think you are for

Coming back to my home town I started work as an equity market analyst. I got the opportunity to share my ideas on Equity Market, my area of interest and my dream to make it big on TV channel. Today I come on media whenever I want to share my ideas. I am doing what I can do best because I never learnt anything beyond this and never had any other alternative.

Now when I stand here I still know I have just begun my journey but I wake up every morning with a mental calmness that I enjoy my work. I feel if I would have not given myself a chance than I would have not had the mantra for success.

“Achieving the best outcome for your work is your commitment and the passion is the measure with which you are committed to work is your interest.”

Dear Friends Chase your dreams and make it big in future, nurture your talent and focus what you want to. At young age one feels you can play multiple roles thousands of thoughts would surround but you can be what you ought to be.  It’s the very thought when you entered the campus or you aspire to be before taking up the course or something that inspired you, attracted you.

Work for your dreams, chase your dreams you will get the opportunity if you work for it. Give yourself the chance and that’s THE SECRET FOR SUCCESS, the day you will believe you can, I assure you, you will.

And never compare the ratio of success with the package you get in comparison with your friends. You all are special in your own way it’s just that you begin your journey a bit late. Money will follow automatically with growth in career

Wish you all the best for your career. Do not let your dreams go away they came to you so that you can fly high.

Cheers!!!!!!

Contributed by Aashish Tater (Batch 2009, IBS Hyderabad). Aashish is the President-Financial Research at Fort Share Broking

TRANSCREATION

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I recently came across a very interesting article in 4P’s (Vol . v Issue 9 ) titled ‘What translated into bigger profits?’ The article highlighted the importance of transcreation.  Transcreation means adapting marketing communication to local cultures, tradition, language and practices.  Every country is unique as regards to tradition & cultures. Consequently, one size fits all phenomena does not work across all borders. To succeed one has to adapt. Trancreation essentially talks about this adaptability.

Marketers have to practice extreme discretion especially when stretches are being considered to take product and services global or beyond local markets.  An ad-campaigns great success in one country does not ensure its success in all markets. Since each market is different. Hence, it makes sense to be ‘culturally sensitive’.  For a mere innocuous emulation might result in a serious Faux Pas. The consequences are dire from failure of perceptibly great ad campaign to seriousness of a brand taking a hit. Following are some social blunders committed by marquee brands:-

1. American Airlines spent huge sums of money reupholstering seats in their entire fleet. Naturally they spent vast sums of money on ad campaigns promulgating their USP. They ran ad campaigns in leading news papers and magazines saying ‘Now fly in leather’.   Bolstered by overwhelming response, airline decided to duplicate campaigns success in Spanish market. However, much to airline’s disappointment, campaign did not go well with Spaniards and it failed miserably. Ensuing investigations revealed that Spanish translation had changed their snappy headline from ‘Fly in leather’ to ‘Fly naked’.

2. Parker Pens landed in trouble when the ads which originally were to convey ‘It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you’ ended up saying ‘It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’.

3. Dairy Milk Association’s hugely popular campaign ‘Got Milk’ popularized the benefits of milk in US. Company decided to emulate success in Mexico and ended up translating ‘Got Milk’ as ‘Are you lactating’?

4. Coors beer claimed ‘Turn it loose’ with their tagline. The Spaniards were not pleased when they saw a beer that helped you ‘Get loose Bowels’.

5. A drink in China promised to ‘Bring your ancestors back from the dead’. This did not go well with Chinese (hugely populated) as they dint want to bring their ancestors back.

6. Volkswagen realized that ‘Jetta’ in Italian was pronounced as ‘letta’ which means ‘misfortune’.

7. A Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer tried to sell vaccum cleaners in US with tagline’ Nothing sucks like Electrolux’.

Coca Cola’s hugely popular campaign Thanda Matlab- Coca Cola must have been a work of a transcreator. The campaign connected well with Indian audiences who might not have liked dowdy American tagline which read Coca Cola ‘The real Thing’.

Transcreation & India – Transcreation particularly make sense in a country with diverse cultures and traditions as India. India still largely remains an intolerant society. We Indians take offence for anything and everything that supposedly hurts our fragile self esteem. Numerous PIL’s for artistic freedom of expression lying pending in our courts stands as a testimony to this fact. In a nutshell, moderation in emotional response is hard to find in India. A recent incident in Select city walk, Delhi , instigated a huge hue and cry. An international Ice Cream brand had put up a sign board which read ‘Preview Only for International Travellers.’ This is obviously a sensitive issue for Indians and a direct reminder of the Raj period when Indians and dogs weren’t allowed into clubs and other ‘white’ places. Hence, marketers has to tread with caution and no wonder then that first thing marketers have to check is how their marketing communication, brand name , campaigns et all will work in Indian context. 

US research agency CSA (Common Sense Advisory) says Transcreation will be the highest demanded service for reaching new markets and has huge growth potential.

Transcreation is a new buzz word that prevents brands from becoming a laughing stock and instead enables them to laugh all the way to their banks!

Contributed by Varun Arora (Batch 2008-10, IBS Hyderabad)

Do you think fee waiver should be made mandatory for B-schools to help economically backward students?

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Business Standard poses a question and solicits responses from students across India for their weekly column “ Student’s Corner”

The topic for last week was Do you think fee waiver should be made mandatory for B-schools to help economically backward students?

Here are all the responses sent by IBS students:

Fee waivers would not only bring a sigh of relief for many deserving students but also a ray of hope and motivation for many. But the challenge for the B-schools is to clearly and correctly identify the criteria of for the waiver, because of the immense variation in the fee structure across the nation. This makes the economic inability of a student a relative concept. If this challenge is subjugated, fee waiver would be welcomed by all management aspirants.

– Rhiva Singh, IBS Gurgaon.

Winning Entry

It’s difficult for students belonging to middle class families to afford a B-school without a loan, let alone economically backward students. A mandatory fee waiver to such students will not only provide support to their families but will also benefit B-schools by providing them a bigger pool of talent. It’s better to provide a poor but deserving student rather than providing for undeserving students based merely on their communities. Such waivers will provide equal opportunities to all students in real sense and will be a correct means to insure a growth towards a less divided India.

– Neha Singh, IBS Gurgaon.

Fee waiver should be given to those who ‘fall under economically backward student category’. There are so many potential students who can’t afford fees to study in top ranks B-schools in India. As a result, those potentials remain constant and can’t get the proper nutrition (knowledge and experience) to grow much more. Students belonging to backward classes by availing such facility can achieve more and such facility is also a big help to the parents. Students will feel less financial burden and they can freely concentrate on their academics. So, it should be given to economically backward student.

– Vishal Vijayan, IBS Ahmedabad.

Many eligible students do not go for higher studies like MBA because of exorbitant fees. So providing a relief in monetary term is very good option for them. But waiving the fee could be a major step. B-school can give the option to payback the fees after joining the job. Because of that student also take studies seriously and chances of having dispute among other people also stop. The major task is selecting right candidate for such a precious option.

– Manish Kumar K Gupta, IBS Mumbai.

IIM-A said that it educated 41 students for free in 2009-10. Definitely it was free for IIM because the burden of fee waived, was borne by remaining students in form of fee hike. Fee waiver is not borne by the institutions but is passed on to other students who manage to get fund through loans and other means. But in the end everyone gets same opportunity to sit for placements but while one has everything at stake the other nothing. Instead there should be a contractual agreement between the institutes and economically backward students to repay their fees when they earn.

– Anoop Periwal, IBS Mumbai.

Fee waiver should be made compulsory for under privileged students as many of them fail to make it to their dream campuses for want of finance. Instead of reserving seats for students ,which in many cases the students dont need as they come from affluent background, the primary focus should be on the family income. If a student’s family income is less than Rs 1.5 -2.0 lakh/year, he/she should be made eligible for a fee waiver. This might even create a wave and help to abolish reservation system which is being misused.

– Saurabh Saxena, IBS Mumbai.

While economically backward students could realize their dreams, fees need not be waived but could be sponsored by Government/Government banks/companies/large tax payers. Government could give an option for large companies or large tax payers to waive the sponsored amount in the tax. In this case, corporates have an added advantage by sponsoring such students by providing employment to them upon completion of their programme as well as save taxes.

– Divya Srinivasan, IBS Bengaluru.

To promote higher education at the lowest level, B-schools should mandate fee waiver to help and motivate economically backward students. Poverty is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population and if youth are not well educated, then country growth is at stake. In India majority of people are not financially sound and with the increasing fees of B-schools, they cannot afford for higher education and remain incompetent. Not only B-schools but even banks can provide some facilities like education loan at low rates to support economically backward students.

– Chirag Kriplani, IBS Mumbai.

Implementation of fee waiver at B-schools will come only in fruition when students from economically weaker societies participate in these programs. The entrance examination fee, college form fee are also a matter of concern for these students. Also the numbers of students eligible to B-schools are puny. Hence government of India must run some program to educate weaker societies to let their children go for higher studies. Scholarships, funds and other help at school and graduation level must be provided to ease financial burden.

– Sandeep Guleria, IBS Gurgaon.

Putting the burden on the shoulder of educational institutions to provide cheap education by means of fee waiver for poor students might not be an effective and the right step. Such a step might serve the purpose to an extent but at the cost of quality of the education. Also, the effectiveness of such a system can not be guaranteed. Instead, the government should directly fund the education of poor students, being the most responsible and capable body.

– Kushal Bhadani, IBS Mumbai

Changing world of E-Commerce and Security Threats

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E-Commerce unlike the common myth is not only about buying and selling of products and services over electronic system such as internet but includes wide range of functionalities like Electronic Fund Transfer, Supply Chain Management, Online Marketing, Online Transaction Processing and Inventory Management. Looking at the future roles and prospects of internet Mr. Michael Aldrich in the year 1979 invented online shopping through the assembling of T.V, telephone connection all together with a real time transaction processing system. The whole idea behind online shopping at that time was to gain higher market penetration in the highly competitive market and to provide ease of shopping.

But at that time hardly anyone had realised that the E-Commerce that started from a basic Electronic Data Interchange meant for B2B processes will expand its roots in almost all business processes. Forrestor Research estimates the USA online retail industry will be worth 279 billion $ in 2015. According to Mr. Rajan Anandan MD Google India the expected India E-Commerce industry is of net worth 7billion $ and is expected to go up to 40 billion $ in the next 5 years.

E-Commerce in various businesses

Under the B2C marketing the E-Commerce has its presence from a pin to Mercedes. We can buy goods and service ranging from fashion, accessories, books, furniture’s, cars etc. It includes the resale market, Matrimonial Sites, Tours and travel and fund transfer. E-payment of bills and E-ticketing in India is serving millions of customers every day.

Under B2B models firms are looking for electronic gateways for making all the contact in terms of dealings information exchange with vendors, suppliers, their corporate clients with the help of E-Commerce only.

Under the G2B models now the state and central government is using E-commerce as a platform for assigning tenders, licences , work permits etc to their potential customer. It not only makes the whole process hassle free but brings transparency along with it too.

Security Risk Involved

According to an estimate 57% of US businesses say that they are losing more  money through computer hacking than through regular crime, which amounts to a total figure of 559 million US $ last year itself. In USA total number of internet user are almost 24.5 crores while in India this figure goes to 10 crore. Countries like USA and UK have got stringent Cyber Laws to safeguard businesses and customers from any kind of malpractice while in India we are still in initial stage as a result of which we still do not have any exact figure of money drain happening because of lacunas in Indian Cyber Laws. Today Britain leads Europe as the heaviest users of Internet banking services, with over a third of the UK population visiting e-banks. Traffic has grown by over 27 per cent in the last six months alone, and the growth in Internet banking is increasingly spilling over into business banking too. The surge in the popularity of these e-banks is not without its problems however, as most of the larger enterprises have, at one time or another suffered some sort of a security glitch. Most of the online systems now boast 128 bit encryption with SSL (secure socket layer) which is as secure as it gets, provided that the bank side security systems have not been compromised. But this trend is far from being inevitable or even undisputed, as a recent survey from Datamonitor showed when it revealed that in the UK, 63 percent of those polled said that they preferred to visit the bank branch, 25 per cent favoured telephone banking, and only five per cent cited the Internet as their favourite way of interacting with their bank. Moreover there is no bad apprehension regarding success of E-Commerce in India which is very much visible from the success of business models like Flip-Kart and e-bay. We can say that even the online banking is preferable among young generations but are we still ready for a E-Banking is still a questionable looking at the lack of Special Cyber Laws for E-commerce in India.

(All data given above is from published sources)

Contributed by SHARIQUE MANAZIR ( Class of 2013, IBS Hyderabad)

 

Trending trends: 2012

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Year and year down the line things in the field of marketing are changing. What used to be a sure shot way to success now seems to be a good old day practice. It’s not like things have completely turned upside down, but it’s highly justifiable if we say trends are trending. Honesty and worthiness in customer relationship are a must, but the big question is what will be the market driving force in the astronomically said human races last year 2012.

Customers and market trends are changing like a game of IPL. The biggest question in the market is “what’s emerging”. The company that can answer this question can surely bank upon its survival. Yahoo top stories, news, twitter blogs the social media in itself is changing at a speed like never before showcases the changing trends in the Indian society. Aakash, ubislate, android, touch pads, tablets, windows you name it we have it. We are moving towards never ending highly competitive digital markets. Social media is causing a complete shift in the consumer’s mentality; blogs, articles, news-letters, case studies have become predominant in affecting buying patterns. Websites like dare2compete have been successful in unplugging the best of solutions from the buyer’s point of view with mere use of case studies.

Digitization however is a double edge sword; one should never forget any form of marketing will never end up a success story until and unless it has got a human touch attached to it. Emotional marketing has been the greatest asset for a marketer play with. Use of new technologies provides a wide reach; however conveying a message in the right format is what wins the heart. With increasing digitization and emerging Indian markets, the digital world is bombarded with advertisements and banners. The situation has become such that opening a webpage makes it a compulsion to visit an advertisement. At this juncture finding the right content, quantity and location is what takes the ultimate position. If mere Facebooking or tweeting was digital marketing, saturation levels would have been way surpassed.

Relationship based markets is what we are moving into. Consumers want to relate to the brand and its image, and companies who can gel along the relation are marking the success stories.

Digitization is at centre stage, trends are changing and creativity is the only way out.

If your company’s hormonal balance does not carry the spice for creativity the longevity of your survival is highly endangered.