"Guru"-what's in it for all of us?

All of you must have watched this movie by Mani Ratnam, an acclaimed director, released in late 2007.If you haven't, then you must watch it (on a legal DVD!).Loosely based on the late Polyester Prince (Dhirubhai Ambani), this is one great film Bollywood has churned out in the recent years.Here's more on the climax:

Gurubhai’s final speech in front of the commission is a scathing indictment of the vicious License-permit Raj that was prevalent in India post-independence. Individual entrepreneurship was stifled and thereby the growth of the Indian economy. Widespread red tapism ensured that the rich became richer and the poor remained poor, even decades after independence. The four and a half minute speech sums up the crux of India’s economic woes. It also contained the elements of a vociferous protest against the status quo and made a formidable pitch for a structural change in India’s economic policies.

The following are the key takeaways from the movie:

1.High risk appetite: Gurubhai demonstrates this in the game of coins when he was in Turkey. Calculated risk-taking pays more often than not in the world of business as well as life. One must come out of his/her comfort zone to achieve something big in life. A life without ambition is no life at all.

2.Entrepreneurial spirit: Gurubhai refuses the promotion offered by the multinational company he was working for in Turkey and surprises everybody when he decides to return to India to start something on his own. All this despite an elementary education, an uncooperative father, marginal capital and the anti-capitalist economic policies being followed in India under the veil of socialism. His gut feeling and tremendous self-belief is legendary and worth emulating.


3.Non conformity with archaic social norms: He defies the social norm by marrying Sujata who had earned notoriety throughout her village for a failed attempt to elope with her lover. Though Guru married her primarily for the dowry (to use as seed capital along with his own savings), he compensated for this by marrying against the accepted social norms and taking good care of his wife and brother-in-law.

4.Indomitable courage and self-belief: He takes the battle head-on with The Independent when its editor turns hostile towards him on account of his unethical business practices. He keeps his emotions aside and works overtime to make Shakti Industries the largest private company in India. However, he still respects the editor Manik Dasgupta as a fatherly figure for his support and encouragement when he was a struggler in Mumbai.

5.Dreaming big and working hard: Gurubhai dreamt bigger than any other Indian industrialist and thereby built a huge business empire from scratch. He worked tirelessly to achieve his high ambitions. He was a role model for the average Indian who wanted to make it big on his own. This is something all of us must imbibe in ourselves.

Though Gurubhai’s personality had a few shades of grey, his achievements and his contribution to Indian industry were unparalleled. He achieved in ten years what established industrialists with all the foreign degrees and connections could not in a hundred years. Sometimes, it is essential to break the law if it is not rational and against the public good.

Lessons in sales from Rocket Singh

The movie is an excellent take on the way sales is done in India. It captures beautifully the changing dynamics of the market and therewith the rising expectations of the Indian consumers, more so in the business marketing context. The philosophy that business is not just about how much profit you make or about the revenue growth is largely being accepted across companies globally. It’s all about people now. The way customers and employees are dealt with will determine the long-term success of the firm. The major lessons, primarily from a sales strategy point of view have been outlined below:

1.Service is the key differentiator: Right from installation to maintenance and repair it all boils down to service. More so in the case of commoditized products and services like PCs and telecom respectively. There’s hardly much difference in the products sold by different companies in many categories. Hence the importance of service has increased manifold, even in an incentive-based (bribe) business market like India. Rocket Sales Corp (RSC) provided unprecedented levels of service and hence grew phenomenally.

2.Honesty pays: RSC never made any false promises to any of their customers. They did not bribe their way to get orders. It garnered great sales purely on the basis of good service and a strong commitment towards all their customers..

3.Partners not employees: At RSC, all the people were equal partners. Hence there was this sense of ownership in all the people working there. This strengthened the bond between the partners and the company as well as amongst themselves, which led to a 24*7 service culture in the firm. This was in sharp contrast to the bureaucratic and exploitative culture at AYS.

4.Proactive interpersonal skills: When RSC was launched, it was very difficult to bag orders from new customers with an absolutely zero track record. However, the protagonist who is very proactive utilizes his interpersonal skills really well to influence, persuade and convince the customers to buy PCs from RSC. He goes out of his way to allay any apprehensions in the minds of the customers when he gets ready to mortgage his scooter. Though it might appear ridiculous to many, this incident shows the commitment and desperation of a truly service-oriented startup. He also uses his interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts among the partners at RSC.

5.Risk-takers win: In sales or business for that matter, one must come out from his/her comfort zone and take calculated risks. They may not pay off always but they open new frontiers for the firm to cash in on in future. Every single employee must be empowered and encouraged to take such calculated risks to enhance bottom line and shareholder value.

Best books on India

I stumbled upon a blog where enthusiastic and bibliophilic readers had posted the 10 best books on India (covering various dimensions like economy,culture,politics etc.).I have listed them down here expecting it might act as a reference for people who want to read quality books about India.I truly believe no single book can capture the country perfectly.However most of the books listed here are considered excellent by experts.

1. Khushwant Singh’s collection of essays on India
2. Chapter 8: “After the Permit Raj – India’s Awakening”, from “The Commanding Heights” by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw.
3. “Culture Shock! India” by Gitanjal Kolanad – how Indian society works.
4. “Everybody loves a good draught”, by P. Sainath – Related to Vidarbha farmer suicides.
5. “The idea of India” — Sunil Khilnani
6. “In the name of democracy” by Bipan Chandra – Emergency period in 1970s.
7. “India 2020″ by APJ Kalam.
8. Gurcharan Das’s “India Unbound” and “The Elephant Paradigm”.
9. “India in slowmotion” by Mark Tully.
10. “In Light of India” — Octavio Paz.
11. “Empire of the Soul” – Paul William Roberts.
12. “The Burdens of Democracy” by Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
13. “The Best of R K Laxman”.
14. “India’s Economic Reforms” – Jagdish Bhagwati.
15. “The Age of Kali” - William Dalrymple.
16. “The Argumentative Indian” by Amartya Sen.

Add to the list "India after Gandhi" by Ramachandra Guha, a must-read for anyone who wants to know the history of India post independence.I am still reading it.

Cheers!

Where is all the money in the world, when all the nations are in debt?

An interesting question indeed raised by my friend Vivek Jain on Facebook.Thanks VJ!

Here are my two cents on this.I am open to insights from economics enthusiasts and others.

If we look at the fiscal health of all the major economies in the world, as well as the emerging economies like the BRICS (Brazil,Russia,India,China and South Africa, for the uninitiated), one can find a common link and that is all are in debt, to a varying extent.The US, which is the largest economy in the world (GDP approximately $ 14 trillion), is the most indebted country.The Chinese hold trillions of dollars of American treasury bonds.The American fiscal situation has been described as precarious and unsustainable by many economists.China however has a massive trade surplus and hence has little to worry about w.r.t. its debt burden.

Coming to the question in hand,all of us know that the central banks hold billions of dollars in terms of cash and other securities besides gold.So do the multilateral institutions like the World Bank, IMF and the Asian Development Bank in their coffers.Besides, a huge amount of cash is also with the large companies, hedge funds,private equity firms etc. and billionaire investors like George Soros and Warren Buffet.Add to that all the cash in the Swiss banks which only God knows!

Still all this doesnt count for the entire debt of all the nations.The reality is all the debt doesn't exist in physical form.A lot of it just exists on paper i.e.sovereign guarantees by nations.Nations are indebted to each other apart from institutions like the WB,IMF etc.Hence to consider that all the debt is kept in the coffers of central banks or some other institution for that matter would be naive.

Keep smiling and stay tuned!!

SIP @ Mumbai

Well,this isn't going to be a description of my SIP at Mumbai.Have had enough of it.It's about all those funny moments we (Mallik,Gupta,Ganesh,Kirpa and myself of SDMIMD Mysore)shared in the Maximum City during April-May 2010.Ganesh was the non-resident member of our group.

For the record, we interned with CTech Labs, an IIT Bombay start-up.

Its hard to describe those fun-filled moments,numerous as they were.We shared a 1 BHK flat located in close proximity to the IIT Bombay campus.The house had to be furnished with a TV,a showcase and other USEFUL stuff.It was an upper middle-class locality in Powai.

Visits to places like the Gateway of India (GOI),the ferry-ride to the Elephanta caves (13 km from GOI in the sea)was simply breath-taking.The ferry was overcrowded with college-going crowd.The sculptures were mesmerisingly beautiful.Rock-cut sculptures of Lord Shiva, Mahaveer etc. reminded us of the great Indian architecture,something we rarely get to see in the modern times.Sadly,the islands are cut-off from the city and basic services like electricity aren't provided.

The visit to Juhu beach was equally enjoyable.The clayey beach of Juhu was indeed a surprise for me.The experience of playing in the sea water watching the beautiful sunset was a memory worth cherishing.We returned home but not before having the famous Paav-bhaji of Mumbai.

Many other moments come to my mind,not all of which can be shared here due to many reasons!The midnight trips to have ice-cream,auto rides without any destination with Gupta singing Rafi's song "Pukarta chala hun main" (with Kirpa and me in company) was one such instance.Overall, we spent two unforgettable months there despite the sweltering heat and high humidity.The biggest plus out of the trip was that we got to know each other a lot better, built great camaraderie and of course, did good work at CTech too!