Hmmm...
Now this is gonna be fun. I love diversity. I have changed 4 jobs in 4 years. I have worked in IT services, products and now i work in solutions team. When i started working in one of the respected MNC, i was out into a cellar in Chennai for two months training. Revolutionary as i was, i hated the way people were treated in IT industry,more so, because we as Indians have an attitude to become servile to situations. A cry to be respected raised time and again, saw some of us moving out of cellar to a better locale. Sitting in TV room with people around playing carrom and dining over oh so fought for good food, i was wondering if life was going to be a fight for right for years to come. Yes, in a way it tunred right. I decided years back that i will build a brand for myself where i am not just a resource and i will also spend some time in analyzing who can we as IT providers become innovative and pro active rather than being reactive and servile. Incidently, i can say that i have an answer. Being a part of solutions team in myorganization, i work at pro actively identifying opportunities in industrial problem where IT can be a solution.
We try to define requirements with our experts and consultants and we come up with a seasonal ready to sell IT solution to our clients. Since we take a lead in time, we can protect our brains and intelligence using IP rights and for every pro active step that we take, i feel i add to pride of my nation and every developer who has actually let his intelligence get sold for Rs. 20,000/- because he knows not what he gives.
I can say that IT solutions are the future of India. Its high time we start acting as leaders. We have learned enough be being followers, now is the time to show day lights our way. ;)
Monday, December 17, 2007
Dreams Unlimited...
"If you want your dreams to turn into reality, live them as if they were real."
Wait for getting into my dream B school had every moment full of anxiety,when one fine day, a friend of mine who landed from california after long, decided to visit me. Me, a strong believer in the philosophy that you meet people for a reason was yet to find out why did i meet her. we decided to meet at one of the malls in bangalore.
We discussed about life and times. I bought a denim frock which i had been eyeing for over a month now. :) At the back of my mind, all i had was God, i want to get into B school this year. I dont want to die non MBA.
Me and my pal decided to discuss life over a glass of sugarcane juice. Some interesting facets of life. Suddenly, she started talking of "Law of attraction" . Interestingly, this concept drew me towards it. I have been this boring thinker all my life and i always believed that dreaming is reality. Someone was telling me that if you live your dreams, they become a reality some day. All my fears and anxiety suddenly converted into faith, faith that i will live this dream of doing my MBA from one of the top b schools. I had this strange feeling of happiness which comes when your good thoughts become real.
On dec 12, 2007, i received the acknowledgement of my conviction. I was emotionless. The faith of living my dreams had normalized my behaviour. Suddenly, i could sense the emotions of success and failures. The fear started subsiding and for everything that happened for last 6 months, i knew that God had a plan. Its a fact that if you dream of something, live for it and die for it. There is no balancing act as living your dreams as reality.
Wait for getting into my dream B school had every moment full of anxiety,when one fine day, a friend of mine who landed from california after long, decided to visit me. Me, a strong believer in the philosophy that you meet people for a reason was yet to find out why did i meet her. we decided to meet at one of the malls in bangalore.
We discussed about life and times. I bought a denim frock which i had been eyeing for over a month now. :) At the back of my mind, all i had was God, i want to get into B school this year. I dont want to die non MBA.
Me and my pal decided to discuss life over a glass of sugarcane juice. Some interesting facets of life. Suddenly, she started talking of "Law of attraction" . Interestingly, this concept drew me towards it. I have been this boring thinker all my life and i always believed that dreaming is reality. Someone was telling me that if you live your dreams, they become a reality some day. All my fears and anxiety suddenly converted into faith, faith that i will live this dream of doing my MBA from one of the top b schools. I had this strange feeling of happiness which comes when your good thoughts become real.
On dec 12, 2007, i received the acknowledgement of my conviction. I was emotionless. The faith of living my dreams had normalized my behaviour. Suddenly, i could sense the emotions of success and failures. The fear started subsiding and for everything that happened for last 6 months, i knew that God had a plan. Its a fact that if you dream of something, live for it and die for it. There is no balancing act as living your dreams as reality.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Supply Chain et al
"Everything starts and ends at urge. It is powerful enough to fight all odds. So, have that urge, things will start falling in place."
Or in other words, here i am going to talk of demand and supply. Urge/need and i will do it for you business. Though the roots evolve over simple process, the actual implementation is as complex as it can get. The professional term for "I will do it for you business" is "Supply Chain Management". These views have evolved from an interesting read on retail.
India with a population of one billion, growing middle class, rising highly educated youngsters and hence ever expanding consumer market is rated to be the most underserved market in terms of Global Retail opportunity. It is assumed that retail is going to be the next boom in India after IT.
Facts-
Or in other words, here i am going to talk of demand and supply. Urge/need and i will do it for you business. Though the roots evolve over simple process, the actual implementation is as complex as it can get. The professional term for "I will do it for you business" is "Supply Chain Management". These views have evolved from an interesting read on retail.
India with a population of one billion, growing middle class, rising highly educated youngsters and hence ever expanding consumer market is rated to be the most underserved market in terms of Global Retail opportunity. It is assumed that retail is going to be the next boom in India after IT.
Facts-
- India's retail industry is among top10 and is valued to be around 300 billion.
- Three big players- Wall Mart&Bharti, Reliance and Pantaloon.
- 300 million strong middle class
India's decison to allow upto 51% FDI in retail sector led to coming in of wall mart which allianced with Bharti to tab this immense unleashing potential in SCM sector.
While the market figures are lucrative, the challenges that retail Industry will face as it develops in India are quite a few. The market being non uniform, led by mushroom growth of small retailers, thousands of middle man and uneducation at the level of root suppiers are not easy to curb. But in every urge that is strong lay an opportunity to fight challenge. Here are some of the typical challenges that i feel a retail business will have to handle effectively.
- Poor Infrastructure
- Gap between rural and urban economy and consumption patterns
- Absence of high tech infrastructure and facilities
- Lack of retailing and warehousing expertise
- Inefficient and less organized transportation operators
A retail industry survives on effective supply chain management system. It should be able to do away with bottom line costs and push the advantage to customers in form of lower cost and hence increased loyalty in return. They need to effectively manage the infrastructure and take maximun advantage of locations and strategically place their distribution centers to take geographical advantages. Retail faces more competition as this is based more of customer perception and benefits that they can offer to customer against the competitors operating in similar situations. Change and implementation is key. Retail players might want to set up an extensive distribution network. This should have stronger inventory to face uncertainity, distribution centers close to market and stronger collaboration. The marketing strategy might have to differ based on regions and customer segments significantly considering underlying diversity inherent in Indian diaspora.
The basics for this industry will vary from typical service industry. The roots of the retailers will have to reside in India, they will have to work closely with local people and ground level workers. So, the Retailing business in India has to operate in extremely localised manner. It will involve a lot of ground work. Businesses will have to look for optimum utlization of cheap labour force, tabbing benefits residing in regional structure. They will have to invest in technical solutions which integrate this diversity at an overall level. They will have to establish third party relations and build strcutures to take first movers advantage at this stage. Aligning with local business players is key here.
97 percent of Indian retail industry today is owned by small and medium sized retailers. New entrants in this sector will have to strategise on whether to tab this potential or enter into structured retailing as Reliance has done. Retailers should explore the sourcing opportunities in India. Availability of cheap labour force and localised skills can be used effctively to drastically reduce assembling and manufacturing costs for goods to be marketed. Also, some of the goods to be sold will strictly be localised and hence will need development of local skills. The reginal parity and different set of challenges will make supply change networking strategy in India quite different from the one that exists in global market today.
Retail Boom will bring Indian pride and development at grass root level. This growth will need local semi skilled people reap benefits of economic prosperity. As i strongly believe, any economy and business close to food, clothe and shelter, will survive. Retail connects all three needs in one store. This has a future. Who knows India might beat China in manufacturing. After all, this is one country which can turn challenges into strengths if need be. :)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Rising from ashes- Indian Saga
A nation widely known for beaurocracy, illiteracy, poverty .. blah, blah, blah... Now, features on every nation's economic charter. People power? Oh yes.. indeed!
I remember few years back on a lazy lunch talk, i told a friend of mine that India has a future which is remarkable, because growth always has one, she smiled and said,"Gary, you are emotional about India, i dont wanna hit that soft corner. " I also laughed at that, but then i was talking data and facts there, so had little doubt in my mind.
Again in a discussion 3 years back over mergers and acquisitions, i told SK ( well, he is a M&A consultant today), what if one day a home based Indian company takes over a biggie. He turned and said, you dream big and i love that. :). I was like ok, i dont come from Mc Kinsey, so fine. Sitting neat in 2007, we have tatas, kingfishers and blah blah blah. Oh ok. I wasnt really emotional. I took a decision to stay back in India 2 years back for a reason. I dint want the spirit of fighting for life and struggle die in me. Its good and bad. Things are not so obvious for we Indians, so our brains are open to think. We dont really assume that being a pedestrian, people will give you way. We stand right infront of a moving car and find our way. Rather, its either ways i die, but if i dont try, i will stand on the other side of the road forever. :)
Wow, i love being Indian. Looked at the thought process. What a spirit to take risk. It can only come when you know, you have nothing to loose.
Here are some of the facts that people are trying to capture in numbers and pens-
I remember few years back on a lazy lunch talk, i told a friend of mine that India has a future which is remarkable, because growth always has one, she smiled and said,"Gary, you are emotional about India, i dont wanna hit that soft corner. " I also laughed at that, but then i was talking data and facts there, so had little doubt in my mind.
Again in a discussion 3 years back over mergers and acquisitions, i told SK ( well, he is a M&A consultant today), what if one day a home based Indian company takes over a biggie. He turned and said, you dream big and i love that. :). I was like ok, i dont come from Mc Kinsey, so fine. Sitting neat in 2007, we have tatas, kingfishers and blah blah blah. Oh ok. I wasnt really emotional. I took a decision to stay back in India 2 years back for a reason. I dint want the spirit of fighting for life and struggle die in me. Its good and bad. Things are not so obvious for we Indians, so our brains are open to think. We dont really assume that being a pedestrian, people will give you way. We stand right infront of a moving car and find our way. Rather, its either ways i die, but if i dont try, i will stand on the other side of the road forever. :)
Wow, i love being Indian. Looked at the thought process. What a spirit to take risk. It can only come when you know, you have nothing to loose.
Here are some of the facts that people are trying to capture in numbers and pens-
- Over the next two decades, the country’s middle class will grow from about 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent and create the world’s fifth-largest consumer market.
- In 1985 93 percent of the population lived on a household income of less than 90,000 rupees a year, or about a dollar per person per day; by 2005 that proportion had been cut nearly in half, to 54 percent. 431 million fewer Indians live in extreme poverty today than would have if poverty had remained stuck at the 1985 level. If India can achieve 7.3 percent annual growth over the next 20 years, 465 million more people will be spared a life of extreme deprivation.
- extreme rural poverty has declined from 94 percent in 1985 to 61 percent in 2005, and we project that it will drop to 26 percent by 2025. While the progress has been substantial—even historic—significant challenges remain.
Wow, i love numbers and all above that the fact, that we as Indians, never really though of these numbers. We simply fought a fight for survival. It brought lots of limelight to us, we are acknowledged, people want to study us. But we dont really care, for we are truly democratic, free will survivers, or rather winners of tomorrow. We will keep on making deals years on years. Our long lost brain drains serving people for dollars, will come back, not because we want them back, or we have changed the infrastructure or lifestyle for them, but just because they want to come back, because somehow this country can get them money and same non luxurious homely feeling which they did not relate to few years back. [ Pun intended]
Hail to Indians- for they know not what they cant do !!! [ Well, that stands for all kind of wrongs we are known for as well :)]
Strategy
Organizations are known to differentiate based on their strategy. Essentially all competitors build same product, set similar processes and target same customers. This is the initial growth stage. Everyone has a chance of survival, because market is too huge. As more and more players enter into market, their arises a need to DIFFERENTIATE- a word which has kept most of the top managers on toes for ages and years. Innovation is not a small game. While they say options are limitless, there is only so much that one can do in calculated manner. So, drives in the heroic word- Strategy. Often misused, but still widely used. :)
I was reading a nice speech given by one of the young budding manager on strategy for an IT company. It was simple and looked more operational to me, but linked straight to strategy which emerges from no where.
For years each business has run on some basic concepts-
a) Need for it to exist
b) People who can elaborate the need and setup a process to fulfill it
c) People who enable this process with labour and effort
d) A mechanism which takes this offering to the people who need
e) The consumer finally
Each business starts as innovation, everything that is repeated for more than a decade reduces to process and now? Since its a process, you know what fits where and you start playing with human intelligence. You want to put that into a database and process it. Amazingly, for years the human mental asset was considered to be intangible and difficult to capture commodity. But this is not the same today. BPO was someone intellectual asset, which was put on papers and followed by 200 people recruited. Maintenance in IT is another service which is going to follow similar trend in years to come.
So, here is a strategic shift. Lets talk of how it works in IT:
a) If someone can outsource to me, can i outsource to someone else? Hmm.. how about small tier2 cities? Small companies. Lesser salary, lesser brand name, so less expectation. Lets start a supply chain in IT. China, Malaysia, or may be even Ramnagar within India.
b) 200 people * 8 hours. Let me look at my human assets as products lying in warehouse. Some are lying in shelves unused for years, some products do not get to see shelves ever. How about managing this imbalance. Lets cann it productivity improvement. Utilization, may be.
c) Enough of big shops(read US, UK). Let me take my stuff to those small growing budding businesses. They might pay me lesser, but then my operations are normalized and even 10rs profit on 200 is ok for me. Lets have a wider portfolio for a better market tolerance.
d) My industry is people intensive. Decades of exposure has made work routine. Got to add value to work and give them something new to make them stick to me, or else they will break free. [ growing economy, u see:)]
Donno, if i talk absurd, but i have covered STRATEGY for next IT move. And i love the fact that this is moving manufacturing way. Does that essentially mean, all business are same?
I was reading a nice speech given by one of the young budding manager on strategy for an IT company. It was simple and looked more operational to me, but linked straight to strategy which emerges from no where.
For years each business has run on some basic concepts-
a) Need for it to exist
b) People who can elaborate the need and setup a process to fulfill it
c) People who enable this process with labour and effort
d) A mechanism which takes this offering to the people who need
e) The consumer finally
Each business starts as innovation, everything that is repeated for more than a decade reduces to process and now? Since its a process, you know what fits where and you start playing with human intelligence. You want to put that into a database and process it. Amazingly, for years the human mental asset was considered to be intangible and difficult to capture commodity. But this is not the same today. BPO was someone intellectual asset, which was put on papers and followed by 200 people recruited. Maintenance in IT is another service which is going to follow similar trend in years to come.
So, here is a strategic shift. Lets talk of how it works in IT:
a) If someone can outsource to me, can i outsource to someone else? Hmm.. how about small tier2 cities? Small companies. Lesser salary, lesser brand name, so less expectation. Lets start a supply chain in IT. China, Malaysia, or may be even Ramnagar within India.
b) 200 people * 8 hours. Let me look at my human assets as products lying in warehouse. Some are lying in shelves unused for years, some products do not get to see shelves ever. How about managing this imbalance. Lets cann it productivity improvement. Utilization, may be.
c) Enough of big shops(read US, UK). Let me take my stuff to those small growing budding businesses. They might pay me lesser, but then my operations are normalized and even 10rs profit on 200 is ok for me. Lets have a wider portfolio for a better market tolerance.
d) My industry is people intensive. Decades of exposure has made work routine. Got to add value to work and give them something new to make them stick to me, or else they will break free. [ growing economy, u see:)]
Donno, if i talk absurd, but i have covered STRATEGY for next IT move. And i love the fact that this is moving manufacturing way. Does that essentially mean, all business are same?
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Journey to the not so knowns- Part3
Village- HilleNijgal- 55 kms off Tumkur road. Better called Vishwa's village.
The journey started from Shopper Stop at Banerghatta Road. We all gathered to travel to a small village off Tumkur road. Vishwa had decided to show us his vilage. We were all excited. Started driving on the road, and met Vishwa near Majestic. We started following him on Tumkur Road. Dhaval took the driving seat and managed to get a dent on car almost right at the beggining of journey. :) After around 50 minutes of travel, we saw an indicator on Vishwa's bike for a left turn. The scanary around was beautiful. It was a big highway and there were small green hills around. After we took a left turn, we came across a railway crossing. We waited for around 10 minutes at the crossing only to discover the beauty of nature lying hidden behind. This was a small muddy track. We waded through it, to be received by host's family. This was the spot, we were supposed to have breakfast at. We were served with coconut chutney and rice made from a large round citrus fruit on a banana leaf. The food was yummy. We saw old way of heating water under a muddy chulha.
After having our breakfast we moved on for a trek through village farms. We started by peeping into an old house, houses which sheltered animals like sheep and cow, much to the thrill of 4 year old Muskaan.
After having our breakfast we moved on for a trek through village farms. We started by peeping into an old house, houses which sheltered animals like sheep and cow, much to the thrill of 4 year old Muskaan.
We walked through farms to reach to capsicum farms, and custard apples. The farm looked beautiful with yellow and red capsicums, rice fields and also some typical masala plants that are out in sambhar. We proceeded to village school. There was a large ground and some classes in it. The place looked open and peaceful as it was holiday for kids. From there we trekked down to an ancient temple in village, it had a huge pillar at entry. We were huffing and puffing, thanks to the luxurious life we spend in cities, it was time to take some rest for us. The next trek started with water pool for cattles, coconult trees, sem fali plants and we saw some women picking these falis and pakaging them. We bought some of it and moved forth thorugh a thin lane towards a corn plantation. Vishwa plucked medium sized corns and offered them to us. They were sweet and tastier than any corn i had ever eaten. From there we climbed a semi tough terrain to reach to a small building on hill top. We rested there and drank coconut water.
Moving on to the village rain diety. This was a huge water reservoir right infront of rain diety temple. We rested in stony caves of that temple for sometime and started walking on stony elevated hillway towards the temple.
We climbed some 50 stairs to reach the village temple located at some good height. The village could be seen from there. We prayed to God and were all set for the rural lunch. The menu was Raagi ball, curry, green daal , salad and a sweet dish. We all were having Raagi ball for firt time, so was a relatively difficult thing to digest, but we managed. After having lunch and having strolled around the temple, we started descending to vilage again. This was a trek covered with Imli trees and natural tree webs, leading to village farms. Here came a tube well, everyone tried hands at putting their faces right infront of the water gushing out of the tube.
By this time, we were all tired, all set to reach back to pavillion. We visited lakshmi temple, rested for a while, got pictures clicked on a tractor and drove back to the city life.
Facts-
- Village is scenic and beautiful
- Main economy is based on agriculture, so people are cultured and united
- Scope for better education
- Village needs more source of income
- Caste system is prevalent
Moving on to the village rain diety. This was a huge water reservoir right infront of rain diety temple. We rested in stony caves of that temple for sometime and started walking on stony elevated hillway towards the temple.
We climbed some 50 stairs to reach the village temple located at some good height. The village could be seen from there. We prayed to God and were all set for the rural lunch. The menu was Raagi ball, curry, green daal , salad and a sweet dish. We all were having Raagi ball for firt time, so was a relatively difficult thing to digest, but we managed. After having lunch and having strolled around the temple, we started descending to vilage again. This was a trek covered with Imli trees and natural tree webs, leading to village farms. Here came a tube well, everyone tried hands at putting their faces right infront of the water gushing out of the tube.
By this time, we were all tired, all set to reach back to pavillion. We visited lakshmi temple, rested for a while, got pictures clicked on a tractor and drove back to the city life.
Facts-
- Village is scenic and beautiful
- Main economy is based on agriculture, so people are cultured and united
- Scope for better education
- Village needs more source of income
- Caste system is prevalent
Infosys vs TCS vs Wipro
I came across a very interesting article in ET few days back. This was on divergent paths taken by Indian IT companies after years of competition. Somehow i always had a feeling that strategically these companies are differentating now, so it was great to see it coming in black and white from pen of Sudhir Apte. (Sr Analyst and Country Head, Forrester).
Here are some of the strengths of each of the organization as mentioned-
Wipro- R&D and Infrastructure Management are its core strengths. The org stands at a revenue of 3.45 Billion. It has set up a niche in six sigma conuslting in software. Good part is its approach to acquire domain specializing small companies which brings in more business expertise to it. Applying innovatin is its mantra and it is laying more and more stress on solutions. When it comes to technology and cost Wipro remains the first choice.
Infosys- This org has 30 offices worldwide and around 9 development centers in India. With a revenue of 3.1 billion, being the latest entrant in IT race, this organization has a lot to boast of in terms of its world calss infrastructure and process centric approach. Infy is clearly the first choice when it comes to quality and delivery. However, the organization today is focusing more on business centric approach, solutions and IP assets. The key mantra for most of the IT orgs would be non linear growth in times to come. This is clearly in competiiton of Accentures and IBMs of the world.
TCS- Established in 1968, Asia's largetst and India's number one IT organization. It indeed is best capable of handling large sized deals across globe, thanks to its global network delivery model. The organization boasts of technical efficiency and its global rollout delivery efficiency. Its customer portfolio is wide and is spread across regions. It believes in market penetration and wil bid low to get an entry into client side and expand reach there on. Iw ould say that i find the strategy of this organization very fool proff because its roots are strong. However, it fails to differentiate in terms of marketing.
Seeing that all 3 vendors no longer belong to same creed, IT consumers have a clear choice to make. The road ahead for all the three is strategically different and who wins and who looses is the game to watch.
These biggies remain to be hopes and support for atleast 3 lakh Indians directly and many other indirectly. Its good to know that strengths have now been recognized and ways parted to competed with a bigger world out there. Thats the beauty of business, there is thrill of doing something new every moment.
Here are some of the strengths of each of the organization as mentioned-
Wipro- R&D and Infrastructure Management are its core strengths. The org stands at a revenue of 3.45 Billion. It has set up a niche in six sigma conuslting in software. Good part is its approach to acquire domain specializing small companies which brings in more business expertise to it. Applying innovatin is its mantra and it is laying more and more stress on solutions. When it comes to technology and cost Wipro remains the first choice.
Infosys- This org has 30 offices worldwide and around 9 development centers in India. With a revenue of 3.1 billion, being the latest entrant in IT race, this organization has a lot to boast of in terms of its world calss infrastructure and process centric approach. Infy is clearly the first choice when it comes to quality and delivery. However, the organization today is focusing more on business centric approach, solutions and IP assets. The key mantra for most of the IT orgs would be non linear growth in times to come. This is clearly in competiiton of Accentures and IBMs of the world.
TCS- Established in 1968, Asia's largetst and India's number one IT organization. It indeed is best capable of handling large sized deals across globe, thanks to its global network delivery model. The organization boasts of technical efficiency and its global rollout delivery efficiency. Its customer portfolio is wide and is spread across regions. It believes in market penetration and wil bid low to get an entry into client side and expand reach there on. Iw ould say that i find the strategy of this organization very fool proff because its roots are strong. However, it fails to differentiate in terms of marketing.
Seeing that all 3 vendors no longer belong to same creed, IT consumers have a clear choice to make. The road ahead for all the three is strategically different and who wins and who looses is the game to watch.
These biggies remain to be hopes and support for atleast 3 lakh Indians directly and many other indirectly. Its good to know that strengths have now been recognized and ways parted to competed with a bigger world out there. Thats the beauty of business, there is thrill of doing something new every moment.
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