Supervising the Board

What is the best way to advise the advisory - probably a board that controls another board? See how this system is a new model to discuss and adapted. Indonesian business culture is already one with this arrangement. Indonesia’s two-tier board system works well and could be a model for other countries.

Quoting Tanri Abeng of PT Telekomunikasi:

“The board of commissioners cannot just say, ‘I’m non-executive, so I’m going to play golf.”

What are the pros and cons of a two-board system? Does it handle the issues raised by a single board system? Is it a good idea to ward-off (or nullify a bit) board politics?

Read here for more on this.

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Launching LinkedIn From a Living Room

The founder of Linkedin opens up in an interview here. From 350 personal invites to 4500 within one month, and 50 million users today, this is a story to read! Click here.

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A different reason for this recession

Why are we in a recession? An NBER paper by Ravi Jagannathan, Mudit Kapoor, Ernst Schaumburg.

In quotes:
"Arguing against conventional wisdom about the causes of the recession, the authors say that the inability of existing financial and legal institutions to cope with the huge increase in the world’s labour supply in a very short time period, led to the recession."

This paper is available as PDF (741 K) or via email.

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Confidence Picks Up in Clean Tech Funding: Report

Full article on the CleanTechies Site : Credits: 

Brief Pointer: Thank billions in government funding for helping to lift clean technology investment in the third quarter, said the Cleantech Group and Deloitte in a report Wednesday.

The quarterly analysis reiterated that the recession has kicked but not killed investments in this sector, which remain... (Full article)

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Action or Omission: Triumph of the entrepreneurial spirit

You really cannot judge events in life till quite some time has flown by, and you realize what has been achieved compared to how much could-have been. In a recent reading of the "LESSONS FROM THE POOR: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit", (edited by Alvaro Vargas Llosa and foreword by James D. Gwartney), I could see the mind boggling story of how extreme poverty can be mutated into abundance by the entrepreneurial efforts of the people of Nigeria. To quote the book,

Half the people in the world live on two dollars or less per day and roughly 600 million live on no more than one dollar per day. With thousands of international relief organizations, strategic government programs, and billions of dollars in foreign aid, why do so many underdeveloped countries remain unable to grow their economies beyond mere survival?

Many a times, you may have heard the phrase, 'change is unavoidable'. But, I feel, progress is something that is in our hands. Change and progress differ in the direction they lead us. And in this context, it is important to remember the mantra, that 'entrepreneurial spirit is the best catalyst for progress (not just change)'.

Folks, mostly women, have used their entrepreneurial efforts in creating wealth, without no governmental wealth. Why I titled this post as 'Action or Omission..' is primarily because of the attitude of the government towards these workers and they have proved that in either case, an entrepreneur can succeed. In stead of helping, the policies of the government have at times been road-blocks to their progress, but it seems these measures have failed to deter anyone in the long run.

Indigo dyeing has been an old industry and more of a culture amongst the residents than a source of earning.

How many cultural aspects can you think which can become commercial venture, able enough to wipe-out poverty and create wealth as an alternative to redistributing wealth? Have a read.. 'Lessons from the Poor'.

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BS - Indian Slums - a Research

Unlike the general impression, slums in major Indian cities not only represent complex political and social issues, but also generate a lot of local economic activities, a latest research by the prestigious Stanford Graduate School of Business has said.

"Indian slums are incredibly productive.. (Read Full Article on Business Standard).

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The Concise Guide to Economics

The Concise Guide to Economics

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Andy Bruce - The Golden Rules of Innovation

Full Article Here

Brief: Like any other core business process there are some 'rules' of innovation management which will maximise the probability of success. These come under what we call "The 6 Ps":

PLANNING - Innovation must be linked to strategy

• Successful leaders link core business processes to their strategic goals and annual business planning targets, and innovation is no exception. Use a product-market matrix to clarify the extent and direction of your innovation. Without a strategic direction you run the risk of coming up with innovations that run counter to your businesses best interests! (Read more..)
  

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Chrome vs Bing vs you and me - Economic Times

This is an article on The Economic Times:

Brief: The battle between Microsoft and Google entered a new phase last week with the announcement of Google’s Chrome Operating System – a direct attack on Microsoft Windows.
This isn’t the first salvo in a war that has already seen Google lob its Chrome Web browser against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google pit its Android smart-phone operating system against Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and Microsoft, in turn, aim its new search technology, Bing, against Google’s very heart – the Google search engine.
This is all heady stuff and (Read more..)

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The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Seth Godin on 'The next Google'

   Microsoft, home of the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine. So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing.

Bing, of course, stands for But It's Not Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. Something that spread online without benefit of a lot of yelling and shouting. Something that changes the game in a fundamental way. The internet works best when you build a network, not when you buy a brand. In fact, I can't think of one successful online brand that was built with cash.

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Venture Capital in India - Sramana Mitra

     Sramana Mitra's views on Venture Capital in India. Please click here to be taken to Sramana's website.

India is flushed with investment commitments from the giants of technology. Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, SAP, Intel, and AMD have each committed over a billion to further develop their India presence.

So have many of the leading venture capital firms from Silicon Valley. For the longest time, Valley VCs would only invest in their backyard. No more. India, China, Israel are fair game today. This month, Matrix Partners has announced a $150 Million India fund. Sequoia has acquired Westbridge Capital, an India focused fund that has been around for five years. Several other major VCs are playing the space – Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Norwest, Battery, Sierra, Canaan Partners.

Yahoo has started investing in Consumer Internet startups, the first of which was announced recently (Bharatmatrimony.com), playing the corporate venture capital game.

Together, the committed capital chasing India is abundant.

Business Week writes cover stories on how the new billion dollar companies will emerge from India. Some have, already. Infosys, Wipro, TCS. No doubt, the lure of India for VCs is legitimate. These new darlings of Wall Street were built without their money. They want to make sure the next wave is built with.

In today’s India, the commodity in short supply is good entrepreneurs. In VC parlance, fundable deals are few and far between. Why?

Historically, India has been the world’s back-office. Consequently, the skill-set that has developed in India is that of engineering management and coding. The specifications are provided by teams elsewhere. Elsewhere, the market studies get done. Indian managers do not understand global technology markets. They have hardly had opportunity to learn this aspect of business. Entrepreneurs try to position products without knowledge of the product marketing discipline.

The natural instinct for Indian entrepreneurs is to build outsourcing services companies. BPO. Software Development. Chip Design. Those ventures take less capital, and become revenue generating fast. None of the Operating Loss period of a pure play product company is necessary, and hence, venture capital is also unnecessary.

VCs typically do not like this business model. It has low entry barrier. But those who have invested in India in the last five years have also invested in this model and made money off it. It was the only thing that was available. It is, however, becoming less appealing, since those markets are also maturing, and behemoths start to rule.

The next stop for VCs, the most recent wave, has been Consumer Internet and Mobile offerings. India’s growing mass of connected consumer population is the target wallet. Travel, Matrimonials, Jobs, Games, Mobile Payments are all segments getting substantial capital infusion. This trend is likely to continue for the next 18 months. The engineering required in building these sites is marginal, marketing being the big differentiator.

But it will still not consume the available capital. Those who understand the subtleties of these dynamics have started diversifying their portfolios with Retail, Bio Tech, Real Estate. Sequoia’s Royal Orchid Hotels is a case in point. Oak Investment Partners has set up a $200 Million venture fund to focus on the retail boom in India. Veteran retail investor Jerry Gallagher visited India and was astounded by the revenue per square feet in the malls and stores. He came back and convinced his partners to commit capital.

Bio Tech has produced one of the flagship entrepreneurs for India, Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, who is now pulling her weight to drag the entire industry up. India has a better opportunity in this field for the same reason as Retail: domestic producer, domestic consumer. Tests can leverage a gene pool that is perhaps one of the most diverse and universal in the world. If Indian policy-makers can get their act together, then India could even lead a stem cell research effort that is so far faltering in the US. VCs would be delighted to play.

Real Estate, however, is a different animal. For the longest time, the old money in India had only one legitimate investment vehicle. That was buying properties. Indians know a lot more about Real Estate entrepreneurship than any other kind of entrepreneurship. There is a financial eco-system around Real Estate that works, and by and large, venture capital is unnecessary, even unwelcome. Private Equity investors, however, are playing this market.

Conspicuous by its absence in the above discussion is traditional technology venture investing, the game that VCs know best. The reason being, it is almost absent from the technology firmament of India.

Intriguing, but entirely logical. Technology innovation takes intense domain knowledge. Be it in software, hardware, chips or communications, the engineers capable of innovation of this nature are inside the multinationals, harvesting unthinkable salaries, enjoying unbound luxury and lifestyle with servants, chauffeurs, maids, nannies, and cooks coming out of their ears. A $200,000 salary in India effortlessly affords a grand lifestyle that even multi-millionaires in the US cannot dream of.

People become entrepreneurs for two reasons: either they have a chip on their shoulder, and have something to prove to themselves and to the world around them. Or, they want to afford a lifestyle that is substantially above their current means. India is banking on the motivation of the former category alone, to find its technology entrepreneurs.

The onus, I am afraid, comes back to Silicon Valley to come up with technology innovation, which Indian back-offices can then implement and scale.

Venture capitalists will continue to go on their eco-tourism trips to India, then return. In the words of Marcel Proust, The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

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India's Economy Grows 5.8%

Pointer to Wall Street Journal
By JACKIE RANGE and NEELABH CHATURVEDI

NEW DELHI -- India's economic expansion slowed in the most recent quarter, but the new government and invigorated capital markets prompted some economists to suggest that the country has weathered the worst of the global downturn.

Reuters

A couple walk at the seafront in Mumbai May 11, 2009.

According to data out Friday, India's gross domestic product grew 5.8% on the year in the quarter ended March 31, down from 8.6% growth in the year-earlier period. The numbers come on the heels of increased government spending and a robust performance in several sectors, offsetting a manufacturing decline.

Friday's figures indicate that India has withstood the global downturn better than many nations with export-driven economies that are mired in recession or forecast to post scant growth for the year. Full Story.

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Ford Motor Company - 1902 Business Plan

Ford Motor Company 1902 Indus Khaitan

View more OpenOffice presentations from Indus Khaitan.

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Naveen Pattnaik: Orissa Polls 2009

If you want to know more about Orissa, click here. Thanks to OrissaLinks: Chitta Baral

Jay Panda writes about the secret behind Naveen’s success

Following are some excerpts from that article:

The fact is that there is no secret formula.  There is, instead, a clean slate, commonsensical approach to politics that would sound rational to the average citizen, but often confounds hardcore politicos.  There are three key components of this new approach.  First, at the core of it, is a remarkable level of sincerity and dedication.  For a man who till the age of 50 spent lots of time in the rarefied social circles of New York, London and the south of France, Naveen Patnaik has not travelled abroad in more than a decade. And he rarely sees his personal home in Delhi either, only visiting the city a few times a year for official engagements.  This monk-like total immersion in Orissa does not go unnoticed by the public.   …

The second is a deep commitment to good governance.  This goes far beyond lip service, and includes numerous instances of risky decisions.  That is, risky by the standards of conventional wisdom, but which ultimately turned out to be huge political successes.  In the early days, every time key cabinet colleagues were dismissed for corruption, or well-connected businessmen were arrested for criminal intimidation, there were widespread predictions that the government would fall because these actions were “naïve” and “impractical” and that “too many powerful forces were being taken on.”  But instead, they resulted in sharp increases in popular support. 

Gutsy decisions were taken across the board.  The inefficient and corrupt lift irrigation corporation was broken up, unsettling thousands of employees, but it was replaced with the revolutionary pani panchayat system, where lakhs of villagers took responsibility for better management of water.  Good governance was not all about taking on entrenched vested interests.   Orissa, then broke and deeply indebted, also showed an open mind in quickly adopting the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and the Value Added Tax (VAT) at a time when many states were opposing them tooth and nail.   

One of the most important decisions involved taking on the government of India and the powerful mining lobby.  Despite having enormous mineral reserves, Orissa had long been shortchanged by discriminatory central government policies which yielded a pittance in royalties and encouraged downstream investments to be made elsewhere.  The state government’s new value addition policy linked the grant of mining leases to investments in the downstream processing plants.  This has led to a huge surge of investment:  more capital has flowed into Orissa in the past five years than in the previous fifty-five!  The subsequent surge in state revenues has enabled many pro-poor policies. 

The third component is diligent homework and a clinical, dispassionate, political decision-making process.   This may sound obvious to the lay person, but is still not common in political parties.  Take candidate selection, for instance.  In the absence of US-style primaries, most parties even today still choose candidates by a complex process that involves intrigue, lobbying, drama, sabotage, subterranean tests of loyalty, unverifiable caste arithmetic, and even kickbacks. That often leads to sub-optimal choices.  In Orissa, a quick glance at both BJP and Congress candidates reveal some breathtakingly unsuitable names who never stood a ghost of a chance.   

Almost from the day the BJD was formed, and perhaps because its founder was unfamiliar with politics in the beginning, the party has relied on extensive surveys, opinion polls, exit polls, etc.  These have never been devised to advertise the party’s strength, but rather to assess the ground realities and highlight weaknesses.  They have always been conducted by highly rated external agencies, but quietly and only for internal party use.  When it came to candidate selection, the strict criterion of winnability was applied to all, and no amount of lobbying or political clout made any difference. 

Expressbuzz.com has an editorial on the topic and it has some suggestion for Naveen.

Every media outlet, print and screen, has been vying to find words to express suitable praise for Naveen Patnaik, the hat-trick winner in Orissa. He has been variously described as having a magician’s touch, an uncanny ability to read the Oriya mood, someone not beholden to the usual corrupt structure, a clean practitioner of governance and much more. We, too, acknowledge his feat, especially when so many of his more experienced counterparts have been exposed as inept players of blind man’s bluff. Having done so, however, we would like to take our readers back to a small news item we had published early this month, sent by a staffer from the city of Paradip. In summary, Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for renovation of the 82 km Cuttack-Paradip state highway in July 2007, promising completion in two years (cost: Rs 125 crore). Our staffer reported that 20 per cent of the promised work has been done, and there are gaping holes on the newly laid stretch; locals say the cracks began in the first week. Officials stonewalled queries, save the project director, who admitted to irregularities and said the thing would be redone.

And our point is simple: what exactly does this say of the state of Orissa’s administration and its accountability, after a decade of Naveen-rule? Obviously, very little has changed in the basic system. We make the point not to tar Patnaik in his moment of glory, but to bring both the man and our readers to earth, in order that this state of affairs be addressed. Changing a system single-handed is difficult enough at the best of times, but we suggest the state of a road project is an excellent place to start. Road specifications and how to achieve these are standardised; flaws show up very swiftly, and responsibility is easily pinned on whoever had the contract, the overseer and the person who approved the payment. Start enforcing the rules here and make a few examples; the system will begin reforming with urgency, without any more orders. Let each road project, in Orissa and elsewhere, display the contract’s details at 100 ft intervals, with information of where to complain. And ensure only that all complaints to state bodies are promptly registered and acknowledged, whether these come in writing or on telephone. And, weekly, put these up on a website. You’ll no longer require a hero in the chief minister’s chair; citizens will take charge.

Thanks to OrissaLinks: Chitta Baral

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Moving from "Made in India" to "Made for India"

This is a pointer to the full article here by Devita Saraf.

Two years ago, I visited Shanghai on a business trip and went to the famous Yu-yuan gardens. Outside the tourist attraction, like every other in the world, were hoards of souvenir stores selling locally produced handicrafts. The beautiful wood and jade carvings, painted silk screens and other memorabilia had faces created on them. I thought they would be holy Chinese images, but on closer inspection they turned out to be portraits of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and even George Bush. This would never happen in India. We have our own set of demigods in Bollywood actors and cricketers.

Devita Saraf, CEO of Vu Technologies and Executive Director of Zenith Computers

The Maoist Revolution in China turned their cultural identity into a clean slate, which is the reason their dressing, tastes and aspirations are largely inspired by the western world. India, in contrast, has given a stubbornly tough time to McDonalds, KFC and others as they tried to gain a foothold in the Indian market unless they "Indianized" their menus. By this, I mean that the menu must be suited to the Indian budget and the Indian palette. At Indian weddings, we proudly flash Indian designers and traditional Indian wear, which is why few Western designers have been able to succeed with their formal range of clothing here. The number of successful indigenous brands in India has created a new consumer class who are happy to flaunt their cultural identity.

But this wasn't always the case. Growing up in India in the 1980s and 1990s, anything "imported" was considered superior. There were certain markets in all cities that would sell smuggled electronics, foodstuffs and other consumer products. Ads with foreign models in them meant the product had been endorsed by a developed country and would be priced at a premium in India.

After liberalization and the flood of foreign brands in India, this phenomenon is changing. Slowly, steadily and very subtly. You will notice that advertising in India now reflects pride in the country. Read the full article here.

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Escape Mundanity

This article is a brief pointer to the original article by Guy Kawasaki. Credits for the original post, to    .     

Click here for the complete article.

How to Escape Mundanity

Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World

In this interview, Pamela Slim explains how to escape the mundanity of corporate cubicle life. Pam is a business coach and writer who helps frustrated employees do just that. Her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is one of the top career and marketing blogs.  Her expertise in personal and business change was developed through many years consulting inside corporations such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Charles Schwab. Her new book is Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur.

1. Question: How do you know when it is time to quit your day job?

   Answer: There is no perfect formula to ensure that you are 100% ready to quit your job and start a business—if I could figure it out, I would be rich!  But there are a few critical things you need to take into consideration in making the decision.  First, you have to have a really clear, realistic picture of your financial life and understand the specific risks you are willing to take.  For some people, this is a defined pile of cash to burn through, for others it is a period of time you set aside to see if your business will work.  Second, you will feel much better about your decision if you have been working on ..... Click here for the complete article.

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The Economic Problem Mind Map

A mind-map approach to the Economic Problem. Please visit the parent page here.

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