The new you

Sajeev Nair on breaking the rhythm of the same old thought process and creating new synergies
Sajeev Nair, a success coach and mentor, after authoring three self-help books in Malayalam and Tamil, has now come up with one in English, Tathaastu: Transforming Thoughts into Reality. Through his book, based on a thought-provoking subject, Sajeev encourages people to develop an optimistic approach. The objective of bringing out the book is to enable people to change their thought process. Excerpts from an interview with the author.

What prompted the move from business to transformational success coaching?
My entrepreneurial journey started with Amway, where people development is a continuous process. We helped people from all walks of life to become entrepreneurs, the training and coaching interventions were very powerful. I myself got amazed the way people got their lives transformed. I started developing a passion for creating positive transformations in people. It reached a level where I realised that more than the business what I like is to see positive transformations happening in others' lives.

Full interview here Hindu

Window of opportunity

You can be sure that intelligent people would say that nothing could be worse than a mediocre life. T.G.C. Prasad, will agree, in fact his book, “Unusual People Do Things Differently” (Penguin; Rs. 399) is about all those people who go that extra mile to do better the things they do. “In this book, I have covered profiles of 65 people, who are striving hard to do extraordinary things. It is a book for every student and every working professional,” says T.G.C at the launch of his book at Reliance TimeOut.

The launch was in full attendance by some of the people who were featured in the book, each giving us a quick recap into their success and management tips. The book features the views and experiences of people like Azim Premhji, Mike Lawrie and Mother Teresa to a chef, a masseuse and a service boy all of whom have inspired T.G.C.

The author T.G.C. Prasad took to jogging a little late in life and was stringent about his routine which eventually led to him suffering from repeated stress injury. It was around this time that he met Dr. Keyur Anil Bach who operated on both his ankles and even re-inforced his faith in a life he had resigned to wheelchair.

“I jogged incessantly for almost five years and suddenly there was a pain in my ankles which increased. The doctors said that my bones were dying due to repetitive stress injury (RSI) and there was no clean cure for my ailment. I tried all kinds of methods which obviously didn’t work. Finally I went into infusing my own bone cells into channels drilled in my ankles grown out of bone-cells extracted from my iliac-crest. And fortunately this method worked and restored my dying bone,” narrates T.G.C.

Full report here Hindu

Go Indian to sell in India

Domino's asked "Hungry Kya" and McDonald's appealed to the Indian palate by abandoning beef and introducing aloo tikki burgers - examples to prove that the Indian market has a distinct identity and even global brands must modify their selling strategy, says management educator and writer Arindam Chaudhuri.

Companies must understand the cultural sensitivities of a market and identity needs of a consumer in emerging economies like India, China and rest of the developing world to sell their products and stay ahead of competition, Chaudhuri said.

"Western markets models don't always work here. Organisations are more aggressive in the west; they can use comparative marketing (comparing one product with another). But to create an understanding about a product and market it in India, a multinational firm often has to modify its strategy, campaign and, if necessary, innovate the product to suit the Indian market and culture," Chaudhuri told IANS.

Chaudhuri and his wife Rajita have explored competition in the Indian market with examples and ways to trounce rivals with an effective mix of advertising, campaigning and aggression in a new book, Thorns to Competition. The book will arrive in bookstores by the end of this month.

Full report here Economic Times

Myth of homogeneity of internal customers

People are more attracted to companies that would provide customised people practices, and they are more likely to remain there and perform at their best, write Susan M. Cantrell and David Smith in ‘Workforce of One’ (www.hbr.org). The book turns around a traditional belief of organisations as places that demand you fit them and says that you can design organisations to fit the employee.

Such organisations, as the authors describe, can optimise the performance of every individual by treating each employee as ‘workforce of one’ with unique needs, aspirations, and preferences, rather than treating the workforce as a single homogeneous entity.

Shape your own jobs
The book discusses extensively the case of Best Buy which allows its employees to shape their own jobs in such a way as to draw on their own unique interests and strengths. For example, ‘store employees are encouraged to use their own words and personality’ to customise the company’s basic selling process. In the ‘Results-Only Work Environment’ of Best Buy, employees can ‘largely define their own learning experiences’ through blogs, wikis, YouTube, and other peer-to-peer technologies.

Full report here Hindu

Lessons in learning

R Gopalakrishnan was in the Capital on October 1 to launch his new book When the Penny Drops: Learning What's not Taught, published by Penguin Books India.

How does a manager ‘learn’? Apart from, of course, the structured learning offered in B-schools and various other training programs. According to author, former CEO and now Executive Director of Tata Sons, R Gopalakrishnan “learning is ubiquitous, provided you are ready for it. If you have the humility, which makes you self-aware and open to learning, the penny can drop anywhere, anytime”.

This was the message from R Gopalakrishnan when he was in the Capital on October 1 to launch his new book ‘When the penny Drops: Learning What’s not Taught’, published by Penguin Books India.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, “As a management professional, I have learned my most important lessons when I was expecting them the least. The lessons have come from all kinds of people and all kinds of situation. So it is important to have the humility to learn. Without humility, one is not aware of one’s mistakes. You can learn only if you have the humility to learn, and are self-aware.”

During the launch ceremony the first copy was unwrapped by former chairman of the board of Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Mr. M Damodaran and this was followed by a short conversation between the author and Mr. Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission.

Full report here MBA Universe

Ethics in corporate governance

Business houses are the basic cells of modern economic life. Their outstanding success in converting the resources of the earth into wealth has shaped the physical and social world. The downside of the story is that, in popular perception, business houses have no use for ethics and values in life. In fact, till the middle of the 20th century, the phrase “business ethics” was considered an oxymoron!

However, in recent times, there has been a lot of discussion on how Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] may be redefined — its legal obligations, its social commitments, and its duty vis-à-vis ecological and environmental protection.

The question is whether the role of the business organisations is confined to creating wealth for their owners, or is it more inclusive, embracing the well-being of a wider spectrum of stakeholders. Doubtless, the 21st century demands a new business economics, which warrants CSR, both inside and outside the organisation. In other words, business corporations are obliged to subscribe in thought, word, and deed to the long-term sustainability of this planet.

Full review here Hindu

Dissection of decision process

Strolling down a supermarket aisle, you see a display of French and German wines, roughly matched for price and quality. After some quick comparisons, you place a German wine in your cart, and continue shopping. Michael J. Mauboussin paints this scenario in ‘Think Twice: Harnessing the power of counterintuition’ (Harvard), and continues the story after you check out…

“A researcher approaches and asks you why you bought the German wine. You mention the price, the wine’s dryness, and how you anticipate it will go nicely with a meal you are planning.”

That’s fine, but the researcher wants to know if you noticed the German music playing and whether it had any bearing on your decision. Like most, you would acknowledge hearing the music and avow that it had nothing to do with your selection, writes Mauboussin.

Full report here Hindu

Going beyond ‘golden gut’

If you are a manger who is adamant at relying on your ‘golden gut’ or intuition to make decisions, this book is not for you: ‘Analytics at Work’ by Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris, and Robert Morison (Harvard). The authors concede that sometimes intuitive experience-based decisions work out well, but they hasten to warn that often such decisions either go astray or end in disaster.

The authors cite examples of the most extreme cases of ill-informed decision making, such as executives pursuing mergers and acquisitions to palliate their egos, neglecting the sober considerations that create real value; banks making credit and risk decisions based on unexamined assumptions about always-rising asset values; and governments relying on sparse intelligence before deciding whether to wage war.

Full review here Hindu

Author of Stay Hungry Stay Foolish visits TAPMI

T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), one of the leading B-Schools in India organized ‘Face to Face’ an Entrepreneurship Development lecture by Rashmi Bansal, the author of the much talked about book ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’, an entrepreneur and youth expert in management at the TAPMI campus, recently.

The lecture was organized by Organization for Managerial, Entrepreneurial Guidance and Assistance (OMEGA) Committee.

Addressing the students, Rashmi said,”Entrepreneurship is all about actually doing. It’s about not taking placements but starting something on your own. We should all try to create something new and make a difference.

She said ”OMEGA invites successful entrepreneurs and business leaders to TAPMI Campus to share their knowledge, experiences and the challenges they faced in setting up their businesses with the students. “The young management students get to know from these entrepreneurs about the intricacies of setting up a business and hurdles encountered.

Full report here Daijiworld

Ancient words of wisdom

Blending spirituality and management, Radhakrishnan Pillai, who has been instrumental in reaching the knowledge of Arthashastra to millions of people, is back with a new book aimed at recreating the age-old formula of management success for the modern corporate India.

His book, Corporate Chanakya: Successful Management The Chanakya Way, which was released at Reliance TimeOut recently, Pillai gives the businessmen ancient lessons of the state from Kautilya to manage and improve their lives.

Taking Chanakya, the third century BC strategist as his ideal, Pillai has managed to write a modern version of Kautilya’s Arthashastra by dividing the book into sections of leadership, management and training corporate Chanakya.

The book is Pillai’s own interpretation of the famous ancient texts of Kautilya’s Arthashastra. The texts were written in the third century BC, and stands as one of the oldest books on management in the world.

Full report here New Indian Express

Execution, the ‘entry ticket’ to senior management

A significant management issue is the MAFA syndrome, says R. Gopalakrishnan in When the Penny Drops (Penguin), citing N. Vaghul’s jocular reference to ‘mistaking articulation for action.’ While it is wonderful to have great thinkers, excellent articulators and solid doers all rolled into one, glib talking is rampant in management circles these days, the author rues.

He finds that the advent of presentation software has elevated articulation capability from merely aural to visual, with even ordinary ideas getting transformed into impressive packages of PowerPoint charts. “Consultancy firms have elevated the art to such a high level that they come in with a pack of 100 charts, specially made by their ‘chart department specialists.’ It is ironic that quite often they will leave the 100-chart pack with the client with the advice that ‘only charts 3, 11 and 39 are really important.’”

Leaving aside the laptops and PPTs, should we not be adopting the fast vanishing old art of business conversations, wonders Gopalakrishnan – ‘the kind where one person tables a concept or proposition and people speak about it with the thrust of point and counterpoint, with the hope that a better idea will emerge from the debate.’

Full report here Hindu