Walmart!!!

Walmart's coming....
look at what it could bring along with it.....
Retailers beware!!!

Differentiation in a Highly competitive market

Wharton article on Differentiation in a Highly coPublishmpetitive market

The race for deals is on in private equity. Gone are the days when firms simply did due diligence, loaded on leverage and hoped for outsized returns after selling the company a few years down the road. Today, record-setting bids and unprecedented capital inflows have created an overheated environment that requires new strategies for those looking to stay ahead of the pack. Produced in cooperation with the Wharton Private Equity Club, this special report highlights the innovative ways firms are working to source deals, set themselves apart in an auction process and ensure performance once a deal is done. Also, industry specialists offer a close-up view of the debt markets and the hot energy market, which saw one of the largest-ever private equity proposals earlier this year.

Progress…What are we leaving behind!!!

April 28th, 2007 by chetanshah

Couple of incidents over the last 8-10 days have made me think….Progress at what cost….and what are we leaving behind to catch up with us….

First incident -

I was on my way in the evening on some household errand….just about a kilometer from home, after the police chowky, I saw an old woman kneeling on the road where a young man was lying probably unconscious. There were a few fruit and vegetable vendors around….but hardly anybody seemed bothered. The errand being urgent, and to avoid a traffic jam behind me, I did not stop to find out what was wrong. I was consciously more conscious about dead traffic than about the unconscious young man and the old lady. I continued to progress, though I felt helpless in the situation.

Second incident -

Just the day before yesterday, on my way to the Parsi Gymkhana swimming pool, with my son, I saw a couple, with 3-4 kids at a turning after Hutchings High School lane. The man had in his one arm one child, and was almost begging with the other hand for motorists to stop and help him. With my son with me, and doubting the fact that a young man with wife and kids, decently clad, would need much help, I proceeded to the pool, without paying much heed.

On my way back I remembered to check if that family had found any help, and decided to stop and ask them the problem. Astonishingly, they were still there. Though a bit frightful, I decided to stop and ask them. I pulled down the window pane, and as I was about to ask, there was a loud sound of a horn from behind me. It came from a bigger car, and people in it, obviously, did not think it was worthwhile for me to block their way just to ask / help a man on the road. I obliged them and continued to proceed, without, again, being of much use to the man. I felt pathetic and helpless at the way things worked that day. Even if I wanted to help a distressed family, the social conditions did not permit them. The mental mood, social setup, security and authenticity of such incidents all played on my mind while deciding or acting under the given circumstances. Probably, it made my mental setup look weak and shaky, though it isn’t the case.

Third incident -

Not really and incident, but a fact of life, that is true today more than anytime in the past. In the business newspaper that I read, there was an interesting letter to the editor. It was about how children are being used rampantly in advertising on television and other media. It has gone to the extent where children are being influenced to influence the decision of purchase of products. Not just making them more intelligent, but at the same time snatching away their innocence. Children and childhood need to be preserved to their most naive form to enable them to experience the joy and pleasure of their age. If they do the same things as children, what their parents are supposed to do as parents then there is hardly much difference between the two.

A live example of that occurred yesterday. I was helping my son play a computer game. Since he could not manage to handle the multiple keys needed to keep the cars on track, I decided to show him how to do it. When I took the drivers seat and my son next to me….cheering me with words like “you can do it….”, “you are just one behind ….”, “look forward….almost done..”. I was astonished that my, yet to be, five year old could cheer me to victory in the same manner as I would cheer him.

Then today I happened to hear a TV program which my son likes to watch. Though intended for high school children, my son likes to see this program given the familiar school like atmosphere and activities portrayed in it. In the absence of the ever addicting cartoon channels, he is allowed to see this program. Slowly, as I overheard the program, I began to realize that the words and toning used in the program was similar to what my son was using while cheering me up in the computer game. I quickly got the connection between what he sees on TV is reflected directly in his behavior at home, and probably and more likely at school. Though good in one aspect, but vulnerable in another…..I could see the connection between what the letter to the editor actually meant - advertisements making children feel bigger than they actually are and in the meanwhile, forgoing all childhood joys and pleasures.

These are the 3 incidents that made me think that even though we seem to be progressing at break neck speeds, are we really moving ahead in the right direction? Is a single empty stomach not a betrayal of the fact that we are progressing? Do not our social, governmental, professional and personal responsibilities include paying attention and heed to happenings outside our sphere of progress? How does one ensure that the people asking for help are the real ones who need help and not fake ones?

The incidents that I have mentioned are commonplace and would have occurred in our lives sometime or the other. Yet, many would have behaved in ways similar to what I did. Many would have gone a step ahead and tried to help. Is there a more concrete way to approach such problems? Do we have a setup that can handle such situations? Do we need to create or strengthen such setups? Are there any better solutions?

Progress, though you have given us what we didn’t have, do not take away from us of what little we did have - peace of mind!!!

The Great Workplace Wiki Divide?

A recent BusinessWeek article drew a line between employees who use Wikis and other Web-based tools (young) and those who don't (old), and asked if senior managers were ready for the influx of 80 million Net Generation workers. Their position:

Wikis, blogs, and other tools will arrive in the workplace whether companies are ready or not, as younger employees tend to develop their own self-organized networks that cut across traditional corporate divisions. Increasingly these employees will be capable of interacting as a global, real-time workforce.

To drive their point home, the article claims, "Much of this is due to a younger generation of workers who embrace Web-based tools in a way that often confounds older workers."

While BusinessWeek points to the technology dividing the generations, several media outlets wrote about a recent study on the effects of the aging workforce on American businesses. According to Inc.com:

Over the next decade, there will be a significant change in the demographics of America's workforce as baby boomers continue to retire, leaving younger workers with less experience to fill their place — and leaving many businesses unprepared.

It may appear that businesses aren't ready for either the arrival of a new generation of workers or the departure of an experienced workforce, but perhaps these "problems" are actually pointing to possible solutions. Social networking sites like MySpace have seen a significant shift in user demographics, with huge growth (41%) in the 35-54 age range in 2006. Aging workers may not be the early adopters, but it appears they aren’t willing to be left behind, either.

There were no PPTs used for IBM sessions

Mukesh,

There were only case studies uploaded on to yahoogroups and Prof. had asked each center to send across their PPT (solution) for these case studies. Prof. then discussed the solution presented by some of the individual centers for each case study. He did not share any other material nor did he use any of his PPTs for discussion during the sessions.

Navin

Internation Business Management Project

These were IBM classes. I do not see any material related to IBM except for cases studies.
Were there any slides referred in the class. I had missed all the classes of IBM and am wondering what was the learning content.

Project & Assignment Submission !!!

Thanks for creating the EPBM5 Blog.

I just thought of starting discussion about project assignments to be completed. Is someone had started working on the project assignment ?

1. Assignment for International Business Management(last date for submission:May 15th 2007)
2. Comprehensive Project. (Last date for submission June 15th 2007)

If yes, please give your inputs, experiences. If anyone of you have access to any previous batches project/assignment please post them to group for reference.

Any other thoughts....

Regards
Ranjit Vanka

Earlier we have created ORKUT community for EPBM5 ... To join ORKUT community follow the link
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=14620502

One more from EPBM 05

Great Idea!!
this ia another platform to be in tiuch with our batchmates.Techies are reallly proactive in this batch.People like us this has been a bit of gap.
I need everybody's wishes as I am concepualising my first Idly Sambar outlet in Delhi.
Cheers!!!
Raghavan

phone nos removed

Hi...

The idea of putting phone nos. here doesn't seem to have gone well with many people.

So what I have done is removed most of the numbers....and those who feel like sharing their numbers, can add theirs at their leisure.....

I am not sure, for fear of telemarketers from how many people we hide our phone numbers....after all telemarketing is a marketing idea....which we all have studied....

Chetan

new posts going in as comments to older posts

Friends...

While posting keep in mind to click on New Posts at the top, or somewhere near the top, so that the posts go in as a new post and not a reply to an earlier post....

I am posting Chumkis post here.....which she has posted in reply to the first post.....

I think we just need to get used to this....

Hi Friends,

This is a fantastic effort by all you eterprising guys. Congrats!
Lets use this medium to continously upgrade ourselves through articles posted by all.

I would be an active member in this.
My Number - +919810516796

cheers

chumki

Telephone nos....

Am posting here the phone numbers that Madhu asked me since he lost his cell phone....so I thought it will be good to post a few numbers here...so that they are available to everybody at all times.....Hope there are no secret numbers that I am revealing here....:)

Chetan Shah - 9822052878


Most of them should be correct....but in case some have changed.....the individual should correct it....

अता झोपय्ची वेळ झाली आहेय !!!
शुभ रात्रि

Hi Anannd here

Hi,

I had also subscribed here. Let us share the good developments

Branding

What Brand Means.

I spent a good portion of a weekend a few weeks ago with a customer that was having a quality problem. There's no point in going in to the nature of the customer or the problem, but suffice it to say it was a bad problem, and by far and away the most expensive kind: one that put the customer's brand at risk. For those that deliver service via the network (or free software), brand is all you've got. It's not an asset, it becomes the asset.

The quality problem I mentioned was customer specific, and had a very real impact on tens of thousands of consumers. And lest it go unsaid, I was really proud of our Services team. They managed the unmanageable, they guided everyone through the unexpected (me, even). They understood what Service meant, they understood the customer's brand, and they understood the role Sun played in fulfilling it.

The saying goes, "a brand is a promise." On a personal level, I've always felt that statement was incomplete. A promise is the lowest common denominator of a brand - it's what people expect. Think of your favorite brand, whether search engine or sneaker or coffee shop or free software, and you'll know what I mean - a brand is an expectation. If you experience anything less, you're disappointed. A promise seems like table stakes.

But a brand must go beyond a promise। To me, a brand is a cause - a guiding light. For fulfilling expectations, certainly, as well as dealing with the ill-defined and unexpected. It's what tells your employees how to act when circumstances (and customers) go awry, or well beyond a training course. My first real experience with that was a personal one.

Click here to read the first real personal experience....lots to learn there....

Hi all, i seem to be the first visitor here...

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to proclaim to be the 1st person to have set a footprint on the new Blog one of ou colleagues has just created. Hope this is actively used and we can all share our views on everything under the sun over here.

Cheers!
Navin Ragade, Chennai, Nungambakkam center