E-magazine Of The Department Of Mhrm, Iiswbm_july09

The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left. ~Jerry M. Wright Well, then the second sign of maturity would be when you discover that you can,eventually, turn off the volume knob and create your own music!!! That’s exactly what the past 6 months has taught E$mag!ne. Yes ! the little baby is half a year old now. The bygone months have been heartening & stirring in their real terms,with learning occasions at every cranny and each bend that we have surpassed on the way. And we do hope with utmost optimism, that with your interminable support and candid feedback, the approaching months too, would be a worthwhile journey. Like the previous months, E$mag!ne, July 2009 also promises a host of articles in the regular sections. The Campus Byte this month updates you on the recent buzz in the college i.e the advent of our successors, the fresh batch of first years. For all those brains who just cant get enough of “Ace the Case”, this month, E$mag!ne features two cases. One from the “Faculty’s Desk” and the other from our very own “Ace the Case”. Q$Quotient this month is enthralled with a special guest on$board, the runners$up for the Tata Crucible Business Quiz 2009, Campus Edition. With the fresh set of questions this month which has a unique tinge of “Bengal” in it , we also have the answers to the Q$Quotient of June 2009 and our very first winner for the same. Congratulation, Dear Friend!

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And once again, our heartfelt gratitude and earnest appreciation to all those wonderful people who mean a lot to E$mag!ne. Stay On$board .. E$mag!ne needs you from here till infinity…

Happy reading !

Warm Regards

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# From the Faculty Desk………………………..……..……..5 # From the Alumni Desk…………………......………….…..8 # Friends from Yonder……………………..……..………..11

# Meeting People$ The Human Resource………….….…..14 # Technological Innovations and the service sector......…..16 # Games the First Boss should play with Fresh Recruits from

Colleges and Universities…………………………….…..20 # Q$Quotient……………………….......................................…25 # Ace the Case………………………..……………….…....28 # Campus Bytes…………………………………...……….35 # Voice Box……………………………………………….36

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Professor Madhumita Mohanty “Search beyond Success” – A Real Life Case Study Ian Trophe born in 1982 in Sydney became a celebrity in free style swimming as a teenager. He represented Australia at the age of 14, the youngest to represent, though he started swimming at the age of 7 only due to chlorine allergy. Ian in his relatively short career broken 22 world records, won 11 world championships, 10 commonwealth gold medals, five gold, three silver and one bronze in two successive Olympics. On first day of Sydney Olympics competition BBC Sport wrote, "They need a new dictionary to contain all superlatives that will be lavished on Ian Thorpe after the first day in swimming pool that rewrote swimming history. Such was the domination in freestyle event that he was expected to have just one opponent in the final, the clock, and it was proved to be." Nicknamed as ‘Thorpedo’, he is regarded as one of the best in the sports in 21 century. Due to his illness and injury, and lack of motivation, he has not competed in any major international event since Athens Olympics. He had planned a year long break after Athens, claiming “mentally fatigue”, saying he wanted to stay fresh for major competition down the road. He decided not to compete further and then dropped out of Commonwealth games in March due to a bout of glandular fever.

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Suddenly at the age of 24, on 21st November, 2006, Thorpe retired from the competitive swimming, saying “breaking records was not as inspiring as it should have been.” He did quit the game because he realized that swimming was no longer the most important thing in his life. In one Sunday afternoon he decided, “I would not be swimming in the world championship. It is also a very difficult decision that I am actually going to discontinue my professional swimming career. It has been a tough decision to make. I had to pick up a time and that was the time. None of my goals included breaking any more world records. I knew how to do it. It no more motivates me.” He added, “I needed a closing point, so I looked at my watch and that was the time, it is as simple as that. I was catapulted to international limelight as a kid. I have reached all dizzying heights of this sport. I have a tremendous amount of success.” Ian Thorpe will be remembered for his abrupt manner of his retirement, like an unfinished symphony, a decision to quit on his own terms, possibly like Bill Lorry, captain of Australian Cricket Team in late 1960s. He realized, “Swimming has been a security blanket. I have not balanced out of my life. I realized I had to prioritize other things and had to let swimming take backseat – I am looking at next phase.” On possibilities of his being in Beijing Olympics’08, he once replied, “I never rule anything out but it is not going to happen.” He realized that he has so much to offer in so many years of his life and he has been able to celebrate the fact that he is only 24, and hence he can look beyond taking a whole new range of challenges for himself. After he threw his towel in swimming arena, he devoted his time to his own trust, “Fountain for youth” he formed in 2000, a non$profitable charitable organization for the purpose of research and treatment of childhood illness. He also sponsored a school in Beijing for orphan children. "Fountain for youth" also works with Fred Hollam Foundation to improve health condition of Australian aboriginal communities. He has always wanted to do things differently to achieve the best results he wanted. This “Fountain for youth” is a means for embracing humanity by nurturing children in need, and for inspiring people who want to make life better for others and for lending a hand to improve health and education and for providing equal opportunities for children of tomorrow to prosper. "It is the power within each one of us that can make positive change of someone else’s life.”$ He mentioned with courage of conviction.

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Questions

1.What has Ian Thorpe lost in giving up his swimming career and what has he gained instead? 2. How does Maslow’s model of motivation explain and justify his behavior? 3. What do you think might have prompted Ian Thorpe to change his entire outlook on life? Knowing what you know, do you think his change in behavior was a gradual process building within him or is it possible that some sort of crisis situation suddenly affected this change? 4. How McClelland’s theory of needs fit in with this situation where McClelland’s theory emphasizes achievement, power, and affiliation as the primary motivators in any situation? 5. Is there a state of inequity that exists in Ian Thorpe’s case? Is it a state of positive or negative inequity? Explain with the help of J. Stacy Adams’ Equity theory of motivation. 6. Why did he think one can embrace humanity by nurturing the children? Do you think that the fact that Ian Thorpe is from Australia, a different culture in comparison to Indian culture, has something to do with his decision to change his life style and behavior?

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Koushik Roy, MHRM 2007$ 2007$ 09 Talentship The word Talentship is related to measurement of work. The evolution of HR and HR measurement requires a measurable science factor for human capital that truly informs and enhances decisions about human resources wherever they are made. The term "talent ship" was coined from the emerging decision science, by combining the word "stewardship" with the word "talents," which focuses on the hidden and apparent talents of current and potential employees. The new decision science will provide today's focus on delivering excellent HR programs and processes, by providing a framework to identify what decisions about human capital are most crucial, and how to connect those decisions logically to organization effectiveness People, intellectual capital and talent are ever more critical to organizational strategic success. Today, top executive are quick to point out that managing talent well is their personal concern. The Decision science provides a logical, reliable, and consistent framework that enhances about key resources, where this decision is made. Decision

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science does not rigidly provide action but provide a system to identify and analyze key decision issue, adapting to the unique information and characteristic of the specific context. Paradoxically, the most important effect of decision sciences are outside the professional function itself, as manager’s employees, shareholder, s and other learn to consistently improve their own decision about their financial and customer resources. All decision that depends upon or affect people within organization can be described in three elements impact, effectiveness and efficiency. In Talentship “impact” concerns “how much strategy will be successful by providing right kind of talent pool?” Traditionally, HR organizations are more prone towards “effectiveness” than impact, tracking the impact of HR programs on such things such as performance rating, competencies culture and attitude. Today’s HR measures focus on employees efficiency work output per head count, cost per hire, training hours per employee, HR functional cost as a percentage of revenue. Indian companies are also implementing this Talentship and Talent pool concepts. M eritTrac Services, one of India’s skills assessment companies, has come out with some startling facts after a comprehensive study on the “MBA talent pool” conducted by its analytics team. The study revealed that MBA grads score low on communication skills. Only 23 percent of the management talent is employable and that Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai account for 50 per cent of the MBA pool. In terms of the performance of the MBA talent pool, Mumbai tops the chart as the best city to hire an MBA from due to its flashes of brilliance. Kolkata emerges as the next best place due to its consistent performance across tests. Despite millions of unemployed workers there is acute shortage of talent. Companies search for people who make the difference between 20 percent and 10 percent annual growth or profit and loss. Critical talent is scarce and is increasing due to growing skill gap. “Critical Talent” refers to the group and individuals that drive a proportion share of their companies’ business performance and generate a greater than average value for customer and shareholder’s companies’ critical talent possesses highly developed skills and deep knowledge.

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In Europe there is a shift to knowledge based economy. Out of total industry, 7 percent of employment in manufacturing and 35 percent of services is knowledge based economy. In Europe the estimated skill gap has increased from 160,000 in 2005 to 500,000 in 2008.This represents a skill gap percentage of total demand of 8.1 percent in 2005 to 15.8 percent in 2008. There is a sharp decrease in the students pursuing science and engineering graduate in Europe. So, they have to attract graduate from other countries. By 2050 , 60 percent total working population will be over 60. While 42 percent of students in China earn undergraduate degrees in science and engineering, only 5 percent of U.S.students do so. The same condition prevails also in India and other countries. There is a gap between persons who are joining the industries and the requirement level. So, the talentship and different types of work measurement are important for estimating human potential of a country. Unless we can measure the potential of our Human Resources correctly it will be very hard to implement future plans of the organization.

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TALENT PLANNING-In the Phase of Economic Downturn A company is hit by constraints not the only in recession, but also when it faces downfall even in normal market conditions. To sustain the level of competence perpetually, the companies follow the talent planning procedures. Talent planning is an ongoing process. It starts from the time company lays down plan for hiring new people on board. The search can either be for any person who is capable of doing the job or for a person who can do the job well, fits into the organization and exhibits values of commitment, competence and progress. Recruitment procedure are stereotypical with the first type of procedure. The quality of recruitment is more evident in the second procedure, where the recruiter has to delve into the characteristics of the applicant to be able to find the best candidate. Companies prefer to follow simple HRD procedure rather than going for a long talent management cycle. The gap created by this ideology leads to inability to retain people in uncontrollable circumstances. The lookout should be for people who can contribute to the growth of the

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company and simultaneously be responsible for their own growth. Basic requirements of the job can be matched with the applicants’ abilities at the time of recruitment, the requirement of their talent can only be known in due course of time. “The element of uncertainty is what drives futuristic organizations towards talent planning and drives incompetent organizations away from talent planning.” Definition: Talent Planning is about attracting more of the right people, a versatile approach to gathering sophisticated intelligence about markets and people who are able to make positive things happen. It allows employers to understand the career aspirations of the people they might need to hire, work out what they want from an employer and learn how to attract them more effectively. With the ultimate goal of delivering high caliber individuals to businesses that need them, Talent Planning can be applied in a number of creative ways to give executives improved insight into the competitive talent landscape, in preparation for making better informed human resourcing decisions – whether those decisions concern individual hires or strategic plans. Trying to restrict the water just below the head level may give a chance of analyzing the available avenues. The tedious task is to call out for the right help. Knowing what the competitors’ strategies can be an over enjoyed state of knowledge. The real empowerment comes when the competition comes from within, and when the constant effort is put to raise the self standards. Recession, is a phase of an industry when the organizations go through an introspection as a whole. The insight into self leads to revealing one’s strengths of firm standing and weaknesses against competitors. It is, indeed, a rat race to observe as each participant has two things on mind a

Who is charging to the front?, and

b

Who is out of the race?

The one with the talent obviously wins. The real question is ‘how can companies assure themselves that they are still in the race? People responsible for building the talent pool of the company need to go through an intellectually equipped process. They have to thoroughly research through the process of •

Selecting the right candidate

•

Giving them the right kind of training

•

Creating an environment of progress and sustainability.

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An adept team of talent planning discreetly generate a blue print of ‘right talent’ of the company and communicate it to their organizations in such a way that while selecting from the finalists of new recruits, they know the likely outcome of their respective performances. The selection thus should be made with a long term perspective so that intermediary phases of difficulties can be resolved as planned. With no fault of a particular organization, during recession, companies slide into financial constraints, where the employees are not given that extra income. Acquisition of the talent reservoir helps to come out of these financial constraints instead of being merely a liability. The criteria for rational decision making for determining compensation can be catered to the following: •

Matching the skills set with the Job requirement: Redundancy created due to the

tendency of compensating stand bys should be meticulously avoided. •

Flexible and Adaptable: In a slowing down phase, firms can go through relocation

and downsizing. The only people who survive are the employees that without any hesitance adjust to the change •

Wage Standards: Setting and comparing differences in skills sets to the differences

in the wage standards, pertaining to industry compensation differentials. Basically, the worth should be compensated, instead of simply compensating what the company is worth. An effective planning program instills loyalty and performance in employees through activities pertaining to brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand relationship. Thus, Talent planning prepares is a proactive approach which enables an organization to progress strategically and successfully.

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Kirti Agarwal, MHRM 2008$ 2008$10 Hello friends! In this article I would like to share my experience of meeting various types of people in course of my Summer Project. As a part of my Summer Internship Project (SIP) I had to visit various branches/offices of a Public Sector Bank to administer the questionnaires which I had prepared for the purpose. I started my branch visits in the first week of June along with two other friends who were also making the visits for the same purpose. At that time temperature in Kolkata was soaring around 40 degree Celsius and the rain gods were in no mood to make their appearances felt. In the scorching heat,we reached our first destination in Dalhousie where the person concerned told us to drop in our questionnaires and he would get it filled from the different officers. That was great! – We thought and we gave him around 20 questionnaires each to be filled. Feeling happy we came out and thought it was going to be simple but that was just an illusion as you people will come to know as you read through this article…. Our next destination was one of the main branches of the bank. When we went their and the chief manager was almost petrified to see us. The first thing he told us “Why have you people come to increase my work load? Please leave me out of all this”. We could understand his problem as the branch was suffering from a power cut and the heat as well as the work load was driving the people crazy out there. It would have been wise on our part to immediately leave from their but we thought that since we had come so far, we must try to

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give our questionnaires to at least 3$4 more officers. The result was that one them seeing us shouted ‘JAA’ meaning GO and didn’t let us come anywhere near him. We were all shocked. He later realized how rude he was, so he said ‘MAA (girl in Bengali) you come later’ When we went to the head office, the security guards would not let us enter. We tried to explain, that we have come for some official purpose and that we also had the authorized letter but still he would not listen. Then one of my friends with a lightening speed took out the letter, showed him the word CO$OPERATE and began explaining the meaning when one of the officers (who had filled our questionnaire) came to our rescue. The guard very reluctantly and with a frown on his face allowed us to enter, as if we were some terrorists! On entering we found that there were several officers but we were confused whom to start with? I saw a young guy (an unusual sight in a PSU bank where the average age of people is between 48$50 years) and thought that he would be co$operative. But on the contrary, he asked us that why should he impart with all the information about the bank & about himself as if we were from some Income Tax department! We again explained him that he had nothing to worry about as we were just doing a survey for our project. He was still not convinced. He was scared with the fact that he is new in the bank and a single mistake would cost him his job so we told him not to give his name in the questionnaire and be rest assured that the information would be used for the project purpose only. Finally he understood… PHEW! Many people asked random questions about our college, the admission procedure there, the placement scenario etc, as they had sons/daughters of our age. Some of the people were very co$operative and willing to help whereas others not only refuse to fill our questionnaires but also lost them. So we had to again provide them with another copy (mind it these photocopies burnt a hole in my pocket). When we told them that whether they could get some photocopy done at their place (after all they had only lost it) they told us that they had a photocopy machine but there was no one to operate and if we can operate it, we could help ourselves. Hearing this, we at first looked at each others faces and then our purses and then went to the machine to try our hands at it. We were so amused that as part of the SIP we also had to learn to operate a photocopy machine. Nevertheless we started, tried a few tricks, few pages were bad but THEN can u believe it guys, we were actually taking out proper photocopies! By the end of the third week we finally completed our visits. It was such a varied experience to meet so many people with different views, different attitude and of course to learn a whole lot of banking work.

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“I n novat io n is t he c entr al issue in ec o nomic pr osper it y” $

Mic hael Por t er

‘Innovation is defined as a process by which varying degrees of measurable value enhancement is planned and achieved, in any commercial activity. Traditionally, most of the discussion of the management of innovation has been based on manufacturing industry. However, the service sector is now of major importance in many countries of the world. The Indian service sector is a rapidly growing contributing to around 54% of the GDP growth per year according to recent statistics. So in such an important sector technological innovation plays a key role. Services Innovation is mainly about creating newer experiences for the consumer using new technology, changed processes and more importantly, improved human factors. It is the design and delivery of new services, more efficiently in a fail$proof manner. Indian organizations can innovate in services not only to exploit those innovations within the country but to export those service innovations as well. The Indian service sector(as covered in this Article) •

Finance & Banking

•

Education /Knowledge

•

Retail

•

Health

•

Tourism

•

IT/ITES Financial /Banking

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The future of Indian banking lies in increased investment in technology platforms and a greater focus on end$to$end solutions provided by IT majors like core banking products, vertical specific CRM and risk management software. Now a customer has various options available with him like internet banking, mobile banking, ATMs (automated teller machines), phone banking which offers 24 X 7 banking. ATMs have revolutionalized the banking sector by making cash and other banking services available to customers at all times. Education Education in the 21st century has evolved from just being restricted to the walls of the classroom teaching to being present at the fingertips of each every individual with the hunger for Knowledge.. A testimonial to this progress is the idea of Educomp. The Company provides its technology based education products and services to both private and public schools. It leverages its strong understanding of the technology and education needs of schools to deliver high quality, cost effective products and services. Retail Sector The innovation revolution in retail is steadily taking shape in India. Some of the key innovations include: •

Customer identification using RFID: This involves identifying customers by issuing

them smart cards embedded with smart chips. These cards would be RFID enabled and would give information regarding the customer like his preferences, shopping behavior etc. •

E$Catalog based selling: Here a limited range of merchandise is available in$store,

while the range of a hyper format is made available through self browse kiosks. •

Mobile Point of Sale (POS): This would enable the purchase of goods while putting

them in a shopping cart. The customer would be spared the hassle of standing in long queues. •

Digital Signage: Static signboards have not proved beneficial in terms of helping a

customer track a product. Digital signboards integrated with an automated tracking system can make this easier. •

Intelligent database: A detailed database of the customer is made available online

and helps the retailer understand a particular customer’s buying characteristics. Health India is already a preferred healthcare destination for neighbouring countries due to the low cost and high quality treatment available here.

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With the arrival of tele$medicine in 1999, several large healthcare facilities in India have been linked up with healthcare facilities in the neighbouring countries and the rest of Asia. Tele$medicine has enabled international patients to obtain specialized care in from India. In the recent past, there have been several innovations in the healthcare services industry in India, giving patients a new experience of healthcare. The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences' fully digital, computerized and networked facility enabled it to offer tele$medicine services such as tele$consultation, fetal tele$medicine and tele$surgery. Tourism Tourism Growing impressively, the online travel industry in India is estimated to be worth $6 billion by 2010. The travel boom, emergence of low$cost carriers, proliferation of the Internet and the growing acceptance of e$commerce over the last few years, are key factors that have contributed to the emergence of this sector. As the industry leader, MakeMyTrip has pioneered technological advances in this sector. From being the first online travel portal to providing real$time hotel bookings in India, access to the website, payment through mobile phones, and now a first$of$its$kind search matrix that enables effective hotel search, it has employed technology to enhance customer experience using the website Information Technology Information Technology sector has shown by far a tremendous growth in terms of innovation in technology. The two innovative initiatives that are worth mentioning here are Green Computing and SaaS. SaaS Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. The primary objective of such a program is to account for the triple bottom line, an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success. SaaS is generally associated with business software and is typically thought of as a low$cost way for businesses to obtain the same benefits of commercially licensed, internally operated software without the associated complexity and high initial cost. Many types of software are well suited to the SaaS model, where customers may have little interest or capability in software deployment, but do have substantial computing needs. Conclusion$ Conclusion$ The steps that have been taken by companies in the service sectors in the past few years like merger of international insurance giants with local blue chip companies, value added

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services in mobile sector, sea change in academic institutes makeup and approach to education has all set the ball rolling for technological innovation in the service sector, and this trend is expected to continue in the future.

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The Author, Debashish Brahma, is a practicing manager in an IT company and a 1996 pass out from the PGDBM department of IISWBM.

This is the hiring time for all fresh engineers and MBAs. Every year they join the corporate in the month of April, April, May, and June. With lot of expectations, energy, vigor, optimism and with good academic and training background they are recruited from colleges and universities to the corporate. These young educated people have tremendous potentials and they can perform at their peak performance provided they are given a very conducive environment where they can perform brilliantly. What is this Conducive Corporate Environment and who are the major players (FIRST BOSS) who play an important role to make these young people people to work and perform at their best. They are the managers(First (First Boss) to whom the new recruits report, they play most pivotal role in building and shaping the new recruits careers and help them to build them as leaders in future. The role the First Boss is very important in setting directions, making and shaping these young peoples mind, careers and individual goals along with the corporate goals. Games the First Boss should play with these young and fresh graduates just coming out from colleges.

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1. Responsibility Resp onsibility and Challenge: Challenge The first Boss is an important person in everyone’s life, as we commonly say first impression is the best impression; the first boss makes lasting impression in the fresh recruits’ mind. You are the leader, manager, motivator, mentor, friend, philosopher, and guide to these young men. Your responsibility is to make them true leader and a performer in the long run. Undoubtedly it is a very challenging task and a stupendous responsibility to become the first boss in some ones life. 2. Task and Target Oriented: Oriented Right from the day one makes them accountable for the job they have been assigned for. Be candid and polite to them and make them understand that they have been recruited for these specific task and should be ready to and willing to go for hard work in order to achieve the targets that they has been assigned for. In a professionally managed organization performance is the only thing that matters. Be task an oriented Boss not a task master. When specific targets are given along with time deadlines they may feel little bit nervous not for achieving the targets within that deadline it's the First Boss job to show them the process how to achieve the targets within the deadlines. Make them successful because their success is your success. 3. Teacher and Coach: Coach The First Boss right from the day one make the business process understand to these young recruits, it involves lot of teaching and coaching for these young resources. 4. Power house of Encouragement: Encouragement The First Boss is the source of encouragement, he is the person who will break all the fears and doubts in the mind of these your people, enable them to open up their mind which can be a bonanza. Encourage them to come out with new ideas of doing the job and help them to do the "Out Of the Box Thinking". 5. Appreciation Catalyst: Catalyst The First Boss should be loud in their appreciations even for little achievements that these young guys make. 6. Can Do Attitude Initiator: Initiator Appreciations by First Boss is like wining first 100 meters flat race in schools, it increases the confidence level in these young minds and the “Can Do”

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attitude starts developing. After they accomplish small task and targets, slowly give them additional responsibility and bigger task and targets, make use of the "Can Do" attitude artfully. 7.Hand Hand Holding If Necessary: Necessary First Boss should never hesitate to roll up his sleeves and make his hand dirty to teach complex things to these young recruits, once he teaches them his job becomes easier. Never get irritated even if they ask you very stupid questions. Remember your parents did hand holding while making you walk. Remember handholding is a part of mentoring; they remain obligated and indebted to you throughout their life. 8. Delegate and Encourage Them to Take Decisions: Decisions First Boss should delegate little power and ask them to take small decisions. Look out carefully for the outcome of the decisions if it’s good give them appreciations, if the outcome is poor sit with them to analyze where it went wrong and what precaution they should take while making the next decisions. Don’t shout at them if the decision is wrong they will close them up get back in to their cocoon. After all decision making is the most important thing in business. Help them to make good decision makers. 9. Respect Leads to Responsibility: The First Boss should never ever disrespect these young recruits’ .Respect works like magic. If you respect these young recruits they not only reciprocate but automatically take responsibility, and once they take full responsibility they start delivering the goods. Results give confidence, and confidence building is a step by step method. Delivering results becomes a habit. Mutual Respect is a 'Win$Win" situation. 10. Never Steal Credits: Credits The First Boss should never be a credit stealer, remember these young people are very smart they understand every thing, if you have a 360 degree appraisal system working in your firm they will fix you up then. Credit stealing by a boss is like digging his own grave in the professional organization. 11. Don’t involve them in Office Politics: Every office has got office politics; the First Boss should never use these young recruits as pawn in the office politics that he may be involved

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in. These young guys will come to know office politics and lobbying in due course .Office politics reduces energy and in turn reduces efficiency. 12. Close Monitoring: Monitoring The First Boss should keep a strong vigil about the quality of learning, engagement and the involvement in the work that these young recruits are doing. Always keep the communication channel open. Make the communication is an adult $adult mode. 13. Encourage Them to Do Self Audit and Introspection: The First Boss should make sure that the young recruits are making the “Self Audit” after first ninety days of work and correcting themselves on the basis of their audits. Ask them to find out their own mistakes/drawbacks and remedial measures which they need to overcome them. Give them suggestions about the blind spots which you may find by using Johary window. 14. Make Them “Think Big”: Big” The First Boss should be able to make these young guys to “Think Big”. So he has to “Think Big” in order made others “Think Big”. If you can make them “Think Big” they can achieve big. “Thinking Big” is a practice and it stays lifelong. 15. Never Be Afraid of Smart and Intelligent Recruits: Last but not the least the First Boss may come across young recruits much smarter and intelligent than him, please don’t get afraid of them, don’t think them as your threat. Smart people working in your team can make you and your team smarter. These are all old saying and observations; it’s just like old wine in the new bottle. One interesting survey was conducted by an agency and it was found that 47% of the employees don't leave the organization organization but actually leave their Boss. It’s easier said that done. It’s true the impact of the FIRST BOSS lasts long. Just after academics, entering into the new unknown big corporate world is a transformation stage, where a professionally qualified student has to perform and deliver,

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some perform and excel and some don’t, with my experience and observations I have written this topic. Some BOSS you want to remember throughout your life and some you don’t want to remember at all, and they are your nightmare. nightmare.

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Winner Q-Quotient: June 2009!

Amlan Sengupta MBA (DAY), IISWBM

Answers to June Q$Quotient$ 1. Vespa Scooters 2. Sanyo 3. 31 4. Chicken Market 5. Bombay Stock Exchange 6. The Economic Times 7. HSBC Bank in 1987 8. Beyond The Last Blue Mountain 9. Philips 10.Reliance Textiles

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JULY 2009 Q-QUOTIENT If you think you have the grey matter that matters, then mail us the answers to the following questions at [email protected]. The entry with the maximum number of correct entries will witness his/her name and picture in this space in the next edition of E $mag!ne. So its time to let the world know your Q$quotient The quizzer this month is Mr. Gaurav Banerjee, a Student of PGP at MICA and runners up of Tata Crucible Campus Edition 2009 1. Founded by Mrs. Vandana Luthra in 1989 this groups guiding vision is “Transforming Lives” with over 225 outlets all over India and presence in Nepal and the Middle East. Which group ? 2."The idea of using the flamboyant third movement from Mozart's 25th Symphony in G minor, written when Mozart was only 17 years old, came from Suresh Mullick who was O&M's creative head in 1986 when ___'s first TV campaign was being planned." Fill up th e blank. 3. Nearly 125 years ago, which iconic store started with the slogan 'Don't ask the price. It's a penny'? 4. Real lemon juice. No fizz. No artificial flavours. Name PepsiCo's latest launch? 5.In the McKinsey's 7S Framework there are four 'soft variables', Staff, Skills, Style and Shared Values. What are the other three 'hard variables'? 6. In her first venture, which also happens to be the first such venture of the Das family, Manjulika Das, granddaughter of Krishna Chandra Das, has decided to pen the story of how her great grandfather Nabin Chandra discovered the $$$$$$$$$ way back in 1868, Fill in the blank 7. Schauna Chauhan Saluja, Alisha Chauhan and Nadia Chauhan, daughters of Prakash Chauhan are all board members on a company which was established by Mohanlal Dayal in 1905. Which company ? 8. In this years Rail Budget 12 non stop trains between metros and state capitals were commisssioned. What are these trains named?

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9. The term $$$$$$$$$ derives from the practice of English policemen, who would $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$ when they noticed the a crime being commited. This would alert both law enforcement officers and the general public of danger. What term ? 10.Ananda Publishers is closely associated with which media major and has publications like Anandamela and Sananda in its stable?

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SAIL'S VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT SCHEME INTRODUCTION At a meeting of the board of directors in June 1999, the CEOs of Steel Authority of India's (SAIL) four plants $ V. Gujral (Bhilai), S. B. Singh (Durgapur), B.K. Singh (Bokaro), and A.K. Singh (Rourkela) made their usual presentations on their performance projections. One after the other, they got up to describe how these units were going to post huge losses, once again, in the first quarter[1] of 1999$2000. After incurring a huge loss of Rs 15.74 billion in the financial year 1998$99 (the first in the last 12 years), the morale in the company was extremely low. The joke at SAIL's headquarters in Delhi was that the company's fortunes would change only if a VRS was offered to its CEOs $ not just the workers. BACKGROUND NOTE SAIL was the world's 10th largest and India's largest steel manufacturer with a 33% share in the domestic market. In the financial year 1999$2000, the company generated revenues of Rs. 162.5 billion and incurred a net loss of Rs 17.2 billion. Yet, as on February 23, 2001, SAIL had a market valuation of just Rs. 340.8 billion, a meager amount considering the fact that the company owned four integrated and two special steel plants. SAIL was formed in 1973 as a holding company of the government owned steel and associated input companies. In 1978, the subsidiary companies including Durgapur Mishra Ispat Ltd, Bokaro Steels Ltd, Hindustan Steel Works Ltd, Salem Steel Ltd., SAIL International Ltd were all dissolved and merged with SAIL. In 1979, the Government transferred to it the ownership of Indian Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (IISCO) which became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIL.

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SAIL operated four integrated steel plants, located at Durgapur (WB), Bhilai (MP), Rourkela (Orissa) and Bokaro (Bihar). The company also operated two alloy/special steel plants located at Durgapur (WB) and Salem (Tamil Nadu). The Durgapur and Bhilai plants were pre$ dominantly1ong products[2] plants, whereas the Rourkela and Bokaro plants had facilities for manufacturing flat products[3] . THE JOLT In February 2000, the SAIL management received a financial and business$restructuring plan proposed by McKinsey & Co, a leading global management$consulting firm, and approved by the government of India (held 85.82% equity stake). The McKinsey report suggested that SAIL be reorganized into two strategic business units (SBUs) $ a flat products company and a long products company. The SAIL management board too was to be restructured, so that it should consisted of two SBU chiefs and directors of finance, HRD, commercial and technical. To increase share value, McKinsey suggested a phased divestment schedule. The plan envisaged putting the flat products company on the block first, as intense competition was expected in this area, and the long products company at a later date. Financial restructuring envisaged waiver of Steel Development Fund[4](SDF) loans worth Rs 50.73 billion and Rs 3.8 billion lent to IISCO. The government also agreed to provide guarantee for raising loans of Rs 15 billion with a 50% interest subsidy for the amount raised. This amount had to be utilized for reducing manpower through the voluntary retirement scheme. Another guarantee was given for further raising of Rs 15 billion, for repaying past loans. Business restructuring proposals included divestment of the following non$core assets: •

Power plants at Rourkela, Durgapur & Bokaro, oxygen plant$2 of the Bhilai steel plant and the fertilizer plant at Rourkela.

•

Salem Steel Plant (SSP), Salem.

•

Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur.

•

Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISL), Bhadravati.

•

Conversion of IISCO into a joint venture with SAIL having only minority shareholding.

THE DILEMMA The major worry for SAIL's CEO Arvind Pande was the company's 160,000$strong workforce. Manpower costs alone accounted for 16.69% of the company's gross sales in 1999$2000. This was the largest percentage, as compared with other steel producers such as Essar Steel (1.47%) and Ispat Industries (1.34%). An analysis of manpower costs as a

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percentage of the turnover for various units of SAIL showed that its raw materials division (RMD), central marketing organisation (CMO), Research & Development Centre at Ranchi and the SAIL corporate office in Delhi were the weak spots. There was considerable excess manpower in the non$plant departments. Around 30% of SAIL's manpower, including executives, were in the non$plant departments, merely adding to the superfluous paperwork. Hindustan Steel, SAIL's predecessor, was modelled on government secretariats, with thousands of "babus" and messengers adding to the glory of feudal$oriented departmental heads. SAIL had yet to make any visible effort to reduce surplus manpower. A senior official at SAIL remarked: "If you walk into any SAIL office anywhere, you will find people chatting, reading novels, knitting and so on. Thousands of them just do not have any work. This area has not even been considered as a focus area for the present VRS, possibly because all orders emanate from and through such superfluous offices and no one wants to think of himself as surplus." With a manpower of around 60,000 in these offices and non$ plant departments like schools, township activities etc, SAIL could well bring down to less than 10,000. Reduction of white$collar manpower required a change in the systems of office work and record keeping, and a very high degree of computerization. Officers across the organization employed dozens of stenographers and assistants. Signing on note sheets was a status symbol for SAIL officers. Another official commented: "Systems have to be result oriented, rather than person oriented and responsibilities must match rewards and recognition. There is a need to change the mindset of the management, before specific plans can be drawn out for reduction of office staff." From the beginning, SAIL had to contend with political intervention and pressure. Many officials held that SAIL had to overcome these objectives: “Many employees do not have sufficient orders or work on hand to justify their continuance, and yet political pressures keep them going. It is time that the top management takes a tough stand on such matters. One does not have to call in McKinsey to decide that many SAIL stockyards and branch offices are redundant.” THE VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT SCHEME As a part of the restructuring plan, McKinsey had advised Pande that SAIL needed to cut the 160,000$strong labor force to 100,000 by the end of 2003, through a voluntary retirement scheme. Pande was banking on natural attrition to reduce the number by 45,000 within two

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years, but GOI's decision to increase the retirement age to 60 further delayed the reduction. Subsequently, SAIL had requested GOI to bail it out with a one$time assistance of Rs 15 billion and another subsidized loan of the same size for a VRS, to achieve the McKinsey targets. In a bid to 'rationalize' its huge workforce, SAIL launched a VRS in mid 1998, for employees who had put in a minimum service of 20 years or were 50 years in age or above. The scheme provided an income that was equal to 100 per cent of the prevailing basic pay and DA to the eligible employees. About 5,975 employees opted for the scheme. Of them, 5,317 were executives and 658 non$executives. Most of those who opted were above 55 years. On March 31, 1999, SAIL introduced a 'sabbatical leave' scheme, under which employees could take a break from the company for two years for studies/employment elsewhere, with the option of rejoining the company (if they wanted to) at the end of the period. The sabbatical allowed the younger members of the SAIL staff to leave without pay for "self$ renewal, enhancement of expertise/knowledge and experimentation," which broadly translated into higher studies or even new employment. On June 01, 1999, SAIL launched another VRS for its employees. Employees who had completed a minimum of 15 years of service or were 40 years or above could opt for the scheme. The new VRS, which was opened to all regular, permanent employees of the company, would be operational till 31st January 2000. Its target groups included: •

Those who were habitual absentees, regularly ill and those who had become surplus because of the closure of plants and mines;

•

Poor performers.

Under the new package, employees who opted for the scheme, depending on their age, would get a monthly income as a percentage of their prevailing basic salary and dearness allowance (DA) for the remaining years of their services, till superannuation. Employees above 55 years of age would be given 105 per cent of the basic pay and dearness allowance (DA) every month. Those employees who were between the age of 52 and 55 years would receive 95 per cent of the basic pay and DA while those below 52 years would get 85 per cent of the basic pay and DA. The new scheme, like the old one was a deferred payment scheme, with extra carrots like a 5% increase in monthly benefits for each of the three age groups. By September 1999, over 4,000 employees opted for the new scheme. About 1,700 employees opted for VRS in the Durgapur steel plant while in the Bhilai, Bokaro and Rourkela steel plants. The number varied between 400 and 700.

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In September 2000, SAIL announced yet another round of VRS, in a bid to remove 10,000 employees by the end of March 2001. The company planned to approach financial institutions for a credit of Rs 5 billion. Pande said: "We are awaiting the government nod for the VRS scheme, drawn on the pattern of the standard VRS by department of public enterprises. We expect to get the clearance by the end of the month." On February 08, 2001, SAIL ended its four year recruitment freeze by announcing its plans to fill up more than 250 posts at its various plant sites in both technical and non$technical categories. According to a senior SAIL official: "This recruitment is being done to ease the vacancies created due to natural attrition and those that arose after the previous VRS." THE PERSUASION In mid 1998, in a bid to convince its employees to accept VRS, SAIL highlighted six 'plus' points of VRS, in its internal communique, Varta. They were as follows: •

During the next 4$5 years, SAIL has to reduce its workforce by 60,000 for its own survival. Employees with chronic ailments, and habitual absentees, who add to low productivity, have to go first $ maybe, with the help of administrative actions.

•

The employees may have to be transferred to any other part of the country in the larger interest of the company.

•

For those who started their career as healthy young men 25$30 years ago, the VRS will take care of their financial worries to a great extent, and they can discharge their domestic duties more comfortably.

•

VRS can be used for special purposes like paying huge sum of money for getting one's son admitted to a professional course.

•

VRS will give many individuals the money and time on pursuing personal dreams.

•

It can be a good opportunity to do social service.

On December 27, 1999, SAIL initiated a company$wide information dissemination program to educate the staff on restructuring. The company drafted an internal communication document entitled "Turnaround and Transformation" and a special team of 66 internal resource persons (IRP) had been assigned the task of preparing a detailed plan to take this document to a larger number of people within the company. The 66$member team was constituted in September 1999 and was stationed in Ranchi to undergo a detailed briefing$ cum$training course. A generalized module was presented to the IRP team during the course, which then summarised the root causes of SAIL's crisis and the strategies to overcome it. According to an official involved with the program: "Initiatives like the power plant hive$off or the Salem Steel joint venture will hinge on employee concurrence, particularly at the shop

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floor level, and therefore there has to be an intensive communication program in place to reassure employees that their interests will be protected." The 66$member IRP team conducted half$day workshops across plants and other units based on three specific modules: •

A video film conveying a message from the chairman of the company.

•

A generalized module of the recommendations of the turnaround plan focusing on restoring the financial foundation, reinforcing marketing initiatives and regaining cost leadership.

•

A module covering plant$specific or unit$specific issues and strategies for action.

The exercise was expected to cover at least 16,000 SAIL employees by the end of March 2000. A senior official at SAIL said: "The idea is that the employees covered in this phase would take the communication process forward to their peer group and fellow colleagues." The staff education exercise was stressed upon, particularly in view of the power plant hive$ off fiasco, which could not take off as scheduled due to stiff resistance from central trade unions. The problem, at the time, was that the SAIL top brass had failed to convince the employees that jobs would not be at risk because of the hive$off. THE REACTION The trade unions were on a warpath against the recommendations of McKinsey. Posters put up by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) at SAIL's central marketing office said that the McKinsey report was meant, not for the revival or survival of SAIL, but for its burial. A senior TU leader said: "SAIL TUs so far have been extremely tolerant and exercised utmost restraint. Even in the face of scanty communication by the management of SAIL, they have not lost patience in these trying times." The TU leaders felt that SAIL would try to bolster support for the financial restructuring proposal based on the recommendations of McKinsey. But being a government$owned company, SAIL cannot take decisions on such recommendations as the privatization of SAIL or breaking it up into two product$based companies. Even in relatively small matters the like hiving off of power plants to a subsidiary company, with SAIL being the major partner, the government had not cleared SAIL's proposal, even after months of gestation. Therefore, it was futile to think that SAIL would secure the permission of the government to sell off Salem

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Steel Plant (SSP) in Tamil Nadu or close down Alloy Steels Plant (ASP) at Durgapur in West Bengal. At SSP, all the TUs had joined hands to form a 'Save Salem Steel Committee' and observed a day's token strike on June 24, 1999, demanding investment in SSP by SAIL, rather than by a private partner. Though TUs had no objection to voluntary retirements, they were not very happy about the situation. They were worried that employment opportunities were shrinking in the steel industry and that reduction of manpower would mean increasing the number of contractors and their workforce. After the Rourkela Steel Plant in Orissa absorbed contractors' workers on Supreme Court orders, fresh contractors had been appointed to fill up the vacancies. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. McKinsey's recommendation is that SAIL cut its workforce to 100,000 by the end of 2003. SAIL has launched various VR schemes to meet this target. Though every time the company is comes out with improved schemes there are still not many takers. What according to you could be the reasons? 2. The staff education exercise on VRS at SAIL seems to be more of a reaction to the power plant hive$off fiasco than a proactive measure. What other steps can SAIL take to educate employees about VRS? Explain. 3. According to McKinsey proposals, offering VRS to employees was the part of the restructuring plan. Do you think VRS is sufficient without restructuring or vice$versa? Comment. 4. In February 2001, SAIL ended its four$year recruitment freeze by announcing its plans to fill up more than 250 posts. Do you think this is the right move especially when a VRS is being offered to its employees? Explain.

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Fresh blood filled the veins of our department as the junior batch (2009$2011) arrived this month. They came in all pepped up and charged to conquer the corporate world. The college aided by us seniors had organized a well planned and executed welcome ceremony for them on the 7th of July 2009. Eminent people from the corporate world & other walks of life came to give them a pep talk on how to go about these two ensuing years. This session was followed by a Lunch for the students, faculty members and guests. Concluding the entire day’s event was a tête$à$tête between the seniors and juniors and then finally the juniors were taken for a trip around the college campus before they finally left for their homes. In the following week, on the 14th of July, we joined college officially as “Second years”. Classes were mostly dominated by an overdose of Labor and Industrial law and related subjects, but the mood was cheerful as classmates coming back from their Summer Internships had each a different and interesting tale to tell. Interaction with the juniors was prominent as beginning of this session called for us grouping them into the three committees. The juniors were really excited to be handed over the responsibility of carrying the mantle of this Department forward, and we wish them success in all their endeavors whether it be academic or Co$curricular.

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