Faculty blogs

In today’s rapidly changing world, where challenges from global pandemics to climate crises demand not only quick but also wise responses, the understanding of wisdom has never been more crucial. The concept of wisdom transcends mere knowledge; it involves a deeper level of understanding, reflecting, and acting that collectively benefits society. In a rapidly evolving… Continue reading Understanding wisdom: A look at the 6p unified framework

If the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved by India, then it is imperative that civil society supplements the efforts/spends of the government in the manifold spheres of social development. For the social sector, the driving force is the ability to design and implement interventions that create high impact, both in qualitative and… Continue reading Benefits of digitisation and fund-raising possibilities for small/medium NGOs

Are there large open positions in India’s currency markets?  In recent times, there has been some debate around the extent of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) raised by Indian borrowers that are ‘unhedged’, i.e., where the borrower has left the currency risk open. Beyond just ECBs, the larger question is whether there is any pent-up complacency… Continue reading Are there large open positions in India’s currency markets?

I have been teaching subjects related to accounting and finance for almost two decades now.  Every time I start teaching the basics of accounting in the class, I start with the core concepts, which are the foundation of the subject.  Often I have felt these foundations are so similar to the foundations of human living, or… Continue reading Accounting for business, life and beyond

For past several years Machine Learning (ML) is considered as forte of technical people who can write hundreds of lines of code which only they can understand. Although these days business leaders and managers understand the significance of ML, with this perception they shy away from it leaving this field to the techies. Today ML… Continue reading Don’t shy away from Machine Learning!

Entrepreneurial success is difficult to define. There is no hard metric, as each venture has their own challenges and vicissitudes. We are proposing a balanced measure of success for entrepreneurial success termed “momentum” to assess the needed velocity for sustainable value creation. Momentum (unlike in Physics) can be generated in the venture through a focus… Continue reading Where does the Impetus for Entrepreneurial Success come from?

I used to play carrom well. The common room in the hostel at my management school campus had a board that I frequented almost daily. My opponent for one game was a guy, a very good player himself. But our paths had not crossed earlier. When I hit a particularly good shot, he said, “Good… Continue reading Like a Girl

Commencing an Executive Development Programme with a well chanted shloka energises participants and aligns them towards learning.  While this thought process  was being appreciatively discussed among a B School faculty group, one faculty wondered aloud whether the language adopted – Sanskrit, not understood by any in the programme – brought in a semblance of religion… Continue reading The secular Indian

Given to me by my daughter; very knowledgeable, very philosophical, very true to herself and yet so very filmy.  If it was not for these words and the symbolic graphics, I doubt very much if I would have ventured out of Chennai, and into Mumbai.  But as each journey foretells a destination and every voyage… Continue reading Kahin pe pahunchne ke liye kahin se nikalna bahut zaroori hota hai

In the course of my wandering, nomadic, drifting life, I have had to make very many changes, adapt to many things, manage many situations and be ready for many more unanticipated ones. I have faced changed circumstances before, but I had specific physical and emotional support. “I grew up in school, protected by parents, shielded… Continue reading The carrier of my tales, the keeper of my destiny

Yesterday, I gave a keynote on Industry 4.0 at an ISQ – Indian Society for Quality – event in Delhi. For those who may still be unaware, Industry 4.0 (I4, for short) is the culmination of many years of sequential developments in several fields, especially IT. Currently, these advances are converging, giving birth to a… Continue reading Performance 4.0 is nearer than what you think

Today entire countries are being run by Technology; Estonia may be small but serves as an example to the rest of the World. The Scandinavian countries are doing the same besides many others. When Governments around the globe are trying to take advantage of the technology capabilities businesses cannot take a back-seat. They are also… Continue reading Technology – A Full Course Meal

Two days ago I had my meal in a restaurant, I did not use my credit or debit card for payment, I did not fill in a feedback form. None of the activities that would reveal my identity. And to my surprise I got a message on my mobile to write a review for the… Continue reading Who violated MY Right?

What is an institution? The Oxford dictionary defines an Institution as an organization founded for a religious, educational, professional, or social purpose, an established official organization having an important role in a society, a large company or other organization involved in financial trading, an established law or practice. The businessdictionary.com defines institution as an establishment,… Continue reading Building and shaping of institutions

When you are tired of the corporate world, when you are tired of watching Arnab, Rahul and others of their ilk shout out the bad things happening in the country, you can relax and watch Crime Patrol. It is a series written and directed by one Mr Subramaniam Iyer, who goes by the moniker Subbu.… Continue reading Inside stories of Crime Patrol episodes

Humans are unpredictable and their behaviors are very easy to predict, therefore. On a late cold Delhi winter night, as we frantically waited with worry, for my father to come home, the doorbell rang. My mother and my two sisters and I rushed to answer the door and as soon as we saw our father… Continue reading Gentle Monarch, thy will be done.

Justice Srikrishna committee formulated Personal Data Protection Bill 2018. Government has taken very positive step to share it with the general public requesting comments till September 10, 2018. After reviewing the comments and due consideration the Government is expected to table the bill in Parliament in December. EU General Data Protection Regulations and now Indian… Continue reading A Welcome step – Data Protection Bill 2018

Blockchain as technology was popularised by Bitcoin, a robust, real publicly accessed ledger. Many organizations realized that they had to try this new tech, with many experiments and models, ultimately evolving a new ‘avatar’ of blockchain. Rarely do we come across commercial implementation of blockchain in its original form. What has evolved is more of… Continue reading Blockchain – Mobilising Business

It was the day before yesterday that I was at Newark airport, waiting in line to board my flight to Mumbai. All passengers were waiting patiently in five queues. There was a ‘desi’, probably an Americanised Indian or may be an Indian, who says to his fellow travellers, “This is a Mumbai flight…has to be delayed.… Continue reading Why do Indians disparage India?

Machine learning and Artificial intelligence are no more playgrounds for businesses only. These technologies are getting embedded in our day to day life. Business Leaders need to understand the impact they create and the value the users associate with it. As an instance consider AI Powered mobile phones, to be more precise ML powered mobile… Continue reading Business Leaders need Machine Learning

The big data is taking big leaps with Spark based products. The cloud as well as on-premises solutions deploy spark in their offerings. I wrote earlier that Spark is taking over Hadoop as big data mainstay. The Spark needs to be supported by additional access mechanisms and the programming languages. Not surprisingly Python is rising… Continue reading Big Data Juggernaut IV

In my earlier blog I had mentioned that the Hadoop in synonymous with Big Data. True, many people think that Hadoop is Big Data. Its only partially true, today many other technologies and options fill the same bill. For instance NoSQL databases also can be counted in the same arena. The IOT deployments have been… Continue reading Big Data Juggernaut III

The Dancing Landscape that I referred to in my previous blog is already on horizon. The Internet of Things (IOT) capabilities have brought in whole new world of data management. New tools, techniques and expertise are on rise. The IOT sensors capture required parameters the values of which get transmitted through various modes of technology,… Continue reading Big Data & Machine Learning Juggernaut – II

Its phenomenal today that Machine Learning is taking a pole position almost in every arena. In the past couple of years it is becoming more and more apparent that all of us will some way experience machine learning capabilities or facets through usage of digital media. The ‘Clouds’ are coming in full strength offering services… Continue reading Big Data & Machine Learning Juggernaut – I

It tasted like magic. In French glass taller than the rest, thicker than the rest. With a stainless spoon stuck in it so that the glass will not crack. A wad of unfiltered brewed tea leaves settled at the bottom. Extra sugar stirred gently as to not unsettle the tea leaves. My mother’s tea. This… Continue reading That which courses our veins

The term “cross badging”, or “badge engineering” entered the lexicon in India sometime in early 2012. Examples are Micra / Pulse, Sunny/Scala, Terrano / Duster (all Nissan / Renault) combos. Similarly, Vento (VW)/ Rapid (Skoda). Tata and Fiat tried to tango, but became untangled soon. Same with Renault and Mahindra. So, why are Maruti and… Continue reading Cross badging – what are the implications?

This morning 10th March 2018, when I opened the newspaper, the headline in TOI “SC legalises passive euthanasia and living will, says right to life includes right to die” brought back a lot of memories. My mother had written her “Living Will” in the year 2001, with hope that we could use it, if required… Continue reading Living Will

“Equality” does it exist? Well, this question has been lingering on my mind for some time now. In the initial days post my marriage, when we had those little squabbles and tiffs (with my better half) I thought we were equals; as the years passed by, I had my relatives, family friends as well as… Continue reading Equality? It’s all about the Mindset

In one corner of my cupboard in my room in Chennai is a prized possession. Not an ornament of gold, not a designer watch, not a diamond necklace and surprisingly not even a book. It is a painting. Painted by and gifted to me by a dear friend, Iqbal, of our collective hero, Shaheed Bhagat… Continue reading Mai rang dey…

Last week at Abhyudaya we invited Stri Mukti Sanghatana to stage their iconic play, Mulgi Zhali Ho (A girl is born). Mulgi Zhali Ho raises awareness about gender issues, using music, gentle humour and sometimes sarcastic wit. Originally written in 1983, it has been staged more than 3000 times, all over Maharashtra, and also in… Continue reading This “Barabari” Thing

The Maratha “maha” rally, which happened in Mumbai a few months back, takes the cake. Lakhs of people were allowed to take a walk to the Mantralay, bringing everything in its way to a standstill. Many to most of these people did not have a genuine issue, they are well to do, ruled the country… Continue reading The Entitlement Culture in India

If you have nothing to do, please do it in front of your TV, it cannot talk back. On the contrary, you have the option to surf, switch, increase the volume, and, horror of horrors, even happen across Netflix. No hard feelings Newtflix, just silly conversation. And if, in the past few days, you have… Continue reading The Gujarat Election Campaign and its Aftermath

An innovation strategy is needed for encouraging, promoting and making innovations happen in a systematic way. For example, for large governmental programmes which seek to bring about massive change, for Make in India, for Skill India, MNREGA and so on; for corporates who want to stay relevant to their markets; R & D programmes for… Continue reading In the World of Innovations in Manufacturing – Part II

To all the well-meaning folks who send me parodies of my supposed speaking/writing style: The purpose of speaking or writing is to communicate w/ precision. I choose my words because they are the best ones for the idea i want to convey, not the most obscure or rodomontade ones! 14 12 2017 @ 12 26… Continue reading Using Tough Words in Tweets

How and why do we find It in ourselves to be mean, vicious, malicious? What drives our sense of accomplishments at having done so? Somehow, to touch someone’s raw nerve, to stroke it, to push it, to hurt and to inflict pain has become the new cool. Collectively we have changed so much, that the… Continue reading As Does the Pain

History was made when Lenovo acquired mammoth IBM’s Personal Computer division in 2004. IBM, the pioneer in computers from US was of 82 years and Chinese Lenovo was only of 20 years at the time of the deal. Currently, Lenovo leads in the personal computer space with the largest market share of 21 per cent… Continue reading Will Indigo Make History by Buying Out Air India?

The conflict between founding patriarch Narayana Murthy (NRN) and the first non-founder CEO Vishal Sikka has led to Infosys and the country being in an embarrassing situation. How does one explain such an awkward state of affairs? Differences in Mindset and Cross-Cultural issues explain the Infosys saga. This article attempts to explain it within internationally… Continue reading Infosys: A Story of Cultural Differences

I worry. A lot. However, I hardly worry about myself. I just like the idea of worry; to me, it is to be concerned, to be involved, to show that I care and to understand the circumstances that others are in. As a kid, I used to worry about my parents, my sisters, my friends,… Continue reading From Here to Eternity

She studied under the street lamp in the heart of a large city, where their home was temporary so it had no electricity. She got the time to study after she had helped her mother with her chores and that was after she got back from her evening school. He had a tough time deciding… Continue reading Luck, Fate or Hard-work?

“Close your eyes, relax, breathe, concentrate within…be aware of your forehead, your eyes, your lips, your ears, next focus on your throat, your neck, your spine, your thighs, your calves, your feet. Draw your attention to your chest, your breathing, your abdomen, your upper arms, forearms and your hands, one by one.” This is what… Continue reading When Dance Becomes Meditation…

Infosys has been the crown jewel of the Indian corporate sector, a mascot for growth driven by values. The story of how the founders and particularly N R Narayana Murthy built Infosys and gave the company its unique culture and status in the Indian mind-set has been told again and again. It has inspired a… Continue reading Murthy’s Questions on Infosys are our Questions

One of the problems in doing “social work” is that I have become a real worry-wart. I worry about our Abhyudaya kids all the time. It’s really not surprising. I see a lot of poverty and injustice around me. The children live in a terribly unhygienic environment, and don’t have access to toilets or sanitation.… Continue reading I Gotta Watch Out for the Saviour Complex

The more we collect, in mind and in matter, the more disorder we create; and more stories and more memories too. Collecting things happens over a lifetime of living but letting go is very tough. Growing old also adds an extra coat of sentimentality to life, routine becomes precious and special becomes a treasure. And… Continue reading To Hold on to

How the infusion of Eastern Wisdom insights and practices can enrich traditional leadership development approaches ? There is a fundamental shift in the way the domain of leadership development is looked at. Time has come to reflect upon the content and the depth of these interventions to yield better outcomes. In this article, through an… Continue reading Eastern Wisdom and Traditional Leadership Development Approaches

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम्‌ भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात्‌। om bhūrbhuvaḥ svaḥ tat saviturvareṇyam bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt | Om, the cause of everything, the earth, the space in between and the worlds above. That (Lord) is the one who is the most worshipful. We invoke that effulgent, all knowing… Continue reading Sun and Clarity of Thinking: The Gayatri Mantra

I love challenges! I need change! I need to keep learning! I dislike stagnation. Taking up new challenges like learning (something new) is difficult. It is exhausting at times! But then, why do I enjoy it? Is it the journey of learning or the hope of accomplishment at the end of the journey that keeps… Continue reading Still Learning…

Sunil Kulkarni was in a pensive mood. In the last six months, the situation was improving and he was experiencing a positive change. He reflected on recent events. His son and executive team members were now communicating more constructively during management meetings. He, himself was less anxious. Sunil was the founder of a mid-sized company… Continue reading Mentoring the Next Gen of India Inc.

The April 06, 2017 monetary policy committee resolution while keeping the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent, increased the reverse repo rate under LAF to 6 per cent and marginal standing facility rate (MSF) to 6.50 per cent, focusing on the further narrowing of LAF corridor to bring the operating target of the… Continue reading RBI’s Liquidity Management: A Technical Analysis

From media coverage it would seem that the future of Indian business has been revealed and it’s all about New Age Ventures. Technology backed with innovative business models, set up by first gen entrepreneurs sourcing not just growth but prototyping too with external capital. The reality is vastly different. The brunt of our business continues… Continue reading Are SMEs Fulfilling their Potential?

Start ups cannot operate in a vacuum, they need a supporting eco-system to nurture them. Entrepreneurs have been setting up businesses in India since kingdom come. It is no secret that these entrepreneurs have originated from a dominant caste. How did this community sustain entrepreneurship over the ages? By developing a sustainable eco-system that matched… Continue reading Entrepreneurship in India – Then and Now

The only constant is change. And it really is. Change in work, in ideas, in place, in life; moving on, shifting identities, endless opportunities. However, change can also be at a personal level. To grow, to imbibe and to allow the mind and soul to accept, to agree and to create space and time for… Continue reading A Journey to Heal

Thanks to Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, and the recent US elections, I was reminded of the paradox of choice, popularly known as Buridan’s Ass (actually Aristotle’s dog) A satire on the work of the famous 14th century French priest/philosopher/scientist, Jean Buridan (He created the concept of Impetus and his work in physics,… Continue reading Defying Buridan’s Ass – Factoring “Free Will” in Decision Making and A.I.

The VUCA world is wreaking havoc on mental health. Change-induced stress is appearing frequently. Depression is a major illness caused by change-induced stress. Learning to cope with change will help people beat stress and depression. An epidemic of depression in the VUCA world? During a recent visit to my dentist, I was waiting for my… Continue reading Stress Induced Depression – An Illness of Epidemic Proportion

The Governor of North Dakota state in the US was recently asked to leave the state Senate because he was wearing jeans (notwithstanding the fact that he was wearing a formal jacket and dress shirt) Earlier this month an Indian High Court Chief Justice pulled up visitors for wearing Jeans and T Shirt in the… Continue reading The Semiotics of Formal Wear; or, Why Does the World Wear Croatian Fashion?

The issue of the bad loans (BL) problem in India has been festering like a sore for several years now. It is now being recognised by the Government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the influencers of public policy as an important issue that needs a fast resolution. To my mind, this is the… Continue reading The Bad Loans Problem: An Approach to a Solution

I got back to the world of marathons after a gap of six years. I participated in the 10km category with many questions in my mind; will I be able to do it? What will my timing be? Am I fit enough to participate or am I just being emotional and impetuous about it? Well!… Continue reading Marathon – A RACE of Life

Men take charge and women take care of the family is a social messaging that starts from an early age in Indian societies. When asked ‘What comes to your mind when you think of the term ‘woman,’ I have heard the majority of men respond by saying ‘mother, wife, sister, daughter…’ It is not surprising… Continue reading Career Success Versus Social Identity – A Woman’s Dilemma

When my sister and I were growing up, the kitchen clearly seemed to be the arch-enemy of self-respecting women. Around me, there appeared to be only two types of women: nondescript mousy housewives who did nothing but cook, and gloriously glamorous ones who went to that exciting place called “office”. Housewives. Sweaty slaves of the… Continue reading The Choices Women Make

At the convent school where I studied in Delhi in the ‘fifties, class began with the prayer “our father who art in heaven….” the set of words were simple, understandable, sensible, save that the prayer was traceable to the Bible. The students of this school, had a moral compass embedded in their impressionable minds that… Continue reading India, Hindustan, Bharat

“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” — Albert Einstein on Mahatma Gandhi. In a global survey on the most effective leader of the 20th century, the one name that stood far ahead was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader we call… Continue reading Why did we Kill Gandhi?

It must have been love but it’s over now, from the time that we met to the time I ran out… these lines adequately sum up a lot of our life experiences; of moving on, of changing tracks, of walking a different path, of doing other things. Except that the love doesn’t end. Walking out… Continue reading What Takes us Forward

Spot the differences and likely you will end up seeing many more similarities, quite like the two pictures game we play even today. What do we do? We carefully look for the differences and count them, usually six. Isn’t life similar? Stop for a moment and look around. I did and found around me very… Continue reading Spot the Differences Around You – Celebrate Them

This write up is not about demonetisation or about how the demonetisation has disrupted the country and the economy. Nor is it about blaming the government, the Reserve Bank of India or the entire banking system. It is about us; We the People (of India). It is about our behaviour and how it showed different… Continue reading We the People

I learned very early in my life that everything has a code. And it had to be followed. My extremely loving and generous parents were hard taskmasters. Our life was full of music and books and movies and picnics and holidays yet we were expected to know our boundaries. We were never told what we… Continue reading Code of Conduct

Mittar Pyare Nu Haal Mureedan Da Kehna Tudh Bin Rog Rajaian Da Odhan Nag Nivasan De Rehna Sul Surahi Khanjar Pyala Bing Kasaian Da Sehna Yaarare Da Sanu Sathar Changa Bhath Kherean Da Rehna Born on December 22nd, 1666, Guru Gobind, the tenth guru of the Sikhs inspires awe, gratitude, love, affection and deep respect.… Continue reading My Mitr – An Eternal Friend

India Inc. is advancing to be at the forefront of the global economy. The backbone of the economy is Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Their contribution is exemplary in terms of jobs creation, exports, and overall GDP. Almost 92 to 95 percent SMEs are family owned and managed businesses, not to forget that almost 70… Continue reading Family Governance – the Path of Progress for Indian Family Businesses

There is much in the air these days. E-Commerce is riding the waves. So much noise, just like when a new child is born. People want to name it, they want to give special significance to the features, and they want to imagine how the child will grow up, how it will change the world… Continue reading The Changing World of Manufacturing – Part II – The Advent of E-Commerce

The Changing World of Manufacturing –Part III – Length of Value Chains Manufacturing is the ultimate value chain, the chain that creates or generates the values that companies promise to their customers. Value chains are common features where organised activities are done in sequenced, co-ordinated, calibrated, measured ways to create finished products and services. In… Continue reading The Changing World of Manufacturing – Part III – Length of Value Chains

This is a topic that is currently bugging the middle classes in India. Unlike life insurance which has long term implications and hence not considered a suitable topic for discussion in everyday parlance, medical insurance has the potential for discussions and occupying time which otherwise may be passed in slumber. The concept of medical insurance… Continue reading Medical Insurance and the Welfare State

The modern world revolves around education. Many learned people have pointed out that India has remained backward mainly because of our low levels of literacy. This may be one way of keeping the uneducated masses continuously under the thumb of the “learned people.” Today’s world can be divided into three parts – the Learned World,… Continue reading Curriculum Development – A Continuous Headache

In a highly connected world the world of manufacturing is on a mission to rediscover its relevance and importance. The winds of change keep blowing, never for once relenting in their speed or intensity. Sometimes they may be subtle, for example, when the changeover from 1G to 2G was done, but sometimes violent, for example… Continue reading The Changing World of Manufacturing – Part I – Changing by the Dozen

When I was thinking about topics on which to blog one stood out like a sore thumb, or as a Pandora’s Box. Depends on which way you are looking at it. But look at it, one must. It will not go away, it will not lose its bite, and it will not lose its relevance,… Continue reading Feedback and its Place in Academics

Today’s news headlines informed us that Mr. Ratan Tata, in a speech in Gwalior, in the presence of Jyotiraditya Scindia, expressed concern over the alleged growing intolerance in the country, dubbing it “a curse we are seeing of late.” What prompted him to say these words? Since it is coming from an impeccable source of… Continue reading An Atmosphere of Intolerance in India

Come ye cynics! Admit that this is what you always thought. The job of education is to prepare you for a job…for life. And yet is that what is the purpose of education? What is education really? The lessons taught in a formal environment, by rote; or what you learn in the journey called life.… Continue reading Education Prepares You for Life or a Job?

As a young first year student in Mrs Malhotra’s Microeconomics class at Delhi University, the first lesson I learnt was that of Opportunity Cost. Explained through the ever popular Guns and Butter analogy, it made me understand that there is a cost attached to everything you do in life. And that is what you give… Continue reading Very Mushqil

E-commerce is e-tailing its way into the retail business at great speed. The impact of e-commerce on the retail revolution can be seen in different ways. In short e-commerce is likely to become the e-way for retail soon, if not already so in many places. For one, if the e-commerce is attached only to the… Continue reading Emerging E-commerce Businesses and Supply Chains

This surgical strike business has got a life of its own now. By itself, it was a revelation. That an army could, in such a short time, organise a wide ranging strike to neutralise and eliminate enemy personnel is a striking competency hitherto unknown. And that too the Indian army, which often is held back… Continue reading Surgical Strikes – The Multipurpose Tool for All Seasons and All Reasons

In the recently concluded World Cup for kabaddi in Ahmedabad, India once again emerged the champion. Iran came in second. This is one game in which the country has shown its calibre. Three years in a row. One reason could be because in kabaddi one has to resort to surgical strikes. And these days such… Continue reading Why is India the Champion in Kabaddi?

Shashank Manohar thought that he will play on a different pitch and hence decided to go to the nets at the ICC. The playing there may be easier, rid of the many bouncers that were getting thrown at the august body BCCI in India, from many quarters. The batting was becoming more and more difficult.… Continue reading Is BCCI Playing Cricket?

A bridge too far, or too costly, as per your view. This is the newest news amongst the many ones that is grabbing eyeballs about Karnataka driven events in the national press. I too blinked for a minute. A steel bridge? Gimme a break! For an untrained eye imagining a steel bridge is a stretch.… Continue reading The New Steel Bridge

Our SPJIMR Blog is nearly a month old. I took some time to write. I was reminded of that age-old saying: “Before you write, think”. I pondered over this. Then I decided I would write for the student community at large. The topic I have chosen is Monetary Policy Making in India: Guidance from the… Continue reading Monetary Policy Making in India: Guidance from the Monetary Policy Committee

A lot of searching and thinking has finally resulted in these few words (actually a lot more than a few). About ten months, ago I left the comfort of my home, my peaceful and familiar life, and above all my family, to try out a new position here at SPJIMR. A new city, new place,… Continue reading A Chapter of my Life

Of late surgeons and surgery seem to have eaten up a lot of mind space of Indian politicians. Some have had to brush up their knowledge of surgery to fathom the extent of the damage that India has inflicted on our friendly neighbour. Surgical strike is an armed forces technical term with a definition and… Continue reading Surgical Strikes and the Polity

I saw the TOI online today and my eyes almost popped out. Netizens, especially those with a funny bone, are seemingly getting naughty and imaginative. How else can you explain this ad in the Mock tail section? A dashing, coldish, cowboy type with a dabba of pan bahar! The moustache is classic Delhiwali, the suit… Continue reading The Power of Advertising

I don’t know when it was that you went to the last circus. Not to worry, even I can’t remember when I was under the big dome the last time. Must have been in Jamshedpur many years back, when one was in town for durga puja. A circus is a great curiosity for a child.… Continue reading In Praise of Circuses

When the world began, all that was known in terms of organised activity was agriculture. This was mainly because many people took it up as a way of life. The hunter got tired of nomadic life, the cave dweller started looking for a sunnier clime, the tribal got bored of climbing trees and picking the… Continue reading All for a Piece of Land

Very few of us are not tempted to enter the share market. The majority (or the losing majority) is forever itching to try its hand at the hustings. In some unfortunate cases this “hand” soon becomes a leg, followed by the shirt, the pant, the house and thus it goes the litany of woes. In… Continue reading Stock Market or Shock Market?

There was a time when companies used to produce one or two products and sell them in a welcoming market. The Ford Model T comes to mind. Beginning there, we have come a long way. In companies like HUL, which has a string of brands – I hope the top management is aware of all… Continue reading The New Paradigm in Operations Management

Every year, we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti at Abhyudaya. This year, two of our children enacted a skit. It was a conversation between a goatherd and his goat. I found it both imaginative and thought-provoking. Here’s how the skit goes: The goatherd is cruel and doesn’t take care of the goat’s welfare. The goat decides to… Continue reading What the Goat said to the Goatherd

On Gandhi’s birth anniversary and as the government designs its global communications after the horrific Uri incident, I am tempted to recall his response in the face of great provocation. In many ways, Gandhi was a journalist first and a politician later. He ran and published weeklies which made no profit, but also made no… Continue reading Gandhi was an Expert Campaign Manager

A computer teacher in a Chinese B-School has found out a method to read the degree of attention a student in his class is paying to his lecture. An Editor of the Times of India has thought it fit to print this gem in the edit page of the Mumbai edition on Sep.15. So this… Continue reading A Chinese Professor and his Invention – the Lighter Side

Sunday mornings are always looked forward to. One, it is after a Saturday. Two, it is the day when you decide to get some catch-up work done, based on the to-do list which is usually drawn up through the week. Shops have to be visited, deep corners of the house have to be cleaned, friends… Continue reading On a Sunday Morning, the To-Do List and other Matters

After a lot of political manoeuvring and chest thumping, the GST bill has been passed and the run in fact has been so fast that the President has already signed the bill before anyone could say “Timbuktu”. One is reminded of the popular Rajnikant joke that he came first as usual; Einstein was stunned that… Continue reading What effect will the GST have on business?

The House of Godrej has a lineage of over 100 years. The original Godrej was a locksmith and the business of locks continues into the 21st century extending from locks to latches to security equipment, leveraging the core promise of the brand which is security and reliability. As the basis for security and reliability is… Continue reading Application of Prof Govindrajan’s 3 Box Solution

A Rap song presented by me as part of Teachers’ Day celebrations along with SPJIMR students: It’s the macrorap, the monsta’rap, Give you as it is….. cutting all the crap! (Chorus), Yo people hear it from the horse’s mouth, Why prices go north and never go south! What I take you through today is inflation,… Continue reading Macro Rap

If the words lean and transformation are put together to form “Lean Transformation”, the result is an intimidating scenario. While anorexia nervosa was in fashion many years back, and transformation is still being talked about and in use, lean transformation, LT for short, is neither intimidating nor about slimming. It is all about eliminating waste… Continue reading Lean Transformation and Indian Industry

This blog is the third in the series based on the book The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross. This blog shares thoughts on Big Data. If “land was the raw material of the agricultural age, iron was the raw material of the industrial age, data is the raw material of the information age.… Continue reading Are We Future Ready-III?

I remember the day when I thought of buying a Mercedes Benz. The year was 1976; I was 23 then, had a salary of Rs. 1,400 per month, with little financial strength at home. Without any regard to my financial standing, I said I wanted to drive a Mercedes. Some time later, I was with… Continue reading Dreams are Powerful

Brand Modi or ‘NaMo’ as he is titled was built over time. A ‘chaiwala’ from a humble background was positioned as a mass brand and enjoyed credibility among people because of his work in Gujarat. On the other side is Brand ‘RaGa,’ who has a family legacy and is definitely not a ‘mass’ brand. He… Continue reading Building Brand ‘Namo’

An accident involving Tesla’s much coveted autopilot programmed car has given rise to a host of issues around driverless cars. Imagine a future where hordes of fully autonomous cars take over our streets. In that same future, a car cruising at 150 miles per hour develops a technical snag, reboots automatically and in the melee… Continue reading Of Paradoxes and Human Errors: Implications of Driverless Cars

As I was listening to my ex-student, sipping coffee in my campus cabin, talking about his decision to quit his new start-up venture, I wondered ‘why was this happening?’ He was a pedigree professional; from a premier engineering college, with 2 years work-experience in a consulting firm, and an MBA from a prestigious institute. He… Continue reading Watch out Start-ups!

Many of us read, openly or secretly, agony aunt columns where the aunt offers advise to lesser minions who have dared to share their problems openly (semi openly, one might say, as the identity is never fully revealed in a newspaper where such columns usually appear. The names could be fictitious, the problem could be… Continue reading The World of Agony Aunts

Many of us read, openly or secretly, agony aunt columns where the aunt offers advice to lesser minions who have dared to share their problems openly (semi openly, one might say, as the identity is never fully revealed in a newspaper where such columns usually appear. The names could be fictitious, the problem could be… Continue reading Agony Aunts, Personal Counsellors and an Unsettled Mind

What do we want from life? How is life treating us? There are often times when such questions hit us ‘head-on’ as we traverse through various stages of our lives. At a young age in particular, such questions can be perplexing at best, unnerving at worst. The ‘ebb and flow’ of life, times, relationships, careers,… Continue reading Making a Living, Making a Life!

Three reports coming in the last week, two from the government and one from the RBI have reminded us of the problems of reconciliation of macroeconomic data put out by different agencies regarding the direction of the economy. The RBI, on Sept 10, 2016 released its monthly bulletin for September 2016, while the government on… Continue reading Whither the Economy

What is a typical referral programme? You buy a product. You love it. The company tells you to share your love for it with your friends in return for lots of discounts and happiness. You share your referral code with your network. They buy, you get more of the product with less and less. Makes… Continue reading The Strangest Referral Programme — Sarda Farms

Here in the next paragraph are snatches from the textbook ‘Philosophy’ authored by Bryan Greetham that I picked up and read almost a decade ago. Philosophy teaches us to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by the hesitation. It asks us to accept doubts and uncertainty and search beyond the narrow confines of… Continue reading Where Are My Limits?

Class participation in management schools is an oft-used means of student engagement. By and large, all management models and frameworks have room for interpretation when viewed from different contexts. Participation draws the students into a conversation through which the topic being taught can be analysed in various real life contextual settings. Now, most will agree… Continue reading Using Twitter for Class Participation

A long time ago, someone had asked me what I liked. I had responded: planes, cars and computers. All those have something in common – they are very graceful. I want to talk about this grace today. If you have ever stood on the Western Express highway across the Mumbai airport runway opposite Milan subway,… Continue reading The Idea of Grace

Moving from the era of mass production to mass customisation, coupled with emergence of the service economy have made today’s supply chains extremely complex. How to provide superior customer experience as well as achieve better efficiency in this highly complex environment is the key challenge faced by supply chain managers all over the world. Though… Continue reading SPJIMR- POMS Conference: A New Milestone

Shopper marketing is an exciting new discipline within the marketing and retailing domain. While many definitions exist, a simplistic one which captures the essence of the domain is “all marketing stimuli, developed based on a deep understanding of shopper behavior, designed to build brand equity, engage the shopper (i.e., a customer in ‘shopping mode’), and… Continue reading Shopper Marketing: An Emerging Discipline

The tenets of human resource management are fundamental and overarching. However, the complexities of practice differ significantly across business organisations and business schools. This is largely context driven. Some of these distinctions can also be seen within business organisations i.e large product companies versus advertising agencies. The basic difference that I have observed is the… Continue reading HR in a Business V/s a Business School

Trust the Dean of SPJIMR to come out with a very interesting idea. He asked all of us hardworking professors to study a book and make a presentation on what we learnt. Not a bad idea, but, initially, many of us may have felt that he is not helping us at all, what with the… Continue reading ‘We Are On A Roll’

How do you read and play with ideas in a book? Well, you pick it up and read it, page by page and reflect. How do you read 10 books at one go, in one sitting, in a span of six hours? You come to the SPJIMR faculty lounge! That’s what all of us faculty… Continue reading Reinventing SPJIMR

In 2001, I had achieved considerable early success as a teacher and executive educator. I had also recently been blessed with a child, who was a year old at that time. I conducted a workshop for sales managers of a leading consumer product company. Early on, it emerged that one of the participants was a… Continue reading The Teacher and the Learner Mindset

I recently read the book on “Leadership BS” written by Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organisational behaviour who is an expert on the subject of power and leadership. The book speaks about how leadership really works versus what is preached and propagated. The chapter on “Authenticity: Misunderstood and Overrated” made me think: we often use… Continue reading Demystifying Authenticity

A good teacher is one who can connect with her audience. Some of the prerequisites for such a teacher are 1) subject knowledge and 2) a good understanding of the audience. Both these can change over time. If a teacher has to remain good over time, the challenge is to be current about the subject… Continue reading Keeping Current

The question on how and why the public sector does a better job of retaining women managers compared to the private sector is a thorny one, particularly when posed to a panel that comprises mostly private sector leaders. But the question got asked at the podium as SPJIMR launched the Management Programme for Women, the… Continue reading Learning from the Public Sector

Recently, I delivered the first lecture to the new batch of PGDM students. I spoke about a 14-year old girl; a student of Std 10, who is very interested in science and loves doing experiments and learning. She comes from a family that cannot afford to send her for a science camp, or to learn… Continue reading How Do You See the World?

Dr. Peter Cunningham, Professor Emeritus, Senior Researcher Unit for Higher Education Internationalization in the developing world at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, spoke at the HEF Teachers’ Day celebration. His thoughts on the teachers of tomorrow are worth sharing. There are 3 ‘S’s of a teacher: First is the self-giving character of a teacher. This… Continue reading The Teachers of Tomorrow

“What is the generation gap?” I asked. Suddenly, there was an awkward silence. After a few seconds, some whispering started. I was taking a class on ‘Family Issues’ for our FMB students. The topic of discussion was the challenges of the younger generation, particularly vis-a-vis the family, while getting inducted in the family business. I… Continue reading Decoding the Generation Gap

Everyone works hard to engage audiences, drive learning and leave a lasting impression. There are several pedagogical approaches to holding attention, particularly over a longer stretch of time. How do you strike the right chord? My experience over 20 years of engaging with audiences is to be authentic, passionate and witty. Fun and wit need… Continue reading Humour as a Part of Pedagogy

The much awaited formal launch date for RelJio’s 4G services has been announced and the media has gone to town about disruption in the telecom service industry. In line with classic strategy, examples like the entry of successful low cost airlines on new routes which provides an opportunity for a ‘short sell’ of the incumbent… Continue reading Reliance Jio, the ‘Disrupter’

Our Dean’s ability to come up with interesting ideas that actually work led me to read the book ‘Leadership BS’ by Jeffrey Pfeffer in less than 16 hours in what was a ‘no pit stop’ mode and in the face of a lot of angry posturing by the family on what was supposed to be… Continue reading Leadership BS : The Search Within

In Japan, if you enter a large departmental store in a busy tourist district, it is very likely a humanoid will usher you in and walk with you to address your shopping needs. In Germany, robots operate more than 90 per cent of the BMW plant’s assembly line. Futurists hasten to predict that a majority… Continue reading An Agenda for Educators

Dance, I believe, is the most beautiful and lucid form of self-expression. Dance has the power to be therapeutic. Dance has the ability to relieve, relax and restore! I have myself experienced a changing state of mind and body whenever I have broken into spontaneous and free dancing in response to some great music which… Continue reading Dance for Yourself

I encountered a ‘Black Swan’ recently. The term has been used by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (NNT) as a metaphor for ‘random’ events that underlie our lives, in his best-seller book ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’. Though old, the book ranks among one of the best I have read. In fact, Taleb… Continue reading Of Black Swans and Tigers: The Power of Episteme

I watched her animated face as she spoke her mind. She said ‘I had two offers on campus and only two people in my life advised me to make the tougher choice. You were one of them. I have no idea why I chose the tougher one, but I did! Yes you asked me to… Continue reading Teacher, A Joy, But…They did it, Not Me!

I was speaking to a third generation family business owner, whose Rajasthan-based family firm had been making hand-made custom jewelry for the Maharajas for over 100 years. I was trying to understand the reasons for his success, as a part of my research on innovation in family businesses. As a part of my research, I… Continue reading In the Luxury Industry, Family Businesses Lead

Strong brands are assets to the business as they earn a premium and create consumer preference. People trust brands which form the basis of their purchase intention and loyalty over time. Branding as a discipline borrows heavily from the social sciences and psychology. Strong brands are not created just through product design and communication but… Continue reading The ‘6E’ Framework for Building Brands

Corporate executive, consultant, academician, trainer, sociologist, philosopher, forecaster, author, management guru, thought leader…. The adjectives are endless, the background eclectic and the output of books prolific. That’s Charles Handy for you. At 84 years, he is razor sharp and his latest book The Second Curve bears testimony to this. In the book, he anticipates major… Continue reading Some Reflections on Handy’s ‘Second Curve’

What is in store for me in the future? The approaches to find the answer range from gazing into the crystal ball to a systematic study of the present and reasonable forecast of the future. In ‘The Industries of the Future’, Alec Ross (2016) identifies some interesting ideas whose time has come and would reach… Continue reading Are We Future Ready-I?

“This work is unacceptable! Surely you are capable of more hard work!” I remembered saying this to my niece… perhaps sometimes a watered down version of it to a student too. I was sitting in the recently held workshop in the faculty lounge when I thought about this. The team from the Center of Creative… Continue reading I Want to Help, Does This Help?

What’s going on with the world? The media hype is now on to driverless cars ever since Elon Musk announced his intention to remove the driver from the front seat. Appears that Elon was having difficulties in driving or learning to drive, so he decided to remove the obstacle. I remember the way I learnt… Continue reading Driverless Cars, Pilotless Planes…Soulless Life

A few months back, I teamed up with Snehal Shah and R Gopalakrishnan to put together a workshop on thought leadership for our faculty. The workshop revealed many things, but put us firmly on a journey. We reaffirmed our faith in the depth and breadth of shared wisdom that exists in the faculty body. We… Continue reading ‘Knowledge, Vibrancy, Originality’

Even in his wildest dreams would James Watt have never known what he had wrought in 1761. By inventing and patenting the steam engine he had let loose the monster called “industrial revolution” into an unsuspecting world. The rolling that he started gathered a huge momentum when Henry Ford assembled his famous assembly line and… Continue reading The Industrial World – And What It Implies

India is a 2 trillion economy now. Britain is a little higher with Germany being a little further ahead. India still remains an anachronism in that more than 25 % of its GDP is from agriculture, while the contribution from agriculture in all developed economies is around 2 %. Our GDP per capita is one… Continue reading Will Developing Countries Ever Catch Up With Developed Countries?

WhatsApp is an active platform, perhaps the most active one, amongst the modern day public platforms – Facebook, e-mails, blogs, LinkedIn, linked out and whatnot. You keep getting messages which you may not have asked for. Many people take pleasure in forwarding. In fact, Whatsapp has a given a whole new meaning to “forward” which… Continue reading On Leadership

As they say, MBA education is as old as the newly formed hills, comparatively speaking. The origins of the MBA education can be traced back to the USA, with the Wharton school being the pioneer, starting off in 1881 followed by the illustrious Tuck School at Dartmouth and the one and only Harvard Business School.… Continue reading MBA Education in India – What is in Store for the Future? ( PART I )

Recently I saw an article in a newspaper website where Chetan Bhagat has written something about the “Reality Dance Shows.” The term “Reality Show” is a contradiction, an oxymoron, with less oxygen than what the “oxy” could indicate. Participants are pre-decided, they practise their lives off, come to the venue fully prepared, some even discuss… Continue reading Dance Shows on TV – To Be or Not To Be?

Contiued from the earlier blog: “MBA Education in India – what is in store for the future (PART I )” by the same author. There are three main impacting forces. First, the attention span of students is reducing with the advent of social media, instant ‘like’s and ‘thumbs down’ buttons, mobile android phones, a fast-paced… Continue reading MBA Education in India – What is in Store for the Future (PART II)

This blog is the second in the series based on the book The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross. This blog shares thoughts on coded money, markets and cyber security. The journey of money that moved from coins-cash-cheques-plastic cards is on the cusp of a change in the form of digital money or coded… Continue reading Are we Future Ready-II?

As a result of my recent association, I have been visiting SPJIMR now for four months. SPJIMR is not the first management institute or set of faculty I have interacted with. I have chaired one institute, been on the governing board of three others at various points of time, and spoken at over thirty institutes.… Continue reading Two Eyes of a Great Institution

In India, both income-based poverty definition and consumption-based poverty statistics are in use. Each state in India has its own poverty threshold to determine how many people are below its poverty line to reflect varying regional economic conditions. The urban slum communities living in poor conditions are affected by deep rooted social problems such as… Continue reading Changing Scenario in Urban Slum Communities

Armed terrorism causing destruction to life and property has been in vogue for some time now in parts of the world. The only saving grace is that the expression “parts of the world” can still be used. This is because the area of terror is just now confined to the favourite places – Afghanistan, India,… Continue reading Terrorism in the Modern World