Indian companies to sponsor F1 team now :)

After making news in M&A by buying out companies abroad, its turn for Indian companies to make news by sponsoring F1 teams.
After Tata promoted Narain for driver, its none other than Kingfisher group owned by Vijay Mallya.
Kingfisher is sponsoring Toyoto team for F1 2007 for its kingfishers airlines brand.

This was announced and displayed at recently Toyota F1 launch in Germany.

Indian companies are all set to leave their mark everywhere :)

Retail chain/business moving to a new era

I am not being partial but seeing Kishore Biyani expanding his business from a kirana store in 1998 in calcutta to million dollar retail business surely deserve recognition.
Entering a new business maybe still easy for corporate with money and muscles,but I think its takes a vision to built such a business from scratch.
I have read books which talks about strategy and features of growing company and I am happy
to see those models working at company like Future group.
Biyani has surely tried to blend glocal touch with his thoughts. He hired executive from Goldman Sachs for Strategy and Business, working big time on supply chain, developing a volume based business which surely has chances to click more in India.
Although, I havent purchased anything besides a tie at Pantaloons but its surely keep updated by latest fashion and daily trends.I have realised this recently so surely Pantaloons will be worth trying next time for economical and good shopping.
With talks of FDI for retail moving towards 74%, I know Biyani group will be one which is going to be hit hardest and this shows clearly from his articles and interviews.
Recently, N R Murthy of Infosys shared views saying retail should be opened up.And my views here is that maybe its little early to open FDI In retail. The very emotional reason to support is that Indian group should be given some lead in the race to atleast grow and come to a platform to handle competition and form perfect competition in the market which are going to then benefit customers.Secondly, MNCs and retail biggies if allowed so early in market will lead to resource crunch thus moving costs up and also it will create a wave of mergers and acquisition too early in the market.

M&A is good for any market in little long run to being that correction which in turn benefit customers.But if it happens early,biggies creates a seller market which will also make it difficult for any new start up to penetrate in market.
Govt should first alllow Indian players like Reliance, Future group, Bharti, etc to set their operations and create awareness for retail market. This will also get more revenue for govt when foreign players will enter market.
Retail surely in next market to cheers after Telecom in India.

Retail going online-FutureBazaar

India surely makes a different market in terms of business models and customising approach towards customer.Retail business is the one which has started trying new models now.Today, saw huge billboard of FutureBazaar,owned by Biyani's Future group.I think they are wroking to rebrand their retail chain.
As far this futurebazaar goes, it is online retail shop. Looks like click and pay and home delivery.I still remember during my B-School days,when Me and my friend actually had discussion on such a online model in retail. And I even mentioned the idea on my blog in August 2005.

The challenge which for these retail chain in India will be modifying the business model.Such a model is visible in cities and metro wherein people are short of time.One thing important here is supply chain.Now Biyani is investing lot of money and also it has started working on its back -end,maybe they will be able to Click the opportunity.

Book Review!! Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins

First of all I would like to thank my friend Rahul at ISB who get me great books to read issued from there.

Surely, ISB has good collection of books, you name it and it has :)

Now, this book which I am reading surely give some out of the box thinking.How can one win by making most mistakes!!!?
Well, like most of us I also had the same thought, until I came across this interesting book written by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes.Authors here, have pen down a different approach and thinking as to how mistakes eventually take us more closer to success rather than taking us away from it.
The book with introduction of terms success and failure as defined by most of us, which shows that overcoming a failure is defined as success by most of us. Given a chance to quote one event of success in anybody's life, most of us would narrate an example how we came across a challenge and overcame it. Still, we always fear failures which gets us success eventually.
The next part explains how one normally fails towards success. Taking example from once daily life it can be easily seen that everyone has passed through troughs and crests of success and then failure.So, its not that success can be a repetitive phenomenon instead it is driven more from failures and what we learn from them. Authors have taken ample examples from corporate and individual world to explain that most of the innovation and discovery are results of failures.For example, widely used 'Post-It' was a result of failure of an experiment, which 3M later realized. Examples are mentioned in books of IBM, Xerox, Abrahim Lincoln and many others which shows that it is failures that is most important path to success.
Book later provides a very different approach to definition of word 'Success' which I think will make everyone sit and analyze that what we curse today by saying 'Failure' is actually a path to victory in disguise.
Although the book is of small size and just 120 pager, but every page is filled with learning and execution.I will definitely recommend this book as worth sparing some time, which not only will add a new dimension towards our approach to success but will also adopt a more optimistic approach towards failures

Top Tax saving Mutual Funds

Year Closing is back again and season to invest to save Tax!!! :)

I would recommend these tax saving mutual funds

1. HDFC Taxsaver
2. SBI Magnum Taxgain
3. Principal Tax saving
4. Birla Tax saving
5. ING Vysya Tax Saving ( little risk but good returns)


Cheers and Hppy savings!!

Accident!!

Well just relax, Its not a real accident like falling from rooftop or etc!!
Its a virtual accident ...and only one person can understand it :)

And the best thing it resemble accident because it takes 2 months to recover from your accident too..


More to follow soon on this!!

Stress and Relax- Can we do it??

Recently in meditation lecture at Patni, I observed something.

We as human being were originally having a very different lifestyle and then we observe one word in everybody life, Stress!!!

There is anxiety, health problems, hurriness,etc which most of us are facing. These are very well symtoms of stress.
Why did people in history doesnt had stress then?? or did they?

Well I wil say, they did but less since they had a balanced way of living. They had patience, balanced good diet, proper way of breating,etc.

Just look at a small baby, he enjoys life like anything..why??

Because he does things with patience, he enjoys everything he does.. playing, eating ,etc.

So one thing we should do is enjoy our present, do simple little exercise to feel fresh air and gain good diet

Sensex at 14000

2007 opened on good note for Sensex .
It traded and touched at 14000 today on 3rd Jan....

So what is in future..? I think 15K surely but correction is also on the way next.

Experience with Indigo

Recently,I flew from Hyderabad to Delhi with Indigo Airlines

Well, I really don't have anything special to write about Indigo.
I found it like yet another Low cost carrier. The only thing I will say that the aircraft are good.
As for service, they dont offer you anything except water and their seats are little cramp.

Check In and Handling is fine, in case you get a deal on ticket price, I think its worth going in for.

Overall, I will rate Indigo service as 6/10.

Nice Experience with Spicejet

Travelled on Spicejet third time till now, latest one from Delhi to hyderabad

With foggy conditions in Delhi, flights were getting delayed.
Fortunately on my travel day,sky remained clear with lots of sunshine so my flight was schduled right time. Confirmed with them and was happy to know that my flight was right time.
Spicejet Counter was crowded, but I would blame Airport authority for bad infrastructure.This lovely lady on the counter was handling the check -in quite smoothly so no Regrets ;)
This terminal of Spicejet is shared with Air-Deccan, so that made me stand in long queue for security check.
Coming to the point, my boarding was handled well and I felt cozy in confy seats of this A320 aircraft.I think spicejet has most lovely air-hostess of all low cost airlines. :)
The best part which I like while traveling with Spicejet is the cookies which they serve.I would say it has weightage of 5% for me choosing Spicejet.I can buy them from market , but it has own fun in Spicejet aircraft.
I even inquired from one of hostess Megha, where do they order it from.?The answer was Taj with a sweet smile, and "Would you like to have more of those?"She asked me about my seat number and she got me some of those wrapped nicely in napkins :)
Flight was confortable and got my luggage in time too at airport.
Overall, I will rate Spicjet 8/10 among the airlines.

86400- The connecting link between Money and Time

How is Time and Money connected together thorugh 86400??Thats a weird thought!!

True, but trust me there is something more interesting behind it which I learned today.
Patni's 'PACE' trainer Vaishnavi gave us a small assignment, If you have INR 86400,what
would you do with it?
Well, my answer too oriented towards investment,wherein my formula comprised of investing 40K in mutual funds,20K in stocks and remaining in Fixed deposit or maybe spend it.Most of participants shared same investment story,wherein they utilised all the given amount.

So, the observation was that all of us invested focusing on long term and short term basis.
But in real life, given the same precious amount in form of time, how many of us actually invest it in right way??? I bet not many..
In a given day, we have 24 x 60 x 60 = 86400 seconds.
So, if we can plan these preciuos units in right and planned way depending on our long term and short terms needs, most of our problem will be solved.If we can design ,say we are going to invest X amount of 'Time' in Y activity and than A amount in B activity, The result we will get will be great.
This was a real good learning which I got today and I will try my best to implement in day -to-day life from now on.

Time management is key to ones growth, and with pressure on work-life balance these little small tricks can make wonders

Patni PACE is oriented towards employee development wherein Patni tries to grow soft skills of Patnites and move each one of them towards excellence.
This was third such program which I attended, the other being on Business Communications and Decision Making.

India is a Medical Outsourcing Destination - Tom Peters

Outsourcing is all geared up to cover one more area and this time its Medical Outsourcing
Medical Toursim off late has been catching up fast in India with top hospitals like Apollo ,Fortis etc, partnering with Tourism co-ordinator and providing world class treatment clubbed with tour to Incredible India.
And with management guru and thinkrs like Tom Peters writing about it on his blog,this surely is something which can be labeled an upcoming trend.As Tom mentions, a poor lady from America who is not insured and cannot afford to get herself treated in US flies in to India and get herself world-class luxurious treatment at just 1/3rd the price.Indian doctors are renowed community in US so this can be surely lableled as safe
Increasing insurance cost in west and long waiting list for treatment at government hospitals in coutries like UK and US are factor which will be catalyst for Medical Outsourcing .Also, poor health conditions in countires like Africa,Middle east and even south east asia, India surely going to become a Medical Hub.This might see the same trend in future what IT witnessed in '90s
Looks like the word 'Bangalored' gonna see more addition to its meaning

Reliance launches its First Retail Store@ Hyderabad

Finally, the much awaited retail plan has started. Yes! I am talking about Reliance Retail Plan branded as Reliance 'Fresh'.
Indian retail sector is currently more than 90% under unorganised area and this shows the immense scope for growth.With increasing living style and spending power of Indians,Retail plans in India surely will see an exponential growth.
Reliance has laid huge plan for their retail biz and may even plan an IPO for that.They are starting with around 15 stores in Hyderabad from Nov3 and has plans to open around 5500 stores all across India.What makes Reliance strategy different from their competitors is that they are focussing at mid tier cities from the very beginning.Indian metor cities has already been witnessing mall/retail mania since past 2-3 years and Reliance just might take a different step seeing this.
I think going Reliance way makes sense.Since Tier 2-3 cities are virgin territories and if business house with muscle power like Reliance foray there first, they surely will cash 'First Movers Advantage'.
For their grand plan, Reliance has attracted leading names in this industry to join them, like Walmart India head, Pantaloons CEO with many other top people from big brands.
Reliance has previously made a huge change in telecom landscape when they launched Reliance Infocomm and now with their retial plans, I am sure Retail landscape in India and also the rules of the game.

The power of 9

Today I observed somethng wrt 9
9 is the only number when multipied by any number will give a number whose summation of digits also gives number 9
Ex: 9 X 3 = 27 ; 2 + 7 = 9 9 X 7 = 63 ; 6 + 3 = 9
Strange no!!

China keeping its fact right for IT- India Beware

As a daily habit of surfing through leading newspapers of the world,I was really surprised seeing China's optimistic view about IT While reading Shanghai Times(China's #1 business daily)It showed how well they are accepting the fact and also gearing up to beat their rival India.China is optimistic to beat India in next few years and there figures sounded realisitic and alarming.
Though we might be happy with Feel-Good factor with IT in India and IT and India almost pronounced simultaneosly, the number games are changing fast.
China has very well accepted that they are far behind India when it comes to software,but they know they are still leading in hardware by huge leap.Now,they have started executing their plans for training workforce in IT and English and as per Chinese Industry Association , they are really working fast.
Not only in terms of Education and training but also Infrastructure. It is a well known fact that China has by far better Infrastructure ,be it SEZs, Airports,Tech Parks or well planned cities.
Whereas, India still is lazying around and partying with success in IT. Infrastructure is deterioting day by day, specially at IT capital Bangalore. Signs of skill shortage has started showing signs with attritions touching 20% in many companies.
And its sad to see Govt focussing in stupid issues like reservations against improving education standards in schools and colleges.Although,engineering colleges are opening at a fast pace but how many of them actually give even average enginnering skills to students, I would say max 25-30%.
One good strategy which IT companies in India has started is expanding operations in China.We have TCS,Patni,Infosys,Satyam all opening shops in China. This will help these companies become truly global and at the same time cash on available talent pool and obviously huge Chinese market.
The need of the hour is to bridge the gap between industry and colleges.There is no point IT companies just crying about talent.It is time that industry come forward and partners with Enginneriung colleges in near by areas of cities to actually train students about what is expected from them. The benefit of such a program will be ,first availability of trained talent as per expectation right from campus thus saving huge recruitment cost and secondly increasing brand awareness of their company among the talent.We have few IT companies like Patni,Infosys and Satyam who have already started with such a model.Infosys has a large world class training centre,where they train new recruits depending on projects whereas Satyam and Patni has started tieing up with colleges to train students
I think it is also a duty of alumni to come forward and give back to their alma mater also.Devoting 2 hours in a quarter by going to college and sharing what industry is expecting,will definately help is decreasing the gap of skill shortage. Educating students about importance of soft skills is defn the need of the hour.
Because Remember, Outsourcing is not a friend of India. It will be friend of who so ever can provide cost advantage with skillled labour and we already have China,Ireland,Russia emerging as competitors.

F1-Farewell to Michael

Sao Paulo Grand Prix 2006 saw Michael Schumacher driving the ferrari for the last time and also bid him farewell.
He has been on everyone favourite list for years and has to be.After all with so many F1 season titles under his belt, he definately is one of the finest F1 driver of all times.
Good Bye Michael.

Will sensex touch 13000 ??

Hi!!

With present bounce back and current level of sensex at 12450..will it touch 13000??

views are welcome!

To be of use by Marge Piercy

One nice poem by Marge Piercy :

To be of use

The people I love the bestjump into work head firstwithout dallying in the shallowsand swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.They seem to become natives of that element,the black sleek heads of sealsbouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submergein the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,who stand in the line and haul in their places,who are not parlor generals and field desertersbut move in a common rhythmwhen the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.But the thing worth doing well donehas a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.Greek amphoras for wine or oil,Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museumsbut you know they were made to be used.The pitcher cries for water to carryand a person for work that is real.

Courtesy: http://www.panhala.net/archive/To_Be_of_Use.html

Philips Semicon- New Face with its latest Ad

Philips Ad baout its NXP solution is eye-catching

Theme "Need a new look" is attractive and definately takes you to next step to read the ad and think about it.
Purpose of ad is to make audience stand and get that attention for which this ad has done justice.

I will really appreciate if someone can share agency which made this ad!!

Just for info!! Philips Semicon has recently got focus and new ad is marketing for it. Semicon companies in general are under restructuring.Freescale is recently in news with equity ventures showing interest to buy 80% stake.

Can Hyderabad take over Bangalore as IT Capital - Never!!

If you are orginally from Hyderabad , I know it will hurt.
But as somebody from outside who has lived in both Bangalore and Hyderabad, I dnt see hyderabad ever taking Banaglore as IT capital.
Hyderbad will definately become as a IT hub since govt of AP is pro-IT and have skilled people.

There are certain issues which govt need to looked on urgent basis..cost of living.
There is huge demand- supply gap for housing in Hyderabad with rates soaring up by 300% in just 1 year .IT companies need people in bulk but can people afford to live in hyderabad at such high rents. I doubt, therefore they will relocate..companies HR watch out!!
Bangalore has enormous inflow but still finding a house is not a problem.

The climate of bangalore is still great, hyderabad..man I wonder what it will be in summers when weather s hot right nw in rainy season.

Inclination of people towards IT. Bangalore..its not inclination..its Craze for IT..i see people right from school dont want to be in IT for money..but from interest to develop that piece of software.

Infrastructure, It is appreciating that Naidu did a good job to provide good road connectivity to Hi-Tech city but Irony is that There is a severe Network problem of cellular services in HI-Tech City in hyderabad, so should they be still seeing it as Hi-Tech ;)
Bangalore has good QoS for cellular coverage and Electronics City in bangalore has no such problems.

Hyderabad, craze for IT is because of career ,money and US factor.

Hyderabad has major IT giants, but that is mainly because they want to expand beyond Bangalore and they got space here in the city.One will rarely find start-ups in here.
Bnagalore..you walk in any area and its rare that you won't see a bunch of geeks shop trying to make up something in software. Bangalore has that right enviroment for geek enterpeneurship

Hyderabad will be big destination for IT but Capital..only in Dreams.