SlideShare acquisition - a different perspective

I was reading a news about the SlideShare acquisition by linkedin for 119 million. It was inspiring to know that an Indian led company has achieved so much success. SlideShare wasstarted in 2006 and so it has achieved the status of no.1 presentation sharing site of the world. One could not ask for better success than this and that is why Amit Sinha says - "We could not be happier about this....". I was more interested to know 'Why' about his decision when he has acieved so much in 5 years and so went to SlideShare website and read his own comment where he pointed out following reasons :

One : "I firmly believe that SlideShare will grow faster with LinkedIn."
Question :
Growing faster in which domain ? Userbase,Branding or Revenue 
- In area of userbase , SlideShare does not need linkedin's help. It has it's own and very large userbase.
- In area of Branding , It has established itself as leading brand in content sharing and even can do more if diversify itself in some areas.
- In Revenue : I guess this is the area where Amit seemed more tempted but ....

Second : "I have watched as LinkedIn has grown from being a place to share your resume to a much richer site, where you go to keep up with what your professional network is doing and sharing. We like the path they are on, and are excited to join them on this journey."

Question : It is good that you are inspired by linkedin but you have much scope of as well. Why to sell ur own baby ..just collaborate with other majors and you could have be flying as well.....

As I was not much satisfied by above 2 reasons so I tried to analyzed this by another NON-Business way and found this as another example of Indian tech company bought by American giant just because they lack the world leadeship and tempted by the money.He did following  :


1. Worked for Americans companies
2. Left American firms and start their own business
3. Again worked hard to develop the business
4. Developed recognition
5. Sold the business to another American company
6. Ready to start American company again(After earning 119 million)

So he completed a cycle from step 1 to 6 with more money but lost the opportunity to make it BIGGER like LinedIn or Facebook.

It is not the first time that an IT guy has done something like this...read following example :

1. World fame Sabeer Bhatia, got educated in India and US.
2. Worked for apple as hardware engineer
3. Worked with Jack smith to setup and developed the world famous email brand - Hotmail
4. Sold Hotmail to Microsoft for around $400 million in 1997
5. Worked for Microsoft for 1 year....and now a days doing many things like ......

Above is my thoughtabout this acquisition and somehow it gives me an idea that America are the real business nation who knows how to do the business and dictate the market. They have the simple practice either grow faster or buy the one who have the potential to make Americans grow faster. Indians who are god gifted,hard working and laborious( and have seen life in India ) and love money and recognition falls easily into the trap.......they get everything but INDIAN Business loose the opportunity to be the lead the world and be 'LEADER'....:(

PS : A question that is popping up in my mind ...why India does not even a single world leading product brand ???...may be someone have answer .....

Why 51% FDI in multi-brand retail is risky in long term ?

Today UPA cabinet has approved the 51% FDI limit in $450 billion multi-brand retail sector.I think it is good for consumers in general because soon big multinational firms like Carrefour and wallmarts will heavily come down and open their outlets in every medium and big cities and starts offering retail items via big TV commercial and advertisements. These firms will build their warehouses and have deals with local formers for whole sale agreements.Consumers will get a lot of offers at attractive prices under one roof.

So question is if this the case then why some people are opposing UPA government...can't they understand this positive phenomenon ?
Actually UPA government is facing issue of price rise and inflation(Wholesale inflation in India has remained stubbornly high for more than a year and is now close to 10% despite RBI intervention) and so their argument (also backed by RBI) is that this move will help to dampen soaring inflation – an argument that several international retailers have also advanced to promote their case for entry. They have argued that a higher international presence in the retail sector could lower prices and improve the food chain.....This is valid in short term.......but but but ????

General election are due in 2014 (short term period) and so government wants to help/show the common people in this way ???
Later this Gandhi marked Congress will fight for rights of Swedeshi people....then things will be too late perhaps ....I don't know but why it seems to me that opening up FDI in multi-brand retail would spell the biggest disaster for Indian economy....and extinct our general stores( or kirana store )......which constitute more than 90% of retail market now.


What about the Govt.'s claim that it will generate the employment ? It is true in a sense :
- Is Mcdonald is generating employment which we all want in India ....they are just using the unemployed youth and giving them meagre salaries and earning huge profit with the help of low production cost.....How good is that for India ....

Regarding cheap products : Govt. should make sure that these big firms not spoil the Indian SME by buying cheap products from China and selling to the Indians.


The only positive sign that I see here is that this may lead organised retail system where formers gets satisfactory prices for their products and mediators do not eat away all the profit that should genunely be with formers( This is what is happening in Mandi system today). Even in this case government will have the greater role of monitoring that giants like wall-mart not become the new middlemen and take away the cream. After all they are not coming here for social welfare ....so risk is there a lot....as Amricans are new Britishers in modern world. 

Why everyone is interested in Indian Retail market  ?
India is ranked 4th on US consulting group AT Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index for 2011. Emerging markets like India($1.6 trillion economy), China and Russia are the next big markets for retail growth.

Big Responsibility for Cyrus Mistry

This seems to be big honour for him to step into the shoes of Ratan Tata.It will not just be chairmanship of $71 billion Tata Group that he will hold but he has to make sure that he carries the  legacy of Ratan Tata as well in terms of philanthropic life, simplicity, honesty and payback to society attitude. The aim of this unique Tata Group is to improve the quality of life in the society by virtue of integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility. Ratan Tata is known to lead these values throughout his public and private life. Tata’s contribution to India’s education, science and technology has been widely documented and respected.

Surprisingly Cyrus has proved his business acumen in past by making his own company more profitable but 'profit' is not the only thing Ratan Tata has earned in his life. These is much more than that......and that is why when he said 'Not a single paisa was paid to A.Raja in 2G scam' - nobody in whole India gave his statement second thought.

To me it looks a bit surprising choice, as previous chairmen never had a major direct stake in the Tata group - none of them appeared in the India's rich-list or Forbes 20 etc because most of them were just high paid employees Ratan Tata for instance owns about 2% stake in the one of the old group companies through inheritance etc, he was practically an employee of the group like all other employees and got a pay check (of course must have been a large one :-) ). The group structure of giving back all its earning and profits to the society it severed is perhaps not just unique in India but the world. BUT with this choice does it not change this philanthropic message, with the biggest shareholders family member becoming the Chairman. Would there not be a dilution on this core message and would there be a conflict of interest ? ...the time will answer.....But Best of luck to Cyrus Mistry...

Succession problem : Is it a typical Indian leadership nature ?

Tata group's inability to find a 'right' successor for Ratan Tata compel me to look this issue in broader perspective and that somehow takes me to the entities where finding a charismatic,natural and 'Sarvya Manya' leader seems to be herculean task if not impossible.
If we look at India as a nation, then we find that on numerous occasions Indians has difficulties in finding right successor of head to Political party/Govt/Corporate or state(empire in Older days). Here are the examples :
- A company like Infosys can not spare itself from controversies when they are in the process of finding their next CEO and Chairman (as Infosys Chairman NR Narayana Murthy is retiring in aug-2011).
- After a successful tenure, when chief minister,Y S Rajasekhara Reddy died it was very difficult to find his successor in Andhra Pradesh.
- DMK is having trouble in finding successor to Mr. M Karunanidhi democratically.
- Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray could not be able to select his successor in an amiable manner.
- Main opposition Party BJP is having trouble in deciding who will be the successor to Mr. L.K. Advani.
- I just read that Sri Sai baba is no more and so I wish there should not be any issue in finding his successor as well.

It says a lot about the leaders himself and leadership qualities of Indians in general.I am not criticizing Indians but just analysing a general pervasive phenomena in society.At least one thing is sure that we do not believe in developing leaders naturally,tactically and democratically and do not plan for leadership succession well in advance.

Delhi Airport Express train - A whole New experience

I was visiting my father on this Holi and landed at terminal 3 of IGI airport,Delhi in early morning. I was out of airport in 30 minutes(super quick).I suddenly saw Delhi airport express train signage just out of gate number 4. As I had time in between my journey to Lucknow, I thought to explore it.......I enjoyed the Delhi airport express train operated by Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt. Ltd. (DAMEPL) and believe me it live upto it's expectation of 'A whole New experience'.I was mesmerized to see the facilities at the IGI station for airport express train like automatic ticketing machine,ticket kiosk and friendly English speaking staff to help the passengers. The price of one way ticket is kind of nothing as compared to what is being charged in another big cities for similar services.(see comparisons below).
London : 16.5 pound ( 1185 rupees)
Paris(RER line) : 9 Euro (568 rupees)
Oslo : 170 kroners (1373 rupees)
New delhi : 80 Ruppes( in future it will go upto 150 rupees)

Air-conditioned Delhi airport express train now runs between Dwarka(sec 21) station and New Delhi railway station (Paharganj side) and in between covers IGI airport,Delhi Aerocity(NH 8), Dhaula Kuan Station,Shivaji stadium. Now it operates with frequency of 20 minutes starting from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.It has 5 underground stations and one elevated one. plateforms on all the stations are covered with glass to avoid any problem and maintain cleanness. Security is very tight as reliance has hired the security personnel from government agencies.Facilities of trolleys are their for luggage on every station and very soon check-in facilities are going to start at ND station and Shivaji station as most of the airlines has already opened their counters but not started serving yet. Coaches are imported from CAF spain and are very spacious(and different from regular metro coaches) with ample space for luggage.

So India has proved that , when it comes to world class service , we can provide world class services at very reasonable price.

Infosys 3.0 - International to local transition

Now a days many IT consultancy companies are re-organizing themselves considering the market situation and future growth trend.Big multinationals like Accenture,IBM,Capgamini have already taken a leap and established processes in such directions.

Moving from a technology solutions company to a business solutions company and proactively help customers build the enterprise of tomorrow is not easy task for a traditional Indian IT company but Infosys seems to determined as they know that this is the only area where they can use its hard working and smart workforce to compete with companies like Accenture, Capgamini and IBM.

History: Infosys started its journey in 1981 and went public in 1993. With very sound planning and strategic decisions , infosys has achieved a place in world IT services companies.During first 30 years of business, company worked on Infosys 1.0 and 2.0 model and now working towards 3.0 to be world's number 1 IT services and consultancy company with employee strength of 120000 plus headcount.

Infosys 1.0 : ( 20 years) - focus on developing and managing technology applications for customers and on building a global delivery model.
Infosys 2.0 :( 10 years ) - develop end-to-end service capabilities, systems integration capabilities, and added some consulting and innovation expertise.

During Infosys 1.0 and 2.0 , i.e in the past years it's project are categorized as :

1. Transformation projects <--- traditional business( 25% revenue) 2. Innovation projects <--- traditional business( 10% revenue) 3. Operational efficiency projects. <--- traditional business( 65% revenue) Now Focus are for Infosys 3.0 which means developing expertise in global trends like : 1. 'digital consumer' (digital products permeating all aspects of life), 'new commerce' (mobile commerce leading to extremely small transactions), 2. `healthcare economy' (healthcare becoming more preventive, affordable and inclusive) 3. 'sustainable tomorrow' (doing things in an environmentally and socially sustainable way), 4. `smarter organizations' (making organizations more adaptable, less complex), ' 5. emerging economies' (global growth concentrated in these areas) and ' 6. pervasive computing' (all devices becoming computing devices). Not only this but after success of finacle, Flypp and iEngage , now infosys is also working towards strengthening its reputation as complete 'product company' by creating 'Infosys Lab'.

The company now wants to do many more of those, as also co-create products with their customers.

Challenges :

• Establishing permanent base in smaller countries ( like middle europe,east europe and nordic ) to establish reputation of local international company. This should be on the same pattern as Accenture and IBM is doing.
• Establishing its brand among the western countries. Objective is to recruit local talent in western world and train them to become the face of Infosys in the concerned country.
• Core business consultancy ( or some called it management consultancy) requires the knowledge of :
  1. Business processes that are applicable in the client's geographical area like America,east Europe,China , Nordics. etc...
  +
  2. Innovative business/strategic solutions to improve the competitiveness of business/process efficiency.
  +
  3. The theoretical and practical business concepts applicable in client domain eg. insurance,banking,oil and gas etc.
  
  excelling in all 3 areas can only give Infosys lead or establish it as respective international competitor.

Serving the Nation - Chaitanya Gurukul Public School

I am very much touched with the feeling and efforts of Mr. Chandrakant Singh(36 years). He has proved that if somebody wants to serve the nation with heart, then means come automatically. The way he setup the Chaitanya Gurukul Public School( Gopalganj,Bihar) shows the zeal and patriotic spirit. He faced all the problems that a NRI typically think before starting anything in India. But his planning,vision and methodology showed that 'There is will there is way'....Great work by a REAL HERO.

Following are some points that seem to be important here :
1. Many times one or the other event force the INDIANS to do something but later they are stopped by one or the other things....but very few do................A role of mentor/guide(here Dr. Srinivasan Suryanarayan - Dean,IIT) plays an important role in such initiatives. And not but not least -> Age does not matter...He is just 36.
2. Planning is important for any project - Here Mr. Dean, suggested him to make a plan for revenue-generating, self-sustaining model instead of taking the charity route.This plan was sent to 3000 engineers but only 8 accepted.
Project : Establishment of Educational Institution as-Model School from class 1 to 12, Degree Engineering College and Research and Development at Chamanpura, Gopalganj
Investment(In Crores Rs.) : 30 ( as submitted to State Investment Promotion Board,Bihar)
Challenge : Project is located in a place "where there is no electric pole forget about electricity"
Response : 5000 students came for 500 seats(admission)
Phase-1 : in 2 years,CGT Public School started with investment of just 2 crore.
3. Money Matters : Even if we talk to NRIs Money is big issue...so project had/has some of the following investment points :
- This money invested by others will go as fixed deposit in SBI Bank.
- This money will not be used but we need to show the gov that they have FD on the name of trust. That was the reason they were taking loan from individual investors than bank.
- FD paper will be with investors and money will be locked for Minimum 1 year. At the end of the maturity investors get FD rate + 2% (for investment below 10 lacs) . For investment of 10 lacs or more they get FD rate + 3%.
3. Quality Control : use of technology in maintaining service/process quality. Examples:
- Use of latest technology through Skype, video conferencing and Internet.
- Apart from regular inhouse teachers,8 of Singh's associates, sitting in various corners of the world, have joined hands to teach children right from Class I to Class VII, through video-conferencing.

Best of luck to Mr. Chandrakant Singh and all others involved in such nationalistic cause.

Why Mr. Raju you did it ?

Today is my birthday but the day did not start as expected resignation of Mr. Raju,Satyam chief gave me enough shock to deepen the spirit of my Birthday.
This day is marked as black spot on all ever glowing flame of india inc.The name Satyam was very much synonemous to the indian IT success in last 10 years and He did a lot of work to make this happen but somewhere he missed the ethic and later could not recovered from his mistake and Indians have seen a day like this.

I am too sad for him....

Running a company Ethically...

In today's world , it has become a kind of imperative that a company must be ethical in practical and sense and so world’s most ethical companies are going beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translating those words into action. In the same context following is a kind of some of the key points to make an organization more ethical in practical sense. But before that every company must have decided about the basic principle that it has to follow so that everything else can be constructed on basis of this foundation:

Example Principle :
Adding Values to Customer : This means following :
- Enabling clients to become high-performance businesses
- Creating long-term relationships
- Being responsive and relevant by consistently delivering value

and to achieve the above employer must implement the following actionable statements :
1. Employee should focus on sustainable, long-term outcomes, forgoing short-term opportunities that are inconsistent with our goal of delivering long-term value.
2. Employee should bring the best of employer's each client by leveraging and integrating company's range of talents and by sharing company's deep experience globally to create predictable outcomes.
3. Employee should build long-term relationships with company's clients by listening to their needs, understanding their aspirations and diverse cultures, and delivering value to help them achieve high performance.
4. Employee should value innovation and anticipate future needs--enabling us to differentiate company's capabilities and remain relevant to clients under changing business conditions.
5. All employees should serve clients, regardless of workforce or role--acting in the best interests of clients while safeguarding company.
6. Employee should commit to what we can deliver and we deliver on company's commitments.
7. Employee should leverage proven methodologies and comprehensive capabilities to achieve delivery excellence for clients.
8. Employee should seek to understand and follow clients' codes of conduct.
9. Employee should comply with government contracting and procurement regulations.
10.Employee should purchase goods and services based on their merits.
11.Employee should start with quality in mind to ensure superior execution and deliver employer's best day, every day, to clients.
Remember, the asterisked Action Statements are part of employer's Standards of Business Conduct--the obligations that every employee must understand and follow.

Violations : If an Employee violates the Company's Code of Business Ethics i.e violates the action statements that defines how the company should do the business then may be he/she be :
- Disciplined and/or
- Subject to criminal and civil fines and penalties

Code of Business Ethics(CBE) : CBE is based upon the positive values.CBE applies to all the stakeholders which includes Employee(part time,full time , temporary and permanent ) ,contractors,consultants,Agents. And it is the foremost responsibility of each of these stakeholders to demonstrate Zero tolerance when the law is clear and speaks up when they suspect a violation( or in positive value conflict situation) or follow the decision making model(eg. CDM) to come up to a suitable decision. In case some stakeholder comes up and raise concern then employer must make sure that
- there must not be any retaliation against you.
- proper investigation is done to investigate the alleged violations.

Complex Decision Making(CDM) : When a course of action is not clear.....Following Decision-making Model can help us structure and apply your natural instincts to clarify those ethical dilemmas. i.e it helps in streamlining the process of descion making but not forcing us to take any specific type of decision.

Dilemma : Right vs. Wrong or Right vs. Right?
Step 1: Is it legal? ( Yes or NO)
Step 2: If the issue is legal then the second steps has Four tests:
a. Does it conflict with ethical values? ( Honesty,Responsibility,Respect, Fairness, Compassion, Company Principles
b. Does it make you feel uncomfortable? ( YES,NO,I have no opinion)
c. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? ( YES,NO )
d. Would your role model do it? ( YES,NO,NA )
If the situation fails more than one of the above a,b,c,d tests then situation is
-- either Right vs. Wrong
-- or When in doubt, consult with others
-- It often takes moral courage to act
If the situation has Passed 3 or more tests then situation is
-- Right vs. Right ( presents an ethical dilemma )
-- In such cases, it's not clear what to do

Eg : If a question/situation has passed the first test i.e Passed the legal test and Did not fail any Right vs. Wrong test so ...this is probably a Right vs. Right question--an ethical dilemma

Step 3 : Right vs Right paradigm are :
- Truth vs. Loyalty
- Individual vs. Community
- Short Term vs. Long Term
- Justice vs. Mercy

Step 4 : The next step is the Resolution Principles Grid . Now we should Select each Principle to reveal some related comments and a suggested course of action:
-Ends-based Thinking ( What produces the greatest good for the greatest number? )
-Rule-based Thinking ( What "rule" would you want everyone to follow in such a situation? )
-Care-based Thinking ( How would you want to be treated if you were in Tim's or Steve's position? )

Note : There is no single right answer to ethical dilemma.


Positive Value conflicts : What do you do when positive values conflict?
For example:
- Do you sell to a developer for a large sum...
- ...or sell it to your local government for a fraction of that amount?
"Right vs. Right":
- Take care of your family vs.
- Give back to the community/society


Interesting examples of Decision making :
1. Our company is preparing to bid on several large outsourcing opportunities. The proposal team is eager for information about the competition. Stephanie, the team lead, is friendly with an executive from a competitor, and during a social gathering, the two started talking about the industry and the upcoming tenders. Stephanie's friend volunteers information about Our company 's competitor, including likely pricing and staffing decisions. This information would help Our company assess the competition and prepare its own bid. Should Stephanie use the information volunteered by her friend?
A) Yes--the information was volunteered at a social gathering. This is exactly how you learn information that is difficult to find.
B) Yes--the information is very helpful to provide Our company a competitive advantage. Besides, the information is not confidential.
C) Yes--Stephanie would have discovered the information anyway using other means--this was just the most efficient way to get it.
D) No--even though Stephanie did not ask for the information from her friend, it is not proper to accept confidential information from someone who should not be providing the information.
Answer(D) : We should never use practices that are illegal, or appear questionable to obtain confidential information regarding our competitors. We would not want them to use these practices to obtain our information and we do not want to risk our brand in questionable practices.
Additionally, the information may be confidential and therefore, it would be illegal to use the information in any proposal. Stephanie should consult with her Legal representative to get advice as to how to mitigate this situation.

2. A co-worker has been locked out from the Our company Portal. Can she borrow your password while she waits for her password to be re-set?
A) Yes--so long as she doesn't enter any of her own personal data.
B) Yes--so long as you monitor what she does online.
C) No--she must wait for her own password.
D) Yes--but only for a short time, provided that you change the password as soon as she is finished.
Answer(C) : You should not share your password. Your password is the key to your legally binding electronic signature and you are responsible for any user activity processed under your password. Yes, we "willingly offer our resources to help our colleagues meet their goals," but your co-worker's goal in this case requires patience.

3. Someone from a competitor just joined Our company . I'd like to learn about a business process and pricing that her former employer uses. Can I ask?
A) Of course--this person's knowledge is a key reason why we hired her.
B) No--check with the Our company Competitor Intelligence group since this is a delicate matter.
C) Yes--so long as you keep the conversation at a "high level."
D) No--you can never ask a new hire any questions about their previous employment when they worked for a competitor.

Answer(B) : We respect the obligations new people bring; however, obtaining competitive information inappropriately from former or current employees can put you and others at risk. When you want information about competitors contact the Our company Competitor Intelligence group--a team dedicated to obtaining this information appropriately.
We handle new employees as we expect others to handle former Our company employees.

4. Which of these gifts to a client may be prohibited?
A) An expensive lunch with champagne during which no business is discussed
B) An expensive flower arrangement sent to the client on her birthday
C) Food basket delivered to only one member of the client team for the holidays
D) An inexpensive pen with the Our company logo on it

Answer(D) :