Reflections

This week, just yesterday as a matter of fact, our Prime Minister landed in Israel  - the first ever Prime Ministerial visit to that nation from our side. This is a seminal event; yet, it was saddening to see some voices being guarded, as opposed to openly welcoming this move. In a democracy, it is perfectly fine if you don’t support the ruling party, having voted for the other side; it is accepted as well as expected that you criticize – but when the Government does something laudable – you should welcome it. This move by the NaMo Government stands in that list; a fully laudable move, one that we would do well to welcome, leaving our apprehensions aside for the time being. On that other hand – this is not a time for chest-thumping either; let us reflect what this move means for us as a nation, and analyse the pluses and the minuses of this new equation. Whatever else we look at, this is not the time for misguided moralistic analyses – Geopolitics is not a field that lends it...

PREAMBLE A lot of us Indians set store by Gold – both as an item of value, a shubh indication or item so to speak, as well as by its capability to generate returns. While I don’t argue with the first – Gold is indeed auspicious, and also in addition comprises Streedhan, and has no comparison on that scale. But as an investment vehicle it leaves a lot to be desired for. In the realm of macroeconomics, in addition to this, Gold is also used as an indicator by some people, and as a hedge against inflation. BACKGROUND The purpose of this article is just to look at the price of Gold over the past 20 – 25 years, and look at the returns it has generated over this period of time. This is the first article in a concerted effort to understand the interplay between various macroeconomic indicators and overall economic performance. I am documenting my thoughts and my personal research on my blog so that others who may have the same thoughts can be stimulated to research for themselves. F...

This is the fifth book in my focus on Indian Business related real stories and case studies; and it ranks right alongside the top 2 in terms of influence on me as a person – perhaps even at the very top. Other books have provided deeper insights, have been greater in their absolute knowledge quotient { if, that is, knowledge can be quantified, which I seriously doubt }; have given deeper and more detailed Marketing and/or business details, that I grant. But in terms of impact on my mind & soul, this book ranks at the very top. My personal congratulations and gratitude to the author for penning this wonder. Superwomen - By Prachi Garg THE PLOT The book is a series of short stories – I don’t want to call them case studies as it would give an incomplete picture of the nature of these stories and this book. These stories are all about women who picked up the challenge and made it in the world of the business of start-ups through sheer dint of effort. Unlike an earlier e...

There is hardly an MBA, at least in India, who hasn’t heard of Philip Kotler. Without his book, one cannot imagine studying Marketing. Thus, on noticing a book co-authored by this Author, I didn’t have to think twice before buying it. The book in question is titled : “ Good Works! Market And Corporate Initiatives That Build A Better World… And The Bottom Line ”. It was the last few words that got my attention; CSR will likely remain an afterthought, a regulatory requirement, unless it is linked with the Bottom Line. That is the nature of the modern for-profit organization. This book is a treatise full of case studies around Corporate Social Initiatives, bunched around 6 central themes :   Cause Promotion {Persuading Consumers To Join Your Company In A Good Cause}   Cause-Related Marketing {Making Contributions To Causes Based On Product Sales And Consumer Actions}   Corporate Social Marketing {Supporting Behaviour Change Campaigns}   Corporate Phi...

Bahubali shook the nation like no other movie has done; carrying the franchise forward, SS Rajamouli has decided to create a book series filling the details and carrying the story forward. The first book of the series – The Rise of Sivagami – goes back into the story, before the time of Bahubali, providing a surprising background, a background which will provide motive, passions and flesh to the main characters in the movie Bahubali. This is a first of its kind association between a film presentation and a well known author; kudos to Team Bahubali for thinking of this THE NEGATIVES That said, at the outset, let me place on record the one or two negatives of this book, even before I lay out the basic plot; the crude and, to my eyes, ugly use of vulgarity and sexually explicit narratives in parts – for example the crude description of female body parts of captive slaves – has left a highly negative impression on my mind. These scenes seem forced, at least to me, and have no...

There are few movies that stick in your mind, entertain you & teach you a life lesson; as well as pull you back to them every once in a while… this movie, Ek Unaad Divas – is one of them. Great pity that this is in Marathi – for this is one movie that needs to be made in Hindi so that ever larger number of people can watch, enjoy and live & change their lives by it! That said, Hindi movie industry just doesn’t have the required depth to make a movie of this caliber. Sad, but true. THE PLOT The concept is simple – a highly paid, top corporate hot-shot, portrayed by Ashok Saraf, gets forced into loaning his car for the day to a client, who has just closed a 5-Cr order. And on that very day, Taxis are on strike – so he has to walk back. On the way, he runs into his childhood friend – a lower-middle class man earning 2453/- per month. The hot-shot, Vishwas Dabholkar {Saraf}, and the friend end up having lunch – a life-turning experience for the big man, as he is stunne...

One of the rising themes of management discussion is the concept of work-life balance, compounded by rising stress in corporate life in India; quite a lot has been written about how we need to lessen the stress. Another theme is the concept of how Indian Managers don’t take or get leave too often, or rising lifestyle disease incidence and about rising burnout cases and so  on. Most articles I have read emphasize on a lot of points as a solution – namely, advocating leaves / smaller working hours / de-stressing and so on… sadly, most of these don’t take the overall corporate atmosphere into account. LITTLE ALTERNATIVE TO THE STATUS QUO Let me take a divergent view – that there actually little alternative to what is taking place, at least as of now. And the reason for that is that the current realities highlighted above are actually the symptoms of a larger malaise, or rather problem. We need to examine the overall atmosphere in which a modern corporate operates, the external...