Recently I have added one more person to the list of my role models (I am not going to disclose all), or the people whom I like to follow. This person is Rajesh Setty. I found his book selection for reading match exactly to my interest. So I am putting a link to his list here on my blog.
Two reason for this:
1. so that I can refer as and when I wish
2. if someone bump into my mind he can also view the list.
http://www.squidoo.com/inspire
I have always wondered what books should one read and who to tell what to read and what not to as there is huge information flood (books, journals, blogs, Internet). I thanks Rajesh for putting his list on Internet.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Best Way to layoff employees
Media is flooded with reports about the imminent layoffs at Satyam and how management of TechMahindra and Satyam are planning to layoff 5000/10000/18000 employees from Satyam, depending upon who is the source of news or which media is publishing the news. Whether there has been any layoff or not at Satyam, at least one thing has been constant for several month is that there are imminent layoffs. What this has done is created fear in the minds of Satyam employees. And they have started to look for jobs outside on their own. Employees, who were not very serious to change job at this time, are now seriously in the market. The constant news of layoff have made these employees creative enough to find ways to get new jobs at any cost.
How this has helped the management at Satyam is that without them having to layoff employees company's employee strengh has come down significantly. What else would managment ask for when their goal is being achieved without them having to worry about consequences of laying off.
I wonder if the constant media coverage of layoff was a well tought out strategy of management. Whatever it was it was good. As neither employees had to go through the anogy of being laidoff not management had to draw any flak.
How this has helped the management at Satyam is that without them having to layoff employees company's employee strengh has come down significantly. What else would managment ask for when their goal is being achieved without them having to worry about consequences of laying off.
I wonder if the constant media coverage of layoff was a well tought out strategy of management. Whatever it was it was good. As neither employees had to go through the anogy of being laidoff not management had to draw any flak.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Monetise Taj
Taj Mahal is a historical place and Indian govt. has control over it. Why not govt. use it to monetise it's appeal. There are lot of companies who use Taj's image in their marketing, like Berger paints, Taj tea, etc. Why not govt take some kind of royalty from these companies?
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Long Leave Indian democracy
The election results yesterday was simply stunning by any measure. None, absolutely none, in his/her wildest dream would have thought that the Congress would be getting absolute majority (almost!) at the centre. But that happened, and in style. I, though, did not favour another term for Congress govt. at centre, however I am really happy for the way Indian voters have given so clear a mandate for politics which is not divisive, not communal, pro-people, and inclusive, at least on paper. Voters have chosen the best option available to them.
I have never felt so confident about India and it's future as I do now. I now feel confident that if there is problem and none is able to decide which party, which person or which ideology should lead India, I think we should leave that to Indian voters and they will decide it best. Today I really feel proud of Indian democracy, they way it has matured and the way it will protect my future and that of my son. We can proudly tell to the world that we can teach you a lesson or two about democracy.
Long Leave Indian democracy.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
More instruments in financial markets?
The current crisis in the world is caused, as they say, by the new instruments created by bankers to make more profits. The new and innovative instruments like sub-prime lending, Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO) and likes were introduced to encourage more and more lending. And this led us to this point.
Now every experts see the problem in these instruments and blame regulators of the time for not having checked on them when these were introduced in the market.
Why not regulators make it a point that they keep a close eye on the market and see if any new types of instruments are being introduced by market players like banks, PE players, hedge players and investment bankers. When this happens the regulators should not clamp down upon them immediately instead get some of the experts together and discuss pros and cons of them threadbare. This can help unearth any shortcoming if they have and accordingly regulations can be introduced so that we do not come to this point. I know it's easy on my part to say in the hindsight.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Foreign Coaches: and their payback
I never knew that a foreign coach can add so much value to a team's performance and lift it up at least by a place. That too a coach who has been very successful in his last assignment as a coach of a successful sledging team, incidentally this team was also very successful in two formats of a gentlemen's game. Having a foreign coach, and entire an entourage of assistances and what-nots, all forrign born with white skin, to help(?) the team in every department possible. After this coach was hired, the team has been doing wonders and the coach is making sure that the team is at least not on the last spot in the ladder.
A lot of new innovations were done by this coach, like making every team member, except the one who captained team in last season, captain of the team. This way everyone has incentive to do his /(her?) best. Another innovation of packing back team members who are not fitting in the team's scheme of things (saving a huge amount of money specially during recession when money is honey). And another innovation is recruiting coach's sons in various newly created positions within team. And another innovation .......will come later. Not all today.
So out obsession with everything phoren is really paying dividend. Next time think this team's owner should also be foreign and so be all the players. That way team would be wining more games.
Our national team also had a foreign coach who is compatriot of the above coach. During this national coach out team also did wonders.
I just wonder should we not have our PM, president, everything phorener so that they take us up and up and up and we enjoy the fruits sitting on the ground.
A lot of new innovations were done by this coach, like making every team member, except the one who captained team in last season, captain of the team. This way everyone has incentive to do his /(her?) best. Another innovation of packing back team members who are not fitting in the team's scheme of things (saving a huge amount of money specially during recession when money is honey). And another innovation is recruiting coach's sons in various newly created positions within team. And another innovation .......will come later. Not all today.
So out obsession with everything phoren is really paying dividend. Next time think this team's owner should also be foreign and so be all the players. That way team would be wining more games.
Our national team also had a foreign coach who is compatriot of the above coach. During this national coach out team also did wonders.
I just wonder should we not have our PM, president, everything phorener so that they take us up and up and up and we enjoy the fruits sitting on the ground.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Keeping promise: At the cost of other’s life!
Infosys has been telling (or boasting) all along that it will honour all its promises of job offers made out to the campus recruits (close to some 16000). Infosys has also got a huge bench of over 25000 staffs. So if Infosys is to be believed they will have 41000 free people to be employed in this financial year on various project (this figure may be little less if attrition is to be factored in). This tells that the company must have so much work coming its way (pipeline in industry jargon) in near future which can absorb all new and existing bench employees. There is also news that more staff would come off project this year.
But in contrast, Infosys itself has been telling that there will be almost no growth (projected 1.5% in rupee terms) in current financial year. Now we hear that company has asked its employees who are on the bench to work for its BPO arm. I understand that if company do not have enough work then it should ask employees to work for associate companies. This way jobs are saved, employees get to learn new skills and associate companies get resources when required without recruiting from outside. But what’s point in sending your existing employees to associate companies against their wishes and recruiting new (which Infy is doing by honouring its campus promises). If company does not have enough work why should it hire more which impacts job securities of its existing employee, severely impacts company financial affecting shareholders.
There is a famous saying in Ramayan “Jaan Jaaye par wachan na jaaye” (Keep your promise even at cost of your own life). Infosys seems to be following this saying, but with a little twist. Twist is that if life has to go it will not be its own but that of its employees. How unethical!
But in contrast, Infosys itself has been telling that there will be almost no growth (projected 1.5% in rupee terms) in current financial year. Now we hear that company has asked its employees who are on the bench to work for its BPO arm. I understand that if company do not have enough work then it should ask employees to work for associate companies. This way jobs are saved, employees get to learn new skills and associate companies get resources when required without recruiting from outside. But what’s point in sending your existing employees to associate companies against their wishes and recruiting new (which Infy is doing by honouring its campus promises). If company does not have enough work why should it hire more which impacts job securities of its existing employee, severely impacts company financial affecting shareholders.
There is a famous saying in Ramayan “Jaan Jaaye par wachan na jaaye” (Keep your promise even at cost of your own life). Infosys seems to be following this saying, but with a little twist. Twist is that if life has to go it will not be its own but that of its employees. How unethical!
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Infy Guidance: Impact on years to come.
The result by Infosys yesterday were not that bad, they were almost on expected lines but what guidance Infy gave for the year ahead was really SHOCKING. Infy gave guidance of just around 1.5% of growth in rupee terms (a negative growth in dollar terms, worst still). This was the most shocking news of yesterday and I would say of this year so far.
Implication of this piece of news is:
1. Infosys is considered the bellwether of the overall Indian IT services industry and any trend set by it is considered to be replicated by the overall industry. So we can safely assume that the overall IT industry would also grow at the same rate. That is almost a 0% growth.
2. As there would be hardly any growth in IT service industry so there would not be need for new recruitment and certainly IT industry would like to rationalize their existing bench (generally Indian IT companies maintain up to 30% bench strength). This means there would be lay-off of resources that are currently on bench in companies.
3. Real estate in India is almost singularly dependent upon the uptake from IT industry be it for commercial or residential sector. So as a result I would say it’s safe to say that there would be no takers for real-estate that means the property prices are going to CRASH badly and LOUDLY in a years’ time.
4. Indian IT industry employs a huge no. of youth. As there would be hardly any growth this year so there is going to be significant problem of unemployment this financial year.
5. As lot of industries, home loan, financial industry to some extent and many more industries depend directly or indirectly for their growth on the growth of IT industry, so these industries would not be growing and that would impact employment too. So ultimately India would see huge unemployment problem among the educated youth (thankfully for political parties the election would be over by that time).
6. Infosys is saying that there would be hardly any new requirement for IT services in their target markets (western world), that clearly says that there would be no growth in those economies for this financial year. So a badly needed pickup in economic activities are still at least a year down the line. This means if we reasonably assume that economies in the west would start picking up only after this financial year (if nothing goes wrong now of which there is no surety). It would take at least a year for western economies to take off and then they will generate the requirement for IT offshoring so Indian IT companies should wait at least 2 year for their services to be required.
7. When in 2000 dotcom went bust, IT industry in India was impacted in 2001 and it took another 3 years for requirement to pick up. It’s only from 2003 end that serious recruitment started by IT companies. Which means a small problem like dotcom took two years off from the job market growth in India. Assume how long it will take this time as the problem is far far serious this time.
Implication of this piece of news is:
1. Infosys is considered the bellwether of the overall Indian IT services industry and any trend set by it is considered to be replicated by the overall industry. So we can safely assume that the overall IT industry would also grow at the same rate. That is almost a 0% growth.
2. As there would be hardly any growth in IT service industry so there would not be need for new recruitment and certainly IT industry would like to rationalize their existing bench (generally Indian IT companies maintain up to 30% bench strength). This means there would be lay-off of resources that are currently on bench in companies.
3. Real estate in India is almost singularly dependent upon the uptake from IT industry be it for commercial or residential sector. So as a result I would say it’s safe to say that there would be no takers for real-estate that means the property prices are going to CRASH badly and LOUDLY in a years’ time.
4. Indian IT industry employs a huge no. of youth. As there would be hardly any growth this year so there is going to be significant problem of unemployment this financial year.
5. As lot of industries, home loan, financial industry to some extent and many more industries depend directly or indirectly for their growth on the growth of IT industry, so these industries would not be growing and that would impact employment too. So ultimately India would see huge unemployment problem among the educated youth (thankfully for political parties the election would be over by that time).
6. Infosys is saying that there would be hardly any new requirement for IT services in their target markets (western world), that clearly says that there would be no growth in those economies for this financial year. So a badly needed pickup in economic activities are still at least a year down the line. This means if we reasonably assume that economies in the west would start picking up only after this financial year (if nothing goes wrong now of which there is no surety). It would take at least a year for western economies to take off and then they will generate the requirement for IT offshoring so Indian IT companies should wait at least 2 year for their services to be required.
7. When in 2000 dotcom went bust, IT industry in India was impacted in 2001 and it took another 3 years for requirement to pick up. It’s only from 2003 end that serious recruitment started by IT companies. Which means a small problem like dotcom took two years off from the job market growth in India. Assume how long it will take this time as the problem is far far serious this time.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Impact of the World Recession on Indian economy
Recession has already arrived in US, UK and major EU economies; China is also going to be affected badly. China’s growth is going to come down from 12% last year to around 8% this year which is a big hit on its growth. So there is overall slowdown in the growth of the world economy so the impact of recession is going to be felt definitely in India. Here in my view how some of the sectors would be impacted in India.
Stock Market
As already seen, Indian stock markets are down more than 60% from their high point. So we can already see the impact there. As more money dries up in the world this is going to impact stock market in India further. The bull run on Indian stock markets have been due to easy availability of cheap money in the world market but this is no more the case now so we are not going to see the same high for few years now.
IT and BPO
Indian IT has always survived because of the western economies, as major western economies slowdown the work being offshored to Indian IT companies is going to freeze in near terms as client cut on all unimportant work (and some important work too). So there will be less work for IT companies in near term. This will trigger job cuts in IT in west and India. This is already happening in India, though will be on very low scale as compared to the west.
But in the long term, as the western economies start getting back on their feet, they will generate more IT work and then they will not have enough IT workers (after having laid off in current recession) so they will offshore more of that to India. Also the rush for efficiencies in the operations would drive more work to offshore so we will see better future for Indian IT in medium to long term.
Housing and real estate
Real estate in India is going to suffer badly, even if govt. tries to provide any incentive, which real estate industry is asking for. As most of growth in this industry came from speculation and false future projections, the industry is going to have a hard landing before picking up again. With likes of Lehman brothers gone with the wind, there will be less of outside money to invest in real estate in India, so realism will set in here. Already the stock prices of major real estate players are down more than a shocking 95%. It was pure speculation.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure projects like, roads, ports, power etc. will suffer because of difficulty in getting money and general aversion among investor for any risk now. Also Indian govt. does not have money like China which can spend on such project to stimulate the economy.
General Economic Reforms
Already Indian govts. have always been reluctant to go for far-reaching reforms. Now they will be more so. And political parties like Left would be making more noises now. Seeing the mayhem in the world financial markets govt will be very cautions to go for any reforms. Also earlier US govt used to push for reforms in India but now they would be shy in doing so one for the mess in their backyard and second they do not have a face now to show to the world that free capitalism is the only way to go. This will slowdown the economy.
Non-IT export
We have already been hearing news of layoffs in export oriented industries like gems and jewelry, apparel, leather, auto component etc. The impact of this is definitely there on general economy.
General Economy
Though we hear people say that Indian fundamentals are strong and we can sustain our own growth but that is like running away from reality. Because of globalisation we are now more linked to the world economy than anytime in future so if world is suffering we cannot remain immune to it.
When all industries are slowing how can we expect the general economy to grow. Never. If IT slows down it impacts job market and the easy spenders, related ancillary industries gets affected too due to this. If there is slowdown in infrastructure then that would impact cement, steel and other industry. So we can see that almost all the industries of the economy are going through the rough phase so there is overall slow growth.
But we in India have lot of optimism as we can see the light at the end of tunnel. So this time is just for reflection and to prepare ourselves for better times which are just around the corner.
Stock Market
As already seen, Indian stock markets are down more than 60% from their high point. So we can already see the impact there. As more money dries up in the world this is going to impact stock market in India further. The bull run on Indian stock markets have been due to easy availability of cheap money in the world market but this is no more the case now so we are not going to see the same high for few years now.
IT and BPO
Indian IT has always survived because of the western economies, as major western economies slowdown the work being offshored to Indian IT companies is going to freeze in near terms as client cut on all unimportant work (and some important work too). So there will be less work for IT companies in near term. This will trigger job cuts in IT in west and India. This is already happening in India, though will be on very low scale as compared to the west.
But in the long term, as the western economies start getting back on their feet, they will generate more IT work and then they will not have enough IT workers (after having laid off in current recession) so they will offshore more of that to India. Also the rush for efficiencies in the operations would drive more work to offshore so we will see better future for Indian IT in medium to long term.
Housing and real estate
Real estate in India is going to suffer badly, even if govt. tries to provide any incentive, which real estate industry is asking for. As most of growth in this industry came from speculation and false future projections, the industry is going to have a hard landing before picking up again. With likes of Lehman brothers gone with the wind, there will be less of outside money to invest in real estate in India, so realism will set in here. Already the stock prices of major real estate players are down more than a shocking 95%. It was pure speculation.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure projects like, roads, ports, power etc. will suffer because of difficulty in getting money and general aversion among investor for any risk now. Also Indian govt. does not have money like China which can spend on such project to stimulate the economy.
General Economic Reforms
Already Indian govts. have always been reluctant to go for far-reaching reforms. Now they will be more so. And political parties like Left would be making more noises now. Seeing the mayhem in the world financial markets govt will be very cautions to go for any reforms. Also earlier US govt used to push for reforms in India but now they would be shy in doing so one for the mess in their backyard and second they do not have a face now to show to the world that free capitalism is the only way to go. This will slowdown the economy.
Non-IT export
We have already been hearing news of layoffs in export oriented industries like gems and jewelry, apparel, leather, auto component etc. The impact of this is definitely there on general economy.
General Economy
Though we hear people say that Indian fundamentals are strong and we can sustain our own growth but that is like running away from reality. Because of globalisation we are now more linked to the world economy than anytime in future so if world is suffering we cannot remain immune to it.
When all industries are slowing how can we expect the general economy to grow. Never. If IT slows down it impacts job market and the easy spenders, related ancillary industries gets affected too due to this. If there is slowdown in infrastructure then that would impact cement, steel and other industry. So we can see that almost all the industries of the economy are going through the rough phase so there is overall slow growth.
But we in India have lot of optimism as we can see the light at the end of tunnel. So this time is just for reflection and to prepare ourselves for better times which are just around the corner.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Financial Crisis:Animals extinct so far
Whenever there is earth shattering change on the earth some animals just disappear because they can not cope up with the changes and they were not prepared for these changes. Dinosaurs were a breed which became extinct because they could not survive the changes taking place on the earth at that time. Now in the current financial tsunami as well many financial animals (banks) are becoming extinct because of the very same reason.
Here are some of the banks and financial institutions which have now become extinct or become too dependant on others or governments they can not survive on their own.
Animal extinct so far
- New Century Financial, one of the biggest sub-prime lenders in the US
- Dillon Read Capital Management, UBS’s US sub-prime lending arm
- American Home Mortgage, one of the largest US independent home loan providers
- Sachsen LB Landesbank faced collapse, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg buys it
- Northern Rock
- Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase
- US mortgage lender IndyMac collapsed -- the second-biggest bank in US history to fail.
- Fannie Mae, rescued by the US government
- Freddie Mac, rescued by the US government
- Lehman Brothers
- Merrill Lynch
- Insurer American International Group
- HBOS, British bank
- Bradford & Bingley is nationalised
- Germany’s Hypo Real Estate, commercial property lender
- Washington Mutual, mortgage lender , sold to its JPMorgan Chase
- Goldman Sachs
- Morgan Stanley
- Fortis, the European bank, partly nationalised
- Glitnir, Iceland’s third largest bank is nationalised
- Wachovia, bought by Citigroup
- European bank Dexia is bailed out by he Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments
- Icelandic internet bank Icesave is closed
- Icelandic banks Kaupthing Edge gone into administration and is nationalised
- Icelandic bank Heritable Bank gone into administration
- Royal Bank of Scotland (60%) end up being owned by govt.
- Lloyds TSB/HBOS(40%) end up being owned by govt.
There are only the prominent names there have been many hedge funds and smaller insititutions who are closed unceremoniously and not reported in media.
…..and more to come
After institutions now it seems it’s turn of countries:
Following are the countries who have so far felt the pressure due to tsunami and their existence is dependant on other’s help
- Iceland
- Pakistan
- Ukraine
- Hungary
- Belarus
Obviously the tsunami does not seems to be mild one.
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